Friday, August 25, 2023
The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion Threats to Legal Principles and Security
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is poised to eviscerate the longstanding “land for peace” legal framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was established by UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the Oslo Accords. It is the only framework for achieving peace that has been endorsed by Israel and all Arab League member States. Yet the ICJ—at the behest of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)—may soon advise that international law requires Israel to unilaterally and unconditionally withdraw from the disputed Palestinian territories.Social Media a ‘Megaphone’ for Hate Speech, ‘Normalizing’ Antisemitism, Nonprofit Chief Warns
Western interests in the case may appear limited to defending Israel, whose current government and policies regarding the territories are controversial. But the western allies in fact have their own additional fundamental national security interests at stake. Unless they take robust action in this case, the ICJ could not only eviscerate the sole agreed framework for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace but also undercut the inherent rights of States to self-defense and sovereignty, undermine the UNSC’s authority to maintain international peace and security, and subvert the law of armed conflict (LOAC).
Threat to National Sovereignty
The pending ICJ advisory proceedings also threaten to expand upon the dangerous precedent, set by the Wall opinion, that the UNGA and ICJ can use advisory opinions to circumvent the sovereign right of nation States to determine whether to submit to the Court a particular dispute to which they are a party. The United States argued unsuccessfully in the Wall proceedings that for the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion over Israel’s objections would set a precedent threatening “the independence of States” and their ability to “retain sovereign control over whether to submit a dispute to which they are a party to the Court.” Those concerns remain valid, as do similar concerns expressed by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Danger to UNSC Authority Regarding International Peace and Security
The pending proceedings also risk undermining the UNSC’s fundamental authority to maintain international peace and security. The UNGA plurality is seeking to use the ICJ to replace the UNSC’s “land for peace” framework with its preferred unconditional withdrawal framework.
Chapter VII of the UN Charter empowers the UNSC, not the UNGA, to “decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security.” The UNGA does not have the authority to overrule the UNSC. But it is trying to do so indirectly, by pressuring the ICJ to opine that international law is contrary to the legal framework established by the UNSC. The predetermined conclusions in the December 30 resolution are designed to box the ICJ into declaring that the UNGA plurality’s preferred resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is required by international law.
Fortunately, an ICJ advisory opinion contrary to the “land for peace” framework cannot cancel the UNSC resolutions containing that formulation. But it may politically delegitimize the “land for peace” framework so as to largely negate its value for promoting international peace and security.
The United States and its allies who favor an effective UNSC should urge the ICJ to decline to hear the case, on the grounds that it undermines the UNSC. Washington and its allies made similar jurisdictional arguments in the Wall proceedings, albeit unsuccessfully. However, the UNGA questions relating to the “land for peace” framework are far more central to the UNSC’s mandate and authority than were the questions relating to the security wall.
Risk to LOAC’s Stability
Additionally, an ICJ opinion that Israel’s initially legal occupation has been rendered illegal by Israeli conduct during that occupation could destabilize LOAC by negating one of LOAC’s core principles.
The law of war includes two basic types of restrictions: jus ad bellum (addressing the legality of a State’s resort to force) and jus in bello (governing the conduct of armed conflict once it has commenced). A core LOAC principle is that a party’s compliance with or violation of the jus ad bellum is separate from its jus in bello compliance, and vice versa. For example, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 1991 was clearly legal, including because it was authorized by UNSC Resolution 678. If U.S. troops violated LOAC during the conduct of that invasion or a resulting occupation of Iraq, such breaches would be unlawful but would not render illegal either the invasion or the resulting occupation. This separation of jus ad bellum from jus in bello provides crucial protection during armed conflict. It guarantees that the laws governing the conduct of armed conflict apply to all parties, regardless of the cause of the conflict.
The ICJ advisory opinion that the UNGA resolution is designed to elicit could severely undercut this core LOAC principle. If the ICJ decides that a jus in bello violation can alter the jus ad bellum analysis of the legality of an occupation, it will embolden warfighters arguing the inverse, namely that the justice of their cause, the jus ad bellum reason for their attack, exempts them from the jus in bello rules governing their conduct during the conflict.
Conclusion
The United States and its allies have a number of persuasive arguments they can and should make in the pending ICJ case. Indeed, they may have begun to make some of these arguments in their first round of written submissions.
The United States and its allies can and should urge the ICJ to determine it lacks jurisdiction over the case. They can also call upon the ICJ to exercise its discretionary power to decline to issue an advisory opinion even if determines it does have jurisdiction over the case.
The United States and its allies can also encourage the ICJ to use its authority, described by the Wall majority, to “broaden, interpret and even reformulate the questions put to it.” The ICJ used its authority to narrowly interpret a question posed to it by the General Assembly in its Kosovo advisory opinion, where it reportedly took such an approach in order to calm hostilities and facilitate future negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Finally, the United States and its allies can and should also engage more substantively on the LOAC and other aspects of the case. In doing so, they will want to tread carefully, so as to avoid inadvertently encouraging the Court to address any of the underlying permanent status issues that are for the parties to resolve under the “land for peace” framework. But engage they must, in order to avert an ICJ advisory opinion that otherwise will undercut their own sovereignty and right of self-defense, undermine the UNSC’s authority to maintain international peace and security, subvert LOAC, and demolish the sole agreed formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Social media is acting as a “megaphone” for antisemitism and other forms of hate speech to thrive, with teenagers falling prey to lies and hatred on various online platforms, according to the head of a nonprofit group confronting Big Tech firms directly.Holocaust survivor faces torrent of online abuse on Elon Musk’s X platform
“Between [the ages of] 14 and 24, that’s this incredibly Lord of the Flies period in our development where we’re being socialized by peers,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), told The Algemeiner in an interview this week. “And social media [tries] to tell us what our peers feel, but actually what they’re doing is giving a megaphone to hate and lies. The more that those lies are able to spread without consequences and pushback, the more these ideas become lethal.”
CCDH — which is currently being sued by X Corp, the parent company of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, for its public criticism of the tech giant — released a new poll last week revealing 49 percent of Americans agree with at least four statements that promote common conspiracy theories related to white supremacy, antisemitism, vaccines, and climate change.
This belief in conspiracy theories was even more common among 13-17 year olds (60 percent), and higher among teenagers who are “heavy social media users” (69 percent) — meaning that they spend four or more hours a day on any single social media platform.
According to the poll, 43 percent of teens agreed with the statement, “Jewish people have a disproportionate amount of control over the media, politics, and the economy.” The number rose to 54 percent among teens who are heavy social media users. (h/t MtTB)
Lucy Lipiner is no stranger to antisemitism. A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, she was forced to live through one of the worst atrocities to ever take place in human history. Yet her lived experience still hasn’t prevented the torrent of antisemitic abuse that she, and all Jewish people, currently are experiencing on social media – in particular on Elon Musk’s “X” (formerly known as Twitter). This week was no exception.
Lipiner, who boasts just under 30,000 followers on the platform, says she regularly uses social media to engage and push back against the rising antisemitism that she is seeing. “I was appalled at the rise in antisemitism that seemed more blatant – less hidden than in the past and more like what we had seen before the war in Europe. … I felt, as a survivor, compelled to speak up,” she told Ynet.
And she has definitely spoken up. Lipiner regularly uses social media to call out Holocaust denial and revisionism, using her own personal story from Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as her own collection of family photos from the Holocaust, to share the truth.
From taking on former UFC fighter Jake Shields for spreading antisemitic conspiracies to calling out anti-feminist right-wing pundit Pearl Davis for her antisemitic song, to exposing the antisemitism in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s tweets, Lipiner is extremely active in the conversation on the X platform.
Lipiner considers anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism.
“I also thought the rise of BDS was simply a veiled form of antisemitism in the guise of anti-Zionism, which increasingly felt like nothing less than today’s version of age-old hatred of Jews,” she said.
Lahav Harkov: What does the future have in store for Israel?
I started covering diplomacy for The Jerusalem Post almost four years ago with a trip to Lisbon, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo.Among the Protesters
Netanyahu and then-president of the US Donald Trump seemed like best buddies. The big topics of the day were American “maximum pressure” sanctions on Iran and a possible defense pact between Israel and the US.
Now, as I depart my role as diplomatic correspondent, the situation is almost the polar opposite: US President Joe Biden still hasn’t met with Netanyahu, his administration is making concessions to Iran and not enforcing sanctions, and there’s talk about a US-Saudi defense pact.
Of course, that’s far from a complete picture of the dramatic events in the world and Israel’s standing in it over the course of the past four years.
What are some of the factors that will forever change Israel's future?
First, there was the COVID-19 pandemic that shut much of the world down. Israel became the “vaccination nation,” further burnishing the reputation of its doctors, but also of its leadership in medical technology, with other countries inquiring as to how Israel rolled out its vaccines. At the same time, the often-justified frustration at the pandemic response led some people around the world into conspiratorial thinking and brought about a wave of antisemitism that Jewish communities have sought to counter. The EU, the US and others have since rolled out plans to fight hatred of Jews.
Then, amid the dark days of the pandemic and its lockdowns, came what has been the best diplomatic news of the past four years – and, arguably, of the past three decades: The Abraham Accords.
The peace and normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco were the first between the Jewish state and any Arab state in 26 years, and they marked a transformative moment for the Jewish state and the entire Middle East. The Abraham Accords showed that the Palestinians do not have veto power over Israel’s integration in the region, that it is in the interest of Arab states – in the areas of trade, security, tourism and more – to have relations with Israel, and that there are leaders with the courage to buck common wisdom and withstand widespread skepticism to embrace peace over conflict and divisions.
Now, we’re waiting to see if Saudi Arabia will do the same. Unfortunately, Washington is trying to tie up Israel-Saudi normalization with deals attempting to lower oil prices and decrease Chinese influence in the region – a far cry from the original Abraham Accords, during which the Trump administration realized that a more integrated and stable Middle East is in America’s interest and that other business could be negotiated separately. The Saudis have also asked for the aforementioned defense pact with the US, plus a civilian nuclear program, which has raised some concerns in Israel that allowing Riyadh to enrich uranium could spark an arms race across the region.
As history has shown repeatedly, from the war of David against the house of Saul, to the infighting during the siege of Jerusalem that led to the Temple’s destruction, to the Altalena incident in 1948, the great threat to Jewish autonomy in the ancestral homeland is as much strife with fellow Jews as any hostile outsider. “Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness?” we read in II Samuel 2:26. “How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?”Facing the music and stereotypes
Indeed, what’s funniest about a very serious situation, having spent most of the week with both secular and religious Jews, is that they’re actually not that different. Supposedly secular Israelis still do a Shabbat Kiddush with kippot, and dedicate their Saturdays to family and friends; “secular” Israelis are more observant than your average American Jew.
They’re also socially conservative in a very un-self-conscious way. At a tableful of Israeli startup bros, almost all will be married and likely have kids, unlike the typical situation in the U.S., where no tech bro is married and children are a distant abstraction (if they’re thought about at all). The real difference between the supposedly secular and religious Israelis is whether they have three kids or eight, but come Friday evening, both are sitting with family and friends at a Shabbat table, whether in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
When the Jerusalem protesters got to the Knesset, their first act was to collectively sing “Hatikvah” while waving their nation’s flag. By contrast, Americans aren’t able to collectively sing anything anymore other than Taylor Swift songs, and good luck hanging an American flag inside a Valley startup without a bitter debate in the company Slack. Red and blue tribes in the U.S. inhabit separate and irreconcilable moral and social universes; the U.S. is no longer a single country.
The difference is that the United States can afford such a fractious political climate and such a threadbare (to not say nonexistent) social fabric. Favorable geography that puts all enemies at ocean’s length, plus a mammoth amount of economic inertia, means there’ll be no serious threats to America anytime soon. Lots of empty space and a federal system means Nevada can live like a libertarian right-wing paradise next door to the most progressive state in the union, California. American youth can grow fat and lazy shooting fictional M4s inside Call of Duty knowing they’ll never have to carry a real one at a West Bank checkpoint.
Israel lacks the luxuries of space and federalism; it also lacks the luxury of distant enemies. A country that must build nuclear bunkers into its train stations is a country that can’t afford showy acts of refusal and abandonment by its elites. It’s a country that can’t afford the corrosive effects of a contemptuous political dialogue that treats the opposition as beyond the pale of reason and solidarity. If Israel becomes more like Tel Aviv, and the wider liberal world that city aspires to emulate, there are dangers lurking there too, dangers that may prove fatal to a country in such exceptional circumstances. Israel is not, nor will ever be, “a country like any other,” no matter how much its secular elites may wish it to be. If instead Israel looks a bit more like Jerusalem, and avoids the secular malaise currently afflicting the world’s democracies, the Jewish people have pondered far grimmer futures.
I don’t want to stick my nose in someone else’s specialty. So let me state straightaway, when it comes to movie reviews and the film world, I bow to the knowledge of Jerusalem Post reviewer Hannah Brown.Director Guy Nattiv on bringing Golda Meir to life for audiences
But let’s face it, the latest controversy to hit showbiz has spilled over into the Jewish world. Specifically, the size and model of the nose of legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein has come under scrutiny as director-actor Bradley Cooper has chosen to depict it in the upcoming Netflix movie Maestro.
Cooper has been left to face the music amid allegations of a stereotypical “Jewface” portrayal of the musical genius. The controversy has grown out of all proportion to the proboscis in question.
Those taking offense at the movie are particularly incensed by the fact that Cooper (who does not lack in that department) is fitted with a prosthetic snout for the part. The false nose has left him with egg on his face. Critics (not movie critics, the social media kind) say it is pandering to the worst type of antisemitic Jewish nose stereotype. The Jewface debate has returned
Cooper’s original sin, however, as far as the hardcore critics go, is that he as a non-Jew is playing the role of a proud member of the Jewish community. This has become a hot topic recently. Before the Cooper controversy, it was the turn of Helen Mirren to be roasted for agreeing to play the Israeli prime minister in the eponymous movie Golda, released this week.
I have no problem with Mirren’s casting in the role. In interviews, her respect for the woman who ruled the Jewish state comes across clearly. I marvel at Mirren’s acting abilities in general. Dame Helen Mirren is a slim and glamorous British actress. That she manages to get in the skin of Golda Meir – the chain-smoking, Ukrainian-born, Milwaukee-raised, Israeli kibbutznikit-turned-politician – is a mark of her immense talent and that of the makeup team. Whatever Golda might have been famous for, it was not her good looks.
The opening shots in the battle against casting Mirren as Golda were fired by Jewish actress and comedienne Maureen Lipman as reported in The Jewish Chronicle. Lipman, incidentally, once channeled her own acting talents to play a vicar.
Similarly, Jewish comic Sarah Silverman was not laughing a few years back when it was announced that non-Jewish actress Kathryn Hahn would play Joan Rivers in a biopic. The outspoken Silverman didn’t hesitate to describe the phenomenon as “Jewface,” a play on the term “Blackface,” describing actors playing characters of a different ethnic descent. Silverman, however, does have a role in Maestro, reportedly playing Bernstein’s sister.
Bernstein’s real family does not smell anything fishy concerning Cooper’s false nose. His three children released a statement saying: “It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”
'Golda' hits cinemas in the U.S. on August 24, bringing audiences a glimpse into the life of Israel’s first — and only — female Prime Minister Golda Meir during the harrowing days of the 1963 Yom Kippur war.
i24NEWS Correspondent Mike Wagenheim speaks with the Academy Award winning Israeli director, Guy Nattiv, on the importance of this film.
Jewish Center at University of Michigan Vandalized
The University of Michigan on Wednesday denounced an act of vandalism that occurred at the school’s Jewish Resource Center.Ilhan Omar Met With Al Qaeda Allies on Trip Funded by Islamic Terror States
The incident marks the second such incident at a Jewish-centered location on the Ann Arbor campus in three months.
In a statement, the university’s president, Santa J. Ono, said a homophobic message was graffitied on the sidewalk in front of the building.
“The Jewish Resource Center is an important and valued part of our campus community,” Ono said. “These incidents are in direct conflict with the university’s deeply held values of respect and inclusion and have no place within our community.”
In another incident that happened at the university last month, the house of Greek fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu was graffitied with a swastika and homophobic slur on two windows and the front door.
Other acts of hate have occurred at the University of Michigan in recent years.
Last fall, during the Jewish High Holidays, antisemitic flyers attributed to the Goyim Defense League, an extremist fringe group, were spread around campus. Around the same time, Students for Allied Freedom and Equality (SAFE), an anti-Zionist group on campus, erected an “apartheid wall” on campus and led an anti-Israel protest in front of it.
Additionally, in January, SAFE protesters at the University of Michigan accused US Vice President Kamala Harris of “genocide” for supporting Israel, chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide.”
“It’s all about the benjamins,” Rep. Ilhan Omar had explained America’s support for Israel.
What’s the explanation for Omar’s support for Islamic terrorists? Considering her alleged adulterous affair with her non-Muslim chief fundraiser that broke up her marriage (he has since married her and converted to Islam) that led her father to ban her from her deathbed, it’s not as if the Somali Muslim politician from Minnesota is, despite her ritual hijab, all that devout.
Rep. Omar’s hatred for America and Jews is no doubt sincere and commonplace in her part of the world, but recent revelations have raised questions about whether ‘benjamins’ are involved.
Last year the terrorist sympathizer and her new husband jetted off to Doha for the World Cup games where she shared pictures of them posing with soccer star David Beckham and an unknown man in a burnoose. Omar offered scant further details on the trip where she was seen in the stadium with a good view of the games, but in her financial disclosure she was forced to reveal that the Qatari regime paid for her meals and hotel room.
And that a trip to Pakistan had been paid for by the Pakistani government.
Both Qatar and Pakistan are state sponsors of Islamic terrorism. Both had ties to Al Qaeda and the attacks of 9/11 which Rep. Omar had dismissed as “some people did something”.
The Pakistani government had harbored Osama bin Laden in one of its military towns and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, had been a Qatari government employee.
During her visit, Omar met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who had initiated negotiations with Al Qaeda and offered to “reestablish normal relations as long as they do not conduct operations in Punjab”. Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States had claimed that Osama bin Laden had backed Sharif’s brother. Rep. Omar also met with former Prime Minister Imran Khan, nicknamed ‘Taliban Khan’, who had referred to Bin Laden as a “martyr”.
The level of preoccupation exhibited by Rashida Tlaib concerning the only Jewish nation in the world is unparalleled. pic.twitter.com/GZztesI3nt
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 24, 2023
Upcoming Muslim Association Of Canada Convention Featuring Sheikh Accused Of Spreading Antisemitism
In early September, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) will hold its annual convention in downtown Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC).Antisemitism accusations over rapper split France’s left
The MAC is a charitable organization that describes itself as one of the country’s largest Muslim organizations, with dozens of community centres, schools under its umbrella, and which claims to serve 55,000 community members weekly across Canada.
According to its website, MAC “is a positive force for change in our society by promoting engagement of Muslims within the wider society, building bridges and cooperating with other communities and organizations,” and that it strives to communicate “our understanding of Islam as a moderate, balanced, and constructive way of life…”
However, at its upcoming annual convention, one featured speaker has a long history of spreading messaging that is anything but moderate and balanced.
Sheikh Nashaat Ahmed, an Islamic scholar based in Qatar of Egyptian decent, has a long history of spouting what we consider extreme vitriolic antisemitism and hatred towards other groups.
The left’s antisemitism problem has taken center-stage in France.Conspiracy theorist who linked Israel to 9/11 opens London art show
The summer jamborees of the French Green party and the hard left were supposed to be opportunities to discuss climate change, wealth inequalities and next year’s European elections in a festive, holiday vibe.
Instead the meetings have been overshadowed by a spat over a rapper’s alleged pun about the Holocaust that now threatens drive a wedge between the parties in the Nupes coalition of the hard left and Greens, which is leading polls in France.
The French left’s troubles with antisemitism are more subtle than those on the far-right — former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen both played down the Holocaust and defended France’s collaborationist Vichy regime in World War II — but they are still palpable, and stand to further deepen political rifts that have been brewing for months.
Several high-profile Green mayors have decided to boycott the Green party’s “Summer University” get-together, which starts on Thursday in the port city of Le Havre, over the organizers’ decision to invite the polemical rapper Médine.
No stranger to controversy, Médine sparked a row this month when he accused Jewish former athlete and writer Rachel Khan of being a “ResKHANpée,” a pun on on the word “rescapée” (“survivor”) that has been widely understood as a reference to her grandparents who survived the Holocaust. The jibe has been condemned by Jewish organizations and the political establishment in France amid calls for Médine’s appearance at a high-profile debate in Le Havre to be cancelled.
The row has sparked a debate over whether the left is soft on antisemitism, particularly the hard left France Unbowed party that has been faced with accusations of complacency on the subject in recent years.
A London gallery is exhibiting the work of an artist who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and suggested Israel was behind 9/11.
Anna Laurini, who has displayed her paintings in cities around the world and featured in an interview in Vogue, opened her show at the Fitzrovia Gallery on Tuesday evening.
Over the past decade, Laurini has shared antisemitic conspiracy theories online multiple times, and once shared a post suggesting Jews control the media, banking and pornography industries.
The Italian painter posted on Instagram an old photo of herself posing in front of the World Trade Center in New York with a caption suggesting Israel may have carried out the 9/11 attacks.
“I found this iconic photo from the time, I had no idea what was about to happen…” the post read. It carried the hashtags “israel”, “9/11insidejob” and “zionist”.
She also appeared to link the Rothschild family to the 2001 al-Qaeda terror attack, writing that one week before the atrocity, an Israeli cargo company, the Zim Shipping Company, “broke [a] lease it had held for 30 years and moved out of the World Trade Center.” She continued: “Zim is half owned by the Rothschilds.”
Many antisemitic theories say the Jewish Rothschild family possesses undue control over the world’s financial system.
In another Instagram post, Laurini shared photos of herself posing with and David Icke, a notorious conspiracy theorist.
What @JewishChron fails to mention is that in 2020, two people were arrested over antisemitic graffiti in North London on suspicion of ‘racially motivated hate crime’.
— GnasherJew®גנאשר (@GnasherJew) August 25, 2023
Our information indicates that this was Anna Laurini & her partner.
She’s still posting antisemitism. https://t.co/kpZaTZ2tsk pic.twitter.com/On2j0rH9S0
Asma Barakat has a violent hatred of Israelis. She says, “cant wait til every israeli d*es when we free Palestine 🤩.” She also says, “remember when i told a zionist with a dead sister that her sisters in hell 💗...one of my best moments to date tbh.” https://t.co/yxNbI80WT7 pic.twitter.com/IANmb0axnS
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) August 24, 2023
Latest New York Times Target: Zionism at Jewish Sleepaway Camp
How to get the New York Times to publish an opinion article about Jewish summer camp?BBC News silent on Palestinian incitement and Gaza rioting
Turn it into an attack on Zionism.
A “guest essay” on the Times opinion page, headlined “‘Campsickness’ Is Real and a Sign of Something Special,” begins innocuously enough: “I was happy the whole time … At camp, I made friends easily, found meaning in my Jewishness, and happily ignored the problems that awaited me come late August.”
So far, so good. Read on, though, and the author eventually makes her purpose clear: not merely praising Jewish camp, but denouncing Zionism and distancing herself from it.
“My camp’s focus on Zionism turned my friends and me into fanatics for the cause,” she writes, “As I entered my 20s, my life experiences and education made me challenge the ideologies I’d been exposed to.”
Nothing like “education” as a cure for fanatical Zionism, right?
It’s ironic, because a good education would explain the Jewish people’s historical and religious connection to the land of Israel and share the sad history of what happened to the Jews when we lacked a state. Such an education would reinforce a person’s commitment to and understanding of Zionism, not make a person challenge the need for a Jewish state in the land of Israel.
Six months ago CAMERA UK secured a very belated correction from the BBC concerning a deliberately false claim about arson at the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969 that was made by the PLO’s representative in London during an interview on BBC Radio 4:Holocaust-memory program centers on World War II-era musical instruments
August 21st marked the fifty-fourth anniversary of that incident perpetrated by a mentally ill Australian Christian and, as documented by the ITIC, Palestinian officials exploited the occasion for the promotion of propaganda and incitement.
The ITIC also documented a related event held at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel which featured speakers from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and continued with violent rioting.
After World War II, Palestine Symphony Orchestra musicians who wanted nothing to do with their German-made instruments offered Moshe Weinstein an ultimatum.Back to school: Exhibits custom-tailored for US pupils make the Holocaust a local issue
Weinstein had trained as a violinist and violin maker in Vilnius, then part of Poland, and moved in 1938 to Mandatory Palestine, where he opened a violin shop. The musicians told him of the instruments, “Either you buy them, or they will be destroyed,” Avshalom Weinstein, the late violin dealer’s grandson, told JNS.
Moshe Weinstein opted to buy, and the instruments he purchased formed the heart of a collection of Holocaust-era stringed instruments, according to the dealer’s grandson. The collection is being displayed, and some of the instruments were used to play bittersweet tunes, which honor the lives of survivors and memorialize those who were murdered.
Avshalom and his father, Amnon, have subsequently accumulated dozens of other stringed instruments—mostly violins—that are part of a series of concerts across the world and other educational events, including exhibitions. The project is called Violins of Hope.
“The collection started off scrappy, with little documentation and provenance information, then blossomed into a full-fledged collection under the supervision of Avshi Weinstein and his father, Amnon,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
‘Each tells a story’
Born in 1909, Moshe Weinstein and one of his brothers were the only two of 11 siblings to survive the Holocaust. Moshe passed away in 1987, his grandson told JNS.
Amnon brought attention to his father Moshe’s instrument collection in a 1999 lecture in Dresden, as well as in an interview that year on Israeli radio. Owners of the instruments and family members of the owners, who heard about the collection in the lecture and on the radio, contacted Amnon.
“It was at that point we understood where these violins came from,” Avshalom told JNS. “Each of these violins tells us a story.”
The Violins of Hope collection now numbers more than 90 instruments. The concerts and exhibitions connected to the instruments honor those who suffered and were killed in the Holocaust, Avshalom said.
Three public schools in White Plains, New York, played host to specialized Holocaust exhibits last spring, bringing 2,500 students face-to-face with accounts of the genocide paired with local stories of resilience.New Jersey Town Nearing Settlement With State Over Antisemitism Lawsuit
The “We Are White Plains” installations were created by the nonprofit Common Circles to “help students step into the shoes of different individuals and learn their stories,” said founder and executive director Marla Felton, a former attorney.
“Some students who expressed doubt the Holocaust really happened or doubted the extent of the Holocaust told us they have changed their views and are even educating others on the danger of misinformation,” Felton told The Times of Israel on-site at White Plains Middle School.
After wrapping up in White Plains, the nonprofit spent this summer working on new installations for schools in Storrs, Connecticut. Given the cost of bringing students to Holocaust museums, Common Circles curates museum-like experiences to reside at schools for months, said Felton.
The highlight of installations, said Felton, is when students “interview” eyewitnesses through the USC Shoah Foundation’s artificial intelligence-based “Dimensions in Testimony” project.
“When you are in history class, you just read the textbooks and you are left wondering, how did these people actually feel? Now that we have AI it’s a lot more interactive and you can get a lot more answers,” said Lizani Padilla Guarnos, a student at White Plains High School. United States Congressman Rep. Jamaal Bowman speaks at ‘We Are White Plains’ exhibit in New York, spring 2023. (Wendy Moger Bross)
On the first day of June, in a small room adjacent to the White Plains Middle School library, students asked Jewish-American liberator Alan Moskin — in his so-called “Interactive Biography” form — dozens of questions about what he saw as a liberator of German concentration camps.
“I know so many kids that have antisemitic values or don’t believe the Holocaust happened,” said White Plains High School student Cassandra Acuna Hoppe. “To see forever what these people went through from a first-person account is very powerful and so important,” she said.
Jackson Township in Ocean County, New Jersey, is preparing to settle with the state Attorney General’s Office a lawsuit alleging that it used zoning codes to drive Orthodox Jews from the area and deter others from moving in, according to local media.Man arrested after headstones vandalised at Kent synagogue
Brent Pohlman, an attorney who is representing Jackson in the case, received approval from the Township Council to settle the suit, the Asbury Park Press reported Wednesday. The terms of the potential settlement have not been publicly disclosed.
As The Algemeiner previously reported, the council in 2017 passed two zoning codes to restrict private schools to three specific areas and outlaw constructing new dormitories entirely, a measure “making it impossible for religious boarding schools to establish in the township” and ensuring that no new yeshivas could be established, the US Justice Department, which last year settled a similar suit with Jackson Township, said in 2020.
Then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also sued Jackson Township, accusing it of surveilling Jews and singling them out for enforcement of land use laws to prevent them from building sukkahs, temporary structures built for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and eruvim, boundaries within which certain activities are permitted during Shabbat.
According to the Asbury Park Press, Jackson Township also allegedly surveilled Jewish homes on Shabbat to investigate claims that private homes were being used as synagogues.
Local resident Hope Drew was active in the movement against the Orthodox community. During a township council meeting in Oct. 2021, she became irate and sobbed while accusing Jews of “lawlessness,” and she described their homes as WaWas, a chain of rural convenience stores that sell cigarettes and pre-prepared hoagies.
Drew also campaigned to eliminate transportation subsidies for students attending non-public schools — many of which are religious and serve Orthodox Jewish children, 3,100 of whom attend religious schools in Lakewood, a neighboring town home to over 100,000 Orthodox Jews.
Other residents took to social media to clamor for restricting Orthodox migration to the area, with one saying that Jews are “filthy f**king cockroaches.”
A 41-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage after headstones were knocked over and smashed at a Jewish cemetery in Kent.Jewish man confesses to writing antisemitic graffiti on front of French restaurant
Last Friday, members of Chatham Memorial Synagogue in Rochester discovered the damage, which marked the eight act of serious vandalism the community had suffered in the last decade.
The shul, which is attached to the cemetery, has also had been smeared with excrement, had graffiti painted on its doors, and seen its CCTV camera attacked and destroyed.
Police believe the latest damage, which amounts to around £19,000, was caused between August 15 and 18.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime. A spokesman for Kent Police told the JC: "A 41-year-old local man has today been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and taken into custody.
"Investigators are continuing to appeal for witnesses and anyone with information to contact them."
A 74-year-old Jewish man has admitted to being behind antisemitic messages graffitied on a kosher restaurant in a suburb of Paris.German airport staff ask rabbi to remove kippah, against official policy
The shopfront in Levallois-Perret, an upscale area outside Paris was covered in vandalism that read “Jew” and “Jewish thief” earlier this week.
On July 19, after police arrested the first suspect spotted on security cameras, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter that he was shocked by the “unbearable” anti-Semitic inscriptions and he congratulated police for “already detaining the alleged perpetrator.”
The first person arrested was later released due to a lack of evidence and police then arrested the 74-year-old Jewish man.
At the time of the vandalism leaders from political parties from across the spectrum denounced the “attack”, with Socialist party leader saying it was “chilling to see a Jewish business owner being singled out. This is not Germany in the 1930s but 2023 in Levallois”
“We must remain vigilant when it comes to antisemitism."
After the restaurant was vandalized, some speculated that far-right militants were behind it, others criticized the far left for encouraging “new antisemitism” by inviting a controversial rapper Medine to their summer debates.
Police told local media that the vandal was the owner of the commercial premises and that he was angered with the restaurant manager because he owed him rent.
A leading Chabad rabbi based in Germany has complained to federal authorities after he was asked to remove his kippah while going through airport securityFarmers market boots vender who offered ‘Gas the Jews’ discount code
Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, who leads Chabad in Berlin, was recently asked to remove his kippah by staff at Berlin's Brandenburg airport.
The rabbi, who insisted that there was no such security policy in place, refused to remove his kippah.
On his return to Berlin, Rabbi Teichtal met with the chief of the German federal police, Dr Dieter Romann. Romann confirmed that Jewish travelers do not need to uncover their heads during check-in.
According to VIN news, Rabbi Teichtal said: “The police chief issued a directive to all federal officers in the country to cease this procedure, which was never official,”
“Moreover, the president of the police confirmed this officially and also approved its publication.”
“‘While there’s no doubt that safety guidelines need to be followed, the directive to remove the kipah—a Jewish symbol that never leaves our heads—was never approved and holds no validity,” said the rabbi, who has run the Jewish center since the mid-1990s.
Justin Bale, who owns a business in Olathe, Kan., that grows more than 100 kinds of peppers and tomatoes, in addition to seasonings and hot sauces, has been kicked out of an Overland Park, Kan., farmers market for shocking antisemitic postings.
The owner of PepperCave, identified as a “Christian family business,” even offered customers a discount code of “GasThejews,” the Kansas City Star reported. Bale also posted social-media messages denying the Holocaust and calling for the extermination of the Jewish people.
A spokeswoman for the city of Overland Park said that Bale was “suspended indefinitely” from the farmers market.
Undeterred, Bale doubled down after being booted out. He posted on social media that he now has “much more time to dedicate to online sales and we can switch the chip recipe to lard!” (It wasn’t clear if that was a reference that was intended to call attention to something non-kosher.)
“Remember to save 14.88% on all orders with code: GasThejews,” he wrote. “My name is Justin Bale. I live in Olathe, KS. I fear no jew!” The discount was apparently a reference to the neo-Nazi 1488 code that the Anti-Defamation League called “a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols.”
Kansas City, MO - retailer @PepperCave_st has been booted from a farmers market after their atrocious antisemitic Facebook posts were brought to the attention of community members.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 25, 2023
In one post, Pepper Cave promotes Zyklon gas, used by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust to… pic.twitter.com/gweN8DtmYU
Antisemitic death threats, anti-Black slurs, and swastikas were found at the Vive LA apartment complex on Virgil Ave. in Los Angeles.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 25, 2023
We are being told the management company is aware of who the vandal is but refuses to evict him. pic.twitter.com/UiLUqDRGdk
More here 👇🏼 https://t.co/XOgvdEIbRq
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 24, 2023
At Tel Aviv tech event, New York Mayor Adams praises startup nation
On his last full day in Israel on Thursday, New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams exchanged ideas with innovators and entrepreneurs at an event co-organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).The Iranian fan of Israel's women judo team
Adams connected the challenge of founding a nation with building a business. He said on Wednesday night that “hard is starting this country being surrounded by people who hated you. Hard is figuring out how to do drop irrigation so you can start growing your own products.”
To the group convened with co-sponsors F2 Venture Capital and Ximus Forum, Adams said: “Hard is building and being not only a startup nation but now leading a number of startups you’re seeing across the globe.”
The “White City Soirée” took place in Tel Aviv and also addressed the global rise in antisemitism. Adams warned that hatred against Jews possessed many layers and said that, “If we want to dismantle and combat antisemitism, we have to go to the core and the heart of it and dismantle the entire team.”
The mayor called for targeting “all of those who are participating in antisemitism, who are hiding their hand.”
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said of Adams’ visit, “We greatly appreciate the mayor’s strong and deeply felt friendship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with him to tackle common challenges and capitalize on shared opportunities as we navigate the path forward in an increasingly interconnected world.”
Israel's women's Judo team is currently holding a training camp in Valencia, Spain. This week, a surprising guest arrived for the morning training. The guest was Mohammed Kassemi, who was born in Tehran and practiced judo in his youth but 16 years ago had to leave his homeland because of the regime. He went to California, where relatives who had left Iran a few years earlier were waiting for him, and today he lives in the United States and coaches children.
Over the years, he has fallen in love with Israeli judo and especially with the women's team. He follows every competition. He has met Olympic bronze medalist Yarden Gerbi twice, was excited to see Inbar Lanir win the world championship recently and now, for the first time, he got to see the team, face to face, in action!
"I am very lucky to meet the women's national team and coach Shany Hershko", Kassemi told Israel Hayom, "I just admire their hard work, I don't miss a single competition. Especially, after I left Iran at the age of 26, because of the difficult situation."
Q: What do you know about the Israeli national team?
"I know all the athletes on the men's and women's national teams, but I especially love the women's national team. They have been so successful lately, and I have so much respect for the coaches. Shany is doing a great job and the results are clearly seen. It was fun to watch Sagi Muki do judo, but my favorite was Jordan Jarbi."
Q: What do you think about Muki and the Iranian Saeid Mollaei in the World Championship?
"Remembering this gives me goosebumps. I was hoping to see them both in the final at the Tokyo Olympics, but that didn't happen. Saeid came to Israel and broke the taboo between Israel and Iran. Both countries have a rich culture and I have no doubt that one day there will be peace between the countries, I'm just sure of it."
"We need more peace all over the world, and seeing Saeid arrive in Israel opened the door for more Iranians to compete in the Grand Slam competition in Tel Aviv. Maybe more will come to train and compete, and maybe one day Israelis will also come to Iran to train and compete. It may not happen in six months, but eventually it will happen."
This Israeli beer is brewed with 3,000-year-old Philistine yeast strainMeet 23-year-old Lina Ezberga - the first Bedouin woman in her town, Kuseife, to become an ambulance driver in Magen David Adom 🚑👏
— Inbar Cohen (@InbarCohen13) August 24, 2023
We are proud of you, Lina! Women can do anything, and saving lives is one of the greatest things we can do. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/83YYhSuwbr
Israelis can now buy beer fermented by using the descendants of a yeast strain that was originally used to brew beer 3,000 years ago in the Philistine city of Gat.
Called HaMishteh (“the Feast”), it’s being produced at the Shikma Brewery in Ashkelon.
You might have seen headlines that declared: “Want to get drunk like a Philistine?” or “Drink the beer that Goliath (or Cleopatra or the pharaohs) had!” or even “A taste of history in every gulp!”
Well, these are not exactly accurate.
Yet when you cut away all the public hype, the story of how this ancient yeast was discovered, isolated, revitalized, and used to brew beer is still a true adventure.
Discovering, isolating, revitalizing, and brewing beer from ancient Philistine yeast
It started a few years ago when Itai Gutman, one of the founders of the Herzl Brewery (then in Jerusalem), was having a beer (of course!) with Prof. Ronen Hazan, a microbiologist at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine.
“We were discussing a project that had just succeeded in revitalizing yeast from a three-year-old empty beer bottle,” explained Gutman. “We asked ourselves, half-jokingly, if yeast can survive for three years in the bottle, maybe it can survive for hundreds or even thousands of years?”
As Gutman described it, they approached the Israel Antiquities Authority and asked if they could have some shards from ancient pottery that might have held beer or other fermented beverages. “To our surprise, they agreed,” said Gutman.
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