Jesse Rosenfeld: media coverage of Gaza Flotilla massacre, part 1

IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN AND PALESTINE: UNDER SIEGE
THE LEGACY OF OCCUPATION AND THE CHALLENGES FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST

June 21, 2010 at the Beit Zatoun House, Toronto

While the 3-year-old siege of Gaza has been brought into dramatic focus of late, the 12-year embargo of Iraq that crippled the economy and wrought havoc on civil society continues in another form, post-invasion. At the same time, the ongoing war in Afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on its beleaguered population. The massive $1 billion security and military presence in Toronto this month for the G20 will protect the very world leaders who are overseeing wars and occupations that have cost trillions of dollars, and countless innocent lives. Independent media has a crucial role to play in exposing the reality of war and daily life in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan... Severe restrictions on visas and mobility for foreign and domestic journalists, as well as threats from government and paramilitary forces, hamper efforts to report reality on the ground.

rabble.ca blogger Derrick O'Keefe, New Internationalist co-editor and author of Dancing in the No Fly Zone, Hadani Ditmars, and Carmelle Wolfson and Jesse Rosenfeld of The Daily Nuisance discuss opportunities for breaking the siege of indifference and reporting from occupied lands.

Palestine:
As settlements expand across Jerusalem and Israel's military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza intensifies, Palestinians are on the edge of a new popular revolt. Israel continues its crippling siege of Gaza, paving way for the brutal attack on a humanitarian aid mission into the Strip that took place this month.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are also feeling the pressure as urban renewal and gentrification is used as a pretext to force them out of their historic cities, while the government passes laws to criminalize public discussion of their identity and history. Meanwhile repression against Palestinians and Israeli solidarity activists continues, as does the Palestinian Authority collaboration with Israel.

Behind the regular headlines of tense relations between Israel and the US over settlements The Daily Nuisance www.thedailynuisance.com is exposing the on the ground reality and impact on those living in Israel/Palestine through photography, video, print, news, analysis and opinion.

While international mainstream news filters out and misinterprets local voices, TDN uses English to present local perspectives to an International audience. The editorial collective is comprised of Palestinian, leftwing Israeli and international journalists and media makers.

Jesse Rosenfeld
Jesse is a Canadian print and video journalist based out of Ramallah and Tel Aviv-Jaffa since 2007. He is the print editor of The Daily Nuisance and has written from the Middle East for The Guardian, The Nation, The National (Abu Dhabi English language newspaper), Haaretz English, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, NOW Magazine, Z Net and Electronic Intifada. He has also blogged forAllvoices.com, Mondoweiss and produced video content for The Daily Beast and The Real News.
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Sponsored by the New Internationalist, rabble.ca, The Daily Nuisance and Canadian Peace Alliance
Video Production: Anita Krajnc

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[antifunki]

To give titles to my arguments or pointing out their source is not enough to refute it, while you gave no contradicting information to what I wrote. These are not "rock throwing" people - these are rocket launching, suicide bombing people (thanks for pointing out they are human beings, what would I do without you?) - and the fact that Israel is strong doesn't mean that it should let its people die on the streets from rockets, it means that it has the capabilities to defend them - and it does.

[Nick Howard]

to say some of the most outlandish statements that could have and probably were taken directly from the Israeli propaganda machine proves your overwhelming ignorance. If you read any scholarly article (I will assume a full academic book is beyond you) you will quickly turn your story around. To say that the 4th largest army in the world is at stake against a bunch of rock throwing human being (Yes. palestinians are humans beings) is shear and unadulterated propaganda and to believe is ignorance

[antifunki]

Not that it's very important, but Neither Gaza nor the Palestinian territories are "The most densely populated area in the world" - it's far from that. Gaza has a lot of agriculture and fields. Not a single settlement was built on a land on which Palestinians reside, and not a single Palestinian was evicted to build a settlement - that is a myth.



[antifunki]

Sending guided missiles into Gaza by the Israeli army clearly shows that Israel is after militants, not civilians. Israel invest billions of dollars in developing technology that will allow the most surgical targeting of militants (if it wanted to kill civilians, that would cost much less). But why there are always civilians next to the militants? why an attack against Hamas should end with 3 dead Hamas militants and 2 civilians? would you let your child be in the same room with Hamas militants?

[antifunki]

First, I'm not challenging your intelligence, I'm explaining what arguments I find intelligent. Second, your ration is exaggerated, and I don't think I understand how you include Jews living in the territories as Arabs (they are re-settlers, Israeli citizens, after the Arabs purified the PT from Jews in 1948). If 5 people run toward with guns, aiming to kill you, and you manage to kill them first, you just killed 5 people and they killed none. Should I immediately assume you're the bad guy?

[Nick Howard]

Simply because extremists garner the majority of the news doesn't mean they represent the average person, kinda like how Glenn Beck doesn't represent the majority opinion but he represented a major part of the media simply due to his extremism. That being said, while sending unguided low tech rockets into Isreal is reprehensible, so is sending guided missiles into densely populated areas of Palestine

[Nick Howard]

simply because the 0.5% of the population that may be considered extremist has to live on top of the average citizen to to the fact that it is the most densely populated area in the world due to Israeli incursions on Palestinian land and the continued construction of illegal settlements.

[Nick Howard]

Instead of challenging my intelligence as you know nothing about me why not go further and ask how is it possible to continue to claim self defense when the ratio of deaths between Arabs (Muslim, Christian and Jewish living in the occupied territories) and those living in Israel is 25-1. I'm sure that if the Palestinians were able to keep their homes and had access to basic building materials they would be able to defend themselves against Israeli missile attacks to continue to kill civilians

[antifunki]

Nick, an intelligent person would ask, "how is it that more than 10,000 rockets didn't kill 10,000 people?", and would also get the answer that Israel doesn't have dozens of thousands of casualties from rocket attacks since it DEFENDS its citizens with shelters, alarms, sophisticated anti-rocket system (Iron Dome) and preventive military measures. Do you expect Israel to let its people die so that you will get the problem of terrorism better?

[Nick Howard]

your response reeks of the propaganda machine that is constantly being pushed. Defending yourself with extreme force, like killing an ant with a tank, cannot be justified. Not to mention the fact that the military blockade was illegal and the UN or NATO could have and should have responded with military force is besides the point I guess. More people are killed in New York City every year than in all of Israel annually so calm down on this whole 'terrorist' crap...