Sunday, December 24, 2006
Let's pause to take a look at three articles on Bethlehem, shall we? All three appear in The Telegraph, and all three focus on the plight of Behtlehem's Christians.
First, Christians find room in Bethlehem's holy 'twin towers' by Harry De Quetteville provides some clear testimony of the hardships faced by the local Christians at the hands of their fellow "Palestinians." For instance:
And elsewhere, the piece is a general balance of testimonial blame, veering a bit afield as it quotes Rowan Williams blaming the invasion of Iraq for minority problems in the region, better analysis perhaps inadvertently surfaces:
Skip now to a more interesting and problematic article by Tim Butcher, Why Bethlehem's Christians are still voting with their feet. Butcher can't be accused of not providing the necessary data to sort things. The meat of the article is in the conversations with ordinary Christians:
"My son, Nazar, when he was just 13, used to come home from school and the Muslim boys of his age from the local refugee camp would run after him shouting 'Nazarene, Nazarene', which is a derogatory local term for Christian. Once they caught up and threatened to beat him unless he said Allah was his god and Mohammed his only prophet. We had to move house, but now my son has left university and cannot get a job, so every day he says we must leave."...
Interestingly, it's when Butcher talks to the Mayor, the "Big Man" of this community, that the narrative takes on a familiar form:
And when Butcher applies the narrator's voice of authority, which shape does it take? See:
Incongruously, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism has hung a large banner on the wall next to the main crossing point with the message "Peace Be With You". Graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall is more insulting about Israel...
This is rather typical of all bad reporting from the region...there's a pass at objectivity, but in the end what emerges, particularly through judicious use of the narrator's voice, is a credulous repetition of the narrative accepted by the elites, and a subordination of the truths being spoken rather clearly through the experiences of the ordinary people who are summarily ignored when what they say should really be the shocking centerpiece.
The third article? Well, that's about Rowan Williams' trip, and you can imagine how that goes: 'Bethlehem wall' shock for Williams
Etc., etc...
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