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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

06/11 Links Pt2: Little evidence George Galloway's Gaza charity delivered any humanitarian aid; 'Pinkwashing': A failed attempt to demonize the Jewish State; Pompeo vows to protect Jews in UK against Jeremy Corbyn

From Ian:
'Little evidence' George Galloway's Gaza charity delivered any humanitarian aid, regulator finds
A charity set up to help Gazans may not have conducted any charitable activity, the Charity Commission has said in a damning report.

Viva Palestina was set up in January 2009 by a group which included George Galloway, the former Labour and Respect MP, with the aim of “alleviating the suffering and to help the people of Gaza re-build their land”.

It was removed from the register of charities following an inquiry in 2013, four years after the Charity Commission, which regulates the sector in the UK, opened its first statutory investigation into it.

On Thursday, the commission published its findings from the 2013 inquiry, saying that Viva Palestina “may not have conducted any charitable activity or distributed any humanitarian aid”.

It said: "It was difficult for the inquiry to establish with any certainty whether any charitable activity had taken place, as it found little if any evidence that humanitarian aid was distributed to those in need in accordance with the charity’s objects."

It also concluded that the charity’s trustees failed to meet certain legal duties, including the maintenance of proper financial records, safeguarding the charity’s assets, providing financial records and addressing the Charity Commission’s concerns.
Hebrew U. prof. emeritus calls to boycott Physics Olympiad in Israel
Some 20 scientists, including an Israeli professor, wrote an open letter to the organizers of the 2019 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) against holding its July competition in Israel.

The letter was signed by Professor emeritus Emmanuel Dror Farjoun of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Though Farjoun no longer actively works at the university, his author page and contact information continue to appear on the university’s website.

“The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has lecturers from all sides of the political divide,” the university’s international media director, Tali Aronsky, told The Jerusalem Post. “We maintain a respectful, academic environment on our campuses and do not police statements made outside the classroom.

“In this particular case, Prof. Farjoun is retired,” Aronsky continued.

The open letter is being hosted on the official website of the BDS movement and was disseminated to the media. The IPhO is the premier international physics competition for high school students that includes competitors from some 80 countries.
The letter protests holding the contest in Israel due to what it describes as Israel’s denial of Palestinian human rights, including the right to education.

“We the undersigned protest against the organization of the next International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in Tel Aviv, Israel, from the 7th to the 15th of July 2019,” the letter begins. “The organizing committee states that the aim of the International Science Olympiad is to plant ‘the seeds of cooperation and friendship among students from all over the world.’ Under the present circumstances, citizens of many countries are de facto excluded from entering Israel and attending the IPhO, not to mention Palestinian students from the West Bank and Gaza.”

David Collier: Zina the hounded- the hatred that never wants to talk
Last week I told the story of Zina who made the mistake of talking to a Zionist. This is an update of what followed. It is important to stress that this blog and the video I am publishing have been produced without Zina’s co-operation in any way. She remains an anti-Zionist and an adversary. Given some of the abuse she has received, there is little doubt this blog will be taken as further sign of her being little more than a ‘Zionist infiltrator’. Nothing could be further from the truth. What she is however, is evidence of how closed minded, extreme and brutal the anti-Zionist movement is and how swiftly it rounds on anyone who thinks or acts differently.
Brief background

Zina Abdullatif is a hard-core anti-Israel activist. Zina went to the Al Quds March in London. So did Joseph Cohen from the Israel advocacy movement. After the event, circumstances brought them together and they engaged in a dialogue. Each side, the Palestinian activist and the Zionist held their political ground. The meeting was respectful and after the event, they uploaded an image of themselves standing together holding their respective flags. Whilst Joseph was praised for his actions and even Zina received warm comments on Joseph’s page, the same was not true the other way around. Zina was instantly attacked and hounded by her fellow activists. The abuse was incessant.
After the Zina blog

The situation didn’t settle down. Zina had partially caved, but despite her apologies and calls for ‘peace’ amongst her friends, Zina was continuously hounded. Eventually she turned to the police for help:

She also uploaded a video to Facebook in which she spoke of ‘unfair’ ‘horrible’ and attacks.




Jonathan Tobin: True progressives are Zionists
The Jewish state is more secure than it has ever been. Israel is a regional military superpower and possessed of a prosperous First World “Startup Nation” economy. Much of the Arab world is eager for better relations with Israel and to use it as an ally against Iran. The Palestinians are still the prisoners of a mindset that causes them to refuse to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders are drawn. But they are also more isolated than ever.

That’s why Lieberman and Gantz think that the era in which the Israel politics is dominated by those who can point to the foolishness of the parties of the Left in imposing the Oslo peace process on the country is over. The parties of the Left – the once-dominant Labor and Meretz – remain marginalized. However, if Netanyahu calling Blue and White and even the heretofore very right-wing Lieberman “leftists” no longer resonates with voters who care more about putting the Orthodox in their place, then perhaps the Likud and Netanyahu’s decadelong stranglehold on power really is about to end.

Lieberman and Gantz believe that the secular majority’s resentment of the Orthodox – both in terms of dodging the military draft and the dead hand of religious coercion on society – will dominate the conversation, giving them the “war on the rabbis” that Jabotinsky predicted would follow once the state was secured against Arab foes by the “Iron Wall” he said must be built to defend it.

The problem with that formulation is that the Palestinians may not agree to simply look on quietly while Israelis sort out their domestic disputes. Instead, frustrated by their isolation and still besotted with an ideology of violence and committed to their fantasy of the Jewish state’s destruction, they may strike out and remind Israelis that war and peace issues are still the most important ones.

Whether it is Hamas or Hezbollah rockets, or a new intifada aimed at derailing U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace initiative, the Palestinians still have it within their power to focus Israelis on security. Their violence and rejectionism have won Netanyahu the last four straight elections, and there is good reason to think they could give him a fifth consecutive victory if Shtayyeh’s prediction of a hot summer is correct. If so, those anticipating the inevitable conflict between the religious and the secular for control of Israeli society will have to keep waiting.
Lessons from the California Democratic Party convention
Organizing matters
In politics people gain power when they are organized. Knowing that, DMFI organizers worked for over a month building a battalion of 600 pro-Israel delegates who were willing to carry our message and persuade their fellow delegates. That organized effort played a central role in deciding the issues in our favor.

Working from within the party is key
It’s nothing to brag about, but we live in an age of hyper-partisanship. Republicans dislike Democrats more than at any point since the advent of polling. And Democrats dislike Republicans more than ever before.

In this environment, Republicans just aren’t credible to Democrats and vice versa. DMFI could be successful only because we are bona fide, committed Democrats, with a long history of leadership in our party, talking to our own party.

Messaging has to be from the Left to the Left
Similarly, our messages must reflect our values. These days Republicans and Democrats honor quite different values, which is one reason the two parties don’t understand each other very well.

Unfortunately, the pro-Israel message for the last decade or so has come from the Right. So, it’s little wonder we have problems on the Left.

We talked to the Left, from the Left, emphasizing our shared embrace of progressive policy goals, such as economic opportunity, immigrant rights, abortion rights and support of the LGBTQ community. We developed talking points about the problems with these resolutions that spoke to the core values of Democrats.

Power in collaboration
Other organizations joined the effort as well – the ADL wrote party leaders a strong letter strongly condemning the resolutions, Zioness launched an online petition, Progressive Zionists of California and Democrats for Israel – Los Angeles helped provide grassroots support, while Israel on Campus Coalition recruited additional organizers to help on convention weekend.

Though this was a great victory, sadly it’s not the last time we’ll see efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel. Combating them requires us to work hard and smart.

The writer is president and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel.


'Pinkwashing': A failed attempt to demonize the Jewish State
The term pinkwashing is nothing more than a failed attempt by those who claim to champion LGBTQ+ rights in silencing or hiding the monumental successes the community has had in Israel. This is an anti Israel politicized agenda whose sole purpose is to demonize the Jewish state, while claiming to champion Palestinian rights.

As an Israeli, and a gay man, I find propagating that fallacy offensive and perverse. After all, celebrating LGBTQ+ rights should be universal and celebrated in its own right. Then why is it that those same people who claim to support LGBTQ+ rights, organizations such as INN, JVP or the Women’s March leadership deny Israel the praise regarding its progress for LGBTQ+ people in a region that would sooner see those particular communities killed?

Three years ago, I was invited to speak on a panel in Toronto, Canada about my experience as an openly gay sergeant in the IDF. I jumped at the opportunity to showcase how, even in a vehemently anti LGBTQ+ part of the world, Israel once again, proved to be a light unto the nations.

When I received the artwork for the event invite, to review and approve, I was taken aback by the title, “Pinkwashing and Intersectionality”. I was taken aback because I had never heard the term “Pinkwashing” before.

“In the context of LGBT rights, it is used to describe a variety of marketing and political strategies aimed at promoting products, countries, people or entities through an appeal to gay friendliness, in order to be perceived as progressive, modern and tolerant” (Sited from Wikipedia)

I was aghast. Who had come up with such skewed definition to describe the outcome of the sweat and tears my generation had shed in order to create the only true safe haven for LGBTQ+ people in the Middle East, including Palestinians who found safety in Israel from being harmed or killed at the hands of their families or governments?


Leading LGBT+ Advocacy Group Withdraws Support for DC Dyke March Over Jewish Pride Flag Ban
A leading LGBT+ organization in the US on Friday withdrew its support from the 2019 Dyke March in Washington, DC, following the organizers’ decision to ban “pro-Israel paraphernalia,” including Jewish symbols such as the Star of David, from the event.

In a statement, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey said that her organization — founded in 1973 to combat homophobic prejudice and discrimination — could no longer support Friday’s Dyke March because of the prohibition.

Carey said that the Task Force had originally agreed to be a march partner because of its “stated focus area that is the crisis of housing displacement and gentrification in the District of Columbia.”

However, she continued, upon “learning of the decision by DC Dyke March organizers to discourage attendees from carrying the Jewish pride flag, the National LGBTQ Task Force withdrew our support for the DC Dyke March.”

Stressed Carey: “The Jewish Pride Flag is a symbol that represents the greater LGBTQ Jewish community — around the world and of many perspectives.”




Report: Pompeo vows to protect Jews in UK against Jeremy Corbyn
Britain’s Labour party has accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of planning to prevent party leader Jeremy Corbyn from becoming prime minister after a leaked recording captured U.S. President Donald Trump’s top diplomat vowing to preemptively “push back” against his leadership, The Guardian reported over the weekend.

“It could be that Corbyn manages to run the gauntlet and get elected,” Pompeo is heard telling U.K. Jewish leaders in the leaked recording. “It’s possible. You should know, we won’t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. We will do our level best. It’s too risky and too important and too hard once it’s already happened.”

The remark came in response to a hypothetical question should Corbyn become prime minister: “Would you be willing to work with us to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews in the U.K.?”

A Labour spokesman warned that the U.S. was seeking to intervene in U.K. politics. The spokesman also promised to fight against anti-Semitism, which has been an increasing concern within the left-wing party.

“President Trump and his officials’ attempts to decide who will be Britain’s next prime minister are an entirely unacceptable interference in the U.K.’s democracy,” said the unnamed source according to The Guardian, adding that the Labour Party was “fully committed to the support, defense and celebration of the Jewish community and is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in any form”.
HonestReporting: Labour MP: Gaza Mother ‘Separated’ From Her Dead Babies
A month after a fake story about a Gazan child suffering from cancer died alone in a Jerusalem hospital was debunked, the smear is enjoying a new lease of life. Taking to The Independent, member of the British Labour party Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan MP has now made a similarly unfounded claim about Gazan babies dying alone in Israel.

In her op-ed, Dr. Allin-Khan alleges that doctors told a Gazan mother over the phone that two of her prematurely-born babies died “as [she] had to return to Gaza days after giving birth”. Allin-Khan further claims that this arose as a result of Israel not granting her a permit to exit Gaza for the Jerusalem hospital where the mother had given birth.

However, according to multiple news sources, the mother was with the boys when they died. Rather than being far away in Gaza, the reports clearly indicated that the mother was actually with her children in Israel until their final moments, and only then returned to Gaza in order to bury them.

Allin-Khan’s op-ed, published on June 8, was pre-dated by a string of tweets on May 31 in which she wrote, “two of the babies died in hospital – their parents were told over the phone.” Within hours, multiple Twitter users responded with comments and links showing that Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit stridently refuted the story.
Corbyn says new MP accused of anti-Semitism is ‘not a racist in any way’
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday said a newly-elected MP criticized for liking an anti-Semitic post on social media was “not a racist in any way.”

Lisa Forbes had liked a a Facebook video expressing solidarity with victims of the Christchurch mosque shooting in March. Text accompanying the video said British Prime Minister Theresa May had a “Zionist Slave Masters agenda.”

Forbes also commented: “I have enjoyed reading this thread so much” on a post that repeated the conspiracy theory that the Mossad and CIA are behind the Islamic State terror group.

Forbes has since said the incidents were a misunderstanding and apologized, adding that she would nevertheless take anti-Semitism awareness training. But UK Jewish groups last week called on Labour to disown her. Senior British Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman on Saturday called for Forbes’ suspension while an investigation took place.

According to the Guardian, Corbyn during an appearance in Birmingham Saturday said Forbes “has apologized for the remarks that she transmitted through social media. If there are complaints about her they will be investigated, not by me, but by our party system.”

But he added: “She has made her position very clear. Lisa Forbes is a good woman. Not a racist in any way whatsoever.”


Senior UK Labour lawmaker calls for suspension of new MP in anti-Semitism row
The Times also reported Saturday that Labour MP Rupa Huq is the subject of complaints by former staff members over alleged anti-Semitism. Huq denied the claims, one of which was said to include a 2,500-word dossier of alleged incidents of Jew hatred, saying they are “false and malicious.”

In one complaint, Huq is accused of taunting a then-staffer over a Star of David badge on his bag.

A second complainant said Huq had a former employee “listen to her conspiracy theories surrounding the Jewish community.”

Last month the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission announced it had launched a formal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour party.

The EHRC, the main government anti-racism watchdog, said it would probe whether the main opposition party led by Jeremy Corbyn had discriminated against, harassed or victimized Jews in violation of the UK’s 2006 Equality Act.
Israel shutters 30 BDS fundraising accounts by revealing alleged terror ties
Israel has quietly waged a two-year financial campaign against organizations promoting a boycott of the Jewish state by revealing their connections to terror operatives, leading to the closures of dozens of fundraising accounts, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs said Monday.

The campaign targeted fundraising accounts for groups promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel that were hosted on platforms like PayPal and DonorBox.

Under the direction of the ministry, pro-Israel activists alerted the platforms to violations in their regulations banning fundraising activities connected to terrorism.

The effort shuttered 10 accounts based in the US and 20 in Europe, the ministry said.

Pro-Israel activists involved in the effort included legal NGOs, Jewish groups based in the US and France, and journalists based outside Israel, Channel 13 reported.

“For years, boycott promoters have disguised themselves as ‘human rights activists,’ managing to raise tens of millions of euros from Western countries and citizens who thought they were contributing to causes supporting justice and equality. Over time, though, we have revealed that the supposed ‘human rights’ NGOs are in reality filled with anti-Semitic operatives with deep ties to terrorist groups fixated on destroying the State of Israel,” Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement.
Berlin's Jewish Museum under fire for tweeting pro-BDS article
A tweet sent out by the Jewish Museum of Berlin on Thursday that included a link to an article claiming that a resolution passed by the German parliament last month declaring the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel to be anti-Semitic was not helpful in the battle against anti-Semitism sparked an online backlash, which continued throughout the weekend.

The museum posted a link to an article on the German news site Taz.de, which reported that 240 Israeli and Jewish researchers had spoken out against the anti-BDS measure. The museum, which is publicly funded, added the hashtag #mustread.

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff called the museum’s tweet “shameful” in a response he posted to his own Twitter page on Saturday.

“The Jewish Museum is supposed to be a cultural body but is highly political when supporting the boycotting of Israel and in effect criticizing the Bundestag for condemning anti-Semitism!” Issacharoff’s message read.

On Sunday, the Jewish Museum sent out another tweet in which it said that by tagging the Taz article, the institution had not taken any stand against the Bundestag’s anti-BDS resolution.

Last month, the Bundestag passed a German motion stated that “the pattern of argument and methods of the BDS movement are anti-Semitic.”
German Jews say Jewish Museum “out of control” due to BDS support
The Central Council of Jews in Germany launched stinging criticism on Tuesday against the Jewish Museum in Berlin for its alleged endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

“Enough is enough. The Jewish Museum Berlin seems to be completely out of control. Under these circumstances, one has to think about whether the term ‘Jewish’ is still appropriate,” tweeted the nearly 100,000 member group. The council added that the museum’s management “has lost the trust of the Jewish community in Germany.”

The heated tweet appears to be the first openly sharp attack on an embattled management at the museum from the normally reserved Central Council.

The council added that the museum’s direction raises the question of whether executive director Peter Schรคfer is fit for his role. It also questioned “who actually sets the guidelines of the Jewish Museum.” That appears to be an indirect reference to Monika Grรผtters, the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, who retains final supervision of the museum, and has not been able to rope in the anti-Israel and pro-Iranian regime activity conducted by Schรคfer, who is not Jewish, and his staff.

Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, tweeted: "I stand with my friends at the Central Council. Their leadership is crucial in Germany."
Roger Waters claims Israeli fans nixed peace. It’s a lie.
The story took place in 2006, after Waters accepted an invitation to play in Tel Aviv and got a lot of flack from pro-Palestinian activists. In response to their censure, Waters moved the concert to a model village where Arab and Jewish Israelis live together called Neve Shalom or Wahat al-Salam. The concert was staged in a bean field in order to accommodate some 60,000 concert-goers.

So far so good. But then the story shifted. “They spent the whole night going like they do,” Waters said, pantomiming fans enthusiastically waving their arms in the air, “until we got to the end of the evening, when I said — I stood up in front of all that, and said, ‘You are the generation of young Israelis who must make peace with your brothers and sisters in the neighborhood and bring in a new era of ‘etcetera etcetera etcetera.’ And they went from, [here, Waters waved his arms again overhead] to ‘what the fuck’s he talking about?’ [here, Waters crossed his arms and scowled] – in a heartbeat. And it was one of the most chilling sights I’ve ever seen in my life.”

You can watch Waters tell the story here:

This vignette of 60,000 Israelis going from cheering wildly to scowling in silence when urged to make peace seemed to sum up everything Waters thought we needed to know about Israel.

But to me, the story seemed suspicious. 60,000 people instantly reacting the same way to any political issue is improbable enough, but 60,000 Israelis? Impossible, especially when the audience would have included supporters of Neve Shalom as well as Palestinian Israelis.

It took me a few days and the help of Israeli friends to locate an audio recording of the 2006 concert. What happened at the moment Waters mentioned peace-making was pretty much the opposite of what Waters described.

“We can’t lose this opportunity to thank you all so much for coming to Neve Shalom, the village of peace,” Waters says, to wild cheering. “It means a great deal to them, and also to me.” More wild cheering. “And, I may be speaking out of turn, but I believe that we, the rest of the world, need this generation of Israelis to tear down the walls and to make peace with their neighbors.”

Here the cheering grows even louder.
Students in NYC participated in anti-Israel rally
A student's collective for a Palestinian state rallied on Israel's Independence Day in Brooklyn. The group, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), called for Israel's elimination repeatedly.

Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine, an offshoot of Students for Justice in Palestine, gathered in the upper East side for the rally the labeled "Nakba 71: The Great Return March Continues."

The term "Nakba" means "catastrophe" in Arabic, referring to the Palestinian catastrophe that was the independence of the Jewish state.

"New York City, you will see, Palestine will be free," the students chanted. "New York City, you will learn, refugees will return."

Brooklyn Assemblyman Ralph Perfetto attended and spoke at the event, blaming Israeli Jews for the antisemitism experiences by US Jews.

"I believe the rise in antisemitism in this country is because of what is happening there," Perfetto said. "Not because of the Jewish people in this country, but because of what is happening over there. And, unfortunately, the Jewish people in this country are suffering for it."


HonestReporting: New York Times Ditches Political Cartoons Over Antisemitism?
Bogged down by controversy over an antisemitic cartoon, the New York Times announced that it’s no longer publishing editorial cartoons.

Although James Bennett, the editorial page editor, said the move was being considered even before the paper published a shockingly antisemitic cartoon in April, the timing still raised eyebrows.

The cartoon in question about Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump featured antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and control and was published during the Passover holiday.

New York Times antisemitic cartoon
It had been drawn by Portuguese cartoonist Antonio Moreira Antunes, of the Lisbon weekly paper, Expresso, and reached the New York Times through a syndicate. The Times apologized, disciplined the editor who approved the cartoon’s publishing, and canceled its contract with the syndicate, CartoonArts International. (Expresso deleted the cartoon from its site without an explanation or apology.)

Antunes later dug in his heels and insisted that the cartoon wasn’t antisemitic.

The controversy led us to launch a petition calling on the news industry to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Without accusing the Times of institutional antisemitism, we questioned the environment and mindset where an editor could authorize such an image. We expanded on the reasons for the petition in a separate post.

Despite the New York Times’ damage control, the paper published days later yet another cartoon about Netanyahu, further angering the Jewish community.

Scrapping the Toons
After learning that the editors were scrapping all editorial cartoons, the Times’ in-house cartoonist Patrick Chappatte wrote a response to the on his blog. (If that name gives you a feeling of deja vu, it’s probably because of his poison pen takes on the Mideast conflict over the years. See for example cartoons one, two and three.) Chappatte’s response to the Times is simply about the value of editorial cartoons and what the controversy means to him:
Last week, my employers told me they’ll be ending in-house political cartoons as well by July. I’m putting down my pen, with a sigh: that’s a lot of years of work undone by a single cartoon – not even mine – that should never have run in the best newspaper of the world.

Although cartooning for the New York Times is a high-profile position, the Swiss-Lebanese national won’t be left high and dry — Chappatte also draws for other European papers. The Times also let go of a second cartoonist, Heng Kim Song.

But scrapping cartoons may not be as drastic a shift as it seems — at least by NYT standards. If we’re not mistaken, in the New York Times 168-year history, it never published editorial cartoons until Chappatte convinced editors to bring him on board in 2001. Moreover, the unfortunate trend in US papers is that in-house cartoonists are casualties of declining newsroom budgets.
Not a Scoop: 448 Days Later, NY Times Reports Slur by Palestinian Leader
In January 2016, on the day Israel buried a pregnant woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel publicly criticized what he viewed as a double standard in Israelis law enforcement that allows for "unchecked" vigilantism in the West Bank. Israel's prime minister responded that the remarks were "unacceptable and incorrect." (The ambassador later expressed regret for the timing of his comments.)

It took the New York Times only hours to report that the Israeli prime minister had critiqued the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and four days to slam that critique as "unusually personal and unfair" in an editorial.

Two years later, in March 2018, the Palestinian leader slurred the American ambassador as a "son of a dog."

The time it took for the newspaper to report on that "unusually personal" slur can also be counted in days: 448 in all.

Yes, well over a year after Mahmoud Abbas hurled curses at Ambassador David Friedman's mother, the New York Times has finally ended Abbas's undiplomatic immunity and printed his words for all to see — even if only because Friedman recounted them in an interview with the newspaper.
BBC to stop using the word ‘terror’ to describe attacks – report
The British Broadcasting Corporation has decided to stop using the word “terror” in order to avoid being perceived as being biased in its reporting, the Daily Mail newspaper reported Sunday.

The report quoted “well-placed BBC sources” as saying the worldwide network’s management is “eager to report terror attacks consistently, regardless of the terrorist’s political ideology.” Instead of calling all incidents “terror attacks” and risk accusations of bias, the BBC will be changing its editorial policy to remove the word “terror” from its lexicon unless it is contained in a direct quote.

“It boils down to that phrase, ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,‘” a senior news source told the Daily Mail.

The world’s largest broadcast news operation has come under criticism in the past, accused of bias in reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for not calling attacks terrorism, and for suppressing a 2004 internal inquiry into its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Rabbi beaten in central Argentina, in apparent anti-Semitic attack
A rabbi in Rosario, the third most populous city in Argentina, was verbally and physically attacked in violence characterized as anti-Semitic, local media reported Monday.

Rabbi Shlomo Tawil, co-director of the local Chabad-Lubavitch organization, was attacked Sunday night by three men in Rosario, located in the center of the country. The men shouted anti-Semitic epithets before removing the rabbi’s hat and trampling it on the ground, then beating the rabbi, who was walking alone.

The attack was stopped when passersby intervened. It has been characterized as anti-Semitic, since the attackers appeared to have started up with the rabbi to hurt him, and did not steal anything.

The local representative of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella in Argentina, Gabriel Dobkin, told local media Monday that the organization would file a complaint with police in the coming hours. He said that police were working with a city prosecutor to determine if the attack was captured on surveillance cameras and called for a thorough investigation.

Dobkin called the attack on the rabbi “a fierce, cowardly, anti-Semitic attack.”

DAIA and the Jewish community of Rosario said in a joint statement that they “demand from the authorities a total and absolute clarification of this unfortunate event.”

“We hope that these violent people will be definitively eradicated from Argentine society, which has chosen the path of coexistence, peace and justice,” the statement also said.
Belgium: Man armed with knives tries to enter synagogue
A man armed with three knives who pretended to be Jewish attempted to enter an Antwerp synagogue over the holiday of Shavuot before being apprehended.

According to the CKJGA “Shmira” Jewish patrol group of Antwerp, “A suspicious person with Iraqi roots tried to enter the Van De Nest synagogue on Monday morning walking next to his bike and carrying a bag. The suspect wore a kippa on his head and pretended to be Jewish.”

“The Shmira volunteers stopped him before entering to conduct a safety questioning. After the questioning, they requested police check him. He seemed to be carrying 2 small and 1 bigger knives. Police arrested the suspect on grounds of carrying a forbidden weapon and trying to get into the synagogue.”

CKJGA also made note of several other incidents over the course of Shavuot during which Antwerp Jews were threatened.

Online store pulls products for sale with ‘Zyklon B’ logo after outcry
An Australian-based online purveyor of customized products has come under fire again, this time for selling items with a “Zyklon B” parody logo printed on them.

On sale via Redbubble were cups, T-shirts, cellphone cases and postcards bearing the name Zyklon B, one of the chemicals — crystalline hydrogen cyanide — that Nazis used to murder millions in its death camp gas chambers.

According to the Daily Mail, the offensive items have now been removed from the site of Redbubble,which currently offers 70,000 different T-shirts for sale.

The Berliner Zeitung newspaper broke the story when it published a photo of the Zyklon B wares, which are designed to look like the logo of the Oral B dental hygiene brand.

According to the Daily Mail, British design firm ImperivmCloth marketed the products on the online platform, captioning the wares: “You too can look minty fresh with this beautiful Zyklon-B design.”
Polish soccer team honors Holocaust victim who scored its 1st international goal
Ahead of a match-up between Israel’s national soccer team and Poland’s, the Polish Football Association honored a Jewish player murdered in the Holocaust.

The two teams are to face each other Monday night in Warsaw in a qualifying match for the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship. Relations between the two countries have suffered following the eruption of a diplomatic crisis over a Polish law making it illegal to blame Poland for the Holocaust.

The Polish association’s president, Zbigniew Boniek, is scheduled to present a jersey bearing the name and number of Jozef Klotz to his Israeli nephew, Yoav Dekel. In 1922, during a match in Sweden, Klotz scored the first-ever goal for a Polish team in an international match. The current members of the Polish national team all signed the shirt, which will be presented during a ceremony in Warsaw, which is being organized by the From the Depths Holocaust commemoration group.

The ceremony is to be followed by the opening of an exhibition about Klotz and the other Polish Jewish players at the TSKZ Jewish cultural club in Warsaw.

Israel’s will play Latvia Friday night and Poland on Monday.

The match would bring into contact hundreds of soccer fans from Israel and Poland. The tension has recently widened to include restitution issues.




Rivlins presented special gift to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's baby
Before the passing of Israel's first lady and President Reuven Rivlin's wife, Nechama Rivlin, the couple sent a special gift to Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the newborn son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, better known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The present sent was a beautiful set of wooden blocks wrapped within a specially made bag sharing both the British and Israeli flags, all created in a special factory ran by the Summit Institute in Jerusalem, which employs young adults with mental disabilities.

"With the goal of rehabilitation for an independent life, these young adults are integrated into a factory called “Yatzir Kapayim” in Jerusalem, in which they learn to produce toys and other goods such as the one sent to Prince Archie. Most of the items made are intended for infants and children," according to a press release.


Prince Harry himself has spoken of the importance of bringing light to mental health issues and disabilities, attempting to eradicate the scrutiny or a stigma attached to these issues for those suffering with such problems they cannot control.
Sifting Through the Temple Mount's History
The Temple Mount Sifting project began 20 years ago and has since seen many ups and downs. The ambitious goal of uncovering items from the Temple Mount is now being presented in a special exhibition in Jerusalem. Our Daniel Campos has the story.


First Wedding Held at Site of Europe’s Second-Oldest Synagogue in 1,500 Years
For the first time in more than 1,500 years, the ruins of a synagogue dating back to the fourth century C.E. in the Calabria area of southern Italy played host to a Jewish wedding on Tuesday.

Roque Pugliese and Ivana Pezzoli, both of whom are descendants of Iberian Jews forcibly converted during the 14th and 15th centuries, were married on June 4 in an emotional and historic ceremony at the site of the second-oldest synagogue ever found in Europe.

Pugliese’s parents hid their Jewish roots while he grew up in Calabria and Argentina. Upon discovering his heritage, Pugliese decided to formally return to Judaism with assistance from the Shavei Israel organization.

While Pezzoli was raised with certain Jewish traditions in her family, she was never told why. Upon researching her family history, she found that she had Jewish roots and embarked on an extensive study of Judaism for more than eight years before undergoing formal conversion.

Pugliese and Pezzoli, both medics who met while working at a local hospital, are now living religiously observant Jewish lives.

The wedding took place in the archaeological park adjacent to the southern Italian seaside village of Bova Marina, where the remains of a synagogue were unearthed in 1983 during the construction of a road.

Among the items discovered were a mosaic floor with colorful tiles portraying images of a Menorah, a shofar, and a lulav and etrog, as well as a walled niche where the aron kodesh, or holy ark that contained Torah scrolls, once stood. The ruins face directly towards Jerusalem.

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