Not exactly. It means someone who is protected, and specifically it refers to a free non-Muslim living under Muslim rule during a particular historical period that ended several centuries ago.

“Simple. Pay jizya and you get protection.”

I am afraid you have been misinformed about that part of history in general, and specifically about jizya. جزية (jizya) simply means a tax, and does not refer to any particular type of tax on any particular type of person. Second, the tax, or jizya paid by dhimmi was not protection money as you would apparently like to believe. Dhimmi, unlike Muslims, were exempt from certain obligations to the State, such as military duty. In place of those obligations they paid a special jizya. The concept of dhimmi status, including the payment of a special tax in place of certain obligations, was in fact quite progressive for that period in history.

There is considerably more I could say on this subject, but this will do for now.

“Just ask the Iranian Jews who want to make Aliyah”

To where? Beverly Hills?! Westwood?! Great Neck?! Many Persian olim actually went BACK to Iran (Post-revolution, might I add) because life (i.e. business) was just too hard in Israel. Many Jews opted to stay in Iran for many practical reasons.

In reading your other comments you seem determined to drag out every old canard and stereotype you can think of. As I said, I’m waiting for you to introduce suicide bombers into the thread.

The point is, none of it has a damned thing to do with Richard’s poignant and disturbing article, and there is so much about it that needs to be discussed. It seems that your insistence on introducing other topics is a way of avoiding this.

What I find so unbearably sad is that the instances of abuse are not rare; from my many communications with Palestinians, I find that they are fairly common. I frankly don’t think even Hamas would break the bones of a child.

No, Israel does not qualify as Middle Eastern except geographically, and your claims that it does based on superficial things like food is not only silly, but deeply ironic given the history and treatment of real Middle Eastern people and the ugly racist resistance against any infusion of real Middle Eastern culture in Israel.

“Dhimi” [sic]…is a phrase [sic] they coined.”

1. The word is not Dhimi, it is Dhimmi.
2. Dhimmi is not a phrase, it is a word.
3. “They” did not coin the term. The ِArabic word Dhimmi (ذمي) means literally “one who is protected”. It is derived from the word ذمة which means protection, care, immunity, safeguard, etc. It is an archaic term used centuries ago to refer to free non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. Among the groups designated as free were Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, and Zoroastrians. The term has been out of use for centuries now except by ignorant Islamophobes who have latched onto it as a way of demonizing Muslims without having the slightest clue as to its meaning or significance, let alone that most Muslims are unfamiliar with it.