Predicated on an antisemitic fallacy that Jewish people can only be safe in a Jewish state and that Jews bring antisemitism with them, Herzl’s political zionism was intrinsically bigoted. Jews should be able to be safe anywhere – there is no place for racism or bigotry of any kind within social systems which respect universal human rights and justice.
Jewish ‘security’ in Israel is mounted on two-tiered formally legislated privilege for Jews and dispossession of non-Jews, beginning with the fact that only Jews are nationals of Israel, while all are citizens.
So political zionism turns out not to be like ‘ANY nationalism’. In democracies, nationality is not determined by religion or ethnicity. Not so in Israel where more than 30 laws discriminate against non-Jews. Racist division and class envy are useful to elites, who then redirect challenges to their ruling hegemony toward chosen scapegoats. Palestinians, their supporters, and most visibly, the demonised spectre of Hamas, serve as zionist hegemony’s scapegoats.
The July 14 movement is protesting the practices of a state which imposes legal constraints circumscribing zionist elite privilege, challenging oppressive neoliberal structures directly on the issue of unequal access to housing, an issue adversely affecting a large majority, save the elite, across many divides within the imaginary Israeli borders. This movement is organic, seems to be inclusive and coopting of common cause, heading in the right direction toward equal rights for all, challenging the internal class divide. There is understandable concern that Palestinians who have located themselves within the protest movement are being used to further zionist privilege whilst the urgent, grievous lack of Palestinian rights is neglected for political expediency and a tactic of uniting the polity (not including Palestinians in the OPT) against the state.
The protest has support of 85% of the Israeli populace – if it maintains momentum, there’s potential for the racist state and its exclusivist zionist ideology to be irrevocably transformed by the process as its polity – its complete citizenry – transforms through direct action and interaction. Palestinians have erected tents to highlight their issues and spoken to demonstrations. Yet to expect uncritical solidarity for a movement which marginalises the most severe injustices perpetrated by the zionist regime as a tactical move by excluding them from the main agenda is petulant. Social justice movements worthy of the name aim for justice for all, not ‘just us’ and seek allies who are solidly grounded in human rights and social justice, not drive them away or expect them to drop their long-held principles – that is a form of colonisation, the prerogative of the Occupier.
Those who are annoyed that some folks aren’t rushing to acclaim the J14 protests unequivocally might consider the reaction in Australia if Aboriginals and their supporters were told to back a cause for affordable housing prices across Australia where specific Aboriginal housing concerns and dis-advantage were kept off the main agenda in order not to alienate wide support.
@AboriginalOz lol, the condition of participation for Aboriginal ppl is to exclude the possibility of meeting the needs of Aboriginal ppl? ummm #
UPDATE RT @Budouroddick @davidsheen Since list of demands drops all references to aiding non-Jewish groups who suffer worst from housing crisis, #j14 is now officially #jew14 #
‘The initial list of demands J14 released included two items specifically about Arab citizens – blanket recognition for unrecognized Bedouin towns and the expansion of municipal borders for Arab towns to accommodate natural growth, Dimi reported. But a separate document prepared by a different grassroots group has no special demands related to Arabs – rumor has it that these might be adopted by the Student Union, although it’s not clear. In a press conference last week, Daphni Leef – the symbolic leader of the original housing protesters – presented a short list described as the most urgent priorities, which had no such demands.’
Ian Curr at the Workers Bush Telegraph reports on the protest at South Bank against Israeli company Max Brenner’s support of apartheid and occupation.
Ironically, the BDS protest was opposed by a strident group of “Zionists, people mobilised by Max Brenner and University of Qld Liberal club … heavily supported by the Australian Patriotic Defence Movement (APDM), a fascist organistion here in Australia”.
With no irony they shouted slurs like ‘racists’ ‘anti-semites'(curious because some of us are semites) and ‘traitors'(to what, the Israeli flag they carried?). Some held up placards of the Australian Flag.
..The cops used water barricades to separate us from the abusive mob. Our speakers could not be heard above the din as the slanging match began. No reasoned debate was possible. The mob held up ‘Never Again’ placards, taking the holocaust slogan in vain. How could Jewish people stand alongside Nazis from the APDM to shout us down is beyond me. Our message was never about race or religion, it was about democratic rights for Palestinian people indicated in the three demands of the BDS movement …
Ian says that ‘This was the first time in 30 years that a demonstration I have been in had been attacked by the organised right.’ The opposition of the white supremacist far right against the anti-racist, pro-human rights BDS solidarity for Palestinians which includes amongst its supporters many Jewish people is unsurprising. White supremacists either hate Arabs only slightly more than they hate Jews, or hate Jews only slightly more than they hate Arabs. White supremacists are opportunistic with their allegiances, gravitating to support other intrinsically fascist movements – like political zionism, which erroneously claims to represent the aspirations for ‘security’ of all Jews by the false premise and maintenance of a racist religio-ethnic state built on the dispossession, subjugation and de-privileging of Palestinian people. Like other groups, Jews should be able to live safely anywhere, without compromising the collective and individual human rights of others.
On a very positive note, and as highlighted in the video below:
‘… the Qld Teachers Union QTU had just passed a motion in support of the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions BDS campaign. Inside the Convention Centre next door the teachers had voted to continue to support the BDS.’
The next Brisbane Justice for Palestine meeting will be held on 14th September at 6.30pm at the TLC building.
The good news is that there is no call to march on Jewish-owned businesses by any group of people. But also worth knowing is that if indeed Jewish businesses were ever targeted by any group I would not be surprised to find the same human rights advocates who are marching against Israel today standing to defend the Jewish community’s right to live free of racism and intolerance. These are the values held by the BDS movement: non- violence, equality, justice for all and zero tolerance for all forms of racism and discrimination. But you would never know that, if your primary source of information is The Australian newspaper.
Why does the ALP continue to resist BDS? supporting BDS is consistent with opposition to South African apartheid! The Australian continues its disgraceful divide and conquer attack on BDS support from Australian unions – the zio-imperialists continue to illustrate their fear of the strength of ethical BDS.
For decades the mantra of a Palestinian state side by side with the state of Israel has been the only solution given any credence. But now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going all out to prevent it, while a long-time supporter in Australia is deciding between a ”no” vote in the UN or abstaining.
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The arguments for and against statehood are many. There is a sense of foreboding in many Palestinians and supporters who see the statehood bid as only further entrenching Israel’s occupation, with no prospect of an intransigent Israel abiding by international law.
Negotiations are, in fact, a ruse to keep the old discredited paradigm of a two-state solution going for as long as it takes Netanyahu to achieve his goal of a Greater Israel.
More than the statehood bid, what threatens the Greater Israel dream is the fast-growing global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Modelled on the movement that helped bring down apartheid South Africa, BDS is adding to the tremors being felt in the power structures that have enabled Israel to wreak such havoc at home and in the region.
For peace and a just solution, it is time to hold Israel to account.
‘In addition, 3 workers went missing when Israeli warplanes bombarded a tunnel in Rafah. A Palestinian resistance fighter died of a previous wound in Gaza City.
14 Palestinians, including 5 children and two women, were wounded by Israeli forces the Gaza Strip.’
Following anti-Democratic Arrests and Intimidation Attempts: Israeli Citizens in Solidarity with Australian BDS Activists!
We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, would like to express our solidarity with the numerous Australians who are involved in the burgeoning BDS campaign in Australia.
Witnessing first-hand the brutality of our government against the Palestinian people, we have joined the July 2005 Palestinian call for a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel and its institutions. Such means should be applied as long as Israel continues to flout international law and UN resolutions and refuses to acknowledge the Palestinian people’s universally recognized human rights: The rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, and the rights of Palestinians who were expelled from their homes during the Nakba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine).
As Israeli citizens, we are angered by the outrageous attempts to exploit the horrors committed by the Nazi regime, through a comparison of the Palestinian led BDS campaign to the 1933 Nazi boycott campaign, in order to try and silence the Palestinian non-violent popular struggle for freedom and justice. The deplorable and racist Nazi boycott campaign targeted all Jews, without exception, and only for being Jewish. The Australian BDS campaign does NOT target Jewish businesses, as argued by demagogues in Australia! The lesson from the Jewish holocaust should be, in our view, the need to oppose all forms of discrimination and violence committed against different ethnic groups in the name of nationalist or supremacist ideologies. The state of Israel has failed to learn that lesson.
To reiterate, we are concerned that some politicians in Australia have accused the activists involved in BDS of being anti-Semitic. We reject those accusations. The BDS campaign is a legitimate form of non-violent political action, whereby people and organizations are required not to participate in or support violations of international law. We take a clear stand against all forms of racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Not only does the BDS campaign oppose anti-Semitism, it is also a responsible call that targets only complicit institutions rather than individuals. BDS is neither anti-Jewish nor anti-Israeli, since it does not oppose all that is Israeli because it is Israeli: the campaign simply insists that Israel abide by its obligations under international law. Furthermore, by attempting to lump together all Jews around the world as a monolithic block that is expected to support its criminal policies, the state of Israel is denying the fact that many Jews, including in Israel, oppose the occupation and apartheid policies inflicted on the Palestinian people.
The current debate within Israeli society shows us that the boycott campaign is extremely effective. The latest attempt by the Israeli government to silence its own citizens, the new anti-boycott legislation, in addition to other explicitly racist laws, is yet another indication of the need for this Palestinian-led non-violent global movement, in order to insure the rights of all people in this region.
The recent Australian BDS actions have been a great inspiration. We are encouraged to know that as far-away as Down Under there are individuals and groups active in the BDS campaign, promoting the Palestinian people’s unassailable rights. The BDS movement needs your help and support. We call upon all Australians to join and support the struggle for freedom and equality in Palestine.
With the deepest gratitude and all our support,
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
On Friday four people were injured and four arrested, as Israeli troops attacked anti-wall protests organized in a number of West Bank communities. Protests took place in the central West Bank villages of an-Nabi Saleh, Bil’in, and Nil’in in addition to al-Ma’ssara in the southern West Bank.
Three women, two local and one international, were injured and a journalist and three activists were arrested as Israeli troops attacked the anti-wall and anti-settlement protest in the village of an-Nabi Saleh. Villagers and their Israeli and international supporters marched to local farm lands Israel had taken to build a new settlement.
Troops attacked protesters with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Then soldiers forced people back into the village and fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at journalists and medics. The three injured women sustained moderate wounds as soldiers beat them up. The arrested journalist was identified as Moheeb al-Barghouthi who works for al-Ayam newspaper.
In the nearby village Bil’in, soldiers fired tear gas at the weekly protest there as internationals and Israeli supporters joined the villagers after midday prayers. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. Joining the protest today were a group of supporters from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland, who had reached Palestine by bicycles covering a distance of 7 thousand kilometers from London, to advocate and support the Palestinian popular resistance movements.
Also on Friday in the central West Bank, Israeli troops attacked the weekly anti-wall protest in the village of Nil’in, villagers were joined by Israeli and international supporters after the midday prayers and marched up to the wall. Troops fired tear gas at protesters causing many to suffer from tear gas inhalation.
In southern West Bank, one local organizer was injured, and many treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as troops attacked the anti-wall protest organized in al-Ma’sara village near Bethlehem. Soldiers attacked protesters as they tried to reach land owned by local farmers Israel confiscated to build the wall. Mohamed Brijiyah, 35, a local organizer, sustained moderate wounds when soldiers beat him up.
Ankara strongly condemned Israel for approving the building of new homes in West Bank settlements a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said.
The comments were in response to the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction’s publishing of tenders for 336 housing units in West Bank settlements last week.
“Israel’s illegal actions on the lands it has invaded are unacceptable,” the statement said. “This decision will deepen the suspicions of Israel’s sincerity in pushing the peace process forward. We stress that we don’t recognize the illegal steps Israel is taking, challenging international law,” the Turkish ministry statement said.
According to the tender, 294 new homes will be built in Beitar Illit settlement outside of Jerusalem and 42 units in Karnei Shomron in Samaria near Kfar Saba.
In April the Defense Ministry approved the construction of the homes in Beitar Illit.
Both West Bank settlements are located within the settlement blocs Israel believes will be included in its permanent borders once a final status agreement with the Palestinians is achieved.
While the specific content of the traditionalist beliefs and mores cherry-picked and melded into ‘new’ mythology is of lesser import, that the terrorist Breivik is racist, nationalist and rightwing is significant, orienting the political compass. In common with other proponents of fascism, Breivik syncretises disparate, contradictory elements – of the Crusades and Knights Templar, Freemasonry and modern expositions of conservative and reactionary thought – to mythologise a glorious ‘pure’ past. Fascism is better defined by its rightwing nature, its hatreds, ultraracism and ultranationalism, than the myths it recycles and from which its bankrupt political ‘philosophy’ is derived. The perpetual struggle is against perceived impediments – in Breivik’s pseudo-philosophy these are scapegoated Muslims, communists who tolerate them, feminists and the politically correct – if these results and proponents of multiculturalism can be removed or dealt with, the re-mythologised past can be transmuted into a glorious future. Did Breivik consciously attempt to resolve the contradiction between eternal warfare against the ‘Other’ and the achievement of a golden age described by Eco, by setting out specific tasks to be accomplished by certain times?
Whether harvesting from Christianity or Wobblythumpianism, fascists merge core cultural, political and religious themes into dissonant reactionary mythologies to galvanise an irrational political ideology tailored for the target society, forging Blut und Boden ultranationalism with selective populism in order to promote a militarist drive for power.
Other notable commonalities within existing and historic fascist ideologies and the Breivik dogma include newspeak – the epithet of his movement ‘cultural conservatives’, its ‘cultural marxist‘ enemies and ‘Eurabia’ are striking examples; the ends justifies the means, contempt for the weak, attack of intellectuals, communists and leftists; anti-capitalist and anti-democratic goals; social darwinism, sexual machismo; a cult of heroism, strength, unity and purity; militarism and violence; rejection of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism; xenophobia, ultra-racism, antisemitism, bigotry and prejudice; censorship of opposing ideas, disagreement is treason, strategic victimhood and sense of besiegement.
Although Breivik executed a spectacle which may reduce pressure for a time and is disowned publicly by those who similarly espouse extreme rightwing views (with the exception of the monstrous Glenn Beck, who likened Breivik’s victims to ‘Hitler youth’), Breivik’s essential nationalist, Islamophobic doctrine remains as yet unrepudiated and unexamined critically by these fellow travellers.
One of the features of racism is that its sufferers are oblivious to its symptoms. Yet, racism doesn’t grow in a vacuum. Breivik’s acts and doctrine cannot be separated from the substrate in which it arose in the specific contexts of permissiveness of racism and violence, fuelled by frustration with the hegemony of the ruling class, alienation, and major political events like 9/11 and leaders’ counter-productive, inflammatory reactions to them. While Breivik sees multiculturalism and its leftwing protectors as his primary obstructions, the destructive activities of the transnational ruling class which benefits from and promotes racist, nationalist division is obscured.
There is a larger organism with which Breivik is connected – from neofascist and islamophobic organisations, to fascist Israel, to the white supremacist, uncritical media and people who assumed myopically that the appalling carnage plotted and executed by Breivik couldn’t have been committed by a ‘white’ person, a rightwinger or in a ‘white’ culture. This political terrorist may not be defined as ‘mad’ (to diagnose and disparage is unwise as mentally ill people are no more violent than other community members) or adher to any one isolated belief system than his own concocted dissonance, yet be ‘possessed’ of a dangerous, familiar ideology which has taken root symbiotically in several polities, a toxic phenomenon to be cauterised, else there will be more spectacles, with successive liftings of the bar. The Norwegian Prime Minister has demonstrated deep wisdom in declaring that Norway’s response will be more democracy and respect, not more security and fear.
May kindness, universal human rights, reason and democracy, prevail over brutish dogma.
The killer has evidently absorbed the far right’s shift from the language of race to the language of culture. But what is most striking is how closely he mirrors the ideas and fixations of transatlantic conservatives who for a decade have been the meat and drink of champions of the war on terror and the claim that Islam and Islamism pose a mortal threat to Western civilisation.
Only months before he went on his murderous killing spree he exchanged several messages with EDL supporters using his internet pseudonym Sigurd Jorsalfare, the name of the 12th century King of Norway who led one of the Crusades.
One staple of post-9/11 discourse has been the consistent demand that all Muslims everywhere not only condemn terrorism — which almost all invariably do, if for no other reason than that they have been its chief victims — but also that Muslims denounce Muslim hate-mongers, the “enablers” of terrorism.
Yet here we are witnessing a furious attempt by Islamophobic politicians and pundits, as well as their apologists, to decouple themselves from Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist.
This despite the fact that Breivik himself repeatedly cites some of the leading European and American anti-Muslim crusaders to rationalize his anti-Muslim jihad. They, of course, do not advocate violence, while he is a mass murderer. The distinction is clear enough. But they influenced him and shaped his world view. His exaggerated sense of the danger posed by Islam, Muslims and multiculturalism is about the same as theirs.
Breivik said in his 1500-page manifesto that he attended the founding meeting of the Knights Templar Europe “military order” in London in 2002 where he met a “mentor” who used the pseudonym Richard – after Richard the Lionheart.
Paul Ray, who writes a blog under the name Lionheart, says he belongs to an anti Muslim group called The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights but denies ever meeting Breivik and says he was horrified by the mass killings in Norway on Friday. In a telephone interview with Associated Press, Ray said he was not at the 2002 London meeting that Breivik described in his manifesto.
“I’d like to express my deepest sympathy to the people of Norway and to the families who have lost children,” Ray said. “It’s a horrendous crime that has been committed by someone what goes beyond the realm of human understanding.”
Ray, who now lives in Malta, refused to say how many members were in his group but said he had had no contact with Breivik and had not heard of him before Friday’s attacks.
“It’s an idea,” he said of The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights. “It’s not like it’s a massive organization. It’s a belief.”
Ray, who was involved with the far right English Defence League before falling out with the leadership, said it appeared Breivik had drawn inspiration from some of his ideas and writings.
“It’s really pointing at us. All these things he’s been talking about are linked to us,” he said. “It’s like he’s created this whole thing around us.”
says the main ideological drivers for lone terrorists are white supremacy, Islamism, nationalism/separatism and anti-abortionism. …
Indeed, right-wing views are increasingly becoming political mainstream in Europe, and even moderate politicians have been moving to the Right and away from multiculturalism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain have all recently declared an end to multiculturalism.
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Norway does not exist in a vacuum. Its right-wing scene is connected to the rest of Europe through internet forums, where hate-speech proliferates, and participation in right-wing demonstrations throughout Europe.
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The Norway attacks are a reminder for Australians of the need to monitor individuals with extreme right-wing views. They should not be allowed to join gun clubs, own guns or be able to buy quantities of explosive precursors.
“I can tell you, at this moment in time, we don’t have evidence or we don’t have indications that he has been part of a broader movement or that he has been in connection with other cells or that there are other cells,” said Ms Kristiansen, who heads the Norwegian Police Security Service.
She said she did not think Mr Breivik was insane, as his lawyer has suggested.
Instead, she described him as calculating and evil, and someone who sought the limelight.
Breivik is no loner. His violence was brewed in a specific European environment that shares characteristics with the specific American environment of Loughner: relative economic decline, a jobless recovery, middle-class anxiety and high levels of immigration serving as the backdrop for racist Islamophobia and use of the spurious specter of a “Muslim takeover” as a wedge political issue to channel frustrations rightward.
“What we’ve seen is an active extremist scene across European countries, including the UK,” Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, told the Guardian. “There are some signs the extreme right have been more active, especially on the Internet. They are more sophisticated and using social media to attract younger people.”
