Greenbelt and Utøya – an unpleasant similarity
The Norwegian Foreign Minister puts his weight behind the anti-Israel Labour summer camp on Otoya Island in 2011.
Three days ago we posted an article about the launch of the anti-Israel Kairos network in Britain at this year’s sub-Christian Greenbelt festival.
But it was the blogger Archbishop Cranmer who drew attention to a bizarre anti-semitic board game being played at this year’s Greenbelt.
Called ‘Occupation’, it encourages participants to view themselves as Palestinian ‘victims of oppression’ in Israel. The people behind the game are called ‘Embrace the Middle East’ as if the only people in the Middle East are those who live in Gaza and the ‘West Bank’ (Judea and Samaria).
- The ‘Occupation!’ game by ‘Embrace the Middle East’
‘Our installation in the Centaur foyer aims to give a glimpse of the challenges faced by ordinary Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. There’ll be a giant, interactive floor game – Occupation! – for all ages. Roll the dice and make your way through checkpoints and challenges, permit denials and poverty. On your journey, you’ll learn about the issues affecting the West Bank and Gaza and find out how you can help Embrace the Middle East to make a positive difference to the lives of marginalised people.’
Oddly enough, there appear to be no squares for ‘Fire Rocket at Ashkelon’ or ‘Put on Suicide Vest and Blow up Israeli School-Children’. An oversight, no doubt.
It is insidious propaganda – quite outrageous indoctrination-by-play – which poisons the mind of young Christians and delegitimises the State of Israel. And this year the Festival also hosts the launch of Kairos Britain – an anti-Semitic/anti-Israel mis-information and propaganda network which condemns Israel at every turn as oppressive and racist – with no mention of its right to self-defence against acts of terrorism and rocket bombardment, or even of its right to exist at all.
But it was the shameless propaganda of the ‘Occupation’ board game which took this writer’s mind back two years to the Labour Party summer camp on Utøya Island in Norway and the similar games being played there.
The adult organisers of the Utøya camp encouraged the young people placed in their charge to hold up signs calling for a boycott on Israel. Mr Jonas Gahr Støre, who was Norwegian Foreign Minister at the time, was pictured walking past approvingly as the young people did their masters’ bidding.
Good game – Utøya summer campers play at being a Hamas flotilla.
Israel National News (INN) reports that the Labour Party youth movement also invited representatives from the Palestinian Popular Front of Palestine to participate in their Utøya camp.
The Norwegian Prime Minister was also photographed getting a T-Shirt from the Fatah Youth leader Hassan Faraj with the inscription “Free Palestine”, which INN observe means death to Israel.
The jolly game played at Utøya (you need water – this game won’t work so well in the middle of Cheltenham), was a re-enacting of the HAMAS flotilla in which terrorists tried to murder Israeli soldiers.
Nothing impresses a point on adolescent minds quite so readily as acting it out, something which Jeremy Moody, CEO of EmbraceME, will be well aware.
Greenbelt possibly have some way to go to ascend to the dizzy heights of Norwegian-style leftist anti-semitism.
But just imagine someone from Fatah sharing a stage next year with Peter Tatchell and calling for liberation for gay Palestinians.
Come on Greenbelt, how inclusive would that be?
P.S. We understand over a hundred Christians were outside the Greenbelt festival on Sunday standing with Israel against the pro-Palestinian propaganda inside. Read the report here.
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