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Friday, February 09, 2024

02/09 Links Pt2: UNRWA's "Nobel Prize for Genocide"; Anti-Zionism is not ‘worthy of respect’; Biden gives Israel 45 days to submit report on international law violations

From Ian:

UNRWA's "Nobel Prize for Genocide"
Norwegian Labour MP Asmund Aukrust recently nominated the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to receive a Nobel prize. The UNRWA nomination comes as the world bears witness to incontrovertible evidence of UNRWA employees' direct role in the Hamas mass terror invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer testified before Congress on Jan. 30, 2024, documenting UNRWA employees' incitement of the murder of Jews and glorification of the Hamas massacre. "In November 2023, we sent a report to the UN on 20 teachers who celebrated the October massacre. In March, together with the organization Impact-se, we identified 133 UNRWA teachers who promoted hate and violence on social media....The core problem with UNRWA is that the very purpose of the agency is to perpetuate the war of 1948, and to send the message to Palestinians that the war of 1948 isn't over."

UNRWA isn't the only worthy nominee for the "Nobel Prize for Genocide." The South African government is another leading candidate for its abominable and unforgivable referral of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges of genocide.

Just months before South Africa's ICJ petition was submitted, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. Almost magically, following South Africa's minister of international relations, Dr. Naledi Pandor's, Oct. 23, 2023, visit to Tehran, it was reported that the ANC's finances had "stabilized." Pandor's visit was almost immediately followed by South Africa's full-throated accusation of genocide against Israel. Soon after, the South African Parliament voted in favor of severing diplomatic ties.
Our own worst enemies
It’s bad enough that we have real enemies who are attacking Israel; the last thing we need is “friends” who, perhaps with the best of intentions, are undermining Israel’s case in the United States. One example is an organization I have never heard of, the A-Mark Foundation, which erroneously believes “clear, concise and unbiased information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is difficult to find.” Maybe, if you don’t bother to look. My publication, Myths and Facts, has only been around for 60-odd years (originally published by the founder of AIPAC), and the legacy Jewish organizations have produced plenty of material. My first impulse was to think, “Let a thousand flowers bloom,” but then I saw that the material is based on the work of UCLA professor Dov Waxman, a frequent critic of mainstream American Jewry and one of the signers of an anti-Israel screed published before Oct. 7 (another was Harvard University professor Derek Penslar, who Harvard naturally put on its antisemitism task force).

If the material A-Mark published, based on Waxman’s book, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know, is any indication of his scholarship, students at UCLA are in trouble, as are any readers of the A-Mark answers to the “10 Common Questions About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Waxman exemplifies the worst of woke academia, where facts don’t matter as much as narratives, and their truthfulness or speciousness is irrelevant because everyone’s narrative is their truth. He says both sides dismiss the others’ narratives as myths. He doesn’t acknowledge that facts can be distinguished from myths. It’s a flypaper version of history where there are two sides, and it doesn’t matter which side the fly lands on.

The first paragraph in the “unbiased” answer to question one on what the conflict is about is misleading and inaccurate, reducing it to the two peoples fighting over one piece of land cliché. The religious dimension of the conflict is ignored completely; that is, the Islamic rejection of a Jewish presence on “Muslim land” from the days of the Mufti to Hamas today.

He dates Palestinian nationalism to the mid-19th century, which is untrue. People at that time identified themselves by clans and religion. In the 1920s, the Palestinians began to talk about wanting to be part of Greater Syria, not an independent state. The Jews wanted to return to their homeland and were willing to share it. Unhappily, they accepted the reduction of the size of the Jewish homeland.

Starting in 1937—and as recently as 2008—the Palestinians were offered opportunities for statehood nine times and rejected every one. The Palestinians’ disinterest in independence during the 19-year Jordanian/Egyptian occupation is not mentioned.

It is simply taken for granted that the Palestinians should get a state just because they want one. The Kurds and Basques have a greater claim to independence. Why are only Palestinians entitled to one?
Anti-Zionism is not ‘worthy of respect’
But there is something about the language of the ruling that I find unsettling. After all, strictly speaking, it is not based on upholding Miller’s right to free speech. It’s based on Judge Rohan Pirani’s unprecedented claim that anti-Zionist views, including Miller’s obsessive hatred for Israel, are ‘worthy of respect in a democratic society’ and therefore protected under the Equality Act.

This aspect of the Equality Act has been at the centre of various free-speech battles of late. It has enabled many gender-critical feminists – most famously, Maya Forstater – to assert their right to criticise trans ideology and its impact on women’s rights. The trouble is, this aspect of the law is not about upholding free speech for all, it is about deciding which views are and aren’t permitted. It is about which views fit within the Overton window. Unlike the US First Amendment, which takes a content-neutral approach to protecting speech, the UK’s Equality Act effectively allows the state to decide what is and isn’t ‘worthy of respect in a democratic society’.

That the courts have judged anti-Zionism to be ‘respectable’, then, is disturbing. After all, anti-Zionism doesn’t just express an opposition to an ideology – like ‘anti-Communism’ does – it also expresses hatred for a nation. Namely, Israel. The tribunal has effectively dressed up a bigoted hatred of Israel as a considered philosophical position, as a perfectly normal belief.

It is unlikely that the court would have come to this view before the 7 October pogrom. Yet, in the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war, not only have anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic sentiments become increasingly prevalent, they have also been normalised and legitimised.

This was something Miller’s lawyer, Zillur Rahman, clearly recognised. After the verdict was delivered, he said that when Miller ‘expressed his beliefs about Zionism, which led to him being dismissed, they weren’t that widely known’. But since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, people have ‘woken’ up to the supposed fact ‘that Zionism is inherently racist and must be opposed’.

Here we can see how Miller’s victory has provided a platform for anti-Israeli propaganda. Miller has every right to spout his conspiratorial nonsense. But we shouldn’t be expected to treat it as a respectable philosophical position. We must challenge and protest against this bigotry before it becomes fully institutionalised.


JPost Editorial: The son of Hamas knows best
Wednesday’s announcement that Museb Hassan Yousef, known as The Green Prince, is joining Israel’s National Public Diplomacy campaign is a welcome development. It’s a fine example of diplomatic creativity, innovation, and thinking outside the box – something we’ve all yearned for.

“This week, Israel’s public diplomacy efforts received a significant boost: The Green Prince, Museb Hassan Yousef, arrived for an interview with the prime minister’s Arabic Media spokesperson, Ofir Gendelman, and toured the areas of the October 7 massacre in the Western Negev,” the Government Press Office said in a statement.

“The Green Prince, together with IDF Arabic Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Avichay Adraee, also toured the Western Negev and visited the kibbutzim that were attacked during the October 7 massacre, as well as the area of the party at Re’im.”

The GPO published a link to the interview, which is being broadcast and promoted globally – especially to the Arab world – on digital platforms.

In the interview, conducted in the National Public Diplomacy studio, Yousef talks about his childhood in Ramallah, as the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and his studies at a UNRWA high school, where he was educated to hate.

• Referring to Hamas’s exploitation of UNRWA institutions to sow hate, he said, “In the mosques, the schools, the streets, and at home, everywhere you go, there is hatred of Israel and of the Jewish people.”

• Referring to the Hamas Covenant, which calls for the killing of Jews, he said, “The people that wrote the Hamas Covenant are a bunch of lunatics.”

• Referring to what is happening in the Arab world today, he said, “The Arab world needs to pay attention to the dangers within; Hamas does not care about people. In effect, they are sacrificing the lives of children and non-combatants to achieve cheap political goals.”

• In conclusion, he said, “The concept of jihad must be stopped, and it must be stopped now.”
Biden gives Israel 45 days to submit report on international law violations or lose military aid
President Joe Biden issued a memorandum on Thursday night asking countries receiving US military funding to prove they’re following international humanitarian and human rights laws.

The timing of the memorandum coincides with President Biden’s unscheduled press conference where he took reporters' questions on the Israel-Hamas war, saying Israel’s response is “over the top.”

For weeks now, reporters have pressed both the White House and State Department on their ability to assess if Israel is following international law as there have been no formal assessment procedures in place.

Administration officials have repeated that one innocent life killed is too many, but have stopped short of implying that Israel is in violation of international law.

Members of Congress raised concern over Israel’s human rights violations, The Post previously reported.

Led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), several progressive Democratic members issued a letter to Biden and the Government Accountability Office requesting an assessment of the State Department’s compliance with Leahy Laws and Conventional Arms Transfer policies regarding security assistance to the Israeli government

“We write today regarding your administration’s ongoing weapons transfers to the Israeli government despite considerable evidence that these transfers are flagrantly violating American and international law and being used in the commission of war crimes,” the letter to Biden said.
White House Takes Heat for Courting Pro-Hamas Activist
The White House is under fire from Jewish groups for meeting with an Arab-American activist who has praised Hamas and other terrorist groups, and who claimed American lawmakers have been "bought" by the "Zionist lobby."

White House officials met in Dearborn, Mich., on Thursday with Arab-American News publisher Osama Siblani in a bid to mollify Muslim and Arab voters upset with the administration’s handling of the Gaza war. Jewish leaders slammed the White House for giving a platform to Siblani, who has a long record of pro-terrorist and anti-Israel rhetoric.

"We are deeply disturbed at the inclusion of Osama Siblani in a meeting with top Biden administration officials," Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, told Jewish Insider.

"Siblani is simply the wrong choice to serve as an interlocutor with the administration as they hear from the local Muslim community."

Siblani has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as "freedom fighters," and cheered Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists after they declared war on Israel in October. In 2022, he urged Arabs to use "stones" or "guns" to fight Israel. In 2006, Siblani said then-President George W. Bush and Congress were "being bought by the Zionist lobby."

Asher Lopatin, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said White House officials should not have met with Siblani given his "long record of open support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups and his demonization of Israel."

"We would urge extreme caution in providing legitimacy or validation to such a divisive figure," Lopatin told Jewish Insider.
The beginner's guide to talking to Western anti-Zionists
Anti-Zionism has existed since Zionism began to exist. The two go hand-in-hand, but they are not opposite sides of the same coin as many would have you believe.

The concept is simple: Zionism claims that the Jewish people have a right to live in the State of Israel in the Land of Israel. Anti-Zionism – that being pushed forward in the West – despite claiming to be the opposite of Zionism, is not merely opposed to a Jewish state due to the categoric fact of it being a Jewish state, rather it claims to be opposed to the existence of the State of Israel out of concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people.

That is where the disconnect between the two camps lies: Zionists see anti-Zionists as being proponents of an anti-Jewish state approach – and therefore, opposed to Jews themselves – while anti-Zionists see their cause as a humanitarian one. The two are not speaking the same language, so to speak.

This, of course, relates to the vast majority of those belonging to the anti-Zionist camp. There are plenty of extremists who simply use the cause as an excuse to express their antisemitism loudly in the streets.

Meanwhile, there are those who are naive enough to believe that their cause is a noble one looking out for the underdog. They do not see how they are slowly but surely being lured into a self-righteous attitude claiming mutual exclusivity between Zionism and being pro-Palestine.

And while some are completely intolerant, I like to be positive and believe there’s some room for conversation when it comes to the right of Israel to exist. So, with that, I’ve racked up some methods to convince anti-Zionists, at the very least, that we are not evil, genocidal occupiers.
The hate we refuse to name
UK politicians are facing increased levels of abuse, death threats and online harassment. So claims a new report from the Jo Cox Foundation, the charity named after the Labour MP who was murdered by a far-right extremist in 2016. The foundation has called for a ‘new tone for political life in the UK’.

The report, entitled No Place in Politics: Tackling Abuse and Intimidation, features contributions from local councillors and MPs describing their experiences of abuse in recent years. Some of the evidence presented is genuinely worrying. Over 40 per cent of Welsh MPs and Senedd members have received death threats, and quite a few parish councillors report having received rats posted through their letterboxes.

Many more of the anecdotes here are dubious. One local councillor claims to have feared for her life after an angry crowd shouted at her over a ‘controversial planning application’. This altercation between a politician and members of the public might have been lacking in civility, but is it really helpful to include it in a report about abuse and intimidation? There’s a real risk here of treating displays of public anger over controversial political decisions as essentially criminal.

But there is a much bigger problem with this report. It fails to even mention some of the most prevalent sources of hostility in politics today.

Take Islamist extremism. The report does contain one reference to the murder of Sir David Amess in 2021, who was killed at his constituency surgery. It says this ‘highlighted the risks that MPs face’, particularly when meeting constituents face-to-face. Yet it fails to mention the very specific threat that Amess faced. He wasn’t the victim of just anyone. He was stabbed to death by Ali Harbi Ali, a man who described himself as a ‘soldier of Islamic State’. He said he wanted to ‘punish a British lawmaker for the UK’s actions in Syria’.
The Top 5 Revolutions with Douglas Murray | Will Cain Show

This Muslim, Arab-Israeli Woman Is the Future of the Middle East
Lucy Aharish is one of the most prominent television broadcasters in Israel—and the very first Arab Muslim news presenter on mainstream Hebrew-language Israeli television.

Born and raised in a small Jewish town in Israel’s Negev desert, as one of the only Arab Muslim families, she has a unique lens through which to view the divisions in Israeli society, the complexity of the country’s national identity, and the Middle East more generally.

Lucy has long been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is equally critical of her fellow Arab Israelis, particularly of Arab violence and the Arab leadership that she says condones it.

A Muslim and a Zionist; an Arab and an Israeli. In short, Lucy Aharaish is an iconoclast.

Bari Weiss sat down with Lucy in Tel Aviv. They talked about the October 7 massacre and its impact on the country and her family–her husband put on his uniform and headed to the south within hours of hearing the news, despite being past the age of an active reservist. She also talked about the challenges she faced growing up as the only Arab Muslim kid in a traditional Jewish village, the terrorist attack that she survived in Gaza as a child, and the hope that she has for her Muslim-Jewish son and the future of the country she calls home.


Ohana cancels meeting with UN Secretary General after criticisms of Israel
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana cancelled his meeting Friday with the UN Secretary General following his morning of meetings with Interparliamentary Union members from Uruguay, Belgium, Tanzania, and Germany.

"The cancellation of the meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres did not come in a vacuum," Ohana said on X.

"I intended to try and convince, as well as hand him a book we prepared in the Knesset, documenting the 7.10 with still images," the post said. "But yesterday he again called on the State of Israel to stop fighting, criticizing it 'even if Hamas uses human shields'. There are also lost cases and red lines. I will not white wash Guterres." If Guterres controlled Israel

Earlier Friday, Guterres was asked by members of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum who were protesting outside his private residence what he would do if he were prime minister of Israel.

According to a release from the Forum, Guterres said if he were prime minister of Israel he would place the release of the hostages as his highest priority. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana speaks at the United Nations in new York. February 9, 2024 (Communications of the Knesset Speaker))

He also said that though he was optimistic after meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, with whom Guterres has a close relationship, he felt the responses received from both Hamas leaders and from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were not constructive.

According to the release, a spokesperson for Guterres said the notification of the cancellation was received through the media and that the Secretary General's door is always open to any delegation.
US won't restart UNRWA aid until investigation completed -officials
The Biden administration plans to wait for an internal investigation of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees to conclude before resuming aid to the organization, US officials told Arab-American community leaders in Michigan.

US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power and other senior US officials visited the 2024 election battleground state of Michigan on Thursday amid widespread criticism there of President Joe Biden's policy on Israel, his failure to call for a ceasefire on attacks onGaza and continued military aid.

During the meeting, the officials said the US remained committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, but would wait for the investigation into UNWRA to be complete, said Ali Dagher, a Lebanese-American attorney who took part in one of four discussions with US officials in Dearborn, a majority Arab-American city near Detroit.

Abbas Alawieh, a former senior congressional staffer who also participated in one of the discussions, told Reuters that Power spoke at length about UNWRA but indicated Biden was not planning to reverse his decision to halt aid to the agency.

Suspension of UNRWA aid
Sixteen countries suspended their funding to UNRWA after Israel accused 12 of UNRWA's employees in the Gaza Strip of taking part in the Hamas-led assault on Israel last autumn. The organization UN Watch has also proved UNRWA workers had used their position to espouse antisemitic and pro-terrorism ideologies.

UNRWA officials say they expect the UN oversight office's preliminary investigation report to take several weeks.

Alawieh, in a separate meeting with reporters, said US officials conceded "mistakes and missteps" had been made in the situation overall, but focused on the administration's messaging and declined to make any commitment to push the president - even privately - to call for a ceasefire.

"They did tell us in that meeting that they ... expect that the president will be shifting his language," Alawieh said. "But we're not looking for language shifts. ... We're looking for action from President Biden that saves lives."
SPECIAL REPORT: How a UN agency became implicated in acts of evil
A leading human rights raised concerns funding could soon be restored to a disgraced UN agency implicated in acts of evil, Gabriella Power reports.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to permanently axe funding to UNRWA amid allegations a dozen staff were involved in attacks in Israel last year.

Both Mr Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong have spoken in support of the work UNRWA does, raising concerns among experts that funding will be restored before system change or accountability occurs at the UN agency.

Dozens of other countries have also pulled funding pending an investigation, including Canada, the United States, France, Germany and the UK.

The Albanese Government doubled Australia’s UNRWA contributions to $20 million a year but suspended payments after the UN agency became embroiled in terrorism accusations.


Irish Women’s Basketball Team Refuses to Shake Hands with Israelis Before Losing by 32 Points in Qualifying Match
Israel’s women’s basketball team secured a resounding 87-55 victory over Ireland at their Thursday afternoon EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in the Latvian capital Riga amid palpable tensions between the two sides off the court.

Most notably, the Irish team refused to shake hands with the Israelis before the contest began.

Ireland has been one of the least sympathetic of the EU’s member states towards Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom and Israel’s military response, with the government demanding a ceasefire and public opinion firmly on the side of the Palestinians.

Widespread calls within Ireland for a boycott of the game with Israel were held off by Basketball Ireland CEO John Feehan, who warned in an interview with national broadcaster RTE on Wednesday that the sport would lose a “generation of players” if the fixture failed to go ahead.

According to Feehan, Basketball Ireland was told by governing body Fiba Europe that they would be fined 80,000 euros ($86,000) if they did not play on Thursday and a further 100,000 euros ($107,000) fine if they did not fulfill the return game in November. Ireland would also face expulsion from the Fiba Women’s EuroBasket 2025 competition.

“I’m pretty sure we’d be hit pretty hard because we did actually ask was there an alternative to playing this game and all the rest of it, and from that perspective there isn’t,” Feehan said. He added that “the really big issue for us is we’d be effectively getting rid of a generation of players. We’d be out of international competition for the next five years effectively.”
'Disgrace': Ireland’s female basketball team refuses to shake Israeli opponent's hands
Ireland's female basketball team “disgraced” themselves by refusing to shake the hands of their Israeli opponents, Sky News host Rita Panahi says.

“They also refused to line up at centre court for the national anthems,” Ms Panahi said.

“Before the game Israeli player Dor Saar had said the Irish team is quite anti-Semitic.

“And gosh they did seem determined to prove her right.

“So far Basketball Ireland is standing behind their players.”




Hamas a future partner for peace, says Northern Ireland’s First Minister
Hamas will eventually be regarded as a partner for peace in the Middle East, Michelle O’Neill, the new First Minister of Northern Ireland, has said.

In an interview with Andrew Marr on LBC radio, Ms O’Neill, the Sinn Fein vice president, said the example of the Northern Ireland peace process proved how important dialogue was in ending conflict.

She called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and declared Gaza a “graveyard for children”, saying: “Let it not be the graveyard for international law”.

Mr Marr asked Ms O’Neill: “A long time ago, the IRA was seen as a terrorist organisation that the British government and everybody else could not ever talk to, and yet we know what followed from that.

“Do you think that Hamas, although regarded as a terrorist organisation by many people around the world, are going to be eventually a partner for peace, have to be a partner for peace?”

She said: “Yes – I think you only have to look to our own example to know that how important dialogue is, and it is the only way you’re going to ever bring an end to conflict.

“If the British government didn’t talk to republicans or republicans didn’t talk to the British government in the past, in Ireland we would not be in the scenario that we are in today, enjoying a peaceful and far more equal society.

“So, what we need to see in the Middle East, in particular in relation to Palestine, is that we need to see a ceasefire now. And we need the international community to be singing in chorus and harmony in terms of ceasefire now.”

Sinn Fein has historically been supportive of Palestinians, drawing parallels to their struggle with a larger, occupying power and the struggle for independence.

Gerry Adams, the party’s former leader, met Hamas officials in 2009 in spite of Israeli demands.

After the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed 1,139 people, some Sinn Fein representatives in the Republic of Ireland were criticised for expressing solidarity for Palestinians without condemning the group.


Israel is weaponizing archaeology 'to propagate Israeli myth,' Turkish site claims
In a controversial op-ed featured on TRT World, a Turkish news site, authors Burak Elmali and Elif Cook level serious accusations against Israel, alleging that the nation has "weaponized archaeology" to "deny the existence of Palestine and Palestinians," essentially charging Israel with "twisting historical findings" to bolster the Zionist narrative of "a land without a people for a people without a land." This exaggerated claim puts a spotlight on the contentious intersection of archaeology and politics in one of the world's most disputed territories.

lmali serves as a researcher at the TRT World Research Centre in Istanbul. His expertise is in Turkish foreign policy and major power politics.

Cook, on the other hand, works as a Social Awareness and Corporate Partnership Project specialist at TRT World Citizen and is also pursuing her PhD at Istanbul University in Museum Management.

The TRT World article posits that Israel's leaders have engaged in a systematic effort to erase and rewrite history, employing archaeology as a "key tactic serving Israel's occupation agenda." This narrative suggests a deliberate manipulation of the past, where archaeological discoveries are selectively interpreted or highlighted to reinforce the Zionist claim to the land.

However, this portrayal simplifies the complex and multifaceted nature of archaeological research in the region. Israel's archaeological sites and projects, far from being monolithic instruments of state propaganda, are part of a global scientific community dedicated to uncovering the ancient world. These endeavors have unearthed evidence of the myriad cultures and peoples that have called this land home, from ancient Israelites and Canaanites to Byzantine Christians and Muslims.
MEMRI: In Interview With Afghan Taliban's State-Owned Pashtu-Language 'Hewad Daily,' Hamas Spokesman Husam Badran Says Taliban's Defeat Of U.S. Inspired Hamas: 'This Experience [Of Afghanistan] And Other Nations Such As Iraq And Algeria Taught Us To Choose The Path Of Jihad And Not To Be Disappointed On This Path'

Antisemitism today: a conversation with David Hirsh of the University of London

My Colleagues Stayed Silent When Oct. 7 Was Called a ‘Beautiful Day’
Let’s be clear for a moment about the law. Anyone who calls the violence of Oct. 7 “beautiful” is entitled to her opinion. As a lawyer and deep believer in the First Amendment, I would defend the guest speaker’s right to contribute her viewpoint. But the First Amendment also gives us that right and responsibility to push back, because truth only emerges when false and hateful ideas are challenged. At this meeting, the UNC faculty had the chance to say that we disagree that the horrific murder of innocents on Oct. 7 was a beautiful day.

A few people expressed concerns. Faculty present at the meeting asked questions: What does antisemitism mean? How should the Faculty Council define it? What will our students sympathetic to Palestinians in Gaza think? Would passing this resolution chill speech? One faculty member moved to kill the resolution (to postpone it indefinitely, which effectively kills it). Time was eaten up explaining this procedure. No clear instructions told us when nonmembers of the council might speak, and if so, how much time we would be permitted. One professor who wasn’t on the council spoke for so long in opposition to the resolution that the frustrated chair refused to hear from another non–council member who is an Israeli citizen.

With few exceptions, the discussion reflected a stunning lack of empathy for the group actually targeted by the guest speaker’s belief that Oct. 7 was a beautiful day. One professor, alluding to the fact that UNC is under federal investigation for permitting a hostile educational environment for Jews, noted that refusing to condemn the celebration of antisemitic violence would support those hostile-environment claims. As I tried to both listen and organize my thoughts, I lost my chance to speak.

The council voted 32 to 29, with six abstaining, to kill the resolution. I left just after the vote to huddle in the hall with a handful of colleagues, several in tears. I felt horrible—that our Israeli colleague was ignored and not permitted to speak, and that I had not raised my hand aggressively to say that inaction or a vote against the resolution would make an already-tense climate worse.

In discussions condemning racism or gender inequality, I don’t remember any similar instances of measures being tabled to allow time to define these terms. Were such basic points about antisemitism truly new and unclear to my colleagues? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I wish I had clarified: “Antisemitism is hatred for Jews. It is not criticism of Israel. Antisemitism is holding Jews to a different standard than any other group.” The professor who proposed the resolution asked the faculty members to consider how they would vote if violence against any group other than Jews were celebrated. Would these same faculty have condemned a statement by a speaker at a UNC event celebrating the killing of George Floyd or the kidnapping and rape of women by Boko Haram in Nigeria?

Principles are meaningless if they apply to some and not others. While the First Amendment supports anyone’s right to celebrate Oct. 7, it does not demand that we stay silent when we hear it. Incidents of antisemitism worldwide are increasing in number and severity. Within the past couple of weeks, a couple of friends in London were hospitalized after a crowd overheard them speaking Hebrew and assaulted them, and a Jewish student in Berlin was beaten so badly by a student holding pro-Palestinian views that he too ended up in the hospital.

I am grateful to know that 29 of my colleagues anonymously voted to consider whether the celebration of Oct. 7 should be condemned, but I don’t know who they are or how they would have voted on the resolution itself. I have a pretty good guess about where the other 38 stand. If you’ve ever wondered what might have happened differently in Germany had citizens spoken up for themselves and their Jewish friends and colleagues, we now have the chance to learn.
World-Renowned German Research Institute Fires Top Academic Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts
One of the world’s leading institutes for research into the natural and social sciences has fired a prominent academic over posts he wrote on social media that glorified the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel.

Prof. Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese-Australian scholar of anthropology, was dismissed from the Max Planck Society in Germany on Wednesday for posts that were deemed “incompatible” with the institution’s “core values.”

Hage, who has been based at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in the city of Halle since Apr. 2023, previously taught at universities including Harvard in the US, the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and the University of Nanterre — Paris X in France.

In several posts on Twitter/X following the Oct. 7 assault — in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 200 seized as hostages amid widespread atrocities including mutilation and mass rape — Hage accused Israel of “genocide” and compared the State of Israel with the former Nazi regime in Germany.

“The Palestinians, like all colonized peoples, continue to demonstrate that their capacity for resistance is endless. They don’t just dig tunnels. They can fly over walls,” Hage wrote in one post that lauded Hamas.

In an official statement, the Max Planck Society — which employs more than 5,000 scientists and researchers with an annual budget of $2 billion — said that “researchers abuse their civil liberties when they undermine the credibility of science with publicly disseminated statements, thereby damaging the reputation and trust in the institutions that uphold it.”

“The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is constrained by the mutual duties of consideration and loyalty in the employment relationship,” the statement continued.

Hage’s dismissal was welcomed by Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in comments quoted by the Welt news outlet.. At the same time, he called on the institute to take “precautions to ensure that these cases no longer occur in the future.”
Hamas Patron Qatar Has Spent $6 Billion Lobbying the U.S. Government and Funding Universities
Qatar, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation that provides shelter and cash to the Hamas terror group’s top leaders, has spent nearly $6 billion since 2007 lobbying the American government and funneling cash to the United States’ top universities, funding that is generating scrutiny in Congress.

With Qatar emerging as a central mediator in the United States’ attempts to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, Doha’s decades-long influence peddling operation in America is raising concerns about the country’s ties to the Iran-backed terror group.

Qatar has given or contracted more than $5.6 billion to 61 American schools since 2007, including Ivy Leagues such as Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, and Stanford University, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The country has also doled out more than $243 million on lobbying efforts in the United States since 2015, with more than $16 million spent in 2023 alone.

The money, experts and lawmakers say, has enabled Qatar to have outsized influence in American politics and academia, efforts they say have mainstreamed anti-Israel propaganda and silenced criticism about Doha’s longstanding ties to Hamas, the Iranian regime, and other terror groups. Hamas’s "three top leaders alone are worth a staggering total of $11 billion and enjoy a life of luxury in the sanctuary of the emirate of Qatar," according to the New York Post.

The vast funding operation has generated congressional interest in the past and is fueling calls for an investigation by members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), Congress’s largest GOP caucus, according to lawmakers and senior GOP aides who spoke to the Free Beacon. The RSC, one senior staffer said, is currently pressuring the relevant House oversight committees to investigate Qatar’s lobbying efforts and funding to schools.

"The amount of money that Qatar has invested in its influence operations in Washington over the last two decades is simply staggering," Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the Treasury Department who now serves as research director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, told the Free Beacon. "It’s even more staggering when one stops to consider that the country has a mere 330,000 citizens. What does a country this tiny want with so much influence?"

Qatar, Schanzer said, is using its wealth to "ensure the acceptability of terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban. It would also like the West to turn a blind eye to the regime’s funding, safe haven, or normalization of other extremist groups, including al Qaeda or even the Islamic State."
Texas A&M to shutter Qatar campus over Middle East ‘heightened instability’
The board of regents of Texas A&M University, a nearly 150-year-old public school with an undergraduate enrollment of more than 60,000, voted on Thursday to undergo a “multi-year process” to close its campus in Qatar.

“The board has decided that the core mission of Texas A&M should be advanced primarily within Texas and the United States,” stated Bill Mahomes, chair of the board. “By the middle of the 21st century, the university will not necessarily need a campus infrastructure 8,000 miles away to support education and research collaborations.”

The university in College Station, Texas, noted that it will take four years to terminate its agreement with the Qatar Foundation. The university’s campus opened in Qatar in 2003.

“In the coming days, the university administration will assemble a team to ensure several imperatives: Students complete their education, faculty and staff are supported and research obligations are appropriately fulfilled,” it stated.

General (Ret.) Mark A. Welsh III, president of Texas A&M, stated that the Qatar campus “has advanced ideals, graduated exceptional Aggie engineers and is cemented as an important legacy of Texas A&M.” (The university was founded as Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and students are called “Aggies,” a reference to agriculture.)

“As we look to the future of our land-, sea- and space-grant university, the global exchange of research and education will continue to be integral to our world-class campuses here in the U.S.,” he added.

The Texas A&M board of regents “decided to reassess the university’s physical presence in Qatar in fall 2023 due to the heightened instability in the Middle East,” the university stated. The motion to close the Qatar campus passed 7-1.


Birmingham uni activists call for ‘Zionists off our campus’

Police investigate graffiti on Leeds Hillel House

BBC News showcases ‘Gaza war protest’ agitprop
On the morning of February 6th the BBC News website published an uncredited report headlined “Children’s clothes laid on beach in Gaza war protest” on its ‘Dorset’ page. The same report – which is tagged ‘Israel’ – appeared in the ‘updates’ section of the website’s ‘Middle East’ page and was also translated into Spanish by BBC News Mundo.

The report currently opens as follows:
“A three-mile (5km) long line of old children’s clothes has been strewn along Bournemouth beach in a protest at the war in Gaza.

Activists from the Led by Donkeys group said they were laying more than 11,000 sets of clothes to represent children killed on both sides of the conflict since 7 October.”

However, the original version of the report told readers that:
“Activists from the Led by Donkeys group said they were laying more than 11,000 sets of clothes to represent children killed on both sides of the conflict since 7 September.”

Despite that reference to “children killed on both sides of the conflict”, BBC South’s report goes on to mention only one of those sides:
“Although Israel has said it strives to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation orders, more than 11,500 under-18s have been killed according to Palestinian health officials.”
International Group Of “Publishers For Palestine” Release Statement Glorifying Palestinian Terrorism

Success! City News Vancouver Corrects Article Which Referred To Pre-1948 Israel As “Palestinian Land”

Commentator In Le Journal De Montreal Accuses Israel Of Genocide, Ignores All Facts Which Defeat His Argument

In Toronto Star Column, Staffer At National Council Of Canadian Muslims Ignores Hamas & Downplays Pro-Hamas Elements Of Anti-Israel Movement

In Globe & Mail Commentary, Gaza-Based Columnist Repeats Hamas Propaganda

Las Vegas City Council adopts IHRA definition
Another U.S. city has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The Las Vegas City Council voted on Feb. 6 in favor of R-5-2024, which adopted the definition. It will be used to train city employees, including law enforcement.

Councilwoman Victoria Seaman introduced the measure, saying timing this to “the four-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel adds significance to this important act and makes it clear that we will not tolerate bigotry in our city.”

Seaman called the resolution’s passage “a powerful statement against hatred, showing solidarity with the Jewish community and a commitment to fighting antisemitism.”

Organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Seaman previously spoke at the 2023 North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism this past November in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

CAM CEO Sacha Roytman said the group was proud that Seaman served as “the driving force” behind the measure, noting that it will be “a crucial tool for the city to identify and fight antisemitism citywide.”
Nazi gorillas and Hitler as a clown: Holocaust survivor’s cartoons on show in Berlin
A Nazi henchman as a drooling gorilla with a swastika armband. Adolf Hitler as a dancing clown. Cheeky send-ups of Joseph Goebbels’s lies.

A treasure trove of defiant satire made by Jewish refugee Curt Bloch while in hiding from the Nazis in a Dutch attic goes on display for the first time Friday, eight decades after he created his astonishingly daring magazine.

The title of the exhibition “My Verses Are Like Dynamite,” at the Jewish Museum Berlin from Friday, was taken from one of the anti-fascist issues produced by Bloch between August 1943 and April 1945.

His daughter Simone Bloch, who flew in from New York for the opening, described her father as “a cross between Anne Frank and Tupac Shakur,” referring to the wartime teen diarist and the late rap superstar.

She said he was a man whose “rebellious” streak blossomed when his life was under threat.

A lawyer by training, Curt had fled Dortmund in Germany for the Netherlands on a bicycle following the Nazis’ rise in 1933. A photo of Curt Bloch during a preview of the exhibition ‘Curt Bloch’s Het Onderwater Cabaret’ at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany on February 8, 2024. (Stefanie Loos / AFP)

After the German invasion in 1940, he found refuge in the city of Enschede in a cramped crawl space along with a German-Jewish couple thanks to an anti-Nazi network run by Dutch pastor Leendert Overduin.

There he used a fountain pen and cutouts from magazines and newspapers at his disposal to create artful collages ridiculing fascist leaders and reflecting on his predicament.
Film review: Occupied City : Steve McQueen’s documentary on Amsterdam’s Shoah memories
The notion of the Holocaust being an inspiration for art is both well established and uncomfortable. But in the space of just a few weeks the Shoah has inspired new releases of two films whose directors push the form of film in startlingly original directions.

In The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer used the unblinking gaze of the camera to convey the sickening domestic lifestyle of Rudolph Hoss’s family home in Auschwitz. The image of ashes from the furnaces fertilising the Hoss flowerbeds will never be forgotten by those who see the film. And now Steve McQueen has pushed the form of documentary to convey what life was like in Amsterdam under Nazi occupation.

Based on the book Atlas of an Occupied City by McQueen’s wife Bianca Stigter, what this film has in common with Glazer’s is the way dispassionate objectivity is used as a trusted guide to atrocity. In McQueen’s film of over four hours this quality is to be found in the voice of narrator Melanie Hyams, whose calm delivery allows the bare facts of Nazi persecution to speak and shock for themselves.

However, the genius of McQueen’s approach is to accompany the intricate detail of Stigter’s research with contemporary footage of the locations in which Jews were murdered, humiliated or where they hid, usually before being discovered and murdered.

Much of it was filmed during periods of Covid lockdown and protest. Friends sit chatting on a stoop as one of them trims a hedge. Young Asian girls film video selfies of each other, and parents take winter walks with toddlers over frozen canals.

All the sound here is contemporary and ambient except for Hyams’s voice who informs us that this where Jews were forced to clean pavements with toothbrushes or that this corner of the city is where a Jewish former seamstress and prostitute was arrested for not wearing a star before being murdered in Auschwitz.

The examples of how and where Amsterdam’s 80,000 Jews were tormented wash over you in much the same way as does testimony does with Claude Lanzmann’s epic Shoah. But here the juxtaposition of historical research and modern footage brings the Holocaust into our time more powerfully than I have ever scene before.
Unpacked: Who Was the Chinese Schindler?
Feng-Shan Ho served as the Consul-General for the Republic of China in Vienna during WW2, where he risked his life and career to save possibly tens of thousands of Jews by issuing them visas in defiance of his superiors.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:39 Feng-Shan Ho's childhood
01:04 The start of WW2
02:04 Feng-Shan Ho decides to help Austria's Jews
03:36 The risks involved
05:02 Reassignment and the remainder of his career
05:50 Manli Ho's research
07:02 Recognitions of Feng-Shan Ho's heroism


Israel’s leadership embraces Argentina’s Milei on tearful tour
From the moment he descended from a chartered El Al plane in Israel, wearing a “Bring Them Home Now” dog tag to advocate for hostages held by Hamas, Argentinian President Javier Milei was embraced by Israelis.

The South American country’s new leader has made an international name for himself with his colorful style, libertarian policies and slogan “¡Viva la libertad, carajo!” – “Long live liberty, damn it!” – with which Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz greeted him on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport.

But it’s not his eccentric style or economic policy that endeared him to Israelis – his great enthusiasm for Judaism makes him unique on the world stage, and his government has been called one of the most pro-Israel in Argentina’s history.

Milei was raised Catholic, but has long studied Torah “from the point of view of economic analysis” and is considering converting to Judaism, though he said that observing Shabbat while being president could pose a challenge. He often entered campaign events to the sound of a shofar blowing, and he spoke about the Maccabees during his inaugural speech, which took place on Hanukkah, with Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and relatives of Israeli hostages kidnapped to Gaza present. He visited the Ohel in Queens, N.Y., where the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson is buried, a week after winning the election, and promised that his first presidential visit would be to Israel.

And that wasn’t the only promise that Milei made – speaking on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, the Argentinian president reiterated to Katz that he would move the Argentinian Embassy to Jerusalem.

The expected ambassador is Milei’s rabbi, Axel Wahnish, head of the Moroccan Jewish community in Argentina, who lacks economic experience but is fluent in Hebrew and studied at Yeshivat Hanegev in Netivot, in Israel’s south. Wahnish accompanied Milei on his visit to Israel, during which the president made the unusual move of requesting a meeting with Israeli Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef.

Milei also prayed with Wahnish at the Kotel, shedding tears. The meeting holds diplomatic significance, as many leaders are unwilling to visit the Western Wall because it falls in east Jerusalem, outside of Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries, or will take care to characterize it as a private visit to avoid making a political statement.




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