David Sheen is a name you probably haven’t heard before, at least not the David Sheen who is a leading anti-Israel propagandist. Sheen, along with Max Blumenthal, travels the globe presenting a gross negative caricature of Israel worthy of 1930’s cartoons.
Sheen and Blumenthal were to present their anti-Israel campaign in the German Bundestag (parliament) until a left-wing German lawmaker, Gregor Gysi, objected (allegedly) on the grounds that the two were anti-Semitic. That objection reportedly almost got Sheen and Blumenthal disinvited, although they did end up giving their presentation.
Sheen and Blumenthal then chased the lawmaker down the hallway. Both men got in Gysi’s face, and Sheen tried to push his way into a bathroom as the lawmaker tried to shut the door.
Sheen, writing at the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, explained how it developed:
At the end of our presentations, Max called upon those assembled to join us and confront Gregor Gysi, and this call was applauded by many in the audience. A group of us then walked to his office, prepared to talk to him politely and explain the consequences of his cavalier political ploy. However, he refused to come out of his office and meet with us, even for a minute. When he finally emerged, he strode right past us at a brisk pace, and – well, you probably saw the rest – I followed him and demanded that he acknowledge responsibility for the repercussions that I would have to face as a result of his actions.
Sheen shot this video:
Someone else filmed from a different angle, starting with an initial confrontation (which appears to be outside Gysi’s office):
The confrontation has backfired on Blumenthal and Sheen both politically and in German media:
German Bundestag president Norbert Lammert initiated proceedings on Wednesday to ban two Israel critic publicists from re-entering Germany’s federal parliament building in Berlin.Multiple video footage of Monday’s incident showed the Canadian David Sheen in pursuit of Gysi in a corridor near his parliamentary office while accusing the veteran leftist politician of labeling him “anti-Semitic.”Gysi has since denied that he had described the two publicists as “anti-Semites.”Moments beforehand, Blumenthal, a pro-Palestinian US writer of Jewish origin, had accused German parliamentarians of remaining silent on the fate of Palestinians and of trying to “crush” the voices of “dissidents” such as Sheen.Sheen, who has lived for some years in Israel, and Blumenthal had been invited into parliament’s bureau zone by three members of Gysi’s own Left party caucus.Lammert, who is the Bundestag’s president, or speaker, said “any attempt” to exert bodily or psychological pressure on parliamentarians and thereby endanger them in their carrying out of parliamentary duties was “unacceptable.”
Researcher Nurit Baytch has documented many of the distortions spread by Sheen and Blumenthal, as have others. Blumenthal’s latest book has been termed by liberal professor and author Eric Alterman as The I Hate Israel Handbook.
I previously wrote how Blumenthal approved of a photoshop spread on Twitter showing the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, giving birth to Hitler:
This is the type of stuff that incites hatred of Jews. It is the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism.
It is no surprise that in anti-Semitic riots last summer in Europe and elsewhere, the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism were indistinguishable. It’s why Jews in many European cities have to hide their Jewish identities for fear of attack in the name of anti-Zionism.
I think it’s interesting that Sheen and Blumenthal worry about potential threats to them from being labeled anti-Semitic, but don’t seem concerned about threats to Jews everywhere, particularly in Europe and Israel, from the type of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish propaganda spread by Sheen, Blumenthal and others.
Update: The Brandeis Center has more on the incident and political / media reaction in Germany, Max Blumenthal Brings the BDS War to Berlin. Also see CAMERA, How David Sheen Lies About Israel.
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[Featured Image Source: David Sheen YouTube]
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