Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Juan Cole remains a lying idiot

The lying, fifth rate academic Juan Cole is at it again, with a spectacularly stupid post called "Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is adding a fifth demand to his negotiations with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas: That the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”

As I've noted, this is not a new demand, and it was originally created by Olmert and Livni, not Netanyahu. But, hey, Juan Cole is an "expert," right?

Now comes the straw man arguments:

For Netanyahu’s demand to make any sense, he first has to define “Jewish.” “Jewish” has a number of possible meanings. It can mean “those recognized by Talmudic law as members of the Jewish ‘race’ via maternal descent.” The latter is the legal definition of Jewishness in Israeli law itself, and for this reason we must presume that it is what Netanyahu has in mind. It can also mean “adherents of the Judaic religion,” and we can explore those implications, as well.

Of the some 6 million self-identified Jews in Israel, about 300,000 are not recognized as “Jewish” by the Chief Rabbi and there is no prospect of them being recognized as Jewish any time soon. They were allowed to immigrate to Israel because they had at least one Jewish grandparent, but if their mother was not Jewish neither are they.

So if Israel is a “Jewish” state, is it a state for these (largely Russian and Ukrainian) “non-Jewish” Jews? Many of them are Jewish by religion, but not all are. None of them are Jewish by the Talmud.

He then goes on and on with discredited genetic studies and other points to buttress his moronic point that if any Israelis aren't considered Jewish by some definition, then they are being disenfranchised. And, of course, all Israeli Arabs are disenfranchised as well.

Here's a news flash for Cole, that he must not be aware of in his years of scholarly research: Israel has defined itself as a Jewish state for 65 years now, and somehow none of these supposed showstoppers have slowed down the Jewish state one tiny bit!

According to Cole, it is simply impossible - yet here it is. Imagine that.

Here's another news flash for Cole: Judaism is more than a religion. It isn't a race. Jews are a nation/people, and have been a people for over 3000 years.

Don't trust me. The famed 14th century Arab historian and intellectual Ibn Khaldun says explicitly that Jews are a people. Jewish prayers have said the same thing since before Islam existed. The Bible says so (e.g., 1 Kings 8:16.) . Perhaps Cole has heard of that work, it's fairly famous.

It is possible to join a nation, so this isn't a racial or genetic group. It isn't purely a religious group.

Cole's entire thesis is not only invalid, but laughably absurd.

Apparently Cole subscribes to the PLO's "logic" that the Jews aren't a people, because if they are a people, that means they have rights as a people.

Oh, and Cole also seems unaware that Israel defining itself as Jewish is not at all analogous to the US defining itself as white - it is analogous to many nations defining themselves as Arab. And guess who does that?

If he wants to be morally consistent, Cole must condemn every single Arab state that defines itself as "Arab." This disenfranchises all non-Arabs who live in Arab nations. It is discriminatory, according to Cole.

But Juan Cole isn't interested in consistency. He isn't interested in morality. He is certainly not interested in the truth. His major interest appears to be to deny the Jewish people their human rights. The very idea that Jews have such rights is anathema to lying pseudo-academics like Cole who use their pretense of knowledge to deny human rights to the Jewish people.

(h/t Adam)

Israel's file of recent Palestinian Arab incitement

From Israel's PMO:

05/01/2014
The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting today for over two hours, discussed incitement and the culture of hatred in the Palestinian Authority.

...
The findings show that incitement against Israel and the Jewish People is continuing on official media channels including – inter alia – by bodies that are very close to the Palestinian Authority Chairman and in educational and religious networks. The findings also show that during the period of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians not only did incitement not lessen, in certain areas it even increased, and that recently, the use of prominent Nazi elements – such as the image of Hitler – has also increased.

From the data, it is clear that incitement activity is concentrated in communicating several main messages:

1. Israel has no right to exist, certainly not as the state of the Jewish People, which, in any case, have no link to the holy Land;
2. The disappearance of Israel is unavoidable and is expected soon;
3. The Jews are sub-human creatures and must be dealt with accordingly;
4. In principle, all forms of struggle, including terrorism, are legitimate in order to realize the final goal.

Minister Steinitz said, "We must not ignore the fact that the Palestinian educational system and media, under the patronage of Abu Mazen and during the negotiations, are educating and inciting – on a daily basis – for the destruction of the State of Israel."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "This is a very severe phenomenon. True peace cannot exist without stopping the incitement against Israel, and educating for peace. The refusal of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish People and declare the end of national demands – this is the root of the conflict. This is also the reason why we are insisting on significant security measures, so that we will be able to defend ourselves by ourselves in any situation."

Here is the slideshow that was released by the government of Israel:

(h/t Asher)

Iran's Supreme Leader's Twitter is a goldmine of humor

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, often puts graphics on his Twitter account. Here's the latest, in somewhat fractured English:

OK, so he is against sectarianism in Islam and says that the people who practice it are really helping the "enemy," meaning Israel and probably the US.

But minutes earlier, he tweeted this:

Many #Salafis & #Wahabis who are nourished by oil money & act as #terrorists, don't know they are enemy’s operatives.6/5/2009
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 6, 2014

No fostering schisms there!

Iranian media rages about "Zionist New World Order"

Here's a new op-ed in Iran's state-controlled PressTV by someone named Anisa Abd el Fattah:

What is in store for the world, should we not succeed in our efforts against global Zionism and stop it in its tracks, is a world where global corporations and banks rule and where we the people are little more than slaves.

How do we know this? Just look at what the NWO is doing and what is happening in the world as global Zionist rule takes shape.

It’s clear that the primary interest of the NWO is economic. Its social perspective is shaped solely by its need for quiet as it initiates its transition period. This is why we have the militarization of law enforcement in most countries and also the common training, uniforms, equipment, etc.

...Laws are being passed that prohibit criticism of sacred cows like Zionism, war, occupations, poverty, monarchies, presidents and those traitors who open up their countries to NWO control.

....They also want wars. Contrary to the belief that a one world government can bring peace to the world, the reality is that the Zionist one world government is dependent upon perpetual war.

It must keep people and states at war with one another to prevent them from unifying against the authority’s abuses; its greed, brutality, racism, elitism, etc.

The greatest downfall of the Zionist global economic scheme in my opinion is the destruction of sovereign domestic economies and the enslavement of entire populations to the international banks through debt.

...Global markets and economics are part of the Zionist world order scheme to break down domestic sovereignty of all kinds with the hope of transitioning failed states along with their failed economies into a single entity, governed by a single Zionist government.

...In such situations, the people are left with only two choices, both of which serve the interests of the Zionists. They either protest, creating disorder which leads by design to chaos, or they submit. The only way the people win is if the goal of the protests is to bring down the corporations and the banks, not the governments.

Such protests can succeed globally but only if the working people of the world unite and carry out protests that are coordinated and share a single message, that being to end corporate control and to shut down the international banking cartel.

Controlled by those "Zionists," of course.

El-Fattah claims to be "a political analyst and human/civil rights activist...she been published in many of the major newspapers in the United States such as the Boston Globe, The Washington Times and the New York Times and has lectured at some of the United State's most prestigious universities including Georgetown University, Columbia University in New York and the American University in Washington DC."

I couldn't find any evidence of her being quoted anywhere outside extremist sites. Her resume seems to be mostly wishful thinking.

But for some reason PressTV's blurb didn't mention that she ran for President in 2012, that she is a 9/11 "truther" who claims that Muslims had nothing to do with it, and that she has apparent Hamas ties. You can spend a week following her Internet trail to terrorism.

01/06 Links Pt2: PA 1st to buy Israeli Natural Gas, NYE Desecration of Berlin Holocaust Memorial

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky: The free world has betrayed democratic dissidents

“When the [uprising] against Assad began, 90 percent of the opposition was democratic. Today 90 percent of the opposition is fundamentalist,” he said. Obama’s “red lines” on Syria’s chemical weapons were ignored almost as soon as they were uttered.
“In this situation, the only forces which can succeed are those which are already well-established: either civil dictatorships or fundamentalists… From the point of view of the free world, there should be no difference between Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in Syria.”
The West’s “betrayal” of democratic dissidents in Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution has sent an extremely negative message to democratic Arab oppositionists in the Middle East today, Sharansky argued. If no democratic forces emerged in the Arab world, the West should simply stay out.

How small is the Israel-Palestine conflict? Fun with statistics

So I ask- why is the world so obsessed with the Palestinian question in terms of media time, attention, foreign aid and diplomatic efforts? Is it something to do with oil money? Is hating Israel an integral part of a prevalent ideology? Or are the other conflicts, other displaced and hungry and embattled people of the world too boring to cover on the news and sprinkle with aid money? Does CNN think that they’re ugly? Is this bias fair?
I don’t know. But anyone who spends their time painting a red X on the Star of David that is superimposed on an Israeli flag, or designing fabulous ‘Bethlehem seperation walls’ to decorate churches with, may want to ask themselves that same question. And when they ask- if these ‘Palestine activists’ decide that a Palestinian life is more valuable than the life of a Papuan’s, a Sudanese person’s, or a Colombian’s that they spend all their time focusing on that issue even if they have never been to Gaza, then they need to ask some serious questions about their perception of humanity.

Palestinians to be first buyers of Israeli natural gas

The first buyer of natural gas from Israel’s largest gas field will be the Palestine Power Generation Company, which will purchase some $1.2 billion-worth of gas over 20 years, one of the major partners in the field announced on Sunday.
The Leviathan group will sell the PPGC, which supplies power to Palestinian areas in the West Bank, as much as 4.75 billion cubic meters of gas when the Leviathan reserve begins to yield in 2016 or 2017, the Delek Group said in a statement.

The Palestinian Whining State

UNRWA workers are on strike in the West Bank.

Why?

Because when you live in a culture that says that the world owes you everything for free, you believe it.

Demonstrations were held on Monday for the second day in a row in Bethlehem in protest against policies of the UN's Palestine refugee agency as one of 27 hunger strikers was taken to the hospital.

An UNRWA employee was taken to the hospital as five local employees continued their hunger strike for the fifth day running in protest of the termination of their contracts.

They held signs saying "the termination of the contracts of 50 employees is a great crime," "UNRWA employees union is the first line of defense for the issues of refugees," and "No to the systematic reductions policy," among others.

The hunger strikers called for their reinstatement at their places of work and demanded their full rights.

A member of the UNRWA Arab employees' union Ibrahim Hamdan said that "the UNRWA administration terminated the contracts of the hunger strikers after 10-12 years of employment."

"These employees must be given fixed contracts, and not dismissed," he said.

There are 27 UNRWA employees on hunger strike in the West Bank, from 55 whose contracts were terminated, and Hamdan said the UNRWA is responsible for their health.

Gunness told Ma'an on Thursday that the employees who were on hunger strike were temporary employees whose contracts were not renewed. The funding that provided those employees with salaries had been cut from $40 million to $25 million, he said.

UNRWA advertised 27 job openings after the layoffs took place, but "those on hunger strike did not apply," Gunness said.

The employees were aware that their positions were "never permanent. ... It seems a bit strange to go on hunger strike for that reason."

Notice the language used by the protesters - they use the language of "rights" because that is the only rhetoric they know, from years of insisting on "rights" that don't exist anywhere else.

Only with such a twisted view of the world can these people claim that temporary jobs give them the right to full employment with full medical benefits and higher salaries than their neighbors.

Yes - that is one of their demands:

[Union leader] Mahmoud Hamdan added that employees were calling for a fixed exchange rate to be applied to their basic salary to a assure a steady income.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian workers' union said in a statement that the crisis in Gaza was partially due to UNRWA's policies, without elaborating.

In response to the strike, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement that the agency's "staff are paid over twenty per cent above the equivalent salaries in the Palestinian Authority. This is in accordance with our salary policy, which aims to keep our staff paid at the same rate or above PA equivalent."

Meanwhile, the "Popular Committees" in the camps - staffed by self-appointed "leaders" - are also protesting and shutting down services, because they say they are supposed to get paid by the PA.

A spokesman for the popular committees in the West Bank refugee camps, Imad Abu Simbel, said that the committees closed their offices and halted services on Monday in protest against UNRWA policies and the government's failure to transfer funds to them for the last three years.

"The directors of the committees took this step in response to the negligent policies of UNRWA and because government has not transferred the earnings of the committees for three years," Abu Simbel told Ma'an.

"It seems that the government is uninterested in ending the suffering of refugees in West Bank camps, through pressuring the UN or even transferring the earning of popular committees," Abu Simbel added, "as if camps are not part of the nation."

These self-serving committees are defining themselves as being the camps themselves!

There is an entire fake nation filled with people who only take, take and take some more, who literally believe that the world owes them free housing, medical care, schooling and guaranteed employment. The PA does nothing to dispel these demands, and indeed it fuels them - after all, it demands outside funding to prop itself up.

In the 20 years since Oslo, an entire generation of high-tech entrepreneurs could have been raised. The Muslim world could be relying on Palestinian Arab tech expertise, done remotely. Petrodollars could have been pouring in to create an economy that isn't based on bureaucracy, tons of international NGOs, and 19th century agriculture and construction techniques.

Not only has this not happened, but there are no major plans to do this in the next 20 years.

I have yet to see an op-ed in a Palestinian Arab paper that tells its people to grow up and start to actually work at state-building and taking responsibility. No, all you see is more whining about how awful everything is and it is the fault of someone else (usually Israel, but it could be Hamas, or the West, or Egypt, or anyone besides themselves.)

A state with such a mindset would collapse in about a week without being propped up by other countries. It would descend into chaos and violence in no time. It doesn't take clairvoyance to see this happening.

But the creation of such a doomed state is a vital world priority.

For "peace."

PLO's phased plan to destroy Israel is alive and well

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient."

Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]

The "phased plan" to destroy Israel was spelled out by the PLO in 1974, and has never been rescinded.

And there is evidence that Mahmoud Abbas subscribes to it as well.

01/06 Links Pt1: Netanyahu: We Are Not Foreigners in Hebron or Bet El, PA Incitement Funded by U.S.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Israeli Arabs: We Do Not Want to Live in Palestinian State

It is much easier for Palestinians to accuse Israel of racism than to admit they do not want to be part of a Palestinian state.
"This is an imaginary proposal that relates to the Arabs as if they were chess pieces that could be moved around according to the wish of the players." — Ahmed Tibi, Member of Knesset.
If the Arab Knesset members are so worried about becoming citizens of a Palestinian state, they should be working toward integration into, and not separation from, Israel, and listening more to their constituents rather than the voices of Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinian Terror Education: Funded by U.S. Taxpayers

A ninth-grade PA textbook indoctrinates students into martyrdom. In an exercise where students are asked to connect two sentence, a correct answer links the phrase “Morning of glory and red redemption, nourished by the blood of Martyrs” with the concept of “hope for the liberation of Palestine.”
When UNRWA promotes such sentiments, UNRWA schools violate children’s basic right to protection from harmful influence. The question remains: Will US citizens file complaints against UNRWA with Congress and with the courts, or will US citizens let this kind of US-funded education for terror continue unabated?

The Palestinians want to dance at two weddings

Abbas can’t dance at two weddings at the same time, nor can he have his cake and eat it. If he is declaring a Palestinian state based on Resolution 181, and if he genuinely wants a peaceful settlement, he must acknowledge the Jewish state called for in the Resolution.
The State of Israel is not changing its official name, even if it is, in the words of the Balfour Declaration, “a national home for the Jewish people.” It is totally different from the case with Muslim countries.
At least four countries -- Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, -- officially term themselves “Islamic Republics.” Even the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003 touches on the issue. Article 4 says, “Islam is the official religion in Palestine…Islamic Sharia shall be a principal source of legislation.”

The Guardian says only Jews can be considered settlers

CiFWatch looked at The Guardian's style guide and found this:

Israeli Arabs who live - or move - into neighborhoods across the Green Line cannot be considered settlers - only Jews can!

And there are, indeed, Israeli Arabs who live across the Green Line - including many who moved there from other parts of Israel!

Only Jews can be "illegal settlers." Only Jews must be evicted from their homes en masse. Only Jews can violate international law. Which is pretty much the definition of antisemitism.

We've seen this type of double standard before. In 2012, Israel announced new building on the other side of the Green Line - but only the Jewish neighborhoods were condemned by the EU, not the Arab neighborhoods being built by Israel at the exact same time.

However, this definition makes this racist double standard official.

Judea and Samaria must be Judenrein, in the conventional wisdom of the enlightened West,and the people who hate the idea of Jews having rights to live there won't let little things like double standards and antisemitism stop them.

In the case of the Guardian, the antisemitism is there for everyone to see, in black and white.

It's the latest "style."

(h/t Yoel)

In 2012, as the Syrian civil war raged, Hamas moved its headquarters out of Damascus.

Khaled Meshal moved his offices to Doha, and his deputy Abu Marzouk moved to Cairo.

Now it looks like Egypt is not going to tolerate Hamas' presence there for much longer.

Egypt, which has labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and has accused Hamas of complicity in some Sinai terror attacks, is reportedly considering expelling Abu Marzouk. Hamas is expecting to be kicked out, and is considering either consolidating its offices in Doha or movng Abu Marzouk to Gaza, which is seen as less likely.

A few months ago there were rumors that Hamas' position in Qatar was similarly threatened, and that it was considering moving to Khartoum, as the Arab world has become less tolerant of an organization that was flying high only a year ago.

The birth of a new anti-Israel stunt - the soccer ball

From Ma'an:

A group of children in a Palestinian village south of Tulkarem have taken the unprecedented step of writing a letter directly to the United Nations in a bold attempt to win back their soccer ball from Israeli occupation authorities.

The children in the village of Kafr Sur sent the letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon via social media, asking him to intervene after the ball fell into lands confiscated by Israeli authorities to build the separation barrier through their village.

The campaign began after a local youth named Amir was playing soccer in the village and kicked the ball too far, hitting it into an area in the village under Israeli military control and beyond barbed wire, according to municipality head Imad Zibda.

The group of children spoke to Ma'an on Saturday, explaining that the Israeli occupation had impinged on their rights by not allowing them to retrieve their ball, which had disappeared behind the barbed wire of the separation barrier.

Ma'an helpfully publishes five staged photos of the kids playing soccer (somehow, they managed to find another ball for the photographer.)

When did the incident occur? Did the kids ask to get the ball back? We don't know, because the point of the story isn't facts, but propaganda.

They stressed that they have the right to play in their own lands without any restrictions. They expressed their fear that the ball would never be returned because it had fallen on the other side of the barbed wire.

They feared that all of the lands that had been confiscated from the village would suffer a similar fate, they added.

Really? No prompting from any adults to come up with perfect anti-Israel quotes for the media?

Arabic reports do mention that it was an adult's idea to write to the UN and disseminate this story on social media. The letter is clearly written by an adult in a child's voice, starting off with "We are a group of children in Kafr Sur who collected a sum of money by ourselves and bought a football for the exercise of our right to play like other children." Yeah, kids say stuff like that all the time.

Clearly the adults in town found that this is a media-friendly story and ran with it to make a soccer ball into an international incident, with the helpful collusion of Arab media. Now they are just waiting for it to go viral, and given how much people hate Israel, the chances are very good it will.

Indeed, a version of this story was played out, virtually, in 2009, to worldwide headlines.

The Israeli company Cellcom made a popular commercial then showing this same scenario. Look at how the IDF responds there:

The tagline is "We all just want to have fun." The company said the commercial was about overcoming obstacles.

At the time, the Israel haters made their own version, with the IDF responding to a soccer ball with tear gas and gunshots:

That episode showed very clearly which side actually wants to live together with the other side in peace and which side will take every opportunity to demonize the Other. The Israeli commercial humanizes the Palestinian Arabs; the PalArab response demonizes Israelis.

Can you imagine the outcry if an Israeli had made a commercial showing the soccer ball returning to the Israeli side as a shrapnel-filled bomb? That is the equivalent of the second ad - but only one side is expected and encouraged to hate.

One solidarity group barred from entering Gaza, another barred from leaving

Egyptian authorities seem to enjoy jerking around Gaza solidarity activists.

On January 2, after a number of days of pleading, Egyptian authorities allowed an Italian delegation (with the name "never forget the right of return") to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, even as it kept that crossing closed for actual Gazans.

The Italians had a wonderful time mugging for the cameras and doing nothing to actually help any Gazans. (Yes, they pretended to bring in some token "medical supplies.")

On Saturday, this same delegation was barred from leaving Gaza. They spent three hours at Rafah and the Egyptians said they did not make the proper request to leave, so they are stuck.

Meanwhile, "Miles of Smiles" attempted their 24th visit to Gaza - and were also promptly barred by the Egyptians.

Of course, regular Gazans are banned from travel. Rafah has opened sporadically over the past four months but even when it is open the number of people allowed to leave is very small.

Still, no outraged op-eds, no UN resolutions and no NGOs condemning Egypt's capricious and near-total siege of Gaza.

Using facts against Israel haters is like speaking to a wall

Here is a synopsis of the debate at St. James Church last night, about Israel's separation barrier, which really says all you need to know, From "amie" in the comments section of Harry's Place:

Alan Johnson of Bicom spoke brilliantly; cogently articulating the case for the wall as a security issue. His rhetorical devices were masterly, as he spoke of the realities of the actual wall as against the never never world of the pretend wall, which in turn facilitated the calcification of the intellectual wall which refused to recognise the reality of the need for the real wall.

He cited famous harrowing instances of bombing and terror.

He showed graphs of how the level of terror decreased dramatically after the wall.

He cited last week's abortive bus bombing where the terrorists had got through a breach in the wall, from Bethlehem.

When he finished, (to a good round of applause from the substantial pro Israel presence there.)

Jeff Halper, the next speaker, opened his mouth wide and bellowed: This wall has NOTHING to do with security.

And without his having to say a single thing more to back up or verify this bellow, the hall erupted into cheers and applause.

I watched two attractive young women behind me as their faces broke into delighted beaming smiles of relief, clapping wildly. Without more, everything they had invested in, momentarily in danger of panicky disturbance by Johnson was reassuringly reinstated by this single, unsubstantiated bellow.

...Halper just shouted total outrageous lies, that Israel was killing children with chemicals which melted their insides, (White Phosphorus again?) and with weapons with whirling blades which shredded them. All to wild cheers.

Saeb Erekat - so moderate in English, so crazy in Arabic.Original post here.

01/05 Links: The end of dhimmitude, London 'Peace' Festival Organized by Terrorism Advocates

From Ian:

The end of dhimmitude

We are now witnessing one of the most dramatic developments in the historic configuration of relations among Jews, Christians and Muslims. Christians in Israel’s Galilee are courageously promoting their pre-Islamic non-Arab identity as an old-new collective Aramean/Aramaic-speaking Oriental narrative. This is a cultural and political game-changer with revolutionary significance, for Israel, the Middle East and the global scene.
Under the leadership of Father Gabriel Nadaf, an Orthodox priest from Yafia near Nazareth, and Shadi Khalloul, a Maronite activist and army reserve officer from Gush Halav, the Christian Recruitment Forum has been established. While all non-Jews in Israel, excepting the Druse and Circassians, are exempt from the military draft, a new promotional effort has been undertaken to further encourage Christian youth to voluntarily enlist. This initiative expresses both a desire to serve the state and integrate into Israeli society, conveying that Christians are committed to the security and welfare of the Jewish state of Israel.

London "Peace" Festival Organized by Terrorism Advocates

Interpal was an inaugural member of the Union of Good, a coalition of charities that manages the financial support required by Hamas for its terrorist activities.
These links, which have been comprehensively detailed before, include recent Palestinian news footage showing Interpal's primary trustee, Essam Mustafa, attending a press conference hosted by Hamas to honor Interpal's work.
Interpal's other trustee, Ibrahim Hewitt, has referred to the "so-called Holocaust." In a pamphlet written by Hewitt, 'What Does Islam Say,' he advocates the killing of apostates and adulterers, and demanded that homosexuals suffer "severe punishments" for their "great sin."

Richard Millett: Israel’s “beautiful resistance” to suicide bombers: A response to Lucy Winkett

Moreover, St James’s Church’s Bethlehem Unwrapped festival has attracted antisemites, Holocaust deniers, those campaigning for the destruction of Israel and those who condone violence to that end.
This may not have been St James’s Church’s intention but this is what has happened and for this Rector Winkett should apologise to Britain’s Jewish community which is bearing the main brunt of the backlash.
The biggest irony is that St James’s Church itself is protected by a security fence; a tall metal fence that contains a locked door. When the door is unlocked it is heavily guarded. Some may call this a checkpoint.