Tuvia Grossman is an American Jew who was mistakenly identified as a Palestinian instead of a Jew in a news photograph published worldwide. The caption implied he was being assaulted by an Israeli policeman although in fact the policeman had been defending him from Palestinian rioters. The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ...

The New York Times photograph of Grossman with the misleading caption

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Victim of the media war

At the outset of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on September 30, 2000, the New York Times and other media outlets published a photo of a bloodied young man crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman, based on an Associated Press photo. The caption named him as a Palestinian victim of the recent riots. The wreckage of a commuter bus in West Jerusalem after a suicide bombing on Tuesday, 18 June 2002. ... September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 92 days remaining. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Associated Press logo The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ...

The victim's true identity was revealed when Dr. Aaron Grossman of Chicago sent the following letter to the Times: Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

Regarding your picture on page A5 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 traveling 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.

The New York Times published a correction identifying Tuvia Grossman as "an American student in Israel" omitting his beating by the Arabs. It also stated that "Mr. Grossman was wounded" in "Jerusalem's Old City". The beating really occurred in the Arab neighborhood of Wadi al Joz.

Due to the reaction of the public and the misleading correction, the New York Times reprinted the picture with a new caption, and an article about his ordeal.

In April 2002, a District Court in Paris ordered the French daily newspaper "Liberation" and the Associated Press to pay 4,500 Euro to Grossman in damages for misrepresenting him. 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for April, 2002. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... Look up Liberation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Abuse of Grossman's picture

Several organisations have used Grossman's picture misleadingly, presenting him as a Palestinian. One of them was an Egyptian government website. Along with a number of other Arab sites. [1]

This same picture has been used to gather support for the boycotting of Coca-Cola by Muslims, by once again misleadingly showing him as a "Palestinian". [2] The wave shape (known as the dynamic ribbon device) present on all Coca-Cola cans throughout the world derives from the contour of the original Coca-Cola bottles. ... for Imam Muslim, see Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is an adherent of Islam. ...

Aliyah

On September 7, 2005, Tuvia Grossman made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) from his native Chicago. September 7 is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Aliyah (Hebrew: עלייה; ascent or going up) is a term widely used to mean Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel). ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

"I knew that I wanted to be here, in Israel," Grossman said as he prepared to leave his hometown of Chicago for his flight. "Nothing was going to stop me."

Grossman, who recently completed a law degree in Chicago, now lives in Tel Aviv and works as a legal intern at Gornitzky & Co., a large Tel Aviv law firm, while preparing for the Israeli Bar exam. While he knows that he will have to tackle the challenges facing any new immigrant, nothing can compare to the horror felt during the attack. Tel-Aviv was founded on empty dunes north of the existing city of Jaffa. ...

External links

• Grossman's story in his own words
• An Honest Reporting article describing the incident