Bus crash outside Jerusalem
It’s a stormy day in Ramallah, and my heart is heavy. At least ten children were killed in a bus crash outside Jerusalem this morning. I went upstairs in Zamn cafe to join my friends on their laptops and I didn’t understand why they were so quiet. Every few minutes I heard a “tsk” or a long inhalation. Souli asked me, “did you hear about the accident?”
He’d actually mentioned it this morning, his cousin Minwar had just told us over the phone that there had been an accident. Souli said that sometimes they exaggerate these things.
Now he’s distraught. It happened near his village of Hizma. He’s looking at all the news stories and posting updates in all the Facebook groups. I asked if the other truck was Israeli. He said this wasn’t political.
But now I see posts with Facebook screenshots (below), showing Israeli comments in Hebrew rejoicing in the fact that the deceased children in question were Palestinian. I don’t know the news source they were commenting on, what segment of society they represent, but the post and its English and Arabic translations are going viral. George Rishmawi made a statement on Facebook that the accident happened because Palestinians are forced to drive on windy, dangerous roads because the Israeli wall cuts them off from Jerusalem. So much for this not being political.
I’m sad for the children and their families. I’m sad that voices of support and concern will inevitably be drowned out by voices of hate, because they keep the wheels in motion. These wheels are so hard to stop.
“Relax, these are Palestinian children…”, “Great! Less terrorists!!!!!!!”
How can people think and say things like that?
They obviously can.
And i can speculate:
Could the terrorist, who was driving a weapon of mass murder on stolen land have been thinking the same?
What? A bus with the wrong color registration plates on our road? That is very irritating!!!!!!
Did he survive?
Will he be given a medal?
“These wheels are so hard to stop.”
The wheels of the occupation go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels of the occupation go round and round,
all day long (Alternative: all through town, or all around the town)
The money for the occupation (or “in the box”) go, Clink, clink, clink;
Clink, clink, clink;
Clink, clink, clink.
The money for the occupation, go, clink, clink, clink,
all day long
Schadenfreude is part of the Israeli Consciousness.
Here’s a clear example.
Aliya A’mrani writes:
Relax this is a bus with Palestinian children. Pray for deaths or at least critically injured. Great news to start the weekend with.
Wow. “pray for deaths” of kids?? I don’t know what to say……
Tragic.
Cannot imagine anyone saying those things about anyone’s children
Danaa, I completely agree with you.
I believe Ilan Pappe is one of those people who ‘get’ the situation in Israel-Palestine (moreso than Chomsky; but I think Finkelstein does too, but simply differs on tactics).
As Pappe said, a sense of URGENCY should inform our activism. And connecting Israel-Palestine to past conflicts like SA apartheid. Making people remember how bad colonialism is. Colonial conflicts resonate w/ our basic senses of right and wrong. That’s how I got interested in this issue.
I have no horse in this race, but intuitively I knew something was wrong over there. On it’s surface (back then) – it didn’t seem fair.
Even now, I feel the same way (intuition) about phony liberals who think ‘Israel firster’ is crossing the line.
It’s been 45 years of pure colonialism in the OT and even then, the root problems predate that. Enough is enough.
The other side advocates as if a meteor is about to hit Israel any second (and only kill the Jews there; because as we all know – meteors are antisemitic).
That’s their sense of urgency (devoid of logic/reason/reality). Ours is real. Ours is the occupation. The land grab. The expansion of settlements. The racist laws. The second-class citizenship. The daily abuse and the casual body count that no one in the mainstream Western intelligentsia gives a damn about.