Monday, September 21, 2015
Khaled Abu Toameh: UN Gives Palestinians Flags, But No Democracy
Last week, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a motion allowing the Palestinian flag to be flown in front of the UN buildings.United Nations Run by Dictators, Says Israel’s Outgoing Ambassador Prosor
The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership and various "pro-Palestinian" groups have hailed the vote as a "symbolic victory" for the Palestinians. The Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said that the vote regarding the flag would be "another step" towards solidifying Palestinian statehood.
The 119 UN member states that voted in favor of the motion are apparently convinced that this is a "big victory" for the Palestinians and their political aspirations. But what these countries do not know is that flying a Palestinian flag outside UN buildings is probably the last thing Palestinians need at this stage.
The vote in favor of hoisting the flag is not going to bring democracy, freedom of expression and transparency to Palestinians. The Palestinians do not need "symbolic victories" such as the one concerning the Palestinian flag.
A Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza Strip does not really care if his flag is flown in front of a UN building. For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, there are more urgent matters that need to be dealt with immediately, such as the harsh economic conditions and the repressive measures of the Hamas regime. For those living in the West Bank, economic development, employment and democracy are more important than any flag raised in front of the UN headquarters.
Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the United Nations derided the international body in an interview on Sunday saying the organization was run by dictators.Ambassador Prosor's final speech at the General Assembly
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2, Ambassador Ron Prosor, who has just completed four years of service at the UN, described the UN as a “hypocritical organization that is controlled by the hands of dictators, tyrants and non-democratic nations.”
Prosor also called the UN’s effectiveness into question, painting it as toothless. “Is the UN taking a leadership role in the Iranian matter?” he asked rhetorically. “Is the UN really providing a solution to what is happening in Syria? There is a genocide going on there. The UN, really, when it comes to the central conflicts in the world today, is not at the forefront of the solutions to these conflicts, and this springs forth from its composition.”
“I look forward to the day the flags of our two peoples will be raised side by side, and Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace.
However, instead of trying to guide the Palestinians down the path to peace, you are helping them to ride right off the tracks.
You must tell the Palestinians: Enough with empty symbols, enough with political showmanship, enough with hijacking the UN agenda. Stop stalling, and start negotiating.”
Ambassador Prosor: “In my time here, I have seen the Palestinians use and abuse the UN, time and again. The sad part is: that you allow them to get away with it. You must make it clear to the Palestinians that the only way to achieve statehood is through direct negotiations. As long as the Palestinians believe they can achieve their political goals without making concessions, they will continue to avoid taking the difficult decisions needed for peace.
The real question we face today is not whether the Palestinians will raise a flag, but whether the UN will raise a white flag, and surrender the principles of this institution.”
Human rights activist: The Palestinian Authority has been given enough money to equal 15 Marshall Plans -- with nothing to show for it
Over the last 20 years, various countries, including Canada, have invested over US$30B in the emerging Palestinian state, with little to show for it. Calev Myers of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice explains why.
"The international community made a terrible mistake in 1994," Myers says.
"In order to push for two states for two peoples, they recognized Yassir Arafat as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people and helped him create the Palestinian Authority."
Before Arafat came to power, much of the money for Palestinian health care and education came from private NGOs.
But starting in 1994, he asked international governments to give him the money directly to build infrastructure.
Instead he shut down clinics and left building projects abandoned.
The money disappeared. Where did it go?
Besides ending up in Palestinian leaders' bank accounts, Meyers says it is also given to Palestinians "sitting in Israeli prisons for carrying out violent crimes against Israelis."
These terrorists are even paid on a sliding scale depending on how brutal the crime was.
So what is the solution? Myers offers some suggestions for change.
UN Watch: UNRWA to legitimize Hamas front group today at UNHRC panel
UN Watch urged UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinians, not to legitimize a Hamas front group known as the “Palestinian Return Center” (PRC) and to stop its Brussels-based representative Elena Mancusi-Materi from addressing a panel event organized today at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.You do not confront antisemitism by waving a white flag
“By legitimizing a known Hamas front group, this incident only underscores the serious questions raised recently about UNRWA’s neutrality in light of its failure to discipline at least a dozen UNRWA officials who, as documented in our report, are spreading racial hatred and inciting to terrorism on the Internet,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the non-governmental Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.
“UNRWA received more than $600 million from the U.S., the UK, and the EU in 2014 alone,” said Neuer. “Where is the accountability?”
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh recently congratulated the PRC for managing to win UN status as a NGO, despite all the leading democracies on ECOSOC voting against them, including the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Australia, Italy and Austria.
Whenever I am trying to assess the correct response to a situation, I always try to switch the identity of victims to see how a particular offence would be viewed if a different demographic was being attacked. I cannot imagine any other demographic describing an atmosphere of intimidation and still being visibly placed in situations where there are abused by people who openly dislike that particular group. I cannot also imagine any group claiming to represent these people negotiating with the abusers so they merely ‘tone down’ the abuse or give a little room for another side to be heard. Justice is not half way between the cops and the robbers.Ryan Bellerose: Indigenous Status Matters: Here’s Why
Nobody is calling for a denial of academic freedom. It is up to the university to decide what event to hold and the authorities to decide whether the event crosses red lines. Where a community feels it crosses lines of legality, opposition is a perfectly legitimate response. Negotiating away this basic right to opposition is a sign of weakness and gives a green light to all those who wish to spread hatred. It is waving a white flag over the non-negotiable right of Israel to exist. You do not hold hands with those that push the view that Zionism is the evil behind the world. You do not give these views room to breathe and you most certainly do not negotiate with them. You let them stand and spew their hatred and you visibly oppose the hatred whilst rejecting the organisation that allows them to breathe.
I do not care if the University of Exeter decide that the view Hamas needs support deserves a conference (although one feels the authorities might). This is not my call to make. It is up to them where they wish to place themselves and how irresponsibly they wish to act. It is then up to everyone else to judge them accordingly. Just as we would judge them if they tried to hold a conference suggesting Da’esh were merely a resistance group (although again the authorities might have something to say on that). We do not get to decide who our enemies are or what strategies they choose to fight us with. We only get to control our own response. At no point in this never-ending war should we ever raise the white flag. After all, if the Jews of yesterday had given up the way the Jewish Leadership Council have just done, there would be no Israel today.
The Jewish students have been sold out, Israel has been sold out, Jewish Academics have been sold out, Israeli activists have been sold out and many in the community have been sold out, probably so one Jewish group can score a few publicity points. Who knows and who cares, it doesn’t make this action any less wrong. I am no extremist, and this agreement shows clearly these groups do not have enough of a fundamental grasp of the situation to be able to make decisions, and they most certainly do not have the authority to speak in my name. They have just made everything a whole lot worse. I know that historians will one day look back in astonishment at the treatment Israel is currently being given within academic institutions in the West, just as historically we always retroactively analyse anti-Semitism in any time period; and now in addition, historians will once again analyse how the Jewish leadership simply put its head in the sand as the world around them began to burn. Anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism, there is no negotiation and no white flag. It was, is, and always will be unacceptable, however it wishes to dress itself up.
I have been asked several times why indigenous status matters. The question is highly complex but at the same time, it’s really simple. Look at the Middle East and you will see the difference between indigenous people and those descended from colonisers simply by one overlooked, yet obvious distinction. The willingness to openly fight for their ancestral lands against all odds.For Syrian refugees in Italy, Israel remains enemy #1
Coloniser people follow the cultural imperative to acquire, they do not have strong ties to the land, why would they? They can always take more from someone else.
Indigenous people will fight. Now I know there are all sorts of excuses for why a people will not fight: “they don’t have enough weapons”; “ the other side is too powerful”; “nobody will help”; “ they might get wiped out”. But between you, me and the internet, none of those reasons matter to actual indigenous people. Actual indigenous people understand that without the land, we have nothing and our lives become worthless and meaningless. So we do not simply run away when confronted with someone trying to take our lands, we stand and we fight. Because any other decision would be unthinkable. Even when we lose a battle, we still fight on.
A coloniser feels no such tie, to a coloniser land is simply a possession, to be owned, and if something can be owned, it can be given up. Think about it this way: if you have taken something from someone else its only value is the value you as the taker, ascribe it. That value will never be higher than the value of your life because, after all, you can always get more possessions, you only have one life.
“First of all I respect all religions, including Judaism… In Syria we have all races and religions living together, we are all brothers… but Israel, Israel is the ultimate enemy, that’s what we’ve been told since we were kids,” said baby Mahmud’s cousin Adman, 21, who studied tourism in Syria. “But I want to stress something: Jews are not my enemy. Zionists are my enemy.”Anti-Israel activism hits elementary school in Ithaca, NY
Adman was surprised that he was being interviewed by a Jewish reporter, and, more so, for an Israeli newspaper.
He jumped.
“Wow, I’m almost shaking. I’ve never met a Jew before,” he said and paused. “Why would an Israeli paper be interested in stories about Syrian refugees,” he asked.
He was amazed after I told him about the current debates in Israel concerning the absorption of refugees from Syria, and how the Israeli military was treating wounded Syrians in makeshift field hospitals near the border.
Despite his surprise and interest, he still warned me not tell the other refugees that I was Jewish. “Some of them could react badly,” he said.
An uproar is brewing in Ithaca, New York, after anti-Israel activists bragged on Facebook how they managed to bring Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi to a third-grade class as part of a presentation on the suffering of Palestinian children at the hands of Israel.EU official: Labeling of settlement goods to begin in October
According to the activists, the event took place on Friday morning, September 18, 2015 at the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School.
Tamimi is best known for his use of children, including his own, for media purposes. The game goes like this: Tamimi’s children and other children from the village of Nabi Saleh are encouraged to confront Israeli soldiers in the hope of provoking a reaction. The children are surrounded by a phalanx of photographers and videographers waiting for the viral moment when the Israeli soldier reacts, which then is fed to the media through the Tamimi media operation and international activists who often participate.
Tamimi’s daughter Ahed (the blond girl in this 2012 video) is world famous for such staged confrontations, having been given a heroism award by the anti-Israel Prime Minister of Turkey for this performance: (h/t Cliff)
A senior European Union official told Army Radio on Monday that labeling of products manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank will begin effective October 1.Yair Lapid: The Hypocrisy of Boycott
According to the official, the EU was set to finalize by mid-October remaining legal and technical issues regarding the settlement labeling, such as how exactly to mark the products and how to execute the process.
The settlement labeling proposal has been slowly moving through the cumbersome EU bureaucracy for years, but received a push earlier this year when the foreign ministers of 16 countries – including France, Britain and Italy, but not Germany – sent a letter to EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini urging her to promote the measure.
The official added that Brussels will consider further punitive measures if the Israeli government announces plans for more construction beyond the Green Line in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
"If this is the case, we will continue with moves against settlement expansion, and the marking of products will just be the beginning," he told the radio station.
While the European official noted that the EU lauded factories that have left the West Bank, he acknowledged that the departures of such enterprises results in the loss of jobs for Palestinian workers.
As you know by now, the Reykjavik City Council decided this week to boycott products from Israel. All products. From all of Israel.Iceland's Anti-Semitism is Not New, It Just Resurfaced
I have a few questions:
Does the boycott include products made by Israel’s Arab minority which is 20% of the population?
Does the boycott include the 14 Arab Israeli parliamentarians who sit beside me in Israel’s parliament?
Does the boycott include Israeli factories which employ tens of thousands of Palestinians for whom this is the only opportunity to provide for their children?
Does the boycott include Israeli hospitals at which tens of thousands of Palestinians are treated every year?
Does the boycott include produce made by the 71% of Israeli’s who, according to the latest survey, support a two state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel?Wait, don’t go yet, I’ve got a few more:
Among the products being boycotted is Copaxone, for MS sufferers, included?
Does the boycott include “Tulip” wine which is made by people with special needs and those who suffer from autism?
And what about the books of Israeli Nobel Prize Laureate in literature, Shai Agnon?
Does the boycott include Microsoft Office, cellphone cameras, Google – all of which contain elements invented or produced in Israel?
Recent developments in Iceland fit well in the long history of that country’s anti-Semitism. Last week, the left wing majority on the Reykjavik municipal council decided on a boycott of all Israeli products. In view of the protests, the city’s mayor now wants to replace it with a boycott of "settlement" goods.Reykjavik City Council to Boycott Israeli Goods: Religious-Zionist Bjork Fans, Icelandic Matkot Enthusiasts Hardest Hit (satire)
There is more of the same. Every year, during the period of Lent before Easter, Icelanders get a daily dose of hymns full of hatred and derision for the Jews, broadcast on Iceland’s public radio station. These hymns were written in the seventeenth century by an Icelandic Christian priest, poet and inciter Hallgrimur Pétturson, many years before the first Jew arrived in Iceland. This ongoing tradition demonstrates how little Iceland has learned from the Holocaust.
In 2012, after I had drawn the attention of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to this hateful practice, Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, heads of the Center, wrote to Mr. Pall Magnusson, the General Director of Iceland’s Radio and TV. They mentioned that there were over fifty remarks about Jews in the poems, all negative. They also noted that it is considered a great honor in Iceland to be invited to read a hymn on the program. The many distinguished citizens who had accepted this distinction included a President of Iceland.
The Reykjavik City Council’s boycott of Israeli goods is shaking key demographics in both nations, with fans of superstar Bjork who live in Judea and Samaria, along with Icelandic citizens who play the Israeli beach game of matkot feeling the brunt of the unfortunate turn of events. The Daily Freier dispatched its International Affairs reporter to Iceland to cover this critical event, but he was eaten by a fire-breathing sea monster when he sailed over the edge of the earth (Hahahah! Just kidding! No disrespect to our Icelandic readership! Some of our best friends are Icelandic!….Get it? Get it?)Zionist Shoe Theft Victim Says He's Leaving Britain, ‘Muslims Not Giving Me Money To Fight Islamophobia’
The Daily Freier sat down with Sigur S., chairman of the Reykjavik chapter of the Pan-Icelandic Matkot League to discuss this troubling breach in relations in this critical international partnership. “Just a balagan. A complete and total balagan.” noted a despondent Sigur as he munched on a mixture of bamba and sunflower seeds. “This is going to kill our big plans for a matkot tournament at the local lava-fed hot springs. Well, that and after last year’s ill-tempered walrus incident, nobody wants to sign up.”
Judea and Samaria’s vast fan-base of noted Icelandic musician Bjork is equally despondent. Shmuel K., President of the Jordan Valley chapter of the Bjork Fanclub, shared his personal pain. “I believe that HaShem gave this land to us, and I will defend Eretz Yisrael with my life…..But I also believe that “Human Behavior” is just about the most amazing song ever. My wife BatSheva is a big fan also. Sometimes, when we’re bored, we’ll just text Sugarcubes lyrics on Whatsapp to each other. But now what? What else can I listen to? I mean, ever since she dressed up as a giant duck, my previous obsession with the Cure just seems so….so….silly and immature.”
Asghar Bukhari, proud Islamist and founding member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK), has said he is leaving the UK for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because British Muslim aren’t giving him enough money, and “won’t fight for themselves” against “Islamophobia.”London Police Investigate 'Kill the Jews' Anti-Israel Protester
In a Facebook post entitled, “I AM LEAVING THE UK & HANGING UP THE GLOVES” the MPACUK spokesman writes: “I am leaving the UK for a few years. I thought about it long and hard. Some Muslims are waking up, but most are still unwilling to help those defending them – in any real tangible way.”
In the post, Bukhari argues that Islamophobia is a well-funded industry, and British Muslims are unwilling to finance institutions such as his to fight against it.
Bukhari, who regularly bemoans fellow Muslims form not being “political enough” on social media, became the British media’s pet Islamists for a number of years with regular appearances on TV and radio – particularly on BBC.
However, he began to lose favor with the media after he was exposed to be donating money to the notorious Holocaust denying historian David Irving, was perceived by some as justifying the motives behind the killing of Lee Rigby, and allegedly set up an anonymous Twitter account to throw homophobic abuse at journalist Douglas Murray.
His recent posts on Twitter have included memes mocking people who commemorated 9/11, and others expressing his support for Jeremy Corbyn.
Police in London have opened a criminal investigation into an anti-Israel protester who called to kill all Jews in Israel and then went on to deny the holocaust.UK Parliament Won't Debate Netanyahu Arrest Petition
The incident was one of several ugly displays of anti-Semitism on show during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit to London earlier this month, which also featured open support for Islamist terrorist groups.
One female protester - later identified as a member of the extremist Palestine Solidarity Campaign named Pamela Hardyment - approached pro-Israel counter-demonstrators and subjected them to a torrent of abuse. At one point she told pro-Israel activists that Jews should be ethnically-cleansed from Israel; when she was told "You’ll have to kill them all," she smirked and responded "Well, so be it."
The criminal investigate came in response to a hate-crime complaint filed on Thursday by the Manchester-based Jewish Human Rights Watch group.
A British parliamentary committee has officially rejected a petition calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.Omar Barghouti met with protests at UC Berkeley
The House of Commons’ Petitions Committee announced Wednesday that despite the petition receiving more than the 100,000 signatures necessary to qualify the motion for a debate in parliament, in this case it would not be possible to do so since it calls for taking action that would run contrary to both British and international law.
The petition - which currently has gained 112,000 signatures - was created by anti-Israel groups, who also mounted an aggressive protest outside Downing Street which featured alarmingly open demonstrations of anti-Semitism against pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.
Netanyahu has already returned to Israel from his UK trip.
On Friday, October 18, Omar Barghouti spoke to an audience at UC Berkeley's Dwinelle Hall in an attempt to justify academic boycotts as part of a continued effort to isolate Israel.SodaStream to Absorb 1,000 Syrian Refugees in Bedouin City Plant
Via Emunah:
UC Berkeley Students meet Omar Barghouti's message of BDS intolerance with their own of academic freedom and free exchanges of ideas between all people.
"Silencing ideas is stiffing progress"
"Standing Against discrimination Means Academic Freedom for All"
"Banning the ideas of one nation is Discrimination"
"UC Berkeley Academic Departments Support Limiting Academia"
SodaStream continues to fight to improve its public image in Arab communities around the world and so last Friday it unveiled a joint plan, together with Talal Al-Krenawi, mayor of the Bedouin city of Rahat in the south of Israel, to offer immediate asylum to refugees from Syria, pending Israeli authorities’ approval. SodaStream and Rahat say they can effectively absorb 1,000 individuals, or up to 200 families, and provide them with an opportunity to build a new life in Israel.Israel to Bring 20,000 Chinese Workers to Lower House Prices
With 55,000 residents, Rahat is the largest Bedouin city in the world. Currently, 30 percent of the 1,100 workers in SodaStream’s nearby factory are residents of Rahat. “We enjoy a progressive, urban lifestyle in Rahat; however, we haven’t abandoned our culture and our tribal traditions,” said Mayor Al-Krenawi. “Human dignity and hospitality are core values in our culture and we will not allow indifference to the suffering of others. In this first stage, we will be able to receive 1,000 refugees, and then through ongoing collaboration with SodaStream, we plan to help more. Our hope is that the government will then support our joint effort.”
Israel plans to bring in 20,000 Chinese construction workers to help build new apartments as part of efforts to lower housing costs, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday.Singer Pharrell Williams to Face Down BDS in Cape Town
Netanyahu announced the plan at the start of a cabinet meeting, his office said. The finance ministry later said the cabinet had approved it.
Israeli attorney general Yehuda Weinstein has opposed the move because the two countries lack a formal agreement related to such cooperation.
The lack of an agreement can lead to immigrant workers paying middlemen hundreds or even thousands of dollars to obtain permits.
Chinese workers are currently brought into Israel under private contracts between Israeli and Chinese companies. The two countries have engaged in negotiations on working conditions, but have not yet reached an accord.
Grammy award-winning American musician Pharrell Williams will face down a protest by thousands of anti-Israel activists at a concert in Cape Town on Monday, organizers of the demonstration said.An Israeli leftist to J Street: Stop!
Members of the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to harm Israel economically are campaigning against the singer's partnership with major South African retail group Woolworths, over its imports from Israel.
The South African branch of the BDS movement vowed to hold "the largest protest any artist would have faced since the end of apartheid" at Pharrell's concert at Cape Town's Grand West Casino.
On Friday a local court shot down an attempt by Cape Town authorities to limit the number of demonstrators to 150, with the protest organizers saying they expect 40,000 people to turn out.
Earlier this year, Pharrell became Woolworths' new style director "in a ground-breaking collaboration across a series of sustainability-focused projects," the upmarket retailer said.
As an Israeli who has aligned myself for years with Zionist-left parties like Meretz and supported every peace process, I am extremely upset with groups like J Street for perpetrating a faux-progressive approach to the Middle East that mimics the paternalism of 20th century imperialists. They feel that they are entitled to tell us, Israelis, what to do. When we think differently, they will arrogantly dismiss us as people who do not know what is best for our own welfare. Why is it that we, the people who have suffered through wars, served in the military, supported peace agreements, and protested on the streets to effect change – why on earth would we be seen as less capable than those living across the world in the relative safety and comfort of America?AFP Corrects Caption: Bombed Gaza Site Was Hamas Base
This patronizing approach of some self-proclaimed “progressive” Jewish groups is truly astonishing. They claim that they are “pro-Israel,” yet they consistently echo the opinions of pro-BDS pundits, and regurgitate talking points based on anything but progressive values. Is that pro-Israel or progressive? Just read the statements on their website and social media platforms.
The most recent and prominent example of this twisted reality has surfaced in the debate surrounding the Iran Nuclear Deal. The vast majority of Israelis, from left to right, agree that this is a non-partisan issue: the world should not be giving $150 billion (10 times the size of Israel’s defense budget) to the world’s worst violator of human rights, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism – a regime which leads chants at government rallies of “Death to America! Death to England! Death to Israel!”.
As Snapshots reported yesterday, captions by both Associated Press and Reuters identified the very same site as a Hamas facility. AP referred to "a Hamas training camp in Jabaliya," and Reuters referred to "a training camp belonging to the Islamist group Hamas."Independent uncritically cites “report” by Iranian PressTV
Editors at AFP commendably heeded CAMERA's call for a correction, and today sent out the following correction over the wire:
In addition to adding the key information that the site in question belonged to Hamas, the correction also notes that the Hamas base is located in Jabalia. (The original caption misidentified the location as Beit Hanun.)
The original erroneous captions have been removed from the archive and the AFP has replaced them with the corrected captions.
Unsurprisingly, the PressTV report about the “40 Palestinian women” barred from entering the mosque that the Indy cited failed to provide even as much information about the incident, which reportedly occurred earlier in the month, as the Palestinian-based Ma’an News Agency. A Ma’an story on Sept. 3rd reported that the women in question were prevented from visiting the mosque due to their history of causing disturbances at the site, and quoted a police spokesperson noting that restrictions were imposed to decrease ongoing tensions in the area.New York Times Employs Veteran Of Anti-Semitic Hate Site
It’s a sad commentary on the state of British journalism when reporters see absolutely nothing wrong with relying on the propaganda outlet of a repressive regime to provide readers with context and background on issues as important as the ongoing violence in Jerusalem.
Despite a couple of articles about The Palestinian Authority’s failure to pay its electric bill and the Palestinian Arab women who harass Jews on the Temple Mount, for the most part, Hadid has simply joined the Hamas propaganda team that is the Times’s Jerusalem Bureau. This should come as no surprise, considering her background at Electronic Intifada and at the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.BBC’s Knell promotes Al Aqsa Mosque inaccuracy already corrected by NYT and Newsweek
Electronic Intifada is a hate site that supports Hamas. The anti-Semitism of its founder, Ali Abunimah, has been well-documented. Abunimah is personally on record supporting Hamas. Another one of EI’s reporters proudly declares on Twitter that “Objectivity is bullshit.” Hadid wrote at least seven articles for EI between 2002 and 2003.
In January of 2003, Hadid wrote a story in EI about her own evasion of Israeli police in Jerusalem. And in April of 2002 she wrote of her own role in a protest at the Qalandia checkpoint.
The spokesman for the Israeli police has made it quite clear that the security forces did not enter the Al Aqsa Mosque (Newsweek has already corrected a similar error, as has the New York Times) and obviously it is Yolande Knell’s job to provide BBC audiences with a factual account of events rather than amplification of baseless – and dangerous – rumour.BBC apologizes for ‘anti-Semitic’ cartoon in music program
As we see, Knell’s report is as unsatisfactory as the written article in that it fails to provide BBC audiences with the full range of background information needed to understand the organized and premeditated nature of the violence on Temple Mount and the underlying issues of official PA incitement and the groups of Islamist agitators paid to harass non-Muslim visitors to the site and provoke tensions with the Israeli authorities.
The British Broadcasting Cooperation has apologized for publishing a caricature of violinist Leopold Auer that many people saw as anti-Semitic and offensive.‘Bloodied’ Israeli Flag in Milan Angers Visitors to Expo
Printed in a program for a recent performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the drawing showed a profile view of Auer with a prominent hooked nose.
A BBC spokesperson told the Jewish Chronicle that there was never any intention to cause offense and that the cartoon would not be used again, the weekly newspaper reported on Friday.
“We use a range of caricatures and illustrations in our concert programs and wanted one of Leopold Auer,” the BBC said. “We’re sorry to anyone who was offended by the image choice — this was never our intention.”
An Israeli visitor to the World Expo 2015, held this year in Milan, was horrified to discover that an Israeli flag displayed in the city, along with those of the other countries participating in the event, had been splattered with red paint to signify blood, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Sunday.Omani Cleric: The Jews and Christians Spread Fornication and AIDS
Yair Geva, a communications consultant in the Italian city on his honeymoon, said he was equally shocked that the “blood-stained” flag had not been removed.
“Nobody is cleaning it up; nobody thinks it’s not right [for it to be flying like that],” Geva told Channel 2. “There are dozens of flags, and only one of them had an entire can of red paint sprayed on it – [looking like] blood [is] covering the star of David, [and] in the heart of Europe.”
Geva said that this was particularly shameful, since “the Iranian flag is flying [nearby] as pure as snow.”
Menachem Gantz, the spokesman for the Israeli pavilion at the Expo, said that this “[blood-spattering on the Israeli flag] has happened before, on more than one occasion,” but that in each case, the flag was immediately replaced.
In a lesson posted on the Internet on August 18, 2015, Omani cleric Sheikh Omani Cleric Salim Bin Khalfan Al-Rashidi said that the Jews and Christians "send their daughters and instruct them to draw any Muslim... with their abominations, in order to spread fornication and AIDS."
US vets’ wheelchairs will roll on Israeli tech
Wheelchair-bound US army veterans will be among the first users of the revolutionary Acrobat Wheel created by Israeli company SoftWheel to increase their mobility significantly.US Navy buys Israeli ‘brain zapper’ to treat vets
As described in ISRAEL21c’s previous coverage, SoftWheel literally reinvented the wheel by incorporating a patented selective suspension mechanism that kicks in when impacted above a certain threshold.
Riders can go over a rocky or uneven terrain, get down a curb or down stairs, while the shock is absorbed by the wheel rather than by the chair or the user’s body.
SoftWheel CEO Daniel Barel tells ISRAEL21c that the company is “very veteran-oriented in Israel and abroad,” and therefore contacted the US Veterans Administration (VA) to initiate a working relationship. Human Engineering Research Laboratories, run by the VA and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has tested and approved the Acrobat wheel.
The US Navy will be using an Israeli-developed transcranial magnetic stimulation system to treat patients with a range of psychological conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stress, major depressive disorder, and others.Jon Bon Jovi ‘excited’ by upcoming Tel Aviv concert
The Navy has ordered several Deep TMS therapy helmets made by Jerusalem-based Brainsway for use in several of its medical facilities to help treat sailors and their families, as part of a therapy plan that could include counseling, anti-depressives, and other therapies.
“Our validation as a supplier to the US Navy is an important stepping stone for our company into the US market,” said Brainsway CEO and president Guy Ezekiel. “The Navy provides health services to many service people and to their families at a large number of treatment centers, and we are proud to be a part of those services.”
Brainsway’s device is based on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive technique used to apply brief magnetic pulses to the brain. The pulses are administered by passing high currents through an electromagnetic coil (the H Coil) placed adjacent to a patient’s scalp. The pulses cause small electrical currents that stimulate nerve cells in the targeted brain region, with the intention of alleviating depression by modulating cortical excitability.
Jon Bon Jovi is excited to finally add Israel to his touring list – and the 40,000 fans to have already purchased tickets for his upcoming October 3 concert are equally thrilled to welcome him and his namesake American rock band.Exhibition at United Nations showcases Israel's education of hospitalized children
In a four-page magazine spread in the Hebrew weekend edition of Yediot Aharonot, the veteran singer said he “always heard what a wonderful place Israel is – the birthplace of all religions. I have been everywhere and Israel was a place that I’ve always wanted to visit, but it never worked out. This time I insisted that Israel must be on our list and it happened!”
In the article, it says the singer asked Raz Shechnik, the reporter, whether Tel Aviv really is all it’s made out to be. “I heard that it’s an amazing city, vibrant and dynamic, and full of great restaurants. There’s talk that it’s one of the best culinary cities in the world. I’m going to have to check that out,” he says.
Asked about former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters and his controversial boycott campaign to get other singers to nix concerts in Israel, Bon Jovi says: “Yes, I heard about that but it doesn’t interest me. I told my managers to give one simple answer: That I’m coming to Israel and I’m excited to come.”
‘Education Without Borders,’ a photo exhibition opening at 12:30 p.m. CEST on Monday, 21 September 2015 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, shows how Israel is alone among Mideast nations in providing continuing education for all hospitalized Israeli children, including Arabs and other minorities, and Syrian refugees.53 Gifts Israel Gave the World in 2015
Israel’s Ministry of Education mandates that all children hospitalized for more than three days receive continuing education during their stays.
The SASA Setton Kav Or Initiative, a nonprofit working in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Education and World ORT Kadima Mada, provides formal educational programs in 35 hospitals and medical centers across Israel and develops online platforms and curricula to enable children to continue schooling during lengthy hospital stays.
The exhibition showcases the program as another key difference between Israel and her neighbors in protecting human rights, especially those of children.
In Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian,” which depicts the events of the life of a man named Brian who is mistakenly thought to be the Messiah in ancient Judea, an argument breaks out among a revolutionary group, the People’s Front of Judea (or is that the Judean People’s Front?) along the lines of “What have the Romans done for us?” The conclusion is that, aside from roads, aqueducts, sanitation and sundry other benefits that improved the quality of life dramatically, the question remains, “What have the Romans done for us?” The skit could be redone, but instead of ancient Judean radicals, it could be depicted as an argument among members of BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Picture a college campus in which a BDS group says Israel is the pits, it is the worst country on Earth, and aside from life saving drugs and medical procedures, the technology that powers PCs, handheld devices and the internet itself, cutting edge security and even a life-saving mask for a sick rhinoceros, “What has Israel done for us?” So to, educate the BDS crowd on what they are missing, and to give the rest of us something to kvell about, here are 53 amazing gifts Israel gave the world in 2015.'I was willing to die to stop the Syrian advance'
Zvika Greengold, the tank officer who played a decisive and fateful role in fending off the Syrian assault on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, slowly took a seat at the Armored Corps museum in Latrun last Thursday, before recounting his incredible tale.Israel Daily Picture: Yom Kippur at the Western Wall 100 Years Ago
Forty-two years ago, the Syrian army launched an invasion on the Golan Heights, and easily broke through a section of the Israeli defenses.
Despite being desperately outnumbered, Greengold engaged the Syrians, and held them back.
Greengold, 63, is witty, and his humor is as sharp as it is dry. His eyes, however, burn with intensity, decisiveness and clarity. The war that he barely survived had taken Israel to the very edge of being invaded, and left a trauma on the public psyche that can be felt to this day.
Greengold’s role as a tank officer in the 188th Armored Brigade, 74th Battalion, helped save the North from conquest. He is, however, a reluctant war hero. Greengold tells the Post that he sought “every opportunity” to opt out of his professional military service before the Yom Kippur War erupted. All he wanted to do was return to his home in Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot in the pastoral western Galilee, where he dreamed of tending to his fish pools. Fate had other plans.
On Tuesday night, September 22, Jews around the world will commemorate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. For many centuries, Jews in the Land of Israel prayed at the Western Wall, the remnant of King Herod's retaining wall of the Temple complex destroyed in 70 AD.
Several readers noticed and commented on the intermingling of men and women in these historic pictures. It was not by choice.
The Turkish and British rulers of Jerusalem imposed severe restrictions on the Jewish worshipers, prohibiting chairs, forbidding screens to divide the men and women, and even banning the blowing of the shofar at the end of the Yom Kippur service. Note that the talit prayer shawls, normally worn by men throughout Yom Kippur, are not visible in the pictures.
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