« Ted Piccolo Back Under Sizemore's Spell | Main | They Should Have Been Allowed to Fly »

January 01, 2009

Glib Jewish racism

While perusing a blog post at the Israeli Jewish blog Shiloh Musings claiming that NYT photographs of suffering Palestinians, such as this one showing a father grieving next to the corpses of three very young Palestinian boys, are "posed or artificial," I found this banner statement near the top of the blog:

Quote from Israeli UN Ambassador, Yehuda Z. Blum, June 11, 1979
"Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria JUST BECAUSE HE IS A JEW, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the 'JUDENREIN' POLICIES of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay."

As you can see via the link above, this quote is accompanied by an unflattering picture of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert with the text "TOPPLE OLMERT" across the top of his pic - a clear reference to Olmert's policy of "unilateral disengagement" which forcibly removed Jewish settlers from the land they'd stolen and occupied in Gaza when the Israeli's withdrew from Gaza and a mere four out of the hundreds of similar settlements in the West Bank in 2005

What does Israel's official and historical opposition to the Palestinian right of return boil down to if not the assertion that it's illegal for a Palestinian Arab to live in his/her own home in "Judea" and "Samaria" just because he/she is an Arab?

As a person of Jewish heritage I am very proud to be able to point out that not all Israeli Jews are blind to Jewish racism. Indeed, some are working very hard to EDUCATE Jews and Palestinian Arabs alike about their common history and the imperative need for them to face it together.

After the jump is a very long (1.45 hours) video of Eitan Bronstein of the Jewish Israeli group, Zochrot, and Muhammad Jaradat of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugees' Rights, presenting "Acknowledging the Past; Imagining the Future: Israelis and Palestinians on 1948 and the Right of Return" right here in Portland this past April, courtesy of PDXjustice.org.

I shouldn't have to point this out but past experience has proven that it, sadly, is necessary...

Note: none of the above should be construed as justification for murdering, maiming or terrorizing anyone.

Posted by Kevin at January 1, 2009 12:53 PM