Undermining Israel. Scary Natalie, Al Khalil (Hebron) 2018 | by Natalie Strecker | Aug, 2024 | Medium
▻https://nataliestrecker.medium.com/undermining-israel-e21e25842943
Yesterday, I attempted to enter Palestine to support a grassroots, humanitarian organisation, administered in the UK by Amos Trust. Unfortunately, I did not succeed, because the ’only democracy in the Middle East’, after interrogating me, denied me entry. Why? Because I apparently “undermined Israel” & “caused problems for the soldiers” and stopped them doing their job! How did I, an ordinary, middle-aged woman achieve this?
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There is a great and tragic irony in this; that Israel, rather than confronting itself, once again projects its own crimes and issues, in casting me and people like me as the problem. NOT the current genocide we are all witnessing, a monstrous evil, I doubt we will ever truly recover from as a species, at least not for many decades. NOT the 8 decades of violent settler colonialism preceding it, the 100s of massacres, such as Tantura and Deir Yassin. NOT the brutal occupation and apartheid it subjects the indigenous Palestinians to. NOT the undermining of the democratic systems of our countries in order to protect the now pariah state. NOT the funding of far-right groups by Israel supporters, that right now, attempt to undertake pogroms of our Muslim and brown and black neighbours in our communities, which, we can be assured will ultimately endanger our Jewish community. Yes, it is me, a working class, 49year old woman, from a tiny island called Jersey, in the English Channel. An island that many have not even heard of, except maybe as a territory that serves the City of London, by hiding the money of the 1%. It is ME that is a threat to Israel! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, because as much as I wish it were true that I had this much power, it is clearly a ridiculous accusation on so many levels. However, it is very revealing as it tells you everything you need to know about Israel’s fragility, as well as the racist, criminal enterprise that it is.