http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti
On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Afthab Ellath <aftha...@gmail.com> wrote: > Israel’s propaganda war > Blame the Grand Mufti > Many Israelis and Palestinians would like peaceful coexistence, but myths, > propaganda and denial have a habit of getting in the way > by Gilbert Achcar > > Israel’s propaganda war with the Palestinians and the Arab world has > intensified in recent years, and partisans of both sides in Europe and the > US have been active in this. Israel needs to cultivate the support of the > West to survive, so this aspect of the conflict has always been of crucial > importance. > > Israel’s image in the West first suffered significantly during the invasion > of Lebanon in 1982. The long siege of Beirut, the massacres in the > Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila, perpetrated while Israel looked on, > shocked the world. The impact of these events, comparable to that of the > Vietnam war on the US, is still felt even in Israel > (1<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb1> > ). > > Between the invasion of Lebanon and the start of the first intifada (at the > end of 1987), Israel’s “new historians” > (2<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb2>) > re-examined the central myths of Zionist ideology critically, and their > rewriting of the story of Israel’s origins gave rise to the small but > significant movement of “post-Zionism”. But it failed to prevent a gradual > ideological shift to the right in Israeli society, the premature collapse of > the Oslo accords and the emergence of an aggressive “neo-Zionism”. According > to the Israeli sociologist Uri Ram, “post-Zionism is citizen-oriented, > supporting equal rights, and in that sense favouring a state of all its > citizens within the boundaries of the Green Line [the border between Israel > and the West Bank prior to the 1967 war], universal and global. Neo-Zionism > is particularist, tribal, Jewish, ethnic nationalist, fundamentalist and > even fascist on the fringe” > (3<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb3> > ). > > Israel’s sabotage of the peace talks, its rapid colonisation of the > occupied Palestinian territories and its deadly incursions into Lebanon > (2006) and Gaza (2008-9) worsened the deterioration of its image. In an > attempt to halt this decline, the Israeli authorities, and their > unconditional supporters in the West, continue to invoke the memory of the > Holocaust in the hope that it will legitimise their actions > (4<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb4> > ). > > They have also attempted to implicate the Palestinians and the Arabs in the > Nazi genocide. The Zionist authorities started accusing the Grand Mufti of > Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini > (5<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb5>) > soon after 1945. A figurehead of Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s and > 1930s, he was exiled from Palestine by the British in 1937. After a short > time in Iraq, he joined the Axis cause in 1941 and spent the war in Berlin > and Rome, contributing actively to the propaganda efforts of the Axis > powers, helping to set up Bosnian Muslim units of the German Waffen-SS – > which did not, however, commit any acts of anti-semitic violence. > A propaganda puppet > > Even before his exile, Husseini had been discredited in the Arab world, if > not in Palestine, and his exhortations to join the Axis cause made little > impression. According to a US military historian, only 6,300 soldiers from > Arab countries passed through German military organisations – 1,300 from > Palestine, Syria and Iraq, the rest from North Africa. The British army was > able to recruit 9,000 Arab soldiers from Palestine alone while 250,000 North > African troops served in the French Army of Liberation and accounted for the > majority of its dead and wounded > (6<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb6> > ). > > But the Zionists claimed the mufti was an official representative of the > Palestinians and Arabs and in 1945 demanded (without success) that he be > handed over to the international military tribunal at Nuremberg, as if he > had been a key part of the Nazi genocide machine. Articles, pamphlets and > books were produced to present Husseini as a candidate for prosecution. The > mufti served a symbolic purpose, allowing the Zionists to claim that the > Palestinians shared responsibility for the genocide, and justify the > creation of a “Jewish state” on the territory of their homeland. > > This motive became a constant in the propaganda of the state of Israel. It > explains the extraordinary importance accorded to the mufti in the Holocaust > memorial museum, in Jerusalem. Tom Segev observes that the wall dedicated to > al-Husseini gives the impression of a convergence between the Nazis’ > genocide plans and Arab hostility towards Israel. Peter Novick points out > that the entry on the mufti in the *Encyclopedia of the Holocaust*, > published in association with Yad Vashem (the Holocaust remembrance > authority), is much longer than those on Himmler, Goebbels or Eichmann, and > only a little shorter than that on Hitler > (7<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb7> > ). > > Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 there have been many > publications claiming that Jews in Palestine in 1948 faced the threat of > genocide. They suggest that the Arabs were (and still are) moved by the same > hatred of Jews as the Nazis, meaning that the expulsion of the Palestinians > when the state of Israel was created – and their continued subjugation by > Israel – should be regarded as legitimate acts of self-defence. > > Two books, by Klaus-Michael Mallman and Martin Cüppers > (8<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb8>), > and by Jeffrey Herf (9 <http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb9>), > appear to be serious works as they are based on studies of Nazi, American > and British archives, but the authors know very little about the Arab world > and do not speak Arabic. An excellent collection of critiques of Mallman and > Cüppers’ work appears in the Auschwitz Foundation’s review *Témoigner: > Entre Histoire et Mémoire* (Bearing Witness: Between History and Memory), > in which Dominique Trimbur observes that their book is part of “a historic > trend marked by the spirit of the time in which it was written – the early > 2000s. The whole argument lacks subtlety, especially when the authors refer > to ‘the Arabs’ and ‘the Muslim world’, generalisations typified by the > reproduction, or deliberate appropriation of the expression ‘clash of > civilisations’.” > > In response, two contradictory trends have emerged on the Arab side: one is > the comparison of Israel’s actions to Nazism, the other is Holocaust denial. > Sign of exasperation > > That many Arabs can hold these contradictory positions is a clear > indication that they are trying to compensate for an inability to respond > effectively to real violence by resorting to symbolic violence. Iran is > attempting to use this tide of reactive and emotional denial in vying with > Saudi Arabia for the affections of Sunni Arab Muslims. > > In reality, those in the Arab world who seriously support the arguments of > western Holocaust denial – “the anti-Zionism of fools”, to paraphrase August > Bebel’s famous remark that anti-semitism was “the socialism of fools” – are > a tiny minority. In most cases, denialist attitudes stem from exasperation. > This much is suggested by opinion polls among Palestinians in Israel, the > Arab population best informed about the Holocaust, a subject thoroughly > covered by the school syllabus in Israel > (10<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb10>). > A first poll conducted by the University of Haifa in 2006 found, to general > surprise, that 28% of all Arabs in Israel denied the Holocaust, the > percentage being higher among the best educated > (11<http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb11>). > Two years later, against escalating violence, the same poll found a denial > rate of 40% (12 <http://mondediplo.com/2010/05/14blamethemufti#nb12>). > > The current situation makes dialogue and communication seem more impossible > than ever. Yet anyone familiar with the irreconcilable differences that > separated Israelis and Arabs in the decades leading up to 1948 and 1967, > will realise that many more Arabs and Palestinians today are able to > contemplate peaceful coexistence with their Israeli neighbours, and far more > Israelis acknowledge that their country is guilty of persecuting the > Palestinians. We must hope that the region will avoid a new catastrophe – > the common meaning of *shoah* and *nakba*. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to greenyo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
