As I said in my last post, In the past couple of days, the Israeli mainstream media is gushing with Gilad Shalit. Whenever something is all over the news, you have to ask yourself about the dog that's being wagged. What's not being reported?

Wagging the Dog
If the Shalit deal is all that's being reported, then what's not being reported? How about the continuation of air strikes against the Gazans, every day, since the "ceasefire"? How about the Wall, annexing pieces of the West Bank, as we speak? How about the ongoing protests that are being held every day, for the past months at Ni'ilin village? How about the critical wounding of American activist, Tristan Anderson?

You'd think an international- American- getting shot by the IDF with a tear gas canister, critically wounding him, would get some serious coverage. In the least, just to explain how this was an accident and the rest of the rhetoric. But the truth is that even American media ignored this incident. If you Google "Tristan Anderson", there is plenty of places you can find this story, but the sites that pop up are not mainstream news sites.

It took me 4 days to find out about Anderson, since he was shot with a tear gas canister in the face. Four days! And it happened by accident, when a Z friend emailed me, asking to know if I had heard about it. To be fair, it was reported in the mainstream press:

Yes, 33 whole seconds on mainstream television.

The three Israeli news papers, Ma'ariv [Hebrew], Yedi'ot Acharonot [Hebrew] and Ha'aretz all had an article about it. While Ha'aretz opened the article with the words "Palestinian sources said...", it tried to keep some kind of reporting integrity (operative word "tried"), Ma'ariv and Yediot, however, made sure we don't mistake self defense for brutal attack:

""There was a throng of 400 Palestinians, Israeli civilians and foreigners that massively hurled rocks at the defense forces, that had to retaliate with riot gear," says IDF spokesperson... "This is an area in which violent violations of order are perpetrated as a means to create provocation and endanger the defense forces. A civilian that decides out of their own free will to participate in a violent and illegal demonstration, is endangering themselves and could get hurt."" [Ma'ariv]

To be objective, it was reported once in every medium. No follow up on Anderson's situation and definitely no reference to the Palestinians wounded in the demonstration (except Ha'aretz, which mentioned no names).

The Girl I Blinded
Also no reference to Rachel Corrie (except Ha'aretz, which made sure you understand the case to be an accident), Tom Hurndall, James miller- internationals murdered by the IDF. It took me a while to find the following BBC production, investigating the deaths of the three. I thought it appropriate to post it here, to expose the vulnerability of the internationals in Gaza. My government will kill them and their governments will not help them or their grieving families, while their patriotic peers will post appalling, cynical posts on their blogs, celebrating the deaths of human beings.   

This documentary was one of the tipping points, for me, in discovering the truth about my homeland. I was a soldier in Gaza when these events happened. I was typing up papers and had no clue what they meant. In part 2, you'll find 12 year-old Huddah Darwish, who- unbeknownst to her- changed my life forever.