Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir (Russian: Исраэль Шамир; born 1947),[1] also known by the names Jöran Jermas[2][3] and Adam Ermash, is a Russian-born Swedish writer and journalist.[4][5][6][7] He is a commentator on Arab–Israeli relations and Jewish culture.[8][9][10] Originally from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Shamir moved to Israel in 1969.[11][12][13] He says that he served in the 1973 war, after which he took up journalism and writing.[14]

Shamir writes about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish people, and has published or self-published a number of books that have been translated into several languages; the French edition of Flowers of Galilee (2004) was banned for a time in France over allegations of antisemitism. Shamir has been accused of antisemitism and Holocaust denial,[15][16] charges he has rejected.

Background and personal life

Shamir says that he is an ethnic Jew born in Russia who converted to Orthodox Christianity.[3][12][17][18][19][20] At birth, his name was Izrail Schmerler.[12][13] Shamir says that he was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia, in 1947, although the Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia article "Jews in the Soviet Union" claims Schmerler was born in 1948.[13] According to him, he studied mathematics and law at Novosibirsk University. He moved to Israel in 1969,[11][12][13] and states that he served as paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.[14] After the war, he says he returned to studying law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but abandoned this for a career in journalism.[21]

Norman Finkelstein is quoted by Tablet magazine article "His Jewish Problem" as saying that Shamir "has invented his entire personal history. Nothing he says about himself is true".[22] Manfred Ropschitz in the Independent Media Center article writes that "For twenty years the Jewish Israeli journalist Israel Shamir has been living a double life as a Swede called Jöran Jermas".[19]

Searchlight describes him as a "Swedish anti-semite",[23] and says that was registered in Sweden in 1984 and gained Swedish citizenship in 1992.[12] He left Sweden for Russia and then Israel in 1993, before returning in 1998, having remarried in Israel in July 1994.[23] However, others argue that Swedish files show that he was married in Sweden.[24] He was known as Jöran Jermas from 2001 to 2005, before changing his name to Adam Ermash, although continuing to use Israel Shamir as a pen name.[12] According to Shamir, these name changes were necessary "in order to safeguard my private life and to manage to travel without harassments from political adversaries".[25]

In 2004, Shamir was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem by Archbishop Theodosios (Atallah) Hanna of Sabastia and given the name Adam.[14]

According to his website, Shamir "lives in Jaffa and spends much time in Moscow and Stockholm".[14] He has three sons,[14] one of whom is the Swedish journalist Johannes Wahlström.[12][26]

Career

On his website, Shamir states that, after dropping out of law studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem some time after the Yom Kippur War, he took up journalism and writing.[14][21] He says that he was initially a journalist for Israel Radio, before becoming a freelance journalist, and covered the latter stages of the war in South East Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia).[21] He says that he joined the BBC in 1975, moving to London, before moving to Japan (1977–79), writing for Maariv and others.[14][21] He says that in 1980 he returned to Israel, and wrote for Haaretz.[14]

After a career in journalism, Shamir says that he focused on other writing, particularly translation. Shamir states that he translated various works of Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1966) from Hebrew into Russian (1981–2004), as well as Chaim Herzog's The Arab-Israeli Wars (1986). Other works he says that he translated include a 2006 annotated translation of Abraham Zacuto's 15th century history of the Jews, Sefer Hayuhasin (The Book of Lineage).[14] With the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987 Shamir says that he went to Russia and wrote about the political changes until 1993, for newspapers including Pravda and the extreme nationalist Zavtra, whose author, Alexander Prokanov, is connected with the extreme anti-Semite David Duke.[27][28]

Shamir writes about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish people.[14] Several of his books have been translated into a range of languages. Shamir did not publish in English until January 2001, after the beginning of the Palestinian Second Intifada in September 2000. As he put it, "Israeli attacks on Palestinians forced him to give up literature and turn to politics."[29] An article in the Russian-language Israeli newspaper Vesti was cited by Christopher Hitchens in 2001 as "a brilliant reply to [Elie] Wiesel".[30]

The French edition of Shamir's Flowers of Galilee was initially co-published in October 2003 by Éditions Blanche and Éditions Balland, and was prominently displayed in large bookshops. It was withdrawn from sale at the end of October after Balland's director had his attention drawn to the content of the book, which he considered anti-semitic.[31][32] The book was republished in 2004 by Éditions Al-Qalam, which led to a court case (a civil case brought by the Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme [LICRA]), with the publisher sentenced to three months in prison (suspended) and a 10,000-euro fine, and the banning of the book.[33] The ban was overturned on appeal, and the fine reduced.

Views

Shamir supports the proposed one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[34] He has argued that there is organized Jewish control of the media and public discourse: "The rich Jews buy media so it will cover up their (and their brethren's) misdeeds. The Jews in the media are giving protection to the rich Jews. ... In the US, even in Western Europe, no view can be proposed to the general public unless approved (after being vetted and corrected) by a Jewish group."[10] He is critical of what he considers a Jewish quest for world hegemony, having written, "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is. Palestine is just the place for world state headquarters; necessary, for otherwise the people of Europe wouldn't be magnetised like a rabbit in the headlights of a car."[9]

In 2001, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish circulated an email in which they said that "from early on, some of Shamir's writings struck us as straying beyond criticism of Israel and Zionism, and crossing into the territory of implicit anti-Semitism". They urged "all our friends in the movement for Palestinian rights" to consider the effects of Shamir's writing, which includes "elements of traditional European anti-Semitic rhetoric", on their cause.[35]

He has been accused of being an antisemite and Holocaust denier,[36] with Searchlight in 2004 accusing him of connections to antisemitic publications and groups,[23] and its campaign Hope not Hate at one time listing Shamir as a "notable Holocaust denier," citing the "rabid Holocaust denial material" on his website.[37] Essays by Paul Eisen supporting the tenets of Holocaust denial, such as the alleged non-existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, are posted on Shamir's personal website.[38] In February 2005 Labour life peer Nazir Ahmed held a book launch for Shamir in the House of Lords. Commenting on the event, Stephen Pollard in The Times,[36] called him a "rabid anti-Semite."[36] Shamir rejected the accusations, and Gilad Atzmon wrote to The Times in his defence.[21][39]

In an essay published on his website discussing Holocaust denier David Irving, Shamir wrote that "the Jews" now "rule over the minds and souls of Europeans":

David Irving was sentenced for denial of Jewish superiority. His doom seals the reign of (albeit limited) freedom that began with the fall of Bastille. European history went full circle: from rejecting the rule of Church and embracing free thought, to the new Jewish mind-control on a world scale. Not only is Western Christian civilisation dead, but even its successor, secular European civilisation, has met its demise only a few days after its proud and last celebration by the Danish scribes. It was short-lived: about two hundred years from beginning to the end, the Europeans may once have had the illusion that they can live without an ideological supremacy. Now this illusion is over; and the Jews came in the stead of the old and tired See of St Peter to rule over the minds and souls of Europeans.[40]

Shamir was also accused in connections with extremist groups in Europe. The Times of London had reported that in September 1998 a radical Russian group tried to sell Nazi items from WW2 that were released from Soviet archives. The group's representative in Western Europe was Shamir who tried to offer those items to David Irving. Irving did not respond to Shamir and published a letter stating that the items were stolen and whoever is selling them is doing so against German and Russian law. Irving also reported Shamir's proposal to the German authorities and neglected further attempts from Shamir to contact him.[28]

In 2006, discussing the upcoming Iranian International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, Deutsche Welle wrote that the Iranian government "said it intended to invite academics such as German neo-Nazi [lawyer] Horst Mahler and the Israeli journalist and Christian convert Israel Shamir, both of whom are Holocaust deniers."[41] Shamir denied receiving an invitation to the conference, and said he did not attend.[42] Shamir wrote of his interest in the conference, concluding that "Nobody – and I do mean nobody, including British, French, American, German, Russian leaders – really cares about the victims of a war long past, Jewish or otherwise; they pay tribute to the Holocaust as nations pay tribute to their vanquisher."[43] The widespread acceptance of the Holocaust narrative "as a justification of [rich and powerful] minority rights over [oppressed] majority needs", Shamir argued, showed "that the mass media machine is well integrated and concentrated in philosemitic, mostly Jewish hands. The occupation of Palestine by Jews is painful, but it is not more harmful than this captivity of free discourse."[43]

In December 2010, Shamir's connection with WikiLeaks brought him new public attention. Andrew Brown of The Guardian repeated the accusations of antisemitism, relying on Magnus Ljunggren's piece that month in Expressen.[44] Shamir responded to Ljunggren, saying "the stories he tells are all lies. And these lies are old and well known and refuted years ago."[42] Katha Pollitt, writing in The Nation in December 2010, described a visit to Shamir's web site:

I spent a few hours on www.israelshamir.net and learned that: "the Jews" foisted capitalism, advertising and consumerism on harmonious and modest Christian Europe; were behind Stalin's famine in Ukraine; control the banks, the media and many governments; and that "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is." There are numerous guest articles by Holocaust deniers, aka "historical revisionists."[45]

In early 2011, The Guardian described Shamir as "notorious for Holocaust denial and publishing a string of antisemitic articles."[46] Defending himself, Shamir wrote in early 2011:

"As for the accusation of 'Holocaust denial', my family lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy, but I do deny its religious salvific significance implied in the very term ‘Holocaust’; I do deny its metaphysical uniqueness, I do deny the morbid cult of Holocaust and I think every God-fearing man, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim should reject it as Abraham rejected and smashed idols."[47]

Shamir claims his concern with the Holocaust is with the use of the narrative of the Holocaust by Jews to promote Jewish "superiority and exclusivity":

It has everything to do with the Jewish claim of superiority and exclusivity. There is a Jewish prayer saying: “Bless you, Lord, that you created me a Jew, that you separated between Jews and the earth folks, like you separated between the Holy and Profane, that our fate is not like their fate”. The Holocaust concept is just another form of this prayer. They say that even their death is not like the death of anybody else.[48]

In a May 2011, Tablet magazine described Shamir as a "Holocaust doubter".[22] The article includes a transcript of an interview in which Shamir repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the mass annihilation at Auschwitz.

In 2012, CounterPunch published an article titled "Pol Pot Revisited," in which Shamir argued:

"New Cambodia (or Kampuchea, as it was called) under Pol Pot and his comrades was a nightmare for the privileged, for the wealthy and for their retainers; but poor people had enough food and were taught to read and write. As for the mass killings, these are just horror stories, averred my Cambodian interlocutors. Surely the victorious peasants shot marauders and spies, but many more died of American-planted mines and during the subsequent Vietnamese takeover, they said..... Noam Chomsky assessed that the death toll in Cambodia may have been inflated "by a factor of a thousand." .... To me, this recalls other CIA-sponsored stories of Red atrocities, be it Stalin's Terror or the Ukrainian Holodomor....It is fine that they canceled money, dynamited banks and sent bankers to plant rice. It is fine that they dried up the great blood-sucking leech, the big-city compradors and money-lenders."[49]

In 2013, CounterPunch published an article titled "Russia, Syria and the Decline of American Hegemony" in which Shamir argued:

"The shutdown of their government and possible debt default gave the Americans something real to worry about. With the end of US hegemony, the days of the dollar as the world reserve currency are numbered.

↵↵

World War III almost occurred as the banksters wished it. They have too many debts, including the unsustainable foreign debt of the US. If those Tomahawks had flown, the banksters could have claimed Force Majeure and disavow the debt. Millions of people would die, but billions of dollars would be safe in the vaults of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs."[50][51]

Association with WikiLeaks

Shamir is a vocal backer of the WikiLeaks organization.[52] In a Sveriges Radio interview with WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson, Hrafnsson stated that Israel Shamir "is associated with" WikiLeaks, as are "a lot of journalists that are working with us all around the world" who "have different roles in working on [the] project".[26] Russian Reporter claims that it has "privileged access" to the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak via Shamir.[26] Shamir described his relation with WikiLeaks as being "a freelancer who was 'accredited' to WikiLeaks".[53]

Former Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg noted Wikileaks' ties to Shamir among the reasons he quit the organization.[54] Domscheit-Berg described Shamir as a "famous Holocaust denier and anti-Semite."[55]

Yulia Latynina, writing in The Moscow Times, alleged that Shamir concocted a cable which allegedly quoted European Union diplomats' plans to walk out of the Durban II speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for publication in the pro-Putin Russian Reporter in December 2010. Shamir has denied this accusation.[53]

Shamir has also been accused of passing "sensitive cables" to the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.[56] Index on Censorship has expressed concern that such an event could physically endanger Lukashenko's political opponents; Wikileaks has refused to reply to Index on the issue, although one Wikileaks representative called Shamir's alleged leaks "obviously unapproved."[57]

Shamir's son, a journalist named Johannes Wahlström, is a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Sweden.[12][26]

Selected publications

Books

Translations

References

  1. ↑ Palestine my love:A Plea for Palestine and Israel - together in the holy land. Israel Shamir. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
  2. ↑ Assange's Extremist EmployeesReason Magazine, Michael C. Moynihan | December 14, 2010
  3. 1 2 Jennifer Lipman (2010-11-15). "Antisemitic 'Holocaust denier' in charge of WikiLeaks Russian distribution". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  4. ↑ Manfred Ropschitz (2005-04-26). "Israel Shamir exposed! A fake or a plant?". Independent Media Center. Archived from the original on 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  5. ↑ British lord joins UK Islamists in praising Erdogan Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post, 02/11/2009
  6. ↑ Olbermann, Assange, and the Holocaust DenierReason Magazine, Michael C. Moynihan | December 7, 2010
  7. ↑ "Middle east smells of war". Voice of Russia. August 5, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Israel Shamir - Fear not, crying wolf". Information Clearing House - via Australia.to News. August 17, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  9. 1 2 Shamir 2005, p. 87
  10. 1 2 Shamir 2005, pp. 31–32
  11. 1 2 Mikhail Agursky (Aug 15, 1991). "WE MUSTN'T SHUN THE RUSSIAN RIGHT". Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-06-12.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Magnus Ljunggren. "Pappas pojke?". Expressen. Archived from the original on 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "The Soviet Union. Jews in the Soviet Union in 1967-85's.". Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Israel Adam Shamir - biography". israelshamir.net. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy' – the media deal, Assange's real father & Cablegate". International Business Times. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011. Shamir "has earned the reputation of being an anti-Semite for denying the holocaust."
  16. ↑ Leigh, David (31 January 2011). "Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables | Media | The Guardian". The Guardian. London: GMG. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 8 June 2011. Holocau
  17. ↑ "9/11 Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Still Abound". Anti-Defamation League. September 7, 2006. Archived from the original on 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2013-06-12.
  18. ↑ "Ukraine University of Hate". Anti-Defamation League. November 3, 2006. Archived from the original on 2013-06-12.
  19. 1 2 Manfred Ropschitz (2005-04-26). "Israel Shamir exposed! A fake or a plant?". Independent Media Center. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  20. ↑ Andrew Brown (2010-11-15). "WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2013-06-12.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Israel Shamir, novakeo.com, 15 January 2011, Royal Hunt of Julian Assange
  22. 1 2 Will Yakowicz, “His Jewish Problem: Israel Shamir is a slippery Holocaust-doubter whose anti-Semitic, anti-Israel views are ―in the age of WikiLeaks― finding a new audience. Part 1 of 2,” Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life. www.tabletmag.com. (May 16, 2011 7:00 AM). Retrieved 10-09-2013.
  23. 1 2 3 Tor Bach, et al, Searchlight, "Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite" May 2004
  24. ↑ Israel Shamir exposed! A fake or a plant? 26.04.2005 Independent Media Center
  25. ↑ Israel Shamir, israeshamir.net, FAQs
  26. 1 2 3 4 Michael C. Moynihan (December 14, 2010). "Assange's Extremist Employees". Reason (magazine).
  27. ↑ (in German) Ludwig Watzal, 10 February 2006, Der Freitag, Der Journalist und das "Imperium"
  28. 1 2
  29. ↑ Israel Shamir, Galilee Flowers, p279
  30. ↑ Christopher Hitchens, The Nation, 1 February 2001, Wiesel Words
  31. ↑ (in French), Gilles Karmasyn, Pratique de l’histoire et dévoiements négationnistes (PHDN), 10 November 2003, Israël Shamir, un antisémite dans le texte...
  32. ↑ Israel Shamir, israelshamir.net, 451 °F
  33. ↑ quibla.net, 3 November 2005, A book to be burned: The other face of Israel, Israel Adam Shamir, reproducing an Agence France-Presse newswire of 2 November 2005.
  34. ↑ "Vocal critic of Israel". New Straits Times. April 1, 2002. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  35. ↑ "Serious concerns about Israel Shamir". www.ibishblog.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  36. 1 2 3 Pollard, Stephen (April 7, 2005). "Lord Ahmed's unwelcome guest". London: The Sunday Times. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  37. ↑ Hope not Hate (November 2010). "'At the Centre of the Web'". Archived from the original on November 9, 2010. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  38. ↑ Paul Eisen. "The Holocaust Wars". Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  39. ↑ israelshamir.net, The Times attacks
  40. ↑ Israel Shamir, “For Whom The Bell Tolls. David Irving was sent to jail for denying Jewish superiority. His doom seals the reign of freedom that began with the fall of the Bastille,” http://www.israelshamir.net. Retrieved 10-09-2013.
  41. ↑ Deutsche Welle, "Iran's Holocaust Conference Plan Prompts Anger". December 6, 2006. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  42. 1 2 Israel Shamir, israelshamir.net, Ljunggren the Liar
  43. 1 2 Israel Shamir. "'They Met In Tehran'". Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  44. ↑ Andrew Brown, WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir, 17 December 2010
  45. ↑ Katha Pollitt (22 December 2010). "The Case of Julius Assange". The Nation. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  46. ↑ The Guardian, Leigh, David; Harding, Luke (January 31, 2011). "Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables". The Guardian. London. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  47. ↑ Israel Shamir "BBC Joins Smear Campaign Against Assange and Wikileaks", CounterPunch, 1 February 2011
  48. ↑ Israel Shamir. "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  49. ↑ Shamir, Israel, Pol Pot Revisited, CounterPunch, September 18, 2012.
  50. ↑ Shamir, Israel, Russia, Syria and the Decline of American Hegemony, CounterPunch, OCTOBER 08, 2013.
  51. ↑ Israel Shamir (2013-11-02). "Russia, Syria and the Decline of American Hegemony". Paul Craig Roberts - Institute for Political Economy. Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2014-01-08.
  52. ↑ Shamir, Israel. "News of the Site". Retrieved 25 December 2010. Israel Shamir supports Wikileaks, agrees with its ideas and admires its head, Julian Assange.
  53. 1 2 von Twickel, Nikolaus (2010-12-10). "Putin Bristles Over Leaked U.S. Cables". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
  54. ↑ "Former Assange cohort says WikiLeaks is broken". The Local. 10 February 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011. Domscheit-Berg also said Assange had worrying ties to people of dubious character, such as the Sweden-based Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, whom Assange allegedly wanted to let work with WikiLeaks under a false name so as to not attract unwanted attention.
  55. ↑ "Anti-Assange book sparks WikiLeaks war of words". Agence France Presse. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  56. ↑ Harding, Luke (24 December 2010). "Julian Assange: my fate will rest in Cameron's hands if US charges me". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  57. ↑ Index on Censorship (5 February 2011). "Wikileaks, Belarus, and Israel Shamir". Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  58. ↑ an "online publishing company". Dandelion Books, Online Book Publishing from Dandelion Books
  59. ↑ a defunct print-on-demand brand of Callio Press/Bookforce UK, not to be confused with the children's book publisher of the same name)
  60. ↑ (in German) Promedia Verlag, Shamir, Israel - Blumen aus Galiläa - vergriffen
  61. ↑ "Bibliography" (in Russian). The Russian Open University. Retrieved August 19, 2010.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.