This is a cross-post by Dave Rich from the CST blog
Palestine Telegraph has published an article by Gilad Atzmon in which he defends Helen Thomas’s call for Israeli Jews to “go home to Poland, Germany, America and elsewhere.” The website’s editor, Sameh Habeeb, has previously denied allegations of antisemitism relating to comments he made to a Leeds student newspaper about who runs the media.
In the article, Atzmon describes Thomas’s suggestion as “the most reasonable and ethical” solution on offer for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because of the nature of “Jewish ideology” and “Jewish power”:
Most humanists seem to support the One State Solution, they are convinced that such a solution is fair and ethical. Again, I am rather perplexed here. As much as we accept that sharing the land is reasonable and ethical, it is completely foreign to Jewish ideology and Zionism in particular.
[…]
Seemingly, the Rabbi who assaulted Helen Thomas, is not impressed by Thomas’ solution. He was concerned about six million Jews who perished in Europe. Someone should remind the Rabbi that the European Judeocide has nothing to do with Palestine or the Palestinians. However, his own behaviour towards Thomas together with the Israeli repellent murderous behaviour in the high seas, in Palestine, and the Jewish lobbies around the world, all contribute together to a necessary revision of the notion of ‘Jewish suffering’ in history. At the end of the day, our vision of the past is constantly shaped by our present understandings.
Like the rest of humanity, Old Helen Thomas is tired of Jewish power and Israeli barbarism, she touched the nerve exactly where it hurts by saying the plain truth. “Get the hell out of Palestine”. Truth, it seems, echoes ethics and reason.
This article is consistent with Atzmon’s other writings, which are full of perjorative references to “Jewish power” and Jewish behaviour and thinking more generally. Atzmon has previously described himself as a “proud self-hating Jew”, endorsed the “prophetic qualities” of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and has been accused of dabbling in Holocaust denial. If you publish Atzmon, you know what you are getting.
Palestine Telegraph repeatedly publishes the most blatant Jewish conspiracy theories, antisemitic cartoons and other bigoted nonsense. You would be forgiven for wondering who would be happy being associated with such a website. One answer is to look at the patrons of Palestine Telegraph: former MP George Galloway, journalist Lauren Booth and European Parliament Vice-President Luisa Morgantini.
One former patron who did step down is Liberal Democrat Baroness Jenny Tonge, after Palestine Telegraph published a video by the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. However, Tonge’s apparent desire to distance herself has not lasted long. Just this week, Tonge sent a lengthy email to Palestine Telegraph describing a recent visit of hers to a United Nations conference on the Palestinians, with a copy of her speech for them to publish. Tonge’s speech is mostly about conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, but she can’t resist mentioning her favourite conspiracy theory:
We also know and I am more aware than most of the power of the Israel Lobby in the USA and UK. Any criticism of the Israeli Government is deemed to be anti Semitic, and politicians like me are harassed and driven out of positions of influence in all sorts of organisations and situations.
