Horror Stories from East Jerusalem
JVL Introduction
This is the story of the demolition of Abu Diab’s home in Silwan, East Jerusalem. Mr Diab is a human rights activist and he may have been targeted to frighten others, already more fearful with the racist rhetoric from Israeli leaders since October 7th. There are 20,000 demolition orders and these never expire so uncertainty is ever present. What is more, Palestinians have to pay the cost of the demolition themselves. Israel’s supporters argue that this is what would happen in the UK but there is no comparison because in East Jerusalem, building permits are almost impossible for Palestinians to get, 28% of Palestinian homes are considered illegal by Israel and all endure the possibility of their homes being destroyed.
How do you explain to your two year old granddaughter why the police destroyed her home? (And to do it without stirring up hatred) And Abu Diab is not only worried for his family but for a future eruption in anger as this continues. “There will be a reaction,” he told Al Jazeera. “People can’t stand this for long.”
This article was originally published by Al Jazeera on Sun 25 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
With all eyes on Gaza, Israel steps up demolitions of Palestinian homes
‘We can’t stand this suffering for long,’ Palestinian activists in East Jerusalem wa
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Mention this and we all know the response to be expected. By not mentioning 0ct 7th first, or if you do mention it and don’t give it sufficient ‘airtime’ first, you are anti-Semitic – then it’s ‘denier’ (the new anti-Semitic now anti-Semitic has, astonishingly, lost much of it’s impact).
On 9/11/2001 a colleague handed me a useful hitlist of ten things 9/11 might just have been a response to. An American friend had sent him this. And it was very useful in fending off the hysterics, the abuse, the accusations of blind savage murderous hate. Oh how you become what you hate!
A similar, concise, hit list of the endless atrocities that those who love to say “denier” are actually in / cultivating denial of, would be a very useful asset. Something that could be reeled off quickly, and if need be drilled into for more detail. They want to flood our consciousness with their grievances real or fabricated, wash all else away and if the perfectly natural response is to become angered, it works very well for them. Politicians and so called journalists (AKA presenters) who use this tactic need to have it turned on them, publicly, and be given an absolute barracking about the atrocities they insouciantly wave aside as there is no career mileage it for them. I think we all need to pool our resources in order to optimise for expedient usage the verbal ammunition required to trash them for the trash they are. I’m thinking perhaps a reverse chronological list of the never to be mentioned horrors that works on every level from simple impactful headline to précis to full detail and verification. Ideally with all proven liars involved named.