Tel-Chai Nation

The author took a tour of Hebron with the wrong crowd:

Chabon’s tour to the West Bank was led by Breaking the Silence, the controversial Israeli group that collects and distributes Israeli soldiers’ testimony about their service in the occupied territory. Chabon, along with his wife Ayelet Waldman, are two of the 24 leading novelists who will visit East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza over the next few months to research a book of essays marking 50 years of Israeli occupation. The couple will edit the book, which aims to illuminate what it’s like to live under Israeli military rule. Chabon’s essay will focus on Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who moved to Ramallah to build the Palestinian economy in the wake of the Oslo peace accords, only to watch the Israeli occupation deepen around him.

[...] Now, Chabon will address Israel’s darkest issues head on. His attention to the occupation, sparked by Waldman’s 2014 trip to Hebron, comes out of a place of deep concern for Israel. “I do love Israel. I do care about Israel,” he said. “To dehumanize others dehumanizes you. It is bad for Israel and if it ended it would be good for Israel.”

[...] The Forward, which accompanied the authors’ Breaking the Silence tour for two days, sat down for an interview with Chabon at the group’s hotel in the stately Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Chabon was visibly jarred by what he had seen the day before in Hebron, calling the occupation “the most grievous injustice I have ever seen in my life.” He talked about the role of authors in addressing human rights issues, his childhood relationship to Israel and whether he is worried about alienating Jewish readers with his anti-occupation stance. (He’s not.)

But he is. Well, certainly if they read his books, but I wouldn't be surprised if not many actually do. Who really needs this creepy novelist anyway? A man who's clearly unconcerned about Muslim honor killings, for example, proving he's not worried about dehumanization. And while he may not be associating with Taayush, I guess he's not concerned about Ezra Nawi's assistance to the PLO either. No sane person should put money into Chabon's pockets. He is one truly awful writer indeed.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, military