Yesterday I had an idea for a short story to explain the unrelenting insanity of the occupation for ordinary Palestinians. Tell me what you think.
In my story, there is a Palestinian family, let’s call them the Jaabaris, and they live next to a Jewish settlement, let’s call it Kiryat Arba, close to Hebron deep in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
One day the settlers decide to build a synagogue on the family’s private land in an effort to force them off.
This family decide to stand their ground. Sadly, they have no way to stop the takeover of land that has been in their family for generations other than by appealing to the Israeli legal system. They petition the Israeli Supreme Court to order the synagogue demolished.
In the court room, the settlers argue that the land is not under Kiryat Arba’s control – it’s private Palestinian property – and therefore it is outside the court’s jurisdiction. The judges have no right to issue a ruling in this case, they claim.
The court disagrees and says the land is under Kiryat Arba’s control – ie the judges treat it as part of Israel – and therefore the court can issue a ruling. The judges’ verdict is a triumph for justice: the synagogue should be demolished.
However, now that the settlers have a piece of paper with the court’s decision stating that the land belongs to Kiryat Arba, they can bill the Palestinian family for years of arrears on property taxes amounting to $22,000 – more than the family earns in several years. If they don’t pay, the settlers will seize the land and sell it.
Heads the Jaabaris lose; tails they lose too. That’s Israeli occupiers’ justice.
What do you think? Have I gone a bit too far? Too crazy to be credible.
Or have I simply plagiarised this story from the Times of Israel, where exactly this just happened to the Jaabari family.
www.timesofisrael.com/settlers-build-synagogue-on-palestinian-land-bill-owner/
This post first appeared on Jonathan Cook’s Nazareth blog yesterday.
omg.
And the US is silent. Why?
Beautiful story of infernal “justice”. Tell the world! Tell the nations which say, but do not enforce, that occupier does not own the occupied land.
BTW, did the court say just exactly when the private land came to be within Israeli (Hebronish) jurisdiction and — more important — subject to taxes? For how many years do they seek to collect taxes? Etc. Had it previously been subject to Palestinian taxes, no taxes?
All in all, yuck. I’m feeling a nasty feeling coming over me, what with this and the indictment of Sheldon Silver in NYC, and having trouble remembering that that nasty feeling is (as to Israel) properly called anti-Zionism and as to Sheldon Silver is horror at ordinary political corruption, New York style.
But what about antisemitism? How many horrors done by Jews does it take ( to screw up acceptance of Jews) before the people of the world can/should/will be overcome with an antisemitism PARALLEL TO the Islamophobia that seems to be triggered by very, very few bad Islamic actors.
Kiryat Arba. Deep in the West Bank. Visit Kahane park, named after a famous terrorist, and across the Street from the much visited grave of Baruch Goldstein, responsible for a terror attack that killed 29 and wounded 124 Palestinians.
Israel, the most succesful criminal enterprise currently on the planet.
Thank-you, Jonathan.
I hate your title; I love your title.