Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumA tale of two tragedies: From Beitunia to Vienna on Nakba Day
Standing by, watching and listening, my blue ID card burning a hole in my bag, I suddenly understand Israel rather better than before: the extent of its hysterical paranoia, its red lines, its constant reliance on hatred for strength. This demonstration and the armys response cry out that the fundamental founding reality of this country is one that Israelis are distantly aware of but cannot bear to face, like someone who has stepped on broken glass and dares not lift their foot to inspect the damage.
But there is no time to reflect on this in Beitunia, because we are back in the car on the way to Jerusalem. We do not know at that time that by the end of the afternoon, two Palestinian teenagers will have been shot dead, along with a third who is shot in the lung but survives. Our identity carousel spins again as we drive away: Muslim prayer beads swing from the rear-view mirror and Arabic music plays on the stereo. Eventually, after a traffic jam caused by road closures in Ramallah, we approach the entry back into Israel.
Two days later, surrounded by my family from around the world, and other peoples families from around the world, I listen to my great-grandmothers niece describe to us all the last time she saw her father, before he was taken to a concentration camp in 1938. A survivor herself, she pays tribute to all those who were lost during the Holocaust, and tells us: I want to say that their lives werent taken in vain, but they were. And today, the atrocities continue in other countries.
The carousel revolves again. In this 76-year weekend I am standing in the street on which two teenagers are shot dead for remembering, killed in my name, and standing in the street where my family were rounded up and eventually killed for their name. A strange wind blows from one memory to another, one people to another, one history to another. They are two tragedies that dare not speak each others name, and they will forever be our shadows.
Their lives were taken in vain.
http://972mag.com/a-tale-of-two-tragedies-from-beitunia-to-vienna-on-nakba-day/106710/
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Pretty pathetic on both counts.
One cannot really believe anything written by an admitted liar.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)or did the article touch a nerve or something?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Did you not read it before posting?
"The checkpoint is the site of another demonstration. We drive through the flames of burning tires and our adopted identities melt away too; the music is switched off, the beads tucked into a compartment under the stereo. We are Israelis again, with an appropriate story prepared for the soldiers at the checkpoint we were visiting friends in a settlement. If you cant beat them, join them (temporarily)."
That's the part where she admits to lying to the soldiers by providing a prepared story about "visiting friends in a settlement" when in reality she did no such thing.
"It is Nakba Day 2014, and we are on our way to Beitunia, a Palestinian town next to Ofer Prison, in order to attend one of several demonstrations being held in memory of the ethnic cleansing of 1948..."
Why make up a lie about visiting friends in a settlement? Why not proudly tell the truth about attending a Nakba Day demonstration in a Palestinian town?
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)are we expected to believe they'd have rolled out the red carpet for her if she'd said " I'm going to a Nakba day demonstration"?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)That is what makes her cowardly. A courageous person would have told the truth and faced the consequences.
People of character and integrity have told the truth at much greater risks to themselves in much more dire situations than this one.
Israeli
(4,159 posts)...if they had said they were where they were they would have been detained ,possibly for hours .
Little Tich
(6,171 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Anyone is welcome to respond to whatever element of the OP that they feel like discussing further.