From Ian:
UN grants observer status to Hamas-linked NGO
Israel slams decision saying the British-based Palestinian advocacy group is a 'front' for Hamas
A British-based Palestinian advocacy group allegedly linked to Hamas was on Monday granted an observer status at the United Nations, in a move that sparked ire among Israeli officials.
The decision to approve the application of the Palestinian Return Center (PRC) was made by the 19-member Committee on NGOs, which is understood to be dominated by Israel's regional arch enemy Iran.
Israel's UN mission issued a statement condemning the decision.
The group, which does not acknowledge Israel's right to exist, has denied allegations by the Israeli government and other bodies that it acts as “a front” for Hamas. Yet in 2010 it was outlawed in Israel over suspected Hamas links.
Twelver[sic] members of the Committee on NGOs voted in favor of the motion (Including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, Venezuela, China and Cuba), three were against in (USA, Uruguay and Israel), and three abstained (India, Russia and Greece). Burundi was absent from the vote.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor slammed the decision, saying “Until today, the UN has given Hamas discounts and let it strengthen its activities. Now, the UN went one step further, and gave Hamas a welcoming celebration at its main entrance, allowing it to be a full participant.
"According to this script, one day we may find Hezbollah sitting at the Security Council and ISIS voting at the Human Rights Council. This is the peak season for the UN’s Theatre of the Absurd." (h/t Yenta Press)
JPost Editorial: Jew Hatred
Turkey’s Jews are looking for a way out in part because they are concerned by anti-Semitic comments made by the leaders of the Islamist Justice and Development Party. In 2013, for instance, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused an “interest rate lobby” of backing the widespread anti-government protests that he said were aimed at bringing down the economy and toppling his government. This was a thinly veiled attack on “Jewish banking interests.”
Last May, after Freedom House downgraded press freedom in Turkey from “partly free” to “not free” – thus putting the country in the same category as Libya, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Zambia – Erdogan said the move was motivated by Jewish and American interests.
“Could you expect a Freedom House ranking of world media to draft a positive about Turkey while David Cramer, a Jew, or James Woolsey, a CIA boss, or Donald Rumsfeld, a drug baron, are at its helm?” he asked.
Instead of admitting that there has been a serious crackdown on freedom of the press, Erdogan has instead deflected criticism by deploying conspiracy theories.
In Ankara and Buenos Aires, in the corridors of FIFA and Tehran, Jew-hatred blinds people to the facts, undermines the rational process of learning from mistakes and is ultimately self-destructive. Venomous anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism can only be obstacles to rational decision- making.
World powers should especially be reminded of this truth as they deal with the Iranian regime, which does not hide its hatred toward Israel, ahead of the scheduled deadline for a nuclear deal at the end of this month.
Turkey's 'Jerusalem Fetish'
It is truly fascinating that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a professor of political science, believes that Jerusalem, built a millennium before the birth of Islam, is originally a Muslim city. And that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, -- Saudis should please not get offended -- thinks Jerusalem is the Muslims' "most important Mecca."
Jerusalem has always had a spectacular place in a Turkish Islamist's heart and mind. But pre-election fervor in Turkey has lifted their "Jerusalem fetish" to new heights.
Turkey's Islamists today look like Egypt's second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, a Pan-Arab nationalist, and his army commanders almost half a century ago. On May 16, 1967, Nasser ordered U.N. Emergency Force Commander, Indar Jit Rykhye, to evacuate his force from the Sinai buffer zone within 48 hours. When Rykhye asked one Egyptian commander if Egypt was aware of the consequences, the commander replied: "Oh sir, I'll meet you at lunch in Tel Aviv." The UN force left, and Egypt and Israel were left alone to fight the 1967 war. This author does not know where the Egyptian commander had lunch the next day, but definitely not in Tel Aviv. His words, however, may have inspired Turkey's leaders.
Prime Minister Davutoglu, formerly foreign minister, has reiterated countless times since he joined the Turkish cabinet in 2009 that, "We will have prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque in the Palestinian capital 'Quds' ([Jerusalem]." This wish remains to be fulfilled. But that does not discourage Turkish leaders from cherishing increasing doses of "Jerusalem-fetish."
When a Kurdish politician said in a public speech that "Jerusalem is the holy city for the Jews," a furious Davutoglu held a rally and said at the top of his voice: "Jerusalem is our holy place;" and that he would never allow the city's "Islamic character" to change.
Seth Frantzman: Success and pitfalls of Palestinian anti-normalization
In the worldview of anti-normalization the theory is that while peace activists holding hands next to Damascus Gate and singing brings together Jews and Arabs in an example of coexistence, this makes Israeli rule appear benign.
The main thrust of anti-normalization activists is devoted to pressuring Palestinians not to cooperate with Israeli Jews. Professor Mohammed Dajani fell afoul of this in March 2014 when he took students from Al-Quds University to visit Auschwitz. He told an interviewer at Moment Magazine what happened next: “Students marched to my office holding placards that said ‘depart you normalizer’ and handed my secretary a letter warning me not to come back to the university.”
Dajani was critiqued in the Palestinian media. In another interview the professor noted that while Palestinians do not object to organizations that discuss moderation and peace, “They are against normalization of relations with Israel and the Israelis. But you cannot disconnect one from the other... if you believe in moderation you believe in peace and reconciliation... you can’t make peace with the other without dialogue with the other.”
But the anti-normalization agenda says it is better to sever relations with Israelis entirely, whether it is academic cooperation, peace hugs, research or anything.
A Palestinian woman who works with Israeli peace activists and appeared on a radio show hosted by Israelis told me she was criticized by her friends as a “normalizer.”
“They said I should cut off all ties with Israelis and Jews,” she said.
The violent attack on the hug event was indicative that those who think they are opposing “normalization” often can’t tell the difference between Palestinians, Israelis, Jews or foreign activists.
Ben-Dror Yemini: BDS is a threat to Israel's very existence
ISIS? Iran? North Korea? The industry of lies spun by the BDS movement is convincing more and more people that Israel is the source of evil in the world. Make no mistake: This is not a campaign against settlements. It's a war on the legitimacy of the Jewish state. All reasonable forces, from right and left, must act against the economic, academic, and cultural boycott which has become a strategic threat. Yedioth Ahronoth is enlisting in the fight back.
Support for Israel in the United States is at its peak. But it's an illusion. On campuses, at research institutes, and in media outlets, there has been a consistent, protracted, and dangerous erosion of support for Israel.
It is already invading politics. Sidney Blumenthal was a senior advisor to Bill Clinton. His son, Max Blumenthal, has become a prominent and venomous activist on campuses against Israel's very existence. This isn't what happens in every Jewish family. Far from it. But that's the trend.
Israel is enduring one of the most systematic attacks against its existence. You don't need to be part of the BDS movement in order to be on the anti-Israel front.
When a member of Breaking the Silence appears at events sponsored by BDS, that is not criticism. That is demonization.
When Peter Beinart, one of the leaders of the Jewish left in the United States, who defines himself as a Zionist and Orthodox, claimed that on Lag BaOmer of 2014 Jews committed a pogrom against Palestinians, he was not working to criticize. He spread a blood libel.
When Richard Goldstone published the report bearing his name, he caused a propaganda hit to Israel, even though he recanted after some time. And the list is a long one.
The success of BDS is particularly impressive because it is a movement that uses the language of rights, but deals in practice with denying Israel's right to exist. The result is a major deception.
Cruz Accepts "Defender of Israel" Award, Promises Unwavering Support
Accepting the "Defender of Israel" award from the World Values Network at the Third Annual Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala last Thursday night, Senator Ted Cruz said that "The nation of Israel has never been in more jeopardy."
As a presidential candidate, he made his support for Israel crystal-clear, and spoke strongly against the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Among his comments were calls for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, for defunding the Palestinian Authority because of incitement against Israel and partnering with HAMAS, and for defunding the United Nations if it continued to target Israel.
Regarding the BDS movement, which he called "anti-Semitism, plain and simple," Cruz said that any U.S. University that boycotts Israel will forfeit federal taxpayer dollars.
His 15-minute remarks were interrupted after virtually every sentence with loud whoops and applause from a room that included such notables as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Elie Wiesel, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the U.S.
In slog for White House, Graham hacks path through Mideast
When kicking off his campaign Monday, South Carolina’s senior senator is sure to blast President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq, insist on the need to strong-arm Iran over its nuclear program and work to subdue the violent Islamic State fighters who have gained footholds in Iraq and Syria.
Yet in the early days of the 2016 campaign for president, Graham has already gone further than most of his rivals for the GOP nomination in saying how he would tackle such problems, while acknowledging the potential costs of his strategy.
Graham wants to put an additional 10,000-plus US troops into Iraq, adding to the several thousand there now working as trainers and advisers only. He says it could take even more troops to stabilize the Middle East over time, adding “more American soldiers will die in Iraq and eventually in Syria to protect our homeland.”
The Islamic State extremists, Graham argued at a recent campaign stop, “want to purify their religion and they want to destroy ours and blow up Israel. Every day they get stronger over there, the more likely we are to get hit over here.”
He added, “I don’t know how to defend this nation, ladies and gentlemen, with all of us sitting here at home.”
It’s a calculated risk for the 59-year-old three-term senator and retired Air Force lawyer who surprised many when he began to hint earlier this year he would run for president.
Farhud ingrained on our history
The Iraqi government formed a commission of inquiry to investigate the riots, and found that the Nazi propaganda broadcast from Berlin was a key factor, and that the prolonged incitement against the Jews had prompted their murders by Muslim rioters.
The committee also found that actions by Grobba and then-Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, who fled to Iraq in 1939, had contributed greatly to the Farhud.
Still, despite its significance in modern Jewish history, the Farhud is relatively unknown in Israel, and its events are excluded from the education system's curriculum.
One must wonder why the Mizrahi narrative goes untaught in Israel. How many Holocaust survivors from Libya, Morocco or Tunisia have even been interviewed by the media?
The history of European Jews in studied in Israel as if it is the history of the Jewish people as a whole, and there is borderline criminal neglect in teaching the Sephardi heritage. Students are taught about the toll World War II and the Holocaust took on Europe to great extent, but they know nearly nothing about the toll it took on the Jewish communities in Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and so on.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev would be wide to introduce the rich culture of Sephardi Jews into the curriculum, as they now make up over 55% of Israelis.
Edy Cohen is a research fellow at Bar-Ilan University.
Jewish guys with Nazi guns
For a lowly ex-GI with little fondness for military punctilio, the offer was too good to turn down and off I went in Gorn’s jeep. We soon arrived at the unit’s encampment and I quickly noticed that something was missing: There were no anti-tank guns in sight, only one wooden replica of a cannon.
When I pointed out the omission, Gorn assured me that as soon as the Israeli infantry captured a gun from the enemy, we would be in business.
Indeed, within a short time, the unit welcomed a 17-pound artillery piece that had been seized from the Jordanian Legion. We made do with this venerable weapon until the battle of Faluja, where Israeli troops surrounded a sizable Egyptian force under the command of one Col. Abdel Nasser, later to become president of Egypt.
The beleaguered Egyptians fought stubbornly, but one day our unit, part of the encircling Israeli force, received a perfect present – a shipment of anti-tank guns from Czechoslovakia that was originally destined for Germany’s Wehrmacht. The weapons were so new, they were still wrapped in the original oilcloth, which we quickly ripped off to discover a curious emblem stamped into the side of the gun barrel – a big, fat swastika.
Irony doesn’t get much better than that – a bunch of Jewish guys firing a swastika-emblazoned gun at the enemy.
Slain soldier’s niece lobbies to bring down theater over play inspired by killer
As on the night of April 25, when a 26-year-old medical student stood outside the Arabic theater holding a photo of the murdered uncle she never met — IDF soldier Moshe Tamam — while inside, a play based on one of the men serving a life sentence for his killing — Walid Daka — unfolded on stage.
“I was physically attacked by one of the actresses. They also called me a ‘murderer’ and a ‘Nazi,’” Ortal Tamam said of the protest. “It was a terrible night.”
Now, Tamam, a genetic researcher, is spearheading an effort to get the theater’s funding pulled entirely. In a little over a month, she has garnered nearly 13,000 signatures on an online petition, and says she has the backing of Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog and Kulanu chair Moshe Kahlon to boot.
Following complaints from the Tamam family, the Haifa municipality suspended its NIS 1.2 million ($300,000) in annual funding from the theater and set up a panel of inquiry to evaluate the content of the play and its future steps. The panel has since met twice, and was expected to announce its decision next week.
But the Al-Midan management maintains the play, “A Parallel Time,” while admittedly partly based on Daka’s life, is simply a fictionalized account of the day-to-day activities of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and does not address, nor does it glorify, acts of terror.
Welfare Jihad in Europe
Anjem Choudary, a British-born radical Islamic cleric who lives off the British welfare state, has repeatedly urged his followers to quit their jobs and claim unemployment benefits so they have more time to plot holy war against non-Muslims.
Choudary believes that Muslims are entitled to welfare payments because they are a form of jizya, a tax imposed on non-Muslims in countries run by Muslims, as a reminder that non-Muslims are permanently inferior and subservient to Muslims.
In 2010, The Sun reported that Choudary takes home more than £25,000 ($39,000) a year in welfare benefits. Among other handouts, Choudary receives £15,600 a year in housing benefit to keep him in a £320,000 ($495,000) house in Leytonstone, East London. He also receives £1,820 council tax allowance, £5,200 income support and £3,120 child benefits. Because his welfare payments are not taxed, his income is equivalent to a £32,500 ($50,000) salary. By comparison, the average annual earnings of full-time workers in Britain was £26,936 ($41,000) in 2014.
Although analysts are divided over the question of how many followers Choudary actually has, no one disputes the fact that he is far from alone in exploiting the British welfare system.
British taxpayers have footed the bill for the Moroccan-born Najat Mostafa, the second wife of the Egyptian-born Islamic hate preacher Abu Hamza, who was extradited to the United States in October 2012. She has lived in a £1 million, five-bedroom house in one of London's wealthiest neighborhoods for more than 15 years, and has raised the couple's eight children there.
Abu Hamza and his family are believed to have cost British taxpayers more than £338,000 in benefits. He has also received £680,000 in legal assistance for his failed U.S. extradition battle. The cost of keeping him in a British prison since 2004 is estimated at £500,000.
Legal Insurrection: Israelis shelter in place near Gaza
All along the Gaza border, Israel is building shelters and people are staying.
Our journey off the usual tourist trail through Israel continued today with a visit to border areas near Gaza.
Sderot is famous for being the closest Israeli town to Gaza, and the first and most frequent target. The Sderot Media Center has a wealth of information.
Because Sderot is so close, the town has only 15 seconds warning once a launch is detected.
There are bomb shelters everywhere, including on the street (see Featured Image – “Shalom” painted on a bomb shelter) and in the playground, where the bomb shelter is in the form of a large caterpillar so as to make it more welcoming to children.
Individual homes and apartment buildings are being retrofitted with “safe rooms” at government expense.
We met with Sderot’s security chief, David Shneor, who showed us the underground facility used during times of crisis as the town’s emergency response command center.
JCPA: Intra-Arab Rifts the Real Reason for Palestinians’ FIFA Failure
The Palestinians’ failure to get Israel expelled from Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is no cause for Israeli complacency. The reason that the Palestinian attempt failed has less to do with Israeli diplomacy, and more to do with intra-Arab rifts.
Behind the intra-Arab rift stands tension between Qatar, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, on the other. The latter view Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup in Doha in 2022 as an effort to promote the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda on the world stage. The Gulf States watched with concern as Qatar recruited FIFA President Sepp Blatter to its cause. In response, they backed Prince Ali of Jordan against Blatter in order to stop the Brotherhood from gaining access to Europe via the World Cup.
There are other political concerns at stake as well. Qatar has earmarked Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association, Fatah activist and former head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, to succeed Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas once he steps down. Rajoub, for his part, maintains close ties with Hamas in Gaza. (His counterpart in Gaza is Abd al-Salam Haniyeh, son of the Hamas prime minister.) The issue of freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank is aimed at creating a convenient link between Hamas and the West Bank. Thus, Qatar’s backing of Rajoub as eventual PA president is aimed at opening the West Bank to Hamas.
Say it Loud, Say it Clear: No World Cup for Qatar
In a normal world, it wouldn’t be Israel that is the target of a campaign for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. The tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar is a far better candidate.
Why Qatar? There are many reasons. Let’s start with its internal system of governance. Although a smattering of ordinances inherited from the period of British rule remain in place, Qatar is a state based on Islamic sharia law. Practically, that means you can be stoned to death for blasphemy, apostasy and, of course, the paramount “crime” of homosexuality. And if you’re a non-Muslim about to fall in love with a Muslim in Qatar, don’t—such “illicit” sexual relations will result in your receiving several lashes.
About 2 million people live in Qatar, but only 10 percent of the population, at most, possess the rights accorded to full Qatari citizens. There’s a word for that, and it’s frequently applied, deceitfully and wrongly, to Israel. I’m talking about apartheid, of course. The term is far more accurate in the Qatari case because, as in South Africa during the bad old days, a wealthy, privileged, and enfranchised minority rules over a downtrodden, disenfranchised majority. The group that suffers most from this grotesque system are Qatar’s migrant workers, estimated at approximately 1.4 million, who come to the emirate to earn money for their families back in countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, and who end up, quite literally, as slaves in private houses or on construction sites.
FIFA suspect uses fake news in defense
Warner, 72, was arrested in Trinidad and Tobago last Wednesday on bribery charges as part of a massive bust of top soccer officials. He was pushed out of FIFA four years earlier amid another bribery scandal, which he blamed at the time on “Zionists.”
In a video uploaded to his personal website Sunday, Warner held up a printout of an article from the satirical news site the Onion titled “FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup in the United States.”
He goes on to suggest that US efforts to prosecute former FIFA officials stemmed from the country’s “failed bid to host the World Cup.”
“The US applied to hold the World Cup in 2022 and they lost the bid to Qatar — a small country, an Arabic country, a Muslim country,” Warner said in the video recording, which was also uploaded to Facebook and YouTube. “I could understand the US embarrassment.”
Helsinki Environmental ‘World Village’ Bans Jewish National Fund
The Finnish “World Village festival emphasizing the environment has banned the participation of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the largest environmental organization in Israel. The Finnish government feigned it was powerless to interfere in the boycott and told the Israeli Ambassador to Helsinki that it has no say in the matter because the “Maailma Kylässä” festival is a “private event.”
Dan Ashbel, the Israeli ambassador to Finland, said:
I wonder how this scandalous decision is consistent with values such as eco-friendliness, fairness, tolerance, and the desire for peace. I wonder if the rest of the organizations in the festival are required to stand up to the same criteria.”
However, the Finnish government’s security forces were able to convince the World Village to ban the Freedom of Speech village, warning that an exhibition supporting the freedom of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine to publish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed might cause violence.
The JNF has planted 240 million trees since 1901, and Israel is one of only two countries in the world that registered a net increase in the number of trees at the beginning of the 21st century.
United Church of Christ and The "Big Lie"
In just a few weeks, on June 26-30, the opening gavel will sound on United Church of Christ (UCC) General Synod. Two of the many proposals this national Synod will entertain call on the church to divest from Israel, and one of them will propose declaring that Israel's actions towards the Palestinians constitute "apartheid."
The UCC, representing approximately 1.2 million members in 5,100 churches in the USA, is just one of the member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which insists on making Israel the whipping boy of a misguided "peace and justice" agenda. In June, UCC member delegates will have an opportunity to determine the direction of their denomination.
Sadly, the UCC delegates' choices regarding Israel will be based on documents, "proofs" and appeals built upon a foundation of lies, false choices and political fantasies that accuse Israel of being an "Apartheid State" and an "illegal occupier of Palestinian land."
The UCC's attacks against Israel are not alone on the Christian world stage. The UCC is but one small example of a growing number of Christian groups that advocate against Israel by using what some have called "The Big Lie."
George Galloway would rally support for Palestinian cause if he became London Mayor
George Galloway has said he will use his position to rally support for the Palestinian cause if he succeeds in his campaign to become mayor of London.
The Respect Party leader said he would not call for the city to be an "Israel-free zone" as he did in Bradford when he was an MP there.
But he said that he would use the mayoralty to promote his "moral position" on the conflict in the Middle East.
"The mayor is not the pope and the mayor is not the president and he is not the prime minister or the foreign secretary," he told the BBC1 Sunday Politics programme.
"Of course, it's unimplementable. It is a moral position and my moral position on Palestine is well known.
"It would certainly be my aim to encourage the huge swell of pro-Palestinian support in London. Palestine has more supporters in London than anywhere else in the country."
The maverick left winger announced that he would be standing in next year's mayoral election after he lost his Bradford West parliamentary seat to Labour in last month's general election.
Pro-Israel lobby to be formed in Polish parliament
Seventy years after the Holocaust, the Jewish state will be getting its first-ever pro-Israel caucus in the parliament of Poland, at an historic launching ceremony Monday in Warsaw.
The Israel Allies Foundation will launch its 32nd Israel Allies Caucus around the world when its representatives and those of the World Jewish Congress meet with Jewish and Christian leaders in Poland to mobilize support for Israel through faith-based diplomacy.
The new Polish Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus hopes to garner support for the State of Israel through their shared Judeo-Christian values.
“As anti-Semitism continues to rise in Europe and around the world, it is moving to witness this historic initiative by members of the Polish parliament to publicly support the Jewish state just 70 years after the Holocaust,” said former MK Shai Hermesh, chairman of WJC-Israel.
Besides Hermesh, the Israeli delegation includes Knesset Christian Allies Caucus director Josh Reinstein, Israel Allies Foundation European Director Andras Patkai, WJC Israel executive director, Sam Grudwerg, Col. Moshe Leshem, Dr. Laurence Weinbaum, and Israel’s Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari.
Guardian descends into bizarre anti-Israeli dreamland…literally
By way of a perverse kind of optimism, there have been those among us who have predicted that at some point the anti-Israel brigade in Britain would eventually run out of steam. After all, once you’ve flung totally false charges of racism, imperialism, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, Nazism, war crimes etc for long enough, surely you’ll just get bored and move on. But where?
If the latest preposterous offering from the Guardian is anything to go by, you go into dreamland, literally. Think I’m making this up? Try this from Dr. Giles Fraser, whose author byline describes him as “priest-in-charge at St Mary’s Newington in south London and the former canon chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral.”
Dr Fraser’s article is headlined, Little wonder that my dreams in Nablus are so disturbing, and it begins with him waking up at 3am in his hotel in Nablus after dreaming about a ginger cat and some animal described as a cross between a mouse and a spider. After a short while, he goes to sleep again:
“But dreams return. I am walking down the street with a woman, next to a large concrete wall. I can hear panicked shouts, the sound of a large number of young people on the other side. Suddenly, one of the panels of the wall rotates, like a revolving door.
“Through the opening I glimpse people running away from something, but the source of the panic is unclear. She goes through the concrete door. I do not. The door closes. I hear more shouting. I don’t know if I should have gone through with her. All I know is that we are separated. I wake again, sweating, confused, frightened.”
The Guardian sympathetically portrays extremist group ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’
If the Guardian had checked the links at Canary Mission’s site, or engaged in even a minimal amount of original research, they would have easily established that the group’s claims regarding the extremist nature of SJP are completely accurate.
- SJP was founded in 2001 by Hatem Bazian, an extremist who endorsed an intifada in Palestine and the U.S., and expressed support for Islamist attacks on American soldiers in Iraq.
- SJP has staged events in which Israel was compared to Nazi Germany.
- SJP chapters hosted antisemitic speakers.
- SJP chapter events have included Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters.
- SJP members have physically assaulted Jewish students on campus and often disrupt pro-Israel events.
- Protests organized by SJP chapters have included hate-speech and chants such as “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free” – calling for the destruction of the Jewish State.
- SJP members have been condemned for using social media site to post antisemitic graphics. In 2014, SJP’s Tumblr account actually published a Nazi propaganda poster, captioned “Liberators”, seen here:
Finally, note the photo (seen at the beginning of this post) the Guardian used – a still shot taken from an SJP rally at Northeastern University in Boston in 2014 – designed to portray SJP activists in a sympathetic light.
As you can see in the following clip of the very protest in question, members of the group can be heard chanting their support for another violent intifada.
Kevin Connolly continues the BBC’s amplification of anti-Israel delegitimisation
Once again, no effort was made by Connolly to provide listeners with the necessary background information which would help them understand why the Israeli army and intelligence services should be interested in the activities of people such as Mahmoud Sarsak or Omar Abu Rois. And whilst Connolly again interviewed Israeli footballer Yossi Benayoun along with former Israeli diplomat Alan Baker, neither of those interviewees represent an official Israeli response.
As readers may be aware, in the end Jibril Rajoub withdrew his original motion from the FIFA agenda – for the time being at least and much to the chagrin of many. Interestingly, there has to date been no coverage of that development in the story on the BBC News website’s Middle East page.
The outstanding feature of all the BBC’s coverage of this latest Palestinian attempt to delegitimize Israel in the international arena is of course that – in common with its coverage of stories relating to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – the corporation has on the one hand failed to adequately explain to its audiences the political motivations lying behind the move whilst simultaneously giving uncritical and unqualified amplification to spurious labels such as “racism” and “apartheid”.
That editorial policy makes the BBC a self-conscripted partner in the carefully orchestrated campaign to portray Israel as an entity which no right-minded person can countenance and that of course is an issue upon which the publicly funded broadcaster must be held to account.
42+1 years on BBC still refrains from using the word terror
On May 27th the BBC World Service sent the following Tweet to its one hundred and ninety-four thousand followers.
The link promoted in that tweet leads to a filmed report which was actually first broadcast a year ago. As was noted here then, the synopsis to that report about the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre makes no use of the words terror, terrorism or terrorists.
That observation still stands.
Hollande warns of resurgent anti-Semitism
French President Francois Hollande reiterated statements against anti-Semitism at a ceremony honoring a part-Jewish victim of the Nazis along with three other resistance fighters.
Hollande made the statements on Wednesday, at a ceremony for the reburial of the resistance fighters’ remains in the French republic’s Pantheon in Paris.
“Seventy years on, these hatreds re-emerge,” Hollande said of the racism promoted by the Nazis and their French collaborators during Germany’s occupation of France. The haters have “different faces and under different circumstances, but always with the same words, and the same intentions. They target innocents, journalists, Jews and policemen,” Hollande said.
He also linked Nazi hatred to the killing of 17 people in Paris, in a series of attacks by Muslim fanatics in Paris in January. On Jan. 11, millions took to the streets in Paris to protest the killings.
Belgian cop says he’d ‘kill each and every Jew’
A junior police officer in Belgium is facing dismissal after saying he would kill “each and every Jew” during a debate on Facebook this past Friday.
“The word Jew itself is dirty. If I were in Israel, frankly, I would do to the Jews what they do with the Palestinians — slaughter each and every one of them,” wrote the officer, who was only referred to as Mohamed N. in Belgian media.
The debate quickly spiraled as the officer ignored requests from others in the discussion to tone down his statements, according to a report in Belgian paper Le Soir.
The officer was going by the pseudonym Bebeto Gladiateur.
“If this is true, this gentleman will see the door. There is no question about it,” Le Soir quoted Molenbeek Mayor Françoise Schepmans as saying. “The guardians of the peace assume a role of mediation in the community. They are the image of communal authority. His words shocked me… I cannot tolerate such an attitude of a communal agent.”
Music used as resistance to the Nazis captures new audiences
It might be hearing the survivors’ haunting voices, singing Yiddish songs recorded after the Holocaust, or maybe it’s listening to romantic songs from the “cabaret” at Westerbork, where Jews awaited weekly transports to death.
With many back-stories to choose from, a new wave of researchers and artists is elevating “music as resistance” to the forefront of Holocaust education. A leading project is the traveling mega-production called “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin,” a memorial concert for the musical prisoners of the Nazi camp Theresienstadt, also known as Terezin, outside Prague.
Launched in 2002, the production hinges on a lavish, full orchestra performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s seminal Requiem, a Roman Catholic funeral mass. It was this complex Latin arrangement that Jewish conductor Raphael Schachter, imprisoned in Theresienstadt, chose to perform with a chorus of 150 fellow prisoners in 1943.
To build their story around the 84-minute Verdi masterpiece, “Defiant Requiem” creators interspersed it with live narration, video testimony from Theresienstadt survivors, and “show” footage shot by Nazis inside the camp. The finished product has been performed more than 30 times around the world, and recently wrapped a coast-to-coast US tour.
Midburn – The freedom to be different
It’s three in the morning, and I’m lying on a mattress inside the Kino Time Resonance Pyramid, absorbing the throbbing, pulsating music emanating from the highest-quality loudspeakers. My audial senses saturated, I emerge into the star-filled Negev landscape as multitude lasers paint psychedelic pictures in the sky.
Draped in ubiquitous desert dust, I walk past the enormous pile of glowing embers that a few hours earlier was “Adam and Eve,” a towering wooden effigy of a man and woman that had imploded in a pyrotechnic orgy.
Hundreds of happy, dust-covered revelers dance like there’s no tomorrow in half-a-dozen installations around the sprawling site of Midburn, the Israeli version of the iconic Burning Man festival held annually in the Nevada desert.
The second Midburn, which ended a week ago near David Ben-Gurion’s home kibbutz, Sde Boker, attracted some 6,000 people, more than twice last year’s number – making it the third-largest event of its type anywhere.
It almost didn’t happen, due to police concerns about issues including public nudity, but Midburn spokesman Eyal Marcus told ISRAEL21c that compromises reached in court at the last minute let Midburn go forward.
Hyundai seeks Israeli tech for its ‘connected cars’
Korean car company Hyundai aims to become a leader in connected car technology – and it wants to use Israeli tech talent to accomplish that goal.
The company is sponsoring its first app hackathon contest (Hebrew), with developers of the best apps getting a NIS 100,000 prize and a contract with Hyundai Israel, and possibly, Hyundai agencies in other parts of the world.
The car of tomorrow may not be ready to fly, but it is ready to be tricked out with all sorts of communication technology that will help drivers get where they need to go more safely, possibly more quickly – and definitely more enjoyably. Already standard on some higher-end 2015 models are entertainment systems that integrate Internet radio apps (TuneIn, IheartRadio, Stitcher), direction apps (Waze, Google Maps), and communication apps (connections to smartphones, messaging systems).
Hyundai already incorporates these apps in some of its models (notably the i-35, one of its higher-end offerings), but it wants to go further – hence the i-Way hackathon, said Hyundai Israel director Davidi Piamenta.
“Unlike other companies, we have developed our own API, and participants in the contest will have access to it,” Piamenta told reporters at a press conference Sunday. “We want as many ideas in the first stage, after which we will cull the top three. Those apps will win prizes of NIS 100,000, NIS 30,000, and NIS 15,000.”
Indian PM set to make historic first visit to Israel
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Israel during the coming year, in what will be the first state visit by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish state. No firm date has yet been fixed for the trip.
The visit was announced by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who revealed she is also planning on traveling to the region in the near future, with stops in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Swaraj said the purpose of the tour was to strengthen India’s ties with regional governments.
The Modi trip would culminate a steady improvement in bilateral ties since Israel and India formalized full diplomatic relations in 1992.
However, it would not be the Indian politician’s first time in Israel; Modi visited Israel during his term as chief minister of Gurajat province, a position he held from 2001 to 2014.
Modi, who was elected prime minister last year, has made developing cooperation with Israel a focus for his government’s diplomatic policies. (h/t Herb Glatter)
Tens of thousands attend NYC Israel solidarity parade
Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets of New York on Sunday to mark the 51st annual Celebrate Israel Parade.
American and Israeli politicians joined 30,000 other people who marched up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in a show of solidarity with Israel for the all-day event marking Israel’s 67th birthday.
A number of Knesset members, including Minister without portfolio Ofir Akunis, Minister of Science, Technology and Space Danny Danon (Likud), Avraham Naguise (Likud), Yoav Ben Tzur (Shas) and Revital Swid and Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) represented the Israeli parliament at the parade.
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio also attended the event.
Some 35 organizations including the Israeli government, Nefesh B’Nefesh and the UJA Federation of New York, sponsored this year’s parade entitled “Israel Imagines Peace.”
Close to 100 soon-to-be immigrants to Israel from the Tri-State area participated in the march, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh.