For over a week, major American news outlets have broadcast on a virtual loop the video of the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, an unarmed 26-year-old Iranian woman, by Iranian security services. The poignant footage of Neda dying before a throng of grief-stricken bystanders crystallized the vulnerability experienced by the millions of demonstrators who have filled cities across Iran to confront authoritarian forces determined to suppress their voice through brutal means. When the mainstream American press chose to broadcast the graphic video -- as moving as the footage is, it is difficult to watch -- it made a commendable decision that nonetheless highlighted its hypocritical attitude towards Palestinians who resist Israeli occupation on a daily basis, and who often meet the same fate as Neda.
Every week, in the Palestinian cities of Bi'lin and Ni'ilin, local residents demonstrate beside international and Israeli solidarity activists for their basic human rights. The Israeli separation wall has been constructed through the heart of their communities, cutting them off permanently from farmland they have worked for generations. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the path of the wall was illegal, but construction continued unabated. When the demonstrators mobilize non-violently to stop the wall's construction -- to demand that the rule of law be honored -- the Israeli army has responded with massive force, killing, maiming, and brutalizing them on a consistent basis.
Video of the Israeli army's shootings of Palestinians demonstrators are easily accessible through YouTube. The army's unprovoked killing of Bassem Abu Rahem, a respected activist from Bi'lin affectionately nicknamed "The Elephant," can be viewed here at 3:15. Similarly, video of Yusuf Aqel Srur's body being rushed into a Red Crescent ambulance after an Israeli sniper killed him with a .22 round to the chest (Srur was at the time attending the funeral of Ahmed Musa, an 11-year-old boy shot in the head by an Israeli soldier through a jeep's rifle slit) can be watched here at 2:50.
Demonstrator Bassem Abu Rameh is shot to death by Israeli soldiers at 3:15
Demonstrator Yusuf Akil Srur is shot to death by Israeli soldiers at 2:50 while attending a funeral for an 11-year-old neighbor also killed by the Israeli army
These videos are no less outrageous than the video of Neda's death. However, to my knowledge, no outlet from the mainstream American media has ever broadcast them. And as far as I know, no cable news program, including liberal-leaning shows like Olbermann and Maddow, have never even mentioned the non-violent protests in Bi'lin and Ni'ilin, or Israel's brutal response. The videos remain unseen by America eyes. The struggles of Bi'lin and Ni'lin do not even play in Peoria.
Direct action protest tactics only work if the brutal responses they provoke are recorded by influential media sources and projected to sympathetic audiences across the world. MLK's tactics in Selma would not have succeeded had he not been accompanied by camera crews ready to broadcast images of racist savagery to outraged Northern white liberals. The outpouring of American public sympathy for Iranian demonstrators might never have occurred had cable news outlets not made the courageous decision to broadcast Neda's killing vividly and repeatedly.
Yet when Palestinians employ direct action tactics to protest Israeli oppression, and when Israeli forces respond with wanton brutality, they are ignored by the US media, even when footage is already available through online sources. It seems they can only generate media when they resort to violence, a dynamic the Israeli government obviously welcomes. Perhaps it's no wonder only 6% of Americans declared in a recent poll that the US should stand behind the Palestinians in Middle East peace talks. The legitimacy of their struggle is denied no matter how they conduct it.
Blumenthal articulately points out the terrible hypocrisy of the media use of the horrific death of Neda yet ignores so many similar killings of Palestinians who peacefully protest.
Please exactly point out how that is outrageous.
So if this is about Neda's death, let's not tarnish that with someone else's agenda. Let Neda's death be about Iran, not Israel.
The Iranian regime has deliberately murdered and brutalized its own people
Israel uses non-lethal measures such as rubber bullets and tear gas
Accidents happen once in a while but on the whole the intention is not murder of inoccent people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov3Qs8CjPRw
And you forgot to mention that Israel uses rubber /coated/ bullets which are only slightly less lethal than real bullets.
You didn't even watch the videos up there, did you? Not surprising, you're another spam account -- made this post within five minutes of generating it, and this is the only comment you bothered to make. Hit and run.
Palestinians can create an independent state and a viable future as soon as they start focusing on creating their own state rather than destroying Israel.
Maybe that's because he isn't.
You guys can stop the anti-Palestinian hate speech any day now. It's not working.
Israel never bombed those UN schools anyway - I think that was exposed Hamas disinformation a long time ago, much like the videos in the article. As for the food supplies that Hamas said were inadequate, someone did the calculations and if Hamas's version were to be believed, every Palestinian would be drowning in flour.
Nakba denial is just as heinous as shoah denial. Join the club.
Not only do Israeli doctors treat Palestinians in Israeli hospitals - but Palestinian doctors also treat Israelis in Israeli hospitals! I know because I had the misfortune of being in the hospital while I was there (nothing major) and the doctor who treated me was Arab.
Most of the people posting here are self-professed experts on a subject they haven't a clue about.
Years later I was told that on a walk home with his wife and 3 kids, he was attacked by a settler who threatened him and his family with a gun. He was shot in the leg, wrestled the gun away from the settler and shot and killed the settler in self defense, all while he was bleeding from his leg. Guess what happened to him? Life in jail for murder. They wouldn't even hear his self defense claim.
Just thought I would share a personal experience that is in line with what Mr. Blumenthal is writing about.
The most beautiful for me that she described, however, was the hospitality of Palestinians. Whether they were Christian or Muslim, and regardless of how tough things were, the Palestinians of the West Bank were always willing to take strangers in and give them the best meal they could offer.
People should go out and meet Palestinians in your communities for yourselves, though. Don't take our words for it -- go make your own inroads, and judge for yourselves whether the Palestinians fit the awful stereotypes foisted upon us by people like those below.
Germans and Japanese could be absolutely wonderful as individual human beings 60 year ago. The graciousness of white Southerners in the 1850s was legendary. The same can be said of the North Koreans today. I am one of the very few Americans who has actually had lengthy conversations with North Koreans. Those wonderful individual human beings, though, have had the misfortune to live in societies led by political factions of murderous thugs. Such is also the misfortune of the Palestinian people in the last 70 years. The result has been terrible suffering for the Israelis and far worse suffering for the Palestinian people themselves.
- Jim Heaphy
Personally, I'm not seduced by warmth and graciousness.
Arle and Sentientbeing09 operate under the delusion that HuffingtonPost is their own personal sandbox and that they have the power to make newcomers feel unwelcome. In that, they are utterly wrong. HuffPo is a free speech zone, where genuine political debate is encouraged - a real give and take. It seems that they mistake mockery, insult and simulated laughing (LOL, haha, heheheheh) for informed political discussion. Pehaps they don't realize how childish that appears to more mature, thoughtful people.
I've been trying since yesterday morning to engage these folks in substantive discussion of the issues. They just might be surprised to learn that I may agree with them on some important points. But they are afraid of grown-up debate. It's too bad.
- Jim Heaphy
Every where you look on this topic, in these blogs, defenders of Israeli aggression use this same tactic over and over again. They are always quick to point out US aggression, or how Israel, regardless of its faults, is still not as bad as any of the Arabic-speaking or Muslim countries surrounding it. It's not a competition to see which country is the biggest criminal, it's about not committing crimes all together.
I only fear that when the world stops listening to them they will engage in acts of violence and war-mongering to keep their colonialist dreams alive. God knows they have the propensity for it.
I agree, "God bless the Internet", which is freely available in Israel to all - Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists. Even to Hindus. In Israel, you can go into a bookstore and buy or order any book, magazine or newspaper published anywhere in the world. Please note that the Internet is censored in many Muslim countries, and their bookstores and newstands are ruthlessly censored too.
I oppose the censorship of all political videos, including the one that Max Blumenthal recently filmed about the drunken racism of Israeli teenagers. Did you expect an accused "hasbara spammer" to say that?
- Jim Heaphy
Dead. Israel has a nasty habit of assassinating any Palestinian who takes on leadership qualities, remember? They even routinely open fire on peaceful protesters -- videos above, Exhibit A.
The San Francisco Sentinel reports that “the U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel.” Similar reports appear in other news sources around the world.
The reports say that not only would Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, not move towards normalization with Israel while Israel continues with settlement construction, but they would also not do so even if Israel agrees to freeze building in Judea and Samaria.
“In such a situation,” the source is quoted as saying, “the Americans can’t continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction.”
- Jim Heaphy
I think this intense anti-Semitism is often the result of self-loathing by Left wing middle classes, including some Jews, who want to identify with the masses or some peasants, or something similar and despise their own kind or comfortable background. If they say they ooze sympathy and sentiment, then we will think they are good, or poor or innocent.
As for those endless Youtube faked videos, they have been exposed too many times. There is even footage of a director faking the shots and retaking the staged reaction, on director's command, from the crowds. Check out Little Green Footballs website for some eye-openers.
Huffington - you need to report Iranian atrocities such as this in the context of Iran. Its a no-brainer.
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/deutschland-uber-alles/
Nice trifecta, by the way.You brought up both the anti-Semitic left and the self loathing Jew stereotypes, labeled all gentiles as "peasants" and made a denial of physical evidence worthy of Richard Williamson. Congrats! Have fun associating with the right wing. You should read up on Prescott Bush and Henry Ford some time. Very enlightening.
Strangely, though, they'd rather kick than be kicked, so this misplaced sympathy only goes so far.
And where did she label all gentiles "peasants"? She didn't write that, you only misconstrued the remark.
I just re-read your post and earlier I missed the line that said youre a LittleGreenFootballs reader.
Sorry. I cant take anything you say seriously beyond this point.
How are you enjoying Charles Johnsons recent swing to the Left and endless obsession with Creationism? Hows that going down with the LGF Lizardoids Faithful? Are you one of the backstabbers who left to join LGF2.0 or one of the loyal ones? Did you enjoy the LGF Bunker Parody and see any truth in it?
Ha ha!
I love this place.
I shall answer your points,
Yes, I read lots of information; including the most excellent LGF which you seem to dislike a tad.
I believe Charles Johnsons is the man who runs LGF and I didn't know he had left wing views. How interesting.
I dislike Creationism as I am a great admirer of the admirable Mr Charles Darwin.
The rest of your message seems to be something from a programme I watched as a child called Startreck. I don't really speak Trecky and I don't like Lizards.
If you don't take my views seriously, I am glad you find amusement.
Yours sincerely, Winnie
My hope is that the Obama administration will be able to encourage both sides to make painful concessions to deal with the core issues that have prevented a comprehensive peace before now. I remain an optimist.
- Jim Heaphy
You have to understand, from Israel's perspective, that it's hard to sit down at the same table with people that have invaded your schools and murdered your children (Ma'alot, 1974), murdered your Olympic athletes (Munich, 1972), cooperated with Hitler in planning your extermination (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem), threw an old Jewish man from his wheelchair into the sea (Leon Klinghoffer, 1985), and in general target the weakest and most helpless of your people. This is just the very short list, by the way.
You seem like a reasonable person and can draw your own conclusions as to who is REALLY blocking negotiations for a genuine peace in the region.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/18/israelis_just_dont/
I'm amused by the fact that you bring every single other possible factor into this, even going so far as to make a comparison between the Palestinians and the Nazis, and yet we compare a video of an Iranian getting shot at a political protest to Palestinians getting shot at a political protests, and you say that any sort of comparison whatsoever is /completely/ basis. The irony is veritably toxic.
I am distrustful of zealots and fanatics on both sides. This is my opinion: The greatest obstacle to the achievement of an independent and viable Palestinian state is that wide segments of the Palestinian leadership for many decades have advocated and carried out deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians as a means to advance their cause. The word "terrorism" is most commonly used. The impact of these attacks is seared into the minds of Israeli voters, and in my opinion, has been entirely counterproductive. It has caused resistance to compromise among the Israelis, extreme factionalism and infighting among Palestinian political groups, and grevious suffering for BOTH the Israeli and Palestinian populations.
- Jim Heaphy
The reason for four posts in a row is that I wrote a long essay that exceeded the Huffington Post's word limits. I broke it into four chunks but you can read it in order as a single essay. That's not spamming. Feel free to disagree with me, but I would appreciate you responding to political content, instead of typing simulated laughter and sarcasm accompanied by utterly false and unsupported accusations of spamming. I would hope that you are a better and fairer person than that.
- Jim Heaphy
- Jim Heaphy
The horror of Neda, Shorab and the other Iranian dead who have been counted yet is that they were unarmed and protesting and were killed.
You wan't have to worry about Max's next video where he interviews people of Tel Aviv because its already been censored by Huffington Post as of today.