The suppressed Arte antisemitism documentary in historic perspective
The initial suppression by the public and EU-subsidized French-German Arte TV station of a documentary about European antisemitism fits well into a lengthy history of hiding information about Jew-hatred and its perpetrators in Europe. Three extreme such cases since the beginning of this century that are discussed below illustrate a far more general phenomenon.Commentary on anti-Semitism film offends German Jews
After the beginning of the Second Intifada in autumn 2000, there was a major outbreak of antisemitism in Western Europe. The first country where this manifested itself was France. Many of the violent antisemitic incidents were caused by Muslims. The then-Socialist government of prime minister Lionel Jospin did not want to admit the facts, let alone identify the community of the main perpetrators.
French sociologist Shmuel Trigano related that antisemitic violence went largely unreported by both the press and public authorities for several months. The police categorized many of the incidents as “hooliganism.” We now understand that in those years the mental infrastructure for the sizable emigration of French Jews in recent years was created.
Another important case which elucidates the same “hiding truth policy’” occurred when the European Monitoring Center for Racism and Xenophobia – an EU agency since replaced by the Fundamental Rights Agency – asked the then 15 EU member states to report on antisemitic violence and viewpoints in 2002. The information the European Monitoring Center obtained was passed on to ZfA, the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University in Berlin, with the request to analyze the data.
An American scholar, Amy Elman, analyzed how this issue developed in her 2015 book, The European Union, Anti-Semitism, and the Politics of Denial. She said in an interview: “The Zfa completed its document in October 2003. It found that violent attacks against Jews often rose from virulent anti-Zionism across the political spectrum. Moreover, it specifically identified young Muslims of Arab descent as the main perpetrators of physical attacks against Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues. Many were victims of racism and social exclusion themselves.”
The European Monitoring Center decided not to publish the Zfa report, claiming that it was not meant for publication. Zfa responded that the frequent mention of Muslim perpetrators of antisemitism and anti-Zionist attacks was what had put off the European Monitoring Center. The Zfa also made public that the European Monitoring Center repeatedly asked it to change its findings, which it refused to do.
This shelving of the report and the reaction of the Zfa led to a scandal. The World Jewish Congress then published the Zfa’s unchanged report on the Internet.
A documentary on modern-day anti-Semitism in Europe, which public television stations in Germany originally refused to broadcast, continued to generate controversy even after German networks yielded to public pressure and broadcast the film on Wednesday evening.Hypocrisy: Amazon Removes ‘Palestinian History’ Book, Keeps Selling ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’
After the German daily Bild posted the documentary "Chosen and Excluded -- The Hate for Jews in Europe" on its website for 24 hours, the German ARD network decided to broadcast the film, but only after making the filmmaker promise to include "corrections" and appear on air for a discussion after it was screened.
Most of the participants in the post-broadcast panel characterized the documentary as "pro-Israel propaganda" and as a distorted view of reality.
The film was broadcast with a ticker running across the bottom of the screen that directed viewers to the TV station's website, where they could review "comments" about its content.
The Jewish community in Germany was outraged on Thursday at how the documentary had been presented.
"This is a complete scandal," one leading figure in the community told Israel Hayom.
"The message that accompanied the film, and in the discussion that followed, was 'don't believe what you see,'" the community leader said. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
There’s no shortage of hypocrisy coming out of Amazon right now.
The book, “A History of the Palestinian People: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era,” by Assaf A. Voll, that quite accurately described the ancient history of the “Palestinian” people with 132 blank pages, has been removed from Amazon.
It reached a remarkable ranking of 341 in the All Books category, a ranking of 49 in History, and was #1 in Middle East History.
Hundreds of copies were sold over the past few days, and it had hundreds of positive comments. Readers knew exactly what they were buying.
But anti-Zionist readers began posting comments demanding the book be removed, and clearly Amazon listened.
On Amazon’s “CreateSpace” it says “the title has been retired and is no longer for sale.”
In the meantime, Amazon continues to sell T-Shirts that erase the Jewish State and replace it with “Palestine”. Now that’s a call for genocide.
You can also buy the anti-Semitic classic “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” on Amazon. (h/t Elder of Lobby)