By Genc Sejko
I read an article today by the Israeli ambassador to Albania, Galit Peleg, who considers the mass protests in many countries around the world against Israel's genocide in Gaza as an expression of anti-Semitism.
Madam Ambassador! Let me remind you that the anti-Semitism card has long been used up. In Albania, in fact, this card has no value whatsoever because it never existed. In its most difficult times, the Jewish community found the greatest support in Albania. Not a single Jew died in Albania. Not a single Jew surrendered to the Nazis. In fact, the Jewish community in Albania, unlike any other country in Europe, increased tenfold. As Albanians, we feel proud that during World War II we protected the Jews. And we did this because it was the right thing to do.
It is true that anti-Semitism has been on the rise around the world recently. This is something that should concern us all. But your misuse of this term does not help at all in the fight against this negative phenomenon.
Madam Ambassador! Protesting the killing of civilians is not anti-Semitism. Demanding that children not starve to death is not anti-Semitism. Calling Israel an apartheid state is not anti-Semitism. Israel represents Jews as much as Saudi Arabia represents Muslims.
Your state is built on two pillars: the murdered conscience of the Western world that persecuted Jews for centuries, and the suffering of an innocent people who paid the bill for the crimes of others.
Madam Ambassador! You say that “the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is deeply complex”. No Madam Ambassador, the conflict is very simple. Just implement international law. Return to the June 1967 borders. Allow the return of refugees. Dismantle your settlements in the West Bank. And stop the war, the genocide and the food blockade on Gaza.
The State of Israel is now an undeniable reality, even though it was created after an ethnic cleansing that even your historians shamefully acknowledge. This is your issue, but since you have undertaken to give us history and morality lessons as a representative of the State of Israel, you should know and understand that governments can be vassals of the strongest. They can even do the wrong thing for well-paid lobbies. But the citizens of any country are free to express their opinion and protest. What will never happen is that we remain silent in the face of the monstrous crimes being committed by your government.
The world is looking at you with a "magnifying glass", as you yourself say. And the world today has many eyes and ears independent of your propaganda and that of any vassal government. Therefore, no labeling on your part will be able to shut us up.
PS Those who published your propaganda letter today, to their shame and that of their civic and professional conscience, did not write even half a word yesterday about their colleagues killed in Gaza. This is the world of free people, where protest and morality may never meet, but right and wrong, fortunately, are not defined by you, but by someone else who sees and judges truthfully.
