It seems that the press is far more concerned of Israeli building against the law than Palestinians building against the law…

I attended a peace walk (and wrote about it here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2770484/the_seventh_annual_jewishmuslim_peace.html?cat=8)and met very interesting people. I am still working on my panel, Laila – do you know yet if you will be here?

Let’s start with a reminer: Israel never took any “Palestinian” lands. In 1967 Israel conquered Gaza from the Egyptians and judea and Samaria from the Jordanians. This by itself raises the question where were the Palestinians until 1967 and why they were not fighting for freedom then, but that’s a different issue. Specifically, the area in which most of the “settlements” around Jerusalem are, was legally a no-man’s land, hence is not “occupied territories”, hence Israel can build there as much as wantrd or needed.

As for the so called 25% empty houses, even if we agree this correct, the reality is that Palestinians constantly build without permission and a whole lot more “Jewish” buildings were demolished than Palestinian buildings. Moreover, the Pa.estinians used to claim that the settlements in Gaza limit the Palestinian cities from growing, but what did the Palestinians do with those lands after Israel left? They built terrorist camps, not house for the poor civilians.

Third, just because you mentioned it, the bypass roads were built because Palestinian terrorists used to fire at Israeli cars. Believe me that no country enjoys wasting money on roads, but no one is going to agree to have civilians be a target for shooting. It was either building new roads or building more road blocks and making the Palestinians’ lives even more miserable…

gaza mom…… I really like the name, too.

Sometimes I wish I was a Palestinian. NPR pisses me off sometimes and at other times I hear better commentary that seems quite nice and even handed. I think NPR is struggling for it’s identity, but as the Name suggests, so does the character exhibit, National Public Radio in the US is a politically correct voice that has a strong funding from a not so politically diverse audience, although most seem to be liberals of some nature or another.

Jennifer, I recoil when I hear that too, Why is a population of more Palestinians in Palestine a threat to Palestine? Perspective is so important in balanced news coverage, and taking one perspective as the position to exhibit, without representing the Palestinian sentiments is propaganda, right?

The story line always goes this way;, Israel needs a two state solution to avoid being called an apartheid state, or , Arabs populations in Jerusalem will overtake Jews and ruin the nature of Israel as a Jews only Nation in it’s own capital. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS if not very biased reporting? It should be banned! Is religious ethnic bigotry not illegal? East Jerusalem is NOT RECOGNIZED as a part of Israel anyway, by anyone except Israelis and their sayanim, but they are so few and only buoyed by their wealth and political influence as a result of such wealth, Bankers have decided to steal Palestine and lie like rugs on national public news. This can be changed by passing some” passive aggressive” hate crimes laws. Hate speech, even veiled in acceptable news jargon , is still hate speech, and is banned, Where the hell is Abe Foxman when WE need him??

That being said, and in response to what Jennifer commented, Jews and African Americans have been discriminated against in many many instances. The Holocaust is an obvious example, and the days of slavery and segregation here in the US is another example. But you didn’t often hear of African Americans or Jews stabbing, shooting, sending rockets, or having suicide attacks against the people who discriminated against them.

I’m an Israeli living in the US, and have been on the receiving end of discrimination and anti-semitism. I’d never think of retaliating. I think one of the reasons that many people have a negative view of the Palestinians IS those attacks on innocent people. I’m not saying all the Israeli soldiers are innocent of personal attacks on Palestinians, and I don’t justify that for a second. But I suppose the world looks differently at a situation when it’s an army attacking vs. a suicide bomber…especially after 9/11.

Thanks for blogging!

A few of my posts:

http://notanotherpoliticalblog-j.blogspot.com/2010/03/npr-diane-rehm-show-perspectives-on-us.html

http://notanotherpoliticalblog-j.blogspot.com/2010/03/npr-totn-tough-talk-between-us-and.html

http://notanotherpoliticalblog-j.blogspot.com/2010/03/settlement-announcement-biden.html

NPR’s reporting really isn’t up to the level it should be.

but ej. can i point out it’s not all of us. that many of us know what is really going on there. to that end i also know it’s not all american journalism, but it seems like those sources with the biggest voices tend to report it the way npr and rachel maddow do. *sigh*

why can’t media just say “hey, we’re western journalists and we’re simply continuing to tell the story of palestine & israel that we grew up with”? it would be a lot better.

The solution to this problem has to be a multi-state one, but look at the behavior of Israel– razing 112 or so homes on the eve of multilateral peace talks. What a way to kick off a fresh new beginning.

Although I do not sympathize with violence that hurts innocent people, regardless of who perpetrates it, generally speaking, Americans do not understand the frustration and turmoil that festers after decades of oppression and discrimination, after decades of losing autonomy. Western journalists and the Israeli support lobby in the United States portray Palestinians as this mass of dirty poor violent and ignorant people. They completely dehumanize the oppression enforced on Palestinians by the Israelis by saying, Israel has a right to be there. That doesn’t mean that it has a right to practice neocolonialism.