Israel destroyed the Notre Dame of Gaza – but there was only silence from the West
As Yossi Gurvitz explained,
the fire at Notre Dame has caused an argument within Israeli Orthodox circles.
Rabbi Shlomo
Avineir of the Beit El settlement in the West Bank (the one that US Ambassador David
Friedman has helped
raise funds for) suggested that the fire at Notre Dame was
divine punishment for the burning of the Talmud in France in the 13th
century! God has, it would seem, a very long memory and clearly is not only a vengeful
god but spiteful too as it is not clear what responsibility the French have for
what happened 800 years ago.
But what is
not in doubt is that since 2009 53 mosques and churches have been
vandalised or set fire to in Israel. As is normally the case with attacks on
non-Jews, the Israeli Police have not exerted themselves. Only 9 indictments to
date have been filed by the police.
What makes
this worse is that there are sections of Israeli society who openly justify the
destruction of churches and mosques on religious grounds.
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| The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on fire, April 15, 2019. (Photo: LeLaisserPasserA38/Wikimedia) |
Rabbi Benzi Gopstein, the head of the anti-miscegenation organisation Lehava in a panel discussion in 2015, in answer to a question as to whether he supported the burning
of churches, referred to the teachings of the famous Spanish Jewish philosopher
Maimonedes . Gopstein
was asked by Benny Rabinowitz, a writer for an ultra-Orthodox newspaper, "Do you support burning churches in
Israel, yes or no?" Gopstein, citing a Maimonides ruling that churches
should be burned responded "Are you
for Maimonides or against him?"
Gopstein's answer ‘shocked the attendees’ who asked "Benzti are you for burning or not?"
"Of course I am," Bentzi replied
"It’s Maimonides. Simply yes, what
is there to question?"
This prompted
the Vatican to call for Gopstein’s prosecution and the
Police did call him in for interrogation. However Gopstein wasn’t an Arab who
had justified the burning down of synagogues.
That would have merited a hefty prison sentence. The Attorney General
refused to prosecute because in Israel racial hatred or discrimination on the
grounds of religion is not a criminal offence.
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| FATHER NIKODEMUS SCHNABEL inspects the damage at Capernaum’s Church of the Loaves and Fishes caused by an arson attack. (photo credit: BEN HARTMAN) |
However there
was no such inhibition when it came to prosecuting Raed Salah, the leader of
the Northern Islamic League for allegedly referring to the medieval blood libel
about baking bread with the blood of non-Jewish children when opposing Israeli attacks
on the worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque. Even though Salah denied having made
any such statement and an examination of his remarks confirms that he made no
mention of Jews (he maintained he had been referring to the Spanish
Inquisition) he was convicted and sentenced to 9 months. For a thorough
investigation of the affair see the Sheik Raed Affair and May
warned of weak case against Sheikh Raed Salah and Jonathan Cook’s The
real preachers of hate: Britain’s arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah
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| Bentzi Gophstein |
Prominent
settler Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, ruled
that burning churches outside of the Land of Israel “isn’t our job for now”, but in Israel “the issue is more complicated”.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (Photo: Wikimedia)
Avineir is a
state official and draws a public salary as the rabbi of a major settlement
Beit El. He is also the rabbi of a prominent settler Yeshiva (Ateret
Yerushaliam, formerly Ateret Cohanim), ‘He
is considered to be one most important
rabbis of the religious nationalist sector.’
After the
fire in Notre Dame Cathedral, Aviner was asked:
“The great
Christian Church in Paris is on fire. Should we feel sorry for that, or should
we rejoice, as it [the cathedral] is idolatry, which is a mitzvah to burn?”
Aviner replied:
“This isn’t
our job for now. There is no mitzvah [a religious commandment] to seek out
churches abroad and burn them down. In our holy land, however, the issue is
more complicated. Indeed, the Satmar Rabbi noted one of his arguments against
immigrating to Israel, that here it is indeed a mitzvah to burn churches; and
by not doing so, those [immigrating to Israel] are committing a sin.’
The problem
is further compounded by the fact that if Jews do burn down churches ‘we’ll have to rebuild, and it’s a greater
sin to rebuild [a church] than leave it standing.’
Gurvitz commented
wryly:
‘(Oh, yes: American Jewish readers, I probably need to stress this –
this is not a parody or a satire. This is actual rabbinical discourse in 2019
Israel.).’
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| Screenshot of Aviner’s opinion re church fires. |
The point
however is that many churches (and mosques) have been burnt in Israel in
the last few years, and the police have been disinterested in capturing the
arsonists. In several cases, the arson was accompanied by slogans familiar from
‘price tag’ attacks in the West Bank (mostly along the lines of Jewish
vengeance).
Gurvitz writes
that:
‘Several immensely important rabbinic rulers, most prominent among them Maimonides,
ruled that churches are places of idolatry and ought to be destroyed. The
rulings are very clear. However, to support those rulings today would lead to
violence, probably to a rise in anti-Semitism, and will jeopardize the alliance
between the settler movement and the evangelical movement. There is also a
chance of getting prosecuted for incitement for hatred, which is a crime in
Israel – but then again, the law has a special exemption for “religious
studies”, and the prosecution has been very leery of prosecuting rabbis for
hate speech, making “religious discussions” the prime way of legally-protected
incitement.’
Below is an
article on the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s mosques by the Israeli military
in the course of successive attacks on Gaza from 2008-2014 in Operations
Protective Edge, Cast Lead and Pillar of Defence and the hypocrisy of Western indifference
to this compared to the tears over Notre Dame.
Ramzy Baroud April 25, 2019
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| Palestinians walk past a mosque which witnesses said was destroyed by an Israel air strike during the offensive, on the second day of a five-day ceasefire, in Gaza City on August 15, 2014. (Photo: Ezz Zanoun/APA Images) |
As the 300-foot spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tragically
came tumbling down on live television, my thoughts ventured to Nuseirat Refugee
Camp, my childhood home in the Gaza Strip.
Then, also on television, I watched as a small bulldozer hopelessly
clawed through the rubble of my neighborhood mosque. I grew up around that mosque. I spent many hours there with my
grandfather, Mohammed, a refugee from historic Palestine. Before grandpa became
a refugee, he was a young Imam in a small mosque in his long-destroyed village
of Beit Daras.
Mohammed and many in his generation took solace in erecting their own
mosque in the refugee camp as soon as they arrived to the Gaza Strip in late
1948. The new mosque was first made of hardened mud, but was eventually remade
with bricks, and later concrete. He spent much of his time there, and when he
died, his old, frail body was taken to the same mosque for a final prayer,
before being buried in the adjacent Martyrs Graveyard. When I was still a
child, he used to hold my hand as we walked together to the mosque during
prayer times. When he aged, and could barely walk, I, in turn, held his hand.
But al-Masjid al-Kabir – the Great Mosque, later renamed
al-Omari mosque – was completely pulverized by Israeli missiles during the
summer war on Gaza, starting July 8, 2014.
Hundreds of Palestinian houses of worship were targeted by the Israeli
military in previous wars, most notably in 2008-9 and 2012. But the 2014 war
was the most brutal and most destructive yet. Thousands were killed and more injured.
Nothing was immune to Israeli bombs. According to Palestine Liberation
Organization records, 63 mosques were completely destroyed and 150 damaged in that war
alone, oftentimes with people seeking shelter inside. In the case of my
mosque, two bodies were recovered after a long, agonizing search. They had no
chance of being rescued. If they survived the deadly explosives, they were
crushed by the massive slabs of concrete.
In truth, concrete, cements, bricks and physical structures don’t carry
much meaning on their own. We give them meaning. Our collective experiences,
our pains, joys, hopes and faith make a house of worship what it is.
Many generations of French Catholics have assigned the Notre Dame
Cathedral with its layered meanings and symbolism since the 12th century.
While the fire consumed the oak roof and much of the structure, French
citizens and many around the world watched in awe. It is as if the memories,
prayers and hopes of a nation that is rooted in time were suddenly revealed,
rising, all at once, with the pillars of smoke and fire.
But the very media that covered the news of the Notre Dame fire seemed
oblivious to the obliteration of everything we hold sacred in Palestine as, day
after day, Israeli war machinery continues to blow up, bulldoze and desecrate.
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Palestinians and Palestinian security forces inspect the damage inside a mosque torched and vandalized by arsonists in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Arsonists tossed two tires into the first floor study hall of the mosque. (Photo: Wagdi Eshtayah/APA Images)
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It is as if our religions are not worthy of respect, despite the fact
that Christianity was born in Palestine. It was there that Jesus roamed the
hills and valleys of our historic homeland teaching people about peace, love
and justice. Palestine is also central to Islam. Haram al-Sharif, where Al-Aqsa
mosque and The Dome of the Rock are kept, is the third holiest site for Muslims
everywhere. Yet Christian and Muslim holy sites are besieged, often raided and shut down per military diktats. Moreover, the Israeli army-protected messianic
Jewish extremists want to demolish Al-Aqsa and the Israeli government has been digging underneath its foundation for many years.
Although none of this is done in secret; international outrage remains
muted. In fact, many find Israel’s actions justified. Some have bought into the
ridiculous explanation offered by the Israeli military that bombing mosques is
a necessary security measure. Others are motivated by dark religious prophecies of their own.
Palestine, though, is only a microcosm of the whole region. Many of us
are familiar with the horrific destruction carried out by fringe militant
groups against world cultural heritage in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most
memorable among these are the destruction of Palmyra in Syria, Buddhas of Bamyan in Afghanistan and the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul.
Nothing however can possibly be compared to what the invading US army
has done to Iraq. Not only did the invaders desecrate a sovereign country and
brutalize her people, they also devastated her culture that goes back to the start of human civilization. Just the immediate
aftermath of the invasion alone resulted in the looting of over 15,000 Iraqi
antiquities, including the Lady of Warka, also known as the Mona Lisa of
Mesopotamia, a Sumerian artifact whose history goes back to 3100 BC.
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A Palestinian protester holds a cross during a demonstration against acts of vandalism on Christian sites including smashing headstones in a Christian cemetery in Israel and the occupied West Bank, outside Jerusalem’s Old City October 6, 2013. (Photo: Saeed Qaq/APA Images)
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I had the privilege of seeing many of these artifacts in a visit to the
Iraq Museum only a few years before it was looted when US forces failed to
protect the site. At the time, Iraqi curators had thousands
of precious pieces hidden in a basement in anticipation of a US
bombing campaign. But nothing could prepare the museum for the savagery
unleashed by the ground invasion. Since then, Iraqi culture has largely been
reduced to items on the black market of the very western invaders that have
torn that country apart. The valiant work of Iraqi cultural warriors and their
colleagues around the world have managed to restore some of that stolen
dignity, but it will take many years for the cradle of human civilization to
redeem its vanquished honor.
Every mosque, every church, every graveyard, every piece of art and
every artifact is significant because it is laden with meaning, the meaning
bestowed on them by those who have built or sought in them an escape, a moment
of solace, hope, faith and peace.
On August 2, 2014 the Israeli army bombed the historic al-Omari Mosque in northern Gaza. The ancient
mosque dates back to the 7th century and has since served as a symbol of
resilience and faith for the people of Gaza.
As Notre Dame burned, I thought of al-Omari too. While the fire at the
French cathedral was likely accidental, destroyed Palestinian houses of worship
were intentionally targeted. The Israeli culprits are yet to be held
accountable.
I also thought of my grandfather, Mohammed, the kindly Imam with the
handsome, small white beard. His mosque served as his only escape from a
difficult existence, an exile that only ended with his own death.
