{"id":10507,"date":"2012-12-25T21:43:45","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T21:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/?p=10507"},"modified":"2013-01-19T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T09:00:07","slug":"decemebr-25-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/2012\/12\/25\/decemebr-25-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Decemebr 25, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Xmas in Palestine<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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EDITOR<\/strong>: Christmas news…<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who, like me, had to puke over Netanyahu’s Christmas speech, the piece below is doubly poignant. All over Israel, the only Jewish democracy in the Middle East, special forces are seeking and destroying Christmas trees, and Silvester parties have made illegal. I may be wrong, but this has still not happened in the Iranian Islamic Republic…<\/span><\/p>\n

Forbidden to celebrate: Israel\u2019s war on Christmas continues despite Netanyahu\u2019s claim of tolerance<\/a>: Electronic Intifada<\/h3>\n
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Submitted by\u00a0Ali Abunimah\u00a0on Tue, 12\/25\/2012 – 18:09<\/div>\n
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Palestinian children play outside Deir Latin church in Gaza City on Christmas Eve 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Ezz Al-Zanoon<\/a>\u00a0\/APA images<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In his\u00a0Christmas greeting video<\/a>, Israeli Prime Minister\u00a0Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0boasted of Israel\u2019s supposed religious tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday Christian communities around the Middle East are shrinking and in danger. This is of course not true in Israel. Here there\u2019s a strong, growing Christian community that participates fully in the life of our country,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n

Vowing to \u201ccontinue to protect freedom of religion and thought,\u201d Netanyahu also promised \u201cto safeguard Christian places of worship throughout our country\u201d and not to \u201ctolerate any acts of violence or discrimination against any place of worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making a pitch for Christian Zionist tourism he urged listeners to \u201cCome see our ancient land with your own eyes. Visit Nazareth and Bethlehem, wade in the Jordan River, stand on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and next year come visit our eternal capital, Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

His inclusion of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, as well as the banks of the Jordan River, can be taken as another affirmation that Israel, despite its rhetoric, has no interest in a \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d and intends to absorb all of historic Palestine as an exclusively \u201cJewish state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disappearing Christmas trees<\/h2>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s professions of tolerance would have come as news to Palestinian Christian students at Safad Academic College in the Galilee. There, students who could not get home for the holidays bought a Christmas tree and set it up outside their dorm.<\/p>\n

But in the evening when they got back from class, they found the tree was gone, Israel\u2019s\u00a0Walla! News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the saddest Christmas,\u201d said Gabriel Mansour, 24, a third-year political science student, identified by Walla! as a representative of Arab students. \u201cAll we wanted to do was provide some good cheer for all the students who remained alone in the dorms, and who were unable to go home to their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mansour investigated, he was told by college officials that the tree had been hidden lest it spark riots among the Jewish students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was angry to hear this,\u201d said Mansour of the claim that the tree might spark riots among Jewish students and residents of Safad. \u201cUnfortunately they don\u2019t respect our holidays. We fully respect all Israeli holidays. Why can no one respect our traditions? Why can\u2019t we put up a Christmas tree?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think Christmas should be marked with such ostentation,\u201d Walla! quoted an unnamed Jewish student saying. \u201cThe college has a distinctly Jewish character. It\u2019s not healthy for anyone to be able to do whatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

State rabbis order bans on Christmas<\/h2>\n

The ban on Christmas at Safad college is no isolated incident. For several years, Shimon Gapso, the\u00a0notoriously racist<\/a>\u00a0mayor of the Israeli settlement of \u201cUpper Nazareth<\/a>\u201d in the Galilee, has banned Christmas trees, calling them a provocation. \u201cNazareth Illit [Upper Nazareth] is a Jewish city and it will not happen \u2013 not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,\u201d\u00a0Gapso said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to journalist\u00a0Jonathan Cook<\/a>\u00a0in Nazareth, such\u00a0bans continue and are widespread this year<\/a>\u00a0with Israel\u2019s state-financed rabbis warning hotels and restaurants that they will lose their kosher certifications if they put up trees or other Christmas decorations or hold Christmas events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words,\u201d Cook says, \u201cthe rabbinate has been quietly terrorising Israeli hotel owners into ignoring Christmas by threatening to use its powers to put them out of business. Denying a hotel its kashrut (kosher) certificate would lose it most of its Israeli and foreign Jewish clientele.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatred of Christianity inherent in Israel\u2019s \u201cLaw of Return\u201d<\/h2>\n

Israel claims to be a \u201cJewish state.\u201d Its blatantly discriminatory \u201cLaw of Return<\/a>\u201d grants the automatic right to those it recognizes as Jews from anywhere in the world to emigrate and receive citizenship even if they have no connection to the country. At the same time, Israel prevents indigenous Palestinian refugees, including those born there, from returning home just because they are\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0Jews.<\/p>\n

But according to the US State Department in its\u00a02011 report on religious freedom around the world<\/a>, Israel specifically applies a blatantly\u00a0anti-Christian<\/strong>\u00a0test in applying this bigoted law:<\/p>\n

The question of whether one believes Jesus is the Jewish Messiah has been used to determine whether a Jew was qualified to immigrate. The [Israeli] Supreme Court repeatedly has upheld the right, however, of Israeli Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah to retain their citizenship. The immigration exclusion was routinely applied\u00a0only against Messianic Jews,<\/strong>\u00a0whereas Jews who were atheists were accepted, and Jews who chose to believe in other religions, including Hindus and Buddhists, were not screened out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words a \u201cJew\u201d can be an atheist, Hindu, or Buddhist \u2013 anything at all \u2013 and be granted citizenship by Israeli authorities. It is\u00a0only a belief in Jesus<\/em>\u00a0that disqualifies them.<\/p>\n

As for Netanyahu\u2019s promise that Christian holy sites would be protected, he failed to mention that in recent months, Israeli settlers, acting with the\u00a0collusion<\/a>\u00a0of Israeli authorities, have\u00a0stepped up<\/a>\u00a0so-called \u201cprice tag<\/a>\u201d attacks on Christian holy sites.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Christmas celebrations proceeded in Gaza and\u00a0in Iran<\/a>, two Muslim-majority places Israeli propaganda likes to paint as particularly hostile to minority religious groups.<\/p>\n

Few countries live up to their own claims about religious freedom and tolerance and many must do better. But selling Israel in particular, whose whole\u00a0raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em>\u00a0is to privilege Jews\u00a0qua<\/em>\u00a0Jews over the indigenous Palestinian population of any religion, as a paragon of tolerance and pluralism is patently absurd.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR: Christmas news… For those who, like me, had to puke over Netanyahu’s Christmas speech, the piece below is doubly poignant. All over Israel, the only Jewish democracy in the Middle East, special forces are seeking and destroying Christmas trees, and Silvester parties have made illegal. I may be wrong, but this has still not … Continue reading Decemebr 25, 2012<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10507"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10510,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10507\/revisions\/10510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimbresheeth.com\/gaza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}