Thursday, March 6, 2008

CNN breaking (and slanted) news

This isn't a blog about this side or the other. It's not about occident and orient. Not about Jew and Muslim. It's simply about right and wrong. And quite honestly, i just don't get it sometimes.

The last month has seen over 120 Palestinians die. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is as bad as its been since 1967. This should move us. But it doesn't.

A few hours ago a Palestinian gunman penetrated a Jewish seminary in the West Bank and killed at least 7 people. Both horrible. Both wrong.

I am truly amazed on how 'we' in the west can be so one-sided. The death of a Palestinian child is almost the 'norm' and it may get mentioned in the news, perhaps a little more than the football match between Arsenal and Man United.

I watch CNN quite often. Not because I like it but because it offers me perspective. Just as AlJazeera or Euronews does. The flashing yellow BREAKING NEWS signs have been lighting up our living rooms for hours. They will continue to do so for many days. Condi Rice will call it a barbaric act of terrorism. Yet the murder of Palestinian innocence is met with 'both sides must show restraint' and 'we regret the death of non combatants.' It's fucking disgraceful. It should make us really fucking angry. Not because it's about a Jew or a Muslim - but because it's wrong, just plain wrong.

This attack will be met with bloody revenge by the IDF. There will be more carnage. More mothers will grieve the lost of their child. And the western media will continue its slanted reporting. Especially the American media. It's just not fair.

I don't have an anti-semitic bone in my body. Nor an anti-Islamic one. I don't view things within those narrow confines. Nor do i group people by the God they worship. The sad thing is, we have lost so much perspective on the Palestinian issue. We can't understand the readiness for violence expressed by many Palestinians. Even though its all they've known since 1947. Not a single generation since then has been raised in a normal environment. Not many haven't been raised in a refugee camp. None of them have tasted freedom.

The Israeli's deserve no less. On the contraire. But we continue to justify the extreme violence used by the collectively traumatized Jewish population, which, by the way, was our making. Perhaps it is guilt support, sort of like Dutch funding for the Srebrenica area.

All i know is that the Palestinian conflict should weigh heavily on our conscious. But sadly, it does not. I don't think any of us can claim that we don't have blood on our hands. And for that I am truly sorry. I am sorry and ashamed that we pretend to walk the high moral ground whilst turning a blind eye to their suffering. Or in America's case - helping one side against the other, instead of wielding its power and influence fairly and justly to create a viable peace.

No Jew or Muslim in Jerusalem (the place so many deem holy) will sleep well tonight. I don't think they have in a long time. Shame on CNN. Shame on us all. Sleep well my friends. The Palestinians won't.

peace

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