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A Response to Friedman’s NYT Op-Ed, “Steal This Movie”

First, please Read Friedman’s article.

On August 7, 2010, Friedman stated, “If you convey to Israelis that you understand the world they’re living in, and then criticize, they’ll listen.”

I struggle deeply with this.  First, because I do believe it’s important to listen to both sides of an issue. But I also firmly believe, especially in the instance of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, that it’s important to then form an opinion, and act.  Friedman’s article requests that we do what is already being done, especially by the media: understand Israel’s situation.  Where does Palestine fit into this?  Is it forgotten, once again in the shadow of understanding Israel’s situation?

I live in Nablus, West Bank.  I’m not an academic.  I’m not a historian.  I make no claims of even understanding the conflict, to be frank.  But I see evidence of the Israeli occupation every day.  I talk to Palestinians about their life every day.  I take buses with Palestinians.  I go to the market with Palestinians.  The power dynamic of the occupation negates the relevance of constructive criticism, as Friedman requests.

Until they put the machine guns down, the Israeli side is that of the oppressor.  Until kids can go to school without being beaten. Until shepherds can feed their sheep on the hills they’ve lived on for years.  Until my Palestinian friends can travel to the beach to enjoy a day in the sun. Until settlers stop burning olive trees and water runs freely. Until Palestinians don’t need a different colored license plate to identify that they are prohibited from using the asphalt roads that allow quick travel around the country.  Until settlements and outposts do not sit on top of the highest hills, on the middle of land that Palestinian farmers have owned for years.

[According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal].

Friedman said, “I write about this now because there is something foul in the air. It is a trend, both deliberate and inadvertent, to delegitimize Israel — to turn it into a pariah state, particularly in the wake of the Gaza war.”

A pariah state.
Haaretz, Sept 25, 2007 “On the way to a pariah state

CNN, Jan 19, 2009 “Palestinians: 1,300 killed, 22,000 buildings destroyed in Gaza

I’m not in a place to respond to all of the trends Friedman mentioned, but it’s hard to call Gaza much more than a prison camp.  Singers should cancel their concerts in Israel – as they should have in South Africa during apartheid (Wall of Silence). If you just landed from Mars, who knows what you’d think, but I think you’d be struck by the huge wall separating two lands and the checkpoints and the machine guns.

In order to right the wrongs done by all the parties involved in this occupation (America, Israel, etc), we must speak out against it, rather than excuse wrongs because we are all wrong-doers.  Let us not use the violence in the world to excuse the violence Israel inflicts on common people every single minute of every single day. Let us, for once, learn from history.

I will be amazed and pleased when the world looks to the Palestinians and says, “I understand the world you’re living in.”  When that day arrives, people will have truly opened their eyes to the immensely different worlds that Israeli’s and Palestinians live in.

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“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. ”
-Bishop Desmond Tutu

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