By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
According to a report at the JTA:
A Norwegian rapper who cursed Jews while performing at an event in Oslo promoting multiculturalism will not be charged with hate speech because his words may have been criticism of Israel, prosecutors said.
Kaveh Kholardi said “f***ing Jews” on stage at an event last year for which he was hired by the city.
Tor-Aksel Busch, Norway’s director of public prosecutions — a title equivalent to attorney general – rejected legal action last week, the news site Document.no reported Sunday.
My thoughts on this.
Symbolic story: Want to understand how the “progressive” intersectionality actually is too often flirting with far-right hatred? Because under the guise of “multiculturalism” there is one group that is always singled out for hatred and in this case the authorities then not only pay for the hatred but also approve it legally.
Now, you’ll notice, that none of those anti-racism or progressive groups, those “allies” we hear about, came to say this is wrong or protest. None of them joined in the complaint, according to the report. Instead, unsurprisingly, they don’t condemn this.
This is symbolic of the same story, again and again, whether in the UK or US or France or other places. Far-right hate in some guises is too often given a big hug by the supposed “left” and “progressive” types under the imprimatur that there is always one minority group that doesn’t get the same protections and joint struggle against racism as the other groups.
It should be pointed out that there are very few Jews in Norway, so it is incumbent upon the supposed “left” to defend against racism and not allow this to happen. But instead what you will find again and again and again throughout Europe and the West is that when we hear about “anti-racism” values on the “left” they have systemically made it so that there is always a stamp of approval for the Farrakhans and others. Those far-right voices are always embraced.
And one needs to understand that in order to accomplish this, what they did was separate out antisemitism from racism and “Islamophobia”…so that antisemitism is seen as its own sui generis phenomenon, and then…instead of embracing the struggle against anti-semitism, what happens is that antisemitism gets hived off, forgotten or treated as its own, less important, issue. Otherwise you will see huge left wing protests against it, including those intersectional “allies”….but instead the “allies” are actually too often the ones pushing anti-semitism.
Instead of becoming a way to form a connection between various struggles, the “intersectional” concept enabled the alliance between the far-right antisemites and the “progressives” on the left…it opened the door and then showed the struggle against antisemitism another door and pushed it out.
And don’t tell me about “I’m against charging people with hate speech,” because it’s about more than that. It’s about protesting hate speech and having authorities not pay for it or give it a venue.
Seth J. Frantzman - author - analyst 