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Rachel Corrie's Memory Hijacked On MySpace

Mark Barnsley | 03.08.2006 10:14 | Anti-racism

A 'Rachel Corrie' page set up on MySpace falls a long way short of what her memory deserves.

I think we all know of Rachel Corrie, the young International Solidarity Movement activist who was callously murdered by the Israeli Defence Force 3 years ago (see for example

http://www.rachelcorrie.org/) I recently noticed that a MySpace account had been set up (I believed) to honour her memory (

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=72351750.) At first glance the 'Rachel Corrie' page seems appropriate enough, but yesterday I watched a video (one of several hosted there) called 'The Other Israel' by one Ted Pike, which gave me considerable cause for concern.

Before going any further, to those who don't know me well enough, I'll lay my own credentials on the table. I have been a life-long opponent of all forms of bigotry, racism, and fascism, and opposed Zionism and supported the Palestinian struggle a long time before it was fashionable to do so. When I say that I "opposed Zionism" and "supported" the Palestinian struggle I don't just mean that I've signed a few petitions or that I slag off the Israeli occupation of Palestine on the internet. At the age of 17, following Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon, I went there and FOUGHT for 2 years, during some of the fiercest warfare that country had then seen. Later I was sent to prison on an explosives charge after being captured on a mission undertaken on behalf of the Palestinian resistance. Despite the fact that scores if not hundreds of my friends and comrades, and later their families, were slaughtered by the Israeli war machine, I have never once for a moment entered the sewer of anti-Semitism. During the time I spent in Lebanon, despite daily Israeli air-strikes and shelling, despite all the murderous onslaughts that Israel has unleashed on the dispossessed Palestinian people, I never once heard so much as an anti-Jewish sentiment expressed. There are many Jewish Palestinians, and in fact my English comrade, who I fought alongside had a Jewish father.

Most progressively minded and intelligent people, despite Israeli propaganda, are perfectly able to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, and between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Not so, it seems the person, who has set up the MySpace Rachel Corrie Page.

I watched Ted Pike's video with mounting horror, as this right-wing Christian proceeded to blame Jews for all the ills of the world, everything from the death of Jesus Christ and Middle-Age pogroms to the 'scourge' of feminism, socialism, Marxism, 'liberalism', and communism. These 'erroneous' political positions, along with presumably anarchism, are according to Ted Pike merely some invention of cabals of evil Jews intent on bringing the world to it's knees. While Pike, the 'director' of the American 'National Prayer Network' (a "Christian Conservative watchdog organization") claims that he is not anti-Semitic, it is hard not to form an opposing view. Certainly Pike is very popular with Neo Nazis (see the US based Vanguard News Network for example), and he is a supporter of fascist Holocaust deniers such as David Irving and Ernst Zundel.

After viewing Pike's film, I though that perhaps the person who runs the MySpace Rachel Corrie page, had included it without themselves watching it properly, and wrote to them to draw their attention to it, as follows:

Dear friend,

As a former Palestinian commando, who has fought and killed for the Palestinian struggle, as well as spending time in prison for my activities, I hope that you will consider my opposition to Zionism and the Israeli state to be unassailable. As such, I am asking you to please remove the video 'The Other Israel' from your Rachel Corrie page. I can only think that you have not viewed it since it is a piece of right-wing Christian claptrap, which contains attacks on feminism, socialism, communism, and liberalism. According to the 'thinking' of this video, prominent Jewish Anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman would not be genuine Anarchists at all, but merely opportunistic Jews intent on establishing a Jewish 'New World Order'. Despite a few token condemnations of anti-Semitism, it is hard not to see this video as anti-Semitic. I regret to say that it is the sort of material I would expect to see on a fascist website, not on a webpage celebrating the life, commitment, and ideas of Rachel Corrie. We don't need to use this sort of pseudo-religious right-wing rubbish to condemn Israel or Zionism.

Always in struggle

Mark Barnsley

In a PS I suggested doing a 'Google' search on Pike, and mentioned his support for Nazi Holocaust deniers such as Zundel and his fellow Nazi sympathiser Germar Rudolf, saying that we did not have to lie down with people like this to oppose Zionism. I am appalled by the flippancy of the reply I received today, and even more so by it's content:

"um, lie down with? first of all, I myself am a holocaust denier, is that so wrong? I dont doubt it didnt happen, I just doubt it happened as they tell us it did.
And WHO knows rachels politics? he does? hahaha.... yeah, it seems to me that the ted pike version is more in line with her burning the flag than not... but who knows and who cares, because we will never know rachels politics! Ack!!!!
She could have been a damn christian! jeeeeeeezus fuck!!!!!!!"

So basically we have some scumbag here who presumably thinks that Auschwitz was a bakery, and who doesn't even CARE about Rachel Corrie's politics. Moreover, who seems to find the whole situation funny!

Now, I don't know everything about Rachel Corrie's politics, I've read her writing and I have friends who shared her last days and were there when she was killed, but I don't pretend to be party to all her views. However, I do know that she was an intelligent and compassionate young woman, and I don't think her opinions had anything in common with the right-wing, anti-feminist, anti-socialist, and anti-Jewish tub-thumping of the likes of Ted Pike. And she deserves better than this.

Sadly, with her pale skin and blond hair, Rachel's picture has appeared on Nazi websites such as the 'Combat 18 - Blood & Honour' site, but at least in this case it's obvious what these bastards believe. Zionists ruthlessly try to tar all those who oppose their subjugation of the Palestinian people with the brush of anti-Semitism, calling Jewish anti-Zionists "self-hating Jews". Morons who are unable to oppose the Israeli state without falling for every claptrap conspiracy theory that the Jew-haters trot out simply provide Israeli Zionism with a propaganda victory, and do no service to the virulently anti-racist Palestinian people. It is a disgrace that Rachel Corrie's memory should be insulted like this.

Mark Barnsley

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To preserve the memory...

03.08.2006 11:37

St Pancake 1

St Pancake 2

... here are two photos of St Pancake in characteristic pose and garb.

Batting for the other side

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Why was this article TROLLING on behalf of Israeli atrocities promoted?

03.08.2006 17:44

Once upon a time there was a man called Adolf Hitler. He had a circle of close friends, including one very special friend indeed, Joseph Goebbels.

Joseph Goebbels was very special- he was a nazi propagandist with a brain. He knew that if he used his brain properly, his master and friend would maybe achieve everything he had set out in his book Mein Kampf.

Now Goebbels knew that the nazis were a very special collection of people, and could never include the whole of the German population, but at the same time Goebbels also knew that the nazis would never achieve their aims WITHOUT the wholehearted support of the German people.

A few years later, and we are on the edge of WW2. Every nazi military campaign has been protected and assisted by Mr Goebbels' propaganda efforts. Goebbels has a favourite method for use outside nazi lands (where the supporters of nazi Germany are numerous, and VERY well placed, especially in the UK and US). Here, he has his people look for any supposed anti-nazi operation.

Firstly, he encourages his agents to seek leadership roles in such organisations, so that they can be run into the ground from the top.

Secondly, he encourages active targetting of these organisations with whatever trolling methods their rules will allow.

Thirdly, he demands that these organisations are made to focus NOT ON THE NAZIS, but on the German people themselves. The suffering of the German people is to be highlighted. Documents showing extreme racist attcks on the German people are to be given widespread attention (for instance, Goebbels was able to make endless use of statements from one NY citizen that ALL GERMAN PEOPLE MUST BE STERILIZED WHEN THE NAZIS ARE DEFEATED- he would have applauded the article above doing the exact same thing). After all, it is a BAD thing to be a racist (if you are anti-nazi), so turn that against them, and flood their organisations with pro-German, anti-racist propaganda.

If 'Mark Barnsley' were genuine, he would spend ***100%*** of his time fighting to expose the Holocaust that Israel has unleashed on Lebanon and Gaza. He would simply ignore that actions of individual racists that can be found all over the planet. (After all, the Lebanese Holocaust supporting ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center have hundreds of millions of pounds of funds precisely to do the job that 'Mark Barnsley' so DISTRACTINGLY insists on doing here).

THIS PROMOTED ARTICLE IS DESIGNED TO ASSIST BLAIR AND ISRAEL IN THEIR EXTERMINATION OF LEBANON, AND PREPARATION FOR THEIR GENOCIDE OF IRAN.

DISTRACTION PROPAGANDA SAYS "DON'T THINK ABOUT THAT, BUT LOOK AT THIS". It works on the basis that most individual Humans have only a certain finite capacity to care, and if you 'fill' that capacity up, there is nothing left to engage in 'dangerous' thoughts or actions.

Even so, this article is far from being a first class piece of Black Propaganda. Its author makes too many crude mistakes, including the laughable reference to 'Israeli Defence Force' (whoops, someone needs sacking for THAT booboo, but then 'IOF' probably fails to resonate enough in our propagandist's head, or he just can't bring himself to use that term).

The author also LOVES the term 'anti-semitism' (an extremely racist term that predicates on the existence of a 'master-race'), but is not bothered in the least that no similar term exists to label the depraved racism aimed at muslims and arabs. Imagine, if you will, an anti-nazi that constantly uses a special term to describe racism aimed at Germans, but has no concern that no term exists to describe the racism dished out by the nazis and Germans to MILLIONS of victims.

Apparently, the Palestinians and Lebanese should LOVE the people and their supporters that have inflicted such impossibly evil levels of suffering on them.

For the simple minded, the author attempts to stop people thinking about the import of his ideas, by including a story about some racist idiot running a 'Rachel Corrie' myspace account (now, perhaps you can understand the usefulness of this asset to extreme racist zionist Rupert Murdoch- best friend of Blair). But here is the thing YOU missed. The right-wing christian organisations of the US support Israel wholeheartedly. Zionism would have no power in the states, if this were not true. BUT WHAT IS THE BLACK PROPAGANDA MESSAGE OF 'Mark Barnsley'. Yes, to the terminally naive in the UK, he attempts to push an extraordinary lie that the opposite is true.

QUOTE
Morons who are unable to oppose the Israeli state without falling for every claptrap conspiracy theory that the Jew-haters trot out simply provide Israeli Zionism with a propaganda victory
UNQUOTE

What have I said about people who use the 'conspiracy' word in this context? So the author, once again, states Blair's key message. If they talk about false-flags, psyops, or 911, they are 'anti-semites' AND MUST BE IGNORED.

YOU CAN TELL THE GOOD GUYS. THEY TELL YOU THINGS THAT BLAIR'S MASS MEDIA EITHER IGNORES, OR SAFELY PACKAGES ***AND THEN*** TELL YOU TO GO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

You can tell the bad guys too. They are the ones that tell you that thinking for yourself, or doing your own research on the net, is the road to hell. They tell you that you must NOT learn the history of state terrorism. You must not learn the methods of Black Propaganda. You must NOT learn the purpose and methods of psychological operations. You MUST NOT have the skills to spot the true purpose of articles like the above.

NOW ALL TOGETHER- WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDYMEDIA UK, AGREE THAT RACISTS AND RACISM IS AN EVIL THING. This established, we DO NOT need articles about any of the world's many random irrelevant racists, especially when the purpose of such articles is to prevent us from fighting the greatest racist evil the world has seen since WW2, namely that evil embodied in Blair, the US and Israel.

twilight

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FALSE posts are PSYOPS confusing the real resistance

03.08.2006 20:58

Zionazi extremists such as the above, masquerading as I, twilight, have FLOODED Indymedia with false propganda in a VAIN effort to alienate me from all the anti-war movement. In this case, the scurrilous Mossad-sponsored eejit has tried to set me against the respected anarchist and former political prisoner Mark Barnsley. It won't work. Just ignore ALL future posts labelled 'twilight' or anything similar becuase, like so much on UK Indymedia, they are TROLLS designed to shatter the progressive movement. We have so much more to do than give these people succour.

twilight