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Israel Shamir

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Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir (Russian: Исраэль Шамир, [jɪsrɐˈɛlʲ ʂɐˈmʲir]; born 1947 or 1948),[1] also known by the names Robert David,[2] Vassili Krasevsky,[citation needed] Jöran Jermas[3][4] and Adam Ermash,[3] is a Swedish writer and journalist, known for his ties to WikiLeaks and for promoting antisemitism[5] and Holocaust denial.[6][7][8][9] His son Johannes Wahlström is a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Sweden.[10][11]

Shamir has published or self-published a number of his books; his book Flowers of Galilee (2004) was banned for a time in France over allegations it was inciting racial hatred and antisemitism.

Background and personal life

Shamir says that he was born in a Jewish family in Russia, and converted to Orthodox Christianity.[4][10][12][13] By his own account, his birth name was Izrail Schmerler.[10][14] Shamir says that he was born in Novosibirsk, Siberia, in 1947, although the Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia says that a man called Schmerler was born in 1948.[14] Shamir says that he "studied mathematics and law at Novosibirsk University". He also says he moved to Israel in 1969.[10] He claimed to have served in the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade and fought in the Yom Kippur War. He also claimed to have worked for the BBC and to have translated the works of Shai Agnon from Hebrew into Russian.[15] Norman Finkelstein told Tablet that Shamir is a "maniac" who "has invented his entire personal history. Nothing he says about himself is true".[16]

Searchlight describes him as a "Swedish anti-semite",[17] and says that he was registered in Sweden in 1984 and gained Swedish citizenship in 1992.[10] Shamir says he left Sweden for Russia and then Israel in 1993, before returning in 1998, saying that he had remarried in Israel in July 1994.[17] However, others argue that Swedish files show that he was married in Sweden.[18] 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 pen name.[10]

Career

Shamir says that he went to Russia and wrote about the political changes in the country until 1993, for newspapers including Pravda and the extreme nationalist Zavtra.[19]

The French edition of Shamir's Flowers of Galilee was originally co-published in October 2003 by Éditions Blanche and Éditions Balland. It was withdrawn from sale at the end of October after Balland's director had his attention drawn to the content of the book, which he considered anti-semitic.[20][21] The book was republished in 2004 by the French Islamist Éditions Al-Qalam company, which led to 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.[22][23] The ban was overturned on appeal, and the fine reduced.[citation needed]

In 2005, Shamir was featured as a speaker in the "Zionism As the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" conference co-chaired by David Duke in Ukraine, and sponsored by the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management which has been associated with antisemitic discourse in Eastern Europe.[24][25]

Allegations of antisemitism and Holocaust denial

According to the scholar of antisemitism Henrik Bachner [sv], Shamir borrows from neo-Nazi terminology when describing an alleged "Zionist" conspiracy to bring about the Iraq War. Bachner has said that Shamir's writing would have been of little interest had they been published only on his website, however, Flowers of Galilee was issued by a respected publisher and promoted by parts of the left in Sweden. The book was recommended by former Swedish MP Evert Svensson and promoted by The Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden which also engaged Shamir as speaker.[26] In Cabbala of Power, Shamir writes: "The Jewish 'plan' is no secret; there is no need to re-read The Protocols or to ask Jews what they want."[16]

Henrik Bachner, described Shamir's online outlet as "a multilingual website in which Jewish conspiracies are brought forward as an explanation for both historical and contemporary world events".[27] Stephen Pollard reported in The Times in 2005 that it included such statements as "Jews asked God to kill, destroy, humiliate, exterminate, defame, starve, impale Christians, to usher in Divine Vengeance and to cover God’s mantle with blood of goyim."[28] The Anti-Defamation League reported in 2006 that Shamir had written on his website of "accumulating evidence of Israeli Connection" for 9/11 and wrote of the United States and Israel creating the attacks to carry out anti-Muslim policies.[12] He had expressed his belief in the "blood libel" on his website.[4]

In 2004, Searchlight wrote about his connections to antisemitic publications and groups,[17] and the campaign Hope not Hate has listed Shamir as a "notable Holocaust denier," citing the "rabid Holocaust denial material" on his website.[29] At an event at the British Houses of Parliament in 2005, Shamir claimed "Jews indeed own, control and edit a big share of mass media" and said US foreign policy in the Middle East was a "fight for ensuring Jewish supremacy".[28][30]

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."[31]

In December 2010, Shamir's connection with WikiLeaks brought him more public attention. Katha Pollitt, writing in The Nation in December 2010, described 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."[32]

In early 2011, David Leigh and Luke Harding, writing in The Guardian, described Shamir as being "notorious for Holocaust denial and publishing a string of antisemitic articles."[33] The Jerusalem Post called him "an avowed Holocaust-denier" who said of the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust that it "proved that the Holocaust dogma is a basic tenet in the great world-embracing brainwashing machine of mass media".[34] Shamir denied the accusation of Holocaust denial in an article for CounterPunch, writing that his family "lost too many of its sons and daughters for me to deny the facts of Jewish tragedy" but that he denies "the morbid cult of Holocaust".[35] In his 2011 Tablet interview, Shamir referred to "perceptions during the war" of Auschwitz as a "quite awful deportation camp" whereas "after the war, different perception came. And that was a perception of mass annihilation, and mass murder, and all that."[36] Asked which "perception" was true, Shamir said he had no interest in the subject. When asked if the concentration camps were used for mass murder, he responded by saying he had "no knowledge about it at all" and rejected "the idea that it is important."[36]

Association with WikiLeaks

Shamir is a vocal backer of the WikiLeaks organization[37] and has described his relation with WikiLeaks as being "a freelancer who was 'accredited' to WikiLeaks".[38] According to The Guardian, he invoiced WikiLeaks for €2,000 for "journalism".[39] Shamir's son Johannes Wahlström is a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Sweden.[10][11]

In a 2010 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".[11] In an article by Andrew Brown published in The Guardian during December 2010 Hrafnsson was quoted as saying Shamir was WikiLeaks representative in Russia.[40][41] By February 2011, former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg said WikiLeaks' ties to Shamir were among the reasons he quit the organization.[42] He described Shamir as a "famous Holocaust denier and anti-Semite."[43] By May 2011, a statement had appeared on the WikiLeaks website that Shamir had "never worked or volunteered for WikiLeaks, in any manner, whatsoever. He has never written for WikiLeaks or any associated organization, under any name and we have no plan that he do so."[16] James Ball wrote in 2013 he was aware the organization's later denial of its connections to Shamir were untrue because Julian Assange had instructed him to give Shamir 90,000 US cables.[44]

According to the Associated Press, leaked documents from WikiLeaks include an unsigned letter from Julian Assange authorising Israel Shamir to seek a Russian visa on his behalf in 2010. WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for the visa or wrote the letter.[45] According to the New York Times, Russia issued Assange the visa in January 2011.[46] Israel Shamir was the original source for some conspiracy theories about Swedish allegations against Assange.[32]

Diplomatic cables

In an article published by the CounterPunch website in December 2010, Shamir praised the Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko and said WikiLeaks had exposed America's "agents" in the country.[47] Shamir has been reported to have passed "sensitive cables" to the Lukashenko government.[48] He is believed to have visited Belarus in December 2010 and to have given Vladimir Makei, then Lukashenko's chief of staff, unpublished and unredacted US diplomatic cables.[47]

Former WikiLeaks staff member James Ball wrote in The Sunday Times that Index on Censorship contacted him less than a fortnight after Shamir left WikiLeaks headquarters (then in Norfolk) with a photograph of Shamir leaving the Belarus interior ministry. According to Ball, soon afterwards Lukashenko announced a Belarusian WikiLeaks would be released to show opposition leaders in the country were on the American payroll and thus effectively grounds for their arrest.[49][50] Index on Censorship later expressed concern that such a development could physically endanger Lukashenko's political opponents. WikiLeaks responded that "We have no further reports on this 'rumour/issue'", although another WikiLeaks representative called Shamir's alleged leaks "obviously unapproved."[51]

Russian Reporter claimed it had "privileged access" to the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak via Shamir.[11] Soviet Belarus, a state-run newspaper began publishing what it claimed were WikiLeaks cables given to Lukashenko by Shamir in January 2011.[52] A request from Shamir, according to Ball, was for all cables relating to "the Jews"; it was refused.[53] Elsewhere, Shamir claimed to have received "thousands of cables about the Jews."[16] Ball said that a Russian reporter wrote WikiLeaks saying that Shamir was answering requests for access to cables about Russia with requests for money, saying they couldn't look through the cables themselves.[54]

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.[41][55][38] Shamir has denied this accusation,[38] though he has described Ahmadinejad as being a "brave and charismatic leader" on his website.[4]

In 2011, Shamir posted unredacted copies of diplomatic cables dealing with former Soviet states that hinted at the names of State Department sources that The Guardian and WikiLeaks had redacted.[56][57] When asked why he published the unredacted cables, possibly putting the sources at risk, Shamir said "Handing confidential and secret information to everybody is the thing of Wikileaks. That’s what it is about. Your question is like asking police why they catch thieves. That is what they are for."[58]

References

  1. ^ Palestine my love:A Plea for Palestine and Israel - together in the holy land. Israel Shamir. 2009. ISBN 9783837031270. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  2. ^ Rossman, Vadim Joseph (2002-01-01). Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-3948-7. Archived from the original on 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  3. ^ a b Assange's Extremist Employees Archived 2010-12-16 at the Wayback MachineReason Magazine, Michael C. Moynihan | December 14, 2010
  4. ^ a b c d Lipman, Jennifer (15 November 2010). "Antisemitic 'Holocaust denier' in charge of WikiLeaks Russian distribution". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  5. ^ Ravid, Mathan. "At Issue: Antiracism for Anti-Jewish Purposes?: Reflections on the Swedish" Mana" Affair." Jewish Political Studies Review (2010): 75-84. Archived 2023-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, quote: Still another is the internationally infamous anti-Semite Israel Shamir, whom Mana published on its website in 2003. His article hinted, among other things, that Jews were responsible for establishing and administrating the Gulag Archipelago, and claimed that a settlement in the West Bank was a bulwark for "Nazified Jewish faith." The arguments were enhanced with descriptions of famous mythic or real Jews in such terms as "Shylock the loan shark" or "the-pay-while you-cry-Holocaust-sobster" for Elie Wiesel.25
  6. ^ Leigh, David; Harding, Luke (31 January 2011). "Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables". The Guardian. London. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2021. He [Shamir] is notorious for Holocaust denial and publishing a string of antisemitic articles.
  7. ^ British lord joins UK Islamists in praising Erdogan Archived 2013-04-02 at the Wayback Machine Jonny Paul, The Jerusalem Post, 11 February 2009
  8. ^ Olbermann, Assange, and the Holocaust Denier Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback MachineReason Magazine, Michael C. Moynihan | 7 December 2010
  9. ^ Holocaust and Genocide Denial: A Contextual Perspective Archived 2023-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, Routledge, chapter by: Nicholas Terry, page 47, quote: " the few equally rare Jewish Holocaust deniers or 'fellow travellers', such as Paul Eisen,80 Israel Shamir and Gilad Atzmon, many associated with Deir Yassin Remembered.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Magnus Ljunggren. "Pappas pojke?". Expressen. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d Moynihan, Michael C. (14 December 2010). "Assange's Extremist Employees". Reason. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  12. ^ a b "9/11 Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Still Abound". Anti-Defamation League. 7 September 2006. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013.
  13. ^ "Ukraine University of Hate". Anti-Defamation League. 3 November 2006. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013.
  14. ^ a b "The Soviet Union. Jews in the Soviet Union in 1967-85's". Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  15. ^ "'WikiLeaks employs Israeli-Swedish Holocaust-denier'". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 17 December 2010. Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  16. ^ a b c d Yakowicz, Will (16 May 2011). "His Jewish Problem (part 1)". Tablet. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  17. ^ a b c Tor Bach, et al, Searchlight, "Israeli writer is Swedish anti-Semite" May 2004
  18. ^ "Israel Shamir exposed! A fake or a plant? - UK Indymedia". www.indymedia.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  19. ^ (in German) Ludwig Watzal, 10 February 2006, Der Freitag, Der Journalist und das "Imperium"
  20. ^ (in French), Gilles Karmasyn, Pratique de l’histoire et dévoiements négationnistes (PHDN), 10 November 2003, Israël Shamir, un antisémite dans le texte... Archived 2024-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Israel Shamir, israelshamir.net, 451 °F Archived 2023-11-19 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ quibla.net, 3 November 2005, A book to be burned: The other face of Israel, Israel Adam Shamir Archived 2007-11-12 at the Wayback Machine, reproducing an Agence France-Presse newswire of 2 November 2005.
  23. ^ Politics and Resentment: Antisemitism and Counter-Cosmopolitanism in the European Union Archived 2023-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, Brill, 2011, chapter by Jean-Yves Camus, pages 281-282
  24. ^ "David Duke participates in anti-Semitic conference in the Ukraine". Adl.org. June 30, 2005. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
  25. ^ Wright, Stuart A. "Strategic framing of racial-nationalism in North America and Europe: An analysis of a burgeoning transnational network." Terrorism and Political Violence 21.2 (2009): 189-210. quote: In June 2005, Duke co-chaired a conference named ‘‘Zionism as the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization’’ in the Ukraine, sponsored by the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP). MAUP has been identified by human rights organizations as a harbinger of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. The conference was attended by several notable Ukrainian politicians and public figures, and featured writer Israel Shamir, a well-known anti-Semite with close ties to Horst Mahler.
  26. ^ Politics and Resentment: Antisemitism and Counter-Cosmopolitanism in the European Union Archived 2023-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, Brill, 2011, chapter by Henrik Bachner, pp. 339-340
  27. ^ "Bachner, Henrik. "Notions of Jewish Power, Manipu-lation and Conspiracies in Contem-porary Antisemitism in Sweden." Proceedings: Antisemitism in Europe Today: The Phenomena, the Conflicts (2013): 1-7" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  28. ^ a b Pollard, Stephen (7 April 2005). "Lord Ahmed's unwelcome guest". The Times. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011.
  29. ^ Hope not Hate (November 2010). "'At the Centre of the Web'". Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  30. ^ Sugarman, Daniel (17 April 2019). "Julian Assange's antisemitic past resurfaces after his arrest". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 24 May 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  31. ^ Deutsche Welle, "Iran's Holocaust Conference Plan Prompts Anger". December 6, 2006. Archived from the original on March 15, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  32. ^ a b Katha Pollitt (22 December 2010). "The Case of Julius Assange". The Nation. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  33. ^ The Guardian, Leigh, David; Harding, Luke (31 January 2011). "Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  34. ^ Hartman, Ben (2010-12-17). "'WikiLeaks employs Israeli-Swedish Holocaust-denier'". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  35. ^ Israel Shamir "BBC Joins Smear Campaign Against Assange and Wikileaks" Archived 23 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, CounterPunch, 1 February 2011
  36. ^ a b Yakowitz, Will (17 May 2011). "His Jewish Problem (part 2)". Tablet. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  37. ^ Shamir, Israel. "News of the Site". Archived from the original on 15 May 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2010. Israel Shamir supports Wikileaks, agrees with its ideas and admires its head, Julian Assange.
  38. ^ a b c von Twickel, Nikolaus (10 December 2010). "Putin Bristles Over Leaked U.S. Cables". The Moscow Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  39. ^ Leigh, David; Harding, Luke (2011-01-31). "Holocaust denier in charge of handling Moscow cables". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
  40. ^ Brown, Andrew (17 December 2010). "WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  41. ^ a b Tiku, Nitasha (14 December 2011). "WikiLeaks May Employ an Anti-Semitic Holocaust Denier". New York. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  42. ^ "Former Assange cohort says WikiLeaks is broken". The Local. 10 February 2011. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2011. Domscheit-Berg also said Assange had worrying ties to people of dubious character, such as the Sweden-based Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, whom Assange allegedly wanted to let work with WikiLeaks under a false name so as to not attract unwanted attention.
  43. ^ "Anti-Assange book sparks WikiLeaks war of words". Agence France Presse. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  44. ^ Ball, James (11 July 2017) [30 May 2013]. "Exclusive: Former WikiLeaks Employee James Ball Describes Working With Julian Assange". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  45. ^ "AP Exclusive: WikiLeaks files expose group's inner workings". AP NEWS. 20 April 2021. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  46. ^ Becker, Jo; Erlanger, Steven; Schmitt, Eric (2016-08-31). "How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West's Secrets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  47. ^ a b Komireddi, Kapil. "Wikitargetted". Tablet. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  48. ^ Harding, Luke (24 December 2010). "Julian Assange: my fate will rest in Cameron's hands if US charges me". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 February 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  49. ^ Ball, James (14 April 2019). "Julian Assange is the architect of his own downfall". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.(subscription required)
  50. ^ Ball, James (10 January 2021). "Julian Assange is no hero. I should know — I lived with him and his awful gang". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.(subscription required)
  51. ^ "Wikileaks, Belarus, and Israel Shamir". Index on Censorship. 5 February 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  52. ^ Komireddi, Kapil (1 March 2012). "Julian Assange and Europe's Last Dictator, Alexander Lukashenko". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  53. ^ Ball, James (8 November 2011). "Israel Shamir and Julian Assange's cult of machismo". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  54. ^ Ball, James (23 October 2016). "Inside The Strange, Paranoid World Of Julian Assange". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  55. ^ Moynihan, Michael (2010-12-14). "Assange's Extremist Employees". Reason.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-29. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  56. ^ "Israel Shamir: The Guardian's Political Censorship of Wikileaks". Archived from the original on 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  57. ^ Ungerleider, Neal (2011-01-12). "Unredacted WikiLeaks Cables Leaked to Internet". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2022-08-05. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  58. ^ Ungerleider, Neal (2011-01-14). "The Newest WikiLeaks Problem: Unredacted Cables". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2022-08-05. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
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