By David Cronin
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream when tipped off about the latest propaganda blitz planned by European Friends of Israel, a key lobby group in Brussels.
Its calendar for the next few weeks — not yet posted on the EFI website — features a number of events designed to present Israel as a caring and liberal country, which has managed to inoculate itself from financial crises.
Later this month (23 January) the EFI will host a mini-conference titled Humanitarian aid – Israel as a world leader. According to the EFI’s blurb, Israel has “aid teams poised to respond in the wake of natural or man-made disasters anywhere in the world.” One of these teams, apparently, was “first on the scene in January 2010 after the earthquake hit Haiti.”
Have those few words broken all previous records for chutzpah? At the time Israel was rushing to help Haiti (or so we are told), it was enforcing a medieval siege on more than 1.5 million people in Gaza. Israel was in no hurry to address the “man-made disaster” its own policies had caused. Rather, it was only after Israeli troops murdered nine activists trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza on a flotilla in May 2010 that it moved to ease, but not lift, the blockade.
“Self-congratulation”
Nor, it should be added, is there anything heroic about having the first aid workers in Haiti. As a short new book — L’échec humanitaire: le cas haïtien (The humanitarian failure: the Haitian case — by Frédéric Thomas illustrates, that Caribbean nation has been betrayed and misled by the Western aid industry. Of $10 billion pledged to Haiti at an international donors’ conference in New York during March 2010, less than $2.5 billion had been released by July 2012.
Thomas is especially scathing of how aid pledges are made for purposes of “self-congratulation,” in which the “first recipient of the message is not the Haitian people but voters in the donor country, who are invited to agree with their governments, so generous and effective.” While he does not mention Israel, the criticism can be applied to it.
Israel sent over 250 soldiers to Haiti after the earthquake, and posted videos in their honor on Facebook. Not only was this a clear case of hasbara — as propaganda is called in Hebrew — it violated a principle which genuine humanitarians regard as fundamental: that emergency assistance should be of a civilian nature and be seen as impartial.
Sandy solidarity?
The EFI is a cross-party alliance of members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Its conference — to be hold in the Parliament’s headquarters — will be addressed by Navonel Glick from the Israeli Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAid). Glick has been in New York lately in an apparent gesture of solidarity with victims of Hurricane Sandy.
IsraAid took advantage of that catastrophe by claiming that having a strong military enables Israel to undertake emergency missions. Of course, the less humane side of the same army was displayed when Israel rained its bombs down on Gaza for eight consecutive days in November, again making a mockery of its claim to be a “world leader” in humanitarianism.
Soon after mythologizing about Israel’s aid operations, the EFI will turn the spotlight on Israel’s economic prowess. A promotional note for a 29 January meeting says that though Israel is small “a host of reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy have allowed it to stand out as one of the world’s most competitive economies.” The main speaker will be Chaim Hurvitz from Israel’s top pharmaceutical firm Teva.
In a March 2012 study, Who Profits? — a project set up by Palestinian and Israeli women — documented how Teva benefits from the occupation. The construction of Israel’s apartheid wall has meant that pharmacies and hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem have been prevented from dispensing medicines manufactured in the West Bank. As a result, healthcare services on which all Palestinians in East Jerusalem and many others from across the West Bank rely have been forced to buy Israeli and foreign drugs.
Ironic twist
In an ironic twist, EFI will switch from applauding “competitiveness” — a doctrine which holds that social protections should be dismantled — to embracing young Israelis who demand that the welfare state be preserved. On 20 February, its special guest will be Daphne Leef, who the EFI has appointed “leader” of last year’s Tel Aviv protests against the right-wing policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Leef has a skewed sense of justice. In a much-circulated speech delivered during September 2011, she grew emotional over how “one million Israelis were living under the threat of missiles” fired from Gaza, without saying anything about how four million Palestinians live under a brutal occupation.
It is not hard to see why the EFI is happy to court her. Leef is a useful pawn for lobbyists determined to perpetuate the lie that Israel is a vibrant democracy.
David Cronin is the author of Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal Europe, European Voice, the Inter Press Service, The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune. As a political activist, he has attempted to place both Tony Blair and Avigdor Lieberman under citizen’s arrest for crimes against humanity. http://www.dvcronin.blogspot.com
#1 by Blake on January 18, 2013 - 5:09 pm
Unbelievably hurtful. Rubbing 64 years of untold scarred misery inflicted on innocent Palestinian wounds in salt.
#2 by amerikagulag on January 18, 2013 - 6:27 pm
The EU is a Rothschild creation. Of course it would stand to reason they would use their child to spread propaganda.
#3 by Carlos on January 18, 2013 - 6:48 pm
Is this a joke?
#4 by Gail Jones on January 18, 2013 - 7:23 pm
It is obvious to the world that the God of Israel is SATAN…….
#5 by betty on January 18, 2013 - 8:23 pm
Israel Named “World Humanitarian Leader” in EU Propaganda Exercise – ?????? Named by whom? Names please!!!!
#6 by john on January 18, 2013 - 9:12 pm
you mean, ” Israel Named “World UnHumanitarian Leader,
#7 by dkljo on January 18, 2013 - 11:45 pm
blake,
its not just the palestinians. look what they’ve done to the WORLD- with their 3 WWars and the endless ones in between, their swindling, fraud and lies- going all the way back to the start of the plot with the plagiarized “moses” and his Filth of deceit and subjugation and degradation.
#8 by PATTY on January 19, 2013 - 4:58 am
In the event of a natural disaster, if you see Israeli aid workers, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, lest you have your organs removed. If the disaster doesn’t kill you, these Jews surely will, or at the minimum, you will find yourself with one less kidney.
As for Israel’s economic prowess, it is an economic parasite. Without the extortion money they get from the U.S., Germany, etc., they would be bankrupt.
Even though Jews have a high IQ, they cannot create civilization or a healthy, livable society. I think this is because they are a predatory people with a criminal, morally depraved majority. Under these circumstances, civilization is impossible. They cannot create anything of beauty because the overriding impulse is to prey on others. How sad for them.
#10 by lolathecur on January 19, 2013 - 2:16 pm
This is the most ridiculous claim I have heard in a while.
Maurice Samuel,jewish writer of modern times wrote”We jews are the destroyers, we will always be the destroyers forever. Nothing the gentile nations do will ever meet our needs or demands”. At first glance this statement seems arrogant and mocking. one who studies judaism and zionism though understands that it is actually a cry of hopelessness as a practicioner of judaic thought can never escape the destructive nature of the”Mosaic Law”. How sad that is that eh? This is a choice though. One does not have to be a subject of rabbinical judaic doctrine. It’s integral anti gentilism perpetuates all the claims of victimhood it makes. The only way to satisfy the law is for all to be enslaved by it. Gentiles can never accept that. Therefore history of rejection of judaism will always repeat itself and judaics will always claim victimhood. Rabbinical judaism should be banned. it is a danger to jews everywhere and to all mankind. It is most likely the most dangerous religion on the planet that exists. It is satanic in its nature and the only solution is for jewish people to reject it and assimalate with the rest of humanity. If not, there will always be another holocaust around the corner. The world will not become slaves to jewish law . Forget it, it will never happen.
#11 by Paulo Panigale on January 19, 2013 - 3:42 pm
The scum-bag Israelis and International Zionism in general; The Tribe; ever united against humanity. The most despised and viscerally hated “people” on earth, and for very good reason. Their crimes, if compiled, would be thicker than the NYC phone book. When will this vicious, murderous parasite get what it deserves? Israel has been protected by the Rothschild’s usury banking cartel; it should also be destroyed. Why not a world-wide boycott of it? Stop making payments.
Haiti?? Right; we know what reverence the Jews have for black people….Jews are, by far, the most prejudiced “people” on earth.
#12 by Paulo Panigale on January 19, 2013 - 3:43 pm
I meant to say, the most RACIST “people” on earth…..
#13 by lolathecur on January 19, 2013 - 10:21 pm
The article says that israel has been able to innoculate itself from the financial crisis. Yep, and Patty has just told everyone how. Thank you for pointing it out my dear as I forgot to in my rant. Cant remember everything. After reading that crap my thoughts were rushing so fast i thought it would break my head open like the levees during katrina.
#14 by Ingrid B on January 20, 2013 - 1:28 am
“One of these teams, apparently, was “first on the scene in January 2010 after the earthquake hit Haiti.” :
their pupose was to harvest organs..
“Glick has been in New York lately in an apparent gesture of solidarity with victims of Hurricane Sandy.” :
wonder if these victims still have their organs intact..
“As a result, healthcare services on which all Palestinians in East Jerusalem and many others from across the West Bank rely have been forced to buy Israeli and foreign drugs.” :
they do the same with basics, such as food..
Excellent article..