This is going to be an angry video.
It takes a lot to make me angry, but this
affair really struck a nerve.
I've been stewing in my juices for the past
couple of weeks.
Now I am ready to explode.
So you better stand back.
I have been involved in the culture wars for
many years, and on many fronts.
One of these fronts is the battle against
Antisemitism, which is thriving online.
Since the western political sphere, old media
and academia have effectively stifled anti-Semitic
voices, they find their expression on the
Internet, where their arguments can easily
affect the minds of people who never got to
hear them debated and debunked.
It is therefore imperative to use the Internet
to have these debates, and to push back against
the anti-Semites, which is what I and others
have been doing.
By now, we pretty much know all of their arguments,
and we know how to debunk them.
But the sucker punch that we just got is something
that I did not see coming.
It was only in 2017 that I became aware of
the Nazi Pug video, uploaded by Count Dankula
a year earlier.
You know the story: Dankula wanted to play
a prank on his girlfriend, so he turned her
cute dog into an evil Nazi.
It was a hilarious video, and like every great
joke, it also had perfect timing.
Right at a time when Neo-Nazis and anti-Semites
are trying to gain respectability and be taken
seriously, came this video that shows them
for what they really are: trained mindless
dogs who get ecstatic by the thought of gassing
the Jews.
It was a brilliant parody, a breath of fresh
air, and was very well received and liked
by millions of people, which made me even
happier.
For a Jew, it is always heartwarming and reassuring
to see so many people treating Nazis and anti-Semites
as the butt of a joke.
I was bemused to learn that Count Dankula
got arrested for his joke video, and that
he was being accused of actually promoting
Antisemitism.
But I chalked it up to the cultural gap, to
the inability of some people to understand
Internet humor.
I was pretty confident that the Scottish court
will acquit him, since Dankula states very
clearly in the video that the joke is an expression
of his contempt for Nazis, and since he has
a history of speaking against racism online.
There will always be some members of the public
who will take an off color joke the wrong
way, but the court is supposed to be the voice
of reason.
And there is no way that a reasonable person
can see the video for anything other than
what it is: a joke that makes fun of Nazis.
But then, after dragging the trial for two
years, the court came back with a guilty verdict,
and when I heard it I felt physically ill.
This verdict isn't even close to being anywhere
within the bounds of reason.
You have to be intentionally obtuse to claim
that the video is anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi,
but that is exactly what the Scottish legal
system just did.
Which leads to the conclusion that Count Dankula's
persecution is driven by an agenda.
I don't know what exactly the agenda is, and
I want to believe that the Scottish court
didn't knowingly try to harm our efforts to
battle Antisemitism.
But the fact is that this is exactly what
it did.
As someone who has also made videos parodying
anti-Semites, I am now genuinely afraid to
travel to the UK.
This verdict will deter people from making
fun of Nazis, and will help Antisemitism thrive
unchallenged, and the fact that it disguises
itself as a decision aimed at defending Jews
just adds insult to injury.
As a human being, I am appalled by this miscarriage
of justice – sorry, this abortion of justice;
as a Jew, I feel violated and abused to see
the sufferings of my people being so cynically
exploited to promote an agenda.
And I have heard from many other Jews that
they feel the same way.
There is an old Hebrew proverb: "he who takes
mercy on the wicked will end up being wicked
to the merciful."
I am not very fond of this saying, especially
considering the context it was said in, but
it's hard not to think of it here.
In recent years we have been witnessing an
effort to make it illegal to hurt people's
feelings, and since those whose feelings are
most sensitive are usually those who are the
most narrow-minded, this development usually
ends up protecting bigots from being mocked
for their bigotry.
And now, it has also led to the prosecution
of a kindhearted and courageous man, a man
who even while being persecuted, kept on speaking
against racism, Antisemitism and hate, and
stood with us in the fight against the far-right.
The injustice is sickening.
I was waiting for people in the UK to take
a stand against this outrage, to speak up
against their legal system that is raping
my dignity and robbing people like me of the
right to mock those who want us dead.
But apparently the British public has been
demoralized into silence by their fear of
prosecution, and nobody says what needs to
be said.
Looks like it falls to me to say it.
So now, I am going to boldly go where everyone
should have gone before.
I accuse the Scottish legal system of prosecuting
a man not for the aim of achieving justice,
but to further a political agenda.
I accuse the Scottish legal system of providing
legal cover for neo-Nazis and anti-Semites.
I accuse the Scottish legal system of using
Jews as instruments, thus denying our humanity.
I accuse the United Kingdom of creating an
environment in which it is illegal to mock
anti-Semites.
I accuse the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities
of collaborating in a case designed to benefit
anti-Semites and other haters.
I accuse the old media of betraying its job
of being the watchdog of democracy, and in
some cases even playing active accomplice
in this witch-hunt.
I accuse intellectuals, comedians and human
rights activists for being too cowardly to
speak up.
I accuse Jewish organizations of remaining
silent and allowing the persecution of an
innocent man, when they had the power to affect
the outcome.
And I accuse the Scottish court of grossly
offending any sense of justice, decency and
liberalism, to the point where we are now
afraid to express ourselves.
Now that the nature of UK law has been revealed,
I am aware that in making these accusations,
I might be making myself liable to prosecution,
something I wouldn't have thought possible
until now.
But I expose myself to that risk voluntarily.
My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very
soul.
Do your worst.
