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On May 11, while Israel was releasing its military machine in occupied Jerusalem and elsewhere, I contacted CBC Radio-Montreal, who were looking to interview someone to discuss the violent events in Sheikh Jarrah. After offering to speak on one of their programs on the day they requested on May 12, they told me they would like to book a show.
Alas, the person must have been exactly, and I refer to him, a “Palestinian-Montrealer.” Apparently, their strict policy is that all guests of the show must be Montrealers. Also, I now had an hour to look for that specific Palestinian subspecies.
Beautiful. In 40 minutes, I found not one, but two Palestinians-Montrealers, able to interview and ready. I also checked in with these two people. And they confirmed to me that they think they wake up every day: “Hey, isn’t it great to be a Palestinian-Montrealer!” Only when these two words are combined do they feel complete! Their combination is the main feature of their existence and is the source of all knowledge and insights into what was happening in Sheikh Jarrah.
Fantastic, stated by CBC Radio-Montreal. Everything is within hours. We can’t believe it. Thank you.
The Palestinians-Montrealers I have met have been very sympathetic, clearing up the busy schedule for the time slots that suited CBC Radio-Montreal, not only for the air talk, but also for the pre-screening interview. The schedule has been cleared. Preparations made. Wonderful.
May 12th come and go. But there’s not as much of an email or call from CBC Radio-Montreal to tell this Palestinian-Montrealer that they won’t be aired, or even interviewed in advance.
This story is far removed from the landscape of Canada’s major media and, in fact, the media landscape of Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere.
Over the course of three days, May 11-13, I found CBCs, Palestinian Palestinians, Palestinian Canadian experts, Palestinian Montrealers, and Palestinian Palestinians who are not “journalists’ voices, ”but simply“ local voices ”. ”- which is what I mean, but I still found it. And every time I found one of these specific Palestinian subspecies, they ignored me or told me, no, now we’re really looking for another subspecies. And he moved on.
If it weren’t for the fact that the colonial savagery of the settlers is structurally hidden and the mode of persecution is for people who give time to get Palestinians interviewed, as well as for people who offer their own hours. conversations for nothing, these stories would be comical.
Within the landscapes of the Canadian and foreign media, of course, are brave and conscientious journalists who are working very hard to cross the wall of silence and tell the Palestinian story to the audience. They are everywhere. They are working in the mainstream media, within CBC News, and some are creating their own media platforms and are becoming successful.
We should all help these journalists, both independent and working from the mainstream. When they break up, put a Palestinian in the air, and give them real time to explain the situation, the journalist’s own language moves away from the deceptive “two-sided” clichés of how they shape events on the ground. , “The real estate conflict,” and “everything that is Israel’s right to self-defense and any justification,” and anything that is spreading government propaganda, that’s where we need to be behind these conscious, real journalists.
Write to your news. Say you appreciated the work of such journalists. Ask for more. Help these journalists break the silence. Break the barrier of fear.
Over the past two weeks, while still in operation, young Palestinian journalists and activists have been providing a more accurate and comprehensive picture of what is happening on the ground on social media than the combined Euro-American media landscape.
This does not mean that there is no censorship on these digital platforms. Definitely. Instagram and Twitter accounts and Facebook groups are being deactivated, blocked and censored. Therefore, these platforms will not be a panacea for these serious, structural and underlying problems of the media landscape. There are also police and construction space to serve powerful digital platforms.
The CBC and other news outlets may think they are sending us in search of wild geese, chasing Palestinian-Montrealers in search of ghostly conversations. But we understand their games and tricks. We understand how they will respond to what I am sharing here. They will now state how they have invited two, three, maybe 10 Palestinians as well during these days and maybe in the coming weeks, and will try to use them as an exoneration of these charges.
But we know and understand that inviting Palestinians of the subspecies for a few minutes here and there will not go through a few hours every day during the daily hours of the narrative of powerful states like Canada, the US and Israel. there is almost no daylight between their positions).
And we also understand that the old guards of the CBC and other media organizations are on the wrong side of history. All the benefits that will be achieved in the coming weeks, all the progress that is already taking place and we hope that they will increase, will happen even if the interests of the state are fixed in the mainstream media. These gains are achieved by people who come together inside and outside the mainstream media, pushing these power structures towards the necessary change. But like the state of Israel, the mainstream media will respond to this delay with structural violence.
In an open letter last week, 500 journalists in Canada consciously called for a fair and balanced Palestinian “lack of coverage for forced expulsions and non-discriminatory airstrikes” by Canadian journalists, and made a simple request: Occupy the Palestinian Territory of Palestine where journalism must move forward should be applied to the coating. Fair and balanced coverage should have a historical and social context, journalists with knowledge of the region and, above all, Palestinian voices. “
And how does the old senior guard in the mainstream media respond? Some signatories banning the covering of Palestine / Israel.
Let that sink. Calling for more nuanced, fair, balanced and legitimate journalism leads to the punishment of these journalists.
So something is urgent, and he is never a fugitive Palestinian-Montrealer. There is an urgent need for a clear, open, honest, participatory and deliberative public debate on this planet to find out how the structures of oppressive government rule are built and maintained by major media organizations and through them.
Never forget this: our story is not just a Palestinian story. It is the story of all peoples who have been oppressed, killed, imprisoned, maimed, enslaved, colonized and exterminated. Turtle Island is the story of indigenous peoples fighting on the island of Bolivia, Mexico, Chile, Australia and beyond. Black Liberation is a story of struggles around the world. It is the story of Kashmir’s struggle for freedom. It is the story of an unfinished struggle to dismantle the structures of economic and social inequality left by apartheid in South Africa.
It is the story of the struggle for freedom and democracy in Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong and beyond. It is the story of all the people who are struggling to overcome the yoke of colonial authoritarian states in Guinea, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. It is the story of workers’ struggles in Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, the United Kingdom and other countries. It is the story of a Jewish struggle against the destructive monsterism that created the anti-Semitism that created Europe.
We all dominate this world of colonial modernity and built from within. The tactics and strategies used to silence and dominate the Palestinians are the same that all oppressed people face or will face, and include structural violence practiced by the mainstream media.
Nelson Mandela once said, “We are well aware that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” True. But I will also add this: not all people caught up in these struggles at the top are free. The Palestinian struggle for freedom is also a struggle for the freedom of many around the world. Either we all get along, or no one goes.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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