Thursday, December 01, 2022

12/01 Links Pt2: Cultural appropriation and the Jews; UN envoy to Hamas: ‘You have the right to fight Israel’; Kanye praises Hitler, says every human has value, 'especially Hitler'

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Cultural appropriation and the Jews
The notable aspect of West’s behavior is that whereas Irving issued a groveling apology for his antisemitic outburst, West doubled down. In every public appearance since he openly defended Irving’s anti-Semitism, West has not only restated his antisemitic positions, he has expanded on them, and escalated his attacks on Jews as a people, a community in America, and as individuals. In redefining himself as an antisemite first and a rapper and public figure second, West has chosen to associate himself most closely with other antisemites, particularly white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

West’s decision to act as a bridge between black antisemitism, which is generally associated with the progressive political camp, and white supremacist antisemitism, which is generally associated with the political far right, exposes a much-ignored but fundamental fact about antisemitism: it isn’t a political position. It is a cultural outlook; a way of understanding the world. Antisemites hail from the political left, center and right. They come from all religions. Their antisemitism directs their politics. Consequently, antisemitic policies have advocates in all political camps.

This brings us back to the Israeli reporters in Doha.

Black Israelites and the Nation of Islam, which base their identity on the appropriation of Jewish identity, comprise a small but powerful minority of the black community in America. They impact the Congressional Black Caucus and other key black power centers, which in turn impact the Democratic Party. And while their cultural and political power are growing, they are still limited.

In contrast, embrace of the Palestinian narrative is all but universal across the Arab world, across the wider Muslim world and across large sections of the Western world. It is nearly universally accepted in Europe and by progressives in America. All of the people who accept and champion the Palestinian narrative accept the validity of a political cause that is entirely based on the appropriation of Jewish peoplehood.

Shechnik and his fellow reporters were stunned to discover the truth about the war against them as Jews, and against their state. The antisemitism that animates their antagonists in Doha has nothing to do with who leads Israel’s government or what the Israeli military does in any given war or operation. Support of the Palestinians, and their goal of wiping Israel off the map, is rooted in Jew hatred, shared by billions of people across the world.

The Palestinians are popular because they provide a vehicle for expressing and advancing that hatred, including in the halls of power across the world. Israel’s endurance is unacceptable, because simply by surviving, simply by having reporters to send to cover the World Cup in Doha, the Jewish state proves that the Palestinian narrative is untrue, and based on a rejection of observable reality and the historical record, not on justice or truth.

Likewise, American Jews are stunned to discover that black antisemitism, like Palestinian-predicated assaults on Jews from Peoria to Miami, has nothing to do with who is in power in Israel or whether American Jews identify with progressive or conservative politicians and causes. It has nothing to do with whether or not American Jews are willing to accept “white guilt.”

Irving, West, the Black Israelites, the Nation of Islam and their ilk don’t hate Jews because of anything any particular Jew may or may not think, say or do. They hate the Jews because they have stolen Jewish history, heritage, nationhood and culture and appropriated all of them to themselves. Having done so, they have no choice but to demonize the Jews, because Jewish endurance and legitimacy expose the fraud at the heart of their invented identity.
From New York City to the Negev Desert: Who Are the Black Hebrew Israelites?
From Jews to Israelites: The Third Wave
The third wave of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement began in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to the civil rights movement and the subsequent Black Power movement.

The third wave is defined as a period when BHI denominations emerged that were more patriarchal, more militant and more extreme.

The third wave is also when the movement began to self-identify as “Black Israelites” instead of “Black Jews.”

Initially, the third wave continued in the footsteps of the second wave by adopting Jewish traditions and learning Jewish texts.

However, as the third wave continued, new BHI denominations began to emerge that were influenced by Black separatism and the militancy that colored 1960s America.

One of the most prominent Black Hebrew Israelite denominations that emerged during this period was the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge (commonly known as “One West”).

Founded in the late 1960s by Eber Ben Yomin (also known as Abba Bivens), a former member of the Commandment Keepers, One West espouses the belief that white Jews stole the identity of Black, Latin and Native Americans (who are the true Jews) and that the mainstream Jewish community is responsible for all the challenges that face these communities.

One West also adopted the tactics of confrontational street preaching and wearing colorful garments, emulating the clothing that they believe that the original Israelites wore thousands of years ago.

Some of the most radical, militant and bigoted Black Hebrew Israelite sects to emerge in the past 40 years are offshoots of One West.

These groups include Israel United in Christ, the Israelite school of Universal Practical Knowledge, the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, the Sicarii, House of Israel, True Nation Israelite Congregation and Israelite Saints of Christ.

Of all these groups, Israel United in Christ (IUIC) is one of the most vocal and public. They are also one of the most militant and bigoted. They are known for street-preaching, rallying (including on behalf of Kyrie Irving) and marching.

In its writings and speeches, IUIC has made a wide variety of antisemitic statements, including that Jews are demons, that “everything they [Jewish people] do is about lying” and that Jewish people are responsible for a “Holocaust” that Black people have been experiencing since the 1400s.

The Black Hebrew Israelites in the State of Israel
One of the sects that emerged during the third wave was the Original African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem.

This sect was founded by Ben Ammi Ben Israel, a Chicago-born man who claimed that he had received a vision in 1966 that he was to return the African-American descendants of the ancient Israelites to the Promised Land.

By 1967, Ben Israel had persuaded 400 people to leave the United States with him for the Promised Land. After a brief sojourn in Liberia, that was seen as a means of purging the negative influence of captivity, this group arrived in Israel in 1969.

When they arrived in Israel, the group was given temporary visas and housing in the southern Israeli development town of Dimona.

Soon after the initial group’s arrival in the country, the Israeli government noticed that more members were arriving and illegally staying in the country (since it was determined that they were not Jewish, they were not eligible to become citizens under the Law of Return).

The State of Israel’s attempt to bar more members of the African Hebrew Israelite Nation from moving to the country led to a protracted conflict between the state and the sect.

During this nasty fight, which lasted 13 years, members of the sect took part in a public campaign against the State of Israel, which included calls for a halt to American aid to Israel and a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

In 1990, the Israeli government and the African Hebrew Israelites came to an agreement whereby members of the sect would be granted permanent residency.

In 2004, the first member of the African Hebrew Israelites enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and by 2006, 100 members were serving in the Israeli military. In 2009, the first member of the sect gained Israeli citizenship.

There are currently between 3,000 to 5,000 members of the African Hebrew Israelites living in Israel, the majority of whom are in the southern towns of Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon.

The African Hebrew Israelites place a strong emphasis on healthy living. They follow a vegan diet and highly limit their intake of sugar and salt. In addition, members are forbidden from smoking, taking drugs or drinking alcohol (aside from naturally fermented wines). The African Hebrew Israelites also follow a strict exercise schedule.

Until 1990, members of the African Hebrew Israelite community practiced polygamy due to its existence in the Biblical tradition and because there were many more women than men in the first years of the community.

Aside from the Biblical holidays, the African Hebrew Israelite community also holds a special festive celebration every May: New World Passover, which commemorates their exodus from the United States in 1967.


UN envoy to Hamas: ‘You have the right to fight Israel’
Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for the Palestinians, spoke at a Hamas-organized conference in Gaza on Monday.

She plans to continue on to Israel, which is considering refusing her entry.

Senior members of the U.S.- and E.U.-designated terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were among those in attendance, including Hamas’s Basem Naim, Ghazi Hamad, Isam al-Da’alis and Abdul Latif al-Qanu, and PIJ’s Ahmad al-Mudallal and Khadr Habib.

In her speech, translated in real-time to Arabic, Albanese told the crowd: “You have a right to resist this occupation.”

The UN official recently said, “If they [Israel] don’t let me in….I’ll be able to claim that I’ve been denied access.”

Albanese has a history of supporting violence against Israelis. In June, she said, “Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism,’ but an occupation requires violence and generates violence.”


UN Watch: UN Condemns Israel 15 Times, Rest of World 13
New York, December 1, 2022 — The UN General Assembly condemned Israel yesterday in five separate resolutions, for a total of 15 resolutions targeting the Jewish state in 2022 — compared to 13 on the rest of the world combined. (Click here for texts and voting sheets.)

“The UN’s latest assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization. “Israel is the Middle East’s only democracy, yet instead the UN is empowering the region’s despots.”

“It’s absurd that out of a total of 28 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries this year, more than half are focused on one single nation — Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of these lopsided texts is not to promote human rights, but to demonize the Jewish state,” said Neuer.

Five New Resolutions Against Israel
Three of yesterday’s resolutions perpetuate the UN’s decades-old anti-Israel infrastructure, ensuring continued UN funding and staff for agencies, committees and programs that seek to demonize, delegitimize, and isolate the Jewish state and undermine peace.

One text, renewing the mandate of the UN’s Palestinian staff division dedicated to diffusing anti-Israel propaganda the world over, institutes a 2023 event to “commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba.” This will lend the UN’s imprimatur to the rejectionist narrative that the independence of Israel constitutes a “catastrophe.”

Another of the resolutions adopted yesterday renews the mandate of the 25-nation “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,” which produces one-sided reports that only examine Israel, turning a blind eye to terrorism by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. It is the General Assembly’s only human rights committee that is devoted to a single cause.

“Why is there no 25-nation UN committee devoted to gross and systematic human rights violations by the regimes in Iran, China or Russia?” asked Neuer.

One of the resolutions — officially co-sponsored by Syria’s Assad regime — determines that Israel’s “continued occupation of the Syrian Golan” constitutes “a stumbling block in the way of achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region,” and demands that Israel withdraw from “all the Occupied Syrian Golan.”

“It’s astonishing,” said Neuer. “After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to Assad’s rule, even as it turns a blind eye to Iran’s aggressive military build-up in the area, including by arming Hezbollah terrorists? The text is morally galling, and logically absurd.”
75 years since UN partition plan, Israel marks 'Jewish Nakba'
Israel's ambassador to the UN held an exhibition at the UN headquarters documenting the expulsion from Arab states and Iran, in what has become a battle of narratives.


Activists turn out to counter Philadelphia event denouncing Israel’s existence
Around 40 supporters of Israel held a counter-vigil to a City of Philadelphia-sponsored “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” with accusations that a pro-Palestinian participant snapped an Israeli flag in half.

“The city claims that the event is not political, that they just want to honor [Palestinian] culture and contributions to the city. It’s absolute malarkey,” Steve Feldman, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS. “There has been nothing to honor Jewish immigrants, nothing for Israeli immigrants. There’s been nothing of the sort by the city.”

The event on Tuesday coincided with Palestine Solidarity Day, which has been observed since 1977 through a United Nations General Assembly resolution. The Nov. 29 date marks the anniversary of the passing of a General Assembly resolution partitioning the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, a resolution that Palestinian Arabs still reject. Palestinians refer to the subsequent creation of a Jewish state as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe.

The city scheduled an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at its Municipal Services Building, hosting the affair for the second straight year. According to a promotional poster, the event was sponsored by the Office of the City Representative (OCR) and Mayor Jim Kenney’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.


Denied a right of reply, I’ve now won my libel case against Corbynite accusers
John Ware took Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the group Jewish Voice for Labour and a pro-Corbynite journalist to court for defamation over his 2019 BBC Panorama exposé on antisemitism. In the first of two articles, he reveals the background to his marathon litigation to defend the programme against a campaign that belittled the anxieties of Jews and tried to destroy his reputation

Today marks the successful end of my three-year campaign to defend, in the forensic setting of a courtroom, the 2019 BBC Panorama programme Is Labour Antisemitic?, for which I was the reporter.

I sued the publisher of a website called “Press Gang exposing rogue journalism” who launched a defamatory campaign “exposing” my “dirty tricks” to deliberately deceive two million viewers by knowingly exaggerating the scale of antisemitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

It was the last of my three cases against Labour under Corbyn and two of his high-profile supporters who’ve tried to destroy every vestige of Panorama’s credibility, belittling the anxieties of many Jews in Labour under whose leader antisemitism had secured a foothold. Undermining Panorama has been central to Corbynite attempts to rewrite history because they consider the programme helped deprive Corbyn of the premiership.

Posturing as the high priests of ethical journalism, their attacks have relentlessly vilified the professional integrity of me and my BBC colleagues. Press Gang publisher Paddy French disseminated his “evidence” in glossy pamphlets and to many thousands on social media parroting the language of a quasi-statutory body with portentous assertions like “Our Charge sheet…” and “This damning report finds against the BBC…”

Around 300 of the pamphlets were sent to editors and senior journalists in television and radio networks and newspapers to inflict maximum harm on my reputation and BBC journalism. Flyers were handed to BBC employees outside Broadcasting House.

My motive for knowingly deceiving two million viewers? To help prevent Corbyn becoming prime minister, according to French – despite my having accused Boris Johnson of lying as prime minister in another documentary just three weeks before the 2019 election.

French’s website claimed he could prove all his allegations and that his lawyers were “confident” he had “a strong defence”. He said that a “landmark John Ware v Paddy French libel trial will decide who was right in the Labour antisemitism issue”.

Among his supporters were the celebrity Corbynites Ken Loach, the film director, and Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd. The multimillionaire musician was French’s main financial backer. In one of Waters’ social media tirades against me, he said I was “entirely controlled by the oligarchs… bought and paid for”.
A campaign against Jew-hatred that actually worked
Since I started writing about antisemitism about a decade ago, I’ve had trouble answering one question: Why are Jews, who excel in fields from science to literature to music, so bad at confronting antisemitism?

Part of the answer is that antisemitism is irrational—based on conspiracy theories that morph every century. It’s also sadly the case that many Jews today in a position to create change—professors, heads of nonprofits, CEOs—prefer to suppress their Jewish identity to maintain their social “status.” But neither of these things fully explains how, for instance, the lies of “Palestinianism” have been able to completely consume our campuses.

However, a small exhibition at the New York Historical Society shows that this was not always the case. “Confronting Hate 1937-1952” examines how a groundbreaking media campaign launched by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to combat rising antisemitism in the United States actually worked. AJC CEO David Harris calls the exhibit “a testament to the vision of creative individuals committed to preserving and strengthening our pluralistic democracy.”

American antisemitism didn’t begin in the mid-20th century, but it did reach a dangerous peak. In 1935, a newspaper called American Gentile declared on its front page, “Let’s Take America Away From the Jews!” and “Jewish CARTHAGE Must Be Destroyed if Free America Is To Survive!” By 1937, roughly 50 demonstrations a week, including rallies at Madison Square Garden, spewed antisemitic propaganda, openly inciting violence. Organizations such as the Anti-Jewish League, Protect American Rights and the American National Party distributed leaflets with slogans like “White Men Do Not Buy From Jews” and “Buy Gentile, Employ Gentile, Vote Gentile.” One 1938 survey found that nearly 41% of Americans thought that Jews had too much power.
Kanye West praises Hitler, says every human has value, 'especially Hitler'
Kanye West said that there were good things about Adolf Hitler while being hosted on Alex Jones' far-right show Infowars on Thursday.

In response to Jones telling West that he does not deserve to be called a Nazi, West replied that he loves everyone including Hitler.

"Well, I see good things about him," he said. "I love everyone. The Jewish people are not going to tell me 'you can love us and or you can love what we're doing to your contracts, but this guy (Hitler) that invented highways and invented the very microphone that I use as a musician - you cannot say out loud that he ever did anything good.' I'm done with that. I'm done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they bring to the table, especially Hitler."

"I don't like the word 'evil' next to Nazis," he added later in the show. "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis."

West then compared himself to Jews in the Holocaust, saying that "there are Jewish people basically hiding me under their floorboards right now. It's like a reverse version of the Holocaust."

The microphone and highways, which West said were good things that Hitler created were not invented by Hitler. Highways existed as early as 1906, and there is no consensus on who was the inventor of them, but it definitely wasn't Hitler. The invention of microphones has been attributed to inventors such as Alexander Graham Bel and Thomas Edison, and the patent is held by James West.

West and Jones were joined by white supremacist Nick Fuentes who is well known for his Holocaust denial. Donald Trump sparked much controversy earlier this week when he hosted West and Fuentes for dinner at his estate in Mar-a-Lago.

West claimed that Trump loved Fuentes when they had dinner together and asked West where he "found this kid." West mocks Netanyahu and Jews

Later in the show, West pulled out a net on a stick and a bottle of Yoohoo and said that together, they made up Netanyahu, pretending that they were incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Pretending that the net was Netanyahu, West put on a high voice and had the stick say antisemitic stereotypes.

"I'm the head of the Mossad," he pretended that the Netanyahu stick was saying. "I'm going to kill you and take your children away from you. We control the history books and we control the banks, and we always kill people."

West attended the show in a full face mask that didn't have holes for the eyes or mouth.


Amazon CEO: Antisemitic film must stay on site, to allow for ‘different viewpoints’
Amazon’s CEO said Wednesday that the company has no intention of removing a virulently antisemitic film from its site despite it being at the center of a recent uptick in antisemitism.

“As a retailer of content to hundreds of millions of customers with a lot of different viewpoints, we have to allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable — objectionable and they differ from our particular viewpoints,” Andy Jassy said at a New York Times summit in Manhattan.

Jassy said that the decision is not as “straightforward” as those made to remove content that includes incitement to violence or pedophilia.

The film in question is called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” and promotes the idea that the true descendants of the ancient Israelites are modern-day African Americans and that today’s Jews fraudulently claim that ancestry. It also contains a series of other antisemitic claims, including Holocaust denial and the false allegation that Jews controlled the American slave trade.

Last month, NBA player Kyrie Irving shared a link to the film on social media, which resulted in torrents of criticism and a suspension from his team. He eventually apologized and was reinstated.

The surrounding controversy has rocketed the otherwise obscure film to the center of attention, and it has since become a bestseller, topping all documentaries on Amazon Prime Video.


Cricket world in new row after ‘Zionist lobby’ tweet
The new chairman of a top cricket club endorsed comments that the “Zionist lobby” has “oversized” control of the media and a string of other inflammatory social media posts, the JC can reveal.

Azeem Akhtar, the former board member of Sport England who was announced as chair of first-class Essex County Cricket Club on Monday, also “liked” on Twitter a defence of comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, and another post that celebrated athletes boycotting the Jewish state.

Mr Akhtar is the club’s first ethnic minority chairman and was appointed 12 months after a racism scandal led to the ousting of his predecessor.

His appointment was intended to “signal the beginning of a new era for the club” following the row.

Anti-racism group Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) attacked the Israel-Nazi comparison and the comments about the “Zionist lobby” as “indefensible”.

“Several of the tweets ‘liked’ by Azeem Akhtar breach the International Definition of Antisemitism,” a CAA spokesperson said.

“Essex County Cricket Club must investigate Mr Akhtar’s social media activity immediately, lest cricket start to become a breeding ground for antisemitism denial.”


PreOccupiedTerritory: Jews Told ‘Go Back To Palestine!’ Suspect Goyim Don’t Want Them In Palestine, Either (satire)
The ethnoreligious group harassed and berated for centuries with cries rejecting them from their host societies and urging them to return to their country of ethnogenesis did exactly that in large numbers over the last hundred-fifty years, only to face the same objection to their presence not just from locals, but from the same people who had banished them in the first place, leading the group to wonder whether in fact the objection stems from their mere presence or their very existence.

Cries of “Go back to Palestine, Jew!” and the like met Jews wherever they lived following waves of conquest and exile that displaced the indigenous people of the Kingdom of Judah and Land of Israel in ancient times. Small groups of Jews did return to their ancestral land over the many centuries since; the number rose significantly amid Czarist persecutions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the Zionist movement created the underpinnings of a reconstituted Jewish sovereign entity in the land. The floodgates of immigration opened completely once the State of Israel attained independence in 1948, providing refuge for nearly a million Jews expelled from the Muslim world over the following decades. The removal of Jews from their midst, however, has not stopped the former host societies from demanding that Jews leave wherever they are, prompting doubts among Jews and others that the original admonition to return to Palestine was spoken in good faith.

“I’m beginning to get the feeling they don’t want us anywhere, not just Lithuania, for example,” admitted David ben-Yoel, whose ancestors fled Riga ahead of Nazi-inspired riots in mid-1941. “Every abuse featured some variation of ‘You don’t belong here, go back where you came from,’ so you’d think, huh, once we went back where we came from, those folks would be happy, but no. So I’m beginning to think it’s not about our being there in Poland, Hungary, or Morocco, for instance. I’m beginning to think there’s something deeper going on.”
Netflix ‘n Nakba: The Guardian’s Alleged Journalism
Netflix’s decision to stream a Jordanian film about Israel’s 1948 War of Independence is causing controversy.

Let’s take a look at parts of the story as told by the AFP wire service, an outlet not known for being favorable towards Israel:
An Israeli minister on Wednesday condemned Netflix over a decision to stream a Jordanian film depicting alleged atrocities against Palestinians during the 1948 conflict that coincided with Israel’s creation.

“Farha” is not the first film to stir controversy over alleged Israeli atrocities in 1948, when more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.

Most recently, Israeli director Alon Schwarz faced widespread backlash over his 2022 documentary on an alleged massacre of Palestinians in Tantura, a coastal Mediterranean village in the northwest of what is now Israel.”

Note that AFP has deliberately and quite correctly referred to “alleged Israeli atrocities,” and an “alleged massacre” as is the standard journalistic practice when dealing with events that are disputed or unproven. The most obvious and common example of this practice is the media’s reference to “alleged criminals” or “alleged crimes” if they have not been proven in a credible court of law.

In addition, AFP refers to 1948 “when more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes” without taking a politicized stance on those events.

Now contrast AFP’s reportage with that of Bethan McKernan of The Guardian:
The film centres on the experiences of a girl, 14, who is locked in a storage room by her father during the events of the Nakba, the Arabic term for the ethnic cleansing and displacement of about 700,000 Palestinians.

Portrayals of atrocities committed by Jewish forces in the 1948 war, fictional or otherwise, remain a highly sensitive subject in Israel. A documentary released earlier this year about the massacre of Palestinians in Tantura, a destroyed coastal village in what is now the north of Israel, faced widespread backlash.”

For Bethan McKernan, there is nothing “alleged” about claims made against Israel. They are treated as fact, adopting the Palestinian narrative wholesale. Instead, her story refers to the events of 1948 as the “Nakba,” which takes the highly inflammatory claim of “ethnic cleansing” as read.

As for Tantura, the word “alleged” is conspicuous by its absence in The Guardian. Indeed, historian Professor Benny Morris systematically debunks the documentary about the claimed massacre at Tantura, stating:
There is no written evidence from 1948 – not in Israeli archives, not in United Nations’ archives and not in the archives of the Red Cross or the Western powers – that describes or even mentions a big massacre at Tantura.”
Guardian article on 'Israeli massacre' inspired by fictitious events
Yesterday was the annual day of commemoration for the roughly 850,000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Arab countries and Iran before and after the creation of Israel. Their only crime was being Jewish.

However, there was complete radio silence at the Guardian – and in other British media outlets – about the commemoration, which of course isn’t surprising, as there’s almost never any coverage in the major outlets of the ethnic cleansing of Jews in the Middle East.

Instead, the Guardian ran with an article by Bethan McKernan about a Netflix film by a Jordanian film-maker “depicting Zionist forces murdering a Palestinian family” in 1948, (“Israel condemns Netflix film showing murder of Palestinian family in 1948 war”, Dec. 1). The film, readers are told, is “inspired by real events”, which mean that the director is not claiming that the events in the film actually occurred, and is described by McKernan as centering around a Palestinian girl witnessing Israeli soldiers murdering children.

McKernan cites Israel’s culture minister, Hili Tropper, saying that Farha depicts “lies and libels”. But, McKernan’s own lies in that paragraph are just as toxic – claiming Israeli “ethnic cleansing” of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Most Palestinian fled their homes during the war without being forced to do so. As CAMERA has explained, the masses fled in response to exhortations by Arab military and political leaders that Palestinian civilians evacuate their homes until the end of the fighting – assuming the’d be victorious. Vast numbers simply fled the heavy fighting that surrounded them, or that they expected would soon disrupt their lives. In some instances, Palestinians were forced from their homes by the Jewish military.

But, let’s do what the Guardian never does: place events in 1948 in context.


BBC framing of Palestinian terror and violence continues to fail audiences
Early on the afternoon of November 29th the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten which, after several amendments, currently appears under the headline ‘Five Palestinian men killed in West Bank violence’.

As indicated by the subheading to the report, that inadequate headline does not reflect the fact that the BBC is clearly aware that all five of those “Palestinian men” were involved in violent activity at the time of their deaths, including one who carried out a terror attack.

The first of those “clashes” took place in Beit Ummar late on November 28th when Israeli troops were attacked by rioters after their vehicles broke down.

“Israeli troops whose military vehicles broke down near the West Bank city of Hebron late Monday clashed with a group of Palestinians and required support from forces to safely withdraw from the area, the Israel Defense Forces said. […]

The IDF said the two jeeps, on a routine patrol, got stuck in the city due to “technical malfunctions.”

Palestinians opened fire, and others threw stones and explosive devices at the soldiers, who responded with live fire and other riot dispersal means, the military said.”

The description of that incident found in the BBC report’s includes superfluous punctuation around the word rioters and erases the shooting at Israeli forces:
A BBC narrative and a contradictory perspective
In November of last year we documented the BBC’s three-month-long promotion of a narrative concerning supposed Israeli “police inaction” on the issue of crime in the Arab sector:

“Bereaved families and Arab officials claim that police inaction is one of the main reasons for the endemic violence plaguing their neighbourhoods.”

Several written reports promoting that narrative remain online as what the BBC describes as “permanent public record”.

One year on – on November 25th 2022 – the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour’ aired an interview with Thabet Abu Rass of the NGO ‘Abraham Fund Initiatives’ on the topic of an agreement reportedly reached within the framework of coalition talks whereby Itamar Ben Gvir would take on the post of National Security Minister should Netanyahu manage to form a government.

During that interview [from 14:05 here] Abu Rass told host Julian Marshall about the current Minister of Public Security and his deputy who took office in June 2021: [emphasis in italics in the original]

“…the last government we had a minister called Omer Bar Lev and his deputy Yoav Segalovich that worked hard; they work hard to combat crime and violence and they knew how to build the trust between Arab leaders and Arab mayors and the ministry and the police forces.”

That is clearly a markedly different perspective to the one repeatedly promoted by the BBC between August and November last year. Nevertheless, it will disappear from public view a month after broadcast whereas the BBC’s chosen narrative of “police inaction” will remain available online.
Tel Aviv ranked world’s 3rd-most expensive city, overtaken by New York and Singapore
Ranked last year as the most expensive city in the world to live in, Tel Aviv has lost its inglorious title and been bumped into third position, according to a worldwide survey released on Thursday.

Overtaking the Israeli coastal city, New York and Singapore have this year jointly been ranked as the most expensive cities to live in, as the war in Ukraine propelled energy prices, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living report. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine put pressure on global energy and food prices, although effects in Israel are more limited due to the country’s self-sufficiency in natural gas.

“A stronger currency and a higher inflation rate have enabled these two cities to push Tel Aviv into third place,” the report said.

Hong Kong and Los Angeles rounded out the top five most expensive places, while Damascus and Tripoli remain the cheapest of the 172 cities covered in the survey.

For Israelis, the cost of living is rising, as inflation accelerated above 5% and housing prices soared almost 20% percent over the past year. At the same time, salaries are not aligning, with the average Israeli worker taking home less pay than in 64% of OECD countries in 2021, according to OECD data.

The roughly 10% of Israelis employed in the country’s tech industry earn a much higher average wage, contributing to growing inequality, which is higher than in most advanced economies, according to the OECD.
How the Mayor of New York Helped Brooklyn’s Jews to Observe the Sabbath
At city hall on Monday, New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams signed a Jewish legal contract, along with an official proclamation, that will make Sabbath observance significantly easier for the hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews who live in Brooklyn, New York—and especially the ḥasidic enclave of Borough Park. The documents establish an eruv, an elaborate legal fiction consisting of a “wall” that gives the area it encloses the status of a private courtyard in which carrying out of doors, normally prohibited on Shabbat, is permitted. Yehudit Garmaise writes:
A new eruv surrounds all of Borough Park, and most of Brooklyn. . . . While the first part of completing an eruv is building and repairing the eruv’s “doors” and “virtual walls” the second part is that the city’s mayor or police commissioner must rent the eruv to the Jewish community, Rabbi Eli Uminer, [a member of the committee that oversees the eruv], explained.

While in the past, the city had given the Jewish community a verbal agreement, today at City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams completed the project by signing a 99-year lease for one dollar, “to allow carrying in the boundaries of the eruv in accordance with Jewish law,” the mayor’s signed proclamation said.

“It was very nice that the mayor took the time to host us and to make the eruv for us,” said Rabbi Uminer, who was at City Hall today along with other Brooklyn Eruv Vaad [council] members.
Innovative oasis produces food and electricity in Israel's desert

Israel Museum inaugurates exhibit to mark India’s 75th birthday
The Israel Museum on Thursday inaugurated an exhibit titled “Body of Faith: Sculpture from the National Museum of India,” to mark the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Indian Ambassador to Israel Sanjeev Singla were slated to attend the launch event in Jerusalem.

The display features 14 large-scale Indian sculptures made of bronze and stone, created between the fourth and 13th centuries. Eight of them are on loan from the National Museum in New Delhi and six are from the Israel Museum’s own collection.

The sculptures exemplify the religious art and diverse philosophies that developed in India over the centuries.

On Jan. 29, India and Israel celebrated 30 years of full diplomatic relations, kicking off a year of joint cultural and educational events.




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