Wednesday, June 08, 2022
NGO Monitor: In-depth Audit Says World Vision Totally Incompetent, Funded Hamas
On November 3, 2021, the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to dissolve an Israeli non-profit organization belonging to the international aid agency, World Vision (וורלד ויזון in Hebrew). As justification for the request and following a multi-year investigation, the Registrar alleges that the local non-profit did not implement humanitarian projects as it claimed to and conducted financial transactions for purposes other than its stated goals – including providing funds to Hamas. Moreover, the Registrar charges that the non-profit’s executive and oversight frameworks were non-functional and ineffective.Jonathan Tobin: What does the BDS movement really stand for?
These evidence-based findings are particularly significant in light of the ongoing trial against Mohammad El-Halabi, manager of World Vision’s Gaza operations, over his alleged diversion of $50 million in aid materials to Hamas. Responding to his arrest and trial, World Vision officials in Australia, who funded this operation, have repeatedly insisted that local finances were managed competently, and that the allegations could not possibly be true. Although they claimed that a full audit was conducted after Halabi’s arrest, in fact, no report has been made public.
In contrast, the Registrar’s conclusions, based on an independent audit conducted by the Schmidt, Ben-Tsvi, and Perlstein accounting firm, [on file with NGO Monitor] confirm concerns revealed by previous NGO Monitor analyses of World Vision financial reports. (For more on the financial inconsistencies and irregularities discovered by NGO Monitor, see “World Vision’s Operations in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza” and “World Vision Finances in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza”.)
The following primer summarizes the Registrar’s assertions – as well as World Vision’s responses – on a series of issues
- Terror funding
- Financial and organizational mismanagement
- Funds not utilized to achieve the non-profits goal
- Unclear financial transactions
- Salary payments
- Cash withdrawals
- Multiplicity of bank accounts
As a Pew Research Institute study recently revealed, the overwhelming majority of Americans have little or no idea what the debate about the BDS movement is about. With 84% of those polled confessing ignorance about the topic, that left only 11% to express an opinion about it one way or the other. Those who understand the anti-Semitic nature of BDS activism may take some cold comfort from the fact that its supporters haven't made all that much headway in the public square. But the fact that only 6% opposed it, while a mere 5% backed it, is a frightening result when one considers the consequences of the way many on the left-wing of the Democratic Party are buying into exactly the sort of intersectional ideology that is the foundation of BDS lies about Israel.Ruthie Blum: Shavuot, the Six-Day War and the Sorry ‘Status Quo’ on the Temple Mount
That's the context for the news that a Boston BDS group is promoting a "Mapping Project" that is supposed to illustrate "how local support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing, evictions and privatization locally, and to US imperialist projects worldwide."
It's not clear whether such extremism has much support even in the most woke sectors of one of the country's most liberal communities. But what makes it truly sinister is the way that it creates maps of synagogues and other Jewish institutions, including schools in the state of Massachusetts, and attempts to hold them out as bastions of "harms" such as "racism," "policing, "US imperialism" and "ethnic cleansing."
It should be understood clearly what Boston BDS and its leftist allies are doing here. They are placing a target on American Jews – declaring that anything and everything associated with Jewish life in this country is fair game for false accusations of crimes against minorities, delegitimization, and, at the very least, hounding out of the public square and, perhaps, ultimately violence. This is tangible evidence of the way elements of the ideological left have crossed over to the kind of open anti-Semitism that many Jews are only prepared to acknowledge when it comes from the far-right.
Some on the Jewish left have urged Americans to understand BDS as a cry of protest against what they mischaracterize as oppressive Israeli policies and a way to pressure Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. They say that progressives who either support BDS – like the members of the left-wing congressional "Squad" – should not be treated as anti-Semites or beyond the pale of normal politics. But it should be noted that the kind of rhetoric from the BDS movement – in which talk of "colonization of Palestine" refers to Tel Aviv, not remote settlements in the territories – actually reflects exactly the sort of toxic stuff that is routinely spouted by both the Hamas terrorists who rule the Gaza Strip and their supposedly moderate rivals of the Palestinian Authority that autonomously governs the Arab population of the West Bank in their official media.
Israeli and Diaspora Jews visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday to celebrate Shavuot—the holiday marking the revelation of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai—were greeted by angry Palestinians. The latter, mostly young men, have taken to rioting regularly on the compound where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located.
It would be easy to attribute the behavior of the Muslim troublemakers to the occasion when Jews make a festive pilgrimage to the site of the two temples. It would be equally simple to attach significance to the Gregorian date, which coincided with the 55th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Though the two are indelibly linked, the tendency of mostly young male Palestinians to use any excuse to desecrate the site—the holiest in Judaism and third in Islam after Mecca and Medina—has become commonplace. And it’s no wonder.
Incited by the Palestinian Authority, with a little help from the king of Jordan, these guys get to cloak their violent energy in a veil of religious and political purity. The neat trick on the part of the leaders in Ramallah, Gaza and Amman to encourage terrorist activity is to perpetuate the bald-faced lie that Israel plans to storm the compound and destroy the mosque.
The mendacity doesn’t end there. The PA leadership also pretends that the presence of Jews in the ancient land of Israel is a myth, and that the story of the First and Second Temples is a fabrication.
That the Bible and archaeology say otherwise is of no consequence to PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, who determines what is published in the press that his people read and the curriculum in their schools. A central theme in the material that he disseminates is that the State of Israel is an illegitimate entity whose destiny is elimination.
While his rivals in the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad openly aim for this goal, Abbas puts on a charade for international consumption. The act involves talking peace while fomenting hostility against his alleged partner on the road to a “two-state solution.”
Here’s the rub. He insists that the stumbling block to this dream of Palestinian independence is Israel’s grip on the territories that it occupied in 1967. The fact that anyone in Israel or abroad still buys this hackneyed baloney is mysterious, to say the least.
Gil Troy: Closed Circuit documentary: Discussing post-trauma from terror
We define terrorist attacks by the numbers killed – and the four Israelis murdered while dining on June 8, 2016, paid the highest price for this evil. Israel nobly protects the privacy of the “merely” wounded, avoiding the gore-porn Palestinians merrily distribute. But this searing documentary introduces us to others – waiters and diners – who remain haunted by those minutes of gunfire six years ago.BDS Doesn’t Care About Palestinians… Its Response to General Mills Jerusalem Factory Closure Proves It
Interviewed at Sarona, these brave survivors relive their traumas. As they speak, closed-circuit footage captures the numbingly familiar minutes of diners dining before the shooting – followed by chaos. Closed-circuit TV’s slight distortion, reinforced by the filmmakers’ deft cutaways, shows that memories become hazy over time – yet post-trauma freezes memories forever.
The interviews avoid politicking or moralizing. Yousef Jabarin worked in the kitchen, while Ibrahim Agbaria celebrated a birthday with his wife and kids. Both were terrified as normal people – and embarrassed as Arabs. Yet, afterward, the police first treated all Arab-speakers as suspects. Breaking into Hebrew, Agbaria sums up his identity saying “zeh mesubach”: it’s complicated.
Nevertheless, without speechifying, the filmmakers show that Palestinian terrorists are equal-opportunity killers, often cold-bloodedly targeting fellow Arabs, too. Chillingly, one terrorist pumps a kill shot into a downed body; by contrast, the Israeli police shot a terrorist to stop him, but he survived.
Beyond the TV surveillance system, the powerful title Closed Circuit evokes the open wounds that never close, and the circles of trauma – even a guy picnicking on chocolate-covered pancakes at a safe distance remains rattled.
Watch the movie and see Lihi Ben Ari tear up as she imagines the father-daughter moments she will never share with her dad, who died that night at 42. Watch Hagi Klein refuse to boast about his heroism – he wonders whether he would swing a chair at the terrorists again, given his ongoing hospitalizations after being shot twice. Another survivor, Daniel Salganik, explains that Klein’s actions jammed one terrorist’s gun, saving countless lives. Watch the surreal story of Officer O. – who welcomes into his home, blocks from the scene, a parched, sweating, shaken “survivor” – then realizes the man is dressed exactly as the downed terrorist. And note how everyone divides their lives into before... and after.
True to form, the media have taken the BDS baton and run with it. Numerous reports about General Mills’ decision assert that the company’s factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone is located in “East Jerusalem” (see here, here and here).Hostile environments toward Jewish students
Aside from the fact that “East Jerusalem” is a misnomer, which falsely suggests the holy city is divided, the factory is not even located in the eastern part of the city – it is actually in northern Jerusalem.
Furthermore, as attorney Stephen M. Flatow noted, the area is an industrial zone and is not a hub of “settlers” as has been suggested in several reports (see here and here), Indeed, the factory closure will disproportionately affect Arab workers:
[Atarot] has become one of Israel’s successful industrial zones and, incidentally, has employed quite a few Palestinian Arabs over the years. In a 2017 study it was estimated that 80% of the employees within the Atarot were Palestinian Arabs.”
And this is but the latest example of media outlets uncritically parroting BDS falsehoods.
For example, when sportswear giant Nike announced plans to terminate its business relationship with some Israeli retailers last year, outlets such as The Independent were quick to link the move to BDS.
That Nike had no intention of closing any of its 15 company-owned stores in Israel and encouraged customers in Israel to purchase its products via these outlets mattered not one iota to BDS supporters who declared it a major win for the campaign to turn Israel into a pariah state.
Even more scandalously, BDS advocates, many of whom have openly stated they wish to see the destruction of the Jewish state, gloss over the very real harm the movement has on those it claims to want to protect – Palestinians.
When SodaStream capitulated to BDS calls in 2015 and moved its operations from the West Bank to southern Israel it came at a high price, which was the loss of hundreds of jobs held by Palestinians who had been earning approximately three times the average local salary.
If BDS really cared about Palestinians – and was not primarily driven by an animus toward the Jewish state – why would it be trying to drive out the employers who pay Palestinian wages?
In recent years, we have seen how anti-Israel hostility has sprouted in hundreds of universities across the country. Under the disguise of academic freedom, institutions of higher learning have become fertile grounds for extremism.Middle East Professors Boycott Israel — Where’s the Moral Outrage?
While Jewish studies departments and organizations such as Chabad and Hillel sustain a vibrant Jewish life on many campuses across the country, Jewish students are still exposed to fierce anti-Jewish hatred and anti-Israel sentiments, not only from students but from faculty as well. When professors engage in antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, they tacitly condone it and encourage students to do so as well.
I can personally attest to the above. I am a student at UC Berkeley, and while I can confidently say that we have a strong and united Jewish community, it does not exempt us from faculty spreading anti-Zionism through their platforms. For instance, let me introduce you to Hatem Bazian.
The numerous anti-Zionist leaders on college campuses
Hatem Bazian is a lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies with a long history of blatantly spreading antisemitism and demonizing Israel and Zionism. He is the founder of the anti-Israel organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and an avid supporter of the antisemitic BDS campaign.
Bazian has repeatedly denied Jewish history and peoplehood. For instance, in 2014, he published an article claiming that much of Jewish history in the Land of Israel is a “mythical past.” He has also compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In 2011, he headlined a speaking tour called Never Again for Anyone, where he compared the Holocaust to the plight of Palestinians.
Hatem Bazian is also known for supporting and promoting terrorism. In addition to defending terrorists on Twitter, he has supported the internationally-recognized terrorist organization Hamas on multiple occasions and even participated in a fundraising event for an NGO that was dissolved after the US Treasury Department discovered its ties to Hamas.
When a professional organization with a decades-long reputation for non-political, high caliber scholarship radically redefines its organizational mission and, by implication, the mission of the discipline its members have largely shaped — for the express purpose of carrying out politically motivated and directed advocacy and activism that unfairly targets the only Jewish country in its purview (and in the world) — it can’t help but have at least five devastating consequences.Indie Rock Band Defends Decision to Perform in Israel, Sparks Criticism From BDS Supporters
First, MESA’s behavior is an object lesson in the fundamental incompatibility of scholarship and politics, and how, when they are artificially forced into a “dual commitment,” scholarship cannot survive intact. That’s because genuine scholarship is based on a search for knowledge and truth, while advocacy and activism rest upon unquestioned political dogma that not only requires no such search, but actively inhibits it. Nowhere is this more evident than in the adoption of an academic boycott that, by definition, restricts “the free flow of ideas and knowledge” that are the lifeblood of any intellectually rigorous discipline.
A second obvious result of MESA privileging political advocacy and activism over scholarship is that a generation of students will be deprived of an objective and accurate understanding of a complex topic of global importance. Instead, consistent with the “anti-normalization” guidelines of the MESA-endorsed boycott, students will be force-fed a wholly one-sided, false narrative intended to demonize and delegitimize Israel and cast it as a pariah state unworthy of inclusion in the family of nations.
Third, it’s not hard to see how such boycott-compliant, hate-filled propaganda, intended to poison students’ perceptions not only about Israel but also about those who support the Jewish state, could incite acts of aggression targeting Israel’s on-campus supporters. Indeed, a study examining the contribution of faculty supporters of academic BDS to the skyrocketing incidence of campus antisemitism in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war last May found that the presence and number of faculty boycotters was not only strongly linked to the anti-Zionist statements issued and endorsed by 160 academic departments, but to every measure of antisemitic activity during that period, including acts of assault, vandalism, and harassment.
Fourth, MESA’s embrace of political advocacy and activism, particularly its adoption of academic BDS, throws into question whether Middle East Studies scholars can be a trusted source of unbiased information about a region of the world that has an enormous impact on our own. This is particularly relevant for the Federal government, which, under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, pours millions of dollars annually into university-based Middle East Studies programs throughout the country, for the express purpose of subsidizing the production and transmission of knowledge vital to national security. Yet almost every Title VI-funded Middle East Studies program is an institutional MESA member, and MESA’s president, immediate past president, and half of its Board of Directors are faculty in Title VI-funded programs. How then can faculty in these programs be trusted not to use Federal funds to implement a MESA-recommended boycott of Israel that seeks to stop the production and transmission of accurate knowledge about one country in the region, directly violating the intent and spirit of the taxpayer dollars they are receiving?
The fifth and final casualty of MESA’s politicization of Middle East Studies is academic freedom itself. Although academic freedom is generally conceived as a set of rights protecting the freedom of faculty to engage in their disciplinary pursuits free from outside interference, those rights are granted for the purpose of preserving the intellectual integrity of our educational system, which in turn serves the public good. But if the threat to intellectual integrity comes not from outside the discipline but from within it, then academic freedom not only does nothing to preserve intellectual integrity and the public good; it actually accelerates the demise of both.
This, of course, leaves those who construct their arguments against professional organizations adopting academic BDS on the grounds of academic freedom — think AAUP, AAU, ACU, and hundreds of university leaders — utterly speechless, unable to even acknowledge let alone condemn the vile harm that an academic boycott inflicts both inside and outside of the university.
But that’s not the worst of it.
Middle East Studies may be among the first disciplines to have its “non-political” scholarly mission revised to include political advocacy and activism, but it will surely not be the last.
It’s high time that higher education leaders break their silence about this moral outrage. They must loudly and publicly acknowledge that while an academic boycott of Israel may ostensibly target Israeli universities and scholars, its implementation directly and substantively hurts their own universities by impeding the scholarly and educational opportunities of students and threatening their safety, corrupting the academic mission of the university, and destroying the public trust. And they must establish and publicly affirm robust safeguards to prevent faculty from using their university positions and departmental affiliations to engage in politically motivated advocacy and activism, including the promotion or implementation of an academic boycott targeting Israel and its supporters.
If higher education leaders refuse to break their silence, state and Federal legislators should withhold funds from schools that permit faculty and departments to engage in such behavior. The public, too, must demand that colleges and universities establish safeguards against the politicization of educational spaces and never allow their tax, tuition, or donor dollars to be used for hateful political propaganda and activism that dangerously undermine the public good.
Silence is not an option.
After the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Big Thief announced that it will perform in Tel Aviv next month, supporters of the anti-Zionist BDS movement have called on the group to cancel their two upcoming shows in Israel.Silence in the Face of Intellectual Conflagration
On Tuesday, the BDS movement urged Big Thief to cancel “their complicit concerts in apartheid Tel Aviv” and falsely claimed that the venue where the band will perform, Tel Aviv’s Barby Club, “openly celebrates the massacres of children.”
Big Thief, whose double album ‘”Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” debuted in February, is extending their world tour by playing in bassist Max Oleartchick’s hometown of Tel Aviv on July 6 and 7, the four-piece band said in a statement Saturday on Instagram. The group explained that they want to explore Oleartchick’s native town, and meet his family and friends, just like they have done for the other band members as they toured the United States.
“Over the last seven years we’ve traveled constantly around 3 of our members’ home country, the United States, meeting each other’s families and childhood friends and sharing in the joys and sorrows of a complicated, beautiful and tumultuous home. We have grown so close,” the band said. “It is important for us to share our homes, families and friends with each other in order to gain a deeper understanding of one another and the people and places that have made us who we are. It is important for us to go where we have family to share space and play for them. It is foundational. It is in that spirit that we made our decision to play in Israel.”
Big Thief went on to say that it is “well aware of the cultural aspect of the BDS movement and the desperate reality of the Palestinian people.”
“In terms of where we fit into the boycott, we don’t claim to know where the moral high ground lies and we want to remain open to other people’s perspectives and to love beyond disagreement,” the group added. “We understand the inherently political nature of playing there as well as the implications. Our intention is not to diminish the values of those who support the boycott or to turn a blind eye to those suffering. We are striving to be in the spirit of learning.”
In May, 1933, the Nazis burned tens of thousands books at universities across Germany. Works by Einstein, Freud, Heine, Mann, Remarque, London, and Zola, among many others, were consigned to the fires. One of the authors whose books were burned was Franz Boas, the famed Columbia University anthropologist, who had long waged a campaign against racist pseudo-science and “Nordic nonsense.”
Nicholas Murray Butler, the president of Columbia University from 1902-1945, did not rise to the occasion of speaking out in support of Boas, or academic freedom in Germany. When the Nazis expelled Jewish faculty members and students from universities, Butler stayed silent, continued sending Columbia students to Germany and welcomed Nazi-approved students in exchange.
Butler was one of the most famous university presidents this country has ever seen. He ran for Vice President on the Republican Party ticket in 1912. In 1931, he won a Nobel Peace Prize (shared with Jane Addams) for his promotion of peace and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which signatories including Germany, France, and the U.S. agreed not to use war to resolve “disputes and conflicts.” The New York Times distributed his annual Christmas message to the nation. He also served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The media gave his comments on international affairs considerable attention,” writes scholar Stephen H. Norwood. “He was therefore in a position to exert significant influence in shaping American views of Nazi Germany.”
Instead, Butler’s actions spoke volumes when he welcomed the Nazi ambassador the United States to Columbia, months after the book-burnings; when he refused to appear with a notable German dissident when the latter spoke at the university; and when he repeatedly violated a boycott of German shipping.
Meanwhile, students on campus who protested Nazi barbarism were met with a heavy hand. Faculty members who recognized the necessity of public protest against Nazis were punished as well—Butler ended the careers of two of them. Columbia’s student newspaper noted that the school’s reputation suffered because of “the remarkable silence of its president” about the “Hitler government.”
We won't be intimidated by @BDSBoston’s dangerous call for action against #Boston’s Jewish community or their attempt to target Jewish schools, institutions, and organizations, including @ADL. This project plays directly into #antisemitic myths of Jewish power and control. https://t.co/2K1HSHeI02
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) June 7, 2022
The Washington Post and Politico Push Anti-Israel Propaganda
Truth is in short supply these days. And you probably won’t be finding the truth about Israel in the pages of the Washington Post or Politico. Both news outlets are publishing anti-Israel broadsides with growing frequency.
CAMERA has documented how Politico is prone to publishing anti-Israel agitprop. And a May 27, 2022 report (“Scoop: PAC to spend 1 million to oust ‘Squad’ member Tlaib) on efforts to unseat Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is no exception. Reporter Brakkton Booker told readers that the Urban Empowerment Action PAC is spending money with the goal of removing Tlaib. But Politico’s correspondent added:
“For her part, Tlaib has been unequivocal in her disdain for Israel and its treatment of Palestinians, and this week introduced a resolution in the House to recognize Palestinian Nakba— a term describing the displacement of Palestinians ahead of the 1948 establishment of Israel.”
That, however, is an incomplete description of the 1948 recreation of Israel—and an inaccurate description of the word “nakba.”
In 1947, Arab leaders rejected a U.N. Partition Plan that would’ve created two states, one Arab and the other Jewish, out of British-ruled Mandate Palestine. Declining a chance to have something that hasn’t ever existed—a sovereign Palestinian Arab state—several Arab armies, and a Palestinian Arab contingent led by a former Nazi collaborator and including several Nazi officers sought to destroy the fledgling Jewish state. As part of their war effort, many Arab leaders, including the founding father of Palestinian Arab nationalism, Amin al-Husseini, encouraged Palestinian Arabs to flee, with the expectation that they could return after the genocide of Jews. In several cases, notably in Haifa, Jewish residents and officials begged Arab residents not to leave. Yet, the numerically superior and better armed Arab armies failed, and Israel survived its War for Independence.
Put simply: “Nakba” is a term for the failed mass murder and displacement of Jews; a failed attempt at genocide which occurred after peace and Palestinian statehood were rejected by Arab leaders. It is also worth noting that, in retaliation, more than 800,000 Jews were subsequently expelled from other Middle Eastern nations after the war—a number that vastly exceeds the best and most accurate estimates of the Arab refugees born out of the 1948 war.
Politico’s use of the word “Nakba” is but another example of their full-throated adoption of the “Palestinian narrative”—a narrative that demonizes Israel and treats Palestinians as oppressed victims without independent agency. This is par for the course for Politico.
Shame on you, @haaretzcom and @Haaretz, for an unspeakably vile headline.
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) June 7, 2022
I'd say you know better, but that's the point, isn't it? This is a conscious choice.
Haaretz: When Reagan and Begin discussed a ‘Final Solution’ to the Palestinian ‘problem’ https://t.co/1jMyQjH9Qm
Which flag is portrayed by BBC News as ‘provocative’?
Interestingly, the display of Palestinian flags in Israeli cities such as the capital Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva or Ramat Gan does not prompt Yolande Knell to use adjectives such as “provocative”. In previous BBC reporting on Jerusalem Day celebrations, Israelis carrying flags in the capital city were described as “nationalists” while Palestinians doing the same are, according to Knell, merely “activists”. Flags of a different kind flown in Jerusalem recently received positive coverage from the BBC and we have yet to find the displays of national flags (including an incorrect one) in Britain’s capital city and elsewhere last weekend described by the BBC as “nationalist” or “provocative”.AFP, Al Hurra Correct Erroneous Arabic Reports on East Jerusalem
Linking to the political NGO ‘Passia’, Knell closes her report with the suggestion that the Palestinians have had a flag since 1916.
“For decades, Palestinians have found innovative ways to get around Israeli restrictions on the waving of their flag, which dates to the 1916 Arab Revolt against forces of the Ottoman empire.”
According to the Palestinian Authority’s foreign affairs ministry, while the flag is “based on the Flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt”, it was “officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964”.
Knell’s account refrains from mentioning that the Arab Revolt flag was not intended to represent a Palestinian state but rather “a united Arab state that would include modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestinian territories”.
Furthermore, until Israel gained control of east Jerusalem in 1967, even the PLO – charged by the Arab League in 1964 with the task of mobilizing Palestinian Arabs to “liberate their homeland” and practice “self determination” – did not consider east Jerusalem as part of Palestinian “regional sovereignty.” Article 24 of its 1964 Charter clearly stipulates:
This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.
In fact, at the time, the PLO sought to exert Palestinian sovereignty only over western Jerusalem, together with the rest of internationally recognized territory of Israel.
Following communication with CAMERA Arabic, both AFP (syndicated here by Swissinfo.ch) and Al Hurra replaced the word “Palestinian” with the word “eastern.” Al Hurra also commendably added an editorial note reading: “This news item was updated in order to amend several terms in the introduction to the report.”
The error still appears in versions of the same paragraph published by BBC Arabic and France24 Arabic.
See also a nearly identical AP correction from 2018 here.
What evidence would be more “compelling” to European diplomats? To see more dead Jews and Israelis? Would that suffice @EUinIsrael @EUpalestinians @eu_eeas? https://t.co/QkcvFMcNhC
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 8, 2022
Graffiti at Jerusalem Holocaust museum calls Zionists 'Nazis'
The Israel Police were scrambled to the Chamber of the Holocaust museum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem on Wednesday after the site was vandalized.Swarovski hides Nazi past while hiring anti-Zionist Bella Hadid
Slogans in Hebrew read, "Zionists are Nazis" and "The Zionists committed the Holocaust."
The graffiti was inscribed at various points in the museum. The vandals used black marker to deface a gravestone, a wall, and a water dispenser.
The police have launched an investigation into the incident and city authorities have been alerted so the relevant department can remove the graffiti.
Seeing Bella Hadid’s face flash across Times Square on a massive Swarovski video billboard felt like a punch to the gut.Legislative Election Campaign in France Marred by Antisemitic Assault, Row Over Jeremy Corbyn
When it comes to Bella Hadid’s sinister antics against Jews and Israel, Times Square is still very much a crime scene. It’s the exact spot where a mob brutally lynched and hospitalized a young Jewish man named Joseph Borgen last summer during Israel’s war in Gaza.
Ironically, when police arrested the assailant and released his photo, he was famous already. Bella Hadid’s Instagram page – with more than fifty million followers – pictured him sitting on a pickup truck in a giant anti-Israel motorcade, a crowd Hadid described as “respectful, loving, kind and generous.” But even when that same man was videotaped savagely beating a young man with a yarmulke and then told the press “I have no problem doing it again,” Hadid didn’t feel cornered by the irony of her bad captioning, nor the need to condemn the assault.
Watching a model use her platform to praise convicted antisemites to millions of followers was a shocking episode for Jews worldwide. But to see a company like Swarovski, with a horrific Nazi past, stepping in to fund, empower and elevate Bella Hadid yet further felt like a kick to the knees.
SWAROVSKI DOESN’T just have a dark Nazi past; it’s actually stifling the exposure of that past, which is particularly egregious. For a company that prides itself on the crystal-like clarity of its glass, Swarovski is being very opaque about its Nazi secrets.
For 70 years, Swarovski blocked researchers from accessing its Nazi archives. Under pressure, the glass jewelry giant finally agreed to commission the Viennese historian Dieter Stiefel to uncover the full extent of Swarovski’s cooperation with Hitler. But then, Swarovski told the distinguished scholar that he wasn’t allowed to publish his work.
As France edges towards the first round of elections for its national assembly on Sunday, the campaign has been marred by at least two incidents of antisemitism in recent days, one of which involved a violent assault.Calls for Burnley football club to rename stand dedicated to 'antisemite' owner
Liron Rozenhaft — whose wife Audrey is standing for the conservative Les Républicains (LR) Party in the city of Strasbourg — was beaten up on Thursday night while sticking up campaign posters in the district where she hopes to be elected. Rozenhaft’s assailants allegedly called him a “dirty Jew” during the attack.
Separately, two far left candidates in Paris were the target of severe criticism over the weekend after they welcomed Jeremy Corbyn — the former British Labour Party leader whose five-year term at its helm was marked by persistent reports of antisemitism in its ranks — to a campaign rally in the north of the capital.
The shocking assault on Rozenhaft took place outside an elementary school in Strasbourg named in honor of US civil rights icon Rosa Parks. According to Raphaël Nisand, Rozenhaft’s lawyer, two young men traveling on a scooter drove past his client and tore down the election poster he had just attached to an elections noticeboard. Rozenhaft told the pair that he was the husband of the candidate and that removal of election posters was forbidden.
Denouncing what he called a “lynching” and “extreme left fascism,” Nisand explained that the two men called for reinforcements following their exchange with Rozenhaft. Ten men arrived at the scene where they proceeded to assault Rozenhaft with kicks and punches under the gaze of at least thirty witnesses, Nisand said. Photographs posted by Audrey Rozenhaft to Facebook showed her husband with a badly swollen eye and cuts and bruises over his face. On Sunday night, Rozenhaft was reportedly readmitted to hospital complaining of difficulties with his lungs. A formal complaint has been filed with the Strasbourg police highlighting the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism.
Burnley football club are facing calls to rename a stand dedicated to a former chairman who caused outrage with a vile antisemitic outburst.
The Bob Lord stand is named after the local businessman who ran a chain of butchers and died in 1981.
In 1974, speaking at a Variety Club dinner, he said: “We have to stand up against a move to get soccer on the cheap by the Jews who run TV.”
The remarks by the former owner of the Lancashire club - relegated from the Premier League last month - caused fury. Many guests at the dinner walked out.
Bryan Cowgill, head of BBC Television Sport, and his independent television counterpart, Bill Ward, sent a joint telegram of protest to Sir Andrew Stephen, chairman of the Football Association, and Len Shipman, president of the Football League, urging them to repudiate the “abhorrent and obscene” remarks as “not being in the interests of football or honourable behaviour”.
Mr Lord said later: “If I have hurt anybody’s feelings. I apologise.”
At a Board of Deputies meeting last month, Keith Appleby, deputy for St Albans United Synagogue, said: “Burnley football club have a stand named after a past owner Bob Lord who was openly antisemitic. In these days of ‘zero tolerance’ can anything be done to encourage the club to change the name of the stand?”
Video of the attack can be seen here via @NYPDHateCrimes https://t.co/a5XuoJHFRW
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 8, 2022
More here: https://t.co/ALT2ThezSk
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 7, 2022
The Zionism Of Warren G. Harding
Harding’s presidency marked a turning away from the government activism of the reform era, as he embraced a renewed isolationism and adopted laissez-faire policies both on economic and social policy. Domestically, he signed the first federal child welfare program; backed striking mining and railroad workers; supported a standard 8-hour workday; established the Bureau of the Budget; and fought for civil rights for African Americans. In foreign affairs, he rejected the League of Nations; signed a separate American WWI peace treaty with Germany and Austria; and advanced a successful world naval program.Airline staff who helped Libyan Jews flee finally gain recognition
However, he is best known for the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal, which involved the acceptance of bribes by Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, who later became the first Cabinet member to be sent to prison. Various other administration officials, some of whom committed suicide, were convicted of fraud and taking kickbacks and, although he was a very popular president, many historians rank him among America’s worst chief executives. However, as we shall see, his enthusiastic support for the Balfour Declaration and for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael established an important precedent for American Zionism and played an important role in the birth of Israel.
Nonetheless, Harding (1865-1923) often acted contrary to the interests of American Jews. As a senator, he voted against the confirmation of Louis Brandeis for the Supreme Court and, in a stunning blow to Jewish interests, the newly elected president called a special session of Congress to enact legislation that would greatly curb immigration. He went on to promptly sign the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which reduced to a trickle the number of Jewish immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. During his administration, quotas were imposed on Jewish students in American colleges and universities; antisemitic activity, which had been largely dormant, grew significantly, including the growth of the Ku Klux Klan; and antisemitism was publicly spread by Henry Ford, among other staunch Harding supporters.
Notwithstanding Harding’s general apathy toward the Jews, however, he knew where to find them when he needed them. In the July 1, 1920, letter exhibited here, Harding writes to famed censor Will Hays, then his presidential campaign chairman, referring Hays to Adolph Danziger who, he believes, “can help immensely. He will come to you with this note. I am sure he has been helpful in the past, and can help us.” Hays writes in response “Dear Senator: I have your note in re Mr. Danziger and am delighted to meet with him.”
Fifty-five years ago, as the Six Day War broke out, hostile mobs rampaged in Libya, threatening the 2,500 Jews still remaining. The staff of the Tripoli Alitalia airline office realised Jewish lives were in danger and did everything possible to give them priority on their flights out of the country. They also helped Jews get money out by giving them refunds for unused tickets to far-flung destinations. The part played by Alitalia employees was finally recognised at a ceremony in Rome organised by Walter Arbib. Yossi Melman, who has written a biography of Arbib, tells this unknown story in Haaretz (with thanks: Imre, Tom)Israel’s Rapyd Enlists Bill ‘Captain Kirk’ Shatner To Send People Into Space
Surviving members of the Tarantino family accepting the certificate on behalf of Renato Tarantino, who ran the Alitalia office in Tripoli, Libya, in the 1960s.
The police were unable to control the mobs and a state of emergency was declared. It was not unusual to find policemen collaborating with the rioters, or not intervening to stop them from rampaging. On that day, 60 percent of the Jewish community’s private and public assets were wiped out. The Bet El Synagogue and its 10 magnificent Torah scrolls decorated with silver and ivory, along with hundreds of religious books and Judaica items, were completely destroyed in the day of rioting.
During the pogrom, which went on for several days, at least 10 Jews were killed and dozens more injured. Fearing for their lives, the Jews hid in their homes. They didn’t dare come out and their supply of food steadily dwindled.
Jews who held foreign citizenship pleaded for help from those countries’ embassies and consulates, but these were unable to be of much assistance. And then, at the height of the terror, salvation arrived from an unexpected source. His name was Renato Tarantino – a non-Jewish Italian who ran the Alitalia office in Tripoli and displayed real nobility and compassion when he saw what was happening in the city.
If you are a developer and want a chance to go into space, Rapyd, an Israeli fintech startup and the most valuable unicorn in history, is giving you the chance. The company has started a new program in which lucky people will be selected to go up into space. Its Hack the Galaxy challenge will offer a series of virtual challenges for developers who could win tickets for free space rides.
The new challenge had none other than Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner promote its launch. Contestants need to join a Rapyd developer community and solve a challenge to win. There will be a total of 42 challenges offered throughout the summer.
Shatner recently went up into space himself with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. And so have a lot of people as Bezos, along with rival Elon Musk and others, are developing private space travel that they hope will one day lead to a chance for the masses to get to travel to the moon.
“Win one of three tickets on a Space Perspective space flight or $130,000 cash, plus a galaxy of other prizes.”
The big prize will be riding on Spaceship Neptune, which is the first carbon-neutral way to space. The ship uses SpaceBalloon—a technology used for decades by the likes of NASA. It takes people on a leisurely flight, spending hours at the edge of space.
Other prizes include a William Shatner signed meteorite, a NASA bomber jacket as well as cash.
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