Denouncing Israel’s “Manufactured Consensus”

A very strong opinion piece in Haaretz from activist Michal Peleg, rising in defense of the recently arrested activist Ezra Nawi, and a denunciation of the Israeli media, including the 60-Minute-style TV show that produced an expose on Nawi.

Peleg writes:

“How is the Israeli consensus manufactured? It happens when awful facts associated with 50 years of occupation, discrimination and systematic land theft are never “exposed” in prestigious investigative programs such as Uvda. It is achieved by the decisive voice of the “objective truth” touting a “democratic and Jewish state” (barring a few weeds,) a moral IDF, even when it bombs civilians and massacres children, with statements such as an “anti-Semitic world,” “the Arabs want to annihilate us,” “there is only one Holocaust and its ours” and “we all want social justice” (except for a few corrupt ones who we exposed in our program.)

Without the collaboration of Ilana Dayan and her ilk in the media (such as Ari Shavit,) without diverting the conversation from the harsh reality to controlled “exposés,” Israelis would not be able to ignore the scope of killing and destruction, the extent of the poverty and the insult to human dignity and freedom for which we are responsible in the occupied territories.

This is the criminal responsibility which is whitewashed on TV Channels 1 and 2, on Army Radio and by the High Court of Justice, in the “country’s newspaper” (Yedioth Ahronoth) and the tycoon’s mouthpiece (Yisrael Hayom). Since the nature of hidden guilt is such that it gnaws and eats away while the rot grows, we’ve reached the Israel of 2016, with Uvda serving the purposes of the right-wing Ad Kan group, which is operated by the Judea and Samaria Council.”

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.699219