Sunday, April 02, 2023

04/02 Links: Hijacking the Narrative: Inside Israel’s Domestic Protests; Police thwart Hamas Temple Mount shooting plot; Speaker at funeral of terrorist: “We love death like our enemies love life”

From Ian:

A crisis of judicial proportions explained, Part I: Reforming the Supreme Court
For the last several weeks, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest a highly controversial package of judicial reforms being rapidly advanced by the recently installed right-wing and religious coalition led by Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In addition to the protesters, economists, businessmen, foreign governments and leaders of the Jewish Diaspora have joined the calls to oppose the reforms. They claim that should the reforms pass, Israel will suddenly be on the road to becoming a fascist dictatorship and that the country is teetering on chaos. Leaders of the protest movement have repeatedly stated that the protests may lead to violence.

So why was the government rapidly advancing such judicial reforms while protests and domestic chaos among reform opponents were simultaneously brewing at unprecedented levels?

The proclaimed purpose of the reforms is to correct a decades-old imbalance between the powers of Israel’s aggressive and activist high court and the government. For those trying to understand what gives the court in Israel more power than the elected government, it is useful to compare Israel’s judicial system to that of the United States.

Everything Is Justiciable
In the early 1990s, Israel went through a self-proclaimed “judicial revolution” led by then-Supreme Court president Aharon Barak. Barak wanted the Supreme Court to be an “activist court,” meaning that the court would not wait for issues to come to its benches, but rather, the court would increase its power and reach to enforce policy according to its own interpretation.

According to Barak, “everything is justiciable,” meaning that no law, policy or commercial dealing was out of the purview of the court. In cases in which there are no laws or policies, the court can order the parliament to pass a law on a particular issue within a court-stipulated time limit or can order the government to carry out a specific policy.

Standing Not Required
In the United States, a plaintiff can only bring a case before the court if they are an injured party. And even then, a case must start in a lower court and advance through a court of appeals before reaching the Supreme Court.

In Israel, a case may be brought directly to the High Court. Further, the plaintiff does not need to have standing. As such, in Israel, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), some of which receive foreign government funding, are often the parties petitioning the court on any law or policy they want the court to review.

Principle of ‘Reasonableness’
In the absence of a constitution and in a system in which “everything is justiciable,” the court has established its own principle of “reasonableness” to determine whether a law, policy or contract is legal. Reasonableness in each case is determined by the court.

The court has used “reasonableness” to negate laws and to overrule government policies. In addition, court rulings can force a government to take particular actions, including demolishing homes (both Jewish and Arab) that the court rules were built illegally, even when such actions are highly controversial and not politically expedient.

The court has also used the “everything is justiciable” and “reasonableness” combination to overturn commercial contracts, including contracts signed by the government.
A crisis of judicial proportions explained, Part II: Precursors to the protest
Demography, not democracy
For Netanyahu’s left-wing opponents, their stunning electoral defeat represents a deeper and worrying demographic turning point.

Religious and traditional right-wing voters typically have more children than secular left-wing voters, a trend that is not likely to change in the years to come. And for the first time, right-wing voters out-totaled left-wing and Arab voters combined to form an exclusively right-wing government.

While the right is now free to implement the policies it has long sought to, the left fears that if the right governs successfully, it may be in power for many years to come, leaving the left glued to the backbenches of the Knesset opposition.

Right-wing policy outline
The Israeli right seeks to continue building housing and infrastructure for growing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. They insist on personal security for Israeli citizens in the face of growing terrorism. They prefer to isolate the Palestinian Authority, and reject the prospect of negotiations.

On complex and controversial religion-and-state issues, they seek to preserve the integrity of religious institutions and long-held norms, including a ban on public transportation on Shabbat. For Netanyahu in particular, neutralizing Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is a primary objective.

In order to advance their agenda, they first seek to strike a new balance of power between the government and the judicial branch of government.

The right asserts that the court for years has consistently meddled in governmental affairs. They claim the court is a self-selecting, elite left-wing oligarchy that has effectively served as a check on right-wing policies.

The left asserts that the court must remain the protector of democracy and through its rulings maintain governmental checks and balances in the absence of a constitution.

The right is effectively calling the court’s bluff.

Historical turning point
Historically, for the first 30 years of the state’s existence, until the election of Menachem Begin in 1977, the left controlled the government. In those three decades, they established all of the state’s major institutions. And while the right has been the principal force in the government over the last 30 years, the major institutions, including the judicial system, top echelons of the military, labor union, academia, medical establishment and the media remain dominated by the left.

While the left has had no choice but to concede the government to a shifting voter base that favors right-wing policies, the left is unprepared and unwilling to give up on its control of state institutions.

And as Netanyahu, his allies and his voters are learning, those institutions are not only extremely powerful, but together, can be significantly more powerful than the government.

It is this complex web of political developments over the past four years that immediately preceded, and hangs as a dark cloud over the rollout of judicial reform legislation.


What’s the Deal With Protests in Israel?–Professor Eugene Kontorovich on Supreme Court Power Grabs, US Involvement, and Where the Real Danger to Democracy Lies
“Amazingly, President Biden is warning Israel that allowing politicians to be involved in nominating judges is going to perhaps affect our shared democratic values. Well, of course, in America, politicians do exactly that.”

Eugene Kontorovich is a scholar of international law, an expert in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and a professor at George Washington University’s Scalia Law School. At a time when many have lost faith in international organizations, I sat down with him to discuss what role they should actually play.

“With all international institutions, the trade-off—the lesson—is how to be able to rely on them for small things, small routine things, and not put faith in them for important things,” said Kontorovich.

We also discuss the current protests in Israel and the U.S. State Department’s role in funding some of them.

“The United States is giving political support for the efforts to crush democracy in Israel. And by crush democracy in Israel, I mean insulate the Supreme Court as a permanent, aristocratic, democratically unchangeable body,” said Kontorovich.

He argues that despite what we are hearing in the mainstream media, the judicial reforms proposed by Netanyahu’s coalition are not a threat to Israel’s democracy. In fact, a judicial overhaul is necessary in order to restore the Jewish state’s separation of powers and transfer authority back to elected officials, says Kontorovich.

“In Israel, the court picks its own successors … so, what you essentially have is the supreme power in the state held by a self-selecting group of people completely insulated from any democratic process,” explained Kontorovich.


Hijacking the Narrative: Inside Israel’s Domestic Protests
A conversation with law, professor and international law expert Eugene Kontorovich on the current protests inside Israel, the mainstream media’s spin and President Biden warning Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu


6 Anarchists Arresting After Protests and Assault Inside Kohelet’s Office
One of the various anarchist groups, this one named “wall-breakers,” entered the offices of the Kohelet Policy Forum on Sunday and held a mini protest. The six anarchists said they are filing a complaint with the police claiming that the staff of Kohelet attacked, pushed and cursed them after they made their way into the Kohelet office. But Sara Haetzni-Cohen says her video (below) shows the anarchists physically pushing her. Kohelet says the anarchists attacked and assaulted staff members. The six anarchists were taken to the police station for questioning.

Kohelet has been the target of online and real-world hate campaigns by many of the leftwing groups who are fighting to maintain the judicial oligarchy and prevent democratically elected officials from running the country.

Kohelet has been a driving force in trying toreform Israel’s judicial system, increase democracy in Israel and free up the markets.


Israel fires special envoy Noa Tishby who had criticized judicial reform
The Foreign Ministry dismissed Israeli actress and pro-Israel advocate Noa Tishby after she publicly criticized the government’s judicial reform program.

“It is with disappointment and sadness, but an enduring determination, that I can confirm that the current Israeli government has dismissed me as Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Israel,” Tishby said in a notice she posted on her Twitter account.

“It is not possible for me to know if their decision was driven by my publicly stated concerns about this government's 'judicial reform policy.'

“But given the reality that antisemitism continues its dangerous rise globally, and the threat to Israel’s existence through delegitimization policies has not slowed, it is difficult to come to any other reasonable conclusion,” she wrote.


Israel Police claim protester beaten by mounted officer had attacked his horse
Israel Police on Sunday responded to criticism over a video from Saturday's mass protest in Tel Aviv showing a mounted police officer repeatedly hitting a woman with a baton.

According to police, orders were given to disperse the demonstrators, who were illegally blocking the Ayalon Highway. The protesters were warned that force would be employed if they refused to clear the highway.

"Two protesters waved protest signs and a flagpole at the head of a police horse in a way that endangered the horse, the rider, and themselves. The mounted officer pushed the protester away using reasonable force from the horse," the Israel Police spokesperson said in a statement. Photographic evidence was also provided of another horse they said was wounded by protesters using wooden poles for signs and flags on the Ayalon Highway.

The protester seen in the video, Yael Reuveni, told Channel 12 News that "the police officer was looking for someone to take his frustration out on. He found the weak link, and that's where he chose to focus, to block me and hit me."

"I work with horses as a therapist," said Reuveni. "The last thing I would do is attack a horse. I held a cardboard sign in front of me to protect myself from the horse after it stepped on my leg, and the police officer continued to hit me with his baton."

The video, published on social media, caused a strong reaction, with Israel Police Chief Yaakov Shabtai on Sunday ordering Tel Aviv District Chief Ami Eshed to investigate the incident.

Labor Chairwoman Merav Michaeli wrote a letter to Shabtai, calling the incident an "outrage" and urging the police commissioner to "act with any means to make sure the incident is taken care of severely and that these sorts of incidents are not repeated."

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has defended police actions during the ongoing mass demonstrations against the government's judicial reform initiative, said on Sunday that the incident was disturbing and that he would demand clarification about the incident from Eshed.

"At the same time, I strongly condemn the shocking calls of incitement that were heard towards the police such as 'Nazis,' which cause the denigration of the Holocaust, along with serious damage to police horses, and I call on the prosecutor's office to prosecute the instigators and lawbreakers," the minister said.


Crisis Averted after Bibi Lets Biden Sniff his Hair (satire)
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem and Washington reacted with undisguised relief today after an Israeli-American diplomatic crisis was averted at the last minute. President Biden had taken an increasingly critical public stance to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s ongoing protests, culminating in this week’s statement by the President indicating that Netanyahu will not be welcomed to the White House in the near future.

Yet at the last minute, Prime Minister Netanyahu displayed his willingness to say or do anything to stay in power the diplomatic acumen that we have come to expect from this political veteran. Working through diplomatic backchannels that may or may not have included their sons Yair and Hunter unexpectedly meeting up at a Gentleman’s Club outside of Baltimore, the leaders’ respective staffs hammered out a compromise that Washington insiders are already describing as groundbreaking. Specifically, Bibi agreed to let Biden sniff his hair at their next meeting that will take place shortly after the Passover Holiday. The Chattering Class have already started singing the Deal’s praises.

“This is exciting stuff.” explained CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Now we need to come up with a clever name for this…. what about ‘The Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Summit‘? Does that sound catchy?“

“I actually heard about this from my cab driver last night when I flew into Dubai.” explained noted pundit Thomas Friedman. “Or was it my cab driver in Amman? Who the hell knows. I’ve been phoning it in for years.”
Police thwart Hamas Temple Mount shooting plot
The Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) preempted a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, police reported on Sunday.

Omar Abedin, 21, a resident of eastern Jerusalem, is suspected of conspiring to carry out a shooting attack on a bus carrying police officers in the Temple Mount area.

The Shin Bet and Jerusalem District Police’s Central Investigations Unit of conducted an investigation of Abedin over the last month.

The investigation revealed that he identifies with the terror group Hamas and was a participant in activities within the Hamas-identified student cell at Birzeit University near Ramallah.

A few months ago, Abedin started communicating via Facebook with a terrorist operative from Lebanon. The two later switched to chatting on Telegram.

At a certain point, Abedin was asked to carry out a shooting or bomb attack for which he would receive financial aid via other operatives from the Judea and Samaria region. He agreed to the request and planned to carry out the attack.


PMW: “We love death like our enemies love life” – speaker at funeral of terrorist
At the funeral of a Palestinian terrorist who was shot and killed when he accelerated and rammed his car into an Israeli police car, a speaker summed up in one sentence the underlying cause of the recent months’ rise in the number of Palestinian deaths. According to the speaker, Palestinians are happy to die as Martyrs through attacks against Israel: “We love death like our enemies love life.” He also praised Palestinian mothers for celebrating when their children die as “Martyrs”:
Speaker at funeral: “This people will not be defeated. A people in which a mother accompanies her Martyr son with sounds of joywill never be defeated. A people in which a child who is like a lofty mountain waits impatiently to become a young man so that he will be able to take revenge for his Martyr father will never be defeated. We love death like our enemies love life.”
[Unidentified speaker, Official PA TV, March 8, 2023]

The desire to die as “Martyrs” for “Palestine” is a notion the PA instills in Palestinians from early childhood. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that children are taught that it’s an honor to die fighting Israel, youth are told they will become “grooms” who wed the Virgins of Paradise.

During the broadcast of a funeral while showing the dead body of a terrorist, official PA TV played this song in the background:
“We accompanied the handsome groom in a wedding procession
And the procession is going to Paradise... a groom who delights in Martyrdom.”
[Official PA TV, Giants of Endurance, Dec. 8, 2022]

Parents are expected to happily accompany their children to their “weddings,” as this mother of a “Martyr,” echoing the PA’s indoctrination:




PA TV historical drama shows Arabs celebrating killing of British policeman during the Mandate

The Child-Martyrdom trap of the Palestinian Authority

“Why do [the Jews] continue to kill small children… This is Nazi Israel” – girl recites poem

“Satiate the bird with the Zionists’ flesh” - Palestinian folk song



Seth Frantzman: Is Israel’s ‘war between the wars’ entering new stage in Syria?
Pro-Iranian media have accused Israel of three airstrikes in Syria over the last week, which add on to strikes carried out last Thursday and Friday and overnight between Saturday and Sunday. Regional media has noticed.

UAE-based Al-Ain media said this is the “ninth Israeli attack this year against Syrian facilities as a target, and it raised more fears of escalation in the region.”

The increase in incidents appears to indicate that Israel’s “war between the wars” campaign (known in Hebrew as MABAM), which is designed to prevent Iranian entrenchment, may be reaching a new phase.

Has Israel’s “war between the wars” campaign reached a new phase?
The increase in activity indicated by the reports would be in line with Israel’s desire throughout the years to prevent Iranian entrenchment specifically in Syria, and it also comes amid other moving parts in the region.

Iran has been seeking to use Aleppo International Airport in recent months to move arms, shifting away from Damascus. One option could be that Iran saw the recent earthquake in Syria and Turkey as a possible cover for its activities, using civilian cargo or commercial flights to move munitions to Syria.

On the other hand, the increase in strikes comes just as the Syrian regime is actually attempting to do more outreach in the region, including normalization, not only with the Gulf but also with Turkey, something that Russia is pushing for.

According to intelligence estimates, including by the Mossad, Iran was allegedly behind a planned terrorist attack in Greece, which was exposed last week. That came just after Iran began the process of renewing ties with Saudi Arabia, and its moves in the region may be shifting.
Israel carries out third alleged airstrike in Syria in a week
Dr. Ely Karmon, senior researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, comments on the uptick in strikes in Syria, where Iran is spreading its influence as Russia has shrunken its presence to focus on the Ukrainian battlefield. Meanwhile, Syria is continuing its diplomatic push to reestablish itself in the region, with an important visit by the foreign minister to meet his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo.


Syria blames Israel for intensified airstrikes against Iranian targets
Five Syrian soldiers were wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike near the city of Homs in western Syria, while another Iranian Revolutionary Guards' (IRGC) adviser died from a previous strike in Damascus, according to media reports.

This is the third airstrike in the space of a week allegedly carried out by Israel.




Arsen Ostrovsky: Iran-supported Samidoun is a terrorist organisation that should be banned by the EU
IMPAC symposium in the European Parliament March 29 2023- Stop Supporting Extremism: Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum https://www.ilfngo.org/

On October 29th 2022 a rally took place on the streets of Brussels organised by a radical extremist organisation called Samidoun. It has demonstrable links to the PFLP, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

This event:
(1) praised terrorists from proscribed groups such as Hamas, PFLP and 'Lions' Den', all of which have murdered innocent men women and children
(2) glorified terrorism by (illegally) wearing face masks and other terrorist garb
(3) called for genocide via the destruction of a democratic nation state from the map of the world "by any means necessary"
(4) promoted hatred and violence via "defeating the European Union and United States" using "bullets and missiles"

A symposium was organised in the European :Parliament on March 29 2023 bringing together concerned MEPs and international experts to address this and other examples of threats to the safety and security of Europeans.


US Jewish leaders launch group to support 'Woman Life Freedom' in Iran
Prominent US Jewish figures announced a bipartisan nonprofit organization, The Jewish Committee to Support ‘Woman Life Freedom’ in Iran (JCWLF).

Founding Members of the JCWLF Steering Group include former US senators Norm Coleman and Joe Lieberman; Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff; former member of Congress and CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Ted Deutch; Dennis Ross; Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) CEO Eric Fingerhut and others.

“The Jewish community is putting its values to work helping the Iranian people flourish and build a safer, more tolerant world, both for themselves and all people,” Fingerhut told The Jerusalem Post. “I know the Iranian people will one day realize their dreams of greater freedom, and I hope to help them reach that day as quickly as possible."

Ambassador Ross told the Post that "women, life, freedom is the powerful slogan of those in Iran who want the most basic rights.

"They have demonstrated courage in the face of terrible brutality and they deserve to know they are not alone, their calls are heard and they are supported," he said.
Why did Iranian taekwondoin miss match against Israeli?
Israeli taekwondoin Avishag Semberg automatically advanced to the semi-finals at the Grand Slam in China after her Iranian opponent, Saeeda Nasiri, failed to show up at the match.

Semberg, 21, competed in the 49-kilogram category at the event that counts toward the qualifying race for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In the first round, she defeated her Chinese opponent with a score of 0:2. It is in the second round that she was supposed to face off against Nasiri, who, like many Iranian athletes before, refused to face an Israeli opponent.

Semberg made history in 2021 after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the youngest Israeli to ever win a medal.
Seth Frantzman: The 41-year-old ‘cold case’ of missing IRGC commander finally solved
The fate of an Iranian military attache to Lebanon who was a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980s has been the subject of intrigue and mystery in the region for 41 years.

Ahmad Motevaselian disappeared in Lebanon in 1982 and for many decades Iran blamed Israel for his disappearance. However, reports at the time indicated that a Lebanese Christian armed group was involved in killing him and several other Iranians who were stopped at a checkpoint during the Lebanese civil war. Iran has long claimed Motevaselian was a diplomat and claimed he was protected by diplomatic protocols.

The head of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, reportedly revealed that Motevaselian was a “martyr” during a meeting with the man’s family during the Nowruz holiday on March 20 in Iran. This turn of events is interesting because Iran has often used this case to blame Israel for the 1982 incident. Now Iran appears to be shifting its narrative.

The new revelations from Iran and interest by regional media in Motevaselian's death are important because his role as an IRGC officer in the early 1980s mirrors Iran’s current role in Syria and Lebanon. Iran’s Islamic regime began its campaign to spread influence over Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in the early 1980s. It also began its focus on attacking Israel at that time. Therefore the story about the demise of Motevaselian is actually a story about what is happening today.


Former UN “Special Rapporteur” Accuses Israel of “Apartheid” on NewsTalk 1010 Radio
Michael Lynk, the former United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, was interviewed.

The focus of NewsTalk 1010’s interview with Lynk was about his recent column published in The Conversation entitled: “Why is Canada rejecting evidence of Israeli apartheid against Palestinians?,” co-written with University of Ottawa Professor Alex Neve, former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.

In his interview with Reshmi Nair, Michael Lynk repeated his longstanding accusation that Israel practices “apartheid” against the Palestinians, as well as against Israeli Arabs, saying that in recent years, human rights organizations have stated that” apartheid exists, either in the occupied Palestinian territories…or in Israel and the occupied territories…between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

For her part, Nair tacitly accepted the Lynk’s premise that Israel is an apartheid state by failing to challenge Lynk’s claims.

Referring to a so-called “growing consensus,” Lynk then complained to Nair that Canada has rejected these claims against Israel.

While Lynk repeatedly accused Israel of practicing “apartheid” against Palestinians, the bulk of his arguments made during the radio interview surrounded this alleged consensus, particularly from human rights groups, but in spite of these serious allegations made against Israel, Lynk failed to share why the reports from these organizations cannot be trusted at face value.
‘What Is Our Voice Worth to The Cowards and Cynics?’ Belgium’s Leading Muslim Feminist Speaks On Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
Determined to obtain a close-up view of how Islamist ideology was impacting Muslim neighborhoods in Brussels, Maaroufi retrained as a social worker and inserted herself into a group of women in the Belgian capital who were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organization that claims the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas among its acolytes.

“There were many educated young women who started to change their behavior slowly,” she recalled. “They embraced a discourse targeting Jews, western culture and the LGBTQ community.” During the 1990s, the Islamist hold was bolstered by the arrival from Algeria of supporters of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) seeking political asylum. “They were training and influencing young people in Brussels,” Maaroufi said. “There were also people who went to Afghanistan and Pakistan with Al-Qaeda.”

One incident from 2004 sticks in her mind. The occasion was a lunchtime during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast between dawn and dusk. Maaroufi, at the time working at a community center in Brussels, was eating a sandwich at her desk when three boys aged between eight and ten walked in.

“They immediately asked me why I wasn’t observing Ramadan when I am a Moroccan,” Maaroufi said. “I told them that I was Belgian, not Moroccan, to which they replied, ‘but your name is Fadila Maaroufi!’ I answered, ‘and your names are Mohamed, Rédouane and Karim, and you are Belgian like me.'”

One of the boys asked her, “So you’re a dirty Jew, then?” Maaroufi asked if any of them had ever met a Jew — they hadn’t.

Pushed out of social work because of her stances, Maaroufi embarked on the next stage of her career, studying for a PhD in anthropology and launching an observatory to monitor religious extremism.

In tandem with her development as a professional activist, Maaroufi decided to take a public stand against antisemitism — a dangerous move for a Muslim woman living openly with no security. Predictably, her social media feed began to fill up with insults and threats of injury or death, while her mother, with whom she’d had scant contact, got back in touch to exhort her daughter against the path she had taken, texting her links to online videos that warned of the hell awaiting her.
Pakistan denies it has trade ties with Israel after Jewish businessman touts export
Pakistan on Sunday denied rumors of trade with Israel following a Jewish businessman’s tweet about successfully exporting food samples to Jerusalem and Haifa.

Fishel Benkhald, a Pakistani Jew based in the southern port city of Karachi, went viral for tweeting about his first kosher food shipment to Israel. The two countries do not have diplomatic ties.

“Congratulations to me as a Pakistani. I exported the first batch of Pakistan food products to [the] Israel market,” he said last week.

Benkhald shared a video clip showing his visit to an Israeli market. He walks past stalls with containers of dates, dried fruit, and spices with product tags in Hebrew.

Pakistan denied having any diplomatic or trade relations with Israel. “There is no change in the policy,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told media in response to queries about bilateral trade.

Pakistan officially backs a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has a longstanding position of non-recognition of Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established within the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.


Calls for anti-Semitism probe into hard-left Corbynite who is set to become the next leader of education union after video emerged of him speaking at a rally
There have been calls into a hard-left Corbynite who is set to become the next leader of Britain's biggest education union after he become embroiled in an anti-Semitism row.

Daniel Kebede, who will succeed joint secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney as head of the National Education Union (NEU) in September, was seen speaking at a rally where the crowd allegedly chanted a song calling for violence against Jews.

Members of the audience chanted 'Khaybar, oh Jews', a song the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says 'can be perceived as a threat of armed violence or forcible expulsion against Jews today'.

While Mr Kebede is not thought to have taken part in the chant video of the rally, which took place in Newcastle in 2021, showed him calling for people to 'globalise the intifada' - a phrase referring to uprising against oppression.

The primary school teacher, who was once forced to apologise for using an anti-Semitic slur while defending Jeremy Corbyn, was backed by the NEU, which said he condemns 'all acts of anti-Semitism and any attacks on Jewish people'.

The self-professed 'anti-racist' had been speaking at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Newcastle two years ago when the video was taken.

In footage he can be seen holding a microphone telling people it's 'time to stand together and oppose Apartheid, oppose occupation and fight for Palestinian liberation'.

He went on to say: 'Let's do it for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank, Gaza - it's about time we globalise the intifada.'

As he handed the microphone over to someone else, there were chants of 'Allahu akbar' from the crowd.
How One Word Changes Everything: The Guardian Mangles Agency Copy to Twist The Truth
Here are the facts as we know them.

On Saturday evening, three Israeli soldiers were injured in what is believed to be a deliberate car-ramming attack carried out by a Palestinian man near Beit Umar in the West Bank.

The suspect — identified as 23-year-old Mohammed Baradeya, an officer in the Palestinian Authority Security Forces — was shot dead at the scene.

Wire agency AFP, which supplies news copy to thousands of organizations worldwide, reported the incident thus:
A suspected assailant was killed by Israeli soldiers after a West Bank car ramming Saturday, the army said, in an escalation that threatens to end a relative lull during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan so far.”

The paragraph, while not alluding to terrorism, is clear with regard to the facts: readers are told by the use of the words “suspected assailant” that the ramming was likely intentional, and in the following paragraph the suspect is identified as Palestinian.

Yet, when the Guardian reprinted AFP’s news copy, editors at the outlet made one very small change to the paragraph that profoundly altered its meaning:
A man was killed by Israeli soldiers after a West Bank car ramming on Saturday, the army said, in an escalation threatening to end a relative lull during the holy month of Ramadan so far.”

The recasting of an assailant into simply a “man” renders the paragraph devoid of factual substance — readers are not told the dead man is a suspected terrorist or that he was behind the wheel of the vehicle.

Interestingly, this was not the only edit made to the story by the Guardian.

While AFP’s original headline read, “Palestinian killed after West Bank car ramming as violence rises,” the Guardian opted to tie the ramming to another suspected terror attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian man allegedly snatched an Israeli officer’s gun and fired several shots before being neutralized.

Thus the Guardian’s headline, “Second killing in a day by Israeli forces in Jerusalem and West Bank,” distorts the weekend’s events — at a glance, readers are left with the mistaken impression that two innocent (and presumably) Palestinian people were mercilessly killed by Israeli soldiers.


Times of Israel Clarifies on Gaza Fishermen’s Haul
CAMERA’s Israel office today prompts clarification about the impact of Israel’s naval blockade on the livelihood of Gaza fishermen in an otherwise informative, in-depth article about the Israeli navy’s efforts to block Hamas’ smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip (“Intel, critical thinking and constant vigilance in Navy’s toolbox to foil Hamas)“). A highly misleading (at best) passage in the March 31 article had stated:
The blockade has had a particularly negative effect on fishermen, who cannot stray too far from the shore without facing the threat of Israeli fire. As a result, the shallow waters adjacent to the coast have been overfished, diminishing hauls, and thus profits, over time.

While the Times of Israel’s source for the claim about diminished haul and profits deriving specifically from shallow waters is unclear and thus the veracity of the information is difficult to check, data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics demonstrates that the total haul of Gaza fishermen has more than doubled since the blockade was imposed, a point that Times of Israel previously clarified last December. According to the PCBS, Gaza fishermen caught 1,524,913 fish in 2009. (See Table 3). After another decade of the Israeli blockade, that figure climbed to 3,943,369 in 2019. In addition, in 2005, two years before the blockade was imposed in 2007, 707 fishing boats were in Gaza. By 2019, a dozen years into the blockade, that figure more than doubled to 1,739.
Israeli doctors make history with gene therapy treatment to brain
Doctors of the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Center made history Wednesday by performing for the first time in Israel a surgery that delivers gene therapy directly to the brain.

The procedure, which involved injecting the gene directly into the brain of the patient – 4-year-old Adiroop Kumar from India – lasted seven hours, and with the cost of 10 million shekels ($2.7 million) per vial was the single most expensive single surgery ever performed in Israel. Adiroop had arrived with his mother from India specially for the procedure (Gideon Markovicz)

The groundbreaking treatment was conducted as part of a global study on the Upstaza gene therapy medicine, with 30 more children participating in Taiwan, Japan, China, Germany, England, France, and the United States.

In Israel, the surgery was conducted by Dr. Zion Zibly, director of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Sheba Medical Center and Dr. Lior Ungar, a senior neurosurgeon in the department. Dr. Bruria Gidoni-Ben-Zeev, head of the Pediatric Neurology Department at the Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, oversaw all the treatments, and the follow-up and medical care.

Adiroop had arrived with his mother from India specially for the procedure, which is conducted as part of the study, free of charge. A few years earlier, he was diagnosed with AADC deficiency, an incredibly rare genetic disease that is caused by changes in the gene that produces the AADC enzyme needed to produce certain substances vital for the normal functioning of the brain and nerves, such as dopamine and serotonin. The condition makes it nearly impossible for a child to lift his or her head, let alone walk and talk.

Until now, there has been no cure for AADC deficiency, which most often leads to death by the age of 10. In Israel, 10 children have been diagnosed with the disease in recent years, with four fatal cases. Around two new cases are diagnosed in Israel yearly.

Upstaza is a first-of-its-kind treatment that involves introducing a healthy gene into the patient's brain, into the area that misses the necessary gene. It has already been authorized in Europe, with Israel and the United States to follow.
Israeli whiskey company wins ‘world’s best single malt’ award
Israeli whiskey company Milk & Honey (M&H) has been awarded the title of ‘world’s best single malt’ by The World Drinks Awards.

The World Drinks Awards described the drink as having “Fruity aromas of citrus zest and white peach with a dash of wood varnish. Sweet to the taste with a weighty mouthfeel, this whisky has flavours of golden syrup, vanilla, tropical fruit and iced tea, before a finish of oak tannins with hints of anise and lemon peel.”

Despite misconceptions that the whiskey should be from a single barrel, single malt whisky is a whisky that is produced by a single distillery, according to Kilchoman distillery.

"To be considered a single malt scotch, the whisky must be distilled from a mash bill of 100 percent malted barley at one distillery and aged for a minimum of three years in wooden casks" according to Liquor.com

Milk & Honey distillery
M&H was founded in 2013 by Gal Kalkstein and became the first Whiskey distillery in Israel. All the products the distillery produces are kosher.

The Tel Aviv-based distillery has declared that the Israeli climate is the secret to its success.

“Israel’s 300 sunny days in an average year and the Mediterranean climate are our greatest advantage. Hot climate maturation means that our whisky ages rapidly, yet significantly gracefully. Whisky made in warmer weather takes on specific terroir which yields unique flavors that somewhat differ from their Old-World counterparts. Our methods, technique and equipment carry on centuries-old knowledge and we keep the tradition of minimum three years of aging,” the M&H website states.

This is not the distillery’s first award, they received eight awards for their quality whiskey in the World Whiskies Awards. The company won a number of titles under the "Rest of the World" category. They achieved the status of "Craft Producer of the Year," "Brand Innovator of the Year," and "Master Distiller of the Year."


Yad Vashem Book of Names: A duty to connect, remember Holocaust victims
Nakhman Skariton. Arie Skariton.

These two names, two brothers murdered during the Holocaust, are known today thanks to two Pages of Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, by their sister, Dina Elkis, who survived the Shoah. From Elkis’s testimony, we also know that they were born in Zhashkiv, Ukraine, and in June 1942, after being led to a pit in Warkowice, Poland, they were shot dead by German Nazis.

These are just two of the 2.7 million Pages of Testimony on record at Yad Vashem that have been painstakingly collected over the past seven decades. In addition to these, Yad Vashem has gathered and meticulously reviewed millions of documents and historical records revealing another 2.1 million names of Jews brutally murdered during the Shoah by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

These two young men who were shot in cold blood in the prime of their lives are particularly significant to me because they were my great-uncles. Nakhman and Arie Skariton were my grandmother’s brothers. These were people I grew up hearing about but never met because they were the unlucky few members of my family who remained behind in Europe after the Nazi rise to power.

These are the names, as Jewish tradition dictates, that have since been incorporated into nearly every branch of my family tree, either as a first or second name. For me, these names are associated with pain and loss and sorrow, and they serve as a reminder of the millions of Jews who suffered similar, terrible fates. All these names deserve to be remembered.

Remember the names of Holocaust victims
The name of the esteemed institution I am honored to head, Yad Vashem, quite literally means “a memorial and a name” in English. Since its inception in 1953, Yad Vashem has gathered 4,800,000 names of Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Shoah – creating the world’s most comprehensive record of Holocaust victims.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, which is accessible online on Yad Vashem’s website (in six languages), has been transformed into a new exhibit that is now part of the permanent display at Yad Vashem on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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