I Saw it in Palestine

Spin, Spin, Spinning until We all Fall Down

Well, journalists are starting to ask a few questions and the Israeli spin machine is whirling away. You'll forgive me if I'm a little skeptical.

See, I'm used to the Israeli spin machine. I've seen it at work with my own eyes. I remember when I spend the night with a Palestinian family from Susyia village after settlers attacked them. One of the young women in the family bravely the incident on her video camera. The family painstakingly recorded where the attack took place. They took photos of their injuries. They took photos of their elder mother in the hospital. They called the media.

The media came. The young woman's footage was everywhere. We all saw the attack through the lens of her camera. We watched it over and over again.

A year later, the Israeli police claimed they couldn't prosecute any settlers for the attack. They said there wasn't enough evidence.

A friend of mine was charged with "assault with a baby," because when they demolished his house for the 3rd time, he handed his daughter to a soldier. He said, "I don't have anyone where for her to sleep. You take her." Another friend of mine was speaking at a completely nonviolent. He was beaten until his ribs were broken and then he was charged with assaulting a police officer. At his trial the police officer who testified admitted he wasn't there and couldn't even find the area where the demo took place on a map. My friend still went to jail.

See, the truth just doesn't seem to be important to Israeli officials. It doesn't matter how much video evidence you have. It doesn't matter if you hold you hands behind your back while the soldiers beat you. It doesn't matter if you have a broken rib and the soldier takes his gun and goes back to his base and watches television. The Israeli government will claim that you were the violent one. That's my own experience.

So, you can see why I don't believe Israel's spin - frankly, its lies. The Israeli government is just hoping that if it spins fast enough, we'll all become so dizzy that we'll believe what they say.

After all, we can't go believing those Arabs. Or those activists. Or those Arab activists.
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Here's a beautiful article making the same argument: A Massacre is Not A Massacre, by Ghassan Hage