UNITED AGAINST SPITTING
BY GILAD ATZMON
The People’s Voice
Nov 30 2009
Three days ago the Israeli Right wing paper The Jerusalem Post
published an expos of the growing tendency of Orthodox Jews in
Jerusalem to spit on their Christian neighbours. (‘Mouths Filled with
Hatred’, By Larry Derfner The JPost, Nov. 26, 2009).
Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem’s
Old City, told the JPost "that he’s been spat at by young Haredi
(God fearing religious Jews) and national Orthodox Jews ‘about 15 to
20 times’ in the past decade". Father Aghoyan added, "Every single
priest in this church has been spat on. It happens day and night."
Similarly Father Athanasius, a Texas-born Franciscan monk who heads
the Christian Information Centre in Jerusalem’s Old City, said he’s
been spat at by Orthodox Jews "about 15 times in the last six months".
Jewish spitting is not exactly breaking News. I myself have explored
the issue more than once. The Israeli professor Israel Shahak commented
on Jewish hatred towards Christianity and its symbolism, suggesting
that "dishonouring Christian religious symbols is an old religious
duty in Judaism." According to Shahak, "spitting on the cross, and
especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church,
have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews."
Interestingly enough Jewish spitting has had an impact on the European
urban landscape. The following can be read in a ‘Travel Guide for
Jewish Europe’.
"In Prague’s Charles Bridge, the visitor will observe a great crucifix
surrounded by huge gilded Hebrew letters that spell the traditional
Hebrew sanctification Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tzvaot, "Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts." According to various commentators,
this piece, degrading to Jews, came about because in 1609 a Jew was
accused of desecrating the crucifix. The Jewish community was forced
to pay for putting up the Hebrew words in gold letters. Another
explanation is that a Jew spat at the cross and for this he was to
be put to death as a punishment. When this man begged for his life,
the king, seeking to have good relations with the Jews, said the
Jewish community had to rectify the offence…." (To read more:
Travel Guide for Jewish Europe, pg 497)
Shahak maintains that "in the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic
hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis
either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or
to spit onto their chests, not actually on a cross or openly before
a church."
But times are changing. In the Jewish state most Jewish inhibitions
seem to have disappeared. In Israel Jews can spit as much as they like
and on whatever they like. As we read above, in the Jewish state it
isn’t just Christian symbols that are being spat on, it is actually
the Goyim in general. Far more concerning, it isn’t even just kosher
saliva. It is actually everything they may find at their disposal:
saliva, live ammunition, bombs, missiles, WMD, white phosphorous,
you name it, they spit it.
In fact, spitting is not the problem. Spiting is just a symptom
of a deeply imbued cultural categorical dismissal of ‘otherness’
that distinguishes Israel as a criminal state. It is also this very
dismissal of ‘otherness’ that stops the Israelis and their supporters
around the world from understanding the level of resentment that is
mounting against any form of Jewish nationalism.
Hatred is a form of blindness. Jewish hatred, that is culturally,
religiously and spiritually orientated, is also a form of deafness.
This may explain the tragic consequences in which nationalist Jews
fail time after time to internalise the criticism leveled against
them: against their politics and culture. This may explain why Jews
fail to grasp what is the root cause of ‘anti semitism’. Rather than
being reflective and engaging in self-mirroring, the nationalistic
Jew would insist that the problem is always somewhere else.
As interesting as it may be, Zionism was the only modern serious
Jewish collective attempt to amend the cultural abnormalities within
Jewish culture. Early Zionism took anti Jewish criticism seriously. It
committed itself to bring about a civilized ethical person. Zionism
obviously failed completely. Yet, till the 1980’s some fading voices
of "humanist Zionism", people who wanted to see the Jews setting
themselves into a peaceful nation living amongst others, could still
be heard in occupied Palestine. It may also explain why the most
radical and effective voices against Zionism and Jewish nationalism,
are in fact people who were a product of Zionist upbringing (Shahak,
I. Shamir, Sand, Burg and a few others).
In the late 1970’s a young dissident movement led by an Israeli
Refusenik Gadi Elgazi protested against serving in the occupied
territories. "Occupation Corrupts" Elgazi said. He was sent to prison
repeatedly. Elgazi and his supporters maintained that controlling
other people would have a devastating impact on the Jewish state and
its morality. They were obviously correct. Through the years Israel
has become a criminal collective, complicit in genocide. With 94%
of its population supporting the IDF measures in Gaza, there is no
room for doubt, Israel has no room amongst nations. As if this is not
enough, the level of crime within Israel is also soaring. The rate of
homicidal crime is rapidly growing and it seems as if no one there
knows how to tackle the problem. Elgazi’s predictions proved to be
a prophecy. The occupation turned against the occupier.
Interestingly enough, it didn’t take long before Jewish cultural hatred
towards Goyim and their symbols would turn inward and mature into an
internal Jewish war where Jews do spit on each other. The tension
within Israel’s Jewish communities is rising by the day whether it
is the rapid rise of poverty or the rising social division between
Israeli Jewish communities. Seemingly, there is a growing unresolved
tension between the secular and orthodox Jews in Israel. As much
as Jews can hate the Goyim, nothing is comparable with the way and
manner in which they despise each other.
Channel 4, the brave British broadcaster that just 10 days ago exposed
the cross-party Jewish lobby operating in the UK, did it again. The
Battle for Israel’s Soul is an expos of the feud between Jewish
communities in Israel(1). Just like in the case of the occupation
that turned eventually against the Israelis, hatred towards Goyim
made the Israelis into a vengeful collective. Naturally it didn’t
take long before the Israelis would start to spit on each other.
Watch this film:
My message to the Palestinians is actually very simple. Give the
Israelis time. They do not need enemies. With the level of self
contempt they carry in themselves it is just a question of time before
they totally implode.
(1) To watch the entire film: