"[A] growing majority of voters in Europe and elsewhere... simply cannot understand how the horrors of the last European war can be invoked to license or condone unacceptable behavior in another time and place. In the eyes of a watching world, the fact that the great-grandmother of an Israeli soldier died in Treblinka is no excuse for his own abusive treatment of a Palestinian woman waiting to cross a checkpoint. "Remember Auschwitz" is not an acceptable response."
-- Tony Judt, The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up; Haaretz, 5 May 2006.
Further Reading: Tony Judt is a Professor of European Studies and Director of the Remarque Institute at New York University. His article, The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up, is probably one of the best I have read in Ha'aretz, and is well worth reading in full. You may want to read first his October 2003 article for the NY Review of Books, Israel: The Alternative, on ethnic-religious statehood as an anachronism in the 21st century, and the need for Israel to recreate itself as a binational state.
The Photo of Palestinian-American Tina Hannouneh, beaten by an Israeli security guard at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, is by Ayman Oghanna for PNN.
Related Links:
American family brutally assaulted at Israeli checkpoint; Palestine News Network, 17 July 2006.Hannouneh, who was born in the West Bank, moved to Arizona in 1986, where she now works as banker. She and her son Michael had come to Palestine, on a holiday, to visit friends and family...“We were entering through security when a guy dressed as a civilian approached Michael. He grabbed Michael’s neck with his right hand and reached for the i-pod with his left hand, shouting ‘give me that’ in Arabic.” Michael, who has spent most of his life in the US, does not speak or understand Arabic. He was unaware that the man choking him was a security officer, and refused to give him the mp3 player. Hannouneh added, “The security officer was not wearing a uniform. My son couldn’t have recognized him as army or police. He payed $400 for that i-pod, he’s not just going to give it to anybody.”
Confused and bewildered about what was happening, Michael held on to his i-pod. It was then that the officer became violent. Hannouneh explained that “the guy punched him, dropped him to the ground, and started banging his head against on the floor.” She continued, “He shouted in Arabic ‘you can’t say no to a police officer.’” After trying to protect her son, the officer turned on Hannouneh. She commented, “As hard as he could he hit my face. I fell to the floor and hit my head on the metal bar in the security fence. I have two stitches and my nose is really smashed. My shirt and my pants were covered in blood”.
The terrorized family’s ordeal only came to an end when other officials realized they were American...
US mother & son beaten by Israeli security guard; The Corner Report; 14 July 2006.
Interview: Tina and Michael Hannouneh, Americans beaten by Israeli guards at border crossing; International Middle East Media Center, 24 July 2006.
Zionists Brutalize Handicapped Palestinian American; Um Kahlil, 7 August 2006.
