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Monday, February 01, 2021

02/01 Links Pt2: The Normalization of Antisemitism; UNRWA fundamentally and knowingly breaches agreement that allowed renewed Canadian Aid; Biden administration: Where do BDS and B'Tselem fit in?

From Ian:

Ha'aretz[$]: The Normalization of Antisemitism
The New Israel Fund, along with a series of other “progressive” organizations in the United States that make up the Progressive Israel Network – including J Street, Americans for Peace Now, Habonim Dror North America and Hashomer Hatzair World Movement – put together a petition ahead of Joe Biden’s entry to the White House. It calls on the U.S. government not to adopt the working definition of antisemitism formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and already adopted by more than 10 countries (including Muslim-majority countries like Bahrain and Albania, with Morocco also on the way). The signatories say the definition is overly broad and so will allow the fight against antisemitism to be exploited to “suppress legitimate free speech, criticism of Israeli government actions, and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

What specifically bothers the authors of the petition? They object to the section that cites as an example of antisemitism the assertion that “the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.” The “existence” of Israel, mind you, is not this or that government policy. In other words, the petition’s authors wish to legitimize the ideas that stood behind the UN Security Council’s despicable 1975 resolution that “Zionism is racism.” So despicable that even the UN, not exactly the most Israel-friendly forum, decided to rescind it in 1991.

Amos Oz used to say that whoever thinks that all peoples deserve the right to self-definition, except the Jews, is antisemitic. By this definition – from the most important intellectual the Israeli left has ever had, not the IHRA – the New Israel Fund and its partners are not seeking to distinguish legitimate criticism from anti-Jewish racism, but rather to advance the legitimation and normalization of antisemitism.

So as to remove any doubt, the petition they’ve signed clarifies not just what it aims to legitimize, but whom in particular: “Secretary of State Pompeo’s State Department’s unambiguous declarations that ‘anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism’ and that ‘the Global BDS Campaign [is] a manifestation of anti-Semitism’ represent a harmful overreach.” The radical left often tends to blur the line between those who oppose the occupation and support the two states for two peoples solution, and those who do not recognize the nation-state of the Jewish people’s right to exist and believe that Zionism is a regrettable historic aberration, an illegitimate colonialist enterprise that must be rolled back.


The Fights Against BDS and for IHRA Converge
January was marked by unprecedented political unrest in the US, following the presidential election and rioting in Washington. The incoming Biden administration has not yet articulated its policy regarding antisemitism or BDS, but certain aspects are becoming clearer. Incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated during his confirmation hearing that he and the Biden administration are “resolutely opposed to BDS.” Nominee for US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated in her confirmation hearing that BDS is “unacceptable,” “verges on antisemitic,” and “it’s important that they not be allowed to have a voice at the UN, and I intend to work against that.”

According to one report, a Trump-era initiative to list BDS groups has been sidelined because of the transition, and internal State Department opposition. The stance of new Education Department appointees on BDS remains unclear.

Concern is rising with regard to lower-level nominees. The nomination of a former member of Students for Justice in Palestine, Maher Bitar, to head intelligence activities at the National Security Council is especially alarming. Bitar had served in the Obama administration as Director for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, as well as a lawyer for UNRWA, before becoming General Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee. A nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights who espoused troubling beliefs in college, including the idea that Jews were responsible for the slave trade, unconvincingly characterized her previous stance as satire but also denounced antisemitism.

The new administration has revoked the Trump administration’s Executive Order banning “Critical Race Theory” training in Federal agencies and for Federal contractors (a move that had already been blocked by a Federal court).

The use of ethnic studies and “racial equity” by the BDS movement to generate antisemitism was demonstrated by the California “ethnic studies” curriculum — and also by comments from a University of California Riverside professor that “Most California public education administrators don’t understand how Zionism politically toxified our schools and curricula. It prevents us from teaching historical material about entire populations. This must not continue.”


Terror victim's widower blames France for funding Palestinian violence
Approximately a month ago, Tal Menashe resident Esther Horgan was brutally murdered by a Palestinian man while out for a winter afternoon run in a grove near her home. Now, her widower, Binyamin – like Esther, a French citizen – is working to convince the French government to make the money it sends to the Palestinian Authority conditional upon the PA stopping both the salaries it pays to terrorists and their families, and its anti-Israel incitement.

On Wednesday, Horgan is scheduled to take part in a Zoom meeting with French journalists and public officials organized by the Center for Near East Policy Research. Horgan wants to pressure the French authorities to take action.

"We want to raise awareness among French speakers and the French authorities about the fact that the Palestinian Authority actively supports terrorism," Horgan said.

"The goal is ultimately to stop the Palestinian Authority's funding of terrorists, or at least establish closer oversight of the money that France and the EU send to the PA. The PA uses this money both to pay terrorists after the fact, and to fund incitement and violence. This directly led to the murder," Horgan added.

CNEPR Director David Bedein said, "We are setting up the 'Israeli Public Council,' which with the help of volunteers will work to achieve these goals, which Israel is doing nothing about."
PMW: UNRWA fundamentally and knowingly breaches agreement that allowed renewed Canadian Aid
PMW’s report further demonstrated how the decision of UNRWA to continue using the PA schoolbooks, even though they knew the schoolbooks violated their duty of neutrality, breached the terms of Canada’s decision of 2017 to renew funding to UNRWA.

The end result is that while the 2017 Canada-UNRWA funding agreement requires UNRWA to meet the very basic standard of maintaining its own neutrality, in practice, since the agreement did not create independent Canadian oversight, but rather left the oversight in the hands of UNRWA, it really was the equivalent of putting the cat to guard the cream.

In order to remedy the situation, and in addition to the new Canadian investigation, PMW once again recommends that the Canadian government take the following steps:
1. Require that UNRWA explain why they concealed and failed to report the content of the PA schoolbooks and the ensuing breach of the framework agreement.
2. Amend the 2017 framework agreement by adding Canada’s own periodical independent review of UNRWA’s practices.
3. Undertake an independent study of all the PA schoolbooks and UNRWA materials used in UNRWA schools.
4. Inform UNRWA that in the future Canada expects them to take all steps necessary in order to fully meet their obligations.
5. Inform the PA that the use of PA textbooks in UNRWA schools forces UNRWA to breach its duty of neutrality and thereby jeopardizes the aid it receives from Canada.

It should be noted, that the Canadian decision to open the new investigation was based on a study by IMPACT-se, which identified, analyzed, and highlighted the problematic content of the UNRWA-produced educational materials.

However, as that very same report points out, it is the PA curriculum that is being taught in UNRWA’s schools and UNRWA materials are only meant to be used “in conjunction with the PA-issued textbooks as complementary UNRWA-produced material.”
A Terror Fighter We Don’t Know, But Should
In Europe, life is finally getting tougher for Hezbollah. For decades the group has used the continent to stage and fund its terror attacks, and last year they started to face proper scrutiny in Europe’s capitals. In 2020 alone, Austria, The Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia and Slovenia all designated Hezbollah as a terror organization, banning the group from using their financial institutions and from setting foot in their respective jurisdictions.

These designations and actions are totally deserved. Hezbollah has left pools of blood across Europe, and across the globe, so few outside Tehran, Pyongyang and Beirut will kick up any stink about this effort to blacklist them.

In a year when Hezbollah’s guns and bombs were thankfully quiet in Europe, it might seem strange that so many countries suddenly banned Hezbollah. Why Now?

Good question. So, let’s dig a bit deeper. These designations ultimately stem from years of thoughtful and incremental work towards banning Hezbollah from Europe. And one man in particular has been doing this leg-work, pushing, persuading and making the case. That man is Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

A former Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Tsvetanov knows firsthand the terror Hezbollah can export. You will remember that in 2012 a man boarded a bus full of Israeli tourists near Burgas, Bulgaria and detonated a bomb killing the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israeli tourists. The blast injured 35 more.
Biden administration: Where do BDS and B'Tselem fit in?
Regional leaders have known for some time that the best way to politically reach American officials is through Israel. The United Arab Emirates wanting to buy F-35 fighter jets realized that they needed the Israeli help, Sudan wanting to be removed from the terror list had to turn to Tel Aviv and Morocco badly needing America to recognize Western Sahara as sovereign Moroccan territory realized that they had no choice but to seek the help of the Israeli prime minister.

One pro-Palestinian group appears to have benefited from an Israeli NGO without directly asking for its help.

The leading Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, issued a report entitled “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid.” The report describes the area under Israel’s control as a single political entity that must be held accountable for its human rights record. “One of the key points in our analysis is that this is a single geopolitical area ruled by one government,” B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad was quoted by the Associated Press. “This is not democracy plus occupation. This is apartheid between the river and the sea.”

The January 12 report was widely published in English around the world, but didn’t see the light in Israel’s Hebrew language publications, a signal of the concern that it could cause major domestic political injury to a polarized Israeli public that is due to hold the fourth elections in two years.

This was not the first time that Palestine and Israel have been mentioned geographically in the same sentence. In 2018, a CNN analyst Marc Lamon Hill lost his job for six words in which he referred to the river to sea phrase during a speech at the UN. Peter Beinart also made waves when he argued the need for a comprehensive bi-national solution that ignores the green line.
Andrew Yang got it right on BDS
We’re used to politicians mangling history, whether out of carelessness or partisanship. So it was a breath of fresh air when New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently shared a powerful historical truth about people who boycott Jews.

Yang has been pilloried by supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. But he got it right. “A Yang administration will push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment,” he wrote in The Forward. And then came his most controversial — but most important — sentence: “BDS [is] rooted in antisemitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses…”

In the heavily German-American neighborhood of Yorkville, in upper Manhattan, Jewish business “are boycotted quite as thoroughly as in Germany. The best known “fascist boycott” against Jews was waged by the government of Nazi Germany, beginning with a one-day nationwide action, on April 1, 1933, shortly after Hitler’s rise to power. Throughout the Reich on that day, stormtroopers were stationed at entrances to Jewish stores and offices, and above the doors they posted a yellow circle — the medieval symbol associating Jews with gold and prostitution. The boycott was intended to demonstrate that the Nazis could readily threaten Jews’ economic survival. In subsequent years, the Nazis avidly enforced local boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses across Germany.

Elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe during the same period, anti-Semitic political parties and grassroots movements promoted anti-Jewish boycotts, although generally they were local initiatives, lacking the imprimatur of government approval. A notable exception was Poland, where, beginning in 1936, Prime Minister Felicjan Skladkowski openly endorsed “economic struggle” against Polish Jews.

Here in the United States, the pro-Nazi German American Bund and the neofascist Christian Front organized and aggressively promoted boycotts of Jewish stores. The Friends of the New Germany, from which the Bund evolved, originated the boycott in 1934, establishing a German-American Business League to promote and police it.
Anti-Israel Christian Left Sees ‘New Opportunities’ in Congress, Administration
According to Cristofalo, the new Democratic-controlled Senate “will probably not be very relevant to Israel-Palestine policy.” Cristofalo, however, cited Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL), and aforementioned Rep. Bowman (D-NY) as “new members to watch” on this issue.

Harrison spoke less about Congress and instead focused on the Biden Administration’s policies towards Israel and Palestine. He stated, “The question before us is: ‘How can I make President Biden do the right thing?’” meaning, support BDS and the additional advocacy goals of UMKR, MFSA, and other Christian Left voices on Israel and Palestine. “We need to remember that policy on Israel and Palestine is made in the White House.”

He continued, describing the lobbying feat of moving the Democratic party to change its platform regarding Israel and Palestine, which as of 2020 includes language that opposes annexation and supports Palestinian rights. Many progressive advocates were dissatisfied that the platform change did not include language on the occupation, and Harrison echoed this feeling.

“We need to get language reinstated that there is occupied territory and the occupied territory is illegal,” insisted Harrison.

He, however, asserted that it isn’t enough for activists to persuade Democratic elected officials. “We need to engage Republicans,” stated Harrison. He also addressed the “problem” of Christian Zionism and its influence on American foreign policy towards Israel. “We need to think about strategy wise how to combat it [Christian Zionism] … It is the Christian Zionists who are driving debates among Republicans,” he asserted.

During the panel, Cristofalo referenced a December letter that was sent to the Biden-Harris transition team by 17 Christian denominations and faith-based organizations. The letter includes six requests regarding future policy towards Israel and Palestine under the Biden Administration. The final request states: “Make clear that criticism of Israel, including support for boycotts, divestment and sanctions actions, is protected and legitimate speech.”

Signatories of the letter include Churches for Middle East Peace, Presbyterian Church (USA), The Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and The United Methodist Church’s public policy arm, the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS).
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ilhan Omar Launch Bipartisan House Anti-Semite Caucus (satire)
Looking to prove that Democrats and Republicans can find common ground despite deep polarization, Democratic Congresswoman Ilham Omar and freshmen Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have formed a House Caucus to advance Anti-Semitic Stereotypes.

The move was heralded as a triumph of bipartisanship, as the two lawmakers will work together to promote a range of conspiracies about Jewish Americans.

“While we may not agree about tax rates, foreign policy, or whether Tom Hanks eats children, Marjorie and I are both committed to stopping the Jews from hypnotizing the world and destroying the planet with their giant space laser,” Omar said. “This is what cooperation looks like.”

Greene was equally enthused about their partnership.

“I can’t believe that I thought the Islamic invasion was a bad thing!” Greene Tweeted. “With our minds put together, we can come up with more harmful and deranged conspiracy theories than either of us can alone.”
Coronavirus in Israel: Gov’t extends lockdown, skies remain closed
The Health Ministry is examining whether to abolish the exemption from isolation for vaccinated people returning from abroad. “We see cases of people who returned from abroad and became infected after being vaccinated,” Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health Services, said Monday during a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. “So we are reevaluating the whole matter.”

“We do not want mutations that are more contagious to enter” the country, she said.

Seven days after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, people can receive a vaccination certificate that gives them two privileges: an exemption from quarantine if they come in contact with an infected person; and the same exemption if they are returning from abroad.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that the ministry might consider abolishing the first exemption as well. But coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said Monday he does not envision that there will be any change on that front.

The country should take “drastic preventative measures” to keep further variants from entering or spreading in Israel, especially through Ben-Gurion Airport, the Coronavirus Knowledge and Information Center said Monday in a report.

“We estimate that about 70% of new daily cases are infected with the British mutation,” Ash said during a Monday briefing. Later, the Health Ministry said some 16 pregnant women out of 20 screened were infected with the variant.
Coronavirus among Arab-Israelis: 59% of those over 60 have been vaccinated
Israel's Health Ministry released detailed data and statistics on the coronavirus situation in the Arab-Israeli community on Sunday.

According to the data, some 59% of Arab-Israelis above the age of 60 have been vaccinated, while a total of 18% of the community has been inoculated. This results in some 229,466 Arab-Israelis who have been vaccinated.

The Health Ministry has established more than 80 vaccination stations, and more than 28 mobile stations to facilitate vaccinations in the community.

The average daily positive rate of COVID-19 stands at 1,213, approximately 13% of all new cases, out of an average of 9,288 daily tests, indicating a positive rate of 14.1%.
Israel to Provide 5,000 Vaccine Doses to Palestinian Medical Workers
Israel will provide 5,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinian Authority in order to vaccinate frontline medical workers, reports indicated Sunday.

The Agence France-Presse reported that the transfer was approved by the Defense Ministry and confirmed by a spokesperson.

“I confirm we are going to send 5,000 vaccines to medical teams in the Palestinian Authority,” a spokesperson for Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.

A Palestinian official dismissed the offer, telling the AFP it was a “symbolic move” and “will not help us.”

Israel has been pressured by its critics in the international community to provide vaccines to the Palestinians, even though it is under no legal obligation to do so.

According to signed agreements dating back to the 1990s, the PA is the sole responsible authority for health matters in its areas of control, including the procurement and distribution of vaccines.
Mother of fallen soldier: 'Netanyahu, Gantz - alliance with enemy'
Leah Goldin - mother of the late Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in battle in Operation Protective Edge six and a half years ago - criticized on Sunday the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz regarding their negotiations with Hamas over returning lost soldiers' bodies.

Lt. Goldin's body has yet to be returned to Israel for burial.

Following Israel's announcement that the country would provide the Palestinians with 5,000 vaccine doses, the Goldin family challenged the High Court's decision about a month ago, according to N12.

This week, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held a discussion about the issue of returning the soldiers' bodies, in which Leah Goldin participated and spoke about how the state "buried the truth inside the system."

"Six and a half years ago, they went to Gaza to defend the State of Israel," Goldin told Israeli press in an interview, N12 reported. "So the issue is not just that he (Lt. Goldin) is waiting for burial - he has been abducted and is in the hands of our enemy, Yahya Sinwar (Head of Hamas), who is constantly receiving gifts from the State of Israel, whether it be in money packages or vaccine packages."
LISTEN: CBC Broadcasts On-Air Clarification (AGAIN) After Criticizing Israel For Not Vaccinating Palestinians
We also noted that it’s in Israel’s interest that the Palestinians be vaccinated considering how inter-connected both populaces are and how Palestinians work in Israel proper, but like all countries in this world, Israel is prioritizing vaccinated its citizens first.

Journalist Makler quoted the King of Jordan who spoke at the World Economic Forum and who called on Israel to do more to help vaccinate Palestinians, but no response from an Israeli source was provided by Ms. Makler.

Not asked by the CBC, but what is Jordan doing to help vaccinate Palestinians? Jordan, who formerly occupied the west bank from 1948-67, bears responsibility. Also keep in mind that approximately 2 million Palestinians live in Jordan. Or for that matter, what is Lebanon doing to help vaccinate Palestinians? The answer, next to nothing. These Palestinians have for decades languished in refugee camps. No one is rebuking Lebanon or Jordan for not taking care of Palestinians who live in their respective countries.

We called on HonestReporting Canada’s subscribers to file complaints with CBC Editor-in-Chief Brodie Fenlon and on January 30, CBC Radio broadcast the following on-air clarification:
Yesterday, Irris brought us a story about calls for Israel to help get the Palestinian population of the west bank vaccinated against COVID-19. That call came from the King of Jordan. Israeli officials though say that overall, healthcare administration and the task of offering vaccinations to Palestinians living in the west bank and the Gaza Strip falls to the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Peace Accords. Palestinian officials for their part have independently negotiated supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as Russia’s Sputnik-V shot.”
Report: Corbynite sites feature far-right tropes
The Canary and Skwawkbox, two of the websites most closely linked to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, have been found to promote “heavily negative coverage of Jewish issues” to audiences that are “associated with antisemitism”, a damning new government report has found.

An analysis of content published online by the websites revealed alarming parallels between editorial lines taken by the two sites and that of the extreme far-right online outlet Radio Albion, when it came to the reporting of stories involving Jews.

The new study, carried out by King’s College London for the Government’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism Lord John Mann, concluded that “despite the huge differences in the beliefs that are most foundational to their ideologies, articles published on all three sites share an opposition to capitalism, globalisation, and liberalism, adopt similar positions on many questions of foreign policy, and fulminate against a supposed adversary whose Jewishness is extensively highlighted (even if in different ways).

“But much of the framing is similar: in articles published on all three platforms, the enemy is a wealthy, conspiratorial, corrupting, and unambiguously Jewish force with which no compromise can be made.”

Ahead of publication of the report, Lord Mann said: “Whilst not all such sites promote anti-Jewish racism, it is increasingly clear that some of them have content which is used as part of the reservoir of such hatred and the conspiracy theories that drive forward antisemitism.


Northeastern U ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ Promotes Terrorist PFLP, Doubles Down After Backlash
The Northeastern University branch of Students for Justice In Palestine recently held an event glorifying the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist organization designated by the U.S. goverment as a foreign terrorist group. The PFLP committed some of the most infamous and deadly attacks targeting Israel and Jews. As described below, after a backlash SJP doubled down..

Of all the dozens of SJP chapters around the country, Northeastern’s has long been one of the most incendiary. We’ve covered its aggressive history several times before, including when the group was suspended by the university in 2014 for “vandalism, intimidation, and disruption“. We also covered the protest of its suspension, at which the chant, “Long Live the Intifada” proved popular, and its probationary reinstatement a few months later.

2014 was an eventful one for the group; in March, a photograph of the group’s then-leader posing somewhere in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory wearing a bullet belt and holding a “PK-class machine gun” emerged. The student also posted photos of himself wearing a Palestinian Islamic Jihad headband and a Hezbollah T-shirt.

Six years later, Northeastern SJP’s penchant for glorifying terrorism does not seem to have changed; this time, the student group chose the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to whitewash.

PFLP
Founded in 1967, the PFLP is known for pioneering airline hijackings and launching multiple suicide bomb attacks against Israelis. Designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and Japan, the PFLP is the home association of Rasmea Odeh, the supermarket bomber who murdered two Jewish students in Jerusalem in 1969. It’s also the group of the first female airplane hijacker, Leila Khaled. Both women are still the darlings of anti-Israel campus activists; likewise, the PFLP itself remains an object of obsessive apotheosis for notoriously hateful student groups such as SJP.


PreOccupiedTerritory: NGOs Demand Ethnicity Test Of West Bank Homebuilders To Weed Out Jews (satire)
Organizations that insist they work to advance human rights and combat bigotry put forth a plan this week to prevent Jews from constructing homes in areas Israel captured from Jordanian occupation in 1967, a move they contend will achieve positive outcomes.

Amnesty International, Btselem, Human Rights Watch, and several other groups that monitor Israeli activity in those areas issued a demand Sunday to subject all would-be homeowners outside Israel’s 1949 armistice lines to a test of ethnic affiliation, and only those without Jewish ethnicity would then obtain permission to move forward with construction. Such a test, the organizations explained, will go along way toward curtailing the heinous phenomenon of Jews building homes in their ancestral heartland.

“Everyone knows the heart of the conflict, the source of human rights abuses, is Jews living where Jews began,” observed Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth. “The only way to resolve the situation once and for all is to put a stop to this troubling phenomenon. An important step in that regard is to keep future instances of it from taking place. This proposal, though its details might need some refinement, represents the right approach to containing, and then perhaps eliminating, the mother of all human rights atrocities.”

“Obviously there would be more to do, because existing Jewish homes aren’t addressed under this plan,” acknowledged Btselem spokesman Pia Tabaat. “Not to get all antisemitic, but Jews are like cancer: you have to prevent the spread, or efforts to treat the existing tumor will prove fruitless. But as our allies in the BDS movement explain their singular focus on Israel, when countless regimes perpetrate worse violations all the time, you have to start somewhere.”
Jerusalem where BBC and PLO approaches meet
Zomlot’s portrayal of Jerusalem is “an international city” is taken from from the 1947 UNGA Partition Plan proposal which was of course rejected by the Arabs, including Palestinians, at the time and hence became irrelevant. So why did Franks not challenge that claim? The answer to that question is found in a 2013 decision published by the now defunct BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee which shows just how close the BBC’s approach on the topic of Jerusalem is to that of the PLO.

“The [BBC Trust’s Editorial Standards] Committee noted that while there is no expectation that in a two-state solution West Jerusalem would become Palestinian territory, a UN resolution passed in 1947 has not been rescinded. It calls for the whole of Jerusalem to be an international city, a corpus separatum (similar to the Vatican City), and in that context, technically, West Jerusalem is not Israeli sovereign territory. “

Franks’ failure to challenge Zomlot’s claim that “[t]hese are the US long-held position and policies” is – sadly – not surprising either. Ever since the topic of the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem first arose, a recurrent theme in BBC reporting has been promotion of the claim that President Trump “reversed decades of American foreign policy by recognising the ancient city as Israel’s capital”. That inaccurate claim erases from audience view several resolutions on the topic passed by the US Congress and Senate over the last 30 years, including the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act.

Franks: “However far you are keen for there to be movement, I mean the Secretary of State – his nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken – has said that he wants to move forward on the two-state solution, do you accept that the priority inevitably for Joe Biden when it comes to the Middle East won’t be the Palestinians and it will be Iran, for the time being?”

Neither did Franks’ failure to challenge Zomlot’s anachronistic claim concerning the ‘centrality’ of “the Palestinian issue” come as much of a surprise given the approach taken by the BBC in its coverage of the Abraham Accords.


Iranian American Lawyer Calls for Genocide of Jews
Recently, Farhad Khorasani, a Muslim Iranian American-educated lawyer, has made waves promulgating his feelings about the existence of Israel. He said “The Jew anywhere is an existential threat to Aryans, Muslims, and Iranians everywhere. Hitler has proved that he knew these terrorist Semites very well. Hitler was right, we need a new Hitler.”

These chilling and hateful words received instant backlash from Jewish groups everywhere, but this backlash failed to encourage Mr. Khorasani to retract his comments. He, in fact, went one step further to demand “calling out Zionists for their crimes against humanity” and outrage against, “the ongoing holocaust of six million Palestinians at the hands of genocidal Israeli government”.

If something seems a bit off here, it’s because it is. Mr. Khorasani is by no means an Aryan in the traditional blue eyed, blond-hair way.

A quick history lesson might shed some light on this. In 1936, Reza Shah Pahlavi (the father of the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi b1919-d1980, the last monarch of Iran prior to being overthrown by the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini) had a deep bond with Hitler. Reza Shah was determined to make it known to the world that his people were different than the Arabs or Jews in the Middle East. In 1935, he issued a proclamation to the League of Nations stating that the country of Persia would be known as Iran, a throwback to the country’s history and ancient roots, and would now be recognized as “Home of the Aryans”. Immediately, the German chancellor, Hitler, placed his seal of approval on the name, and labeled Persians as Aryans, ”natural born Germans”, exempting the country from restrictions of the Nuremberg Racial Laws on the grounds that they were pure Aryans. These laws set by the Nazi party in 1935 were both antisemitic and racist in nature, and eventually lead to the murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, gays, Polish and disabled people.

Mr. Khorasani is on a similar mission, one that not only includes plans of wiping Israel off the map, but one that is filled with hatred for The United States of America. He is one of many on the mission to separate the state of California from the American map. He and his allies are working hard to create a distinct culture, vastly different than that of the greater American one. Mr. Khorasani’s wish is to solidify the state’s already detached culture by creating what he refers to as The Republic of California. He and his allies have bestowed much praise on Governor Newsom for his policies to create a California that is distinct and oddly different than the greater American culture. The fact that children in many schools no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, is just one example of such tactics to move California further away from the nation. Additionally, universities have accepted donations from hate groups and have professors, responsible for educating our children, who promote this.
Belgian prime minister’s home daubed with swastikas
The home of Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was tagged with several spray-painted swastikas, triggering an investigation on Monday by authorities.

De Croo deplored what he called “an attempt to intimidate his family and children,” according to a statement issued by his office.

His residence is located in the Flanders town of Brakel, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Brussels on the border with the French-speaking Walloon region.

According to media reports, demonstrators had gathered in the town on Saturday at the call of the Flemish far-right movement “Ons Land” (Our Country), but police prevented them from approaching the home.

Investigators on Monday had not established a link between the demonstration and the Nazi symbols left on the house’s white facade late Sunday or early Monday.

“An investigation is under way into the case,” a spokeswoman for the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office told AFP.

A total of seven swastikas were daubed in light green paint on the facade and letterbox of De Croo’s family home, the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper reported, showing images on its website.
Yad Vashem decries Polish libel suit as ‘attack on free research’
Yad Vashem has called the current trial of two Holocaust historians in Poland an attack on free and open research and said such legal pressure was “unacceptable.”

Prof. Barbara Engelking, founder and Director of the Polish Center of Holocaust Research, and Prof. Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian historian of the Holocaust at the University of Ottawa were sued for libel last year in a civil court under a Polish law passed in 1998 and amended in 2018 allowing for civil suits against anyone claiming that the Polish nation or the Republic Poland was responsible for Nazi atrocities committed.

The last court hearing was January 12, and a ruling is expected on February 9.

The suit alleges that Engelking and Grabowski libeled the mayor of a village in eastern Poland when they included in their book testimony of a Jewish woman who accused him of betraying 22 Jews who were hiding in forests near the mayor’s village to the Nazis.

“Any effort to set the bounds of academic and public discourse through political or judicial pressure is unacceptable,” said Yad Vashem in a statement to the press.

“It constitutes a serious attack on free and open research. Legal proceedings against Holocaust scholars because of their research are incompatible with accepted academic research norms and amount to an attack on the effort to achieve a full and balanced picture of the history of the Holocaust and on the veracity and, reliability of its underlying historical sources.”
Daughter of Warsaw Zoo directors who saved 300 Jews in Holocaust dies at 77
The daughter of former Warsaw Zoo directors Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust by hiding them at the zoo and whose story was told in the Hollywood movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” has died.

The zoo said on its Facebook Sunday that Teresa Zabinska-Zawadzki died the previous night, at age 77. It did not give the cause of her death.

“She always talked with pride about her parents and their heroism,” the zoo said.

It said that after having lived in Denmark, she returned to Warsaw some years ago.

Zabinska-Zawadzki was born at the zoo in 1944, under Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II.

For years during the war her parents saved some 300 Jews by hiding them at their villa on the zoo grounds, or in empty animal enclosures.
Jerusalem invests millions in green, efficient city lights
Jerusalem will invest tens of millions of shekels in transforming the city’s public lights into a greener, more efficient form of energy consumption by installing LED bulbs at neighborhoods like Kiryat Hayovel, Rehavia and others. It will also replace the light bulbs currently being used at Chords Bridge, a press release on behalf of the city reported on Sunday.

The press release pointed out the LED bulbs are four times stronger than regular bulbs, consume only 40% of the power non-LED bulbs use and can function for up to two decades. In addition to the bridge and the neighborhoods mentioned, all new repairs done across the city would use LED lights as well.

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion lauded the change, noting that this is "another green project" he is promoting thanks to an eco-friendly urban policy.

Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the Chords Bridge cost NIS 245 million to build and is one of the iconic sites in Jerusalem. The lights covering it offer a visual experience to all those entering and departing the capital.



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