Today I was having coffee outside with my family in a small village in the Portuguese countryside when we heard a guy at a table next to us tell his friends that there are no poor Jews, that Jews are always dirty and like being dirty, that there were 12 banks in Belmonte (a village close by with the only remaining "native" Jewish community in Portugal)... It was pretty surreal...
"We can better understand their biblical god when we know his followers. Jehovah or Yaweh or whatever he is called, is a fierce and spiteful god, whom the Israelis always live up to." José Saramago
"What is happening in Palestine is a crime we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz... A sense of impunity characterises the Israeli people and its army. They have turned into rentiers of the Holocaust."
Jose Saramago, Nobel laureate in literature and anti-Semite, died Friday aged 87 [2010].read more
Saramago won his prize in 1998. He put his new global fame to the service of a new cause: denunciations of Israel. But unlike other European anti-Zionists, Saramago explicitly connected his dislike of Israel to his feelings about Jews.
In a speech in Brazil on Oct. 13, 2003, Saramago reportedly unburdened himself of this thought about the world’s Jews: “Living under the shadows of the Holocaust and expecting to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They didn’t learn anything from he suffering of their parents and grandparents.”
It was Judaism itself that Saramago blamed for everything he disliked in Israel. He wrote in the Spanish newspaper El Pais on April 21, 2002:
“[C]ontaminated by the monstrous and rooted ‘certitude’ that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God … the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: ‘Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.’”A few weeks previous, Saramago had visited Ramallah. The visit occurred shortly after the Passover 2002 suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel that killed 30 people and wounded 140 more. Saramago expressed no grief for these murdered innocents. Instead, he toured areas damaged during fighting between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces and pronounced to a Portuguese radio interviewer: “[I]n Palestine, there is a crime which we can stop. We may compare it with what happened at Auschwitz.”
Most European critics of Israel try to draw some kind of line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. The line may be half-hearted and unconvincing, but still — they try. Saramago ignored such niceties. He followed the example of Middle Eastern anti-Zionists: He hated Israel, he hated the Jews who lived there and he did not scruple to express his hatred bluntly.
In 2006, Saramago joined a group of other writers in a statement denouncing Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon: Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Canada’s Naomi Klein. They accused Israel of plotting the “liquidation of the Palestinian nation.”
"Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a Greater Israel which will finally achieve the expansionist dreams of the most radical Zionism; contaminated by the monstrous and rooted 'certitude' that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God and that, consequently, all the actions of an obsessive, psychological and pathologically exclusivist racism are justified; educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted, or is being inflicted, or will be inflicted on everyone else, especially the Palestinians, will always be inferior to that which they themselves suffered in the Holocaust, the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner."
France, the Grand Annexer, lectures Israel? How do you say chutzpah in French? by Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book, “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror,” is now available on Kindle.
The member states of the European Union—both individually and collectively via the Quartet—are in a tizzy and hypocritically warning Israel against annexation, even as those same countries continue to occupy numerous territories that they have annexed.read more
Let’s start with the French. France recently urged the European Union to take punitive measures against Israel if it annexes anything.
That’s right, France—which has been ruling the 890-square mile Reunion Island, off the southeast coast of Africa, for more than 300 years. And the 144-square mile Mayotte Island for nearly 200 years. The area of the Gush Etzion communities is all of 45 square miles.
France, which has been occupying the five so-called “Scattered Islands” in defiance of a 1979 U.N. resolution demanding that those islands be surrendered to Madagascar.
France, which in 1955 announced that the thousands of miles of what it calls “French Southern and Antarctic Lands” would henceforth be considered an official French Overseas Territory. By what right, exactly?
And France, the Grand Annexer, lectures Israel on annexation? How do you say chutzpah in French?
While it has one foot in and the other out of the European Union, England, too, has weighed in. The Brits are furious at the thought of Israeli annexation. Cabinet minister (and chairman of the ruling Conservative Party) James Cleverly told parliament that such Israeli action would be make it “harder” to achieve peace.
I wonder why the British never had such concerns when Jordan annexed all of Judea and Samaria—not just the tiny portion Israel is considering—back in 1950. In fact, England was one of only two countries in the entire world (the other was Pakistan) that recognized the Jordanian annexation.
It was too good to last:
The Portuguese government is working on a proposal to limit nationality concessions to Jews descendants of Sefardis expelled from Portugal after dozens of thousands citizenships were offered in the last years. It will require 2 years of residence in Portugal starting next year. The reasons mentioned include aggressive publicity campaigns in Turkey and Israel, and big law offices building a big business out of it.
[…] When 36 percent of Portuguese respondents, along with 32 percent of Spaniards, 31 percent of Italians, and 28 percent of Belgians agree that “Jews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in,” that’s concerning. And when 36 percent of Italians, 33 percent of Portuguese, 30 percent of Spanish, and 28 percent of Belgian respondents tell Pew pollsters they agree that “Jews always overstate how much they have suffered,” that’s a red flag. Neighbors who believe you’re exaggerating about historical suffering are unlikely to empathize over your contemporary concerns.
For a more explicit deep-dive into this subject, consult the ADL Global 100 index of antisemitism, which added an 18-nation update in 2019. ADL’s top-line conclusion is that 24 percent of Western Europeans and 34 percent of Eastern Europeans hold antisemitic views. Those numbers are followed by extensive, substantiating details.
Hesitating to dub strangers antisemites is wise, especially based on limited information. It’s worth reading the country reports in full, if only to understand the particular form antisemitism takes in each society. However, I’d like to focus on the survey’s first question as an important sign post for this inquiry.
Respondents were asked whether “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this country/to the countries they live in].” Anyone answering “probably true” views Jews as “the other.” Whether through ignorance or malice, this group is primed to believe antisemitic conspiracy theories, including myths about Jews controlling financial markets, the media, and world governments, or blaming Jews for the world’s wars.
The fact that 33 percent of British respondents deemed that statement “probably true” helps explain Corbynism’s growth and the “record high total of 1,805 antisemitic incidents in the UK last year.” Also, the fact that 64 percent of Poles, 62 percent of Spaniards, 50 percent of Belgians, 49 percent of Germans, 49 percent of Austrians, and 39 percent of Russians think this statement is “probably true” speaks volumes.
It’s easier to understand Jews being widely dehumanized at public celebrations when we understand how widespread the antisemitic virus is in Europe. That knowledge necessarily informs European Jews’ decisions about how openly Jewish to be in their daily lives - for those who aren’t visibly Jewish - and whether they consider it safe to remain in their home countries.
For those who would combat antisemitism, it also offers a window into the immense challenge ahead. Antisemitism’s European roots are centuries deep, so any curricular component would have to start long before the Holocaust.read more
Also worth pondering is the microscopic percentage of respondents truly familiar with Jews. That only 2 percent of Polish respondents reported interacting with Jews “very often,” while the same was true of 4 percent of respondents in Belgium and 1 percent in Spain, is instructive. Demonizing people you know only as ugly caricatures is easy. So it’s theoretically possible that person-to-person diplomacy, especially starting at early ages, could help reverse some of these conspiratorial beliefs.
But fundamentally, this is not European Jewry’s problem to fix. If things change, it will be because Europe’s non-Jewish majority decides it’s time to make their nations’ collective future brighter than their past.
Palestinian musicians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip are facing death threats after a Muslim scholar, Sheikh Mohammed Sliman al-Farra, published a fatwa (a legal opinion or ruling issued by an Islamic scholar) prohibiting a local band from performing.read more
Farra works for Islamic University of Gaza, a member of four regional and international associations of higher education, and has project partnerships with more than 130 European universities and research centers located in 21 EU countries.
Published on November 23, 2019, the fatwa targets Sol Band, a Palestinian music group established in the Gaza Strip eight years ago:
"The music group Sol Band, which has been roaming the streets of the Gaza Strip, has been violating God's sanctities by promoting tabarruj (women dressing up immodestly in violation of Islamic teachings) and the mixing of the sexes... Their actions weaken the young men and encourage sinners. Indulging it leads to great corruption and evil and results in behavioral and intellectual deviation among young people. It is not permissible to promote or meet with them or listen to their songs, even if they are patriotic."[…] The campaign of incitement against Sol Band did not surprise many Palestinians, particularly those living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The only songs Hamas and its followers want are those that promote hate and violence.
One Hamas song, released in 2017, is titled "Zionist, You Will Perish in Gaza."
Another Hamas song threatens to eat Jews alive. "I will eat you alive, tastes best without salt, Zionist – Yes, yes, you." The lyrics and rhythmic beat are accompanied by animation, in which rockets are being fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel.
A recent Hamas song includes many images of violence and actual terror attacks. Among the scenes showed during the rendition are stabbings, car-ramming attacks and explosions. The lyrics include the following statements:
"Where are you, O rebel; wrap the explosive belt around [your waist]; blow up the Zionists, don't fear; scatter the enemies' body parts, make the skulls fly in the sky."The members of Sol Band did not call for "scattering the body parts" of Jews, and that is probably the main reason why they are being targeted by Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip. The musicians would have been welcomed by Hamas had they called on Palestinians to "make the skulls of (Jews) fly in the sky." This is the only type of song that the Muslim extremists are willing to tolerate.
What is disturbing, however, is the silence of the international community, specifically the EU partners of Islamic University in Gaza, where Farra serves as a lecturer. Do the Europeans working with the university condone threats against musicians?
Or are the Europeans ignoring Farra's fatwa because it was issued by a Muslim against Muslims? The EU countries and educational institutions are most likely ignoring such threats because they were not made by Israel.
Had Sol Band been threatened by Israel, the Europeans and other international human rights organizations would have issued immediate statements condemning Israel.
The silence of the international community emboldens Hamas and scholars such as Farra, and allows them to continue their repressive measures against Palestinians. It also allows Hamas and terror groups to continue calling for blowing up the skulls of Jews and eating them alive.
I know the outcome in Portugal. This cartoonist will be hailed as an hero of free speech and everyone here will stand by his side (this was what happened when cartoonist Antonio of the New York Times was condemned). Israel hatred is mainstream in Portugal (dominated for decades by a sociological left wing). If you want to learn something about Israel you have to read foreign press but you need to be previously interested in the issue to do such research. Otherwise, you will only know the hardcore anti-Israeli tale: that in the Middle East there is an oppressed people called "Palestinians" who are being put in ghettos and then randomly killed by Jews by no reason except sadism. When Eurovision was held in Tel Aviv, several well-known Portuguese artists signed a letter asking for a boycott. This letter made very serious accusations against Israel, namely that the Nation State Law established the superiority of the "Jewish race" over other races, and that in Gaza people were being killed by Israeli soldiers with impunity. The letter made no explanation of these killings and no mention of Hamas. I suppose that this letter was more extreme than other BDS letters in other countries. Because here nobody cares. In fact, nobody refuted these claims. Publicly showing support for Israel is rare. The Jewish community is very very tiny [about 600 people]. The Sephardi Jews who applied for Portuguese nationality also do not stay here, they just use the law in order to gain access to Europe.
The artist for the grotesque, antisemitic cartoon shown above is Portuguese cartoonist Vasco Gargalo. He has a history of such antisemitic cartoons; he also entered in Holocaust cartoon contests from Iran.
Gargalo received an award entitled "Prix Plumes libres pour la démocratie" from the magazine "Courrier International" and the City of Strasbourg last November.
Gargalo has quite an oeuvre.
Published on 2 December @ Sábado magazine and on Gargalo's twitter account.
Even an Israeli winning Eurovision was too much for him to stomach. Because all Israeli Jews are evil and they must not win international competitions.
Yeah, he's an antisemite.
The president of B'nai Brith France, Phillipe Meyer reacted by calling the award an "aberration, provocation, infamy." As soon as this was publicized last week there were other strong condemnations.
Finally, the magazine and City of Strasbourg withdrew the reward, calling the Nazi cartoon above "heinous" and saying that had they known about the cartoons, they would never have awarded the prize.
At issue are the statements that Abel Matos Santos made, from 2012 to 2015, in various publications on the social network Facebook, with praise for Salazar and PIDE. Portugal’s consul in Bordeaux, Aristides Sousa Mendes, also called the “loan shark of the Jews”, who helped save thousands of Jews during World War II.Calling Aristides de Sousa Mendes a corrupt loan shark for the Jews is revolting. When died in 1954, he was so poor that he was buried in a Franciscan habit because he did not own a proper suit.
The CDS “cannot be conniving” with the statements of its leader Abel Matos Santos about Aristides Sousa Mendes, writes this Thursday in a statement to the Israeli Community of Lisbon (CIL).
It is a reaction to the positions of the member of the centrist executive committee and a former candidate for the leadership of the party, who on social media called the “Jewish loan shark” to the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, which saved 30,000 lives from the Nazi Holocaust. It is with “amazement and surprise” that CIL reacts to the words of Matos Santos, that Expresso reported on Wednesday.
Its content, considers this Jewish organization in Portugal, is “offensive to the memory of one of the greatest diplomats in Portugal, the consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Justo entre Nações”. The statement is signed by CIL President José Oulman Carp.
During World War II, Sousa Mendes disobeyed Salazar’s orders to allow 30,000 Jews to pass through Portugal, issuing visas and allowing them to escape the concentration and extermination camps. He claimed to have done it as an “act of conscience”.
He ended up demoted by the dictator, but he was one of the first people recognized as Just Among Nations by Yad Vashem, an organization that preserves the memory of the victims of the Shoah, based in Jerusalem. Thus considered in 1966, he is one of four Portuguese distinguished with the title, alongside the also diplomat Carlos Sampayo Garrido (2010), Father Joaquim Carreira (2014) and José Brito-Mendes, of Portuguese origin but listed as French for being emigrant.read more
Jose Saramago, Nobel laureate in literature and anti-Semite, died Friday aged 87 [2010].read more
Saramago won his prize in 1998. He put his new global fame to the service of a new cause: denunciations of Israel. But unlike other European anti-Zionists, Saramago explicitly connected his dislike of Israel to his feelings about Jews.
In a speech in Brazil on Oct. 13, 2003, Saramago reportedly unburdened himself of this thought about the world’s Jews: “Living under the shadows of the Holocaust and expecting to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They didn’t learn anything from he suffering of their parents and grandparents.”
It was Judaism itself that Saramago blamed for everything he disliked in Israel. He wrote in the Spanish newspaper El Pais on April 21, 2002:
“[C]ontaminated by the monstrous and rooted ‘certitude’ that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God … the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: ‘Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.’”A few weeks previous, Saramago had visited Ramallah. The visit occurred shortly after the Passover 2002 suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel that killed 30 people and wounded 140 more. Saramago expressed no grief for these murdered innocents. Instead, he toured areas damaged during fighting between Israeli and Palestinian armed forces and pronounced to a Portuguese radio interviewer: “[I]n Palestine, there is a crime which we can stop. We may compare it with what happened at Auschwitz.”
Most European critics of Israel try to draw some kind of line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. The line may be half-hearted and unconvincing, but still — they try. Saramago ignored such niceties. He followed the example of Middle Eastern anti-Zionists: He hated Israel, he hated the Jews who lived there and he did not scruple to express his hatred bluntly.
In 2006, Saramago joined a group of other writers in a statement denouncing Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon: Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Canada’s Naomi Klein. They accused Israel of plotting the “liquidation of the Palestinian nation.”
"Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a Greater Israel which will finally achieve the expansionist dreams of the most radical Zionism; contaminated by the monstrous and rooted 'certitude' that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God and that, consequently, all the actions of an obsessive, psychological and pathologically exclusivist racism are justified; educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted, or is being inflicted, or will be inflicted on everyone else, especially the Palestinians, will always be inferior to that which they themselves suffered in the Holocaust, the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner."
It features an Israeli prime minister, Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, a hit squad and a Shin Beth spy chief. But this is not another story on the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict but an opera unusually with a libretto in Hebrew, the official language of Israel.read more
"The Sleeping Thousand", an opera by Israeli composer Adam Maor with the libretto by Yonatan Levy, was premiered at the prestigious Aix-en-Provence opera festival in southern France this month.
"This opera speaks of oppression and above all, its impact on the oppressor," Maor told AFP. [...]
Maor is hugely critical of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians and spent two years behind bars for refusing to do his compulsory military service in protest at the "immorality of the occupation" of the Palestinian territories.
In the opera, which inhabits a world between science fiction and fantasy, a thousand Palestinian prisoners begin a hunger strike generating widespread media interest.
The Israeli government decides to sedate them "so that the world can move on to something else".
"It works very well until the day when the Israelis start having nightmares and wake up in the night speaking Arabic," explained Maor, 36.
One day, the government concludes that the Palestinians were seeking to sabotage Israeli dreams.
"They are tunnelling into the world of Jewish dreams and carrying out terror attacks!" declares an aide to the prime minister in the opera.
The prime minister then decides to send in the aide as a spy in Palestinian garb to kill them.
The different characters, all of them Israelis, are taken on by four singers. And at the back of the stage are the "sleeping" Palestinians, all played by volunteers lying on beds.
Referring to his own stint in jail, Maor said: "I chose to go to prison, whereas they (the Palestinians) didn't."
Thousands of Palestinians are held by Israel, some without charge under so-called administrative detention orders. They often go on hunger strike to highlight their plight.
Israel insists such detentions are necessary to punish criminals who carried out or planned violent acts, and ensure the Jewish state's security. [...]
Maor's family originally came from Damascus, where many Syrian Jews lived before leaving in the years before Israel's creation in 1948. But he is not sure he will ever be able to see his opera performed in Israel itself, complaining about the "the government's growing pressure on dissenting artists" under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Antonio Antunes denies his NY Times caricature of Netanyahu as a dog leading blind Trump is anti-Semitic, says it critiques Israel’s ‘criminal conduct in Palestine’
The Portuguese cartoonist behind the New York Times cartoon that depicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog has rejected charges of anti-Semitism, calling critics part of the “Jewish propaganda machine.”
Antonio Moreira Antunes, who draws for the Expresso newspaper published in Lisbon, told CNN Wednesday that Jews were not “above criticism.”
The calls of anti-Semitism were “made through the Jewish propaganda machine, which is, anytime there’s criticism it’s because there’s someone anti-Semitic on the other side, and that’s not the case,” Antunes told CNN.
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On Monday, Antunes said the cartoon was “a critique of Israeli policy, which has a criminal conduct in Palestine at the expense of the UN, and not the Jews,” Expresso reported.
“The Star of David is an aid to identify a figure [Netanyahu] that is not very well known in Portugal,” the cartoonist explained to Expresso.
He blamed right-wing figures saying: “The Jewish right doesn’t want to be criticized, and therefore, when criticized they say ‘We are a persecuted people, we suffered a lot… this is anti-Semitism.'”
Antunes claimed he was personally hurt by the Times’ statements of apology since publishing the caricature, saying the paper should have seen his work as “a political issue and not religious.”
Maybe it is just me, but this tweet from UN Secretary-General António Guterres does not represent his finest moment.
Out of all the photos he could have chosen, he goes with one with kites in the background? Yup, #DignityIsPriceless. [Gazans send fire-starting kites into Israel]
"It is very worrying and depressing to see such vile antisemitic expressions made at the European Parliament by a member of The Progressives," tweeted Katharina von Schnurbein, ,the EU’s Coordinator on Combating anti-Semitism, after Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes called Jewish organizations "a very perverse lob that and uses intimidation tactics."
"Such expressions are not illegal, but they are antisemitic, and we will speak up against any form of anti-Semitism for the sake of an open society," von Schnurbein added.
Gomes, who is a member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) made the incendiary comments on 28 February as she hosted in the European Parliament in Brussels a conference with as speaker Omar Barghouti, co-founder of BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) movement which calls for a total economic, academic and cultural boycott of the state of Israel. During her introductory statement, the MEP falsely accused the Jewish organizations, which had protested and opposed the invitation of Barghouti in the parliament, of telling "a lot of lies".
When Gomes was asked during the Q&A session if she had perhaps misspoken, she categorically refused to retract her offensive remarks.
"Who would have thought that 70 years after the Holocaust, a center-left lawmaker in the European Parliament would take a page straight out of “The Protocols of the Elder of Zion," spinning a tale of an allegedly sinister and ‘perverse’ Jewish lobby," said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Transatlantic Institute, in a statement.
"The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of anti-Semitism, which the European Parliament itself adopted less than a year ago, considers as anti-Semitic "making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective."
Schwammenthal said Gomes’s statement "is a textbook example of a classic anti-Semitic trope".
"It is shocking enough that Mrs. Gomes would promote extremist groups like the BDS movement, which ultimately seek the end of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, and would even go as far as demonizing Jewish civil society organizations. But if Parliament remains silent in the face of her vitriolic attacks on European Jews, it risks damaging the reputation of the entire institution," he added.read more
Please ask Mr. Barghouti tomorrow what he understands under #RightOfReturn Which Palestinian state is he advocating for, what role does Israel play in that scenario, does he accept borders of 48 & what are his stands on #Hamas? Answers are online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvpsGd8K4Y …MEP Ana Gomes (member of ruling Socialist Party, Portugal):
He doesn’t, you’re selectively quoting him out of context. But lots of young Palestinians are calling for it, pushed into that desperate corner by the destructive illegal Israeli occupation which makes unviable a democratic State in Palestine, in their view.European Jewish Congress:
Why do you want to discuss this with #Barghouti who explicitly calls for one-state solution?MEP Ana Gomes (member of ruling Socialist Party, Portugal):
Yr smear campaign won’t work: I’m against #antisemitism & any form of #racism. I’m against those who want to destroy #Israel. That is why we need to discuss @EP impact of Israeli settlements/illegal occupation in #Palestine: that’s what is discrediting & threatening #Israel.
A "perverse lobby" is allegedly spreading lies, to supposedly silence her, says @AnaGomes MEP. We assume this outrageous insult, under @TheProgressives banner, is directed at us & other Jewish organizations protesting her invitation to extremist BDS founder Barghouti.
Jewish groups protested against the invitation made to Omar Barghouti, leader and co-founded of the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott-Disinvestment-Sanctions) to address a conference next week in the European Parliament in Brussels.read more
The conference, titled “The Israeli Settlement in Palestine and the European Union” is to be held on February 28. It is organized by Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).
Omar Barghouti repeatedly compares the state of Israel to the Nazi regime. His BDS movement calls for a total economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel and doesn’t work towards peace.
The President of B’nai B’rith Europe Serge Dahan sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani to express his "deepest concern" regarding the invitation made to Barghouti. In the letter, he asked him to defend European Union’s fundamental values and the security of civil society by not leaving any space to hate speech in the European Parliament.
In the letter Dahan stresses that BDS campaigns against Israel "are obstacles to the Middle East peace process, dismantling existing links between Israeli and Palestinian universities, artists and professionals; it harms cultural bonds and working relations that occur every day between Israelis and Palestinian society."
The Jewish communities of Portugal and Belgium also protested the invitation to Barghouti. Yohan Benizri, president of CCOJB, the umbrella group of French-speaking Jewish communities in Belgium, and Gabriel Steinhardt, president of the Jewish Community of Lisbon, wrote of their disapproval in a letter to President Tajani.
Barghouti’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement addresses "not only the disputed territories but opposes the very existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state in its entirety and in any kind of borders," the communal leaders wrote.
By offering a podium to Barghouti, "the house directly undermines its own policy stance on anti-Semitism," they added, citing how some BDS activists "consistently engage in practices which are considered anti-Semitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition on anti-Semitism." The Jewish leaders’ call was co-signed by representatives of the European Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute, ELNET and the European Union of Jewish Students.
Dear@TheProgressives: Has it now become acceptable to host speakers in the European Parliament who promote the total economic, academic & cultural boycott of#Israel & who oppose the 2-state-solution? We hope not.
On World Photography Day, over 40 Portuguese photographers, teachers of photography and photography students have launched a pledge not to accept professional invitations or financing from the State of Israel and to refuse to collaborate with Israeli cultural institutions complicit in Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid.
The pledge is the first of its kind (...) The photographers pledge to boycott Israel until it“complies with international law and respects the human rights of Palestinians.”
Among the pledge supporters are João Pina, winner of the 2017 Prémio Estação Imagem Viana do Castelo, Portugal’s only photojournalism award and Nuno Lobito, TV personality and one of the most travelled Portuguese of all times (204 countries, 193 recognised). (...)
Miguel Carriço, winner of the 2012 Concelho da Bienal de Vila Franca de Xira award, urged fellow photographers to join the call :
“Having witnessed first-hand the crimes Israel is committing daily against Palestinians, signing up to this initiative has become a natural step. It is fundamental to promote this effort through all means possible.”(...) Traveller-photographer Nuno Lobito said :
“It is time for Israel’s brand of apartheid to enjoy the same treatment as South African apartheid and be target of a comprehensive internacional boycott until it respects human rights. Photographers can no longer be silent about the treatment of their Palestinian colleagues living under an indefensible occupation that has lasted for over half a century. Palestinians have called for solidarity through boycotts and this pledge is our practical contribution to their struggle.”
Signatory José Soudo, a veteran Photography teacher and Historian, commented :
“The history of photography is full of examples, from the 19th century to today, of photographers who gave their sight to the service of the oppressed and destitute.”
For João Henriques, winner of the 2015 Fnac New Talents Award, “to participate in this solidarity initiative for Palestine is to believe in the power of photography to provide testimony, to create conscience and to have empathy for the Other.”The full list of signatories has not been published.
