One of Israel’s best online publications – +972 Magazine – has for the first time chosen someone unconnected to Israeli/Palestinian issues as its “Person of the Year.”
That person is Edward Snowden.
The unusual move by this progressive, politically searing outlet in Israel is testament to just how strongly Snowden’s leaks have reverberated across political spectra. And as +972 Magazine revealed, it is also testament to just how critical Snowden’s leaks are when considering the very nature of the Internet itself, and what it may become.
I found this selection from its editors to be quite compelling:
As journalists, we are experiencing firsthand how the Internet has altered our profession, putting some of us out of work while creating new opportunities for others, ones that we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. A project like 972 Magazine could not have existed without the platforms provided by WordPress and Google, Facebook and Twitter.
But as much as we are aware of the significance of these massive changes, the small amount of attention we pay to the battle over the Internet is astonishing. Until we are faced with a specific problem – a website crashing, a webpage removed, a Facebook account hacked – we tend to take it all for granted.
Rather, we used to tend to take things for granted. That is, until a soft-spoken, geeky-looking computer specialist showed us how fragile the new freedoms provided by technology are and the degree to which the virtual universe is exposed to manipulation and abuse. He showed us how underdeveloped our thinking is on privacy and political participation in this virtual space. He showed us just how exposed we are in the face of power in this virtual world – more than we could have ever imagined, let alone agreed to, in our more physical existence.
This is the context in which Edward Snowden’s act needs to be understood. One had to have been especially naïve to think that the U.S. government was not spying on the German chancellor or the Israeli prime minister, as Snowden’s documents revealed. The more tech-savvy among us knew well that digital communications are traceable, though few ever imagined the scope of the NSA’s surveillance programs. But the story is not just your email, or the records of your phone calls stored on NSA servers and maybe shared with your own government. The issue at hand is the Internet, and what it will become: a force of freedom or the perfect machine for surveillance and control.
A force for freedom or the perfect machine for surveillance and control. These are the stakes, brilliantly articulated. Kudos to +972 Magazine for recognizing Snowden’s impact as a global one, and a critical one.
For all of the world’s citizens.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.
Follow him on Twitter @David_EHG.
David’s diary left out a word in the first sentence: “One of Israel best ‘fringe’ online publications . . .”
That Snowden’s antics have caught the attention of this fringe publication is hardly significant.
“Top Israeli Online Magazine”? Top for who? Is this like when BurgerKing started saying their fries were the better than McDonalds and cited a poll of their employees?
The editorial viewpoint at +972 represents approx. 5% of the Israeli population (and I include the Arabs in that). So while it’s writers are intelligent and generally “well spoken” they are about as popular as Gideon Levy or Amira Hass.
I never heard of the magazine at all, but that has nothing to do with the service Snowden performed.
Had Snowden either been an Israeli, Jewish or released information to the nation’s enemies, he would rightly be described for what he is – a traitor. Israelis are not as tolerant of weasels is the ranks and Snowden would be less than a fleck of fly-dirt on a page of history.
David, your lovely little +972 magazine published a photo essay celebrating and glorifying the release of civilian-killing terrorists. Do you share in this hideous celebration, or can you at least agree that this is not one of +972’s finest moments?
http://972mag.com/photos-palestinians-are-released-from-israeli-prisons-after-20-years/84734/
But look at the attached stories… With this gem from +972:
“The problem is not that Israel releases Palestinian prisoners, but how few it releases.”
and
“Dictatorships do not allow space for legitimate political activity. Opposing them means breaking the law”
So would you say that calling the Israeli Government a “dictatorship” and writing off the crimes of terrorists should be merely chalked up to “opposing this dictatorship”? I mean is murdering civilians (something that the article decries about the Israeli Right – and rightly so) a mere act of “political resistance”?
I know you won’t comment David, but doesn’t this strike you as odd that +972 excoriates the Israeli Government for it’s unequal treatment of Right Wing terrorists (and for that they are right) but then demands that Palestinian Security Prisoners go free? Shouldn’t this “top online publication” instead, point out the unequal treatment but then also understand that the last thing that needs to happen is that these murderers go free whether they be Jewish or Palestinian.
I won’t argue that Palestinian terrorists receive unequal treatment with regards to Right Wing Terrorists. What I will argue is that BOTH sides need to be dealt with harshly and that terror in general should be dealt with in a manner appropriate to the crime.
This magazine that you point to is merely another one of “Israel bashing.. 24/7/365”.
David you were once asked if for all the times you profess to “love” Israel, how come you don’t ever say exactly what it is that you “love” about Israel or its existence? Why is there nothing positive regarding the nation? Not one thing. AND why no discussion regarding the Palestinian Polity? Do they represent the views that you believe? You advocate for a One State Solution (as does your precious BDS Movement), yet you seem to feel that Israel acts in a vacuum. Any thoughts there?
Don’t worry, I know you won’t answer, but, I do want this out there for people to see you duck these questions.
The support for BDS, the refusal to ever say anything positive about Israel, and the refusal to to answer questions about right of return, all lead inescapably to an obvious conclusion.
Good show.
Mr. Snowden should have been made man of the year by every country that he told the US was spying on them.
He is a hero and a patriot.