The French Riots and the Jews
So has more than 20 years of rabid, often Islamist-inspired antisemitism in France exhausted itself? Or is it so ingrained now that the new generation can do without the explicit reference to the Jews in its war against assimilation? Either way, what no one wants to grasp is the complete failure of the assimilationist model, which has been abandoned not only by the kids of the cités but also by the society at large.‘To Stop the Dead From Dying’ Review: ‘Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence’
There is a long and a short story for this lack of faith. The long story, of course, is the Vichy regime. During WWII, contrary to what the right claims today, not only did the most assimilated Jews not escape persecution, but the Consistoire—the religious Jewish structure of the era—supported the collaboration, a position that has been rightly regarded as a perverse outcome of the assimilating process. As Yonathan Arfi phrases it: “if the assimilation process had succeeded, the CRIF (a secular organization born out of the Jewish Resistance) would not exist. There would be only the Consistoire. The CRIF is the result of a failure, which is why, as an institution, we are incomprehensible and why we attract antisemitism.”
But the assimilation did not only fail the Jews. It failed postwar migrants from North Africa, too. Aside from racism, one of the most underestimated reasons for why the French failed to develop any active policy to integrate migrants from their former colonies was that this would have been seen as a casus belli by the new nationalist Algerian and Moroccan regimes, whose oil and gas were vital to the French economy. In 1993, King Hassan II from Morocco could still state on French public television that “Moroccans would never be French, did not want to assimilate, and France would be well advised not to try.” The Algerian FLN was even more nationalist. Honor was at stake.
The former colonies made a point of directly controlling their nationals on French territory, a deal to which the French state assented. As a result, the ex-colonies also controlled the mosques and migrant culture in France.
Caught between French prejudice on the one hand and the control exercised by their countries of origin on the other hand, migrants were actively prevented by both their old and new state authorities from developing their own autonomous culture inside France. This conflict of loyalties often plagued the migrants themselves, especially the fathers who in the Algerian case had fought the French during the war of independence. It is the failure of the second generation of migrants, and of the French government as well, to solve the contradictions of identity produced by this bifurcated reality during the French civil rights movements of the ’80s that led to the building of the walls enclosing the cités, to the rise of Islamist propaganda, to the riots of 2005, and to today’s crypto-secessionism.
The researcher Hugo Micheron, whose last book, Les Démocraties face au jihadisme européen, will be published in English soon, explains that today, social groups instrumentalize each and every incident to denounce Islamophobia. “Very serious matters like the killing of Nahel Merzouk are being put on the same level as superficial ones to trigger a feeling of permanent threat, paranoia, and emergency,” he explains. “They call this ‘micro-aggression,’ but in fact, this narrative produces a ready-made interpretative grid where Muslims and descendants of Muslims are natural permanent victims of the system. What is really scary is that far-right groups in France have started to mimic that strategy. They, too, exploit what they call anti-French ‘micro-aggressions’ in order to nurture ‘the Great Replacement theory.’ Both of these narratives are martyr-producing machines.”
How to resurrect an assimilation model that works in such a context is anybody’s guess. One thing is certain: Denouncing a nonexistent French Muslim intifada against French Jews won’t help. The problem here is much worse.
Winston Churchill called the Holocaust a "crime without a name." Elie Wiesel, one of its most eloquent survivors, would spend the rest of his life trying to find the words to describe what for many seemed incomprehensible. That he often succeeded is a testament to his greatness. In his new book, Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence, Joseph Berger profiles a man who became not only a spokesman for Holocaust survivors, but the living embodiment of their calls to "never forget."‘Unprecedented and Inappropriate’: Sen. Tom Cotton Slams Biden Statement on Israeli Judicial Reform
As Berger, a former New York Times journalist, has observed: "By the sheer force of his personality and his gift for the haunting phrase, Mr. Wiesel, who had been liberated from Buchenwald as a sixteen-year-old with the indelible tattoo A-7713 on his arm, gradually exhumed the Holocaust from the burial ground of the history books." Wiesel became, a Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee said, "a messenger to mankind."
Wiesel’s works, particularly his 1960 memoir, Night, spread awareness about the Holocaust at a moment when much of the world would have rather forgotten a crime whose barbarity remains hard to fathom.
Wiesel, Berger notes, "had an aura of a prophet about him," yet "he wasn’t a prophet, he was a human being." Berger wondered how a little Hasidic boy from a small town in what is today Romania became an "iconic figure that everyone knows." His biography goes a long way in explaining this.
Wiesel was born in the Carpathian town of Sighet, then a part of Hungary. On the eve of the Holocaust, 40 percent of its 10,000 residents were Jewish, many of them Hasidim. The town was deeply cultured, with eight synagogues, an elegant hotel, and a publishing house. Like many of Europe’s shtetls, or Jewish communities, it would become a lost world.
As a child, Wiesel displayed a love for both books and music that would remain with him all his life. He was fascinated with the mystic and the otherworldly. His idyllic life would change, however, when on March 19, 1944, Nazi forces occupied Hungary. Reports reached Sighet warning of what was to come. On the eve of Passover, Nazi forces ordered the town’s synagogues to be closed and soon the Jewish community had to surrender their possessions, livelihoods, and eventually, their very lives.
"I felt like I was living—not learning but living—an incandescent chapter of history; one that later generations would study," Wiesel would one day write. But that introspection came later. First came surviving.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) on Monday slammed President Joe Biden’s attempts to influence Israeli politics in the aftermath of a vote that Israel’s governing coalition says is the first step in a sweeping plan to reform the country’s judicial system and that has seen the country rocked by mass protests and divided the global Jewish community.
“Joe Biden’s meddling in Israel’s internal politics is unprecedented and inappropriate,” Cotton said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “He has no business telling one of our most important allies how to govern their own country.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier on Monday had issued a statement criticizing the vote on Israel’s “Reasonableness” bill, the first in a set of measures planned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant to limit the power of the Israeli Supreme Court.
“As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major changes in a democracy to be enduring must have as broad a consensus as possible,” the statement said. “It is unfortunate that the vote today took place with the slimmest possible majority.”
The bill, which bars Israel’s high court from using a standard allowing it to strike down any administrative action that it deems “unreasonable,” passed 64-0 after the opposition members of the 120-seat Knesset abstained from the vote.
Former Vice President and Republican Presidential primary candidate Mike Pence also condemned the Biden administration’s statements in an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show before the vote Monday.
The values we stand up for
I recently had an opportunity to take part in meetings at the UN, with significant member states’ ambassadors and representatives. The discussions focused on the case and cause of Hadar Goldin. However, the insights they offer transcend the specific, are particularly timely, and bear significant ramifications for public policy and external relations regarding Israel’s standing in the international arena, and perhaps even more poignantly, regarding our own evolving collective identity as a state, a society and a people.Leah Goldin Says Return of Son’s Remains Must Be Part of Ceasefire Deal
Reflections on discussions with Secretary-General António Guterres and his advisers reveal a profound commitment to values upon which the UN was founded, on the ashes of the Holocaust, and the genuine personal accountability of the current secretary-general to fundamental values entrenched in the Geneva Convention enacted 80 years ago; to renewing or creating an imperative “rules-based world order”; and to promoting, upholding and protecting the values upon which this order was intended to secure.
With regard to the specific issue of soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed – all held by Hamas in blatant violation of the law, morality and basic human decency – Guterres corroborated that their return to Israel is an unconditional obligation under international humanitarian law. He committed to include this obligation as an integral part of the reporting mechanism under Resolution 2474 on Missing Persons (passed June 11, 2019), and in his own reporting on its implementation. Further, he undertook to factor Hamas’s standing violation of obligations in his reporting. In this context, and more generally, he clearly and unequivocally assumed responsibility to combat the culture of impunity, recognizing that failure to do so rewards and empowers it.
Beyond statements, appreciating the need for practical manifestations, Guterres committed to raise the issue with donor countries who pledge humanitarian aid to Gaza in their upcoming gathering in September. Further, he acknowledged that international humanitarian law is binding to all state and non-state actors; and that all UN state parties are accountable to these obligations, including those involved, in any way, with efforts to advance prosperity or peace in the region. Finally, he undertook to instruct UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov with regard to international law obligations, as part of his mandate.
Beyond this case and cause, there are critical insights for the State of Israel, which must be identified, understood and internalized. At the highest level is the imperative to recognize the opportunity and responsibility to “step out” of the docket of the accused, in order to maintain the moral fabric and uphold the foundations upon which the modern State of Israel was founded. Zooming in, considering the cacophony controlling our airtime weeks before an important election, it is particularly significant to comprehend the insights offered by these meetings, to challenge the paradigms they stem from, and to implement a completely different approach.
Leah Goldin, the mother of Givati Brigade Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in action in the Gaza Strip in 2014, said on Thursday that the return of his remains must be part of any deal to end the current round of warfare between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Hadar’s body is being held by the Hamas terrorist rulers of the Gaza Strip along with that of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, who was also killed in 2014.
“The prime minister must put Hadar on the table as a condition for ending the war,” Goldin told 103FM Radio. She called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to be brave and to bring back the soldiers.”
A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that Hamas is not involved in the rocket fire from Gaza during this round of fighting with Israel.
Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire. Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday continued to fire rockets and rockets at Israeli communities while the IDF targeted PIJ terrorist sites in the Strip.
Hadar Goldin was killed in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, during “Operation Protective Edge.”
Shaul, a member of the IDF’s Golani infantry brigade, died in the Battle of Shejaia in Gaza City.
Their bodies were taken by the terrorists and are being held to this day.
A top UN official is tampering with speaker's lists to prevent me from testifying at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Listen to the shocking story of Eric Tistounet’s dirty tricks campaign to target, censor and smear me. Our latest podcast: https://t.co/9pO0tUqmOK@ShMMor
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 24, 2023
Seeking justice for the deadly 1994 AMIA bombing
Since then, we requested INTERPOL President, Gen. Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, to activate its Red Notice for Mohsen Rezaee, who was, until this June, the Iranian vice-president for economic affairs. From 1980 to 1997, he was commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, a.k.a. Pasdaran). Rezaee is alleged to be among those who planned, ordered, and organized the AMIA bombing.‘A Dark Day for Higher Education’: American Anthropological Association Endorses BDS After Referendum
The then special prosecutor, Alberto Nisman – a personal friend with whom I dined in London before his return to Buenos Aires – became the 86th victim of AMIA. He was murdered in his home hours before releasing evidence – proof of Iranian involvement in the bombing – to Congress.
Political figures, mostly in cahoots with Tehran, claimed Nisman had committed suicide which was clearly nonsense, as in London, he was jubilant as he showed us the list of nine Iranian-sponsored terror cells infiltrated in Latin America.
Over the years, we have followed the issue. On the 24th anniversary, we were hosted by the Henry Jackson Society in a British Parliament event entitled “The Shadow of the AMIA Bombing – Global Terror and the Threat Today.”
We had invited the Argentine Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who relayed a message from Buenos Aires: “The bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 (29 dead) and the AMIA terror attack were the two major acts of international terrorism perpetrated in our country... We are fully committed to seeking justice on behalf of the victims... Those responsible for the attack will be brought before the Argentine courts.”
Michael Caplan Q.C., British expert on extradition and universal jurisdiction, argued that, “if any of the Iranian suspects were to land on British soil, in view of the INTERPOL Red Notices, they must be stopped and detained. The British Police would then inform Argentina, whereupon Buenos Aires would issue a request for arrest and extradition proceedings.”
AMIA and other terror attacks make us recall a quote by Simon Wiesenthal:
“Justice for crimes against humanity must have no limitations.”
Members of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) overwhelmingly voted to approve a resolution calling for a full academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.Two protesters burn Koran in front of Iraqi embassy in Denmark
Just 37 percent of AAA’s approximately 10,000 members participated in the referendum on the resolution via electronic ballet, with 71 percent voting in favor of the resolution and 29 percent voting against it. In announcing the results the organization said Israeli institutions will be barred from being listed in the organizations “published materials,” advertising in its publications, attending the AAA graduate school fair, participating in AAA conferences, and republishing and reprinting AAA written works from its journals.
“This is a dark day for higher education and, far worse even, a truly dangerous day for all students, especially Jews,” AMCHA Initative executive director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin said in a statement. “Make no mistake about it, contrary to what proponents would like you to believe, the biggest victims of academic [boycott, divestment, sanctions movements] are not the Israeli institutions targeted by the AAA resolution but students on US campuses.”
Miriam Elman, executive director of AEN, said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner, “Throughout the voting period, supporters of the resolution continued to push the absurd claim that its application is limited to ‘institutions’ — as if it’s possible to boycott universities and colleges without harming the actual people who work and study in them. In fact, as we all know, there are many ways that individuals will be negatively impacted.”
With the resolution’s approval, AAA, established in 1902 and based in Arlington, Virginia, is the first major academic professional association to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement since the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) did in 2022. It has considered boycotting Israeli universities before, but the idea was rejected in Nov. 2015, when a measure similar to this year’s was defeated by razor thin margin of 39 votes, with 4,807 votes cast.
Two protesters set fire to a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, in front of the Iraqi embassy in the Danish capital on Monday, risking a further deterioration of relations between the two countries.AOC Met with J Street Progressives, Can Mashiach Be Far Behind?
Protests have raged across Iran and Iraq after Denmark and Sweden allowed the burning of the Koran under rules protecting free speech. Protesters in Iraq set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on Thursday.
The two protesters were from a group that calls itself "Danish Patriots", which held a similar demonstration last week and live-streamed the events on Facebook. Demonstrations over Koran burnings
Several thousand Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad on Saturday over the burnings in the two Nordic countries, in a gathering called by ruling Iraqi parties and armed groups, many close to Iran.
The organizer of Monday's demonstration in Copenhagen stomped on the Koran and set it alight in a tin foil tray next to the Iraqi flag on the ground.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that people who desecrate the Koran should face the "most severe punishment". Iraq condemns the burning
Iraq condemned the burning of a copy of the Koran in front of its embassy in Denmark, the state news agency INA cited the foreign ministry as saying.
The ministry called on the authorities of countries in the European Union to "quickly reconsider so-called freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate," INA added.
Algeria summoned the Danish ambassador and the Swedish chargé d'affaires to condemn the continuation of the attacks on copies of the Koran, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
According to Israel Hayom, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has recently begun to meet with “Jewish leaders in her election district.”
OK, so Ariel Kahanah, who reported the story, doesn’t know that AOC represents NY 14, which includes the eastern part of The Bronx and part of north-central Queens. The Queens portion includes Astoria, College Point, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside. The Bronx portion of the district includes City Island, Country Club, Van Nest, Morris Park, Parkchester, Pelham Bay, Schuylerville, and Throggs Neck.
I checked the UJA databank on the Jewish community of NY 14. It has 26,300 individuals who define themselves as Jews, out of roughly 700,000 residents, who are 50% Hispanic, 17% Asian, and 9% Black.
Out of the Jewish population, 8,400 are 65 and older––1,500 of whom live alone, and 12,400 are ages 40 to 64. 7,600 are poor or near-poor. 3,000 are of Russian origin. 5,600 are biracial. Fewer than 7,000 attend any synagogue, be it Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform.
In other words, AOC very likely did not meet with Jewish leaders in her election district. According to Israel Hayom, she held several closed meetings with a group of rabbis and Jewish leaders, men and women, who belong to the progressive wing of the Jewish community and some of whom are close to J Street.
And this is the bag where the AOC cat has been hiding all along. AOC met with progressive Jews from J Street and similar anti-Zionist, anti-Israel circles. And the reason she had to keep those meetings secret is that even those lefty Jews are kind of pariahs to the squad caucus.
Let’s unpack AOC’s record, not with Israel and normative American Jews, but with the dedicated Jewish left.
At SJP Rally at Wayne State University, Michigan Speakers Praise Palestinian Armed Struggle, Launching Rockets at Israel: We Must Tell the Israelis that There Is a Price to Pay for Our Martyrs (Archival) @waynestate pic.twitter.com/vSNg0l2AmS
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 24, 2023
Psychiatrist Dr. Ahmed Sewehli supports terrorism, promotes a contemporary blood libel
British-Libyan psychiatrist Dr. Ahmed Sewehli is a director and co-owner at Youmna Services Limited. Dr. Sewehli is apparently an approved doctor under Section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983.Radical UK Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary charged with three terrorist offenses
Dr. Ahmed Sewehli is also an antisemitic hatemonger.
Dr. Sewehli, a self-described activist for democracy in Libya, falsely compares Israelis to the Nazis and Zionist Jews to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He also promotes a contemporary antisemitic canard that falsely accuses Jews of intentionally killing children.
You can see an example of this in the screenshot below. To falsely assert that Zionist Jews “blow up” and “publicly execute children,” Dr. Sewehli shared a picture of a Yemeni child, Ellias, that was actually killed by Houthi militia shelling.
Another screenshot copy of a tweet shows Dr. Sewehli making Nazi comparisons while pushing the “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” lie to demonise the Jewish state.
Dr. Sewehli also posted obscene tweets in which he compared Zionists to ISIS and claimed that British Zionists were “coldly executing ISIS-style street executions.” According to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, collectively blaming Jews for true or imagined actions is antisemitic.
Dr. Sewehli appears to support violent terrorism against Israelis in the screenshots below. This is no way for a psychiatrist to behave.
A complaint will be sent to the relevant authorities regarding the online conduct of Dr. Ahmed Sewehli. In our view, Dr. Sewehli, who we believe has access to NHS patients at their hospitals, should be stripped of this privilege.
British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been charged with three terrorism offenses after being arrested in London last week, police said on Monday.David Remnick’s Ignorance Knows No Bounds
Choudary, 56, has been charged with membership of a proscribed organization, directing a terrorist organization, and addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organization, police said. He will appear in court in London on Monday.
Once Britain's most high-profile Islamist preacher, Choudary was imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for encouraging support for Islamic State before being released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Choudary, former head of the now-banned organization al-Muhajiroun, drew attention for praising the men responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
His followers have been linked to numerous plots across the world.
David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker magazine, once remarked “It’s one thing to be ignorant, it’s another to parade it as sophistication,” which has to rate as one of the greatest self-owns in history. For it’s hard to imagine a more apt description of Remnick himself, whose fatuous ignorance and faux sophistication are nowhere more evident than when he writes about Israel.
The latest example is Remnick’s Is This the End of Bibi?, the usual rehash of anti-Netanayahu propaganda, relying on the usual hack reporters like Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer, whom Remnick would have his readers believe is “a leading Israeli journalist.”
One paragraph in particular stands out in this latest Remnick effort, because it exemplifies his astounding ignorance, and it’s not even directly about Netanyahu.
Commenting on judicial reform in Israel, Remnick asserts:
Next week, the Knesset is poised to get rid of the so-called reasonableness clause, a stricture borrowed from British tradition which allows the Supreme Court to strike down actions of the legislature. Such a move, in a state with no constitution, would undermine what modest balance of powers exists in Israeli political life.
It’s amazing – even for Remnick – to make so many errors in just two sentences.
(1) What “reasonableness clause?” Such a “clause” exists nowhere in Israeli law – as applied to legislation passed by the Knesset (parliament) the notion was simply invented by Israel’s activist Supreme Court.
(2) What British tradition “allows the Supreme Court to strike down actions of the legislature?” It must be an exceedingly recent “British tradition,” since Britain didn’t even have a Supreme Court until 2009.
And, in any event, the British parliament isn’t subject to the British Supreme Court – it is sovereign (ie supreme). Indeed, as the website of the UK’s parliament states:
Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution.
Where to start with this @guardian story?
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 24, 2023
?? @ChrisMcGreal tries to pass off his interviewees as representative of US Jewry but doesn't tell readers that one is a local leader of the anti-Zionist JVP org, even going as far as to stress that her "family fled anti-Jewish pogroms… pic.twitter.com/gAbVMjyxCt
CAMERA Arabic prompts two BBC Arabic corrections
CAMERA Arabic recently prompted the BBC to correct factual errors which appeared in two BBC Arabic items purporting to provide context to the IDF counter-terrorism operation in Jenin earlier this month.Auschwitz Museum Under Fire for Refusing to Say Polish Woman Was ‘Murdered’ by Nazis
In a July 3rd item about the Jenin refugee camp, BBC Arabic stated:
“Like the rest of the Palestinian territories, the [Jenin refugee] camp has witnessed many armed conflicts during the two Palestinian Intifadas, the first in 1987 and the second in 2002.
Perhaps the most outstanding event which the camp has witnessed is the Israeli forces’ siege on it in April 2002”
In fact, the second Intifada broke out in September 2000, over a year and a half before the IDF went into Jenin. CAMERA Arabic prompted the BBC to correct that date the day after the item’s publication (before/after).
Secondly, in a July 6th backgrounder about the conflict from a broader perspective, BBC Arabic wrote:
“The United States is considered one of a very small number of countries which acknowledged Israel’s claim of entire Jerusalem as its capital.”
However, as BBC itself acknowledged in 2018, the American administration has not recognised Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel but rather considers the municipal borders of Jerusalem – as well as its permanent status – a matter dependent on the results of future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Following recent communication from CAMERA Arabic, the BBC corrected that point as well and it now reads (before/after):
“The United States is considered one of a very small number of countries which announced their acknowledgement of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland took to Twitter on Monday to explain its use of terminology after it was criticized by a Jewish leader in Kentucky for saying that a Polish Jewish woman “did not survive” the Auschwitz concentration camp rather than writing that she was “murdered” in the death camp.The Depravity of Selfies at Auschwitz
“It is important to recognize that our understanding of the specific circumstances of death for many people deported to Auschwitz is limited. In cases where we lack precise information regarding the fate of an individual, we employ the term ‘did not survive,'” the museum wrote in its defense.
The museum and memorial site, which is located on the land formerly used for the Auschwitz concentration camp, uploaded on July 20 a Twitter post about Fanny Berger, who was born in Brody, Poland, that same day in 1922 and later emigrated to France. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum tweeted that Berger was deported to Auschwitz in February 1943 and “did not survive.”
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council and director of Chabad of the Bluegrass in eastern Kentucky, replied to the post by lambasting the state museum for not writing that Berger was “murdered” by Nazis after being deported to Auschwitz.
“Was she hit by a car?” he rabbi sarcastically asked. “Did a piano fall on her head? Or was she murdered by the Nazi Regime?” His post was shared over 100 times and liked by more than 1,200 Twitter users.
In its explanation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum began by saying that it understands “the immense emotional sensitivity surrounding the victims of the Auschwitz,” and that “it is crucial to approach the topic with the utmost respect and consideration.”
As my friend and I began the long walk through the sweltering night back to my hotel, I recalled an article another friend had texted to me the evening before I left for New York. Coming from The Daily Mail, it, suitably, was as lurid as it was blood-curdling: “Look at ME… I’m at Auschwitz!”US Court Again Dismisses $250M Restitution Claim Filed by Heirs of Jewish Art Dealers
“Dozens of tasteless photos of tourists posing at Auschwitz have surfaced online after the memorial museum called on visitors to show respect at the former death camp where over a million people were killed,” wrote the Mail’s Ed Wight. “From a glamour model who claims to have Spain’s biggest breasts posing beneath the ‘work sets you free’ sign at the entrance to the death camp,” the article continued, “to tourists posing tastelessly on the tracks that transported over a million to their death, MailOnline has uncovered some of the vulgar snaps taken at one of the world’s most important sites.”
Though the article itself — like most things today — neither surprised nor even shocked me when I first saw it, its full horror only broke through when I saw this pathology played out before me.
As I already well knew, men and women the world over believe that it is appropriate to degrade themselves in front of the Internet for attention. Others, as the Mail article informed me, take pictures of themselves — some happy, some fashionably detached — at a place where nearly all of the 216,000 Jewish children deported there were gassed to death and rendered to ashes.
“My face in this picture is not very happy,” Spain’s supposedly best-endowed model told her 1.2 million Instagram cultists, though, she reassured them, “I fulfilled one of my dreams by coming here.”
In this sense, this kind of “Instaporn” does not have to be sexual to be degrading. Making a trip to Auschwitz all about the subject rather than the millions murdered there, all for faceless living millions’ glassy-eyed stares, is as degrading as any sexual content.
Auschwitz is a place to cry, outwardly or inwardly. It is the sump of the universe; the place where all the evil possible in human nature found the fulfillment of its own depraved dreams — the unique place where Jews and non-Jews alike can feel the ache every human soul feels when it contemplates a million ghosts’ un-mourned deaths. Only true, undiluted narcissism is impervious to that ache.
Still, how can we penetrate such a twisted yet rampant affliction? What do we mean by “narcissism” — a term nearly as mutilated today as “capitalism,” “liberalism,” or “nationalism”?
The United States Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month against the heirs of Jewish art dealers by upholding a previous decision that they do not have the right to have their claim against the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) regarding a collection of artifacts called the Guleph Treasure, The Art Newspaper reported.Exorcist behind charity in Ireland on tour with ‘antisemite’
The ruling on July 13 comes after a regional court ruling in 2022 and a Supreme Court ruling in 2021, neither of which were favorable for the descendants who filed a lawsuit regarding a collection of gemstone and precious artifacts dating back from the 11th to the 15th century that originated in the House of Guelph, a royal dynasty in Europe.
The collection includes crosses, altarpieces and crucifixes. In 1929, the Guelph family sold items from the treasure to Frankfurt-based art dealers, whose descendants are now leading the lawsuit against the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The Guelph Treasure is reportedly valued at up to $250 million and is the largest publicly owned collection of its kind in Germany.
A restitution case was first brought in 2008 against the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is supported by the German government and manages the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) where the artifacts currently reside. Heirs of the Jewish art dealers claimed that their ancestors sold items from the Guelph Treasure under duress, at a price far below market value, to the Nazi government in 1935. They argued that the forced sale of the Guelph Treasure should be recognized as theft and that the items should be returned to them under the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art.
But SPK argued that it is immune from US legal decisions under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and claimed that the Guelph Treasure was sold voluntarily. In 2014, the German Advisory Commission on Nazi-looted art upheld the foundation’s standing that the sale was not forced as a result of Nazi persecution and that the financial loss suffered by the art dealers during the sale was merely related to market values during the Great Depression.
An Italian priest who submitted a religious charity for registration in Ireland that has previously been linked to a far-right Catholic group founded by a Holocaust denier is currently on a “missionary tour” of Asia with the author of an antisemitic book.Nelson Mandela’s ‘Complex’ Relationship With Israel
Father Giacomo Ballini, who helped to establish the Society of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary (SAJM), and Irish-registered charity, has been performing religious services at locations across Malaysia and the Philippines alongside Father François Chazal, who wrote The Fear of the Jews, an antisemitic treatise that cites a number of conspiracies about world domination by a “Jewish elite” and questions the historical accuracy of the Holocaust.
In posts uploaded to social media, Ballini can be seen carrying out confirmations at churches
As part of a tweet celebrating what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 105th birthday, Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib included a quote by the late South African president advocating on behalf of Palestinian “freedom.”Viewing antisemitism through the Mizrahi lens
This is but the latest example of Mandela’s memory being misappropriated by pro-Palestinian voices to convey the impression that he was a staunch supporter of the Palestinian national movement while also being an opponent of Zionism and the Jewish state.
However, the truth is much more nuanced and complex than the way that it is portrayed.
In reality, Nelson Mandela recognized the legitimacy of Zionism and the Jewish state while also being a firm supporter of Palestinian national aspirations, Yasser Arafat and the PLO.Shame on you, @RashidaTlaib for co-opting Nelson Mandela to advance your crusade against Israel.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 19, 2023
The only quote you use to commemorate his birthday deals with Palestinian issues – disrespectful.
Also, that quote doesn't accurately reflect his views. 🧵 https://t.co/an3ndcwH2i
Nelson Mandela’s Relationship with Israel and the Palestinians
“Complex,” “complicated” and “ambivalent.” These are just some of the adjectives that have been used to describe Nelson Mandela’s relationship with Israel.
Indeed, he held a wide range of divergent views about Zionism and the Jewish state.
Mandela is on record as recognizing the “legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalism,” as affirming the right of Israel to “exist within secure borders,” and calling on Arab leaders to recognize the Jewish state.
During a speech that he gave at a Cape Town synagogue following his presidential win, Mandela called on Jewish expats to return to South Africa, aside from “those Jews who left for their homeland – Israel.”
He is also known to have looked fondly upon his Zionist supporters who sheltered him during his days in the underground, was allegedly trained by the Mossad in 1962 and was thankful to Israel’s national airline, El Al, for being the only carrier willing to fly one of his comrades to Europe without a passport.
Related Reading: The ‘Apartheid’ Myth: The Improper Use of False and Misleading Claims Regarding Israel
However, at the same time, Mandela also vehemently supported Palestinian statehood, aligned himself with the PLO during its terror heyday, and ignored the Jewish connection to the territories that were captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.
After meeting with the PLO’s Yasser Arafat in 1990, Mandela even went so far as to call Israel a “terrorist state.”
Like generations of Jews before them, Sharon Nazarian’s family were forced to leave Iran weeks before the antisemitic Islamic Republic took power. Yet the Mizrahi experience of displacement is routinely missing from our understanding of rising global antisemitism, she writes in the Summer 2023 issue of Distinctions, JIMENA’s new quarterly magazine.
In my work at ADL, where I was responsible for advocating on behalf of Jewish communities around the world, I found that in Europe today, Jewish communities seek to find allyship with Muslim communities on shared communal concerns, such as legislation banning male circumcision and ritual slaughter.
However, the lack of willingness by European Muslim community organizations to partner with Jewish communities to fight such legislation is in large part an outgrowth of deep-seated and historic prejudice and distrust of Jews prevalent for centuries in the Middle East. So today, across Europe, even working toward a shared goal is frowned upon. However, I firmly believe that it is because of our shared cultural heritage that we can seek to build bridges and allyship with Middle Eastern diaspora communities across the world. It is not easy, but we should not relent.
Incorporating the unique Mizrahi and Sephardic lens is critically important today as we seek to understand the disconcerting rise in global antisemitism, including in the U.S. I remember the first time my mother told me about the harsh realities of life for Iran’s Jews of her grandparents’ generation: Jews being viewed as najis or impure, forbidden by law to leave their homes when it rained or touch fruits at the market. My widowed grandmother, herself a refugee in Iran from Russian pogroms of the early 20th century, had to take on an Armenian last name in order to be allowed to find a job to support her two young sons.
My father’s childhood stories demonstrated slightly greater tolerance, but of life still confined to the mahale, the Jewish ghetto. Perhaps the greatest advancement of his generation of Jews was the ability to achieve economic success and build lives outside the mahale. For my father, that meant constructing a luxurious estate for our family in an upper-class neighborhood of Northern Tehran in the mid-1970s — only for the Islamic Revolutionary regime to take it all away, including his business assets, a few years later.
Today, the Islamic regime has taken it upon itself to destroy any remnant of the old mahale, along with the ancient, cramped synagogues and bath houses, while its chief propaganda target is aimed at the very existence of the State of Israel and unwavering Holocaust denial. The diffusion of disinformation regarding the Holocaust and Israel has become a major activity of the regime, spreading falsehoods across regime-controlled media, as well as holding international Holocaust denial cartoon contests. The regime seeks to delegitimize the Jewish State by questioning what it deems as the founding motivation for it, viewing Jews as not indigenous to the land and instead as European colonizers. It does so in the face of the history of Persia’s King Cyrus having set Jews free from Babylonian captivity and facilitating their return to the promised land, which resulted in the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Despite the dearth of Jewish communal life in Middle Eastern and North African countries due to mass forced displacement, those historic prejudices manifest today as anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist ideology that emanate from the Middle East and spread. Aversions to Jewish nationhood and the right to self-determination can be seen as modern-day manifestations of classic antisemitic intolerances used against Jews — Iran’s najis laws of my great-grandparents’ generation being a prime example. Israel — the only Jewish State among the community of nations — suffers the indignity of being treated as impure.
Such intolerance continues to permeate the lives of Jews now living outside the Middle East and North Africa — for example, Mizrahi/Sephardic families such as mine in the U.S. — impacting our sense of security, and our ability to be our authentic selves and embrace our full Jewish identity.
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