Thursday, July 06, 2023

07/06 Links Pt2: Fear and loathing in Paris unsettles French Jews; A Slaughter of Jews in Ukraine; Helen Mirren to Receive Achievement Award at Jerusalem Film Festival

From Ian:

Fear and loathing in Paris unsettles French Jews
Nobody in Paris can be said to be calm about the biggest explosion of civil unrest in France for 20 years. What began with the shooting by traffic cops of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French-Arab with immigrant parents — one of a shocking 17 drivers shot dead by police in the past 18 months — exploded into five nights of rioting, looting and rage.

Spreading across France, rioters from the underprivileged and racially mixed banlieues — the fringes of the country’s prosperous and elegant cities — torched cars, looted shops and targeted town halls, the homes of mayors and state-owned properties or symbols of all kinds.

The statistics are horrifying: more than 5,000 vehicles burned, 3,400 arrests, 1,000 buildings damaged or looted, 250 police stations or gendarmeries attacked and more than 700 police officers injured.

But French Jews woke from the madness more nervous than most. Not only was the Holocaust Memorial in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, the epicentre of the rioting, defaced by anti-police and anti-government slogans, but Jewish shops were ransacked in the community hub of Sarcelles, an ethnically mixed banlieue itself, also on the edge of Paris. Clips circulating on social media showed graffiti warning “we will make you a Shoah” and recorded cries of “death to the Jews”. The deep seam of banlieue antisemitism, while not central, had indeed reared its head.

“What does it mean for the Jews?” is, in Paris this week, not a comic question. So far, community leaders have been keen to point out that, unlike in the 2014 riots, the properties of Jews caught up in the rioting do not seem to have been targeted simply for being Jewish. Instead, the kosher supermarket and orthodox wig shop in Sarcelles that were devastated were part of wider, indiscriminate mayhem. This was a relief to a community which in 2014 saw multiple synagogues targeted by rioters. But in an indication of pessimistic expectations, this in itself is considered positive news for the Jews.

The real worry is what the unrest means politically. The community fears that this third episode of chaos facing President Macron in less than a year marks a moment when a decisive part of the electorate begins to desert the centre ground. Far-right Marine Le Pen, who has spent a decade trying to “de-demonise” herself and her party, is waiting for them. Earlier this year, a few polls showed that the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen would beat Macron in a rematch. She is now perfectly placed to take advantage of his humiliation. This would be a disaster for French Jews, not simply because it would bring a party with a history of antisemitism to power.
Karma for France: Payback for its crimes against the Jews?
Sarah, my sister, remembers it on-the-spot, first-hand, from the family home in Toulouse, which was supposed to be in the Free Zone, but it wasn’t.
Jews were hunted everywhere.
Sarah remembers the day her best friend Incarnaciion called her a dirty Jew, after Hitler and Vichy came to power.
Jews, she remembers, were taken while walking or driving.
“When Father left the house for work,” Sarah says, “imagine Mother’s state of mind. She didn’t know if he’d be back.”
Uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews never did come back.
The French were willing collaborators.
Sarah, Survivor, mother, grandmother, great grandmother of Religious Zionists thriving in Israel, a creative force in music and literature, a Woman of Valor true to her Biblical namesake, still cringes at the mention of France.
I often ask her, “Don’t you ever have warm feelings for France?”
She saw too much.
“Not at all,” she says.
“But Piaf…Charles Boyer…”
“That’s all wonderful when you are over here, not while you were over there” …as she was.
i ask her about Casablanca, that scene where everybody grows tall and gets goosebumps when the lady sings La Marseillaise.
Doesn’t that do something for her?
“Great movie,” she agrees. “But a movie is a movie…and I only love America and Israel. Sing me those anthems.”
“But.” I persist, “the French were not as brutal as the Germans.”
“Yes, they were.”
Not to get overly religious or mystical, but I must ask, is the misery France suffers today a comeuppance for her sins of the past?
Has her cup of iniquities belatedly overflowed?
Jews out, Muslims in, and this is the result.


France on Trial review: The Case of Marshal Pétain - Jewish saviour or antisemite?
Julian Jackson, British born and Cambridge educated, is a leading historian of 20th-century France, much of his work focusing on the wars and depressions by which France was afflicted and the lives of pivotal figures such as Charles de Gaulle. And now Pétain.

The new book is not a formal biography. Rather, it’s a brilliantly researched and vividly narrated attempt to understand and assess a man alternately among the most admired and most abhorred in modern French history.

And to do this, Jackson invites us to sit in on the trial, starting on July 23, 1945, at which the frail and elderly Maréchal was accused of treason.

The three -week hearing seems to have been a little prosaic, Pétain remaining largely silent as witness after witness attested, predictably enough, to either his treacherous collaboration with the brutal German occupants of France or to what others saw as his invincible desire to do all he could to protect the lives of his fellow countrymen.

Yet Jackson manages to engage the reader, adopting a rich literary style with which to communicate not only the data and opinions expressed but also the atmosphere in and outside the court and something of the personality of a variety of characters, from prime ministers such as the Jewish socialist Léon Blum or the vain and dapper Paul Renaud to writers such as the scruffy, antisemitic Céline or Pétain’s passionate young defence lawyer Jacques Isorni.

Pétain was found guilty and sentenced to death. However, General de Gaulle, President of the Provisional French government, agreed to commute the sentence to life imprisonment and Pétain was incarcerated on a small island off the Brittany coast where he died in 1951, aged 95.

The story doesn’t end there. In a riveting final section Jackson shows how the disputes and debates about Pétain continued ever more passionately after the old man’s death. What is true patriotism? What is treason?

Did Pétain preserve the French Empire, only for de Gaulle to preside over its subsequent dissolution?

More specifically, could — or should — Pétain have done more to protect the Jews in occupied France?

To some degree he had stood up to the Nazis.

In May 1942 he rejected their demand that Jews living under the Vichy regime wear a yellow star and the following year, when the Germans ordered the denaturalisation of all Jews in the “Unoccupied Zone”, Pétain refrained, knowing that this could lead to their mass arrest and deportation.

Was it true, as many asserted, that proportionately fewer Jews living under the Vichy regime were deported and murdered than elsewhere in France?

If so, might this have resulted more from the courageous actions of non-Jews who had bravely tried to protect them than from the policies of the Pétain regime?

Before the trial Pétain had proclaimed that, if no longer able to be his nation’s sword, he sought to be its shield. As Jackson shows convincingly, the debate continues to this day.


A Slaughter of Jews in Ukraine
The day after the proclamation of Ukrainian nationalist leader Yaroslav Stetsko’s state of Ukraine, on July 1, 1941, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) pasted posters around Lviv with Mykola Mikhnovsky’s slogan, “Ukraine for Ukrainians,” printed in white letters against a red background. On the same day in Lviv and in many other localities of Galicia and Volhynia, another poster appeared, authored by Ivan Klymiv sometime earlier; it instructed Ukrainians: “People! Know! Moscow, Poland, the Hungarians, the Jews are your enemies! Destroy them!” These posters issued a clear signal as to what non-Ukrainians in Lviv could expect. And under the conditions of Nazi occupation, the only non-Ukrainians who could be targeted with impunity were Jews.

But much more incendiary than any posters of the new nationalist state was the discovery of the hundreds of prisoners murdered in Lviv by the NKVD in the last days of Soviet rule. Emotions ran high—rage, outrage, grief. Some people went inside the prisons to look for missing relatives. Famously, Roman Shukhevych discovered his brother Yurii’s body in a mass grave in the NKVD prison on Lontsky Street. When the corpses were exhumed and laid out in courtyards so that the public could search for relatives among the victims, a strong stench of rotting flesh permeated areas near the prisons. Photographs from the time show people with kerchiefs over their mouths and noses to blunt the stomach-churning smell. Isolated incidents of anti-Jewish violence escalated into the Lviv pogrom of July 1, 1941.

The word “pogrom” has a number of meanings. The term originated with the incidents of anti-Jewish violence that erupted in cities on Ukrainian territories within the Russian Empire in the early 1880s. These pogroms included much looting of Jewish businesses, beatings and rapes of Jews, and some murders. The pogroms of 1903-06 on the same territories were similar. But the pogroms in Ukraine of the civil war period, largely perpetrated by soldiers, were marked by great numbers of murders. Pogroms initiated by the Nazis, as when they seized Vienna in March 1938 and throughout the Reich in November 1938 (the November pogrom, often called Kristallnacht), primarily involved the destruction of Jewish property, the humiliation of Jews, and assaults, although there were also some murders.

The Lviv pogrom of 1941 combined many features of the preceding pogroms: There were beatings, sexual assaults and humiliations, murders by the urban crowd, shooting by soldiers, and ritual humiliations; Jewish apartments were robbed, but not their businesses, if we can speak of the businesses nationalized by the Soviets as in some sense still Jewish.

The main stages of the pogrom were three prisons in Lviv where bodies of the NKVD victims were exhumed, although anti-Jewish violence and humiliations also occurred in other areas of the city, particularly in the central town square (rynok), but also near the opera house and near the seat of the Greek Catholic metropolitan’s residence, St. George’s hill. Two of the prisons were close to largely Jewish neighborhoods: the Brygidky prison and the prison on Zamarstyniv street. As numerous Jewish survivors’ accounts make clear, members of the Ukrainian National Militia entered nearby apartment buildings and rounded up Jews, men and women, and took them to the prisons. The other prison, the NKVD prison on Lontsky Street (now a museum) was closer to the center of the city, outside the Jewish neighborhood. For this prison Jews were rounded up off the street by militiamen and volunteers from the urban crowd. They were marched with their hands up, sometimes on all fours, to the prison.
Why Turkey Arrested an Alleged “Mossad Spy Ring”
On Monday, the Turkish internal intelligence agency announced that it had rounded up a network of (mostly Arab) Israeli operatives working within its borders. While it is certainly possible that the Mossad has agents based in Turkey who are observing the activities of Iran or of various terrorist groups, there is also no reason to take Ankara’s version of events at face value. Benny Avni puts the story in context:
Israeli sources tell the Sun that they are intrigued by the timing of the alleged exposure, as it happened just after Mossad said it uncovered a terror ring in Cyprus and on the same day that Israel launched a major anti-terrorism push in the northern West Bank, targeting groups with ties to Turkey.

Ironically, Ankara is widely advertising the alleged bust of Mossad agents even as a major thaw of relations is under way between Israel and Turkey, which have been on a long collision course. According to various reports, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Erdogan plan to meet later in July, in a first such powwow since 2008. Last year, Mr. Erdogan hosted President Herzog of Israel.

Members of the ring were allegedly dispatched to Beirut and Damascus to pinpoint Hizballah sites in Lebanon and Syria for attacks by Israeli drones. . . . Some were charged with identifying Hamas-related targets at Istanbul. Unlike Israel, America, and most of Europe, Turkey does not designate groups like Hamas as terrorists. Hamas’s second in command, Saleh Arouri, has long resided in the country and reportedly still maintains a base there.

“While I can’t tell whether the spy-ring story is true, its timing is curious,” one Israeli source who declined to be identified told the Sun. “It seems to me that it was widely advertised by Ankara for internal consumption. The message they wanted to convey to their public is, ‘We’re no patsies of the Mossad.’”
Iraqi Shiite militia kidnapped Israeli citizen
Israel reveals Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli and Russian citizen, was kidnapped in Iraq 4 months ago and is being held hostage by the Kataib Hezbollah militia

A senior Israeli lawmaker said the Iraqi Shiite militia group that kidnapped Israeli citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov four months ago, and is still holding hostage, knew she was Israeli, and that the State of Israel was working for her return home




The west must stop normalisation with Iran
The diplomatic landscape is again shifting in the Middle East, with the Iran-Saudi Arabia deals marking the ongoing normalisation of Iran’s role. A key ally, Syria, is on the same path. It’s in the process of re-admission to the Arab League despite being accountable for some 300,000 civilian deaths. But to seek rapprochement with Iran is to gloss over and facilitate a darker side of Iran’s geopolitical operations embodied by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxy organisations, whose reach extends far beyond the near East.

Iran has adhered to a persistent ideology since the 1979 revolution: to undermine the post-war international settlement, to defend Shia Islam, to become a beacon for 1.9 billion Muslims and to establish itself as the key regional power. This is defined by a pathological opposition to the US, Israel and the Jewish faith. America is the “great Satan” whom Iranian clerics and congregations denounce at Friday prayers.

Protesters in late 2022, following the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, after being arrested for not wearing a headscarf, were branded “moharebeh” (waging war against God) and brutally crushed, with 15,000 arrested and a number facing execution. Israel is viewed as an “impostor Zionist regime”, in the words of the commander of the IRGC, Major General Hossein Salami. Antisemitism is, of course, deeply rooted in the regime. For decades Iran has been in the business of revisionism, both about the territory of Israel but also the extent and even existence of the Holocaust. It has minced no words in its intentions to destroy Israel.

A principal function of US strategy with its regional allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, has been to tie up Iranian resources. The more the West is able to force Iran to commit itself to stalemates in areas where the US holds the advantage, the fewer resources there will be for Iran to funnel into terrorism, unconventional warfare, and cyber-attacks against the US, Israel and Nato allies. Conversely, a weakening of US and allied resolve and appeasement with the regime will mean a stabilised home theatre for Iran, from which it can renew its unconventional warfare overseas.

Yet the US finds its regional partners thawing relations with Tehran. This weakening of foreign policy will embolden Iranian offensives.
JPost Editorial: It's time for France, Germany, and the UK to snap back sanctions on Iran
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – known as the E3 – plan to maintain sanctions on Iranian ballistic missiles and drones even though they are set to expire in October under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Among the key elements of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the JCPOA, were the “sunset clauses” and the “snapback” mechanism, serving as the carrot and stick for Iran to dial back its nuclear program and keep it that way, as stipulated by the agreement.

The sunset clauses meant that starting in 2020, UN sanctions on arms sectors in Iran would be gradually lifted. However, if Iran violates the JCPOA, any party to the deal can activate the snapback mechanism, reinstating all pre-agreement sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Snapback is veto-proof, such that any party to the JCPOA can invoke it and the others must oblige.

UN is meant to lift ban on Iran's development, production of missiles
In October, the UN is meant to lift a ban on Iran’s development and production of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and on its import and export of missile-related technology, including missiles and drones with a range of 300 km. or more. In addition, Iran’s parliament is meant to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency more access to its nuclear facilities, and the EU is required to lift remaining sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program.

A diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post that the E3’s plan is to maintain sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program as well as “other coercive measures” – likely the EU nuclear sanctions, though the source declined to specify – without imposing new sanctions or activating snapback. The European parties to the JCPOA regard this as remaining within the framework of the agreement and the related UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

The Guardian, which first reported on the matter, presented maintaining sanctions as “plans to breach the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.” In fact, it is Iran that began breaching the JCPOA years ago with impunity, as the other countries in the deal treated snapback like a dead letter, fearing a total end to the agreement, even as it became less and less relevant.

The US tried to snap back sanctions on Iran in late 2020, in light of Tehran’s development of ballistic missiles. Then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo also cited Iran’s malicious and destabilizing actions via its proxies around the world, though that was beyond the scope of the JCPOA. The Trump administration argued that, while it had pulled out of the JCPOA two years prior, snapback is part of UNSCR 2231, which the US did not leave. However, the other parties to the Iran deal rejected the supposedly veto-proof snapback sanctions.


U.S. Navy: Iran Tried to Seize 2 Oil Tankers near Strait of Hormuz and Fired Shots at One of Them
iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, opening fire on one of them, the U.S. Navy said.

It said that in both cases, the Iranian naval vessels backed off after the U.S. Navy dispatched a guided missile destroyer to the scene, and that both commercial ships continued their voyages.

“The Iranian navy did make attempts to seize commercial tankers lawfully transiting international waters,” said Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. “The U.S. Navy responded immediately and prevented those seizures.”

He said the gunfire directed at the second vessel did not cause casualties or major damage.

There was no immediate Iranian comment on the incidents.

The U.S. Navy said an Iranian naval vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged TRF Moss in the Gulf of Oman at around 1 a.m. The U.S. deployed the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, as well as as MQ-9 Reaper drone and a P-8 Poseidon patrol plane.

Three hours later, the U.S. Navy received a distress call from the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager more than 20 nautical miles off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman. The Navy said another Iranian naval vessel had closed within a mile (1.6 kilometers) of the tanker and had ordered it to stop.

The same U.S. destroyer sped toward the tanker at “maximum speed,” the Navy said in a statement. “Prior to McFaul’s arrival on scene, Iranian personnel fired multiple, long bursts from both small arms and crew-served weapons,” it said.




The Arab Israeli influencer who asks: Why can’t we all get along?
Nuseir Yassin believes he might be one of the only people in the world to call himself a “Palestinian-Israeli”.

And he might also the only Palestinian — Israeli or otherwise — to choose to spend a rainy July afternoon in north-west London with members of the Jewish community, telling them about his life. Yassin, a bright-eyed 32-year-old who could easily pass for 25, came to the events space JW3 to pose the age-old question: “Why can’t we all get along?”

The social-media phenomenon, who in under a decade has amassed more than 65 million followers across Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, addressed a Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) event at the community centre this week, where he shared his inspirational story with a Jewish audience.

As a Palestinian Arab, he faces more than his fair share of challenging questions from Jewish members of the public and the people who view his videos. But, Yassin, says, he gets a harder time from Arabs than from Israelis.

“I’ve had ten million Egyptians telling me I’m a Zionist. The Arab side attacks harder,” he says.

“The expectation [to be loyal] is higher. And it [seems] like ‘if you don’t support us in everything that we do, then you’re essentially a traitor’. But I’ve never been the kind of person who would succumb to this pressure,” Yassin explains.

Despite the difficulties he faces in trying to juggle his celebrity with commentating on the world’s most controversial conflict, Yassin is at heart an optimist: “I think I’ve learned to ignore the noise,” he says of his critics.

“No matter how sad it is, there [has been] real progress. Sometimes people can cannot see the forest for the trees.”

He believes more positive change is on the cards too: “I think before the year 2030 there will be some tangible [change]. I think the biggest progress would be [relations with] Saudi Arabia, peace with Israel and negotiating on behalf of the Palestinians.”

In the UAE, before the 2020 peace deal with Israel, Yassin was advised to hide his Israeli passport, he says: “I was told to never say I’m from Israel only to say I’m Palestinian — to be very, very careful.”

Within two weeks of the signing of the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement, though, people “went from being super-scared of Israel to being super-welcoming”.
Morningstar whittles Israel company blacklist from 26 to seven
JNS reported last April that Morningstar and its subsidiary Sustainalytics had flagged 26 companies for doing business beyond the so-called Green Line in Israel. Its “controversy ratings” could dissuade socially conscious investors from placing funds in those companies.

Under pressure from a growing list of state-level investigations for potential anti-Israel BDS practices, Morningstar and Sustainalytics—an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) rater—have trimmed the list down substantially.

Multiple sources told JNS that the list is now seven: B Communications, Bezeq, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, Elbit Systems, Elco, Electra, and Shapir Engineering and Industry.

Elbit Systems, a Haifa-based international defense company, may still remain on Morningstar’s Global Screening Standards (GSS) watchlist. It also remains unclear what criteria Morningstar used when it removed the 19 companies from its broader list.

Morningstar previously acknowledged that “some clients may use GSS as a so-called ‘do not invest’ list in order to comply” with investment policies that demand divestment from companies deemed to breach international standards of business conduct.

“After months of negotiations and discussions with Morningstar about its assumptions, sources and language, we appreciate that a significant number of companies unfairly rated for their work with Israel have had these black marks lifted,” Elana Broitman, senior vice president for public affairs at the Jewish Federations of North America, wrote in a note seen by JNS.
UK bans councils from anti-Israel boycotts



ADL CEO: The British Green Party looks like the next hub of antisemitism in UK politics
The head of the Anti-Defamation League praised the British Labour Party for its efforts to combat antisemitism among its membership but warned that those expelled from the party could seek to coalesce under other banners, including the Green Party.

Jonathan Greenblatt, who recently visited Britain to address the United Kingdom government’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism, said in an interview that “there is now a political cost to being antisemitic in British politics.” He applauded party leader Keir Starmer, who since succeeding Jeremy Corbyn in 2020 has focused on earning back the trust of Jewish voters after years of antisemitism controversy that watchdogs have said Corbyn allowed to fester.

But Greenblatt is not the first to point to the Green Party as the next possible hub of antisemitism controversy in British politics. Multiple deputy party leaders have been at the center of antisemitism allegations in recent years. In March, the Jewish Labour Movement wrote to the party’s co-leaders expressing concern about a Green Party councillor in Norwich accused of posting material that “promotes antisemitic tropes.”

And earlier this month, the party’s main representative body for Jewish members gave a senior role to a councillor previously expelled from Labour over her support for a group that denied and downplayed claims of antisemitism.
Is Ben & Jerry’s the next Bud Light?
Boycotts never worked until Bud Light came up with an ad campaign with a transgender woman that rejected the beliefs of its target audience and appealed to the woke culture. The boycott has lasted an unbelievable six months and shows no sign of easing. Sales are down 28%, and the brand did not recover for the crucial Independence Day sales period. Another brand may join Bud Light in the Boycott world, Ben & Jerry’s.

The brand’s July 4th message demanded the U.S. return ‘stolen indigenous land,’ and the U.S. govt should start by returning Mount Rushmore to the Lakota Tribe. This is a very unpatriotic message for Independence Day.

“What is the meaning of Independence Day for those whose land this country stole, those who were murdered and forced with brutal violence onto reservations, those who were pushed from their holy places and denied their freedom.”

The message of oppression is truthful; that’s why the U.S. government is looking for ways to recognize the treatment of Native Americans. None of those ways call for the displacement of the millions of people living on those lands. That would necessitate the same treatment of American citizens as Native Americans in the 19th century and probably cause a civil war. Ben & Jerry’s does not present any ideas about where to place the millions of Americans living in what they call stolen land.

If the Ben & Jerry’s.tweet sounds familiar, it’s because, in July of 2021, the brand decided to boycott Israel by not licensing sales in Judea and Samaria. After all, until then, the Israeli franchisee sold products in Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem. Despite those areas being part of the eternal land of the Jews (read Chronicles and the Book of Kings), and it not being part of any existing state prior to the 1967 Six Day War, they claimed it was stolen land. The board wanted to boycott Israel in its entirety. According to one member, Anuradha Mittal, none of Israel has a right to exist. Unilever refused and the Israeli franchisee bought the Israeli rights to the ice cream.
New York law on wood-fired ovens could hit matzah bakeries
New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection has recently proposed new regulations that would require restaurants and bakeries using coal or wood to prepare their food would need to install emission filters to reduce their smoke output by 75 per cent.

“This is the religious tradition for all these years,” said Alter Eckstein, pointing out that gas stoves cannot reach the heat needed for the process. “It’s also about the religion. This is how we bake for the past thousands of years, and we don’t want to change anything.”

Eckstein, 36, manages Satmar Broadway Matzah Bakery and had spent more than $600,000 in anticipation of the regulations, along with appeasing his neighbors who had sometimes complained about pollution caused by the business.

City Councilman Ari Kagan, who represents District 47 in Brooklyn, N.Y., pledged to defend the bakeries, asking “Why are we going after them? It’s completely opposite to what we should be doing.”

“I am totally against it,” he said. “It is wrong.”
CAA to write to University of Leicester and UCU over lecturer’s “lies about antisemitism” rant
Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to the University of Leicester and the University and College Union (UCU) regarding a lecturer who delivered a rant in which he dismissed reports of antisemitism as “lies”.

Dr Joseph Choonara, a lecturer in political economy at the University and a Chair of UCU’s Leicester branch, gave a speech at last week’s Marxism Festival where he appeared on stage next to the controversial filmmaker Ken Loach.

In the video, orginally posted by the Harry’s Place Twitter account, Dr Choonara can be heard saying: “We know that the establishment turned on, and sought to destroy, Corbynism. We know that the lies about antisemitism are just that, they are lies. The lies directed towards Ken Loach are an absolute smear and a disgrace and we should reject them.”

Mr Loach was expelled from the Labour Party in August 2021 without public explanation. Mr Loach had been a leading ally of other controversial figures in Labour’s antisemitism scandal, especially those who denied that there was such a scandal of antisemitism. He said at the time of his expulsion: “Labour HQ finally decided I’m not fit to be a member of their party, as I will not disown those already expelled,” adding that he was “proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed a witch-hunt…Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people. We are many, they are few. Solidarity.”

Mr Loach’s voice was among the loudest of those who attempt to dismiss Labour’s antisemitism crisis as non-existent and a right-wing smear campaign. He claimed that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a “torrent of abuse” that was “off the scale” and that regardless of what he did, the “campaign” of antisemitism accusations was “going to run and run”. He described the BBC’s Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism as “disgusting because it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism…and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn.”

He was also reportedly behind a motion passed by Bath Labour Party branding the Panorama programme a “dishonest hatchet job with potentially undemocratic consequences” and asserting that it “disgraced the name of Panorama and exposed the bias endemic within the BBC.”

In 2017, Mr Loach caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is a manifestation of antisemitism. Although Mr Loach later sought to clarify his remarks, he has continued to make inflammatory and provocative statements about Labour’s antisemitism scandal.


BBC Arabic issues more than 100 corrections following complaints of anti-Israel bias
The BBC’s Arabic news channel has issued more than 130 corrections following complaints of bias and inaccuracy in reports about Israel and Jewish affairs since the beginning of 2021 — an average of more than one every week, the JC can reveal.

The sheer volume of corrections was a signal that recent attempts to “reform” BBC Arabic were a failure, according to a media watchdog, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) Arabic.

Over the course of just two months this year, April and May, the channel published 13 separate stories it later had to correct, including two that described the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70CE as a “Jewish belief” and a “Jewish narrative”, rather than a historical fact supported by archaeological evidence.

The flood of corrections came despite an attempt by BBC management last year to improve editorial standards in its Arabic output.

As the JC first disclosed, Mohamed Yehia, the BBC’s Head of Multimedia Output, sent an email in October to BBC Arabic staff ordering them to observe BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality.

His instructions included reminders not to use the term “Wailing Wall”, which carries negative connotations in Arabic; not to refer to all Israeli citizens as “settlers”; and not to describe the entire Temple Mount as the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Sweden: Request filed to burn Torah outside Israeli embassy
The request follows the burning on a Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm, sparking backlash across the Muslim world.

Police in Stockholm received a request on Wednesday to burn a Torah scroll and the Bible in front of the Israeli embassy, following the burning of a Quran outside a mosque in the Swedish capital that prompted harsh condemnation across the Muslim world


CAA delivers “incredible and humbling” antisemitism session to NHS Foundation Trust
Campaign Against Antisemitism recently presented a session to the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

The session came after the Trust wrote to us to address a forum of safeguarding leads to discuss extremist threats.

The talk covered a variety of topics, which included the origins of antisemitism; antisemitic conspiracy theories; how antisemitism flourishes; how discourse around Israel can fuel contemporary antisemitism; and how to avoid inadvertent antisemitism in the workplace.

One attendee said: “I continue to get so much wonderful and reflective feedback and a commitment to delivering more personalised support to the Jewish community that we serve.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism regularly provides antisemitism training to regulators, police forces, public bodies, university societies and other institutions.


$400M Apple Face ID inventors create tiny robot to treat brain disease
PrimeSense, the previous company founded by Michael Shpigelmacher, Aviad Maizels and Alex Shpunt, was acquired in 2013 by Apple for around $400 million. It was a world leader in 3D sensors that helped power the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 and provided the technology behind Apple’s Face ID.

Bionaut Labs, the medical startup founded by the trio, is on a very different journey – into the deepest recesses of the human brain. The company is testing its technology at a Mayo Clinic facility and is poised to begin clinical trials with five top-tier US medical centers as it applies for FDA approval. Bionaut is currently raising a Series B-1 funding round, as featured on the OurCrowd investment platform.

The company’s Bionaut, a tiny micro-robot smaller than a grain of rice, is guided through a patient’s central nervous system into a targeted spot in the brain where it can perform minor surgery, deliver therapeutic drugs, or return with tissue for a biopsy.More on the Bionaut Labs investment round

Shpigelmacher, CEO of Bionaut Labs, says he realized that treatments for disease occurring at a specific point in the body – especially the brain – were not being accurately targeted.

He likens the effect of existing treatments to “carpet bombing a patient’s body with drugs,” creating “widespread undesired side effects or damage to surrounding tissue and organs.”

“There we were, flooding the whole body. It was like having one dirty dish in the sink and bringing out a fire hose that floods the whole house just to wash that single dish,” he says.

The Bionaut, guided by a physician using a powerful magnet, can release a payload of targeted therapy directly into a tumor or any other localized target– even deep inside the brain – and head for home.


David Beckham: I consider myself part of the British Jewish community
David Beckham has spoken fondly of his Jewish heritage, saying that he feels "part of the community."

In a public conversation with producer Ben Winston, the ex-Manchester United footballer said: "I am part of the Jewish community and I am proud to say it."

In a wide-ranging discussion about his life and career at the launch of the Lira Winston Fellowship, he was tested on his claims to Jewish identity with Winston starting off the prayer for bread and Beckham finishing it in Hebrew.

Speaking about how his mother’s father Joseph was Jewish, he said: ‘My grandfather always made sure we would keep up with certain traditions. We went to bar mitzvahs and weddings and I would wear a kippah. Every Saturday morning, I used to go to see my grandfather – you’d walk in the house to my grandmother preparing chicken soup and matza balls and latkes. We always kept to those traditions; it was always about the family coming together and spending time together."
Israel loses to England in U-21 Euro semifinal
Israel's Under-21 national soccer team lost to England on Wednesday in the semifinal , leaving the championship with their heads held high after an impressive run in the tournament.

The formidable adventure of the Blue and Whites in the European Under-21 Championship ended with a 3-0 defeat to The Three Lions after failing to capitalize on goal chances.

Despite the setback, Israel's coach Guy Luzon and his players deserve praise for their remarkable performance, which marked a historic turning point for Israeli soccer. Few, if any, imagined Luzon's side being featured in the final four of the competition, especially after being placed in the same group as great soccer nations such as England and Germany.

Yet, despite the low expectations, this tight-knit team with an iron mind conquered feats and showed character, including scoring a spectacular goal against the Czech Republic in the decisive match and eliminating Georgia in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinal match.

Israel reached a stage of the competition that most considered inaccessible two weeks prior and, above all else, qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This golden generation has thus solidified its right to participate in a new prestigious international competition where they will have the opportunity to shock Israeli supporters once again.
Helen Mirren to Receive Achievement Award at Jerusalem Film Festival, Opening With Her Film ‘Golda’
The multi-award-winning British actress Dame Helen Mirren will be given the achievement award at the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival (JFF), which opens on July 13 with the Israel premiere of her new film Golda about former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

“The mere mention of Helen Mirren’s name inspires awe and anticipation for each one of her new films,” JFF said in a released statement. “Our anticipation is doubled, as she honors us with her presence to mark her appearance in the role of one of the most significant figures in Israeli history, Golda Meir. We are thrilled to take this opportunity to honor her for her illustrious career.” The film festival also praised Mirren’s “versatility and professionalism,” as they “contributed to her iconic status and cross-generational popularity.”

Mirren has already received an Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, Tony, as well as the best actress award twice at the Cannes Film Festival and once at the Venice Film Festival. She has played iconic female figures and leaders in history many times in the past, including Queen Charlotte in the 1995 comedy The Madness of King George, Queen Elizabeth I in the 2005 miniseries titled Elizabeth 1 and Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 historical drama The Queen.

Golda, directed by Guy Nattiv and also starring Liev Schreiber as former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival on February 20 and the film will be released in the US and UK on August 25, with special screenings held two days prior that will include a Q&A with Nattiv and Mirren. The film from Bleecker Street and ShivHans Pictures is based on a true story and set against the backdrop of 1973 Yom Kippur War. It shows Meir being forced to make difficult decisions as the leader of Israel, as millions of lives are on the line, while also dealing with skeptical all-male cabinet members and balancing her relationship with Kissinger.

Meir, nicknamed the “Iron Lady of Israel,” was the world’s fourth and Israel’s first and only female prime minister, and the first of any country in the Middle East. She died in 1978 of lymphoma, four years after leaving office.
British Rocker Morrissey Calls Israel ‘God’s Country’ During Sold-Out Concert in Northern Israel
British singer Morrissey had only kind words to say about Israel and being in the Jewish state for his performance on Sunday night in the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, the first of two concerts that he held this week in Israel.

“I’m very happy to be here in God’s country, the heart of the world. Thank you for coming,” the former frontman for The Smiths, 64, told the thousands of audience members that gathered at the Zappa Amphitheater Shuni. “Binyamina, Binyamina, bring me home, take me in your arms … ” added the musician, whose full name is Steven Patrick Morrissey. He also said he was “thrilled” to be in Israel.

Sunday night’s sold-out show featured Morrissey’s new song Notre Dame as well as the fan favorites Irish Blood, English Heart; I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris; Everyday Is Like Sunday; and many more. He also performed hit songs from The Smiths like Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One; Half a Person; and Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.

Morrissey performed his second concert in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. During that show he wore a blue shirt that featured in Hebrew the word “Goldstar,” which is an Israeli brand of beer, and the insignia of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club, whose new head coach is related to the British singer-songwriter.

Morrissey has been vocal in the past about his support for Israel, has appeared on stage in Tel Aviv draped in an Israeli flag, and called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel “absurd and narrow-minded” in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel. He was given the key to Tel Aviv in 2012.




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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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