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Hosea said: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” This captures the nature of the Israeli Occupation precisely. Bernard Avishai uncovered a damning piece of evidence about the Dimona suicide attack thanks to the researchers’ friend, Mr. Google:
Fifteen year-old Mohammed Salem Al-Harbawi from Hebron is a case in point. According to the Defense for Children International, he was arrested in the beginning of July of 2003 and taken to Atzion detention centre. Like many other prisoners, the report continues, Al-Harbawi was visited by a lawyer, but was unable to see or communicate with his family:
The unhygienic conditions in this centre mean that most inmates, including Mohammad, have contracted skin diseases, including boils. By July 28, 2003, Mohammed was affected so badly that he was taken for hospital treatment. After the doctor had examined him, Israeli border guards took him back to the prison. On the way, the guards stopped the jeep and started to attack him inside the vehicle. The five guards beat him to such an extent that he lost consciousness.
I stumbled over this report of his stay in prison when I Googled Al-Harbawi’s name. Last Monday, now a child of 20, he blew himself up, along with Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, in the streets of Dimona…
In his post, Avishai notes the ever louder pounding of the drums of war by the Israeli political and military echelon. Supposed moderates like Haim Ramon and Meir Sheetrit are baying for Gazan blood in the aftermath of the incessant assault that Sderot is suffering from Qassam rockets.
Avishai’s point is that all an Israeli attack on Gaza will do is increase manifold the number of future Al-Harbawis eager to take their revenge against their Israeli abusers. It isn’t that often that the brutal reciprocity and cylicality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be seen so clearly as in the case of the 15 year-old Al-Harbawi.
A young boy beset by five brutal Israel prison guards beating him unconscious merely for the fact that he has contracted boils in prison. While none of us would justify taking the life of another because of such treatment, can any of us say for certain what we would do were we in this boy’s shoes? Faced with an unending Occupation and the ongoing insult of the Gaza siege, might the thought of personal revenge so overcome our minds that we might resort to such a terrible act? And can any of us who are reasonable doubt that an Israeli invasion of Gaza will not only fail miserably just as the Lebanon invasion did–but that it will make the problem of suicide bombing and future terror that much worse?
The Israeli Occupation sows the wind and Israeli (and Palestinain) civilians reap the whirlwind.
Related posts:
- What Three Years in an Israeli Prison Will Do to You
- Obama’s First Year: an Appraisal
- Death of Asil: An Israeli-Palestinian Tragedy
- Felon Advises Merkin on Fund Management—While in Federal Prison!
- Banning Palestinian Students from Israeli Universities
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Tags: al-harbawi, bernard-avishai, israeli-plan-to-invade-gaza, qassam-rocket-attacks
You don’t think a sovereign nation has the ability to close & seal its border should it choose to do so? You don’t believe Egypt deliberately chose to allow its border to be breached for two weeks in sympathy with Gazan suffering? You don’t believe Egypt has agreed in principle to freer flow across its border as a price for Hamas’ agreement not to breach the border again?
Yes, by several hundred militants firing rockets and mortars which land mostly ineffectually in Israel. Israel’s response is to cause immense suffering to 1.5 million innocent civilians. That is what I meant by Israel’s unwillingness to show mercy. Jews are a people of mercy and Israel’s treatment of Gaza is a betrayal of Jewish values regardless of the reprehensible actions of a very small minority of the Gaza population.
What in heaven’s name have you been reading and where did you find such bogus information? Are you reading Israeli foreign ministry press releases? My God man, read up on Israeli social history & you’d realize how complete erroneous such a comment is. Israel is a country which PROFESSES to grant equal rights to all its citizens regardless of religion. But it has not actually done so.
Gazans didn’t want a siege to the death. They wanted a Palestinian state. Instead they got the equivalent of the Warsaw ghetto though so far without the final liquidation.
This too is bogus. Israel hasn’t merely “broken off relations.” It is legally responsible for Gaza since it not only provides much of its electricity, water & other utilities, but also controls ingress and egress from Gaza territory. It has put Gaza under siege and Gazans have every right to “act so indignant” at such treatment.
You know, it’s quite humorous that you accuse me of only blaming Israel and not condemning the alleged sins of the Arabs when it is actually YOU who blames all the sins on the Arabs and not once has accepted any responsibility on Israel’s part for Palestinian suffering or the Occupation. How do you explain that?
Don’t be. ALL progressive Jews detest this phrase. If you actually knew any you’d know that. Clearly you don’t.
Name one progressive Jew who has ever called a right-wing Jew “self-hating?”
Finkelstein and Chomsky criticize Israeli policy. Such criticism is entirely legitimate. There is much to criticize in Israeli policy. If Israel ever signed a peace agreement with Palestine their criticism would either cease or be greatly muted. They are not opposed to Israel. They are opposed to Israeli policy.
Our debate in this thread has gone on long enough. Any questions I asked above were rhetorical & do not require a response. Feel free to comment in other threads on other subjects if you choose. But don’t comment further in this thread.