My letter to the Guardian RE Pollard vs Bell - the debate that highlights a journalistic dilemma

Steve Bell is an award-winning cartoonist. The Steve Bell cartoon website is Belltoons.co.uk

RE: Pollard vs Bell - the debate that highlights a journalistic dilemma
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/jan/30/sundaytimes-radio41

Dear Sir,

I very much appreciate all the fascinating and courageous coverage The Guardian has given to the grotesque cartoon by Gerald Scarfe.  In the Pollard vs Bell debate, where cartoonist Steve Bell does a brilliant job explaining a very reasonable position, Pollard gets in the last word, asking listeners "to have a look at the cartoons and make their own minds up. It's how the individual perceives it. I defy anyone not to see this cartoon as being about Benjamin Netanyahu glorying in the blood of Palestinians."

When I first saw the cartoon my immediate thought was that the people being trapped in the wall were a diverse crowd, not necessarily defined by religion or nationality.  That handsome youth towards the center could be a Jewish boy, an Israeli or an Arab Palestinian- Christian or Muslim.

I looked again. I still think the people trapped and tormented by Netanyahu's policies- and that horrible land grabbing apartheid wall- are a diverse crowd, but now I wish that all the Jewish organizations and individuals complaining about that grotesque cartoon would put the same angst and energy into objecting to Israel's ongoing crimes against people of Palestine.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Israel to demolish Palestinian neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, displacing 200 native non-Jewish men, women and children

Grotesque, offensive cartoon depicts Netanyahu's grotesque, offensive anti-Palestine polices:

Refugees again, Palestinians flee Syria's war

"I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza..."

Looting books from Palestinian libraries: Dark stories

NYTimes: U.S. Inaction, Mideast Cataclysm? ...by Bernard Avishai and Sam Bahour

Arab League official urges Arab Israelis to go out and vote to thwart ‘racist’ Israeli plans

Palestinian passengers will be more tempted to read books after a new reading campaign is launched next week. A group of young writers are gathering books to put in mini-vans linking major cities in the West Bank, routes that can waste hours.

Diplomacy in action- for peace & Palestine

Palestinians set up new tented protest village northwest of Jerusalem

Museum displays Palestinian heritage in Tulkarm. - YouTube

PLO Delegation: Statement on Killing of Palestinian Youth

UN Chief Urges Israel to Rescind E1 Settlement

Israeli forces demolish 2 East Jerusalem homes

Aid agencies tread gingerly in Area C... Palestinian communities here, among the poorest and most vulnerable in oPt, desperately need access to water, electricity, sanitation and other basic infrastructure.

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Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
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Empowering Peace & Palestine

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The Arab Peace Initiative

Refugees and the Right of Return

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