From Modernity Blog :
"News from Tibet, unlike other countries, is restricted and what we hear from that country is very limited, snippets about Tibetans being murdered or enforced Chinese rule, but not a great deal and often what comes out has been censored or made such that the Chinese occupation is portrayed in the best possible light.
The BBC highlights the tight grip that China keeps on the Tibetan’s neck:
“China appears to be maintaining a tight grip over Tibetan areas, nearly three months after a series of anti-Beijing protests and riots.
The government suggests life in areas inhabited by Tibetans is returning to normal, but evidence suggests otherwise.
Security is tight, Tibetans face travel restrictions, and monks and nuns have been forced to attend re-education classes.
Chinese tourists are once again being allowed to visit the Himalayan region, but not many are making the trip.
Foreigners are banned. It is difficult to get information about what is going on in Tibet and nearby provinces that are home to large numbers of Tibetans.
Chinese central and local government officials - who keep a tight rein on information at the best of times - are saying little. (...)
There are also roadblocks on highways leading into Tibet.
The Chinese crackdown follows unrest that began in Lhasa on 10 March.
Monks from several monasteries began a series of protests to mark the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
These protest turned into riots, during which Tibetans targeted Han Chinese people who had moved into Lhasa.
Tibetan students living in India hold a rally on 28 May 2008
China says 18 innocent civilians and one police officer died in the riots.
The Tibetan government-in-exile said about 250 died, most of whom were Tibetans killed in the ensuing crackdown.
Over the last couple of months, hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested, with the first batch of 30 tried and jailed earlier this month.
China said they received fair trials, but this is contested by Tibetans abroad and human rights organisations.
Even on this one issue, there is no agreement on the facts of what is currently going on in Tibet.”
But contrast that situation with the Middle East, leaving aside the various quasi-dictatorships and authoritarian regimes which are fairly numerous, there is no shortage of news about conflict in the region. If we were to look at nearly any Israeli newspaper there would be very critical coverage of the Israeli government and the military’s own conduct in the region.
Which is strange, isn’t it? Barely a critical voice against brutal Chinese oppression in Tibet, but the Israelis often scourge themselves over these issues. What a difference?"
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
The European Union to upgrade its relations with Israel.
From the JTA:
"E.U. foreign ministers announced Monday that the 27-nation bloc would improve its marketing and policymaking ties with Israel, satisfying a long-standing request from Jerusalem.
"The European Union is determined to develop a closer partnership with Israel," the ministers said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was to seal the deal in later talks with her European counterparts in Luxembourg.
The Palestinian Authority had urged the European Union to put off any upgrade because of Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The E.U. ministers said the updated ties with Israel should include encouraging a framework for "the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the implementation of the two-state solution."
Israel currently has an "association agreement" with the European Union setting out a schedule of political meetings, regulating trade ties and cooperating in areas from internal security to education."
"E.U. foreign ministers announced Monday that the 27-nation bloc would improve its marketing and policymaking ties with Israel, satisfying a long-standing request from Jerusalem.
"The European Union is determined to develop a closer partnership with Israel," the ministers said in a statement.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was to seal the deal in later talks with her European counterparts in Luxembourg.
The Palestinian Authority had urged the European Union to put off any upgrade because of Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The E.U. ministers said the updated ties with Israel should include encouraging a framework for "the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the implementation of the two-state solution."
Israel currently has an "association agreement" with the European Union setting out a schedule of political meetings, regulating trade ties and cooperating in areas from internal security to education."
Monday, 16 June 2008
'Ailing' war criminal spotted celebrating Euro soccer championship
YNet News reports:
"Milivoj Asner, a wanted Nazi war criminal who was deemed unfit to stand trial by Austrian authorities due to his "failing health", has been spotted in one of the Euro 2008 soccer championship gatherings, looking fit as a fiddle for his age, the English Sun reported Monday.
Asner, 95, holds the number 4 spot on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most wanted Nazi criminals' list. He served in the Croatian police during WWII and is believed to have taken an active part in the persecution and deportation of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and gypsies to death camps.
Croatia formally appealed to Austrian authorities for Asner's extradition in 2005, citing that he was wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; but Vienna declined, saying he was in poor health. Asner is also on the Interpol's most wanted list – they currently have an international warrant out for his arrest.
Asner has been living in Klagenfurt for several decades now, under an assumed name. The Sun 's photographer followed him around town for several hours, as he strolled through local cafés, showing no signs of failing health.
Wiesenthal Center Director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, slammed what he called Austria's "shameful shielding of a suspected war criminal", adding "He is clearly enjoying a life that many hundreds of victims were denied when they were sent off to be murdered… The Sun found him healthy enough to stroll happily round his home town for hours. This is highly significant.
“Austria has long had a reputation as a paradise for war criminals and now they’ve been caught in the act. It is time for them to do what is right and help bring Nazi war criminals to justice. If this man is well enough to walk around town unaided and drink wine in bars, he’s well enough to answer for his past.
“He’s shown absolutely no remorse. It is our intention to bring this to the attention of the Austrian Minister of Justice Maria Berger and call for his immediate extradition,” said Zuroff."
"Milivoj Asner, a wanted Nazi war criminal who was deemed unfit to stand trial by Austrian authorities due to his "failing health", has been spotted in one of the Euro 2008 soccer championship gatherings, looking fit as a fiddle for his age, the English Sun reported Monday.
Asner, 95, holds the number 4 spot on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most wanted Nazi criminals' list. He served in the Croatian police during WWII and is believed to have taken an active part in the persecution and deportation of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and gypsies to death camps.
Croatia formally appealed to Austrian authorities for Asner's extradition in 2005, citing that he was wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; but Vienna declined, saying he was in poor health. Asner is also on the Interpol's most wanted list – they currently have an international warrant out for his arrest.
Asner has been living in Klagenfurt for several decades now, under an assumed name. The Sun 's photographer followed him around town for several hours, as he strolled through local cafés, showing no signs of failing health.
Wiesenthal Center Director, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, slammed what he called Austria's "shameful shielding of a suspected war criminal", adding "He is clearly enjoying a life that many hundreds of victims were denied when they were sent off to be murdered… The Sun found him healthy enough to stroll happily round his home town for hours. This is highly significant.
“Austria has long had a reputation as a paradise for war criminals and now they’ve been caught in the act. It is time for them to do what is right and help bring Nazi war criminals to justice. If this man is well enough to walk around town unaided and drink wine in bars, he’s well enough to answer for his past.
“He’s shown absolutely no remorse. It is our intention to bring this to the attention of the Austrian Minister of Justice Maria Berger and call for his immediate extradition,” said Zuroff."
Saturday, 14 June 2008
European Union states support upgrading relations with Israel - after all...
Compare this article in Haaretz on 11 June:
EU diplomats: We're not ready for major upgrade of Israel ties
with this one two days later in Haaretz too (so much for journalistic coherence):
EU supports boosting ties with Israel, debates linking relations to peace talk progress :
"European Union states support upgrading relations with Israel but some want the move to be linked to progress on Middle East peace, EU diplomats said before talks with Israel on Monday.
Diplomats said all EU member states supported the idea of upgrading relations with Israel in areas such as social policy, regulatory issues and access to the EU single market.
"The point of disagreement has been whether and to what extent to link closer EU ties to progress in the Middle East Peace Process," one EU diplomat said, adding that envoys would seek to overcome differences before EU foreign ministers meet their Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni in Luxembourg.
Last year Israel proposed a range of possible upgrades in relations, including regular summits of EU and Israeli leaders, and meetings with EU sectoral ministers in addition to the current single annual session at foreign minister level.
It also wanted a high-profile joint declaration at the Luxembourg meeting on boosting ties and giving Israel greater access to EU markets, agencies and spending programmes. (...)
Arab League ambassadors in Brussels expressed concern this week that discussions on upgrading EU ties with Israel were going ahead "in the absence of any settlement and establishing permanent and just peace in the Middle East."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to Brussels last month urging the EU not to boost relations with Israel, which he accused of "flagrant disregard" of Palestinian rights by continuing to build Jewish settlements.
Diplomats say Egypt has also lobbied the EU against boosting ties with the Jewish state when there was scant progress in the Middle East peace process."
EU diplomats: We're not ready for major upgrade of Israel ties
with this one two days later in Haaretz too (so much for journalistic coherence):
EU supports boosting ties with Israel, debates linking relations to peace talk progress :
"European Union states support upgrading relations with Israel but some want the move to be linked to progress on Middle East peace, EU diplomats said before talks with Israel on Monday.
Diplomats said all EU member states supported the idea of upgrading relations with Israel in areas such as social policy, regulatory issues and access to the EU single market.
"The point of disagreement has been whether and to what extent to link closer EU ties to progress in the Middle East Peace Process," one EU diplomat said, adding that envoys would seek to overcome differences before EU foreign ministers meet their Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni in Luxembourg.
Last year Israel proposed a range of possible upgrades in relations, including regular summits of EU and Israeli leaders, and meetings with EU sectoral ministers in addition to the current single annual session at foreign minister level.
It also wanted a high-profile joint declaration at the Luxembourg meeting on boosting ties and giving Israel greater access to EU markets, agencies and spending programmes. (...)
Arab League ambassadors in Brussels expressed concern this week that discussions on upgrading EU ties with Israel were going ahead "in the absence of any settlement and establishing permanent and just peace in the Middle East."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad wrote to Brussels last month urging the EU not to boost relations with Israel, which he accused of "flagrant disregard" of Palestinian rights by continuing to build Jewish settlements.
Diplomats say Egypt has also lobbied the EU against boosting ties with the Jewish state when there was scant progress in the Middle East peace process."
Have the anti-Zionists overdone it?, by Haviv Rettig
Are these genuine initiatives on the part of Europeans or just the usual window-dressing exercises that makes them feel good?
Article by Haviv Rettig in TJP:
"Are we witnessing the beginning of a backlash against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, at least in the English-speaking world?
On Wednesday, the UK's minister for higher education, Bill Rammell, told Britons that only a small minority of the country's academics support a boycott of Israel.
Coming a day after Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor's accusation that "Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a one-state solution," the minister's confidence should offer some reassurance to worried Jews, right?
Perhaps it was merely bad timing, then, that the following day Prosor was the subject of a new boycott, with the refusal of Welsh Assembly Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas to meet the ambassador when he arrives in Cardiff at the end of the month to meet with First Minister Rhodri Morgan, head of the Welsh government.
Invited to a reception for Prosor hosted by another assembly member, Elis-Thomas replied that "I am unwilling to accept the invitation to meet the ambassador, because of my objection to the failure of the State of Israel to meet its international obligations to the Palestinian people of the Holy Lands [sic]. I would invite other colleagues to [do] the same." (...)
His excuse - a broad, ill-defined dissatisfaction with Israeli fulfillment of obligations - is targeted at a country that has withdrawn from 89 percent of the land it conquered in 1967, and he fails to deal with the complexity of a Gaza Strip controlled by ruthless radicals who mete out death penalties to gays.
Worse, the notion that there is nothing an Israeli could say that would be worth hearing - the language of boycott - seems to be respectable.
The bigotry may not surprise readers of The Jerusalem Post. But this might: Next February, the British Foreign Office, together with the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, will host a conference on anti-Semitism for parliamentarians from around the world.
The conference is the first fruit of the newly-established Inter-Parliamentary Coalition, and is intended to be an international response to "the longest hatred," a hatred manifested most recently in the hysterical demonization of Israel with which Prosor has become so familiar.
They key to this project: Though Irwin Cotler, the Canadian MP and jurist who helped initiate it, is Jewish, the initiative is not.
Similarly, late last month, former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski lent his name and credibility to a new European Forum of Tolerance. While the forum was the brainchild of the European Jewish Congress, it has found resonance with a non-Jewish Kwasniewski and other non-Jewish European leaders.
It is significant that the slow growth in non-Jewish advocacy against anti-Semitism comes with an understanding that an unfair obsession with Israel tends to overlap with - and is often motivated by - anti-Semitism.
Are we witnessing the beginning of a response? Have the anti-Zionists gone too far, becoming impossible to ignore and so, finally, impossible to tolerate?"
Article by Haviv Rettig in TJP:
"Are we witnessing the beginning of a backlash against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, at least in the English-speaking world?
On Wednesday, the UK's minister for higher education, Bill Rammell, told Britons that only a small minority of the country's academics support a boycott of Israel.
Coming a day after Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor's accusation that "Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a one-state solution," the minister's confidence should offer some reassurance to worried Jews, right?
Perhaps it was merely bad timing, then, that the following day Prosor was the subject of a new boycott, with the refusal of Welsh Assembly Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas to meet the ambassador when he arrives in Cardiff at the end of the month to meet with First Minister Rhodri Morgan, head of the Welsh government.
Invited to a reception for Prosor hosted by another assembly member, Elis-Thomas replied that "I am unwilling to accept the invitation to meet the ambassador, because of my objection to the failure of the State of Israel to meet its international obligations to the Palestinian people of the Holy Lands [sic]. I would invite other colleagues to [do] the same." (...)
His excuse - a broad, ill-defined dissatisfaction with Israeli fulfillment of obligations - is targeted at a country that has withdrawn from 89 percent of the land it conquered in 1967, and he fails to deal with the complexity of a Gaza Strip controlled by ruthless radicals who mete out death penalties to gays.
Worse, the notion that there is nothing an Israeli could say that would be worth hearing - the language of boycott - seems to be respectable.
The bigotry may not surprise readers of The Jerusalem Post. But this might: Next February, the British Foreign Office, together with the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, will host a conference on anti-Semitism for parliamentarians from around the world.
The conference is the first fruit of the newly-established Inter-Parliamentary Coalition, and is intended to be an international response to "the longest hatred," a hatred manifested most recently in the hysterical demonization of Israel with which Prosor has become so familiar.
They key to this project: Though Irwin Cotler, the Canadian MP and jurist who helped initiate it, is Jewish, the initiative is not.
Similarly, late last month, former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski lent his name and credibility to a new European Forum of Tolerance. While the forum was the brainchild of the European Jewish Congress, it has found resonance with a non-Jewish Kwasniewski and other non-Jewish European leaders.
It is significant that the slow growth in non-Jewish advocacy against anti-Semitism comes with an understanding that an unfair obsession with Israel tends to overlap with - and is often motivated by - anti-Semitism.
Are we witnessing the beginning of a response? Have the anti-Zionists gone too far, becoming impossible to ignore and so, finally, impossible to tolerate?"
Friday, 13 June 2008
American Zionism, in Jewish Current Issues
Article posted by Rick Richman @ Jewish Current Issues:
"Walter Russell Mead (Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations) has a fascinating article that will appear in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled “The New Israel and the Old: Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State.”
Widespread gentile support for Israel is one of the most potent political forces in U.S. foreign policy, and in the last 60 years, there has never been a Gallup poll showing more Americans sympathizing with the Arabs or the Palestinians than with the Israelis.
Over time, moreover, the pro-Israel sentiment in the United States has increased, especially among non-Jews. The years of the George W. Bush administration have seen support for Israel in U.S. public opinion reach the highest level ever, and it has remained there throughout Bush's two terms. The increase has occurred even as the demographic importance of Jews has diminished. In 1948, Jews constituted an estimated 3.8 percent of the U.S. population. ... By 2007, Jews were only 1.8 percent of the population of the United States ...
In the United States, a pro-Israel foreign policy does not represent the triumph of a small lobby over the public will. It represents the power of public opinion to shape foreign policy in the face of concerns by foreign policy professionals. ... [T]he ultimate sources of the United States' Middle East policy lie outside the Beltway and outside the Jewish community.
Mead’s article addresses the subject from the time of the Founders through the administration of George W. Bush. Here is an example of some of the rich details in the article (links and emphasis by JCI):
In 1891 ... Methodist lay leader William Blackstone presented a petition to President Benjamin Harrison calling on the United States to use its good offices to convene a congress of European powers so that they could induce the Ottoman Empire to turn Palestine over to the Jews.
The 400 signatories were overwhelmingly non-Jewish and included the chief justice of the Supreme Court; the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee; the future president William McKinley; the mayors of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington; the editors or proprietors of the leading East Coast and Chicago newspapers; and an impressive array of Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic clergy. Business leaders who signed the petition included Cyrus McCormick, John Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan.
At a time when the American Jewish community was neither large nor powerful, and no such thing as an Israel lobby existed, the pillars of the American gentile establishment went on record supporting a U.S. diplomatic effort to create a Jewish state in the lands of the Bible.
Theodor Herzl’s book “The Jewish State” did not appear until 1896. (See also: The NeoChristian Lobby)."
Read also:
1921: Anti-Semitism is “un-American and un-Christian”
"Walter Russell Mead (Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations) has a fascinating article that will appear in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled “The New Israel and the Old: Why Gentile Americans Back the Jewish State.”
Widespread gentile support for Israel is one of the most potent political forces in U.S. foreign policy, and in the last 60 years, there has never been a Gallup poll showing more Americans sympathizing with the Arabs or the Palestinians than with the Israelis.
Over time, moreover, the pro-Israel sentiment in the United States has increased, especially among non-Jews. The years of the George W. Bush administration have seen support for Israel in U.S. public opinion reach the highest level ever, and it has remained there throughout Bush's two terms. The increase has occurred even as the demographic importance of Jews has diminished. In 1948, Jews constituted an estimated 3.8 percent of the U.S. population. ... By 2007, Jews were only 1.8 percent of the population of the United States ...
In the United States, a pro-Israel foreign policy does not represent the triumph of a small lobby over the public will. It represents the power of public opinion to shape foreign policy in the face of concerns by foreign policy professionals. ... [T]he ultimate sources of the United States' Middle East policy lie outside the Beltway and outside the Jewish community.
Mead’s article addresses the subject from the time of the Founders through the administration of George W. Bush. Here is an example of some of the rich details in the article (links and emphasis by JCI):
In 1891 ... Methodist lay leader William Blackstone presented a petition to President Benjamin Harrison calling on the United States to use its good offices to convene a congress of European powers so that they could induce the Ottoman Empire to turn Palestine over to the Jews.
The 400 signatories were overwhelmingly non-Jewish and included the chief justice of the Supreme Court; the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee; the future president William McKinley; the mayors of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington; the editors or proprietors of the leading East Coast and Chicago newspapers; and an impressive array of Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic clergy. Business leaders who signed the petition included Cyrus McCormick, John Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan.
At a time when the American Jewish community was neither large nor powerful, and no such thing as an Israel lobby existed, the pillars of the American gentile establishment went on record supporting a U.S. diplomatic effort to create a Jewish state in the lands of the Bible.
Theodor Herzl’s book “The Jewish State” did not appear until 1896. (See also: The NeoChristian Lobby)."
Read also:
1921: Anti-Semitism is “un-American and un-Christian”
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Philippe Karsenty calls on Sarkozy to intervene in Al-Dura French TV case
From an article in the EJP:
"The head of a French media watchdog has called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to help issue an apology from the state-owned TV channel France 2 “for broadcasting a staged killing of a Palestinian boy in 2000.
A Paris appeals court on May 21 found Philippe Karsenty, director of "Media-Ratings", an online media commentary site, not guilty of slandering France 2 television when he questioned the veracity of a tv report about the killing of the 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Dura on 30 September 2000 (here and here).
Karsenty has accused France 2’s longtime Jerusalem correspondent, Charles Enderlin, of selectively editing and manipulating images of the boy’s death during a gunfight between Israelis and Palestinians at the Netzarim junction, in the Gaza Strip.
The France 2 images shocked the world, made al-Dura an icon in the Arab world and provoked widespread Palestinian and Arab anger against Israel. (...)
"As the de facto CEO of France 2, President Sarkozy has the power to conduct an internal investigation of the TV station in order to separate the truth from the lies," Karsenty told EJP, stressing that the case has "far-reaching and universal implications" for media responsibility.
"The next battle will be political," Karsenty says, adding that he is rather interested by the root of the matter than by the proceedings at the Supreme Court.
Observers in Paris noted that French newspapers, with rare exceptions like the daily Le Monde, didn’t report the Court of Appeals’s ruling, while the international press made a large coverage of the issue.
Moreover, the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur published last week a petition supporting Charles Enderlin against the court ruling and denouncing the “stubborn and heinous campaign against the France 2 reporter’s professional dignity.” It rejected the accusation of fraud and the notion that the incident was a staged scene.
The petition has already been signed by some eighty important French writers and journalists.
"These people have been visibly enrolled in a corporatist way without having th possibility to look into the dossier," Karsenty said. "This is something worrying for the freedom of the press," he added. "If we follow their view, Zola had no right to be interested in the Dreyfus affair because he knew nothing about military issues and was only a common writer."
"It is no surprise that the charges that Israeli soldiers deliberately murder children, just as the Nazis murdered Jewish children, is widely believed in France as well in the rest of Europe," Karsentys says.
The media critic deplored the fact that Israeli government has remained silent on this issue. An Israeli Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said that "the Israeli government has a policy not to attack or to sue any media outlet in a court of law, not in Israel and certainly not outside of Israel."
"If the government took legal steps against a foreign media, the local media in that country would automatically take the side of the media, and public opinion will also be driven against Israel," Palmor said."
Related stories in the EJP:
Jewish group welcomes French Appeals Court decision in al-Durra case
Al-Durra Case Revisited
"The head of a French media watchdog has called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to help issue an apology from the state-owned TV channel France 2 “for broadcasting a staged killing of a Palestinian boy in 2000.
A Paris appeals court on May 21 found Philippe Karsenty, director of "Media-Ratings", an online media commentary site, not guilty of slandering France 2 television when he questioned the veracity of a tv report about the killing of the 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Dura on 30 September 2000 (here and here).
Karsenty has accused France 2’s longtime Jerusalem correspondent, Charles Enderlin, of selectively editing and manipulating images of the boy’s death during a gunfight between Israelis and Palestinians at the Netzarim junction, in the Gaza Strip.
The France 2 images shocked the world, made al-Dura an icon in the Arab world and provoked widespread Palestinian and Arab anger against Israel. (...)
"As the de facto CEO of France 2, President Sarkozy has the power to conduct an internal investigation of the TV station in order to separate the truth from the lies," Karsenty told EJP, stressing that the case has "far-reaching and universal implications" for media responsibility.
"The next battle will be political," Karsenty says, adding that he is rather interested by the root of the matter than by the proceedings at the Supreme Court.
Observers in Paris noted that French newspapers, with rare exceptions like the daily Le Monde, didn’t report the Court of Appeals’s ruling, while the international press made a large coverage of the issue.
Moreover, the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur published last week a petition supporting Charles Enderlin against the court ruling and denouncing the “stubborn and heinous campaign against the France 2 reporter’s professional dignity.” It rejected the accusation of fraud and the notion that the incident was a staged scene.
The petition has already been signed by some eighty important French writers and journalists.
"These people have been visibly enrolled in a corporatist way without having th possibility to look into the dossier," Karsenty said. "This is something worrying for the freedom of the press," he added. "If we follow their view, Zola had no right to be interested in the Dreyfus affair because he knew nothing about military issues and was only a common writer."
"It is no surprise that the charges that Israeli soldiers deliberately murder children, just as the Nazis murdered Jewish children, is widely believed in France as well in the rest of Europe," Karsentys says.
The media critic deplored the fact that Israeli government has remained silent on this issue. An Israeli Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said that "the Israeli government has a policy not to attack or to sue any media outlet in a court of law, not in Israel and certainly not outside of Israel."
"If the government took legal steps against a foreign media, the local media in that country would automatically take the side of the media, and public opinion will also be driven against Israel," Palmor said."
Related stories in the EJP:
Jewish group welcomes French Appeals Court decision in al-Durra case
Al-Durra Case Revisited
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