True words from an insider. That's my take on it. Being the top news anchorman in Israel, I'm sure his voice carries more weight than most when it comes to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Besides, the ostracism people like him face (without rationale) from society after going public gives one an indication of their correctness. Of course, we won't hear anything of the like from say ... Wolf Blitzer anytime soon.
In fact, he is one figure in a growing list of Israelis who want the world to know what's really going on, only to be completely shunned by peers. What's the name of the guy who made that award-winning documentary on a group of Palestinian children in a play, "___'s children"?
It must have taken a lot of courage on his part. Better late than never.
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Israel's News Icon Blasts "Brutal" Occupation
CAIRO, June 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) ? Israel is behaving like a brutal conqueror and occupier in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel's top television news anchorman said in a documentary he filmed on Jewish settlements.
?I regard this as a Greek tragedy. I don't see any solution,? Haim Yavin, a founder of Israel's state-run Channel One and its news anchor for 37 years, told The Guardian in an interview published on Wednesday, June 1.
?Since 1967 we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people that has a claim to this land,? Yavin said in his ?Diary of a Journey? film which was aired on Tuesday, May 31.
He not only questions the occupation and the settlements, but the commitment of successive governments, including Ariel Sharon's, to curbing Israel's hunger for land and the expansion of its colonies, the British daily said.
?This merrymaking will never be stopped,? Yavin maintained.
Commenting on the endless suffering of the Palestinian people under the yoke of the Israeli occupation, he said: ?I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.?
The five-part documentary marked a dramatic departure by the popularly known ?Mr. TV? from a decades-long policy of avoiding personal political commentary.
It is the result of his visits during more than two years to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, carrying his small camera.
[His] film was broadcast on a commercial channel after Channel One turned it down.
Yavin further said that Jewish settlers pose a threat to Israel.
?I have sympathy for the settlers, but I think they are wrong and that they are endangering us,? he said.
In the film, some settlers tell Yavin that the Palestinians must be given a deadline to leave the occupied territories or be forced out.
?Otherwise we should just bomb and kill them,? says one woman.
The Council of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip demanded the 72-year-old anchorman's dismissal from state-owned Israel Television.
The international community and a raft of UN resolutions regard as illegal all Jewish settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The UN Commission on Human Rights on April 14 condemned Israel?s continued settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Defying international resolutions, Israel revealed on May 16, plans to build a section of its separation wall to link the largest Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank to Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).
The controversial barrier has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding Tel Aviv to tear it down and compensate affected Palestinians.
"Horrors"
?My intention was to get the personal feelings of the settlers, of the Palestinians,? Yavin told The Guardian.
Among those filmed by Yavin is an Israeli soldier in Al-Khalil (Hebron) who wonders how his compatriots can remain silent in the face of the ?horrors? the army commits, and the settlers who ask him why he is not shooting Palestinian children.
Israeli reservist Erlik Alhanan told IslamOnline.net in 2004 that the number of Israeli reservists who refuse to do their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories was on the rise due to the illegal army practices.
Over the past four years, journalists and world media outlets have joined a chorus of condemnation of the Israeli aggressions on the Palestinians and the authoritarian policy of suppressing freedom of speech and censoring media coverage.
Chief among journalists who criticized Israel is the BBC's world news editor, Jonathan Baker, who said Israel was prepared to take even stronger measures to conceal what was happening in the occupied territories from the outside world.
Israel has further drawn a welter of criticism for targeting journalists in the occupied territories.
In May 2003, award-wining British journalist James Miller breathed his last after being shot in the neck by Israeli troops in Rafah as he was filming demolition of Palestinian houses Israeli bulldozers.
Link
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Edit: ?I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.?
I think I'll have to agree with Spiderman here: with great power, comes great responsibility.
In fact, he is one figure in a growing list of Israelis who want the world to know what's really going on, only to be completely shunned by peers. What's the name of the guy who made that award-winning documentary on a group of Palestinian children in a play, "___'s children"?
It must have taken a lot of courage on his part. Better late than never.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel's News Icon Blasts "Brutal" Occupation
CAIRO, June 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) ? Israel is behaving like a brutal conqueror and occupier in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel's top television news anchorman said in a documentary he filmed on Jewish settlements.
?I regard this as a Greek tragedy. I don't see any solution,? Haim Yavin, a founder of Israel's state-run Channel One and its news anchor for 37 years, told The Guardian in an interview published on Wednesday, June 1.
?Since 1967 we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people that has a claim to this land,? Yavin said in his ?Diary of a Journey? film which was aired on Tuesday, May 31.
He not only questions the occupation and the settlements, but the commitment of successive governments, including Ariel Sharon's, to curbing Israel's hunger for land and the expansion of its colonies, the British daily said.
?This merrymaking will never be stopped,? Yavin maintained.
Commenting on the endless suffering of the Palestinian people under the yoke of the Israeli occupation, he said: ?I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.?
The five-part documentary marked a dramatic departure by the popularly known ?Mr. TV? from a decades-long policy of avoiding personal political commentary.
It is the result of his visits during more than two years to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, carrying his small camera.
[His] film was broadcast on a commercial channel after Channel One turned it down.
Yavin further said that Jewish settlers pose a threat to Israel.
?I have sympathy for the settlers, but I think they are wrong and that they are endangering us,? he said.
In the film, some settlers tell Yavin that the Palestinians must be given a deadline to leave the occupied territories or be forced out.
?Otherwise we should just bomb and kill them,? says one woman.
The Council of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip demanded the 72-year-old anchorman's dismissal from state-owned Israel Television.
The international community and a raft of UN resolutions regard as illegal all Jewish settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The UN Commission on Human Rights on April 14 condemned Israel?s continued settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Defying international resolutions, Israel revealed on May 16, plans to build a section of its separation wall to link the largest Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank to Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).
The controversial barrier has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding Tel Aviv to tear it down and compensate affected Palestinians.
"Horrors"
?My intention was to get the personal feelings of the settlers, of the Palestinians,? Yavin told The Guardian.
Among those filmed by Yavin is an Israeli soldier in Al-Khalil (Hebron) who wonders how his compatriots can remain silent in the face of the ?horrors? the army commits, and the settlers who ask him why he is not shooting Palestinian children.
Israeli reservist Erlik Alhanan told IslamOnline.net in 2004 that the number of Israeli reservists who refuse to do their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories was on the rise due to the illegal army practices.
Over the past four years, journalists and world media outlets have joined a chorus of condemnation of the Israeli aggressions on the Palestinians and the authoritarian policy of suppressing freedom of speech and censoring media coverage.
Chief among journalists who criticized Israel is the BBC's world news editor, Jonathan Baker, who said Israel was prepared to take even stronger measures to conceal what was happening in the occupied territories from the outside world.
Israel has further drawn a welter of criticism for targeting journalists in the occupied territories.
In May 2003, award-wining British journalist James Miller breathed his last after being shot in the neck by Israeli troops in Rafah as he was filming demolition of Palestinian houses Israeli bulldozers.
Link
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: ?I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.?
I think I'll have to agree with Spiderman here: with great power, comes great responsibility.
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