The most expensive, expansive anti-Israel initiative just ended - and no one noticed (update)

This weekend was the final session of the "Russell Tribunal on Palestine."

"Jury"

Founded four years ago, the "tribunal" was from the start meant to be a kangaroo court to damn Israel. Using rabid Israel-haters like Roger Waters, Cynthia McKinney, Ronnie Kasrils and a host of others to lend it legitimacy, it would hold sessions in different cities and pretend to call "witnesses" to be evaluated by "jurors" who were all in on the scam from the start.

It held its first session in Barcelona in 2010 and from there went to London, Cape Town and New York, each time receiving less and less coverage.

This weekend, the "tribunal" wrapped up its pre-determined findings in Brussels. What was supposed to be its crowning achievement ended with barely a whisper, as there has been literally no news coverage of its final weekend.

I tuned into their webcast this morning to see that the final session had less than three dozen viewers - worldwide.

Keep in mind that this effort at delegitimizing Israel has cost hundreds of thousands of euros. Their budget for the Cape Town session alone was €190,000, so almost certainly the entire sorry exercise cost close to a million euros, paid by far-left anti-Israel extremists.

For all that money, effort and attempts to recruit D-list celebrities, the only articles about the sessions themselves can be found in the echo chamber of the anti-Israel sites like Mondoweiss. Even 972mag and Electronic Intifada criticized the sessions, for differing reasons.

This weekend, the final session wasn't even mentioned by Mondoweiss either!

The Zionist community gets upset, and rightly so, at these constant attempts to delegitimize Israel. We are so often on the defensive that we don't always notice that the haters generally have very little support outside their own circles.

In this case, however, the "Russell Tribunal on Palestine" was by any yardstick an expensive, time consuming, epic failure.

UPDATE: AFP did decide to do a generic story. Its best quote comes at the end:

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP: "They can write what they like, they only represent themselves. It's a private body with no legal or political weight and has moral weight only among its members."

"It has no political or legal significance, it is an ideological and propaganda document that people write for their like-minded friends."