An Israeli drone flies above the Gaza Strip. (Photo: David Buimovitch /AFP/Getty Images)
Over the past five years or so, Americans have been bombarded with stories about the terror faced by residents of southern Israeli towns such as Sderot and Ashkelon because of rockets lobbed from Gaza. This past weekend, the Washington Post ran a surprising story by Scott Wilson about the “jarring effect on life in Gaza” from the menacing presence of Israeli killer drones. The article quotes a statistic from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that since the capture of Gilad Shalit in 2006, Israeli drones alone had killed 825(!) people in Gaza, and that most of the dead were civilians. By contrast, Palestinian rocket fire during the same period had killed 16 Israelis. [Of course the number of Gazans killed by all methods is far higher.] Hamdi Shaqqura, the Center’s deputy director, is quoted: “For us, drones mean death. When you hear drones, you hear death.”
The article included more than a comparison of the lopsided casualties on each side, stating that the drones’ “near-constant presence shapes life beneath them in a thousand ways.” While Wilson describes Hamas officials taking special precautions when they hear the tell-tale buzz from above, he also gives voice to a father of eight who tries to protect and comfort his terrorized children, and a school principal who brings in psychiatric counselors to do the same. The article also notes the special danger faced by young men who may be targeted because of their age and gender regardless of their activities or political persuasion. Shaqqura himself would not dare go for a run in his black jogging suit with drones overhead, for fear of being mistaken for a black-clad militant.
Wilson even counters the conventional “wisdom” regarding Israel’s unilateral “withdrawal” and supposed termination of the Occupation in Gaza:
Israel has argued that it no longer occupies the area, meaning that it is not responsible for the health and welfare of its residents under international humanitarian law. But Israel controls the crossings between Gaza and Israel, the waters off its coast, and the airspace where the drones circle. “This is the first meaning of the drones,” Shaqqura said. “Israel’s military may not be on the ground anymore. But they are in the air — looking, always, at every square inch of Gaza. They don’t have to be here in Gaza City to affect every aspect of the lives of Gazans.”
It seems highly unusual for the American mainstream media to pay attention to the extreme hardships, including the threat of sudden lethal violence, visited upon average Palestinians by the Israeli military.
“For us, drones mean death. When you hear drones, you hear death.”
Sounds like a description of Londoners during the Blitz talk about the V-1 and V-2 rockets. The more things change…
Reminded me of the War Of The Worlds. HG Wells
That reminds you of the Blitz? First, the actual and much more devastating ‘Blitz’ hit Germany, not England. Check the facts, also who declared war/attacked whom first. Second, more and more I get the impression here that Israel works like Nazi Germany for Americans/Brits, be they liberals or neocons (both usually worship Churchill’s disastrous role in WW II as well as WW I): as a major deflection from their own imperialist aggression and war crimes. The first or only thing I think of when I hear: “For us, drones mean death” is not what happened more than half a century ago during the battle for hegemony and markets in Europe but what happens NOW in the ME. From Counterpunch:
DECEMBER 05, 2011
When Peace is Not in the Vocabulary
Endless Needless Deaths
by LINH DINH
Bush started shooting into Pakistan in 2004, and Obama has continued this bloody practice, culminating recently in the massacre of 24 Pakistani soldiers, with 13 more wounded. The attack lasted for hours, yet afterward, the US claimed it was all an accident. Hillary Clinton expressed regrets, Obama offered condolences, but no American official apologized, since the US doesn’t do apologies. Accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorists who are killing Americans, McCain threatened to cut back aids. As for those Pakistani soldiers, they were regrettably killed in “the fog of war.”
Let’s try to clear up this fogged up situation by examining who’s killing whom, and why. The US has been butchering Pashtuns on both sides of the Afghan/Pakistani border, and the Pashtuns are fighting back because that’s their homeland. The Pashtuns have been living between the Hindu Kush and the Indus River since at least the 3rd Century, so one can reasonably say that they belong there, at least much more so than some guy from Intercourse, PA, or Walla Walla, Washington.
Go to most borders worldwide and, surprise, surprise, you’ll find more or less the same people living on both sides, often speaking the same language. This is also true in the US. In 2006, I drove 100 miles on route Farm to Market 170 in Texas, hugging the Rio Grande, and I didn’t see a single Anglo face in three hours. (Granted, there weren’t that many faces to be seen.) At Candelaria, population 75, I crossed a brief footbridge into Mexico, then returned. Everybody else was doing it. Here, Rio Bravo was barely a trickle, so people on either side saw each other as neighbors, with the border an irrelevant fiction. To a Pashtun, then, the Durand Line, named after a British Foreign Secretary, is even more absurd.
Of course, I’m not advocating the abolishment of international borders, since large and subtle differences between populations require that they organize their societies differently, with demarcations between them, but it is ironic that the United States is chafing at the Pashtuns for crossing an arbitrary line, when America is the world’s most persistent and violent violator of international borders. As in many other cases, the only one who doesn’t belong on the map is you, Uncle Sam! Uncle Sam doesn’t know how to spell or pronounce sovereignty, at least when not talking about Israel. Sovranty. Sofarenty. Sufferenty.
Any Pashtun killed by American bombs or DRONES is a Pashtun wrongly murdered, be him a “militant,” as the Pentagon consistently charge, or more likely just a farmer or even a child. Imagine DRONES hovering over your hometown and zapping people at will, with the murdered victims being branded “insurgents.” If a Pashtun fights back, it’s because he has too. Wouldn’t you? If he dies fighting, at least he dies with honor, fighting for a just cause. The same cannot be said for American soldiers in Afghanistan. Pat Tillman realized this, but one of his own wasted him before he could tell the world about his awakening.
As a client state of America, Pakistan is being asked to kill its own citizens, Pashtuns and others, as a contribution to the petroleum fueled, natural gaseous, opium hazy and totally fogged up War on Terror. Doing Washington’s bidding, Pakistan has lost nearly 4,000 soldiers, but these needless deaths aren’t enough to appease the Washington masters of war. For brownnosing, Pakistan gets no pat on the head, but is being demonized as an “ally from hell,” to quote from the Atlantic.
With the notable exceptions of Israel and England, American allies are often betrayed. Pakistan’s being blamed for America’s ongoing troubles in Afghanistan, and for harboring Bin Laden until that much ballyhooed yet substanceless assassination, but all of the acrimonies and needless deaths could have been avoided had America never planted its XXXL rump on that corner of the world.
Using Bin Laden as a pretext, America invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and nearly a decade later, it is still there, though its bogeyman is long gone. America never runs out of enemies, however, for it can always generate them anew, with either its bombs and guns, or through its jingoistic media. Along with Iran and Syria, Pakistan, supposedly an ally, has become a target.
Washington will always find new wars to fight and more people to kill, since that is the only task it is good at anymore. It does not know how to do anything else. Peace is not in its vocabulary, since war is how Washington and Wall Street make their money.
Linh Dinh is the author of two books of stories, five of poems, and a just released novel, Love Like Hate. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, State of the Union.
Antidote,
your opening sentences are extremely important; most important phrase of all: CHECK THE FACTS.
Check the facts, also who declared war/attacked whom first. Second, more and more I get the impression here that Israel works like Nazi Germany for Americans/Brits, be they liberals or neocons (both usually worship Churchill’s disastrous role in WW II as well as WW I): as a major deflection from their own imperialist aggression and war crimes.
When Klarman kveched to Charlie Rose about Hitler and Nazism, it seemed to me he was opening a Pandora’s box that he would be very sorry he poked.
If that’s the game zionists want to play, bring it on. The internet –and libraries– have created a militia of information warriors — “survivors” of that ‘non-holocaust’ holocaust– who are armed with facts, citations, and passion that will tear the zionist narrative to shreds. Bring it on.
You mean this?
“I am scared of this moment in history. When you look at the history of anti-semitism… hatred of Jews has shifted to hatred of the Jewish state… When Israel is singled out like no other country….[it recalls the] slow march of Hitler. [There is a] steady march in the world, from college campuses to the U.N. People would love to dismantle the Jewish state…. When Israel is singled out, when Jews are singled out, it’s absolutely terrifying…”
Actually, I kind of agree with Klarman. So I’m not sure what you mean.
“That reminds you of the Blitz?”
Just the connection between the noise and the weapon.
825 civilian deaths is an unreal number. I think Homphi would say this is the price we have to pay for the residents of Sderot to live without worry. It’s awful that these generations have had to endure the Nakba, and now their children have to suffer from technological torture methods by way of their colonial oppressor.
And since he’s such a He’s a sensitive filmmaker, perhaps Spielberg could produce a film about the Nakba and the current moral dilemma that Israel faces.
It is unreal…more so because it’s never covered in the news, at least in America.
Reminds me of the over the top propaganda Israeli supporters staged in NYC last year. Inside a popular park, next to a famous University.. a group was allowed to setup Bomb shelters to “simulate the experience as felt by those living in Israel who are subject to Palestinian rocket barrages and bombings.”
link to gothamist.com
Yet in the US if you tried to call attention to the “825″ Palestinians killed by Israeli drones you’d be labeled anti-Semitic, picking on Israel, extreme, fringe, terrorist sympathizer, whatever, whatever and on and on. This has got to end.
“in the US if you tried to call attention to the “825″ Palestinians killed by Israeli drones you’d be labeled anti-Semitic”
if you point to Iraqi, Afghan or Pakistani deaths you might be called anti-American
825 civilian deaths or six million deaths..
When Zio, Nazi or any governments teach their children to hate and think that Arabs, Jews or any minority are animals.
Then people will die.
link to youtube.com
For a long time i actually thought that “never again” was for all the peoples of the world.
And that we would learn from history.
I wish i was not stupid.
Very poignant, Mndwss. You are not the only one.
Thank you David for this post, and I agree with your overall point that it is great to get a story from the Gazan perspective. With respect to the blockquote you include about whether Gaza is occupied since the 2005 disengagement by Israel, I think you see the glass as half full. I find fault with this part of Wilson’s story because he basically presents it as a “he said, she said” narrative without including third-party international legal opinion on the point.
thanks for the article david. i will have to re read the wapo article and try to wrap my mind around the more positive aspects of this article. i read it the other day when it was first published and sent it to phil thinking he might be interested in covering it (i sure wasn’t). the thing that struck me most about it was the flowery journalese that grabs you and wraps you in interspersed with seductive misleading suggestive propaganda. like this:
nothing about those drones provoking palestinians to shoot off rockets.
enduring reminder of Israel’s unblinking vigilance and its unfettered power
a continuation of the ‘perception of invincibility’.
please, i have heard this so many times. maybe i have just become jilted but i’m tired of this kind of lopsided journalism.
anyway, i have to admit i only made thru the first 2 pages before i started gagging so i didn’t read all 5 pages. maybe i will give it another shot with a more ‘open’ mind.
Annie, I think you and Bill in MD are absolutely right, and that there was some of the usual BS in the article. I originally intended to note that, including some of the very same passages that you noticed. However, I was much more struck with the unusual perspective of portraying genuine suffering among the ordinary people of Gaza. (There also was an extended discussion of the drones interfering with the satellite TV reception of soccer matches, which seemed somewhat trivial.) But the overall impression that I got from the article was that Wilson felt he had to pay lip service to the Israeli “equivalent suffering” mantra etc. but that his sympathies were with the people of Gaza. His recitation of the frightening statistics, and vivid description of the ever-present fear of sudden deadly violence faced by just about everybody was the most important thing in the article.
david, i do appreciate you pointing out the positive aspects of this story. which i did see, i just became so infuriated it probably blocked my vision. perspectives like yours are very important in the discourse. there’s a lot of strength in not coming from anger and cynicism (not that i consider myself primarily coming from that space because i don’t). so thanks. and i did think the story should have been covered here which is why i originally sent it to phil so i’m very glad you picked it up.
Annie, you aren’t alone when it comes to a low tolerance for the despicable journalism when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian issue. I just cannot get through such articles or so-called “pro-Palestine” writers who make it look like Palestinian counter-attacks are comparable to the Israeli attacks. The law of proportionality is alien to Israel as always.
I think the Israelis picked up their notion of proportionately regarding the OT from the NAZI Germans in WW2. They do what they can get away with, and would do much more if they could get away with it in the contemporary world. Alas, they have such a hard PR row to hoe.
The Nazis picked it up from British and French colonialism, including the ME. Civilian terror bombing was first used by the British in Iraq and India. You may want to look into their “notion of proportionality”. Same with the Americans in the Philippines. The Zionists were trained in the British army during WW II.