Anyone who listened to the light chat show The Panel on Thursday would have come in for a pleasant surprise. Instead of Jim “Lord Haw Haw Haw” Mora or his dismally ill-prepared regular substitute Jesse “Mmmm, mmmm” Mulligan, there were three intelligent and serious people in the studio: Jon Bridges, Golnaz Bassam-Tabar, and Ellen Read. This was a stroke of good fortune, given that the big story of the day was the outlaw Israeli regime’s interception, in international waters, of the ship Zaytouna-Oliva, which was full of gravely menacing peace activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan and a New Zealand member of parliament. Usually on such an occasion, the guests happen to be of the calibre of Neil Miller or Mark Inglis or Chris Wikaira or John Barnett: people who are either ideologically committed to the Holy State or so intellectually incurious that they have nothing useful to say on the matter.
Thursday’s Panel, though, was different. When they were asked to comment on the kidnapping, there was none of the normal mealy-mouthed obfuscation, or the verbal flannel (“it’s a very COMPLEX situation”) or the callous and unfunny jokes that usually make listening to this program such a dispiriting experience. Golnaz Bassam-Tabar in particular spoke candidly of how the people of the Gaza enclave have been been suffering from an “illegal siege, for nearly ten years now, that has crippled Gaza, that has blocked aid supplies, has blocked food supplies, construction supplies, medical supplies.” Ellen Read, though clearly not as well informed on the matter as Golnaz, made some earnest comments, as did host Jon Bridges.
Sadly, however, this oasis of decency was not destined to last for long. Yesterday Jesse Mulligan was back in the hosting chair, and it was transmission pretty much as normal. Also listening to Golnaz Bassam-Tabar’s revolutionary act of speaking truthfully on RNZ National had been one David Cumin, of the right wing New Zealand Jewish Council. No doubt he and several other angry pro-Israel activists lost no time in putting their views across to RNZ receptionists, producers, hosts and, of course, of Radio New Zealand chairman (and erstwhile Panel guest) Richard Griffin. As a result, David Cumin was extended an uncontested “right of reply”, with the Panel guests obviously instructed not to utter a single word, and the host not permitted to do anything other than read out the questions. David Cumin was thus free to heap ridicule on Marama Davidson, to distort, and tell outright lies, without fear of contradiction….
JESSE MULLIGAN: Now yesterday on The Panel, Jon Bridges and the Panelists discussed the detention in Israel of Green Party M.P. Marama Davidson, who was on a protest ship attempting to reach GAZA. As you may have heard, Marama Davidson has now been RELEASED from a prison in central Israel and is flying back to New Zealand and is expected to arrive tomorrow morning. The Gaza situation is a very COMPLEX one, as you’ll probably KNOW [nervous snicker], and it causes a great DEAL of DEBATE. And yesterday one of our Panelists referred to the Palestinians as being under an illegal SIEGE. David Cumin from the New Zealand Jewish Council is with us now, and David, welcome to the SHOW, and in your, ahhhh, view, IS it an illegal siege?
DAVID CUMIN: Hi-i-i, Jesse, thanks for having me on. Ahhhh, no-o-o, um, the choice of WORDS that have been used, ahhhhh, just like Marama describing herself as being KIDNAPPED, uh, or held hostage, ahh, are really designed to proVOKE more than anything, um, and I think, it’s not only my view but it’s, um, the view of more, ummm, senior people than me that the blockade is LEGAL. In fact, new Zealand’s own, ahhh, Sir Geoffrey Palmer led a report to the U.N. that found not only is the maritime blockade LEGAL, ahh, but it was—and these are HIS words—“a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea.” Uh, so-o-o-o it’s not just my view, the blockade IS legal, and I think that it’s a really important point, ah, that everyone should understand, uh, as opposed, as to the word “siege”, ah, I don’t think it’s accurate to describe the movement of fifteen thousand PEOPLE each MONTH, and two thousand truckloads of food per WEEK as a siege. Ahh, those are the numbers that travel between Israel and Gaza. Ah, so-o-o, y’ow I just think they’re the wrong words that were being used.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Okay, it was also claimed yesterday that Gaza is an open-air mass prison of suffering under the guise of security for Israel, and we do know conditions there can be pretty grim. There’s a sea and air blockade, and high unemployment, but what’s your perspective on that?
DAVID CUMIN: Sure. So, er, uh, aGAIN, I think that it’s important to note that the, um, the U.N. has found that the blockade is LEGAL, and it’s a legitimate security MEASURE, to keep Israelis SAFE, basically. Um, and so I think when you say there’s a “guise” of security, it belies the fact that there are being rockets that are fired into Israel, there are TUNNELS that are being built, ahhhhm, to, to, um, commit terror attacks. Ahhh, and so withOUT, errr, border security and the maritime blockade, ahh, the Israeli people would be in grave DANGER. Errrr, Hamas has a, a charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. Um, and I think that the important point in the Palmer report was that that charter was being ENACTED by thousands of rockets being fired on Israeli citizens. So, errr, there’s no “guise of security” here, it’s a reality, and it’s a reality that hasn’t STOPPED. Ahh, on the morning that the, the boat Marama was on was intercepted, there was a rocket that was fired and landed in a city in Israel. So-o-o, uh, y’know, we need to keep that in mind I think that there’s a RE-E-EAL security THREAT here that, um, is making the, the situation COMPLEX.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Mara D-, er, Marama Davidson is on her way home now, what are YOUR thoughts to travel as part of the protest flotilla?
DAVID CUMIN:[snickers sardonically] Heh heh. Huh! To be honest, I’m really disappointed that a New Zealand politician would so-o-o, ahhh, UNASHAMEDLY decide to-o-o VIOLATE international law, uh, a-and, uh, violate another country’s sovereignty, just for the sake of some media attention. Ahhhh, it, it’s also come to light that the people that she’s associated herself with, ahhh, are really NOT promoters of PEACE, um, there’s one who created a video game to shoot Israelis. Ahhh, a couple of the women on, on the boat that she’s with blamed Israel for the nine eleven attacks and the more recent terror attacks in Nice and Munich. Um, we know that Kia Ora Gaza, the group that helped Marama from New Zealand, has voiced support for violence against Israelis, and the destruction of the Jewish state, so, you know, it’s really sad that these are the sort of values that Marama is, is showing, and I don’t think that they reflect the New Zealand public.
JESSE MULLIGAN: Give us your perspective on the best way to DEAL with this blockade. It’s clearly not ideal for the people of Gaza, what would you see happen?
DAVID CUMIN: Ahhhh, it’s not ideal for the people of Gaza, I don’t think it’s ideal for the people of ISRAEL either. Um, so we’ve got to remember that in two thousand and FIVE, Israel unilaterally withDREW from the Strip, um, and at that TIME there was, y’know, access for people to freely travel and, and Israelis enjoyed the BEACH and the people of Gaza enjoyed, um, working in Israel and traveling across. Ahhhh, unfortunately Hamas took over, ahh, control and with the increase in rocket attacks, uh, Israel had to PROTECT itself. So, um, errrrr, there’s still, as I said, fifteen thousand people each month and two thousand truckloads a week that get through, so it’s NOT a siege by ANY means, and it’s, it’s not a prison by ANY means, but look, I think the SOLUTION, Jesse, that you’re asking is, is really quite straightforward: WHEN THERE CEASES TO BE A SECURITY THREAT, THERE WILL CEASE TO BE THE NEED FOR A BLOCKADE. So as soon as, as the rockets stop firing, the tunnels stop being built, and the threat to Israeli lives is STOPPED, there will be a solution.
JESSE MULLIGAN: All right, Doctor David Cumin from the New Zealand Jewish Council, thanks so much for your time today.
DAVID CUMIN: Thank you, I appreciate it.
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Those readers interested in informing themselves about the situation in Gaza, and the outrage that is the Palmer-Uribe “Report” should listen to someone who, unlike the crude propagandist in the above exchange, actually knows something about Gaza, and speaks about it plainly….. http://www.alternet.org/world/noam-chomsky-nightmare-gaza
Does the obsession with the American election by some authors on this site point to their disinterest about important New Zealand matters?
Are these authors political tragics first and socially responsible second?
It certainly seems that way to me.
Just saying that if you have the major players at the standard more concerned with US politics, Syria, and getting Andrew Little to apologise for the 4th Labour government, than actual NZ communities then I’d say there’s a problem.
David Cumin’s farrago of lies went unchecked yesterday
The Panel, RNZ National, Friday 7 October 2016, 4:20 p.m.
Jesse Mulligan, Paul Casserly, Diane Robertson, Megan Whelan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/201819149/gaza-blockade
http://www.alternet.org/world/noam-chomsky-nightmare-gaza