Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Crossing the social chasm, by rocket
In Israel and the Middle East there are amazing social phenomena that presently, thankfully, distinguish the environment there to that to which we who are lucky enough to live in wealthy and settled countries are accustomed.
From today's edition of Ha'aretz:
"Palestinian militants had fired at least four Qassam rockets at (a civilian neighbourhood in Israel proper). Eight people were treated for shock.
"One of the rockets hit a house, causing some damage, and another landed near a school.
"On Monday five people were treated for shock after three Qassam rockets hit (the same neighbourhood)."
Regular rocket attacks!
Can you fathom it? This doesn't even make the international news headlines. Or draw the condemnation, let alone the attention, of the United Nations. No fist-pumping indignation or "illegal" comments from Kofi Annan, or Amnesty International, or the BBC.
Yet children are endangered and targeted, and neither they nor their parents are the demonised Jewish settlers that live in the West Bank and Gaza.
Peace, you say? Peace process?
At another level - but within the "how lucky we are" context - a recent report from an Israeli human rights group claims that in the vicinity of 45% of Israeli Arabs (those living within Israel, not Palestinians in the territories) live below the poverty line, as opposed to 15% of Israeli Jews.
45%! I know not how accurate or credible the report is, but it is a huge number, and no doubt a huge contributer to dissatisfaction and susceptibility to fanaticism. And in any case, an unacceptable social division. Not though a justification for hateful rocket attacks from have-nots against haves.
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One day after the above report about missile attacks comes the news (if you look real hard, perhaps mainly in Israeli papers) that:
"Two young children were killed and 31 others were wounded when two Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck the Negev town of Sderot around 5 P.M. on Wednesday evening."
Both children were under ten years of age. Hamas was evidently proud to claim responsibility. Ethiopian and Soviet immigrants are apparently the main residents of the town.
Sderot is within the 9km range of the Qassam rockets, which is why it is continually targeted. Something like the infamous Nazi logic to experimentation seems to apply here: so long as Jews are being killed, who cares; or is it: so long as Jews are being killed, we're achieving our aim.
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One wonders if or how these rocket attacks will factor into the actions of the Presbyterian Church, which has reportedly decided to begin selective divestiture in companies operating in Israel.
Says the Washington Post:
"Jewish-Presbyterian relations have been in turmoil since the 2.4 million-member Presbyterian Church's General Assembly voted 431 to 62 in July to "initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel" and also decided to continue funding messianic congregations that target Jews for proselytizing.
"The Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative advocacy group in Washington, issued a report this week saying that mainline Protestant denominations devoted 37 percent of their human rights declarations over the past four years to criticism of Israel, far more than any other foreign country."
Sounds a lot like the UN, or perhaps like any group of normal people forming opinions in the shadow of endless and endlessly biased television and media reports about the Middle East conflict.
