Welcome once again to The Weekend Holyland Update. This is WHU flight 080711, taking off to utter hysteria, land theft, necrophilia, idolatry, a rare case of accountability. Please fasten your seatbelts and remember to lie about your destination at passport check, or you’ll be deported.
The “Flytilla” has been a resounding success. First, the organizers goaded Israel into new heights (or lows) of hysteria in the week or two preceding the stunt. I’m not talking just about the massive police and secret police mobilization (to a spot that’s already one of the most heavily secured in the country), but also about immensely stupid PR efforts such as this amazing piece of gobshite, in which Israel declares “We are a paranoid, traumatized people who see threats in every rorschach ink blot” – thereby validating one of the central claims of its critics, in a loud and horribly acted manner. (Read all about it here and in the links within that article. It’s hasbara alright, even if at first folks on our side were saying it just has to be satire. Since it isn’t, I’m beginning to think we goddamn lefties have a mole in the hasbara upper echelons causing them to release these things).
Then came the big day itself. Early in the day the headlines on Israeli websites were jubilant: “only two activists landed and were deported. Most Flytilla participants denied boarding at departure points”. The writers of these headlines, of course, gave ZERO thought to the cost of Israel having its European friends suffer the airport mayhem to enforce Israel’s policies.
But then came the afternoon arrivals and showed that like the old Jewish folk tale, Israel ate the stinking fish, took a whipping AND got kicked out of town. It imposed upon its European friends, and STILL had to deal with dozens of activists who arrived anyway.
The dealing was rather inept as usual. Oh sure, most of the terribly dangerous enemies were swiftly identified and detained, pending deportation (some were flown back immediately, others will spend the w/e in jail and be returned to their ports of departure on Sunday) – but that was the point of the exercise. The activists weren’t hoping to get in, they were hoping to be refused entry and thus expose the fact that more often than not, people arriving at Tel Aviv airport declaring that they intend to visit Palestinian cities or villages are turned away unless they can prove they have relatives or business there (and of course, sometimes having relatives is the reason to be turned away too). This is all contrary to international conventions and to the Oslo agreements, which require Israel to allow the PA to enjoy incoming tourism. Israel may deny entry to specific individuals, but not to everyone declaring their intent to visit the occupied territories.
So the genius State of Israel obliged them, arresting for deportation 50 and 60 year-old activists, many of whom it had previously admitted to the country with no problem – but that was when they lied and said they were going to Tel Aviv, rather than Ramallah. But proving the flytilla’s point was not enough for the defenders of the Jewish and Democratic State[TM]. So in addition, Israel’s police, aka the Jack Booted Thuggery, stood by as Israeli citizens in the terminal attacked humanitarian activists, cursing, spitting, and in some cases physically attacking as well. When Jerusalem Post journalist Larry Derfner attempted to defend some activists from such an attack, he himself was detained shortly by Israel “Finest” (they’re not even the country’s finest thugs, since if they were they’d be making more money as actual criminals).
To top it all off, some of the activists did manage to get past the border control and reach their destination in the verbotten West Bank. I have not been able to ascertain whether they truthfully declared their destination, which would indicate a modicum of Israeli brains, or if they lied – thereby conclusively proving the original point.
On a related matter, check out Dimi Reider’s article on the Israeli Airport Authority’s form for travelling Arabs.
Related matter 2: As part of the prep for the flytilla, Israel barred the entry of two Dutch journalists who actually wanted to tell its side of the story, scheduling interviews with anti-flytilla/flotilla subjects, and coverage of Israel bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Heckuva job, hasbara!
Update: The foreign airlines on which the activists flew in are now saying they will have a hard time deporting the 124 people Israel wants returned immediately to Europe. “It’s the height of the travel season and all the flights are fully booked,” one senior airline exec said. The amusing silver lining of all this is that there has been a stay in the roundup of “illegal” foreign workers and asylum seekers, since the detention facilities are filled with flytilla people.
Now we have to wait and see what means of letting Israel make a damn fool of itself its opponents will think of next.
On to other matters. Last week I forgot to touch upon the case of Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who was allowed into the UK only to be arrested very shortly afterwards on grounds that he was banned from the country. Apparently he managed to sneak in during the very short time-frame between the signing of the ban order and its arrival at passport control in Heathrow. Now Salah is no angel, as he is reportedly not above using classical antisemitic imagery (“We are not the ones who allowed themselves to eat a meal of bread and cheese in children’s blood”, for example…”you are monkeys, the virii of all times” for another). However, it’s kind of funny that GB would find it necessary to arrest him when even Israel allows him to be free. Also funny is the fact that the UK isn’t deporting him, but is insisting on holding him in custody. Without some solid evidence to the contrary, I really can’t blame people who see this as another case of Israel getting others to do its dirty work for it – since Israel would love to lock Salah in jail (and throw away the key) but fears the consequences.
In a rare case of accountability, a Border Police officer was convicted of abuse after she threatened a minor, whom she arrested for having three detonators in his pocket (these, while having terrorist associations, can also be used as a sort of fire cracker), with death, shoved one of the detonators in his pocket and pretended to light it, pointed a loaded and cocked gun at him, and showered racist abuse on him. In an even more heartening development, the perpetrator herself fully accepted responsibility for her acts and stated flatly that she acknowledges deserving punishment, while explaining that the pressure of dealing daily with a hostile population (not only arabs but also ultra-orthodox Jews) eventually caused her to snap as she did. This in contrast to incidents such as the two soldiers who used a 9 year-old as a bomb detector during Cast Lead. In that case the two thugs and their families went on the offensive upon conviction, screaming bloody murder and whining that the army was throwing its oh-so brave warriors under the bus. So even if Shani Sevilia is just saying what she said in hope of a lenient sentence, it would be petty and uncharitable to necessarily assume so, given the culture of opposite behavior surrounding her. So Ms. Sevilia, while you did very a bad thing, please accept a measure of respect for your subsequent behavior, and I hope you only have to serve a short amount of time in prison. Then again, since the scumbags who used a kid as a bomb detector and showed zero remorse got three months suspended sentence, it would be cruel irony if she does serve any time.
The UN has found that during the Nakba Day events, in which some (stupid) people tried to enter Israel from the Syrian border and were shot, Israel reacted with excessive and unnecessary force. Israel? Unnecessary force? Surely you jest!
Remember the rabid rabbi Dov Lior, who wrote a supportive introduction for the nazi-like tract “The King’s Torah”? The one who was summoned to answer to the police on suspicion of incitement, flouted the summons for months, was finally detained for an hour and this caused his supporters to throw a tantrum? Well, a day or two after this incident, he gave a lecture in which he stated that democracy is “the idolatry of our times”. He repeated this twice, lest anyone miss it, and compared himself to biblical Abraham, who according to Jewish legend was thrown into a furnace for breaking the idols in his father’s idol shop. To most of you this might sound as just more religious fulmination, but if you’re a religious Jew, you know that Idolatry is one of only three sins (along with incest and bloodshed) which a Jew is commanded to die rather than commit. Furthermore, a Jew is supposed to kill those who try to force it upon him (think about the story of Hannukah). That’s not even a dog-whistle. That’s plain Hebrew.
In a connected event, rabbi Yaacov Yosef, son of Shas leader Ovadiah Yosef, was also detained for questioning in the same case, after also flouting the summons to report voluntarily for months. His supporters also rioted, setting fire to the butt-ugly “string bridge” at the entrance to Jerusalem, which unfortunately did not cause the costly eyesore’s demise. His father reacted by saying that he was “stupid” and that he should have just gone when summoned and prevented the whole affair.
Israel, which in the past few years has proved itself terrified of coriander and clowns, among other things, has added necrophobia to the list of things that scare it. Israel was scheduled to return a bunch of corpses of dead terrorists to the PA. When it turned out that the list included some Hamas terrorists as well, families of terror victims got up in arms and forced Minister of the (In)defens(ible) Ehud Barak to reverse course and cancel the corpse transfer. And the fact that letting the PA take credit for getting Hamas cadavers back would give it a minor win? Doesn’t matter, because although the PA fights Hamas for Israel (yes, even after the “reconciliation”), Israel doesn’t actually want to strengthen it.
Finally, just in case you were concerned that Israel As An Occupying Entity was going soft, fear not: Israel’s government has ordered the “civil administration” in the occupied territories to steal some 45 acres of land belonging to the Palestinian village of Qaryot, in order to “legitimize” the illegal (illegal even according to Israel) oupost of HaYovel, which is part of the settlement if Eli (which is only illegal according to everyone in the world but Israel). Now, lest you get any notions about the “settlement blocks” which Israel is supposed to keep under putative future agreements, Eli is nowhere near there. It is closer to the Jordan river than it is to the Green Line. In short, despite any crap you might hear from Bibi about how he’s willing to make painful sacrifices, the truth is that the theft of Palestinian land will never stop as long as he or anyone like him is in power.
And on that grand larceny alert, the pilot will now bring her in for landing. WHU Airlines is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your senses and check your comments* (and donations, if you’ve a mind) where appropriate. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.
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