Arab cultural appropriation of everything Israeli and attempt to steal the identity of the Jewish people by claiming the land and the history as their own, is an effort to eradicate Israel
A planned exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Frankfurt was recently cancelled by Israel because the German government would not guarantee their return to Israel. This, if Arab authorities from Jordan or the Palestinian Authority (PA) were to contest Israel’s ownership of the Dead Sea Scrolls and instead claim them as their own.
The exhibition was supposed to have taken place at the Frankfurt Bible Museum in September 2019. The director of the museum, Jürgen Schefzyk, said he regretted the German government’s decision, adding that neither Holland nor Austria would have hesitated to issue general immunity guarantees. Such a guarantee would have blocked the PA or Jordan from contesting the origins of the scrolls, which are among the oldest known texts related to the Hebrew Bible.
It is of course ironic that Germany, of all nations, should refuse to offer the necessary immunity guarantees, given the fact that it tried, and failed, physically to eradicate the Jewish people.
The refusal to acknowledge, on the part of Germany, that there can be no doubt that the Dead Sea Scrolls are an integral part of the history of the Jewish people represents an attempt to eradicate the identity of the Jewish people, along with its history.
How would the German government react if PLO claims the German composer Beethoven as “Palestinian” or insists that Big Ben and the Colosseum belong to the PLO?
The Arabs have been working at the falsification and eradication of Jewish history for over half a century, yet this too shall fail. It would have failed already, had the outside world – countries such as Germany – not worked so hard to support it.
Not just in actions such as the one regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, but in various international forums, such as UNESCO, which is at the forefront of the battle to misrepresent, steal and eradicate the rightful history and identity of the Jewish people. While little should be expected from despotic Middle Eastern regimes, European countries that aspire to be liberal democracies should behave differently.
It has become very popular among the Left to speak of ‘cultural appropriation’ as a horrific thing that must be widely condemned. ‘Cultural appropriation’ is generally understood as the adoption of the elements of one culture by members of another culture.
Arabs who pretend that there is such a culture as ‘Palestinian’ culture outside of Arab culture, have not only tried to culturally appropriate everything to do with Israel, they have attempted to steal the very identity of the Jewish people by claiming the land and the history as their own.
However, not only do liberals and leftists not condemn this, they actively support, propagate and celebrate this cultural appropriation, which really amounts to identity theft.
This attempt to steal the identity of the Jewish people by Arabs is a charade that has been ongoing for over half a century, but the history of this attempt to steal away the history of the Jewish people goes back even further. It goes all the way back to the first Muslim Arab invasion of Israel in the 7th century.
This Arab fantasy of colonizing and dominating the Jews has never gone away, it has simply morphed. Since the Arabs realized that they could not physically defeat the Jewish people, they have concentrated their efforts on attempt to steal Jewish history and culture.
Similarly, the current hysteria over Trump’s expected formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital can only be viewed in the light of all those years of trying to steal the identity of the Jewish people away.
The recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is not about courage, foolishness, callousness or even an election promise. It is, quite simply, about acknowledging reality for what it is – and the reality is that Jerusalem for the past 3,000 years has been the capital of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people.
To dare to acknowledge this historical truth should not be a feat of courage, nor something for Jews to be deeply grateful to Trump for – it is simply reality. Like it or not, Israel’s government, Parliament, Supreme Court and most ministries are located in Jerusalem. Tel Aviv has great beaches and nightlife. However, anyone interested in meeting Israel’s leaders, must travel to Jerusalem.
For an era that claims to hate fake news, it is certainly odd that such a small thing should cause so much controversy. Instead of indulging PLO’s and the Muslim world’s aggressive anti-Semitic history revision, time has come for the world to demand that Israel’s neighbors join reality and modernity.
You do not cure an aggressive person suffering from alcoholism by serving more alcohol. Instead, you force him to get sober. The hangover of Jihad will only be cured when the Muslim world is forced to face reality and its infantile tantrums are no longer tolerated. Genuine peace must be based on facts, not fantasy.
Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people long before the Roman colonies Paris and London became the capitals of the French and British nations. Jerusalem’s old city contains sacred Christian and Muslim sites that are protected by Israel. However, Jerusalem has never been the political and national capital of any other nation than the Jewish people that has returned to its ancestral homeland for good.
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Daniel Kryger is a writer and a political analyst. He lives in Israel.
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