Stefanie Marsh, who ordinarily covers womens’ issues for the Times of London, filed an inexplicable dispatch from the West Bank. I don’t say it lightly: this is one of the stupidest articles I ever read:
It became clear that I was expected to call the Israeli photographer and interrogate him about his roots: because if he turned out to have been an Israeli settler and, further, the angry and destitute Palestinian farmers got wind of this fact, or, indeed, if he looked or sounded as if he might have been a settler, Oxfam’s hard work bringing fresh water to a village beset by artificial drought would go out of the window. I dialled, the photographer picked up, awkwardly I explained the situation and immediately he began to shout: “You can tell them to f*** off,” he screamed. “F*** off! I’m Left! I voted for the peace process! I even look like a f***ing Palestinian.” The photographer swore furiously some more, fired himself from the job, told me that if it was up to them the Palestinians would only hire among themselves, and hung up.
The next day we visited the decimated Palestinian villages of Beit Hasan and Bardala, with a replacement. This photographer was from more acceptable territory as far as most Palestinians are concerned – west Jerusalem – but was, nevertheless, an Israeli of non Palestinian appearance.
