The Killing of 8 Israelis in Context

The recent killing of 8 Israelis at a Jerusalem Yeshiva brought howls of condemnation the world over. Media organisations were in frenzy at the brutality of this latest terrorist attack committed by a Palestinian against Israelis, Muslim killing Jews. The BBC managed to eclipse the tragedies we saw and are continuing to see in Gaza with reports of Israeli protest to the attacks and video footage of the mass funeral which followed. What was also prevalent within world media reports were the supposed celebrations in Gaza in response to the news of these killings. Many in the pro-Israel camp cited the common idea that what we saw in Gaza in response to the killings proves the Palestinians in inherent to kill Jews. They must have forgotten that a common slogan among Israel’s settler movement is “death to Arabs” as was the case during the funeral processions which followed the Yeshiva killings.

However looking at these events in context unveils the mass hysteria, and propaganda, which helps maintain the very hypocrisy and double standards which support Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Israel’s Public Security Minister Avi Dichter is demanding the home of Alaa Abu Dhaim who was responsible for the killings be destroyed. It was up until 2005 standard practice for the homes of so called suicide bombers to be destroyed. Family members are given little or no time to gather their belongings before either a bulldozer or fighter jets destroys their home. As well as being a gross human rights violation, such actions do not of course apply to Jews who murder Palestinians. Burach Goldstein the Orthodox Jewish settler who was responsible for the 1994 massacre of 25 Palestinians and the wounding of 150 is regarded as a ‘saint’ and hero among the settlement movement. The massacre happened in a Mosque in Hebron Palestine on the 25th of February 1994. Goldstein opened fire as Muslims were worshipping on the same grounds where Abraham is believed to have been buried killing 25 and injuring well over 100. It was not until a few worshippers managed to get to Goldstein that his rampage was put to an end, and Goldstein was subsequently killed.
The Ministry Of Interior when processing Goldstein’s death certificate included ‘murder’ as the cause of his death. Alaa Abu Dhaim who murdered Jewish students at the Yeshiva was also killed by some of his intended victims. Unlike Goldstein Israel branded Abu Dhaim a “terrorist” his killers were hailed as heroes and his family home is due to be destroyed. It has now been discovered that Alaa Abu Dhaim carried out this attack alone. His family claims that Israel’s latest Gaza onslaught enraged Alaa and was most likely the catalyst for the school massacre.

Palestinian anger is real as is Israeli anger. Palestinian hate is also very much real and so is Israeli hate. However the cause of such anger and hate is very much different. While Palestinians suffer the brutality of the Israeli occupation, assassinations, road blocks, house demolitions, food and water restrictions, electricity cuts, land theft and the daily humiliation at the hands of the so called IDF, Israeli anger and hate spawns from their Governments inability to carry out these crimes without any response from the Palestinians. For your average Israeli, Palestinian Katusha rockets are simply a product bourn of inherent hate, as opposed to hate fuelled by over 50 years of an occupation, which has trampled on the Palestinians basic human rights from its very beginning. The Palestinians of Gaza are literally starving due to Israel’s continuing embargo. The celebrations we saw in Gaza as a result of the Yeshiva killings are a normal reaction from a people who cannot express their suffering in a way that we in the West consider “morally acceptable”. How do you express the fact that your family and neighbors are slowly dying at the hands of a state founded on the ruins of your ancestors?