Thursday, August 18, 2005
Bulldozer Cries on Cue
"It's impossible to watch this...without tears in the eyes," gushed Ariel Sharon referring to the colonists' forcible removal from Gaza. "Attack me, I am responsible for this, attack me."
Sharon's Big Show winds down replete with grand finale, teenagers making a last stand on the top of synagogues in the colonies "Neve Dekalim" and "Kfar Darom." For hours upon end of "breaking news" CNN has shown soldiers and police carrying them gingerly to the busses, unlike the treatment afforded non-violent Palestinian protestors from Bil'in, who have been killed, tear gassed at close range, and infiltrated by IOF soldiers employing violence for a pretext, as if the IOF ever needed one, for shooting protestors. Of course, most westerners would not be able to compare and contrast the IOF's actions when dealing with Jewish Israelis as opposed to their treatment of Palestinians because the weekly Friday protests at Bil'in are not covered by the mainstream media.
Today's final act starring compassionate soldiers and last stand colonists has relegated the murders yesterday of brothers Bassam Mousa Tawasha, Ussama Mousa Tawasha, Mohammed Ali Hassan Monsour and Khalis Mohammed Ra'ouf Welaiwel to paragraph 22 of a 24 paragraph story on BBC World's online edition. Palestine Center for Human Rights Gaza reports a Red Cresecent Ambulance was immediately on the scene but was prevented by the IOF from "attending the victims." Contrast to the two stretchers that appeared immediately for injured protestors from the Kfar Darom colony. The sponsor of Sabra and Shatila and a host of other horrors mouthed something for the press about "Jewish terrorism."
So one wonders if a reformed Ariel Sharon is crying over violations of Palestinian human rights that occurred this week. They included fifteen Palestinian civilians wounded by IOF and colonists, 42 IOF incursions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 51 arrests, a house demolished in al-Mawasi, 15 houses transformed into military sites.
Maybe Sharon would have cried if he'd had an opportunity to read about settlers from Kfar Darom who burned a Palestinian village yesterday, the same settlers being treated with kids' gloves by the IOF today, but according to Laila El-Haddad, reporter for Al-Jazeerah, no one bothered to cover it: "Two days ago I wrote about a Palestinian village near Kfar Darom who feared for their property and lives from neighbouring settlers, but their warnings fell on deaf ears. Settlers burned their property yesterday, and no one, I mean NO ONE covered it."
Sharon's selective tears exemplify the racism inherent in Zionism. Compare the IOF's actions when dealing with recalcitrant colonists at Neve Dekalim and Sfar Darom synagogues to the treatment meted to those Palestinians who sought sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity three years ago: "For the next forty days, the Israeli military prevented any food from entering the church and prevented medical treatment from reaching the wounded trapped inside. Anything moving in the streets were shot at by Israeli forces. Through the use of snipers, the Israelis also began shooting inside the church. When several Palestinians died, the others were unable to bury their bodies. The dead were trapped inside the church alongside the living. In total, the Israeli snipers killed nine people, including the church's bell ringer, and wounded more than forty. A great deal of structural damage was done to the Church of Nativity itself; three rooms in the complex were destroyed."
Sharon has produced with able assistance from most of the western media, a real tearjerker, which according to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman, has shown "heart-wrenching," and "painful" scenes of "stoic" IOF soldiers "trying to remove their brethren." It will have a long run and leave the intended and indelible impression among western audiences, kept woefully uninformed by a mainstream media following a predictable script.
Sharon's Big Show winds down replete with grand finale, teenagers making a last stand on the top of synagogues in the colonies "Neve Dekalim" and "Kfar Darom." For hours upon end of "breaking news" CNN has shown soldiers and police carrying them gingerly to the busses, unlike the treatment afforded non-violent Palestinian protestors from Bil'in, who have been killed, tear gassed at close range, and infiltrated by IOF soldiers employing violence for a pretext, as if the IOF ever needed one, for shooting protestors. Of course, most westerners would not be able to compare and contrast the IOF's actions when dealing with Jewish Israelis as opposed to their treatment of Palestinians because the weekly Friday protests at Bil'in are not covered by the mainstream media.
Today's final act starring compassionate soldiers and last stand colonists has relegated the murders yesterday of brothers Bassam Mousa Tawasha, Ussama Mousa Tawasha, Mohammed Ali Hassan Monsour and Khalis Mohammed Ra'ouf Welaiwel to paragraph 22 of a 24 paragraph story on BBC World's online edition. Palestine Center for Human Rights Gaza reports a Red Cresecent Ambulance was immediately on the scene but was prevented by the IOF from "attending the victims." Contrast to the two stretchers that appeared immediately for injured protestors from the Kfar Darom colony. The sponsor of Sabra and Shatila and a host of other horrors mouthed something for the press about "Jewish terrorism."
So one wonders if a reformed Ariel Sharon is crying over violations of Palestinian human rights that occurred this week. They included fifteen Palestinian civilians wounded by IOF and colonists, 42 IOF incursions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 51 arrests, a house demolished in al-Mawasi, 15 houses transformed into military sites.
Maybe Sharon would have cried if he'd had an opportunity to read about settlers from Kfar Darom who burned a Palestinian village yesterday, the same settlers being treated with kids' gloves by the IOF today, but according to Laila El-Haddad, reporter for Al-Jazeerah, no one bothered to cover it: "Two days ago I wrote about a Palestinian village near Kfar Darom who feared for their property and lives from neighbouring settlers, but their warnings fell on deaf ears. Settlers burned their property yesterday, and no one, I mean NO ONE covered it."
Sharon's selective tears exemplify the racism inherent in Zionism. Compare the IOF's actions when dealing with recalcitrant colonists at Neve Dekalim and Sfar Darom synagogues to the treatment meted to those Palestinians who sought sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity three years ago: "For the next forty days, the Israeli military prevented any food from entering the church and prevented medical treatment from reaching the wounded trapped inside. Anything moving in the streets were shot at by Israeli forces. Through the use of snipers, the Israelis also began shooting inside the church. When several Palestinians died, the others were unable to bury their bodies. The dead were trapped inside the church alongside the living. In total, the Israeli snipers killed nine people, including the church's bell ringer, and wounded more than forty. A great deal of structural damage was done to the Church of Nativity itself; three rooms in the complex were destroyed."
Sharon has produced with able assistance from most of the western media, a real tearjerker, which according to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman, has shown "heart-wrenching," and "painful" scenes of "stoic" IOF soldiers "trying to remove their brethren." It will have a long run and leave the intended and indelible impression among western audiences, kept woefully uninformed by a mainstream media following a predictable script.
