community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Pittsburghers in Palestine
by hotsauce
Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2003 at 12:06 PM
Eyewitness reports from Pittsburghers in Palestine, and how to contact and support them.
Hey, we recently had two Pittsburghers in Palestine. Jonas just came back from the West Bank and Laura is still in Gaza. Jonas is putting together a website with pictues and stories and Laura writes eyewitness reports from Palestine.
If you would like occasional email from Laura about life in Gaza, write to her at horia@riseup.net and she will be happy to put you on her list. Real news is so hard to get from our corporate media, so we are lucky to have people getting the word out. Please pass the word--these people are risking their lives to get the truth out.
Laura's stories are also published on the site http://electronicintifada.net/ . I'm posting a part of a recent email from her below. Fight the good fight!
Laura writes:
"It was Yom il-Jumaa ("Friday") and she had been fasting all morning with me. I gave her some money and told her to go buy something to eat, she was only eight and there was no reason for her to fast. She went on bicycle. She bought wafers, chips, and a popcycle and rode back. A tank was shooting from the Neve Dekalim settlement which borders their neighborhood. It shot her through the heart, she fell from her bicycle, we found her covered in blood, all the snacks she had just bought to break her fast, covered in blood, her hands still holding onto them."
Her uncle pitches in. "I didn't recognize her when I saw her in the hospital. I said, 'This isn't Ayya. Ayya is b'khair ("in good health").' She was covered in blood and I couldn't tell it was her. Her mother was there and she told me it's Ayya. I couldn't believe it."
More pictures are passed around of Ayya four months ago against a garden backdrop taken in a local studio. Ayya's new backpack. Ayya's new school uniform, unworn and fresh, pinstripes too blue, sleeves too empty of little girl arms.
"She wanted a guava that morning but we didn't have any guava. We said we'd buy her some the next morning, but she was killed."
Six other children were injured in this shooting including one girl who lost her legs. No adults were in the area at the time, it was just tanks against kids.
wake up
by tee
Sunday, Sep. 28, 2003 at 10:45 PM
you should be listening to all elements of this story....there is tragedy on both sides, and life is not black and white anywhere, and especially not in the middle east....
i am a pittburgher,...and i live in israel....i am not here to write a story ...or a few articles....i live here....raise my family here....ride the buses, go to the market....experience the fear, heart pounding in my chest when i hear the boom, or just the plethora of sirens and worry until i hear from all my loved ones,.. and cry knowing that some people won;t hear from theirs.....
i have combed bomb sites in search of my husband....knowing that he was to get off the bus around that time....or rides that bus number....
and i will tell you, it makes me sick all the death, and sorrow that abounds....but what makes me just as ill is the way that people want to sell their stories, and so they show one side and try to 'prove' the reasons why innocent lives are taken.....
if someone wants to really be a true journalist....they should spend time in a place....not just to write a one sided story.....but to truly feel the situation of the people living on all sides....
educate yourselves....dont jump on the bandwagon of self righteousness and hate.......
One sided?
by Chris Holm
Tuesday, Sep. 30, 2003 at 8:08 AM
chris@indypgh.org
The fact is that all we get is one side of the story in the U.S. The media only tells us about the bombings. Everyone knows that.
Not everyone knows that the Isrealis are building the wall on opposite sides of Palestinian farmer's last and locking them out of it.
Not everyone knows that the Isrealis murder hundreds of innocents like children and women with no formal appologies or compensation to families.
Not everyone knows that there are American Jews apposed to the occupation and are politically vocal.
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
You're criticizing the author for not writting the other side of the story when that's exactly what they're doing.
Have you ever lived in the West Bank?
Ends and Means
by zero-state solution
Tuesday, Sep. 30, 2003 at 8:42 AM
It's murder whether it's the IDF with an American-made missle or or Hamas with crappy plastic explosives from Bulgaria.
tee, you'll get no sympathy here. You bought the mythology ticket, take the mythology ride. Raising your children under such circumstances is tantamount to child abuse.
For an historically persecuted people to move to the only place where they are persecuted today, is just plain stupid. Some people feel like they have been cheated out of their particpation in historical misery, but you don't see me sniping at pimply 16 year old British soliders on the Shankhill.
An Israeli friend who moved to the US pointed out that pampered fanatics from Crown Heights and Russian mobsters taking advantage of banking and extradition laws are as much to blame for the current violence as the Likudniks and the Fatah.
Sorry, Tee
by Jonas
Tuesday, Sep. 30, 2003 at 9:56 PM
Hey Tee,
I'm sorry that you have to worry everytime you hear a little "boom" and fear thats the end of your kids or husband''s life. Bit looking at things objectively and not one-sidedly, spend some time in Qalqilia or Nablus or Jayyous or Talkurm or Baca- alSharqia. Spend time in Gaza City or Rafah. See what mothers there, who haven't chosen to move to such a devastatingly hostile place (because of the IOF) as you have done with your children by moving to Israel, have to put up with several times a day. Scary that they are now used to the sounds of missiles from Apaches and F-16's. Scary that they can still live on while you can enjoy whats left of what you call a democracy. PLease, for your sake and the sake of your kids, stay a month or so in Jenin or Hebron and see what life is like, how brutal and humiliating, imposed on it by your very own democratic government. Then you will see. Then you will see from what side radiates the on-sidedness.
Salaam
Yes, see how the mothers of Palestine handle the situation
by Yassar Datsmibebe
Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2003 at 7:21 AM
Jonas is right tee. You must learn some understanding and compassion. You must understand the feelings of the Palestinian mothers, who not unlike yourself, want only the best for their children. If you can not make the journey to the locales the Jonas is so fond of, you can just watch the short interview below with just such a concerned Palestinian mother (or as they might say in some Pittsburgh neighborhoods, a real mother Palestinian).
http://mfile.akamai.com/6987/wmv/aish.download.akamai.com/6446/windows/relentless/mother_of_shahid_01-17.asx
You People are Ignorant
by George K.
Thursday, Oct. 02, 2003 at 12:22 PM
dodgerambler@yahoo.com
I have no politics invested in this situation other than to say that the killing from both sides is insane, yet driven by self-preservation. But to immediately criticize a woman who posted out of fear and compassion and sympathy and a need to hear that others feel it and can empathize and sympthize is pure ignorance and savagery.
Tee is precisely the type of Israeli that the Pali side should reach out too and make a connection with, not slam on a message board.
You immediately turned her away from you.
No wonder they continue to bulldoze your stuff, when neither bombs nor compassion will seem to work.
no symmetry here
by pjd
Saturday, Oct. 04, 2003 at 2:05 PM
There is no symmetry here. Ther are a poor people who are being subject to ethnic cleansing at best, genocide at worst. They are resorting to the means of a hopeless, desperate poeple - suidcide bombings which I do not condone but try to understand the roots of such desparation.
Meanwhile, there are a people, mostly afluent white poeple, or middle-class at worst, who left a perfectly fine life in the USA and some European countries to violently rob poor, darker-complected poeple of their land.
As far as what side to support, it seems to be a no-brainer to me.
Ms. Tee, we think you and your family should come back to Pittsburgh, we will welcome you.
All for the symmetry
by of your bigotry
Saturday, Oct. 04, 2003 at 3:25 PM
Yes Ms. Tee, take pjd's advice and leave now ... before some of his most desperate dark complected friends have to come over and make you leave the only way they know how. You do not belong there, according to Mr. pjd. You should know better. You Ms. Tee are most likely white and affluent, or worse, upper middle class, and as such you do not belong in that part of the world. Please know your place. Come back to Pitttsburgh where we will welcome you with pjd's unique style of bigotry and racism. A racism and bigotry that is entirely acceptable if directed to those white (or light complected) persons of affluence (or at least of middle class-ness), even if pjd has no basis for his accusations of your social worth other than his own preconceptions (more accurately, his prejudices) about those that he belives harbor the ideas that you Ms. Tee have somehow made so clear to him in your many insightful postings. Or maybe it is just his prejudice about those that believe that the Palestinian-Isreali conflict is a horrible mess that is not resolved merely by evicting or exterminating the Isrealis. Or maybe pjd has just adopted a blind loyalty to those poor persons in this world of dark complexion that must always in his world view be on the side of right because dark complected persons need our help and understanding. I guess pjd feels that way also about the dark complected Indians, Koreans, Pacific Islanders, Italians, Spanish, French, Texans, and other persons of ethnicity with too much time in the sun. Oh pleae, Ms. Tee come home where you can be welcome into the more enlightened world of pjd and his friends (before his friends in Gaza have to blow up your favorite cafe).
Mr bigotry
by pjd
Monday, Oct. 06, 2003 at 10:40 AM
You didn't respond to a single fact behind my statements.
You merely threw out the old red herring of bigotry (presumubly anti-semitism ) and express an awful lot of anger, which gets us nowhere.
Anti-semitism
by catalouger
Monday, Oct. 06, 2003 at 10:43 AM
Sorry mass media, but Arabs are Semites, too.
Something to consider when next you bandy those charges about.
Mr. Bigotry PJD
by imc reader
Monday, Oct. 06, 2003 at 11:00 AM
I think they did 'respond' by pointing out that your original statements were pretty bigoted. What more do they need to do to get you to see this. You sound like some Arab Archie Bunker. No one has to 'respond' to your statements that are nothing but racist and bigoted assertions on their own. By the way, Whitey has no monopoly on bigotry and racism. Arabs can be bigots, African Americans can be racist, and Liberals can be intolerant.
Racism Defined
by pjd
Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2003 at 12:54 PM
"African Americans can be racist..."
No, they can not, at least in the US. Racism is, by definiton, the enjoyment of a system of priveledge (in jobs, housing, political power, etc.) based on race.
I'm not a particular hard worker, nor am I particularly personable, but I have practically fallen into a nice job and living standard simply because bosses, landlords and cops have all given me the benefit of a doubt based on my white skin (and male gender). So, since I have enjoyed these benefits, I regretfully condsier myself racist, along with most other white americans.
In contrast, African americans, and palestinians, and native americans and colonized africans and arabs, philipinos, SE asians etc, etc, etc, are far from being in a position of priveledge in their respective societies and/or in the world community. Therefore they cannot be considered racist. Can they harbor hate or ill will on others based on skin color or nationality? YES. Can they do isolated violent things based on race? YES. But, if they do not enjoy a system of political or economic power, they cannot be considered racist.
The operative word here is POWER, and for the past 511 years, lighter-complected europeans (and some east -Asians) have had it and the rest of the world has not.
Assertions...
by pjd
Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2003 at 1:10 PM
Are most of the post 1967 settlers in the occupied territores middle-class or better, (i.e. they were not economic refugees) or not?
Are most palestinians, relatively poor farmers or small shopkeepers, or not?
Did most of the settlers, post 1967, come to Palestine from perfectly fine living arrangements in the US or Europe or not?
Did the white settlers use their position of race-and-economic privledge (the settlers are notorious in both their racism AND anti-arab bigotry) to drive the Palestinians off the land they farmed and the homes and villages they lived in hundreds or even thousands of years (in harmony with native christians and jews), by gunpoint and bloodshed, without compensation, forcing them into poverty-ridden camps and slums, ...or not.
oops...a further explanation...
by pjd
Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2003 at 1:20 PM
"I wrote":
So, since I have enjoyed these benefits, I regretfully condsier myself racist, along with most other white americans.
This statement is intended to be similar to the statement "we are all sinners": i.e by virtue of our white skin and resulting priveledge, we white americans all suffer the "original sin" of racism, something we all need to work every day at being aware of...
Simply being "color blind" is insufficient at the least, if not down the wrong track.
See the writings of ant-racist speaker Tim Wise (google him) for more info on this perspective...
What a crock of shit
by *
Thursday, Oct. 09, 2003 at 1:01 PM
PJD, you are saying that mniorities cannot be treated equally with whites because minorities are different. As such, minorities can not be racist or espouse racist beliefs. That is ridiculous. You are a racist if for no other reason than YOU are racist towards whites. Hey, if you are so guilty about your privileged lack of pigmentation, then why don't you just hand over all of your possessions and rights to some poor minority type. You said you don't work very hard, well how about quitting your job and handing it over to one fo those poor minorities that you take such condescending pity upon.
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)