Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
Nowhere in the entire press release does the ministry actually say what Israel is planning to do.
The mentality of the racist colonialism dominates the government in the occupying state and its various arms, and is embodied in its worst forms, with the operations of control, familyization and Judaization of the Ibrahimi Mosque, changing its historical, cultural, cultural and religious landmarks, and depriving the original owners of the land and Muslims from accessing it and praying in it. The occupation is one, its mentality is one, and its narrative is one, whether as it constantly appears in the oppression of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in prisons, or in the theft of Palestinian land and targeting the Palestinian presence through mass demolitions and forced displacement, or in the attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty and control over all the holy, archaeological and historical sites that are located in the heart of cities and Palestinian towns. As a result of this racist mentality, Palestinians are constantly paying high prices for the occupation’s complex crimes and violations. ....It is the mentality of Judaization and creeping annexation that denies the right of the Palestinian to his homeland and tries to change the parameters of the historical and legal reality to serve the Talmudic narrative of occupation, with the aim of replacing the political character of the conflict with the religious one.The Ministry condemns in the strongest terms Israel's colonial attacks on the Ibrahimi Mosque and Christian and Islamic holy sites, and bears the Israeli government full and direct responsibility for this crime. The Ministry calls on UNESCO to defend its decisions and take the necessary practical measures to protect the Ibrahimi Mosque and return it to its historical and legal reality that was distorted and stolen by the occupation forces....
When the ministry says they want the Cave of the Patriarchs to "return to its historical and legal reality," they mean they want to revert to the days before 1967 when Jews were not allowed to visit the site altogether.
So why did they issue this unhinged screed?
This is all about an elevator that Israel approved to be built to that handicapped people can access the holy site. Right now, anyone in a wheelchair needs to be physically carried up the ancient stone stairs to visit the site.
Israel unilaterally decided to build the elevator after many years of lobbying because the Palestinian Authority would never agree to anything like this. The human rights of the disabled would not even be considered as a factor. In fact, you will not find any supposedly liberal anti-Israel activist who supports the idea that Jews have the human right to visit the site freely, let alone that disabled people have the right to visit safely, because the imperative of being anti-Israel is much more important than mere human rights.
Arab media claim that this will be a Jewish-only elevator. Arab media is lying - the elevator is for all. But the hate that the Palestinians and their supporters have for Jews is far, far higher than their desire to allow even disabled Muslims to visit their own holy sites, as long as the plan also helps any Jews.
The main Palestinian argument is that this elevator and supporting infrastructure is using land that belongs to Arab Hebron and the Waqf, and therefore this violates agreements. But the Palestinians have also signed agreements saying that Jews should have free access to their holy places. No one seems to insist that they hold up those agreements. If they were a normal government that cared about human rights and peace, something could have been hammered out to allow wheelchair access for all back in 2003.
When the PA uses language like "racist" and "colonialist" and "Talmudic" - one of their favorite epithets - to describe an elevator to help the disabled, it proves yet again that this is all about hating Jews and denying Jews their rights.
