By Edna Yaghi
Palestine Chronicle
November
24, 2002The Emperor’s New Clothing
By Edna Yaghi
Palestine
Chronicle
November
24, 2002
"Biased media misrepresentations must end. It is time to stop thinking of the Israelis as a persecuted people and time to see them as they really are .."
WASHINGTON (PC) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is portrayed as a great leader who is dedicated to the war against terrorism and as a person who is surrounded by hostile Palestinians.
What we see in the news is only one side of the picture. The media does quite an effective job of misrepresenting the facts and not telling what is actually going on.
For one thing, we, the Americans, are not told that Israel was illegally built on Palestinian land at the expense of the Palestinian nation and Palestinian people. We fail to see how every day, Israel takes more and more of what is left of Palestine and that it is an occupying power and that the Palestinians are an occupied people.
We do see how a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus taking his life and the lives of others. It is sad, it is tragic that such incidents occur. We see Israeli blood and we hear Israelis cry for their loved ones.
What we do not see is the Israeli occupation of every inch of Palestine. We do not see Israeli tanks enter Palestinian cities and attack unarmed civilians. We don’t hear about the extra-judicial murders of Palestinian activists. These illegal killings are executed ruthlessly and brutally. There is no mention of why the victims of such killings were not instead arrested, taken to court and tried by law. But then, every Palestinian, regardless of age or gender, is considered guilty of whatever crime the Israelis intend to accuse them of.
We are never shown the events that lead up to human bombers blowing themselves and others up. We are not told that such bombings are in retaliation for the atrocities continually committed against Palestinian civilians. We are not shown Palestinian tears or the bloodied corpses of Palestinians shot down for no reason. We do not see the 24-hour curfews, the bulldozed homes, children shot on the way to school, or young girls cut down while hanging up the family wash. We do not see infants killed while cradled in their parents’ arms while they flee Israeli shelling. There are so many things we do not see because there are no intentions to show us the truth.
So, we continue to laud the emperor and his new clothes, even while on one day alone, five Palestinians were killed and 11 injured, five of whom were children. We are unaware that during the past week, 19 Palestinians were killed while Israeli forces stormed into the Palestinian villages of Nablus, Jenin, Hebron, and Tulkarem. We cannot see how illegal Israeli settlers are on the rampage and are backed by the Emperor himself.
We didn’t hear about how Amer Salman Al-Qudsi, only 13, died when he was shot in the chest by Israeli soldiers for throwing stones at their heavily armored tanks on his way home from school after he found out that there was no school due to a new Israeli curfew.
And of course, we will not hear much about Iain Hook, 52, a British aide worker in the West Bank town of Jenin who was murdered by Israeli soldiers because he sympathized with the Palestinian people. He was not only shot down by Israeli soldiers, but they prevented an ambulance to evacuate him to a hospital. Sources say that he bled to death.
Oh, yes, the British government may protest a little but not much. Not too much to make the Emperor uncomfortable. After all, Hook was not an Israeli so no big deal will be made over his death. We will not see the tears of his family or hear them cry because they are not the custodians of an illegal state illegally established on Palestinian land.
Meanwhile, the killing of Palestinians will go on. Since September 2000, more than 2000 Palestinians have died, nearly 400 of whom are children. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of whom will have permanent disabilities for the rest of their lives. The brutal occupations will continue. Palestinian children will continue to be slaughtered. Palestinian activists will be extra-judicially executed, Palestinian homes will be bulldozed, Palestinian agricultural land destroyed. Every means will be implemented against a civilian population while the world either watches or is not shown what is really going on. Right now plans are being implemented to build a barbed wire wall around the West Bank. This will top any concentration camp during Hitler’s reign.
We are too complacent with Israeli acts of war not only against the civilian population of Palestine, but also against those foreigners and journalists trying to portray what is actually happening. Since Intifada Al-Aqsa began, more than 15 foreigners and journalists have been killed.
Biased media misrepresentations must end. It is time to stop thinking of the Israelis as a persecuted people and time to see them as they really are, the persecutors. It is time to stop calling Palestinian freedom fighters terrorists and Israel’s campaign against the Palestinian people as a “war on terrorism.” The real terrorism is being carried out by the Emperor himself and his war state. There can be no greater terror than Israeli weapons, Israeli tanks, Israeli Apaches and Israeli F-16 fighter jets that wage war on unarmed civilians. One day, everyone will see that Emperor Sharon is not really wearing anything at all.
Palestine Chronicle. Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).