I drove over to Haldon St, Lakemba to buy some hijabs and check out the street food. When I arrived, I saw a black 4WD-truck with its flashing high beams and heard chanting on a loud speaker. I immediately put my foot on the break and started driving a little slower, I was being blinded by the lights and was worried I’d hit a pedestrian or the car infront of me. I couldn’t see or hear clearly what was happening. I took a right turn and parked my car, not sure what the commotion was about.
Five men holding up signs and large flags billowing in the wind, were walking on the busy road, with the car behind them. This stopped traffic and people looked on what was going on. They said they were from Hizb-ut-Tahrir and were having a protest for the people of Gaza. I was disappointed at how they tried to ‘build the hype’ for the protest on the road. It was dangerous, ill-planned and not executed strategically to ensure safety to drivers and pedestrians. I decided to stick around, as they were making announcements that there would be speeches. The speeches were moving and well spoken. After the protest, a large group had gathered and began walking up and down the active part of Haldon St. As I made my way to leave, during the commotion, I heard a chant “Israel, if you kill one, a thousand more will surely come”* (see Note below).
I wonder how many to see the difference between Israel and Judaism, between Jewish People and Israelis, between Israelis who are protesting in Israel and the Military, between the young people who are fighting and being jailed for refusing to join the Israeli Military. Because just as complex as the Israel-Palestine conflict is, it’s not that simple to just assume that only Palestinians and Muslims are protesting the occupation and military strikes. There are a coalition of Israeli NGOs who are writing open letters to the government, protesting Israel’s attacks upon and occupation of Palestine. There are also young Israeli teenagers who were jailed for being conscientious objectors declaring their refusal to serve in the Israeli Military.
Judaism is a 4000+ years old spirituality to serve God. Zionism is only 100 years old and is the transformation from religion to nationalism created by using the name ‘Israel’ and the Star of David hijacking the identity of the Judaism in order to get a legitimacy for their existence and put fear and intimidate those who spoke against them by calling them an anti-Semite. It’s a political and selfish movement that has no legitimacy to exist. To steal land, to kill, to oppress, to banish them from their homes, contradicts everything that Judaism teaches. Israel uses the Jewish identity to create a rift between Jews and Muslims. This is critical to understand about the absurd purpose Israel is fighting for.
I saw a video posted of Australian independent journalist, author and Guardian columnist, Antony Lowenstein speech at the Palestine Rally in Sydney on 27 July and he said “What is so important, is discussion with Palestine, is that this is not an issue against Judaism, … it is an issue about occupation, discrimination, racism and war…There are a number of Israeli Jews themselves who say who are protesting now and being attacked by far right neo-Nazi Jews. I use that expression correctly. Neo-Nazi Jews. This is what Israel is creating at the moment…Israel does not speak in many Jews name.”
It is so important to not play the blame game, and misdirect your anger and abuse towards people who don’t deserve it. After all, isn’t that what we’re all protesting for?
*Note: In an earlier version of this post, I quoted the chant that could have been misheard by me. This has kindly been pointed out and I have made the correction in this revised version of the post.
This is exactly our problem. When we protest we need to know what we are protesting about and to state it clearly. The media is eager to find the slightest thing it can to discredit Muslims and portray them as the problem rather than the terrorism of Israel and the hate spewed by self-serving politicians and media commentators who prostitute their considerable literary and verbal talents to spread pro-Israel lies.
I remember one anti-Israel demonstration. It was loud but peaceful and attended by thousands. That night the news media showed 3 things: Two women dressed as suicied bombers, a child in combat fatigues carrying a toy gun and a few testosterone-fueled males throwing a plastic bottle at the doors of the Israeli consulate. The message that everyone else was tying to send was hijacked by these fools.
If Hizb-Ut-Tahrir is serious about painting Israel it needs to ditch the black flags and the Jew hate and stay on message that the real problem is the Zionist state of Israel. Otherwise they are the problem.
I actually find it unsettling that the author thinks Muslims need to be preached that Zionism is not Judaism? I think we’re very much passed that; in fact many muslims would highly venerate a Jew who does not agree with Israeli state legitimacy. Set theory was clearly not the author’s fort é: All Jews are not Zionists, but (pretty much) all zionists are Jews. To therefore problematise the statement “if the Jews kill one, that e a thousand more [Muslims] will come” is a bit silly. A white hypersensitivity to the use of the term Jew; nothing more.
And lol @: “It was dangerous, ill-planned and not executed strategically to ensure safety to drivers and pedestrians.” ergh. So first world; to complain that people taking to the streets in anger about the butchering of Muslims in Gaza lead by a 4×4 travelling at baby crawling speeds compromised our precious precious road safety.
Someone who shared the article asked on Facebook “what’s wrong with the article”, here was my response:
“Just as a disclaimer: what I’m about to say isn’t HT’s view, this isn’t Faraz’s view; this is my view.
I’ll tell you what’s wrong here. A mob of Muslims in the streets of Lakemba ‘disrupt traffic’, and out of an anger that runs deep in the Muslim veins since the creation of Israel post WWII, their chants were aggressive, loud, angry and passionate. In response, another (albeit smaller) crowd of Muslims (who have only recently jumped the bandwagon on talking about Gaza) take offence to the politically incorrect expression of this anger. A crowd who haven’t thought about its genesis, who haven’t studied the conflict, who haven’t invested any amount of energy (before it became popular, of course) talking about and raising awareness of issues about oppression in the Muslim lands.
And instead of trying to understand the genesis of a mob’s anger, she to pointedly starts to preaches to Muslims about the importance of distinguishing Zionism from Judaism; about how disturbed she was seeing the anger being manifested in ways that didn’t fit the authors sense of propriety and convention.
And no, I’m not one of the ones who were screaming at the top of their lungs. I was mostly observing. I was in awe. It is this anger, this passion, this gheera that – when it comes out – began the entire Arab Spring. It ousted dictators, it made your ordinary man and woman happy to take a bullet for what they believed in: a future without fear. Obviously, we’re still yet to see insha’Allah how it all pans out, but for us as politically correct Western Muslims to take offence to it, for us to complain because it doesn’t fit our sense of order, is something I personally find repulsive.”
You make no sense at all,
How many Muslims live in Israel who are free to work and live in safety?
Did you mention that?
When does Israel make a move on its Muslim neighbours?
Did you mention that?
As to forcing the young Israelites to participate in the army… Did you mention how many people live in Israel compared to its Muslim neighbours?
Without Israel’s army do you think she would stand a chance?
Did you mention that?
I think your article is bias and understudied…
The overwhelming majority of the muslim community have learned the difference between Zionists and Jews. This is not the first time PCness has been drilled in, even though it gets harder and harder to distinguish them (Australian Union of Jewish Students promotes Zionism as a pillar of its values, but the name remains conspicuous).
As an additional point, to live in and work in Israel as a migrant Jew is benefiting off the land and being complicit in the occupation in some form, no matter how many letters one writes.
Also, protests are meant to disrupt. It’s a political tool well established in western and eastern countries, and it’s not meant to be a quiet, nice and calm meet and greet, and it never will be.