Here is a propaganda related news story I cannot pass up, involving Radio-Canada, which is the French version of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and usually has different (i.e. more liberal) programming than the English language CBC.
A documentary aired on Radio Canada by Sut Jhally called "Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land" about the propaganda war between Israel and the Palestinians. In it, comments were made on the pressure tactics used by Pro-Israeli government lobby groups to pressure TV networks to air only their side of the story. You can probably guess what happened to this documentary as soon as it aired.
The Israeli-Palestinian question is so politically charged that honest debate is being squeezed out of the discourse.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to criticise the Palestinians without appearing pro-
Israeli; is it possible to criticise Israel without appearing
antisemitic?
The latest casualty is Caryl Churchill's playlet, Seven Jewish Children. This short play (essentially poetry) is Churchill's cris de coeur about the thousands of Palestinians killed, maimed and left homeless by Israel's recent campaign in Gaza.
Virtually all Jewish defense organizations around the world have attacked its 'blatant antisemitism' ... that theme has been picked up by commentators such as CBC's own Rex Murphy.
I submit that the current strategy of immediately denouncing anything presenting the Palestinian side of the issue is self-defeating and runs the risk of debasing legitimate efforts to solve the impasse in Palestine or to combat antisemitism, by reducing much of the position to the level of paranoia.