Israel Shamir

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Israel Shamir (born 11 June 1947)^[1]is a writer and journalist who is known as a controversial anti-Zionist. He is a citizen of Sweden, where his legal name is Adam Ermash^[2] (previously Jöran Jermas). Critics (including several pro-Palestinian activists) have accused Shamir of anti-Semitism and of misrepresenting his background and career.^[3][4]

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Shamir's own account 1.2 Shamir's account questioned 1.3 Career 2 Shamir's controversial views 2.1 Jewish-Christian relations 2.2 Anti-Semitic stereotypes 2.2.1 Blood Libel 2.2.2 Jewish conspiracy 2.2.3 Jewish lobby 2.2.4 Poisoning Wells 2.2.5 ZOG 2.3 On Holocaust denial 2.4 On religion and the Palestine conflict 2.5 Opposition to migration 2.6 Links with the Far-Right 3 Accusations of anti-Semitism 4 Bibliography 4.1 Books 4.2 Translations 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Career

Many people have disputed Shamir's account of his career and background.^[3][4][5]

[edit] Shamir's own account

The following account comes from Shamir's home page:^[6]

Shamir was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia. A grandson of a professor of mathematics and a descendant of a Rabbi from Tiberias, Palestine, he studied at the School of the Academy of Sciences, and read Math and Law at Novosibirsk University. In 1969, he moved to Israel, served as paratrooper in the army and fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. After his military service he resumed his study of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but abandoned the legal profession in pursuit of a career as a journalist and writer. He got his first taste of journalism with Israel Radio, and later went freelance. His varied assignments included covering Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the last stages of the war in South East Asia. In 1975, Shamir joined the BBC and moved to London. In 1977-79 he wrote for the Israeli daily Maariv and other papers from Japan. While in Tokyo, he wrote Travels with My Son, his first book, and translated a number of Japanese classics.
After returning to Israel in 1980, Shamir wrote for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz and the newspaper Al Hamishmar, and worked in the Knesset as the spokesman for Mapam (a Socialist Israeli political party). He translated the works of Shmuel Yosef Agnon, to Russian. As the First Intifada began, Shamir had left Israel for Russia. While in Moscow, he reported for Haaretz, but was fired for publishing an article calling for the return the Palestinian refugees and the rebuilding of their ruined villages. He wrote for various Russian newspapers and magazines, including the daily Pravda and the weekly Zavtra. In 1993, he returned to Israel and settled in Jaffa. He wrote for Russian newspapers both in Israel and Russia and contributed to various literary magazines. During this period, he also worked on a new translation of the Odyssey, which was published in 2000 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In response to the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Shamir abandoned his literary occupation and resumed his work as a journalist.

In 2003 Shamir stated publicly that he had converted to Greek Orthodox Christianity.^[7]

[edit] Shamir's account questioned

The biographical information given by Shamir has been questioned by others. Roland Rance, a British anti-Zionist Jew, has written that "his CV ... reads like a work of fantasy -... I don't believe a word of it." Rance mentions a number of other anti-Zionists who have also expressed doubts about Shamir's story and concludes that "Shamir is apparently a right-wing Russian journalist, who pretends to be an Israeli Jewish leftist." Rance claims that Shamir uses many aliases, including Schmerlin, Vassili Krasevsky and Jöran Jermas^[5]

In 2003, journalists working for Monitor in Norway and Expo in Sweden began to investigate Shamir's background. They discovered several anomalies. Whereas the CV suggested that he had worked for the BBC in London and later for Haaretz in Israel (and while stationed in Moscow), the journalists could only confirm that he had submitted a handful of freelance articles to Haaretz. They also discovered that he was a Swedish citizen since 1992, which wasn't mentioned in his CV, and that, according to the Swedish authorities, he had been living in Stockholm, Sweden during periods when he was supposed to be in Israel and Russia according to his CV.^[2][3][4]

[edit] Career

In the early 1990s Shamir appears to have been based in Moscow, where he wrote several articles for Russian publications under the name "Robert David".

In an article from 1991 in the Jerusalem Post, Mikhail Agursky^[8] reflected on, what he saw as, Shamir's double identity. According to Agursky, Shamir was associated with far-left groups in Israel and denounced Russian right-wing nationalists for being anti-Jewish. At the same time he became associated with anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish right-wing groups in Russia. Agursky recounted how Shamir, under the name "Robert David", had written an article for a Russian right-wing magazine where Andrei Sakharov was denounced as a harmful Zionist agent. Agursky proceeded to give the following account of Shamir's background:

As Israel Shamir (Shmerling), he came to Israel in the late 1960s from Novosibirsk and soon became an extreme leftist. He acquired an excellent command of Hebrew and published many articles in Ha'aretz, Al Hamishmar, and also The Jerusalem Post. He was also a Knesset spokesman for Mapam for some time. At the end of 1980 he published a violent article against Russian nationalism in Ha'aretz, accusing supporters of Solzhenitsyn of being the Jewish people's worst enemies. What was not known to Mapam and to other Israeli leftists and liberals was that Shamir also had close contacts with the Western and Israeli right. Shamir now lives in Moscow under the name of Robert David; and, under his own name, he now loses no opportunity to claim that Zionists are the worst enemy of the Russian people, and to call Russian liberals Zionist agents.^[9]

According to an IPS story from August 14, 1992, Shamir was at that time associated with the group around Alexander Prokhanov and contributed to his extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic paper Dyen (spelled "Djim" in the IPS story). According to IPS, citing "Israeli sources", Shamir only "lived briefly in Israel", before returning to Russia.

When Dyen (meaning "day") was closed down by the Russian authorities, Prokhanov reopened it under the name Zavtra (meaning "tomorrow"). In recent years, Shamir has been a regular contributor, using the name "Israel Shamir".^[10][11]

Outside Russian right-wing circles, Shamir appears to have been little known until 2001, when he set up his website and changed his name to Jöran Jermas.^{[12][13][14][15]}

According to the Swedish authorities,^[16] Shamir lived in Sweden from 1984 to 1993, when he emigrated to Russia. In 1998 he again became a permanent resident of Sweden, which he still remains. He became a Swedish citizen in 1992.^[3][4] According to the CV on Shamir's homepage, he lived in Israel from 1980 to 1989, in Russia from 1989 to 1993, and then again in Jaffa, Israel since 1993.

Shamir is a founding Director of the Lausanne Based One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine’.^[17] He is also on the current Board of Advisors of Deir Yassin Remembered,^[18] an organization devoted to establishing a suitable memorial to the Victims of the Deir Yassin Massacre at the Village of Deir Yassin in 1948.

[edit] Shamir's controversial views

[edit] Jewish-Christian relations

Shamir is a strong believer that Jews should abandon Judaism and convert to Christianity. In The Marxists and the Lobby - Part II he states that "There is no tainted blood - acceptance of Christ is the Final Solution of the Jewish Question. … for the Jewish problem is an ideological, not a biological problem."^[19] In his essay of April 15, 2001 called Take Two, he claims that Jesus "was hated by the Supply-side bankers and economist of his day. They sentenced him to death and the Empire obliged and carried out the execution, in order to keep peace with these all-important forces." He concludes by stating "The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide... Two thousand years ago, the spirit of brotherhood rose again, to give hope for the second joust. If he is defeated again, we all shall become forever slaves to our faceless masters. They will destroy the Mother Earth herself, turn her into waste lands of Mordor."^[20]

[edit] Anti-Semitic stereotypes

Shamir makes frequent use of anti-Semitic stereotypes in his writings.^{[citation needed]} His supporters argue that Shamir merely makes use of these stereotypes for rhetorical purposes, without endorsing them, whereas critics argue that he actively promotes anti-Semitism.^{[citation needed]}

To Shamir, there is something "something deeply pervert [sic]" about people who fight anti-Semitism, which he considers largely a spectre, instead what he views as the more pressing problems in the world.^[21]

In Shamir's view, "Joe Public" will always "take his middle ground" between two opposite opinions, for example to view as permissible either "Jewish bigotry" or "anti-Jewish bigotry". Therefore, by allowing both pro-Israel and anti-Israel extremists in the public public debate, instead of excluding the latter group by labelling them antisemites, overall public opinion will be moderated instead of leaning towards "Zionism lite".^[21]

[edit] Blood Libel

In Bloodcurdling Libel Shamir discusses the blood libels against Jews, false accusations that Jews sacrifice Christians, especially children, and use their blood in religious rituals. Shamir argues that many of these accusations were in fact true. According to Shamir, they are believed to be false mainly because Jews automatically assume that such accusations against other Jews are false. He also states that the phrase blood libel is a "Jewish battle cry", which is used by Jews as a group to further their agenda, and especially to stifle legitimate criticism of Jews. Shamir suggests that the kidnappings and ritual murders of Christians are carried out by a small group of Jewish "deviants", "magicians and sorcerers who would use human blood to wash off sins or to hasten Salvation". He maintains that these deviants have been protected by other Jews who automatically assumed their innocence. At one point Shamir appears to go even further, arguing that the testimony in medieval blood libel cases by Jews who had converted to Christianity has been unduly discarded. This would seem to imply that he believes in the entire conspiracy theory about Jews murdering Christian children in secret rituals (as some converts testified), and that the practice was secretly sanctioned by the Jewish leadership (and not just carried out by deviants). On the other hand, Shamir never makes these claims explicitly in his text, and he does allow that "it is possible that the connection of blood sacrifices and matzo of Passover or homentash of Purim is but a popular belief."^[22]

[edit] Jewish conspiracy

In The Spiders Web, Shamir claims that, as part of a "bigger and more dangerous Judaic conspiracy", Jews dominate the media, and that in the United Kingdom the media is controlled by "extreme Judeophiles." He describes Sunday Times articles as "part of a Judaic conspiracy to besmirch Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims", and posits that it is "quite possible" that the Beslan school massacre, genocide in Sudan, the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, the terror attacks on Istanbul synagogues, and the August 31, 2004 suicide bombings on buses in Beersheba (for which Hamas claimed responsibility), were all "False flag" operations carried out by this conspiracy. He also claims that "powerful Jewish organisations" like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, "are prominent tools for establishing the police state", and claims that "The ADL, a Judaic tool of ideological control, runs a network of informers, spies after activists and thinkers and supports every oppressive undertaking of the US Government". He also claims that "proof of Judaic conspiracy" is "the concerted Judaic drive to bomb Iran", and proposes "a new definition of a true member of Jewry (as opposed to an individual and reluctant Jew) - it's one who wants to bomb Iran."^[23]

[edit] Jewish lobby

In The Marxists and The Lobby, Shamir characterizes the "Jewish Lobby" as a "hard fact", and claims that "the Jewish Lobby is not a 'small group of pro-Zionist Jews', but an extremely powerful group of billionaires, media lords, and their supporters in the left and the right, from The New York Times to The Nation, from Wolfowitz of the Pentagon to Rabbi Lerner of Tikkun. Shamir closes by stating that "Lyndon La Rouche the Democrat and Pat Buchanan the Republican should be supported in their fight against the Jewish Lobby."^[24]

In another text, Shamir appears to downplay the importance of this alleged "Jewish lobby" and writes:

The American Jews created Hollywood, and Hollywood made vengeance its main subject. In a way, American cinema is an expression of the Jewish collective subconscious, and it was the main factor in creation of the American psyche. From Hollywood, vengefulness flew all over the earth, and certainly helped to create the world we inhabit. In other words, there was no need for a conspiracy. Rather immature America could not withstand the impact of Jewish mentality, and she became a Jewish State, the big sister of Israel[---]This explanation allows us to answer the question we posted previously, does America support Israel because of the Jewish lobby or because of the 'true interest of American corporations'. The answer is, the Jewish lobby is a superfluous body supportive of Israeli right-wing, while America as a whole is a grander Jewish state with interests outside the Middle East as well.^[25]

[edit] Poisoning Wells

In Poisoning Wells, Shamir states "For over a millennium, we Jews were connected in the European popular mind with well-poisoning, to great chagrin of our ancestors. Now, the fantasies of past become true, as some dark minds turn tales of old into today’s reality." He claims a link between "Jewish behavior in Palestine and the Jewish behavior elsewhere" both in time and space: "Abba Kovner, a Jewish socialist (?) leader, had tried to poison the sources of Rein... He has received the virulent potion from a man who became afterwards the President of Israel." He claims that today a "mighty Jewish propaganda machine" promotes concepts "applied in past, notably by Adolf Hitler in his Mein Kampf, against the Jews".^[26]

[edit] ZOG

In an article entitled The Shadow of Zog, Shamir promotes the notion that the American government acts at the behest of Zionists, using the imagery of the "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG) conspiracy theory; for example, he states that "[t]he Occupation Regime in Iraq was installed by the US army in the interests of Zionists, and it may be rightly called ZOG, Zionist Occupation Government if anything". In his view, ZOG is a "slave of Mammon, a servant of the Shadow, he is helping the Dark force fulfill its metaphysical task, to blot out the Light of Christ and to turn our world into Godless desert. That is why he sends bulldozers to wipe out flowers in Palestine, sends troops to sack Baghdad and Damascus, threatens Paris and Moscow, perverts Christianity."^[27]

[edit] On Holocaust denial

In 2001 a group of Holocaust deniers intended to hold an international conference in Beirut. Shamir made the following comment:

The "revisionists" risked their lives and fortunes trying to undermine what they call "the Myth of the Holocaust." One can understand their interest. Nowadays, one may openly doubt the Immaculate Conception or (maybe) challenge the founding myths of Israel. Yet the cult of the Holocaust retains a unique, court-enforced prohibition against any investigation that might cast a doubt on its sacred dogma.^[28]

In December 2005, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a myth fabricated by the West and Europe. An Iranian news agency asked Shamir and some well-known Holocaust deniers to comment.^[29] Shamir wrote an ambiguous reply that was interpreted as support of the Iranian president's stance.^[30]

[edit] On religion and the Palestine conflict

Shamir does not believe in the separation of church and state and has written:

Separation of Church and state, this much vaunted accomplishment of the French revolution and even more of the US founding fathers, cut off the anchors of the Western society and it drifted straight towards the rocks.[---] People live together united by an idea; this idea may (or indeed should) be their common worship and uniting communion.^[31]

He has not made clear what kind of national church he envisages for Palestine, but Shamir's vision requires that the Jews abandon Judaism and convert to Greek Orthodox Christianity, or as Shamir puts it: "there is no chance for peace in the Holy Land unless the position of the Synagogue is undermined and the Jews saved by the Church"^[7]

[edit] Opposition to migration

In a discussion with US Marxist historian Noel Ignatiev, Shamir declared

I share with national-socialists the belief in the existence of ‘organic units’, but I do not consider the ‘nation’ to be the basic organic body, nor ‘race’ as the building element, nor ‘blood’ as a defining factor. In my view, the organic unit is a much smaller territorial unit than the present ‘nation’ is. For instance, in the US I would envisage New England, Dixie or the Mid-West – as organic bodies. Maybe I am mistaken, and even smaller units – states, regions – are also organic in your country. In France, the provinces like Bretagne and Provence are organic bodies; in Germany – Bavaria, Saxony and other federal 'lands' (ie, länder). [---] That is why (and not because of ‘blood dilution’, as is the case with NS), I am against migration between organic units: for instance, a Parisian’s migration to rural Bretagne is as bad as a Virginia Black’s migration into Montana. Your racial problem is mainly a problem of migration between organic units.^[32]

In his 2003 essay on this subject, On the Move, Shamir denounces large-scale immigration to Europe as part of the "Mammonite" strategy to undermine society.

Immigration destroys cohesiveness of the host society. Mammonites do not like their society being cohesive, they prefer it thinnish and liquescent, so it would be easier to drink it up. That is why Mammonites support immigration. Immigrants conceive them as their natural allies and fail to comprehend that the Mammonites like them as vampires like fresh blood. [---] Zionism is a local disease. Its big brother, Mammonitis, is a world-wide plague, that wants to turn the world into a “ Big Israel”, with shopping malls and destroyed villages, settlements for the chosen few, and many-many refugees as a source of cheap labour. Zionists ruined nature of Palestine, Mammonites ruin the world environment. Zionists uprooted Palestinians, Mammonites uproot all.^[33]

[edit] Links with the Far-Right

Shamir is an active supporter of coalition and interaction of Far Left and Far Right. He maintains links with, and is supported by far right activists and in many countries,^[34] including Horst Mahler^[35] in Germany, Martin Webster^[36] in the UK, and David Duke^[37] in the USA.

He has berated Arab-Americans for demonstrating against the National Alliance who demonstrated against Zionists saying; "I would bless whoever supports the cause of Palestine without checking their ideological credentials. I bless all supporters of Palestine full stop." This attitude was based on Shamir's concept of balance: "The world is full of bad guys, and things are good only if and when the bad guys balance each other. Saddam would balance Sharon, while the White supremacists would balance the Jewish supremacists."^[38]

In Poisoning Wells,^[26] Shamir repeats: "The Jews and non-Jews would be able to live together happily, after the Jewish supremacy trend will be vanquished. However, until it is achieved, we, the friends of Palestine, should seek understanding and cooperation with all possible allies, black, white, red, green or rainbow, as blessed are the seekers of peace."^[26]

In an email exchange with BNP legal advisor Lee Barnes following Shamir's comments on the execution of Saddam Hussein, Shamir accused Barnes and other leaders of the BNP of "betraying the Britons and joining with the Jews".^[39]

[edit] Accusations of anti-Semitism

Two prominent Arab activists, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish, have written an open letter regarding Shamir's anti-Semitism being unhelpful to the Palestinian cause. They cite a number of 'serious concerns' about Shamir's anti-Semitism, including this passage:

The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide.^[40]

They conclude by stating:

We do not have any need for some of what Israel Shamir is introducing into the discourse on behalf of Palestinian rights, which increasingly includes elements of traditional European anti-Semitic rhetoric. Such sentiments will harm, not help, the cause. We urge all our friends in the movement for Palestinian rights to seriously consider the long-term effects this rhetoric will have on the cause, and act accordingly.^[41]

In November 2005, the French publisher of Shamir's book L’autre Visage D’israël (The Other Face of Israel), Abdelila Cherifi Alaoui, was sentenced to 3 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of €10000 as well as €12000 in damages. He must also pay €1500 to the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism. Alaoui was found guilty of "incitement to discrimination, exhortation to hate and violence" by the regional court of Nanterre. The court found that Shamir was attached to the standard kind of ancient anti-Semitism, where the "Jews", always in plural, were portrayed as dominators of the world in line with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books

• Flowers of Galilee (in English), Dandelion 2004, ISBN 1-893302-78-4.
• Pardes, Surge Books 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0601-8.
• Our Lady of Sorrows, Surge Books 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0835-5.
• Сосна и Олива, (Pine and Olive, in Russian), Wahlstrom Publications, 1987.
• Путешествие в Египет, (Travel to Egypt, in Russian) Tel-Aviv, 1981.
• Потаенные Прелести Планеты Земля, (Obscure sites of Planet Earth, in Russian) “Glagol”, Moscow, 1996.
• Xozyaeva Diskursa, (Masters of Discourse, in Russian) Gilea, Moscow 2003.
• Сосна и Олива 2d edition (in Russian) Ultracultura, Moscow 2004.
• Carri armati e ulivi della Palestina – Il fragore del silenzio (Tanks and olives in Palestine, in Italian) – Editrice C.T.R. Pistoia 2002.
• Blomar frå Galilea. Essay frå kanten av avgrunnen, (in Neo-Norwegian) Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 2002 [translated by Hans Olav Brendberg].
• L’autre Visage d’Israël, (in French) éditions Balland-Blanche, Paris 2003.
• L’autre Visage d’Israël, (in French) éditions Al Qalam, Paris 2004.
• Pardes (in French) Paris éditions Al Qalam, 2005.
• Blommor i Galiléen, (in Swedish), Alhambra, Malmo 2004 (Övers. av Ingvar Rydberg).^[42]
• La lluvia verde de Yassouf (in Spanish), Ojeda, Barcelona 2004.
• Rasszista Allam? (Racist State, in Hungarian) Kairosz, Budapest 2004 ISBN 963-9484-90-3.
• Blumen aus Galiläa, (in German), Promedia, Wien 2005 ISBN 3-85371-231-2.

[edit] Translations

• S.Y.Agnon, In the Heart of the Seas, Wahlstrom Publication, Jerusalem-Stockholm,1981 S.Y.Agnon, In the Heart of the *Seas, “Raduga”, Moscow, 1991.
• S.Y.Agnon, In the prime of her life, “Panorama”, Moscow, 1996
• S.Y.Agnon, Collected Stories, Gesharim, Jerusalem 2004 ISBN 5-93273-148-6.
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses ), “22” magazine Tel-Aviv, 1984.
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), «Vremja i my », New York.
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), Anthology The Blue Laguna (Kuzminsky ed.).
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), “Raduga”, Moscow, 2000 ISBN 5-05-005113-4.
• H. Herzog, Arab-Israeli Wars, OPI publication, London, 1986^[43] republished Moscow 2004.^[44]
• R. Chandler, Playback, Tel Aviv, 1986.
• G. Mocked, Metamorphoses, Leningrad, 1992.
• Homer, Odyssey, “Aletheia”, St. Petersburg, 2000.
• Abraham Zacuto, The Book of Lineage, 608 pages, Zacuto Foundation 2006

ISBN 1-4196-1893-8 English annotated translation of medieval Hebrew chronicles.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The website of Israel Shamir
• Israel Shamir lies about his background (in Swedish) (From the Swedish magazine Expo)
• The Israel Shamir Case
• Israel Shamir: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing by Roland Rance. Socialist Viewpoint, September 2004, Vol 4, No. 8.
• Our friend Israel Shamir (in French) (Taken from the French Monthly L'arche May 2003, no 543.)
• Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite
• Lord Ahmed's unwelcome guest by Stephen Pollard, The Times Online.

Persondata
NAME	Shamir, Israel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Jermas, Jöran
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Swedish writer, journalist
DATE OF BIRTH	1950
PLACE OF BIRTH	Novosibirsk, Siberia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH