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Left right out on Israel

By Fotis Kapetopoulos - posted Wednesday, 3 December 2014


When I raised the issue of diaspora rights in context of multiculturalism, specifically the rights of Greek Australians to enjoy citizenship in Greece, or for that matter other diaspora, such as the American Palestinians to live in Palestine, (when the nation is finally established), the responses had hues of the conservative narratives of 'belonging to the nation you live in not a foreign state', which I found particularly strange, as most of these advocates support cultural diversity in Australia and the rights of dual citizenship.

None underscored the fact that while tensions rose in the West Bank, and heated clashes ensued and continue to do so, there was, and has been no bombing of the West Bank by Israel. Why? Is it because the political stewards of the West Bank are less predisposed to ideology and more concerned with realpolitik concerns of economy and the search of some form of détente?

None of the Facebook activists pointed to the bloody conflict between Fatah and Hamas, or even to the recent bombings by Hamas of Fatah positions. As I write, Hamas welcomed the recent attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by lone-wolf Palestinian terrorists in which five Israelis were killed and 12 wounded. The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. But he added that the attacks, while heinous, were the natural outcome of Israeli occupation. This argument is difficult to maintain since the Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombings of the late 1990s began in Israel.

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I can understand attacks against occupiers and that one person's terrorist is another's liberation fighter. The National Liberation Front of Algeria against the French, the Vietcong against French and U.S. occupiers, the Greek Resistance against the Nazis, the IRA attacks against the British, the Haganah attacks against the British occupiers, and even pre-Islamic inspired PLO attacks in the '60s and '70s against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for example. But but suicidal missions where young men and women place themselves directly into line of fire, or blow themselves up as martyrs, and take their 'enemies' with them has little to do with resistance and more to do with cult-like brainwashing.

The strategic value of a suicide killer or bomber is nil, yet the ideological value is high. It states, 'we are prepared to die for our cause and our cause is bigger than us and our cause is the end our enemy's existence'. Sri Lanka is the most evident example of the failure of the Tamil Tigers' suicide missions. On the other hand, the Irish peace deal, or the rise of the Israeli state, the 100 year intermittent revolution by the Greeks against the Ottomans to establish Modern Greece, show the methodical use of guerilla and terrorism to force negotiations and result in some type of peace. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their counterparts, in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, seem to have no appetite for peace, let alone co-existence with Israel.

The Facebook chatter showed no discussion on the conflict between a theocratic Hamas and a secular Fatah, while always underscoring the fundamentalist religious behavior of right-wing Israeli settlers.

There was no discussion on Hamas' fundamentalism, the persecution of non-Hamas followers, or the murder of Palestinians viewed as collaborators with Israel. Pro-Palestinian activists on Facebook could not articulate the strategic imperative of firing rockets into Israel when it is clear how an Israeli Government dominated by Hawks would react.

The most telling for me was the 2011 killing of Juliano Mer Khamis, the son of a Jewish mother and a Palestinian Greek Orthodox father. Khamis was an actor, director, filmmaker and human rights activist. His greater purpose in life was to bring Jews and Palestinians together through The Freedom Theatre, which he established. He was murdered by a masked jihadist in the Palestinian city of Jenin.

The killing of three Israeli Jewish teenagers by Palestinian fanatics, the act that triggered the last round of conflict, is filed in the 'understandable response to oppression' category by many in the anti-Israeli camp. The horrific revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager by three Israeli ultra-orthodox nationalists, considered terrorists by the Israeli state, is mentioned by the pro-Palestinians on Facebook. Killers of the Palestinian youth are now standing trial in Israel for murder. Israel's Prime Minister publicly paid his condolences to the family of the victim, the President visited them, and Israeli peace protesters chanted for justice for the slain Palestinian boy. Yet none of that seemed to have occurred in the occupied territories when the three young Israelis were slain.

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Equally interesting for me was the fact that none of the activists I engaged with, or followed, posted any anti-Islamic State or Syrian state propaganda. It was the Arab-Australians in the group that posted some anti ISIS/ISIL articles. Given that most of the killings of Palestinians and Arabs over the last 40 years have been in Arab states and between Arab peoples, I found that an extraordinary omission.

Worse, many of these postings were accompanied by graphic images of dead Palestinian children, demolished Palestinian houses and other disturbing 'evidence' of Israeli aggression. But at the same time as the recent Gaza conflict, ISIS/ISIL was releasing social media with grotesque displays of crucified children, beheaded men, massacres and mass graves.

I can point to the racism and bitterness expressed towards human progress by those in the Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt fan clubs, but attacking rusted on right-wingers is easy. My concern is with my own. Progressives. Those who channel social justice in their art and practice, but who wittingly or unwittingly promote anti- Semitic views couched as anti-Israeli. Yet they say little or nothing about the fascist, theocratic and unjust regimes led by Hamas, and the Pol Pot-like Islamic State.

An IDF attack killing Palestinians, combatant and/or civilians, is met with visceral distain in the Facebook chatter. Yet the relentless religious, cultural and sexual dehumanisation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, Assyrians, Kurds, and Christians and other Islamic groups by the Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq has been relegated to an 'internal conflict' as a result of the 'intervention' of Anglo-American-Australian and European forces into those areas.

The fact that educated, community spirited and engaged arts workers who promote the rights of minorities can without any moral uncertainty post something about the "genocide of Palestinians", or compare Israelis to Nazis reveals something wrong with the intellectual and moral compass in these discussions.

This new anti-Semitism emerging will have corrosive effects within the progressive camps. Their political values including rights for refugees, support for cultural diversity and Aboriginal civil and land rights, place them squarely in the anti-racist camp. But their attacks on Israel, Zionism, and Jews, mirrors the racist tenets of anti-Semitism in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-Semitic hoax used by Hitler to legitimise the Holocaust.

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About the Author

Fotis Kapetopoulos heads Kape Communications Pty Ltd a cultural communications consultancy. He was Multicultural Media Adviser to Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and former editor of Neos Kosmos English Edition. He lectures in communication and marketing at various academic institutions and will be undertaking a PhD at the University of Canberra.

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