Following are excerpts from an interview with Demet Tezcan, coordinator of the women's branch of the Turkish IHH organization and a Freedom Flotilla participant. The interview aired on Kudüs Internet TV on June 17, 2010.
- To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2542.
- To view the MEMRI Guide to the Middle East's page about the Flotilla, visit http://www.memri.org/flotilla/.
"Since World War II, [the Jews have] Been Marketing the Massacres They Underwent as 'Genocide'"
Demet Tezcan: "The film industry is the industry that the Jews exploit best. For 60 years, since World War II, they’ve been marketing the massacres they underwent as 'genocide' to the entire world. Even today, the best films are probably the ones produced about the Jewish genocide in World War II.
"I watched a film called 'Schindler’s List,' which deals with this issue. It was shown several times in Turkey. In the film, a German businessman tries to save Jewish women, children, and the elderly from massacre, and he presents it to the state not as favoritism, but as a need for cheap labor. He tries to pack them into his factory, buying them and paying bribes, and he saves all these people by constantly selling off his possessions. At the end of the movie, they are saved, and when they thank him, their eyes are filled with tears. He looks at his watch and his ring, and says: 'I could have bought so many Jews with these things. I could have done more.' Imagine, he has sold everything. The only things left are his ring and his watch, but he said he could have done more.
"For years, they have recounted this catastrophe in the film industry in an emotional way. They have turned this into an industry, and have been getting compensation for three or four generations. They continue to embarrass and humiliate Germany, and Germany continues to question and judge itself for the acts it committed.
"When you walk down the streets of Cologne, you see golden memorial plaques on the sidewalks, in front of the houses. Some have six plaques, and others have ten. When you ask about these plaques, on which the year 1945 appears, [they say]: Ten Jews used to live here, and were sent to the concentration camps. Every child born in Germany says, whenever he passes that sidewalk: We massacred the Jews who used to live in this home. Whenever a foreigner asks about the plaques, the [Germans] say: We massacred the Jews who lived here. They were sent to the camps, and so on.
"The Jews never let them forget. They nailed that memorial plaque to the heart of Europe. The Jews never let others forget what was done to them, but what they do to the Palestinians, whose land they seized, is 1,000 [times] worse." [...]
"The Massacre They Committed Aboard the Mavi Marmara Proves… [Israel's] Sick Mentality"
"The [Israelis] are paranoid cowards, who definitely have a sick mentality. That’s why we have to put an end to this. We cannot find justification for any of their attacks. They carry out these attacks out of paranoia. The massacre they committed aboard the Mavi Marmara proves this.
"Once, they killed a three-year-old child, playing in front of his home, because they said he was carrying a bomb. It all stems from their sick mentality. They are developing a sick society for sure.
"When the Israelis towed the ship, on which they perpetrated the massacre, to shore, we were welcomed by students, brought there by them. They said to the students: 'Look what a massacre we committed, look how many people we killed and wounded. We smeared the ship with blood and left it in a shambles.' In order to display their savagery, they gathered the children at the port. They are very sick and dangerous.
"Today, their danger is restricted to the Palestinian people alone, but tomorrow, all the countries and regions in their vicinity might become the target of this sick community’s paranoia, whether or not they have a reason. As I said, they are seriously paranoid..."
"They are Cowards, But What is Most Obvious is How Sick They Are"
Interviewer: "It’s a society that does not want peace."
Demet Tezcan: "You can sense this when they search you and in the way they look at you. Indeed, they are cowards, but what is most obvious is how sick they are. We must stop them because of their sickness. They are like a killing machine. I realized, following this incident, that this sick mentality of theirs might lead them to commit many senseless massacres."
"Whether Women Are Oppressed In Palestinian Society Is the Least Important Thing... We Should Be Talking About [Palestinian] Women Whose Babies Are Killed" By the Israelis – Like in Afghanistan, Where "The U.S. is Massacring Women's Husbands and Children"
"You asked about the issue of women. The question of whether women are oppressed in Palestinian society is the least important thing to discuss. In every society, there may be oppression of women – culturally, psychologically, and in terms of education. This is not specific to Gaza. If you consider the most advanced countries in the West, women are most often murdered by their husbands. This is true especially of the West. If we want to discuss oppression, we should be talking about such murders.
"If we are going to talk about women in Palestine, we should be talking about women whose babies are killed in their swaddling clothes, about women who grow up as orphans, women whose children are orphans, women whose siblings are massacred, women whose homes are destroyed, and women who cannot find construction material with which to build their homes. [...]
"[Palestinian women] suffer all the destruction and trauma of war, but [people] forget about all this and about what the occupier is doing, and say only that Palestinian women are oppressed. This is exactly the same as the situation in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is massacring the husbands and children of the women. They act as if the real problem is the women’s burqa, not the massacre. I’ve heard the U.S. sells makeup to the women in burqas. They trivialize, simplify, and commercialize the issue.
"As I have said, in cases where women face [oppression], we must first resolve the real issue, and if there is still oppression of women, we will deal with it later. They should first consider what happens to women in their own countries."
