My experience in the pre-"Durban II" conference in Geneva
I was invited to be a panelist for The Geneva Summit for Human Rights, and was specifically interested in hearing the outstanding stories from Burma, Rwanda, Iran, Cuba, Darfur amongst others. I still consider it to be a great opportunity that I made it here as a speaker at in this Summit, whose intentions have just been questioned by Parvez Sharma, director of “Jihad for Love,” also a fellow panelist here.
Prior to arriving at the Summit, I was actually aware of the bias, but didn’t realize how grave it was until certain “experts” began talking consistently about anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, with rarely a mention of anything else! I mean, we got people from Rwanda, Burma, Darfur, amongst many others and we end up primarily talking about Israel. What’s going on? I can understand the concern, but not the obsession.
I tweeted, Facebooked, and spoke with many friends about UN Watch’s big role in this Summit. I said this:
Not a fan of UN Watch, any organization that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism makes me ill.
That’s precisely what UN Watch does. Such organizations successfully muzzled mainstream news and is quickly turning to the UN after its condemnation of consistent Israeli aggression claiming the UN has a bias against Israel and is therefore anti-Semitic. This is of course, a known strategy and is completely false. If anything, the UN is not harsh enough for what Israel has done, and what we have all witnessed. Many Israelis and Jews will tell you the same. Some of my best friends are Israelis. They are absolutely terrified speaking out for justice in Israel as some have even received death threats from self-proclaimed “ardent Zionists,” such as the former editor of Jewschool who unfortunately folded after the mounting pressure.
You can’t claim these Israelis and thousands of Jewish people worldwide are anti-Semites. They are simply concerned for human rights and do not value their lives more than they value their neighbors’.
On a relevant note, I also tweeted:
So tired of Arab/Muslim/Iranian bad news being used by others to welcome racism and pity. Thinking of a campaign against this.
Listen, make no mistake, our criticism of Arab governments and Iran are totally legitimate and justified, and we never fall for any scapegoats. Any violation of a human rights we see, we target and act upon immediately. Iran houses a brutal regime committing horrible atrocities that we are actively highlighting. The Iranian regime was attacked NOT for oppressing their people in this Summit; despite these crimes being mentioned, that was barely the focus. They were attacked for threatening to “destroy Israel,” that was the premise of every criticism against Iran, even though Israel also threatened to nuke it! “Oh, but that was in retaliation.” It’s no different. Both governments are equally dangerous with an absolute disregard for human rights. Israel having a liberal “lifestyle” doesn’t change its corrupt politics that is threatening many of us, just like Iran is threatening us by funding militant organizations and violently oppressing anyone opposing it.
We are known here first and foremost for not shying away from criticizing ourselves. In my panel I also made a comment that “every single country in the Middle East is censorship-ridden,” including Israel, where Israelis who criticize their government find themselves in an extremely uncomfortable spot, as “traitors, terrorists, anti-Zionists, self-hating spies.”
Most of my talks are directed to very diverse audiences with an emphasis on the strategy we use for our causes. We raise a great deal of awareness and membership through these things, and as such I accept any speaking engagement where I bring awareness to MideastYouth.com to as many people as possible, even critics. However using our work to empower a political ideology is out of the question, regardless of what the ideology is, and I’m sorry to say that this is what some of the panelists were being used for. I witnessed so much anger, emphasis on anti-Semitism that I was very disturbed even by the usage of the word “Holocaust” that is attached to one tragic incident, with a disregard for the many others throughout history.
During lunch break, some volunteers passed out brochures on another discussion that will take place tomorrow on “Racism, genocide, and Holocaust denial,” notice the wording. My friend turned to me and asked, “what determines what a Holocaust is?” and we looked it up. Not to our surprise, amongst the definitions was:
Any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.
So the Kurds, Bangladeshis, Rwandans, Darfurians amongst others all have suffered through Holocausts in their actual lifetime. Not to mention the Armenian genocide which many deny without issue or legal concern.
Out of frustration I Facebooked it this morning as a status and comment:
Status: There is no ‘THE’ Holocaust, there are many even in recent history as the definition is: “any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.” How many people here acknowledge the genocide in Bangladesh? Recognizing only one Holocaust is really an insult to the other tragic ones that no one cares about or that some deny.
Comment: Obviously what happened was a real tragedy that deserves to be remembered, but it is the only one that is! There are literally thousands of films and books about it, memorial days, sites, but there can’t be a real term that is applied for one tragedy and not the others. In Bangladesh millions died too, and is 26 years more recent.
“Holocaust denial” is punishable by imprisonment in many countries, and subject to severe criticism and hatred in the mainstream, but denying the others is valid as they were merely “civil wars,” and “victims didn’t suffer for centuries.” Despite the fact that most did, and to this day, most ethnic minorities under threat have no State. Most continue to face violent oppression with no protection or acknowledgment whatsoever. Denying THEIR holocausts is frankly way more dangerous and in some ways, even more important to tackle.
In this Summit, did anyone even mention the Kurds, who have suffered through genocide less than two decades ago and continue to face aggressive oppression with no state or government to their rescue? No. Darfur was a note in passing. Aside from the amazing panelist himself, Soe Aung, a Burmese dissident and former prisoner of conscience, no one even spoke about Burma, or the Muslim Rohingya people who suffer massive discrimination there. Despite all of these massive crimes that all of us have a responsibility to tackle as decent human beings, the emphasis was on anti-Semitism and “THE” Holocaust denial, hardly as dangerous as the other issues facing us today – ask some Israelis within Israel themselves! I challenge you that some will second this without hesitation.
Freedom of speech, a passion of mine, was a big subject. I focus on free speech in the entire Middle East including in Israel by allowing many to use this very platform to express themselves freely. But in reality free speech doesn’t really exist everywhere and certainly not even in the USA. Every country has people either abusing this right or denying it to others.
For example, did you know that I was banned entry to a high school in Texas in February during my speaking tour, simply because of my criticism of Israel during the Gaza attacks? I rarely ever mention Israel/Palestine because I feel that too many people already do so, millions of people, and hardly anyone was focusing on the other human rights violations occurring around us and in our name. That doesn’t mean I don’t care however or that I don’t make an effort to give Gazans specifically a platform when they didn’t have electricity to write about what was going on. I published a podcast that was also featured on CNN and the BBC which caused offense to many.
In my rejection to the high school, I got some hateful comments, some questioning whether or not I was a “terrorist.” Despite some reports about Israel, we at MEY also provide first hand accounts from Israelis themselves, no one can argue MEY is biased without the hugely diverse current and archived posts themselves refuting that argument. We give everyone a voice, there are even soldiers in this platform. We have no official political opinion or affiliation and we are proud of that. We have Israelis in the team and we accept them in all their forms. No one can rightfully claim we are anti-Semites, but unless you’re a staunch Israeli nationalist that’s the term people will abuse you with. At the Summit we saw this happening right in front of us.
I don’t regret coming entirely as I met amazing people from Darfur who were the highlight of my experience there, as well as an amazing young man from Belarus who was my co-panelist in a panel about new media strategies for social change. But otherwise, like I said even before attending the Summit, the bias is clear. You can’t use us to empower political ideologies that I personally consider to be inaccurate and corrupt. Next time, if the topic of obsession will be about Israel, invite a single Palestinian to at least provide an account of what the Israeli government puts them through. Invite a human rights activist from Israel who helps build houses for Palestinians in order to let THEM explain what is anti-Semitism, and what isn’t, because UN Watch, and much of the people in the Summit, are confused! Help them identify it.
Either way, some of the bravest and best panelists were here, and these are:
These are sincere and brave fighters for human rights or victims of genocide or oppression. Therefore I am proud to have met them, but next time, I hope we meet where absolutely everyone is represented and where there is no bias towards excessively “anti-Semite” discussions implying that Israel is the biggest victim of oppression when with no doubt it’s the safest and most funded country in the Middle East.
If anyone should be scared of Iran, trust me, its the Arab neighboring countries first, including my home country Bahrain, (FYI we’re not anti-Semites, this is home to the first Jewish ambassador to serve an Arab country, and Jewish MPs.) Hopefully soon everywhere we’ll have Kurdish and Baha’i ones too, representatives of the most persecuted minorities in the region. Iran is funding militant operations here and have threatened to reclaim our land, yet we didn’t threaten to nuke it. Of course, there is no room for discussing that, much of the room was too busy obsessing about a threat that frankly doesn’t even exist.
So that was my experience; my next post will include a run-through of what I actually talked about in terms of using new media for social change, because really that’s where my interest lies, not in some dangerous blame game about who to nuke next and who’s worst at oppressing their people.
This post is my opinion on the Summit as a speaker and participant and not the stance of MEY, where we grant everyone a voice.
Join the Conversation
I think your approach in dealing with the lack of attention on other victimized people (Darfurians, Kurds, Bahais etc.) is problematic. On the one hand you truly care about the various persecuted people you mentioned, as well as critical of Israel. But on the other hand, many of the critics of Israel, especially the state delegates, are the people responsible for the persecution of the various people you mentioned.
Also, every time you mention that you care about human rights in the Middle East, you equate what is happening in Israel and Palestine as the same as what happens everywhere else in the ME. Since the ME Arab and Persian state delegates are all talking about Israel, your voice is sort of in an agreement with what they say and by the time your voice talks about everybody else, your voice is drowned out.
You can’t talk about violations of human rights in the USA in the same sentence as violations of human rights in the ME. There are several high profile intellectuals and authors from Israel who are critical of the government who are surprised when people think that they are being persecuted in Israel. Compare how much it takes for a person to do to be charged with treason in Israel (note: elected Arab officials regularly sympathize with the enemy including supporting Iran having a nuke) with how much it takes to be charged with treason everywhere else. By and large, Israel is more like countries in the West than in the ME.
And if you say that Israel is no where near as bad as Iran for example, your criticism of Israel wouldn’t get the ears and backing except from Zionists against occupation( or two-state supporters).
Frankly, I think you are painting a false picture about Israel. (Who in Israel threatened Iran with a nuke?) Didn’t Walt or Mearshimer speak at Hebrew Univ.?
To give an example of how your voice for the many persecuted people, is being drowned by criticism of Israel, watch this video featured by UN Watch (sorry but they make a good case). The video shows a Palestinian doctor tortured and scapegoated by Libya try to make his case, unfortunately, the Libyan delegate is the one in charge of the conference.
On a different matter, Bahrain is an interesting situation right now. Majority Shiite, but ruled by Sunni which have put the Jewish community in a high position, to the dismay of Shiites deserving of more opportunities. Here is the NYTimes article about this. What do you think of this?
Are you implying that these other innocent individuals don’t deserve attention, despite some having a presence there, a presence that was not honored? You find my post in their favor offensive? They deserved every minute of this Summit. Some got very few, others got no attention whatsoever. This entire “show” was about anti-Semiticism, highlighting the fact that any criticism of Israel is vastly “inappropriate,” while we have conflicts actually going on that are claiming the lives of millions.
I don’t see the logic in portraying Israel and Israelis as somehow more important than anyone else, despite being in the best and most luxurious position as opposed to the many victims who are living in abysmal conditions amidst REAL genocide today as opposed to a memory of a historical one.
I don’t “mention” that I care about human rights in the Middle East. I fight for it every day of my life, as do many others, my colleagues and I simply choose our battles by seeing which abuses don’t get any attention and which do. Hence why we focus on Kurds and Baha’is from an Arab and Muslim perspective, and hopefully now more on Darfur.
False. There are diverse blogs from around the world where my views on Israel is pretty much echoed by even many Jews and Israelis, both on this site and on sites such as Jewschool, where hardly any of them are part of “Zionists Against Occupation” (which is just one out of at least a dozen Israeli or Jewish organizations that wholeheartedly support Palestinian human rights and critical of Israel’s violent aggression.) I linked you to many of them before, as well as a list of organizations in Israel that fight for Palestinians and receive much flack for it from the Israeli government and the IDF, as well as nationalist bigots. I am surprised you didn’t check them out.
False. At least one of these authors and “intellectuals” lost his job in a university and was denied entry to the USA, not to mention what happened to Azmi Bishara. Peaceful protesters in Israel have been attacked and threatened by police for simply questioning the government. Soldiers imprisoned and severely mocked for refusing to serve in the military for moral reasons. This isn’t a false picture, this is the reality of Israel, as many Israelis will also tell you. Check out Eva’s posts, a peace activist in Israel who has been attacked consistently and threatened for her views. She lives in Israel fulltime, as does her historian husband, who has been attacked and verbally abused by people who disagree with his views towards Palestinian human rights, which he witnesses first hand. I have seen how people in Israel treat them, Eva posted photos of some attacks, our site was even hacked (and traced back to Israel) simply because of such posts. Very disturbing.
I don’t deny this, and have made this implication somewhere in the post itself. It doesn’t make my point any more different. Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia et al do it all the time to cover up for their own crimes, which we expose and act upon on a daily basis, but Israel and many organizations like UN Watch are also guilty of silencing any criticism of Israel (as legitimate as many are) with claims of anti-Semitisim, or with outright attacks, which is really what this conference was all about.
Esra’a,
I am interested to hear why you think the fact that you were not allowed to speak at the Texas school is a violation of your free speech rights.
It seems to me that is the epitome of free speech – a parent at the school (wrongfully so in my opinion) had an issue with you as a possible speaker, voiced that opinion, and then the relative authority made a decision. To me, one private citizen expressing concerns about a speaker at the school she pays for her child to attend is an example of her exercising her free speech rights. I agree that it was unfortunate that you were not allowed to speak at the school, but I do not see how this is a violation of your free speech rights.
Now, if the Texas government had somehow prevented you from speaking in a private forum, this would be a different story and would certainly be a violation of your free speech rights.
In fact, this reminds me of a previous article on MEY’s comment policy – no one is actually entitled to be able to post here, and some comments are not allowed (for very good reason). The same principle is true of the Texas school (although, as I said before, I do not agree with their concerns and do think you should have been allowed to speak).
I don’t really care what anyone calls it to be honest. I was referred to as a “terrorist” who posed a danger to their children, simply because of certain views which are absolutely legitimate. I never simply claimed I was denied free speech, it’s an example that falls under that category somewhere. Some kids did claim that it was a violation of my “rights” which they thought I should have had despite what the school board decided. Instead, the school board, and some paranoid parent gave their kids the most awful, hateful message, what are they even being educated for if they are not allowed to be exposed to “Axis of Evil” foreigners? They actually thought I was going to kill them.
Esra’a, first let me say that I have a great deal of respect for you and all the work you do. Yet, I take issue with a number of statements you have made in this article.
Firstly, I agree with your statement that criticism of Israel is not automatically anti-Semitism. However, there are plenty of cases where criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. To criticize the idea of the State of Israel is indeed anti-Semitism. To deny the right of a national group, the Jews in this case, to self determination is anti-Semitism. The Jews have a right to a country just like French, Kurds, and Palestinians do. To be discriminating in deciding who has this right is anti-Semitism. I find it sad that the term anti-Semitism is thrown around in such a carefree manner, but no side is blameless for failing to recognize criticism of Israel when it truly is anti-Semitic. On that note, I disagree with your assertion that Israelis and Jews cannot be anti-Semitic. No group is exempt of the ability to hold bigoted views, regardless of who those views pertain to.
Secondly, I would argue that it is not just pro Israel groups which unfairly focus on Israel. Anti-Israel groups do as well. In fact, a lot of the world seems to. When I saw coverage of the unprecedented amount of protesters who protested during the recent conflict in Gaza, I wondered why I had not seen such protests against Russian actions in Georgia, where 872 Georgians are listed as missing and where there were widespread reports of looting rape and abductions. Similarly, comparatively few people seem to care about what is happening in Darfur. I cannot seem to understand why so many people, with no personal connection, care about such a small area of the world when so many of these same people do not seem to give a damn about the many cases of human suffering elsewhere. I do not buy, for a second, the argument that all of these people care about human rights when they care only about the rights of certain humans.
Thirdly, there is indeed such a thing as the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the name given to the genocide of Jews, Gypsies, Catholics, Communists, Gays and others by Nazi Germany. To my knowledge, and feel free to correct me on this, there is no other commonly used English phrase used to refer to the genocide committed by Nazi Germany. The English term you are looking for is genocide. I am not exactly sure where you found your definition of holocaust from, but I would wholeheartedly agree with you that the definition you gave was the commonly used one for a time. In fact, Winston Churchill used it to refer to the Armenian Genocide. But, that definition is not any more applicable than others. Similarly, another definition mentions the use of fire, which would probably exclude the Rwandan Genocide from being called a holocaust. The original Greek word simply means a whole burnt sacrificial offering to a god. This definition would certainly exclude all of the genocides you mentioned as well as the Holocaust. Consequently, your argument about using the strict definition of the word to the exclusion of all others seems a bit silly to me.
Finally, I invite you to back up your claim that Israel threatened to “nuke” Iran.
Hi dear Esra’a:)
It is wonderful to see that you join this human rights summit. Esra’a, criticims is invaluble, it is invaluble to the one being criticied because that way the countr,y the nation, the people, the organization will learn about what is making it weak, what is making it go wrong, do wrong, what is undermining it, criticims in the right context would really be some thing one has to cherish. The athletes who aim for the best results might pay some one to cirticise them in the extremest ways, that way the person would fight the slighteest errors and mistakes to move forward, but see, that criticism doesn’t mean that the coach would shoot him in the head so that he would understand where he has gone wrong.
The spirit of United Nations and the countries that are members of this very important organization should be of the brethren, as if children of the same parents get around the same table, taking pleasure in meeting one another and understanding how wonderful the others are in the fist place, then the trying to help one another do without what undermines their countries as treasury of human resources. The closer we get to this point, the more countries will engage in criticsing constructively and opening their guards when they are criticized
Your sister in Iran
Elinor
Esra’a, perhaps the preoccupation with anti-Semitism, and with anti-Israel sentiments in Durban II, and related meetings, is due to the fact that Durban I was a fiasco with regard to these same topics. Wouldn’t you say that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments dominated that conference. And wouldn’t it be natural to want to protect oneself against such an onslaught? And doesn’t that bias at least partially explain why the U.S. and some European countries decided to boycott this year’s conference, and why a bunch of delegates walked out today when Iran’s president once again referred to Israel as an illegitimate and racist nation?
In other words, isn’t there at least some justification, in your view, for the obsession you perceive with regard to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment?
In terms of “The” Holocaust, I would agree that there have been, and continue to be, other holocausts around the world. I have tried to document these in some of my posts. However, here again, there are legitimate reasons why people seem to single out this one Holocaust in particular. You can say, on a very basic level, that Jewish writers, teachers, and film makers have had a greater opportunity to get the word out. That is true. But on a deeper level, could it be that what happened to the Jews does stand out in human history as unique, and has therefore become a kind of symbol for the idea of genocide, and holocaust?
As you know, in a relatively short period of time, one third of all Jewry, was singled out for mass murder, simply for being Jewish. Germany was supposed to be a civilized nation, but all notions of civility broke down in one fell swoop, and the foces of evil were let loose.
You look at the Holocaust and wonder; why the preoccupation with an historical event, when actual instances of holocaust are taking place even as we speak? But I have a different take on the matter. I would say that by giving the Holocaust symbolic status, and by personalizing it emotionally through books and films, we acutally bring attention to the other atrocities of which you speak, and sensitize people to these outrages, in ways that would not have been possible if the Holocaust were treated as just another historical event. In other words, we do justice to victims all around the world, by doing justice to the vicitims of the Holocaust, which still stands, in my opinion, as one of the single greatest evils perpetrated by the hand of man.
Esra’a,
Not at all. I think that these various groups are more deserving of attention. In the media, the conference is painted as just a battle between participating delegates (which if the Ahmadinejad speech is any indicator, contains only a few European countries) and NGO’s whom many Israelis don’t appreciate, versus people who want to delegitimize Israel bashers as hypocritical and racist. There is hardly any mention of any other issues being discussed. It seems that you were praticipating in the side events for NGOs rather than where state delegates were participating. Anyway, since in your post, much of what you discuss relates with equating Israel as just as bad as every other country in the Middle East, all the other victimized people that are much deserving of attention, are sort of passed over.
I wrote “Zionists against occupation”, not the organization, just general characterization of liberal Zionists Israelis and Jews.
I’m sorry, I don’t always click the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail ” button. I usually look back at posts that are still on the front page.
I don’t know which professor you are talking about since you didn’t name him or her. Regarding Bishara, he’s a good example for my point. He spoke at the memorial of Hafez al-Assad. In Jewish eyes, it would be like a critic of Israel speaking at the memorial of Ahmadinjad in the future after he passed away. No matter how honestly critical you are of Israel, if you are surrounded with characters such as Hafez or Ahmadinejad, your reputation with the Israeli Left will decline. So if you say Israel is bad, when everybody hears Ahmadinjad saying that Israel is really bad, the current environment will place you two together, hence losing your prominence on other issues such as Bahai rights.
After saying that, Bishara is a coward. He was investigated, not put on trial. He told the police he’ll be leaving for a few days and never came back. If the police really had to him, they wouldn’t have let him leave. A true hero would brave the Israeli Justice system.
Historicly, when to groups are in conflict, whether at armed war or at a diplomatic skirmish (such as in Durban II), the group in the middle which identifies as a part of both groups and sympathizes with the enemy of where they live, that middle group tends to disappear. For example in the early centuries of the Common Era, there used to be a group of Hebrews that followed traditions of Judaism and Christianity. But since the middle group wasn’t fully accepted by the two opposing factions, it disappeared. The only reason that Israeli Arabs exist is because of the liberal democratic institutions and the people that support them in Israel. If it wasn’t for the Israeli Supreme Court, there wouldn’t be any Arab parties in the Knesset.
Unfortunately, because of the current environment of the UN, where pressure needs to be pushed can’t be done because of political agendas and tyranny in much of the East. I guess you can say the same about US defence of Israel in the UN, the only difference is that one side is influenced by the people, and the other is influenced by regime who aren’t and can’t be held accountable by their citizens.
Freedom of speech is one thing, but talking to the enemy (hizbulla) during war, accepting campaign money from them and telling them to shoot further inland where there are less Arabs and more Jews (since about half of the injured on the israeli side were israeli arabs) goes way beyond free speech, not just for an ellected government official, but for anyone be he muslim or jewish.
Azmi Bsara should have been shot on grounds of treason or maybe beheaded as they tend to do in Arab countries over less acite crimes
Your experiences only prove to me that human rights are used for political goals only. I also thought the reaction of Jessica was funny. In some way she agreed with censoring you lol.
Wladimir of all the commenters here (who are either Israeli or Jewish and therefore appear to be very defensive) you are the only one who actually got my point, so thank you. No one is better than abusing human rights or taking advantage of defenders of human rights for self-serving goals than Israel and Iran, and my experience proved this spot on, from start to finish of this Summit. People can defend their ideologies all they want, but none of them were actually there, where the agenda and terminology was definite and clear which disturbed several of us independent activists who found this appalling.
Esra’a
this is very interesting artical ,we had many kinds of hat to all kind of believes and ethnic groups ,we need to give the same space in suporrting to them as we did for anti-seitsm, there is millions of people who had been killed and baried under the ground all over the owrld ,not only in germany ,we need to take moral from the jewsh suffering in WWII ,and isreal should not copy the violence with the palstaineians ,as the victum should be more compasion to other people suffering
we are living hard times with people trying to full the arb-isreali conflict,muslim-rest of the world conflic, iran -arab conflict ,sunni-shiaa conflict , racism has reached new levels ,no more white man-black man ,but we-them level ,and we most fight it every were and in every nationality
Esra’a keep the good work ,my idea is the bad people are big,rich and powerful ,but we can make a great fight against them ,so they will not enjoy their powers
I don’t think anyone is disagreeing that human rights can be used for political goals – and this is unforunate. But that also doesn’t mean that human rights violations can’t and shouldn’t be addressed through political means – like most things, political avenues have both bad and good and is not 100% either way.
I also disagree with the other commentors that seem to accuse Esra’a of saying that the Holocaust it wasn’t terrible. On the contrary, to me her point is that is not the only case of horribleness in our world and that she’s very frustrated those other cases of horribleness also don’t get similar levels of attention.
As for my freedom of speech comment, I am trying to get at what defines, for you, freedom of speech. I have come across many people who define this extremely differently.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from being insulted. So, therefore, a parent and school board that called you a terrorist was exercising their freedom of speech. This is also not a case of censorship, contrary to Wladimir’s comment – censorhip implies an action by a official government body not a private citizen. Clearly, this parent couldn’t actually censor Esra’a since Esra’a returned from the US and blogged about it here.
I am not sure, whether I am allowed to post this link here- it’s not about Durban but it describes the problem:
It’s a shame that the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is so overrepresented and it doesn’t help either the Israelis (who seem to be in a defensive posture whenever they only here the word “Israel” or “Jews” or “Palastinians” etc…- understandable though) nor does it help the Palastinians.
I think your point “hardly anyone was focusing on the other human rights violations occurring around us and in our name” is quite funny, ’cause you just did the same in this post. !
Nice to read that article, though!
Sorry, I’m not used to that link button! Sorry!!!
I am not quite sure why Israel and Palestine have captured, over the years, so much of the world’s attention. I would agree with Anna’s quote that to a certain extent, all that attention is to both side’s detriment, because it prevents the two sides from cutting a deal, due to the fact that so much is riding on each and every concession, and because everyone in the room is watching.
My guess is that Israel and Palestine receive all this attention because a great many people, outside the conflict itself, have used this conflict for their own purposes, and have therefore flooded each and every aspect of the conflict with an excessive amount of symbolism. As an example, if Arab leaders want to deflect attention from the weaknesses of their own regimes, then casting undo attention on Israel is a good way of doing that. Or Jews, in some circles, may cast aspersions against Palestinians, as a way of supporting thier belief in illegal settlements or a Greater Israel.
Of course, the Holy Land is holy to a great many people, and what happens there is necessarily of consequence to people all over the world. But it comes to a point when the symbolism of it all can be a bit stifling, to say the least, and can paralyze the key players from doing what they need to do to point to the possibility of peace.
What is the solution? We may well have to look at what we believe through the filter of common sense. Instead of jumping to false belief and then rationalizing why we’re right, why not use rationality in the first place to bring us to what is worth believing in? Just because you believe in something, doesn’t make it true.
I think that Israeli leader and Iran’s can be together. In fact, I have them here together in my liquify face caricature maker
here
have fun
Esra you aint no terrorist.
Yaary thank you that was fun, now I’m late for work.
Love and Peace