Showing posts with label RealJerusalemStreets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RealJerusalemStreets. Show all posts

Thursday, November 02, 2023

Guest essay by Real Jerusalem Streets:

With anti-Israel and antisemitic protests spreading throughout the world, many are asking where could this hate come from. 

A look into Arabic textbooks is a place to start finding answers to the spread of anti-Israel and Jewish protesters being filled with the fuel of jihad.  

Arik Aggasi, COO and head of global partnerships for IMPACT-se (The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education,) presented compelling evidence undermining UNWRA's credibility to international journalists.  

From over 1,000 textbooks published since 2016, the evidence shows a shocking promotion of hate among young children and a deterioration in content, falling far short of UNESCO standards. Some examples included the removal of content discussing peace agreements, negotiations, and the Two-State Solution, as well as the encouragement of violence and demonization of Israel across all grades and subjects, even infiltrating math and science.

IMPACT-se has been diligently monitoring and analyzing education worldwide since 1998. Their aim is to ensure that education complies with international standards of peace, tolerance, and non-violence, as derived from UNESCO declarations and resolutions.   They note UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia have removed some of the hate material. 

IMPACT-se's findings have had a significant impact, such as the European Parliament's decision to freeze parts of Palestinian Authority funding until their curricula align with international standards. A joint report by IMPACT-se and United Nations Watch, presented to Congress, shed light on 47 new cases of incitement to hate and violence by UNRWA teachers and schools, in clear violation of the agency's policies. This report revealed a disturbing pattern of calling for the murder of Jews, glorifying terrorism, and inciting antisemitism within UNRWA's education system.

Norway's decision to cut funding over textbook incitement in December 2020 was met with a defiant response from Palestinian PM Shtayyeh, who declared that the "curriculum will not be surrendered." This resistance to reforming the curriculum, even in exchange for the release of frozen EU funds, was reiterated by PA Foreign Minister Al-Maliki in March 2022.

It is crucial to shed light on these issues and encourage international dialogue to address the root causes of conflict in the region. UNRWA's role in perpetuating hatred and violence through education must be scrutinized. Once Hamas is eliminated, efforts to promote peace and tolerance should be prioritized for the sake of a more peaceful and stable future for all parties involved.

It is time for the world leaders to wake up from woke and see what is written in Arabic, in the UNRWA textbooks. 

Hopefully, it is not too late to stop the fires from spreading. 

Here is a sampling of images provided by IMPACT-se, starting in lower school and included in teachers' manuals encouraging Jew-hatred and murder























Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, December 19, 2022

The top story on St. Louis KSDK news last night was about a dual citizen Palestinian American who was detained by the Israeli army as she tried to go through a checkpoint to Jerusalem:

 Israeli Defense Forces detained a St. Louis college student on Friday and held her over the weekend after she attempted to cross the border from Ramallah into Jerusalem to visit revered holy sites with her family.

Hala Kasim Salameh, a 22-year-old Palestinian-American woman from St. Louis, was visiting the West Bank with her mother, sister, aunt and cousin.

According to her family, Salameh is an American citizen who had proper documentation, a travel permit, a U.S. passport and her Palestinian I.D. card when she approached the first checkpoint but was turned away.

"Sometimes it doesn't really go how you want, and they can refuse your entry for no reason at all, and that's exactly what happened to my sister," her younger sister Yumna Salameh told 5 On Your Side in a video call on Sunday night.

"She tried to ask them twice to go in, and they still refused her entry," she said. "They kind of got aggressive with her, too."

After being separated from her family at the first checkpoint, Salameh tried again to reconnect with them in a taxi cab. She managed to make one final phone call to her family before she was arrested. 

Neveen Ayesh, a St. Louis advocate with the Missouri chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, is working with Salameh's family to get her legal representation. 

"To begin with, she was not wrong because she did have a permit to enter," Ayesh said. "The soldier just decided he didn't want to let her in."
The story is very strange. Why would the soldiers let her family through and not her? Why would she be put into jail for something so minor - why not just release her?

If you listen carefully, the video of the story answers both questions, with two buried details that are not in the written story.


At 2:23, after the video report, the news anchor mentions as an aside, "The family tells us that she did have the proper documentation, but did not have it on her when she was detained."

Suddenly, things are starting to make sense. The family and lawyer in the news story were lying when they said she had all her documentation, and then - perhaps upon further questioning from a skeptical reporter - the family changed their story. But that detail didn't make it into the print and video story, which still quotes the AMP lawyer as saying she had her permit on her.

Now look at the video at 1:00: "Now, separated from her family, she tried to enter a third time, in a taxicab." Her sister then says, "Oh, the third time they said, 'you disobeyed us, and now we catch you.'"

Meaning, they let her go twice, but she still tried to sneak into Israel a third time by hoping that they wouldn't check her papers from a taxicab. 

This isn't a story of an American girl being abused by the IDF. It is the story of a person trying, three times, to cross a border without documentation - and the third time, knowingly trying to sneak past the border guards. 

This is what would happen at any border crossing worldwide. 

The family turned to pro-terror American Muslims for Palestine for help. AMP saw an opportunity for a propaganda bonanza, so they immediately contacted the media and concocted a story about a forlorn American girl of Palestinian ancestry who was arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned for no other reason except that Israelis hate Palestinians. 

And KSDK happily runs with the story as their top story of the evening. Not only that, they illustrate the part where she gets arrested with this photo of Israeli police detaining a violent protester, as if this was how Hala was treated:


This is not news reporting. This is anti-Israel propaganda. 

A proper news organization would have reported this the way they would report anyone trying to bypass security at an airport - as a potential terrorist trying to illicitly cross an international border. 

(h/t RealJerusalemStreets)




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Sunday, October 02, 2022

By Real Jerusalem Streets

The reported news that Booking.com was to put a "warning" on Jewish-owned property rentals in Judea and Samaria listed on their website spurred a visit to the Dead Sea to see.



Leaving Jerusalem for the half-hour drive to the northern part of the shrinking Dead Sea, it's hard to miss the Bedouin encampments which have multiplied in the desert along the road.



The banks of the receding body of salt water are visible from an outlook at the Biankini Village Resort Dead Sea. For those like me who were unfamiliar with the name, and at first glance think of beach bikinis or burkinis, Angelo Levi Bianchini was an officer in the Italian Royal  Navy. A street in Jerusalem near Hillel Street and the Italian Synagogue is named for the Zionist and Israel lover.

But that story is for another time. 

I mention Bianchini because of the street where in 2001 a terrorist attempted to blow up the Biankini Pub, filled with nearly 200 young people drinking beer on a Friday night and celebrating 3 birthdays.

Biankini Pub owner Dina Dagan realized something was wrong when a man from Ramallah walked into her business after she had seen on the news that Ramallah had been closed because of riots. 

He had indeed left a powerful explosive in a bag in the restroom. She was able to carry the bomb out to the street, get the police to believe her, and finally come and detonate the explosive, saving the lives of her patrons. 

The episode is material also for a powerful story. But I mention it because Dagan grew up in Jerusalem and experienced the Intifada firsthand. She did not decide to leave until after the Moment Cafe bombing, where some of the same young people she saved were murdered by another terrorist's bomb. 


 Dina Dagan moved to the Dead Sea to find "peace" and started the Biankini Resort in the barren sand. The resort has grown into a mega-complex, with a large swimming pool and shul.



There are small family cabins with play areas and privacy and greenery she planted.


The newest of her 110 rooms are in a building named Sultan and one includes a suite with a private jacuzzi, and as in the rest of the resort, over-the-top Moroccan decor. 


Dina Dagan, flamboyant down to her blue and white bejeweled fingernails is angry with the Booking.com warning. After working hard for over 20 years to build a business that provides 4 million shekel back into the local economy, where Arabs and Jews work together "in an island of peace" and hosts people from all over the world - Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Jewish.- now is dangerous she asked!



Booking.com watered down their warning on the site to properties in the area stating, "Review any travel advisories provided by your government to make an informed decision about your stay in this area, which may be considered conflict-area"



I have seen comments that this is not a serious development, will not hinder tourism, etc. in this place where Dagan says brings people together. They do not know and if see a warning will be afraid to come -"To the most peaceful place in the world."

Dina Dagan who carried an explosive device out to a Jerusalem street in 2001, calls what is happening, "Intifada Rishona." (First Intifada) A time of virtual shaming which is political and hurts us all - all Israelis. How can this be, a one-sided decision deciding on the borders of Israel when there are terror attacks around the world? 

Airbnb and now Booking.com - who will be next in this war of discrimination, that hurts everyone?

Looking up on the way into the resort from the parking lot, we saw birds sheltering from the hot sun in a dinosaur's mouth. 





On the way out, I looked down to see Queen Elizabeth and Albert Einstein waving goodbye.



International tourists should be warned - Biankini Resort has just about anything you could imagine - and more.

All images credit - @RealJStreets  sharon@rjstreets.com



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Wednesday, March 09, 2022

 

By RealJerusalemStreets


In the opening Author's Note, Andrew Lawler begins "Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City" with a quote from author Simon Sebag Montefiore; "Writing about Jerusalem was very stressful; every word counts." Lawler adds, "Which word to select is part of that trial." 

I read carefully through the 355 pages of text which included impressive old and new photos. The extensive acknowledgments, endnotes, and index are extremely well done and a valuable resource I plan to keep to use in the future.

The Ark of the Covenant was the object of searches over a century before the 1981 "The Raiders of the Lost Ark" by Steven Spielberg starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

The early chapters on the beginnings of archeology in the Holy Land, in the mid 19th century, led by Christian Zionists, Charles Wilson (Wilson's Arch), Charles Warren, British Royal engineers, Edward Robinson (Robinson's Arch), French explorer Louis-Felicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy and German Conrad Schick are extremely well documented and informative. 

Lawler presents a vast amount of material in an interesting and engaging way. He is an excellent writer who has done extensive research on archeology and history. The work shared over centuries under the Jerusalem streets is seen in an engrossing manner to draw the reader along.

However, on two specific points, I must take exception. In the timeline, 1948 CE "The British withdraw, Israel is created, and war breaks out between Arabs and the new state, the Jewish Quarter is damaged in the fighting." 

Rather, the United Nations declared a partition plan on November 29, 1947, and the surrounding Arab nations attacked the new state and expelled the Jews from the Old City, and Jerusalem was divided and occupied by Jordan for 19 years.

The other point, on page 320 when discussing the US Embassy move to Jerusalem. "The United States, therefore, had refused to acknowledge the Israeli government's 1950 move to make Jerusalem its capital...The decision by President Donald Trump to reverse this policy..." 

When in fact, the US Congress had passed legislation in 1995 to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and subsequent US Presidents had waivers to not enforce the law and stopped the move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

"It is an act of brazen arrogance or naive foolishness- or both- to tackle the thorny history of Jerusalem," Lawler concludes. Indeed, however, he has done an excellent job to transverse the minefields and controversies, with an excellent result I truly appreciated. 



The Western Wall excavations are ongoing, with two new routes open to the public recently. It was fascinating to see the old photos and new rooms I visited, so similar after over a century.

Christian Zionists were the early excavators and it is impressive to realize how much of their work is still accepted, as the knowledge and acceptance of the Bible have waned over the years. 




The City of David and the Tower of David Museum continue to expose and share new layers of history as well as the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. 

It is good to learn of the past, to appreciate the present and future. 


Publisher: Doubleday    
ISBN 9780385546850 hardcover, also paperback and ebook available








Read all about it here!



Thursday, February 24, 2022

By RealJerusalemStreets

I sit here in Jerusalem, on a cold and overcast afternoon when the weather forecast was for sunny and warm, and I had planned to walk to the Kotel.

These past two corona years, I filled multiple notebooks from online sessions. However, this is one story I feel compelled to share.

Today in balmy Greece, Israeli President Herzog is officially being welcomed as previously planned.

Meanwhile, Putin goes against the "expert" predictions of only threatening but starts bombing Ukraine to provide "peacekeeping" - with China and Iran in support.

With the rumors and fake news, it is hard to know what is true according to Rabbi Johnathan Markovitch, the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv, in a Media Central press interview.

There were lines of cars trying to fill with gas and people stocking up on food in certain locations. However, the main streets in Kyiv were empty, on Thursday morning, February 24, 2022, as warning air-raid alarms sounded. The people financially and physically able to leave had gone already. By 6:30 AM, it was too late to drive out of Kyiv as roads were clogged with cars trying to flee. The Kyiv airport and Odesa Port hit by Russian airpower were no longer options to escape. Remember for weeks authorities assured, Putin would threaten, but not really attack Ukraine. 

Kyiv, also Kiev, the capital and most populous city had close to 3 million people before Russian threats loomed, and was home to a thriving Jewish community. Hours after the attack on Kyiv, Chief Rabbi and his wife Inna spoke of the situation from the Kyiv Jewish Center at 67 Saksaganskova Street. The KJC prepared for a possible emergency with 50 mattresses, 6 tons of food, and water, ready to shelter the community members left behind, those who could reach the synagogue.

Of the thousands of Jews who had lived in Kyiv, Israelis, the wealthy, and the young have taken precautions and left their homes behind. The organized Jewish community before the current crisis provided food for 800 daily, mostly elderly, with two hundred residents bed-ridden.  Inna told of a 104-year-old woman holding her hand on a recent visit and tearfully saying how she had survived the Nazis. 

Rabbi Markovitch was born in Ukraine and came to Israel with his parents as a three-year-old. He served in the Israeli Air Force for 12 years. For the past 21 years he and his wife, parents to 7 children, have lived in Kyiv. Rabbi Ariel and Cherry Markovitch, a son and native French daughter-in-law had packed their bags in the morning and came to the synagogue. They reiterated that people who tried to get out of Kyiv after 6:00 am were stuck in traffic for hours and had no choice but to return. 

More than once, it was mentioned that, unlike Israel, in Kyiv, there are no bomb shelters. The alarm this morning was a faint sound, the concerned calls from around the world woke them at 5:00 AM. The official response told people to go to metro stations below ground for shelter. However, Inna said the nearest one to them is a 20-minute walk. Imagine 20 minutes to shelter in Israel?!

For now, they are okay, but if the situation continues, food becomes scarce, and word gets out the Jewish synagogue has food stocked, they are concerned. They said they did not feel antisemitism was a problem in their time in Kyiv. If there was an issue the rabbi would contact the Ukrainian Interior Affairs or another official on the cell phone and the matter would be resolved. The main concern the couple expressed today was their armed security did not show up as planned. Plus another security company they then contacted doubled the fee.

Ten percent of the local police force is Jewish and Jews serve in the military and secret service. However, without proper security, the prospect of angry mobs is a serious concern. In 2014, there were riots and looting. We know enough history to imagine horrible scenarios. Strangers approaching KJC will be provided a food package. But for safety's sake, only known members of the Jewish community will be allowed inside. 

The Jewish Agency has promised aid. The Israel Embassy has relocated a 7-hour drive away to a temporary site near the Polish border. They have been in contact and provided a map with border crossing points. However, getting out of Kyiv was the problem in the morning. 

The French Embassy advised their citizens to stay. Others have said to leave.  For now, the Rabbi and his family are taking the situation step by step. First, serving lunch to the 50 people, including children, who were already in the synagogue building, while praying for the best outcome in a terrifying situation. 







Thursday, December 16, 2021

By RealJerusalemStreets

Elder wrote his opinion after watching Miss Universe's final competition broadcast from Eilat with its positive imagery projected to world audiences. 

However, while the international beauty contestants were arriving in Israel, another world championship competition was taking place in Jerusalem.

The 10th Flag Football World Championship games took place in Jerusalem, Israel, from December 6 to 8th. Due to a change in the weather, the finals were held at Teddy Stadium, instead of the entire games at the Kraft Family Sports Complex. A record of 39 teams from 23 countries competed. The USA men and women won the first place trophies again as expected, but Mexico gave them serious competition coming in second in both men's and women's flag football. 



The opening night event was held at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel for an estimated 900 participants, players, coaches, and managers. The program held on the last night of Hanukah started with the lighting of the large Hanukah menorah by Rabbi Aharon Katz, head of the Derech Etz Chaim.



For many of the players from Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Team Neutral, Thailand, and the United States it was not only the first time in Israel and but also experiencing a Hanukah celebration, perhaps even having interaction with Jews. 

The program started EXACTLY on time. I arrived a minute late!

A short video of Jerusalem highlights was shown as the crowd waited for Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion to arrive.  He was very late to welcome the visitors, but they gave him a hero's welcome as he made his entrance.



Because of the coronavirus restrictions, the teams were not able to do any of the usual tourist stops and photo ops similar to the Miss Universe contestants. The footballers were restricted to the sports fields and back to their hotel. 

But the buzz and talk in the hotel ballroom were already of returning visits to Israel. The energy of the teams, seated by their country's flag was exhilarating, their behavior praiseworthy.



The world was hesitant to host due to the situation of the variants of coronavirus. However, Steve Leibowitz the President of AFI American Football in Israel was a driving force behind the games coming to IsraelWinners qualified for July 2022 World Games in Birmingham, AL when flag football is to be included for the first time. 

Tournament sponsors included NFL Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a long-time supporter of American football in Israel and donor of the Kraft Family Sports Campus. Kraft was not able to attend in person but sent a video message shown at the opening event.



Hundreds of young international sportspeople arrived in Israel for the first time, learned about Hanukah, and saw Israeli footballers wearing a kippah. 



Not as glamorous and sexy as a world beauty competition, but thousands watched their international teams playing flag football live from Jerusalem as the broadcast went around the world to fans.

I saw less BDS pressure on these world championship games than the Miss Universe pageant, maybe the sport was lucky to get less attention.

But the World Championship Flag Football games were a great success. Even the last game ending in cold and rain could not ruin the event. After all, what's a little mud in when we are talking about football. 


The final men's game is here, the others can be found on YouTube.









Tuesday, November 16, 2021

hogan

By RealJerusalemStreets

I hesitated. At first, I said to myself--no way.

The fiction I really like to read would be a good murder mystery. However, a novel based in 1943-1944 - and in Auschwitz?

Unsettling as the concept was, the author and publisher, Tom Hogan, and his bio piqued my curiosity.

Hogan grew up in a German village with his US military family after World War II. As an eight-year-old, he visited Dachau with his family. He wondered how many of his neighbors knew about and participated in the Holocaust.

Hogan taught at Santa Clara University after graduating from Harvard with an MA in Biblical Archeology and developed curricula in Holocaust Studies for college and high school.

Along with survivors' testimonies, he presented the Shoah to US audiences.

Hogan left teaching in the 1980s, to join a growing company as its first creative director. Perhaps you may have heard of Oracle? Next, his venture capital company launched over 50 startups and he co-authored The Ultimate Startup Guide.

After leaving the tech world, Hogan returned to teaching Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UC Santa Cruz before he retired and began to write fiction.

Hogan's Heroes was the name of the American sitcom popular from 1965-1971, where during World War II, the inmates of the prisoner-of-war camp, the fictional Stalag 13, did their best to sabotage the German effort. Their escapades led to humorous results involving Col. Klink and Sargent Shultz, and these Nazis were portrayed as bumbling comedic characters. Cast member Robert Clary had a number tattooed on his arm, as the Jewish actor had really spent 3 years in a concentration camp before arriving in Hollywood.  He was often referred to as "cockroach" by the Nazis on the show, but it was a light feel-good program that always ended with Col Hogan's guys outsmarting the Germans.

Tom Hogan's The Devil's Breath is not light and not humorous. However, when the extermination camp details he has included get too heavy, readers are given a break to recover with his excellent character development. Lead characters Perla and Shimon Divko are transferred from the Warsaw Ghetto to Auschwitz and forced by Kommandant Rudolf Hess to solve a murder and a theft.

Hess is the only non-fiction character. In this genre, as opposed to memoirs, Holocaust expert Hogan is able to weave in historical information. I was at Auschwitz on a March of the Living trip years ago. Some of the facts are not only stranger than fiction, but worse as well, and I confess to skimming quickly over details of Kanada, the selection and gas chambers.

One example of adding positive information was the introduction of a drug connection along with the theft and murder of a Nazi officer in his office.  Previously I was not familiar with Pervitin , but went on to read about how it was used by the Nazis later in the war. The details in the book fit the information I found.

While The Devil's Breath is not a light read and should have trigger warnings for today's crowds, I felt it important and well done enough to share. As there are fewer survivors to tell their stories, Hogan has found a new approach to educate the public about the horrors of the Holocaust.

Title: The Devil's Breath ISBN: 978-1-7369436-1-8  

         Tom Hogan  274 pages Paperback/Kindle

Thursday, October 07, 2021



As a photojournalist I know publications much prefer to use free or stock photos rather than pay a photographer. That is expected. It has become the norm. However, what also should be expected is integrity in the use of old photographs.

Elder of Ziyon wrote on the negative reactions reported in Arab media to the proposed hotel development in the Jerusalem Armenian Quarter parking lot. 

His piece was republished the next day in the Algemeiner with a suitable heading: Palestinians Upset at Armenian Church Leasing Out Land to Australian Jew; Not Israeli, But Jew

However, it was the image used for Elder's piece that had me seeing red.  Algemeiner's photo editor selected an old photograph taken at the Western Wall Plaza during corona over a year ago!  An image not near the Armenian Quarter or its parking lot.

So upset at the error, I sent Elder messages and photos from my previous visits to the site which I have watched for years. The prospect of a hotel on the spot is an old story. I have documented its progress and slow development.











Bothered enough, I went back this morning to verify the scene and check the distances. 

Why make such a big deal over one photo?

For decades, close to a century, Arab leaders having troubles with their rule over unhappy populations have shouted "Al-Quds" as a distraction. And it has worked time and again.

The latest survey and report by Khali Shikaki on Domestic and Palestinian Authority/Israel issues showed 78%, a 10 % increase over the last poll in March, wanted Abu Mazen to resign. Abu Mazen knew he was in trouble when he called off the elections. The disappointment of those who expected elections and the death of Nizar Banat only added more bad news for him.

Then yesterday we saw multiple scenes on social media with thousands of Gazans wanting proposed work permits in Israel. Hamas used 'save Jerusalem' in May as a rallying call over the flimsy excuse of a few security barriers. 

To use a photo of the Kotel Plaza for a situation in the Armenian Quarter is not good journalism. It is not only wrong, it could be dangerous. 

I went back this morning to do a video of the area near the Armenian Parking lot. It should look familiar to anyone who went by taxi or the small buses to the Kotel in the past.





In Jerusalem, nothing is simple (or flat), and even searching on Google maps or taking still images, it is often difficult to show the real Jerusalem streets.






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