Slovenia recognition of a Palestinian state decision is suspended

Via European Jewish Press:

The Slovenian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee has suspended a debate on whether to recognize a "state of Palestine."

The committee was to vote on a draft resolution with the backing of Slovenia Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec before it passes to the parliament for a full vote.

According to officials, the foreign affairs committee suspended its session pending an official government position. The committee will then meet again on the government proposal before the final vote in the plenary, which is expected in March or April.

On Friday, Slovenia’s president Borut Pahor cast doubt on his country recognising Palestine. 

read more

Sweden, Russia support UNESCO measure condemning "Israeli occupation of Jerusalem"

Russia and Sweden supported the measure.  Sweden was the only Western and democratic regime to support it.

The measure passed thanks to all the countries who abstained.  In Europe these include: Albania, Spain, Estonia, France and Slovenia


Via UN Watch:

The resolution on Jerusalem, despite a passing mention of “the three monotheistic religions,” ignores Jewish and Christian religious and historical ties to the city, condemning Israel for excavations of the Jewish capital that have revealed the ancient City of David, along with pottery inscriptions, coins and artifacts connected to Jewish life during and before the time of Jesus.

“Once again, the United Nations agency for education, science and culture is being hijacked by genocidal regimes and serial human rights abusers like Sudan, Iran, Algeria, Qatar, and Russia,” said Neuer.

read more

France, Sweden and Slovenia abstain on antisemitic UNESCO proposal

UNESCO's motto is "Building peace in the minds of men and women".  Apparently, that does not include Jews.

Today UNESCO passed a resolution which denies the Jewish ties to Judaism's most holiest sites.

The countries which voted against the resolution: US, UK, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Germany

France, Sweden and Slovenia were going to support the measure, but in the end were conviced to abstain.

France and Sweden repeatedly claim they care about Jews.   They have now proved once again that they couldn't care less. 

Via i24 News:

24 UNESCO member states voted in favor of the resolution, 26 abstained, and only six countries voted against.

The proposal, put forth by the Palestinians, along with Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, condemns Israel on several issues related to Jerusalem and its holy sites.

The draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by Ha'aretz, acknowledges that the city of Jerusalem is holy to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity but says the Temple Mount holy site is sacred only to Muslims and fails to mention its significance to Jews.

In fact, Ha'aretz writes , an entire section of the proposal dedicated specifically to the Temple Mount complex refers only to the site's Muslim names (Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif) and fails to mention its Hebrew or English names (Har HaBayit or Temple Mount).

The resolution refers also to the Western Wall plaza by its Muslim name (al-Buraq plaza) and only mentions its Hebrew-Jewish name (Hakotel Hama'aravi) later in quotation marks.

The flashpoint complex is considered Judaism's holiest site, once the site of the first and second Temples, and is the third holiest to the Muslim faith.

read more

France, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia support UNESCO resolution denying Jewish ties to Temple Mount, Western Wall

Via Jerusalem Post:

UNESCO’s Executive Board in Paris on Friday adopted a resolution whose language ignored Jewish ties to the holy religious site of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall area in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The broad ranging resolution condemned Israeli actions in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. But the resolution focused in large part on Israeli actions with regard to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall Plaza.

All three major monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christian and Islam — consider the Temple Mount to be a holy site.

But the UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aksa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, except for two references to the Western Wall Plaza that were put in parenthesis.

The text also referred to the plaza area by the Western Wall as the Al-Buraq Plaza.

(...)

UNESCO called on Israel not to restrict Muslim worshipers from accessing the Al-Aksa Mosque site and condemned the violence that occurred there in the fall, but solely focused on Israeli actions in those incidents and not on the violence of the Muslim rioters at the site.

It condemned Israeli plans to build a prayer space for Women of the Wall by Robinson’s Arch, although it did not mention the group by name.

The resolution also charged that Israel had planed “Jewish fake graves” in other Muslim cemeteries located on Wakf property east and south of the Al-Aksa mosque.

The 58-member board approved the resolution 19 with 33 votes in favor, six against and 17 abstention. Two countries, Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent all together.

Those countries who opposed it outright were: Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

France, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia were among those countries who supported the resolution.

A second resolution that more globally condemned Israeli actions, passed with 45 votes in favor, 1 vote against and 11 abstentions.

read more

Slovenia: Supermarket chain boycotts Israel

Via Times of Israel:

Slovenia’s largest supermarket chain has succumbed to pressure from the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and pulled Israeli produce off its shelves, the Ynet news website reported Tuesday.

The Israeli produce carried by the Mercator chain consisted largely of citrus fruits, avocados and dates.

read more

Slovenia: Philosopher Slavoj Zizek tells an obscene Jewish joke in an interview with Spiegel

German newspaper Spiegel interviewed Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. The newspaper believes that the man is a genius and claims that he "is one of Europe's boldest intellectuals", "one of the most famous contemporary thinkers and cultural theorists in the world" and "a globally influential intellectual" who in a new work "argues Europe shouldn't be overly tolerant towards Islamism".  So we should reverentially heed what this intellectual super hero has to say.

In fact he doesn't say much about islamism or Islam.  Unsurprisingly Zizek had more to say about Jews than Islamism.  And the genius tells an allegdly supposedly Jewish joke - aren't Jews marvellously adept at self-derision?  But, unsurprisingly again, no joke about Muslims.  He admits that the joke is obscene, but it's always such a pleasure in Europe to poke fun at the Jews - and their Jew-obsession carries absolutely no risk:

Or take the Jewish joke -- they can be wonderful in their self-derision. Do you know this one? A Jewish woman of Polish origin -- they're considered to be particularly serious in nature -- stoops as she cleans a tile floor. When her husband gets home and sees her stretched backside, he pulls up her skirt in excitement and takes her from behind. When he is finished, he asks his wife if she has also been brought to climax. No, she says, I still have three more tiles to go. Without obscene exchanges like that, we don't have any real contact with each other -- just a cold respect.

Has the  humanist, bold philosopher anything to say about the massacre of Christians in Africa, in the Middle East? About the way the Roma are treated in Europe?  Nothing at all. The journalist doesn't bother either.  But he obviously had to bring up the Palestinians as a great universal cause. How so?

Spiegel: So how can we develop an emancipatory solidarity between groups that are culturally different?

Žižek: [..]  Everything is dependent on this: the battle for the Palestinians and against anti-Semitism, WikiLeaks and Pussy Riot -- all are part of the same struggle. If not, then we can all just kill ourselves.