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.

European Union praises Jordan's "special role" in protecting Jerusalem's holy places. (Who cares that they deny Jewish rights?)

Via Elder of Ziyon:

EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini released a joint press statement with Ayman Al Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan.

Some of her statements are problematic, to say the least.

Today we will focus on how to bring the Middle East Peace Process forward. We will have the opportunity to listen to your views that coincides largely with our views. The European Union has been very clear in its position and very much united.

It sounds like she is saying that the EU and Arabs all largely agree on what is needed for peace. It is only those pesky Israelis who are against peace.

Let me say, today in particular, one word on the closure yesterday of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in protest to certain Israeli steps planned or announced. We hope that a solution can be found quickly. Jerusalem is a holy city to the three monotheistic religions. This special status and character of the city must be preserved and respected by all. And I am saying this, in particular, standing next to you, as His Majesty [Abdullah II] King of Jordan has a very special role - a very appreciated role - when it comes to the Holy Places in Jerusalem. He knows that he can always count on our full support. And I think that the developments yesterday showed that there is a special attention we need to pay to this aspect.

This is truly outrageous.

Remind me again of what Jordan's history with preserving access to the holy places in Jerusalem is? Oh, yeah - Jordan didn't allow any Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - to visit the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere for 19 years. Jordan destroyed 50 synagogues. Jordan desecrated the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Even today, Jordan denies all Jewish rights in Jerusalem. 

Jordan's record in Jerusalem and the West Bank in preserving religious rights is not just flawed, but abysmal. Yet Mogherini is praising Jordan's monarch for - what, exactly?  Denying that Jews have any rights to the Old City of Jerusalem?

And under Israeli rule, there are more Muslims living in Jerusalem than ever before. There are far more Muslims visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque than ever visited under Jordanian or Ottoman rule.There are far more Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem than ever before.  Israel has uncovered and preserved  Muslim archaeological treasures while the Jordanian Waqf has continuously destroyed priceless Jewish artifacts. 

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Portuguese MP invites Omar Barghouti, founder of anti-Israel BDS, to EU parliament, Jewish groups protest

Related:
Portugal/EU: Another Israel-bashing pro-BDS event at the European Parliament

Via European Jewish Press (Yossi Lempkowicz):

Jewish groups protested against the invitation made to Omar Barghouti, leader and co-founded of the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott-Disinvestment-Sanctions) to address a conference next week in the European Parliament in Brussels.

The conference, titled “The Israeli Settlement in Palestine and the European Union” is to be held on February 28. It is organized by Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).

Omar Barghouti repeatedly compares the state of Israel to the Nazi regime. His BDS movement calls for a total economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel and doesn’t work towards peace.

The President of B’nai B’rith Europe Serge Dahan sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani to express his "deepest concern" regarding the invitation made to Barghouti. In the letter, he asked him to defend European Union’s fundamental values and the security of civil society by not leaving any space to hate speech in the European Parliament.

In the letter Dahan stresses that BDS campaigns against Israel "are obstacles to the Middle East peace process, dismantling existing links between Israeli and Palestinian universities, artists and professionals; it harms cultural bonds and working relations that occur every day between Israelis and Palestinian society."

The Jewish communities of Portugal and Belgium also protested the invitation to Barghouti. Yohan Benizri, president of CCOJB, the umbrella group of French-speaking Jewish communities in Belgium, and Gabriel Steinhardt, president of the Jewish Community of Lisbon, wrote of their disapproval in a letter to President Tajani.

Barghouti’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement addresses "not only the disputed territories but opposes the very existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state in its entirety and in any kind of borders," the communal leaders wrote.

By offering a podium to Barghouti, "the house directly undermines its own policy stance on anti-Semitism," they added, citing how some BDS activists "consistently engage in practices which are considered anti-Semitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition on anti-Semitism." The Jewish leaders’ call was co-signed by representatives of the European Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute, ELNET and the European Union of Jewish Students.

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More about Ana Gomes' anti-Israel militancy:
Europe: Cancellation of a meeting with Israeli general in the European parliament
Europe: 63 MEPs call for suspension of EU-Israel treaty

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

Via The Jerusalem Post:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Netherlands: Palestinian ex-terrorist deported from US invited to speak in Amsterdam

Via The Times of Israel:

Right-wing Dutch lawmakers have protested a far-left group’s invitation of a Palestinian ex-terrorist who was deported from the United States to speak in the Dutch capital.

Machiel de Graaf and Gidi Markuszower of the Party for Freedom expressed opposition to Rasmea Odeh’s planned visit in a query they submitted Thursday to Justice and Security Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus.

“Do you agree that a convicted terrorist and immigration fraudster has nothing to look for in the Netherlands? If not, why not?” the lawmakers wrote, adding: “Are you prepared to deny her entrance? If not, why?”

In the Netherlands, lawmakers use parliamentary queries to draw the media’s attention to issues and direct scrutiny of the actions of the ministers queried, who have up to three weeks to reply.

Odeh was invited to the Netherlands by Anakbayan-Europe, a Filipino communist group, and another fringe left organization called Revolutionary Unity.

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Austria: Far-Right party dragged into fresh anti-semitic songbook row

Via Telegraph:

The Austrian government has been rocked by a new scandal after the far-Right Freedom Party (FPÖ) was linked to an anti-Semitic songbook for the second time this year.

Herwig Götschober, a senior FPÖ official, heads a student fraternity that uses a songbook containing the lyric: “Once upon a time, two Jews went to bathe in a river... One drowned, as for the other one we can hope”.

It also comes a week after the party issued a statement rejecting Nazism and anti-Semitism and pledged to hold an inquiry to root out Nazi sympathisers among its ranks.

Mr Götschober works in the office of Norbert Hofer, the current transport minister who narrowly failed to be elected president for the FPÖ in 2016.

The fresh controversy comes less than a month after another FPÖ politician was forced to resign over a separate songbook which contained lyrics glorifying the Holocaust.

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Netherlands: Major poet was a Nazi supporter and antisemite

Via Bad News From the Netherlands blog, AD and Trouw (in Dutch)

Lucebert (1987)

Recently the literature expert Wim Hazeu has discovered that one of the most famous post-war Dutch poets Lucebert was a volunteer worker in the German weapons industry. He also wrote letters with an antisemitic content, such as: “Only when all Germanic tribes are united, the Jew will no longer have the opportunity to incite blood against similar blood.” He signed letters with “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler”.  

He has always denied his Nazi past and received major Dutch literary awards. 

Spain: Lawfare Project threatens suit against Yahoo, Google and Twitter for proliferation of antisemitism

Via JNS:

The Lawfare Project threatened legal action against Google, Yahoo and Twitter in Spain for failing to address the proliferation of Holocaust-denial websites and anti-Semitic materials on their platforms, announced Brooke Goldstein, director of the legal think tank and litigation fund. “Unless Google, Yahoo and Twitter take down the anti-Semitic content on their platforms, they will be taken to court in Spain and elsewhere,” she said.

Goldstein spent the past week visiting the Spanish Parliament to learn more about legislative initiatives against discrimination based on national origin. She also met with members of the Jewish community in Spain who have been subject to boycotts that restrict relations with companies that import Israeli products or have connections to Israeli citizens.

In the last week, the Lawfare Project has sent cease and desist letters to a number of search engines, including Google and Yahoo, with possible action planned against Twitter.

“Google, Yahoo and Twitter are all hosting anti-Semitic websites and content on their platforms, which is a clear violation of Spanish law,” said the Lawfare Project’s Spanish counsel, Ignacio Wenley Palacios. “This cannot be allowed to continue. If they do not respond positively to the cease and desist letters sent last week, we will file lawsuits against them.”

The Lawfare Project NGO, based in New York, funds legal action around the world to protect civil rights and free speech while challenging discrimination and anti-Semitism.

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Belgium/Iceland physicians back outlawing circumcision

Via JTA:

Hundreds of physicians in Iceland and some of Belgium’s top doctors came out in support of a bill proposing to criminalize nonmedical circumcision of boys in the Scandinavian island nation.

The approximately 500 Icelandic physicians who backed the bill that was submitted last month to the parliament cited the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki on ethical principles.

“Potential complications should offset the benefits” of male circumcision, “which are few,” the Icelandic physicians wrote in a joint statement published Wednesday.

Advocates of male circumcision include many physicians who believe it reduces the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and genital infections.

In Belgium, several prominent physicians, including Guy T’Sjoen of Ghent University Hospital, told the De Morgen daily they also support a ban.

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Poland: Senator suspended for klezmer-themed video of Nazi violence to Jews

Via JTA:

Poland’s ruling party suspended a senator who posted online footage from a Nazi propaganda movie depicting violence against Jews to the sounds of klezmer music.

On Thursday, the Law and Justice party suspended Waldemar Bonkowski for posting the video on Facebook earlier in the week amid an acrimonious argument between many Poles and Jews over the Polish government’s passing this month of a law criminalizing blaming Poland for Nazi crimes.

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Germany: Pro-BDS pastor and Green Party figure speaks at Nazi event

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

Friedrich Bode, a Protestant pastor and co-founder of the Green Party branch in Bremen, delivered a talk at a neo-Nazi party event in Karlshöfe, Lower Saxony, on Saturday.

Bode supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign targeting the Jewish state.

The church in the city-state of Bremen where Bode worked as a pastor for 18 years, subsequently barred him from appearing at future events organized by Germany’s main neo-Nazi organization – the National Democratic Party (NPD), the Christian website Domradio reported on Tuesday. The church has not imposed any other disciplinary measures.

Pastor Renke Brahms, the executive cleric of the church, told Radio Bremen that Bode’s activity is “open antisemitism.”

Brahms said a “racist, antisemitic and neo-Nazi view of people and the world is not compatible with the preaching of Jesus Christ.”

The 77-year-old Bode can be seen on the YouTube channel of the right-wing extremist group Nordland TV, terming Adolf Hitler a “brilliant, self-taught person.”

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France: Acid placed in stroller burns rabbi’s baby

Via JTA:

The baby daughter of a French rabbi was burned after being exposed to acid placed in her carriage.

The 14-month-old girl suffered burns on her back and thighs Monday in the city of Bron, near Lyon, Le Parisien daily reported Wednesday. The baby is not in danger, according to the report.

The acid had been placed inside a carriage that the baby’s grandmother had parked in a communal space inside her apartment building overnight from Sunday to Monday. The grandmother rushed the baby to the hospital after noticing a severe irritation on the baby’s skin after taking her for a walk in the stroller and then bringing her inside.

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Poland: "The Polish underground state and the London exile government never collaborated with the Nazis"

Via Der Spiegel - Interview with new Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki:

DER SPIEGEL: Your government introduced a law that makes it a crime to use the term "Polish concentration camp" or statements that attribute any complicity by the Polish nation or government in the Nazi crimes. Is the penal code really the right way to fight historical misrepresentation and cluelessness?

Morawiecki: Yes. Germany and Israel also do this. You can be punished there for denying the Holocaust or incitement. Last year alone, Polish embassies intervened 250 times around the world because someone used the formulation "Polish death camp." Our Supreme Court is currently giving the law another review to determine if it contains any misleading wording.

DER SPIEGEL: But the plan has been strongly criticized by the Israeli side.

Morawiecki: We are explaining our position and I believe that the Israeli side is growing more understanding toward us. We are noticing that in diplomatic discussions and we are seeing increasingly friendly editorials in the press. Yes, we did have thousands of "Szmalcownicy," Poles who murdered Jews or betrayed them to the Nazis. At the same time, however, even in occupied Warsaw, hell on earth, 90,000 Catholic Poles helped their Jewish neighbors. The Polish underground state and the London exile government never collaborated with the Nazis. We support precise research into our history.

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UK: Labour expels controversial Jewish anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein

Via Jewish News:

One of the most notorious Jewish anti-Zionists, Tony Greenstein, has finally been expelled from the Labour Party for three breaches of the party’s regulations. These were “offensive comments online; offensive posts and comments on his blog; and an email in which he mocked the phrase ‘final solution’”.  

The ruling from Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) came after an all-day hearing in Greenstein’s home city of Brighton. The news was welcomed by the lobby group Labour Against Antisemitism, which issued a statement saying that he had “over many years made his abhorrent views widely known via public speeches, social media and on his personal blog. Anyone who has witnessed them will know that these views have often been antisemitic, highly offensive and entirely incompatible with Labour’s anti-racist ethos. Mr Greenstein has also personally targeted some Labour Party members for bullying. None of this is acceptable within a party that prides itself on diversity and whose catchphrase is “a kinder, gentler politics”. (...)  

Nevertheless, Greenstein was charged with “repeated use of the antisemitic and abusive term “Zio”, including in relation to Louise Ellman MP, Jeremy Newmark, and the Jewish Labour Movement”. Comments such as “Gay Zionists make me want to puke” or his description of Owen Jones as a “Janus-faced whore” were also cited in evidence against him.

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More about Tony Greenstein @ Harry's Place.  Israelly Cool looks at Greenstein's predictable reaction following his expulsion from the Labour Party: How NOT To Argue You Aren’t An Antisemite by Tony Greenstein

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

Via The Algemeiner (Manfred Gerstenfeld):

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

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

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

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

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

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