Rob Martin
It's been a long weekend in the U.S. so here's a little inspiration: Rob Martin's weekend in Palestine.
Martin is an Australian activist and a model for engagement on the issue. He'd never been to Palestine before late 2014, but during the Gaza onslaught that summer, he began reading about the conflict in a serious way.
"What I heard and read in the mainstream seemed to contradict what I was reading elsewhere," he told me. "I had made a few friends in Gaza through social media and talked to them as bombs were being dropped. I was surprised that every time a Palestinian was mentioned they were always referred to as a 'terrorist,' including the children.
"The fact a country can kill so many civilian including children truly shocked me. I felt I needed to see for myself as relying on media and opinions didn't sit right with me."Martin went out to Palestine in December 2014, and was promptly embroiled, during a visit to the West Bank. "It was my first time in Palestine and I had no intentions to be in the middle of it all. I didn't go looking for trouble, it just seemed to follow me," he said.
The occupation was far worse than he imagined, and he rose to the occasion. Here is Rob Martin's distressing report
My Weekend in Palestine, shot by the great photographer Hamde Abu Rahme. Many of us have observed conditions like these. The thing that's particularly moving about the video is Martin's ready insertion into the conflict, and bold, fresh bearing of witness.
Comment: Like Mike Penning says above, restorative justice isn't a once-size-fits all solution. For example, it likely has no effect on psychopaths' recidivism rates. But for 'minor' crimes, their perpetrators and their victims, it is a much better system than punitive, traditional 'justice'. The justice and penal systems are broken. Restorative justice is at least a step in the right direction. If only more states would take it!