on the hilltop outside Sderot…“Clapping when blasts are heard.”…..more than 50 people who had
transformed the hill into something “most closely resembling the front
row of a reality war theatre”…..people were seen taking popcorn up onto the hill with their chairs, and that they sat cheerfully smoking hookahs….
We are aware that there are no saints in war. It is just mindlessly brutal and it brutalizes ordinary citizens who are not involved in the fighting. Still the imagery manages to shock us. What have we become? Is there no common humanity left anymore??
Having said that the muslim world (if there is such a term) needs to think long and deep about how it treats minorities. There is now no home left for millions of Christians in the Middle East proper. Everywhere else, the intolerance meter is always dialed to maximum. Why?
Meanwhile, Israelis, Indians, Chinese, Russians, Burmese, Sri Lankans…are also treating their muslim citizens shamefully. Both sides claim that the “other” has been the first mover in crime. This eye-for-eye set-up is not helping anyone.
If we step back and look at the big picture, the (relatively speaking) safe-home(s) today for muslims is any number of non-muslim lands. In South Asia and elsewhere more muslims are being killed by other muslims than non-muslims.
We all know what is wrong with the “Sderot Cinema.” But does anybody know why things have gone wrong in Aleppo, Mosul, and so many other places? How will we fix things so that people can co-exist peacefully? We need answers now. It is too easy to blame others. If the muslim world takes the lead in offering solutions, we are sure the whole world will sit up, take notice and lend a hand.
This is not blaming the victim…it is a request for the leaders and the people to take responsibility and a call for action. And the most urgent requirement for action is at home.
….
An image that appears to show a group of Israelis on a hilltop
cheering and applauding as they watch the deadly aerial bombardment of
Gaza has caused international outrage after it was shared by thousands
on Twitter.
Taken by the Middle East correspondent for a Danish newspaper, the
picture shows rows of people sitting on plastic chairs looking out over
the Gaza Strip as rockets and explosions light up the night sky.
Allan
Sørensen, who posted the image, wrote that it showed a kind of “cinema”
on the hilltop outside the Israeli town of Sderot, and a caption added:
“Clapping when blasts are heard.”
Sørensen’s newspaper, the Kristeligt Dagblad,
reported that the gathering involved more than 50 people who had
transformed the hill into something “most closely resembling the front
row of a reality war theatre”.
It said that people were seen taking popcorn up onto the hill with their chairs, and that they sat cheerfully smoking hookahs.
“We are here to see Israel destroy Hamas,” said Eli Chone, a 22-year-old American who lives in Israel.
Sørensen’s
tweet was met with anger by fellow Twitter users. One user wrote: “If
this is true then God help us all. What’s become of the human race?”
Another said: “This is the most gruesome image I’ve seen the last few days.”
Further images have since emerged showing larger crowds on subsequent
days – suggesting that the so-called “Sderot cinema” was far from a
one-off. They showed groups standing and pointing out to the horizon,
and one had even brought a sofa up onto the hilltop.
…………….
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regards
