Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Jerusalem has always been the capital “of the Jewish people alone, not of any other people” at a Jerusalem Day ceremony on Ammunition Hill, in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem on May 17.
“Jerusalem won’t become once again a wounded and bisected city,” he continued. “We will forever keep Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty.”
Netanyahu pledged to “continue to build and nurture [Jerusalem], to expand her neighborhoods.”
The prime minister has long insisted that Israel must control East Jerusalem. In the same celebration in 2010, he maintained that “We cannot divide or freeze a city as vibrant and creative as Jerusalem – we will continue to build and be built by it” and averred “We are the generation which was lucky enough to see our holy sites liberated and returned to our hands, and it is upon us to transfer this right to our children.”
Jerusalem Day, celebrated every year on the 28th day of Iyar, the second month in the Jewish calendar, commemorates what Israel calls the “reunification” of Jerusalem.
Extremist Israelis mark the day every year by marching through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem chanting racist and anti-Muslim slogans like “Death to the Arabs.”
Journalist Charlotte Silver, reporting from the 2015 commemoration for The Electronic Intifada, interviewed Israelis who proclaimed “May they all [the Palestinians] die today, all together.” A young Israeli applauded Israel for liberating Jerusalem from “the donkeys.” Another expressed hope that the memory of the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem will be “erased.”
Several hundred Israeli leftists protested the march, chanting slogans such as “Jerusalem will not be silent, outlaw racism.” The activists, largely from the left-wing organization Jerusalem Won’t Tolerate Racism, dubbed the demonstration a “march of hate,” and held signs reading “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies” (red sign in Hebrew above) and “We are against incitement. We are against racism” (purple sign in Arabic above).
Decades of Illegal Occupation
Israel militarily occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. For decades, the United Nations has insisted that this occupation is illegal. “Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the surrounding West Bank hinterland contravenes international law. It is not recognized by the international community which considers East Jerusalem an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the UN maintains, citing Security Council resolutions 252, 267, 471, 476, and 478.
“Since 1967, Israeli measures have altered the status of East Jerusalem and affected the residency status of Palestinians, their access to basic services, and their ability to plan and develop their communities,” the UN continues.
“Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem is illegal and occurs at the expense of land and resources for Palestinian construction and development, placing residents at risk of forced eviction, displacement and dispossession,” the UN also notes. “As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for administering the occupied territory for the benefit of the protected Palestinian population.”
Attacked Journalists
(Photo: Ahmad Talat Hassan)
Israeli police assaulted and broke the cameras of Palestinian journalists who were filming the Jerusalem Day protests. The reporters say they had the proper accreditation to film the march, but were attacked anyway.
A journalist reported that Israeli police evacuated the area and refused to allow anyone except Israeli settlers in.
Just a few days before, on 15 May, Israeli occupation forces shot a Palestinian journalist in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The man had been photographing a Nakba Day protest. He was wearing a gas mask, the glass of which the bullet shattered, wounding his left eye.
Are broken cameras and broken heads sufficiently similar to broken glass that we may fairly call “Jerusalem day” (as celebrated ) a rebirth of “kristallnacht”? Seems mighty fascist to me.
Al Quds or whatever terminology you which to use existed at least 500 years before anyone heard of a people called Israelites (not jews, not Judaism, the tribe of Judah was only 1 of 13 Israelite tribes) appeared on the scene.
Nothing in the archeological record even remotely supports Exodus; therefore they developed from the local Cananites, present day Palestinians.
Sorta like falafel and humus being modern Israeli cuisine.
It was an especially ugly day in Jerusalem. The Occupiers led by Netanyahu, the illegal “settlers”, and their supporters defiled the beautiful city, abused the Palestinians, and disgraced themselves.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Rivlin eulogized and gave praise to the wholly despicable Levinger:
“President Reuven Rivlin attended and was among those who eulogized Levinger, who founded the Gush Emunim settlement movement in 1974 and started the present-day Jewish community in Hebron.
“Hebron is a sister city to Jerusalem — that is what David Ben-Gurion wrote in a letter to the people who recreated the Jewish community in Hebron and to you, the leader, Rabbi Levinger,” the president said, referring to Israel’s first prime minister.
“It is hard to say goodbye to you,” Rivlin continued, noting the juxtaposition with Jerusalem Day, when Israelis celebrate the military victory of the 1967 Six Day War.
“It is said that you were not a man of consensus, and that is true,” he said, according to the Ynet news outlet.
Born in 1935 in Jerusalem to a family of German origin, Levinger studied in his youth under Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, the spiritual father of religious nationalism.
Shortly after the Six Day War, in which Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Levinger and a group of like-minded people decided to settle in the territory. Their goal was to create a Jewish presence in Palestinian cities which are important sites from Jewish history, such as Hebron and Bethlehem.
In a written letter of condolence to Levinger’s family, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “saddened” by the rabbi’s death, also noting the symbolism of its timing.
“Rabbi Levinger’s name will be forever linked with the movement for renewed Jewish settlement in Hebron and other areas of the country where our patriarchs walked thousands of years ago,” he said. “He was an outstanding example of a generation that sought to realize the Zionist dream, in deed and in spirit, after the Six Day War.”
Netanyahu continued, “Our return to the holy places of our people in the defensive war and war of deliverance 48 years ago stirred our hearts. Our eternal capital Jerusalem was a united city once again. Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, where our patriarchs and matriarchs are buried, again became centers of prayer for myriad Jews. I am proud of the fact that they are included in the government’s list of national heritage sites, given their religious and educational importance of the highest order.
“There is great symbolism that Rabbi Levinger passed away on the eve of Jerusalem Day; he leaves behind him a well-established legacy and many students who are dedicated to taking root in our Land.”
Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hebron, said in his eulogy for Levinger that “a great deal of what we were privileged to receive in the liberation of Jerusalem is the work of Rabbi Moshe, who pushed and worked for the redemption of portions of our country,” Israel National News reported.
Daniella Weiss, former mayor of Kedumim in the West Bank and an activist in the settler movement, said, “The rabbi taught us not to leave a single piece of land without Jews. I met many people who tried to solve the riddle of the rabbi — whether he was a man of thought or a man of action. The answer is that he was both,” she said.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-leader-rabbi-moshe-levinger-buried-in-hebron/
I found out from reading Kate’s compilation today that
“Levinger openly praised the perpetrator of the Hebron massacre of 1994, Baruch Goldestein, calling him a great saint. When reminded that 29 innocent human beings were murdered by Goldestein said “I am sorry for the death of 29 flies as well.” Levinger said on several occasions that Palestinians ought to be given three choices, either enslavement by Jews as water carriers and wood cutters, or expulsion, or physical extermination.” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/05/abolish-jerusalem-settler#sthash.I68EvzR1.dpuf
What we saw yesterday was/is very much in line with that rabbi’s way of thinking/preaching.
Thanks, Ben.
.. also, Jews invented the number “3”.
Netanyahu doubles down on the Bible as his justification for killing and expelling non-Jews. One of the core claims in the Bible is that Jews are God’s favorite people. This enshrining of bigotry is not a lamp unto the nations, it is a plague unto the nations.
This sanctified bigotry is used to justify predatory behavior toward non-Jews. War profiteering is the worst case. Huge war profits have funded the massive campaign of deception and emotional manipulation that has suckered Jewish Americans into rushing to the defense of these sociopathic predators. Thus these gullible innocents will suffer in the blowback. Many key historical facts, routinely covered up with lies, are given in “War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror.”
Jewish Americans need to find out the facts and free themselves from the bondage of those who worship the golden war. Netanyahu is from the financial community, and understands his job is to keep provoking conflict.