Uri Davis Doesn't Like Zionists

Uri Davis is an enemy of Zionism. No, this is not my opinion - it is his.

Israel Academic Monitor has distributed this e mail corrrespondence as proof.

Necessary background to the Teddy Katz Affair is that he wrote a MA thesis on a supposed Hagana massacre of Arabs in 1948 but it was found to be based on false research techniques, besides downright lying and fibbing. Ilan Pappe thinks differently, of course. Oh, Katz received research funds for the PLO for his project.

Anway, this letter speaks for Uri Davis famously:-

From: Uri Davis

CC: ALEF
Subject: Re: [alef] RE: Condolences
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 23:27:22 +0200

Dear Teddy,

In order to defeat the likes of Tuvia Blumenthal, despicable apologists for the crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by political Zionism and the various instruments of the State of Israel it is necessary to call a spade a spade.

The late Faysal al-Husayni was not only a "good friend" whose humanity was much superior to those of your/our detractors - but a senior member of the FATH, who, in the wake of the 1993 Oslo accords, was also co-opted as a member of the PLO Executive Committee. You have every reason to take pride in receiving moral and financial support from Faysal al-Husayni, both in his personal capacity as well as in his political capacities. An attempt to ignore or underplay the political implications of this support does injustice to all parties concerned.

You did not just "sign, by mistake, at midnight, a paper saying I didn't have enough materials, to prove that that massacre did happened". On 19 December 2000, under tremendous family pressure and in deteriorating health (fearful of a relapse of the stroke you suffered from a year before when the story of the hit the press), you also allowed yourself the failure of being convinced to enter the negotiating room and face the legal representatives of the Alexandroni Brigade without your defence lawyers Avigdor Feldman, Hasan Jabarin and Orna Cohen present. It was in their absence that you signed a false apology which includes a denial the the Tantutra massacre had taken place.

I actually believe that the root cause of your failure was not primarily the fear of relapse of your medical condition, but rather your affiliation to MERETZ.

In the apology you signed you gave the Zionist and Israeli war criminals and the perpetrators of crimes against humanity the sentence they were after:

"I did not mean to say that there was a massacre in Tantura, and also today I say that there was no massacre in Tantura. I believe the Alexandroni people who have wholly and completely denied that a massacre in Tantura took place, and I retract every conclusion that may be implied from my [MA] Dissertation regarding the occurrence of the massacre or regarding the killing of unarmed and defenceless people."

You will have to bear the cross of this false apology and your said failure for the rest of your life.

Only if you do not try and make excuses for, or downplay the enormity of this failure will you be able to maintain your dignity.

You quite rightly point out that the real truth of what happened in 1948, exactly like the truth of nowadays, is stronger than all of the lot of the likes of Tuvia Blumenthal; that the latter lot will learn their lesson, willing or otherwise, very soon; and that with time, and sooner rather than later, the whole truth will be revealed.

You clearly deserve salute for your achievements, Teddy. But the whole truth also incorporates our owning up to, rather than downplaying, our failures.

In solidarity

Uri

Uri Davis (Dr)
P O Box 99
Sakhnin 20173
Israel

Cellular: 00 972 54 452 3838
Fax: 00 972 4 674 7028 & 08 924 8940
Tel: 00 972 4 674 7016

I am a member of IAM's board.