CLAIM: Oxfam Exec delighted: “Now
The Jews Are Going To Get It!” On Eve Of ’67 War
by Douglas Davis 19 Feb 2014
After all the gossip and speculation it’s
time to come clean: Scarlett Johansson and I are more than just good friends.
Much, much more. Yes, we have shared moments of intimacy – not, alas, together,
or even at the same time.
But we are both alumni of Oxfam, that billion-dollar arbiter of humanitarian aid,
political profundity and universal morality. It doesn’t matter that we
graduated almost half a century apart. It doesn’t even matter that we’ve never
actually met. Or that she doesn’t know I exist. We have both shared the Oxfam
Moment.
Last month, Oxfam announced that Scarlett Johansson’s support for an Israeli company
operating in a Jewish settlement was incompatible with her continued role as an
Oxfam Ambassador. She was faced with a stark choice: continue her association
with Oxfam or support SodaStream, the Israeli fizzy drink manufacturer in
Mishor Adumim, just across the Green Line. Ms Johansson chose SodaStream.
In a statement, the Hollywood
actress declared that she and Oxfam have “a fundamental difference of opinion
in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement”. She was, she
added, “very proud of her accomplishments and fund-raising efforts during her
tenure with Oxfam”.
SodaStream employs about 500 Palestinians
alongside a similar number of Jewish employees. The Palestinians, who support
an estimated 10 family members each, are employed on the basis of equal pay,
social benefits, opportunities and rights with their Jewish colleagues.
In a debate on Newsnight, the BBC’s
flagship current affairs programme, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum insisted
that his company was not in the business of financing settlements. On the
contrary, he said, “we are part of the Palestinian economy”, where unemployment
is running at about 40 per cent. Moreover, the company had been operating in
the territories for 17 years. “And the inconvenient truth,” he added, “is that
we are operating with the agreement of the Palestinian Authority.”
But Ben Phillips, the policy director of
Oxfam, was unmoved: ‘This is not about SodaStream or celebrities. It’s about
settlements, which impoverish the Palestinian people.” SodaStream must go, he
said, even if that means plunging 500 Palestinians into unemployment and 5,000
into poverty. Stalin would have been proud. As far as Oxfam is concerned, it
seems, Palestine can only be Palestine when it is judenrein. Now haven’t
we heard that before?
When I arrived in London,
a deracinated refugee from apartheid South Africa, poor in cash but rich
in far-left ideology, I was ripe for a job at Oxfam. I moved to Oxford and settled into
Oxfam’s one-person press office, effectively the spokesman of the organisation.
Religious primitivism was not on the agenda of radical progressives like me. It
helped that I did not think of myself as a Jew, and no one else did either.
My South African credentials offered
instant access to far-left circles in Oxford,
but it bothered me that my new-found comrades, mostly at the university,
liberally peppered our conversations with casual, gratuitous anti-Semitism. The
Jews, it seemed, were at the root of the world’s ills.
But my Oxfam Moment came one summer’s
evening when a senior Oxfam executive invited me to dinner at his sumptuous
home in the rolling Oxfordshire countryside. He was cultured, brilliant and
cool. Every inch the top Foreign Office diplomat, which had indeed been his
previous calling. Before dinner, he suggested we take drinks on the lawn. As an
afterthought, he asked the butler to bring out his portable radio so that we
could listen to the news. It was, after all, the first day of the Six Day War.
The BBC faithfully reported claims by the
Israelis that they had destroyed the air forces of Egypt
and Syria
on the ground. Then, the newsreader intoned the Arab claims that they had
inflicted extensive damage on the Israeli army; that Egyptian tanks were
advancing; that they were now 25 kilometres from Tel Aviv.
My urbane host lost his cultivated cool.
His elderly body shot into the air, fists pumping at the skies: ‘Now the Jews
are going to get it... Now they’re going to get it.’ Remember, Israel occupied
no territories, nor had it constructed a single settlement. There could be only
one explanation for his jubilation: the prospect of Israel’s imminent destruction. When
he recovered his composure, he raised his glass and beamed at me: ‘Wonderful
news. Simply wonderful.’ I stared back, shocked, not knowing how to respond. To
my shame, I said nothing.
His reaction was more or less typical of
the culture I encountered among the loony left, which perceived Jews as
arrogant and pushy, while it regarded determined Palestinian displacement as
principled and heroic. My own displacement – from the far-left and Oxfam – was
now more or less complete.
But the madness of the Sixties never went
away. On the contrary, it triumphed. The past half-century has witnessed
Europe’s traditional sources of authority – political and church leaders – in
full retreat, ceding the moral high ground to bunch of unelected, unaccountable
NGOs, like Oxfam, which place themselves on the side of the angels. They set
the agenda now.
I doubt whether Oxfam would have been much
exercised if SodaStream was owned by, say, Jordanians, Egyptians or Saudis.
Rather, I believe, they have chosen to invest a large chunk of their resources
in advocating a boycott of the company because it is Jewish. Haven’t we heard that before, too?
Oxfam
Scarlett
Johansson is the spokesperson for SodaStream, and
was a global ambassador for Oxfam International.
Note: Gael
Garcia Bernal is a global ambassador for Oxfam
International, and a William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment client.
Peter
Gabriel is a William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
client, and a co-founder for The Elders.
Desmond
Tutu is an honorary elder for The Elders, and
a global ambassador for Oxfam International.
Ari Emanuel
is the co-CEO & director for William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment, Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother, and was a trustee at the American Film Institute.
Taylor
Hackford is a trustee at the American Film Institute,
and married to Helen Mirren.
Helen Mirren
is married to Taylor Hackford, and a global
ambassador for Oxfam International.
Daniel
R. Glickman was a trustee at the American Film Institute,
and is a director at Oxfam America.
Oxfam
America is an American affiliate of Oxfam International.
Helena
Christensen is a global ambassador for Oxfam International,
and attended Harvey Weinstein’s 12/07 wedding.
Harvey
Weinstein’s wedding was 12/07, and is a director
at the Robin Hood Foundation.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Robin Hood
Foundation, the Center for American
Progress, the Aspen Institute (think
tank), Demos, and the Millennium Promise.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, and a supporter for the Center for
American Progress.
Michael
R. Bloomberg was a donor at the Robin Hood Foundation,
is an advocate for the ONE Campaign,
and the founder of the Bloomberg Family
Foundation.
ONE
Campaign is a partner with Oxfam America.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the CDC Foundation.
James W.
Down is a board member for the CDC Foundation,
and a director at Oxfam America.
Oxfam
America is an American affiliate of Oxfam International.
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for Oxfam
America, the Center for American
Progress, the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Gayle E.
Smith is a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, the chief of staff for the U.S. Agency
for International Development, and a director at Oxfam America.
Daniel
R. Glickman is a director, Congressional Program for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a director at Oxfam America.
Gina Glantz
is a trustee at Demos, and a director at Oxfam America.
ONE
Campaign is a partner with Oxfam America,
and Habitat for Humanity International.
Michelle
Obama is an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Jimmy Carter
was a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
International, an honorary co-chairman for the Millennium
Promise, and is a member of The Elders.
Desmond
Tutu is an honorary elder for The Elders, and
a global ambassador for Oxfam International.
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