By Ali Abunimah
"Controversial New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner spoke at Brandeis University last week. According to a report in the student newspaper, The Justice, he said some pretty shocking stuff. If there was any doubt about his lack of objectivity that should now be set aside.
Apparently, he blames Palestinians in Gaza for their own deaths:
Once allowed to enter Gaza, he [Bronner] said he gained the impression that Israel had had a mistaken assumption that once it instructed residents to leave their houses, only Palestinian fighters would remain. He stated that it turned out that many Gazans did not want to leave and did not expect the Israelis to be very violent, since many had lived with Israelis or worked in Israel, a miscalculation he suggested led to destruction of property and inadvertent injuries and deaths among civilians.
At Brandeis, here is how Bronner reportedly described the history of Palestine/Israel:
"You have [the Jewish people] ... nearly decimated by the worst genocide in human history; they emerge from the ashes of it and going back to this land that they say they're from. ... They go and build this incredibly successful society in a very short time. That's what we call a good story," he stated. "Then in the process of building their very successful society, it gets a little harsh," he went on to say. "And there's an occupation, ... and the people who all those years were seen as victims are now victimizing others. That's what we call a good story."
So for Bronner the Nakba -- the wholesale ethnic cleansing and near destruction of the existing Palestinian society is not worth a mention. It is, at best a footnote a little "harshness" in what is primarily an Israeli "success" story....."
No comments:
Post a Comment