The Theft of a Place of Pride

Author

Dr. Sabri Saidam

For decades, the occupation government has denied its involvement in the theft of natural resources from the Palestinians, as it has become accustomed to denying its ongoing assaults on Palestinian water, oil, gas, and all their life essentials in its reports and international forums.

Today, the matter has become public, and it is even accompanied by boasting and pride from the far-right politicians in Israel. Moreover, the persistence in this matter and the race towards it has long been admired by some Israelis who support those parties.

Does Israel boast today about these thefts? Without hesitation, reservation, or ambiguity, considering such acts justified, according to its claims, and it considers it a legitimate right and an approved act, according to those in power today and some who are outside of it.

The beginning naturally comes from the alleged claim of rights to the Arab land, through flimsy justifications based on religious doctrinal arguments, as well as urgent security, military, and economic claims, as the occupying state asserts.

Today, Israel unleashes its settlers to do what they do in broad daylight, expanding the circle of thefts to include the stealing of livestock, seizing olive crops, and sources of water, not to mention cutting down trees and paving various roads for the purpose of expanding settlements and building new ones, as part of clear and explicit projects that are not only not announced but are also boasted about and flaunted in the context of clear, blatant, and scandalous political and electoral competitions.

These actions do not come merely from a traditional occupation standpoint, nor from a supposed divine promise, but also from the perspective of dealing with Palestinians by stripping them of their humanity, dehumanizing them, and applying the racist concept that states: a good Arab is a dead Arab.

The stripping of humanity, the state of the occupying government's empowerment over the world, the growing influence in decision-making factories, the blatant collusion, the American material and military cover, the abundance of money, the accumulated legal support, and the indifference to what the world says, all provide the occupying state with the necessary cover to boast about its occupation and its actions and those of its settlers, and to oppress not only the Palestinians but the entire world as well.

Some say that what one of the Israeli Mossad officials said on the American program 60 Minutes explains the situation dispassionately: 'We are creating a false world. We are a global production company: we write the script. We are the directors, the producers, the main actors, and the world is our stage.'

Many Jews around the world reject what is happening; in fact, some rabbis have recently broken their silence to openly express their rejection of such actions and behaviors. They have joined a group of singers, actors, and celebrities from their faith who have distanced themselves from the actions of the Tel Aviv government today. It is as if their message is saying that neither religion nor the world can accept the suffering of the Palestinian people, and that extremism in Israel, no matter how it is cloaked in the garments of religion and ideology, is merely a blatant political party competition that cannot deceive anyone. Will the wave of those rejecting the concepts of pride in theft and Israeli extremism escalate? We wait and see.

s.saidam@gmail.com