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June 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Alan Shatter
THE PHOENIX
JUNE 1, 2012
THE ISRAELI PR machine has cranked up a new offensive against Irish Palestinian solidarity campaigners in an effort to crack what they regard as the most pro-Palestinian country in Western Europe. That the Sunday Independent should jump to attention is hardly surprising but The Irish Times’ enthusiasm for the assault against the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is a coup for the Israeli Embassy and the visiting minister of public diplomacy (ie propaganda), Yuli Edelstein.
The “eight young Israeli people who have come to tell their stories”, as reported by the IT in February were accompanied by Edelstein – his department organised the visit – and the minister was especially exercised by the cultural boycott in an interview with the IT. The visit was also facilitated by the Ireland-Israel Friendship League, headed by Tom Carew, who is also a member of the Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces, and who argued during the Gaza onslaught in 2009 that the same Defence Forces “be allowed to finish the job in Gaza”.
Since the February visit, the Sindo has doubled the usual quotient of articles attacking Palestinian campaigners, with one piece, in March, lionising former Israeli cultural attaché to Rome – now deputy ambassador to Ireland – Nurit Modai.
However, the IT has recently joined the Sindo in an unusual alliance against the cultural boycott with a string of extremely hostile and in some cases downright inaccurate articles. The newspaper claimed that the traditional group Dervish had pulled out of a concert tour of Israel, “citing an ‘avalanche of criticism’ and ‘venom’ directed to them on social media websites”. The IT repeated the band’s quote about an ‘avalanche of criticism’ and also the ‘venom’ directed at Dervish several times throughout May, even though the IPSC cultural liaison officer, Raymond Deane, claimed that the ‘venom’ had come from the Israeli side after the band had pulled out of the tour. The newspaper also published a letter from Israeli deputy ambassador and culture officer, Modai, claiming that Dervish had pulled out because of the ‘venom’.
Deane was quite correct to point out that the venom had come from the Israeli side. There certainly were plenty of online messages critical of the tour but these consisted of pleas not to endorse Israel’s apartheid treatment of Palestinians; about the most aggressive post was the claim that the band would lose respect if they did so. However, once the band cancelled their tour, the messages certainly did become venomous, citing “anti-semitism… Satan’s agenda… cowards… spineless… terrorists… fascist thugs”, plus an invitation to “go and crop your potatoes in Sligo or wherever you live”.
Justice minister Alan Shatter, naturally, joined in the attack on the boycott claiming it was cultural fascism”. Then, surprisingly, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore joined in, saying the government was “firmly opposed” to a cultural boycott on Israel. Just four days earlier, Gilmore, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, had threatened that Ireland was about to join an EU wide boycott of goods from Israeli settlements!
The Israeli PR machine had its greatest coup, however, with an article from IT PC icon Fintan O’Toole, whose intellectual dexterity enabled him to put the idiotic argument that “boycotts will always be interpreted as an expression of anti-semitism”. Last weekend, the IT gave much space to writer Gerard Donovan who had been ‘targeted’ by the IPSC boycott campaigners. Donovan claimed artistic privilege against any such pressure (‘intimidation’) before demanding that Deane be stripped of his Cnuas (Aosdána) stipend for his temerity.
Related posts:
- IPSC: ‘CRH the Israeli Apartheid Wall’ Road Show, Limerick
- Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Raymond Deane on the Dervish controversy 5-5-2012
- Video: CRH and the Israeli Apartheid Wall Roadshow, Dublin
- Jordan condemns ‘barbaric’ Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
- Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign Protest at CRH’s AGM 9-5-2012
- Major British supermarket chain announces boycott of produce made in West Bank settlements
- ‘Israeli spies warn against military strike on Iran’ – ex-ambassador
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