Frustrated with News Coverage of Israel's Attack on Gaza

Three interesting items:

• News story: Israel’s attack on Gaza comes just as a truce was being successfully negotiated with Hamas. The airstrike that killed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari came just hours after he received the proposal, which was being negotiated by Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist, who was also involved in negotiating the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit one year ago. He is interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. Watch the interview: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/16/israeli_negotiator_hamas_commander_was_assassinated#.UKZv-K7OFmE.reddit  Read his article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/israels-shortsighted-assassination.html?_r=0

• March for Gaza – TODAY  IN DENVER – 1 pm, starting at the Capitol. Details: http://billboards.webstarts.com/billboard_2.html?r=20121116013720     

 

• Kai Staats, son of Linda Staats, who is part of the Rocky Mountain Synod staff, is working in Jerusalem with Bishop Mounib Younan and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, as the Interim Communications Director for the ELCJHL and assistant to Bishop Younan, on a 3-4 month contract. Kai is a lay person with a background in business and web development. His mom describes him as a “general entreperneur/inventor ….a world traveler, creative thinker and writer.” She put me in touch with the blog he is writing about his experiences in the Holy Land and all he is learning. His recent posts tell his story of living in Jerusalem as rockets and fighter jets are overhead: http://www.kaistaats.com/blog/category/out-of-the-middle-east/     

I’m personally struck by the disparity in how the news is reported about the attacks on Gazans and the attacks on Israelis. The blame for Israel’s attack falls on Hamas. I haven’t heard reporters question Israel’s assertion that Hamas is responsible for Israel’s attacks. What is missing in these reports is Israel’s everyday harassment and airstrikes on Gaza or information about the Gazan farmers, fishermen and children killed over the last month by Israeli military.

Reporters let Israeli spokespersons get away with claiming that they are only defending themselves. The only broadcast I’ve seen/heard on mainstream US media outlets that has mentioned the occupation as the cause of the current violence was Piers Morgan’s interview with Hannan Ashrawi last night. But in his interview with Michael Oren a few moments earlier he let the Israeli ambassador go unchallenged when he blamed the Gazans for Israel’s attacks.

The story I’m hearing on the US news is that Israel is only defending themselves—in spite of their airstrikes and bombs, they are seen as the helpless victims, while Hamas is the aggressor. I am frustrated that no reporters are investigating Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza—how the blockade is the primary reason Gazans are suffering, unable to import or export goods. In 2009-10, Israel destroyed their infrastructure—electrical plants, schools, government buildings. And since 2010, in spite of Ambassador Oren’s assertion that Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, Israel continues to control its borders, refusing to allow building materials through the checkpoints.

Reading Israeli News

Op ed writer Gideon Levy writes in today's Ha'aretz about a recent survey of Israeli public opinion--very revealing to us as we sit here in the US and wonder whatever happened to the "peace process." Levy writes:

One-third of Israelis want to deny Arab citizens the right to vote; about half of Israelis favor a policy of 'transferring' Arabs out of the country; and a majority says there is apartheid here. We need to finally give up on the hope that things will get better.

Nice to make your acquaintance, we're racist and pro-apartheid. The poll whose results were published in Haaretz on Tuesday, conducted by Dialog and commissioned by the Yisraela Goldblum Fund, proved what we always knew, if not so bluntly. It's important to recognize the truth that has been thrown in our faces and those of the world (where the survey is making waves ). But it's even more important to draw the necessary conclusions from it.
    
Given the current reality, making peace would be an almost anti-democratic act: Most Israelis don't want it. A just, egalitarian society would also violate the wishes of most Israelis: That, too, is something they don't want. They're satisfied with the racism, comfortable with the occupation, pleased with the apartheid; things are very good for them in this country. That's what they told the pollsters.
    
Until a courageous leadership arises here, the kind that appears only rarely in history, and tries to change this nationalist, racist mood, there's no point in hoping for change to come from below. It won't come; indeed, it can't come, because it is contrary to the desires of most Israelis. This fact must be recognized.
    
The world must also recognize this. Those who long to reach an agreement and draw up periodic peace plans must finally recognize that Israelis are plainly telling them, "No thanks, we're not interested." Read the rest of the article.....http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/meet-the-israelis-1.472137

Harsh words, but it also sounds a lot like what I am seeing here in the US as we plod on toward the election. I find that the Israeli media is often much more candid about what is happening there than our US news sources are.

Mayber part of my own darkness comes from reading Mornings in Jenin this weekend (by Susan Abulhawa), and the horrors of the early years of Israel's occupation--1948, 1967, the first Lebanon war, the massacres in Lebanon at Sabra and Shatila. Although it's a novel, the events in the novel actually happened--to hundreds of thoushands of unnamed Palestinians. The novel's characters have personalities, aspiriations, loving families, desires for wholeness and peace. The nameless victims are only statistics and Wikipedia articles and old photos of dead bodies piled in the streets.

This was in 1982. And Ha'aretz reports today.....would it be any different?

Flotilla to Gaza--sailors on Estelle detained by Israeli military

This week another ship sailed to Gaza to break the siege of Gaza which is being imposed by Israel. The ships sail to draw attention to Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza. Israel's military controls all the borders of Gaza, deciding what goods can be shipped out and what can come into the country. They say it is for Israeli security, but the banned items include food, school supplies and building materials--the stuff people need to survive.

Estelle crew approaching Gaza

Although Israel made a big deal about leaving Gaza in 2005 and emptying the settlements, forcibly evicting those who defied the removal orders, Israel still controls all the borders--the three sides with land boundaries and the western border, which is the Mediterranean. Nothing comes into Gaza or leaves without Israel's inspection. This goes for goods and for people--even when they have travel permits or medical emergencies.

The Free Gaza movement has sailed to Gaza to break the blockade ten times. Five times they were able to enter Gaza. Then, in May, 2010, the Israeli military killed nine of the passengers on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship that was part of the flotilla. The Estelle, which attempted to break the blockade this week, was stopped in international waters off the shore from Gaza and towed into port in Israel at Ashdod. Although they were not attempting to enter Israel, this is what they will probably be charged with. They call it kidnapping, since they did not want to enter Israel.

They describe their mission:
"We sail as an expression of citizen nonviolent, direct action, confronting Israel's ongoing abuses of Palestinian human and political rights and will continue to challenge Israel's illegal siege on Gaza."

The ship carried: 2 olive trees; 41 tons of cement; wheelchairs; walkers; crutches; midwifery stethoscope; children's books; toys; 300 footballs; musical instruments; theatrical equipment; VHF radio (for a ship); 1 anchor (the last two items were for the Gaza's Ark project.) The ship was inspected at many ports. A video of the cement being loaded onto the ship is here.

The Estelle, the Finnish ship that sailed this week, carried 30 passengers, including three Israelis, and, among others:
Former Member of Parliament Manly James, Canada
Member of Parliament Hagen Aksel, Norway
Member of Parliament Britton Sven, Sweden
Member of Parliament Kodelas Dimitios, Greece
Member of Parliament Sixto Ricardo, Spain
Member of Parliament Diamantopoulos Evangelos, Greece

As of today, James Manly is still in detention, held by the Israeli military. Read more....

US Christian Church Leaders' Letter Attracts Attention

Last week at the Kairos Palestine workshop in Denver, we looked at the press release from the ELCA announcing a letter to Congress written by fifteen US Christian church leaders, including ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson. The letter to Congress has stirred up some controversy, especially among some of the leaders in the US Jewish community.  

If you’d like some background:

• Read the letter to Congress written by 15 Christian leaders
• Read the ELCA press release about the letter

Response to the letter from the Jewish Anti-defamation League – calling the letter “outrageous and biased”. While asserting that the letter “fails to also call for an investigation of Palestinian use of U.S. foreign aid,” Abe Foxman seems to ignore the US withholding aid from the Palestinian Authority after elections that brought Hamas to power in 2006. The US frequently withholds aid in protest of Palestinian Authority policies.

Here are two articles written by Jewish leaders expressing support for the Christian leaders’ action

• Mark Braverman’s response – he is an American Jewish supporter of an end to the occupation, who has repeatedly urged US Christians not to violate their principles of justice to support Israel in its current policies
• Some rabbis support the Christian church leaders’ letter

 NYTimes has reported on the letter

 

What you can do: 

• You can thank the church leaders via a petition on the website of End the Occupation.
• Or leave a comment on the Peace Not Walls blog on the ELCA website.

 

One of the people we met in Ramallah in 2008 is Sam Bahour, a Palestinian and an American citizen, who returned to Palestine after the Oslo Accords, hopeful that peace was soon to come and that he could help in the development of communications for a new Palestinian state -- that was more than ten years ago. Today he sent this note from the daughter of a friend, Walid (Hanatsheh) Abu Rass, who has been detained by Israeli authorities, without being charged with a crime.

Here is Walid's daughter's appeal (you can read it on Sam's blog here: http://epalestine.blogspot.com/2012/07/letter-from-my-friend-walids-daughter.html) and read some background on Walid's case in his earlier blog posting: http://epalestine.blogspot.com/2012/06/epalestine-update-on-my-friend-walids.html

Mays Hanatsheh, 15 years old

Letter from Mays:

The phone rang. It was unexpected. It was the lawyer. When we answered his voice was happy, flying in the sky, and he was so excited. We asked him what is going on and he said that today he received a verdict that is one of the best verdicts ever made for someone being held by Israel under Administrative Detention.

We were surprised and kind of mixed up so we asked what is going on one more time and he answered simply that my dad, Waleed, was going to be released in two weeks, on June 22! The next question was: what happened? He said the judge in the last court hearing said that dad didn’t have any new confidential evidence presented against him and the Israeli military judge decided that he should be released. This is why the lawyer was so happy and he was sure that dad was going to be released on June 22.

From that moment, me, my sister, and my mom started to prepare for the reception on June 22nd. We started thinking of what were going to wear and which food my dad prefers and the way we are going to meet him in front of the prison and many other small details.

But this happiness was short. Sunday was gone and we were happy because another day passed and only a few days were left. This was on Sunday, but Monday came and it wasn’t a good day because we got bad news. Israel extended my dad’s detention by three more months. This is the reason I have lost all hope toward these courts. The problem is that the judge, himself, said that there was no new confidential evidence and there was no reason to keep my dad in prison. So why did they extend his time? I need an answer!

Christmas is gone and he is not with us. Also, Easter is gone and he still not with us. Summer is going and he is not with us. All our birthdays are gone and he didn’t attend them. Ramadan is coming soon and he will not be with us.

So I need a person to tell me when my father is going to be with us in order for me to know how to plan for my future. I can’t plan anything because I don’t have a specific day of being with my father, so can you help me?

Mays Hanatsheh

July 6, 2012