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Children of the holocaust have great burdens which their parents,
usually inadvertently, placed on their shoulders, and the results are
idiosyncratic but often very strange. So I am not surprized by
Hedy's identification with the Palestinians, but that is not what I'm
questioning; I'm questioning her fallibility. I don't know how you
determine what is "censorship," which is usually an action by a body
carrying the weight of law. Having worked as a newspaperman both in
Israel and in the U.S., I can tell you that censorship is not a problem.
Coverage can be a problem, because of the nature of news and
deadlines and the number of people covering which stories are the
problem of an editor in the choice of stories covered, the
journalists attempting to provide good news coverage or analysis,
etc. I read the BBC and listen to BBC news and CBC as well as CNN
and Jim Lehrer in order to get a better picture of what is happening
in the world because I'm aware of the human shortcomings of news
gathering and distribution. I also read Israeli and Arab sources
because I am interested in that area. Gush Shalom is not a
newsgathering organization but a peace organization. I belong to a
peace organization, too, but that doesn't make me a newsperson, just
a former newsperson.
Censorship is the arbitrary prevention of information instituted by
an individual or a body operating with the force of law. Norman
Finklestein was denied tenure because of his poor scholarship. His
specialty was not scholarship but polemics.
"My Name is Rachel Corrie" is going to tour in most of the major
cities in the U.S. and Canada. It is a play about a peace-activist
who died when she got in front of a bulldozer. Having operated a
bull-dozer, I would never get in front of one, because I know how
limited the vision of the operator is, particularly when the blade is
raised. She was not struck by the bulldozer itself, but some rocks
in a pile the bulldozer was moving fell off the top of the pile and
struck her.
Jerry Blaz/mybookiejoint.com
At 12:11 PM 1/23/2008, you wrote:
Quoting Jerry Blaz:
"Most of what you, Richard, sent in your link had little to do with
the Holocaust..."
Hedy Epstein would disagree, and so do I....
Anyway, I was using that article as a real (as opposed to
fabricated) example of censorship in American society. There is
more coverage in Israel of the desperate plight of Palestinians,
particularly in the Gaza Strip, than there is in the great 'liberal'
newspapers in the United States of America. One only has to look at
Gush Shalom, and a number of other news outlets in Israel, to see
the comparison . . .
The only good thing that arises from such extreme forms of censorship --
from refusing to cover humanitarian catastrophes on the scale of
what is presently taking place in the Gaza Strip -- the cutting off
electricity, gas, and food to one and one half million residents --
is that it only encourages those seeking social justice and some
semblance of sanity to break such despicable silence!!
When threats are made to people who wish to proceed with, for
example, a production of the play 'My Name is Rachel Corrie'
(opening Friday in Vancouver), or when ground-breaking researchers
such as Norman Finkelstein are refused tenure, with the added insult
of Google refusing to index that professor's website, or when
pressure is put on various university administrations to prevent
various speakers from appearing -- etc., -- those extreme forms of
censorship cause many to quadruple their efforts simply in order to be heard.
So to reiterate the main point: the link --
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19044.htm -- was
meant to serve as a real example of censorship, in the real world,
as opposed to a made-up example of censorship on a website library.
all the best,
Richard
Jerry Blaz mybookiejoint.com
Member of IOBA -- www.ioba.org A Mark of Online Trustworthiness
P.O.Box 572168
Tarzana, CA 91357 (818)345-2983
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