Wednesday, February 16, 2022

02/16 Links Pt2: BLM activist charged in murder attempt of Jewish mayoral candidate; Irish Parliament Refusing to Host Israeli-Arab Who Denies Israel is Apartheid State

From Ian:

Anti-Police Activist Charged With Unspeakable Act of Political Violence
A radical anti-police activist was charged Monday with the attempted murder of Louisville, Ky., mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. The activist, Quintez Brown, was apprehended shortly after he allegedly entered Greenberg's campaign headquarters and fired multiple shots with a handgun.

Brown, 21, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. No one was injured during the attack, but a bullet reportedly grazed the back of Greenberg's sweater. The mayoral candidate, a Democrat, said the suspect walked into his office where he and four other staffers were meeting Monday morning. "When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me, and began shooting," Greenberg told reporters. "The individual closest to the door managed to bravely get the door closed, which we barricaded and the shooter fled the scene."

Police said Greenberg, who is Jewish, appeared to have been targeted in the shooting. Authorities did not identify a motive for the crime and said they believe Brown acted alone. The alleged attack occurred two months after Brown announced his candidacy for Louisville Metro Council. Among his stated policy goals were "freedom, reparations," and "full employment."

Brown had been a student at the University of Louisville, where he was an MLK scholar studying philosophy and Pan-Africanism, a controversial ideological movement whose advocates include Malcolm X, Robert Mugabe, and Muammar Gaddafi. His social media bios called for "the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism."

Brown also served as opinion editor for the student newspaper, the Cardinal, and was a former intern and biweekly columnist for the Louisville Courier Journal, where he wrote extensively about how law enforcement and other "institutions in society work together to maintain the status quo of the spectacular Black death."

An active participant in the so-called racial justice protests of 2020, Brown's journalistic output and social media posts reflect a radicalized individual who was skeptical of representative democracy and believed Marxist revolution was the most viable path to achieving racial justice.

Days before the alleged attack, Brown urged his followers to join the Lion of Judah Armed Forces, a black supremacist militia whose ideas are aligned with those of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. Adherents of the latter group were charged in the 2019 murders of four Jewish people at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., which authorities described as a "targeted attack."


Louisiana Dem Senate candidate admitted supporting anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan 'forever'
A leading Democratic Senate candidate running to challenge Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., appeared on the podcast of antisemite Louis Farrakhan’s spokesperson in 2020, where he lavished praise on Farrakhan and admitted to being a longtime "supporter."

Gary Chambers Jr., an East Baton Rouge activist running for the Senate, appeared on the Elevated Places - "Ask Dr. Ava" podcast of Dr. Ava Muhammad, who is listed as the national spokesperson for Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has a long history of antisemitic comments, including calling Jews "wicked" and comparing them to "termites."

The podcast’s co-host Terence Muhammad, who has tweeted several times about his support for Farrakhan and has a profile picture with Farrakhan on his Twitter and Instagram, introduced Chambers by saying Chambers "loves the honorable Louis Farrakhan" and "loves his work."

"So first of all let me say to the Honorable Louis Farrakhan that I have been listening to him since I was a young man with my father," Chambers said. "He used to come on TV here in Baton Rouge and my dad kicked me to the game at about 13 or 14 and I’ve been listening ever since because when a Black man stands up for Black folks it makes a Black man want to stand up."

"I have been a supporter [of Farrakhan] from the distance forever, so let me say that first," Chambers continued.

Last week, Chambers attended a New York City fundraiser for his campaign, which was hosted by disgraced former Women's March leader Tamika Mallory, who also has ties to Farrakhan, and Stephen Green, an activist who supports abolishing the Senate and abolishing police.

Mallory has received backlash in recent years for her ties to Farrakhan, which includes her attendance at several of his speeches over the years and calling him "the GOAT" or "Greatest of All Time" in a caption for an Instagram photo of her and Farrakhan. (h/t jzaik)


Irish Parliament Refusing to Host Israeli-Arab Who Denies Israel is Apartheid State
Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli social activist, was invited to speak next week at the Parliament of Ireland, where he planned to refute allegations that present Israel as an apartheid state. However, his arrival has provoked opposition from the Sinn Féin party.

Haddad, an Arab Israeli who served in the IDF and was wounded in combat and the director of the “Together Vouch for Each Other” organization, will go on a tour in Britain and Ireland following the publication of an Amnesty International report claiming that Israel pursues discriminatory policies against the Arabs in Israel.

Among the events during his visit to Ireland, Haddad was also invited to speak in the Irish Parliament in Dublin to MPs. According to the Sunday Times report on Wednesday, his visit has provoked internal opposition among the left-wing Sinn Féin party, which represents 37 seats in the 160 member parliament and is known as pro-Palestinian.

Chris Andrews, a Member of Parliament from the Sinn Féin party known for his hostile positions on Israel, issued a letter objecting to Haddad’s arrival in which he claimed that he was shocked that the Irish parliament would give Haddad a platform to attack the Amnesty report.

“For years, Palestinian and anti-Israel speakers have been hosted in the Irish Parliament,” said Haddad, “and I expect to come and speak to the Irish people and MPs to hear a different point of view. It is important that they now hear an authentic voice from the Israeli-Israeli society that will present the truth,” he stated.

“I am not moved by the opponents, and they will not be able to stop me or silence me on the way to representing the Israeli truth in Ireland as well,” he added.
Headlines with the Haddads - Abraham Accords, Black History Month, and the IOC
This week on Headlines with the Haddads, Emily and Yoseph talk about the significance of the Abraham Accords and interview former White House envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt. They also cover black history month and the hijacking of the cause, UN cover-ups, and Olympic Games corruption.




Whoopi Goldberg Said What Progressives – Including ADL – Are Thinking About Racism
When Whoopi Goldberg said the Holocaust wasn’t about race, because Nazis and Jews were both white, she voiced what has become unquestioned truth in today’s progressive circles. By redefining racism to exclude Jewish victims, the political left succeeded in belittling Jew-hatred into something that is not serious.

This intellectual fraud has been so successful that many non-Jews who are not anti-Semitic, and even many Jews, have come to accept its premise. Goldberg is generally considered a voice of reason on her show, and the fact that she would believe or express such views shows how pervasive this alternate reality has become. The lie has helped anti-Semitism flourish while people who should know better ignored it, or even helped it along.

Under this rationale, attacks against Jews are only taken seriously if the Jewish victims happen also to be “people of color.” Otherwise, not. After Women’s March leaders’ blatant anti-Semitism became big news, Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory made sure to get photographed marching next to Jewish Women of Color. They evidently hoped to conceal their Jew-hatred and general presumption that Jews could not be victims by this show of tolerating colored Jews among the oppressed.

When ethnic studies activist Artnelson Concordia spoke at an outreach event last fall arranged to reassure Jews worried about California’s ethnic studies requirement, Concordia conceded only that “Jews of color” could be considered marginalized populations who might qualify for inclusion in ethnic studies.

California’s first attempt to impose an ethnic studies curriculum (a variation of Critical Race Theory) was rejected after Jews and others objected to its obvious anti-Semitism. A revised bill was enacted last October. The new law tones down the original bill’s anti-Semitism, but lets California school districts use private curricula instead of the state’s.

Castro Valley school district promptly hired Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute (LESMCI), the people behind the failed initial bill’s anti-Semitic curriculum, to provide their version of ethnic studies. LESMCI’s curriculum features a focus on “Palestine” that paints Israel as a horrid human-rights violator abusing Palestinian Arabs out of racism.

LESMCI tries to counter charges of anti-Semitism proactively by redefining it. “Antisemitism is discrimination against, violence towards, or stereotypes of Jews for being Jewish,” LESMCI asserts. In other words, LESMCI claims, anti-Semitism is strictly a religious hatred. It has nothing to do with racism or any hatred against Jews based on race, ethnicity, or nationality.
AOC Calls Marc Lamont Hill’s CNN Firing Over “From the River to the Sea” Comment an Example of “Cancel Culture”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) described Marc Lamont Hill’s firing from CNN in 2018 after he made “from the river to the sea” remarks in front of the United Nations as an example of “cancel culture.”

Jewish Insider reported that in an interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick published on February 14, Ocasio-Cortez called cancel culture an example of the right-wing creating “a sense of persecution or victimhood” concocted “to justify, animate, and pursue a political program of takeover, or at least a constant further concentration of their own power.” “Notice that those discussions only go one way,” she said. “We don’t talk about all the people who were fired. You just kind of talk about, like, right-leaning podcast bros and more conservative figures. But, for example, Marc Lamont Hill was fired [from CNN] for discussing an issue with respect to Palestinians, pretty summarily. There was no discussion about it, no engagement, no thoughtful discourse over it, just pure accusation.”

Hill said to the UN at the time, “We must promote non-violence at every opportunity, but cannot endorse narrow politics that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in ethnic cleansing” before then calling for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Shortly thereafter, Hill was no longer under contract with CNN. Hill later wrote in an op-ed with the Philadelphia Inquirer that his comments were meant to “endorse radical change within Israel, not a desire for its destruction.” “Rather than hearing a political solution, many heard a dog-whistle that conjured a long and deep history of violence against Jewish people,” Hill added. “Although this was the furthest thing from my intent, those particular words clearly caused confusion, anger, fear, and other forms of harm. For that, I am deeply sorry.”

The progressive Zionist group Zioness criticized Ocasio-Cortez in a tweet. “2 weeks ago @AOC said, rightly, that people should take the lead from Jews when considering forgiving people for antisemitic comments,” they wrote. “Jews largely agree that Hill’s repeated genocidal comments about Jews are unforgivable. Why doesn’t AOC take our lead?”

Others weighed in.

“@AOC thinks Jew hatred and calling for #Israel’s destruction, is an acceptable form of speech,” human rights lawyer and International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovksy tweeted. “With #antisemitism surging in U.S., elected officials like AOC are only pouring more fuel on the fire and enabling such hatred and violence.”

Israeli activist Hen Mazzig tweeted, “Dear AOC, Please stop talking about Jews, hatred against us, and who you think should not be punished for their harm to our community. You’ve made it clear you aren’t on the side of justice. Signed, A Jew.”
‘Witch Hunt’: European Jewish Students Outraged After Dutch University Staff Asked to Disclose Jewish, Israel Ties
European Jewish student leaders have denounced a demand by an anti-Zionist group for Dutch universities to collect and submit information about staff relationships with Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist organizations, calling it an “antisemitic witch hunt.”

The Rights Forum (TRF) sent a freedom of information request to universities in the Netherlands last month, New Israelite Weekly reported, requesting that staff disclose any relevant interaction they had over the last ten years in order to ferret out “institutional ties with Israel universities, institutions and businesses and with organizations that propagate support for the State of Israel.”

This included information about student exchange programs with Israeli universities and any contacts with the Dutch government’s National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism, as well as with the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands (CJO), Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith, Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, among others.

Dutch universities subsequently forwarded TRF’s letter to their employees, Jewish and non-Jewish, with instructions to supply the requested information, NIW reported.

The European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), an umbrella group representing 34 Jewish student unions and more than 200,000 Jewish students, slammed TRF’s letter as “completely irrational, conspiratorial and antisemitic” in nature on Monday, and said more than a dozen Dutch universities were participating in the “witch hunt.”

“Using antisemitic and conspiracy rhetoric to harm Jewish organizations is not new,” EUJS President Elias Dray said in a statement. “Such habits are supported by years of antisemitic and anti-Israel hatred, notably instigated by the Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which conceals its antisemitism behind so-called anti-Zionism.” The willingness of Dutch universities to comply with TRF’s request “is the most alarming fact,” he said.
Dutch universities halt compliance with request for info on Jewish, Israel ties
Fourteen Dutch universities said they are suspending their compliance with a freedom of information query from a pro-Palestinian organization regarding their ties with Israeli and Jewish entities.

The 14 publicly funded institutions, including the University of Amsterdam, the University of Utrecht and the Delft University of Technology, made the announcement Tuesday in a joint statement following an outcry last week over the query by The Rights Forum, which critics say was founded by an antisemite.

The query has led to “distress and a feeling of insecurity. We regret this,” read the statement by the Universities of the Netherlands, an umbrella group representing the country’s public universities.

Those institutions have asked for an undisclosed “time extension” in complying with the query, meaning that “currently no further steps are taken to retrieve, collect and/or transmit the information” sought in the query, the statement read.

The universities will “balance” the legal requirements of the freedom of information law that gave the query its legal standing with “other legal frameworks, including those guaranteeing the safety” of university staff, the statement also read.

The universities began gathering the information because the query was certified as what is known in the Netherlands as a WOB request, compliance to which is legally required for public or state-funded organization.
Sundance Film Festival Under Fire For ‘Islamophobia’
Ilhan Omar’s notorious “Islamophobia” bill doesn’t ever get around to defining what “Islamophobia” actually is, and there is a reason for that: the word is used not just to refer to vigilante attacks against innocent Muslims, which are never justified, but to any and all criticism of Islam, including honest discussion of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. The insidious aspect of her bill is that it could be used to shut down such discussion and leave us unable to speak publicly about a real threat. An indication of how this can happen has just come from last month’s Sundance Film Festival, which featured a documentary about jihadis getting rehabilitated and has had two staffers resign so far over its unpardonable “Islamophobia.”

The film, which The Wrap called a “hot-button documentary,” is called Jihad Rehab. The 2022 Sundance program says that it “film focuses on several men — detained in Guantanamo for years without charge by the United States — after they are placed in what’s billed as the world’s first rehabilitation center for extremists.” The reminder that they were “detained without charge,” with no mention of 9/11 or the global jihad, is the first tipoff that this is not exactly a “right-wing” presentation, which is how it got to Sundance in the first place. But that didn’t stop it from running afoul of the Thought Police.

The film description continues: “There, they undergo the center’s ‘deradicalization’ program, which includes therapy sessions and life skills classes, before they are permitted to be released into an unfamiliar society where they will face new challenges.” Director Meg Smaker explained that the whole idea was to make the audience sympathetic to these Guantanamo terrorists: “What we intended in the film was that these three guys’ personal journeys are going to challenge audiences’ stereotypes about who these men actually are. Hopefully it takes away the simplistic stereotyping and gives their lives value that they haven’t seemed to have before in our national narrative.”

Smaker added: “The film was crafted so that it’s not just a journey for these men. It was intended as a journey for the audiences who see it.” A journey to Leftism and anti-Americanism: “I knew that the alt-right in the U.S. were probably going to come after us, and I’m sure they still will.” She explained that the “horror” of Guantanamo was “essentially what the film is about.” The film uses the word “terrorist” of its subjects, but only in order to “invert its meaning.”


Greek Activists Sentenced for Saying Orthodox Bishop Who Railed Against ‘International Zionist Monster’ Is ‘Antisemitic’
A Greek court has sentenced two human rights activists to 12-month jail terms, suspended for three years, after it deemed that they had falsely accused a Greek Orthodox bishop of antisemitic hate speech.

In a verdict denounced by one human rights group, Greek Helsinki Monitor, as “representative of the institutionalized antisemitism that exists in Greece,” the court acquitted Bishop Seraphim, the Metropolitan of Piraeus, of incitement, The Guardian reported.

An obsessive homophobe and enthusiastic conspiracy theorist, Seraphim has a long record of bigoted statements. Commenting on a Greek law permitting same sex marriages in 2015, the bishop claimed that the “international Zionist monster” was behind the legislation.

During a 2010 television interview, Seraphim claimed that “Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire.”

He has also accused “international Zionism” of transforming the Jewish religion into “Satanism,” with the purpose of “striving vigorously towards an economic empire set up throughout the world with headquarters in the great land beyond the Atlantic for the prevalence of world government and pan-religion.”

More recently, the bishop has established himself as a prominent supporter of vaccine refusal. In Dec. 2020, he was investigated by the Piraeus prosecutor for declaring in a sermon that the vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic “are made and prepared with the product of abortions.”
University Lecture by Israeli Chemist Latest Target of Antisemitic ‘Zoombombing’ at Campus Events
A virtual university talk by an Israeli chemist was interrupted last week with antisemitic messages, in the latest example of the so-called “Zoombombing” phenomenon that has targeted Israel- and Jewish-related campus events throughout the pandemic.

The Feb. 10 lecture by Professor Sason Shaik of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was part of a virtual “Theoretical Physical Organic Chemistry” (TPOC) symposium, organized by faculty from the University of Houston and University of California, Davis.

Shaik’s talk on his career as a chemist was subjected to an antisemitic “Zoom attack,” organizer Judy Wu of the University of Houston explained.

“Suddenly, lots of people jumped into the Zoom, playing background sounds of fighting and very offensive language,” Wu told The Algemeiner. “There were robotic sounds saying ‘Heil Hitler,’ which was very unpleasant.”

Shaik said he learned of the disturbance only after the event, as his meeting settings had muted the audience, but denounced the hateful interruption of an intellectual exchange.

“Scientific talks are highly cherished by scientists, and are held with esteem as a major intellectual medium of exchanging knowledge and insight,” he told The Algemeiner on Monday. “Any hacking of any scientific talk is deplorable.


Is Anti-Israel Church Leader Trying to Get Fired?
Does Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), want to keep his job? Or is he looking to go out in a blaze of glory from a job that he doesn’t like very much?

From the looks of it, a good case can be made that Nelson is trying to get fired, and then blame the American Jewish community for his ouster.

Nelson got himself into trouble on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, when he accused Israel of “slavery,” and then called on American Jews to join efforts to bring the “enslavement” of the Palestinians to an end.

“The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st century slavery, and should be abolished immediately,” he said, adding, “I would also hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the US government in ending the immoral enslavement.”

A few days later, Nelson made it clear that he wasn’t backing down despite the withering criticism that came his way, declaring, “While my reference to these injustices as ‘slavery’ may seem extreme to many and, of course, offensive to most Israelis, no one who is informed regarding the use of military power and racial bias to control the lives of Palestinian citizens can honestly avoid the truth of this situation.”

The truth of the situation includes a reality that Nelson didn’t address: jihadist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been attacking Israeli civilians for decades, both on their own, and with support from Iran. He also made no mention that almost all of the Palestinian people are governed by autonomous Palestinian rulers, and that polls show that Arab citizens of Israel would rather live in the Jewish state than under Palestinian rule.
AP’s Faux Rebellious Palestinian One-Staters
“[The French initiative] reshaped the issue of the ‘Jewish state’ into a formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples. They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people. The story of ‘two states for two peoples’ means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this – not as part of the French initiative and not as part of the American initiative.”

A decade ago, veteran Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath candidly expressed his government’s stark opposition to the envisioned two-state solution in which Israel would remain the nation state of the Jewish people with an Arab minority, and the future Palestine would be the national home of the Palestinian people, absorbing Palestinian refugees and their descendants from around the world (Arabic News Broadcast TV, July 13, 2011, translated by MEMRI).

Shaath’s statement was not a slip-up in which he inadvertently revealed his own personal views. It faithfully reflected both the zeitgeist and behavior of his government. As CAMERA’s Ricki Hollander previously wrote:
In his 2004 book The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace, former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross provided a post-mortem of the failed peace negotiations he mediated in 2000 during President Bill Clinton’s administration. He lamented that then-Palestinian leader and PLO chief Yasir Arafat was unwilling to “give up Palestinian myths,” “compromise or concede” or “generate a fundamental transformation” among his people to prepare them for peace with the Jewish state.

Instead, the Palestinian leader continued to assure his people that accords with Israel were just a first step in a “phased strategy” to replace the Jewish state with a Palestinian one, while presenting a peaceful face to a Western audience. This “phased” strategy is spelled out in the Palestine National Council’s 1974 ten point program, known as the “Phased Plan” for Israel’s destruction, which would first create a Palestinian state on any territory handed over by Israel (Article 2) and then use that state to “complete the liberation of all Palestinian territory.” (Article 8).

This long history of Palestinian opposition of the two-state solution, the driving force behind the leadership’s repeated rejection of deals enabling Palestinian statehood, completely belies the premise of the Associated Press article yesterday featuring Nabil Shaath’s son, Ramy (“Activist jailed by Egypt sees wider struggle for rights“).


Jake Wallis Simons: The Met is failing London’s ultra-orthodox Jews
For years, ultra-orthodox Jews have been living with this sort of abuse, under the noses of the Metropolitan police. The community has taken the step of setting up its own neighbourhood watch group, Shomrim, which regularly posts CCTV of attacks on Twitter.

In one incident last week, captured by Shomrim cameras, a woman shouted ‘you Jews are so bad’ and ‘I wish I had a gun to shoot you’ at young children as they left school. An orthodox man can be seen trying to shield the youngsters from the stranger, who was gesticulating wildly. The children – some as young as six – have been left scared to go to school. As a result, 19 Jewish schoolgirls wrote to the Met to beg for action. To date, there has been no adequate response.

Rabbi Hersh Gluck, president of Shomrim, told our reporter: ‘The police don’t feel motivated to take these cases seriously.’ And Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, wrote in a column last week: ‘It is deeply troubling to me that the very real concerns of a minority community who have been subjected to repeated physical and verbal assaults their streets and in there schools, their places of work and worship have been ignored.’

A report last week by the Community Security Trust, Britain’s main Jewish security organisation, made for sober reading. It showed that anti-Semitic hate incidents reached record highs in Britain this year, rising by 34 per cent. There were 2,255 reported incidents in total, including a surge in people shouting abuse from cars and 173 violent assaults.

It would be a mistake to be hyperbolic, but it is hard not to compare all this with old memories of Germany of the 1930s, or Tsarist Russia, or the Polish pogroms, or even 13th Century York or Winchester. Helpless Jews in traditional garb, set upon in the street by grinning thugs who appear to act with impunity.

We’ve seen it all before. But this is 2022, and it’s not good enough.
Kosovo Halts Renovation of House With Ties to Nazi Collaborator During World War II
A project to restore an old house in Kosovo once owned by the family of a Nazi collaborator was suspended on Wednesday following criticism and accusations of “whitewashing” Holocaust history, The Associated Press reported.

The restored property was set to become an event space and center to promote inter-cultural dialogue, but German Ambassador to Kosovo Joern Rohde slammed restoration efforts on Twitter last week, saying, “No history whitewashing! Don’t distort the truth about the Holocaust or war crimes committed by the Nazis and local collaborators.”

Culture Minister Hajrulla Ceku defended the project, saying, “The sole purpose of restoration of this building is to serve the community and not whitewash the history or rehabilitate any historical personality or historical event.” He also rejected the notion that Kosovo was “a denier of (the) Holocaust,” and told the AP, “We as a nation have given numerous historical evidences for sheltering and rescuing Jewish people.”

The three-floor house — located in the city of Mitrovica, 25 miles north of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital — was owned by the family of Xhafer Deva, who served as interior minister in the pro-German Albanian government in 1943 and 1944, according to NBC News. Deva allegedly collaborated with Nazi Germany when it invaded Kosovo and Albania, and was accused of organizing an anti-communist massacre in February 1944 that killed 86 people in Albania, the AP noted.


Replica of Holocaust Cattle Car Used to Transport Jews on Display in Tallahassee
A remake of a railroad cattle car used by the Nazis to transport Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust was on display outside Florida’s State Capitol building in Tallahassee on Monday, according to local news reports.

Inside the boxcar, visitors were given a 21-minute virtual experience that described the journey Jews made to Nazi concentration camps—for example, how 100 or more people were forcibly packed into the cars with no food or water, with slatted sides, a small window and very little air.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went inside the boxcar with about 40 people.

“You can talk about the 6 million people that were killed. We all know that’s terrible. You can read it on a sheet of paper, but what does that actually mean when you see the tragedy? When you can see videos, when you can see some of the artifacts?,” DeSantis said standing outside the Capitol building in downtown Tallahassee.

The governor further posted on Twitter: “Florida will continue to be a leader in Holocaust education and in fighting antisemitism. We will never forget.”

In May 2019, DeSantis signed into law the country’s toughest legislation on antisemitism. The ceremonial bill signing took place in Jerusalem while the governor was visiting Israel.
US Holocaust Museum Gives Highest Honor to WWII Intel Unit That Included Jewish Refugees
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum announced on Tuesday that it will honor a World War II military intelligence unit that included many Jewish refugees who fled to America and were instrumental in defeating Nazi Germany.

The Elie Wiesel Award, named after its first recipient and the museum’s founding chairman, “recognizes individuals whose actions embody the museum’s vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.” Engraved on the award — the highest honor bestowed by the museum — is a quote from Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech: “One person of integrity can make a difference.”

In April 1942, in the midst of World War II, the US Army converted Fort Ritchie, a Maryland National Guard camp, into an intelligence training center. Approximately 20,000 men trained there, earning the nickname of the Ritchie Boys. Many were immigrants and refugees from more than 70 countries, including 2,800 German and Austrian refugees who fled Nazi persecution.

After their training, the Ritchie Boys were assigned to different Army units and “were involved in every major battle in Europe, using their language skills to gather intelligence, interpret enemy documents, and engage in psychological warfare encouraging German soldiers to surrender by dropping leaflets, through radio broadcasts, and in trucks equipped with loudspeakers,” the museum said. Many Ritchie Boys arrived in Normandy soon after D-Day, and hundreds of them helped liberate Nazi concentration camps and interviewed prisoners to document the horrors they endured.

In the course of their duties, two of these soldiers were captured and killed after being identified as German-born Jews.
Israel Grows 8.1% in 2021, Fastest in 21 years; Rate Hike Possible Soon
Israel’s economy grew at its fastest pace in 21 years in 2021 as consumer spending, exports and investment rebounded with double-digit gains following a pandemic-stifled 2020, raising the specter of the central bank raising interest rates soon.

The economy grew 8.1% last year, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, well above the Bank of Israel’s forecast of 6.5% and a sharp rebound from a 2.2% contraction in 2020.

The bureau noted growth in Israel last year was one of the strongest globally and compared with an OECD average of 5.3%.

The central bank projects growth of 5.5% in 2022. It has said it is in no rush to start raising short-term interest rates but that faster-than-expected growth and rising inflation could prod policymakers to join peers in the United States and Europe in hiking rates.

Israel’s benchmark rate stands at 0.1%.

“These are very robust (GDP) numbers reflecting strong economic activity towards the end of 2021, which is supportive for a rate hike, most likely on April 11th,” said Leader Capital Markets chief economist Jonathan Katz.

The next rate decision is due on Monday.

On Tuesday, the bureau said the annual inflation rate rose to 3.1% in January — breaking above the government’s 1-3% target range for the first time in more than a decade.
PepsiCo to use Israeli-made plastic alternative as part of green strategy
International food and beverage conglomerate PepsiCo will begin using Israeli-made sustainable materials as part of its goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

UBQ materials, the titular product developed by Israeli startup UBQ Materials, is a bio-based thermoplastic converted from unsorted waste such as mixed plastics, paper, cardboard and organics. During the manufacturing process of UBQ Materials' product, waste is diverted and greenhouse gas emissions are prevented.

More than 739 kgs. of mixed waste will be redirected from landfills and looped back into the material, as the implementation of UBQ's material is set to save the equivalent of more than 6,500 kgs. of greenhouse gas emissions.

PepsiCo's move is part of the brand's new strategy to put sustainability at the heart of its business, a project branded PepsiCo Positive.

The first phase of PepsiCo's project includes the manufacturing of 830 ecological pallets for use in two of the company's logistics centers.
Ivan Reitman, ‘Ghostbusters’ Director and Son of Holocaust Survivors, Dies at Age 75
Jewish producer and director Ivan Reitman died in his sleep on Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., at the age of 75, his family told The Associated Press.

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” his three children said in a joint statement. “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

Reitman was born in 1946 in Komarno, Czechoslovakia. His mother survived Auschwitz, while his father escaped a Nazi concentration camp and was later a member of the Slovakian resistance, according to JTA.

He was 4 years old when his family fled Czechoslovakia after the Communist regime began threatening his father, then a factory owner.

Reitman produced and directed the blockbuster hit “Ghostbusters” in 1984, along with a number of other comedic films during the 1980s and ’90s, including “National Lampoon’s Animal House” starring John Belushi; and “Meatballs” and “Stripes,” both starring Bill Murray.






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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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