Why Juliano Mer-Khamis' murder is unlikely to be 'solved'
The Guardian reports that a leaflet in Jenin this week justified the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, the Jewish (via his mother), 'Palestinian' (via his father) theater director who was murdered in broad daylight in Jenin last week. That makes it unlikely that the 'Palestinian Authority' will bother trying to
punish the killer.
Inside the camp, rebuilt since its partial destruction in 2002, people were reluctant to speak about Mer-Khamis. A group of elderly women sitting by the roadside, gave their opinion: "God only knows what happened but the theatre was a shameful place."
A butcher was more forthcoming. Standing in a small room with a portrait of Saddam Hussein and a sparsely stocked cold cabinet, he said he and others were offended by the theatre. "We are Muslims. We have traditions. We looked for our children and found them at the theatre dancing. If he came here to bring jobs that would be good but instead he comes here to corrupt our girls and make women of our boys," he said.
The leaflet justifying the killing of Mer-Khamis also demands the closure of the theatre and other western organisations, including the British Kenyon Institute, under threat of "jihadi action".
The leaflet attacks Mer-Khamis for his belief in co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians, "as if we could live with those who stole our land and killed our children".
It goes on to attack his plays: "What kind of resistance [to occupation] is the play Animal Farm, which made the young men of Palestine bark like dogs and lick the ground in shame and the young women wear the costumes of pigs and roll around the ground in degeneracy?"
The leaflet describes Mer-Khamis as a Jew, a communist and an infidel. "He was not killed for a scene in a play. He was killed for the accumulation of his activities since he came here," it says.
Mer-Khamis's most recent project, Spring Awakening, is singled out for particular criticism. The play by Frank Wedekind was banned in Germany in 1891 for its portrayal of teenage sexuality. In recent years a musical adaptation won awards in London and New York.
The leaflet then refers to a telephone conversation between Mer-Khamis and the Arab-Israeli actor, Makram Khouri, in which Khouri advises his friend not to stage the play. According to theatre staff, very few people were aware of the conversation.
The leaflet then praises the man from Jenin refugee camp who carried out the killing. "He did not do it with a silencer, or in the dark but in broad daylight, face to face, and he made sure not to harm the woman and child who were in the car at the time," the leaflet says.
Palestinian police say that their investigation into the murder continues.
Islamic society kills those who do not conform. Literally. Why Mer-Khamis ever thought it would be otherwise is not clear.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Islamic terrorism, Jenin, Juliano Mer Khamis, Palestinian intolerance
'Palestinian' blogger apologizes for his 'stupidity'
26-year-old blogger, Walid Husayin, who called the Muslim God a "primitive Bedouin" and Islam a religion of "irrationality and ignorance," has apologized to his family and the 'Palestinian people' after spending a month in a 'Palestinian Authority' jail. He sought forgiveness for what he called his '
stupidity.'
A Palestinian atheist jailed for more than a month for sharing his anti-Islam views on the Internet has apologized for offending Muslims, and a Palestinian military spokesman said he expected "positive" developments in the case.
Rights groups have criticized his arrest as a demonstration of the limits on free speech under the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which has trawled Internet sites like Facebook as part of a crackdown on dissent and unpopular views.
I don't get this. If he insulted the 'Muslim God' shouldn't he be apologizing to the 'Muslim God'? Since when are the 'Palestinian people' Muslim? Were 'Palestinian' Christians offended by what he said? Why? And is an 'apology' elicited by a month of (torture?) jail a sincere apology that ought to make a difference to the 'Muslim God'? Were his comments 'stupidity' in the first place?
Labels: Palestinian intolerance, religious freedom
The real issue in the Middle East
The real problem in the Middle East isn't Israeli 'settlements,' argues Brett Stephens in the Wall Street Journal. It's 'Palestinian' (and for that matter - I might add - Arab and Muslim)
illiberalism (those without full access to the Journal may find the full article
here).
The systematic violation of Palestinian rights by Palestinian officials is an old story, as is the increasingly Islamist tilt of what was once supposed to be a relatively secular, progressive society. Whatever might be said in favor of freedom for Palestine, there has been to date precious little freedom in Palestine, whether in the Hamas-controlled statelet of Gaza or in the parts of the West Bank under Fatah's dominion.
That's a problem. It's also a problem that when the Associated Press covered Mr. Husayin's ordeal, reporter Diaa Hadid offered that "the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is among the more religiously liberal Arab governments in the region," and that "Husayin's high public profile and prickly style . . . left authorities no choice but to take action."
How nice to see AP reporters sticking up for free expression. Indeed, the consistent willingness of Western news organizations to downplay stories about Palestinian illiberalism and thuggery goes far to explain why so much of the world misdiagnoses the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Settlements are a convenient alibi: They foster the illusion that the conflict can be resolved by Israeli territorial concessions alone. But if that were true, Gaza would have turned peaceful the moment settlements were withdrawn five years ago. The opposite happened.
Why did Gaza become more violent, internally as well as toward Israel and Egypt, the moment it was rid of Israelis? That's the central question, and one too few observers seem willing to address for fear of where the answer might lead. Yet it ought to be self-evident. The culture of Palestinian illiberalism gave rise to the discontents that brought about civil war and then Hamas's swift rise to power. Hamas is theologically committed to Israel's destruction. That commitment is politically popular: It shapes, and limits, what even the most progressive Palestinian leaders might be willing to concede to Israel in any deal. The result is what we now have: Negotiations that are going nowhere, at an increasingly heavy price for all parties, including the United States.
Like George W. Bush before him, President Obama has observed that the U.S. can't want peace more than Israelis or Palestinians themselves do. But America can, uniquely, stand for freedom like no other country. Mr. Husayin—assuming he's the author of those blog posts—surely knew how much he risked by speaking his mind, and it's tempting to conclude he had it coming.
But if Palestinians cannot abide a single free-thinker in their midst, they cannot be free in any meaningful sense of the word. And if the U.S. can't speak up on his behalf, then neither, in the long run, can we.
Indeed.
Labels: illiberalism, Palestinian intolerance, pandering to Muslims
The Guardian reports that a leaflet in Jenin this week justified the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, the Jewish (via his mother), 'Palestinian' (via his father) theater director who was murdered in broad daylight in Jenin last week. That makes it unlikely that the 'Palestinian Authority' will bother trying to punish the killer. 
