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.

UK: Corbyn's antisemitism isn't a scandal, it's a strategy

Via The Weekly Standard (Tamara Berens):

[…] an old video recently resurfaced of Jeremy Corbyn linking a terror attack in Egypt to “the hand of Israel.” The 2012 interview on Iranian-owned Press TV saw him pedal anti-Israel conspiracy theories in a discussion of a bombing where 16 Egyptian policemen were killed in the Sinai desert. His comments from 2012 were defended last week by a Labour party spokesperson, who asserted that his “speculation” had been factually based on previous Israeli actions in Egypt.  

Many focus on the question of whether Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite himself. He may or may not be. However, his deliberate actions to reject the Jewish community’s concerns, silence his moderate Labour detractors, and pedal anti-Zionism as central to his political image show that he is more than happy to utilize antisemitism for political purposes.

Anti-Zionism—and by extension, giving credence to antisemites—is fundamental to the worldview Corbyn has cultivated on his journey to political stardom. For most of his political career, Corbyn was a fringe socialist politician and supporter of the USSR, Syria’s Assad, the Iranian Ayatollahs and Maduro’s Venezuela. After becoming Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn toned down some of this support for radical anti-Western groups. Nonetheless, he has consistently maintained his support for anti-Zionist causes. What’s undoubtable is that throughout his career, his ultimate goal has remained the same; rejecting Western values and embracing the alliance between radical socialists and Islamists in a strategic bid to normalize and implement socialism in the UK.

Politically, Corbyn’s strategy is working: According to a recent YouGov poll, 61 percent of the party believes Corbyn is handling accusations of antisemitism well. And 80 percent of the party deems him a good leader overall. The events of the past few weeks indicate that the Labour leadership has been able to build on their apparent success to formally distance themselves from the overwhelmingly Zionist British-Jewish community. This perhaps became most apparent last Friday, when Jeremy Corbyn published another article in The Guardian disregarding his part in normalizing antisemitism in the party. The piece came out at 5pm, when the majority of Jews in the country were busy preparing for the Sabbath.

The reality is that support from the Jewish community is no longer an indispensable part of the Labour party. In fact, Corbyn’s foreign policy—a large aspect of his political differences to Blair’s Labour—rests on weakening UK-Israel relations. Corbyn has constructed a successful strategy for claiming the Labour party as his own socialist vehicle for disruption of the Western liberal order. Labeling recent events a “scandal” greatly underestimates the strategic nature of his leadership. 

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UK: The Labour Party has officially become institutionally antisemitic

Via Archbishop Cranmer blog:

It has long been suspected that Jeremy Corbyn has a problem with Jews (if not known that he is antipathetic to Judaism, defends antisemitic conspiracy theorists, and accommodates Jew-hatred), but to learn that the Labour Party itself now inclines to its leader’s worldview is somewhat disturbing.

Yesterday Labour’s NEC approved its organisational sub-committee decision not to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. So Labour does not accept:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The concern is that such a definition embraces the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and would, for example, inhibit the expression or belief that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour. Labour doesn’t want to muddy the water between Jew-hatred (which is antisemitic and racist) and Israel-hatred (which is enlightened and progressive), so the IHRA definition has been rejected. Instead, Labour is going to consult on developing its own definition. […] 

You can’t imagine Labour adopting a definition of ‘Islamophobia‘ which Muslims could not accept, or a definition of ‘homophobia‘ which LGBT people could not accept. Jeremy Corbyn would be immensely concerned if Muslims and gays suddenly starting deserting his party of such an issue, and no doubt Labour MPs would act swiftly to stem the flow. So why single out the Jews for special treatment?

Unless…

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French Ambassador: Israel should protect Gaza border 'without killing'

Via The Jerusalem Post:

"There are extremely violent protests in France [as well]", said French ambassador to Israel Hélène Le Gal in an interview with Maariv when asked what would France do if it had to deal with similar security concerns as Israel does, "and yet nobody is killed."

The interview was published on Friday ahead of Bastille Day (July 14'th). Le Gal discussed the French position regarding the American peace program, Iran, and the strong relations France and Israel enjoy.

Yohann Taïeb (MondeJuif.org) replied that on October 26, 2014, Rémi Fraisse, a 21-year-old botanist, was killed by French police during violent protests against the construction of a dam at Sivens.

Columnist and blogger Véronique Chemla tweeted:

"These are not "protests" in the Gaza Strip: no banners, no flyers, etc. It's the pursuit of jihad with the intent to kill the Yahoud (Jews).

EU ambassador summoned for a reprimand for "interfering with Israeli legislation"

Via EJP:

"It is not enough that the EU finances NGOs that strive to undermine the State of Israel and finance illegal construction.it is now interfering with Israeli legislation. Apparently they do not understand that Israel is a sovereign state."

This was the wording of a press statement issued late Thursday by the Israeli Prime Minister Media Advisor informing that he has instructed the Foreign Ministry Director General to summon the EU Ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret, for a second reprimand and that "he also intends to take additional steps."

The diplomatic reprimand follows a report that the ambassador had lobbied members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to vote against a bill being advanced by the Likud-led coalition government to enshrine Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The European Union is pressuring Israel not to pass the law, claiming one of the clauses is "racist," and if passed would harm Israel’s international standing.

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France keeps blackening Israel and is the most dangerous country in Europe for Jews

Via Algemeiner (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

(…) When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Macron in Paris in April, the French president told him that the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem “led to people dying and did not advance peace.” With this transparently manipulative statement Macron showed his skills in distorting the truth in a few words. What provoked the violence was the terror organization Hamas’ initiative to send civilians to the border and mix terrorists among them. Among the more than 115 Gazans killed by Israel, more than half were confirmed terrorists. That many of those killed were terrorists was confirmed by Hamas itself.

France also supported an UN Security Council resolution which called for protective measures for Palestinians, but didn’t mention Hamas. Deputy Israeli Minister Michael Oren summarized it in a tweet: “Shame on France for supporting it. French government cannot say it’s against anti-Semitism and vote for this anti-Semitic resolution.”

During the violence in April, France urged Israel to show restraint and told Israel that it was its duty to protect civilians. Their spokesmen knew full well that Hamas had sent terrorists to mingle among the civilians and that many civilian demonstrators did not have peaceful intentions. This French behavior was in particular hypocritical because of the many deadly terrorist attacks by Arabs in their country. The most deadly took place in Paris in 2015 and resulted in 130 deaths. In 2016, 86 people were killed in Nice.

When the IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis spoke to French parliamentarians this month, he reminded them that along with other countries, French donations had helped Hamas to build terror capabilities.

French reactions to the Gaza violence have deep roots in Middle Eastern history. In 2008, David Pryce-Jones published his book, Betrayal: France, the Arabs and the Jews. He had access to the archives of the French Foreign Ministry, better known as the Quai d’Orsay. His conclusion can be summarized as: France throughout modern history has done more damage to the Middle East than any other country. (…)

There are other aspects which should be taken into account when judging the French blackening statements of Israel. France is the most dangerous country in Europe for Jews. Of the fifteen Jews killed for ideological reasons in Europe — of which the perpetrators, all Muslims, are known — twelve were murdered in France in six different attacks. The two mass attacks by violent Muslims on synagogues in the EU were both carried out in France, in Paris and Sarcelles. [Also,  Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche perpetrated an attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014, which left four dead.]

Frequently exposing the ongoing French hypocritical blackening of Israel is unlikely to stop it, but it may make it less worthwhile for the country’s official perpetrators.

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Iceland: What do Icelanders really think about Israel? (video)

Via Rudy Rochman:

On the way to Iceland, I was told that many Icelanders were against Israel and that their media had been feeding them lies for years. I was also told that they had recently started a petition to boycott the Eurovision competition in Israel next year. 

Rudy Rochman Facebook

UK: The weird Israel hatred world of Claudia Webbe

Via Harry's Place:

Claudia Webbe’s elevation to chair of the Labour party’s disputes panel is causing controversy. No wonder:

But she stood by her decision to write a letter to the Guardian in defence of the former London Mayor in 2006 after he was suspended from the party for four weeks over his encounter with Mr Finegold.

Ms Webbe worked as an adviser to Mr Livingstone in 2000 and 2004 and, in the Guardian letter, said his suspension “smacked in the face of true democracy”.

“His history of work in the anti-racist movement is unquestionable,” she wrote in the letter.

Oliver Finegold is the Jewish journalist Livingstone compared to a “concentration camp guard” in 2005.

What a fine anti-racist, eh. Keep in mind that Livingstone had already earned notoriety in 2004 by inviting Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the hate preacher extraordinaire, to London. Al-Qaradawi duly told BBC Newsnight that he fully supported suicide bombing attacks on Israeli civilians. Jewish community leaders protested about the visit at the time.

Webbe went on to become an Islington Labour councillor. For a revealing look at her weird Islington world, try a Gaza meeting she chaired at the Finsbury Park Mosque in August 2014.

A tape of the meeting is available on YouTube. Webbe praises and identifies with the crowd, opening the meeting with this line: “This is a true unity meeting. This is about all of us.”

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Ireland: Israel slams ‘immoral’ bill banning trade with settlements

Via The Times of Israel:

Israel on Wednesday slammed an Irish bill that would outlaw the sale and import of settlement-produced goods, saying it was “immoral” and encourages terrorism.

“The Embassy of Israel is concerned by bills that further the divisions between Israel and the Palestinians. Legislation, which promotes a boycott of any kind, should be rejected as it does nothing to achieve peace but rather empowers the Hamas terrorists as well as those Palestinians who refuse to come to the negotiating table,” Israel’s mission in Dublin said in a press release. (…)

The government in Dublin — known to be one of the most pro-Palestinian governments in Europe — is opposed to the law, arguing that it is not legally entitled to curtail trade with Israeli companies based in the settlements.

“The Irish Government has always condemned construction of illegal settlement,” Foreign Ministry Simon Coveney tweeted on Tuesday. “But this Bill asks Irish govt to do something it is not legally empowered to do — trade is an EU competence, not an Irish one. FF [Fianna Fáil — The Republican Party] knows this — so this move is both opportunist and irresponsible.”

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Portugal: Left-wing party 'freedom camp' calls for boycott of Israel

A radical left-wing political party in Portugal (Left Bloc - Bloco de Esquerda) is organising a "freedom camp" in Castelo de Bode. One of the workshops will be discussing the boycott of Israel and will "celebrate" Palestine. Israel are the only country targeted in this way by the Bloc.

Via Helena de Matos @ Blasfémias blog

UK: Former Liberal leader David Steele compares Israel to apartheid South Africa

In Europe, the Right is as keen as the Left to bash Israel.

Via Jewish News:

Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people has been compared to the old apartheid regime in South Africa by former Liberal leader David Steel.

Lord Steel of Aikwood accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of continuing to treat Palestinian lives “as inferior to their own”. Speaking in the House of Lords, the former president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement expressed hope that the recent “slaughter” during protests at the Gaza border would galvanise global opinion just as the Sharpeville Massacre had in South Africa.   

The shooting dead by police of 69 unarmed people protesting against apartheid laws in 1960 was seen as a turning point in the nation’s liberation struggle.

Lord Steel was also critical of the international community, including successive British governments, which he argued had allowed Israel “to defy the United Nations and trample on the rights of Palestinians”.

The Liberal Democrat peer made his hard-hitting remarks as he opened a debate in the Lords on the situation in the Palestinian territories. 

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UK: Leftie lawyer hired by Labour to oversee anti-Semitism cases is ‘friends with anti-Jewish activists’

Via The Sun:

Labour bosses have been blasted for hiring a leftie lawyer who is friends with members accused of anti-Semitism to advise them.

Gordon Nardell QC was last week announced as the party’s new in-house legal counsel to help deal with the backlog of anti-Semitism cases - and will oversee the party’s disciplinary processes.

But critics claim his links to grassroots members accused of anti-Semitic comments undermines his independence, and it could be a conflict of interest if he rules on their cases. It has been revealed that the former councillor and wannabe-MP has a long history of links to the hard left and is friends on Facebook with suspended members.

Labour figures have demanded that the new General Secretary, Jennie Fornby, think again about her decision to hire him in the role. Jewish groups have demanded more progress on dealing with pockets of anti-Semitism in the party, and were left fuming after Jeremy Corbyn refused all of their demands. Labour has set an August deadline for resolving complaints relating to anti-Semitism.

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Europe: Netanyahu refused to meet EU's Mogherini

Via i24NEWS:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed a request from the European Union to meet its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini next week.

Mogherini was scheduled to speak at a conference in Jerusalem on Monday but subsequently cancelled her appearance, the event's hosts, the American Jewish Committee, confirmed to Hadashot News.

The reason was that Netanyahu's office ignored a request by Mogherini for the two to meet while she was in town.

Diplomatic sources confirmed to i24NEWS that Mogherini's planned visit was not a state one.

The EU's foreign service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, but reportedly told the channel that the cancellation was due to scheduling conflicts.

Israel frequently clashes with the EU's diplomats, who in theory represent the united positions of the bloc's member states. An unnamed Israeli government source accused Mogherini of holding positions Israel finds "hostile". 

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France supports a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza

Another illustration of the "politique arabe" of France. "At the UN, France, China, and Russia were among the countries that voted in favor of the draft put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries. Four countries, Ethiopia, the UK, the Netherlands, and Poland abstained."

Via The Times of Israel:

Israeli deputy minister Michael Oren on Saturday slammed France for supporting a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, saying Paris was hypocritical for supporting an “anti-Semitic resolution.”

Oren’s comments, in a tweet, prompted outrage from France’s ambassador in Israel Hélène Le Gal who accused Oren of not even reading the resolution and “insulting France.”

On Friday the United States vetoed an Arab-backed UN draft resolution calling for protective measures for the Palestinians that won backing from ten countries at the Security Council. A US resolution condemning Hamas also failed.

‏ “Praise for the US for vetoing Security Council resolution on Gaza that didn’t mention Hamas and condemned the IDF for defending Israel,” tweeted Oren, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office who is responsible for diplomacy.

“Shame on France for supporting it. French government cannot say it’s against anti-Semitism and vote for this anti-Semitic resolution,” said Oren, a former ambassador in Washington.

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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.

Belgium: Israel's ambassador turns table on Brussels' Gaza reprimand

Via Ynet News:

After being lashed by Belgium and Luxembourg over Israeli policies and its 'disproportionate' use of force during latest wave of unrest, Ambassador Simona Frenkel refuses ‘to listen with a bowed head', tells top diplomats, 'your one-sided positions don’t contribute to peace.'

Israel's Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Simona Frenkel chastised representatives of the two countries’ foreign ministries Wednesday after being summoned to be reprimanded herself following Monday's deadly clashes between the IDF and some 40,000 Gazan protestors. “It seems that the Belgian Foreign Ministry belongs to a school of thought according to which when an ambassador is summoned for a conversation or a reprimand, he is supposed to behave like a child who has misbehaved, to listen with a bowed head and not to respond,” Frenkel wrote in a report sent to the Foreign Ministry.

“I responded and fired back against Belgium: Your one-sided positions do not contribute to peace.” Frenkel was first invited to a meeting with Deputy Director-General of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anick Van Calster, who recently visited Israel.

Van Calster opened by saying that she had been instructed by Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders to invite Frenkel in order to clarify the Belgian position, to voice objections to events that occurred on Monday on the Gaza border and to protest against what was described as a “disproportionate” use of force.

Calster also expressed anger over statements made by Frenkel during an interview with the country’s RTBF radio station, in which she described those killed in Gaza during the wave of unrest as terrorists. “Regarding the independent investigation committee: There has never been an investigation committee that was independent when it comes to our affairs. All of them were political, where there is an automatic majority of people against Israel,” she replied. (...)

“Moreover, Belgium is the last to claim an independent investigation committee since its Prime Minister Charles Michel has determined even before the committee has been established that Israel had to be punished, You have already predetermined the outcome,” Frenkel argued.

She also defended her comments on the radio, drawing Van Calster’s attention to the fact that doubts had already been cast on whether a Gazan baby had in fact been killed by Israeli forces during the protests.

“You raised an outcry because I described them all as terrorists, but this morning we now know that regarding the 8 month old baby who was killed and allegedly hit by the IDF, even the journalists in Gaza are moderating their positions and are saying that she may have already been dying beforehand and was deliberately brought to the fence,” Frenkel noted, before offering what she described as “proof” that the Hamas terror group was responsible for the violent protests. 

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German paper under fire for ‘anti-Semitic’ Netanyahu Eurovision cartoon

Via i24 News:

A German newspaper apologized on Wednesday for publishing a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dressed as Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai and holding a rock with a Star of David on it.

“It can be seen as anti-Semitic,” the editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung acknowledged Wednesday after evoking outrage.

The Munich-based newspaper, one of Germany’s top dailies with a circulation of 1.1 million readers, printed the cartoon Tuesday, as Israel was being scorned worldwide for its handling of the protests on the Gaza border.

The cartoon that appeared in the opinion section, by veteran caricaturist Dieter Hanitzsch, portrayed Netanyahu with oversized ears, nose and lips and in the Eurovision logo the ‘v’ was replaced with a Star of David. “Next year in Jerusalem,” the figure is saying.

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France: Wife of French ambassador in Senegal tells Israeli ambassador's wife not to attend event for wives of diplomats

Via The Jerusalem Post:

Jeanne Hirschson, wife of Israel's Ambassador to Senegal Paul Hirschson, was asked by the wife of the French ambassador in Senegal not to attend a meeting for diplomatic spouses, Ynet reported on Tuesday.

The club of diplomatic spouses includes women and men who are married to diplomats now serving in Senegal, and is led by Marieme Faye Sall, wife of Senegalese President Macky Sall.

Up until a month ago, Miss Hirschson was so active in the club of diplomatic spouses she served as the vice president of the club.

In protest against her work in the club, Arab spouses quit, and the membership dropped to half of what it used to be.

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Europe: EU High Representative Mogherini says Jerusalem is "our common Holy City" for Europeans and Arabs - but not for Jews

With leaders and elites like this one, no wonder euroscepticism is growing in Europe.

Via Elder of Ziyon:

"As Europeans and Arabs we share in particular an interest in preserving the unique status of our common Holy City, Jerusalem." 

Those were the words of EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini during the opening session of 29th Summit of the League of Arab States on Sunday. 

Not only is the Jewish claim to Jerusalem is not only non-existent, but any claim the Jews have to their capital is less important than that of Europe. 

(You know - the continent the Crusaders came from, killing hundreds of thousands of Jews and Muslims. ) 

Mogherini's outrageous statements to the Arab league didn't end there. 

"And you know, you can always count on us Europeans to reiterate our belief that the only viable solution is the two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine."

Meaning that the EU will solidly and always be against the idea of Israeli and Jewish rights to Jerusalem. That the EU places a higher priority on Palestinian rights in Jerusalem than to Jewish rights in any part of the city. 

"The Arab League has a unique role to play here. The Arab Peace Initiative is still, in our eyes, the essential building block towards peace. The King of Jordan is the custodian of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem."

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Ireland: Capital's city council endorses boycott and mayor seems to endorse Palestinian mufti who met Hitler

He is the sort of person so many Europeans pick to represent them...

Via The Times of Israel:

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday rebuked the Irish ambassador to Israel, days after the Dublin City Council passed two anti-Israel resolutions and the city’s mayor attended a conference in Ramallah that appeared to praise the Palestinian mufti Amin al-Husseini, who in 1941 met with Adolf Hitler.

The ministry said its deputy director-general for European Affairs, Rodica Radian Gordon, expressed to Ambassador Alison Kelly her “astonishment and deep disappointment” over the fact that Dublin’s Lord Mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha had chosen to participate in a “blatantly anti-Israel event.”

“This is particularly disturbing in light of the event’s timing, in the week in which Israel observes Holocaust Remembrance Day,” the ministry said in a statement. “The government of Israel expects a public and official Irish response to the conduct of the city council of Ireland’s capital in general, and of its head in specific, which are conducting a campaign of discrimination and hatred against the State of Israel.” (...)

Earlier this week, Dublin’s city council passed two resolutions endorsing the anti-Israel boycott movement and calling on the national government to expel the Israeli ambassador.

As a result of those votes, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Tuesday that he would bar Mac Donncha from entering Israel on his way to to a conference on the status of Jerusalem in Ramallah, at the invitation of the Palestinian Authority.

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