This article highlights, among other things, just how asymmetrical the conflict is. The language of "sides" encourages a mental image of two more or less evenly matched entities that "can't get along." However, Palestinian kids are commonly charged with stone throwing. This mental image - and sound - of a rock hitting the side of a military vehicle better captures the actual circumstances.
In a 1998 television interview, Ehud Barak, a former defense and prime minister, stated quite candidly: "If I were a young Palestinian, it is possible I would join a terrorist organization." Being an author of the facts, Barak is therefore intimately familiar with them. For saying such a thing, one might be accused of being anti-Israeli or pro-Palestinian (though this reactive labeling seems to occur less than it used to). But accusing one of Israel's most highly decorated soldiers of being anti-Israeli might come off as awkward. (Though I would argue that Israel's policies toward Palestine are precisely anti-Israeli.)
After reading this piece, I thought of a scene in the 1997 film Contact. Jodie Foster's character, Ellie Arroway, upon arriving in a distant galaxy, realizes: "They should have sent a poet." Her concern was expressing the beautiful. Yet, a poet can also be helpful in expressing injustice. When teaching people about the conflict, the vocabulary one uses - occupation, expropriation, checkpoint - describes the situation, but in a clinical way. And while precise language is necessary in recording these realities, it cannot convey, for example, the sound of a bottle hitting a tank. As I have mentioned before, we need books on the subject, but films work better. Likewise, we need precise language, but sometimes we should take Ellie's advice.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-government-tortures-palestinian-children-by-keeping-them-in-cages-human-rights-group-says-9032826.html
