Above: One of over 24,000 Palestinian homes demolished since 1967 by Israel. Source: Alternative Information Center
BBC lampoons view that criticizing settlements is ‘anti-Semitic, mate’
This sketch appears to have run on BBC two weeks back. Actors impersonating employees of the Israeli Embassy inform unwitting shopowners that their property will be taken to make way for the embassy’s expansion. The degree of mockery of the religious rationales for settlements is staggering, and would never happen in the U.S. Now anyway.
Even more bracing is the blunt mockery of the use of the anti-Semitism charge to head off any criticism of Israel. “I’m finding that smile a bit anti-Semitic, mate, so you should really wise up with your face.”
Some of the lines:
“Before it was your land it was our land, so we’re really going to take what’s rightfully ours…
“We’ve got a very very old planning book, it’s about 2000 years old…
“‘This is our land as given to us by the almighty…
“Without putting too fine a point on it, mate, they’re going to bulldoze your land.”…
“Can I have a letter?”
“We generally go with bulldozers first, and letters later…“And you see all those olives you’ve got in the deli display there, they’re ours too…
“I’m finding that smile a bit anti-Semitic, mate, so you should really wise up with your face….
“You’re being a bit anti-Semitic. It’s only a conservatory.”