Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Israel's Collective Punishment (by Latuff)

Latuff | 05.11.2007 09:06 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Terror War | World

Copyleft artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, on behalf of the brave Palestinian people and their struggle against U.S. backed IsraHell's state terror.

Israeli crimes in Gaza
Israeli crimes in Gaza


"Ramallah is not Auschwitz. Israel is not the Third Reich. We have no death camps and we haven't massacred one third of the Palestinian population in gas chambers. Therefore, everything we do is quite all right. We may fill the occupied territories with tear gas and blood, we may kill and injure and torture and blackmail and dispossess, we may surround millions by electric fences and tanks in tiny enclaves, we may hold them under siege and daily bombing, we may make pregnant women walk to hospitals, and we shoot ambulances too, don't we. But as long as we fall even an inch short of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, it's all fine and good, and don't you dare make the comparison.
"
Ran HaCohen, writer, teacher, who teaches at Tel-Aviv University.

Latuff
- e-mail: latuff@uninet.com.br
- Homepage: http://tales-of-iraq-war.blogspot.com

Additions

Source of the quote above

05.11.2007 11:05

Letter From Israel
by Ran HaCohen

April 1, 2002

The Auschwitz Logic

Sorry to disappoint some of my readers: terrorists haven't got me yet. Yesterday (Saturday) in Tel-Aviv they were close, but no cigar. A minute ago, my parents called from Haifa saying they just survived another attack. "May they move next to your home", an American reader identifying himself as "Baba" recently wished me. Thank you, dear Baba. Inside every "anti-terrorist" there is always a little terrorist yearning to come out. One can only imagine what you would do with your destructive energies, had you been living in a besieged refugee camp in Palestine rather than in a cosy American domicile.

Jose Saramago, the great Portuguese writer and winner of Nobel Prize for literature, visited Ramallah last week (24.3), days before the present Israeli re-invasion. He came with a delegation of the International Parliament of Writers (IPW), together with Russell Banks (USA), Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), Bei Dao (China), Juan Goytisolo (Spain), Vincenzo Consolo (Italy), and Christian Salmon (IPW Executive Director). The IPW also runs an appeal for peace in Palestine, where "the entry points to villages have been walled over, civilian population movement is paralysed, ghettos and reservations are created, where only tanks patrol and helicopters over-fly the area on a permanent basis". While in Ramallah, Saramago took the ghettos-and-reservations analogy a step too far and compared it with Auschwitz and Buchenwald, the Nazi death camps. Later, IPW distanced itself from Saramago's words.

Saramago's comparison has done it: at last, Israel had its desired spin. No one asked what Saramago had seen to make him use such an appalling analogy. Ramallah was forgotten immediately, only Auschwitz was left. The entire liberal intellectual main-stream – from playwright Yehoshua Sobol to rhinocerised Ha'aretz journalist Ari Shavit – did its best to attack and discredit Saramago. How vociferous can one be when shouting consensus slogans.

And how quiet can one be when a critical word is required. Of Israel's countless writers and poets, of the entire glorious literary milieu, only six persons bothered to sign the IPW appeal, long before Saramago's words. One of the six is an Israeli Arab (translator and writer Mohamad Ghanayem), three are Israeli Jews of oriental origin (writer Shimon Ballas, children's books writer Ronit Chacham, poet Sami Shalom-Chetrit), and of European origin we have poet Yizchak Laor and playwright Matti Meged. Have you ever heard of them? Probably not. But you probably did hear of Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and their ilk. Now you know why. They did not sign the appeal. But they would be more than happy to attack Saramago, I am sure.

The Auschwitz Logic

So this is the Auschwitz logic in a nutshell. Ramallah is not Auschwitz. Israel is not the Third Reich. We have no death-camps and we haven't massacred one third of the Palestinian population in gas chambers. Therefore, everything we do is quite all right. We may fill the occupied territories with tear gas and blood, we may kill and injure and torture and blackmail and dispossess, we may surround millions by electric fences and tanks in tiny enclaves, we may hold them under siege and daily bombing, we may make pregnant women walk to hospitals, and we shoot ambulances too, don't we. But as long as we fall even an inch short of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, it's all fine and good, and don't you dare make the comparison.

People sometimes say that the Better is the greatest foe of the Good. Israel is now demonstrating how the Greater Evil is Evil's best friend.

And many thanks to Adolf Hitler, for setting such insurmountable standards.

The Save-Arafat Logic

A recent subset of the Auschwitz logic. Europe is warning Israel: don't kill Arafat. The United States is soothing: Israel has pledged not to kill Arafat. How magnanimous of Sharon. He can bomb ambulances and raid hospitals, shoot journalists and cut water supply to entire towns, but as long as he doesn't touch Arafat, it's all right. In return for Israel's pledge not to kill Arafat, the world has given him a carte blanche to kill all other Palestinians. Sharon couldn't ever ask for more.

So, We Are Not Nazis

But here is a minimal actual sample of what we are doing:

* March 30th. LAW (The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment). This morning, five Palestinian officers (Khaled Awad (33), Ismail Zaid (56), Said Abdelrahman (60), Abdelrahman Abdallah (58), and Omar Musa (54)) have been found dead in an office building in Ramallah. Last night, Israeli forces had surrounded the building and prevented anyone from entering. The five bodies were found in one room, lying next to each other. They were injured in their faces and killed by gunshots in the head. LAW's assessment suggests that these five have been executed.

* March 30th. Excerpts from an Appeal for Help from Besieged Ramallah. "As we write this, there are US-made Apache attack helicopters overhead firing on the city. Israeli bulldozers are creating permanent positions for the tanks in and around private houses. Some of us have had experience in other sieges, in Sarajevo, Dili, and elsewhere. There is a familiar pattern of emergency rapidly developing. This is the beginning of a humanitarian crisis. Immediate intervention is required to prevent a disaster.

"No Movement Possible: Inhabitants of the city are under complete curfew. There is no medical access. Palestine Red Crescent medical relief workers have not been permitted to provide medical services to the local population. Israeli forces are firing on anyone walking out on the streets.

"On Thursday, based on fears of an Israeli re-invasion, more than 500 inhabitants lined up in the mud and rain at the Qalandiya checkpoint – the only exit point from the city allowed by Israel – begging Israeli soldiers to allow them to escape. In response, Israeli soldiers fired over their heads, exacerbating the panic and causing most to simply return to Ramallah.

"Israeli Forces Using Human Shields: Israeli soldiers are occupying an increasing number of private residences and detaining the residents collectively in single rooms. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation soldiers have taken up armed positions in the houses or apartments of these residents.

"Food Resources Limited: There is no food entering Ramallah and no one is allowed to restock. There will shortly be a food and drinking water crisis. Some parts of Ramallah are already without water altogether. Israeli soldiers are also eating the food of residents while taking up positions in their houses.

"Electricity Being Cut: Large parts of Ramallah are without electricity and heat. The lack of electricity also means that residents are without television and any news reporting of the situation outside their homes. Many residents of the city rely on cellular phones for communication and without electricity they are unable to recharge their phones. Therefore, the population is being held in isolation and there is increasing fear and confusion. Also, some telephone landlines have been cut.

"Prisoners Being Taken: Israeli troops are calling upon all male residents between the ages of 16 and 40 in some neighbourhoods to 'surrender'. The wounded are being treated roughly and being denied medical access. Now, their fate is unknown.

"Gratuitous Vandalism and Destruction: There are on-going spiteful acts of destruction. Most commonly, Israeli tanks are driving over and flattening cars whether on the streets or parked on pavements in front of residences. Personal property inside houses is being destroyed in house-to-house searches.

"Due to fear of retribution, the names and contact information of those authoring this appeal have not been included."

Searcher
- Homepage: http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h040102.html


Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Gaza: Not Just a Prison, a Laboratory — Lab Rat
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech