Following on the heels of Arab protests across the Middle East, violent clashes have rocked Israel's borders this past weekend. Palestinians, protesting Israel's occupation of the land, rushed Israeli border checkpoints. Sunday, May 15th, marks the 63rd anniversary of the creation of Israel; a day which Palestinians refer to as "Nakba Day" or "Day of Catastrophe". Both Palestinians and Jews staked claim over the holy land, and this has created violent tension ever since. Both Palestinians and Israelites have committed crimes against each other. And in doing so each side has stockpiled contempt for the other.
I am not writing this to lend my support to any side, but rather to introduce a (fairly) recent and topical book. In "The Jew is Not My Enemy", Canadian Pakistani Journalist Tarek Fatah tries to explain the brewing hatred of Jews in Muslim regions like Pakistan, Iran, and Palestine.
Fatah travels back to his native Pakistan after 17 years of living in Canada. He was shocked to be confronted with a casual hatred against Jews that had developed in his home country. As a journalist, Fatah wanted to explore where the hatred of Jews stemmed from.
How does this relate to the current clashes between Israeli and Palestine? Well, it does and it doesn't. Fatah cites the Israel-Palestine conflict as a red herring when considering the Arab's mistrust of Jews. While not being responsible for creating the hatred, both Jewish and Arab communities cite it as support and justification for ill intentions.
Fatah identifies decades of stagnation in the Arab lands, and its many lost battles, as a source of hatred towards Jews. Extremist Muslim politicians and clerics have placed blame on the Jews, and somehow managed to unite entire Muslim communities against the Jew. Over time, the hatred of Jews has become ingrained in certain Muslim cultures and is propagated by authorities as a way of maintaining power.
Fanatical clerics have reworked the interpretations of the Koran, idealizing stories like that of a battle at Medina. One such story in the Koran, has the profit Mohammad and his armies take over the city of Medina, and killing its 900 Jewish inhabitants. Although the Jewish religion of the story's victims did not intend hatred of Jews when the story was originally written, it has become suggested by extremists as a religious justification for smiting Jews. Here is a quote from Tarek Fatah from the TVO podcast The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Nov 1st 2010:
"In an era of Muslimdom, when we have nothing to accomplish, when we cannot win any wars, where fourteen armies get beaten by a tiny force, where Pakistan and India have wars, and Pakistan gets defeated, where Egypt gets defeated, where Jordan gets defeated, Syria gets a bloodied nose. What do we rely on? Past victories."
Of course the manifested hatred of Jews is unfounded and ignorant. Tarek Fatah decries Anti-Semitism in every chapter by dispelling the Muslim myths fuelling their scorn of Jews. Fatah cites many historical instances of great cooperation between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East and South East Asia. He states the current mistrust of Jews is a relatively new phenomena, that has no historical justification. The Middle East is such a common topic nowadays, especially Jew-Muslim relations (take this guy for example), and this book will put a lot of conversations in context. There is tons more in the book, and it's a really easy read. If only actual extremists would read this book, their convictions would be changed. But alas, that will probably not happen.
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