Sunday, January 30, 2022

2022-01-30 Holocaust Commemoration Day and “Religious Zionism”

Holocaust Commemoration Day and “Religious Zionism”

“Religious Zionism” is closely associated with the racist, brigand, violent and murderous Jewish-Orthodox-Israeli sect, which was establishment and has been funded and armed by the Israeli governments for decades. The sect provides the religious ideology for the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Jewish settlements (War Crimes pursuant to international law), and the Israeli apartheid regime (Crimes against Humanity pursuant to international law). Jews of good faith, in Israel and worldwide, should be the first to denounce and protest the sect, its ideology and its crimes.

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Tel-Aviv, January 30 – for Holocaust Commemoration Day Twitter blocked this user for a week, for publishing the following meme:

The notice by Twitter said:
Tweet 1 of 1
Violating our rules against hateful conduct.
You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious diseases.
Similar memes have been repeatedly posted in recent months. The action by Twitter is novel.


Twitter’s decision is perplexing, since Israeli public figures, including Minister of Internal Security Omer Barlev (Labor Party) have repeatedly referred to such settlers as “terrorists”. [i]



Haaretz daily on Twitter, Jan 23, 2022: “Barlev: In this case [assault on Palestinians and Jewish activists, jointly planting olive trees on Palestinian land – jz] it is clear that we are dealing with a terror group or a terror organization.”

https://twitter.com/Haaretz/status/1485184046229458946?s=20&t=_-kguvQuyL5RfCGqk2Hh0Q
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Following Barlev’s comments regarding the settlers, Barlev was provided with personal security detail by Shin Bet – evidence of the high-level threat to his personal safety. In yet another typical contemporary Israeli twist, Minister Barlev accused his coalition partners, particularly PM Bennett’s party (which perceived the settlers as “pioneers” and “salt of the earth”) of incitement against him,  causing the threat to his personal safety... [ii]
MK Yair Golan, also member of the ruling coalition and Deputy Minister in PM Bennett’s government, has referred to such settlers as “Untermenschen” (a bizarre misuse of the term, reflecting both ignorance and disrespect of the Holocaust commemoration). His statement generated extensive public discourse in Israeli and Jewish media. [iii]
None of the above was blocked or removed by Twitter.

LaLinea007 on Twitter, January 06, 2022: “Listen to Yair Golan, he is right, every word is truthful. He is talking about settlers who perpetrate pogroms in [Palestinian] villages, break tombstones… He calls them Untermenschen. Yair Golan is right.”

https://twitter.com/La_Linea007/status/1479153552589271041?s=20&t=_-kguvQuyL5RfCGqk2Hh0Q

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Jewish-Haredi (“Black Kippa”) Israeli journalist Israel Frey has repeatedly condemned such conduct by Jewish-Orthodox-Israeli settlers’ sect. In his comments below, Frey accuses senior members of the ruling coalition that the sentiments expressed in such violent attacks are shared by them, if not actively, then by acquiescence – leader of the Labor Party (Israeli “left”) and Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli, by leader of Yesh Atid Party (Israeli “center”) and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Therefore – they the Israeli “left” and “center” are not that different from the Israeli extreme right – represented by MK Itamar Ben-Gvir.


Jewish-Haredi Journalist Israel Frey on Twitter, January 21, 2022: “Hi Merav Michaeli, Shalom Yair Lapid. I know that you like a lot the feeling that you are beautiful Israelis. If you were quick to denounce “Untermenschen” but you keep silent in view of such cruel assaults by the settlers, congratulations – you are full partners in the apparatus of atrocities. On the back of your “statesmanship” they are preparing the next assault. You and Ben-Gvir are two side of the same coin.”
https://twitter.com/freyisrael1/status/1484494443130626048?s=20&t=431MbFNyiMmuOzgwfMFZ1w
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Settlers’ murderous pogroms against Palestinians have been going on for years [iv]. The reason that the matter has reached the headlines and the denouncements in recent months is probably related to recent cases of serious settlers’ violence against Israeli activists, who assist Palestinian farmers in cultivating their lands under constant attacks.
Additionally, according the Israeli authorities, broad daylight, overt violent attacks by Jewish settlers have doubled in 2021, while nighttime, covert violent attacks have seen sharp decline. [v] The reason for the changing character of the Jewish-orthodox-Israeli settlers’ sect violence may be the transformation of their relationship with the Israeli occupation forces and Israeli authorities over the past two years.
With the level of Shin-Bet surveillance and the widespread military presence in the occupied Palestinian territories, it is obvious that such pogroms could never take place absent collusion by the occupation/security apparatus. The perpetrators are hardly ever caught, even when they openly perpetrate violent crimes. Moreover, In numerous cases full collusion of IDF and occupation/security apparatus was documented in the pogroms.




B’Tselem: The Israeli NGO's report, documenting the ongoing collusion between the Jewish-Orthodox-Israeli settlers’ sect and the Israeli occupation/security apparatus.
https://www.btselem.org/video/20210824_two_palestinians_fatally_shot_in_two_joint_attacks_by_settlers_and_soldiers_in_may_2021
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On January 25, 2022, seven US Jewish organizations sent a protest letter to the Israeli government, condemning the Jewish settlers’ violence. [vi] However, the letter should be deemed false and misleading, because it tried to attribute the violent and murderous acts to “extremists”. The same propaganda line is also promoted by the Israeli government.
In  fact, the racist, violent and murderous ideology of the Jewish-orthodox-Israeli settlers’ sect is mainstream in Israel today. To witt, in 2020 Israeli PM Netanyahu promoted Rafi Eitam as the government’s candidate for Chairman of Yad Vashem - the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

Efi Eitam

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ephraim_Eitam_blue.JPG

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Mr Eitam is a retired IDF Brigadier General, he is a former government minister, former MK, and former Chair of the National-Religious Party. Mr Eitam is considered one of the leaders of “Religious Zionism” – the political camp that is most closely associated with settlers’ ideology (often dubbed “The Knitted Kippas). [vii]
Mr Eitam’s pronouncements leave no doubt about such ideology: [viii]
  • Israeli Arabs - "Cancer is a disease, in which most people die because of being diagnosed too late".
  • Arab MKs - "The day would come and we will expel you [to Gaza]".
  • Palestinians - "We should ... expel the vast majority of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria [west bank]. We can't have all these Arabs, and we can't give up the territory".
  • Lebanon - Simply slaughter civilians? "Yes. That is the equation and there is none other. It's cruel, it's cold, but that is it".
  • Jews - "Without Jews the world can't live... it's a dead world".
Yet more telling regarding sentiments surrounding Efi Eitam candidacy for Yad Vashem Chair is a Tweet by Yinon Magal, where PM Netanyahu (with whom Magal maintains close friendship) was tagged. Magal is a  journalist and former MK for The Jewish Home party - part of the "Religious Zionism" camp.

Yinon Magal on Twitter, November 18, 2020: "If Efi Eitam is not appointed Yad Vashem Chair, it would be a victory for the concept that our treatment of the Palestinians parallels the treatment of Jews by the Nazis. And the perverted concept that the lesson from the Holocaust is that we, the victims, should not turn into Nazis ourselves! Such screwy concept, which was planted along the years into Holocaust commemoration, including in Yad Vashem, we must put an end!" 
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With widespread support within the Jewish-Israeli public and Israeli governments, few in Israel openly state the true nature of the situation. Haaretz columnist Kobi Niv, for example, refers to the “Religious Zionism” camp as “existential threat”. [ix] Niv’s column reviews the documentary series “The Human Factor”, which is described by its distributors as: “The epic behind-the-scenes story of the United States' 30-year effort to secure peace in the Middle East. Recounted from the unique perspective of the American mediators on the front-lines” (the reference to US peace efforts is rather dubious. Absent US patronage, the Israeli occupation of Palestine would have ended decades ago…). [x] 
Niv focuses on the testimonies of four senior Jewish-American US diplomats (Martin Indyk, Daniel Kurtzer, Aaron Miller and Dennis Ross). In contrast with reigning Israeli myth, the four attribute the failure of Israeli-Palestinian peace process to murderous violence by the members of the “Religious Zionism” camp: US born Baruch Goldstein – who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, and Yigal Amir – who perpetrated the 1995 PM Rabin assassination.
The Jewish-Orthodox-Israeli settlers’ sect provides the ideological foundation for the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Jewish settlements (War Crimes pursuant to international law), and the Israeli apartheid regime (Crimes against Humanity pursuant to international law).
On International Holocaust Commemoration day, Jews should be the first to condemn the racist, brigand, violent and murderous Jewish-orthodox-Israeli sect.

LINKS

i Barlev: Assault of left-wing [Israeli] activists near Burin is terror by extremist settlers, Haaretz (2021)

https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.10558853

ii Josh Breiner and Noa Shpigel, Shin Bet attached security detail to Minister Barlev: “My government colleagues have made me into the enemy of the settlers” (2022)

https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politi/1.10496109

iii David Israel, Meretz MK Who Almost Became IDF Chief Calls Homesh Settlers Untermenschen, Jewish Press (2022)

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/the-knesset/meretz-mk-who-almost-became-idf-chief-calls-homesh-settlers-untermenschen/2022/01/06/

v Roy Sharon, Sharp increase by right wing activists in the territories over the past year, Kan Israeli Broadcasting Service (2022)

https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1486053199366787074?s=20

vi JTA and Jacob Magid, ADL, other Jewish groups denounce ‘ongoing terrorism’ by settler extremists, 

Times of Israel (2022)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/adl-other-jewish-groups-denounce-ongoing-terrorism-by-settler-extremists/

vii Andrew Silow-Carroll, What a kippa really tells you about its wearer, Times of Israel (2016)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-a-kippa-really-tells-you-about-its-wearer/

viii Uri Misgv, Introducing the thinking of the PM candidate for Chair of Yad Vashem, Haarertz (2020)

https://www.haaretz.co.il/blogs/misgav/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-1.9300205

ix Kobi Niv, “Religious Zionism” is an existential threat, Haaretz (2021)

https://www.haaretz.co.il/blogs/kobiniv/BLOG-1.9945212

x Dror Moreh, The Human Factor, (2019)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10890044/