Thursday, June 15, 2023
Amnesty's New Israel Report Goes to War with Reality
The report singles out three IDF airstrikes that targeted three PIJ commanders who were hiding in densely populated civilian areas. One strike targeted an apartment in a two-story building. Amnesty decries that this attack killed two teenage girls living in a neighboring apartment. With dripping disdain, the report observes that the IDF used a GBU-39 bomb in the strike, a weapon "exported to Israel from the United States."The UN and WHO Seek to Blame Israel Above All Others
To be clear, the loss of those innocent girls is a tragedy. As are the losses of other innocent Palestinians and Israelis. It's why a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should continue to drive U.S. foreign policy. It's also true that the IDF ground forces have, on occasion, exploited their rules of engagement at excessive cost to civilians. Still, a few other points are also highly relevant here.
For one, why is it bad that the U.S. exported the GBU-39 to a close ally? That bomb is especially designed, after all, to limit collateral damage by focusing energy on a limited target radius (hence why Israel likes using it in Gaza — to mitigate risks to civilians). Israel could easily use larger weapons, which offer a higher confidence in mission success. It does not do so because more civilians would be put at more risk.
Second, why does Amnesty excuse PIJ commanders for hiding among civilians? No Israeli military officer would have such callous disregard for their fellow citizens as to hide among civilians. In contrast, PIJ commanders hide among civilians very deliberately, hoping Israeli fears of civilian casualties will deter an attack upon them. In the worst case, these commanders take solace that their death will likely join that of civilians, thus jeopardizing Israel's international standing.
The basic point here is that Amnesty isn't interested in covering this conflict seriously. We learn as much with the report's partisan conclusion. We're told that the "root cause of this unspeakable violence is Israel’s system of apartheid."
Actually, it's the PIJ's desire to push Israelis into the Mediterranean Sea.
After years of Chinese influence peddling in the organization and years of obfuscation by Beijing over COVID virus origins, at the end of May, China’s sometimes-partner North Korea was elected to the Board of the WHO in a term that lasts until 2026. North Korea joins Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen among others on a board that will determine the organization’s agenda and policy prescriptions, and how to spend the organization’s $2.1 billion annual budget, about $700 million of which comes from the US.Is it really antisemitic to criticise George Soros?
Right on cue, according to UN Watch, “The 76th World Health Assembly held a special debate on May 24 to single out Israel, which was condemned by Iran, Syria, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba for allegedly violating the ‘health rights of Palestinians and the Druze population in the Golan Heights.’”
How is WHO managing the “health rights” of Syrians affected by chemical attack or Uyghurs in Chinese prison camps or Afghan women or Sudanese, Tigrayans, Ethiopians, or Nigerians affected by civil wars or militia attacks? And how bad off are the Palestinians?
In terms of life expectancy, at 74.5 years, the Palestinians are above the world average of 71 years. On a graph, from 1960-65, prior to Israel’s acquisition of the West Bank and Gaza territories, the UN estimated Palestinian life expectancy at 48.7 years for both. It was 68 years in 1990. In 2010, it was 70.9 years in the West Bank and 69.9 in Gaza. (Note that women in all cases live longer on average than men.) Regarding infant mortality rates in the West Bank and Gaza, in 1975, it was 72.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2002, it was 23.9. In 2021, 12.8 per 1,000 live births. (Gaza infant mortality has inched up since Israel’s departure from the Strip.)
When countries with no obligations — financial, moral or other — get together to denounce countries on a different and better trajectory, the United States should reconsider its financial and political support. Proportionate responsibility for determining the spending of proportionate contributions should be a minimal American criterion for remaining in a universal club with no rules.
It’s no secret that Soros has given some $40 million to left-wing candidates in district attorney races across the country: he explained his campaign to reshape the judiciary and criminal sentencing in the Wall Street Journal.
His candidates are unanimously committed to less law enforcement and reduced jail sentences. Seventy-five of them won their midterm races. The results, a demonstrable increase in both petty and serious crime, are deeply unpopular with the taxpaying, law-abiding majority.
Again, Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, recently suggested that it was antisemitic to mention that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney prosecuting Donald Trump’s alleged hush money payments to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, had received Soros donations.
But there is no doubt that Bragg received Soros’s money. Meanwhile, Weingarten has repeatedly alleged undue influence by the Koch brothers, libertarians who mostly donate to the right.
The taboo on criticising Soros has become so entrenched in mainstream media that the conservative lawyer and Newsweek editor-at-large Josh Hammer and the ex-prosecutor Will Scharf have launched a group called Jews Against Soros.
“We are Jews who have had enough of George Soros and his malign, leftist influence on American politics,” Jews Against Soros’s mission statement reads.
“We are Jews who are also sick and tired of the Left accusing anyone who criticises Soros of being antisemitic … Leftism isn’t Judaism, and being anti-leftist is not the same as being antisemitic. Period.”
This week, in a victory for nepo babies everywhere, Soros handed control of his $25 billion empire to his son Alexander. In a CNN op-ed this month, Alexander claimed that “charges of antisemitism” are used “as a weapon meant to stifle debate” about Israel.
The same principle should apply to George and Alexander Soros’s political donations, in the US or anywhere else.
I get to define antisemitism
As a citizen of Israel, I may not like it when criticism of the Jewish state is so strong that it turns my stomach. But when such criticism is legitimate, albeit extreme and debatable, I have to recognize that, in a free and democratic society, I just have to accept it.The shocking truth about Wikipedia’s Holocaust disinformation
The IHRA definition agrees with this. It clearly states, “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
It pains me, however, that some of the IHRA’s examples of anti-Israel antisemitism are considered controversial by some.
For example: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” “applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” or even “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
There should be no dispute that such things constitute antisemitism.
As a lawyer who studied and practiced law in Canada, I am proud of Canada’s rule of law, which includes limitations on certain forms of speech. Sometimes, things go so far that they become intolerable and impermissible in any decent society.
Should any country tolerate being compared to the Nazis? Should this blood libel be tolerated only because it’s directed at Israel, the sole Jewish state on the planet? Is it so impossible to accept that the vilification of Israel can reach a point at which it is antisemitic?
Why is it wrong for the IHRA and those who have adopted it to simply recognize that some of the most common manifestations of modern antisemitism are directed against Israel as the “collective Jew.”
If hate is directed at me, why won’t you accept that I find it hateful? I am not stifling your free speech. I am not preventing criticism of Israel. I am not violating your rights or beliefs. I am putting up a stop sign and saying, “You have gone too far.”
I stand by my rights and obligations as a citizen of Israel and a Jew to defend myself, to remember the words of Eli Wiesel, to never forget the little faces of the children who were annihilated. When you curse me, I am the one who gets to define what is and what is not antisemitism.
My colleague and I recently exposed a persistent Holocaust disinformation campaign on English Wikipedia.Evangelical leader decries mainstream church efforts to malign Israel
The study, which I published with Jan Grabowski from the University of Ottawa, examined two dozen Wikipedia articles on the Holocaust in Poland and over 300 back pages (including talk pages, noticeboards, and arbitration cases, spaces where editors decide what the rest of the world will accept as fact).
To our dismay, we found dozens of examples of Holocaust distortion which, taken together, advanced a Polish nationalist narrative, whitewashed the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolstered harmful stereotypes about Jews.
People who read these pages learned about Jews’ supposed complicity in their own catastrophe, gangs of Jewish collaborators aiding the Gestapo and Jews supporting the communists to betray Poles. A handful of distortions have been corrected since our publication, but many remain.
A fraction of it is true: There were scattered instances of Jewish collaboration in WWII, for example. But Wikipedia inflates their scale and prominence. In one article that remains gravely distorted, alleged Jewish collaboration with the Nazis takes up more space than the Ukrainian, Belorussian and ethnic German collaboration combined.
In one glaring hoax discovered by an Israeli reporter, Wikipedia claimed for 15 years that the Germans annihilated 200,000 non-Jewish Poles in a giant gas chamber in the middle of Warsaw.
Wikipedia’s ArbCom just released a ruling responding to our study, sanctioning several editors. While this may seem promising, in fact, ArbCom’s actions should concern anyone who cares about disinformation.
The problem is not the individual arbitrators, nor even ArbCom as a whole; the committee’s mandate is to judge conduct, never content. This is a good policy. We wouldn’t want arbitrators, who are anonymous volunteers with no expertise in any particular subject, to control content. Wikipedia’s strength lies in its enabling anyone to edit, democratizing knowledge like never before.
But this leaves a gaping hole in Wikipedia’s security apparatus. Its safeguards only protect us from fake information when enough editors reach a consensus that the information is indeed fake. When an area is dominated by a group of individuals pushing an erroneous point of view, then wrong information becomes the consensus. (h/t jzaik)
A concerted effort is underway by some mainstream churches to convince evangelical Christians to be less supportive of Israel, the incoming head of an evangelical organization headquartered in Jerusalem says.Facts about Israel Every American Needs to Know
Rev. Peter Fast, CEO-elect of Bridges for Peace, spoke in an interview with JNS on Tuesday.
The remarks come two months after the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem lambasted Israeli restrictions on the number of worshippers allowed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem for the Holy Fire ceremony over Easter.
News agencies fanned the criticism worldwide, only to have it later emerge that a church engineer had requested the limitations over safety concerns.
“The big churches are using a very loud voice to malign, fabricate and twist the story to make Israel look like a human rights violator and oppressor of faith,” Fast told JNS.
These efforts to depict Israel as infringing on Christians’ freedom of worship are an effort to influence evangelicals around the globe, who are seen as the main Christian supporters of the State of Israel, and need to be countered with education, he said.
“Christianity in Israel is the only place in the Middle East which is growing and protected, while elsewhere in the Middle East it is oppressed, shrinking, vulnerable or leaving,” Fast said.
But public opinion polls have shown a dramatic drop in support for Israel among young evangelicals in recent years.
Israel is a calm and peaceful country. While the media covers the most sensationalist stories, there is little violence in Israel and statistically much more violence in any major American city.The Failure and Cowardice of Jewish Leadership w/ Charles Jacobs & Avi Goldwasser | Top
While Jews have been accused of being colonial impostors with no connection to the Land of Israel, historical records, archaeology and international consensus all demonstrate that the Jews have a 3,000-year connection to the land, long before Arabs immigrated there 1,300 years ago.
Almost 3,000 years ago, King David, the king of the Jewish people, inaugurated the city of Jerusalem as the capital city of the Jewish people. No other people had ever established Jerusalem as their capital.
Israelis aren't responsible for Palestinian mistakes and miscalculations. There are great inequalities between Israelis and Palestinians, caused largely by the Palestinians' poor political choices, including terrorism, rejecting peace deals, and intransigence.
The narrative of Israeli oppression is a fable. Claims of a life of hardship are contradicted by the plethora of Arab-owned late model luxury cars and mansions spread throughout Judea and Samaria. Jobs in Israel and joint industrial zones are available to Arabs, and the health care and education available to Palestinian Arabs is among the highest rated in the Middle East.
In this week’s episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin spoke with Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, editors of a new collection of essays titled Betrayal: the Failure of American Jewish Leadership. They addressed the question of why are American Jews so badly led and why is it that so much of organized Jewish life is now devoted to causes that have little to do with ensuring the security of Jews or that of Israel.
They discuss
- The reaction to Biden's largely meaningless antisemitism strategy document
- The inability to recognize antisemitism on the left
- The refusal to speak out against antisemitic attacks by African Americans in New York
- Why Jewish groups have allied themselves to so many causes that have nothing to do with Jews
The Washington Post reporter who decided to novelise the Israel-Palestine conflict
Even as I became adept at outlining and explaining what was happening here for one of the world’s most read and influential newspapers, I was finding it more and more difficult to help my coming-of-age Israeli children make sense of it all.Israeli midwives sit out int'l conference after Israeli flag banned
How do you tell them, without frightening them, that there are people who don’t believe they should be living in this land?
How do you explain that these people are usually Arabic speakers, although not all of them, and certainly not every one of them wants to kill us? How do you describe other Jews, those who do not accept the kind of Judaism that you practise, or who even refuse to see you as Jewish at all — especially when you are about to celebrate your bar or bat mitzvah?
All those questions swirled around my head, and I had no clear answers for my children, even as I kept on writing for the Washington Post’s thousands of readers about wars with Hamas, gruesome terrorist attacks, not to mention highly flammable and increasingly dysfunctional politics and divisions inside Israel.
As many of those stories drew all manner of personal attacks against me from all sides of the political map — journalists are often a scapegoat from both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian camps — I realised that the best way for me to explain to my readers and to my children (and maybe even myself) was to delve into one of the world’s most scrutinised and complicated conflicts via fiction.
In 2017, I began the biggest writing — and explaining — project of my life. I met with young secular Israelis, including my own children, interviewed Palestinian and Strictly Orthodox Charedi teenagers, and developed a story filled with heartbreak and hope about young people growing up in Jerusalem, in the midst of an adult conflict.
My novel, Parallel Lines, published this week, is dedicated “to all young people growing up in adult conflicts”.
Not only do I hope that it will provide my own children — who are now young adults — with better tools to make sense of their country, but I believe that it will also help all young people and, in fact, all people, everywhere to gain a better understanding of one of the oldest and most complicated conflicts.
The Israel Midwives Association decided to not take part in the International Confederation of Midwives' (ICM) Congress in Bali, Indonesia after the confederation informed the association that they would not be permitted to display the Israeli flag.Soccer Player From Israel Listed as Romanian on Website for His New UAE Team
The Congress began with the Opening Ceremony on Sunday, during which the various midwives associations' displayed their national flags, including Iran.
Gila Zarbiv, the head of the Israel Midwives Association media committee, was set to deliver a lecture at the Congress and was going to be joined by Yifat Hadar Rubanenko, the chairwoman of the Association, to speak about the activities of midwives in Israel.
A week before the conference, the director-general and president of the International Confederation of Midwives emailed the Israeli association to inform them that, in order not to anger the governor of Bali, the Israeli flag would not be displayed and the name of the Israeli association would not be mentioned in the flag parade at the beginning of the Congress. Instead, the Israeli association would march with the Confederation's flag.
The director-general wrote that "there is sensitivity in Indonesia regarding the raising of the Israeli flag and the remembrance of the State of Israel," adding that they heard that "should it be decided to include the Israeli flag and mention Israel in connection with the identity of the Israeli organization, there is a risk that the Congress will be closed and the Israeli delegation will be required to leave Indonesia."
The director-general added that she was "sure that the Israeli delegation understands that the union will not be able to take this risk and therefore, despite the difficulty involved, the Israeli flag will not be part of the flag parade and the Israeli organization will not be mentioned during the ceremony."
The official website for the UAE Pro League soccer team Al Ain now includes a profile for the club’s newest member, Israeli midfielder Omer Atzili, who signed a three-year contract with the team on Wednesday, but his nationality on the website is listed as Romanian.Ryanair say calling Israel 'Palestine' was an 'innocent mistake'
The 29-year-old was born in Israel but holds a Romanian passport that he obtained in 2015, according to the Israeli publication Mako, which added that Atzili is now the first Israeli Jew to play in the United Arab Emirates.
Some Al Ain fans expressed dismay on social media after the team signed the Israeli player and criticized the team’s attempts to mask Atzili’s Israeli background.
“Al-Ain does not tell you that it was an Israeli player who was signed and not Romanian. Al-Ain’s shame continues,” an Emirates media outlet reported, as cited by Mako.
Ahmed Al Nuaimi, the president of the association against the normalization of relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, was also quoted saying, “Al-Ain is forcing its fans to cheer for a player they’ve never wanted. The Israeli player will damage the image of the club.”
Irish budget airline Ryanair has said that a crew member's inflight announcement calling Israel 'Palestine' was an 'innocent mistake.'Anger as student who called Jews ‘apex predators in capitalism’ readmitted to Durham University
Reports emerged earlier this week that on a June 10 flight between Bologna and Tel Aviv, a member of the flight crew told passengers on the flight's descent into Ben Gurion international airport that they were about to land in 'Palestine.'
According to World Israel News, passengers on the flight heard the flight attendant say they were soon arriving in Palestine multiple times in Italian and English.
In a statement to the JC, a spokesperson for Ryanair said: “A junior crew member on this flight from Bologna to Tel Aviv (10 June) made a routine descent PA mistakenly saying ‘Palestine’ instead of ‘Tel Aviv’. This was an innocent mistake with no intent and was immediately corrected and apologised for by the senior crew member on board.”
Last year, Ryanair announced that they were expanding their schedule of Israeli flights, with 200 flights a week, to 25 destinations across 13 countries as well as 4 new routes to Eilat.
A Durham University student who called Jews “apex predators in capitalism” in far-right group chats has been allowed back to study for a PhD, prompting calls for a formal probe.
Messages shared by former Durham undergraduate Hugo Lunn included one post which said, “Hitler would be more efficient if he privatised his death factories” and another that referred to “the Jewishtocracy”.
In another remark, Lunn, who is now taking a PhD in medieval history, appeared to mock a student who had been offended by the statement “the only reason the Holocaust was bad is because the Jews did not consent to being gassed”, saying “he got triggered, the cuck”.
Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust called the situation “disturbing”, adding: “If true, in the knowledge of previous antisemitic posts shared by this person… the University of Durham ought to investigate this situation fully.”
City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy said she had raised “serious concerns” with the university over the issue.
She said: "These comments are extremely concerning, and the University’s leadership and multifaith student body will agree that such abhorrent views have no place on their campus. I am proud to represent such a diverse University and as such I have raised my serious concerns with the University. I expect they will always act to ensure the safety of students and workers and that any such remarks would be swiftly investigated and decisive action taken.”
When you’re pissed that your people are slandered and attacked and you wonder why almost all the Democrats in this city stay silent, you might get a little heated too…. (Volume up) pic.twitter.com/7M6dmGo7ic
— Brian Robinson (@votebrian) June 15, 2023
Unmasking Jew-hatred within the palestinian national movement. It's time this truth be recognized by all. #Antisemitism can not be fought, and Jews can not be safe, if this truth is ignored. #Israel #palestine Click here for more info & to register: https://t.co/9gXfnJzAuX pic.twitter.com/zzDT6H89Qo
— Avi Abelow (@AviAbelow) June 15, 2023
2/@ccnysjp also works to funnel students to @WOLPalestine protests which call for “resistance by any means necessary” & to "globalize the intifada.” These protests often include physical violence against Jews & other New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/oGM0gEBdi4
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) June 15, 2023
Keir Starmer meets chief Palestinian diplomat in the UK
Zomlot has previously said that Labour’s response to Israeli strikes against militant groups in Gaza let down Palestinians.
“We expected clarity of position about the atrocities that Israel has committed against our people,” he told the Middle East Eye in June 2021.
Of Sir Keir’s call for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to recognise a Palestinian state at a G7 summit, he said: “We recognise that that's a good step by the Labour leadership but we expect much more of Labour.”
In February this year, Zomlot refused to condemn a terror attack that took the lives of seven Israelis, despite being asked repeatedly if he would do so.
Both during and after the interview, the Palestinian representative accused the media of "bias" in reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Zomlot was born in the Gaza Strip and previously led the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s mission in the United States, before it was closed under President Donald Trump’s administration. In 2010, Corbyn spoke at his wedding.
Antisemitic BDS flyers were plastered all over Capital Hill in Seattle, WA falsely equating Zionism (the Jewish right to self determination) to fascism and calling for violence against the Jewish people.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 14, 2023
Thankfully they were promptly removed. pic.twitter.com/tVv49EFxup
Financial Times obfuscates UNESCO's erasure of Jewish history
This UNESCO framing, as CAMERA’s Sean Durns observed at the time, echoed the frequent propaganda of Palestinians officials – including Mahmoud Abbas, who called the Jewish history of Jerusalem a “delusional myth” in an Aug. 1, 2015, speech aired on the official PA TV station.In first, EU to fine social media platforms for failure to remove antisemitic content
The UNESCO resolution even included a wild conspiracy theory, accusing Israel of “planting Jewish fake graves” at Muslim commentaries.
Also relevant in understanding the US criticism of the organisation is a July 7th, 2017, UNESCO resolution declaring the Cave of Machpelah (Tomb of the Patriarchs) an endangered ‘Palestinian’ world heritage site – again, erasing the Jewish connection to the holy site, and eliding the Hebron’s status as among the oldest Jewish communities in the world.
UNESCO’s pro-Palestinian propaganda claiming “Israeli aggressions against Muslims” at the Temple Mount was bad enough. But, the Financial Times’ whitewashing of the UN body’s antisemitic narratives denying the Jewish connection to Israel, thus portraying Jews as interlopers in the land, egregiously misleads readers.
We’ve reached out to Financial Times editors to communicate our concerns over the omission.
The European Union will impose fines on social media and internet companies that will fail to remove antisemitic and defamatory content, according to the new EU Digital Services Act which will come into effect on August 25th.Defense rests in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial without calling witnesses or presenting evidence
The law will require internet companies in Europe to be more transparent and would oblige them to submit a risk assessment report detailing how they are working to neutralize such content. Europeans are discussing 19 digital players who are expected to adhere to these standards, including Facebook and Twitter.
Platforms that fail to meet these standards may face fines and legal action. As part of the law, all EU member states will need to appoint digital coordinators by February 2024 to ensure that companies comply with the established principles.
The European companies would have to outline their plan to respond to antisemitism and hate speech by the beginning of September this year. The law also mandates countries to provide training for law enforcement so that they understand what would constitute a hate crime, how to investigate such a crime, and how to support victims. The law does not abolish the fundamental right of freedom of expression but addresses the fine line between freedom of expression and hate speech online. This law is significantly more advanced than in the United States, where there is no legislation against defamation and anti-Semitic hatred on social networks.
Defense attorneys in the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter will not be calling witnesses or presenting evidence in court, following 11 days of harrowing testimony from witnesses called by the prosecution.Trial of defendants in “Khaybar” chant case inexplicably delayed until four years after alleged incident
The defense attorneys’ choice underscores their acknowledgement that their client committed the attack. Since the beginning of the trial, lead defense attorney Judy Clarke has made clear that her goal is to prevent the shooter, Robert Bowers, from being sentenced to death.
Judge Robert Colville dismissed the jury on Wednesday and told jurors to return on Thursday to hear closing arguments, after which the jury will deliberate and deliver its verdict. The defendant is almost certain to be found guilty, and his sentence — which will be determined in the next phase of the trial — will depend on whether the jury finds him guilty on all 63 counts he faces or just some of them. Of those charges, 22 carry the death penalty — two for each of his 11 victims.
The anticlimactic conclusion of the proceedings on Wednesday followed 11 days of graphic testimony from congregants and emergency responders who were present when the gunman perpetrated the shooting in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Oct. 27, 2018. The synagogue he attacked housed three congregations: Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash.
Witnesses have described how the shooting unfolded, detail by tragic detail — and have explained the Jewish rituals and practices interrupted and desecrated by the attack. Other witnesses, including 911 call center employees and law enforcement, have recounted how they responded to the shooting.
Clarke and her team have cross-examined witnesses but revealed on Thurday that they would not be calling any of their own.
“We have no evidence,” Clarke said after Colville turned to her following the prosecution’s last witness. In her opening remarks on May 30, Clark had said that the defense team would not contest that its client committed the shooting.
“There is no disagreement, there is no dispute and there will be no doubt as to who shot the 11 congregants,” she said then. “On Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers, the man seated at that table, loaded with ammunition and firearms entered the synagogue.”
The trial of two men who have been charged with stirring up racial hatred after they reportedly performed the “Khaybar” chant at a London protest in 2021 has inexplicably been delayed until four years after the alleged incident.Germany agrees to record $1.4 billion in annual Holocaust reparations as survivors age
A trial date set for May 2025 was decided this afternoon at Isleworth Crown Court.
Last month, the defendants pleaded “not guilty” at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The chant “Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud” can be translated in English as “Jews, remember the battle of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”
The “Khaybar” chant is a classic Arabic battle cry referencing the massacre and expulsion of the Jews of the town of Khaybar in northwestern Arabia, now Saudi Arabia, in the year 628 CE. The chant has been heard in numerous anti-Israel rallies in Britain and abroad.
Khaldoun Ahmad El-Ali, 27, and Mohammad Jihad Al Safi, 25, had the charges brought against them after they were identified by CST.
The pair have been released on unconditional bail until the preliminary hearing scheduled for later this year.
Conditions didn’t seem favorable in early May as Stuart Eizenstat entered annual negotiations with the German government over reparations for the estimated 240,000 remaining Holocaust survivors around the world.A German museum curator is personally returning art looted by the Nazis to the descendants of Holocaust victims
Eizenstat had served as the special negotiator for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany since 2009, and had analyzed the country’s economic and political landscape: high inflation, spiraling fuel costs and unprecedented government spending on defense to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. Add to that a German finance minister, Christian Lindner, who was elected less than two years on a platform of budget cuts, fiscal restraint and smaller government.
“We’re dealing with German taxpayer money. That has to be accounted for. And we’ve been in an era in the last couple of years and particularly this year with negative factors that would seem to have an inauspicious impact,” Eizenstat said in an interview.
Yet the compensation package Eizenstat helped secure for the Claims Conference — more than $1.4 billion — was the largest monetary figure agreed to for a single year since German reparations began more than seven decades ago. The figure reflected a recognition that, even as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles with each passing year, the needs of the remaining survivors are increasing as they age.
Some of the $1.4 billion that Germany agreed to spend will be paid directly to survivors; the bulk will fund social welfare services such as home care and food packages, administered through about 300 agencies across 83 countries. Germany also agreed to boost funding for Holocaust education programs.
“This is perhaps the most productive session we’ve ever had,” Eizenstat said. “And the fact that it has occurred almost 80 years after the war is a testimony to the Claims Conference’s relentless pursuit of justice and the partnership that we’ve had with the German government.”
For descendants of Jews persecuted by the Nazis, reclaiming art that was allegedly looted from their families can involve years-long court battles or negotiations with European officials.
But one museum curator in Germany, Matthias Weniger, is devoting his energy to restituting stolen art at his institution. Weniger is making it his personal business to return 111 silver objects at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich to the descendants of the Jewish families who owned the pieces before the Holocaust.
The pieces include ritual objects such as kiddush cups and Shabbat candlesticks that wound up in Nazi hands as the result of a 1939 law ordering Jews to surrender their precious metals and stones, often in exchange for just a fraction of their price. The law was one of a series of acts designed to strip Jews of their political and civil rights before the Nazi campaign of mass extermination began.
Most of the confiscated silver went to pawn shops, and much of it was ultimately melted down and used to aid the Nazi war effort. Some of the items that were not melted were returned to Holocaust survivors in the decades after the war, but only if they came forward to retrieve their stolen possessions.
“These silver objects handed in at the pawn shops are often the only material things that remain from an existence wiped out in the Holocaust,” Weniger told the Associated Press on Tuesday. “Therefore it’s really important to try to find the families and give back the objects to them.”
Dr. Otto Herschmann was the first sportsman in history to win #Olympic medals in two different sports – swimming and fencing
— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) June 14, 2023
He was among 1,000 Jews deported from Vienna to Sobibor #OTD 14 June 1942; all were murdered upon arrival
More here >> https://t.co/o6tIVsYSYo pic.twitter.com/N9ejdHlfpx
Polish Kindertransport memorial restored to its Gdansk city centre site
The Kindertransport monument in the Polish city of Gdansk, which had been in storage since 2019, has been restored to its former position in front of the central station.Meet the Kindertransport refugee who fled the Nazis and turbo-charged mankind’s journey into outer space
Its return was marked by a ceremony this week attended by the mayor, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, and Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Jacov Livne.
The monument, first unveiled in 2009, had been removed to make way for station renovations. It depicts children of different ages -- three girls and two boys -- standing with their luggage waiting for their train’s departure.
It is one of five such monuments by Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, who was himself saved by the Kindertransport. The others stand in or near railway stations in London (unveiled in 2006), Berlin (2008), Rotterdam (2011) and Hamburg (2015).
The figures who board the train in Gdansk are the same as featured getting off the train at Liverpool Street Station in London.
Also attending the ceremony were members of the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), Kinder descendants and members of the International Auschwitz Council.
After Kindertransport refugee Ben Abeles arrived in the UK from Prague aged 14, his father wrote to him begging him to get a good education so he would “count for somebody”.Christina Aguilera’s First-Ever Concert in Israel Scheduled For August, Live Nation Announces
More letters followed but within a year and a half, they dried up: both his father and mother were murdered in a Nazi death camp in Poland.
But Abeles turned his father’s words into a remarkable reality. He went on to become a pioneering scientist whose research into alloys changed space exploration. Abeles Tag credit Ben Abeles archive
Now, a trove of documents belonging to Abeles — including the missive containing that plea to study “until your precious head hurts” — has been donated by his widow, Helen, to the University of Southampton, home to one of the largest Jewish archives in western Europe.
The collection chronicles the period spent by Abeles — who died in 2020 aged 95 — flying with a Czech squadron attached to the RAF, his PhD in Israel and his work at the Radio Corporation of America.
It was here that he completed his pioneering work to co-invent a thermoelectric generator used to power space probes.
Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Christina Aguilera will come to Israel for the first time ever for a one-night concert on Aug. 10, the show’s promoter Live Nation announced on Thursday.Tel Aviv moves up to 5th place in annual ranking of best global tech ecosystems
Tickets are already on sale for the Genie in a Bottle singer’s concert at Live Park Rishon LeZion. Some of her most popular songs include Dirrty, Beautiful, Fighter, Candyman, What a Girl Wants and Can’t Hold Us Down. She has also collaborated with some of the music industry’s biggest name on hit songs including Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger, Pitbull’s Feel This Moment and an iconic cover of Lady Marmalade with P!nk, Missy Elliot, Lil Kim and Mya for the film Moulin Rouge.
The former judge on the singing competition The Voice has sold more than 75 million records worldwide throughout her career, according to her website. She has also garnered five No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the third female artist, and fourth ever, to top the chart over three consecutive decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s).
Aguilera has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the only artist under the age of 30 included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In 2021, she was given the first Music Icon Award at the People’s Choice Awards.
Tel Aviv moved up two spots to fifth place in an annual survey ranking the world’s most attractive ecosystems for startups and innovation by US research firm Startup Genome, rising from seventh last time.Cornerstone laid for Einstein House at Hebrew University
The study mapped the global startup industry across more than 140 ecosystems worldwide, collating data on 3.5 million startups. According to Startup Genome’s model, the higher the ranking of the ecosystem, the better the shot of an early-stage startup at building global success.
California’s Silicon Valley maintained its first-place position in this year’s report, followed by New York City and London, which were tied once again in second place. Boston and Beijing both dropped out of the top five to sixth and seventh, respectively, and paved the way for Los Angeles to be lifted to the fourth spot and Tel Aviv to fifth. Singapore entered the top 10 for the first time, moving up 10 spots to secure the 8th place in the ranking. Shanghai and Seattle rounded the top 10.
In the Startup Genome Ecosystem 2023 report, published annually since 2012, it was noted that Israel’s ranking improved even though the tech industry worldwide was facing a challenging year. The study was conducted before the Israeli government’s advancement of proposed changes to the judicial system at the start of 2023, which tech leaders have warned would undermine the country’s system of checks and balances and hurt its status as hub for innovation and investment.
“The presence of the city among the top five in the ranking is conclusive proof that the freedom of creativity and thought, along with the values of diversity and liberalism, form the foundation for a thriving and successful tech industry,” commented Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai. “Tel Aviv will continue upholding these values, offering tools, assistance, and support to the startup and high-tech companies operating in the city.”
“It will remain a central hub and a welcoming home for tech companies in Israel,” Huldai added.
2022 was a tough year for Israel’s tech industry, with investment in Israeli tech startups plunging by almost half to $15.5 billion from the previous year. The number of “exits” — mergers and acquisitions or initial public offerings of shares — dropped 58% during the same comparative period as the uncertain specter of higher interest rates and valuations pushed entrepreneurs and investors into a wait-and-see mode. The value of these Israeli tech exits, including M&As and IPOs, in 2022 slumped a staggering 80% from 2021 and totaled $16.9 billion, according to the 2022 Israel High Tech Exit report by consultants PwC Israel.
Overall, the Tel Aviv tech ecosystem was valued at $235 billion, compared to a global average of $34.6 billion, according to Startup Genome, buoyed by a “sharp” increase in exits over $1 billion, led by the $8.5 billion IPO by Israeli fintech firm Pagaya. Tel Aviv also saw the number of unicorns – private companies with valuations of $1 billion or more – increase from the second half of 2020 to the end of 2022 with 33 new entrants taking the total to 57. The report cited Blockchain company Fireblocks as the highest-valued unicorn at $8.5 billion.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday participated in a cornerstone-laying ceremony for an $18 million building at the Hebrew University that will explore the legacy of Albert Einstein.
Einstein House, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, is to be built adjacent to the school’s campus in Jerusalem’s Givat Ram neighborhood and feature exhibits displaying the 1921 Nobel laureate’s personal documents and contributions to science.
One of the founders of the Hebrew University, the theoretical physicist bequeathed all of his writings and intellectual property to it. The Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University contains some 55,000 filed documents.
“Right here, we are laying the foundations for a vital living archive of the writings of one of the greatest minds in the history of humanity,” Herzog said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“But we are also laying the foundations for a beautiful building designed by the architect Daniel Libeskind, for a legacy that goes far beyond any one person alone: This is the legacy of human curiosity—‘holy curiosity’ as Einstein himself put it.
“Over the past century, the Hebrew University has blossomed into a world-class institution that is at the forefront of global research and of contribution,” Herzog said.
The people of Israel 🇮🇱 deliver sustainable fresh water to millions of people in Africa. (Video: my daughter Julia in Uganda on an Innovation Africa mission) @innoafrica pic.twitter.com/8HXefgOdUP
— Avi Kaner ابراهيم אבי (@AviKaner) June 15, 2023
With 100,000 Immigrants in 17 Months, Aliyah to Israel Is at a 30-Year High
Since the beginning of 2022, over 100,000 new immigrants have moved to Israel, marking the highest number in three decades. The figures were revealed by Avichai Kahana, Director General at the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, during a panel at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, which took place in New York on Monday.
The panel also featured Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, Co-Founder & Executive Director at Nefesh B’Nefesh, Laura Ben-David, Photographer & Marketing Consultant, who made Aliyah on the first Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight in 2002, and Marc Cavaliere, Senior Vice President – The Americas, at El Aa Israel Airlines.
“Of the new olim, over 60,000 came from Russia, 20,000 from Ukraine, and another 20,000 from all over the world,” Kahana said.
Since 2002, Nefesh B’Nefesh has been supporting Aliyah from North America.
“When we started, our focus was on a ‘micro-faciliation’ level, we wanted to remove as many obstacles as possible to make each person’s Aliyah dream come true,” Fass recalled. “ Then the next chapter of ‘macro-facilitation,’ began, addressing the government of Israel, institutions, communities and the army so we could leverage the human capital we brought to the country.”
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