| 04/25 Links Pt2: Jews in NYU dorm served ‘eviction notices’; Chloe Valdary interviewed at AIPAC Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:00 PM PDT From Ian:
Jews in NYU dorm served 'eviction notices'Jewish students living in an NYU dorm woke up to "eviction notices" posted on their doors, apparently by activists from the organization Students for Justice in Palestine.
"We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in three days," read the notices, according to a Times of Israel blog post by NYU student Laura Adkins.
"If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings," the notices continued. "We cannot be held responsible for property or persons remaining inside the premises. Charges for demolition will be applied to your student accounts." (h/t jzaik) Dorm storming at NYU targets Jewish students (Updates)The latest dorm storming was at Palladium Hall at New York University early this morning, before students awoke, as reported by NYU student Laura Adkins at The Times of Israel. (added) According to an email forwarded to me, such dorm storming would violated Palladium policy: "All people/clubs must have their flyers approved for posting at the Palladium RC. No flyers are permitted to be slid under apartment doors."
An important point, Adkins makes, is that Palladium Hall is known on campus for having a high concentration of Jewish students to the extent that it is the only dorm with a Shabbat elevator (which runs automatically during the Sabbath, so religious Jewish students do not have to press the buttons to go to and from their dorm rooms): Major Islam conference said mired by anti-SemitismThe speeches were given "a place of honor" at Wednesday's 31st congress of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, or UOIF, sociologist Michele Tribalat wrote in the Le Figaro daily Thursday. He singled out a speech by Hani Ramadan, a prominent Muslim leader from Geneva who spoke before thousands of congress participants.
According to the news site europe-israel org, Ramadan said during his address: "All the evil in the world originates from the Jews and the Zionist barbarism."
The UOIF congress is one of France's largest and most prominent Islamic events. Video: Chloe Valdary discusses her passion for Israel and her battle with Richard SilversteinBefore viewing the following interview of Chloe Valdary, filmed at the AIPAC convention in March, you can first get up to speed on the racial abuse hurled at the African-American Zionist by Richard Silverstein (a blogger and 'Comment is Free' contributor) in CiF Watch posts here, here and here. Chloe Valdary at AIPAC '14 UN gathers legal experts to plan campaign against IsraelThe gathering was organized by the UN's "Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People."
The 25-nation committee was created in November 1975, on the same day that the General Assembly adopted the notorious Zionism is Racism resolution.
According to the program, they met to discuss "the legal status of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees under international law," and "the general legal implications of Palestine's admission to the United Nations as an Observer State."
However, behind this façade, the meeting was in reality a gathering to promote lawfare and the global campaign of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) against Israel, under the seemingly neutral auspices of the UN.
Delegates discussed how to pressure corporations to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel in a session entitled "Available legal mechanisms to ensure compliance with international law and Third Party responsibility."
A related session focused on how to use the International Court of Justice. During the part entitled "The State of Palestine and International Courts," delegates examined how to file complaints against Israel in international courts. Palestinian Minister says Israel conducts medical experiments on prisonersOn April 24 and 25, 2014 the UN "Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People" organized a "United Nations Roundtable on Legal Aspects of the Question of Palestine" at the UN Office in Geneva.
The Committee was created by the U.N. General Assembly back in 1975 to implement the infamous Zionism-is-racism resolution. The resolution was rescinded 16 years later but the Committee is still in place, and operating year-round with 49 U.N. states and observers as members.
Issa Qaraqe, Palestinian Minister for Prisoners' Affairs represented the Palestinian Authority. His slanderous comments accused Israel of torturing and raping little children and subjecting Palestinian detainees to medical experiments. Violence, he declared, was the Palestinian right and intention. Eugene Kontorovich: Israel's boycott law passes the U.S. testOn July 2011 Israel's parliament passed the "anti-boycott" bill, which allows "citizens to bring civil suits against persons and organizations that call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts against Israel, Israeli institutions or regions under Israeli control." Since before the establishment of Israel, boycotts have been a major part of the Arabs' war against any Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Today, economic boycotts have become one of the main tools for delegitimizing, intimidating, undermining and unfairly singling out Israel.
The law is currently being challenged before the High Court of Justice. One of the principal arguments against the law is that it violates free speech and Western democratic values. Thus it is useful to consider how the law would fare before the U.S. Supreme Court, given that America has perhaps the most liberal free speech regime in the world (many Israeli laws regulating political campaigning and incitement would be unconstitutional in the United States).
Israel's anti-boycott law could well withstand constitutional challenge in the U.S. In past cases, the Supreme Court has allowed the government to regulate speech that contradicted strong government policies, like preventing discrimination among citizens, which is what the boycott involves. Defining 'Pro-Israel' Is Not Rocket ScienceFor the last several years the Jewish community has wasted thousands of hours in a sterile debate regarding the "big tent," and the criteria for deciding who should be inside or outside. It's time to throw away the tent analogy and lay out the requirements for recognizing a person or organization as pro-Israel in the American context.
Today, there are groups who hold the contradictory positions that their criticism of Israel helps the Jewish state, that presenting a cacophony of voices to U.S. policymakers rather than a unified position strengthens U.S.-Israel relations and that American Jews -- who do not serve in the IDF or have to live with the consequences of their prescriptions -- know what's best for Israel and need to save Israel from itself. This last position is particularly disturbing because it is both paternalistic and anti-Democratic. Those who want the U.S. to impose their preferred policies on Israel assume that Israelis are too stupid or immature to know what's best for their country. They also believe that Israel's democratically elected leaders are clueless as to Israel's interests and the fact that they represent the wishes of Israeli voters is irrelevant. BDS Movement Defeated TWICE in One NightThe anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement failed on the campuses of UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and San Diego State University on Wednesday evening. The movement's bill was defeated on the campus of San Diego State by a vote of 16 against, 3 in favor and 3 abstentions. At USCB the bill fell by a vote of 16 against and 8 in favor.
Nirit Revzin, a junior at San Diego State University and the president of the campus group Aztecs for Israel told TruthRevolt, "the resolution contained so many incorrect citations, exaggerations, and missing data that it was clear to the voting members they should stand against such a movement as a university and should not be aligned with the BDS Movement." She also said that the divestment hearing "exemplified that working against someone else isn't the right way to go about bringing justice to your own people" and wished "we had spent all that time collaborating on something instead of tearing each other apart." Divestapalooza = Divestapa loser!The final score sheet is in from last nights race baiting hate fest that had been dubbed "Divestapalooza"
Divestment at UC Santa Barbara failed 16-8
Divestment at San Diego State failed 16-3.
Divestment at UC Riverside narrowly passed 8-7.
The final tally of the evening- 40 votes were opposed to divestment, with only 18 voting affirmatively.
Its not over. Next in the cross-hairs: UC Davis UCLA Op-Ed Calls Out Pro-Israel 'Gifts' for Student Govt MembersUCLA student Aram Ghoogasian took to the Daily Bruin and stated that students with pro-Israel ties or affiliations should be banned from "accepting gifts" from pro-Israel organizations due to their affiliation with the student government.
He began by isolating two students who took trips to Israel and questioned the effect that these trips had on the failed BDS resolution earlier in the year: Weird Canadian Munchausen Jews to honor author who inspired Kansas City Jew-hating murderer As if determined to make their depravity abundantly clear, Independent Jewish Voices' latest project is bringing fanatical author Max Blumentahal to Ontario to promote his anti-Israel book Goliath.
Blumenthal was cited by the neo-Nazi Kansas City murderer Frazier Miller as one of his inspirations, writing in an online posting: "Jew journalist Max Blumenthal exposes and explains this attempt by a foreign government Israel, to buy the presidential election for the neo-con, war-mongering republican establishment."
With the Kansas City murders still fresh, one wonders if the motivation for Independent Jewish Voices is sensationalism or as an expression of a continuing determination to prove their stupidity knows no bounds. Four Pinocchios for Vox 'Explainer' on 'Everything You Need to Know About Israel-Palestine'The new explanatory journalism venture Vox Dot Com has set its sights on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first page of the entry contained numerous errors. Here you'll find statements made by Vox followed in brackets by our explanation of what portion of their explanation was inaccurate. "Intimidation" If You Do, "Discrimination" If You Don'tA year ago, AI Monitor published a piece in which Israel was charged with "discrimination" because it does not require Israeli Arabs to serve in the army or volunteer for national service.
And yesterday, Christianity Today reported that Israel is accused of "intimidating" Arab Christians by urging them to serve or volunteer.
And there you have it. If it doesn't encourage service, Israel discriminates. If it does, it intimidates. The Media, Israel, and Anti-Semitism (REVIEW)Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed from A-Z by Lee Bender and Jerome Verlin (Pavilion Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 2013)
Sophocles said, "What people believe prevails over truth,"
Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed from A-Z is ideal for the arm chair reader who would like a basic grasp of the terms used in the mainstream media's presentation of the Arab-Israeli situation as is reported today.
This is a book whose time has come. This is a book where the reader gains a working knowledge of the terms being used in shaping the public's perceptions, while being empowered to develop his or her own opinion.
Beginning with "Apartheid" – A False Charge Against Israel', Section One of the book takes the reader through an alphabet of terms demonstrating the systematic demonization of Israel in the Western media, both by the usual suspects as well as supposedly neutral parties. Amid Rising Anti-Semitism in Western Europe, Italian Jews Are Staging a Surprising RevivalMoreover, Judaism is booming in other Roman neighborhoods. At last count there were 18 shuls in town, most Sephardic or Roman—a tradition all its own, with a unique t'filah—and with various approaches to would-be congregants, from very strict, demanding formal proof of the mother's Judaism or of an official conversion, to very open, including non-Jews who are considering conversion.
It helps that Pope Francis is openly philo-Semitic, and the third such pope in a row. This counts for a lot in Italy, even in a period of greatly increased secularization. Three decades ago, John Paul II's embrace of "Jewish fathers" and his historic trip to the Rome synagogue were major changes in Vatican doctrine and practice. As Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI was Pope John Paul's theologian and drafted many of his declarations; he also wrote that the Jews were innocent of Jesus' death and followed in John Paul's footsteps to the Roman synagogue and to Israel. Pope Francis famously welcomes his Argentine Jewish friends to the Vatican and serves them kosher takeout from the ghetto; next month, he is scheduled to make his first official visit to Israel in the company of Abraham Skorka, a close friend who is rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires. Documentary Focuses on Moroccan JewryIn the bustling Berber town of Tinghir beneath Morocco's towering Atlas mountains, some residents remember with nostalgia when Muslims and Jews co-existed harmoniously, the subject of an acclaimed but controversial documentary.
Morocco has had a Jewish community since antiquity, and in the late 1940s it counted some 250,000 members, or 10 percent of the North African country's population.
But these numbers dropped dramatically in the decades after the founding of the Jewish state, and today only around 5,000 Jews remain. Israel Opgal Developes the World's First Android Thermal Imaging CameraOpgal Optonic Industries has developed the Therm App, an external device that turns Android operated smart phones and mobile devices into thermal cameras. It features high resolution thermography and long range enhanced night vision.
The device is not intended for taking casual snapshots at night, but for professionals in different fields, including security, safety, healthcare, veterinary, construction, maintenance, and wildlife observation. People will no longer need to carry around large and bulky photographic equipment to take pictures at night of animals in the wilderness or of suspected trespassers along a fence. Israeli insulation keeps Whirlpool fridges frigidIsrael's Hanita Coatings plans to provide insulating materials for refrigerators made by the Whirlpool Corporation. The deal was announced on Tuesday. Whirlpool is the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $18 billion in 2012. The cooperation is made possible thanks to an investment by the US-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, which supports industrial research and development that benefits both Israel and the United States.
Hanita is a leading producer of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films for vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), a form of advanced thermal insulation technology that is up to seven times more effective than conventional plastic foams or fibrous insulation. VIPs consist of a membrane wall, an internal core of rigid, porous material such as silica or fiberglass, and chemicals to maintain a vacuum inside the panel. A layer of PET laminate is added to the outside of the membrane in order to protect the VIP and reduce the escape of heat or cold that the VIP is supposed to protect. New Israel accelerator IBM's first anywhereA new accelerator, the IBM Alpha Zone, is set to begin in July, making it the tech giant's first accelerator in the world and first attempt to take full advantage of the Start-Up Nation's start-ups, said Rick Kaplan, country general manager of IBM Israel.
IBM established its first Israeli office in 1949. It may be surprising that it took the company until now to open an accelerator in Israel, as so many other tech companies have. IBM wanted to make sure it executed the plan correctly, Kaplan told a Tel Aviv audience in announcing the new accelerator Thursday. Israeli academic makes Time 100 listAn Israeli-born economist and academic was included in the Time 100 list of influential people published on Wednesday.
Anat Admati, who is a professor of finance and economics at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, made the prestigious roll call for offering new ideas on how to understand and structure banking systems. This machine makes drinking water from thin airThe World Health Organization reports that 780 million people don't have access to clean water, and 3.4 million die each year due to water-borne diseases. But an Israeli company thinks it can play a part in alleviating the crisis by producing drinking water from thin air.
Water-Gen has developed an Atmospheric Water-Generation Units using its "GENius" heat exchanger to chill air and condense water vapor.
"The clean air enters our GENius heat exchanger system where it is dehumidified, the water is removed from the air and collected in a collection tank inside the unit," says co-CEO Arye Kohavi. Israeli film wins top prize at NY's Tribeca festivalThe Israeli film "Zero Motivation" on Thursday took home top accolades in the form of the Best Narrative Feature prize at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
The film, a modestly budgeted comic take on boredom and postponed dreams among young women in the Israeli Defense Forces, also nabbed the festival's Nora Ephron Prize.  |
Iran's Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi and leaders of over 30 Lebanese parties discussed the latest developments in the region, and stressed the need for exchanging their experiences to overcome the regional problems.
