Friday, March 30, 2007

HOUSE ARREST PALESTINE STYLE

I don't generally have much sympathy for the settlers of Hebron and nor do I think it's a smart thing for a Palestinian to sell his or her house to a settler. However this story from Ha'aretz is simply mind-boggling.

"JORDAN, PA ARREST 2 PALESTINIANS FOR SELLING HEBRON HOUSE TO JEWS"

"The Palestinian Authority and Jordan earlier this week arrested two Palestinians suspected of selling a house in Hebron to settlers who have been occupying it since March 19.

"One of the suspects is being held in Jordan, and the other in Jericho. PA laws call for a death sentence for anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews."

So even if an Anthony Loewenstein wanted to buy an allotment in Hebron in order that he could cosy up to some of his Palestinian friends, the vendor of the land would face execution for doing business with a Jew.

I'm waiting with bated breath to read about this in the Melbourne Age which somehow missed the Palestinian sewer disaster story. However, I don't believe that a newspaper with a true social conscience and a disdain for intolerance would ever pass up the opportunity to expose the naked racism inherent in this particular law.

Surely?

3 comments:

Wilbur Post said...

I have just read some of the talkback at the foot of the Ha'aretz article and must confess that I haven't managed to laugh as loudly or as hard since the Billy Crystal concert hit town a little over a month ago.

I couldn't separate two entries for the prize of outsandingly hilarious and witty comment.

I'm almost certain that the first, from Leon Rosgarten (#35 The laws of Jordan and the PA are just) was intended as a joke:

"The laws in Jordan and the PA indure a just society entirely cleansed of any traces of racism. Other countries, for example in Europe, can only look with envy. Let me explain: The UN has established long ago that zionism is racism. Or, equivalently, racism is zionism. Jordan and the PA make sure that people of racist ancestry have no ownership of any property. Thus, this settler purchase is illegal and void, regardless if the owner received money from the settlers, and hence it is the IDF's duty to evacuate the settlers. If these laws would applied universally, the Middle East conflict would just melt away by itself!"

The second from an Australian anti Semite who calls herself "Marilyn" (# 47 Israel Apartheid) is a real knee slapper but I can't decide whether she's deadly serious or whether its a case of failing to take her medication for the last couple of days.

"Every act of violence or barbarism that an Arab commits anywhere, ever (even against other Arabs) is a direct result of the occupation of Palestinian lands.

Killing Arabs that sell land to Jews is a just and righteous penalty because it deters Palestinian cooperation with any further Zionist land-grabs.

Theirs (the Arabs) culture and religion is one of peace and the west's right-wing nuts have to realize that not everything they don't understand or practice is wrong.

Anyone that disagrees with me or criticizes anything Arabs do (after all the suffering they have gone through under the Zionist Apartheid yoke) is a cretin."

Anonymous said...

Wilbur. Another Haaretz item worth reading that almost certainly will not see the light of day in the Age is Bradley Burston's A Special Place in Hell. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/844111.html

"...in a Frankfurt court, a Muslim woman whose Muslim husband beat her and threatened to kill her, was denied a divorce. Judge Christa Datz-Winter ruled that "the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives," The New York Times reported. "The Koran, she wrote, sanctions such physical abuse."

We live in a twisted perverted world.

Anonymous said...

THE AGE LETTERS POLICY

We prefer letters of no more than 200 words but if we agree with your viewpoint we might give you double that space. If we disagree with you or if you write anything that might paint our friends in a bad light, then we might cut your letter down to the point where it's meaningless or not publish it at all. Letters must indicate your full name, address (not a post office box) including name of roommate if you are a resident at an asylum and a daytime telephone number for verification. By submitting your letter to us for publication you agree that we may edit the letter for legal, space or reasons of trying to make your argument sound illogical if we disagree with you or you support a zionist position and may, after publication in the newspaper, republish it on the Internet or in other media including hate sites.