Author: Alan Judd
Publication: The Telegraph, UK
Date: May 9, 2002
URL: http://opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/05/09/do0901.xml
"They are accursed in heaven and
on earth a catastrophe for the human race They are the virus of the generation
they are the plague of the generation and the bacterium of all time Their
history was and always will be stained with treachery, falseness and lying
they are a model of debasement and degradation."
'They", of course, are the Jews,
perhaps the only people whom we almost routinely recognise through the
excoriating language of their enemies. But these quotations are not from
Nazi propaganda, long defunct. They are from a newspaper on sale in Britain
today, a country in which incitement to racial hatred is supposedly illegal.
But perhaps the law is not applied
where the victims are merely the usual suspects, the perpetrators foreign,
the language difficult and the Government - for good reasons and bad -
reluctant to offend Middle Eastern sensibilities any further.
The newspaper concerned is al-Akhbar,
the Egyptian government daily, not merely a vehicle of Palestinian propaganda
or Saudi religious bile. Just about all major Middle Eastern newspapers
may be found on the streets of London - probably more, in fact, than in
any Middle Eastern capital - and many regularly publish this sort of thing,
and worse.
Similarly, Arab radio and television
stations regularly broadcast diatribes against the hated Jew. Ariel Sharon,
the Israeli prime minister, is depicted as Dracula drinking Arab blood
and "martyrs" are urged to donate their lives to the intifada, as they
are continuing to do in such outrages as that at Rishon LeZion.
The chairman of the Arab Psychiatrists
Association, and head of psychiatry at a Cairo university, assures readers
and viewers that "there are no Israeli civilians", that co-existence is
impossible and that the only effective way of getting rid of Jewish Israelis
is for "pure, noble Palestinian bodies" to blow themselves up.
He is almost persuasive: "When the
martyr dies a martyr's death, he attains the height of bliss. As a professional
psychiatrist, I can say that the height of bliss comes with the end of
the countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
And then, you press the button to blow yourself up. When the martyr reaches
'one', and then 'boom', he explodes and senses himself flying . . . It
is a transition to another, more beautiful world . . . within seconds,
he will see the light of the Creator."
There is more, much more, broadcast
daily to millions of willing and credulous people already convinced they
are the victims of injustice and racial insult. Reading it leaves you feeling
depressed and contaminated, as after exposure to the distortions and ravings
of Nazi propaganda.
And if you thought, as I did, that
the latter was safely buried in history, then think again. The al- Akhbar
columnist continued: "With regard to the fraud of the Holocaust . . . Many
French studies have proved that this is no more than a fabrication, a lie,
and a fraud!" He ends by addressing Hitler: "If only you had done it, Brother,
if only it had really happened, so that the world could sigh in relief
without their [the Jews'] evil and sin."
This goes beyond politics, beyond
the rights and wrongs of the present tragic mess in Israel and Palestine.
It is not a question of who is to blame for what in the current mutual
suffering. This is race- hate at its purest, the denial of the other's
right to exist. It may be that, by stoking hysteria in their peoples, normally
pragmatic Arab leaders are making it not only more difficult for any peace
process to work but perhaps - at least for the lifetime of anyone now living
- impossible.
Until recent years, anti-Semitism
was not thought of as a significant or permanent factor in the Arab world.
Such anti-Semitism as existed was attributed to contemporary conflicts
with Israel and it was generally accepted that Jews in earlier centuries
lived better under Islam than under Christian governments. Whether or not
this was actually true, the Arabs, so far from denying the reality of the
Holocaust, used it to argue that Palestinians could not be expected to
accept the imposition of Israel so that Europe could assuage its Holocaust
guilt.
It is impossible to say how deep-rooted
modern Arab anti-Semitism is, whether it has been created by Israeli behaviour
or whether it always existed, but is only now permitted such lurid expression.
The danger is that those who encourage or permit it may have unleashed
a force that is already beyond their future control, and spreads beyond
their borders.
The increase in anti-Semitic acts
on the Continent (already running at 300 a year in Marseilles alone, where
it is likely that some of Jean-Marie Le Pen's supporters have been encouraged
to take action) shows how the expression of something can bring into being
the thing itself. The anti-Semitic mania that flourished in Germany during
the 1930s was latent in European cultural soil, but many who participated
might never have permitted it to flower in themselves without a climate
that encouraged expression. That is what is happening in the Middle East
- and beyond.
On the face of it, this might seem
an argument to support the EU proposal to make it a criminal offence to
deny the Holocaust. But that would be a mistake. We have adequate law on
incitement, if we care to apply it, and denying people the freedom to be
wrong would create a second evil without removing the first. Writing history
into statute would render the law absurd and pernicious.
Nearly two years ago, at Camp David,
Yasser Arafat walked away from the best deal that any realistic Palestinian
or Israeli could hope for, and started the current intifada. Reportedly,
he either miscalculated - a failure of judgment - or he couldn't persuade
his extremists - a failure of leadership.
Since then, of course, attitudes
on both sides have further hardened and it may be that neither could now
get back to the point it was once prepared to rest at. Meanwhile, clouds
of popular anti-Semitism billow from the Middle East and wisps and pockets
may be found on our own streets. If only you had done it, Brother Arafat,
if only you had done the deal.
