Over on DIP’s Dispatches from the Information Age, SL resident Eureka Dejavu has posted some pics of a protest held over recent days. The focus of the protest is the current flare up of hostilities between Hamas and Israeli defence forces. Specifically, the protest is against the current Israeli actions in the Gaza strip. This has caused some angst in some quarters, with accusations of one-sideness.
Although I deplore in the extreme Hamas’ actions to date, I’d be surprised if the protesters were there primarily to support Hamas. Isn’t the distress focused primarily on the loss of innocent human lives in the midst of it all?
Yes, Hamas use appalling tactics of placing themselves in civilian areas, but that doesn’t negate the right of those concerned for those civilians to be outraged at their death? As Eureka summarises in her post, that’s exactly the perspective encouraged at the protest.
For mine, this view expressed in the post says it all:
The gathering is an example of the rich, textured opportunity that 3D immersive spaces like Second Life offer for people to express their concerns about present day issues
Click here for the full photo set (from which the above picutre comes) and judge for yourself. As always, comments are welcome – was this a one-sided protest, a rightful platform to express sorrow at current events, or both?
Minor problem with “As Eureka summarises in her post, that’s exactly the perspective encouraged at the protest.”
Where's the snapshots of the Israeli casualties or damage caused by Hamas to Israeli buildings and institutions?
Her response rings hollow.
Photoshopped.
I can see your point Crap. If the deaths of children were the focus, then if Israeli kids have died from Hamas' actions, that would have indeed fitted the context of the protest.
If there were people launching rockets into civilian towns and causing death and injury in any other place in the world its people would expect their Government and military to take swift and decisive action to stop it. Using deadly force would be acceptable if that what it would take for the attacks to cease.
However in saying that, if you cram 1.7 million people into a small space, have them live in poverty, with 50% unemployment and no prospects of any real improvement in the foreseeable future you are going to get elements within that society become militant. No brainer there !!!
Hmas now has the choice of leading their people to a negotiated peace process of destruction….
It's one-sided, as I and others have endeavoured to explain on Eureka's blog.
o It is on the Arab-government funded sim Virtual Hal run by islamonline.net
o It is staged in front of a provocatively malicious build called “The Palestinian Holocaust Museum” meant to mock and denigrate the victims of the Jewish Holocaust and make a false moral equivalence
o It is staged with pictures only of one side of the conflict
o It is staged with Palestinian flags
o It is a protest against Israel's attack on Gaza, without any recognition or admission that Hamas is a terrorist group, has committed numerous terrorist actions, and was breaking the ceasefire by incessantly firing missiles into Gaza
This is not some innocent peace demonstration mourning victims and saying “Stop the War”. The people involved have an agenda, and that comes out in all their surly and defensive remarks when confronted about their bias.
Sure, Second Life offers biased and one-sided groups with government funding and specific agendas to amplify their voices, even feigning a kind of “people's protest” if they get the sympathy of gushing leftist bloggers. That's fine. You get to do what you want on your land in SL, and unless you outright break the TOS, you will not be evicted.
Someone really should put the Linden goofy hippie ethos to the test, however, filing an abuse report on the “Palestinian Holocaust Museum” as an incitement of hate against the Jewish people. Because that's what it is. It doesn't get to cower behind its need to express its grief for its own people by deliberately and maliciously denigrating another people's suffering — and in fact on Eureka's blog, the protester defiantly mentions that he deliberately provokes with the use of that “Holocaust Museum” so there's no question about it.
What SL also affords is the opportunity for people to object. To say, no, I won't go along with the politically-correct one-sided bullshit, and mount counter posts, blogs, demonstrations, whatever.
What's interesting is that there is another sim, called the Israel sim, which takes another approach, less polemical, and seeks to serve as an information provider rather than holding provocative and malicious hate rallies doing the moral equivalent, say, of calling Hamas “Nazis” or something.
And the Israel sim is griefed unbelievably by anti-semites and opportunistic copy-cat griefers enjoying people's suffering.
You don't see any protests against Hamas' terrorism on the Virtual Haj sim, now, do you.
No, it's not about sorrow. And that's why I don't cry on politically-correct and politically-manipulated cue, with portrayal of only one set of victims without any notion of their leaders' complicity in their deaths. And certainly Hamas militants were dry-eyed when they put even their own families at risk in residential buildings and hospitals and mosques with their stockpiling of weapons.
the israelis and pro-israelis protestm also, why dont u show it ??
(in S.L at the “sl israel sim” and “tel-aviv sim”
the israelis and pro-israelis protestm also, why dont u show it ??
(in S.L at the “sl israel sim” and “tel-aviv sim”