Op-Ed: Europe cares about fighting antisemitism, except when it really matters

It is easy to fight antisemitism when your opponent is antisemitic.  It is much harder when it's somebody on your side of the aisle.

European leaders talk high and mighty against antisemitism.  Do they really mean it?

The test to their words came up this past week, when Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas stood before the European Parliament and blamed Jewish rabbis for inciting the Israeli government to poison wells. 

The European response?

The MEPs stood up and applauded.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz tweeted that it was "an inspiring address".

This is all par for the course. 

Mahmoud Abbas and various other Palestinian leaders regularly incite against Jews.  This incitement results in Jews getting murdered - in Israel and in Europe.

Europe regularly responds to such incitement by ignoring it and by publicly supporting those same Palestinian leaders.


A reader asked various EU leaders for their response. 

European Parliament spokesperson:

The format of the address is constructed in a way, that the leaders give their speeches without any debate afterwards. As a matter of courtesy, some MEPs stand up to applaud at the end of the addresses, which was not an exception with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

This is how polite MEPs react to blood libel 

This is how polite MEPs react to something they don't like.

See the difference?


Katharina von Schnurbein, Coordinator on combating Antisemitism:

Allegations of Jews poising water are age-old accusations. The European institutions strongly condemn all forms of Antisemitism and the spreading of such misconceptions to society at large.

We understand that Mr Abbas as retracted his expressions. However, given the external policy dimension of your questions, could I kindly ask you to refer further questions to the European External Action Service.

Summary: We reject antisemitism in principle, but we don't think it's the job of the Coordinator on combating Antisemitism to say anything against blood libels in the European Parliament. 


European External Action Service:

In his statement before the European Parliament on 23 June, the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas mistakenly alleged that rabbis in Israel had asked their government to poison water supplies so as to kill Palestinians, citing it as an example of incitement to violence.  We understand President Abbas has retracted his claim two days later, calling it baseless and saying it had not been his intention to harm Judaism or to offend Jewish people.

The EU is determined to fight antisemitism in all its forms wherever it comes from. Antisemitism is not just a threat to Jews, but to the very values that Europe stands for.

Summary: This is as close as you're going to get to us condemning blood libels in the European Parliament.  We see no problem with applauding blood libels. 


As far as European leaders are concerned: It is okay to incite against Jews, especially if you take the most blatantly antisemitic parts of it back after a few days, and it's okay to applaud such antisemitic incitement, because it's "a matter of courtesy" and it was an "inspiring address".


If it bothers you that Abbas stood before the European Parliament and incited against Jews, then you must be Jewish.  Because nobody else really cares.

Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at European Parliament

Unsurprisingly not many of the 751 European MPs objected to the hosting of a terrorist at the European Parliament.  No European newspapers, no Human Rights NGOs, no politicians had anything to say about the event.  As I wrote before, this is the perfect illustration of how European MPs spend their time and taxpayers' money.  They then complain that populists are becoming more and more popular...

Standing ovation for Leila Khaled at the European Parliament in Brussels.  They were having a very good time.

Via CNS News (Patrick Goodenough):

Half a Century Ago Leila Khaled Hijacked Two Aircraft in Europe. This Week She Was Guest at European Parliament

A woman who hijacked two aircraft in Europe of behalf of a Palestinian terrorist group almost half a century ago was feted as an invited guest at a European Parliament event on Tuesday evening, despite the fact her group is on the European Union’s terrorist list. 

Leila Khaled, a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), took part in an event in Brussels entitled “The Role of Women in the Palestinian Popular Resistance,” organized by a left-wing parliamentary group. 

The poster advertising the event and naming the three speakers identifies her affiliation: “Leila Khaled – Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” 

Just early last month [1], E.U. ministers decided to keep the PFLP on the union’s list of designated terrorist organization. The PFLP has been on the list –  now comprising 21 groups – since June 2002. 

Tuesday’s event was organized by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from a far-left Spanish party, Izquierda Unida, which is part of the “European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group at the European Parliament.
Martina Anderson, an MEP from Ireland’s Sinn Fein – also a member of the GUE/NGL group – tweeted a photo of herself with “legendary Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled” at the event 

“Fantastic Turnout in Brussels 4 Women in Palestinian Struggle Leila Khaled addressing a packed room – long live international solidarity,” Anderson tweeted.
A spokeswoman for Israel’s mission to the E.U., Michal Weiler-Tal, said meetings of this nature should not be allowed in an institution “which promotes democracy and Western values.” 

“It is difficult to understand that a political group in the European Parliament, legitimizes and provides a platform for a convicted terrorist who hijacked American and Israeli airliners, to spread incitement and promote hatred and violence,” she said. 

“Moreover, hosting such an infamous figure belonging to the PFLP – which E.U. law designates as a terrorist organization – is not only against our moral standards but also sabotages the efforts to fight terrorism,” Weiler-Tal added. “IThis is a terrible message to the Israeli public and goes against the values that Israel and Europe share.” 

Earlier on Tuesday, the American Jewish Committee’s Brussels-based Transatlantic Institute called on the parliament’s president to prevent Khaled’s entry. 

“It would be a sad irony if parliament, only days after crucially setting up a special committee on terrorism, were to welcome and lionize as a ‘resistance fighter’ a convicted terrorist who was captured in 1970 while hijacking a commercial airplane,” said the institute’s director, Daniel Schwammenthal.

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In February 2016:

Samidoun continued its meetings at the European Parliament and events with Leila Khaled, Palestinian historic resistance figure and political leader, visiting Brussels following a speech in Utrecht at the New World Summit. Representatives of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine joined Khaled for meetings with Cypriot MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis, vice-chair of the Green United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) bloc in the Parliament, and Greek MEP Dimitrios Papadimoulis, vice-president of the European Parliament on 9 and 10 February.

Related - Standing ovation for Mahmoud Abbas at the European Parliament in 2016:

Among those rewarding Abbas with a standing ovation: Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, Federica Mogherini, the EU Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs, and Guy Verhofstadt , former Belgian PM and currently a MEP. (2016)

- The European Parliament rewards hate

- Europe: MEPs give standing ovation to blood libel

Europe: Abbas’ blood libel speech before a perfidious European Parliament (Wiesenthal Center)

The title of the article by Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Dr. Harold Brackman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center @ The Jerusalem Post is Brexit: So is it ‘good for the Jews? It begs another question: if most non-Jewish European citizens do not trust the EU, why should European Jews trust it? Especially when they see that Martin Schulz, the German President of the European Parliament, applauding Abbas, thanking him for his speech and tweeting afterwards that Abbas's blood libel and his calling Israel a fascist country "inspiring" and that he is a true partner for peace? 

As a shocked world reacted to England’s unexpected exit from the European Union, Palestinian President Abbas delivered a speech to the European Parliament.

Abbas, now in the 11th year of his four-year term, accused Israel of becoming a fascist country. Then he updated a vicious medieval anti-Semitic canard by charging that (non-existent) rabbis are urging Jews to poison the Palestinian water supply.

The response by representatives of the 28 European nations whose own histories are littered with the terrible consequences of such anti-Semitic blood libels? A thunderous 30-second standing ovation.

So forgive us if while everyone else analyzes the economic impact of the UK exit, and pundits parse the generational and social divide of British voters, we dare to ask a parochial question: is a weakened EU good or bad for the Jews? [...]

For Israel, the EU’s global dilemma is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it could, at least temporarily, derail the EU’s intense pressuring of Israel to accept – even sans direct negotiations with the Palestinians – a one-sided French peace initiative, imposing indefensible borders on the Jewish state.

But the scope of the current crisis is also very much the result of the internal moral and political failure of the EU’s own transnational elites and political leadership to confront its homegrown problems. These problems have also impacted on many of Europe’s 1.4 million Jews.

We began with President Abbas’ morning-after-Brexit blood libel speech before a perfidious European Parliament. His libel and the applause it received still reverberate despite Abbas’ subsequent retraction. 

For the episode highlights the lack of moral accountability infecting EU elites ensconced in the ivory towers of Brussels’ bureaucratic headquarters. We can only hope and pray that European captains of industry, politicians, media and NGOs take the UK vote as a wake-up call for them all. For if they fail to actually address the economic and social crises with real solutions, it won’t only be the Jews of Europe who will be searching for the nearest exit.

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The European Parliament rewards hate

Among those rewarding Abbas with a standing ovation: Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, Federica Mogherini, the EU Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs, and Guy Verhofstadt , former Belgian PM and currently a MEP.

Evelyn Gordon @ Commentary:

Hats off to the British. Aside from all the other reasons to applaud Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (i.e. democracy, national sovereignty), it has voted to secede from an enabler of Palestinian terror and hate education. And if that accusation sounds harsh, consider what transpired in the EU Parliament on the very day of the Brexit referendum.

While the British were voting, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was addressing the EU Parliament in Brussels. By any objective standard, the visit didn’t start off well: Upon arriving, Abbas immediately rejected a personal plea by the parliament’s president, Martin Schulz, to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who happened to be in Brussels at the same time. But things quickly got worse when Abbas started speaking.

Abbas’s speeches are always full of anti-Israel slander, and this one was no exception. He accused Israel of “massacring” Palestinians’ “history, heritage, identity and geopolitical entity.” He termed the Israeli “occupation” the longest in history and deemed it uniquely evil, “unlike anything that has happened to any other people anywhere in the world,” to quote one reporter’s live tweeting of the speech (I haven’t managed to find a transcript); in reality, of course, not only have there been many longer occupations, but few conflicts have ever entailed so little bloodshed. He accused Israel of being “fascist” and “racist,” of committing extrajudicial killings, and of turning “our country into an open-air prison.” All this is pretty standard, as was the conclusion, in which he paid lip service to his willingness to make peace with the monstrously evil country he just described.

But even by Abbas’s standards, this speech was exceptionally vile in two respects. First, he accused Israel of responsibility for all terrorism worldwide, ludicrously asserting that “Once the occupation ends, terrorism will disappear, there will be no more terrorism in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world.” After all, Israel is clearly the reason why Muslims are killing fellow Muslims by bombing mosques, schools, and hospitals in Muslim countries like Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan, right?

Then, he resurrected a medieval blood libel, accusing Israel of poisoning Palestinian wells. Granted, he was speaking in Arabic, and this accusation wasn’t in his prepared English translation; but the simultaneous translator rendered it into English, and Israeli reporters had no trouble hearing it; thus one has to assume it was audible to EU parliamentarians, as well.

So how did those parliamentarians respond? By giving him a standing ovation. In other words, they told him that hurling blood libels at Israel and refusing to meet with its president and would not be penalized, but rewarded.

This, of course, is not particularly surprising. As I wrote yesterday, the PA has been promulgating hatred of Israel through its schools and media for over 20 years now, and throughout this time, the EU and its member states have been the PA’s largest donors; thus the EU has been directly subsidizing Palestinian hate education for over two decades. The EU and its member states are also the main financiers of anti-Israel NGOs, so in that way, too, they’ve been funding anti-Israel propaganda for decades. And it’s no accident that the EU has devoted so much money to this purpose; it’s obsessed with Israel to the virtual exclusion of other foreign policy concerns, as evidenced by a 2010 study of what EU foreign ministers spend their time discussing. That study found the ministers had held exactly one meeting on China, a rising power, over the previous four years – but they discussed “the Middle East peace process” 12 separate times in 2009 and the first part of 2010 alone.  [...]

Nor is it surprising that the PA continues to spew anti-Israel hatred, given that doing so earns it lavish EU funding and standing ovations from the EU parliament.

By granting financial and diplomatic rewards to Palestinian rejectionism and hate education, the EU has encouraged Palestinian terror and distanced peace. No self-respecting country should want to be associated with such sorry behavior. Britain is well out of it.

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Europe: MEPs give standing ovation to blood libel

Various European governments claim they are serious about fighting antisemitism.  Not one condemned the antisemitic statements made in the European parliament.  Instead, they gave a standing ovation to a clear blood libel against Jews.

Via New York Times:

Echoing anti-Semitic claims that led to the mass killings of European Jews in medieval times, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority accused rabbis in Israel of calling on their government to poison the water used by Palestinians.

He made the unsubstantiated allegation during a speech to the European Parliament on Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement later that Mr. Abbas had spread a “blood libel” in the speech.

Mr. Abbas made the allegation in the context of calling for the revival of a long dormant committee of Israeli, Palestinian and American officials that was created to expose and denounce incitements from either side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We are against incitement,” he began in his speech.

“Just a week ago, a week, a group of rabbis in Israel announced, in a clear announcement, demanding their government, to poison, to poison, the water of the Palestinians,” he said. “Is this not incitement? Is this not clear incitement, to the mass murder of the Palestinian people?”

Mr. Abbas was repeating a claim initially made on the website of an office of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Anadolu, the Turkish state-run news agency, repeated the claim on Sunday. It was echoed in The Gulf News, a daily newspaper in Dubai. The Anadolu article said that a Rabbi Shlomo Mlma, whom it called the “chairman of the Council of Rabbis in the West Bank settlements,” had issued an “advisory opinion in which he allowed Jewish settlers to poison water in Palestinian villages and cities in the West Bank.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that news outlets had not been able to find a Rabbi Mlma or any listing for the council mentioned in the article.

Mr. Abbas’s remarks were not included in the official Arabic transcript issued by his office, and his advisers and spokesmen were not available for comment on Thursday night. But the claims also appeared on the website of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Abbas, along with President Reuven Rivlin of Israel, had been invited to Brussels by European officials hoping to rekindle peace negotiations. Mr. Abbas, who did not meet with Mr. Rivlin in Brussels, received a standing ovation at the end of his 43-minute speech.

(...)

Jewish groups quickly condemned Mr. Abbas’s comments.

“It is unconscionable that a foreign leader proudly states a blood libel in the European Parliament and he receives a standing ovation,” Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, said in a statement.

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Germany: Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier, gets German Steiger award

Via Elder of Ziyon:

From Wikipedia: 

The Steiger Award or Der Steiger is an international award established in 2005 and presented annually by the award organization based in Bochum, Germany. The title refers to steiger (mining foreman), reflecting the qualities of responsibility, honesty, openness and hard work valued in the Ruhr region where the award is presented. The award was created by private initiative and is presented annually to individuals who are notable for accomplishments in charity, music, film, media, sports, the environment and building of the European community. 

Looking at the Steiger Award page for this year, it describes the accomplishments of those that it gives the award to. But the person that received the main award has a biography that is strikingly short of actual accomplishment.

But the person that received the main award has a biography that is strikingly short of actual accomplishment. 

 STEIGER AWARD Special award for President AbbasThe Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be honored on 03.25.2017 at the STEIGER AWARD ceremony where he is getting a special prize on hopes for peace on Saturday.

President Abbas will personally accept the award at the Zeche Hansemann in Dortmund.

Mahmoud Abbas was born 1935th He studied at the University of Damascus and a doctorate at the University of Moscow. From 1996 to 2004 he was the Secretary General of the PLO, in 2003 he became Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. Since 2004 he is Chairman of the PLO, he was elected president of 2005.

So, he actually hasn't accomplished anything except to be chosen as Abbas' successor in a kleptocracy and imaginary government.

I wonder how many of the Germans behind this award are aware of Abbas' history with Holocaust denial in his thesis and subsequent book. 

Why exactly did Abbas get this award? 

With the award, the jury would like to give a clear signal in slow-moving peace process between Israel and Palestine. 

Except if that is true, and the award is more to encourage the peace process than to recognize accomplishments towards peace,  then shouldn't they have given it to Netanyahu at the same time?  

This award shows how screwed up the world is and how the West has swallowed Palestinian propaganda whole. 

Even if you don't like Netanyahu, his accomplishments as a national leader far outweigh Abbas'.  And he has proposed more peace plans and frameworks than Abbas has. And he is not a serial liar and Holocaust denier.  He doesn't encourage terror attacks nor does he reward terrorists and their families. (...)

(The irony of an antisemite receiving the award has not been lost on German bloggers, either. )

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This comment was posted by an EoZ reader:

While in Germany, Abu Mazen can visit the scene of his greatest "achievement"-

Abu Daoud, who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, wrote in his autobiography that funds for the operation were provided by Mahmoud Abbas:

"Though he claims he didn't know what the money was being spent for, longtime Fatah official Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, was responsible for the financing of the Munich attack."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Also, Martin Schulz, the former President of the European Parliament, who is German, is an admirer of Mahmoud Abbas. When Abbas went to the European Parliament he applauded him for his speech and tweeted afterwards that Abbas's blood libel and his calling Israel a fascist country was "inspiring" and that he is a true partner for peace.

EU doesn't condemn Abbas' antisemitic remarks - it downplays them, and praises him as a peacemaker

Via The Elder of Ziyon:

From the European Union External Action:

The speech Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered on 30 April contained unacceptable remarks concerning the origins of the Holocaust and Israel's legitimacy. Such rhetoric will only play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution, which President Abbas has repeatedly advocated.

This is not a condemnation. This is merely saying that Abbas' statements are "unacceptable." And why are they unacceptable?

Not because they are antisemitic. Not because they deny history. Not because they blame Jews for causing the Holocaust.

No, the main problem with Abbas' speech is that it allows the Israeli right to point out that Abbas is an antisemite who does not deserve to be rewarded with a state!

The only direct characterization of Abbas' character in this statement is that he has "repeatedly advocated" a two state solution, meaning that a man who spouts Jew-hating conspiracy theories is better than the evil people who point out his antisemitism.

The EU then tries to obfuscate the issue by saying antisemitism is bad.

The Holocaust and World War Two have defined Europe's modern history like no other event. Holocaust education remains central to building up resilience against all forms of hatred in our societies. Antisemitism is not only a threat for Jews but a fundamental menace to our open and liberal societies. The European Union remains committed to combat any form of anti-Semitism and any attempt to condone, justify or grossly trivialise the Holocaust.

There is no wording that ties the second paragraph to what Abbas said. It sort of implies that Abbas might have trivialized or condoned the Holocaust, but the statement it so general that is could refer to anyone, anytime.

This EU statement does not say a single negative thing about Abbas, and it says one "positive" thing about him - that he supports a two state solution (on the way to destroying the Jewish state via "return.")

The statement also does not call on Abbas to walk back his statements or to apologize. He did something that is vaguely unfortunate and it must be forgotten as quickly as possible before those right wing Jews make a big deal over it.

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Read also:
Europe: MEPs give standing ovation to blood libel
Europe: Huge success for terrorist Leila Khaled at European Parliament
European Parliament: Portuguese MEP says EJC is lying and smearing her
 and Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes made "vile antisemitic expressions"

Major development in Euro Parliament antisemitic blood libel scandal by Abbas

Today Italian MEP Fulvio Martusciello presented the following written question to the High-Commissioner regarding last week speeches by Mr. Rivlin and Mr. Abbas in a plenary session of the European Parliament.

An answer will be given in a month's time as this written question was requested to be treated as a matter of urgency.

"Last week in the European Parliament, both the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Reuven Rivlin, and the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, addressed the plenary of the European Parliament. While President Rivlin gave a constructive speech regarding the co-existence with the Palestinians, the EU-Israel relations, the peace process and a broad positive message, President Abbas, centred his speech in on criticising the Israelis and accusing them of a genocide against the Palestinian People. Quoting his precise words: "Only a week ago, a number of rabbis in Israel announced (…) demanding that their government poison the water to kill the Palestinians. Isn't that clear incitement to commit mass killings against the Palestinian people?"; I would like to ask you the following: 

1) Is President Abbas a viable partner for the Middle East Peace Process? 

2) Does the High Representative intend to criticize this accusation which is against not only Israelis but the Jewish People in general? 

3) Mr. Mahmoud Abbas categorically refused to meet with President Rivlin, although the Israeli President was open to the idea of a meeting. Why didn’t the High Representative push for such a meeting between both Presidents as suggested by President Rivlin"

Europe: Anything the PA does, no matter how murderous, never elicits anything but the mildest form of vague condemnation, if any, from the EU

European Parliament president Martin Schulz tweeted that Abbas's speech blaming Jewish rabbis for inciting the Israeli government to poison wells "was inspiring".

Judith Bergman @ Israel Hayom:

You can take the Europeans out of the former colonies, but you cannot take the colonialism out of the Europeans. That much is clear, at least as far as the European Union is concerned. In an interview with Israeli journalist and TV anchor Eylon Aslan-Levy, EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen was asked why the EU supports the French peace initiative when the Israeli prime minister has called for direct negotiations. "Why doesn't the European Union simply pressure Abbas to take up Prime Minister Netanyahu's invitation?" asked Aslan-Levy. 

Faaborg-Andersen replied, "Because I think experience has shown that the parties are not capable on their own to reach a stage where they are able to sit down and negotiate. There is a need for a third-party involvement and I think that the Paris conference was a recognition of that fact [sic] that there was need for international focus on this issue that has been somewhat dormant for some time, I mean the peace process, and I think this was the motivating factor behind the French initiative coupled with the fact that we are seeing a constant deterioration of the situation on the ground bringing us further away from a two-state solution rather than closer to [sic]."  [...]

For those still in doubt, Faaborg-Andersen's reply that "the parties are not capable on their own" is clear evidence of the racism and cultural condescension -- such characteristic parts of the colonialist project -- still being a very potent factor in European policies, despite all assurances to the contrary for the past half century. The "natives," i.e., the Jews and the Arabs, are incapable of solving anything on their own, which is why we ostensibly need the wisdom and superiority of the European Union to guide our ignorant and misguided steps in this world. Just who do the Europeans think that they are? 

Even though the European Union is the Palestinian Authority's best friend, and although the latter can do no wrong according to the former, let there be no doubt that the PA is merely a tool, a means to an end, in the hands of the European Union. 

Had the PA's enemy not been the Jews, but instead other Muslims, Christians or Yazidis, the European Union would have been out of there, taking its many billions of euros with it, faster than you can say "postcolonial guilt." If you doubt this contention, take a hard look at all the internecine Muslim strife and the ongoing genocides against non-Muslims in the Middle East and Africa. The European Union is nowhere to be seen, its billions of euros entirely absent and its need to impose solutions completely gone missing.  [...]

Anything that the PA does, no matter how murderous, vile and inhumane, never elicits anything but the mildest form of vague condemnation, if any, from the EU.

In the interview with Aslan-Levy, the EU ambassador could not bring himself to condemn the standing ovation that the European Parliament gave Abbas for his blood-libel speech two weeks ago in Brussels, instead outrageously stating that there were probably also European parliamentarians who did not appreciate what Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had to say in his speech to the same body.

The moral narcissism of the European Union is no better than the moral narcissism of its colonialist European predecessors. It's just a different century.

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Europe must stop funding demonization of Israel

Via YNet (Ben-Dror Yemini):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Europe: Cross-party group of MEPs urge Mogherini and Schulz to get tough with Abbas on incitement to hatred and silence on murders of Israelis

Official Palestinian Authority media outlets incite Palestinians, from a young age, to murder Jews. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)

 

Typically only 13 MEPs out of 751 signed the long overdue appeal - and not a single one from France, the UK, Portugal, Poland ...  More about Palestinian violence that MEPs prefer to ignore here and here.

Europe Israel Press Association reports:

A cross-party group of Members of the European Parliament urged EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and European Parliament President Martin Schulz to make an "unambiguous" statement in response to inflammatory language used by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in recent days and his silence and refusal to condemn the murders and stabbings of Israeli citizens.

"We press upon you the need for an unambiguous and clear European repudiation of the language used by Mr. Abbas to date, his silence in the face of brutal and unwarranted murders of Israeli citizens, including the murder of two parents in front of their children, and his failure to properly respond and engage with (Israel’s) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer of peace negotiations," wrote the 13 MEPs, members of the Europe Israel Public Affairs advisory Committee or friends of EIPA, in a letter sent Wednesday to the two EU leaders.

The MEPs are concerned that current events in Israel and the West Bank are taking a turn for the worse, and want the EU “to follow UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s lead, when he chastised Mr Abbas for his “filthy Jewish feet” quote with regards to events at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.”

"We urge you to issue this clear and unambiguous statement as soon as possible, so that the Palestinian leadership understands that incitement to hatred, and silence in the face of Palestinian terror attacks against Israel’s population have consequences and will not be tolerated by the European Union, the letter continues."
The MEPs noted that in stark contrast, Israel immediately condemned and brought the full weight of justice to bear on Israeli citizens who attack and murder Palestinian citizens.

"You will also be aware of the Israeli Prime Minister’s desire to begin peace process negotiations immediately and without pre-conditions," the MEPs said, adding that this offer, which must be grasped, is still on the table.

The 13 MEP who signed the letter are :

• Fulvio MARTUSCIELLO (EPP, Italy)
• Frederique RIES (ALDE, Belgium)
• Boris ZALA (S&D, Slovakia)
• Ramon Tremosa I BALCELLS (ALDE, Spain)
• Lars ADAKTUSSON (EPP, Sweden)
• Petras AUSTREVICIUS (ALDE, Lithuania)
• Milan ZVER ( EPP, Slovenia)
• Marijana PETIR (EPP, Croatia)
• Bas BELDER (ECR, the Netherlands)
• Hannu TAKKULA (ALDE, Finland)
• Arne GERICKE (ECR, Germany)
• Cristian DAN PREDA (EPP, Romania)
• Branislav SKRIPEC (ECR, Slovakia)

European anti-Semites increasingly playing victim in classic ‘perpetrator inversion,’ says expert

From the Times of Israel:

One of Europe’s most distinguished anti-Semitism researchers, Monika Schwarz-Friesel, has an alarming message: Scientific measures indicate a massive upsurge of Jew-hatred on the internet, as anti-Semitism reestablishes itself as an increasingly visible element in European mainstream discourse.

A psychologist, linguist and professor of cognitive science at the Technical University of Berlin, Schwarz-Friesel is one of the most quoted experts on anti-Semitism in both international academic literature and the German media.

In her numerous publications she analyzes and exposes new manifestations of old anti-Semitic sentiments — disguised though they might be — employing much of the same Jew-hatred that has been shaping European discourse throughout the years, even when officially outlawed.

These analyses are evidence that recent anti-Israeli tropes demonizing the Jewish state are actually work-arounds of old anti-Semitic sentiments that have been with us for two millennia. [...]

Currently, Schwarz-Friesel, is spending the last part of her sabbatical in Jerusalem, where she met with The Times of Israel on Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus Campus to share some insight into the truly disturbing results of her research.

Your book “Inside the anti-Semitic Mind” reviews over 15,000 letters, emails and other correspondence that have been addressed to Israeli embassies and Jewish institutions all over Europe. What do these correspondences reveal?

Many of these letters employ classical anti-Semitic stereotypes in order to abuse their addressees, while demonizing the state of Israel and Jews. Jews in general are blamed for alleged crimes by the State of Israel that is slurred as “a hypocritical terror regime, living of the blood of Palestinians,” or a nation of “child-eaters.” Zionism is being equated with racism and Israel is being called an “apartheid regime,” posing the greatest danger to world peace. Such ideas have nothing to do with the reality on the ground. Instead they reflect classic anti-Semitic stereotypes that have been with us for 2,000 years and that brand Jews as murderers and an omnipresent evil force in the world.

It is hard to believe that such views are prevalent in contemporary European mainstream discourse. Aren’t they just characteristic of uneducated, radical subgroups?

Unfortunately, no. The authors of the anti-Semitic letters that we reviewed included students, lawyers, journalists, doctors, priests, self-employed entrepreneurs, politicians and even university professors. [...]

[...]  anti-Semitism has resurfaced as an evident element in mainstream European discourse. Just think about the utterances of writer Günter Grass or of the journalist Jakob Augstein that portray Israel in terms of classic anti-Semitic clichés, according to which Jews are a menace to mankind and control world politics.

In addition, there is less and less resistance to anti-Semitic utterances. A case in point is the lack of objection upon the conclusion of the speech by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to the European Parliament last June, which raised the false accusation that rabbis asked the Israeli government to poison the water of Palestinians. Abbas even received standing ovations after this speech, which promoted the classic anti-Semitic slur that Jews are well-poisoners.

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Germany's Social Democrats pivot towards PLO and Iran

Via The Jerusalem Post (Benjamin Weinthal):

German Foreign and Vice Chancellor Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s move to pick a fight with Benjamin Netanyahu come as no surprise to longterm observers of Gabriel and his Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) explicit pivot toward Fatah and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Netanyahu told Gabriel he was not prepared to meet with him if he went ahead with meetings with organizations (i.e. Breaking the Silence) that seek to delegitimize the Jewish state and the IDF. 

Gabriel refused to pull the plug on his meetings and the row mushroomed into a full-blown diplomatic crisis. 

“Gabriel’s deliberate uproar” was the title of Alex Feuerherdt’s article on the website of the Mena Watch think tank. Feuerherdt, a journalist and expert in German-Israel relations, hammered away at the SPD’s growing anti-Israel tendencies and the largely monolithic media and political criticism in Germany of Netanyahu’s cancellation. 

He noted the double standard in Germany: There was not a bleep of protest over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to punish Israel for construction of buildings in the disputed territories by canceling her May trip to Israel, noted Feuerherdt. 

Gabriel is, of course, no stranger to slashing language that assaults Israel’s raison d’être, namely, political Zionism. 

He termed Israel’s presence in Hebron an “apartheid regime.” His partisan views are clearly written on the wall. For Gabriel, Mahmoud Abbas is a “friend’ and his SPD party declared itself to be in a “strategic partnership” with Abbas’s Fatah party. 

Moreover, the SPD hosted a Breaking the Silence exhibit in 2012 at the party’s Willy Brandt headquarters in Berlin. 

The current president of Germany, the Social Democrat’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, waxed lyrical about the Breaking the Silence, a group that uses anonymous testimonies to claim Israel’s army commits war crimes. 

All of this helps to explain why Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, rejected just days ago a German mediation role (i.e, Gabriel) in the Israel-PLO conflict. 

The chairman and candidate for chancellor of the Social Democratic Party, Martin Schulz, described Abbas’s speech to the European Parliament last year as “stimulating.” 

During the June 2016 speech, Abbas accused Israeli rabbis of urging the government to poison Palestinian water. The New York Times wrote at the time that Abbas’s claim about lethally contaminating water used by the Palestinians echoed “antisemitic claims that led to the mass killings of European Jews in medieval times.” 

Gabriel has scarce experience in the Middle East. The vice chancellor – his party sits in a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party – is a hardcore economic nationalist who prioritizes his country’s business interests over historical responsibility toward the Jewish people. 

He rushed to Iran with a large business delegation just days after the nuclear accord was reached in July 2015. Gabriel appears to not have met with any organizations critical of the Islamic Republic while in Tehran. He dashed off to Iran again in 2016 with another business group. 

Gabriel’s predecessor, Steinmeier, tagged Netanyahu as “very coarse” for his piercing criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. As a result of the atomic pact, German companies are expected to secure a multi-billion dollar windfall from trade deals with the mullah regime. 

And key leaders within the Social Democrats have been frothing at the mouth over Israel’s opposition to the Iran nuclear weapons deal and over Netanyahu’s opposition to concessions to the Palestinians.

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Europe: Israel sparks politicians's fiercest debates... more than security, refugees, the economy

Washington must not determine itself against Israel as Europe has always done, writes Michael Oren @ Newsweek:

"The fiercest arguments we have in parliament are over Israel." These words, spoken by the chairman of the Dutch Foreign Affairs Committee, startled me. But they failed to faze the other committee members from the both the left and right. On the contrary, they all readily agreed. In the end, only I displayed surprise.

"Let me get this straight," I said. "Your country is in economic crisis, tens of thousands of refugees are massing on your borders, and the EU may be unraveling, and yet the issue that most occupies you is…Israel?"

My hosts unanimously nodded. However shocking, the conversation was by no means unusual. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee in Israel's Knesset, I frequently meet with European legislators.

Whether Dutch or Belgian or German, they all report the same phenomenon. Israel—more than security, more than refugees, and the economy—sparks their bitterest debates. And each time I hear this, I find myself astonished. At stake, I realize, is not Israel's identity but the Europeans'. For them, the Jewish State is exactly that, a state of Jews against whom the West is once again defining itself. [...]


The same Dutch government that is offering dozens of its national churches for sale is acridly divided over Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.

While grappling with a failed economy and massive security threats, French leaders have time to launch a Middle East peace initiative that Israel rejects.

Addressing the European Parliament this month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas repeated a medieval European libel by accusing Jews of poisoning Palestinian wells. Abbas later apologized, but the Europeans gave him a standing ovation.

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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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Russia: Chabad leader slams state-funded TV for ‘blood libel’

Via Times of Israel:

A Chabad-Lubavitch leader condemned a state-funded channel’s airing of Palestinian allegations that an Israeli rabbi approved the poisoning of Palestinian wells.

Rabbi Alexander Boroda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, said the RT network’s June 27 report on the issue repeated unfounded allegations reminiscent of the medieval “blood libel” against Jews.

The RT report referred to recent reports in Arab and Muslim media which claimed that a West Bank rabbi issued an “advisory opinion” allowing Jewish settlers to poison Palestinian water. A version of the story previously appeared in the state-run Turkish press agency Anadolu, credited to a Palestinian reporter in Ramallah. Neither the rabbi in the story nor the organization he is described as representing appears to exist.

The report came a week after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas repeated the unfounded allegations at the European Parliament. Abbas later acknowledged that the charges were “baseless.”

In medieval Europe, Jews were often accused of poisoning wells to spread disease among Christians. This recurrent theme led to several major pogroms against Jews.

“It is surprising that the modern Russian television channel produces similar plots,” Boroda was quoted as saying in a statement Friday on the news site Jewish.Ru. These blood libels, he added, “were the product of a sick imagination” and led to brutal violence.

“In this case we are talking a falsification which has already been refuted,” added Boroda, who also noted Abbas’ office had apologized for his remarks. The report on RT, Boroda said, “is not an unfortunate exception, but rather the rule.” The channel, he said, “regularly features stories about the alleged persecution of Arabs by Jews – attacks and house demolitions without reporting these are the houses of terrorists who kill civilians.”

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UK: Bigoted columnist: Jews ‘Poisoning the wells’

Via Honest Reporting:

Update:

Shortly following our complaint, the Daily Mail has made a shocking edit to Peter Oborne’s article, adding the words “according to a number of respectable sources” to justify the blatantly antisemitic allegation promoted by Oborne. The Daily Mail’s reaction is almost as sickening as Oborne’s original offense.

Original article:

The official visit of future British monarch, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, to Israel has, so far, been a very positive event. It’s disappointing then to see British journalist and commentator Peter Oborne using this opportunity to write a nasty anti-Israel piece in the Daily Mail.

It’s disgusting, however to see Oborne spreading blatant antisemitism:

Yes, you read that correctly – Oborne is charging Israeli settlers with poisoning Palestinian wells, which he claims to have personally witnessed.

Jews poisoning the wells is a classic antisemitic canard that dates back to Medieval European times when Jews were accused of being responsible for spreading disease such as the Black Death. This in turn led to massacres of Jewish communities. (…)  

Oborne makes this antisemitic claim only a few years after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas retracted the very same charge made in a June 23, 2016 speech to the European Parliament.

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France: Signs France moving toward recognition of Palestine

In line with de Gaulle's "politique arabe de la France". Reports of Palestinian leaders' corruption is never reported in the media.  It would make people furious to know that their money is yet again being lavished on the palestinian "leaders": EU accuses Palestinians of wasting €2 billion in aid (2013), Abbas’s son highlighted in Palestinian corruption claims and Leaked Documents Show “Rampant” Corruption in Palestinian Authority.  

The Jerusalem Post reports:

[...] Following a meeting in Paris between Fabius and PA Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement that indicated Paris was beginning to set the groundwork for future French recognition of “Palestine.”

“The meeting,” according to the statement “also provided an opportunity to prepare for the first French-Palestinian intergovernmental seminar, the first session of which will be aimed at strengthening our relations in the political, economic and cultural spheres.”

One senior Western diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post recently that the French backtracked from their UN proposal after facing objections from both Israel, who objected to the idea of imposing a solution form the outside, and the Palestinians, because they were unhappy that the resolution did not give them everything they wanted.

Instead, he said, the French would likely offer a trade off: recognition now instead of the resolution. The French parliament, along with a number of European parliaments, recommended taking such a step last year, after the Swedish government became the first significant Western European country to do so.

Unlike the Swedish move, or the move by the European parliaments, French recognition, the official said, could very well lead other EU states to take similar action.  Read more.