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 41 - 50 of 232
Page 5 of 24
judith bell
I don't get it. I replied to your first 5 points. I transferred the equivalent of 11 pages from Word.
My first response was November 3, I believe. Then I transferred that part again November 4 with ne material.
Now it is nowhere to be found. I answered you point by point.
Is Adbuster censoring?
Can someone explain to me why the material keeps on disappearing.
Mr. Bell, respond to me through this thread. Have you seen the material?
judith bell
I don't get it. I replied to your first 5 points. I transferred the equivalent of 11 pages from Word.
My first response was November 3, I believe. Then I transferred that part again November 4 with ne material.
Now it is nowhere to be found. I answered you point by point.
Is Adbuster censoring?
Can someone explain to me why the material keeps on disappearing.
Mr. Bell, respond to me through this thread. Have you seen the material?
Tran
Shoppers, I will shop somewhere else.
Tran
Shoppers, I will shop somewhere else.
Anonymous
This picture speaks a million and two words.
Anonymous
This picture speaks a million and two words.
Anonymous
some people see the Light, this justifiable connection and refuse to see the Light. It is the Light that they fear & prey upon. Not the Darkness of their souls.
Anonymous
some people see the Light, this justifiable connection and refuse to see the Light. It is the Light that they fear & prey upon. Not the Darkness of their souls.
ABE
The comparison between the Warsaw Ghetto and the Gaza strip is completely invalid.
The Jews of Warsaw did not launch rockets at German or Polish cities; the Jews of Warsaw did not walk into German or Polish restaurants and blow themselves up; the Jews of Warsaw did not murder German women and children. The Jews of Warsaw were exterminated deliberately by starvation and gas chambers.
The Palestinians have been victimized by their allies: Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, who have refused for 60 years to give Palestinians citizenship, the right to work, the right to acquire property. They have forced the Palestinians to live in poverty.
Israel is a tiny country smaller than the smallest U.S. states. The Arab countries occupy an enormous land mass and have vast oil wealth but yet refuse to really address Palestinian needs.
Israel is a victim of Arab apartheid. The Arab countries and the Iranian regime cannot tolerate a non-Arab country within their midst. There is tremendous bigotry and predjudice directed towards Israel.
ABE
The comparison between the Warsaw Ghetto and the Gaza strip is completely invalid.
The Jews of Warsaw did not launch rockets at German or Polish cities; the Jews of Warsaw did not walk into German or Polish restaurants and blow themselves up; the Jews of Warsaw did not murder German women and children. The Jews of Warsaw were exterminated deliberately by starvation and gas chambers.
The Palestinians have been victimized by their allies: Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, who have refused for 60 years to give Palestinians citizenship, the right to work, the right to acquire property. They have forced the Palestinians to live in poverty.
Israel is a tiny country smaller than the smallest U.S. states. The Arab countries occupy an enormous land mass and have vast oil wealth but yet refuse to really address Palestinian needs.
Israel is a victim of Arab apartheid. The Arab countries and the Iranian regime cannot tolerate a non-Arab country within their midst. There is tremendous bigotry and predjudice directed towards Israel.
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