“Live in fear,” Israeli officer warns German protesters on Facebook

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 18 December 2017

Israeli military spokesperson Major Arye Sharuz Shalicar uses his verified Facebook page to threaten protesters in Germany with violence.

An Israeli military officer and government spokesperson is openly threatening civilians in Germany with violence or death.

On Friday, reservist Major Arye Sharuz Shalicar posted on Facebook an article about Israel’s undercover gunmen – so-called mistaravim – who dress up as Palestinians to abduct and injure civilians during protests against Israel’s military occupation.

Shalicar added his own comment: “Please share! The message of this article also goes out to all those in Germany who think they can burn the Star of David publicly without being punished for it. We know who you are, where you are and how we can bring you to justice. We determine time and place. Live in fear!”

The linked article is illustrated with a masked Israeli gunman waving a pistol with one hand as he grabs a Palestinian by the head with another.

Mistaravim have regularly been involved in Israeli assassinations of Palestinians, including inside a hospital room.

Threat of violence

Shalicar’s comment is an open threat of violence against civilians on German soil.

When one Facebook user in Germany objected to Shalicar – as a representative of a foreign government – taking justice into his own hands, the Israeli officer doubled down: “Nice to know that you as a German are ready to watch how Jewish symbols are burned on German soil as in the 1930s. I’m not ready for that. And I’m German too.”

Shalicar seems to be following the Israeli government line that the burning of Israel’s national flag as a form of protest against its decades-long military occupation and massive systematic violence against Palestinians – carried out in the name of the self-declared “Jewish state” – should be viewed as anti-Semitism.

There have been protests in many countries, including Germany, since US President Donald Trump legitimized Israel’s military occupation and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem by recognizing the city as Israel’s capital earlier this month.

But Shalicar seems to be going a step further by threatening to harm or kill protesters in Germany, just as Israel routinely slays Palestinians who protest or resist its violent land thefts and incursions into their villages, cities and refugee camps by heavily armed occupation forces.

Yet there is reason for concern, as Israel’s Mossad spy agency does have a long history of carrying out assassinations around the world.

“Gangsta”

Major Arye Sharuz Shalicar, an Israeli army spokesperson, at the office of Trump “peace process” adviser Jason Greenblatt in November. (via Facebook)

Shalicar is currently a spokesperson for Israel’s intelligence minister Yisrael Katz.

According to the “About” section on his verified Facebook page, Shalicar was born in Germany in 1977 to parents who immigrated from Iran. He completed service in the German military as a paramedic in 1997, before settling in Israel in 2001, where he joined the army as a paratrooper.

After stints working for Germany’s public broadcaster ARD in Tel Aviv and for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he began working as an Israeli army spokesperson and media liaison to Europe in 2009.

Although his Facebook page now identifies him as a “former” spokesperson, Shalicar still provides an official Israeli army email address as a contact: shalicar@idf.gov.il.

In a 2015 tweet, the Israeli embassy in Berlin says it invited Shalicar to lecture to its staff about his life story.

Israeli media have promoted Shalicar as a former “gangsta” who spent his teenage years “fighting for his life in a Muslim-dominated suburb of Berlin.”

Shalicar also appears to have been received by the Trump administration. Last month he posted a photo of himself at the office of Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s “special representative” for the so-called peace process.

A request for comment has been sent to the German foreign ministry.

This article has been updated since publication.

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Comments

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Zionism Is Not Judaism replied on

We are soooo scared. From his facebook page one senses "The Major" is a Waffen-SS wannabee bozo who aspires to be a Borscht Belt comedian. That schmuck wants to be to anti-racist activists what Harvey Weinstein is to women.

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Stefano R. Baldari replied on

I think that Mr. Shalicar should be made the official poster boy for Israeli and World Zionism: Ignorance, Hate, Fear, Intimidation, Violence, Murder, War, and so on, and so on, and so on, and....

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Artemis replied on

Please don't act obtuse. The language in itself it violent and threatening. If you know anything about the French Zionist thugs who stalk, threaten and violently beat up activists, you can be sure we, living in Germany, have good reason to fear these extremists, who are already here - especially when the German government cowers in the face of the Israeli lobby and confuses righteous anger and despair with antisemitism.

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eGuard replied on

Jonah, sure I can give an indication. Three indications, actually. See the accompanying image at the bottom (not hard to find. It takes about 40% of the space. How did you miss that?). Also, Herr Major twice linked to an article that states: "Als Palästinenser verkleidete israelische Polizisten lösten mit Schüssen in die Luft die Demonstration auf."

Glad to help you out, learning how to read.

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Barry Wright replied on

South Africa is still standing, but a major regime change ended apartheid for good. Israel, just walk away and let the peaceful land of Palestine which nurtured Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as other faiths peacefully for centuries return to calm and soothe the disrupted sacred land. Violently forcing a Jewish state on millions of others is not a good thing and never will be. Violence produces blow-back and increased violence, never a lasting peace. America, stop funding Israel, spend those billions of your tax dollars on your own infrastructure. America should be America First, not Israel First. Make sense?

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Carl William replied on

I never burn the Israeli flag. I just use it as a door mat and I use miniature ones to line my birdcage. Zionism is BS.

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Stefano R. Baldari replied on

Mr. William, I can think of no better use of the Israeli flag, in fact you have given me a number of ideas for its use!

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Artemis replied on

As someone who has lived in Germany for decades, who has witnessed demonstrations, attended discussions with Jewish and Arab participants (also the official Heinrich-Boll ones, which are a joke) and with Jewish & Palestinian friends living here, I am infuriated by German politicians and the Anti-Deutsche - even German friends, their generalisations & blatant, facile connotation of antisemitism with expressions of outrage regarding Israel's war crimes, occupation/annexation, brutal oppression, illegal evictions and settler dumping. After decades researching the dispossession of Jews, the dispossession of Palestinians, it is extremely depressing to watch the vital lesson of the Holocaust crumple before my eyes.
There is a serious problem in Germany, which may even intensify with each generation. I've spoken to young Germans who are incapable of even discussing the Palestinians, they say they cannot bear to read about Israeli crimes. This creates an unhealthy relationship to Israel, to a degree where Israelis have become the standard bearers of Judaism and the Holocaust and thus represent Jews. This should alarm any clear-headed person, Jewish or not.
Israelis participate in determining German school lessons on the Holocaust and the creation of Israel, probably even texts about Palestine. Obviously, Israeli Jews like Ilan Pappe or French-Lebanese Arabs like Gilbert Achcar, who could offer great, factual historical contributions to any syllabus are not read or considered.
For me, this entire subject does not begin or end with the Nazi era, the Holocaust and murder of millions of others, Israel, Zionism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, but has much wider and deeply disturbing ramifications. Burning of Israeli flags sears the German soul, while the slaughter in Gaza does not. This is symptomatic of the dismal and saddening hardening of hearts against Palestinians through Holocaust education, blind to the responsibility Germany bears for Palestine's destruction.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.