Sunday, January 25, 2009
And What About the Sensiblilities of the Palestinian Untermenschen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2009/jan/25/readers-editor
The readers' editor on ... the important line between argument and insult
The reason this comment will have come down is because it directly compares Israel with Nazi Germany," a moderator told me. "Though it may not be intended as such, this sort of comment is deeply offensive to Jewish readers of all political stripes and alienates them from discussion in a way that undermines the conversation all round. Our aim is to make space for constructive and inclusive dialogue, so we take such references down in line with our community standards, which state, 'We understand that people often feel strongly about issues debated on the site, but we will consider removing any content that others might find extremely offensive or threatening.' " read more
My response to the editorial above:
Dear Mr. Pritchard:
It is four AM in the morning, and I am plagued by images of Palestinian children bandaged from head to toe and with injuries the likes of which doctors have never seen before. And when I see Palestinians living in tents today, I recall images of Palestinians in tents in 1948. I read reports of Palestinian children shot at close range with bullets through their brains in 2009, and I am reminded of reports of Palestinian children shot at close range through their brains in 2002. And I remember the order of Yitzak Rabin to break the bones of Palestinian kids who picked up rocks in 1987. And I recall kids trapped for days in their houses in 2002 in Nablus watching their parents bleed to death as I read in January 2009 about a father trapped in his car for twenty hours helpless as his son bled to death, while the other son was dead in the street. And I read how a soldier defecated in a Palestinian lady's cooking pot in 2002, and I am reading today how soldiers urinate and defecate in the houses in Gaza that they comandeered. And I remember that Sderot is built on the village lands of Najd, a defaced and depopulated Palestinian village, one of over four hundred destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages from 1948. And I see poor refugees, some of whom may originally be from Najd, some originally from Jaffa, some originally from Ashkelon, some originally from Bir Saba, picking through the rubble of their destroyed village today so kindly bear with me if the furthest thing from my mind is the sensibilities of the perpetrators of these outrages against God and humanity.
Nancy Harb Almendras
The readers' editor on ... the important line between argument and insult
The reason this comment will have come down is because it directly compares Israel with Nazi Germany," a moderator told me. "Though it may not be intended as such, this sort of comment is deeply offensive to Jewish readers of all political stripes and alienates them from discussion in a way that undermines the conversation all round. Our aim is to make space for constructive and inclusive dialogue, so we take such references down in line with our community standards, which state, 'We understand that people often feel strongly about issues debated on the site, but we will consider removing any content that others might find extremely offensive or threatening.' " read more
My response to the editorial above:
Dear Mr. Pritchard:
It is four AM in the morning, and I am plagued by images of Palestinian children bandaged from head to toe and with injuries the likes of which doctors have never seen before. And when I see Palestinians living in tents today, I recall images of Palestinians in tents in 1948. I read reports of Palestinian children shot at close range with bullets through their brains in 2009, and I am reminded of reports of Palestinian children shot at close range through their brains in 2002. And I remember the order of Yitzak Rabin to break the bones of Palestinian kids who picked up rocks in 1987. And I recall kids trapped for days in their houses in 2002 in Nablus watching their parents bleed to death as I read in January 2009 about a father trapped in his car for twenty hours helpless as his son bled to death, while the other son was dead in the street. And I read how a soldier defecated in a Palestinian lady's cooking pot in 2002, and I am reading today how soldiers urinate and defecate in the houses in Gaza that they comandeered. And I remember that Sderot is built on the village lands of Najd, a defaced and depopulated Palestinian village, one of over four hundred destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages from 1948. And I see poor refugees, some of whom may originally be from Najd, some originally from Jaffa, some originally from Ashkelon, some originally from Bir Saba, picking through the rubble of their destroyed village today so kindly bear with me if the furthest thing from my mind is the sensibilities of the perpetrators of these outrages against God and humanity.
Nancy Harb Almendras
