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Kristallnacht in Palestine

Carlos Weber | 17.12.2011 23:43 | Flotilla to Gaza | Palestine | Repression | Social Struggles | Cambridge

Virtually daily, Israeli security forces attack, kill, or injure Palestinian civilians with impunity. They also destroy their property by bombing, shelling, bulldozing and uprooting it. At the same time, Israeli authorities wink and nod, occasionally decry, yet do nothing to deter extremist settler crimes against Palestinian civilians. Most often, they're given license to terrorize, vandalize and commit physical violence with impunity. Rarely ever is anyone held accountable. The same holds for its own security forces, no matter how outrageous their crimes.

So imagine Defense Minister Ehud Barak's hypocrisy. In response to days of settler attacks against Palestinian property, he shamelessly called them "Jewish terrorists."

B'Tselem responded, saying "this is an illegitimate way to deal with the phenomenon of violence by Israeli citizens in the Occupied Territories. Instead, this phenomenon must be dealt with through the criminal justice system."

Netanyahu disagreed, stopping well short of condemning settler attacks and ordering arrests. Instead, he described them as a "small group that does not represent the public that lives in Judea and Samaria."

For years, radical settlers terrorized Palestinians with impunity. In the past two years alone, six mosques in Palestine and Israel (belonging to peace and other activist groups) were burned or otherwise vandalized.

More recently in early October, settlers torched a Galilee mosque in Toba Zanghriyya village, then wrote "Price Tag" and "Revenge" on its walls. Despite efforts by residents to extinguish the blaze, destruction was extensive, including holy books consumed.

Northern Branch on the Islamic Movement deputy head, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, said "racism is controlling the Jewish sector in Israel." He also held Netanyahu's government responsible for "encourag(ing) hatred toward Muslims." ......... M O R E: Kristallnacht in Palestine - by Stephen Lendman ...  http://www.indymedia.org/de/2011/12/953621.shtml ......... In most German cities and towns, enterprises and Jewish homes were looted. Over 200 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish enterprises were attacked, burned and destroyed, and, when it ended, 680 Jews were dead and nearly 30,000 interned in concentration camps.

In addition, the ministerial bureaucracy and Gestapo intensified enforcement of Jewish emigration and keeping Jews and Aryans apart. German law exempted violent anti-Jewish acts.

Many occurred, including murders, rapes, other sexual assaults, organized pogroms, public humiliations, vandalism, anti-semitic graffiti, boycotts, confiscations, looting and other forms of theft. Virtually anything was permitted to vilify and remove German Jewry.

On WW II's eve, German society was accustomed to anti-semitic violence. It was the genesis of the 1941-45 holocaust, facilitated by the 1935 "Nuremberg Laws" that:"

• protected "German Blood and German Honour";

• prevented marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Aryans;

• declared persons with any Jewish blood no longer citizens and denied all rights;

• banned Jews from holding professional jobs to exclude them from education, politics and industry;

• segregated Jews from Aryans;

• punished them financially, effectively bankrupting Jewish enterprises;

• prohibited Aryan doctors from treating them;

• prevented Jews from becoming doctors;

• excluded Jewish children from state-run schools; and

• effectively denied Jews all rights afforded Aryans.

Nazi genocide followed. For decades, Palestinians have endured similar abuses from racist laws, persecution, land theft, lost homes, dispossessions, exclusion, isolation, mass imprisonments, torture, targeted assassinations, violence, wartime slaughter, and Gazans suffocating under siege.

Nazi Germany's historic analog shows how extreme racist persecution can become. Unless checked, genocide may annihilate a population entirely.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at  lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

e-mail::  lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net homepage::  http://sjlendman.blogspot.com
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Kristallnacht in Palestine - by Stephen Lendman ...  http://www.indymedia.org/de/2011/12/953621.shtml

Carlos Weber

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Go to Palestine and see for yourselves — Rotem
  2. Another point of veiw — Tony Grosser