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Monday, June 14, 2021

06/14 Links Pt2: Dore Gold: The Baseless Charge that Israel Is an Apartheid State, Again; Why ‘the Jews’?; Ilhan Omar is a wakeup call for American Jews

From Ian:

Dore Gold: The Baseless Charge that Israel Is an Apartheid State, Again
The baseless accusations that Israel has adopted an apartheid system similar to South Africa's pre-1994 racial doctrine just won't go away.

Former South African Supreme Court Justice Richard J. Goldstone, chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, wrote in the New York Times on October 31, 2011, that descriptions of Israel as an apartheid state are "unfair and inaccurate slander." "In Israel there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute." Goldstone headed a UN fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict in 2008-9, which tried to argue that Israel had deliberately killed civilians in that war. Goldstone eventually retracted the principal conclusions of his own report.

The details here matter. In apartheid South Africa, there were white hospitals and black hospitals. Yet anyone today who wanders into the Emergency Room at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem will find both Jewish and Palestinian Arab patients treated by both Jewish and Palestinian doctors working side-by-side. Charging Israel with apartheid is not only unfair, it is completely inaccurate.

So why do writers persist to argue that Israel is an apartheid state? Because Israel's adversaries are waging an ideological war against the Jewish state. Advocates of the Israel-apartheid libel hope that their campaign will lead to Israel's eventual replacement with a Palestinian Islamic entity.

This campaign against Israel has had vile aftereffects that need to be noted. It is no coincidence that the world is witnessing an upsurge in anti-Semitism. Anti-Israel demonstrations today frequently have signs that refer to apartheid. Those pushing the "Israel is an apartheid state" rhetoric are playing with fire.
MEP's call on UN chief to investigate UNRWA over hate teaching
Letter also sent to EU Commission president demanding probe into antisemitism, incitement to violence

A cross-party group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sent a letter Monday to the UN Secretary-General and EU Commission president demanding an investigation into the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over the revelations of antisemitism and incitement to violence in its educational materials.

The 26 MEPs, who represent all the major parties in the European Parliament, initiated by MEP David Lega (EPP, Sweden) and MEP Miriam Lexmann (EPP, Slovakia), raised significant concerns about the kinds of materials that UNRWA uses.

The letter expressed alarm about "UNRWA’s continued use of hateful school materials that encourage violence, reject peace, and demonizes both Israel and the Jewish people. We deeply deplore the agency’s lack of oversight, transparency and accountability with regard to the repeated revelations of teaching hate and incitement to Palestinian children under UNRWA’s care.”

Crucially, the letter condemns the use of EU taxpayers’ money to fund hate teaching and antisemitic provocation, which the authors maintained was a "grave misuse in violation of our values."

They added that the revelations were particularly "disturbing" given that UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini addressed the European Parliament just last November, he personally guaranteed that in UNRWA schools 'there is absolutely no room for any teaching which would encourage violence, discrimination, racism or antisemitism.'"

“The EU condemned UNRWA in May for teaching hate and these members of the European parliament are absolutely right in turning to Secretary-General Guterres for answers they have not been able to receive from UNRWA itself, including who authored and authorized the hateful UNRWA-produced teaching material," maintained IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.
Scorecard: Half of UN Human Rights Council Members Opposed Action for Victims
Nearly half the countries on the UN’s top human rights body—which the U.S. is now seeking to rejoin, and which opens a 3-week session on Monday, June 21st—are using their membership negatively, opposing instead of supporting action for victims of arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses, according to a new report released today by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization in Geneva that monitors the world body.

UN Watch’s scorecard measured all 47 UN Human Rights Council member states based on their 2020 votes on resolutions concerning victims in such places as Belarus, Burundi, Eritrea, Iran and Yemen, as well on resolutions that define human rights concepts.

Thirteen countries were rated as having “Destructive” voting records, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Libya, Namibia, Nigeria, Qatar, Senegal and Somalia.

Another 10 council members were rated as having “Very Destructive” records, including Eritrea, Mauritania, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sudan and Venezuela.

“When 60 percent of the UN Human Rights Council is composed of tyrannies and other non-democracies—absurdly, China, Cuba and Russia this year joined existing members such as Libya, Pakistan and Venezuela—we should not be surprised that so many use their votes to oppose action against the world’s worst abusers, or to support counterproductive resolutions that legitimize dictatorships and terrorists,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

“Even worse, most of the world’s worst situations of widespread abuse never even come to a vote, with major violators of human rights such as China, Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Zimbabwe enjoying complete impunity at the UNHRC, escaping any censure or scrutiny in the form of council resolutions, inquiries or special sessions,” said Neuer.

Only 24 of the 47 Council members had mixed or positive records. Twelve countries received a “Constructive” score: Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, and Ukraine. These countries contributed constructively to the council’s work between 70% and 89% of the time.


Why ‘the Jews’?
There are “the Jews,” and then there are the Jews, and they are mostly not the same. The Jews live next door or in the next village over. Some are helpful and friendly, others are aloof and greedy. “The Jews,” however, live nowhere in particular. They are a creature of cultural and psychological myth, living in people’s individual and collective minds. “The Jews” of myth also carry a stigma: They excel at communal action, secretive projects, and serve their own interests at the expense of others. At their most dangerous, “the Jews” are a successful conspiracy. When Jews are persecuted, it is usually because the persecutors are aiming at those “Jews” of conspiratorial myth, even as the blows fall on the heads of the local Jews, the ones without quotation marks.

This conspiratorial justification for the persecution of Jews is an important part of the larger, more familiar species of “Jew hatred.” Here is a useful anecdote. Matt Collins, a British neo-Nazi turned informer, described his former buddies in a 2019 New Yorker profile as sitting in a pub in Northern England aiming to “Get pissed, make threats, blame the Jews and go home.” Blame which Jews? It must have been the mythic ones, because in Warrington, England, Jews are thin on the ground; the Collins group might not have even known any real ones. They were ready for action, though.

“The Jews” is also a meme, a bit of information that has the ability to spread like a virus among various populations, to become highly visible, and to serve as a target for a generalized mood of hostility and violence. The meme of “the Jews” is not encumbered by actual Jews, who are impeded by gravity, time, and traditional means of travel. Because it is a cultural phenomenon rather than a local reality, “the Jews” meme can leapfrog freely from one geographically disconnected but culturally networked community to another—from Christianity to Islam to communism—and hibernate for long periods.

It is an unusually adaptable meme, too, and finds a way to wiggle into every social, political, and cultural crevice. Its core message—that Jews have a unique capacity for collective agency—is the part that gives it such resilience across time and place. The varied, seemingly inconsistent charge sheet of offenses—from deicide and plague to racial pollution and financial manipulation—makes it adaptable in every temporal, social, or political context.
Being Catholic Means Standing Up for the Jews
When I came across a video of Jews being assaulted by “pro-Palestine” protestors outside a restaurant in Los Angeles last month, I stopped in my tracks. How could this be happening in the United States? In the days that followed, similar attacks took place in New York and Florida as thugs channeled their anger over clashes between Palestinians and Israelis into random, violent attacks upon any Jew they could find.

The event that triggered these attacks was a 10-day battle between Hamas (an Islamist Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip) and Israel. But while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evokes powerful emotions for ethnic and religious groups around the world, no emotion justifies harming innocent civilians 7,000 miles away from the battlefield simply because they carry Jewish ancestry. Furthermore, calls to dismantle the State of Israel do not help the Palestinian people but rather empower Hamas to continue terrorizing Israelis and the people of Gaza.

Catholics have a unique and urgent responsibility to confront antisemitism wherever they find it. In the words of Nostra Aetate, the first Catholic document to condemn antisemitism in all its forms, Christians are linked to the Jewish people by a “bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock.” On last year’s anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre, I reminded my fellow Catholics of the tumultuous history we share with Jews and called on Catholic educators to take a more active role in the fight against antisemitism. The spike in anti-Jewish violence over the last three weeks compels me to extend that call to all American Catholics.

What exactly is antisemitism? The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defines it as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” and which includes a variety of rhetorical and physical acts “directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” The United States is a member of the IHRA and has adopted its definition. The US also maintains that expressions of antisemitism are not limited to physical or verbal attacks on Jews and Judaism, but also include “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Concerned by Rising Jew-Hatred, Vast Majority of US Jews Regard Demonization of Israel as ‘Antisemitic,’ ADL Survey Shows
Worries about growing levels of antisemitism have surged among American Jews in the wake of last month’s conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, when anti-Zionist demonstrations in the US and around the world frequently descended into violence and abuse targeting Jewish communities.

A nationwide survey published on Monday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that three-quarters of American Jews were more concerned about antisemitism in the US and abroad, and 60 percent had personally witnessed antisemitism because of the conflict in May.

The poll also found that 40 percent of American Jews were more concerned about their personal safety than before. Likewise, 75 percent of those polled indicated they were more worried than before about rising antisemitism in other countries spurred by the conflict.

The survey revealed that over half of American Jews — 53 percent — said they had witnessed more behavior or conduct deemed antisemitic than before the outbreak of violence. Eighteen percent of respondents disclosed that one or more of their personal relationships had suffered because of conversations about the recent violence.

The survey also demonstrated that a clear majority of American Jews view the campaigning themes of anti-Zionist groups, such as labeling Israel an “apartheid state,” or comparing its actions to the Nazis, as antisemitic.


A Reply to “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” by Nathan Thrall
Nathan Thrall’s lengthy essay “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” (The New York Review of Books) has been hailed as an extraordinary piece that breaks new ground, informing readers about the true reality on the ground in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In reality, the 20,000-word document is a virulent anti-Zionist manifesto that relies on numerous errors, omissions, misrepresentation and misquotes to paint a one-sided image of Israel as a uniquely evil entity that seeks nothing more than the removal and domination of another people. While the personal tragedy of Abed Salama is meaningful, Thrall does not deliver anything new about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He has written similar essays in prior years, conducted little primary research, relied heavily on previously published books such as The Bride and Dowry by Avi Raz and One Palestine Complete by Tom Segev, and parroted tired lines from long used anti-Israel propaganda.

Thrall’s core thesis is that Zionism and the Jewish state from its early origins in the nineteenth century is an immoral expression of nationalism whose main goal has been to ethnically cleanse the true indigenous people of the Holy Land, the Palestinians. As discussed in more detail below, we learn (falsely) that Theodor Herzl was not only the founder of modern Zionism, but also the father of Arab ethnic cleansing. Thrall is certain that the only just solution to cure 140 years of the horrors of Zionism is to grant all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Israeli citizenship so that Israel’s “ethno-nationalist domination” ends.

Thrall advocates for Palestinian rights and statehood while denying Jews similar rights. Thrall does not accept that the Jewish state was formed to allow Jews, indigenous to the region but exiled and subjected to conquest, to escape 2,000 years of expulsion, pogroms, discrimination and eventually genocide. Jewish sovereignty must be given up by 6.9 million Jews because the Palestinians do not have a state – and it’s only Israel’s fault and there is no other solution. He completely ignores Israel’s repeated attempts to end the conflict with offers of statehood with barely a sentence about the Clinton-era peace negotiations.

Thrall does not accept Israel’s status as a democracy within the borders of Israel, claiming that “In more the seventy-two years of statehood, there have only been six months when Israel did not place most of the native population under military rule while it confiscated their land and deprived those people of basic civil rights.” In this formulation, Jews are and were never part of the “native population” as only Arabs are granted such status, and Arab Israelis do not have “basic civil rights.” Both are grossly inaccurate.

In Thrall’s one-sided anti-Zionist narrative we never hear anything about Arab and Palestinian actions, who are only portrayed as innocent bystanders abused by the Jews. In this vision, no war was ever started by Arabs; there was no rejection of partition plans and peace proposals; the word terrorism and Hamas only appear once and only in the context of how pro-Israel lobbyists wrongly portray Palestinians. The Palestinians have never made mistakes and there is nothing they must do to gain statehood.
Ilhan Omar is a wakeup call for American Jews
It doesn’t take much. All it takes is one false accusation, or one blood libel to unleash the whirlwind, and I need say no more than Dreyfus in France and Leo Frank in America.

So it can happen here, and it does happen here, and American Jews managed, but this time, can it happen here in the worst possible way?

The generations I grew with and who knew America as Sinatra told it in “The House I Live In,” would not even whisper the possibility. Here? Never.

We can still say that when we consider the Judeo/Christian values that kept us together under the same fellowship and flag.

But a new generation is upon us; people who know nothing or care nothing about our Judeo/Christian values, and they keep coming, and are beginning to get elected.

Some bring with them the prejudices they were raised with in the old country, and when enough of them gain power, this stops being the country we once knew.

What can we do?

Stop voting for them!
Squad member Rep Ilhan Omar retweets video made by anti-Israel organization investigated by the FBI for possible terrorist ties
Ilhan Omar on Tuesday retweeted a Twitter post that contained a video filmed by a pro-Palestinian organization that was once investigated by the FBI for alleged ties to terrorism.

Omar, the progressive lawmaker from Minnesota, retweeted the video just a day after she ignited outrage by mentioning the United States and Israel together with Hamas and the Taliban as those who have committed ‘unthinkable atrocities.’

The comment prompted several members of Congress, includes Jewish lawmakers in Omar’s Democratic caucus, to issue a statement condemning the comparison.

Omar on Tuesday retweeted a post by Marwa Fatafta, who describes herself as a ‘Palestinian feminist.’

Fatafta’s post includes a video filmed by activists with International Solidarity Movement.


800 Harvard Affiliates Sign Letter Rebuking "Anti-Israel Sentiment" on Campus
More than 800 University affiliates signed a Harvard Israel Initiative letter supporting “the right of the Jewish people to self-determination” and Israel’s “right to self-defense” against rocket attacks by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

The letter denounces the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the United States, which followed the conflict between Israel and Palestine escalating in May to its worst violence since 2014. Nearly 250 Palestinians — including 66 children — were killed, and thousands were left injured or homeless in the 11 days of fighting. Twelve Israeli civilians — including two children — and one Israeli soldier were also killed.

In the letter, the Harvard Israel Initiative — a student group affiliated with Harvard Hillel — wrote that it has observed a rise in “anti-Israel sentiment” among Harvard students and faculty, as well as increased support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The controversial BDS movement aims to put economic pressure on Israel to shift its policies toward Palestinians; critics have accused it of anti-Semitism and delegitimizing Israeli statehood.

“We are also disheartened by the rise in anti-Israel sentiment and in activism across the University and the greater Cambridge area that seeks to delegitimize the existence of the State of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, not least through the libelous application of terms such as ‘apartheid,’ ‘white supremacy,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘colonialism,’” the letter reads.

On May 25, the Cambridge City Council passed an amended policy order that would terminate contracts with companies that “perpetuated violations of International Human Rights Laws.” The original version — which sparked more than seven hours of public comment — proposed to terminate the city’s business with Hewlett-Packard, which some councilors charged with “abetting apartheid in the Middle East.”
Hewlett-Packard Says UK Education Union's Boycott Based on a Lie
The tech giant Hewlett-Packard has condemned the "unfortunate and untrue misinformation" being circulated by supporters of the Boycott Israel (BDS) movement over claims they are profiting from "Israel's oppression of Palestinians."

The UK National Education Union (NEU) has reportedly moved to remove Hewitt-Packard products as part of the union's hostile position on Israel. The firm has long been targeted by the BDS campaign.

An NEU staff member said: "Who knows how much this anti-Israel obsession is costing members of the NEU, who have to fund this boycott nonsense.... Biggest joke of all is that some of the equipment bought as replacements still uses Israeli technology."
Miami to Invest $1 Million in Israel Bonds in Gesture of Solidarity
The city of Miami will invest $1 million in Israel government bonds in a move approved unanimously by city commissioners on Thursday.

Commissioner Joe Carollo said the investment will serve as a "small token of our support for Israel and our appreciation for the warm friendship and support that we have had from so many Israelis and their contribution to our community."

Carollo told Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, Israel's new consul general in Miami, "We want you to bring back to Israel a little bit of gratitude from the city of Miami."

Elbaz-Starinsky said, "I really don't have enough words to express my gratitude.... Just three weeks ago I was sitting in a shelter with my five children."

Carollo responded, "We're very privileged and blessed that...we don't have to worry day-to-day that we're going to be attacked with missiles. The State of Israel recently went through something that we in America cannot even begin to imagine."
Citizens Advice’s diversity training links to guide accusing Israel of ‘pinkwashing’ over Gaza conflict
Israel used “pinkwashing” to “legitimise” human rights abuses towards Palestine, an internet web site used to prepare Citizens Advice Bureau employees on diversity says.

“Woke” steerage paperwork urge the charity’s employees to educate themselves concerning the “key concepts” corresponding to alleged pinkwashing of Palestinians, microaggressions, privilege and poisonous masculinity.

Mandatory equality and diversity training, seen by The Telegraph, is being rolled out for employees to display “good allyship” when serving to members of the general public on points corresponding to advantages, debt and employment.

But MPs condemned the guide’s “anti-Israel propaganda”, whereas sources warned the training is making a tradition of concern for these within the charity’s workforce who don’t subscribe to the “woke creed”.

In between diversity periods, that are run by an exterior company, consultants give Citizens Advice employees a self-help library with 26 key phrases they need to familiarise themselves with.

One is “pinkwashing”, which links to an exterior webpage that defines this as “an attempt to mask and legitimise Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians”, including: “They are not exempt from marginalisation under Israeli apartheid”.

The cited webpage provides: “Perhaps the most noted example of pinkwashing is Israel’s public relations campaign to promote itself as the ‘gay mecca’ of the Middle East. This campaign emerged in direct response to ‘bad press’ it received for human rights violations, particularly following global media coverage of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre.”

It says Israel “positing itself as the saviour of Palestinian and Arab queers” is an “inherently orientalist and Islamophobic rhetoric” that ignores the “settler colonialism” they undergo.
Dem Tells High School Grads They’re Entering A World Of “Capitalism” and “White Supremacy,” Encourages Them To Remember “Jihad” And Reject Objectivity
A school board member gave a graduation speech in which she told a mainly-immigrant class of high schoolers that they were entering a world filled with “racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, [and] white supremacy,” and encouraged them to remember their “jihad” and reject the concepts of objectivity and neutrality.

Fairfax County school board member Abrar Omeish gave the keynote address at the commencement for Justice High School in Falls Church, Virginia on June 7.

The ceremony began with a ceremony in which JROTC military cadets were the only people at the graduation who wore masks.

The class president then led what she called “the nation’s anthem,” referring to the pledge of allegiance, in which she said the U.S. was “one nation under Allah.” Omeish was out of view of the camera, but a picture from another recent graduation shows her as the only person without her hand over her heart during the pledge.

The president of the student government then introduced Omeish by noting that she was “Virginia co-chair for the Bernie Sanders campaign” and that her father, Esam Omeish, was a “leader and a board member of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center” who “raised his daughter to be an outspoken woman.”

Dar al-Hijrah is a mosque attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers as well as the shooter in the 2009 attack on Fort Hood. Its imam was Anwar al-Awlaki, who President Barack Obama ordered killed by drone strike for plotting terrorism for Al Queda. Omeish noted that her father was in attendance at the graduation.
Los Angeles Times’ Journalism in ‘Smoking Ruins’
At The Los Angeles Times, journalism is in smoking ruins, to borrow from the language of the June 7 page-one headline: “Gaza’s economy in smoking ruins.” The Times article, with the online headline of “In war-ravaged Gaza, it’s no business, as usual,” is not journalism as usual.

Journalism as usual mandates that reporters provide context. It also calls on journalists to “[d]iligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.” In addition, journalism as usual compels media outlets to “[a]cknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.” (See Code of Ethics of Society for Professional Journalists.)

But the “Gaza’s economy in smoking ruins” article, by Nabih Bulos and Hana Salah, does not abide by any of these criteria.

Featuring specific Gaza businesses harmed by the latest round of fighting between Hamas and Israel, the article fails to provide any information about the Hamas infrastructure that Israel’s military targeted in the Al Shorouq tower, the Karni Industrial Zone, and other locations identified in the story which were hit (or allegedly hit) by Israeli airstrikes. Without any information about the Hamas targets, the article leaves the false impression that the businesses themselves were the target. As one businessman quoted in the story tells it: “The Israelis targeted this place specifically. It makes you wonder why. This must be economic punishment and environmental destruction.”

Even as the article broadly acknowledges “Israel blames Hamas for embedding its bases and infrastructure near civilian areas,” it fails to identify the Hamas targets at the specific sites mentioned in the story. (In addition, contrary to the article’s suggestion, it’s not merely an Israeli charge that Hamas embeds its infrastructure in civilian areas. It’s a fact acknowledged by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.)
LA Times Recasts Hamas’ Struggle For Israel’s Annihilation Into Palestinian Struggle For Equality
The Los Angeles Times must take its readers for total morons. Last week, it depicted consistent, explicit and unequivocal Palestinian calls to massacre Jews and destroy the state of Israel as a struggle “for recognition and equality” (“Palestinians find new unity in struggle against Israel,” June 8. The page-one June 12 print headline was “United in strife, Palestinians hope for a new era; Activists say the Israel-Hamas war energized their quest for equality”).

Hamas’ record in recent weeks has been loud and clear. And there is not a word there about equality or social justice modeled after BLM. Nevertheless, The Times must have assumed that readers missed the following:

On June 5, Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras said on Al-Aqsa TV:
Thus, my dear brother, massacring this enemy is a divine order. (The Quran says:) “So strike them upon the neck and strike them from every fingertip.” Striking the necks of this enemy is a duty according to the shari’a. Anyone who can massacre this enemy should not neglect this duty, because this enemy is the enemy of the Islamic nation (in its entirety). . . . It is our destiny to be on this land and to carry out this duty.

Abu Ras calls for massacre, not recognition.

On May 25, senior Hamas official in the West Bank Sheikh Jamal Al-Tawil stated on Palestinian Authority TV:
Our Palestine is uniting under the banner of the resistance and the Intifada. From Rosh HaNikra to Rafah, and from the water [of the River] to the water [of the Sea], our blood has blended together once again, and we — and you, oh families of the martyrs — have redrawn the map of Palestine, from the water [of the River] to the water [of the Sea], from one end to the other.

The mantra of Palestine from the river to the sea (and all the way north in Rosh HaNikra to Rafah in the south) denotes the elimination of the Jewish state. In other words, annihilation, not equality.

In a May 30 rally broadcast on Al Jazeera, senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad exhorted:
The Jews are a treacherous people. There can be no peace with the Jews. There can be no peace with the Zionists. The only thing we have for the Zionists is the sword. The only thing we have for the Zionists is the Ayyash 250 rocket. The only thing we have for the Zionists is the sword.
Indy op-ed blames Israel for increased deformities in Palestinian kids
The first indication that this allegation is nothing but unhinged propaganda – in addition to the fact that the author doesn’t cite a source – is that even the most stridently anti-Israel NGOs haven’t leveled such an allegation. In fact, B’Tselem, which recently promoted that lie that Israel is an apartheid and “Jewish supremacist” state, doesn’t say a word on their Environmental Damage page about the alleged dumping of nuclear waste in the occupied territories. The same is true of Adalah and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

Not surprisingly, the only sites we found which have advanced some variation of this narrative are propagandistic sites like Electronic Intifada, pro-Hamas sites like Pal-Info and MEMO, some Qatari-based Arabic sites and Saudi-owned Indy Arabia.

This is truly among the most egregious lies we’ve ever come across whilst monitouring the British media over the last 12 years, and we’ve asked editors – under the terms of the accuracy clause of the Editors’ Code – to retract the relevant passages.
BBC News' Yolande Knell on reconstruction ‘dilemma’ in the Gaza Strip
Former PLO legal advisor Diana Buttu is a fairly frequent contributor to BBC content despite her long record of promoting falsehoods in the media. Yolande Knell clearly found it appropriate to amplify her politically motivated talking points which serve only to muddy audience understanding of Palestinian Authority responsibility for the Gaza Strip and why foreign donors insist on working with that body rather than the terrorist organisation that previously hijacked building materials in order to build an underground tunnel network.

Knell’s report includes a video captioned “Two children from Gaza City and Israel describe their experience of the Israel-Gaza conflict” which originally appeared on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page between May 21st and May 30th.

Although the BBC’s video only presents the ten-year-old girl with remarkable English as Nadeen, she has appeared in content produced by other media outlets – including the Independent, NBC and Middle East Eye – under the name Nadeen or Nadine Abdullatif from Shati and she has several videos online.

The BBC does not clarify how it made contact with her but one of the videos in the public domain, dating from two days before the BBC’s filmed report, sports a banner reading “The Press and Information Government Center” which is an official body of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

It would of course be extremely unfortunate for BBC impartiality were it the case that the corporation had been put in touch with “Nadeen in Gaza City” by an official Hamas body.
'Don't ban us for being Jewish': Jewish TikTok creators say they feel silenced by the platform
Since early May, every Friday evening, Julia Massey said, she gets the same notification from TikTok: She's been banned from posting for a week.

Massey, 19, of California, a Jewish creator on the app, said that she could be posting a video of herself baking a loaf of challah or a clip of her cat but tat the outcome is always the same.

"It just repeats and repeats until I'm basically entirely incapable of interacting whatsoever on the app," she said. Massey consistently uploads videos to her account, but she said it's been a fight to get those videos to stay up.

Jewish creators say speaking about their Judaism on TikTok comes with a price. Comment sections on the content of Jewish TikTokers are often filled with antisemitic remarks, stereotypes and slurs. Some Jewish creators say they have to think about whether they want to disclose their Judaism, knowing the harassment they're likely to be subjected to.

But recently, some Jewish creators said, they feel the app is subjecting them to a type of censorship by regularly flagging and removing their content. Nearly a half-dozen Jewish creators said their videos are being banned and removed for allegedly violating TikTok's community guidelines for violations like hateful behavior, hamstringing their ability to use the app. Most of those creators said that when they appeal their bans or video removals, the app says the punishments were in error.

The types of videos that creators said the app flagged for violating its community guidelines include TikToks debunking antisemitic comments, a video discussing a news story about antisemitic violence, a video of a bat mitzvah held for a cat and a repost of a video made by TikTok in honor of the U.K.'s Holocaust Memorial Day.

"More recently, people have been much more outspoken and comfortable expressing their antisemitism and have basically entirely dismantled my ability of reaching anyone on the internet," Massey said.
US-based tech execs join forces to denounce antisemitism
Amid a startling uptick in both online and physical attacks on American Jews, a growing number of tech and business executives signed an open letter denouncing the phenomenon.

"The events of recent weeks cannot hide the truth," the letter read, as cited in The Algemeiner. "A violent mob macing and punching a man in New York wearing a yarmulke. Shattered synagogue windows and attacks on Jewish community centers. A group of people throwing bottles and yelling 'die dirty Jew' at a dinner in LA.

"To be too Jewish in America, or to be a Jew, is still a dangerous mark," the signatories added.

According to the Jewish Insider, the letter has been circulating around Silicon Valley for around a week and has now garnered more than 150 signatures from industry leaders, including Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington, Viacom-CBS chair Shari Redstone, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and LinkedIn CPO Tomer Cohen.

"As business leaders, we have a collective responsibility to stand up for the society we want," the letter reads. "Today, we stand against antisemitism and violence against Jews. This is true regardless of your views on Israel; this is about protecting people from the injustice of antisemitism and hatred."

While the statement thanked US President Joe Biden for his unambiguous condemnation of Jew-hatred in America, it maintained that government action alone was insufficient.
Quebec adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism
The Quebec government announced last week that it is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, joining some 40 sister democracies around the world and hundreds of local governments and institutions, the Jewish Press reported.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The decision followed the May 26 unanimous National Assembly motion condemning the antisemitic incidents that took place in Montreal during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, including violent clashes between protestors.

Federation CJA and CIJA Quebec released statements on the resolution.

“Today, the Minister responsible for the Fight Against Racism, Benoit Charette, and the Government of Quebec have taken a concrete step forward in the fight against antisemitism," said Eta Yudin, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) Vice President, Quebec. "The adoption of the IHRA definition is a clear affirmation of our elected officials’ recognition of the seriousness of the upsurge in hate targeting Jews and of the need for concrete action to counter this rise. We applaud Minister Charette and the government for their leadership in the fight against Jew-hatred, an issue that concerns all Quebecers.”
NYPD Seeking Information on Three Suspects in Antisemitic Hate Crime and Attempted Robbery
The New York Police Department is searching for three suspects in an antisemitic hate crime and attempted robbery that took place on June 2.

The New York Post reported that the incident in question occurred at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Graham Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The men approached the 21-year-old Jewish victim on motorcycles and demanded money while making antisemitic statements.

The victim attempted to call 911, after which the suspects stole his kippah and fled the scene.


Israeli Chip Startup NextSilicon Announces Over $200 Million in Funding and $1.5 Billion Valuation
Against the backdrop of an ongoing chip crisis and what could be a global shortage lasting years, a new Israeli unicorn aiming to increase semiconductor processing power is coming out of the shadows. NextSilicon, which has developed an innovative solution to boost supercomputers, has already raised more than $200 million, but has done so under the radar, despite recently being valued at $1.5 billion.

NextSilicon was founded in 2018 by Elad Raz, a serial entrepreneur who sold his last startup to Mellanox Technologies in 2014. The company has already completed three funding rounds. It recently completed a $120 million round led by Third Point Ventures, which has also invested in the likes of Verbit and SentinelOne, and with the participation of Playground Global, Aleph, Yuval Ariav, the Schusterman Family Investments, Amiti and Liberty venture funds.

NextSilicon collaborates with the largest computing centers in the world using supercomputers to pursue advanced scientific breakthroughs in the fields of molecular dynamics, DNA sequencing, clean energy, and natural disasters to name a few.

2020 was an exciting year for the company in terms of business and technology, as NextSilicon doubled its workforce to 150 employees. It is now actively recruiting hardware and software engineers to join the teams in Tel Aviv, Yokneam, Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva. Raz told Calcalist that with the latest funding round, NextSilicon has sufficient runway for the next five years of growth and the production of three generations of chips and products.
New Israeli ‘artificial cancer’ nano-chip helps test new treatments
A new Israeli nano-chip, acting as an “artificial cancer” for lab tests, allows scientists to judge how well new immunotherapy treatments will work to combat the real disease.

Around the world, the race is on to develop new immunotherapies, but a major challenge is predicting their effectiveness during development. Prof. Mark Schvartzman’s lab at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev decided to deploy nanotechnology and build the world’s first chip that mimics the arrangement of different molecules in a cancer cell.

Scientists can let new immunotherapy treatments loose on the chip, and get a detailed picture of how well they will tackle cancer. The chip is specifically intended for assessing new immunotherapy treatments consisting of lymphocytes — white blood cells that are key to immune responses.

“Our new chip is like an artificial cancer, that can be put in a petri dish with lymphocytes that have been genetically engineered and comprise an immunotherapy treatment,” Schvartzman told The Times of Israel. “We look at it under a microscope, and see whether the treatment works when faced with ‘cancer,’ and if so how well it works.”

He added: “It’s like a test kit which puts specific lymphocytes in a cancer environment and monitors them.”


United Hatzalah Muslim EMT Saves his Neighbor’s Life before Friday’s Prayers
Last Friday, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Muhammad Aliyan was at his home in the Beit Safafa neighborhood of Jerusalem, preparing to go to afternoon prayers, when the emergency application on his phone alerted him to a medical emergency in his vicinity. A 60-year-old man had suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on his living room floor. Worried family members called emergency services for help. Muhammad quickly checked the address and realized it was just a few blocks away in his neighborhood.

Muhammad raced to his car and drove to the address, arriving only two minutes later. Another United Hatzalah volunteer, Yechiel Mayburg, was already at the scene and had attached a defibrillator in preparation for performing CPR. Muhammad joined his colleague and the two of them initiated CPR on the man, whom Muhammad realized was his acquaintance.

After a few minutes of CPR, a mobile intensive care ambulance arrived and joined the effort. As the paramedic from the ambulance prepared medications, the defibrillator advised a shock which was applied. The man’s pulse came back and then quickly faded away again. The team continued their efforts and after a few minutes another shock was delivered with the same results, the man’s pulse came back and disappeared. But then, Muhammad recalled, “after the third shock was administered, the man began to resist compressions, a sign that he was coming back to life.”

Muhammad said that the success of the resuscitation effort was thanks to the combined efforts of all the people involved. “We worked together as a team and that made a huge difference in saving this man’s life. His pulse kept coming back and then fading again. This isn’t all that unusual, but it takes a dedicated team working together to save a life under these circumstances. Everyone has to chip in and help and I am happy that we did because the man is still alive today.”

Muhammad currently works as a physician’s assistant in Shaare Zedek Hospital and as an EMT Coronavirus vaccinator in eastern Jerusalem. For him, the story didn’t end on Friday with the man being transported to the hospital. On Sunday morning, while Muhammad was taking care of some errands nearby, he met the son of the man who collapsed on Friday. “The man’s son came up to me and thanked me profusely for our efforts in saving his father. It is a great feeling to know that I have helped and made a difference in the lives of this man and his family.”







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