Occupied Jerusalem -
With the Israeli confusion in front of the Arab public rallying around the Palestinian cause in the World Cup in Qatar, the Israeli journalist, Michal Aharoni, headlined her article in the newspaper "Israel Hayom", with the phrase, "The Palestinians are all in Qatar, the reality is embarrassing."
In it, she talked about a state of Palestinian supremacy during the World Cup.
In a message sent to the Israeli community, Aharoni wrote, "Here we are discovering that there is a vibrant Palestinian people, and to realize that, the Israeli media had to fly to Qatar to remember this fact."
And she added, "It is true that the Palestinians live within an hour's travel distance from our homes and towns, but they no longer have, years ago, any presence and presence in the memory and in the Israeli reality, as they were deliberately and systematically absent from the Israeli media."
She explained that the Israeli media deliberately marginalized the Palestinians, their issues and their daily lives, and did not cover and document their suffering and reality, as there is no significant interaction by the Israelis with what she described as the Palestinian “neighbors,” “no daily interaction, no solidarity, no peaceful march, and also no There is a popular uprising."
Fans raise the flag of Palestine in a report by an Israeli reporter from the Qatar World Cup (Israeli press)
The absence of the Palestinian cause
The Israeli writer says, "We live as if millions of Palestinians have disappeared behind the wall, as it is convenient and easy for us (the Israelis) to corner them, suppress them, and ignore their existence."
Not only that, but she added, "There has been no dialogue with them for years, and negotiations are not on the agenda."
In indications that the Palestinian cause and the conflict with the Palestinians have been absent in recent years from the agenda of the Jewish parties and their electoral programs, Aharoni recalled the electoral slogan previously raised by the Likud party, which was "Netanyahu... we make a secure peace."
However, in the election campaigns since 2019, the Palestinian issue was not present, nor was it ever on the agenda of the Israeli rival camps and parties.
"Hatred and hatred of the Palestinians was buried within us," Aharoni says.
She said that the word "occupation" has become a thing of the past, and has become delirium and nonsense when a leftist or a progressive mentions it.
Qatari fans in the match # Qatar_Netherlands in # Al-Bayt_Stadium, which can accommodate more than 60,000 spectators, chanting: With the soul and blood, we sacrifice you, O # Palestine ..# World_Cup_Qatar_2022 # Palestine_in_World_Qatar # Palestine_Tanour_Doha pic.twitter.com/WiR4rCW4CC
- Jaber Al-Harmi (@jaberalharmi) November 29, 2022
With American support
In the face of this Israeli marginalization of the Palestinian cause, the Israeli writer says, "It was relatively easy to forget and close the files - (with reference to the Palestinian cause) - in the United States of America the head of the transfer of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and thus gave us the feeling that we are protected and protected to forever.”
She added, "The support we got from evangelicals who support Israel, and the close relationship between them and Netanyahu and his family, has become an alternative to the support and support of US Jews, most of whom support the Democratic Party and believe in dialogue and a political settlement (with the Palestinians)."
The Israeli writer indicated that Tel Aviv employed the Corona pandemic in order to deepen the marginalization of the Palestinian cause, regionally and globally, saying, "Two years of Corona made the world in another place, a global health crisis that prompted the world to put on a muzzle, shut up, and withdraw into itself."
An Israeli newspaper described the World Cup in Qatar as a "world of hate" for Israel (Al-Jazeera)
"Good Arabs" and "Bad Arabs"
In her article, the Israeli writer expresses her belief that the "Abrahamic Accords" (normalization agreements with Arab countries) were a symbol of erasing the Palestinian cause from awareness and conscience, as she sorted and divided the Arabs in the Middle East and the Gulf region, between the "good Arabs" and the "bad Arabs." ".
She believes that these agreements enabled Netanyahu and his government at the time to tell exciting regional stories, as he drank Arabic coffee without "Abu Mazen" (referring to bypassing negotiations with the Palestinians and exchanging visits with the countries that signed the normalization agreements).
"It has become possible to fly from Ben Gurion Airport in Lod to Abu Dhabi for very little money, accompany Arabs in white robes, and take selfies with Burj Khalifa," Aharoni says.
She pointed out that the reality created by the normalization agreements, and their contribution to obscuring the conflict from the Israeli consciousness, raised many questions about the feasibility of going to negotiations with the Palestinians and "making concessions" to them.
between shock and reality
The Israelis expressed their frustration with the statements of the Arab public in front of the Hebrew media, which were supportive of the Palestinian people.
"These are the feelings expressed by ordinary people or officials alike. Some of them identified themselves as Palestinians.. and some of them simply remember their relationship with the Palestinian people, unlike us, the Israelis, who originally forgot that there are people behind the Green Line."
These scenes are described by the author as "shock and amazement".
"These are the real people - (with reference to the Arab public) - ... they do not love Israel, and they stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers in the West Bank, and no agreement, no matter how celebratory and successful, will make them forget the reality of the conflict," she said.
The writer mentions the account of an Israeli reporter who said that a taxi driver in Doha asked the former Israeli national team player, Eli Ohana, to get off, and refused to transfer him.
The player's response was stunned, "Why?!".
He received the answer from the driver, "Because I am Palestinian" and "Without hesitation, clearly and sharply."
Are you already from Ecuador?
This brings to mind Israel's request of its citizens until the 1980s to travel in groups only, and many of them used to identify themselves with the identity of the country from which they came and hide their Israeli identity..
⁃ Have you seen an interview of an Israeli journalist with a foreign fan in Qatar?!
pic.twitter.com/HzP3uN2Lpc
- Muna Omari (@MonaOmary) November 26, 2022
Questions for the Israelis
The Israeli writer evokes what was reported by the Israeli media about the World Cup in Qatar, especially what was written by the journalists, Raz Schenk and Oz Muallem, "We feel that we are hated, surrounded by hostility, unwanted and unwelcome, in the street we are accompanied by Palestinians, Iranians, Qataris, Moroccans, Jordanians, Syrians, and Egyptians." And the Lebanese with looks of hatred and hatred.”
The writer added, expressing the Israeli shock, "How surprising it was that the Palestinians did not love the Israelis, and the Iranians did not warmly embrace the Israelis. After peace and the Abrahamic agreements, and the opening of the region to us, how is it possible that the region does not allow itself to not open its heart to us ?!".
In response to these questions, Aharoni wrote: "Have the Israeli journalists who complain of hatred and hostility thought about what it means to be a Palestinian journalist in Israel?"
She wondered: Do (Israeli journalists) remember Sherine Abu Aqleh, the woman and the symbol, who, according to the Israeli army's own investigation, was killed with a "high probability" by sniper fire from the "Dovdevan" unit.
"Someone kicked the ball in our faces"
Addressing Israeli journalists, Aharoni asked, "Have they tried to be just Arabs in the public sphere in Israeli society? Have they forgotten that Israel still controls another people, or are they clinging to the concept (there is no Palestinian people)?"
And the Israeli writer concluded by saying, "The Israeli right has succeeded, over many years, in making the Israeli public forget the Palestinians. In the World Cup, the shock came and reminded everyone, including the Israeli media, that the Palestinians are still here behind the wall. And in Qatar there are too many people who kick balls." But it turns out that someone is kicking embarrassing reality in our faces."