Friday, June 18, 2010
The Claire and Oken Orient Express
Claire is a novelist, Okan a documentary filmmaker. Both are courageous truth seekers and, in spite of the dangers, they recently confronted the IHH in their den with the following interview. In their words,
"We've had it with press coverage of this region that relies eternally on the same recycled handful of tired sources, uncritically repeats partisan propaganda, and sheds more heat than light. The coverage of the Mavi Marmara flotilla fiasco was the last straw: If this is a media war, we decided, someone needs to be shooting straight."
And shoot straight they did. Here's their interview with the "Free Gaza" coordinator and IHH representative, Ahmet Emin Dag. To get the full effect, it must be read in its entirety. It's Taqiyya 101:
Claire: Do you support Israel's right to exist?
Ahmet Bey: Our institutional perspective is that of the Palestinian people. That is, in the Oslo Accords, they agreed to a two-state solution.
Claire: The Hamas charter--and Hamas is part of the Palestinian people--calls for the complete destruction of Israel.
Ahmet Bey: Different groups can think differently, Islamic Jihad can think differently, Hamas can think differently, Jibril-
Claire: I asked what you felt.
Ahmet Bey: The people who govern Palestine and Gaza are in Ramallah, whatever they want to do, we're with them--
Claire: Do you think Israel has a right to exist?
Ahmet Bey: If the innocent Palestinian people want to live together with Israel, then anyone outside of Palestine does not have any right to think any other way. We can't be more Palestinian than the Palestinians. All we're trying to do is to help them.
Claire: I'm still not understanding. This is a pretty simple question. Do you, personally, think that Israel has a right to exist?
Ahmet Bey: According to international law, which is the United Nations decision 242, Israel and Palestinians and all the nations accept that the Israel state can exist. I go along with that. Whatever the Palestinian people want and have decided, I go along with that.
Claire: It doesn't sound like you have a lot of sympathy for the state of Israel though, since you're saying you'll go along with whatever the Palestinian people want. I'm just wondering: There are many charges that this is a very anti-Semitic group, that the IHH is an anti-Semitic group. Let's find out. Tell me, do you believe in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
Ahmet Bey: That's a cheap defense of Israel. They label everyone as anti-Semitic.
Claire: I'm not labeling you, I'm asking you.
Ahmet Bey: Israel is, Israel is. If you claim that the embargo is against international law, they label you as anti-Semitic. If Turkey defends the rights of their ten dead people on the boat, then all of a sudden Turkey's taken a different direction, they're becoming anti-Semitic, they're moving against the West. All these cheap accusations ...
Watch the VIDEO:
IHH Interview, Part 1 from NiMBUS PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.
Latest Photographic Evidence: IDF soldier wounded by "humanitarians" aboard the Mavi Marmara
