Footage from the 1980s gets me every time. It’s the graininess, I think, and the punchy contrast that sometimes convinces me I’m seeing the world through all the wrong lenses.
It can be an eerie feeling watching a man’s grainy and somewhat abstracted face rush across the screen. But what if the element of familiarity jumps at you and you recognize the beard, or maybe the color of his hair, or the trademark cigarette in between his index and middle fingers in his left hand?
This might sound unreasonable to you but that element of familiarity is what has kept me from Sabra and Shatila. The massacre, its memory now thirty years old, caught on film, tape, and paper, has tested me each time its anniversary solemnly marched by.
Sure, I know a bit of the history and background of one of the world’s most gruesome, most forgotten massacres. But ask me if I’ve seen any footage or if I’ve ever looked into primary sources beyond face value and you’d get an embarrassed ‘no’.
That changed yesterday. I managed to find a few scattered clips of the 1982 massacre. I spent much of the afternoon and evening catching up on my history. [Read more...]
Like Father, Like Son: Quotes from Ariel Sharon’s son as Israel invades Gaza
Gilad Sharon, son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wrote a piece for the Jerusalem Post this Sunday that gives new weight to phrase “like father, like son”. It’s genocidal talk, really. Here are some quotes. Emphasis and comments are mine.
“This must not be allowed to end as did Operation Cast Lead: We bomb them, they fire missiles at us, and then a cease-fire, followed by “showers” – namely sporadic missile fire and isolated incidents along the fence. Life under such a rain of death is no life at all, and we cannot allow ourselves to become resigned to it.”
Operation Cast Lead wasn’t good enough for Gilad. The deaths of over 1,400 Palestinians, including 330 children, in 22 days didn’t have as much of an effect as he’d hoped. The “rain of death” isn’t acceptable for Israelis but it’s perfectly reasonable for Palestinians. We’ll see why in the following quotes.
“To accomplish this, you need to achieve what the other side can’t bear, can’t live with, and our initial bombing campaign isn’t it.”
Since Wednesday, at least 79 Palestinians have been confirmed dead, including dozens of children. One of the more recent air strikes left twelve members of the Al-Dalou family dead. Their home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City was leveled, taking with it five women, four children, and a grandfather. Israel also admitted to targeting and hitting Gaza’s news media tower, injuring eight journalists and, in the process, violating Protocol 1, Article 47 of the Geneva Convention. Gilad wants Israel to up the ante. [Read more...]