Abdullah: No Cameras Inside Holy Site

This article first appeared on The Media Line.

Roadblocks were installed in a number of locations in east Jerusalem last month after a wave of Palestinian stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis began on October 1.

Israeli authorities said late Wednesday they had freed a Palestinian detainee who survived a two-month hunger strike, after holding him for a year without trial in a case that sharpened tensions in the West Bank.

Of the many nightmarish videos to come across my desk in the last few weeks – including one of an Israeli border police officer deliberately running over a young Palestinian with a jeep, and then another pepper-spraying at close range the eyes of journalists and several medics trying to help – one of the worst speaks volumes about the toxic mix of fear, militaristic nationalism and racism that produces the near total loss of humanity of the occupier.

That is, Peres thinks that the Likud Party and its partners are living in a fool’s paradise if they believe they can annex the whole of Palestinian territory without getting the Palestinians as Israeli citizens eventually. In August 1929, he played an instrumental role in spreading false rumors that Jews held secret designs on the al-Aqsa mosque-leading to riots and massacres in Jerusalem’s Jewish neighborhoods and nearby Jewish communities that killed 133 Jewish men, women and children and wounded 339. In addition, more Arab-Israelis (53 percent compared to 36 percent of Jewish-Israelis) say they have changed their daily habits in response to the security situation. More than 100 Palestinians were arrested, including 35 children, and Israeli forces raided and shut down the Minbar al-Hurriya radio station in Hebron. An Israeli soldier pointed a gun at one of the girl’s heads and she said: “Don’t shoot me!”

The violence was originally focused in and around Jerusalem but the epicentre later moved to Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank. On a pragmatic level, I understand why Netanyahu framed his statement this way.

Palestinian security officials say that Hebron has become increasingly risky. “They are being threatened by an armed neighbor”.

Islamist group Hamas has recently encouraged violence through online videos urging Palestinians to join a “knife intifada”. It’s a risky strategy that puts lasting peace further away for both Palestinians and Israelis.

More than 30 attacks have taken place against Israelis in the area since the start of October, the army said. In at least two instances, this wasn’t the case, Israeli authorities have conceded. In a third incident, a knife-wielder was shot dead by soldiers after he attacked a group of them at a highway junction in northeast Israel. Gen. Nitzan Alon, said in testimony at a trial about incitement on the Hakol Hayehudi (The Jewish Voice) website. At the time, the measure’s co-sponsor Ted Deutch (D – Fla.) said, “It is well past time for President Abbas to stand up and condemn all acts of violence, rather than encouraging violence by glorifying terrorists and teaching children to view Israelis as animals”. They have sent hundreds of extra soldiers to Hebron, with a total of four divisions now in the West Bank.

History tells us that where there is oppression resistance will rise as a torrent. “If they have problems at home, it’s easy to take a knife from the kitchen and attack a soldier or a Jewish civilian”. And how will Israeli and Palestinian authorities respond to it?

The army official sharply disagreed, saying the army is careful to follow the protocol for ending attacks and to open fire only when the soldiers’ lives are in danger.

They want Palestinians to be silenced and accept ostracism. Many Israelis perceive that peace offers to the Palestinians in 2000 and 2008 were spurned, sometimes violently, with no counteroffer.

Those of us who care about Israel, and those of us who know a thing or two about The New York Times, know that just as the Times was indifferent to the Shoah while it was happening, so they are generally indifferent to Arab attacks on Jewish people today.