The NY Daily News reports:
Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron is denouncing the Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla “a clear act of piracy and terrorism.”
Commenting to City Hall reporter Frank Lombardi yesterday, Barron also assailed the long-running blockade by Israel (and Egypt) of the Gaza Strip, likening it to setting up “a concentration death camp.”
Barron, who has often criticized Israel over its handling of Palestine, visited the Gaza Strip last July as part of a relief mission with other activists. He called on President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce both the attack on the Gaza flotilla and demand the lifting of the blockade.
Here’s how he put it:
“Israel is out of control. They’re off the hook, they’re out of line; and Barack Obama has to stand strong and so do does Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, to say that this kind of aggressive, terroristic behavior and act of piracy will not be tolerated and the blockade should be lifted immediately, immediately. There’s too many children and women and innocent men of Gaza dying because you’re isolating them and not allowing anything in. It’s like having a concentration death camp. It’s horrible, and the whole world is and should be outraged.”
Questioned if he was likening the situation in Gaza to Holocaust concentration camps, Barron persisted:
“Well, that’s what’s happening. You go to Gaza and you see the destruction, you see the destruction of Gaza, the thousands that died, even the United Nations said that was an over-reaction to whatever aggression that they claim the (Hamas) government imposed upon Israel. And this (blockade assault) isn’t even about rockets being launched. No rocket was being launched from the boat, nor were there rockets on the boat. But it is like a death camp. You know when you go to Gaza you’d see people dying in the hospital because they can’t get over the counter drugs…Any time that you deliberately cause the death of innocent children, whether you are a government or a non-government organization ,you’re participating in genocide and you’re in participating in a violation of the human rights. And if you allow for this death and destruction to go on for years because you’re blocking humanitarian aid from coming in, you have set up a death camp. Whether the numbers are six million or thousands, the fact of the matter is that you’re setting up a situation where people (die)…How many Palestinians have died at the hands of Israel, over land, over land that’s not theirs? And what they’ve done in Gaza is unconscionable…I feel that if any people should be more sensitive to setting up situations where people are going to die, if any people that should be more sensitive to that and make sure there’s no genocide and there’s even no characteristic of a death camp it should be the state of Israel.”
(Source: NY Daily News)
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22 Responses
Unfortunately, letter writing and expressing outrage at Council Barron distortion of the truth, will not change his attitude or those that agree with these lies. They are truly onesided and even though Israel has every right to protect itself, they will never ever look for the truth. Knowing how Hashem despises Sheker, we can only hope that by us, uniting and doing teshuva, that Hashem will reveal Himself and set them straight.
This guy is, to use the technical term, a gullible idiot!
Dear City Councilman Charles Barron,
I understand your frustration that ISRAEL you feel is taking too many procautions as far as ships going to the Gaza, but let me ask you a question.. Why do we need such high tech equipment just to get on a plane and I am not talking about International only, but security is needed domestically as well. The reason is very simple…because we need to know that the passengers traveling are all protected and safe. How much more does ISRAEL who by the way has a very small piece of land in the Middle East and are continuously getting bombarded by rockets from the Gaza and I do not hear you screaming about that situation. However the minute the Israeli’s try to board some cargo ships to inspect them so that they can continue to protect their little Country that they have, you decide to make some noise and say “The Israeli’s are not right in their actions,etc.” Why don’t you move into Sederot in Israel for a month or two and see if you can handle the rockets that keep coming before you make accusations that Israel is wrong in their actions. I say Israel is doing the right thing and must continue in order to PROTECT THEMSELVES.
Totally expected; Barron knows where his Turkey is buttered.
I’ve me the man and never thought much of him even before this statement. Why do City Council members feel that they hve to comment on anything outside of NYC?
It is very clear that Barron doesn’t care about the truth of the matter or the facts of what transpired. Where was he when rockets were shot into Israel every day targeting civilians? Where was he when suicide bombers were killing innocent civilians? It is very easy for anyone to bash someone (in this case Israel) without looking into what happened. He doesn’t know the facts nor does he care about the facts. He is just shooting his mouth off. YM”S. He is just an antisemitic racist. He mentions only that Palestinians were killed by Israel, but nothing about Israeli civilians being murdered by Palestinians! Israel always went out of its way to target terrorists and not civlians. How blind can one be? The answer is obvious. He is not blind. He is a REAL Antisemite.
Stopping the flotilla – which was not a humanitarian or relief convoy – was 100% reasonable and it was 100% reasonable to do so before it got too close to the shore line. What one must question however is the planning of the operation. Who decided to let soldiers go down a rope one by one without knowing what they might face when they arrived? Why were the decks of these boats not sprayed with some drugged liquid to ensure that there was little opposition? Even very high powered water cannon would have been effective. Lets hope lessons have been learned that will be put in to practice before the next ship is stopped.
I have no sympathy for those who died. They were not pacifists, they were allies of terrorists engaged in war. In war people die. If you don’t want to get burned, stay away from the fire.
Louis Farrakhan is shepping nachas.
This goes beyond the pale!!
These statements are totally outrageous!!
How does Barron know that “they can’t get over the counter drugs”?!
How does he know there were no rockets on the boat?!
Israel in fact has allowed medical supplies through. They cannot however control where those supplies end up. There have been tons of weaponry, rockets, etc. smuggled into Gaza through various means. If they allow anyone to send boatloads of goods in without any inspection, even more weapons and rockets will be sent.
The real question is, what would (Mr.) Barron, or for matter, (Ms.) Clinton or any other leftist American do if faced with the same situation?!
Finally, get one straight (Mr.) Barron; the German concentration camps were extermination camps!! There is absolutely NO comparison between the diabolical, direct, intentional murderous activities that the Nazis carried out every day in those camps during World War II and the legal blockade that the Israel is enforcing in Gaza. The innocent Palestinians are suffering only due to the stubborn refusal of their leaders to recognize Israel’s right to exist and come to the negotiation table.
The guns were confiscated, the humanitarian supplies allowed into gaza and the actvists returned to Turkey. No other country in the world would have handled it that well. Can we put Barron on a boat to Turkey and keep him there too?
barron is a former black panther & former chief of staff of
herbert daughtry yimach shmo the reverend who after the 3 day pogrom in crown heights declared:now we proceed to williamsburgh and boro park.what else needs to be said about
this pile of tinuf known as charles barron?
To all of those concerned,
I would like to declare how joyous I am for his statement. I’d like to express my excitement upon reading this article. I want to say it loud and clear: Thank you Mr. Barron!
As we’ve seen time after time, now experiencing it once again; Israel receives very low grades when it comes to PR. At every fiasco or botched operation, even when it’s lucid and clearly self-defense, they fail. Times when things done seemed to be the norm; fighting terrorists and protecting their citizens just like every other civilized democracy would do, they mess up. It is famously known that the Palestinian and Arab media are experts in this field. We all remember those images of wounded children being treated by the IDF only to be seen as victims of Israeli oppression in the Arab media. The propaganda strength of the Islamic regimes are not limited to Palestinians considering others such as Iran and so forth. Yet Israel has never learned how to fight that war, losing it time after time. That may be used to damage their image in the western world, kill their diplomacy among world leaders and super powers or boost the confidence of the Islamic terrorists and blow the morale of the Israelis. After every operation\war the arabs declare victory yet after every Israeli debacle they seem to be victims.
Videos taken from choppers hovering above the ship showed violence. Actual weapons confiscated from the flotilla revealed their true intentions. Evidence keeps on mounting to blame those seeking to kill and fight yet Israel cannot get the world to believe their story. Leader after leader, country after country followed by newspaper editorials slam and denounce Israel. Resolutions pass and [so-called] allies demand explanations but it doesn’t seem as it was given. Israel as in the past is the eye of the storm and in turmoil once again.
Hashem leads this world – “V’Hakadosh Baruch Hu Matzileinu M’Yadam”. Sometimes we don’t know from where the salvation will come and the Yeshua comes unexpected. I believe that a statement of this kind puts Israel in the right place and shines some light onto this mix-up. When people that are against everything America is for denounce their acts, they know they did the right thing. When admirers of Hugo Chavez blasts Israel, foes of true dictators defend. If Mr. Barron is against pledging allegiance to the United States, should we expect him to support another democracy? If he claims that Jews were forever treated with reverence while blacks were in slavery shall we be afraid?
Anti-semites of this sort only help Israel, racists (of course not against their own race) only shed light to situations of such and anti-democracy bigots only protect the democratic countries that are struggling out there. As a councilman that has accomplished nothing in his tenure only to be stripped from chairmanships he is a blessing for Israel. Mr. Barron, keep it up and let the world know where you stand. And I’m sorry you didn’t have the opportunity to be on this flotilla (as in the past) and see with your own eyes how Israel treats wounded terrorists that seek to destroy them in their state of the art hospitals.
Charles Barron,
How can you compare Gaza to the concentration camps. Are there people in Gaza getting gassed and tortured to death every day? Is Israel conducting experiments on the Palestinian people? Did the Jews in Europe kill innocent civilians before during or after the holocaust?!!!No but Hamas kills or is trying to kill innocent Israelis on a daily basis.
So tell me how you can justify that statement.
Maybe if Hamas stopped trying to WIPE Israel off the planet we would be more willing to sit down and stop isolating them from the rest of the world.
The guy is a complete moron. Israel never claimed to be defending themselve against rockets launched from the boat.They defended themselves against the smuggling of weapons to the terrorist powered gaza.
secondly the jews were never an enemy to the germans especially not through shooting rockets at civilians. How can any sane person compare israel’s self defense to the germans genocidal actions?!.
Perhaps he should go to Sderot for a different reason.
The president of Turkey called this a “massacre”, with the Israelis trying to protect themselves. Meanwhile, in Mexico, 25 bodies were found in a silver mine. Hardly a word about it in the press. Dave Hirsh said it right. We know Hashem is ultimately in charge and how do we take this message He is sending us? What as the Jewish people should our next move be? We see the hypocrisy of the entire world and have no one to defend us, except Ha’Kodesh Baruch Hu. I hope we can take this message being clearly sent to us. How can you help?? Daven a little extra harder, Give Tzedakah, smile to neighbors, be honest in business, be M’krev people, refrain from Lashon Hara. Look for the good in people. Be Dan L’kaf Zechos. Do Chesed. All the letter writing and complaining to the Government officials will not help. Instead of wasting time expressing your anger, fight back the only way a jew can, and Hashem will fight for us. Just have Bitachon, Jews. We have a promise from Hashem that He will save us, if we return and come together. That is the ultimate promise.
Seems like everything is going according to plan.
Mr. Peanut (aka Jimmy Carter) joins Mr. Black Panther, Mr. Achmedinejad in denouncing Israel. Just keep on coming…
why are people like this dumb one allowed to talk in public its embarrassing for the rest of us to know that our city and country have people working for them and which are meant to be serving us spewing anti-semitic talk. we should work to take any of these kind of people off the street.
Mazal, you know, it is interesting that it’s Turkey that is talking about massacres, let them study their history and look what they’ll find. Actually let’s review it here.
Let’s just mention here that Jews were considered second-class citizens in Turkey under Ottoman rule often persecuted and received limited legal rights.
* Hamidian Massacres
In the period of 1894-1986 thousands of Armenians were killed under the indirect order or knowledge of Sultan Hamid. The estimated number of deaths range between 80,000 to 300,000. It should be noted that the Armenians were no terrorists rather a law abiding minority group with different religious views. Many Jews were killed in the attacks and slaughter pogroms.
* Adana Massacre
In April 1909, a series of pogroms took place in the city of Adana and surrounding cities against Armenians (targeting them specifically for their economic success). An estimated 30,000 Armenians are believed to be killed in those riots.
* Armenian Genocide
In April 1915, thousands of Armenian leaders and notables were arrested and deported. Thousands of people were persecuted in mass burnings, women and children were loaded onto boats then thrown overboard. Doctors experimented on Armenians using poison etc. similar to what Nazi doctors later imitated. Death marches were then initiated and people were crammed into cattle cars and shipped to extermination. 25 concentration camps existed throughout those years. You can basically imagine the holocaust horror stories related to you by your parents and grandparents being done there.
In total 1,500,000 (!) Armenians were killed.
Talking about occupied land. The place where the flotilla embarked is actually Turkish-occupied Cypres. Talking about hypocrisy!
Who voted this guy in? He sounds like the president of Iran. Also I think this is the first time I heard someone call hamas a government, how can we take this terrorist sympathiser seriously?
He is a Nazilib.
call him! flood his phone lines!!!
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