Israel Matzav

Free Gaza imploding after proving its own anti-Semitism

Last week, I reported on an anti-Semitic tweet that the 'Free Gaza' movement posted to its twitter account. Now, it turns out that the tweet may bring about the movement's demise.

In an email to the Post on Wednesday, Sam Schulman, a contributor to the Weekly Standard, wrote, “Avi Mayer’s work was helpful in revealing the mentality attracted to profoundly anti-Semitic enterprises like freegazaorg.“ Schulman added “ But some have allowed themselves to be drawn in to a charade in which freegaza ‘denazifies’ itself, and then presents itself as reformed. You don’t have to be pro-Hitler to be murderously and mendaciously anti-Semitic and pro-war.”

Free Gaza Movement member and Canadian author Naomi Klein tweeted last week that “I have resigned from the Advisory Board of the Free Gaza Movement. Still support mission but leadership has changed since I signed up.”

Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, wrote in the Post on Wednesday that “The so-Free Gaza Movement, like other anarchist and radical political groups, tend to give platforms to individuals with intense personal agendas and issues. This magnetic attraction for fringe personalities like Greta Berlin is particularly acute in hard-core anti-Israel frameworks related to BDS and delegitimization.”

He continued that “The FGM has lost any of their remaining credibility after the 2010 flotilla fiasco – and the same is true for the Jewish Voices for Peace (a fringe closely linked to FGM and BDS).”

The growing assessments about the future of FGM suggest that the organization has experienced irreparable harm and is now viewed as a kind of left wing neo-Nazi group. The open questions are, will FGM’s supporters pull the plug on its fundraising streams and will additional FGM advisory board members–like the US linguist Noam Chomsky and Archbishop Theodosius (Atallah) Hanna from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem–resign from the FGM?

I don't know the answers to those questions. I tend to doubt the latest scandal will have any effect on the likes of Chomsky or Hanna or other supporters like Desmond Tutu or Lauren Booth. But Jewish Voices for Peace has distanced itself from Free Gaza.  Hmmm.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Free Gaza

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:31 PM