Reflecting on That BBC Interview

Well, interviews, actually, two live for television and one for radio.

First off, it is impossible to answer a question like "the whole world considers your presence here illegal and interfering with Palestinian life and infrastrucure, so what do you say?" within a two-and-on-half-minute slot of air-time, which includes the reporter's fade-in and fade-out and his asking the quetion.

Second, although I mull over it afterwards, there is in such a situation of time constraint and pressure also very little one can do. But there is something to be done - especially when the question avoids one of the main issues. For example, I could have tried to devote time to mentioning that none of the Arab villages he was passing through on his Nativity trek existed as Arab villages at the time that Jospeh and Mary supposedly made their way south from Nazereth to Bethlehem.

His walk/ride was misconstruing the reality of the countryside. He was lending a hand to an anachronism for by now, millions of BBC viewers are or have identified the countryside as "Palestine" whereas even the New Testament, Acts 8:1, for one source, refers to the area as Judea and Samaria (recall when Hanan Ashrawi called Jesus a "Palestinian"?). The term "Palestine" only came into being after 135 CE, over a centruy after the events of Jesus.

But, it could be said, all this is history and who can grasp it and comprehend it? Well, it seems the Arabs are doing quite well it promoting this semantic sleight-of-mouth. And they are doing so because people like me are asked very complicated questions and given not-that-much airtime to respond.

But, I will keep trying.