Monday, April 11, 2022
‘Palestinian Apartheid Week’ as New Approach to Facing Anti-Israel Activity on Campus
Throughout the approximately five hours a day the tables are set up on campus, except for at the University of Minnesota, where the cold only allowed them to stay for a couple hours a day, Sinelnikov said that he could see the effect the campaign is making.Antisemitic Speaker at Duke University Mocks Jewish Students
The people who he could tell were really anti-Israel didn’t know how to react. Some said it wasn’t true; a few yelled obscenities or flipped them off. At every university, members of the school’s SJP would stand across from them and take photos, but rarely say anything because they didn’t know what to do.
“Most people think it’s going to burn the campus down — this campaign — but the fact of the matter is, I think we’re educating people really nicely in a really good way, and we’re controlling the narrative in the conversation,” he said after the group’s first day at UC Berkeley, one of the country’s most activist left-wing universities.
Meanwhile, he could also see a change in Jewish and pro-Israel students who were coming up to them the whole day, happy and proud to see that for the first time there was a group that was proactive against Palestinian disinformation on campus.
“Their feeling has changed, and now the Jewish students and the Zionist students in Berkeley and Urbana-Champaign feel empowered and like we’re controlling the narrative and the students that are strongly anti-Israel, they’re the ones that need to respond to us,” said Sinelnikov.
The only thing that happened during the trip so far that shocked Sinelnikov took place at Urbana-Champaign. A young Palestinian student came up to them and argued for a while. At first, he said, it appeared that they had even found common ground. Then, her friends from SJP who were watching the event the entire day and taking pictures came up to her and said something in Arabic. The student then broke down, and started crying and screaming at SSI and the Jewish students at the tables, saying, “You stole our lands, we have nothing to lose, and we will fight you until the day we can’t.”
According to Sinelnikov, the group plans to appear at other universities every semester, though they have not yet decided which ones they will visit in the fall. The goal is to build Palestinian Apartheid Week to the point where individual campus SSI or similar pro-Israel groups can host their own Palestinian Apartheid Weeks in the future without the help of the national team.
“Quite literally erasing the Jewish existence, lives, community and history from the map of the Middle East is what apartheid looks like,” SSI stated in a news release. “If any college student can justify the Palestinian apartheid policies above, the problem was never Israel, the problem is those who cannot come to terms with the fact that the Jewish people rebuilt their home and have their own independent state. Now is the time to discuss Palestinian apartheid. For too long, the despicable practices of the Palestinian government against Jews have gone unnoticed by the international community. For the first time ever, activists at SSI will be exposing these shameful practices.”
When asked what would happen to Israelis if Palestinians took all the land “from the river to the sea” during Duke’s anti-Israel week, keynote speaker Mohammed El-Kurd replied “I don’t care. I truly, sincerely, don’t give a f…” The audience roared its approval. Clearly Duke University’s antisemitism problem is going from bad to worse.
Who is Mohammed El-Kurd? Despite his name he claims to be Palestinian. He has an extensive Canary Mission rap sheet detailing his hatred of Israel, Jews, America, the police, his adoration for terrorism, spreading misinformation, denial of Jewish history, and more. He is notorious for quotes such as “Zionists have an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood”. In his book Rifqa he claims that Israelis “harvest organs of the martyred, feed their warriors our own.”
Who decided to pay El-Kurd and put him on the university’s stage, to speak before Duke students and faculty? Duke has a history of hosting “Israel Apartheid Week” (IAW) in which lies about Israel and Jews are promulgated in order to destroy the world’s only Jewish state. In February, despite student concerns about inviting such an antisemitic speaker, the Duke Student Government voted—without a quorum— to spend $16,000 on IAW, which included $5,000 designated for El-Kurd. Ironically the vote also came soon after the DSG voted for the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Association) definition of antisemitism. Apparently the DSG doesn’t understand IHRA since they violated it so readily.
When the North Carolina Coalition (NCCI) learned about the plans for El-Kurd, we immediately became concerned for Jewish and Zionist students on campus. We warned Duke University that hosting Mohammed El-Kurd would create a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students on campus. NCCI and others sent letters and made phone calls to Duke president Vincent Price, Provost Sally Kornbluth, and the Office of Institutional Equity expressing our concern. CAMERA on Campus wrote a petition which garnered more than 2000 signatures on short notice, asking Duke to halt his funding. The response from the administration was a determined, deliberate silence that speaks volumes.
Just before the El Kurd talk, about 10 brave Duke students stood outside the auditorium, handing out fliers. These included quotes from El Kurd’s blood libel against Jews and explained that his hateful rhetoric incites violence and threatens Jewish students.
Once the program started, and El-Kurd went up to talk, he was met with thundering applause from most of the audience. He started by mocking the fliers due to content but also “terrible graphic design.” He crumbled up the paper in front of the audience which howled approval. He mentioned the student who had written in the Duke Chronicle expressing her concern for student safety in light of his antisemitic speech. He pretended to get out a miniature violin to ridicule her feelings. The audience roared with laughter. He was asked what does “Palestinian liberation” look like? “We want our land back from the river to the sea” (wild applause), he wants refugees in camps to return (wild applause), he wants (terrorist) prisoners to be released—again enthusiastic applause.
False Equivalence: MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Compares Israel to China, Assad’s Syria & the Taliban’s Afghanistan
In his final piece to camera after spending five weeks in Ukraine covering the military invasion by Russia, MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi offered his analysis on the wider implications of the ongoing conflict in an appearance on the primetime “Rachel Maddow Show.”
Describing the “lesson” that he learned reporting from the besieged country, Velshi opined that the “growing atrocities against innocent civilians” were a sign that “the world needs to do better,” particularly because, in his view, “democracy and freedom are in peril.”
He further explained:
If it’s tough for NATO and the UN to prevent one country from actually invading another and subverting its population, imagine the struggle our world order has with those countries in which portions of the population are persecuted by their own governments. Afghanistan, Syria, China, Myanmar, Israel, India, to name just a few. And there are many more. And we, meaning the media, have to do better at covering vulnerable populations.”
While the veteran reporter does not bother to elaborate further on his point, he appears to be suggesting that Israel is guilty of persecuting “vulnerable” Palestinians.
As HonestReporting has detailed on numerous occasions at length, claims that Israel is oppressing any civilians are baseless. Often referred to as the “apartheid libel,” the unfounded accusation ignores several salient points.
First, since the Oslo Accords were signed in the 1990s, the vast majority of Palestinians live under the complete governance of either the Palestinian Authority(PA) in the West Bank or the US-designated terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Second, when the PA was created, Palestinian leaders consented to the division of the West Bank, provided they were given full civil and security control in areas that include all major Palestinian population centers. As agreed, Israel maintains security control in what is known as Area C of the disputed territory, for safety reasons.
Third, Israel’s Arab citizens have full civil rights under the law and are thus treated as equals. Israeli Arabs serve in the ruling Knesset coalition, the Supreme Court, and in every facet of private and public life.
Furthermore, comparing Israel to any of the countries that Velshi lists is simply dishonest.
Robert Halfon MP and CAA refer NUS to Charity Commission for statutory inquiry
Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, has today written to the Charity Commission calling together with Campaign Against Antisemitism for a statutory inquiry into the National Union of Students (NUS).PreOccupiedTerritory: BDS Preparing To Continue Ignoring Russian Seizure Of Ukrainian Territory (satire)
In his letter, Mr Halfon wrote to “voice my dismay at the actions and behaviour of the National Union of Students and its trustees, in regards to their treatment of Jewish students and the Jewish community’s concerns regarding antisemitism. Together with Campaign Against Antisemitism…I politely request that the Commission launch a Section 46 inquiry, pursuant to the 2011 Charities Act into the NUS and look forward to receiving your response.”
Mr Halfon enclosed a dossier of evidence by Campaign Against Antisemitism detailing how NUS has failed Jewish students. He wrote that he is “particularly concerned about the enclosed dossier of antisemitic events that have taken place within the NUS over the past several years — and which come following decades of concerning trends — which was prepared by CAA.”
The full dossier on NUS, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, can be read below.
Mr Halfon made particular reference in his letter to the recent scandal involving the rapper Kareem Dennis, known as Lowkey, who was due to headline NUS’s centenary conference last month. After initially dismissing the concerns of Jewish students, who pointed out the rapper’s inflammatory record, the union came under media scrutiny and eventually Mr Dennis withdraw from the event.
As the scandal erupted, Mr Halfon excoriated NUS for failing to send a representative to attend a hearing held by his committee.
This scandal was immediately followed by the election of Shaima Dallali as NUS’s new President, despite her history of antisemitic tweets and other inflammatory social media posts. Prior to the election, she apologised for one such tweet.
As the dossier produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism observes, “Despite [its] ostensible and much-vaunted commitment to anti-racism, NUS has a long record of controversy in relation to Jewish students and antisemitism, dating back decades.
The dossier notes that antisemitism on campus has surged to record levels, with CST recording a 191% increase in antisemitic incidents on campus in 2021, and that Campaign Against Antisemitism’s latest Antisemitism Barometer found that an overwhelming 92% of British Jews believe that antisemitism in universities is a problem.
Leaders of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement targeting Israel over what they consider the Jewish States’s occupation of Palestinian land announced today that as Moscow increases its hold on areas that belong to Kiev under international law, the movement will maintain its exclusive focus on Israel, and not acknowledge the greater loss of life, suffering, human rights violations, and other monumental injustices elsewhere in the world that dwarf those against which they claim to fight.
Prominent advocates of BDS stressed Monday the importance of riveting their attention to what they allege Israel does, and not to let the atrocities and egregious policies of some of the most murderous regimes in history distract them from the singular goal of righting a supposed wrong that barely registers in the annals of human suffering, in the process of which they foment and encourage further suffering, much of it self-inflicted by Palestinians.
“We have never let other crises divert us from the central issue, which is Palestine,” affirmed Omar Barghouti, who holds a Master’s degree from Tel Aviv University. “China’s occupation and cultural genocide in Tibet; its extermination of Uighurs in Xinjiang; its suppression of dissent in Hong Kong; Russian occupation of South Ossetia and large chunks of Ukraine; Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus – all of these and other large-scale crimes lie outside of our moral purview. Despite their accounting for tens of millions of casualties, and hundreds of millions of devastated lives over vast swaths of land, not to mention the erasure of indigenous identity and culture in those lands, whereas the Palestine conflict accounts for perhaps fifty thousand lives and territory the size of New Jersey, we maintain that righting the injustices facing Palestine demands more urgency. Some of us, in fact, dismiss that any of those other conflicts involve injustices at all. But don’t you dare try to question the Nakba!”
L’Chaim! ???????????? https://t.co/dwgjwehpmd pic.twitter.com/ml0Xk2UFQk
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 11, 2022
BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – MARCH 2022
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during March 2022 shows that throughout the month a total of 190 incidents took place: 161 in Judea & Samaria and 29 in Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’.
In Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ the agency recorded 131 attacks with petrol bombs, 17 attacks using pipe bombs, fourteen shooting attacks, sixteen arson attacks, seven stabbing attacks and one vehicular attack. No attacks were recorded in the Gaza Strip sector during March.
Eleven people were murdered and twenty-seven wounded in attacks that took place during March.
On March 2nd a civilian was stabbed in Hizme and on March 3rd another civilian was stabbed in the same location. The suspected perpetrator was later arrested.
On March 6th two members of the security forces were wounded in a stabbing attack at Lions Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
On March 7th two members of the security forces were wounded in a stabbing attack near Temple Mount. Hamas claimed the terrorist as a member.
On March 8th two members of the security forces were injured in a vehicular attack in in Silat al-Harithiya.
On March 19th a civilian was wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
On March 20th a member of the security forces was wounded in a stabbing attack in Ras al Amud in Jerusalem.
None of the above attacks received any coverage on the BBC News website.
Jordan/Striker was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram but continues to lurk on alternative platforms such as Telegram (@EricStrikerTRS).
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) April 11, 2022
Action call and more here: https://t.co/rh3plgq3Ea
'Vampire Diaries' actor supports Israel amid terrorism wave
Despite the terrorism wave, Australian actor Nathaniel Buzolic, known for his work on the TV series "The Originals" and "Vampire Diaries," landed in Israel on Saturday. In an Instagram story, the 38-year-old spoke to his 2.8 million followers about the situation in Israel and the Jewish people.Now you can buy an NFT of rare Dead Sea images
In a caption of a video on the Tel Aviv terrorist attack that killed three people Thursday night, Buzolic wrote that the Jewish people have been historically targeted and continue to be targeted by violence and hatred. He said Jews have flourished as a people because they choose to live but that that was also the reason they had been the target of hate.
The world talks about racism, terrorism, and peace, but not when it concerns the Jews, he said.
Buzolic also shared an image comparing two BBC news reports on terrorist attacks, one in the UK and one in Israel. In the UK terrorism story, the BBC called the gunman a "terrorist," while in the Israel story, they were referred to as a "gunman."
He blasted the mainstream media for barely making any mention of attacks on Israeli citizens in Israel.
In yet another Instagram story, Buzolic shared footage of the makeshift memorial for the victims of the Tel Aviv attack.
Every day, the Dead Sea loses the equivalent of 600 Olympic pools of water, said Noam Bedein, 39, founder of the nonprofit Dead Sea Revival Project.
In an effort to prevent the sea from “vanishing completely,” Bedein says, he is auctioning 100 of his Dead Sea photographs on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace, from March 22 (World Water Day) to April 22 (Earth Day).
The project, called Genesis NFT, is also sponsored by The Dead Sea Museum’s director, Ari Leon Fruchter. The auction’s currency is in NFTs, which are digital assets stored on the blockchain.
“We are using futuristic tools to help preserve an ancient body of water,” Bedein tells ISRAEL21c. “People can own a digital photograph which serves as a testament to this enchanted water treasure.”
Proceeds from the sale will be used for legal and legislative efforts to restore water to the Dead Sea.
President Herzog talks to Israel’s man in space, Eytan Stibbe
President Isaac Herzog on Sunday spoke via video call with Eytan Stibbe, Israel’s second astronaut and the first Israeli to ever make it to the International Space Station (ISS).Israeli Medical Team Heads to Haiti to Help Burn Victims
“This is the prayer for the peace of the nation that Rav Herzog wrote”
Stibbe’s arrival on the ISS was widely anticipated for the groundbreaking Rakia mission, which will see the 64-year-old astronaut undertake 35 different experiments in his short stay in orbit.
"I slept very well," Stibbe said when asked about his first night in space.
Floating in the space station with the Israeli flag hung up behind him, the astronaut held up a glass cube engraved with the prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel written by Herzog's grandfather, Rav Isaac Halevy Herzog, the first chief rabbi of Israel.
He further showed off his zero-gravity environment by somersaulting in mid-air, to which he was met with a round of applause.
"We are seeing history with our own eyes," Herzog declared.
The joyous launch of Stibbe to the ISS comes amid the ongoing wave of terrorism that has beset Israel - something Herzog was keenly aware of and commented on.
"During these difficult times on the ground, this project [the Rakia mission], the exciting launch and experience that the whole House of Israel is watching, is a point of light in the sky. These are moments that fill us with inspiration and excitement," the president said.
The director of Israel's National Burn Center at Sheba Medical Center, Prof. Josef Haik, has arrived in Haiti to help patients who were badly injured on Dec. 14 when a fuel tank truck crashed and exploded, killing 65 people and burning dozens of others.
Haik is leading the mission in cooperation with the U.S. Burn Advocates Network (BAN) to hospitals in Haiti that are still overwhelmed with the wounded.
Haik said, "We're going to do as many surgeries as we can to try and help their wounds. We will bring equipment they are lacking and teach them how to use it and leave it there so they can continue rehabilitating Haiti."
Last night Colombian singer Maluma performed in #TelAviv where he made very clear that he loves coming to Israel and he doesn't care for politics.
— Creative Community for Peace (@CCFPeace) April 11, 2022
In a touching moment, Maluma dedicated the concert to the recent victims of terror attacks in #Israel in the previous weeks. pic.twitter.com/P0sWtFRg57
Lapid taps Israeli-American actress-writer Noa Tishby as first antisemitism envoy
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday appointed Israeli-American actress and writer Noa Tishby as the state’s first-ever special envoy for combating antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel.
Tishby, an Israeli-born former soap opera star who moved to Los Angeles, where she has become an outspoken supporter of Israel on social media, will “act on behalf of the Foreign Ministry to spearhead initiatives worldwide before key audiences, generate an international dialogue, and respond to acts of antisemitism,” Lapid’s office said in a statement.
“The creation of this post and the appointment of Noa Tishby is another step that will strengthen Israel and our fight against antisemitism internationally at a moment when Jews around the world once again face an alarming and dramatic resurgence in antisemitism,” Lapid said, calling the 44-year-old “one of the world’s most influential Jews.”
In a video statement from Lapid’s office, Tishby called anti-Zionism and antisemitism “one and the same.”
She pointed to the surge in attacks on Jews around the world during and after last May’s Gaza war, arguing that “the danger facing Jews and the State of Israel is more prevalent now than at any time since World War II and the Holocaust.”
Tishby grew up in Tel Aviv and served in the Israel Defense Forces as a singer in a military band. She rose to fame for her lead role in the soap opera “Ramat Aviv Gimmel.” She would later co-produce the TV show “In Treatment,” an American spin-off of the hit Israeli series “B’tipul,” which Tishby sold to HBO.
I’m proud to name @NoaTishby as the first-ever @IsraelMFA Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism & the Delegitimization of Israel. In this new role, Noa will be a powerful voice in the fight against the rising tide of hate directed at Jews and the State of Israel. pic.twitter.com/PJo4ZphMIt
— ???? ???? - Yair Lapid?? (@yairlapid) April 11, 2022
#OTD 1945, @USArmy troops liberated #Buchenwald.
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 11, 2022
Legendary CBS reporter Ed Morrow:
"Permit me to tell you what you would have seen and heard had you been with me on Thursday. It will not be pleasant listening ..."
Listen ?? here to his harrowing words: https://t.co/2Uxh2wRzaU pic.twitter.com/Sdl5iz7TzE
#OTD 1945, the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp was liberated by the US Army. One of those rescued, was little 8 year old Meir Lau, pictured here. Meir then moved to Israel, where he become Chief Rabbi and Chairperson of Yad Vashem. pic.twitter.com/IMIRv2KZ55
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 11, 2022
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