Thursday, September 01, 2022
Amb. Alan Baker: Amnesty International - Hypocrisy and Double Standards
In the context of the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Amnesty International (AI) recently issued a report, dated August 4, 2022, entitled “Ukrainian Fighting Tactics Endanger Civilians.”1 This report names Ukraine responsible for the deaths of Ukrainian citizens caused by Russian bombardments. The report accuses Ukraine of violating international humanitarian law and endangering its own civilians “by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals…” and thereby turning civilian objects into military targets, generating Russian strikes in populated areas thereby causing civilian fatalities and destruction of civilian infrastructure.”Jonathan Tobin: Celebrate Gorbachev’s failure to save the Soviet Union, not his heroism
There can be no doubt as to the centrality and essential nature of those humanitarian requirements set out in the internationally accepted and recognized instruments of international humanitarian law, requiring the protection of civilians and avoidance of military attacks against civilian concentrations and objects. Such instruments include the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Geneva, 12 August 1949,3 and the Protocol Additional relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977.
To maintain credibility and dignity as a bona fide human rights watchdog, Amnesty International must carry out its duty impartially and without the slightest indication of political partisanship.
The choice of Amnesty International to direct the bulk of its criticism against Ukraine and to hold Ukraine partly responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians attacked by the Russian military has become the subject of considerable international criticism.5 This is especially true since the report implies that Ukraine may be committing war crimes and that its soldiers’ actions might be interpreted as using civilians as human shields.
Much of the criticism revolves around serious flaws and clumsy and negligent methodology used by Amnesty International researchers and the fact that the organization chose to publish its findings despite a lack of solid facts and without taking into due consideration pertinent constraints generated by the context of the Russian offensive.6
Nevertheless, one cannot avoid drawing a comparison between Amnesty International’s demonstrated and justified concern for the protection of civilians and civilian centers in Ukraine and its demonstrated and unjustified lack of concern about the actions of Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
While Amnesty calls out Ukraine for allegedly “establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, thereby turning civilian objects into military targets,” it curiously refrains from addressing precisely the same phenomenon employed by the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Such an apparent double standard is incompatible with Amnesty International’s core principles and stated mission.
Amnesty appears to ignore or minimize blatant violations of international humanitarian law committed by these Palestinian terror groups in using the local Palestinian public in the Gaza Strip as human shields and in flagrantly directing thousands of rockets against Israeli civilian targets, including towns, villages, agricultural centers, schools, and hospitals.
Gorbachev hadn’t come into office as an advocate for human rights, economic liberalism or freedom for the captive nations that languished under Soviet control. Nor was he known for his love of the Jewish people. Had he been any of those things, he never would have been elevated to the head of the Communist state. But his ability to see the weakness of the Soviet state and, unlike his predecessors, his lack of any real prejudice against Jews led him to a series of decisions that would lead to the end of the regime and the opening of the gates to a million Jews who chose to leave for Israel and the United States.History Repeating Itself as Bethlehem’s Christians Face Extinction
Still, none of that would have happened had the West continued to be led by weak leaders like President Jimmy Carter, or realists like President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who were so overawed by the facade of Soviet strength that they chose a policy of détente that essentially accepted it rather than seeking to resist it. Though hailed in the 1970s as astute foreign policy, détente helped prop up and preserve the Soviet Union. Reagan and Thatcher chose a different path, which eventually created the circumstances that led Gorbachev to concede that the Soviets couldn’t beat the West.
Equally important was the resistance to Soviet tyranny on the part of dissidents like nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov and refuseniks like Sharansky, who inspired not just the movement to free Soviet Jewry but a spirit of revulsion against the Soviets in Western opinion that buttressed Reagan’s stand.
Sadly, Gorbachev’s failure to preserve the Soviet Union set an example that other tyrants aren’t likely to forget. In 1989, most people were sure that the Chinese Communist state would suffer the same fate as the empire of Lenin and Stalin. But the Chinese Communist Party had no intention of being merely shoved aside as their Soviet counterparts had been. It liberalized its economy, allowed massive investment from the West, and made it richer and stronger. Still, its leaders never loosened up their authoritarian instincts, repressing freedom of speech and all dissent even as they legalized free enterprise, albeit with the state always having the option to step in and take what it wants.
The Iranian regime understands that same fact and unleashes its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to massacre dissidents in the streets whenever protests arise.
The demise of Christianity in Palestinian-controlled areas is part of a more general pattern of Christians disappearing in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2019, a UK-commissioned report laid bare the scale of the problem, describing their dwindling numbers as “coming close to genocide.”
“Forms of persecution ranging from routine discrimination in education, employment and social life up to genocidal attacks against Christian communities have led to a significant exodus of Christian believers from this region since the turn of the century,” the report said.
“In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities has reached an alarming stage. In Saudi Arabia there are strict limitations on all forms of expression of Christianity including public acts of worship. There have been regular crackdowns on private Christian services,” the report concluded.
The crisis currently facing Christians is not unique to the region — it is part of a grim pattern that started with the mass expulsion of Jews over 70 years ago.
As HonestReporting has detailed, approximately one million Jewish residents of Arab countries were forced to flee their homes following the rejection by Palestinian and Arab leaders of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.
Although Jews had lived in North Africa and the Middle East continuously for thousands of years — long before the advent of the Islamic faith — their presence has, except for in Israel, effectively been eliminated.
Christians living under Palestinian rule and in the region as a whole now face the same future. This, while church leaders fail to denounce the root cause.
Closet Zionist? Linda Sarsour’s On the Down Low Visit to Israel
Linda Sarsour made news in April when the Geico insurance company canceled a company event with the prominent pro-Palestinian activist with a record of trafficking in antisemitic comments about the Jewish people and Israel, after backlash from Jewish groups.Following the money: How German state funds reach left-wing groups in Israel
Ironically, Sarsour had been invited to speak at an event celebrating Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month as part of Geico’s diversity and inclusion campaign.
What has one of the founders and former co-chair of the Women’s March, who was forced to step down because of her vocal support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanction) movement whose ultimate goal is the end of Israel, been up to since the Geico fiasco?
Turns out that in order to decompress, Linda Sarsour has been enjoying the sights and sounds of a city renowned for its diversity.
But while images of San Francisco, Amsterdam or Paris may come to mind, Sarsour in fact visited one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Israel.
A guest post by Kweansmom for the Elder of Ziyon blog on August 30 broke the story. During a recent visit to her relatives in the West Bank, a woman famous for her deep-seated animus towards the Jewish state also spent some time in Israel, where she explored the northern city of Haifa.
And Sarsour revealed this part of her itinerary to no one. She chose not to mention her visit to Haifa to her 323,000 Twitter followers. On Facebook, there’s a rather vague August 10 post, where Sarsour writes that her daughters visited ‘Palestine,’ but not a word to her 221,000 virtual friends about her Haifa adventure. She does mention her stop over in Bethlehem on July 27, but this city is located in the West Bank and is administered by the Palestinian Authority.
Why the cover-up?
Linda Sarsour has a history of echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews believe they are a “superior” race. Sarsour has publicly declared that Israel was founded on the idea of “Jewish supremacy.”
Law, order, and bureaucracy have always been sacred in Germany, both in its good and bad days. So if that is the case, how is it possible that millions of dollars are flowing into Israel from the German government in what may be a direct violation of Israeli law?Fighting Israel Boycotts Through American Sports
Based on information collected by the right-wing watchdog group Im Tirtzu, Israel Hayom conducted an analysis that revealed how German political foundations operate in Israel, getting involved in national matters and attempting to influence public opinion.
Over the last decades, foreign state entities provided over 890 million shekels ($268 million) in funding to left-wing and anti-Zionist organizations. Germany stands out in particular having provided at least NIS 150 million ($45 million) in funds for these groups, more than any other country.
The money flows through various channels, and one of them is political funds, which are linked to factions in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament.
The government budget given to the party fund is derived from the political power of the party it is affiliated with. The foundations, a strange hybrid creature, are apparently independent, so the German government cannot determine where the money will go, but ideological compatibility is required between the foundations and the parties with which they are affiliated.
Six such political foundations operate in Israel, of which two are defined as foreign companies and four as associations for the benefit of the public, which are supervised – or at least should be – by the Justice Ministry's Registrar of Associations.
But it appears that none of the four operate on a level of transparency required by law. One of them, for example, has not submitted financial reports since 2014. The Registrar of Associations repeatedly reprimands them and even denied three of them proper management approvals, but apart from that, nothing has been done.
Bruce Pearl, the head coach of the Auburn University Tigers men’s basketball team, has the perfect response to counter the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign: “Take your players to Israel!”David Hirsh: How you can help oppose antisemitism in academia
The Jewish coach, who has been to Israel four times, took the Alabama team on the inaugural “Birthright for College Basketball Tour,” from July 31 to August 10. Once every four years, the NCAA allows a team to have a foreign tour, and Pearl hopes to make Israel a frequent destination.
The reigning SEC regular-season champion Tigers competed in three sold-out exhibition games against Israel’s top teams. They visited Christianity’s holiest sites and Jewish religious and historical sites, including the Western Wall, the Dead Sea and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. They participated in a basketball clinic for Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze teens, hosted by former Muslim NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, in partnership with Jewish organizations.
Bruce explains, “The greatest way to understand Israel and the amazing place it has become, and the pride the Israelis have in the land and in the people and culture, is to see it for yourself.”
Yet, despite all this camaraderie and opportunities for exchange, BDS proponents — in this case, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — tried to get the athletic department to cancel the trip, or “at least meet with ordinary Palestinians without Israeli handlers” to discuss “the reality of Israeli Apartheid,” conveniently neglecting to mention that the team already had a lunch meeting scheduled with the coach of the Palestinian National Team in Bethlehem, or that Israel is the furthest thing from an apartheid state.
Antisemitic thinking is routine in parts of the social and human sciences. Thousands of academics have signed statements affirming that Israel is uniquely apartheid, illegitimate, racist, should be boycotted and that these axioms are foundational to their scholarship and to their morality. It follows, then, that if you cannot sign up to them you are neither a scholar nor moral.Largest organization of university professors attacks IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
Although they do not say so as explicitly as their defrocked colleague Bristol sociology professor David Miller does, many academics think of their Jewish students and colleagues as ‘assets of Israel’. Hundreds of them, and indeed whole branches of their union, defended Miller, not only on the basis of academic freedom but on the basis of the eminence and value of his scholarship. They have not thought again, even now, when he is reduced to making clunky conspiracy theory videos for the Iranian propaganda machine.
For the overwhelming majority of Jews some kind of positive attachment to Israel is, in the formulation of lawyer and academic Anthony Julius, a “non-contingent and rationally intelligible aspect of their Jewish identity”. In any case, ‘Zionist’ in this context is not a self-ID concept. It is an identity that is thrust on us without our consent, and it means ‘racist’, ‘pro-imperialist’: a person who is not acceptable as a member of either the community of the good or the community of scholarship.
Antisemitic thinking of this kind is positively embraced by only a minority, but most academics either stay quiet in the face of it or they accept it as legitimate.
It is protected by those who have administrative power in our universities. But the work of describing and opposing it is not generally accepted as real scholarship; it is not protected, respected, rewarded or funded.
A first year student told me she had been warned that there was actually a “Zionist” inside the department! It is that picture of me that inspired the designation “far right white supremacist”. I am called that by our Students’ Union, which formally speaks for our students, and it is endorsed by my own union branch, which formally speaks for my colleagues.
I am a scholar of antisemitism, and of genocide, and of 20th century totalitrianism. I am the son of a refugee from Nazi Germany. Depending on who you count, tens, or hundreds, or thousands, or millions of my people were murdered by “far right white supremacists”. There is an antisemitic hostile environment at Goldsmiths. It has announced that it is going to carry out a formal investigation to determine whether that is true, and what should be done about it.
A recent policy document published by the largest organization of university professors in the United States has come under fire for demonizing the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of anti-Semitism by Florida’s state legislature.Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez condemns 'disgusting' tweets
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) published the document in March of 2022, in order to address what it called the “legislative threats” posed by the adoption of the definition.
The document claims that “conservative politicians have justified restrictive legislation under the guise of protecting students” and argues that the wording of the definition conflates political critiques of Israel with Judaism.
It further asserts that academic and intellectual freedom is threatened by the IHRA definition because the definition regards Palestinian activism as a form of discrimination, thus “skewing the social and legal meaning of equality.”
The IHRA definition states that criticism of Israeli politics should not be regarded as anti-Semitic per se—only those critiques that involve a clear double standard. When asked if it recognizes double standards as a form of anti-Semitism, the AAUP offered no comment.
‘The need to disavow their Zionism’
In response to the AAUP’s policy document, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)’s David Litman said “only by ignoring the actual text of the IHRA definition, which clearly states that ‘criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic’ and that overall context matters, is the AAUP able to make its allegation that the definition says the opposite of what it actually says.”
CAMERA’s International Campus director Aviva Rosenschein said “having deceptively edited the IHRA definition, the AAUP statement goes on to shamefully impute nefarious, conspiratorial motives to the mainstream Jewish community, which the statement then equates with the racist ‘far-right.’ ”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has broken his silence over his department's funding of an agency whose senior consultant posted a series of tweets about "Jewish white supremacists."Signed ‘Death to Israel’
In a statement to The Canadian Press, Rodriguez is condemning the comments on Twitter by Laith Marouf as "disgusting" and "antisemitic," adding that racism has no place in Canada.
He also says the Community Media Advocacy Centre, which Marouf works for as a consultant, should never have received a cent of taxpayer money and the Liberal government is reviewing the vetting process to ensure it does not happen again.
Diversity Minister Ahmed Hussen cut $133,000 in Heritage Department funding to the CMAC last week and suspended an anti-racism project it was overseeing after "reprehensible and vile" tweets posted by Marouf came to light.
CMAC has not responded to requests for comment, but a lawyer representing Marouf has previously drawn a distinction between his client's tweets about people he calls "Jewish white supremacists" and Jews in general, saying Marouf harbours no animus toward the Jewish faith as a collective group.
On Monday, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who is Jewish, posted a tweet urging all 338 members of Parliament to condemn antisemitism, after which a significant number of Liberal MPs began speaking up about the issue.
The editor of South Australian student magazine On Dit has clarified to The AJN that “Death to Israel” means “death to the state, to the war criminal IDF, to the occupations and to Zionism”, in an email she also signed off with “Death to Israel”.
The AJN had reached out to the editors of the student publication for comment about the recent article titled For Palestine, There is No Ceasefire.
In her response, On Dit editor and author Habibah Jaghoori emphasised that in her view “Judaism and Zionism are completely separate”.
“The revolutionary slogan of ‘Death to Israel’ is not antisemitic,” she said, adding, “Palestinians themselves are Semites.”
She also said, “Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine is hardly a conflict,” adding, “Israel is a sponsored terrorist state, has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, broken laws of war and occupation in the Fourth Geneva Convention and so much more.”
In a statement shared to Facebook, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) said it was “horrified” by the University of Adelaide student newspaper article.
“The explicit call for ‘death to Israel’ does nothing to advance the peace process, and further targets Jewish students for whom Zionism is a legitimate expression of identity,” the statement said.
AUJS also refers to the article as containing “hateful and divisive speech”, which “sends a dangerous message to Jewish students”.
What a awful read @UniofAdelaide's On Dit magazine has become. Israel-hater Habiba Jaghoori explicitly calls for "death to #Israel" and shills for Palestinian terror groups. Thank you @ECAJewry for calling-out this violent nonsense pic.twitter.com/oa3UPYaJf5
— Heath Sloane (@HeathSloane) August 29, 2022
Like… wow pic.twitter.com/oCpVYiV7X7
— Josh Feldman (@joshrfeldman) August 31, 2022
Knox Grammar students suspended after posting offensive messages in chat group
Students at private boys’ school Knox Grammar have been suspended or left the school after posting inappropriate images and engaging in offensive commentary in an online private chat room.
In a letter to parents on Wednesday, principal Scott James said the school had acted following “an incident” involving several boys from the senior school.
“The nature of these posts is contrary to the values and culture of Knox and is unacceptable. The action of the boys do not reflect a Knox education or the expectations that we place on our students to be respectful and responsible citizens in the community,” James said. Knox Grammar said the incident involved several boys from the senior school.
“The boys posted inappropriate images and engaged in offensive commentary in an online private chatroom,” he said, noting an investigation into the incident was ongoing.
“In regard to the images, some were taken during school activities and later doctored, and the school has spoken with all families of identifiable students. To be very clear, the doctored images do not require mandatory reporting under child protection requirements, and we have discussed the matter with police.”
An article published in The Daily Telegraph claims messages posted included misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic commentary. It says students from the school set up a chat group on messaging app Discord and videos were shared of young men who appear to be being raped.
Congratulations to this troll, who appears to be the first person in history to be completely ghosted by every Lubavitcher on the streets ever. pic.twitter.com/zqlMb6UTsM
— Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) August 31, 2022
My man here was *NOT* ready for a complete High Holiday speech on the entire nature of human conflict ?? pic.twitter.com/B4N6TN6KsD
— Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) August 31, 2022
“The same way (((they))) have infiltrated law and politics” - first video pic.twitter.com/GkdZI3Do07
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 1, 2022
On Polio and Jews, One New York Times Journalist Learns From COVID Mistakes
Most of the time this column about the New York Times is devoted to criticizing it. That makes sense — the paper’s coverage of Israel and Jewish matters is badly flawed, so there is no shortage of possible complaints.BBC Jerusalem bureau ‘journavism’ goes to Masafer Yatta
Every once in a while, though, the newspaper gets something right, and just for the sake of balance and fairness, it’s worth my mentioning that, too. Into that positive category falls a recent Times opinion article by Jeneen Interlandi, who is both a member of the newspaper’s editorial board and a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine. Headlined “How to Fight Polio With Cultural Sensitivity,” the article does a terrific job of trying to understand and respect Orthodox Jews instead of condemning them with a broad brush or sweeping stereotypes.
Interlandi writes, “Orthodox Jewish communities are hardly monolithic. Some are ultraconservative. Others use the internet. They are ethnically diverse, too, and in some cases just as politically divided as the rest of the country. Such nuances have a way of getting lost during public health crises, though.”
She goes on, “What most Orthodox communities do have in common is the intergenerational trauma that comes with long histories of displacement and oppression…. Those experiences were compounded by health officials who often fumbled in their dialogues with ultra-Orthodox groups and by politicians who singled them out frequently — and often unfairly — for criticism…at the height of the Covid pandemic, journalists, politicians and health officials in New York focused on Orthodox religious zeal. Less was made of the dense housing in some communities.”
Knell made no effort to clarify either at that point or elsewhere in her reports that the Palestinians currently located in Masafer Yatta had failed to prove ownership of the land concerned throughout twenty years of court cases. Neither did she bother to explain that the location is sited in Area C and hence “is under full Israeli control” because it was categorised as such (pending final status negotiations) in the Oslo Accords signed by the PLO representatives of the Palestinians. The fact that the area from which she reports was previously illegally occupied by Jordan and designated part of the Jewish homeland by the League of Nations did not prompt Knell to provide the necessary qualifications concerning her interviewee’s claims concerning “my land” and “our land as Palestinians”.Beyond Clickbait: What the Media’s Failing to Report About Itamar Ben-Gvir
In her filmed report Knell likewise ignored BBC editorial guidelines on ‘contributors’ affiliations’ when she gave an unchallenged platform to the advocacy director of the political NGO ‘Breaking the Silence’.
Notably, neither of Knell’s reports includes an interview with any Israeli representative. Viewers of the filmed item are told that “The IDF didn’t answer our request for an interview” while in the audio version Knell states “The Israeli military doesn’t agree to an interview”.
Clearly insufficient effort was made to provide viewers or listeners with the objective facts behind this story (including the foreign intervention by the EU and others which includes illegal construction) or to present a balanced report that includes the Israeli point of view. Instead, BBC audiences around the world got yet another example of BBC ‘journavism’: the blatant amplification of political campaigning by anti-Israel NGOs and activists under the guise of reporting, at the expense of the corporation’s obligatory public purposes.
Media, Take Note: What’s Really Behind Ben-Gvir’s RiseOntario Arabic Media Claims Israeli Mossad Massacred Israeli Athletes At Munich Olympics
The following points are necessary for an in-depth article on the recent boost in Ben-Gvir’s poll numbers.
* Ben-Gvir’s rise is the direct result of terrorist attacks that made Israelis feel unsafe on the streets. The stabbing and shooting attacks on ordinary Israelis in Bnei Brak, Beersheba, Hadera and Tel Aviv in the spring made Israelis feel that they could be the next victim just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Arab sector in Israel is saturated with illegal weapons, and ISIS-inspired Israeli Arab citizens perpetrated or aided terrorists from Jenin in the attacks. Ben-Gvir went to every attack site and made his presence felt, which while insensitive and uncouth, made him look like a leader who cannot remain silent amid such tragedies.
Related Reading: Reality Check, Washington Post, AP: Jenin is the Epicenter of Palestinian Terrorism
* The Israeli Right is enduring political trauma from being misled by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and their allies. Right-wing voters who had cast ballots for Bennett’s Yamina Party want to make sure that this time, Israel will not end up with a coalition that includes an Arab party or the most left-wing Zionist party, Meretz. Ben-Gvir is seen as the least likely to betray them. Israelis on the Right also want to vote strategically so as to enable Netanyahu to form a government and oust Lapid. As such, many voters have concluded that supporting Ben-Gvir was the best way to do that.
Related Reading: Who Is Israel’s New Prime Minister Naftali Bennett?
* Ben-Gvir attracts support from Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) voters who no longer feel compelled to vote for the party their rabbi decrees that they support. There is a Haredi leadership crisis following the death of prominent rabbis in their sector. Their replacements are unlikely to succeed in obtaining the loyalty commanded by previous generations of rabbis, who were born before the Holocaust and Israel’s founding and represented communities and revered learning institutions that were destroyed.
Sephardi voters are especially turned on by Ben-Gvir, whose parents are Iraqi and Kurdish and who included the late chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu’s grandson on his list of candidates. For voters who are sick of elections, Ben-Gvir, 46, provides a fresh alternative.
On top of monitoring Canada’s media in both of our nation’s official languages, English and French, HonestReporting Canada also scrutinizes Canadian Arabic-language news for its reporting and commentary that engages in antisemitism and anti-Israel activism.Guardian writer hurls baseless smear at 'pro-Israel voices'
In recent weeks, we’ve exposed and condemned Mississauga-based Arabic news outlet Meshwar, whose editor uttered the antisemitic dual loyalties slur, and the paper itself for peddling antisemitic propaganda and for featuring a column that called for Israel’s destruction.
This hateful trend continued on August 18, when Meshwar Media published an article on its website by Editor Nazih Khattaba which claimed that the Israeli Mossad carried out the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics games in 1972.
Khattaba wrote the following:
“Those who carried out the massacre of the Israeli athletes in Munich [in 1972] were not [Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas, nor the Black September Organization [BSO – Palestinian terrorist group affiliated with Fatah movement], but the Israeli Mossad squad and the German police that stormed their place of detention. This group [BSO] wanted to swap them [Israeli athletes hostages] for the release of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation [Israel] prisons.”
HonestReporting Canada has independently verified the translation of Nazih Khatatba’s words from the original Arabic.
Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi, who’s half Palestinian, wrote a piece celebrating a new Netflix special featuring the Palestinian-American comic Mo Amer, a show she praises as both funny and “groundbreaking”. Mahdawi, however, ignores the fact that, last year, Netflix announced a new Palestinian collection, titled “Palestinian Stories”, which consists of 32 award-winning films that are either directed by Palestinian filmmakers or tell Palestinian stories.Cleveland Police Officer Won't Be Disciplined for Antisemitic Tweets Since They Were Made Prior to Being Hired
But, Mahdawi devotes most of her column (“For anyone with Palestinian roots like me, Netflix’s sitcom Mo is groundbreaking TV”, Aug. 30) complaining about what she characterises as a dearth of positive depictions of Palestianins in pouplar culure and the media. For instance, she writes:
You can’t even say the P-word without it causing problems: an anchor on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation once had to apologise for using the word Palestine (instead of “Palestinian territories”), for God’s sake.
The CBC of course apologised becase Palestine is NOT a country. That’s an uncontroversial fact.
Mahdawi then further complained about the putative ‘erasure’ of Palestinains by certain “voices”.
Being Palestinian means constantly being told you don’t exist or being accused by certain pro-Israel voices of being antisemitic simply because you assert that you do exist.
This is a smear, plain an simple. Mahdawi doesn’t provide even one example of “pro-Israel” voices assusing Palestinians of antisemitism for asserting that they “exist”. A competent Guardian editor would have called her out on this baseless accusation – one she used in a previous column – which is consistent with the Corbynista narrative that accusations of antisemitism are cynically used by Jews and others in order to silence Palestinains.
While condemning the antisemitic rhetoric used by Cleveland police officer Ismail Quran in tweets surfaced earlier this summer, the city of Cleveland in a statement yesterday said that because they were sent prior to Quran joining the force in 2018, he broke no policies or rules and will not be punished.
“Antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or our police department. We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated," Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond said in a joint release. "We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department. Officer Quran’s hateful offenses were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline."
The city will institute a variety of steps to ensure something similar doesn't happen again, including evaluating bias through behavioral-based interviews, social media monitoring, bias training, mandated cultural competency training for all Public Safety employees, and further mandatory training from the Anti-Defamation League for all officers.
Cleveland previously didn't review social media posts from applying officers.
Quran's tweets included one reading "Fuck that Jew," another saluting Hitler, and others sharing anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.
"Under the circumstances, these are the steps that we can take as a city to reinforce our values and expectations of all employees and help the community heal. We fully expect our police officers—and all who serve the public across the city—to provide the highest levels of professionalism and respect to all citizens," Bibb and Drummond said. "While these actions cannot undo the hurt and anger this officer’s behavior has caused our Jewish community, we hope that they illustrate how seriously we take this situation."
Statement from Mayor Bibb and Cleveland Chief of Police Wayne Drummond on Ismail Quran can be seen here: pic.twitter.com/NZhPe7l74k
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 31, 2022
No More Concealed Carry Guns to Protect NYC Synagogues, Religious Centers and Other Sensitive Places
New York State’s upgraded gun laws went into effect on Thursday, September 1, a legislative move that exacerbates the damage caused to the Big Apple following the 2019 passage of bail reform legislation that has eliminated the option of setting bail or pre-trial detention for anyone who commits a crime short of a violent felony.Police Make Arrests in Connection to Three Attacks on Jewish Men in Brooklyn
The “quality of life” law enforcement era that brought a business boom to the city prior to the tenure of former Mayor Bill de Blasio is now long gone. Along with its departure has come recidivist shootings, robberies and misdemeanor crimes that make life miserable in the city, together with the bail reform legislation that allows the perpetrators to walk free.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell have appealed to the State Legislature to repeal the bail reform laws as they currently stand, but to no avail.
Instead, state lawmakers passed upgraded gun control laws in response to a US Supreme Court decision several months ago that struck down the state’s century-old pistol permit process.
Although well-intended, the new legislation ensures most average citizens will have great difficulty acquiring a weapon to protect themselves from the bad guys who are, obviously, well supplied with such arms.
The new laws:
• contain strengthened background checks and firearm safety and live-fire training for individuals seeking to obtain concealed carry permits;
• prohibit concealed carry permit holders from bringing their firearms into sensitive locations, including Times Square, bars, libraries, schools, government buildings and hospitals, among others; and
• require renewal or recertification of permits every three years.
New York City Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell said during a press conference on Monday that police have made arrests in connection to three hate-crimes incidents against Chassidic Jewish men that took place in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg earlier in August, reported NY1.Swedish court rules firing of Jewish doctor was antisemitic, illegal
Brooklyn resident Carrington Maddox, 31, was arrested on Aug. 25 for allegedly slapping in the face a visibly Jewish man, 27, who was walking down the street on Aug. 22. He was charged with aggravated harassment and menacing as a hate crime.
“No one deserves to be the victim of such senseless, hateful violence,” said Sewell during the press conference, according to NY1.
A 14-year-old boy was also charged on Monday afternoon in relation to two separate incidents on Aug. 21 in which victims were sprayed with a fire extinguisher.
In one case, a 66-year-old Jewish man was approached by a group who sprayed him with powder from a fire extinguisher and then punched him. The group fled the scene following the unprovoked attack. In a separate attack on Aug. 21, a 72-year-old Jewish man was approached by a group of unidentified individuals and sprayed with a fire extinguisher before the alleged attackers fled the scene. No injuries were reported.
The attacks on Aug. 21 took place minutes apart as the victims were walking to morning prayer services at their synagogue, said police.
The Swedish Labor Court determined on Wednesday that there was no legal justification for the firing of a Jewish neurosurgeon in a drawn-out instance of deeply ingrained antisemitism targeting the surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital near Stockholm, Sweden. The Court's ruling confirms the previously suspected fact that the Jewish physician was wrongfully fired from his job.Israel condemns bust of Nazi collaborator in Hungarian parliament
“Dr. Svensson,” a pseudonym to protect the doctor’s identity, was fired last year after complaining for years about pervasive antisemitism at the Karolinska. His termination was the culmination of a series of backlash that included lowering his salary position reassignments. The case resulted in two stinging legal defeats for the management of the medical center, The Jerusalem Post exclusively reported in October.
The Lawfare Project, a New York City-based NGO, retained local counsel for Dr. Svensson to sue the hospital, addressing the discrimination and retaliation for Dr. Svensson’s complaints. After this case was filed in the District Court, the Swedish Medical Association filed a separate action in Labor Court on behalf of Dr. Svensson, specifically addressing his wrongful termination.
“The Karolinska’s admission that it wrongfully fired a Jewish doctor who complained about the antisemitism he was repeatedly subjected to is stunning,” Gerard Filitti, The Lawfare Project’s Senior Counsel, said. “It is highly unusual for a defendant to admit that it had no valid legal reason to fire an employee. This is the essence of wrongful discharge, and the Karolinska’s admission draws a straight line between the discrimination targeting Dr. Svensson, and the unlawful retaliation he experienced when he reported it.”
The Israeli Embassy in Budapest spoke out against a bust of Hungarian leader and Nazi collaborator Miklós Horthy being installed in Hungary’s Parliament this week.Israeli systems that charge electric vehicles in 15 minutes to deploy in Europe, US
“It is hard to imagine that in modern Hungary in the heart of Europe,” the embassy said in an official statement on Wednesday, “there are still political circles that are busy glorifying a person who was also responsible for the inhumane sufferings and death of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian citizens, among them the majority of the Jewish community.
“There is no room and tolerance for antisemitism and antisemitic ideas, period,” the embassy stated.
The far-right Mi Hazánk (“Our Homeland”) Party announced the bust’s installation in the office of the party’s vice president Dóra Dúró on Tuesday, saying they were repaying a historic debt, according to Hungarian news site Telex.
The move was not coordinated with Hungarian House Speaker László Kövér, Telex reported, and he did not allow the party to use an official conference room to make the announcement.
Who was Miklós Horthy?
Horthy was a fascist leader of Hungary who aligned the country with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, killing 63,000 Jews before the Nazi occupation. When it looked like the Nazis would lose, Horthy tried to change sides to the allies, and Germany invaded Hungary, deporting 437,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, gassing most immediately.
Horthy directly approved some of the massacres and deportations of Jews and other populations that were carried out by the Hungarian armed forces during the Nazi occupation.
An Israeli company that has developed a fast electric vehicle (EV) charging system based on kinetic flywheel technology is pressing ahead with the first commercial deals in Europe, the US, and Israel.Flown from Ukraine to Israel with a 1-2% chance of survival, teen recovers
The system, developed by Zooz Power, formerly known as Chakratec (zooz means “move” in Hebrew), takes energy from the grid to spin eight steel wheels per unit, 17,000 times per minute. Each wheel weighs around half a ton. The process converts electrical energy into kinetic energy. When a vehicle comes to recharge, the spinning is slowed down to change that kinetic energy back into electrical energy and to flush it into the vehicle’s battery at such an intensity that the battery fully recharges in around 15 minutes.
Zooz Power CEO Boaz Weizer likened the intense recharging boost delivered by the company’s system to flushing a toilet to release lots of water quickly.
By using physics rather than chemistry, the kinetic recharger avoids environmental issues such as massive water use and pollution associated with lithium extraction. Lithium, a mineral, is used for lithium-ion batteries, the most common storage vessel today.
And unlike lithium batteries, which weaken over time (think of the smartphone), the kinetic system keeps on producing the same level of electricity, Weizer said.
According to one sustainability analyst, the Zooz Power system’s carbon footprint, from production and supply chains through operation and recycling or landfill burial, produces 23 times less carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per kilowatt hour (kWh) than a lithium-ion battery – 0.0027 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent compared to 0.0620 kilograms for the battery.
Over a 15-year lifecycle, the Zooster-100 draws 666,667 kWh from the grid to create 600,000 kWh of kinetic energy and releases 540,000 kWh of recharge. Weizer explained that all energy storage systems had losses and that an 80% loss was “quite good.”
Zooz Power aims to provide fast EV charging in areas where the electricity grid is not yet sufficiently powerful to give that quick boost.
A teenager has made a remarkable recovery in Jerusalem, three months after being airlifted from Ukraine when she was deep in a coma and thought to have a tiny chance of survival."Ukrainian Refugees Find Shelter with Israeli Family Whose Grandfather Was Saved by Theirs"
As the health system crumbled around her in Ukraine this spring, Anna Kosma was having several seizures a day. Local doctors had given the 18-year-old medicine that temporarily paralyzed her, and her family didn’t know where to turn.
A Ukrainian-Israeli citizen who lives near Kyiv, she was flown to Ben Gurion Airport by the Israeli rescue organizations United Hatzalah and Zaka. An ambulance was waiting to take her to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where she was, until now, in the ICU.
“I met the ambulance, and took her straight to intensive care, without even stopping at the ER as there was no point given the seriousness of her condition,” Dr. Stefan Mausbach, director of neuro-intensive care, told The Times of Israel. “She had been having seizures for weeks.”
Kosma had gone through a rare bacterial or viral infection that caused epilepsy and a range of serious reactions. “Upon arrival, she was totally non-reactive and in a coma,” said Mausbach, explaining that the chance of serous brain damage in such scenarios is very high. “I estimated her chances of survival at 1% to 2%.”
Mausbach’s colleague Dr. Roni Eichel, director of neurology at Shaare Zedek, explained that she faced a rare case of fever turned epilepsy that is “very difficult to treat with drugs, so that the patient in most cases suffers from severe brain damage, and in many cases there is a risk of death.”
Almost 80 years after Piotr Sanevich and his family saved a Jewish boy named Dimitri Schmeiger from the Nazis, Sanevich’s daughter and seven grandchildren fled the bombings in Ukraine for Be’er Sheva, where Schmeiger’s family lives today.How Holocaust researchers rely on unknown photos from public to recover lost stories
Anatoly and Lydia Odarchuk fled to Israel from Rivne in Ukraine with seven of their nine children when the shelling began. Lydia’s father was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life to save Jewish children during the Holocaust.
“We had a happy life in Ukraine,” said Lydia. “Until the last moment, we didn’t believe that a war could break out. The decision to leave was very difficult because it’s our homeland and we had to leave for an unknown length of time. In Israel, we discovered many good, caring people who helped us. The vouchers will be a great help in purchasing the things that we need because our family is very largeץ”
Ksenia Sukhenko (31), fled with her two daughters from the city of Dnipro and was eligible to receive the gift vouchers: “With the explosions, we decided to leave immediately. During the escape to Israel, my daughters only ate bread and sandwiches. It was snowing and very cold. At the border crossing, they slept on the floor in a school until they approved for us to come to Israel, where my father lives”.
Sukhenko continued, “We arrived in Israel with almost nothing, with winter clothes and a bag of documents. For four months now, my father has been sleeping on an inflatable mattress, and I am with my daughters on a shared bed in a tiny flat. I need to start my life over. I hope that in the future, better days will come.”
The summer of 2022 marked the 80th anniversary of the first Nazi deportation of Jewish families from Germany to Auschwitz.Debut novel offers original perspective on Theodor Herzl
Although the Nazis deported hundreds of thousands of Jewish men and women, in many places where those tragic events happened, no images are known to document the crime. Surprisingly, there’s not even photographic evidence from Berlin, the Nazi capital and home to Germany’s largest Jewish community.
The lack of known images is important. Unlike in the past, historians now agree that photographs and film must be taken seriously as primary sources for their research. These sources can complement the analysis of administrative documents and survivor testimonies and thus enrich our understanding of Nazi persecution.
As a historian originally from Germany and now teaching in the US, I have researched the Nazi persecution of the Jews for 30 years and published 10 books on the Holocaust.
I searched for unpublished images in all the archives I visited during my research. But I have to admit that I – along with many of my colleagues – did not take the gathered visual evidence seriously as a primary source and rather used it to illustrate my publications.
During the past decade, scholars have realized how pictures can contribute to our understanding of mass violence as well as the resistance to it. Some can provide the only evidence we have about an act of persecution – for example, a photograph of anti-Jewish graffiti. Others will reveal additional details, as in the image of a court proceeding against anti-Nazi resistors.
Photographs are now in some cases the sole objects of scholarly inquiry. They are used to identify perpetrators and victims in specific cases, when other sources would not reveal them.
The city of Basel in Switzerland is hosting a unique event this week. Led by the World Zionist Organization, delegates from around the Jewish world are expected to arrive to mark the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress – held in the Swiss city in 1897 – which paved the way for the future State of Israel.
"I wish I could have heard Herzl speak at the first congress," Moshe Luna, who has recently published his debut novel about the legendary Zionist leader, told Israel Hayom.
Bold and original, "The Triple Voyage" offers an alternative narrative to Herzl's story and dives into untold chronicles of Early Zionism.
Luna continued, "I wish there were inventions like video or Facebook in Herzl's time. I would like to have heard him. Many of the Zionist founders were smart and good people, but none like Herzl. He was endowed with a unique flight. Only someone with his way of thinking could lead both practical and spiritual people."
Luna's book pays homage to the man that at the end of August 1897 stood at the center of an event hall in Basil and outlined the path that eventually led to the establishment of the Jewish state.
"Herzl is an exceptional figure both in Jewish and world history," Luna notes. "Everyone can relate to him in a way, because we all have the desire to do something right and good, only that with Herzl it was on a massive scale, so much so one could have thought he was disconnected from reality. He knew that his vision was not easy to comprehend. No wonder he said the now-famous quote 'If you will it, it is no dream.'
"My profession is actually high-tech, not writing, and originally I thought to write an old-time adventure book. And yet, those who read 'The Triple Voyage' in depth will notice other layers, which go beyond the rules of the genre of adventure and suspense. I tried to bring to the fore the feelings of the person who created such a significant turning point in the life of the Jewish people.
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