arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

IMC SWITZERLAND UNDER FIRE

Swiss non-governmental organization Aktion Kinder des Holocaust is threatening with legal charges two members from editorial staff of Independent Media Center of Switzerland, an alternative media group formed by volunteer activists, for publishing of alleged anti-Semitic material.

IMC web site works on the principle of open-publishing, where readers are encouraged to post articles, opinions, images, etc. One of those readers, Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, decided to post his serie of 7 cartoons called "We are all Palestinians" to promote International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra & Shatila.

In these images, artist compares the suffering of Palestinians to various oppressed people in history and elsewhere in the world now. Last artwork from this series shows a scene from Nazi-era Warsaw Ghetto, where a Jewish boy says "I am Palestinian". According to Latuff, "Jews from past and today's Palestinians were/are both victims. If today was 1940, I would to say "I am Jew". But today, Palestinians are the victims, not agressors. If you are victim of opression anywhere, then you are Palestinian as well".

According to AKdH spokesman, Mr. Samuel Althof, to compare Holocaust with Israel policy towards Palestinians is anti-Semitism. A complaint was adressed to Swiss police and due restrict laws against in Switzerland, IMC web site can be closed and two of their members sued.

Criticism to opression of Palestinians by Israel is often seen by some NGOs and mainstream as anti-Semitism, even satires as one broadcasted by Abu Dhabi Television in 2001 of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a vampire drinking the blood of Arabs.

Cartoonist Latuff, who published on Internet a public statement on anti-Semitic cartoons, has called an action against AKdH, demanding suspension of legal charges towards IMC Switzerland.

AKdH spokesman, Mr. Samuel Althof: althof@akdh.ch
Other AKdH email contacts: editor@akdh.ch
die.sprecher@akdh.ch
sekretariat@akdh.ch
IMC Switzerland: switzerland@indymedia.org
Latuff's We are all Palestinians cartoon series:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=127386&group=webcast

In België hebben we een gelijkaardig geval. Een studentenvereniging dreigt haar erkenning en de daarmee verbonden rechten op subsidies en op het gebruik van ruimtes van de universiteit van Gent te verliezen. De motie tegen MLB (die in elkaar gebokst werd door liberale en katholieke studenten en die gesteund wordt door SJW, de studentenbeweging van de SAP) is onder meer gebaseerd op een parafrasering door Stijn Oosterlynck (Attac-RUG) van uitlatingen van een vermeend MLB-sympathisant op Indymedia. Het is redelijk schandalig dat dit ongemerkt voorbij gaat. Het is ook nogal straf dat SJW en S.O. tot dit niveau zijn afgegleden. In hun jacht op communisten zoeken zij aansluiting bij onze toekomstige VLD- en CD&V-politici. Leuk om te weten wie de betrouwbare bondgenoten zijn in de andersglobaliseringsbeweging.

I am a Jewish doctor. I am not a Jewish Nazi.
I do not think that Swiss or French or Italian are cheaper
than Jews. Or Palestinians. We, Jews, are brothers and sisters of Palestinians. In the time of Holocost nearly
all my family had been killed by European Nazis. But some
members of my family joined the Red Army and participated
in taking Berlin in May 1945. We considered our mother-
lands - Poland, Russia, Ukraine - to be our motherlands
contrary to the pure Zionist thought of Adolf Hitler whose
"first solution" was "Juden, rauss nach Tel-Aviv!" Our
Jewish family did not steal land, TV's, washing machines
and golden teeth from our dead Palestinian brothers and sisters. Our Jewish family did not donate francs and dollars
to European and American military industrial corporations
to produce weapons for ethnical clensing in the so called
Holy Land. It is a big business. Sorry, I must disappoint Swiss Zionists - it is not on the Internet that you make money. But I am sure Mr. Samuel Althof and other AKdH members do not donate money to our "racially pure" Zionist cannibals of our own Jewish-Russian-American origin to kill Palestinian women and children. I am sure Mr. Samuel Althof and other trully religious AKdH members enjoy the great work of Carlos Latuff in private, secretly as much as non-racists and non-Zionists among us enjoy it openly.
Today we are all Palestinians. We are proud of it. I am sure nothing will happen to IndyMedia and Carlos Latuff.
Switzerland today does not collect Jewish, Palestinian and
Brazilian golden teeth. Switzerland today is not neutral to
the Third Reich. Swiss are born democrats. They will not make meat conserves from dead Palestinians to sell full
containerloads of this cherished commodity to Russia.
And they will defend with their life Brazilian cartoonist who is not in real big business.