On June 25, 2010, the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris was hosting a symposium in Cinemascope and 3D, under an admittedly outrageous title, but with special effects and computer generated images that are truer than true. Famous graphic designers, specially sent by the best Palywood studios participated to this creation, which has already been selected by the French elites, in competition with the hyper-realistic documentary of Charles Enderlin “die by gunfire without a single drop of blood” for the best political fiction of the decade.
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Just as I was about to publish this report, I learned that a member of France Palestine NGO wants to dispute the contents of the text you are about to read (what about MYOB?), and a French Communist Congressman has just sent a complaint letter to the author. Will there be blood? |
Jean-Patrick Grumberg
“The non violent popular resistance in Palestine”
Palais du Luxembourg Paris, France
25 June 2010
The Friends of Gilad Shalit were shocked to hear about a June 25 symposium in the French Senate, the Mecca of the French Republic, from the France-Palestine Solidarity NGO, organized to celebrate the so called “non-violent“Palestinian Resistance. According to the NGO, a Hamas spokesperson was supposed to be one of the hosts. (Hamas is the terrorist organization that detains in total secrecy, and in defiance of all international conventions, the Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit).
June 25 was the fourth anniversary of his abduction. Mrs. Cerrisier-Ben Guiga, “France- Palestine Territories International Information Center to the French Senate” President, did not attend, because she was in Gaza. Jean-Claude Lefort, Honorary congressman and France-Palestine-Solidarity NGO’s President said, on her behalf, that she was not aware of the date and that it was not intentional.
After I found out about the very professional Internet booking process, the warm welcome, and after reading the provided documents and pamphlets, I, for a moment, had the feeling that this symposium would be very serious.
It wasn’t.
Under the umbrella of a “non-violent” narrative all along the speeches, the uninformed listener (and there were many of them in the room) was ready for the scheduled delegitimizing of the State of Israel: Israel is at the root of all violence, especially the very first one, the violent creation of a state for the Jews (of course, the two states partition, one for the Jews, one for the Arabs, and the perpetual refusal of their land from the Arab side, was never mentioned)
Ms. Alima Boumedienne, Green party Senator, told the students that “it’s the Senate’s duty to speak about “non-violence”, about the continuous massacre of the Palestinian people, about Israel blatant rejection of all international laws. She advocated “the Palestinian universal values struggle and for the survival of democracy”.
There were other speakers too, one after the other: Palestinian militants doing their act, almost convincing, almost believable at first, because their “non-violent resistance” narrative was almost perfect, perfectly well learned. Then there was a small village’s Mayor and a writer. They explained their organization, their nonviolent resistance’s history and what they expect from it. But soon curses, lies and hate speech resumed. We almost could believe them so far.
Then came Roy Wagner, the usual suspect. He is an Israeli University Scholar and a Palestinian Popular Resistance activist. He is an “Anarchists Against the Wall” NGO member. He wants to help his friends to get “the stolen lands” back, and to put an end to the “apartheid”. His presence was legitimizing the whole symposium foundation: If Israelis support us, it means that we are telling the truth, isn’t? It’s an old trick, but it works: he was warmly applauded by the audience.
Roy Wagner wants to speak in French.
He said that he participates in nonviolent protests with the Israeli left. Small group of people join the nonviolent resistance.
He says he is there because:
1) We Israelis are here as witnesses of Palestinian people real life, because we are more credible than the Palestinians themselves.
2) To protect the Palestinians against Israeli’s violence.
3) Israel tries to prevent us from being there, they arrest us, they beat us and they shoot us.
4) He is one of the Anarchists Against the Wall.
5) We need money to cover legal fees.
6) We spend our nights in Palestinian villages. The Medias wait for us, they want to help us recover their stolen land.
7) Among his students’ friends, there are influential people.
8) Actually, there will be no end to occupation but normalization.
9) Our goal is the end of apartheid and the end of the occupation.
10) Our friends are en route to support it and they need you.
Same with the dangerous Yael Lerer, who is a Balad Party founder, and an assistant and spokeswoman for the former Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara. Her intelligent and manipulative speech, both because of the words that she uses and the ideas that she pushes, is worrisome.
She also wants to speak in French
She said:
1) A 2003 Israeli law prohibits marriages between Israelis and Palestinians.
2) That there are more than 8,000 Palestinians in Israel prisons, very few of them ever commit military action.
3) Non-violent resistance is the only hope.
4) For a little while now, the Israeli violence became even harsher and there is more racism and oppression.
5) Massacres in Palestinian villages are common.
6) Sixty F-16s bombed Gaza claiming 60 lives.
7) “As an Israeli I cannot understand the Israelis who says that the Turkish boats came to attack us”
8) “We will boycott the oranges. It’s a symbol”
9) Netanyahu relies on European and United States help. This must be changed with the boycott.
All along this ordeal, they even mentioned the names of Gandhi and Martin Luther King!
By the end of the first part, we could think that these activists are defending opposing views than ours, of course, obviously dangerous and manipulative, but these people talk about their past, their experience, and their daily lives. At least, the misled Israelis and the Palestinians knows what they are talking about. But what impressed me most was the French public’s enthusiasm.
I changed seat to gather comments, the compassionate or offended comments from the people seating next to me. I looked at them nodding their heads when the strongest words (“non-violence”?) against a country they so much hate, without even knowing it, are pronounced.
But the worst was yet to come.
Despite a few no show, the afternoon speakers were “up and ready”. And I mean it. All the Israel’s enemies spokesmen, the enraged activists for a cause they obviously only know through their political parties propaganda.
There was a Mr. Jerome Gleizes “Transnational Committee Head for the Green Party” and a Mr. Jacques Fath “French Communist Party Executive Committee Member and Head of International Relations”... Everything is said, isn’t?
They have no excuse. They don’t live at the heart of the conflict. Nothing justifies their lies, over and over again. Nothing can explain and forgive their biased presentation and their arrogant stance against the State of Israel, beside their pathetic and fake heroic knight attitude, their fake support for the poor Palestinians.
We had it all: the Jenin “massacre”, the shameful wall, the starvation of the Gaza people, and the over-reacting Israeli army (a term in vogue and over-used during this conference), again proven by the “barbarism” against the humanitarian flotilla.
We were told that supporting the Palestinian Resistance, the so call non-violent Resistance, is each of us very duty because “the survival of the human kind depends on it.”
I want to remember and have everyone learn and hear these two sentences from Mr Jacques Fath speech: “fair peace will be the cancellation of the first violence. The first violence was the creation of the state of Israel”. Mr. Jacques Fath is an elected French congressman.
Recipe: take violent words, shameless lies, brutal curses, hatred speech. Shake them all and well, and send them against Israel. What you get is a symposium about non- violent resistance.
Laurence Nguyen is a board member of the France-Israel NGO.
Unless they are illiterate, deaf, blind and unaware of the existence of Internet, the French politicians cannot possibly ignore the facts concerning the Middle East, which are now becoming public knowledge. They knew, they have always known and they chose to lie through their teeth all along to maintain the fallacy of “good palestinians” versus “evil Israelis” for as long as possible. I bet they are all busy transferring their assets abroad, now that the charade is beginning to unravel.
They have chosen to be traitors to their country and they should be dealt with as such.