Have you heard about the killing of some innocent people at Bondi Beach? If you haven’t, you might want to check out that you’re not living at the bottom of a very deep well.
These were 15 innocent Jewish people, celebrating one of their major feasts. With the focus on that shooting, the loss of human life is horrible.
But did you know that the IDF killed around 24 Palestinians in late November? If you didn’t know that, no need to berate yourself – these were nameless, faceless people about whom most of us knew next to nothing, other than that they were killed by the IDF and that they were Palestinians.
In a way, it’s understandable that we know so much about those killed at Bondi Beach and those killed in the Middle East. The BB people look more like us, we have film of what happened. The Middle East killing of Palestinians is really not news – we’ve known for years that the IDF have been killing dozens,scores, hundred, thousands of Palestinians.
That’s what makes the Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the Occupied Territories so tragic. If we adjust our focus, we’ll see that we’ve been encouraged to lament the deaths of 15 Israelis and virtually ignore the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. The objective of the Israeli government was to see and present as sub-human the people of Gaza and the Occupied Territories. Judging by the response of Western media, it’s Mission Accomplished.
Despicable true Jude. Well written balanced piece on the ball as ever.
I sometimes despair at the cruelty and war in the world today. It has to be the worst times. The truth is there has always been conflict concerning the Middle East. The reason it resonates now is because our own war ended a long time ago. We didn’t pay much attention to Israel and Gaza and Lebanon. We were obsessed with Belfast and Derry and Armagh. Unfortunately the innocent always suffer in war.