Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:47am

It’s all Israel’s fault, isn’t it?

 

Over at the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) the first of a new series of sociopolitical blog posts on issues related to the Middle East begins:

More than 500 people have died in Gaza as of Monday morning. The latest tragedy came with the killing of over 60 Palestinian civilians in a Gaza neighborhood destroyed by Israeli shelling. Add to that 3,000 injured, vital infrastructure and apartment buildings destroyed, and 1.8 million Palestinians trapped in an area the size of Manhattan with nowhere to run from the death raining on them from the skies. On the Israeli side, the death toll stands at 20.

Every innocent death, Israeli or Palestinian, is one too many. All the same, the world has gotten inured to Israeli tactics of massive and disproportionate response to acts of violence. The stubborn, feckless resistance of Hamas gives the Israelis apparent cause for their indiscriminate strikes. Palestinian suffering has become routine. As a result, the international community heaves a collective shrug when they hear about Palestinian deaths. The world is no longer moved to learn of Palestinian affliction.

The blog post continues:

Insidious racism colors perceptions of the conflict and reactions to it. If we had 400 Israeli deaths instead, the world would have been in an uproar, as it should. Giving Palestinian civilians a couple minutes’ warning to evacuate a civilian building where a Hamas member lives or had been a few minutes before when there is nowhere to run is a mere fig leaf disguising ingrained Israeli indifference to Palestinian life.

And, then, it states:

The Arab enemy is necessary to keep the world from looking too closely at Israel’s record of illegitimate acts.

Is there any question about where this particular blog post (or perhaps this series) is headed?

Yes, it’s all about those racist Israelis—the puppets of the Great Satan—and the most vile of them, the Likud Party, before which the world cowers. Due simply to racism, the Israelis will do anything—using brutal force that includes sophisticated weaponry—to smote and eventually drive the Palestinian people into the Mediterranean Sea. Seizing upon the world’s collective guilt in the years following World War II, those racist Israelis commandeered the Palestinian homeland.

Yes, indeed. Those racist Israelis. Absolutely no provocation. Those unjustly besieged Palestinians whose homeland was stolen from under their feet.

Before making a judgment, watch David Prager’s summary of how the conflict came to be what it is today:

Not one word of any of this in the NCR blog post.

Seems the NCR story has it backwards, doesn’t it. Who is really racist? Who has been the provocateur? Who seeks the death of the other?

For a moment, let’s consider one item: The tunnels Hamas has constructed as they are described in an article published by the Journal of Palestinian Studies (JPS).

In 2004, Israel leveled the territory separating Gaza from Egypt to create what was supposed to be a barren corridor. One decade later, the corridor is buzzing with all sorts of activity above and beneath the surface. What happened? The territory’s governing body—the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas—has built and operates a tunnel complex that feeds Gaza’s economy and, through the taxes collected, Hamas’ coffers for its war against Israel.

Pretty good, huh? As one Hamas Gaza leader, Mahmud Zahar, explained, “No electricity, no water, no food came from outside. That’s why we had to build the tunnels.”  The tunnels rapidly turned into what one trader described as “the lungs through which Gaza breathes.”

Sounds like the stuff of ancient mythology: “Out of the ashes, the Phoenix rises.”

Perhaps it is. But not quite the way one might think, that is, if one listens only to the supporters of Hamas.

The tunnels Hamas built to keep taxes flowing into its coffers were constructed by teams consisting of 6 laborers whose members worked in 2, 12-hour shifts to dig 10 to 15 meters/day.

Guess who manned those teams?

According to the JPS article, child laborers who “much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies.” While Hamas officials admit that at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, public outrage indicates that more children died while constructing those tunnels.

Nowhere in the NCR blog post is there even a hint that Hamas has engaged in internationally proscribed conduct. For example, Article 3 (d) of International Labour Organization Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182) defines hazardous child labor as “(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”

If that’s not good enough, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states:

Child labour, in its intolerable forms, constitutes a kind of violence that is less obvious than others but it is not for this reason any less terrible….The Church’s social doctrine condemns the increase in “the exploitation of children in the workplace in conditions of veritable slavery.”  This exploitation represents a serious violation of human dignity, with which every person, “no matter how small or how seemingly unimportant in utilitarian terms.” (#296)

Exploiting children violates their human dignity no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to Hamas and its larger political goal of eliminating Israel. To fuel achieving that end, Hamas has used the means of depriving Palestinian children of their childhood years by forcing them to labor in a corrupt and dangerous environment.

What a great way to treat God’s children!

This exploitation of children is both unjust and unfair, defying international covenants as well as Church teaching. But, not one word of this either in the NCR blog post.

But, then, should anyone expect “fair and balanced” in NCR’s reportage and blog posts?

 

 

 

To read the International Labour Organization’s definition and examples of child exploitation across the globe, click on the following link:
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/WorstFormsofChildLabour/Hazardouschildlabour/lang–en/index.htm

To read the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, click on the following link:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

To read the Journal of Palestinian Studies article, click on the following link:
http://www.palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=11424&jid=1&href=fulltext

To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
http://www.richard-jacobs-blog.com/omnibus.html

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Dale Price
Dale Price
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 10:06am

“If we had 400 Israeli deaths instead, the world would have been in an uproar, as it should.”

Not remotely true. The world would barely blink, issue a boilerplate statement of sorrow about the “cycles of violence” and would get back to business.

God knows NCR would do precisely that. Come on–NCR offers an editorial forum for concerns about Palestinian deaths when it offers no similar commentary about the pogrom in Mosul, nor can it even mention at all the Krystallnacht redux in various pro-Hamas protests. So, yes, unutterable BS.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 10:30am

“The world would barely blink, issue a boilerplate statement of sorrow about the “cycles of violence” and would get back to business.”

Quite right. I am sure that most NCR contributors and readers have precisely the same concern for Israeli lives that they have for the lives taken through abortion. When you are on the left in this country, some lives simply do not count.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 12:05pm

I am pleased, albeit quite surprised, that the comments on the NCR post are overwhelmingly negative:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/equality-necessary-lasting-peace-between-israel-palestine

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 4:32pm

It’s only Israel’s fault when American can’t be blamed.
.
And America can always be blamed. Especially where Isreal is concerned.

Don the Kiwi
Don the Kiwi
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 4:51pm

Stop firing rockets and digging tunnels.

Problem solved.

Mike Tefft
Mike Tefft
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 6:21pm

Having fallen through the looking glass, our President and Secretary of State demand that Israel do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel already demonstrates incredible care for the ‘civilians’ of this sick terrorist society.
Far more effective would be for Hamas to do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza. All they would need to do is stop committing war crimes.

Paul W Primavera
Paul W Primavera
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 7:26pm

The Left hates Israel
Islamists hate Israel
The Nazis hated Israel (or least the Jews)
The Left murders unborn children
Islamists use born children as suicide bombers
The Nazis experimented on children, born and unborn
Really, what operative difference is there between these groups? They are all evil.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 7:39pm

NCR cares nothing about the Chaldeans? Whodathunkit?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, July 28, AD 2014 9:05pm

I was curious about who in the world wrote this very shallow piece so I looked up the authors of the blog post:
Jesuit Fr. Drew Christiansen is former editor of America magazine and a professor of ethics at Georgetown University.
Ra’fat Aldajani is a Palestinian-American writer and commentator. Can you believe that? It took two people to write this very weak minded blog post!
They titled their joint work “Equality is necessary for lasting peace between Israel, Palestine.” What? Equality in what? Lame.
Like the talk about disproportionate response from Israel. That’s crazy– they want a proportionate response? How porportionate is our goal is all of you wiped off the face of the earth. Lame, Lame, Lame.

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