Pravda: Israel injecting PalArab prisoners with "viruses" before release

The latest blood libel, from Pravda:

A Palestinian released from Israeli jails, Rania Saqa, has brought to light that the Israeli regime injected detainees that are out of prisons with dangerous viruses.

Noting that Palestinian prisoners suffer from serious and chronic diseases such as bladder cancer and liver disorders, Rania has revealed that the Tel Aviv regime injects prisoners with dangerous viruses before releasing them.

The released prisoner has asked the many institutions and the international community to examine them carefully.

Most former inmates die after being released from Israeli jails.

Saqa Rania criticized the neglect of the Palestinian state to the situation in which the prisoners and their families find themselves and added that "the prisoners are subjected to the most cruel tortures."

A suspiciously large number of Palestinian prisoners are suffering from incurable diseases or permanent disabilities as a result of the critical situation in prisons that they suffer at the hands of Israeli regime.

Recently, the International Solidarity for Human Rights Institute warned that the Israeli regime uses and abuses Palestinian prisoners to test their new drugs, and this contradicts international medical and moral principles.

Currently, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are crowded in the jails of the regime in Tel Aviv. Most have not been tried and some have no formal charge against them, a strategy that the Israeli regime called "administrative detention."

As usual, not the slightest shred of evidence for sensationalist accusations. "Most former inmates die"? Well, maybe within 50 years they do.

El Saqa seems to be really unstable. She was interviewed in Hamas' Felesteen a couple of months ago. She

had been jailed for attempting to stab an Israeli officer at the Qalandiya checkpoint. Rania complained about her many illnesses after leaving prison including breast cancer, bladder cancer, hepatitis B, and multiple broken bones. She claims that she has been trying to get both the PA and Hamas to pay her medical bills but they have refused, and she tried to immolate herself to gain attention. She said that first she had medical negligence in Israeli prison, and then medical negligence by the PA and Hamas when she left.

In that article, she said nothing about being injected with viruses.

Similarly, in another interview for Al Quds, she said she needs cash to be treated in Italy but said nothing about Israel giving her these diseases.

Then, a few days ago, she suddenly announced she has money to travel to Italy for treatment, but not enough for living expenses. By then, her story about Israel injecting prisoners was starting to gel.

El Saqa has grasped the basic concept that if you want to get international media coverage - and money -  blaming the PA is not going to get you anywhere. You have to blame Israel.

And, as we see, it works. Expect to see her absurd charges repeated, amplified and exaggerated in coming days.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv and O)

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Palestinian Arab "leaders" again reject solving "refugee" issue

I had missed this story from last week. From the anti-Israel Middle East Monitor:

Israel's President Shimon Peres has said that Canada could play a significant role in the peace process, especially with regards to the Palestinian refugee issue. Mr Peres made his remarks after meeting Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird in Tel Aviv.

Ain Hilweh  "refugee"camp - really, prison - in Lebanon

Peres pointed out that Canada has shown willingness in the past to absorb about 120,000 Palestinian refugees and grant them full Canadian citizenship so that they can live there forever. According to Peres this is an important offer as it would "save" the refugees from the "terrible suffering" they face in the refugee camps. As far as the Israeli president is concerned, "Instead of returning to what is now Israel, they can choose between compensation and migration to a country like Canada or moving within the borders of an independent state of Palestine."

Baird did not address the refugee issue openly, but Israeli sources confirmed that following Canada's offer to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in 2010 to allow Palestinians to migrate to the North American country, around 5,000 Palestinians holding travel documents issued by the UN agency had made the move. This was done ostensibly to reunite Palestinian families in the diaspora.

Then comes the blatant lies:

Commentators have warned that this does not make the refugee issue disappear; it merely switches it to another country as the Palestinians' right to return to their land is enshrined in international law. "Canada's offer would simply get Israel off the hook," said MEMO's senior editor Ibrahim Hewitt. "If Peres is serious about doing something to save refugees from such terrible conditions in the refugee camps, why doesn't he implement UN Resolution 194? After all, allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their land was one of the conditions of Israel's membership of the UN which has never been fulfilled."

There is no "right to return," in international law or otherwise, and that goes doubly so for descendants of refugees. UNGA 194 is not international law and its other paragraphs have been roundly ignored for over six decades.

The idea that Israel's admission to the UN was conditional on solving the refugee problem is another lie that Palestinian Arab leaders like to throw around.

Another major PalArab group, of course, rejects the idea that Palestinian Arabs should move out of camps and become full functioning citizens of a Western country:

Hamas movement renewed its affirmation that the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland from where they were forcibly evicted is a sacred right.

It said in a press release on Friday that no power on Earth could revoke that right, adding that the Palestinians were forced to live in other countries on temporary basis and would never relinquish the right of return.

Hamas was responding to statements attributed to Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird that his country was ready to absorb 120,000 Palestinian refugees where they would be granted Canadian citizenship and live there forever.

Hamas said that it absolutely rejects all solutions tabled by Israel and other international parties to dissolve the Palestinian refugees’ rights and asks all international parties to stop such “suspicious attempts” that only serve Israel and its schemes and deepen the Palestinian people’s suffering.

This has been true for years, and was especially evident when Western nations offered to relocate homeless Iraqis of Palestinian origin who were real refugees - and Arab leaders denounced the attempts to help these people out.

Naturally, the idea of making these people citizens in the Arab countries they were born in - which really does have a basis in international agreements - is utterly rejected by the Arab states as well as the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.

So who cares about the descendants of Arab refugees from Palestine? Certainly not the Arabs.

(h/t YM)

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New leader of dying Egyptian community is an anti-Zionist

On Thursday, Carmen Weinstein, the leader of the tiny remainder of a Jewish community in Egypt was buried in the dilapidated and damaged Jewish cemetery in Cairo:

After the service, Weinstein was buried in the Bassatine Jewish cemetery in a Cairo suburb. Her relatives said she wished to be buried alongside her parents, but sewage had flooded that part of the graveyard.

"Look at the humiliation and the filth in which we will be buried," said Haroun.

"But what to do? The area around should be developed, its residents must be allowed a decent life, so they preserve their surroundings," she said of the neighbouring slums.

Roger Bilboul, who came from France for the funeral, said he found the state of the graveyard "sad." "There was a metal door, it was stolen."

There are few gravestones left amid the rubbish. Most of the marble slabs have been stolen too.

The Haroun quoted is the new leader, Magda Haroun.

Egypt's small Jewish community will refuse Israeli offers of financial help for the

renovation of Egypt's ancient Jewish synagogues, Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported on Tuesday.

Magda Haroun, the new leader of Egypt's Jewish community, told Al-Ahram that she plans to contact UN heritage organisation UNESCO if she failed to find adequate funds for synagogue renovation.

Haroun stressed that Egypt's Jewish monuments belonged to Egypt's historical heritage, which extends over a very long period.

"Jewish temples are like the pyramids and the Sphinx," she said. "They are a part of Egypt's history that cannot be ignored."

"The sons of this community are Egyptians. We will live forever in Egypt because religion is for God and the nation is for everybody," Haroun said.

HuffPo notes that her father was an anti-Zionist:

Haroun said she considered herself Egyptian before Jewish, born and raised in the country.

Her father Chehata Haroun was a prominent Egyptian nationalist, one of the founders of the leftist Al Tagammu Party. He was known for his anti-Zionist politics and his defense of Egyptian Jews against accusations of having greater loyalty to Israel than to Egypt, at the peak of the Mideast wars.

Arabic media notes that her father actually volunteered to fight for Egypt in the Six Day War and wrote a famous letter asking to do so, and Magda says she wishes she could have joined him in fighting Israel (she was 13 at the time.) Chehata was also against the Camp David agreement to make peace with Israel.

When he died in 2001, his family refused to allow an Israeli rabbi to officiate at the funeral, and a rabbi from France was brought in instead.

Given this, it does not appear that Magda Haroun's anti-Zionism is an act.

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‘Remove Israel from Existence’: 3 new clips from Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV

From the IDF Blog:

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Gaza’s ‘Al-Aqsa’ television channel, which is affiliated with Hamas, continues to faithfully serve the fundamentalist line of its political masters. The channel frequently calls for the violent killing of Jews and for popular struggle against the ‘Zionist regime’, until it has been completely destroyed.

Check out these three clips, which nicely illustrate Hamas’ ongoing incitement against Israel:



Religious leader Wael Al-Zarad asks God to support global Jihad fighters in their attempts to “liberate Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Safed and Lod, Ramle, Jericho and all of our cities” from “this group of cancerous bacteria” [Israel].



In a Friday sermon from Gaza broadcast on March 1, the preacher calls on his congregation to “admit and proclaim to the entire world that what we truly seek is to remove the so-called “State of Israel” from existence”.



The anchor of an Al-Aqsa TV news show reports that Hamas has called for a terror attack on Jerusalem.

Hamas proves once again that its claims to legitimacy and moderation are false. Hamas’ true goal is to destroy the State of Israel.

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Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Munich, Israel, and Boston
How Israel prepares security for major sports events

Dr. Ganor says that the public awareness so prevalent here isn’t just a product of the long Intifada years, but of top-down education, of the sort he was exposed to in preschool. “It’s a process that takes time, but public awareness can and should be taught,” Dr. Ganor said. “Americans need it more than most people do, because they are more threatened than others but at the same time they’re also more complacent.” This is of particular importance because yesterday’s bombing seems to him to have been planned and carried out by a “lone wolf”, acting independently of a larger organization. In such cases, better intelligence – the secret to the vast majority of Israel’s counter-terrorism successes – would probably not have picked up on any early warning signals.

Analysis: Is Sinai Israel’s Achilles’ heel?

The al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists who targeted Eilat with rockets on Wednesday morning believe they have found Israel’s strategic Achilles’ heel.
Striking from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, they hope, rules out Israeli retaliation.
Jerusalem is highly reluctant to embark on any kind of counterterrorism operation on Egyptian territory, a fact readily exploited by Wednesday’s attackers.

Netanyahu: Syrian WMD a ‘worldwide’ terrorist threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed that Israel is prepared to conduct military action inside Syria to keep “game-changing” weapons out of terrorists’ hands. In an interview with the BBC in London Wednesday, Netanyahu also warned of a possible backlash if the international community decides to arm rebel groups.

Barry Rubin: Libya, a U.S. Client is a Mess Whose Anarchy Subverts the Region

This is a description of an anarchic mess. It is important for U.S. interests especially regarding Libya’s role as an arsenal for terrorist and insurgent groups. The trouble, however, is that the Obama Administration wants most of these arms to go to most of these groups. The other reason for Libya’s importance is that there is no progress being made on the Benghazi attacks on Americans. But perhaps the Obama Administration wants no progress on investigations of this incident.

Israeli NGO campaigns for Haniyeh, Abbas ICC trials

Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center said that the Palestinian Authority was recently recognized as a full state by the United Nations General Assembly and is now “threatening to bring soldiers and senior Israeli leaders to trial” before the ICC.
A Shurat HaDin press release also said that, “We at Shurat HaDin, know that the real victims are actually the harmed Israelis. Therefore, we are initiating a preemptive strike and collecting testimonies of every person who was physically or emotionally hurt by Palestinian terror.”

Parents Fight Textbook Trivializing Murder of Israeli Civilians

Williamson County, TN, resident Laurie Cardoza-Moore, mother of five and the head of an organization of pro-Israeli Christians, says she “appalled” to read in “The Cultural Landscape Curriculum – An Introduction to Human Geography” (list price a whopping $157.53) a social studies textbook her children study at the local high school the following, the following “dilemma”:
“If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism, or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?”

5 charged for plot to kill Jews praying at Temple Mount

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office on Thursday submitted an indictment to the Jerusalem District Court against five east Jerusalem Palestinians for conspiring to carry out shooting and kidnapping attacks against Jews praying on the Temple Mount and security forces posted in east Jerusalem.

Israel ranks 2nd in worlds most educated countries

Israel ranked second in an international survey looking at the world’s Top 10 countries with the highest proportion of college-educated adult residents. Israel recorded 46 percent of its population completing a tertiary education, just five percent behind top-rated Canada.

Lewis Yelland Andrews, the Jews' forgotten friend

Andrews therefore became the Yishuv's trusted confidant in land affairs. He attained to this status after he helped the defenders of Hadera against the Arab attackers in 1920, and in 1929 rushed to rescue 20 Jewish families from Hadera and brought in a squad of Circassians armed with machine guns to break up a Bedouin mob that was threatening to attack the members of Beit Alfa (the chronicles of the Haganah describe Andrews' good deeds during that time at length). But Andrews neglected his own safety. (h/t Yoel)

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Meyer Lansky, gangster - and Zionist

Ma'ariv has a lengthy article about legendary mobster Meyer Lansky, and how he helped Israel in its early days. Here is a condensed version and paraphrase of the article.

Lansky grew up on the Lower East Side in New York in the early 1900s. He made ​​his fortune in the
bootlegging business with his friend "Bugsy" Siegel, made ​​millions in gambling halls in Las Vegas and Cuba, had police and politicians in his pocket and is considered the biggest Jewish gangster in history. But also - Meyer Lansky was born in Grodno to a Jewish family before they emigrated to the United States, he fought valiantly against the US Nazi demonstrations before and during World War II, he helped the Americans to conquer Sicily, and he raised millions of dollars for establishment of Israel, but when he wanted to immigrate and receive citizenship in the early seventies he was expelled from the country in disgrace.

Lansky's family moved from Grodno (at the time, part of Russia) to the Lower East Side in New York City, a poor working-class neighborhood that absorbed many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Lansky left school at age 15 and by age 19 had already established the first gang along with his friend "Bugsy" Siegel. Lansky was the brain of the organization while Bugsy was the "muscle." "It's always better not to shoot, if it's possible," Lansky once said . "It is better to use common sense, and if that does not work, then move to threats. Violence is a bad substitute for logic."

An Israeli cousin of Lansky, who researched his life, says "Jewish gangsters in America evolved for two reasons. First, to protect the Jews. Jewish women on the Lower East Side could not walk alone on the street filled with Italians and Irish without being attacked and raped. Groups were established to protect the Jews in those cities and neighborhoods. The second reason was that the Jews ln America were poor. Some Jews got into the gangster life to make money and send their children to university. Unlike of Italian crime families, many of which remain active to this day, the entire Jewish involvement in the mob was over in one generation, and many of the children of that generation did not even know what their parents were involved. Some Jewish recipients of Nobel Prizes today are the childrenof the people associated in one way or another with the mafia."


By the late twenties, Bugsy and Meyer were collecting protection money from nightclubs, providing security services to the Italian mafia leaders, were involved in the activities of unions in New York and the occasional burglary and drug trafficking, while leaving behind a growing trail of bodies. This period also strengthened ties between the two and another childhood friend of Lansky, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Lansky and Siegel helped pave the way to Luciano to be named named "Capo di tutti capi" - boss of all bosses - through the elimination of other senior Italian Mafia figures. Then Luciano and Lansky built what was called the "National Crime Syndicate" - a national council of gangsters, where strategic decisions were made and disputes settled between families. Syndicate sat together leaders Irish Italian crime families and Jewish. While the Syndicate ended up murdering many people, Lansky was not believed to be involved in murders.

In the 1930s, as Prohibition was ending, Lansky branched out into gambling, using connections with Cuban officials to open up casinos there.

One day turned a Jewish judge and community leader Natan Perlman told Lansky he believed that Jews should demonstrate "a bit more militant" response at rallies that Nazis supporters held in New York. Lansky, becoming aware of the growing plight of his "European brothers," as he called them, was quick to respond to the request. Perlman threw only one constraint: no fatalities. Lansky sent some of his Syndicate friends along with other Jews to terrorize the Nazi party supporters throughout New York City. Flags were torn, skulls were cracked, but there were no fatalities.

After the US entered World War II, in 1943, Thomas Dewey and other US officials told Lansky the U.S. forces are about to conquer Sicily, birthplace of Lucky Luciano, who was then in prison. They asked him to see if Luciano could convince the Sicilians to cooperate with the occupying forces. Lansky visited the prison, and asked him the Mafia in Sicily will cooperate with the Americans. There were two armies invaded Sicily - the first British led by General Montgomery and an American second, under General Patton. The Sicilians supported the invasion, and in return Luciano was released from prison.

After the horrors of the Holocaust were apparent, Lansky felt the need to help his fellow Jews. In 1946, Lansky made a strategic decision: he and his friends throughout the United States must help bring the survivors from Europe to Palestine, and help establish the Jewish state. Lansky gave the order.

Lansky's cousin elaborates: "The goal was to help establish the Jewish state. It meant to buy the ships, help in gathering Jews from all over Europe, bringing them to Israel, to transfer funds to Israel, to arm the military. Whether it was buying Czech planes or training the paratroopers, all of it cost money - and Lansky collected all the money. It was Lansky's gift. He was a man of power and influence, and had the ability to help establish the Jewish state. He was in contact with many people and helped in collecting funds. It is important to emphasize that a lot of Jews not related to the mafia gave money, but those who controlled it, these were people who were close to the leadership of the syndicate."

Lansky's friends managed to get ships from Panama to ship weapons to Palestine, and Teddy Kollek - later mayor of Jerusalem - met with many of the mobster leaders who cooperated because of Lansky's interest. Even Bugsy Siegel, who was not interested in Judaism at all, responded when he heard that Jews were fighting.

In the fifties and sixties Lansky was convicted of gambling offenses and fined several thousand dollars and sentenced to probation, which did not stop him frm conducting business as usual, while the authorities turned a blind eye. Only towards the end of the sixties, and after he retired to Miami, did authorities try to convict him of charges of tax evasion. Then Lansky went to Israel, first as a tourist, and then when the interior minister refused to extend his visa, he requested to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. Israeli authorities thought otherwise. After a highly publicized trial, Chief Justice Shimon Agranat rejected Lansky's petition on the grounds that "Lansky's criminal past is a danger to public safety." Lansky was returned to the United States. He died in Miami in 1983.

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This history is not well known, apparently because Israelis didn't want their early history to have any association with criminals. Indeed there are many anti-semitic websites that distort this history in order to make it appear that Jewish mobsters built Israel. But it is fascinating nonetheless.

(h/t Yoel)

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So, what important things are being tackled by the UN today?

Every day at the UN is "Hate Israel" day, and today is no exception. Let's see:

VENEZUELA TO HOST SPECIAL MEETING OF COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, 17-18 APRIL

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in collaboration with and at the invitation of the Government of Venezuela, will convene a special meeting at the historic Yellow House in Caracas on 17-18 April 2013. In parallel, the Government of Venezuela will be inaugurating a Palestinian cultural week.

Ambassador Abdou Salam Diallo (Senegal), Chairman of the Committee, Riad Malki, Foreign Affairs Minister of the State of Palestine, and Elias Jaua Milano, Minister of the People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, will open the meeting. It is expected to address two main issues: the implications of the resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 29 November 2012 to grant the status of non-Member Observer State to Palestine in the United Nations; and initiatives to re-launch worldwide and regional solidarity with the Palestinian people and the State of Palestine.

It is expected that, at the closing of the meeting, the Committee will adopt a declaration in which support for the cause of the Palestinian people and for the State of Palestine will be reaffirmed. A press conference will be held on 18 April following the closing of the meeting.

I'm sure that the world is waiting for the declaration to be issued, any minute now from that world capital of human rights, Venezuela.

How about earlier in the week? (links show context that the UN doesn't deem important)

On the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoners Day, 17 April, the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People expresses its grave concern about the plight of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.

It is estimated that over 750,000 Palestinians have been arrested by Israel since the beginning of the occupation in 1967. At the end of February 2013, there were 4,700 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, 235 of them children and 10 of them women, as well as 169 administrative detainees that are imprisoned without charge or trial.
...

The conditions of detention of Palestinians in Israeli prisons continue to be a source of grave concern. Prisoners are thronged together in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, denied access to health services, abused, beaten and humiliated by the guards, subjected to solitary confinement, with family visits severely restricted, all in contravention of provisions contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of protected persons. We are particularly alarmed by continued reports of torture and other forms of ill treatment.

The ongoing critical situation of Palestinian prisoners and detainees has led to raised tensions and is causing further instability in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. 

Looks like they are earning their paychecks, doesn't it?

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Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Why a Palestinian state needs Israel

The Palestinians, badly treated by the Arab world, must turn to Israel to build a lasting future. As a people, they simple have no friends in the Arab world. They are to some states pawns, to others parasites, and even the "untouchables" of the Arab world in some quarters.
Across the Middle East the so called 'refugees' are denied passports and citizenship by the countries they, their fathers, and their grandfathers were born in. The aim, aside from clear racism and lack of basic humanity, has remained the same since 1948 – the politicization of the Palestinians

PMW: Members of US Congress protest to Abbas about PA TV hate speech that PMW had exposed

Palestinian Media Watch recently exposed the PA TV broadcast of a girl reciting a poem that referred to Jews as "enemies of Allah, descendants of pigs." Three members of the US Congress, Doug Lamborn, Eliot L. Engel, and Trent Franks responded by writing a public letter to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Indy blogger Matt Hill engages in reckless smear about “forced sterilisation” in Israel

As Elder of Ziyon argued, though “some women may have misunderstood the use of the drug or the options they have for birth control”, there was never any plot by Israeli doctors to sterilize Ethiopian women.
Whilst other publications have engaged in sloppy reporting over the Ethiopian birth control story, Hill’s charge at the Indy leads the pack by engaging in a reckless, hysterical smear that has absolutely no basis in fact.

One-dimensional BBC reports on Fayyad resignation

Whilst BBC journalists debate whether Fayyad will stay or go and what effect that might have on the peace process, they – like many of Fayyad’s supporters in the West – apparently fail to realize that peace is about a lot more than one particular personality. Given the BBC’s default placing of blame for the failure of the peace process on a variety of exclusively Israeli causes (be they ‘settlements’ or the perceived disinterest of the Israeli government), it is hardly surprising that it fails to provide its audiences with comprehensive explanations of the long-existing fault lines within the PA which Fayyad’s resignation exposes. That leaves BBC audiences with a one-dimensional view of the peace process and the reasons for its failure to bear fruit.

Israeli Skunk Spray Effectively Dispersing Violent Arabs (2 Videos)

The “aromatic” spray is shot from a water cannon, soaking the target in gut wrenching, putrid smell. But, believe it or not, as smelly as it is, the Skunk is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and so harmless you can drink it without fear of harm. Except, according to reporters who caught a whiff of it, it kind of immediately makes you wretch.

Three men deported from Saudi for being 'too handsome'

I've checked and the following story does not trace back to The Onion. I can only assume therefore that it is based on truth. And when you learn that it comes out of Saudi Arabia, you will probably be inclined to believe it too.

Poland’s lawmakers honor Warsaw ghetto fighters

Poland’s lawmakers have paid homage to the victims and fighters of the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, days before the 70th anniversary of the ill-fated revolt.

Herzliya college opens Daniel Pearl journalism center

The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya launched the Daniel Pearl International Journalism Institute on Wednesday.
Pearl was on his way to an interview in Pakistan in 2002 when he was abducted and later beheaded. His last words were, “I am Jewish.”

Umoove operates your mobile through head movements alone

Newsgeek chose Israel’s Umoove as one of the three most promising Israeli startups for 2013.
What the Kinect motion-sensing device did for the Xbox game console, Israeli startup Umoove proposes to do for your mobile. You won’t have to move your whole body – only the parts from the chin up — to play games, scroll down a page or dial your mother.

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This Jew-hatred proudly sponsored by the Qalilat family

A friend of tweeter Elias snapped a photo of this poster in a Christian neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon:

The caption says:

This is your situation, you pigs!

Dedicated by the Qalilat family

I'd love to know how the dinner conversation went when this family decided to design and then print this poster.

(h/t Al Gharqad)

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Miftah's jihad against cute baby animals

In my quest to find a comment that liberal, freedom-loving Miftah would not consider to be "hate language or slander," on their Facebook page, I tried this (under my Eldad Tzioni persona, since Elder of Ziyon was banned):

As soon as the sun rose in the Middle East, my comment (and the one above) were gone.

Miftah hates puppies.

Then I thought, perhaps I was being accidentally offensive. After all, dogs are considered unclean animals in the Muslim world. So I thought I would try again:

Within an hour, it was removed as well.

What does Miftah have against kittens?

I would pay money to have a journalist ask Hanan Ashrawi about her organization's hatred of free speech (while embracing other kinds of hate speech) the next time she is on TV spouting her lies.

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South Africa concert attack update

More details about the attack on the Yom Ha'atzmaut concert in South Africa are coming out. While BDS South Africa claims that Jewish security guards attacked them (!), the truth can be seen here:

On Monday evening, April 15th, attempts to sabotage the Israeli Independence day celebrations at the Gold Reef City Lyric Theatre were carried out by over one hundred BDS, COSATU, PSC and MSA members.

The members of these groups together with collaborators began to protest outside of the venue from 6pm. They were shouting, “Down with Israel” slogans, singing and blowing vuvuzelas. One speaker at the event made it clear that these movements are “going to make it so uncomfortable for Zionists to exist in this country” (South Africa) and another speaker stated that, “this will be the last year that they will be celebrating Israeli Independence.” (Which can be viewed as a direct threat to most Jews in SA).

From there, certain members of BDS, the MSA and the SRC’s from three Gauteng universities tried to get into the event as people were arriving. A source has said that “they managed to call the Lyric Theatre office and bought tickets; they even managed to get into the venue however some were stopped at the door by the heavy security (supplied by both the Jewish Community and Gold Reef City) as they looked suspicious.”

A second source has reported that some of the members of the Anti-Israel groups who were stopped at the door by Security (CSO) at the venue, began to cause a fuss saying that “being denied entry is pure racism and unjust” even though these BDS members had a plan to disrupt the concert. “They used the race card against us even though they were planning something sinister” says the source.

However, security measures did not prevail as an hour into the show, a group of the BDS/MSA/PSC ruffians made it into the venue intimidating members of the audience and shouting swear words, “down with Apartheid-Israel – Free Palestine” and “You suck” to the current performer.

Security forces managed to remove them but a sense of uneasiness had already begun to settle within the crowd, “An elderly lady behind me fell to the floor in shock as these guys started intimidating the audience. Her husband had to console her throughout the rest of the concert. It was terrible” says one witness.

Another witness, close to the commotion stated that he had to help settle a shocked woman down. “She was quite a heavily pregnant lady and she started having cramps and pain as a result of the fright caused from the commotion. It was in such bad taste.”

During the closing ceremony of the concert, while world-renown singer Yaniv D’Or’s performed “Eli-Eli”, a Holocaust song written by Hannah Senesh, one of the female protestors who had managed to infiltrate the concert got up and ran on stage screaming “free Palestine” slogans. She together with other members, who had managed to gain access to the concert as well, began to set off stink bombs around the venue, shouting “Israel-Apartheid stinks.”

At this point Yaniv who had very bravely carried on his performance hoping that they would leave, made the heroic decision to pick up the protestor and removed her off the stage while continuing to sing. He handed her over to security forces that were waiting by the stage.

A number of BDS members were arrested on the scene after this disruption, including the daughter of a senior COSATU official. They spent Monday evening in jail and were released at 4am the next morning.

MyShtetl adds:

Gold Reef City had received a bomb threat on Monday night the SAZF has revealed today, while SAPS, CSO & Gold Reef security were trying to contain illegal protesters. SA Jewry is “entitled to celebrate without intimidation and our rights being trampled on!” said the Fed today.

The Fed insists that claims of a violent assault on protestors at Monday’s night’s Yom Ha’atzmaut concert at Gold Reef City “are false and defamatory. On the contrary, it was the protestors who engaged in illegal disruptive actions at a private function, thereby blatantly infringing the right of the Jewish community to celebrate its culture and heritage,” says the Fed.

The Fed claims that Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS-SA) protesters gained access to the event under false pretences, threw stink bombs into the audience, attacked and injured an elderly woman and forced themselves onto the stage, where they attempted to attack the performers.

At Wits University, which saw similarly ugly attacks last month that shut down a concert that featured an Israeli-born pianist, things went a bit better this time:

On a more positive note, celebrations at the Wits Yom Ha’atzmaut party were not disrupted at all as the university implemented a ban on any members of these groups coming anywhere near the festivities. They were threatened with serious disciplinary action. There was also a large contingent of security around the event which deterred any unruly action from taking place. A wonderful time was had by all.

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Hamas hypocritically pretends to be against attacking civilians

Hamas' Al Qassam website published an essay by known  UFO advocate Khalid Amayreh, denouncing the Boston terror attack:

There is no doubt that that the bombing at the Boston Marathon was a decidedly criminal act which ought to be condemned in the strongest terms. There is nothing more evil than targeting innocent people. No legitimate grievances or causes justify murdering or maiming innocent people.

This is why our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this violence and their families.

He goes on to say:

I feel that as a Palestinian and Muslim, I must warn against the voices of hate and racism in the U.S. which are taking advantage of this tragic incident to incite against Muslims.

These are not truly patriotic American voices. I am not in a position to teach Americans the true meaning of patriotism. However, I believe there is a difference between true patriotism and inciting people to hate and murder.

This hateful incitement doesn't fall under freedom of speech since freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom to urge people to murder or harm innocent people.

It is touching that Hamas is suddenly concerned about the lives of innocent civilians. After all, their Arabic filled with tales of glory of terror attacks that killed in total hundreds of Israeli civilians. They issue press releases bragging about targeting Israeli civilian targets. They publish posters threatening Israeli civilians with rockets.

Khalid Amayreh's concern over incitement to hate is equally touching. After all, he has said this about Jews:

• the Jewish-controlled media and show biz have been inciting against Islam for ages.
• duplicitous, dishonest and disobedient Jews who views the rest of mankind as cattle.
• This satanic calf has effectively morphed Jews, or most Jews, into mass murderers, certified war criminals, child killers, land thieves and pathological professional liars.
• a real alliance is being forged between Zionism and European neo-Nazism
• Israeli Nazism has a fixation, namely controlling the world by controlling governments and regimes, as is already the case in the United States, Canada and several other western countries.

He has also written articles that were calls to incite a new violent intifada. If that isn't enough, he tried to get Egypt to declare war on Israel as well.

Tellingly, Amayreh's article pretending to denounce terrori does not appear on the Arabic version of the Hamas Al Qassam website.

(h/t EB)

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Another nice Yom Ha'atzmaut video

From AIPAC:



(h/t Avi Mayer)

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Unspeakable photo essay on desecrated Jewish gravestones in Poland

I am rarely emotionally affected by something I view online. However, Tablet magazine has an article and photo essay that should leave anyone speechless.

Between 2008 and 2012, photographer Łukasz Baksik—itinerant documentarian and questing typologist—traversed his native Poland, painstakingly documenting the ways in which Jewish gravestones, or matzevot, had been looted and appropriated, both in rural villages and cities, since the 1940s. “Quarried” from cemeteries during World War II (by the Nazis), the decades that followed (by Poles), and even up until the present day, matzevot had been and continue to be used in any instance in which ordinary stone might normally, mundanely, and practically suffice.

The matzevot Baksik photographed had been repurposed (a tricky verb in this context) as paving stones for courtyards and passageways, or else to patch crumbling walls and curbstones in need of reinforcement. They had been shaped into querns and grindstones; had been used to construct a cowshed, a pergola in a city park, a sandbox for children; had ended up as “recyclable” tablets for new Catholic gravestones—the Jewish gravestone was simply carved into again, like a palimpsest—and as a path for monks who, Baksik relates, “had become used to walking on a paved path, and not through the mud.”

...[T]o live and work in close proximity to looted gravestones, and with apparent spiritual equanimity, is only possible if the matzevot themselves do not register as being representative of fellow human beings.

Watch the slideshow. Now.

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Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Carter and Tutu won’t bring peace to Holy Land By Abraham Cooper, Harold Brackman

In 2003, Tutu became a patron of Sabeel International, founded by Palestinian cleric Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, who has declared: “It seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him... The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.”
“Elders” like Carter and Tutu, who demonize the Jewish nation, who deny the Jewish people’s past in the Holy Land, who refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend herself, are neither peaceseekers or peacemakers. Apartheid slanderers and boycott campaigners will only succeed in further emboldening the extremists who have already turned much of the Middle East’s Arab Spring into an international nightmare.

Israellycool: Death To Israel Facebook Page

Although many people have indicated Facebook refuses to take down the page – despite it openly calling for genocide and containing vile antisemitism like the previous photos – more people reporting it might just do the trick.

Temple Mount: Jews Strip-Searched to Avoid Israeli Flags

Three yeshiva students were strip-searched Tuesday when visiting the Temple Mount, Temple Mount activists have reported.
The students were reportedly pulled aside by a commander of the police unit for protection of holy sites. They were asked to remove clothing and their bodies were searched for an Israeli flag.

BBC says it won't use "anti-Semitism" because the word is... too long?!

Many queried the BBC's reporting of the incident at the time. In fact, the odd headline, "Labour peer Lord Ahmed suspended after 'Jewish claims'" is still currently live. Instead of using "anti-Semitism", the Beeb opted for "Jewish claims", making the story seem like there were claims by Jewish people leading to Lord Ahmed's suspension.
Call it clumsy journalism, intentional stupidity, whatever you want - it doesn't explain the following e-mail exchange that one reader of The Commentator had with the BBC complaints team. Check it out:

Wiesenthal Centre Demands Cancellation of Pro-Barghouti Rally

The Wiesenthal Centre has sent a strongly worded letter of protest to the Association of French Mayors after learning from Arutz Sheva of their planned rally for Marwan Barghouti - and its guest list.
The Centre's press release on the subject was vehemently phrased, saying, "On Israel's Independence Day, the Suburban Paris Municipality of St. Denis will Host and Honour Convicted Palestinian Terrorists - Stop this Outrage as a Threat to Public Order".

Paris suburb Wednesday to honor Palestinian who killed Israeli minister

A French town is scheduled to host a ceremony on Wednesday honoring several Palestinian terrorists.
Among the terrorists are Allam Kaabi and Salah Hamouri, who are are scheduled to appear at the Bourse de Travail building, which belongs to the municipality of St. Denis, a suburb of the French capital.

Michigan Arab Editor 'Tarnishes Integrity' of University
Michigan State University urged to reconsider induction of Arab American newspaper editor into Hall of Fame due to anti-Semitic diatribes.

“The fact that Osama Siblani consistently allows his publication to be a forum for hate should call into question his fitness for the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “The Arab American News has repeatedly published anti-Semitic diatribes and rhetoric and Mr. Siblani has publicly stated support and sympathy for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hizbullah.”

Brooklyn College Criticizes Itself Over Anti-Israel Event

To repeat: at a public college, in an event co-sponsored by one of its academic departments, four students were likely expelled from the event because of their political beliefs. Presumably this finding will cause even the president of the college, Karen Gould, to publicly apologize to Brooklyn’s student body. But given Gould’s performance to date, this may be expecting too much.
The Schaffer Report also brought to light at least four previously unreported facts:

ADL Downplays Controversy Over Anti-Israel Texts in Curriculum of Newton, Mass.

According to the Newton School Superintendent David Fleishman, the Arab World Studies Notebook was removed from Newton’s public school curriculum. Nevertheless, many parents and other citizens have expressed concern about other anti-Israel materials they say remain in distribution. Local ADL leaders, however, are downplaying the uncertainty as to which anti-Israel texts are still being used in Newton classrooms.

This research, which was obtained by JNS.org, reveals the presence of controversial texts in the Newton curriculum that include the following: A Muslim Primer, which claims that astronaut Neil Armstrong converted to Islam, but that the anti-Muslim U.S. government warned him “to keep his new religion to himself or he could be fired from his government job;”

65 years of innovation, from Rummikub to the ‘God Particle’

While a great deal of international and media focus has been placed on Israel’s military conflicts, the country quietly has become an energetic, ambitious incubator of entrepreneurialism and invention. What follows is a timeline chronicling some of the most important and interesting innovations produced by Israelis during their country’s 65-year existence.

Teshome Solomon’s arduous, triumphant trek to the Knesset

In Ethiopia, his parents gave him an Amharic name that means ‘he got promoted.’ He certainly did. Now Shimon Solomon is battling for the Ethiopian community, and against racism, as a member of parliament for Yesh Atid
When he was 10 years old, Shimon Solomon and his family walked for weeks from Shire Indaselassie, a small town in northern Ethiopia, to the Sudanese border — the start of a journey they believed would end with the life they were meant to live in Israel.

How an unwieldy romantic poem and a Romanian folk song combined to produce ‘Hatikva’

Romanian oxen and a chronic alcoholic are not the likeliest progenitors of the Israeli national anthem. But that’s “Hatikva” for you.
The globetrotting Galician poet who wrote it died over a century ago from drink, but his words live on despite numerous attempts to oust them for more socialist, divine or nonpartisan verse. As for the oxen, more on them later.

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