The Villagers Hemmed In

Publisher: The Economist print edition

Date of Publication: September 4th 2008    

                                                                                                                                                       THE tear gas has dispersed but the dirt road leading out of the village of Nilin is still strewn with rocks and broken bottles. Strips of carton and carpets, which served as makeshift prayer mats during the clashes that took place the day before, are still spread beneath the olive trees.

West Bank’s latest hot spot. Nearby, on Palestinian land, are two Israeli settlements, Modin Illit and Hashmonaim. For the past four months, the people of Nilin, aided by Israeli and foreign campaigners, have been protesting against the barrier the Israelis are planning to build across their land.

village of Bilin, which had already waged a successful campaign, persuading  Israel’s High Court to tell the army to change the route, to retain more land for the village.

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Deconstruction:

This article is the embodiment of the type of irresponsible reporting chronic in western foreign media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This piece, "The Villagers Hemmed In", a so-called human interest story, is a classic example of the subversive style of political assassination directed at Israel. This report is a sympathy snapshot of only one side of a conflict at the direct expense of the other side. The fact that this story is less a fact-based commentary, but rather a  journal-like summery, where the opinion of the author is related to the audience on a purely emotional level should reinforce an already calculated tone found in this piece. In a conflict that has proven to be quite complicated, the author, and more so the editor that would give this article its platform, have made it grossly simplified. What this article really turns out to be, is a generic omage to the Palestinian victim, which by virtue of circumstance requires its Israeli aggressor. This article, rife with a colored terminology, brazen in its emotional tempo, has no interest in reporting anything like a conflict, but rather to peddle a distorted perspective of the Middle East, through evocative language and narrow investigation.

Its broad conclusions found in the last paragraphs changes its narrow focus of Nilin, and takes an expansive glare at Israel. The author has engineered a taudry emotional rhythm that predictably ends in a lambast marked with contrived facts and biased sources, in order to determine Israel as the guilty party.This articles reveals itself to be a bad editorial that advertises itself as fact.  From its title, to its victimhood snapshot, ending on a much anticipated slander on Israel, this article proves its dubious nature and hackery time and time again.

Now for the facts, and a small dose of reality. As reported in all of Israeli dailies, on 23rd of Oct. 2008 there was another such "protest" where 8 molotov cocktails were thrown and a military transport destroyed, far from the peaceful demonstration where an "occasional protestor throws a stone," as is described in the above article. If this conflict were to be understood outside the confines of one Palestinian snapshot (Nilin), it would inform on those who seek the truth, an implacable palestinian society, bent on hatred, champions of terrorism, and consistently using diplomacy deceitfully in order to upgrade its terror-making capabalities on Israel. Despite all the Palestinian machinations and a growing extremism in Palestinian society, Israel has historically shown a great willingness for a diplomatic solution. Even now, after the Oslo failure, Israel's hand remains extended ('47 U.N. Partition Plan, Oslo, Disengagement...and today, Annapolis).