Wednesday
Jan282009
CBS' 60 Minutes on Palestine
Issandr El Amrani
This has been much talked about in the last few days, and I have just caught up with it and watched it. The incredible, unprecedented thing about this documentary is that it takes the time to examine the living conditions of Palestinians, the nasty mindedness of the settler movement and Israel's policy of supporting it. All of this is public knowledge for those who care to look for it, the big deal here is that for those who don't care, just turned on the TV, are ill-informed, a US broadcaster has just shown a straight-up account of the occupation of Palestine that is not automatically followed by a "Israel says this, Palestinians say that" idiocy or a reaffirmation of "Israel's right to defend itself." So yes, it's a big deal.
Watch on the CBS website (can be difficult with low-speed internet), or YouTube (part 1, part 2) and then take the time to thanks CBS for having given the settlement issue a fair hearing.
Watch on the CBS website (can be difficult with low-speed internet), or YouTube (part 1, part 2) and then take the time to thanks CBS for having given the settlement issue a fair hearing.
Reader Comments (6)
That is a terrific piece. Let's hope it was received well in Washington.
A friend who used to work for 60 Minutes and is still in touch with folks there says, not surprisingly, that CBS is getting lots of hate mail for this piece.
I hope your readers will counter the hate mail and thank CBS for the segment.
Thank you so much, 60 Minutes, for finally reporting the truth in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More Americans need to be informed of this. You stated the truth, and factually reported it.
Thank you again.
JStreet has an online petition of support for the 60 min segment, for those who wish to sign:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/2747/t/3251/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2523
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave comments for CBS telling them how much you appreciate this. There are several Israeli watchdog groups that are giving CBS HUGE FLACK for presenting the Palestinian side of the story, and we need to tell them that the truth is what we want and expect from them, no matter who is pressuring them otherwise!!
PLEASE if you care about this, go tell CBS that they did a good job!
I think the big problem with this CBS piece is that it presents settlements as "the" obstacle to peace.
If you wanted to do a piece on settlements as "an" obstacle to peace, suggesting that while there are many other obstacles to peace, this is one that doesn't get enough attention and therefore deserves its own 60 minutes piece, that might be worthwhile.
If you wanted to do a piece on obstacles to peace in general, in which you focused on settlements AND terrorism AND Hamas' hate-impregnated charter and all sorts of things like that, that too might be worthwhile.
But this piece combines the two and ends up distorting things terribly. If you think this is a "straight up" piece... I don't think you're doing yourselves any favors by being the choir preached to.