UPDATED: How anonymous, vicious trolls will not ever give me a break and continue to slander me

Peter Breedveld

Illustratie: Toshio Saeki

UPDATE: Thanks to the many great people who stood up for me on Twitter and Facebook – and in particular the Dutch journalist who vouched for me (a Dutch journalist vouched for me! WOW!) with Jake Adelstein – he realized he had misjudged me and offered his apologies. Now THAT is a hero in my eyes. We are cool now.

Ever since I began writing critical analyses about Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the evils of islamophobia and racism, I have been the target of smear campaigns. And from the first day it became known I am romantically involved with a Moroccan-Dutch woman, who is also a Muslim, I have been accused of antisemitism. Because islamophobes find justification for their bigotry in the assumption that all Muslims are antisemites and therefore everyone being friendly with Muslims is an antisemite too.

Never mind I wrote so many pieces warning against antisemitism, especially in Muslim circles because that had been trivialized and even denied for a while, say until about ten years ago. These days in Europe it’s vice versa: traditional European antisemitism is now trivialized and Muslim and Arab antisemitism is blown quite out of proportion. To be clear: antisemitism in Europe should never be underestimated but it’s still largely a thing of (cultural) Christian conservatives, not Muslims. Also, people holding unfavorable views of Jews tend to be islamophobic as well.

War against Islam

One would think white Europeans, especially those leaning to the extreme right, would observe a little modesty when it comes to accusing other groups of antisemitism. After all, so far Jews have had to fear the most in Europe, where in the span of only a few years six million Jews were exterminated by white, Christian Europeans, and it was not the first antisemitic genocide in European history either.

This historical fact is no obstacle for our islamophobic friends, however. In the Netherlands the theory is getting more popular that it was the Great Mufti of Jerusalem who gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust, and that therefore it’s the Muslims who are to blame for it.

There’s a lot more to be said about it and I will, in future blogs. About islamophobes suddenly feeling so passionate about Israel, for instance, because they see that country as an outpost in the war against Islam. Yet they have no qualms about cooperating with right-wing political parties which are not so ambiguous about their antisemitism.

Anyway, islamophobia, and racism, in the Netherlands often takes the guise of anti-antisemitism and therefore it’s not unusual to see and hear people defend their racial slurs and calls for the extermination of Muslims by saying they are worried about the ‘rise of antisemitism’. People criticizing this attitude are automatically classified as antisemites too. Accusations of antisemitism are the most effective way to shut people up.

Biggest antisemite of the country

That’s why I have been accused of antisemitism for a long time, but until two years ago exclusively by bloggers and people on Twitter. I was once called ‘the biggest antisemite of the country‘ and my girlfriend was accused of wishing to do the Holocaust over again. It’s extremely hurtful, it eats at you, but you get used to it after a while. Denying it is completely useless, it will only make the accusations become more adamant, so I took the habit of joking about it for a while.

Also I consoled myself with the idea that we were on to something, that we really hit the bigots where it hurt, seeing how much time they spent, how much energy was put in trying to smear us, trying to make us shut up.

But two years ago an islamophobic columnist in a nationally published newspaper just copied the lies about us in one of her pieces, quoting us in such a way it looked like we were antisemites. It got me into a deep depression. I was suicidal even, but we were defended by so many media and public figures it blew over. The only thing left was a group of – largely anonymous – trolls on Twitter approaching everyone I exchange tweets with, or mention in my tweets, to accuse me of antisemitism. They spend the whole day following me on Twitter, keeping tabs, bothering everybody. After I complain Twitter often suspends their accounts but they immediately create a new account, or several new accounts, to continue harassing me and everybody, literally everybody I have contact with.

But most people ignore them, tell them to buzz off or simply block them.

A sodomite and an antisemite

Not everyone, however. There’s an investigative journalist, an American living in Tokyo, whom I admire tremendously. Or I should say whose work I admire. He is Jake Adelstein, came to Japan hardly speaking any Japanese and worked his way up – a total outsider – at the most prestigious Japanese newspaper, the Yomiuri Shinbun. He dug up a lot of dirt about key figures of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza, which is now after his hide. I admire him most for doing what he really wanted, which I never dared.

I am reading his book, Tokyo Vice, which is to be made into a film starring the guy who played Harry Potter. It’s a very thrilling book, and educational for an aspiring 46 year old journalist like me. I like the passion with which Adelstein fights bigotry, sexism, exploitation of women, racism.

After we were publicly accused of antisemitism I started to concentrate myself on studying Japanese again. I graduated in Japanese in the nineties, but life came in between and I have been neglecting my Japanese for years. I found, however, that studying Japanese took my mind off things, made me feel good about myself again. I fled to Tokyo to fight my depression and it helped, it really did wonders. So I started to follow people on Twitter who were connected to Japan somehow. Jake Adelstein was one of them.

I reacted to a tweet of his a while ago and there he was, one of my most fanatic stalkers, a guy with the Twitter handle Cpt. Iglo. Cpt. Iglo told Adelstein I was an antisemite. Adelstein responded: ‘I thought Peter Breedveld was a just a sodomite but he’s an anti-Semite? Maybe a semi-idiot?’

Anti-semitic detestable little prick

I found that a bit prickish, maybe slightly homophobic, but decided to let it go. I assured mr Adelstein I was sodomite nor antisemite and it seemed he was satisfied by that.

A couple of weeks ago he even seemed to warm up to me, reacted to something I tweeted, favorited some tweets by me and that gave me a warm, glowing feeling because I admire the guy, well, his work and I can be a true fan-boy. You may find that inane. As long as you don’t call me an antisemite. That hurts, as my many enemies of course well know and exploit.

Yesterday I found out Adelstein had blocked me on Twitter and I immediately had my suspicions. Anonymous trolls had been busying themselves again. After much whining on my side Adelstein confirmed he had blocked me because he assumes, without knowing anything about me, that I am an ‘anti-semitic detestable little prick‘, the words of yet another vicious anonymous troll spending his days smearing my reputation.

It is, as I said before, extremely hurtful. Of course mr. Adelstein is free to block everyone he wants, I myself have blocked a zillion trolls, but he may not accuse me of antisemitism. It is slander and I did nothing to deserve it. I was being extremely friendly, for fuck’s sake.

Wall of pure hatred

I also can hardly believe an investigative journalist of mr Adelstein’s stature accuses a person so easily, without knowing anything about him. If a few anonymous trolls are all it takes for him to ruin a man’s reputation, well, you know, I wonder what it may say about his qualities as a reporter.

Furthermore, mr Adelstein should realise he’s siding with people who issue death threats, rape threats, who call for Muslims to be dealt with “as Hitler did with the Jews” and who pose as KKK members and Nazi’s just for laughs.

I wrote this piece because I guess it is going to happen again now and again, me exchanging a few tweets with a non-Dutch speaking person, trolls jumping in to demolish me. I’ll use this piece to clarify. I don’t know what else to do.

It breaks my heart though. It’s very frustrating. It makes me feel totally powerless, up against this vast, thick wall of pure hatred.

Also, fuck you, trolls. You will not shut me up. Not ever unless you kill me. I will keep exposing you and your kind for the vile racists you are.

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