Masada2000
Encyclopedia
Masada2000 is a pro-Israel California
-based Kahanist
website
created and maintained by people from the United States, Israel
, Brazil
, and Switzerland. Before 2001 the site was called Zion2000.
fortress in Israel, where, during Jewish Revolt
against the Roman Empire
, a group known as the Sicarii
fought the Romans and committed mass suicide
rather than surrender. According to its founders, it was established to counter "professional and deadly serious" websites with anti-Israel
views. They also have said that the site will "expose Jews who genuinely despise Israel and the Jewishness it represents" and "'progressive
' Jews who are into 'social justice
' causes for everyone EXCEPT Israel's Jewish population."
The site refers to Arab citizens of Israel
and Palestinians
as "cancer
" and endorses their expulsion
from Israel and the Occupied Territories
to "Arab nations
."
Masada2000 is well-known for its criticism of Jews it considers "self-hating
." Among those singled out are Rabbi Michael Lerner
, linguist Noam Chomsky
, journalist Amira Hass
, politician Dedi Zucker
, professor Israel Shahak
, and film-maker Woody Allen
.
The site is also notorious for its "Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening" LIST, known as the "S.H.I.T.
List." (From time to time, the S.H.I.T. List has been renamed. For a while it was the "Dense anti-Israel Repugnant Traitors" LIST, or "D.I.R.T. List." Then it became the "Self-Hating and/or Intentionally Israel-Threatening Ediots LIST" or "S.H.I.I.T.E. List.") More than 7,000 names long, the list consists of Jews whose opinions fall to the left
of those of Masada2000's creators. The site described its targets as "radical
, leftist, academic
, socialist
, 'progressive,' enlightened know-nothings [who] are not even worthy of the name 'Jew.'" People on the list are often described using profanities, vulgar insults, racial epithets, and portrayed with photographs of animals. In some cases, their email addresses, telephone numbers, home addresses, and other private contact information are included as well.
Appearing on Masada2000's "S.H.I.T. LIST" has provoked a wide range of reaction. Francesca Yardenit Albertini, Jewish philosophy
professor at Hochschule für Jüdische Studien (College of Jewish Studies) in Germany, expressed concern, saying "I can have my career negatively affected by such defamation." Stanley Aronowitz
, a sociology professor, said he was "proud to be on the Masada2000 list."
Yigal Bronner, an Israeli-born Professor of Sanskrit Literature
at the University of Chicago
, comments that, in its focus on Jews, the list is "antisemitism itself, the real shit... undisguised and unambiguous hatred for Jews."
Being included on the "S.H.I.T. LIST" has become something of a badge of honor among some Jewish leftists. As one woman explained, "I felt that I am in good company when I saw who else was on the list." According to one writer, "activists compare their status, those who are left out wondering whether they should submit themselves."
On March 7, 2007, blog
gist Richard Silverstein wrote about his entry on the "S.H.I.T. LIST," which included an offensive doctored
photo of him. Silverstein wrote that he had contacted Masada2000's webhost
to serve legal
notice to remove the picture. Days later the site was brought down by its host, Bsinet.net.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based Kahanist
Kahanism
Kahanism is loosely defined as an nationalist ideology of dedication and self-sacrifice for Jewish causes, such as physical and spiritual freedom and safety of Jews in Israel and worldwide. The term is derived from the name of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane , founder of the Jewish Defense League in USA...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
created and maintained by people from the United States, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and Switzerland. Before 2001 the site was called Zion2000.
History
The site is named after the MasadaMasada
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...
fortress in Israel, where, during Jewish Revolt
First Jewish-Roman War
The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...
against the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, a group known as the Sicarii
Sicarii
Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, to an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea using concealed daggers .-History:The Sicarii used...
fought the Romans and committed mass suicide
Mass suicide
- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...
rather than surrender. According to its founders, it was established to counter "professional and deadly serious" websites with anti-Israel
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
views. They also have said that the site will "expose Jews who genuinely despise Israel and the Jewishness it represents" and "'progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
' Jews who are into 'social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
' causes for everyone EXCEPT Israel's Jewish population."
The site refers to Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
and Palestinians
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
as "cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
" and endorses their expulsion
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
from Israel and the Occupied Territories
Israeli-occupied territories
The Israeli-occupied territories are the territories which have been designated as occupied territory by the United Nations and other international organizations, governments and others to refer to the territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria...
to "Arab nations
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
."
Masada2000 is well-known for its criticism of Jews it considers "self-hating
Self-hating Jew
Self-hating Jew is a term used to allege that a Jewish person holds antisemitic beliefs or engages in antisemitic actions. The concept gained widespread currency after Theodor Lessing's 1930 book Der Jüdische Selbsthass ; the term became "something of a key term of opprobrium in and beyond Cold...
." Among those singled out are Rabbi Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner (rabbi)
Michael Lerner is a political activist, the editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine based in Berkeley, California, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue of San Francisco.-Family and Education:...
, linguist Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, journalist Amira Hass
Amira Hass
Amira Hass is a prominent left-wing Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz. She is particularly recognized for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years.-Life:The daughter of...
, politician Dedi Zucker
David Zucker (politician)
David "Dedi" Zucker is an Israeli peace activist and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Ratz, Meretz and as an independent between 1986 and 1999.-Biography:...
, professor Israel Shahak
Israel Shahak
Israel Shahak was a Polish-born Israeli professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known especially as a radical political thinker, author, and civil rights activist. Between 1970-1990, he was president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and was an outspoken critic...
, and film-maker Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
.
The site is also notorious for its "Self-Hating and/or Israel-Threatening" LIST, known as the "S.H.I.T.
Shit
Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
List." (From time to time, the S.H.I.T. List has been renamed. For a while it was the "Dense anti-Israel Repugnant Traitors" LIST, or "D.I.R.T. List." Then it became the "Self-Hating and/or Intentionally Israel-Threatening Ediots LIST" or "S.H.I.I.T.E. List.") More than 7,000 names long, the list consists of Jews whose opinions fall to the left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
of those of Masada2000's creators. The site described its targets as "radical
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
, leftist, academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
, socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, 'progressive,' enlightened know-nothings [who] are not even worthy of the name 'Jew.'" People on the list are often described using profanities, vulgar insults, racial epithets, and portrayed with photographs of animals. In some cases, their email addresses, telephone numbers, home addresses, and other private contact information are included as well.
Appearing on Masada2000's "S.H.I.T. LIST" has provoked a wide range of reaction. Francesca Yardenit Albertini, Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy , includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or, in relation to the religion of Judaism. Jewish philosophy, until modern Enlightenment and Emancipation, was pre-occupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism; thus organizing...
professor at Hochschule für Jüdische Studien (College of Jewish Studies) in Germany, expressed concern, saying "I can have my career negatively affected by such defamation." Stanley Aronowitz
Stanley Aronowitz
Stanley Aronowitz is professor of sociology, cultural studies, and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a veteran political activist and cultural critic and an advocate for organized labor.-Social Text:...
, a sociology professor, said he was "proud to be on the Masada2000 list."
Yigal Bronner, an Israeli-born Professor of Sanskrit Literature
Sanskrit literature
Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, comments that, in its focus on Jews, the list is "antisemitism itself, the real shit... undisguised and unambiguous hatred for Jews."
Being included on the "S.H.I.T. LIST" has become something of a badge of honor among some Jewish leftists. As one woman explained, "I felt that I am in good company when I saw who else was on the list." According to one writer, "activists compare their status, those who are left out wondering whether they should submit themselves."
On March 7, 2007, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
gist Richard Silverstein wrote about his entry on the "S.H.I.T. LIST," which included an offensive doctored
Photo editing
Photo editing can refer to:* Image editing techniques applied to photographs.* The cultural impact and ethical concerns of photo manipulation....
photo of him. Silverstein wrote that he had contacted Masada2000's webhost
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...
to serve legal
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
notice to remove the picture. Days later the site was brought down by its host, Bsinet.net.
External links
- Masada2000
- Masada2000 at the Wayback Machine