Blaming the Victims

[See also the excellent book, "Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship
and the Palestinian Question" by Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens]

Blaming the Victims
Thursday, May 16 2002 @ 01:58 AM GMT
http://palestinechronicle.com
By Loukas Christodoulou 

Don't expect objectivity from me. You see, for the last few weeks I have
not had the benefit of the mainstream media to give me a balanced picture
of the situation in Palestine. Instead, I have been living in the middle
of the events in Bethlehem, witnessing army brutality and civilian misery.


While staying at the Al-Azzeh camp, I obviously missed all the terrorists,
the anti-Semites and the fanatics that the Israeli army and the BBC see
as infesting the refugee camps. 

It doesn't take a genius to be suspicious of the capitalist media --
anyone who's been on a political action is used to being misrepresented
and smeared. But the campaign of lies waged against the people of Palestine
beggars belief. Resting on old colonial prejudices and modern Islamophobia
and racism, it has the objective of blaming the victims in this conflict;
presenting Israel as a democratic state under attack from unreasonable
semi-humans. I am not even going to talk about Jenin. I am too angry.


Rejecting this picture leads us on to a more complex analysis of the
conflict, and of the Israeli and Palestinian societies. It leads us towards
seeing the divisions and contradictions within each camp, rather than
accepting Sharon and Arafat as the only protagonists, perfectly representing
"their" people. It leads one to see the crux of the problem as lying,
not in the outbreaks of violence that are presented as spectacles to
be passively consumed, but in the everyday lives of the millions of Palestinians
who are living under conditions of great hardship. To quote a recent
Israeli peace slogan: "the Occupation is killing us all!" 

It was with recognition of these underlying factors that the Palestinian-led
International Solidarity Movement has organised groups of international
volunteers. Following on from the December 2001 campaign, this Easter
was to see similar work replanting olive trees and dismantling roadblocks
-- aiming, in fact, to use non-violent methods of direct action to give
the Palestinians a chance to be non-violent themselves. Unfortunately,
the Israeli army decided otherwise. Having only pulled out of the Bethlehem
area two weeks previously, the APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers) and
tanks rolled in again. In our affinity groups, we decided that our places
was to act as observers in the nearby refugee camps, home of the radical
and dispossessed, thus a favourite target for Israeli army repression,
arrests and random shelling. Sitting in the neatly kept, poverty-stricken,
living room of our host family, with the Apache helicopters and robot
drones flying overhead, I experienced for a few days the terror that
these people live through. Sitting drinking endless cup of tea with young
men who know they could be dragged out and shot; staying up all night
because sleep is impossible. Times like these were almost enough to turn
me from an anarchist into a liberal national reformist. 

During these days any sign that the "international community" could pressure
Israel into a withdrawal would have been very welcome. When Belgium cut
off diplomatic ties I had a flash of intense Europhilia. But just as
the neighbouring Arab states have no interest in real Palestinian liberation,
so the United States (of both Europe and America) have little interest
in halting the long process of ethnic cleansing. Israel represents one
of the cornerstones of the upcoming European free trade zone, and an
enclave of western consumers on the East Mediterranean. It is grassroots
movements that can have real solidarity with those in Israel and Palestine
that want peace and justice. 

This analysis is not ideology -- it is bourne out by the fact that the
only real political solidarity that has been offered during this crisis
has been by social movements. The ISM volunteers include many people
involved with Earth First!, Reclaim the Streets and Peoples' Global Action
in the USA and UK. A similar organisation, GIPPP (Grassroots International
Protection for Palestinian People), who managed to enter the city of
Ramallah while it was under siege, is strongly linked to European and
Latin American peasants' movements and the anti-globalisation group ATTAC.
These international links are real ones -- based in common struggles.


During my time here, I have become aware of just how little I can achieve,
and of how short my involvement has been -- even if I return, I still
have the freedom of movement denied to my friends in Al-Azzeh camp. Yet
I am proud to be part of a movement that offers direct solidarity against
genocide, and fights for social justice and ecological harmony at home.


There will be another ISM campaign in June; I expect it to be massive.
There will be ecological and anti-capitalist protests across the globe.
This year will see both the European Peoples' Global Action conference
and the European Social Forum, which should both be massive and inspiring.
I cannot detach these struggles, or indeed my own struggle for day-to-day
survival, from the fight of the Palestinian people to live in peace and
security. 


---*---
Marc Rodrigues: [email protected]
+ Voicemail/Fax: 866.206.9067 x4217
+ Cell: 914.661.9783
+ Students for a Free Society: http://qcsfs.tripod.com

"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word "freedom" out of your
vocabulary." -Malcolm X