RAMALLAH: On Friday morning Times of Israel published an article that accused Arab students of holding a vigil for Ahmad Jabari, the Hamas military chief who died in an Israeli targeted assassination on Wednesday afternoon. “Students at Haifa University held a silent demonstration on Thursday in the memory of assassinated Hamas military leader Ahmad Jabari," Times of Israel writer Asher Zeiger began. “Ronit Moskowitz, a student at the University of Haifa, told Globes that one of the demonstrators told her that the 20-minute vigil was ‘in memory of our chief of staff,'" wrote Zeiger, alluding to Ahmad Jabari and relying on indirect testimony from interested sources. Organizers of the vigil told BikyaMasr.com that the Times of Israel did not contact them for a statement and instead used only the politically-biased testimony of the counter-protest. Jabari, though having a long career with the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, is best known as the planner behind the 2005 kidnapping and five-year captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. After reneging on a ceasefire, Israeli forces executed an airstrike on Jabari's car in Gaza, killing him and a passenger. The vigil was held on the second day of Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense, the largest military offensive on the Gaza Strip since the 2008 Gaza War, known in Israel as Operation Cast Lead, in which nearly 1,500 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died. This week Israeli officials openly spoke about the possibility of a ground invasion of Gaza, and the Israeli Air Force dropped leaflets into Gaza late Wednesday night warning of a ground operation and urging civilians to stay away from Hamas and other “terrorist" infrastructures and fighters. The vigil included the participation of both Jewish and Arab students, but Times of Israel does not mention the involvement of Jewish students. “We held a period of silence for those killed in Gaza yesterday," Maria Zahran, a student at Haifa University, told BikyaMasr.com. “It's important to state clearly that we staged the moment of silence for everyone being killed in Gaza—not for Ahmad Jabari specifically." “The counter-protesters, all Jewish students, came and interrupted our silent demonstration. They sang the Israeli national anthem and called us all terrorists," Maria said. “One of them told me if I feel so sad for those who died then I should go to Gaza because they [the counter-protesters] don't want me in their country." Rather than referring to the Jewish opposition at a similar rally in Jerusalem simply as counter-protesters, Zieger labeled them students “supporting Israel's right to defend the citizens of the south." The students have scheduled another demonstration against Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense for Monday. The mayor of Haifa, Yonah Yahav wrote to the president of the university and urged him to forcefully cancel the demonstration and “use all means necessary to prevent negative extremist elements from spreading malicious propaganda within the university's walls." Mayor Yahav accused the participants of the vigil of seeking to “promote the teachings of terrorist organizations that exalt the murder of children and innocent civilians." Since Jabari's assassination on Wednesday, Israel has struck over 250 sites across the narrow and densely populated Gaza Strip and nearly 300 rockets have been fired into southern Israel by armed actions in Gaza, Ha'aretz reports. Israel's military spokesperson announced on Twitter that 16,000 reserve soldiers have been summoned. Three Israelis died from rocket fire on Thursday, while at least 15 Palestinians have been killed in air strikes and hundreds have been injured. Times of Israel has yet to reply to BikyaMasr.com's request for a statement on the factual inaccuracy of the article about Haifa University's student protests.
