Many people have sent me raves about Chris Hedges's appearance the other night at the Gaza boat fundraiser. They have praised his work on the issue, in particular his 2001 Harper's piece, A Gaza Diary. It included the stunning scene below. We will make no progress in American policymaking till we acknowledge the atrocities against the Palestinians (and American atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan). These stories are, after all, repeated across the Arab world, and they are not myths. Yes this story is before the settlements were removed from Gaza, but the disdain for Palestinian life, that is what Goldstone documented. And NPR wants us to suppress the Goldstone report! Hedges:
I sit in the shade of a palm-roofed hut on the edge of the dunes, momentarily defeated by the heat, the grit, the jostling crowds, the stench of the open sewers and rotting garbage. A friend of Azmi's brings me, on a tray, a cold glass of tart, red carcade juice.
Barefoot boys, clutching kites made out of scraps of paper and ragged soccer balls, squat a few feet away under scrub trees. Men in flowing white or gray galabias—homespun robes—smoke cigarettes in the shade of slim eaves. Two emaciated donkeys, their ribs protruding, are tethered to wooden carts with rubber wheels. / It is still. The camp waits, as if holding its breath. And then, out of the dry furnace air, a disembodied voice crackles over a loudspeaker.
"Come on, dogs," the voice booms in Arabic. "Where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!" / I stand up. I walk outside the hut. The invective continues to spew: "Son of a bitch!" "Son of a whore!" "Your mother's cunt!"
The boys dart in small packs up the sloping dunes to the electric fence that separates the camp from the Jewish settlement. They lob rocks toward two armored jeeps parked on top of the dune and mounted with loudspeakers. Three ambulances line the road below the dunes in anticipation of what is to come.
A percussion grenade explodes. The boys, most no more than ten or eleven years old, scatter, running clumsily across the heavy sand. They descend out of sight behind a sandbank in front of me. There are no sounds of gunfire. The soldiers shoot with silencers. The bullets from the M-16 rifles tumble end over end through the children's slight bodies. Later, in the hospital, I will see the destruction: the stomachs ripped out, the gaping holes in limbs and torsos.
Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered—death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo—but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.
We approach a Palestinian police post behind a sand hill. The police, in green uniforms, are making tea. They say that they have given up on trying to hold the children back.
"When we tell the boys not to go to the dunes they taunt us as collaborators," Lt. Ayman Ghanm says. "When we approach the fence with our weapons to try and clear the area the Israelis fire on us. We just sit here now and wait for the war."
Murderous racist dogs then, murderous racist dogs now.
This bears re-reading :
That’s what it’s about. Make no mistake, there will be few “golden boys” among the shredded bodies at the morgue.
Like Walt and Mearsheimer, Hedges was eviscerated when that piece was published, and he (also like Walt and Mearsheimer) did not have the minimal defense that Goldstone did of actually being Jewish with a history Zionist support. (And that is a very minimal defense, as Goldstone discovered, as Tony Judt discovered and others.)
The catch is that, while Hedges was condemned, he couldn’t be so too loudly lest the charges get to wide an airing and people begin to question the Myth of Glorious, Just, Forever Victimized Israel.
I don’t know the incident.
In 2000, there were nail-studded suicide bombings in Israeli cities weekly.
Did Hedges report on those as well?
Neither excuses the other, but an incomplete description misrepresents.
Its important that its described. We should know of what occurs. But….
Then I hope you wrote your letter to the NYT complaining about their Jerusalem correspondents failing to tell the whole story.
Excusing the murder of children now.
Did Hedges report on those as well? Which means you didn’t read the article. Typical.
In case you didn’t grasp what MRW’s recommendation:
“I don’t know the incident.”
Thank you for admitting you got an incomplete description [of events in Palestine] which misrepresents. Please explain where you got your incomplete description, and complain to them.
FYI Gideon Levy also reported on a similar incident.
Why? To provide context? And what is that context, pray tell? Is it the fact that the only democracy in the Middle East unleashes its soldiers onto children, murdering them with silencers for the fun of it all?
So that’s what they do in your neck of the woods when they want to release some steam, they go out murdering children?
That’s a skewed sense of balance you have there.
I’m surprised Philip Weiss still gives you the time of day.
“So that’s what they do in your neck of the woods when they want to release some steam, they go out murdering children? ”
Of course not. There is nothing that excuses intentional murder of children. That is the point of understanding the significance of the Hamas and other terror during the 2000 – 2004/5 period.
It is what motivated the construction of the wall.
Each are acts of desparation, the wall a combination of vain (impossible) defense combined with a bit of greed. The suicide bombings a combination of mass murder, with a bit of “courage”.
I’m curious Richard. When you condemn Hamas mass murder and totally ignore the much larger killing of civilians by Israel, do you find this an effective argument? Who is impressed by it? Would it be ignorant people who don’t know that Israel killed so many civilians, or would it be racists who don’t care?
I’m curious because it’s the same spiel that mainstream Westerners (including Obama himself) use all the time, obviously in the case of Obama because he doesn’t think Palestinian lives are important to anyone who matters. Is that how you feel, Richard?
“Each are acts of desparation, the wall a combination of vain (impossible) defense combined with a bit of greed. ”
So in other words, Hamas’ mistake is that they are trying to take on the Israel with inferior weaponry.
“The suicide bombings a combination of mass murder, with a bit of “courage”.”
If Hamas has commited mass murer, then Israel, who have killed more chilcren than all the adults Hamas have killed, must be far graver mass murder.
Are we in agreement Witty?
How is that fundamentally different from a neo-Nazi claiming that concentration camps were motivated by Jewish influence in Germany’s financial sector?
What makes you different from those people, Witty? Besides the color of your flag?
“I don’t know the incident.”
Seeing as you’re lazy and din’t read beyond headlines, that hardly comes as a shock.
Your claim that there were “nail-studded suicide bombings” in Israeli cities weekly is just plain wrong on the facts — absolutely made up. Not even the propaganda folks at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes such a claim.
If you want to come across as reasonable, why lie?
“In 2000, there were nail-studded suicide bombings in Israeli cities weekly.
Did Hedges report on those as well?”
You’re a loathsome fellow, Witty. No wonder you’re unanimously decried..I don’t know if they hate you for such twisted comments but I would understand them if they did..
Of course. Three hundred children disappear in a puff of white phosphorous at the hands of his relatives who shuttled off to summer homes in the Mideast, in less than a month’s time, and he continues to trample on their ashes so he can put under the microscope a comparative handful of incidents.
Never mind those incidents he cites were a reaction to his precious IDF opening fire on crowds with automatic weapons.
>> In 2000, there were nail-studded suicide bombings in Israeli cities weekly.
Yeah, but by 2001 those wrongs were in the past and, therefore, were not worth righting because that would have resolved nothing. :-)
“I don’t know the incident.”
Therefore, it didn’t occur? Strange. Do you ever do any research?
“…nail-studded suicide bombings in Israeli cities weekly. Did Hedges report on those as well?”
What is a nail-studded suicide bombing? Are you referring to dirty bombs? What about the unexploded ordnance (cluster bombs recently banned by HRW – not signed by the US) in southern Lebanon?
Its important that its described. We should know of what occurs.
I’ll take Italian with that, thank you.
Witty is just making this up. I found NO source, including Israeli government sources, to support his assertion.
In fact, in the run-up to the al-Aqsa intifada, there were comparatively few attacks inside Israel. There were a handful of attacks at checkpoints and the like in the Occupied Territories.
Ariel Sharon’s notorious in September 2000 was precisely aimed at provoking Palestinians to provide Israel with the excuse it wanted to embark on a campaign of murder, which it promptly did. In the first three or four months of the Second Intifada ALL — 100% — of fatalities were Palestinians killed by Israelis. It was then that suicide attacks escalated.
Witty is flat-out lying — boldfaced, unalloyed lying.
“Witty is just making this up. I found NO source, including Israeli government sources, to support his assertion.”
Witty always does that, which is why he runs away when you ask him to provide sources for his bullshit. There’s nothig that Witty won’t make up to butress his false arguments, ehether they be laws, statistics, new reports, historical accounts, and records.
He’s a pathlolgical liar.
“What is a nail-studded suicide bombing?”
It’s a hyperbolic term for shrapnel. Israelis hate it when Hamas and Hezbollah use real weapons.
You’ll recall that during the 2006 war, Zionists carried on about how Hezbollah put steel ball bearings into their rockets. Of course, the fact that cluster biombs are filled with razor sharp metal shrapnel is beside the point.
Shingo
You may want to have a look at them flechettes that the IKF aim at children: They too seem to make the “better argument”..
“Gaza children shelled by flechette bombs”
link to alethonews.wordpress.com
Your joking (or lying) right?
Look up history of terror attacks on google. Pages and pages and pages of reputable journalistic references from multiple sources, some proudly describing them, some from the west.
Have you read the Goldstone Report yet, you shoah little-s denier?
Who are you replying to, Richard? You duck people’s responses and if you’re replying to Shingo’s post your response doesn’t have any logical connection to what he said.
And once again you don’t respond to any mention of Israel’s far greater killing of civilians, presumably because you don’t think it of any importance compared to Hamas killing of Israeli civilians. If you wanted to meet anyone halfway you’d acknowledge Israeli killings, but you don’t.
Chris Hedges: A Gaza Diary
link to bintjbeil.com
at the conclusion of the article.
Hedges has returned to Jerusalem:
“Wrong” isn’t strong enough for you or him.
Wrong translates into change. (or not). Cruel translates into blame. Change is what is needed, NOT blame, or would you prefer being right but the cruelty continue?
“Tragedy” describing Palestinians experience isn’t sufficient. It must be stated as genocide to satisfy you, or even to motivate you.
The same question applies. Is your goal to be right, or to make change?
Insulting does not accomplish change. Maybe in one out of 10,000 instances, that will change hearts and minds.
“Change is what is needed, NOT blame, or would you prefer being right but the cruelty continue?”
Unless we’re talking about Hamas, in which case, there’s never enough blame to throw around. When it comes to Israel however, we are suposed to accept Witty (the facists) theory that the status quo will lead to change.
“Is your goal to be right, or to make change?”
Translation: Why let the facts get in the way of coddling Israel?
““Tragedy” describing Palestinians experience isn’t sufficient. ”
No, it’s not. It’s incomplete. Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, collective punishment and state terror and it’s highly unlikely there will be change for the better if people in the US (and Israel) don’t realize this. “Tragedy” is a weasel word–people can claim to be sympathetic to the “tragedy” of the Palestinians and then put all or most of the blame for it on their leaders.
Part of what Palestinians want is an admission of wrongdoing on the part of Israelis and you yourself have characterized an admission like that as “groveling”. You’re also one to talk about Hamas terror and Hamas crimes while not speaking even equally forcefully about Israel’s much larger scale killing. There’s not much chance of reconciliation when the stronger party, the one with its boot on the other’s neck, has an attitude like yours. Zionists want Palestinians to endorse their own ethnic cleansing, gratefully accept some fraction of 22 percent of their homeland, and learn to like it, but no liberal Zionist is going to apologize. Hey, what better recipe could one imagine for reconciliation.
And let’s not forget Donald that Witty not only rejects forcing Israel to make peace or come to a political settlement (he argues that it shoudl onlyh happen if Israel consent to it), but that failure of the peace process would be proof that the Palestinians dod not sufficiently reassure the Israelis that they were serious about peace.
“Wrong translates into change. ”
(Scratching my head)….Translation please..
Ok, don’t bother I worked it out. You meant..Seeing what’s wrong leads one to change it..Got it but,… geez! man..You have a problem don’t you ? I’m suspecting you hate the English language..Something is telling me you HATE it.
What is missing in these people?
Something is missing.
it was a groundbreaking article when it came out. for me anyway.
phil, you’re doing great work here.
This article made me realise that there is no difference between Israeli treatment of Palestinians and Nazi treatment of Jews. I am utterly convinced that genocide is just a matter of time and logistics, and it is coming.
Ditto. And one for the reasons for the Iran War. They can do it then and blame it on the Iranians.
Yeah, and I recall that when challenged, Hedges could not substantiate the story.
“Yeah, and I recall that when challenged, Hedges could not substantiate the story.”
Text book trick to answer anything..”It’s a hoax”, “it’s fake”..Deny, deny, deny, deny..Sadly it works with many morons made in the US but for how long?..
“Yeah, and I recall that when challenged, Hedges could not substantiate the story.”
BTW, you “recall”, but can you, in turn, substantiate what you’re alleging ? Or are supposed to believe anything you say?
Bullshit. Hedges worked for the NYT at the time (can’t remember whether he was still in Paris or not), and there is no record of a challenge to his reporting.
“Yeah, and I recall that when challenged, Hedges could not substantiate the story.”
I bet you won’t be able to recall where you read that.
Why do Zionists rely on Holocaust-denial tactics? It’s degrading.
Hedges doesn’t need to.
There are too many diverse people who have witnessed the same things by the IDF, from journalist to UN observers to our own pentagon liaisons to the Israeli military.
Go ask Col Pat Lang, pentagon liaison to the IDF, about what he witnessed when bored IDF shot at a Palestine woman out hanging her laundry…just for sport.
It was very ground-breaking for me, too. It was when I first realized what the Israeli army was capable of. Once you see them doing that, there’s no going back and pretending you’re dealing with a moral army, a moral state. A more state would punish an army that did such things. Instead they do them over, and over, and over, this sick, twisted torment and murder, and the state allows it, and the people turn a blind eye.
I’d be shaking right now if my emotions hadn’t been severely muted (for the sake of my own health and survival) by years of seeing and reporting on what the Israeli army does and the Israeli public countenances.
I know what you mean.
How’s the book publication coming along?
Thanks for asking. Can’t talk specifics yet, but there’s some momentum finally building, and I’m hoping for some good news in the next few weeks. Inshallah.
Nice. God speed and I hope I can buy it soon.
A long debunking of the entire piece, including an analysis of news reports from the day Hedges says he witnessed this incident. At a minimum, one might ask why Hedges, who was, after all, a correspondent, did not report the incident when it happened.
Surely a story like this can be corroborated by others, and this one never was.
link to camera.org
Do you have any idea how many times CAMERA has been caught falsifying translations from Arabic?
Apparently not.
This is not an Arabic translation, and I believe what you describe as falsification is in reality interpretation in translation.
Why would it be corroborated by other Western journalists (I doubt you’d accept Palestinian corroboration) if no one was on hand. From what I’ve read there was a death of a Palestinian child on June 17 2001–the critics seem to be nitpicking.
Here’s the Amnesty International report for the I/P conflict for that period (2000-2001)
link
They don’t discuss that particular incident, but they do say that Israel shot children and others for stone throwing and that these were unlawful and unjustifiable killings.
Born and raised Jewish, I became an atheist at age seven, when I decided that no god worthy of the name would favor some children over others. I’m 70 now and I still think that is true.
It looks to me as if the Israeli government and its defenders are trying to bring on another Holocaust. Maybe they think that they’ll survive and be eligible for reparations. Maybe they believe that’s the way to get their Messiah to appear. Whatever it is, I will suffer, my children will suffer, and my grandchildren will suffer for the hubris of others. As we are Americans, I guess we deserve it because our country supports Israel. But as an individual, I support human rights and I wish I wasn’t going to be subjected to collective punishment the way the Palestinians are. With any luck, I’ll die before it happens.