Can you imagine anything more ludicrous? At a time when over a million Palestinians are under siege from Israel, when hunger stalks the streets and fighter planes soar over the horizon, we are asked to sign a petition in solidarity with two well known anti-Semites – Gilad Atzmon and Mary Rizzo!
Petition: for two activists… that you know well
Still it is true that we know them well!
This petition is a sign of the desperation of Atzmon that people have started to wake up to what he and his groupie Rizzo stand for. In particular they have been rebuffed by Ireland PSC.
The Cork Database bio for Tony Greenstein was defaced by Atzmon supporter Paul de Rooij, a self-styled journalist who produces no copy of consequence. Rooij landed a role as editor of the database which is run by UCC Cork PSC (despite him living in London). As part of Cork PSC which is affiliated to Ireland PSC which was therefore affected by this action.
Earlier this week, the offending comments of Rooij were relegated to well-deserved obscurity being buried within the article alongside critical comments concerning what had happened. Atzmon & Rizzo got the message – that wherever they surface anti-racist and democratic elements would be shining the light on them.
Which is why various right-wing conspiracy sites have taken up the petition, most of them not having a single comment beneath, such is the enthusiasm for this initiative. E-mails have been sent far and wide, which is how we came to learn of this little initiative. And of course it is now the main story on Rizzo’s anti-Semitic PeacePalestine sewer.
The final paragraph of this pathetic ‘petition’ begins ‘We also take the opportunity to condemn the strangling siege that is being imposed over the Gaza Strip…’
And that is what it is about. The siege of Palestine is an afterthought for these people. Solidarity with Atzmon’s ego and his one-man fan club Rizzo is what it’s all about. Those who have put their name to the petition should seriously ask themselves whether they believe that supporting holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is the best way to go about supporting the Palestinians.
Atzmon first came to our attention when defending another open anti-semite and holocaust denier, Israel Shamir or Jermas the Swedish fascist. There is little doubt that Shamir, who has repeatedly lied about his background, is an Israeli state agent. The fact that Atzmon has risked all to support him must raise doubts about
what his real agenda is about.
Those Palestinians who have signed this petition in the belief that they are somehow supporting their sisters and brothers in Palestine should think again. They wouldn’t want to think, in years to come, that what they really signed was a petition in support of Israeli agent(s).
No such justification attaches to Oren Ben-Dor, law lecturer at Southampton University who has knowingly signed an anti-Semitic petition. He is well aware that Atzmon attributes the crimes of Zionism to ‘Jewishness’ rather than imperialism or colonialism. In so doing Atzmon merely reflects the racism of Zionism which also attributes to Arabs various racial qualities.
