Free Palestine--But Not The Palestinians!

Whatever might be said in favor of freedom for Palestine, there has been to date precious little freedom in Palestine, whether in the Hamas-controlled statelet of Gaza or in the parts of the West Bank under Fatah's dominion.
Bret Stephens

For all the talk of "Free Palestine!"--part of the problem is that the apologists who have made this their mantra demonstrate no concern on the consequences. They may claim that they want a Palestinian state free from Israel, but they don't seem to care if the Arabs themselves are free.


Bret Stephens offers the example of Walid Husayin from the West Bank city of Qalqilya. He is suspected of blogging as Waleed al-Husseini and of having written an essay appearing on the Proud Atheist Web site: "Why I Left Islam."

As a result, Husayin is in detention and has been forbidden access not only to visitors, but also a lawyer--while facing a potential life sentence. Oh, and people in his hometown are calling for him to be burned alive.

That is one problem.

Then there is the media, promoting a free Palestine but glossing over the lack of free Palestinians:

It's also a problem that when the Associated Press covered Mr. Husayin's ordeal, reporter Diaa Hadid offered that "the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is among the more religiously liberal Arab governments in the region," and that "Husayin's high public profile and prickly style . . . left authorities no choice but to take action."

How nice to see AP reporters sticking up for free expression. Indeed, the consistent willingness of Western news organizations to downplay stories about Palestinian illiberalism and thuggery goes far to explain why so much of the world misdiagnoses the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Settlements are a convenient alibi: They foster the illusion that the conflict can be resolved by Israeli territorial concessions alone. But if that were true, Gaza would have turned peaceful the moment settlements were withdrawn five years ago. The opposite happened.

Stephens concludes:

But if Palestinians cannot abide a single free-thinker in their midst, they cannot be free in any meaningful sense of the word. And if the U.S. can't speak up on his behalf, then neither, in the long run, can we.

Read the whole thing.

And if the media cannot concern itself with the freedom of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, then they have allowed themselves to be reduced to nothing more than a mouthpiece for Arab dictators.

Hat tip: P David Hornik

Technorati Tag: Palestine.