The Last Exile

Years ago there was quite a popular book making the rounds of pop culture which was based on the premise that everything which was necessary for the socialization process was learned in kindergarten. Obviously, the premise is simplistic and trite but I do believe there are individuals who never grow out of behaviour patterns which are set early in life.

I had three children in under four years, so between the oldest and the youngest there is merely three years gap between the oldest and youngest child. One of the things that surprised me the most was the truly competitive nature each of my children and how it coloured their perceptions of each other from the get-go. Not just in the obvious ways at home, in sports or at school but it was an all pervasive game of perpetual one-up-manship. Each child instinctively saw ‘the other’ sibling as out to get them.

If my daughter tripped or stumbled while walking close to one of her brothers she immediately blamed one which ever one of the boys she held a grudge against at that given moment for causing her to stumble or trip. In fact, on many occasions I had to point out the ‘other siblings’ weren’t even within the immediate vicinity of where she was when the accident occurred. Eventually, with time, maturity and logic I was able to win everyone over to the idea – that some accidents or injury can be isolated and random and can occur without a human motivational trigger.

I do believe that some people never learn fully grasp this concept which brings me to the case of Emily Henochowicz. Her name is probably completely unknown to most of my readers or most North Americans but she has become a potent poster-girl symbol to the International Solidarity Movement and like-wise sojourners. Ha’aretz tells the story rather well even if the full article is deeply biased.

The Israeli government is refusing to pay the cost of medical care for an American-Jewish activist who lost an eye when Border Police officers fired a tear gas canister at her during a demonstration. Emily Henochowicz, who studying at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem and also holds Israeli citizenship, took part in a protest on May 31, shortly after Israel killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Dozens of activists took part in the protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza next to the Qalandia checkpoint, south of Ramallah. According to the IDF, demonstrators began to throw stones at the Border Police, after which the army responded by firing tear gas canisters.

According to Henochowicz, one policeman shot a canister directly at her face, shattering her jaw and causing her to lose her left eye. A Haaretz reporter witnessed the incident. Following her her treatment at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Henochowicz’s father, who had traveled from the U.S., was handed a bill for NIS 14,000. Under advice from his lawyer, Michael Sfard, he asked the Defense Ministry cover the expense, but officials refused.

In justifying the refusal, the Defense Ministry claimed the tear gas was not fired directly at Henochowicz. “The canister ricocheted at her after it rebound off a concrete barrier and changed direction – it was not shot directly at her,” the ministry said in a statement drafted by lawyer Sharon Zimmerman. The statement also accused Henochowicz of putting herself at risk by voluntarily participating in a breach of the peace.

Now in Henochowicz’s world, the Israel security forces represent the ultimate in evil inclinations and she a moral duty to confront what she perceives as the injustice behind checkpoints used against her chosen people; the Palestinians.

Unlike others, I won’t ascribe Henochowicz’s beliefs as ‘deliberate lies’ but a failure of perspective. The fact she was peacefully participating in a demonstration which turned violent against the Israeli security forces is what led directly to her being accidentally injured cannot be a random event according to her lexicon of beliefs. The attack had to be deliberate and personal because the forces of ‘evil’ were involved rather than the far more logical and rational conclusion; which was her injury resulted by at the wrong place at the wrong time. Think I am wrong? Well there is always the CCTV footage of the event.

Although, I do understand where Henochowicz gets it from as her father appears to suffer from the same inadequacies of maturity which just proves that social dysfunction is just not a generational thing.

Every time I venture into a mid-east debate the ‘Israeli checkpoints’ are always brought up as a rhetorical bludgeon to hit me over my head – figuratively speaking that is. It always seems to escape my detractors that the need for the checkpoints was the result of great deal of malice and the Palestinian compulsion to inflict grievous harm upon Jews. This You Tube video illustrations quite graphically the kind of dangers Israelis face from often the most unlikely looking of perqs at the checkpoints.

Apparently, this young woman with knife in her purse and her pants just happens to be a Hamas member.

Update: Sorry folks, the video has been removed from You Tube – if I find it anywhere else I will re-post it. Ynet News has a brief background piece on the stubbing at the checkpoint.

The CJN is carrying a report of incidents which occurred at Canadian universities from the Israel Apartheid Week events. This one via Small Dead Animals caught my eye:

“An issue we’ve been having is with professors setting up fake checkpoints outside of their classrooms at the request of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights [SPHR] and forcing the students to go through these. We’ve been speaking to the university about this,” Zelikovitz said.

He said that in one instance, students didn’t have the option of not going to their Gender and Diversity class, because there was an assignment due that day.
“Once inside, students had a 25-minute presentation from SPHR, a slide show that was obviously completely one-sided and the professor discussed it for a while after.
Patrick Deane, Queen’s vice-principal academic, said “students have the right to attend class without restraints, and they also have the right to choose whether or not they take part in any political debate, presentation, or enactment.

The problem with these kind of ‘renactments’ is their one-sided nature. If the skeleton of a bombed out city bus was located outside the door or a life size mural depicting it beside the checkpoint, I really wouldn’t have a problem with the ‘staged’ reenactment per say. Of course, if we are going for realism, we need to recognize Israelis face checkpoints to whether it be – going to the mall, government building, restaurants, and schools etc. The picture used below comes from the One Family Fund for Israeli victims of terrorist attacks and shows the aftermath of a Netanya mall bombing (circa 2005) where five were killed and 66 injured.

It would probably helpful for the professor or TA to carry a replicate rifle in the classroom as well – in order show students one of the ways Israeli teachers have had to respond to the possibility of their students coming under sniper fire on the playground from those brave freedom fighters. Perhaps we can have a siren go off periodically throughout the day to give students 15 seconds to find shelter or be marked dead, maimed or in shock.

Of course, most Israelis don’t whine about the humiliating and invasive nature of these searches and checkpoints – mostly I suspect because the alternative is considered rather unappealing.

h/t Gay & Right