I got an email a few days ago from a marketing lady that asked me to post this promo on an HBO movie/special. I looked through some of these clips and they look interesting. I personally think that its going to take another 100 years for the differences to be worked out (outcome unknown) but I am an optimist (marinate on that..) and I like to get a dialog going when possible. I think the more we know about each other the better off we will be. Unfortunately I don’t think this will show in Israel…
Die in Jerusalem recounts the heart-wrenching story of two teenaged girls – one a 17-year-old Israeli student named Rachel Levy, the other an 18-year-old Palestinian student/suicide bomber named Ayat al-Akhras – who died together in a Jerusalem market in March 2002. The horrific incident ignited international outrage because of the age and similarities of the two girls, and set in motion a quest on the part of Rachel’s mother, Abigail Levy, to arrange a one-on-one meeting with her counterpart, Um Samir. The result was an underscoring of the tension and resentments that persist among Israelis and Palestinians – and undermine the desire on both sides to find common ground and forge lasting peace.
October 27, 2007 at 9:01 pm
So they “died together in a Jerusalem market”? This makes it sound as if they were both victims of a crime or natural disaster. No, they did not simply “die together.” A suicide bomber who happened to be a young female MURDERED an innocent young Jewish female.
As for the “tension and resentments that persist among Israelis and Palestinians,” it would all end tomorrow if terrorists like the female suicide bomber would stop trying to kill us. End of story.
Enough with the moral equivalence bullshit. It’s an insult to the memory of the only victim in this story (hint: it’s not the murdering terrorist).
November 9, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Suicide bombing is prohibited in Islam. Both the Quran (word of God) and the Sunna (teachings of Mohammed) warn of the severe punishment in Hell for those who take their own lives, and the lives of the innocent. During all the wars waged by Mohammed, which were in self defense or to take back usurped Muslim homes and land, he strictly prohibited killing any women, children, the elderly, unarmed civilians, cutting down trees, burning houses, or killing animals except for food, and to strike only against the armed male enemy who was trying to kill the Muslims and occupy their land. Therefore, what Ayat did was a crime, a major sin under Islamic law. HOWEVER, why don’t people use their brains to figure out what drove her insane?
This girl was born and raised in a refugee camp, a refugee in HER OWN COUNTRY. Before 1948 and 1967, the Palestinians who are currently homeless in refugee camps had homes and home cities, a country and a citizenship. Our cousins the Jews also had homes and countries and citizenships: there were British Jews and Polish Jews and Swiss Jews and Australian Jews and Egyptian Jews and Iraqi Jews …. Then, someone in the political world decided that all these Jews should all live in the Holy Land, even if it means killing all its occupants! It’s just like saying that since Saudi Arabia is the most Holy place for Muslims, then Muslims of all nationalities should emigrate to the Holy Land of Mecca, even if it means killing off all Saudi Arabians, or that all Christians worldwide should emigrate to Bethlehem or Jerusalem because Christ lived there!!!!! The political leaders used the Holocaust to justify this action, EVEN THOUGH there were several countries, prominently Spain, that offered to receive the Holocaust victims as immigrants. Spain alone accepted 20,000 to 35,000 Jewish refugees, and many other European countries followed suit. Many of these Jews had the option to return home after the war was over, but the world of politics almost always has ulterior motives.
And so Israel was formed, and its government started kicking the Palestinians out of their homes and off their land to make way for the Jews who were being brought in from all over the world. What you might not know is that MANY of these Jews were happier and wealthier in their original countries, and have complained of poverty, joblessness, and lack of safety and security after being relocated to Israel. Also, many prominent Rabbis worldwide have condemned the occupation, and many Israeli Jews have done the same, and devout Jews worldwide too, (http://www.jatonyc.org/ and http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/ and http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/jews_against_zionism.html) yet the Israeli government has continued to ignore all protests. The result is that people like Ayat grow up in the horrors of the occupation: They live in refugee camps after Israel demolished their homes to make way for new Jewish settlements. Every day they witness their family members or friends or neighbors being murdered by the Israeli army. The constant threat of bombs and demolition is a routine part of their daily lives. They no longer have jobs, they no longer have access to many of their relatives because of security walls and check-points, their children live in poverty and misery and the risk of being killed every day, in their own land, while the occupiers live a life of luxury in a land that is not theirs. This young girl who is being called a murdering terrorist, witnessed her neighbor shot to death by a stray Israeli bullet while carrying his toddler weeks before her suicide attack. Yes, what she did was terrorism, but let’s face it: Terrorism breeds terrorism. The Israeli terrorism gave birth to this terrorism. Oppression breeds hatred, injustice breeds hopelessness, hopelessness breeds desperation, and desperation breeds violence.
No one can deny the existence of Israel today. No one can say “get the hell out of Palestineâ€. But there is only one solution: JUSTICE.
Stop bringing in more Jews into Israel: they already have homes and countries. Stop building new settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Go back to the 1967 borders of Israel: That’s more than enough land for the existing Jews. Give the rest of Palestine back to its rightful owners, under INDEPENDENT PALESTINIAN RULE, and go back to Tel Aviv as the Capital of Israel: Jerusalem is for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. And finally, read the book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid†by ex-president Jimmy Carter. You might learn a lot.