Here is Conflict Blotter’s first attempt at going multimedia. I’m new to shooting and new to editing so it’s going to be a little rough in the beginning. This was shot today in Ramallah at the Beituniya Checkpoint and the Palestinian Authority headquarters.
NOTE TO READERS: Any readers with video experience who have any advice whatsoever, please feel free to offer it up. Thanks.
24 responses so far ↓
1 Edie // Jul 20, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Good job. One thing - couldn’t read text between shots. Need a larger font. Font size used for ‘ConflictBlotter.com good.
Question Charles: Why doesn’t western media identify how many of the prisoners released were held under administrative detention which means they weren’t charged, didn’t have the opporunity of due process and were held for an indefinite period of time. Also, no western media (that I was able to find) noted that 6 of the prisoners were women and 11 children (minors)?
You also use the conservative figure of 9200 prisoners, yet Reuters, B’tselem and of course Arab media sources state there are at least 10,000 or more Palestinian prisoners who continue to be held.
It’s also never mentioned that it is illegal for an occupying power to transfer prisoners out of the territories, yet Israel does this consistently holding prisoners in the Negev.
2 Charles Levinson // Jul 20, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Edie — thanks on the font advice. I noticed that too and will fix it in the future.
Every prisoner I spoke with today had been tried and convicted in a military court. I of course only spoke with a small sampling. Given the discrepancy in numbers of prisoners being held, i figured “Over 9,000″ was the safest way to go. Palestinians tend to say 11,000 prisoners.
As for what’s legal and illegal for an occupying power, well, that always seems, quite unfortunately perhaps, an awfully quaint discussion in these parts.
3 Edie // Jul 20, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Being an American, perhaps I’m not translating the word ‘quaint’ correctly. By ‘quaint’ to you mean out-dated, old fashioned and trivial or irrelevant? Because, how can international law, most of which was formulated after the atrocities of WWII to protect civilians and offer some protection for the powerless ‘people’ of the world be irrelevent or out-dated? There also has to be some standard of conduct on nation-states.
4 Charles Levinson // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I suspected you’d take issue with that. I indeed meant old fashioned and out-dated. International law is great, but as long as it’s unenforced, it doesn’t matter much. Discussions of international law in the Israel-Palestinian conflict have so little to do with what happens here that it borders on the totally irrelevant. Again, I’m no saying that this is a good thing, I’m just saying this is the way it is.
5 Daygator // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:08 pm
By ‘quaint,’ he isn’t trivializing the importance of it. If I’m correct, he is pointing out, rightly, that disputations over violations of international law have borne little fruit in this conflict.
Still glad to see it brought up, however.
6 Daygator // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:11 pm
…funny how that works out…
7 Edie // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I understand that with the lack of enforcement, international law currently has no ‘bite’ in reality, but seeing as many of the ‘Palestinian demands’ are based on
- the Right of Return (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Conventions, UN Res. 194, Int’l Convenant of Civil and Political Rights)
- or that an occupier cannot transfer it’s population or change the demography of the area it occupies (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention)
- or the ‘inadmissability of the aquisition of territory by war’ (UN Charter, other int’l statutes, principles, standards, laws) which makes ALL the settlements in east Jerusalem and W.B. illegal
gives context to Israel’s obligations/actions towards the Palestinians in those areas and context to Palestinian actions towards Israel in those areas.
To not mention these laws, the readers are left to believe the Palestinians are being unreasonable with their demands, that violence is happening in a vacuum and are violent simply for violence sake (no context of occupation) and are left to ‘fill in the blanks’, usually erroneously.
Perhaps, int’l law is irrelevant not simply due to the refusal by the powers-that-be to implement and enforce them, but also to the media’s ommission of these facts so the readers don’t fully understand the issues?
8 Kebz // Jul 20, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I agree with that Edie. The media treat us like idiots. If the situation were reversed, the media would be quick to point out Palestinian obligations under international law. They never cease to lecture the Russians and Iranians on international law yet are strangely myopic when it comes to applying the rule to their own governments. If the media were to regard international law as relevant in this case, then I reckon the public in the West would be better informed and Israel would be under a lot more pressure to limit its transgressions. Somebody once described the media as the nervous system of society. If the media fail to transmit the warning signals, then the world is doomed to paralysis and ignorance.
9 lisoosh // Jul 20, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I always find discussions of “international law” in these forums to be rather amusing.
Without “international government”, “international police”, a fully capable “international justice system” and an “international penal code”, there is simply no such thing.
All you have is a code of conduct, a gentlemans agreement, which means very little if people choose to make it mean little. No-one except the really tiny insignificant countries wants it any different because they want to control their own borders and maintain their sovereign status.
Name me one country in the world willing to subjugate its personal interests and submit to the “worlds” legal interference. One.
The UN is a group of countries. Period. It has the same power as a neighbourhood community association, the same tendancy to gossip and gang up on the guy with the funny colored door, to get ignored by the rich guy with the big house and the barking dog and to have its by-laws changed by the whiner who wants to build swimming pool.
The UN sacrificed consistency long ago and that has led to it being ignored where it suits people. It sucks, because I for one,desparately want it to live up to its potential.
10 Comment Post on International Law « Online Conversations // Jul 20, 2007 at 7:29 pm
[…] Comment Thread I always find discussions of “international law” in these forums to be rather amusing. […]
11 Ash-Shakkak // Jul 21, 2007 at 2:24 am
Chapeaux, Charles Bey. More videos like this, please!
(Since you asked, My only gripe is that I wanted more cuts to keep the pace snappy.)
Comment thread on this one is frustrating… as I suppose any conversation about international law and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (with everything that entails) must be.
Happy is Lisoosh, who finds Palestinian suffering and the erosion of humanity’s universal values amusing.
12 Simon Columbus // Jul 21, 2007 at 8:11 am
Hm, I know videos from the news, but they never convey the feeling like this. Must be the non-perfect quality, which makes this (and that I know who made it, of course). It’s a great impression from the border. Should not be the last, more videos please.
International law? There’s American interests and Chinese interests and sometimes united European interests. And if they need popularity, they sometimes call it international law. That’s it.
13 Renard // Jul 21, 2007 at 11:52 am
International law?
1) Its absolutly important to analyze any item of the conflict with the eyes of international law to stay neutral and fair. 2) Coming conflict-generations will need neutral and fair standpoints when its time to assimilate the other ones impressions and acts to step into a real peaceful future. 3) The “enemy”: “We’re not calling for an abandoning of international law or an extreme change, but for an internationally accepted platform. We do believe there is a need to go over international law and fine tune it.” [Boaz Ganor, executive director ICT, Herzliya , 09.07.2007
14 Stephen Levinson // Jul 21, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Keep the videos coming. Watch your back, CNN.
15 JamieSW // Jul 21, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Thanks for this, Charles. You say:
‘Given the discrepancy in numbers of prisoners being held, i figured “Over 9,000? was the safest way to go. Palestinians tend to say 11,000 prisoners.’
Yes, I’ve always heard the 9,000 figure (if I recall correctly, that’s what organisations such as B’Tselem use), so I was quite surprised to hear none other than Ephraim Sneh state that: “Of the 11,000 prisoners who are held by Israel, 6,000 are Fatah people.”
Still, I think ‘Over 9,000′ was the wise choice.
16 JamieSW // Jul 21, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Thanks for this, Charles. You say:
‘Given the discrepancy in numbers of prisoners being held, i figured “Over 9,000? was the safest way to go. Palestinians tend to say 11,000 prisoners.’
Yes, I’ve always heard the 9,000 figure (if I recall correctly, that’s what organisations such as B’Tselem use), so I was quite surprised to hear none other than Ephraim Sneh state (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/882544.html) that: “Of the 11,000 prisoners who are held by Israel, 6,000 are Fatah people.”
Still, I think ‘Over 9,000′ was the wise choice.
17 JamieSW // Jul 21, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Oops, sorry! Can delete the second one.
18 BUSYBODY~ // Jul 22, 2007 at 2:22 am
Letting Terrorists Go And Forgetting Their Victims
July 20th, 2007
From an email:
Dear friends,
Today’s New York Times carries a review of a film called “Hot House” that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We’re not recommending the film or the review. But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article. You can see it here.
The film is produced by HBO. So it’s presumably HBO’s publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamour-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.
That female is our child’s murderer.
She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail. Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. The background is here.
Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment’s attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki. She was unable to reach her twenties - Hamas saw to that.
Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her. Please ask your friends to look at the pictures - some of the very few we have - of our murdered daughter. They are at:
http://www.kerenmalki.org/photo.htm
And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison - the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times - said last year. “I’m not sorry for what I did. We’ll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.”
With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she’s smiling.
With greetings from Jerusalem,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki
What can you say?
Except that the people at HBO and the New York Times are despicable.
19 Edie // Jul 22, 2007 at 5:25 am
Salaam Alaikum
20 Shualion // Jul 22, 2007 at 12:43 pm
The Roth “motivation” is undoubtable. And Genzlinger’s review [they talk about] is undoubtable a peace of s***.
But thats all, Mr. busybody. The letter is full of wrong political motivated accusations [”Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment’s attention to the victims”] and very intresting massages [”We ask your help so that other people - far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course - can know about her.”]
Can know about her? http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/index.impact.terror.html
I have seen both films twice, saw discussions with the directors, the organisations behind them, discussed them and “insane smiling Tamimi” was discussed as well as the victims fate, etc…
“What can you say? Except that the people at HBO and the New York Times are despicable.” Frustration is a bad advisor. And the only ones that benefit from it are the hyenas of the conflict. But maybe Roth writes the next time about “The Smile of the Lamb” of Shimon Dotan.
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