Israeli Jews characterized as Nazis on the ‘Air Flotilla 2’ Facebook account

A guest post by Hadar Sela

As mentioned in the recent CiF Watch report on the upcoming ‘Air Flotilla 2’ – otherwise known as ‘Welcome to Palestine’ – the initiative is supported by a plethora of groups from the United Kingdom, all of which are defined by their supposed ‘solidarity’ with the Palestinian cause as a raison d’etre. One of those groups is the Swansea Palestine Community Linkfrom South Wales.  

Members of that group are no strangers to the ‘flytilla’ concept, with several of them having taken part in the abortive 2011 provocation. As reported by CiF Watch at the time:

Joyce Irene Giblin of Newport represented (unsuccessfully) the Socialist Labour Party in the 2011 elections to the Welsh Assembly.  She is a member of ‘Swansea Action for Palestine’ and appears to support just about every anti-Israel outfit going, including ‘Jews against the Occupation’, Viva Palestina, the ECESG and the ISM. Here she is with her fellow flag-loving Newport resident. 

Joyce Giblin (left) and Pippa Bartolotti (right).

Also from Wales come the last two members of the British delegation to the ‘flytilla’: 46 year-old Swansea council worker Fiona Williams from Mumbles who is also involved in Swansea Action for Palestine and 56 year-old book-keeper Dee Murphy from Swansea who is a founder of the Swansea-Palestine Community Link.

Dee Murphy (left) and Fiona Williams (right)

Ms. Murphy seems to make quite a hobby out of getting herself arrested; she is half of what is apparently known as ‘the Tesco two’ and spent eight days in custody following a January 2009 incident in a local supermarket.

“The Tesco 2 are Dee Murphy and Greg Wilkinson who kicked off a campaign to boycott Israeli goods by going into their local Tesco store, filling a trolley with dates produced on illegal Zionist settlements on the West Bank, taking them out without paying, tipping the dates on the ground and spraying them with red dye, then waiting for the police to arrest them.”

Here is Dee Murphy explaining her actions at the time, prior to being arrested: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f729KqURQc4]

Less than a month before that incident, Dee Murphy had super-glued herself to the entrance barriers at BBC Wales in Cardiff. Her fellow ‘flytilla’ memberFiona Williams told the press at the time that the reason for the action was that the BBC’s coverage of Operation Cast Lead was “pro-Israeli”.

“Hamas is referred to as a militant organisation, rather than the democratically elected government, having been elected by a huge majority.”

“The settlements in the West Bank should be referred to as illegal, the Israeli Defence Force as the Israeli Army, and the separation barrier as the apartheid wall.”

Here is Dee Murphy once again.

“So yes, they are shooting rockets into Israel, but these are an occupied people! And we all have the right to defend ourselves.” 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vPh8v69a_MM]

There is, however, a less quaintly eccentric side to these women, as can be seen in the casual (and apparently unremarkable) use of Nazi analogies on the ‘Welcome to Palestine’ Facebook wall. 

Whilst the majority of people might find it distinctly worrying that those who inhabit this echo-chamber can apparently see no fault in invoking antisemitic Nazi analogies as “legitimate criticism” and yet in the next breath declare themselves to be the victims of “spurious smear campaigns”, it is also worth remembering that they apparently have no criticism of their revered co-activist and local minor celeb  who sees nothing wrong in posing with of an existing Nazi party or withwho clearly state their genocidal aspirations.  

Pippa Bartolotti in Syria – posing with the flag of the SSNP
Pippa Bartolotti in Gaza – posing with Hamas’ Mahmoud al Zahar

Finally, a clue as to why Ms. Giblin sprang to the defense of Bartolotti in the above thread can be found on her list of friends displayed on her Facebook page:

(Note to Ms. Giblin: You may want to change your Facebook security settings!)

What the ladies of the Swansea Palestine Action Link obviously do not appreciate is that there is neither need nor intention to “smear” them. That, they are doing very effectively by themselves. 

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