[E-rundbrief] Info 1094 - Israeli government blocks solidarity-activists

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1094 - Uri Avnery/ Adam Keller/ Gush Shalom 
(Israel): Avnery: Netanyahu compares Israel to Syria and Iran, thereby 
himself contributing to the delegitimation of Israel. The aggressive 
conduct at the airport exhibits to the entire world the image of 
Israel as a police state. Israeli government blocks international 
solidarity-activists and their fly-in-action for Palestine.

Bad Ischl, 15.4.2012

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Gush Shalom
Press Release 15/04/2012

Avnery: Netanyahu compares Israel to Syria and Iran, thereby himself 
contributing to the delegitimation of Israel. The aggressive conduct 
at the airport exhibits to the entire world the image of Israel as a 
police state

  "In the height of demagoguery, Binyamin Netanyahu calls upon peace 
and human rights activists to go Syria and Iran, and this pack of 
absurdities go    echoing though the official and unofficial 
government mouthpieces. The Prime Minister did not notice that exactly 
by making this comparison he is putting the State of Israel on one 
level with these oppressive regimes and himself significantly 
contributes to the delegitimation of Israel" said former Knesset 
Member Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom activist.

"Today is a black and shameful page in the history of the State of 
Israel. The massive aggressive play staged today at Ben Gurion 
Airport, the hundreds of police flooding the terminal, the systematic 
hunt for every traveler who dared to openly admit being headed to 
Bethlehem, as if this was the most horrible of crimes, the hysterical 
assault on a handful of Israeli peace activists who dared to express a 
dissident opinion, the worldwide campaign of pressures and threats to 
make airlines cancel the flights of hundreds of passengers. Had the 
government set out to exhibit to the world the image of an ugly Israel 
- oppressive, aggressive, nationalistic, tolerating no criticism - 
then today was a huge success. But if they had wanted to corroborate 
the assertion that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East", 
the government's conduct conveyed   the very opposite message. The 
government's "victory" over the the international activists was the 
very epitome of a pyrrhic victory.

The Assad regime in Syria is already for a year facing worldwide 
condemnation for its atrocities, and now the international community 
is finally beginning to intervene there, even if too little and too 
late. Courageous human rights activists in Syria are risking their 
lives to transmit messages and images, and deserve all respect and 
honor. All this does not clear or exonerate the State of Israel of its 
responsibility for the last 44 years - more than two thirds of its 
entire history – in which Israel maintains an oppressive rule over 
four million people and systematically steals their land. There is 
indeed no doubt that in the count of sheer bloodshed Syria is at this 
moment ahead Israel - but it would be better for Israel not to boast 
too much about this. Human rights activists around the world could and 
should deal with human rights violations, wherever they occur - in 
Syria, in Iran and also in the Palestinian territories under Israeli 
occupation. The Israeli peace activists, who came to the airport to 
protest the government's aggressive conduct and welcome the 
international activists, helped restore a bit of Israel's good name".

Contact:
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson +972-54-2340749


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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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