Mediocrates
09-26-2004, 06:07 PM
In several parts
(Below is an English translation of the article that Nadia prepared in connection with the announced intention of the Minister of Internal Security, Gideon Ezra, who publicly announced that Nadia would be interrogated by the police before Yom Kippur. That did not happen. The essay contains a list of quotes, and is therefore longer than usual. However it is a must for members of the National Camp to use in case he or she is accused of "incitement.")
What Is Really Shocking, and Who Is Really Inciting?
Last week I sent a letter to the head of the Deportation Administration, Mr. Yonatan Bassi, in which I wrote that the fact that he plans to send a personal letter to each of the inhabitants of Gush Katif designated for transfer, and that his letter contains a "personal appeal and initial explanation of the evacuation process," fills me with chilling associations from the Holocaust. I attached to my letter one that had been written by the Berlin Judenrat in 1942 to the Jewish community, with details and explanations of the approaching deportation. I wrote to Bassi that, in my opinion, the document from 1942 was chillingly similar to the letter that he was about to send. I further stated that I believe that "Yonatan Bassi is a much worse version of the Judenrat in the Holocaust, for then in the Holocaust, this was forced upon those Jewish leaders by the Nazis, and it is very difficult for us to judge them today. But today no one stands with a pistol to Bassi's head and forces him to cooperate with the deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria." I added that "whoever aids in the deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria in actuality aids an anti-Semitic act, and will be so remembered to everlasting abhorrence." I concluded the letter with an emotional appeal to Bassi that "he still can resign from his contemptible position and enter Yom Kippur, the Day of Judgment, clean and at peace with his conscience, without being part of the modern Judenrat - the Deportation Administration" (the entire letter in Hebrew and the letter from 1942, also in Hebrew, can be seen at the Hebrew language Women in Green web site: <www.womeningreen.org.il> .
The letter received wide exposure, and I must admit - I am shocked. I am shocked by the responses of the establishment and the state media. All cry out to high heaven, because of the use of the strong epithet I applied to Bassi - while, on the other hand, no one is disturbed by the criminal act that Ariel Sharon seeks to commit, with Bassi's help, against which I cry out in my letter: the brutal deportation of Jews from their inheritance and their homes - most of whom are already the third generation on the land - men, women, and children, against their will, solely because they are Jews. This will be accompanied by the razing of their homes, the elimination of their lives' undertaking, the destruction of scores of synagogues, ritual baths, kindergartens, libraries, and schools; the disinterment of dozens of bodies from the cemeteries - many of them, the victims of Arab terror. And the trauma of ethnic cleansing will be followed by the ultimate crime: the handing over of all the Judenrein territory to the Arab enemy, territory that is the inheritance of our forefathers, that they were given by G-d, and that no Jew is permitted to give away. This is a national crime that will (correctly) be interpreted by the Arab enemy as a victory for terror, and will incite it to continue to murder Jews in Israel and throughout the world, knowing that these murders will result in additional "disengagement" plans - and this time from Netanyah, Haderah, Askhelon, Beersheva, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.
Instead of this terrifying scenario shaking every Jew to the very depths of his soul, instead of this scenario causing every public figure in Israel - the politicians, the Rabbis, civil rights activists, journalists, and others - from stopping their everyday routine to cry for help "Gevalt!", instead of this scenario resulting in a general strike by the entire country until the despicable plan is shelved, instead of all that, this is accepted naturally, with frightening tranquility. Yes, they "express sorrow and identification with those earmarked for uprooting and transfer, "but there is no shock, no outcry of "Gevalt," no proclamation that this is inconceivable, as if this were a heavenly decree! And about what is everyone alarmed? About the victim daring to call the hangman names!!
Just imagine the response in Israel and the world if the French government were to declare that "because of the great antagonism between Muslims and Jews in Paris, all the Jews must leave Paris by the end of 2005." All the houses of the Jews, the synagogues, the schools, and all other Jewish properties in Paris would be put at the disposal of the Muslim community. Jews who would oppose the evacuation would be forcibly placed in internment camps by the French security forces. Just imagine the response in Israel and the world if the Israeli Prime Minister were to declare that "by the end of 2005 there will no longer be any Arabs in Israel." Every Arab who would dare to resist the evacuation would be removed forcibly by the security forces and would be arrested. In each of the cases depicted above, a worldwide outcry would result. Everyone would compare the decree to the Holocaust period. Derogatory epithets would be hurled at those implementing the deportation, and the entire country would be disrupted by violent demonstrations, that would be organized spontaneously as soon as the plan became known.
And I ask: how is it that when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proclaims to the entire world that "by the end of 2005 there will no longer be any Jews in Gaza," and even adds that the operation to deport Jews, simply because they are Jews, is not limited to Gaza, but also that additional extensive portions of our land, our homeland, will be handed over to the Arab enemy and become Judenrein - this is accepted without an upheaval similar to the outcry that would arise in response to either of these two scenarios?
One woman answered this question and told me: "Because Ariel Sharon is a Jew and this is a government of Jews, and so they are permitted." To which I respond: To the contrary! This is even more horrendous, just because this is a Jewish government! Master of the Universe, after two thousand years of Exile during which the worst of anti-Semites persecuted the Jews, expelled us, murdered us, burnt us, we have finally returned to the portion of our forefathers, to the Promised Land, and we established the State of Israel "to be a free people in our land" - and, oh, the horror of it! here, too, we are deported because we are Jews. This time it is not the Romans who are committing the crime, but our Jewish brothers! This is a crime for which there can be no atonement.
The late Shmuel Shnitzer already wrote about this in 1990, in an article in Maariv (February 23, 1990) entitled "The Racists": If we are the people of the Bible, if "the Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people" (in the words of the Israeli Proclamation of Independence), if this land is the land of the dreams, longings, and prayers of the people of Israel throughout all the generations of its exile and dispersion, how is it possible to determine, specifically now, that some areas are outside the bounds of the Children of Israel? In the places where the residence of Jews must be stopped, in the past the kings of Israel were enthroned, the prophets of Israel delivered their message of morality and justice, the freedom fighters of Israel shed their blood in the defense of their homeland. And there, of all the lands in the world, will be established the only area in the modern world in which the residence of Jews will be prohibited? I do not think that discrimination against Jews and the determination of areas within the Land of Israel as Judenrein, in which Jews may not live, becomes more respectable due to the fact that some Jews consent to this. For me, the true nature of all the restrictions of the "except for Jews" type is not in question. Whoever champions them, whoever preaches on their behalf, whoever bases his political theory on them, has to be capable of explaining why this anti-Jewish discrimination is any better or more valid than the old type that the world vomited up in revulsion 45 years ago.
Accordingly, in order to upset the entire system, I wrote what I did to Bassi. Since I have learned from the Internet that I might shortly have to undergo questioning by the police for my statements, I therefore wish to defend my letter, and show that there is nothing wrong, or inciting, in the epithets and the comparison that I used. I will show that it is not I who should be put on trial, but other prominent public figures.
My use of the word "Judenrat" and my stating to Bassi that "you are worse than the Judenrat of that time" resulted in two types of harsh criticism directed against me by the media and by the establishment. The first charge raised against me is that the use of Holocaust terminology is unfit and forbidden. The second, that my letter constitutes incitement to harm Bassi.
(Below is an English translation of the article that Nadia prepared in connection with the announced intention of the Minister of Internal Security, Gideon Ezra, who publicly announced that Nadia would be interrogated by the police before Yom Kippur. That did not happen. The essay contains a list of quotes, and is therefore longer than usual. However it is a must for members of the National Camp to use in case he or she is accused of "incitement.")
What Is Really Shocking, and Who Is Really Inciting?
Last week I sent a letter to the head of the Deportation Administration, Mr. Yonatan Bassi, in which I wrote that the fact that he plans to send a personal letter to each of the inhabitants of Gush Katif designated for transfer, and that his letter contains a "personal appeal and initial explanation of the evacuation process," fills me with chilling associations from the Holocaust. I attached to my letter one that had been written by the Berlin Judenrat in 1942 to the Jewish community, with details and explanations of the approaching deportation. I wrote to Bassi that, in my opinion, the document from 1942 was chillingly similar to the letter that he was about to send. I further stated that I believe that "Yonatan Bassi is a much worse version of the Judenrat in the Holocaust, for then in the Holocaust, this was forced upon those Jewish leaders by the Nazis, and it is very difficult for us to judge them today. But today no one stands with a pistol to Bassi's head and forces him to cooperate with the deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria." I added that "whoever aids in the deportation of the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria in actuality aids an anti-Semitic act, and will be so remembered to everlasting abhorrence." I concluded the letter with an emotional appeal to Bassi that "he still can resign from his contemptible position and enter Yom Kippur, the Day of Judgment, clean and at peace with his conscience, without being part of the modern Judenrat - the Deportation Administration" (the entire letter in Hebrew and the letter from 1942, also in Hebrew, can be seen at the Hebrew language Women in Green web site: <www.womeningreen.org.il> .
The letter received wide exposure, and I must admit - I am shocked. I am shocked by the responses of the establishment and the state media. All cry out to high heaven, because of the use of the strong epithet I applied to Bassi - while, on the other hand, no one is disturbed by the criminal act that Ariel Sharon seeks to commit, with Bassi's help, against which I cry out in my letter: the brutal deportation of Jews from their inheritance and their homes - most of whom are already the third generation on the land - men, women, and children, against their will, solely because they are Jews. This will be accompanied by the razing of their homes, the elimination of their lives' undertaking, the destruction of scores of synagogues, ritual baths, kindergartens, libraries, and schools; the disinterment of dozens of bodies from the cemeteries - many of them, the victims of Arab terror. And the trauma of ethnic cleansing will be followed by the ultimate crime: the handing over of all the Judenrein territory to the Arab enemy, territory that is the inheritance of our forefathers, that they were given by G-d, and that no Jew is permitted to give away. This is a national crime that will (correctly) be interpreted by the Arab enemy as a victory for terror, and will incite it to continue to murder Jews in Israel and throughout the world, knowing that these murders will result in additional "disengagement" plans - and this time from Netanyah, Haderah, Askhelon, Beersheva, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.
Instead of this terrifying scenario shaking every Jew to the very depths of his soul, instead of this scenario causing every public figure in Israel - the politicians, the Rabbis, civil rights activists, journalists, and others - from stopping their everyday routine to cry for help "Gevalt!", instead of this scenario resulting in a general strike by the entire country until the despicable plan is shelved, instead of all that, this is accepted naturally, with frightening tranquility. Yes, they "express sorrow and identification with those earmarked for uprooting and transfer, "but there is no shock, no outcry of "Gevalt," no proclamation that this is inconceivable, as if this were a heavenly decree! And about what is everyone alarmed? About the victim daring to call the hangman names!!
Just imagine the response in Israel and the world if the French government were to declare that "because of the great antagonism between Muslims and Jews in Paris, all the Jews must leave Paris by the end of 2005." All the houses of the Jews, the synagogues, the schools, and all other Jewish properties in Paris would be put at the disposal of the Muslim community. Jews who would oppose the evacuation would be forcibly placed in internment camps by the French security forces. Just imagine the response in Israel and the world if the Israeli Prime Minister were to declare that "by the end of 2005 there will no longer be any Arabs in Israel." Every Arab who would dare to resist the evacuation would be removed forcibly by the security forces and would be arrested. In each of the cases depicted above, a worldwide outcry would result. Everyone would compare the decree to the Holocaust period. Derogatory epithets would be hurled at those implementing the deportation, and the entire country would be disrupted by violent demonstrations, that would be organized spontaneously as soon as the plan became known.
And I ask: how is it that when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proclaims to the entire world that "by the end of 2005 there will no longer be any Jews in Gaza," and even adds that the operation to deport Jews, simply because they are Jews, is not limited to Gaza, but also that additional extensive portions of our land, our homeland, will be handed over to the Arab enemy and become Judenrein - this is accepted without an upheaval similar to the outcry that would arise in response to either of these two scenarios?
One woman answered this question and told me: "Because Ariel Sharon is a Jew and this is a government of Jews, and so they are permitted." To which I respond: To the contrary! This is even more horrendous, just because this is a Jewish government! Master of the Universe, after two thousand years of Exile during which the worst of anti-Semites persecuted the Jews, expelled us, murdered us, burnt us, we have finally returned to the portion of our forefathers, to the Promised Land, and we established the State of Israel "to be a free people in our land" - and, oh, the horror of it! here, too, we are deported because we are Jews. This time it is not the Romans who are committing the crime, but our Jewish brothers! This is a crime for which there can be no atonement.
The late Shmuel Shnitzer already wrote about this in 1990, in an article in Maariv (February 23, 1990) entitled "The Racists": If we are the people of the Bible, if "the Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people" (in the words of the Israeli Proclamation of Independence), if this land is the land of the dreams, longings, and prayers of the people of Israel throughout all the generations of its exile and dispersion, how is it possible to determine, specifically now, that some areas are outside the bounds of the Children of Israel? In the places where the residence of Jews must be stopped, in the past the kings of Israel were enthroned, the prophets of Israel delivered their message of morality and justice, the freedom fighters of Israel shed their blood in the defense of their homeland. And there, of all the lands in the world, will be established the only area in the modern world in which the residence of Jews will be prohibited? I do not think that discrimination against Jews and the determination of areas within the Land of Israel as Judenrein, in which Jews may not live, becomes more respectable due to the fact that some Jews consent to this. For me, the true nature of all the restrictions of the "except for Jews" type is not in question. Whoever champions them, whoever preaches on their behalf, whoever bases his political theory on them, has to be capable of explaining why this anti-Jewish discrimination is any better or more valid than the old type that the world vomited up in revulsion 45 years ago.
Accordingly, in order to upset the entire system, I wrote what I did to Bassi. Since I have learned from the Internet that I might shortly have to undergo questioning by the police for my statements, I therefore wish to defend my letter, and show that there is nothing wrong, or inciting, in the epithets and the comparison that I used. I will show that it is not I who should be put on trial, but other prominent public figures.
My use of the word "Judenrat" and my stating to Bassi that "you are worse than the Judenrat of that time" resulted in two types of harsh criticism directed against me by the media and by the establishment. The first charge raised against me is that the use of Holocaust terminology is unfit and forbidden. The second, that my letter constitutes incitement to harm Bassi.