You can virtually guarantee that when a non-story comes out of Palestine via Israeli propaganda organisations, there is another story that the Israelis want covered up. So today we have the non-news that a Hamas TV station has been using a Mickey Mouse look-alike. The only actual news in the story was in Haaretz, that the Palestinian minister in charge of broadcasting had ordered it pulled. Indeed the Haaretz headline told the news story:
So what had to be covered up by the rushed released of a report from Palestinian Media Watch? Nothing short of the imminent publication of a highly critical report from the World Bank on the stangulation of the Palestinian economy by the "cantonisation" of the West Bank. Of the movement restrictions the summary is scathing:
While Israeli security concerns are undeniable and must be addressed, it is often difficult to reconcile the use of movement and access restrictions for security purposes from their use to expand and protect settlement activity and the relatively unhindered movement of settlers and other Israelis in and out of the West Bank.
It should be noted that "pro-Israeli" diarists on Kos today misrepresenting the "Mickey Mouse" position as if the latest development had not occurred, in a number of comments and in a substantive diary. No "first ammendment" outrage at the blatant censorship tho.
The World Bank report is an 18 page .pdf document. The Executive Summary on the first and second pages summarises the finding of the main body. It also sets out the background.
i. Beginning in December 2004, when all parties (including the Government of Israel (GOI) and the Palestinian Authority (PA)) agreed that Palestinian economic revival was essential, that it required a major dismantling of today’s closure regime and that closure needed to be addressed from several perspectives at once, the World Bank has played a leading role in providing balanced analysis and proposals which draw on the Bank’s worldwide experience, but are realistic in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. This note looks, in particular, at the situation within the West Bank which is experiencing severe and expanding restrictions on movement and access, high levels of unpredictability and a struggling economy.
ii. Currently, freedom of movement and access for Palestinians within the West Bank is the exception rather than the norm contrary to the commitments undertaken in a number of Agreements between GOI and the PA. In particular, both the Oslo Accords and the Road Map were based on the principle that normal Palestinian economic and social life would be unimpeded by restrictions. In economic terms, the restrictions arising from closure not only increase transaction costs, but create such a high level of uncertainty and inefficiency that the normal conduct of business becomes exceedingly difficult and stymies the growth and investment which is necessary to fuel economic revival.
So while we have protestations from the Israeli governments that the Palestinians are not serious in wanting to comply with the road map, here we have a serious international body, controlled to a large extent by the USA, making it absolutely clear that the Israelis are both failing to comply and positively obstructing the process. The BBC report on the World Bank paper draws out the main points withing the body of the report.
According to the World Bank, Israeli-imposed security arrangements in the West Bank remain at the root of its economic problems, with unemployment levels high among its 2.5 million Palestinian residents
It says the territory has been fragmented into 10 isolated enclaves, in contravention of agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel designed to guarantee the free movement of people and goods.
Israel argues that travel restrictions, which take the form of roadblocks, wire fencing and concrete walls, prevent suicide bombers from attacking its cities.
But the World Bank said the prevailing conditions were preventing Palestinians from finding jobs and setting up businesses, effectively strangling the economy.
So the lesson of this is the lesson everyone should note when they see a Mickey Mouse story being spun, what real news are they trying to bury?
[UPDATE:]As might have been expected, almost theentire discussions initiated by those we can identify as being in the Israeli "camp" on here has been surrounding the use of a Mickey Mouse look-alike by the Al Aqsa TV station. None has attempted to address the use by the Israeli machine of such stories to divert attention let alone the substantive matter of the World Bank report and its condemnation of Israeli activities in attacking the Palestinian economy. In a way, this proves my point. They would rather have you look at a side-story in the totality than address substantive matters. It is not a fake Micky Mouse that drives people to bombing, it is the failure to see any way forward without violence. A complete inability of most to make a living without handouts from charity, family and to develop a middle class is what leads to the desperation and fanaticism which a fake mouse is only a symptom of.