"HAGALIL"
A GERMAN JEWISH INTERNET PORTAL COMBATING ANTI-SEMITISM
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken
[GERMAN]
[HEBREW (graph./txt.]
In recent years, the Internet
appears to be playing into the hands of anti-Semitic propaganda.
Neo-Nazis and other anti-Semitic groups use the net extensively, and it
has become the primary means for disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda.
Sites devoted to such materials range from the ostensibly academic, with
discussions of the "world Jewish conspiracy," to unconcealed Nazi
incitement, and to leftist portals which, in the name of solidarity with
the Palestinians, present pronounced anti-Israel material.
The Internet, which functions
both as a means of communication and a public space in the broadest
sense, provides the anti-Semites with an unparalleled mass vehicle for
incitement, while attracting far less critical attention than the press
or television.
Although little research, and
little development of combative strategies, have been devoted to this
topic, one individual who is exceptional in this respect is Paul
Spiegel, head of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany, who
aggressively and openly warns about the danger of anti-Semitic
propaganda on the Internet. Writing in Die Welt in April 2002,
Spiegel stated that anti-Semitic incitement in Germany following the
outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada is "worse than it has ever been in the
Federal Republic." The proportions it has reached are reflected in the
Internet, he pointed out, citing the existence of over 1,300 sites of a
radical right and anti-Semitic nature – approximately a thousand more
such sites than a year previously.
Unlike the U.S., where this
danger was identified at an early stage, nothing is being done about it
in Germany except for pronouncements by official bodies. Yet even as far
back as 1996, anyone searching the net for such terms as Talmud, Shabbat,
Kosher, etc., as well as names such as Auschwitz or Hitler, was led by
the search engines nearly exclusively to Nazi sites.
In response to this Internet
invasion, a small group of people in Germany has established a private
German Jewish portal (www.Hagalil.com), which has become one of the
largest in the German language, with over 140,000 entrants monthly. The
idea of creating this type of portal stemmed not only, and not
primarily, from the need to combat anti-Semitism and the anti-Semitic
sites on the Internet, but to utilize the net for communication between
Jews and to deal with Jewish topics. In as much as few Jewish centers
are left in Germany, in contrast to the U.S., France and England, and
because only a small number of Jews are scattered throughout Germany,
this medium seemed ideal.
Hagalil today offers basic,
up-to-date information about Israel and the Middle East, translations of
articles and editorials from the Israeli and the American press,
broadcasts from the Kol Yisrael and Galgalatz radio stations in Israel,
Israeli pop music, analyses of the Middle East conflict from the German
media, analyses of the new anti-Semitism in Europe, and articles on
Jewish issues. The portal has become an important source of information
for journalists and other interested parties, thereby changing its
original intention of being an internal Jewish communications channel.
During the initial period of the
formation of Hagalil, impelled by the assassination of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, the confrontation with anti-Semitism was not its
founders’ first priority. Anti-Semitism in the third generation
following National Socialism was not perceived as a loaded issue. No one
anticipated that within a few short years it would return so
unremarkably, that today leading political figures from mainstream
parties can express anti-Semitic opinions openly without provoking
public opposition, and the German press can report with a systematically
anti-Israel bias. No sooner was Hagalil launched, then it was targeted
for foul verbal attacks and abuse, as well as attempts by hackers to
shut it down. This response demanded action. The approach was not to
enter into endless arguments in the playing field created by the
anti-Semites, but to combat them on a different field: gaining control
over the Internet search engines.
A particular terminology,
signaling Jews and Judaism, plays a central role in Nazi and extreme
rightist propaganda. Underlying such phraseology as "a surplus of
foreigners in Germany," "multi-cultural society," or "demon of
globalization," lies, in National Socialist theory, the strategy of
"world Jewry," "the east coast of America," and "the international
Jewish connection." Key words such as Judaism, Shabbat, Israel and Zion
are turned into pathways for spreading lies, hatred and violence. The
Hagalil team, aware that they are unable to penetrate the closed world
of the anti-Semites and the radical right, direct their portal, instead,
toward neutral surfers with the aim of preventing them from chance entry
into anti-Semitic sites. Their stated goal is to establish a hundred
Hagalil sites for every Nazi one, so as to prevent students interested
in exploring Jewish topics from receiving anti-Semitic information.
This important goal has indeed
been reached. Anyone who enters search words of a certain type into a
German-language search engine will probably reach a Hagalil link or
other portals that combat anti-Semitism. The struggle against the
anti-Semitic sites over control of the search engines has been shown to
be more effective than attempts to close them down, although the latter
possibility constitutes a political strategy that is also used by
Hagalil.
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