Seeing Is Believing

This is a typical scene at a Baghdad refugee camp populated by Fallujans. Not surprisingly, the very selective "embedded" war-time journalists, particularly Americans, who report on this war and war casualities often omit daily accounts of civilian suffering. If you're at all familiar with mainstream Western journalism norms, you know that credible reporting is often defined by a fusion of (or confused) with obligatory patriotic subtexts that conforms to corporate reporting, or administration-approved, standards. Opposing takes on current events, that radically steers away from and challenge such norms, are often dismissed as liberal babble, i.e., the downfall of Dan Rather.

What struck me the most this past week was the story of how Palestinian violinist, Wissam Tayem, was stopped by Israeli officers at a checkpoint near Nablus, and ordered to "play something sad." According to the Guardian, the dehumanizing incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists and struck a chord with the Israeli community.
The incident was reminiscent of when Jewish musicians were forced to play background music to the mass murders that took place at concentration camps.

Of course, now that this, among other documented accounts of "insensitivity" towards the Palestinians, have gained international attention, the Israeli officers deny that the Tayem was forced to play for them, and that he did it voluntarily.

Drawing such parallels that challenge the ideologies of the US-led war against the "axis of evil," the increasing popularity of animilizating Muslims in the media, and projected images of US soldiers coming back in coffins, are topical underlying war-time themes that typically will not be given a national platform in US airwaves, or be given the same importance as topics that are less critical of the right wing agendas.
I don't expect that the FOX network (know for its pro-Bush sentiments) would have reported on how Palestinians are degraded by Israeli or US soldiers for that matter.