Our Way to Fight has arrived. Got a message this morning from Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, Canada:
“Feb 4 Program, Our Way to Fight, is being censored by Shaw. We have just received an email saying that Shaw TV cannot broadcast our scheduled program: Our Way to Fight: Peace-work Under Siege in Israel-Palestine, by Michael Riordon, as it is too ‘unbalanced’ and ‘controversial.’
Shaw TV is the community cable arm of Shaw Communications, one of
Canada’s largest telecommunications corporations. Based in Calgary,
Alberta, it controls telephone, internet and television networks,
including digital satellite, and broadcasting stations from Hamilton,
Ontario, to Victoria.
As a federally licensed community cable network,
Shaw TV is required to air locally created programming.
The program that Shaw banned is a 29-minute video of a talk/reading I
gave last November at the University of Victoria.
I read several
excerpts from Our Way to Fight,
interwoven with commentary.
The event was sponsored by Independent
Jewish Voices, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, and University
of Victoria: Social Studies. The talk was recorded by videographer
Linda Taffs of Pasifik.ca, a
collective of concerned citizens aiming to foster direct democracy.
(Which in itself is a rather ‘controversial’ idea, at least to the 1%
who are inclined to prefer a well-managed democracy that protects their
stuff and controls dissent.)
As to Shaw’s excuses for banning the program:
Yes, the talk was ‘unbalanced,’ so is the book – but only in the
sense that both feature Israelis and Palestinians engaged in non-violent
struggle for a just peace in Palestine-Israel, but no settlers, no
generals, no presidents or prime ministers, no war-pushers. All of
these have ample outlets to air their views widely and continuously
without any help from me. In fact it is their views that the corporate
media defines as ‘balance.’
And ‘controversial’? Well, yes. Anything that dares to counter the
official version is bound to be ‘controversial.’ That’s the job, isn’t
it, to counter or at least to complicate the noisy dominance of the
official version. In that version, Israeli settlements/colonies,
ethnic cleansing and apartheid – all of them illegal under international
law – are not deemed to be ‘controversial.’ Not in the eyes of the
corporate gatekeepers.
This is exactly why we need – desperately need – principled, courageous independent media like Pacifik.ca, books like Our Way to Fight, and people who care enough about freedom – the real thing, not the official version – to stand with them.
After the talk, a man asked me to sign his copy of the book. When I
asked him to whom I should sign it, he said, “To me, Rabbi ___.”
Because he spoke quietly, standing close to me, I assume that he
wouldn’t welcome my passing on his identity via the internet. He said,
“Thank you for what you’re doing. It takes courage, but it’s exactly
what we need.” He smiled, nodded, and departed.
The banned Pacifik.ca program is here. Catch it while you can, and decide for yourself.
Canadian writer and documentary-maker Michael Riordon writes/
directs/produces books and articles, audio, video and film
documentaries, plays for radio and stage.
A primary goal of his work is to recover voices and stories of people
who have been silenced or marginalized, written out of the official
version: First Nations (aboriginal) youth, Mozambican farmers, inmates
in Canadian prisons, traditional healers in Fiji, queer folk across
Canada, Guatemalan labour activists.
His fourth book, An Unauthorized Biography of the World, explores
similar recovery projects in several countries.
His latest book, Our Way to Fight: peace-work under siege, explores the
lives, motives, actions and risks of grassroots peace and human rights
activists in Israel-Palestine. It is published by Pluto Press
(international edition), Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press (US
edition), and Between the Lines (Canadian edition).
Michael also leads courses, workshops and seminars for community
organizations, trade unions, schools, colleges and universities. Topics
include practical uses of oral history, finding/creating spaces for
marginalized voices to be heard, and accessible techniques for producing
audio/podcast documentaries.
