Palestine: The Ultimate Maximum Security Prison

PLEASE NOTE: In response to the film and material below, I received this from a friend, Dr. Loren Wilkinson:
I would recommend a novel which you may already know: Mornings in Jenin. It’s described as “a historical novel that spans the years between 1941 and 2003 and is focused on the Israeli invasion and occupation of Palestine. The author, Susan Abulhawa, is the child of Palestinian refugees and was brought up in several countries, including the United States. She writes the novel from the points of view of several members of a Palestinian family who lose their land, home, and loved ones.

I found it to be deeply moving and to give a felt sense of the beauty of the culture which has shaped these peoples.

Netanyahu actually ran the last time on the issue of no Palestinian state, and has made it clear he wants to send hundreds of thousands more Israelis into the Palestinian West Bank, where they will steal Palestinian land.—Juan Cole

WN: This is an overwhelmingly powerful story of the overpowering reality of Israeli apartheid against the Palestinians! It portrays Palestine as a maximum security prison–the largest ever in history, and the most brutal on all levels of abuse: psychological, physical–lethal and otherwise, intimidating, threatening, etc., on an endless and massive scale ad nauseum. Please do not look away. But: Be prepared. You are warned. It is an unremitting horror story.

This scholasticide is not an accident and it has nothing to do with a “war on Hamas” or “self-defense.” It is the typical gutting of a colonized people’s consciousness by a settler colonial state. These actions are intended to cripple Palestinian education and Palestinian culture in Gaza. Israeli leaders have made no secret of their hope to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from the Strip entirely.—Juan Cole in No President of a Major American University has Deplored the Israeli Destruction of all Gaza Universities, 04/24/2024.

Through my Restorative Justice work since 1974, I gained a friend, Robbie Robidoux, who, at the age of 17, and the youngest prisoner at the Kingston Penitentiary, became one of the ringleaders of the largest penitentiary/prison riot in Canadian history, the KP riot of 1971. He was interviewed for a documentary about the riot done by Canadian Broadcasting Commission (CBC). Below is the YouTube video.

NOTE: You will need a VPN to view it if in Canada. Then click on Watch on Youtube.

If you have a Facebook account, you may view the trailer. The first person you see and hear is my friend.

A FINAL NOTE: Israel’s brutality, showcased in this documentary, ultimately brutalizes its own citizens. Prisons always brutalize those who run them. Netanyahu is the premier exemplar of that profound Israeli tragedy. In an ironclad Law of Mimetic Hatred, Netanyahu is representative of Israelis who have turned into what they hate. . .¹

Of it:

In Israel, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, the law is whatever Israel deems to be in the best interest of Jewish Israelis and to the detriment of Palestinians. Israel violates the civil and human rights of Palestinians as a matter of standard, accepted policy. However, there are brave, determined individuals who are trying to expose the destructive, unjust, and sometimes invisible ways in which Israel exploits and oppresses Palestinians. The Law and the Prophets explains the mechanisms of control that Israel deploys to subjugate Palestinians. These mechanisms, some violent and some nonviolent, have been perfected through decades of civil and military rule of Palestinians both within Israel, and in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

A brilliant comparison between colonialism and settler colonialism is captured in this quote from the film:

The difference between colonialism and settler colonialism is colonial societies, Britain being a good example of one, went there to exploit the native population. Settler colonial societies go there to replace the native population. That’s the difference. It comes at a terrible price for the local population. It can lead to genocide, ethnic cleansing, to apartheid, where people are herded into reservations or Bantustans, as they were called in South Africa. And Israel’s story really has very strong parallels with this. It’s a very Western story.

The fearless ancient Hebrew Prophet, Amos, in chapter 5, thundered out:

24But let justice roll on like a river,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

You may click on a copy of the Transcript here: Transcript: The Law and the Prophets. Below the Transcript are numerous other video and written resources.

Here is a trailer that introduces this powerful film. If nothing else, I urge you to view this!:

Now the video:

Below are a few comments from viewers–they are all on the YouTube site and more:

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1. See much on this site of René Girard‘s understanding of mimetic hatred/scapegoating by clicking on his name.[↩]