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Editorial Article

University of Haifa - Marcelo Svirsky (Dept of Political Science and Cardiff University) Thinks Critics of the Zionist Entity are never Critical Enough

Haifa University's political science department was long the home of the arch-hater of Israel and pseudo-academic fraud Ilan Pappe. Today it is home to Political Science Lecturer Marcelo Svirsky, currently abroad in the UK, where he is busy smearing Israel as a racist society that engages in "ethnic cleansing" and "colonialism." Marcelo Svirsky seems intent on following in Pappe's footsteps.

In the letter to [prominent French intellectual Bernard Henri] Levy, Svirsky compares the Gaddafi regime to Israel's Zionist state in the most noxious terms and adds: "But we should be under no illusions: for governments, cozying up to those who may become the future rulers of Libya would facilitate the exploitation of the country's vast resources in the future. By contrast, an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and the stabilization of the region that would bring along, is far less attractive to Europe and the West's interests."

"I struggle to find the words to describe your ignorance here, in particular with regard to how ethnic segregation and discrimination against Israel's Palestinian citizens within the Green Line structures an imperative to fight the system."

"Fight the system" here means supporting anyone fighting against a Jewish state, using violence when "necessary." Svirsky criticizes Levy for not damning Israel when it dared to stop the terrorist flotilla designed to aid Hamas in opening up the sea lanes to bring weapons into Gaza:

 

 

University of Haifa - Marcelo Svirsky (Dept of Political Science and Cardiff University) Thinks Critics of the Zionist Entity are never Critical Enough

By Lee Kaplan, www.Isracampus.org.il
1/6/2012

Haifa University's political science department was long the home of the arch-hater of Israel and pseudo-academic fraud Ilan Pappe. Today it is home to Political Science Lecturer Marcelo Svirsky, currently abroad in the UK, where he is busy smearing Israel as a racist society that engages in "ethnic cleansing" and "colonialism." Marcelo Svirsky seems intent on following in Pappe's footsteps.

Svirsky is a great believer in "multiculturalism" as being the key to solving all the world's ills. We see this in parsing a letter from Svirsky to Bernard Henri-Levy, a prominent French intellectual who appeared in media to support the Arab spring revolution in Libya that brought down Mohammar Gaddafi. Levy supported the revolt, a bit to the chagrin of Svirksy because Svirksy thinks it was "spiced with ethnographic (if dubiously colonial) smells and visuals." Svirksy spends much of his time denouncing "colonialism" and "ethnic cleansing," by which he refers to the self-defense of democracies.

Of course, few people know that the term "Ethnic Cleansing" was invented by the Saudis during the Bosnian War as the oil-soaked royal family funded Islamic mercenaries to kill and behead Christians in the former Yugoslavia. The Saudis are the worst racists in the world and still practice slavery. Bosnia today is the drug and slave trade capital of the world now that Balkan "ethnic cleansing" has stopped. "Colonialism" of course refers to one country taking over another and supposedly depleting its resources to the benefit of the mother country back home. The English hosts of Svirsky were the biggest colonialists in history.

In the letter to Levy, Svirsky compares the Gaddafi regime to Israel's Zionist state in the most noxious terms and adds: "But we should be under no illusions: for governments, cozying up to those who may become the future rulers of Libya would facilitate the exploitation of the country's vast resources in the future. By contrast, an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and the stabilization of the region that would bring along, is far less attractive to Europe and the West's interests."

We have to wonder, of course, if Svirsky has been living under a rock. The West and even the EU have poured in billions of dollars into "settling" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the real reason it has not been settled is because the Arabs refuse to recognize the right of any Jewish state to exist in the region. Oslo would have given the Arabs a state for the Palestinians within five years, but they refused to renounce terrorism or the Catch 22 of the "Right of Return."

Svirsky continues: "But let us stick with the assumption that all that counts is a sincere preoccupation with the fate of the Libyan people as they fight to overcome decades of oppression. This assumption reflects an admirable spirit which may be tested in other cases as well – and here it is only right to consider your own opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. A couple of years ago, in a debate at the New York Public Library on16 September 2008, you insisted on the extraordinary democratic character of the State of Israel by emphasizing its tolerance towards Arab political parties and others who aim at democratizing Zionist structures."

Zionist structures? Like creating a national homeland for Jews?

Then our Svirsky, the product of a Jewish (Zionist state) writes:

"I struggle to find the words to describe your ignorance here, in particular with regard to how ethnic segregation and discrimination against Israel's Palestinian citizens within the Green Line structures an imperative to fight the system."

"Fight the system" here means supporting anyone fighting against a Jewish state, using violence when "necessary." Svirsky criticizes Levy for not damning Israel when it dared to stop the terrorist flotilla designed to aid Hamas in opening up the sea lanes to bring weapons into Gaza:

"More recently, right after the deadly events of the Flotilla to Gaza in May 2010, when you expressed your criticisms of the IDF at a public meeting in Tel Aviv, you stressed your surprise at their actions and your belief in the morality and the sense of democracy of the Israeli Army (see the English edition of Haaretz, 30 May 2010)). These are just two reminders of your well-known public support for Zionism and for Israel, which must be now measured alongside your present support for the revolutionary wave shaking the Arab world."

More Svirsky: "What is it in your liberal heart that blinds you to the effects on Palestinian life caused by the tragic ethnic cleansing of 1948, by six decades of discrimination within the Green Line, and four decades of Zionist military oppression in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem? As the world rightly distinguishes between oppressors and oppressed in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya, why not apply, with the particularities of the case taken into account, the same treatment to Palestine? Europe's enthusiasm for the Arab uprising, like your own, irritates because of the double standard which is all the more striking in its spatial aspect: by refusing to support the Palestinian struggle in the same terms in which you support the Arab uprising across the whole region, "

So here we have a rant about the supposed "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs in 1948 and six decades of discrimination within the Green Line. In 1949 at the end of hostilities there were 110,000 Arabs left in Israel. Today they number 1.2 million. Where's the ethnic cleansing, Marcelo? And just how did the 400,000 "refugees" who fled the battle zones of 1948 morph into the 7 million claiming to be refugees today?

Some "ethnic cleansing"!!

Israel has affirmative action programs for Arab-Israelis in the universities that give them preference, Arab mothers get subsidies for their children, some Bedouin don't need to work because they have four wives and the state allots them money. Meanwhile, the separate Arab state being constructed next door insists no Jews be allowed to live there.

Finally and most disturbing: After Svirsky blames Israel for the Mavi Marmara flotilla affair, this "scholar" subtly calls for violence to achieve what he wants:

"But let me conclude by saying that it is indeed in the same manner that I understand my own Israeli citizenship as giving me not a mandate to perpetuate present modes of oppression but the right to redefine the whole spectrum of rights by way of struggle. It is in this light that I expect you and the world to support the struggle to transform the Israeli regime."

Make no mistake about it. By struggle this man means support of the myriad Arab terror groups that would dismantle Israel by violence. Maybe he should move permanently to the UK.. There he can do fine as the next Ilan Pappe.

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Op-Ed articles appearing on IsraCampus.Org.il are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the opinion of IsraCampus.Org.il