Saturday, June 24, 2017
David Collier: Fighting through law, fighting in the streets. Both may fail the Jews
From songs that ridicule the Holocaust to blaming Jews for the Grenfell fire on Al Quds Day. From a battle in law to a wider societal struggle. It would be foolish to understate or ignore the signals we are receiving from the current UK landscape.Conrad Black: Palestinian terror and Israel boycotts aren't a form of 'dissent.' They're just evil and stupid
23rd June 2017. I have just left the Marylebone Magistrates Court, where the Alison Chabloz case has just had another sitting. For background, Chabloz produced and uploaded some truly vile videos, poking fun, belittling and denying the Holocaust. Arguing her actions were against the law, a private prosecution was brought. The CPS eventually picked up the case. She has now become a ‘darling’ of hate groups. Chabloz was recently a guest of such a group in Canada. Chabloz was also the ‘entertainment’ at a gathering at a secret meeting of the “neo-Nazi, white supremacist” London Forum. David Irving was also there.
The case itself is laden with cumbersome legal arguments. An original charge was dropped earlier this year, because Chabloz had uploaded the video to YouTube whilst in Switzerland, rendering the action ‘outside of UK jurisdiction’. Today, as the ‘banter’ went on between defence and prosecution, it became apparent how archaic the law remains when discussing online communications. As with most of English law, precedent is key, and the argument centered around case law examples about posting letters. Using the delivery of a letter through the Royal Mail system to argue a point over a hyperlink. As truly awe-inspiring as our legal system is at times, it can also be frustratingly stupid.
Chabloz arrived with a few supporters. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. Sitting in a court room in central London in 2017, only to be outnumbered by Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis. This as legal minds, clearly challenged by the concepts of virtual exchanges, argue procedural legalities over a song ridiculing a genocide of Jews.
Up to this point, this is a pretty good book, but here William Kaplan grafts onto his narrative a wildly Israelophobic and unrigorously bowdlerized version of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The terrorists and Jew-hating leaders of the ostensible Palestinians are incongruously dusted off as dissenters in the same pristine virtuosity as the enemies of thalidomide and ecological pollution and unjust conviction of the innocent and hair-trigger war-making. It is a set-up; the narrative has built up a solid bank of appreciation of the positive role of those who dissent by nature (apart from the light-hearted apologia for the Occupy Wall Street foolishness). But suddenly the tenor and tempo change, and the horribly complicated problem of Jews and Arabs in Israel is rendered as apartheid, oppression, and the whitewashing of Palestinian terrorism and of their claim to a right to swamp the Jews demographically and reduce them, once again, to a minority, sure to be oppressed yet again, and this time in the country the world gave them as a Jewish homeland. It need hardly be emphasized that it is a complicated issue. The British sold the same real estate to both sides in 1917; the United Nations made Israel a Jewish state, and the Israelis have successfully defended and expanded it after Arab-initiated wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973.Joel B Pollak: The Palestinians Are Missing Another Opportunity
The answer is not to give knee-jerk adherence to a campaign of boycott and disinvestment against Israel in favour of an Arab population that will not leave because it is better treated and more prosperous than in Arab countries, and that shelters suicide bombers, knife-assailants of the innocent, and other terrorists. The Palestinians could have their state next week if they acknowledged Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. The one good result of the escalated Islamist terror attacks against the West and the less fervent Islamists is that they have disabused almost everyone except Kaplan from extending any more moral or tangible support to the blood-stained charlatans of Palestinian terrorism. An economic boycott of Israel is an evil and stupid enterprise, and those otherwise respectable people who promote it, such as the United Church of Canada and Kaplan, should be ashamed of themselves, and eventually will be.
Abbas apparently fails to understand that he can no longer encourage and reward the murder of innocent people as a form of “social aid” or political patronage. Perhaps he is taking advice from the U.S. media, who suggest daily that President Trump may not be around for long. Abbas may hope that by stalling on this issue, he may find a more pliable U.S. administration, as the Obama administration was.UN Watch: Why Democracies Snubbed U.N. Anti-Israel Debate
He is mistaken. The Trump administration is not going to disappear, and it is not going to drop the issue of stopping payments to terrorists. Trump’s own supporters, and the sponsors of the Taylor Force Act, are holding him accountable on that issue.
If the Palestinians persist in their refusal, the entire peace process will fall apart — and it should, to be replaced by steps that allow Israel to act unilaterally, with U.S. backing, to secure its citizens and its interests.
The Palestinian leadership does not seem to understand that risk — or the opportunity Trump has given them. When he took office, they panicked: they did not even know anyone in the incoming administration. They were given a reprieve when the president committed himself to reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the PA. It was, frankly, an opportunity the Palestinians did not deserve.
Trump is earnest about wanting to make “one of the toughest deals of all.” But the Palestinian leadership is wasting that chance for the sake of paying terrorists, proving the truth of Abba Eban’s observation that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
With President Trump in office, it may be the last opportunity the Palestinians ever have to miss.
London’s Muslim Mayor Refuses to Stand Up for Jews
In a heated exchange broadcast on UK’s ITV News, Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff confronted London Mayor Sadiq Khan over allowing flags of terrorist organizations to fly in his city.Calgary's Al Quds Day Fake News
According to reports, Boff “was asking the mayor for clarification over what constitutes a banned terror organization after Hezbollah flags were seen at a march in the capital earlier this month.” Khan approved an annual Al-Quds march where Islamic terrorist flags were flown and anti-Semitic sentiments were shouted.
Khan, remaining smug and defiant, dodged each question Boff threw at him.
Frustrated, Boff asked again, “Will you, Mr. Mayor, look after the interests of the Jewish population of London and write to the home secretary to ask for the clarification of the rules on what is a banned [terror] organization?”
Again, Mayor Khan wouldn’t answer simply “yes” or “no,” only that he would take it into consideration.
This led to an incredibly tense moment between the two men, as the annoyed mayor asked Boff to “calm down.” The chairwoman tried to maintain order, but Khan continued talking over her.
In another video, below, the mayor is asked again by another assemblyman about his plans on allowing terrorist flags to fly.
Sheila Gunn Reid of TheRebel.media reports on the fake news surrounding Calgary's Al Quds Day protest, while Jews are being attacked and threatened with genocide the media acts like it's the Muslims who are in danger.
Iran’s president rushed away from anti-Israel rally amid taunts
A week after being heavily criticized by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani was heckled Friday during an annual pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran, with protesters comparing him to a former state head who was impeached and later exiled.As Austrian Capital Readies for ‘Al-Quds Day’ March, Anti-Fascist Activists Pledge to Confront ‘Antisemitic Agitation’
According to the Guardian, Rouhani was rushed to his vehicle following the incident. The Iranian president had been participating in the Quds rally, which is held every year on the last Friday of Ramadan.
“Rouhani, Banisadr, happy marriage,” protesters chanted, referring to exiled president Abolhassan Banisadr, the Guardian reported. “Death to liar, death to American mullah,” others cried.
Iran held major anti-Israel rallies across the country Friday, with protesters chanting “Death to Israel” and declaring that destroying the Jewish state is “the Muslim world’s top priority.”
Rouhani, in remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency, said Israel supports “terrorists in the region.”
As pro-Iranian and Hezbollah demonstrators prepare for the annual “Al-Quds Day” march in Vienna on Saturday, anti-fascist activists in the Austrian capital are demanding that the government ban the event.Berlin mayor allows Hezbollah to march in 'Zionists out of Israel' rally
In a statement announcing a counter-demonstration at Saturday’s rally, a wide range of individuals and organizations slammed march participants for their consistent “antisemitic agitation” against “Jews and Israel.” In striking contrast to the rest of western Europe, most of the statements’ signatories came from socialist and Green political circles.
Noting that antisemitism was not the sole preserve of the extreme right, and that previous Al-Quds Day marches have been occasions for antisemitic placards and slogans, the statement called “upon all anti-Fascist politicians from the parliament and the municipal council as well as civil society to join our alliance and to position themselves clearly and unambiguously against the Al-Quds march!”
Among the signatories of the statement were Austrian parliamentarians Sigi Maurer and Albert Steinhauser of the Green Party and Petra Bayr of the SPO Socialist Party. The head of the Socialist Party’s section for the LGBT community, Peter Traschkowitsch, also signed. Several Jewish and pro-Israel groups added their names, including the Austria-Israel Friendship Society, the Labor Zionist Hashomer Hatzair and the Austrian branch of the women’s Zionist organization, WIZO. Other left-wing groups that endorsed the statement included the Communist Student Union of the Left.
Berlin Mayor Michael Müller permitted nearly 600 Hezbollah supporters and members – and pro-Iranian regime activists – to march on Friday in the heart of the German capital at the al-Quds Day rally calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.REPORT: TRUMP MAY EXIT PEACE TALKS AFTER 'TENSE' KUSHNER/ABBAS MEETING
Writing in Israel's embassy newsletter, Rogel Rachman, the head of Israel's public diplomacy at the embassy in Berlin, said the Social Democratic mayor's decision was "not to be tolerated and wrong as only wrong can be." He said the "al-Quds march creates a climate of aggression and of hate, in which hundreds of antisemites come together" and "strengthens the antisemites."
"For antisemites, the step from hate to violence is a logical consequence to the pure existence of Jews and Israel, and thus the march should be unacceptable for security reasons alone, without even speaking first about moral reasons," Rachman continued.
Hezbollah is classified by the US, the Netherlands and Canada as a terrorist organization. Germany and the EU proscribed Hezbollah's so-called military wing a terrorist entity. Posters blanketed Berlin's bustling shopping district with slogans "Zionists out of Israel," a crossed out Star of David on an Israeli flag with the words "Free Palestine, Boycott Israel," and "Resistance against Zionism."
US President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to pull out of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations following a "tense" meeting with White House senior staff and officials in Ramallah, according to London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat on Saturday.No Peace Possible While Palestinian Authority ‘Sanctifies’ Terror, Israeli Victim Families Caution Top Trump Aides
The report claimed that Trump is to determine the future of reigniting Mideast peace talks in the near future, including the possibility of withdrawing completely from the process.
In response, a senior administration official called the report "nonsense."
The al-Hayat report came just days after a meeting between the administration's senior adviser Jared Kushner and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which was described as "tense" by an Abbas advisor present at the talks.
Abbas was supposedly furious with the president's son-in-law after Kushner relayed Israeli demands to the 81-year-old Palestinian leader which included the immediate halt of payments to terrorists and their families.
Abbas angrily accused Kushner and Trump's lead international negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, of taking Israel's side and refused to commit to the request.
Relatives of victims of Palestinian terror attacks on Friday warned Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt — the two emissaries of US President Donald Trump charged with reviving direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations — that a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be impossible until it definitively ends both funding for the families of imprisoned terrorists and wider incitement against the Jewish state.Palestinians say US is not demanding end to terrorist stipends as a precondition to talks
“This is madness,” Arnold Roth — whose 15-year-old daughter, Malki, was murdered along with 14 other people when a suicide bomber struck the Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem on August 9, 2001 — told The Algemeiner.
“No progress towards peace will ever come if we tolerate the ongoing sanctification of terrorism by the Palestinian Arabs,” Roth said.
Roth was speaking following reports from Palestinian sources that PA President Mahmoud Abbas was said to have been “fuming” following a meeting with Kushner on Thursday during which American objections to the practice of “martyr payments” to terrorists and their families — to tune of $183 million annually — were raised.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has sent out mixed signals regarding its policy on the payments. But after Thursday’s meeting with Kushner, one PA official complained to Haaretz that Kushner and his team “sounded like (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s advisers and not as honest mediators.”
Palestinian officials have reportedly said that while the US is pressing Ramallah to end payments to terrorists, the demand is not a precondition to restarting peace talks with Israel.Israeli Official Denies Report Deal Was Reached With US to Freeze Settlement Construction Until End of 2017
Even though the Palestinians have bitterly rejected the US demand, it should not stand in the way of moving ahead with the anticipated negotiations, the unnamed officials told Israel Radio on Saturday.
The reports came amid reports of growing tensions between US administration officials and the Palestinian leadership, and unconfirmed Palestinian claims that Trump envoy Jared Kushner warned the Palestinians that the US president might forego a US-led peace effort if he deems the Palestinians not to be serious about seeking progress. Kushner hinted to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the US president might not pursue a peace bid in such circumstances, the London-based pan-Arabic daily al-Hayat reported.
According to Arabic media reports widely quoted in Hebrew media on Friday and Saturday, Wednesday’s meeting between Abbas and senior White House official Kushner reportedly left the Palestinian leader fuming — because the Americans were deemed to have taken Israel’s side on numerous issues — and refusing to agree to a watered-down US demand that Ramallah cut off payments for 600 convicted terrorists serving life-terms and their families.
An Israeli government official denied on Friday a report that an agreement had been reached with the Trump administration to refrain from issuing any tenders for new construction projects in the West Bank until the end of this year.Opposition leader warns of fascist trends in Israeli politics
“There is no restriction,” the Hebrew news site nrg quoted the official as saying. “The fact is 300 housing units were approved in Beit El (a settlement north of Ramallah)…and there will be more.”
Israeli rightists had reacted with anger to an earlier nrg report of the implementation of a settlement-building freeze. The chairmen of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus — Likud MK Yoav Kisch and HaBayit HaYehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich — said in a statement that construction in the West Bank was Israel’s “insurance policy against the danger of a Palestinian state.”
As part of its effort to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the Trump administration has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrain settlement construction. At a joint White House press conference in February, President Donald Trump told Netanyahu, “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit. We’ll work something out.”
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Saturday warned of what he called the “fascisization” of Israeli politics.Egypt’s Sissi ratifies handover of islands to Saudi Arabia
Herzog, speaking at a cultural event, said there were growing fascist tendencies in the current government. “A serious word, but true,” he said.
“Composers, artists, actors and playwrights are threatened, journalists are fired and threatened, media personalities and outlets are warned of closure at the pleasure of the government, and now academics are threatened and can’t say anything,” said Herzog.
“Anyone who is worried about the fate of the country has to support a large moderate political bloc,” said Herzog who is in the middle of a campaign to retain his place as the head of the Labor Party, which forms the main component of the opposition Zionist Union.
His comments come following suggestions from Education Minister Naftali Bennett that the country needed a code of ethics for university lecturers that would limit them from talking about politics.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi ratified a treaty that hands over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia in a deal that has sparked protests and a police crackdown, the cabinet said Saturday.Syrian shells land in Golan Heights, sparking IDF strikes
Sissi ratified the maritime border treaty days after parliament approved the deal, which has been the subject of a confusing legal battle with one court annulling the treaty and another upholding it.
The treaty, first announced in April 2016, had fuelled rare protests and police have arrested dozens of activists over the past week after calls for more demonstrations.
It had also been challenged in courts, but the country’s highest tribunal had suspended the contradictory rulings this week until a final decision determined which court has jurisdiction.
Parliament’s vote on June 14 came after days of heated debate, with opponents even interrupting one committee session with chanting.
Several mortar shells exploded in an open area in the Golan Heights near the border with Syria Saturday afternoon, the army said, leading to retaliatory air strikes.Liberman: Assad regime will continue to suffer consequences of attacks
The Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen TV station claimed two Syrian soldiers were killed in the strikes. Syrian officials confirmed “several” deaths, without giving details.
The army said the mortars appeared to be errant fire from Syrian factions fighting each other across the border. Around 10 impacts were identified in Israeli territory, around the Quneitra area.
There was no damage and no injuries were reported in the mortar attack.
With Israelis flocking to the Golan in the summer for hikes and fruit picking, the military said it had taken the precautionary step of asking civilians to avoid gathering near the border with Syria following the attack.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Saturday that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad would continue to “suffer the consequences” of any attack on Israel emanating from its territory.IDF releases footage of strikes on Syrian military targets
Liberman’s comments came after around 10 mortar shells hit the Israeli Golan Heights in the afternoon, leading to retaliatory Israeli air strikes. The army said the mortar shells appeared to be errant fire from Syrian factions fighting each other across the border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which has been reporting on Syria’s six-year-war, said two Syrian soldiers were killed in the Israeli strikes.
It also reported fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels in Quneitra.
The Israeli military released footage Saturday evening of several air strikes carried out against Syrian military targets after numerous mortar shells hit the Golan Heights from Syria.
The black-and-white video showed strikes against two Syrian tanks as well as a heavy machine gun.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which has been reporting on Syria’s six-year war, said two Syrian soldiers were killed in the Israeli strikes. Syrian officials confirmed several deaths, though they did not provide details.
The air raids came after some 10 mortar shells hit Israeli territory around the Quneitra area on Saturday afternoon. There was no damage and no injuries were reported in the mortar attack.
The Israeli army said the mortars appeared to be errant fire from Syrian factions fighting each other across the border. Still, it held the Syrian regime responsible for attacks coming from within its territory.
Palestinians reportedly reinstall monument to Maalot terrorist
Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin have reportedly reinstalled a monument to a terrorist who masterminded a notorious 1974 massacre of Israeli school children, despite intense pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.UN denies Israeli claims Hezbollah posing as green NGO
Israel Radio reported Saturday that the monument went back up overnight as part of an agreement between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the mayor of Jenin.
Last week the Jenin municipality named a square and put up the stone memorial in honor of “martyr” Khaled Nazzal, who planned the 1974 Maalot massacre in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 22 school children and 4 adults.
The move prompted a Twitter outburst from Netanyahu who accused Abbas of lying that he wants peace and “poisoning” the minds of young Palestinians.
“Palestinian President Abbas tells the world that he educates Palestinian children for peace. That’s a lie,” Netanyahu tweeted.
The United Nations on Friday rejected Israeli claims the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has been erecting observation posts along the border under the cover of an environmental NGO.Hezbollah says future Israel war could draw fighters from Iran, Iraq
Israel’s military intelligence chief on Thursday published photographs and film showing what he said were Hezbollah observation posts near the Israeli-Lebanese border set up purportedly on behalf an organization called “Green Without Borders.”
But the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that while “Green Without Borders” members have planted trees in the area, it “has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the locations or found any basis to report a violation of resolution 1701.”
UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said UNIFIL remains in contact with Lebanese armed forces on monitoring the border to ensure there are no violations “and to avoid any misunderstandings or tensions that could endanger the cessation of hostilities.”
She said “UNIFIL remains vigilant and continues to monitor the Blue Line,” the UN-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that a future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries including Iran, Iraq and Yemen.Suicide bomber targeting Mecca injures 6 pilgrims, police say
His comments indicated that the same array of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - but not countries - currently fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar Assad could take part in any future conflict with Israel.
"The Israeli enemy must know that if an Israeli war is launched against Syria or Lebanon, it is not known that the fighting will remain Lebanese-Israeli, or Syrian-Israeli," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
"This doesn't mean there are states that might intervene directly. But this could open the way for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of fighters from all over the Arab and Islamic world to participate," he said.
Six foreign pilgrims were hurt on Friday in Saudi Arabia when a suicide bomber targeting Islam’s holiest site of Mecca blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.Leading Researcher on Campus Jewish Life Rejects Report of ‘Devastating Loss’ of Support for Israel Among Young Jews
The incident happened around the Grand Mosque, where hundreds of thousands of worshipers gathered for early afternoon prayers on the last Friday of this year’s Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.
Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told Saudi television that police “foiled the terrorist plan that targeted the security of the Grand Mosque, pilgrims and worshipers.”
In dawn raids on Mecca and the Red Sea city of Jeddah officers arrested five suspects, including a woman, before surrounding the bomber’s location around the Grand Mosque.
A leading social scientist and researcher of campus Jewish life told The Algemeiner on Thursday that a new report claiming there has been a “devastating loss” of support for Israel among US Jewish students did not match his findings from nearly 20 years of systematic study of the topic.Radiohead withstands pro-Palestinian jeers at Glastonbury Festival
Leonard Saxe — the director of Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute and the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies — took issue with the results and the presentation of the Brand Israel Group’s (BIG) survey, according to which Jewish students have a plummeting understanding of and connection to Israel.
Saxe, who was lead researcher on a report last year titled, “Hotspots of Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Sentiment on US Campuses,” said that in contrast to BIG, his research showed that Jewish young adults today are “much more” connected with Israel than even their parents’ were at their age.
Saxe also criticized the way BIG has released its findings, noting that the publicly-available information includes nothing about how the sample was chosen, the questions written or the data analyzed.
“Without knowing how the study was conducted, it is not possible to know what to make of the findings,” said Saxe. “Providing such information is required for professional survey researchers.”
Rock legends Radiohead were harassed by pro-Palestinian hecklers during their set at Glastonbury Music festival on Saturday, photos from the Facebook group "Radiohead fans for Palestine" depict.Jewish group slams US stadiums for failing to boycott Roger Waters
The protestors were pressing for Radiohead to cancel their upcoming performance in Tel Aviv, slated for July 19.
"We're at Glastonbury Festival's Pyramid State getting ready to tell Radiohead to respect the boycott and #CancelTelAviv," one photo caption read.
Another image showed protestors holding Palestinian flags and a banner that read, "Good times had by all just swallow your guilt and your conscience" followed by the dates 1948-2017, the length of the existence of the modern State of Israel, and "Israel is an apartheid state. Radiohead, don't play there."
It would seem that the protest was small, as The Guardian's review of the performance mentions their rendition of their hit "Creep," but doesn't mention any public unrest.
Attempting to turn the tables on the Israel-boycotting musician Roger Waters, the Zionist Organization of America on Friday condemned a number of leading American companies that own major stadiums across North America for hosting the former Pink Floyd singer’s current concert tour and urged them instead to dissociate themselves from him.PreOccupiedTerritory: BDS Slams Palestinian Entrepreneurs For Doing Business In Occupied Territory (satire)
In allowing Waters to play at their venues, the hawkish Jewish group said, the corporations that own the various stadiums “are tarnishing their reputations by allowing their names to be associated with a vicious anti-Semite who promotes lies about Israel and the Jewish people.”
In a statement Friday, the American-Jewish organization slammed corporations including AT&T, Wells Fargo, Staples, American Airlines, Verizon and Prudential for giving a platform to Rogers, and urged them to “reject and condemn Waters and his hateful attacks against Jews and the Jewish State of Israel.”
Rogers is currently on tour in the US and Canada and is expected to stop in 46 cities for 61 concerts over the next several months to promote his latest album “Is This the Life We Really Want?”
The group also criticized radio stations across North America for promoting the concerts and giving away free tickets in various promotions.
Demonstrators protested today outside the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for Palestinians to stop running their businesses in areas under Israeli occupation, and to demand the Council condemn Palestinians who make a living there, as conducting business in occupied territory violates international law, they allege.BBC News promotes more of its unvarying narrative on Israeli construction
A group of two dozen demonstrators gathered in a square opposite the Council building to decry what they called a war crime, and to accuse Palestinian entrepreneurs of facilitating continued Israeli occupation by engaging in or operating groceries, banks, law practices, health care, day care centers, transportation enterprises, home decor businesses, tailoring, barbershops, appliance repair, textile production and sales, restaurants, music instruction, babysitting, gardening, construction, maintenance, farming, moving, storage, retail sales, printing, mining, auto repair, and other for-profit pursuits in areas under Israeli occupation.
“Conducting business in occupied areas legitimizes and cements occupation,” charged Raul Panim, a BDS activist in Switzerland. “We are all under the same obligation to refrain from providing even a shred of support for Israeli occupation. For those of us abroad, that means no exports to the territory, no providing services in the territory, no imports from the territory, and no financing projects in the territory. How can these Palestinians in good conscience claim to be fighting Israeli occupation when their everyday routine involves working in occupied territory, engaging in commerce in occupied territory, and otherwise profiting from business conducted in occupied territory?”
The link in that second paragraph leads to the ‘Peace Now’ website and the article includes partisan and inaccurate maps produced by the foreign-funded NGO B’tselem (which engages in lawfare against Israel and is a member of a coalition of NGOs supporting BDS) that have appeared many times previously in BBC content.Texas kayak company loses contract for slurring Jews, Mexicans
The BBC News website’s coverage of the topic of construction in the neighbourhoods and communities it terms ‘settlements‘ has for years followed a standard pattern which contributes nothing new to reader understanding of the issue. Audiences inevitably find the standard BBC insert on ‘international law’ – which makes no attempt to inform them of legal views on the topic that fall outside the corporation’s chosen political narrative – and interested parties in the form of campaigning NGOs are repeatedly given uncritical amplification.
The BBC’s editorial guidelines on ‘controversial subjects’ state:
“When dealing with ‘controversial subjects’, we must ensure a wide range of significant views and perspectives are given due weight and prominence, particularly when the controversy is active. Opinion should be clearly distinguished from fact.”
Visitors to the BBC News website are clearly not being presented with the “wide range of significant views and perspectives” which would broaden their understanding of this issue.
The city of Fort Worth, Texas, ended ties with a kayak rental company that posted Facebook messages ridiculing white women, Jews and Mexico.Boston event commends Nazi-era citizens’ acts of virtue, even as their judges abetted genocide
Fort Worth Kayak Adventures, which rents kayaks at the Fort Worth Nature Center, wrote the offensive Facebook post while trying to explain why it recently had to double its rates, NBC 5 reported.
One Facebook post read: “To all you broke-ass hateful know-it-all white women and Facebook trolls that think they are going to J** us down …” After readers complained, the owners deleted the most offensive parts but added this: “The price is set in stone so stop wasting your time. This is NOT Mexico.”
The owners apologized in a June 16 interview with NBC 5.
The role of judges in facilitating the Nazi regime’s march toward genocide was probed during a presentation hosted by justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week.Amazon Buys Rights to Israeli TV Series, Will Stream It in 200 Global Locations
The gathering was tied to an exhibit currently on display in Boston’s John Adams Courthouse, called “Reflections on Law, Justice and the Holocaust.” Created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the installation is part of the museum’s outreach to legal professionals around the country.
“Indeed, law was part of the Holocaust,” said Martha Minow, dean of Harvard University’s Law School, during the June 12 gathering attended by 50 legal professionals, including the court’s chief justice, Ralph Gants.
Illustrating the power of judges to erode or — conversely — green-light a genocidal regime’s policies, Minow referenced the courts in Nazi-occupied France. To please the Nazis, Vichy legal authorities implemented racial laws with unprecedented speed. As Minow put it, “judges raced to create even more onerous laws” than were practiced in Germany.
An expert on military justice, Minow spoke about serving on the Kosovo post-conflict peace commission 18 years ago. Time and again, said Minow, people in the region told her that “independent courts” were needed if the former Yugoslavia was to heal. In addition to restoring public confidence, courts can punish the perpetrators of atrocities, set up “truth commissions,” and ensure victims receive reparations, said Minow.
Amazon Studios has purchased the global rights for the Israeli comedic TV series “Lehiyot Ita” (Being with Her), which goes by the name “Beauty and the Baker” in English.Gal Gadot’s ‘Wonder Woman’ hitting new record, among top-grossing films of 2017
Amazon purchased the rights for the series from Keshet International for an undisclosed sum. Created by Israeli TV personality Assi Azar, the show details the life of a Yemenite-Israeli family that owns a bakery in the Israeli city of Bat Yam.
The series is currently broadcasting its second season in Israel, but will soon be streamed by Amazon in more than 200 global locations in its original format, with subtitles for each region’s language.
Amazon is not the first company to offer the Israeli series to an international audience. Last year, the UK’s Channel 4 aired the show’s first season, and a version of the series adapted for a Dutch audience aired in the Netherlands.
Gal Gadot’s “Wonder Woman” is set to earn over $650 million in box office sales by the end of this weekend, and is positioned to become the highest-earning live-action film of all time by a female director.
The superhero movie, directed by Patty Jenkins, is on track to finish the weekend with as much as $655 million and to possibly become one of the top-grossing film of 2017.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” will likely remain up top with over $846 million. Other expected top earners include “Transformers: The Last Knight,” “Despicable Me 3” and’ “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.”
By Wednesday, “Wonder Woman” had raked in $601.6 million, including $289.2 million domestically and $312.4 million internationally, and it is set to surpass the $665.7 million garnered by 2011’s animated sequel “Kung Fu Panda 2” by female director Jennifer Yuh Nelson.
The super-heroine movie’s phenomenal showing and good reviews have topped all expectations.
Times of Israel Film Review: ‘Wonder Woman’ showcases Israel’s best export since Waze.
Starring Israeli Gadot as the Amazonian warrior princess, “Wonder Woman” is the rare female-led film in an overwhelmingly male superhero landscape.
