Report: Facebook Still Allows Anti-Semitic, Holocaust-Denying Posts
The Holocaust was a lie, Anne Frank’s diary was a fake, and Jews are barbaric and unsanitary: All those are posts that are still available on Facebook despite being reported to the social media giant.Here’s how Birthright guides talk about the Palestinians
According to an investigation by the British Times, “scores of examples of material designed to incite hatred and violence against Jews” still remain on Facebook. “Some of it,” the newspaper reported, “had already been flagged to the company. When the material was highlighted to Facebook yesterday some was taken down but several antisemitic posts and pages remained up last night.”
In part, that’s because the company’s guidelines designate anti-Semitic posts as hate speech that is slated for removal, but does not view Holocaust denial the same way. Earlier this month, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg sparked a controversy when he said in an interview that he believed Holocaust deniers were making nothing more than an honest mistake.
“I’m Jewish,” he said, “and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”
After critics and Jewish communal organizations criticized Zuckerberg’s comments, his sister and former Facebook executive, Randi Zuckerberg, rushed to his defense and applauded him for “navigating this incredibly difficult new world where the notion of free speech is constantly changing.”
As the Times‘s investigation shows, however, navigating anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial on Facebook means little more than simply letting vile and violent expressions stand. Responding to the newspaper’s report, several Members of Parliament blasted Facebook for its inaction. Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the home affairs select committee, said: “Facebook are providing people with a huge global platform to incite racial hatred and to deliberately spread lies that fuel antisemitism. They can’t just shrug their shoulders and pretend it has nothing to do with them. What is the point of them even pretending to have community standards or social responsibility if they turn a blind eye to the promotion of violence and extremism?”
When Samuel Green talks about Israel’s West bank security barrier with the Birthright groups he guides, he first explains the Israeli view that the barrier was built to prevent Palestinian terrorists from breaching Israeli territory and that Israelis generally feel it has saved lives.Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Existential Threat’
But then he’ll talk about what the barrier – which is part wall, part fence – means for Palestinians: how it cuts into West Bank territory, how it has separated people from their farmland, how they see it as an imposing wall.
“It’s a disservice to the people in front of me to leave out such information,” Green said. “So if you’re trying to understand why there’s conflict, you have to understand why people are annoyed. It’s important to talk about.”
That approach contrasts with the one viewed by 2.7 million people in a viral Facebook video taken by activists of IfNotNow, a group of young American Jews who oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. In the video, a Birthright tour guide spars with a participant on a Birthright bus over the status of the West Bank.
Rather than aim to present a range of views on Israel’s control of the territory, the guide says “Israel sees the West Bank as part of Israel” – a misleading claim that does not accord with the legal status of the territory or encompass the variety of ways Israelis see it.
Soon after the bus argument, several participants on that Birthright trip staged a walk-off from the tour and visited Palestinian areas. It was one of three such walk-offs conducted in recent weeks – all organized by IfNotNow – to protest what the group calls Birthright’s silence on Israel’s occupation.
The walk-offs have sparked a debate over whether Birthright – a popular 10-day free tour to Israel for young Jews — has a responsibility to grapple with Israel’s control of the West Bank. Some 40,000 young Jews, mostly from North America, go on Birthright every year. For some it is their first exposure to the country.
But Birthright tour guides say the debate is unnecessary. While acknowledging that they speak from an Israeli perspective, the guides said they make an effort to represent a range of opinions on the tour – including Palestinian views – and are happy to answer any questions.
In a week when three of Britain’s Jewish newspapers have united in a joint front page that warns of the “existential risk” of a Corbyn government to British Jews, some might answer that the existential risk applies to Britain as a whole. One doesn’t have to share this apocalyptic viewpoint to see that the underlying concern revolves around how, precisely, a Corbyn government would behave towards those opposed to its program.
As resilient as the structures of British democracy are, Corbyn might well try to borrow from the political playbook of his hero: the late Venezuelan socialist dictator Hugo Chávez. In times of both boom and bust in this oil-rich, historically stable nation, Chávez found that antisemitism — a phenomenon that was virtually unknown in Venezuela — had its political uses. Chávez asserted himself as the lynchpin of the global alliance against imperialism with repeated attacks on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, deploying the imagery of the Jews as “crucifiers” that he calculated would resonate in the deeply Catholic country. Taking that position did not advance the Palestinian cause, nor did it alter Israel’s strategic advantage, but it did contribute to the majority of Venezuela’s Jewish community of 20,000 fleeing Chávez and his successor Nicolas Maduro for safety abroad.
I am not saying that exactly the same process will unfold in Britain should Corbyn come to power. But it is notable that there has been, once again, a rise in discussion among British Jews about whether they have a future under a government led by Corbyn. The fear that he has normalized antisemitism in the Labour Party, coupled with unwavering loyalty to the Palestine solidarity activists who have dragged Labour into the mire of Jew-baiting, leads many to conclude that what has already happened in the party will unfold next in the country.
My own view is that it is too soon to draw such a conclusion, although I certainly understand why others do. The possibility remains that the scandal of Labour antisemitism will backfire badly on Corbyn, as a growing number of Britons express disbelief at the amount of time he spends on the job fighting with a community of 300,000 souls, when they know that an opposition leader serious about securing power would be focused on sweeping away the most divided and unstable British government this century. On this front, Corbyn has yet to convince.
Jewish Labour MPs decrying anti-Semitism in party face sanctions
Jewish members of Britain's Labour Party are increasingly opposing the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the party's inadequate steps to address anti-Semitism in its ranks.2nd UK Labour MP faces suspension for criticizing party’s anti-Semitism policy
Jewish MP Ian Austin said in a weekend interview to Radio 4 that Corbyn was not fit to lead the party and should resign.
According to Austin, Corbyn had always been on the "extreme fringes" of the party and defended "all sorts of extremists," including – in some cases – "anti-Semites."
Austin said he had grown up listening to his father's stories about escaping the Holocaust and how his mother and sisters were murdered in the Treblinka death camp. Austin said those stories had prompted him to join Labour as a youth, "determined to fight racism."
The MP said he was "shocked" that the party that had a proud tradition of fighting racism had caused such "huge offense and distress" to Britain's Jewish community.
Austin told the interviewer he was "ashamed" of the current state of the Labour Party.
Both Austin and another Jewish Labour MP, Margaret Hodge – who has also publicly denigrated Corbyn as an anti-Semite – are under the threat of disciplinary action from the party.
A British Labour MP faces disciplinary action and possible suspension from the party after accusations that he swore at party chairman Ian Lavery during a “heated discussion” about Labour’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism.LGBT Labour National Committee adopts International Definition of Antisemitism and demands that the Labour Party does the same
Ian Austin, the adopted child of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, wrote that he felt “shocked and ashamed” at his party’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism among its members, in an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper Sunday.
He is the second MP to face a disciplinary hearing over Labour’s decision to drop parts of an internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism. Two weeks ago MP Dame Margaret Hodge was warned that action would be taken against her over her “unacceptable” comments after she confronted party head Jeremy Corbyn and called him an “anti-Semite and a racist.”
According to the BBC, Austin could face suspension from the party.
In his opinion piece Austin wrote about his father’s family, who he said were all murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
He strongly denied that he swore at Lavery, while standing firm in his condemnation of how his party has dealt with anti-Semitism.
In an act of solidarity, the LGBT Labour National Committee today resolved to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism and called upon the Labour Party to do the same.Corbyn Ally Accuses Jewish Labour MP of Exploiting Family’s Holocaust Experience
The Committee also voted for its members to be trained on how to spot antisemitism by Jewish Labour activists.
Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes this show of solidarity.
A prominent supporter of UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has blasted one of Corbyn’s most prominent Jewish critics for allegedly exploiting her family’s experience during the Holocaust and aiding a party whose “roots were in classical nazism.”Joe Glasman, CAA’s Head of Political and Government Investigations recounts an encounter with an antisemitic thug, and how it relates to the Labour Party
Corbyn has been dogged by accusations of ignoring and enabling antisemitism in his party for years. After the party refused to adopt the government’s official definition of antisemitism for fear it would implicate many of its members and activists, Jewish MP Dame Margaret Hodge confronted Corbyn, calling him “an antisemite and a racist.”
In response, pro-Corbyn activist David Rosenberg went on a tirade in the far-left publication Morning Star, saying Hodge “has cynically drawn on her family’s direct experience of the Holocaust to bolster her special right to pronounce on the subject.”
He went on to claim that Hodge had aided the far-right BNP party in an election in her constituency. He referred to a warning issued by Hodge that many “white working-class people were thinking of voting BNP.” Rosenberg called this “manna from heaven” for the right-wing group. He also cited a statement by Hodge asserting that British citizens should take priority over refugees in receiving certain services.
Rosenberg appeared to believe that Hodge somehow intended to aid the BNP, writing, “It is just a tad embarrassing and tasteless even that a politician who wields her family’s Holocaust history as a weapon to give her licence to say what she likes in arguments with fellow Labour MPs was being criticised then by leading refugee bodies for bolstering the racism of a party whose roots were in classical nazism.”
The abuse occurred after a group of us – Jews and non-Jews – had attended a Campaign Against Anti-Semitism rally in Parliament Square protesting Labour’s failure to adopt the International Definition of Anti-Semitism. We waved Union Jacks and listening to a variety of speakers: A defamation lawyer, a Rabbi, spokesmen for both Labour and Muslim groups campaigning against anti-Semitism.UK Labour councilor: Jewish weeklies opposed to Corbyn may be working for Mossad
The powerful but peaceful demo ended at seven-thirty, and as Brits do, we retired to the local. There, on the side-street pavements outside the famed Red Lion, we stood in the balmy evening air, talking about the demo and casually hatching Zionist conspiracies incorporating such code phrases as: “Here’s a pic of my daughter’s birthday party” “Make mine a pint” and “Did Harry Kane really deserve the Golden Boot?”.
Then, as if from no-where, a passer-by briskly approached our group. He was white, stocky and middle-aged. Also: aggressive, angry and upset. I now assume that he was drawn, moth-like, to a single T-shirt bearing a Star of David, as he initially directed his rant at the group that included its (non-Jewish) wearer.
His opening line, as reported by those closest to him, was “I know what you lot do to the Palestinians.” Immediately, we were no longer in Westminster, but the West Bank. A conversation ensued, wherein it must have become obvious by accent and manner that we were British, but he persisted. An exchange started, and he was asked: “should Israel exist?”
“No” …you’re upsetting the equilibrium in the Middle East”
“Who do you mean by ‘you?”
“You Israelis … you’re all f**ing paranoid”
He was quizzed again about the “You”.
“Israelis!” he shouted.
Finger-jabbing, ugly, spoiling for a fight and hurling anti-Semitic abuse, he then invited one of us to “Come round the corner and sort it out”, a phrase he then kept repeating. Only violence, it seemed, would satisfy.
A councilwoman for the Scottish Labour Party said three British Jewish newspapers may be working on behalf of the Mossad after they posted a joint front page article warning that anti-Semitism had eroded the Labour party and posed an “existential” threat to British Jewry.Labour suspends Councillor Damien Enticott who protests that social media posts calling for Jews to be exterminated were put there by hackers
“If the purpose is to generate opposition to anti-Semitism, it has backfired spectacularly. (I)f it is to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, it is unlikely to succeed, and is a shameless piece of cynical opportunism.
“And if it is a Mossad assisted campaign to prevent the election of a Labour Government pledged to recognise Palestine as a State, it is unacceptable interference in the democracy of Britain,” Mary Bain Lockhart wrote on Facebook.
“Israel is a racist State. And since the Palestinians are also Semites, it is an anti-Semitic State. It is time we stopped propitiating,” she also wrote.
Israel was repeatedly attacked in the comments to the post.
The Labour Party has suspended a serving Councillor for the Hatherleigh Ward in Bognor Regis, after posts calling for Jews to be executed and praising Adolf Hitler were found on his Facebook account.Why Alison Chabloz’s conviction should be celebrated
Councillor Damien Enticott claimed that hackers had put the posts there.
In one, an image was posted claiming that as part of a “Jewish ritual they drink blood and suck baby’s [sic] dick” with the comment “This is done only by Talmud Jews. Talmud Jews are parasites! They also believe any child over 3 years old that isn’t a Jew should be treated like a parasite, they believe it is okay to even rape that child because it’s is [sic] worthless. To treat a non Jew decently means that you are as bad as them. All Talmuds need executing!”
The Talmud is the central law of the Jewish religion and culture.
Another post said that “Hitler would have a solution to the Israel problem”.
Due to conditions of secrecy introduced during the Chakrabarti whitewash report, the Labour Party is unlikely to publicly comment on its findings. Normally we only hear about the outcomes of the Labour Party’s disciplinary cases when those under investigation post about them on social media.
So, practically speaking, the slippery slope argument is without foundation.NGO Monitor: Report from on the Ground: 38th Session UN Human Rights Council
The right to free speech in a democratic society must be weighed and balanced against other rights, such as the right to be free from religious and racial hatred. Indeed, it is particularly important that the publication of Holocaust denial material should not be tolerated.
This is because Holocaust denial goes beyond mere "offence".
Holocaust deniers insinuate that the Jews faked their own genocide for self-serving ends, for example to extract money from Germany or to justify the "oppression of the Palestinians". Their arguments rely upon and promote the idea that the world is controlled by an international Jewish conspiracy.
And there is also evidence that Holocaust denial can incite violence against Jews. It is for these reasons that Holocaust denial is a crime in 16 European countries as well as Israel.
The argument that criminalising Holocaust denial is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been rejected by the Institutions of the Council of Europe, the European Commission of Human Rights, and by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
In other words, there is no free speech right to deny the Holocaust.
It is naïve to suggest that Holocaust denial should be allowed so that it can be openly debated. Holocaust denial has persisted despite the fact that the Holocaust is one of the best documented genocides in history, with huge volumes of evidence documenting virtually every aspect of it. Holocaust deniers are malicious propagandists who cannot be reasoned with or engaged; they have to be silenced.
The 38th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (June 18 – July 6, 2018) continued the bias and hypocrisy that has come to define the UN in general and the UNHRC in particular. NGO Monitor staff was present, speaking before the Council and documenting the numerous false accusations from member states and NGOs.Honest Reporting: Palestinian Christians: News Agency Parrots Propaganda
The following report highlights the most egregious examples of statements made during the session. During side events, NGOs, many of which receive large portions of their funding from European governments, and Palestinian Authority officials made highly inflammatory and false allegations, some bordering on blood libels, against Israel.
In addition to these NGOs and Palestinian officials, representatives from international organizations such as the UN and the WHO actively participated, thus bolstering this inflammatory propaganda. UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, a serial offender, spoke (via video link) at two of such events, where he called for Israel’s membership to the UN to be suspended. It is immoral and a violation of UN and professional standards (that require the principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence, and humanity) for such officials to participate in these events.
Item 7
UNHRC Permanent Agenda Item 7, purporting to address Israeli human rights violations, is the only agenda item targeting a single country. The failure to repeal Item 7 was a major factor in the United States’ decision to leave. In addition, numerous Western countries boycotted the debate.
A central theme of the Item 7 debate was the discriminatory database of companies doing business over the 1949 Armistice line that is being prepared by the Council’s bureaucratic arm – the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The purpose of the list is to bolster BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel.
As opposed to the Western democracies that stayed away, NGOs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), Defense for Children International (DCI), and Palestinian groups – echoed the rhetoric of the “vital importance of item 7” promoted by the dictatorships on the Council. For example, HRW accused Israel of committing war crimes and advocated for the discriminatory database. DCI read a statement citing misleading statistics from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)-linked Defense for Children International – Palestine’s (DCI-P).
Does Independent Media, one of South Africa’s largest media organizations, care about publishing lies in its outlets? Maybe not if it can place enough layers between itself and the sources of those lies.IsraellyCool: Robert Cohen of UK Co-op Pens Vile Article With Antisemitic Title
Take the story “Christians no longer welcome in Israel, says Palestinian group” on the IOL website. IOL’s source is the African News Agency (ANA) wire service. ANA makes it clear in its second paragraph that its source is an interview given by members of a visiting Palestinian Christian delegation to the Afro-Palestine Newswire Service. This news service is an initiative of the AfroPal Forum, which describes itself as “a civil society organisation based in Africa that advocates Palestinian rights and works to present accurate perspectives on the Palestinian question, which debunk the Israeli colonial narrative.”
The resulting agitprop interview is appallingly one-sided and replete with outright lies and deliberate distortions. Given the interview’s provenance, it’s disturbing that anything produced by the AfroPal Forum could find its way into the mainstream IOL News as “news.”
Neither does this “report” disclose the backgrounds of the two interviewees, Father Jamal Khader and Dr. Rifat Kasis. They have a significant history of anti-Israel activity within the church as leaders of what is called Palestinian Liberation Theology. Khader and Kasis are also co-authors of the Kairos Palestine Document, a theological text produced by Palestinian Christians in 2009. Former Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman described it as:
In my most recent post about the Co-operative Group in the UK, I mentioned how Robert Cohen, their head of executive external communications, had added a disclaimer to his Twitter profile dissociating his tweets from the views of Co-op. This was clearly a case of damage control following my damning expose that showed, among other things, that he belonged to an antisemitic Facebook group.IsraellyCool: UK Co-op & Robert Cohen Attempt Damage Control Following My Expose of Them
It turns out Robert has been quite busy displaying his own antisemitism.
He wrote a vile article with the antisemitic title The Jews ‘War Against Corbyn’ risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain, which he retweeted out from a different Twitter account.
The title has since been changed to the less antisemitic The Jewish establishment’s ‘War Against Corbyn’ risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain, following complaints.
But the phrase “The ‘Jewish War’ against Corbyn” still exists in the body of the article
and the article itself is vile, blaming British Jews for wrongly complaining about antisemitism which eventually will create real antisemitism!
Following my expose of the Co-operative Group in the UK, who have advocated a boycott of Israel (and not “just” the settlements as they claim), as well as Robert Cohen, their head of executive external communications, who has not only advocated a boycott of Israel and mocked antisemitism, but been a member of an antisemitic Facebook group, the Co-op has denied being pro-BDS and also promised to look into my accusation of Cohen’s BDS support and antisemitic FB group membership.Rockefeller Brothers Fund finances key groups behind anti-Israel church divestment efforts
Hi Dave, I've raised this complaint with the relevant department to look into, on your behalf. ^SiobhanDespite repeated inquiries regarding where this stands, they have not responded to me.
— Co-op (@coopuk) July 24, 2018
Meanwhile, Cohen has responded – by covering his tuchus. He changed his Twitter profile description to suggest his tweets are unrelated to the views of Co-op.
Too little, too late. This is completely unacceptable.
Why are so many of America’s mainline churches partnering with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), an anti-Israel organization which allegedly has financial ties to terror groups and is a leader and mobilizer of BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) activism?Indy backgrounder on ‘Gaza-Israel conflict’ riddled with distortions
As we’ve highlighted in many prior posts, the USCPR has long played an outsized role in advancing a vehemently anti-Israel agenda in America’s Protestant churches.
In recent years it’s been a visible presence at nearly every U.S. mainline church general convention, assembly, and synod where it helps its church allies to promote distorted anti-Israel resolutions that solely blame Israel for the continuation of the conflict while virtually ignoring or trivializing Palestinian rejectionism, incitement to violence, glorification of terrorism, and the fact that Israelis live under constant threats.
Now, in an online fundraising letter sent to supporters last week, USCPR bragged about its critical role in advancing BDS within America’s churches. Specifically, the letter boasts about how the USCPR has served as a “common organizing thread” that “connects church divestment wins.”
The letter is meant to solicit tax-deductible gifts so that USCPR can continue to “support church communities.”
But what it really does is show how minority church subgroups made up of anti-Israel zealots—like Isaiah-58 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church USA’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN), and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship/Palestine-Israel Network (EPF-PIN) in the Episcopal Church—make use of USCPR funds and resources to successfully advance a BDS agenda within their denominations.
The Independent’s new Mid-East correspondent Bel Trew penned a backgrounder on the ‘Gaza-Israel conflict’ that’s full of distortions.BBC News one-sided reporting of Ahed Tamimi story persists
Here are some of the highlights from the July 27th article.
Trew asks: “Why has there been an upsurge in violence”, to which she explains:
“At the heart of the latest escalation is 16 weeks of Palestinian protests that have taken place at the border fence between Gaza and Israel”.
However, what’s been occurring at the border each week since March 31st can not accurately be characterised as merely “protests”. Rather, the Great Return March has, since the beginning, included violent riots and terror attacks by Palestinians (including Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists) who brought guns, pipe bombs, machetes and various incendiary devices. Their goal was to breach the security fence, sneak into Israeli communities and murder civilians.
On April 6, Hamas leader Yihya Sinwar appeared in one of the tents near the border and proclaimed that rioters would tear down the border fence and tear the hearts out of Israelis.
As has been the case in many of the BBC’s previous reports on this story, readers found promotion of the Tamimi brand:Shehroz Iqbal avoids prison despite second conviction for antisemitic threats, escaping with order to attend “thinking skills” programme
“For Palestinians, she became a symbol of resistance to Israeli occupation, but many Israelis see her as a publicity-seeking troublemaker. […]
For Palestinians, Ahed Tamimi has become a national icon for what they see as acts of bravery in standing up to armed soldiers on occupied land.
Her face has appeared on street murals and posters, while an online petition organised by her father calling for her release gathered 1.7m signatures.”
However, they were not informed that violent rioting has been taking place weekly in Nabi Saleh since December 2009, that Ahed Tamimi’s father Bassem is the main organiser of those Friday riots or that, together with other family members, he and his brother Bilal run a ‘news agency’ called ‘Tamimi Press’ which produces and distributes footage and images from those weekly riots, often featuring children from the Tamimi clan such as Ahed.
Between December 19th 2017 and March 22nd 2018 the BBC produced at least fourteen reports on this story but only in one of those – aired on a domestic BBC radio station – were audiences been provided with any information concerning the background to the charge of incitement against Ahed Tamimi. The BBC’s treatment of this story – including this latest report – has overwhelmingly diverted audience attention away from the main charge of incitement against Ahed Tamimi and propagated the deliberately misleading notion that she was arrested, tried and imprisoned for a “slap”.
That deliberate repeated framing of the story indicates that the corporation which is committed to providing its audiences with “accurate and impartial news […] of the highest editorial standards” has in this case chosen to abandon impartiality and accuracy – and instead lend its voice and outreach to one-sided promotion of a blatantly political campaign.
Convicted antisemite Shehroz Iqbal has avoided prison despite being convicted a second time of making antisemitic threats.Tristan Morgan charged with arson with intent to endanger life after pouring “accelerant” into Exeter’s historic synagogue but motive is “unknown”
Mr Iqbal was first convicted in October 2016 after making antisemitic death threats in September 2015 when he shouted “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill all of you Jews — you killed my brothers” at a Jewish motorist. Volunteers from Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, followed Iqbal’s car until officers from the Metropolitan Police Service arrived to arrest him.
Mr Iqbal then decided to contact Stamford Hill Shomrim on 6th November 2017, sending an e-mail with the subject “Please remove my picture from your website”. In the e-mail he made further death threats, writing: “Please remove my picture from my [sic] website or I will personally come and see you…please do it as soon as possible. I am a mad man. I don’t like my picture coming up on a Google shirt [sic]. I am very angry.” A few hours later he followed up with a second e-mail, writing: “Hahaha ah so many people have taking [sic] the piss out of your Zionist murdering community. I have no remorse for what I done [sic] hahaha. I see many other people have committed offences like me. Allah O Akbar! Keep my picture up for I am smiling at the officer haha. My day will come where [sic] I will come and see you in your office regarding my picture. Your Zionist murdering community.”
Stamford Hill Shomrim made a complaint to the Metropolitan Police Service.
On 10th July, Mr Iqbal pleaded guilty to sending a false message over a public electronic communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety, under section 127(2)(a) of the Communications Act 2003.
A 51-year-old man has appeared in court charged with an arson attack on Exeter’s historic synagogue.Mike Pence ‘sickened and appalled’ by anti-Semitic graffiti on Indiana synagogue
Tristan Morgan reportedly did not enter a plea when he appeared at Exeter Magistrates’ Court to answer charges of arson with intent to endanger life. Due to the serious nature of the charge, he has been ordered to appear before Exeter Crown Court on 23rd August.
According to police, Mr Morgan is alleged to have poured “an accelerant” into the synagogue, which was built in 1763, making it one of Britain’s oldest synagogues, and then tried to light it.
Mr Morgan is not believed to be charged with trying to set any other buildings alight, but his motive is said to be “unknown”.
US Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that he was “sickened and appalled” that anti-Semitic graffiti was spray painted on the property of a synagogue in his home state of Indiana.First Israel-India projects get green light from joint $40 million tech fund
A black swastika surrounded by a red background and the German and Nazi Military Iron Cross were painted on a wall at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla, a 200-member family Conservative synagogue in Carmel, near Indianapolis.
The graffiti was painted on the synagogue early on Saturday morning. Shabbat morning services were held despite the discovery, the synagogue said in a post on Facebook.
Writing on Twitter, Pence called the graffiti “a cowardly act of vandalism” and said that “those responsible must be held accountable.”
Since the incident, axtra security has been put in place at Indianapolis-area synagogues, the Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council told local media.
Affordable surgical devices and water, energy and cellular phone projects are the Israel-India initiatives that are to receive funding from a joint technology innovation fund set up by the two nations to boost collaboration between researchers and firms.Israeli TV shows get picked up in France, Mexico
The governing board of the Israel-India Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) announced the four first recipients for grants from the fund, which was launched earlier this year as a result of the July 2017 visit of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel.
“These grants constitute an important milestone in the continuation of the historic partnership between Israel and India,” Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen said in a statement, announcing the winning ventures.
Bacsoft (Israel), a maker of IoT devices, and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (India), an energy service company of the Indian government, will work together on increasing the water and energy efficiency in villages in India through the creation and application of water and electricity management systems and Internet of Things ( IoT) monitoring devices.
Israeli TV series by both HOT and Keshet have been sold in recent weeks to global TV giants.7 fantastic reasons to put Beersheva on your travel itinerary
Last week, France’s Canal Plus announced that it was picking up the Israeli show Miguel, which premiered earlier this year. And earlier this month Mexico’s Televisa picked up two more Israeli formats to complete a four-series deal.
The HOT series Miguel took home the prize for best ensemble cast at the Canneseries festival in April. The show – starring Ran Danker and Aviv Karmi – tells the story of Tom, a gay Israeli man who desperately wants to become a father. Tom travels to Guatemala – since gay men can’t easily adopt in Israel – and meets five-year-old Miguel, who he brings into his life and home.
According to Variety, which first reported the sale, Canal Plus is the first international broadcast partner for Miguel.
And over in Mexico, TV viewers are already enjoying adaptations of Israeli TV shows - and are gearing up for more.
Earlier this month, Mexican media giant Televisa completed a deal to purchase four original programs from Keshet.
Televisa already began airing Spanish-language adaptations of the first two shows it bought: Loaded and Easy Money. Loaded, which was known as Mesudarim in Israel when it aired in 2007, is about four friends who become hi-tech millionaires. The show has already been adapted in the UK and premiered there last year. Easy Money, which premiered in Israel in 2014, is about a man who wins NIS 70 million in a lottery.
When Gabe Axler and Ravit Greenberg moved to Israel from Chicago seven years ago, they banded together with other young couples to create an intentional community in the heart of Beersheva, the multiethnic unofficial capital of the Negev.
The 112-year-old city with 6,000-year-old biblical roots is not a common American immigrant destination. Nor is it a very common tourist destination. Newcomers like the Axler-Greenbergs and Beersheva natives like Mayor Ruvik Danilovich have been working hard to beef up the appeal of Beersheva on both counts.
ISRAEL21c recently toured the city with Axler, director of social tourism for Eretz Ir, a partner organization of Jewish National Fund-USA promoting community resilience, social entrepreneurship and employment initiatives in urban “periphery” cities like Beersheva (population 215,000 plus 30,000 students at Ben-Gurion University).
We pinpointed seven great reasons for tourists to spend time in Beersheva.
