Front page glance – Israel Hayom

Romney to the rescue, spoken like a leader of a superpower, Islamic terror PULSING through Europe…it is all so dramatic and scary right? But here is a new one…Maybe Israel should learn from Erdogan…the Turkish prime minister. Wait, is he referring to Erdogan’s swift military response to the Syrian Army shelling?

Yes he is, and once again I face palmed myself. As Dan Margalit so elegantly writes, he admires Erdogan for saying how precious “Turkish blood” is and how Netanyahu should respond in a similar way”. Because you know…the problem is not that civilians are being killed, but that ISRAELI or TURKISH civilians are being killed.

But hey, let us say for argument’s sake that Netanyahu decides to shell Gaza in the same way that Turkey did Syria. Firstly, being the most densely populated region in the world combined with the fact that the rocket launching squads are smaller and more mobile than artillery or mortar squads…it is going to be useless and a waste of human life. But it is okay, because we are talking about Palestinians.

A friend of mine, Harry Fear, did a report on how Israel deals with terrorists and resistance fighters. They do so by employing their own terror as you can see in that report. They watched one member of a resistance committee all day, and decided to blow him up when he had his brother and only son with him. That sure gave a message to their mother…

But no. While Israel constantly flies drones overhead, breaks the sound barrier above people’s homes with their fighter jets, carries out naval and land blockades, carries out incursions and bulldozes arable land, kills farmers who try to reach said land and slowly strangles the life out of Gaza…they should expect roses from them. A rising suicide rate reveals that everything is perfectly normal!

Israel. Please stop being so delusional. Last time I met one of your enlightened and civilized citizens he had no idea about the settlements and how the government panders to the settler movements.

Comments watch – ‘Turning Bedouin village into Jewish settlement is racist’ – Ynet news

A Bedouin village in the Negev desert, Southern Israel, is to be removed with a Jewish settlement built in it’s place.

The Bedouin village of Um-al-Hiran has been applying for building permits so that their village, or as some would call it a hamlet, can be deemed legal, but their requests have been ignored or rejected thus far. Instead, the government has decided to build what the article terms a “Jewish settlement” called Hiran in it’s place.

Now, the term “Jewish settlement” can be a bit misleading, since if it is located without the 1967 borders and in Israel proper then it shouldn’t really be called that. Nevertheless, the Bedouin residents are going to be evicted from the area entirely. Here are a couple of quotes from the residents:

“Salim Abu Al-Kian, 53, told Ynet. ‘We are ready to reach a settlement on the matter. We’re willing to get permits for homes that have yet to receive them. Unfortunately, the state does not want to help us. They want to expel us from our land. We have no value to them,’ he said”

“‘We wouldn’t mind living alongside Jews. I wouldn’t object to us being neighbors,’ said Salim Abu Al-Kian.
“You can’t just take an Arab and put a Jew in his place. This is racism. This is the Nakba of 2012,’ he added.“

The Bedouin village of Um Al Hiran – Credit goes to Ynet news

To call this a Nakba, referring to the Palestinian catastrophe in 1948, is a pretty bold statement considering how some Israelis have reacted to any mention of it’s event.

Now someone called “Zionist Forever” on the site commented:

“This village was built illegally on state owned land ( not Bedouin land ) and they are complaining the state cannot force them to move and redevelop the area.”

Which is probably true. But here is the kicker guys. The Israel Land Agency (or ILA) has a governing board that decides the policies. 12 of the 22 members are elected governors. While 10 of the members are from the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the same organization that was founded in 1901 to buy land from Ottoman landlords and evict all the Arabs. To this day they have made it clear that they will only serve Jews, and no other type of Israeli, because of the nature of their organization…and these people decide the policy of land ownership. So is it a surprise that application after application for building permits by the Bedouins was refused? Nope.

But there is another comment of note as well. A man who named himself “Jack Bauer” simply commented:

“Send them all back to the Sinai”

A democracy is only as good as the people who inhabit it folks. And if you have been following the work of Israeli journalist David Sheen you would know about the recent xenophobia, especially against African blacks, that has gone through Israel. It was to the point that an Israeli MK said that Israel was a country for the “white man”. So never mind the Mizrachi or Ethiopian Jews!

These attitudes still freely prevail, but of course it is also essential to keep in mind that Israeli social movements such as the J14 are the polar opposite to this sort of rhetoric. One can only hope that as the generations pass, then there will be change. But I don’t think things will change within one generation…especially in Israel.

Journey to Jenin – A poem I preformed

The hills rolled by like waves frozen in time
Dear Palestine
I sigh at the mention of your name, for it is the enigma of my mind
Many a civilization rose and fell
And it is just ourselves and ruins that have been left behind

And the powers still rise to this very day
This time, it is the settlements that eat your hills away
I see them now, high walls and red roof tops
Followed by gates, checkpoints and signs that tell me to “stop”
The message is clear, I’m no longer welcome here
These places house fanatics, and I’m not talking Al-Qaeda
But American Jews, dreaming of Judea and Samaria
Living in the Biblical era
They walk around with their Uzis and M-16s
Shouting in Hebrew, “mauvit l’Aravim!”
“Death to the Arabs” – that’s what it means

I stop my thought to find that we approach Jenin
A city green with life, of stone and mortar like any other
Only it is known as “the capital of suicide bombers”
Just another corner of history
Which makes the holy land the unholy to me
We are horrified by their ability to take innocent lives
But I think of how they lost the will to live
And gained the will to die
Desperate men who lost sisters, brothers, fathers and mothers
And then got preyed on by shady vultures
Saying “if you die for our cause, your family will never go without bread”
The choice becomes theirs, to watch their families starve
Or to embrace death
“Never mind” the bullets, bombs and bulldozers they faced
What they had was by no means an ignorant hate

And within a house in Jenin I saw a portrait
A son and a mother, both shot dead by an Israeli sniper
And I say in my head “O’ Palestine, you drink too much blood and not enough water”
Four year old child or fully armed soldier
You drink it all the same
Arab, Jew or the blood of any other
And I saw graves where this blood bore fruit
On the walls a sombre question, “what did we do?”
It was in Jenin’s refugee camp, I remember now
Of how the homes were once bulldozed into the ground

I dwelled a while before we continued our journey
To a friend’s newly built home, with beautiful scenery
At the balcony, I stared North into the distance
For just beyond that hill over there lay Tiberius
The Sun set in the East and rose in the West countless times
Until I was back to that fateful day
In 1948 when my family was driven away
My grandfather had just finished a home by the lake of Galilee
And I know that it is a place I may never see
I pictured all of them going to Lebanon and Syria
Among the mass expulsion, war and hysteria

To some, a war of independence, to us a catastrophe
Pride makes enemies
When it concerns race or nationality
That powers that be intervene, and interests meet
The boot stamps down on the neck of the weak
I’m tempted to simply say “such is the way”
Yet I persist in repeating “not today, not today”

And the enigma remains, Palestine, why can’t I let it go?
Why is it that people lust for you so?
And a gentle breeze took me back to the present
My journey, just for now, had ended

Conversation with an Israeli – “but I never hear your voice”

The flag at our stall in Oxford

As usual, I was working at the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign stall on a Saturday. We hung a a banner at the front of our table showing the fragmentation of the West Bank by Israeli settlements, military zones, checkpoints and so on. It worked wonders because it was visual, and many people would stop and look.

Among these people was a group of three, one of whom crouched and took a picture of the banner with his phone. I thought that, due to his looks and his interest he might be Arab. But he and two of his friends turned out to be Israeli. I was relieved that they didn’t overturn the entire table in rage (apparently something like that happened before but I never experienced it myself). And instead of shouting in our faces they were willing to listen. I think that may have been because they were from a younger generation, although I am not sure.

Firstly, me and my colleagues spoke to all of them at once, and when one of us mentioned a possible “One-state solution”, one of the Israelis said “but the Palestinians don’t want us here”. Of course, as a Palestinian, I stepped in and said that I in fact Do want them there, and for a few seconds they were dumbstruck.

Anyway, the conversation moves along, me and another Israeli start talking. After telling him that I have no problem with Israel existing he said (this is paraphrased of course)

“But I never hear your voice, you see. I am still afraid that if I go to Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian president) I will get bombed. The Palestinians elected Hamas as well…but I never hear your voice”.

It was worrying but to be expected. Hamas is the new bogey man (well relatively new to the “Communist threat” before), he didn’t even know that the settlements and settler movements gain government support and subsidized housing, he thought they were private!

Even after mentioning the settlements, he also said that “Arabs live in our neighbourhoods, go in our malls, but I never see Jews live in the West Bank”. Well some of them sure live there. Not to mention one of my professors who is Jewish, and went there during the first Intifada in 1987.

But I should have told him that my voice is the voice of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement. It was a call by the overwhelming Palestinian civil society for peaceful resistance for a just, two-state solution which recognized Israel’s right to exist. Hamas’ victory over Fatah by a small percentage, coupled with tactical voting against the PLO and the complacent Palestinian Authority is one reason why they just about won. Not to mention how Hamas is actually charitable in terms of supporting schools and hospitals which greatly appealed to the poor.

It was clear what I saw in this group of Israelis. Although open minded, they are victims of the politics of fear. The only times they were in the West Bank was when they served in the Army and stood at checkpoints, as one himself said. Ramallah is only a twenty minute drive from Jerusalem, especially if you are an Israeli, but it might as well be light-years away. It is a distance of fear, not a physical distance.

If you are Israeli and are reading this, I encourage you to go to the West Bank. Talk to Palestinians inside and outside Israel itself face to face, and get to know your neighbours.

Comments watch – In suspected Jerusalem lynch, dozens of Jewish youths attack 3 Palestinians – Haaretz

Reading a news article gives you information about a certain event. But what is also important is to read the comments of people and their reactions to said event, and it becomes news worthy of itself.

Zion Square – credit goes to Haaretz

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/in-suspected-jerusalem-lynch-dozens-of-jewish-youths-attack-3-palestinians-1.459002

This article from Israeli newspaper Haaretz details a suspected “lynch”. Dozens of Jewish youth attack three Palestinians in Zion square in Jerusalem, and one of them was beaten to death. An eye witness, who was Jewish and tried to help said this:

“”But today I saw a lynch with my own eyes, in Zion Square, the center of the city of Jerusalem ….. and shouts of ‘A Jew is a soul and Arab is a son of a –,’ were shouted loudly and dozens (!!) of youths ran and gathered and started to really beat to death three Arab youths who were walking quietly in the Ben Yehuda street,”

But please, read the article for yourself to get a good idea of the story. But when it comes to politically heated or racially heated articles concerning Palestine and Israel, I can’t help but read the comments too. Thankfully, many of them were sympathetic, calling for justice. But even in such an obviously hateful and disgusting attack, some people still had negative things to say:

Arnold from Canada writes – “This is all wrong.. Why are we ( Jews ) acting like them ( Arabs )”
This is contradictory in and of itself beyond belief to me. The Jewish youth clearly acted with racist intent in the event. Arnold makes a racist statement while saying that it is wrong to be or act racist. I will give you a minute to figure it out.

But it doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Having met and talked to Israelis in real life and online, they seem to be a very polarized society. Some are fierce in defending human rights and equality, others have openly said that I ought to have my human rights stripped away from me. What is surprising in Arnold’s statement is not the airbrushing of Arabs as one entity, but of Jews as well, the “Us and Them” mentality.

Paul simply says - “Arabs back to Arabia – problem solved.”
This is an argument that I come across with very fierce right-wing Zionists all the time. When they use the argument that Jews lived in the land first as an ethnicity then I know that we can never come to an agreement. My fundamentals are purely different in deciding who should stay, who should leave and who should be treated with human dignity, and it has nothing to do with ethnicity.

But if this attitude grows, then I wonder how the Arab natives of Israel will feel. I bet they will feel like foreigners, strangers and in a country that does not belong to them. In other words, if this attitude does grow (and there are a sizeable number who believe this line of argument), then Israel will be an ethnocracy, not a democracy, for it is “only or the Jewish people”.

“…because it is work that makes sense!”

Like every Saturday I stood at the stall with a friend of mine while the world went by. Oxford was flooding with tourists, from Spain to Japan and even the USA on this fine summer afternoon. Even the breeze was calm so that it didn’t blow the papers away. The Palestinian flag would blow gently, occasionally slapping someone in the face as if trying to grab their attention; sometimes it worked at other times it didn’t, but it sure was funny to watch.

My mind had been preoccupied with thoughts about life and the meaning of it all, because that is what happens when I get a lot of free time. But then I turned to my friend, a grey haired matured man who worked as a software engineer, I remembered how he talked about planting vegetables in his allotment and I asked him.

“You know, I think I want to get into gardening” I realize how strange that sounds for a twenty year old so I correct my self “…what I mean is, I want to know how to grow vegetables”, that still sounded weird but what the hey!

And so he told me all about it. How he tried and failed the first time, how potatoes are the easiest (and probably most useful thing) to grow, how you have to get personal with the soil as you dig it up and weed it out. How the soil itself is a living thing and that you are working with it. He told me about farmers cooperatives that he saw in the USA when he lived there and the ones that he sees in the village of Abingdon where he lives now. He told me a lot, but then I asked him.

“Why does it feel…right, that I should work and labour to produce something for myself?”

Because that is what it feels like to me. All this talk of “selling yourself” to corporations at University, of “developing skills” which are just vague made me realize that the real world is rushing towards me fast, and I didn’t like it. Because when I look at us, the human species, as animals it all seems so strange and so disconnected. We do not forage or hunt any more, we just do these jobs that give us money and then we go to a big building full of food, it is there that we exchange this money for the food that we need to survive. It just seems so strange. But my good old friend hit the nail right on the head, he simply said.

“Because it is work that makes sense! You produce something for yourself and you aren’t working for anyone else.”

And I remembered what that thing at the back of my head was, and it formed into the phrase “having control of the means of production” as said by a famous fellow called Karl Marx.

Maybe that explains why I felt more alive and awake when I weeded the garden out. Even a simple and menial task like that felt good to do for me.

…or I am just a freak. And that is why the world is an interesting place.

 

Mitt Romney and mediation between Palestine and Israel…

First and foremost, I would like to ask the question of who in their right mind would choose the United States of America as a “mediator” between Israel and Palestine? I know what some might say, they might say “it’s the world super power so it can do something about it”, and there may be more arguments.

But there is a problem you see, a big problem. Romney’s visit to Israel has shown this, actually all of the presidents of the USA since Clinton have shown this huge problem with the concept of “mediation”. But firstly, a little bit on Romney:

U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivers foreign policy remarks at the University of Warsaw Library in Warsaw July 31, 2012 – Photo by Reuters

“Romney’s staff picked the 150 guests carefully. Religious American immigrants dominated the crowd; secular Jews and native-born Israelis were few and far between. Those present included Jewish-American millionaires, settler leaders like the former chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements Israel Harel, and former Netanyahu aides such as Dore Gold, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Yoaz Hendel.” – Source Haaretz

The “Jewish-American” millionaires included a Mr. Adelson, who has pledged around $200 million towards Romney’s campaign against Obama. Yes, $200 million. But this is what democracy is about, it is about lip-service and kissing up to people so they give you money…never mind that it could interfere with the peace process. When Romney called Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and he claimed that Israeli culture was “superior” to Palestinian culture in terms of economy (and failing to mention at all the military occupation), I am sure he thought it was all worth it.

But maybe, just maybe he isn’t that bad. I have been reading other people’s opinions of him, and so I thought it was time I checked out his website to see his views in his own words…and oh boy, what a lovely trip that was.

The interesting thing to note is that under his “issues” section which explain his policies, the Middle East has it’s own section, Israel has it’s own and Iran has it’s own, even though Iran and Israel are in the Middle East. I am not nit-picking here, but pointing out to you what priorities he really has…

So I clicked on Israel, and the problem stared me in the face, because the section started off with:

“Israel is the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East”

Now I don’t know if I am missing something, but isn’t a mediator nation supposed to be a bit more impartial? Obama called Israel an ally too, and so did George Bush, and so did Clinton. But even if they did not utter a word, it can be seen as clear as day when the USA and Israel share a lot of their military resources openly and freely. But there is more:

“The United States must forcefully resist the emergence of anti-Israel policies in Turkey and Egypt, and work to make clear that their interests are not served by isolating Israel.”

Forcefully? So if the people of Egypt democratically decide, for example, to stop cooperating with Israel then what kind of “force” is Romney planning to use? Was it like when Obama was supplying Mubarak’s regime with funds and military equipment too? “We like our democracy…but not YOUR democracy”.

You can read the rest of the section yourself, but this is the problem with mediation between the US, Palestine and Israel. Ask  yourselves, if you were bullied and your teacher turned out to be best buddies with that bully (a little absurd? not so in the world of politics) then how would you feel? Would you even call that fair?

 

 

A one state solution…

Before I begin writing, I would like to thank Ahad Hadaam , former IDF officer, for introducing me, not to this dream, but to this idea. For I have had the dream for a long time, but to see it as an idea is an entirely different matter.

Nationalism 

The Palestinians

There is little doubt that the Palestinians of  today have a desire to self determination. Many who live in Gaza, the West Bank, the refugees of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and the rest of the diaspora around the world, from Chile in South America to Australia and Poland, desire this. It is a desire rooted in their subjection to the Ottoman empire, a foreign force that did not have their self interests at heart. After their collapse, their dreams came closer, yet the British and the French stepped in with their mandates and colonies. I do now know much about this period of history, but I know that the idea of nationalism was fanned and the flames grew within the Arab nation, including the Palestinians.

The Israelis

The political Jewish Zionists have also had their aspirations and self determination for a similar time. For the hundreds of years that they have been in the diaspora, they did not dream of an Israel but stayed in their religious communities, waiting for the coming of their Messiah who will bring them Israel. Yet in the 19th Century, as more and more Jews broke away from their religion (a speculation), they realized that nothing stopped them from self determination now. They looked upon the nations in which they lived, mostly in Europe, and made a dream of their own. They considered to settle in countries like Argentina and even Uganda. They wanted to be at the mercy of no one but themselves, and the years of discrimination had only increased this desire

On the present

Today, what we have created is the United Nations. In theory, many world nations have a consensus on the fundamental rights of the human individual. But more importantly, and personally, I have come to realize that the desire for nation hood in the Israeli Palestinian conflict is something of a different age. Globalization has shaken the foundations of our reality, not before two world wars. We are in the information age, an age where technology advances at an exponential rate (as some claim).

In light of this, I have come to a realization. While we may ponder morality and it’s meaning as we have for hundreds of years, an undeniable fact has come forth. Every human being is equal, not necessarily in ability, but in moral value, for they have made no choices in their heritage, especially when it comes to ethnicity. As I look on a map of the world,  I begin to see the borders of age old nations fade, and give way to a diverse and powerful humanity.

What does this all mean?

When reflecting upon all of this, it becomes very clear that political Zionism was destined to force it’s members into war and chaos in order to achieve it’s dream. It wanted to create a Jewish democracy, or ethnocracy in a place that had a large native population of non-Jews.  It achieved this, and the price was paid in blood and tears, and it continues to be paid today. There was bound to be a clash between Jewish nationalists and Arab nationalists, and it surely happened.

A two state solution now would only mean that I am satisfied with leaving Israel’s ethnocracy to it’s devices, and the native Palestinian population under it’s mercy. And I am not, and will not be satisfied. While Israel continues to stress that it is too small, and the Palestinians remain stateless, the only way forward is a one state solution. One man, one vote,  Arab or Jew.

Self determination does not equal staunch nationalism or having “your own country”, although I know how tempting patriotism can be.

I am ready to abandon Palestinian nationalism, to fight Israeli nationalism and to promote equality for the sake of peace. But we shall see what the world has in store for these two “peoples” .

Of course, the idea is still fresh in my head, and I will take more time to think about it.

Waltz with Bashir – further thoughts

In my so called review of Waltz with Bashir, I brought up some comments made on another review from the website Electronic Intifada, here it is again:

The question of who was doing whose dirty work is not so easily answered, however Israel was nobody’s sidekick when it invaded Lebanon. The film does not show us the Israeli shelling of Beirut that led to 18,000 deaths and 30,000 wounded, the violations committed against civilians, the destruction of Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. And what about the fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization and armed resistors had been evacuated more than two weeks before the massacres, and that it was the day after multinational forces left Beirut that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon made it known that 2,000 “terrorists” remained in the camps? The focus of Folman’s quest for responsibility in Waltz with Bashir hones in on lighting the flares as the Phalangists “mopped up” the camps. That two months before the massacres Sharon had announced his objective to send Phalangist forces into the camps, that the Israeli army surrounded and sealed the camps, that they shelled the camps, that snipers shot at camp dwellers in the days before the massacres, and then having given the green light to the Phalangists to enter Sabra and Shatila, the Israeli army prevented people from fleeing the camps — all of this is absent in Waltz with Bashir.

In my eyes, a documentary is ideally a blend of investigative and accurate journalism mixed in with multimedia, be it using a camera to capture real life footage or, as in this case, using animation to record these events.

The aim of journalism, as many people believe, is to search for the truth. Some may believe that there is an objective truth to everything, others may believe that finding the objective truth is an impossible task. Personally, I agree with the latter, since the prejudices that crawl within our sub conscious constantly will tend to twist our perceptions, and these perceptions can be further twisted by our memories as time passes. But there is no reason for you to take on my view, and there is very good reason for you to go away, research and make your own judgements.

The above comment from Electronic Intifada makes one thing clear. When it comes to reporting the Lebanon War, Waltz with Bashir fails to mention many crucial events that even the most prejudiced of people cannot miss. But one has to keep in mind that the object of truth for Waltz with Bashir was not who the victims of the war were and what happened, but rather, it was why Ari (the protagonist), forgot everything about the war and in particular the massacre which he witnessed (and was an accessory to). The answer, of course, emerges and that is because he associated himself with the complacent Nazi guards in the concentration camps (as one theory goes) and the shock made his mind block this memory. Even at the very end of the movie, it is projected that the worst that the soldiers did was kill a few civilians by accident and unsuccessfully try to stop the massacre by contacting their higher ups. Nothing is mentioned about heavy shelling or preventing people from escaping during the massacre, but it is a fact of history.

Now I want to ask. Since the very act of simply firing flares to light the way for murderers during the massacre caused Ari to go into shock and completely forget everything, how do you think he will react to talking about how they had to prevent victims from escaping the horrific event? The entire a film is a product of his own perceptions and an interesting one at that. If the Israeli government, and even most of the Israeli people, refuse to take responsibility for events such as The Nakba which happened even before that, or if they do not dare but talk of the Lavon Affair in hushed voices, what do you expect?

I will make it no secret that my mother, and her side of the family, unfortunately witnessed and experienced this horrific war too. Their perceptions are radically different to Ari’s because they were in a different position. They and their fellow refugees have experienced injustices that outweigh the traumas that Ari and his friends suffered in the war, far outweigh them. That is why, if the object of truth was indeed the War itself and the injustices therein then it is essential to include the views and perceptions of the oppressed. However, for this particular film this was not that case.

I have arrived at the conclusion, that as a Palestinian who is aware of the other parts of history behind the Lebanon war, that I ought not to merely complain about this film’s inaccuracies, but realize that it is an insight into the mind of an Israeli soldier. Not only do they see as as faceless and nameless rabble, but they also see themselves as morally superior at every turn of event, finding difficulty in taking responsibility for any action they may commit. So let us go to them, let us let them know that of the 6+ million Palestinians scattered throughout Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the rest of the world, we are not faceless and we are not morally inferior.

The anti-Semitic card is being played once more

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=268141

“What people of conscience need to know about Norway” reads the heading of an article by Michael Sharnoff in the Jerusalem Post. And as I read his informed testimony, I couldn’t believe my eyes…let us begin shall we?

“Casual observers of the Middle East are no doubt aware of the deeply anti-Semitic and anti- Zionist attitudes in the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. These groups make little attempt to conceal their desire for a world without Israel”

The usual “Israel is small and constantly threatened by its big Arab neighbours” argument. Take the time to look at these for a minute:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/middleeast/06palestinians.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/24/136403918/hamas-foreign-minister-we-accept-two-state-solution-with-67-borders

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2012/04/2012413151613293582.html

“However, many in its government, and some large businesses, have recently displayed a pattern of strong anti-Israel and often anti-Semitic attitudes which would make Islamist radicals very proud.”

There it is, there is the first of it, but please, let us carry on.

“Why would a very tolerant, progressive and democratic government espouse such prejudicial views?”

Sorry mister Sharnoff, but a view is only prejudicial if it is purely assumed with no evidence to back it up. Evidence such as the military occupation of the West Bank, the building of Settlements which house extremists, the checkpoints, the Wall, the eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and its occupation also. The fact that military court law is used in the West Bank while civil court law is used in Israel…culminating in the impossibility of building a Palestinian state in the first place.

“They [the Norwegian leaders] typically avoid specifically targeting Jews, for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic, but their actions nonetheless exhibit traits of “genteel anti-Semitism.”

Genteel anti-Semitism you say? The anti-Semitic card is evolving. So despite the fact that they don’t target Jews and they say it, you still claim that they are in a “secret” or “genteel” way. No offence, but this sounds like some neurotic paranoia here…but let us give this journalist some rope.

“Oslo may have distanced itself from Halvorsen’s controversial remarks, but it has refused to follow the United States and European Union’s classification of Hamas as a designated terrorist organization.
“We condemn organizations that are involved in terrorism,””

Excuse me, but how does that make it anti-Semitic again? It is not denying the fact that Hamas carries our terrorist activities and it condemns those activities. Just because it doesn’t do as the E.U and the U.S.A does, that is shutting its ears and saying “lalalalala” like an insolent child, doesn’t make it wrong. It makes it pragmatic.

“Støre has also insisted that Israel dismantle its security wall built in response to the wave of suicide bombings from the West Bank.”

Yes, you are absolutely right. Norwegian leaders have a secret agenda to send out radical suicide bombers into Israel, that sounds rational, and I am sure you know what rational means because you have used it in the article many times. No, I’m just joking. I just wonder why you didn’t say where the wall was built, well that is because it is in Palestinian territory, snaking this way and that, choking Bethlehem and cutting off farmland from its farmers. Also, read this article.

“A 2010 report from NGO Monitor which provides information on organizations claiming to advance human rights revealed that Oslo provides tens of millions of kroner annually to West Bank and Gaza NGOs. Some of these organizations are blatantly anti-Israel and promote anti- Israel boycotts.”

Name some of these organizations for me. And what is wrong with boycotting Israeli goods in protest of their policies? You know, the policies that I mentioned earlier in case you forgot.

“The Norwegian People’s Aid, funded by the Foreign Ministry, described Israel as “apartheid” and accused it of “war crimes.”

If you think that Norwegian organizations are the only ones saying this you are in for a nasty surprise.

“The most recent example of Norway’s genteel anti- Semitism was exemplified by Roar Arnstad, CEO of a Norwegian pharmaceutical chain called VITA, with his decision to boycott Ahava cosmetics manufactured in West Bank settlements.”

“Genteel”, there it is again. Tell me what is wrong with boycotting enclaves full of nationalist religious zealots who torch farms, form their own road blocks, drive people from water springs and so on and so forth…

“Arnstad denies holding anti-Semitic beliefs and claims his policy is only against the Israeli occupation, but if this was indeed sincere, he would apply the same boycott to other occupying nations.”

Can you give me examples of other occupying nations that they deal with. I love how Mr. Sharnoff doesn’t actually deny that Israel is an occupying nation. Because I guess the best thing you can do after your crimes are staring you in the face, is point to other nations and say “they are worse than us!”.

“Singling out Israel is anti-Semitism and this demonstrable fact cannot absolve the Norwegian government of its own bigotry.”

The bright and informed journalist seems to think every Jew in the world is Israeli or in an Israeli university. You know what anti-Semitism is? It is a policy aimed at all the Jews around the world. Israeli Jews are not the only Jews in the world, Mr. Sharnoff.

“So tell us, do you boycott cultural and academic events in Britain (occupier of the Falkland Islands), China (occupier of Tibet), Russia (occupier of the Kuril Islands), Iran (occupier of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa Islands), Morocco (occupier of Western Sahara), Armenia (occupier of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Turkey (occupier of Northern Cyprus)? Do you ban imports from these countries? Moreover, do you criticize suicide bombings and rocket attacks against civilians with the same fervor with which you criticize Israeli policies? For many, regarding Norwegian policies – enough is enough. If Vidkun Quisling was alive today and read the anti-Israel an anti-Semitic statements that were coming out of Norway, a big smile would appear on his face.”

I love how he now expresses sudden concerns for all of these mentioned territories. Maybe if they got more media attention and pressure by activists then these will change. You know, like the activists who are in Palestinian villages getting beaten, arrested and sent to prison without trial. Maybe we should make these other issues mainstream if we can. Also, yet again you didn’t deny Israel was an occupying force itself. All that is left, after your moral collapse, is to point fingers. Meanwhile you can talk about the close friendship Israel had with Apartheid South Africa too, that was a concerning historical friendship.

“The writer completed a PhD in Middle East Studies from King’s College, London.” – This translates to “he sounds nuts, but believe him anyway”.