When we hear of ‘400 Israeli airstrikes’ against Gaza we don’t necessarily understand just what a tiny area this constant bombing is happening in. A lot of people are probably thinking its the size of a smallish country like Ireland when in fact as the map below shows its more similar in size to the greater Dublin area.
(map comparison from Mark M, @soundmigration on Twitter )
When we hear of ‘400 Israeli airstrikes’ against Gaza we don’t necessarily understand just what a tiny area this constant bombing is happening in. A lot of people are probably thinking its the size of a smallish country like Ireland when in fact as the map below shows its more similar in size to the greater Dublin area.
(map comparison from Mark M, @soundmigration on Twitter )
Some 1.82 million people are crammed into this area, they are surrounded on the land side by a wall ringed with watchtowers staffed by snipers and machine gunners. Israeli naval boats maintain a constant blockade at the coast and at times like this shell the coast. Overhead there is the constant buzz of helicopters, drones and F16 Fighters. (Make you own version of this map for your city )
—
On Wedensday RTE Morning Ireland news reported that there had been Israeli airstrikes io Gaza overnight and Palestinians had fired over 200 rockets. If you don’t know much about the conflict 200 sounds like a lot – you can see why the idea that this is some sort of war between two sides who should just stop might make sense.
RTE then said that 72 people had been killed in the region. Suddenly the precision of exactly WHO fired HOW many evaporates behind the vagueness of PEOPLE. Is it simply because if RTE led with the number & identity of those killed in this ‘exchange’ it suddenly would sound like something other than a conflict between two matched powers?
WORDS Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter )