Word: balata
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...discussion was not simply about the difficulty of life in Balata; a discussion such as this would be irrefutable by anyone outside of the refugee camp. The problem is that the stories the children read were filled with political statements—unverifiable, at the very least, and logically untrue at other points...
...children have no places to play, he claimed that if the residents built playgrounds, “The occupation would come demolish them because they don’t want the children to have a normal place to play.” Tahreer, another photographer, states in the Picture Balata slideshow, “The Israelis don’t want us to be free.” These claims are highly charged and controversial, and such conclusions have very little to do with the actual situation in Balata. They are mere speculation and do nothing to actually solve...
Perhaps this is because they are children, and their presentation was nothing more than a repetition of the story told repeatedly by their parents and other authority figures, including those who organize Picture Balata. This point is not meant to disparage the children themselves, but the adult manipulators who advise their speeches and inculcate them with mistruths. The exploitation of children for political means is an old propagandist tactic—clearly the children were chosen for their innocence and emotional appeal...
...addition to this unacceptable form of emotional persuasion, the Picture Balata presentation contained factual errors. These were not merely “interpretive” differences; several of the statements were either clearly untrue or dubious. One such questionable statement was made in the introduction which claimed that “soldiers invade the camp four to five nights a week.” The 25,000 residents of Balata, a community established nearly 60 years ago, do not live in the desolate “camp” implied by the children. In actuality, they live in concrete...
When the IDF does take police action, it is to prevent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and the state. Tahreer, one of the photographers, states in the Picture Balata slideshow that the IDF “kill[s] fighters who defend the camp against the occupation.” If there were no weapons in the town, and if there were no bomb makers in the town, and if there were no militants in the town, the IDF would likely leave it alone. It is always difficult in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to establish causality and blame, but offering shelter...