British élites regret Israel's very existence
The refusal of Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the English Labor Party, to attend the dinner in London for the centenary of the Balfour Declaration is the confirmation of what many have always suspected (for the occasion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in the British capital to thank the UK for that gift made in 1917 to the Jewish people).
The antipathy towards Israel by Corbyn and other important Western segments of the Left goes far beyond hostility towards Israeli “settlements”, as the leaders of the Left repeat. Corbyn and his comrades would like Israel to never have been born.
Corbyn and his comrades would like Israel to never have been born.
The leader of “Momentum” is often referred as a hooligan on the Israeli issue. But Corbyn's refusal to publicly support Israel's right to exist is in fact embraced by a substantial part of the British élite. They are government officials, MPs, filmmakers, journalists, intellectuals, academics, heads of non-governmental organizations, church leaders.
England has first place in Europe for the academic boycott of Israel. English universities are often no-go-zones for Israeli students. English actors, such as Emma Thompson, are often in the front row signing petitions against “Zionism”. English newpapers, such as the Times and the Independent, host the most violent cartoons against Israeli leaders. And the English queen has never visited Israel.
It would make us comfortable if Corbyn's rejection of the centennial of Balfour, a rejection praised by Hamas, was the decision of the crazy guevarist mind out of step with time. But that is not the case. Indeed, intellectual corbynism is within the British mainstream, it is the expression of the “chattering classes”, those who make the public opinion in the UK.
Shadow Foreign Secretary will attend Balfour centenary
Emily Thornberry, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, will attend a high-profile event to commemorate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, the party has confirmed.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had declined an invitation to the dinner in London next month.
A spokesman for the Leader of the Opposition said on Friday "Jeremy is unable to attend this event, but Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry will be attending."
Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, has called Mr Corbyn’s absence “deeply unfortunate”.
It was Ms Thornberry rather than the Labour leader who appeared at a Labour Friends of Israel reception during the party’s conference last month.
David Collier: History repeating: Jewish Voice for Labour, today’s Yevsektsiya
You can be religious and not Zionist, you can be Zionist and not religious, but you cannot be both anti-religious and anti-Zionist in the Diaspora without bringing about an end to the Jewish family tree. Imagine for just one moment, that JVL gave a representative face of British Jews. Imagine that all Jews were like this. How would the Jewish people look in two generations? They simply wouldn’t. JVL represent the ‘communist’ answer to Judaism, the eradication of the identity. Their way, the Jewish people would simply cease to exist.
The propaganda involved is staggering. Calls to restrict the over-amplification of the voice are met with accusations of ‘suppression’. Apparently, this ideologically driven antisemitic hate, should be allowed to develop freely. Perversely, they turn criticism of the group on its head, suggesting that opposition to these Jews is the only real antisemitism in the room. Look at this vile tweet from Asa Winstanley:
That’s antisemitism right there. Winstanley is using today’s Yevsektsiya to attack Jewish identity, both in the national and religious sense. The group are putrid, yet Winstanley hides behind them for ideological reasons. As does, rather unsurprisingly, Ben White:
Ben White. 814 retweets. The same identifiable issue. The promotion of the ‘Yevsektsiya’. To see the antisemitic propaganda in motion, and to understand the intent, here is the headline from the Socialist Worker:
Here, the explicit aims of JVL are set out in the headlines. The article goes on to ‘big-up’ JVL. The group was created to deflect accusations of antisemitism. The same core reason for the creation of the Yevsektsiya in 1918. If you know an anti-Israel activist, any of them, go and look at their social media pages. You will see it full of promotional material about the modern Labour Party Yevsektsiya. Legitimisers of Jew-hate.
Ending this antisemitism
Labour has an antisemitism problem. A problem it cannot even begin to address until the groups at the root of the attacks are rejected. About 300 people packed the hall at the JVL launch, to welcome the latest version of the Yevsektsiya to the political world. The vast majority were not Jewish. That non-Jewish crowd that came to seek legitimacy for their own hatred – inherently antisemitic.
The two union bosses, Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey and Aslef train drivers’ union president Tosh McDonald, both of who turned up at the event to promise their union’s affiliation with a hate group – antisemitic. Placing a microphone in front of Idrissi to artificially amplify the group’s voice- antisemitic. Hiding behind these Jews, promoting them, using them as a way of attacking other Jews, all antisemitic.
It is why the atmosphere at the conference was so bad. Only when this is understood and dealt with, only when the ‘it’s kosher to boycott Israel’ banners no longer appear at each Labour rally, can Labour move on. Labour needs, as a first step, to forcefully reject JVL, the group’s members and everything that the group stands for.
Richard Millett: The Israeli flag flew high inside My Name Is Rachel Corrie.
The 31 performance run of Josh Roche directed My Name Is Rachel Corrie finally comes to an end on Thursday night. With the Young Vic Theatre rejecting all suggestions of balance including a small exhibition of the 19 Israeli Rachels murdered by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups and a pro-Israel voice on the after show panel discussions some activists produced “Accompanying Notes” to be handed out to theatre goers outside the Young Vic.New Study Exposes How Faculty Support of Israel Boycotts Intensifies Antisemitism on Campuses
The “Accompanying Notes”, which look similar to the official handout (see above), explain what really happened to Rachel in 2003 when she tragically died in Gaza while naively standing in front of a bulldozer when Israel was fighting Hamas:
“The investigation and court judgement showed the driver could not see her and that her death was an unfortunate accident to someone who had trespassed in a clearly marked closed military area. Rachel Corrie was not protecting a ‘home’ but a shed shielding one of the terror tunnels used to smuggle weapons and explosives. Her death was a tragic accident.”
Rachel was, in fact, protecting tunnels Hamas were using to smuggle in weapons that were causing mass murder on the streets of Israel. That crucial part of the narrative, plus that her death was an accident, were absent from the play.
The “Accompanying Notes” also explain that the play contains “unsubstantiated, context-free allegations about supposed Israeli brutality. For example, the IDF is alleged to have stopped the International Solidarity Movement retrieving a corpse, is accused of destroying wells and being engaged in a ‘constant attempt to remove Palestinians from their home.'”
They also explain how Rachel, an ISM member, misinterprets the Fourth Geneva Convention.
We had tickets for the Saturday night production. The theatre holds 70 and when we entered the actress playing Rachel (Erin Doherty) was lying on the floor listening to music with the main prop on stage being a part of Israel’s security wall painted a light red, obviously denoting blood. The stage floor was also painted red.
Effort by faculty members to promote academic boycotts of Israel in American universities pose a serious threat to the wellbeing of Jewish students, and raise questions about the misuse of classrooms to promote an anti-Zionist political agenda, a campus watchdog group has warned.Supporters of Israel Boycott ‘Disproportionately’ Affiliated With Gender, Ethnic, Middle East Studies
In a new report published on Tuesday, the AMCHA Initiative explored why the presence of faculty members who publicly expressed support for academic boycotts of Israel is — according to the group’s past findings — associated with increased incidents of anti-Jewish hostility on university campuses.
AMCHA’s latest research determined that the more faculty boycotters a department had, “the greater the number of outside [boycott, divestment and sanctions] proponents brought to campus by that department.”
Of the nearly 1,000 pro-BDS faculty members included in the AMCHA study, 70 percent were found to be affiliated with either ethnic, gender or Middle East studies departments, programs, centers or institutes.
Ethnic, gender and Middle East studies departments with at least one faculty boycotter were also respectively 10, 12,and five times more likely to sponsor events with pro-BDS speakers than similar departments without faculty boycotters, according to AMCHA.
The study noted “a very strong association” between the number of pro-BDS speakers invited to campus and the frequency of anti-Zionist expression among students, which in turn was strongly linked to “acts of anti-Jewish hostility, suggesting that one way BDS supporting speaker-events contribute to campus antisemitism is by promoting anti-Zionist expression by students.” (h/t MohammedTheTeddyBear)
Faculty supporters of an academic boycott of Israel are "disproportionately affiliated" with just three disciplines, according to a new study by a watchdog that monitors anti-Semitism on American college campuses.Maryland joins nearly half of American states with anti-BDS laws
Of the nearly 1,000 pro-boycott professors included in the AMCHA Initiative study, 70 percent were associated with gender studies, ethnic studies, or Middle East studies. More departments, centers, or institutes in those fields are led by "faculty boycotters"—or those who have signed at least one of the approximately 20 publicly available statements in support of an academic boycott of Israeli scholars and institutions, as part of a movement known as BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions)—than in any other discipline, according to the report.
Half of the faculty boycotters whose primary scholarship was not in gender, ethnic, or Mid-East studies were found to have "secondary affiliations" with one of those fields.
Those departments saturated with pro-BDS faculty were subsequently far more likely to bring BDS-supportive programming to campus than their counterparts with no boycotters, wrote AMCHA.
Gender studies units with one or more pro-boycott lecturers were 12 times more likely to sponsor such events than their counterparts with no pro-BDS professors, a starker contrast than that found in either ethnic or Middle East studies, according to AMCHA. Middle East and ethnic studies with pro-BDS faculty were five and 10 times more likely, respectively.
Overall, close to 90 percent of anti-Zionist or pro-BDS programming is brought to campuses by departments, centers, or institutes associated with gender, ethnic, or Mid-East disciplines, wrote AMCHA.
The state of Maryland has adopted a rule barring companies that engage in boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel from receiving government contracts, joining 22 other American states with similar laws.State anti-BDS laws are hitting unintended targets and nobody’s happy
Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, issued an executive order implementing the new provision. “Boycotts based on religion, national origin, place of residence or ethnicity are discriminatory,” Hogan said, announcing the move alongside Jewish leaders. “Contracting with businesses that practice discrimination would make the state a passive participant in private-sector commercial discrimination.”
The US’s largest states have already taken similar action – either through state legislative work or gubernatorial executive order – including Florida, California, New York, Illinois and Texas.
And legislation has been proposed on Congress that would codify these conditions for US business on a federal level. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, introduced by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio this past summer, has earned bipartisan cosponsors, but drawn criticism from civil liberties groups fearing the move would infringe on constitutionally protected freedom of speech.
Defenders and sponsors of the law say that like many laws, the anti-BDS statutes are undergoing birth pains.Haaretz Corrects: No Mention of Settlements in Dickinson, Tx., Relief Form
“These are new laws, they’ve been passed in the last couple of years and not everyone is going to immediately understand what they’re supposed to do,” Eugene Kontorovich, a legal scholar who helped draft many of the laws, said in an interview.
The Israel Project, among an array of national groups that advocated for the laws, said it was reaching out to officials on a case-by-case basis to make sure the laws are understood.
“We’ve been in touch with legislators when issues have come up, we’ve spoken with attorneys and legislators in various states,” said Jacob Millner, the Midwest director for The Israel Project.
The controversies over Dickinson and the Kansas case come at a critical time for a congressional bill that would extend 1970s laws targeting the Arab League boycott to those who comply with boycotts initiated by international organizations like the European Union or United Nations. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which has support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also would expand the prohibited boycotts to those that target only settlement goods. Violators who do participate in boycotts face fines and, in some cases, imprisonment.
AIPAC wants broad bipartisan backing for the bill, but only 14 of the Democratic caucus’s 48 members are co-sponsoring the legislation. Notably, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — who in the past has assiduously courted the pro-Israel community — dropped her co-sponsorship after representations from the ACLU and pro-Palestinian activists.
Sen. Ben. Cardin, D-Md., the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill, said the law is sound, but he is open to some revisions to make it clearer that it does not undercut free speech.
Dickinson City Management assistant Bryan Milward told JTA on Friday that the city was applying the law correctly.
“Because our application also functions as a contract, it was included in there,” he said.
CAMERA's Israel office yesterday prompted correction of an article in the English edition of Haaretz which incorrectly reported that residents of Dickinson, Tx., applying for relief from Hurricane Irma were required to sign a forming pledging that they don't boycott Israeli settlements. The Oct. 23 article (in print on page 4 and online here), "Author of controversial Texas anti-BDS bill calls aid incident 'misunderstanding,'" had incorrectly reported:Panned over Israel views, Center for Jewish History head denies partisan agenda
The second case took place this weekend in Dickinson, Texas, where local residents had to sign a form stating that they don't boycott Israel and the settlements, in order to receive aid relief following Hurricane Harvey.
In fact, the form in question mentions nothing about settlements. The brief relevant clause requiring applicants verify they don't boycott Israel states:
Dedicated to collecting, preserving and documenting history of the Jewish people, the center houses five organizations: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Leadership. It’s not a place usually considered as a hotbed of dissent.Why Was an Anti-Israel New York Times Columnist Allowed to Speak at the Center for Jewish History?
However, several conservative and right leaning Jewish people and organizations, including the Zionist Organization of America, JCC Watch, and Americans for a Safe Israel demanded he be fired for what they called extreme anti-Israel views. Additionally, there is concern over his political associations, including sitting on the board of the progressive New Israel Fund and serving on the advisory council of J Street.
Among other things, they said Myers supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and that he claimed Israel should no longer exist as a Jewish state.
Hundreds of Jewish historians petitioned CJH in a show of support for Myers, including Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University, Steven Cohen of HUC-JIR, and Susannah Heschel of Dartmouth College. In an opinion piece for The Forward, David Ellenson and Jonathan D. Sarna, both of Brandeis University, decried the idea that Myers is an enemy of Israel. Additionally, the CJH board received several letters in support of Myers.
The Times of Israel spoke with David Myers, who also holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA, about his vision for the center, the role of history and historians in the current political and cultural climate, and how he’s become a lightning rod.
Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any messier over at the Center for Jewish History, a New York Times columnist who was invited to speak there has unleashed a barrage of verbal attacks on Israel.Colombian pop star’s photo with Israeli cop sparks fury
The columnist, Roger Cohen, was invited to deliver this year’s Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture at the institution; the Leo Baeck Institute is one of six Jewish organizations that operate from the Center for Jewish History building. I did not attend Mr. Cohen’s lecture on October 15. But in a pre-lecture interview with the Baeck Institute’s newsletter, LBI News, Cohen violently lashed out at Israel.
“Somehow,” he declared, “the Jews, who were for millennia humiliated and excluded in the diaspora, now find themselves in a semi-colonial situation in which they subject the Palestinian people to much of what we once suffered.”
“Much of what we suffered?” Gas chambers? Pogroms? Ghettos? Inquisitions? Which of these, exactly, does Cohen think that Israel has used against the Palestinians?
He didn’t stop there. Cohen proceeded to declare that, “Lawlessness prevails in the settlements.” Another blatant lie. Anybody who is familiar with the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria knows that “lawlessness” is an absurd and outrageously false description. Those communities are legal, and the overwhelming majority of their residents are peaceful, law-abiding citizens.
Cohen continued, claiming that “settlers vote as citizens of Israel while the millions around them cannot vote.” Utterly false. Of course the Palestinian Arabs can vote, and they do vote — when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas lets them.
A photo published by a Colombian pop star posing beside a Border Police officer has led to a passionate debate among his nearly 30 million followers on social media.Fliers found at Cornell read ‘Just say no to Jewish lies’
Singer Maluma, who performed in Tel Aviv on October 12, shared on his Instagram account the picture with the smiling female Israeli border police officer above the caption “New security” in both English and Spanish, reported the Enlace Judio news website on Sunday.
The photo has garnered nearly 1.3 million likes and 28,500 comments mostly debating Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians. While several followers supported the photo, others wrote messages such as “You lost all your Palestinian fanatics and I am the first of them,” “Did you ask how many Palestinians she killed before posing for a photo with her?” and “Posing with a member of Israel’s killer army.”
The singer also posted a second picture with Jerusalem in the background, drawing over 1.2 million likes and over 17,200 comments. In addition to Maluma’s nearly 30 million followers on Instagram, he has another 23 million on Facebook and 4.7 million on Twitter.
Anti-Semitic fliers with swastika-like symbols were discovered on the campus of Cornell University in upstate New York.Boy George: I knew I'd come back to Israel
The posters, which read “Just say no to Jewish lies!” and urged students to “join the white gang,” were discovered Monday morning and taken down the same day. They promoted the “Solar Cross Society,” but there is no such group at Cornell and it does not have an internet presence.
The Ivy League school’s president, Martha Pollack, denounced the fliers.
“Whoever is responsible for these fliers is hiding under the cover of anonymity, having posted them overnight,” she said in a statement.
“Whoever they are, they need to ask themselves why they chose our campus, because Cornell reviles their message of hatred; we revile it as an institution, and I know from many personal conversations that thousands of Cornellians deplore it individually.”
Police were investigating the matter and increasing patrols around Jewish buildings on campus, the Cornell Hillel said in an email to the Jewish community.
Boy George is just being true to himself.IsraellyCool: Israel Hater Norman Finkelstein Seems To Have Lost His Mind
The iconic British pop singer is excited to return to Israel for his upcoming concert with his band, Culture Club, and doesn't seem to bat his impressive eyelashes at BDS pressure not to perform.
"We have to be really careful with the Internet because people say everyone is talking - it's like five people, they're retweeting each other," he told Israel's Channel 2 News in an interview this week, "and that doesn't constitute a revolution."
George told Ynet that he "got a wonderful reception in Israel, so it was clear to me I'd be back. As an artist you respond to warmth."
The singer, responsible for hits like "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," "Karma Chameleon" and "Time (Clock of the Heart)," will be taking the stage on November 7 at Heichal Hamenora in Tel Aviv.
And despite the best attempts by anti-Israeli activists to draw him into the heart of a political storm - he isn't interested.
"Boy George is about something really positive and something alternative and I want to play to my fans wherever they are," he told Channel 2. "Sometimes being true to who you are is the most political thing you can ever do."
It is hard to make much sense of this, but it seems to point towards Rat Fink going insane in the membrane.
Finkelstein comments: On 9 October 2017, two Nassau County detectives barged into my apartment in the dead of night without a search warrant. I was only wearing my boxer drawers. I refused to put on clothes. Like Emmett Till’s mother, I wanted the world to see how these barbarians carry on. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V6ffUUEvaM) They pinned me up against the wall and handcuffed me. For the next 18 hours, I was relentlessly brutalized by these thugs. The next day at 2:30 pm I came before Hon. Judge William Hohauser. He was shocked! He was appalled! How could I be wearing my boxer drawers in court?! He demanded $7,500 bail. He ordered that I get a full psychiatric evaluation (I just received the notice today; see below). But it did not shock or appall the Hon. Judge that, of the 45 inmates who came before him that day, 40 were African-American. That’s civilized! That’s sane!
HonestReporting on Israel Now News - Oct. 21, 2017
Guardian suggests existence of Haredi-only Israeli hospitals
Since Paul Chadwick replaced Chris Elliott as the Guardian Readers’ Editor last year, erroneous claims – like the one which appeared in an Oct. 23rd article – are far less likely to be corrected. So, we’re asking for your help in contacting the office of the Readers’ Editor to get a response to our query, which we emailed and tweeted over the last two days.Poland honors historian who said Nazi invasion wasn’t so bad for Jews
Here’s the claim in question, in article written by their culture reporter about Jerusalem (“‘This land is just dirt’: a rooftop view of Jerusalem”) which focused heavily on the influence of Haredi Jews, and on what the writer claimed was an increasingly ‘segregated’ city.
The Haredim have less and less need to go out of our own neighbourhoods,” she says, “and that creates more separation.”
In Jerusalem, they [haredim] have practically built their own city within a city. In order to cloister their way of life from the corruption of secular modern society, they have their own schools, shopping malls, sports clubs, parks and hospitals.
Whilst we know of no haredi-only shopping malls or parks, the suggestion that there are haredi-only hospitals is just absurd, as anyone familiar with Israeli hospitals would surely know. Whilst Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem treats a large number of Haredim (due to its close proximity to Haredi neighborhoods), like all Israeli hospitals, it treats all patients who come through its doors, regardless of religion.
More broadly, with patients and healthcare professionals of all faiths and backgrounds mingling and working together, Israeli hospitals arguably represent the most successful model of Jewish-Muslim co-existence in the country. (In a rare moment of lucidity, even the Guardian acknowledged this fact in a 2016 report by Kate Shuttleworth.)
We ask that you consider contacting the Guardian and politely asking editors to substantiate the claim.
A Polish historian who said the country’s Nazi invasion was initially not so bad for Jews received a medal from the Polish Minister of National Education “for special merits for education.”Argentine man wearing Nazi symbols arrested for photographing Jewish students
The minister, Anna Zalewska, presented Tomasz Panfil with the honor at a ceremony in Warsaw earlier this month.
Panfil, who is responsible for education at the Institute of National Remembrance in Lublin, earlier this month wrote an article in which he stated that “after the aggression of Germany into Poland, the situation of the Jews did not look very bad.”
“Although the [Nazi] occupation authorities took over, they ordered the wearing of armbands with the star of David, charged them heavy taxes, began to designate Jews-only zones only for the Jews,” he wrote, “but at the same time permitted the creation of Judenrat, that is, organs of self-government.”
Panfil was criticized for his statement by the Institute of National Remembrance. Historians of the Holocaust note that the Judenrats were specifically set up to carry out German policy in the newly formed ghettos, where Jews were forbidden to leave under penalty of death.
A man wearing a hat and shirt bearing Nazi symbols was arrested in Buenos Aires after photographing students leaving a Jewish high school.Former Nazi death camp guard, 96, charged as accessory to murder
Police detained the man, 62, on Monday outside of the ORT high school in the Almagro neighborhood after asking him to explain why he was taking the pictures.
Photos of the man and discussions about the case have gone viral on social media in Argentina. He was charged with harassment and discrimination.
The incident is being handled by the Prosecutor’s Office for Criminal Offenses in Buenos Aires.
A former guard at the Majdanek Nazi death camp has been charged in Germany with being an accessory to murder.Taboo-breaking film depicts Hungary's grim welcome to Holocaust survivors
The Frankfurt resident, 96, whose name has not been released due to the country’s privacy laws, was charged by the city prosecutor on Friday for being an accessory to murder during his service between August 1943 and January 1944, when at least 17,000 Jews were killed at the camp located near the Polish city of Lublin.
He is alleged to have worked as a perimeter guard and in the guard towers as a member of the SS’s Death’s Head division. He was 22 at the time.
The indictment accuses him of being part of Operation “Erntefest” — or Harvest Festival — on Nov. 3, 1943, when at least 17,000 Jewish prisoners from the Majdanek camp and others who were being used as forced laborers in and around Lublin were shot in ditches that they dug for their graves just outside the camp.
No trial date has been set.
The time is just after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Two Orthodox Jews disembark from a train at a rural station in Soviet-occupied Hungary and, after offloading a heavy bag, they begin a silent, hour-long walk to a nearby village.Decades after WWII, victims' bodies discovered at Nazi camp
The purpose of their journey is not known. But their arrival in the village sets in motion a series of tragic and violent events, as some residents worry the visitors will expose crimes they committed during the Nazi occupation, with potentially deadly consequences for the perpetrators.
Such is the premise of the award-winning Hungarian movie “1945.” The black-and-white feature, filmed last year, is one of just a handful of movies ever produced in Hungary about the theft of Jewish property during the Holocaust. In the US, the film will premiere Nov. 1 in New York, with a national rollout to follow.
Despite being a low-cost production lacking marquee names, “1945” has found major success at international film festivals. It won awards at the San Francisco Film Critics Circle as well as at the Berlin Film Festival and the Jerusalem Film Festival. One critic called it a “subtly crafted masterpiece.”
And while the film is fictional, it has struck a nerve among Hungarian Jews whose families lived through the suspicion and hostility depicted in the movie.
More than 70 years after the end of World War II, victims of Nazi genocide continue to be discovered.Printer, can you please make me a low-fat burger with fries?
Archaeologists in Poland have uncovered a mass grave of prisoners at the site of the Nazi death camp Gross-Rosen in southwestern Poland, now a memorial museum.
The remains were found in September a former anti-aircraft trench, and conservation works were suspended. It is believed that more than 300 people were buried in the trench.
"The discovery of human remains matches the account of one of the former prisoners of the camp, a Belgian man who was the camp doctor and was on the site during the last months before the liberation evacuation," said Dr. Katarzyna Pawlak-Weiss, a historian studying the concentration camps set up by occupying German forces in Poland.
"In his report, he mentioned 300 people buried here."
So far, archaeologists have uncovered bones belonging to some 30 people, and the team hopes to be able to identify them.
According to reports by survivors, the bodies of prisoners who died of illnesses and starvation were thrown into the trench in the last days of the camp's operation. However, the first unearthed bones had what archaeologists believe are bullet wound marks.
"After exhumation, the remains of the people we found in this pit will be transported to the Forensic Medicine Institute in Wroclaw where an inspection and autopsy will be performed. This will be done in order to determine their gender, age, health condition if this will be possible, and the cause of death," said prosecutor Konrad Bieron from the Polish Institute of National Remembrance.
If two Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have their way, we could be printing our hamburgers and French fries from a 3D machine within five years.Israeli Makes Major Breakthrough Against ALS
Researchers at the Yissum Research Development Company, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said they have created a 3D printing technology that will be able to produce nutritious meals, for use in homes, restaurants and institutions, using nano-cellulose, a natural and edible calorie-free fiber. They have so far used their technology to “print” dough, but not a full meal.
The technology was to be presented for the first time on Wednesday at the 3D Printing and Beyond: Current and Future Trends conference at Hebrew University, and the researchers hope it will be the basis for a product on the market within the next two to five years.
The technology was developed by professors Oded Shoseyov and Ido Braslavsky, both of the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment at Hebrew University. In a phone interview, they explained what 3D printing of food involves.
BBC to Feature Reality Show with British Jews on Kibbutzim for Israel’s 70th Anniversary
A reality show set on an Israeli kibbutz is on the BBC’s 2018 broadcast schedule, according to press reports.$35 million raised by Friends of the IDF for Israeli troops
The British TV network is recruiting 10 Jewish participants of various ages and backgrounds to fly over from the UK and spend two weeks volunteering on a kibbutz, an Israeli farming or manufacturing community founded on socialist principles.
The Kibbutz Movement, which represents about 250 kibbutzim, is helping to scout the best location for the show.
The volunteers and the BBC crews are to arrive in December and the program is to air sometime next year in coordination with Israel’s 70th Independence Day in May.
A BBC spokesperson told The Jewish Chronicle of London that the reality show “aims to explore what it means to be British and Jewish.”
The spokesperson said that participants “will come from a broad cross-section of the population and the faith, will travel to Israel to discover more about their cultural identity and discuss the most significant issues in modern Judaism.”
Jewish and gentile volunteers from countries across the world have come to volunteer their manual labor for weeks or months on Israeli kibbutzim for the past 50 years.
The Friends of the IDF organization raised more than $35 million as part of a gala event in New York on Monday night, which it has pledged to causes supporting Israeli soldiers, the group said.In Israel, descendants of Aboriginal ANZAC soldiers retrace forgotten stories
Over 1,200 people attended the event at the Hilton Midtown hotel.
Former Israeli Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel delivered a keynote address, discussing recent developments in the Israeli military.
“I’ve flown 10 sorties in the F-35, and it is a game changer for the Israeli Air Force – not just because of its capabilities, but because it will elevate and strengthen the entire IDF,” Eshel told the gala.
A current F-35 pilot and other IDF soldiers and officers were also in attendance at the event, which was named “Night of Heroes,” FIDF said in a statement. Many of the troops invited were so-called “lone soldiers,” with no family in Israel or without support from the relatives they did have in the country.
“At this ‘Night of Heroes,’ we salute the men and women soldiers who have taken part in the ongoing struggle of the State of Israel. Each and every one of them is another link in the chain of the IDF heroism and the Jewish state,” said Maj. Gen. (res.) Meir Klifi-Amir, CEO of the organization.
Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, also attended the event, alongside Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and Israeli Consul General in New York Dani Dayan.
One hundred years ago, the sound of hoofbeats and war cries rolled across northern Israel as soldiers from Australia and New Zealand, mounted on horseback, fought against German soldiers in one of history’s last great cavalry battles.
Descendants of the Australian soldiers who fought in Palestine during World War I returned to the site on Monday as part of the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba, where hoofbeats again rang out on stone pathways during a somber procession.
The Battle of Tzemach is a largely overlooked yet significant battle that came in the last weeks of WWI. It is considered one of the last cavalry battles in history, as few cavalry units were still in use by the time World War II broke out. Tzemach is much less well known than the other large ANZAC battle, in Beersheba in the south of Israel. Beersheba was much more documented in war diaries and was the subject of a 1941 movie called “40,000 Horsemen.”
The Jewish National Fund/Keren Keyemet L’Yisrael and JNF Australia are leading 100 people, including descendants, researchers, and politicians, through 10 days of commemoration of the ANZAC campaigns in Israel. The Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps supported the British during their battles against the Ottoman Empire and German forces during WWI.