German Nobel Laureate Writer Günter Grass Defamed And Banned
By Child-Abusing, Nuclear Terrorist Apartheid Israel
By Dr Gideon Polya
15 April, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Humanitarian German Nobel Laureate writer Günter Grass has been egregiously defamed and banned by the racist Israeli Government from visiting Apartheid Israel and the Occupied Territories of Palestine for publishing this month a quite mild poem entitled “What needs to be said” ("Was gesagt werden muss") about the threats by nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel against non-nuclear Iran and the German contribution to Israeli war-making and a potential Iranian Holocaust by the race-based, genocidal, serial aggressor rogue state, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel.
US writer Heather Horn has published her English translation of the poem in The Atlantic (see Heather Horn, “Günter Grass' controversial poem about Israel . Iran and war, translated”, The Atlantic, 6 April 2012: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/gunter-grasss-controversial-poem-about-israel-iran-and-war-translated/255549/ .
The key passages of the poem are the first few verses as follows:
“ Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
What clearly is and has been
Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors
Are at best footnotes.
It is the alleged right to first strike
That could annihilate the Iranian people--
Enslaved by a loud-mouth
And guided to organized jubilation--
Because in their territory,
It is suspected, a bomb is being built.
Yet why do I forbid myself
To name that other country
In which, for years, even if secretly,
There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand
But beyond control, because no inspection is available?
The universal concealment of these facts,
To which my silence subordinated itself,
I sense as incriminating lies
And force--the punishment is promised
As soon as it is ignored;
The verdict of "anti-Semitism" is familiar.”
Günter Grass goes on to express concern over Israeli threats to world peace and potential German complicity in “ a crime That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses ”, demanding international inspection of both Israeli as well as Iranian nuclear facilities.
Günter Grass' prediction of the routine false Zionist defamation of criticism Israeli policies as “lies”, “hate” and “anti-Semitism” was borne out by statements from the war criminal and genocidal Israeli Government. Thus Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai has stated that Grass had been declared persona non grata and would be banned from visiting the State of Israel, stating: further that “If Günter Grass wants to continue to spread his outlandish and lie-filled works, he should do that from Iran – he can certainly find himself an enthusiastic audience there.”
A spokesperson for Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai declared that “the poem was] fuelling the fire of hate against the State of Israel and the People of Israel … [Gunter wanted to] “further the idea that he had openly supported earlier as he had worn the uniform of the [Nazi] SS” (see “ Israel bans Günter Grass over Israel ”, The Local, 8 April 2012: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120408-41827.html?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=247 ).
The latter defamatory Israeli Government statement refers to the fact that Günter Grass was conscripted into the Nazi Waffen SS in late 1944 as a 17 year old teenager - indeed he thus had a status as a “child soldier” that is decried by the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZIs) in relation to Uganda and used as an excuse for the newly expanding US War on Women and Children in Africa but is now used to “blame the victim” in the defamation of Günter Grass by genocidal, war criminal and grossly child-abusing Israelis.
Here are some basic statistics on appalling Apartheid Israeli child abuse: post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territories total 0.2 million; according UNICEF about 3,000 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old infants die avoidably each year through Israeli-imposed deprivation; 800,000 Palestinian children are highly abusively and indefinitely confined to what the Catholic Church has described as the Gaza Concentration Camp, without charge or trial but for the asserted “crime” of being Indigenous Palestinians living in a part of their homeland inhabited continuously by their forebears for thousands of years to the very dawn of agrarian civilization; 10% of Gaza children are stunted from Israeli-imposed deprivation according to Jewish British Labor MP David Milliband; and Occupied Palestinian children, like their parents, have effectively no human rights under Israeli military rule and are subject to imprisonment and torture (see “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
According to Save the Children, an international non-governmental organization that promotes children's rights: since 2000, the Israeli military has detained more than 8,000 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and prosecuted children as young as 12 in military courts for rock-throwing and 98% of Palestinian children imprisoned by Israeli regime are exposed to physical or verbal violence during detention and with most of them suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after their release. According to data collected by the Palestinian rights group Defense for Children International, 2,301 children were taken into custody by Apartheid Israel in 2011, with presently 170 Palestinian minors in Israeli jails (see “Palestinian children traumatized by Israeli jails: Report”, Occupied Palestine, 14 March 2012: http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/palestinian-children-traumatized-by-israeli-jails-report/ ).
Back in the Middle Ages in England Jews were hounded with the false canard that the Jews “drank the blood of Christian children”. Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1246 – 27 August 1255) was an English boy, whose death prompted a blood libel against the Jews which enabled arrest of 90 Jews, the hanging of 18 and the confiscation of their property by a mercilessly greedy King Henry III. In 1290 King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England (they were only permitted to return in 1656 under Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England from 1653-1658) (see “Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln ”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Saint_Hugh_of_Lincoln and “Edict of expulsion”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Expulsion ). Today in the 21st century, race-based Apartheid Israel is involved in the mass imprisonment, torture, malnutrition and active and passive killing of Palestinian children and indeed leads the world in illegal trade in human body parts (see “Israel world's largest trafficker of human body parts”, The Palestine Chronicle, 29 August 2011: http://paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/9998-israel-worlds-largest-trafficker-of-human-body-parts.html ). Eminent anthropologist Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes ( University of California Berkeley ) exposed the horrendous illegal trade in human organs based in Apartheid Israel (see “Nancy Scheper –Hughes”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Scheper-Hughes ).
The Günter Grass poem is very mild and eminently sensibly decries German delivery of submarines to the State of Israel that could be used in a nuclear attack on Iran based on Israeli concerns that Iran is a military threat and a potential nuclear weapons state; expresses concern over potential German participation in an Israeli-adumbrated holocaust of Iranians that threatens the world as a whole; and recommends international inspection of nuclear programmes in both Iran and the State of Israel.
The travel ban placed on Nobel Laureate Günter Grass by Apartheid Israel is par for the course for this race-based, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, Nazi-style, nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, Apartheid rogue state - after all, in a process of egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism Apartheid Israel has variously detained, imprisoned, deported and/or excluded outstanding anti-racist Jewish writers and scholars such as Professor Norman Finkelstein (sacked from the zero Nobel Laureate (?) Catholic De Paul University at the behest of racist Zionists), Professor Noam Chomsky (77 Nobel Laureate MIT) and Professor Richard Falk (35 Nobel Laureate Princeton University).
Apartheid Israel not only defames and excludes anti-racist Jews. it practises "democracy by genocide" and grossly violates the human rights of Indigenous Palestinians (zero human rights for Occupied Palestinians; 800,000 Palestinian children are abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp, 10% are stunted according to Jewish British Labor MP David Milliband; only 6% of 12 million Palestinians can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine, albeit as Third Class citizens under Nazi-style race laws; 6 million Palestinians are not even allowed to step foot in their own country ).
Apartheid Israel also seriously restricts the freedom of speech of not just Palestinians but also of Jewish Israelis who I understand face a $100,000 fine if they express support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel . Thus a letter by anti-racist Israelis condemning the anti-Boycott legislation in Apartheid Israel : “We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott! hereby reiterate our support and promotion of the Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel , until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights … Imprisonment of political activists is an almost routine practice against Palestinian human rights defenders. Like such repressive practices, the newly approved Israeli law, which specifies fines and the payment of 'compensation' by Israeli citizens or residents, who initiate or encourage a boycott of Israel – is also bound to fail… Lastly, we urge artists scheduled to perform in Israel to send a clear message that the Israeli occupation, the institutionalized discrimination of Israel's own Palestinian citizens and Israel's denial of the right of return and compensation of the Palestinian refugees - are neither okay nor normal, as Maxi Jazz from Faithless once put it. Roxette, Ziggy Marley, Dream Theater, George Benson, Nino Katamadze, Paul Simon and John Cale – we may risk persecution for saying this – heed the Palestinian call for BDS and cancel your shows in Israel !” (see “We will not be silent: statement in regard to Israeli anti-boycott law”, Boycott!, 11 July 2011: http://boycottisrael.info/content/we-will-not-be-silent-statement-regard-israeli-anti-boycott-law ). Would decent people buy soap made in Auschwitz ?
Race-based, genocidal, nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel is reported to have 400 nuclear weapons as well as biological and chemical weapons (see " Israel and weapons of mass destruction": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction ). Günter Grass' comments are pretty mild in these circumstances. Apartheid Israel should be immediately forced to relinquish such WMD and quit the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights and it should be subject to comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) until it does so and removes all race-based, anti-Arab anti-Semitic laws.
It is notable that Günter Grass is in good company with other Nobel Laureates who are similarly critical of Apartheid Israel, the list of such anti-racist Jewish Nobel Laureates including Albert Einstein and Harold Pinter (see “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home ) and the list of such anti-racist non-Jewish Nobel Laureates including Jimmy Carter, Mairead Maguire, Nelson Mandela, Jose Saramago and Archbishop Desmond Tutu ( see “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ).
Racist Zionism is genocidal in theory and in obscene practice and has subverted and perverted the Western democracies to the point that it has successfully promoted a new anti-Jewish anti-Semitism directed against anti-racist Jews (such people representing the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals of our time; see "Jews Against Racist Zionism": https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home ) and involving the societal sidelining of anti-racist Jewish scholars; the false, gross defaming of anti-racist Jews as "self-hating Jews" and "anti-Semites"; and the utterly false conflation of the appalling, genocidal crimes of Apartheid Israel with all Jews, including decent, anti-racist, humanitarian Jews.
To protect anti-racist Jews, all anti-racist humanitarians, decent values and democracy the racist Zionists should be sidelined from public life as have been like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK i.e. they can say what they like but decent people will no more listen to them than they would to pro-Zionist, racist, neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik (since 1936 0.1 million Palestinians have been killed and a further 1.9 million have died from invasion-, occupation-, war-, expulsion - and occupation-imposed deprivation; there are 7 million Palestinian refugees; see "Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and the multi-author book by numerous anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish writers "The Plight of the Palestinians", Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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