Friday, August 02, 2019
Lyn Julius: No place for blind spots on Muslim anti-Semitism
The failure to acknowledge Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism is a peculiarly leftist blind spot. Twentieth-century Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism resulted in the ethnic cleansing of almost a million Jews in a single generation, but its roots lie in an ancient system of exploitation of the wealth and talents of Jews and Christians known as dhimmitude, where other religious minorities have second-class status. This system, punctuated by the odd pogrom or forced conversion, cemented a concept of Muslim supremacy over non-Muslim peoples reminiscent of colonialism.
Underlying the Labour campaign against anti-Semitism is the assumption that Israel is to blame for ruining the pre-existing state of harmony and peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews. This, of course, is a myth. Jews in the Muslim world were always viewed as inferior and had few rights, their fate utterly dependent on the munificence of the ruler of the day to whom they had outsourced their right to self-defense.
This truth is a vindication of Zionism. Even if oriental Jews were not prominent in the modern Zionist movement, they remain eternally grateful that Israel—where they comprise half the population—has ended their historically weak, inferior and defenseless status. Israel is the envy of other indigenous non-Arab and non-Muslim groups, like the Kurds or the Assyrians, who would dearly love to throw off the yoke of Arab supremacy to achieve self-determination in a sovereign state of their own.
This is the contradiction at the heart of Corbyn’s Labour. It sees itself as the party of the downtrodden and the abused, when in truth, it champions the abusers.
It denies that non-Arabs and non-Muslims in the Middle East were ever victims of oppression. In its (at best) ambivalence to Zionism and (at worst) hostility towards Israel, it is effectively supporting the re-imposition of Arab and Muslim domination over a dhimmi people.
Spectator PodCast: How radical Islam taught the progressive left to blame the Jews
It's less than four years since Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left sect seized control of the Labour Party, and yet already its anti-Semitic views – so alien to Labour tradition – seem too deeply rooted to eradicate.
Today's 'Holy Smoke' podcast puts this sinister development in the broader context of the 'Red-Green' alliance – the love affair between the progressive Left and the Jew-haters of jihadist Islam.
On the face of it, this is an unlikely, even surreal, relationship. But as Damian's guest, the historian Richard Landes, argues, the two have something in common: millennialism, the belief that some sort of Heaven on Earth, is not only imminent but historically inevitable.
In theory, progressives believe that this transition to a new era will be peaceful; Jihadists, by definition, don't. But, as Landes explains, it's not as simple as that...
JCPA: American Liberal Jews: Strong Concern about Anti-Semitism, Strong Support of Israel but Less for under 60s – Part 1
For Americans and for American Jews in particular, the Israel-America relationship is thought of as something special. But that special relationship has come with periods of perceived stress and strain and tension, and that is something we see reflected in the media, often with some bold headlines and in some polls which show some softening of support among more liberal Americans, such as what we find among Democrats.
The conventional wisdom out there is that Democrats, as a mostly liberal group, have a political or ideological orientation that creates at least some of the tension with what is considered currently a right wing government in Israel. And since Jews are mostly democrats, that tension would extend to them as well.
Are these perceptions accurate? Are American liberal Jews becoming alienated or disconnected with Israel? Is it accurate to say, as some polls have suggested, that concerns about Israel are a very low priority for American liberal Jews?
So, we looked for evidence by both examining data already collected in previous studies and by collecting some data of our own.
Barry Shaw: Has Ilhan Omar imported the ideology of a Somali dictator to America?
Is America turning a blind eye to people who entered the United States illegally and who aided and abetted a murderous regime?IfNotNow Annoyed: 2 Debates, 20 Democrats, Not One Word About ‘Occupation’
Would it be disqualifying to have someone sit on the US Foreign Affairs Committee who is under the paternal political and ideological guidance of someone who could have been close to the top of a Marxist-Islamist dictatorship?
Why hasn’t the genocide committed by the Siad Barre regime, and all those culpable in the human rights and war crimes committed in Somalia, ever come before the International Court of Justice?
Ilhan Omar and her father can produce evidence of his role in the Somali civil war? Why have they been totally silent about the burning issue?
There may be no there three, but surely an investigation is warranted into the roles played by the senior members of the Said Elmi-Omar families in Somalia under Barre? She talks about her grandfather, but not of her father. Why? Especially if he is such a great political strategist.
It is clear that the political ideology of Ilhan Omar is not too far removed from that of the Siad Barre in Somalia. There are signs of a Red-Green alliance emerging out of Democratic politics. Perhaps a part of that derives from Somali politics.
Ilhan Omar hails from a country that never saw a Jew, yet was steeped in anti-Semitism.
Omar never met a Jew in Somalia, nor in Kenya. She has barely met a Jew in her Somali-community in Minnesota. Yet she is a virile anti-Semite. It is a well-known cultural affliction throughout the Middle East.
Is Ilhan Omar the second generation of a family attempting to subvert the democratic system of their respective countries?
Does America really want this inflicted on the greatest democracy in the world in which the opposition party is increasingly tilting radically left?
There was one curious paragraph in Emma’s email this morning: “Our message is clear: candidates must understand that acknowledging the reality on the ground in Israel/Palestine — that Israel enforces a military Occupation — is a baseline position.”Antisemitism, and the battle for the soul of Britain’s Labour Party
What did she mean by that? Isn’t it a simple fact that Israel maintains a military occupation of most of Judea and Samaria? Has anyone denied it?Actually, it’s only recently that Israel’s candidate to be the next prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been musing aloud about imposing Israeli civil law on the settlements, to end the occupation there. Jordan maintained a military occupation of those lands until 1967, and then Israel took it over – militarily. It’s an occupied territory, except for the parts of eastern Jerusalem which have been annexed legally.
There’s nothing wrong with a military occupation as a concept – of course, it should be as short as possible, but if the alternative is chaos and yet another failed Arab state – isn’t it preferable?
“I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand by as another debate goes on without mentioning the Occupation,” writes Emma, and asks, sheepishly: “Can you donate $5 to make sure we can make the Occupation a central issue in the next debates?”
“Once we know more about what our resources are, we’ll update you on our plans,” she explains, meaning she’s probably going to ask for at least $5 more.
Well I’m not going to send my hard-earned five dollars to make sure the candidates have even less time to debate more serious issues – but I hope Emma keeps writing me. She’s so young, and idealistic and self-loathing, how can I help adoring her?
Chris Williamson, a longtime friend and supporter of Corbyn, has been a Labour Party member for over 40 years and an MP since 2017. He was suspended from the party in February after video footage showed him telling a meeting of the Momentum group that Labour’s reaction to antisemitism allegations had been “too apologetic,” and had led to the party being “demonized.”Report: Labour controversy has helped fuel anti-Semitic incidents
On June 26, his case was considered by an antisemitism panel of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), and he was issued a formal warning and readmitted to the party.
A furious backlash followed. More than 120 Labour MPs and peers led by the deputy leader, Tom Watson, demanded that Corbyn step in to expel him from the parliamentary party. Almost 70 Labour staff members wrote to express their anger at Williamson’s readmission.
The furor lasted 24 hours. Then one of the three-member NEC panel, MP Keith Vaz, wrote to Labour’s general secretary proposing that a new panel should be convened. As a result, Williamson has had his suspension from the party reimposed while his case is re-examined. Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched an official inquiry into whether the Labour Party has unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimized people because they are Jewish.
Subsequently, three Labour peers – lords Triesman, Darzi and Turnberg – resigned the whip over the party’s handling of antisemitism. Following the move, Labour launched a website to combat antisemitism, featuring a video from Corbyn saying that the phenomenon is marginal in the party. The site, titled “No Place for Antisemitism,” says its aim is to provide Labour members and supporters with basic tools to counter antisemitism.
The parliamentary Labour Party is now openly split. Social democrat MPs, who oppose Corbyn and much of what he stands for, use the failure of the leadership to tackle the festering wound of antisemitism to represent their far broader frustrations. There is even talk of a leadership challenge to Corbyn from more moderate quarters within the party. Meanwhile, the hard Left, having gained power within the party, is not going to relinquish it without a fight. With the emergence on July 23 of Boris Johnson as Britain’s new prime minister, a general election sooner rather than later is widely predicted. Johnson has two main priorities: to achieve Brexit by October 31, and to prevent Corbyn from ever becoming prime minister.
A recent UK-wide poll of voters found that 42% of voters believed antisemitism is a “genuine and serious issue” in the Labour Party. In rejecting antisemitism, the British electorate would be rejecting the hard-left political philosophy that nurtures it.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose in the first half of the year, according to a charity on Thursday that cited alleged anti-Semitism in the opposition Labour party as a contributing factor.Jeremy Corbyn Cares Not a Whit about the Human Rights of Muslims
The Community Security Trust (CST) said in a report that it had recorded 892 incidents, 10% up from the 2018 period and a record for the January to June period in particular.
A 46% rise in the number of online incidents was the most obvious single factor explaining the overall increase, it added.
The CST, which has been logging anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since 1984 and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, said the highest monthly totals of such incidents came in February and March.
“They occurred when issues relating to Jews and anti-Semitism were prominent in news and politics due to the continuing controversy over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party,” it added in a statement.
Ask the British Labor-party leader Jeremy Corbyn, or his sympathizers, why he is so fixated on Israel’s supposed misdeeds, and you’ll no doubt hear about his abiding commitment to Palestinians’ human rights. To polish his image as a defender of Muslims, notes Fiyaz Mughal, he scarcely misses an opportunity to be photographed taking part in a Ramadan celebration or other Muslim event. Yet he is a stubborn defender of the former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who took part in a genocidal campaign to “cleanse” Bosnia of Muslims, and was engaged in similar efforts against the Muslims of Kosovo when the U.S. and its allies intervened. Years later, Corbyn even introduced a motion in parliament praising one John Pilger for writing an article defending Milosevic. (Free registration may be required.)
Over 800,000 Kosovar Muslims were displaced [in 1999]. Kosovar Muslim men, women, and children were murdered in a systematic manner; hundreds of people disappeared, only to be found dumped in shallow graves with gunshot wounds and brutal fresh scars—evidence of torture. [Yet Pilger’s] piece ended with a dismissal of the then-ongoing trial of Milosevic for war crimes as a “farce” and a “show trial” of a man whose only crime was his refusal to “surrender sovereignty” to the demands of global finance organizations. Needless to say, Pilger, together with fellow journalist Seymour Hersh, is also a leading light among apologists [for another mass-murderer of Muslims, Syria’s] Bashar al-Assad.
But give [Corbyn] a photo opportunity at a mosque and he is there looking like the “magic grandpa” of his fans’ online iconography, surrounded by young Muslims who know little about his political history and how little his solidarity with Muslims in danger is really worth.
And then there is Corbyn’s solidarity with Iran, on whose government-run English-language television channel he has made innumerable appearances:
Final point on IRA.
— BrexitTory (@_BrexitTory) July 31, 2019
Heres what ex IRA member, turned informer, Sean O’Callaghan, had to say about Corbyn & McDonnell's roll as 'peace negotiators.'
"They never wanted peace, they supported the armed struggle & were nothing to do with the peace process!"pic.twitter.com/BcZSjtncwJ
Lionel Richie's Israel show to sail on despite BDS pressure
Much to the chagrin of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, pop legend Lionel Richie is set to perform in Israel no matter what.J-Lo celebrates 50 with an adoring, dancing crowd in Tel Aviv
Richie, 70, is the voice behind timeless ballads such as "Endless Love," "Stuck on You," and the iconic "Hello," as well as a slew of R&B hits.
The winner of multiple Grammy and American Music awards, as well as the 1985 Academy Award for "Say You, Say Me," Richie is scheduled to perform in Live Park Rishon Lezion, in central Israel, on Sept. 12.
Moreover, Richie has recently blocked BDS group Code Pink on social media, after a harassment campaign seeking to pressure him into canceling the Israeli show.
"Lionel Richie is one of the most beloved musical artists in the world. His music brings joy to millions but sadly, he has agreed to perform in Israel, ignoring that the Israel government and military are responsible for the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Please sign the petition asking Lionel Richie to cancel his performance in apartheid Israel," Code Pink said in a post on its website touting the hashtag #LionelDontGo.
The group went on to warn Richie that performing in Israel "will act as an endorsement of Israel’s brutal systems of military occupation and apartheid," and urged him to follow "in the footsteps of artists like Lauryn Hill, Lorde, and Lana del Ray," all of whom cowered to BDS pressure and canceled their shows in the Jewish state.
Pop queen Jennifer Lopez, known to her adoring fans as J-Lo, continued her global 50th birthday celebration Thursday night with a long-awaited performance in front of a thrilled Tel Aviv audience at Park Hayarkon, the city’s main outdoor arena.Jenny's Jerusalem jamAfter thrilling Tel Aviv, J-Lo visits the Western Wall
The crowd, which numbered around 57,000, was ecstatic to have Lopez in Israel, after several false starts in the past.
Lopez brought along her usual array of dancers, around six costume changes and plenty of personality to the party, which included giving a glimpse of her famed, toned backside, slightly visible through a low-cut bodysuit.
“That’s my birthday suit,” she yelled to the crowd.
Lopez, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday with her fiancée, former baseball star Alex Rodriguez, clearly wanted to connect with the audience.
“Tel Aviv!” she shouted. “How are you all feeling? Did you come to party? Did you get an invite? Don’t know if you heard, but it’s my birthday and we’re gonna celebrate together.”
A day after wowing fans with a long-awaited performance in front of a thrilled Tel Aviv audience, Jennifer Lopez on Friday visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall.
Lopez — along with her fiance, former baseball player Alex Rodriguez, Rodriguez’s two children from his first marriage, and Lopez’s twins she had with fellow singer Marc Anthony — has been in Israel since Tuesday, ahead of her concert in front of 57,000 fans Thursday night in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.
Video posted on social media showed the singer touching the stones at the holy site and whispering in the ears of the children as she protected them from the jostling crowd.
Neither of the stars commented online about their visit to the holy Jewish site.
This beats NYC traffic any day. #israel #scooter #mynewride pic.twitter.com/038hMzIiOv
— Alex Rodriguez (@AROD) August 1, 2019
Oscar-nominated actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld visits Israel
Oscar-nominated actress (True Grit) and multiplatinum recording artist Hailee Steinfeld just visited Israel for the first time.Amid Campus Battles, BDS Loses on the National Stage
Traveling in a group alongside her parents, Pete Steinfeld, who is Jewish, and Cheri Steinfeld, who is Christian, they started their trip with a dinner on the rooftop of AISH HaTorah yeshiva overlooking the Western Wall. They were hosted by Rabbi Steven Burg, AISH's CEO, and by Jewish Music superstar, Rabbi Shlomo Katz, who, per his Facebook post, "discussed the centrality of music in the Holy Temple with Hailee and her family." They visited the Western Wall and Tunnels, the City of David, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Yad Vashem, and Shalva National Children's Center. While the group visited the Shalva Center, Oscar-winning actor and singer, Jamie Foxx, posted Shalva's Eurovision Performance and praised them.
Hailee Steinfeld at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (Credit: @odel_metry)Hailee Steinfeld at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (Credit: @odel_metry)
This group was also spotted riding ATVs around Jerusalem and visiting a winery, horseback riding and boating in the North, camel riding in the South, floating in the Dead Sea, touring Caesarea, shopping in Jaffa and enjoying night life in Tel Aviv.
Steinfeld, who recently starred in the Transformers prequel, Bumblebee, was spotted at a popular Jerusalem restaurant in the Machaneh Yehuda market with Transformers director Michael Bay and Israeli singer and television personality, Noa Kirel.
The group stayed at some of the newest hotels in Israel, including the Orient in Jerusalem, Milos at the Dead Sea, and the Setai Tel Aviv. While the group visited the Shalva Center, Actor Jamie Foxx posted Shalva's Eurovision Performance
Misleading reporting that downplayed the goals and means of the BDS movement continued in July. But the evolving attacks on Israel supporters also expanded in unexpected directions, as The Daily Beast published a vicious attack on retired Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera on the eve of his induction into the baseball Hall of Fame. Even more bizarre was an attack by BDS supporter Marc Lamont Hill at the Netroots Nation conference, where he accused news outlets such as ABC and NBC of being “Zionist organizations” producing “Zionist content.” Hill made his comments during a session dedicated to “embedding Palestinian rights in the 2020 agenda.”The fake hoax play by Amnesty UK complaint to Data protection
The intensifying splits in the Democratic Party over Israel and BDS-instigated antisemitism have yet to reach a breaking point. In contrast, the antisemitism crisis in the British Labour Party reached a new level in July. The airing of a BBC television documentary revealed how complaints regarding antisemitism in Labour have been systematically ignored by the party leadership. This came at the same time that a government human rights body opened an investigation into the problem.
A number of prominent Labour supporters who had previously been silent spoke out forcefully, while others attacked the documentary and their critics. In response, party leader Jeremy Corbyn acknowledged for the first time that there was a problem, even as other party members implicated in the scandal were reinstated and received standing ovations at meetings.
BDS also had an impact on academia in July. The European Networks for Mental Health Service Evaluation suddenly canceled plans to hold its 2021 meeting in Jerusalem, with organizers stating they wished to preempt protests that would have preoccupied the group for the next two years. They claimed further that the move was not an endorsement of Israel boycotts, and that no pressure had been brought on the organization. The capitulation stunned Israeli and other members. A BDS resolution introduced prior to the Society for the Study of Social Problems annual meeting has generated opposition, as has one at the American Political Science Association. A resolution condemning Israel at the National Education Association was defeated.
At the student level, attacks continued against Birthright Israel, including pieces in mainstream and Jewish media outlets that touted J Street’s alternative trip highlighting the “occupation” and its anti-Zionist impact.
Finally, in the entertainment sphere, the BDS movement has increased pressure on Jennifer Lopez after she announced plans to perform in Tel Aviv. In a related incident, during a performance in Tel Aviv, Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento publicly rebuked the BDS movement for its demands that he cancel his shows.
Screenshots of Obliterated correspondence from eventbrite and Amnesty UK and the report to the data protection commission .
Dear Sir/Madam,
I’m writing to you regarding Amnesty International UK
We believe an infringement of data protection law where personal data has been obtained by misrepresentation and used for a purpose other than that for what it was obtained of what the subjects gave consent for.
Amnesty UK was to put on a stage play to take place on 3 August at the amnesty offices in London.
The play was a political play about the Palestinian conflict and typically would be controversial. Our organisation as many others probably in their hundreds wanted to attend the play to monitor politically what the play was about. So we all bought tickets .
"Many athletes who have stayed here have enjoyed their time in [#Israel]. They fall in love with the country and I can tell them that they invite us to meetings and lower prices to come here." https://t.co/cVw3m8ewiF
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) August 1, 2019
More repetition of the BBC’s partial narrative on construction
Of course Israelis residing in Judea & Samaria and parts of Jerusalem which were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967 do so because that is their own personal choice and not because they were “settled” there by any Israeli government. The use of that terminology is a nod to the claim that Israeli towns and villages in those regions are ‘illegal under international law’ based on the Fourth Geneva Convention which states “[t]he Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.AFP Improves Editorialized Language on Settlement Construction
The article tells readers that:
“It is not clear whether the Palestinian homes would be new constructions or merely legal approval for 700 already existing homes in what is known as “Area C” of the West Bank – where Palestinian villages often lie close to Israeli settlements, and where Israel has full control of the territory.”
It does not however inform audiences that “Israel has full control” of Area C – including planning -because the Palestinians agreed to that nearly twenty-four years ago and the absence of that information means that readers are unable to put the predictably unquestioned and unqualified Palestinian claims promoted in the next two paragraphs into their correct context.
“The Palestinian leadership dismissed the announcement, saying it rejected any Israeli construction or controls over Palestinian construction in the West Bank.
It said it was “evidence of the dark colonial mentality of the rules [sic] in Israel and which ignores all United Nations resolutions, international law and the signed agreements”.”
Providing no evidence to support its claim concerning a plan which has not even been published, the report goes on:
“The move comes ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who heads the White House’s faltering attempts to broker a peace deal.”
While the Palestinian view is presented as fact: “Continued settlement construction by Israel . . . has slowly eaten away at hopes,” the Israeli view that Palestinian intransigence, violence and incitement has slowly eaten away at hopes for peace is cast as just that with the qualifying language, “Israel argues.” Why the double standard?NY Times Grossly Overstates Number of 1948 Refugees Served by UNRWA
Notably, the French version of the same article more objectively reports (CAMERA’s translation):
Many countries regard the settlements as an obstacle to peace, and in particular to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, as part of the so-called two state solution, embraced by a large part of the international community.
Following communication from CAMERA, AFP’s article today removed yesterday’s editorializing in which the view that settlement construction jeopardizes the two-state solution was depicted as fact. Today’s improved language attributes that position to Palestinians and many governments (“Israel okays homes for Palestinians, settlers before Kushner visit“):
Palestinians and many governments around the world warn that continued settlement construction by Israel in the West Bank is slowly eating away at hopes for a two-state solution to the conflict.
A New York Times article this week about reported mismanagement and misconduct at UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) grossly overstates the number of Palestinian refugees from 1948 who are receiving services from the UN body. Isabel Kershner reported (“U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees Faces Accusations of Misconduct,” July 30):Poles mark 75 years since Warsaw Uprising against Nazis
The United Nations agency serves more than five million registered refugees, including hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during hostilities surrounding the founding of Israel in 1948 and their descendants.
Of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled in 1948, only tens of thousands of them at most are still living and thus able to receive services from UNRWA.
A 2012 Associated Press report indicated that at the time there were just some 30,000 of the original 1948 refugees still left. Seven years on, that number has obviously decreased.
The Times‘ reference to “hundreds of thousands” cannot include the descendants along with the original 1948 refugees, because those descendants number in the millions, not hundreds of thousands.
Poland’s capital ground to a halt on Thursday as air-raid sirens wailed to mark 75 years since Polish insurgents launched the doomed Warsaw Uprising against Nazi German forces occupying their city.Long ignored, Roma genocide mourned 75 years on at Auschwitz
Traffic halted and pedestrians stood in silent homage in memory of the nearly 200,000 mostly civilian victims of the 63-day insurrection, launched on August 1, 1944, in a doomed bid to secure Poland’s post-war independence.
Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas, who was in Warsaw for the anniversary, asked Poles for forgiveness and expressed shame over the human suffering and the Nazis’ near-total destruction of the Polish capital.
“I came here because I want to honor the dead and because I want to ask the families of the dead and injured, and the Polish people, for forgiveness,” Heiko Maas said at memorial ceremonies earlier in the day.
“I’m ashamed of what was done to your country by Germans and in the name of Germany,” he said.
The American civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson gathered Friday with survivors at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau to commemorate an often forgotten genocide — that of the Roma people.Montreal taxi driver beats Jewish man, yells ‘won’t move for any f***ing Jews’
In addition to the 6 million Jews killed in camps such as Auschwitz, the Nazis killed other minorities during World War II, including between 250,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti.
Broadly speaking, Sinti are people who arrived from India and settled in western and central Europe many centuries ago, while Roma are centered largely in Eastern Europe. Since the term Gypsies is considered offensive, the groups are collectively usually referred to as Roma.
Other dignitaries set to attend Friday’s observances are German deputy foreign minister, Michael Roth, who ahead of his visit lamented the lack of broad knowledge about the systematic murder of the Roma communities during World War II.
“For too long we have pushed the genocide of over 500,000 Sinti and Roma out of our historical memory and allowed the largest ethnic minority in Europe to be pushed to the margins of our society,” Roth said recently. “We have the responsibility to ensure that the stories of the victims’ suffering not be forgotten and that anti-Gypsy prejudices disappear from people’s minds.”
A Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted this week by a taxi driver in Montreal.‘We Will Not Hide,’ Leading Berlin Rabbi Pledges After Enduring Antisemitic Assault on Walk Home from Synagogue
The taxi driver was blocking the door to an underground garage at a condo building Sunday in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal. When the driver of a car honked to signal that he should move away from the door, the taxi driver apparently noted the other driver’s kippah and shouted, “I won’t move for any f***ing Jews!” He also threatened to kill the other driver.
The victim then attempted to photograph the taxi number in order to file a complaint, at which point the driver exited his car and punched the Jewish man repeatedly and shouted anti-Semitic slurs until a parking supervisor intervened, B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement. The victim’s phone also was smashed. The victim required attention at a local hospital.
Much of the incident was captured on a security camera.
German police launched an investigation on Wednesday following an incident last week in which one of Berlin’s most prominent rabbis was insulted and spat on.Ex-nurse recalls bravery and carnage in failed 1944 Polish revolt against Nazis
Returning home with one of his children from Shabbat services last Friday night, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal was set upon by two men, who insulted him in Arabic and then spat at him. The attack was another reminder of the dangers facing visibly identifiable Jews in the German capital, where well over 1,000 antisemitic incidents — several of them involving violence — were recorded in 2018.
In a statement reflecting on his experience, Teichtal asserted that “the aggression against Jews has developed a life of its own, both in the schoolyards and on the streets of Berlin.” He added that he remained “convinced that most people in Berlin do not want to accept this aggression against Jews as a sad part of everyday Jewish life,” promising that “we will not hide now, but rather continue to build on love, tolerance, dialogue and education.”
Several Berlin politicians expressed solidarity with Teichtal — a well-known Chabad movement rabbi who serves as the chairman of the Jewish Educational Center in Berlin, where he has been based for over 20 years.
Berlin Senator Dirk Behrendt tweeted that the attack was “shameful — we will not cease to fight antisemitism in all its manifestations,” while Raed Saleh, leader of the left-wing SPD Party in Berlin, declared that “the attack on my friend Rabbi Teichtal is an attack on all of us.”
Maria Mostowska was a young pediatric nurse when the Warsaw Rising against the Nazi Germans occupying Poland broke out on August 1, 1944.Nuvei Completes $889 Million Acquisition of Israeli-Founded Paytech Company SafeCharge
Seventy-five years on, she still vividly remembers how German troops put her against a wall and aimed a machine gun. She recalled how quickly the hospital filled with wounded resistance fighters and civilians, and how the Nazis destroyed the capital city.
“We worked round the clock dressing wounds, we did not leave the surgery,” Mostowska told The Associated Press.
Some 50,000 fighters of Poland’s clandestine Home Army — most of them poorly armed — fought the Germans for 63 days before surrendering, in the biggest single act of resistance in occupied Europe during World War II. Some 18,000 insurgents were killed and another 25,000 were injured.
On Thursday, Warsaw honors the failed rising (not to be confused with the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising), which had been a taboo topic during four decades of communist rule imposed on Poland after the war.
Wreath laying ceremonies by state leaders are planned and sirens will wail at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), the hour when the rising began. German Foreign minister Heiko Maas will be attending.
Nuvei Corporation has completed its $889 million acquisition of payment technology company SafeCharge International Group, the latter announced Thursday. On Friday, SafeCharge will delist from the London Stock Exchange, where it listed in 2014 according to a company valuation of $400 million.Israeli Company Announces Successful Trial of Radiation Vaccine
SafeCharge specializes in payment processing, smart payment, and risk management technologies. The company, which employs around 400 people globally, has a research and development center in Tel Aviv. The company lists Israeli taxi-hailing company Gett, Israel’s national airline El Al, and Nespresso among its customers.
SafeCharge was founded in 2006 by CEO David Avgi and Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi. Sagi held approximately 68 percent of the company via Northenstar Investments, meaning he will see around $600 million from the acquisition.
An Israeli company announced on Wednesday that it had developed a highly-effective vaccine against radiation poisoning.Israeli NGO Africa 2030 takes on malnutrition in the Congo
The Israeli news site Mako reported that the Haifa-based company Pluristem Therapeutics made the announcement together with the US Department of Defense.
The company said that the vaccine showed extremely-improved survival rates among animals subjected to high levels of radiation.
Use of the vaccine increased survival rates by 74 percent, the company stated, compared to only four percent in the control group.
The vaccine, called PLX-R18, involves the injection of placental cells into the subjects 24 hours before radiation exposure and 72 hours after.
After the treatment, subjects showed strong improvement in the amount of platelets and white blood cells, as well as bone marrow, all of which are severely damaged by exposure to high levels of radiation.
Ariel Kedem is an explorer. It’s in his bones to seek out the world’s remote places.Israeli company helping solve the water crisis of Flint, Michigan.
Kedem’s journey of discovery began when he was born on Kibbutz Hatzor near Ashdod, to Anglo parents. From an early age, he was captivated by nature, wildlife and hiking.
After serving in the army, Kedem embarked on his first big solo trip, to South America in 1998.
“I didn’t do the regular track,” Kedem says. “I was just always looking for something more interesting: jungles, remote villages. I don’t know how to define myself – I don’t want to jump from a plane. But in terms of travel and exploration, I feel that I have to always take it to the edge.”
After eight months, Kedem returned and attempted to figure out what was next. He realized that he had to go to Africa, which had always held an indescribable pull. So, in 1999, Kedem flew to Cape Town and bought a 1977 yellow Volkswagen Kombi with a bed inside. This became his home for the next three-and-a-half months.
Israeli company WaterGen is helping solve the water crisis of Flint, Michigan, using a revolutionary device that creates water out of thin air! Thank you Israel!
Ancestry.com digitizes millions of Holocaust records, free to public
A digital, searchable archive of Holocaust records is now available to users around the world via the website Ancestry.com.120 years after trial, Alfred Dreyfus may be promoted to general
Ancestry, the consumer genetics and genealogy giant, partnered with the Germany-based Arolsen Archives to produce the online database, called the Holocaust Remembrance Collection. The archives (previously the International Tracing Service) holds more than 30 million documents on Nazi persecution, containing information on 17.5 million victims and survivors of National Socialism.
The digitized archive, available on Ancestry.com as of July 31, includes two separate collections.
"Africa, Asia and Europe Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons" tracks displaced people who left Germany and other European countries from 1946 to 1971. The 1.7 million records in the collection mostly document the journeys of Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and laborers, and refugees from Central and Eastern European countries as they traveled to different countries, especially America, after the war.
The second collection, "Registration of Foreigners and German Individuals Persecuted" includes 9.97 million records from 1939 to 1947 documenting persecution faced by German Jews, people with non-German citizenship, and stateless people living in Germany and areas of German occupation. The documents are not restricted to those who were imprisoned in camps and include information on the deceased, such as burial records.
Around 120 years after Jewish French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus was put on trial and stripped of his rank because of anti-Semitic rumors in what became known as the Dreyfus Affair, justice might finally be done.Remember IDF Soldier Hadar Goldin Through His Art
According to the French newspaper L'Opinion, French Defense Minister Florence Parly hinted in a speech she made last week marking the deportation of French Jews during World War II that Dreyfus might be promoted posthumously.
Dreyfus held the rank of captain when he was put on trial for allegedly spying for the German army. He was first tried in 1894 and convicted of treason. He was sentenced to life in prison and exiled. He was stripped of his rank in a humiliating ceremony.
After a public campaign on his behalf, which included writer Emile Zola's famous "J'Accuse!" open letter, Dreyfus was given a retrial in 1899. Again, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison, which was eventually commuted.
In 1906, a French appeals court ruled that Dreyfus was innocent. He returned to the army at the rank of major, but a year later he was forced to resign. He volunteered to serve as a lieutenant colonel in World War I.
Dreyfus died in 1935.
IDF solider Hadar Goldin was captured by Hamas, five years ago today, in Israel's Operation Protective Edge. In his memory, Hadar's family has installed a special exhibition of his art work for all to admire and to remember his story.
