Former-Yamina MK Amichai Chikli on Wednesday joined a meeting of the Knesset Caucus for Ending the Occupation, chaired by Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Sliman, that marked “55 years of occupation,” to present a view on the history of Jewish “occupation” that was radically different from the claptrap that’s normally on the menu in that forum.
קפצתי לכנס ״55 שנות כיבוש״ כדי לתקן טעות נפוצה: דוד כבש את ירושלים מהיבוסים כבר לפני כ-3,055 שנה. והאמת, מאכזב שנציגי היבוסים לא טרחו לבוא ולכבד אותנו במעמד הזה. pic.twitter.com/A4cc9sSTj8
— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) June 8, 2022
For openers, Chikli suggested there was a fundamental error in the date that’s routinely in use by the members of the caucus to refer to the Jewish occupation of Jerusalem, “because it hasn’t been 55 years” of Jewish “occupation,” rather, it’s been “3055 years.” He cited the Biblical source (II Samuel 5:4-7):
“David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron (‘the capital of Breaking the Silence,’ Chikli interjected) he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years. … David captured the stronghold of Zion; it is now the City of David.”
“And that’s Zion which we know from the chronicles of Zionism,” MK Chikli continued. “David conquers, occupies, 3055 years ago, conquers Jerusalem and the Jebusites.”
“We can hold a debate on this,” he noted, and was interrupted by Chairwoman Touma-Sliman who said, “So, that’s when the occupation started?”
“That’s when we conquered the Zion citadel,” Chikli responded, adding, “It’s a shame that representatives of the Jebusite community didn’t make the effort to come and honor this event.”
It was a pretty good joke, but the truly precious part was the Joint Arab List MK and Chairwoman’s grabbing of the right-wing MK’s admission that Jews have been occupying Jerusalem since the time of King David. She should have added, of course, that her own ancestors at the time were circling and worshiping a giant, black meteor in the middle of the Arabian desert – which they continue to do to this day.
A few historical notes, lest our readers walk away thinking that the Temple Mount, too, was conquered in war by King David, the same book of II Samuel (24:18-24) reports the purchase of what later was to become the compound of the First Temple (and the second):
“[The prophet] Gad came to David the same day and said to him, ‘Go and set up an altar to God on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ David went up, following Gad’s instructions, as God had commanded. Araunah looked out and saw the king and his courtiers approaching him. So Araunah went out and bowed low to the king, with his face to the ground.
“And Araunah asked, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ David replied, ‘To buy the threshing floor from you, that I may build an altar to God and that the plague against the people may be checked.’ And Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take it and offer up whatever he sees fit. Here are oxen for a burnt offering, and the threshing boards and the gear of the oxen for wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to Your Majesty. And may the Lord your God,’ Araunah added, ‘respond to you with favor!’
“But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I will buy them from you at a price. I cannot sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.’ And David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”
The exchange between David and the Jebusite land owner is reminiscent of the conversation between Abraham and Efron the Canaanite over the purchase of the Cave of the Patriarch. Both holy places were bought by our ancestors for cool cash.
Do you think Jebusite voters support the Joint Arab List? Do they even show up at the polls on election day?
