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May. 12, 2021 12:36 PM
How could they be so stupid? That’s the question that keeps repeating in Jerusalem. The people asking it are Palestinians, and the question refers to the Israeli authorities, who have made decisions that even from the Israeli perspective are stupid because they have inflamed a divided city, or more precisely, the eastern half that includes the Old City.
There’s a positive side to this stupidity. It’s akin to a panicked diplomatic cable that informs the capital that lunatics in the guise of Startup Nation and music lovers have entered the code for detonating a warhead. The stupidity exposes the linkage between Israel’s nature to expel (in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, for example) and its deep, instinctive disdain for its Muslim subjects. The stupidity shows how the country that has maimed Palestinian villages and towns such as Bethlehem, Hebron’s Old City, Nebi Samuel and Jerusalem’s Mugrabi Quarter so that Jews can hold their religious ceremonies is showing contempt and disregard for Ramadan and Islamic holy sites.