The New York Times and world press covered today’s bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, the second in a month. The frame was typical: enraged Palestinian used construction equipment to attack Israeli civilians. The extra spice in the article is that it occurred “near” where Obama will be staying soon. Wow, what a news hook!
Of course, he is staying at King David hotel, which apparently has no other historical significance other than the fact that Bush stayed there. For those who don’t know, it was the site of the first major bombing – note: terrorism – by “non-state actors” in Israel-Palestine. The bombers were Zionists, however, which makes mention of it outside the bounds of their reportage.
The attacker injured two dozen before he was shot dead by either a policeman or an armed civilian. The Times article finishes off with a dab of historical context. The driver:
was a resident of Sur Baher, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and then annexed.
As a footnote to the story, we are not to know whether this is relevant or not. Is the Israeli occupation and active colonization even relevant?
Pundits were alarmed by the last bulldozer attack, saying Palestinians were finding new ways to try to destroy Israel – yet Palestinians are in the stone age compared to Israel’s advanced killing technology. The bulldozer is now the Palestinian Merkava.
The difference, Israel lovers will point out, is that Palestinians target civilians. As the recent B’tselem video shows (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7516477.stm), that is a myth. The most recent footage is of an Israeli soldier shooting a detainee in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet. It was captured by 14-year-old girl who filmed the incident from the window of her home in the town of Nilin, which has been the scene of protests against Israel’s West Bank apartheid wall.
MSM are ignoring phenomena of much more far-reaching public health consequences. The Christian Science Monitor ran a report that makes the horrific attack today look quaint. Though less dramatic than an attack, Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza has created “a severe shortage of potable water” that puts “the population at risk for a range of illnesses.” Gaza’s seawater “registered levels of bacteria two to five times greater than the amount deemed safe.”
The environmental degradation in Gaza is the direct historical outcome of Israel’s establishment – which forces Palestinians into cramped refugee camps there – and subsequent occupation and now embargo.
Israel denied “the raw metals, plastics, and spare parts needed to maintain Gaza’s sewage and plumbing infrastructure and waste-water treatment centers.” Israel was afraid they would be used to manufacture rockets – as if such materials cannot be transported officially, regulated and certified. This is clearly part of their collective punishment logic. These policies prevented the development of three additional treatment centers, which were funded by international donors.
The logic of collective punishment must be condemned.
Without global action against it, Palestinians will continue to fight it in their own ways. While the people of Nilin rise up, nonviolent protesters stand against the occupying forces, other choose to fight violence with violence. The only way to end this dynamic is by bringing Israel’s ethno-religious supremacy and belligerent occupation to an end.
Related posts:
- Israel Arrested, Rampaged With A Bulldozer After Faking Suicide And Manuevering To Attack Iran
- More Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance for the Media to Ignore
- Democrats Ignore Fascism to Fight Jimmy Carter
- Garofalo: “The way the mainstream media portrays the Palestinians is totally unfair”
- RE-POST: Ignore KABOBfestWATCH!
After last bulldozer attack, Will wrote…
One assault with a bulldozer by a Palestinian does not change that.
And Firouz said…
How many assaults with a bulldozer by a Palestinian will it take to change that?
Let’s get some numbers going… I’ll say… 5 assaults with a bulldozer, and 2 with a donkey. Anyone else?
A few more attacks like this and they will purge Palestinians from construction duties and replace them with Filipinos. Same quality of work, no political baggage. Construction is the last industry in Israel that still relies on Palestinian labor, but not nearly as much as it once did. If you go to Netanya, the entire city was built by Palestinian labor in the 1970s. A lot of Palestinians are going to lose their jobs over this.
Posted by Anonymous | July 22, 2008, 9:01 amThe frame was typical: enraged Palestinian used construction equipment to attack Israeli civilians.
How is it typical? It only happened once before.
All this demonstrates is the effectiveness of Israeli security services. We now know that even 4 years after the intifada was defeated, the Palestinian terrorist groups have no shortage of Palestinians willing to commit mass murder against Israelis, but they now lack the means.
The terrorist groups can’t get past the barrier and checkpoints, so they have to use Jerusalem Arabs, and there is no way to get explosives to them, so they have to improvise.
If not for the security barrier, these last two Palestinian terrorists would have been wearing bomb belts with metal bearings, resulting in dozens of innocents murdered. The security barrier saves lives.
This is the only useful message of this tragedy, and the only one Obama, and every other world leader who may have criticized the security barrier will now hear.
Posted by Jeff | July 22, 2008, 9:08 amFUCK OBAMA!
Speaking at a news conference in Amman, Obana said “Today’s bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long.”
What colonialist Israelis have “lived with”?! And what about the helpless Palestinians being crushed daily by the Zionist Boot?! Are they not courageous? Is 60 years of occupation, humiliation and oppression not long enough for Obama to notice?!
Obama, who is slated to arrive in Israel later on Tuesday, also said that his “thoughts and prayers go out to all who were injured, and to their families”.
And how many Palestinians have been beaten, arrested, tortured, humiliated and robbed at checkpoints and in the Zionist concentration camps today? They are not worth your thoughts, Obama?!
Fuck Obama. FUCK HIM
Posted by Uday | July 22, 2008, 9:18 amSo the “media” are ignoring a water catastrophe in Gaza, and to prove this, Will links to an article in a newspaper on the topic.
Oh, Boalt. Pretty embarrassing.
A google news search for “Gaza Water” yields 1,417 stories.
Posted by qusay | July 22, 2008, 9:53 amanonymous, you are a very silly person. Is the entire Palestinian-Zionist conflict nothing more than an economic conundrum to you?
Jeff, how is the Apartheid Wall helping to curb attacks committed by Palestinians under occupation in Jerusalem?
Qusay, a search for “jerusalem tractor attack’ yields 265,000 results. Is that really a useful barometer?
Posted by Mohammad | July 22, 2008, 2:13 pmQusay,
Try to be less misleading:
“A google news search for ‘Gaza Water’ yields 1,417 stories.”
Very few of the results had to do with this story. There were 141 hits for “Gaza Water sewage.” Many more Israeli sources than American came up.
MSM stands for Mainstream Media. CSM hardly counts as such.
Will
Posted by Will | July 22, 2008, 2:21 pmIs the entire Palestinian-Zionist conflict nothing more than an economic conundrum to you?
It’s not a conundrum. The Palestinians have destroyed their economy. They solely are responsible for their desire to wage war at the expense of all else. After all, we have a UNRWA to pay for their food, homes, education, and social services.
I feel bad for the countless innocent Palestinians who have been a victim of the policies of their inept, corrupt and bloodthirsty leadership. I count the KabobCrew in that “leaders” column. You are responsible for Palestinian suffering, Will, Mohamad, et al.
Posted by Mitch | July 22, 2008, 2:51 pmI had no idea being amongst the leadership of an entire nation was as simple as writing on a blog.
Mitch, you purposely ignore the real issue at hand-the continued illegal occupation, colonization, oppression and denial of basic human rights perpetrated against the Palestinians by Israel.
You can expect or wish for Palestinians to accept the status quo in return for meager salaries. But it won’t happen.
Posted by Mohammad | July 23, 2008, 8:03 amActually, it would happen, if the present leadership is replaced by pragmatists, not Islamists and Fascists (I am including the KabobCrew in these two groups).
99.9% of Israeli Arab men are plenty happy to work, shop, vote and go gawking at Israeli girls on the beach in their free time.
What makes you think Palestinian Arabs in West Bank / Gaza are any different?
Israeli Arabs have the highest standard of living among Arabs in the region (except for the recent oil wealth sheikhdoms). Israeli Jews have provided better for their Arabs than the Palestinians have provided for their own people.
Posted by Anonymous | July 23, 2008, 9:11 am