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Last Week, In Abu Dhabi

Posted August 12th, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

Monday 7 pm:  Arrive Dubai in a dust storm, drive an hour and a half to Abu Dhabi.  It’s hot.  And that is British understatement. Realize I’m halfway round the world from mild Seattle.

Monday 10 pm:  Mint tea with Ghadeer, the manager of the Sheikha Salama Foundation, who is gorgeous, brilliant, and totally cool.  (It won’t be until Thursday evening that her father tells me she’s finishing up her doctorate in political science at the Sorbonne; she doesn’t mention it.)

Tuesday 10 am:  Rehearsal for first of two evening forums at the Saadiyat Cultural Center, near where the Louvre and the Guggenheim will be.  On the program:  Karen Armstrong, Imam Khalid Latif (chaplain of NYU and the NYPD), and… me.  Having a bit of trouble believing I’m here.

Tuesday 11 am:  Sheikha Salama and her daughter Sheikha Maryam float over the ground in gossamer-light black abayas.  Had no idea an abaya could be so elegantly beautiful.  More sari than burqa-like.  Wonder if I’ll float too if I wear an abaya…

Tuesday 10.30 pm:  Since it’s Ramadan, the forums are at night.   Tonight, all women.  Here and there, diamond studs flash in startlingly white teeth, and delicate feather-light ruffled skirts peek from under the abayas.  I’ve never spoken to such a superbly graceful and gracious audience.

Tuesday 11.30 pm:  In principle since I’m operating on an 11-hour time difference, I should be fine with night instead of day.  Turns out there’s a difference between principle and reality;  I feel totally surreal.

Tuesday midnight:  A woman who owns 34 prize camels says “You must come back for the camel races.”  I still have the scar on my hand from the one time I tried to gallop on a camel, in the Sinai:  it tripped and threw me, and I didn’t let go of the lead rope in time. Her camels, she assures me, do not trip.

Wednesday 2.30 am:  Raid hotel minibar for a shot of scotch.  Feel amazingly sinful and decadent.  Put sinful decadent feeling to rest by telling myself it’s a cure for jet lag.

Wednesday 1 pm:  Peacocks nesting on the beach with their fledglings.  Dust storm is clearing.  Incredible humidity closing in instead.  Am assured it’s not always like this.  Just in August…

Wednesday 10 pm:  Chatting in a huddle with dynamite student volunteers as we wait for the crowd to arrive at the cultural center.  Love their spirit.

Wednesday 11 pm:  The forum convenes again, this time open to the public.  Photo op with government ministers.  The audience open-minded and open-hearted — a whole series of great conversations afterwards.  A mathematician argues with great charm for clarity;  I argue with what I hope is equal charm for non-clarity.

Thursday 1 am: Meet up with TEDx Al Ain guys — wonderful energy!  We head for a Ramadan tent on the beach for shisha (waterpipe) and saj (flaky herbed pastry), and close the place down.

Thursday 1 pm:  My abaya question answered at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.  It somehow fails to make me look like I’m floating over the ground.  I think it only does that for princesses.  But the shayla (the head shawl — so light it scrunches up into the palm of your hand) creates welcome shade.  (That’s Cosimo of Speakers Associates on my right, Mohamed our docent on my left).

Thursday 2 pm:  walking barefoot in 45 C. sun over the huge marble courtyard of the mosque.  The floor is cool underfoot.  I have no idea how.  Giant flowers and vines are inlaid on the marble.  I want to lie down on them but think it might be wise not to.  I trace them with bare feet.

Thursday 3 pm:  Sitting on the floor in front of the qibla staring up at the ceiling and talking space, infinity, mathematics with Mohamed.  Very heady.

Thursday 9 pm:  In the Marina mall to buy a shayla.  I pick one with a silver braided edge, then get ambitious and try on a few abayas before giving up:  there’s a secret to being elegant in one, and I don’t know it.

Thursday 10 pm:  It seems the hyper-air-conditioned mall is where half of Abu Dhabi heads when it’s this hot.  Bump into Ghadeer and her dad, and as we settle in for Turkish coffee, Mohamed the mosque docent passes by and stops to chat.  For a moment it feels as though I live here.

Friday 5 am:  Back to Dubai for the nonstop Emirates flight north over Iran, the Caspian Sea, and Russia, on over the North Pole, then down over Canada to the mildness of home, where I remember someone saying “Lesley, when you get back to Seattle, you’ll think back and wonder if you were really here in Abu Dhabi…”

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File under: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Middle East | Tagged: Tags: abaya, Abu Dhabi, Imam Khalid Latif, Karen Armstrong, Muntada, Ramadan, Saadiyat Cultural Center, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Sheikha Salama Foundation, Speakers Associates, TEDxAlAin, United Arab Emirates | 13 Comments
  1. Trying God's Patience says:
    August 12, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    Well I felt as if I was there… just for a moment. Bless.

  2. stevegiordano says:
    August 13, 2012 at 1:19 am

    I can till the experience(s) suit and fit you and I bet your hosts are thankful you came. What a whirlwind.

  3. Lilly says:
    August 13, 2012 at 11:09 am

    Lesley, it was too short. I hunger for more. what did you speak on? No wonder it all felt surrealistic. It was.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      August 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm

      I spoke very much as the accidental theologist — an agnostic Jew on faith and doubt, on certainty and uncertainty, on the letter vs. the spirit: the inhumanity of militant fundamentalism vs. the deep humanity of awe, wonder, gratitude, and humility, all of which the Quran constantly urges. The fact that people were willing to listen even if they didn’t agree made the privilege entirely mine.

      • shegide says:
        August 14, 2012 at 1:25 pm

        Except, except…Islam claims that the Quran is the final word of God. It is a book, given to mankind by God. Literally.

        Islam is a literal faith and that is why it breeds fundamentalism, not humility…least of all, humility.

        • Lesley Hazleton says:
          August 14, 2012 at 3:05 pm

          You clearly don’t know many Muslims, if any. Or should I say you literally don’t know many Muslims?

          • shegide says:
            August 14, 2012 at 4:17 pm

            In fact, I do. Very nice people. But probably not good Muslims per the Quran.

            Point is that you can afford to pick the pieces of the Quran that you like but Muslims can’t, or shouldn’t. Thankfully many do, contrary to Islam.

          • Lesley Hazleton says:
            August 14, 2012 at 5:26 pm

            You mean the same way the vast majority of Christians and Jews ignore large swaths of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, let alone Judges, Kings, and whole chunks of the New Testament? Sounds to me like you’re applying standards to Islam that you don’t apply to Christianity and Judaism, or any other religion. Maybe you’re secretly a Muslim fundamentalist…

  4. Rubina says:
    August 13, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    Beautiful picture in the mosque! You look quite elegant in a abaya.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      August 14, 2012 at 3:20 pm

      Thank you, but really it was either put on the abaya at the entrance to the mosque or turn back. I’m not much good at turning back, so I simply followed the custom of the place, as you would in a church or a synagogue.

  5. howtodealwithcrazypeople says:
    August 15, 2012 at 6:53 am

    I love the comment on being fundamental against fundamentalists. Sort of like judging only the judgemental. I think you’re saying that we need to change ourselves and be spiritual as we understand it, without forcing that down someone else’s throat. Thank you.

  6. sajjadk says:
    September 7, 2012 at 4:01 am

    It was wonderful to see you in Abu Dhabi, Lesley.

    Wish you all the best and hope for many more exciting adventures ahead for you.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 7, 2012 at 9:26 am

      Hey Sajjad, you know exactly what to wish for me! Thank you. Here’s to sharing great conversation with you again. And shisha! — L

Burning Jesus

Posted September 7th, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

The most effective way to deal with the two-bit Florida ‘pastor’ planning to make a bonfire of Qurans on 9/11?  No, not string him up by his heels.  Something far more effective:  Ignore him.  Pay no attention.  Zip.  Nada.  Nothing.

But that won’t happen. The old TV newsroom adage is “Flames lead.”  A fire, an explosion, a bombing – all are ways to improve ratings, occasions to appeal to the arsonist apparently latent in the visual mind.  In the incendiary anti-Muslim atmosphere carefully built up over the past few months by ultra-right-wing bigots, no “self-respecting” newsroom director will dream for a moment of holding back.

Never mind that General David Petraeus warns that such an event could place American troops in more danger than ever.  Hey, if Americans die because of this, that’s even more news!  So there they are, all the news directors, salivating at the prospect of a huge, hot weekend:  the festive end of Ramadan and the solemnity of Rosh HaShana on Thursday and Friday followed by 9/11 on Saturday (and, just to add a bit of sentimental spice to it all, Grandparents Day on Sunday).

So the heat is on and the bigots are out in force.  The latest to wave his slimy flag:  Marty Peretz, owner of The New Republic and self-appointed champion of any right-wing Israeli government:

Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims…  So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.

Let’s not go into the ghastly vision of the state of Peretz’ gut.  Enough to say that white-collar bigots like him provide the gasoline for blue-collar nutcases like pseudo-pastor Terry Jones, a pathetic crackpot right out of a William Burroughs heroin nightmare, whose fifty followers (yes, all of 50) apparently believe that a dove is a bird of prey.

Peretz would never burn a Quran himself, of course.  He might get his hands dirty that way.  Might even burn them.  He leaves that to the gun-totin’ pastor, who has apparently never read the ‘red-letter words’ of the Gospels – the actual words of Jesus.  Ignorance is ecstasy for Terry Jones, who is blithely unaware that he might as well be burning Jesus.

But then that’s what Christian bigots do – they burn the cross.  On other people’s lawns, that is, prior to lynching them by the light of bonfires.  It’s what fascists did just a few years before, using ovens instead of bonfires.  It’s what Catholic clerics did in the Spanish Inquisition, roasting people alive on spits.  As the poet Heinrich Heine wrote: “Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people.”

Could media restraint really hold this back?   The question is moot, because it won’t happen.  When I lived in and reported from Jerusalem, I saw American newsmen shove people to the ground to get a good shot in the aftermath of a bombing.  I saw them practically shouting for joy when there was a terrorist attack which would land them a front-page story or a lead-off spot on the nightly news.   Other people’s disasters were their chance for the limelight.  So they won’t hesitate to help make a nutcase like Terry Jones into an international name, to place naïve American soldiers in danger, and to make Christians the world over targets for retaliation.

All for ratings, all for vanity.  A bonfire of the vanities indeed.

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File under: Christianity, fundamentalism, Islam, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: bigotry, bonfire, burning, David Petraeus, Dove World Outreach church, Islamophobia, Marty Peretz, pastor Terry Jones, Quran, Ramadan, Rosh HaShana, William Burroughs | 7 Comments
  1. lavrans says:
    September 7, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    It’s funny, but I have the same conflicted feelings about the media that I have about education. There’s so much potential, and such a history, of doing truly good deeds; opening people’s eyes to their own follies and illusions, showing them their better facets at the same time they warn us of the ease of following the easy path of bigotry.

    But so often, all that potential is wasted on a headline, even when the headline is the easy point of the day. Like this story about an evil person, the story really isn’t the existence of such a thing, but that the community around him has allowed him and his followers to become what they are; is the whole community bigoted? Does the town all believe the same thing? Does the community manage to survive and become less bigoted because of the controversy (probably- as that town is most likely starting to learn a lot about Islam and the Christian response…).

    We can find that pastor in every country, in almost every community in the world. And the community that doesn’t have some equivalent is probably already controlled so tightly by someone just like him that any dissent is crushed immediately.

    That’s not an interesting story though… or rather, it’s not an interesting headline. “Another bigot plans to incite violence toward those he hates” is just so pedantic. Who cares? But, “plans to burn the Quran stifled by mayor, police” is titillating.

    Makes me think of NCLB…

  2. Lesley Hazleton says:
    September 8, 2010 at 9:42 am

    You’re right, Lavrans — it’s titillation: the trivialization of news. And of course the response of the Gainsville community — from the mayor on down, condemning Terry Jones and his like — has received hardly any coverage.

    Whether people might become less bigoted as a result of the controversy is an interesting question. Can confronting people with their own bigotry work? With the exception of those for whom it defines their lives — the professional bigots, as it were, who rely on it as a means of self-aggrandizement — I tend to think it can. Or maybe I want to think it can…

  3. Zunaid Talia says:
    September 9, 2010 at 11:30 am

    I agree Lesley, as is customary the media is a business that thrives on the dark side of the human persona. With such great access and leverage at their disposal, it is a shame that they don’t use it to promote peace and harmony amongst people.

    I wonder what this infers about us human beings. After all the media are only concerned with ratings and they will always only print the stories they believe will attract the most attention. The media is a business and business as we know, often has no conscience. So we should not be surprised at the position they have taken.

    Clearly this pastor is hopelessly misinformed and based on the information i have at hand, it seems that he is also arrogant. A disastrous combination to say the least. Confronting him might make him even more stubborn. Alternatively, he may be a marketing genius and he has identified the potential to acquire some free advertising for his Church. After all he only has 50 followers at the moment. Incidentally, like millions of people around the world, I hope that reason prevails and that he restrains himself from carrying out this ghastly act.

    As a muslim, I share your view that it might be best to simply ignore this bigot and to deny him the courteousy of an audience.

  4. Ignoring Terry Jones | Harry Katz's Blog says:
    September 10, 2010 at 7:50 am

    […] I agree with author (and my former writing instructor) Lesley Hazleton, who says in her post Burning Jesus, that Florida pastor Terry Jones deserves to be completely ignored.  However, I’m not sure […]

  5. Harry Katz says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:04 am

    Lesley, I agree Terry Jones deserves to be ignored. I’m less certain we can or should expect the media to do so. Asking the media to ignore (or cover) stories we like (or dislike) seems like a very slippery slope to me.

    More importantly, anyone with a cell phone and a computer is part of “the media” today. And in general that’s a good thing.

    I posted a bit more on this here: http://hskatz.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/ignoring-terry-jones/

  6. Pietra says:
    September 12, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    I have yet to meet the person on the far right who will let fact or truth get between them and the hatred they’ve accepted into their hearts.

  7. Yusuf says:
    January 10, 2011 at 5:02 am

    When I attended Eid prayers, there was a CBC reporter there with a video camera, asking people what they thought about this issue. I was asked and responded that, to my knowledge, burning the qur’an is one of two acceptable ways of disposing of one (the other being burial), and that these people seem to have a lack of respect
    for other peoples scripture, so better they burn
    them then have them in their homes to
    disrespect.
    Apparently, that was as “Fundamentalist” a response as he could get because I don’t think the piece ever saw the light of day.
    After getting over myself Re: the CBC wanting to hear MY opinion, I remembered a story our Imam told during one khutbah. It was around the time of the Salmand Rushdie fatwa controversy. In Ottawa, the same CBC was interviewing people in the Muslim community about their feelings on this topic. Almost everyone asked responded by saying that the man has a right to his opinion and that god would judge him and punish or reward him as he saw fit. The exception was a young man in his teens who agreed with the fatwa. This was the interview which was run. The good thing was that, because of the anger in the Muslim community, the truth was revealed, but only to those interested in digging for it.

Quran Quotes for Bigots – I

Posted August 13th, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

Tea Partyers are playing rope-a-quote with the Quran .  Not that they’ve read it;  they’ve just picked out ‘the good bits.’  So in honor of Ramadan, here’s the first in a series on what the Quran really says.  Try this for a start:

When God delivers the city into your hands, you shall smite every male with the edge of your sword… You shall save alive nothing that breathes, but shall utterly destroy them all.”

Oops, sorry, wrong book.  That’s Deuteronomy 20, from the peace-loving passage in verses 12 through 18.   Here’s the right one:

Slay the unbelievers wherever you come upon them.

Ah, that’s more like it:  Quran 2, part of verse 187.  Phew.  They really do want to kill us.

Or do they?  Here’s the quote in context:

Fight in the way of God with those who fight with you, but aggress not:  God loves not the aggressors.  And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you;  persecution is more grievous than slaying.  But fight them not by the Holy House unless they should fight you there;  then, if they fight you, slay them.

It helps to know that these verses are very specific:  they refer to the conquest of Mecca, from which Muhammad and his supporters had been expelled eight years earlier.   And they are bound about with conditions:  only if the unbelievers persist in aggression, for example, and only after a truce time expires, and only if they break pre-existing agreements.  Which might be why only eight people were killed.

Meanwhile, over in Deuteronomy 20, it continues this way:

Of the cities of these people which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them.  Namely, the Hittities and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

That’s a lot of people.  And this is far from the only kill-em-all order in the bible.  There’s plenty more in Judges and Samuel, just for starters.   Look up the word “destroy” in a biblical concordance, and you’ll find one of the longest lists it offers.   The entry for peace is barely a quarter as long.

In short, there’s nothing on warfare in the Quran that hasn’t been said at far greater length, far more times, in far more detail and far worse terms, in the Holy Bible that the Tea Partyers hold so dear.

So one more Quranic quote (9:7) seems apt:

So long as they go straight with you, do you go straight with them.

Let’s try that: going straight with each other.

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File under: Christianity, fundamentalism, Islam, Judaism, war | Tagged: Tags: Bible, opposition to mosques, peace, Quran, Ramadan, Tea Party | 8 Comments
  1. Tamam Kahn says:
    August 13, 2010 at 10:13 am

    Thank you for this, Lesley.
    As usual you have poured the ambrosia of wholesome clarity over poisonous muddled thought. I prefer that to the nasty tea being served at the party. Warmly, T’m

  2. Nancy McClelland says:
    August 13, 2010 at 10:37 am

    What a simple and effective way to put this petty “my religion is better than yours” behind us — simple mathematics. The way I see it, the trash talk in the Bible and the trash talk in the Quran cancel each other out. Maybe that’s what they mean by going straight with each other? Start fresh.

  3. Pietra says:
    August 17, 2010 at 9:11 am

    Lesley, your work is immensely appreciated; please give us more. I’ve tried and tried to read the Bible but it’s dangerously heavy when it falls on my face after my eyes drop shut. Sadly, though, the people who should be reading your message will refuse to — they do not want to be confused with facts.

  4. Geo8440 says:
    September 22, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    Love how you so skillfully simplify the commonality of religions. Taking out context, much of what appears in these books can be truly scary. I see it in my Holy book, the Koran when believers take certain ‘ayat’, verses, to justify killing non believers. I am equally distressed when I see how non-Muslims use the same verses to condemn Islam. While the message of Islam is for all the ages, it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in pieces and as events unfolded. Muhammad’s most vehement enemies were his own Arab tribe. I try to live my life guided by Islam’s mandate: Kill an innocent person and God shall punish you as if you have killed all of humanity. Save a life and your reward as that who has saved all of humanity. For me Islam is the best there is to be a good citizen and a servant of God. I serve others, I do not lie, I do not kill, I take care of my parents, my family and my neighbors and I pay my taxes. A good Muslim is a great citizen.

  5. velvetinabat says:
    June 19, 2013 at 9:02 am

    Lesley, your writing is one of the most important resources I use in my job as a teacher (history, RE & citizenship) in Bradford, England. It has helped me enormously, and I hope, by extension, my pupils. Thank you so much.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      June 23, 2013 at 5:05 pm

      My privilege, V. Thanks for thanking me! — Lesley

  6. Jonathan says:
    May 11, 2015 at 7:03 am

    Not to knit-pick , but even using your own quotes, a very glaring difference in the quotes are obvious. In the bible quote you provide, the limits and context is very specific against whom to fight: Hittities, Amorites, the Canaanites ,Perizites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
    Historical tribes which no longer exist and not relevant in today’s world, so one could say the verses are no longer applicable , certainly not to christians who have not gone fighting these tribes for a good few centuries now. Nor used these verses to visit terror and destruction on people for a good few thousand years now.

    Like the bible for christians,where the new testament replaces the old testament with Jesus ‘s coming and all. So to does the quran abrogate earlier verses with later verse. Like Mohammed said, when two verses contradict each to her, the latter is to be followed. (The latter being when islam is dominant as opposed to the earlier, when it was not).
    But the point is, the Al Baqra verse you quote (it is actually verse 190, the jihad verse) is later abrogated with chapter (9) sūrat l-tawbah (The Repentance) which states the following:

    “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”

    Do you see the difference between the verses?
    The bible places a limitation and context in the war against a people. Meaning it is valid for a specific time,place and people(Hittities, Amorites, the Canaanites ,Perizites, the Hivites and the Jebusites).

    The koran on the other hand, makes it a universal command. Not limited to a time, place or time. But to fight ANYONE who does not believe in Allah perpetually.

    I find it quite revealing that you pinpoint to the tea partiers as being so and so with their bible and beliefs and not reading the quran..( it hints to your bigotry in itself, does it not?). When it is so easy to pick apart your accusation that the bible is so much worse than the quran , and you yourself either ignorantly or willfully deceives with the quran.

    This is like the verse we are ad nauseam fed from the koran:
    “…if any one killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind…” – The holy quran (Chapter Five, Verse 32).
    This is so fluffy and good is it not? Surely a religion of peace.

    However the full verse reads as follows:
    “On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.”

    and verse 33:
    “The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.”

    Some points about this:
    the fluffy verse explicitly states that this was a commandment to the Children of Israel, i.e. the Jews! This is not a commandment to all people, and it certainly should not be misused as if this is Allah’s command to Muhammad’s people

    And verse 33 is referring to the Muslims, not the Jews anymore, as we can tell in the shift from past tense to present tense. And here, the punishment for mischief is clearly prescribed: execution, crucifixion, mutilation, or at the least, exile. This is the command given to the Muslims. Quite clearly, it does not teach what the Muslims proclaim it teaches; in fact, it teaches almost the exact opposite.

    in conclusion. the bible has some horrible things in it, sure. But they are limited in context as I explained above. The bible had been reformed with the new testament and christianity had been reformed and apologised for its treatment to jews etc.

    the quran has no limitation or context for its horrible commands against all non-muslims. Islam has not reformed and has never apologized for its treatment of non-muslims or its specific jew hatred.

    A final word on your last quote from the quran:
    “So long as they go straight with you, do you go straight with them.”

    The full verse is as follows:
    “How can there be a treaty with Allah and with His messenger for the idolaters save those with whom ye made a treaty at the Inviolable Place of Worship ? So long as they are true to you, be true to them. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty.”

    In simple terms: Don’t make treaties with non-Muslims. They are all evildoers and should not be trusted.

    The entire chapter 9 (Repentance) is filled with how to treat non-muslims. Chilling stuff…

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      May 11, 2015 at 11:55 am

      Cherry-pick away. What strikes me is how very similar the quotes you chose are to statements made re the Palestinians by Israel’s new justice minister, Ayelet Shaked. Who I believe claims to be Jewish…

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