- "There are many reasons for the media blackout and
failures, but the most important is probably fear that criticism of Israel,
even reporting the truth about what Israel is doing, is quickly labeled
anti-Semitic."
-
-
- Why do Americans understand so little about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and the damage created by Israel's colossal West Bank Wall?
-
- The self-imposed US media blackout on the Wall's construction
finally began to lift last August when President Bush mentioned the problems
created by Israel's Wall "snaking its way through the West Bank."
Last December, a year and half after bulldozers began cutting the Wall's
path through Palestinian villages, Thomas Friedman hosted a Discovery Channel
program in association with The New York Times, and Bob Simon anchored
a CBS 60 Minutes segment introducing the controversy surrounding one of
the world's largest construction projects.
-
- The Friedman/Discovery program was muddled, but Simon's
shorter yet stronger 60 Minutes segment presented a clear picture of the
devastation resulting from the Wall's construction. All of the US media's
failures in reporting on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict are played out
to varying degrees within these two television productions. There are many
reasons for the media blackout and failures, but the most important is
probably fear that criticism of Israel, even reporting the truth about
what Israel is doing, is quickly labeled anti-Semitic.
-
- Both programs cover the difficulty that the Wall causes
for the many Palestinians who have been cut off from their land and livelihoods.
However, neither program mentions the possibility that Israeli military
occupation and expulsion of Palestinians from their land might actually
be the root causes of the conflict. On the contrary, one could leave both
programs with the impression that Palestinian suicide bombings, which first
occurred in 1994, are the cause of a conflict which began in the late 1800s.
There is no mention that over 360 Palestinians were killed before the first
suicide bombing of this uprising.
-
- Indeed, the vast majority of what we hear and see in
the US is about suicide bombing, and in both programs we see the depth
of pain inflicted on Israelis by Palestinian suicide bombings through footage
of their carnage, and disturbing, emotional scenes. Thomas Friedman actually
visits the site of a suicide bombing immediately after it occurs. Although
these are appalling scenes, they are certainly no less horrific or newsworthy
than an Israeli apache helicopter firing missiles into crowds of civilians,
or Israeli tanks killing and wounding Palestinian men, women and children.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, more than 2,673 Palestinians
have been killed in Israeli attacks and 24,541 have been wounded. Despite
this, we see only examples of the 900 Israeli deaths in these two programs.
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- Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, has an
acute ability to convey a sense of objectivity, morality and pragmatism
in his writing and on TV, while masking subtle prejudices against Palestinians
and Arabs. Although Friedman does interview both prominent Israelis and
Palestinians, his biases are revealed by his choice of interviewees, and
his attitude towards them.
-
- For official Israeli views, Friedman interviews Finance
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mayor of Ariel Settlement Ron Nachman.
He treats both as sympathetic, reasonable people, who are not to be challenged,
even as they orchestrate policies that underlie the conflict and fuel violence.
He nods respectfully as Netanyahu speaks, and then politely asks Netanyahu
why the Wall is being built "through the Palestinians' backyard."
Netanyahu ducks the question with a monologue on suicide bombing, avoiding
the main objection of even Israel's allies, the Wall's location. Friedman
never challenges Netanyahu, a man who regularly takes more extreme positions
than Ariel Sharon.
-
- In the interview with Ron Nachman, the Mayor and builder
of the second largest West Bank settlement, Friedman and Nachman simply
exchange friendly banter. Nachman jokes about not having horns or carrying
a gun, contrary, he implies, to the image of settlers. Friedman doesn't
explain the reason for the image - constant settler violence against unarmed
Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, or note that the settlers, already
armed to the teeth, are protected by the Israeli army.
-
- To his credit, Friedman regularly criticizes the settlements
in his columns, resulting in some jibes from Nachman in the interview.
In the Discovery program, however, Friedman describes the settlements as
"Jewish communities", as if they are just warm, cozy and harmless,
all of which they could be, if they were not built on seized Palestinian
land. He completely leaves out the fact that the settlements' construction,
defense and expansion have resulted in a continual use of force against
Palestinians since 1967, and that all settlements in the Occupied Territories
are illegal under international law.
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- Nor does Friedman place the settlements or the Wall in
the context of the historical Zionist strategy of expelling Palestinians
from their land, a strategy which began in the early 1900s, created 700,000
refugees in 1948, and continued with the construction of hundreds of illegal
settlements. The justification of course is Biblical. After all, for Jewish
and Christian Zionists, this is Judea and Samaria, not the West Bank
-
- For official Palestinian views, Friedman interviews at
length the mayor of the West Bank city of Qalqilya, Ma'arouf Zahran, perhaps
to balance his interview with Nachman. He does not, however, interview
a popular Palestinian leader in a position equivalent to Netanyahu, for
example a Palestinian Legislative Council member.
-
- Instead, Friedman interviews Canadian Palestinian legal
adviser to the Palestinian Authority, Diane Buttu. When Buttu, a younger
woman, responds to Friedman's question about strategy on the Wall, Friedman
is dismissive for the only time in the program. He tells Buttu that she
is wasting her time and money, and that stopping Hamas will stop the Wall
in a second. Buttu has no opportunity to respond to Friedman's aggressive
challenge, to perhaps mention that the Israeli occupation strengthens support
for extremist groups like Hamas, or that occupation and settlement expansion
never ceased, even during the Oslo Peace Process.
-
- As in his New York Times columns, Friedman exhibits no
difficulties telling Arabs what to do, nor are Arabs allowed to challenge
his understandings. He appears clearly more comfortable with Israelis,
who are given the space to disagree. Also the "expert analysts"
are often Israelis, and rarely Palestinians. This subtle racism pervades
most of Friedman's writing on the Middle East.
-
- Discovery does show with maps that the Wall is being
built deep within the West Bank. Friedman also films the treatment of Palestinians
at checkpoints. He even seeks out and asks young Palestinian men about
humiliation, and they talk about their anger and the deaths of Palestinians.
However, because Friedman has trouble listening to Palestinians, he is
unable to represent their most significant experience, occupation, a word
that Friedman amazingly utters only once in his hour long program -- a
word that to Palestinians means systematic violence and denial of fundamental
rights touching every aspect of life since 1967, a word that means continued
invasions, sieges, curfews and death.
-
- Through a discussion with Mohammed Dahleh, the first
Palestinian citizen of Israel to clerk for the Israeli Supreme Court, Friedman
does reach an important conclusion: because Israel is building a Wall that
will leave Israelis on both sides, rather than a Wall separating Israelis
and Palestinians, Israel is creating a situation where Palestinians are
likely to demand equal rights in a single binational state rather than
demanding a Palestinian state of their own.
-
- The much shorter Bob Simon 60 Minutes segment, contrasts
positively with Friedman's Discovery show. Despite similar weaknesses in
representing the Palestinian experience, 60 Minutes much more clearly identifies
the core issue of the Wall project. Simon notes that world leaders recognize
Israel's right to self-defense, but that this does not justify the Wall's
construction on Palestinian land. Because of its location, Simon suggests,
the Wall may become more of an obstacle to peace than to terror. Unlike
Friedman, Simon challenges statements by Israeli right-wingers, and interviews
Israelis who criticize the Sharon government's policies and the Wall.
-
- The contrast with Friedman is most obvious when Simon
interviews Israeli General Eival Gilady. While Friedman listened patiently
to Gilady, Simon pointedly asks Gilady how he would feel if he couldn't
get from his house to his farm. When Gilady responds evasively, suggesting
that all Palestinians are implicated in terrorism, Simon stops him, saying
he doubts that the Palestinian farmers he met were involved in terrorism.
Chastened, Gilady backs away from his attempt at spin.
-
- Simon then interviews Israeli Minister Uzi Landau. Landau
states defiantly that the Palestinians will not have all of Judea, Samaria
and Gaza (The West Bank and Gaza Strip) because "Judea, Samaria and
Gaza are part of our homeland." Immediately afterwards, Simon points
out that this Jewish homeland was 3,000 years ago, and that now 2 million
Palestinians live in the West Bank. 60 Minutes lets Landau expose himself
by presenting a hardline, religious view about land that is home to millions
of Palestinians.
-
- 60 Minutes also interviews Ami Ayalon, who, as former
Israeli Shin Bet Director, was responsible for security for the State of
Israel. Ayalon recently joined three other former Shin Bet directors in
criticizing the Sharon government's security policies, saying that they
simply create more violence. Ayalon asserts that giving Palestinians hope
is more effective than building a Wall. In contrast, Friedman gave no indication
that there are any Israeli Jews, let alone members of Israel's security
elite, who believe that the Wall will actually decrease security and not
increase it.
-
- Simon closes by noting that US government's penalties
for construction of the West Bank Wall will cost Israel only about $4 million
out of Israel's $2.6 billion in annual US aid. Thus 60 Minutes calls attention
to the US government's vital role in supporting expansionist Israeli policies,
another important element that is absent from the Discovery show and the
media at large.
-
- Despite Thomas Friedman's post-9/11 calls for moral clarity
in his New York Times columns, he provides little moral clarity about a
Wall that is effectively annexing large tracts of the West Bank to Israel
and impoverishing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Just as Friedman
used his position as a pundit with the New York Times to help sell the
war in Iraq to Americans, and complains now about how the war he sold is
being executed, he focuses his wrath on Palestinian suicide bombings while
meekly questioning the implementation of Israel's occupation and its expansionist
policies.
-
- Israeli "expert" Yaron Ezrahi wraps up Friedman's
Discovery show, saying that the Wall stands as a monument to failure. This
is certainly true. The responsibility for this failure, however, falls
as much on the shoulders of the American media as it does with the Israelis
and the Palestinians. Pressure on the American government to stop supporting
Israeli aggression must come from the American people. Information necessary
for the American public to apply that pressure must come from the American
media. Until we begin treating Palestinians as human beings and tell the
story beyond the suicide bombings, the violence will continue, fueled by
American money and arms for Israel.
-
- In the meantime, groups like the International Solidarity
Movement, International Women's Peace Service, and Christian Peacemakers
Team will continue to provide more complete news of what is happening on
the ground, while supporting Palestinian non-violent resistance to the
terror that is occupation.
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- - David Bloom is a co-editor of World War 3 Report (worldwar3report.com)
and a member of New York City's Jews Against the Occupation. Patrick Connors
has managed humanitarian aid programs in the Middle East and Africa, and
volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank
supporting non-violent Palestinian protest against the Wall. Tom Wallace
is the former Media Coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement,
and the Executive Director of MidEast Focus, a communications awareness
project.
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