Thursday, February 4, 2016

PCG's Jeremiah Jacques' Bizarre Tweet About Stores and School Closed in Silwan

Back on December 28, 2011 PCG's Jeremiah Jacques posted a tweet seemingly speculating that the scheduled demolition of a Palestinian home in Silwan, East Jerusalem would allow them to excavate the area. I do not know if that is true. I would be skeptical of this claim unless it could be verified.


The tweet's link is broken. It links to an article from the website of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA News). The article appears to be no longer online.

This tweet is quite similar to Brent Nagtegaal's tweet of November 18, 2011 mentioned in the last post.

I am quite skeptical about this claim made by Nagtegaal previously and at present it is not possible to verify Jacques' claim but I suspect he is wrong.

But even if Jacques is wrong (which I strongly suspect to be the case) this tweet shows a terribly nonchalant attitude to a Palestinians being inconvenienced by having institutions shut down by Israeli authorities. And it is even worse to express a statement that at least part of these buildings will soon be demolished in order to dig underneath.

This tweet is deserving of contempt and shows once again PCG's bitter hostility and prejudice towards the Palestinian people. He does not even bother to accuse them of doing anything wrong. Jacques writes of those Palestinians living in Silwan as though they are but obstacles to be removed.

It is terrible that people should go to Jerusalem, dig up precious historical artifacts and direct so much attention to them but at the same time express such contempt for many of the people living in the area.

If Jacques' home was about to be demolished I somehow doubt he would want us to be so casual about it. If his church or school or the stores he uses got shut down unexpectedly I suspect he would not be impressed if somehow insinuated they would soon be digging the ground underneath. So why make such a casual tweet like that about other people going through such things? We need to be careful about what we say about other people.

But what can be stated is that 467 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been demolished between 2009 and 2014. Many of the Palestinians of East Jerusalem have been forced to endure the trauma of having their homes ripped away from them and smashed to smithereens. How dare Jacques and Nagtegaal should insinuate (I suspect incorrectly) that they somehow benefit from this.

We need peace now.

Credit: The IMEU via Haaretz.

For more this topic see:

PCG and the Dark Side of Politicized Archaeology in East Jerusalem.

PCG: Brad MacDonald's Vilification of the Palestinians of Silwan in East Jerusalem (2009).

467 Palestinian Homes Demolished in Jerusalem (2009-14).

PCG Writer Bizarrely Justifying the Demolition of a Palestinian Home (2011).

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