September 07, 2009

By Ammar Abu Arqoub (View author info)

Defaming Judaism and Holocaust denial are indeed anti-Semitic. However, criticising Israel and revealing the ugliness of its occupation of Palestine is nothing at all near anti-Semitism. In his Aftonbladet's article (17/08), the swedish photographer and freelance journalist Donald Boström, neither criticized any religion nor denied any genocide. All what he mentioned is a crime, he witnessed, about involvement of the Israeli army in illegal killing for Palestinians and harvesting their organs.

Unsurprisingly, Israel and its supporters condemned the publishing and characterized it as anti-Semitic. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said:

"A democratic country should not allow such a demonization. Current thinking on human Jew slaughter inevitably encourages hate crimes against Jews.''.

What deserves attention here is parroting the same deceptive rhetoric terms whenever Israel is criticized. What does ''human Jew'' have to do with the article? Anybody could commit a crime, regardless of his/her religion. It does not matter whether he/she is a ''human Jew'', ''human Christian'', ''human Muslim'' or ''human Buddhist''.

In fact, it is widely held axiom that anyone dares to condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine and unmask its repressive practices is more likely at risk of being labeled as anti-Semitic and a hate-speech citer.

Some months ago, in the UN anti-racism conference, Durban II, the Iranian president Ahmadinejad was condemned because of branding Israel as 'racist government'. Eight months ago, more specifically, when Israel bombarded Gaza and shelled its schools with white phosphorous, causing murder of around 1500 Palestinians, two-third of them civilians, many journalists and politicians around the world were accused of being Jewish haters, just because of their critical attitude towards the Israeli war on Gaza. The anti-Semitism allegation has become a knife which is always put on the throat of anyone who dares criticize or condemn Israel.

Those who defend Israeli policies and were provoked by Boström's paper should not forget that human right watch organization accused Israel of killing Palestinian civilians who were waving white flags. They should remember also that Richard Falk, the UN official, accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza[1] which was acknowledged by some Israeli soldiers who revealed facts about killing civilians in countless acts of "cold blooded murders" during the recent Israeli attack on Gaza[2].

Israel has been starving the people of Gaza for more than three years through its illegal actions of cutting Gaza from the rest of the world, and limiting food suppliers, fuel as well as medicine suppliers. Israel destroyed the life of Palestinians in the West Bank by building an apartheid wall which was condemned by the international criminal court. Israel, since its creation, followed a policy of exporting Palestinian lands and building Jews settlements on them. In March this year, Israel warned 80 Palestinian families in East Jerusalem to demolish their houses[3]. According to Adala; the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, there are 11000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 350 children among them[4].

Israel wants all the time to be immune of condemnation. It does not accept any kind of cretinism when it persecutes Palestinians. However, telling the truth must not be challenged no matter what. Revealing the occupation atrocities is far from being a hate-speech. Instead, it is an ethical journalistic duty. What had contributed in dismantling the apartheid regime in South Africa was exposing it by the fourth estate to outside world. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is like other occupations, can never be a garden of flowers.

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[1]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058196.html

[2] http://www.nowpublic.com/world/israeli-soldiers-admit-gaza-attrocities

[3] http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/cfsp/106601.pdf

[4] http://www.adalah.org/newsletter/eng/apr08/5.pdf