I have heard quite a bit of snarky chatter on the subject of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners being traded for Gilad Shalit.
If you are reading this, I know that this story has already been hemmed or patched or molded to fit into your preexisting political worldview. Be it about the bullying brutality of Hamas, the relative value of human life based on nationality or what have you, you have already decided what this story means. I don't intend to change your mind.
Here is what it means to me:
Israelis are people. Palestinians are numbers. I have noticed this (and written indignant research papers about it) since I was old enough to know why it mattered. Israelis have names and grieving families to be interviewed. Palestinians are body counts, anonymous numbers without background story.
This is not the whole truth; occasionally Palestinians are names, particularly when they are terrorists. Occasionally Palestinians are photos, particularly when they are carrying weapons or when they are old women grieving and surrounded by rubble.
You will hear (or, rather, I have heard) people saying that Israel has released one thousand terrorists, bombers who target night clubs and public busses, just to save one boy. Because they understand the value of life.
What you will not hear are many of the names of these thousand, or that many of them were arrested as boys for throwing stones at tanks, that many of them were arrested for their political activities, that many of them have been in jail, cut off just like Shalit, with grieving families at home given no assurance if they live at all. You will not hear that, unlike Shalit, they were not wearing military uniforms when they were taken, they were often not even holding guns. Many were held without charges. Many were tried without a right to defend themselves.
In the weeks to come, you will hear one name and one number. These 1027 are not just numbers. They have names as well. Not just the infamous ones, all of them. We will never know their stories the way we have been told Shalit's.
I can only think of all 1028 of them as victims of this occupation.
If you are reading this, I know that this story has already been hemmed or patched or molded to fit into your preexisting political worldview. Be it about the bullying brutality of Hamas, the relative value of human life based on nationality or what have you, you have already decided what this story means. I don't intend to change your mind.
Here is what it means to me:
Israelis are people. Palestinians are numbers. I have noticed this (and written indignant research papers about it) since I was old enough to know why it mattered. Israelis have names and grieving families to be interviewed. Palestinians are body counts, anonymous numbers without background story.
This is not the whole truth; occasionally Palestinians are names, particularly when they are terrorists. Occasionally Palestinians are photos, particularly when they are carrying weapons or when they are old women grieving and surrounded by rubble.
You will hear (or, rather, I have heard) people saying that Israel has released one thousand terrorists, bombers who target night clubs and public busses, just to save one boy. Because they understand the value of life.
What you will not hear are many of the names of these thousand, or that many of them were arrested as boys for throwing stones at tanks, that many of them were arrested for their political activities, that many of them have been in jail, cut off just like Shalit, with grieving families at home given no assurance if they live at all. You will not hear that, unlike Shalit, they were not wearing military uniforms when they were taken, they were often not even holding guns. Many were held without charges. Many were tried without a right to defend themselves.
In the weeks to come, you will hear one name and one number. These 1027 are not just numbers. They have names as well. Not just the infamous ones, all of them. We will never know their stories the way we have been told Shalit's.
I can only think of all 1028 of them as victims of this occupation.
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