UK: Israeli Airbnb guest refused by British host because of citizenship

The Jerusalem Post reports:

An Israeli man said a British Airbnb host refused to rent an apartment to him because, the host said, Israelis don’t respect “basic human rights.”

Ben Kelmer, a Tel Aviv photographer, reserved a London apartment for a week in March through the online company, which has come under fire recently for listing properties in West Bank settlements. In some cases, the listings indicate that the properties are in Israel proper.

When Kelmer contacted the host with a question about public transportation, the host said he could not “even consider hosting you,” the UK’s Jewish News reported.

“This is how the world pictures you: aggressive settlers occupying land, destroying houses. In a few words: not respecting basic human rights,” the message said. “On that basis, I just cannot even consider hosting you, even if you pay me millions.”Kelmer posted to Airbnb’s Facebook page: “We were served a healthy dose of Grade A, European bigotry and discrimination at its finest, poorly masked as so-called, socially-conscious political protest of the worst, most prejudiced kind, that is strictly reserved to Israelis.”

 Read more.
 

France: Israeli mobile carrier Partner severs Orange ties re damaging comments by Orange CEO Stephane Richard

Globes reports:

Partner is receiving €90 million compensation for the damaging comments by Orange CEO Stephane Richard.


Israeli mobile carrier Partner Communications Ltd. officially announced today that it is severing ties with France's Orange and ending their brand licensing agreement. The end of the relationship comes after 17 years of cooperation and a crisis last year when Orange International CEO Stephane Richard distanced himself from Israel when speaking in Egypt. He said that he would end Orange's cooperation with Israel and leave the country immediately for political reasons, if he could. Richard subsequently apologized. 

In its announcement today Partner said it had, "Notified Orange of its decision to terminate the Orange brand license agreement according to the framework agreement between the parties. Partner will continue providing goods and services under the Orange brand name until further announcement." However, it is safe to assume that Partner will soon be launching its own brand.

Orange is paying Partner €40 million compensation in several quarterly payments as damages for its CEO's statement and a further €50 million will be paid in another year after cooperation between the two companies is ended.

Portugal: Daily boasts Porto FC Muslim players scored 2 goals against Maccabi Tel Aviv

Via RM. A Portuguese newspaper (Público) points out that Maccabi Tel Aviv lost 2-0 to Porto FC with both goals being scored by Muslims. Headline calls the scorers "Muslim alliance".

Público belongs to the "capitalistic" group Sonae...  The newspaper gleefully and proudly boasts that the three Muslim players "Muslim Alliance" (headline) defeated 'you know who' from Israel.  Portugal has virtually no Jews - around 1.000. 

Luxembourg: Largest supermarket chain pulls Israeli produce

Ynet News reports:

Luxembourg's largest supermarket chain, Cactus, had decided to halt the sale of produce until its supplier finds proof that its origin is not the West Bank.


The chain's management caved in to pressure by the pro-Palestinian organization Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient, which held noisy demonstrations at the chain's stores, claiming that they sold products from settlements.

A Cactus supermarket (Photo: Cactus website)

The protests continued for months, until managers acquiesced and wrote to the group that it was suspending the sale of Israeli produce. The chain's management said income from Israeli produce is minimal and is not worth the annoyance to customers caused by protests.

However, the chain announced that it would continue to slel other Israeli products like SodaStream devices and equipment, which provide more significant profits.  Read more.

France: Village café owner accuses Judeo-nazism and Israel of being terrorist state

Daphne Anson reports that Reiner Hickman a German cafe owner in Eguisheim, Alsace, (a village with less than 2,000 inhabitants), promotes BDS.

Off the menu at his cafe are these products:

"The following products are no longer sold in this café because of the support their
producers extend to the terrorist state of Israel, considering the atrocities perpetrated
against the Palestinian people: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Perrier "

Not everybody is happy.

Here are the proprietor's latest posts on Facebook:

As you can see from the above, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, to link this doughty adherent of the BDS movement to antisemitism.  Linking BDS to antisemitism is all a Zionist slur, innit.

(Hat tip: Jean Vercors)

UK: Israel omitted but Palestine included on chain store globe

Great sense of humour.  The globe where Israel does not feature is, according to the retailer, a “great novel stationery product perfect for any school or university student”.

Breitbart reports (Via Elder of Ziyon):

A novelty globe sold at Poundland shops in the UK and Ireland displays “Palestine” where the State of Israel should be featured. The £1 Mini Globe, described as a “unique desk accessory” was bought at a London branch of the budget chain store on Kilburn High Street.

Jewish News reports the flawed geographic aid is also featured on the Poundland website. There it is promoted by the cut-price retailer as being a “great novel stationery product perfect for any school or university student” – although presumably not one wanting to gain a rudimentary knowledge of actual real-life geography such as the existence and location of the State of Israel.

“The globe features a key on the underside which includes a number of countries including Israel. However, we are investigating the product further with our supplier to determine if improvements could be made. We would like to thank the customer for bringing this issue to our attention.”

No explanation has been given as to why the novelty children’s globe, distributed by Birmingham-based company H&O, endows Palestine with full nation state status rather than Israel.  Read more.

UK: EE network censors and blocks pro-Israel sites - no restriction on vicious anti-Israel sites

Edgar Davisdon writes:

I have discovered that the EE network in the UK is censoring pro-Israel websites and blogs, including my own. If you are using 3G or 4G on your mobile phone with the default settings and try to connect to such a website you get the Content Lock screen above warning that the site is not suitable for people under 18. Only by providing a credit card or changing your account settings can you get round this.

Just in case anybody thinks this has nothing to do with Israel or antisemitism please note the following:

While my pro-Israel blog is blocked, my 'twin alternative' Free Palestine Now  blog  - which has exactly the same owner and account -  is not blocked. Although it has managed to fool plenty of antisemites and anti-Israel fanatics (including, incidentally, many from the Palestine Solidarity Committee) Free Palestine Now is actually a satirical blog that pumps out ludicrous antisemitic conspiracy theories and Israel hatred in the spirit of 'real' anti-Israel websites. EE certainly do not know it is a spoof (they would censor it otherwise) - it is presumably classified as either 'pro-Palestine' or 'anti-Israel' which is OK in their eyes. I could find not a single anti-Israel site (no matter how inflammatory, including things like Electronic Intifada and all the sites dedicated to the boycott and demonisation of Israel) that was censored by EE.

Yet, other popular pro-Israel sites that are censored by EE include:

• IsraellyCool
• Daphne Anson
• Israpundit

More.

France: Air France wipes Israel off of the map... literally

The Jerusalem Post reports:

 Passengers on an Air France flight to Paris noticed something missing from their in-flight map. 

An Air France in-flight map omits Israel, according to a passenger who sent a photo to the Facebook page of the pro-Israel organization Stand With Us. In the photo of the map, there were only indicators of where the West Bank and the Gaza strip are.

Since posting that photo, other members of the Facebook page have started posting their own photos, taken on Air France flights, of the in-flight maps sans Israel.

In a letter to Air France chairman and CEO, Frédéric Gagey, the Simon Wiesenthal Center director for international Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted that, “French members of our center have sent us reportedly captured shots from the English and French language of an Air France flight-path, taken last week between New York and Paris, and the locations ‘Israel’ and ‘Tel Aviv’ are glaringly absent.”

The letter noted that, “We are asked whether Air France has succumbed to the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] campaign to delegitimize the Jewish State by literally wiping it off the map?” Air France issued an apology, saying they “deeply regret this incident, due to a map scale and display problem which is currently being resolved.”

In 2009, British Midland International Airlines, a subset of British Airways, apologized for omitting Israel from their in-flight maps, also attributed to a technical error.

 

France: Shop slurs, among others, Jewish clients

They couldn't not insult Jews, could they?

The Local reports:

France's data protection watchdog CNIL, which was alerted by a complaint, has reprimanded the nationwide appliance store Boulanger after it emerged staff were secretly insulting clients when storing their personal details. The store workers may have been polite to their customers' faces but once their backs were turned they let loose. 

An investigation by CNIL into a Boulanger store in the south east of France revealed that when staff stored clients information on computers for future use, they weren't always the kindest and indeed were often racist.  Indeed CNIL remarked that files on customers contained what it referred to "excessive" comments about the clients and went on to publish a few examples.

The 5,828 insulting comments found by CNIL read like a dictionary of French insults.

"Connasse" (bitch), "client chiant" (annoying/boring customer), "trés con" (very stupid), "n'a pas cerveau" (brainless), "grosse connasse qui se croit tout permis" (huge bitch who thinks anything goes), "casse couille" (ball breaker), and "folle" (crazy) were just a few examples given by CNIL.

Others suggested racism or personal jibes about people's health. "Juive" (Jew), fort accent africain (strong african accent), problème cardiac (heart problem) and alcoolique (alcoholic) were just a few of the more sinister ones published by the watchdog.  More.

UK: Art dealer's 'ambulance chasers' Holocaust restitution jibe criticised

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

A leading art dealer has been criticised for comparing the restitution of art looted by the Nazis during the Holocaust to “ambulance chasing”.  Julian Agnew, former chairman of the Society of London Art Dealers, said the campaign was comparable to lawyers who encourage victims to take litigious action.

In a letter published in the Financial Times he wrote: “Since 1990 and the end of communism in eastern Europe, a whole trade of researchers, aided by lawyers, has grown up which seeks to notify the descendants of Nazi-era owners and put forward restitution claims.

"The basis of the deal with the claimant is that the researchers and lawyers take a very considerable percentage of the sale proceeds of restituted items... this is not an attractive side of the art market, being comparatively close to ambulance chasing.”

But Karen Pollock, Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive, said: “This comparison is simply wrong. Both the possessions and the lives of an entire generation were stolen during the Holocaust and the symbolic importance of returning assets wrongfully taken by the Nazis should not be under-estimated.”

Anne Webber, Commission for Looted Art in Europe co-chair, said: “If the art market had been less willing to sell looted art since 1933 and profit commercially from it, much of it would have gone back to its rightful owners decades ago.  That is part of the reason so many claims remain outstanding 70 years after the end of the war. Many dealers across the art world continue to sell looted works to innocent purchasers.”   [...]

Mr Agnew’s comments were published in response to an FT article by David Baddiel. Mr Baddiel, who made a BBC documentary on Holocaust restitution in 2007, said: “It is difficult, as a Jew, to ask for your money back. 

“Even if it is rightfully yours — even if it was stolen, with intense violence, from your immediate ancestors — there’s always a troubling sense that you’re falling into some sort of cash-grabbing stereotype. And, perhaps more importantly, at some level soiling the purpose of restitution, which is justice.”

UK: Concern about one of the charities (War on Want) supported by the Innocent Foundation

Edgar Davidson:

I have sent the following self-explanatory letter to the Innocent Foundation:

Dear Sir/Madam

Concern about one of the charities (War on Want) supported by the Innocent Foundation

I regularly buy and enjoy your excellent fruit smoothies. I had never realised, until I studied a carton this evening, that 10% of your profits are given to charity. This can be a noble aim, and I checked the website www.innocentfoundation.org to see which charities benefited.

I was horrified to discover that one of the 'charities' was War on Want. This so-called 'charity' is in fact an extremist left-wing political organisation which is almost exclusively dedicated to the delegitimization and ultimate destruction of the State of Israel. In pursuit of this goal War on Want relies on lies, propaganda, bullying and antisemitism. In addition, one of War on Want's Council of Management members is Atif Choudhury who is a founder of the openly terrorist supporting organisation the International Solidarity Movement - an organisation which played a role in the suicide bombing of Mike's Place bar in Tel Aviv in 2003, by helping the two British-born Islamic terrorists Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif enter Israel. Two musicians and a waitress were among the dead in that attack. Further details of War on Want's activities can be found here:

http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/war-on-want-charity-that-is-just-anti.html

http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/comic-relief-funds-people-who.html

I would very much appreciate answers to the following:

1. Is the Innocent Foundation aware of the above facts about War on Want?
2. Why did the Innocent Foundation give money to War on Want?
3. Does the Innocent Foundation intend to give any further money to War on Want?

Obviously, until I receive confirmation that the answer to the last question at least is a definitive NO I will not be buying your products and will be advising other like-minded people not to do so.

Yours
Edgar Davidson

I have no doubt that the Innocent Foundation will say (just as Comic Relief did) that the War on Want projects they have funded are unconnected with Israel. But how can they possibly know that War on Want did not use that money to subsidise its political campaign to deligitimize the Jewish State?. Its campaign against Israel has been almost the ONLY activity War on Want has undertaken in the last 5 years (as proven by the material I have previously provided). Every one of their employees spends almost 100% of their time on the campaign against Israel and it is therefore impossible that  money from organisations like Innocent does not contribute to this. More.

Norway: Insurance giant divests from two firms over Judea and Samaria

This confirms what Benjamin Weinthal wrote about Europe's economic war against Israel: "When it comes to dealing with the increasing calls to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, the United States and Europe are moving in two opposite directions." 

The Algemeiner reports:

The Norwegian insurance giant KLP Kapitalforvaltning has excluded two multinational construction firms from their investment portfolio over their ownership of Israeli companies who operate in Judea and Samaria.

“KLP is excluding Heidelberg Cement and Cemex on the grounds of their exploitation of natural resources in occupied territory on the West Bank,” the company announced Thursday, Haaretz reported. “In KLP’s opinion this activity constitutes an unacceptable risk of violating fundamental ethical norms.”

The two companies in question—Heidelberg Cement, a Germany company, and Cemex, a Mexican company—acquired the Israeli firms Hanson Quarry Products Israel and Readymix Industries Israel, who both run quarries in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which is under Israeli control.

“No such agreement can override the rules relating to occupation set out in the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention,” KLP said.  Both Heidelberg and Cemex, however, stressed that most of the workers at their Judea and Samaria quarries are Palestinian and benefit from the same working conditions as Israelis.

Finland: Finlayson ends co-operation with Kärkkäinen over "repulsive propaganda"

Background: Wiesenthal Centre to President of Finland: “Condemn Kärkkäinen Department Stores Tycoon Publisher of Antisemitic Free Newspapers as a National Danger.”

Yle reports:

The Finnish textile company announced on Friday that it would no longer work with Kärkkäinen stores owing to shop's close relationship with freesheet Magneettimedia, which has been sharply criticised for publishing anti-semitic material and unfounded health claims.

Textile company Finlayson announced on Friday that it is ending its cooperation with Kärkkäinen stores. According to Finlayson, the decision was made for ethical and value-based reasons.

"The owners of Kärkkäinen shopping centres are behind Magneettimedia’s publications, which spread hateful and narrow-minded propaganda," said Finlayson’s chief executive and co-owner Jukka Kurttila. "The decision was not a financially easy one," he added.  Kurttila did not reveal the exact sum of money at stake, but said co-operation with Kärkkäinen had been in the range of "hundreds of thousands of euros."

Finlayson, founded in 1820, will no longer deliver its products such as sheets, duvet covers, bedspreads and pillows to Kärkkäinen. Kärkkäinen's main shops are in the Finnish cities of Oulu and Lahti. Finlayson home textile products already on Kärkkäinen shop shelves will not be removed, as this would not be possible for contractual reasons.

Recently a new complaint against Magneettimedia, which is predominantly distributed in Northern and Central Ostrobothnia and the Päijät-Häme region, was filed with Oulu police citing the publication’s ethnic agitation in the form of anti-semitism.  At the end of 2013, the online and freesheet publication was convicted of incitement of ethnic hatred in the form of anti-semiticism and then-editor-in-chief Juha Kärkkäinen was ordered to pay a fine of 45,000 euros. Kärkkäinen has applied for an appeal to the highest court to overturn the ruling. More.

Look at the feet.  A sign of the devil.

 

 

Netherlands: Sale of ‘Holocaust soap’ allegedly made from Jewish bodies for 220 dollars

Report: Dutch Police Investigating Sale of ‘Holocaust Soap’ Allegedly Made From Jewish Bodies

Soap reportedly from Holocaust being sold online and presented as a very rare item.

Ynet reports:

The Dutch newspaper NRC reported Wednesday that police in north Holland are investigating an antiquities vendor who reportedly attempted to sell soap that had been made during the Holocaust, which he claimed was made from bodies of Jewish victims killed in Nazi extermination camps.  The vendor reportedly attempted to sell the soap for 199 euro.

The troubling news came from historian Arthur Haraf, who said the vendor offered to sell objects that he found near a concentration camp, from which Dutch Jews were sent to extermination camps.  The historian told the Dutch newspaper that the vendor was selling dentures, tooth brushes and glasses, which he claimed were taken from the Jews at the concentration camp.  More.

France: Billboard company censors Star of David but promotes anti-Israel campaign

The following was reported in January 2014: France: JDate ad removed due to vandalism 

The city of Nanterre, a Paris suburb, removed 18 billboard ads put up by Jewish dating site JDate. Apparently because the Jewish Star poses a threat to public order, given the recent media coverage of antisemitic comedian Dieudonné.

More: JSS News, based on JDate release - Tribune Juive updates that some billboards were removed by the advertising firm Decaux because they were vandalized (swastikas, broken glass).  The city had nothing to do with it.

JSS now reports that the advertiser is running a country-wide viciously anti-Israel billboard campaign on behalf of the Islamic Relief organisation.  It features the head of a Palestinian child head made up of ruins.  JSS asks: is it meant to stoke anti-Semitic sentiment in France?  Or is it meant to promote the idea of a Palestinian State? 

Europe-Israel points out that Decaux operates in Israel and is running an advertisement campaign against child obesity in Tel Aviv...

France: "Obscene" proposal made to the Jewish community

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) has described as "obscene" the proposal by the Fimalac Group to offer profits generated by Dieudonné's nationwide tour titled "The Impure Beast" to anti racist organizations.

CRIF argues that we are faced with a "financial issue".  The issue is to stop he spread of hatemongering by Dieudonné which violates public morals.

Roger Cukierman, President of the CRIF, issued a statement declaring that it would be obscene if anti racist organizations were to receive funds generated by Dieudonné's tour who is a repeat offender convicted of incitement to racial hatred and whose place is not in entertainment halls subsidised by the government.

The anti-Semitic comedian asked on Friday for a meeting with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the interministerial delegate to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism Gilles Clavreul and representatives of the Jewish community in order to reach an "agreement". Neither the authorities nor the CRIF have so far ruled on the answer to be given to Mr Dieudonné.

More: Le Monde Juif

France: Jewish leaders rip theaters for scheduling Dieudonné show

Sadly this is typical of many French "elites", like the powerful Fimalac group. They turn their noses up at the Front National and wouldn't touch it with a barge pole but see nothing wrong in rolling out the red carpet for Dieudonné!

Dieudonné and Holocaust-denier
Robert Faurisson

JTA (via Times of Israel)

The umbrella group of French Jewish communities condemned 20 theaters that plan to host the overtly anti-Semitic one-man show of comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.

The CRIF umbrella issued the condemnation on Tuesday in connection with the show by Dieudonne, who has been convicted multiple times for inciting hate against Jews. He intends to take his newest act, titled “The Impure Beast,” on the road later this month. Among other anti-Semitic references, it features dirty jokes about Ilan Halimi, a French Jew who was tortured and murdered in 2006 because he was Jewish.

“CRIF deplores the many theaters that chose to offer him a podium to disseminate to an instrumentalized audience his hatred of Jews and of those who dare criticize him,” CRIF said in a statement about the six-month tour, which is due to begin on Dec. 27 at the Zenith Nantes Metropole, one of the largest event halls in western France. CRIF singled out for criticism the Fimalac event hall operator, which owns Zenith.

Approximately one-third of Dieudonne’s 20 bookings across France are in theaters owned by Fimalac, CRIF said, and called on Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin to “remind the firms of their obligations, moral and otherwise.” Dieudonne is the inventor of the quenelle gesture, which echoes the Hitler salute and has become a preferred greeting in anti-Semitic circles across the French-speaking world, but which Dieudonne says is a gesture of discontent with the establishment. He wrote “The Impure Beast” after many French mayors banned his previous tour in their municipalities at the request of then-interior minister Manuel Vals, who is now France’s prime minister.