Johan Galtung finds Gaza 'a replay of the Warsaw ghetto'

The Russel Tribunal for Palestine is supported by among other Ilan Pappe, Ken Loach and John Pilger. There is also a Norwegian onboard, Mr. Johan Galtung – above behind the rostrum at what appears to be a Turkish university. Below you see a section from a transcript from his lecture, where Mr.Galtung identifies Israel’s policies as a “replay of the Warsaw ghetto“. Mr. Galtung states that this is “psychologically easy to understand“.

One may glean a modest measure of Mr.Galtung’s wisdom by studying this section in Norwegian daily Aftenposten, where the academic suggests how to solve a number of problems: Issues related to Israel are best solved at a Munich-type conference where the USA may participate only as an observer, the West may best seek its peace with the Islamists by apologizing for the crusades, WWII was mainly caused by the unfairness of the Versailles treaty, etc.

“Trondheim is GALTUNGLAND”

In November in 2009 the international academic community pleaded with Norwegian University NTNU (in Trondheim) that they not boycott Israel. At the time, a knowledgable Canadian remarked on the SPME’s counter-boycott call:” Trondheim is GALTUNGLAND“.

If only Mr.Galtung was alone. Yet he is not the only starry-eyed dreamer seeking solutions to problems far beyond his means of understanding – there is an entire host of people like him out and about. As Robin Shephard correctly points out in his book “A nation beyond the Pale”, standing up to people like Mr.Galtung has less to do with Israel than it has with the soul of Europe. What sort of nations are we, what are our values, and what are we willing to sacrifice in order to keep them?