Sunday, March 24, 2019

03/24 Links: Anti-Semitism: Campus Divestment Resolutions in the USA (2005-2019); AIPAC Conference: Romania, Honduras, Cape Verde announce embassies will move to Jerusalem

From Ian:
Anti-Semitism: Campus Divestment Resolutions in the USA (2005-2019)
The first BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) resolutions were proposed in student governments in 2005-6, of the four introduced, two passed and two were defeated. Only five other resolutions were proposed in the following five academic years combined and three of those were defeated. The campaign began to take off in 2012-13 with 10 resolutions (six were defeated), followed by 19 in 2013-14 (12 were defeated) and 27 in 2014-15 (20 were defeated). Since that upsurge, the movement has shown signs of petering out.

In the last 14 years (2005-2019):
  • A total of 127 BDS measures have been considered – 83 were defeated (65%).
  • Those votes were limited to a total of 68 schools, less than 3% of America’s four-year colleges. (The California Community College Association is counted as one college and the UC Student Association, which has no power and represents no individual schools is excluded as were four graduate student programs).
  • A total of 38 schools have approved a BDS resolution in the last 14 years, which represents about 1% of universities.*
  • A total of 54 schools have rejected BDS (there is some overlap as some of these have adopted BDS in other years) .
  • A total of 28 schools had two or more votes; 9 schools had three or more (Ohio State, Berkeley, Davis, Riverside, UCSB, UCSD, UCSC, Michigan, Dearborn), and 5 schools had four (Michigan, Michigan Dearborn, UC Riverside, UCSD, Ohio State)
  • Only 5 schools (Michigan Dearborn, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC Davis) have passed BDS more than once.
  • Of the 68 schools that voted on BDS, 11 were ranked in the top 20 and 11 of 15 (73%) resolutions were defeated.
  • A total of 22 schools in the top 50 entertained BDS initiatives and 30 of 46 were defeated (65%). In 2019, Brown became the first Ivy League school to pass a divestment resolution.
Even the handful of divestment resolutions that were adopted by students have no authority and administrators have repeatedly made clear they have no intention of divesting from Israel. In fact, many of the same schools (e.g., UCI) dramatically increased cooperation with Israel after the votes. Overall, about 97% percent of American campuses have had no divestment votes and have little or no BDS activity.

At AIPAC Conference, Romania, Honduras, Cape Verde announce embassies to locate in Jerusalem
A number of Democrat politicians are boycotting the 2019 annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

But there are 18,000 pro-Israel Americans attending, many U.S politicians, and foreign leaders as well.

Three of those leaders just announced their respective countries would follow the U.S. lead and relocate their embassies to Jerusalem. They join not only the U.S., but also Guatamala. Other countries, such as Brazil, have indicated an intention to relocate their embassies, but not on any definite timeline.

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández delivered the announcement, Israel National News reports:
Honduras announced plans to move its diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, opening a new embassy in the Israeli capital city.

President Juan Orlando Hernandez made the announcement Sunday, during the 2019 American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington DC.

Speaking at the opening meeting of the conference, Hernandez said his country would “immediately” open an “official diplomatic mission” in the Israeli capital city.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă made her announcement during her speech, as The Jerusalem Post reports:
“I, as prime minister of Romania, and the government I lead, will move our embassy to Jerusalem,” Dăncilă said. “Our support of the State of Israel and the Jewish community is constant. I am determined to contribute to closer relations between Israel and the entire European Union, particularly now, when Romania is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union.”

She promised that Romania would “remain the same loyal friend and the strongest European voice in support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” concluding with the words, “shalom chaveirim (Peace friends), see you in Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu touts peerless ties with Trump as he leaves on pre-election trip to DC
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the exceptionalism of US-Israel relations as he headed early Sunday morning to Washington, where he will meet with US President Donald Trump and deliver an address at AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference two weeks before Israeli elections.

Addressing reporters as he boarded his Boeing 777 en route to Washington, Netanyahu said his relationship with Trump surpassed his ties with any world leaders and with any bond between Israel and the US before.

“Never — never — has there been a relationship like this between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. It’s a very, very important asset for the State of Israel, and it is important that [this relationship] continues to serve us.”

Netanyahu traveled to Washington two weeks before Israeli voters will head to the polls on April 9, after a campaign that has seen Netanyahu tout his diplomatic successes and his close bond with Trump.



Gaza. Blast from the Past. The more things change...
From a February 1, 1957 article on Gaza, from the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, detailing the extraordinary efforts Israel put in to raising the standard of living in Gaza.

"Meanwhile it was revealed that within the next two months work will be begun on linking Gaza farmland into Israel's complex irrigation to bring sufficient water this summer to increase irrigated lands in the Strip by 50 percent. The Israel Government will subsidize water prices and, as a result, water from the Yarkon River will cost Gaza Arab farmers less than Israeli farmers in the Negev."

Some things never change.

"UNRWA, meanwhile, has agreed to strike out of textbooks, passages which incite hatred of Israel"

Its been 62 years. We are still waiting.
Minister says Trump to recognize Golan as Israeli territory Monday
US President Donald Trump will sign an order recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights when he meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday, Israel’s acting foreign minister said.

“President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Israel Katz wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Trump tweeted Thursday that it was “time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” upending decades of US policy on the matter.

He however left unanswered if or when he would follow through with an order to do so.

Israeli leaders were exuberant over the announcement, with Netanyahu saying “the message that President Trump has given the world is that America stands by Israel.”
Trump's Golan Heights decision: It's all about Iran, stupid!
-He was just trying to help Netanyahu.

-It was all about the Jewish vote.

-He did it to show contrast with the anti-Israel Democratic Party.

-The right wing is trying to make Israel a partisan issue, etc. etc. and so on.

Since President Trump announced the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, political pundits of both parties claim to understand the rationale of the POTUS for his announcement. They are all wrong! To paraphrase James Carville’s famous line, “It’s All About Iran Stupid.” The reason for the president’s announcement was to protect American interests in the Middle East.

Iran has deployed several thousand Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps troops Syria to help Assad. Additionally, Iran has brought in its buddy Hezbollah to join in on the war. To put the icing on the Iranian cake, Iran’s bought in thousands of Shiite fighters, paid by Tehran and following Iran’s orders.

But don’t think that Iran is trying to help their buddy Assad out of the goodness of their collective hearts. Its presence in Syria helps the rogue regime fulfill two interrelated strategic objectives.

To help Iran control the Middle East, one of its objectives has been to create a “land bridge” to the Mediterranean. Control of territory leading to the sea enables Iran to safely move people and supplies between the Mediterranean and Tehran whenever they want. The smooth movement of people and supplies allows the Shia Muslim Iran to advance its quest to replace and control the governments of the Sunni states of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. It’s pretty certain that the US consulted with and explained the President’s rationale to the Sunni countries threatened by Iran above before making his Golan Height’s announcement. And while you might hear them complain but a complaint that is reminiscent of one of my favorite scenes from the movie Casablanca:
Klein: Five Reasons Trump Is Right to Recognize Israeli Sovereignty over Golan Heights
3 – Israeli control of the Golan Heights advances U.S. security in the region.
As a key U.S. ally, Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights serves as a pro-Western anchor to ensure against Iranian, Syrian and Russian designs in the area. Besides Iran, Russia is the other main powerbroker in Syria, where Moscow maintains major military installations including its massive naval facility in Tartus and the Khmeimim, Tiyas and Shayrat airbases.

4 – Outside control of the Golan Heights could threaten Israel’s water supply.
The Golan Heights rests atop the Sea of Galilee and Lake Tiberius, with the Galilee serving as the source of one-third Israel’s water supply. While it controlled the Golan Heights from 1948 to 1967, Syria took action to prevent Israel from water development projects and attempted to divert critical water sources from the Golan with the goal of denying Israel its much needed water supply.

5 – Jews have long been connected to the Golan Heights — territory that is steeped in Jewish history.
Israel has maintained the territory longer than the brief 19 years that it was under Syrian control from 1948 to 1967. Before that, the Golan was variously controlled by the French and British mandates and by Turkey.

After the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948, tens of thousands of acres of land in the Golan Heights was seized from Jewish associations which had purchased the land in the late 19th century.

The Golan Heights is steeped in Jewish history.
MEMRI: Syrian Analyst Taleb Ibrahim: We Welcome War To Annihilate Zionist Enemy; In Any War, The People Are A Critical Factor And The People Of The Golan Heights Will Join Their Brothers In The Axis Of Resistance, Which Extends From The Border Of Afghanistan
Syrian political analyst Taleb Ibrahim said, in a recent Al-Manar TV program, that now that the defeat of the militants in Syria and Iraq was a "done deal," it was the right moment for a war against the Israeli enemy, which, he said, managed ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front, and the Free Syrian Army. Calling Israeli PM Netanyahu a "pro-Haredi lunatic," Taleb Ibrahim, of the Institute for National Security Research in Syria, said that the people of occupied Palestine and the occupied Golan Heights would take up arms and "fight alongside their brothers in the axis of resistance" in the "final and decisive battle." The program aired on March 14, 2019.

"We Might Be Standing At The Gates Of The Great War That Will Lead Us To The Final Victory"

Taleb Ibrahim: "We are convinced that any war against the Israeli enemy will turn the tables and bring the roof down on the heads of those Bedouins who stood alongside the Israeli enemy in declarations, actions, and intentions. The war with which Netanyahu threatens us every so often is the best and most fitting option for us. As I have said on your channel before, we have defeated all the prime ministers of the Israeli enemy. We defeated Shamir, Begin, Olmert, and so on, and now it is Netanyahu's turn. We must defeat this pro-Haredi lunatic once and for all in the Middle East. Perhaps now the conflict will develop in very many directions, and such steps might prompt a military Syrian and Iranian response. Israeli might think that this is its opportunity to eliminate what is left of the axis of resistance, but there are many big surprises awaiting this enemy. Right now, we might be standing at the gates of the great war that will lead us to the final victory. Our victories over the militants in Syria and in Iraq are a done deal.

"The real, complete, and total victory is against the Zionist enemy, which managed ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front, the FSA, and those Bedouins with their money, whom the enemy led in the wrong direction. The victory will involve the annihilation of this entity, once and for all."
[...]
"When The People Of Occupied Palestine Understand That This Is A Large And Decisive Battle, They Will Take Up Their Arms And Fight Alongside Their Brothers In The Axis Of Resistance"

"In any war and in any conflict, the people – not the weapons – are the critical factor in the battle.
Partial portrayals of international law in three BBC reports
As Professor Eugene Kontorovich pointed out in testimony given to the US House of Representatives last year:
“The widely-repeated view that recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would be contrary to international law is based on one fundamental assumption: that at least since the adoption of U.N. Charter, international law prohibits any acquisition of foreign territory by force. While such a formulation of the rule is largely accurate, it omits crucial exceptions quite relevant to the case of the Golan Heights.

Whatever the current status of an absolute prohibition on territorial change resulting from war, there was certainly no such blanket prohibition in 1967, when the territory came under Israeli control. At the time, international law only prohibited acquisition of force in illegal or aggressive wars. This is evident from the source of the prohibition in the UN Charter, post-Charter state practice, and the understandings of international jurists at the time. There is simply no precedent or authoritative source for forbidding defensive conquest in 1967.

The U.N. Charter prohibits war for most purposes. When the use of force is illegal, it is natural to conclude that any territorial gains from such aggression cannot be recognized as well. Thus the illegality of conquest arises from the presumptive illegality of the use of force. But crucially, the U.N. Charter does not make all war illegal. Indeed, it expressly reaffirms the legality of a defensive war. Since defensive war is not illegal, it follows that the defender’s territorial gains from such a war would not be illegal.”

Notably, readers of the first report were also told that:
“In 2017, Mr Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered the relocation of the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv. The decision was condemned by Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, and the UN General Assembly demanded its cancellation.”




Experts Reveal: UN Knew of Militant Activity on Gaza Border, But Did Not Report It
All the way from Portland, Truzman disproved major points in the recently released UN Human Rights Council report—namely, that many of the report’s “victims” shot by soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force were actually members of militant groups, including Hamas. Following are militants who Truzman showed were falsely characterized in the reports as “victims of IDF gunfire” :
  • Mahmoud Abu Taima: The UN report claims that Taima was killed approximately 150 meters from the fence, but the report failed to mention he was a fighter of Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, as listed on one of their websites.
  • Abed Hawajri: The report notes that Hawajri was shot in the abdomen 150 meters from the fence, but neglects Hawajri’s affiliation with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Hawajri was a field a commander in the DFLP’s military wing and was one of the founders of the ground in the Nusierat camp in Gaza. Video evidence shows that DFLP militants surrounded his funeral.
  • Jihad Abu Jamous: The Commission of Inquiry stated in its report that Jamous was shot in the head approximately 300 meters from the security fence, but did not mention that he was a militant in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Jamous was also a field commander of the al-Amoudi Brigade, a branch of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
  • Ahmed Sha’ar: Sha’ar was described in the commission’s report as a child killed by the IDF on May 14, 2018. Evidence from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad website reveals that Sha’ar was a fighter in Saraya al-Quds, the militant wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Truzman pointed out he has other examples that he didn’t have time to mention in his address to the United Nations, including Naji Abu Hajir, who the Commission of Inquiry mentioned as a mechanic and killed by IDF gunfire. “There was nothing about him and his affiliation with Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades,” Truzman told JNS. “It took me only a few minutes to find that he was a militant,” he added.

Despite having “solid evidence of militant activity at the border,” the media opted for the “peaceful civilian protesters killed by the IDF” narrative that was also adopted by the one-sided UN report on Israel’s “assault” on “civilian protesters” at the Gaza border.
UN human rights body asks for larger presence in PA territories
The top U.N. human rights body on Friday requested a larger presence in Palestinian areas following a report alleging Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes in a deadly response to Gaza protests last year.

The U.N. Human Rights Council made the request to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in a resolution that passed 23-8 with 15 abstentions, a vote loaded with political implications that quickly drew accusations of bias from the Israeli government.

Five central and eastern European countries joined Australia, Fiji and Brazil in opposing the measure. Britain and many EU countries abstained. Several Persian Gulf states, with which Israel has claimed warming ties, voted in favor.

The resolution was the strongest among five considered by the council focusing on Israel and "occupied Palestinian territory," the only such "country situation" discussed at every council meeting. The issue made up more than one-sixth of the 29 resolutions considered as the four-week session ended Friday.


France reprimands Israeli envoy after shut down of East Jerusalem event
France’s foreign ministry on Friday summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Paris for a reprimand a day after Israeli authorities shut down a planned cultural event at a site belonging to the French Institute in East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials had alleged the event was to involve an association supported by the Palestinian Authority. Israel has banned the PA from carrying out official business in East Jerusalem, which it considers territory under its jurisdiction.

The French ministry said that “such acts represent a serious and unacceptable attack on the functioning of our cultural network in Jerusalem.” It vowed to “maintain and develop the close and long-standing relations it has with Palestinian civil society.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said deputy ambassador in France Marc Attali registered Israel’s protest over the institute hosting an event sponsored by the PA.

“The Israeli envoy made clear that we will not accept PA events in Jerusalem and that we expect our friends to honor the rules as well,” it said.
Israel bombs Hamas as Gazans step up nighttime rioting along border
Israeli military aircraft bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza strip early Sunday as Palestinians rioted along the border in renewed nighttime demonstrations.

The strikes came less than an hour after a rocket alarm sounded in some Israeli communities bordering the strip, triggered by an improvised bomb thrown at the border.

The Israel Defense Forces said aircraft struck two Hamas reconnaissance posts in response to “the multitude of [explosive] devices that were thrown and exploded during the night.”

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the strikes. Four Palestinians were reported injured, including one seriously, by Israeli live fire during the border riots earlier in the night.

Nighttime riots in Gaza have been led by so-called “confusion units” organized by the Hamas terror group, the Strip’s de facto ruler. On Saturday, the unit said it would step up activities, with a week of nightly riots from 7 p.m. until dawn along the border and more airborne incendiary devices launched into Israel. It said the move was in response to the deaths of two Palestinians shot by troops during border riots Friday.
Rocket alarm triggered by explosive hurled during Gaza protest
Riots along the Gaza border triggered rocket alert sirens sounded in nearby Israeli communities early Sunday, capping a weekend that saw low-level violence along the restive border.

The Israeli military said a rocket siren that sounded just before 1 a.m. in the Eshkol region opposite the southern Gaza Strip was set off after a Gazan attempted to throw an improvised explosive over the border.

The explosive did not reach Israeli territory and there were no known injuries from the incident, the army said.

It said other explosions heard were also the result of explosives being thrown at troops as part of a riot by Gazans along the border, a near-nightly occurrence as tensions in the Strip have ramped up in recent weeks.

On Saturday, Israeli military aircraft launched a pair of strikes at Palestinian cells flying incendiary balloons from the southern Gaza Strip into Israel, the army said.

Four Palestinians were injured in the strikes.




Lebanese-Canadian arrested for spying for Israel
A Lebanese-Canadian dual national was arrested in Beirut on suspicion of spying for Israeli intelligence, Lebanese authorities said.

“Within the frame of its fight against espionage for the Israeli enemy entity and the dismantlement of its rings inside Lebanon, the General Directorate of the General Security has arrested Lebanese-Canadian F.G., born 1978, upon the notice of the military prosecution,” Lebanon’s General Security intelligence agency said in a statement.

While there were no details on when or where the suspect was detained, according to Lebanese media reports, he confessed during interrogation that he was recruited in 2013 by a Lebanese fugitive who belong to an Israeli army intelligence network called “Unit 504.”

He confessed to spending six years spying on Hezbollah, trying to gather intelligence on Hezbollah operatives. He was also attempting to gather information on Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who has been missing since 1986 when his plane was shot down over southern Lebanon and was supposedly handed to the terror group.

"F.G." had also been told to recruit other Lebanese citizens to infiltrate into Hezbollah.
PMW: PA to pay terrorists in full while cutting pay for other employees
Proving conclusively that the Palestinian Authority is willing to punish hard working employees in order to continue to reward terrorists, the PA Minister of Finance has reiterated that while the PA will cut the salaries of most of its employees, it will pay - in full - the salaries to the imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists, as well as the allowances to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. At a televised press conference the minister emphasized that rewarding terrorists and murderers is "a principle which no force on earth can make the PA deviate from":

PA Minister of Finance and Planning Shukri Bishara: "The salaries [of public employees] will be paid in full, all of the salaries under 2,000 shekels... In practice 40% of the PA's employees, who are the dynamo engine of the economy, will receive their salaries in full, at 100%, because nearly 40% of the PA's employees receive less than 2,000 [shekels]... Today, we will pay no less than 50% of the salaries... We have placed an upper limit of 10,000 shekels for the top of the pay scale of those receiving a maximum of 10,000 shekels - the honored ministers and their like. The burden of sacrifice and the burden of compromise falls on the top salaries... At the beginning of the month [March 2019]... the salaries were transferred in full to the prisoners, the wounded, and the Martyrs according to the orders of His Honor President [Abbas]. This is one of the national principles which no force on earth can make us deviate from." [Official PA TV, March 10, 2019]
Fatah video: Murder of 10 was “one of the most famous operations”


2 Murderers who killed 4 are “the role models for the children,” says Fatah official










Ilhan Omar Played On Her Phone, Laughed As House Voted On Resolution Sparked By Her Anti-Semitic Comments: Report
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar played on her phone in the back of the chamber as the House of Representatives voted on the resolution that was intended as a reprimand for the congresswoman’s anti-Semitic comments, according to a report published Friday.

The House passed a resolution March 7 that initially served to condemn a series of anti-Semitic statements Omar made, but was subsequently “watered down” to condemn hatred in all forms. The resolution was in response to the ages-old canards about Jews that Omar had asserted over Twitter, including a claim that Republicans’ support for Israel is bought by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Many also interpreted her comments as Jews having a “dual loyalty” to the U.S. and Israel.

The text of the resolution, which passed 407-23, did not mention Omar by name.

During the vote, Omar was reportedly playing on her phone and was “seemingly oblivious to the remarkable rebuke being leveled at her,” according to Politico. She was reportedly standing alone in the back of the room until fellow Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington entered the chamber, where they “embraced and soon doubled over in laughter.”

“She came up to me on the floor, and she gave me a big hug,” Jayapal told Politico. “I told her that some of my gray hair was [from her] over the last week.”
Heavy protests against Ilhan Omar speech at Los Angeles CAIR event
A large protest was held outside the Hilton hotel in Los Angeles where Ilhan Omar will be speaking Saturday night at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Greater Los Angeles’s fourth annual Valley Banquet.

The protesters lined the sidewalks waving Israeli and American flags and held up signs saying “Omar equals hate” and various other slogans, supporting Israel and denouncing Omar.

Protesters staying at the Hilton hotel waved large banners saying “CAIR hates Jews” and “Ilhan hates Israel” from their balconies.

A smaller counter-protest rose up in support of Omar. Minor confrontations and verbal exchanges were reported by NBC 4 Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Police were notified ahead of time of the protest and were in the area to maintain order. The streets around the hotel were closed until later Saturday night.

The CAIR event, titled “Advancing Justice: Empowering Valley Muslims,” is awarding Jewish Voice for Peace the “2019 Champion of Justice” accolade.
PHOTOS: Street Artist Sabo Calls Out Ilhan Omar over Her Anti-Semitic Remarks
Political street artist Sabo put up a number of signs criticizing anti-Semitic comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles amid the freshman lawmaker’s appearance in town for a speech.

Ilhan Omar is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles Saturday. Counter-events have been organized against her appearance.

Street artist Sabo is mocking both Omar and CAIR with new street art. The art calls out Omar for her past of anti-Semitic statements.

Sabo routinely uses his street art to mock progressives in politics and Hollywood. He recently ripped Texas Democrat and 2020 hopeful Beto O’Rourke for his drunk driving arrest.



Brown students pass referendum demanding university divest from Israeli firms
Brown University undergraduates voted in favor of a referendum to boycott Israel by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

The Brown Divest campaign reported the results of the vote on Facebook Thursday, announcing that the referendum before the Undergraduate Council of Students had received 69 percent of the 3,076 votes cast at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island.

The nonbinding measure proposes to “identify and divest from companies that profit from Israeli violations of human rights” and accuses the university of furthering actions that “engage in human-rights violations” for its cooperation with Israel or firms that work with Israel.

The Brown administration had not commented publicly on the referendum as of Thursday.
University of Cape Town to Hold Final Vote on Academic Boycott of Israel Later This Month
The University of Cape Town, the top-ranking academic institution in Africa, is set to consider enforcing an academic boycott against Israel later this month.

The UCT Senate, a decision-making body comprised primarily of professors and administrators, endorsed a proposal on March 15 to bar the university from entering into any formal relationship with Israeli academic institutions that operate “in the occupied Palestinian territories,” or otherwise enable “gross human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories,” the university said in a statement.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Algemeiner that the vote was 62 in favor and 43 against, with 10 abstentions and one void ballot.

The motion will now be considered by the University Council, the highest governing body at UCT, when it next meets on

The development marks the latest in a years-long effort by South Africa’s boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) lobby, led at UCT by the Palestine Solidarity Forum (PSF), to advance an academic boycott of Israel. Supporters say the move is motivated by a desire to pressure Israel to comply with international law, and more broadly correct a historical injustice inflicted on Palestinians by Israel’s creation. Critics, including the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and major Jewish groups worldwide, have strongly denounced the BDS campaign for rejecting the legitimacy of a Jewish nation-state anywhere in the Levant and often advancing anti-Jewish tropes.


Times of Israel Corrects Error on Jewish State’s Holiest Site
CAMERA’s Israel office last week prompted correction of a Times of Israel subheadline which erroneously identified the Western Wall as Israel’s holiest site. In fact, the Temple Mount, location of the destroyed first and second temples and home to the Holy of Holies, is Judaism’s most sacred site, and the holiest site in Israel.

About U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit Thursday to the Western Wall accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the March 21 subheadline had erred: “Visit to holy site marks first time top US diplomat has gone to Jewish state’s holiest site together with senior Israeli officials.”

In response to communication from CAMERA staff that same day, editors commendably amended the headline. It now accurately states: “Visit marks first time top US diplomat, together with senior Israeli officials, has gone to the holiest place where Jews can pray.”
In Rafael Eitan Obit, New York Times Casts Unproven Uranium Allegation As Fact
The New York Times’ obituary for Rafael (Rafi) Eitan states as fact that the just deceased Israeli spymaster played a key role in the the theft of highly enriched uranium from an American company, though the allegation has never been proven and the disappearance remains an unsolved mystery. Referring to enriched uranium missing decades ago from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) in Apollo, Pa., the March 23 obituary states that Eitan, who died Saturday:
played important roles in the surgical strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, the theft in the late 1960s of at least 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium from a nuclear fuel plan in the Pittsburgh area that helped Israel’s atomic bomb program . . . .

But the facts on this story are hardly clear. As the The New York Times reported on June 17, 1986 about Jonathan Pollard’s handler (“Spy Once Regained Access to Secrets,” Philip Shenon):
Also today, a Justice Department official confirmed that Rafael Eitan, an Israeli who has been described in Government papers as the leader of the spy ring, traveled in 1968 to a nuclear processing plant in Pennsylvania from which more than 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium disappeared.

In recent years, intelligence sources have said they believed that Israel diverted the uranium for use in nuclear weapons. The Federal Bureau of Investigation closed its investigation of the case without making charges.
Poland says Holocaust denier David Irving ‘not welcome’ on death camp tour
Poland has said it will bar entry to British Holocaust denier David Irving if he plans to present his opinion on the Nazi genocide of Jews during his planned tour of death camps in the country later this year.

“Negation of the Holocaust is not allowed by Polish law, therefore he will not be welcome here in Poland if he wants to come and present his opinions,” Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told reporters on Friday, according to the Reuters news agency.

Earlier in the week, the UK’s Jewish News reported that Irving’s website was taking deposits for the tour of Nazi historical sites scheduled for September, prompting Israel to urge Warsaw to deny his entry.

“Given Irving’s record of abhorrent statements and outright lies about the history of the Holocaust, it is quite clear that he intends to use this opportunity to spread further falsehoods and vitriolic narrative,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett wrote in a letter to Poland’s ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski.

“In so doing, he will doubtless cause deep offense to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and to all the Jewish people, as well as stoke the already raging fire of hatred and anti-Semitism we are witnessing around the world today,” Bennett added.
Holocaust denier drops out of race for Congress in Spain
A Holocaust revisionist who had been tapped as a congressional candidate of a far-right party in Spain has resigned.

Fernando Paz, a historian, announced Thursday that he was dropping out of the race. The announcement followed intense scrutiny in the Spanish media of the decision by the Vox party this week to have him run in the city of Albacete, in the central part of the country, in the April 28 national elections for parliament, La Vanguardia reported.

Paz, who cited a “media hunt” against him in explaining his decision to resign, has said the facts concerning the Holocaust are “far from having been established with accuracy” and called the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals a “farce.”

In December, Vox became the first far-right party in decades to enter a regional parliament by winning 12 seats in Andalusia.

ACOM, a pro-Israel group combating efforts to boycott Israel and forms of anti-Semitism in Spain, said in a statement about the resignation: “We want to thank Vox for the sensitivity, proximity and empathy it has always shown for the Spanish Jewish community.” The party has a “commitment to the friendship between Spain and the state of Israel as partners and strategic allies,” ACOM wrote.
Descendant of Jewish family that owned Schindler factory helps make it a museum
A descendant of the original Jewish owners of the factory ran by Oskar Schindler is helping lead efforts to turn the abandoned facility into a museum commemorating the German industrialist for saving the lives of Jews employed there during the Holocaust.

The factory, in the Czech village of Brnenec (Bruennlitz in German), was appropriated by the Nazis from its Jewish owners following the occupation of then-Czechoslovakia. Schindler, a Sudeten German and Nazi party member born in nearby Svitavy (Zwittau), would go onto save the lives of 1,200 Jews by employing there and other enamelware and munitions factories he owned in Nazi-occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia.

The factory continued to operate under communist rule before coming under private ownership following the end of communism in 1989, but was ultimately shuttered in 2010 and is now in ruins. It is now being turned into a museum by the Ark Foundation, which is run by Daniel Low-Beer, a descendant of the family who owned the factory.

The factory was stolen by the Nazis and then stolen by Schindler, but he used it for good and saved 1,200 Jews,” Low-Beer told the Telegraph in an interview last month.
Wealthy German family to donate $11m after learning of Nazi past
One of Germany’s richest families says it plans to give millions of euros to charity after learning about ancestors who enthusiastically supported the Nazis and used forced labor.

Bild newspaper reported Sunday that documents revealed Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr. used Russian civilians and French POWs as forced laborers.

Family spokesman Peter Harf, who heads the Reimanns’ JAB Holding Company, says recent internal research confirmed Bild’s findings.

He says the family never spoke of the Nazi era but the evidence shows the father and son, who died in 1954 and 1984, “belonged in jail.”

Harf says the heirs plan to publish the research and donate 10 million euros ($11.3 million) to charity.
Holocaust survivor declares at March of the Living, 'Hitler did not win!'
Those words, “always remember who are,” were the last ones that Anita Ekstein’s father spoke to her, as he entrusted her safety to a Polish coworker, who had promised to save her. It is a mantra that she has lived by since then; from being hidden in a Catholic priest’s house on the Russian-Polish border until the end of the war, to the beginning of a new life in Canada and now, transmitting her story and testimony to the younger generation.

“These trips take a lot out of you,” she said. “It is very difficult – emotionally and physically – and going with my grandchildren to the camps – especially Belzec (where her mother was killed). I love those kids and I want them to know these stories so they can take them on.” To that end, anticipating a time when she can no longer travel on the March, the Azrieli Foundation will publish Ekstein’s memoir Always Remember Who You Are in 2019.

The March, of course, does not just deeply affect the grandchildren of survivors – and even those without such a personal connection continue to ruminate on their experiences and ask questions. Ekstein expressed the hope that the young adults to whom she has spoken and will continue to do, will remember her story and what she has taught them – affectionately recalling how a student, years after the March reached out to ask for additional information. “The young people who listen to me – and other survivors – they will not forget.”
75 years after his death, why Orde Wingate remains a hero in Israel
Few non-Jews and even fewer British soldiers are regarded as highly in Israel as Orde Charles Wingate, a senior officer who became a legend here by shaping Israel’s prestate military. Many Israeli towns have a Wingate street or square, and relatives and others who share his name are often reminded of Israel’s debt to him.

“I had recognized him as a man of genius, and I hoped he might become a man of destiny,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote to Lorna Wingate after her husband’s death aboard an American military plane that crashed in Burma on March 24, 1944. David Ben-Gurion thought Wingate might have become the Israel Defense Forces’ first chief of staff – an extraordinary possibility for a Christian steeped in a religiously inspired Zionism.

Seventy-five years after his death at age 41, Wingate is being honored and remembered throughout Israel at institutions founded in his honor and by those who carry on his legacy.

Yemin Orde Youth Village, Hof Hacarmel
In this campus named for Wingate atop the Mount Carmel ridge, seven members of a high-school drama troupe sat in a semicircle reciting paragraphs about him. It was their first meeting ahead of an April 1 performance to commemorate him.

“Wingate was the father of the IDF. The IDF today remains Wingatean in terms of its tactics,” said Knesset member Michael Oren, a historian who wrote a screenplay on Wingate that Hollywood optioned but hasn’t produced.
Beresheet wows the world with another selfie and a sunrise
Israeli spacecraft Beresheet has taken another selfie with its home planet Earth from 265,000 kilometers away, Space IL and Israel Aerospace Industries announced on Sunday.

The spacecraft also recorded and communicated a video of the sun rising.

"In the video, Earth can be seen hiding the sun from the spacecraft and then exiting this same shadow, which was created by the Earth and the sun's exposure," the space organizations explained in a statement. "This process creates a kind of sunrise image."

The craft also took a picture of South America from a distance of 15,000 kilometers away, as well as a picture of Israel from 131,000 kilometers away.

There are six cameras installed on the spacecraft under the top plate of the spacecraft, explained Kobi Kaminitz, a space administrator at Space IL , speaking with The Jerusalem Post's sister paper Maariv. He said five of them are designed to photograph the moon in 360 degrees, and another is the Salafi camera, which captures the plaque and the lunar soil.

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