nolongerinbetween

Little did I know when I started reading this book that I would become a convert. Like I said in one of my previous posts, I long to question my beliefs, to be challenged and ultimately to be defeated through sound arguments. I never knew exactly what was going on in Israel, between them and the Palestinian people. I just had a general idea about Zionism, how they succeeded in getting a state of their own post-Holocaust in 1948 and how all these led to tensions between the new settlers and the native inhabitants of those lands. Other than this I was completely ignorant and somehow reluctant to tackle the subject since I assumed it was too damn complicated for me. Nevertheless, as a Christian I understandably had a biased propensity for the Israeli cause and that was enough for me to settle on. While I still believe in their historical right to be on these lands, before reading this book I was completely oblivious to the terrible cost they imposed on the Palestinian people. I am utterly shocked and disgusted at the way Israel handled the whole affair of getting back on that soil.  For a nation that went through such terrible ordeals during the Second World War (deportation, ethnic cleansing, expropriation, dehumanization, along with all sorts of humiliation and abuses) to inflict them on other people is beyond my understanding. I am at a loss to how on earth the whole world witnessed this without putting an end to it. Criticism is not enough. You don’t criticise a rapist when perpetrating his brutal assault. You try to stop him. And then you make sure to prevent this from happening again. That was the lesson of Shoah after all, wasn’t it? To remember the past in order not to repeat it. Given the appalling amnesia of the chosen people and until the horrific pain inflicted on their step brothers will cease I have no choice but to be a pro-Palestinian Christian…

NB. Just to make it clear, I am not in support of using violence as means to achieve a legitimate goal. The first Palestinian Intifada was brutally and ruthlessly suppressed by the Israeli army even though was peaceful and non-violent. The second one however was violent and ended up feeding the horrific cycle of violence. I abhor Hamas and the Islamist militants, and I abhor the Israeli army’s unnecessary killings and abuses to the same extent. I am perfectly aware that the Palestinians don’t have a monopoly on the victim archetype and I’m not naïve when it comes to their stubbornness or reluctance to come to terms with the new reality of an Israeli state. But I was naïve about Israelis’ moral integrity and the mere imbalance of power between the occupier and the occupied leaves me no choice than to support the underdog…