Word: balata
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...editorial on the Picture Balata exhibition, Shai D. Bronshtein misleads readers about the situation in Balata refugee camp...
Indeed, in the opening of the piece, Mr. Bronshtein describes Balata refugee camp as “a small town in the West Bank” and says that the children were told to “document life in their small town.” Later, Balata is described as a “community established nearly 60 years ago,” and there are quotes around the word “camp,” as Bronshtein argues that because Balata contains concrete houses it cannot possibly be considered a refugee camp...
...Bronshtein claims that the events of 1948 have “little to do with the current events in Balata,” but this minimizes both the prolonged suffering of the Palestinian refugees and the role of Israel in creating the refugee problem (as described by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his recent book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”), and in prolonging...
Whether one believes it, the claim is controversial and dubious and has little to do with the current events in Balata and what the children actually know from their experiences; the assertion conveys a political message imposed by others. Hadil concluded by claiming triumphantly that “the Zionists shall be chased out of our land,” the same rhetoric used when planning the massacre of the Jews and the destruction of Israel...
...Picture Balata perpetrated these falsehoods and propaganda to convince Americans that the Israelis are the “terrorists,” that the surgical strikes of the IDF are equivalent to the Palestinian suicide bombings, and that police actions which are necessary to maintain the stability of the region are worse than the indiscriminate murder of women and children. Tahreer photographs “martyrs…because they are our heroes.” Those who murder innocent Israelis only provoke violence. Those who harbor these murders deserve to be treated like the criminals they are. While...