Germany: When a Nazi comparison makes sense: the BDS movement against Israel

Via The Hill (Benjamin Weinthal and Asaf Romirowsky):

In a remarkable finding in their May report, intelligence officials of the German state of Baden Württemberg wrote that propaganda from the neo-Nazi party Der Dritte Weg (The Third Way) calling to boycott Israeli products “roughly recalls similar measures against German Jews by the National Socialists, for example, on April 1, 1933 (the slogan: 'Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!')"

The historical significance of the parallel between contemporary calls to boycott Israeli products and the Hitler movement’s economic warfare against German Jewish businesses should not be ignored.

The Nazi efforts to strangle Jewish companies in order to isolate and dehumanize German Jews was a nascent phase of the Holocaust. Hence the boycott campaign against Israel is just another dangerous recurrence of history in a new form.

Fast forward to 2005: According to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement’s declaration targeting the Jewish state, a key demand is the return of all “Palestinian refugees” to Israel. The “return” of the alleged millions of Palestinians refugees—based on a bogus definition of refugee status—would spell dissolution of the Jewish state. Anti-Semitism at its core is about discrimination against Jews.

The proliferation of pro-BDS activities in Germany prompted Felix Klein, the German government commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, to write in the daily Die Welt in August that “the BDS movement is antisemitic in its methods and goals.” He added that BDS’s “Don’t buy!” stickers on products from the Jewish state are “methods from the Nazi period.”

According to the German intelligence report from May, boycotts of products from the Jewish state are a “new variation of anti-Semitism.” This is the first instance of a domestic intelligence agency labeling boycotts targeting Israeli products as anti-Semitic and a security threat.

The following month, in June, an intelligence report from the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate arrived at the same conclusion. “The Third Way’s slogan ‘Boycott Products from Israel’ and … betray significant parallels to the anti-Jewish agitation of the National Socialists,” the agency wrote.

The intelligence agency copied a graphic from The Third Way’s website featuring the slogan, “Boycott products from Israel: 729=Made in Israel.” The number 729 is used in barcodes to identify Israel-based companies, although not necessarily where a product was manufactured.

It is worth noting that the party platform of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union declared in 2016, “Who today under the flag of the BDS movement calls to boycott Israeli goods and services speaks the same language in which people were called to not buy from Jews. That is nothing other than coarse anti-Semitism.”

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Europe: EU stops funding anti-Israel NGO, Netanyahu’s office says

Via EJP:

The European Union announced that it will immediately stop funding and contact with the "Freedom Protection Council", an NGO operating in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

In a statement, the office said that the EU decision to stop funding the "Freedom Protection Council", is a result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s "diplomatic efforts."

The NGO "undermines the State of Israel’s right to exist and seeks to defame it around the world," the statement said.

"This is only the beginning. We will continue to take determined action against organizations that seek to delegitimize the State of Israel and strive to defame the state and the IDF around the world," Netanyahu said.

When he meets European officials, Netanyahu prioritizes the cessation of funding for anti-Israel NGOs. Last Sunday, he reportedly rebuked visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide for her country’s financial support of anti-Israel groups.

Norway demands Israel explain seizure of Gaza-bound boat

Obviously, not a single Norwegian/European flotilla on its way to Yemen, to the Congo…

Via Ynet:

Norway has asked Israel to explain the legal grounds for detaining a Norwegian-flagged fishing boat seized while activists tried to sail with aid to the Gaza Strip, Norway's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said its diplomats in Israel had been providing consular assistance to five Norwegians who were among the 22 passengers and crew detained onboard the vessel Kaarstein on Sunday. Two Israelis on board were quickly released.

"We have asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the circumstances around the seizure of the vessel and the legal basis for the intervention," the spokesman for the Norwegian foreign affairs ministry in Oslo said. A spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Torstein Dahle, head of the group Ship to Gaza Norway which organized the shipment, said it was the first Norwegian aid vessel to attempt to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. 

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Belgium: Anti-Semitic caricature removed from textbook

Background: Belgium: Antisemitic Latuff cartoon published in textbook

Via Ynet:

Two months after Ynet first made public a Belgian textbook contained a caricature that could be construed as anti-Semitic, the country's Education Ministry announced Thursday that the upcoming edition of the book will be published without the offensive drawing.

A letter forwarded by Belgian Education Minister Hilde Crevits Thursday to attorney Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum—who first exposed the story—notified the lawyer that after a probe and a talk with the book's publisher, the caricature will be removed starting with the book's next edition.

The minister added that, "One of the education system's goals is to bring up the younger generation to become respectable, informed citizens" and that the Flemish government only set a bar on academic achievement, leaving selection of appropriate books to each school.

The matter initially came to light in late March, when the International Legal Forum NGO was informed by parents from Bruges of a geography textbook intended for 15 year olds and approved by the country's education system.

The chapter in which the caricature appeared dealt with purported inequality in water distribution between Israelis and Palestinians residing in the West Bank. The caricature showed an overweight Jew with traditional Jewish payos (or sidelocks) asleep in a bathtub filled with water, contrasted with an old Palestinian woman with an empty water bucket.

The cartoon—which may have come from the international human rights group itself—carried a caption that read, "Amnesty International: Israel is denying Palestinians access to adequate water … While settlers enjoy lush lawns and swimming pools!"

Attorney Segal, who is deeply involved in the international struggle against the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was astounded by a copy of the textbook she obtained and consequently sent a scathing letter to the Belgian education minister demanding the anti-Semitic caricature be removed summarily. 

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Belgium: Pro-Palestinian activists place 9,000 shoes on Brussels square

Interestingly, as CNN pointed out in 2013: The Roma, a thousand years of discrimination continues in Europe. The European Parliament lamented in 2015 that Roma remain Europe's 'most discriminated and vulnerable ethnic group'. But European, who are so interested in the Palestinians, show little or no compassion for the Roma...

Via JTA:

Pro-Palestinian activists placed 4,500 pairs of shoes outside the meeting place in Brussels of European Union foreign ministers to protest Palestinian deaths since 2008.

The protest action, organized by the Avaaz group, covered Jean Rey Square with shoes, donated by citizens across Europe over the last week ahead of the Council of the European Union meeting in Brussels Monday. The organizers placed a banner reading “Palestinian lives matter” along the middle section of a Palestinian flag.

Some 4,500 people, including many dozens of Israelis, died in hostilities between Israel and Palestinians since 2008. The Avaaz group said its initiative was a “growing call for EU governments to protect Palestinian lives by reining in Israel’s government violence.”

Critics of the initiative, including Nicole Seekles, a supporter of Israel from the Netherlands, wrote on Facebook that the display was inappropriately evocative of the heaps of shoes on display at the Nazi former death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

Others noted that the protest included no mention of the nearly 4,000 Palestinians who have died in the Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011, mostly at the hands of the forces of Bashar Assad in the government’s war on Sunni Muslims.

Spain: Pro-Israel entity taken to court in Spain

Via JTA (Cnaan Liphshiz):

The Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause, which receives funding from several municipalities in Spain, filed the criminal lawsuit against Angel Mas of the ACOM group last month, he told JTA. A judge examined the 70-page lawsuit against Mas and ACOM and concluded it merited further judicial review, Mas said.

It marks the first time that pro-Israel entities are being taken to court in Spain for their activities and a departure from the strategy of the local Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.

Mas added he was “surprised and disappointed” by the judge’s decision to review what Mas called “a frivolous attempt to abuse the Spanish judiciary with propaganda.” But he added that he was confident that he would be found not guilty in any trial.

At least seven municipalities in Spain have scrapped their endorsements of BDS under threat from ACOM alone, the group said. Another 14 have seen tribunals cancel their pro-BDS resolutions and another two had those resolutions suspended by an injunction pending a final court ruling.

“Having suffered crippling losses in court, the BDS movement in Spain is switching methods,” Mas said. “They are targeting individuals in a smear campaign in an attempt to render Spanish Jews and Israel defenseless. This will not succeed.”

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Belgium: Antisemitic Latuff cartoon published in textbook

Via Elder of Ziyon:

A Flemish geography book published a cartoon by noted anti-semite Carlos Latuff

It shows a stereotypical, fat religious Jew enjoying Palestinian water while their own pipes run dry. 

The geography textbook, Polaris GO!, attributes the cartoon to Amnesty International, although Amnesty has nothing to do with the cartoon. The textbook authors decided to attribute the cartoon to Amnesty in an apparent attempt to make it look like it was an official protest cartoon from that organization.

The book reaches many thousands of Flemish children.

Amnesty, when reached by a Jewish newspaper, denied anything to do with the cartoon.

The good news is that the publisher Plantyn agreed to remove the cartoon from future editions of the textbook, although it will keep the misleading Amnesty quote that ."In the ...Israeli settlement of Sussia, whose very existence is unlawful under international law, the Israeli settlers have ample water supplies. They have a swimming pool and their lush irrigated vineyards, herb farms and lawns – verdant even at the height of the dry season – stand in stark contrast to the parched and arid Palestinian villages on their doorstep. "

Keeping the quote while eliminating the picture is still an example of bias in the textbook.

Here is a photo of the Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah. Note the lawn. Note the pool.

Of course, the "parched" Palestinians have lots of swimming pools too. But Amnesty would never mention that.

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Europe: Amnesty’s 2017 report is rife with distortions and maintains its longstanding anti-Israel biais

Via The Jerusalem Post:

"Amnesty’s 2017 report is rife with distortions and maintains the group’s longstanding anti-Israel biais," NGO Monitor said.

The recent Amnesty International Report on the state of human rights in 159 countries and territories during 2017 claims Israel is “killing” and “torturing” Palestinian children with impunity.

Its critique of Israel is more extensive and critical than those of known bastions of human rights violations, including Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. (...)

Daniel Laufer, head of foreign media relations for NGO Monitor, said the annual report has long harbored egregious anti-Israel bias.

“Amnesty’s 2017 report is rife with distortions and maintains the group’s longstanding anti-Israel bias,” he said on Thursday. “That the Israel section is longer than those on Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, laughably suggests that there are greater human rights issues in Israel than in those countries.”

Among the questionable sections, Laufer notes that the report states that Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and board member of the Ramallah-based NGO Addameer Prisioner Support and Human Rights Association, and Addameer staff member Salah Hammouri, remained in administrative detention at the end of the year.

“[However], it fails to mention that these are both members of the PFLP terror organization, Jarrar being a senior official, and Hamouri having been jailed for attempting to assassinate Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,” said Laufer.

In response to the section claiming: “Many protesters threw rocks or other projectiles but were posing no threat to the lives of well-protected Israeli soldiers when they were shot,” Laufer said: “This thinking both excuses violence, while creating a baseless standard that prevents Israeli forces from protecting themselves and others.”

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Europe: Oxfam’s sex abuse scandal — and its anti-Israel bigotry

Via The Algemeiner (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

The misbehavior of employees of the major British charity, Oxfam — part of Oxfam International — has recently made international headlines. The initial information concerned the cover-up of the use of prostitutes by members of Oxfam’s humanitarian mission to Haiti, after the 2010 earthquake there. Oxfam carried out an internal investigation in 2011, which led to the resignation of three staff members — and the dismissal of four employees.

As NGO Monitor has detailed, Oxfam International and its branches in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium have frequently incited against Israel. The way that they politicize their aid activities makes them part-time enemies, not just political opponents.

As such, the misbehavior of part-time enemies should be publicized like that of full-time perpetrators. The flood of misconduct by Oxfam includes withholding from the public the detailed report on the Haiti scandal for seven years. This was a widespread conspiracy. The head of the Dutch sister charity, Oxfam Novib, has admitted to having had access to the report in 2012, and has stated that she shared it with the Dutch Foreign Ministry and the country’s National Accounting Office.

Because it is unlikely that the Oxfam group of charities — even after this scandal — will refrain from maligning Israel, it is important to publicize the essence of what is known so far. A Haitian woman has come forward and said that the Oxfam mission director had sex with her twice a week for money, when she was only 16-years-old. There are also accusations of sexual abuse by members of Oxfam missions in Chad and Southern Sudan. And one of the executives dismissed in 2011 for sex abuse in Haiti was rehired for another mission in Ethiopia by Oxfam. (...)

When Oxfam has sorted out this disgraceful situation, one should hope that other governments make future funds available only if Oxfam reforms itself — and stops publicly inciting against Israel. In past years, several European governments and the EU have — indirectly, through Oxfam — funded hatemongering against Israel.

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Greece: Anarchist group distributes pro-Palestinian flyers during two raids

Via Ekathimerini (watch the video):

Members of the anarchist group Rouvikonas (Greek for Rubicon) on Thursday stormed the offices of the Hellenic-American Union in Kolonaki in central Athens, scattering fliers with the message “Freedom to Palestine.”

The increasingly-active group carried out a similar raid at the premises of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce on Mesogeion Avenue.

No arrests were reported.

Europe: Trivializing and paying lip service to antisemitism

Via The Jerusalem Post (Alan Baker):

The annual Holocaust remembrance events, whether in the UN or in individual countries, held on and around the official, international day of remembrance on January 27, have now passed, until next year.

The hollow and disingenuous lip-service payed by international leaders to the greatest tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people, has passed.

The annual “day in the sun” of professors, Holocaust researchers and experts, whether in research centers in Israeli universities or elsewhere, is over until next year.

Life must go on.

The international community can now get back to its routine and regular agenda of political correctness. It can get back to ignoring and sidestepping the most tragic violations of human rights in the centers of conflict in Syria, Africa and elsewhere. (...)

Europe can get back to ignoring its own serious and pressing immigration issues to concentrate on its fixation with blaming Israel and with allowing itself, through naiveté and political correctness, to be manipulated by a corrupt, divided and violent Palestinian leadership intent not on peace with, but on the boycotting of Israel.

So what, then, remains of the annual Holocaust remembrance events? What practical measures are the international community taking in order to prevent future Holocausts? Is the international community doing anything to stem the alarming resurgence and spread of antisemitism – especially in Europe – often under the guise of anti-Israel sentiments and actions?

Apart from arguing among themselves as to the best way to define antisemitism in today’s international realities, what are the leaders of the world’s Jewish organizations doing to encourage countries to act definitively to criminalize and prevent antisemitism?

The trepidation of the world’s Jewish leadership – whether out of political correctness or just pure fear – and their hesitation to come out and boldly present antisemitism to the world as an age-old phenomenon that stands on its own, that has existed from time immemorial and that cannot and should not be equated with other forms of racism and bigotry, is perceived by the world as indulgence, absolution and weakness.

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UK: Amnesty International withdraws from event with Jewish community, citing support for BDS

Via The Algemeiner:

JNS.org – Amnesty International sparked outrage among the UK Jewish community after citing support for the anti-Israel BDS movement in its withdrawal from an event it had organized with the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), an umbrella group of major British Jewish organizations. The event, a panel discussion on Israel and the United Nations Human Rights Council, was scheduled to take place Wednesday at Amnesty International’s London offices.

Human rights lawyer Danny Friedman was slated to chair the panel, with speakers Fred Carver of the UN Association and Hillel Neuer of UN Watch joining the discussion.

Amnesty withdrew from hosting the event last Friday, citing its campaign “for all governments around the world to ban the import of goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements.”

“We do not, therefore, think it appropriate for Amnesty International to host an event by those actively supporting such settlements,” the group stated. 

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Europe: The NGO industry's terror trail

Via Gatestone Institute:

Gerald Steinberg (NGO Monitor): (...) On the other hand, you have cases like Germany and the European Union, where the officials involved in NGO funding avoid dealing with the evidence. Their first response to anybody providing them information on NGO terror links and antisemitism is to attack by saying, "Ah, that's a right-wing fiction." At the same time, the tight secrecy on all aspects of NGO funding in these countries continues, even in preventing members of parliament from examining the process. In Europe, the images of Palestinian suffering, and the overall sympathy for Muslim victims in general, are so strong that it is very hard to cut through the myths and slogans surrounding them. This is true across the board, even in the British Conservative Party. It is so deeply embedded in the culture that any criticism, including of NGOs with links to terrorists, immediately becomes labeled "Islamophobic." Any time you even look into where money is going, you get hit with political correctness. This is why it is crucial to create visibility and generate concern.

Gatestone: Why is your main focus Europe, with little emphasis on North America?

GS: In the case of the United States – Canada a little bit less, but still more than in Europe -- transparency in government funding is an extremely important policy and practice. Congress is pretty careful about making sure that budgets for NGO-funding frameworks are scrutinized before they are approved. Although some proposals for problematic organizations have slipped through, there is at least genuine openness and debate about the whole mechanism; discussion is routine. In Europe, on the other hand, the first time that a parliamentary debate was even held on such funding was after NGO Monitor published a report. (...)

Gatestone: To what do you attribute this difference?

GS: American culture is characterized by transparency and scrutiny. Also, in America, there is less naivety about NGOs than there is in Europe. After WWII and the Communist period, the concept of "civil society" – later called "NGOs" by the UN -- became holy in Europe. Civil society was supposed to be the antidote to manipulative democracy, like that of the Weimar Republic. But they forgot to ask what happens when civil society is itself the manipulating force. The answer is that there are no checks and balances imposed on it.

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Denmark cuts funding and is reviewing all funding of PA NGOs

Via Palestinian Media Watch (Itamar Marcus and Maurice Hirsch):

• Denmark announced this week that it cut funding and is reviewing all funding of NGOs, in response to PMW exposing that money it provided was used to build a community center that Palestinians named for a mass murderer 

• Other countries cutting or freezing funding this year following PMW reports: Norway, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland
   
• PMW is changing European attitudes one country at a time 

On May 26, 2017 PMW reported that funds provided by Norway, the UN and a conglomerate of countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland had been used to build a center for young women that was subsequently named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi led a terror attack that resulted in the murder of 37 Israelis, including 12 children, in 1978.

Denmark
Last week, Denmark decided to cancel some grants and review further funding of Palestinian NGOs. The decision was made following an investigation initiated after PMW's report that the women’s center funded by Denmark, was named after a Palestinian terrorist murderer. Denmark announced that it will also tighten the conditions for providing funding to all Palestinian NGOs and that the majority of the aid, suspended after PMW’s report, will not be paid.

“Denmark will tighten the conditions for providing money to Palestinian NGOs, Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said... The review followed revelations [by Palestinian Media Watch] in May that a women’s center partly funded with European aid money... was named after Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in the Coastal Road massacre in 1978 that killed 37 people... Samuelsen also said that the 'majority of aid' suspended from the summer while the review was under way will not be paid.” 

[The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24, 2017]

Norway

When PMW released its report documenting the center named for terrorist Mughrabi, Norway immediately demanded that the Norwegian money be returned:

Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende: 

"The glorification of terrorist attacks is completely unacceptable, and I deplore this decision in the strongest possible terms. Norway will not allow itself to be associated with institutions that take the names of terrorists in this way... We have asked for the logo of the Norwegian representation office to be removed from the building immediately, and for the funding that has been allocated to the centre to be repaid."

[Norwegian Foreign Ministry website, May 26, 2017]

Belgium
When PMW reported that a Palestinian school built with Belgium funds, was also named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, Belgium condemned it and froze the construction of ten additional Palestinian Authority schools.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Didier Vanderhasselt:

“Belgium unequivocally condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks [and] will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists... Belgium has immediately raised this issue with the Palestinian Authority and is awaiting a formal response... In the meantime Belgium will put on hold any projects related to the construction or equipment of Palestinian schools.”

[The Algemeiner, Oct. 7, 2017]

Additional Countries

Germany,  Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands also cut off funding to one or more Palestinian projects following PMW reports on the ways in which Palestinians are using donor funding to glorify terror.

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European Parliament event: propaganda-based advocacy for Israel’s isolation

Via NGO Monitor:

On November 27, 2017, the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine (DPal) held a conference, “Fifty Years of Occupation and Counting: Is it time for a new EU Policy on the Middle East Peace Process?” The conference featured politicians, academics, and NGO officials advocating Israel’s isolation and calling on the European Union and other countries to increase international pressure and to impose sanctions on Israel. None of the speakers advocated for dialogue and/or negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

A number of speakers – namely Michael Lynk, Valentina Azarova, and Hugh Lovatt – joined in a concerted effort to advocate sanctions against Israel based on the pseudo-legal argument that it is an “illegal occupant.” Several speakers additionally promoted false allegations and libelous claims against Israel that went entirely unchallenged.

From Differentiation to Sanctions

Michael Lynk, current “United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,”1 presented his latest report, which “considers whether Israel’s role as an entrenched and defiant occupant of the Palestinian territory has now reached the point of illegality under international law” (p. 7). Lynk admitted in his presentation that “International Humanitarian Law, the main documents and instruments, does not provide a clear answer with respect to that” (17:28:00).

However, in support of his contention that there is reasonable legal ground to declare Israel an “illegal occupant,” Lynk, who is self-reportedly “not an international lawyer… by profession,” purports to have “come up with four main principles that we can deduce from International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law… to determine whether or not the occupant has become an illegal occupant.” He concludes that “Israel has violated in the course of its 50 years of occupying the Palestinian territory, all four of these” (17:40:02).

Following his presentation, MEP Margrete Auken (Greens/EFA) addressed a comment to Lynk,

As far as I could hear, you went further then we here in the parliament has (sic) done up till now, saying the differentiation strategy should be the one we could call for, and every time Israel accuses us to go for the BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions]… they use all means to try to push us into this basket, then you paved the road to go into that basket! By saying that now, as Israel being an illegal occupant, we should really put sanctions on Israel, not only this differentiation (18:22:10, emphases added).

In her comment, Auken was referring to “differentiation” policy, a motif introduced by British NGO European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR). ECFR uses this term to call for sanctions against Israeli entities (and certain individuals) that have activities in or apparent financial contacts with Israeli settlements, claiming that this does not constitute BDS. (Hugh Lovatt, Policy Fellow and Israel/Palestine Project Coordinator at ECFR, who “has worked extensively to advance the concept of ‘EU Differentiation’,” also spoke at the event). (...)

Finally, Bichara Khader, Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain, stated that “aid should not be used to tame the Palestinian resistance” and urged “Europe” to “support the third Intifada, peaceful Intifada, which is the BDS campaign” (19:08:27, emphasis added).

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Germany: Heinrich Boell Foundation withdraws from conference featuring Hamas member

Via NGO Monitor:

On November 17, 2017, the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon exposed that the Ramallah office of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung (HBS) –  a German government funded political foundation affiliated with the German Green Party – was co-sponsoring a conference, “The 1987 Intifada: History and Memory,” in commemoration of “the thirtieth Anniversary of the First Palestinian Uprising against the Israeli Occupation.” The conference, scheduled to be held in Gaza on November 24-26 and in Beirut on November 28-30, will feature speakers that are former or current members of the Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organizations.

One speaker, Hasan Yusuf, is a “Leader in the Hamas movement in the West Bank” (emphasis added) and was “arrested for several years by the Israeli occupation authorities.” Other speakers include Younis Aljaro, “a former leader in the Palestinian (sic) Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP]… and Chairman of Board of Directors of [Al-Dameer] Human Rights Association in Gaza” (emphasis added).

The PFLP, from which Aljaro reportedly resigned in 2013 “for reasons that were unclear,” is a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.

NGO Monitor provided Makor Rishon with details on HBS’ funding and activities. As stated by Olga Deutsch, NGO Monitor’s Europe Desk Director, “NGO Monitor’s years-long research documents the repeated support and cooperation of HBS’s Ramallah office with radical organizations, including those with alleged ties to terrorist organizations.” These include Palestinian NGO Addameer (not to be confused with Al-Dameer), identified by  Fatah as a PFLP “affiliate,” and Al-Haq, whose general director, Shawan Jabarin, was identified by the Israeli High Court of Justice in 2007 as a “senior activist in the PFLP terror group” (NGO Monitor translations).

Kerstin Mueller, director of HBS’s Tel-Aviv branch, stated in a response that “the conferences… are being held without the knowledge of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Israel. The foundation in Israel is looking into the details of the event, and further states that an event celebrating the Intifada is against the position of the foundation in Israel” (emphasis added).

Following further media coverage in Germany and significant public pressure citing NGO Monitor research, HBS withdrew its support of the conference.

Italy: Good news from Italy - presented by Israel-haters

Via Elder of Ziyon:

Reading about Israeli political victories through the eyes of Israel-haters who are not used to having the tide turned against them is a lot of fun.

From Scoop.nz: 

Anti-BDS Laws and Pro-Israeli Parliament: Zionist Hasbara is Winning in Italy

By Romana Rubeo and Ramzy Baroud
A proposed law at the Italian Parliament is set to punish the boycott of Israel. In the past, such an initiative would have been unthinkable. Alas, Italy, a country that had historic sympathies with the Palestinian cause has shifted its politics in a dramatic way in recent years. Most surprisingly, though, the Left is as implicated as the Right in the rush to please Israel, at the expense of Palestinian rights.

The sad reality is this: Italy is moving to the Israeli camp. This is not only pertinent to political alignment, but in the reconfiguration of discourse as well. Israeli priorities, as articulated in Zionist hasbara (official propaganda) have now become part of our everyday lexicon of Italian media and politics. As a result, the Zionist agenda is now part and parcel of Italian political agenda as well.

Italy’s anti-Fascist, anti-military occupation and revolutionary past is being overlooked by self-serving politicians, growingly beholden to the pressures of a burgeoning pro-Israel lobby.

The pro-Israel trend has been in motion for years. In a famous interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot in 2008, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga declared: “Dear Italian Jews, we sold you out”.

Cossiga was referring to the so-called “Lodo Moro”, an unofficial agreement, which was allegedly signed in the 1970’s by Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro and the leaders of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP). Its understanding supposedly allowed the Palestinian group to coordinate its actions throughout the Italian territory, in exchange for the PLFP keeping Italy out of its field of operation.

The “Lodo Moro” is often used in Israeli hasbara to highlight Italy’s supposed failures in the past, and to continue associating Palestinians with terrorism.

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Belgium: Israeli students in Belgium accused of being Mossad agents

On Monday October 23, the cultural center of Nivelles, a Belgian city near Brussels, hosted the screening of a film, This is my Land, by French-Israeli left-wing director Tamara Erde.  The film was followed by a debate with Marianne Blume, a well-known veteran Israel-basher.

Joods Actueel reports that Blume stated that it is an open secret that almost all young Israelis who study in Belgium are Mossad agents.  "Everything that comes from Israel should be boycotted", she further added.

She also stated that Israel is a "foreign body" in the Middle-East.

Mariane Blume is also deeply upset that Belgium cooperates with Israel in the fight against terrorism – implying that the real terrorist is Israel which she alleges tortures prisoners.  She argued that such a cooperation is a "threat to Belgian democracy”.  No less.

The event was organized by a center right politician  (CDH), Evelyne Vanpée, councillor at the city.  When contacted about Blume’s assertions she indicated that she had not attended the event and expressed no regrets.  

In 2008, Evelyne Vanpée took part, with former minister André Flahaut, in a street event also at Nivelles in which Israelis were compared to Nazis. 

At the time, the Simon Wiesenthal expressed revulsion at "the repulsive manipulation of public opinion staged last Saturday in Nivelles near Brussels."

It is only fair to assume that Marianne Blume, who is a frequent speaker at anti-Israel events, has been peddling this sort anti-Israel accusations and conspiracy theories to audiences only too eager to hear how hateful Israeli Jews are.  Most worrying are her attacks against young Israeli students.  By claiming that everybody knows that they are spies she and her supporters put their safety at risk.  It is all the more disturbing because such accusations were proffered in a cultural center run by the city authorities without being challenged, except by Joods Actueel.

Europe-funded NGOs produce rank propaganda, harass and seek arrest warrants of traveling Israeli officials and advance economic warfare against Israel

Via The Times of Israel (Anne Herzberg):

From its very inception, Israel has been faced with conventional and asymmetrical military and political threats from its neighbors, coupled with organized economic and diplomatic boycotts spearheaded by the Arab League and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. The Arab-Israeli conflict is unique, however, in that in conjunction with this state action targeting the country, an army of political activists is provided tens of millions of euros, dollars and francs by the European Union, European governments, the United Nations, churches and private foundations to produce rank propaganda, harass and seek arrest warrants of traveling Israeli officials and advance economic warfare against the State of Israel. 

These campaigns go far beyond a critique of specific Israeli policies but are aimed at the country’s very existence. 

In several cases, the organizations involved in these campaigns advise their members to game Israel’s border controls and lie about their purpose for coming to the country. Many of these political warriors also come to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to riot, destroy property and engage the police and military in violent confrontations and directly participate in hostilities. Networking with NGOs and other organizations affiliated with terrorist groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a regular staple of these visits. The International Solidarity Movement is perhaps the best known of the groups engaged in this activity. 

For years, the Israeli government expressed extreme frustration in response to these campaigns, registering countless complaints with their European counterparts and other funders. (...) 

We also think it is more effective in fighting BDS for Israeli politicians to educate and, where necessary, confront European counterparts about absurd NGO funding policies. Education has proven highly successful in exposing BDS and has led to positive legislation and court rulings in Switzerland, Spain, Germany and France. In the U.S., a majority of states have passed laws countering BDS, with many more bills pending at both the state and federal level. 

On the other hand, the breast-beating and condemnations regarding the legislation, particularly from Europe, are also overwrought and hypocritical. It is hard to think of any other country, including every democracy, that would countenance such active campaigning to deliberately harm the state. Nor would any country — again every democracy included — tolerate a mass influx of foreign protesters to engage its military and police forces in an active conflict zone. 

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Switzerland stops funds to Palestinian NGO due to terrorism connection

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The Swiss Foreign Ministry announced that it suspended funds and support for the Ramallah-based Palestinian NGO Human Rights International Humanitarian Law Secretariat because the organization failed to cut ties to terrorism, according to a Sunday report in the Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung. 

“This is an important first step in NGO funding accountability by the Swiss Foreign Ministry, and reflects the recent legislation on this issue,” Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. “In halting payment to WATC [Women Affairs Technical Committee], the Swiss follow similar moves by Denmark and Holland. 

The radical Palestinian NGO is one of many funded by these countries through the Ramallah-based Human Rights Secretariat, with an annual budget of $4 million,” he added. He asserted that “a number of the recipients are affiliated with the PFLP terror organization.

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