The Palestinian people, as a whole, portrayed as
supportive of the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon
Written by Nigel Parry
12 September 2001 -- Yesterday and today, following
the inhumane use
of passenger planes as flying missiles to attack
people visiting and working
in the World Trade Center buildings in New York and
in the Pentagon in
Washington, most of the media broadcast footage
depicting Palestinians
celebrating.
The brief footage was typically broadcast cyclically
and used as an
interview aid, with anchors asking U.S. government
officials and others
how they felt about the images.
Almost universally on U.S. networks, anchors presented
the footage as if
it were representative of all Palestinians,
additionally failing to note any
context to the images.
A number of points must be made, first about the
actual footage:
1.There are three million Palestinians living in the
Gaza Strip and West
Bank including Jerusalem, one million Palestinians
living inside the
borders of Israel, and another four million
Palestinian refugees living elsewhere in the world,
including the United States. The footage in question
depicted between 20 and 40 individuals.
2.The Palestinians in the footage were mostly young
children. Most of their behaviour in the footage
appeared to be no different from how
Palestinian children always behave when foreign
journalists turn up
in their towns, crowding and smiling at the camera and
giving the victory sign that has been a symbol of
Palestinian steadfastness under Israeli military
occupation since the first Intifada in 1987.
There is not a single reporter with any experience of
carrying a
camera into the Palestinian West Bank under any
circumstance who
couldn't get similar footage on any day they visited
the occupied territories. 3.Where genuine rejoicing
at the attacks was indeed apparent in the footage,
anchors interpreting the footage made no effort to
offer
any context or background to the images, nor
any attempt to
separate those Palestinians portrayed from
Palestinians as a whole.
A comparable situation would be television anchors
angrily reacting
to scenes of the 1991 riots in Los Angeles,
lamenting that "blacks do
not respect law and order", while failing to
note the preceding
attack on Rodney King or endemic racial
profiling of the black
community in the U.S. by police forces.
4.The overwhelming number of Palestinians, like
people of all
nationalities, were sickened by the events in
New York and
Washington. Palestinians with relatives in New
York and Washington
spent much of yesterday worriedly trying to
phone to check they
were safe, exactly as many Americans did.
Palestinian citizens of the
United States will also turn out to be among
the victims of the
tragedy. Whatever a group of 20-40 Palestinian
children happened
to be doing yesterday morning in Nablus or Ein
Al-Hilweh Refugee
Camp in Lebanon is no more representative of
all Palestinians than
the Klu Klux Klan rally -- which happened
recently just down the
road from where I live, in St. Paul, Minnesota
-- is representative of
all Americans.
In addition, there is an all-important context of
brutalisation -- that
anchors completely failed to note -- which explains
why even a single
person would find any cause to celebrate
yesterday's terrible carnage:
1.For the last year now, Palestinian civilians
have been living through
a nightmare in which Israeli occupation forces
have been nightly
shelling their towns using tanks, helicopters,
and other heavy
weapons. Palestinians do not need a
subscription to Jane's Defence
Weekly to learn the origin of these weapons
when they can pick up
shell casings from the floors of their homes
and from their backyards
with MADE IN THE U.S.A. stamped on them.
United States weaponry
supplied to Israel includes:
Heavy weapons:
F-16 fighter planes, Apache and
Cobra attack helicopters, and
Reshef patrol boats to attack
Palestinian buildings and vehicles;
and
Armoured pile drivers and armoured
bulldozers to destroy
Palestinian homes and agricultural
land.
Heavy ammunition:
Naval and tank artillery including
76mm, 105mm and 120mm high
explosive rounds;
M114 TOW rockets and Hell-Fire
air-to-ground missiles;
Shoulder-fired, anti-armour Light
Anti-tank Weapons (LAW) rocket
launchers firing 84mm or 90mm
rockets;
M203 and MK19 grenade launchers;
40-90 mm mortars; and
A modified version of the M494
105mm, an anti-personnel cluster
bomb.
Smaller ammunition:
5.56 mm bullets for M-16 machine
guns;
7.62 mm high velocity bullets for
general purpose machine guns
and Galil sniper rifles;
12.7 mm bullets for Browning machine
guns and Barret sniper
rifles; and
The "less lethal" rubber-coated and
plastic-coated metal bullets.
2.The U.S. weaponry listed above has not been
used proportionally for
the purpose of defending Israel -- as one
would hope any military
aid is used -- but rather has been used
disproportionally and
offensively to kill over 600 Palestinians,
one-third of whom are
children, 60 percent of whom were killed
outside of clash situations.
The U.S. weaponry listed above has
additionally been used to
seriously injure another 15,000 Palestinians,
1,500 of whom have
been crippled for life. That Israel has used
"excessive force" to
suppress the current Palestinian uprising
against 34 years of its
military occupation is a fact according to the
United Nations
Security Council, other UN bodies, Amnesty
International, Human
Rights Watch, Israeli human rights
organisation B'Tselem, and the US
State Department. However offensive the images
of the small groups
of Palestinians that were celebrating may be,
the fact is that all
those depicted in the images -- if they are
under 34 years of age --
have known nothing but military occupation for
the entirity of their
lives. That celebration was the reaction of
only a tiny minority of
people in such a situation is a testimony to
the Palestinians'
maintainance of human values in a situation
devoid of them.
3.Not only does the United States sell weapons and
ammunition to
Israel, but many of these weapons are supplied
as U.S. aid to Israel.
A current figure for U.S. aid currently given
to Israel is $3 billion per
year, which includes $1.2 billion in economic
aid and $1.8 billion in
military aid. It is difficult to offer this as
a conclusive figure since
additional money is given to Israel that is
buried in the budgets of
individual government agencies such as the
Defense Department.
Every Palestinian is aware that the U.S.
supplies the weapons that
Israel uses against them. That celebration was
the reaction of only
a tiny minority of people in such a situation
is a testimony to the
Palestinians' maintainance of human values in
a situation devoid of
them.4.Every Palestinian is also aware that
their television screens are
never filled with images of Americans
protesting the use of their tax
dollars to pay for the missiles that shake
their cities and create
similarly distressing scenes of injured and
shocked civilians, as seen
yesterday in New York. That celebration was
the reaction of only a
tiny minority of people in such a situation is
a testimony to the
Palestinians' maintainance of human values in
a situation devoid of
them.
The U.S. media broadcast the footage yesterday
without explaining any of
the above, something that is neither new nor -- any
longer -- acceptable
in light of the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and the
anti-Muslim sentiment it
creates. No organisation of journalists who seek to
bring their viewers an
accurate representation of reality should be
broadcasting contextless,
unrepresentative images that encourage racism
against nationalities and
their associated ethnic groups.
In the first few days following the 1995 attack on
the Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma, Arabs and Muslims in the U.S.
reported more than
200 incidents of harassment, threats and actual
violence. According to
reports received by The Electronic Intifada and a
press release yesterday
from the Council on American-Islamic Relations
there have already been
reports of harassment and attacks against Arabs and
Muslims in the United
States. Hate mail and threats have also been
directed at The Electronic
Intifada and other Palestinian, Arab and Muslim
websites.
As those of us who live in the U.S. are currently
feeling justifiable anger at
the perpetrators behind yesterday's shocking and
horrifying events in New
York and Washington DC, let us not misdirect it at
an entire people who
continue to suffer through one of the darkest
periods of their already
bleak history. The Palestinian people, who sit
glued to their television sets
in disturbed silence like the rest of the world,
are actually better placed
than most to understand what those of us living in
America currently feel
and are finding it hard to express.
____________________________________________________________
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Send a newsletter, share photos & files, conduct polls, organize chat events. Visit http://in.groups.yahoo.com
supportive of the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon
Written by Nigel Parry
12 September 2001 -- Yesterday and today, following
the inhumane use
of passenger planes as flying missiles to attack
people visiting and working
in the World Trade Center buildings in New York and
in the Pentagon in
Washington, most of the media broadcast footage
depicting Palestinians
celebrating.
The brief footage was typically broadcast cyclically
and used as an
interview aid, with anchors asking U.S. government
officials and others
how they felt about the images.
Almost universally on U.S. networks, anchors presented
the footage as if
it were representative of all Palestinians,
additionally failing to note any
context to the images.
A number of points must be made, first about the
actual footage:
1.There are three million Palestinians living in the
Gaza Strip and West
Bank including Jerusalem, one million Palestinians
living inside the
borders of Israel, and another four million
Palestinian refugees living elsewhere in the world,
including the United States. The footage in question
depicted between 20 and 40 individuals.
2.The Palestinians in the footage were mostly young
children. Most of their behaviour in the footage
appeared to be no different from how
Palestinian children always behave when foreign
journalists turn up
in their towns, crowding and smiling at the camera and
giving the victory sign that has been a symbol of
Palestinian steadfastness under Israeli military
occupation since the first Intifada in 1987.
There is not a single reporter with any experience of
carrying a
camera into the Palestinian West Bank under any
circumstance who
couldn't get similar footage on any day they visited
the occupied territories. 3.Where genuine rejoicing
at the attacks was indeed apparent in the footage,
anchors interpreting the footage made no effort to
offer
any context or background to the images, nor
any attempt to
separate those Palestinians portrayed from
Palestinians as a whole.
A comparable situation would be television anchors
angrily reacting
to scenes of the 1991 riots in Los Angeles,
lamenting that "blacks do
not respect law and order", while failing to
note the preceding
attack on Rodney King or endemic racial
profiling of the black
community in the U.S. by police forces.
4.The overwhelming number of Palestinians, like
people of all
nationalities, were sickened by the events in
New York and
Washington. Palestinians with relatives in New
York and Washington
spent much of yesterday worriedly trying to
phone to check they
were safe, exactly as many Americans did.
Palestinian citizens of the
United States will also turn out to be among
the victims of the
tragedy. Whatever a group of 20-40 Palestinian
children happened
to be doing yesterday morning in Nablus or Ein
Al-Hilweh Refugee
Camp in Lebanon is no more representative of
all Palestinians than
the Klu Klux Klan rally -- which happened
recently just down the
road from where I live, in St. Paul, Minnesota
-- is representative of
all Americans.
In addition, there is an all-important context of
brutalisation -- that
anchors completely failed to note -- which explains
why even a single
person would find any cause to celebrate
yesterday's terrible carnage:
1.For the last year now, Palestinian civilians
have been living through
a nightmare in which Israeli occupation forces
have been nightly
shelling their towns using tanks, helicopters,
and other heavy
weapons. Palestinians do not need a
subscription to Jane's Defence
Weekly to learn the origin of these weapons
when they can pick up
shell casings from the floors of their homes
and from their backyards
with MADE IN THE U.S.A. stamped on them.
United States weaponry
supplied to Israel includes:
Heavy weapons:
F-16 fighter planes, Apache and
Cobra attack helicopters, and
Reshef patrol boats to attack
Palestinian buildings and vehicles;
and
Armoured pile drivers and armoured
bulldozers to destroy
Palestinian homes and agricultural
land.
Heavy ammunition:
Naval and tank artillery including
76mm, 105mm and 120mm high
explosive rounds;
M114 TOW rockets and Hell-Fire
air-to-ground missiles;
Shoulder-fired, anti-armour Light
Anti-tank Weapons (LAW) rocket
launchers firing 84mm or 90mm
rockets;
M203 and MK19 grenade launchers;
40-90 mm mortars; and
A modified version of the M494
105mm, an anti-personnel cluster
bomb.
Smaller ammunition:
5.56 mm bullets for M-16 machine
guns;
7.62 mm high velocity bullets for
general purpose machine guns
and Galil sniper rifles;
12.7 mm bullets for Browning machine
guns and Barret sniper
rifles; and
The "less lethal" rubber-coated and
plastic-coated metal bullets.
2.The U.S. weaponry listed above has not been
used proportionally for
the purpose of defending Israel -- as one
would hope any military
aid is used -- but rather has been used
disproportionally and
offensively to kill over 600 Palestinians,
one-third of whom are
children, 60 percent of whom were killed
outside of clash situations.
The U.S. weaponry listed above has
additionally been used to
seriously injure another 15,000 Palestinians,
1,500 of whom have
been crippled for life. That Israel has used
"excessive force" to
suppress the current Palestinian uprising
against 34 years of its
military occupation is a fact according to the
United Nations
Security Council, other UN bodies, Amnesty
International, Human
Rights Watch, Israeli human rights
organisation B'Tselem, and the US
State Department. However offensive the images
of the small groups
of Palestinians that were celebrating may be,
the fact is that all
those depicted in the images -- if they are
under 34 years of age --
have known nothing but military occupation for
the entirity of their
lives. That celebration was the reaction of
only a tiny minority of
people in such a situation is a testimony to
the Palestinians'
maintainance of human values in a situation
devoid of them.
3.Not only does the United States sell weapons and
ammunition to
Israel, but many of these weapons are supplied
as U.S. aid to Israel.
A current figure for U.S. aid currently given
to Israel is $3 billion per
year, which includes $1.2 billion in economic
aid and $1.8 billion in
military aid. It is difficult to offer this as
a conclusive figure since
additional money is given to Israel that is
buried in the budgets of
individual government agencies such as the
Defense Department.
Every Palestinian is aware that the U.S.
supplies the weapons that
Israel uses against them. That celebration was
the reaction of only
a tiny minority of people in such a situation
is a testimony to the
Palestinians' maintainance of human values in
a situation devoid of
them.4.Every Palestinian is also aware that
their television screens are
never filled with images of Americans
protesting the use of their tax
dollars to pay for the missiles that shake
their cities and create
similarly distressing scenes of injured and
shocked civilians, as seen
yesterday in New York. That celebration was
the reaction of only a
tiny minority of people in such a situation is
a testimony to the
Palestinians' maintainance of human values in
a situation devoid of
them.
The U.S. media broadcast the footage yesterday
without explaining any of
the above, something that is neither new nor -- any
longer -- acceptable
in light of the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and the
anti-Muslim sentiment it
creates. No organisation of journalists who seek to
bring their viewers an
accurate representation of reality should be
broadcasting contextless,
unrepresentative images that encourage racism
against nationalities and
their associated ethnic groups.
In the first few days following the 1995 attack on
the Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma, Arabs and Muslims in the U.S.
reported more than
200 incidents of harassment, threats and actual
violence. According to
reports received by The Electronic Intifada and a
press release yesterday
from the Council on American-Islamic Relations
there have already been
reports of harassment and attacks against Arabs and
Muslims in the United
States. Hate mail and threats have also been
directed at The Electronic
Intifada and other Palestinian, Arab and Muslim
websites.
As those of us who live in the U.S. are currently
feeling justifiable anger at
the perpetrators behind yesterday's shocking and
horrifying events in New
York and Washington DC, let us not misdirect it at
an entire people who
continue to suffer through one of the darkest
periods of their already
bleak history. The Palestinian people, who sit
glued to their television sets
in disturbed silence like the rest of the world,
are actually better placed
than most to understand what those of us living in
America currently feel
and are finding it hard to express.
____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send a newsletter, share photos & files, conduct polls, organize chat events. Visit http://in.groups.yahoo.com