Friday, August 29, 2008

Bad News, Good News

The police is now about to drain the Yarkon river in order to find the body of Rose, a four year old girl who was disasterously murdered by her grandpa. This is the same police that didn't even notify the public about the disappearance of Amna Asala, a fifteen year old missing girl from Arab'e, in the Galillee.

Neither girl is Jewish, but Rose, of French origin, is blue eyed and fair haired, the media is showering her with all the attention she deserved to get and never got from her family before she died. Amna, a Palestinian Israeli, gets neither proper media attention nor proper police attention. She's been missing now for a month and a half.

When living in the States I wrote a piece for Haaretz called "Hayafim Vehakhatufim", describing how the media centers on fetching, white missing children, letting others rot in basements. When Salt Lake City girl Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped, the nation went hysterical over her. When the papers felt that the mystery won't be solved and a a happy end was not in sight, it began telling the stories of hispanic, black and less attractive white girls that went missing and were found. Those girls never got attention when they vanished. Our society, one that experienced dehumanization, predudice and violence towards children at their worse, is similar. This is really bad news.

The good news is Paul brady

1 comment:

lazy_n said...

Just to be spiteful: one thing that Israel has plenty of is free media, including Palestinian media. So, find me an article in the Palestinian Israeli press about the missing blond girl.

Don't bother pointing out that responding to an accusation with a counter accusation is childish and also the sign of a guilty conscience. As a guilty child I am already aware of this...