rohangb

Livni: Gaza offensive is good for the Palestinians

Interesting definition of the word "good".

Thanks to my stumblebuddy and comrade reggiemental for bringing this site to my attention. Some excellent and difficult-to-find material here.

"Social TV is a non-partisan Israeli social change initiative, using strategies of public education and independent media (mainly video articles) to empower civil society and the peace and social change movement in Israel as a whole."

[...]

"Social TV was founded to give visibility and evoke awareness and sympathy to issues of social justice in its broader sense. Thus, Social TV seeks to break the monopoly of privatized neo-liberal media, by providing alternative media that is created and maintained from below, through the grass-roots efforts of the citizens."

Consistently hilarious, far and away my favorite satirical site.

A simply excellent article on the current Gaza war, I strongly recommend that you read it.

From the page: "Most people react at gut level to the scenes from Gaza; indeed, who can remain unmoved by the stream of dead and wounded children in Al-Shifa hospital, or at the scenes of siege and bombardment of cities and refugee camps? Still, emotion and anger must not replace analysis. There is nothing in Gaza that has not also occurred in the Falkland Islands, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, or is happening now in West Pakistan. This is not said in order to exonerate Israel, but to raise the much bigger problem of the character of present wars and to avoid the racism that singles out Israelis. Similar actions have been carried out by Russians and are carried out by British, Turkish, American or Canadian forces. We might recall the total destruction of the city of Grozny in Chechnya or the bombing of schools and civilians in Serbia. The disproportionate ratio between Afghani or Iraqi civilians killed and NATO forces casualties is no different from that which prevails in Gaza. The British prevented the press from entering the Falklands to avoid reporting of atrocities; Pakistani civilians are killed in almost every American raid across the border into West Pakistan. What is so hard to realize - not to concur with - is that we live in an era where the Law of War is no longer practised."

English translations of articles by members of Matzpen, the Israeli anti-zionist socialist organization. Most from the early 1970s, so dated but still pertinent, and an inspiration for those of us who believe that the struggle for peace and justice in the region benefits all, and that our allies are our partners in the struggle, regardless of their religion or ethnicity.

Trailer for the film "Matzpen", a documentary video by Eran Torbiner about the Israeli socialist organization of that name. I think I have plugged the film before, but this seems an apt time to do so again.

"Matzpen never had more than a few dozen active members. Still, at the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, it was considered a real threat to the Israeli political and social consensus.

Most of Matzpen members were Israeli born, coming from the core of Israeli society. Their fight against Zionism and against the occupation, as well as their contacts with Palastinian and European left-wing activists, were the cause of the threats, slander, as well as political and social isolation.

The film touches on the main issues of the Zionist-Palestinian struggle, through the eyes of some of the organization's prominent figures, their ideas, opinions and activities today.

It was shot in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, UK, and Germany."

"Yeela Raanan says she would prefer not to know about the war in Gaza. She doesn't want to see the pictures of dead children cut down by Israeli shells or read of the allegations of war crimes by her country's army as it kills Palestinians by the hundreds.

But there is no escape. Raanan can hear the relentless Israeli bombardment by air, sea and land from her home, just three miles from the Gaza border. Hamas rockets keep hitting her community. And somewhere in the maelstrom of Gaza, her 20-year-old son is serving as an Israeli soldier.

'I'd rather not know. I can't do anything about it. We didn't see the pictures of the Palestinian kids who were killed. It's easier not to feel," she said. "I just turn on the news for five minutes a day and that's it, just to see if anybody says anything about my kid.'

But when Raanan thinks about her son - whom she prefers not to name - she also thinks about Palestinian mothers and their sons in Gaza. And that's when she finds her herself out of sync with the neighbours. "I don't talk to the neighbours about it any more," she said. "Hamas is violent. Hamas is stupid. I don't like what they are. But I don't feel angry towards them. I understand why they were elected, I understand why they act as they do."
[...]
Jeff Halper, a veteran peace campaigner, says this is further evidence that Israeli public opinion is principally shaped by fear. 'The Israeli public is being held hostage by its own leadership,' he said. 'This whole idea there's no partner for peace has been internalised by Israelis. Everything has been reduced in Israel to terrorism because Israel has eliminated the political context of occupation and claims it only wants peace and has made generous offers and the Arabs always reject them.'"

An interesting attempt to examine psychology's role in the conflict and an important part of the answer to the question of how otherwise decent people can support and justify atrocities. Jewish Israelis are indeed prisoners of their own fear and victimhood, which has trapped them in a cycle of violence that can only possibly be escaped via a negotiated settlement.

From the page: "Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has called for "credible, independent and transparent" investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law, and singled out an incident this week in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, where up to 30 Palestinians in one house were killed by Israeli shelling.

Pillay, a former international criminal court judge from South Africa, told the BBC the incident "appears to have all the elements of war crimes".

The accusation came as Israel kept up its two-week-old air and ground offensive in Gaza and dismissed as "unworkable" the UN security council resolution which had called for "an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire".

[...] Palestinian casualty toll rising to around 800 dead, including 265 children, and more than 3,000 injured."

Israeli war crimes in Gaza.