Our videotaped year

More than any time in human history, people living through 2014 had a front row seat to earth-shattering events around the globe, even while just surfing on YouTube.

The increasing ubiquity of security cameras, dashcams, cellphone cameras and GoPros and the rise of citizen journalism meant that barely any newsworthy event occurred without a video also acting as testimony.

In Israel and the Middle East, this was as true as anywhere. Throughout the year, an expectation slowly grew that if a newsworthy event happened, there would probably soon emerge a video of the incident. Sometimes the videos were uplifting, like a president joining to fight bullying with an 11-year-old boy, but most of the time they bore witness to the violence that defined the past 12 months, in terror attacks, wars, riots and other troubling events.

Many of these videos are difficult to watch. Some are grainy, some are graphic (warnings are included on those) and some we would never want to see again.

We won’t claim these 14 sets of videos explain the past year (what are we, Vox?) but taken together they add an important layer to the tapestry of the year we all just lived and witnessed.

Peace process goes ‘poof’

The year began with peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians already floundering, but intensive efforts remained underway for the first three months until it all quickly unraveled in early April amid mutual finger pointing. Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 8, US Secretary of State John Kerry gave a quick rundown of what went wrong, unwittingly birthing a short-lived catchphrase by remarking after Israel approved 700 homes in Jerusalem, “Poof — that was sort of the moment.” Though the State Department attempted to walk back the statement, an Israeli official responded that Jerusalem was “deeply disappointed” by the remarks.

Shot in cold blood?

By mid-May talks were firmly down the tubes, and Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces were gearing up for expected clashes to mark Nakba Day, the Palestinian commemoration of the creation of Israel in 1948. In Beitunia, outside Ramallah, a seemingly unremarkable clash turned deadly when two teenagers were killed despite claims that they were not taking part in the riot. Video that emerged days later confirmed that both were shot far from the action, and though an anonymous defense official told The Times of Israel the video seemed doctored, by December, Border Police officer Ben Deri was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the deaths. By some accounts, the shootings were the first in a series of events that eventually led to the war with Gaza, the defining event of the year.  (Warning: Some graphic content.)

The revenge killing that shocked the nation

Most, though, trace the increase in tensions between Israel and the Palestinians to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens from a West Bank bus stop and their murders soon after. While the abduction of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Sha’ar and Eyal Yifrach was one of the few events for which no video evidence exists (though a 911 call from the boys served as testimony to their fates), the attack did spur officials to install new security measures, including cameras, at a number of locations. Unfortunately, the murders also spurred the bloodlust of a group of Israeli Jews, who decided to avenge their deaths by killing 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, burning him alive and dumping his body in the Jerusalem Forest. The genesis of the killing, which triggered much soul searching in Israeli society as well as violent riots in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and some Arab towns, and rocket fire from Gaza that eventually led to war, was caught by security cameras in Shuafat, which show Abu Khdeir’s killers lure him into their car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXzOZqSy-Hk

Iron Dome to the rescue

A week after Abu Khdeir’s murder, spiraling tensions with Gaza led Israel to launch Operation Protective Edge. While thousands of Israelis were sent to the front line, most of the country experienced the fighting via the all-too-familiar rocket sirens, in some places an hourly occurrence, followed hopefully by the reassuring thud of the missile being neutralized by the Iron Dome anti-missile system (or the sickening thud of a rocket striking). While Israelis were urged to seek shelter while under rocket attack, a number of foolhardy folks with camera phones instead documented the seemingly miraculous anti-missile technology at work.

Unfortunately, though, there’s no Iron Dome for stupidity.

In Gaza, death and destruction, even on the beach

While anti-missile batteries were protecting Israeli cities, across the border fence, a raging war left some 2,100 people dead, according to Palestinian tallies, as well as 66 Israeli soldiers and six civilians. (Israel says up to half of the Gaza dead were fighters.) Over the 50 days of war, journalists, amateur videographers and the IDF itself captured hundreds of clips showing devastating airstrikes, mortar bombings, gunbattles deep in the Strip, the dead, the mourning, those fighting and those trying to go on with their lives. One incident, the deaths of four young Gaza cousins playing on the beach, apparently from Israeli fire from a gunship off the coast, is remembered by many, including the international journalists who witnessed it in front of their hotel, as among the most grievous losses of the war. (Warning: though the video has been censored, some graphic content remains.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXmYPVxqI44

Catching Hamas in the act

The way the war was covered by those international journalists was one of the major sticking points of the war, amid claims that reporters based in Gaza were forced to censor videos showing militant activities by Palestinian fighters. Despite the Israeli army’s best efforts to portray the narrative of Hamas firing rockets from civilian areas, via grainy drone videos, the most revealing video came from an Indian TV crew that happened to catch some Gazans setting up a rocket launcher outside its hotel just before a ceasefire was set to begin. The reporter later said that he wrestled with whether or not to release the video over fear of Hamas reprisals.

A tunnel attack shocks the nation

While rockets and airstrikes were the most visible parts of the war, deep underground, Hamas tunnels posed just as serious a threat, albeit one that Israelis were forced to imagine. While there were pictures of the subterranean passages, lit up and reinforced with concrete, videos Hamas fighters emerging and threatening areas deep inside Israel made the threat that much more concrete. The most shocking of the videos was one, apparently shot by a helmet cam affixed to a Hamas fighter, showing a squad infiltrating an IDF post and killing five soldiers. Speaking to The Times of Israel, Maj. Gen. Aryeh Shalicar called the attack “cowardly”  and said it showed why the fight had to continue. “Until we find and destroy each and every tunnel they have dug over the last few years, such attacks can happen anytime, anywhere.” (Warning: though the video has been censored, some graphic content remains.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdGCtjFxJWU

The (violent) French connection

The summer war wasn’t only waged in Gaza and Israel but also abroad, where pro-Palestinian activists and pro-Israel boosters faced off nearly daily in cities around the world. Europe, for one, saw an uptick in anti-Semitism, the ripple effect of which is still being felt today. Nowhere was this more true than France, where a rally for Gaza turned violent, with Jews trapped inside a synagogue and street brawls leaving several injured, as seen in this video which shows far-right Jews fighting with pro-Palestinians in Paris.

Ice, ice baby

So yeah, the summer was pretty damn terrible. But it wasn’t all bad, right? For instance a silly challenge convinced millions of people to dump ice water on their heads and helped raise over $100 million for ALS research. While the ice-bucket challenge was more overplayed than jokes about Taylor Swift, and quickly politicized in Israel and elsewhere (with manure, blood and rubble), the main reason we are including this video is to keep the list from being so depressing, so here’s Wonder Woman getting a dousing. Enjoy.

A string of terror attacks

But lest there be any doubt, the summer and fall were not good times, especially in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where spiraling violence surrounding tensions over the Temple Mount threatened very seriously to turn into a Third Intifada. October, November and December saw a string of terror attacks, many involving vehicular assaults and stabbings, and most of which were caught on security cameras. The attacks shown below — two car-ramming attacks in Jerusalem, two car-ramming attacks in the West Bank south of the capital, including one in which a victim was also stabbed, and knife attacks at a West Bank supermarket and in Jerusalem’s Old City — left five people dead and dozens more injured. (Warning: Some graphic content)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Tckd1FjyU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaT1-EmfvNM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkLiLsZVdQo

The end of the Har Nof massacre

The most shocking attack, though, was mercifully not caught on tape. On the morning November 18, two Palestinians from East Jerusalem attacked a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of the capital, killing four worshipers during morning services, as well as a Druze policeman who was among the first to respond to the scene. Videos shot from across the street shows the deadly shootout between the police and the two attackers, as they emerge from the building and are quickly killed. The attack sparked widespread condemnation and raised tensions in the capital, but did end with an outpouring of support for the Druze community from Israelis from all walks of life. (Warning: Some graphic content.)

Israel’s Ferguson moment

While America was seething over a number of deaths at the hands of police, a parallel case rocked Israel for several days. In early November, simmering tensions hit the boiling point after a man was killed by police responding to a call in the northern town of Kafr Kanna. While cops initially said they shot Khdeir Hamdan, 22, out of self defense, video soon emerged showing Hamdan retreating when he was killed. The shooting sparked days of clashes between police and rioters in a number of Arab towns, much hand-wringing among Israelis, and a high-level police investigation into the incident. (Warning: Some graphic content.)

The war next door

In a year filled with tensions, Israel was still actually one of the safer places to be in the region, though calling it a “villa in the jungle” could still be a stretch. As the Islamic State grabbed swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, shocking video soon emerged of soldiers and civilians being massacred by the group. The war hit home for many when videos emerged showing the beheadings of Western journalists and aid workers, including a number of Americans, a British man, and Israeli-American Steven Sotloff. We will not show those videos here, but we will show Israel’s own alleged entrance into the war in Syria, the reported bombing of two military installations near Damascus in early December. (Israel refuses to say whether it was involved).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi72ZC3vASE

A message of hope

Finally, in a year as depressing, shock-filled and utterly devastating as any, one video reaffirmed our faith in Israeli society and in humanity as a whole. When Reuven Rivlin was chosen as president in May, he was derided by many as a hawk who would prove divisive at a time when Israel needed unity as much as ever. He quickly dispelled those notions, devoting his first several months to advocating against racism and intolerance in society. Those efforts culminated in some ways with a video made together with George Amire, 11, calling for an end to bullying. In the joint effort, the two hold signs in Hebrew reading “Violence. Hostility. Bullying. Racism. These are only some of the bad things that people encounter every day here in Israel. These are some of the things that must not occur in our country. Let’s promise ourselves that this year we will work toward tolerance, solidarity, unity and equality — values we need in our country.”