Some signs of the times

Harry's Place
May 12, 2006

"An extreme form of racism"

In Antwerp, yesterday:

A woman of African origin and a young white child in her care have been shot dead in the Belgian city of Antwerp by a suspected right-wing extremist.
Earlier a woman of Turkish descent was shot and injured as she sat reading a book on a bench in the city centre.

Police later intercepted the man, and shot and wounded him in the stomach after he refused to put down his gun.

The government has strongly condemned the attacks, describing them as an extreme form of racism.

Posted by david t at May 12, 2006 10:53 AM | TrackBack

Norman Geras (Normblog)
May 9, 2006

For being of the wrong kind

An Israeli woman was beaten up recently in Berlin by a group of young women. Why? For being an Israeli is why. Those fond of invoking the apartheid analogy in relation to Israel might like to put themselves to finding out how many white South Africans were assaulted on the streets of European cities during the apartheid era. (Thanks: CS.)

Posted by Norm at 04:29 PM | Permalink

--------------------
[P.S. One European correspondent replied to this item by Norman Geras:.

This strikes me as one of the more bizarre comments made on the question, a statement that would work quite well on the Bill O'Reilly show. Is this supposed to be a rehearsal?

To which I responded:

Speaking of bizarre comments, you have just provided one yourself. Look, I know that you loathe Israelis, and that you would like to pretend that pathological anti-Zionism doesn't exist (since you probably think it's justified), but you're not always quite so blatant and self-revealing about it.
Actually, Geras's question is quite pertinent. In case the reason isn't obvious, I'll spell it out. In terms of concrete ideological and socio-cultural analysis, this very common analogy (between hostility to apartheid-era South Africa and contemporary anti-Zionism) breaks down, because the two phenomena are actually quite different in character and consequences.
Cheers,
Jeff Weintraub]