Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir (Russian: Исраэль Шамир) (born 1947) is a writer and journalist. He is a commentator on Arab - Israeli relations and Jewish culture. Originally from Novosibirsk, Siberia, Shamir says he moved to Israel in 1969, serving in the 1973 war, after which he took up journalism and writing. Originally Jewish, he converted to Orthodox Christianity in 2004.

Shamir writes about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish people, and has published or self-published a number of books which have been translated into a range of languages; the French edition of Flowers of Galilee (2004) was banned for a time in France over allegations of antisemitism. Shamir has been accused of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, charges Shamir has rejected.^{[citation needed]}

Background and personal life

Shamir was born Izrail Schmerler in Novosibirsk, Siberia in 1947, to Jewish parents. According to Shamir, he read mathematics and law at Novosibirsk University. He states that he moved to Israel in 1969, served as paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces, and fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. After the war he returned to his study of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but then abandoned this in favour of a career in journalism.

Norman Finkelstein is quoted in Tablet Magazine saying about Shamir "He has invented his entire personal history. Nothing he says about himself is true".

According to Searchlight, Shamir was registered in Sweden in 1984 and later gained Swedish citizenship, in 1992. He left Sweden for Russia and then Israel in 1993, before returning in 1998, having remarried in Israel in July 1994. He was known as Jöran Jermas from 2001 to 2005, before changing his name to Adam Ermash, although continuing to use "Israel Shamir" as a penname. According to Shamir, these name changes were necessary "in order to safeguard my private life and to manage to travel without harassments from political adversaries."

In 2004 Shamir was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem by Archbishop Theodosios (Atallah) Hanna of Sabastia and given the name Adam.

According to his website, Shamir "lives in Jaffa and spends much time in Moscow and Stockholm". He has three sons.

Career

After dropping out of law studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem some time after the Yom Kippur War, Shamir took up journalism and writing. He was initially a journalist for Israel Radio, before becoming a freelance journalist, and covered the latter stages of the war in South East Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). He joined the BBC in 1975, moving to London, before moving to Japan (1977–79), writing for Maariv and others. In 1980 he returned to Israel, writing for Haaretz.

After a career in journalism, Shamir later focussed on other writing, particularly translation. Shamir translated various works of Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1966) from Hebrew into Russian (1981–2004), as well as Chaim Herzog's The Arab-Israeli Wars (1986). Other works include a 2006 annotated translation of Abraham Zacuto's 15th century history of the Jews, Sefer Hayuhasin (The Book of Lineage). With the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987 Shamir went to Russia and wrote about the political changes until 1993, for newspapers including Pravda and the extreme nationalist Zavtra, before returning to Israel.

Shamir writes about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish people. Several of his books have been translated into a range of languages. Shamir did not publish in English until January 2001, after the beginning of the Palestinian Second Intifada in September 2000. As he put it, "Israeli attacks on Palestinians forced him to give up literature and turn to politics." An article in the Russian-language Israeli newspaper Vesti was cited by Christopher Hitchens in 2001 as "a brilliant reply to [Elie] Wiesel".

The French edition of Shamir's Flowers of Galilee was initially co-published in October 2003 by Éditions Blanche and Éditions Balland, and was prominently displayed in large bookshops. It was withdrawn from sale at the end of October after Balland's director had his attention drawn to the content of the book, which he considered anti-semitic. The book was republished in 2004 by Éditions Al-Qalam, which led to a court case (a civil case brought by the Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme (LICRA),) with the publisher sentenced to three months in prison (suspended) and a 10,000 euro fine, and the banning of the book. The ban was overturned on appeal, and the fine reduced.^{[citation needed]}

Views

Shamir has made statements opposing both Zionism and Judaism, and is a supporter of the proposed one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shamir has argued that there is organized Jewish control of the media and public discourse: "The rich Jews buy media so it will cover up their (and their brethren's) misdeeds. The Jews in the media are giving protection to the rich Jews. ... In the US, even in Western Europe, no view can be proposed to the general public unless approved (after being vetted and corrected) by a Jewish group." He is critical of what he considers a Jewish quest for world hegemony, having written, "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is. Palestine is just the place for world state headquarters; necessary, for otherwise the people of Europe wouldn't be magnetised like a rabbit in the headlights of a car."

In 2001, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish circulated an email in which they said that "from early on, some of Shamir's writings struck us as straying beyond criticism of Israel and Zionism, and crossing into the territory of implicit anti-Semitism". They urged "all our friends in the movement for Palestinian rights" to consider the effects of Shamir's writing, which includes "elements of traditional European anti-Semitic rhetoric", on their cause.

He has been accused of being an antisemite and Holocaust denier, with Searchlight in 2004 accusing him of connections to antisemitic publications and groups, and its campaign Hope not Hate at one time listing Shamir as a "notable Holocaust denier," citing the "rabid Holocaust denial material" on his website. Essays supporting the tenets of Holocaust denial, such as the alleged non-existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, are posted on Shamir's personal website. In February 2005 Labour life peer Nazir Ahmed held a book launch for Shamir in the House of Lords. Commenting on the event, Stephen Pollard in The Times, called him a "rabid anti-Semite." Shamir rejected the accusations, and Gilad Atzmon wrote to The Times in his defence.

In an essay published on his website discussing Holocaust denier David Irving, Shamir wrote that "the Jews" now "rule over the minds and souls of Europeans":

David Irving was sentenced for denial of Jewish superiority. His doom seals the reign of (albeit limited) freedom that began with the fall of Bastille. European history went full circle: from rejecting the rule of Church and embracing free thought, to the new Jewish mind-control on a world scale. Not only is Western Christian civilisation dead, but even its successor, secular European civilisation, has met its demise only a few days after its proud and last celebration by the Danish scribes. It was short-lived: about two hundred years from beginning to the end, the Europeans may once have had the illusion that they can live without an ideological supremacy. Now this illusion is over; and the Jews came in the stead of the old and tired See of St Peter to rule over the minds and souls of Europeans.

In 2006, discussing the upcoming Iranian International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, Deutsche Welle wrote that the Iranian government "said it intended to invite academics such as German neo-Nazi [lawyer] Horst Mahler and the Israeli journalist and Christian convert Israel Shamir, both of whom are Holocaust deniers." Shamir denied receiving an invitation to the conference, and said he did not attend. Shamir wrote of his interest in the conference, concluding that "Nobody – and I do mean nobody, including British, French, American, German, Russian leaders – really cares about the victims of a war long past, Jewish or otherwise; they pay tribute to the Holocaust as nations pay tribute to their vanquisher." The widespread acceptance of the Holocaust narrative "as a justification of [rich and powerful] minority rights over [oppressed] majority needs", Shamir argued, showed "that the mass media machine is well integrated and concentrated in philosemitic, mostly Jewish hands. The occupation of Palestine by Jews is painful, but it is not more harmful than this captivity of free discourse."

In December 2010 Shamir's connection with WikiLeaks brought him new public attention. Andrew Brown of The Guardian repeated the accusations of antisemitism, relying on Magnus Ljunggren's piece that month in Expressen. Shamir responded to Ljunggren, saying "the stories he tells are all lies. And these lies are old and well known and refuted years ago." Katha Pollitt, writing in The Nation in December 2010, described a visit to Shamir's web site:

I spent a few hours on www.israelshamir.net and learned that: "the Jews" foisted capitalism, advertising and consumerism on harmonious and modest Christian Europe; were behind Stalin's famine in Ukraine; control the banks, the media and many governments; and that "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is." There are numerous guest articles by Holocaust deniers, aka "historical revisionists."

In early 2011 The Guardian described Shamir as "notorious for Holocaust denial and publishing a string of antisemitic articles." Defending himself, Shamir wrote in early 2011, "As for the accusation of 'Holocaust denial', my family lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy, but I do deny its religious salvific significance implied in the very term ‘Holocaust’; I do deny its metaphysical uniqueness, I do deny the morbid cult of Holocaust and I think every God-fearing man, a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim should reject it as Abraham rejected and smashed idols." Shamir claims his concern with the Holocaust is with the use of the narrative of the Holocaust by Jews to promote Jewish "superiority and exclusivity":

It has everything to do with the Jewish claim of superiority and exclusivity. There is a Jewish prayer saying: “Bless you, Lord, that you created me a Jew, that you separated between Jews and the earth folks, like you separated between the Holy and Profane, that our fate is not like their fate”. The Holocaust concept is just another form of this prayer. They say that even their death is not like the death of anybody else.

In a May 2011 interview Tablet Magazine described Shamir as a "Holocaust doubter". The article includes a transcript of an interview in which Shamir repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the mass annihilation at Auschwitz. In a followup piece, the Tablet author justified the term "Holocaust doubter," for "people with deeply problematic yet disparate views of the Holocaust who do not go so far as to argue it never occurred". He applied it also to Norman Finkelstein, a child of Holocaust survivors, saying "it seems entirely fair to lump Finkelstein in with Shamir and others who prefer to understand the Holocaust primarily as a narrative ploy to extend Jewish influence in the world."

Association with WikiLeaks

Shamir is a vocal backer of the WikiLeaks organization. In a Sveriges Radio interview with WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson, Hrafnsson stated that Israel Shamir "is associated with" WikiLeaks, as are "a lot of journalists that are working with us all around the world" who "have different roles in working on [the] project". Russian Reporter claims that it has "privileged access" to the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak via Shamir. Shamir described his relation with WikiLeaks as being 'a freelancer who was "accredited" to WikiLeaks'.

Former Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg noted Wikileaks' ties to Shamir among the reasons he quit the organization. Domscheit-Berg described Shamir as a "famous Holocaust denier and anti-Semite."

Yulia Latynina, writing in the Moscow Times alleged that Shamir concocted a cable which allegedly quoted European Union diplomats' plans to walk out of the Durban II speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for publication in the pro-Putin Russian Reporter in December 2010, an accusation which was rejected by Shamir.

Shamir has also been accused of passing "sensitive cables" to the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. Index on Censorship has expressed concern that such an event could physically endanger Lukashenko's political opponents; Wikileaks has refused to reply to Index on the issue, although one Wikileaks representative called Shamir's alleged leaks "obviously unapproved."

Shamir's son, a journalist named Johannes Wahlström, is a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Sweden.

A selection of publications

Books

• Путешествие в Египет, Тель-Авив (A Travel to Egypt, in Russian) Tel-Aviv, 1981.
• Сосна и Олива, (Pine and Olive, in Russian), Wahlstrom Publications, Jerusalem – Stockholm 1987
• Rasszista Allam? (Racist State, in Hungarian) Kairosz, Budapest 2004 ISBN 963-9484-90-3.
• Flowers of Galilee (in English), Dandelion Books 2004, ISBN 1-893302-78-4;
  • L’autre Visage d’Israël: Fleurs de Galilée, Éditions Al-Qalam, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-909469-43-3
  • Galilee Flowers (in English) BookSurge US 2005 ISBN 978-1419613517
  • Galilee Flowers (in English, UK edition) Four O'Clock Press 2007 ISBN 978-1906146436
  • Blommor i Galiléen: collected essays (in Swedish), translated by Ingvar Rydberg, Alhambra Publishing. ISBN 9789188992529
  • Blumen aus Galiläa, (in German), Promedia Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85371-231-2.
• Our Lady of Sorrows, BookSurge US 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0835-5.
• Pardes, BookSurge LLC, 2005, ISBN 9781419606014 
• Проклятие избранного народа (The Curse of Chosen People, in Russian) Algoritm, Moscow 2006 ISBN 5-9265-0259-4
• Cabbala of Power, Four O'Clock Press UK 2007, ISBN 978-1906146580
• Masters of Discourse, BookSurge 2008 ISBN 978-1419692437
  • La Bataille Du Discours, (in French) BookSurge 2008 ISBN 978-1439211434
• Сорвать заговор сионских мудрецов (Elders of Zion's conspiracy derailed, in Russian) Eksmo and Algoritm, Moscow 2010 ISBN 978-5-699-39520-0

Translations

• S.Y.Agnon, Collected Stories, Gesharim, Jerusalem 2004 ISBN 5-93273-148-6.
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), “Raduga”, Moscow, 2000 ISBN 5-05-005113-4.
• Herzog, Chaim (1982), The Arab-Israeli wars : War and peace in the Middle East, Random House, ISBN 9780394503790  republished Moscow 2004 ISBN 978-5-699-29953-9
• Abraham Zacuto, The Book of Lineage, 608 pages, Zacuto Foundation 2006; ISBN 1-4196-1893-8 English annotated translation of medieval Hebrew chronicles.

External links

• israelshamir.net The writings of Israel Shamir.
• Israel Shamir articles at Expert (Russian)