http://indymedia.org.il
Reply to Israel Shamir by Opencity Anarchist CollectiveSaturday 17 Aug 2002
author: Opencity Collective and Bilal El-Amine ([email protected],[email protected])
summary
We condemn Israel Shamir's unprincipled and dangerous article, "Rock of Dissent", which seeks to malign the demonstration against the nazi white power rally by the National Alliance at the US Capitol building on August
24th.
Statement of the Open City Anarchist Collective (NYC) of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists, with Bilal El-Amine.We condemn Israel Shamir's unprincipled and dangerous article, "Rock of Dissent", which seeks to malign the demonstration against the nazi white power rally by the National Alliance at the US Capitol building on August 24th.Through a shroud of unsavory and often tangled rhetoric, Israel Shamir takes the honorable position of opposing the State of Israel's oppression of Palestinian Arabs who are fighting Zionism. Unfortunately, his political preferences are disoriented. His chosen allies, enemies of both Palestinians and Jews, as well as of all working people, are suspect. Shamir makes clear that he will support any political force, no matter how vile, if it will oppose Zionism. He praises Saddam Hussein as a strong "bad guy" who is needed to oppose Israel. In a public statement brought to our attention by Tim Hall of Struggle magazine, Shamir cheers the French vote for the fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is hostile to both Jewish and Arab immigrants. (Shamir agrees about the need to limit immigration.) In these remarks, which anticipate his coziness with nazis in "Rock Of Dissent", Shamir gives advice to them of ways to appear less offensive. In "Rock of Dissent", Shamir adopts an "enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend" posture in an attempt to fool the naive and neutralize the militant. We repudiate him.Israel Shamir lies. Arguing that Palestinians and the Palestinian solidarity movement should be grateful for the backing from them, he denies the National Alliance is nazi or white supremacist. This is important for his argument, given that white supremacists in the United States are known to despise Arabs and Muslims. But the temporary, opportunistic support of racist extremists for Arabs in other countries does not change this. Shamir's denial that the National Alliance is racist runs counter to documented facts. The National Alliance has been the largest nazi group in North America for years. Founded by the late William Pierce in 1974, it has built an organization of over a thousand members. Pierce's novel "The Turner Diaries" has served as a blueprint for many white supremacist mass murders, from those of the Fort Bragg nazi gang "The Order" to Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing. Furthermore, with the acquisition of Resistance Records and Nordland Records, two well know white supremacist labels, the National Alliance not only earns millions of dollars annually from music sales but, more importantly, enacts a greatly expanded involvement in the fascist youth subculture.
Finally, the National Alliance maintains one of the most technologically sophisticated web sites on the Internet, bringing hate to a mass audience. Shamir's facile dismissal of these virulent murderers and would-be murderers ("Now, nobody likes Nazis") is a contemptible understatement.Shamir vilifies the U. S. Arab anti-fascists who call for participation in the demonstration against the nazis. On no evidence whatsoever, in a bizarre claim they are not even Arab, he calls them a front group for Jews, part of a "crypto-Jewish" "network". He falsely implies that they and other members of the anti-fascist movement have not opposed Zionism in the past. In fact, the activists who wrote the call for Arab opposition to the National Alliance are indeed Arabs. We are long-time activists for the Palestinian cause who do not intend to fight on anyone's behalf but our own. Our view is that the National Alliance is a very dangerous and sophisticated nazi organization that must be stopped. We will not stand by to allow the Palestinian issue to be exploited for racist ends--not only against Jews but against all immigrants, including Arabs and Muslims.
Furthermore, the anti-fascist, anti-Zionist movement has worked in mutual support and solidarity, with numerous examples of public opposition to the State of Israel's brutal, illegal occupation of Palestinian land, including, in New York City, at the most recent Salute to Israel Day parade. But anti-fascist anti-Zionists are united in yet another area: against anti-Semitism. We will not dehumanize or denigrate any group of human beings for the noble cause of Palestinian liberty. We will not ally ourselves with those who do. We reject Shamir's notion that fascists, nazis and racists are acceptable if they manufacture a reason to support the cause of Palestinian liberty. We are aware that Shamir has become notorious among people of principle for explicit anti-Jewish statements. We stand with them in opposition to him. Shamir argues that pro-Israeli U. S. Jews are more influential than U. S. Nazis. This is true, for now. Yet, all around us, we see cities and towns infested with racism. Racism against Jews. Racism against blacks. Against Hispanics, Asians, South Asians, Arabs and Muslims. Hatemongering and institutional racism are far more widespread than support for Zionism. The National Alliance understands this. In a climate of governmental and social hostility, amid everyday problems of poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and police brutality, the nazis appeal through his widespread racial tension in an attempt to expand their ranks. The fascism of white racists, and of all those who advance their cause, is a threat to any "non white" people, as well as to women, queers, and people with disabilities. It is a threat to their declared enemies--liberals, progressives and anarchists. It is a threat to the empowerment of the working classes. Shall we wait to oppose the National Alliance until their sadistic redistribution of power becomes more of a threat? Shall we wait to oppose the National Alliance until they become more numerous and dangerous?We say no. We affirm our intention to defeat racism in all its forms, from the front steps to the back rooms of the U. S. Capitol.in true solidarity with the Intifada,Bill Bachman, Christine Karatnytsky, John Korber and Wayne Price [email protected] El-Amine [email protected]