Monday, June 09, 2014
The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] Betrays Its Role — What HaAretz Refused to Print
I think that Art 49:1 sufficiently defines the meaning of transfer for the purpose of the whole article. The authors of Geneva 4 most likely did not think it necessary to repeat the adjective “forcible” in the subsequent paragraphs of Article 49. Moreover, trying to claim a non-forcible form of transfer is seeking to force a definition.The Horror of Holocaust Denial
Moreover, since Article 49 and indeed all of Geneva Convention 4 are concerned to protect those upon whom forbidden actions would be practiced, then the people upon whom transfer and deportation are practiced are the ones to whom Article 49 extends its protection, the transferees and deportees. This does not include the pre-war residents of the occupied territory who are protected in various ways by other parts of Geneva Convention 4.
The ICRC changed its interpretation of Geneva 4:49:6 after the Six Day War in order to fit in with the mood of international anti-Israel hatred. This is pointed out in the letter below sent by me to HaAretz but not published. The unpublished letter below applies just as well to Anton Camen’s recent op ed in the Jerusalem Post as it does to Jakob Kellenberger’s piece in HaAretz in 2002:
Over the last few weeks, the Holocaust has appeared surprisingly often in the news. In most cases, the reason has been the surprising degree of ignorance or denial that so many people have about this cataclysmic event. The most disheartening reports have addressed the role of educators in spreading misinformation. Worse, they have illustrated that Holocaust denial is not just an ordinary form of ignorance but rather a modern cloak for the return of old-fashioned anti-Semitism.Holocaust denier’s invitation to concentration camp memorial nixed after media exposé
The Anti-Defamation League’s much-heralded ADL Global 100 survey showed that 35% of adults worldwide have never heard of the Holocaust. Of those who have heard of it, 21% think it was a myth or exaggeration. One may quibble about the ADL survey’s methodology, but this study presents the best available evidence that we have about global attitudes. This revelation has been accompanied by three disturbing recent stories over the last few weeks.
German journalist Christoph Hörstel, a zealous supporter of Iran’s regime and Hezbollah and an alleged denier of the Holocaust, was invited to an event at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp to commemorate the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Hitler by German officers.
German author Tilman Tarach reported on Friday about the slated event on the website of the Berlin-based Jungle World weekly, causing organizers of the Sachsenhausen memorial to cancel Hörstel’s appearance the same day.
The planned participation of Hörstel showed that Germany’s remembrance culture had “gone to the dogs,” Tarach said. Organizers turned victims into perpetrators with the “planned event of a Holocaust- denier or relativist,” he wrote.
FOXNEWS: Pro-Palestinian students bring hate, intimidation to campus, critics say
They've become the bullies of the quad at college campuses around the nation, shouting down speakers, terrorizing Jewish students and intimidating those who disagree with them on the vexing issue of peace in the Middle East, according to watchdog groups.Dr. Phyllis Chesler: Activists Hijacking Feminism to Attack Israel at Women's Studies Association Meeting
Students for Justice in Palestine, with nearly 100 chapters on campuses around the nation, has become increasing strident in promoting its agenda, staging "die-ins," handing out mock eviction notices in dormitories, and raising funds for Hamas-aligned groups, according to Jewish watchdog groups. Individual members have been accused of assaulting students, vandalizing property and hurling anti-Semitic slurs at Jewish students, all in the name of their cause.
“In the last several years, the tactics used by the group have created an atmosphere that ultimately does not help with a dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told FoxNews.com.
At several schools across the country, chapters have been investigated and even sanctioned for an in-your-face approach that defies the collegiate tradition of discussion and debate. Boston's Northeastern University suspended the group in March after years of alleged anti-Semitism that included repeated calls for the destruction of Israel, a 2011 disruption at a Holocaust Awareness Week event and the defacing of a statue of a Jewish donor and trustee of the university.
The next National Women’s Studies Association annual meeting will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 13-16, 2014 and is aptly named “Feminist Transgressions.” Indeed, the conference itself is “transgressive” in that it minimizes the cause of women to focus, yet again, on the cause of Palestine, aka the destruction of Israel.NYT: Biblical Quote Evokes Gaza Rockets
This is only the latest, among many other examples, of the way in which Women’s Studies—an idea which I pioneered so long ago--has been Stalinized and Palestinianized. I wonder whether the forces of evil will try to pass a resolution in favor of boycott, divestment, and sanctions—not against Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, or Russia—but against Israel only.
As it is wont to do, The New York Times egregiously editorializes today in its coverage of President Shimon Peres' remarks at the Vatican yesterday ("At Vatican, Day of Prayer with Focus on Uniting"). Jim Yardley and Jodi Rudoren write:Mixed Message: PA Arrests BDS Activists in Ramallah
Mr. Peres, for his part, did not mention rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, but evoked it with the Biblical quotation, "nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.How do The Times' writers conclude from Peres' citation of the oft quoted Isaiah 2:4 verse, which is also sung as a popular Hebrew song, that he was speaking in code about rocket fire from Gaza? And once Times writers are employing sheer speculation, why stop just at rocket fire? How do they divine that President Peres was not evoking suicide bombings, rock-throwing, stabbings, shootings?
Gilad Zwick, an analyst at MIDA, explains that the Palestinians are well aware of the extent of the damage the BDS can cause them financially if the boycotters’ ambitions are fully realized.Medea Benjamin ignores inquiries on her Caterpillar Investments
There are 14 Israeli industrial and agricultural parks in Judea and Samaria, including 788 factories and businesses, employing some 11,000 Palestinian workers, alongside 6,000 Israeli workers. Furthermore, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, workers in industrial zones in Judea and Samaria are paid twice and three times the average Palestinian salary and also receive full social benefits as prescribed by Israeli law. In addition, Palestinian businessmen prefer the Israeli economy’s stability and comparative freedom over the corrupt PA’s economy. Thus, according to research conducted at Al–Quds University, the Palestinian volume of investments in the Israeli economy is two times higher than in the Palestinian economy. Approximately 16,000 Palestinian businessmen with entry visas into Israel choose to invest their money there. Therefore, the struggle to boycott Israel further gravely undermines the Palestinian economy, which is dependent on its Israeli neighbor. Israelis can transfer their factories elsewhere, but Palestinians will remain with nothing.
Medea Benjamin, BDS doyenne of Code Pink and Global Exchange is in deep denial.Times of Israel Rewrites (Its Own) History on Lenny Kravitz Cancellation
After the BDS -defying investments of her 12 million dollar "Benjamin Foundation" in Caterpillar, General Electric and Intel were daylighted , Medea's been laying low, hoping that people would forget.
Its not just the "Zionist" inquiries regarding her investments she is ignoring.
Her own supporters are questioning her, and are asking for explanations. Yesterday, Burkely Hermann, a self described "occupy activist'" asked her directly.
In 2012, Times of Israel was one of several media outlets to report that it was an extended filming schedule which led to Lenny Kravitz's planned concert that October in Tel Aviv, as well as some other nine concerts in European cities. So why does the Israeli media outlet now falsely report that Lenny Kravitz had "bowed to boycott pressure"?The Guardian jumps the shark – compares nuns to suicide bombers
The nuns in the story are willing to sacrifice their own lives rather than defy the principles of their religious faith, while the Islamic shahida (suicide bombers) chose to take their own lives during the course of murdering as many innocent men, women and children as possible – in the name of their religious faith.BBC: Nasser ‘asked’ UN peacekeepers to leave Sinai in 1967
While you may want to read the rest of his meditation on martyrdom – as it includes another gem of moral equivalence – we’d like to know if it’s even possible that such a profoundly obvious moral distinction (between nuns and suicide bombers) can really elude the reasoning of those Guardian readers who share Fraser’s ideological persuasion.
In other words, the terms of UNEF’s deployment in Sinai were conditional upon Egyptian agreement to their presence and so when Nasser “asked” the UN to leave – as the BBC phrases it – he was in fact ordering UNEF to go.Haaretz, Al Jazeera Go Racist
According to the BBC’s account above, it was “the Israelis” who interpreted the removal of UNEF forces from Sinai, the build-up of Egyptian troops there and the closure of the Straits of Tiran and the accompanying threatening rhetoric from assorted Arab leaders as “a cause for war”.
However, the records show that not only the Israeli government perceived the actions of Egypt and its allies as a build-up to an invasion of Israel.
Try to guess which bygone publication, during which bigoted epoch, published the following description of a dark‑skinned man: Ophir was a young, darkish security man, perhaps a descendant of converts from the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps from the Atlas Mountains. But one thing was clear, his black color looked very shabby, tattered and stained with evil.Complaints about Hitler video led to firing, Jewish banker claims
If you guessed Haaretz, 2014, congratulations, you’re right.
On June 5, the small Israeli daily published an opinion piece by Salman Masalha, an Arab citizen of Israel, in which that horrifying example of racism appeared ("Israeli apartheid exposed at the airport").
The rest of the piece was nearly as crass and base, and charged that because of Israel’s evil the country has "no right to exist." (Yes, evil. Masalha turned to that word to describe Israel four times in his short piece.) All this because he was briefly questioned a second time at the Ben Gurion airport (and, of course, because he didn’t like the "darkish" look of one of the security officials).
A former executive at BNP Paribas North America Inc. filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he was fired by the bank after complaining about a training video that featured Nazi imagery.Four arrested over graffiti at Bulgarian synagogue
Jean-Marc Orlando said in the suit filed Friday in Manhattan US District Court that he was terminated as managing director in the bank’s fixed-income division in New York after complaining about the video portraying the head of a competing bank as Hitler, Reuters reported. Orlando, who was fired in 2012, had worked for the bank for 18 years, including in France.
Orlando, who is Orthodox Jewish, in the suit said the video was his “worst nightmare,” Reuters reported. He and other managers watched the video at a training meeting in Amsterdam in 2011.
According to the lawsuit, the video created by BNP employees parodied the 2004 film “Downfall,” which depicted the final days of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
The World Jewish Congress reported the arrest of the four, aged 19 and 20, over the weekend, citing the Bulgarian Jewish umbrella body Shalom, the Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria.French Former Far-Right Head Slammed for Anti-Semitic Pun
“Death to Jews” and a swastika were painted on the notice board of the synagogue in Sofia on June 4, the first day of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the Sofia Globe reported.
Security cameras outside of the synagogue recorded the vandalism. The footage was turned over to police, according to the newspaper.
In the video, Le Pen railed against a number of critics including pop star Madonna and Yannick Noah, the French singer and former tennis champion.The Nazi Doctor Who Got Away With Mass Murder, Fled to Cairo, and Became a Muslim
When asked about another one - French singer Patrick Bruel, who is Jewish - Le Pen said he would be part of "a batch we will get next time," using the word "fournee" for "batch", evoking the word "four" ("oven").
SOS Racisme said it would file a complaint "in the coming days" against Le Pen, whose daughter Marine took over as FN leader in 2011.
Aribert Heim, who like Mengele was both a doctor and a genocidal killer. Tall, athletic, and good-looking, Heim served in the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen in 1942 and 1943, where inmates called him “Dr. Death.” After the war, he played for a time on a German hockey team in Bad Nauheim, then became a successful gynecologist in Baden-Baden, and finally escaped to Egypt, where, after living in solitude for years and then converting to Islam, he died in 1992. Most of the Third Reich’s evildoers lived undisturbed, comfortable lives in postwar Germany. Heim too might have escaped the net of justice had he not drawn attention to himself by fleeing from the Bundesrepublik, whose citizens were all too eager to gloss over his crimes.Body of missing Polish Holocaust scholar found
When Kulish and Mekhennet traveled to Cairo to investigate Heim’s life and death there, they found a briefcase stuffed with his memorabilia, including travel brochures, old photographs, and sketches Heim had made of his medical condition. In the briefcase they discovered a long article in which Heim, excited like many anti-Semites by Arthur Koestler’s book The Thirteenth Tribe, argued that the Jews were really descendants of the Khazars and therefore, somehow, did not exist—and that therefore anti-Semitism didn’t exist either. If the Jewish people were a “colossal hoax,” as Heim insisted, then their claims against Germany must also be a fraud, and “anti-Semitism will have no meaning,” since the Jews are not Semites.
The body of Robert Kuwalek, one of Poland’s foremost Holocaust scholars, was found days after he had been reported missing in Ukraine.Top UK Editor Says Britain Should Grant Asylum to European Jews Fleeing Anti-Semitism
Kuwalek, 47, had been reported missing Thursday while on a visit to Lviv. His body was found over the weekend.
The Polish consulate in Lviv confirmed his death, but no details about the cause of death were released.
Kuwalek, who was not Jewish, was an expert on the Holocaust in southeastern Poland and what is now western Ukraine. Based in Lublin, Kuwalek was a curator and educator at the State Museum at the former Majdanek concentration and death camp and also had served as director of the museum at the former Belzec death camp.
His assertion was made on Friday in a column for London’s Daily Mail newspaper.Find Out Which Hollywood Celebs Are Betting Their Money On The Startup Nation
“Britain may have been shamefully slow in the Thirties to grant asylum to Jews fleeing Hitler, but we should warmly welcome here those who are now seeking a new home,” wrote Simon Heffer, who edits the Mail‘s RightMinds section.
“The shocking murder of three people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum last week by a French Islamic extremist reflects an increase in anti-Semitism in Europe, and, above all, in France, where there is a large Muslim population,” he added.
If you thought startup investments are just for tech geeks, think again. Celebrities the world over are looking to get in on the Startup Nation action. From Jay-Z to Ellen Degeneres and Leonardo Dicaprio, here are 10 celebs who know that Israel is the hottest place for innovation.‘Pharmacological Trojan Horse’ for chemo resistant cancer cells
Scientists at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” to combat chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells.How an Israeli PhD student won $100K in Singapore
The researchers first discovered that multidrug resistant cancer cells frequently produce a large number of lysosomes. Taking advantage of this unique feature of the production of multiple lysosomes and the dramatic irreversible accumulation of certain lipid-soluble drugs bearing light-sensitive properties in these lysosomes, they developed the Pharmacological Trojan Horse that resulted in the destruction of drug resistant cancer cells.
A scheme for using genetically engineered bacteria to detect pollutants and hazardous materials in municipal water systems won Israeli PhD student Yossi Kabessa $100,000 in the Singapore Challenge 2014, part of the Global Young Scientists Summit in Singapore (GYSS) last January.Israel to make first sale of Merkava tank to foreign army
ISRAEL21c met with Kabessa to find out more about the biosensor he’s developing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Peter Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science.
Learning about his work is challenging, because the 33-year-old father of four specializes in nanotechnology that you can’t see with the naked eye.
In a deal estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, Israel plans to sell its Merkava Mark IV tank to a foreign army for the first time since the first Merkava was manufactured in the late 1970s. It appears that the budget crisis in the defense establishment was a motivating factor behind the decision to export the tank.From Siberia to Jerusalem: Israel's first Gypsy police officer
For many years, the security establishment opposed selling the Merkava to foreign countries so as not to expose the secrets of its advanced armor and other unique systems. The Armored Corps Rakia program is currently developing a new tank, but it is unclear what the project's fate will be in light of the army's ongoing financial problems.
At only 19, Tania Leontieff of Safed has an interesting life story. As the daughter of an itinerant Gypsy (Roma) family, most of her life was spent moving from place to place around eastern Europe. Four years ago, Leontieff discovered that she had Jewish roots and made the bold decision to move to Israel alone. She was recently drafted into the Israel Police and become Israel's first Gypsy policewoman.
"I was born a Gypsy and I spent my childhood and teenaged years among Gypsies who roamed around eastern Europe and Siberia," she tells Israel Hayom.
"My dad and his family came from a traditional Gypsy tribe that kept all the strict rules. He met my mother on one journey -- she's a Gypsy too, but of Jewish descent. They fell in love but my dad's family objected because they were against mixed marriages."
