The Jerusalem Post reports that

Since the beginning of 2001, 23 Palestinians, all holders of Israeli identity cards due to the family reunification program, were arrested by security forces for their involvement in terror attacks inside Israel, including three suicide bomb attacks which resulted in the deaths of 16 Israelis, according to information released yesterday by security officials.

(full article here)

I know we all want to be with our kin, and the idea of “family reunification” sounds very tragic and romantic, and it’s a great buzz word for the press, but can you really blame us for not handing it out to every applicant when 23 times too often it has ended like this?

In a vacuum, many Palestinian complaints against us sound so pure and justifiable, I would be tempted to hate us too, were I not a human endowed with critical thinking skills, who could look at both sides of an argument. But when it comes down to their ‘human rights’ vs. our right to live at all, I say Jewish blood doesn’t run so cheap.

Here’s some friendly advice for my Palestinian neighbors.

  • Want family reunification? don’t pull stuff like this, and ostracize those who do.
  • Don’t want your houses raided by the IDF? Don’t harbor terrorists in them or keep weapons under your children’s beds
  • Don’t want ambulances to be stopped at checkpoints? Don’t hide weapons in them.
  • Hate the checkpoints? Quit trying to smuggle in bombs to kill us.

It’s really pretty simple.

I know things suck for you in a lot of ways, but quit the bitching and rhetoric about one-sided suffering. Grow up and take some responsibility.

Stop teaching your children about the glory of killing Jews. Take down the posters of martyrs in your towns. Stop rewriting history to suit your needs.

Start a revolution! Take a page from the Martin Luther King book of peaceful resistance.

Allow us to respect you.

About the author

Laya Millman

2 Comments

  • Who are you to offer advice have you lived there as a palestinian?
    Im a sefardic jew and Im appalled at what we have done to the palestinians

  • What relevance does your ethnicity have? I mean I am a sephardic Jew as well and I do not see how that has any relevance at all. Having said all that, you imply that in order to give sincere and well meaning advice to Palestinians, you need to be a Palestinian yourself. That is just patently ridiculous. Does that mean that in order to advise a heroin addict, one needs to have been a heroin addict as well? Does that mean that the idea of empathy is nice but basically stupid and illegitimate? I can tell you that I too, as a sephardic Jew, am apalled at what has been done to the Palestinians … by their self-serving Arab brothers, by their corrupt political leadership, by their murderous fanatic religious leaders and by their lack of vision and will.

    Shana Tova!