Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy (6 November 2017, 16 Heshbon, 5778)
Is it anti-Semitic to question the legitimacy of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank?
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-anti-Semitic-to-question-the-legitimacy-of-the-Jewish-settlements-in-the-West-Bank/answer/Yair-Davidiy
The picture shows a section of Kiryat Araba, a Jewish settlement near Hebron. There are more than 350, 000 Jewish settlers living in Judah and Samaria. That is apart from an almost equal number of Jewish suburban residents of areas not accessible to Jews prior to 1967.
Israeli settlement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is...
In January 2015 the Israeli Interior Ministry gave figures of 389,250 Israeli citizens living in the West Bank and a further 375,000 Israeli citizens living in East Jerusalem.[36]Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods.Â
The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit
and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.
I (i.e. the author of this present reply to the query) live in Beitar Ilit. This is a city with ca. 55,000 inhabitants. It is not illegal to protest the legitimacy of my settlement here but it is unethical. I like it here. Where else am I going to live? This is the Holy Land. It is the Land promised by the Bible to the Jewish People.
In the Land of Israel one has the West Bank and the area west of the West Bank meaning the pre-1967 borders. Arguments against Jewish settlement in the West Bank are also applicable to the region west of the West Bank. The West Bank is also known as "Judah and Sarmaria." Judah means Land of the Jews.
If someone is against Jews living in the Holy land why should they not be considered anti-Jewish i.e. anti-Semitic?
There are no two states.
Why expect the Jews to leave but the Arabs to stay?
If Jews cannot stay here they cannot stay anywhere.
They who challenge the legitimacy of Jews living here in effect challenge the right of Jews to exist. That to my mind is anti-Jewish i.e. anti-Semitic.
You may reply that there are also Jews who think that other Jews should not settle in these areas.
They are mistaken. They have assimilated the anti-Jewish attitudes of non-Jews.
I was once doing my Annual Military Service in a region near Hebron. My task included sitting on a bus in uniform with a kind of walky-talky radio and a rifle. When the Arabs started throwing stones and rocks at the bus the bus would stop. My job was to get out, walk around, make a report to nearby soldiers, and get back on. This happened once at night and that is what I did. That is all I did. It was nighttime, dark, and I could not see anybody around to do anything else. I did not really do anything but apparently I looked as if I might. A red-haired woman (I assumed she was Jewish) of about 30 who looked like an Irish banshee soundly berated me on the bus. She unloaded quite a few insults as if I was some kind of war criminal. My actual crime in her eyes was just being there even though I was in fact also tasked with protecting her. These types exist. They too are anti-Semitic even though in some cases their pedigree may be as Kosher as they come.
Perhaps this is the case with you too?
Why is it so important to you? I could quote history, facts , figures, etc, justifying the Israeli case. You would not listen. You would not want to listen.
Let us face it: You, or others like you, usually want the Jews to be in the wrong.
Why is this?
The only logical conclusion is that you too, or most people who hold views such as your own, are anti-Jewish.