Protesters in Tel Aviv held up portraits of Israeli hostages—next to it, photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Humanity and sympathy know no borders.

Protesters in Tel Aviv held up portraits of Israeli hostages—next to it, photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Humanity and sympathy know no borders.

In Israel's war against the Palestinians, Tel Aviv controls the narrative and silences dissenting voices

 October 16, 2023

 COUNTERPUNCH

Framing the Language of Carnage in Palestine: Advantage Israel

  by M. Reza Behnam

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

 

 

 

".... Israel has firmly embedded the myth that it is a democratic, brave, vulnerable nation into the body politic of the United States.  In their current war against the Palestinians, Tel Aviv has made sure to control the narrative and to silence dissenting voices.  With the corporate media, they have established who matters, Israel, and who does not, the Palestinians.

The first casualties of the disinformation campaign have been the use of the words “war” and “conflict.” Oxford English Dictionary defines war as “a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state.”  Conflict is defined (dictionary.com) as a “struggle or clash between opposing forces.”

It is a distortion to say that what we have witnessed in Palestine is a war or a conflict.  Both words imply a battle or struggle between equals or near equals, between two peoples with equal resources and claims.

As Israel conducts its aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza, the media continues to improperly frame the killing of the colonized by the Israeli colonizer as a war and/or conflict.  CNN, MSNBC and National Public Radio, for example, have been using the promo, “Israel at War,” to entice viewers and listeners.

Tel Aviv has declared war on a political party, Hamas.  The Gaza Strip—about the size of New Jersey— home to 2.3 million Palestinians, is not a nation or a state.  It has been under Israeli military occupation and blockade and can best be described as an open-air prison...." READ MORE

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Thousands of Palestinians seek safe refuge at U.N. offices in Gaza

Palestinians flee their homes to take shelter at the United Nations school in Gaza City, Sunday, July 13, 2014. Israel briefly deployed ground troops inside the Gaza Strip for the first time early Sunday as its military warned northern residents to evacuate their homes, part of a widening campaign against militant rocket fire that's seen more than 160 Palestinians killed. Israel accuses Hamas of using Gaza's civilians as human shields by firing rockets from there. Critics say Israel's heavy bombardment of one of the most densely populated territories in the world is itself the main factor putting civilians at risk. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (AP2014)

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/07/13/thousands-palestinians-seek-safe-refuge-at-un-offices-in-gaza/

Some 4,000 Palestinians sought refuge Sunday at U.N. offices in Gaza after at least 45 people died and 131 were wounded over the past 24 hours in intense Israeli attacks on the densely populated coastal strip.

Some 166 people have died - among them 23 children - and more than 1,100 have been wounded in the six days so far of the third Israeli offensive against Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement assumed control in the zone in 2007, Chris Gunnes, the spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said.

"The situation in Gaza continues to be devastating and unpredictable. Thousands of terrorized people are trying to flee from the attacks and find refuge at UNRWA installations. We've opened eight schools and just today about 4,000 people have sought refuge," Gunnes said.

"The number is growing as the day progresses. Six of those schools are in Gaza City," the U.N. spokesman said.

Gunnes once again urged all parties to put an end to the hostilities, protect civilians and respect international law.

Military spokesmen in Israel, meanwhile, said that a rocket fired by Palestinian militias from the Gaza Strip on Sunday hit the Israeli city of Haifa, 150 kilometers (93 miles) away for the first time.
The rocket was part of a salvo of three missiles fired at mid-afternoon, with the other two being launched at the Tel Aviv metro area but both of which were intercepted and destroyed by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

Haifa, located in northern Israel, is one of the country's two most important ports and along the bayshore there, north of Mt. Carmel, are many petrochemical plants and facilities, making the area a key target for Palestinian militias. EFE

Zochrot ... Peter Betts' London Review of Books letter: "Tel Aviv was in fact built around and over the top of Palestinian villages, largely destroyed in 1948."

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/letters

Zochrot

Richard J. Evans in his review of War and Town Planning refers to cities ‘built on virgin soil, like Patrick Geddes’s Tel Aviv’ (LRB, 5 December). Tel Aviv was in fact built around and over the top of Palestinian villages, largely destroyed in 1948. The villages are now areas in Tel Aviv – Abu Kabir, Summayl, Shaykh Muwannis and Salama – and can be seen on a map published online by the Israeli organisation Zochrot (Hebrew for ‘remembering’).

Peter Betts
Liverpool

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further reading

Zochrot

... For most localities, summaries of its history are in Hebrew only. (To read summaries in Hebrew, translate the page by clicking "Hebrew" on the top right corner of the screen).

Return

Practical thoughts

Zochrot supports the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their country. Return is fundamental to resolving the conflict and implementation of return need not cause injustice to Jewish people who live in Israel. Return does not mean expelling Jews from their homes, but the very opposite: The mutual existence of Palestinians and Jews in the country.

Until today, most discussions on the return of Palestinian refugees have centered on the right of return as a legal principle. Zochrot seeks to advance this discussion from principle to practice. What might return actually look like on the ground? What needs will have to be met for the refugees to be reabsorbed? How would major social institutions be reorganized to prepare for return?

Planning return requires appreciating the diverse questions that might come up in different parts of the country. For example, return to a Palestinian village that is today the site of an Israeli city will be different from return to a Palestinian village whose lands are used for grazing cattle or public recreation. Return to a village that was afforested will present different challenges than return to a village whose buildings now house Jewish residents.

Thinking practically about these questions can help free Israeli society from the intense fear posed by the idea of return, and can foster true civic relations between Jews and Palestinians. For Palestinians, planning return can bring closer the actualization of their rights in their country. Return can release the two societies from the relationship of occupier-occupied, expeller-expelled.

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