The unprecedented onslaught of the Israeli military on Ramallah, Bethlehem and other West Bank towns over the past week has left all Arabs furious, astonished and feeling helpless.

As the Israelis invaded Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s compound, knocking down walls and cutting off power, we could only watch all of this on television in horror. As the Israelis shot and killed hundreds of Palestinian men on the streets, many executed at point-blank range through the head, we could only gape. The daily humiliation of Palestinian men and women who have to negotiate Israeli checkpoints increased as the number of suicide Palestinian bombers grew.

Israeli tanks have now surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as 300 Palestinian gunmen have sought refuge inside. The Israelis are not allowing the bishops and priests of the church to go back inside, leading to a strong protest from the Vatican in Rome.

Some Saudis have reacted to these events in the only way they know how: by calling for a boycott of all American products. I seriously doubt how effective they will be for the simple reason that our lives are so saturated with American products, from the toothpaste we use in the morning, to the cars we drive, to the clothes we wear and the films we watch, that it will be practically impossible to sustain.

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Overwhelmed by TV coverage

AFTER A week of 24-hour television coverage of the Palestinian crisis, some viewers in the Middle East are switching off. When I visited my Saudi relatives on Sunday, their TV sets, which are usually tuned to the Al-Jazeera channel, were curiously switched off. Although I didn’t ask why, since it was nice for once not to have to compete for their attention with the boob tube, I did think it was perhaps because they were being emotionally torn in half by watching endless images of Israel’s relentless brutality.

Indeed, a Saudi colleague told me that she had stopped watching Al-Jazeera, as the channel seemed to focus all the time on the bloodied dead bodies of Palestinians killed in gun battles with Israelis on the West Bank. While the advent of 24-hour news channels on television can be viewed as a good thing, it can also be dangerous to the emotional well being of viewers, who like myself feel deeply saddened, disturbed and helpless as they watch Israeli soldiers brutalizing and killing Palestinians on a daily basis. One bright spot in all of this bleakness was the story of the American Jewish Palestinian rights activist Adam Shapiro. It turns out that he managed to talk his way past Israeli checkpoints into Arafat’s Ramallah besieged headquarters to help bring out the wounded Palestinians. Shapiro made world headlines last week when he was stuck inside the compound after Israel started one of its many attacks on it. Shapiro gave interviews from inside Arafat’s bunker to TV stations via mobile phone, and reported that he had breakfast with Arafat.

Unfortunately, Shapiro’s experience inside Arafat’s compound led to his parents back in New York City receiving death threats via email and phone. New York City police are now providing them with 24-hour protection because of the severity of the threats.

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A nation mourns Rico Yan

IN THE PHILIPPINES, the conflict between Arabs and Israelis has always seemed a distant thing, something most Filipinos have never really comprehended or followed in the news.

On Good Friday, the young and popular actor Rico Yan passed away in his sleep at a Palawan resort, giving the Philippine nation something to mourn and obsess about. Almost instantly, Philippine TV coverage of Rico’s death became absolute. A friend I called in Manila said that of a 30-minute news program, 22 of those minutes were devoted to Rico’s death! The main culprit of course was the ABS-CBN TV network, to which Rico was under contract. The Lopez family, owner of the network, sent their private jet to Palawan so that Rico’s brother could pick up his body and bring it back to Manila. Many shows on that channel were preempted for Rico Yan specials. On Boy Abunda’s show The Buzz, a stream of stars paid tearful tributes to Rico.

To many this outpouring of grief was understandable as Rico was such a decent, honest and nice person, an unusual and hard-to-find combination in the cutthroat world of showbiz. Yet to many observers, this was only proof of the power that TV and film stars have over the lives of millions of impoverished Filipinos, who seek daily refuge from their miserable circumstances in the fantasy world of the silver screen.

I’m sure Rico was genuinely a nice guy, but his larger than life persona had hundreds of women of all ages lining up to view his coffin in LaSalle on Monday and Tuesday, most sobbing away as they bid farewell to their star. I found that to be a bit over the top, an unfortunate indicator of how far television has succeeded in completely dominating people’s lives.

I hate to sound so cynical, but the Lopezes must have been wringing their hands in desperation, worried at losing such a great money-spinner such as Rico before they had fully recovered their large investment in his career. The truth is that ABS-CBN is much like the powerful Hollywood studios of the 1930s and 1940s. It likes to micromanage the lives of its stars down to the smallest details. It even likes to manage their love lives. In Rico’s case he was paired with his network colleague Claudine Barreto. The network constantly paired them on TV shows, and in films through it’s movie arm Star Cinema.

The films must have been the most stage-managed aspect of Rico’s career, spinning romantic fantasies of him being in love with Claudine, a farce that was supposed to be carried on off screen to satisfy the appetite of the public and movie magazines. Although Rico may have really been in love with Claudine at some point, they broke up a few months ago, their relationship collapsing under the strain of always having to be the happy couple in public, something their network I’m sure demanded.

With the world teetering on the brink of a major disaster in the Middle East, Filipinos ought to be reflecting on that more than sobbing over Rico Yan’s death. ABS-CBN should be ashamed of itself for exploiting Rico’s death to the extent that they have. But hey, I’m sure they’re not about to have a change of conscience overnight and start providing 24-hour coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s just too far away and doesn’t spin money for the network like the silly telenovelas that have become the daily diet of Filipino TV viewers. Sayang!

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Comments or questions? Email me at: [email protected].

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