Palestinians: Israeli Attack on Jesus, Mary "Racist," Anti-Semitic
The satirical comedy skits put on by Lior Klein concerning Jesus and Mary on Israel's Channel 10 last week have provoked rallies and protests by Palestinian-Israeli Christians, of whom there are about 120,000. They also drew condemnation from Muslim Palestinian-Israelis, of whom there are over a million. Klein said that since Christians were denying the Holocaust, he was denying Christianity. He and Channel 10 later apologized to a delegation of Israeli Christians, and pledged that the skits would not be rerun. (Al-Safir covered the affair in Arabic).
The skits denied Jesus's miracles, said he died young because he was too fat and so could not have walked on water, and said Mother Mary was not a virgin but rather a promiscuous woman who had had many lovers and first got pregnant in high school at age 15. Palestinian-Israelis viewed them as a secular Israeli attack on Arab beliefs and folkways. That is, the pieces were viewed as racist and not just anti-religious but as ethnic bigotry. They were even called "anti-Semitic," since Arabs are Semites as are Jews.
Muslims believe that Jesus was an envoy of God and revere him and Mary. The Quran devotes more space to Mary and the nativity than does the New Testament. So the show offended Israeli Muslims, as well. I saw them on Aljazeera speaking out against the skits and denouncing them as racist (`unsuri).
The way in which the incident was interpreted in the terms of Israeli identity politics suggests that nerves are frayed among Palestinian-Israelis in the wake of the massive Israeli assault on Gaza this winter. Already humiliated by Israeli disregard for the value of innocent Arab life in that campaign, they are sensitive to any slights from the Jewish Israeli majority.
So what did we learn here? A Jewish-Israeli attack on the holy figures of Christianity provoked outrage among Muslims as well as Christians, and was denounced by Palestinian-Israelis (20% of the population) as racist and as anti-Semitic.
One background for this Palestinian-Israeli response is that the crucified Christ is often taken by Palestinian Christians as a symbol of their displacement and expropriation at the hands of Israelis. So the attack on that symbol ('died young of being obese') by a representative of the Jewish majority was doubly painful, since it repeated on a symbolic level the Israeli denial of the 1948 Catastrophe and even of the existence of the Palestinians.
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posted by Juan Cole @ 2/22/2009 12:57:00 AM
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15 Comments:
When will people realize their myths are just that--myths. One of the reasons I majored in history was to dig deeply into the history of religions and their mythical foundations. And one can't do that without getting into philosophy and anthropology--that is if one is really serious about Truths with a capital T. People can choose to believe in fantastical myths, as long as they don't mess with other people's belief in fantastical myths, or bother those of us who understand that what all the fuss about is just a bunch of fantasical myths. That's called Civilization, and is it really too much to ask?
And now that you're done dueling with your fantastical myths, can we turn our attention to our rapidly overheating climate and other aspects of Overshoot, Please?
I don’t think it is entirely correct to say that there has been no press response to the IAEC report. Consider the following headlines:
“Iran holds enough uranium for bomb”
Financial Times 19 Feb 09
“Iran has enriched enough uranium to make bomb, IAEA says”
Guardian 19 Feb 09
“Iran Has More Enriched Uranium Than Thought”
NYT 19 Feb 09
“New IAEA Report Shows Iran Nearing Nuclear Breakout Capability”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 20 Feb 09
Clearly there is a difference in slant between the Hindu article and those listed above.
@karlof1: I would be careful not to dismiss religions as "fantastical myths", all aspects of spirituality and meaning aside myths are created and spread for a reason. Religion is also not the only Myth system which causes wars, in fact it is extremely subsidiary to other myth system in this regard. The myth that the individual is supreme for example, or that it is natural and ok to be self interested. These belief pillars that provide the structure for capitalist and bourgeois mythology have caused more wars than religion every has or every will. Frankly John Lennon just straight up got it wrong in Imagine, even with no Religion there would still be wars. Mike Davis argues that recent politicization of religious movements is a response to the failure of the left to help the poor of the world. Pentecostal Christianity and Political Islam are a response to the contradictory nature of the West. Claiming to be extending hands to the poor and follow christian morals while really only following the bourgeois morals of exploiting everything that can be exploited to improve one's own life. Secular Fatah failed-albeit with help from Israel and US-Political Islam on the other hand is able to provide a non-contradictory national identity, where morality plays a more central role and the oppressed deserve attention. Its easy to forget this in the US with our media but Hamas came to power for a reason and it wasn't because Palestinians love seeing Israelis killed (there would be much better people than Hamas to vote for if this was the case). It was because Hamas had an extensive network that provided food, healthcare, and education to the poor and meek who couldn't afford it. They embraced Islam because the left failed and abandoned them. And frankly, unless the left can prove that it is willing to fight for vulnerable people once again, who are we to criticize Political Islam. It has helped far more people than it has hurt, which is more than you can say for neoliberalism and US foreign policy over the last 50 years.
RE ISRAELI "denial" of Xity.THanks for nowhere else reported but interesting insight into cultural/political Israel.MH
"...rather a promiscuous woman who had had many lovers and first got pregnant in high school at age 15."
??? ?? !
Wait a second! I know that girl!
And regarding: Anonymous said... "...Clearly there is a difference in slant..."
Orwell didn't call the UK 'Airstrip One' for nothing.
By all means, karlof - turn your attention to those things.
Who's stopping you, for goodness' sake? Why in the world do you care that other people see things differently than you do?
(P.S.: It's not really very difficult to be religious and at the same time deal with global warming, and etc. If you can't, you can't - but don't assume the same about others.)
karlof1, I am an Atheist Jew, but I would NEVER insult others' faith, especially in such case. First of all, the insults of Jesus and Mary are common not for atheism per se but to Judaism, so they are religious-racist one. Then, Palestinans' suffering is real enough, and it is manifested not only in murder, aparteid and land theft, but in insulting Palestininas as "goim".
Karloff1 asked when humanity will forgo its myths. I don't think most people are capable of this step, as it means giving up either the promise of an eternal life gained at the minimal cost of saying "I believe," or it means giving up the semi-divine nature associated with immortality along with all the attendant powers and authority to pass judgment on other humans, the non-believers.
As for Israeli denial (is it permissible to say Jewish denial) of the 1948 catastrophe, that Palestine was a land with people colonized by Europeans, one would hope that nations such as Germany that have made denial of the holocaust a crime would also make denial of the 1948 catastrophe a crime.
(Danger - satire dead ahead.)
With this as with all other suggestions that the same rules be applied to Israel, the counter argument will be anti-Semitism on my part. Anti-Semitism is then, apparently, the practice of applying rules in a uniform manner to all people, regardless of race, creed or national origin. Taking this absurd logic one step further, at the current time, Israel opposes the notions upon which the U.S. was founded. (Satire complete.)
Only when Israel learns to value the lives of Arabs as equal to the lives of its own Jewish citizens can Israel ever truly become an 'adult' nation in this world. Until then it is doomed to having the national characteristics of a pampered, narcissistic child.
C'mon karlof1, you are completely
missing the point. Totally.
What have we learned? We've learned that some people never learn! As I read on another blog
http://revjph.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-people-never-learn.html
Israelis who will willingly and deliberately attack other faiths but who cry anti-semitism if someone criticises even their most obvious faults, are as guilty of denying the Holocaust as any right-wing Latin mass bishop, because they are ignoring the lessons that everybody should have learnt from this most terrible of atrocities.
Walk on water
Coded religious insults like this one are not new in Israel. For example, in 2004, Israeli director Eytan Fox made a movie Walk on Water.
Actually, this movie is about the adventures of a Mossad agent in Germany. Quite remarkably, this agent is not a spy, but a killer, basically, terrorist.
No, I really don't think that linking this kind of story to the New Testament is in any way proper.
"Anti-semitism is taught in the schools..."
Care to substantiate that?
"Anti-semitism is taught in the schools..."
Typical propaganda; my experience is it has become impossible to listen to an Israeli without hearing the most intense anti-Palestinian prejudice. Such prejudice has been or seemed muted in the past, but is now everywhere I turn and intense and raw and horrid.
Thanks for the interesting replies. Winston Smith was a problem because he didn't believe and sought the Truth for himself. As noted, there are myths devoid of any religiosity, which are just as fantastical and similarly manipulated--The Invisible Hand; The Free Market; Benevolent Empire; American Exceptionalism; Big Government Bad, Small Government Good; and so forth. Power never likes free-thinkers. I have yet to discover any Power that didn't manipulate some mythos to legitimize itself. The point being hegemony cannot be gained over people who are freed from whatever the controlling mythos. But half a millenia into the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, neither Reason or Enlightenment are anywhere near to controlling governments or people's passions, which is to say that the Ages of Reason and Enlightement are themselves a myth given the current reality.
In response to Anonymous post:
The skit was irreverent, undoubtedly - but how on earth is this ethnic bigotry? First of all, Jesus and Mary were both Jews. Secondly, the stereotypes being employed are not ethnic in event.
It's ethnic bigotry because Israel treats religion an a manner essentially identical to the way that other racist nations have treated ethnic groups.
Note the difference between rights accorded to Jews and Arabs within Israel proper and the occupied territories, then compare the difference between the rights accorded to white and black South Africans during apartheit.
And antisemitism?! Surely the author is aware that "Semite" is not an actual ethnic distinction and that the term "antisemite" specifically refers to intolerance against Jews. Ref: Wilhelm Marr.
I've heard that Arabs were defined as people who speak arabic. Arabic is a semitic language, as is hebrew and both groups identify themselves and are identified as semitic.
Just because the term 'anti-semitic' has been used overwhelmingly to describe attacks on Judaism and Jewish people does not make it inappropriate to use it to describe attacks on other semitic groups.
If I'm refused a job because the employer doesn't respect men it's no less sexist than my female counterparts being refused jobs because the employer doesn't respect women. Even if the latter is much more likely to occur.
Judaism does not believe in the crucifixion of Jesus, much less his being Messiah. Neither are historical facts and are frequently brought into question by scholars - why is it such a hate crime to question what are essentially religious myths?
Hinduism doesn't credit the existance of Abraham nor of the abortive sacrifice of his son (whichever one you prefer to insert.) Neither his existence, nor the event itself is historically verifiable.
Can you imagine the response if a Hindu comedian in Mumbai or New Delhi were characterizing Abraham as a man who sexually accosted his wife's slave until she was pregnant at which point he blamed her for seducing him and tossed her into the wilderness with insufficient provisions and eventually tried to murder his own son before chickening out?
I suspect that the term anti-semite would be flying both fast and furiously.
(Even orthodox Islam denies that Jesus died on the Cross)
Orthodox Islam does assert the existence of Jesus, his status as a prophet, his virgin birth and that the crucifixion took place. However Islam does state that it Jesus was spirited to his reward leaving a 'creation' to be crucified in his place.
Question: does this really compare to the horrible misrepresentations of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism in the Palestinian, wider Arab, and Iranian media?
No it doesn't compare with them. In the Palestinian, wider Arab and Iranian world Jews aren't being systematically removed from their land and forced to subsist in conditions that can only be described as horrific and inhumane.
Anti-Christian and anti-Muslim humour in Israel serves to dehumanize the victims of very real crimes that are very much happening right now. Not hypothetical crimes that exist primarily in rhetorical 'mission statements' of groups with despicable objectives and no realistic chance of accomplishing them.
Adam,
Discrimination in Israel is practiced along ethnic lines. That the dominant ethnie, Jews, are also a religion complicates matters - but it does not conflate Christianity with Arabs. In fact, the Christianity being targeted by this sketch was specifically Western: it was addressed to an English bishop, the iconography used was Western Catholic, and the actors were White. To say that this was anti-Palestinian is over-analysis.
I referred people to Wilhelm Marr to show that the term "antisemite" was coined specifically to refer to Jews. That "Semite" could also refer to Arabs is a red herring. The term has never been used that way except by people trying to split hairs.
If India aired some video describing Abraham as a deviant, I do not think it would make a blip in the Jewish community. The description of Jesus in this show was clearly for the sake of humour (quite bad humour at that), and I think pales into some of the portrayals one regularly sees in the Western media - for example, on Saturday Night Live or in movies like Last Temptation of Christ or Life of Brian.
As I said, orthodox Islam denies Jesus died on the Cross. Yes, the crucifixion took place, but it is not the focus point on Jesus in the same way as it is in Christianity. Simply because he did not die to save mankind's sins.
Jews, meanwhile, don't believe anything about Jesus. Although there are a number of rabbinical references to Jesus being a depraved heretic who cavorted with prostitutes...but every religion has literature that denigrates other religions. Need I mention "apes and pigs" or "may his sins be on us and our children"?
In the Palestinian, wider Arab and Iranian world Jews aren't being systematically removed from their land and forced to subsist in conditions that can only be described as horrific and inhumane.
Right, I forgot...this happened fifty years ago.
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