Sunday, September 19, 2004
CTV aired a documentary on the fence between Israel and some of Palestine titled, odly enough, The Fence. It was one of Alexandre Trudeau's efforts, him claiming the writing and producing credits. In it, he spent a fairly equal amount of time with people on either side of the fence. Prosperous Jewish Israelis safe and secure on their side, living, working, and shopping in a town near Jenin that had been the victim of several suicide bomber attacks prior to the wall going up. Destitute Arab Palestinians in Jenin, living in squallor and without any semblance of laws. In Jenin, there are no police. It's run by the rebels, who I guess maintain their own level of order. Why fight each other when you all hate the same enemy across the border I suppose.
It was a fairly enlightening tv show, and honestly I have no idea which side is right. Israel constructed the wall to protect its settlements from suicide bomber after suicide bomber, and it has found much success. However, the Israel is the manufacturer of suicide bombers. By imposing their will on the Arabs, killing families, and bulldozing arbitrarily-decided illegal settlements, they've created a class of Palestinian Arabs who now have nothing to live for, and nothing to lose. That being said, violence is hardly ever the right answer to violence. I watched as, while Alexandre was living with a family in the Palestinian city of Jenin, he awoke to the funeral of a man killed during an incursion into the city by the Israeli army.
While the documentary was indeed informative, Alexandre seems to have a bit of an overblown opinion of himself, which comes through during his sometimes over-the-top narration. While sometimes insightful, it more often comes across as corny, or contrived.
I don't presume to know the answer to the Palestinian question, but if Jewish Isaelis got a soverign state, why not Arab Palestinians? Oh right, the U. S. was basically the motivating force behind the creation of Israel, and they U.S. sides with Israel on pretty much everything. What a farce it is then, when the U.S. attempts to direct both parties with a 'roadmap to peace'.
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