[Imc-uk-features] Choice under pressure: Reflection vs Censorship

[andi]

hi ftp,

very wordy stuff.

are you sure you're onsite with the spirit of the editorial guidelines? 
i don't think you are.

cheers andi


Quoting freethepeeps at aktivix.org:

> A few years ago, Gilad Atzmon wrote an article about the demonisation of
> Israel
> Shamir (1). I met  Shamir in a village outside Nablus, when he came to
> interview a family whose house was under threat of demolition, because their
> son, who by all accounts had a learning disability, had attempted a suicide
> bomb. He got to his target, because he was employed in building the settler
> road that passed the back of the house. I had quite a long chat with Israel,
> and I was impressed by his passion for justice. This was before his
> banishment
> from the Palestinian solidarity movement by a group whose behaviour Atzmon
> claimed amounted to  "modern Jewish secular intolerance." He described the
> process:
> 
> "The liberal Zionist cell, as we are going to read, cannot really take it.
> They
> demand the cleansing of Shamir. They insist upon ruining his intellectual
> career or at the very least, his reputation. They would use any possible
> manipulative strategy to have him thrown out of DYR, which is the first step
> towards sending him beyond the pale."
> 
> He asserted that  his readers that the episode was  "a glimpse into the
> abusive,
> assertive and violent world of Zionist lobbying."
> 
> I received a private email today. This is the text:
> 
> "As a hitherto supporter of Indymedia I am writing in total support of Tony
> Greenstein's attribution of anti-Semitism
> Some political positions are so clear that they require no reflection to
> asceratain their meaning. Nazism is one such position. What you have
> published
> is another. To talk of "Judaic world view" (ie attributing to all Jews the
> same
> view - the conspiracy theory) and refering to the "unpopularity" of Jews in
> Nazified Europe (a form of holocaust minimisation which virtually coincides
> with denial) as well as "their holocaust"( the holocaust was perpetrated ON
> Jews - and others. The perpetrators were the Nazis)...all this is
> clear,unarguable anti-Semitism. Just as "kill the Yids" is
> clear,unarguable,anti-Semitism. But yet you claim a) it is open to
> interpretation b) even if it were anti-Semitic you need a "consensus" as to
> what to do if anything - a somewhat unique position on fighting racism c) in
> the meantime you feel quite prepared to print this junk (which incidenetally
> in
> identifying anti-Semitism with Palestinian liberation puts you in antagonism
> to
> all progressive Palestinian thought). Of course you can continue to use your
> energy going down this obnoxious path. Or else you can print an apology.
> steve
> cohen"
> 
> It was the first email to arrive after Tony Greenstein's call to several
> email
> lists to write to us.
> 
> The last time that happened to me was when I was on a list for 'alternative
> Christmas Carols', when a group of us sang carols with words updated to
> reflect
> the current situation in Palestine. Someone got hold of the list and sent it
> to
> a Hasbabrah warrior in the States. She put a call out for people to write to
> us, and within a short space of time my inbox was deluged with some of the
> most
> rancid and racist struff I have seen.
> 
> The tactics feel exactly the same. The fact that I've only had one so far
> may
> suggest that Greenstein et al have a lot less support than their zionist
> counterparts.
> 
> And now the same group that went for Shamir are gunning for Atzmon. They are
> demanding that we kick him out. We're a minor site(for them), so we've had
> to
> wait our turn. They've held a picket outside Bookmarks to protest against
> Gilad
> (where apparently he came out and played a socialist anthem on the sax),
> lobbied to have him barred from Scottish PSC and the SWP. Attacks and
> counter
> attacks have ranged across the net, taking in the Guardian, Counterpunch and
> AMIN along the way. To date they have been unsuccesful. It worries the shit
> out
> of me that Indymedia might just give them their first taste of blood in this
> new kill.
> 
> AMIN by the way is the Arabic Media Internet Network, and one of the group,
> Deborah Maccoby wrote(2) there in January, 2007 that:
> 
> "No doubt Atzmon will present this article as yet another vicious
> "defamation"
> of him by a "Jewish Gatekeeper". He will claim I and other practitioners of
> "Jewish Power" - ie the Jewish world conspiracy – are trying to
> silence
> him and his allies.  But we're not trying to silence them; we simply want to
> reply to their attacks and defend ourselves.  Our very efforts to defend
> ourselves become, in their twisted and deluded thinking, proof of our
> sinister
> "Jewish Power".  I will end by asking readers of both articles to decide who
> is
> doing the defaming, and I appeal to Palestinians and their supporters to
> resist
> this attempt to divide and undermine the Palestinian solidarity movement
> from
> within."
> 
> Well, now a choice is being demanded of us. Now there is no pretension of
> debate
> and self-defence, and according to Steve Cohen's email, Atmon's writings  "
> require no reflection to asceratain their meaning." Greenstein is right.
> 
> Greenstein  is clear however, that if the claim is ever levelled against
> him,
> we
> should "reflect to ascertain the meaning", because  the anti-semitism term
> is
> often abused in order to defame opponents.
> 
> He castigates Atzmon for not backing the boycott. And it wasn't long ago
> that
> we
> had Indymedia's resident zionist, gehrig calling us anti-semitic because we
> carried articles supporting the boycott. The boycott according to gehrig is
> anti-semitic because it affects Jews disproportionally. Not Israelis mind,
> Jews.
> 
> If we boycott Zimbabwe, is it discriminatory because it disproportionally
> affects the largest ethnic group? Once again Israel is Jewish when it wants
> to
> be, and not when it doesn't feel like it. Now they are actually debating
> only
> giving citizenship to Jews who support the state. But hey I've seen several
> activists who happen to be Jewish deported from Israel and barred from
> returning, so I'm not that surprised really.Those who oppose the state are
> not
> "proper Jews". Thats what a group of Betar activists told a pro-Palestinian
> activist of Jewish origin outside Marks and Spencer in Manchester a few
> years
> ago. They jumped up and down in a huddle chanting it at him. When the cops
> got
> closer the chant changed to "We want peace!". 
> 
> Whilst Greenstein has certainly pulled out all the stops in his last email,
> I
> don't think that his argument in support of his viewpoint is any more
> persuasive than the arguments that gehrig puts up. That gehrig would in fact
> put up against Greenstein for supporting a boycott that disproportionally
> affects Jews. All of them appear to be highly honed in proving that every
> point
> of view that they do not agree with is racist against them.
> 
> Its no wonder that its so difficult to sort it out. When it involves
> Palestine,
> this is what you know to expect. Its impossible to meet all their demands,
> they're contradictory and each protagonist is 100% certain that their way is
> the only way. Debate is impossible in such rigidly controlled and
> threatening
> circumstances.
> 
> Atzmons reaction to it all appears to rail against it - to fight against the
> restrictions, to push the boundaries, to stick his tongue out and go
> BLAHBLAHBLAH at the censors, at those who push us into pens and control
> every
> aspect of our deep concern for the nightmarish situation in which the
> Palestinains live and die every day. To paraphrase a recent comment on a
> Fitwatch demo noted: "The woman in black was gagging to be arrested. Theres
> always one at every demo." And if you watch the video, theres no doubt that
> the
> more the cops tried to control her, the more she rails, challenges and gives
> it
> back. Needless to say the end result was predictable, the controllers won.
> She
> was arrested and dragged off, with the cops getting their little pokes in
> when
> she was forced into  the van.
> 
> She'll be back, and so will Gilad. Because they are brimming with anger at
> the
> injustice that so many people live every single day. They care passionately
> about justice. They believe it has to stop.
> 
> I have sleepless nights over all of this, all the time it gets worse and
> worse.
> Whatever we've been doing up until now to support the Palestinians, hasn't
> worked. And theres no way to discuss it, or change strategy, because the
> halls
> are monitored, the guards are on the perimeter all the time, and their guns
> are
> cocked.
> 
> If they do to Gilad the  exact opposite of what they told the readers of
> AMIN
> they intended to do, who will be next? Who is going to read the texts and
> listen to the arguments, and read the articles and check it all out? How
> much
> time is it going to take? How much pain is it going to cause?
> 
> The easy way is to do what we're told without question - to click the button
> they demand , to delete the person they want deleted now. Gilad it seems made
> a
> self fulfilling prophecy when he warned how they treated those who had lost
> their approval.
> 
> I've been reading their stuff endlessly for the last few days. Theres
> mountains
> of the stuff to get through. Greenstein's stuff is turgid and unreadable.
> Most
> of the rest of their stuff is fixated with the issue of anti-semitism. The
> stuff that stimulates and makes me think that there are ways out of the rut,
> tends to be Gilads stuff, even though it takes constant rereadings to get to
> what he trying to say, and the stuff on Mary Rizzo's blog.  
> 
> They've demanded I make a choice, and I have.
> 
> This debate is being monitored on Peace Palestine (3), which Greenstein
> describes as Rizzos "anti-semitic list".
> 
> There she says:
> 
> "This is why it becomes of vital importance for activists first of all to
> ask
> themselves two things: At whose service are we? How effective are we? If we
> are
> turning the light on about the atrocities of Zionism, Colonialism and
> Imperialism, we are of service to those who are VICTIMS of these criminal
> philosophies and the actions that derive from them. In order to turn on the
> light, we have to be able to communicate, to be allowed the liberty to
> declare
> that there is a mindset, a worldview and an ideological position behind all
> of
> these things. This is the analytical element of activism. Things aren't born
> from a vacuum, they have a history, they have some kind of meaning. We have
> to
> be willing to reject the "news" that is often filtered through to us, and we
> have to appeal to the Humanist part of our commitment, and this means a
> certain
> kind of approach. If our primary interest (as activists for justice and
> peace
> in Palestine) is anything but justice for the victims of Zionism, we are not
> of
> service to Palestinians. It couldn't be put any simpler."
> 
> Indymedia has a choice to make.
> 
> Put up or shut up.
> 
> Sadly, I think I know which way its going to go. Its been that kind of year.
> 
> I stand aside from the choice. The collective needs to sort it out. 
> I stand for justice for Palestinians. I stand against bullying.
> 
> ftp
> 
> 
> (1)http://www.gilad.co.uk/html%20files/Londonelders.html
>
(2)http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=7&NrArticle=38731&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3
>
(3)http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2007/11/gatekeepers-lose-another-one-indymedia.html
> 
> 
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