Why the EU should honor, not shun, genocidal racist Itamar Ben-Gvir

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Although the European Union claims to disagree with violently extremist Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben-Gvir, it actually shares most of his values.

Eyal Warshavsky ZUMAPRESS

What do you do when the greatest object of your love and affection is horrible embarrassment?

This is the dilemma in which the European Union finds itself ahead of the annual celebration of the Europe Day of Peace and Unity on the continent which has been ravaged by war and genocide for much of its recorded history.

Like its other missions around the world, the EU Embassy in Tel Aviv will host festivities. But apparently not everyone is welcome at the party.

According to Israeli media, the EU is upset that the Israeli government chose Itamar Ben-Gvir to attend Europe Day celebrations as its representative.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan reports that the EU pressured Israel to send someone else, but so far the government is not complying.

An EU source told the broadcaster: We do not support Minister Ben-Gvir or his party’s political views. In fact, many of its statements and prejudices negate the values ​​that the European Union stands for.

Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, is a disciple of the genocidal anti-Palestinian rabbi Meir Kahane.

In recent days, Ben-Gvir also reminded the world that he has for decades idolized Baruch Goldstein, the American Jewish settler who murdered dozens of Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994.

On the eve of Israel’s so-called Independence Day, Ben-Gvir spoke at a Jewish religious school founded by Kahane, as he stood in front of a banner praising mass murderer Goldstein.

The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance, the banner read. He also called Kahane and Goldstein, among others, saints and said God will avenge their blood, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

”: ” ” pic.twitter.com/FWChB0vTxU

— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) May 2, 2023 Shared Values

The EU’s unease is therefore understandable, given that it tries to portray itself as a champion of human rights and democracy, values ​​which it preposterously claims to share with Israel.

But Brussels bureaucrats can relax.

In fact, the European Union and Itamar Ben-Gvir share exactly the same values ​​– even if they can quibble on certain details or on the way of expressing them. These values, however, have nothing to do with democracy and human rights.

Like Kahane and Ben-Gvir, the European Union supports Israel’s conception of a Jewish state and fully endorses Zionist ethnic cleansing and colonization of Palestinian land – as the senior official of EU Ursula von der Leyen in a video last week that sparked outrage among Palestinians.

Congratulating Israel on Independence Day, von der Leyen whitewashed and erased the horrific violence of Israel’s creation – the deliberate ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias and the Israeli army, and the destruction of hundreds of villages, towns and cities.

She even echoed the racist myth that Palestine had been an empty land, where Zionist colonizers – who actually destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of Palestinian orchards – had made the desert bloom.

Recall that if she stands for Head of State, @vonderleyen is nominated for the Presidency of the EU Civil Service. She’s a manager. She is not elected and does not democratically represent anyone. She does not have the right to speak on behalf of the 447 million citizens of the EU, nor does she do so. https://t.co/MTGHdv1XFG

— Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) April 26, 2023 Israel of course could not exist as a Jewish state in a country where the overwhelming indigenous majority were Muslim and Christian except through deliberate ethnic cleansing and demographic gerrymandering via imposition of apartheid and other explicitly racist policies and laws.

Not content with rewriting and falsifying the history of Palestine, Brussels is also determined to falsify the present: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently went so far as to proclaim that those who speak of apartheid in Israel are anti-Semites.

Thus, according to Borrell, mainstream organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Israel’s B’Tselem – which is funded by the EU – are guilty of anti-Jewish bigotry.

All have published reports documenting how Israel is committing the crime against humanity of apartheid against the entire Palestinian people.

How is Borrell’s position different from what a Ben-Gvir or a Kahane or any of their followers might say?

Love in Brussels

Indeed, Borrell continues to do all he can to shower Israel with European love and support, as he did when he met with its foreign minister Eli Cohen at EU headquarters on Tuesday.

Apparently Borrell’s warmth surprised the Israeli foreign minister who, for some inexplicable reason, was expecting a more chilly reception in Brussels.

First face-to-face meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen @elicoh1.

EU-#Israel cooperation is strong and we want to further deepen our relationship and dialogue on various bilateral and regional topics.https://t.co/E4YThle0rr pic.twitter.com/bmzPKg6B6B

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) May 2, 2023 It should be noted that the meeting took place as the EU marked World Press Freedom Day, and just days before the first anniversary of the execution of cold blood by Israel of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh – a murder for which there was no responsibility.

It also happened on the same day that Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan, a prominent political detainee who had been held in Israeli prisons for years without charge or trial, died in Israeli custody after refusing to surrender. feed for 86 days.

These prisons are now overseen by Ben-Gvir who has implemented even crueller and harsher measures against thousands of Palestinian political prisoners with no apparent purpose other than to cause them pain and suffering.

Borrell’s statement following his meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen made no mention of these or any other Israeli crimes and instead said that cooperation between the EU and Israel is very strong and that the EU is keen to further deepen this relationship.

Dancing on the graves

As part of Europe Day festivities, the EU Embassy in Tel Aviv will host a party on Tuesday at Tel Aviv’s so-called Hayarkon Park – the site of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of Jarisha.

The Europarty is back! Europe Day is celebrated on May 9 in Hayarkon Park, the event is organized by the European Union in Israel.

You can win tickets for Europe Day by taking this quiz! https://t.co/2KYWd95qGT pic.twitter.com/8btn7gnmFN

— Finland in Israel (@FinIsrael) May 2, 2023 This kind of obscenity has become its own Europe Day tradition.

In 2019, the EU Embassy hosted a dance party atop the ruins of al-Manshiyya, a once prosperous neighborhood in the Palestinian coastal city of Jaffa that was ruthlessly ethnically cleansed and destroyed by Zionist militias in 1948. .

There could be no greater expression of common EU and Israeli values ​​than dancing together – literally and figuratively – on Palestinian graves.

And Ben-Gvir is obviously a passionate dancer.

Watch: Israel’s ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joins a group of extremist settlers provocatively dancing in the grounds of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, commemorating the so- saying Israeli Memorial Day. pic.twitter.com/5FoFZFb3So

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 26, 2023 He even attended a notorious wedding where settlers danced happily as they celebrated and re-enacted the murder of Ali Dawabsha, a Palestinian toddler who was killed in his home during a firebombing by Jewish settlers in 2015.

As for the EU, what it is really throwing on Europe Day is not a celebration of peace and unity, but a shameless festival of white supremacy, hypocrisy and colonialism.

Ben-Gvir therefore lends itself perfectly to this and should be welcomed as a guest of honour.

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