Friday, January 16, 2009

Polish protesters beat up in an official ceremony with Israeli ambassador; protesters arrested

In the news video (in Polish - sorry), you will see a small group protesters, standing near the wall, not bothering anybody, holding a large sign that reads "Stop the butchery in Gaza", and then the "Anarchists Organization" symbol painted at the end of the sign.

You will see a man in a yarmulka get up from his chair, walk all the way across the room, and start to swing punches at the surprised protesters. Poland is a civilized country, after all, and while things like that happen, they tend to at soccer matches between hooligans, not in an official function with an Israeli ambassador with lots of cameras present.

This is not Israel where women are stoned by fanatical Orthodox Jews for wearing red color clothes (MSNBC article).

It looks like it is OK to beat up a woman with your manly, macho fists if the woman is a goy...



The funny bit is that the reporter says that unfortunately, the assailant was unidentified (!) and that three anarchists were held over by the police (double !!).

"Alicja Krobus (sp?), the president of the Poznan's Jewish region (gmina) could not identify the man". (Triple !!!).

So, summation: protesters arrested and held over by the police, the Jewish man who beat them up - no consequences, off to beat up other women somewhere else, possibly with no cameras around.

Aha, also mainstream polish press (and soon to follow, I assume, world media): Jewish man beat up in Poland by anarchists.

Irony Overload Alert!
Read the following at your own risk!

The official function was a concert gala (very high class, very fancy schmancy). It was a Righteous among the Nations award ceremony, a title which is the highest honor Israel can give a non-Jew (wikipedia entry here).

When Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the "Righteous among the Nations". The Righteous were defined as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.


I wonder if the Palestinians have a similar award (and if not, perhaps they should establish one very quickly?).

You know, something like "Rightous non-Moslems who saved Palestinians from Israeli white phosphorus" (working version - come up with something better, Gazans).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You show an intense dislike for Jews. You also have no idea what the heck phosphorus is and has been used for. It beggars the imagination that Anarchists have anything worthwhile to say.

Anonymous said...

Hey anon from first comment, using your logic: I think you have nothing worthwile to say, can I ask my friend to smack you in the head? Can it? Well, I can't! And that's the way it should be.

Anonymous said...

Don't feel like registering just to post, so here it goes...

Feel free to read the following:

http://www.glaukopis.pl/pdf/czytelnia/TraditionalJewishAttitudesTowardPoles_MarkPaul.pdf

You can verify the sources and accuracy of the quotes yourself if you wish (assuming you are capable of reading Polish, Jiddish, and Hebrew).

While reading, take under consideration that Poland, as an independent country, had been having pretty poor luck with her neighbours at the time. It rooted out many who did not carry a strong patriotic values, as it was simpler to become Austrian/Prussian/Russian than continue Polish tradition during the various partitions and occupations.

Moreover, what the above article does not overly mention, the post-second war Russian special services operating in Poland, responsible for murders and jailing of hundreds of Polish patriots and intellectuals during the communist rule were, in fact, predominantly Jewish Communists (at least initially). I can't provide sources as I don't have the books with me right now, but you are welcome to do a search on the topic yourself - not that I expect any great results in English, since it is not in line with the "official" history.

I am not, by the way, attempting to excuse Polish people involved in pogroms or exposing Jews to Nazis during WW2 (incidentally, the last could actually be a survival reaction, given the treatment of people harboring Jews by the Nazis - yet Poland had comparable Jewish survival rates per population as other Western countries despite the far more draconian handling of it by the German occupants).

However, I would appreciate a more balanced outlook and reporting on such issues - and the incident you witness on youtube is far from uncommon in how skewed the perception of "anti-semitism" is.

Reminds me of the recent book criticizing AIPAC's involvement in US politics (released in the US by US citizens) that ended up with the authors being branded as anti-Semites. Figures.