Hate Speech in Israel: Govt Minister Calls Peace Group Members "Nazi Capos"

Gush Shalom considers lodging a libel suit against Minister Avigdor
Lieberman, for the "capo" comparison.

The fact that such a person is a government minister is badge of
infamy and danger to democracy"

Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, considers lodging a libel suit
against Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who in an interview to the First
Channel TV attacked the movement's members (as well as those of Yesh
Gvul) and called them Nazi Capos.

Gush Shalom immediately checked the matter with its legal advisers.
There can be little doubt that such words constitute libel of the most
severe and malignant form - not to mention the desecration of the
Holocaust victims memory - and Liberman would find it difficult to
defend such words at a court of law. What makes is worse is that these
things were said by a man who built his whole career on acerbating
conflicts and the spreading of hatred, and in spite of that became
cabinet minister.

Liebermans special anger was aroused by Gush Shaloms boycott campaign
against the artists Idan Reichal, Ehud Banai, Ety Ankary, who performed
at a "festival" organized by the Gush Etzion settlers (in the Bethlehem
Region of the West Bank). Among other things, Idan Reichel performed on
the "central stage" erected at the settlement of Nokdim - Avigdor
Liebermans own home. See: "Dancing to the settlers tune," Sep 25:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/press_releases/1190736065

It is clear that the boycott campaign which we initiated has touched a
sensitive and painful spot for Lieberman and his fellow settlers,
namely the illegitimacy of the settlements. Lieberman claims that in
the Israeli public there is a complete concensus about the Gush Etzion
settlements, which is simply not true.

"Gush Etzion" was the name of a cluster of four small kibbutzim which
stubbornly resisted Arab forces in 1948 until being destroyed and
around which a heroic myth developed in Israel. There might have been a
legitimate claim for recreating them (had Israel been willing to
recreate in exchange some Palestinian villages destroyed in the same
war). However, nowadays this name is applied to dozens of small and big
settlements which take up enormous territory all around the Palestinian
city of Bethlehem, and bear no connection or resemblance to the
pre-1948 "Gush Etzion", including the ever-expanding settlement-city of
Efrat.

In such a situation there can be no chance of peace.

Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson 
adam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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