Aryeh Eldad, a rightwing member of the Israeli Knesset, presented a private-member's bill on Monday calling for the expulsion of the Palestinians from Hebron. Bill no. 3361/17/פ can be downloaded at the Knesset website
here
Here are some snippets from the explanation of the law:
"The aim of the law is to lead to a better security, political, and economic reality for Israel and for the occupied territories."
Please note that Eldad, one of the Greater Israel proponents, calls Judea and Samaria the "occupied territories." I will reveal the reason for this later in the post.
"The price paid by the State of Israel for the continuation of Arab settlement in Hebron is enormous. From the security standpoint, a great array of personnel and economic measures are needed to ensure the security of the Israeli citizens living legally in the city. These security measures include a system of separation between the Jewish and Arab populations, which restricts systematically the lives of the Israeli citizens. The closure of most of the city to Israeli citizens constitutes a serious infringment of the their human rights and the status of Israel in the eyes of the Jewish world."
Etc., etc.
The bill instructs the Israeli government to evacuate all the Palestinians from Hebron, as well as the Palestinian Authority's offices, etc., to seize all real estate from the Palestinians, including infrastructure.
Who will pay for all this? Why, the Palestinians of course.
The Palestinian inhabitants are entitled to compensation and to be resettled elsewhere, according to the decision of the Israeli government. The Israeli government is entitled to substract this payment from the payments that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians."
Etc., etc., etc.
So what is this about? Well, Eldad is in the running for the coveted award of the MOST IMMATURE MEMBER OF THE KNESSET. It seems that he took his bill word-for-word from Yossi Beilin's bill, which called for the evacuation of the Jewish settlers from Hebron, and just substituted "Palestinian Arab" for "settlers".
So careless was he about his "ma'aseh kundas" (youthful prank) that he didn't change Beilin's use of the term "occupied territories" to the ultranationalist "Judea and Samaria." That is a mistake that his glatt kosher fascist father, Israel Eldad, would never have committed.
Or perhaps Eldad fils views Hebron today as occupied territory...occupied by the Palestinians.
His bill does change Beilin's reference to the massacre of Barukh Goldstein to the massacres of Arab terrorists from 1929 until today. So he wasn't entirely asleep.
I suppose that most people's response will be: nu, big deal. This is Eldad, and even he is not serious about the bill; it's just a dig at Beilin's bill.
I mean, who can get upset about an Israeli member of parliament calling for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes?
It's not as if that hasn't happened in the past.
Obviously, the bill is a dig at Beilin's bill. Dr Aryeh Eldad is no dummy, he was the Chief Medical Officer of the IDF. I am sure his leaving "occupied territories" was intentional, probably for the reason you stated.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that for the Left in Israel, the presence of Jews in Eretz Israel is viewed as some sort of abberation, an historical mistake, so the idea of expelling Jews is quite natural for these people, even from Hevron where Jews have lived more or less continuously for 4000 years, while today (unlike in the past, as you point out at the end of your posting), the idea of expelling Arabs is "unthinkable". For someone who opposes the whole Zionist project, then there is no difference between Eldad's bill and those who ran Israel's War of Independence. However, Eldad is pointing out the hypocrisy of these "Liberal Zionists" as you call them.
Re: occupied territories. I think you are too generous to Eldad. I think he just slipped.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not of Jews living in Hebron. The problem is the kind of Jews living in Hebron. I don't think that the Jews in Jerusalem would be wild about Islamic Jihadists taking over Talbieh, or Givat Shaul (proving that the Palestinians owned houses there priot to 1948), being protected by the Palestininan Defence Force, and then being forced to enter their homes from the roofs, or to live behind cages, for their protection against the Jihadists.
Jews don't live in Hebron today. That is the tragedy. They are pseudo-Jews. If you look at some of the videos on Youtube, it will turn the stomach of moderate rightwingers.
But I think we agree that Jews should be able to live in Hebron. Where we differ is that I think they should live as citizens of a Palestinian state, protected by a Palestinian police force, and swearing loyalty to that state.
Jerry
ReplyDeleteIt seems voting rights in Israel right now are as urgently important as those in the US presidential election.
Jerry
ReplyDeleteIt seems voting rights in Israel right now are as urgently important as those in the US presidential election.
I lived under the occupation for 3 years . I am an all American woman. I can tell you that these jews are commenting horrific crimes. I wittiness crimes against people weekly. When will the Americana wake up and see their media lies to them and puts a spin on the news. Guess who the CEO's are of the lasted news stations? Jews.
ReplyDeletenow what so you think?
I think it is more complicated than "the CEO's are Jews".
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a media bias against the Palestinians, but mostly because the media want to boost their ratings (I am talking about electronic media), and the day-to-day landgrabs and humiliations of Palestinians are simply...how should I say it...boring. For one thing, that is old news. For another, if people aren't killed, then who is going to be interested? Israel doesn't need to kill Palestinians; it has all sorts of measures to keep them under control. Also consider this: for Israel-Palestine stories, unlike many other stories, there has to be balance -- because if there isn't, then a large number of organizations are going to get involve. Who has more clout in this country? Jewish organization or Palestinian organizations.
So even if the CEO's were Christian -- and most are -- it would not make a difference. The Palestinian side of the story simply cannot be heard in the country -- certainly not as much as the Israeli side.