Jared Kushner recently claimed Palestinians have “gotten more aid than any group of people in history, and what we have to show for it is really not much”. But he missed Israel. Israel beats Palestine on this count, and it’s much worse.
Jonathan Ofir at a family seder in Israel, hearing the old stories of genocide: “You don’t want to throw away everything because some of it is rotten, you don’t want to make a family gathering political, but it’s hard to be part of it and reduce it to mere ‘tradition’. You’re wondering what you are enabling, indirectly, by not speaking out, or by saying too little, or by not opposing things more clearly.”
Meet May Golan, the new Likud Knesset member who has declared she is “proud to be a racist.” She’s the new darling of the Likud party despite, or perhaps because of, her racism.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon is now claiming the bible as proof to Israel’s fundamental right to all of Palestine. During his speech at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Danon held up a bible at for all the ambassadors present to see and said, “This is our deed to our land.” Jonathan Ofir says this is just an indication of Israel’s desperation for legitimacy.
Jonathan Ofir continues his journey in Israel-Palestine. He visits the western wall in Jerusalem and reflects on the erasure of the Magharibah quarter, sees a sign commemorating the theft of Yemenite babies, and reflects on the utter invisibility of the Palestinian presence in Israeli life.
The shocking teachings of Israeli state military preparatory school rabbis: Hitler had it “100 percent correct” except his supremacy was directed against the wrong people, Jews ought to have Palestinians as slaves for genetic reasons, and the real Holocaust is humanism and pluralism threatening the Jewish state.
On a trip to a kibbutz where he was born, Jonathan Ofir reflects on the utter denial of the Palestinian presence in Israel. He moves on to the wondrous village of Lifta, a monument to Palestinian life that Israel doesn’t want visitors to see.
Liberal Zionists are bemoaning the radical defeat of the Israeli Zionist left. But that might not be only bad. The election has revealed to the world that Israel is on a course of destruction that only outside pressure and outside forces can avert.
Airbnb has caved into political and economic pressure from Israel, including a class action suit, following its earlier announced decision to pull out of illegal Israeli settlements. It has now declared it will continue doing business there.