HaMikdash

The Myth of Palestine

In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country as Palestine! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.”

The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations echoed this view in a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947, which said Palestine was part of the Province of Syria and the Arabs of Palestine did not comprise a separate political entity.

A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: “It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.”

Eretz Yisrael

From Halacha for Today:

The prohibition to judge unfavorably applies as well to one who speaks negatively about Eretz Yisroel; even if just criticizing her trees and stones. (See Talmud Sanhedrin 94b and Arachin 15b)

Additionally, it is prohibited to praise another land and say it is nicer or better than Eretz Yisroel. Rather it’s important to love and praise our holy land as was always done by our great sages who kissed her stones and lay on her earth. (See Talmud Sanhedrin ibid. and Kesubos 112b. See also Rambam Hilchos Melachim perek 5:10)

Odd Story of the Day. Yiddish becomes hit among Israeli Arabs.

One-quarter of Yiddish students at Bar-Ilan University are Arab. ‘I have always felt a connection to this language,’ says Yusuf Alakili of Kfar Kassem

“I find a certain mystery in Yiddish, a refined and enigmatic musical note. I cannot explain it, but I have always felt a connection to this language.”

Contrary to what one might expect, the speaker is not a Polish poet or a German philosopher. He is Yusuf Alakili, 50, of the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Kassem, who is working on his master’s degree at Bar-Ilan University’s Literature of the Jewish People Department, while studying Yiddish for his own pleasure. How did this affair begin? “In the 1980s I worked with a Jew of Polish descent in Bnei Brak, where Yiddish was the dominant language. I was fascinated by its sound and decided to study it earnestly. My dream is to read Sholem Aleichem’s ‘Tevye the Dairyman’ in its original language.”

 ”The experience of losing the cantor’s son is a universal experience, which everyone can identify with,” says Bashra, who hopes one day to write her master’s thesis on the similarities between Arab and Yiddish literature.

And what bothers him? “I don’t know who to blame, but I don’t understand why this magnificent language, which has such an extensive body of literature, is being neglected. Did you know that (Nobel Prize laureate Shmuel Yosef) Agnon started writing in Yiddish and only later turned to Hebrew?” he asks. Alakili is not alone. About one-quarter of the 400 students studying Yiddish at Bar-Ilan University are Arab, says Dr. Dov-Ber Kotlerman, the academic director of the the Rena Costa Center for Yiddish Studies. According to Dr. Kotlerman, some of the Israeli Arabs are looking for ways to connect to the Jewish culture which they must get along with, and it’s not easy.

“Jews also searched for a way to connect to the local culture in the Diaspora, and it’s wonderful that Yiddish can serve as an ambassador and bridge between nations and cultures,” he says. “For example, take Tevye the Dairyman, whose daughter married a Christian and he sat shiva (the week-long mourning period in Judaism) for her. Two years ago, I was approached by an Arab student who told me her father would do the same thing had she ever fell in love with a Jew.”

Salam Bashra, 22, of the Arab Israeli city of Tira, is completing her bachelor’s degree in Arabic literature. The Yiddish language and culture move her, she says.

“Even back in high school I loved Hebrew literature. During my Yiddish studies I became acquainted with Sholem Aleichem and the early writings of Agnon, and I also saw different films, like the wonderful movie ‘The Cantor of Vilna.’

(Source: ynetnews.com)

AG rejects all petitions seeking to bar parties, Arab candidate from elections

Balad MK Hanin Zoabi will run despite her ‘particularly disturbing, even bordering on the forbidden’ actions, writes Weinstein

Arab MK Hanin Zoabi and other candidates can’t be disqualified from running in next month’s elections, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein wrote Monday, effectively quashing drives to bar them from the political process.

In his position, filed with the Central Elections Committee, Weinstein said petitions filed against ultra-Orthodox and Israeli-Arab parties were not sufficient to warrant the parties being banned in a democratic country.

The parties at issue were Balad, Ra’am-Ta’al, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Leyisrael, and Agudat Yisrael.

Weinstein said the evidence against Zoabi, who hails from the Arab -Israeli Balad party, was “particularly disturbing, even bordering on the forbidden,” but that her actions were not bad enough to disqualify her candidacy.

The petition against Zoabi was signed by 13 of the 36 members of the Central Elections Committee and was led by Ofir Akunis (Likud). They claimed she undermined the state and its institutions, including the IDF, by partaking in the Mavi Marmara flotilla that tried to breach the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010.

Zoabi responded to the allegations by calling the Likud-Beytenu alliance a “fascist entity.” If she were prevented from running, Zoabi could have appealed to the Supreme Court.

Weinstein wrote that there was a “disturbing affinity” among Balad and Ra’am-Ta’al for denying Israel as a Jewish state and supporting the armed struggle of terror organizations against Israel. He noted, however, that such allegations against them were even stronger before the 2003 elections — and that if they hadn’t been prevented from running then, there was no reason to bar them now.

Regarding the far-right parties, Weinstein said allegations against Otzma Leyisrael — which consists of MKs Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel, and Itamar Ben Gvir — were lacking in evidence although one of the group’s main goals was denying the identity of Israel as a democratic state.

“As for petitions to disqualify Agudat Yisrael on the grounds of inciting racism… the evidence against it is significant and disturbing — and the words and deeds attributed to the party’s candidates are even more tough and jarring — but that even in these cases, their actions did not represent a ‘critical mass’ that is needed to prevent their participation in elections, as outlined by the strict criteria of the Supreme Court,” Weinstein wrote.

He also responded to allegations that two other parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, seemed to be trying to subvert Israel from being a democratic state, but said their actions could not be considered the negation of the “principles of democracy” according to the Supreme Court’s guidelines.

(Source: timesofisrael.com)

End the Occupation!

I demand a state for the Kurds, the Kashmiris, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, Copts and Roma. 

At least these are real ethnicities and distinct peoples and not just made up like the so-called Palestinians.

Desecrating the Bones of Tannaim and Amoraim

Rabbonim are expressing growing concern over ongoing construction at the Nesher project along the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv Highway in the Ramle area, construction that is compromising the kevarim of Tannaim and Amoraim according to the weekly HaShavua report. The digging in that area has been taking place for a decade, including the area of the ancient cemetery, the oldest beis hachaim in Eretz Yisrael as has been confirmed by archeological exerts from Israel as well as others of international stature.

The digging takes place daily, reportedly under the watchful eye of chareidi inspectors, but this is not so, and as a result, kevarim of Tannaim and Amoraim are being compromised.

If one travels on Highway 1 (Jerusalem – Tel Aviv Highway) one can see that near the Nesher Cement Company, there is black tarp around the excavation area, the area where the kevarim are being compromised, kevarim from Bayis Rishon and Sheni – ancient burial caves simply being discarded in the interest of progress.

Unlike some of the other excavation areas in Israel there are no chareidi protests at the Nesher site and while gedolei hador hearing about what is taking place called for a public outcry, that outcry is yet to be heard. The report adds that some gedolei hador equate some of the difficult events Am Yisrael has endured of late with disturbing these very kevarim.

The project, the excavation that is, began in 2000, a project aimed at accommodating the cement company. The Ramle plant is the company’s largest of three in Israel and it is reported to be among the largest cement companies in the world. The factory in Ramle never stops working, not on shabbos or even Yom Kippur.

As the digging progressed an ancient village dating back to Bayis Rishon was discovered, and of course there was a beis chaim but the work continues in total disregard for the kevarim. Yehoshua Dorfman, the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority is quoted as confirming the beis hachaim is indeed an ancient Jewish one.

Rabbonim have expressed shock that the work continues and graves are opened and disturbed without any supervision. The Eida Chareidis Beis Din is expected to convene to address the matter in the coming days. Pashkavilim have already appeared condemning the ongoing project.

(Source: theyeshivaworld.com)