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Sunday, April 07, 2019

04/07 Links: Corbyn's Labour displays shocking lack of action against antisemitism; Ahed Tamimi says UK is “completely occupied and controlled by Israel” despite wanting to study here; How Qatar infiltrated The NYTs

From Ian:
Corbyn's Labour displays shocking lack of action against antisemitism
The extent of antisemitism raging in the British Labour party was displayed once more on Sunday morning, when The Sunday Times published an article exposing shocking messages Labour members shared online without being sanctioned.

The report titled "Labour’s hate files expose Jeremy Corbyn’s anti‑semite army" revealed how Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's office actively interfered, delayed and disrupted the inquiry into the hate-filled and conspiratorial posts by many Labour members.

Some examples of such posts include "Heil Hitler," Jewish MPs being accused of being "Zionist infiltrators," and blaming Israeli Jews for the 9/11 attacks. Complaints about these posts have been filed a year ago, yet none of the authors of these posts have been suspended from the party.

According to internal documents obtained by the paper, Cobyn's office interfered in 101 of such complaints.

The confidential emails and database which was last updated March 8, brought to light the antisemitic messages and the handling, or lack thereof, of the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership.

One Labour member was returned to the party ranks after his message blaming Jews for the 9/11 attacks was exposed.

Ahed Tamimi says UK is “completely occupied and controlled by Israel” despite wanting to study here
Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teen who slapped an Israeli soldier and called on others to become terrorists, has called the United Kingdom “racist” and “completely controlled by Israel” even though she is planning to study English here.

Asked a question about British exports of weapons to Israel, Tamimi replied saying, “The UK government is completely controlled by Israel, who are the biggest supporter of terrorism. They encourage the killing of Palestinian people.”

“The UK is completely occupied and controlled by Israel and it is supporting Israel to kill innocent people who are demonstrating for their rights,” Tamimi said.

Tamimi appears to be applying an anti-Semitic trope that Israel (or Jews) control foreign governments.

She turned further conspiratorial, saying, “The whole world is defeated, we are alone”, before declaring, “but I am pretty sure that the Palestinian people will bring back dignity to the whole world even to the UK who are supporting Israel. The UK brought Zionism to Palestine in the era of the British mandate. We will eventually end this occupation. Their power will not last forever.”

Ahed Tamimi then spoke of Israel’s actions on the Gaza border, falsely accusing Israel of wanting to “kill all Palestinians” – a blood libel.

“They (Israel) have no right to harm any Palestinian and this is another reflection to their terrorism. They want nothing but to kill all Palestinians so they can take all their land. They believe that all Palestinians should be killed, which also shows that they’re racist.”
How Qatar infiltrated The New York Times
Last weekend, Israel was attacked in a new way. No, I’m not referring to the horrific onslaught of rockets Hamas launched into Israel that left two children hospitalized and five others injured; the tens of thousands of rioters who tried to breach the Gaza border fence; or the three Palestinian youths who were killed.

I’m talking about an outlandish article published in The New York Times Magazine about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that evokes age-old anti-Semitic tropes to accuse prominent Jewish philanthropists, like Haim Saban, of holding the Democratic Party hostage on Israel — authored by a man with ties to one of the world’s biggest sponsors of terrorism.

Many rushed to shame the Times for welcoming writer Nathan Thrall’s “propaganda.” But it isn’t just the propaganda or anti-Semitism that should concern Jews everywhere – it’s Nathan Thrall himself and his alarming ties to Qatar. A deep dive by the Free Beacon revealed that Thrall is employed by an organization that receives funding from the Qatari government and has ties to several anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activists.

That’s right: The New York Times published an article written by someone connected to the Qatari payroll, who tars and feathers pro-Israel philanthropists, gives an international platform to the BDS movement, and devotes not a single of its 11,500 words to Qatar – the world’s central bank for terrorism and a known sponsor of Hamas.



Trump says Dems have let anti-Semitism ‘take root’ in their party
President Trump said Saturday that Democrats have allowed anti-Semitism to “take root in their party and their country” as the party’s base is pushing it to the left and to positions more critical of Israel.

“They’ve become the party of high taxes, open borders, late-term abortion, crime, witch hunts and delusions, and now the Democrats have even allowed the terrible scourge of anti-Semitism to take root in their party and in their country,” he said in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. “They’ve allowed that.”

Trump noted that in January, Democrats blocked legislation to confront the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Democrats cited the ongoing government shutdown at the time for their opposition to the bill, saying that only legislation that would reopen the government should be passed.
Swastika-Clad Protesters Interrupt Trump Speech to Jewish Republicans
A group of protesters — at least one of whom was wearing a swastika T-shirt — interrupted President Donald Trump’s address to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) on Saturday before being ejected by security.

The demonstrators clambered on top of their seats in the ballroom at the Sands Expo and began chanting slogans against the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank. (Israel considers the area, which Jews calls Judea and Samaria, to be “disputed,” not “occupied.”)

At least one of the protesters, who happened to stand up a few rows in front of this reporter, was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a swastika — perhaps intended ironically, since some of the protesters unfurled a banner against “white nationalism.”

In a scene familiar from Trump rallies for nearly four years, the crowd around the protesters began chanting, “U-S-A!” and “Four more years!”

As the hecklers were removed from the venue, Trump joked about one of them: “He’s going back home to mommy.”

Roughly 2,000 people — including those attending the RJC’s annual leadership meeting, as well as members of the general public — filled the ballroom, many waving signs that said “TRUMP” in both Hebrew and English. Other signs read, “Thank you, President Trump!” and “We Are Jews for Trump.” Some men wore red yarmulkes emblazoned with “TRUMP” or “Make America Great Again.”
Like Corbyn, Lenin had his own team of anti-Zionist Jews
The fringe pro-Corbyn group Jewish Voice for Labour has many antecedents in Jewish history — representing, as they do, the few and not the many, and eagerly embraced by a ruling elite.

Some have been ideologically opposed to Zionism, such as the Bundists and the Charedim, others have been disillusioned socialist Zionists. Some have been accidental Jews whose Jewishness was never at the centre of their identity while still others are — in Howard Jacobson’s phrase — members of “ASHamed Jews”.

The Marxist historian and biographer of Trotsky, Isaac Deutscher, gave a talk at Jewish Book Week in 1958 entitled ‘The Non-Jewish Jew’. Mr Deutscher argued that Jewish revolutionaries symbolised “the highest ideals of mankind” as they existed on the margins of different civilisations, religions and cultures. From such vantage positions, Mr Deutscher believed that such non-Jewish Jews were able to see clearly, to scientifically fashion the future and thereby guide the dispossessed and disadvantaged.

The seminal episode which shaped such Jews was the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in 1917. Remarkably, the Balfour Declaration and the October revolution occurred within days of each other. Both events resonated within Jewish tradition. One to re-establish a Jewish commonwealth after two millennia, the other to break the chains of slavery and repair the world. (h/t MtTB)
Lying antisemite Jeremy Corbyn said he was not involved in disciplinary process “at all” whilst his office interfered in over 100 cases
The revelations add to the existing plentiful evidence that Mr Corbyn instructed his team to interfere in antisemitism cases.

Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney general who was awarded her position after clearing the Labour Party of antisemitism, remarkably reacted by pleading with Jews to remain in the Party, saying that Mr Corbyn is “just one person — he won’t be leader forever”.

A Labour spokesperson told The Sunday Times: “These figures are not accurate…Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents. Former staffers asked the Leader’s Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby [now in that role].”

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and a liar. He and his team have claimed ‘never’ to have interfered in disciplinary cases, but there is hard evidence of that happening over 100 times. The contents of the leaked hard drive show concrete proof that Mr Corbyn and his acolytes have been working hard to ensure that Jew-haters can stay in the Labour Party and spread their venom. Mr Corbyn and his allies are the racist rot at the heart of the once proudly anti-racist Labour Party. The fight from within is lost: the Labour Party is now the vehicle for Mr Corbyn and his bigoted Jew-hating allies. That is why Campaign Against Antisemitism made our formal referral and legal submissions to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party as a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.”

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.
Baroness Chakrabarti pleads with Jews to stay in the Labour Party because Corbyn “won’t be leader forever”
Baroness Chakrabarti, who authored the eponymous whitewash report claiming that “The Labour Party is not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism” and swiftly became the first person that Jeremy Corbyn ever proposed for elevation to the peerage, has now made a remarkable plea to Jewish Labour members.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophie Ridge, Baroness Chakrabarti begged Jewish members to stay in the Party because Jeremy Corbyn is “just one person — he won’t be leader forever”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism holds Baroness Chakrabarti responsible for allowing Mr Corbyn and his allies to take hold of the Labour Party and for antisemitism running rampant within it. She appears to have sold the Jewish community out in return for her peerage. Still, this is a remarkable statement by one of Mr Corbyn’s front bench colleagues and could be a sign of further splits within the Party over antisemitism.
Jewish Labour Movement approves motion that Jeremy Corbyn is “unfit to be Prime Minister” after voting to remain affiliated to Labour Party
The Jewish Labour Movement, which has for almost 100 years been the collective body of Jewish Labour Party supporters, has approved a motion declaring that it has “no confidence” in Jeremy Corbyn and that he is “unfit to be Prime Minister”.

However the Jewish Labour Movement has not decided to reopen the debate on disaffiliating from the Labour Party after a motion to do so was defeated a month ago.

The Jewish Labour Movement therefore seems to be in agreement that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic and that its leader poses a serious threat to the British Jewish community, but it is prepared to remain affiliated to “stand and fight” despite that fight having demonstrably failed. This sends a confusing message.

The move comes amid revelations that Jeremy Corbyn said he was not involved in disciplinary process “at all” whilst his office interfered in over 100 cases.
British TV Star Nick Hewer Calls for More Non-Jews to Speak Out Against Antisemitism
A British television presenter called for more non-Jews to voice support for and defend the British Jewish community amid rising antisemitism in the country.

Nick Hewer, co-host of the TV show “Countdown” and a former adviser to business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar on the British version of “The Apprentice,” tweeted on Friday, “More good non-Jewish men and women should speak out loudly in defense of our Jewish fellow citizens.”

The post came in response to a video shared on Twitter by Lord Sugar on Monday in which former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his joining the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) as an affiliate member. According to it’s website, JLM is a “membership organisation of Labour supporting members of the Jewish Community.” The group says it also “campaigns within the party and the wider community to support labour values within the UK, Israel and Internationally.”

Hewer made similar remarks on a recent episode of “Good Morning Britain.” He expressed support for Rachel Riley, his Jewish “Countdown” co-host who has been the target of antisemitic attacks for calling out antisemitism in the Labour party.

He said on the morning show, “[She’s] getting beat up again with all this antisemitic rubbish,” to which the morning show’s co-host Piers Morgan responded, “it’s disgusting what she puts up with.” Hewer then told Morgan, “It’s up to people like you, and me and non-Jewish people to stand up for the Jewish community. We’ve got to stand up and support people like Rachel.”
Trump says he made snap decision on Golan after history crash course
The president told the Republican National Coalition’s annual convention in Las Vegas that he decided on recognizing Israel’s hold on the territory after getting a rushed briefing from senior White House aide Jared Kushner — his son-in-law — ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and negotiator Jason Greenblatt.

He said the three had phoned him about an unrelated matter when he brought up the Golan, but did not say when the conversation took place.

“I said, ‘Fellows, do me a favor. Give me a little history, quick. Want to go fast. I got a lot of things I’m working on: China, North Korea. Give me a quickie,” he recalled.

Trump said he was told about the security ramifications of Israel holding on to the high ground of the plateau, which overlooks the Sea of Galilee and part of the upper Galilee.

“I said ‘How do you like the idea of me recognizing exactly what we’re discussing?’ because I agree, you need it, you need the height,” he said he told Friedman, who reacted “like a wonderful, beautiful baby.”

“You would really, you would do that sir,” he recalled Friedman asking him, to which he replied. “Yeah, I think I’m doing it right now. let’s write something up.”

“We make fast decisions, and we make good decisions,” he told the crowd.
Senator proposes US enter defense pact with Israel
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said Saturday he wanted the United States to enter into a mutual defense agreement with Israel.

Graham said at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas Saturday that it’s time for the US to declare to the world how important its relationship is with Israel.

The pact would show the international community that “an attack against Israel would be considered an attack against the United States,” he said.

The Republican said America should tell Israel’s enemies that if they seek “to destroy the one and only Jewish state, you have to come through us to get them.”

The US currently supplies Israel with $3.8 billion annually in defense aid. While US President Donald Trump has complained about other countries in NATO not paying their share and has grumbled about defense aid to foreign allies, Israel has mostly escaped his ire.
Israel advances largest batch of settlement homes since Trump took office
The Defense Ministry body responsible for authorizing settlement construction has advanced plans for over 3,600 West Bank homes, a spokeswoman for the agency told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

The Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee cleared the majority of the plans through an earlier planning stage known as “deposit” during its meeting last Thursday, and 1,226 homes received final approval for construction throughout the West Bank, in a session that took place shortly before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to extend Israeli sovereignty to all settlements if he wins the upcoming elections.

Under unofficial settlement guidelines coordinated with the White House when US President Donald Trump took office, Israel agreed that the Civil Administration committee would meet once every three months instead of once every month. Whereas past sessions have seen the advancement of 1,000 to 2,000 homes, the 3,659 on the docket last Thursday represented the largest batch of homes advanced since Trump took office — itself a period of Israeli growth beyond the Green Line in comparison to the eight years under Barack Obama.

Nearly 1,200 of the homes advanced will be located well beyond the Green Line in isolated settlements such as Shilo, Peduel, Elon Moreh, Rehelim, Mitzpe Jericho and Nokdim.
Netanyahu: I’ve told Trump I won’t evacuate ‘a single person’ from settlements
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had made clear to President Donald Trump that he is not prepared to evacuate “a single person” from any West Bank settlements.

When asked if he knew the details of Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Netanyahu told Channel 13 in an interview broadcast Friday that he knew what he had told Trump to include in the agreement.

“I know what I said: I said there can’t be the removal of even one settlement, and [that Israel insists on] our continued control of all the territory to the west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu said.

Asked in the interview, which was recorded on Wednesday, whether he had specified this to Trump personally, Netanyahu said he had set out the same positions to Trump and former US President Barack Obama. He elaborated that he had specified to Trump that he would not evacuate “a single person” from the settlements.

“You said that to Trump?” he was asked.

“Like that,” he said, adding that it had been recorded.
Netanyahu: A Palestinian state won't be created
A Palestinian state such as the one that most people talk about will not be created, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a pre-election interview he gave to the Hebrew website Arutz 7.

"A Palestinian state will not be created, not like the one people are talking about. It won't happen," Netanyahu said on Sunday.

When Netanyahu first took office in 2009, he gave a foreign policy speech at Bar Ilan University in which he spoke of his support for an Israeli and Palestinian state living side by side. He didn't define the borders of that state and he was careful to explain that his vision of a Palestinian state was a demilitarized one.

In the lead unto the last election, Netanyahu said that he did not believe that a Palestinian state would be created during his next government.

Diplomatic correspondent Ariel Kahana, then of Makor Rishon and now of Israel Hayom, had asked him if it was correct that in his next government a Palestinian state would not be established. Netanyahu responded by saying, “correct’ and then walked it back immediately after the election.
Oman foreign minister: Arabs need to assure Israel it is not under threat
Oman’s foreign minister urged Arab countries on Saturday to reassure Israel that it is not under threat in the Middle East, drawing a rare public rebuke from his Jordanian counterpart.

Oman’s Yusuf bin Alawi and Jordan’s Ayman Safadi shared the stage at a regional gathering of the World Economic Forum, held on Jordan’s shores of the Dead Sea.

Bin Alawi spoke at a time of warming ties between Israel and several Gulf Arab states, as part of an unofficial alliance against Iranian influence in the region.

The Omani minister said that the Arab world “should help Israel to get away from” what he said was its mistaken sense of being threatened, which he said was the reason behind Israel holding on to the West Bank and Golan Heights.

“Israel despite its full power is not assured of its future and doesn’t feel secure because it’s a non-Arab country living in an Arab neighborhood,” he said. “It doesn’t feel secure about the continuity of its presence in the region.”
Omani FM to Times of Israel: US peace plan will fail without a Palestinian state
The US administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will fail if it does not provide for a Palestinian state, Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi said on Saturday.

In an interview, bin Alawi also said the next several years would be “decisive” for peace efforts and called for Arab states to work to reassure Israel that it can withdraw from the West Bank and Golan Heights without feeling threatened.

Bin Alawi said his talk with The Times of Israel, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan, was his first sit-down interview with an Israeli publication. Gulf ministers rarely speak to Israeli outlets.

The conversation came days before Israelis head to the polls, with a US peace plan for the region slated to be released sometime soon after.

While US President Donald Trump has said he thinks the two-state solution, including the creation of a Palestinian state, “works best,” he has not committed to it.

“If [the plan] avoids mentioning a Palestinian state, it will not have a future,” bin Alawi, who has served as Oman’s foreign minister since 1997, warned.
PA top diplomat: Netanyahu will face ‘real problem’ if he annexes settlements
Israel’s leader will face a “real problem” if he follows through with his election campaign promise to extend Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority foreign minister said Sunday.

Riyad al-Malki told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge was likely aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight race.

He added that Palestinians would “resist” such a policy if carried out.

“If Netanyahu wants to declare Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, then you know he has to face a real problem, the presence of 4.5 million Palestinians, what to do with them,” Malki said.

He said Israel cannot expel the Palestinians. “We will stay there,” he said. “Then you know the international community has to deal with us.”
Turkey: Western nations must decry Netanyahu’s West Bank annexation talk
Western democracies must take a stand against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s talk of annexing the West Bank, Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for Turkish President Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said on Sunday.

“Will western democracies react or will they keep appeasing? Shame on them all!,” Kalin said.

Netanyahu made his statement in a Channel 12 interview, just three day before the April 9th election. It’s the first time he has spoken of annexing West Bank settlements.

Kalin said, this is “Yet another example of how Netanyahu uses electoral politics to justify occupation and undermine the two-state solution. If he is re-elected, will this be a triumph of ‘democracy’ or occupation?,” Kalin charged.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted that annexation of the West Bank was illegal.
G7 statement acknowledges ‘clear differences’ on Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations revealed stark divergences in views on the Middle East on Saturday as they wrapped up a meeting in France that opened with the goal of finding common ground on contentious global challenges but was shaken by the absence of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The diplomats in attendance projected a united front while walking side-by-side along a seaside promenade before they released the agreement from their two-day meeting in Dinard. The agreement included mildly worded joint commitments on issues such as fighting cybercrime, giving women bigger peacemaking roles, and engaging with countries in Africa’s Sahel region to combat migrant trafficking.

But what was omitted from the G-7’s positions said as much as what was included. The differences could set the stage for tensions at an August summit of the leaders of the G-7 advanced economies — the United States, France, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy and the UK.

A European Union official expressed “regret” the document had what she considered to be several glaring omissions that conflicted with non-negotiable positions of the EU. They included “no reference to a two-state solution” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “no mention” of the UN Security Council resolution in favor of the Iran nuclear deal, she said.


Eurovision: Israel Accused of ‘Heavily Restricting’ Foreign Press Access
We wrote directly to Justine McCarthy to inform her of the sheer ignorance behind her claim of Israeli restrictions on foreign press. With our agreement, she passed on our comments which have been published as the lead item in The Sunday Times letters page. Here is the letter in full:

Hitting the wrong note on media freedom for Eurovision

Given that a central part of Justine McCarthy’s piece “Boycott of Eurovision Song Contest won’t score” (Comment, last week) is a suggestion that Irish media should be able to openly report on all sides, it is incredible to state this “would depend on Israel facilitating television crews to enter the territories, as access is heavily restricted and virtually impossible at the Gaza border”.

In fact there is virtually unrestricted access for foreign journalists throughout the disputed territories, particularly in the West Bank. The real restrictions are on Israeli journalists, for their own security and safety. There will be nothing to stop foreign television crews from entering Palestinian towns and cities, with or without official press accreditation.

Likewise, most of the time the Erez Crossing facilitates access to Gaza for foreign journalists, diplomats and NGO workers, on the assumption there is no abnormal security crisis. How do you think there is so much coverage of Israel and the Palestinian territories in the international media? It certainly isn’t due to imagined Israeli restrictions on press freedom.

You may also wish to consider the restrictions on Palestinian journalists who are regularly arrested and intimidated if they don’t follow the Hamas/Palestinian Authority line. Likewise, many foreign journalists based here minimise Palestinian misbehaviour precisely in order not to jeopardise their access.

The suggestion that Israel will deliberately restrict access for foreign journalists during the Eurovision contest is simply wrong.

Simon Plosker, Jerusalem
Stars of Turkish TV show brave death threats to perform in Israel
Thousands of Israelis gathered on Saturday night in Tel Aviv to hear songs they mostly didn’t know, by a Turkish singer who hasn’t performed his music for years, but who braved death threats to perform in the Jewish state.

The mostly female crowd at the Menora Mivtachim Arena was entranced by Ozcan Deniz, the star of the television show “Istanbullu Gelin” (“The Bride of Istanbul”), a Turkish telenovela that has gained popularity in Israel over the last two years.

Deniz, 46, is known to the audience as Faruk, a wealthy bus company owner from the Turkish city of Bursa, who in the TV show falls in love with Sureyya, a violinist, with the couple facing objections to their relationship from Faruk’s mother.

But Deniz is also a former singer, leading Israeli producers to capitalize on the opportunity to invite him to perform in Israel in front of what may be the largest crowd he has ever faced. During the concert, the actor told fans had left the world of music for the past eight years to focus on acting and directing.


PLO: Israeli election infested with racism, incitement to violence
On the eve of the elections in Israel, the PLO launched a scathing attack on mainstream and candidates and said the campaign has been infested with racism and incitement.

The PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department said that no mainstream candidate has called for a comprehensive settlement with the Palestinians.

The PLO also warned that Israeli officials were “seeking to distort the facts by exploiting international coverage of the election.”

Israel, the PLO said, was seeking to use the Old City of Jerusalem as a “facade or background” for interviews with Israeli guests to “suggest that the Old City is part of Israel.”

In a statement titled “Israel’s 20th Knesset – The Reality in Occupied Palestine VS. International Actions,” the PLO accused the main candidates running in the election of “campaigning on the preservation and expansion of Israeli settlements, a commitment to further annexation of Palestinian land, reaffirmation of Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of Israel, the dehumanization of Palestinians and the denial of their rights.”

The PLO claimed that the candidates, “whether from the current government or the opposition, rely upon the perpetuation of the culture of impunity allowing Israel to act without consequence.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: Egyptian Professor Causes Furor With Claim Jews Not Behind Everything (satire)
An academic at Cairo University has sparked a tumult in national media and political circles this week following a televised interview in which he made the brazen argument that not all negative phenomena have origins in Zionist conspiracy.

Public and governmental figures from across Egyptian society called for the firing of Dr. Ziabad Bakri, whose appearance on a prime-time talk show on state-run media Monday featured his repeated claims that some unfortunate events and developments come from sources other than Jews. His incredulous host challenged Dr. Bakri to substantiate his contentions, but the producers felt compelled to cut the program short before the doctor could answer, fearing public and official backlash for airing such controversial assertions.

“Not all of society’s ills, even Islamic society’s ills, come from the Jews,” stated Dr. Bakri, to gasps and shouts from studio personnel. “What if I told you there are some problems that predate the Jews?” The bemused host sat in stunned silence for a moment before asking his guest to repeat the statement.
NGO Monitor Canadian Funding to BDS-Promoting Organizations
I. Funding Overview

KAIROS Initiatives is a “joint venture ecumenical program administered by the United Church of Canada” (UCC). In 2018, the Government of Canada began funding a global project by “United Church of Canada: KairosInitiatives,” under the heading “Women of Courage – Women, Peace and Security.” The project will run from March 2018 through March 2022, with the organization receiving $4,756,516 for work in South Sudan, the DRC, Colombia, the Philippines, and the West Bank and Gaza. Project funding for the West Bank and Gaza is 20% of the total grant (approximately $950,000).1

According to a KAIROS Canada press release, the program will “empower women to contribute to inclusive, equitable, and sustainable peace with justice in conflict zones where women are at particular risk.”

The long-standing and vigorous promotion of anti-Israel campaigns, including BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions), by UCC, KAIROS Canada, and Wi’am (their Palestinian NGO implementing partner) is clearly inconsistent with these objectives and Canadian policy.

II. BDS: Inconsistent with Canadian Policy

BDS, as articulated at the 2007 First Palestinian Conference for the Boycott of Israel, aims to “not only target Israel’s economy, but challenges Israel’s legitimacy, being a colonial and apartheid state, as part of the international community. Therefore, efforts are needed not only to promote wide consumer boycotts, but also boycotts in the fields of academia, culture and sports” (emphasis added).

BDS campaigns targeting Israel are considered antisemitic, according to the IHRA definition of antisemitism (officially recognized by Global Affairs Canada) as they attempt to deny “the Jewish people their right to self-determination” and apply “double standards.” Furthermore, BDS groups’ support of “anti-normalization” between Israelis and Palestinians is fundamentally inconsistent with promoting peaceful coexistence. As articulated by Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, BDS is “discrimination based on nationality, and it harms both Israelis and Palestinians alike by driving the two sides further apart.”




NUS Candidate Who Shared ‘ISIS Leader Trained by Israel’ Article Rejects Antisemitism Accusations
A candidate for the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom who shared an article claiming that the head of the Islamic State terror group was trained by Israel has rejected calls to apologize.

Zeid Truscott, who is vying for a role in the NUS national executive committee, stated on Friday that the controversy relates to an article shared in 2014 “when I was 18.”

The article in question, published by the conspiracy website GlobalResearch, claimed that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech.” It referred to Israel as “the Zionist entity,” and maintained that the operation was undertaken with the help of British and American intelligence forces.

The post — as well as more recent tweets shared by Truscott last year — came to light after the candidate spoke last month at a rally hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign outside the Israeli embassy in London, as a representative of the NUS Black Students Campaign.

The UK’s Union of Jewish Students called on Truscott on Thursday “to apologize immediately for their antisemitic social media posts,” noting, “this marks the third year in a row where a candidate running for election as NUS National Conference has been found to have engaged in antisemitism.”
Attackers threaten, curse worshipers at Buenos Aires synagogue
Two people physically attacked worshippers leaving a Jewish center and synagogue in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday night and made antisemitic comments during their attack.

Rabbi Uriel Husni, the head of the Mikdash Yosef Jewish center in the capital, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the attack was staged by a man and a woman against worshippers leaving the center in the Palermo neighborhood of the city, as people were leaving following the end of the Friday night Shabbat service.

Most of the congregants, the majority of whom are young men and women, had already left, while Husni remained behind with approximately 10 to 15 people.

According to the rabbi, they then saw a woman who had not been at the prayer service and who was acting strangely exit the Jewish center and shouted at him “Jew, give me food.”
Daring new Bauhaus museum challenges rising far-right in Germany
The Bauhaus design school, which transformed the way people around the world live, work and dream of the future, marks its centenary this week with the launch of a politically charged German museum.

Founded on April 1, 1919, during the rocky period between the world wars and finally driven out by the Nazis, Bauhaus still has the power to inspire and divide in today’s turbulent era.

The sprawling museum in Bauhaus’s birthplace of Weimar, a small city 250 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Berlin, will open to the public Saturday and display the classics of its less-is-more, form-follows-function aesthetic.

The inauguration of the minimalist temple housing the world’s oldest Bauhaus collection comes just weeks ahead of European elections and six months before a key poll in Weimar’s state of Thuringia.
Outside view of the new Bauhaus museum in Weimar, eastern Germany, on April 4, 2019. (John Macdougall/AFP)

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) looks poised to make strong gains in each vote and is polling at about twenty percent here.

“Of course you can’t see this opening separate from its political context,” Wolfgang Holler, director of Weimar’s museums, told AFP.

“Bauhaus was, from the very beginning, intensely political. And so it’s a perfect place to start a conversation, especially with young people.”
Netanyahu: Elon Musk in Talks to Build Transportation Tunnels in Israel
Founder of SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink Elon Musk is in negotiations with Israel’s government to build tunnels in the Jewish state, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

“I met a man that they call Elon Musk—have you heard of him? A real genius,” said Netanyahu at a campaign event on Tuesday when asked about Israel’s transportation infrastructure. “Right now, we’re in conversation with him to see if we can tunnel the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu said he and Musk ate breakfast at the prime minister’s residence, where the billionaire entrepreneur mentioned tunneling.

Musk’s Boring Co. tunneling firm could improve development in Israel’s transportation network, which is beset by one of the developed world’s most congested traffic patterns.


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