The Message

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The plaque bore the flag of the United States and the name of one of its former ambassadors to Israel. I moved closer to read the inscription: “The City of David brings Biblical Jerusalem to life at the very place where the kings and the prophets of the Bible walked,” read the plaque. “The spiritual bedrock of our values as a nation comes from Jerusalem. It is upon these ideals that the American republic was founded, and the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel was formed.” Here Alon abandoned his clinical disposition and raised his voice. The City of David “managed to get so mainstream that the American ambassador comes here and declares that this place is part of the glorious heritage of the United States of America abroad,” he said. “Now there is an American heritage abroad. It’s usually cemeteries in Normandy. Yeah, that’s American heritage abroad. City of David is not. And when you talk about white supremacy and when you talk about how things look here, this is why I think that the Evangelical church and the settlers found each other as a perfect match. Their mindset is the same. They do other things, but their mindset is the same—” I interrupted Alon: “I gotta take a second. Let me just sit down.” I walked away and found a seat in the shade, away from everyone. At this moment, all that I had seen across the days began to avalanche—the cave evictions, the massacre in Hebron, the monuments to genocide, the checkpoints, the wall of devouring, and so muc...