The Swiss official who ordered the arrest of renowned Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah justified doing so on the false and defamatory basis that Abunimah is “an Islamist Jew-hater.” Mario Fehr, the head of Zurich’s Department of Security, made the bogus accusation in a recent comment to the Swiss publication NZZ, which also falsely characterized Abunimah as an “Islamist” and an “extremist.”
Fehr explained the arrest by stating, in reference to self-described “non-religious person” Ali Abunimah: “We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland.”
It’s unclear how Fehr came to adopt this patently false claim, but the article in NZZ gives a hint. In painting the secular Abunimah as a jihadist, the story’s authors relied on a leader of a little-known group called “Never Again Is Now,” (NAIN) which characterizes itself as “the only non-profit organization in Switzerland dedicated exclusively to combating antisemitism,” says it “demands the uncompromising enforcement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism,” and claims: “we… defend Israel against anti-Zionist agendas.”
I’m not sure supporting genocide makes you an “activist”
I mean, I don’t like Abunimah and clashed with him on twitter before (I think it was on Syria). But calling him an “islamist” is just pure bigotry. Bullshit vilifying over-generalisation is why islamophobe fascists are on the rise in Europe. The term “islamist” has become utterly meaningless. “Oh, he is brown and I don’t like him? He is an ISLAMIST!”
Islamist is the new term to use when you want to be racist against brown people. It allows people to pretend they are attacking a culture instead of a race. Also the term Islamist has been heavily pushed by Zionist lobbies.
This Fehr guy has all the same talking points I’ve seen German politicians use as well. And that’s essentially across all relevant political parties.
For example, Interior minister Faeser called the Palästina-Kongress, which they shut down last year, and which was organized by secular left-wing groups and a Jewish group, “Islamist”. And the press loves to just repeat this stuff. And it’s great propaganda. The average German is afraid of Islamists, hates Muslims in general, and will applaud when the authorities suppress anyone labeled as such, and never look into if it’s actually true.
Foreign minister Baerbock claimed she personally saw, on video, evidence of rape on Oct 7, even though actual investigations by the UN and others have found no footage like that. She was being heckled at the time by pro-Palestine activists and just made that up, so it looks to an misinformed audience like they’re booing rape victims. And people believe this because the press never pushes back on these false claims.
Just straight up inventing blatant lies to cover for the genocide they’re committing. How tf can these people sleep at night?
Well, it’s not like Zionists with dual allegiances have worked their way into most governments… Oh wait, they have? Well okay then.
…and their message is pretty uniform: Criticism of Zionism is Antisemitic, and they’ll use their positions to prosecute that agenda.
The master race shall not be questioned!
One day I look forward to reading headlines where an asshole does something assholey and then gets the deserved karma for it.
Don’t strain your eyes there, Legolas. That day is yet far off.
