“Not you! You!” Tibet versus Palestine

sister herb

Official TTI Chef
11/04/2008 04:02:00 PM GMT

The world media are shedding tears for the Tibetans. Who cares about the Palestinians?


By Uri Avnery

"Hey! Take your hands off me! Not you! You!!!" - the voice of a young woman in the darkened cinema, an old joke.

"Hey! Take your hands off Tibet!" the international chorus is crying out, "But not from Chechnya! Not from the Basque homeland! And certainly not from Palestine!" And that is not a joke.

Like everybody else, I support the right of the Tibetan people to independence, or at least autonomy. Like everybody else, I condemn the actions of the Chinese government there. But unlike everybody else, I am not ready to join in the demonstrations.

*******

In the competition for the sympathy of the world media, the Palestinians are unlucky. According to all the objective standards, they have a right to full independence, exactly like the Tibetans. They inhabit a defined territory, they are a specific nation, a clear border exists between them and Israel. One must really have a crooked mind to deny these facts.

But the Palestinians are suffering from several cruel strokes of fate: The people that oppress them claim for themselves the crown of ultimate victimhood. The whole world sympathizes with the Israelis because the Jews were the victims of the most horrific crime of the Western world. That creates a strange situation: the oppressor is more popular than the victim. Anyone who supports the Palestinians is automatically suspected of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

Also, the great majority of the Palestinians are Muslims (nobody pays attention to the Palestinian Christians). Since Islam arouses fear and abhorrence in the West, the Palestinian struggle has automatically become a part of that shapeless, sinister threat, "international terrorism". And since the murders of Yasser Arafat and Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Palestinians have no particularly impressive leader - neither in Fatah nor in Hamas.

The world media are shedding tears for the Tibetan people, whose land is taken from them by Chinese settlers. Who cares about the Palestinians, whose land is taken from them by our settlers?

In the world-wide tumult about Tibet, the Israeli spokespersons compare themselves - strange as it sounds - to the poor Tibetans, not to the evil Chinese. Many think this quite logical.

If Kant were dug up tomorrow and asked about the Palestinians, he would probably answer: "Give them what you think should be given to everybody, and don't wake me up again to ask silly questions."

Full article: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=106991
 

Sister S

Junior Member
:salam2: Sister,

That article is soo true. I saw the Olympic torch relay going
on. Protests in London, Paris, San Francisco.
Would they ever protest about freeing Palestine and
would it get that much media coverage? No way

People of Palestine you are in my duas.
 
A Blinded Heart

11/04/2008 04:02:00 PM GMT

The whole world sympathizes with the Israelis because the Jews were the victims of the most horrific crime of the Western world.

Salaam,

They build these feelings because Western media has planted a seed in their hearts that the Israeli (Zionists) are the oppressed and the Palestinians are the oppressors. They have brainwashed the intellect of average citizens.

They used well devised schemes such as Television, newspaper, Internet, books etc to help you sympathize with what the Jews went through. They teach you their suffering in elementary, middle, high school and college...these feelings grow stronger and stronger.

It is difficult for these people to think the Palestinians are the oppressed because it is very hard for them to deny and consider false what they've learned in their past from the media, school, peers, parents, etc.

It's sad if ANY human being is murdered, raped, killed, oppressed, but it is the truth that these sources (i.e media/schools) has used to oppress the minds of many people.

If your in doubt, one way to overcome all this is by visiting Palestine and seeing it when your own eyes.

P.S. I think we need a Palestinian holocaust in Washington
 

warda A

Sister
:salam2:

Do we have celebrities to champion the palestinian cause?
No, why? because as brother hubblewans says the west has been brainwashed
they accuse arabs of being anti semite, arabs are semites.
If our brethrens in palestine had just one big voice maybe with all the islamphobia, they could still be heard, why do people equate arab with islam?

Maybe when Israel will host something then people will come out and complain,
am i dreaming or what?
:wasalam:
 
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