According to a motion by the PPEU’s chair (which gathered two votes in favour and one abstention), public criticism of publicly-expressed opinions and posts of Pirate Party members that support the genocide Israel is perpetrating is considered “harassment”.
Furthermore, members of those Pirate Parties, are refusing to discuss the issue, because “genocide” is a “strong legal term”, and apparently you can only accuse someone of it only after they have been convicted for it, which is of course ridiculous: a verdict by a court of law follows accusations. Not the other way around.
The “harassed” members have been posting posting debunked far-right propaganda that seeks to justiffy the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza by Israel’s occupation army.
The “harassed” members are accusing everyone who doesn’t support the genocidal maniac prime minister of Israel as a “terrorist supporter”.
The “harassed” members conflate the entire Palestinian population with Hamas, which is, in and of itself, a racist rhetoric that seeks to justify collective punishment, without distinction between combatant and non-combatant. FYI: the vast majority of Gaza’s population wasn’t even old enough to vote for Hamas when the last election was held, or even there for that matter. They were pushed there by Israel, AFTER Hamas (aided by Netanyahu, as Haaretz and other Israeli news outlets revealed) took over Gaza.
It goes without saying that penalizing criticism and the demand for accountability flies in the face of all Pirate principles. Of course, we are not going to legitimize any disciplinary process against any of our members, as we have already stated officially, publicly, unequivocally, and unanimously. If the Board of the PPEU insists or tries to revive this effort, then the PPEU should change its name to something else, removing the term “Pirate” from its name entirely.
This is the time to take a stance. The Pirate Party supports human rights, NOT genocides, nor apartheid regimes. Apartheid is Nazism. Support for ANY Apartheid is Nazism.
The Pirate Party must call for the end of the genocide (there is no war) in Gaza, the immediate, bilateral, and unconditional release of all hostages, Israeli and Palestinian, withdrawal of Israel from all Palestinian territories, the dismantlement of the illegal (according to international law and countless UNGA and UNSC resolutions) settlements, the immediate and unimpeded rebuild of Gaza and the Palestinian territories and the recognition of an independent, contiguous Palestinian state by ALL, including Israel.
Vassilis Perantzakis
President of the Governing Board of the Pirate Party of Greece
P.S. Zionism is a problem. Zionism is a nationalist ideology that has co-opted religion and combined it with the 19th century ideal of an ethnically “pure” state. As for the ridiculous notion that opposing a religiously-fueled nationalism is “antisemitic”, I have news for you. This notion is every bit as ridiculous as the Greek neo-nazis’ claim that opposing their “Ελλάς Ελλήνων Χριστιανών” (Greece of and for Greek Christians) slogan is “antihellenic”. Finally, the true antisemites are the American Christian extremists who support Zionism, in the hope that this will bring on the “Armageddon” (end of times), during which they will be able to get rid of the Jews as well.