Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
From Times of Israel:
Army sappers detonated a cellphone-operated explosive device that was apparently planted by Palestinians at the entrance to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site in the city of Nablus early Tuesday morning, ahead of a visit by approximately 1,000 Jewish worshipers, the army said.
There were no injuries or significant damage caused by the controlled blast, and the pilgrimage to the shrine continued as planned, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said.
A remote controlled bomb is not something that a lone-wolf terrorist does. This was a well-planned terror attack, done under the noses of the Palestinian Authority (if not with their actual tacit support.)
Dozens could have been killed and wounded. And the people who come to worship at Josephs Tomb are by and large not big Zionists - just religious Jews who brave terrible conditions to visit late at night.
Of course, under signed agreements, the Palestinian Authority is supposed to allow free access to Jews to their holy places. In reality, the Jews would be torn limb from limb if they tried to visit on their own, and they need to be protected by the army and border police.
According to the military, as the group was leaving the area, local residents began to throw rocks at the troops and the buses, causing no injuries, but some light damage to the vehicles.
This is as pure an example of Jew-hatred as one can imagine.
But B'Tselem doesn't support freedom to worship. It supports the people who attack the Jews.
Pilgrimages by Israeli or foreign civilians to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site are frequent catalysts for violence. In the past, Nablus residents have attacked the groups visiting the site with rocks, Molotov cocktails and rifle fire.The only reason the army need to be there is to protect the Jews from mobs of stone throwers (and potential bombers.) Otherwise, the Jews could visit peacefully and leave peacefully, not having to come in groups of a thousand at midnight but coming throughout the day. Souvenir stands could be placed nearby and the economy of Nablus could improve.
As a result, those interested in visiting the site require a military escort.
The left-wing B’Tselem rights group has condemned the routine practice, saying that “Israel has preferred the interest of Jewish worshipers over the rights of the Palestinian residents, their security, their safety and their daily routine.”
It isn't the Jews who disrupt the lives of the resident of Nablus - it is the residents of Nablus who hate Jews so much that they must stone and firebomb them.
But B'Tselem shows that it really doesn't care about human rights at all. Palestinians have the absolute right to keep Jews out of their town, and Jews have no right to peacefully pray at their holy site.
I found the Facebook post where B'Tselem says this. It is an amazing inversion of cause and effect. Residents of Nablus are crying to B'Tselem "researchers" about how they hear and smell tear gas firings - but the idea that there would be no clashes if Palestinians didn't attack Jewish worshipers is simply incomprehensible to these "humanitarians." No, to B'Tselem, Palestinians are animals who literally cannot stop themselves from attacking Jews, and it is Jews who are responsible for being attacked by the unfortunate fact that they exist.
This is not human rights. This is supporting terror and Jew-hatred. And for this reason alone, B'Tselem has discredited itself as any kind of moral authority.
