Celebrating Occupation

Celebrating Occupation

06.06.2016
Celebrating occupation-

Even if this year was relativly calm, as people and the news said. For me it was way to much to take and it took me some days to get rid of the stress I felt by observing for hours the preparation and the march of the „Jerusalem Day“. The Jerusalem Day was established by the occupation power to celebrate the „reunification“ of Jerusalem, after sucessfully occupying East Jerusalem after the six days war in 1967 and made it the capital (a status which is rejected by international law).
In fact it is a celebration of Apartheid- or let´s be explicite- obvious racism. The politics of the present far right Israeli government fuels the development in the Israeli society.
A celebration by fanatic far right wing Israelis and settlers in the Old City, marching through Palestinian neighbourhoods towards the Western Wall, watching far right settler activists giving roses to Palestinians- as a thank you gift for taking the occupation and the provocation of this march so silently. Shouting "Mohammed is dead" (just a few people did as the press said) and dancing- carrying huge Israeli flags and huge flags with the image of the Third Temple (the second got destroyed by the Romans in the year 70).
A new temple, far right Israelis and the settlers movement desire to build on the Al Aksa Compound where the Dome of the rock standing since 689 and the Al Aksa Mosque since 706.
During observing and getting closer towards people´s expression through my lense- I felt like throwing up. I asked myself maybe because I am German and I am sensitive by seeing seas of flags and thousends of people getting in extase by worshipping national symbols? Would I feel sick if Brasilians would act like this in Rio De Janero? South Africans would march through Johannisburg? I guess I wouldn´t. Another historical context and another present. Would I have feel sick if Germans, Russians, US- Amercians or Turkish behave like this? I guess I would! As well another context and a history of being the colonizer.
What is the difference? I can imagine Brasilians and South Africans would march behind there flags because they got rid of colonialism and apartheid. Which I can understand to celebrate, even if I still don´t like worshipping flags and nations.
But what I observed on the 6th of June 2016 feared me- Jersualem taken over by thousends of fanatic people celebrating rascism and handing over flowers to the opressed. Even if people said it was „chilled“ compared to other years. It´s not just about this day, it is a currently demonstration of opression on daily base and with many faces, an ongoing occupation and fastly growing settlements in East Jersualem and Westbank making peace and a two state solution impossible.
How can we (Germany USA and France and others) send billions of dollars for military aid to one side? And send socalled experts with the stamp of the job description „international peace workers“ to the other side?
Our „aid industry“ is a fig leaf, covering the douple standart of our politics. Our aid a business our home economies benefitting from, first.
The douple standarts of the politics of the international community is discusting- under this conditions the word peace is an empty shell.