Ah Ben -- you've always been our hero & you continue to be so. This is a brilliant, clear-eyed expose of Israeli tyranny and a sensitive painful argument for Palestinian self-determination. Will send to my pro-Israel brother. We miss you & hope to see you very soon. Abby & Helen
perhaps if the "other side" were not trying to bomb, stab and murder the living daylights out of jews there would be no necessity for such draconian measures? just a thought. it's very easy to look at one frame of the entire movie. zoom out to see the bigger picture which this toe rag will not show you or tell you about.
You are conflating issues, maybe out of ignorance, but it seems mostly intentional. People who are occupied by foreign invaders coming from Europe and America are entitled to defend themselves by any means possible. Jews lived in Palestine for centuries with Muslims and Christians Arabs, till your elk zionists came in with disgusting plans based on false and sad propaganda that they brainwashed your brain with, and now you exposing yourself ignorance trying to defend it!
Dont let the behavior of israel and zionists take away your humanity, morality and any ethical sense you might have left in you. Its not worth it.
Thank you for writing this piece, Benjamin. I started following you for your Clarice Lispector work (and our mutual love of all things Brazil as non-Brazilians!), and admire you all the more for speaking out publicly on Palestine. Much love!
Thank you, Nesrien— I am glad that Clarice didn’t have to see this. Zionism, for her parents and their whole generation, was the only thing that redeemed their unspeakable suffering. It’s horrible to see how it turned out.
you sir are a sheister. a snake oil salesman. selling the pally lies you just purchased. perhaps if the "other side" were not trying to bomb, stab and murder the living daylights out of jews there would be no necessity for such draconian measures? just a thought. it's very easy to look at one frame of the entire movie. zoom out to see the bigger picture which this toe rag will not show you or tell you about.
Hateful sentiments that you cant even see it. Yet able to spew out towards others even if they are jews when they express their humanity, morality and sense of justice, which you seem to lack.
Thank you so much for writing this piece. I’m sure it can’t be easy receiving some of the insults and unnecessarily harsh words in the comments, but I want to say how much it’s appreciated that you are just calling the situation for what it is and staying true to your humanity, ethics and values. You are not spewing hate but only asking for empathy and understanding, yet some feel inclined to spew hatred at this simple fact. I think this speaks volumes.
My grandmother was forcibly dispossessed from her home in Haifa in 1948. Palestine and its people have never been far from my mind or my heart, despite never going there and only having that connection from my grandmother, who was never able to return to her homeland. She never stopped talking about how beautiful Haifa was.
In my university years I was very vocal about Palestine and the unthinkable horrors the Palestinians are forced to live through. I eventually piped down somewhat - needless to say it is a controversial issue, and I’m ashamed to say it felt easier to not speak my mind in many situations. I stuck to my principles and never stopped campaigning, but not as hard. Seeing the global, intersectional awakening this past few months, with Palestinians all across historic Palestine and in the diaspora, hundreds of thousands if not millions of supporters all over the world coming together and standing for what is right and what is human... For the first time in my adult life I feel that change, though maybe still a ways away, is truly possible. I feel that nothing can ever make me pipe down again. And reading posts like yours, from people who come from a background that means they have a whole lot to lose just for voicing their concern for fellow human beings, makes all the difference. Thank you ♥️
Wow. What a remarkable bit of one-sided entirely context-free and out-and-out-lying writing.
The "fortress where people of different faiths worshipped for centuries," the one that is the tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs, was entirely closed to Jews for centuries. Jews were not allowed any further than the 7th step outside of this building, all through the centuries of the various occupations, up to and including the British occupation, during which the ancient Jewish community of Khevron was ethnically cleansed, leaving Khevron Judenrein for decades, until finally in 1967 Jews were allowed to return.
And how dare you go on about the assorted politicians having either lived in the States or immigrated from the States (and for the record, Bennett was born and bread in the north of Israel, it was his parents who immigrated from the US, and my goodness, do you despise all immigrants or is your anti-immigration ire only reserved for Jews?? ..... and the soon-to-be-backbencher-opposition Bibi was born in Tel Aviv, and lived in the US with his parents, when his dad was a professor at Cornell.... so get your facts straight)
Wow. And I'm glad for you that you spent a couple of days there? Maybe spend some more time and you will see that the tiny claustrophobic space is the Jews' tiny ghetto in Khevron. Almost the entirety of the city is forbidden to Jews, except for the Jewish ghetto.
You're right, it's awful that there are people who throw garbage from their windows. People do that kind of crap in cities all over the world. I agree, that sucks. And sometimes people suck.
Through the centuries of Ottoman rule the Western Wall was used by the local Arab population (actually Arab immigrants from Morocco lived in the Wall area then) as a garbage dump.
Stay in your space, Benjamin Moser. Live your best life. And keep in mind that you're not the first person to rebel against his parents. Not the first Jew to, either. By a long shot. You're in good company.
Neturei Karta guys agree with you, by the way. Just so you know.
more myth and fantasy dressed up as concern over the position of Jews in Palestine pre the Zionist invasion. If things were so bad why was it that the Old Yishuv opposed the Zionists and the Zionists had to assassinate the leader of Agudat Yisrael Jacob de Haan? It was always the Zionists who began the violence and then justified further violence because of the Palestinian reaction.
The Zionists came with the British and their Black and Tans, straight from Ireland
See this Zio liar is at it again. No the courts didn't find it acceptable to call me a 'notorious antisemite'. It said that to call someone an antisemite was not a question of fact but opinion. You see the so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism, which accused me of antisemitism then pleaded that they couldn't defend what they said factually, it was all a matter of honest opinion. That was what the court ruled on.
In other words Zios attack people including antiracist Jews as antisemites. When called upon to justify what they say they squeal that of course it isn't based on fact, it's mere opinion. The court agreed that an honest person could say that but the court at no stage even defined what it meant by antisemitism.
In any case the decision is under appeal.
But one thing is not under any doubt. Zionism is a form of racism and that Zionists are, by definition racists. If Miller disagrees then he can answer one question.
There is no Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. It is one Greater Israel. Does he support therefore that all the 12 or so million inhabitants, Jews and Arabs, have a vote or does he support the apartheid situation whereby Palestinians are ruled over but have no say in who are their rulers?
If he can't support a system of giving all Palestinians under Israeli rule a vote then it is he who is a racist
That the Jews were never allowed to visit their holy sites in Chevron and Jerusalem? Or that they were ethnically cleansed from Chevron?
Just because the Old Yishuv opposed the Zionists does not mean it was all good and dandy. There was plenty of Anti Semitism predating Zionists, it was only exacerbated later on. You can hate on the Zionists but don't whitewash the savage Arabs in that region
Just about every part. Without the incursion of the colonists, which is what the Zios were, then relations would have continued on their previous plane. Jews by the mid 19th century had become a majority in Jerusalem. did the Arabs care? No because there were no political implications. They didn't seek domination over others and Moses Montefiore who supported them was also careful to support the non-Jews too so as not to create antagonism.
Of course you say there was plenty of antisemitism b4 hand but you would say that wouldn't you? In fact you Zios have perpetually worked hand in glove with antisemites just as you do today with Trump, Orban and the rest of the US far Right. You are total hypocrites. When the Nazis came to power the Zionist Federation of G ermany wrote them a letter offering collaboration because of their shared values. You can find the letter in Lucy Dawidowicz's Holocaust Reader of June 21 1933 and then of course you broke the Jewish boycott of Nazi Germany in order to lay hold of the wealth of German Jewry.
You Zionists are total fucking hypocrites. You've never objected to antisemitism. As Herzl said in the middle of the Dreyfuss Affair 'In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude towards anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognise the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism.' and also in his Diaries you will find his observation that
‘the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.’
and so it proved. Everywhere there were antisemites the Zionists cuddled up to them.
What was remarkable was that when antisemitism in Europe increased the Arab countries proved a sanctuary that was where Maimonedes escaped to after fleeing Spain. That was why in Tunisia which the Nazis occupied the Arabs refused to implement the Jewish Question and just 1% died. In Moslem Albania there were more Jews in it after the Nazi occupation than b4. The only such country in Europe.
Yet according to you racist bastards we have a Judeo-Christian heritage and the Muslims are the enemy. Hence you ally with the identitarian neo-Nazis. Did you see that British neo-Nazi Tommy Robinson attended the Israel demonstration 2 weeks ago?
You make a ton of assumptions about me here. Suffice to say I'm not Zionist, and I don't believe Muslims or Arabs are inherently worse than Christians or Europeans. Christian anti Semitism certainly eclipses Muslim anti Semitism on a historical basis.
However the reality on the ground is, despite your whitewashing, the reason why most non Zionist Jews came to support Israel is because the Anti Semitism of the Arabs reached a fevered pitch (even though it was there all along like everywhere else).
In today's reality, anti Semitism is greatest in the Arab world, and Israel has no choice but to protect itself
michael moser is not interested in facts. he would rather sell snake oil to his dumb audience, thereby maintaining them in their one-sided ignorance and dumbness. it is evil for grown ups to be so bloody naive to listen to such drivel.
You can disagree and correct him but it doesn't sound like his intention is out and out lying. It does seem like he's mistaken about some points and it may help to fix those, Benjamin.
I say this as someone that agrees with many of your other points.
There are around 150,000+ Palestinians and 500 Jews. And yes, those Jews do have some pretty extreme opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron
'Almost the entirety of the city is forbidden to Jews' Yes, forbidden by the Jewish state!!! Anything that assumes that all Jews think the same, believe the same or act the same can accurately be called antisemitic. Jewish people may belong to a very wide variety of Jewish communities, Jewish synagogues, Jewish organisations or, indeed, none. That is precisely why the BoD has no right to claim to speak for the British ‘Jewish Community’. For example, Charedi Jews (I understand about 20% of the British Jewish population) do not recognise their authority and fiercely oppose the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. The BoD also can’t claim to represent the estimated half of all British Jews who happen to be secular.
I totally agree that antisemitism must always be opposed and we all must be aware of the centuries of dreadful antisemitism endured by Jewish communities which culminated in the utter inhumanity of the holocaust.
In Europe, this long history of antisemitism inspired Theodor Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to hold the First Zionist Congress in 1897. At the time, many Jewish people rose up in protest and accused Herzl of antisemitism because the Zionist proposition that Jews formed a separate nation implied they were aliens in their German home.
Just because it is possible that an anti-Zionist can also be antisemitic, it does not follow that an anti-Zionist is by definition an antisemitic racist;
* many Jewish individuals and Jewish organisations oppose Zionism,
* anti-Zionism is a political not a racial perspective,
* 90% of Zionists are Christian,
* anyone promoting the idea of a ‘Christian homeland’ giving Christians superior status would, quite rightly, be condemned.
Jewish people should feel safe (indeed celebrated!) wherever they live but Zionist racism MUST be resisted and doing so is not antisemitic despite what Israeli Zionists, the BoD and many other establishment organisations and individuals assert.
Yet, with the founding of Israel in 1948, racist Zionism became a matter of state policy supported by the west. Perhaps this support was partly motivated by antisemites who did not want thousands of Jewish refugees settling in the west.
On 10th November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 3379 by a vote of 72 to 35 which "determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".
Anyone who researches the 1948 Nakba should be horrified at the extreme anti-Palestinian racism involved. The systematic destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages, the creation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees let alone the bloody carnage ruthlessly meted out to Palestinian men, women and children. Palestinian Muslims, Christians as well as Palestinians of no faith were brutalised. Israel was thereby founded on racist violence and this racist violence has continued for over 70 years.
Israel has not only stolen Palestinian land, homes, freedoms & lives, it has also stolen Jewish identity thereby accusing anyone who criticises their brutal racist theft as antisemitic!!!
Many Jewish people had lived peaceably in Palestine for generations and this should have been allowed to continue after the 2WW. It was not acceptable in 1948 for European antisemitic racism which Jewish people had endured to be used to justify anti-Palestinian racism. In fact, even arab Jews were treated very badly by the new arrivals!
I have Jewish heritage but cannot accept the UDI of 1948 which so violently established a racist state. Many other non-Jewish and Jewish individuals and organisations agree.
The 2-state solution is a distraction which enables Israel to steal more and more land. A single SECULAR state is the sole sustainable solution with equal rights for all between the river (Jordan) and the (Mediterranean) sea. It is time for Israel to abandon the goal of Jewish–Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish–Palestinian equality.
"Israel's image today is negative not because it is a Jewish state but because it habitually transgresses the norms of acceptable behaviour" - Avi Schlaim, International Herald Tribune 2005
Your wishful thinking! None so blind as those who don't want to see. Human Rights Watch & B'tselem have both recognised Israel as an apartheid state and you think 90% of Jewish people think apartheid represents Jewish justice? Laugh or cry???
Violent racists don't take human rights seriously. I suppose that also goes for numerous UN resolutions too. Violent racist Zionists or the rest of the world are out of step???
Hi Ben, as an arab from the region, I was expecting your article to be wrapped in rhetorical fog, but was surprised by your sincere effort to uncover reality, the painful illustrations that you provided us with will stack up on other bits of stories and facts that have been for decades seeping through the cages of the occupied lands to every inch in the middle east.
The comments to your article, are a great complement to it, showing us specimens of Israeli occupation-deniers.
This situation is not meant to last, and although israel with it's high tech military has mastered its control over an unarmed caged popluation, there are millions outside of the border sick of their presence, and will never accept the situation, and like the majority in the region, I have no doubt that it will not end well for israel, they will reap what they sow.
Yes it was a terrible massacre. But does that justify what is happening now?
As you say they were non or anti-Zionist mainly Orthodox Jews. Have you ever wondered why they had lived peaceably for centuries until 1929? Might it have something to do with the recent Zionist colonisation, the attacks by Jabotinsky's thugs, the evictions of peasants from the lands that the Kibbutzim took? It's all documented in the Hope Simpson Inquiry Report.
Basically Zionism brought disaster on the original Jews in Hebron as it did to the Jews in Iraq and elsewhere (along with Zionist bombs to help things along). The Arabs of Hebron were not particularly sophisticated. They were like the peasants of Europe who did not distinguish between Jews. To them a Jew was a Jew and the Zionists claimed to represent all Jews.
Don't you think it strange that in Palestine which, like the rest of the Arab East, did not have the pogroms and ethnic cleansing and genocide of Europe, that once the Zionists came along they stirred up conflict? Or maybe you don't want to know.
This well may be true, but whatever the cause, it doesn't change the fact that the local population massacred Jews because they were Jews.
The history of that region is indeed very complicated which is why this post is completely lacking context. As I pointed out that market is contested by the settlers because it was stolen from murdered Jews not too long ago.
You can say that the Zionists have sole responsible for all the problems going on today, but today's Israel must deal with the reality of an extremely hostile Arab populace.
No it's not 'may be true' nice weasel words. It is true. The land was not 'stolen from murdered Jews'. They abandoned it just like 3/4 million Palestinians abandoned their homes and villages after the Deir Yassin and 30 other massacres in 1948.
Are you going to suggest that they too be allowed to return? If not you are a racist hypocrite and an apologist for apartheid.
The Jews present in Hebron today are Kahanists. That is where the most vicious racists that Zionism has thrown up - Baruch Marzel, Benzi Gopstein and co. are based. These are the spiritual heirs of Hitler. Their only quarrel with the Nazis is that they chose the wrong target.
I joke not. This is exactly what Rabbis Cashtiel and Radler said to students in the pre-military academy. According to an article in the Jerusalem Post 'Rabbis say ‘Hitler was right, pluralism the true Holocaust’
"According to the Rabbi, Hitler was completely right but he was on the wrong side, meaning against the Jews. "
This kind of genocidal nonsense is all too common in Israel today because Israelis see their own role as being the equivalent of that of the Nazis. They hold the whip hand. That is the sickness that pervades Israel with books like Torat Hamelech, defended by dozens of rabbis, produced by 2 rabbis, which teaches the legal way to murder non-Jews, including infants and babies.
Zionism is sick. The longer its bastard state lasts the further the move to the right in Israeli society. The Israeli Labor Party and Mapam had 65 seats in the Knesset in 1949. Today they have 13 and that was an improvement over their previous tally.
1st of all you are just making up numbers here. 3/4 million Palestinians did not abandon their homes.
2ndly, even including Deir Yassin, there was never an instance where Jews murdered an entirely *defenseless* population, whose literal only crime was being Jewish. If you want to compare savagery, its not even close. And while Chevron was the worst of the incidents it was not the only one
Worth noting that a majority of the Jewish world, including a majority of the Orthodox world, denounces Baruch Goldstein, Kach, Kahane, etc. But I have yet to see peaceful Palestinian activists denounce Arab violence in Hebron. (There was a greatly level of peaceful rhetoric during and after the most recent conflict.)
the 'majority of the Jewish world' is hypocritical and Kahanists are now inside the Knesset. indeed their programme is now the programme of the Zionist majority
yes the majority of the Jewish world denounces Goldstein yet Israel permits a shrine to a mass murderer and terrorist to persist at Kiryat Arba.
It denounces Kach and Kahane yet looks upon a state based on Jewish supremacy with equanimity. In short you Zionists are utter hypocrisy. At this very moment the Israeli Police have just given authorisation for another 'death to the Arabs' march to go through the Arab quarter of Jerusalem.
You Zionists are sick hypocritical puppies. Apologists for murder. If the condemnation of Kach and Kahane meant anything at all then their bastard offspring in Hebron, who assault and terrorise the Palestinians every day would have long been removed.
You are no different to people like Ernest Nolte who sought to relativise the actions of the Nazis in Germany.
I think you're correct to criticize the Israeli government. And your choice to display your Jewish self-guilt publicly is of course your right. What bothers me is your lack of research into the city of Hebron, the attitude of Arabs in the land prior to 1948 and how important Zionism (which is an ideology that exists on a spectrum of beliefs) remains today. You can get some of your points across with more honesty and integrity.
utter rubbish. We have no self-guilt other than the fact that racist Zionists use the holocaust dead, who they abandoned during the holocaust, to justify their pogroms. 'Death to the Arabs' is a popular slogan in Israel these days just as 'Death to the Jews' used to be popular. If you had any shame you might also have some guilt instead of engaging in whataboutery. The Arabs quite rightly opposed Zionist colonisation. All natives did as Jabotinsky expressed it in The Iron Wall. Try doing a bit of reading of history
Fantastic, blisteringly honest article.Much needed. The pro Israeli propagandists and apologists will continue to lie and excuse Israel for its racism and ethnic cleansing, and the copious quantities of Palestinian blood on its hands, but for those willing to learn the reality, writing like yours is an oasis in the desert. Thank you
Benjamin, your disappointing ability to string together so many slanders reveals more about you than about the group that has, "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity." If you are truly interested in justice, why don't you watch some MEMRI clips of the local children's television programs that have been translated into English? I would suggest that, due to your gullibility, avoid periodicals and read a few creditable history books. Unless facts would interfere with your convictions, I'm sure that we are all looking forward to your mea culpa. Shabbat Shalom.
Acting as if the city of Hebron is a microcosm of the entire State of Israel is an extremely dangerous thing. I have also visited Hebron under the very watchful eye of IDF soldiers. The reason for that is because if not for those soldiers and their protection, Jews cannot walk around Hebron and not expect to potentially be attacked JUST FOR BEING JEWS! At the end of the day, until there is a true acceptance of the Jewish state's existence by all people, this situation will remain in effect for the safety of all people. That's just the reality.
Also, I love how you reference the potential incoming new government which actually includes the Arab bloc, and yet you still think Israel practices apartheid. Maybe you should do a bit more research on the definition of certain words before publishing an article.
You are a liar Ari. Jews aren't attacked for being Jews but for being colonisers and racists. It's not the colonists who are attacked but the indigenous Palestinians. The colonists are protected by the military. The Palestinians have no protection and Netanyahu took away human rights observers last year. Anti-Zionist or solidarity activists have never been attacked if they are Jewish.
There you go again. You Zionists accuse anyone who's not a supporter of their genocidal policies of being 'antisemites'.
Last week the New York Times, in a first printed the names and faces of the 67 Palestinian children murdered by Elliot Miller's friends.
Immediately Abraham Foxman of the Anti Defamation League, one of the most powerful Zionist groups in the USA accused them of a 'blood libel.' Do these morons ever think of what words mean?
Blood libels were medieval myths that Jews baked their matzot in the break of Gentile (non-Jewish) children. There was no truth to them. Thousands of Jews died. The children these murderous Zios annihilated with their modern weapons did die. How can that be a blood libel?
When morons like Miller accuse me and others of 'anti-Semitism' what they mean is that we are anti-racists. Zionism has transformed antisemitism into a form of anti-racism. Congratulations Miller
I am afraid you are just an apologist. Which makes you complicit in racism, apartheid and repression, as well as ethnic cleansing..shame on you. Though I sadly doubt than an ability for such an essential emotion is one that you possess
As a Jew: we knew that we were not wanted, that many in the Arab populace including all Arab governments abhorred Jews and would be violently opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. So Israel was established and big surprise, the goal of the destruction of Israel was declared. There was a document that we agreed to in 1948. On one side of it was the creation of Israel. On the other side was the creation of Palestine. If we tear up the document declaring the legitimacy of Palestine, we tear up the document declaring the legitimacy of Israel. Any settler who celebrates Pesach is a hypocrite > stranger in a strange land? An embarrassment. This will not end well.
B., você colocou os pontos nos i´s. A questão entre Israel e Palestina foi colocada sob um ponto de vista que muitos esquecem: o racismo que lá é praticado. E a falta de valor à vida do outro. A minha vida pode ser mantida em detrimento da sua. O bem maior é a vida. Cada vida importa. Qualquer vida importa.
Ah Ben -- you've always been our hero & you continue to be so. This is a brilliant, clear-eyed expose of Israeli tyranny and a sensitive painful argument for Palestinian self-determination. Will send to my pro-Israel brother. We miss you & hope to see you very soon. Abby & Helen
Hi Abby and Helen — I am so happy to hear from you! Please come back and see me very soon. Lots of love. B
perhaps if the "other side" were not trying to bomb, stab and murder the living daylights out of jews there would be no necessity for such draconian measures? just a thought. it's very easy to look at one frame of the entire movie. zoom out to see the bigger picture which this toe rag will not show you or tell you about.
You are conflating issues, maybe out of ignorance, but it seems mostly intentional. People who are occupied by foreign invaders coming from Europe and America are entitled to defend themselves by any means possible. Jews lived in Palestine for centuries with Muslims and Christians Arabs, till your elk zionists came in with disgusting plans based on false and sad propaganda that they brainwashed your brain with, and now you exposing yourself ignorance trying to defend it!
Dont let the behavior of israel and zionists take away your humanity, morality and any ethical sense you might have left in you. Its not worth it.
Thank you for writing this piece, Benjamin. I started following you for your Clarice Lispector work (and our mutual love of all things Brazil as non-Brazilians!), and admire you all the more for speaking out publicly on Palestine. Much love!
Thank you, Nesrien— I am glad that Clarice didn’t have to see this. Zionism, for her parents and their whole generation, was the only thing that redeemed their unspeakable suffering. It’s horrible to see how it turned out.
you sir are a sheister. a snake oil salesman. selling the pally lies you just purchased. perhaps if the "other side" were not trying to bomb, stab and murder the living daylights out of jews there would be no necessity for such draconian measures? just a thought. it's very easy to look at one frame of the entire movie. zoom out to see the bigger picture which this toe rag will not show you or tell you about.
Insults don't impress...
Its pathetic how deep is your
Hateful sentiments that you cant even see it. Yet able to spew out towards others even if they are jews when they express their humanity, morality and sense of justice, which you seem to lack.
How pathetic!
Thank you for writing this
Thank you for keeping this issue present 💝
Courageous, honest, illuminating. Thank you.
Thanks Bohdan — nice to hear from you
Thank you for this - taking the risk of writing what you saw and felt - Additional reading on this subject - Lis Harris's extraordinary book: https://bookshop.org/books/in-jerusalem-three-generations-of-an-israeli-family-and-a-palestinian-family/9780807002445
❤️
Thank you so much for writing this piece. I’m sure it can’t be easy receiving some of the insults and unnecessarily harsh words in the comments, but I want to say how much it’s appreciated that you are just calling the situation for what it is and staying true to your humanity, ethics and values. You are not spewing hate but only asking for empathy and understanding, yet some feel inclined to spew hatred at this simple fact. I think this speaks volumes.
My grandmother was forcibly dispossessed from her home in Haifa in 1948. Palestine and its people have never been far from my mind or my heart, despite never going there and only having that connection from my grandmother, who was never able to return to her homeland. She never stopped talking about how beautiful Haifa was.
In my university years I was very vocal about Palestine and the unthinkable horrors the Palestinians are forced to live through. I eventually piped down somewhat - needless to say it is a controversial issue, and I’m ashamed to say it felt easier to not speak my mind in many situations. I stuck to my principles and never stopped campaigning, but not as hard. Seeing the global, intersectional awakening this past few months, with Palestinians all across historic Palestine and in the diaspora, hundreds of thousands if not millions of supporters all over the world coming together and standing for what is right and what is human... For the first time in my adult life I feel that change, though maybe still a ways away, is truly possible. I feel that nothing can ever make me pipe down again. And reading posts like yours, from people who come from a background that means they have a whole lot to lose just for voicing their concern for fellow human beings, makes all the difference. Thank you ♥️
Wow. What a remarkable bit of one-sided entirely context-free and out-and-out-lying writing.
The "fortress where people of different faiths worshipped for centuries," the one that is the tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs, was entirely closed to Jews for centuries. Jews were not allowed any further than the 7th step outside of this building, all through the centuries of the various occupations, up to and including the British occupation, during which the ancient Jewish community of Khevron was ethnically cleansed, leaving Khevron Judenrein for decades, until finally in 1967 Jews were allowed to return.
And how dare you go on about the assorted politicians having either lived in the States or immigrated from the States (and for the record, Bennett was born and bread in the north of Israel, it was his parents who immigrated from the US, and my goodness, do you despise all immigrants or is your anti-immigration ire only reserved for Jews?? ..... and the soon-to-be-backbencher-opposition Bibi was born in Tel Aviv, and lived in the US with his parents, when his dad was a professor at Cornell.... so get your facts straight)
Wow. And I'm glad for you that you spent a couple of days there? Maybe spend some more time and you will see that the tiny claustrophobic space is the Jews' tiny ghetto in Khevron. Almost the entirety of the city is forbidden to Jews, except for the Jewish ghetto.
You're right, it's awful that there are people who throw garbage from their windows. People do that kind of crap in cities all over the world. I agree, that sucks. And sometimes people suck.
Through the centuries of Ottoman rule the Western Wall was used by the local Arab population (actually Arab immigrants from Morocco lived in the Wall area then) as a garbage dump.
Stay in your space, Benjamin Moser. Live your best life. And keep in mind that you're not the first person to rebel against his parents. Not the first Jew to, either. By a long shot. You're in good company.
Neturei Karta guys agree with you, by the way. Just so you know.
more myth and fantasy dressed up as concern over the position of Jews in Palestine pre the Zionist invasion. If things were so bad why was it that the Old Yishuv opposed the Zionists and the Zionists had to assassinate the leader of Agudat Yisrael Jacob de Haan? It was always the Zionists who began the violence and then justified further violence because of the Palestinian reaction.
The Zionists came with the British and their Black and Tans, straight from Ireland
Didn't the courts in the UK deem it acceptable to call you a "notorious antisemite" based on your behaviour?
See this Zio liar is at it again. No the courts didn't find it acceptable to call me a 'notorious antisemite'. It said that to call someone an antisemite was not a question of fact but opinion. You see the so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism, which accused me of antisemitism then pleaded that they couldn't defend what they said factually, it was all a matter of honest opinion. That was what the court ruled on.
In other words Zios attack people including antiracist Jews as antisemites. When called upon to justify what they say they squeal that of course it isn't based on fact, it's mere opinion. The court agreed that an honest person could say that but the court at no stage even defined what it meant by antisemitism.
In any case the decision is under appeal.
But one thing is not under any doubt. Zionism is a form of racism and that Zionists are, by definition racists. If Miller disagrees then he can answer one question.
There is no Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. It is one Greater Israel. Does he support therefore that all the 12 or so million inhabitants, Jews and Arabs, have a vote or does he support the apartheid situation whereby Palestinians are ruled over but have no say in who are their rulers?
If he can't support a system of giving all Palestinians under Israeli rule a vote then it is he who is a racist
Which part is the myth and fantasy?
That the Jews were never allowed to visit their holy sites in Chevron and Jerusalem? Or that they were ethnically cleansed from Chevron?
Just because the Old Yishuv opposed the Zionists does not mean it was all good and dandy. There was plenty of Anti Semitism predating Zionists, it was only exacerbated later on. You can hate on the Zionists but don't whitewash the savage Arabs in that region
Just about every part. Without the incursion of the colonists, which is what the Zios were, then relations would have continued on their previous plane. Jews by the mid 19th century had become a majority in Jerusalem. did the Arabs care? No because there were no political implications. They didn't seek domination over others and Moses Montefiore who supported them was also careful to support the non-Jews too so as not to create antagonism.
Of course you say there was plenty of antisemitism b4 hand but you would say that wouldn't you? In fact you Zios have perpetually worked hand in glove with antisemites just as you do today with Trump, Orban and the rest of the US far Right. You are total hypocrites. When the Nazis came to power the Zionist Federation of G ermany wrote them a letter offering collaboration because of their shared values. You can find the letter in Lucy Dawidowicz's Holocaust Reader of June 21 1933 and then of course you broke the Jewish boycott of Nazi Germany in order to lay hold of the wealth of German Jewry.
You Zionists are total fucking hypocrites. You've never objected to antisemitism. As Herzl said in the middle of the Dreyfuss Affair 'In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude towards anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognise the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism.' and also in his Diaries you will find his observation that
‘the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.’
and so it proved. Everywhere there were antisemites the Zionists cuddled up to them.
What was remarkable was that when antisemitism in Europe increased the Arab countries proved a sanctuary that was where Maimonedes escaped to after fleeing Spain. That was why in Tunisia which the Nazis occupied the Arabs refused to implement the Jewish Question and just 1% died. In Moslem Albania there were more Jews in it after the Nazi occupation than b4. The only such country in Europe.
Yet according to you racist bastards we have a Judeo-Christian heritage and the Muslims are the enemy. Hence you ally with the identitarian neo-Nazis. Did you see that British neo-Nazi Tommy Robinson attended the Israel demonstration 2 weeks ago?
Don't give me your hypocritical crap
Was this also because of the Zionists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1834_looting_of_Safed
You make a ton of assumptions about me here. Suffice to say I'm not Zionist, and I don't believe Muslims or Arabs are inherently worse than Christians or Europeans. Christian anti Semitism certainly eclipses Muslim anti Semitism on a historical basis.
However the reality on the ground is, despite your whitewashing, the reason why most non Zionist Jews came to support Israel is because the Anti Semitism of the Arabs reached a fevered pitch (even though it was there all along like everywhere else).
In today's reality, anti Semitism is greatest in the Arab world, and Israel has no choice but to protect itself
michael moser is not interested in facts. he would rather sell snake oil to his dumb audience, thereby maintaining them in their one-sided ignorance and dumbness. it is evil for grown ups to be so bloody naive to listen to such drivel.
This attitude doesn’t help anything.
I disagree with a lot of what he says but the biggest problem is people not being able to communicate properly.
When the comments fill with famous antisemites you know where you are at.
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Tony Greenstein is also on Board as are finish neo Nazis.
Ready ready ready.
I reckon Moser is a born again Marxist. This man Ticks all the cliches. A looked up his sister. This entire family is from central casting.
Yuri Bezmenov was spot on .
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You can disagree and correct him but it doesn't sound like his intention is out and out lying. It does seem like he's mistaken about some points and it may help to fix those, Benjamin.
I say this as someone that agrees with many of your other points.
There are around 150,000+ Palestinians and 500 Jews. And yes, those Jews do have some pretty extreme opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron
'Almost the entirety of the city is forbidden to Jews' Yes, forbidden by the Jewish state!!! Anything that assumes that all Jews think the same, believe the same or act the same can accurately be called antisemitic. Jewish people may belong to a very wide variety of Jewish communities, Jewish synagogues, Jewish organisations or, indeed, none. That is precisely why the BoD has no right to claim to speak for the British ‘Jewish Community’. For example, Charedi Jews (I understand about 20% of the British Jewish population) do not recognise their authority and fiercely oppose the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. The BoD also can’t claim to represent the estimated half of all British Jews who happen to be secular.
I totally agree that antisemitism must always be opposed and we all must be aware of the centuries of dreadful antisemitism endured by Jewish communities which culminated in the utter inhumanity of the holocaust.
In Europe, this long history of antisemitism inspired Theodor Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to hold the First Zionist Congress in 1897. At the time, many Jewish people rose up in protest and accused Herzl of antisemitism because the Zionist proposition that Jews formed a separate nation implied they were aliens in their German home.
Just because it is possible that an anti-Zionist can also be antisemitic, it does not follow that an anti-Zionist is by definition an antisemitic racist;
* many Jewish individuals and Jewish organisations oppose Zionism,
* anti-Zionism is a political not a racial perspective,
* 90% of Zionists are Christian,
* anyone promoting the idea of a ‘Christian homeland’ giving Christians superior status would, quite rightly, be condemned.
Jewish people should feel safe (indeed celebrated!) wherever they live but Zionist racism MUST be resisted and doing so is not antisemitic despite what Israeli Zionists, the BoD and many other establishment organisations and individuals assert.
Yet, with the founding of Israel in 1948, racist Zionism became a matter of state policy supported by the west. Perhaps this support was partly motivated by antisemites who did not want thousands of Jewish refugees settling in the west.
On 10th November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 3379 by a vote of 72 to 35 which "determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".
Anyone who researches the 1948 Nakba should be horrified at the extreme anti-Palestinian racism involved. The systematic destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages, the creation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees let alone the bloody carnage ruthlessly meted out to Palestinian men, women and children. Palestinian Muslims, Christians as well as Palestinians of no faith were brutalised. Israel was thereby founded on racist violence and this racist violence has continued for over 70 years.
Israel has not only stolen Palestinian land, homes, freedoms & lives, it has also stolen Jewish identity thereby accusing anyone who criticises their brutal racist theft as antisemitic!!!
Many Jewish people had lived peaceably in Palestine for generations and this should have been allowed to continue after the 2WW. It was not acceptable in 1948 for European antisemitic racism which Jewish people had endured to be used to justify anti-Palestinian racism. In fact, even arab Jews were treated very badly by the new arrivals!
I have Jewish heritage but cannot accept the UDI of 1948 which so violently established a racist state. Many other non-Jewish and Jewish individuals and organisations agree.
The 2-state solution is a distraction which enables Israel to steal more and more land. A single SECULAR state is the sole sustainable solution with equal rights for all between the river (Jordan) and the (Mediterranean) sea. It is time for Israel to abandon the goal of Jewish–Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish–Palestinian equality.
"Israel's image today is negative not because it is a Jewish state but because it habitually transgresses the norms of acceptable behaviour" - Avi Schlaim, International Herald Tribune 2005
„ many Jewish individuals and Jewish organisations oppose Zionism“ ,
this is evidently false, as around 90% are pro Israel. #fakenews
Your wishful thinking! None so blind as those who don't want to see. Human Rights Watch & B'tselem have both recognised Israel as an apartheid state and you think 90% of Jewish people think apartheid represents Jewish justice? Laugh or cry???
HRW and B‘tselem well you got me there.
No one takes them seriously.
Do some critical reading on numbers and
„human rights“ orgs. 🤡
Violent racists don't take human rights seriously. I suppose that also goes for numerous UN resolutions too. Violent racist Zionists or the rest of the world are out of step???
This was worth all your effort and doubts. Thanks for writing this.
Thank you for reading it!
Hi Ben, as an arab from the region, I was expecting your article to be wrapped in rhetorical fog, but was surprised by your sincere effort to uncover reality, the painful illustrations that you provided us with will stack up on other bits of stories and facts that have been for decades seeping through the cages of the occupied lands to every inch in the middle east.
The comments to your article, are a great complement to it, showing us specimens of Israeli occupation-deniers.
This situation is not meant to last, and although israel with it's high tech military has mastered its control over an unarmed caged popluation, there are millions outside of the border sick of their presence, and will never accept the situation, and like the majority in the region, I have no doubt that it will not end well for israel, they will reap what they sow.
Have you looked into the history of Hebron as well? For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre
Yep. Have you? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein?wprov=sfti1
The history he said. Hebron had a bustling Jewish non Zionist community completely wiped out in a Arab massacre before Goldstein was born
Yes it was a terrible massacre. But does that justify what is happening now?
As you say they were non or anti-Zionist mainly Orthodox Jews. Have you ever wondered why they had lived peaceably for centuries until 1929? Might it have something to do with the recent Zionist colonisation, the attacks by Jabotinsky's thugs, the evictions of peasants from the lands that the Kibbutzim took? It's all documented in the Hope Simpson Inquiry Report.
Basically Zionism brought disaster on the original Jews in Hebron as it did to the Jews in Iraq and elsewhere (along with Zionist bombs to help things along). The Arabs of Hebron were not particularly sophisticated. They were like the peasants of Europe who did not distinguish between Jews. To them a Jew was a Jew and the Zionists claimed to represent all Jews.
Don't you think it strange that in Palestine which, like the rest of the Arab East, did not have the pogroms and ethnic cleansing and genocide of Europe, that once the Zionists came along they stirred up conflict? Or maybe you don't want to know.
This well may be true, but whatever the cause, it doesn't change the fact that the local population massacred Jews because they were Jews.
The history of that region is indeed very complicated which is why this post is completely lacking context. As I pointed out that market is contested by the settlers because it was stolen from murdered Jews not too long ago.
You can say that the Zionists have sole responsible for all the problems going on today, but today's Israel must deal with the reality of an extremely hostile Arab populace.
No it's not 'may be true' nice weasel words. It is true. The land was not 'stolen from murdered Jews'. They abandoned it just like 3/4 million Palestinians abandoned their homes and villages after the Deir Yassin and 30 other massacres in 1948.
Are you going to suggest that they too be allowed to return? If not you are a racist hypocrite and an apologist for apartheid.
The Jews present in Hebron today are Kahanists. That is where the most vicious racists that Zionism has thrown up - Baruch Marzel, Benzi Gopstein and co. are based. These are the spiritual heirs of Hitler. Their only quarrel with the Nazis is that they chose the wrong target.
I joke not. This is exactly what Rabbis Cashtiel and Radler said to students in the pre-military academy. According to an article in the Jerusalem Post 'Rabbis say ‘Hitler was right, pluralism the true Holocaust’
"According to the Rabbi, Hitler was completely right but he was on the wrong side, meaning against the Jews. "
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabbis-recorded-saying-hitler-was-right-pluralism-the-true-holocaust-588203
This kind of genocidal nonsense is all too common in Israel today because Israelis see their own role as being the equivalent of that of the Nazis. They hold the whip hand. That is the sickness that pervades Israel with books like Torat Hamelech, defended by dozens of rabbis, produced by 2 rabbis, which teaches the legal way to murder non-Jews, including infants and babies.
Zionism is sick. The longer its bastard state lasts the further the move to the right in Israeli society. The Israeli Labor Party and Mapam had 65 seats in the Knesset in 1949. Today they have 13 and that was an improvement over their previous tally.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-extremist-rabbis-detail-how-to-recreate-israel-as-a-jewish-monarchy-1.5452020
1st of all you are just making up numbers here. 3/4 million Palestinians did not abandon their homes.
2ndly, even including Deir Yassin, there was never an instance where Jews murdered an entirely *defenseless* population, whose literal only crime was being Jewish. If you want to compare savagery, its not even close. And while Chevron was the worst of the incidents it was not the only one
he's a sheister.
How so?
Worth noting that a majority of the Jewish world, including a majority of the Orthodox world, denounces Baruch Goldstein, Kach, Kahane, etc. But I have yet to see peaceful Palestinian activists denounce Arab violence in Hebron. (There was a greatly level of peaceful rhetoric during and after the most recent conflict.)
the 'majority of the Jewish world' is hypocritical and Kahanists are now inside the Knesset. indeed their programme is now the programme of the Zionist majority
Stop pretending there is any parity in this situation. It doesn't wash any more
How does your comment address what I've written?
yes the majority of the Jewish world denounces Goldstein yet Israel permits a shrine to a mass murderer and terrorist to persist at Kiryat Arba.
It denounces Kach and Kahane yet looks upon a state based on Jewish supremacy with equanimity. In short you Zionists are utter hypocrisy. At this very moment the Israeli Police have just given authorisation for another 'death to the Arabs' march to go through the Arab quarter of Jerusalem.
You Zionists are sick hypocritical puppies. Apologists for murder. If the condemnation of Kach and Kahane meant anything at all then their bastard offspring in Hebron, who assault and terrorise the Palestinians every day would have long been removed.
You are no different to people like Ernest Nolte who sought to relativise the actions of the Nazis in Germany.
I think you're correct to criticize the Israeli government. And your choice to display your Jewish self-guilt publicly is of course your right. What bothers me is your lack of research into the city of Hebron, the attitude of Arabs in the land prior to 1948 and how important Zionism (which is an ideology that exists on a spectrum of beliefs) remains today. You can get some of your points across with more honesty and integrity.
utter rubbish. We have no self-guilt other than the fact that racist Zionists use the holocaust dead, who they abandoned during the holocaust, to justify their pogroms. 'Death to the Arabs' is a popular slogan in Israel these days just as 'Death to the Jews' used to be popular. If you had any shame you might also have some guilt instead of engaging in whataboutery. The Arabs quite rightly opposed Zionist colonisation. All natives did as Jabotinsky expressed it in The Iron Wall. Try doing a bit of reading of history
It would be nice if you could denounce Zionism without whitewashing the terrible Arab atrocities at the same time
Fantastic, blisteringly honest article.Much needed. The pro Israeli propagandists and apologists will continue to lie and excuse Israel for its racism and ethnic cleansing, and the copious quantities of Palestinian blood on its hands, but for those willing to learn the reality, writing like yours is an oasis in the desert. Thank you
Benjamin, your disappointing ability to string together so many slanders reveals more about you than about the group that has, "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity." If you are truly interested in justice, why don't you watch some MEMRI clips of the local children's television programs that have been translated into English? I would suggest that, due to your gullibility, avoid periodicals and read a few creditable history books. Unless facts would interfere with your convictions, I'm sure that we are all looking forward to your mea culpa. Shabbat Shalom.
full of cliches, lacking all substance. memri is unreliable and a Zionist organisation
Do you dispute their translations? By what measure are they unreliable.
What do you feel the need to apologize for Arab anti Semitism
Greenstein is a famous British antisemite, please look him up.
Thank you so much for writing this. A few years ago I compiled this extensive viewing list of Israel/Palestine related videos which some people might find useful: https://medium.com/@TRUTH4JUSTICE7/an-extensive-viewing-list-of-israel-palestine-related-videos-cbeae6dacf0e
Acting as if the city of Hebron is a microcosm of the entire State of Israel is an extremely dangerous thing. I have also visited Hebron under the very watchful eye of IDF soldiers. The reason for that is because if not for those soldiers and their protection, Jews cannot walk around Hebron and not expect to potentially be attacked JUST FOR BEING JEWS! At the end of the day, until there is a true acceptance of the Jewish state's existence by all people, this situation will remain in effect for the safety of all people. That's just the reality.
Also, I love how you reference the potential incoming new government which actually includes the Arab bloc, and yet you still think Israel practices apartheid. Maybe you should do a bit more research on the definition of certain words before publishing an article.
You are a liar Ari. Jews aren't attacked for being Jews but for being colonisers and racists. It's not the colonists who are attacked but the indigenous Palestinians. The colonists are protected by the military. The Palestinians have no protection and Netanyahu took away human rights observers last year. Anti-Zionist or solidarity activists have never been attacked if they are Jewish.
The "notorious antisemite" appears
There you go again. You Zionists accuse anyone who's not a supporter of their genocidal policies of being 'antisemites'.
Last week the New York Times, in a first printed the names and faces of the 67 Palestinian children murdered by Elliot Miller's friends.
Immediately Abraham Foxman of the Anti Defamation League, one of the most powerful Zionist groups in the USA accused them of a 'blood libel.' Do these morons ever think of what words mean?
Blood libels were medieval myths that Jews baked their matzot in the break of Gentile (non-Jewish) children. There was no truth to them. Thousands of Jews died. The children these murderous Zios annihilated with their modern weapons did die. How can that be a blood libel?
When morons like Miller accuse me and others of 'anti-Semitism' what they mean is that we are anti-racists. Zionism has transformed antisemitism into a form of anti-racism. Congratulations Miller
I am afraid you are just an apologist. Which makes you complicit in racism, apartheid and repression, as well as ethnic cleansing..shame on you. Though I sadly doubt than an ability for such an essential emotion is one that you possess
That's not how it works, Linda, and I think you know better than that.
As a Jew: we knew that we were not wanted, that many in the Arab populace including all Arab governments abhorred Jews and would be violently opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. So Israel was established and big surprise, the goal of the destruction of Israel was declared. There was a document that we agreed to in 1948. On one side of it was the creation of Israel. On the other side was the creation of Palestine. If we tear up the document declaring the legitimacy of Palestine, we tear up the document declaring the legitimacy of Israel. Any settler who celebrates Pesach is a hypocrite > stranger in a strange land? An embarrassment. This will not end well.
We're not wanted anywhere, buddy. Are you going to curl up & die?
B., você colocou os pontos nos i´s. A questão entre Israel e Palestina foi colocada sob um ponto de vista que muitos esquecem: o racismo que lá é praticado. E a falta de valor à vida do outro. A minha vida pode ser mantida em detrimento da sua. O bem maior é a vida. Cada vida importa. Qualquer vida importa.