Gilad Atzmon explores the roots of the phenomenon of Jews spitting on Christians and their symbols. He argues that, given the corrupting influence of the occupation, it is only a matter of time before Israel’s Jews turn against each other and the Jews-only state implodes.
On 26 November the Israeli right-wing paper the Jerusalem Postpublished an exposé of the growing tendency among Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem to spit on their Christian neighbours.
Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem's Old City, told the newspaper “that he's been spat at by young Haredi (God-fearing religious Jews) and national Orthodox Jews “about 15 to 20 times” in the past decade”. Father Aghoyan added: "Every single priest in this church has been spat on. It happens day and night."
Similarly, Father Athanasius, a Texas-born Franciscan monk who heads the Christian Information Centre in Jerusalem’s Old City, said he's been spat at by Orthodox Jews "about 15 times in the last six months".
Jewish spitting is not exactly breaking news. I myself have explored the issue more than once. The Israeli Professor Israel Shahak commented on Jewish hatred towards Christianity and its symbol, suggesting that “dishonouring Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in Judaism.” According to Shahak, “spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews”.
Interestingly enough, Jewish spitting has had an impact on the European urban landscape. The following can be read in a Travel guide for Jewish Europe.
Jewish cultural hatred towards Gentiles and their symbols has turned inwards and matured into an internal Jewish war where Jews spit on each other
“In Prague’s Charles Bridge, the visitor will observe a great crucifix surrounded by huge gilded Hebrew letters that spell the traditional Hebrew sanctification Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tzvaot, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts”. According to various commentators, this piece, degrading to Jews, came about because in 1609 a Jew was accused of desecrating the crucifix. The Jewish community was forced to pay for putting up the Hebrew words in gold letters. Another explanation is that a Jew spat at the cross and for this he was to be put to death as a punishment. When this man begged for his life, the king, seeking to have good relations with the Jews, said the Jewish community had to rectify the offence…” (To read more, click here.)
Shahak maintains that “in the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on a cross or openly before a church.”
But times are changing. In the Jewish state most Jewish inhibitions seem to have disappeared. In Israel Jews can spit as much as they like and on whatever they like. As we read above, in the Jewish state it isn’t just Christian symbols that are being spat on, it is actually the Goyim [Gentiles] in general. Far more concerning, it isn’t even just kosher saliva. It is actually everything they may find at their disposal: saliva, live ammunition, bombs, missiles, weapons of mass destruction, white phosphorous, you name it, they spit it.
In fact, spitting is not the problem. Spitting is just a symptom of a deeply imbued categorical cultural dismissal of “otherness” that distinguishes Israel as a criminal state. It is also this very dismissal of “otherness” that stops the Israelis and their supporters around the world from understanding the level of resentment that is mounting against any form of Jewish nationalism.
Hatred is a form of blindness. Jewish hatred that is culturally, religiously and spiritually orientated, is also a form of deafness. This may explain the tragic consequences in which nationalist Jews fail time after time to internalize the criticism levelled against them – against their politics and culture. This may explain why Jews fail to grasp what is the root cause of “anti-Semitism”. Rather than being reflective and engaging in self-mirroring, the nationalistic Jew would insist that the problem is always somewhere else.
As interesting as it may be, Zionism was the only serious modern collective Jewish attempt to amend the cultural abnormalities within Jewish culture. Early Zionism took anti-Jewish criticism seriously. It committed itself to bring about a civilized ethical person. Zionism obviously failed completely. Yet, until the 1980s some fading voices of “humanist Zionism”, people who wanted to see the Jews setting themselves into a peaceful nation living among others, could still be heard in occupied Palestine. It may also explain why the most radical and effective voices against Zionism and Jewish nationalism are in fact people who were a product of Zionist upbringing (Israel Shahak, Israel Shamir, Shlomo Sand, Avraham Burg and a few others).
In the late 1970s a young dissident movement led by an Israeli refusenik, Gadi Elgazi, protested against serving in the occupied territories. “Occupation corrupts,” Elgazi said. He was sent to prison repeatedly. Elgazi and his supporters maintained that controlling other people would have a devastating impact on the Jewish state and its morality. They were obviously correct. Through the years Israel has become a criminal collective, complicit in genocide. With 94 per cent of its population supporting the Israeli attack on Gaza, there is no room for doubt: there is no room for Israel among nations. As if this were not enough, the level of crime within Israel is also soaring. The rate of homicidal crime is rapidly growing and it seems as if no one there knows how to tackle the problem. Elgazi’s predictions proved to be a prophecy. The occupation has turned against the occupier.
Interestingly enough, it didn’t take long before Jewish cultural hatred towards Goyim and their symbols turned inwards and matured into an internal Jewish war where Jews spit on each other. The tension within Israel’s Jewish communities is rising by the day, whether it is the rapid increase in poverty or the rising social divisions among Israeli Jewish communities. Seemingly, there is a growing and unresolved tension between the secular and orthodox Jews in Israel. As much as Jews can hate the Goyim, nothing is comparable with the way and manner in which they despise each other.
Channel 4, the brave British broadcaster that just 10 days ago exposed the cross-party Jewish lobby operating in the UK, did it again. The “Battle for Israel’s Soul” is an exposé of the feud between Jewish communities in Israel. Just as in the case of the occupation that eventually turned against the Israelis, hatred towards the Goyim has made the Israelis into a vengeful collective. Naturally, it didn’t take long before the Israelis started to spit on each other. (To watch the full programme, click here.)
My message to the Palestinians is actually very simple. Give the Israelis time. They do not need enemies. Given the level of self-contempt that they carry in themselves, it is just a question of time before they totally implode.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born musician, writer and anti-racism campaigner. His latest jazz album, "In loving memory of America", was released on 1 March 2009 and can be purchased here.
