Hebron Cluster Fuck

[eumelia]

It's been a while since I've written something socio-political and not just person-political.

Where do I start from?

I'd like the begin at a place that won't have me tearing out my hair and spitting like a cat who just got its tail trod on.
But that will happen anyway.

For those of you who aren't in the loop for the what's been happening in the past week in the Palestinian portion of the Holy Land... in a nutshell it has been a cluster fuck!

Let us begin from the beginning of this particular incident.
In Hebron, there is a house.
The house belongs to the al-Rajabi family. It has been nick named the House of Peace (by the Settlers), a tragically ironic name... it is also known as the House of Contention (by the mainstream media and colloquially), which is some what more apt.
In November the Supreme High Court made the decision to evict the nine Settler families that have been living their quite illegally for some time.
One can guess what happened next.
Last week, the Settlers decided to protest this decision by going to the House and... well... settling - Israeli Settlers Create More Chaos in Hebron .
"Protest" is really a mild word for what's been going on.
PM Olmert has gone on record calling the bloody riots a Pogrom.
The media has taken the term and showed the way the Settlers thuggery is more the way gentiles historically treated Jews in Eastern Europe.
Pogrom is a very loaded word, I don't want to get into the history of it all, but to me it looks like the mainstream media is trying to appropriate the very the specific violence that these Settlers are turning towards the Palestinians, which is very different from the kind of violence that was turned unto the Jews in the Pale in the 1800'.
Though, what do you call people who consider themselves to be Masters of the Earth who shoot and throw stones at people who in their eyes aren't even human.
Floating signifier anyone?

I digress.
Point is.
The Settlers and the Extreme Right politics they physically bring into that area are so fucking disgusting I'm ashamed to be remotely related to these people, it took me over four days (in addition to real life stuff eating my time) to actually blog about this shit!

This photo really encapsulates how utterly twisted, deformed and generally delusional the entire Settler movement actually is:

Image from CPT

The IDF's presence there is a huge complication.
The Settlers treat the soldiers like private security (which ostensibly they are) and at the same time go to Arab villages and fields - "putting themselves in danger" as it were, but seeing as they know they have the IDF behind them, they really have no problem just going into those areas and fucking with the local tribes.
So the IDF simultaneously has to protect the Settlers from the oh so dangerous Arabs, while also doing their best to maybe protect individual Palestinians villages.
When the IDF isn't shooting Palestinians themselves, that is - IDF soldier shoots bound Palestinian at short range. Or, in general assaulting people they perceive to be deserving of violence... one who is recording their violence - IDF probes soldier's alleged attack on Haaretz photographer in Hebron.
The title of this article is very innocuous, the actual writing really leaves no doubt as to the soldier attacking the photojournalist.

This week and weekend is just a bitter reminder as to what is going on there.
It's not crazy.
It's not an "extreme" incident.
It's not just a few bad apples.
Friends, the whole barrel of apples were picked from trees grown from bad seeds.
And really, I don't have much more than that to say.

Comments

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

"And really, I don't have much more than that to say."
But this is very well said.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Ta, hon.

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

I've seen מות לערבים spray-painted more times than I care to think about, but this is the first time I've noticed an expression of that type of nauseating sentiment in English. Even if the settlers are going to violently espouse vitriolicly racist form(s) of Zionism, I would've at least expected them to have the internal consistency to spew their hate in The Holy Language. /rant

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Also, ya know, a twisted and really nauseating connotation to the Holocaust.

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, I kind of figured that was a given. But there's at least a certain kind of (utterly horrifying, vomitous) symmetry to the idea that "people tried to kill us, therefore we will kill people to get what we want [and think G-d wants us to have]". But if your definition of what you think G-d wants you to have includes a theocratic, Hebrew-speaking country, why advocate that ideology in any other language? It's like advocating the "superiority of the Aryan race" in Japanese!

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

Wow, sorry to co-opt this thread, but I just noticed the bottom right portion of the graffiti. Despite the ubiquitous "Kahane was right" graffiti around Israel, somehow someone actually signing racist hate "the JDL" adds a whole new level of disturbing-ness to this image (aside from the obvious issue that, at least from what I understand, Kahane "only" advocated mass explusions, not mass murder).

[roga.livejournal.com]

...Yeah.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Your icon really says it all.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

It makes me sick (so I close my eyes and put my hands over my ears and am one of the guilty).

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I used to do that as a teen.
It's as good a defense mechanism as any.

[tinyrevolution.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your thoughts on it.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading and commenting.

[sethg]

When a Jewish settler inspires Martin Peretz to say "shame on us", it's quite an accomplishment.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

*sigh*
...yeah.

Like your icon.