Love Poetry Hate Racism - Dublin

by Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky - Irish Haiku Society Wed Apr 18, 2007 09:17 ak2004 at planet-save dot com

Declared anti-racist, this event will be hosted by Dave Lordan, the writer and anti-Israeli campaigner who is currently editing an anthology in support of the cultural boycott of Israel. Although I was invited to read there, I declined the invitation and will boycott the event.
Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky,
Writer and literary translator

by petal Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:17

Below is the txt of a letter from the great Israeli Poet Aharan Shabatai, husband of the late Tanya Reinhart, to the organisers of a poetry festival in Jerusalem in early 2006, explaining his reasons for boycotting the festival. The actions of the Israeli state vis a vis the palestinains are racist. Boycotting the institutions of that state is an anti-racist act.

'Thank you for the invitation to participate in the International Poetry Festival in Jerusalem, 2006, and for the details. I ask that you remove my name from the list of participants. I read nowadays of the barbarism of the Qalandiah check-point. I object to an international poets festival in a city where the Arab inhabitants are systematically and brutally oppressed, imprisoned between walls, being robbed of their rights and their livelihood, humiliated in check-points, and international laws are trampled. I think that even poets were not allowed in the past, and are not allowed in the present, to ignore persecution and discrimination on a racist and nationalist background'

Yours, Aharon Shabtai
Related Link: http://www.pacbi.org

by Carolyn Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:04

I'm sure our Haiku friend and his bag of moans won't be missed. Well done Dave - good causes and looks like it'll be a good night. I'll definately be there.

Carolyn (a fellow anti-Israeli-barbarism campaigner!)

by Behaviourist Thu May 03, 2007 03:08

"The great Israeli poet Aharan Shabatai"?????? Who ever heard of him? Try to google his name - and you'll get NOTHING. Zilch. Or is he great merely because of having been married to the late Taliban Tanya?

I am glad that somebody had balls to boycott you, "anti-racists". The next logical step for you will be to get a BNP member to host your events. They are anti-Israel too, you know.

by raymond deane Thu May 03, 2007 14:20

If "Behaviourist" used the correct spelling of Aharon Shabtai, he/she would come up with 38.300 entries.

You're wrong about the BNP too: I believe they're anti-Semitic, but pro-Israel. In other words, they hate Jews, but they love the militaristic racist untra-nationalist apartheid state of Israel. I've no doubt you do too.

by Behaviourist Wed Jun 06, 2007 06:20

Still don't see what Mr Shabtai has to do with that Dublin poetry reading. Some folks seem to think it the right forum for any anti-Israeli posts, no matter appropriate or not. Didn't the organizers of LPHR tell us to "join together in an international celebration of the diversity of society"? (No Israelis allowed, of course)

Maybe you're right about BNP, you probably know more about them than I do. What about our Irish boycott-mongers, are they anti-Israeli, but fostering Judophile sentiments deep in their hearts? Just like the notorious "Judophile" Francis Stuart?

by Eamon Wed Jun 06, 2007 13:51

The gist of the Zionist argument here is that boycotting Israel (and may I say, well done to the UCU) is by its very nature racist, but it is not, and in fact is no more racist than the successful boycott of the Apartheid regime in South Africa (you know, the same regime that Israel helped to arm, in contravention of an international embargo)

by Behaviourist Wed Jun 06, 2007 15:15

At long last! We were awaiting a racist comment here - just to know what those anti-racist events are for - and here it comes!

"Zionism is an international political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel." [Wikipedia]

What's wrong with that? Will you boycott Ireland because it supports and provides a homeland for the Irish people (and the Irish descendants) in Ireland?

Just found a nice picture for ya.
Here's the link: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_ph.php?lang=en&ModuleId=...=2677
Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, speaks at a rally in favour of the boycott of Jewish-owned shops. Berlin, Germany, April 1, 1933.

If you want to criticize the Israeli government (or British, Irish, etc.), go ahead. But any boycott of any nation is a racist thing.

by Eamon Wed Jun 06, 2007 16:52

It is nonsense to state that all boycotts are racist. To put what I said before slightly differently, does that mean that the boycott of the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa was actually a racist act itself.? What rubbish

The whole problem with the Zionist movement is that it sought to establish a nation state for people of a particular religion, irrespective of nationality, and of course without any consideration for the people who were actually living on the land that they claimed. In the Zionist mindset, wealthy American or British jews have the right to boot Arabs out of their homes and off their lands. The Zionist state of Israel is an aggressive, imperialist state, that has systematically brutalised a virtually defenceless Palestinian people, all in the name of its supposed 'historic rights', given to it, supposedly by 'god'.

I see that you also stoop to the low of introducing the Nazi Holocaust into the debate. I did not lose any member of my family to that slaughter, but if I had I would actually be insulted and appalled that in the here and now, Israeli politicans and apologists for ethnic cleansing and mass murder try to silence both any exposure of their own war crimes, or legitimate campaigns against them by implying somehow that we are all Holocaust deniers or anti-semites.

by Stickey Wed Jun 06, 2007 19:45

"The fact that Israel is the least segregated society in the region, and that Israeli Arabs enjoy more freedom than their counterparts in other, Arab-run, countries is something that tends to be conveniently forgotten."

Ian O'Doherty, Evening Herald

by Eamon Thu Jun 07, 2007 08:44

Doherty is talking nonsense. Palestinians living in Israel are subject to discrimination in all spheres of life, including the right to travel. Someone should also ask him about the Bantustanisation of the occupied territories, a policy that bears a remarkable resemblance to that which the white South African government adopted in the past.

Maintain the boycott.