The original version of the story sent last week contained a major mistake: It is NOT true that 20 percent of Jerusalem’s 220,000 Palestinians have been involved directlyor indirectly in terrorism, according to Israeli police sources.

The sentence has been corrected. It now reads:

Nevertheless, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichtersaid that Jerusalem Arabs had been involved in at least 20 percent ofterrorist attacks against Israelis.

See, they said it was a major mistake! Weird spacing is in the email.

I’m also curious about “directly or indirectly.” A figure like 20% makes you think that it’s of a discrete population, for example, “people we’ve arrested on suspicion of participating in a terror attack” or “people who have been convicted in a court of law for participating in a terror attack.” Otherwise, even this smaller number seems made up.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966236.html

“The involvement of Arabs from East Jerusalem and surrounding villages in terrorism increased over the years, mainly in accessory roles. They gathered intelligence, selected potential targets for attacks, exploited their familiarity with the city in which they lived, worked and studied, and guided terrorists to the sites where major attacks were carried out, such as Cafe Moment, and buses in Jerusalem and Haifa. “

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/article/113

“In 2004, Avi Dichter, the director of Israel’s General Security Services (GSS) told the Israeli cabinet that the Arab population in East Jerusalem, “represents today the largest reservoir for terror attacks within the Green Line.” He noted that terror attacks perpetrated by East Jerusalem Arabs stemmed from the same ideological roots as terror attacks by Palestinians from the territories. “

Nevertheless, please dig beyond the first epidermis of the Arab skin and especially those in East Jerusalem. How many times, Jews where stabbed in the back while walking in the old City.

Gershom, can a Jew walk freely in East Jerusalem? They can’t even pray at the wailing wall without security..

Most of the Arabs in east Jerusalem cannot wait to rise and lend a hand to their brethren elsewhere but they have a better quality of life under Israel and thus play double game.

In answer to Ruth’s question, virtually every American Jewish newspaper who publishes Leslie Susser’s material (which is a lot) would’ve published the erroneous version. I first read in Seattle’s JTNews & found the same article in the Philadelphia Jewish newspaper online (the Exponent, I think it’s called). The Susser article never was on the JTA site as far as I could tell a few days ago.

Ruth: Do you have a copy of the correction issued to subscribers? You can send it to richards1052 at comcast dot com. Thanks.

I’m more concerned about the “indirectly involved with terrorism” part of the quote. How many degrees of separation must their be before the “indirect” involvement fades away in the eyes of Israel’s military?