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Is This How Pogroms Begin?

Posted June 8th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

AIPAC types will doubtless argue that the young Israelis in this video are just clean-cut high-spirited high-schoolers drunk on nationalism on Jerusalem Day, June 5.   But for Jews with better memories, it’s hard not to see the ominous signs of a pogrom in the making.  And the police are clearly doing nothing to break it up.

A  shorter version of the video looks like it’s about to go viral, and ugly as it is, that’s fine by me, since maybe it will shock more American Jews into paying attention to what’s really happening.  Me, I wish I was shocked.  But the fact is that having a screaming mob parading in front of your house and calling for your death at four in the morning is just another part of what Palestinians have to put up with on a daily basis.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/gTwWKdfi8G8]

———

Note:  The ‘Nablus Gate’ entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem is misidentified in the subtitles:  it’s Damascus Gate.

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File under: Middle East, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: AIPAC, American Jews, Israel, Jerusalem Day, mob, Palestine, pogrom | 20 Comments
  1. Hossam says:
    June 8, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    Ok so i suppose (or hope) that those don’t all Israelis, but what i want to know, is how many Israelis support these views?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 8, 2011 at 4:10 pm

      Surveys vary, but I suspect well over half of Israel would say something along the lines of “just good kids letting off steam.” As to death to Arabs and to leftists, I’d say an uncomfortably substantial minority would agree.

      • Hossam says:
        June 8, 2011 at 4:57 pm

        I see. What about the view that Israel belongs to Jews, or only to the Jews, do you have an idea what’s the percentage of Israeli Jews who support this view?

  2. Herman says:
    June 8, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    It wasn’t nice, but calling it a pogrom is like Carter calling Israeli apartheid.
    By the way how many Arab families were slaughtered that night?

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 8, 2011 at 4:13 pm

      The question was “is this how pogroms begin?” I suspect it is. Do you really want to wait until it turns into a full-blown one?

      And the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is indeed an apartheid system. Go there on “Arab” roads, and see.
      There is no other word for it.

      • Herman says:
        June 10, 2011 at 5:38 am

        I have never been on “Arab” roads so can’ t comment.
        My understanding is that the economy is growing, construction of Arab homes
        is booming and the goverment would fall without Israeli support.
        All this does not exuse a rampage.

  3. Lesley Hazleton says:
    June 8, 2011 at 6:47 pm

    Hossam — on the percentage of Israelis thinking that Israel belongs only to Jews, I have no statistics, but I do know that it’s growing. As for the idea that it belongs to “the Jews,” meaning all Jews, I think more and more American Jews, dismayed at how far to the right Israel has trended, now feel that this is most definitely not “their” state. And an eloquent minority of Israeli Jews, including those who made this video, feel the same way.

    • Hossam says:
      June 8, 2011 at 11:47 pm

      Thanks for the info Lesley, i know of the brave Israeli Jews who speak out and are generally against such hatred, i just wish there were more.

      • Lesley Hazleton says:
        June 9, 2011 at 9:55 am

        Hossam — It doesn’t take courage — just a conscience, a memory, the ability to see, and the willingness to speak.

  4. Ada says:
    June 9, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    What bothers me is that all of us Muslims, Jews and Christians have faith that demands from us to strictly follow what is right and stand up against what is wrong yet great majority of the of the people who claim the be followers of those faiths choose to stand up for what they identify with and turn the blind eye to fundamental values of the source from where those identities come from. If those people truly lived with values that suppose to determine what means to be Muslim, Jew and Christian, we would not have any problems today.

  5. Hossam says:
    June 9, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    @Lesley, i agree of course on your last comment, but i still see them brave to continue to speak out and act even after being called traitors, and some even go so far to call them self-hating Jews. As an Egyptian, and Arab, i am happy to see videos of Jews (Israeli or not) who speak out against Israel’s actions starting to circulate in social media around me, i think it will definitely help raise awareness that Israel doesn’t speak for all Jews, and certainly help counter antisemitism to some degree.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 10, 2011 at 8:51 am

      Raising awareness that the Israeli government doesn’t speak for all Jews, certainly. Neither does it speak for all Israelis, of course. But countering antisemitism? I abide by Jean-Paul Sartre: “If Jews didn’t exist, antisemites would have had to invent them.” Some people just love to hate.

      • Hossam says:
        June 10, 2011 at 1:32 pm

        Of course, but there are people who hate Jews just because of Israel and think that Israel speaks for all Jews, and think that every Jew is a zionist who wants to establish Greater Israel. i have personally seen people’s view change when they understand that not all Jews or all Israelis agree with Israel’s every action, and how some speak out and actively oppose it.

  6. Lamiaa says:
    June 10, 2011 at 2:54 am

    I feel saddened by the wasted youth of young Arabs and Jews who could be investing their energy on acts of love and mercy rather than parading the streets in Jerusalem or screaming at the Israeli embassy in Cairo for the each other’s fall .

    when will all this come to an end? when will there be a scenario that would recognize we are all guests on God’s Lands and there is room for every one and for now getting in or going out is not a solution.

    people can be let to be charged with hatred or love. no one is taking the time to teach the young anywhere values of tolerance both parties are too scared to take an initiative that would weaken them and intimidation could always escalate when necessary and the young would be lost and consumed and the vicious circle starts all over.

    As an Egyptian who doesn’t advocate hate who genuinely wishes for a new young generation that would let old feuds rest, I can only call for new beginnings and a just world that respects the right for every living breathing human to live at peace, build, love and progress regardless of who or where he is.

    Lesley you never disappoint me with your posts and wisdom, thanks.

    • Hossam says:
      June 10, 2011 at 2:07 pm

      Amen

  7. Is This How Pogroms Begin? By The Accidental Theologist « Young Muslims in the Modern World says:
    June 10, 2011 at 9:37 am

    […] came across this post on the Accidental Theologist blog. Israel is traveling down a very dangerous road, and it’s […]

  8. Lamiaa says:
    June 11, 2011 at 9:05 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDjbTR8Br_w&feature=player_embedded

    found this video it seemed it had occurred on the same day. ..

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 11, 2011 at 9:43 am

      Yup. Rough treatment for a gutsy kid.
      I love that shot of the Palestinian flag pin in the middle of his yarmulke.

  9. rivrpath says:
    June 11, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    Yes, this is how pogroms start. Everyone spreads hate as their gift to the world. Pogroms will happen and the world will sit by and do nothing.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 11, 2011 at 6:30 pm

      Everyone?

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