2006: Canberra protest - Israel invades LebanonBy Dave Riley
As sure as I've got a hole in my bum, any attempt to blame Israel for any crimes committed against the Palestinians is going to be perverted to a outraged accusation of anti-Semitism.
That scam is now rather threadbare as it is not strong enough to cover up the gross nature of the Palestinian subjugation.
But you get the same response today with squeals that the rallies world wide contain placards and the like which are indeed "anti-Semitic". So if these positions are tolerated by this movement then what sort of movement is it supposed to be?
A couple of weeks back this was indeed the topic on discussion on the GLW discussion list under a heading, Zionists as Subhuman - Ugly hate at Melb Rally.
In reply the always very astute Mike Karadjis, who has written extensively on the Middle East the Balkans, ferried this useful response onto the list.
In case there are any confused folk out there....
KISAN writes:"Stop the Sub-human Zionist Landgrabbing Barbarians Mass Murder in Palastine" reads one large banner from the event. The Neo-Nazi language so typified from Neo-Nazi Websites like Rense.com (which is a favored source of articles for some on the Muslim Brotherhood / Left Alliance like Romi in this list) is so acceptable that it can be on display with no challenge at so-called Left Wing Rally's."
Kisan also notes:
" http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Xl68kP4wo Between 3:20 - 3:40 a Headscarved Muslim Woman shouts out to some Jewish counter-demonstrators:" Go Back to the Oven, you need a big oven!"And other such garbage (from Kisan, that is).
People should be aware that "Kisan" is a professional Islamophobe in the fullest sense of the term. Everything he has ever posted has been anti-Islamic, only. Now, of course, "Islamist" regimes or movements should be as open to criticism or condemnation as any other. So for example, he might post a message on some particularly grisly execution the Iran regime is carrying out, and such information is useful for leftists to be concerned about.
However, when it is one-sidedly anti-Islamic, it is hardly surprising that when the Zionist regime launches a monstrous murderous attack on schools, hospitals, dozens of police trainees, mosques, universities, every other conceivable piece of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, Kisan does not even have the heart, or even the brain (to save face, to pretend a little), to make any condemnation at all; as his obsession is with evil Muslims, his ONLY comment is aimed immediately at a couple of examples of quite clearly wrong anti-Jewish comments from shocked and outraged Arabs or Palestinians, in an attempt to depict the entire ovement against Israel's Nazi-style blitzkrieg as being anti-Jewish.
Let's admit it shall we Kisan: the people in Gaza are Muslims, so they deserve all their getting, don't they?
He posts a link to a demonstration somewhere in the US where one Arab or Palestinian woman responds to some Zionists across the road "Go Back to the Oven, you need a big oven!" Is this comment unacceptable, racist etc? Of course it is. It is one comment made by one person in the course of a heated shouting match. It has nothing whatever to do with the
general flavour of the protest at all, but you'd have the time to open the bloody Youtube link to find out, so anyone without the time to do that might take Kisan's spin on it (that is, anyone not aware of who he is).
What is the context of this woman's racist comment? Is it a slogan she is chanting throughout the protest, with protest organisers not doing anything about it? No. It is a demonstration by human beings positively outraged beyond comprehension by actions of the Zionist entity in turning the whole of Gaza into one big oven, and even more outraged, as the rest of us humans feel, by the total support this permanent aggressor state gets from the US govt and media, whereby the Palestinian victims are regarded to be sub-human, people who have no rights to life at all. The sheer frustration of seeing this year after year occasionally boils over in some people into unacceptable statements.
But in this case, it did not come out of nowhere, did it Kisan? Is it even possible that, while these horrified people - and we are talking about an Arabic woman at that demo, who for all we know may have relatives being blown up in Gaza - were out demonstrating against this
Nazi-style blitzkrieg, there were a group of people, reportedly human beings (and it doesn't matter what religion they were), who were demonstrating IN SUPPORT of the Israeli government, right at this point! Do you get that Kisan? Across the road, taunting these human beings, were a group of hate-filled, racist, neo-fascist scum, who could have quite easily just decided to stay home that day, but instead decided to turn up deliberately to taunt the traumatised humans and to SUPPORT frying Palestinians. It would be the exact equivalent of a Ku Klux Klan demonstration to celebrate the era of lynching in the US at a time when hundreds of black people were being massacred. You don't expect anyone to get angry that these fascists are demonstrating IN FAVOUR of Israel subjecting the Gaza Palestinians to a giant oven, and respond with some quip about ovens?
Does it justify it? Not one bit. We are socialists and do not hold Jews resposnible for the crimes of the Zionist regime, just as we don't hold al Muslims responsible for the crimes of some Islamist regimes, unlie Kisan, apparently. WE condemn the Holocaust as the greatest crime against humanity, and when we make comparisons between it and current Zionist actions, despite the obvious difference in scale, it has nothing to do with "anti-Semitism" (as if Olmert, Livni etc have ANY right at all to identify with the victims of the Holocaust), but on the contrary, it has everything to do with identifying with the victims of the Holocaust, we are identifying the plight of the Palestinians with that of Jews of the past because they are both subjects of terror and genocide. Anyone who doesn't get, I can't help you.
But to not even try to understand where stupid and racist comments like this come from shows a wilful ignorance that is hard to comprehend from anyone posing as a leftist. It seems to me that Chris Hedges might be able to explain the "terrible rage" born of terror and humiliation better than I can in this superb quote which Kisan might want to think
about:
"The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. A family that loses a child in an airstrike does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a âmartyr? [Source]
Did you understand any of that Kisan? Did you get the last sentence? That "71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be amartyrs? I guess for you that simply means they are inflicted by evil "Islamist" ideology, so when one of these
people hit by this "terrible rage" launches a suicide attack in Israel, or another clumsy rocket across "the border" (as if it isn't their country they are barred from across the "border," as most Gazans are refugees from 1948 Israel), that is just another example of "Islamist fanatacism", isn't it? Or will you learn a thing or two from Hedges eloquent article?
Of course I used this quote to give context to the minor issue of your demagogic use of a single shouting match at one demo to slam the whole movement as anti-Jewish, but of course it is more relevant to this broader issue. On which Kisan writes:
"It is strange to see the embrace by "the Left" here of the most fascist elements available, ie: Hamas (the religious fascist group) and the scorn and hatred directed against the actual left-mostly secular Fatah movement who are condemned by the reactionaries here as traitors. It is Fatah who can make peace with Israel by accepting it's existence on some portion of the current Israel and Hamas who want to wipe it out until as the Hadith in their charter says the stone will call out that a Jew is hiding behind it and a Muslim will kill him."
Kisan thinks Hamas is "fascist", but will never use that word against the Zionist entity. Hamas is of course as open to criticism as is anyone, and noone here is uncritical , though how much you concentrate on criticising at the moment when that movement is leading a fight for the very surivialof the Palestinian people is another question. But Kisan knows that the question has been debated here before, and he knows the arguments, so he is being dishonest. He knows the reason many of us became more supportive of Hamas than in the past (aside from our general suport as leaders of the Palestinian struggle) was precisely because of a number of changes Hamas made in the direction of being *less* stereotypically "Islamist," *less* "religious fascist" as he puts it, including its long term *ending* of suicide bombing (despite this never being reciprocated by Israel), its call for a long-term 'hudna' (ceasefire) with Israel if the latter agreed to internaitonal law and withdrew to its 1967 borders to allow a Palestinian state on 22% of Palestine (despite Hamas' correct belief that this can be no permanent solution), the fact that after being democratically elected, Hamas offered a coaltion with Fatah (which Fatah rejected), did not launch into any furious "Islamist" legislation or repression, did not enforce chador, formed alliances with left-wing Palestinian factions, stood a Christian on its election slate, and made clear that Jews were not the enemy and that all three "people of the book" could share the land, and so on. Never mind, all of this is just window dressing for Hamas to deceive gullible leftists, because we are such a strong force that we can help it prevail so that it can then enslave the world.
As for our "hatred" against Fatah "who can make peace with Israel by accepting it's xistence on some portion of the current Israel", this reveals your lack of sense re this issue. Fatah and the PLO accepted a Palestinian state on 22% of Palestine with Arafat's speech to the UN in 1974 and Israel has rejected it forever, and has continually made it impossible, has continually annexed massive chunks of the occupied territories with its colonies ("settlements"), is continually expelling Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem, and you think Fatah can make peace with Israel, as if it is in Fatah's hands rather than Israel's hands? By "accepting it's existence on some portion of the current Israel"? Do you have any idea what you are talking about at all? What "portion"? Since Fatah has long, long ago accepted Israel on 78% of Palestine but Israel has never reciprocated, since even Hamas, despite your dishonest propaganda about its aims, has accepted a 'hudna' with Israel on 78% of Palestine, meaning that the remaining issues can be worked out peacefully, which "portion" should they accept? Do you mean Fatah might accept the Israeli version of "two states," the separated Palestinian bantustans on about half the occupied territories, about 12% of Palestine, as was offered Arafat by Clinton and Barack in 2000? But Arafart correctly rejected this. Is Arafat also an extremist? Abbas is criticised here for things like blaming Israel's current massacre on Hamas rather than on Israel, something Arafat would not have done, whatever his errors. He is also cricised for taking US arms and money to overthrow the Hamas government that was democratically elected by the Palestinian people, whatever the errors of Hamas, and regardless of what many of us might think about Hamas and Fatah on paper..
Of course, this will fall on deaf ears from you, and I've said far too much in response to a Muslim-eating troll like yourself. However, hopefully some of these points are useful in case there are any confused folk out there.
MK
