Talk:Left-wing politics/Translated sources
Original translation by MathKnight of part of an article from Maariv
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The left wing protests in France against the war in Iraq became anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist events
Sefi Handler, Paris , 18/04/03
Aurélie Filipetti { hencforth I will refer to her as A.F. -MK} felt bad. The brutal attack that two teemagers, member of Hashomer Hatzair, have suffered in a demonstration in Paris against the war in Iraq, made her wonder for exactly which "peace" she is demonstrating.
Aurélie Filipetti (A.F.) , a spokeswoman of the Green Party in Paris, was among the organiziers of the demonstration, in which its fringes Jews were beaten only because they wore kippot (skull caps). She is 30 year old, French from Italian dynesty, not a Jewish. Niether anti-semitic. She is a left wing activists who thinks the state of Israel has a right to exists. This loaded combination have turned the young Parisian to a focus of political-idealogical public controversy, which exposes a lot more than the intellectual integrity of those who arose it. Almost forced by events, the honest spokeswoman of the Green Party to an exception which tesitify over the general common: a growing camp inside European left, which loves itself as equally as it loves to hate Israel.
After the attack against the Jewish teenager, who were in their way to their activity center in east Paris and walked across the "peace" protest, A.F. decided to send some messages as food for though in the party's internet discussion board. The French left did condamned the attack, beside of the rally's organizers, which claimed it was a provocation of Betar activists.
A.F. asked to touch the truly sensetive points. "I felt we should stop putting our head in the sand, to say that these are only fringes effects and therefore 'not of our concern', to condamn and do nothing more." In the message she posted in the disscussion board she asked the participants why they allow a demonstration against the war in Iraq ( A.F. opposes the war ) to turn into an event in which the main theme is Palestine. She also asked if this has a connection to the attack on the Jewish youth during the rally. "I wrote that according to that logic\reason\sense , we can protest with Chechnya's flags, or Tibet's , but we {somehow -MK} choose to focus only in Israel and Sharon.
This uninnocent question, of a woman from the hardcore of the "enlightened left" touched the most sensetive nerves of the French "Peace camp". A.F. got tons of answers, most of them are hostile. "They explained to me that the slogan 'Bush Sharon are murderers' is not antisemitism but anti-Zionism. But for me, when you burn the flag of Israel (a common sight in anti-war rallies in France -Sefi Handler) it is antisemitism. The meaning is the delegitmation of Israel's right to exist."
Every left wing politician who cares about his chair and status, would mute after the wave of responses and would not turn against the practice of burning Israel's flags. But A.F. decided to jump into the "lion's mouth" of anti-Zionism and held solidarity visit in Hashomer Hatzair center in Paris. In this visit "she'd gone to far" and made a commitment to carry the flag of Israel and the flag of Palestine together in the next anti-war rally in the Bastile square.
When it was publish in Le Mond, France's most important newspaper, A.F. became a focus for unsacred wrath for many of her colleagues. "They stormed over me" she tells in an interview to Maariv. "I have received many enraged phone calls. They told me 'what is wrong with you?'. A senior member in the party told me that 'you can't carry a blood stained flag' i.e. the flag of Israel. Other explained to me it is the 'Sabra and Shattila flag'. There were also some who conveyed me a message that should I dare to appear with the flag of Israel in the protest 'ten people will come and break your face'. I have insisted that is merely a symbol of our commitment to Israel's right to exist."
The leadership of the Green Party in Paris, gathered urgently to discuss the two-flags issue and found a hypocritical solution to the hot problem. The Green Party declare they are "not a national party" and therefore none of its representatives is allowed to carry national flags.
Filipetti honored the decision, and not carried the two flags { of Israel and Palestinian -MK }, but like all the participants in the rally she saw around her countless flags of Iraq and Palestine. "It was a violent event" she recalls "I said to myself that if I would carry the flags of Israel and Palestinian, I then would face some serious troubles {word-to-word translation of the last expression would be 'noy few (but many) problems' - MK} ."
Parallel to the confrontation over the flags, A.F. published an article in the left-oriented French newspaper "Libersion" in which she warned from the antisemitism that plauging its camp. An article, which only few, if any, in the European left would dare to write.
It is easy to the French left to protest against Le Pen, it is harder for it to admit that it let "its protestors to carry slogans that have nothing in common for the Palestinian's legitimate rights. There were slogan of those who were facisinated from the Palestinian suicide bombers' death dance" she wrote. "The French left must to recognize that while it developed the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, it acted as an ostrich and not fulfilled its duty: to think reasonbly. The refusal of the left to be questioned about it, and worse - to question itself about it, played to the hand of antisemitism."
"Zionism is Israel's right to exist. Period. The fact that Sharon gives Zionism an imperialist and colonialist definition does not put in doubt the legitimacy and necessity of the state of Israel. We support the legitimate struggle of the Palestinians for their rights, for their state and for liberating the occupied territories, and we oppose Ariel Sharon's brutal policy. Therefore, because of all this, we should not agree that this struggle will lose its dignity through barbaric acts that are summed up in one word: antisemitism."
The article became the talk of the day among Jews, politicians, protestors and everybody else. "I felt they didn't read my article, but only one word from it: 'Zionism', and because of it I'm being scurned like a witch on the stake", she sums. Week and a half ago, during a meeting of the regional bureo of the party, she got intidada in home. "Do you understand you offended people by using that word (Zionism)?" one of the members slammed at her. Aurélie Filipetti do not regret, even for a moment. "Even if I had to pay political price, since I am a pro-Palestiniam Zionist." She sums with a sad smile.