Panic in the ranks of the bigots brigade

This is a guest post by Margie in Tel Aviv
There was panic in the ranks of the Bigots’ Brigade when Seth Freedman attempted to give his approval to a scheme backed by Israeli authorities in an article last month entitled “Building a peaceful future“. They read the words over and over and scrambled to find something derogatory to say. It was notable that even the lickiest lick-spittles didn’t come up with the usual phrases of adoration that we are used to read.
There was no, ‘Well done, sir.” No. “Brilliant article, Seth.” How disappointed he must have been to be deserted by his usual claque. The search for something to say was something to behold however.
What was he talking about? The scheme itself is a dual solution to housing and social problems, attempting to build a neighborhood in which both Jews and Arabs can live together and learn eventually to understand each other. The usual way that things are done in the Middle East is for people to keep to themselves and to live in homogeneous neighborhoods. A practised eye can spot an Arab village in Israel by the look of the terrain – imposing houses, much larger than those the Israeli Jews live in and characterised by the unusual town-planning. Streets go round houses in Arab towns. In Jewish towns houses are built side by side along a preplanned roadway. You can distinguish between a Christian Arab and Moslem Arab area by the presence or absence of minarets. It is unusual for Moslems and Christians to live side by side.
There is a great deal of resistance by the Arab communities to having Jews live within their towns. A proposal to build housing for Jews in the centre of Israel in Jaffa in a suburb called Ajami is bitterly opposed by the Arab residents who see it as a ‘settlement’. Whatever the political motives it shows the determination of the Arabs to keep themselves separate.
This comment by the acrobatic MacEasy obviously refers to Ajami which he imagines must perforce include evicting ‘Palestinians’ (actually, Israeli Arabs living in the centre of Israel) from their own homes. While supporting Apartheid principles of keeping the Jews and Moslems separate, he manages to accuse the Israelis of doing just that. Not easy, despite the name he chooses for himself.

maceasy
8 Feb 2010, 12:46PM
It is a small but important step. Visionary Israelis might see a model for the future state in such places. Jaffa, however, illustrates the iniquity of the Israeli discrimination against Palestinians living in their own homes. Amidar, the State housing authority has a policy of ‘Judaisation’ which uses racist laws to evict Palestinians from their own homes under legal pretexts (like declaring their homes ‘state property’). It also has an agenda to ensure Jewish majorities everywhere (Jews, of course, are exempt from the laws pertaining to Palestinian rights of residence). Until such apartheid style discrimination is abolished by enlightened Israelis (of which there is no sign), the hope of mixed cities where citizens have equal rights, a precondition of peace and security, will remain a forlorn hope.

A comment by Jubilation1 attempts to set the picture straight for those who don’t understand the local sociological structure, which seems to include Seth.

Jubilation1
8 Feb 2010, 12:26PM
Seth is surprised that all cities are not like London. Israel has people of all races and colours living together however few Arab villages will allow Jews to buy land or build a house among them? You have to go to court to get permission and then it’s generally not granted.
However in Tel Aviv itself I’ve had Arab neighbours. This is not very usual but it is certainly done more often than Seth, living in his tight little circle seems to be aware of.

Grahamew just hates being put straight and objects violently to any information not given by those he personally approves of.

grahamew
8 Feb 2010, 12:44PM
Jubilation1 again demonstrating that CifWatch never sleeps.
No debate is possible. That is their aim.

A poster going by the name “compaid” weighed in early with one of those prepaid one size fits all views that those who don’t bother to read the article or think what it might be about adopt for all occasions when they see the word ‘Israel’. Bulldozing, Gaza strip, hatred, all is grist to his mill whether or not they are relevant. All he seems to want to do is to express his bile.

compaid
8 Feb 2010, 12:35PM
What a winging lot the Jews are, forever going on about the way they are badly treated by the world. Buldozing houses does not create lasting peace. They are almost becoming intolerable, its about time the USA stood up and told them that the parties over unless they stop doing this and finally sort out their issues. They are a nation stuck in the past full of hatred. The way they starve the gaza strip is a warcrime. But does the UN do anything about it. They have crap governments, and live in the past. Yes people dont like you but its not a Jewish thing its your actions. Lets help them finish their Bl..dy concrete wall and lock them in then see how they feel.

An apt comment put him straight before they both got deleted.

boblondon
8 Feb 2010, 12:39PM
@compaid
What a winging lot the Jews are
anti-semitism does not help the Palestinian cause

The prolific Sorcey, whose not-very-valuable views appear on most Israeli-Palestinian threads, seems to have difficulty in distinguishing between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. To him they’re just all in the same stew-pot. He’s not quite aware of the fact that Israeli Arabs have never lacked equal rights and is fruitlessly campaigning for something that already exists

Sorcey
8 Feb 2010, 1:35PM
This mixed development is a great idea, but not for all the reasons Seth states. The two-state solution is well and truly dead. There’s no chance of Israeli or Israelis stopping the colonisation or discrimination in the West Bank. A one-state solution, where Arabs and Jews have equal rights and live in close proximity at neighbours (no bantustans) is the way forward.

Grammar is discarded by theyislying, who feels that Israel is not Jewish or correct enough, as is capitalisation, punctuation and any connection to the article or fact itself – quite feat I thought.

theyislying
8 Feb 2010, 1:30PM
all we need is zionist israel to connect with its religious roots of what netanyahu calls the jewish israeli state .
maybe then with proper regard to jewish religious teaching that has regard for morality and ethics israel might just might seek to resolve its internal struggle before seeking a new accord with its non jewish citizens .
its not just about interaction but about the extremist ideology of some in the european settler state.
theyislying
8 Feb 2010, 1:37PM
Likewise, Jewish residents in Jaffa find out that not all Arabs
no such thing as jewish arabs? – or arabs who are jews? are all jews non arabs?
this distinction of arab vs jewish underlines the attitude that some people have regarding israel and its people. whats more worrying is that its an automatic thought response.
maybe this us and them within the jewish mindset should be laid to rest. what some of the jewish population need to acknowledge is their arab heritage and their arab ethnicity.

Continuing the theme of not relating to the object of the exercise, where the cognitive dissonance had become just too uncomfortable to bear, the subject was changed and the comment deleted – surprisingly BrianWhit didn’t respond, as he has been known to do when it is to his advantage or to that of CiF in general.

therightway
8 Feb 2010, 1:54PM
Gareth100: re the “Alderman affair” see last Friday’s Jewish Chronicle:
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/columnists/26764/comment-not-quite-free
I understand CiF has demanded a right of reply. Does anyone know if this has been granted?

It is all too much for the confused gazagirl who has found her way back to the threads but suffered some measure of concussion along the way.

gazagirl
8 Feb 2010, 2:03PM
Dr. Zoidberg
Are you speaking to me? Very silly. Why do you assume automatically that I am a supporter of the delusional thugs in Hamas? Although I must say that there are some very good hearted people within this movement also.

The thread was visited by an imposing figure who threatened to have his underlings restore order to the comments:

CifEditor
8 Feb 2010, 2:09PM
OFF-TOPIC WARNING
Please confine your discussion to issues raised in the article. Several commenters are trying to divert it towards other topics. Off-topic comments may be removed by the moderators.

After a search for something relevant and yet anti-Israeli to say – not easy in the circumstances – we see this gem of lies, insinuations and hatred: no instances are mentioned, since they seemingly aren’t necessary when used against Israelis, no proof is offered – it’s Jews we’re talking about.

gazagirl
8 Feb 2010, 2:20PM
To The Jubilation1
Seth is surprised that all cities are not like London. Israel has people of all races and colours living together however few Arab villages will allow Jews to buy land or build a house among them? You have to go to court to get permission and then it’s generally not granted.
More from the heights of disingenuousness!!!
Whan do Israeli Jews want to buy land and build a house among them? Only for ethnic cleansing developement puposes and settlements!

Namokel managed not to get deleted by seeing this action of an Israeli state with Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs as involving Israelis (all of whom are apparently Jews to him) and Arabs – all of whom he sees as Palestinians.

Namokel
8 Feb 2010, 2:32PM
While there are many hurdles in the path of the project, it would be a major disappointment were it to founder at this point, because mixed communities represent one of the best methods of bridging the gulf between the majority of Jews and Arabs in Israel and Palestine.
YES to the One-State-Solution!

And here is Berchmans at his worst, saying nothing, implying everything and managing to avoid deletion by some means not revealed to me. (It seems to have escaped his attention by the way, that those reinforced basements he is talking about were built by the Israelis for the protection of the Gazan people, but which Hamas only uses for protection of its thugs and its ammunitiion. The death of their people under the principle of human shields is of advantage to them in that they can be complained about to Goldstone and the media always hungry for horror stories about the Israelis.)

Berchmans
8 Feb 2010, 4:54PM
Keo2008
“Hamas wants to destroy Israel. “
Its a negotiating stance.I am sure they would settle for the 67 green line , some water and some reassurances. The point I makeas you well know as you always respond to this.. is that what a brutalised, hidden and poverty striken people put on a document is of secondary consideration to the cause of the problem.

What kind of document would you write scurrying about in reinforced basements ..hiding from the astonishingly successful IDF after 60 years of watching your relatives and friends being bumped off? I dream that one day Jewish and Muslim children will walk hand in hand…? He would have been in an Israeli jail before you could say equality. 🙂

Naturally, comments that are pro-Israel, whether on or off thread are in much more danger: Danglibitz managed to be deleted three times though writing on the same subjects as the Bigots’ brigade.

danglibitz
8 Feb 2010, 1:56PM
I do not understand,
given the obstinate extremists ruling Gaza and the obstinate ineffectuals in the WB
why is Israel alone is getting the insults and the vitirol?
Do they exist in a vacuum? are they controlling the Palestinians very thought processes?
or as I suspect most of the posters here have an anti-Israel (some anti Jewish) perspective and though they claim to be fair and caring, they are far from it
You don’t know who you are.

danglibitz
8 Feb 2010, 2:09PM
Gegenbeispiel
Maybe not
Mayebe it is because this forum is about as anti/Israel/Jewish as you can get?

danglibitz
8 Feb 2010, 3:51PM
Gotta luv the mods here
About as objective as a parent at the school play!