Hamas War

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Young Heroines on the News

Last night the "issue" of the young heroines, the high school girl dissidents who have been jailed under harsh conditions, was on Israel's news "shout" show.


Yael Paz Melamed barely let Elisheva Federman finish a sentence, and the moderator wasn't much better. He accused Elisheva, as "settler" representative and "former prisoner" of "cynical abuse and manipulation" of the young teens, by sending them off to demonstrate and instructing them not to cooperate with the Justice Department.
Melamed, rather ironically named--melamed means teacher, refused to reply to Federman's points. One being that the laws used against the girls are from the British Mandate and had been used against Israel's freedom fighters, who fought for Israel's independence over sixty years ago. Melamed insisted that the "democratic" law of the state should be the only law, and mocked Federman's and the young prisoners' allegiance to Jewish Law.
Elisheva Federman did an excellent job, considering that she was attacked by both the moderator and the other panelist. Her parting shot concerned the "child abuse" of parents who encourage and support their children's political activism. She reminded everyone that teens are stabbed in the nightclubs their parents send them to. Should it be considered "bad parenting," child endangerment, to allow one's child to go to such a place?

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