In the "About" section of this group they say:
80-90% of Jews today are “Ashkenazi “ (which is the term for European Jews that are descendants of converts, unrelated to the original tribes of Israel, and speak Yiddish, not Hebrew). 80-90% of all Jews in the world today are not even Semites! In fact, in “Israel” Sefardic and Mizrachi Jews (Arab, Iranian, north African, or middle eastern Jews, for examples), the real Jews of the Torah, are discriminated against heavily in many aspects!Maha has also signed a petition (number 124) to the Board of Directors of the University of Trondheim which says:
The ready made clarion swords are unsheathed against all who dare criticize Israel using the most vile of words, especially the world’s most intimidating Scarlet Letter, “A”, for “Anti-Semite”, although the far majority of Jews today are not Semites. The dishonorable use of Holocaust guilt and the false propaganda that Israel is constantly facing an existential threat ensures silence of all debates which only perpetuates the occupation of Palestinian land. [emphasis added]Maha Rahwanji has her own account on Facebook where her profile picture is:
Please read the posts about Defining Anti-Semitism and the nature of Internet evidence before forming conclusions. Copies of evidence are available upon request.
This is an extremely thin gruel. It doesn't even begin to compare with the actions of Zionist demonstrators outside Ahava, in demonstrating with the EDL and complete with a picture of Jonathan Hoffman co-chair of the Zionist Federation dancing down the street with Roberta Moore of the Jewish Division of the EDL, or the participation of the EDL in the counter to the picket of the Israeli embassy after the murder of 9 activists on the Mavi Marmara. To say nothing of the support of Michael Kaminski, the Polish far-right leader, Robert Zines, the Northern leagues in Italy or indeed virtually all the far-right in Europe.
ReplyDeleteBut whereas the Zionist Federation has refused to issue an unequivocal condemnation of the EDL and a statement that they are not welcome on ZF demonstrations, the palestine solidarity movement is quite clear that anti-Semites and racists are not wanted.
Of course there are exceptions to this and you rightly point out Gill Kaffash as someone who has crossed red lines and should be expelled from PSC. If the comment attributed to her is true, and I have little doubt of that incidentally, then she should have her membership revoked. However I look to an equivalent expulsion or two Hoffmans and Milletts from Zionist circles, the latter of whom defended the 'christ-killer comments of an Ahava staff member.
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2011/09/welcome-statement-from-palestine.html
It is also important to understand that when false allegations of anti-Semitism are regularly made, either via the deliberately distorted definition of anti-Semitis as per the EUMC or just through the usual ritual abuse of anti-Zionists (or self-hater - itself an anti-Semitic term) then it's not much wonder that some supporters of the palestinians (who unlike Jews are oppressed) say that if supporting the Palestinians means being anti-semitic then so be it. They are wrong, but a lot of people have a very limited political perspective.
And if you are seriously concerned about anti-semitism, and I doubt Anthony Cooper is, then you don't conflate things that are not anti-Semitic with those that are.
There's a lot of nonsense been talked about organ theft. I don't know if there is any substance to the allegations that Israel has harvested the organs of dead Palestinians. I haven't followed the accusations. I know they were printed in a reputable Swedish newspaper but whether it has a factual basis I simply don't know.
But the idea that such an allegation is equivalent to the medieval blood libel, when Jews were accused of making unleavened bread at Passover out of the blood of non-Jewish children is not only absurd, but actually seeks to minimise and legitimise the latter.
What if there is some truth to this allegation? Given the mass slaughter of Palestinians it is not inconceivable. Does this mean there is some truth to the blood libel accusation too? You should be very careful of making charges of anti-Semitism.
The accusation of harvesting organs has nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism. The Israeli state is now a Jew and is only Jewish in so far as it is racist.
I can think of at least 2 other states subject to similar accusations. One is China where it is alleged that people were executed in order that their organs could be sold on. Is that anti-Semitic? And some years ago the Iranian regime was accused of syphoning off the blood of those executed too, for blood transfusions, with the implication that people were murdered according to their utility. Anti-semitic? I hardly think so.
And speaking of thinking. Mary Rizzo, Haitham 'quisling' Sabbah and Atzmon's reactionary and short-lived site, the Palestine Think Tank had nothing whatsoever to do with PSC. It had no credence in the movement and I cannot think of one occasion when it was ever cited or quoted.
I cannot speak about the particulars you mention because I do not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things anti-Semitic. However, your claim regarding the ZF seems unfounded given this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejc.com/blogpost/updated-zf-joins-israeli-embassy-and-jfjfp-fight-against-edl
You ask me not to conflate anti-Semitism with things that are not. I do not believe I've done so. You cite the claims that the IDF murder people to steal their organs. I don't recall including that as evidence of anti-Semitism on my blog.
Having said that, the fact that other states are accused of the same or similar crimes does not make the allegation any less anti-Semitic. The blood libel, something all right thinking people can agree is anti-Semitic, was also made against other non-Jewish groups.
I don't understand why you take a stand against the revelations on this blog. You have campaigned against anti-Semitism in the PSC yourself, haven't you?
If other states are accused of organ theft or such like then the accusation is not just being made against Israel. Even if it were it's not anti-Semitic. It's either right or wrong. You can't be anti-Semitic or racist against a state. A state is not a person.
ReplyDeleteI'm also unaware of the blood libel accusation, using non-Jewish blood to bake matzot is pretty specific to Jews. Similar accusations, well poisoning may have and probably were made against other groups but that is groups, not states.
For god's sake Israel is not a Jew and accusations made against it are not anti-Semitic. It's a funny Jew who employed Walter Rauff, one of the most notorious of Eichmann's subordinates as a secret agent. Rauff, the man who good be called the Father of the Gas Chamber, who was sent to Tunisia to organise the holocaust there, having done his best in Corsica and elsewhere in Europe. See http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2010/12/israels-use-of-nazi-war-criminals.html which is based on an article in Ha'aretz by Shraga Elam.
I don't take a stand against any relevations which are indeed revelations, but it would seem you are deliberately seeking out any dirt on PSC regardless of whether it shows anything. Nothing in the piece on Maha from Brent PSC suggests there is anything anti-Semitic in what she says. The site is called ‘exposing anti-Semitism’ so why is Maha on it? I don’t know her but the cartoon in question is amusing, certainly not anti-Semitic. Saying most European Jews aren’t Semitic is a statement of fact. Is Arthur Koestler to be similarly condemned for his book ‘The Thirteenth Tribe’?
I also think that if you are going to pick over the entrails and pore over the meaning of words then you shouldn't ignore the blatantly obvious - Hoffman defending 'christ killer' remarks or EDL demonstrating alongside the Zionists or the vehement racism of the Likudnik protestors outside the theater showing the play about Rachel Corrie. I had one guy, who knew little about Zionists or Zionism, coming up to me to say that demonstrators were referring to 'pakis' This kind of gutter racism is of more concern.
You say you haven’t used examples of allegations of organ theft as proof of anti-Semitism but you say, re the Palestine Think Thank that ‘A particularly disturbing aspect of Palestine Think Tank is its promotion of “Israeli organ harvesting” and detail this at length. If you want to find anti-Semitism in this site, before it disintegrated, then that was the least of the problems.
You say ‘I don't understand why you take a stand against the revelations on this blog. You have campaigned against anti-Semitism in the PSC yourself, haven't you?’. I have campaign against Gilad Atzmon and those who support him. Most of those have little or nothing to do with PSC. I think in a climate where the holocaust is used as a weapon against support for Palestinians then some people will unfortunately question the holocaust as a riposte than because they seriously understand anything about the events. There will be others, including Paul Eisen, who are died in the wool holocaust deniers and need to be dealt with accordingly. Eisen is not a member of PSC and resigned before being expelled.
My objections to the stuff on the blog is it mixes in comments which are of a holocaust denial variety with those which, like Maha’s, clearly are not. And as I said, it ignores the context in which fascists from the EDL are now physically attacking PSC stalls and counter-demonstrating against us. Apart from the fact that as long as Zionists try to deny the Nakba, then some people will foolishly retort by denying or questioning the holocaust.
Things like the Redress Blog I have already covered and I got Scottish UNISON to take down any reference to the site. To oppose racism one has to have clean hands and that means opposing Israeli and Zionist racism as much as racism and anti-Semitism from supporters of the Palestinians.
Just to correct a couple of points. The first is that I didn't say anything about organ harvesting. I quoted a statement from an anti-racist group in America with regards to the Palestine Think Tank and they found the organ harvesting claim to be an indication of racism.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, while clearly the blood libel with the use of matzot is specific to Jews but the generic version of the blood libel (children murdered for religious rites) was made against other groups. Yet the blood libel remains anti-Semitic when made against Jews.
Thirdly, while Israel is not a Jew, it seems entirely unnecessary to state that it contains lots of Jews. When an accusation is made against Israel or an arm of the Israeli state one cannot possibly be so blind as to dismiss out of hand the possibility that it is being made against the Jews that make up the majority of the state. If we were to follow your logic we must conclude that if someone accused the IDF of murdering Palestinian children to bake their blood into matzot that that claim was not anti-Semitic. I think that is sufficient to show the fallacy.
On to two important issues. 1) The claim that the blog mixes anti-Semitism with things that are not. 2) The claim that one has to have "clean hands" which requires opposition to all forms of racism.
On the first of these I think you are wrong. Firstly I clearly state that I present evidence of things I think people would likely consider anti-Semitic and leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusion. Secondly, the myth about Askenazi Jews being not real Jews has been totally and widely discredited. Indeed, according to what I have read there was never any proof for the theory in the first place. I cannot speak about why Arthur Koestler wrote about it but he was wrong. There is no doubt whatsoever that this myth forms an important part of the anti-Semitic mythology (if that is the right word). When someone uses the discredited/disproved/baseless myth as a means of protecting themselves from the charge of anti-Semitism that is itself quite disturbing. It isn't a statement of fact - it is a lie widely used by anti-Semites.
Now, Maha might have not known it to be a lie and may be totally unaware of its use by anti-Semites. Or she might not be unaware of these things. Since she seems to have felt the need to effectively reset her facebook page as a result of my publication without issuing any statement (as far as I know) in her defence, it doesn't look good.
The second point is absurd and not only is it absurd but you do not even believe it either. The proof of this is that though you claim to fight against Israel's racism you do not also fight against the very numerous other forms of racism worldwide. Were you to believe your own claim about the need to fight all forms of racism or none, you would fall short of your own standards.
I doubt you will ever agree but I'm glad I understand now why you reacted strongly against my blog.
we all fall short of our own standards. That is what it means to be human.
ReplyDeleteHowever no one, as far as I know, has suggested that Ashkenazi Jews descended from the Khazars are not 'real Jews.' This is a myth, to use our own words. As far as I'm concerned, and Maha said nothing to contradict this, they are as real as Sephardi, Oriental and Indian Jews.
You say it is a lie that Jews in Europe came predominantly from the Khazars but provide no proof for such an assertion. Quite the contrary, one of the major criticisms of Shlomo Sands in israel was that this was widely known and was nothing new. It is pretty much accepted by most people who have looked into it, apart from Zionists who believe in a racial ladder.
The fact that neo-Nazis and anti-Semites use this fact says nothing. Even the devil can quote the Scriptures.
It's true I don't fight against all forms of racism everywhere. You know what? I don't have time or energy to be a worldwide protest movement! I started out my political life helping to disrupt the Springbok tour of Britain and I've been heavily involved in things like asylum seekers, East Timor etc. But one has to make choices and I have prioritised the racism that is perpetrated in my name.
The proof can be found starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazar#Theory_of_Khazar_ancestry_of_Ashkenazi_Jews To be honest I am slightly surprised that you were not aware of the genetic studies regarding the ancestry of Jews.
ReplyDeleteMaha herself may not have said that Ashkenazi Jews are not real Jews she did sign up to a group that says precisely that. And while it might also be true that Neo-Nazis might occasionally rely on something that is true, this is not one of those things.
You recognise that people have to focus on one thing and while you choose to focus on what you see as racism in your name, I focus on hatred that affects myself and my family. That you would react angrily to someone doing so is, I think, a little odd to say the least.