I was recently banned as a heretic from participation in several Mennonite newsgroups, presumably for fear that I would mention my Lebensraum! cause - that cause being, to put it in the simplest terms, to help German and German-descendants to look at their own history without having to look over their shoulder.
Well, that is what we will call a challenge - put there to be overcome. The Mennonite community does not know this yet, but I have my grandmother's genes - which means I have a spine of steel and heels that dig in and stay put.
This morning I finished a letter to one of the Mennonite leaders who had requested a review set of my trilogy - a letter wherein I smugly seized both moment and opportunity and carefully outlined the bare bones of the Revisionist stance.
This is old hat for those of us who have been in this struggle - but necessary, so I thought, for someone who may yet require Holocaust 101 as "Weihwasser" (holy sprinkling) as to what is really going on.
Therefore, I wrote, in part - while in my mind visualized the shock in my recipient's face, for chances are this is the first time that he heard it:
"Israel punishes any questioning of standard Holocaust claims by a five year jail term - to deny the existence of God nets the "Denier" only one year!"
Furthermore, I also wrote:
"Israel is the only "democracy" where ***torture of political prisoners has been legalized*** by the Knesset and upheld by the Supreme Court -"
And then I added for good measure:
"Some self-appointed leaders of the Mennonite community are already practicing censorship, as was evidenced recently when I was rejected as a mere participant in the Mennolink newsgroups.
"Additionally, I have been informed that the word has been put out to churches and colleges that I not be allowed to give programs and lectures about my own experience and eye witness account of our Mennonite history during Stalin's reign, ***something that I have done for years, to absolutely no objection*** - in Mennonite and non-Mennonite churches."
So there. Another sortie gone - as David Irving would say: "Torpedo loose and running....
Since I am gagged by Mennonite decree but still have eyes to read and ears to listen, the following was sent to me, courtesy of one of my secret Mennonite scouts - presumably written by a Middle East Mennonite volunteer:
"The Israeli Government, since the Wye Accords, has accelerated the destruction of the homes of Palestinians and the confiscation of Palestinian land according to the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) which is working with Muslim and Christian Palestinians and Jewish Israeli people committed to justice to end what is going on in and around Hebron, Gaza and the West Bank in Israel.
"I am indebted to a recent email from the team for a summary report on CPT's campaign against permanent occupation. It reports that under the relentless but quiet leadership of Ariel Sharon the Israeli government has been "creating facts on the ground." It has established a systematic structure of occupation, displacement and apartheid that has surrounded the Palestinian people of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. This process is designed to ensure Israeli control and de facto annexation of more than half of the Occupied Territories while confining the two million Palestinians to small, crowded, impoverished and disconnected villages not unlike the bantustans in Africa some years ago.
"This low intensity warfare, as described by CPT has created permanent structures of control and segregation while avoiding any outright conflict that might arouse international attention and opposition.
"When I visited Israel three years ago, even though riding in a relatively safe air conditioned bus, I could not miss seeing the incursion of Israeli settlers into the midst of Palestinian land. Not only have settlers moved in with the support of the government but they have constructed roads across the vineyards and fields of the Palestinians so that they could travel from one settlement to the other on roads on which Palestinians cannot travel.
"I share the reluctance of most Christians to criticize Israeli policies as it may be considered arousing the dragon of anti-Semitism. I hope that these are the days when that specter no longer is a dread. We can and must learn what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinian people. I am not naive enough to believe that Palestinians have not perpetrated violence as well. In fact three of the most horrific bombings in Israel occurred while I was there. But that is no excuse for the systematic destruction of homes by the Israel government that is occurring now. I hope this paper and the national media will seek to find out what is happening in Israel and keep us informed of the tragedies in Hebron, Gaza and the West Bank and that we will proclaim loudly our protest at this violence."
The Holocaust is costly - isn't it? So! Fear of "arousing the dragon of anti-Semitism" will make us pussyfoot around a real crime - such as the state-sponsored, systematic theft and destruction of someone else's property?
And that's not all. That is not even the beginning.
I want the Mennonites and others to reread this last paragraph and reflect on it in light of what just five minutes ago came over the wire, thanks to Michael A. Hoffman II, Editor of The Campaign for Radical Truth in History, http://www.hoffman-info.com:
"The following is from the English edition of the Hebrew language Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz. It is one of the rare news reports on the numerous concentration camps operated by the Israelis, in this particular case, the El Khiam concentration camp in South Lebanon where Arabs, including families, are routinely tortured."
Here is the news item itself, as shipped by Michael Hoffman:
Ha'aretz, March 23, 1999
Rights groups ask Court to free Lebanese
They say four prisoners have been repeatedly tortured and denied medical help
By Moshe Reinfeld, Ha'aretz Supreme Court Correspondent
A pair of human rights organizations have asked the Supreme Court to force Defense Minister Moshe Arens to immediately release four Lebanese men being held at the El Khiam detention center in South Lebanon.
Petitioning the court on behalf of the prisoners, two of whom are minors, the Center for the Defense of the Individual and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel also asked that the prisoners be allowed to meet with Israeli attorneys and representatives of the two organizations.
The two groups argued that the detentions are illegal and arbitrary. They noted that the four men have never been brought before a judge and have not been charged. Furthermore, the petitioners argued, the four have not been allowed legal counsel and have reportedly been tortured.
The petition is based largely on information collected by the International Red Cross and Amnesty International, and on newspaper reports in Israel and abroad.
From these reports, it appears that the four have serious health problems stemming from the conditions of their detention and from lack of medical care.
One of the detained is Suleiman Ramdan, from the village of Ba'al Beq, arrested in 1985 by a combined IDF and South Lebanese Army (SLA) force. He was wounded during his arrest but did not receive proper medical treatment and developed gangrene in his leg, resulting in an amputation in an Israeli hospital.
Ramdan has reportedly been whipped, subjected to electrical shocks, and tied to a beam. He has been kept in solitary confinement in a dark cell for three years.
Another detainee was identified as Mustafa Taubah from the village of Arnoun, who has been under arrest since October 1997. His wife, Zena, who was held for several weeks, says he was apprehended for refusing to cooperate with Israel. He was hospitalized several weeks ago after collapsing from high blood pressure.
The third detainee is the couple's son, Ali Taubah, 16, who was arrested to put pressure on his father. He told his mother he was tortured with electric shocks. The fourth detainee was identified as Rabakh Abu-Fuar, 16, who has been imprisoned for a year.
In light of the above, I want to say that, sooner or later, the Mennonite Church and the Mennonite people will have to allow an honest assessment of what is going on in Israel. We should search earnestly. We should report responsibly. Censorship of our own history is not in our interest.
Do we want our children, already misguided, deceived and made ashamed of their forefathers' history by Hollywood's spin-doctored version of a very dubious event, to become the real martyrs of the future - the way I have described in Lebensraum! our martyrs of the past?
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"We must use time as a tool, not as a couch."
( John F. Kennedy )
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