I don’t know why Pammy Geller, Robert Spencer, David Horowitz and Joyce Chernick didn’t dig up the Avraham family earlier. It would be yet more anti-Muslim racist propaganda in their Jewish jihad against the Park51 Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. Ynetnews reports that the Israeli family of Alona Avraham, who died on one of the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers, decries the Islamic project:
“We intend to address the US government together about this. My position is clear – there shouldn’t be any mosque there. It cannot happen. I don’t understand this government, they invest millions into catching (Osama) Bin Laden but on the other hand they allow this mosque. It’s like bringing a pig into a holy place.”
She firmly rejects reports that the Islamic community center is intended to bring religions closer. “All that’s just nonsense,” she says.
It’s easy to see the racism, ignorance and fear in such a statement. But I also have to acknowledge the real pain of this family who lost a loved one in what they have come to see as a holy war between Jew and Muslim. Not a small amount of this racism derives from Israeli Jewish attitudes toward Palestinians and Arabs in general. In their minds, there can never be peace. Arabs are eternal sworn enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, etc., etc. 9/11 only confirmed such preexisting attitudes.
Despite this, we must differentiate between very real suffering and the hateful attitudes that suffering has produced. We affirm the pain, but reject the hate. We must see that this hate is a huge obstacle in finding a resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict. I don’t know whether most Israelis are capable of seeing this and rejecting the odious statements by this family. Perhaps some day they will if we put a mirror up to their hate and force them to look at it.
רוב הישראלים פשוט לא שופטים אדם בשעת צערו.
I see. You write that “most Israelis simply don’t judge a man in his hour of sorrow.” Which implies that a man who is suffering is allowed to call Muslims pigs? Why would that be OK with you? Would a suffering Muslim whose child was killed by the IDF be allowed to call Jews pigs? You see yr problem? No, I didn’t think you would. You’ll find some way to weasel out of this one I reckon.
Oh that’s an easy one. When the idf kills children its in self defense, so they have no right to be mad at us, unless they r terrorists, which they are.
/end sarcasm
What elad surly means is
רוב הישראלים פשוט גזענים.
I c how he could get confused.
“Most Israeli simply don’t judge a man in his hour of sorrow”.
We’re not in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. That was NINE YEARS ago, and Israel has already made a couple of local 9/11’s since then – Libanon 2006 and Gaza 2008-2009 – so if I understand Elad rightly, Arabs are in their right to ‘blame it on the Jews’.
Exactly. And such a high level of anger after 9 years indicates that the family needs counseling to help them deal with their loss. People such as these are easy prey for hatemongering opportunists like Geller.
The US needs to put 9/11 in the past and move on. This obsession is not good for a society as a whole. Other countries suffering huge losses of life due to terrorism have continued with grace and pragmatism, but it seems only America can’t, or won’t, let go of its revenge fantasy, to the detriment of millions of innocent Muslims all around the world.
Jerry Haber at Magnes Zionist had a very good article a few weeks ago on the implication of right-wing American Jewish Zionists in the creation of Islamophobia, and he states clearly: It’s all about Israel.
Deir Yassin, do you have a link?
# Mary)
Sorry, here it is:
http://www.jeremiahhaber.com/2010/08/islamophobia-as-new-antisemitism.html
His blog is highly recommendable, and he is a friend of Richard’s 🙂
Yes, I love Jerry. A true mensch.
I agree with the entire post, but to be fair, nobody called Muslims pigs. What she meant is that erecting a Muslim building next to Ground Zero is analogous, on a scale of ‘heresy’, to literally bringing a pig to a holy place.
Not that it makes things any more agreeable.
“erecting a Muslim building next to Ground Zero is analogous, on a scale of ‘heresy, to literally bringing a pig to a holy place”
Another example that comes to my mind is erecting Yad Vashem on the outskirts of what happened to be the Palestinian village of Deîr Yassin, and I don’t think it’s necessary to explain to anyone what happened to the inhabitants and the village.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/from-hebron-to-yad-vashem-jewish-sorrow-justifying-the-sorrow-of-others.html
I remember well my sense of disorientation, of something uncanny, when I first read about where yad vashem was built. Since then, of course, we have a “museum of tolerance ” built on top of the oldest Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, so this surreal juxtaposition is par for the course. It’s like something in a Fellini movie, or Orwell. It would be difficult to make this up if it weren’t true.
Does the Avraham family know that there was a Muslim prayer room in the World Trade Center prior to the 9/11 attacks?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/nyregion/11religion.html?_r=1&src=tptw
I have no sympathy for anyone who conflates 9/11 with one billion Muslims. Notice that we never hear of Christians murdering 6 million Jews, which has far more validity. Indeed, we rarely even hear Germans etc but rather signify right down to the political party: Nazi. All arguments against the Cordoba House are either ignorant beyond belief, or pure ethnic, religious or racial hatred.
Exactly. Here is Suheir Hammad, a Palestino-American, with her Def Poetry on 9/11, and she says among other reasonable things:
‘We did not vilify White men when McVeigh bombed Oklahoma”
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fhWX2F6G7Y
I just heard that one of my friends in Gaza lost 3 relatives today, 3 young men who were shelled by the IOF while they were tending sheep.
I don’t think I need anyone to give me a definition of terrorism.
# Mary)
Some infos on the Gaza-killing, among them a 91-year old sheperd and two young:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=314545
May God have mercy upon their souls, and upon the souls of their murderers when their time comes. And the time comes for everyone, even the IDF-killers.
Both Haaretz and YNet repeated the IOF lie that the 91 year old man, and his companions aged 18 and 19 were attempting to launch grenades at the Israelis. As always, Israel is only “defending itself.”
Bullshit.
# Mary)
Like the 1O-years old girl who was lost in the buffer zone on her way to school some years ago, and who was killed in the back by numerous bullets while she was running away in total fear, and whose murderer has just been relaxed.
According to the IDF, “there are no civilians in wartime”. Except when it’s Israelis being killed, of course, like the 4 Taliban-Talmudniks in the Hebron Hills.
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/09/we-are-going-to-carry-this-cause-on-for-everyone-who-cannot-rachel-corries-family-vs-the-israeli-government/
May their memories be for a blessing. My heartfelt, sorrowful condolences to you & them.
Thanks for the link. Powerful and inspiring.