Swedish anti-Semite
published in Austria:
Definition of Anti-Semitism
A new working Definition of Anti-Semitism of European
Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia of January 28, 2005 [1] provides
a practical guide for identifying incidents, collecting data and supporting
the implementation and enforcement of legislation dealing with
anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be
expressed as hatred toward Jews.
Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are
directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and / or their property,
toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
In addition, such manifestations could also target the state
of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collective.
Anti-Semitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm
humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for
"why
things go wrong".
It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs
sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
Contemporary examples of anti-Semitism in public life, the
media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking
into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:
-
Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming
of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of
religion.
-
Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or
stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a
collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a
world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy,
government or other societal institutions.
-
Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or
imagines wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, of
even for acts committed by non-Jews.
-
Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or
intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of
National socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during
World War II (the Holocaust).
-
Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of
inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
-
Accusing Jewish Citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or
to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of
their own nations.
Examples of the ways in which anti-Semitism manifests itself
with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context
could include:
-
Denying the Jewish people right to self-determination, e.g.
by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist
endeavour.
-
Applying
double standards b requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded
of any other democratic nation.
-
Using the symbols and images associated with classic
anti-Semitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to
characterize Israel or Israelis.
-
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that
of the Nazis.
-
Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the
State of Israel.
However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against
any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.
A book has been published recently in Vienna corresponding
exactly to above definition.
ProMedia, the Austrian left-wing publisher has issued a book,
"Flowers of Galilee", by the Swedish anti-Semite Israel Shamir. Shamir, who
in 2001 changed his name to Jöran Jermas [2] and has claimed to be "be one
of Israel’s leading intellectuals", is no stranger to the pages of different
Media which has exposed his links with other anti-Semites and loony
conspiracy theorists.
Despite the man’s bogus claims and dubious connections, Fritz
Edlinger, the general secretary of the Austro-Arab Friendship Society and
the former representative of the Austrian Social Democrats on the Socialist
International’s Middle East Committee has edited the book and written a
foreword insisting that Shamir is a "leftist and a radical democrat".
The ravings on his website give an insight into just what
kind of "intellectual" Shamir, who professes to be a Greek Orthodox
Christian – he previously claimed to be a Jew – really is. For example, he
writes: "The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again
to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to
become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide. …they will destroy the
Mother Earth herself, turn her into waste lands of Mordor. They need this
victory to bind us together by the dark forces of domination. Let us deny
them, this time." [3]
Elsewhere, he rants that "The Jews are forever fighting
Christ and the Church; there is no chance for peace in the Holy Land unless
the position of the Synagogue is undermined and the Jews saved by the
Church" [4] and repeats the infamous blood libel that Jews have used the
blood of Christian children whom they murdered to produce unleavened bread.
[5] Bizarrely, Shamir has also claimed that even if the notorious Protocols
of the Learned Elders of Zion are a forgery they are nevertheless true. [6]
Edlinger has also published
in the book a German translation of Shamir’s article "The Shadow of Zog" –
nazi-speak for "Zionist Occupation Government" and a term employed by hate
groups and anti-Semites – in which Shamir says: " The Occupation Regime in
Iraq was installed by the US army in the interests of Zionists, and it may
be rightly called ZOG, Zionist Occupation Government if anything. However,
this ZOG is also a Zog, a servant of Darkness and Annihilation, for its
first step was the destruction of Baghdad’s libraries and museums. […] The
problem is, the US people have no way out of the Zionist takeover. […] The
prominence of Jews in Western discourse causes the same sort of trouble that
you would experience if you were to refuel your diesel car with petrol." [7]
Shamir, the author of this shameless anti-Semitic frenzy is
not reticent about collaborating with fascists. Indeed, despite being more
or less unknown until recently, his articles are published and his books
praised with increasing frequency on revisionist homepages and print medias.
[8]
Shamir himself notes on his German homepage that the ZOG
article was translated into German for the so-called Deutsche Kolleg, an
intellectual outfit whose active leaders, Reinhold Oberlercher and Horst
Mahler, found their way from the radical left to the nazi right. [9] The
purpose of the Deutsches Kolleg is to act as a nazi ideological and
linguistic training centre. Oberlercher and the ex-terrorist Mahler want to
ban Jewish communities and their declarations often amount to nothing less
than anti-Semitic and racist tirades.
Criticizing Israeli policies and Zionism by intertwining
anti-Semitic motifs and challenging the legitimacy of the State of Israel
and its right to exist has become characteristic for many "anti-Zionist"
agitators. Shamir, for his part, incorporates the themes typically used, for
example, by the National Bolshevik Party in post Soviet Russia. This toxic
catechism of anti-Semitism claims that Jews are the enemy, that capitalism
is Jewish and that the Jews rule the USA.
Shamir depicts the Jews as being totally malign by nature
with negative traits that are incorrigible. Because of their "bad nature",
he thinks that Jews have to be seen not as individuals but as a collective,
that they remain essentially alien in their surrounding societies, that they
bring disaster to their "host societies" or even the whole world. Because
the Jews allegedly exercise their influence secretly, he evidently feels
obliged to "unmask" their conspiratorial character.
This so-called "new anti-Semitism" has insidiously made its
way into wider political debate and is much favoured by Islamists and Arab
nationalists who reject any chance for peace in the Middle East.
No wonder that Israel Shamir
is together with Hanan Ashrawi, Ilan Pappe and Lea Tsemel member of the
board of "remember Deir Yassin" [10]
Today, it is not crude fascist-type street politics that
mainly characterises anti-Semitism but rather a heavily coded and implicit
drip-drip-drip arguments – almost always accompanied by a pre-emptive
disavowal of any anti-Semitic intent – that the world’s problems, including
September 11 (and even the Tsunami) have their origins in the policies of
and the existence of Israel, that Israel can get away with it because the
USA gives it carte blanche and does so because its own government is under
pressure from, or is itself, ZOG. This kind of argument, in turn, is a key
ingredient of simplistic; everything is black or white, assessments of
events in the Middle East, especially the Israel-Palestine issue.
Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories can be found also on the
left, in parts of the peace movement and among opponents of globalisation,
especially in so-called "anti-imperialist" circles in Austria, Italy and
France.
That is precisely why this kind of thinking is so dangerous.
Horst Mahler, who calls himself a "national marxist", openly propagates a
"red-brown alliance". And the fact, that Austrian leftists can publish
Shame’s crude anti-Semitic rubbish suggests that this approach has already
gained a small measure of success.
Zu Israel Shamirs "Blumen aus Galiläa":
Linke Antisemiten gibt es nicht?
Hier Zitate mit
Seitenangabe aus dem von Fritz Edlinger herausgegebenen und von Hannes
Hofbauer verlegten Buches "Blumen aus Galilä", dessen Autor der schwedische
antisemitische Jöran Jermas ist, der sich hinter dem Namen Israel Shamir
versteckt...
3Sat Kulturzeit:
Gesprächsgast Israel Shamir
EUMC Wien meldet sich zu Wort:
Wie Europa Antisemitismus definiert
Zum zweiten Mal innerhalb eines Jahres versucht die EUMC in
Wien, ein brisantes Dokument zum Thema Antisemitismus der Öffentlichkeit
vorzuenthalten. Vor einem Jahr passten der EUMC nicht die Ergebnisse einer
Untersuchung über Antisemitismus in Europa, weil sich herausstellte, dass
die ebenfalls rassistisch verfolgte muslimische Minderheit vor allem in
Frankreich, für viele antisemitisch motivierte Übergriffe verantwortlich
war...
Notes:
[1]
English:
http://usahm.de/Dokumente/ANTISEMITISM17050.htm
German:
http://usahm.de/Dokumente/DEFINITION18050.htm
[2] For
example: "Israeli writer is Swedish antiSemite" Searchlight May 04:
http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=6
[3]
http://shamir.mediamonitors.net/april152001.html
[4] http://www.israelshamir.net/english/hellen.shtml
[5] http://www.israelshamir.net/english/blood.htm
[6] http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=322
[7] http://www.israelshamir.net/english/shadowofzog.html
[8] For
example: Shamir is defending the neonazi "National Alliance" in the
USA:
http://shamir.mediamonitors.net/august172002.html
[9] http://www.israelshamir.net/german/zog-german.html
[10]
http://www.deiryassin.org/board.html
hagalil.com 20-05-2005 |