The Gazette published me again today . . . only they don’t even know it.
In a story about an SPHR event held at Concordia, reference was made to a comment by Fiona Becker published in the Link (Oct 8). Becker, a speaker at the SPHR event, is one of many people, some well-intentioned, some not so well-intentioned, to have been sucked in by the Palestinian propaganda machine in recent months. Travelling with a group of so-called “international human rights observers”, which is another way of saying observers who only get the Palestinian side of the story, she travelled to the West Bank and Gaza in September to witness supposed “human rights abuses” being committed by Israel. Her comment included the words “The unspeakable has been normalized”.
As I often do on the Link’s site, I posted a comment in response. The Gazette published this excerpt of it:
And what about the unthinkable act of a person walking into a crowded café, or onto a city bus, or into a shopping mall, or even a private home, and setting himself off as a human bomb with the only goal of killing as many civilians as possible? That, too, is unthinkable and has been sadly normalized.
My comment continued to say:
Did the human rights organization with which you travelled show you the other side of the picture? Did you see the families of the mourning Israeli victims? Did you get to meet the parents of a 10-month-old infant, who was shot dead by a sniper for the simple crime of being born Jewish? Did you witness the carnage at Hebrew University, after a bomb exploded in a crowded cafeteria? Did you ever think about the unthinkable atrocities committed not by the IDF, for whom every civilian casualty is regrettable, but by those who specifically target civilians simply because they are innocent?
You’re right, the unthinkable has been normalized.
In response to my comment, Becker posted the following (under the handle “terrortourist”):
Angry? Why? Because I didn’t witness suicide bombings? Because to talk of about what I witnessed is to somehow deny that which I didn’t? Where’s the logic? What did you want me to do? Sit in a crowded restaurant and wait to be blown up by a mad terrorist? [. . .] I went to “witness that which I knew was largely left unreported by the mainstream media.” I therefore wrote about the situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and not about 1948 Israel. The people who were murdered in Hebrew University got the coverage they deserve. [. . .] Unfortunately, this is not usually the case for Palestinians.
Such is the logic of the “terror tourists” like Fiona Becker, who are fed one side of the story by the Palestinian official propaganda machine, and the ultra-Left Israeli groups (like Gush Shalom) who are only so happy to oblige. To anyone out there who truly considers themselves human rights activists, it is not sufficient to ride around the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a Palestinian Authority representative as a tour guide. The phrase “international activist” has been cheapened to the point where it no longer has any semblance of credibility.
However, some efforts seem to be underway to clarify the picture. I would like to call attention to the following call to ride buses for Israel as an expression of solidarity with Israeli people. As Gerald M. Steinberg writes in the International Herald Tribune:
The images of peace campaigners getting on and off the buses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other places, and taking the same risks that Israelis take every day, will send a powerful message to the bombers and their supporters. By visibly riding the buses, international peace advocates can also contribute to saving lives.
See, the so-called “activists” are always ready and willing to stand as human shields in front of Palestinian children throwing rocks, like Fiona Becker. But how many of them are ready to visibly stand in solidarity with Israeli civilians, symbolically stating to the Palestinian terror groups that “if you blow up this bus, you’re blowing us up too”? By eating in Israeli cafes, riding Israeli buses, and shopping in Israeli markets, international observers and activists could truly feel the “other” side of the story – the side, despite Becker’s assertions, that gets the least and the most biased press coverage of all.
Not all international observers need be Palestinian Authority puppets. I encourage people to spread the word about the Ride Buses for Israel movement.