Friday, May 16, 2008
JOURNALISTIC "good taste" is what prevents most media such as newspapers from running pictures of torn limbs and bloodied bodies of Palestinian women and children and elderly people killed in the Israeli attacks and incursions that take place with frightening regularity. Almost every day, most wire services and the Internet websites are inundated by pictures and video footages of Palestinians being killed and tortured by the Zionist Israel soldiers.
Had those images been more readily available, most honest people would not have been able to stop thinking about those victims of the systematic ethnic cleansing which started 60 years ago when Zionist Israel was declared into being by the world powers. Those are 60 years of Palestinian dispossession and displacement and a savage, relentless occupation that is smothering the lifeblood of the Palestinians while Israel celebrates its ill-gotten gains. There are other reasons why there are too many countries and societies that are blind to the suffering of the Palestinians, most notably of which is the Israeli lobby. This is the reason why US President George W Bush went to the occupied land on Wednesday to take part in what the Zionist calls "Yom Ha'atzmaut" or Independence Day when in fact it is the start of the illegal occupation of Palestine. On Thursday Bush laid a wreath at the fallen soldier memorial at the entrance of the Knesset on Thursday and spoke about the "unbreakable" friendship between the two close allies and promised Washington's continued support for Israel in the face of future threats.
Bush is certainly not alone. Take Australia, for example. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd became the darling of the media when last December he took a daring position on global warming and declared his commitment to reduce carbon emission to become more environmentally friendly. Some people thought that he would be equally even-handed, equally independent from the U.S. on other strategic issues such as Israel-Palestine.
Not so. He announced earlier this year that he would lead a parliamentary motion to honour Israel on 12 March acknowledging the so-called Yom Ha'atzmaut. If Palestinians and their supporters had any hopes of a sympathetic hearing from the Rudd government on the multiple human rights abuses being perpetrated by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, those hopes were then dashed.
"Such demonstrations of affection are not new," said Sonja Karkar of the Australian for Palestine in Melbourne. Former Prime Minister John Howard had already fostered this extraordinary bond when he declared Australia as "Israel's closest friend." Many of his ministers followed suit and none was more accommodating than former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer when he said that he wore Israel as "a badge of honour" even as Israel's war planes decimated the Lebanese landscape in 2006.
True to form, Israel has rewarded its friends with facile honours. John Howard received two in one year: the Jerusalem Prize from the World Zionist Organisation and he had a forest named after him in the Negev by the Jewish National Fund, which specialises in acquiring property for "the purpose of settling Jews on such lands."
Official reports by human rights organizations documenting Israel's violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories provide enough evidence to challenge the appropriateness of any country aligning itself with Israel. However, the struggle in support of the liberation of Palestine and Al Quds has a long way to go, especially when governments insist on continuing their love affairs with Israel.
In the meantime, An-Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of dispossession and displacement is being accelerated even today and Israel's crime against humanity continues almost unchecked. "Palestinians are starving in Gaza, Palestinians are being sold out in the West Bank, Palestinians are dying. Their very existence is under threat. It is as simple and as awful as that," writes Sonja Karkar.
Do Bush and Rudd even care?
Had those images been more readily available, most honest people would not have been able to stop thinking about those victims of the systematic ethnic cleansing which started 60 years ago when Zionist Israel was declared into being by the world powers. Those are 60 years of Palestinian dispossession and displacement and a savage, relentless occupation that is smothering the lifeblood of the Palestinians while Israel celebrates its ill-gotten gains. There are other reasons why there are too many countries and societies that are blind to the suffering of the Palestinians, most notably of which is the Israeli lobby. This is the reason why US President George W Bush went to the occupied land on Wednesday to take part in what the Zionist calls "Yom Ha'atzmaut" or Independence Day when in fact it is the start of the illegal occupation of Palestine. On Thursday Bush laid a wreath at the fallen soldier memorial at the entrance of the Knesset on Thursday and spoke about the "unbreakable" friendship between the two close allies and promised Washington's continued support for Israel in the face of future threats.
Bush is certainly not alone. Take Australia, for example. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd became the darling of the media when last December he took a daring position on global warming and declared his commitment to reduce carbon emission to become more environmentally friendly. Some people thought that he would be equally even-handed, equally independent from the U.S. on other strategic issues such as Israel-Palestine.
Not so. He announced earlier this year that he would lead a parliamentary motion to honour Israel on 12 March acknowledging the so-called Yom Ha'atzmaut. If Palestinians and their supporters had any hopes of a sympathetic hearing from the Rudd government on the multiple human rights abuses being perpetrated by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, those hopes were then dashed.
"Such demonstrations of affection are not new," said Sonja Karkar of the Australian for Palestine in Melbourne. Former Prime Minister John Howard had already fostered this extraordinary bond when he declared Australia as "Israel's closest friend." Many of his ministers followed suit and none was more accommodating than former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer when he said that he wore Israel as "a badge of honour" even as Israel's war planes decimated the Lebanese landscape in 2006.
True to form, Israel has rewarded its friends with facile honours. John Howard received two in one year: the Jerusalem Prize from the World Zionist Organisation and he had a forest named after him in the Negev by the Jewish National Fund, which specialises in acquiring property for "the purpose of settling Jews on such lands."
Official reports by human rights organizations documenting Israel's violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories provide enough evidence to challenge the appropriateness of any country aligning itself with Israel. However, the struggle in support of the liberation of Palestine and Al Quds has a long way to go, especially when governments insist on continuing their love affairs with Israel.
In the meantime, An-Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of dispossession and displacement is being accelerated even today and Israel's crime against humanity continues almost unchecked. "Palestinians are starving in Gaza, Palestinians are being sold out in the West Bank, Palestinians are dying. Their very existence is under threat. It is as simple and as awful as that," writes Sonja Karkar.
Do Bush and Rudd even care?