Next week Amnesty International is staging two events in London to demonise Israel’s security barrier: an art exhibition and the launch of a book which collects images of graffiti sprayed on the barrier. Between them these two events will bring together some of the worst elements of Britain’s Israel-bashers: ghastly self-indulgence, wilful dishonesty and a shameless contempt for the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Lets deal with the self-indulgence first. It is so easy for your Amnesty type to be a fan of graffiti because few of them live in areas that are decimated by vandalism and therefore they rarely understand that it is the ordinary man and woman who pays – via increased council tax - to have it cleaned up. It’s not so easy to marvel at ‘groovy’ graffiti when it’s on your own doorstep.
Even the Palestinians have taken issue with it. When the childish graffiti guru ‘Banksy’ first travelled to paint on the security barrier he set off full of enthusiasm, describing his trip to the West Bank as “the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers”. But the wind got taken out of his sails when a furious Palestinian approached him at the barrier. “You’ve made it look beautiful,” the man told him. “Oh, thanks,” replied Banksy. Angrily, the Palestinian explained: “We don’t want it to look beautiful. We hate it. Go home!”
The dishonesty of Amnesty’s criticism is fulsome. It begins with the very word they use to describe it – the “wall”. Only around three per cent of it could sensibly be described as a wall. This is around the same percentage of the English population that is between the ages of five and seven years old. So in reality the barrier is as much a ‘wall’ as England is a country populated by five-to-seven year olds. But, as so often happens, when it comes to criticism of Israel any slur will do.
Just as they lie, so do they ignore obvious facts: that most of the barrier conforms to the ‘green line’; that many Palestinian farmers have successfully petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to have parts of it moved; that almost every country in the world has borders and many have walls too, from Saudi Arabia to America. What is it about this ‘wall’ that uniquely offends them? That it has so effectively saved Jewish lives?
I hope that’s not it, of course. But until any of the barrier’s bitter opponents manage an even half-sensible suggestion as how to stop suicide attacks on Israel in its absence, we will have to wonder. Before it was constructed there was regular bloodshed in Israel. Over a thousand Israelis were murdered or severely injured in suicide attacks in the six years leading to its completion. There has been a reduction of over 90 per cent in such deaths as a result of the barrier. If the barrier were torn down then not only would deaths of Israeli civilians rise, so too would deaths of Palestinians because there would be inevitable responses to any new terror attacks.
When I’ve seen Palestinians being detained as they cross the barrier and other checkpoints I’ve felt sad for them. When I’ve seen Israeli school-buses ripped to pieces along with the bodies of the children they once contained, I’ve felt absolutely sickened. I have nothing but contempt for the people who are so bitterly opposed to the temporary measure that has effectively and peacefully stopped this sort of thing from happening.
It is no coincidence that efforts to delegitimize Israel have been stepped up since the construction of the barrier. Starved of the ability to destroy Israel with bombs, its enemies are now determined to destroy it with lies. We need to respond to this tactic here just as Israel responded to the suicide bombings over there: with zero tolerance.
The above is my latest column for Jewish News. You can read the paper online here. Please note Jonathan Hoffman’s comment below about how you can help defend Israel from Amnesty’s distortions.
Great, great article!
Sharing on my Facebook
Thanks Chas.
I need people to help with giving out fliers outside these London Amnesty events (close to Liverpool St Stn) and (ideally) to engage people in debate. The lunchtime shift is 12-2, the afternoon shift 4-6. I need people on June 3rd (4-6); 4th both slots; 7th both slots; 8th 4-6; 9th both slots; 10th 12-2; 11th both slots. (No-one will be working alone).
As Chas says, on 10 June at 7pm there is a book launch talk which will demonise the security barrier. Please register (via Amnesty website) for the talk, to rebut lies and ask questions.
You can contact me via the JC website; via the ZF website; or via Chas.
Speaking of Facebook, seen there today: “A fence is not a human rights violation. Terrorism is.”
Forgot to say – great piece!
Thanks v much. It’s an important issue.
So good a piece that I have shared this page on my FB wall so that others can see it too.
Thanks Jonathan.
Fantastic piece Chas: thank you! Concise, cogent and direct. Have no Facebook (!) but am tweeting it!
Interesting and thought provoking post. A couple of picky points:
* The graffiti on the “wall” can only exist if there is a “wall” to graffiti on.
* Isn’t the bit of the “wall” that is actually a wall, accurately described by the word “wall”? So there IS a wall. Just as there ARE kids aged between 5-7 in England.
No one, certainly not Chas, said there isn’t a wall – just that the percentage of the barrier that is actually wall as opposed to a fence is only 3% – which makes the outcry against it, as if it is a solid 700 km long Berlin Wall, so hypocritical.
Chas, if you hate graffiti so much why don’t you go and protest against the Berlin Wall exhibit at the Imperial War Museum.
You clearly have no interest in engaging with arguments about what the implications of the ‘wall’ are for neighbourhoods such as B’ilin, you’re happier to just evoke stereotypes about Amnesty International patrons – fairly sad really in my view.
You’re living in the desert of the real, blud.
Anyway I feel like asking you about something you’re more qualified to comment on – what is Simon Cowell’s favourite type of custard?
Anyway I feel like asking you about something you’re more qualified to comment on – what is Simon Cowell’s favourite type of custard?
Not sure, but I hear sour grapes are quite popular.
An offally good comeback there.
You’re not so bad yourself!
You certainly live up to your chosen nickname
Also, it’s frankly amazing that you consider an old man Banksy has written about in a collection of his work to be ‘Palestinians’. You’re clearly a fan of pluralism, ha ha.
“that most of the barrier conforms to the ‘green line’;”
Couple of points about that:
1) Jews living legally inside Judea and Samaria are also entitled to state protection.
2) Israel should adhere to the principle of land for peace – when the Arabs make peace, Israel can return to its owners any privately owned Arab land currently used for the security fence/wall.
Well done Chas – eloquent, unanswerable and powerful.
There is an excellent PowerPoint presentation about the different “separation walls” around the world. The only one that arouses any controversy is the Israeli “wall” – as Chas says, apparently because its objective is to save Jewish lives.
Go to this French-language site http://www.amram.tw/ and scroll down to the bottom, click on the English flag for an English-language presentation. Quite an eye-opener and lots of ammunition to counter the Amnesty liars.
Ah yes, those dastardly liars from Amnesty International, going around demonizing military organizations. Pah!
William Parry is the speaker at Amnesty on 10th June (it is his book that is being launched).
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/12/william-parry-author-of-against-wall.html
Here he is speaking on PissTV. See if you can spot where he explains that the barrier was built to stop suicide bombers and save lives.
You can’t spot where he explains that the barrier was built to stop suicide bombers and save lives?
Neither can I…….
The set is absolutely ridiculous – like something from Brass Eye!
And oh how they miss the good old days, pre-barrier, when suicide bombers could, for instance, murder Holocaust survivors at a Passover Seder.
…yes, whereas now, post-barrier, religious fundamentalists from a Jewish background can also have a go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeev_Sternhell
I felt like making this point as it is of equal relevance to the issue of Amnesty International viz a viz zionism. (factional sarcasm)
More “whataboutary” from the aptly named wanker!
More shite words that have been made up by tiresome neoconservatives.
Volunteers to leaflet outside Amnesty next week can also contact me via Facebook.
The UK publisher of Parry’s “book” is Pluto Press. They specialise in publishing “books” that demonise Israel. They published Ben White’s farrago of defamation, which I demolished here:
http://blog.z-word.com/2009/07/lies-damn-lies-and-the-apartheid-analogy/
White has spoken at least three times at Amnesty in the past year and every time he sells this “book” there.
Well, after careful perusal of the above article kindly posted by that other great pluralist J Hoffman, I’ve completely changed my mind about everything related to Israel I’ve ever thought about. The evidence posted demonstrates very clearly that people who don’t like the effect of the security barrier also think that suicide bombing is good.
This has led me to revise my opinions about boycotting agricultural produce from the West Bank. Some Arabs are terrorists, therefore it’s a good idea to pay them very low wages. After all, Islam is not a race, it’s a religion. Mmm, I like eating olives.
B’tayavon!
Possibly come back when you’re sober?
Is a wanker also a tosser? I wasn’t sure it was the same thing? I do believe though that they are distant relatives of the fuck-wit family?
Olives anyone? Black or green?
“. . .that many Palestinian farmers have successfully petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to have parts of it moved;”
Interesting; I didn’t know that. Can you provide me the sources?
Example: 4 September 2007: Supreme Court ordered the army to change the route of the security barrier around Modi’in Illit.
Jonathan. You say that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the route of the wall had to be moved after Palestinian petitioning. Can you tell me if it actually was moved?
Fascinating piece Chas. Amnesty has never sat on the fence about Israel. Its anti-Israel bias has been obvious for years.
I like your name. Davey Crockett, of course, was quite an enthusiast for dispossessing and killing people on the basis of their ethnicity, a bit like, er,
Beautifully written Chas.
My partner and I were members of Amnesty International for years. During the second Intifada we resigned due to the organisation’s blatant anti-Israeli bias. I cannot tell you how galling it was to receive AI’s newsletters every month which totally ignored the fact that the human rights of Israelis were being violated on a daily basis by suicide bombers.
Obviously it is very difficult for many in the West to empathise with what we went through during those terrible years. I sincerely hope that they never find themselves in the same situation. If they ever did, I have a sneaky feeling that their reaction would be somewhat more than the building of an anti-terrorist fence.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=176596
Amnesty’s biased Annual Report released today:
“Jerusalem-based research organization NGO Monitor said that Amnesty International’s accusations are made with no credible evidence and are based on an “ideological bias” inherent in Amnesty’s work on Israel. “Amnesty’s annual report repeats the discredited allegations and distorted human rights rhetoric used to target Israel,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Accusations of ‘war crimes,’ ’indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians’ and ‘target[ing] and kill[ing] medical staff’ are made without any credible evidence and reflect the ideological bias that determines the content of Amnesty publications on Israel.” Steinberg said Amnesty exploits human rights principles to demonize Israel. “During the Gaza war, the entire population of Gaza was used by Hamas as a massive human shield, but since Amnesty ‘researchers’ did not hear this from frightened Palestinians, Hamas has been absolved. Similarly, Amnesty has erased all evidence that Gaza hospitals became shelters for Hamas leaders, that mosques were used for storing missiles and that tunnels are used to smuggle weapons. This systematic bias and lack of credibility forms the basis for the Goldstone report, and highlights Amnesty’s immoral exploitation of human rights principles in order to demonize Israel.””
William Parry you plonker. No breast beating, no anguish over why the wall was required in the 1st place. No condemnation over the plight of the victims/families and our need to have a coffee without being blown to bits. BTW I was coming in and out of the Pali territories in the 1990′s, believe me the way that had to be carried out then was much more inconvenient.
If the “wall” is only 3% actual wall (whats the reference for this?) then this is outrageous and a dereliction of duty by Natanyahu in failing to adequately protect the people of Israel..why have they not converted the other 97%? He should be replaced with somebody who actually cares about the security interests of israelis and not just posturing.
Not sure how to argue that one
. Good point N’go!