Palestinian Jews

Al Jazeera has a really interesting interview with a Libyan Jew living in Gaza. While I understand politically it would be a disgrace to leave Jews behind in Gaza and watch them get abused, without any martial or military protection, it is a very sweet idea, in the abstract.

My favorite exerpts:

I [Avi Farhan] met [Mohammad] Dahlan four to five years ago in Eli Sinai in my fish restaurant.

I told him if you could give me assurances of peace, we could make something great from Ashkelon to the al-Arish, and it could be better than the French Riviera, but you have to make peace from the heart, not political peace.

He said: "You can stay here if you become a Palestinian settler." I told him, "You don't scare me with this talk. If you agree to this, I will get elected in the Legislative Council before you do - I have more friends than you in Gaza."

But Israeli settlements are racist by their very nature - only Israeli Jews can live there. Palestinians from Gaza cannot live there. On the other hand, you can live in Um al-Fahem.

I can't even walk by Um al-Fahem - I'll get shot.

Theoretically speaking…

A few hundred metres away from me there are Arabs living here. But there still isn't enough goodwill for them to live inside the settlement. I'm sorry to see things this way, but it's not a one-sided problem.

I think this demonstrates some of the sentaments of how difficult life in the Palesinitan territories really is and how the secular end of the arab world recognizes how far the PA leadership has to go in order to create a true liberal democratic state.

Will this help anything? Of course not. It is just nice to read once in a while, is all...