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Warning: this post is getting very angry, bitter and whiny.
Already we have Jerusalem police arresting a left wing protester for being a left wing protester, and then trying to throw some bogus charge on him. How surprising, they got everything on tape... except for the bit he allegedly struggled and bit a cop. A second view surfaced... which doesn't have that bit as well. Call me sceptic, but a week after a different article was published on excessive and unwarranted police brutality... yeah.
And then there's this. In addition to bringing up the attempted bill to start a parliamentary investigation of left wing and human rights NGOs for no other reason than them being left-wing and human rights NGOs, now they don't want to let people do their national service for them. The plethora of qualifying right-wing/ settler organisations, of course, remains untouched.
About these things I'm beyond angry. I'm just getting more exasperated and depressed each day.
I will tell you what still angers me, though. That in most cases, no serious media outlet outside of the English version of HaAretz and sometimes Yediot is reporting these things outside Israel. I have a while ago already reached the conclusion that the Israeli left has been betrayed by the international left. That the people who are supposed to be our allies in these cases find it easier to ignore us, silence us, to pretend we're not here, and to ignore their own part in contributing to our disappearance (and yes. There is a connection between the international left/liberal discourse about Israel to the diminishing left within Israel. The continuous attitude of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "we've got to do something, even if it does no good and a lot of damage" within a lot of the so-called human rights activists leads to the kind of attitudes within Israel that's very hard to fight. How do you fight claims of antisemitism when the people who are supposed to be your allies have adopted antisemitic discourse? How do you explain human rights issues when what people see are "activists" who care more about being anti-Israel than they do about being pro-Palestinian? (pro-tip: when you're being told and shown that your actions/the line of actions you support are not only unhelpful but actually hurt Palestinians and the Palestinian cause and your reply is "yes well but we have to do something", it doesn't look like the Palestinians' welfare is at the top of your list. Just sayin'.)
Don't get me wrong, we're taking every opportunity to shoot ourselves in the foot, beginning with adopting that same stupid discourse that does its best to ignore us in the first place. Beginning with the complete and utter lack of critical thinking about everything. But many, many more things). So yes, this, as bitter as I am about it, is something I've already come to accept, as much as it angers me.
But the mainstream non-Israeli media's ignoring of what's going on here infuriates me. (To point: the second story has been reported by: Ha'Aretz (Israeli), Ynet (i.e Yediot Ahronot; Israeli), Jerusalem Post (Jewish/Israel oriented, if not strictly Israeli), and People's Daily Online, whatever the fuck that is. I have no idea who they are. I'm taking this as an example because it's current. When the parliamentary investigation idea first came up, almost no one reported it, too, and what reports were published took a very long time to show up. When Profil Hadash were under investigation for 14 months, including unjustified arrests on the same week as the memorial day for soldiers/ Israeli anniversary, no one gave a damn. This isn't about big or small, this is about a pattern). And it infuriates me because the media does affect public opinion. A lot of it. They seem to think that what happens in the Jewish society doesn't matter. That it's internal issues only, that bear no connection to the big picture of the Middle East. When are they going to wake up, when Lieberman wins the election and changes the entire body of laws to become a fully fledged fascist state and there's no one to stop him? What will then be the headlines, "how did it happen?!" This is how it happens. Right here, right now, starting small - no, not starting, because it started several years ago - and being ignored. Cos it's just not interesting enough.
Already we have Jerusalem police arresting a left wing protester for being a left wing protester, and then trying to throw some bogus charge on him. How surprising, they got everything on tape... except for the bit he allegedly struggled and bit a cop. A second view surfaced... which doesn't have that bit as well. Call me sceptic, but a week after a different article was published on excessive and unwarranted police brutality... yeah.
And then there's this. In addition to bringing up the attempted bill to start a parliamentary investigation of left wing and human rights NGOs for no other reason than them being left-wing and human rights NGOs, now they don't want to let people do their national service for them. The plethora of qualifying right-wing/ settler organisations, of course, remains untouched.
About these things I'm beyond angry. I'm just getting more exasperated and depressed each day.
I will tell you what still angers me, though. That in most cases, no serious media outlet outside of the English version of HaAretz and sometimes Yediot is reporting these things outside Israel. I have a while ago already reached the conclusion that the Israeli left has been betrayed by the international left. That the people who are supposed to be our allies in these cases find it easier to ignore us, silence us, to pretend we're not here, and to ignore their own part in contributing to our disappearance (and yes. There is a connection between the international left/liberal discourse about Israel to the diminishing left within Israel. The continuous attitude of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "we've got to do something, even if it does no good and a lot of damage" within a lot of the so-called human rights activists leads to the kind of attitudes within Israel that's very hard to fight. How do you fight claims of antisemitism when the people who are supposed to be your allies have adopted antisemitic discourse? How do you explain human rights issues when what people see are "activists" who care more about being anti-Israel than they do about being pro-Palestinian? (pro-tip: when you're being told and shown that your actions/the line of actions you support are not only unhelpful but actually hurt Palestinians and the Palestinian cause and your reply is "yes well but we have to do something", it doesn't look like the Palestinians' welfare is at the top of your list. Just sayin'.)
Don't get me wrong, we're taking every opportunity to shoot ourselves in the foot, beginning with adopting that same stupid discourse that does its best to ignore us in the first place. Beginning with the complete and utter lack of critical thinking about everything. But many, many more things). So yes, this, as bitter as I am about it, is something I've already come to accept, as much as it angers me.
But the mainstream non-Israeli media's ignoring of what's going on here infuriates me. (To point: the second story has been reported by: Ha'Aretz (Israeli), Ynet (i.e Yediot Ahronot; Israeli), Jerusalem Post (Jewish/Israel oriented, if not strictly Israeli), and People's Daily Online, whatever the fuck that is. I have no idea who they are. I'm taking this as an example because it's current. When the parliamentary investigation idea first came up, almost no one reported it, too, and what reports were published took a very long time to show up. When Profil Hadash were under investigation for 14 months, including unjustified arrests on the same week as the memorial day for soldiers/ Israeli anniversary, no one gave a damn. This isn't about big or small, this is about a pattern). And it infuriates me because the media does affect public opinion. A lot of it. They seem to think that what happens in the Jewish society doesn't matter. That it's internal issues only, that bear no connection to the big picture of the Middle East. When are they going to wake up, when Lieberman wins the election and changes the entire body of laws to become a fully fledged fascist state and there's no one to stop him? What will then be the headlines, "how did it happen?!" This is how it happens. Right here, right now, starting small - no, not starting, because it started several years ago - and being ignored. Cos it's just not interesting enough.
