Intellectual disagreement is a healthy discourse. It is a natural expression of free-will, thus of being human, without which our individuality and distinctiveness would not flourish and our human progress, evolution and liberty as free-thinking being becomes diminished and threatened with stagnation.
Having different opinions does not mean a proclamation of herem, or declaration of war. Intellectual disagreement should not tarnish inter-human personal relationships or respect for one another, as long as the foundation of our quest is built on honesty, integrity, and sincere love of truth.
Void of honesty and sincerity and thirst for truth, disagreement turns into purposeless mental gymnastic, vacuous endless bickering, the type we see usually coming from hasbara trolls.
My purpose in this piece is to state my position and opposition regarding the revival and resurrection of the term Athens vs Jerusalem, by Gilad Atzmon, and using it as a definitive precise yardstick to differentiate between two mindsets: Athenians, to mean the free-thinking, scientific, logical and ethical mindset or way of thinking, as opposed to “Jerusalemites”, to mean the mitzvah-abiding, legislative-based, illogical, unethical mindset.
“Athens teaches us how to think for ourselves, Jerusalem is the city of revelation, teaches how to follow orders, commandments, mitzvoths”
“Athens is the birthplace of philosophy, science, esthetics of thinking”
“Jerusalem is the birthplace of obedience”
{Even though the term Athens VS Jerusalem is old and recycled and not invented by Gilad, what I argue against is its reviving and resuscitating, because of the inherent inaccuracy; historically, ethically and scientifically.}
To begin with, this dichotomy reminds me of the Left and Right, the dreamers and the realists, some Leftist intellectuals, with their black-and-white oversimplified perspective on life in general and mankind in particular. They use a term to express their thinking, dividing mankind into two categories, “progressive vs reactionary“. A reactionary being one who takes highly traditional position, Anti-modernism one opposed to social or political change.
They identify as the “progressives” who reject religion, culture, and if you agree on every matter, applaud every thought, celebrate every whim, then you are one of them, i.e a “progressive”, but if you disagree with them on any matter, if you are outside that narrow circle, you are a “reactionary”.
Oddly enough, it was Gilad Atzmon who pointed to the dangers of this kind of identification, for one its divisiveness, “split and conquer”; dividing people into opposing groups; men and women, black and white, gay and straight, Left and Right,
In order to achieve a truer and deeper understanding of the world, and to avoid confusion and deception, our use of word must be precise, objective and constantly revisited, examined, refined and used with surgical precision.
Words are powerful beasts. The use of words have the power either to create a solid comprehensible paradigm, or entirely distort and manipulate the discourse and perception.
Take the example of peace negotiation between Palestinians and Jewish “israelis” for example; Palestinians entered from a position of trust, naively believing that they entering “peace” negotiation, yet Jewish “israelis” had a different agenda all together, as for them “peace/ shalom” means something totally different, i.e “security for Jews”. The outcome of this false paradigm, via twisting meaning of words, is there for all to see.
We should never underestimate the seriousness and the importance of words and terminology, especially now, as our world stands on the brink of destruction, by an obscenely wealthy, armed-to-the-teeth, self-identified, genocidal supremacist “elite”.
The link between the impotence and lack of effectiveness of many pro-Palestine solidarity groups are directly linked to manipulating the discourse through use/misuse of terminology.
Firstly:
Jerusalem, my beloved city, my birthplace, has been physically hijacked, disfigured, kidnapped, tormented every day, and occupied by the very same people whom Gilad attributes Jerusalem to metaphorically, thus contributing and adding to the grievances of Jerusalem by metaphorically hijacking and disfiguring its name, yet again.
The association and attribution of the word Jerusalem with those who are currently (and have been for decades) tearing it to pieces is an insensitive act to say the least:
Jerusalem is not Jewish
Jerusalem is not anti-ethics
Jerusalem is not anti-logic
Jerusalem is not anti-thinking
Jerusalem in the minds of billions of human beings is a beacon of light, in ethics, science, enlightenment, inclusion, tolerance, peace etc.
To use in the metaphoric context of ethical thinking Athens vs “regulatory system of Mitzvoth” of Jerusalem is simply inaccurate and exclusionary.
This dichotomy is no different from those liberal AZZ who split the world into “progressives and “reactionaries”, them being the former of course.
To intentionally associate and entangle Jerusalem with the “religion of mitzvoth“, i.e Judaism, has many disturbing implications, the least being the implication of the “Jewishness” of Jerusalem.
My criticism is not related to the concept or the idea itself; of differentiation between law as opposed to thinking, or mitzvah as opposed to ethics. My concern is specifically related to the use of the terminology. Namely using the words: Jerusalem and Jerusalemites.
To use such word Jerusalem, in that context of our era, where Jerusalem is savagely attacked, brutally ethnically cleansed, and unethically confiscated and Judaised on daily basis, is not only insensitive to those who are gasping to survive that brutality of appropriation and eradication, it is careless at best, and complicit in the crime at worst, I would argue. (I do apologise Gilad, I don’t mean to offend you here, but this is how vehemently I reject the hijacking and Judaising of my city)
Such intermingling and muddying of meaning of words is detrimental to the discourse of truth and liberation, because over the thousands of years of its history Jerusalem was hardly Jewish, except in the deluded minds of a few. Some Hebrews may have lived or ruled in Jerusalem some few thousands years ago, for a few decades, and that is all there is is to it. All the archaeological digging so far have shown nothing, not even a trace of Jewish kingdom was found in that part of the world.
Secondly:
To disassociate Jerusalem from ethics, logic, free thinking is another form of concealment, hence falsehood, which is also detrimental to the discourse of truth and liberation. Choosing to use Jerusalem as an identification of dogmatic fossilised mindset, be it as it may in the context of metaphoric meaning is casting Jerusalem in darkness, and demolishing everything which the real city stood and still stands for.
It amounts to fabrication and falsification of history of that city, which had a thriving scientific movement, being part of the Islamic Golden Age, where many advances were made in scientific fields, notably in mathematics (algebra, algorithm, spherical trigonometry), astronomy, medicine, chemistry, art, also in the study of philosophy and ethics, etc. which were later transmitted to the West (often without giving credit).
Thirdly:
Reclaiming the true meaning of words and the use of accurate terminology is a crucial part in liberating the discourse, thus liberating the mind from the obstruction of double-speak, and the confusion of Talmudism, allowing the mind and intellect to flow freely in quest of truth.
Reclaiming the true meaning of the words is what I am trying to do, here.
Ironically, Gilad Atzmon is the one who once said: “Judaism is all about primacy of the word, God is called The Name, Ha-Shem, again, naming is what Jewishness is all about”.
When words are eviscerated from their objective meaning, then injected with other subjective contradictory meanings, we are left with confusion, conflict and twisted reality. To me this is the antithesis of free-thinking, science and philosophy, through which the goal is searching for wisdom and meaning.
When you actively participate in Judaising the name of a city, even metaphorically, you are locating yourself in the camp of the Jewish state who has been physically and literally Judaising Jerusalem.
When you take part in creating confusion and casting shadows over the name of a city that’s identified to billion of people as a beacon of light, progress, ethics, intellect and Civilization, you actually throw yourself in the camp of forked-tongued Babylonians Talmudist.
Fourthly:
The metaphoric use by Gilad Atzmon of the word Jerusalemite have further serious implications on authentic Jerusalemites like myself. It leads to the exclusion of Jerusalemite non-Jews (by ascribing the name to Jewishness/ Jewish ideology). It adds salt to injury, as if we are not exterminated enough by the genocidal Talmudist, we can no longer use the authentic word to describe ourselves and our roots. We are the authentic Jerusalemites, and we deplore all the negative connotation attributed to us by the metaphoric use of the word by Gilad.
An alternative words to use would be:
Socratians VS Talmudists or
Humanism VS Talmudism or
Platonian VS Rabbinic
Here I would like to quote John Carville who puts his finger on the wound and hammer it on rather explicitly:
“The Babylonian cult has long sought to pollute the sacredness of Jerusalem with its blood rites, from the expiatory ritual sacrifices of Leviticus through which the altar was ‘sanctified’ with buckets of blood, to the unpardonable cold-blooded killings of innocent Palestinian youth in the streets of Palestine today.
This is what links this story to Weinstein and the child sexual abuse rings of Hollywood and beyond – the ritual desecration and destruction of the most holy, innocence, purity, nobility, truth. It is surely the very sacredness of the sacred city that attracts the dark Babylonian evil that has sought to make it its home. We cannot abandon Jerusalem to the darkness. That would be the abomination of desolation itself. It is Babylon that must fall.”
Reclaiming the truth about Jerusalem is crucial part of discovering truth about peaceful universal living and coexisting.
In Jerusalem all races, religions and nationality coexisted, cooperated and lived together in harmony, even after the most brutal wars and invasions. They managed always to find that LOVE of the land unites them and they learn to give and forgive, NOT to harbour hatred or revenge.
This is what people should remember and feel when hearing the word Jerusalem,
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Poetry for Palestine 