Friday, June 26, 2009

The language that does the damage

A special political vocabulary prevents us from being able to recognize what's going on in the Middle East.
By Saree Makdisi

"In fact, a special vocabulary has been developed for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States. It filters and structures the way in which developing stories are misread here, making it difficult for readers to fully grasp the nature of those stories -- and maybe even for journalists to think critically about what they write."
Posted by at

7 comments:

  1. anandJune 26, 2009 at 11:00 AM

    Interesting theory. I think Palestinians need to communicate to the world that their land is being confiscated at below market prices or no price at all by Israeli "eminent domain" type laws. This has happened on a massive scale and continues to happen. This is something the world can understand and offer support to the Palestinians for.

    Another important point to communicate is that most Palestinians detest terrorists who kill Israeli civilians and want nothing to do with them. It is deeply unfair for Israelis to blame Palestinians for the crimes of wackos; wackos that Palestinians have almost nothing to do with. It is immoral and ammoral for Israelis to punish Palestinians for the crimes of crazies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. vJune 26, 2009 at 2:40 PM

    It is not a theory, but a practice putz - want to see it in action? Secondly the land is being stolen - why don't you just fuck off anand?

    ReplyDelete
  3. vJune 26, 2009 at 5:04 PM

    Here you go smart ass, why don't you take 8 1/2 of your precious time that you use spouting off bullshit and learn something?  However, something tells me you are incapable of learning anything because your mind is already made up -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inXHPImuc9M&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  4. vJune 26, 2009 at 5:12 PM

    and a few more minutes tro round it off - all the way down to words, the "neighborhood" replacing "colonial occupation" etc. -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inXHPImuc9M&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  5. vJune 26, 2009 at 5:18 PM

    A few more minutes to round off what is taking place, the use of strategic words (like you constantly use jackass), the replacement as an example of "neighborhood" for "settlements" or "colonial occupation."  For that matter, the entire absense of occupation in media language etc. -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJgq7rjRxc8&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  6. vJune 26, 2009 at 5:19 PM

    A few
    more minutes to round off what is taking place, the use of strategic words (like you constantly use jackass), the replacement as an example of "neighborhood" for "settlements" or "colonial occupation."  For that matter, the entire absense of occupation in media language etc. - 
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJgq7rjRxc8&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzBxdHJLAxo&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  7. vJune 26, 2009 at 5:33 PM

    I guess you could say this is for honest people Anand, for those who REALLY want to know what is going on, not for individuals who feign ignorance and cover up atrocities.  It is posted for the honest few who might pass by.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)