Israel Shamir

Israel Shamir also known as Jöran Jermas (born 1947) is a writer and journalist. He is a commentator on Arab - Israeli relations and Jewish culture. He is originally from Novosibirsk, Siberia and moved to Israel in 1969, served as paratrooper in the army and fought in the 1973 war. He took up journalism and writing in 1975.

In February 2005 Labour life peer Nazir Ahmed held a book launch for Shamir in the House of Lords. According to Searchlight in 2004 and Stephen Pollard in The Times the following year Shamir is Swedish writer Jöran Jermas. The writers of these articles allege he has connections to antisemitic publications and groups. Pollard calls him "rabid anti-Semite."

Personal life

In 2004 Shamir was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem by Archbishop Theodosios (Atallah) Hanna of Sabastia and given the name Adam.

Views

He has made statements opposing both Zionism and Judaism , has denied the holocaust and has been widely declared an antisemite .

He is critical of what he considers a Jewish quest for world hegemony, having written, "Palestine is not the ultimate goal of the Jews; the world is. Palestine is just the place for world state headquarters; necessary, for otherwise the people of Europe wouldn't be magnetised like a rabbit in the headlights of a car."

Shamir has argued that there is organized Jewish control of the media and public discourse: "The rich Jews buy media so it will cover up their (and their brethren's) misdeeds. The Jews in the media are giving protection to the rich Jews. ... In the US, even in Western Europe, no view can be proposed to the general public unless approved (after being vetted and corrected) by a Jewish group."

Shamir is a supporter of the proposed one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Holocaust denial

Shamir is described by New York Magazine as "an anti-semitic Holocaust denier" The British anti-racist organization Hope not Hate has listed Shamir as a "notable Holocaust denier," citing the "rabid Holocaust denial material" on his website. In 2006, discussing the upcoming Iranian International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, Deutsche Welle wrote that the Iranian government "said it intended to invite academics such as German neo-Nazi Horst Mahler and the Israeli journalist and Christian convert Israel Shamir, both of whom are Holocaust deniers." Writing in The Moscow Times, investigative journalist Yulia Latynina has noted that Shamir is "infamous for denying the Holocaust and writing about the conditions under which Jews are willing to sacrifice children."

Shamir has stated in an interview, "I think it is every Muslim's and Christian's duty to deny the Holocaust, to reject this belief, just as Abraham and Moses rejected the idols. Any person who confesses to God should deny the Holocaust." The wide-spread acceptance of the historicity of the Holocaust, he argues, shows "that the mass media machine is well integrated and concentrated in philosemitic, mostly Jewish hands. The occupation of Palestine by Jews is painful, but it is not more harmful than this captivity of free discourse."

Association with Wikileaks

Shamir is a vocal backer of the WikiLeaks organization. In a Sveriges Radio interview with WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson, Hrafnsson stated that Israel Shamir "is associated with" WikiLeaks, as are "a lot of journalists that are working with us all around the world" who "have different roles in working on [the] project". Russian Reporter claims that it has "privileged access" to the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak via Shamir. Shamir described his relation with WikiLeaks as being 'a freelancer who was "accredited" to WikiLeaks'.

Shamir was accused by Latynina of having forged portions of a cable which allegedly quoted European Union diplomats' plans to walk out of the Durban II speech by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an accusation which was rejected by Shamir.

Shamir has also been accused of passing "sensitive cables" to the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

Shamir's son, a journalist named Johannes Wahlström, is a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Sweden.

A selection of publications

Books

Sorted by date

• Blommor i Galiléen :collected essays.translated by Ingvar Rydberg, publisher - Alhambra. language - Swedish ISBN 9789188992529
• Rasszista Allam? (Racist State, in Hungarian) Kairosz, Budapest 2004 ISBN 963-9484-90-3.
• Blumen aus Galiläa, (in German), Promedia, Wien 2005, ISBN 3-85371-231-2.
• Проклятие избранного народа (The Curse of Chosen People, in Russian) Algoritm, Moscow 2006 ISBN 5-9265-0259-4
• Сорвать заговор сионских мудрецов (Elders of Zion's conspiracy derailed, in Russian)EXMO and Algoritm, Moscow 2010 ISBN 978-5-699-39520-0

Self-published, sorted by date

• Flowers of Galilee (in English), Dandelion 2004, ISBN 1-893302-78-4;
• Galilee Flowers (in English) BookSurge US 2005 ISBN 978-1419613517
• Our Lady of Sorrows, BookSurge US 2005 ISBN 1-4196-0835-5.
• Galilee Flowers (in English, UK edition) Four O'Clock Press 2007 ISBN 978-1906146436
• Pardes, Booksurge LLC, 2005, ISBN 9781419606014
• Cabbala of Power, Four O'Clock Press UK 2007, ISBN 978-1906146580
• Masters of Discourse, BookSurge Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-1419692437
• La Bataille Du Discours, (in French) BookSurge Publishing 2008 ISBN 978-1439211434

Translations

• S.Y.Agnon, Collected Stories, Gesharim, Jerusalem 2004 ISBN 5-93273-148-6.
• James Joyce “Sirens”, “Cyclops” (chapters from Ulysses), “Raduga”, Moscow, 2000 ISBN 5-05-005113-4.
• Herzog, Chaim (1982), The Arab-Israeli wars : War and peace in the Middle East, Random House, ISBN 9780394503790 republished Moscow 2004 ISBN 978-5-699-29953-9
• Abraham Zacuto, The Book of Lineage, 608 pages, Zacuto Foundation 2006; ISBN 1-4196-1893-8 English annotated translation of medieval Hebrew chronicles.

External links

• israelshamir.net The writings of Israel Shamir.