Unlike those celebrities who are tweeting Free Palestine without explanation- add singer Selena Gomez to the list – Russell Brand – an English “comedian” most notable for being Katy Perry’s ex husband – has decided to put out a video explaining his thoughts in depth.
More like out of his depth.
I don’t know where to start with this diatribe – it is so full of untruths and moral depravity – but I’ll try.
1:36: Brand characterizes Hamas terrorism as “legitimate” and then speaks of “palestinian sovereignty” as having been agreed since Israel’s establishment, and their borders have been “continuously impeached upon.” No joke.
1:58: Brand stating there have been 230 civilians death on the palestinian side. Besides being highly doubtful, there is no mention of the fact their deaths are the result of being used as human shields by Hamas. But why would he, given he supports Hamas’ tactics?
2:47: Brand mocking the ceasefire deal that Hamas did not agree to, and then suggesting peace deal attempts have failed due to no fault of the palestinians.
3:44: Brand doubting Hamas’ goal is to increase civilian casualties, and then suggesting one way to find out goals of “extremists on either side of the argument” is for the international community to condemn all violence (?) Read the Hamas charter for a start if you are not sure of Hamas’ goals.
4:22: Brand claiming news of the death of the three Israeli boys was deliberately held back and used to build up tension and conflict.
4:57: Brand again denying Hamas are a terrorist group and then speaking of those “powerful lobbying groups” representing Israel’s interests in American politics.
You may be asking why should we even care what Brand says? He has close to 8 million Twitter followers for a start. He represents the “cool” anti-establishment celebrity, which is so appealing to the younger generation.
But he also represents the kind of vacuous, infantile way of thinking about the conflict – even the world – which reduces everything to the oppressed vs powerful.
And to do that, one has to ignore history and morality, just like Brand clearly has.
Not that we could expect more from him.
Update: Brand also tweeted the following:
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) July 18, 2014
At that rally, protesters called for Israel’s destruction.
