Hate Speech or Free Speech?
Here is the story of why Adbusters has been blacklisted:
A walled off ghetto, an occupying military that controls the entry of food and daily necessities, desperate attempts by hungry civilians to smuggle commodities through tunnels, and punitive collective punishment against all those who resist … there are never-to-be-forgotten differences, of course, but also some striking similarities between the Warsaw ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II and the open air prison of Gaza in Israeli-occupied Palestine today. And yet the Canadian Jewish Congress is accusing Adbusters of anti-Semitism for making this historical comparison, and it has successfully lobbied one of Canada's biggest pharmacy chains to remove Adbusters magazine from its shelves.
Now there's a meme war brewing in one of Canada's national newspapers:
Canadian Jewish Congress attacks Adbusters on October 22
Adbusters fights back on November 2
As any pro-peace activist knows, the pro-Israel lobby has a sordid history of using the charge of anti-Semitism to silence criticism of Israeli policies. Even President Carter was smeared because he dared speak of the "abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank".
But the use of cluster bombs on civilians in Lebanon in the closing days of the last Israeli incursion there, the wholesale deaths of noncombatants in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the extrajudicial assassination in Dubai last January, the killing of protesters aboard the Mavi Marmara this summer, the ongoing construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and the hate speech of Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, have changed the way the world now looks at Israel. This is fast morphing into a meme war that the Israeli PR machine can no longer win and this more than anything may finally bring Israel to the peace negotiation table in good faith.
Check out the Canadian Journalism Project's article "Adbusters, ghettoes and Shoppers: Anti-semitism or free speech?" and The Canadian Charger's "Canada's Adbusters Magazine and the Israeli Lobby".
If you think that publishing side-by-side images of the Gaza and Warsaw ghettos is a valid expression of free speech, send an email to Shoppers Drug Mart’s CEO Jürgen Schreiber – [email protected] and [email protected] – and tell him that you are boycotting his store until Adbusters is back on the shelves. Be polite but clear. Then send a note to the Canadian Jewish Congress – www.cjc.ca/about-cjc/staff/ – reminding them that in a free country we debate rather than censor.
232 comments on the article “Hate Speech or Free Speech?”
Displaying 21 - 30 of 232
Page 3 of 24
Anonymous
No, but they did have the Warshaw Ghetto Uprising. A bit confused ... if they did fight back does it make it worst or better?
Anonymous
No, but they did have the Warshaw Ghetto Uprising. A bit confused ... if they did fight back does it make it worst or better?
Anonymous
if they had the means, would they have in that situation?
Anonymous
if they had the means, would they have in that situation?
Anonymous
"Shoppers" is one of those stores that bombards the customer with audio and visual ads while you are in the store. Not content that the consumer is ALREADY in their store - they pile on yet more irritating sensory crap while you are searching for your product (adding ASA to your list because of the headache created by the in-store ads). For that reason alone I stopped shopping there years ago.
Also - like most oligopoly lead retailers (i.e. Home Depot, Cdn-Tire etc) their prices are higher (& not lower) than the smaller and less polished outfits.
This roll-over to the CJC - however - is another reason never to return.
Anonymous
"Shoppers" is one of those stores that bombards the customer with audio and visual ads while you are in the store. Not content that the consumer is ALREADY in their store - they pile on yet more irritating sensory crap while you are searching for your product (adding ASA to your list because of the headache created by the in-store ads). For that reason alone I stopped shopping there years ago.
Also - like most oligopoly lead retailers (i.e. Home Depot, Cdn-Tire etc) their prices are higher (& not lower) than the smaller and less polished outfits.
This roll-over to the CJC - however - is another reason never to return.
judith bell
Unbelievable! You should be so ashamed. How can you compare the trucks of aid that enter Gaza with the 250 calories a day fed to the people of Warsaw with the intent of starving them? Are you seriously saying the goal of Israel is to starve the people of Gaza to death? Can you explain the population increases of that population vs the annihilation of all the people of Warsaw.
How about the points of entrance? Why can't these people go through Egypt.
As well, Israel treats many of the sick of Gaza, something that when it does not happen enough the Gazans complain about.
Your article is simply a big lie. To compare the humanitarian aid - there was none in Warsaw,; the goal of annihilating the people - excuse me but it is Hamas who calls for the death of every Jew in the world; to forget and discount the Jewish people who live on the border of Gaza and suffered a decade of relentless bombardment and compare them to Jewish innocents who hurt no one and were not politicized; TO HAVE LIED TO THE U.S. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TO GET THEIR IMAGES AND TO IGNORE THEIR CEASE AND DESIST ORDER.
You use words to compare the incomparable.
The worst part however is how comfortable you are with the death of Jews. Hamas' war against the Jews is of no interest to you. You have no care or sympathy for people who continue to live with constant missiles. You don't care about the victims of the Sbarro Pizza shop bombing or the buses in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the kids now dead who stood outside of the Dolpharium discotheque in Israel. How much ink did you spill for them?
I don't approve of the blockade because I think it is stupid. But I also don't approve of Hamas calling for the death of all Jews, burning Christian institutes or still refusing - as you clearly do - the existence of a Jewish state. I don't approve either of the 800,000 Jews thrown out of every Muslim land or that Jews can not today ever live freely or comfortably in a huge part of the world.
I am sure however you have no problem with any of that.
Just curious, however. In your world when the Palestinian and his 200 descendants go back to their exact home of 123 Main Street, do you think he and his family will now have prosperity? What natural resources will he suddenly have? If a Jewish family lives there and the man is a lawyer and the wife a genetic researcher, will the now 201 residents who live there get their lifestyle? What exactly will this couple have taken from the land that makes it necessary for these people to go back to this exact spot?
As well, the Jews have 1/6th of 1% of the Middle East, the part with no resources, so what percentage is ok for them? And when will the Palestinians have enough room? Israel took in all the Jews thrown out of Arab land. What swap will there be for the land they gave up?
My fictitious couple are descendants of refugees from Libya and Egypt.
Any room for the Jews anywhere? How about resettlement on the moon?
Oh right, would you agree to similar re-settlements of populations.
I just read that when the Soviet Union invaded the Kurile Islands and took them from Japan after WWII, they expelled the Islands' whole population and settled Russians. Can we have a re-do there? And also with respect to all the rest of the Russian population moved into communities in the Soviet Union and the 14 million Germans thrown from their homes in Europe.
Yes, I know the establishment of every other country was different. All other refugee issues were different. This situation and the rules which govern it apply uniquely to the Jews - sort of like Nuremburg.
Now let's see if you even publish this!
judith bell
Unbelievable! You should be so ashamed. How can you compare the trucks of aid that enter Gaza with the 250 calories a day fed to the people of Warsaw with the intent of starving them? Are you seriously saying the goal of Israel is to starve the people of Gaza to death? Can you explain the population increases of that population vs the annihilation of all the people of Warsaw.
How about the points of entrance? Why can't these people go through Egypt.
As well, Israel treats many of the sick of Gaza, something that when it does not happen enough the Gazans complain about.
Your article is simply a big lie. To compare the humanitarian aid - there was none in Warsaw,; the goal of annihilating the people - excuse me but it is Hamas who calls for the death of every Jew in the world; to forget and discount the Jewish people who live on the border of Gaza and suffered a decade of relentless bombardment and compare them to Jewish innocents who hurt no one and were not politicized; TO HAVE LIED TO THE U.S. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM TO GET THEIR IMAGES AND TO IGNORE THEIR CEASE AND DESIST ORDER.
You use words to compare the incomparable.
The worst part however is how comfortable you are with the death of Jews. Hamas' war against the Jews is of no interest to you. You have no care or sympathy for people who continue to live with constant missiles. You don't care about the victims of the Sbarro Pizza shop bombing or the buses in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the kids now dead who stood outside of the Dolpharium discotheque in Israel. How much ink did you spill for them?
I don't approve of the blockade because I think it is stupid. But I also don't approve of Hamas calling for the death of all Jews, burning Christian institutes or still refusing - as you clearly do - the existence of a Jewish state. I don't approve either of the 800,000 Jews thrown out of every Muslim land or that Jews can not today ever live freely or comfortably in a huge part of the world.
I am sure however you have no problem with any of that.
Just curious, however. In your world when the Palestinian and his 200 descendants go back to their exact home of 123 Main Street, do you think he and his family will now have prosperity? What natural resources will he suddenly have? If a Jewish family lives there and the man is a lawyer and the wife a genetic researcher, will the now 201 residents who live there get their lifestyle? What exactly will this couple have taken from the land that makes it necessary for these people to go back to this exact spot?
As well, the Jews have 1/6th of 1% of the Middle East, the part with no resources, so what percentage is ok for them? And when will the Palestinians have enough room? Israel took in all the Jews thrown out of Arab land. What swap will there be for the land they gave up?
My fictitious couple are descendants of refugees from Libya and Egypt.
Any room for the Jews anywhere? How about resettlement on the moon?
Oh right, would you agree to similar re-settlements of populations.
I just read that when the Soviet Union invaded the Kurile Islands and took them from Japan after WWII, they expelled the Islands' whole population and settled Russians. Can we have a re-do there? And also with respect to all the rest of the Russian population moved into communities in the Soviet Union and the 14 million Germans thrown from their homes in Europe.
Yes, I know the establishment of every other country was different. All other refugee issues were different. This situation and the rules which govern it apply uniquely to the Jews - sort of like Nuremburg.
Now let's see if you even publish this!
Anonymous
While the side-by-side isn't directly anti-Semitic, the comparison is certainly insidious and incitant.
Anonymous
While the side-by-side isn't directly anti-Semitic, the comparison is certainly insidious and incitant.
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