Comments on: Rosa Parks, Settler

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:11:27 +0000

EVERYTHING that is published in Hebrew in Ha’aretz that bears the slightest relevance to the conflict is translated into English

If you’d said 70 or 80% I would agree. But “everything” overstates the case. Numerous interesting articles are not translated into English. And yes, they do truncate articles in translation & it is frustrating. I agree w. you.

The fact that Haaretz spent the time, money & effort to have the ltr. translated into English proves a great deal: that the column was intended to have a Diaspora audience just as I claimed.

I don’t have any idea what the pt of the yr 2nd paragraph is above. Rosa Parks is widely known & admired here in the States. That is why she was exploited in this propaganda piece & appropriated on behalf racist settler ideology.

By: mary

mary — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:37:46 +0000

So what if Haaretz publishes in English? American Jews, and non-Jews, read Haaretz for middle east news coverage. Al Jazeera is multiligual, and there are English language papers such as The Daily Star from Beirut, as well as many from Egypt, Palestine, and Pakistan. They cater to an international readership, which all good newspapers are trying to do in the age of globalization and with the accessibility of the internet.

“As for the “exploitation” of “a widely admired American civil rights icon,” how often do you read articles about Rosa Parks that feel the need to introduce her to start with, much less begin “Once upon a time….” Your arguments are proving the opposite point.”

I just don’t get this statement at all. I read it over and over but I don’t know what your point is. Can you elaborate?

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:32:22 +0000

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but EVERYTHING that is published in Hebrew in Ha’aretz that bears the slightest relevance to the conflict is translated into English (and they often leave out full sentences, I can think of examples, and I might be able to find them as well.) Regardless, it’s quite clear that the fact that it was published in the English edition of Ha’aretz proves nothing.

As for the “exploitation” of “a widely admired American civil rights icon,” how often do you read articles about Rosa Parks that feel the need to introduce her to start with, much less begin “Once upon a time….” Your arguments are proving the opposite point.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:19:51 +0000

Because it was also published in English in Haaretz, an edition widely read in the Diaspora. And because it exploits a widely admired American civil rights icon.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:55:23 +0000

Why do you think that a piece originally published in Hebrew was directed at Americans???

By: Warren

Warren — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:18:33 +0000

Correction: Sheesh, what is it with me and careless, dyslexic mistakes today in my comments (!), second time I’ve done something like that on a thread. As is obvious from the context above, I meant to write “untermenschen” rather than the opposite. The term may seem colorful and dramatic here, but it’s hard to imagine a more visceral form of otherizing racism than what you see today in the occupying Israelis toward the occupied Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, specifically amongst the (state-sponsored) settlers.

By: mary

mary — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:58:52 +0000

The hypocrisy is breathtaking, indeed. Warren, your questions should not only be asked of the Israelis, but also of Obama. American support allows this occupation to continue.

By: Warren

Warren — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:27:29 +0000

This is disgusting. Do these thugs have any conception of how they look to humane, liberal, morally serious people? This is a perfect example of how either radically cynical or totally divorced from reality, or both, the settlers and their supporters are.

The occupied Palestinians in the West Bank live under arguably the most viscious, brutal and dehumanizing form of apartheid extant in the world today. Heck, the Israelis build roads criss-crossing the West Bank connecting their militarized settlements that the Palestinian ubermenschen in between are not even allowed to use! And they’re going to turn around and hold up Rosa Parks! (I think I’m gonna be sick…) What’s so sickening, and also what peculiarly stands out, about Israeli propaganda is that in the midst of their brutalizing, they perpetually play the victim. If you’re going to be brutalizing thugs, just be it, please don’t play the oppressed victim and appropriate narratives of the oppressed. It’s utterly revolting. It’s a crime against language, representation and reality.