Video: Zionist settler lecturing Palestinian farmers — ‘You’ll all be our slaves, if

[freepalestine]

Video: Israeli settler lecturing Palestinian farmers — ‘You’ll all be our slaves, if you’re worthy, if you behave well’
by Annie Robbins on February 27, 2013


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ARTICLE: http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/israeli-lecturing-palestinian.html

[l'Enfermé]

"Chosen people", after all.

[ind_com]

Fuck those imperialist dogs.

[hatzel]

"Chosen people", after all.

Heh seriously go fuck yourself. Sorry but that kinda had to be said...

If you're honestly trying to claim that the problem with Israel is Judaism, then you're no better than those numbskulls who want to claim that the problem with Islamic countries is Islam or whatever other bullcrap people say, which relies on an understanding of the world which - beyond being heinous bigotry (and I feel like pointing out that you've made a string of somewhat 'questionable' comments about Jews before now) - is rank idealism, having absolutely nothing in common with leftist analysis. Nothing about politics, economics, nationalism, states and their interests, imperialism, (neo-)colonialism etc., people just read some old book, learn a concept that you clearly don't want to understand and then in a vacuum they end up doing shitty stuff? Makes sense to me. Now explain to me, if you will: if this is all about 'chosen people' and Jews just being Jews, can't be helped, why exactly did millions of devout Jews totally forgot to do or say any of this stuff for a good 2000+ years, and then some of them just so happen to remember what their religion really taught at exactly the same time as it became, you know, politically expedient for them to do so...?

Sheesh, I'm a man on a mission lately, I'll tire myself out if I'm not careful! Luckily I'm outty; shabbat shalom, people!

[Q]

Wow, that guy is annoying. I would've punched him in the face after a minute or two.

But I guess that is not really an option, because as soon after the Zionist colonist goes home crying to the army, these farmers will lose all their land...

And hatzel: l'Enfermé pretty much nailed it. This settler colonist is a religious fanatic. He really thinks he is part of the "chosen" people and that the Arab population should welcome them with open arms, give them the keys to their land and bugger off in some pit to wait for the messiah to arrive so they can serve out their time as slaves to this masterrace, if they're lucky of course...

[Profunc]

Wow, that guy is annoying. I would've punched him in the face after a minute or two.

But I guess that is not really an option, because as soon after the Zionist colonist goes home crying to the army, these farmers will lose all their land...

And hatzel: l'Enfermé pretty much nailed it. This settler colonist is a religious fanatic. He really thinks he is part of the "chosen" people and that the Arab population should welcome them with open arms, give them the keys to their land and bugger off in some pit to wait for the messiah to arrive so they can serve out their time as slaves to this masterrace, if they're lucky of course...

^This.

There's no other way to explain the man in that video's bigotry.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

The religious notion of being the "chosen people" of God has definitely been appropriated as one of the ideological foundations for Zionist racism, as much as Christian settlers appropriated biblical notions in concocting Manifest Destiny. Not only that, but there's literally a genocide commanded by God in the Torah.

We should be watchful of anti-Jewish racism and idealist anti-theism, but let's call a spade a spade: genocide is embedded in the religion's holy text, and references to this God-given right are now often used to legitimate institutional racism and violence in Palestine.

[hatzel]

...oh yeah I forgot I was actually supposed to reply here, rather than just laying down the law and jogging on...

I don't remember ever claiming the guy was anything other than a 'religious fundamentalist,' [EDIT: oh, 'fanatic,' seems I misread. Ah well, I've written it and it's relevent, so it stays!] though I certainly wouldn't pick those words myself. Firstly because - as the likes of Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin have adequately argued before me - the whole religious Zionism shindig isn't really all that religious; it can more accurately be described as 'secular' (not a word I like but I'll run with it) Zionism put in vaguely religious clothing, so to speak. It is not and has never been a continuation of Judaism - and certainly not the culmination thereof that some (themselves included) want to claim - but is a mere variety of an irreligious theme. And fundamentalism? Well, everybody knows that this is a problematic term in these cases. Who's the one claiming authority to decide what the fundamentals are? Many haredim would certainly object to the suggestion that somebody they consider an outright heretic for their engagement with the Israeli state might be a 'fundamentalist,' whilst nobody would be so foolish as to claim that the haredim aren't themselves 'fundamentalists,' particularly those who are politically active in Israel and elsewhere, violently opposing Zionist institutions and general 'immorality.' But they surely can't both adhere to the fundamentals, can they...?

Either way, I feel immediately ill at ease at the suggestion that the actions of Jews may be nothing but a manifestation of this vaguely defined idea of 'chosenness.' Perhaps this is influenced by a cursory glance through history, and the indisputable fact that accusations of the Jews considering themselves somewhat of a 'master race' (a modern European concept retroactively ascribed to an ancient Jewish tradition to which it bears little if any resemblance if ever I saw one) have been a mainstay in antisemitic discourse for centuries. Perhaps this makes the whole idea of appealing to it (particularly taking it as the 'reason' for Jewish domination, as it long has been in Europe's fantasy) a little sketch in my eyes. Either way, the implication I see in '"chosen people," after all' - which I can only assume is short for 'well they do think they're the "chosen people," after all, so this isn't at all surprising' or something similar - skirts dangerously close to accusations like 'well if you must care for Judaism, you'll end up saying stuff like this' or even an admittedly far more vulgar 'Jews will be Jews.' Needless to say my rewordings come across as far more disturbing (and I won't pretend this wasn't my intention), but I fail to see a vast chasm between them when it comes to the sentiments, particularly considering this term 'the chosen people' has passed into the popular lexicon as an encapsulation of the Jews and their supposed supremacist tendencies; I am yet to have heard anybody use the phrase 'chosen people' in a derogatory fashion (and in this case I doubt it was intended warmly) without intending to accuse Jews of being supremacists - the precise understanding of which tends to be a product of an overactive non-Jewish imagination, - very often with the tacit assumptions that Jews have attempted, are attempting or will attempt to manifest this supremacy in the public sphere.

In all three potential articulations of the sentiment, though, the essence of the matter is clear: the person is Jewish. This becomes the central element, perhaps even standing alone, one need only bring attention to their Jewishness and everything - 'after all' - becomes abundantly clear. This could perhaps be legitimate in certain circumstances, if articulated correctly: for example, somebody's being a Jew may place them in various hierarchies and other socio-political positions, depending on the context. This is certainly the case here. But being a Jew in isolation? The Jew as some kind of transcendent category, waiting to be manifested in a consistent and predictable fashion across all possible contexts? This has a very tenuous link to reality, and I don't think we would approach other similar issues with such flippancy. At least I certainly hope not, because this would greatly weaken our position. The day somebody pipes up saying a so called 'radical Islamist' is just doing the natural thing for a Muslim, manifesting his religion (which almost feels like an outrage, don't you think? How dare somebody do such a thing?), we'll shut them down or I'll probably end up eating my own shoe in disbelief that we could honestly believe that the problem with 'radical Muslims' is their being Muslim, the problem with 'radical Christians' being that they're Christian etc., all with no context to speak of. We would surely recognise that this explains very little, in fact. But we don't extend that courtesy to Jews? The problem with 'radical Jews' is, in fact, that they are Jews, and by virtue of being Jews they must therefore believe in Jewish supremacy and seek to manifest it, and we can explain and understand their behaviour by consulting the Jewish archetype, just like certain unsavoury characters have been saying for quite a while...?

(Oh and by the way, if anybody's even going to turn round and say this is Judaism's fault because it called for the slaughter of a whole bunch of specific nations that haven't even existed for millennia, I'm going to suggest you find a new tune, because this very sentence demonstrates why that isn't the case. Even if you want to expand this all to some deep-seated theological hatred of all who are not Jewish, once again I suggest you return to the texts and study a little harder, and then maybe you'll find that things aren't so black-and-white. As a clue: there are intermediate categories between adherent Jew and, I dunno, scum of the Earth or whatever you're implying Judaism teaches the rest of the world is. You may have even noticed that I'm using a string of cumbersome phrases here, 'all who are not Jewish' and 'the rest of the world,' when in fact there is a perfectly good word available: 'goy.' I avoid it, however, because - for some reason or another - 'those who are not Jewish' decided that they wanted to consider this perfectly decent Hebrew word a derogatory slur, and proof of the Jews' arrogant and condescending view of other 'non-chosen people/s.' And you wonder why I'm awkward about talk of Judaism as a deeply supremacist, even racist - yet another modern European concept retroactively ascribed to an ancient Jewish tradition to which it bears little if any resemblance - religion, when I'm even too afraid to speak in my own words, lest somebody bring accusations against me?)

[goalkeeper]

whats your opinion of what the religious settler was saying. his political view is 'now' mainstream in isreal.

Is it? Is it really?

[brigadista]

those farmers were very patient....

[TheRedAnarchist23]

those farmers were very patient....

This reminded me of the portuguese people, but then I remembered how yesterday 1.5 million people (out of 10 million in the whole country) marched through the streets demanding the resignation of the government.