Jerry Slater is the author of a groundbreaking study in the journal International Security arguing that the U.S. media's silence on the Israeli treatment of Palestinians has blinded American policy-making. Slater pointed out that Haaretz in Israel offers a far richer understanding of the desperation of the situation than does the New York Times.
Today Slater saw further evidence for his point and sent me this bulletin:
Today's New York Times' chief article on the Middle East (p. A10) is headed, in large type: "Palestinian Rocket Injures Child in an Israeli Kibbutz." Hardly a day goes by without reports in Israeli newspapers, especially Haaretz, about Israeli attacks that have killed Palestinians; though the intended targets are said to be Palestinian militants or “terrorists,” noncombatants, including women and children, are often killed as well.
Scarcely any of these attacks, by the occupiers and oppressors against the resistance,
are reported by the Times. Yet, an attack by the Palestinians against their oppressors,
which “lightly wounded” a child, merits a large headline and long story in the Times,
together with a sympathetic quote from an Israeli about how terrified the Israelis in
the area feel.
Needless to say, any indiscriminate attack that kills or wounds innocents is deplorable.
However, shamefully--and only too characteristically--the Times story made no mention of
how Palestinians felt about the ongoing, far larger, and more deadly Israeli attacks,
not to mention all the other forms of Israeli repression, all designed to maintain an
unjust and repressive occupation.
Tried repeatedly to post an entire section of Uri Avnery's article but all I get is this message:
"We're sorry, your comment has not been published because TypePad's antispam filter has flagged it as potential comment spam."
Be worth your looking up the rest of that section.
Partial reprint from Uri Avnery at:
link to counterpunch.org
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avnery12172007.html
TESTING to see if I can get past the spam filter.
I notice there are zero comments so far on this post.
From:
link to counterpunch.org
AN ORDINARY Israeli has no idea of what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The disconnection is absolute. No Israeli can enter the Strip, almost no Palestinian can get out.
This is the way most Israelis see things: We left Gaza. We dismantled all the settlements there, in spite of the fact that this caused us a profound national crisis. And what happens? The Palestinians just keep shooting at us from inside the strip and turn life in Sderot into hell. We have no alternative but to turn their lives, too, into hell, in order to get them to stop.
This week I heard a report from one of the most credible individuals in Gaza – Dr. Eyad Sarraj – a well-known psychiatrist, peace and human rights activist. Here are some of the things he told a small circle of Israeli peace activists:
Israel blocks all imports into the strip, except for a short list of about half a dozen basic articles. 900 trucks used to be employed daily for the imports and exports of the Gaza Strip, now their number is reduced to 15. For example, no soap is allowed in.
Local water is undrinkable. Israel does not let in bottled water. Nor does Israel allow the importation water pumps. The price of water filters has gone up from $40 to $250, there are no spare parts at all for filters. Only the well-to-do can still afford them. However, chlorine is let in.
There is no import of cement. When there is a hole in the ceiling, it cannot be repaired. The building site for the children's hospital stands silent. There are no spare parts of any kind. A medical instrument that goes out of order cannot be repaired. Not even incubators for babies or dialysis equipment.
The severely sick cannot reach hospital – neither in Israel, nor in Egypt or Jordan. The few permits issued are often delivered after a deadly delay. In many instances, patients are condemned to death.
Students cannot reach their universities abroad. Foreign citizens who happened to be visiting Gaza cannot get out if they have a Palestinian ID. Palestinians who have contracts to work abroad are not allowed to leave. Some Palestinians were allowed to pass through Israel on the way to Egypt, but were not allowed in by the Egyptian authorities and had to return to Gaza.
Practically all enterprises have been closed and their workers thrown onto the street for lack of raw materials. For example, the Coca Cola factory has closed down. After 60 years of occupation – first by the Egyptians and than the Israelis – almost nothing is produced in the Strip, except oranges, strawberries, tomatoes and the like.
Prices in the Gaza Strip have risen sky-high – fivefold and even tenfold. Life is now more expensive in Gaza than in Tel-Aviv. The black market is flourishing.
How do people exist? The members of extended families help each other. Well-to-do people support their relatives. UNRWA brings in the most basic foodstuffs and distributes them to the refugees, who are the majority of the inhabitants.
See, also:
Israel could easily stop the rocket attacks, which are only effective as a propaganda exercise, by adopting a policy of passive resistance. Every time they respond to the attacks with repression and violence they only reassure the militants of their own effectiveness. But by refusing to respond to them they would ultimately demoralize the militants and humiliate the Palestinian public into withdrawing their support. If they wanted to speed up the process the Israeli government could ask all Israelis to wear something red everytime there's a death or injury. This would signal to the militants, "You will only succeed in drowning yourselves in our blood." The problem is that the strength to do this is completely lacking in Israel.