Peppering the Palestinians with Porn

[december]

From Reason On Line

April 3, 2002
Porn and Politics in Palestine
By Charles Paul Freund

When Palestinian residents of the besieged West Bank town of Ramallah turned on their TVs over the weekend, what they encountered was neither news nor any of the usual Palestinian Authority programming; they encountered pornographic movie clips. [snip]
The town’s remaining TV station was meanwhile running a crawl at the bottom of the screen explaining that the porn clips were the work of the occupying forces. “We urge parents to take precautions,” it read.

An Israeli army spokesman told Agence France-Press that their forces had nothing to do with such clips, and even blamed Arafat for the footage. [snip]
However, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, taking into account that the porn-playing stations were after all occupied, was less sweeping in his denial, saying “I cannot believe that Israeli soldiers would engage in such despicable behavior.” He called it “shameful.”

Finally, many Israeli critics consider the “normal” programming of Palestinian Authority media to be morally objectionable in its own right. [snip]Thus, replacing such programming with porn clips (and clips of Intifada actions played in reverse) may well represent the substitution of one form of reprehensible programming – political porn – with its moral equivalent.

Who do you think is responsible for the parade of porn? Is this an atrocity? What should be done about this?

[NurseCarmen]

My experience in the US armed forces says this:

Young soldiers with even the slightest amount of idle time can come up with some amazing pranks. Anyone with military experience won’t even have to hesitate when they respond to who’s responsible.

As to if it’s right, well, I certainly would think it counter productive.

[musicguy]

An atrocity? No, I think in comparison to what else is going on, there are many other things that people should spend their time worrying about.

Porn is harmless compared to the real atrocities that are going on.

[Opus1]

When I read the thread title, I thought someone was going to propose this as a peace strategy!

Frankly, it’s a lot less stupid than a lot of other ideas out there. Maybe the suicide bombers would be a lot less eager to get their 72 virgins if they could turn on TV whenever they wanted and get all the boobies they want.

[Sofa_King]

Well now, it looks like Americans and Palestinians have something in common after all: a willingness to accept violence and brutality before sex.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

[december]

Residents of Ramallah had their resistance stiffened and their fighting spirits lifted. They have become swollen with nationalistic pride and raised their flags in support of their cause.

[lieu]

Better switch back to the rubber bullets.