Already you know that I am in over my head. Who could
possibly name Israel’s greatest fear? There are just too many from which to
choose. However, somewhere in the list would be Israel’s fear of education. I don’t
know what Israel fears most.
AN EDUCATED PALESTINIAN?
Why else would Israel go to such lengths to destroy
Palestinian schools:
The night before the new school
year started, Israeli bulldozers arrived on the outskirts of the Palestinian
city of Bethlehem to demolish several caravans recently erected as a school for
some 100 students… In the meantime, children study in a tent, without water or
bathrooms.[1]
In addition to destroying school buildings, Israel is
determined to control the curriculum:
Israel puts financial pressure on
Palestinian schools in occupied East Jerusalem in an effort to make them switch
over to an Israeli-controlled curriculum, one that teaches that Al-Aqsa is not
their holy place, that the Palestinian flag is not their flag, that their land
belongs to the settlers and that Ariel Sharon is a hero.[2]
Yet, perhaps more frightening to Israel than an educated
Palestinian is an
AN EDUCATED ISRAELI.
Just a little investigation will reveal that Palestine was
not a land without a people, that Palestinians did not voluntarily leave their
homes in 1948, that Israel chose the war of 1967, that the IDF, Israel Defense
Force, is not the most moral army on the globe and that Israel is not a
democracy. And most of all, that Zionism is a violation of Judaism.
However, probably, most frightening to Israel is an
AN EDUCATED AMERICAN.
I have in mind Brant Rosen, who serves a congregation in
Evanston, Il. and is fearless in speaking out against Israel from his Jewish
heart:
My primary religious motivation
comes from my inherited Jewish tradition, in which God commands me to stand
with the oppressed and to call out the oppressor…I simply don’t agree with the “official”
Jewish community position that Israel’s actions are justified acts of
self-defense. Rosen speaks not only as a Jew, but as an American:
I am also the citizen of a nation
whose government has essentially given Israel a blank check to take numerous
measures that I believe are counter to the cause of peace, including the
expropriation of Palestinian lands, destruction of homes, injustice in military
courts and widespread building of settlements in occupied Palestinian
territory, to name a few.[3]
From every angle, education is Israel’s enemy and it’s an
enemy that will never be defeated. You just cannot wall out intelligence.
Thomas Are
September 12, 2017
During the first intifada in 1987, a British journalist wondered why was Israel closing schools instead of keeping them open and get the stone-throwing children off the streets. His investigation revealed that soon after the 1967 five day war, the Israelis were dismayed to discover that the average Palestinian was better educated than the Israeli counterpart, hence the adoption of a policy to close Palestinian schools whenever an opportunity arose for the flimsiest justification.
ReplyDeleteMy education was greatly Enhanced with this article. Thanks
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