The sick fascist fucks are at it again
Smearing anarchists - Orthodox Anarchist — Exposing The Fallacies of A7's Kahanist Smear Story Against Anarchists
Never before have so many people in one day forwarded me the same article. I must've gotten two-dozen copies of this in my inbox. So, feeling I've been given the charge of sorting things out, here's what I can tell you from my understanding of the situation thus far.
Arutz Sheva (the right-wing Jewish nationalist news service run by unrepentant Arab-hating Kahanists, whose pirate radio station was shut down by the Israeli government and on whose Internet radio station my beloved sister has a heavy metal show) reported this morning:
Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life.
The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.
The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in a provocative and offensive manner in Hevron’s public areas. The Arabs say the activists disrespect the moral norms and standards of the local population.
Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity.
Oh, ho, where to begin?
Number one: The ISM is not even active in Hebron. The only international activist presence there is the Christian Peacemakers Team who function as human shields, defending Palestinian school children from being attacked by settlers. They are also, as far as I know, mostly all well over the age of thirty, and none of them are precisely anarchists: They're Quakers — hardly the kind of folks to engage in lewd and immoral behavior. I know this because I was at their office in Hebron and met with several of them there.
The only anarchists active in that area are Israeli members of Anarchists Against The Wall: Israeli Jews who speak fluent Hebrew and Arabic, not Westerners. They are on occasion joined by Western activists, however these activists follow the cues of the Israeli anarchists who are well versed in Palestinian custom. Further, the Israeli anarchists only operate in areas where they have been invited by Palestinians. As solidarity activists, they do not act of their own initiative but rather negotiate terms of cooperation, acting only when consensus is met.
Number two: Palestinians may, indeed, have grievances with ISM and other Palestinian solidarity activists for their possible promotion of anti-nationalist political views and their likelihood of challenging sexism, homophobia and antisemitism in Palestinian society. However, every ISMer I have ever known (and I've met quite a number) has been excrutiatingly sensitive to Palestinian and Islamic culture, tip-toeing on eggshells trying to tread as lightly as possible. They seek to serve Palestinian interests to the point where they've been accused of helping facilitate terror attacks (which is also fellacious considering ISM is committed to principles of non-violence; though I could see ISMers being taken advantage of for their naivite and eagerness to assist). Take Rachel Corrie, for example, and the famous photo of her covering her hair out of respect for the Palestinians with whom she was active. One day they're willingly covering their hair (which pro-Israel fanatics take as a sign of their romanticization of jihadis), and the next they're having wild sex orgies and getting the kids hooked on drugs? It's a highly dubious allegation.
Number three: Noam Arnon, the Hebron spokesman who was interviewed by Arutz Sheva, is obviously full of it. It is suspected that he did not speak with any Palestinians at all — because it's unlikely that he'd have come within five feet of a Palestinian other than to engage in armed combat — but rather hatched this plot with the assistance of an Israeli agent provocateur (whose name I have been requested to withhold due to impending legal proceedings) to whom he has been directly linked. This provocateur is a Jew of Arab descent, a fluent speaker of Arabic, and one who maintains relations with both the Jewish and Palestinian communities of Hebron. This individual also has a history of instigating, including leading Israeli anti-occupation activists into both Kahanist and Israeli military ambushes. He is about to be served with a suit for libel — specifically for spreading the lie that one Israeli anarchist raped his own friend, and the alleged rapist and "rapee" are in the process of filing joint charges against him. Some believe that this provocateur used the story of this rape to mislead the Palestinians interviewed by Kol HaIr.
I haven't yet seen the Kol HaIr piece, but something does certainly seem fishy about the interviews. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing turns out to be a fabrication.
Number four: Why in God's name would Palestinians take up a grievance they have with the international activist community with Jewish settlers? If the Palestinians have the Left-wing in their back pocket, as is often the stated charge, why wouldn't they just address their eager minions of fresh-faced activists?
Number five: As if there weren't enough sex and drugs in Tel Aviv, anarchists need to go into Palestinian communities to get high and fuck? Oh-puh-leeze. The logic is baffling.
Number six: You'll notice the agenda of the article from its language alone. Palestinians are "PA Arabs" because "there's no such thing as a Palestinian" according to Kahanism and other right-wing philosophies which negate Palestinian identity. Further, the Palestinian territories in the West Bank are referred to as Judea and Samaria which are the ancient biblical names for those lands, which Kahanists and their ilk still see as ostensibly Jewish. The author's seething contempt for Palestinians is apparent, though he has no compunction using alleged Palestinian claims to advance the Kahanist agenda to bar all humanitarian activists from monitoring and counteracting settler activities in the occupied territories. Anyone who would take this article at face value needs to develop a more thorough grounding in media criticism.
More discussion of this topic at Infoshop.
November 23, 2005 Anarchoblogs
Never before have so many people in one day forwarded me the same article. I must've gotten two-dozen copies of this in my inbox. So, feeling I've been given the charge of sorting things out, here's what I can tell you from my understanding of the situation thus far.
Arutz Sheva (the right-wing Jewish nationalist news service run by unrepentant Arab-hating Kahanists, whose pirate radio station was shut down by the Israeli government and on whose Internet radio station my beloved sister has a heavy metal show) reported this morning:
Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life.
The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed.
The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in a provocative and offensive manner in Hevron’s public areas. The Arabs say the activists disrespect the moral norms and standards of the local population.
Several local Arab residents told the Kol Ha’Ir newspaper that the activists have been exposing the local youths to drug use and sexual promiscuity.
Oh, ho, where to begin?
Number one: The ISM is not even active in Hebron. The only international activist presence there is the Christian Peacemakers Team who function as human shields, defending Palestinian school children from being attacked by settlers. They are also, as far as I know, mostly all well over the age of thirty, and none of them are precisely anarchists: They're Quakers — hardly the kind of folks to engage in lewd and immoral behavior. I know this because I was at their office in Hebron and met with several of them there.
The only anarchists active in that area are Israeli members of Anarchists Against The Wall: Israeli Jews who speak fluent Hebrew and Arabic, not Westerners. They are on occasion joined by Western activists, however these activists follow the cues of the Israeli anarchists who are well versed in Palestinian custom. Further, the Israeli anarchists only operate in areas where they have been invited by Palestinians. As solidarity activists, they do not act of their own initiative but rather negotiate terms of cooperation, acting only when consensus is met.
Number two: Palestinians may, indeed, have grievances with ISM and other Palestinian solidarity activists for their possible promotion of anti-nationalist political views and their likelihood of challenging sexism, homophobia and antisemitism in Palestinian society. However, every ISMer I have ever known (and I've met quite a number) has been excrutiatingly sensitive to Palestinian and Islamic culture, tip-toeing on eggshells trying to tread as lightly as possible. They seek to serve Palestinian interests to the point where they've been accused of helping facilitate terror attacks (which is also fellacious considering ISM is committed to principles of non-violence; though I could see ISMers being taken advantage of for their naivite and eagerness to assist). Take Rachel Corrie, for example, and the famous photo of her covering her hair out of respect for the Palestinians with whom she was active. One day they're willingly covering their hair (which pro-Israel fanatics take as a sign of their romanticization of jihadis), and the next they're having wild sex orgies and getting the kids hooked on drugs? It's a highly dubious allegation.
Number three: Noam Arnon, the Hebron spokesman who was interviewed by Arutz Sheva, is obviously full of it. It is suspected that he did not speak with any Palestinians at all — because it's unlikely that he'd have come within five feet of a Palestinian other than to engage in armed combat — but rather hatched this plot with the assistance of an Israeli agent provocateur (whose name I have been requested to withhold due to impending legal proceedings) to whom he has been directly linked. This provocateur is a Jew of Arab descent, a fluent speaker of Arabic, and one who maintains relations with both the Jewish and Palestinian communities of Hebron. This individual also has a history of instigating, including leading Israeli anti-occupation activists into both Kahanist and Israeli military ambushes. He is about to be served with a suit for libel — specifically for spreading the lie that one Israeli anarchist raped his own friend, and the alleged rapist and "rapee" are in the process of filing joint charges against him. Some believe that this provocateur used the story of this rape to mislead the Palestinians interviewed by Kol HaIr.
I haven't yet seen the Kol HaIr piece, but something does certainly seem fishy about the interviews. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing turns out to be a fabrication.
Number four: Why in God's name would Palestinians take up a grievance they have with the international activist community with Jewish settlers? If the Palestinians have the Left-wing in their back pocket, as is often the stated charge, why wouldn't they just address their eager minions of fresh-faced activists?
Number five: As if there weren't enough sex and drugs in Tel Aviv, anarchists need to go into Palestinian communities to get high and fuck? Oh-puh-leeze. The logic is baffling.
Number six: You'll notice the agenda of the article from its language alone. Palestinians are "PA Arabs" because "there's no such thing as a Palestinian" according to Kahanism and other right-wing philosophies which negate Palestinian identity. Further, the Palestinian territories in the West Bank are referred to as Judea and Samaria which are the ancient biblical names for those lands, which Kahanists and their ilk still see as ostensibly Jewish. The author's seething contempt for Palestinians is apparent, though he has no compunction using alleged Palestinian claims to advance the Kahanist agenda to bar all humanitarian activists from monitoring and counteracting settler activities in the occupied territories. Anyone who would take this article at face value needs to develop a more thorough grounding in media criticism.
More discussion of this topic at Infoshop.
November 23, 2005 Anarchoblogs
posted by professor rat at 4:25 AM
<< Home