Submission: Palestinians are dying too
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 23, 2015 12:47 a.m.
Last week, Students for Justice in Palestine held a demonstration on the UCLA campus as part of the International Day of Action for Palestine, an annual event held on college campuses around the world. An article in the Daily Bruin covered the story with quotes from both SJP organizers and Bruins for Israel organizers in its attempts to achieve balanced and unbiased reporting. However, in providing background information, The Bruin provided a censored context for readers which contributes to the erasure of Palestine, Palestinian life and Palestinian identity.
The second sentence of the article argues how the SJP event “took place a day after multiple terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and central Israel (which) left three Israelis dead.” This sentence is followed by an abrupt transition to a description of the SJP demonstration on the UCLA campus. To the untrained eye, this may seem absolutely uninteresting. Many students will have read this sentence and continued on without a second glance. But to those conscious and aware of the systematic and sweeping attempts to erase Palestinian life, this rhetorical setup is very dangerous. The Bruin mentions the deaths of the Israelis without even so much as mentioning that Palestinians are also being killed, let alone, the overwhelming number of Palestinians being killed, the military occupation of their land, the bulldozing of their homes and on and on.
I say this because media erasure of Palestinian deaths is a fundamental aspect of maintaining the Israeli occupation. By reducing Palestinian life to something disposable, unimportant and unreportable, the killing of Palestinians becomes permissible. For those unaware of the media tactic to disappear Palestinians, it is a process by which the media reconstructs the occupation, the attacks on Palestine and the ongoing lopsided brutality between an occupier and the occupied as sterilized political actions lacking violence. I find it irresponsible and ultimately dangerous, that The Bruin would take part in such a callous political project.
Therefore, I have decided to rectify the limitations of last week’s article by reproducing the names of the Palestinians killed by Israelis and the Israeli Defense Forces since Oct. 1, the beginning of the third intifada. All 44 of them.
Mohannad Halabi, 19. Al-Bireh, on the northern outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Fadi Alloun, 19. Jerusalem.
Amjad Hatem al-Jundi, 17. Hebron, West Bank.
Thaer Abu Ghazala, 19. Jerusalem.
Abdul-Rahma Obeidallah, 11. Bethlehem, West Bank.
Hotheifa Suleiman, 18. Tulkarem, West Bank.
Wisam Jamal, 20. Jerusalem.
Mohammad al-Ja’bari, 19. Hebron, West Bank.
Ahmad Jamal Salah, 20. Jerusalem.
Ishaq Badran, 19. Jerusalem.
Mohammad Said Ali, 19. Jerusalem.
Ibrahim Ahmad Mustafa Awad, 28. Hebron, West Bank.
Ahmad Abedullah Sharakka, 13. Al Jalazoun refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Mostafa Al Khateeb, 18. Sur Baher, Jerusalem.
Hassan Khalid Manassra, 15. Jerusalem.
Mohamed Nathmie Shamassnah, 22. Kutneh-Jerusalem.
Baha’ Elian, 22. Jabal Al Mokaber, Jerusalem.
Mutaz Ibrahim Zawahra, 27. Bethlehem, West Bank.
Ala’ Abu Jammal, 33. Jerusalem.
Bassem Bassam Sidr, 17. Hebron, West Bank.
Ahmad Abu Sh’aban, 23. Jerusalem.
Ibraheem Dar-Yousif, 46. Al Janyia village, west of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Fadi Al-Darbi, 30. Jenin, West Bank.
Eyad Khalil Al Awawdah, age unknown. Hebron, West Bank.
Ihab Hannani, 19. Nablus, West Bank.
Fadel al-Qawasmi, 18. Hebron, West Bank.
Mo’taz Ahmad ‘Oweisat, 16. Jerusalem.
Bayan Abdul-Wahab al-‘Oseyli, 16. Hebron, West Bank.
Tariq Ziad an-Natsha, 22. Hebron, West Bank.
Omar Mohammad al-Faqeeh, 22. from Qotna village, near Jerusalem.
Shadi Hussam Doula, 20. Gaza.
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman al-Harbawi, 20. Gaza.
Abed al-Wahidi, 20. Gaza.
Mohammad Hisham al-Roqab, 15. Gaza.
Adnan Mousa Abu ‘Oleyyan, 22. Gaza.
Ziad Nabil Sharaf, 20. Gaza.
Jihad al-‘Obeid, 22. Gaza.
Marwan Hisham Barbakh, 13. Gaza.
Khalil Omar Othman, 15. Gaza.
Nour Rasmie Hassan, 30. Gaza.
Rahaf Yihiya Hassan, 2. Killed along with her mother in an Israeli airstrike, Gaza.
Yihya Farahat, 23. Gaza.
Shawqie Jaber Obed, 37. Gaza,
Moahmed Ehmeed, age unknown. Gaza.
Jadalizadeh is a graduate student in gender studies.
