Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

A willing ally to Hamas's hatred
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25715206-7583,00.html
Ilan Grapel | July 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE Green Left Weekly is probably Australia's best-known radical-left newspaper. While nominally
independent, it is affiliated with the Socialist Alliance party and its youth movement Resistance! Like
most radical socialist groups, it invariably aligns with the anti-Israel movement.
For some time it has been apparent that an unholy alliance is growing between extreme left-wing groups
and Arab and Islamic extremists, despite completely different visions for society. This alliance has been
on show in much of the anti-war movement in Britain and other places.
For instance, Britain's "Respect" party is basically an alliance of radical Muslims and old hard-line
Marxists such as former Labour MP George Galloway. Galloway was pro-Saddam Hussein before the
2003 Iraq war. Today, he works for the Iranian government mouthpiece television station, Press TV.
But what isn't widely known is that the Green Left Weekly is openly promoting extremism among Arabic
speakers in Australia through a monthly Arabic-language insert called the Flame. This support is not
limited to Green Left Weekly's own far-left agenda. It supports terrorist groups and promotes violence as
the solution to the existence of the "Zionist state."
You would think GLW's declared pursuit of the advancement of "anti-racist, feminist, student, trade
union, environment, gay and lesbian, civil liberties" would rule out the promotion of radical Islamist
groups such as Hamas, which are deeply hostile to all the above.
Yet alongside content promoting the PFLP, a tiny left-wing and currently marginal Palestinian terror
group, Hamas is also promoted by GLW as a positive model of "resistance"; that is to say, terrorism.
Those killed as a result of the violence Hamas sparks are "martyrs", terminology Flame shares with
Hamas. Further, the terminology of the Flame is openly hostile to the more moderate governments of the
region and repeatedly demands all-out war on the "Zionist entity".
The January edition of the Flame was devoted to the conflict in Gaza. The cover page is a compilation of
statements from various communist parties in the Arab world. Predictably, the communiques incited its
Arabic readers with imagery of "slaughter," and a "waterfall of Palestinian blood washing the streets".
More surprisingly, there are implicit calls for other Arab states to expand the Gaza war.
In "Hunt of a people", the paper refers to the 1982 Lebanon war, indignant "Arab capitals stood
watching, exactly as is happening now."
The paper targets American-allied Arab governments for their moderation in the war, which it terms
"collusion". The front-page article from the Iraqi Communist Party rebukes the Saudi government,
Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, which it disparagingly dubs the "Oslo Authority". The Mubarak
government is condemned for being "a loyal accomplice to Israel and the Oslo Authority in their attempt
to shut Hamas out". It also accuses the Saudi monarchy of having covert dealings with "the Zionists"
stretching back decades. Any non-violent interaction with Israel, whether actual or imagined, is scorned.
In the March edition the Flame was aghast at Egypt for co-operating with the US against Hamas. Its
expose was titled "Egypt uses American soldiers to prevent weapons smuggling to the resistance!" In the
Arabic, "the resistance" is euphemism for terrorist violence and for Hamas itself.
Another article, "A return to principles is necessary after the Israeli aggression", is more virulent. An
illustration shows a Palestinian imprisoned behind barbed wire shaped as a partial Jewish star. The
article condemns those calling the Gaza war a victory for the "resistance", given the large proportion of
"martyrs" from the Palestinian people in comparison to the "slim" number killed among "soldiers of the
Israeli occupation army". The rest of the article is critical of the Palestinian factions for their internecine
fight.
It criticises Hamas for abandoning its traditional position as the "resistance" against "the enemy" to
fight the PA and calls for a "united Palestinian resistance" which will "return the benefit to the
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