I listen to Krista Tippett’s thoughtful NPR show about religion and meaning, called “On Being,” even though it dismays me that she avoids asking any hard questions about Israel/Palestine/Zionism. Three years ago I was appalled by her referring to rightwing Zionist Yossi Klein Halevi, who lives in occupied territory, as “redemptive.”
Today Tippett interviewed the artist Ann Hamilton and about 35 minutes in they started talking about Israel/Palestine in an anodyne manner, saying that it was important for the sides to see each other as human. Tippett then said that she had gone to Israel three years ago and visited the Western Wall and though put off by the gender discrimination at the holy site, had had something of a religious experience when she put her hand on stone touched by so many before her over the millennia.
The Western Wall is not in Israel, it’s in occupied East Jerusalem. The global community regards that occupation as illegal, even if Americans don’t know about it. Krista Tippett’s show purports to address political and intellectual questions of great moment; it should not be misinforming people about such a basic fact in the conflict. It’s a sad reflection on our media that someone with such broad appeal would be so oblivious of the Palestinian experience.
Many thanks for bringing this to MW. I listened and was outraged!
(I can’t wait until I am only a little bit outraged……..you know, when peace and brotherhood comes to this tiny blue ball called earth that humans seem hell-bent on destroying. oops, there I go again!)
Kenny Everett had a famous character called Ms Cupid Stunt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLBW8L198GQ
Here’s Gideon Levy with a humdinger.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.574399#
“In the background, of course, is the memory of the Holocaust, and it, too, is exploited fully. “Israel’s destruction” recalls that which can never be forgotten, the death camps and the gas chambers.
It also recalls something that Golda Meir once told Shulamit Aloni: that after the Holocaust, Jews are permitted to do anything. If the world says eradication, Israel can say occupation, disinheritance and elimination. But the world did not say eradication, and Israel cannot say occupation, disinheritance and elimination.
Once again, the issue is being out of touch with reality. The Israelis who ask themselves anxiously whether the state will still exist 20 years from now, and dream of getting a second passport, should be asking a different, no less weighty question: about the character of their state, whose dangers lie mostly within.
But few ask this question. We are too busy with the issue of existence to deal with principles. Warning: imaginary existential danger ahead. “
On Being is supported by the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Inc., and the Kalliopeia Foundation.
The Western Wall is not in Israel, it’s in occupied East Jerusalem. The global community regards that occupation as illegal, even if Americans don’t know about it.
***
Yes, the overwhelming majority of Americans are simply just too stupid. They have been brainwashed by textbooks that suggest “East” Jerusalem was captured from Jordan in 1967.
Thank goodness they have an oracle to enlighten them.
If all the arabs wanted was “East” Jerusalem, the Golan, Judea and Samaria, Israel wouldn’t have had to fight for its survival in 1967.
Be appalled all you want… a untied Jerusalem is our home and eternal capitol.
“a untied Jerusalem is our home and eternal capitol”
Untied from … ?
Capital: noun
1 (also capital city or town) the city or town that functions as the seat of government and administrative centre of a country or region: ‘Warsaw is the capital of Poland’
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/capital
Capitol:
(usually the Capitol)
1 the seat of the US Congress in Washington DC.
1.1 (capitol) US a building housing a legislative assembly:
‘the work is on display at the Utah state capitol’
2 the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in ancient Rome.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Capitol?q=capitol