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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