After Arafat

[Violet_Crumble]

By Uri Avnery
15 November, 2004
Gush Shalom

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him.” This biblical injunction (Proverbs 24:17) is one of the most profound Jewish moral tenets.

In this connection, Israel is very far from being a “Jewish State”, as it likes to define itself. The disgusting filth poured out over Yasser Arafat during the last few days in practically all the Israeli media makes one ashamed to be an Israeli.

The demonization of the Palestinian national leader, which has been the center-piece of Israeli propaganda for decades, continues even after his death. It seems that 37 years as occupiers have bestialized our society and left it bereft even of common decency. Ministers and fishmongers, TV icons and university professors, “leftists” and outright fascists tried to outdo each other in utter vulgarity.

Never was the huge gap in the perceptions of the two peoples more striking than on the day of Arafat’s funeral. While Israeli commentators and “experts on Arab affairs” – almost all of them veterans of the various intelligence agencies – described the late leader as a veritable monster, the epitome of cruelty, viciousness and corruption - a hundred thousand grief-stricken mourners in Ramallah exploded in a burst of emotions that nearly threw the funeral into pandemonium. If the Israeli army had not surrounded and isolated all Palestinian towns that day, more than a million people would have been there.

Gush Shalom, the only Israeli organization that openly mourned alongside the Palestinian people, decided to send a delegation to the funeral. All of us activists, women and men, wore on our breast a big sticker displaying the Israeli and Palestinian flags. The sheer pressure of the multitude split us up among the crowd. Throughout the hours of the funeral, we felt completely safe, even when thousands of shots were fired around us into the air to express grief and bereavement. We encountered hundreds of expressions of gratitude and friendship from Palestinians of all ages and stations in life.

http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-avnery151104.htm

[UL_Approved]

1. A quote

"Success in life is not measured by how well loved one is amongst friends, but by how despised one is amongst their enemy" - Unknown

This same thing happened to Castro. It happened to Bill Clinton. Any leader who truly wishes to better the world will be demonized for decades. If they are lucky, an accurate account will be recorded at some point for posterity.