tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post490008695965463700..comments2024-03-28T04:26:49.354+00:00Comments on Tony Greenstein's Blog: Irwing Cotler Retracts Accusation that anti-Zionism = anti-SemitismTony Greensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-11469881080382247422011-07-11T04:20:50.476+01:002011-07-11T04:20:50.476+01:00This doesn't contradict the thrust of the arti...This doesn't contradict the thrust of the article, that Cotler accepts that it is not automatically anti-Semitic to label Israel as it is, an apartheid state.<br /><br />It isn't to suggest that Cotler has therefore become an anti-Zionist but he, like a few others, has woken up to the diminishing returns from calling everyone you disagree with an 'anti-Semite'.<br /><br />Cotler thinks it is 'demeaning' to compare the Israel and South African apartheid state. Why one sonders. How is is 'demeaning' to point out that half Israel's Arabs live in unrecognised villages, that land is confiscated from Arabs for the benefit of Jewish settlers, never the other way around, that Arab babies are denied accept to kindergartens because they are not Jewish, that jobs are reserved for Jews only (it used to be called the colour bar) etc. etc.<br /><br />If Cotler wasn't such a hypocrite he would accept that the Israeli state, in becoming the main arms supplier to Apartheid South Africa, by defying the boycott of South Africa (which included its 'trade union' Histadrut whose companies traded and even formed joint companies with South African ones, and of course the invitation in 1976 under a 'Labour' Zionsit government to John Vorster, South Africa's PM who was interned for his overt support for the Nazis during the war, demonstrated very clearly what kind of anti-Apartheid struggle Cotler was engaged in.<br /><br />The reality is that Cotler has linked up with NGO Monitor and Camera, who are dedicated opponents of free speech, on campus and in support of the Palestinians (to the extent of trying to deprive human rights groups of funding) is a nasty right-winger who used an undeserved reputation for concern with racism and human rights to legitimsie his support for another apartheid state.Tony Greensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14300640929161205370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640441812647446166.post-82723865218531227962011-07-11T03:44:05.127+01:002011-07-11T03:44:05.127+01:00COTLER: the indictment of Israel as an apartheid s...COTLER: the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state is false, defamatory and hateful<br /><br />LETTER TO THE EDITOR (Haaretz July 8)<br /><br />Your headline in the article "Canadian MP Cotler: Calling Israel an apartheid state can be legitimate free speech" - as well as the inappropriate juxtaposition of disparate comments - suggest that the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state can be legitimate free speech. As all of my writing, my talk at the President's Conference and my follow up interview with Ha'aretz make clear: the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state is false, defamatory and hateful, but the right to be wrong, defamatory and hateful - however offensive it may be, can nevertheless be an exercise in free speech. Simply put, the fact that the indictment is hateful - and may cross the line into being anti-Semitic when it calls for the dismantling of the State - does not mean that we should prohibit the hateful speech to begin with. It means, as I said in the interview, that we need to engage it, expose it, rebut it and thereby "delegitimize the delegitimizers" - not prevent their delegitimizing speech to begin with. The main theme in my writings - and in the interview - was regrettably not referenced in the article itself: that the real concern is not the phenomenon of the delegitimization of Israel. That has always been with us - what is new, and particularly offensive, is the laundering of the delegitimization of Israel under all that which is good, for example: the struggle against racism, international law, human rights, and the like. The result is not only prejudicial to the State of Israel - as in the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state or the singling out of Israel for differential and discriminatory treatment in the international arena- but prejudicial to the case and cause of the struggle against racism and human rights. To label Israel an apartheid state demeans the real struggle against apartheid - in which I was honoured to be at the forefront - as much as it falsely misrepresents Israel, however one may criticize Israeli policy and practice. <br />Irwin Cotler<br />Montreal, Quebec, CanadaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com