Reflections of an American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew
The Israeli activist who went to Gaza by boat from Cyprus, flouting Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, wrote an account of his arrest by Israeli authorities upon his return to the Jewish state.
The activist, Jeff Halper, says he was given honorary Palestinian citizenship in Gaza, making him probably the only American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew in the world (Halper is a native of Minnesota).
Here are some of Halper's reflections:
To be honest, we Israeli Jews are the problem. The Palestinian years ago accepted our existence in the country as a people and are willing to accept ANY solution – two states, one state, no state, whatever. It is us who want exclusivity over the "Land of Israel" who cannot conceive of a single country, who cannot accept the national presence of Palestinians (we talk about "Arabs" in our country), and who have eliminated by our settlements even the possibility of the two-state solution in which we take 80% of the land. So it's sad, truly sad, that our "enemies" want peace and co-existence (and tell me that in HEBREW) and we don't...When I was in Gaza everyone in Israel – including the media who interviewed me – warned me to be careful, to watch out for my life. Aren't you scared? they asked. Well, the only time I felt genuine and palpable fear during the entire journey was when I got back to Israel. I went from Gaza through the Erez checkpoint because I wanted to make the point that the siege is not only by sea. On the Israeli side I was immediately arrested, charged with violating a military order prohibiting Israelis from being in Gaza and jailed at the Shikma prison in Ashkelon. In my cell that night, someone recognized from the news. All night I was physically threatened by right-wing Israelis – and I was sure I wouldn't make it till the morning. Ironically, there were three Palestinians in my cell who kind of protected me, so the danger was from Israelis, not Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in Israel.
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MIGHT I ADD, THE NAME PALESTINE WAS GIVEN TO THE LAND THAT IS NOW ISRAEL BY THE ROMANS AFTER THEY DESTROYED THE SECOND TEMPLE AND SENT THE JEWS TO EXILE, TO TRY TO ERASE OUR NATION AND IDENTITY FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
THE ARABS THAT MOVED INTO THE LAND TO FILL IN A VACUUM NEVER IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES AS PALESTINIANS UNTIL YASSER ARAFAT AND HIS ARAB SUPPORTERS INVENTED THE CONCEPT OF A PALESTINIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN THE 1970’S TO TRY TO DESTROY ISRAEL.
“PALESTINE” WAS NAMED AFTER THE PHILISTINES, WHO HAD THEIR ORIGINS IN GREECE, NOT IN THE ARAB OR MUSLIM WORLD, SO PLEASE DO NOT SENSOR MY FACTUAL COMMENTS THAT THERE WAS NEVER A NATION CALLED PALESTINE AND THEY DO NOT HAVE A LEGITIMATE CLAIM TO THE LAND, IT IS JUST THAT ACCORDING TO ISLAM, THEY HAVE A MANDATE TO CONQUER THE ENTIRE WORLD, CONVERT EVERYONE INTO ISLAM, AND CONVERT EVERY SYNAGOGUE, CHURCH, AND ANY OTHER TEMPLE INTO A MOSQUE.
THAT’S WHAT THEY DID IN JERUSALEM ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT, THAT’S WHAT THEY DID IN ISTANBUL WHEN THEY CONQUERED IT FROM THE BYZANTINES, THAT’S WHAT THEY DID IN PERSIA, INDIA, NORTH AFRICA, INDONESIA, AND MANY OTHER PLACES.
Before Halper became an agent of the murderous Palestinians, he wrote a book called the Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem or something to that effect. It was a terrific book, showing that Jerusalem since the 1800’s always has had a majority Jewish population and describing in detail the 1834 pogroms by the Palestinian Arabs against the Jews living in the Old City. He also proves in this book that the Jews are the native people of Israel and that Palestine always had a Jewish presence in it since the Roman destruction of the Second Temple.
I think it high time that the Government of Israel and Jewish leaders in the Diaspora broadcast the contents of this book, published in 1990, in all the media to put paid to the vicious propaganda lies of the Palestine lobby and their Jihadi capitalist financiers in Riyadh and Teheran. The world will then realize that the imperialist Arabs are the real occupiers of the Middle East and that their presence in Palestine since 638 AD is entirely due to colonial settler imperialism.
The anti-Halper comments above are a quintessential reflection of the pathology into which tribalism has brought much of the Jewish community.
Israel’s root and branch criminality is one thing. But the self-deception of the defenders is on a par with the Communist faithful defending indefensible Stalinism.
Go Halper.
I seem to recall that it was the Jews in Gaza that were removed without being given the option of becoming Palestinian citizens. I believe that the term Yahud means Jews and it is not Zionists but Jews whom the Arabs want to slaughter. I think that I remember that on Arab maps there is no Israel and the official position is that all Jews who migrated after 1914 would be expelled from a future Palestiine. I distinctly hear reverberating Hamas’ covenant that affirms the truth of the Protocols of Zion forgery. I suspect that the people of Sderot might be a tad dubious about the good intentions of Hamas. It is most fitting that the Hamas regime has bestowed citizenship on that Jew by accident, Halper.
I am appalled to see that someone is using my name to spout extremist comments against Jeff Halper. Anyone who reads my articles , letters and signed petitions ,which were published by the world press and various international websites, would know that I am a staunch supporter of Jeff Halper and his organisation -the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICHAD).
I suspect that pro-Israeli activists try to cause a serious friction in the peace camp and thus using my name for posting deplorable comments against other Israeli peace activists and the Palestinian cause
Ruth Tenne - (member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians )
This is typical of apologist mentality. It takes the vantage point of the wrong doer and turns it on it’s head. To some extent those who want to believe that those in a weaker postion hold a moral higher ground simply because thier position is weak are wrong. Morality is earned by the intention of ones actions. The arab intent is clear, repeatedly articulated and carries one single message - the destruction of Israel and the jews who live within its borders. To suggest that Israel is not interested in finding a way to a true and lasting peace would negate the repeated proposals offered by Israel, that, short of giving Israel over to the arabs through the “right of return” provide a pathway to some degree of peace and stability for the region Jew and arab alike.
Halper and his like are not interested in finding mutually agreeable solutions, only to pushing a twisted agenda with the assured end to the state of Israel
Israel is the ghetto for the Jews who are building a wall to keep the rest of the world out they think. It is the other way, Europe funds the wall to keep the Jews IN. The world supports Israel out of fear that the Jews may return to where they came from. Let the Jews pay the Palestinians a fair price for what they stole from them and stop the silly fanaticism based upon myths and sects.
In reference to the comment made by Mideast roundup -The Telegraph, I would like to add the follwing :
Unlike US client state - Israel- which receives more than 4 billion dollars per year (excluding the millions given by American donors and the $10 billion loan guarantees ) , Jews for Justice for Palestinians does not receive any support from the EU, or for that matter from any other organisation. On the contrary, JFJFP donates a large amount of money to many projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to Israeli peace organisations such as Breaking the Silence, Refusniks and other Israeli groups which work for peace. Jews for Justice for Palestinians signatories include many well-known British Jews from the world of literature, arts, law , medicine , journalism and academia. If you want to see the real facts about JFJFP please go to its website (http://www.jfjfp.org) rather than get your information from unreliable sources.
Ruth Tenne (member of Jews For Justice for Palestinians )
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Miriam
09/04/08 04:40 PM
Frankly it’s NOT the Palestinians in Gaza who pose Risk to Americans or Israelis...consider the following report just out today for example:
“Communications cut off, a meeting with a prime minister, the threat of getting shot at while cautiously approaching an international border with hands high, one hand clutching his passport.
Dr. Bill Dienst, 49, says he is now trapped on the Gaza Strip and has asked for help from the U.S. government after being turned back at the border by both the Israeli and Egyptian governments.
The doctor has worked for more than two decades in his own small way to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians. In 1985, he went to the West Bank and Gaza and volunteered for Palestinian health-care organizations, including the Palestine Red Crescent Society. He returned on trips sponsored by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility to Israel/Palestine and the Palestine Medical Relief Society.”
Dr.Dient’s troubles are from the same bureaucracy that denies medical care, travel, education, or other exits by Palestinians. Over 200 gravely ill, elderly patients, pregnant mothers or sick babies die at Erez exit; too many examples of shooting first by the ‘unilaterally disengaged Israeli govt”.
Dr.King said it best: We must learn to live together as brothers or die together as fools.”