Sarah Honig: A Delegitimization Called Nakba
Whereas we celebrate our state’s Independence Day according to the Hebrew calendar, the Gregorian anniversary, May 15, is annually commemorated by Arabs as a day of lamentation for the Nakba. It’s the catastrophe according to their loaded terminology, which renascent Jewish sovereignty supposedly inflicted on the supposedly indigenous people of this land – the Palestinians.Michael Lumish: Happy Nakba Day!
The notion that Israel was born in sin is delegitimization in the most extreme sense.
Israel is painted as a wrong and righting the wrong means eradicating Israel. There’s no getting away from the conclusion to which this representation unavoidably leads. Israel is illegitimate both in its inception and subsequent survival. Peace can be restored only when the illegitimacy is removed.
It’s essential to remember this as we see our Arab neighbors – fellow holders of Israeli citizenship who enjoy all the perks and privileges thereof – bewail the fact that an Israel at all exists. Nakba Day is in fact Delegitimization Day. It lays the ideological groundwork for marking us as “worthy targets of violence.”
The delegitimization rests on two interconnected cornerstones – portraying Israel as the occupier-aggressor and portraying local Arabs as the hapless aboriginals overrun and oppressed by the occupier-aggressor.
I love Nakba Day.Five Reasons to Celebrate Jerusalem Day
I understand that that many Arabs are not happy about the fact that the Jewish people escaped from the Islamic system that we call dhimmitude after thirteen centuries of second and third-class non-citizenship under Arab-Muslim imperial rule... but I could hardly be more pleased.
The Muslim Brotherhood is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Hamas is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
The Islamic State is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Islamic Jihad is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Boko Haram is unhappy with Jewish liberation from Arab-Muslim imperial rule.
Speaking for myself, I could not be happier or more satisfied in the rightness and justice of the failure of Islamic rule over the Jews.
Nakba Day is one of my favorite holidays, but my favorite holidays are generally concerned with issues of liberation. I love Thanksgiving, for example, because it represents the roots of the United States and, thus, the liberation of millions of people from European authoritarianism and monarchy. I love Passover for much the same reason. It represents the freedom of the Jewish people from persecution by non-Jews, which is why we drink our wine in a lounging position.
This Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).Boycott the Boycotters movement gains momentum
The newest addition to the Jewish calendar, it’s held on the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar—six weeks after the Passover seder and one week before the eve of the holiday of Shavuot.
In June 1967, 28 Iyar was the third day of the Six Day War.
Yom Yerushalayim celebrates the reunification of Israel’s capital city, when Jewish forces brought Jerusalem “back to Jewish sovereignty”.
In Israel the holiday is marked with pilgrimages to Jerusalem with thousands of Israelis heading to the city for the annual Flag Parade.
But in many Jewish communities Yom Yerushalayim typically passes without a lot of fanfare.
Many Jews haven’t even heard of it.
REASON #1: Jewish holy places are liberated from an illegal Jordanian occupation.
REASON #2: The whole city of Jerusalem is reclaimed and reunited under Israeli sovereignty.
REASON #3: Jewish Jerusalem is reconstituted.
REASON #4: Jewish faithful have the legal right to pray on the Temple Mount.
REASON #5: Reaffirming a Jewish attachment to the holy city and to the land.
The movement to boycott those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is gaining steam, particularly at the legislative level.
We previously highlighted federal legislation aimed at the European boycott movement, and the apoplectic reaction, Breaking! Anti-Israel boycotters don’t like being boycotted!:
The reaction is furious from the anti-Israel boycotters, as refleected in this Op-Ed in The Chicago Sun Times with this ironic title, Illinois has no business boycotting those who boycott Israel, which starts off with a fake Gandhi quote:
It’s almost laughable that the same people who support boycotting Israel, as well as the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign (over the non-hiring of controversial professor Steven Salaita) scream bloody murder when the boycott is directed at the boycotters.
Expect the “Boycott the Boycotters” movement to grow.