By: Mitja Iršič
23-year-old Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh was a young Palestinian from the West Bank who knew he had to leave his homeland as soon as possible because he was facing death threats – not from Hamas or the Islamic Jihad, but from his own family, as he had confessed to them that he was gay. Palestine, along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of the staunchest adherents to Sharia law in the world. The holy book was clear – Ahmad had to die for his sin. He somehow managed to make his way to Israel, where, despite the general conservatism of the population, gay people are not persecuted. Then, last year, his decapitated body was found deep within Palestinian territory – in the city of Hebron, located in the West Bank. The suspects were quickly identified because one of them had recorded the beheading on video and uploaded it to the internet to boast about the act. They are believed to be acquaintances from the same village where Ahmad spent his youth. It is presumed that villagers kidnapped the young man in Israel and then killed him in Palestine.
Now, let’s fast forward the movie for about a year. After the Hamas bloodbath when they indiscriminately killed and even burned babies, Slovenian far-left extremists found themselves in the middle of Ljubljana, shouting, Allah is great, and chanting the battle cry, “From river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (implying the “final solution” of driving the Israelis into the sea, which is also the official position of the current Gaza authorities). These are the same people who, just a week before, condemned public prayers and flags that warned of the moral consequences of abortion, and roamed the city with signs that said, “My pussy, my choice!” In addition to advocating genocide against the Jews, they also called for the establishment of a theocratic dictatorship ruled by brutal despots. The principles of modern leftists are like clay. They can be moulded into any shape and fit into various ideological moulds without people realising the dichotomy of their own beliefs.
Why is this the case? Of course, it is partly about hypocrisy, but not always. Sometimes, it is simply ignorance that does not see beyond the old tenets of non-aligned politics. Lately, I have heard a lot about apartheid that Israel supposedly enforces in Gaza. I have heard questions like: Why does Israel not let the Palestinians live in the land where their ancient home is?
When you tell them that Arab Muslims in Israel live freely and prosper, working as lawyers, scientists, having their own Arab party in the Israeli parliament, and even their representative on the Supreme Court, they will call it a lie. When you tell them that 200,000 residents of Gaza work in Israel every day, in well-paying jobs, they will not believe it. When you inform them that Israel, along with Western countries, built a massive technological complex in Gaza that provided employment and income for many young Palestinians, they will deny it. Through the media, they have deeply implanted the fiction that Israel has turned Gaza into something akin to a Nazi concentration camp, making the shock of reality all the more profound. How do I know? When I present them with facts, they stay silent. However, I know they are furiously Googling in the background, scratching their heads, as the world they knew crumbles. But, of course, they will not admit it. Israel will remain their instinctual enemy.
Why? It is the only rich, democratic, and distinctly market-capitalist state in the Middle East, which once, in ancient times, attempted a socialist experiment and realised its mistake. Israel pursued the goals of labour Zionism and the construction of non-market-oriented, self-sustainable kibbutzim in its early years. Then, they experienced a similar hyperinflation as our former homeland. From this, they learned some lessons. Today, Israel is the Middle Eastern offspring of American dreams. Individualism, hard work as a value, personal and entrepreneurial freedom are characteristics that are closer to the foundations of Dutch Calvinist capitalism. In the subconscious, Israel is the enemy of Slovenian leftists, not because of Palestine and ancient connections between Tito and Arafat, but because it is a story that began as a failed socialist experiment and then found the path to the nation’s wealth in capitalism. Deep down, our leftists know they hate Israel because it is a lesson on why socialism does not work, but capitalism does. They have learned something from the lesson, but we persist.