Wave of demolitions in Area C continues: Civil Administration Destroys Homes of 3 families

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20150820_jordan_valley_demolitions

This morning, 20 Aug. 2015, Civil Administration and military representatives came to the community of Khitbet Einun, which is located around 5 km east of Tubas. The forces demolished the homes of two families, totaling 11 people, including 7 minors, and a sheep pen. Then, the forces moved on to the Khirbet a-Deir community, located between the Palestinian village Ein al-Beida and the Jordan border. They demolished the home of an 8 person family, including three minors. The authorities also demolished an unused structure in the Khirbet Samra community, southeast of Tubas.

Residents of the Jordan Valley experienced temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius today. In most of the communities in the area, as in other parts of the area C, Israel prevents Palestinians from establishing permanent homes and connecting them to water and electricity infrastructures, thereby leaving them exposed to the elements throughout the year. Today, the authorities left 19 persons, including 10 minors, in conditions of extreme heat without any solution.

This is the third time this week the authorities have demolished homes and income generating structures in area C. The wave of demolitions left dozens of people homeless in the extreme August heat. Since 5 Aug. 2015, the Civil Administration has demolished 34 residential buildings and 31 other structures in Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley, in the vicinity of Ma’ale Adumim, and in the southern Hebron hills. A total of 167 people have lost their homes in these actions, including 101 minors.

And the apartheid machine rolls on and on; over the bodies of its victims.

3 Cheers for ethnic cleansing!

[DetlefK]

1. Well, Israel needs "Lebensraum".

It's not their fault that your house sits on territory that was property of Israel 2000 years ago.

[oberliner]

2. Only countries where the term "Lebensraum" is applied: Israel and Nazi Germany

Coincidence?

[DetlefK]

3. I guess, Israel is still traumatized from the Holocaust.

That's why they do what they do without realizing what they are doing. It's ingrained into them. They don't even question it.

(An israeli think-tank recently released a report on the world-wide state of jewish citizens. They delivered part of it as an oral report to the Knesset, but carefully left out some findings: For israeli conservatives, anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism are the same. Thou shalt not even hint that they are different things.)

Too much blood.
The Jews have seen too much of their blood shed in the Holocaust.
The Palestinians have seen too much of their blood shed by the Jews.

My hope is, that the upcoming israeli generations will be free from this emotional baggage.

[oberliner]

4. The comparison is preposterous and disgusting

"The Jews have seen too much of their blood shed in the Holocaust.
The Palestinians have seen too much of their blood shed by the Jews."

Do you seriously not see anything wrong with writing something that?

[DetlefK]

6. I will not weigh the value of one life against the other.

I am talking about emotional wounds. Justice is not weighed by the number of deaths.

Why don't you tell the 1 million palestinian refugees in Lebanon that their plight doesn't count because 6 million Jews died 70 years ago?
Why don't you tell the 0.5 million Palestinians in Israel that they are destined for a life of second-class-citizens because 6 million Jews died 70 years ago?

Is that how you want to make moral decisions? By counting other people's suffering on your side?

6 million Jews dead. Does that mean that Israel has the moral right to kill 6 million people?
How do you weigh deaths, how do you weigh emotional wounds against each other in moral decisions?

[oberliner]

8. I don't think you understand my objection

Let me elucidate them:

1. Israel is not similar to Nazi Germany.

2. Palestinians are not being treated by Israel the way Jews were treated by Nazi Germany.

It is very reasonable to be critical of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

It is not reasonable to compare those policies to that of Nazi Germany vis-a-vis the Jews of Europe.

[DetlefK]

9. You misread that. (My formulation was too prosaic. My bad.)

I was not comparing policies.

My point was:
The Israelis are traumatized because of what happened to them.
The Palestinians are traumatized because of what happened to them.
Put two crazy people in a room and you can't expect normal behavior.

[grossproffit]

5. Wow. You're in Germany, too?

[DetlefK]

7. As I said, I refuse to weigh violence against violence.

Death is death, trauma is trauma, wound is wound, and I will not dare to tell people how much or how little their suffering is worth.

If you think otherwise: How many displaced Palestinians and how many destroyed palestinian livelyhoods are 6 million dead Jews worth?

[King_David]

11. What a disgusting post,

Even more disgusting you writing that from Germany...
Shame on you

[DetlefK]

13. Would you elaborate on that?

What was it that offended you?

My insinuation that Israel's behavior is not normal?

The israeli think-tank's discovery that anti-semitism and anti-israelism indeed are two different things?

My insinuation that the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of the Jews?
My regrettably bad formulation that accidently hinted that this suffering were comparable in scale to the holocaust? (It's not.)

[Little Tich]

10. I suppose you already knew what reaction your comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany would

cause.

You have created your own straw man, and all the comments in this thread are about your comparison, and not about the OP.

[DetlefK]

12. Do you have an historical example that is similar and has less baggage?

If Yes, I will have no problem using that example instead and apologizing for the offence I created.



I think it's wrong to shield a specific ethnicity from specific moral criticism just because this ethnicity was a victim in the past.

If we translate that reasoning to other situations we end up in a situation where we shield someone from accusations of theft because he was a victim of theft once. Or a situation where we shield someone from accusations of murder because he once lost a dear person to murder.

[Little Tich]

14. Try the Indian removal act of 1830 - the similarities are obvious.

"Being deeply impressed with the opinion that the removal of the Indian tribes from the lands which they now occupy within the limits of the several states and Territories . . . is of very high importance to our Union, and may be accomplished on conditions and in a manner to promote the interest and happiness of those tribes, the attention of the Government has been long drawn with great solicitude to the object. For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of Georgia the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact with that State whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the Indian title to the lands within it whenever it may be done peaceably and on reasonable conditions. . . . The removal of the tribes from the territory which they now inhabit . . . would not only shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness. Experience has clearly demonstrated that in their present state it is impossible to incorporate them in such masses, in any form whatever, into our system. It has also demonstrated with equal certainty that without a timely anticipation of and provision against the dangers to which they are exposed, under causes which it will be difficult, if not impossible to control, their degradation and extermination will be inevitable."

--President James Monroe, in an 1825 message to Congress, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 2, in Native American Voices: A History and Anthology, ed. Steven Mintz (St. James, New York: Brandywine P, 1995) 111-112.

Soure: http://www.columbia.edu/~lmg21/BC3180/removal.html