Statement by Professor Israel Shahak
On the Jewish hatred towards
Christianity
Dishonouring Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty
in Judaism. Spitting on the cross, and especially on the Crucifix, and
spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around
AD 200 for pious Jews. In the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic
hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their
rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be
unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on the cross or
openly before the church. The increasing strength of the Jewish state
has caused these customs to become more open again but there should
be no mistake: The spitting on the cross for converts from
Christianity to Judaism, organized in Kibbutz Sa'ad and financed
by the Israeli government is a an act of traditional Jewish piety. It
does not seize to be barbaric, horrifying and wicked because of this!
On the contrary, it is worse because it is so traditional, and
much more dangerous as well, just as the renewed anti-Semitism of the
Nazis was dangerous, because in part, it played on the traditional
anti-Semitic past.
This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for Christian
religious symbols has grown in Israel. In the 1950s Israel issued a
series of stamps representing pictures of Israeli cities. In the
picture of Nazareth, there was a church and on its top a cross -
almost invisible, perhaps the size of a millimeter. Nevertheless, the
religious parties, supported by many on the Zionist "left" made a
scandal and the stamps were quickly withdrawn and replaced by an
almost identical series from which the microscopic cross was
withdrawn.
Then there was the long-drawn-out battle about Christian influence
in elementary arithmetic. Pious Jews object to the international plus
sign for it is a cross, and it may in their opinion, influence little
children to convert to Christianity. Another "explanation" holds; it
would then be difficult to "educate" them to spit on the cross, if
they become used to it in their arithmetic exercises. Until the early
1970s two different sets of arithmetic books were used in Israel. One
for the secular schools, employing an inverted "T" sign. In the early
'70's the religious fanatics "converted" the Labour Party to the
great danger of the cross in arithmetic, and from that time, in all
Hebrew elementary schools (and now many high schools as well) the
international plus sign has beeen forbidden.
Similar development is visible in other areas of education.
Teaching the New Testament was always forbidden, but in the old time
conscientious teachers of history used to circumvent the prohibition,
by organizing seminars or sending the students to libraries (not the
school libraries, of course). About 10 years ago there was a wave of
denouncing such teachers. One in Jerualem was almost sacked, for
advising her history pupils, who were studying the history of Jews in
Palestine around 30-40 AD, that it would be a good thing if they
would read a few chapters of the New Testament as a historical aid.
She retained her post only after humbly promising not to do this
again.
However in recent years, anti-Christian feelings are literally
exploding in Israel (and among Israel-worshipping Jews in Diaspora
too) together with the increase of the Jewish fanaticism in all other
areas too.
The real enemies of truth here, as in many other aspects of the
Israel reality, are the socialists, "liberals", "radicals", etc. in
the USA. Imagine the reaction of the US Liberals, and of such papers
as The Nation and New York Review of Books, not to
speak of the New York Times if in any state whatsoever, the
government financed spitting on a Star of David? But when here in
Israel, the government finances the spitting on a cross, they are and
will continue to be, quite silent. More than this, they helpt
to finance it. United States taxpayers, who are of course mostly
Christians, are finacing at least half the Israeli budget, one way or
another, and therfore the spitting on the cross too.
Professor Israel Shahak is an Israeli citizen, former
concentration camp inmate during WW II, and the founder of Israel's
Human Rights League. His new book "Jewish
History, Jewish Religion" about Jewish hatred and contempt
toward Gentiles, is highly recommended.
Professor Israel Shahak speaks the truth about
the Jewish
"religion":
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