gaza in my heart, and on my mind: Gideon Levy

Showing posts with label Gideon Levy. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Gaza lives on: March 22, 2009

Gaza war crimes claims gather pace as more troops speak out
(Peter Beaumont, Guardian)

'Shooting and Crying'
(Amos Harel, Haaretz)

Gaza: Nursing the Nightmares
(Clancy Chassay, Guardian, video)

Broad non-violent resistance to Zionism
(Ahmad Hijazi, EI)

Israeli siege kills another child patient in Gaza
(al Mezan, EI)

Gazans struggle for clean drinking water
(Mel Frykberg, EI)

IDF ceased long ago being the "most moral army in the world"
(Gideon Levy, Haaretz)

Monday, February 23, 2009

That's how we are. Singing and wrecking.

Gideon Levy's take on Waltz with Bashir, 'Antiwar' film Waltz with Bashir nothing but a charade, is a devastatingly honest look at how self-centeredly the suffering in Waltz with Bashir is portrayed. Folman focuses nearly the entire movie on his own guilt and confusion about his role in Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, except for the last 30 seconds of the film (I won't give it away for those who haven't seen it, although the article does). It centers around his moral and conscious wrestling with his actions and his own Jewish history. Levy rightfully holds the bar for art higher than Folman in that the movie focuses solely on the Israeli experience of 1982, and not the Lebanese or Palestinian. War affects everyone who participates in it or survives it, however in the spirit of true engagement and critical thinking Folman's movie could have done more to focus on the suffering of those who bore the heaviest burden in 1982--the Lebanese and Palestinians. That said, my personal reaction is still that I expect very little from mainstream Jewish Israel in terms of addressing past wrongs in regards to Palestinians in particular and Arabs at large. Not because I don't think they should address these wrongs, but because the Gideon Levys and Ilan Pappes and Amira Hasses of Israel are few and far between-- those who take a meaningful and truly critical look at Israel's past and have the moral courage to say "it's not always about us-- a lot of the time, it's about them." Folman's film poked larger holes in the illusion of the IDF being the world's most "moral army" at a very critical moment (the film came out during the Gaza war), and those who saw Waltz probably were led to reflect not only on Lebanon, but Gaza. So I accept Folman's baby steps of retrospectivity. Maybe the baby steps will grow.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Economic Peace? No, we can't.

Gideon Levy argues in his article 'Let Netanyahu win', that if Netanyahu is to win the Israeli elections on Tuesday as predicted--this may be the only option left to engender real change between the Palestinians and Israel. He argues that Netanyahu is such a right-winged force that finally the "veil will be lifted" from the facade of Israel engaging in a peace process. A facade that has blocked from the general world's knowledge that while Israel may lament that it has "no partner for peace" it is actively sabatoging any real hopes for peace through its continuous expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, house demolitions, imprisonments, extrajudicial assassinations (you know, when they "kill Palestinian militants"), its excruciating strangulation of Gaza for 2 years, the erection of the Apartheid Wall excising Palestinian land from the West Bank (who remembers in 2002 when they began this wall? It started as a "temporary security barrier"...now it looks like an apocalyptic fortress), and on and on...

Levy's argument could hold...on the condition that the world (namely the US) actually cares. Everything he says is predicated upon the Quartet taking offense to Israel's suddenly revealed oppressive, counter-peace, attitude. I do say really it depends on the Quartet, as a large (and growing) part of the world takes deep offense already to Israel's treatment of Palestinians and saw through its facade a long, long time ago. But we are not as powerful as those who unconditionally support Israel's inhumane imprisonment and oppression of the Palestinians-- reminding us all, always, that Israel's security is "paramount" while that of the Palestinians is negotiatable at best, irrelevant at worst (or at most realistic).

Could the facing off of Obama's SuperHero "Justice and equality? Yes, we can." attitude with that of Netanyahu's "we can lull them into submission through Economic Peace" attitude be what will finally push us towards a change? ("Economic Peace" is the idea that if Israel builds up the West Bank's economy (I don't think Gaza even factors into this equation anymore as Israel refuses to acknowledge it is still occupied) then economic security for Palestinians will be enough to ensure security for Israel without making any "painful concessions" of land. Palesinians will be content with an economy, and no country. I love this approach-- does Netanyahu really think that once Abu Mustafa's is given some collateral to re-open his factory he will forget he is a dispossessed refugee without a homeland and give up fighting to have his own country? Really!?) Will Obama extend his promise of "change" to Palestine? Do Palestinians deserve justice? Are we equal to Israelis? Because, as Levy points out, the term "process" no longer applies to tension between Israel and the Palestinians. "Process" implies some advancement of change over time. The only change over time Palestinians have seen is a rise in the numbers of their brothers, fathers, uncles, grandfathers, sons imprisoned; the rise in settlements stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank; a rise in the number of Gazans dependent on UN handouts to live (that's up to 80% now); an increased number of checkpoints throughout Occupied Palestine; fewer Gazans alive. The leaders have not changed--neither Israeli nor Palestinian. Neither actually look out for their people's best interest.

Is this really what Palestinians' future depends upon? Shock value? Sigh...