If Shylock was a Palestinian…

I am a Palestinian.

Hath not a Palestinian eyes?

Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions;

fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,

healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by

the same winter and summer as an Israeli is?

If you prick us do we not bleed?

If you tickle us do we not laugh?

If you poison us do we not die?

And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

If a Palestinian wrong an Israeli, what is his humility? Revenge.

If an Israeli wrong a Palestinian,

what should his sufferance be by an Israeli example? Why, revenge.

The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

           (Amended Shylock’s speech from A Merchant of Venice by W. Shakespeare)

Media, Colonialism and the Fear of the Other (Part 1)

Imagine a foreigner or a traveller transiting through the UK to continue their onward journey. Imagine this traveller perusing the Duty Free section and generally killing time as he awaits his connecting flight. Imagine this man passing by a newspaper stand, perhaps a WHSmith. Imagine him picking up a newspaper, any newspaper. What would he see? What impressions would he form? What would he think of our country? What would he think of the people? What would he think of the state that we are in?

***

The media in this country is  perhaps the same in many, if not in all countries. And, in this ever smaller world of ours, it is everywhere, in our homes, on our streets, at work, in town and of course online. The media serves many purposes and constructs for us a picture of the world, a framework within which we can then see ourselves. Some purposes may be noble; freedom of speech, freedom of information, conveying of factual content and opinion. Some purposes maybe ignoble. What strikes me is that given all the recent negative media attention on the media itself; phone hacking, tapping up, snooping, Leveson, News of the World, I could go on, there seems to be an almost intentional zeal, a blind hatred that the media has when it comes to reporting on Islam, Muslims or indeed anything east of  Athens. The more one delves into this idea the more obvious it becomes that loaded in every article that is written or printed and in every nuance of an interview, the inherent fear of the Other is a day to day reality. Historically, the Other has manifested itself most overtly when Western ‘world powers’ embarked upon conquest,  invasion and subjugation. The Other and Otherness as a concept can be defined as a preconceived perception of a hegemonic master to maintain an unequal relationship with the subject, whether economical, political or social and thus heighten their own self worth and weaken, subjugate and ultimately govern the subject. The Other is constantly reminded of his insignificance through literature and the media, and consequently becomes subordinate. This is the key aim of this ruthless relationship as now the occupier can exploit the land and plunder its resources. The docility of the occupied Other is further embedded by the justification of the occupier who is able to allude to his alleged strength by using the various tools at his disposal, thus, naturalizing his subjugation. The occupied population start to perceive their pitiful situation as normal and natural and begin to look to the occupiers; for stability, for rationality, for civility, for governance and for social leadership.  This only heightens the disparity of this discriminatory alliance. Now that we understand what the Other and Otherness as a concept is, we are able to understand how this idea has been, and continues to be, used, metamorphosised and implemented by self declared guardians of freedom, democracy and civilization. This has been done historically by occupiers using the aforementioned righteous objectives, but this guise was in fact the basis for infraction, exploitation and oppression, in short, it was colonialism. Colonialism has reared itself right from the outset of human history with the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all building empires and proliferating their supremacy over vast lands, peoples and territories.  And, it was in the 15th Century with the dawn of the Age of Discovery that led to modern colonialism, initialized by the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas. The European powerhouses, in search of magnanimity, establishment and prosperity, competed and sailed across the seas to far flung corners of the earth to undertake this task. The French and Dutch Empires saw an advancement in mainly North Africa and Africa as a whole respectively, where today the hallmarks of the colonial masters is still visible; be it the assimilation of the language, the railways and decrepit infrastructure or the allusions and discussions of the past, which are on the whole, replete with negative connotations of past miseries, shame and helplessness ensconced on the conscience. However, the masters of the colonial era I would argue were none other than the British. This tiny windswept island in the north-western corner of Europe, at its height sat across a vast Empire, ‘upon which the Sun never set’, with the Raj in India as its Jewel in the Crown. It skillfully used all the tricks at its disposal to build a formidable Empire where its colonies were plundered for gold, minerals, resources, slaves, labour, and so on. This in turn fueled the Industrial Revolution and ensured the dominance of the British Pound. The effects of this were not only economical but due to the great skill at which the British played the game with their intentional and also inadvertent treatment of the Other, they ensured that the consequences of the colonized mindset still fervently exist today on the psyche of the minions. to be continued…

Media Bias

*Hadar Goldin was 23 years old. His family were told that he was ‘captured’ by Hamas. The IDF later informed them that he had in fact died. Tragedy for his family. Tragedy full stop. He was an IDF soldier. He was killed in action on Friday. He had a twin brother. His name is Tzur. He is also a soldier.His dad is Simcha. His mum is Leah. He was a Lieutenant. He had a fiancee. They were planning their wedding. He was easy going. His body was not fully recovered. Netanyahu said he was ‘a great hero’. Yaalon (Defence Minister) said he was related to Hadar. Thousands attended his ceremonial rites. On sunday. In Kfar Saba. His death is number 66 on the Israeli list.

Dear reader, can you tell me the names of one of the 10 Palestinians killed in the recent UN school bombing? What were their parents names? What career aspirations did they have? Where were they buried?

Shame on us.

*Please note that I take an anti-war stance and I feel a death is a death and a tragedy is a tragedy. The above is to simply demonstrate the inherent bias, hypocrisy and double standards in world media reports and the undeniable truth that they value the lives of the Israeli’s over the Palestinians.

If this is not ethnic cleansing then what is?

As I write this another UN run school has been hit by a deadly Israeli missile killing 10 more Palestinian civilians, many of them children. The ongoing death toll is unimaginable and the ongoing silence is telling. As the bodies of innocent men, women, and especially children litter the dusty enclaves of Khan Younis, Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza, the question arises; what is the real purpose of this terror state inflicting a modern holocaust on innocent civilians?

At first we were told that it was in response to the missing Israeli soldiers, then it shifted to retaliating against Hamas rockets and now it is because the ‘terror tunnels’ need to be demolished. These same tunnels, the very lifeline of a starving, overcrowded, diseased population which Egypt has shamelessly and without a doubt in compliance with Israeli pressure, closed. What options to the Palestinians have?

The chilling destruction in Gaza will continue as long as the Zionist controlled United States turns a blind eye. Their silence too is deafening. What is the point of the UN? It has had its treaties violated time and time again by Israel and yet there is no outcry? Any credibility that is has or ever had, has been diminished and once again Israel is allowed to break International Law mercilessly and without cessation.

Further, where have all the Arab states gone? They always seem to go AWOL when there is any kind of abuse, violence or destruction in the Levant. Maybe this points to the hypocrisy of their complicity and poodle-like relationship that they share with their hegemonic masters? The truth is that this current cycle of ethnic cleansing that the Palestinians are being subjected to will continue unabashed.

The least we can do for them is pray for their ease.