r/Global_News_Hub • u/One-Washer • Nov 04 '24
Exclusive: Prof Haim Bresheeth’s anti-genocide speech before he was arrested for ‘terrorism’
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u/One-Washer Nov 04 '24 edited Nov 04 '24
Professor Haim Bresheeth was arrested Friday for his speech at a demo. This article sums everything up. His speech he did before the arrest is the last link, which is also in the same article. He was released Saturday, but remains under investigation:
- https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/03/exclusive-prof-haim-bresheeths-anti-genocide-speech-before-he-was-arrested-for-terrorism/#comments
- https://videopress.com/embed/f268rq70
He describes himself:
I would like to tell you about my background, in order to support my request. I am an academic, author and filmmaker, an ex-Israeli Jew who has been active for over five decades as a socialist, anti-Zionist and anti-racist activist. My parents were Polish Jews, survivors of Auschwitz and other camps. They ended forced onto death marches to the Third Reich after the Auschwitz camp was vacated by the SS in Mid-January 1945. My mother was freed by the British forces in Bergen-Belsen, and my father was freed by the US forces in Mauthausen. I was born in a Displaced Persons Camp in Italy, and arrived in Israel as a baby, during June 1948, as no European country would then accept Holocaust survivors.
I served in the Israeli Army (IDF) as a junior infantry officer, and took part in two wars, in 1967 and 1973, after which I turned into a committed pacifist. I came to study in Britain in 1972, and a short while afterwards I have learnt much about Zionism which I did not while in Israel, thus becoming an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights, and an anti-Zionist activist. I was an active supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement as a Labour member in the 1970s and acted against racist organisations throughout my life. My films, books and articles reflect the same political views outlined here; these include a popular book on the Holocaust (Introduction to the Holocaust, with Stuart Hood, 1994, 2001 2014), among others, a BBC documentary film (State of Danger, with Jenny Morgan, BBC2, March 1988) about the first Intifada, and a forthcoming volume on the Israeli Army (An Army Like No Other, May 2020) . I have re-joined the Labour Party after decades, when Jeremy Corbyn was elected to the leadership, as I regained hope in promoting a progressive agenda for the party, after years of Blairism.
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u/Romulysses Nov 04 '24
what part of that speech can be deemed terrorism? he literally just told people about his background and the activism he did? he literally says he's a pacifist..
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u/Hotnevy Nov 05 '24
It's hate speech laws working exactly as intended. Anything that the government wants to call hate speech is hate speech. Why freedom of speech is important and hate speech laws are bullshit.
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u/LeftismIsRight Nov 05 '24
The liberals just can’t seem to understand this. They cheer it on as they have their voices stripped from them. The left can see it coming a mile away. You can be arrested now for posting “hateful” memes. There is no freedom of speech in the UK. Only freedom to say the things that the government has deemed acceptable.
While the liberals cheered on the new laws, the left warned of the impending oppression.
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u/Hotnevy Nov 05 '24
The left sees oppression under their beds at night. No one takes you seriously because you're constantly crying oppression at anything that doesn't fit your narrow leftist worldview
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u/almost_not_terrible Nov 04 '24
I watched the whole speech. Very reasonable. No hate therein. A clear abuse of police powers.
Time to sue for wrongful arrest: https://www.dpp-law.com/services/actions-against-police/wrongful-arrest/
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u/R0BBES Nov 04 '24
Oh yea, there’s a lot of garbage nonsense out there weaponizing laws against pro-Palestinian protestors, but this guy was super irresponsible. He claims that Israel is colonizing the minds of the western and European governments, that (all) Jews who sort Israel support Israel’s genocide, etc., etc. very stupid and irresponsible. Being Jewish and Israeli doesn’t make his speech any less incendiary. Very hard to tell if this is the speech of a leftist or a nazi. Brought it on himself, and I say this as someone fully in the free Palestine camp.
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u/Disco_Bones Nov 04 '24
Completely disagree. I think the things he said were pretty factually defensible and the fact he was in the IDF and his parents in the Holocaust gives him a unique perspective. Absolutely nothing worthy of being arrested. Here is a video of the speech for people to decide for themselves.
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u/R0BBES Nov 04 '24 edited Nov 04 '24
The video is already linked in the comments I’m replying to :p
He claims that the majority of Jews in the world are “not real Jews”, and “supporting genocide”. I can’t imagine a more dangerous thing to say, and it’s indistinguishable from antisemitism.
I understand the context in which he places these statements, but IMO it’s not great. Israel needs to be made a pariah, and held to account for its crimes, but that’s not what this rhetoric advances.
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u/Romulysses Nov 04 '24
but most Jews support Israel. he's just stating well known facts. I'm going to take the word of someone who grew up in Israel, had 2 parents that lived in concentration camps. served in the IDF. and has studied Zionism his entire adult life over some simpleton on Reddit that can't tell the difference between stating facts and terrorism apparently.
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u/Fit_Foundation888 Nov 04 '24 edited Nov 04 '24
He doesn't claim it is the majority jews, but he isn't very specific. He talks at length about colonisation by Israel. Here he is referring to things like the Israeli lobby, and he then refers to Judaism being colonised and that it has been colonised by zionism. This isn't a controversial point, Israel has sought to conflate zionism with jewishness. And then he says that it is these jews which he says are supporting genocide in great numbers. So depending on how you interpret this sentence then he is either referring here to Israeli zionist jews, the Israeli's who have colonised the western mind, judaism etc, or if you prefer then he is referring to zionist jews in general who are supportive of Israel's current action in Gaza. Neither of these groups are a majority - the majority of jews in the world are not zionist.
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u/R0BBES Nov 05 '24
I do not believe it to be a stretch to interpret his remarks as referring to all Zionist Jews, which unfortunately do make up a majority of world Jewry, and certainly the vast majority of Jewish institutions.
I think they were stupid things to say, and it completely flips the structural relationship between western powers and Israel. It’s classic “tail wagging the dog”. It’s by the interests of western (particularly US) imperialism that Israel is allowed to get away with their crimes against humanity.
As someone who’s nominally anti-Zionist, even i know there are many, many zionist Jews who are horrified by the genocide perpetuated by the Israeli regime, but find themselves paralyzed by this rhetoric ¯_(ツ)_/¯ completely irresponsible speech; there are plenty of ways to make the same points without resorting to antisemitic canards :\
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u/rainofshambala Nov 05 '24
"Zionist Jews horrified by the genocide perpetuated by the Israeli regime" are you sure? Because the very word Zionism means people who are interested in colonizing and removing natives from their Dreamland. Why would they be horrified when what they wanted is being done?
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u/R0BBES Nov 05 '24
I’m going to assume you’re asking in good faith, and just say that words mean different things to different people. You are conflating a political class of people with a mass of individuals who have differing and very personal relationship to certain words.
I know people who call themselves zionists and people who call themselves anti-zionist who have almost 100% agreement on the character of the Israeli regime, but completely different associations with the term “zionism”.
Personally, I think self-identifying zionists have the burden of confronting the past 100 years of Zionist discourse and must move to differentiate themselves from Jewish supremacist policy. A good full of thumb for those who want to contribute to useful change is to attack structures and ideologies, not people.
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u/Fit_Foundation888 Nov 05 '24
When I listened to his speech, when he said "those jews" I understood that he meant the colonising Israeli Jews. He is an academic, they are usually quite precise, they don't usually switch about who they are referring to. If you listen to the way he says it, that part of speech is written in a long paragraph, of more or less one sentence.
But I guess you could argue other people listening to it, might interpret it differently, as you have, and you interpret it as a guilt by association kind of comment, being a zionist means (implicitly) supporting genocide. Does he mean that though? Or is this a more direct statement, that zionist jews (in general, your understanding), are supporting a genocide in greater numbers, in which case he is referring to those zionist jews who support genocide, and he says there are large numbers of them.
Is this correct though? Are there large numbers of zionist jews who support genocide?
We know that there seems to be general support in Israel amongst the Jewish population for ethnic cleansing of Gaza. It is raised on Israeli TV talk shows, by senior politicians, and also in street interviews with Israeli's.
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u/jaybird-jazzhands Nov 04 '24
It’s funny that Zionists keep trying to hurl the nazi slur at people who don’t support their butchering of Palestinians and inhumane genocide the likes we haven’t seen since…Nazis.
There’s only one side that’s objectively emulating Nazis and it’s not Palestinians or those that sympathize with them.
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u/Legendary_Hercules Nov 04 '24
Streisand effect in 3, 2, ...
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u/Reasonable-Sweet9320 Nov 04 '24
Yes this arrest brings into focus the absurd effort in the west to crack down on “antisemitism “.
Unfortunately antisemitism and antiZionism have been confounded/conflated.
https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/09/antisemitism-dangerous/
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u/yes4me2 Nov 04 '24
UK does not have any freedom of speech anymore... well I guess I am not more planning to live in UK.
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u/Parabellum27 Nov 05 '24
Here in Canada they are trying to implement such « legislation ». Be warned or be next.
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Nov 04 '24
Where do you live now?
We don’t have a problem with not enough people wanting to move here.
Country is full actually
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u/yes4me2 Nov 05 '24
USA. I am actually thinking to move to Ireland, but I have been to that country only once.
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Nov 05 '24
What is wrong with the USA?
Europe is falling behind the US every year
Every year the gap in lifestyle and salary increases
When people come here from the US or China, I feel like a barbarian greeted with people from an advanced civilisation able to afford casual luxuries and casually ponder what country to move to like it’s a sweater to buy from the shop
Even people in ‘good jobs’ here are living paycheck to paycheck and have no assets
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u/changhaobyu Nov 05 '24
the people you meet are the people that can afford to travel and possess all of the associated luxuries, the average person in the US is living much like you are if not worse with no socialized medicine or healthcare
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u/Delicious-Blueberry5 Nov 04 '24
Guys the cuntries with history of antisemitism (US, UK, Germany, France) are experts at defining antisemitisim /s
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u/2022brownbear Nov 04 '24
They made up an excuse to shut him down and haul him away. I'd be surprised if this made it anywhere near court.
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u/Popular-Appearance24 Nov 05 '24
Curious if they only hire police officers who have an IQ lower than 80? Is it a requirement to be stupid in order to enforce law. It must be as there is no other explanation as to why police officers do things like this.
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u/pimperella2 Nov 05 '24
The UK is not a place I ever will set foot in. What a bland dystopian shithole it has become
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