 | By Jonathan Hoffman
December 30, 2009 | Share |
George Galloway plumbed new depths of mendacity and nastiness with his column on 28 December (“Dark Echoes of the Holocaust”)
Recently Professor Hiss, a forensic scientist in Israel , has said that in 1990 body parts were removed from corpses without the permission of relatives. When precisely similar news emerged about the Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool in the UK, balanced newspaper articles were written about how to avoid a recurrence.
By contrast Galloway in the case of Israel makes hateful comparisons with the Nazi Dr Mengele and suggests that Hiss’s news confirms the story that appeared in Swedish media earlier this year, notably in the newspaper Aftonbladet. (Making Holocaust references in the context of Israel is anti-Semitic, see EUMC Definition of Antisemitism).
That is nonsense. The Aftonbladet article - a blood libel - suggested Israel was systematically murdering Palestinians and removing and then selling their body parts.
Galloway should be ashamed of himself. If he had any decency he would apologise – now. Even the Guardian apologised for headlining its Hiss story “ Israel admits harvesting Palestinian organs”!
(Harry's Place has also covered this story)
moshetzarfati2
30 December, 2009 - 22:04
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So what? Since everyone knows where Gorgeous stands on Israel, it would be surprising if he didn't make this kind of allegation. As for the EUMC, its working definition of antisemitism is "a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” No mention there of Israel, although as an example the EUMC says, fairly low down in its paper, that: "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis." No problem with that as it is just a less prosaic way of saying that Hitler shouldn't be granted a posthumous victory (the 614th commandment).
There is a bit of a problem in this whole EUMC definition and example lark inasmuch as it says that as an example it would be antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel. I have no problem with that, but the state of Israel and its propagandists should have one, since Netanyahu in his wisdom demands that the Palestinians and the rest of the world to recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people. This raises the issue of collectivism with which most non-Israeli Jews would have a problem (and could cause problems for them).