| Eid, the holiday of sexual harassment in Egypt Posted: 27 Oct 2012 10:00 PM PDT From Egypt Independent: Cairo Security Directorate said in a statement Saturday that it recorded 87 verbal harassment cases and 6 other physical harassment cases on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Adha.
Already a persistent problem, sexual harassment becomes a particular concern during vacations and holidays, despite organizing many marches advocating the right of women to walk safely in streets.
Activists who launched an initiative dubbed "I witnessed harassment" said in a report Friday that more than 60 percent of women who were in downtown Cairo were subjected to sexual harassment, including areas such as Qasr al-Nil Bridge, Abdel Moneim Riad Square, and Talaat Harb Street. The statement added that some incidents involved violence.
Most of the violations were carried out by boys between eight and 20 years old, with a few cases of perpetrators over the age of 20. The age of harassed girls ranged from between 11 to 20 years old.
The report included criticism of the police from volunteer activists who recorded the harassment incidents, saying the police questioned the identity of activists without taking any legal action against harassers.
The report cited a collective harassment incident at the Nile Corniche in Maadi, where a group of no less than 40 men attacked 50 girls. The report added the police did not interfere to stop harassers except when activists started filming the incident. This has been a pattern during Muslim holidays in Egypt for years. 
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| Saturday night links Posted: 27 Oct 2012 07:27 PM PDT From Ian:
Jewish settlement in the West Bank is not the issue "The Arab world is in turmoil and mired in violence and religious extremism, and the Palestinian community deeply divided to the point of civil war. Meanwhile the hatred and scapegoating of Israel for all the many failures of the Islamic world deepens.
There is probably little or no possibility of the type of decisions being made that are required to resolve the Palestinian question. And the nightmare scenario for Israel is making further difficult concessions, only to end up with a second Gaza on the West Bank. Indeed Israel has made major unilateral concessions and has been badly punished for its efforts, and is unlikely to do that again.
One thing is clear though: this is not now, nor was it ever, a process that is being stopped by the presence of Jewish settlements." Haaretz, Gideon Levy, and the Israel apartheid canard "Today, we can look back and see how the image of the demonic Jew came into being: it took a systematic campaign of lies and brainwashing. One day the minister of history will deal with the same question: How was the image of a demonic Israel created? But there's no need to wait for the far future. What was once done by the anti-Semitic right to the Jews is now being done by the anti-Zionist left to Israel. The difference between them, if it was not clear, is fading away." The Most Israeli Answer to a Question Ever "As per policy, Israeli officials have been mum about the attack, but one anonymous Israeli official has spoken off the record about the operation. I now happily present to you, the most Israeli answer to a security question ever:
"It would be in Israel's interest to hit a factory that was a major source of weapons for the Gaza Strip, no?" Anti-Semitism and George Galloway's Party A controversy in the Respect Party shows a larger trend
British Respect Party's woman's officer, Naz Kahn, posted on Facebook September 30:
"It's such a shame that the history teachers in our school never taught us this but they are the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler. What have the Jews done good in this world??"
The defense Kahn seemed to offer in a later post was she is "not a Nazi, I'm an ordinary British Muslim that had an opinion and put it across." BBC Watch: BBC's Jon Donnison presents hearsay as 'analysis' "The report includes 'analysis' by the BBC's Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison.
"Many Palestinians believe Israel provoked the violence deliberately ahead of upcoming Israeli elections in January."Donnison's tawdry repetition of inaccurate and misleading hearsay constitutes neither the fact-based analysis nor the accurate and impartial reporting to which the BBC is committed." At UN Human Rights Council, Will U.S. Go Down with the Ship? Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, got it only half right in her response:
"Throughout his tenure as Special Rapporteur, Mr. Falk has been highly biased and made offensive statements, including outrageous comments on the 9/11 attacks," Rice said. "Mr. Falk's recommendations do nothing to further a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and indeed poison the environment for peace. His continued service in the role of a UN Special Rapporteur is deeply regrettable and only damages the credibility of the UN."
"Falk doesn't harm the UN's credibility. Just the opposite. The UNHRC eats away at America's credibility by our continued participation in an explicitly anti-Israel "human rights" group that can put America's name on its hateful work. John Bolton put it best when he said the Obama administration's decision to join the council when it did was "like getting on board the Titanic after it's hit the iceberg." And now Rice is scolding the iceberg when she should be heading for a lifeboat." EU envoy warns PA of UN bid's negative consequences Speaking to London-based Al Hayat, Andreas Reinicke warned the Palestinian Authority that a unilateral bid for nonmember state status could have negative economic and political consequences." Al-Qaida head attacks Morsi for ties with Israel Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for mass Egyptian demonstrations over "[Israel-Egypt] peace treaty, occupation of Palestine, siege in Gaza." Egypt Warns of Security Threat to Israel During Muslim Holiday An Egyptian security official told the German news agency dpa Thursday that Israel and Egypt are coordinating security along their shared border after intelligence reported increased threats to the Jewish state during the Eid Al-Adha Muslim holiday. Egyptian activists try to stop holiday sexual harassment Young men patrol the streets of Cairo to prevent Eid al-Adha crowds from groping women 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' read aloud in Greek parliament Neo-Nazi MP quotes passage from notorious anti-Semitic forgery Report Criticizes Norway for Rise in Anti-Semitism The Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe has issued a damning report on Norwegian Officials' failure to address anti-Semitism in that country. Jews Exact Revenge on Nazis in Real Inglorious Bastards "The story centers around Hans Wijnberg, a Jew, who fled Holland as a teenager for America with his twin brother, leaving behind a family that would eventually perish at the hands of the Nazis. There's also Fred Mayer, a German Jew who fled to America ahead of the start of the war. Both joined the American army as soon as they could. Because of their backgrounds they were identified as being exceptionally valuable to the Army's overseas operations and signed on to the OSS, the Office of Strategic Service, an intelligence agency set up during World War II. After an intense period of training they were sent to Europe." The Real Inglorious Bastards - Teaser Clip 
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| Requests for no Israeli flag - at Danish "diversity" festival" Posted: 27 Oct 2012 05:34 PM PDT From The Copenhagen Post: A city hall request that the Israeli flag not be displayed at a street festival intended to promote diversity has Jewish community leaders wondering what "diversity" really means to some city leaders.
During planning meetings for September's Smag Verden – Mangfoldighedsfest, a celebration of the foods and cultures of different countries, Jewish participants were warned that some would interpret the flying of the Israeli flag as a provocation.
"We were told that is was better if we did not fly our flag," Malgorzata H Hansen, who represented local Jews at the meetings, told Berlingske newspaper.
Organisers said they feared clashes between Jewish, Muslim and leftist groups if the Israeli flag was displayed.
Originally, representatives of TaskForce Inklusion, the group responsible for communicating with all of the groups participating in the festival, told the Jewish representatives that all participating associations were being asked not to bring flags.
Other flags were displayed prominently at the festival and the groups involved said they had never been asked not to display their country's standards.
TaskForce Inklusion has since revised their story.
"It is not that there is a flag policy," said Pernille Kjeldgaard, the head of TaskForce Inklusion, to Berlingske. "Specific associations were asked not to display their flags as a safety precaution."
Max Meyer, head of the organisation Dansk Zionistforbund, said the rules ought to have been the same for everyone.
"It is a shame that one group is discriminated against, especially at a diversity celebration," Meyer told Berlingske.
Kjeldgaard said her organisation is now re-evaluating its procedures.
"We are aware of the conflict, and are looking at whether we should make some changes," she said.
Copenhagen's deputy mayor for employment and integration, Anna Mee Allerslev (Radikale), apologised to the Zionist group and invited them to a meeting to discuss the situation.
"No one should feel excluded from a diversity festival," she said.
Allerslev said that she had been advised to completely exclude the Danish Zionist group from the festival, although he declined to say who exactly made that recommendation.
"We had some experts who were deeply concerned about the situation and were afraid that the security was not sufficient," she said.
The city deployed 20 additional police officers in and around the festival's location in the multi-ethinc Nørrebro district.
City councillor Lars Aslan Rasmussen (Socialdemokraterne) called the situation "completely discriminatory", but Allerslev said other considerations had been in play.
"I would really love to have an explanation as to why Rasmussen does not believe that public safety should be a top priority," she said. "Politicians should be careful not to politicise cases like this."
Allerslev stressed that the Jewish group had only been recommended not to display the Israeli flag.
"This was advice, it was not a ban. It was done with the best of intentions," she said. You see, it isn't discrimination. It is security! Some Arabs and leftists and anti-semites and goons and haters who would otherwise enjoy the diversity festival might decide to go crazy and start a riot if they saw a star of David. And the feelings of anti-semites and Israel-haters are really far more important than that of proud Jews, right? Because Jews aren't going to riot and throw stones and burn flags. So the least objectionable thing to do is to tell the nice, quiet Jews to stay nice and quiet and don't mention anything about a Jewish state, and then the Jew-haters can enjoy the festival with their families. And everyone is happy. How dare anyone think that this policy is discriminatory! (h/t Ishai) 
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