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by Daniel Pipes
November 25, 2008
updated Mar 21, 2009
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In 1997-98, the Israeli government, with Washington's encouragement, arrested and jailed a young woman, Tatiana Soskin, who put up posters in Hebron that depicted the Muslim prophet, Muhammad, as a pig, A Jerusalem court convicted her of various crimes and sentenced her to two years in prison, plus a one-year suspended sentence. I covered the case at the time in an article, "[Hebron Pig Poster Incident:] How Clinton Adheres to the 'Rushdie Rules'" but then forgot the topic: that seemed to be that, a one-time incident without consequences over the next decade.
But now a similar court case is taking place, as a poet goes on trial in Israel, explains Sultan Knish. Gershon (Gregory) Trastman writes for Vesti, a conservative Russian-language newspaper in Israel, and a recent poem by him, with references to Arab demographics as a weapon against Israel, has him in trouble. Here is a rough translation of his poem: .
Today however in Israel it is
A Nightmare, the number of Arabs passes a Million
And increases without weakness or respite
Look upon them and your vision grows dark
I will tell the Jews without offense
At night they farm and form is filled
By the eclipse of the moonlight's beam,
The breath of death, what way is found?
The hare, the cat, the locust cannot match
And whether through Ill Luck or Prophecy
We already pave the way to the Tomb of Night
The Tomb of Night, an Arab woman's womb
In addition, Sergei Podrazhansky, the Vesti oped page editor, is on his way to court.
Comments: (1) Two such cases suggest the Soskin episode was not aberrant but part of something larger. (2) Dhimmitude appears to be flourishing in Israel.
The "No Arabs - No terrorism" bumper sticker, in Hebrew.
Feb. 25, 2009 update: The slogan "No Arabs - No terrorism" emerged during the post-September 2000 violence and in 2002 was deemed racist by Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein. Nonetheless, Neria Ofan, 37, had a bumper sticker on his car with the slogan as he drove in 2004 through the West Bank to his residence in Yitzhar. In a February 18 ruling, Judge Shulamit Dotan of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court found Ofan guilty of incitement to racism. She explained why: the slogan is
tainted with racism because it connects the entire Arab population, without any differentiation among its members, and the execution of heinous terror acts. It thus shows hostility and enmity toward an entire populace, only because of its national-ethnic origin. The slogan also suggests a solution to the "problem" in the form of collective punishment of the Arab population by making it disappear, either by expulsion of by other means, which the reader need only imagine, as long as the country remains "clean" of Arabs."
Ofan will be sentenced at a later date. He is the second person to be convicted for using the slogan, the first having been David Ha'ivri, who was sentenced to six months of community service for distributing T-shirts with the slogan on them.
Ofen responded by calling the judgment both "a bit illogical" and "a selective enforcement of the law."
Itamar Ben-Gvir also accused the police and the courts of a double standard: "We see that when the Arabs chant 'Death to the Jews' as they did recently in Umm el-Fahm, neither the police nor the State Attorney's Office do anything." He also held that "No Arabs - No terrorism" does not amount to a direct call to violence.
Barak Medina, a law professor at Hebrew University agreed, noting that there is no uniform approach in such cases, which are influenced by the public mood and the general political circumstances. He also noted that Israeli law enforcement is more sensitive to remarks directed against a minority.
Comment: In contrast, a bumper sticker with "No Muslims - No Terrorism" was for sale in 2003 at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., and no one was arrested.
Mar. 2, 2009 update: On learning that "a cast member on the Israeli version of the reality show Survivor said he had named one of his shoes Muhammad," I wonder if jail awaits him. So far, the only reaction I find is that GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah yesterday, as paraphrased by the Saudi newspaper Arab News, "called on the international community and the United Nations to take immediate measures to stop the defamation of prophets and religions."
Mar. 9, 2009 update: Incidents in Hebron suggest that the government of Israel devotes less attention to protecting Judaism than Islam. Efrat Weiss reports for Yedi'ot Aharonot in "Prayer books at holy site vandalized":
Police launched an investigation Monday after Jewish settlers in Hebron accused Palestinians of destroying prayer and psalm books in the Cave of the Patriarchs. Spokesman for the Jewish settlement in Hebron, Noam Arnon, claimed a double standard was at play. "If Quran books had been torn up I have no doubt the case would be handled drastically and immediately, but when it's damage done to Jewish holy sites there is disregard and whitewashing," he said.
Every year Jewish and Palestinians worshippers are allowed 10 days at the holy cave. On Monday Jewish prayer-goers arrived to find their holy books vandalized during one of the Muslim days of worship at the cave. According to Arnon, the incident was not the first to occur. "After every such day we gather shards and appraise the damage. This time the damage occurred to prayer and psalm books; in the past it was mezuzot, furniture, pipes, and faucets," he said. He added that complaints had been filed before, to no avail. "No one has ever been interrogated or brought to justice. No sanctions exist to prevent such incidents," he said.
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) responded to the incident by saying, "The barbaric behavior of the Hebron rioters, who destroyed holy books in the Cave of the Patriarchs, proves once again that they are an agitating and destructive presence that finds itself among cultured people." He added that the next government, in which his party is predicted to participate, would strive to secure full Jewish control over the holy site.
Police stated that an investigation has been launched. So far no arrests have been made.
Related Topics: Dhimmitude, Freethinking & Muslim apostasy, Israel receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
