Nov. 2017: It is the Palestinian 29th year after the declaration of Independence. To many of us, it seems like yesterday as Palestine manages to keep itself in the news despite so many other media distractions, such as wars in Syria and Yemen taking headlines.
As of 14 September 2015, 136 (70.5%) of the 193 member states of the United Nations and two non-member states have recognized the State of Palestine. Many of the countries that do not recognize the State of Palestine nevertheless recognize the PLO as the “representative of the Palestinian people”. Just like any other country, the Palestine Embassy celebrates this occasion every year. It also marks the death of their iconic President Yasser Arafat.
Whodoeswhat.tv is far from a political platform and extremely reluctant to post anything politically motivated, but somehow just the mention of anything Palestinian and it opens a Pandora’s box. For sure, we will see masses of support for this video and no doubt a few condemnations. The Palestinian issue can be a volatile subject, as H.E. Azzam Al Ahmed got right into during his speech. (It was in Arabic, rather ad-lib, lengthy and full of passion so no translation unfortunately).
Comment:
Trolls are abundant on the Internet, many intelligent with perceived reason, but most just imbeciles with no conscience. One recent comment received almost immediately, pitted this post as propaganda for the Palestinians and was since deleted having no credible proof of intellect or identity come to that. It was a funny comment, suggesting we post the Israeli National Day Celebrations as well. A) Whodoeswhat.tv has never been invited, even if we knew of such an event. B) We cannot directly travel there anyway. C) The channel’s content does not ‘champion’ politics or religion of any sort, despite either or post might be related in the background, such as Taiwan and the mighty China for example; whodoeswhat.tv cover events for both. Therefore, for Israel to invite a Bahrain Based media channel to cover a celebration dinner, would be pure incendiary and loaded to the brim with political agenda, at the expense of innocent individuals, plus we couldn’t afford the mobilization anyway.
As for opinion, well that is down to the editorial and something the team rarely gives, unless a review. Obviously, with the Palestinian issue, the order of the day should be co-existence but that is proving very tough. The Palestinian publicity machine has somewhat stalled in recent years due to severe regional conflict, but now Hamas and Fateh re-unite, perhaps progress can be made. Much of the world remains somewhat confused as to demarcation, confused further by Arab (among others) rhetoric against Israel and its existence. As the troll comment depicts; one cannot be mentioned without the other, with Israel doing itself absolutely no favours and exacerbating hate by constantly grabbing land. Generations have now grown up, steeped in conflict. Then, a part time philosopher might conclude that 50 odd years of talking, no matter how tedious, is far better than 50 years of violent conflict.
The bottom line, surely any logical thinking will support a Palestinian Independent Statehood as such to succeed or fail in their own right. Never mind should one think Israel a great, tough nation of achievements or not, good on them, it is irrelevant to the issue! Forget about loyalties, as of the ‘Oslo Accord’ Israel does not recognize Palestine as an independent country with demarcation borders over which no one can pass without permission. What is the big deal? One assumes peace will rain (and reign) down if a ‘Two State’ solution can be negotiated and accepted. After all what is the worst thing that could happen? The situation is ugly now, it can’t really get worse; only better surely.
However, such talk is far beyond this media platform, who will innocently accommodate any reasonable factions, such as between Taiwan and China mentioned above, if it is interesting and not loaded with agenda. Each side has an argument and neither can agree, so for now, we live with this dilemma – don’t shoot the messenger.
History defines mistakes, some which cannot be corrected. From Australians ostensibly feeling horribly guilty for taking the land down under, to huge desultory concessions to Native Indians in the USA and so on around the world. Numerous pointless activists prevail but they ‘cannot’ change history. Sure, Israel has its strength and indeed its own popularity and world-wide respect for their achievements too. When it comes to Palestine, with a declaration to accept Israel’s ‘right to exist’, we all await that utopia for a peaceful co-existence as simply ‘neigbours’. Saying that though, a 2001 article in The Guardian, (a newspaper of extremely dubious credentials, wrapped up in hard left-wing intellect). portrays what so many in the Middle East feel. But NOT everybody!
