http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/05/13/p16762
Israel views Darfur Tragedy as Hasbara opportunity
Khalid Amayreh
News Analysis by Khalid Amayreh in East Jerusalem
In a clearly propagandistic effort, the Israeli government, in coordination
with American Zionist organizations, has decided to give a relatively small
amount of aid to Refugees in Darfur.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who vehemently opposes the repatriation
of Palestinian refugees to their homes, from which they were expelled at
gunpoint by Jewish terrorist gangs in 1948, was quoted on Sunday, 13 May, as
saying that the donation of $5 million dollars was intended to relieve the
intolerable situation in the tragedy-stricken Western Sudan region.
As I said when I spoke before the United Nations last year, there are
certain places in which the world must act. Livni was quoted as saying.
Livni, however, tacitly admitted that at least one of the reasons, if not the
main reason, for the Darfur aid program was to enhance Israels image
abroad.
In fact, this seems to be the main goal of the proposed aid to Darfur, namely
enhancing Israels ugly image.
Israel is probably one of the worlds premier criminal state as far as
treatment of refugees is concerned, given its systematic persecution of the
Palestinian people and rabid refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to
their homes in what is now Israel.
Indeed, apart from stealing Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes
and bulldozing Palestinians farms, fields and orchards, the Israeli government
has been denying Palestinians free access to food and work, pushing numerous
Palestinian families to the brink of starvation and even famine. And Israel
always has a ready mantra to justify the ugly practice: Palestinian resistance
to the Israeli occupation.
According to a United Nations report presented to the Donors Conference
several months ago, 37% of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
had trouble getting food in 2004. Another 27% were at risk of running into such
difficulties,
Moreover, the report showed that nearly half the Palestinian population was
poor, with poverty rate in the Gaza Strip reaching a staggering 65%, the
report continued.
Up to 16% of Palestinians550,000were living on $1.5 a day, with the
likelihood that the figure will rise to 35% if aid is not forthcoming.
More to the point, it is widely believed that malnutrition among children in
the West Bank and especially in the Gaza strip is now at the highest level
since 1967, with the main reason being Israels refusal to allow Palestinian
breadwinners to access work.
In addition, Israel has been effectively stealing Palestinian money by way of
withholding the transfer of more than $750 million dollars of tax revenue to
the Palestinian government.
Indeed, Israels adamant refusal to release the monthly payments, which
represent more than one third of the Palestinian Authority (PA) budget has
caused what amounts to be a financial meltdown in the erstwhile autonomous
enclaves, crippling the PA governments ability to pay salaries for the
estimated 150,000 civil servants.
Besides seeking to enhance its essentially ugly image, Israel apparently
hopes that by highlighting and publicizing Jewish aid to Muslim refugees,
Israeli and Zionist circles will be able to have the moral high ground and
therefore divert attention from Israels Nazi-like practices against the
peoples of the Middle East, especially the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
Last year, the Israeli air force dropped nearly 3000,000 cluster bomblets
over Lebanon, causing the death and maiming of numerous civilians.
The 3000,000 bomblets would be sufficient to kill or maim at least three
million Lebanese children. In other words the storm of carpet bombing was
enough to cause a holocaust, or at least half a holocaust.
Moreover, Israel effectively has destroyed the basic civilian infrastructure
in both Lebanon and Gaza Strip, including power stations, streets, bridges,
power stations, and even schools and colleges, inflicting untold misery and
suffering to innocent civilians.
Hence, it is hard to really thank Israel for doing a good deed that is
intended first and foremost to divert attention from Israels brutal ugliness
in Gaza, the West Bank and south Lebanon and also to enable the Nazi-minded
Israeli government to continue with its apartheid polices and criminal
practices against the Palestinians.
It is often said that charity begins at home. In Israels case, we see no
charity at home. Even the few refugees from Darfur are dumped in detention
camps, just like their comrades in suffering, the estimated 11000 Palestinian
detainees languishing in Israeli jails for opposing Zionism.
In fact, instead of charity, we see roadblocks, home demolitions, land
confiscations and the particularly satanic policy of starving millions of
innocent Palestinians in order to soften them up and make them accept the
status of slaves.
We also see cruelty, a lot of cruelty, as well as callousness, meanness, and
indescribable barbarianism that transcend reality.
This is not something that came out of the blue. It is a systematic policy by
the Israeli government aimed at bullying the Palestinians to capitulate and
accept apartheid and perpetual occupation. Didnt the former Israeli official,
Dov Weisglass, declare last year that we will make Palestinians go on a diet.
For all these reasons, it is imperative that this Israeli charity to the
refugees of Darfur be put in the context of Israels hasbara efforts, namely to
distract attention from Israels ruthless treatment of the Palestinian people.
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© 2007 Khalid Amayreh
'HASBARA': Hasbara (äñáøä) (or hasbarah) is a Hebrew noun that literally
means "explanation". The term has been used by the State of Israel and by
independent groups to describe their efforts to explain Israeli government
policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large.
Hasbara is viewed positively, and is actively encouraged, by almost all
Jewish, Zionist, and Israeli organizations and instititutions. They believe
that hasbara bears similarities to programming on the Voice of America, Radio
Free Europe, and the BBC World Service.
Critics claim that hasbara is propaganda or public relations. According to
them, Israeli efforts are no different from any other public relations effort
to promote their views, actions and achievements in order to coordinate
supporters, attract the undecided and skeptics, and counteract the efforts of
opponents. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbara)
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