Friday, February 07, 2025

02/07 Links Pt2: A deliberate new antisemitism that erases Jews; It Was Never About a Cease-fire; Former CAIR Director Launches into Antisemitic Tirade

From Ian:

Historical theft: A deliberate new antisemitism that erases Jews
In 2021, David Baddiel, a British Jewish comedian, screenwriter, and author, wrote a brilliant, incisive, and incredibly revealing book titled Jews Don’t Count.

In it, Baddiel argues that Jews are treated differently from all other minorities, perceived as “too white” to warrant the same consideration as other victims of racism.

He posits that antisemitism is a “second-class racism,” one that is tolerated or even ignored by those who claim to fight against bigotry in all its forms.

When I first read the book – prior to the seismic events of the past sixteen months – I felt it should be required reading for everyone.

It explains, with remarkable clarity, the modern phenomenon of Jew-hatred, which persists even in supposedly progressive circles. For a more nuanced and historically expansive exploration of the topic, one need only turn to the writings of the late, great Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l.

Rabbi Sacks wrote extensively about the mutation of antisemitism across history. First, they hated us because of our God.

Then they hated us because we “killed their God.” Then they hated us because we were different. Then they hated us because we tried to be the same. Next, they reviled us as a subhuman race without a home of our own – culminating in the Holocaust.

And now, in a perverse historical irony, they hate us because we do have a home of our own, and because we dare to defend it. The latest mutation: Historical theft

Now, a new mutation of antisemitism has emerged – one that builds on Baddiel’s observation that “Jews don’t count” and which has reached an even more malignant level: historical theft.

This involves the deliberate alteration of history to erase Jews from their own narrative. It facilitates the grotesque inversion that we are “Johnny-come-latelies,” colonial usurpers attempting to displace an indigenous people.

This phenomenon is not new. It began decades ago with the Palestinians manufacturing their own “ancient” peoplehood while simultaneously denying ours.

With the help of the unashamedly anti-Israel, antisemitic, corrupt, and morally bankrupt United Nations, the biblical and historical reality of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel for over 3,000 years has been steadily eroded.

The world, largely ignorant and disinterested, has been conditioned to accept fiction as fact.

However, last week, this historical theft stooped to a level that even the most cynical, world-weary Jew could scarcely have believed.
A suppressed voice for truth from within the United Nations
When histories of the war in the Gaza Strip are written—a war triggered by the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—the name of Alice Nderitu probably won’t garner more than a footnote at best. That’s an enormous shame because Nderitu’s courage in confronting the institutionalized obsession of the United Nations with the Palestinians takes us to the heart of the great issues wrapped up in this conflict—its purpose, the manner in which it has been fought and the manner in which it has been presented to the outside world.

The story of Nderitu’s ordeal as the U.N.’s Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide was the subject of an engaging piece by Johanna Berkman published last week by the online magazine Air Mail. Nderitu took over the unpaid position during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She lasted for nearly four years in the post before U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres decided against renewing her commission last November following a sustained and often abusive campaign directed at Nderitu—a storied human-rights advocate from Kenya—for her refusal to label the fighting in Gaza as a “genocide.”

At the time, Guterres’s decision to effectively sever Nderitu was the subject of a scathing Wall Street Journal editorial that accused the international organization of a “new low” in its efforts to tarnish Israel as the worst offender among its member states, which include such human-rights luminaries as Russia, China and North Korea. But by and large, the scandal passed unnoticed among the chattering classes, despite their tendency to dip their toes into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with agonized appeals on behalf of the “people of Gaza” from time to time. The same was true for the Air Mail piece profiling her; while the Free Press republished it, everyone else pretty much ignored it.

One key reason why was identified by Nderitu herself in her interview with Berkman. For nearly three of the four years of her U.N. tenure, she was incredibly busy but also mostly unnoticed. Her work took her to refugee camps in Bangladesh and Iraq, to the Brazilian interior to monitor the fates of indigenous tribes, and to Chad, where she saw firsthand the impact of the burgeoning ethnic slaughter that has raged, largely outside the media’s view, in neighboring Sudan. “For these other situations,” she said, “nobody seems to bother with what I say.”
Seth Mandel: It Was Never About a Cease-fire
Familiarity with anti-Zionism breeds contempt. And also a justified cynicism.

After 16 months of “well maybe the protesters really do just want a cease-fire” and “let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that they aren’t just twisted pro-Hamas sickos,” we can now acknowledge what we all knew to be true from the beginning: They’re just twisted pro-Hamas sickos.

According to documents obtained by the Telegraph, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign contacted London police while the Hamas rampage of Oct. 7, 2023, was in full swing. Their request: Permission to hold a public rally.

“By the time the PSC spoke to the police, Hamas had taken hostages and killed hundreds of people across towns and villages next to the Gaza Strip,” the Telegraph reports. “Videos had also circulated on social media, showing terrorists taking Israeli hostages to Gaza on motorbikes.”

The PSC reached out to the police before 1 p.m. on the day of the attack. It was at a time when the public already knew the attack was under way and some of the gruesome details, but before Israel could even contemplate a military response. The attack and the search for infiltrators went on for two days. During that time the PSC was planning its event.

Let there now be no doubt: This was a celebration rally. Like other such demonstrations in the West, Londoners were joyously reveling in acts of barbarism against Jews that hadn’t been seen since the Nazis. The police confirmed the timing to the Telegraph with a statement: “The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest. The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”

It’s good to have confirmation, but we should remember that we already knew this about protests in the United States as well. Chicago saw hundreds march downtown on Oct. 8, the day after the attacks. No one would even bother to try and claim that such an event was spontaneous, right? That march was in the pipeline as soon as it became clear what Hamas was doing.

Oct. 8 also saw an “all out for Palestine” rally in Dallas and a demonstration in Athens, Georgia, which organizers said was to mark the fact that “the Palestinian people, yesterday, fought back successfully against Israeli occupation.”

The lesson: Some were honest, some weren’t—but the protest movement that began that hellish weekend was a movement celebrating the massacre and sexual torture of Jewish men, women, and children.


‘Haaretz’ disregards the facts and distorts truth
The newspaper’s obliviousness to empirical reality is also prevalent in the field of law and justice. After Justice Itzhak Amit was appointed as the new head of the Israeli Supreme Court, Chen Ma’anit, Haaretz’s legal correspondent, decided to use the opportunity to condemn Justice Minister Yariv Levin. As Ma’anit wrote on Jan. 27, “Levin apparently managed to achieve one thing in his two-year battle against the Supreme Court: to damage the court’s standing in the eyes of the public.”

Ma’anit may blame Levin for the Israeli public’s distrust in its Supreme Court, but the facts tell a different story.

First, the dramatic loss of trust began in 2012—a decade before Levin took office—and has continued consistently ever since. Secondly, a 2022 academic study that examined data over several decades and was published in the faculty of law journal at the Hebrew University showed that the public’s loss of trust in the Supreme Court—at the rate of over 30%, the worst decline in the world—began with the legal revolution that then-Justice Aharon Barak forced on the public in the early 1990s.

Then there is the field of security and counterterrorism.

An example is a Jan. 28 story by Haaretz’s military correspondent, Yaniv Kubovich, about the current Israeli military operation against terrorist infrastructure in Jenin.

One of the operation’s goals is to hit the “Jenin Battalion,” also known as the “Jenin Brigades,” a terror militia. But according to Haaretz, “no such unit exists.” Kubovich claims that to justify its operation and divert criticism away from the Israeli government, the Israel Defense Forces “rebranded Jenin’s ‘armed thugs’ as Hamas battalion.” In other words, it’s all just smoke and mirrors.

This claim has no basis. The Jenin Brigades militia operates in the city and has been known by that name for several years. It even has Wikipedia entries in Hebrew, English and Arabic. There, it says that the militia was founded in 2021 by Islamic Jihad figure Jamil al-Amori, and serves as an “umbrella formation affiliated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], Hamas and [Fatah’s] Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.”

Information on the terror militia appeared online long before the Jenin operation and Haaretz claiming that it is a case of Israeli “rebranding.” In October 2022, the pro-Hamas website Middle East Eye published an article praising the militia, calling it “Palestine’s new resistance.” In July 2022, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center posted an investigation into the Jenin Battalion, calling it “a network of armed terrorist operatives in the Jenin refugee camp.”

Additionally, just a few months ago the Palestinian Authority launched an operation against the militia. It was covered by Qatari outlets such as The New Arab and Al Jazeera, which said that “the Jenin Brigades, aka the Jenin Battalion, is an umbrella group that includes Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades and Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations.”

To take Haaretz’s reporting seriously, you’d have to wonder why blatantly anti-Israeli outlets would cooperate with IDF “rebranding” attempts months before they were even needed.

The answer, of course, is that no rebranding ever took place. The existence of the Jenin Battalion is a well-known reality, and Haaretz’s reporting should be taken with large grains of salt.


Visegrád24 to 'Post': Giving a voice to those rendered voiceless
Online platform Visegrád24 has been labeled “conservative,” “anti-immigration,” “anti-Islam,” “pro-Israel,” and “pro-Ukraine.” Those are all terms that its founder, Stefan Tompson, acknowledged: “Well, that’s not wrong, but it’s quite reductionist.”

The Jerusalem Post sat down with the man behind Visegrád24 to uncover the interwoven story of Tompson’s personal journey and the evolution of his polarizing media enterprise.

“I would not define Visegrád24, nor the work we do, as aligning with journalism,” the 31-year-old Tompson said.

“We are highly opinionated and oftentimes sarcastic. We take sides in war and don’t pretend to be some objective media because what is the point of that?” The maverick’s bluntness has set the tone for the brand.

Tompson, a London-born, French-educated Roman Catholic with Polish and South African roots defies easy categorization.

A family man and PR strategist, he can now add “X (formerly Twitter) provocateur: to his resume, having turned a one-hour-a-day side project begun in January 2020 into a media juggernaut, disrupting narratives with a following of over one million.

By October 2023, Visegrád24 wasn’t just making waves – it had become a tsunami. The University of Washington ranked the account as the top performer out of seven “new elites” on X at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War.

Within weeks, it had amassed 370 million views – three times the combined reach of The New York Times, CNN, and the BBC.
Visegrad24: How Woke Ideology is Destroying the West | Gadi Taub
Stefan Tompson sits down with historian, author, screenwriter, and political commentator Gadi Taub for a deep dive into the ideological battles shaping the West. They discuss the rise of identity politics, the erosion of traditional values, the impact of progressivism, the role of religion, and the future of nationhood in an era of radical individualism. Is the West in decline, or is there hope for a cultural revival?

00:00- Intro
01:27 - What is a Liberal?
03:28 - The 'Solidarity' Scam
06:29 - Returning to Simple Beliefs
08:34 - The Erosion of the West
11:34 - Hostages to Radical Principle
14:46 - Managing our Instincts
16:55 - Role of Religion
26:30 - The Durban Conference
28:39 - Western Revival?


Trump sanctions ICC over ‘baseless’ arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant
US President Donald Trump issued sanctions to members of the International Criminal Court through an executive order on Thursday evening as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up his day meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Trump said the ICC abused its power by issuing "baseless arrest warrants" targeting Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to the order.

"The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC," the order said. "Neither country has ever recognized the ICC's jurisdiction, and both nations are thriving democracies with militaries that strictly adhere to the laws of war."

Trump said the US expects its allies to oppose any ICC actions against the US, Israel or any other of its allies that have not consented to ICC jurisdiction.

Consequences of US sanctions on ICC
According to the order, the US will impose "tangible and significant consequences" on those responsible for the ICC's transgressions which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the US for ICC officials, employees, agents and their immediate family members.

The order said any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute protected persons constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

According to the order, protected persons include current or former members of the US armed forces; current or former elected or appointed US government officials; any foreign person that is a citizen or lawful resident of a US ally that has not consented to ICC jurisdiction; current or former members of the armed forces of US allies; current or former elected or appointed government officials of US allies; or any other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of such a government.


International Criminal Court prosecutor Khan first to be hit by US sanctions, sources say
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorized by US President Donald Trump that target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of US citizens or US allies, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Khan, who is British, was named on Friday in an annex - not yet made public - to an executive order signed by Trump a day earlier, a senior ICC official and another source, both briefed by US government officials, told Reuters. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.

The sanctions include freezing of US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States. Waiting the 60 days

The order directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in consultation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit a report within 60 days naming people who should be sanctioned.

The ICC on Friday condemned the sanctions, pledging to stand by its staff and "continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it." Court officials met in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions.

The International Criminal Court, which opened in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the UN Security Council.

Dozens of countries warned on Friday that the US sanctions could "increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law."

"Sanctions would severely undermine all situations currently under investigation as the Court may have to close its field offices," the 79 countries - who make up about two-thirds of the court's members - said in a statement.
'Court stands firmly by its personnel': ICC condemns US-issued
The International Criminal Court (ICC) condemned the US sanctions issued against it in a statement on Friday morning.

"The ICC condemns the issuance by the US of an Executive Order seeking to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work," the statement read.

"The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it. We call on our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights," it added.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the court.

'Baseless arrest warrants'
The president said the court had abused its power when issuing "baseless arrest warrants" against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

"The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC," the Executive Order signed by Trump said.

"Neither country has ever recognized the ICC's jurisdiction, and both nations are thriving democracies with militaries that strictly adhere to the laws of war."

According to the order, the US "will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members."


'Hubris and self-righteousness': UN's Albanese slams Israel's withdrawal from UNHRC
United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said on Thursday that Israel's decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was "extremely serious."

Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar had informed the UNHRC that it was following the United States in withdrawing from the Council, accusing it of "ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias" against Israel.

In response, Albanese told Reuters "It shows the hubris and the lack of realization of what they [Israel] have done. They insist in self-righteousness, that they have nothing to be held accountable for, and they are proving it to the entire international community."

Albanese said she feared Israel's "genocide" against the Palestinians would expand and intensify on the West Bank.

"The north [of the West Bank] is being attacked primarily by soldiers. The south has been attacked primarily by [Israeli] settlers, and you can see this as an assault on the Palestinian people as a whole," Albanese said.


Netanyahu to Jewish students in D.C.: ‘You’ve gotta fight’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a straightforward message for the 30 Jewish college students and recent graduates he met with on Friday in Washington to hear their concerns about antisemitism: Fight back.

“If you fight, you’ll be respected. If you bow your head, you’ll be despised and not respected. You’ve gotta fight. That’s the most important thing,” Netanyahu told the roundtable of students, who came from universities including Harvard, Georgetown Law School, George Washington University and University of Pennsylvania.

The meeting, which took place at the Willard InterContinental Hotel near the White House, was organized by the Israeli Embassy. Attendees included Sara Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Netanyahu advisor Caroline Glick and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). “Watching the energy and the interaction between the prime minister and these future leaders was uplifting and full of hope,” said Shemtov.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy said the purpose of the meeting was “to show solidarity, offer support and reinforce their connection to Israel during this challenging time.”

Student speakers included Julia Wax Vanderwiel, founder and president of Georgetown Law Zionists; Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who is suing the university over its handling of antisemitism; and Sabrina Soffer, president of Chabad at GW.

Wax Vanderwiel informed Netanyahu about an event scheduled for next week at Georgetown Law featuring Ribhi Karajah, a member of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Karajah served more than three years in an Israeli prison for his ties to a 2019 bombing in the West Bank that killed Rina Shnerb, an Israeli teenager.

“The prime minister had a very visceral reaction to my speech,” Wax Vanderwiel told Jewish Insider. “He’s appalled [about the upcoming event]. He said he knows exactly who Rina Shnerb is, he’s met the family. He said that we need to stay strong. He genuinely listened, cared and wants something done.”

“There were so many stories I heard from other students,” she said. “The girl sitting next to me had been told to ‘go kill herself’ on campus.”

Eyal Yakoby, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, described Netanyahu’s reaction to students’ accounts as “spot-on.”


Hizb ut Tahrir Canada moves caliphate conference online after backlash
A radical Islamic group's Canadian conference for the establishment of a caliphate across much of Europe, Africa and the Middle East will be held online Sunday, after restrictions and pressure from local politicians led to the physical event's cancellation.

Hizb ut Tahrir Canada announced on Instagram Saturday that it would hold the 2025 Khilafah Conference online with the opportunity to engage with speakers through a question and answer period.

Bnai Brith Canada responded to the move on Wednesday, demanding that Canada join 13 other states in banning them by listing them as a terrorist entity.

"Hizb ut-Tahrir openly rejects democracy, calls for the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate under Sharia law, glorifies terrorism, promotes hate, vilifies the LGBTQ+ community, and seeks to dismantle Canada's national sovereignty. It has been outlawed in countries across the world because of its dangerous and radical worldview," Bnai Brith Canada said on X. "Despite widespread opposition, Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada refuses to adhere to Canadian morals and values, proving that it believes it is above the law and beyond accountability."

"The Khilafah: Eliminating the Obstacles that are Delaying its Return" conference was set to be held in Mississauga on January 18, and then was moved to Hamilton. The mayors of both cities condemned the event, and threatened to remove permits for renting municipal facilities.


First Anti-Israel Encampment of the Trump Admin Brings Prompt Disciplinary Hearings
The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Bowdoin College, a highly selective liberal arts school in Maine, launched an anti-Israel encampment overnight, taking over the school's main student union. Protesters already face disciplinary hearings.

The SJP members entered the Smith Union building around 10 p.m. Thursday, set up tents and a "community library," and renamed the building the "Shaban-Al Dalou Union," photos and videos show. Bowdoin security officials entered the building around 1 a.m. Friday to take the names and student IDs of participants. They told students who stayed in the building that they were "on a path to no longer be Bowdoin students."

Bowdoin SJP laments the overnight security sweep.

By 8:30 a.m. Friday, those officials surrounded the building, locked the doors, and disabled key card access, preventing students from accessing the building. Shortly thereafter, Bowdoin administrators began notifying student participants of disciplinary hearings scheduled for 9:40 Friday morning, less than 12 hours after the start of the encampment, according to emails Bowdoin SJP posted to Instagram. Those hearings kicked off as protesters remained in the student union building.

Students struggle to enter the locked Smith Union building.

The ongoing ordeal will test the resolve of Bowdoin administrators as President Donald Trump lays out consequences for students who engage in "anti-Semitic harassment." An executive order that Trump issued last week calls on federal agencies to cancel student visas for Hamas sympathizers. Trump also gave agencies 60 days to submit a report identifying "additional measures to combat campus anti-Semitism." Bowdoin has received millions of dollars in federal grants for both research and for programs meant to benefit low-income students, spending disclosures show.

Bowdoin's disciplinary action, while swift, did not prevent students from bypassing the security perimeter around the Smith Union building just past noon on Friday, setting the stage for further escalation.


Why does BBC News continue to under inform on ‘Palestine Action’
While one may not expect a UK regional reporter to be familiar with the details of a conflict thousands of miles away, BBC News website editors should be aware of the fact that Israel has not “occupied” the Gaza Strip since 2005 when it removed all soldiers and civilians from the territory (including those buried there) and that “the West Bank” was previously illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan chose to attack Israel.

The BBC’s style guide does not include the Gaza Strip in its definition of “occupied territories” and its entry for “Palestinian Territories” reads as follows:
“Strictly speaking, the phrase ‘Palestinian Territories’ refers to the areas that fall under the administration of the Palestinian Authority […].”

Nevertheless, Julia Bryson found fit to promote the notion that “areas that fall under the administration of the Palestinian Authority” are ‘occupied’ by Israel.

Bryson’s failure to provide the context that is a proper explanation of the agenda of ‘Palestine Action’ means that BBC audiences remain unaware of the fact that its illegal acts of violence, burglary and vandalism (the perpetrators of which it ridiculously chooses to describe as “political prisoners”) have nothing to do with the events of 1967 but rather are rooted in rejection of Israel’s very existence.

In the almost four-and-a-half years since ‘Palestine Action’ came into being, the BBC’s reporting on its actions (which have included vandalism of BBC property) has been mostly confined to local website pages, with no dedicated tag and no backgrounder to explain the agenda of that extremist group to members of the British public who fund the policing and legal system dealing with its agitprop.

In May 2024 the BBC published a report titled “‘Extreme’ protest groups face ban under proposal” which opened as follows:
“Protest groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action could be banned in a similar way to terrorist organisations, under a proposal from the government’s adviser on political violence.”

Notably, that report includes a dedicated BBC tag and offers a BBC backgrounder for ‘Just Stop Oil’, which came into existence over 18 months after ‘Palestine Action’. Clearly then, time is not the factor which has so far prevented the BBC from providing the full range of information about ‘Palestine Action’ to its audiences.


New Syrian government issues textbooks filled with antisemitism and praise for terrorists
Anti-Jewish passages in Syrian textbooks will remain under the new HTS-led regime, which has announced Islamist updates to the curriculum, according to an education watchdog.

Directives from Syria’s education ministry last month set the tone of classroom instruction under the new regime. According to the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), which has analysed the announced changes, anti-Jewish sentiment will remain in the books and an increasingly Islamist perspective will be introduced.

Education Minister al-Qadiri has stated in the media that the proposed changes are limited to inaccuracies in Islamic Education, but in their 50-page report, Impact-se has found the changes are more extensive.

Based on a list of planned alterations to school textbooks, one former reference in a book aimed at six to seven-year-olds to "those who have gone astray from the path of goodness" will be replaced with more explicit wording, referencing "the Jews and Christians”.

“This change introduces an overtly negative portrayal of Jews and Christians to young, impressionable students,” Impact-se said in their report.

Other extracts in textbooks depict Jews and Zionists with a reference to “global dominance,” according to the watchdog.

A history textbook for 15 – 16-year-olds describes Jews as adhering to the “extremist idea” that they are “God’s chosen people,” presenting Judaism as “ethnically exclusive”.

Another textbook describes Zionism as a "racist and expansionist" worldview, which “believes that all the world's resources must be employed to serve the Zionist Entity and protect it.”

Anti-Israel content is set to remain in textbooks under the new changes.

A primary level Arabic textbook will continue to portray Palestinian terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi as a hero. Mughrabi is notorious for the 1978 Coastal Road bus attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children.


London Islamic centre brazenly showed Ayatollah’s ‘intifada’ rant despite Charity Commission probe
An Islamic centre in London continued to host a video of a pro-terror rant by Ayatollah Khamenei on its social media accounts, as well as clips that call for Israel’s destruction and vilify the West, despite being subject to an ongoing extremism inquiry by the Charity Commission.

The Islamic Centre of England (ICE), based in Maida Vale, has a YouTube channel that featured until last week a 2020 speech by the Iranian leader in which he extols “multiple intifadas” in the battle to remove the “cancerous tumour” of Israel.

Other clips made available by the ICE showed preachers claiming that the US and its allies “manufactured Isis” and “enslaved the whole world in their system” after the Second World War.

In November 2022, the JC revealed that children were filmed at the ICE for an Iranian regime propaganda video in which they sang a song called Hello Commander, which included verses that alluded to an apocalyptic massacre of Jews.

The Charity Commission launched its inquiry that same month. The ICE subsequently handed a new role to then-director Mir Abbas Hussain, who claimed in a 2021 speech that the “Zionist lobby” allowed Jews to “take revenge on Muslims”.

Hussain, who was made ICE secretary a month after the probe was announced, also gave an incendiary address during a 2016 Quds Day rally in Canada.

The former director, who also goes by the name of Abbas Abedi, said in a YouTube video that remains online but is not hosted by ICE: “Zionism is the mother of extremism. Zionism is the mother of oppression across the world. Zionism is the mother of the Saudi royal family. Zionism is the father of the Saudi royal family.”

ICE also made Jafar Ali Najm a director just after the launch of the inquiry, in December 2022. A year before he was appointed, Najm was filmed quoting Khamenei and praying for his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, in a video that remains on the ICE Facebook channel.

The ICE received an initial warning from the Charity Commission in July 2020 after it hosted a vigil for Iranian terror chief Qasem Soleimani – the architect of Iran’s foreign terror operations and the subject of UK counter-terror sanctions who was assassinated by the US.

The charity’s director during the vigil, Seyed Hashem Moosavi – who once called protesters against the Islamic Republic “soldiers of Satan” – stood down in November 2022 when the Charity Commission’s inquiry began, but remains involved in religious ceremonies at the centre.

The new evidence about ICE’s social media was obtained by advocacy and research group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), and shared exclusively with JC.

Kasra Aarabi, the director of IRGC research at Uani said: “It’s long past the time when the Charity Commission should have wrapped up this investigation and shut the ICE down. This UK-registered charity’s director is Ayatollah Khamenei’s personal representative in Britain. It is simply unacceptable for Ayatollah Khamenei to have what amounts to an official office in the UK.”


QPR owner shared posts calling for Israel to be ‘dismantled’ and praising Hezbollah
The owner of Queens Park Rangers FC has said he regrets causing “distress” after re-sharing a litany of anti-Israel posts on his personal LinkedIn page.

Ruben Gnanalingam, the majority stakeholder in QPR, reposted comments urging "armies" to "dismantle" Israel and compared the war in Gaza with the Holocaust.

Dozens of anti-Israel posts reshared by the Malaysian businessman include several that advocate for Israel’s eradication, praise the proscribed terror group Hezbollah as "resistance fighters," and promote conspiracy theories that Israel "owns" the United States.

The stream of posts on Gnanalingam’s profile – which boasts nearly 12,000 followers – have been unearthed by investigative group GnasherJew and shared exclusively with the JC. All are reposts of content from other LinkedIn accounts, with none written by Gnanalingam’s himself

One repost on the club owner’s feed reads: “The State of Israel must be dismantled.” Another features a protest placard that states: “Brave Muslims of the world, what are you waiting for? Crush Zionism once and for all.” A separate post calls for the "Zi0 entity" to be dismantled and urges "#ArmiesToAqsa."

A separate repost depicts “Greater Israel,” and claims that the Jewish State has a “plan to conquer the Arab World.”

Another declares, “Arabs wake-up so this will not [be] the future of your kids !!!!! Sionists [sic] have plans for more genocides !!!!!! Arabs need to be back [in] power in the world as they used to be, to stop them!!”

A further repost refers to the mob violence against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam last November, saying: “A pogrom?? Go f*** yourself.”

"I am proud to see the complete & total rejection of fascist Nazi Zionism in our streets. There's an *actual* Zionist holocaust against Palestine right now & per usual, Zionists are committed to playing the victim.”

Gnanalingam also reposted a comment from anti-Zionist MP George Galloway about the “#GazaHolocaust” and shared an image that juxtaposed the “Jewish Holocaust” with a photo labelled “The Palestinian Holocaust – 2024.”

In a similar vein, he also shared a post showing Anne Frank beside Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza, and superimposing Rajab onto the cover of The Diary of Anne Frank.

And the club owner also shared conspiracy claims that Israel exerts control over the United States, citing American sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as supposed evidence. “The US is totally owned by Israel,” one post reads, alleging that the US “did not pursue the Epstein Network, destroyed the evidence, killed the chief detective.” The post includes an image of Jeffrey and Ghislaine Epstein over a map of America.

Further posts reshared by Gnanalingam praise Hezbollah, proscribed by the UK as a terrorist organisation, as a "resistance movement whether you like it or not.”


Antisemitic graffiti on a NZ Jewish school
A Jewish school in Auckland should not have been subjected to hateful graffiti connected to the conflict in Gaza, according to the New Zealand Jewish Council (NZJC).

Overnight on Wednesday, graffiti was spray-painted on a brick wall at the former Kadimah School building. The message read, “Genocide high school” and has since been removed.

The property used to house Kadimah School – New Zealand’s only Jewish school – until the congregation moved in 2022.

Darya Bing, chairperson of the Kadimah School board, condemned the incident, stating that such “hateful behaviour” had no place in New Zealand.

She noted that the school, which welcomed students of all backgrounds, was the only one in the country requiring security guards due to “targeted hostility.”

“Singling it out over global events and targeting children, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or national identity, is unacceptable. Anti-Israel rhetoric that targets a Jewish institution is not political activism, it is anti-Semitism. We stand firm against such bigotry and deeply appreciate our school whānau, community, and the many New Zealanders who refuse to tolerate it.”

NZJC president Juliet Moses said that anyone holding the school accountable for the actions of a government on the other side of the world was “reprehensible.”

“There is one Jewish school, and only one school that has guards stationed outside, in Aotearoa New Zealand. Targeting that school, holding it responsible for the perceived actions of a government on the other side of the world is reprehensible. As we have stated, we are seeing a rapid escalation and normalisation of antisemitism, which does not seem to have calmed, and in fact has only increased, since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect. This graffiti, and actions such as incitement campaign against Israelis, are creating a dangerous environment for Jews. Where will this end?”



‘F—k the Jew, F—k the Zionist’: Former CAIR Director Launches Antisemitic Tirade in Manhattan
A former senior employee of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was caught on camera launching a profane and antisemitic tirade at Jewish men in New York City in a viral video posted to social media on Thursday.

Noora Shalash, who previously worked as the director of government affairs for CAIR’s Kentucky branch, was confronted by an individual in an office building after allegedly harassing a “visibly Jewish man.” After being grilled for her alleged conduct, Shalash then went on an antisemitic diatribe.

“F—k the Jew. F—k the Zionist,” Shalash said.

Shalash then said that she “loves Jesus” and claimed Jews “dishonor the Virgin Mary and call her a ‘whore.'” She also called the man recording the video a “b—ch” and swiped her hand at his cellphone. A security guard intervened and physically pulled Shalash away while she appeared to continue attempting to assault the man.

“This is what Jews have to deal with in New York City,” the man said.


Kanye goes on another Jew-hatred rant, praises Hitler
Kanye West, the rapper who goes by Ye and has a long history of Jew-hatred, posted another series of antisemitic, expletive-ridden messages on social media to 32.4 million followers on Friday morning.

Among West’s posts were that “any Jewish person that does business with me needs to know I don’t like or trust any Jewish person and this is completely sober with no Hennessy” and a post stating that “I’m going to normalize talking about Hitler.”

In another post, Ye wrote “I’m never apologize for my Jewish comments,” adding in another, “Call me Yaydolf Yitler.”

“Kanye West descends deeper and deeper into the abyss of antisemitism,” wrote Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). “Yet he continues to be invited to the Grammys as if he had done nothing wrong. West should be ostracized for his rabid antisemitism.”

The rapper continues purposefully to “use his platform to spew anti-Jewish hatred. While some may dismiss his hateful rants, we cannot overlook the dangerous influence they can have on his millions of followers, particularly on social media, where a significant portion of today’s antisemitism thrives,” stated the American Jewish Committee.

“Hate, left unchecked, only multiplies. At a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing to terrifying levels worldwide, Ye is actively endangering Jews,” the AJC added. “We urge others with a platform like Ye’s—particularly in the entertainment industry—to call out this blatant hatred.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said West’s rant was “another egregious display of antisemitism, racism and misogyny.”

“Just a few years ago, ADL found that 30 antisemitic indents nationwide were tied to Kanye’s 2022 antisemitic rants,” Greenblatt stated. “We condemn this dangerous behavior and need to call it what it is: a flagrant and unequivocal display of hate.”

“We know this game all too well. Let’s call Ye’s hate-filled public rant for what it really is: a sad attempt for attention that uses Jews as a scapegoat,” he added. “But unfortunately, it does get attention because Kanye has a far-reaching platform on which to spread his antisemitism and hate. Words matter, and as we’ve seen too many times before, hateful rhetoric can prompt real-world consequences.”


Glasgow anti-Zionist Yiddish café which blamed ‘capitalism’ for its closing eyes up move to New York
The self-described queer, Yiddish, anti-capitalist, kosher café in Glasgow that closed its doors after experiencing an “astonishing” amount of antisemitism from other leftists in the city is instead trying its luck in America.

Having opened in 2020, the vegan, alcohol-free Pink Peacock café which did not charge for drinks closed down in June 2023 with the owners blaming “a frankly astonishing amount of antisemitic vitriol” directed at the establishment’s owners and “unchecked antisemitism in Scotland”.

Co-founders Moishe Holleb and Miles Grant, who are both American, moved back to the States and hope to revive the café in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to open in the summer.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, like the Glaswegian original, Brooklyn’s Pink Peacock will also be an anti-Zionist community space but doesn’t have a lease signed yet.

Holleb and Grant are optimistic at their American venture. Grant said in New York City anti-Zionism is “a missing voice”.

“Jewish New Yorkers definitely have a much wider stream of opinion than is represented in a lot of Jewish institutions in New York. So we think that it’s important that we’re clear in our values and that we also provide a home for people who share those values.

“It makes sense that this unique Jewish voice should exist in a place where there’s other Jewish voices as well,” Grant said. “We’re not just in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. We’re actually sort of among other Jewish communities here.”

While in Scotland, the café garnered significant controversy for its stances and actions, such as advocating for the abolishment of the police and for selling universal handcuff keys. Other merchandise on sale within its premises included “ACAB” patches, “Guillotine the rich” stickers, and “be gay do crimes” reading material.


Author John Irving’s new novel, ‘Queen Esther,’ deals with Israel and antisemitism
The novelist John Irving is famous for telling stories set in his native New England and in Austria, the site of a pivotal adventure in his young adulthood. Now, the two settings will collide in a new novel — one that focuses on a Jewish orphan from Vienna who winds up in Maine before making her way to Israel.

The novel, “Queen Esther,” will be Irving’s 16th when it is published in November.

Simon & Schuster, his publisher, announced “Queen Esther” on Thursday and revealed its cover, which shows a young girl with a suitcase arriving on a snowy night to a light-filled home.

The short description offers clues about her identity, explaining that the book is set at St. Cloud’s, the orphanage (and, later, illegal abortion clinic) operated by Wilbur Larch in “The Cider House Rules,” released in 1985.

“Larch is younger than you remember him, and the unadopted orphans at St. Cloud’s are a different cast of characters — Esther Nacht, a Viennese-born Jew, among them,” the description says. “The story begins when Esther, not yet four, is abandoned one winter night. At age 14, she is taken in by a philanthropic New England family, becoming both a mystery and a guardian angel to them.”

In keeping with Irving’s famous secrecy about his work pre-publication, the description is light on additional plot details, saying only that antisemitism plays a role in Esther’s life, that “Esther’s story is fated to intersect with Israel’s history,” and that the novel ends in Jerusalem in 1981, when Esther is 76.

Irving visited Israel in 1981, which was also the year of a deadly attack on a Vienna synagogue by Palestinian terrorists.




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



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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