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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Miftah's double standards for Jews and everyone else

Miftah, the Western-funded NGO that refuses to condemn the medieval Jewish blood libel in Arabic, has another article filled with lies - this one about Jerusalem:
Looking at the state of Jerusalem’s eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.
Devastation? United Jerusalem today is more beautiful than at any time since 70 CE. So what is the devastation?
Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away.
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the subject knows that the Israel Antiquities Authority bends over backwards to save ancient artifacts - belonging to any religion. The Waqf, on the other hand, lies whenever it is convenient to do so, and has purposefully destroyed thousands of priceless ancient Jewish objects.

Condemning Jews acting responsibly to save antiquities while condoning Muslims destroying them is a bit of a double standard. There might be a term for that.
A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance.
Besides the small fact that there haven't been any graves in the area being dug for quite a while, Miftah's writer seems unaware that, in 1946, the Supreme Muslim Council approved the building of an office park directly on top of the cemetery - and their own offices would have been housed there! They justified it by citing Islamic precedent.

To Miftah, only Jewish actions are to be condemned.

There might be a term for that.
Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.
Miftah seems to believe that Jews should be forbidden to buy buildings in Jerusalem. Yet Arabs move to Jewish neighborhoods, and that is not a problem.

There might be a term for that.
The “Judiazation” of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.
I am not familiar with any demolition of historic Islamic structures since 1967.

Miftah's lies go beyond that, by pretending that Jerusalem has a primarily "Arab Palestinian character." They might want to explain exactly why there were no synagogues in the Old City between 1948 and 1967. I'm sure they can figure it out, even if they approve of the actions that burnt them down.

 Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel’s light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center.
Legally buying buildings at hugely inflated prices is, in Miftah-speak, "wrestling." Even when the Shimon HaTzaddik portion of that  neighborhood was built by Jews who were violently attacked and ethnically cleansed in 1948.

And somehow Jerusalem's light rail, which serves Arabs and Jews equally, has only taken land from Arabs in its construction. Amazing!

On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.
Jews walking around with Israeli flags are "settlers" and "extremists." Arabs waving Palestinian flags - not being interfered with by the Israeli police - are "fearless" and "determined." Why is one group described as heroic and the other in a derogatory manner, when they were doing the same thing?

There might be a term for that.