PMWATCH -- December 30, 2008 -- Coverage by the US media of Israel'sattacks on Gaza has been grossly biased and dismally uninformative.The US mainstream media as a whole is failing to communicate somevery basic facts and is heavily relying almost to the letter on thenarrative emanating official Israeli spokespeople.
Please reach out to your newspaper and your favorite media outlet andraise the following points:
(1) The outbreak of violence in Gaza has been the top story in themainstream media here in the United States for three days in a rownow, and yet one is hard pressed to find a single news item from anyof the major newspapers or television news outlets that mentions thetotal number of Israelis killed by Hamas's Qassam rockets since theofficial collapse of the cease fire on December 19th. Mention ismade of one Israeli man killed this week and half a dozen wounded,and all articles state that at least 110 Qassam rockets have beenlaunched into Israel since Saturday morning, with some quoting theIDF putting the figure at 300 rockets for the past week. But notonce is the total of Israelis killed given. why not? Why is thisvery basic fact missing? How can anyone observing the conflict drawany meaningful conclusions about whether accusations against Israeliactions are indeed an aggression against a whole people rather thanan act of self defense, as Israel and the United States claim?[1]
(2) This round of attacks and counter attacks started on November4th, when Israel decided to cross into the Gaza Strip to destroy whatthe army claimed was a tunnel dug by Hamas.[2] Up to then, the ceasefire had been holding up reasonably well, notwithstanding Israel'scontinuing strangulation of Gaza. The Israelu breach into Gaza wasfollowed by further violence from Israel when the Israeli governmentthe next day to sealed off all ways into and out of Gaza. As aresult, according to Oxfam International, between November 5th andNovember 30th, only 23 trucks were allowed into Gaza (down from anaverage of 3,000 trucks per month), which represents about 6 percent of the traffic needed to sustain the starving Palestinianpopulation of 1.5 millions in the tiny strip.[3a] Instead, thenarrative deployed by the US media continues to be the usual safe andlazy one where Israel is simply defending itself and "retaliating"against the aggression of terrorists. Little room or credence isgiven to the open declarations of the Palestinians that the violencewas started and deliberately sustained by Israel, that thePalestinians have several times asserted that they "would onlyrespond to Israeli aggression,"[3b] and that it was Israel that "hadbreached agreements by imposing a painful economic blockade on Gaza,staging military strikes into the densely populated coastal strip andcontinuing to hunt down Hamas operatives in the West Bank."[4]
(3) The Gaza strip is 25 miles long and 4 to 7.5 miles wide, where1.5 million people live in desperate conditions. Gaza is completelysealed off by a land barrier erected by Israel, with Israelcontrolling both the air space over the strip and the maritime borderwith the Mediterranean. These very basic facts are usually leftunmentioned.
(4) It is a fact that Hamas was democratically elected when it won bylarge majorities (76 of the 132 parliamentary seats) in both Gaza andthe West Bank in the internationally monitored PalestinianAuthority's parliamentary elections in early 2006[6], and thatimmediately upon winning those elections, the United States andIsrael, caught completely off guard and backtracking at once on theirup to then vociferous rhetoric that what would cure the ills ofPalestine would be free, open and democratic elections, declared thatthey would not deal with Hamas, in spite of clear signs from theHamas leadership that there was plenty of room to engage in aconstructive engagement.[7]
(5) The context of internal Israeli politics is rarely evermentioned. It would be helpful for a reader, for instance, to knowthat elections to choose a successor to disgraced Prime Minister EhudOlmert are only 6 weeks away, and that both Defense Minister EhudBarak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are positioning themselves and their parties (Kadima and Labor, respectively) against Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, who currentlyleads in the poll.[8] "Crushing" Hamas and highlighting a contrastbetween them and the outgoing Prime minister and his disastrousadventure in Lebanon two years ago is key, they believe, to having achance against the more hawkish Likud.
(6) Would it be too much to expect the US media to remember that inApril 1996, then interim Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Yitzhak Rabinhad been assassinated five months earlier) , running for the post ofPrime Minister for the fourth time (he had lost the previous threetimes) and desperately trying to bolster his weak militarycredentials in anticipation of the upcoming elections in May, engagedin a sixteen-day military blitz against Lebanon in the name of endingthe shelling of Northern Israel by Hezbollah. The campaignaccomplished nothing except the killing of Lebanese civilians, 118 ofwhom were massacred in Qana while they sought refuge in a UNcompound. Labor's Peres lost those elections to Likud's Netanyahuand in May 2000 Israel withdrew from the strip of Lebanon it had beenoccupying for nearly 20 years.
(7) The Israeli press is far more informative and challenges theIsraeli government far more aggressively than the US press. Why?See for instance the following articles from Haaretz.[10]
(8) It is high time that the absurd narrative of little Israelfighting for its survival against murderous Arabs is set aside onceand for all. Instead, let us remember the basics of the situationwhenever we try to understand the events in Palestine and Israel: amighty nuclear power is occupying and punishing a dispossessed peoplesimply because it does not have the political imagination, will, andcourage to sit down and make the difficult decisions necessary toreach a lasting solution.
To send a letter or make a phone call, please go to web page and findthe exact contact information thatyou need:
Letters must be 250 words or less and must include your name, addressand telephone number when you email your letter to the publication.
For tips on writing letters, go to:
Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary ofyour conversations with editors at letters@pmwatch.org
You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW.
Palestine Media Watch(866) DIAL-PMWhttp://www.pmwatch.org/
===
NOTES:
[1] "30 % Rise in Qassam Rocket Fire," IDF Annual Report 2007,December 31, 2007. http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/2007/3106.htm
[2] "Israel-Hamas cease-fire in peril as violence rises," JoelGreenberg, The Chicago Tribue, November 17, 2008.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-israel-gaza_greenbergnov17,0,7989972.story
[3a] "If Gaza Falls," Sara Roy, The London Review of Books, January2009 issue. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html
[3b] "Agreement in Hamas: Cease-fire to end Friday," Avi Issacharoffand Amos Harel, Haaretz, December 12, 2008.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046923.html
[4] "Hamas renounces cease-fire with Israel," The Associated Press,December 19, 2008.http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/19/mideast/mideast.php
[5] "Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza, 271 dead," RichardBoudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf, The Los Angeles Times, December 28,2008.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-gaza28-2008dec28,0,427782.story
[6] "Hamas Sweeps Palestinian Elections, Complicating Peace Effortsin Mideast," Scott Wilson, January 27, 2006.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012600372.html
[7] "Siegman: U.S., Israel and EU Must Deal With Hamas If it DropsHarsh Policies Toward Israel," council on Foreign Relations, january27, 2006. http://www.cfr.org/publication/9693/siegman.html
[8] "Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza, 271 dead," RichardBoudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf, The Los Angeles Times, December 28,2008.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-gaza28-2008dec28,0,427782.story
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Grapes_of_Wrath
[10] "Uncertainty and bombing keep Gazans awake and fearful of whowill be next," Amira Hass, Haaretz, December 30, 2008.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051022.html
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Letter to The New York Times
A letter sent to The New York Times on Saturday, December 27.
Dear Editor:
In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, it states that "if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law." Unfortunately, the Palestinians are a completely unprotected people who will be damned no matter what methods they resort to, whether it be stones, Qassems or peaceful demonstrations.
As Israel's own human rights organization, Btselem, points out in its research, since 2004 until the end of 2007, 12 Israelis and 1 foreign national were killed by Qassem rockets. Today alone, 250 Palestinians have been killed, and approximately 800 wounded, with more to come. Thousands of rockets fired in the course of a few years, resulting in very few deaths whereas one missile fired causes mass deaths and devastation. It was reported that 100 tons of bombs rained down on Palestinians today.
Be assured that Israel's bulldozers have also caused more destruction to Palestinians than any of these Qassem rockets while the world has sat silent, including crushing to death one young American citizen.
It's a jaw for a tooth, and a head for an eye where an analogy can never really be made between the oppressed and that of the oppressor.
[Full Name]
Bayside, NY
Dear Editor:
In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, it states that "if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law." Unfortunately, the Palestinians are a completely unprotected people who will be damned no matter what methods they resort to, whether it be stones, Qassems or peaceful demonstrations.
As Israel's own human rights organization, Btselem, points out in its research, since 2004 until the end of 2007, 12 Israelis and 1 foreign national were killed by Qassem rockets. Today alone, 250 Palestinians have been killed, and approximately 800 wounded, with more to come. Thousands of rockets fired in the course of a few years, resulting in very few deaths whereas one missile fired causes mass deaths and devastation. It was reported that 100 tons of bombs rained down on Palestinians today.
Be assured that Israel's bulldozers have also caused more destruction to Palestinians than any of these Qassem rockets while the world has sat silent, including crushing to death one young American citizen.
It's a jaw for a tooth, and a head for an eye where an analogy can never really be made between the oppressed and that of the oppressor.
[Full Name]
Bayside, NY
Letter sent to The Columbian
Dear Editors,
Gaza is under attack by Israel, the 4th largest military power in the world. American-made F-16 jets are bombing cities in the 25-mile long strip (comparable to Vancouver from I-5 to Cape Horn). 1.5 million civilians live there under Israeli siege, denied even most food and medicines.
The Hamas ceasefire that ended December 19 was unilateral. It was never reciprocated by Israel: 1300 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since June 2006 by the Israeli army. Now there are 1500 Gazans dead.
Please do not talk of homemade rockets (pipe bombs) that have killed 12 Israelis in the past 8 years. They are a war crime by desperate people, whose freedom has been denied for 41 years. Talk instead about our tax dollars to Israel ($10 million a day) and the use of American weapons against a civilian population. That is a huge war crime, and we are responsible.
Sincerely,
[Full Name]
Camas, WA
Gaza is under attack by Israel, the 4th largest military power in the world. American-made F-16 jets are bombing cities in the 25-mile long strip (comparable to Vancouver from I-5 to Cape Horn). 1.5 million civilians live there under Israeli siege, denied even most food and medicines.
The Hamas ceasefire that ended December 19 was unilateral. It was never reciprocated by Israel: 1300 Palestinians were killed in Gaza since June 2006 by the Israeli army. Now there are 1500 Gazans dead.
Please do not talk of homemade rockets (pipe bombs) that have killed 12 Israelis in the past 8 years. They are a war crime by desperate people, whose freedom has been denied for 41 years. Talk instead about our tax dollars to Israel ($10 million a day) and the use of American weapons against a civilian population. That is a huge war crime, and we are responsible.
Sincerely,
[Full Name]
Camas, WA
Action Call: Remind the Media of Lebanon 2008
PMWWATCH -- December 28, 2008 -- Israel seems to have learned nothing from its disastrous assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Instead of drawing the basic lesson that you cannot massacre your way to a solution, here again is the Israeli army bombarding civilians in the name of fighting terror. Back in 2006, civilians in Lebanon were massacred in the name of wiping out Hezbollah. The invasion instead killed more than a thousand people, the vast majority of whom were innocent Lebanese civilians, severely damaged the Lebanese civil infrastructure, displacing in the process approximately one million Lebanese. This time, civilians caged in captive Gaza are being massacred, again in the name of fighting terror and wiping out Hamas.
Please take a few minutes to call or write to your local paper and remind them that this is déjà vu all over again: that just as during its invasion of Lebanon in 2006 Israel accomplished nothing but kill innocent civilians and renew the resolve of a people to resist, not to mention put their own populations at risk, this assault on Gaza if history teaches anything, is likely to end up the same way.
To send a letter or make a phone call, please go to web page and find the exact contact information that you need:
Letters must be 250 words or less and must include your name, address and telephone number when you email your letter to the publication.For tips on writing letters, go to:
For more on the 2006 Lebanon invasion, see:
Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary of your conversations with editors at letters@pmwatch.org
You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW.
Palestine Media Watch
(866) DIAL-PMW
http://www.pmwatch.org/
Please take a few minutes to call or write to your local paper and remind them that this is déjà vu all over again: that just as during its invasion of Lebanon in 2006 Israel accomplished nothing but kill innocent civilians and renew the resolve of a people to resist, not to mention put their own populations at risk, this assault on Gaza if history teaches anything, is likely to end up the same way.
To send a letter or make a phone call, please go to web page and find the exact contact information that you need:
Letters must be 250 words or less and must include your name, address and telephone number when you email your letter to the publication.For tips on writing letters, go to:
For more on the 2006 Lebanon invasion, see:
Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary of your conversations with editors at letters@pmwatch.org
You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW.
Palestine Media Watch
(866) DIAL-PMW
http://www.pmwatch.org/
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Letter to Daily Camera and Rocky Mtn News
To the Editor:
I identify so much with those in the "time warp" that Audeh mentioned. I once was a solid Israel supporter, proud of what they had built in a so-called "desert" land. But when I started looking into what caused 9/11, I found that Israel had lied to us and they had actually ethnically cleansed Palestine in 1948, producing what the Palestinians call Al-Nakba, the catastrophe where 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes. I made a gut-wrenching decision to change my allegiance, far more gut-wrenching than when I changed from Republican to Democrat when Bush invaded a country that had not attacked us.
When I first started speaking out against Israel's human rights violations, I (a born-again Christian and life-long Sunday School attendee) was breathless, my voice shaky, sure I would be struck by lightning for saying anything against the "holy, chosen" Israel. But with every Palestinian death, with each story of suffering from eviction or home demolition, with every settler clubbing of little children going to school, I have now become quite bold in my righteous criticism of Israel. I no longer try for balance in my letters because the media bias against Palestinians provides plenty of balance for the Israel viewpoint, so I proudly present only the Palestinian viewpoint now, and that IS balance.
Israel is an apartheid state; they say they seek separation from Palestinians (apartheid is the South African word for separation). The Israeli military is out of control; they are brutal to Palestinians. The ideological settlers are completely insane in their devotion to a horrific god who glories in the killing of those who disagree (anyone for jihad?).
Well, this letter is too long to print but I feel better now. I hope you read this far.
Albany, OR
I identify so much with those in the "time warp" that Audeh mentioned. I once was a solid Israel supporter, proud of what they had built in a so-called "desert" land. But when I started looking into what caused 9/11, I found that Israel had lied to us and they had actually ethnically cleansed Palestine in 1948, producing what the Palestinians call Al-Nakba, the catastrophe where 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes. I made a gut-wrenching decision to change my allegiance, far more gut-wrenching than when I changed from Republican to Democrat when Bush invaded a country that had not attacked us.
When I first started speaking out against Israel's human rights violations, I (a born-again Christian and life-long Sunday School attendee) was breathless, my voice shaky, sure I would be struck by lightning for saying anything against the "holy, chosen" Israel. But with every Palestinian death, with each story of suffering from eviction or home demolition, with every settler clubbing of little children going to school, I have now become quite bold in my righteous criticism of Israel. I no longer try for balance in my letters because the media bias against Palestinians provides plenty of balance for the Israel viewpoint, so I proudly present only the Palestinian viewpoint now, and that IS balance.
Israel is an apartheid state; they say they seek separation from Palestinians (apartheid is the South African word for separation). The Israeli military is out of control; they are brutal to Palestinians. The ideological settlers are completely insane in their devotion to a horrific god who glories in the killing of those who disagree (anyone for jihad?).
Well, this letter is too long to print but I feel better now. I hope you read this far.
Albany, OR
Action Call: Support Pieces in Colorado Papers
PMWWATCH - December 8, 2008 -- Two great opinion pieces by Colorado activist Ida Audeh were published this weekend in The Daily Camera and The Rocky Mountain News (see full columns below).
Please take a few moments to read the pieces and to write a letter to the editor in reaction to them.
Send letters to:
and telephone number when you email your letter to the publication.
For tips on writing letters, go to:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/tools/T_WritingLetters.asp
Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary of your conversations with editors at http://www.blogger.com/group/pmw-action-calls/post?postID=AJ8WZHMyoURC7mpEE_y0L7RYXcf5Ez4o2y3jw9ESIGuK4Nfu5_o7W4cfFecuMRo-ubFGXWFNfjw2rcPO
You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW.
Palestine Media Watch
(866) DIAL-PMW
http://www.pmwatch.org/
=============================================================
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/dec/06/guest-commentary-talking-
in-boulder-about-the/
Guest Opinion: Talking in Boulder about the Middle East
By Ida Audeh
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Try talking in Boulder about Israel's policies in the occupied
Palestinian territories, and you might think you had stepped into a
time warp: a time when "foreigners" and their religion could be
trashed with impunity, colonialism was something to be proudly
embraced, and apartheid in South Africa still had supporters.
In September, I participated in what was supposed to be a panel
discussion following a performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie." The
play is based on the diaries and e-mails of 23-year-old Rachel
Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in
March 2003 as she stood to defend a Palestinian home from demolition.
The play describes the conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, whose ability to resist their own destruction was steadily and
systematically being undermined by Israel. Today, of course, the
situation is much worse. Who would have thought that Israel would be
able to hermetically seal the Gaza Strip and prevent food, medicine,
fuel, and electricity to 1.5 million Palestinian residents --
collective punishment of a civilian population, which is a war crime -
- for months on end and not face international sanctions?
The panel for the most part ignored the Gaza Strip Ghetto altogether.
One made extensive, gratuitous, and derogatory remarks about Islam.
The relevance of this diatribe to the play is subtle: If the faith of
the people that Corrie concerned herself with is defective, then by
extension so are they, and their fate is of no concern.
Last month, a group I work with organized a lecture, "Separate is
Never Equal," featuring Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Diane Buttu and
South African anti-apartheid activist Reverend Edward Makue.
Buttu gave a well-documented presentation that showed clearly the
Bantustans that Israel has carved out of the West Bank.
For Israel's die-hard supporters in the audience, the Q&A was an
opportunity to make Israel's case, not to explore further the content
of the presentations. Two expressed support for the ethnic cleansing
of Palestinians (a war crime); a few seemed enraged by the Israel-
apartheid connection but could not refute it credibly, considering
that the Israeli government itself calls its policy toward the
Palestinians one of separation (which is what "apartheid" means), and
Israeli law expressly privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jewish
(Palestinian) citizens.
It is population control, rather than security, that dictates the
monstrous wall that denies farmers access to their farmlands,
separates Palestinian villages from each other, and blocks view of
the sunset in Qalqilya; residence laws that require Palestinians from
different parts of the West Bank to get official permission, never
granted, before they can live together legally as husband and wife;
and the deliberately engineered destitution of the Gaza Strip. Even
the use of the suicide bomber as boogeyman to justify Israel's
policies is pretty unconvincing: The Israeli army, navy, air force,
and freelance sharpshooters collectively kill 4 times as many
Palestinian adults and 8 times as many Palestinian children as the
number of Israeli adults and children killed by Palestinian suicide
bombers.
What can be done to make Palestinian and Israeli civilians off limits?
Reverend Makue expressed dismay that sentiments expressed by the
audience reminded him of the kind of discourse one heard in South
Africa before liberation, a discourse that was blind to the many ways
in which apartheid oppressed society as a whole. He reminded the
audience that after liberation, no one in South Africa would admit to
supporting a system finally understood to be brutal and brutalizing.
In Boulder, we too must move beyond a futile discourse that
celebrates unrestrained force to subordinate a people and deny them a
future with dignity.
Ida Audeh, an editor who lives in Boulder, grew up in the West Bank.
She is a volunteer with the Middle East Collective of the Rocky
Mountain Peace and Justice Center. The views expressed here are her
own.
===========================
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/06/audeh-boulder-
forums-show-little-sympathy-palestin/
AUDEH: Boulder forums show little sympathy for Palestinians
By Ida Audeh
Published December 6, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
Try talking in Boulder about Israel's policies in the occupied
Palestinian territories, and you might think you had stepped into a
time warp: a time when "foreigners" and their religion could be
trashed with impunity, colonialism was something to be proudly
embraced, and apartheid in South Africa still had supporters.
In September, I participated in what was supposed to be a panel
discussion following a performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie." The
play is based on the diaries and e-mails of 23-year-old Rachel
Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in
March 2003 as she stood to defend a Palestinian home from demolition.
The play describes the conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, whose ability to resist their own destruction was steadily and
systematically being undermined by Israel. Today, of course, the
situation is much worse. Who would have thought that Israel would be
able to hermetically seal the Gaza Strip and prevent food, medicine,
fuel, and electricity from reaching 1.5 million Palestinian
residents – collective punishment of a civilian population, which is
a war crime – for months on end and not face international sanctions?
The panel for the most part ignored the Gaza Strip Ghetto altogether,
thanks to the intervention of an activist "moderator." One of the
five panelists made extensive, gratuitous, and derogatory remarks
about Islam. Two Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members sat in
the audience, but neither felt obliged to publicly denounce as hate
speech the trashing of a faith.
Last month, a group I work with organized a lecture, "Separate is
Never Equal," featuring Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Diana Buttu and
South African anti-apartheid activist Rev. Edward Makue.
Buttu gave a well-documented presentation that showed clearly the
Bantustans that Israel has carved out of the West Bank. Her
presentation included an outline of the consequences of Israeli
policies, which has been the immobilization and pauperization by
design of the Palestinian people.
For Israel's die-hard supporters in the audience, the Q&A was an
opportunity to make Israel's case, not to explore further the content
of the presentations. Two expressed support for the ethnic cleansing
of Palestinians (a war crime); a few seemed enraged by the Israel-
apartheid connection but could not refute it credibly, considering
that the Israeli government itself calls its policy toward the
Palestinians one of separation (which is what "apartheid" means), and
Israeli law expressly privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jewish
(Palestinian) citizens. How can anyone deny that separate road
systems in the occupied West Bank, one for Jews and one for non-Jews,
is anything but apartheid?
Many in the audience chose to ignore the evidence in the
presentations and raise the bogus issue of Israel's security, in
whose name apparently everything is permissible. In fact, it is
population control, rather than security, that dictates the monstrous
wall that denies farmers access to their farmlands, separates
Palestinian villages from each other, and blocks view of the sunset
in Qalqilya; residence laws that require Palestinians from different
parts of the West Bank to get official permission, never granted,
before they can live together legally as husband and wife; and the
deliberately engineered destitution of the Gaza Strip. Even the use
of the suicide bomber as boogeyman to justify Israel's policies is
pretty unconvincing: The Israeli army, navy, air force, and freelance
sharpshooters collectively kill 4 times as many Palestinian adults
and 8 times as many Palestinian children as the number of Israeli
adults and children killed by Palestinian suicide bombers. A
principled concern with civilian deaths would pose the question: What
can be done to make Palestinian and Israeli civilians off limits?
Reverend Makue expressed dismay that sentiments expressed by the
audience reminded him of the kind of discourse one heard in South
Africa before liberation, a discourse that was blind to the many ways
in which apartheid oppressed society as a whole. He reminded the
audience that after liberation, no one in South Africa would admit to
supporting a system finally understood to be brutal and brutalizing.
In Boulder, we too must move beyond a futile discourse that
celebrates unrestrained force to subordinate a people and deny them a
future with dignity. The day will come when Israel's cheerleaders in
this country will be asked to explain why they supported the pounding
and starving of a people into submission, how they could ever have
thought that discriminating against a nation on the basis of religion
and ethnicity is somehow more rational and less appalling than
discrimination on the basis of skin color.
Ida Audeh, an editor who lives in Boulder, grew up in the West Bank.
Please take a few moments to read the pieces and to write a letter to the editor in reaction to them.
Send letters to:
- The Daily Camera: stutzmane@dailycamera.com
- The Rocky Mountain News: letters@rockymountainnews.com
and telephone number when you email your letter to the publication.
For tips on writing letters, go to:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/tools/T_WritingLetters.asp
Please also feel free to share with us your letters or a summary of your conversations with editors at http://www.blogger.com/group/pmw-action-calls/post?postID=AJ8WZHMyoURC7mpEE_y0L7RYXcf5Ez4o2y3jw9ESIGuK4Nfu5_o7W4cfFecuMRo-ubFGXWFNfjw2rcPO
You can also call us at: (866) DIAL-PMW.
Palestine Media Watch
(866) DIAL-PMW
http://www.pmwatch.org/
=============================================================
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/dec/06/guest-commentary-talking-
in-boulder-about-the/
Guest Opinion: Talking in Boulder about the Middle East
By Ida Audeh
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Try talking in Boulder about Israel's policies in the occupied
Palestinian territories, and you might think you had stepped into a
time warp: a time when "foreigners" and their religion could be
trashed with impunity, colonialism was something to be proudly
embraced, and apartheid in South Africa still had supporters.
In September, I participated in what was supposed to be a panel
discussion following a performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie." The
play is based on the diaries and e-mails of 23-year-old Rachel
Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in
March 2003 as she stood to defend a Palestinian home from demolition.
The play describes the conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, whose ability to resist their own destruction was steadily and
systematically being undermined by Israel. Today, of course, the
situation is much worse. Who would have thought that Israel would be
able to hermetically seal the Gaza Strip and prevent food, medicine,
fuel, and electricity to 1.5 million Palestinian residents --
collective punishment of a civilian population, which is a war crime -
- for months on end and not face international sanctions?
The panel for the most part ignored the Gaza Strip Ghetto altogether.
One made extensive, gratuitous, and derogatory remarks about Islam.
The relevance of this diatribe to the play is subtle: If the faith of
the people that Corrie concerned herself with is defective, then by
extension so are they, and their fate is of no concern.
Last month, a group I work with organized a lecture, "Separate is
Never Equal," featuring Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Diane Buttu and
South African anti-apartheid activist Reverend Edward Makue.
Buttu gave a well-documented presentation that showed clearly the
Bantustans that Israel has carved out of the West Bank.
For Israel's die-hard supporters in the audience, the Q&A was an
opportunity to make Israel's case, not to explore further the content
of the presentations. Two expressed support for the ethnic cleansing
of Palestinians (a war crime); a few seemed enraged by the Israel-
apartheid connection but could not refute it credibly, considering
that the Israeli government itself calls its policy toward the
Palestinians one of separation (which is what "apartheid" means), and
Israeli law expressly privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jewish
(Palestinian) citizens.
It is population control, rather than security, that dictates the
monstrous wall that denies farmers access to their farmlands,
separates Palestinian villages from each other, and blocks view of
the sunset in Qalqilya; residence laws that require Palestinians from
different parts of the West Bank to get official permission, never
granted, before they can live together legally as husband and wife;
and the deliberately engineered destitution of the Gaza Strip. Even
the use of the suicide bomber as boogeyman to justify Israel's
policies is pretty unconvincing: The Israeli army, navy, air force,
and freelance sharpshooters collectively kill 4 times as many
Palestinian adults and 8 times as many Palestinian children as the
number of Israeli adults and children killed by Palestinian suicide
bombers.
What can be done to make Palestinian and Israeli civilians off limits?
Reverend Makue expressed dismay that sentiments expressed by the
audience reminded him of the kind of discourse one heard in South
Africa before liberation, a discourse that was blind to the many ways
in which apartheid oppressed society as a whole. He reminded the
audience that after liberation, no one in South Africa would admit to
supporting a system finally understood to be brutal and brutalizing.
In Boulder, we too must move beyond a futile discourse that
celebrates unrestrained force to subordinate a people and deny them a
future with dignity.
Ida Audeh, an editor who lives in Boulder, grew up in the West Bank.
She is a volunteer with the Middle East Collective of the Rocky
Mountain Peace and Justice Center. The views expressed here are her
own.
===========================
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/dec/06/audeh-boulder-
forums-show-little-sympathy-palestin/
AUDEH: Boulder forums show little sympathy for Palestinians
By Ida Audeh
Published December 6, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
Try talking in Boulder about Israel's policies in the occupied
Palestinian territories, and you might think you had stepped into a
time warp: a time when "foreigners" and their religion could be
trashed with impunity, colonialism was something to be proudly
embraced, and apartheid in South Africa still had supporters.
In September, I participated in what was supposed to be a panel
discussion following a performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie." The
play is based on the diaries and e-mails of 23-year-old Rachel
Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in
March 2003 as she stood to defend a Palestinian home from demolition.
The play describes the conditions facing Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, whose ability to resist their own destruction was steadily and
systematically being undermined by Israel. Today, of course, the
situation is much worse. Who would have thought that Israel would be
able to hermetically seal the Gaza Strip and prevent food, medicine,
fuel, and electricity from reaching 1.5 million Palestinian
residents – collective punishment of a civilian population, which is
a war crime – for months on end and not face international sanctions?
The panel for the most part ignored the Gaza Strip Ghetto altogether,
thanks to the intervention of an activist "moderator." One of the
five panelists made extensive, gratuitous, and derogatory remarks
about Islam. Two Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members sat in
the audience, but neither felt obliged to publicly denounce as hate
speech the trashing of a faith.
Last month, a group I work with organized a lecture, "Separate is
Never Equal," featuring Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Diana Buttu and
South African anti-apartheid activist Rev. Edward Makue.
Buttu gave a well-documented presentation that showed clearly the
Bantustans that Israel has carved out of the West Bank. Her
presentation included an outline of the consequences of Israeli
policies, which has been the immobilization and pauperization by
design of the Palestinian people.
For Israel's die-hard supporters in the audience, the Q&A was an
opportunity to make Israel's case, not to explore further the content
of the presentations. Two expressed support for the ethnic cleansing
of Palestinians (a war crime); a few seemed enraged by the Israel-
apartheid connection but could not refute it credibly, considering
that the Israeli government itself calls its policy toward the
Palestinians one of separation (which is what "apartheid" means), and
Israeli law expressly privileges Jewish citizens over non-Jewish
(Palestinian) citizens. How can anyone deny that separate road
systems in the occupied West Bank, one for Jews and one for non-Jews,
is anything but apartheid?
Many in the audience chose to ignore the evidence in the
presentations and raise the bogus issue of Israel's security, in
whose name apparently everything is permissible. In fact, it is
population control, rather than security, that dictates the monstrous
wall that denies farmers access to their farmlands, separates
Palestinian villages from each other, and blocks view of the sunset
in Qalqilya; residence laws that require Palestinians from different
parts of the West Bank to get official permission, never granted,
before they can live together legally as husband and wife; and the
deliberately engineered destitution of the Gaza Strip. Even the use
of the suicide bomber as boogeyman to justify Israel's policies is
pretty unconvincing: The Israeli army, navy, air force, and freelance
sharpshooters collectively kill 4 times as many Palestinian adults
and 8 times as many Palestinian children as the number of Israeli
adults and children killed by Palestinian suicide bombers. A
principled concern with civilian deaths would pose the question: What
can be done to make Palestinian and Israeli civilians off limits?
Reverend Makue expressed dismay that sentiments expressed by the
audience reminded him of the kind of discourse one heard in South
Africa before liberation, a discourse that was blind to the many ways
in which apartheid oppressed society as a whole. He reminded the
audience that after liberation, no one in South Africa would admit to
supporting a system finally understood to be brutal and brutalizing.
In Boulder, we too must move beyond a futile discourse that
celebrates unrestrained force to subordinate a people and deny them a
future with dignity. The day will come when Israel's cheerleaders in
this country will be asked to explain why they supported the pounding
and starving of a people into submission, how they could ever have
thought that discriminating against a nation on the basis of religion
and ethnicity is somehow more rational and less appalling than
discrimination on the basis of skin color.
Ida Audeh, an editor who lives in Boulder, grew up in the West Bank.
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