I have never understood hatred of Jews and Judaism, but I have come to accept it as a given fact of life. What I cannot accept is the hatred of some Jews for Judaism. The kind of hatred that would deliberately remove a Mezuzah; for there was no Mezuzah where I met with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD),

Ignoring the palatial villas... Prof. Halper spoke of the dreadful poverty of the Palestinians.

just a gouge in the stonework where it had been.


Jeff Halper, erstwhile professor of anthropology, now coordinator of ICAHD - an organization funded largely by the European Union - was to give a talk and take us on a tour of Nof Zion, Jebl Mukaber, Silwan, Abu Dis and Ma'ale Adumim. There were about 18 of us. Two ladies who were obviously acolytes of Prof. Halper, a diverse group of tourists, some sent by the Belgian Embassy, and me.


The willingness of the group to accept every distorted fact that Prof. Halper fed to them amazed me. He stated that in the 1948 War of Independence Jordan was Israel's ally. I did point out that the bullet-scarred walls only a few meters away told a different story, but I was assured that this was a historical fact, a plot between our two countries to deprive the Palestinians of their rights. And never, ever talk about Arabs because this deprives the Palestinians of their national identity. It is bad enough that they have to live under a blue and white flag that sports a Jewish symbol.


To the visible distress of one of the women on the tour, Prof. Halper told harrowing tales of how we, the Israelis, are depriving the Palestinians of their economy by not allowing them come to work; at the same time, he was decrying the use of Palestinian labor.


Ignoring the palatial villas - which, we were told, had each and every one of them a demolition order pending - Prof. Halper spoke of the dreadful poverty of the Palestinians. It was grudgingly conceded that there were probably Palestinians rich enough to purchase into new Israeli "settlements," but "they probably wouldn't want to."


Throughout the tour, the security barrier was described as an apartheid fence. Israel was likened repeatedly to apartheid South Africa, totally ignoring that we use the same hospitals, recline on the grass of the same parks and, unlike in South Africa of old, yes, use the same public toilets.


In Silwan, Prof. Halper claimed, backed up by a local resident, that where Jewish settlers have bought property - yes, bought and not "taken," as he would have it - they are tunneling under the adjacent properties to undermine them. Stopped by the courts from doing this, Prof. Halper alleged, archaeologists are tunneling up the hill towards the very foundations of the Al-Aksa Mosque.


But it was for Ma'ale Adumim that the most vitriol was reserved and one could smell the politics of envy. This pleasant little town with its neatly tended flower beds surrounding venerable olive trees drew Prof. Halper's wrath as the biggest obstacle to peace. Here, everyone is a settler stealing Palestinian water for their flower beds and swimming pools, and the olive trees were uprooted from Palestinian groves. But, according to Prof. Halper,

One could smell the politics of envy.

wherever we live in Israel we are all settlers.


The half-truths and innuendos, for he is careful to suggest rather than tell a downright lie, are lapped up by visitors from all over the world, who then take back a very distorted view of Israel. And just enough of what he tells is truthful enough to make the rest believable. He claims that the whole government and all parties, even including Meretz members, being patriots at heart, are in cahoots to deprive the Palestinians of their rights.


Prof. Halper would like to see a one-state solution where, according to him, we could all live in peace and harmony, presumably under a neutral flag. When I ventured to suggest to one of the women that this might lead to Islamicization and she would probably end up wearing a burka, she said I was being ridiculous. The Palestinians were just longing for us to be as one, with complete tolerance between us.


ICAHD now has branches in the USA, Canada and the UK. Their well prepared and nicely presented literature is spreading worldwide. Prof. Halper is a very personable man, affable, persuasive - and dangerous. He spreads his poisonous propaganda via his followers and his converts, people who Lenin once described as "useful idiots." He, and his like, want to gouge out Judaism from Israel, the Jewish State, as irrevocably as the Mezuzah on the wall of our meeting place was gouged out.