Lovely Linda Leaving

Linda Sobeh Ali, former charge d'affairs of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa (photo courtesy of Facebook).

"This unfortunate incident was intentionally magnified and misinterpreted by groups who are working against any rapprochement in the Canadian-Palestinian relationship." Linda Sobeh-Ali

It was a misunderstanding. A careless, but not intentional oversight. That's what happens when one is so ingrained with the absorption that most people feel, in being an integral part of the social networking scene. Everyone wants to scoop the news and reach out to those meaningful others.
In the case of the Palestinian Authority's top diplomat in Canada, it was a regrettable lapse.

All she saw was a video that begged to be passed on to all those others who assiduously followed her tweets. An innocent little video clip, meant to keep her followers informed, to demonstrate to them how hip she was, keeping them informed at a time of national jubilation. She too was rejoicing, and in this way she was one with them. Sending on a little love-card, as it were.

How was she to know the full content of what was contained in the video? She's a busy person, after all, and assumed the innocence of the content. The content? Oh well, after all, the clip was titled "I am Palestinian", and is not Ms. Sobeh-Ali Palestinian? Do Palestinians not weep inconsolably over their purloined land? Do they not face their oppressors, the occupiers of their land daily?

This is what it means to be Palestinians. To suffer. Magnificently, emotionally and interminably. And in the clip a young Palestinian girl recites a poem in the language of the Koran. An English translation is thoughtfully included. The line of the poem calling upon viewers of the video "to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews", is just business as usual for the Palestinians. Discreetly, however.

"What I saw took my breath away. The passion and intensity of this little kid reciting that poem or whatever it was is, from our perspective, just scary." Shimon Fogel, Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy who had the audacity to view the tweet and the accompanying video. Those Jews, they're all alike.

Ms. Sobeh-Ali's replacement as charge d'affairs of the Palestinian delegation will shortly appear. Ms. Sobeh-Ali is being routed to another assignment, perhaps one where "groups working against any rapprochement" are not so well entrenched, let alone concerned enough to contact the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Who, unfortunately, took issue with the incident.