Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Why have Pro Palestinian voices ignored Salama Keela?

Salama Keela, a Palestinian, an Arab, a Marxist, an anti-Zionist and an anti-imperialist, had been living in Syria up till a few weeks ago after having been uprooted from occupied Palestine in the late 70s. He is known to always be principled and straight up having never compromised nor bowed down to pressures. When the Assad regime jailed him few weeks ago in Syria , there was an uproar to his arrest, petitions were signed, some alternative Arab media covered his arrest in shock (Al-Akhbar and Angry Arab blog).  Keela was exiled a second time from his second home Syria to Jordan where he revealed in detail the ordeals of his arrest, the reasons behind it, how he was tortured, beaten, how he was forced to pee on himself and watch two of his mates die  in front of his eye due to torture in a hospital.

The whole story was disturbing but the account he gave of his hospital stay was the most chilling. There have been many stories of Syrians being killed, tortured, humiliated, and treated in the most inhumane ways while in government hospitals. Only those of us who care about the revolution believed these stories, the doubters, cynics, sectarians, and/or regime/resistance supporters all denied/down played the horror taking place even when faced with evidence whether it be youtube videos or Amnesty reports. These doubters would either pull the "how can you know this is not fabricated" excuse or in the case of
staunch Palestinian supporters who blog for Al-Akhbar what is happening
in syria is nothing more than a conspiracy with hollywood special effects !!

Salama stated that he wished he was never taken to the hospital !! Imagine a hospital bed has become a more brutal, ruthless and painful place than a prison cell. This is what ordinary Syrians face on a regular basis, that was what Salama tried to tell the world...Strangely no one from the pro Palestinian media reported what happened to him. Not Electronic Intifada , not Al-Akhbar , not Ali Abunimah, not Sari Makdissi none of them. Those very same voices have always pointed out-rightfully so- the double standards in the western and gulf media in their coverage of Palestine and how dissident voices are marginalized never to be heard and how important stories are constantly ignored with no coverage.

Now imagine that Salama was detained by Israeli forces, beaten and tortured in Israeli hospitals,  had witnessed the death of 2 fellow Palestinian prisoners due to the Israeli torture. Do you believe that Electronic Intifada would have just simply ignored it? Would Abunimah or Makdissi not tweet about it ? I ask because I need to make sense of how the pro Palestinian voices would not practice what they preach and ignore such a huge story that merits at the least some attention. Salama is not only a Palestinian who was tortured by the Syrian regime, but a human being who was gravely mistreated and tortured by an oppressive authority for daring to voice his principles.  Ironically the voices that most listen and cover the oppressed and are ignored by the mainstream chose to ignore him. 

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