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The Badge of Liberalism

Since returning to the UK from Palestine last week and re-immersing myself in the news and media of the ‘West’, some very clear patterns have become more discernible; more transparent. We all know the media bias in the U.S. toward Israel, and although a more pro-Palestinian stance is often apparent in the UK & Europe, I think we are all at risk of missing the bigger picture here.

The last few months, the term ‘news’ has been synonymous with only two major events: 1) The U.S. Presidential Election, 2) The Global Economic Crisis. Not to deny or diminish the far reaching implications of both of these significant subjects, I fear some of the best ‘minds’ capable of truly making a difference or at the very least making ‘noise’ about human issues still occurring in the world (Palestine, Darfur, Tibet, AIDS in Africa, homelessness on our own streets in Western cities) are - as I was before my recent visit to Palestine - ‘asleep at the wheel’.

There is an all together different form of media hypnosis and subsequent apathy that occurs in the intellectual, the devout liberal, and even the activist. By being swept up in the frenzy of elections or manufactured fear of the ‘credit crisis’ we allow ourselves (if only for a few days or weeks) to lapse into the cleverly disguised superficial - perhaps just as mollified by news clips of Sarah Palin or Barack Obama as those ’sheep’ we wittily denegrate watching reality television or reading celebrity bios.

In my eyes, wearing a self-anointed badge of intellectual or liberal or activist must be accompanied by action. Action to find some ‘real’ news of life and humanity occurring around you and throughout the world. Action to speak up, give a strong voice to an issue that quietly whispers among your friends or in the media. Action to discuss subjects beyond the Presidential Elections or your pocketbook and revive discourse on the real, the important, the urgent. If not, we all risk believing that a new U.S. President or a stagnant economy are the main issues in our world. The main issues in life.

You have to earn the badge you wear - however you define yourself. Time to get to work.

The West & Iran (Palestine in the Middle)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown took his turn in the Knesset this week – and used the opportunity for a little saber rattling toward Iran and (cringingly) more of the ongoing ‘love in’ between Israel and the West.

As mentioned in recent posts, the West vs. Iran scenario plays itself out in a myriad of ways, but perhaps the most devastating is the ‘proxy’ cold war being waged in Israel itself – with the Palestinians being used as the global ‘punching gloves’. On one side we have Iran and Syria (whose indirect support for Hamas in Gaza is well documented).

In the other corner - the West (via Jordan) supporting the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. The two dominant factions of Palestinian authority are thus pitted against each other – both made weak by the chess match being played out beyond their borders. The similarities to 1980’s Afghanistan and 1960’s Vietnam could not be more clear. The West in a famished desire to engage another enemy has locked onto the perceived threat of Iran & Syria – and in so doing have cultivated discord between the Palestinians – a rift that serves the greater interst of war ‘by other means’.

The result: nothing but devastation for the Palestinians, their national identity and worse, their political unity. With Israel’s ongoing attempts to demean any authority the PA have in the West Bank (with still regular incursions, roadblocks and veritable martial law throughout most towns), the PA appears weak to the average Palestinian – further driving them to more radical religious causes taken up by the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Iran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vain and dangerous attempt to perhaps resurrect the ghost of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser as ‘Protector of the Middle East’ has taken the bait – and with sentiments toward another military regime change unpopular among citizens of the US and Europe, the ‘proxy war’ continues.

The cycle is almost so predictable it is perverse. And ultimately it is a game with no winners.

Visit Palestine

I have alluded to a trip I took to the West Bank in April on this site several times in the past. What I am realizing is just how difficult it is for people to understand the realities of what is occurring in the Occupied Territories without actually visiting, meeting the people, and experiencing the occupation first-hand.

Many people are either too frightened by Western media reports or fearful of Palestinians in general to contemplate a visit to Palestine. Many people who do say they will go - often dismiss a visit with the comment “I’ll go when things settle down”. Time to wake up and realize things will never settle down without outsiders getting a view into life in the Occupied Territories. A struggle must be witnessed to truly be understood - and I cannot recommend a better way to learn about Palestine than to visit - go to the West Bank, Hebron, Jericho, and even Nablus. Take a digital camera, a video recorder, a sound recorder, a notebook and a pen.

http://www.vimeo.com/vimeo.com/920453

A discussion on the Occupation in Hebron with Abu Hassan of Alternative Tours

If you’re perplexed on the details - on how to get into the West Bank or how to plan a visit - I would like to recommend a tour guide who took excellent care of me and my fellow travelers in Hebron and throughout the West Bank. For more information, please visit Alternative Tours and experience Abu Hassan’s amazing tours. I guarantee you will return more enlightened, more intelligent, and more attuned to the way our world is working.

Bear witness. It is important.

Who Broke the Gaza Truce?

As you may have heard reported this morning, Israel has again sealed the borders to Gaza and is re-enforcing it’s siege and almost total blockade of the area. This is in response to two rockets being fired from Gaza late Tuesday by the Islamic Jihad into Southern Israel.

Israel is calling this a “grave violation” of the six-day truce between Hamas and Israel - and will almost certainly use this to bolster support from the International community for a massive ground incursion into the area. Keep in mind, given International sentiment toward israel’s behaviour in starving and blockading the Gazans for the past several months, Israel has been unable to achieve the ‘moral high ground’ on its long standing desire to invade Gaza and wipe out Hamas.

They now believe they have that advantage, as the Palestinian faction has itself violated the delicate peace treaty.

Or have they?

As with all news on Israel, you have to dig - and dig deep to uncover who did what and when.

In this case, the following article from Reuters (and in fact across most news sources midday yesterday - June 24th) reported the first blood having been let by Israel not Islamic Jihad or Hamas. The following quote is taken directly from Reuters reporting on the incident in Nablus yesterday morning (hours before the rockets were fired into Israel in retaliation by Islamic Jihad):

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad commander, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday in the first fatal raid since a ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip last week.

It’s worth repeating that - “the first fatal raid”.

Few stories denouncing Islamic Jihad and the Gazans this morning mention who shot first - and crucially, who broke the ceasefire. And most alarmingly, almost all news reports significantly over-emphasize this supposed violation by Palestinians in destroying the fragile peace that had existed between Hamas and Israel.

Mission accomplished for Israel. Having successfully goaded Islamic Jihad into launching a retaliation attack, they have broken the peace they never intended to honor, and more strategically, have shifted International attention away from yesterday’s morning’s illegal raid in Nablus - and onto the ‘just’ response Israel most certainly will carry out against this “grave violation.”

The joke is on us if we don’t dig deeper; if we don’t find out the truth.

Cameras As Guns

A friend sent me a great story about about an Israeli Human Rights Group called B’Tselem that is making a very unique contribution to the struggle of the Palestinians. A recent quote from the New York Times sums it up better than I could:

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, gives video cameras to
Palestinians to document the attacks and abuses they suffer. Fidaa
Abu Aisha, left, a 16-year-old Palestinian, in Hebron with her camera,
which she uses to capture what her family says are the almost daily
attacks on them by nearby settlers. The police don’t believe them or
ignore them. The B’Tselem project, Shooting Back, has resulted
in some startling videos of settler violence.”

The metaphor or ‘cameras as guns’ really hits home to me, as after spending time in the West Bank, the only (and best) way to get the story across - to truly open people’s eyes, is through the camera. Bravo to B’Tselem for recognising that and for giving the Palestinians the tools they need to tell their story.

As my guide in the West Bank told me - with the internet and global information on the rise, it is very difficult for Israel to hide what they are doing from the rest of the world. If you cannot visit Palestine then you must witness what is happening here - online. bruised earth is proud to be one of those resources, but there are many more.

With more footage, more pictures, and more reports, the truth will find it’s way out.

Chomsky vs. Dershowitz

There have been several celebrated debates between Alan Dershowitz and Noam Chomsky over the years, and if you do a quick search in YouTube you’ll find quite a few segments.

Following the publication of his (now famous) The Case for Israel, Dershowitz began a massive book tour to try and ‘correct’ anti-Israel views by writers such as Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein. Taken from one of these tours, the following clip shows a classic exchange between the two scholars - focusing on settlements in the West Bank, the separation barrier, and the realities of peace in the near future:

“UK a Hotbed of Anti-Israel Views”

There were some very interesting statements made yesterday in the Opinion section of the Daily Telegraph by the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, who accused the UK of creating a ‘hotbed of anti-Israel views’. Predictably, the Jerusalem Post jumped all over the statements, publishing the article on their front page as further proof of the one-sided and unfair treatment of Israel throughout the UK and European Media and Education systems.

Most notably, Prosor points out:

Israel faces an intensified campaign of delegitimization, demonization and double standards.

Israel’s military reaction to the attacks it faces is given in depth, microscopic coverage. Yet the attacks to which Israel is responding are often ignored. Terror attacks, ambushes, suicide bombings or the constant barrage of rockets being fired on Israeli citizens are frequently disregarded.

The average British citizen is painfully unaware that since Hamas seized control of Gaza last year, 1,400 rockets and 1,500 mortar bombs have landed on Israeli soil.

First off, the UK and Europe are not the U.S. There is no AIPAC, and there is also no default cultural bullying around open views of the Middle East and Israel in particular. The UK for its part has always been celebrated as a ‘hotbed’ of protest, demonstration, and opinion. As our own politicians know all too well, there is absolutely no hiding from the British press who on their best day can be described as ‘pushy’, on its worst, downright carnivorous.

Flipping through the Guardian and Independent and even The Times Web sites today, there are countless articles and opinion pieces about the Unites States - many less than complimentary. Why is George Bush not lambasting the UK for promoting anti-American sentiment?

Mr Prosor’s comments demonstrate both his defensiveness and his frustration - statements made by a man and a country used to getting their way in the Western media for far too long.

Hypocrisy & Humanitarian Aid

It was pretty deflating to read this afternoon’s Ha’aretz Web site and learn that Israel has now sent its third relief team to aid victims of the Burmese cyclone disaster.

The blatant hypocrisy of sending medical personnel and training and logistics specialists to an area of humanitarian crisis - other than that occurring on their own doorstep - truly ‘buggers’ belief. As touched upon in a recent post, the situation in Gaza and the West Bank cannot be considered anything other than a ‘humanitarian crisis’ for which countries beyond Israel (and specifically the UN) not only feel compelled to act, but to continually and loudly condemn this ongoing siege and entrapment of the Palestinians on their own land.

Infuriatingly, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has also contributed over $100,000 in initial emergency food and medical supplies to the Burmese victims. There is no argument that this is needed, and that the victims of Burma deserve this support. However - in case you somehow may have missed the current situation in Gaza, bruised earth implores you to look closer and realize the hypocrisy behind these facts.

People are currently - TODAY - dying in Gaza for lack of medical supplies, proper food, and basic health management due to ongoing sewage and malnutrition issues. It is frightening to comprehend that the State is sending these badly needed medical supplies and food products to another country, keeping the trucks laden with these life-saving supplies frozen on the border to Gaza.

Sending this aid halfway across the world to assist in another humanitarian crisis - whilst continuing to exacerbate one of its own - is quite simply unforgivable.

Gaza: Your Alarm Clock is Sounding

Offensive actions resumed in Gaza yesterday with more news of border shootings and Israeli Army incursions. An estimated 2,000 Palestinians were protesting yesterday afternoon at the Gaza border when Israeli troops opened fire into the crowd – killing one man and wounding 17 others. The grim totals continue to mount with early reports citing the wounding of at least three boys ages 12-15 (with one in critical condition). An interesting point about news reports to keep in mind - the wounded numbers are never re-visited in later reports, so death tolls should always be expected to mount.

For background, the Israeli siege of Gaza (now lasting over 8 months) has almost completely crippled the tiny patch of land with no goods being allowed in or out – and crucially, medical supplies are almost non-existent. While we are up in arms about the humanitarian crisis caused by natural disasters in places like Burma and China, we are guilty of neglecting the actions of the region’s richest and most advanced country – as it slowly chokes, starves, and decimates an encircled population.

The help you understand the true scale of what is happening in Gaza, pay close attention to these statistics:

• Israel prevents the import of a list of specific essential humanitarian goods requested by aid agencies, including some fuel supplies, spare parts, cement, technical assistance and cotton for hygiene items.
• Travel in and out of Gaza is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, as well as sewage treatment and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted.
• Supplies to Gaza, intended to be 250 trucks a day, are limited to 45 trucks a day.
• Most private businesses have shut down in the last six months and 95% of Gaza’s industrial operations are suspended.
• Israeli allows 2.2 million litres of EU-supplied industrial diesel per week, which is not enough to keep Gaza’s main power plant operating at full capacity.
• Hospitals experience power cuts for 8-12 hours a day and depend on generators to run basic facilities, although there is a shortage of diesel. Spare parts for generators are almost impossible to obtain.
• The UN appeal for humanitarian aid in 2008 is $462m, more than twice the 2006 appeal and the third largest UN request after Sudan and Congo.

Conditions on the ground in Gaza are simply disgusting – with the UN’s Humanitarian Chief recently quoted as saying “the eight-month closure of Gaza has created ‘grim and miserable’ conditions that deprive Palestinians of their basic dignity.”

This is not Burma. This is not China. There has been no natural disaster.

This is a siege that the West must act upon. And act now.

International Aid Organizations including the UN Humanitarian Division, Amnesty International, Save the Children, Care, the BBC, and Oxfam have drafted a report that everyone should read. For a quick 3-minute video overview on what is happening please view below:

The desperation of the 1.5 million Palestinians squeezed within the filthy conditions of Gaza is unacceptable by all International bodies and standards - and our silence in this ongoing methodical massacre of lives and livelihoods makes us shamefully complicit.

That’s your alarm bell ringing. Time to wake up.

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