The reporting in the article itself appears to be responsible and the reporter even included some context omitted by Colville. It is also unclear whether Colville is an unwitting dupe or is deliberately spreading misleading, inaccurate anti-Israel propaganda.
Preliminary Comments
Colville asserts "My intent is not to come back with a certain political line," but he clearly goes with an extreme, anti-Israel bias.
He says "The ultimate goal is, the violence has to stop," but ignores the fact that it is one side, the Palestinian Arabs, who force the continuation of violence by their refusal to negotiate in good faith and their insistence on using violence and terrorism as a strategic tool. Indeed, the Hamas, Fatah and PLO charters all clearly insist violence must be used.
Colville also says "Justice and peace have got to come to that area." However, it is impossible to ever undo the injustice caused by six decades of Arab terrorism, war and rejectionism. It's telling that those to whom the most injustice has been done, the Israelis, do not insist on justice but merely insist on peace, while it is the perpetrators of the injustice, the Arabs (including the Palestinian Arabs), and their supporters who insist on justice.
More Extensive Comments
Comment: "They hope to deliver $20,000 in medical supplies to victims of bombings committed by both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian governing body. Colville said his group wants to speak with victims on both sides of the conflict."
Analysis: One wonders how much of that will actually be delivered to Israeli victims and whether Colville will actually listen to Israeli victims. He also here, as elsewhere, implies a moral equivalence between the Israeli victims, who were deliberately targeted by Hamas and other Arab terror groups, and the Arab victims, who were really victims of their own decision, freely electing a terror group and allowing it to take control of the Gaza Strip, use it as a base for attacks on Israeli civilians and use the civilians in Gaza as human shields.
Comment: "Telling the story from the victims' perspective is the most important thing," he said. 'We want to bring back that personal history."
Analysis: Nonsense. Victims are likely to have very skewed perspectives.
One also wonders how much he will listen to Israeli schoolchildren telling of their kindergartens being hit by Kassams. One wonders how many Palestinian Arab victims will tell of Kassams and other weapons being stored in their homes or being caught in a crossfire when Hamas terrorists attacked Israelis from their neighborhoods.
Comment: "Colville was careful to say, 'There is no justification for launching bombs at civilians,' no matter whether the bombs are made by U.S. military suppliers to Israel or by Hamas members in their basements."
Analysis: This both creates a false equivalence and is misleading, since it implies both Hamas and other terror groups and Israel launch bombs at civilians. While Hamas and the other Arab terror groups deliberately launch bombs at civilians, Israel doesn't.
Comment: "But he also said, when I asked him how the conflict originated, 'The occupation (of Gaza by the Israeli government) is the cause of the violence.'"
Analysis: Carville is either ignorant or deliberately lying. There is no occupation of Gaza by Israel, which completely left Gaza in 2005. Even before that, almost all of Gaza was turned over to the Palestinian Authority about a decade earlier, near the start of the Oslo Process.
The cause of the violence is simply the refusal of the Palestinian Arabs to live next to the Israelis in peace.
Comment: "'These are people who are besieged, surrounded, blockaded, starved,' he said. 'It's a slow strangulation.'"
Analysis: Gaza shares a border not only with Israel, but with Egypt. Israel has no legal or moral obligation to assist a hostile people continually attacking its own citizens. Nonetheless, even during Operation Cast Lead, Israel kept transferring massive amounts of humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza.
Comment: "Colville stressed his group also hopes to interview Israeli civilians in Sderot, where many Hamas bombs have landed.
"But he said he was enraged and joined protests in New Haven last December when the Israeli government launched missile attacks on Gaza which reportedly killed about 1,400 Palestinians. (Israel was responding to missile attacks from Gaza that killed Israeli civilians.)"
Analysis: Colville seems to be very selective in his outrage. Arab terrorists in Gaza have launched about 8,000 Kassam and other rockets at Israeli civilians since 2000, when the Palestinian Authority rejected the establishment of an Arab state in the disputed territories, yet there seems to be no indication of any outrage expressed by Colville about them.
The fact that more than 1,000 Arabs died, the majority terrorists, is regrettable, but the responsibility for their deaths lies with their own leaders, who forced Israel to respond to continued and unacceptable rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns.
(More accurate information about casualties is reported at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1237727552054.)
Comment: "Colville noticed while doing fundraising for his trip that this is a polarizing issue. 'The general mood around our country is, we stop up our ears when the discussion comes up about Palestinian rights.'"
Analysis: Most people would probably stop up their ears if an analogous set of rights was brought up, the rights of Al Qaeda. Actually, more attention has been given to the rights of the Palestinian Arabs than to the rights of just about any other group in the world. Their "rights," along with the demonization of Israel, dominates the United Nations and the infamous United Nations Human Rights Council.
If Colville is interested in promoting the rights of people whose rights are generally ignored, he should start promoting the rights of the Israeli children living within rocket range of Gaza.
The following is the full text of the article.
New Haven Register
Working to give a peace a chance in a place that only knows conflict
RANDALL BEACH
Randall Beach can be reached at rbeach@nhregister.com or 789-5766.
[The article was published with a photo with the following caption: Melanie Stengel/Register
New Haven peace activist Mark Colville is in the Middle East to speak to war victims.]
WHEN MARK COLVILLE sat down with his wife and their kids to tell them he was going to Gaza and Israel on a peace mission, a dialogue ensued on the importance of taking personal risks.
'The kids are worried because they're aware of the violence of the situation,' Colville said as we sat at his kitchen table Tuesday, three days before he began his journey. 'It's been a rough go, trying to get my family together on this.'
His five children, aged 6 to 20, and his wife, Luz Catarineau, supported Colville's previous peace outings, including an unsuccessful attempt to get into Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and opposing paramilitary occupations in Colombia.
Although they also support his latest effort, they are more concerned than ever before about his safety.
'We had to do a lot of talking about the risks,' Colville said, 'and why take the risks.'
This was his answer: 'We're Catholics here, trying to be Christians, to imitate Christ. You have to take some personal risks, that put yourself where Christ might have been. We have the freedom to do this; it's important to use that freedom.'
Colville, 47, and his family live at the Amistad Catholic Worker House on Rosette Street in the Hill neighborhood of New Haven. They run a community soup kitchen there.
Colville is going to the Middle East with five other members of a Catholic Worker peace team. They have the backing of Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, as well as actor Martin Sheen, who is helping pay for a driver and translator.
But Colville admitted, 'We don't know exactly what to expect. The six of us are all experienced in nonviolent conflict resolution. We'll go in that spirit. But we expect conflict and confrontation from authorities on all sides.'
Colville has never been to the Middle East before and does not speak Arabic. Compared with his past trips, 'This is a little more unknown.'
Their schedule called for them to land in Egypt Friday and attempt to enter Gaza. Their 10-day itinerary also includes Israel.
They hope to deliver $20,000 in medical supplies to victims of bombings committed by both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian governing body. Colville said his group wants to speak with victims on both sides of the conflict.
'Telling the story from the victims' perspective is the most important thing,' he said. 'We want to bring back that personal history.'
Colville explained the person-to-person approach that is the Catholic Worker tradition. 'In areas of poverty, war and violence, these people need to be personalized. You go to the person who's affected and open yourself to sharing that person's fate. You build relationships and humanize the situation.' Colville was careful to say, 'There is no justification for launching bombs at civilians,' no matter whether the bombs are made by U.S. military suppliers to Israel or by Hamas members in their basements. But he also said, when I asked him how the conflict originated, 'The occupation (of Gaza by the Israeli government) is the cause of the violence.'
'These are people who are besieged, surrounded, blockaded, starved,' he said. 'It's a slow strangulation.'
These are some of the people he wants to interview. 'It's a war zone and these families are caught in the middle, with no way out.'
Colville stressed his group also hopes to interview Israeli civilians in Sderot, where many Hamas bombs have landed.
But he said he was enraged and joined protests in New Haven last December when the Israeli government launched missile attacks on Gaza which reportedly killed about 1,400 Palestinians. (Israel was responding to missile attacks from Gaza that killed Israeli civilians.)
Colville noticed while doing fundraising for his trip that this is a polarizing issue. 'The general mood around our country is, we stop up our ears when the discussion comes up about Palestinian rights.'
But he said he cannot accept his government giving $2.5 to $3 billion every year in unrestricted military aid to Israel.
Colville said he had been doing a lot of praying, asking that his group be allowed to make contact with the many victims of violence.
'Many religions share that belief in reaching out to others. That's the core of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. All of us need to get back to the core morality of these great faiths.'
Here's the final thing Colville said at his kitchen table: 'My intent is not to come back with a certain political line. The ultimate goal is, the violence has to stop. Justice and peace have got to come to that area.'
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