I wake up and switch the radio on at 6:50 this morning to hear the sound of gunfire exchanges. Today's BBC Radio 4 Today programme report from Gaza is like a cross between a clip from an amateur film of Fred Karno's Army and some out-takes from a bad Labour Party party political broadcast of the 1950s.
The official story is the formal opening by Mahmoud Abbas of a brand new housing project on the site of one of the former, and now demolished, Jewish settlements.
But the report from Jon Leyne is from the former settlement of Netzarim, which he describes as it was: a neat, tranquil suburban town, now reduced to rubble. The bursts of machine gun fire and ricocheting bullets throughout his commentary make the point much more clearly than he can. Chaotic and destructive internecine warfare between competing Palestinian terrorist factions is now being played out over the rubble of the former settlements. Only, this being the BBC, we are talking militant groups.
And the sensational thing is that neither the BBC reporter nor any of the Palestinians featured in the report are blaming Israel for any of this. In fact there are some interesting interviews with students from Gaza City's Al Aqsa university, and one from a member of the Palestinian Organization for Human Rights, itself a veteran of Israel-blaming. The BBC reporter mentions the current official justification for the Palestinian Authority's apparent inability to control the escalating street wars: lack of bullets and equipment, a Fred Karno explanation if ever there was one.
The Palestinian human rights spokesman makes the points calmly and scathingly. The Palestinian Authority is hugely well funded. It has a force of 47,000. It is not an issue of bullets, he says. It's about having a clear structure of command, eliminating corruption and ineffficiency, and making a commitment to the rule of law. The students interviewed are emphatic in rejecting violence and point out the unemployment and lack of future resulting from the fighting.
The report offers the housing project as at least a vision of hope. But that's where the bad Labour Party party political broadcast comes in. For it fails to question the whole statist model that comes with it. Well, that's the Today Programme, or rather the whole BBC mind set for you. Large scale state projects which you impose on people are just what's needed, aren't they? Especially when you do the deciding as to who gets what, and it's custom and practice to reward your friends, relations and old comrades.
A new city built of what will effectively be PA-controlled council flats is to be the vision of the new Gaza. And that in turn will create a new version of the sort of where's-my-job, where's-my-handout? world that already infests Palestinian politics on the ground. In fact, it's clear that it is likely to be achieved by dispossessing some of the Palestinian landowners who actually have a title to the land.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda appears to be trying to establish itself in Gaza. This report from the Jerusalem Post shows most residents against them, though some are for. The PA typically shines with its explanation that the Al Qaeda people are really Hamasniks in disguise. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda itself outshines them all with its cutting edge analysis of Mahmoud Abbas: a "collaborator with the Jews," [note: that's Jews, not Israelis] and accusing him of assisting Israel in its war on Hamas.
By now, some of you may be pining for the missing "blame Israel" angle. If you can't find it on the BBC or amongst the Palestinians of Gaza, where on earth can you look? Never fear, there's always Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz. His current article shows how Arafat was just an excuse the Israelis used to keep peace at bay.
Oh, and there are quite a few reports suggesting a campaign of kidnapping Israelis to help the Palestinian cause along may be under way. But wait, here's a report by the Palestinian reporter Khaled Abu Toameh that the PA itself is resorting to kidnapping Hamas men in order to establish....order. Conveniently, a previously unknown group stands up to take responsibility:
A hitherto unknown group calling itself the Brigades of Omar Bin al-Khattab claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
The group said in a statement that the kidnappings were intended to send a message to all Hamas members trying to damage the Palestinian Authority. The group accused Hamas of violating the law and attacking Palestinian policemen and vowed to respond to any attempts to harm the PA, its institutions or leaders.
That should help all the residents of Gaza feel safe in their beds, shouldn't it? I wonder where they get the bullets from? After all, if the PA is having difficulties...
And I also wonder where all those peace-loving human shields of the International Solidarity Movement are? Shouldn't they be trying to impose their bodies between the gunmen and the hapless ordinary citizens of Gaza? Well, as the link shows, they're planning an Olive Harvest festival just around now. That should do the trick, shouldn't it?
I too was amazed; I cannot remember a BBC report from Israel/The Territories where Israel has not been blamed in some way or other, either by presenters like the beautiful Orla, or by interviewing Palestinian representatives or those on the Israeli left (to provide "balance").
Either the BBC is cleaning up its act now that their Middle East coverage is to come under official scrutiny, or perhaps even they are getting tired of blaming Jews for everything.
Posted by: Eamonn | October 10, 2005 at 09:06 AM