Human rights for all [or not at all?] - that should be the guiding principle
/Facts rarely figure into politics. Politics is governed by political ambition in the quest for money and power without a moral core. After all humans are involved. The word freedom fighter or guerrilla has been replaced by the word terrorism - this is mostly done to justify wars/agendas - let’s remember terrorism [violent action for political purposes:] is on all sides. Don’t forget Nelson Mandela was a terrorist, so was Menachim Begin and Yasser Arafat and many more including Yigal Amir… No matter - here is an article that is meant as food for thought in the avalanche of political agendas disguised as journalism by most media outlets. A fly has more integrity than most politicians and journalists… sorry to write this but true.
Personally, there will never be human rights until we treat animals as sentient beings and treat them with dignity and respect. From that will grow the betterment of humanity and rights for all living beings. A utopian fantasy perhaps but without hope… and no, religion is definitely not the answer.
I will post what is legally permitted without breaking copyright, the rest can be found on the Guardian’s website - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/israel-palestine-war-biden-zelenskiy
Written by: Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian US
I always dread watching US news coverage of wars, and now is no exception. After Hamas’s deadly attacks in Israel and Israel’s hellish bombardment of Gaza, I checked in on MSNBC. Before long, I heard one of their reporters talk about “the violent history between these two nations” – as if Palestine were a country – and had to turn off the TV to get a break. Palestine is not a country. That’s the whole point.
Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel all live under various regimes of organized discrimination and oppression, much of which makes life nearly unlivable, and if the US media can’t even frame the issue correctly, what use is there in even covering it?
It’s not just laziness either. The reflexive identification with Israel, by both US media professionals and politicians, always obscures the fuller picture of what’s happening between Israel and the Palestinians.On 7 October, the national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated that the US “unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians”. Every one of us must stand up and denounce the killing of every civilian, Israeli or Palestinian or otherwise. But Watson’s use of the word “unprovoked” is doing a lot of work here.
What exactly counts as a provocation? Not, apparently, the large number of settlers, more than 800 by one media account, who stormed al-Aqsa mosque on 5 October. Not the 248 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers between 1 January and 4 October of this year. Not the denial of Palestinian human rights and national aspirations for decades.
One can, in fact must, see such actions as provocations without endorsing further murderous violence against civilians. But if you watched only US news, you would be likely to presume that Palestinians always act while Israel only reacts. You might even think that Palestinians are the ones colonizing the land of Israel, no less. And you probably believe that Israel, which holds ultimate control over the lives of 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and yet denies them the right to vote in Israeli elections, is a democracy.
To be considered a political being you must at the very least be considered a human being. Who gets to count as human? “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said. Human animals? How can such language and an announced policy of collective punishment against all the residents of Gaza be seen by Israel’s supporters in the United States or elsewhere as defensible? Let’s be clear: Gallant’s language is not the rhetoric of deterrence. It’s the language of genocide.
There’s the nagging hypocrisy of the war in Ukraine. So many around the world support Ukraine’s resistance to foreign occupation (as they should) but blithely deny Palestinians any way to resist their occupation. Even non-violent methods of resistance like the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign is vilified and even criminalized. Why the double standard? Unsurprisingly, such stances go all the way to the top. The Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has twice voiced unilateral support for Israel in recent days, saying that “Israel’s right to self-defense is unquestionable”. Would he say the same for Russia on his territory? Of course not. Zelenskiy ought to see how his invaded and occupied land is more akin to the situation of the Palestinians than the Israelis. The obfuscations are everywhere.
The rest can be read at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/israel-palestine-war-biden-zelenskiy
