Okay. So right now I can go to just about any news outlet and see something about Sarah Palin resigning, which I honestly could not care less about, but a former US Representative is being held in a detention center in Israel, along with 20 others – INCLUDING A NOBEL LAUREATE – after they tried to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza through international waters. Mind you, this attempt comes after President Obama demanded that Israel allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza. And for me to actually find ANYTHING about this, I have to go on search engine hunts on the websites for major news outlets and dig through the blogosphere.
Am I surprised that this happened? No. Do I think that this is the worst thing to happen in Gaza? Hell no. But I am flat out amazed by the fact that no one is talking about this. The imprisonment of these individuals is part of a major issue, and the fact that no one is talking about it scares the hell out of me. To find information on CNN, and just about every other news source, I have to run a search. It seems like Fox News, surprise surprise, is giving it the most coverage, and they’re focusing on what McKinney is doing wrong (“refusing” to sign her deportation papers, because, oh, SHE IS REQUIRED TO SIGN AN ADMISSION OF CRIMINAL GUILT AS PART OF THAT. But that’s not really clear in the articles).
So what’s going on? How do we get more people to know about this? Did everyone really on vacation for the 4th early? Can we take a minute out of talking about Palin to talk about this for the love of God?
Earlier this week, I got the opportunity to screen Slingshot Hip Hop for about 100 incoming ninth graders at my school. And after the screening, students of mine approached me to say they talk about the Palestine-Israel conflict at home with their parents, but get worried/angry when they feel like no one in school will give them an honest opinion of what is going on. Because they WANT one. They have opinions and they want to learn more. They want to get involved. But if no one talks to them about what’s going on, they’re not sure how to do that.
Maybe I’m late to the game on this, maybe everyone has other things going on, but whatever it is, the silence surrounding the Israeli imprisonment of the Gaza 21 really worries me.
