He was quoted by Hanan Ashrawi back in 2000:
Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor documents several lynchings of Palestinians by Israeli army and security forces. In all cases the perpetrators were never punished, and no moral outrage was expressed by the Israeli public
So, what did this great moralist write?
Benjamin Netanyahu is always reminded of one sin: opening the Western Wall Tunnel in 1996. On the other hand, he is never reminded that the violent confrontation did not deteriorate into a bloodbath. The incident caused bereaved parents on both sides to suffer a price that does not leave them, and still, it did not become another operation that resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of people handicapped and a multitude of refugees.
Now, I saw this reference in Kadmia's election ads, too. A sledgehammer banging on the door where the tunnel was to exit. But standing next to Netanyahu was Ehud Olmert, then Jerusalem's mayor. He, of course, is not seen nor mentioned.
But what was that Hasmonean Tunnel Incident?
Let's review the outline of that incident:-
...the Ministry for Religious Affairs re-excavated the Hasmonian tunnel in 1987...due to its narrow width, the number of visitors was limited because the tunnel entrance was also the exit. The only way to leave the tunnel was by retracing steps back to the south-end entrance.
Between 1987 and 1996, the Israeli Ministry for Religious Affairs tried several times to open up an exit from the north end of the Hasmonean Tunnel up to ground level, near the Temple Mount, but not actually within it. Repeatedly the Waqf and the Supreme Moslem Council set off disturbances...in 1996 a staircase was built up from the tunnel to a point alongside an elementary school on the Via Dolorosa, where only a nondescript stone wall separated it from the street. All that remained was to open the entrance to the Via Dolorosa.
On September 24, 1996 approval was granted by the Netanyahu Government...The Islamic authorities had been consulted on this plan during the Peres government (1984-1986), which merely gives increased access to locals and tourists, and in fact increases the flow of tourists into the Arab business quarter of the Old City...In exchange for cooperation on the tunnel exit, in a January 1996 agreement the Israeli government gave the Waqf permission to renovate Solomon's Stables, an area of underground passages underneath the southern end of the Temple Mount, as a mosque for Ramadan prayers. The tunnel opening, in short, took place in the context of negotiations and reciprocity.
When the tunnel connection was opened, Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat claimed that opening the entrance was a "big crime against our religious and holy places." Arafat and the Waqf condemned Israel for trying to "Judaize" Jerusalem. Massive public disturbances followed.
I had dealt with this a year ago, here.
So, the Arabs betrayed us, Peres and Netanyahu and Olmert.
But Laor avoids that little bit of unpleasantness.
But, nevertheless, he comes to a violent conclusion:
...Therefore, whoever suggests that Labor go into the opposition...fails to understand what opposition means in a country where the spilling of blood is a recurring event...Opposition is created first and foremost in the street, not in an electoral carnival where the political programs are produced by strategist Reuven Adler and other propaganda experts. Whatever the makeup of the next coalition, the left's role will be manifested in the streets, not in waiting for the next elections.
Viva Laor!
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