Ben's Blog

3 comments from readers

Jgeorge
06 July 2007 at 11:00

What people seem to forget about journalists in their blanket dislike of the media (thanks Cherie) is that without them, we would have no idea of what was happening in the world. If we don't get unbiased reporting from places like Gaza, we don't stand a chance of resolving such conflicts. Alan is a truly brave individual.

Tom Paine
06 July 2007 at 20:07

Alan Johnston's a fucking cool guy! His being freed is the best news I've heard in ages.

Admin
10 July 2007 at 14:50

Dear Sir/Madam,

Today Alan Johnston is free after 114 days of captivity in Gaza. Looking weak and drawn, Johnston addressed his peers at a press conference at the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, and explained the details of his kidnapping and the days and weeks before his release. Over the next few days we will hear more about Johnston’s ordeal as the world’s press digests and addresses the ever-changing crisis in Gaza.

On a personal level his story touches many people. During the period of his captivity the ‘Free Alan Johnston’ campaign was launched, vigils and demonstrations were organised worldwide, and a petition on the BBC website attracted 200,000 signatures. During his captivity, Johnston’s window to the world was the BBC World Service, providing important moral support from around the world and from his parents in Scotland.

Johnston’s kidnapping cannot be discussed without looking at the wider context. It may be confusing for some people to realise that Johnston was not kidnapped by Hamas—his captors were a little-known jihadi group—and that whatever the reported political motivation, Hamas did secure the release of Alan Johnston. Many people in the UK may also be surprised to know that many Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have also been holding vigils and demonstrations calling for Alan Johnston’s release.

Responding to a question from the secretary of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), Alan made it very clear that he bore no grudge against the people of Palestine:

‘I was massively, massively grateful; but my gratitude mostly goes to the kindness of ordinary Palestinians who went into the streets in places like Jenin and Nablus and Ramallah again and again, and I just got that huge sense that the Palestine that I knew was just beyond the walls of my cell and was exactly as I always knew it; and just how big-hearted, how warm and passionate and hospitable and all the best things that I’d really come to like so much about Gaza.’

The ordinary Palestinians that he knows are also a people under occupation.

It is sometimes easy to forget this very simple fact that is the root of the problem here. By not offering a historical context to the Occupation, many of Alan’s journalist colleagues generally do not make it easy for ordinary people to understand what is really going on in Palestine. Today, as yesterday, Palestinians face ethnic cleansing, in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley. They face continued harassment and humiliation at checkpoints, house demolitions, arrests and land confiscations, while over 10,000 of their men, women and children are held in Israeli jails as political prisoners. Johnson noted he took inspiration from the advice received from Terry Waite over the BBC World Service radio:

“you will find reserves within yourself you didn’t know you had”. Despite all attempts by Israel to destroy any hope for a future, the Palestinians still possess the same resources and inner strength Johnston used during his doubtless difficult and traumatic captivity. There is an Arabic word for the steadfastness: ‘sumud’; having spent so much time amongst ordinary Palestinians, Alan Johnston will understand what this means.

There does however appear to be some hope for the future for Israelis and Palestinians. Whatever the current difficulties with their political leadership, Palestinian civil society demands for international boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel grow ever stronger. Today they are joined by enlightened and disillusioned Israelis who realise that the future can only be possible when Israeli Apartheid ends. The appointment of Tony Blair as Middle East Envoy only confirms that peace based on justice, a long-lasting peace, will not be delivered by the Quartet. Israeli society, however, is already being influenced by international civil society decisions to support the call to boycott Israel until such time as it complies with international law and ends the occupation of Palestine and dismantles the Apartheid system it imposes on the Palestinian people. This public support for Palestinians and Israelis alike who hope for a future where they can live together as equals and not as master and slave is essential.

Yours faithfully,

Tom McVitie