Germany: Why is Germany silent on Corbyn’s praise of Munich terrorists?

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The barn burning revelations in the British newspaper Daily Mail in August that Jeremy Corbyn – head of the UK’s Labour Party – laid a wreath at the graves of the Black September terrorists who executed 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer 46 years ago today (September 5) raise unsettling questions about Germany’s reaction to the events of Munich in 1972.

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and her social democratic Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have remained silent about Corbyn’s 2014 visit to Tunisia to commemorate the Black September Palestinian terrorists. Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post that Germany’s government “should have said something” because Black September murdered German police officer Anton Fliegerbauer.

“It was out-and-out terrorism in the heart of Europe, in Munich,” said Zuroff, of the Munich massacre. “This is something you would assume would get universal condemnation,” he added. […]

The German political scientist Dr. Wolfgang Kraushaar has described the Munich massacre “as a joint work of German Left radicals and Palestinian terrorists.”

Wilfried Böse, a leftist student in Frankfurt in 1969 who helped create the terrorist organization Revolutionary Cells, worked closely with Palestinian terrorists.

“There is serious information that Böse also supported the terrorists of the Black September in the Olympic attacks,” Kraushaar said. Böse was involved in the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 in 1976 that caused Israel to deploy commandos to free the hostages in Entebbe, Uganda.

Böse, who played a role in separating Jewish from non-Jewish passengers, was killed during the rescue operation.

The German left-wing terrorist group Red Army Faction leader Ulrike Meinhof cheered the 1972 murders of Israeli athletes as an expression of “anti-imperialism.”

When this reporter in 2002 asked the former head of the East German foreign intelligence section of the Stasi, Markus Wolf, if the Stasi played a role in the Munich Massacre, he declined to answer.

One could argue that Germany’s silence about Corbyn’s praise for the Black September terrorists is part and parcel of a long history of soggy appeasement toward secular and Islamic terrorism from the Middle East. West Germany’s government failed to pursue the Black September terrorists after the attack, helping to trigger Israel’s operation to hunt down the terrorists. […]

Germany allows 950 Hezbollah members to operate within its territory to fund raise and recruit new members, according to German intelligence reports released in 2018.

The Corbyn affair regarding the Black September terrorists is another litmus test on whether the German government’s counter-terrorism strategy takes the business of anti-terrorism seriously. The optics of Germany’s posture toward combating Palestinian, Hezbollah and Iranian terrorism don’t look good within the field of counter-terrorism.

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UK: Britain’s “next?” prime minister called terrorist who helped blow up café, “brother”

Via Tom Goss @ Mideast Dispatch:

CORBYN CALLED MEMBER OF TERROR GANG WHICH KILLED ESTEEMED JEWISH DOCTOR AND HIS DAUGHTER, HIS “BROTHER” [Notes by Tom Gross]

The first picture above is of Dr David Applebaum with his 20-year-old daughter Nava on the eve of her wedding. Dr Applebaum, one of Israel’s most distinguished doctors, ran the A&E department at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem and saved many Palestinian and Jewish lives.

The second photo is of Abdul Aziz Umar, the Palestinian terrorist and Hamas operative who helped organize the murder of Dr Applebaum and his daughter, in conversation with British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in a live interview on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state-run Press TV, during which Corbyn calls him “brother”.

Footage of Corbyn praising Umar was revealed by the Mail on Sunday newspaper last Sunday. Umar was released from prison in the notorious “Gilad Shalit-for terrorists” prisoner swap.

According to opinion polls Corbyn is a leading candidate to become Britain’s next prime minister.

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Holland: Jewish community remains an important target for terrorists

Via Bad News from the Netherlands:

The annual report of the BLEW advisory body for the security of the Dutch Jewish community says that the Dutch Jewish community remains an important target for terrorists. Jews get much attention in jihadi propaganda. The worldwide increase in antisemitism also proves that Jews are threatened. BLEW concludes that it is of great importance to maintain existing security measures. The organization is unhappy with the decision to remove a number of police posts from Jewish institutions. 

read more (in Dutch) @ CIDI

Germany: Islamic center raises money for Hezbollah

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Roughly 950 Hezbollah operatives raise funds in Germany for Hezbollah and recruit new members, according to German intelligence reports from 2017.

The Al-Mustafa community center in the city-state of Bremen in northern Germany is a major hub for raising funds for the EU and US designated terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to a German intelligence report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The Bremen intelligence agency's newly released report in June stated that the "The Al-Mustafa Community center supports Hezbollah in Lebanon, especially by collecting donations." The Post uncovered the Shi'ite organization's bank account--the Bremen-based Sparkasse. The Bremen intelligence agency (the rough equivalent to Shin Bet) said there are approximately 60 Hezbollah supporters in the Al-Mustafa organization and "the Arab-Shi'ite association functions as a point of contact for Shi'ite Muslims in Bremen, especially those from Lebanon."

The intelligence document did not cite the amount of funds transferred from Hezbollah supporters in Bremen to Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is unclear if Germany is currently engaged in anti-terror finance covering Hezbollah funding streams in Bremen and Germany-wide.

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Ireland: Leila Khaled, a convicted plane hijacker, to speak at a teachers’ club in Dublin

Via The Times of Israel:

Israel has lodged an official protest to Ireland over the invitation of Leila Khaled, a convicted Palestinian plane hijacker who has continued to advocate violence against Israelis, to speak at a teachers’ club in Dublin belonging to the Irish National Teachers’ Organization.  

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan sent the protest letter to Dublin’s education minister, Richard Bruton, demanding that he cancel Khaled’s appearance, Hadashot TV reported Thursday. Khaled is scheduled to speak via video link in a public talk hosted at the club by the socialist groups Anti Imperialist Action Ireland and Lasair Dhearg.  

“It is hard to understand why Ireland, which has also experienced many terror attacks, would agree to honor a terrorist at an educational event, who expresses solidarity with terror attacks and views them as a legitimate tool,” Erdan wrote.

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French consulate worker accused of smuggling arms to Palestine

Via Guardian:

A French citizen working for France’s consulate in Jerusalem has appeared in court in Israel on suspicion of smuggling dozens of weapons to Palestinians, officials have said.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, identified the suspect as 23-year-old Romain Franck. He is accused of using a consular vehicle to elude tight security checks and transfer 70 pistols and two assault rifles from Gaza to the occupied West Bank during five trips.

Franck was allegedly part of a Palestinian gun-running ring, moving the weapons for financial gain while his employer was unaware, the agency said.

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Holland: Jewish students complain about anti-Semitism at Amsterdam Free University

Via Bad News from The Netherlands:

Tens of Jewish students and former students react to a Palestinian terrorist speaking at Amsterdam Free University. They have written a letter to the Board of the Amsterdam Free University.

In it they say that the university has tolerated radical organizations with racist antisemitic tendencies. The most recent case concerned a lecture by the Palestinian Rasmea Odeh who was involved in the murder of two Israeli civilians. She was presented by the organizers in a location at the university as a hero and resistance fighter.

The Jewish students want to meet with the Board to discuss this issue.

read more @ NIW (in Dutch)

Portuguese MEP says EJC is lying and smearing her

Background: Portuguese MP invites Omar Barghouti, founder of anti-Israel BDS, to EU parliament, Jewish groups protest and Portugal/EU: Another Israel-bashing pro-BDS event at the European Parliament

European Jewish Congress:

Please ask Mr. Barghouti tomorrow what he understands under #RightOfReturn Which Palestinian state is he advocating for, what role does Israel play in that scenario, does he accept borders of 48 & what are his stands on #Hamas? Answers are online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYvpsGd8K4Y …

MEP Ana Gomes (member of ruling Socialist Party, Portugal):

He doesn’t, you’re selectively quoting him out of context. But lots of young Palestinians are calling for it, pushed into that desperate corner by the destructive illegal Israeli occupation which makes unviable a democratic State in Palestine, in their view. 

European Jewish Congress:

Why do you want to discuss this with #Barghouti who explicitly calls for one-state solution?

MEP Ana Gomes (member of ruling Socialist Party, Portugal):

Yr smear campaign won’t work: I’m against #antisemitism & any form of #racism. I’m against those who want to destroy #Israel. That is why we need to discuss @EP impact of Israeli settlements/illegal occupation in #Palestine: that’s what is discrediting & threatening #Israel.

Transatlantic Inst.:

A "perverse lobby" is allegedly spreading lies, to supposedly silence her, says @AnaGomes MEP. We assume this outrageous insult, under @TheProgressives banner, is directed at us & other Jewish organizations protesting her invitation to extremist BDS founder Barghouti.

Italy: Secret Arafat diaries confirm non-aggression pact between Italy and Palestinians

Via i24News:

Excerpts of secret diaries reportedly kept by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat published Sunday reveal a secret deal with Italy protecting it from attacks by Palestinian terrorists in exchange for freedom of movement in the country for Palestinian terror factions.

Excerpts of a 19-volume diary published by the Italian L’Expresso magazine confirmed the long-rumored non-aggression pact between Italy and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed for decades by Arafat.

“Italy is a Palestinian shore of the Mediterranean,” Arafat writes in one excerpt of the diaries, which were recently sold to a French foundation for studying.

In one of the most dramatic realizations of the agreement, authorities in Rome refused a US extradition request for the mastermind of the deadly 1985 hijacking of the Italian ship Achille Lauro, in which a wheelchair bound Jewish-American man was murdered, allowing the terrorists to escape Italy to Yugoslavia.

The deal between Rome and the Palestinians had been previously revealed in 2008 by former Italian president Francesco Cossiga, who wrote at the time that it was struck by former prime minister Aldo Mora.

Other reports have suggested the agreement dates back to 1973, when Giulio Andreotti who served as foreign minister at the time of the Achille Lauro standoff, was prime minister.

The PLO is said to have struck a similar deal with Switzerland during the 1970s, giving them free rein to move around the country provided they discontinue attacks on Swiss targets.

In the excerpts of the diaries published by L’Expresso, Arafat also reveals lying to Italian prosecutors in 1998 about receiving some 10 million lira (NIS 21.5 million) in aid money that actually went to the Italian Socialist Party in order to help former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi avoid fraud charges.

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Europe: Knesset Member Elazar Stern: Europe must stop supporting terrorism in Palestine

Via European Jewish Press:

Europe must stop support terrorism in Palestine, says Elazar Stern, member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in an interview published by Belgian daily L’Echo.

Stern, who is a member of the centrist Yesh Atid party, conveyed the message to members of the European Parliament he met while in Brussels.

"Europeans do not realize that their own money goes indirectly to terrorists. They answer that they only finance schools and books. Education is important. 

But the European authorities should open the schoolbooks printed with their money and see what is written there: that the Jewish state doesn’t exist, that one needs to sacrifice his life. You find nothing on the Holocaust." 

Stern has proposed a bill that would reduce the money that Israel collects for the Palestinians from customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports. "The Palestinians have a budget of which 7.5 percent go to the families of terrorists. A total of one billion shekels per year," says Elazar Stern.   "The more the terrorist action is efficient, the more you receive money. This money given to terrorists is much more than the average salary in Palestine." "This is an incitement to commit terrorist acts, to kill Israelis," he stresses.  

"If I asked the Belgians, right here in the street, what they thought about the fact that they are giving money to the family of someone who killed an Israeli? And that the amount doubles when they kill two? Do you think they would be ok with it? And yet, this is what is happening," he says.

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European Parliament invites Iranian official said to have links with bombing of Buenos Aires Jewish center

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has protested the invitation made by the European Parliament to an Iranian senior official who is said to have links with the 1984 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who is the Chairman for the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran, was invited for an ‘’exchange of views’’ at Tuesday’s meeting of the European Parliament foreign affairs committee (AFET) where is was due "to present further information on the Iranian position on regional developments, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the current political situation in Iran."

According to Simon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Boroujerd is an Iranian alleged associate of top Hezbollah officials and of former Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, who is sought under an Interpol red notice arrest warrant for alleged complicity in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Centre which left 85 dead and over 300 wounded”.

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UK "must end this appeasement and ban Hezbollah"

Via The Times (Richard Kemp):

Hezbollah is the most powerful terrorist organisation in the world. Yet Britain has proscribed only part of it: its military wing. This Thursday the MP Joan Ryan will lead a parliamentary debate aimed at designating the whole organisation, as the US, Canada and the Netherlands already do. Her chances are slim. The film Darkest Hour has reminded us of British ministers’ penchant for appeasement and, like Churchill, that is what she’s up against.  

Hezbollah, the creation of Iran, emerged onto the world stage in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 US Marines and 58 French paratroopers in the most devastating terrorist attack before 9/11. Since then it has attacked in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East and planned strikes from Cyprus to Singapore. Last summer US authorities charged two Hezbollah terrorists with planning attacks in New York and Panama. Hezbollah is fighting to keep Assad in power in Syria and maintains an arsenal of 100,000 rockets in Lebanon, pointed at Israel.

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Denmark cuts funding and is reviewing all funding of PA NGOs

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

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

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

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

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

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

[The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24, 2017]

Norway

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

Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende: 

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

[Norwegian Foreign Ministry website, May 26, 2017]

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

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Didier Vanderhasselt:

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

[The Algemeiner, Oct. 7, 2017]

Additional Countries

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

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Germany: Israeli victim of Berlin Christmas market terror attack blasts Merkel for failed anti-terror policy

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

The family members of the 12 murdered victims from last December's Christmas terror attack, which included the Israeli Dalia Elyakim, published a blistering open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Der Spiegel magazine on Friday, accusing her government of deeply flawed anti-terrorism policies, failing to prevent the Islamic State attack in Berlin and mistreatment of the survivors in the aftermath of the act of vehicular terrorism.

"Chancellor, the attack on Breitscheidplatz is a tragic consequence of the political inaction of your government," the family members wrote in their letter, adding Germany lacks "basic professionalism in its approach to terrorism."

Rami Elyakim, the husband of Dalia and who himself was wounded in the attack, was one of the authors of the letter taking Merkel to task for her government's failure to stop the Tunisian terrorist Anis Amri before he drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market on December 19, 2016. The Islamic State terrorist also injured over 70 people in the ramming attack. The 11 people at the market came from Italy, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany and Italy. Amri hijacked a truck from a Polish driver whom he murdered before committing the Christmas market attack.

"At a time when the threat posed by dangerous Islamists has greatly increased, you have failed to push ahead with expanding resources and reforming the confused official structures for fighting these dangers," wrote the family members of Germany's worst Islamic terrorism attack.

"Chancellor Merkel, you have in nearly one year after the attack neither personally or in writing condoled us. In our judgment you have not lived up to your office, " the family members wrote, adding that the terror attack not only affected the victims but the entire Federal Republic of Germany.

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Switzerland: Israel bans Swiss diplomats from visiting Gaza over Hamas meetings

Via The Jerusalem Post:

Israeli authorities announced on Thursday that Swiss diplomats will not be allowed to access the Gaza Strip because of their ongoing contacts with the EU and US-classified terrorist group Hamas.

Switzerland, a non-EU country, does not recognize Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that Israel declines to comment on the ban.

A photograph of Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar and Swiss diplomat and representative for the Palestinian Authority, Julien Thöni, at a joint Tuesday meeting sparked irritation from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, according to a report in the Swiss daily Basler Zeitung.

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Europe: Israel has blocked 30 to 40 major attacks in Europe

Via The Jerusalem Post:

According to a senior diplomatic official, Netanyahu is expected to tell the European leaders that their obsessive focus on the settlements is “ridiculous.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to tell the 28 EU foreign ministers in Brussels next month that they should ask their people whether they want all that Israel has to offer – anti-terrorism expertise and technology – or Ramallah.

Netanyahu, who over the last year has raised with every visiting EU foreign minister his desire to address all 28 ministers at one of their monthly meetings, received a formal invitation on Tuesday to do just that.

According to a senior diplomatic official, Netanyahu is expected to tell the European leaders that their obsessive focus on the settlements is “ridiculous;” remind them that the Arab-Israeli conflict predated the settlements by 50 years; and say that 85% of the settlements are in the settlement blocs that “everyone knows will be part of Israel.”

In addition, the official said, Netanyahu will say, “We in Israel are the future. We will bring you water, technology and security against terrorists. We have blocked 30 to 40 major attacks in Europe. You ask your people whether they would rather have that or Ramallah.”  (...)

Although these are messages that Netanyahu has repeated numerous times, the official said the statements will have a greater impact when said directly at the heart of the EU in Brussels. (...)

One Israeli diplomatic official said he was “surprised” that the Europeans agreed to host Netanyahu at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting.

“He has raised it with every European foreign minister he has met over the last year,” the official said. “They were stand-offish, saying they weren’t sure they could do it. The fact that it is happening is significant.”

The official said Netanyahu is keen on meeting the ministers in order to break the automatic majority against Israel at the UN and in international forums, such as the EU, which often votes as a bloc.

Netanyahu, the official said, has made breaking the automatic majority at the UN one of his top foreign policy priorities, not because the anti-Israel resolutions at the UN cause him to “lose any sleep,” but because he sees these resolutions as a “strategic threat” since they could be used as a basis of action against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Netanyahu himself has said that breaking the automatic majority is one of the reasons for his focus on improving ties with Africa. 

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Italy bars Palestinian terrorist and BDS advocate Leila Khaled

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled was barred from entering Italy on Wednesday on the grounds that she lacked a valid visa.

Olga Deutsch, Europe Desk director at the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday: "We applaud Italy's decision to deny entry to infamous terrorist Leila Khaled at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, the same place from which she once hijacked an airliner.  As a research institute, NGO Monitor documented Khaled's September 2017 speech at the European Parliament and alerted senior EU officials. We have long warned European governments that they have been funding radical, politicized NGOs, including those linked to the PFLP terror group and which were involved with Khaled's event."

She added, "We hope that Italy's move, coming on the heels of European Parliament President Tajani's decision to bar terror-linked individuals and organizations from EU premises, signals a new awareness among European leadership, and that it leads European Institutions and governments to reexamine policies that fund such NGOs".

Khaled, a member of the US- and EU-designated terrorist entity Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has conducted speaking tours across Europe over the years to promote the abolition of Israel and the spread of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

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Germany: Heinrich Boell Foundation withdraws from conference featuring Hamas member

Via NGO Monitor:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sweden: Public TV refuses to air major antisemitism documentary

Via Algemeiner (by Ben Cohen):

Audiences in Israel are currently flocking to see a Swedish film about the relationship between terrorism and antisemitism that Swedish national TV, which partly financed the production, continues to refuse to screen. 

“Watching the Moon at Night,” directed by the veteran Swedish documentary-maker Bo Persson, will be playing to a sold-out audience at Jerusalem’s Cinematheque on Monday night, following screenings this week in Tel Aviv. The 90-minute documentary has been shown at film festivals in 12 different countries since its release in 2015, but Sweden’s national public television, SVT, has refused to air it because of pressure from a small group of executives who object to the portraits of Israeli victims of terrorism in the film, Persson told The Algemeiner on Friday. 

“Many people in Sweden were shaken by this decision,” Persson said. “Sweden is a fairly open and democratic society, so when Swedish TV decides to cancel a film that they themselves were involved with, that leaves people shocked and bewildered.” 

Persson said that the bulk of the film’s financing had been provided by the prestigious Swedish Film Institute, which continues to support the director in his dispute with SVT. He also alleged that editors in SVT‘s documentary film department had breached the broadcaster’s guidelines concerning the editorial independence of outside contributors.  

Persson said that he and his colleague Joanna Helander spent five years working on the film, which includes harrowing interviews with survivors and relatives of terror attacks and insightful analysis from some of the leading scholars of antisemitism. Dan Alon, a fencer who survived the 1972 Palestinian terrorist atrocity against Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, features prominently, as does Arnold Roth, whose 15 year-old daughter Malki was murdered in a Palestinian suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem pizza restaurant in 2001. Among the authorities on antisemitism who appear are two leading academics who have passed away in the last two years — Professor Robert Wistrich of the Hebrew University, and Andre Glucksmann, the French philosopher and writer.

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UK: The Finsbury Park Mosque and Hamas – A cracking joke

Via Harry's Place (by Habibi):

I didn’t know the Finsbury Park Mosque was good at humour. Oh my, it is, and how. The Times has reported that one of the mosque’s trustees, Mohammed Sawalha, is a ruling member of Hamas. ITIC has much more. 

Oh, say it ain’t so. Voila! From The Independent:

Asked how Mr Sawalha’s position in Hamas squared with Finsbury Park Mosque’s values, a spokesperson said: “We were not aware about this news till recently made public in [The Times].
“We are looking at the situation and the mosque will be issuing a statement in the next couple of days.
“We would like to confirm that the mosque has no relationship with Hamas.”

Perhaps the mosque could “look at the situation” by going back over a decade to a BBC Panorama report which called Mr Sawalha a “fugitive Hamas commander”. Yes, he has been it at for that long. All the way back to the 1990s, in fact, when he settled in this country. 

The mosque may also wish to consult its leader Mohammed Kozbar. Here he is with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

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