Wednesday, September 27, 2023

09/27 Links Pt2: Benny Morris: Avi Shlaim’s Fantasy Land; My first encounter with Jews changed my life; Roger Waters sang ‘f***ing Jew’ song, claims former producer

From Ian:

Benny Morris: Avi Shlaim’s Fantasy Land
It all sounds pretty convincing (if repetitive), but this historical documentation is inconclusive at best. One apparent error in Shlaim’s narrative stands out. In trying to pin Israel’s colors to the bombings, he writes that Binnet in 1954 was “in charge” of a subsequent (proven) Israeli sabotage operation using a cell of local Egyptian Jews, in which U.S. cultural centers and other targets in Cairo and Alexandria were bombed with the purpose of causing bad blood between Egypt and the West (the episode known in Israel as essek habish—the unfortunate business). The cell was caught and its members were jailed or executed. Binnet was also picked up and committed suicide. The problem with Shlaim’s account is that Binnet was apparently not involved in the sabotage operation in Egypt. He was an independent spy. The bombing was organized and run by someone else but Binnet was picked up incidentally due to a compartmentalization failure.

“Having lived as a young child in an Arab country, I was aware of the possibility of peaceful Arab-Jewish coexistence … My Iraqi background thus helped me, as I grew up, to develop a more nuanced view, based on empathy for all parties locked into this tragic conflict,” writes Shlaim. Unfortunately, he continues, the idea of a two-state peace settlement, based on partitioning Palestine, is dead. Shlaim attributes this death solely to Israel and Israeli policies, particularly the settlement enterprise, which, over the past 50 years, has planted more than half a million Jews, some of them messianic fanatics, in the midst of the 3 million-strong Palestinian Arab population of the West Bank. Israel has, and will likely have in the future, neither the will nor the power to uproot the settlers.

I agree with Shlaim that the two-state solution model is dead. What he fails to mention is the initial and even more compelling cause of the death of the two-state solution: Palestinian Arab rejectionism. The Palestinians have displayed remarkable consistency in rejecting the two-state solution: They said “no” to the Peel Commission partition proposal in 1937 (which awarded the Arabs 70% of Palestine) when Haj Amin al-Husseini ruled the roost; they said “no” to the U.N. General Assembly’s partition resolution of November 1947 (which proposed Palestinian statehood on 45% of the land); PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said “no” to the partition proposals of the year 2000 (the “Clinton Parameters”) that awarded the Palestinians a state on 21%-22% of Palestine; and current Palestinian Authority “President” Mahmoud Abbas failed to respond (i.e., said “no”) to Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert’s partition proposals, which were akin to Clinton’s, in 2007-08.

The fundamentalist wing of the Palestinian national movement, Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in 2006 and is still the most popular Palestinian party, rejects out of hand any talk of partition. It aims, so says its charter, clearly, to eradicate Israel and replace it with a Sharia-ruled state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. And while the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah party, occasionally pays lip service to the two-state idea, it, too, covets all of Palestine (why else insist on the refugees’ “right of return,” which, if realized, would create an Arab majority?). Partition is not on the Palestinian agenda today, if it ever really was.

So what does Shlaim propose? A one-state solution—a democratic binational state, ruled jointly by Palestine’s Arabs and Jews. The problem is that neither Palestine’s Arabs nor its Jews support this unworkable idea, especially given the 120-year history of war, terrorism, and repression. For a model of this kind of solution, Israelis, Palestinians, and helpful foreign interlocutors need look no further than the internally fractured Lebanese state on Israel’s northern border, which is dominated by Hezbollah. There is too much blood, and bad blood, between the two peoples, not to mention abysmal religious, cultural, and social differences—and yes, racism, on both sides—to produce a version of Belgium on the Mediterranean.

Shlaim’s idyllic vision, based on the social and economic mingling of upper crust Arabs and Jews in Baghdad during a brief period of time in the 1930s, is not a precedent or pointer to anything. My prediction? Were a one-state solution ever tried, it would collapse in anarchy and drown in rivers of blood, compared to which today’s violence is a mere trickle.

Three Worlds is very readable, like everything that Shlaim writes. A good editor would have deleted its innumerable repetitions—and he or she may also have caught some of its outlandish factual errors: “seven Arab armies invaded” Palestine in 1948 (in fact, it was four); “at the end of 1948” Israel’s population was “650,000 of whom 150,000 were Arabs,” (in fact, there were 700,000 Jews and somewhat more than 100,000 Arabs), to give just a few examples.

Early on in Three Worlds, Shlaim recalls that his “elders’” viewed Israel, before the family left Iraq, as “a small, faraway country of which we knew little.” The words echo the appeaser Neville Chamberlain’s dismissive designation during the 1938 Munich crisis of Czechoslovakia, which he was about to sell down the river, as “a far-away country … [inhabited by] people of whom we know nothing.” Is it possible that subconsciously Shlaim is here signaling his desire, or what he assumes is or will be the West’s desire, to sell Israel down the river?
Karys Rhea: Will Israel's Right-Wing Government Address the Existential Threat of Illegal Palestinian Settlements?
This is Part 9 of a 10-part series exposing the underreported joint European and Palestinian program to bypass international law and establish a de facto Palestinian state on Israeli land.

There has thus far been little political will in Israel to counter illegal Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank.

For the same reasons it allows illegal weapons to proliferate throughout Arab Israeli communities and Bedouins to establish encampments in the Negev, Israel’s government does not give definitive enforceable orders to its Civil Administration (COGAT) — it wants to avoid negative press or a more violent confrontation with the Palestinians in the future.

Israeli officials thus approach the problem with local Band-Aid solutions rather than a full-frontal assault.

“They are not treating this as a war, and it is a war. It’s actually more dangerous than other wars,” says Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, founder of the Israeli organization HaBirthonistim. “At the moment, the Palestinians are winning this war. In 20 or 30 years, this will be an existential threat. We need to wake up.”

Dr. Yishai Spivak, an investigative researcher with the Israeli nonprofit Ad Kan, concurs, adding that there are two kinds of wars that Israel is fighting with the Palestinians.

One is the terror war, in which Palestinians use physical violence to harm citizens of the state of Israel. The other is the non-violent or civilian war, in which Palestinians attempt to delegitimize Israel via various channels, such as the United Nations, social media or the global BDS movement.

Another reason Israeli leadership fails to treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves is that its ministers are generally in power for a short time and may be dismissed within their party in short order. For the one to two years they generally serve, they are primarily concerned with building their reputation, desperate to be internationally accepted.

Put simply, the political system bolsters the bureaucrats. And they know that to tackle a problem of this nature and magnitude, they would have to take extreme actions against the European Union, Palestinian Authority and COGAT.

With the painful, precarious status Israel has on the geopolitical landscape, it is unlikely that any foreseeable coalition will set the precedent and shift the paradigm.

Even Jewish settler leaders have failed to respond to this as an existential threat. In Efrat, for example, when Israelis complain to their mayor about the illegal Arab structures popping up around their neighborhoods, the most he will do, if anything, is make a phone call to COGAT, and then quickly forget about the matter.
The essence of the Palestinian heritage
In order to set the record straight and enable the president of the Palestinian Authority to deal with the" glorious" heritage of his invented people, UNESCO members must be presented with the sites where representatives of the "Palestinians" imprinted their heritage.

A rich bloody heritage in which those Arabs, who call themselves "Palestinians" in recent generations, are proud and boasting, above every platform, in every textbook and "consciousness engineering device".

Among the sites worth noting is a section of the Israeli national water carrier project that was blown up as part of Fatah's first terrorist attack on January 1st 1965 (before the six day war and the liberation or "occupation" of the Judea, Samaria, the Jordan valley and east Jerusalem- all known as the "West Bank"); Suicidal terror attacks in Moment Cafe and Sbarro Restaurant in Jerusalem, Matza Restaurant in Haifa; Horrific massacres at Ma'alot School in the Galilei, Park Hotel in Netanya during Passover eve, Dolphinarium night club and Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, Beit Lid bus stations and other sites saturated with Israeli blood. This is the heritage of the Arabs, who in recent generations have called themselves Palestinians, between whom and historical heritage sites there is a deep chasm greater than the Syrian-African rift, in which ancient Jericho is located.

After various Attempts made by Israeli elements to prevent UNESCOs political declaration, which were unsuccessful despite sincere efforts made on the part of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Heritage and others, Israel and its allies are required to approach UNESCO with a query and criticism on its side, regarding the manner in which the puzzling decision was made. How did the organization's decision contribute to the promotion of peace, security, cooperation and other slogans as stated in its stated goal: "To contribute to peace and security by promoting international cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture, with the aim of instilling throughout the world a sense of respect for the values of justice, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms declared in the UN Declaration?"

The State of Israel is also required to make a decision preserving its own heritage sites that have not yet been officially declared as such, with all that this entails, such as the Altar of Joshua on Mount Ebel. In the absence of such a decision now, after UNESCO granted legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority, there is a danger of destruction on the sites, or the danger of expropriation and appropriation of the invented" Palestinian heritage,"as was done at Tel Aroma in Samaria, (a Hasmonaean era fortress) where the Palestinian flag proudly flies.

An Israeli Zionist government should act like one by applying the Israeli sovereignty according to its historic right, on every important heritage site within the boundaries of the Promised Land. Regardless to what any invented entity thinks, whether they are the Narnians from Narnia, Ozon's from the Land of Oz or "Palestinians".


The Book of Paradise, Found
What comes to mind when you hear the words “literary Yiddish folklore”? For many, it would be something like Isaac Bashevis Singer’s classic retelling of the Chelm stories for children. Those stories have an unmistakable satirical edge, but then again, we’re talking about a town of legendary fools.

Singer didn’t start exploring the folkloric Chelm material until the 1960s. But throughout the 1930s, while Singer was still mostly toiling as a journalist, the writer Itzik Manger was developing his own literary-folkloric poetics, becoming, as his YIVO Encyclopedia entry puts it, “the preeminent modernist folk bard in the annals of Yiddish culture.” What Manger found in this period was that on one hand, folklore offered a “universal repository of myth” while, on the other, the Bible offered an “eternal and untapped source of drama.” As historian David Roskies writes in the YIVO Encyclopedia entry, Manger’s uninhibited literary experiments were met with outrage from religious traditionalists—who found his depiction of biblical heroes to be “sacrilege”—“as well as Zionist-Hebraists, who correctly understood his scripturalization of the shtetl to be a species of doikayt, a valorization of the Diaspora.”

Indeed, Manger knew exactly what he was doing. This was art, but it was also shots fired in an ongoing culture war. In his essay “Folklore and Literature,” Manger argued that a living literature had to be “firmly rooted in folklore.” Without it, a civilization’s literature is bound to fail.

The scholar Haya Bar Itzhak discusses Manger’s folkloric work in a chapter of her 2010 volume Pioneers of Jewish Ethnography and Folkloristics in Eastern Europe. Manger’s belief in the critical importance of folklore, she writes, led him to observe “that the greatness of Yiddish literature is inherent in its close attachment to Jewish folklore. Thanks to its bond to Jewish folklore, Yiddish literature never lost its vital link to Jewish life.” Zionism, having linked itself with Hebrew and the ancient culture of the Bible, “was supposed to provide an alternative to the living Jewish folklore of the Diaspora and permit the creation of modern Hebrew literature. But modern Hebrew literature, having detached itself from folklore, cannot be an organic expression of the life of the Jewish people.” Like I said, shots fired.

The brand-new English translation of Manger’s 1939 novel The Book of Paradise offers readers an electrifying expression of the author’s theories. In it, an angel called Samuel Abba is summoned from Paradise to be born on Earth. According to Jewish folklore, before we are born, an angel delivers a tap on the nose to knock loose all our heavenly learning. Only then may we be born. But Samuel Abba has a clever angel friend called Little Pisser. They come up with a plan for Samuel Abba to wear a fake nose to absorb the angel’s blow, allowing him to arrive on Earth as a talking baby, full of tales of Paradise that are then recounted to an eager audience of comic shtetl types.
Rawan Osman: My first encounter with Jews changed my life
Yet, those Jews I watched from my window in Strasbourg seemed nice. Also, they resembled me more than they did the French. Initially, I thought that the monstrous Jews that Nasrallah referred to must be those living in Israel. But the truth slowly unfolded.

Meeting Israelis always left me under the same impression: they are just like us, normal people. And just like us, they too are traumatized by war and would love to live in peace with us. So why don’t we live in peace?

Because our reality in the Middle East does indeed include war-mongering monsters, and they are those who vowed to rid the region of Jews, namely those who claim to be our protectors against the Israelis. The facts no longer accommodate their narrative.

Israel did not kill half a million Syrians. The Syrian regime did, with the help of the Iranian Regime and Hezbollah. One would think that this alliance is ready to sacrifice its own people for the sake of the Palestinians. Except even Palestinian life doesn’t matter; the Syrian regime imposed a siege on the Yarmouk Camp for many years after 2011, causing more than 200 Palestinians to die of starvation. Many of those who survived the siege were feeding on grass.

The people of the Middle East realized in the past years that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a pretext for the Axis of Resistance to gain power in the region. It is time for them to learn that what they know about Israel and the Jews is wrong, and that peace can reign and replace the senseless suffering. Yet for that to happen, you’ve got to roll up your sleeves. Every Israeli needs to help reshape the perception of Israel in the mind of the neighbors. If you don’t, who else would?

Personal encounters are the best remedy for estrangement. You might not be able to visit Lebanon or Syria yet, however, you are able to meet Syrians and Lebanese on neutral ground wherever fate chooses. When it happens, don’t retreat out of despair or mistrust. Engage them and change their mind about Israel, like the shopkeeper in Strasbourg changed mine. All he had to do was to smile.


Canada PM offers ‘unreserved’ apology for applause of ex-Nazi, ‘pain’ it caused Jews
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday offered an “unreserved” apology in parliament after the legislature publicly celebrated a Ukrainian World War II veteran who fought alongside the Nazis.

“I would like to present unreserved apologies for what took place on Friday and to President (Volodymyr Zelensky) and the Ukrainian delegation for the position they were put in, for all of us who were present,” Trudeau told lawmakers.

“To have unknowingly recognized this individual was a terrible mistake and a violation of the memory of those who suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazi regime.”

The Canadian leader was referring to an embarrassing incident that marred a visit by Zelensky last week, sparking an uproar that led to the resignation of the parliament’s speaker on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president was in Canada as part of a tour to bolster Western support for his country’s struggle against Russian invasion.

Zelensky was in the chamber as guest of honor when the speaker, Anthony Rota, name-checked the elderly veteran as a World War II hero, prompting a standing ovation.
Yad Vashem Reaction to the Canadian Parliament's Standing Ovation Honoring of Yaroslav Hunka
Last week the Canadian Parliament honored former World War II Ukrainian soldier Yaroslav Hunka, in the form of a standing ovation. This deplorable moment was a result of ignorance and lack of information about the facts of the Holocaust and an absence of sensitivity to the many Holocaust survivors who sought refuge in Canada post Holocaust, not to mention the many members of the Canadian armed forces who lost their lives fighting the Nazis. While Yaroslav Hunka fought during WWII, he did so as a member of the Waffen SS as part of the German war effort. Regardless of the political goals invoked by the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to justify their approach, these people actively collaborated with the Nazis.

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, advocates the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy to war criminals associated with the massacre of civilians, Jews and non-Jews.

Yad Vashem continues to be committed to promoting accurate Holocaust remembrance, education, research and documentation. We call upon the Canadian government to partner with Yad Vashem's global educational efforts in bringing Holocaust remembrance and education to all relevant audiences worldwide, including in Canada. We invite the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament and other Canadian leaders to visit Yad Vashem in order to learn more about the Holocaust.
Canada’s house speaker apologises after praising Ukrainian veteran of Nazi unit
Canada has become embroiled in an escalating political controversy after members of its House of Commons were encouraged to join in a standing ovation for an individual who fought in Ukraine with a Nazi military unit accused of war crimes during the second world war




Yoseph Haddad and MMA fighter Haim Gozali break down the lies of former UFC fighter Jeff Monson.
@-yosephhaddad9088 and former Israeli Bellator MMA fighter@bjj10 break down the lies of former UFC fighter Jeff Monson


Roger Waters sang ‘f***ing Jew’ song, claims former producer
Roger Waters delivered an impromptu ditty that referred to his Jewish agent as a “f***ing Jew”, the rock star’s ex-producer has claimed in an explosive new documentary about the former Pink Floyd frontman.

The film also claims Waters once referred disparagingly to a vegetarian restaurant meal as “Jew food” and alleges he said that European Jews could not trace their origins to ancient Israel, but were “just white men like me with beards”.

The documentary, The Dark Side of Roger Waters, which was made by Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) and presented by the veteran BBC investigative journalist John Ware, also claims Waters suggested in an email that the giant inflatable pig that floats above the audience at his shows should be adorned not only with a Star of David but the phrases “follow the money” and “dirty kyke [sic]”.

Most of the key allegations about Waters in the documentary are made by two music professionals who are well-known in their own right and who worked closely with the rock star over many years.

Bob Ezrin, who is Jewish and Waters’s former producer, is a music business legend who has also worked with artists including Alice Cooper, KISS and Taylor Swift. The other key interviewee is Jewish saxophonist Norbert Stachel, who spent years touring the world as a member of Waters’ band.

As well as levelling allegations in the film about Waters, both men pay tribute to his virtues and talent. According to Ezrin, Waters is “a brilliant songwriter, a brilliant poet”, who can be “exquisitely sensitive”, “tender” and “sweet”. Stachel admits that he never challenged what he regarded as Water’s unacceptable statements, “because I wanted his money and I wanted his gig”.

However, Ezrin says that Waters is also a “bully” and someone who “finds the weak spot in others to make themselves more powerful”. He adds that although “part of me still loves him, part of me is very upset with him for positions that he’s taking in the public that affect me as a Jew. And affect my people and my family and my friends and I feel that’s why I have to do this interview and speak about it publicly.”


Roger Waters Wasn’t Banned From Anti-Zionist Festival, University of Pennsylvania Says
Roger Waters, who was scheduled to speak at a controversial anti-Zionist festival held at the University of Pennsylvania over the weekend, was not banned from appearing on campus, a school spokesperson told The Algemeiner on Tuesday, despite the musician’s complaints to the contrary.

Last week, Waters posted a video on social media in which he claimed that the organizers of the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” an event featuring a gamut of speakers who have promoted antisemitic tropes and called for the destruction of Israel, told him at the last minute that he should not come even though he flew to America to be there in person.

“I’ve been told I’m not allowed … because they made arrangements for me to attend the panel via Zoom,” Waters said. “And the fact that I came all the way here actually to be present, because I care deeply about the issues that are being discussed, apparently cuts no ice with campus police or whoever it is.”

On Tuesday, however, a University of Pennsylvania spokesperson said that Waters was not initially supposed to appear on campus in person.

“Organizers of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival indicated from the beginning, and confirmed multiple times, that Mr. Waters would be participating in the event virtually,” the spokesperson told The Algemeiner. “On Wednesday, Sept. 20, less than 48 hours before the start of the event, the organizers communicated the change to in-person attendance to the University Life Space & Events team. We were unable to accommodate this request, as it would have required significant changes to event coordination, as well as additional campus safety and security resources that were unavailable on such short notice.”

The spokesperson added that, due to its concerns, the university asked both the organizers and Waters’ management to “honor the understanding from the beginning that he would not be appearing in person.”


Dave Rich: It wasn't a scam, and that's official
Almost eight years since Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour Party leader, and nearly three years after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published its report into antisemitism in the party, the last legal effort to overturn the EHRC’s finding that the Labour Party became so antisemitic under Corbyn that it broke equalities law has ended in failure.

This has come about because former London Mayor Ken Livingstone and former Labour councillor Pam Bromley have withdrawn their judicial review of the EHRC’s ruling that they had both made antisemitic statements. This was the central pillar of the EHRC’s ruling against the party, and the end of their judicial review means that this ruling now stands forever. It’s over.

You wouldn’t know it, though, from the reactions of Corbynites who insist that allegations of antisemitism under Corbyn’s leadership were invented, exaggerated or weaponised. The hashtag #ItWasAScam still trends on a regular basis whenever this issue returns to the news, and the true believers are convinced they have won a mighty victory against the EHRC even though the record shows the opposite is the case. It’s a fantasy of self-delusion wrapped in the martyrdom and conspiracies so beloved by this part of the hard left. It also tells us something important about the limitations of facts, evidence and the law in settling political disputes.

The EHRC report into antisemitism in Labour looked at a sample of 70 complaints and hung their verdict on the cases involving Livingstone and Bromley because they (a) made antisemitic statements and (b) were acting as representatives, or “agents”, of the party at the time, making the party legally liable. This is the EHRC’s key finding:
Our investigation found that the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 by committing unlawful harassment through the acts of its agents in two of the complaints we investigated. These included using antisemitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears. As these people were acting as agents of the Labour Party, the Labour Party was legally responsible for their conduct.

Some people have wrongly implied that this means the EHRC could only find two cases of antisemitism in total. That’s not correct: their report says they found plenty of evidence of “antisemitic conduct by an ‘ordinary’ member of the Labour Party”, but they were only looking for examples where the party was legally responsible.

The EHRC laid the blame for this squarely at Corbyn’s feet. Far from the report making “no criticism of Jeremy Corbyn”, as the distinguished KC Geoffrey Bindman claimed earlier this year, it has a chapter titled “A Failure of Leadership” that concludes:
It is hard not to conclude that antisemitism within the Labour Party could have been tackled more effectively if the leadership had chosen to do so.

The EHRC ruling was game-changing. This was the result of painstaking analysis by a statutory regulator of dozens of case files, a huge amount of documentary evidence, and submissions from Jewish and other organisations, party staff, whistle blowers and others. The outcome was an Unlawful Act Notice served against the Labour Party, with a two-year action plan of reform mandated to avoid legal sanctions. This should have ended the argument over whether complaints of widespread antisemitism in the Labour Party were well-founded or not, and for most observers that was the case. Not, though, for those people who cling to the belief that Corbyn was brought down by a conspiracy of Zionists, the Tory press, Blairites and the deep state.
Labour set to ban party members from backing Jeremy Corbyn
Labour is set to ban members from backing politicians who have been suspended or leave the party.

The measure, being considered by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), will stop members supporting former party politicians when they stand as independents against Labour candidates.

The proposed move is expected to affect supporters of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Jamie Driscoll.

Driscoll, the North of Tyne mayor who has been dubbed the “last Corbynista in power”, was prevented from standing for election in 2024 following a recent on-stage discussion with Ken Loach.

The film director, who was expelled from Labour in 2021, has criticised the decision. Driscoll later resigned from the party and is standing as an independent in the North East mayoral election in May next year.

Meanwhile, Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour Party in 2015 and resigned following a historic defeat at the 2019 general election.

The Islington North MP was later ousted from Labour following a row over antisemitism. Corbyn criticised Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and claimed he had "launched an assault on the rights of his own Labour members."

Corbyn currently serves as an independent MP after having the Labour parliamentary whip taken away but has remained a member of the party. He hinted earlier this year that he may stand as a candidate for Mayor of London.
Green Party apologises after tweet wishing 'happy Yom Kippur' to Jews
The Green Party of England and Wales has apologised after one of their branches wished the Jewish community a "happy Yom Kippur."

A social media post appeared on the Twitter/X page of the Brighton and Hove Green Party, which read: "Happy Yom Kippur to all those who celebrate! We wish everyone observing this Jewish holiday a very happy and holy celebration." The illustration also used the standard year, rather than the Jewish year, 5784 as is customary


Users on social media pointed out that the post was illustrated with a nine-branched Chanukiah, used to celebrate Chanukah rather than Yom Kippur.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Green Party said: "Many volunteers help run the local party and sometimes we have the best of intentions but simply get things wrong. That is what has happened on this occasion.

"We are very sorry for the offence that will have been caused. We are removing the post and will be sharing an apology on our Brighton and Hove Twitter feed."
UPenn Anti-Israel Hatefest Could Violate Federal Law, Group Warns
The University of Pennsylvania’s decision to host an event featuring a slew of anti-Semites could violate federal laws meant to protect minority students, like Jews, from hostility on campus, according to a legal watchdog group.

The Ivy League school located in downtown Philadelphia over the weekend hosted the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, a three-day event that featured speakers who have praised terrorism against Israel and slurred the country’s supporters as "scum" and "filth." The event drew criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy groups who accused the university of fostering a hostile environment on campus. Just a day before the festival took place, Penn’s Jewish center was vandalized by an assailant who screamed anti-Semitic obscenities, escalating tensions on campus and exacerbating fears among Jewish students.

Now, one legal watchdog group has informed the university that its decision to endorse the event could violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on ethnicity or national origin.

"The university’s refusal to distance itself from the event by defunding or condemning the specific anti-Semitic rhetoric peddled by many of the event’s scheduled speakers, renders the university complicit in fostering a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students on its campus," the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law wrote in a letter sent last week to the school.

"By tacitly condoning the inflammatory and false narratives about Israel and the denial of the Jews’ ancestral connection to the land of Israel—themes that speakers at this weekend’s Festival repeatedly espouse—Penn is allowing the festival to create a hostile environment for Jewish students on its campus at a time when, even the university has acknowledged, anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism, and assault are rising on college campuses," the group wrote to Penn president Elizabeth Magill.


Golden Globes ousts Egyptian member who tweeted of Zionist ‘stronghold’ in Hollywood
The organizers of the Golden Globes expelled an Egyptian member of its voting body over the weekend following the discovery of old tweets in which she seemed to espouse conspiracy theories about Israel and Zionists.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association did not say why it had expelled the film critic Howaida Hamdy along with two other members, beyond noting that they had violated the organization’s code of conduct. According to The Hollywood Reporter, members of the body had complained about the behavior of Hamdy and two others who were also recently expelled.

Hamdy, a critic and editor for several Arabic-language publications, had been the subject of a report this summer by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a pro-Israel watchdog group.

The group had found that in 2013, Hamdy allegedly tweeted in Arabic: “Hollywood is the Zionists’ stronghold” and said “most films” are “oriented and biased,” in writing about the zombie movie “World War Z.” She said the film presented “Israel and its citizens as the embodiment of nobility, humanism and sacrifice — a repulsive thing.” “World War Z” is partially set in Israel and depicts the Mossad responding to the outbreak of a deadly zombie virus.

That tweet has since been deleted, but CAMERA noted another 2013 tweet, in which Hamdy states in Arabic: “Behind every Islamist terrorist there is a Zionist-American plot that moves him.” That tweet was still visible as of Tuesday.

CAMERA also heavily criticized two different reviews Hamdy wrote of a Palestinian film, one in Arabic and one in English, in which she used varying language to refer to the director’s depictions of Palestinian resistance movements.


The ‘Pinkwashing’ Dilemma: Why Can’t The Media Face Up to Palestinian Homophobia?
In the piece, Rabble writer Yara Jamal and the founder of “Free Palestine Halifax,” Katerina Nikas, argue that pinkwashing “paints Palestinians as backward, racist and barbaric in order to justify the oppression and unequal treatment of Palestinians both straight and queer.”

Aside from the segue into a series of unconnected statements intended to demonstrate Israel’s profiting off pinkwashing, such as how the Jerusalem pride parade is supposedly held on land from which Palestinians were displaced, the writers struggle to prove their central hypothesis that gay rights in Israel are a “facade.”

The article continues:
Israel promotes its capital, Tel Aviv, as a gay friendly destination in the Middle East, while at the same time failing to mention that the city is built on top of several villages where Palestinians were expelled from their homes and are banned from entering the capital.

Palestinians queers are also denied asylum in Israel while trying to escape discrimination in their own communities.

In October 2022, a 25-year-old Palestinian gay man, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was killed in the West Bank after unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Israel two years prior to his murder.”

First, Tel Aviv is not the capital of Israel — Jerusalem is and always has been.

Second, the assertion that Tel Aviv was built atop several Palestinian villages (and how this even relates to pinkwashing) is risible. The city was originally founded on April 11, 1909, and was known as Ahuzat Bayit before its name was changed (a picture of the 60 families standing in the desert land that became the neighborhood can be seen here).

Third, it is manifestly untrue that Palestinians are denied asylum in Israel. Last year, the government announced plans to issue temporary work permits to LGBT+ Palestinians who were claiming asylum.

Fourth, the suggestion that Israel is somehow responsible for the death of Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh is a disturbing distortion of what occurred. Murkhiyeh had been living as an asylum seeker in Israel for two years before — for unknown reasons — he traveled to Hebron where he was attacked and beheaded by a Palestinian.

Finally — and most importantly — why do Jamal and Nikas and indeed so many Western journalists have such trouble facing up to the simple truth that homophobic attitudes run rampant in Palestinian society and that this is not Israel’s fault?


On Yom Kippur, New York Times Turns to BDS Advocate as Antisemitism Expert
The Monday, Sept. 25 edition of the Times carried a letter to the editor from Donna Nevel headlined “Challenging Antisemitism,” which argued that “the most meaningful way we can challenge antisemitism is through a genuine, deep commitment to collective liberation for all people.”

“We must also understand what antisemitism is not, challenging false allegations of antisemitism toward those supporting justice and freedom for Palestinians,” the letter says. “Our commitment to challenging antisemitism, anti-Black racism, anti-Palestinian racism, transphobia, Islamophobia, and all forms of injustice are inextricably linked.”

Nevel is identified only as “co-director of PARCEO, an education and research center that recently created a ‘Curriculum on Antisemitism From a Framework of Collective Liberation.'”

Who is this Donna Nevel, the voice the Times chooses to give a platform on the topic of antisemitism on Yom Kippur? She is a longtime advocate of boycotting Israel. In 2012, Nevel wrote an article for Jewish Currents headlined “Why the BDS Movement Is Effective and Right” in which she argues that “BDS is a necessary and ethical response to an illegal and brutal occupation.” In 2021, she published a piece endorsing the BDS movement and its “right of return” to Israel for Palestinians, likening the BDS movement to the Montgomery bus boycott during the US Civil rights movement.

The curriculum created by PARCEO includes a “Palestinian Nakba curriculum” that describes Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe” and an example of “settler colonialism.”

As I’ve noted before, this sort of thing doesn’t show up in the New York Times opinion pages by accident. At least two high-ranking Times opinion editors — editorial director Allison Benedikt and Sunday opinion editor Max Strasser — are vocal longtime public critics of Zionism and Israel.

The Times’ opinion pages have become a “cesspool,” as an Israeli ambassador to America put it, of such content. Recently, articles have been published attacking Zionism at Jewish sleepaway camp (in a piece by another writer with a paper trail of anti-Israel activism), defending a congresswoman who called Israel a racist state, and asserting that the Hebrew language “symbolizes far-right Israeli militarism.”
How did BBC News report a counter-terrorism operation?
Listeners to BBC World Service news bulletins early on the morning of September 24th (from 02:33 here and from 03:00 here) heard the following account of those events from newsreader Gareth Barlow:
“Israeli forces have raided a refugee camp in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. Reports say two Palestinians were killed. Eyewitnesses said about 40 Israeli military vehicles surrounded the Nur Shams camp which was covered by snipers on rooftops. An armoured bulldozer was used to dismantle barriers. Armed Palestinian groups said they responded with small arms and homemade bombs.”

As we see, that report completely failed to inform BBC audiences worldwide of the command & control centre and the explosives stash that were the reason for the operation and no mention was made of the tens of ready-to-use explosive devices that were found there and neutralised. The claim that a bulldozer was used “to dismantle barriers” misled audiences: the bulldozer was actually neutralising IEDs planted along the road. The BBC made no mention of the fact that the terrorist organisation Hamas had claimed one of the people killed as one of its operatives.

In short, the BBC’s report came nowhere near to providing its audiences worldwide with an accurate and impartial – or even informative – account of this story.
Guardian article includes three errors in one sentence
A recent Guardian article reported on anti-Netanyahu protests outside the UN in New York City last week, which was described as “the largest anti-government action held outside Israel” since protests began early this year. The piece was written by their US editor Noa Yachot, who was previously the managing editor of the fringe +972 Magazine, a publication known primarily for demonising and delegitimising Israel.

By the fourth paragraph of the article (“Thousands in New York City protest Israel’s judicial overhaul as Netanyahu addresses UN”, Sept. 22), Yachot pivoted the narrative to centre the story around Palestinians:
As in Israel itself, conspicuously missing from Friday’s crowd was a Palestinian presence, even though Palestinians make up roughly half the population under the state’s control and are uniquely vulnerable to the ultra-nationalist agenda of a government dominated by extremist settlers.

Many Palestinians view the protests as a campaign for democracy for Jews alone, seeking a return to a status quo that took hold long before the current government.

Let’s unpack the sentence we highlighted – beginning with error number one:
Yachot grossly misleads when she writes that “As in Israel itself, conspicuously missing from Friday’s crowd was a Palestinian presence“. Assuming that by “Palestinians” she’s referring to Arab citizens of Israel, polls published by the Israel Democracy Institute actually show that 11% of all Arab citizens have attended at least one anti-overhaul protest.

While that’s less than than the percentage of Jewish citizens who’ve attended, that’s still, by any measure, an impressive number. Putting it in perspective, if 11% of all Americans engaged in anti-government protests, that would mean (given the US population) that over 37 million people participated.

The second error is in the part of the sentence highlighted claiming that “Palestinians make up roughly half the population under the state’s control”.

First, to get to this erroneous breakdown, Yachot lumps together Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (who number, at most, roughly 5 million) with Arab citizens of Israel (who number around 2 million). As Arabs in Israel are full citizens, they’re naturally under “the control” of Israel, as are Jews and others in the state.

The third error in the “half of the population under the state’s control” claim is that it suggests that Gazans are under the control of Israel when, of course, they are under the control of Hamas. The only Palestinian population which can arguably be claimed is under Israeli control are West Bank Palestinians. (Though, most of that population are governed by the Palestinian Authority.)
Haaretz, Hebrew for Inferior Coverage?
Even as international media outlets answered the call to improve coverage of Palestinian fatalities by noting that those killed by Israeli fire in Jenin last week were confirmed combatants, Israeli daily Haaretz failed to update its English and Hebrew-language reports with this highly relevant information.

Thus, on Sept. 20, CAMERA’s Israel office reached out to editors at Agence France Presse regarding incomplete photo captions that day from a Palestinian funeral which failed to mention that the three pictured fatalities were confirmed members of terror organizations. The inadequate captions had originally stated:
Mourners carry the bodies of three Palestinians killed in an Israeli raid on the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, in the camp on September 20, 2023. The three Palestinians were killed the previous day, a Palestinian health ministry statement said, adding that “about 30 people were wounded by occupation (Israeli) fire in Jenin”. The Israeli army confirmed troops were operating in Jenin late on September 19 and said a drone struck the camp, without elaborating.

The photographs themselves depicted one body draped in a Hamas flag and a second draped in an Islamic Jihad flag. The third was wearing a headband of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,


Islam Channel fined £40,000 over 'antisemitic' conspiracy theory documentary
A UK-based TV channel for British muslims has been fined £40,000 after airing an "antisemitic" documentary that claimed Israel was trying to take over part of Argentina and Chile.

In February 2021, the Islam Channel broadcast an hour-long film titled The Andinia Plan, which alleged there are plans to create a new Jewish state in Patagonia - a sparsely populated region at the bottom of South America.

The conspiracy theory first appeared in a magazine published by a group of Argentinian neo-Nazis led by the sons of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichman.

Sparked by a suggestion by political activist Theodore Herzl that a future Jewish state could lie in Argentina, it typically involves the belief that there is an international plot to promote Jewish migration to the country, take control of its economy, and eventually seize its land.

While seemingly absurd, the theory has affected Jews who travel to and live in the region.

In 2012, after an Israeli tourist was questioned by Chilean authorities after a forest fire began in an environmental reserve, antisemitic comments were posted online referencing the Andenia Plan.

Writing on X/Twitter, one Chilean congressman questioned whether the man in question was really on holiday, suggesting that he had been sent by the Israeli government after "killing Palestinian children".


Building Bridges of Unity: A Christian’s Call to Stand Against Antisemitism
On June 28, 2022, I found myself standing outside the national headquarters of the Presbyterian USA (PCUSA) national convention, holding a sign that read, “Fight racism, not Jews.” Inside, leaders were deliberating on issues that would shape their denomination’s stance.

One of the positions discussed was recognizing the State of Israel as an apartheid state. It was a surreal moment, as I stood arm-in-arm with fellow Christians and Jewish friends, with colleagues from the Philos Action League, Pathways for Peace, The Combat Antisemitism Movement, and the Anti-Defamation League, amongst others, contemplating the paradox before me.

The Christian worldview that I believe in is based on compassion, faith, and community stand paramount; but here were Christians alienating, attacking, and further marginalizing the Jewish community.

According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, delegitimizing and demonizing Israel constitutes antisemitism. Sadly, the stance of many PCUSA activists isn’t a novel occurrence within my Christian community.

History features numerous examples of different Christian denominations fueling persecution against Jews — be it the Russian Orthodox Church’s late 1800s pogroms, the Catholic Church’s role in the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, or Protestant leaders’ writings against Jews during the Reformation.

Regrettably, this trend endures. Although PCUSA has notably taken such a stance, other denominations like the United Methodist Church and esteemed institutions like the College of Holy Cross and Notre Dame have also often subscribed to divisive, hateful rhetoric. Recently, a petition titled “The Elephant in the Room” gained momentum, echoing these recycled falsehoods and defamations against Israel. Signatories, including professors, pastors, musicians, and educators from across the globe, helped fuel this concerning narrative.
Former Baseball Star Denies Being Antisemitic After Sharing Post About ‘Jewish Question’
Retired Major League Baseball (MLB) player Curt Schilling rejected claims that he is antisemitic after sharing a post on X/Twitter that addressed the “Jewish Question” on the same day that Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

The former Boston Red Sox pitcher re-posted on Monday a tweet by known antisemite Angelo John Gage, who goes by the name Lucas Gage on X, that talks about “Jews in leading roles” in society. In the post, Gage denounces Jews for having “influential positions” in “dominating important sectors of a nation.” He also writes: “How dare this group, that considers themselves separate from all humanity because they’re supposedly chosen by God, believe they have the right to not only dictate to the majority of that nation, but also demand censorship of anyone who resists their dictates?” A previous version of Gage’s post claims Jews were chosen by God “to rule over all humanity.”

Gage begins his post by discussing the “Jewish Question” — a term infamously used by the Nazis, whose “Final Solution” to the “question” was to decimate the Jewish population in the Holocaust during World War II.

Schilling, who hosts the sports analysis video podcast The Curt Schilling Baseball Show, shared Gage’s post without adding a comment. He was soon lambasted by X users for what they described as “Jew hatred” and promoting bigotry.

On Monday night, Schilling took to X once again, this time saying he doesn’t “possess an ounce of antisemitism, never have.” He also admitted that he shared Gage’s remarks “with way way too much apathy” and said he erred in not “elaborating” with any of his own added comments.

“In talking to one of my boys it is clear I shouldn’t have done so, with such a nonchalant attitude,” wrote the former MLB player, whose career included three World Series titles and a World Series MVP. “Opinions like the one posted elicit conversations and in rational adults they elicit deep conversations. I always like those conversations and enjoy getting into them.”
Germany bans far-right group that tried to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideology
The German government on Wednesday banned a far-right, racist group known for its indoctrination of children as police raided dozens of homes of its members and other buildings early in the morning.

A statement from the German interior ministry said it banned the Artgemeinschaft group, an anti-democratic association with around 150 members. All of its sub-organizations, including the Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreise, and Familienwerk e.V., were also banned, the ministry said.

“We are banning a sectarian, deeply racist and antisemitic association,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“This is another hard blow against right-wing extremism and (those) who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day,” she said, adding that the organization had attempted to indoctrinate their children and young people with their anti-democratic ideology.

Under the cover of a pseudo-religious Germanic belief in gods, the Artgemeinschaft spread its Nazi worldview, the ministry said.

“The group’s central goal was the preservation and promotion of one’s own ‘kind,’ which can be equated with the National Socialist term ‘race’,” according to the statement.

In addition to the ideology of racial doctrine, the symbolism, narratives and activities of the group showed further parallels to the Nazis’ ideology. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser attends the cabinet meeting of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, September 27, 2023. (Markus Schreiber/AP)

The group gave its members instructions on how to choose a “proper spouse” within the Northern and Central European “humankind” in order to pass on the “correct” genetic makeup according to the association’s racist ideology. People of other origins were degraded, the ministry said in its statement.

In early morning raids across 12 states, police searched 26 apartments of 39 group members as well as the organization’s clubhouses.
Neo-Nazi Summer Camps Offer Combat Training to Kids
Neo-Nazi groups across Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand organized summer camps this year to indoctrinate children in their racist ideology and train them to use firearms, according to a new investigation from a watchdog group.

The summer camps helped "attract recruits and disseminate neo-Nazi ideology," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which tracks hate groups online. The camps were promoted across social media sites like Telegram and Gab and advertised "a wide range of activities, including ideological indoctrination, workshops on activism, sessions on combat skills, and physical training."

The camps are providing "a crucial role as recruitment hubs" for radical groups as they expand across Europe and other continents. Neo-Nazi organizations have seen a resurgence in recent years as extremist political ideologies permeate across the globe, particularly in Europe, which has seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism.

"The ideology propagated at these camps varies," according to MEMRI. "It is predominately neo-Nazism, white supremacy, and ultranationlism. Physical activities included lessons in hand-to-hand combat, knives, and firearms."

Countries hosting these camps include Germany, Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Russia, and Italy, among many others.
Uber-backed delivery robots to deploy Israeli startup’s remote human operator tech
Ottopia, an Israeli maker of remote assistive tech for autonomous, driverless vehicles, has landed a commercial agreement to help Uber-backed Serve Robotics with the deployment of its sidewalk delivery robots.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Amit Rosenzweig, Ottopia has developed a remote assistance platform that uses teleoperation software for human operators to monitor fleets of autonomous vehicles and provide guidance when they run into complex and unpredictable safety situations, including road construction or obstacles on the road.

The deployment of human operators can solve any challenge, including safety and cybersecurity, by responding to questions from the car’s brain, according to the startup. Safety and other challenges are some of the issues that have held up the mass adoption of autonomous vehicles.

Teleoperation is the technology behind operating an autonomous machine or robot from a distance via a wireless connection. The software can be installed on robotaxis, roboshuttles, autonomous trucks and machines, and last-mile delivery robots.

As part of the commercial agreement, Serve will be paying Ottopia an undisclosed sum for using its “teleoperation software which enables them to remotely assist and control their robot fleet from multiple control centers around the world,” Rosenzweig told The Times of Israel in emailed comments.

Serve was founded in 2017 as the robotics unit of Postmates, which the US ride-hailing firm Uber snapped up in 2020 before it was spun out as an independent company in February 2021. The deal with Ottopia comes as the San Francisco-headquartered maker of autonomous sidewalk delivery robots has an agreement to deploy up to 2,000 of the little AI-powered bots via the Uber Eats platform for food delivery across the US. For now, the Nvidia-backed startup has a fleet of about 100 delivery robots operating in Los Angeles.
Israeli researchers unmask how cancer camouflages itself
In the ever-evolving battle against cancer, Israeli researchers have uncovered a previously unknown strategy employed by cancer cells to evade detection by the immune system. The findings may open the door for doctors to increase the effectiveness of current cancer treatments.

The research, led by professor Yifat Merbl of the Weizmann Institute of Science, sheds light on the intricate world of cellular waste processing and its role in cancer’s ability to fly under the radar of our immune defenses. The team’s findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed Nature Cancer journal.

At the heart of this discovery lies the proteasome, the cellular machinery responsible for breaking down damaged or worn-out proteins into shorter protein chains known as peptides. These peptides play a critical role in shaping the cellular profile presented to the immune system. When these profiles appear suspicious, the immune system takes action to eliminate the potentially harmful cell.

Cancer, however, throws a wrench into this finely tuned system.

Regulatory processes in cancer cells become disrupted, increasing the chances of abnormal proteins being produced and presented as antigens on the cell’s surface. Despite their suspicious antigen profiles, the cancer cells manage to avoid immune detection.

Merbl’s team examined proteasome degradation activity in patient-derived tumor cells. Their work culminated in the creation of the first-ever map of proteasome degradation activity in these cells.

The research involved comparing peptides derived from cancer cells with those from adjacent noncancerous tissue. The researchers observed differences not only in the subset of degraded proteins but also in the processing and cutting of these peptides.

“We looked at the cancerous tissue and wondered—what is different about the structure of its proteasomes?” said Merbl.
The inspiring story of Israel’s 65 years of aid to Africa
On a visit to western Africa in 1958, Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir saw the moral and political potential in helping Africans through severe developmental challenges in food security, water safety, sanitation, healthcare, education, economics, community building and gender equality.

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion agreed. And so, a tiny new country with way more chutzpah than resources established MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation within the Foreign Ministry.

“Golda and Ben-Gurion thought that Israel, as a struggling 10-year-old country, could already contribute skills and knowhow to young African nations that were coming into being in the 1950s and 1960s,” says MASHAV Director Eynat Shlein.

“There are plenty of development agencies around the world, but I don’t know of another country that started a development agency when it was still developing.”

MASHAV has two intertwined goals: activating the Jewish value of tikkun olam (bettering the world) and creating political goodwill.

Economics never figured into this equation, says Shlein.

“MASHAV is there to provide economic growth and income to the developing countries, not to Israel,” she tells ISRAEL21c.

“We’re happy to share our inventions, techniques, best practices and innovations for countries to make better use of their own resources. If we get economic gains out of it, I’m not against that — but that’s not why we do it,” she emphasizes.

Still, the door that MASHAV opened has allowed many Israel companies to do well by doing good.

Recent examples: Irrigation giant Netafim unveiled a ready-to-farm “coworking space” for smallholder farmers in Rwanda, equipped with sustainable water and energy networks; Gigawatt Global is investing $100 million in a hybrid solar and wind power project in Zambia; and Pears Challenge – a venture-builder empowering Israel-based entrepreneurs to build impactful startups to address global challenges – opened registration for its sixth cycle, focusing on developing technological solutions to improve accessibility of financial services in East Africa.

Agriculture, health, education
Today, MASHAV is involved in all 43 African countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations, and sends emergency aid to others. It also has development projects in about 100 countries outside of Africa.
The Israeli groups improving and saving lives in Africa
Africa faces challenges including income inequality, food insecurity and inadequate infrastructure. In addition, the continent is experiencing climate-change effects such as higher temperatures, droughts, shifting rainfall patterns and weather instability, making the reduction of carbon emissions an urgent goal.

“Africa stands to benefit significantly from Israel’s expertise in scientific and technological innovations,” says Dana Manor, deputy director at SID Israel (Society for International Development), an umbrella organization encompassing about 170 Israeli entities working in international development and humanitarian aid.

“By sharing knowledge and solutions, we can equip African countries with the tools they need to tackle environmental, water, health and agricultural challenges head-on.”

Manor points out that Israeli NGOs have emerged as significant players in addressing nearly all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, aligning their efforts with the global agenda to achieve a more sustainable and equitable future.

SID-Israel provided examples below, categorized by SDG.

No Poverty; Zero Hunger
Agricultural initiatives implemented by CultivAid – Knowledge Based Development, Fair Planet, Africa 2030, JDC and Engineers Without Borders – Israel empower local farmers and provide food security and economic opportunities.

Activities such as EwB-IL’s latest project in Kenya to produce superfood supplements spirulina and duckweed; Africa 2030’s local spirulina farm and nutrition center for malnourished children in Democratic Republic of the Congo; and CultivAid opening the first Israel-Kenya Don Bosco Agricultural Innovation and Technology Center in partnership with American NGO Water 4 Mercy, contribute to breaking the cycle of malnutrition and poverty among smallholder farmers.
Einstein's secret plan to rescue academic targeted by Nazis revealed in new letter
Albert Einstein attempted to rescue a prominent academic from Nazi Germany, a letter written by the famed Jewish scientist has revealed.

In the letter from October 1933, Einstein appealed to Scottish philosopher, translator and war veteran Sir William David Ross to bring Professor Julius Stenzel, a German philosopher, to the UK.

Professor Stenzel, who initially worked at the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, was a member of a disciplinary committee that had expelled some Nazi students from the university in 1930.

However, Stenzel was denounced by a student and given a temporary leave of absence. He lost his job under the Professional Civil Service Act - a law the Nazis brought in to remove Jews from public service and transferred to the University of Halle.

During the Nazis' time in power, many scholars were transferred to Halle as punishment for political reasons.

At the time of the letter, Einstein was in Norfolk after fleeing Germany when Hitler came to power.

Einstein urged Ross to help him bring Stenzel to the UK as a guest lecturer.

Concerned for the well-being of Stenzel, he wrote: “Professor Zangger at the University of Zurich asked me to make you aware of Professor Stenzel in Kiel, who lost his position.

“He researches the history of science in ancient Greece.

“The question is if there is a possibility to invite this gentleman to England or America as a guest lecturer.”

Despite the plea, Stenzel never made it to the UK and died in 1935 in Halle. His Jewish wife emigrated to the USA in 1939 and lived in California with their son Joachim.

The letter is set to go under the hammer as part of a collection of letters sent to Ross by prominent figures including Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Charles De Gaulle.

Einstein’s letter, written in German, is expected to sell for £6,000 at auction.
Inside the new home of the Codex Sassoon - the world's oldest Hebrew bible
When it opened in 2021 it was hard to know which audience Tel Aviv University’s Anu museum was aimed at. Anu means “we” and the museum, which replaced its 1978 predecessor, the Beit Hatfutsot Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, had undergone a $100 million revamp. After a decade of planning, it relaunched itself as “the Museum of the Jewish People”.

Spread across 7,000 square meters, it is everything its predecessor was not: it’s full of digital and audio-visual displays and exhibits, but lacks the usual range of historical artefacts one might expect from a more traditional museum. The objects it does display are judiciously and carefully curated, and are combined with a vast array of modern museum techniques, the type of which could easily have seemed kitsch and gimmicky but are here put to extraordinary effect to enhance and expand one’s experience.

Where museums once prided themselves on their collections, Anu instead seems prouder of its coherent design, which it uses to represent a broad vision of Judaism past and present. At times, it looks like it is clearly trying to explain Judaism to people who don’t know much about it — no easy task. It ambitiously tries to cover just about everything throughout all periods of Jewish existence. Its vision is unashamedly pluralistic and inclusive, and gives even the most dedicated Jew of one denomination or another plenty to explore in areas he or she might not often be inclined to think about.

Yet being based in Israel, it must also attract a sizeable Jewish audience, who no doubt know at least something about Judaism. To them, it reveals nuggets of information and knowledge they might not have known, despite their own engagement with Jewish life. Even when the information is familiar, Anu offers it up in such a clean and tidy way that it helps contextualise and crystalise it in the much wider, rich tapestry that is historic and contemporary Judaism.

One artefact the museum is proud to be adding to its collection is the Codex Sassoon, the oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible, which was auctioned at Sotheby’s for $38.1million earlier this year, when it was acquired by the American Friends of Anu thanks to an extraordinary donation from Ambassador Alfred H. Moses, of Washington DC, and the Moses family.

The book dates back to around 900CE and consists of 24 books presented in 792 pages made from several hundred sheepskins. It will become part of the core exhibition and permanent collection of Anu, going on display this coming October.




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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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