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| A Palestinian man reacts as he sits atop rubble after his home was demolished in Jabel Mukaber, a village in the suburbs of East Jerusalem, in this February 5, 2014 file picture (Reuters) |
by Wasif al Hourani
The world’s media,
particularly the US media, is giving maximum coverage to the attack on the
Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue that killed five people, four of them Jewish
religious leaders. The general slant of the coverage talks of the horror and
violence of the attack and that it should be condemned. The coverage devoted to
this violence in the US media in particular, is fare greater than violence
directed toward Palestinians or the conditions they have to endure under
Israeli occupation and in the face of Zionist racist policies. One might refer to this reporting as the
Custerization of the conflict in Palestine. We shouldn’t be surprised. The US media described the US mercenaries
that were killed in Fallujah as “contractors.”
Here is another way
of looking at it.
In response to the
ongoing occupation of Palestinian land and daily violence directed at the
Palestinian people, especially young children, two courageous Palestinian freedom
fighters fought back despite limited means and attacked the Kehilat Bnei Torah
synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday. These heroic fighters knew that their
resistance would mean their certain death.
Four colonial
settlers, three Americans and one British were killed along with a member of
the police force that protects them. The
four religious leaders are known to have extreme right wing and sexist
views. The western media is
appalled. “I felt like I was in a
butchers shop.”, one of the colonists, a medic who was praying nearby told the
media. Had he visited Gaza during the Israeli slaughter there it would have
felt more like a slaughterhouse.
The US Secretary of
State, John Kerry was alarmed: “To have this kind of act which is a pure result
of incitement…… is unacceptable.”, he said. It was not “unacceptable” for Mr. Kerry to
send the Israelis more weapons and bullets because they ran short of them after
killing so many Palestinian women and children in Gaza last year.
Netanyahu has called for the demolition of
the freedom fighter’s homes, a common practice aimed at deterring the
Palestinian people from resisting the occupation of their land or retaliating
against colonist/settler violence. Demolitions are carried out without any
evidence of the families of resistance fighters being involved.
The Israeli’s have demolished thousands of
Palestinian homes displacing huge sections of the population. Israel demolished
the homes of Bedouins in the Naqab (Negev) region in September. It was standing against this barbaric practice
that cost the American activist, Rachel Corrie her life. Caterpillar, the US
heavy machinery manufacturer sells the IDF the bulldozers knowing full well
they are used to displace the Palestinian population.
The Bedouin live in what the Zionists call “unrecognized villages” so they are denied infrastructure assistance
as well as basics like electricity and water.
There are an estimated 80,000 Palestinian Bedouin in this area. Earlier
this year, “The
International Red Cross announced…….it would stop delivering tents to
Palestinians made homeless by demolitions in the Jordan border region of the
occupied West Bank, citing Israeli obstruction and confiscation of aid.” (Reuters.) The Zionist regime
justifies its ethnic cleansing of the area by citing a historical claim to
biblical lands. An American Zionist born in Brooklyn has more rights there than
a Palestinian Bedouin.
But the assault on Gaza and
other Israeli military activity in occupied lands is the greatest destroyer of
homes and displacer of people. At least
60,000 people lost their homes, due to the war on Gaza at a cost of about $4
billion. The Zionist regime is an
expensive ally for the world’s aid donors.
No decent human being under
normal circumstances gloats at the violence at the attack at the synagogue in
Jerusalem on Tuesday but we do not live under normal circumstances, we are living
under a brutal occupation.
In the occupied territories,
Palestinians live under constant fear for their lives, especially the lives of
the children. All Palestinian males are
suspect and routinely arrested and tortured. Threats against the family of
those arrested are the norm, the choice is to become an agent or a “snitch” for
the occupiers or your family will suffer. The Nazi’s used similar tactics.
The US media in particular is
very biased in reporting on the conflict in Palestine and the history of
it. In wartime, one’s fighters are welcomed
as heroes for killing the enemy they are not accused of murder or terrorism
unless it is suitable one’s enemies to do so.
Menachim Begin and other
prominent leaders of Israel were all “terrorists” from the British standpoint. So were the American revolutionists. One
man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
But in this era of mass
communication, we have an obligation to look beyond the mainstream media and
find out the truth. We owe it not only to the victims, we owe it to ourselves.
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