Wednesday, August 08, 2018
As dozens of rockets fired at south, IDF strikes 12 Hamas targets in Gaza
Israel’s air force bombed 12 Hamas positions across the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, the military said, as dozens of rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israeli communities from the Palestinian enclave, including one barrage that slammed into the city of Sderot, injuring several Israelis.Three hurt as rockets fired from Gaza slam into Sderot
Throughout the night, wave after wave of alarms sounded in the Hof Ashkelon, Sha’ar Hanegev and Eshkol regions, outside Gaza, sending thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters, where many bedded down for the night with their families.
There were no immediate reports of fresh Israeli injuries or damage.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, 36 projectiles were fired at southern Israel on Wednesday night, including the eight that were launched at Sderot.
Three people were injured when rockets fired from Gaza struck the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday evening, as tensions between Israel and the Palestinian enclave spiraled dramatically a day after Hamas vowed revenge for the deaths of two of its gunmen.
According to the Israeli military, eight rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza at approximately 7:40 p.m. Two of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, and at least two landed in the town of Sderot.
Police said officers were sent to four sites where rockets or fragments of Iron Dome missiles struck Sderot.
Dramatic video taken during the attack showed a rocket appearing to strike near where a group of children were huddled against a wall, apparently unable to reach a shelter in time.
Raw footage: children in the city of Sderot, Israel, running as a rocket from Gaza explodes near them pic.twitter.com/opqy7XDCp8
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) August 8, 2018
IDF strikes Hamas posts in Gaza as fresh rocket sirens sound in south
Israel’s air force bombed a number of Hamas positions across the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, as rocket sirens blared in Israeli communities near the Palestinian enclave hours after a vollay of rockets slammed into the city of Sderot, injuring several Israelis.
Several waves of alarms were heard in the Hof Ashkelon, Sha’ar Hanegev and Eshkol regions, outside Gaza, sending thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a number of incoming projectiles that were headed toward the Eshkol region, according to a local government spokesperson.
Alan Johnson: Why the Nazi Analogy and Holocaust Inversion are Antisemitic
The following is an excerpt from ‘Antisemitism in the Guise of Anti-Nazism: Holocaust Inversion in the United Kingdom during Operation Protective Edge’, a chapter that will appear in Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: The Dynamics of Delegitimization, ed. Alvin H. Rosenfeld (Indiana University Press, forthcoming). The editor and publisher have kindly agreed to the advance publication of this excerpt in light of its topicality. The UK Labour Party is debating whether to incorporate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, including all its accompanying examples, into its own statutes. This part of my chapter sets out why the use of the Nazi analogy to attack Jews, Israelis and ‘Zionists’ should be considered antisemitic, not least because, understanding more deeply the way racism actually works, the best anti-racist scholarship and practice has long abandoned the notion that for racism to be present, a racist subjectivity and motivation, provable to boot, must be co-present. As well as being cut by two-thirds, the chapter has been edited in a couple of places to help the reader. Thanks to Alvin Rosenfeld for making this possible. (Alan Johnson)PMW: Abbas running org. designated by Israel as a terror organization
The Nazi analogy and Holocaust inversion, which involves ‘the portrayal of Israel, Israelis and Jews as modern-day Nazis, and Palestinians as the new Holocaust-era Jews’, is a moral disease.[i] The meaning of the analogy and the inversion —specifically, whether it is antisemitic—is contested. A locus of the dispute was the contrasting submissions of two academics, David Feldman and Ben Gidley, to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism’s inquiry into antisemitism in the United Kingdom during the Gaza conflict in the summer of 2014.[ii] The final report of the inquiry noted delicately that ‘there was some debate between those from whom we took expert testimony regarding the nuances of the definition of antisemitism when it comes to Nazi comparison.’[iii] In short, Gidley defined examples of Holocaust inversion as antisemitic discourse, but Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck University, did not, arguing that ‘the fact that they are wrong and hurtful does not render them anti-Semitic.’[iv]
Feldman advanced two reasons to deny that Holocaust inversion is antisemitic discourse. First, the inversion is banal (my word, not his)—that is, it is a ‘much used rhetorical device,’ a common rhetorical trope used in many arguments about many subjects, often light-mindedly, lacking any specifically antisemitic content. Feldman cited attacks on the UK Independence Party as Nazis as one example of banality and Israel’s leaders calling its enemies Nazis as another. Second, Feldman pointed out that the inversion is not motivated by an anti-Jewish subjectivity. The target, he points out, was Israel, not Jews; therefore, the inversion cannot be antisemitic. Only when discourse ‘endorse[s] Nazi persecution of Jews’ (e.g., brandishing a ‘Hitler Was Right!’ placard on the high street, as at least one protestor did in 2014) did Feldman consider it antisemitic.[v]
This week the PLO announced 30 positions for top PLO leadersKuwait Airlines to pay damages for denying Israeli passenger service
It announced that Mahmoud Abbas is "responsible for the Palestinian National Fund"
Last year Israel declared the Palestinian National Fund a terror organization
Under Israel's 2016 Counter Terrorism Law: "One who heads a terror organization or manages it or takes part in directing the terror organization in general, directly or indirectly, his sentence - 25 years imprisonment"
The PLO has announced 30 top positions for PLO leaders. In addition to leading the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas is cited as "the one responsible for the Palestinian National Fund":
"1. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - head of the PLO Executive Committee and the one responsible for the [Palestinian] National Fund" [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 2, 2018]
On March 16, 2017, Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman declared the Palestinian National Fund a terrorist organization, due to the fund's "massive support for elements responsible for committing severe acts of terrorism against Israel," and because the fund serves "as a significant financial pipeline for tens of millions of shekels that are transferred on a monthly basis to security prisoners held in Israel for committing acts of terrorism and to members of their families."
What is the significance of Mahmoud Abbas now being "responsible" for a terror organization?
According to Israel's "Counter Terrorism Law 2016-5776": "Heading a terrorist Organization
20. One who heads a terror organization or manages it or takes part in directing the terror organization in general, directly or indirectly, his sentence - 25 years imprisonment;"
Kuwait Airways will pay an Israeli citizen damages for refusing to sell her a plane ticket in November 2017.Douglas Murray: Jeremy Corbyn and the cynical tactics of the left
Mandy Blumenthal filed a racial discrimination and harassment lawsuit with the assistance of U.K. Lawyers for Israel against Kuwait Airways after they refused to sell her a plane ticket to Bangkok once she presented an airline representative with her Israeli passport, Britain's Jewish News reported.
The incident was caught on video.
Blumenthal said, "It is horrible to be singled out, to be told you are not allowed to do something because of who you are. … In my mind, it is an anti-Semitic policy to single out the only Jewish state to boycott."
David Berens, one of Blumenthal's attorneys, said, "The law is clear: Direct discrimination on grounds of nationality in the provision of a service to the public is illegal. Ms. Blumenthal has done a service in showing up Kuwait Airways' illegal policy. Kuwait Airways is now legally obliged to end this policy or end its services from the U.K. altogether."
There is the decent option – which is also the hardest. This would consist of sincerely trying to work out why the main party of the British left is now led by a man who keeps turning up in every international anti-Semitic fever swamp. There doesn’t seem like there’s much of an appetite for that option.Douglas Murray: The Left is deceiving itself over antisemitism
So then there are the indecent options. These include attempting to change the subject while merely pretending to deal with the first matter. For the time being this appears to be the most attractive alternative.
Thus it is that portions of the left have decided to counter what they regard as the ‘anti-Semitism card’ with the ‘Islamophobia card’. Of course there are other people hanging around with not very much to do who are very happy to join this bandwagon. ‘You criticise me for anti-Semitism? Fine – I raise you “Islamophobia”.’ How admirable. How cynical. How revealing.
Of course there are so many problems with this tactic (for tactic it is) that it is hard to know where to begin. How about with the basics? Such as the fact that anti-Semitism is a centuries (indeed millennia) old disease, rooted not in facts but in conspiracy-theories, and which in living memory led to the physical annihilation of a third of the world’s Jewish population. Whereas ‘Islamophobia’ is a concept invented by Islamists in the 1990s in order to try to prevent any and all criticism of the religion of Islam.
And just one problem that the proponents of ‘Islamophobia’ vs anti-Semitism will always keep coming across is the problem of what we used to call ‘the facts’. For instance, if two Muslims attack and decapitate a British soldier in broad daylight on the streets of London, or another two Muslims cut the throat of an elderly priest as he is saying mass at a church in Rouen, what are we to say about this? Those who throw around ‘Islamophobe’ want us to say that the people shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ while they slit the throats of infidels are not Muslims. If you fail to toe this line then you are an ‘Islamophobe’.
The Labour party’s antisemitism problem appears to be here to stay. And one reason for that lies deep beneath any one day’s news. It is not just that the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn is riddled with antisemites from top to bottom: people who have existed in the party and its surrounding areas for years but who have only now had a light shone upon them. It is much, much more than that. The problem is that there remains a set of fundamental misunderstandings on the political Left over what antisemitism is and where it comes from.UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance issues statement condemning tampering with the International Definition of Antisemitism
In May, I wrote for this website about the roots of this misunderstanding, which are there for anyone with ears to hear. It is there when Jeremy Corbyn and his followers claim that they will “defeat” or “end” antisemitism; as though one of the world’s oldest hatreds is some medical problem which can be solved with the right medicine. Or if enough ‘will’ is deployed. As I said back then, most Jews will laugh darkly at the idea that you can ever ‘eradicate’ antisemitism.
But the misunderstanding is telling. And it leads to the problem underlying the latest eruption of charges and embarrassments within UK Labour. One of the causes – which can be heard among all of the cheerleaders on the Corbynite Left – is that antisemitism is basically a right-wing disease and something which ‘anti-fascists’ of the kind that Corbynites like to fancy themselves as being could not possibly fall into.
You can hear it in the more honest disputes and debates on the Labour Left: “How dare they use this accusation against us? Don’t they realise this is the sort of stick we use to beat them?”
Of all the simplistic readings of history that prevail in our time, this is one of the most disheartening. Which is why I am forever recommending that people – especially young people – read a book by the distinguished, liberal, New York-based writer Paul Berman.
The UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has issued a statement condemning efforts to tamper with the International Definition of Antisemitism by removing or amending the examples of antisemitism which form part of the definition.Leaked Labour papers reveal scale of challenge to tackle antisemitism
The statement does not mention the Labour Party, but the timing and content of the statement appears to be a response to the Labour Party’s refusal to adopt a number of the examples in the definition.
In a pointed remark, the statement says: “Any ‘modified’ version of the IHRA definition that does not include all of its 11 examples is no longer the IHRA definition. Adding or removing language undermines the months of international diplomacy and academic rigour that enabled this definition to exist. If one organisation or institution can amend the wording to suit its own needs, then logically anyone else could do the same. We would once again revert to a world where antisemitism goes unaddressed simply because different entities cannot agree on what it is.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes IHRA’s intervention to defend the integrity of the definition. It should shame the Labour Party that its efforts to tamper with and undermine the definition precipitated such a move.
Leaked Labour disciplinary papers have laid bare the scale of the challenge the party’s governing body faces in tackling antisemitism.Jeremy Corbyn reportedly applauded antisemitic poetry at Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting
The paperwork, seen by the Guardian, was sent to national executive committee (NEC) members on 3 July, ahead of a meeting of the governing body’s disputes panel, which can refer members for expulsion.
The papers for the disputes panel, which all members of the ruling body can attend, lay out the party’s case against suspended members, compiled by party officers who then recommend sanctions to take.
Around 70 cases are believed to be pending. However, the papers reveal only a minority were considered by the NEC because of time constraints. At least three of the most serious cases of antisemitism were referred to Labour’s highest disciplinary body for possible expulsion.
Examples considered by the disciplinary panel included:
- The founder of the controversial Facebook group Palestine Live calling it a “badge of honour” to be investigated by the party
- A member claiming the Israeli lobby had manufactured the party’s antisemitism crisis
- A member suggesting Adolf Hitler’s policy on Zionism “might not be mutually exclusive with his later actions”
(h/t Zvi)
Jeremy Corbyn applauded the reading of an antisemitic poem during a meeting of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in 2012 at which he was a guest speaker, according to a report from 2012 that has now come to light.CAA exposes Labour Councillor Irfan Mohammed, who shared Facebook post claiming Jews were warned to stay home on 9/11
Anti-racism activist Richard Millett wrote in 2012 that Mr Corbyn sat on stage and listened while an anti-Israel activist, Claire Quinn, recited a poem entitled Israel is dying, applauding afterwards. Mr MIllett says that the poem included the lines: “It is now not the Nazi state but Israel that blocks the seas. ¬ It is not Auschwitz that stops the ship that carries hope and messages, ¬ But those that might have died there. ¬ So let this poem drive the Hope that heads for Gaza. ¬ The victims are now the torturers. ¬ Freedom must be for all not just the victors ¬ Whose victory brings forgetfulness of what they suffered once now brought to others.”
In other allusions to the atrocities of the Nazi regime, speakers compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto, where tens of thousands of Jews were forcibly imprisoned prior to being despatched to extermination camps, and asserted in reference to Israel that “no oppression or injustice has ever gone without falling. The apartheid regime ended, the collapse of Nazism…”
The International Definition of Antisemitism states that, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has exposed a Labour councillor, Ifran Mohammed, who shared a Facebook post claiming that Jews were warned to stay home on 9/11.Labour policy decision-maker George McManus suspended following antisemitic Facebook comment
Mr Mohammed is a councillor for the Ferndale Ward in Lambeth. According to Lambeth Council’s website, Mr Mohammed sits on the Equality Impact Assessment Panel and is a member of Faiths Together in Lambeth.
In stark contrast with his supposed commitment to equality and interfaith togetherness, on 5th December 2015 he posted a video on Facebook claiming that Jews “received a text message before the incident ‘Do not come to work in [sic] September 11’” and that there are “Israeli ties to the September 11 attacks”.
After Mr Mohammed failed to respond to our attempt to contact him, we provided details about the matter to the media. He did not respond to their requests for comment either, however he has been active on social media and has deleted the original Facebook post.
The claim that Jews were behind the 9/11 atrocities is one of the most vile antisemitic conspiracy theories of recent times, not least because so many Jews lost their lives that day.
George McManus, who sits on the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum as its first chair, has been suspended from his Party role after posting a Facebook comment about Tom Watson likening him to “Judas” for accepting donations from Jewish businessman Sir Trevor Chinn.
McManus wrote: “Apparently [the] Electoral Commission states that Watson received £50,000+ from Jewish donors. At least Judas only got 30 pieces of silver.” Judas was supposedly a disciple of Jesus who betrayed him for money, and is often used as a means of portraying Jews as money-obsessed and disloyal.
Labour MP Wes Streeting condemned Mr McManus’ post as an “antisemitic trope”, and veteran Labour activist Luke Akehurst decried it as “naked antisemitism, jumping straight to the medieval Christian version”.
Mr McManus’ suspension came after Luciana Berger, leader of the Jewish Labour Movement, submitted a formal complaint to the Party. In response to his suspension Momentum, which Mr McManus represents on the National Policy Forum, tweeted thanks to those who “drew attention to the appalling, antisemitic comment”, and assured their followers that Momentum will not tolerate “any antisemitism, racism or online abuse from candidates we support”.
In my party, the Democratic Party, the extreme progressive liberals who preach socialism are dangerous anti-Semites https://t.co/46F035CPLb pic.twitter.com/JUV6ayC5p7
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) August 7, 2018
IsraellyCool: WATCH: Johnny Rotten’s Epic Rant Against Jeremy Corbyn & The Labour Party; “I Am Jew!”
We already knew that former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten was one of the most unorthodox defenders of Israel out there. So it might not surprise you to see this: an epic rant against Jeremy Corbyn and his antisemitism-plagued Labour party.New York Democrat Ocasio-Cortez cheered at Jewish museum event
Do I even need to put up a language warning?!
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate and rising progressive star, was cheered at an event at a Jewish museum Tuesday that did not touch on Israel or the Jewish community.NGO Monitor: Analysis of EU-Funded Projects on Israeli Civil Society to I’lam Center
Ocasio-Cortez appeared at a conference hosted by the Immigrant Arts Coalition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, participating in a panel focused on women in the arts. While politics did frequently come up, none of the panelists — including Ocasio-Cortez, who has been critical of Israel — mentioned Jews or Israel.
In 2016, the European Union (EU), via the European Neighbourhood and Partnership funding Instrument (ENI), provided the Israeli NGO Il’am Arab Center for Media Freedom Development and Research a total of €365,803 (2017-2019) for “The Creation of the Freedom Protection Council: Ensuring democratic space for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Israel.” As indicated by this title and noted explicitly by the EU, “The overall objective of this action is to ensure active engagement of Civil Society Organisations by countering systemic barriers that limit their participation in policymaking processes.”1 The EU database lists the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute as a partner, and Van Leer refers to the role of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in formulating this agenda.Contradicting Netanyahu, EU says it hasn’t stopped funding left-wing association
Political lobbying as a central facet of this project is made explicit in a “strategic action plan” (Hebrew), which bears the EU’s logo on every page, published by I’lam.2 The plan calls for what amounts to opposition political activity: extensive lobbying efforts in the Knesset and multiple media campaigns. I’lam and its partners will “act in the Knesset and public sphere in order to form public and political coalitions whose aim will be to prevent legislation that harms freedoms and advances [legislation] that promotes them.”
The “[Freedom Protection] Council’s flagship demand” is expressed in lobbying efforts aimed at uniting MKs “who identify with the activities of the [left wing] organizations” in order to “initiate counter-legislation” aimed at fighting the right’s attempt to “aggressively promote its worldview, regardless of ideological or national minority groups.”
In addition, the contextual background of Il’am plan is highly politicized and derogatory, intimating throughout that Israel is not and never was a democratic country. Historically, the State of Israel was established “on the ruins of the Palestinian people, which was the demographic majority in the geographic region where [Israel] was founded.” For decades, the authors assert that Israel has maintained for decades a “sophisticated system of control consisting of a policy of segregation, dependence, and supervision.”
The European Union on Wednesday denied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the bloc had agreed to halt its funding for an Israeli association of left-wing groups, saying it was merely “examining possible breaches of contractual obligations.”Jewish community grows angry, impatient with Sawant and Seattle Council
A day after Netanyahu declared that the decision to terminate funds for the Freedom Protection Council stemmed from Israeli pressure, the EU said in a statement that such decisions were “for the EU to take, and for the EU alone.”
Israel charges that the Freedom Protection Council, established in 2017 by Arab-Israeli media freedom NGO I’lam, seeks to “delegitimize” Israel.
It is composed of representatives of dozens of leftist Israeli NGOs including B’Tselem and Adalah, with the stated objective of fighting attempts to limit democratic freedoms in the country and resisting attacks on human rights groups.
After a recent anti-Semitic event and the ongoing vandalism of a Jewish cemetery, some in Seattle’s Jewish community are left wondering if the city cares about their concerns.IsraellyCool: Radical Leftist Group Jewdas Calls Bibi Netanyahu a “Known Antisemite” & “Notorious Jew-Hater”
In May, scores of local Jews called out Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the Seattle LGBTQ Commission for hosting a virulently anti-Semitic event. Others have been disgusted with the frequent vandalism of Bikur Cholim cemetery in Seattle, which seems to go unaddressed. And a younger demographic of Jewish Seattleites are dealing with open anti-Semitism, masquerading as a legitimate social justice movement, at the University of Washington.
Some see these issues indicative of a bigger concern for the Jewish community.
“I don’t think the city could care less [about the] straight-up anti-Semitism or slightly watered down anti-Zionism/BDS [Boycott, Divest, Sanctions Movement],” Ian Eisenberg, owner of Uncle Ike’s, told me. “The city doesn’t want to get involved. We are on our own [and] Sawant leads the charge.”
Others believe there are valid concerns, but that Seattle is a great place for the Jewish community.
“I don’t think they’re indicative of any kind of broad-based movement or reflection of anti-Semitism or how Jews have quality of life here,” Democratic State Senator Reuven Carlyle (WA-36) explained to me. “I think, overall, you have a really fabulous connection to the community and the vast views of the majority of Seattle reflect well upon the Jewish community and our overall quality of life.”
A radical leftist group Jewdas has published a vile piece claiming – wait for it – that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is antisemitic according to the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.Amazon Selling "Make Israel Palestine Again" T-Shirts
Netanyahu is antisemitic, according to IHRA definitions
World leaders have been criticised for sharing a platform with known antisemite, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Donald Trump, Angela Merkel and Theresa May have all come under fire for meeting the notorious Jew-hater and prime minister of Israel.
The Israeli Prime Minister, self-styled as ‘Bibi’ has become notorious worldwide for Jew-baiting, racist stereotyping and Holocaust minimisation.
In her most scathing teshuva yet, Rabbi Geoffrey Cohen denounced Netanyahu as a racist. “Several times in the last year, Bibi has egregiously flouted the IHRA examples of antisemitism. Any world leader who meets with this man is guilty of racism by association.”
Amazon.com is selling T-shirts that say "Make Israel Palestine Again," a not so subtle endorsement of ending the State of Israel. The shirts are listed as "In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com." This stands in contrast with some merchandise Amazon sells that comes from third-party sources.Rappers Tyga and Fat Joe Cause Cancellation of Entire Music Festival in Israel, Citing ‘Security Situation’
Similar shirts are available on Etsy.com.
The slogan "Make Israel Palestine Again" is used often on social media, including a Twitter page and an Instagram account. An image on the Twitter feed shows President Trump wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat Photoshopped to say "Make Israel Palestine Again."
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist Miko Peled used the Trump-style "Make Israel Palestine Again" hat as his Twitter avatar and in a November 2016 post. Peled linked to a petition that calls Israel's existence into question.
The BDS movement aims to isolate Israel politically and economically using sanctions and boycotts of Israeli goods.
American celebrity rappers Fat Joe and Tyga, who were slated to headline the Shaka music festival in Rishon Lezion on Thursday, cancelled suddenly on Sunday, citing the “security situation.”Muslim RA Resigns After ‘Physically Fight Zionists’ Remark
The pair were set to be joined by a lineup of Israeli hip hop artists.
The sudden loss of the two top performers led to the cancellation of the entire festival. Ticket holders were informed that they would be able to secure refunds. Shocked fans expressed their disappointment on social media, with many asking “what security situation?”
Over the past several years, many musicians and other artists have come under pressure from the BDS movement to not perform in the Jewish state. It is unclear if the BDS movement played a role in this cancellation.
The performance was to be the first in Israel for Tyga and Fat Joe, both Grammy-nominated performers in the rap category. Last year’s Shaka Festival featured rapper Sean Paul, who performed for 15,000 attendees.
Stanford student Hamzeh Daoud seems to have deleted his Facebook now, but people who saw it in late July might’ve come across a post where he said: “I’m gonna physically fight Zionists on campus next year if someone comes at me with their ‘Israel is democracy bullshit’ 🙂 And after I abolish your ass I’ll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state,” according to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Hamzeh, who’s a member of Stanford’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, had second thoughts four hours later and changed the phrase “physically fight Zionists” to “intellectually fight Zionists,” but that didn’t stop his original post from making its rounds on the interwebs, with the College Republicans and others criticizing it.
The student released a statement Friday saying he is a “third-generation Palestinian refugee” and that he bears “trans-generational trauma.” Trans-generational trauma? What does that even mean? This is starting to remind me of black Americans who demand reparations for injustices that, while absolutely horrible, they, themselves, have not suffered. No, sorry, collectivism isn’t a Western principle.
Anyways, Hamzeh goes on to say “I apologize from the bottom of my heart to everyone who was triggered by it. I recognize that I was projecting my own trauma onto others in a way that is never acceptable.” He’s apparently enrolling in “trauma-based therapy” at Stanford and says he’s resigning from his position as RA to focus on his schoolwork and also to think about the consequences of his post.
University revises textbook that blamed victims of the Holocaust
A controversial textbook for a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill fitness course has been revised for this fall, university officials say.IsraellyCool: Israel Haters Make Up Another Fake BDS Victory
In a statement, the university said the department of exercise and sport science worked with the publisher of “21st Century Fitness” to make “multiple edits to the content and length of the book.”
“These edits are based on student and department faculty feedback and are part of an ongoing curriculum review process by the Exercise and Sport Science Curriculum Committee,” the statement said. “Among other changes, the publisher has confirmed that references to the Holocaust and to cancer as ‘a disease of choice’ had already been removed from the fall 2018 edition.”
It drew scorn from some for its references to a theory by Holocaust survivor and Austrian psychotherapist Victor Frankl about concentration camps. About Frankl and his philosophy, the book said: “The people in the camps who did not tap into the strength that comes from recognizing their intrinsic worth succumbed to the brutality to which they were subjected.”
Last week, a Jewish human rights organization demanded that UNC drop the textbook. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a news release saying the book should be removed by UNC because it “insults the memory of Holocaust victims.”
Quds News Network is claiming yet another victory for BDS – the cancellation of a friendly soccer match between Ireland and Israel.Michael Lumish: This Week on Nothing Left
There’s just one problem with this – it is completely false.
For a start, there is no news outlet reporting this (no, I do not consider Quds News Network to be an actual legitimate news outlet).
Then there’s the fact the BDS movement itself never got the memo; their call for the Irish Football Association (IFA) to cancel the friendly is still in play, with no news on their site of any victory in this regard.
Did I also mention that the IFA itself has said it has no intention of cancelling the friendly?
Here is this week's episode of Nothing Left ...How Holocaust experts want to help Zuckerberg solve Facebook’s denial dilemma
3 min Editorial: the ECAJ and AIJAC attack on AJA
4 min Lauren Southern clip, in Lakemba
20 min Gideon Rozner, Inst of Public Affairs
51 min Dr Tanveer Ahmed, Muslim psychiatrist
1 hr 9 Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel
1 hr 30 Isi Leibler in Jerusalem, on Nation-State bill
Holocaust experts want to meet with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the social network’s unwillingness to automatically remove anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial material.Facebook: Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Don’t Violate ‘Hate Speech’ Rules
The heads of organizations and experts involved in Holocaust and genocide education offered to meet with Zuckerberg and help raise Holocaust awareness within the Facebook community.
In late July, Zuckerberg said in an interview published online that he would not automatically remove Holocaust-denying posts from the social network he founded.
“Facebook must not allow complete and utter falsehoods about the Holocaust, and about the Jewish people, to go systematically unchecked,” the letter dated Tuesday to Zuckerberg says. “Virulent antisemitism is a proven pathway that leads from rhetorical hatred to actions of violence. Freedom of speech laws are not a reason to do nothing — inaction is always the opportunity for evil to flourish. All genocide starts with distortion of the truth and prejudice.”
The experts later say: “We offer you tangible, rapidly executable steps towards Facebook becoming part of the solution. We can deliver proven educational resources in multiple languages, ready for digital deployment with Facebook — important as you may wish to break the task down by different jurisdictions with different laws.”
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s official Facebook page is rife with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and other hateful speech, which have not been censored by Facebook content monitors, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of the page reveals.Gaza man jailed for assaulting Jew wearing kippah in Switzerland
Videos posted to Farrakhan’s Facebook page show the Nation of Islam leader claiming that Jews are secretly controlling government agencies to suppress black Americans and blaming Jews for “weaponizing” marijuana with “chemicals” to “feminize” black men.
Neither of those videos violate Facebook’s rules prohibiting hate speech, a Facebook spokeswoman told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview Tuesday.
Another video that showed Farrakhan warning against interracial marriage — which he blames on “the enemy” in Hollywood — to keep the black race “from being any further mongrelized,” was originally ruled not to violate hate speech rules, according to the Facebook spokeswoman.
A Palestinian man who assaulted a Jewish man wearing a kippah on a train in Switzerland was sentenced to four months in prison for assault, but was not convicted of a hate crime.Report: Berlin Harbors 20% of German Anti-Semitic Crimes
The assault occurred in February aboard a train near Lausanne, the German-language 20 Minuten news website reported Monday. It had not been reported in major Swiss media prior to this week.
The perpetrator, a 40-year-old man who was born in Gaza, identified only as Mohammed, threw a shirt in the face of the victim, identified as Israel. He stole the victim’s water bottle, book and kippah, throwing the latter in a trash bin. Mohammed, who has multiple drug-related convictions, also stole Israel’s watch, broke his glasses and hit the Jewish man all over his body.
Mohammed told Israel he’d like to slit his throat, according to witnesses.
Johanne Gurfinkiel, the secretary-general of the CICAD watchdog group on anti-Semitism in Switzerland, said the details of the case suggest that Mohammed singled out Israel for attack because he was visibly Jewish. Yet Mohammed’s conviction, handed down last month, does not reference a hate crime as an aggravated element in the assault.
The 20 Minuten report did not say whether Mohammed indicated his motivation for assaulting Israel.
According to German police, anti-Semitic crime affects Berlin more than any other German state, Tagesspiegel reported Tuesday. The police report is based on preliminary findings regarding 80 anti-Jewish crimes committed in Berlin in the first half of 2018, compared with Bavaria which is in second place with 43 anti-Semitic offenses. Four of the 80 offenses in Berlin were violent.Neo-Nazi state senate candidate plans to establish 'antisemitic capital'
There were 401 anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2018 in Germany. Berlin, which is both the capital city and a state, experienced 20% of these.
According to police, the Berlin numbers went up in the second quarter of this year. From January to March, police recorded 26 anti-Semitic offenses in the city, and from April to June there were 54, including the four acts of violence. Most offenses, 62 in total, were committed by right-wing anti-Semites. In eight cases, the suspects were identified with “foreign ideology.” This is, of course, code for Muslims. Another three cases fell under “religious ideology,” meaning there was no way to deny that the perpetrators were Islamists. Three offenses were by leftsts. Four cases were not assigned an ideological source.
A total of 23 suspects were apprehended.
Patrick Little's Senate campaign against incumbent Diane Feinstein failed in April. Now Little is reportedly taking his message of antisemitism and white nationalism to North Idaho, where he claims he plans to establish a "regional capital" intended to fight "the nation-wrecking plans of leftists and their Jewish controllers who aim to ruin people forever."Poland obtains archive of diplomats' efforts to rescue Jews
Little espoused his message of hate and segregation via robocalls he allegedly left on the voicemails of residents of Sandpoint, Idaho. Playing in the background is The Rembrandts' hit 1995 single "I'll Be There for You," otherwise known as the theme song of sitcom "Friends."
"America has a Jewish problem," a chipper Little says to begin the call, audio of which was obtained by the Spokesman-Review. He goes on to announce his plans to make Sandpoint "one of my new regional capitals throughout the country" when he arrives in mid-August.
Little then says he is traveling around the nation to engage "with folks on the problems we face and how to solve them together as the extended family our European people are." He finishes by touting North Idaho's "pioneer spirit of hard work, family values, common sense and fighting off the nation-wrecking plans of leftists — and their Jewish controllers who aim to ruin our people forever."
Poland has obtained a World War II-era archive that documents the efforts of Polish diplomats in Switzerland to get Jews out of Europe by issuing phony passports from Latin American countries.A smiling setting sun for Brian Wilson
The Culture Ministry and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum announced Monday that Poland had obtained the archive after more than a year of negotiations with a private owner in Israel.
The ministry and the museum said 330 people are known to have survived the Holocaust as a result of having the faked passports, while 387 were killed despite having the false documents and the fate of 430 others has not been determined.
The wartime effort to rescue Jews was led by Poland's ambassador to Switzerland at the time, Aleksander Lados, and included three other Polish diplomats and two representatives of Jewish organizations. The archive is named for one of the Jewish representatives, Rabbi Chaim Eiss, who died of a heart attack in late 1943.
Poland's purchase of the archive comes as the Polish government works to emphasize the help some Poles provided Jews during the Nazi occupation of the country.
It was only a little more than two years ago when famed Beach Boys founder and pop composer Brian Wilson made his Israel debut, performing the 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds in its entirety at the Ra’anana Amphitheater.Suzanne Vega returns to Israel for two shows
Thanks to his stellar band, featuring co-Beach Boys mate Al Jardine and 1970s member Blondie Chaplin, it was a triumph. They covered up Wilson’s deficiencies at the piano and vocals with a gorgeous glossy backdrop of sound and harmony.
Tuesday night at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the 76-year-old Wilson seemed even frailer and less involved. Recovering from back surgery in May, he needed a walker and assistants to get on stage for a ‘greatest hits’ show. Looking distracted and disengaged, he sang lead on only about half the tunes, and you couldn’t really tell whether he was playing much behind the white baby grand piano.
And yet… the show was a blast. Wilson’s songbook of classics is astounding, and his 10-piece band led by his secret weapon – longtime musical director and keyboardist Darian Sahanaja - did it justice with authenticity and enthusiasm. The slack was picked up by the spry 75-year-old Jardine, who led renditions of “Little Deuce Coupe” and “Help Me Rhonda” and by Jardine’s son, Matthew, whose spot-on falsettos sparked each song, especially his lead vocals on one of Wilson’s finest, “Don’t Worry Baby.”
American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega will be returning to Israel next month for two unique shows - both accompanied by a string orchestra from the Ra'anana Symphonette.The Islamic school that ensures its boys understand the Israeli point of view
Vega's first performance will be at the Tamar Festival at Masada on September 26. The long-running festival, held on the intermediary days of Sukkot, also features an extensive lineup of local talent, including Rita, Sarit Haddad, David Broza, Avraham Tal and many more.
The following day, Vega will take the stage at the Haifa Congress Center for a second show.
The folk singer, who rose to fame in the 1980s, has released nine studio albums. Her most famous songs include "Luka," "Tom's Diner" and "Left of Center."
Vega most recently performed in Israel in 2015, when she played two shows in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic.
Abdul, 15, on the Israel team, says his side had to work harder: “I told the team, swallow your pride, just do it. Even after hours and hours of research we thought Palestine had a stronger argument, so to find an argument for Israel and the Jews to have this thing was really difficult.
“But we did find it, we found small things to pick out and expand on, and we were very close to actually winning. I was more on the other side but now I’ve got a bit more understanding and think Israel does have a point. In this school especially we are trying to become Muslim scholars but we have to go out there and we need to be aware of what’s going on – this is Britain, we need to understand British values. All of this will help us understand tolerance, etc. If we are biased to one opinion by ignorance then it’s not fair. No matter if they are Jews or whatever, they are still human. We have to respect them.”
Earlier this year, Davies split his Lancaster Grammar students into two groups. One was taught the Israeli view, the other the Palestinian. Afterwards, they were surveyed on the Balfour declaration and if the British should have signed it. Their answers were influenced by what they had been taught. Almost 60% of those taught the Jewish side said the British should be praised, while almost 50% of those taught the Palestinian narrative said the British should be criticised.
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After the Abrar lesson, just two boys say that they still believe Israel does not have a right to exist.
“Obviously you have to look at it with a sympathetic view when you are dealing with the Jewish part of things because they came out of the holocaust and needed a land of their own and Palestine did have a bit of space,” says Mohammed, 19.
“But what makes me say that Israel doesn’t have the right to exist is the fundamentals of what it was built on and how they deal with Palestine right now.” (h/t Zvi)
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