"A remarkable failure for a journalist"-2009 Courage in Journalism Award Acceptance Speech by Amira Hass
By Guest Post • Nov 3rd, 2009 at 14:43 • Category: Hasbara Deconstruction Site, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Zionism
Allow me to start with a correction. How impolite, you'd rightly think, but anyway, we Israelis are being forgiven for much worse than impoliteness.
What is so generously termed today by the International Women's Media Foundation as my lifetime achievement needs to be corrected. Because it is Failure. Nothing more than a failure. A lifetime failure.
Come to think of it, the lifetime part is just as questionable: after all, it is about a third of my life, not more, that I have been engaged in Journalism.
Also, if the 'lifetime' part gives you the impression that I am soon going to retire – then this impression has to be corrected as well. I am not planning to end soon what I am doing.
What am I doing? I am generally defined as a reporter on Palestinian issues. But, in fact, my reports are about the Israeli society and policies, about Domination and its intoxications. My sources are not secret documents and leaked out minutes which were taken at meetings of people with Power and in Power. My sources are the open ways by which the subjugated are being dispossessed of their equal rights as human beings.
There is still so much more to learn about Israel, about my society, and about Israeli decision makers who invent restrictions such as: Gazan students are not to study in a Palestinian university in the West Bank, some 70 kms away from their home. Another ban: Children (above the age of 18) are not to visit their parents in Gaza, if the parents are well and healthy. If they were dying, Israeli order-abiding officials would have allowed the visit. If the children are younger than 18 – the visit would have been allowed. But, on the other hand, second degree relatives are not allowed to visit dying or healthy siblings in Gaza.
It is an intriguing philosophical question, not only journalistic. Think of it: what, for the Israeli System, is so disturbing, about reasonably healthy fathers or mothers? What is so disturbing about a kid choosing and getting a better education? And these are but two in a long, long list of Israeli prohibitions.
Or when I write about the progressively decimated and fragmented Palestinian territory of the West Bank. It's not just about people losing their family property and livelihood; it's not only about the shrinking opportunities of people in disconnected, crowded enclaves. It is in fact a story about the skills of Israeli architects. It is a way to learn about how Israeli on the-ground planning contradicts official proclamations, a phenomenon which characterizes the acts of all Israeli governments, in the past as in the present. In short, there is so much to keep me busy for another lifetime, or at least for the rest of my lifetime.
But, as I said, the real correction is elsewhere. It's not about achievement that we should be talking here, but about a failure.
It is the failure to make the Israeli and international public use and accept correct terms and words – which reflect the reality. Not the Orwellian Newspeak that has flourished since 1993 and has been cleverly dictated and disseminated by those with invested interests.
Source: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=9176&lg=en
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From what i know, i don't think orwell had disovered anything new in the way people {mis}use langauge. The ruiling classes had also always used language as weapon rather than the tool so as to obtain an elucidation.
For, what are words like bastard, noble, lord, sir, king, prince, senate, govt, governance, constitution, freedom, democracy, unamericanism, public servant, and an endless number of such labels but either dys- or euphemistic, derogatory or imbued [mostly by the ruling calss] with falsetofact notions.
Name calling or relabeling of a person or what was said by it, apears to be used everywhere and everywhen and used as 'proof' that own condemnation, opinion, conclusion, etc., is right.
A new label introduced, not appearing in the original satement is used by nearly all people as proof that the original statement is wrong and a person arrogant, stupid, etc.
EG, people wld say, Only a totally ignorant, mean, uninformed, pro this or that, a total fool, antisemitic, hateful person cld say that. When i encounter such a talk, i stop reading.
As for political or priestly talks, one can note that they most of the time posit ex- or imlicit promises. And all promises cannot be anything but lies. Because? Well, no one knows the future.
And then there are an endless number of flatteries and selflaudations. Such as our freedoms , our greatness, together we will restore the greatness of america, defend our interests, security of our country, etc.
And i haven't even mentioned the verbal brilliancies implying to most listeners that that person is also brillinat and as such wld improve life for all.tnx
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