Author: Israel Shamir
Israel Shamir was born Izrail Schmerler in Novosibirsk, Siberia, in 1947, to Jewish parents. Later on, he taught mathematics and law at Novosibirsk University. He moved to Israel in 1969, served as paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces, and fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. After the war, he returned to his study of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but then abandoned this in favor of a career in journalism. In 1984, Shamir left Israel and moved to Sweden, where he was naturalized in 1992. Ever since, he has been at various times a resident of Russia, Israel and Sweden. In 2004, Shamir was baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church.
Shamir’s writing focuses on the plight of the Palestinians, hence he is by necessity a devoted anti-Zionist. He has also frequently spoken out in defense of revisionism and the revisionists’ right to freedom of expression.
On Anti-Semitism and Superhumans
Children of a Lesser God In Berlin, the high and mighty, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, German President Johannes Rau and Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, gathered for a Conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) dedicated to the struggle against anti-Semitism. They proclaimed that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is serving…
About Vampire Killers and Nincompoop
Vampire Killers Folk stories about vampires provide readers with various remedies to the calamity of a ghoulish attack. A fistful of graveyard dirt is favored, garlic is beneficial, and the cross is most efficient. But these remedies don't always work. In Roman Polansky's hilarious horror comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers, the hero tries to scare…
They met in Teheran
The Teheran Holocaust Conference caused quite a storm in the world media. One might ask: what's so special about that? There are so many holocaust events and holocaust museums and holocaust festivals, sometimes attracting presidents and prime ministers galore, so why did the Teheran (or Tehran) conference draw so much attention and criticism; why were…
Vampire Killers
March 14, 2001 Folk stories about vampires provide readers with various remedies to the calamity of a ghoulish attack. A fistful of graveyard dirt is favoured, garlic is beneficial, and the cross is most efficient. But these remedies don't always work. In Roman Polanski's hilarious horror comedy, “The Fearless Vampire Killers,” the hero tries to…
Joseph Revisited
March 3, 2001 “If the Jewish media lords cheat you about Palestine, why do you think they are honest in any other way?”—Israel Shamir, “Joseph Revisited,” March 3, 2001 It is not easy to visit Joseph these days. Roadblocks manned by nervous Israeli soldiers have surrounded his city of Nablus; trenches or heaps of earth…
Galilee Flowers
February 25, 2001 When in 1543, the typhoon-blown Portuguese schooners approached the shores of Japan, the astonished sailors could not believe their eyes: on a warm spring day, the tropical island ahoy was buried under snow. They were witness to one of the real Seven Wonders of the World, the flowers of sakura, the wild…
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