As Four Jews Buried, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin Redirects Back to Palestinians
As the four Jews slaughtered as they went about their pre-Shabbat kosher shopping in Paris were laid to rest in Jerusalem Tuesday, and questions about the future of European Jewry were hanging in the air, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin avers that the real “context” of Jewish immigration to Israel is the denial of rights to Palestinians. (See eight minutes into the broadcast.)
In a Jan. 13 broadcast about the funeral which included a discussion of the future of French Jewry, host Abby Hunstman asks: “Israel is also experiencing a rise in the return of Jews from all over Europe because of the broad rise of anti-Semitism across the EU. You’re in Israel. How is the migration being handled there?”
To which Mohyeldin responds:
Immigration from Europe particularly to Israel has always been a sensitive one given the history of Europe and what has happened there with the Jewish population. The Israeli government really affords a lot of resources to try to make that possible, to make it as easy as possible. The World Jewish Agency certainly plays a very important role in that. The issue of immigration to Israel always is a sensitive one here. The Israeli government says every Jew around the world is allowed and welcome to Israel, their ancestral homeland as they call it. But at the same time denies similar rights obviously to Palestinians born within Israel. And it is always seen from that perspective in this context. There is this tension when it comes to the issue of migration. But in terms of resources provided by the government the Israeli government really spares no effort to try to help individuals and families try to get on their feet once they arrive here in a performance that’s called “ali” and that’s the journey of coming here to Israel, to return here to Israel as the Jewish population calls it. (Emphasis added.)
In other words, according to Mohyeldin, when considering the flight of Europe’s Jews in face of rising anti-Semitism, one must not lose perspective of the “context” of this sad story: Palestinians are the ultimate, perpetual victims.
(The skewed perspective that Mohyeldin advocates does not include the fact that many countries, including Norway, Germany and Ireland, have immigration policies aimed to maintain their ethnic-cultural characters.)
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