Facebook bans posts that deny or distort the Holocaust
Facebook said Monday that it will be banning posts that deny or distort the Holocaust and will start directing people to authoritative sources if they search for information about the Nazi genocide.Jpost Editorial: UN makes mockery of its Human Rights Council
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new policy in a post on Monday, in the latest attempt by the company to take action against conspiracy theories and misinformation ahead of the US presidential election next month.
Zuckerberg said that he believes the new policy strikes the “right balance” in drawing the lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech.
“I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust,” he wrote. “My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech.”
In a separate blog post, Monika Bickert, vice president of Facebook’s content policy, said that the company was “updating our hate speech policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”
The move, Bickert said, “marks another step in our effort to fight hate on our services. Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people.”
Surveys have shown some younger Americans believe the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated.
The shameful charade of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council is continuing. Tomorrow, the UN is scheduled to hold elections for the 47-state membership of the UNHRC and the list of countries running for a place on the body supposedly dedicated to fighting human rights abuses includes some states better known as abusers than defenders of freedom and justice. Among those likely to be elected are China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.Adolph Ochs’ Legacy at The New York Times
This makes a mockery of the whole purpose of the UNHRC.
UN Watch, an NGO dedicated to monitoring the work of the United Nations and promoting human rights, distributed material ahead of the vote and has pointed out the absurdities. It also held a webinar with human rights dissidents persecuted by these very regimes to call on governments everywhere to oppose the election of the states with a record of abuse.
“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch.
Disconcertingly, despite the valiant efforts of UN Watch and other groups dedicated to fighting human rights abuses, the report shows how Cuba and Russia, which are the only candidates in their respective regional groups, are almost certain to be elected.
In the Asian regional group, where there are five candidates vying for four spots, the election of China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is almost assured, according to Neuer.
“It’s logically absurd and morally obscene that the UN is about to elect to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, arrested, crushed and disappeared those who tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong,” said Neuer.
A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office, Feb. 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri / File.
The New York Times’ Jewish problem is more than a century old. It dates to 1896, when Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of The Chattanooga Times, purchased the failing New York newspaper. A proud Reform Jew, Ochs insisted that Judaism was a religion, not a national identity that might compromise the patriotic allegiance of American Jews and prompt the dreaded charge of dual loyalty.
Constant criticism of Israel in The New York Times — usually focused on Jewish settlements or its failure to reach a peace agreement with the unmovably resistant Palestinian Authority — is not random. It reflects an enduring, by now embedded, discomfort with the very idea, let alone the reality, of a Jewish state in the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people.
It began with Joseph Levy, the Times’ first Jerusalem-based correspondent. He became a partisan advocate during the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine when hundreds of Jews were murdered and the centuries-old Hebron Jewish community destroyed. Levy’s primary sources were the Grand Mufti (who incited rioting with the lie that Jews intended to endanger Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount) and Hebrew University Chancellor Judah Magnes (formerly a New York Reform rabbi) who advocated a bi-national state of Jews and Arabs.
The Times’ nadir came during the Holocaust. By then Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Ochs’s son-in-law, was the publisher. When the slaughter of six million Jews was even noticed, it was buried in the inside pages lest the Times be portrayed as a “Jewish” newspaper. Instead, the Times became the sounding board for the vehemently anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism. The subsequent birth of the State of Israel could not be evaded, but it took the Times five years to finally recognize it as “an outpost of democracy in the Middle East.”
Its belated embrace was short-lived. The Times condemned the trial of Nazi war-criminal Adolph Eichmann in Israel, lest the Jewish state be perceived as representative of the Jewish people. After the Six-Day War editors focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees, while ignoring Jewish refugees from the Middle East and Africa who found a home in Israel. The Jewish state was depicted as a malevolent occupying power.
Apologize for Columbus? Let Islam apologize for Temple Mount
In honor of Columbus Day, October 12, Mexico has demanded that the Pope apologize for Columbus. Columbus conquered America in 1492 shortly after Muslims conquered Constantinople (in 1453). While the Mexican President demands that Christians apologize for Columbus, Muslims celebrate (and are proud!) of the Conquests of Islam in places like Constantinople's Hagia Sophia or Jerusalem's Temple Mount.Anti-Semitic Democrats blame Orthodox Jews for the coronavirus
Muslims have the same claim to Hagia Sophia or Temple Mount as Columbus had of the Mayan Pyramids. If Christians are asked to apologize for Columbus then Christians and Jews should demand an apology for the crimes of Islamic Colonialism
On October 10, 2010 Fox News reported "Mexico’s president published an open letter to Pope Francis Saturday calling on the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for abuses of Indigenous peoples during the conquest of Mexico in the 1500s."
Columbus conquered America in 1492 shortly after Muslims conquered Constantinople (in 1453). Muslims have the same claim to places like Constantinople's Hagia Sophia or Jerusalem's Temple Mount as Columbus had of the Mayan Pyramids.
While the Mexican President demands that Christians apologize for Columbus, Muslims celebrate (and are proud!) of the Conquests of Islam. While there are protests condemning Columbus and his statues are being destroyed, there are no protests condemning the crimes of Islamic colonialism... Far from apologizing the crimes of the Islamic colonial past, people like Turkey's Erdogan are proud of it and continue to celebrate the illegal occupation of Hagia Sophia and its conversion into a Mosque.
On July 10, 2020 Fox News reported "Turkey will convert the Hagia Sophia cultural site back into a functioning mosque. The millenary place of worship was turned into a museum in 1934..."
The Orthodox Jewish community has suffered from the virus, as have many other groups. It’s no more at fault for it than they are. It isn’t unique because more Orthodox Jews have come down with the virus, but because they make a convenient scapegoat for the failures of Democrat officials like Cuomo and De Blasio, for the blatant flouting of their rules by rioters and hipsters.
Chassidic Jews in particular are stereotypically “other” with strange garb, incomprehensible beliefs, accents, large families and long beards, but they’re white enough that hating them is socially acceptable for progressives who can act out their xenophobia without feeling guilty.
Even before the pandemic, the media was eager to provide a platform for every special interest out to bash Orthodox Jews, from the YAFFED campaign by leftists against religious Jewish schools to opponents of circumcision to animal rights cranks campaigning against Kosher meat.
The new coronavirus anti-Semitism relies on the same stereotypes and slurs: Orthodox Jews are ignorant, superstitious, flout authority and need to be saved from their backward ways. These are the progressive prejudices that permeate the media’s coverage of Orthodox Jews. And it’s part of the reason why Orthodox Jews are a Republican constituency in presidential elections.
Bigotry isn’t just about the pleasures of hate. It’s how those in power redirect blame for their crimes and failures, and a means for those who hate to gain a false sense of power and control.
Blaming the upsurge on an outside group creates a false sense of security for everyone else.
And when it’s no longer possible to pretend that the upsurge is limited to Orthodox Jews, then they can still be blamed for having caused it with their weddings, funerals and their prayers.
Best of all, none of the newfound bigots will blame Governor Cuomo or Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The two top Democrats who mishandled the pandemic in the worst ways possible, while spewing lies, excuses and smears at their serial press conferences, won’t be held accountable.
And that’s why every time things get worse, Cuomo and De Blasio will blame the Jews.
.@ABC uses a photo of Hasidic Jews for a story about national death projections due to COVID: pic.twitter.com/iX8w76HIH2
— The Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) October 12, 2020
Orthodox Jew beaten on Coney Island boardwalk
An Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted on the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn as his wife and child looked on, a Jewish news site reported.
The assault happened on Tuesday afternoon in front of the famous Cyclone roller coaster at Surf Ave. and West 10th St., Boropark24 reported. The victim, who was not named, was briefly knocked unconscious and required medical attention.
Shmilu Follman, a coordinator for the Borough Park Shomrim, an emergency response group that serves the Jewish community, told the news site that staff searched the scene but could identify no suspects.
Assaults against Jews in the city have spiked over the past year as part of a nationwide surge. Last year saw the most anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since at least 1979, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Of those, more than one-fifth occurred in New York, where about 20% of American Jews live.
Federal Judge Eric Komitee writes that despite Governor Cuomo directly targeting “Ultra Orthodox” Jews, the Catholic Church is also unfortunately swept up and subject to the Executive Order. pic.twitter.com/0rLuRDZBKE
— The Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) October 10, 2020
Why Doug Lamborn referred SFSU's president for prosecution
It turns out hosting a terrorist can have consequences, even when the event is a flop.CUNY’s Systemic Jew-Hatred
Last week, Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn referred for potential prosecution San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney, Profs. Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa, and the university generally, asking Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate whether they provided material support to a foreign terrorist organization by hosting a Sept. 23 online lecture by unrepentant Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.
Her appearance was canceled in succession by Zoom and Facebook, then ran for twenty-three minutes on YouTube before that platform halted transmission.
Mahoney ignored demands to cancel the event and defended Khaled’s appearance in three letters to the campus community. Khaled, the first female airline hijacker, was to address the “open classrooms” of the session’s organizers, Abdulhadi, associate professor in ethnic studies/race resistance studies, and Kinukawa, a lecturer in women and gender studies.
This marks an escalation of Lamborn’s efforts to hold SFSU responsible for hosting Khaled, coming after letters he sent requesting federal action before the conference occurred to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Lamborn’s case for “potential violations of 18 U.S. Code § 2339A, which makes it unlawful to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization,” rests on two key pieces of evidence. First, Khaled “is an unrepentant terrorist and an admitted member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S. designated terrorist organization.” Second, the “underlying purpose of the event appeared to be the promotion of the PFLP’s terrorist agenda to a wider audience, particularly the students of SFSU, a public university.”
When a provocative Tiktok video uploaded by Nerdeen Kiswani, a second-year student at CUNY law school, went public recently, the anti-Israel sentiment of the clip came as no surprise to those who were aware of Ms. Kiswani’s long record of toxic activism. In the video, Kiswani is seen attempting to light on fire an IDF-emblazoned sweatshirt worn by an individual sitting with her, expressing her hatred for the IDF and the nation it defends—a loathing that apparently animates Ms. Kiswani’s life, since she is fully engaged as the former vice president and president of the virulent student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Hunter College and at the College of Staten Island (CSI), City of New York University (CUNY).Regarding the disturbing appearance of Antisemitism in a UP class
And, as evidenced by the video clip, Kiswani (pictured above) is perfectly willing to use and celebrate violence against Israeli Jews. In fact, when in 2017 Palestinian terrorists killed four people and injured 17 others by ramming them with a vehicle on a Jerusalem promenade, Kiswani lauded and encouraged celebration of the murders, ghoulishly noting that “Palestinians in Palestine are giving out sweets in celebration. I will not hide from this. I will not be ashamed or embarrassed by this. These celebratory actions are what keep the resistance moving forward, they are what keep it alive."
Needless to say, this type of murderous activism can poison the climate of a university campus, exactly what took place at CUNY for another law student there, Rafaella Gunz. Gunz, a Jewish journalist who studies LGBT and feminist issues, herself became a target of pro-Palestinian students, including Kiswani, and eventually dropped out of the law school this year after she was relentlessly targeted by anti-Israel activists. “It came to my attention that there was this petition,” Gunz wrote. “It was inspired by me, it doesn’t say anything by name, that it’s me, but it says ‘a certain subset of Zionist activists.’ And that’s just me. I’m clearly outnumbered on this campus, right?”
“All the student groups signed it, professors signed it, a bunch of my classmates signed it, so it’s basically saying that if you are anything less than unequivocally supportive of the Palestinian groups, you shouldn’t be at this school,” Gunz wrote. “And then I was accused of ‘Zionist violence.’ I don’t know how my words are violent, but there it is.”
I have been teaching European history at the University of Portland Salzburg Austria Center for more than 15 years and I find this report that a class by one of my colleagues was given over to an Antisemitic rant by a guest lecturer both shocking and totally out of character for the University of Portland as I have known it.BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – SEPTEMBER 2020
When I was first interviewed for a teaching position at UP, I said that in teaching modern European history, I would have to cover the record of the Catholic Church in promoting hatred of Jews, as it is a very important part of European history. My interviewer, a priest, responded by saying "very good, we want our students to learn about that." I was very pleased to hear that because teaching European history without teaching about the centuries of Jew hatred and persecution would be like teaching American history without mentioning racism or slavery.
In all my years teaching at UP I have devoted major parts of my courses to the history of Antisemitism and its consequences—as my students would surely attest. And during that time I have never gotten anything but support from the UP administrators and faculty in my doing so. In fact, teaching about Antisemitism and the Holocaust is not only an important part of my own courses, but is also an important part of the Salzburg Austria program as a whole.
Every year, in addition to the coverage of the nature and history of Antisemitism included in several of our courses (including literature and philosophy as well as history), our students have gotten to go on an educational tour of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp site and its museum—a tour that has often reduced some of them to tears as it is a brutal experience. And despite the emotional hardship involved, I don't think we have ever had any complaints.
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during September 2020 shows that throughout the month a total of 100 incidents took place: 65 in Judea & Samaria, 21 in Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ and 14 in the Gaza Strip sector.Jewish leaders concerned over Poland's proposed banning of kosher exports
In Judea & Samaria and Jerusalem the agency recorded 70 attacks with petrol bombs, six attacks using pipe bombs, eight arson attacks, one stabbing and one vehicular attack. In the Gaza Strip sector seven attacks with petrol bombs, one IED attack and six separate incidents of rocket attacks (during which 15 missiles were launched) were recorded.
Five people were wounded during August: two members of the security forces in a vehicular attack at Tapuach Junction on September 2nd and three civilians – one seriously – in a rocket attack on Ashdod on September 15th.
The BBC News website reported (in just 30 words) the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on September 15th and 16th. No BBC journalist made the one-hour journey from Jerusalem to Ashdod to cover the story from the scene of the attack and the point of view of the civilians targeted. None of the additional incidents – including the vehicular attack – received any coverage.
Since the beginning of the year visitors to the BBC News website have seen coverage of 5.3% of the terror attacks against Israelis which actually took place and reporting of 50% of the resulting fatalities. Six of the first nine months of 2020 saw no BBC reporting on Palestinian terrorism at all.
European Jewish politicians and community leaders, from MPs and MEPs to rabbis, are calling on the Polish Parliament to remove parts of the animal welfare bill that encompasses the export of kosher meat from Poland.Man arrested over swastikas sprayed near Louvre museum in Paris
The parliament began debate on the legislation back in September, after a bill was introduced to make kosher and halal meat permissible for Poles but not for export.
Animal welfare activists oppose the slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat because it precludes stunning before the animals’ throats are cut. Proponents of the practice reject claims that it is cruel and claim instead that it induces a quick and humane death for the animal.
The European Jewish leaders believe that the move would "severely impact" Jewish communities across the country as well as other countries that rely on Poland for kosher meat. They also note that it sets the precedent that animal welfare is "clearly" put above the right to religious freedom within the country.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the Chairman of the European Jewish Association who instigated the letter, said in a statement that “what appears to be a national polish political issue is nothing of the sort. The ramifications of this Bill are potentially devastating and profound to Jews eveywhere in Europe, and also to the many who value the liberty to practice freedom of religion.
Paris authorities on Sunday arrested a man suspected of spraying swastikas on columns near the world-famous Louvre museum in the city’s historic center, prosecutors said.For Descendants of Austrian Holocaust Victims, Becoming a Citizen Has Never Been Easier
The red paint swastikas were spotted along the upscale Rue de Rivoli artery in central Paris early on Sunday morning, leading passers-by to post pictures on social media.
Security officers arrested the man, the Paris mayor’s office said on Twitter, while prosecutors said that he was being investigated for property damage.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin lamented the “foul Nazi swastikas in the middle of Paris,” but praised the officers for reacting quickly.
“Cleaning teams will be on the scene quickly to eliminate all trace of these messages,” city hall said.
A source close to the probe told AFP that the suspect was born in Georgia in the Caucasus region in 1989.
Government figures recorded a 38 percent increase in racist incidents in France in 2019, including a 27% increase in anti-Semitic acts.
At some point during the video conference call, Scott Morse of Ashburn, Virginia whipped out a faux Austrian-European Union license plate that read: DUAL CTZN. He bought the novelty item off eBay, proud that he and his extended family were able to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs: Austrian citizenship.Due to High Demand for Biotech, Israeli Biotechnology Fund Crosses $1.3 Billion Funding Threshold
“That whole history of our family was ripped apart and taken, and now this is a way for Austria to say ‘I’m sorry,’ and this was our way, maybe, not to forgive but to carry on,” said Scott, 48, in the video call with his brother Craig Morse, 51, and cousin Robert Schwarz, 64.
In September 2019, the Austrian parliament amended the Austrian Citizenship Act to enable descendants of victims of Nazi oppression to acquire Austrian citizenship. It went into effect on September 1, though the Morse brothers had looked into the process of Austrian citizenship long before then.
About a year-and-half ago, they started the Facebook group, “Austrian Citizenship Holocaust Descendants.” Since last month, membership spiked to about 400 members, drawing 12 to 15 new members a day from all over the globe, including the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and South America.
“There are a section of members in the group who are in the UK, and for some of them, it’s a Brexit issue,” said Craig from his Virginia home. “It’s an opportunity because of Brexit. There are those who talk about the fact that they want to have an option to live some place else based on, unfortunately, what’s going on here. And for others, it’s just the same thing: They want to grab on to a piece of the family that was taken away.”
Contrast the experience to that of their cousin, Robert. He applied for Austrian citizenship three years ago — a process that took almost four years due to the grueling process of tracking down documentation. But for the Morses, it took just a few weeks with COVID-19 limitations providing the only bureaucratic hurdles. They are now waiting for notification of approval.
Israeli biotechnology fund Pontifax Venture Capital, under the management of Tomer Kariv and Ran Nussbaum, enjoyed the high demand that the biotechnology sector experienced since the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19), and raised some $74 million for its sixth equity fund, bringing its total for the round to $404 million.In bid to whip Alzheimer’s, Israeli scientists use immune system to repair brain
Half of the funds came from existing Israeli institutional investors, including Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services, Menora Mivtachim Holdings, Phoenix, Altshuler Shaham investment house, capital market workers, and Israeli Vintage Funds, which altogether raised some $60-$20 million. The second half came from American and Chinese entities, including US insurance and investment companies as well as Chinese pharmaceutical and clinical research bodies.
The capital raised for the sixth equity fund brought the total funds under Pontifax’s control to $1.34 billion. Around $1 billion remains in the funds, with $150 million in debt funds, and the final $180 million controlled by Pontifax’s agritech division.
The sixth fund is expected to concentrate on locating biotech companies at different research stages, with a focus on Israeli companies in particular; along with the import of foreign technologies to Israel, initiating and founding companies from those conducting existing research, and investments in private and public pharmaceutical companies in the US.
Pontifax has started 26 companies, invested in 75 So far, Pontifax’s biotech fund has launched some 26 companies, the last of which was Japanese-Israeli AM Pharmacy that is developing a product to combat human aging. The biotech foundation has also invested in some 75 companies over the years, 17 of them on various stock markets around the world. The most recent of these was Karus Therapeutics, whose issuing was announced in April.
Israeli biopharmaceutical startup ImmunoBrain Checkpoint (IBC) is hoping that an immune system-boosting antibody it has engineered will help lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of the devastating Alzheimer’s disease. The firm is planning to start clinical trials next year, and is in the process of raising some $10 million from strategic and financial investors.'Wonder Woman' star Gal Gadot to play Cleopatra
The firm said its solution would be the first therapy of its kind that harnesses the body’s immune system to help repair the diseased brain, and is based on 22 years research by Prof. Michal Schwartz and her team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science. IBC licensed the technology from Yeda, the commercialization arm of the Weizmann Institute, and set up the company in 2015.
Last month, the startup said it was awarded a $1 million grant from the Alzheimer’s Association under the 2020 Part the Cloud-Bill Gates Partnership Grant Program to support the Phase I clinical trial. The trial will examine the safety and activity of IBC’s antibody, IBC-Ab002, which aims to boost the immune system and induce brain protection in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The Part the Cloud program seeks to increase research and testing of drugs to combat neurodegeneration.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who catapulted to international fame as Wonder Woman, is on board to play the ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra in a major Paramount production.Twitter explodes over casting of 'white, Israeli' Gal Gadot as Cleopatra
Cleopatra, a skilled multi-lingual ruler who was involved with both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, has become the stuff of legend and portrayed by stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Monica Bellucci, and Angelina Jolie.
The Paramount version of the Cleopatra story will be another collaboration between Gadot and Patty Jenkins, who directed Wonder Woman and its sequel, whose release has been repeatedly delayed by the COVID pandemic.
In addition to playing the lead role, Gadot is co-producing the Cleopatra film with her husband.
After the project was announced, Gadot wrote on Instagram: "I love embarking on new journeys, I love the excitement of new projects, the thrill of bringing new stories to life. Cleopatra is a story I wanted to tell for a very long time. Can't be more excited and grateful about this A team!!!"
Daniel Laufer pointed out the facts about Cleopatra’s true background and tweeted, “this thread is *both* historically ignorant *and* racist.”New Live Camera Captures Pelicans in Israel’s Lake Hula En Route to Africa
Ambarish, a realist among Twitter users, tweeted the following dialogue: “Why isnt Cleopatra played by a black woman?!/Coz Cleopatra was Macedonian Greek/Well Gal Gadot isnt Greek! They are brown!/No they arent. They are white/Besides Gal comes from a similar coast/So what? They should get a Macedonian to play her!/Like who?/Uhhh..."
Gadot did not respond to the critics but gushed on her Instagram account, "As you might have heard I teamed up with @PattyJenks and @LKalogridis to bring the story of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, to the big screen in a way she’s never been seen before. To tell her story for the first time through women's eyes, both behind and in front of the camera.
I love embarking on new journeys, I love the excitement of new projects, the thrill of bringing new stories to life. Cleopatra is a story I wanted to tell for a very long time.”
Cleopatra’s life has been the subject of a number of movies, most notably the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with Richard Burton as Mark Anthony. It was the highest budget movie ever made up till then and was also famous because Taylor and Burton, both of whom were married to other people, fell in love and had an affair on the set.
Taylor left her husband, Jewish crooner Eddie Fisher, and the Burton and Taylor married and divorced – twice. At press time, there was no word on what leading man would play opposite Gadot’s pale-skinned queen of the Nile.
Meanwhile, perhaps Michael Dickson, an author and executive director of Stand With Us, had the most creative reply to Khan’s complaint, tweeting, “Um, Cleopatra was Greek. Which is fine because as everyone knows Gal Gadot is from the Greek island of Themyscira . . . Does that make it ok now, Sameera? #Antisemite”
At the beginning of the migration season, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority installed live cameras in the Hula Nature Reserve north of Lake Kinneret.
The cameras were installed to monitor the movement of pelicans in the pelican pool of the reserve, and reveal the life of pelicans in the nature reserve to the public in a way that does not interfere with their lives (the pelicans’ lives – DI).
The camera was placed over a pool detached from the water system in the reserve, where the public can observe the delivery of fish to the pelicans to supplement their nutritional needs during the fall migration.
Before its drainage in the early 1950s, Lake Hula was 3.3 miles long and 2.7 miles wide, about 4’11” ft deep in summer and 9’8″ ft deep in winter. The marsh-like lake was fed by several perennial springs. The lake attracted human settlement from early prehistoric times. Paleolithic archaeological remains were found near the “Daughters of Jacob Bridge” at the southern end of the valley. The first permanent settlement, Enan (Mallaha), which scientists date at some 10,000 years ago, was discovered in the Hula.
In the 1950s, the JNF created one of the worst ecological disasters in the history of the region by draining much of the lake to create agricultural land. They were very proud of themselves.