Recently, North American opinion pages include op-ed’s in favor or, or against, the Israeli security fence almost every day. The battle for popular opinion on the fence is at its height, so now is a great time for you to write to your local paper as well.
Here’s a recent, very good opinion piece: Ilana Freedman in the (Boston area) Metrowest Daily News makes many of the same points we covered in our recent communiques ‘Photo Op’ and ‘Not an Apartheid Fence’:
Earlier this week, a photograph of a weeping Palestinian woman appeared in the international press. Standing in front of Israel’s new separation wall, part of the barrier now being built around the West Bank, the photograph showed her with her hands covering her eyes. The wall behind her was adorned with graffiti in both Arabic and English. A truly heart-rending photograph, I thought. Until I saw a second photograph, taken from a different angle and further away. This photograph showed the same woman, surrounded by photographers, who were covering her tears from every position. Not surprisingly, no newspaper carried this photograph.
That is not to say that there isn’t a great deal to cry about in a land that has been torn apart by a conflict that seems to have no end. But this was clearly a photo op, photojournalists creating news instead of reporting it. It was deceptive and inflammatory, and illustrated the worst of what too much of today’s cynical journalism has to offer…
Language, like photographs, can have great power, and the emotional content of loaded symbols can lead opinion and shape history. “Apartheid Wall” conjures up ugly images of the old South Africa, where blacks were kept separate from the mainstream culture by a system of brutal laws and customs that kept them at the bottom of society. The “Berlin Wall,” as Palestinians also call the Israeli project, is no less evocative, the highly emotional image of a city torn in half by a wall running through its heart. The labels are intended to inflame and evoke an emotional response that casts Israel deep into the role of tyrant and aggressor.
Now is a great time to draft your own op-ed, or even an succinct letter to the editor, supporting Israel’s right to defend herself via the security fence against relentless Palestinian terror. For talking points, see the following HonestReporting communiques:
– Photo Op
