The American press is obsessed with the “two-sides-to-every-story” approach and this is magnified in the reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No one knows this better than the Israelis themselves, particularly the Israeli military, which has attempted both the herculean and Machiavellian task of convincing the world that they are “the most moral army in the world.” The Israeli army’s public relations has been most successful in the United States and a recent incident, like many others, indicates exactly how Israel’s public relations spinsters change the story.
Recently, I wrote about the repression of nonviolent peace activists in the West Bank protesting against the building of an illegal wall on their village land and the use of tear gas in this repression. The canisters, fired as projectiles, have been known to kill and maim and, of course, they are made in the USA. Days ago, another one of the protests in Bil’in was broken up by Israeli soldiers using tear gas canisters. This video below shows some of the tear gas used and around the 4 minute mark you can see the canisters whizzing past the heads of the protesters.
Jawaher Abu Rahmah, the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah who was killed by a canister last year, died, at the age of 36, from inhaling the gas this week. Though she was rushed to the hospital, doctors were unable to save her. Inhaling the tear gas led to lung failure which induced the heart attack that ultimately ended Jawaher Abu Rahmah's life. Another Abu Rahmah, Abdallah, remains in an Israeli prison for organizing peaceful protests and the U.S. State Department remains mum on the situation.
So how does “the most moral army in the world” respond to the awfully embarrassing death of a peaceful 36 year old protester whose family has already been devastated by the occupation? Simple, they make up a different story.
The claim this time? Jawaher Abu Rahmah died of cancer, not tear gas.
The problem with the Israeli claim, aside from the simple fact that it isn’t true, is that there exists no evidence to corroborate this claim and all existing evidence proves the opposite. Family members, witnesses, the doctors who treated her and the hospital which failed to save her life all reject the claim that she had cancer and state clearly that it was the tear gas and nothing else which caused her death.
The only problem with these testimonies is that they happen to be Palestinian testimonies. This means that a generally pro-Israel audience, like the American public, which already gives Israel the benefit of the doubt, is likely to take the Israeli position as long as the incident is “disputed”.
There are endless examples of this. A couple of prominent ones which jump to mind are the Israeli attack on the flotilla headed to Gaza last summer and the murder of an American activist, Rachel Corrie, in Gaza. In the first case, Israel attempted to monopolize control over the video footage of the incident (much of the footage still remains in Israeli control and has not been made public even though the commandeered Mavi Marmara has been returned) and released footage they claimed vindicated them in the killing of 9 peace activists aboard the ship. Suddenly, the story was “disputed” in the United States and the story became about what may or may not have taken place on the boat and not about the illegality of the blockage or the illegality of commandeering a ship in international waters.
In Rachel Corrie’s case, the Israelis claimed that the bulldozer driver didn’t see Rachel and that the killing was an accident, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. The story then became “disputed” and was about “dueling narratives” and not about what they should have been about; why the Israelis were illegally bulldozing civilian houses in occupied Gaza.
Similarly, Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s story, like so many others, will likely fall in the “disputed” category and be dismissed like most stories about the brutality of the Israeli occupation here. The story should raise awareness about the illegal wall being built on Palestinian land throughout the West Bank but instead Americans will hear “both sides” so that the story can be “balanced”.
Meanwhile, for the Abu Rahmah family and so many other Palestinians, there may be a different story produced by the Israeli fog machine to distract certain audiences but there is only one reality: Another member of their family is dead and the confiscation of their village land continues.
An integral part of ending the occupation will have to be debunking and discrediting the Israeli fog machine. Clearly, this has already begun.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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