‘NYT’ moralist-columnist leaves himself no room to oppose BDS

by on January 19, 2010 14

"[NYT columnist] Nicholas D. Kristof On Martin Luther King Day [at facebook], I wish more Palestinians would absorb the lessons of King and Gandhi and use non-violent but confrontational approaches in challenging settlements, etc. Non-violence is not only morally superior to terrorism, it’s also more effective in challenging a democracy."

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in BDS, Beyondoweiss

{ 14 comments... read them below or add one }

  2. JSC says:
    January 19, 2010 at 10:11 am

    It’s a shame all the nonviolent Palestinian resistance is not published in mainstream media, or else there wouldn’t be comments like this.

  3. potsherd says:
    January 19, 2010 at 10:17 am

    If Israel were a democracy, Kristof’s comment might be relevant.

  4. Donald says:
    January 19, 2010 at 10:36 am

    I f Kristof were a better reporter, he’d be talking about Palestinian attempts at non-violent resistance that are squashed by the Israelis and never mentioned in his own newspaper.

  5. Mooser says:
    January 19, 2010 at 10:38 am

    Witty will have to throw out his semen-stained copy and hustle on down to the newstand for a fresh copy. He’ll want to save that column for later use.

  6. VR says:
    January 19, 2010 at 11:04 am

    “The whole point of civil disobedience is to be arrested or attacked; that’s why Gandhi and ML King were arrested so many times.”

    However, in a democracy you do not sit for extremely long periods of time with no remedy in prison, get tortured, or being “detained.” This is why there were tough and ready counsel to spring civil rights leaders when they were arrested. There is no such remedy guaranteed in Israel because of its apartheid legal system, and just the basic illegitimacy of the entire “legal system” used in an occupation. Of course all legal systems are prejudicial when it comes to civil disobedience, but none of them in democracies totally wipe out the rights of the population or function under occupation – or are in process of wiping out the population for that matter.

  7. jan_gdyn says:
    January 19, 2010 at 11:27 am

    @potsherd: Yes, amazing; he may be ignorant of nonviolent resistance among Palestinians.. but to call Israel a democracy is just mind-boggling.
    Here I go again regarding yet another NYT writer: Anyone wishing to write Mr Kristof and enlighten him about reality, go here and click on Send an E-Mail to Nicholas D. Kristof

  8. Pamela Olson says:
    January 19, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Here’s what I wrote to him:

    Dear Mr. Kristof,

    I wanted to express my dismay at your paragraph singling out Palestinians and saying you wish they would engage in non-violent resistance. Mr. Kristof, I have lived in the West Bank for nearly three years, and not a week goes by without several non-violent demonstrations, protests, educational campaigns, cultural events that seek to bring the Palestinian narrative to wider audiences, and countless other forms of non-violent resistance.

    One of my good friends, Mohammad Othman, was recently arrested by the Israeli army and held in jail four months without charge solely because of his non-violent activism, specifically his visit to Norway to support a boycott against Israeli companies that support the occupation of his people. Other non-violent activists are routinely harassed, arrested, beaten, and all too often killed by Israeli soldiers with no repercussions on the international stage — and no reporting by people like you.

    Your comment is both factually incorrect and insulting in its one-sidedness. If you want to be on the right side of history, dig a little deeper. The truth is all there, out in the open, plain to see. All you have to do is open your eyes.

    Respectfully,
    Pamela Olson

    link to

  9. Oscar says:
    January 19, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    Pamela, great email — here’s my letter to Nicholas:

    Wow, Nicholas, I’m astounded by the lack of knowledge on your original Facebook post, as well as its follow-up. By now, you’ve no doubt received countless emails about how Israel commits severe breaches of international law and complete suspension of due process when rounding up non-violent protesters against its apartheid policies.

    Israel routinely tortures non-violent protesters, who are often arrested in the middle of the night by the IDF. They are held without being charged, and their “hearings” are often postponed for months. They are kept in windowless cells. They are starved, beaten and abused.

    MLK was able to achieve so much because he was in a democracy, and America was a country built on the rule of law and the presumption of innocence. God have mercy on anyone who takes your MLK Day advice and gets arrested by the IDF. There are 50,000 prisoners languishing in Israel jail cells with little or no due process.

    Candidly, your comment on Facebook was glib and incendiary, given the severity of the ethnic cleansing that’s occuring with our US taxpayer dollars, and in the wake of the white-phosphorus bombing of Operation Cast Lead which killed 1,400 civilians (mostly women and children), and maimed and disfigured tens of thousands of others.

    By the way, the New York Times has failed miserably in telling the truth about what’s happening in Gaza.

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