Remi Kanazi Denied Visa after ADC Intervention

The following Australian government outrage hasn't, to my knowledge, been covered in the mainstream Australian press. Here is the text of a petition circulating on the matter. (It may be found at www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/overturn-visa-ban-let-palestinian-poet-into-australia):

"World renowned American, Palestinian writer, poet and organiser Remi Kanazi has had his visa revoked. He was planning a speaking and performance tour of Australia. The organisers of his tour claim that the denial of his visa is an attack on free speech and the right of Palestinians to enter this country. Kanazi has been denied a visa after a campaign by the Anti-Defamation Commission to the minister for immigration.

"Marxism Conference organiser Vashti Kenway says that 'The denial of Kanazi's visa is a clear violation of the right of free speech in this country. This is the second time Palestinian speakers at our Marxism Conference have have had a visa denied them and the third to have major issues.'

"In 2016 Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah had to battle to get a visa into Australia and in 2017 Bassem Tamimi from the Palestinian Occupied Territories, father of political prisoner Ahed Tamimi, was denied entry. Prominent Palestinian spokesperson Nasser Mashni from Australians for Palestine says: 'This decision is an act of selective, politically-motivated censorship. It is clear the government is deliberately silencing and preventing human rights defenders and Palestinian voices for justice from being heard in Australia.'

"The Anti-Defamation Commission claim Kanazi is anti-semitic for his support for Palestinian resistance and have garnered support for their campaign from a number of MPs.

'The conflation of support for Palestinian resistance with anti-semitism is a common trope. Similar accusations have been levelled at British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and American senator Ilhan Omar in recent months. This is slander and operates to silence Palestinian voices. Standing up for the human right of Palestinians to resist their occupation and the war waged against them is entirely justified,' Kenway claims.

"Kanazi is a globally renowned and respected commentator on Palestinian issues. His political commentary has been featured by news outlets throughout the world including the New York Times, Salon, Al Jazeera English and BBC Radio. He has appeared in the Palestine Festival of Literature. this is the first time that he has ever been denied a visa anywhere in the world."

You click on the 'Remi Kanazi' label below to read his poem, The Dos & Don'ts of Palestine. And while we're at it, here's another from his 2011 collection, Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance & Palestine:

Only as Equals

every time I think of 9/11
I see burning flesh
dripping off the bones
of Iraqi children in Fallujah
now Gaza
I tend to memorialize the forgotten
the collateral damage
eclipsing America's unpunished crimes

maybe it's because I'm a numbers guy?
because if I had a dollar
for every time
an Iraqi died since 2003
I'd be a millionaire

and don't get me wrong
sometimes I don't know
who to hate more
the governments in the West
or the politicians in the East
who sell their souls
quicker than the oil they export
straw men who use Palestine
as a tool to line their pockets
and don't give a nickel
to their people
quisling governments
who stitch mouths shut for a check
from Washington and AIPAC
how can they be
Israel's prototypical anti-Semite
if they're signing peace accords
to oppress their own people?

then Orientalists and hypocrites
talk about how democracy
can't be allowed in the Middle East
because of what happened in Gaza
a Hamas bogeyman
wrapped in democratic elections
Rahm Emmanuel wants to educate me
and my people
about democracy gone wrong
why doesn't he try
implementing one in Israel first?
instead of bowing down to terrorists
like his father and the IDF
lauding a third-rate, racist, European society
that's imploding faster
than its moral standing in the world
enlightened like 1950s Afrikaners
and slave traders
just because the house is beautiful
doesn't mean the bones you built it on
have fully decomposed

the Israeli left
is about alive as Ariel Sharon
I'm sick and tired
of asking for permission to resist
from antiquated leftists and progressives
who care more about keeping it Kosher
than moving things forward

I put down my pen and waving fist
to resist with college kids
and Palestinians
boycott and divest
because who cares about
preserving a living
when governments
are killing civilians?

we'll boycott Elbit Systems
Caterpillar and your apartheid companies
we're taking back the right of return
and the keys to our country
because we never asked you
to go back to Europe
or sit in open-air prisons
I'm not asking for your advice
I'm explaining the decision

you can stay here
with us
but only as equals
it's not that you're Israeli
it's that you're wrong
that's why I fight for my people!

'Anti-Semitic' Crimes & Punishments

1) 

Offence: Tamika Mallory did say to the US Centre for Constitutional Rights on Friday, "It's clear you (Israelis) needed a place to go - cool, we got that. I hear that. But you don't show up to somebody's home, needing a place to stay, and decide that you're going to throw them out and hurt the people who are on that land. And to kill, steal, and do whatever it is you're gonna do to take that land. That to me is unfair. It's a human rights crime."

(Tamika Mallory was co-chairwoman of the 2017 5 million-strong US Women's March against Trump last year and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2017.)

Punishment: Disinvited yesterday to be the keynote speaker at next week's Victorian Council of Social Service 'Good Life' summit in Melbourne. VCOSS said it was "concerned both by comments Ms Mallory made in recent days regarding Israeli-Palestinian affairs, and the capacity for these remarks to overshadow the Good Life Summit. An Andrews government spokesman said VCOSS had "made the right call." The Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) "welcomed the council's decision." (Source: US activist dumped for 'Israel crime' claim, Richard Ferguson, The Australian, 5/6/18)

2) 

Offence: Saul Eslake did say in interview with The Saturday Paper on May 19,"Malcolm Turnbull said when he became prime minister he was going to lead a thoroughly liberal government. Now he's going to give the police the kind of stop-and-demand-ID powers that the secret police in the KGB in the Soviet Union used to have, or the Gestapo. It makes one want to puke."

(Saul Eslake is the former chief economist for ANZ and Merrill Lynch's Australian arm, and a refugee activist.)

Punishment: Forced to apologise to Holocaust survivors: "I accept that my reference to the Gestapo in this context was inappropriate, and I hereby apologise to you [ADC] - and through you to any Holocaust survivors or their descendants... for it." (Source: Eslake sorry for his ABF-Nazi comparison, Richard Ferguson, The Australian, 29/5/18)

3) 

Offence: Julian Burnside did retweet a photo of Peter Dutton dressed as a Nazi.

(Julian Burnside QC OA is a barrister, human rights lawyer and refugee activist.)

Punishment: Apology: "I would say that I am very sorry that some people were offended by the tweet. It is worth noting that I did not compare our present conduct with the events of the Holocaust, and I never would... I agree with the ADC that nothing in the world today is equivalent to the Holocaust... " (Source: letter re Peter Dutton on julianburnside.com.au, 30/3/18)

Whatever Happened to Free Speech?

Now here's a loaded opening sentence:

"Jewish groups are demanding an apology from the ABC over an interview with a disgraced British vicar accused of anti-Semitism and spreading anti-Israel conspiracy theories." (ABC under fire for interview with accused anti-Semite, Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/4/18)

To unpack: Jewish groups or Zionist shop fronts?* Disgraced? - says who? Accused means guilty? Has Israel never been known to conspire?

"Radio National marked the start of Passover... by speaking to Stephen Sizer, a retired Anglican vicar and critic of Christian Zionism... "

And how did Israel mark it? By massacring Palestinians.

And as for Sizer being a "critic of Christian Zionism," which End Times theology mandates that, prior to the fabled Battle of Armageddon, Jews either convert to Christianity or die,** wouldn't that, like, be a plus? But no, what really matters to our knee-jerk Zionist complainants, is not Jews as Jews, but apartheid Israel.

Sizer's 'crime'? In 2015, "he shared an article from the website Wikispooks titled '9-11 Israel did it'...", saying, "'the article raises so many questions'." At which, lo and behold, "the Church of England subsequently barred him from writing or speaking about the Middle East."

Perhaps if Radio National had interviewed one of our very own Anglican Friends of Israel instead, said "Jewish groups... demanding an apology from the ABC," would have been happier. After all, AFI's aims include such Zio-friendly items as (1) "To resist the call for a boycott of Israel"; ( 4) "To recall the Church to G-d's Covenant with the Jewish people and to call the Church to affirm the centrality of Israel to the Jewish faith"; and (5) To call Anglicans to repentance for the wrongs - of both word and deed - inflicted by Christians on the Jewish people and their State." (anglicanfriendsofisrael.com)

FYI: Stephen Sizer's 2014 book on Christian Zionism is Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon.

[*Those "demanding an apology" are revealed later in the piece: Peter Wertheim, chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), who railed against what he called a "soft" interview, and Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), who declared that the ABC had "'crossed the line big time' in giving Dr Sizer a platform 'to spew his anti-Israel venom'".]

[**"Chuck warned us that Jews who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as their messiah by the time of the Battle of Armageddon will face divine punishment in the form of a double-strength Holocaust. 'Check it out! Zechariah 13:8 - "in the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive". A third of the world's Jews, six million out of eighteen million, died in the Holocaust. We're talking two-thirds at Armageddon - do the math!'" (Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Victoria Clark, 2007, p 16)]

Beware the Zionist Thought Police

"A prominent Jewish academic banned from delivering an address at a major conference because he boycotts against Israel has warned of a growing trend of censorship within the Jewish community. Peter Slezak, a philosopher at the University of NSW, had promised not to raise the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign [BDS] at the Limmud-Oz Festival of Jewish Ideas to be held in Sydney in June... He offered the organisers the chance to vet his proposed talk, on the German-American Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt... The Limmud organisers rejected the proposal, saying even though Professor Slezak might not mention BDS, the problem is he believes in it." (Jewish community 'censors' its own on BDS', Ean Higgins, The Australian, 5/5/15)

Peter Slezak is to be commended for speaking out against the activities of the Zionist thought police. Here's another recent example of their handiwork:

"Australia's B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission [ADC] has welcomed the decision by the UN to conduct a review of any anti-Semitic and anti-Israel books..."

Note the conflation here!

"... offered at its official store in Geneva. Some of the texts to be reviewed include How I Stopped Being a Jew, Israel's War Against the Palestinians, and The Punishment of Gaza." (UN takes stock of its books, jwire.com.au, 4/5/15)

How I Stopped Being a Jew is by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand. I assume that the second item on the list is Noam Chomsky & Ilan Pappe's Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians. The Punishment of Gaza is by Israel's top journalist, Gideon Levy.

Oh well, the Zionist thought police may be after him, but Peter Slezak can at least take comfort from the fact that he's in the very best of company.

The Ultimate Zionist Whinge

O dear! O dearie, dearie me!

"A song broadcast on ABC Classic FM has drawn the ire of the B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) for content it says endorses genocide and the destruction of the State of Israel. Hosted by Margaret Throsby, Midday offers guests the opportunity to share their stories and request musical pieces that are significant to them. On Monday, February 25, Egyptian writer and political and cultural commentator Ahdaf Soueif was Midday's guest, and selected Jerusalem, Flower of Cities by Lebanese singer Fairuz as the final song to be played. The Arabic lyrics, in part, go as follows: 'The striking fury is on its way, and I am full of faith! The striking fury is on its way, and I will overcome the sadness.' ADC chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich told The Australian Jewish News that the song 'denies the Jewish relationship with Jerusalem... [and] speaks of 'striking' the Jews, which is a poetic synonym for killing them.' Abramovich has since written to Throsby stating that Jerusalem, Flower of Cities 'anticipates and prays for the destruction of the State of Israel.' 'It gives credibility to all those who deny any Jewish right to the land of Israel,' he said. 'While I understand that the ABC seeks to respect the choices made by its guests for musical items, I must assume that it has guidelines in this regard. I am sure, for example, that it would not play a song calling for the destruction of Australia's indigenous people.'" (The ADC vs the ABC, The AJN, 8/3/13)

*Sigh* Where to begin?

In the scholarly tradition of 'context is everything', let's start with the complete lyrics of Fairuz' beautiful song of loss and resistance, written in the wake of the Israeli seizure and occupation of Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967.

The translation is my own:

For you, city of prayer,
I pray.

For you, beautiful city, flower of cities,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city of prayer,
I pray.

Our eyes travel to you every day,
Roaming the porticoes of the temples,
Embracing the old churches,
Sweeping away the sadness from the mosques.

Night of the Isra',
Path of he who ascended to the heavens,
Our eyes travel to you every day.
I pray.

The child and his mother Mary in the grotto,
Two crying faces,
Crying for the refugees,
For the children without homes,
For those who defended you, martyred at your gates.

Peace itself was martyred in the nation of peace,
And justice too died at your gates.
When Jerusalem fell,
Love retreated,
And war took root in the hearts of the world.

The child in the grotto and his mother Mary,
Two crying faces.
I pray.

That's the first, more lyrical part of the song. The lyricism then gives way to martial strains, heralding the theme of resistance to the occupiers and usurpers, and it is here that Abramovich's translation above comes unstuck. In true MEMRI fashion, he mistranslates the Arabic adjective saati' (which qualifies the noun 'anger') as 'striking' when it in fact means 'radiant, brilliant, shining'. It is perhaps best translated here as 'blinding':

A blinding anger is coming  -
This I believe.
A blinding anger is coming,
Transcending the sadness.
On every road it is coming.
The steeds of fear and terror are coming,
Like the overpowering face of God.
Coming, coming, coming.

The door to our city shall not be closed.
For I am coming to pray.
I'll be knocking on all the doors,
Opening all the doors.

O River Jordan cleanse my face with your sacred waters,
Wipe out all traces of barbarian footprints.
A blinding anger is coming,
Riding on steeds of fear and terror,
Overcoming the occupying power.
Jerusalem is ours, it belongs to us.
We will celebrate its splendor.
We will bring it peace.

The wholly natural and completely legitimate tendency of dispossessed Palestinians to remember and yearn for what has been lost, and to strive to recover, by force if necessary, that which has been taken from them by force, is reduced by Abramovich to nothing more than an expression of genocidal intent.

That he lives in an ideological fantasy world where colonizers and colonized have swapped places is all too evident in his absurd assertion that the song is akin to "a song calling for the destruction of Australia's indigenous people."

Clearly, neither Fairuz, Soueif, Throsby, nor the ABC's Classic FM have a case to answer here.

But there's more! Back on April 3, Throsby aired another song about Jerusalem, chosen by her then guest, Professor Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University. The song was Jerusalem of Gold by Israeli singer Naomi Shemer. I ignored it at the time - one does have a life - but if Abramovich insists on doing a song and dance over Fairuz's song now, why not put on a show over Shemer's?

Jerusalem of Gold is mostly just padding, but the following lyrics are a real worry:

(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs translation):
The wells ran dry of all their water,
Forlorn the market square,
The Temple Mount dark and deserted,
In the Old City there...
And in the caverns in the mountain,
The winds howl to and fro,
And no one takes the Dead Sea highway,
That leads through Jericho...
The wells are filled again with water,
The square with joyous crowds,
On the Temple Mount within the City,
The shofar rings out loud...

Now if that little comprehensive erasure of Palestine's indigenous Arab population doesn't smack of the genocidal (Aboriginal? What aboriginal?) colonial doctrine of terra nullius (empty land), I don't know what does. Can't have Ms Throsby getting away with that now, can we?