Daphne Anson: Exposed: Judeophobia in the Australian Pro-Palestinian Movement

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Exposed: Judeophobia in the Australian Pro-Palestinian Movement

Julie Nathan, research officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, has written a well-documented article headed "We're not racist,we just hate Jews" in which she exposes antisemitism in the Australian pro-Palestinian movement.

It's an important article, and because I feel it deserves to be seen outside Australia I'm taking the liberty of reproducing here, from J-Wire, the bulk of what she writes (but for the full article, including footnotes, go here ):

'On a Students for Palestine (Melbourne) Facebook site, “EMERGENCY MEETING: Don’t let them stop pro-Palestine protests in Melbourne”, set up by “Vashti Jane” for Victorian Students for Palestine, advertising a meeting to “DISCUSS THE NEXT ACTION” including where to hold the next anti-Israel action, a Paul Duggan posted (on 12-7-2011) the comment: “protest in the major jewish suburb Windsor, near Prahran.” This comment shows that there are some who feel it is quite legitimate to direct anti-Israel protest against Jews, including in their suburban homes, regardless of their actual views.

On another Students for Palestine (Melbourne) Facebook site, “Protesting Max Brenner’s support for the Israeli military”, set up by “Vashti Jane” for Victorian Students for Palestine a Jason Phan posted (on 10-7-2011) the comment: “i dont give a fuck , jews are pricks!!!!!” Such language is clearly antisemitic, yet when such comments are not removed for days or weeks but are allowed to remain on the webpage this indicates at best a tolerance, at worst a support, for such antisemitic sentiment....

The posting of videos on pro-Palestinian Facebook pages is common. They range from the overtly anti-Jewish through to those pushing conspiracy theories or similar sinister insinuations about Jews. On the official Students for Palestine, Melbourne Facebook page is a video promoting a conspiracy theory about 9/11, titled 911 Loose Change (full-length) posted by Hassan Elgizawy (on 12-7-2011).

On the Facebook site of the Australians Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), based in Adelaide, Samah Manasra posted (on 9-7-2011) the video titled Zionists are a Satan worshipping Cult! The synopsis under the video states: “To help you understand the difference between the “true Israel” and the Synagogue of Satan.” This is the familiar terminology of traditional forms of antisemitism.

Another video posted (on 3-10-11) on the AFOPA Facebook site is Dangers Of A ‘Jewish’ State posted by Abbas Anti-Zionism . This video is highly antisemitic. It says that “Obama is touting the Jewish Lobby’s (of whom his re-election depends) dead end agenda… And the state of Israel, with its Jewish agents entrenched in American foreign-policy making via billions of dollars… Jewish elitism has permeated every aspect of our nation’s infrastructure: whether it’s policy, legislation, security, culture, economics, and finance. “All things Jewish” is now in, but “all things Christian” is now out. If this trend continues then a Judaic tyranny never before experienced in American life will dismantle all that Christianity has bequeathed to our once free and prosperous nation.” The video was produced by Brother Nathanael, a self-styled Orthodox Christian “Street Evangelist”. This video is linked to Nathanael’s antisemitic and conspiratorial websites: http://www.realzionistnews.com/ and http://thebrothernathanaelfoundation.org/

Also on the official AFOPA Facebook page is a link to a video titled “The Hitler Speech They Don’t Want You To Hear” posted (on 2-12-2011) by a prolific AFOPA poster, Haytham A. K Radwan. This video claims to be the English translation of a speech by Hitler which blames Roosevelt for WW2 and portrays Hitler and the Nazis as being innocent and peaceful. It is the type of propaganda neo-Nazis push. There is nothing antisemitic per se in the video. However, it is not just pro-Nazi, but aims to vindicate Nazism and its actions. AFOPA, a pro-Palestinian website, allows links to videos pushing Hitler as a man of peace....

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, websites often reproduce articles from overseas. However, some of these articles contain antisemitic content and imagery. This is evidenced on the website of Australians For Palestine (AFP), based in Melbourne, where a recent article (19-4-2012), Thousands of Jewish settlers storm Qalqilia village to perform rituals was reproduced in full from The Palestinian Information Centre.
In this article, reproduced on an Australian website, the term “Talmudic rituals” is used, not just once, but twice. This is a popular term used on many Islamic websites such as IslamOnline and by Arab journalists such as Khalid Amayreh. The term “Talmudic rituals” is deliberately used as it conjures up something much more sinister than simply using more accurate terminology like “Jewish prayers” or “Jewish religious practices.” To explain further the language used in Arab or Islamic media to demonise Jews:

The term “Talmudic rituals” used by Amayreh (2009c) and IslamOnline (2009a) in reference to Jews near Al-Aqsa is a coded allusion to some sort of “sinister” Jewish rituals, given that historically the Christian authorities condemned and burned the Talmud as an allegedly sinister Jewish text in an effort to convert the Jews to Christianity (ADL 2003).”

AFOPA, based in Adelaide, also has the article on their homepage, showing the first paragraph and a half, which links to the full article on the AFP website.

In comparison, a minor and less active website, Palestine Solidarity Campaign Melbourne has the same story but from the Maan News website, where the article contains nothing inflammatory or antisemitic.
This shows two things. Firstly, that there are various ways to choose to tell a story. Secondly, that anti-Israel organizations like AFP and AFOPA choose to use and republish articles with anti-Jewish content rather than articles that are not antisemitic.

An overtly antisemitic cartoon was posted on at least three pro-Palestinian Facebook websites on 28 March 2012: “Social Justice Network”, “Vigil on the Palestinian Land Day and against the threats of war on the Middle East”, and “Australians Against the War on the Middle East”. This cartoon plays directly on the 2,000 year old accusation of the Jews as Christ-killers, an accusation which not only incited hatred of Jews but resulted in ongoing massacres of Jews. The cartoon character is explicitly an image of Jesus and his crucifixion, as denoted by the Star of David at the top (instead of “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”), and a rocket (instead of a spear) into the side of the character.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EUFRA) determined the Working Definition of Antisemitism which includes examples of antisemitism: “Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:

• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.”

The above cartoon clearly falls within the EUFRA’s definition of anti-Semitism....

Two pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, organizations, Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative, made a decision to protest outside a synagogue. Not only were they targeting a synagogue, but the protest was to be staged on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. This protest, scheduled for 25 February 2012, was part of the “Open Shuhada Street” campaign, Protest the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in Hebron
The target was stated to be Joseph Gutnick for his alleged support for families living in settlements in Hebron. Yet Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative decided not to target a commercial or business venue associated with Mr Gutnick, but instead chose a Jewish religious venue, which happened to have a hall named Adass Gutnick Hall. Mr Gutnick is not a member of the synagogue in question and does not attend services there. This decision shows the protest organizers do not distinguish between private places of worship and public business enterprises, nor between ordinary Australian Jews and Israel.

It was only when the media got hold of the story and interviewed the organizer, Vashti Kenway, about the venue being a synagogue, and the day being the Jewish Sabbath, that the organisers felt compelled to change the venue from the synagogue to an office of a business in which Mr Gutnick is a director. Ms Kenway, not admitting or seemingly understanding that protesting outside a synagogue is antisemitic, would presumably still consider it legitimate to protest outside a synagogue where the congregants were all either Zionist or non-Zionist Jews.

Despite the change of venue, on the Students for Palestine website the protest venue remained named as at the synagogue, and remained so until after the protest, and still remains there today. On the Students for Palestine Facebook site, which was set up by “Vashti Jane” for Victorian Students for Palestine, the venue address was changed, but the poster on that site, which showed the synagogue as the protest venue, was not removed or changed:

The Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS), an organization often hostile to Israel, wrote “that their decision to cancel was largely driven by a realisation of the adverse reaction to such a protest in the wider community, not because of any twinge of conscience on their own part.” AJDS notes that Vashti Kenway and the other protest organizers had no objection to protesting at a synagogue, but were only concerned for their own image.

On the Students for Palestine Facebook page for this protest, there were several comments criticising Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative for the protest venue. Even the militantly anti-Zionist, Michael Brull, commented: “You people are so fucking stupid. I cannot believe you would protest at a fucking synagogue.” On the same Facebook page, in reference to an earlier encounter, a Joshua Slonim posted (on 22-2-2012) a comment: “Vashti, you called my friend at Melbourne University a “murderer” simply because he was wearing a Kippah/Yarmulka.”....'

4 comments:

Empress Trudy2 May 2012 at 22:30
So therefore by their own rules it's not only entirely legitimate but noble even to mercilessly abuse THEM in public and in their homes, their childrens' schools, their places of work.

OK good to know. Crush Them.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Ian2 May 2012 at 22:51
An excellent article, these vile bigots need to be documented and exposed for what they really are.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Ian3 May 2012 at 00:30
OT
2 nice videos
Israel - Small but Outstanding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoizSL-TEJQ
The Rhythm of Israel - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApATYMUn7vg

And 2 BDS fails.
Galten Biodiesel signs NIS 225m Finnish vegetable oil deal
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000744744&fid=1725
Today's BDS fail: Finland to buy Israeli drones
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/todays-bds-fail-finland-to-buy-israeli.html
ReplyDelete
Replies

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'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

'This new rise in antisemitism, which I had thought long dead, was not shaven-headed white imbeciles from the far right. It was Muslims, a large chunk of it.... Suddenly I grasped that the British far left didn’t want people to know about antisemitism because it pointed the finger at people they really, really liked. From that moment on, it all fell into place.... Time and again the same tropes emerged, the same sort of stuff that Streicher and Goebbels would have commended – and uttered.... And from that a whole bunch of other stuff emerged: the old blood libel business (a favourite of the repulsive Jenny Tonge).... Nice, avuncular, Jeremy Corbyn, with his peace badges, happily laying a wreath at the graveside of Palestinian terrorists who murdered innocent Jewish athletes, oh, and much much more.... It is the same antisemitism, exactly the same: the obsession with Israel to the exclusion of everything else, the conspiracy theory paranoias, the derangement.... Here’s the test – if you cannot see the flagrant racism in the BDS movement, and if you are obsessed with the perfidy of the Middle East’s only democracy to the exclusion of all else, you are an antisemite. That means a good proportion of the Labour Party, including the leader, and almost all of Momentum: no brown shirts, no marching bands, but the same old filth, dressed in the clothes of a polytechnic geography lecturer.'
Rod Liddle (2018)

'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.
If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.
Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying...
Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)

Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.
Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...
The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...
friendsofisraelinitiative.org

[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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