Last week the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Gaby Levy, asked the ABC to withhold screening the BBC’s investigative documentary, Israel’s Secret Weapon. The ambassador’s move is part of the Israeli government’s policies to prevent an informed, global, democratic, public dialogue about Israel’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, which are increasingly threatening both regional stability and the environment.
Although the Israeli government is not a newcomer to media censorship - manifested through intimidation of and violations against media workers - the current campaign against the BBC and its documentary represent a new level of virulent offences and infringements by the triumphant right-wing Israeli government and its apologists on the freedom of the global press and democracy.
The BBC documentary attempts to investigate specific issues about the nature and extent of Israel’s weapons program within the current political global context. As such the documentary is not targeting Israel; rather it attempts to provide a comparative political situation to complement the discussion about issues of concern for all, including a large number of Israelis. For example, the member of the Israeli Kneset itself, Issam Mahoul, expressed deep concern about the environmental consequences of Israel’s nuclear program. According to Mahoul, “the problem is the policy of the government that turned the territory of a relatively small country into a poisoning waste bin which could make us all disappear into a nuclear cloud”.
In its effort to impose a totalitarian-like control and views over all aspects of the political debate about the Middle East, the self-proclaimed bastion of democracy and freedom in the Middle East, Israel, is not just using its military might to suppress the largely civilian population in Palestine but it is also exacting a physical and moral program of blackmail on global media outlets, intellectuals and human rights activists.
In a direct action against the BBC Israel barred BBC workers in Israel/ Palestine from attending government conferences and briefings (in addition to the existing Israeli military restriction and intimidations). Considering that Palestine/Israel news occupies a significant space in the global media industry, Israel is, in effect, cutting the supply of information to the BBC, which is a direct threat to the BBC’s ability and reliability as a global news supplier. In this situation, Israel is simultaneously punishing the BBC for its investigative independent approach and sending a message to other media outlets to follow Israeli press releases to the letter, or face losing access to a significant portion of information from the Palestinian territories and Israel.
The bullying assault against the BBC, and consequently the global media outlets, has culminated in the Israeli government charging the BBC with anti-Semitism. Daniel Seaman, head of Israel's government press service, proclaims, “the BBC program bordered on Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitism”. Seaman’s statement is part of Israel’s general policy to stigmatise any independent point of view outside the official Zionist discourse as anti-Semitic and to deter independent and reflective journalists and writers from voicing concern about Israel’s local and regional practices. As Jonathan Cook states, “we are all anti-Semites unless we can prove otherwise”.
The Israeli novelist Amos Oz, in his book about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, The Slopes of Lebanon, describes the way in which Israel exploits the suffering of the Jewish people. He says "our sufferings have granted us immunity papers, as it were, a moral carte blanche. After what all those dirty goyim [non-Jews] have done to us, none of them is entitled to preach morality to us. We, on the other hand, have carte blanche, because we were victims and have suffered so much. Once a victim, always a victim, and victimhood entitles its owners to a moral exemption." In this context, to speak about, not against, Israel’s practices borders on a moral and historical crime.
The levelling of an anti-Semitism accusation against journalists, intellectuals and human rights activists is indeed harming the real struggle against anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and bigotry in the world. By equating commentators on Israeli politics with anti-Semitism, Israel might succeed momentarily in granting itself, to use Oz’s words, moral exemption. However, Israel and Zionists are risking removing the struggle against anti-Semitism not just from the history of struggle against war and aggression, but also from the agendas of the global peace and social justice movements.
Therefore, today more than ever we need to liberate the history of struggle against anti-Semitism from Israel’s and Zionist discourse. Today more than ever we need to liberate the people of the Middle East and the world from the nightmare of weapons of mass destruction and military aggression. Today more than ever, we need investigative media to reveal truth and to inform global public discussion.
BBC Transcript of "Israel's Secret Weapon"
