Another Example The Palestinians And Israelis Aren’t Valued Equally
All Things Consider — By Daniel Strauss on November 23, 2009 at 6:19 pmThe New York Times reported today that a Hamas-held Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, will most likely be traded for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners:
JERUSALEM — Israel and the Islamist group Hamas appeared to be nearing a deal on Monday to exchange a captured Israeli soldier for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including a popular leader, a move with far-reaching implications not only for stalled Middle East peace talks but for a range of regional relations.
Can we say definitively that Palestinian bodies are valued proportionally less than those of Israelis? It appears to be so, and I think the math comes out to 1 Israeli = 200 Palestinians.
We can say a lot about this equation: e.g., “Israelis value their friends more”; “Hamas has a lot of bargaining power now, more than it used to”; “Palestinian lives are worth 1/200 of an Israeli life in the system of Middle East prisoner exchange”. All of these explanations are plausible, but I think the last one is the most relevant. What can we say about the way bodies are exchanged for bodies presently? A major league basketball player is often traded for three or four dimmer stars. Yet when we are talking about prisoners in a war it feels different somehow. We could also say that Israel is more compassionate than Hamas – giving away more of the bodies it keeps in storage for just one body in return. We could say that this deal also is not representative: Hamas has seen declining support as people look to the Palestinian Authority for leadership.
Noam Chomsky regularly criticizes the representations of Israel/Palestine in the media and advocates for greater investment in getting Palestinian news out into the world. I think his critique is highly applicable here: the New York Times website features the family of the Israeli soldier but not the families of the Palestinian prisoners. There seems at least to be some difference between how we conceive of prisonerhood in the first place. Shalit is probably not having a good time with Hamas operatives, but every single Palestinian in Gaza is not having the time of their lives either and yet the Times is acting like Shalit is the only victim.
–Gabe Tourek
| Share and Enjoy: |
|
Tweet |
Subscribe
4 Comments
It’s also simply the case that there are more Palestinian prisoners in the possession of Israel than there are Israeli prisoners in the possession of Hamas.
This is an example of how Israelis and Palestinians value their own lives. Israel believes its soldier’s life is more valuable than keeping hundreds of convicted terrorists behind bars.
Also, Noam Chomsky would be happy to know that the New York Times gives plenty of coverage to Palestinians’ lives in Gaza: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/middleeast/11iht-letter.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/world/middleeast/27gaza.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/middleeast/22rafah.html?fta=y.
I don’t think you can necessarily compare the lives of Palestinian prisoners to that of Israeli prisoners, or at least make the claim that this unequal ratio is making a statement on the value of lives. if anything Hamas is the one sending the message that 200 prisoners are equal to that of one Israeli prisoner because obviously Israel would be more than willing to exchange Gilad Shalit for one Palestinian prisoner as opposed to freeing hundreds of captured terrorists.