Showing posts with label Type: Jews have no right to Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Type: Jews have no right to Israel. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Netherlands: Textbook omits Jewish connection to Jerusalem



Via Times of Israel:
A Dutch publisher that previously created school textbooks accusing Israelis of ethnic cleansing has released a new volume omitting Jerusalem’s significance to Jews.

The omission occurred in a textbook about social issues titled “Plein M” by Nordhoff Publishers for preparatory middle-level applied education level schools, including public schools. It states Jerusalem is holy to Muslims and Christians, but does not mention its holiness to Jews.

It also states that Jews and Christians were “mostly treated well” by Arabs throughout history. It does not mention capital taxes and many pogroms perpetrated against Jews in Arab countries before and during the flight of at least 800,000 Jews from those countries in the 20th century. Today, there are fewer than 7,000 Jews living in Arab countries.

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Likoed Nederland, a pro-Israel group, called the book a form of “historical falsification” in a statement Sunday, adding it “reads like Palestinian propaganda.”


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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

EU spokesperson: Abbas’s speech on the origins of the Holocaust ‘unacceptable’, EU ‘committed to combat any form of anti-Semitism and any attempt to condone, justify or grossly trivialise the Holocaust’


Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):
"The speech Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered on 30 April contained unacceptable remarks concerning the origins of the Holocaust and Israel’s legitimacy," said Maja Kocijancic, EU spokesperson for foreign affairs in a statement.

"Such rhetoric will only play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution," she said.

The EU spokesperson was reacting to Abbas’ speech at a rare meeting of the Palestinian National Council, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) parliament in Ramallah on Monday, in, which he said that the Jewish "social function" in 20th century Europe, such as money lending, caused animosity towards them which led to the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide of six million Jews.

He cited what he said were books by "Jewish Zionist authors" for the claim. Among others he quoted the controversial "The Thirteenth Tribe" by Arthur Koestler, which claims that Ashkenazi Jews, of European ancestry, are not real Jews, but descendants of the Khazars. He denied that Ashkenazi Jews count as a Semitic people.

He called Israel "a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism" and said "those who sought a Jewish state weren’t Jews."

He stated that the Holocaust was not a result of anti-Semitism, but the fault of Jewish "social behavior," and "charging interest and financial matters," and asserted that Adolf Hitler had actually facilitated the immigration of Jews to Israel.
The Holocaust has been a long time fascination for Abbas. His doctoral thesis, "The Connection Between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933–1945," was completed in 1982 for the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, and published in 1984 as an Arabic book, "The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism". He asserted that Zionists had been complicit in the Holocaust, which Abbas said was far overblown in scope.
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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Germany: Paper claims Jews took Arab land to create Israel


Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):
An Israeli diplomat in Berlin reprimanded leading weekly Die Zeit for the cover story of its current issue, which argues that Jews from across the globe “settled Arab lands” to build the State of Israel. “ 
@zeitonline friendly,reminder: Jews have been living in this land since the time of King David, King Solomon and Jesus,” embassy spokeswoman Adi Farjon tweeted on Thursday.

The article’s headline, “Israel at 70: Why is There No Quiet in This Country?” triggered outrage over the omission of historical facts. The paper asserted that “Jews from across the world settled Arab lands and simply created facts out of which the State of Israel grew.”

Responding to the omissions in the article, the Anne Frank Educational Center wrote on its Twitter feed that the “historical background of the founding of Israel is not mentioned [nor] centuries-old antisemitism & the Shoah.”

The Frankfurt-based organization added: “Why did Die Zeit not write that since Israel’s creation in 1948 its existence has been threatened?” 
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Monday, December 25, 2017

UK: ‘Hitler was a great man – this ain’t Israel', London van driver’s antisemitic rant

Via The Algemeiner:

A Jewish pedestrian who became embroiled in a row with a van driver in one of London’s Jewish neighborhoods found himself on the receiving end of a vicious antisemitic rant on Friday.

A video of the incident shows the man, seated in the driver’s seat of a red van, repeating the phrase “Hitler was a great man” at the height of an argument between the two on a street in the north-east London area of Stamford Hill – home to a large Haredi population.

When the Jewish motorist filming the footage asked him to “say it again”, the man repeated: “I said Hitler was a great man. He knew what he was doing, okay?”


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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Europe: Muslim migrants behind rise in antisemitism - Germany has the most urgent problem

Via The Times (Roger Boyes):
Syrian refugees who fled to safety in Europe must abandon their prejudices or be sent home  
School textbooks in Syria make uncomfortable reading. Jews, pupils are told, reject Allah’s divine truth, their state is illegitimate, Israeli occupation of Arab lands is a crime. A 25-year-old Syrian, whatever his views of Bashar al-Assad, whatever his personal misery, will have been brought up with these unquestioned views and some will have drawn the conclusion: it is impossible, indeed wrong, to live side by side with Jews.

We are seeing the results of this in Europe today. Antisemitism is on the rise, especially in countries that took in large numbers of migrants from Arab countries. At the outset of this month’s Hannukah festival, two Syrians and a Palestinian firebombed a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden. A few days later a Jewish cemetry in Malmö was attacked. In Germany, the Israeli flag has been burned and Jewish pupils bullied by Arab schoolmates. Jewish elders offer advice on which districts it is risky to wear the kippa, the Jewish skullcap. (...)
Muslim antisemites, too, are a motley crowd. Some have been told in mosques that the mere existence of the state of Israel poses an existential threat to the Arab world. The demonstrations in Germany against Donald Trump’s decision to locate the US embassy in Jerusalem were inspired in mosques but also by political agitation among asylum seekers. Neither is Britain immune from antisemitic currents. It has the same driving elements: a significant number of British Muslims who are suspicious and resentful of Jews, and, on the hard-left of politics, an antizionist hardcore.

It is Germany, however, that has the most urgent problem. 
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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Germany uses EU funds to finance extremist Iranian regime-controlled group

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):
The German government provides €283,150 to a radical pro-Iranian regime Shi’ite umbrella organization as part of a program to counter extremism. The funds will support the activities of the umbrella organization the Shi’ite communities of Germany (IGS) until the end of 2019, according to a Friday article in Bild newspaper.

The paper wrote that money from the EU’s Internal Security Fund will be administered by Germany’s federal criminal agency for the Shi’ite umbrella organization. The aim of the grant to the pro-Iranian regime group is to promote “deradicalization” and “prevent extremism,” according to Bild.

Hamburg’s most recent intelligence report from 2016, which monitors threats to Germany’s democracy, includes a reference to the IGS and a number of its members’ organizations, including the Islamic Center of Hamburg. The German government classifies the Shi’ite umbrella group as “influenced by extremism,” it said.

Hamid Reza Torabi, head of the Islamic Academy of Germany – part of the Iranian regime-owned Islamic Center of Hamburg – held up a poster in downtown Berlin during the 2016 al-Quds rally urging the “rejection of Israel” and terming the Jewish state “illegal and criminal.” The Islamic Center buses pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iranian regime members and activists to the annual al-Quds Day rally calling for Israel’s destruction. The rally is also a hotbed of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Jewish state
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Sunday, October 8, 2017

Austria and Germany: Iranian mosques stoke genocidal antisemitism against Israel

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):
Iranian regime-controlled mosques in Vienna and Hamburg stoke genocidal antisemitism against Israel, while the Imam Ali mosque in the Austrian capital propagates discrimination against women, according to a government report and statements.

The Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) said last week, in its report probing 16 mosques that in the Iranian regime-controlled Imam Ali mosque, that “the mosque is entirely on the same line as Iran’s state doctrine. Israel is not, regardless of its boundaries, recognized.
The goal is the destruction of the Jewish state.”
In one of the prayer services observed at the Imam Ali mosque in February, the cleric publicized a conference for the support of the Palestinians under the motto: “Palestine is the home of the Palestinians.”

The imam complained during the service that the Islamic world was so occupied with its own problems that it had lost sight of the Palestinians and “negotiates with the ruthless usurper.” While Israel was not mentioned by name, the pejorative descriptions are believed to have targeted the Jewish state. 
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Sunday, October 1, 2017

UK: School cancels Balfour poetry contest that fails to mention Israel

Via The Jewish Chronicle:
A Kent grammar school has abruptly withdrawn from hosting a poetry competition marking the Balfour Declaration centenary which only asked for submissions on the theme of Palestine.
St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington announced in its June newsletter that it would hold an international poetry competition on November 2.
The competition, sponsored by The Balfour Project, Shortlands Poetry Circle and Bromley International Cluster, is open to students aged between 10- and 18-years-old from “all faiths and none”, and will award £500 to the winner.
The school was contacted by Board of Deputies vice president Sheila Gewolb over why Israel was not mentioned.
Headmaster Aydin Önaç told Mrs Gewolb that the school was “simply hosting the competition”. (...)
But when contacted by the JC on Wednesday, the headmaster said the school was no longer hosting the event. He declined to comment further.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

UK: Woman with notorious history of anti-Semitic statements hired by trade union

Via Guido Fawkes:
A former Labour parliamentary candidate who was twice suspended from the party for anti-Semitic comments is now working for Unite as a regional officer. Guido can reveal that Vicki Kirby has been hired by Len McCluskey’s trade union despite her notorious history of anti-Semitic statements. In 2014 Kirby was ditched as a Labour PPC after a string of disturbing tweets where she suggested Hitler is the “Zionist God”:
Kirby was Vice Chair of Woking Labour Party, and refused to step down even as she was reported to the police by a fellow party official. She was suspended for a second time following another Guido story 
Now Kirby is understood to be working for Unite, based in the union’s South East regional office.
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Sunday, September 3, 2017

UK: Pro-Palestinian artist publishes yet another antisemitic song


Chabloz is currently on trial for a previous antisemitic ditty.

Via Elder of Ziyon:
Alison Chabloz, a performer at the Edinburgh Festival who sings songs that are both anti-Israel and antisemitic, has just posted another mini-medley on YouTube.

(...)
 
Lyrics:


    Sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel ‘El Condor Pasa’
    I’d rather be a Gentile than a …. non-Gentile
    Yes it’s true. So would you. If you only knew. Mm..Mm
    All those lies about their history and the past
    To guarantee …Israeli hegemony .. Tribal supremacy. Mm ..Mm
    Away, O they’ve been sent away, for their crimes, one hundred times.
    Why do, we let them in again, to steal what’s yours, take what’s mine?
    And then to moan and whine.  Mmmm ….Mmmm.
    The first great lie concerns the Lord above
    They claim to be his choice minority
    They alone deserve his love. Mmmm ….Mmmm.
    The second lie imposes usury, on you and me
    Yes it’s true, since Waterloo. Mmmm ….Mmmm.

    The third claims Six Million were gassed alive
    Their bodies burnt, or so we learn
    I used to question, how this could have come to pass
    Now I insist. It’s a damn fine tale, I like the story as it is.

    (Switches to the tune of an Israeli song, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem)

    The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
    The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
    The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
    I do insist. I like the story as it is.

    Electrocution, steam and diesel
    Electrocution, steam and diesel
    Electrocution, steam and diesel
    I do insist. I like the story as it is.

    The coloured smoke from the chimney
    The coloured smoke from the chimney
    The coloured smoke from the chimney
    I do insist. I like the story as it is.
   
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Thursday, August 31, 2017

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

Via Guido Fawkes:


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

- Said she: “strongly advocates that the parasitic entity known as ‘Israel’ MUST cease to exist. Furthermore, every single Israeli is a parasite.”; 
- Appeared on Iranian state television to praise “the armed resistance from the Islamic Jihad … and also Hamas” in Israel;  
- Suggested Palestinians should use “everyday items to resist, whether it’s knives, cars … everyday items to strike the fear in the hearts of their oppressors”;  
- Described white people using the racial slur “honkies”; (...) 
 Channel 4 has pulled the report and video from its website and deleted tweets promoting the piece…
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

UK/Denmark: Barbican accused of showing antisemitic film in science fiction season


Via Guardian:
The head of the UK’s main Jewish organisation has accused London’s Barbican arts centre of showing an antisemitic film, which she claims is “blatant propaganda about the Israel-Palestine conflict” masquerading as science fiction.

Gillian Merron, the chief executive of the Board of Deputies, an umbrella organisation representing British Jews, called on the London arts centre to remove the film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain from the exhibition Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction.

The film by a Palestinian artist, Larissa Sansour, and a Danish author, Søren Lind, which combines live action, computer-generated imagery and historical photographs, is described in the exhibition as telling “the story of a fictional ‘narrative resistance’ group which attempts to implant the existence of a fictional civilisation in history by burying fragments of pottery in the ground”.

In a letter to Sandeep Dwesar, the chief operating and financial officer of the Barbican, Merron wrote: “While the Barbican synopsis casts the film as a sci-fi feature about fictitious technologically advanced aliens who land in an area to implant a ‘false history’, I understand that the film is clearly filmed in Israel and that the dialogue is in Arabic and purports to show the ‘aliens’ seeding the land with porcelain in an effort to create the ‘false’ impression that they have a historical connection to it.
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Requesting its removal from the exhibition, Merron said: “It is therefore not much of a stretch to suggest that the film is a means by which to deny the historical Jewish connection to Israel and an exercise in delegitimisation. Accusing Jews of falsifying our connection to Israel smacks of antisemitism and is of grave concern.”

In reply, Dwesar said: “The short film has been programmed for its poetical vision before anything else. ... Having spoken to the curator and the artists, the intention is that the symbolic visual language in the film speaks of history and tradition, yet it cannot necessarily be placed in any distinct or quantifiable time period.”

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Friday, August 11, 2017

Germany: Antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the 1970s: lessons for today

Via Fathom:
In this provocative analysis of discourse about Israel in West Germany in the 1970s, Martin Jander claims that far-Left and far-Right groups were encouraged, and in some cases even organised by the radical Arab nationalists in their midst, to spread an ideology of radical anti-Zionism that included elements of antisemitism. The Federal Republic of Germany failed to respond robustly, meeting a wave of incitement and political violence with intellectual incuriosity, an appeasing spirit, and rationalist naivete. Jander argues that what made this anti-Zionist discourse possible, along with the participation of German left-wing and right-wing terrorists in the war against Israel, was the superficiality of postwar Germany’s confrontation with its National Socialist past. In contrast to the way this is often explained in current German historical writing, Jander argues that the encounter with the Nazi past had not struck roots as deep or as broad as had been hoped.
Martin Jander:
In the 1970s, a new breed of West German terrorists fabricated a parallel world out of ideology. The US was portrayed as the greatest enemy of the world with assistance from two main helpers, Germany and Israel. All three were depicted as fighting against the revolutionaries and those nations struggling for freedom. German fascism and Zionism appeared as the same thing. The terrorists that hijacked the Lufthansa airplane ‘Landshut’ on 13 October 1977, dominated by that ideology, informed the world that: 
This operation aims at liberating our comrades from the jails of the imperialist-reactionary-Zionist alliance … revolutionary and freedom fighters all over the world are confronted with the monster of global imperialism – this barbaric war under the hegemony of the US against the nations of the world. In this war imperialist sub-centres like Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany fulfill the executive function of the suppression and liquidation of each and any revolutionary movement in and on their specific territories. In our occupied land the Imperialist-Zionist-reactionary enemy demonstrates the highest level of its bloody hostility and aggressiveness against our people and our revolution, against all the Arab masses and their patriotic and progressive forces. The expansionist and racist nature of Israel is – with Menachem Begin at the head of this product of imperialist interests – clearer than ever before. West Germany was set up on the same imperialistic foundation in 1945 as a US base.[1] 
The statement mixed nationalism with anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. And while the terrorists rejected the idea that they were anti-Semites they aimed to destroy Israel.[2] (...)  
But a series of developments in West GermanyChancellors Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, both members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), started to follow a policy in the Middle East they described as ‘neutral’ and began to have good relations with Yasser Arafat while sections of West German society, including terrorists on both the left and right, joined the PLO’s battle to destroy Israel – were very unexpected.
In the 1950s, the West German SPD had pushed for good relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Israel. Without the SPD, the German Parliament would not have passed the 1953 ‘Luxembourg Treaty,’ the first agreement between Israel and Germany after the Shoah. Yet during the 1973 Yom Kippur war the FRG under Willy Brandt did not allow American armed forces to use their military bases in the country to supply Israel with weapons. Israeli ships were forbidden to come to the harbor of Bremerhaven to collect weapons from American Naval ships. While the FRG government saw its refusal as a policy of ‘neutrality,’ most Israelis viewed this as support for adversaries committed to its destruction.
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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Germany: Court dismisses soldier for denying Israel's existence and support for Hamas

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):
A court in Hanover in the state of Lower Saxony affirmed in June the German armed forces’ decision to discharge a soldier because of his rejection of Israel’s right to exist and support for the US- and EU-classified terrorist organization Hamas. 
The soldier of Afghan background lashed out at Israel, Jews and the United States during questioning by Germany’s military counter-intelligence service (MAD) in 2016. 
According to the legal decision obtained by The Jerusalem Post on Friday, the unnamed soldier said “F***... the Jews and the USA” and justified support for Hamas and Fatah.
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Thursday, July 27, 2017

Germany: Israel supporters are the enemy within, Social Democrat says

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):
The Ministry of Economic Affairs for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia started an investigation on Tuesday of an employee and Social Democratic Party official who said Israel supporters undermine the Federal Republic, sparking accusations of antisemitism.

Stefan Grönebaum – division head covering work and social policies, demography and integration – labeled pro-Israel members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and other supporters of the Jewish state , an “organized, good networked ‘fifth column’ in the interests of Israel’s policies.”

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, head of Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday: “These types of comments are clearly antisemitic and should be examined by the SPD. Their expert is antisemitic and is disseminating an antisemitic view.” (...)

On Facebook, in a rambling tirade against the legitimacy of the Jewish state, Grönebaum wrote “Zionists are attached to a colonialist doctrine... They mean that the land of the others belongs to them.”

Grönebaum’s written assaults on Israel were triggered by a comment from Sercan Aydilek, an activist who campaigns against modern antisemitism in Germany and who described himself as a Zionist.

Dr. Elvira U. Groezinger, head of the German branch of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told the Post,” It is remarkable indeed that a member of the Social Democratic Party and an employee in a ministry of a German federal state publicly dares to delegitimize Israel in a language which is directly taken over from the Nazi vocabulary and to use it in an openly antisemitic way in his polemics against the Jewish state which is a democratic one, contrary to the totalitarian regimes in the Arab countries.”

Tanya Aliza, who said she was a German-Israeli Social Democrat, thanked the people involved in the Facebook conversation for their criticism of Grönebaum.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Germany: Anti-Semitism still prominent in German schools, study finds

Via i24NEWS:
“You Jew” is still a common curse in Berlin's schools, according to a new study published Wednesday. 
The report by the German chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) found a rise in anti-Semitic incidents among pupils, linked to an increase in Salafist tendencies. 
Researchers on behalf of the AJC interviewed 27 teachers from 21 schools in Berlin, between autumn 2015 and spring of 2016. Their depictions paint an alarming picture of a growing religiously-motivated hostility to Jews and to Israel, especially among students with Turkish or Arabic roots. 
The authors emphasized that the survey does not represent the situation in all schools in Berlin, but it shows an empirical trend. 
The majority of surveyed teachers reported witnessing incidents considered anti-Semitic on school grounds. Many of them reported that anti-Semitic slur words are still used on a regular basis by students against classmates, not necessarily of Jewish background.
According to the report, anti-Semitic stereotypes are also still strongly present in schools, like those associating Jews with wealth, control of the media and of the global financial system. 
Israel, as the state of the Jews, often serves as a general substitute for Judaism, the study found. 
“The first instinct always seems to be, that all things Jewish are bad because of Israel,” one teacher was quoted as saying. Some also stated that the word “Israel” is boycotted by students. In many atlases, the State of Israel is erased or blacked out, noted another teacher. 
A third of all respondents professed to knowing a student who shouted hate slogans in a demonstration against Israel. Several teachers reported hearing students express some degree of support towards terrorism targeting Israelis. “They are the reason that people attack, or that people dance when somewhere in Israel an attack happens,” a student said, according to his teacher. 
Germany's support of Israel is also often criticized. 
One teacher said: “many students say, when it comes to this issue: 'yes, yes, Germany always supports Israel, but this fuss will soon come to an end... Once we reach certain positions, we will put an end to it. Then it will be exactly the opposite. We will look in closely and will rather support Israel's opponents.'”
Any mention of Jews or Israel can cause “a small intifada in the classroom,” described one teacher, and therefore many prefer to avoid these issues and “let sleeping dogs lie.” 
Touching upon the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in particular, has become equivalent to opening Pandora's Box, said another educator, and any conveying information on that topic is “almost impossible.”
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Monday, July 24, 2017

Europe: The 2nd Intifada triggered a new form of European antisemitism intimately connected to anti-Zionism

Via The Jerusalem Post (editorial):
The US State Department’s post of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism was established in 2004, during the presidency of George W. Bush. 
Now, 13 years later, US President Donald Trump is seeking to do away with the position.
We urge him to reconsider. Antisemitism is an issue that should be taken seriously by the Trump administration. Allowing the position to stay vacant sends the misleading message that this administration does not take antisemitism seriously enough.
 
But a warm body is not enough. Filling the position is important. But no less important is choosing the right person. The ideal candidate should clarify, not obscure, the main forces behind contemporary antisemitism. There have been good and bad envoys in the past. (...) 
We do not suspect Trump is opposed to fighting antisemitism. The decision to ax the position is part of a policy to do away with special envoy posts to save taxpayers’ dollars (...) 
The driving force behind the 2004 Global Anti-Semitism Review Act that created the position, the small staff of aides and the modest budget was the late congressman Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor. The push to pass the bill, which began in the early 2000s, coincided with an uptick in antisemitic incidents, particularly in Europe. 
The Second Intifada that broke out in 2000 triggered a new form of European antisemitism intimately connected to anti-Zionism. Attacks against Jews perpetrated by the far Right were outnumbered by attacks carried out by the masses of immigrants from Muslim countries and their offspring who were outraged by Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Palestinian suicide bombers and shooters. Adding fuel to the fire were elements on the progressive Left that depicted Israel as a colonialist occupier and conveniently ignored or justified the violence of Islamist terrorist groups. 
The French Human Right Commission reported six times more antisemitic incidents in 2002 in France than in the previous year. If anything, the situation has only gotten worse in Europe since. 
Lantos’s legacy must live on. But appointing a special envoy is not enough. The candidate should not shy away from identifying the sources of the newest and deadliest forms of violent antisemitism.
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Sunday, July 9, 2017

Germany: Christian NGO Bread for the World funds and promotes BDS, despite claims to the contrary

Via NGO Monitor:
On June 13, 2017, German church aid organization Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World, BfW) issued a press release in response to a Bild article about the Arte documentary “Chosen and Excluded – the hatred of Jews in Europe” -which highlighted BfW funding to anti-Israel NGOs. The press release stresses, “For Bread for the World any promotion ends with the denial of Israel’s right to exist, calling for the boycott of goods from Israel, or promotion of antisemitism” (NGO Monitor translation). 
This would be an important statement of policy, if it reflected the reality of BfW funding. 
However, contrary to its claims, BfW has funded a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that lead BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel. In addition, BfW has itself promoted the Kairos Palestine document, which calls for BDS and echoes antisemitic supersessionist themes.
Funding for BDS groups
According to their submissions to the Israeli Registrar for Non-Profits, Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) and Who Profits received NIS 565,930 from BfW in 2012-2016. Who Profits originated as a project of CWP “in response to the Palestinian Call for boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) on Israel”; it is now an independent daughter organization entirely dedicated to BDS efforts. As of June 21, no information has been made available for 2017. 
CWP: On July 12, 2015, CWP reaffirmed its “support [for] the call for cultural and economic boycott, divestment and international sanctions to increase pressure on Israel from the international community.” CWP has initiated BDS campaigns against major Israeli banks and the pharmaceutical industry, Elbit and G4S security companies, Ahava cosmetics, and Agrexco produce.
Who Profits: Who Profits initiates international BDS campaigns, targeting Israeli and foreign banks, security companies, civil infrastructure facilities, and private companies. Who Profits further identifies companies for other BDS activists to target. 
Promotion of Kairos Palestine document 
In a brochure promoting “fair tourism in Israel and Palestine taking into account international law,” BfW and Catholic aid organization Misereor dedicate an entire section (p. 10-13) to the Kairos Palestine document, described by them as “an appeal meant for Palestine internally, as well as world-wide, in order to draw attention to the situation of Christians in Palestine. The initiators ask for support for their vision of a society ‘based on love, trust and justice’” (NGO Monitor translation). 
In fact, the Kairos Palestine Document denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel in theological terms, calls to mobilize churches worldwide in the call for BDS, and characterizes terrorist acts of “armed resistance” as “Palestinian legal resistance.”
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Thursday, June 22, 2017

UK: Revealed: Charity leader Nazim Ali who blamed fire tragedy on "Zionists"

Via The Jewish Chronicle:

Nazim Ali
The speaker who repeatedly made antisemitic statements when he addressed the crowd at yesterday’s Al Quds Day parade can be revealed as Nazim Ali, the director of self-styled “advocacy group” the Islamic Human Rights Commission.   
Mr Ali whipped up the 1,000 anti-Israel fanatics attending the march with a series of chants blaming the Grenfell Tower tragedy on “Zionism”. 
He also called for Israel’s annihilation, and accused the Israel Defence Force of being a “terrorist organisation that murdered Palestinians, Jews and British soldiers.” 
Mr Ali stayed at the head of the marchers - many of whom held aloft flags of the banned terror organisation Hezbollah - for the two hours it took for the parade to make its way through central London to Grosvenor Square, Using a loud-hailer to lead them in a stream of anti-Israel abuse.   
At one point he spotted pro-Israel counter-demonstrators carrying Israeli flags.He ordered the march to halt, insisting it would not move on until the “Zionist flag” was removed. He said: “We are fed up of the Zionists. We are fed up of their rabbis. We are fed of their synagogues. We are fed up of their supporters.” 
Screaming into the microphone, Mr Ali guided the crowd in a chant of: “Judaism – yes. Zionism – no. The state of Israel must go.” 
It was just as the march was about to set off that Mr Ali walked towards a small group of pro-Israeli demonstrators and began singing: “Bye, bye Zionists.” 
He then made his remarks linking the Grenfell Tower tragedy to Zionism, adding: “These people do not know what justice is because it’s their supporters who are supporting the Tory Party, that’s who they are. Zionists who give money to the Tory Party to kill people in high rise blocks.“

Monday, June 19, 2017

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

Via Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries blog:
Travellers to Israel will find it hard to find 'Jewish food', alleges journalist Sarah Treleaven for BBC Travel (article not visible if you are in the UK). That's because the Zionists appropriated 'Palestinian' dishes in order to construct an 'authentic' national narrative! Mizrahim and Sephardim who have been eating these foods for millennia are, not for the first time, invisible in the BBC's world view. 
“One of the biggest shocks for many foreign visitors to Israel is the lack of familiar Jewish cuisine. Where are the smoked salmon, bagels and cream cheese at breakfast? What about the delis that define Jewish cuisine from Montreal to Los Angeles? Or the kugel (a casserole made from egg noodles or potato), gefilte fish (an appetizer made from poached fish) and matzoh ball soup served at Jewish tables around the world? 
“The early Zionists eagerly adopted Palestinian dishes, such as falafel, hummus, and shawarma, while in recent years Israelis have developed a more diversified palate. Still, ‘Jewish food’ remains scarce. But very few visitors know the reasons behind the dearth of it in Israel: despite the fact that the early settlers were mostly Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, they forsook traditional Jewish food both because of scarcity but also in deliberate service to the formation of a new national narrative.” 
“Early adherents to the Zionist project, committed to creating a Jewish state in the territory now known as Israel, sought to abandon vestiges of their past. Just as the European settlers favoured Hebrew over Yiddish and khakis over frock coats and homburgs, they also purposefully chose to eat indigenous foods over Ashkenazi ones. 
“The adoption of indigenous food lent the early European implants an air of authenticity. The production of local ingredients – the things that grew well in the desert and along the Mediterranean coastline, and the many dishes adapted from Arab kitchens – became part of the Zionist narrative.”
Edward Solomon has given Point of No Return permission to quote his rebuttal:   
"This article is replete with out-and-out lies and falsehoods. Based on Sarah Treleaven's limited and blinkered view of Jewish history and cuisine, Israeli food should consist of lokshen, bagels, gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, kugel, chopped liver and cholent. 
The rich and varied panoply of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish foods, such as sabikh, tagine, tbit, kubbah, loubiah, kahi, and countless other dishes of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Indian, and Iraqi origins documented by writers such as Linda Dangoor and Claudia Roden, cooked and eaten in Israel, are completely glossed over in the interest of presenting a one-sided, politicised narrative that paints the Zionist Jews as Ashkenazic interlopers who stole Palestinian dishes to claim for their own. 
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BBC Travel politicises food to promote a narrative