Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Unlock unbeatable offers today. Shop here: https://amzn.to/4cEkqYs 🎁
After nearly four years of Hamas rule, the Gaza Strip's small secular community is in tatters, decimated by the militant group's campaign to impose its strict version of Islam in the coastal territory.
Hamas has bullied men and women to dress modestly, tried to keep the sexes from mingling in public and sparked a flight of secular university students and educated professionals. Most recently, it has confiscated novels it deems offensive to Islam from a bookshop and banned Gaza's handful of male hairdressers from styling women's hair.
Gaza, a tiny sliver of land squeezed between Egypt and Israel, always had a significant Islamic flavour, but once tolerated bars and cinemas, especially during Egyptian rule from 1948 to 1967. A conservative religious movement began to take hold in the 1980s, as part of a larger, region-wide religious awakening.
The trend toward religious fundamentalism preceded the Hamas takeover. In recent years, hardliners have burned down the cinemas. Their charred remains are still visible in Gaza City. Militants blew up the last bar in 2005.
Gaza women, whose attire once varied from Western pants and skirts to colourful traditional embroidered robes, began donning ankle-length loose robes. Women with face veils, once rarely seen in Gaza, are now a common sight.
Today, plainclothes officers sometimes halt couples in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Last year, the Interior Ministry banned women from smoking water pipes in public. Islamic faith does not ban women from smoking, but it is considered taboo in Gaza society.
"In the end, the people who think differently are leaving," said Rami, a 32-year-old activist in one of Gaza's few secular groups. He refused to give his last name, fearing retribution
Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem
Jerusalem became the capital of the first Jewish kingdom in 1004 BC, over 3000 years ago. With the brief exception of the Crusader period, no other non-Jewish ruling power of Jerusalem made the city a capital but it was consistently a capital for the Jews. Driven into partial exile by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, the Jews returned fifty years later and rebuilt Jerusalem as their capital. It was their capital, too, under the Maccabees. The unity of the city achieved in 1967, then, was more than a quirk of military geography. It was the fulfillment of unbroken historical longings.
Jerusalem is the site of the Temple of Solomon and Herod. The stones of a palace erected by King David himself are even now being unearthed just outside the walls of Jerusalem. Everything that makes a nation state legitimate bloodshed, soil tilled, two millennia of continuous residence, international agreements argues for Israels right to exist
SURIF, West Bank -- A 20-year-old Palestinian woman who was thrown into a well and left to die in the name of "family honor" has not become just another statistic in one of the Middle East's most shameful practices.
The killing of Aya Baradiya – by an uncle who didn't like a potential suitor – sparked such outrage that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scrapped laws this week that guaranteed sentences of six months or less for such killings.
On the day of the killing, the uncle and two accomplices snatched the woman and tied her hands and feet, Hebron police chief Ramadan Awad said. The suspects told interrogators she screamed and demanded to know why they wanted to kill her, but the uncle said only that she deserved to die, he said. She told them she had done nothing wrong, then her attackers dumped her into the well The water would have reached to her neck, Awad said, adding: "We can't be sure ... if she died immediately or it took her a long time to die."
So-called "honor killings" are committed regularly in traditional Arab societies that enforce strict separation between the sexes and view an unmarried woman's unsupervised contact with a man, even by telephone, as a stain on the family's reputation. There were nine such killings in the West Bank last year, and Jordan reports about 20 every year.
The police chief said suspects in honor killings often come forward immediately because they don't face serious punishment and a confession is part of the "cleansing" of family honor. However, Aya Baradiya's uncle remained silent, even saying at one point that his niece had called him and told him she just decided to go away.
Leniency for honor killings dates back to a 1960 Jordanian legal codex, parts of which are still in effect in the West Bank; the area was under Jordanian rule until it was captured by Israel in 1967. Awad, the Hebron police chief, said that under the old system, someone who killed for family honor would get a maximum of six months in prison.
In 2010, there were nine family honor killings in the West Bank, Awad said. In most cases, "family honor" was just a pretext, he added: Men would kill to clear the path for remarriage, get their wives' gold or because of problems in the family. The tougher new laws will likely reduce the number of such killings, he said.
In Hamas-ruled Gaza, at least 10 women were killed by male relatives over the past three years, according to a local activist, Majda Ibrahim. She said punishment is generally light, though in one case, a man was sentenced to death for killing his cousin after she rejected his marriage proposal. The man is on death row.
Palestinian Woman Aya Baradiya's 'Honor' Killing Sparks Tougher West Bank Laws
Linda Gradstein is an Israeli shill.
Anyone who is mystified by [Turkish] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğans great quotes, like me, should remember well this one from earlier this year: Calling [Hamas] terrorists would be disrespectful to the will of the Palestinian people. I asked, at that time, Which man of peace, unless from Jihad, would ally with an organization whose charter declares members to be Muslims who fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors?"
I know Messrs. Erdoğan and Davutoğlu are not convinced that Hamas is a terrorist organization even though Hamas charter vows to annihilate a legitimate state Israel. I know they did not link Hamas with terrorism when their darling Khaled Mashaal described the 10,000 rockets Hamas sent to Israeli territory as modest, homemade rockets, one of which in 2004 killed 4-year-old Afik Zahavi
I know Messrs. Erdoğan and Davutoğlu simply shrugged off the U.N.-sponsored Goldstone report, which stated: [Hamass activities] constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population. These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity ... The rocket and mortar attacks launched by armed Palestinian groups have caused terror.
Forget all of that. Not even the Hamas statement over the killing of Osama bin Laden tainted Mr. Erdoğans love for Hamas: Hamas condemns the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior, Osama bin Laden (whose skilful operatives had once bombed Istanbul, killing mostly Muslim Turks). Last year, in this column, I wrote: When combined into one compact idea, the picture is telling us that ... The Turkish government views as a great friend, an entity [Hamas], which views the boss of Istanbuls bombers as a holy warrior. Bizarre? Maybe.
How does Mr. Erdoğan really justify that Hamas is not a terrorist entity but a political party like his own when it trades a foreign soldier for terror convicts?
The Arab-Israeli exchange rate (part II) - Hurriyet Daily News
I know Messrs. Erdoğan and Davutoğlu are not convinced that Hamas is a terrorist organization even though Hamas charter vows to annihilate a legitimate state Israel.
I know Messrs. Erdoğan and Davutoğlu are not convinced that Hamas is a terrorist organization even though Hamas charter vows to annihilate a legitimate state Israel.
Legitimate state
Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem
The Arabic name of the city of Jerusalem, al-Quds, is of comparatively late appearance. In the earliest Arabic references, from the time of the prophet and shortly after, Jerusalem is normally called Iliya, from Aelia, the name which the Romans gave to the city in the second century, or, in full, as Iliya madinat bayt al-maqdis, "Aelia, the city of the temple" Later, the city is referred to as Bayt al-Maqdis, and then simply as al-Quds. The resemblance to the ancient Hebrew Bayt ha-Miqdash and ha-Qodesh will be obvious.
The Origin of Palestine
The Judean revolt against Rome was led by [Jewish messiah] Bar Kochba in 132-135 CE. The immediate causes of this rebellion are obscure. Its result was not: [Roman Emperor] Hadrian crushed the revolt and banned Jews from Judea. The Romans now designated this territory by a political neologism, "Palestine" [a Latin form of "Philistine"], in a deliberate effort to denationalize Jewish/Judean territory. And, finally, Hadrian eradicated Jewish Jerusalem, erecting upon its ruins a new pagan city, Aelia Capitolina.Augustine and the Jews: A Christian ... - Paula Fredriksen - Google Books
Responses to the Roman Destruction of Jerusalem
The Roman destruction of Jerusalem sent shock waves through the Jewish population. The loss of life was devastating, but the destruction of Jerusalem and especially the Temple was even more devastating.
Several other effects were discernable in the period of the postwar reconstruction...
Roman coinage of the period carried the legend Judaea Capta [Judaea Captured], a clear statement of the Jewish subjugation
The province of Judaea was reorganized and even renamed Palestina [the Latin form of the old regional name Philistia]. The name change was another slap in the face to Jewish identity
From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith by L. Michael White
The Jewish revolt [against the Romans] had many causes. Anti-Roman nationalistic unrest and militant messianic sentiments were key factors, as probably was the confiscation of Jewish land by the Roman government in the aftermath of the First Jewish Revolt.
In the aftermath of the revolt, the Roman government changed the name of the province from Judea to Syria Palaestina. Jerusalem was tranformed into the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina
Oxford University Press: The Oxford History of the Biblical World: Michael D. Coogan
Rome conquered Jerusalem in 70 A.D. ending the national independence gained during the Jewish War (66-70 A.D.). Despite being under Roman control, much of the land in Judea was still in Jewish hands; the Jews were neither exiled nor enslaved. Seventy years after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the Jews in Judea began a war against the Roman Empire. The war lasted for three years from late summer A.D. 132 through late autumn A.D. 135. The war was led by Shim’on ben (or Bar) Kosiba, who became known as “Bar Kokhba” or “Son of the Star.”
The emperor Hadrian found himself forced to deal with this serious Jewish threat to the Roman Empire. His Pax Romana was threatened by the Jewish War. Hadrian sent armies to Judea, but did not find victory against Bar Kokhba’s guerillas. The turning point in the war came when Hadrian called in one of his best generals, Julius Severus, to fight exclusively on the Jewish front. Severus slowly closed in around Bar Kokhba—and without outside help from the Jewish Diaspora which Bar Kokhba was counting on—was able to defeat the Jewish revolt.
As punishment, the Jews were driven from Jerusalem and the gentiles moved in. The city was called Aelia Capitolina and was a pagan city—built on the ruins of Jerusalem. The province was renamed from Judea to Syria-Palaestina to further remove the Jews from their land. Practicing Judaism was outlawed and scholars who supported to rebellion were executed. Soon after the defeat of Bar Kokhba, Hadrian died and Antoninus Pius ascended the throne. Jews slowly regained their cultural and religious freedoms back
The Bar Kokhba revolt occurred between the years of 132-135 CE. The Jews of the land of Judea (despite the fact that today there is more evidence that the revolt went beyond the boundaries of Judea), rose against the Roman Empire. This revolt is generally considered as "a continuation of the uprisings of the Jews of the Diaspora against Romein 115-117 C.E." Although its main causes are contested, one thing is certain: external political factors and internal issues among the Jews played key roles in the unraveling of the revolt and its consequences
According to the account by [Roman historian] Eusebius... "The construction of a pagan temple and Hadrian's decision to change the name of Judea to Syria Palestina were both punishment..."
https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/Spring07JS0053S01/Bar+Kokhba+Revolt.
As has been true throughout history, the location of Judea was pivotal in the story of its [Jewish] people. When Judea rose in revolt against the brilliant and ruthless Roman emperor Hadrian in 132-135 under the leadership of Simeon Bar Kokhba..., it made a horrific mistake.
Following Hadrian's murderous crushing of the rebellion...Hadrian deprived Judea even of its name. He researched the name of the ancestral enemies of the Jews, the Philistines, and renamed the entire country "Palestine," the Latin version of Philistia. Its vanquished and twice-destroyed capital Jerusalem he renamed "Aelia Capitolina," after the name of his family and of his patron god, Jupiter Capitolina.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/teachingheritage/lessons/faculty/unit3/unit3-atlas.pdf
Palistanians stole it, no doubt.BTW, whatever happened to that 1948 map of Israel?
