I had to visit youtube.com website and look
for the controversial video that everyone around me was talking about. The
Lebanese journalist who is aiming to destroy the image of Gaza in front of the
whole world.
At first, I did not even know her name, for
those who know me well, they know that me and politics are fierce enemies and I
know nothing about it. It was not difficult at all to know her name and find
the video because of the big amounts of articles and blogs attacking Ghadi
Fransis for the report she made.
In her segment, she said that a person who
does not know Gaza, will not know that it has Movenpick Hotel, will not know
that there is Western Union and Money Gram, will not know that an apartment in
Al Remal Street has almost the same cost as the one in Beirut –Al Roushe'
street and will not know that Gazan people use the Israeli products(but she
said that at the end of the sentence "they do not have a choice").
Many questions just popped into my head after
watching this segment:
1- Do
we have a Movepick hotel in Gaza ? Yes.
2- Do
we have Western Union and Money Gram in Gaza? Yes.
3- Does
an apartment in Al Remal street costs the same as the one in Al Roushe' Street?
Yes (and even more)
4- Are
most of the products that we have made in Israel and we use them because we
have to ? Yes.
At the same time, another series of questions
came up to my mind:
1- Does
having hotels means that we are not suffering? NO .
2- Does
having Western Union and Money Gram mean that most of the people living in Gaza
are not suffering from financial problems and the economical situation is not
bad? NO.
3- Does
the fact that Al Rimal apartments are expensive means that no one in Gaza is
living in very bad apartments under the worst living conditions ever? NO.
Just as every other place we have good things
and bad things, we have one of the highest percentages of educated people but
also have one of the highest percentages of unemployment for example.
When I watched the clip on youtube, it was
published under the name of " Gaza Scandals from the Inside", I was
completely against the title but I noticed that it was NOT mentioned in the
clip, and since the clip was just a part of the episode not the whole one, I
decided to go and watch it all.
I was shocked, first because the clip was
under the name "Gaza Surprises", second because the episode has
discussed a lot of issues and showed the reality about many other aspects that
were NEVER mentioned in the articles attacking it, for example the fact that
the tunnels were a sign of defeating Israel, the history of Gaza and famous
Muslim and Christian places in it.
To watch the whole episode, here is the link:
Why do people attack whoever has another
opinion or shows an opposing idea? And here I am not saying the Ghadi Francis
does, she just showed some things and places that actually happen and exist.
Is the job of journalists these days to show
only the suffering of people of Gaza ? Otherwise they are considered 'bad
people' who want to destroy the reputation of Gaza? Does this report erase all
the others about the martyrs who died during the wars or about the problems
that we face?
While writing about this topic I remembered a
conversation I had with a close friend of mine who works as a journalist, he
was asked by the agency he works for to make a report about the products that
Gazan people have in their supermarkets, he refused. I was surprised and asked
him about the reason, he told that this will be considered as a betrayal, it
will give the impression that Gaza is having no problems, etc. and then he will
not be loyal to his own country. I
thought that he was crazy at that moment, apparently he was correct and has
predicted what Ghadi Francis was about to face.
What do you think ???
Written
by: Ziad Bakri
17/5/2013
