This is a guest post by Stephen Hoffman
Here is my response to a critic of Israel, who after a Commentator blog praised Johannson, went on a rant of baseless lies.
“Saher, I believe in the two state solution and think Israel should get out of the West Bank. That said, have you actually visited Sodastream’s West Bank factory? I have, in December, and I spoke to the workers, the majority of whom (around 60%) are Palestinian. They say they get paid six times more than the Palestinian national average and thanks to them can help their families and help the Palestinian territories economically. They admit the jobs may not be the most interesting but it’s the best paid job around and they are certainly not exploited. Furthermore, when asked their opinion on boycotting Sodastream they are totally against it – because it’s their livelihood, so in fact your calls for boycotts would harm the Palestinians- would you want that? Moreover in the factory, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Israelis and Palestinians are all treated the same, it’s economic co-operation in practice, and a bridge for peace. Perhaps bother looking into the situation more, than just casting your personal prejudices based on little fact. Scarlett Johansson knows about Sodastream, George Mitchell, the peace negotiator who called it a bridge of peace, does too, as do the Palestinians working there who are better off because of it. You clearly, unfortunately, do not.
As for stealing organs, that’s a baseless lie promoted by people like the odious Baroness Tonge. It doesn’t help the Palestinians, but then you hate Israel more then you care for the Palestinians. Promoting baseless lies will not help form a Palestinian state, which I hope to see side by side with Israel, but promote Palestinian rejectionism and cause Israel to move further to the right.
As for the Zionist lobby balderdash, replace that word with Jew you have the classic Elders of Zion conspiracy that the Jews control the world and pay journalists and influential politicians to shut up. Complete rubbish of course. If people like me were controlling the world don’t you think we’d be doing a better job? Don’t you think antisemitism would be a thing of the past and that many people wouldn’t see Israel as the devil incarnate? If Zionists or Jews are controlling the world, we are not exactly doing a good job of it!
As for calls for Israel’s supporters to boycott Oxfam I don’t agree with that, but Johansson was right to show up Oxfam’s shallow position which actually harms Palestinians and the Palestinian economy and discourages economic co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians for what it is. It would have been far easier to have done a Stephen Hawking and supported BDS, which harms both Israel and Palestinians. Instead she showed courage and took the right path and should be applauded.
Oh and you finish with the chestnut about Stephen Hawking. Guess what, Hawking is wrong, the voice box which has helped significantly improve his life comes from Israel. Many lifesaving drugs come from Israel, instant messaging, voicemail, the Intel Pentium processor, and much more come from Israel. So by all means feel free to boycott Israel, but then I’d stop using your computer, eating certain food or talking on your mobile phone. Of course you could actually realise that overall, despite its faults, Israel is a force for good in the world, but I guess that would be too much like common sense!
