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December 24, 2004
Whilst we in Australia relax and enjoy ourselves over the next few days, let us remember all those in the Middle East whose lives are at risk on a daily basis.
And when we have a quiet mo in celebrating a Christian festival that defines Xmas, let us remember the way that religion has been, and is used, to justify political claims.
A contemporay example is the way the Israeli right assert that the Old Testament has given Israel the divine right to take possession of the Holy Land and to forcibly expel the indigenous population.
That biblical mandate is being fulfilled by the settler movement. This is a political program sanctioned by religion and it both justifies, and distorts, the Zionist program of a Jewish nation state.
A look into the contents of the political unconscious of the right wing settler movement. That movement has bought about the integration of the territories in Israel, or more accurately, the deepening of the annexation by the Israeli state.
Few expect Sharon to dismantle the main settlements in the West Bank, which slice that territory into cantons. Despite this, Israel is undergoing a political crisis of the occupation.
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Gary, Why call Israel/Palestine the holy land, especially in capital letters, especially when you dont subscribe to any of the archaic semitic monotheisms that originated there.
The same goes for the "holy" Roman Empire.
John