Simon Wiesenthal Center: omslag boek heeft "subliminale boodschap"

Het Simon Wiesenthal Centrum in Israël, een zionistische lobbygroep, diende vorig jaar een klacht in bij de Ierse regering. Het verzocht om de (Ierse) journalist David Cronin en zijn boek 'Europe’s Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation' publiekelijk te veroordelen. Want, zo stelde Shimon Samuels, directeur internationale betrekkingen van het centrum, het "antisemitisme" in het boek deed denken aan jaren '30, waarin joden de schuld kregen van de financiële crisis, waarin Ierland zich momenteel ook in bevindt. Het boek zou de Ierse democratie zodoende ondermijnen.

Met het andere bezwaar begeeft het Wiesenthal Centrum zich in het paranormale gebied: de omslag van het boek zou een "subliminale boodschap" in zich dragen. Een subliminale boodschap is een verborgen boodschap in een afbeelding, film of geluidsopname, die het publiek in het onderbewustzijn zou opslaan, en tot bepaald gedrag zou leiden. Denk aan hypnose en The Manchurian Candidate. Welke boodschap Samuels bedoelde liet hij in het ongewisse.

I ain't no Nazi copycat

Sometimes the best comedy is made by people who are not trying to be funny. At least, that’s what I discovered when I was accused of emulating the Nazis.

During a recent tour of Britain and Ireland to promote my book Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation, I heard that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Zionist lobby group, had filed a complaint about me with the Dublin government. The centre had asked Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), to publicly condemn me and my hosts, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Daring to criticise Israel at a time when Ireland’s own economy was collapsing was “sadly reminiscent of financial scapegoating” in 1930s Germany, Shimon Samuels, the centre’s director for international relations, alleged.

With equal absurdity, Samuels claimed that the cover of my book carried a “subliminal message” because it depicted a map of Europe beside a Star of David. Although Samuels did not spell out what subliminal message the cover sought to convey, he intimated that the artwork fitted the EU’s own definition of anti-Semitism.

I didn’t design the cover in question but I did authorise it. Had I thought for one second that it was intended to incite hostility towards Jews, I would have exercised my author’s prerogative by rejecting it.

If the Simon Wiesenthal Centre actually bothered to read my book, it would know that I don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in my body. The book is focused on the EU’s complicity in crimes perpetrated by the state of Israel against the Palestinians (who also happen to be Semites) and does not contain a single word directed against Jews as a people. As well as making it clear that I despise all forms of discrimination based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, the book stresses my admiration for the significant number of Jews brave enough to tell Israel that it does not act in their name. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre would probably categorise those Jews as “self-hating”; I regard them as humane and heroic.

It would be comforting if all missives by the centre and other pro-Israel zealots could be written off as being of no consequence. Yet the truth is that our politicians and civil servants are usually too puny to stand up to their bullying.

Perhaps the clearest manifestation of the centre’s influence came after the results of a 2003 survey conducted by the EU’s polling unit Eurobarometer became public knowledge. When a sample of 7,500 Europeans were asked which country posed the biggest threat to world peace, a majority – 59% - chose Israel. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre responded by urging that the EU be excluded from the so-called peace process in the Middle East and by claiming it was a “racist flight of fancy” to deem Israel as more bellicose than North Korea or Iran.

Lees verder op dvcronin.blogspot.com

A.s. zaterdag presenteert David Cronin zijn boek om 15:00 uur in ABC Treehouse (American Book Center) in Amsterdam. Details »