Palestinian Christians Pay The Dhimmi Tax, But Jews Refuse To Do So
Mirabelle
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Dexter Van Zile, the Christian Media Analyst for Camera, had some pretty interesting things to say about the jizya and the Palestinian Christians who bash Israel on Friday in the Times of Israel.
For those who are unfamiliar, the jizya, or dhimmi tax, is explained in Norman Stillman’s The Jews of Arab Lands. On pages 19-20, 25-26 of this book, Stillman explains that the jizya was a mandatory tribute, the intent of which was to humble and subjugate the Christians and Jews who paid it to the Muslim rulers. Those who did not pay it were subjected to violence and exempt from protection by the state.
Van Zile’s post is an absolute can’t-miss:
Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank hosts Christ at the Checkpoint conferences.
Spreading lies about the Jewish state, as unsavory and self-destructive as it is, is the price Palestinian Christians pay for staying in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It’s what they have to do.
Jews stay in the land through the force of arms and diplomacy. Palestinian Christians stay in the West Bank by shilling on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, one of the most corrupt and incompetent set of elites in the world.
Palestinian Christians have to pretend that their fellow Palestinians are ready for statehood, jihadism in the Middle East is not the fault of Muslim radicals but the West, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all Israel’s fault and that Palestinian leaders can be trusted to make peace with the Jewish state even though they can’t be trusted with the money thrown at them by Western governments.
Repeating these messages is the tax, or jizya Palestinian Christians must pay to maintain peaceful relations, precarious as they are, with their Muslim neighbors in the West Bank. In previous epochs, Christians paid protection money to Muslim rulers to ensure their safety, but today they pay the jizya by telling lies to their fellow Christians in the West.
As Christians are becoming increasingly targeted by the boycott movement, Van Zile’s message is one that needs to be heard loud and clear.
Khaled Abu Toameh also wrote an important piece on Friday, about the ongoing Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
In recent weeks, the PA president has once again reiterated his strong opposition to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
The Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is one of the main obstacles to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abu Toameh attributes this refusal primarily to the insistence on a so-called “right of return” for descendants of the Arab refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars, and secondarily to a concern for Israeli Arab citizens. Abu Toameh’s writing generally is critically important and I usually agree with much of what he says, but in this case I don’t agree with his analysis.
Abu Toameh writes that, “the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is based on the argument that such a move would mean giving up the ‘right of return’ for millions of ‘refugees’ into Israel.” Abbas and his Palestinian Authority must be well aware, however, as Abu Toameh is, that this is never. going. to. happen. They know that insistence on an impossible condition is standing in the way of the state they claim to want so badly. And the premise that a Palestinian pronouncement on Israel’s Jewishness will somehow affect Israel’s Arab citizens is illogical on its face. Clearly, these, too, are excuses, and there is something deeper at play.
I think the true reason for the Palestinian Arab refusal to recognize Israel is found in Van Zile’s piece:
Jews stay in the land through the force of arms and diplomacy.
The existence of Israel means that Jews are no longer willing to pay the jizya, no longer willing to accept dhimmi status. Israel gives Jews the ability to live freely. I think that’s the point that Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian Arab leadership are simply not willing to accept. This is the real reason underlying their refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and their refusal to accept a peace agreement.
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Mirabelle
