Published 3 January 20093 January 2009 · Main Posts proportionality Jeff Sparrow A typical headline: ‘Israel Attacks New Hamas Targets as Gaza Rockets Hit Ashkelon‘. Of course, the ostensible objectivity (on the one hand, the IDF; on the other, Hamas rockets) obscures the most basic feature of this unfolding tragedy – the gross disproportionality of suffering. Latest estimates are that 400 Palestinians have been killled and 2000 injured. In that time, four Israelis died and four suffered injuries. Every human death constitutes a unique catastrophe but it’s ridiculous to pretend that Ashkelon or Sderot – prosperous towns with a well-equipped infrastructure, under occasional bombardment from antiquated rockets – face anything like the devastation unleashed in Gaza, a ghetto deliberately starved of medical supplies and now coping with wounds caused by some of the most technologically advanced weapons in the world. The blog Palestinian Mothers makes that point through a series of images, some of which are reproduced over the jump. The first series shows Gaza, which now resembles a moonscape. The second shows rocket attacks on Israel. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 25 May 202326 May 2023 · Main Posts The ‘Chinese question’ and colonial capitalism in New Gold Mountain Christy Tan SBS’s New Gold Mountain sets out to recover the history of the Gold Rush from the marginalised perspective of Chinese settlers but instead reinforces the erasure of Indigenous sovereignty. Although celebrated for its multilingual script and diverse representation, the mini-TV series ignores how the settlement of Chinese migrants and their recruitment into colonial capitalism consolidates the ongoing displacement of First Nations peoples. First published in Overland Issue 228 15 February 202322 February 2023 · Main Posts Self-translation and bilingual writing as a transnational writer in the age of machine translation Ouyang Yu To cut a long story short, it all boils down to the need to go as far away from oneself as possible before one realizes another need to come back to reclaim what has been lost in the process while tying the knot of the opposite ends and merging them into a new transformation.
