This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
The skies are once again darkening over Palestine. As if it wasn’t dark enough.
With three Israeli teenagers missing and presumed kidnapped, Israel has unleashed its usual backlash against Palestinians. It’s overkill. Time to teach Palestinians yet another lesson on who is the boss.
The days ahead promise more of the same and – God forbid – the teenagers aren’t found alive, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen then.
The problem as always is the power disparity and the occupation itself. But in the rush to judgment all of that is left behind. The issue becomes the kidnapping of the innocent.
In occupation, the innocent suffer. Can it only be Palestinians who suffer?
There is a cost to occupation. Even the powerful have to pay a price. Jews have to pay a price – when they’re occupiers.
Missing Jews are a terrible to price to pay. But, then, Israeli jails are filled with “missing” Palestinians.
As usual ,the ratio of missing Jews and Palestinians is telling. No one wants to compare the missing – every missing person is a horror – but again the disparity is telling. Does this disparity signal the presumed worthiness of Jewish and Palestinian lives?
Missing too are Jewish ethics in Israel and elsewhere. The outrage about missing Jews – if it was only matched for missing Palestinians. One looks in vain for this outrage. Which itself is an outrage.
The shared intelligence, the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to devote its resources to find the missing Israelis, is commendable. If truth be told, however, the Palestinian Authority’s energy would be better spent searching for their own soul. That soul seems to be missing too.
Perhaps both could be done at the same time: searching for the teenagers and telling Israel to back out of its territory, never to return.
So return the missing – on all sides. Including the land and ethics and service to one’s own people.
When all the missing are returned then we could begin again. A fresh start, honoring all the missing, which, in justice, would be returned.
I was with you until:
“If truth be told, however, the Palestinian Authority’s energy would be better spent searching for their own soul. That soul seems to be missing too.”.
It seems that you are trying to somehow achieve “balance”. imho, you failed.
Same old technique of slyly blaming the victims. (though you tried to blame the PA rather than all Palestinians)
According to Richard Silverstein the boys went missing in territory controlled by Israel so why isn’t the IDF being held responsible for keeping them safe? And yes I know the answer to that one.
Some should photo shop three missing Palestinian teens in that picture and change nothing else.
Charles Osgood on CBS Sunday Morning, mentioned this story, as headlines, and on CNN there was major reference to the situation on their running tickers. It mentions the three boys missing, one an American Israeli kid, and the threats by Netanyahu.
If only they covered the tragic deaths of 2 Palestinian kids during the Nakba protests, and you have got to wonder why it hardly got mentioned, or the fact that the autopsy shows one kid was indeed murdered and it was not the rubber bullets (as claimed by the murderers) that killed him. No follow up, no video disputing Israeli lies, and brutal killings or kidnapping of little children, who are thrown into jails, are ever mentioned in the US media. Yeah, everything is one sided, and only Israeli lives are precious. Innocent Palestinians are going to feel the wrath of the zionists, for the so called kidnapping of these three kids, and at this stage, no one really knows who did it, and where they are. Israel has predictably taken advantage of a bad situation, and pounded parts of Gaza, and many have been arrested over this. Would Israelis have been okay if Tel Aviv got pounded, in retaliation for the deaths of Palestinians, going on often, including the killing of a Jordanian judge, or is retaliation, only entitled to Israelis? I guess their sense of entitlement, arrogance, and vindictiveness, knows no limits or bounds.
The media response to this ‘kidnapping’ – of course we have no idea if it is anything of the sort – is so infuriating.
The Guardian – which never EVER reports the Palestinian kids who are kidnapped by Israel, has had a different prominently placed article every day from the time this story broke, offering the Israeli perspective that these boys were ‘abducted’ without any evidence to support it, and failing of course to provide the ‘balance’ they so painstakingly do on the rare occasions they bother to report Palestinian deaths.
”With three Israeli teenagers missing and presumed kidnapped,”
Why ‘presumed kidnapped’? Teenage boys can go missing for all sorts of reasons. They could have had an accident. They could have just run off for a lark. And yes, they could have been kidnapped – but if so, how are you so sure the kidnappers were Palestinians and not some of their fellow colonists?
”The shared intelligence, the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to devote its resources to find the missing Israelis, is commendable.”
Given that the boys went missing in Israeli controlled areas, why is this ‘commendable’?
”The issue becomes the kidnapping of the innocent.”
Again, we don’t know these boys were ‘kidnapped’. And are you also so sure they’re ‘innocent’? They live in an illegal squat, we know that, though in fairness you might say they’re too young to be criminally responsible for that. At least one of them, however, does seem old enough to be an IDF conscript. Do you know if that is the case? And many squatter teens harass and physically intimidate Palestinians? Again, how are you sure these boys are innocent of any of these crimes?
”Does this disparity signal the presumed worthiness of Jewish and Palestinian lives?”
You seriously need to ask this question? Of course it does.
here’s something OT. i just didn’t know where to put it. just out of curiosity have you ever wondered how israel might go about subduing the palestine population in order to annex the territory? and at the same time subdue international outrage and mobilize the entirety of israeli society to back them in their efforts.
how might they go about preparing for an operation like that, as opposed to outright starting a war like they did in ’67? to ensure the most passive response as well as getting the pa to bow to them most readily and even assist them in their efforts to pacify the population and round up scores of people who might otherwise be out on the streets or cause political resistance.
anyway. i was just wondering and i thought this was as good a place to ask as any.