>The next question revealed the caller’s hand: “Your husband just got back from committing genocide? How can our kids be safe on campus? How many babies did he kill?”
This highlights the problem of falsely and flippantly claiming genocide is happening. It allows people to justify ramping up the hatred to levels that they otherwise wouldn’t.
“Your husband just got back from fighting against a terrorist organisation who indiscriminately went door to door and massacred whole families solely because they were Jewish” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
PixelF on
I read this article willing to have my mind changed – I heard about the chaplain at Leeds before. The way the article was written I had half wondered if the mob was wrong – maybe his service was years ago, as is mandatory for people who grow up in Israel. There was no such surprise in the article – he was an IDF reservist who went out last November and has participated in military activity which has demonstrably killed many several thousands of children.
I do not believe this couple sincerely believes that innocent people should not be threatened in their homes, what with the husband’s active and paid participation in a military campaign which has killed nearly 14,000 Palestinian children, very many of them crushed under the rubble of their houses. That he was able to return to his children alive and well is a privilege he has denied many other innocent people.
kirrillik on
A harrowing read. There needs to be harsher penalties and more serious focus on religious people in the UK stoking religious conflict and harassment. Protests if peaceful are fine but I wish we were locking up or deporting anyone making threats of violence.
Grayson81 on
It’s worth noting that he literally served in the Israeli military at a time when they’re accused of carrying out war crimes and atrocities.
Even if you want to defend their actions as “not literally genocide”, quite a lot of Palestinian children and babies are dying as a direct result of Israel’s actions.
You can see how some students might not feel that he’s the right person to act as a university chaplain if he’s prepared to do that, especially if they share demographic similarities with the people who Israel’s military keeps killing!
4 Comments
>The next question revealed the caller’s hand: “Your husband just got back from committing genocide? How can our kids be safe on campus? How many babies did he kill?”
This highlights the problem of falsely and flippantly claiming genocide is happening. It allows people to justify ramping up the hatred to levels that they otherwise wouldn’t.
“Your husband just got back from fighting against a terrorist organisation who indiscriminately went door to door and massacred whole families solely because they were Jewish” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
I read this article willing to have my mind changed – I heard about the chaplain at Leeds before. The way the article was written I had half wondered if the mob was wrong – maybe his service was years ago, as is mandatory for people who grow up in Israel. There was no such surprise in the article – he was an IDF reservist who went out last November and has participated in military activity which has demonstrably killed many several thousands of children.
I do not believe this couple sincerely believes that innocent people should not be threatened in their homes, what with the husband’s active and paid participation in a military campaign which has killed nearly 14,000 Palestinian children, very many of them crushed under the rubble of their houses. That he was able to return to his children alive and well is a privilege he has denied many other innocent people.
A harrowing read. There needs to be harsher penalties and more serious focus on religious people in the UK stoking religious conflict and harassment. Protests if peaceful are fine but I wish we were locking up or deporting anyone making threats of violence.
It’s worth noting that he literally served in the Israeli military at a time when they’re accused of carrying out war crimes and atrocities.
Even if you want to defend their actions as “not literally genocide”, quite a lot of Palestinian children and babies are dying as a direct result of Israel’s actions.
You can see how some students might not feel that he’s the right person to act as a university chaplain if he’s prepared to do that, especially if they share demographic similarities with the people who Israel’s military keeps killing!