Across the anti-Zionist activist space (and this includes media, academia, politics and NGOs) there are people who portray Zionists as sub-human evildoers. The lies these people tell and the hate that they spread has real world consequences. These people have the blood of innocents on their hands.
The blood flows on Israeli streets
Last month, fourteen Israelis were murdered by Arab terrorists. Let me just begin with the obvious statement: those directly responsible for the terrorist attacks in Beer Sheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv are the terrorists who carried out the brutal slaughters.
But terrorism is never as simple as one man with a weapon. Nobody just wakes up in the morning and thinks they should go and slaughter civilians – unless they have been primed to do so within an ideologically twisted environment. Terrorists always believe that their horrific crimes are justified.
And this key fact is so relevant when discussing Israel. Because behind the bullets and knives, behind those slaughtering innocent civilians in Israeli streets, even behind the radical Islamist terrorist groups – sits a well-oiled industry of Jew-hate – with international factories that are churning out endless material that is enabling, empowering, and providing justifications for the monsters that wish to kill Jews.
Millions of people far removed from the actual conflict zone, also consume this hatred – and go on to spread and promote lies and demonising propaganda about Israel. In the end all this anti-Jewish disinformation combines to create an evil atmosphere that rationalises the murder of innocent Israeli civilians.
This does not mean that without the lies and constant demonisation, there would be no terrorism at all against Israelis, but there would certainly be a lot less of it. The situation has become so twisted these days, that radical Islamist terror groups often play to a western audience.
And we all understand this concept, wherever we sit on the political spectrum. When Jo Cox was murdered, the finger of blame was pointed far wider than just at Thomas Mair. And when Patrick Wood Crusius slaughtered 23 people in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, the New York Times wasted no time in blaming the atmosphere created by Donald Trump.
Language matters. Truth matters.
The dark truth
The Israel-hating Guardian understands the cause and effect only too well, frequently referencing the hate-filled atmosphere that contributes to murderous violence – but just like the NYT (who are equally guilty of demonising Zionism) they are only able to see this linkage when there is political mileage in it for them:
“Far-right terrorists feed off the hatred that is often fanned by elites when it suits them.”
Given that the Guardian is one of the more noteworthy media outlets in the UK obsessing about Israel, spreading disinformation, and demonising Zionism, rarely has a complete lack of self-awareness been more apparent than in the quote above.
There are some players in this industry at whom we already point the finger. The PA’s Pay for Slay, which encourages and rewards acts of terror against Israel, is perhaps the example that is most frequently mentioned. Let’s face it, if you actually reward the terrorists and their families – you can hardly argue that you do not have blood on your hands.
But the truth is far darker and involves far more than just those promising the terrorists and their families financial security.
What about those in the West that promote the Palestinian Authority as moderates (the PA are behind Pay for Slay)? Or the nations who fund the PA – or fund UNWRA – the UN organisation which was created to perpetuate the conflict and which actually uses school classrooms to teach anti-Jewish hatred to Palestinian children.
Or we can look far closer to home. Because Jew haters are constantly hungry, there is a myriad of NGOs, journalists, and activists (all pretty much the same thing these days), putting a microscope on the Jewish state, and holding it to an inspection that no nation on earth would survive. To help them along, the Palestinian children are dutifully sent to confront the soldiers, with the rock throwers behind – and 100 cameras all trying to capture the most deceptive angle.
Almost every article on Israel, every report, that emerges in the west these days is rooted in skewed reporting and deliberate fictions.
Amnesty International spreads hate
Take Amnesty International. The NGO has spent decades demonising the state of Israel. Just recently they wrote a report falsely claiming Israel practices ‘Apartheid’. Go online and you will see their report shared as ‘truth’ in every social media thread about Israel.
But Amnesty’s report is a nonsense. The internal Amnesty information supply chain is full of Palestinians with nothing but a long history of promoting extreme anti-Israel rhetoric in their CVs. One of their key employees, who was even at the press conference that launched the report, used to have images of Palestinian terrorists in his Facebook profile.
Too many of Amnesty’s staff obsess about Zionism and Israel, even if they are employed to be the eyes of the NGO elsewhere. All this bias is absurd, frightening, and clearly embedded in anti-Jewish racism and it means that anything that the Amnesty factory produces is stained with deep rooted antisemitism.
Which leaves Amnesty International spreading spiteful and demonising fake news about Israel’s character. Lies that are explicitly created to stir people emotionally. Amnesty puts these lie out there precisely to incite anger.
A fact: – Terrorists have murdered more civilians in pre-1967 Israel in the two months since Amnesty’s Apartheid Lie than in many years. Coincidence? – Perhaps.
A world full of lies
Misunderstanding the conflict and misreading Israel’s enemies is not a defence. Ignorance driven by obsessive antisemitism is not an excuse. Amnesty put vast resources into publishing hate and spreading the lie that the only democracy in the MENA region is an evil regime. You would have to be stupid to claim these lies do not have real world consequences.
At the most basic level – donations give a clear example – people who buy into the lies are more likely to donate to a cause carrying the Palestinian flag than those who don’t. Gazan beggars using Facebook to connect with activists to receive help ‘to feed their children’ are more likely to be rewarded. Very little of the money reaching Palestinian hands is actually used to make lives better – tragically the opposite is true – it is almost all used to bolster the very industry of hate that creates the fake news that led to the donation in the first place.
Imagine a world that told the truth. A place in which Palestinian terror had no apologists in the west and no audience to whom to play. A world in which Palestinian propagandists posted decontextualised images – and nobody shared them. Imagine a world in which Israelis were treated as human beings.
There can be little doubt that the level of violence would greatly diminish. Once you strip away the industry of hate that has supported and sustained the violence – the entire conflict falls apart. How many lives would this have saved? On all sides? Countless.
But the opposite is true. Just look at what is taking place online. Israelis are demonised and portrayed as ‘evildoers’ using the same type of language always reserved for the Jews. ‘Zionists’ are ‘vermin’, ‘sub-human’ ‘monsters’ and uniquely ‘evil’.
This is not taking place in some hidden secret group. Israelis are turned into sub-human evil monsters on our campuses. State funded environments in the 21st century in which Jews often feel the need to hide their identity. And in our schools, church groups, and unions. Some artists even get involved – making sure their fans are ‘told the truth’ about what the ‘Zionists’ are doing. Then there is the cesspit of social media. Suddenly – with Ukraine – everyone recognises ‘Russian propaganda’? Where have they all been for the last few decades?
Generating support
The support this generates on the street feeds back into the conflict itself – not to normal Palestinians living in Ramallah or Jericho – but into the activist space – the ones spreading the lies out in the first place. An activist like Mohammed El Kurd probably cannot believe his luck. He can say anything – however outrageous – and people will swallow his lies and applaud him – they even pay him thousands of pounds to turn up at their campus to tell the students in person.
From Trocaire in Ireland to CAABU in the UK or SJP in the US. They are all involved. And this is even before we mention the ‘solidarity groups’ like the PSC, SPSC, IPSC or JVP.
So too, the politicians who obsess about Israel and regularly share hate-filled outlets such as Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada with their constituents. These people are pushing this antisemitism onto the streets and deeper into the societies in which they live – where it acts like a virus.
This is partly caused by the elephant in the room. The rise of Islamism in the west and the impact that this is having on our streets. Islamists see Israel as ‘Islamic land’ and are engaged in a religious battle to retrieve it. There are MPs in Westminster today who would not dare defy the growing Islamist infuence in their constituency and the rhetoric of these politicians grows ever more anti-Zionist. And what is happening in Westminster is just a fraction of what is taking place at the council level in some areas. We see it best on campus, where the new President of the NUS has pushed genocidal anti-Jewish rhetoric in the past. She is but one of many extremists active in our universities today. This is a subject too few openly want to discuss.
All of this doesn’t just make life difficult for Jewish people in the UK or US. ‘Victory to the Intifada’ is not just a badge for sale at hard-left events. ‘Global Intifada’ is not just an empty phrase. The words ‘Khaybar Khaybar’ mean something. And it all sends out a green light to the radical Islamic terrorists.
This normalisation of anti-Jewish hatred in the west may not have directly committed the recent acts of violence that murdered 14 Israelis. But from Amnesty and the BBC to the NYT – they are all playing their part in the demonisation of Zionism. So when the atmosphere they help to shape results in dead Israelis – then they all have the blood of innocents on their hands.
{Reposted from the author’s blog}
