The Palestinians Nobody Cares About
The people who profess to care deeply about the plight of Palestinians care only about certain Palestinians -- those within Israel's borders. Khaled Abu Toameh writes at Gatestone Institute:
Western journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly focus on the "plight" of Palestinians who are affected by Israeli security policies, while ignoring what is happening to Palestinians in neighboring Arab countries.These journalists, for example, often turn a blind eye to the daily killings of Palestinians in Syria and the fact that Palestinians living in Lebanon and other Arab countries are subjected to Apartheid and discriminatory laws.
A Palestinian who is shot dead after stabbing an Israeli soldier in Hebron receives more coverage in the international media than a Palestinian woman who dies of starvation in Syria.
The story and photos of Mahmoud Abu Jheisha, who was fatally shot after stabbing a soldier in Hebron, attracted the attention of many Western media outlets, whose journalists and photographers arrived in the city to cover the story.
But on the same day that Abu Jheisha was brought to burial, a Palestinian woman living in Syria died due to lack of food and medicine. The woman was identified as Amneh Hussein Omari of the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, which has been under siege by the Syrian army for the past 670 days. Her death raises the number of Palestinian refugees who have died as a result of lack of medicine and food in the camp to 176.
The case of Omari was not covered by any of the Western journalists who are based in the region. As far as they are concerned, her story is not important because she died in an Arab country.
Had Omari died in a village or refugee camp in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, her story would have made it to the front pages of most of the major newspapers in the West. That is because they would then be able to link her death to Israeli measures in the West Bank or the blockade on the Gaza Strip. The same journalists who report about the harsh economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip do not seem to care about the Palestinians who are being starved and tortured to death in Arab countries.
Nor are the journalists reporting to their readers and viewers the fact that more than 2800 Palestinians have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the civil war there four years ago. A report published this week by a Palestinian advocacy group also revealed that more than 27,000 Palestinians have fled Syria to different European countries in the past four years. The report also noted that Yarmouk camp has been without electricity for more than 730 days and without water for 229 days.
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million? a statistic.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 30, 2015 5:48 AM
Because we all remember when Syria occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, right?
Oh wait, that wasn't Syria. That was some country that still chooses to defy international law about the occupied territory. Wait, I might be able to guess who...
So Palestinian deaths in their illegally occupied homeland are kind of a bigger deal.
Yes, "other" middle eastern countries do bad things. We tend to support the shit out of one of them in particular, though, so maybe a higher standard?
drcos at April 30, 2015 6:18 AM
"So Palestinian deaths in their illegally occupied homeland are kind of a bigger deal."
The Palestinians, ( really Jordanians). have as much of an *illegally occupied homeland* as you do on your piece of ground in North America.
When you get out, go back to your country of ethnic origin, and turn your home back over to the 15th generation descendent of what ever native tribe lived there 400 years ago, I won't call you a hypocrite.
Isab at April 30, 2015 6:41 AM
Isab is right.
And the Israelis live in peace with and give rights to the Arabs who do not want them dead and constantly seek (and "find") their deaths.
Amy Alkon at April 30, 2015 6:49 AM
Some people create their own bad luck, blame others, and never seek to improve their own lot. We all know where sympathy is found in the dictionary. I have none.
MarkD at April 30, 2015 9:13 AM
9. Almost perfect demonstration, drcos.
It is a shame you were the second commenter, had you been the first, I would have awarded a 10!
jerry at April 30, 2015 9:33 AM
Some Israelies would like to live in peace, but no, "The Israelis" do not.
I was a witness. I saw. I met torture victims, I saw the guns aimed at women and kids, I saw hungry people, I saw businesses disappear from one day to the next, bulldozed while I was somewhere else, I saw the new settlements being built, I saw the lines, I saw the effects of closure.
... and as my boyfriend that summer said, "You don't even see anything compared to what's happening, you see what we let you see".
No, Amy. Any time you want, I'll hook you up with a tour of the West Bank and Gaza and you can go see yourself. (Erm, do it quick, my connections are getting up there in years)
NicoleK at April 30, 2015 11:54 AM
The Palestinians, ( really Jordanians). have as much of an *illegally occupied homeland* as you do on your piece of ground in North America.
UN Security Council Resolution 242, and General Assembly resolution 58/292 do not apply to me.
They do apply to the previously discussed areas and peoples.
So I am not alone in my alleged hypocrisy.
DrCos at April 30, 2015 1:32 PM
Let me simplify it for those who still don't understand.
Say Canada invades Seattle, claiming that Seattle was going to attack. They occupy Seattle and start bulldozing schools and churches to build new housing for themselves. What do you suppose the world would think of the Canadians?
Forget Canada, what if it were some country you don't like doing the 'occupying'?
DrCos at April 30, 2015 1:37 PM
Let me simplify it for you even more.
Let's say there is no country or internationally recognized government that has jurisdiction over Seattle, just a known terrorist group, and that terrorist group begins launching rocket attacks on Vancouver from Seattle.
Let's say the cause of this dispute is that the Seattlites claim that Vancouver is their land, but was illegally stolen by the Canadians - ignoring the fact that there was no country in existence there at the time (that their land was a province of a now-defunct empire); ignoring the fact that they and their allies three times invaded Canada in a declared war to destroy Canada and kill all the Canadians and were beaten back all three times at a high cost to the Canadians.
Let's also say that the Canadians captured territory in one or more of those wars and have been administering it for years, refusing to cede it back to the Seattlites for fear they will use it to attack Canada yet again, and this time might succeed in their vow to kill all the Canadians.
And let's also say the Canada has a smaller population than the Seattlites and their allies, has a country that is barely 9 miles wide at its narrowest point in the middle of the country (good for splitting it in half in a war), and has as legitimate a claim to Seattle as its ancestral home as do the Seattlites.
Let's further say the Seattlites repeatedly refuse to accept a solution to this territorial dispute with Canada that involves the creation of two states, teach their children that Canadians are the lowest form of life on the planet, and encourage their children to stage suicide attacks in order to kill Canadians.
That would be closer to the whole truth.
Personally, I'm in favor of the Israelis limiting the building of settlements in the so-called occupied territories, but this ongoing fiction that the Palestinians are angelic victims of Israeli genocide is a ludicrous lie that has prolonged and intensified the violence.
Conan the Grammarian at April 30, 2015 2:46 PM
"Seattlites" sounds like a groovy sixties pop band.
Conan the Grammarian at April 30, 2015 3:17 PM
Those of you so eager to cite "international law" vs. Israel:
Are you so eager to have it be the norm, and applied to the United States?
Think before you reply...
Radwaste at May 1, 2015 6:41 AM
This is an interesting thread.
Is Silesia and Eastern Prussia occupied land by Poland and Russia? Is the former Eastern Poland occupied land by Belorussia and Ukraine? Is Pakistan and Bangladesh occupied land that belongs to India?
Stinky the Clown at May 1, 2015 7:01 AM
... that terrorist group begins launching rocket attacks
Did this happen before the occupation? There was no imminent threat when Israel started the war, they just used that to justify it. Good think we wouldn't do something like that, right?
Those of you so eager to cite "international law" vs. Israel:
Are you so eager to have it be the norm, and applied to the United States?
Well, we seem to think it should apply to Iran and Russia...
I am not trying to paint the Palestinians as angels. My point is that Israel pretty much started the mess by invading, and wants to be the victim, still.
drcos at May 1, 2015 9:12 AM
What the heck are you talking about drcos? The Six-day war? You know, the one where the Arab states massed large armies on Israel's borders and expelled the UN troops that were supposed to keep them apart. And then got their butt's kicked costing them territory.
And as for the UN, nobody takes their resolutions seriously. Much less anything from the inhuman rights council. Nations ignore UN resolutions all the time. All they are good for is some low key diplomacy.
Ben at May 1, 2015 1:10 PM
"What the heck are you talking about drcos? The Six-day war? You know, the one where the Arab states massed large armies on Israel's borders and expelled the UN troops that were supposed to keep them apart. And then got their butt's kicked costing them territory."
The six day War and the Yom Kippur war are to the Progs version of Middle East history what the medieval warming period is to climate change.
Things that need to be ignored, and minimized to make the narrative work.
Isab at May 1, 2015 7:34 PM
I was just taking a guess what the heck he was talking about. I think that is when Israel took the gaza strip and such. None of what he said seemed grounded in reality.
Ben at May 2, 2015 5:53 PM
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