podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 Today's featured episode is from Bad Hasbara. "Scar Tours With Noy Katsman" is an interview with a student and activist whose brother, Hayim, was murdered in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. It probably goes without saying why I think this is important to listen to. For all the rhetoric about returning the hostages, obviously the current tactic of genociding the entire Gaza Strip is not working well to that end. But of course, it's not about the hostages, nor about people like Hayim, who would not have wanted 30,000 people and counting murdered in his name. Noy is clear-eyed and admirable in turning their own very personal and visceral tragedy into a cogent call for peace and justice.

I should add, if you haven't heard of scar tours, it's nothing new. When I was in my early 20s, there was a "suicide bus" that some of my extended family were involved in transporting to Canada—basically the bombed-out wreckage of a bus that a suicide bomber had attacked, and you could go in and see how horrific the damage was and imagine the dead bodies and so on. I thought this was ghoulish at the time*, just as I see now tours of a kibbutz where massacres took place on Oct. 7 advertised to teachers to visit on March Break (yes, really) are not only about dispossession of the living, but desecrations of the dead. 

Anyway, everyone should hear what Noy has to say.


* See also: Why my mother and I are not invited to family events anymore.

Comments

[greylock]

I should add, if you haven't heard of scar tours, it's nothing new.

Well, apparently they learned to scale up the "car wreck from a drunk driver" to horrific proportions.

I'm of two minds, but as someone who lives far from dumb fuckery (I mean, there's a less than zero chance we'll import it), I can see how showing how horrific a suicide bomb on a bus might be. I assume a lot of people don't think things through.

I see now tours of a kibbutz where massacres took place on Oct. 7 advertised to teachers to visit on March Break (yes, really)

I mean, part of me thought going to Dachau was too soon. And that was in 2001.
I guess... I'll keep my roiling thoughts to myself on this for a bit.

[rydra_wong]

I don't think I have the mental resilience to listen, but Noy is so impressive:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/19/do-not-use-our-death-to-bring-death-plea-to-israel-from-peace-activists-grieving-families

[frandroid]

I listened to the first episode of BH (I adore his subtitle, "The Most Moral Podcast in the World!!!!!) and I'll work my way up... His birthright tour retelling was interesting. One thing that's really weird to me is how different he sounds on there than on BTB? I really dislike his voice on BTB, and here his voice is more... "tight"? I don't think that's not a sound mixing thing, more of a delivery thing.

My first reaction was like yours, but also wow, a whole bombed out bus, that's a lot of effort. On second thought, it feels like it's part of the same project of inflicting trauma as propaganda... Though that kind of conflicts with their "Israel is the only place where Jews are safe" narrative? :P Of course it's the supplementary message they're pushing, "we're got to finish the job from '48 to get that safety".

I was listening to an episode of Breaking Points and they were mentioning that John Kirby had mentioned, after meeting them, that negotiations with the Saudis for a rapprochement deal had some hope left in them, and the Saudis issued a follow-up press release to say "absolu-fucking-ly not".

[oracne]

Thanks for that link.

[misyachnakvitka]

I love your footnote. And yes, those f_ckers will pay dearly.