It should be axiomatic by now that when members of one group, whether it be a race, a religion, or a nationality, view non-members of that group as inferior, terrible things happen. For example, the term “gook” used by American soldiers to describe the Vietnamese, fostered a mentality without which those soldiers could not have slaughtered Vietnamese in mass numbers.
So, Bibi Netanyahu’s appointment of Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan as Deputy Defense Minister for Civil Administration should be setting off alarm bells. The Civil Administration, according to Mondoweiss, is “responsible for all aspects the occupation that don’t involve boots-on-the-ground security operations — it administers planning, building, and infrastructure for both Jews and Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.”
Here are a few choice quotes from Ben-Dahan:
“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Aug 1, 2013. (Hebrew)
“A Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Dec 27, 2013. (Hebrew/English)
“MK” for those who don’t follow Israeli politics, means member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
John Brown, at +972, captures the upshot of this perfectly:
Try being a Palestinian in the West Bank, where the man in charge of administering your day-to-day life doesn’t even see you as a human being.
And, as Mondoweiss points out, the New York Times, the leading newspaper in the “greatest country in the world,” doesn’t consider this to be a story.
This won’t end well.
After reading your posting, I went online and read the through the last few issues of Al Amlalommah, the primary Palestinian newspaper in the Gaza. I didn’t have to read too far until I encountered very similar comments from Palestinian leaders about the Israelis.
No one in this conflict has clean hands.
Steve, that’s ridiculous. The Jews in the Warsaw ghetto would have said similar things about the Nazis. Would you have said in that situation that “no one has clean hands”? The Palestinians in Gaza are the oppressed. Of course they have harsh words for their oppressors.
This superior human being,,,Jewish human being,,,seems to be repeating much of history. From the Nazi’s having the same claims down through the ages when slaves of any color were considered inferior. When will people on this planet get it? This frame of mind is always destructive with any who are even near it.
“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human.” — MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Aug 1, 2013.
Kind of reminds one of a certain Austrian talking about how a certain religion/race is “subhuman”.
The Holocaust was a horrible event in human history. It’s sad to see the main Holocaust target continue to slide towards that tragedy. Here’s to hoping that one day Israel wakes up.