By: Gideon Spiro
Red Rag Weekly Column
22 June 2014 (English translation 28 June)
On solidarity and kidnappings
When the affair of the kidnapping of the three young settlers began, Razi
Barkai, the head broadcaster of the military radio station Galei Tzahal
interviewed Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Lau Junior (he inherited his position from
his father). The rabbi went to the studio directly from a rally at the Western
Wall in solidarity with the kidnapped men, and he waxed lyrical in praise of
the wonderful People of Israel and its solidarity in times of hardship. At the
same time, the parents of the kidnapped men, religious settlers of the
“knitted kippa” kind, were interviewed, and they thanked the army and the
government “who are doing all they can” to find the kidnapped men, and honey
dripped from their tongues over the love they receive “from all the sectors of
the People”, and if only they could, they would “hug the People of Israel; but
since that is no simple matter, they must settle for a virtual hug.
I do not have a gram of solidarity with racists at all and antisemites in
particular, I have no solidarity with fascists, neo-Nazis, religious
extremism, tyranny and parents who are willing to sacrifice their children on
the altar of those values. I have no solidarity with thieves, racists or
plunderers. For those reasons I cannot express solidarity with settlers, or
the Jewish Home party or the Hamas movement, the founding charter of which
contains passages extracted from the fabrications of the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion.
I have a great deal of solidarity with supporters of human rights and
democracy, with those who struggle for social justice, for a world free of
pollution, with those who fight against tyrannical regimes, with activists for
the elimination of poverty and corruption and for medical care for all. I feel
solidarity with the tortured and those who groan under the cruel hands of
dictators, be they domestic oppressors or foreign occupiers. And therefore it
is but natural that my solidarity should be with the Palestinian woman who
stands with her baby for hours at checkpoints on her way to the doctor and is
forced to undergo the indignities of humiliation by the soldiers of the
Israeli Occupation.
Does this mean that I am indifferent to the fate of the kidnapped men?
Certainly not. I hope they are among the living. The right to life is not a
function of a person’s political outlook. It is an absolute right. The
kidnappers did not consult with me in advance of the kidnapping, so I do not
know what their objective was. Was it reprisal for the killing of two 16-year-
old Palestinian youths in Beitunia in a Nakba Day demonstration (which an army
spokesman lied about when he said that live ammunition was not fired; the
autopsies showed that live ammunition was indeed fired)? If so, then I fear
that the kidnappers have acted as did the Irgun (Etzel) underground, which
hanged five British soldiers in revenge, and the kidnapped men are no longer
among the living. However, if the objective of the kidnapping was an exchange
of prisoners, that is, the kidnapped men are to be freed in return for the
freedom of Palestinian captives, especially the administrative detainees who
are on a hunger-strike, in that case this is a legitimate resistance operation
by the occupied for liberation from the bonds of the Occupation.
The ugly punitive actions of the Occupation army – the detention of hundreds
without trial, collective punishment, home invasions without any court order,
destruction of private and public property and theft of money and jewelry are
all intended, among other things, to put the kidnappers under so much pressure
that they execute the three, and Israel will then get corpses where it could
have received living human beings. Israel wants corpses. No propaganda
technique is more effective for deepening racism and hatred of Arabs. The
mother of one of the kidnapped men has already expressed herself in terms of
`do not break, even if it means that the boys don’t come back`. That is one of
the characteristic signs of the insanity of the `Greater Land of Israel`, the
cult of death, the willingness to sacrifice children for sinister objectives.
In more modern Hebrew: like `grease on the wheels of the revolution.` On the
issue of Gilad Shalit, Hamas failed to fulfil the role the government of
Israel assigned it, that is, to return him as a corpse. They kept him alive
for five years until a public movement, secular for the most part, forced the
government into a prisoner-exchange.
When the government of Israel complains about kidnapping as an act of terror,
it is like a man who has been convicted of murdering his parents and then asks
for the court’s mercy because he is an orphan. Israel is rich in kidnappings.
In the 1950s Israel kidnapped from France an Israeli air force officer who was
suspected of transmitting secret information. He was not put on trial and not
convicted, which did not prevent his kidnappers form carrying out the death
penalty and throwing him into the sea to be food for the fish. Maybe that
criminal act was the inspiration for the junta of fascist generals in
Argentina 20 years later to adopt the method and throw from aircraft into the
sea hundreds of opponents of the regime, including many Jews. The Begin/Sharon
government maintained friendly relations with the criminals of that military
junta and exported military supplies to it.
In the First Lebanon War Israel abducted Lebanese hostages, supposedly as
bargaining chips for the return of the Israel air force navigator Ron Arad.
But in fact that was a diversionary tactic that was intended to blur the fact
that when was possible to return him Israel refused to pay the price, and when
Israel claimed to be willing, he was no longer alive. Israel hoped to receive
a corpse and did not even get that much in the end. Organizations emerged,
claiming that the man is still alive and offering rewards of millions of
dollars, but that was a shoddy distraction.
Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli citizen, was kidnapped in act of terror by the
Israeli government in European territory in violation of international
conventions and extradition treaties, and Israel continues to torment him to
this very day.
Since the beginning of the Occupation in June 1967 Israel has turned into a
kidnapping superpower. Hardly a day passes without kidnappings. Soldiers of
the Occupation kidnap children from their beds in the middle of the night,
they kidnap students from their schools, women and old people from their homes
and young people from their work-places, and some know they are being sought
and so they hide. Kidnappings have been run through the language-sanitizer of
the Occupation and so they are called `detention of suspects`, but in reality
it is nothing but kidnapping for all practical purposes.
Some will say: kidnapping that the army does under the rubric of the arrest of
suspects is not terrorism, but kidnapping by Palestinian resistance groups is
terrorism. Supporters of human rights cannot accept that distinction. The
slogan `the Occupation is terrorism` reflects the situation in reality.
As these lines are being written, the identity of the kidnappers is still
unknown. No organization has claimed responsibility. The Hamas movement denies
that it has a hand in it. We would do well to look into whether some kind of
internal provocation is going on. The Occupation and the Occupied Territories
have provided us with a great many criminals such as the Jewish terror
underground (Hagai Segal), Yigal Amir, the murderer of Prime Minister Rabin,
Dr. Goldstein, who murdered Muslim worshippers as they were praying in the
Cave of the Patriarchs, the Bat Ayin underground and the book-burners and
mosque-burners among the “Price Tag” rioters. If I count all the murderers and
rioters among the settlers, this list would increase threefold. In view of
these phenomena, a scenario in which a settler who hears voices from heaven
and converses with God, for Whom any negotiations with any Palestinian party
constitutes an existential danger and treason, planned the kidnapping, and if
necessary even to sacrifice the victims on the altar of the Moloch of the
Territories, with the knowledge that responsibility will be laid at the
Palestinians’ door, with all that that implies.
As for the rabbis of the settlements, it can be said of them what Professor
Yeshayahu Liebowitz said about the Lubavitcher Rebbe: `I have not yet decided
if he is a psychopath or a con-man.` There can always be found some rabbinical
con-man who will give a halachic ruling in support of the satanic agenda, if
not directly, then by roundabout means, which will be interpreted by some fool
among his followers as `biblical wisdom` and permission to proceed.
Psychopathic rabbis, the likes of whom we have already seen in action when
they gave halachic authorization to the assassin Yigal Amir. I do not claim
that is what has happened this time, but based on past experience it is worth
looking into.
No surprises from the establishment media. The radio and television channels
and the print media (except the newspaper Haaretz) enlisted themselves
in the service of the army spokesman. Every channel had its own general who
served as pundit. Whoever surfed between the channels discovered that they all
say similar things. Press conferences with the Prime Minister, the Defence
Minister and the Chief of Staff take place without questions. North Korea-
style brainwashing. Razi Barkai, from the military radio station mentioned
above, interviewed Knesset Member Issawi Freij of the Meretz Party, who
condemned the kidnapping, but added some context such as the Occupation and
the lack of a political horizon that can give hope to the Palestinians. Issawi
is an Israeli Arab, and the honourable broadcaster Barkai, seeing an
opportunity to strike a sanctimonious pose, asked him: `Why are you going
round in circles instead of just saying `Hamas is shit`?` In other words: why
don’t you say what I dictate to you? MK Freij is a cultured person and so he
did not tell the military broadcaster what should have been said: why don’t
you say that the Jewish Home party is shit, the Occupation is shit, all who
have a part in the Occupation are shit and the settlements are shit, and say
it all live on the air. Then we’ll talk. If they fire you, you’ll be OK,
because you have already accumulated a pension of 70%.
And of course there was the seasonal attack on MK Hanin Zoabi, who said what
is obvious: the Occupation is the fertile dung from which the kidnappings
sprouted.
Translated for Occupation Magazine by George Malent
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