UK: 'Gay Times' editor suspended over string of anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist tweets

Via Sun:

THE newly-appointed editor of Gay Times has been suspended over a shocking series of anti-Semitic, racist and disability-mocking tweets.

Josh Rivers was handed the role less than a month ago after being promoted from marketing manager of the magazine.

He has now apologised for the tweets - which have since been deleted - but has been suspended pending an investigation.

One tweet read: "I wonder if they cast that guy as 'The Jew' because of that f****** ridiculously larger honker of a nose. It must be prosthetic. Must be."

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Greece: The image of Israel is improving in Greece

Via Mosaic Magazine:

The Greek media have a consistent history of hostility toward the Jewish state, a hostility that seems both to shape and to reflect a great deal of popular sentiment. But since 2010, as Athens and Jerusalem have formed closer economic and diplomatic ties, popular opinion seems to be improving. George Tzogopoulos writes:

Greek sympathy for the Palestinian cause is rooted in the proximity of the Arab world and the support of most Arabs [for Greece’s stance on] the Cyprus question. Anti-Semitism has also played a role. But there is another reason why Israel was constantly blamed by the Greek media, at least before 2010. It served as a useful scapegoat for all the problems in the Middle East, if not all the problems in the world. This made it easy for journalists to avoid time-consuming, in-depth research on international affairs. Jerusalem’s close cooperation with Ankara only fueled the negative perception of Israel within the Greek media. . . . 

When Jerusalem decided to look for new allies in the eastern Mediterranean following the setback in its relations with Ankara [over the Mavi Marmara affair], it turned to Athens. In August 2010, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Greece, opening a new chapter in a relationship that had been marked for decades by misunderstandings and suspicion.
George Papandreou, the Greek premier at the time, saw Israel as a critical ally in an era of economic austerity and uncertainty over Greece’s potential default and exit from the Eurozone. . . . In the aftermath of the Netanyahu-Papandreou meeting, most Greek journalists began to grasp that Israel is no longer an unknown, distant neighbor. [Rather], it is a partner. This strategic partnership yields positives for Greece in terms of security and energy affairs, and also has a tangibly positive effect on the Greek economy. While 207,711 Israeli tourists came to Greece in 2012, expected arrivals from Israel are expected to be 530,712 in 2017. . . . 

After 2015, an additional barrier tarnishing Israel’s image in Greece was removed. A leftist government, Syriza, came to power, bringing with it a new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. Though he had participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past, his tune changed when he assumed his new position. In contrast to his pre-election stance, Tsipras treats Israel as an ally, and his foreign policy is reflected in media coverage on both left and right. . . . The improving image of Israel in Greece could theoretically go hand in hand with a reduction in anti-Semitism. . . .

 Read more at BESA Center

Spain: Newspaper regrets discussion of British soccer club’s ‘Jewish origin’

Via JTA:

A Spanish newspaper wrote that soccer fans hate the British team Tottenham Hotspurs because of their “Jewish origin,” spurring condemnation from British soccer clubs.
Marca, a Madrid-based daily sports paper, published the article on Monday ahead of a Champions League match between the Spurs and Real Madrid.

“Their Jewish origin has made them into a club hated by rival fans,” the article said, in part. “But in their 135 years of existence they have always had style and great players.”

The Spurs were indeed popular among Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fans often call themselves the “Yid Army,” though the league has since banned the term as offensive. According to a history of the club, opposing fans aimed anti-Semitic abuse at the team from the late 1960s onwards, and such chants were heard earlier this year.

In a clarification issued after publication, senior reporter Enrique Ortega wrote: “That ‘hatred’ that Tottenham suffers is very focused on the radical and racist groups that are hiding in the social mass, especially Chelsea and West Ham,” referring to two rival teams.

“I regret the confusion that has been created in this respect,” he added. “The intention was not to damage the image of Tottenham, a club we respect, value … and we do not want to serve as a spokesman for these racist minorities who use any pretext to expand their hate messages, which we reject head-on.”

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Germany: Writer under fire for demonizing German Jews

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

German Jews and experts in the field of antisemitism in the press slammed a journalist for promoting classical antisemitic tropes in her commentary that attacked the Central Council of Jews for their criticism of a reportedly one-sided television documentary about the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. 

The Jerusalem Post reached out in September to the Berlin Jewish community, media experts, and observers of rising antisemitism in Germany about the progressive newspaper taz’s media columnist Marlene Halser’s commentary. 

“Ms. Halser conveys antisemitic conspiracy theories, according to which Jews control the media (if not the entire world),” said Sigmount Königsberg, the Berlin Jewish community’s commissioner on antisemitism. 

Sacha Stawski, the editor-in-chief of media watchdog Honestly Concerned in Frankfurt, said Halser’s commentary is filled with bias and reveals “antisemitic conspiracy theories.” Stawski, a German Jew, has tracked antisemitism in the German-language press for over a decade. 

Halser’s August commentary, titled “Program Director Schuster,” notes that “already for a second time within months the Central Council of Jews in Germany issued criticism of the program decision of the TV station Arte.” Halser concluded her column: “the question is, to what extent does the political representative of a religious community attempt to interfere in the program presentation of an independent station.” (...)

When asked in a follow-up query if she has criticized other religious communities and NGOs in Germany for media interference, Halser declined to respond. 

Daniel Killy, the spokesman for the city of Hamburg’s Jewish community, said: “Marlene Halser agrees on the fact that the Arte documentary was lacking a lot but then also attacks Mr. Schuster for interfering. Well, the Muslim representatives of Germany are interfering every second minute and it’s their democratic right, so why is Halser bothering?” 

Post queries to taz editor-in-chief Georg Löwisch, as well as deputy editors Barbara Junge and Katrin Gottschalk, were not returned. (...) 

Grigori Pantijelew, the deputy representative of the Bremen Jewish community in northern Germany, said that “in my work with the media, my premise is that the poll results of the federal government’s antisemitism commission are accurate. That means, 40% of the citizens of this country are antisemitic. It flies in the face of logic when the results do not apply [to] journalists. Journalists are, after all, also people.' 

The Jewish community in Germany is relatively small, with 98,600 registered members as of 2016. Germany’s population is just over 82 million people.

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Germany: Progressive paper blasted for justifying terrorism, stoking Nazism

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The Berlin-based taz daily is facing withering criticism from German Jews and US and Israeli experts on antisemitism for justifying Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, promoting hatred of the Jewish state, and stoking Nazi conspiracy theories targeting Jews. 

After the left-wing newspaper published a series of pro-BDS articles, a tipping point was reached among the news outlet’s critics. The Jerusalem Post exposés on rising boycott activity in Berlin played a role in the mayor’s decision to outlaw funding and space for BDS groups and activities, triggering angry taz columns and interviews slamming the mayor. 

The Post conducted an in-depth report into the taz’s coverage in 2017 of Israel and Jews. 

Sigmount Königsberg, the commissioner on antisemitism for Germany’s largest Jewish community in Berlin, said taz’s Israel-based correspondent “Susanne Knaul legitimizes terrorism.” 

Knaul sparked outrage over her commentary last January arguing that “Jerusalem is not Berlin” when evaluating the morality of vehicular terrorist attacks that took place in both cities. It is a “fact that there are reasons for the desperation which motivates Palestinians to suicide attacks,” she wrote. Knaul cited the “occupation” and “injustice” as ostensibly legitimate reasons to murder Israeli soldiers. 

In January, a Palestinian drove his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, murdering four of them in attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “part of the same pattern inspired by the Islamic State.” In December last year, an Islamic State supporter rammed his truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, including Israeli Dalia Elyakim. 

Michaela Engelmeier, a Social Democratic deputy in the Bundestag, said Knaul “with her tendentious statements pours more oil into the fire of antisemitism and legitimizes violence against Israelis.”
Knaul did not respond to Post queries. 

Antisemitism experts accuse Daniel Bax, a taz editor who writes about German politics, of spreading extreme right-wing ideologies and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories reminiscent of the Nazi era. 

Bax, who is an energetic supporter of the BDS movement, wrote in a commentary this month that the American Jewish Committee “acts entirely in line with Israel’s government.” He also wrote that “Germany’s Central Council of Jews has made itself into a one-sided mouthpiece for the interests of Israel’s government.” Bax claimed the mayor of Berlin’s decision to reject BDS meant he “caved in” to German and US Jewish NGOs.

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Greece: Newspaper features antisemitic headline

Via Against Antisemitism:

“Eleftheri Ora” just published another antisemitic and anti-immigrant headline. The headline reads: “They are selling off our homes to Jews & illegal immigrants”.

UK: TV documentary celebrates notorious anti-Israel activist and racist Islamist Nadia Chan

Via Guido Fawkes:

A senior reporter has left Channel 4 News amid presenting a package last week promoting a racist Islamist who supported ramming attacks. Last Thursday Channel 4 News aired a film presented by reporter Assed Baig showcasing Muslim women who “fight back by rejecting stereotypes”. The film heaped praise on notorious anti-Israel activist Nadia Chan, who has previously:

- Said she: “strongly advocates that the parasitic entity known as ‘Israel’ MUST cease to exist. Furthermore, every single Israeli is a parasite.”; 

- Appeared on Iranian state television to praise “the armed resistance from the Islamic Jihad … and also Hamas” in Israel;  

- Suggested Palestinians should use “everyday items to resist, whether it’s knives, cars … everyday items to strike the fear in the hearts of their oppressors”;  

- Described white people using the racial slur “honkies”; (...) 

 Channel 4 has pulled the report and video from its website and deleted tweets promoting the piece…

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Europeans avoid to admit they are in the same 'terrorism' boat as Israel

Via European Jewish Press (Ariel Bolstein):

The terrorist attack in Barcelona last Thursday appears to be just another link in the radical Islamist chain of carnage being inflicted on the free world. There was nothing new about the attack, tactically or conceptually. Ever since Palestinian terrorists discovered that trucks, tractors and other vehicles could be turned into weapons of murder and used against the hated infidels, the method has been adopted by attackers in France, Britain and Germany, among other places. 

In the hours following the Barcelona attack, Britain's Sky News compiled a list of ramming attacks that have taken place over the past year. The attack that killed four Israeli soldiers on Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv promenade in January was nowhere to be seen on the list. A similar list, which also made no mention of the attack in Israel, appeared on the BBC. Although they are competitors, both of these networks were remarkably unified in their decision to conceal the facts. Like many in Europe, they try to avoid having to admit that Israelis and Europeans are in the same boat. 

The attack on Catalonia's capital has further sharpened the distinction between those who recognize the growing threat and those who would like to obscure it in the hope that it will disappear from the public eye. Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy displayed admirable moral clarity when he said that radical Islam presents the greatest threat to the continent. But a fairly large camp in Spain and its neighboring countries is doing everything possible to sweep this fact under the rug. 

Instead of facing this reality, members of the Spanish Left prefer to attack and denigrate Israel. Barcelona's city council called for a boycott of the Jewish state just a few months ago. Official representatives of the Catalonian government met with representatives from a number of radical groups, including Hamas. The BDS movement's Catalonia branch did not even wait for the blood of the Barcelona victims to dry before taking the classic propaganda step of turning facts on their head to announce that Europe itself was responsible for the attack. It is no coincidence that the same elements that incite against Israel also whitewash radical Islam. While one hand defends terrorism, the other hand demonizes Israel in an effort to push a confused public toward the false conclusion that stiff-necked Zionists are to blame for Europe's suffering. 

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Spain: Israel performing human 'experiments' in Gaza - newspaper article

Isaac Querub Caro, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain, has written a letter of complaint to Ana Pardo de Vera, Director of the mainstream newspaper daily Público, concerning an article by blogger Nazanin Armanian published on the paper's on-line edition. The piece peddles all the lies and distortions about Israel's treatment of Gaza.

Mr Querub points out that the text contains statements that are false, absurd, deplorable, nauseating which turn the article into a genuine libel reminiscent of the Middle Ages when Jews were blamed for macabre rituals and crimes made up to justify their extermination. In this case, the author substitutes "Jew" for "Israel". Nazanin Armanian affirms that Israel exterminates the population of Gaza thus comparing it with the most terrible of the monsters of the twentieth century: Nazism. The writer claims that Israel enforces apartheid politics thus demonstrating that she has no idea of what were predominantly white South Africa's policies. She forgets to mention that Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East where Arabs are integrated and enjoy parliamentary representation.

Público has published the Jewish leader' letter which also asked for the article to be removed, but unsurprisingly it's still there...

Translation with the help of Google of Nazanin Armanian's article titled "Is Israel carrying out a new "experiment" with human beings in Gaza?" (¿Está realizando Israel un nuevo ‘experimento’ con seres humanos en Gaza?) Note that Público was careful to "only" ask the question and to put "experiment" in inverted commas... but the body of the text demonstrates Armanian's thesis very clearly.

Imagine a concentration camp with two million people, with no possibility of leaving. Think of jailers who among other objectives study human behavior in extreme conditions resorting for this purpose to the use of terror, torture and isolation on a daily basis and for a long period of time, to deprivation of food and medicines; the destruction of homes (...); the destruction of the fruits of their very hard work (by perpetrating systematic 'Ecocide' and by uprooting some 2,000,000 fruit trees after beating and murdering dozens of peasant women and men); by preventing them from benefiting from sufficient water and light, from work, from enjoying leisure time, from relaxing by subjecting them to different levels of stress; by throwing tons of bombs, missiles and chemical substances such as white phosphorus, not only to eliminate the remaining population on the ground, but also to analyze the state of shock and the complex feelings of pain and suffering of the survivors when they see the shattered bodies of their children and of their loved ones before their eyes.   

Similar to a macabre Reality Show, these experiments began 10 years ago in Gaza. Israelis have now added a new test: they simulate the Stone Age by cutting electricity from 2.5 to 7 hours a day, to see how blood banks are preserved or how newborns in incubators, cancer patients or patients on dialysis are kept alive; how they will withstand the suffocating heat this summer without fans or keep food without a refrigerator, or how they will purify the water to wash, cook, irrigate their crops, etc. 

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Related:
Spain: El País newspaper's "unapologetic hatred for Israel"

Spain: El País newspaper's "unapologetic hatred for Israel”

Via CAMERA:

El País cartoon depicting an orthodox Jew, to illustrate an op-ed article by Mario Vargas Llosa, claiming 
that Breaking the Silence, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass are some of “The Righteous of Israel.”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is “moderate” and “pragmatic,” while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a “radical” and "extremist" government.
PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) member Leyla Khaled, who hijacked two passenger planes in the late 1960s, is someone who “comes from a traumatic life experience: the occupation that as a child, in 1948, expelled her and her family from Haifa,” along with “millions of refugees who were forced to leave their homes.”
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict “emanates from the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank” and “the subsequent blockade of the Gaza Strip.” “After the 1967 war, Israel hasn't stopped colonizing.”

These descriptions are all from the news pages of the largest and most influential newspaper of the Spanish-speaking world, El País, and represent its approach to reporting on the region. 

For years, El País advanced an anti-Israeli narrative, at times even toying with overt anti-Semitism, to the point where, in 2009, fourteen US congressmen sent a letter to then-Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to express their concern about El País'  systematic publication of “articles and cartoons conveying crude anti-Semitic canards and stereotypes.” 

That same year, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (a notoriously harsh critic of the Israeli government) published Yoav Sivan's article “Bias in black and white” which noted that “Even in minor stories unrelated to the conflict, El Pais displays a unique combination of sloppiness and unapologetic hatred for Israel.”

The year 2009 marked a turning point. The newspaper changed its approach to the region with more balanced reporting. Tel Aviv ceased to be incorrectly identified as the capital of Israel and articles from the Middle East began to include viewpoints from both sides of the conflict. 

Over the past year, however, El País has drifted back to its previous pattern, disregarding the voice of one of the parties in the conflict. (...)

An Op-Ed by the lawyer Jerónimo Paez (“Unreason and Tragedy”), published on February 9, 2017, deserves a special mention. It insinuated that all the problems in the region originated with the Jewish state, which was blamed for rejecting peace from the beginning of Zionism. Zionists attacked “their British allies.” They were responsible for political Islam. For dislocating Lebanon. For the rise of an Iranian theocracy. For exacerbating the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites. For fomenting “hatred of the West,” “jihadist madness,” 9/11, the Syrian civil war, “Erdogan despotism,” and the“end the Kurdish people...”  

And if Israel is the root of all evil, then Palestinian terrorism in reaction is perfectly acceptable. And so the piece went on to justify Palestinian violence: 

One wonders, especially if he is Andalusian, what would have been our response had the heirs of the Syrian Umayyads decided, following the tragedy they are suffering, to settle in Andalusia, the homeland of their ancestors. It is not necessary to go very far to predict the violent rejection that this would have generated. 

Of course, Andalusia was never the homeland of the Umayyads. But at El País, truth is apparently expendable in the pursuit of demonizing Israel.

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France is the Western country with the largest number of Jews assassinated in the 21st century

In all fairness, it has to be stressed that quite a few Jews work in various capacities for the French mainstream media.  They go along with the Israel-bashing described in the article (some with great enthusiasm) or keep silent about it.

Via Gatestone Institute (Stefan Frank):

A Franco-German film that no one in Europe is legally allowed to see has become the source of a major scandal, and its creators the targets of unprecedented smear and hate campaigns from Germany's public broadcasters. 

At the center of the scandal is one of Europe's biggest media companies, the Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) -- with 4,500 employees and an annual budget of 1.4 billion euros -- and the Franco-German culture channel, ARTE.

The television documentary, "Chosen and Excluded – the Hate for Jews in Europe", will be shown in the United States for one night only, on August 9. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles announced that it would screen the film after the German and French networks tried "to bury the documentary, before it could contaminate the viewing public with the truth," according to the Center's Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, in an interview with Gatestone Institute. "It is a film that needs to be viewed by anyone concerned about anti-Semitism and anyone concerned about the democratic future of Europe. It is a truth-telling, and 'PC'-busting documentary", he said.(...) 

Would the station (ARTE) ever show a serious film about anti-Semitism?, Gatestone asked the journalist Jean Patrick Grumberg, of the French-language news site Dreuz. Grumberg replied: 

"France is also a country were communist mayors celebrate Palestinian Jew-killers as honorary citizens. Arte would never denounce a communist. They would instead introduce the Terrorists as "Freedom fighters"... the heads of Arte France would never - ever - be hired if they are suspected of being pro-Israelis or conservatives. As a matter of fact, being a radical is welcome." 

According to Grumberg, "nearly 100% of the French media are anti-Israel." Anyone who is pro-Israel must conceal it, or deal with the threat of repercussions. 

"And within this hard to believe environment, France Television and Arte are the worst among the 'islamo-lefties'.  

"To start with, France's Arte heads of program refused to produce a documentary about anti-semitism in Europe because they knew too well that it would underline the Muslim anti-semitism issue, and Muslim anti-semitism is taboo in France, most notably among the left and in the media. 

"One has to keep in mind that France is the Western country with the largest number of Jews assassinated during the 21st century (14 Jewish people killed because they were Jewish). All of them were killed by Muslims, not by the Far right. Arte would never want you to know that."

 (...) 

The scandal surrounding the film shows how things really are in terms of the culture and freedom of expression in Europe. "The WDR ranks among those whom we criticize in this film," says Schroeder. "Up to that point, one could only speculate about this [anti-Semitism], but the way they dealt with this broadcast made it very clear." 

Anti-Semitism in Europe does not come from fringe groups. It is primarily left-wing liberals -- "intellectuals" -- who fuel the hatred. At the end of the film, retired Parisian police commissioner Sammy Ghozlan, a Jew who fled to France from Algeria, says: 

"I am convinced that the Arabs in France would never have turned to violence against the Jews if they had not been convinced by others that it was their duty to demonstrate their solidarity with their coreligionists in Palestine. Otherwise, they would never have done that. They were persuaded that this was necessary. And since some of those who hold power, mayors or ministers, took the liberty of doing such a thing, for them, it justified the attacks so they supported them." 

"That is one of the key messages of our film," Joachim Schroeder said to Gatestone. "Who was it that encouraged them to do this? It was not just their brothers and sisters; it was the French and German mainstream."

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Ireland: Sunday Times apologizes and removes article accusing Jews of being moneygrubbing

Update 2:
Sunday Times sacks antisemitic trope columnist

Update1:
The Sunday Times has apologized and the article has now been taken down.  Here.

Via UK Media Watch:

The Irish edition of The Times and The Sunday Times published an article today by Kevin Myers which actually accuses Jews of being money grubbing. As another journalist who tweeted accurately noted, this is simply vile.

"Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price, which is the most useful measure there is of inveterate, lost-with-all-hands stupidity. I wonder, who are their agents?"

Germany: Major newspaper: media turning Palestinian terrorists into victims

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The online editor-in-chief of the mass-circulation Bild published Sunday a column filled with blistering criticism over the anti-Israel media in Germany during the Temple Mount clashes. 

“No other country, which suffers under permanent terror, is reported on in Germany in the cynical, ice-cold and heartless manner like Israel is,” wrote Julian Reichelt. His commentary was at one point the second most read article on the popular website.  

The title of his column reads: “Middle East coverage in the German media: Perpetrators turned into victims.” 

Reichelt wrote that “Metal detectors at the entry to the Temple Mount are described as injuring religious feelings. And the German media briskly spreads this fairy tale from an Israeli attack on religious freedom.” 

He lambasted the German press for “routinely interchanging perpetrator and victim.” Reichelt cited the example of the German public news show Tagesschau’s rationale for terrorism against Israeli Jews. 

“The Taggeschau permitted the father of a young Palestinian, who slaughtered a Jewish family, to justify his son because the ‘honor of Muslims’ is endangered.” 

His media criticism took headline writers to task. “When terrorists attack soldiers, it reads: ‘Two Palestinians killed by Israeli military action.’ That is as if one would write about the terrorist from Nice: ‘Truck driver shot by police.’” 

Reichelt noted that “Israel is on the front line in the battle against a murderous ideology that envisions annihilation of us... we Germans should back the Israelis in this battle instead of expecting that they nicely allow themselves to be destroyed.” 

He said that it is forgotten that drastic security controls in front of shopping centers, airports and cafés in the entire world are not necessary because the Catholic Church became radicalized, but rather because the Islamic world clearly shows too much tolerance for those who in the name of their God blow themselves up.”

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UK: The disturbing double standards over Israel

Via Spiked (Naomi Firsht):

IDF picture of the Salomon home. Picture by: IDF

(...) But while Israeli newspapers like Haaretz and Times of Israel, and UK newspaper the Jewish Chronicle, published photos of the Salomon home after the attack, as well as in-depth reports, there was not much to be found in the mainstream UK press. Times of Israel’s headline said: ‘Terror at Halamish: When a family’s Shabbat celebration turned into a bloody massacre.’ The BBC went with, ‘Three Israelis stabbed to death in West Bank attack’. The details in the BBC report are perfunctory and there are no photos of the Salomons’ home. 

Other news sites have simply lumped in the Salomon family attack with the deaths of those involved in the violent riots. The Guardian headline reads, ‘Six dead as Israeli-Palestinian tensions boil over’. Again there are no pictures, and the family murder is given a couple of paragraphs in a long report on the al-Aqsa Mosque protests. The Daily Mail, the Telegraph and ITV’s website have similar accounts, again with no photos of the Salomon home. I couldn’t find any coverage at all of the incident in The Times or on the Channel 4 News website. 

There is something wrong, isn’t there, when a family is slaughtered at their dinner table and the press doesn’t deem it worthy even of a full story? 

This is not the first time the British press has been accused of double standards when it comes to Israel. The BBC, in particular, frequently gets called out for it. Just last month the BBC was forced to backtrack after publishing an article with the headline, ‘Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem’. It turned out the Palestinians were killed because they had already murdered an Israeli policewoman and were attempting further attacks when they were shot. The rewritten headline read, ‘Israeli policewoman stabbed to death in Jerusalem’. 

No doubt the British press will defend their lacking reports, but ask yourself this: if the tables had been turned, and a Palestinian family was murdered in their home by an Israeli attacker, how do you think the press over here would have covered it? I think we know the answer.

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German news agency DPA correction: Jerusalem in Israel, not Palestinian Territories

Via Camera:

CAMERA's Israel office yesterday prompted correction of a DPA (Deusche Presse-Agentur) photo caption which erroneously placed Jerusalem, Israel's capital, in the Palestinian territories. As noted yesterday on CAMERA's Snapshots blog, the English caption of the German news agency had stated:

Gilad Grossman, spokesman of the human rights organisation Jesch Din, in Jerusalem, Palestinian Territories, 26 June 2017. 

The Israeli government has approved the first state-sanctioned settlement in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the Oslo peace process. The settlements are widely regarded as illegal under international law. Jesch Din is one of the organisations contesting the move. Photo by: Stefanie J'rkel

The erroneous captions were also distributed on the photo sites of leading news agencies AP and AFP. Following communication from CAMERA staff, DPA editors noted that the misinformation was a translation error, and that the original German was correct. Editors commendably corrected the English captions (see below), which now refer to Jerusalem, Israel. The corrected corrections now appear at AP and AFP.

CAMERA had also notified DPA that a second caption was likewise incorrect. It refers to a future Israeli settlement to be built in "Palestinian territories." The land slated for the future settlement of Amichai is in disputed West Bank land, Area C, not under Palestinian control, and is therefore not part of the "Palestinian territories." The final status of this land is to be determined in negotiations, and has not yet been resolved.

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BBC: Holocaust is a 'sensitive' topic for Muslims

The following appeared in a BBC article "Muslim girls complain of Polish racism on Holocaust study trip"

The Holocaust is a sensitive topic for many Muslims because Jewish survivors settled in British-mandate Palestine, on land which later became the state of Israel.

This sentence repeats a common antisemitic Arab canard - that they're paying the price for the crimes of the Europeans, and that Jews have no rights to live in their own homeland.

It also erases Muslim complicity in the Holocaust and Muslim support of the Nazis.  In North Africa, Muslims were incited by Nazis to kill Jews.  In Palestine, local leaders contacted the Nazis to help them achieve the extermination of all the Jews in the Middle East. 

So yes, it's a 'sensitive topic'. 

The sentence was not needed in the article, but if it's already mentioned, the BBC shouldn't have repeated Muslim Holocaust denial claims without further explanation.

France: News agency apologizes for publishing Mideast map without mentioning Israel

Via European Jewish Press (EJP):

Agence France-Presse (AFP) has apologized to the Simon Wiesental Center for publishing recently a map of the Middle East on its Twitter page that didn’t mention Israel. 

“A regrettable fault was committed which was corrected as soon as it was noted,” the agency’s Director of information, Michele Leridon, wrote to Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Drector of international relations in Paris. 

“This error was due to the reuse of a map background used for a different subject (the division between Shiites and Sunnis in the Muslim world),” the letter said. 

“Only the names of the countries directly concerned with this matter were inscribed (in the same way as if we produced a map of the Eurozone, with the name of Switzerland not appearing on the map of Europe). When we learned of our error, it was immediately corrected. A map mentioning Israel was sent to all our outlets. We sincerely deplore this incident and pray that you will excuse us,” Leridon wrote. 

Earlier this month, Samuel wrote a letter to AFP CEO Emmanuel Hoog in which he said that “inaction on this issue will be construed as an AFP endorsement of Iranian-declared policy to exterminate the Jewish state.” 

The letter argued , "that AFP - an important global news agency - appears to sink so low as to commit the same outrage, we can only hope that this was the act of an anti-Semitic lone-wolf or a budding, Jihadist employee". 

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Related:
France: Israel not mentioned on Agence France Presse Mideast map

France/Germany: The suppressed Arte antisemitism documentary in historic perspective

Via The Jerusalem Post (Manfred Gerstenfeld): 

(...) Another important case which elucidates the same “hiding truth policy’” occurred when the European Monitoring Center for Racism and Xenophobia – an EU agency since replaced by the Fundamental Rights Agency – asked the then 15 EU member states to report on antisemitic violence and viewpoints in 2002. The information the European Monitoring Center obtained was passed on to ZfA, the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University in Berlin, with the request to analyze the data. 

An American scholar, Amy Elman, analyzed how this issue developed in her 2015 book, The European Union, Anti-Semitism, and the Politics of Denial. She said in an interview: “The Zfa completed its document in October 2003. It found that violent attacks against Jews often rose from virulent anti-Zionism across the political spectrum. Moreover, it specifically identified young Muslims of Arab descent as the main perpetrators of physical attacks against Jews and the desecration and destruction of synagogues. Many were victims of racism and social exclusion themselves.” 

The European Monitoring Center decided not to publish the Zfa report, claiming that it was not meant for publication. Zfa responded that the frequent mention of Muslim perpetrators of antisemitism and anti-Zionist attacks was what had put off the European Monitoring Center. The Zfa also made public that the European Monitoring Center repeatedly asked it to change its findings, which it refused to do. 

This shelving of the report and the reaction of the Zfa led to a scandal. The World Jewish Congress then published the Zfa’s unchanged report on the Internet. 

In April 2004, the European Monitoring Center issued a lengthier study on antisemitism which was largely based on the Zfa report. Despite it being longer it hardly mentioned any perpetrators, thus hiding many cases of Muslim and leftwing antisemitism. 

In 2012, a four-part Israeli television program called Allah-Islam, The Spread of Islam in Europe, was broadcast by Channel 10. An Israeli journalist, Zvi Yehezkeli, presented himself in Europe as a Palestinian. 

He filmed the Muslim ghettos in a number of European countries. The program focused attention on violence, drugs and weapons possession, as well as other criminal activities occurring in parts of Muslim communities. 

Yehezkeli mentioned the religious fanaticism, the intimidation of dissenting Muslims, the discrimination against women, and “honor killings.” He also devoted attention to the widespread antisemitism in these communities. The rare European TV programs that discussed such issues usually dealt with a few specific problems relating to Muslim communities in a single country. 

After the entire Channel 10 series was broadcast, a Belgian journalist came to interview me about it. My first reaction was that such documentaries should have been made by a variety of broadcasters in European countries in previous years. It would then have been logical for Channel 10 to acquire one of these, add Hebrew subtitles and broadcast it. I noted that it was telling that since there were no such programs, Channel 10 had no choice but spend substantial money to produce the series. 

I said also that the fact that such documentaries had not been made by European broadcasters showed that many problematic issues with parts of Muslim communities were being swept under the carpet.  The interviewer agreed with me. He added that his bosses probably would not like what I said. Indeed, they did not broadcast the interview.

Arte’s initial decision to suppress the new documentary, Chosen and Excluded – The Hate for Jews in Europe, created by German producers Joachim Schröder and Sophie Hafner, continues this pattern. The German public broadcaster WDR through which Arte had commissioned the documentary continued to hesitate to broadcast it. 

This time, however, the suppression of information on antisemitism backfired.

The German daily Bild made the documentary available on its website for 24 hours. Hundreds of thousands of people viewed it on that day. It now appears on YouTube. Thereafter Arte reversed its decision and decided to broadcast the movie.

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Belgium: Media more interested in Palestine than war-torn former colony Congo (millions have died)

Via Camera:

"Tragic Inaction on Congo" 

An Op-Ed in the International New York Times today discusses, as its headline puts it, "The U.N.'s tragic inaction on Congo." 

The piece focuses on the tragic killing of two Westerners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pair were working for the United Nations, which, the authors protest, has failed to investigate the killings. The authors link the incident to a wider phenomenon: "their deaths are a reminder of how little attention is paid to the killings of hundreds of Congolese in the Kasai region since last August," they say, noting the recent discovery of dozens of mass graves in the region.  

The passive voice here — "little attention is paid" — means readers aren't told who, exactly, isn't paying attention. But if history is any indication, the same newspaper publishing this Op-Ed is a prominent example of those guilty of paying relatively little attention to violence in Congo.  

The book Stealth Conflicts: How the World's Worst Violence is Ignored, by Virgil Hawkins, shows that The New York Times largely overlooked the deaths of nearly two million people during the first two years of fighting in the DRC.  

The discrepancy between how the newspaper covered that violence and the fighting between Palestinians and Israel starting in 2000 is highlighted by a striking graphic in Hawkins' book:

The graphic above shows Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir is much more interested in Israel-bashing than in covering the ordeal of the people of Congo, their former colony, where millions have died.  Le Monde (France) isn't interested either.

UK: BBC piece: 'Zionists stole foods from Palestinians'

Via Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries blog:

Travellers to Israel will find it hard to find 'Jewish food', alleges journalist Sarah Treleaven for BBC Travel (article not visible if you are in the UK). That's because the Zionists appropriated 'Palestinian' dishes in order to construct an 'authentic' national narrative! Mizrahim and Sephardim who have been eating these foods for millennia are, not for the first time, invisible in the BBC's world view. 

“One of the biggest shocks for many foreign visitors to Israel is the lack of familiar Jewish cuisine. Where are the smoked salmon, bagels and cream cheese at breakfast? What about the delis that define Jewish cuisine from Montreal to Los Angeles? Or the kugel (a casserole made from egg noodles or potato), gefilte fish (an appetizer made from poached fish) and matzoh ball soup served at Jewish tables around the world? 

“The early Zionists eagerly adopted Palestinian dishes, such as falafel, hummus, and shawarma, while in recent years Israelis have developed a more diversified palate. Still, ‘Jewish food’ remains scarce. But very few visitors know the reasons behind the dearth of it in Israel: despite the fact that the early settlers were mostly Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, they forsook traditional Jewish food both because of scarcity but also in deliberate service to the formation of a new national narrative.” 

“Early adherents to the Zionist project, committed to creating a Jewish state in the territory now known as Israel, sought to abandon vestiges of their past. Just as the European settlers favoured Hebrew over Yiddish and khakis over frock coats and homburgs, they also purposefully chose to eat indigenous foods over Ashkenazi ones. 

“The adoption of indigenous food lent the early European implants an air of authenticity. The production of local ingredients – the things that grew well in the desert and along the Mediterranean coastline, and the many dishes adapted from Arab kitchens – became part of the Zionist narrative.”

Edward Solomon has given Point of No Return permission to quote his rebuttal:   

"This article is replete with out-and-out lies and falsehoods. Based on Sarah Treleaven's limited and blinkered view of Jewish history and cuisine, Israeli food should consist of lokshen, bagels, gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, kugel, chopped liver and cholent. 

The rich and varied panoply of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish foods, such as sabikh, tagine, tbit, kubbah, loubiah, kahi, and countless other dishes of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Indian, and Iraqi origins documented by writers such as Linda Dangoor and Claudia Roden, cooked and eaten in Israel, are completely glossed over in the interest of presenting a one-sided, politicised narrative that paints the Zionist Jews as Ashkenazic interlopers who stole Palestinian dishes to claim for their own. 

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Related:

BBC Travel politicises food to promote a narrative