The Price of Ignorance

[Violet_Crumble]

by Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz
January 08, 2004


The suicide bomber at the Geha Junction, Shehad Hanani, was from Beit Furik, one of the most imprisoned villages in the territories that is surrounded by earth roadblocks on all sides. It's a place where women in labor and the sick have to risk walking through fields to get to the hospital in adjacent Nablus. At least one woman in labor, Rula Ashatiya, gave birth at the Beit Furik checkpoint and lost her infant. Few Israelis are capable of imagining what life is like in Beit Furik: the almost universal unemployment, poverty, endless siege and humiliations of life inside a prison. A young man like Hanani, who was 21, had no reason to get up in the morning other than to face another day of joblessness and humiliation.

However, Israelis have little interest in knowing the lay of the land from which terror springs. The Israeli media have next to nothing to say about life in Beit Furik. By the same token, few Israelis heard about the killing of the suicide bomber's relative, Fadi Hanani, 10 days ago in Nablus, just as they hadn't heard about all the killings of Palestinians in the past few months. Life in Beit Furik and the killing in Nablus do not justify a suicide bombing at a bus station, but whoever wants to fight terror must first and foremost improve life in Beit Furik.

Israel counted "81 days of quiet" without terrorist attacks. But there is no greater lie than this. The quiet was only here. During this "quiet," dozens of Palestinians were killed, and almost no one bothered to report it. That is how it becomes possible to speak of quiet and then claim that the Palestinians disturbed it. The fact that the media does not speak of Palestinian deaths does not mean that they did not happen. The eight Palestinians who were killed last week in one day at Rafah, for example, killing along the lines of a medium-sized terror attack, together with destruction that is to an extent unknown in Israel, weren't enough to generate any interest here last week. They barely got a mention. The international community dealt prominently with this frightening killing, and the United Nations secretary-general issued a special statement condemning them. There was only one place where the entire event was ignored - the country whose soldiers perpetrated the killing. The images of giant bulldozers and tanks demolishing more and more houses, and the scenes of the dead and 42 wounded, among them women and children, being taken to hospitals in Rafah were hardly shown in Israel.

The mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, for example, mentioned the killing in Rafah in a sub-headline to a very small item on an inside page that dealt with the minor injuries sustained by a settler couple in the Gaza Strip settlement of Nisanit as a result of a Qassam rocket. This is how the national agenda is determined. Such disgraceful coverage of such a lethal operation by the IDF might evoke other regimes, in which the public is shown only what the authorities want it to see.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=4808

[bluesoul]

1. Great article!

...

[Resistance]

11. yeah

It is really a disgrace that well over a hundred Palestinians can be killed (who were mostly civilians and many children) and the news coverage of that is called a "period of calm".

It only proves how one-sided the elite news coverage has become. Just suppose over 100 Israelis are killed and it gets called a "period of calm" -- no actually imagine just one single suicide bombing go by with no news coverage, and then if it were glossed over later on as a "lull in violence". That would be unthinkable. But it is exactly what is going on, from a Palestinian point of view. They're being terrorized daily, on their own land, civilians are being killed, shot and murdered, kids are being gunned down, and homes are being destroyed. Yet, this is called a "period of calm". This kind of media coverage (total lies is what it is) is despicable.

Thank god for outlets like Electronic Intifada, The Guardian, Haaretz, and others that do at least afford space in their columns to cover the killings of Palestinians (and recently killings and shootings of peace workers). Otherwise, we would know basically nothing about the conflict in PalestineIsrael. We'd see the numbers of dead on the Palestinian side, and go 'Wha?? When'd that happen?' then we'd shrug our shoulders and move on to the next news item of the day, assuming that all those killed are just the natural result of "clashes" between various groups of Palestinian gunmen vs. one of the most advanced armies in the world. Instead, what we do know is that the IDF isn't just out there protecting it's citizens: It is taking part in vicious and ruthless measures against Palestinians, which are no better than Hamas bombings of Israeli civilians. And they are doing so with no accountability whatsoever, and a blind eye turned by the government which is paying it's bills. This is sickening.

[LibertyorDeath]

2. Israel reaps what it sows

[JasonDeter]

3. You could just as easily say the Palestinians reap what they sow.

And even more so.

[bluesoul]

4. No one deserves neither

So I don't agree either with Liberty or you Jason...

[JasonDeter]

5. A great line in Unforgiven, "Deserve has nothing to do with it."

.

[bemildred]

6. "We've all got it coming, kid." nt

[JasonDeter]

7. You miss the point of the quote.

The town sheriff played by Gene Hackman in this movie is a sadistic freak who brutally kills the character played by Morgan Freeman. The mistake in killing him was that it was the character played by Clint Eastwoods friend. As a cowboy movie fan the gunfight in the end is one of the best in the industries history. Clint as usual kicks butt. Hackmans character is wounded and Clint puts the rifle up to his throat and Hackman says, "I was building a house, I don't deserve this." Clint says in clasic Eastwood with the trademark scowl, "Deserve has nothing to do with it" and proceeds to put a bullet in his throat.

The point was you kill mine, I'm killing you or yours. That is whats going on in the M.E. We can argue all day who started it but I do not think history would back you. Those with short term memories are why this problem will not go away. And as an aside, it is beyond me why innocent Palestinians hang around the hamas terrorists and their leaders! I would avoid them like the plague if I was in the same area as they. The innocent Palestinians know who they are, they know their cars...RUN! when you see them comming. That would cut down on alot of deaths on the Palestinian side.

[bemildred]

8. Touchy, aren't we?

I just repeated another quote from the movie, which I like too.
I wasn't grinding any particular rhetorical axe WRT I/P or
anything else.

[JasonDeter]

9. Now that you mention it

But your quote can easily be misconstrued and is not in context with the subject. I do have a wonderful sense of humor btw but also have a habit of shooting from the hip. Whom will I vote for?

[bemildred]

10. Depends on the subject.

My context was the movie.

Nevertheless, this is the I/P forum, and it has long since
been recognized that down here EVERYTHING has to do with I/P,
so your mistake was not especially damning.

Let's see, great sense of humor and loose brain-to-mouth filters,
that would be Sharpton. :-)

[JasonDeter]

12. Alas, it always does doesn't it? Good guess.

[Resistance]

13. Innocent Palestinians

should run away from Hamas members when they see them coming?

No. Israel should stop targetting innocent Palestinians. That is what would cut down alot of deaths of Palestinians.

[GabysPoppy]

14. Sounds like good advice

for innocent Palestinians to take. That would do more to cut down deaths of innocent Palestinians than anything else.