‘The security fence saves lives’

‘The security fence saves lives’

The April 23 article regarding the partnership between Palestinian Arab farmers and their Israeli customers over the old “green line” border was written from an unusual point of view. The article quotes a Jew as saying that “the farmers of Wadi Fukin have been using the same agricultural system for over 2,000 years.” Can there be people in Israel so ignorant of their own history? There was no Wadi Fukin 2,000 years ago, but far more likely a Jewish farming village. Jews farmed the land until eventually pushed off by the Muslim overlords after 700 C.E. due to onerous taxation and discrimination. This romanticism of the Arab farmer as a “timeless resident” of the land, now oppressed by the Israelis, is a continuation of the lie that Jews are invaders and colonizers, rather than the legitimate residents returning after a criminal dispossession.

While there are many examples of Arabs and Jews cooperating in the Land of Israel, most are kept quiet so the Arabs are not murdered as collaborators by the “moderates” in the Arab population. The article seems to criticize Israel because the course of the security fence will impact on Arab agriculture. Despite the good relations in this particular spot, the benefit of the security fence is obvious to all. It saves lives. It saves Jewish lives. If the Arabs who realize the benefits of cooperation with the Jews had been more vocal in opposing the murder of Jewish women, children, and the elderly, and the dehumanization of Jews and other non-Muslims in their society, perhaps the security fence would not have been needed in the first place. Too late.

comments