On Shabbos, September 30, 2000, The New York Times and many other papers published a picture (supplied by the Associated Press) of an angry Israeli policeman with a batton raised over a badly-beaten and bloodied man, with the caption, "An Israeli policeman and a Palestinian on the Temple Mount." 

However, the wounded young man is not a Palestinian but an American Jewish student named Tuvia Grossman.  The attack did not take place on the Temple Mount, but on a street in Jerusalem, and the Israeli soldier, contrary to the impression left by the picture, is not attacking the young man, but is protecting Tuvia from an Arab mob who had dragged Tuvia out of a taxicab and had beaten and stabbed him. Tuvia Grossman was on his way to the Kosel on Friday afternoon, and has been hospitalized ever since with head injuries and a stab wound. He relates the actual events in an interview with Arutz 7....

"I was in a taxi on the way to the Kotel and we got stoned... They took me out of the car and beat me and I gave a scream, and for a second they let go of me, and I said Shma Yisrael, because I thought it was all over... After they let go of me, I ran - even though I had a knife in my leg, G-d gave me the strength to run and I was able to make it up the hill where there were soldiers by the gas station and they took care of me. But I was being beaten for around 5 or 6 minutes with a rock on the top of my head, and I was stabbed in the back of my leg and kicked and punched all over my body."

"[When I saw the mis-captioned AP picture] I was extremely, extremely upset. People see a picture of a youth and they think that it's a Palestinian being beaten by Israelis, it changes their world view and makes them think that it's the Israelis beating up the Arabs. I was extremely upset. It was totally the opposite. That policeman was yelling at the Arabs to back off, and was protecting me from them - so to change it around and to say that he was beating me, that's just total distortion, and the world must be notified about how this is not true - the Jews are the ones suffering at the hands of the Arabs."

From this we can all learn to be Dan Lekaf Zhcus when we assume something for if a newspaper like the New York Times which is renowned for it's high standards of reporting can make such a big mistake, then so can we.

Unfortunately, the false labeling underscores the press's automatic willingness to assume that every victim in this conflict must be a Palestinian and every perpetrator must be an Israeli.   It should be noted that Palestinians injured or killed in the conflict were hurt in the midst of violent riots initiated by Palestinians and escalated with their use of rifles, firebombs and stones and then use their women and children as "human shields".

Then the Israeli army is labbeled as being the aggressors to the Palestinians?..  Most of the Jewish victims, many of them civilians such as Tuvia, were not involved in any way with the riots, but were rather brutally attacked as they were going about their daily business, for e.g. riding in a cab or changing a tire etc etc. Below are letters written to the NEW YORK TIMES by Tuvia's father & uncle.

Regarding your picture on page A5 (Sept. 30) of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount - that Palestinian is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while travelling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed. That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting to protect my son from the mob.

Aaron Grossman, M.D. 6737 N Richmond Chicago, IL 60645 (773) 743-1194

Dear Editor,

Even the typically biased and slanted NY Times middle east reporting has hit a new low. Since the Times wishes to convey the belief that the Palestinians are all innocent lambs being tormented by an aggressive oppressor, it can not even conceive that the wounded and injured are NOT Palestinians. The current case in point is very personal to me. In the Saturday's Times on page A6, the picture of the "wounded Palestinian" is, in fact, my nephew, Tuvia Grossman, an AMERICAN Jewish student learning in Israel. His only crime was being Jewish. He was not in "crossfire" but merely the target of Palestinian lambs who stoned his cab, dragged him from the vehicle, smashed his head with stones and stabbed him in the leg. The Israeli soldier, whom you obviously wished to portray as victimizing the poor, wounded Palestinian was actually saving my nephew's life. A casual look at the background of the picture can tell anyone that it's not the Temple Mount at all!

I believe that a retraction, in a prominent position in the paper, is necessary and an apology to the parents, forthcoming.

Howard Gissinger 2809 Avenue S Brooklyn, New York 11229 718-998-2909

Also fax a copy to the Jerusalem Editor for AP:  011-9722-537-6083

Dear Jews All Around the World,

I am writing this email with much trepidation and caution as i realize the possible importance and impact of this letter. I do not write this to scare any of you, nor to shock you, i write this merely to wake you up as to what is really going on in our holy land and holy city. Friday afternoon, as Jerusalem was preparing for our most holy day, rumors began to cirucualte of riots at the Kotel, and that Jews were being stoned as they were  praying the afternoon service before Rosh Hashana. There had been newspapers stories about the possibilty of riots starting, but nobody expected that sort of violence "erev" Rosh Hashana, at the Kotel. But the holiday was fast approaching and i did not have time to worry about rumors of possible riots. As i walked into synogauge friday night , i was greeted with the sight of my Rabbi's son bloodied and bandaged forehead.

People were talking about what was really hapening, numbers were being thrown around of injured and dead, but nobody really knew for sure. So the holiday started and we quickly forgot about the events of friday. Due to the restrictions of the holiday I was unable to hear any news until Sunday afternoon, as the holiday was coming to an end. I and a friend decided to walk to the Kotel to pray the last tefilah of Rosh hashana. On the way i bumped into a friend, who told me that my friend and brothers ex chavruta Tuvia Grossman was badly beaten up by arabs.

Who is this Tuvia Grossman? Tuvia is a 19 year old kid from Chicago, presently studying in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a normal guy just like me and you spending a year in Israel.  He was on the way to the Kotel on friday afternoon, to daven before the holiday. Him and three friends were in a cab, and as they were driving through an arab neighbourhood, they began to get stoned. The cab driver stopped the car. Six arab teenagers stormed the car and took out one of Tuvia's friends. They began to beat him terribly , but thank god he was able to escape by slipping out of his jacket. They went after the second boy, and again began to it hit him and kick him, he also managed to escape somehow.

Unfortunatley Tuvia was not so lucky. He was grabbed and punched and kicked mercifully. They took out a knife and stabbed him twice in the foot, they threw him over a fence into a ditch. But they werent finished they continued to kick him and beat him. Tuvia was sure this was the end, he said the verse of Shema Yisarel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echod, he rembered learning as a kid in yeshiva a story in the gemara of holy jew who was about to be killed by anti-semites he said Shema and then he let out a tremedous scream, the Gemara says that miraclously the enemies dispersed. Tuvia remembering this story let out a cry, and the arabs were stratled for a second, taking this opprotunity Tuvia slipped by, and ran two blocks to the nearest police station. I spoke to Tuvia an hour ago, I was in yeshiva with him for two years in New York, .now hes in the hospital recovering from this, he is still there after spending the entire Rosh Hashana in the emergency room.

Sunday night as i was freaking out from this news, my roomate gets a call that a friend of his Avi Chermon and his wife are in the hospitel they were also attacked and beaten. Another friend of mine is in the religious unit in the army. His unit was called into Jericho to control the riots. Unprovoked the Palestinian Police began to shoot at them from a building filled with school children. Not wanting to shoot back the israelis asked them to evacuate the childeren, instead using the children as cover , they brought in more children to the building, this all while israeli soldiers are getting shot.

Where ever i look friends of mine are in the hospital. So i call up Danny Liberman last night, literally on the verge of tears, expecting to hear that the jews of montreal are freaking out running to help. Instead i hear probably the hardest words i have ever had to hear. The students in montreal feel that the israelis are to blame, We have been to "excessive " in our use of force, everybody is shocked from the pictures of the 12 year old boy, we are shooting at helpless arabs, ariel sharon etc... There have been many blood libels in the history of the  jewish people, but never before have jews believed that we were actually killing the babies. I could say its arab propoganda , but you will all think im crazy, i could tell you twenty more stories of ruthless behaviour by arabs,  i could show you pictures. But will it help? I just want to tell you one thing. There appeared in the New York Times on Saturday a picture a of youth badly bloddied and bruised , a very gory picture. The picture was attached to an article claiming that the israelis are going crazy against the arabs. The caption of the picture read "Palestinian youth beaten up by Israeli Solidiers". A friend of mine in New York was reading the article, and something looked strange, arabs dont normally dress in black and white, with horror he realized it was Tuvia in the picture. Dont worry the New York Times has already been notified and they hopefully will run a correction soon. But thats not the point, so what should i say that arabs are liars , and the National Post and the Gazette are wrong, you'll all think that Poupko is crazy hes a right wing fanatic, Bibi just spoke two weeks ago at his shul. Im sitting here at my computer exasperated of the events of the last five days, i cant fall asleep at night im so upset about whats going on, . and i call home and i hear how the students are afraid to counter an arab demonstration, beacuse maybe we are guilty.

Im just so frustrated, how can i make you want to defend israel, how can i make you belive in helping in israel? i can't. I just beg of you to believe in israel, believe in the jewish people, care about the jewish people, care about israel. Dont listen to people. listen to yourself. Jews are being killed left and right, its your responsiblity to do something. I dont know what more i can say, i apologize if was condescending at all.

I just pray that you all do believe in israel.

Shana Tova

Avi from Jerusalem

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