https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-making-of-a-palestinian-martyr/
For the powers-that-be in the Palestinian Authority, the death on Sunday night of 16-year-old Jana Zakarneh couldn’t have come at a better time, mere hours before the arrival in the region of U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba.
Gamba kicked off her visit, a fact-finding mission to garner fodder for her annual report on harm to kids in the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict,” in Ramallah. According to the Wafa news agency, her first meeting was with P.A. Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who presented her with detailed documentation of “Israel’s systematic and deliberate crimes against Palestinian children,” including “killing and maiming, targeting of schools and hospitals, sexual assaults, kidnapping and denying access to humanitarian and medical aid.”
It must have been music to Gamba’s ears. In the guise of neutrality, however, she will convene with and hear Jerusalem’s version of events (in other words, the truth): that Israel is in a defensive war against terrorists and goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, often to the point of imperiling its own troops.
But the deck of the international body, as always, is stacked against Israel, regardless of the reality on the ground. Zakarneh’s death is but a case in point. Incidents such as the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was caught in a crossfire between the IDF and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists on May 11, are rare. In fact, considering the cynical use by terrorists of non-combatants as human shields, it’s a miracle not more of them are killed.
Furthermore, Zakarneh’s presence next to an armed terrorist during a firefight with the Israeli military raises serious questions about her degree of involvement. Initial investigations indicate, for instance, that she regularly served as a photographer for gunmen in her neighborhood. And cellphone footage from her camera isn’t the only evidence.