Elder of Ziyon Daily News

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• Egyptian Coptic teacher charged with "blasphemy"
• Daily Mail shows photo of Israeli police restraining Orthodox Jews - while talking about Palestinian Arabs
• Saturday Links

Egyptian Coptic teacher charged with "blasphemy" Posted: 11 May 2013 10:02 PM PDT Is your teacher too strict? Giving you too much homework? Just accuse her of insulting Islam, and they'll take her away! From Amnesty: A Coptic Christian teacher detained in Egypt on charges of "defamation of religion" must be immediately released and the criminal case against her dropped, said Amnesty International today, ahead of her appearance in court on Saturday. Dimyana Obeid Abd Al Nour, 24, has been in custody since 8 May, when she went to the public prosecution's office in Luxor to respond to charges of "defamation of religion". The case against her is based on a complaint lodged by the parents of three of her students alleging that she insulted Islam and the Prophet Muhammad during a class. The alleged incident took place at the Sheikh Sultan primary school in Tout, Luxor Governorate, on 8 April during a lesson on "religious life". Dimyana Obeid Abd Al Nour has been teaching at three schools in Luxor since the beginning of this year. "It is outrageous that a teacher finds herself behind bars for teaching a class. If she made some professional mistake, or deviated from the school curriculum, an internal review should have sufficed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International. "The authorities must release Dimyana Obeid Abd Al Nour immediately and drop these spurious charges against her." According to the information available to Amnesty International, some of the students alleged that Dimyana Obeid Abd Al Nour said that she "loved Father Shenouda", the late Patriarch of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, and touched her knee or her stomach when she spoke about the Prophet Muhammad in class. She has denied the charges, and maintained that she stuck to the school curriculum. This is better than calling in a fake bomb threat!

Daily Mail shows photo of Israeli police restraining Orthodox Jews - while talking about Palestinian Arabs Posted: 11 May 2013 06:45 PM PDT From Edgar Davidson's great blog: Douglas Murray is one of the UK's finest political commentators. He is also a staunch defender of Israel. But in an otherwise excellent article he has written in the Daily Mail about Stephen Hawking's boycott of Israel he has provided the opportunity for a bizarre blunder by the Mail's editors. Because Murray decided (wrongly in my view) to 'balance' his criticism of the boycott with comments like these: I acknowledge that there are those who are concerned about Israel's approach to the Palestinians the Editor (I assume) decided it was an opportunity to smear Israel even in a pro-Israel article by posting a picture showing Israelis 'mistreating Palestinians'. Hence we have this picture captioned There are those who are concerned about Israel's approach to the Palestinians, but if these academics think a boycott is the right way to address those concerns they are profoundly mistaken Except that the women in the photo, including the one being held back by an Israeli policeman, are clearly orthodox Jewish women. Indeed, the photo is from AFP, and shows Israeli police stopping a protest after the murder of Evyatar Borovsky. The rest of Davidson's piece is worth reading as well.

Saturday Links Posted: 11 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT From Ian: Alan Dershowitz: Stephen Hawking Endorses Iranian and Chinese Repression The only logical conclusion that can be derived from Stephen Hawking's decision to join the academic boycott of Israel, coupled with his enthusiastic visits to Iran and China, is that he actively endorses and supports the repression practiced by the Iranian mullahs and the Chinese party bosses. Why else would he single out the world's only Jewish state for his academic boycott? 'Chomsky pushed Hawking to boycott Israel event' Chomsky joined British academics in telling Hawking they were "surprised and deeply disappointed" that he had accepted the invitation to speak at the conference in Israel," according to the Guardian. Douglas Murray: How can a man as brilliant as Hawking boycott Israel when it makes the microchip that enables him to talk? For with supreme irony, the speech device which enables Hawking to communicate with the world and relate his fascinating thoughts to us is a computer Intel Core i7-based communication system. Which runs on a chip designed by Israel. Perhaps Professor Hawking should reflect on what it would mean if he truly committed himself to a boycott of Israel. The conference will be the poorer for his absence. But in the meantime those of us who admired this man and cherish the true principles of freedom are left speechless ourselves — at the extent of his naivete. CAMERA: Economist Joins BDS Whitewash Equally euphemistic is demand three, which envisions the influx into Israel of millions of Palestinians born abroad, the descendents Palestinian refugees from 1948. This would lead to Barghouti's dream of rewinding history so that the Jewish people are forced back to the dark era in which being a Jew meant everywhere being an ethnic minority. If the BDS movement's leaders are willing to tell the truth about the movement, why does The Economist insist on hiding that truth? Profs on Boston Bombing: Blame Right-Wingers, 'Islamophobia,' and Blowback Clearly, the specialists cited above are using their knowledge not to clarify, but to conceal; not to explain, but to apologize. When they serve as a source of propaganda rather than elucidation, the professoriate becomes a barrier to understanding. Moreover, the insistence that bigotry is endemic to the American character only promotes the very hysteria and division they decry. In turning to such "experts" in times of crisis, the media and the public at large are ill-served and often misled. 'Mounting Evidence' Boston Bombers Involved in 2011 Triple Murder Massachusetts investigators have developed what they call "mounting evidence," bolstered by "forensic hits," that point to the possible involvement of both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar in a gruesome, unsolved triple homicide in 2011, law enforcement officials told ABC News. Susan Rice: Attacks on Israel at UN undercut peace "But the UN isn't at its best when it comes to Israel. In fact, it's sometimes at its worst," Rice continued. "Anyone who cares about the international system has to be concerned when one member state is unfairly singled out." Rice described Israel as enduring "a barrage of obsessive, unbalanced, and relentless criticism" at the United Nations. Think Tank Slams Newseum's Plan to Honor Hamas Faux 'Journalists' "We just learned about this last night, and we are eager to learn more. FDD's president, Cliff May, has a call in to the CEO of the Newseum. As a think tank that has done significant research on terrorist media, we are obviously deeply concerned," Schanzer said, while adding, "We would have a hard time understanding why anyone would choose to honor anyone working for a terrorist propaganda outfit." The Newseum, a journalism museum in Washington, is honoring journalists who were killed on the job this past year in a ceremony on May 13. Two of those being honored, Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, were killed in Gaza in November and worked for Al-Aqsa Television, a Hamas-funded outlet, which itself has been designated a terror organization by the U.S. Newseum Puts Journalists at Risk by Honoring Terrorists One lesson in all this was the bias and unconscionably low standards of both the press and activist organizations that cover Israel. But another–and very important–lesson was this: Allowing terrorists to masquerade as journalists and then celebrating their "work" in war zones will almost surely put all journalists at much greater risk by blurring the lines that should keep them safe and treating terrorists as media martyrs. PA Warns Against Qaradawi's 'Fake Palestinian Passport' The PA urges world countries to take legal action to seize the passport given by Hamas to radical cleric Yousef al-Qaradawi. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Holds Massive Anti-Israel Rally The anti-Israel rally, the first of its kind by the Muslim Brotherhood since the Islamist party took power from Egypt's military nearly a year ago, protested Israel's recent brief detention of the Mufti of Jerusalem and its purported airstrikes in Syria. Davutoglu: Tests on Syrians Show Signs of Chemical Weapons Turkey's FM: tests conducted on wounded Syrians suggested use of chemical weapons. Cagey Russia defends possible Syrian anti-aircraft missile deal Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says international law doesn't restrict sale of S-300 defense system to Bashar Assad Lebanese Director: Arab League Trying to Ban My Film Lebanese director whose film was banned in his home country because it was made in Israel, points accusing finger at the Arab League. Israeli technology to keep disconnected, when necessary In today's hyper-connected world, it's all too easy for secrets to seep out. Meetings, sensitive research in labs, courtroom trials, and so many other formerly private or closed events and venues are now open to the world, with proprietary information or tenuous negotiations threatened by the tweeting or facebooking of sensitive data that could ruin hard-won progress, or further complicate already tangled legal proceedings.

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