Spain: Barcelona BDS chapter says Europe is ‘responsible’ for terror attack

It has to be emphasized that this view is shared by many European commentators, namely that European government's foreign policies towards Muslim countries and their alleged unconditional support for Israel are the root causes of domestic Islamist terrorism.

Via JTA:

Catalonia’s branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel suggested that European governments are “responsible” for a terrorist attack in the Barcelona area. 

BDS Catalonia made the accusation on Friday, a day after the Islamic State terrorist group said its militants killed in the Spanish region 14 people and wounded another 100 in two incidents in and near its capital, Barcelona. 

Following a paragraph that states that BDS Catalonia “wishes to condemn the attacks committed” and to “express solidarity with the victims and their relatives,” the statement asserts that “we also condemn the responsibility of European governments in what they are doing with their foreign and domestic policies, and their complicity in human rights violations worldwide.” 

In the only reference to terrorism in the statement, the authors wrote: “We also do not forget the victims of military occupations, of wars and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestina, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Mali, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and many other places where what happened yesterday in Barcelona is a daily occurrence.”

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UK: British group banned from 4 US states for boycotting Israeli settlements

Via European Jewish Press:

A British retail group has has been banned from four US states, Florida, Illinois, New York and Arizona, because of it boycotts goods originating from West Bank communities, The Jewish Chronicle reported. 

The Co-operative Group, based in Manhester and founded in 1844, has businesses in food, banking, insurance, funerals and legal services. 

It operates what it calls "ethical" policies, meaning its stores have not stocked settlement products since 2009. Five years ago, members expanded the ban to include Israeli companies trading in the settlements. On its website, the Co-op said that "exceptional circumstances" meant it had withdrawn trade from "the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories". 

Arizona included the Co-op on a "prohibited investment lis" in March, alongside a series of financial firms and banks.  New York State’s office of general services listed it as one of more than a dozen "institutions or companies determined to participate in boycott, divestment or sanctions activity targeting Israel" in May, as did Illinois’ investment policy board. 

The State Board of Administration of Florida said it had scrutinised the Co-op after being directed to create a "list of companies that participate in a boycott of Israel, including actions that limit commercial relations with Israel or Israeli controlled territories". 

Luke Akehurst, director of the We Believe in Israel grassroots group which campaigns against boycotts, said: "The Co-op Group’s boycott of certain Israeli suppliers has done nothing to advance peace and coexistence or to help the Palestinians. 

"All it has achieved is to alienate Jewish and other pro-Israel customers from the Co-op and now to get them added to a list of BDS-supporting companies that several US states can’t invest in.

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Germany: Guide at Anne Frank Center in Berlin compares Jewish suffering under Nazis to Palestinians under Israel

It is yet again painfully clear that European organisations like the Anne Frank Center in Berlin are often incapable of applying proper vetting procedures when hiring staff.

  Via JTA:

The Anne Frank Center in Berlin has distanced itself from the statement of a freelance guide who compared the suffering of Jews under the Nazis to that of Palestinians under Israeli occupation today. 

At issue was a profile of Nesreen Hajjaj, a 24-year-old Berliner of Palestinian background, in the July 19 online English version of Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned news outlet. Hajjaj is one of 25 freelance guides who introduce visitors to the exhibition at the Anne Frank Zentrum Berlin. 

Hajjaj told the interviewer that “many things that happened to the Jews during the Nazi rule are happening to the Palestinians now. Jewish people were kicked out of their homes and denied an education. Today Palestinian lands and houses are being conquered,” she told the online publication. 

She said she had been called an “infidel and a hypocrite” on social media for taking the job with the center. 

Her answer to critics: “We must be open-minded toward different people, especially if you live within their societies.” 

Patrick Siegele, director of the Anne Frank Zentrum, told JTA that Hajjaj’s comment was “incorrect and painful … and does not reflect the official position of the Anne Frank Zentrum. Furthermore, the Anne Frank Zentrum distances itself from this position.”

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Ireland: Israel deplores Ireland's traditional policy towards Jerusalem

Via European Jewish Press:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his dissatisfaction over Ireland's traditional policy towards Israel, during a meeting in Jerusalem with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney. 

Netanyahu deplored that Ireland does not condemn the Palestinians for incitement and for glorifying those who commit terrorist attacks. 

He also asked the minister why his country helps NGOs that call for the destruction of Israel and noted that many European countries are overlooking the core problem of the conflict  which is the Palestinian refusal to recognize the state of the Jews. 

Ireland is generally considered as one of the most critical country towards Israel within the European Union, alongside Sweden. 

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Germany: Berlin Mayor rapped for Palestinian terrorist group fund-raising event

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Berlin Mayor Michael Müller was under fire on Monday for failing to stop a local fund-raising event for the terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 

The pro-PFLP event was organized by the Democratic Committee of Palestine and reportedly took place in the publishing house of the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland (New Germany) on Saturday. 

“The PFLP should be banned from staging events anywhere in the world,” Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. 

Zuroff, Wiesenthal Center chief Nazi-hunter, said, “The mayor should have said he found this offensive. The PFLP has murdered innocent civilians in many places.” 

The Berlin daily Tagesspiegel first reported on the planned event on Saturday, terming the PFLP “an Arab terrorist organization.” 

Requests for comment to Müller were not returned by press time. The PFLP is responsible for scores of suicide bombings in Israel as well as plane hijackings. In 2001, the PFLP assassinated Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi. 

Neues Deutschland publishing house executive director Olaf Koppe, wrote the Post by email that neither the paper nor the publishing house enabled the PFLP event. He added that he was not aware that the PFLP fund-raiser took place in the building. 

After the Post's report on the planned PFLP event, in a follow-up email to the Post on Tuesday,  Koppe wrote "such an event did not take place. And events of terror organizations or organizations that question Israel's right to exist and propagate antisemitic propaganda will also not take place here."  

He said on Monday the newspaper Neues Deutschland and publishing house are separate entities from the management events division in the building.

A spokeswoman at the Neues Deutschland building said the event management department from the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation in the building is responsible for such events. 

Jannine Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, told the Post that the “PFLP event did not take place in the rooms of the foundation,” and the foundation did not organize the PFLP fund-raiser or play a role in the participation of the PFLP event. 

“The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation does not support international terror organizations,” said Hamilton. 

Over the last month, Berlin’s mayor has been engulfed in criticism that he is soft on combating antisemitism and terrorism.

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Austria: Bishop resigns from NGO Pax Christi over antisemitism at Palestinian event

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Bishop Manfred Scheuer

Bishop Manfred Scheuer resigned on Monday as president of the Catholic peace organization Pax Christi in Austria because of outbreaks of antisemitism within the NGO and at a Pax Christi event with the Palestinian ambassador.  

Scheuer, Bishop of Linz -- Austria's third largest city -- said that the reason for his resignation is Pax Christi's "criticism of Israel's politics" and over the assessment of the "criticism as antisemitic," wrote the Catholic wire agency Kathpress. 

Scheuer said, "I am convinced that because of the Shoah in Germany and Austria a special responsibility and sensitivity is necessary toward the state of Israel." 

Pax Christi International supports the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign targeting the Jewish state. 

In addition to anti-Israel antisemitism, Scheuer cited an additional reason for his break with Pax Christi: verbal attacks on members of the Jewish community in Linz during a late May lecture by Salah Abdel Shafi who serves as the Palestinian ambassador to Austria and the UN in Vienna. 

According to Kathpress, during the joint Pax Christi event with Abdel Shafi, insults were leveled at a writer and Anna Mitgutch, a representative of the Jewish community in Linz, as well as two members of the community. 

Mitgutch told the Linz Kirchenzeitung (Church Paper) that the language used was a "new flare up of antisemitism." (...) 

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, "This resignation therefore marks an important turning point -- for the first time, a member of the Catholic hierarchy in Europe has openly criticized the organization for this activity. By highlighting the antisemitism, Bishop Scheuer's resignation might also lead the Vatican to issue long overdue guidelines for Pax Christi and other Catholic NGOs such as Misoerer in Germany, that promote BDS." 

The bishop said he shared the concerns of the Jewish community over growing antisemitism in Europe. "Every form of antisemitism is disgraceful and should be sharply criticized, " said Scheuer.

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UK: Palestinian festival (Palestine Expo) billed as biggest of its kind in Europe in London

Via Melanie Phillips:

(...) Early next month a Palestinian cultural festival called Palestine Expo – billed as the biggest of its kind in Europe – is scheduled to take place at the QE2 centre in Westminster. It is being organised by the Friends of al Aqsa (FOA). The founder of FOA, Ismail Patel, has openly expressed support for Hamas. In 2009, he told a rally: “Hamas is no terrorist organisation. The reason they hate Hamas is because they refuse to be subjugated, occupied by the Israeli state, and we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel […] to the state of Israel: you no longer represent the Jewish people.” 

The Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, had told FOA he was considering cancelling the event on the grounds of “concerns that your organisation and those connected with it have expressed public support for a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas, and that you have supported events at which Hamas and Hizballah – also proscribed – have been praised”. 

Today, however, Javid’s department reportedly told FOA it was “content to let the event proceed.” 

That will please Tim Black. In a piece for Spiked published before Javid made his decision, he wrote it would be wrong to ban Palestine Expo just because those involved “have expressed something the state deems unacceptable”. Apparently he thought this unacceptable something amounted to “railing against Israel” and also had “a faintly Islamisty aura”. 

Well Hamas isn’t “faintly Islamisty”, nor is it merely guilty of “railing against Israel”. It is an Islamist terrorist organisation which has deranged views about Jews and wants to destroy Israel. It never ceases trying to murder Israelis whether by multiple rocket fire, tunnelling into their kindergartens in order to slaughter their children, slitting the throats of Israeli Jews as they sleep or blowing them up. 

It sets out to murder as many Jews as it can. Its sentiments are not merely “fringed with something more deeply antisemitic”. Its foundational covenant, as published in 1988, said this of the Jewish people: 

With money they have taken control of the world media – news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting services, etc. With money they sparked revolutions in various countries around the world in order to serve their interests and to reap profits. They were behind the French Revolution and the Communist Revolution and [they are behind] most of the revolutions about which we hear from time to time here and there. With money they have formed secret organisations, all over the world, in order to destroy [those countries’] societies and to serve the Zionists’ interests, such as the Freemasons, the Rotary Clubs, the Lions, the Sons of the Covenant [i.e. B’nei B’rith], etc. All of these are organisations of espionage and sabotage. With money they were able to take control of the colonialist countries, and [they] urged them to colonise many countries so that they could exploit their resources and spread moral corruption there.  

There is no end to what can be said about [their involvement in] local wars and world wars. They were behind World War I, through which they achieved the destruction of the Islamic Caliphate, reaped material profits, took control of numerous resources, obtained the Balfour Declaration, and established the League of the United Nations [sic] so as to rule the world through this organisation. They were [also] behind World War II, through which they reaped enormous profits from commerce in war materials and paved the way for the establishment of their state. They [also] suggested the formation of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of the United Nations [sic] and to rule the world through this [new organisation]. Wherever there is war in the world, it is they who are pulling the strings behind the scenes. 

Hamas has recently revised this covenant. It was reported to be taking out these Jew-hating passages, having finally realised they might be somewhat unhelpful to the Hamas PR machine which so wows western Israel-haters. In this interview, however, its spokesman sidestepped the question of whether it had actually done so.

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Europe must stop funding demonization of Israel

Via YNet (Ben-Dror Yemini):

This image featured on the website of the influencial State-funded Belgian-Palestinian Association (Brussels-Wallonia), founded 42 year ago... It was created by Oxfam Belgium and only withdrawn by Oxfam International following a worldwide campaign led by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

In the past, Europe was involved in the demonization of Jews. Today, Europe is funding the demonization of the Jewish state. A normal country can’t allow donations that fund the campaign to destroy that same country, and it’s time for Israel stop this absurdity too. 

About a year ago, the Ramallah-based Popular Art Center staged a musical performance for “the Palestinian martyrs,” titled “No to laying down guns.” There is nothing new here. This is the “education to peace” that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared in his meeting with US President Donald Trump. Abbas declared, and the European Union is paying in funding for the center. The more interesting thing is that the grant was given as part of a special project for “increasing Palestinian public awareness of EU core values.” 

Particularly large funding, of €2.5 million, was given to the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC). One of the senior employees of the WCLAC is Manal Tamimi. Tamimi propagates anti-Semitic cartoons, often defines Israel as a Nazi state, and her tweets include content such as “Vampire Zionist celebrating by drinking Palestinian bloods” and “I do hate Israel, I do hate Zionism, I wish a third intifada coming soon and people raise up and kills all these Zionist settlers everywhere.” 

Furthermore, dozens of Palestinians NGOs which support the BDS movement have the support of European countries, the European Union and other foundations. Do European taxpayers know that their money is funding anti-Semitic incitement and encouragement of terrorism? Probably not. But the EU knows. A parliamentary question on the issue was submitted at the European Parliament, and the NGO Monitor organization sent a letter to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, specifying the activities the EU funds were used for. The Delegation of the European Union to Israel said in response that the EU was against incitement and anti-Semitism, and that funding was only provided for the goals defined in the projects.

A double standard in all its glory Admittedly, there are already signs of change. On May 17, the European Parliament decided to “ensure that no EU funding can be directly or indirectly diverted to terrorist organizations or activities that incite these acts.” More importantly, about two weeks ago the same parliament adopted the working definition of anti-Semitism which clarifies, once and for all, that demonization, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis and denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination are anti-Semitism. All the bodies supporting the BDS movement fall into this definition.

There have been interesting developments in other countries in Europe. Only last week, the Swiss Council of States voted in favor of a resolution to prevent funding to NGOs involved in anti-Israel incitement, racism and anti-Semitism, after a similar resolution was adopted by the Swiss Parliament in March. The Swiss Council of States’ resolution explicitly mentioned the BDS campaign. Norway and Denmark are holding back budgets too, following the hard work of the NGO Monitor organization. Germany is one of the only countries in Europe which keeps funding the demonization without a hint of self-criticism. (...)

Israel cannot stop the EU or Germany from funding organizations that support terror or the BDS movement and operate outside Israel. Israel can act, however, when it comes to bodies operating inside Israel. A normal country can’t allow donations that fund, whether directly or indirectly, the campaign to destroy that same country.

Europe is not an enemy. On the contrary, trade relations are thriving and our cooperation with the EU is growing in many fields. It seems, however, that when Europe condemns anti-Semitism on the windshield, it funds bodies that create the demonization on the rear window. In the past, Europe was involved in the demonization of the Jews. Today, Europe is funding the demonization of the Jewish state. Needless to say, this article wouldn’t have been written had Europe been funding bodies—both on the Israeli side and on the Palestinian side—that advance peace and reconciliation. But it’s the other way around: Europe is funding demonization. 

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Switzerland: Intl Red Cross is facilitating salary payments to Palestinian terrorists

Via PMW (by Itamar Marcus and Maurice Hirsch, Adv.):

The Palestinian Authority is abusing the good will of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to pay salaries to Palestinian Authority terrorists in Israeli prisons. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informing him of this abuse, and suggested a means to rectify the situation. Following is a special report on the subject.

Introduction

According to Palestinian Authority law, all Palestinians arrested for security offenses, which includes those who committed terror attacks, receive a PA salary from the date of arrest until the day of release. These salaries increase according to the amount of time the terrorist remains in prison and range from 1,400 shekels to 12,000 shekels per month. 
While the PA claims to foreign governments that these payments are "social welfare benefits" and not salaries, PMW has shown that this is false. (See appendix below) 

The ICRC supplies the forms that enable the payments to terrorists 

The PA Regulation 18 (2010), which established procedures for the PA payments to terrorist prisoners, states that a "wakil" - an "authorized agent" or "power of attorney" - will be appointed by the prisoner to determine who receives his salary. The regulation gives the prisoner the right to designate people other than his wife or parents. Appointment of an "agent" can be authorized only by the prisoner's signature on a special form. It is the ICRC that visits the prisoners and brings the form for the prisoners to sign. (...) 

Accordingly, the ICRC by supplying this form is facilitating salary payments to terrorists, something that is not part of the humanitarian work of the ICRC.  

Based on the above findings, the Director of PMW's Legal Department notified the ICRC and asked for their response.  

The ICRC in its response differentiated between two types of prisoners, "internees" and "detainees." "Detainees" includes those arrested, indicted or convicted of terrorism (see articles 66, 69 and 76 of Fourth Geneva Convention - GCIV), which includes the imprisoned Palestinian terrorists. In its response to PMW, about the "detainees" the ICRC referred to article 10 of GCIV which provides:

"The provisions of the present Convention constitute no obstacle to the humanitarian activities which the International Committee of the Red Cross or any other impartial humanitarian organization may, subject to the consent of the Parties to the conflict concerned, undertake for the protection of civilian persons and for their relief."  (Emphasis added)

Since facilitating the payments of salaries to terrorists is not something the ICRC is compelled by GCIV to provide, and is certainly not part of the humanitarian work of the ICRC, all services to "detainees" requires the "consent of the Parties." This means that the ICRC cannot facilitate these payments to terrorists without the consent of the Israeli government. 

While it is unclear whether the ICRC knew, prior to PMW's query, that the PA is using the form it provides as a means to pay the terrorist salaries, the ICRC's response to PMW's inquiry stated that the organization provides the function as a "humanitarian" activity. (...) 

Appendix
The PA salaries to imprisoned terrorists is not humanitarian or social welfare for families but is in fact a salary to the terrorist prisoner himself 

PA payments to terrorists are not social welfare for the families but are salaries to the terrorists themselves. The PA law itself uses the term "salary" [See: Palestinian Authority Government resolution # 23 of 2010 and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 15, 2011]; an attempt by some PA members to change the language of the law from "salary" to "social assistance" was blocked and the law remained unchanged [See: Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake - WAFA news agency, Dec. 27, 2012 and Chairman of the Prisoners' Club Qadura Fares - Al-Quds Internet edition, Dec. 27, 2012]; the payment is paid based on "time served" by the terrorist and irrespective of financial needs of the family of the terrorist [See: Al-Quds, Jan. 3, 2010, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 15, 2011] and is subject to income tax [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 19, 2011]. Single prisoners receive the same basic high salaries as those married with children. While social welfare benefits are universally calculated as a portion of the minimum or average salary, the salaries paid to the terrorists are quite clearly not social welfare benefits, as they are based on the number of years a prisoner has served time in jail.

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Germany: BDS activists storm lecture by MK in Berlin Humbolt University

Screenshot

All this fuss and there was hardly anyone attending the conference...  There were more protesters than attendees.

Via Arutz Sheva 7:

A lecture given by MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) at the Humboldt University of Berlin Tuesday was interrupted by a group of BDS activists, including a number of Israelis. 

The event was held in the framework of a visit by a delegation of young people from the Yesh Atid political party in Berlin and Frankfurt, led by MK Aliza Lavie. The delegation aimed to promote information activities among students on leading campuses in Germany, and to hold a series of meetings with members of parliament, representatives of the Jewish community, students, and public opinion leaders. 

The disruption took place several minutes after MK Lavie began her lecture. The BDS activists began shouting and cursing and did not allow the lecture to continue or a discussion to take place. Lavie's attempts to reply and hold a discussion were met with screams accusing her "a child murderer" and that "the blood of the Gaza Strip is on your hands." 

The rioters also accused Israel of apartheid and war crimes. A protester who identified himself as "a journalist from Gaza" said that he was quoting materials from the radical Israeli organizations B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence. 

Those present said that the provocation was staged and planned in advance in order to discredit Israel and prevent the Israeli representatives from speaking. 

The scene played out before Devorah Weinstein, an 82 year old Holocaust survivor who participated in the delegation. The delegation had just visited the monument in the library square of the university, where in 1933 German students and lecturers burned tens of thousands of books of Jews and opponents of the Nazi regime.

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Belgium: 'Intellectual elites' pen an anti-Israel petition (yet again)

Yet again, Belgians are busy defaming Israel, rather than dealing with the problems besetting their own country.  RTBF, the Belgian francophone public broadcaster posted a petition signed by 100  individuals titled: "Palestine, 50 years under occupation: in Belgium and in Europe, we have the means to act!". No such petitions are initiated by these citizens "committed to the values ​​of justice, peace and equality" against human rights abuses in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar etc. Only Israel. Obviously they dont care about the occupation of Cyprus by Turkey, the Western Sahara by Morocco, the Crimea by Russia and so on and so on.

Israel is accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing, of treating Israeli Arabs as second class citizens, o being guilty of war crimes, etc.

The signatories could use the term "implantations" for settlements, but prefer to use"colonies" and conclude:

"Concretely, we call on the Belgian, federal, community and regional governments, and in particular on Didier Reynders, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on Kris Peeters, Minister of the Economy, to take action and sever all economic, political and scientific relations that Belgium maintains with the Israeli colonization. We therefore ask them to prohibit the import and marketing of products from the Israeli colonies on the Belgian market and to exclude the Israeli colonies from all bilateral and cooperation agreements with Israel.

We, therefore, as citizens from diverse backgrounds but all committed to the values ​​of justice, peace and equality, call for the end of Israel's occupation, colonization and impunity, which have That the Palestinian people can finally enjoy their most basic rights and live in dignity and freedom."

100 personalities against 50 ans of occupation

1. Angela Davis
, philosophe, militante des Droits de l’Homme, Etats Unis
2. Anke Hintjens, chanteuse belge
3. Anne-Marie Andrusyszyn, directrice du CEPAG
4. Alain Clauwaert, ancien président de la Centrale générale FGTB
5. Arnaud Zacharie
, secrétaire général CNCD 11.11.11
6. Axel farkas, membre de JAC
7. Bart Vonck
, poète belge
8. Bichara Khader
, professeur émérite UCL
9. Bogdan
 Vanden Berghe, Secrétaire général 11.11.11
10. Chantal De Smet
, directeur honoraire, KASK-Gent
11. Charles Ducal
, poète et écrivain belge
12. Charlie Lepaige
, Président Comac, jeunesse PTB/PVDA
13. Christian Kunsch, Président du Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien                              
14. Christiane Schomblond, professeur émérite ULB

Germany: Mayor of Oldenburg 'gives no platform to anti-Israel lectures'

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Mayor Jürgen Krogmann of the northern German city of Oldenburg pulled the plug Wednesday on two events slated to call for boycott of the Jewish state. 

The events were canceled because of concerns that “a large number of the supporters of BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] hold antisemitic positions,” the municipality said in a statement sent to The Jerusalem Post. 

“So long as it cannot be clarified that the BDS movement officially and publicly does not question Israel’s right to exist, such events cannot take place in city facilities,” Krogmann stressed. 

BDS speakers were slated to appear at the PFL Kulturzentrum PFL cultural center next week and speak about “Palestinian suffering and how the injustice can be stopped,” and “Israel’s military industry.” 

The mayor expressed annoyance about the failure of the Internationales Fluchtmuseum association – a museum about refugees that organized the event – to make clear the BDS content of the talks, saying “I feel deceived.” 

The city government titled its statement: “City gives no platform to anti-Israel lectures.” 

The city informed the event organizer on Wednesday that the contracts with the association holding the event were rescinded. 

The mayor said even if the anti-Israel event can rely on freedom of speech protections, the BDS events are unacceptable because they would strain Oldenburg’s relationship with Israel and its partnership with the Mateh Asher Regional Council in the Western Galilee. 

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Switzerland considers war crimes complaint against Tzipi Livni

One wonders how many war crimes complaints have been filed in Belgium and in Switzerland and in other European countries against Arab countries?

Via The Times of Israel:

Switzerland’s attorney general’s office on Wednesday said the country is weighing whether to pursue a war crimes complaint filed against former minister Tzipi Livni over her role in the 2008-2009 Gaza war. 

“[The legal] request is presently being studied,” the attorney general’s office told Swiss news site Swissinfo. 

Quoting the French-language Swiss daily Le Temps, Swissinfo said that the suit was filed Monday by the pro-Palestinian Swiss organization Urgence against Livni, who served as foreign minister during the three-week long conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group, a war known in Israel as Operation Cast Lead. 

The complaint against Livni was submitted after she visited the Swiss city of Lugano on Sunday to speak at an event arranged by the Swiss-Israel Association. 

Swiss NGO Trial International hailed Urgence’s decision to file the complaint, saying it would enable Swiss authorities to take legal action against Livni if she returns to the country. 

“Switzerland has an obligation to work on cases of alleged war crimes if the suspect steps on Swiss territory. If Switzerland opens an investigation, it is in line with Swiss law, especially given the alleged crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead,” a representative for the group told Swissinfo.

Livni has been the target of groups attempting to bring war crimes charges against Israeli leaders over Operation Cast Lead in a number of European countries. 

In January, Livni canceled a trip to Brussels when Belgian prosecutors planned to question her over allegations of war crimes. 

“We wanted to take advantage of her visit to try to advance the investigation,” a spokesman for Belgium’s federal prosecutor Thierry Werts said.

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European Governments funding NGOs linked to bloodthirsty terror group PFLP

European governments also fund European Israel-bashing organisations in spite of the fact that many terrorists operate in Europe.  That's one of the reasons why so many European citizens do not trust their politicians.

Via The Algemeiner:

European governments are funding Palestinian civic organizations with clear ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, a leading Israeli research organization said on Monday. 

A new report from the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor lists nearly a dozen organizations with PFLP affiliations that have nonetheless received funding from both the EU and European national governments. The PFLP has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, Canada and Israel. All of the NGOs in the PFLP network are enthusiastic advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel. 

The organizations include the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), whose co-founder, Dr. Rabah Muhanna, is a member of the political bureau of the PFLP and the leader of its Gaza branch. The UHWC received over 350,000 Euros from the European Commission between 2014 and 2016, in addition to undisclosed amounts from European regional governments and humanitarian foundations. 

The European Union is also a major funder of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR,) whose founder, Raji Sourani, was convicted in 1979 of membership in the PFLP. In 2012, Sourani was denied an entry visa into the United States. Despite these connections, the EU donated over 400,000 Euros to the PCHR in the two years prior to 2016, while the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provided the group with a further $577,000. 

As well as European governments and the United Nations, the NGO Monitor report identifies a number of well-known funds, including the Open Society Foundations of liberal billionaire George Soros, that have provided support to PFLP-linked NGOs in the Palestinian territories.

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Spain: Texas slams Spanish banks over Israel-boycott account

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

BDS group president tried to hide PayPal account from ‘Post’

Two giant financial institutions – Dallas-based Comerica and Spain’s La Caixa – are caught in the crossfire of criticism from politicians and human rights organizations over a fiercely anti-Israel legal group’s accounts with them.

Texas State Sen. Brandon Creighton told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, “The International Association of Democratic Lawyers [IADL] supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to boycott Israeli products. I do not agree with that stance and I have authored legislation to prohibit Texas from investing public funds in companies that boycott Israel.”

He added, “That [closure of the account] is unfortunately not up to the Texas legislature to decide. As a public official and voice for my constituents, my concern is to ensure that the State of Texas does not support organizations engaged in these discriminatory trade practices.”

Texas State Rep. Phil King, the author of another anti-BDS bill, told the Post that “financial institutions and companies, just like state governments, should be encouraged by their stakeholders to exercise their freedom and moral obligation to carefully choose the parties with whom they do business.” 

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, told the Post, “Any steps that limit the ability of organizations which support terror and seek the destruction of the State of Israel are welcome and should be actively encouraged. This is a perfect example of such a step, which we hope will be replicated in the banking and business sectors.” 

Jan Fermon, the secretary-general of IADL and a Belgium-based lawyer, wrote the Post by email that “regarding BDS, IADL supports this movement.” He added, “IADL engaged in solidarity with the Palestinian people in a very early stage of its existence because it considers the violations of international law and human rights law... by the Israeli authorities as a major obstacle to a just and lasting peace in the region.”

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told the Post, “The IADL never met an anti-American or anti-Israel extremist they didn’t support. They have absolutely no credibility among objective lawyers. Their history as a Communist front created and funded by the Soviet Union continues to motivate their biased approach. Their lack of transparency is designed to hide their real agenda, which is ideological, not legal.”

When asked about IADL’s funding sources, the NGO’s president Jeanne Mirer wrote in an email to the Post, “Tell him [the Post reporter] we do not use PayPal. They will go after them [PayPal] to cut us off.”

Mirer, a Brooklyn-based labor lawyer, wrote in subsequent emails to the Post, “The emails you received from me were only intended for Mr. Fermon,” and, “We do not receive government or UN money.” Mirer declined to further comment on the group’s PayPal account, which is listed as a method of donation on IADL’s website. (...)

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told the Post, “It is not surprising that this group, which was reportedly created by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and did anti-American propaganda during the Korean War, is now pushing hard-core anti-Israel propaganda. Among their 17 member organizations is one from North Korea.”

He added, “This is consistent with the Soviet campaign on anti-Zionism, mixed with antisemitism, which later fed into the BDS movement. As if often the case with such front organizations, their finances are nontransparent. Unlike legitimate NGOs which publish audited annual financial reports on their websites, IADL provides no information other than the claim that funding is provided by member organizations – most of which also lack transparency.”

Fermon said that the criticism and the Post inquiries are attempts “to silence voices that are critical to Israel by demonizing them unjustly as ‘terrorists, antisemites, communist fronts, etc.’”

IADL has defended the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, saying Tehran “wishes to develop its nuclear matter research for peaceful use. Such a use is obviously the right most basic to each country.”

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Austria: BDS barred from holding event at Vienna cultural center

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Vienna cultural institution barred BDS Austria from holding an event, the WUK cultural center told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday.  

“The WUK distances itself clearly from ‘Israel Apartheid Week Vienna 2017’ and its organizer, BDS Austria, and there is no place for any form or statement of antisemitism,” Christine Baumann, a spokesperson for the WUK, told the Post. 

She added that the “Israeli Apartheid Week Vienna 2017” was not planned as a WUK event. 

“In the concrete case of BDS Austria, the use of the room was approved because the organizer was mistakenly believed to be for equal rights and against repression and far removed from antisemitism.” 

BDS Austria wrote on its Facebook page that the WUK cultural center prevented a discussion and “jumped on the comfortable train of general propaganda and agitational mood against the BDS movement. (...)

One BDS Austria event is set to feature Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a British-Palestinian lawyer who is a consultant for Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Her talk is titled, “Apartheid and its applicability to Israel/Palestine.” 

Shawan Jabarin, head of Al-Haq, “has been linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization,” according to the Jerusalem- based NGO Monitor. The PFLP is classified as a terrorist entity in the US and the EU. 

The cancellation of the event posed another setback for the group. The Amerlinghaus, a municipal- funded cultural center in Vienna, canceled BDS Austria events last March because of opposition by Vienna’s mayor and political parties. 

Austrian politicians and civil society organizations have pushed back against the anti-Israel movement over the last year. “The city of Vienna rejects boycott calls against the State of Israel and the association BDS Austria receives no funding from the city of Vienna,” Martin Ritzmaier, a spokesman for Vienna’s Social Democratic Mayor Michael Häupl, told The Jerusalem Post last year. 

Student associations at the University of Vienna issued a statement last March stating their opposition to every form of antisemitism, including the BDS movement. 

The Austrian Parliament canceled an event last February that would have featured late BDS activist and anti-Zionist Hedy Epstein. Vienna’s Jewish community, which has over 7,000 members, banded together with a coalition of civil society groups fighting antisemitism to organize a protest against BDS Austria last year. The group spoke out “against the antisemitic masquerade of ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’” on their website, Boycott Antisemitism.

The Austrian financial giant Erste Group terminated BDS Austria's bank account last year. 

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Switzerland: Jean Ziegler, Hezbollah and Holocaust-denier Garaudy admirer, honored at U.N.

With the Portuguese António Guterres, the U.N. will be just more of the same...

Via UN Watch:

Letter from UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer to U.S. Amb. Nikki Haley, Feb. 26, 2017.

Dear Ambassador Haley,

We are alarmed that as U.N Secretary-General António Guterres tomorrow opens the 2017 session of the Human Rights Council, that body will be honoring its advisory committee member Jean Ziegler—a notorious anti-American ideologue who has accused the U.S. of committing “genocide” in Cuba, supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, and is the co-founder and 2002 recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—as one of its high-level speakers, together with High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and UNDP chief Helen Clark. 

Moreover, two weeks later, Mr. Eric Tistounet, Head of the Human Rights Council branch of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will be speaking together with Mr. Ziegler at the Geneva screening of a film “Jean Ziegler: Optimism of the Will,” the publicity for which heaps praise upon Ziegler as a great “intellectual.”

We urge you to speak out and condemn the U.N.’s obscene celebration of this apologist for brutal dictators and terrorists—and to try to stop it. The United States gives some $40 million to OHCHR in regular budget and voluntary funds, and yet it seems this office seeks to insult the U.S. by honoring a leading anti-American figure.

Both of these events supported by the U.N. are designed to obscure Mr. Ziegler’s shameful record, which includes:

• In 2006, Mr. Ziegler said, “I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement.”

• Ziegler has for decades acted as a propagandist for the world’s worst dictators, including Muammar Qaddafi, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe, as I documented in a 2008 essay.

• In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.” He announced it to the world. All of this is fully documented in our 2006 report, confirmed by the Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

• Under Mr. Ziegler’s supervision, the prize was awarded to anti-Western dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and to antisemites such as Louis Farrakhan and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad.

• In 2002, Mr. Ziegler himself received the Qaddafi Prize, together with convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, whom Ziegler had previously praised as a “leading thinker of our time.

• Astoundingly, when challenged in 2006, Mr. Ziegler completely denied any involvement with the Qaddafi Prize. He blatantly lied on repeated occasions over seven years—until, in 2013, video evidence emerged of Ziegler receiving the prize.

• Ziegler has never accounted for the estimated $100,000 award money—the receipt of which violates U.N. ethics rules, and for which he must be investigated by High Commissioner Zeid, who is copied on this letter. (...)

• For these reasons and more, Mr. Ziegler has been condemned by leading authorities:

• U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power declared in 2013 that Mr. Ziegler was “unfit” to serve in the UNHRC.

• Seventy members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the U.N. in 2005 citing Mr. Ziegler for anti-Semitism, and urging his removal.

• Ziegler was specifically named as an offender by members of the U.S. Congress in Sec. 501(10) of the draft bill entitled United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011.

• Ziegler was condemned in 2005 by both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner of Rights Louise Arbour for his remarks comparing Israelis to “concentration camp” guards. His references to Israel were, in Arbour’s words, “evocative of Nazi Germany,” and “inflammatory.” (...)

• The Swiss Parliament’s foreign affairs committee opposed Ziegler’s nomination in 2013, saying it was “inappropriate.”

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Belgian anti-racism official defends Palestinian he helped convict for hate speech

Via JTA:

Jews from Belgium’s Flemish Region said they “lost all confidence” in the country’s  anti-racism authority over its lawyer’s defense of a Palestinian man whom the same lawyer helped convict for hate speech over calls to slaughter Jews. (Note: none of the Belgian French-speaking organisation (the CCLJ and the CCOJB, the latter a member of the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress) reported on the events in Antwerp, the subsequent condemnation and UNIA's attitude...)

The unusual rebuke Thursday by the Forum of Jewish Organization of Flanders came after the Jewish weekly Joods Actueel published a leaked email written by Johan Otte, a judicial expert of the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, or UNIA.

In it, Otte condemned the conviction on Tuesday for incitement to violence by a criminal tribunal in Antwerp of a man who in 2014 shouted anti-Semitic slogans during a protest rally in that city. The man, who is Belgian Palestinian, according to the media in Belgium, was given a six-month suspended sentence. Two defendants who also stood trial alongside him were acquitted. 

Otte’s rebuke, in which he called the sentence “distorted justice instead of true justice” is remarkable also because UNIA was one of two complainants who initiated the trial against the man the court convicted. The other party was the Flemish Jewish forum.

“The email clearly illustrates that UNIA’s sympathy lies with the perpetrator over his would-be victims,” the Jewish group wrote in their statement.

According to the Gazet van Antwerpen daily, the defendant, who is appealing his sentence, shouted about Khaybar – a place in modern-day Saudi Arabia where in the seventh century Muslims massacred and expelled Jews. According to Joods Actueel, the defendant also shouted about slaughtering Jews.

Joods Actueel editor-in-chief Michael Freilich said the case was the latest in a list of failures to confront anti-Semitism by the Belgian state authority for fighting racism. He added UNIA’s track record suggests “it is only paying lip service” to the fight against anti-Semitism when in reality it fails to act on this type of racism as vigorously as it confronts other forms of xenophobia.

UNIA’s press service did not reply to requests for comment by JTA and Joods Actueel.

On Friday, Liesbeth Homans, the minister in charge of equal opportuities within the government of te Flemish Region — one of three entities that make up the federal Belgian state — called for a review of UNIA’s activities in light of Joods Actueel’s report.

In 2011, a police superintendent, David Vroome, told Joods Actueel that an employee of UNIA’s predecessor said that Jews “think they can get away with everything because they have money, financial power but also because they keep triggering our guilt over the Holocaust.”

Belgium: Israel scolds Belgian envoy over his PM’s meeting with left-wing groups

One can imagine the furore if P.M. Netanyahu met, on a visit to Belgium, with far left wing groups or if the Israeli government financed NGOs engaged in anti-Belgian propaganda... 

The Times of Israel:

Belgium’s Ambassador to Israel Olivier Belle was summoned for a dressing down in the Foreign Ministry on Thursday over a visit by his country’s prime minister, Charles Michel, with representatives of two prominent left-wing Israeli rights organizations.

 On Wednesday, during his three-day visit to Israel, Michel met with the heads of Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem, despite a direct appeal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Belgium to end its support to groups he considers damaging to the country.

“The government of Belgium needs to decide if it wants to change direction or continue with its anti-Israel path,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office warned in response to the meetings.

The statement said Jerusalem viewed Michel’s meetings “with utmost gravity,” and noted Belgium’s “unfriendly” initiatives to prosecute Israeli officials for alleged war crimes during the 2008 Gaza war. 

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Belgium: Brigitte Herremans, the catholic anti-Israel pasionaria (Pax Christi, Broederlijk Delen)

Featuring: Brigitte Herremans, the Belgian catholic anti-Israel pasionaria, "major supporter of lawfare and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel"who "demanded that Israeli citizens who come to Belgium (actual tourists, not activists) be subject to “interrogation”" and downplays the level of antisemitism.

Via Times of Israel (Gerald Steinberg):

On September 9 (2016), Brigitte Herremans arrived at Ben Gurion airport, planning to lead an “alternative tour” of political activists, as she had done many times before. But this time, the polite-sounding Belgian activist was not given the usually automatic tourist visa. Instead, by her own account, she was unceremoniously denied entry and turned back.

Brigitte Herremans is in many ways typical of Western European leaders of BDS and demonization campaigns. Her official title is Policy Officer for the Middle East at Broederlijk Delen (BD) meaning “fraternal sharing”– an influential and semi-official Belgian Flemish Catholic aid organization. (She plays a similar role in another Catholic NGO — Pax Christi.) They claim to combat poverty and inequality by working with local organizations, but are tainted with a radical political agenda that includes intense demonization of Israel. Out of the €6 million annual budget provided by Belgian taxpayers, €264,000 goes to political projects in “Israel/Palestine” that have nothing to do with aid. This is Herremanns’ radical mini-empire. (...)

Upon her return to Belgium, Herremans immediately provided further evidence of her deeply ingrained hostility. In an interview on Flemish Radio 1 on 12 September, Herremans repeated her support for “sanctions against Israel” and demanded that Israeli citizens who come to Belgium (actual tourists, not activists) be subject to “interrogation.” In the same interview, when asked about reports that showed a rise in antisemitism in Belgium, Herremans accused “Israel’s allies” of “inflating” the level of antisemitism in order to “distract from its treatment of Palestinians.”  

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Via NGO Monitor:

CIDSE/NGO Political Campaign Exacerbates Friction between Israel and the EU

In January 2017, the church umbrella organization CIDSE’s Palestine-Israel Working Group (made up of 18 organizations from Europe and North America) released a document titled “No Place Like Home: A Reader On The Forced Internal Displacement Of Palestinians In The Occupied Palestinian Territory And Israel.” The working group includes: Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Catholic Agency for Overseas Development [CAFOD] – (UK), CCFD-Terre Solidaire (France), MISEREOR (Germany) and Trócaire (Ireland). The document cited a number of political NGOs, including Adalah and Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center(JLAC).

CIDSE’s press release quotes Brigitte Herremans, Broederlijk Delen’s “Policy Officer for Israel and Palestine.” Herremans is a major supporter of lawfare and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, and in September 2016, was denied entry to Israel. Herremans has also called on the EU “to confront Israel” over alleged “systematic violations of international law.” Similarly, Broederlijk Delen, along with CCFD, Trócaire, and others produced the 2012 report “Trading Away Peace,” which lobbied the EU to impose economic sanctions on Israel. Broederlijk Delen, along with the other CIDSE group members, also fund politicized non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including some of the organizations cited in the document.

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