As Richard Silverstein points out at Tikkun Olam, a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report cites anonymous Israeli police sources asserting that:
…20 percent of Jerusalem’s 220,000 Palestinians have been involved directly or indirectly in terrorism…
Excuse me – 44,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians involved in terrorism? This is a classic example of innumeracy in journalism. Someone in the reporting or editing process wrote this sentence without thinking about whether the numbers made any sense. They don’t, and they constitute incitement against a large group of people. One choice would have been to drop the sentence; another would be to check further.
As Silverstein notes, the rightwing Israeli news website israelinsider used “20 percent” in a more measured way, citing Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, the cabinet member responsible for the police:
Arab residents of Jerusalem have been involved in at least 20 percent of terrorist attacks against Israelis, Dichter said Saturday…
I called an Israel police spokesman, who wouldn’t comment on anything from unknown “police sources” but who sent me on to Dichter’s media adviser, Barak Seri. Seri confirmed the Dichter quote. He said it referred to all manner of involvement – carrying out an attack, transporting a terrorist, providing other kinds of assistance. I asked him how many East Jerusalemites were connected to that “20 percent” of attacks. After checking back with Dichter, he said “hundreds” in “recent years.” This still isn’t very exact, but it’s a whole lot less than 44,000. It took a few minutes on the phone to get the info.
I should add that Dichter is both an ex-head of the Shin Bet security service and a politician with a rightwing agenda. He’s got good sources, and strong biases. Maybe his numbers are correct, inexact as they are. If so, they are more evidence of the flaw in the conception of the security fence – no Israeli government would build it on the Green Line in Jerusalem. Putting it around East Jerusalem places a large Palestinian population on the Israeli side. The important number here: Catch-22.