Featured in MSNBC’s “The Week in Pictures” is a photograph of a Palestinian man screaming in agony as an Israeli soldier drives a tractor-hitched trailer over his legs.
It’s a heartbreaking photograph, and the stone cold and carefree attitudes of the soldiers surrounding the man literally adds insult to injury. But first, a backstory: In the West Bank village of Al-Dirat near Al-Khalil, a group of Palestinian construction workers prepared the equipment and materials necessary to begin the construction of a new home. Soon after, a half-dozen or so Israeli soldiers appeared at the scene and ordered the workers to cease construction.
Almost as suddenly as their arrival, the hostile soldiers commandeered the equipment and ordered the Palestinian workers to disperse. At least one soldier boarded a tractor and, although it is unclear what exactly he aimed at, drove the vehicle’s attached trailer over one of the workers. The worker had reportedly been protesting the unfair expulsion of him and his fellow construction workers. Hazem Bader with Agence France-Presse (AFP) captured the photograph above, as well as the first of the two photographs below.
I expect people to argue that the soldier didn’t deliberately run the man over. I was not at the scene but here’s a question for these people: Do you drive over speed humps without noticing? I find it hard to believe that the soldier didn’t feel or notice the resistance from the man’s body as the wheels lurched up and over him. It’s just not practical. [Read more...]
What I hope to see in Israel’s housing protests
In the last post on the housing protests sweeping Israel, I discussed the major reason why I find the movement in its current state to be flawed: the only housing policies the protesters seem to be openly demonstrating against are the ones that affect the Jewish Israeli sector of the population rather than the discriminatory governmental policies and procedures that target the minority Arab population. Any alternative or progressive stands that champion Palestinian rights just as staunchly appear to be marginalized and have yet to be recognized as a foundational pillar of the protests.
Plus, people contend that the movement is still young and that it hasn’t yet had time to centralize every possible housing issue, but I do not think this excuses the one-sidedness of the liberals protesting in the street. It has been over two weeks of protesting and the issue of the occupation has yet to be grazed.
So what do I hope to see in Israel’s housing protests? I do not object to Israelis demanding reforms that would lower housing and living expenses but I do object to the fact that the following list of demands are being ignored or set aside to the periphery. The way many demonstrators are pitching it to me, these protests are an opportunity for coalition building, an opportunity to bring down the government’s current “security first, people second” policy and subsequently elevate the minority voices. But I have yet to see any of that happen on a concrete basis, and until I hear these demands making headlines as well, the protests will remain fundamentally flawed, at least in my eyes.
A non-comprehensive list of demands: [Read more...]