New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman went to Gaza to report on the cultural scene. Good for him, and brave too; we need more reporters in Gaza. He produced a long piece in a slightly-chirping tone all about how Palestinians thirst for western freedom of expression and are suppressed by fundamentalist Hamas.
Unquestionably, there is a conflict between Islamic fundamentalists and more open cultural forces in Palestinian society. I wrote about it here, in this piece on the Jenin Freedom Theater, in which theater director Juliano Mer Khamis says he is afraid of the fundamentalists shutting him down.
But there is something forcibly stupid and ideological in Kimmelman's piece: the only political condition he is able to talk about is the strain in Arab life between the intolerant and the freedom-seekers. The chief political and material conditions of Gaza– the siege, the blockade, the poverty, the sickness, he goes right past, with a neutral reference or two. These conditions strike any honest, intelligent visitor. Here is a recent report from a Canadian Jewish epidemiologist who expresses shame and disgust at the horrifying landscape for his hometown newspaper.
It
was as if we had travelled to another planet.
The sandy track is
surrounded by the blown-up remnants of Gaza's former industrial
district. Rubble stretching for hundreds of metres lines the route…. The air reeks of burnt oil and stale food from exhaust
fumes…Every so often, the smell of sewage fills the air. Lack of treatment
facilities means that much of it is dumped raw into the Mediterranean.
We went first to a children's hospital on the edge of Gaza City. The
hospital director and doctors described the conditions. Of 100 beds, 40
were occupied by children with bacterial meningitis, an extremely
serious disease…
The hospital has three ventilators; only one is working. Israel won't let in spare parts for the others. The working machine is for a "hopeless case" who can't be taken off.
Meanwhile, patients who could benefit have no working machine.
These conditions are why Gaza is routinely described as an open-air prison in Haaretz and at the U.N. Here is Jeff Halper saying lately that Gaza is a "bantustan" made by Israeli oppressors. Here is Idith Zertal, the scholar, speaking at a forum on Gaza at Columbia earlier this year where she expressed shame at unspeakable conditions for children and said that she did not blame Palestinians for picking up the gun. Zertal said that at every step in the history of the occupation, Israel had acted to
"thwart.. the growth of a democratic fabric in Palestinian society."
Yes, Kimmelman is writing about the arts. And he briefly refers to the "siege" and to Arab rage at Israeli control. But I believe he actually misrepresents Arab consciousness. Earlier this summer I asked Maysoon Zayid, a Palestinian actress and theater leader who is in a movie that Kimmelman cites approvingly, You Don't Mess With Zohan, about her fear of the zealots in Islamic society. "The zealots are so far outnumbered by the moderates. We are much more fearful of the army coming in more than any Arab. We take a huge risk that the army will come in and destroy the spaces people are working in." Juliano Mer Khamis saw his mother's theater in Jenin destroyed by the Israelis. He worries less about Hamas than he does about the larger material and political conditions that drive young actors to become martyrs instead: Israel's sharp limits
on Palestinian life: "xenophobic, racist, not tolerant and moving
toward what I would say is fascism."
It is a pity the Times is unable to include these voices, that Kimmelman could not mention conditions the epidemiologist describes, that there are one-year-olds so malnourished that they weigh only 6.6 pounds! No, the children are thirsting for pirated copies of "Friends."
New York is similar in places.
No one writing about that either.
Even towns very near your home are suffering severely.
I think it is wonderful that someone writes about the ARTS in Gaza, the human life.
In the midst of struggle, people continue to express themselves, sometimes politically, sometimes not.
I remember when nobel prize winning Nigerian author Wole Soyinka was hounded for not writing about African politics polemically by South African solidarity activists.
In the two pages of the article that I read, I encountered three references to Israeli occupation, siege, etc.
Did you actually read that article? Why the jaundiced reaction?
I think the problem is not with report, but with Times. If Times covered other, newsworthy aspects of Siege of Gaza, the art report would probably be adequate. But if it is ONLY report about Gaza likely to grace the pages of Times for some time, it is woefully inadequate in its portrayal of the living conditions.
Bearing in mind editiorial policy of Times with regard to reporting on Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it is likely that the report in any other form would simply be confined to the waste bin.
There have been DOZENS of reports about Gaza.
Each reporting the condition of Gazans, and the multiple factors that contribute to that condition, including the blockade.
That you haven't read them, or that Phil criticizes that they aren't insufficiently polemic, is a bit repulsive.
"why Gaza is routinely described as an open-air prison…"
Lauren Booth was one of the solidarity workers on the Free Gaza ships. She's the sister-in-law of the former British prime minister and current "peace envoy." She makes the good point that "prison" doesn't really capture it. In a prison you are given food and healthcare. In a prison you are given access to visitors from the outside world. In a prison you are told when your confinement will end.
The word for Gaza is concentration camp.
"There have been DOZENS of reports about Gaza".
No Richard.
There have been DOZENS of reports about Israel, where Gaza was mentioned (usually as a source of unremitting, incomprehensible evil).
Do you see the distinction?
"New York is similar in places. No one writing about that either. Even towns very near your home are suffering severely." – Richard Witty
Oh, B.S. There is no hospital in New York with forty kids suffering from bacterial meningitis. And with equipment broken down because a foreign occupation regime won't allow in spare parts.
You are so full of shit, buddy.
There are hospitals in New York that are sickeningly underfunded, understaffed, suffering from antibiotic resistant infections and viruses.
I risk dissing my cousin's career by mentioning New York public health without full information. Her mother (my aunt) is how Phil and I got to know each other.
Would Gaza hospitals be better if Israel didn't blockade? Nearly certainly at least somewhat.
Is Israel the cause of Gaza's poverty? Probably partially, but also probably not exclusively.
Eva,
If you read the Times consistently, you'll see dozens of reports either where Gaza is the lead, or of equal import, and MANY more times in which it is as you say mentioned.
Its not hidden though, as you infer.
They add 2 & 2, and come up with a different 4 than you do.
I'm not sure if you really know. I don't.
I couldn't confidently say that Israel is benign, or that Israel is demon, and I read extensively about the issues from MANY perspectives. I'm not sure how you can.
Phil has written that he doesn't know the history sufficiently to stick his neck out on asserting "x is true, y is untrue".
I think that is a disaster, a moral and political negligence.
Maybe he was just being humble, and really has read extensively and open-mindedly from multiple perspectives.
I think it takes more than reading Pappe, or Chomsky or Finkelstein to get to knowledge, and to good.
It scares me that the left forms bedfellows with the right on Israel issues nearly exclusively.
I've known some leftists that are critical of the federal reserve, but none that adopt libertarianism or its shadows as a response.