"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible."
- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
As a follow up to the post below on the cut-and-paste job done by two Israeli newspapers, a friend sent along a link to this new piece in the London Review of Books.
The article, by Yonatan Mendel, castigates the Israeli media for deferring to its military on all things security.
"This phenomenon, in which IDF statements are directly translated into media reports – there are no checkpoints between the army and the media – is the result both of a lack of access to information and of the unwillingness of journalists to prove the army wrong or to portray soldiers as criminals," Mendel writes.
The article is actually a bit convoluted, and Mendel recklessly breezes by complicated issues of language that undercut his thesis. But the piece is still an interesting read.
I still find it remarkable that major Israeli papers, whose Israeli reporters are barred by their government from going to Gaza, don't have solid, trusted, regular Palestinian reporters in Gaza on their staff to cover a place central to the future of both people.
What happened to Amira Hass? When did she leave Gaza or DID she leave Gaza and why - when Gaza was declared a hostile entity?
Also, I didn't realize that this was an issue with the Israeli press. I know that here in the U.S. we have to battle the word of the Israeli gov't being printed as fact. Many times I have to contact editors and headline editors and point out that just because the Israeli gov't said it, doesn't make it fact. Again, I don't think this is any conspiracy, just laziness on the part of the editors.
Posted by: Edie | February 29, 2008 at 04:35 PM
Re: "The article is actually a bit convoluted, and Mendel recklessly breezes by complicated issues of language that undercut his thesis. But the piece is still an interesting read."
Your second point - well, I guess you'd really have to know Hebrew to know what you're alluding to, but why do you think his piece was 'convoluted'?
His points struck true, not only concerning the Israeli press, but his concerns could be transferred directly to the U.S. media as well.
He was spot-on when he talked about how Israel 'responds' while 'Palestinians attack' and most every other point he made. I don't want to go through his piece paragraph by paragraph, but was wondering if you could point out just one or two concerns you had about his piece. It's really quite accurate, I thought.
Posted by: Edie | February 29, 2008 at 06:05 PM
Amira Hass left Gaza in 1997.
Posted by: todd | March 01, 2008 at 01:18 AM
Amira Hass left Gaza in 1997.
Posted by: todd | March 01, 2008 at 01:19 AM
Well, first he breezes through his piece by accusing Israel of being a racist society in one paragraph and running an Apartheid regime in the next.
Both inflamatory accusations are deserving of more thought if you want to make them.
Then he criticizes papers for not calling IDF attacks murder. Murder is generally used as a legal term and refers to someone convicted in a court of murder.
And he criticizes papers for not calling Abbas the "president of Palestine" when there is no Palestine, only a Palestinian Authority.
Hass lives in Ramallah now.
Posted by: Dion | March 01, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Thank you for responding. I see your points, especially the last two.
It would have been good to go further into his accusations of racism and apartheid, but you better than most should understand about number of words and space issues. His piece was already quite long.
You're right though - it's difficult when talking about this issue not to use language which is construed as inflammatory unless you take the time to explain why one uses such terminology.
People I know often use the term 'zionist' or 'Zionists' which comes off sounding derogatory or conspiratorial because people don't understand the actual definition of the word.
I still think the guy was spot on in his analysis though despite his glitches on technical definitions like 'murder' and 'Palestine'. You gotta admit, U.S. papers at least, NEVER use 'Occupied Territories' or 'occupied Ramallah' to describe a place where violence might be taking place. And if they did, it would probably explain A LOT of why the violence is taking place. One, little word.
Posted by: Edie | March 02, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Obviously the comments from the United Nations about the right of Israel to defend itself are not qualified because the attacks on Israeli soil from Gaza have not ceased. Why are the Israeli leaders toiling in the dirt of the United Nations and not stating the facts that the end of conflict will not occur until the people who are sending the missles are defeated and they surrender? See every major conflict that has ever stopped. The world will recognize Israel's right to exist when Israel recognizes Israel's right to exist by making the tough decision to defeat the enemies of Israel.
Posted by: Marc Margolis | March 02, 2008 at 04:15 PM
Marc,
Do you hear how 'supremicist' [sic 'racist'] you sound.
So - you believe there will be peace once the pesky Palestinians accept the fact that 1) they will live forever away from their ancestral homes and in refugee camps/ghettos, 2) behind and divided by a wall , 3) deprived of any economic viability, political sovereignty or contiguous state and ruled militarily by hostile others (occupied), 4) watch passively while they lose more of their land, crops, orchards, businesses to foreigners (illegal Jewish settlers), 5) give up any and all of their rights guarenteed them as human beings by int'l laws and statutes ... You get the idea.
So, your idea of peace is complete and total subjugation of the Palestinians' rights, dignity and any hope of free future? Oh, we have to remember those pesky Palestinians that live outside the Occupied Territories as well.
It was all so easy! Hey, Palestinians! Kiss some booty and kneel down, then you'll have your peace and security.
Posted by: Edie | March 02, 2008 at 06:10 PM
Their ancestral homes are in Arabia. The Jewish ancestral home is Israel. Nice try.
Posted by: M | March 07, 2008 at 04:02 AM