Amira Hass : The anti-Semitism That Goes Unreported
The anti-Semitism that goes unreported - Israel News | Haaretz.com
Here's a statistic that you won't see in
research on anti-Semitism, no matter how meticulous the study is. In the
first six months of the year, 154 anti-Semitic assaults have been
recorded, 45 of them around one village alone. Some fear that last
year's record high of 411 attacks - significantly more than the 312
attacks in 2010 and 168 in 2009 - could be broken this year.
Fifty-eight
incidents were recorded in June alone, including stone-throwing
targeting farmers and shepherds, shattered windows, arson, damaged water
pipes and water-storage facilities, uprooted fruit trees and one
damaged house of worship. The assailants are sometimes masked, sometimes
not; sometimes they attack surreptitiously, sometimes in the light of
day.
There were two
violent attacks a day, in separate venues, on July 13, 14 and 15. The
words "death" and "revenge" have been scrawled in various areas; a more
original message promises that "We will yet slaughter."
It's no accident
that the diligent anti-Semitism researchers have left out this data.
That's because they don't see it as relevant, since the Semites who were
attacked live in villages with names like Jalud, Mughayer and
At-Tuwani, Yanun and Beitilu. The daily dose of terrorizing (otherwise
known as terrorism ) that is inflicted on these Semites isn't compiled
into a neat statistical report, nor is it noticed by most of the Jewish
population in Israel and around the world - even though the incidents
resemble the stories told by our grandparents.
The day our
grandparents feared was Sunday, the Christian Sabbath; the Semites, who
are not of interest to the researchers monitoring anti-Semitism, fear
Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Our grandparents knew that the
order-enforcement authorities wouldn't intervene to help a Jewish family
under attack; we know that the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel
Police, the Civil Administration, the Border Police and the courts all
stand on the sidelines, closing their eyes, softballing investigations,
ignoring evidence, downplaying the severity of the acts, protecting the
attackers, and giving a boost to those progromtchiks.The hands behind
these attacks belong to Israeli Jews who violate international law by
living in the West Bank. But the aims and goals behind the attacks are
the flesh and blood of the Israeli non-occupation. This systemic
violence is part of the existing order. It complements and facilitates
the violence of the regime, and what the representatives - the brigade
commanders, the battalion commanders, the generals and the Civil
Administration officers - are doing while "bearing the burden" of
military service.
They are grabbing as
much land as possible, using pretexts and tricks made kosher by the
High Court of Justice; they are confining the natives to densely
populated reservations. That is the essence of the tremendous success
known as Area C: a deliberate thinning of the Palestinian population in
about 62 percent of the West Bank, as preparation for formal annexation.
Day after day, tens
of thousands of people live in the shadow of terror. Will there be an
attack today on the homes at the edge of the village? Will we be able to
get to the well, to the orchard, to the wheat field? Will our children
get to school okay, or make it to their cousins' house unharmed? How
many olive trees were damaged overnight?
In exceptional
cases, when there is luck to be had, a video camera operated by B'Tselem
volunteers documents an incident and pierces the armor of willful
ignorance donned by the citizens of the only democracy in the Middle
East. When there is no camera, the matter is of negligible importance,
because after all, you can't believe the Palestinians. But this routine
of escalating violence is very real, even if it is underreported.
For the human rights
organization Al-Haq, the escalation is reminiscent of what happened in
1993-1994, when they warned that the increasing violence, combined with
the authorities' failure to take action, would lead to mass casualties.
And then Dr. Baruch Goldstein of Kiryat Arba came along and gunned down
29 Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahim Mosque. The massacre set the stage
for a consistent Israeli policy of emptying the Old City of Hebron of
its Palestinian residents, with the assistance of Israeli Jewish
pogromtchiks. Is there someone among the country's decision-makers and
decision-implementers who is hoping for a second round?
Amira Hass
Haaretz Correspondent
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