Video capture of the attack on German tourists in Nablus

The Attack On German Tourists Proves The Systemic Anti-Semitism In Palestine

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Emanuel Engelmayer
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Last Saturday, on a chilly day in the mountainous terrain of northern Samaria, two German tourists who were visiting Israel decided to pay a visit to the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Nablus. In order to reach their destination, they rented a by-the-hour car offered by the City of Tel Aviv to all; what the tourists did not realize is that driving into Nablus with Israeli license plates, let alone a Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality sticker and an Israeli flag is a suicide mission. The German tourists were brutally attacked by the locals, barely managing to escape with the help of an Arab Israeli and taken to an Israeli Defense Forces unit outside of the city. It was reported that only after the Germans helplessly shouted they were not Jewish, did the Arab youth attacking their vehicle take it down a notch. 

Despite the dozens of lousy dark humorous jokes to be made of the image of two Germans begging to not be killed on the grounds of not being Jewish, there is an underlining lesson all who are unfamiliar with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should learn: the Palestinian nationalists are quite antisemitic and extremely barbaric about it. In the same sense that people around the globe generally associate the modern state of Israel with Judaism, so do the residents of Nablus, Jenin, Gaza, and Ramallah. Although Israel goes to great lengths to emphasize their heterogeneous demographics which is true, Israel is in fact a Jewish state, founded by Jews for Jews. 

The cancerous antisemitism felt in large Palestinian Authority cities was accidentally put to the test by two naive tourists, who could not even imagine that driving through Nablus just like that was an awful and deadly idea. Meanwhile, every Jew living in Israel knows very well what waits for them on the other side of any checkpoint into the Palestinian Authority, certain death, or a miracle in which they are saved. The PA does not even apologize for their attitude, promoting the notion that Jews are not safe in their governed territories.

It should be noted that it is not an antisemitic problem within the entire Arab public, neither in Israel or within its neighboring countries, but a systemic push on behalf of Palestinian nationalism to condemn the entire Jewish race and teach their younglings that harming a Jew is a sacred act in the name of Palestine. The fact the tourists were saved with the help of an Israeli-Arab on sight who guided them through the mess lends credence to this assertion.

The growing appetite for Jewish blood amongst PA-educated Arab youth makes complete sense when analyzed. It would be way too complex to explain to a child the diversity of the Jewish people, the Israeli public, and the differences between them; instead, marking visible Israeli/Jewish signs as the symbol of the “Zionist enemy” makes it a lot more black and white, and far more understandable to young students. This is why when Palestinians launch terror attacks, either coordinated or lone wolf, there is no distinction between 'types' of Jews. Even less-than-Zionistic ultra-orthodox sects like the Satmar Hasidic sect are not immune to terror attacks.

For example, A yarmulke on someone's head is a clear sign of one’s Judaism, and therefore he must have a connection to the state of Israel; another one’s use of the Hebrew language, affiliated with Jews and Israel is another easy way to detect a target for an anti-Zionist attack. The same goes for the Israeli-yellow colored license plate, especially when being driven by tourists who definitely do not look like locals.

When presented with these facts, the Palestinian Authority officials would surely deny any accusations of antisemitic behavior, while claiming they are simply anti-Zionist. In reality, just as Palestinian youth have been educated, the situation is much more black and white than all sides would like to admit. 

When armed organizations, such as Hamas, Fatah, and the newly founded Lion’s Den are actively hostile towards the Jewish state and are willing to attack anyone seemingly Jewish for that cause, then yes, antisemitism is the clear motive. It would be better for the Palestinian nationalists to accept this rather than pretend like they have other more potent motives, perhaps their global support might grow bigger than it is already. 

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