Starving in Deafening Silence

Thought-Ignition of the Day

I came across this on Twitter today.  Being relatively new to the Tweetsphere, I like to poke around and see what's going on.  The US trends have such glittering topics as #ShootMyTruck, #worstsuperhero, and #Crank Yankers.  Not being particularly excited, I switched over to the World filter.  Much of it remained at a similar level of quality, but I came across #KhaderIsAlive, trending strongly.  Looking at the feed, I still couldn't get a feel for what's going on, so I googled Khader Adnan.

I must confess I am rather poorly informed about the low-level and case-by-case news in the Middle East.  I do, however, try to keep an eye on the subject, and I had never heard of this man.  Arrested by Israeli security forces and placed in "Administrative Detention" (look that up, it should make most Americans' skin crawl), Khader proclaimed a hunger strike over his imprisonment.

I do not have a dog in this fight, and being as poorly informed as I am, particularly about a situation seen completely differently from each side, I am not going to attempt to comment on whether the imprisonment is just or unjust.  I don't like the concept of a four month uncharged imprisonment, but it is apparently part of Israel's justice system, so in those terms it appears to be legal.  That being said, I want to know one thing.

Where is the coverage of this in the mainstream media?

Much of Western opposition to the Palestinian and other Muslim causes lies in the perception of a culture steeped in violence.  Conflicts in the Middle East are generally presented as lawless, vile, and full of tribal violence.  Mainly though, we see a story about Palestinian conflict and think "suicide bombers".  I am aware that this is generally an inaccurate image.  It is, however, much of the focus of media coverage.

When we spend so much time decrying the parties involved for their violent methods, how can we possibly not be covering a peaceful, non-violent and dignified protest like this?  Like I said, he may very well be guilty, or may be representing a cause that is unjust, but we must at least acknowledge that he is bringing much attention to this cause in a modern and enlightened way.

I hear a lot of criticism of America from worldwide sources that we see the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East, with tunnel vision.  I have to admit I am seeing some of this here.  The only places I was able to find information on Khader were Al-Jazeera and some other foreign sites.  Not a peep from CNN, Fox News, or even BBC.

Nobody will believe our efforts and motives are honest in the Middle East until we at least try to present both sides of the story.  I understand that there is a very large pro-Israel lobby in the States, which of course will tend to skew coverage towards the Israeli side.  We need to find a way not to make coverage "fair" (fair implies a balancing), but to make coverage "comprehensive".  Report both sides, and let us take a look and debate it.  We can't comment rationally until we've seen both sides.

You will see a consistent them of "let's look at both sides" here in my blog.  I firmly believe that most of the inability to come to reasonable compromises springs from hardened ideological positions.  If we insist on hearing both sides of an argument before we decide, we give ourselves the opportunity to make a rational choice, rather than an emotional one.

If anyone has any more information on this, please link it, I would like to hear both the Palestinian and Israeli sides, let's get the information out and into the light.