3 min read
BBC Panorama's recent program on the Jerusalem light rail starts off on the wrong foot , with the following synopsis: "On the anniversary of last summer's brutal conflict in Gaza, film-maker Adam Wishart visits Jerusalem and rides the city's controversial new train". One wonders how a war in which Hamas fired 4,500 rockets on Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Sderot, can be described simply as "a conflict in Gaza"; moreover, how is the conflict's one year anniversary related to Wishart's train visit? This remains a mystery. Finally, the light rail, operating since 2011, can hardly be described as new, nor is it controversial.
"The train is dividing the city", Wishart states matter-of-factly, ignoring the huge success of the project in connecting the different parts of the metropolis, bringing closer its Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods, and no-doubt contributing to coexistence. He goes on to deliver his version of the Israeli narrative by focusing on a marginal group called "the new temple movement", which he ludicrously presents as 'mainstream'. We also meet a Palestinian youth worker, whose campaign for equal rights lays the blame for all of the woes of his neighbourhood on Israel alone.
As the train crosses into the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, we are provided with a 20 second history lesson, which goes like this: "The state of Israel declared itself an independent nation in 1948". Declared Itself?! What of UN resolution 181? The partition plan which offered a homeland for both Jews and Arabs, but was rejected by the Arabs? What of the war they declared, and their subsequent occupation for the next 19 years of the land that the UN destined for the Arab citizens of mandatory Palestine? Having omitted these apparently insignificant historical facts, we are then told that "in 1967 Israel occupied the eastern areas [of Jerusalem]". No mention of the Six-Day-War in which five Arab armies again attempted to destroy the young Jewish state.
In the Eastern part of the city, we hear that "the Palestinians who live here remain angry at being under Israeli control, while the train adds to their grievances". This sweeping generalization is at odds with surveys showing that a clear majority of Arabs in East Jerusalem would prefer to live under Israeli sovereignty and carry Israeli IDs, which provide generous health and social benefits, than under the rule of any future Palestinian state.
When Wishart visits an East Jerusalem neighbourhood he witnesses a violent attack on an Israeli checkpoint; a young boy praises in Arabic those who are "attacking the soldiers, the Jews", translated to BBC audiences as "attacking the soldiers". In what has become a worrying trend recently at the BBC, rather than see these statements for what they are - symptoms of widespread institutional incitement within Palestinian society - editors make do with telling us that "when they say 'Jews', they mean 'Israelis'".
A large chunk of the program is devoted to the sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem's Old City. Again we meet 'Jewish zealots' eager to pray where they are not allowed, next to peaceful Arabs concerned only with their religious rights. No mention of recent incitement to violence by preachers from within al-Aqsa mosque itself, nor of the very real violence perpetrated against Jews in the Old City; nor of the simple historical fact that it is only under Israeli control that Jerusalem has experienced complete freedom of worship for all religions, for the first time in its long history.
The narrative is completed with coverage of the Jerusalem Day parade, the day in which Israelis celebrate the unification of the city and the first time Jews gained the freedom to pray at their holy sites in the city's historic Jewish quarter. Here, the Western Wall is referred to in an almost predatory manner, as the place that "borders the Muslim holy site, where [Israelis] want to build their temple". We are now told that the idea of erecting the third temple in Jerusalem "is gathering support from within the [Israeli] mainstream", a baseless assertion. And a final, ominous warning: "I can't help but think that if Jews push much further, this surely would be the last stand by the Palestinians".
The metaphor is now complete, we are in "World War Z" starring Brad Pitt, and the Jews are the zombies climbing the Western Wall to devour the Palestinians at the top of the al-Aqsa compound.
The program ends with Wishart telling his audience that he can't believe this is the place his grandparents dreamt of all those years ago. I can't believe it either, and nor should anyone else, because his skewed narrative resembles a fictional good guys / bad guys film rather than the reality of one of the most complex cities on earth. Within that reality, the light rail enables 140,000 people a day to traverse the city, step-free, at an affordable price for all; Christians, Jews and Muslims, riding the same train together from Jewish to Arab neighbourhoods, and vice versa, increasing commercial, cultural and societal interaction. Surely the train is part of the solution, not the problem.
