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 61 - 70 of 232
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fdionne
I cannot abide corporate entities trying to control what I can and cannot read. This is earning you a 2-year subscription.
fdionne
I cannot abide corporate entities trying to control what I can and cannot read. This is earning you a 2-year subscription.
supporter
Good idea! I'm going to subscribe for 2 years as well, and I'll ask all my friends to do the same.
https://www.adbusters.org/subscribe/2year
supporter
Good idea! I'm going to subscribe for 2 years as well, and I'll ask all my friends to do the same.
https://www.adbusters.org/subscribe/2year
Joshua Mayhem
Have you guys lost your minds?
Adbusters, SHAME ON YOU!
Your comparison of the radical, militant, Islamic state of Gazastan to the Warsaw Ghetto is outrageous, absurd and truly insulting.
Hamas is devoted to the extermination of Israel, vocally and in action.
Most of voting age Gazans voted for Hamas knowing this and so Gazans are not so innocent as you'd like to portray them.
Jews in Germany never committed suicide bombings in restaraunts to liberate Germany and to establish Israel in its place, but Hamas has in Israel and still tries too.
Israel is not perfect.
Jews are not perfect.
However, Israel is the only nation in that entire region of despotic nations that allows gays to be gay, Moslems to Moslem, women to become Prime Ministers, women to become pilots, and everyone can vote.
Shame on you.
Joshua Mayhem
Have you guys lost your minds?
Adbusters, SHAME ON YOU!
Your comparison of the radical, militant, Islamic state of Gazastan to the Warsaw Ghetto is outrageous, absurd and truly insulting.
Hamas is devoted to the extermination of Israel, vocally and in action.
Most of voting age Gazans voted for Hamas knowing this and so Gazans are not so innocent as you'd like to portray them.
Jews in Germany never committed suicide bombings in restaraunts to liberate Germany and to establish Israel in its place, but Hamas has in Israel and still tries too.
Israel is not perfect.
Jews are not perfect.
However, Israel is the only nation in that entire region of despotic nations that allows gays to be gay, Moslems to Moslem, women to become Prime Ministers, women to become pilots, and everyone can vote.
Shame on you.
Anonymous
Let me trace your logic here.
p1: Gaza = the bad guys (radical, militant, Islamic, etc)
p2: Israel = good guys (not radical, not militant, not Islamic)
C: Therefore it is not possible that Israel is responsible for the inhumane conditions suffered by Gazans.
Anonymous
Let me trace your logic here.
p1: Gaza = the bad guys (radical, militant, Islamic, etc)
p2: Israel = good guys (not radical, not militant, not Islamic)
C: Therefore it is not possible that Israel is responsible for the inhumane conditions suffered by Gazans.
Assbuster
Mr. Mayhem,
Here is a response to your post.
You) Have you guys lost your minds? Adbusters, SHAME ON YOU!
I) We have freedom of speech in Canada please utilize your "STFU" tactics in your beloved land. Oh wait, it is already used there, remember Anat Kam.
You) Your comparison of the radical, militant, Islamic state of Gazastan to the Warsaw Ghetto is outrageous, absurd and truly insulting.
I) The comparison that outraged you is between the actions of the radical, militant, Nazi state of Germany to the actions of the State of Israel.
You) Hamas is devoted to the extermination of Israel, vocally and in action.
I) Sometimes, it is good to use our brains; it is a gift from God but you do not have to return it without opening the package. Israel got 300 Nukes, NUKES = NUCLEAR WEAPONS = WMD = THE WEAPONS IF IRAQ HAD IT WOULD STILL BE RULED BY SADDAM. No country can exterminate Israel let alone Hamas. I realize you have extermination phobia but you also need to realize it is a phobia.
You) Most of voting age Gazans voted for Hamas knowing this and so Gazans are not so innocent as you'd like to portray them.
I) Great, thats where you truly show your colors and I applaud you for that. According to you all Gazans of voting age are fair game because most of them voted for Hamas, that still does not explain hundreds of children IDF killed but lets not go there.
According to Hamas, all Israelis of voting age are fair game because most of them will serve in the army and therefore play a direct role in oppression.
Now look at it another way, the people you consider Islamic radicals such as Bin Ladin consider American civilians fair game because they elect leaders who perpetrate terror all over the world, the most recent in Iraq. So if we employ your logic, all the British and US citizens should be targetted because they reelected Blair and Bush. Hmmm, and of course Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians should attack ordinary Israeli citizens because governments you voted occupy their lands.
You) Jews in Germany never committed suicide bombings in restaraunts to liberate Germany and to establish Israel in its place, but Hamas has in Israel and still tries too.
I) Reread my third comment. And, there was an uprising in the ghetto, a new name for it is Intifada.
You) Israel is not perfect. Jews are not perfect.
I) Thank you. Hamas is not perfect. Muslims are not perfect either.
You) However, Israel is the only nation in that entire region of despotic nations that allows gays to be gay, Moslems to Moslem, women to become Prime Ministers, women to become pilots, and everyone can vote.
I) I would not even acknowledge this comment until you correctly spell the largest minority group in Israel, so much so for treating minorities with respect.
Assbuster
Mr. Mayhem,
Here is a response to your post.
You) Have you guys lost your minds? Adbusters, SHAME ON YOU!
I) We have freedom of speech in Canada please utilize your "STFU" tactics in your beloved land. Oh wait, it is already used there, remember Anat Kam.
You) Your comparison of the radical, militant, Islamic state of Gazastan to the Warsaw Ghetto is outrageous, absurd and truly insulting.
I) The comparison that outraged you is between the actions of the radical, militant, Nazi state of Germany to the actions of the State of Israel.
You) Hamas is devoted to the extermination of Israel, vocally and in action.
I) Sometimes, it is good to use our brains; it is a gift from God but you do not have to return it without opening the package. Israel got 300 Nukes, NUKES = NUCLEAR WEAPONS = WMD = THE WEAPONS IF IRAQ HAD IT WOULD STILL BE RULED BY SADDAM. No country can exterminate Israel let alone Hamas. I realize you have extermination phobia but you also need to realize it is a phobia.
You) Most of voting age Gazans voted for Hamas knowing this and so Gazans are not so innocent as you'd like to portray them.
I) Great, thats where you truly show your colors and I applaud you for that. According to you all Gazans of voting age are fair game because most of them voted for Hamas, that still does not explain hundreds of children IDF killed but lets not go there.
According to Hamas, all Israelis of voting age are fair game because most of them will serve in the army and therefore play a direct role in oppression.
Now look at it another way, the people you consider Islamic radicals such as Bin Ladin consider American civilians fair game because they elect leaders who perpetrate terror all over the world, the most recent in Iraq. So if we employ your logic, all the British and US citizens should be targetted because they reelected Blair and Bush. Hmmm, and of course Syrians, Lebanese, and Palestinians should attack ordinary Israeli citizens because governments you voted occupy their lands.
You) Jews in Germany never committed suicide bombings in restaraunts to liberate Germany and to establish Israel in its place, but Hamas has in Israel and still tries too.
I) Reread my third comment. And, there was an uprising in the ghetto, a new name for it is Intifada.
You) Israel is not perfect. Jews are not perfect.
I) Thank you. Hamas is not perfect. Muslims are not perfect either.
You) However, Israel is the only nation in that entire region of despotic nations that allows gays to be gay, Moslems to Moslem, women to become Prime Ministers, women to become pilots, and everyone can vote.
I) I would not even acknowledge this comment until you correctly spell the largest minority group in Israel, so much so for treating minorities with respect.
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