Monday, June 27, 2022

06/27 Links Pt2: David Collier: The truth behind the anti-Israel ‘Apartheid’ smear; Hamas claims health of Israeli captive ‘deteriorating,’

From Ian:

David Collier: The truth behind the anti-Israel ‘Apartheid’ smear
Choreography in the twilight zone
What followed proves that everything you know about truth and justice can be set aside. What we are witnessing is a choreographed attempt by extremists to undermine the very foundations of Israel. The ICC despite having no jurisdiction in Israel suddenly claimed that it does. The ICC also decided to go to bat for the Palestinians – even though it breaks their own rule book. Just like we see with the NGOs, the ICC has been corrupted from within.

The ICC decision created a snowball effect and the NGOs needed to play their part. It became important to add the charge of Apartheid to the Israel crime sheet. So B’tselem, HRW and Amnesty produced their reports.

There is no doubt at all, this was an organised and choreographed assault on the truth.

Understanding the Apartheid smear
There is nothing logical or honest about the Apartheid smear at all. It is a deliberate and vindictive lie. Make no mistake. Amnesty and HRW know they are pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.

It started by demonising Israel’s attempts to defend its own citizens against terrorist attacks. From there – in order to replicate the successful boycott of South Africa – the anti-Israel propaganda machine started building a pyramid of lies. To blur the boundaries until Israel’s very existence was brought into question.

These people break every value that they are supposed to believe in. They appropriate the identity of minority groups, break the ICC rulebook, butcher the definition of a refugee. They have destroyed human rights activism from within.

The Apartheid smear movement opposes peace. It is angered by the Abraham accords. It sees the PA itself as a betrayal (because it recognised Israel). These people oppose a two-state solution. This is not a friendly movement that should be welcomed in leftist circles, but a terrorist supporting group of extremists that promote the destruction of the only democracy in MENA.
Hamas claims health of Israeli captive ‘deteriorating,’ in rare announcement
Hamas’s military wing claimed on Monday night that “the health of one of its Israeli prisoners has deteriorated,” after years in which repeated attempts to reach a prisoner exchange deal between the two sides have hit a dead end.

The terror group currently holds two living Israelis — Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — as well as the bodies of two Israeli soldiers: Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, did not specify whether Mengistu or al-Sayed were suffering from health issues, nor how serious they were. But he vowed that Hamas would publish proof of its claims in the coming hours.

Mengistu and al-Sayed both had a history of mental illness. The two Israeli citizens crossed the Gaza boundary voluntarily between 2014 and 2015 and have subsequently been held prisoner by Hamas.

In a statement, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office neither confirmed or disputed the Hamas claims. Instead, it said it holds Hamas accountable for the state of the captured civilians.

“Hamas proved again tonight that it is a cynical and criminal terrorist organization, which holds mentally ill civilians in violation of all international conventions and laws, as well as the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said.

“The State of Israel will continue its efforts, mediated by Egypt, to bring the captives and the missing back home,” the PMO concluded.


POV: Antisemitic Mapping Project Likely to Lead to More Anti-Jewish Violence
In other words, the map is a call to action that puts the blueprint in the hands of anyone who feels moved to answer.

As someone who grew up in Europe, I vividly recall the 1970s, when Germany reeled from a wave of left-wing anarchist violence fueled by exactly this type of call to direct action. Acts of terror included the bombing of shopping centers, airplane abductions, and the kidnapping and murder of politicians and functionaries that in the eyes of the “Red Army Faction” represented capitalist networks of oppression. As “capitalist pigs,” they deserved to die. Members of the notorious Baader-Meinhof gang trained with Palestinians in Syria, the same Palestinian terrorists who were responsible for the murder of the Israeli sports team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The Mapping Project’s view of Massachusetts and the world through the prism of Palestine is nothing new. There are always people who will heed this type of incitement and take things into their own hands. In a country where assault rifles and explosives are easy to come by and at a time when racist violence has been spiking, the result will likely be more anti-Jewish violence.

So what should we do?

I believe we can do more to educate our students in the history, politics, economics, and cultures of the Middle East, to help them understand the US role in Middle East politics, including the ongoing struggle over control and exploitation of natural resources, especially oil and water. That’s why we launched a teaching initiative focused on Israel and the environment. We need to model for our students how to confront reality without ideological blinders.

Boston University is committed to the struggle for antiracism. This involves learning how to have difficult conversations. One of the first conferences organized by the Elie Wiesel Center under my watch focused on economic racism, including gentrification and the need for reparations to close the wealth gap between African Americans and white Americans. (See Economic Racism in Perspective.)

This summer, we are offering a course on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict that will be taught by a political scientist from Tel Aviv University who is a member of the Israeli Druze community, bringing a minority perspective to the subject. We want our students to look at Israel, Palestine, and the United States critically and without prejudice. But we cannot, and we will not, accept implicit or explicit calls for violence against Jews. Not from the Left, and not from the Right.


Off Key: How Some Popular Music Is Spreading Antisemitism
As the number of hate crimes targeting Jewish people around the globe soars, an area that is receiving less attention is the existence of anti-Jewish stereotyping in the music industry. In this article, I’ll explore how Judeophobia has subtly crept into both lyrics and live concerts, how musicians abuse their fame to spread anti-Jewish conspiracies, and how online music platforms are having an effect on the spread of antisemitism in the 21st century.

One of the most blatant ways in which crude stereotypes are influencing the mainstream music industry is through the inclusion of harmful lyrics about Jewish people in popular songs.

The following are some of the most egregious examples of antisemitism and anti-Jewish prejudice in contemporary music:


Michael Jackson’s 1996 hit “They Don’t Care About Us,” which features the lyrics “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.” Jackson later apologized for the lyrics, and re-released the song with the words “Jew” and “kike” removed. Nevertheless, contemporary covers of the song still retain all or some of the original lyrics. The American rock band Saliva’s 2016 cover kept the words “Jew me, sue me” and the hit European band Beast in Black’s 2021 version maintained both offending lyrics.

Famed hip-hop artist Jay-Z’s 2017 song “Story of O.J.” features the lyrics: “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit / You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.”

Described as “what the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] would sound like with a sax accompaniment,” Van Morrison’s 2021 song “They Control the Media” implicitly references the classic antisemitic trope of Jews controlling the media, with such lyrics as “They own the media, they control / the stories we are told / If you ever go against them / you will be ignored.”

Rapper B.o.B’s 2016 song “Flatline” included the lyrics, “Do your research on David Irving / Stalin was way worse than Hitler / That’s why the POTUS gotta wear a kippah.”

In his 2016 song “N.E.R.D.,” the rapper Lupe Fiasco includes the words, “Artists getting robbed for their publishing by dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms for the covenant.”

Even the world of opera isn’t immune from antisemitism and anti-Jewish stereotyping. “The Death of Klinghoffer,” which is based on the 1985 Palestine Liberation Front hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, has been accused of glorifying terrorism and perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes.

Antisemitism in popular music is a global problem. In 2018, the German equivalent of the Grammys stirred up controversy when it awarded a prize to hip hop duo Kollegah and Farid Bang, known for a song that includes the words, “My body is more defined than those of Auschwitz inmates.”

In 2022, the popular K-pop group EPEX released a song that included lyrics featuring the words, “Crystal night,” a reference to the Nazi pogrom of Kristallnacht. In the accompanying music video, the members of the group were dressed in Nazi-style uniforms.
Anna Rajagopal - The Jew Bashing Convert
Anna Rajagopal is a rising senior at Rice University in Texas, a self-described child convert to Judaism, and the newest hire of a Jewish social justice organization, Avodah. She was raised by her parents who are both Rice Professors, Collin Thomas and Asha Rajagopal, who identify as Christian and Hindu, respectively.

Anna is also a rabid antisemite that weaponizes her alleged conversion to Judaism to vilify the Jewish people and nation, endorse violence, and support the terror group Hamas via her increasing social media presence. Not only does she have a platform as the Editor-in-Chief of Rice University’s English Department’s digital publication, but now she is also astonishingly being paid to potentially spread her vitriol via her new position at Avodah.

Anna often insults the physical appearance of Jews, tweeting in 2021 "sometimes I sit here and wonder why zionists are so physically unattractive. it's very interesting to me how ever zionist is just extremely ugly." The vast majority of Jews globally identify as Zionists and when she was confronted about her tweet she used her Judaism as a shield to protect herself against claims of antisemitism she tweeted "im jewish and hot".

In a separate incident she referred to Zionists as "genocidal freaks" and are "ugly, sunburnt, violence outcasts". Her ongoing antisemitic rants recently landed her in a Twitter brawl with acclaimed actor William Shatner.

Anna often maligns the State of Israel, spreading false claims of apartheid and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. Such claims are deemed antisemitic by the U.S. Department of State's adopted working definition of antisemitism - the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Anna also promotes violence against Jews, defending terrorism, and murder, tweeting - "Decolonization by any means necessary and in the most literal sense" when referencing the Israel/Palestinian conflict. In a follow up tweet a few months later she called for IDF soldiers to be punched in the face (referring to them as 'IOF' or "Israeli Occupation Forces," a propaganda tactic used by radicals like our previous 'Antisemite of the Week' Mohammed El-Kurd.


Colorado congressional candidate accused of making antisemitic comments
Jewish voters concerned
In an ad published in the Intermountain Jewish News advocating against Epps, prospective Jewish constituents said that she had stated "from the river to the sea," — referencing the maxim for the establishment of a Palestinian state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, replacing the state of Israel.

The "concerned Colorado citizens" also alleged that Epps characterized "Israeli policy as 'colonization, apartheid, genocide and nationalism.'"

Jewish support for Epps
Other Jewish voters have expressed support for the Democratic candidate. In a strong political statement, an online petition urging voters to side with Epps stated that “we condemn the weaponization of antisemitism to divide marginalized people and attack progressives.”

Epps, a longtime grassroots activist, is an abolitionist, bail reformist, and founder of the Colorado Freedom Fund. Her people-powered campaign focuses on advocacy for “our most vulnerable neighbors,” an idea highlighted in Jewish-led petition supporting Epps. “Our Jewish values teach us to love our neighbor,” read the petition.
UConn student admitted to pretrial diversion program in swastika incident
The charges against Pieper stem from an incident in October 2020, when a swastika was found drawn in the stairwell of a residence hall, and in March 2021, when swastikas were found painted on the side of a chemistry building and a retaining wall.

The drawing on the chemistry building was directly across from the Trachten-Zachs Hillel House, a center for the Jewish community on campus.

Police said they spoke with Pieper after the incident but he denied knowing anything about the drawing. However, police noted that his room was adjacent to the stairwell where the drawing was found.

Following the second incident officers determined that Pieper was a suspect based on his location, which they obtained using his cellphone's connection to the university's wi-fi network, according to police.

The network showed that Pieper's phone was connected via a router located in the chemistry building around 2:45 a.m. Additionally, a video camera in the area captured a person walking along the wall of the building around that same time.

Police also obtained a warrant to seize Pieper's cellphone. A search of the phone turned up a message in which he admitted to drawing the swastika in the residence hall.

When police interviewed Pieper about the accusations, he eventually admitted to drawing thew symbols, and said he did so to raise awareness about what he saw as problems with certain Orthodox Jewish traditions.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Religion Primitive, Says Man Willing To Sacrifice Others For Ideology (satire)
An activist who rails against his people’s spiritual heritage, calling it “idolatry,” “backward,” and “barely removed from child-sacrifice” also adheres to assumptions and values the advancement of which requires that other people suffer or die, local sources reported today.

Anik Omer, 25, maintains a firm belief in socialist ideals, and has expressed willingness to subject countless others to the proven deprivation, scarcity, inefficiency, corruption, repression, violence, and injustice that has plagued every socialist system in history, even as he decries Jewish tradition as primitive and blind to human suffering, acquaintances confirmed Tuesday.

“Bunch of pagans,” spat the graduate student at Tel Aviv University. “They’re willing to be oppressive and refuse to see people for what they are instead of categorizing them by some human construct that’s been shown irrelevant again and again, but that they cling to like it’s not the system that’s failed, but that it has been failed by its adherents. What does it take to disabuse them of their nonsense? None are so blind as those who refuse to see.”

Omer then urged classmates and friends to get the government to mandate funding for projects such as renewable energy and to make exploration and drilling for fossil fuels difficult, thus condemning the poor to the inevitable high prices of transportation, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs that result from such policies. “It’s a small price to pay for sustainability,” he explained. “We can afford it, and they can make the sacrifice for something that worthwhile.”
The ‘Judensau,’ Then and Now
Two major news stories to hit the headlines in Germany this month focused rather strikingly on negative depictions of Jews in works of art, raising once more the question of whether these visual displays need to be contextualized and explained, or whether they should be removed from public view altogether.

What’s really interesting is that the works of art in question are separated from each other by more than 700 years, with one example from the 14th century and the other from this one. In the first case, the offending artwork can be viewed upon the edifice of a medieval church, while in the second case, the battleground — not a term I would use lightly, but appropriate here — is a cutting-edge contemporary art show that is mounted in Germany every five years.

Yet despite the vast distance between these works of art in terms of time, when it comes to their content, they are unsettlingly similar, right down to the association of Jews with pigs — an animal whose consumption is of course proscribed in the Jewish tradition.

The two cases I’m referring to involve, respectively, a virulently anti-Jewish sculpture that was affixed to the outer walls of the Stadtkirche church in the medieval city of Wittenberg in 1305 (the same city where, more than 200 years later, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther delivered his violently anti-Jewish sermons) and a mural exhibited at the Documenta art festival in Kassel, long-established as one of the highlights in the contemporary art calendar.

The “Judensau” (“female Jewish pig”) sculpture at the Wittenberg church is frankly revolting. It shows a group of Jews on their knees suckling the teats of a pig alongside the nonsensical words “Vom Schem Hamphoras,” an insulting corruption of one of the names for God in the Jewish faith. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled against a plaintiff who sought to have the sculpture removed from the church because of its viciously anti-Jewish character.
Lawyers ask German court to acquit 101-year-old accused ex-Nazi guard
Lawyers asked a German court Monday to acquit a 101-year-old man charged with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder for allegedly serving as an SS guard at a World War II Nazi concentration camp.

The defendant, whose name was not released, due to German privacy laws, allegedly worked at the Sachsenhausen camp on the outskirts of Berlin between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing.

In their closing statement, the man’s lawyers argued that there was no evidence that their client had actively assisted in any killings.

The man has denied ever working at the camp, but prosecutors presented numerous documents containing his name, date and place of birth, to argue that he did. They have asked the court to impose a five-year sentence on the defendant.

Sachsenhausen was established just north of Berlin in 1936, as the first new camp after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the Nazi concentration camp system. Exact numbers on those killed vary, with upper estimates of some 100,000, though scholars suggest figures of 40,000 to 50,000 are likely more accurate.
Antisemitic soldier pleads guilty to terrorism
US Army Private Ethan Melzer (Also known as Etil Reggard,) in conjunction with the Order of the Nine Angles terrorist group, planned an attack on his unit during a scheduled deployment to Turkey. He pled guilty to it on Friday.

FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force as well as police forces and other military departments intercepted the attack.

Melzer had been a member of the terrorist organization since 2017 or earlier, according to the US Department of Justice. While stationed in Italy in 2019, he consumed the media propaganda from the Order of the Nine Angles and other extremist organizations, such as ISIS. What is Order of the Nine Angles?

Order of the Nine Angles is a terrorist organization known for its Neo-Nazi and white supremacist views. The organization has publicly admired Adolf Hitler and Usama Bin Laden and holds satanic beliefs. Members are ordered to infiltrate governmental bodies to access secure information, gain training, and identify individuals to recruit for the purpose of committing further violence. Melzer enlisted for these reasons.

Upon hearing about his upcoming deployment, Melzer attended pre-mission training where he learned the details of the unit, such as the location including topography, entrances, and surveillance of the base as well as the units’ movements and more. Also shared was the weaponry the unit had, and defense strategies created for the possibility of a terrorist attack occurring.

Melzer then used an encrypted application to send information such as the location, movements, and security to a sub-group of Order of the Nine Angles called RapeWaffen Division. Melzer said in a message that with all the information he was giving consistent with the military training, their attack would “essentially cripple” the unit and its defenses.

Melzer and his co-conspirators labeled the attack a “Jihadi attack” and its objective was mass-casualty.
Porto Jews slam Portugal for 'antisemitism,' 'persecuting Jews'
The Jewish community in Porto, Portugal accused the Portuguese parliament of antisemitic persecution on Sunday, after the arrest of community Rabbi Daniel Litvak for allegedly helping Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich obtain a Portuguese passport.

According to the allegations, Litvak embezzled community funds from Portuguese passport applications.

The Jewish community further opted to cut operations with the state.

Last week, it responded to Portugal's intent to repeal the 2015 National Law, which allowed descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal to obtain Portuguese citizenship. The community said it "raised serious allegations of antisemitic persecution and methods reminiscent of the Spanish inquisition.

“This is the greatest attack against a Jewish community in the 21st century and it is being carried out against the strongest Jewish community in Europe today,” Porto Jewish Community president Gabriel Senderowicz, said on Sunday.
“This is the greatest attack against a Jewish community in the 21st century and it is being carried out against the strongest Jewish community in Europe today.”
Porto Jewish Community president Gabriel Senderowicz
“The Porto Jewish community is disappointed by the lack of solidarity among the Jewish organizations operating in the world today, especially those that have been our partners over the past decade,” Senderowicz added. He explained that “they [the Jewish organizations around the world] all remained silent to an unfounded lawsuit conceived by state officials and journalists on the basis of anonymous messages. Even the Israeli Embassy in Portugal, whose cultural activities have been supported by the Jewish community of Porto with hundreds of thousands of euros over the past few years, has not uttered a word or message of support for the community.”


More Israelis satisfied with their economic situation than before pandemic — survey
Israelis are slightly more satisfied with their personal economic situation than they were before the pandemic, a new survey has found.

The survey released Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute also showed that Israelis were more satisfied with the economy under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett than under his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The researchers queried Israelis at the end of last month, and compared the results to a similar survey from July 2019, before the start of the pandemic.

In 2019, 28% of respondents said they were “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their personal economic situation. In May of 2022, that figure rose to 33%.

There were also more people who were “not at all satisfied” in May 2022, however — 21%, compared to 16% in 2019. The researchers said this likely reflected societal and labor market inequalities caused by the pandemic.

Israel’s economy has rebounded strongly since the start of the pandemic, when economic activity largely ceased functioning amid repeated lockdowns and unemployment hit historic highs.

The country’s economic outlook continues to be relatively good, despite government instability and the global slowdown.




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