….over these political cartoons.
This is the story about how Ben Heine, a Belgian political cartoonist and peace activist, got banned from Daily Kos. In Europe it appears to be causing somewhat of a stir, in that censorship of political speech has come into question. The issue here is about who controls or censors the scope of political topics and what one may or may not express on Daily Kos, which purports to be a liberal Democratic blog that represents what the owner likes to refer to as “people powered politics.” From what transpired, one would have to conclude that at Daily Kos, the expression of human rights, an important liberal issue to many Democrats, is okay up to a point, and that point seems to be reached in the sphere of American foreign policy when practices of the Israeli government are questioned, like the appointment of a avowed racist to a position in the cabinet of Israel’s prime minister.
Ben Heine himself describes his experience at Daily Kos through his own blog:
http://benjaminheine.blogspot.com/2007/04/artwork-that-ate-israel.html
I just want to let the visitors of my Blog know that there was a kind of mediatic storm related to the diary I posted on Daily Kos yesterday.
The DK diary, titled “Zionism was and remains a racist ideology” proposed a brilliant article by Ahlam Akram (read the article below) with 2 of my cartoons (the 2 images exhibited at the top of this post). The diary had a very strong impact on the Daily Kos community and I got in a few hours hundreds of hateful comments by enraged Zionists.
To make things clear I chose to use the striking portrait of Avigdor Lieberman to illustrate this precise part of Ahlam Akram’s article: “When Avigdor Lieberman publicly calls for “Transfer”, which means total expulsion of all non Jewish people including Israeli citizens with non Jewish origins; what does that means if not ethnic cleansing?” (read the full article at the end of this Blog post).
The article by Ahlam Akram I had inserted with my images was removed after a few minutes, due to so called “copyright violation”, according to a note left by a certain “MissLaura”, and all the personal settings of my Daily Kos account were quickly under the administrator’s control (they, for instance, changed the initial tags “Israel”, “Palestine”, “Avigdor Lieberman”, “Ahlam Akram” and “Zionism” into the tag “troll diary”, and prevented me to answer to the 545 (until now) odious comments.
It’s sad to say, but this event will surely have bad consequences on Daily Kos’ so called liberal reputation.
I wonder now if Daily Kos is as much progressive and liberal as it claims to be. I rather have the feeling that it is ruled by Zionists.
My political cartoons, as you all know by now, aim to defend the Palestinian causes and denounce the Israeli/Zionist crimes. They do not have anti-Semitic contents. Criticizing the disastrous Israeli policy in Palestine is not anti-Semitic.
I think I’ll be banned from this pseudo democratic site and won’t be able to post anything more there. It’s a pity because I didn’t have the chance to express all the things I wanted. To be honest with you, I indented to post this image in my next diary.
Here is what Steve Amsel from DesertPeace has written about this Lieberman cartoon controversy (see http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/4/6/233830/3204, posted by shergald a few days ago).
Servant from Ressentiment also wrote a piece about what happened on Daily Kos:
The Artwork that Ate Israel.
Little Green Footballs, a notoriously toxic conservative blog, put Benjamin Heine’s work on their front page. Even bad publicity is good publicity. Through all the smoke the message still gets through.
Those who read Ressentiment regularly know that I have a love hate relationship with DailyKos. Just like any political comment site there are lots of people you don’t agree with, but hopefully you learn something from different points of view.
It’s been clear to me and others for a long time that the Zionists at Daily Kos do not appreciate peace activists agitating for justice for Palestine, and they claim not to be able to appreciate the difference between legitimate criticism of Israel and actual anti-Semitism.
They swarm diaries that are critical of Israel’s atrocious behavior toward the Palestinians and they do not allow any kind of intelligent dialogue about U.S. Foreign Policy. The effect is devastating both for dialogue that should take place in a free and democratic society and for the United States, which continues to commingle its own interests with those of Israel.
U.S. Foreign Policy is an important component of the Democratic platform. And it is even more important now because we need the opposition party to stand up against the Neoconservative ideologues who are advising White House who have led us into this cycle of endless war and eventual defeat in the Middle East. If you are unaware of Israel’s long term strategy in in the Middle East, please take the time to watch this video by Mark Bruzonsky for some background. If you need more background, many of Mark’s videos are listed in a previous post here.
Now my good friend Benjamin Heine has posted one of his most controversial works in a diary at DailyKos and he has triggered the active-denial response system which prevents anyone from having an opinion about Israel other than those that the Zionists agree with.
I am re-posting Ben’s art here because Ben is a great friend of mine and I completely support his efforts on behalf of Palestine.
What follows is one of the only relevant comments that was added this afternoon amongst the 500 other despising ones (Thank you “chebene” ):
cowardice
It is cowardice to have removed the text of this diary. There is a very good case to be made that Zionism is a pernicious ideology. It seems to me that the DKos community is cannibalizing itself, shutting off debate on a very topical issue, in order to please the right wingers at the Digg blog. That is pathetic. Do you really care what they think? Do you really think you can get them to approve of DKos? What you should be doing is getting them to try and defend their party’s blind support for the racist apartheid policies of the Israeli government.
You are cowering before the right wing propaganda, instead of debating the issue on our own terms. You are making the same mistake that losing Democratic candidates have always made – from Dukakis to Gore to Kerry: you take the consensus opinion as a fact of nature that you must adapt your views to, rather than as something that needs to be changed in order to bring the debate closer to the facts.
Of course, even many DKos members are blindly pro-Israel, and use the sophistical tactic of accusing critics of Israeli policy of being anti-semitic. I think the text in the diary should be restored, and I think the DKos community should post blogs challenging the right wingers on Digg to defend Israeli policy, and Bush’s unconditional support for them, instead of cowering to them. You will never please them, and you should stand on principle rather than prostituting yourself.
The biggest problem with DKos is the mob mentality, which can, as in this case, prove to be decidedly cowardly.
by chebene on Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 08:03:44 AM PDT
This Lieberman cartoon controversy on Daily Kos was also referred in the Israel National News:
The Daily Kos blog, one of the most popular American political websites, is featuring anti-Semitic graphic content since Thursday. The Daily Kos reportedly receives 600,000 visits a day, and between 14 million and 24 million visits per month. It is often used by politicians – including Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and many others – for dissemination of their materials.
The content is featured in a ‘diary’ by one of the site’s contributors, a Belgian graphic artist. It shows a composite of Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s face and Adolf Hitler’s face holding a skull painted with a Star of David, under the caption “Zionism was and remains a racist ideology.”
And finally, here is Ahlam Akram’s article that was removed from Daily Kos:
Zionism and the Creation of Israel
By Ahlam AkramI do not want to flame the emotions, but I am here to present facts and to address you so that together we can think of a way to save our people.
I am not going to argue whether or not Israel has the right to exist, because Israel is internationally recognised and because there is a law that gives a squatter the ownership when he takes over an empty house.
But let’s not forget that those houses were not empty; yet Israel is a fact today. Based on the international acceptance of modern states, Israel has earned an acknowledgement of its existence. However, Israel is at risk of losing sympathy as it continues its brutal military occupation which is condemned by international law and which is brought into all our homes by TV pictures.
You ask me about the role of Zionism and the establishment of the Jewish state. Do I care about it? I cannot say I do. I know that Zionism started in 18.. something, long before the Jewish tragedy of the holocaust; and that anti Semitism and the holocaust together have drawn sympathy for Israel. But do I care about Jewish people? Yes I do. And some of them have become close friends who I care about like I care about members of my own family.
But I also understand and know that there was a nakba – a catastrophe – which culminated in the expulsion of the Palestinian people through acts of terrorism and barbarism, documented by Jewish writers like Avi Shliem and Benny Morris. Indeed, according to Benny Morris there were 18 more massacres perpetrated by Jewish forces between 1947 and 1949 than what is generally known.
People, who had nothing to do with the tragedy of the Jewish holocaust, still suffer a continuous tragedy even now. Those people – my people – those from whom I originally came prior to my own exile and subsequent emigration. My family still lives under the threat of being expelled for no crime whatsoever except that they were born Palestinians and demand their equal rights.
So to ask me to understand Zionism is like asking a rape victim to understand the rapist. We are survivors of that horror.
And for us, how did we see Zionism?
It was and remains a racist ideology that allows Jews from anywhere in the world to go to today’s Israel, which is still Palestine in our souls, and to claim superior rights to the land at the expense of the indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians. Using military governments to carry on discriminatory racist policies and settle by force, Jews have come from all over the world in the remaining 22 % that should belong to us in the West Bank and Gaza.
What is happening in the occupied territories is but a violation of Israel’s own declaration of independence which states that the country -Israel- will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, irrespective of religion, race or sex. And that it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language education and culture, safeguard the holy places of all religions and be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations.
Although I can empathise with Jewish fears today from any threat of repeat of such a horrible genocide as the holocaust was, I cannot condone this fear. For today the State of Israel is strong. It possesses the fifth strongest army in the world and is a nuclear power. It also has the support of the entire West and above all the support of the United States.
I believe that God created the land for all His people and we the Palestinians are not of a lesser God. Yet, for some people, Zionism was about creating a just, progressive and humane society based on “Jewish” values and the need to feel safe as a nation. But the reality is that the right wing fundamentalist Zionism has overrun any idea of a progressive and humane society based on “Jewish” values.
Where and how can I see Jewish values while the Palestinian trauma goes on and on under the pretence of national security and the constant fear from the repetition of the trauma? Israeli exaggeration makes it justifiable and acceptable to expel, torture, and oppress my own loved ones.
Is it the desperate need to have a national identity that keeps the militarisation of that identity? Is it that desperate need that is causing over determination and rigidity of identity and leading to the fortification of the settlement and of the soul?
From a psychoanalytical point of view, the human identity is always unstable, on the move capable of transformation. And after 60 years I do truly wonder why must Israel cling to the ‘victim’ status? Isn’t it time to heal and move on?
Israel and the Jews around the world had the chance to stand up to the values of their declaration of independence and to stun the world with their moral adherence to international law, if not to maintain the claim of highest moral values then for self preservation. Israel is at risk as long as it continues its occupation of the West Bank-Gaza and its people.
Israeli Governments have violated the international law, but most importantly the moral grounds that earned Jews international sympathy. Israel is perusing an implicit ethnic cleansing policy, ridding itself from all the international obligations and acting as an occupying power.
When Avigdor Lieberman publicly calls for “Transfer”, which means total expulsion of all non Jewish people including Israeli citizens with non Jewish origins; what does that means if not ethnic cleansing?
The besieging of Palestinian cities and villages and the continuous increase of settlements buildings are other manifestations of ethnic cleansing. There are 600 checkpoints and only 24 of them are between Israel and Palestine; the rest are inside the Palestinian occupied land.
Then there is the wall which is 650 kilometres long and the green line which is only 315 kilometres long. The wall or the barrier takes 53% of Palestinian water resources. The cost of water for the Palestinians is four times higher than in the illegal Israeli settlements even though settlers consume 600 CM while Palestinians consume only 140 CM. East Jerusalem, the occupied part of the city, represents 45% of the Palestinian economy. In 1975 the Israeli High Court ruled that no one can live in the old city except Jews. And there are hundreds of other examples of the brutality of the occupation.
So you ask me how I feel about Zionism and Jewish State? We are all enslaved in the 2,500 year-old concept of nation state.
In an interdependent world, today’s biggest threats are poverty and fundamentalism. Islamic fundamentalism and extremism; Neo-conservative evangelism that encourages Jews to go back to the biblical land so that the Christ returns; and the Israeli settler ideology that gives him the exclusive right to the land as a biblical right.
Today it is our responsibility to safeguard our global future, to work together and support the rights of both people for a two states solution.
The conflict is between two different people with different national identities and aspirations, and each of the two people places the highest value on a national state of their own.
After separating the two people – perhaps after 100 years, although I hope less – movement from the two states to a federation or a confederation could happen. Such a transition is beginning to be seen, in spite of the discrimination and oppression in today’s Israel – where Palestinian citizens, together with their Jewish fellow citizens are effectively and peacefully demanding their rights in an equal civil society – a “Sikkoun organisation”. I hope for co-operation and good neighbourly relations, governed by international norms between the two countries; yet perhaps it is too daring to dream of a confederation similar to the European Union.
It is time to end the bloodshed and we should do that from the perspective of our responsibility to common humanity. Israel needs to be saved from its own policy through mobilising international public opinion against the criminal treatment of the Palestinian people by the Occupation Authorities.
More independent Jewish voices are needed at this stage, and a European contribution might be of a great value to change US policy that sympathises with the Israeli side. Europeans should stop thinking that they are not equal to the US and participate actively in shaping the Middle East.
What is needed is a political solution that truly conforms to universal human rights and international law; a solution that will restore to Israel the spirit it has lost, and guarantee the security and safety for Jews everywhere, and equally, not less, also for Palestinians everywhere.
God knows that we have committed the unforgivable. Then let us consider the words of the Algerian-French/Jewish-Arab philosopher Jacques Derrida: “only when it is impossible to forgive, can forgiveness take place. Now that we have gone beyond all limits, let us begin to forgive by using the skills and wisdom that God bestowed on us to build a better future for ALL our children: a future of mutual acknowledgement and mutual respect, equality and forgiveness”.
Ahlam Akram is a Palestinian Peace Worker located in London. She can be reached at: ahlamakram@hotmail.com. Reprinted by permission.
This article originally appeared on www.alarabonline.org
the copyright issue is real…do you have permission to reproduce more than fair use of the article in question?
As for the rest of it, the cartoon for example, I’ll let the community debate it on the merits. But the copyright issue isn’t an idle concern.
Ben Heine claimed that he had permission, but did not display the fact when posting. But as he indicates that his ability to respond was terminated by “MissLaura” he had no ability to assert it.
I posted numerous diaries on Daily Kos in which I had permission but likewise did not display the fact, because the rules did not express that need. Only when it became an issue did that begin to happen, yet I’m not certain that the rules indicate that as a requirement as well. I haven’t checked the rules lately for any changes. However, it was assumed the Ben Heine did not have permission because he failed to state so.
When you attempt to post a diary, one of the rules states:
And the full “diary guidelines includes:
But MWC News asked Ahlam Akram’s permission (through Alarabonline) to republish the piece with the same cartoon (Lieberman), and they fully agreed! See : http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13781/254/
Here is Ben Heine’s response concerning the copyright issue. He got it from the original publisher.
PS: Where does it say that the copyright permission should be included in the diary. No place. So it is assumed that you are in violation if it does not appear. As the site lawyer, I suggest that you advise Kos to change the rules and demand that the permission be included in diaries.
Since it says, “Copying and pasting complete copyrighted articles without permission from the copyright holder is absolutely prohibited,” then, obvs, if you have permission, you should say so.
Sorry Adam,
But that is not what it says, to assume you have to. I published many diaries for which I had permission without stating so because I did not think twice about it.
You should know as a lawyer that if it is not in writing, it does not exist. Suggest again that you advise Kos to make it explicit, that permission must be stated in every diary.
“You should know as a lawyer that if it is not in writing, it does not exist.”
This isn’t a contractual situation. I’m unaware of any “user agreement” that confers any rights at all; as a result, you and your content can be bounced at any time for any reason, or for no reason.
That’s fine as it is, but it should be so stated. To trump up a copyright violation as an excuse to ban someone when none existed is somewhat dishonest, I would have to say. That is the point. Everyone knows why Ben Heine was banned. Are there any rules about pretending?
It is stated in every diary.
Booman,
I don’t know where your accessing those rules from but this is up on Kos under Diary Guidelines, number 5 and 6.
Shergald, I’m afraid your friend may have too high expectations of the Daily Kos website, which at this point is but a tool for the personal enrichment and empowerment of Markos Moulitsas; and to a lesser degree, for the egotistical gratification of his goons such as Miss Laura, DHinMI, and the ever obnoxious Plutonium Page.
Your sincerely was banned there last summer for crossposting this in exasperation at the refusal of Moulitsas to say a single word against the war crimes in Lebanon:
A new symbol of America
It was never even claimed that the diary entry violated any rule whatsoever — they had at least the virtue of frankness back then. (Incidentally, you may note that BooMan recommended the entry in its BT incarnation, a fact which I think goes to refute those who equate his character with that of the Moulitsas individual.)
In brief, people should know in advance what they are dealing with here. In a sense your friend was lucky to be expelled right away: thus he was spared investing valuable time in providing free content for Moulitsas’ little business operation before being unceremoniously booted off.
.
good to have you around my friend!
I trust all is well, miss your presence and fine contribution to the community.
Sirocco
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Thank you, old boy. Yes, all is well but too busy to blog for now. Been missing you and other internet friends.
Hi there,
Good to see you come by – hope you find the time in the not too distant future to post again. The great mix of wit and substance makes your writing an enjoyable learning experience, whether the topic is some obscure philosopher, or the misery of Congo and Zimbabwe.
true. I miss you too Sirocco.
In defense of Kos, at this at least he has not taken a position on the IP conflict, which is all and well, because if the Left Wing ever goes the way of the DLC/AIPAC moderates, the Republican Lites, the party will have gone down the drain, and I suspect that the Green Party would end up benefiting.
For all its difficulties, the IP controversy is a central foreign policy issue and will remain so until the right wing Zionists, the hardcore types, are defeated. And that defeat can be accelerated by the simple education of Americans to the simple truths about this conflict.
While I am constantly harassed by the pro-Israeli Governments’ actions lobby for being “anti semetic” on the grounds I criticise their (the Governments’) actions, I can see the reasons for their violent reactions to the cartoons. All that however is is contrast to the support that the Mohammed cartoons had on Daily Kos, most likely from the very same contributers.
What destroys their case however is the diary that was put up in response to the controversy which describes the cartoons as representing “a Jewish face” combined with that of Hitler. Apart from including the screen shot this daiarist also does, there is no acknowledgement that this is a criticism of a specific Israeli politician whose views are explained above. This is a fraud on those Kos readers who had not been following the situation.
Quite ironically, Ahlam’s proposal is less radical than my own position. That is quite simply very similar of seeing the “two state solution” as not permanant. Unlike her however I would go further. My own view is that a peace settlement can only be lasting if it has a mechanism for eventual union, not confederation, into one state (if such a 19th century model is still current) no later than the end of the century. I put that as 2095 simply on the grounds that 150 years after the closure of the last Nazi death camp should be long enough. I also propose mandatory refendums in both countries every 10 years before this on the question of Union. A joint “yes” would bring the union forward but the end date could not be moved.
“I can see the reasons for their violent reactions to the cartoons. All that however is is contrast to the support that the Mohammed cartoons had on Daily Kos, most likely from the very same contributers.”
My own reading of posts at Daily Kos regarding the Mohammed-cartoon controversy is that most people did not defend either their good taste or the good manners of intentionally offending anyone’s religious sensibilities. (I’m not saying that that is what the newspapers that published the cartoons intended to do. Also, bracketing the offense to some inherent simply in depicting Mohammed, I thought the Danish cartoons fairly innocuous. They surely were in comparison to Heine’s work.)
So far as I can discern, the “support” to which Londonbear refers was support for free speech and the right of newspapers to publish even offensive political cartoons. No matter how offensive I may find them, I will support Ben Heine’s right to publish his cartoons on his own website and of newspapers to republish them with his permission.
Accordingly, I see no inconsistency in, on the one hand, defending the right of newspapers to publish the Danish cartoons and, on the other hand, criticizing the Heine cartoon for, IMHO, equating Zionism and Israel with Nazism and Hitler.
No you are taken down the line of those who criticise the cartoon in a dishonest fashion. The cartoon does not equate “Zionism and Israel with Nazism and Hitler”, in just the same way that it does not simply, as they claim portray “a Jewish face” implying that it was a generic cartoon of the sort produced in the Nazi propaganda stereotypes. This is a cartoon comparing one Israeli politician and his espoused policies to Hitler.
Now you may well think the comparison of Lieberman with Hitler goes too far. Misrepresenting it as a general comment on Zionism and Israel is exactly the same as equating criticism of Israeli government and IDF actions with anti-semitism, which is the view a group of Kos contributers take.
namely, that “a group of Kos contributers” equate “criticism of Israeli government and IDF actions with anti-semitism.” I’ve done both without ever being troll-rated for it. If you have evidence that criticism as such is equated with antisemitism at Daily Kos, please provide some links.
Look on any of the I/P diaries and it crops up. It is not the some view of those who take a pro-Palestinian stance.
That got garbled.
The second sentence should read “It is not an unsupported claim nor is it only the view of those who take a pro-Palestinian stance.”
examples of people doing what you, and they, charge.
I’ve followed this issue peripherally, but must say I find the above statement: “I rather have the feeling that it (dkos) is ruled by Zionists.” ludicrous, and indeed, smacks of anti-semiticism.
Once a quite regular participant at dk, and having read and participated in many an I/P diary there, to elevate what has transpired there to the “rule by Zionists” is to completely lose sight of the phenomena that has transpired there. The site’s owner has made statments in the past, that he essentially will not take any stand on I/P. Too messy, doesn’t get anywhere. Another prominent poster there-and banned for other reasons at dk, reflected the same attitude.
To me, it is this refusal to take any lead, or indeed, suggest a stance or a need for analysis, that exacerbates an already painful discussion. And this refusal on the so-called “biggest liberal blog”, is similar to the elected Democrats, and countless other “liberals” unwillingness to engage the I/P issue in a meaningful way, that allows for general conversation to devolve into pointless poison. And in that abscence, the hideous suggestion that “Zionists rule” comes to the fore again.
It would be much more productive to consider all who are not taking responsibility in examining these issues.
On reason reasonable discussion cannot occur on DKos is precisely because a large group of proIsrael bloggers come on who are obviously right wing in their positions, to derail and muckup any diary that does not hold to their position. This is seen time and again. If you read the posts on the above diary at DKos, you may have noticed several right wing Zionists proposing that Kos introduce a mechanism whereby bloggers can choose to delete a diary if enough of them believe it deserving. Of course, that would immediately restrict discourse to what those bloggers wanbt. It is a mechanism for censorship.
By proIsrael here I mean people who support the government and who consistently blame Palestinians for their own military occupation and by extension the colonization of their own lands in the West Bank.
But you made some excellant points and anyone can understand why you withdrew from participation.
and indeed, smacks of anti-semiticism
So to oppose genocide is to be anti-semitic?
It did not used to be this way! Nor is it my own belief, for sure, but that is the equation you are assuming and promoting.
I can remember when Jews OPPOSED genocide. Many still do. But fewer than it used to be, and this is both sad and strategically dangerous–unwise in the extreme.
the assertion that “Zionists rule” Dkos.
That is just an opinion, and it comes from an Israeli peace activist who is Jewish. I don’t think most people who know Steve Amsel would call him antiSemitic. He has been involved in peace activism most of his life.
We also need to appreciate that there is an antiZionism position in this dispute that deserves hearing, just as any other position, and there are soft Zionist positions that are a long way from the oxymoronic notion that Israel can be a “democratic and Jewish state.” That was repeated only recently by Uri Avnery. The institution of hard Zionism can only lead to racism and concepts such as transfer and colonization, the kind of thing supported by A. Lieberman.
not to Amsel’s, at least according to your diary. In all events, how does Amsel being a Jew give him privileged insight into how Daily Kos is run? Finally, you still have not clearly expressed your position regarding Heine’s spurious claim.
Finally, I don’t know how much influence those who support the Israeli government, the right wing Zionists, have on DKos. I am talking here about the large group that never use the word, occupation, or house demolition, or colonization, and so forth, and who seem more interested in derailing diaries than participating in them. You know who I mean.
As far as Ben Heine’s diary was concerned, if you read through the comments, you might come to understand why he and Steve Amsel would agree to that statement. Only a few serious comments out of over 500 were discernable.
propagate the claim that Daily Kos is “ruled by Zionists,” even though, by your own admission, you “don’t know how much influence those who support the Israeli government, the right wing Zionists, have on DKos.”
’nuff said.
I am willing to propagate debate and discussion, not censorship and suppression of speech. See my last diary at MLW on this topic.
You make a good point: that Kos’s not taking a stand on I/P “exacerbates an already painful discussion”. But you are being disingenuous when you say that Kos “will not take any stand on I/P”. In America today, given the influence of the Israel lobby over discussion of I/P, not to take a stand explicitly is to take one tacitly: it is to condemn the Palestinians to endless human rights violations by default.
Furthermore, and to continue the same point, your point and Benjamin Heine’s are not mutually exclusive. They relate to each other as follows: because Kos, for whatever reason, does not explicitly take a stand on I/P, dKos is ruled by Zionists.
troll-worthy, Alexander?
The cartoon was intended to provoke a strong emotional reaction, and that’s what Mr.Heine got. In that sense, he was overwhelmingly successful. But he should not be surprised that potentially objectionable material got removed. Liberal does not mean that there are no limits.
True. But believe it or not, the cartoons are not unusual for European liberals who support the Palestinian cause and tragedy.
In contrast to America, Europeans have not been subjected to the news blackout, censorship, and distortion that Americans have been subjected to. They are therefore at ease with depictions of Israeli government policy as racist and colonial. Lieberman is a racists, as many Israeli left wingers have stated, and has gone so far as to propose transfer (along with Henry Kissinger, by the way) of Israeli Arabs in to parts of Israel proper that would constitute bantustans ala South Africa. Lieberman has also proposed that all Israeli citizens take an oath that Israel is a “democratic and Jewish state” else be exiled. Of course, that would probably lead to the exiling of 20% of the population, those who are Israeli Arabs and would likely refuse. Worse that that, Lieberman was actually welcomed here in the US and spoke at the Saban Institute, on the same platform with Hillary and Bill Clinton. That is akin to have David Duke to your home for dinner and political conservation.
The Europeans are more outspoken about Israel’s racist practices than Americans and this diary was certainly not provocative in that sense. It was possibly a failure to understand the ignorance of Americans about the true situation on the ground in Israel and Palestine.
that there are so many DKos diaries on the Imus/racism issue, and also at least some on Katrina/racism, but Palestine/Israel/racism seems to not be discussed.
Yes, but material got removed without that fact being stated on the diary. That is censorship, pure and simple.
The diary at dKos has the note:
But only one image stayed: the one with the hybrid face was removed. The only indication the reader gets of that is that the note refers to “images” in the plural, whereas there is only one image left on the page. Most readers, would probably conclude, as I did, that “images” refers to the various graphics that are included in the one graphics file that is left.
This is the kind of dishonesty that we have grown accustomed to seeing from major news outlets like the Washington Post.
If the diary were going to be deleted, it should have been done so immediately. Instead, they banned the author who then had no way to inform the complainers that he did have copyright permission, contrary to the nonsense put out by Kos administration.
There is no rule that copyright permissions have to be indicated in a diary. I just had a talk with the Kos lawyer, who essentially says it is not necessary for Kos to indicate that, because he could delete any diary he wishes. And I suppose that Kos could also claim the deletion was made for any reason he sees fit, like lying about a copyright violation.
There are Orwellians all over the place.
You did not “talk” with me, and anything I’ve said here is just in my role as a user of the site who happens to be a lawyer; Markos is caring for his newborn daughter, and I certainly wouldn’t trouble him with this.
That copyright permissions need to be included is a necessary and obvious corollary to the stated rule that the wholescale reproduction of copyrighted works is a bannable offense. In my eyes, it’s not explicit because you’d have to be an idiot not to understand taht. And even if you do have permission, it’s bad diary form — link to the original piece, but diaries are supposed to contain the user’s own thoughts.
Finally, Heine certainly could email the admins at DailyKos to plead his case. That ability hasn’t been taken away from anyone.
is quite interesting. One need not agree with every detail to appreciate it. What I find particularly striking is that, with all her (often-justified) criticism of particular Israeli policies, she recognizes:
All in all, much more worthwhile than what we typically see from shergald & Co.
This makes it all the more regrettable that Ben Heine apparently posted it to Daily Kos without having obtained copyright permission, a major no-no for Kos.
At least as regrettable is Heine’s decision to illustrate Akram’s article with a cartoon that easily went beyond fair criticism of the despicable Avigdor Lieberman to an obscene equation of Zionism and Israel with Nazism and Hitler.
Finally, I have a question for shergald. From your experience on Daily Kos, you well know the falsity, in any invidious sense, of Heine’s charge that “Daily Kos . . . is ruled by Zionists.” Why don’t you take a clear stand on this point here, and wherever else you know this canard is being spread?
(I say “in any invidious sense” because, according to its broadest definition, Zionism is simply support for the existence of the State of Israel. I’ve no reason to think either that Kos and his colleagues do not support Israel’s continued existence or that their opinion on this issue leads them to run the site unfairly.)
Daily Kos . . . is ruled by Zionists?
That is a conclusion of the Europeans who commented. However, the notion that Zionism is equated with the existence of Israel is false. There are many versions of Zionism, and as far as I can tell, a large group of the ZIonists at Daily Kos support the religious/historical version, and if not that, a two state bantustan solution, ala Sharon/Olmert. Certainly, they argue against any criticism of government practices, never mention the occupation, never mention the forced military-upported colonization, stall tactics, etc., by the Israel government. One of the Zionists actually wrote a diary called, “Progressive Zionism.”
Israel cannot be a “democracy and a Jewish state” without engaging in racist practices or a Zionism that means confiscation of the West Bank. Uri Avnery’s latest on this topic a week ago made that clear. It is oxymoronic and leads to the Lieberman types controlling the agenda. Uri, a Zionist, believes that Israel will have to get out of the West Bank, period, and go the way of the EU, in which anyone may be an Israeli citizen regardless of ethnicity. Only in this way will Israel likely remain more Jewish, because it will be more appealing to Jews as a place to live. Right now, its practices make it the bane of the world, sans the USA, which in any case is largely oblivious to the realities over there.
Ben Heine expressed nothing unusual, nothing that perturbed liberal Israeli activists such as Jerusalem based Steve Amsel, proprietor of Desert Peace, and an Israeli Jew, who believes that his Jewishness means something quite apart from what Israel has been doing to the Palestinian people.
Do you definitively reject the proposition, which you call “a conclusion of the Europeans,” that Daily Kos is “ruled by Zionists”?
at least people to whom you would attach that appellation, themselves criticize various Israeli government practices vis-a-vis the Palestinians. And I am not aware of any post “argu[ing] against any criticism of government practices” as such.
Unless you can substantiate your claims, do you have the intestinal fortitude to withdraw them?
Speaking only for myself, I refer interested readers to the following Daily Kos diaries:
Reclaiming the Z Word
George Soros Gets It: “On Israel, America and AIPAC”
Kangaroo Congressional Hearing
“We are returning to the sane Israel.”
The Myth of the “Myth of the Generous Offer”
As I contended in the past, you can tell the politics of anyone on DKos not by what they saym but by what they do not say. Another way is to take a look at what statements and comments they recommend, and who recommends their comments.
Nothing is withdraw worthy on my part since I do not believe in censorship. You are free to criticize as I am.
O personally am less concerned about Zionists per se, than about hard Zionists, those who support the actions against the Palestinians for the sole, if subtle purpose of stealing their lands. No one can take a look at the situation over the past 60 years and not conclude that a displacement of one people by another has not been going on, and is still going on. This is not what one would expect from the people of the Holocaust; it is what one would expect from the people who believe the post WWII cynicism, that “only Jews care about Jews.” How utterly false.
The point is that anyone who is liberal on this issue would naturally support the Palestinians against the Hard right wing Zionists, who have nothing in mind but their exile and colonization of their lands, by religious or historical right. These Zionists have not learned or experienced that Israel is no panacea for the Jews and that if antiSemitism is to be fought and conquered, liberal democracy is the proven tool, not Israel, which may only be increasing it. Suggest that you if you are interested in doing best for Jews in the world, that you rethink your position, and stop trying to be subtle or having it both ways.
I had hoped for better from you.
Your disparagements of me on Daily Kos have been noted.
Your equation of Zionism with existence is rediculous and the first I’ve heard, perhaps mimicking Olmert’s line. I would stick with traditional definitions, of which there are many, unless you agree with those of Chomsky and Avnery and others more to the left.
Mr. Heine stated that dKos is ruled by Zionists? What a fucking moron…maybe if he had actually read dKos before posting there, he would have a different opinion.
THe statement appears to have been a reaction to the over 500 most disparaging comments provided by many of the regular right wing proIsrael bloggers. They are Zionists.
Whether they control DKos is another issue. Perhaps that was a generalization from what had happened, considering the author was banned on false pretenses.
Wow…that’s pretty ridiculous. You need to get over yourself.
And that’s pretty ambiguous. But if you referring to why Ben Heine said what he did, I suggest you read some of the supporting writing he received on his banning. If you have a better idea why he said what he did, then let’s hear from someone who seems to be very self-actualized in his own mind, anyway.