6/29 Links: BDS Fails, American Jewish Student Killed in Egypt and The Mandela Letter Hoax.

From Ian:

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Boycott effort in London council falls flat

The contract, which expires in 2014, is worth £16.1 million ($24.5 million) a year.
On June 24, the council was due to vote on a motion proposed by four Liberal Democrat councilors, which said that the company’s work in Israel and the West Bank “amounts to complicity in violations of international law” and called on the council not to sign any contracts with Veolia “or any other company complicit in breaches of international law.”
However, a legal opinion provided by Brent’s senior solicitor, Kathy Robinson, said “there are no grounds for excluding Veolia… on the basis of ‘grave professional misconduct.’ Motions which are illegal, improper or irregular are not permitted and in consequence it will not be appropriate to debate or vote on this Liberal Democratic Group motion.”

Arab Christians demand equal rights -- and equal duties

"We want young Christians to become totally integrated into Israeli society, which also entails shouldering their fair share of the burden of national service. Our future as a Christian minority is intertwined with that of the State of Israel. We want to give more to society and to contribute our share just like others do," says Gavriel Nadaf, a 39-year-old Arab Christian priest who is being persecuted by the Arab Israeli establishment. Nonetheless, the cold, hard numbers say that the majority is behind him. (h/t Zvi)

Don't Fall for the Hoax that Mandela Is Anti-Israel!

Don’t fall for the false claim that Nelson Mandela was anti-Israel! It is based on a hoax--a letter written by anti-Israel activist Arjan El Fassed more than a decade ago in the style of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s made-up letters from world leaders. The letter, purportedly from Mandela to Friedman, compares Israel to apartheid South Africa and has been quoted widely, including by Jimmy Carter. But it is a fraud.

BCF: Canadian Muslims use Mandela's imminent death as chance to bash Israel

More BBC coverage of Middle East reality TV

And whilst Knell mentions that “in twenty years, Palestinians have only ever had two presidential polls”, she does not bother to inform her audiences why that is the case.
Such trite subject matter, especially when used as a vehicle for the promotion of dumbed-down context-free slogans, cannot be said to contribute to the meeting the BBC’s self-defined public purpose of enhancing ‘global outlook’.

New BBC style guide on terrorism

As we have noted here on several occasions, the BBC habitually employs double standards on this subject, accurately and appropriately using the term ‘terror’ and its derivatives when reporting on domestic terrorism, but scrupulously avoiding the use of the same terms in connection with widely-designated terror organisations in the Middle East.

Haniyeh to Abbas: Don't Negotiate with Israel

Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on Friday urged Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas not to begin talks with Israel, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry continued his efforts to get the sides back to the negotiating table.
"We ask brothers in the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen (Abbas) not to fall yet again into the trap of talks," Haniyeh implored, speaking to journalists after prayers in Gaza, according to the AFP news agency.

Jewish college student stabbed to death in Egypt protests

An American Jewish college student, Andrew Driscoll Pochter, 21, a native of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was killed in Alexandria, Egypt on Friday as he watched clashes between supporters and opponents of the country’s Islamist president, it was confirmed Saturday.
Pochter, one of three people killed in Friday’s clashes, was stabbed to death by a protester, his family said.

Egyptians Protesting Morsi Accuse U.S. Government of Supporting Islamists

While protests have erupted across Egypt, the country’s secular and Christian opposition factions are calling for Islamist President Mohamed Morsi’s resignation as well as accusing the U.S. government of supporting Morsi’s Islamist government at their expense, Al-Ahram reported.

MEMRI: Egyptian Women Demonstrate against Morsi: Mubarak the Pilot Was Replaced by an Ass VIDEO

Iran State Media Declares U.S. Treasury Counter-Terror Office Controlled by “Ashkenazi Jew”, “Arch Zionist Likudnik… Partisans”

Iranian state media, displeased with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Asset Control (OFAC), has taken to the airwaves to blast the office. At issue are measures taken by OFAC against Iranian regime media outlets, including specifically Press TV.

Iran signals no scaling back in nuclear activity despite Rouhani win

Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the Islamic Republic's Atomic Energy Organization, said production of nuclear fuel would "continue in line with our declared goals. The enrichment linked to fuel production will also not change."
Speaking through an interpreter to reporters at a nuclear energy conference in St Petersburg, Russia, he said work at Iran's underground Fordow plant - which the West wants Iran to close - would also continue. Iran refines uranium at Fordow that is a relatively close technical step away from weapons-grade.

Hungarian politician made anti-Semitic remarks, court finds

Hungary’s highest court found that a co-founder of the country’s ruling party had made anti-Semitic statements.
In the June 26 ruling, the Kúria, Hungary’s highest judicial body, rejected a libel suit by Zsolt Bayer, a columnist and one of the co-founders of the Fidesz center-right ruling party.

US reportedly bans Ukrainian party leaders over anti-Semitism

Two leaders of Ukraine’s ultranationalist Svoboda Party have been banned from entering the United States for their open anti-Semitism, a Ukrainian daily reported.
Oleh Tyahnybok and Igor Miroshnichenko were declared persona non grata in the United States earlier this year following talks with Jewish leaders, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, according to a report published Wednesday in the Kiev-based Sevodnya daily.

Fear and groaning from Israeli horror films set for the US

Warner Bros. has entrusted the follow-up to their wildly successful history-via-comic book epic “300” to Jerusalem-born Noam Murro. The forthcoming “300: Rise of an Empire” (which is more of a “side-quel” than a prequel or sequel) is the first big budget feature from the Murro, a director of top commercials, and it is poised to wow fanboys next March.
Next year also sees two releases by an up-and-coming filmmaking duo working in the horror genre, Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado.

Deutsche Telekom joins parade of tech giants on the hunt for Israel's startup talent

Without fanfare, over the past few years German telco Deutsche Telekom has made substantial investments in Israel, especially in its R&D facilities at Ben Gurion University, where teams are working on high-level mobile and big data security projects, internet of things tech, and much more. Now, the company is ramping up its activity, says an Israeli representative of hub:raum, DT's accelerator and incubator program for promising startups. (h/t Zvi)