If you think Trump’s “shithole countries” statement is bad, consider that such statements are routine in Israel, whose leaders have likened Palestinians to “cancer” and snakes and cockroaches, said that disloyal Palestinians should be decapitated with an “axe” or drowned, and have actually had a Muslim ban since the country was established.
A month after she slapped a soldier in occupied Nabi Saleh, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi faces a final bail hearing today at court. She has been imprisoned since December 19. Professor Asa Kasher, author of the IDF ‘ethics code, opines that Ahed Tamimi is dangerous, because she may slap again.
Rebecca Vilkomerson’s acknowledgment of Israel’s travel ban of Jewish Voice for Peace — “as we at JVP are now feeling the pain of exclusion, we are very aware that Palestinians have always faced profiling and bans on entry to Israel” — recalls Spinoza’s gracious acceptance of his excommunication by Amsterdam Jews in 1656. As history now shines on Spinoza, one day it will shine on Vilkomerson and JVP.
Zionism’s adherents see the ideology as a kind of ‘essence of life’, essential to the survival of Jews. Therefore the person who breaks with the ideology has betrayed a social contract, and by citing liberal values, has offended Zionists and made them feel lesser, Jonathan Ofir explains. No wonder the person who breaks often is socially ostracized or regarded with great mistrust.
Appraisals of Ahed Tamimi’s looks have been featured in reports around the world on the 16-year-old girl who slapped a soldier in her occupied Palestinian village: her long blonde hair, her western-style clothing. But this is perverse and demeaning. Ahed Tamimi’s bravery has nothing to do with what she wears or what color her hair is. The discussion needs to be about what she did, not her looks.
The Israeli military prosecution against Ahed Tamimi has indicted her on 5 counts. Jonathan Ofir analyses the most essential of them – ‘incitement’ – and how it is based on arguably flawed translation of her mention on Facebook of “martyrdom operations” to mean “suicide bombings,” in an effort to make Tamimi into a terrorist in the eyes of the world.
Assaf Wohl has authored an empty book about Palestinian history, and now he hurls anti-Semitic tropes against New Zealand Jewish activist Justine Sachs, for persuading Lorde to cancel her performance in Israel. He calls her a “classic Jewish wimp,” and refers to the Holocaust, when some Jews collaborated with Nazis.
In a radio debate with Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, writer Shany Littman says his call for a price to be exacted from Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl, in the dark without witnesses was a suggestion of sexual assault. Caspit says he merely called for her arrest and denies the Israeli occupation exists.
Before Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier on her family’s occupied property on December 15, the soldier slapped her hand away from him. But no one is talking about that violent moment; and Israeli media are showing video of the incident that begins right after that moment, in an effort to describe the incident as one of provocation and restraint, not the usual violence, which in fact preceded and followed the video.
Sheikh Saih Abu Madiam, 68, has been sentenced by an Israeli court to 10 months in prison and fined over $10,000. The crime? Trespassing state land — which he in fact owns in Al Araqib, one of the nearly 40 “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in the Negev.