Israel and Palestine: do we really need more evidence?

If you needed any more evidence that Israel is engaging in violent, unethical and systematically planned harassment against the Palestinians, you should watch "People and the Land" (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6). It is not an incredibly good documentary, but it makes its point.

In fact, you would have to be a very poor film maker not to get this message across. What is happening is blatantly clear to any person with a droplet of sense. Israel policy and American support for it are unmoved by UNSC resolutions condemning it, by human rights organisations recording their consistent violations of basic human rights, by the suffering of the Palestinians and by the pressure of the international community.

Liz Coleman, Bennington College's president, in her speech at TED 2009 about the dying-out liberal arts education in the USA, mentions (at min 5:23) five processes or goals which further erode the link between education and civic engagement: "Oversimplifications of civic engagement", "Idealisation of the expert", "Fragmentation of knowledge", "Technical mastery" and "Neutrality". Of these the second and last are key to why the situation in Palestine is allowed to continue internationally. "Experts" like Alan Dershowitz fuel an artificial debate, where there is nothing left to prove. Pressure groups against the occupation are scattered, while Israeli lobbying is well organised and powerful. And both their influences in the international community are decided neither by just argument or evidence, but by power flows. America has been pumping money into Israel like there's no tomorrow (also watch, if you haven't, part 6 of People and Land), and simultaneously using its veto right in the United Nations Security Council to prevent resolutions against Israel from being adopted (tens of times, in almost all cases it being the only state to disagree). Even so, Israel is on top of the international 'villains', with 32 UNSC resolutions violations, all related to the Palestinian "problem".

This is a clear-cut case. It is simple and straighforward. It is true that both sides are engaging in such activities, but Israel is by far the champion. It should be made to take a break.

Perhaps I will be urged by some to go back to my programming. I am also aware that my knowledge of the issue is still limited. But I am stretching my imagination to its limits in trying to figure out what piece of undiscovered evidence can demonstrate my ignorance or blind partisanship. I am going for the stretch by reading, in paralel, Dershowitz's "The case for Israel" and Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle". If you have any other suggestions, I am open.

So, do we really need more evidence?