Saturday, August 31, 2019
UN Watch: BREAKING UN urges Palestinians to stop 'hate speech against Israelis that fuels antisemitism'
In a rare UN criticism of the Palestinians, the world body’s racism watchdog urged Ramallah to combat “hate speech and incitement to violence,” saying it was “concerned” about statements by Palestinian public figures, politicians and media officials, as well as in school textbooks and curricula, pointing to “hate speech against Israelis” which it found “fuels hatred” and “may incite violence” and “antisemitism.”
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) further called on the Palestinians to “remove any derogatory comments and images from school curricula and textbooks that perpetuate prejudices and hatred.”
In addition, the panel found that Palestinians laws and policies failed to implement UN treaties on racism, or to properly investigate complaints for acts of racial discrimination.
The 18 independent experts reviewed the Palestinian record and those of six other countries at a session that ended on Thursday, when they issued their findings.
Palestinian Delegate Lashes Out at UN Watch
In wake of the review session two weeks ago, Palestinian representative Ammar Hiajzi lashed out at UN Watch after the Geneva-based non-governmental organization briefed the UN experts on Palestinian incitement.
“We must not allow our discussions to be diverted and side-tracked by those organizations founded and funded to deny the Palestinian narrative, dehumanize the Palestinian people by spreading lies and half-truths about them,” he tweeted on August 15th, prompting a sharp reply from UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer.
In first, UN panel calls on Palestinians to halt hate speech against Israelis
The report marked the first time the panel had criticized Palestinian officials, according to UN Watch, a Geneva-based organization that addressed the session leading to the report.
The committee called on Ramallah to better protect journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents; to act against incitement to violence by public figures, politicians and media officials; and to remove inflammatory and discriminatory images and text from school curricula and textbooks.
The panel also recommended that Palestinian officials ensure that minorities enjoyed full rights and public services, especially Bedouins, and that minorities found adequate representation in politics.
Near the top of the report, titled “Concluding observations on the combined initial and second periodic reports of the State of Palestine,” the committee said that Israel’s presence in the West Bank, its settlements and its blockade of Gaza posed “severe challenges for the State party in fully implementing its obligations under the Convention.”
At the committee’s 99th session, held earlier this month, during a review of the “State of Palestine,” some delegates referred to examples of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish content in Palestinian textbooks and state-owned media outlets.
“What happened this week was unprecedented,” Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, said after the session. “Since 1974 when Yasser Arafat and the PLO were welcomed into the United Nations, this is the first time that the world body’s spotlight was officially placed on Palestinian racism, discrimination and anti-Semitism.”
Restaurant in Ramallah backs out of hosting US Embassy meeting with Palestinians
An upscale restaurant in Ramallah backed out of hosting a lunch meeting between the US Embassy’s commercial attache and Palestinian businesspeople earlier this week, according to both an activist as well as a businessman who said he was invited to the lunch.
The restaurant said it would not host the meeting after the National and Islamic Forces in Ramallah, a group of local activists, contacted its management and demanded it cancel the event, according to Isam Bakr, a leading member of the group.
“We called the members of the management and told them that the restaurant should not host this meeting. We asked them how it could permit the gathering to take place on its premises following all of the US administration’s punitive measures against Palestine, including the State Department’s recent decision to erase Palestine from its site,” Bakr told The Times of Israel, referring to the department’s removal of the “Palestinian Territories” section from its website.
“Approximately half an hour later, the management informed us that it would not host the meeting, which we highly appreciated,” said Bakr, who asked that the name of the restaurant not be identified over concerns it could be targeted.
He said that the event was slated for Thursday at noon, but the restaurant decided to cancel it on Wednesday.
Ignoring anti-Semitic assaults signals that Jewish blood doesn't matter when it can't easily be politically exploited
New York City has the largest Jewish population in the United States, and Jewish roots there are long and deep. And yet, the situation for observant Jews is quickly devolving into that of Europe, where Jews cannot safely walk to synagogue or through the streets while wearing a yarmulke without being attacked verbally or physically. This is a disgrace.'Jews control White House' he wrote and got a synagogue talk invite
Why is everybody standing pat as Jews get targeted in a city where, if anything, they should feel most safe? Why in a voracious 24/7 media environment is it being given so little attention? The simple answer is that highlighting the attacks does not provide any clear partisan advantage.
It would be difficult to tie the attacks in Brooklyn to any comments from President Trump or to rising white nationalism. Additionally, they can't be easily linked to any of Rep. Ilhan Omar's tweets. Thus, this is a failure not only of Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who sanctimoniously tweets about anti-Semitism as he stands idly by as it rages in his own city, but also of major Jewish organizations. These organizations have collected tens of millions in donations to supposedly fight anti-Semitism and yet have proven absolutely useless in pressuring politicians to take action as observant Jews have become unsafe in the epicenter of American Jewish life.
As Rosen wrote, "The fact that the victims are most often outwardly identifiable, i.e., religious rather than secularized Jews, and the perpetrators who have been recorded on CCTV cameras are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic, inverts the perpetrator-victim dynamics with which most national Jewish organizations and their supporters are comfortable."
Anti-Semitism comes in many shapes and forms and is not confined to any one ideological camp. In some cases, it is not attached to politics at all. The only way effective way to fight anti-Semitism is to fight it in all of its manifestations, free from political blinders. (h/t IsaacStorm)
The Israeli-American scholar and commentator Daniel Gordis recently denounced an Israeli government cabinet minister as “a dangerous demagogue with medieval views.”Seth J. Frantzman: Drone wars: UAVs become terrorists' favorite equalizer in Middle East fighting
Name-calling is standard fare in Israeli public discourse, especially in the midst of an overheated election race. But whether or not Gordis meant his accusation literally, he will soon find himself face-to-face with someone who actually meets the dictionary definition of a dangerous demagogue with medieval views—medieval views about Jews and Jewish power, that is.
Later this month, Gordis will appear on stage at a prominent Manhattan synagogue alongside an American journalist who has publicly accused Jews of controlling the White House and paying off members of Congress. I’m speaking about Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.
The dictionary definition of a “demagogue” is someone who seeks to gain “power and popularity” through “use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises.”
That’s pretty much what Thomas Friedman has been doing his entire life: trying to gain popularity for himself, and his extremist views, through false claims, empty promises, and whipping up prejudice—against Israel.
It began during his years as a student at Brandeis University. In 1974, Yasser Arafat, gun holster on his hip, made his infamous first appearance at the United Nations. The Jewish community in New York City organized a huge protest rally against him. Friedman and a handful of his fellow radicals on campus signed an open letter denouncing the anti-Arafat rally.
Drone technology is a natural field for Israel as part of its wide-ranging arsenal.PBS NewsHour Propaganda Piece Attacks Israel with Bogus Exploding Bullets Charge
They can track and attack a target far beyond the country’s border without having to send precious pilots into enemy airspace. Drones are also a force multiplier for a small country with multiple borders. Israel can monitor threats from groups such as Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israeli drones such as the Heron TP can fly more than 600 miles for 30 hours.
Israel’s defense industry also produces an array of “loitering munitions” — drones such as the SkyStriker and Harpy that pack warheads and can carry out precise long-range strikes. Israel doesn’t comment on the types of munitions it uses in airstrikes.
Drones also provide a measure of deniability, even when the apparent source of the drone is widely suspected. Although accused of using drones in Iraq and Lebanon in the past week, Israel has not commented on either incident.
“We are operating in many areas against a state that wants to annihilate us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nondenial denial Aug. 22. “Of course I gave the security forces a free hand and instructed them to do anything necessary to thwart Iran’s plans.”
The Israel Defense Forces later revealed that an Iranian drone team had been spotted near the Golan Heights and published grainy video of the team.
The footage underscores that Israel is not the only participant with military drone capability. Israel accused Iran of flying a drone from Syria into its airspace in February 2018. Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield, which was built with U.S. support, showed that it could shoot down drones as early as 2015.
Israeli Smart Shooter technology enables rifles to be used against small moving UAV targets. Israel’s Drone Guard and Drone Dome are other defense systems.
PBS Newshour has once again grossly deceived its audience, with a propaganda piece that could have come directly from Hamas’ playbook. Coming more than a year after the start of the terror organization’s “Great March of Return,” the report twists those violent riots into an indictment of Israel’s military response.Behind the ‘Our Boys’ backlash
The Aug. 20th special report by special correspondent Jane Ferguson, entitled “Gazans suffer life-shattering injuries when border protests turn violent,” focuses on Palestinian rioters who were injured or lost limbs during the riots, amplifying Hamas propaganda claims about criminal Israeli soldiers targeting innocent, peaceful Palestinian youth and – its central claim – using exploding bullets to maximize the damage inflicted upon their Palestinian victims.
The first two thirds of the 10 minute broadcast is devoted to interviews with injured Palestinians, their surgeon, and representatives from anti-Israel NGO’s to condemn Israel and exonerate the Gazan rioters. Ferguson does not interview any Israeli who might challenge the accusations and condemnations. Instead, she reads an IDF statement – 7 minutes into the broadcast– which she immediately refutes by citing a widely rejected report by the biased UN Human Rights Council.
Exploding Bullets Propaganda
A central feature of the report is the claim that Israeli troops employ exploding bullets as they target innocent Palestinian “protesters”:
CAMERA immediately debunked the claim:
According to ballistics experts and doctors, though, it is typical for exit wounds to be larger than entry wounds. “At high velocities, mainly over 2,000 fps the bullet deformity and tumbling in the body usually causes a larger and more irregular exit wound than the entrance,” doctors Nimrod Rozen and Israel Dudkiewicz explain in their chapter on “Wound Ballistics and Tissue Damage” in the book Armed Conflict Injuries to the Extremities: A Treatment Manual. (Wounds from low velocity bullets may behave differently.)
According to the British Journal of Surgery, “The exit wound is usually the larger.” A piece in the Canadian Medical Association Journal likewise explains that “exit wounds … are often larger than entrance wounds.” An article on gunshot wounds to the skull in Forensic Science International studied 17 entrance and exit gunshot wounds and found that, in all but one case, the exit wound was larger than the entry wound. And so on and so on and so on. (AP Sidesteps Skepticism and Science in Relaying Palestinian “Explosive Bullets” Charge)
The killings by Hamas of the Jewish teens is the starting point for the series, which is divided into three plot threads.Why HBO’s series on revenge murder of a Palestinian teen is causing controversy
The main one is about Simon (Shlomi Elkabetz), a Shin Bet officer in charge of investigating Jewish extremists, who learns early on, after the first kidnapping, that the three boys have been killed and fears that the many intense prayer vigils calling for their safe return will backfire once the bodies are found. As soon as the deaths of the Israeli teens are confirmed, he is apprehensive about revenge killings, and when Abu Khdeir is abducted from his street in Jerusalem and a body is found soon afterward in the Jerusalem forest, he suspects Jews are the killers.
The second thread is the ordeal of the Abu Khdeir family, and the third is the story of the killers themselves, three Jews who feel they are misfits because they have not excelled in the yeshiva world.
When the fact that the series would focus on the killing of Abu Khdeir and the ordeal of his family rather than the murders of Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrah was revealed in the pre-release publicity, the backlash began. Liat Collins wrote in her Jerusalem Post column: “The words ‘based on the true events’ are telling. This, of course, is neither the whole truth nor the whole story.”
Once the first two episodes of the series aired in mid-August, 120 Israelis who lost relatives — both soldiers and civilians — to terrorism signed a letter to HBO protesting the angle the series takes.
Their letter said, in part, “The kidnapping and the murder of the three youths is one of the many instances in which Jews have been murdered. The murderers receive... encouragement and are treated like heroes. In contrast, [Muhammad Abu] Khdeir’s murder was met with shock and condemnation by the vast majority of the Israeli public. Dozens of Jews are murdered as a result of the ongoing incitement by the Palestinian Authority every year. The Arab street does not condemn the murder of Jews and even supports and encourages it.”
Matan Peleg, the head of Im Tirzu, a right-leaning Zionist group, called the show’s focus “morally reprehensible.”
On July 8, following escalating tensions with the Gaza-based terrorist group, Israel launched a ground operation in Gaza known as Protective Edge.
But the series, which premiered on Aug. 12, does not spend much time on the kidnapping and its immediate aftermath.
Instead it uses the incident as the backdrop to the tragedy that followed: the revenge kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian, Muhammed Abu Khdeir. Autopsy results suggested that he had been burned alive. In 2016, a Jewish-Israeli man, Yosef Ben-David, was convicted for the murder along with two minors.
The decision to focus on the murder of the Palestinian teen has drawn criticism in Israel, despite what the creative team said was a conscious choice.
“We were drawn to understanding the perpetrators of this murder more than we were interested in understanding the victimhood of our side,” Hagai Levi, one of the filmmakers, told Drama Quarterly.
The series is “a story of pain turning into revenge,” he added.
Some 120 Israeli families who lost members in terror attacks disagree. They wrote a letter to HBO criticizing the show’s viewpoint, saying it equates two events that differ in significant ways.
“Khdeir’s murder was met with shock and condemnation by the vast majority of the Israeli public,” the parents wrote, according to Israel Hayom. “Dozens of Jews are murdered as a result of the ongoing incitement by the Palestinian Authority every year. The Arab street does not condemn the murder of Jews and even supports and encourages it.”
The Palestinian Authority has a policy of paying stipends to the families of terrorists either in prison or killed in the attacks — a policy that Israel has dubbed “pay to slay.” Its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, rarely speaks out against attacks against Israelis, though he did condemn the kidnapping of the teens.
This week I met with the family of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin who – along with Oron Shaul - is cruelly held by Hamas as a bargaining chip. Hamas must return Hadar & Oron as well as imprisoned Israeli civilians Avraham Mengistu & Hisham al-Sayed pic.twitter.com/zr56PPw0za— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) August 30, 2019
Soldier lightly injured by shrapnel as thousands protest on Gaza border
An Israeli soldier was lightly injured Friday evening from shrapnel during violent protests in the Gaza Strip. The army said it was not clear whether the shrapnel came from a grenade or a firecracker.
Some 6,000 Palestinians were said to be taking part in the protests. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 75 Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli troops, 42 of them from live fire.
Israeli soldiers captured four Palestinians who crossed into Israel from the Strip armed with a grenade and a knife. The four were arrested shortly after crossing the border and taken in for further questioning, the army said.
The incident came shortly after an incendiary balloon launched from Gaza sparked a fire in the Sdot Hanegev Regional Council and as Palestinians took part in the weekly “March of Return” rallies along the border.
Recent weeks have seen an increase in violence from Gaza, which is ruled by the Hamas terror group.
Palestinians constructed gallows and demonstrated a mock hanging of Israel's Prime Minister @Netanyahu and the IDF's Arabic @AvichayAdraee near the #Gaza security fence today. #Israel pic.twitter.com/wLSKTbqRzR— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) August 30, 2019
Iranian judoka allegedly coerced to avoid fight against Israeli seeks asylum
An Iranian judoka who was allegedly pressured into throwing a match to avoid facing off against an Israeli opponent has requested asylum in Germany.MEMRI: Unofficial Hamas Fatwa Forbids Independent Jihad Operations By Individuals, Sparks Debate Among Gazan Social Media Users
The International Judo Federation confirmed Saeid Mollaei’s asylum request and expressed its backing of him, Radio Farda reported Saturday.
On Thursday, the chairman of the Israel Judo Association said Mollaei was coerced into throwing his semifinal battle against Belgium’s Matthias Casse a day earlier at the World Judo Championship in Tokyo in order to avoid facing Israel’s Sagi Muki in the final. Muki went on to win the championship, becoming the first Israeli man to win a World Championship gold.
In the past Iran has forbidden its athletes from competing against Israelis. In May, the International Judo Federation said it had reached an agreement with Iran to end the boycott, though the head of Iran’s national Olympic committee later denied it.
Mollaei has been accused of faking injuries and intentionally losing fights in the past to avoid facing Muki.
IJA head Moshe Ponti, speaking to Army Radio on Thursday, said that an hour before Wednesday’s semifinals, the Israeli team heard that Mollaei, ranked No. 1 in the world, “intended to continue the contest, even if he had to face Sagi Muki at the final. We heard he’d asked the head of the Iranian judo association to ensure his family was kept safe.”
In the recent weeks there have been a number of attempts by armed Palestinians to penetrate into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of the Palestinian operatives by the Israeli security forces. Although neither Hamas nor any of the other Gazan factions officially claimed responsibility for these attempts, they made sure to praise them after the fact, calling them "heroic actions" by "angry young men" who were acting independently.[1] According to Gazan reports, Hamas's "restraining force" is present on the border to prevent such actions,[2] but at the same time the movement uses them as another means to pressure Israel in the indirect negotiations towards a long-term arrangement in Gaza. The Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily reported that Hamas had indirectly informed Israel that it was not behind these actions, yet threatened that the continued economic crisis in Gaza could lead to many further attempts of this kind in the coming period, which it would not be able to prevent.[3]Report: Iran Has Stopped Cooperating with Nuclear Weapons Inspections
Following the August 17 attempt by an armed terrorist cell to cross the border into Israel, Gazan Facebook pages and the Hamas-affiliated paldf.net forum circulated a religious ruling (fatwa) by the "Shari'a Committee in the Gaza Strip" prohibiting independent "jihad operations" by individuals unless coordinated with the Gazan armed factions and/or authorized by their commanders. It should be noted that Hamas did not publicize the fatwa on any of its official media platforms, but neither did it renounce the fatwa. This allowed it to maintain an ambiguous position on these actions, in the face of Israeli accusations that it was instigating them and, on the other hand, condemnations from the operatives for restraining them.
There are three possible explanations for the appearance of this fatwa. One is that it serves an actual need, following a deterioration of discipline in the ranks of Hamas. In fact, the organization is reportedly acting to form general frameworks, including a regular army called the Al-Quds Army, and this requires tightening discipline and banning independent operations by individuals. Since Hamas is unable, for ideological reasons, to openly condemn jihad operations, it is trying to convey this understanding by circulating a religious ruling that was clearly issued on its behalf but does not officially bear its seal.
A second explanation may be the Hamas authorities' need to deal with the rising power of other jihadist and/or Salafi groups in Gaza, whose tension with Hamas recently erupted into open clashes.[4] Hamas fears that these groups may attract young members of its ranks who are disappointed with its current level of action and policy of restraint.
An upcoming report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog organization, known as the International Atomic Energy Agency, includes new language suggesting the Islamic Republic has not been cooperating with international nuclear inspectors who are mandated to provide oversight on the Islamic Republic’s weapons program, according to multiple sources familiar with the contents of the report.Confusion as Turkey Says Iranian Tanker Now Headed to Lebanon
The IAEA’s yet-to-be-published report on the matter began circulating late Friday among reporters and Iran watchers in Washington, D.C., and it is said to show that Iran has stopped adhering to its transparency commitments under the landmark Obama-era nuclear agreement.
Iranian leaders have been warning for months that the country has ended its cooperation surrounding the nuclear portfolio, including efforts by Iran to enrich uranium to levels prohibited under the nuclear deal and necessary for a functional nuclear weapon.
The IAEA’s findings, the contours of which were confirmed by sources to the Washington Free Beacon, are likely to fuel calls by Iran skeptics on Capitol Hill for a full snapback of international sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the JCPOA, the acronym used for the nuclear deal. This issue is more than likely to come to a head as top Trump administration officials and diplomats from across the globe gather in New York City for the U.N.’s upcoming General Assembly meeting.
New language in IAEA's latest report indicates claims that "ongoing interactions between the Agency and Iran relating to Iran's implementation of its Safeguards Agreement [and] Additional Protocol require full [and] timely cooperation by Iran," according to a portion of the report published Friday by the Institute for Science and International Security, a nuclear watchdog group that routinely has access to such reports. "The Agency [IAEA] continues to pursue this objective with Iran."
Turkey said on Friday that an Iranian tanker at the center of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran was headed to Lebanon after changing course several times, although Beirut said it was not informed of the plan.In Tweet, Trump Says US Not Involved in Iran Satellite Launch Failure, Wishes Tehran Regime ‘Good Luck’ in Determining Cause
According to Refinitiv tracking data, the Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, made a U-turn on Friday and headed for Turkey’s Iskenderun port — 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Syria’s Baniyas refinery, the tanker’s suspected original destination.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the tanker, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil when released at Gibraltar, was headed to “the main port in Lebanon.”
On the sidelines of a forum in Oslo, Cavusoglu told Reuters that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of the ship’s coordinates with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday. “We are monitoring (the tanker) very closely,” he added.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States was not involved with a failed Iranian rocket launch, and he wished Tehran luck at finding out what went wrong.MEMRI: Saudi Columnists: Homosexuality, Which Is Condoned In The West, Is Repulsive And Contravenes Islam; We Must Defend Our Societies Against It And Impose The Death Penalty On Those Who Engage In It
“The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran,” Trump said on Twitter. “I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.”
The rocket exploded on its launch pad at a space center in northern Iran on Thursday, an Iranian official said. A US official also said Iran suffered a satellite launch failure.
The US has warned Iran against rocket launches, fearful the technology used to put satellites into orbit could enable Tehran to develop the ballistic missile capability needed to launch nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies the US accusation that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development.
Several columnists in the Saudi Al-Madina daily have recently written against the phenomenon of homosexuality in the world in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular, noting that Islam forbids it and treats it as an offense punishable by death. They wrote that this practice, which is tolerated in the West and even condoned by Western leaders, goes against nature and threatens to bring humanity to a level lower than that of animals. They also praised the Catholic Church for condemning homosexuality, and one called on all religious organizations in the world, especially Islamic ones, to protect mankind from the "heresy" of homosexuality, which threatens it. Another article also called to sentence homosexuals to death.RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan wounded in prison stabbing
The following are excerpts from the articles:
Muhammad Al-Baladi, a columnist for the Al-Madina daily, wrote: "A [recent news] report said that an American grandmother had given birth to her own granddaughter after carrying her in her womb for nine months as a surrogate, so that her homosexual son and his partner could have a child and form an 'alternative' family. Here are the details: Cecile Eledge, aged 61, gave birth to her granddaughter, Uma Louise, in Nebraska, USA, after offering her gay son, Matthew Eledge, to serve as a surrogate for him and his partner, Elliot Dougherty. The egg was donated – and this is not a typo – by her daughter (the baby's aunt), in order to complete the homosexual family [consisting of] a husband, husband and children.
"I apologize to the reader for this nauseating news item, but presenting it was essential in order to clarify the extent of the West's moral absurdity that is threatening the world, and the alarming escalation of [practices] which undermine the divine natural order of creation in favor of homosexual filth that is mounting in the industrialized and civilized world. [This world] is apparently threatening to bring mankind to a level lower than that of animals, for animals naturally abhor many of these acts, which are being performed in the name of personal freedom and human rights. As a matter of fact... I do not know where this horrific moral erosion, headed by the coalition of barbaric capitalism, or [this] immoral practicality that is gradually taking over the world and completely overturning its moral balance, based on perverted standards, is taking us!
Sirhan Sirhan, imprisoned for more than 50 years for the 1968 assassination of US senator Robert F. Kennedy, was hospitalized Friday after being stabbed by a fellow inmate at a San Diego prison.Jeremy Corbyn says Labour peer who signed advertisement protesting Labour antisemitism “lowered himself”
A statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the stabbing occurred Friday afternoon at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego.
“Officers responded quickly, and found an inmate with stab wound injuries. He was transported to an outside hospital for medical care, and is currently in stable condition,” the statement said.
The statement did not name Sirhan, but a government source with direct knowledge confirmed to The Associated Press that he was the victim. The source spoke under condition of anonymity, citing prison privacy regulations.
The stabbing was first reported by TMZ.
Corrections officials reported that the alleged attacker has been identified and has been segregated from the rest of the prison population pending an investigation.
Sirhan, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, was convicted of shooting Kennedy shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, immediately after the New York senator had declared victory in the previous day’s California Democratic presidential primary.
Jeremy Corbyn has responded to a critical advertisement by accusing one of the signatories of having “lowered himself”.Wannbe Labour Candidate's Epic Selection Video
Last month, 67 Labour peers took out a full-page advertisement in the Guardian accusing Mr Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of antisemitism. The advertisement stated: “The Labour Party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews). This is your legacy, Mr Corbyn.”
Asked by a local Cumbrian newspaper about the endorsement of the advertisement by Lord Liddle, who is also a local councillor in the area, Mr Corbyn said: “I’m very sorry that he lowered himself by putting his name to that advertisement.”
The Labour leader went on to say that “Our party is big, our party is open, our party is diverse — there is no place whatsoever for antisemitism, xenophobia or any other form of racism, not just in my party but in our society. That kind of thing only divides people and weakens us all as a community. Our strength is our diversity.”
Epic from Tareq, shame he’s a terrorist sympathiser…'Diversity' Training for Michigan Teachers Glorified Islam, Bashed Christianity and America
He’ll fit right in with Jeremy.
PJ Media's Tyler O'Neil examines a new Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) report showing how Huda Essa---a Dearborn resident and founder of the Michigan-based consultancy Culture Links, L.L.C.---subjected teachers in Michigan's Novi Community Schools District to a 2017 two-day "diversity" training presentation in which "Islam was glorified, Christianity disparaged, and America bashed—all funded by Novi taxpayers."Our cousin the Israeli professor who calls to boycott the Jewish state
Among other radical and unfounded claims, Essa alleged that hijab-clad Muslim women in America had been subjected to a relentless onslaught of "Islamophobia," including being spat upon, having hot liquids poured over them, and being beaten and murdered.
In a canard recently invoked by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Essa implied that white Christian males are more of a terror threat than Islamist terrorists. She also engaged in Islamic supremacist propaganda that involved denigrating Christianity and Judaism.
Perhaps most disturbing of all, and as summed up by O'Neil, "the Novi school district did not fully vet Essa before her presentation and the district did not have documents showing any sort of investigation to fact-check her presentation. However, the request did reveal that the district paid $5,000 for the presentation. During the past five years, the school district has not forced teachers to take any seminar on Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion — only Islam."
Why, my children ask, would our Israeli cousin be a traitor to his own country?Stand With Us: Strongly Condemns Antisemitic Event in Fresno
In response, I try to explain about his illness, this most dangerous of hatreds, the eternal self-hate that some Jews have been infected with throughout our history.
But still, it is our family’s scandal, our shanda.
Our cousin, an Israeli professor paid by the taxpayers of Israel, exploits his position as an “expert academician” to tour university campuses throughout the world to accuse Israel of racism and apartheid, and he even publishes articles advocating boycotts of Israel.
And we feel deep shame that our cousin is often quoted in anti-Israel media, such as Al Jazeera and other anti-Jewish publications and websites, where he happily allows those who seek to destroy Israel to use him as evidence of how wicked Israel is, for here is a Jew who “speaks the truth” about the "evil" Jewish state.
At gatherings, the younger family members spit out his name, calling him a traitor to the Jews and his family. But the old men quietly sigh and shake their heads, since they know the very ugly truth.
For the old men share the knowledge that the cousin-professor’s self-hate has nothing to do with his screaming about "justice", or seeking to rectify "wrongs" or eternally protesting for the "underdog."
Rather, with complete certainty and heartbreaking pity, the old men know that the professor is acting out his deep, personal and emotional problems when he strikes out at Israel, since he can never acknowledge the true target of his rage, which is really his family.
StandWithUs strongly condemns an antisemitic event taking place at Clovis Community College (CCC) on September 18th. The event is being hosted by a media outlet called GV Wire.Australian Antisemitism in Arabic
"This event features a speaker notorious for spreading vicious hate and wild conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel," said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs. "While CCC may be legally required to allow this event to go forward, GV Wire and the organizations listed as cosponsors have no such obligation. If they do not withdraw support from the event, they will be complicit in promoting antisemitism - an increasingly deadly form of racism."
In addition to GV Wire, organizations listed as supporters of the event include Fresno State University, Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, Peace Fresno, Community Alliance Newspaper, and CAIR Central California.
CCC issued a press release, stating that "no organizations shall be denied the use of District facilities because of the content of the speech to be undertaken during the use." However, President Dr. Lori Bennet also said that, "Clovis Community College does not endorse hate speech or anti-Semitic remarks."
The event speaker, Alison Weir, has been widely condemned, even by anti-Israel organizations. Her record includes promotion of medieval antisemitic slurs and conspiracy theories about Jewish power, echoing the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Farah News and the evil JewsExperiencing Antisemitism Firsthand in Scandinavia
An Australia-based Arabic-language online news and commentary platform is spreading viciously antisemitic content. An investigation into the Farah NewsOnline website has uncovered articles depicting Jews as an evil force conspiring to subdue humanity, caricatures featuring Nazi propaganda motifs against Israel and conspiracy theories about Zionism as a plot for world domination.
What is Farah News?
Farah News Online (www.farah.net.au) is a news portal publishing in Arabic and English. It is based in Sydney, and was established in December 2008. The website claims it is “managed by a group of qualified people and is updated around the clock.” It contains barely any original content, but rather republishes reports, articles and poems mainly originally published in Middle Eastern media, with some material from Australian sources, such as press releases by the Lebanese Embassy in Canberra, community notices and ads.
Farah News’ mission statement attests to its commitment to “objectivity, moderation and accuracy.” The disclaimer notice also emphasises that the website “does not accept any legal or moral responsibility for what is published on its pages of opinions, articles and comments. What is published [solely] represents the viewpoint of the writer”.
According to an Australian records search, the domain name for the website is registered to Rafic Dehaibi, owner of TPP Wholesale Pty Ltd and the C.H. Stop N Save store in Liverpool, New South Wales.
Website analytics suggest that Farah News is being viewed by up to 250 unique visitors a day, each reading two pages on average (the homepage being one of them). The Facebook page associated with the website is quite popular, with more than 17,000 followers as of August 2019.
Despite the claim on the Farah News website that it has “no relation with any political party or any foreign country”, it does seem to be aligned with Lebanon’s March 14 Alliance movement, which opposes Syrian and Iranian intervention in Lebanese politics, including by the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organisation Hezbollah.
In Finland, I realized that antisemitism stems not only from immigrants, as was mainly the case in Sweden, but also from the native Finnish population.Twitter CEO and co-founder’s hacked account tweets racism, pro-Nazi tweet
My next-door neighbor — who I later found out belonged to a far-right organization — ran after me with a hammer and knife when he heard me speaking Hebrew. Thankfully, some neighbors were able to restrain him. The police only arrived a half hour later. A few months later, my assailant came before a judge, who ordered him to pay 300 euros in compensation to me. It baffled and frightened me that the Finnish judicial system not only failed to protect me from the attacker, but also allowed him to walk free with practically no consequences.
The extreme right is deeply entrenched in Finnish society and government, and Jews suffer because of this. The Nordic Resistance Movement — a Neo-Nazi organization — marches in the streets, and is growing in popularity. That is why I was not surprised to learn in the news that the Israeli embassy in Helsinki has been attacked at least 15 times in the last 18 months.
I still live in Scandinavia because I believe that things can change for the better. But time is running out. The Finnish and Swedish governments must act immediately and forcefully to combat the terrible antisemitism plaguing those nations, and terrorizing the Jews living there.
The account linked to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a series of mysterious and increasingly racist, antisemitic and Holocaust denying tweets Friday night.Polanski film on Dreyfus divides critics, as director stays away from premiere
Initial reports indicated it had been hacked.
Despite his pinned tweet claiming that Twitter is committed to increase collective health, openness and civility, the account @jack tweeted the n-word, and that “Hitler is innocent.”
His account also tweeted that Twitter’s headquarters is “blowing up” as well as re-tweeting a tweet saying “Nazi Germany did nothing wrong.” The series of tweets went on for about ten minutes before it appears that staff of someone at Twitter was able to get a hold of the account a little after 4 p.m. EST.
By 4:07 the racist tweets and the re-tweets of antisemitic pro-Nazi tweets had been removed.
Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” drew mixed reactions from critics Friday at its Venice premiere, hailed as “handsome and involving” by one but “lacking” by another who said parallels drawn by the director between his life and his art were “obscene.”
The 86-year-old, a fugitive from the US since he was convicted for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in 1978, did not attend the Venice Film Festival red carpet event for his film about French Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus.
But its stars, including “The Artist” Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin and fellow French actor Louis Garrel, cracked smiles as they signed autographs for fans.
Campaigners have said the mired-in-controversy Polanski’s inclusion in the running for the top prize is out of touch in the era of the #MeToo movement.
The Dreyfus affair: The story behind Polanski’s film
The Dreyfus affair, subject of the new Roman Polanski film which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival, triggered a national crisis over anti-Semitism in France in the late 19th century.On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II
Here is an account of the scandal, which had wide international repercussions.
Alfred Dreyfus was a 36-year-old Jewish French army captain, from the Alsace region of eastern France which was at the time occupied by Germany.
He was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to the German military attache.
The accusation was based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German’s waste paper basket in Paris.
On trial
Dreyfus was put on trial, against the background of a virulent anti-Semitic press campaign.
His family tried in vain to defend him and he protested his innocence.
Despite the lack of evidence, he was convicted of treason on December 22, 1894, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank.
The scandal rocked the assumption that Jews had become an integral part of French life — revealing the depths of anti-Jewish sentiment in the country.
The 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II is approaching. Today one can regrettably notice how a politicized propaganda campaign sharing equal responsibility for this global catastrophe between both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union is gaining momentum. Its ultimate goal is to slander modern Russia, and doubt the legitimacy of its role in international affairs as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.When Shoah witnesses are gone...
In order to get an unbiased picture of the true causes and culprits of the bloodiest conflict in human history, I suggest taking a closer look at the period which followed the Munich Agreement on the division of Czechoslovakia, signed by Great Britain, Germany, Italy and France on September 29-30, 1938.
The Munich Agreement marked the climax of the policy of appeasement of Hitler conducted by London and Paris in the 1930s, while increasing the international isolation of the USSR, particularly taking into account all non-aggression pacts signed by both Great Britain and France with Nazi Germany (September 30 and December 6, 1938). Nevertheless, the Soviet government was eager to establish a collective security system in Europe along with the British and French in order to retaliate against Nazi Germany.
Up until the second half of August 1939, trilateral Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations were held. The draft agreement proposed by the USSR required immediate military assistance to be provided by Great Britain and France in case of a Nazi attack. However, London and Paris followed their own way. Negotiations were being delayed by endless amendments and farfetched discussions regarding the definition of “indirect” and “direct” German aggression. The breakdown of talks was the eventual result.
Now, 80 years later, one can come to an unambiguous conclusion: These were British and French approaches toward negotiations – considered as a pressure tool to achieve yet another compromise with Germany – which led to such a failure.
September 1 marks the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland. Survivors of the Shoah – the Holocaust – are fading rapidly, and very few of those in their 80s or 90s have any clear recollection of what happened to them.Auction in NYC to feature Torah Ark made by American soldiers during WWII
What they know is essentially what was told to them by whoever took care of them as children, or what they discovered later as adults when going through the various search options.
One of the great tragedies – other than the losses of human life and the atrocities to which so many who were murdered and so many who survived were subjected – is that close relatives who lost contact with each other were in many cases convinced that they were the sole survivors of their families, and were separated for decades not knowing of each other’s existence.
In some cases, they actually lived in the same neighborhood in a city far from where they were born, but never bumped into each other until the twilight of their lives, or only discovered that one of them had died when reading a death notice in a newspaper.
Today, with the use of DNA, tracing is easier, but not every survivor knows about it and of those who do, not everyone is willing to undergo a DNA test.
Unlike pre-20th century tragic events in Jewish history, future generations of Jews – thanks to people such as film producer Steven Spielberg and others like him in different parts of the world – will not have to rely on historical “facts” in the eyes of a handful of beholders such as, for example, Josephus.
Guernsey’s Auction House will host auction featuring a Torah Ark made by American Soldiers for refugees of the Krumbach displaced persons camp in Germany.
The auction will take place on September 19, 2019 at the 5th Avenue Synagogue in NYC.
This Ark may have facilitated some the first organized prayer services in Europe after WWII, and its sale is made to help a museum in Brooklyn that feeds the homeless.
Other items on sale during the auction include letters from, and a self-portrait of, Marc Chagall. As well as letters drafts and comment on Israel's constitution with signatures original to Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, and Moshe Dayan
