Seth Frantzman
Terra Incognita/JPost
13 April '10
On January 22 the weekly leftist and Arab protesters in Sheikh Jarrah were joined by a number of Israeli Jewish notables, including former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg and one-time education minister Yossi Sarid.
They were protesting against Jewish settlers moving into Jewish houses whose residents had been forced to flee in 1948, when they ended up on the Jordanian side of the border.
On March 7, Burg explained his feelings in an op-ed, “Once justice dwelled here. Now the settlers do, murderers of the nation’s soul... We shall not be silent when Ahmed and Aysha are sleeping in the street outside their home.” For him the protesters were the “people of integrity.” Jews must “leave Sheikh Jarrah now!”
Another celebrity activist in the struggle in Sheikh Jarrah is Sahar Vardi, daughter of Dr. Amiel Vardi of the Hebrew University. Sahar, who refused to do her army service, claimed in an interview that it is “unconscionable for me to live in my home in the German Colony and study whatever I like” when Arabs are being evicted from homes in east Jerusalem.
In late March another Sheikh Jarrah Jewish activist named Michael Solsberry was arrested at his home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev.
There is a common stream that runs through those who are active against the occupation. Many are from leading families, come from a wealthy background and live in the most expensive neighborhoods. Nothing in itself is wrong with this, except when one considers what they demand of others. While they claim to be at the forefront of human rights, their activism obscures a darker truth. They believe it is acceptable to live where they want without being protested against, but deny that others might live in certain areas they deem to be off limits.
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Isn't it potentially a problem that kicking Palestinians out of Sheikh Jarrah could set the precedent for Palestinians being legally able to kick residents of Baka and Talbieh out of their homes? On a purely selfish level, wouldn't people living in old Arab houses want to make sure that their ability to keep their homes doesn't get challenged? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough significant differences that it has not been a concern until now, nor should it be in the future. As most are aware, the Israeli High Court is not adverse to hearing such cases, and is known to have a distinctive "universalist" feel in it's approach to these cases, to what many feel is the detriment of the Jewish State. That it recognizes the difference between property where it's owners were driven out or murdered by an armed enemy force, i.e. Sheik Jarrah versus abandonment based on the encouraged and false hope of the destruction of the nascent Jewish State, is to their credit.
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