Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Saudi writer says Palestinians have to accept reality

I have noted Abdulateef Al-Mulhim before with other straightforward, honest articles he has written for Arab News. Here he writes about "Nakba Day:"

[W]hat happened on May 14, 1948?

It was the day when the state of Israel emerged on the world map. Do we know the rest of the story? No. We don’t know the entire story because we are wont of dealing with events with emotions. One day after the United Nations mandate (May 15), a long and bloody conflict broke out and after the dust settled, the Arabs called it Nakba or the Day of Catastrophe. It was a defeat but the Arabs chose to call it a catastrophe. Many Palestinians were displaced from their homeland and were promised that they would return to their homes soon. Despite the passage of over six decades, the promise has yet to be delivered. The thousands of Palestinians who fled their homes have turned into millions.

The question now is what if those Palestinians had accepted the mandate and decided to live side by side with the Israelis? I ask the readers to please note that I am just asking a question. So, would the fate of the Palestinians be the same? The reason I am asking is that we read reports that the Palestinian refugees are not allowed fleeing the atrocities in Syria and seeking refuge in Lebanon. That is double the agony.

There are many facts that were not clear to the Palestinians on May 15, 1948. Many of them didn’t have to flee their homes. It is said that it was the Mufti (Hussini) who encouraged them to flee. At the end of the day, the Mufti wasn’t a popular figure in the West or in then USSR because of his stand on the Nazis. And yes, it is true that many Palestinians were attacked and murdered but on that day it was chaos and all sides were fighting each other. On that day, Israel didn’t have a fully organized IDF so they wanted to disarm the Irgun and when refused, the IDF attacked one of their ships. In other words there was havoc but the Palestinians could have had acted more wisely.

As time passed, the Palestinians were promised to return to their homes but 66 years later with many wars and loss of human lives, the conflict continues. Since May 15, 1948 till 1967, the Palestinians and all Arab nations insisted that either all lands or no peace. In the course, the Palestinians were used, abused and misled even by their own leaders. Palestinians’ agony became a moneymaking machine for some of the Palestinian elite. Many Arab and non-Arab countries extended financial aid but the average Palestinian received nothing from the aid. Many of the Palestinian leaders will not go to a nearby refugee camp in Syria or Lebanon to see the living standard but they travel thousands of miles to stay in the best hotels in foreign capitals.

Nowadays, the peace negotiations are at a standstill with no light at the end of the tunnel. And if the Palestinian refugee situation is not resolved then there will be no solution to this conflict. Let us get real and think straight. How can the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank accommodate the millions of Palestinians from the refugee camps? And even if full peace is achieved and the two-state solution is accepted, how are we going to relocate millions of refugees back to theirs’ or their grandfathers’ towns and villages? The Palestinian-Israeli conflict could have been resolved on May 15, 1948 by either accepting the United Nations mandate or by absorbing the thousands of Palestinian refugees into the Arab world. Tomorrow, it is May 15, 2014 and we are not only back to square one but we are far away from it. And finally, I tell the Palestinians, don’t fool yourself. No one has ever felt your pain. Just look at what some regimes in the Arab world are doing to their own people. If they don’t care about their own people’s pain, then what will make them care about your pain? In the past, the Palestinians had better chances for peace but they never read the fine prints or between the lines.

(h/t Herb G)

05/14 Links Pt2: My First Trip to Israel, a Light to Indigenous People; Israelis Create ‘Electronic Guide Dog’

From Ian:

My First Trip to Israel, a Light to Indigenous People

I had been asked to come to Israel by an organisation named Stand with Us and I was excited to see the land I have studied for so many years of my life.
Some of you have read my articles, you know that I am an indigenous rights activist from Canada who believes strongly in the rights of all indigenous peoples. What you may not know is that I am also pretty well versed in middle eastern history and geo politics. At least I thought I was.
I have always supported Israel's right to its ancestral lands, but after visiting Judeah, Samaria and Gush Etzion, I have become much more firm in my belief that these lands are sacrosanct and cannot be given up. These are the lands of the forefathers of your people, something that cannot be denied. I stood on the hills at Shiloh, I walked to the Lone tree at Gush Etzion, I walked the walls of Old Jerusalem, these are places that hold sacred spots in the hearts of many, both Christian and Jew, but they are Jewish to the core. If we do not support Jewish presence in the jewish ancestral lands why are you here? You would have been better off in Uganda.

The Spiritual Origins of Jew-Hatred

Far be it for me to suggest that the BDS movement has that distinctive Nazi like stench but forgive us for noticing that the “Final Solution” started off with a series of boycotts as well. Forgive me also for saying that once again you have it all backwards -what you believe to be ugly is in truth beautiful and perhaps worse, what you believe to be beautiful is actually evil.
I have news that you may not like to hear – we are not going anywhere and we are not going to just shut up and die. We’ve been at this for more than three millennium. Do you think that you’re stronger or more clever than Egyptians or the Romans or the Third Reich? No, we and our message are here to stay. In fact, we’ve been promised: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, throughout the generations, an eternal covenant to be your God, and the God of your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:7)‎
Mark Twain also wondered about this dynamic and wrote:
“The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian, rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dreamstuff and passed away. The Greek and the Roman followed, made a vast noise and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up, held their torch high for a time, but it burned out and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

Stand With Us: What's Behind the 'Boycott Israel' Movement?

Simply put, BDS calls for the dissolution of the Jewish state. Consider one of its three demands: that Palestinian refugees of the 1948 War and all their descendants—who live in Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon now numbering close to 5 million—have the “right to return” to Israel--not to the proposed new state of Palestine within agreed-upon borders, but to today’s Israel.
The result? Jews would become a minority in their own state.
Since 1948, the demand for "right of return" has been a euphemism for destroying the Jewish state. President Obama has said that the right of return “…would extinguish Israel as a Jewish state, and that is not an option.”
The people who advocate BDS are abetting a dangerous movement that opposes peaceful coexistence, masks the century-old Arab war against the Jewish state with new rhetoric, and promotes the destruction of the state of Israel in the name of social justice and human rights, values which BDS activists pervert beyond recognition.

The rate of women being murdered in the West Bank and Gaza has increased dramatically even over last year's high numbers.

In 2013, there were 27 women killed, which was double the number killed in 2012.

In less than five months this year, however, 18 women have been murdered - 13 in the West Bank and 5 in Gaza. At this rate, the number of women killed - usually under the excuse of "family honor" - may double again this year.

Last December, the Palestinian women's affairs minister blamed Israel for Arabs killing Arab women.

Fatah demands all Jews leave Israel

A graphic posted on the official Fatah Facebook page:

They aren't talking about Israeli Arabs, so the only people they are demanding to leave their homes are Jews.

And they nicely threaten to shoot them if they don't.

This is, after all, their "peace plan."

(h/t Palestinian Media Watch)

05/14 Links Pt1: Turkey Hosts UN Anti Israel Conference; Israel Offers Help for Turkey Mine Disaster

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: And Peace to You, Jimmy Baby

Some say that Jimmy Carter is an anti-Semite, although I have never drawn that conclusion. What I think is that Carter remains entrenched within the kind of left-leaning, soft-hearted, soft-minded, Vietnam War era sensibility that vilified western imperialism and romanticized anti-imperialist forces of any sort – however violent, however vile – so long as they represented “people of color.”
How else to explain Carter’s equanimity with Hamas’s articulated genocidal intentions? How else to explain that he honestly believes that murderous lunatics make for good negotiating partners?
I tell you what. I have a better idea. Instead of folding Hamas into the PLO – which, itself, is a terrorist organization, of course – why do we not defeat Hamas and thereby make them go away?
I know that wishing to actually defeat one’s mortal enemies is today considered dangerously hard-right radical, but I feel reasonably certain that Franklin Roosevelt approved of the notion.

Netanyahu: In Unity Deal, Abbas Would be Held Responsible for Gaza Rocket Attacks

Speaking ahead of meeting Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, in Tokyo, as part of a state visit, Netanyahu described the unity pact as “a turn for the worst” because “Hamas is committed to our destruction.” But he said, “We remain committed to advancing the peace, preferably a negotiated peace.”
“We can only negotiate with a government whose constituent parts are committed to peace. If President Abbas goes ahead with this national unity with Hamas, a terrorist organization that regularly fires rockets into Israel, then we’ll have to hold him accountable for every rocket that is fired from Gaza, to Israel,” he said. “We hope that this pact is dissolved and we can find a way to return to genuine negotiations with a genuine peace partner.”

Missile from Gaza fired at southern Israel

A missile alert went off in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council before 7 a.m. Wednesday morning after a rocket was fired out of the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.
There were no reports of injuries or damage and security forces began searching for the impact site, apparently in an open area, Israel Radio reported.

Caroline Glick: Believing Obama on Iran

The malevolent slander of Israel’s actions and intentions is of course only the opening act in this new administration campaign to discredit Israel ahead of a nuclear deal with Iran. Speaking to The Washington Free Beacon, former Bush administration deputy national security advisor Elliott Abrams said he believes the administration will frame the issue “saying that it’s this deal or war.”
He’s doubtlessly correct. After all that what the administration did in November when it signed the interim deal and when it forced the Senate to mothball its sanctions bill against Iran.
The truth is that the choice isn’t between war and an agreement. It is between doing something to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, or doing nothing to prevent that from happening. The administration has opted to do nothing. Unfortunately for the world, the price for doing nothing to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is exponentially higher – in the cost of lives that would otherwise be saved – than the price of doing something.

Proposed "unity" PA minister says Jews want to take over the world

Palestine Today lists the so-called "technocrats" who are proposed as ministers for the unified Fatah-Hamas terror government.

The person earmarked to be the Religious Affairs minister is Sheikh Yusuf Salama, a preacher at the Al Aqsa mosque.

Here is what he wrote about Jews in a 2010 article:

[We must] expose the Jews and their nature, and this is the duty of the nation's scholars and opinion leaders ...relying on the Holy Quran and the Sunnah, [which have the most] detailed description of the Jews, then the history books and the writings of contemporaries with them - Muslims and non-Muslims - written in Arabic or other languages such as book by French Muslim philosopher Roger Garaudy [a well-known Holocaust denier - EoZ] It is contemporary reality, ...Their most prominent qualities are racist. They see themselves as God's chosen people, and their aspirations are for an expansionist Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates are not limited to that, but they want to control the whole world.

There will of course be a global uproar at the very idea that the PA government would have such an antisemite as a minister. Jodi Rudoren will have an above-the-fold feature in the New York Times about this. President Obama, who recently received an award for his role in fighting antisemitism, will publicly call for Salama's removal. Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch will write an op-ed about how it is unacceptable for a government to incite such hate. Palestinian NGOs like Miftah will call for the PA to drop Salama immediately. Mondoweiss and Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal and Juan Cole will be writing outraged blog posts about this.

Because all of these people and organizations solemnly insist that antisemitism has no place in today's world, and they all claim that they are against wanton Jew-hatred.

Certainly if a Jewish minister in Israel would say such bigoted things about Arabs in private and it was leaked, all these people and organizations would make a huge deal over it and force him or her out of office in disgrace. The idea of a minister of a government publicly holding such views is certainly anathema and will cause a worldwide uproar.

It's not like all these people are hypocrites, right? It cannot be that they believe that some antisemitism, from, say, Arabs, is acceptable and no big deal. They are all people of principle, who publicly disavow any vestige of Jew-hatred.

All we have to do is sit back and wait for the avalanche of criticism to materialize. The upcoming uproar will make the Donald Sterling story seem like nothing in comparison, since - objectively speaking - Sheikh Salama is much, much worse.

The outrage will begin any minute now.

The argument that Israel is an "apartheid state" rests on the fact that Arabs who live in the West Bank and Gaza do not have the same rights as Israeli citizens.One common example given is that they cannot vote in Israeli elections.

The reason for them being treated differently is, of course, is because they are not Israeli citizens. They can vote for their own PA government, and once upon a time they did. Given that Arab citizens of Israel do have equal rights under the law (although they do suffer from discrimination, as minorities in every nation do) calling Israel an apartheid state for not allowing non-citizens to vote is absurd.

However, there are millions of full citizens of the United States who are not allowed, by law, to vote in national elections.

Residents of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and other territories cannot vote in federal elections. The US Constitution requires a voter to be resident in one of the 50 states, or in the District of Columbia, to vote in federal elections.

That's about 4.2 million US citizens who are disenfranchised - by law - from voting for their president.

But that is only one group of US citizens who are not allowed to vote. Another group is even larger.

About six million people who committed crimes cannot vote in US. In some states, even after prisoners are released they do not regain voting rights.

Not only that, but about three quarters of the US citizens who are denied the right to vote in federal elections are minorities - about 60% of prisoners and nearly all of the residents of the US territories, - which is even further indication of US apartheid based on race!

Obviously, to call the US an apartheid state is absurd. But anyone who claims that Israel is an "apartheid state" must believe that the United States is far more guilty of the crime of apartheid than Israel is, given its legal discrimination against about 10 million US citizens.

For some reason, none of the Israel haters, who pretend to care so much about equal rights, are bothered by US legal discrimination against far more people who are actual US citizens. Isn't that a shocker.

(Note: In Israel, prisoners can vote for Knesset and arrangements are made for them to do so.)

Isn't it awful when buildings are demolished?

Ma'an's top story:

Israeli bulldozers demolished three Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem early Wednesday, locals told Ma'an.

Accompanied by Israeli forces and police officers, bulldozers entered the Palestinian neighborhoods of Beit Hanina, Shuafat, and Ras al-Amoud, where they destroyed two shops and a workshop.

Look at those racist Israelis, doing things to Arabs they would never do to Jews.

Oh, wait:

Security forces began an operation to demolish 10 illegal structures in the West Bank outpost of Ma’ale Rehavam early Wednesday afternoon, after the High Court rejected claims by settlers that the land the buildings are on was purchased legally.

...[S]ecurity forces geared up for violent resistance as they carry out a court order to demolish 28 structures in three West Bank outposts, including a synagogue.

After the court rejected the settlers’ claims, forces were given the go-ahead to begin demolishing the structures, three of which house families.

Three Arab shops in Jerusalem being demolished are Ma'an's main story, and it ignores Israel demolishing 28 Jewish-owned buildings on the same day.

Like most modern states, Israel is a nation of laws. If you build something illegally, very possibly you will lose your investment. If you move a family there, they will lose their home. Whether you are Jewish or Arab.

What are the statistics of how many Jewish buildings have been demolished in recent years? I don't know - I can't find any European-funded NGO that spends the time to count them. One report finds that in the late 1990s/early 2000s there were far more demolitions of Jewish homes than Arab homes in Jerusalem. Israel has certainly demolished a number of illegal Jewish settlements since then.

I suspect that there are a lot more Jewish buildings being destroyed than you see in the news.

The Jewish home demolitions are not something to be publicized, because the fact that it ever happens completely contradicts the main thesis of B'Tselem and ICAHD and all the other well-funded organizations that claim that Israel is discriminating against Arabs. They won't ever dare count demolitions of Jewish homes or make a comparison. The UN and Amnesty and Human Rights Watch doesn't care whether homes are built legally or illegally - they only care if the homes being demolished don't belong to Jews.

And once again, the truth is sacrificed on the altar of hate.

(UPDATE: Removed the sentence " I can say that between 1993 and 2001, far more Jewish homes were demolished in Jerusalem than Arab homes." since I could not verify that in that linked paper, which is worth reading anyway. But the same author wrote the more comprehensive study that is excerpted in the link above. H/t Alexi.)

Surprise! Arabs hate Jews more than anyone else does

The ADL released its statistics on worldwide antisemitism. There is a lot to go through but one fact is clear: Arab nations in the Middle East, hate Jews far more than the rest of the world.

Here are the aggregate scores by region of the percent of people with antisemitic attitudes. Not surprisingly, the Middle East has by far the highest concentration of antisemites.

In the Arab Middle East, the scores range from a low of 74% of Saudis with antisemitic attitudes up to 93% of Palestinian Arabs, who hate Jews the most in the world.

Interestingly, the Arab countries considered the most moderate and friendly to Jews had very high scores. Morocco and the supposedly liberal UAE are at 80% and Tunisia, in the news this week for the allowing Jews to go on pilgrimage there, scores 86% antisemitic.

The non-Arab countries who hate Jews the most in the world are Turkey and Greece (69%), Malaysia (61%), Armenia (58%) and Iran (56%).

The country with the least antisemitism, by far, was ...Laos, with a score of a mere 0.2%. Compare that to the US, with 9%.

Interestingly, the ADL didn't survey Israel.

05/13 Links Pt2: J Street Challenged to Condemn PA War Crimes; Vassar SJP Tweets Nazi Propaganda

From Ian:

J Street, I Dare You to Condemn PA War Crimes

Hey J Street, I dare you to create one Facebook post that puts part of the blame for the failed peace talks on the PA’s incitement to kill Jews. Seems like a no-brainer for a “pro-Israel” and “pro-peace” organization, right?
In the past six days on its official Facebook page, J Street has blamed settlements and/or Bibi for the collapse of the peace processes three times. Meanwhile, it has yet to mention even once the PA’s unwillingness to make any concessions, the PA’s glorification of terrorism, and the PA’s continuous incitement to genocide (which is a war crime) as even slight obstacles to peace.
J Street claims to be “pro-Israel” and pro-peace,” but it only condemns Israel and it ignores obvious obstacles to peace committed by the PA.
War crimes and the glorification of terrorism seem to me to be pretty large obstacles to peace; shouldn’t these PA actions be blamed at least partially for the collapse of the peace process? Or how about the PA’s recent partnership with the terrorist group Hamas?

Amos Oz is a Dangerous Opportunist

He sent an autographed copy of his book along with a love letter to Marwan Barghouti, convicted murderer of innocent Jews and planner of the Second Intifada, Israel's greatest massacre of civilians.
Now Amos Oz has called the unidentified price taggers, whom he has considers exemplars of right wing Jews in Judea and Samaria, "neo-Nazis", condemning them to a similarly sinister, diabolical fate. Oz previously referred to traditional Jews as "filth." (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Auschwitz Survivor's Son Hits Back at Oz's 'Nazi' Slur

Nationalistic screen writer and satirist Tal Gilad, whose father is a famous Holocaust survivor, has fired back at famed writer Amos Oz for his statement that so-called Hilltop Youth and perpetrators of Price Tag attacks are “Hebrew neo-Nazis.”
Gilad's Facebook post Sunday was widely shared and lauded.
"Hello Amos Oz,” wrote Gilad, who was the main scriptwriter for the Latma satire show.
"The word 'Nazi,' or – in the form that is considered somehow softer – 'neo-Nazi', is too often used as a doomsday weapon on any subject, apparently because people like you, who blurt it out freely, are unable of fathoming the depth of horror of Nazism and what it perpetrated," he accused.
"People are always trying to place this term in a mold that will make it understandable for our consciousness. But that is impossible, because a Nazi is not simply someone very bad, or a nationalist, or a traffic policeman. A Nazi is something else, from a different reality. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

PCUSA Activists Promote Three Big Lies in Zionism Unsettled

Since its founding in 2004, the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged in an ongoing effort to delegitimize Israel and its supporters, Jews especially, in the United States.
Three Big Lies
Zionism Unsettled promotes three big lies.
The first big lie is that Zionism as a political movement and Israel as a country have been sheltered from debate, particularly in mainline churches in the U.S.
The second big lie is that Jews were well treated in Muslim countries in the Middle East until Israel's founding in 1948.
The third big lie is that Israel is singularly responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians. “Zionism is the problem,” the text states on page 56.

A story of 19th century Jewish-Muslim cooperation - and current Muslim hate

Here is an enlightening 2007 article from YNet, by Yehuda Litani:

Dome of the Rock in 1890

In the years 1992-3 the late King Hussein of Jordan financed the renovations of the golden dome, which was carried out by a construction company from Northern Ireland. On a visit to the site during those renovations I discovered a story that wasn’t known until then, regarding the Jewish-Ottoman-Palestinian connection to the mosques on Temple Mount.

The Dome of the Rock was surrounded with scaffolding, and before ascending one of them a friend of mine drew my attention to an iron panel that lay on the floor and was inscribed in French. The foreman of the Irish construction company said the panel had been found between the two halves of the crescents at on top of the mosque, and was temporarily dismantled so that the dome could be coated in gold.

The words in French revealed that the Mosque had been renovated in 1899 during Turkish rule, and that the works had been assisted by the Jewish community in Jerusalem led by a public figure called Avraham (Albert) Entebbe, who among his numerous other activities was also the principal of the city's "Kol Israel Haverim" school.

Entebbe, who was the undersigned on the French inscription, was known for his courageous ties with the heads of the Ottoman rule, and the inscription noted that for the purpose of renovating the mosques on the Temple Mount five acclaimed Jewish artists had been invited to Jerusalem. The Jewish stone carvers, wood carvers and iron mongers from various cities in the Mediterranean basin, shared their skills with their Muslim brothers during months of work.

The inscription also noted that all the students at Entebbe's school were given a three-month leave in order to assist their Muslim brothers in the renovations works on Temple Mount. In the last lines of the inscription, Entebbe described the ideal cooperation and understanding that prevailed between Jews and Muslims in the Holy City, which reached its zenith when the Jews undertook renovations of the Temple Mount mosques in 1899.

I told the Irish foreman about my discovery, and asked him to look after the iron panel so that I could take a photograph of it. The foreman apparently told Waqf representatives about the panel, and when we came back to the site the next day the panel was no longer there. The foreman said the Waqf had taken it away. When I asked one of them a few days later where the iron panel was, he said that he didn’t know what I was talking about.

The iron panel, which told the story of the wonderful cooperation between the Jews and Muslims under Turkish rule, disappeared. There is no chance of it reappearing in the future, because it doesn't serve the Waqf's current interests. Yet at a time of harsh words and hatred it's rather nice to reminisce on days gone by.

Besides the already stunning story about Jews helping renovate one of the most iconic Muslim symbols, think about what kind of hate the Waqf has where it cannot consider having anyone ever finding out about it.

(h/t JW)

I am pleased to say that EoZ will be publishing a regular column from the excellent humor site, PreOccupied Territory.

Here's the first:

Berkeley, California, May 14 - Advocates of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement against Israel expressed frustration today that their lobbying efforts targeting major cultural figures have yet to elicit a commitment from the world's most famous composer not to appear in Israel.

BDS activists have been focusing on high-profile figures in academia, the arts, film, music, and other fields, attempting to convince them not to maintain ties with fans or colleagues in Israel. Though it has enjoyed only mixed success at best, the movement continues to lobby those figures, especially celebrities, in the hope that such prominent people declaring a boycott will encourage others to behave in similar fashion. However, they have yet to succeed in scoring the endorsement of anyone with the stature of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Beethoven's music has provided the soundtrack for some of history's most enduring moments, such as the final victory over Napoleon in 1815. The choral finale of his Ninth Symphony, a setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy, is perhaps the most famous piece of music ever composed, surpassed perhaps only by the opening bars of his Fifth Symphony, and was adopted as the theme of the European Union. The chorus was conducted by none other than maestro Leonard Bernstein at a concert celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Gaining the backing of a seminal figure such as Beethoven would put wind in the BDS movement's sails, but they have yet to come close to succeeding.

"Part of the difficulty is tracking him down," confesses Omar Barghouti, a BDS pioneer. "He seems to be a very private person. But I rather doubt he hasn't heard of us, as we've been attracting attention across Europe and North America for a number of years." Barghouti speculates that perhaps the composer does not wish to make any political statements, but other activists note that such neutrality would not be in keeping with Beethoven's character.

"Beethoven had no problem erasing the dedication to Napoleon at the top of his 'Eroica' Symphony when Napoleon declared himself emperor of France in 1804," said musicologist and BDS activist Hedda P'myass. "He was quite clear on where he stood when it came to international politics." P'myass, for her part, suggested that the composer had sympathies for Israel, but was uncomfortable voicing them in polite company.

Barghouti says the movement will keep trying. "We might not have convinced Mr. Beethoven not to have ties with Israel, but he hasn't yet visited there, either," he noted. "If we keep the pressure on, maybe it will stay that way."

"Or we will just declare that he supports boycotting Israel, as we usually do." [EoZ]