- "Our land is not Arab land": An advertisement
on the front page of Haaretz.com leads to a website advocating genocide
and terrorism.
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- http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9579.shtml
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- Haaretz.com, the website of the Israeli newspaper often
cited as an example of Israel's liberal, critical media carries paid advertisements
from a website openly advocating the total destruction of the Palestinian
people, the murder of large numbers of Muslim civilians, the assassination
of the family members of Arab rulers, and the use of chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons against dozens of countries.
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- The website, Samson Blinded, claims that Google banned
its advertisements from its adwords program. If that is true, it would
be consistent with Google's policy that prohibits advertising promoting
violence or advocating against any group based on race, ethnic or national
origin or religion. Yet the Samson Blinded advertisements appear prominently
on the main page and article pages of Haaretz's website. For
example the ad appeared on the front page of Haaretz.com on 1 June, and
also prominently on an article page headlined "Who didn't attend New
York's pro-Israel march? Israelis" on the same date.
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- Samson Blinded, whose publishers keep their identities
secret, calls on Israel to eliminate all Palestinians from the territory
it controls and to annihilate their culture. The site demands that Israel
"destroy the Palestinian settlements [sic] and exile them far away
-- not to refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries, or the conflict
would be perpetuated." It argues that "Forced cultural assimilation
of Palestinians should accompany deportation," adding that "With
demise of Palestinians, Arab Israeli conflict would lose its impetus [sic]."
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- The hate site advertised on Haaretz incites
religious war, exploitation of children, and terrorism. It states for example
that "Slavery is not an option in the modern world, but Israel adopting
children from the poorest countries, indoctrinating them with anti-Islamism,
and training them for low-rank military service in Israel Defense Forces
may be feasible." It also proposes that "Israel could invite
Western Christian radicals to police the Palestinian territories"
as "they would be happy to get a training ground in Israel for their
militia."
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- The site adds that "To succeed, Israeli violence
against Arabs should be immediately overwhelming. Israel should show itself
a bloodthirsty monster to scare the Arabs into submission." Among
the violence advocated by the site is the unprovoked wholesale murder of
relatives of the rulers of Arab countries, civilians, and prisoners of
war.
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- The site even calls for nuclear strikes against neighboring
countries: "Israel should legislate that a nuclear attack against
her from whatever source means immediate, simultaneous nuclear destruction
by Israel Defense Forces of everything Muslim -- capitals, temples, population
centers -- by the hundred or so nuclear weapons in Israel's possession.
Islamic terrorists who plan to use nuclear weapon against Israel must understand
that the Jewish state will be commemorated with a really big bang."
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- The website's call for the destruction of the Palestinians
appears to violate the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide. The convention defines as genocide acts including
killing, expulsion and causing bodily and mental suffering "with intent
to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group."
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- The Convention, adopted in the wake of the Nazi holocaust,
also defines as crimes "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide"
and "Complicity in genocide." The treaty, ratified by over 130
countries including Israel and the US, calls for the prosecution and punishment
of these acts whether the individuals committing them "are constitutionally
responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals."
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- Contacted by EI, Osnat Kohali, the manager of Haaretz.com
stated that the newspaper and its website have a clear policy of not allowing
any advertisements that include "incitement against any side."
In reaction to some of the statements on the Samson Blinded site quoted
in this article, Kohali noted that the offensive statements were on the
advertised website itself rather than in the advertisements that appeared
on Haaretz. Kohali added, "We don't go through each and every
website and make a complete review about what it says." However she
undertook to review the Samson Blinded advertisements noting that "mistakes
can be made."
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- But the Samson Blinded ads are not the only case of Haaretz apparently
profiting from extremism; its website has often carried advertisements
for an organization called "The Jerusalem Summit" which also
advocates the removal of the Palestinians from their homeland and holds
that "the de-legitimization of the Palestinian narrative becomes a
vital prerequisite to any comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue."
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- This kind of militant Jewish extremism has been making
steady inroads into Israel's political mainstream, as numerous parties
openly advocate the "transfer" (expulsion) of Palestinians and
Israeli leaders have done little to marginalize and discourage it. What
is surprising is that the widely respected Haaretz, which publishes
jointly in Israel with The International Herald Tribune, would profit
from hate groups and their possibly criminal incitement.
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- In 2006, the German newspaper publisher M. DuMont Schauberg
bought a 25 percent stake in Haaretz, a move German Chancellor Angela
Merkel praised as an instance of German reconciliation with Israel. In
Germany, as in many other European countries, incitement to racial hatred
is illegal.
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