After the flotilla raid last week, Radikal, a Turkish daily, interviewed Roni Margulies, a Turkish Jewish intellectual famous for his anti-Zionism. Interviewer: Pinar Ogunc. (Translation provided by El Lonsico, and approved by Margulies):
…Do you feel a responsibility to speak in such situations?
I don’t think that the citizen to be consulted about the deeds of Israel has to be Jewish, as you also imply in your question. Expecting that a Jewish citizen will think differently from an Assyrian, Moslem or Zoroastrian citizen in the face of the savagery used by Israel is only a result of thinking that all Jews have a special relationship with Israel. I don’t have any relationship with Israel. As a result I sometimes get very upset when asked for my opinion. But again, I’m not stupid; I know what is expected and I can see why. Even though I get upset I do meet this situation with understanding.
…Even though we know your thoughts and feelings on Israeli policies, already expressed in speech and writing, does the need still arise to state again that you are "another kind of Jew"?
No, there is no such need because the newspapers or TV channels which call me know, more or less, what I am going to say. But yes, I do feel a responsibility. I think it’s good to remind readers and viewers: Not all Jews are Israelis, they do not even necessarily support Israel. In the West there is no particular need to do this because everybody is aware of it; there are many anti-Zionist Jews there, well known to the public. In Turkey, however, the border between enmity to Israel and enmity to Jews can sometimes get blurred; it becomes more urgent to redraw that border and make it appear clearly…
Did you think the method was, say, excessively agitational?
Of course the method is agitational. It’s one that will obviously attract a reaction by Israel. As it should. I don’t believe that there is a silent, calm, well-behaved way to deal with Israel. It doesn’t make sense to plead with Israel for anything. This action was internationalist, mass-oriented and humanist at the same time. Which is precisely why Israel’s unavoidable reaction showed the whole world just what kind of monster we are facing.
Could this movement become a turning point?
In my mind, the turning point was Israel’s aggression against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. During that summer World public opinion saw, for the first time, that Israel is not fighting against an army but a civilian population. It saw the iniquity of the war. It saw the savagery. Following that, the attack on Gaza in December 2008 was so blatantly directed against civilians that world opinion was shaken again, perhaps even reached a breaking point. You’ll remember that besides military targets in Gaza Israel utterly destroyed power and water supplies, schools and houses. As happened with the flotilla this week, Israel unmistakably attacked civilian, unarmed people conveying humanitarian help. There is no way to justify or defend this. Israel now says: "They attacked our soldiers first". Totally nonsensical propaganda. Can an attack by unarmed people justify killing ten, twenty? No one is swallowing Israeli propaganda anymore.
Did you ever think of being on that ship? Is this a kind of activism that you would choose?
Of course I thought about it. To tell the truth, I wasn’t really aware of it until the Israeli attack happened. If I had been asked to go, I would very probably have gone. When I heard about the aggression my first thought was "Why am I not on the ship?" This is a totally correct method of activism, one that I find very positive. What else can we do, anyway? Given that we cannot take up arms to fight on the side of the Palestinians, also given that it is not possible to defeat the Israeli state by military means, I can’t see a method that makes more sense. The whole world is discussing Israel’s barbarism today. The bill to pay for this was very high, nine lives, but the action was very successful on the whole….
Let’s say that a guy who uploaded a Hitler picture on Facebook five minutes after hearing the news; what would you say to him?
There are always crazies and fascists in every society. I don’t have anything to say to a jerk who links me to the actions of the State of Israel. Not a single attack, however, was noted against any Jewish citizen in Turkey. I hope that this healthy attitude continues. As I keep repeating, the most dangerous place for any Jew today is Israel, and Israel is a danger for Jews everywhere in the world
