The following video has been making the rounds, in an attempt to somehow show that Jews in Israel are intolerant of Christians.
@hasitwholesalers ♬ original sound – HasIT Wholesalers
Zionist children attack Christian tourists.
— Ibrahim Jabr🇵🇸🇮🇪 (@Ibrahim_J5) September 10, 2023
They learn from childhood to hate non-Jews. pic.twitter.com/EV4bPIYL1L
Needless to say, the video has sparked more online invective against the Jewish people.
It certainly does not look good, and I unreservedly condemn the physical assaults.
But it must be said this is not a simple case of some Christian tourists minding their own business and being attacked for it. The full video reveals what actually happened, even though the microphone on the woman with the blue shirt already provides a clue.
The women were proselytizing to Jews:
@gods.mob209 ♬ original sound – Gods.Mob209
And to make matters worse, as you can see towards the end of the video, the clip in which they were attacked was in the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem on the Jewish Shabbat, a day of rest for Jews in which we are forbidden to operate things like electrical devices:
@gods.mob209 ♬ original sound – Gods.Mob209
In other words, these women deliberately went to the Jewish Quarter on the holy day for Jewish people, and proselytized about Jesus to them. The proselytization is bad enough but to do so on the Jewish Shabbat seems to be an even more provocative act.
Again, I am not condoning the kids physically assaulting the women, but they are kids and have likely not encountered this situation often. All they know is the women were telling them things that go against their belief system and – worse than that – are forbidden for Jewish people.
I can assure you, if these women went to a Muslim area on their holy day, and did exactly the same thing, they would be lucky to escape with their lives. And that applies to a place like Gaza.
Respect needs to go both ways.
Updates
13/9/23 15:00: The same women missionaries were abused by Muslims to whom they were proselytizing also in the old city of Jerusalem. But that video was not circulated like this one was.
