Elder of Ziyon 05/01 Links Pt2: 1920: The end of innocence; David Collier: Gaza’s secret electronic army – exposed; Dexter Van Zile: What Jews (and non-Jews) Need to Know About BDS
April 19, 1920, on a train on his way to the San Remo Conference, Chaim Weizmann wrote to his wife, Vera, who was living in London: "My dear, the most terrible, awful thing has happened to us: A pogrom in Jerusalem, with all the accompanying signs of a pogrom… I am tired and shattered and exhausted and nauseated by it all. If the bayonets of the English had not stopped us, we would have overcome the Arabs on the first day, but the English dismantled the weapon of our self-defense and imprisoned our people, including Vladimir Yevgenyvich (Jabotinsky)."
Two weeks earlier, on the first day of the week of Passover, 1920, the riots broke out in Jerusalem and its environs. Today, they would be considered not much more than midsize terrorist attacks. "Only" seven people were killed and 200 injured. Still, it was the start of a new era; the opening shot of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the first major non-criminal incident of an ethnoreligious nature.
A month earlier, Yosef Trumpeldor and five of his comrades had been killed at Tel Hai, but that battle had more to do with the Arabs' desire to fight against how Britain and France were splitting up the region and less to do with Jewish-Arab relations.
It's not that budding nationalism and fears of Zionism and aliyah hadn't been simmering among the Arabs already, but in 1920 they came into focus and took on clear political and religious angles. That same year saw the foundations for the religious aspect of the national conflict, especially on the Arab side under the leadership of the Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini.
Husseini elevated the status of the mosques on the Temple Mount, using them for his political purposes and inventing the blood libel "Al-Aqsa is in danger," which even then falsely accused the Jews of intending to demolish the mosques on the Mount. The riots and the libel spurred the growth of the Palestinian national movement. In 1920 the seeds of the modern-day Palestinian outlook, which does not recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, were sown. This worldview is willing to accept Judaism only as a dhimmi, a protected subservient religion, and not as a sovereign entity in an independent state.
The attack on the Israel Advocacy Movement A couple of weeks ago as Ihbid194 were spamming a thread with posts about Palestinian prisoners, a pro-Israeli activist countered a comment and linked to a video produced by the Israel Advocacy movement. IAM's video pointed out many prisoners are terrorists – explicitly naming some problematic figures. It obviously caught the eye of someone at ihbid194 – because that IAM video became their next target.
This was the response:
Heroes? The people mention in Joseph's video were those such as Adnan Jabar, who murdered six people as they returned home from Friday night prayers. Once again, the pro-terrorist leaning of this group exposes itself.
I witnessed the attack on IAM in real time. There were over 1000 responses in an hour – but this did not mean that 1000 people were responding. For example, Adman M Al-sahri, one of the leaders of ihbid194, posted over 30 messages on the video. The images that he posted were for the most part of terrorists – not political prisoners. Other accounts also posted multiple messages. Most of the accounts did use one of the seventeen formulated messages provided for them on the Ihbid194 page. It was a coordinated spam attack.
Labour and Jeremy Corbyn The date is 25 September 2019. The Labour Party conference has just ended and it is clear we are heading for a general election. The Labour Party post a call on Facebook for people to register to vote. This is pure internal UK politics. Ihbid194 jumped into action – sending positive messages onto the Labour Party post.
labour partyThere were a total of 1000 comments on the post. This is a UK election post and over half of the comments were incredibly supportive and were placed onto the page under the instruction of an online army in Gaza. This isn't the first time Gaza has mobilised for Jeremy Corbyn. Last year I discovered a Hamas propaganda group also posting pro-Corbyn messages. How many of the pro- Labour Party comments were organised Palestinian interference? They also ran other campaigns to place positive messages directly onto posts by Jeremy Corbyn.
On April 28, 2020, Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) aired a report by one of its journalists, Lebanese national Fatima Triki, criticizing MBC TV, a Saudi channel that broadcasts from the UAE. The report was posted on YouTube under the title "After Its Desecration of the Values... MBC Demonizes the Palestinians and Turns the Jews into Angels." It claimed that recent Ramadan MBC series "Makhraj 7" and "Umm Haroun" promote normalization of Arab relations with Israel. Triki's report focuses on a segment in "Makhraj 7", in which characters are shown describing the Palestinians as shameless and ungrateful for the support they receive from other countries. The report also criticized another show, "Umm Haroun", which describes the Jews who lived in the Arab world favorably. Triki then compared these shows to "Dirilis: Ertugrul," a Turkish series about the father of the founder of the Ottoman state. She elaborated that "Dirilis: Ertugrul" was dubbed into Urdu and that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan instructed Pakistani state TV to broadcast the show during Ramadan in order to teach about Islamic history and identity and in order to espouse the values he said are being destroyed by Hollywood and Bollywood. The report was posted on YouTube accompanied by the following text: "After MBC TV has made it its practice to desecrate the Arab and Islamic ethics and values, it has chosen for this year's month of Ramadan to malign the history and memory of the Arabs by turning the Palestinian Cause into an ominous catastrophe and presenting the Palestinians as ungrateful, while the Jews are presented as angels."
"A Lively Banquet Of Normalization... In Order To Lure The Arabs... Away From Their Core Values And Their History"
Presenter 1: "And now, unfortunately, for drama with a flavor of normalization. This is what followers of TV series from the Gulf have called them. These series enjoy wide publicity and are aired during the month of Ramadan, focusing on accepting the Israelis as fait accompli and polishing the image of the Jews, while distorting the image of the Palestinians."
Presenter 2: "According to the followers, this continues the campaign against the Palestinian people and against the just nature of their cause. This raises questions. Who is pushing the Gulf dramas in that direction?"
Narrator: "Ramadan brings us together."
Fatima Triki: "These are things that are bought and sold in a lively banquet of normalization under the pretext of Ramadan, in order to lure the Arabs - who are quarantined in their homes - away from their core values and their history. This could have passed as a normal thing, if that Gulf-funded TV channel [MCB TV] would have stuck to what it does best. But it has chosen to plunge into thorny religious and political matters, in the form of a drama series of disputed quality, which served as an 'exit' for defeated minds. [MBC TV] has produced something that is called 'Makhraj 7.'"
"This Is How The Campaign To Demonize The Palestinians Was Born"
Man 1: "An enemy is someone who does not value your support of him and who curses you day and night - more than the Israelis."
Man 2: "What do you mean?"
Man 1: " I am referring to the lack of shame among the Palestinians. We entered wars for the sake of the Palestinian people. We declared an oil boycott for the sake of Palestine. Ever since they had their [Palestinian] Authority, we have been paying for its expenses and its salaries." [...] Man 2: "There are Palestinians who sold their lands to the Jews, and there are Palestinians who faces the Israeli tanks with their bare chests during the Intifada."
The negligible economic impact of BDS on Israel is secondary to its impact on the ideological and psychological environment in which Jews live their lives. The BDS campaign is part of a larger campaign of psychological warfare intended to undermine young Jews' confidence in the legitimacy of Israel and the Jewish people in general.
As the AMCHA Initiative has demonstrated, faculty-supported BDS campaigns in the United States have a negative effect on attitudes toward Jews on colleges and universities throughout the country. Jews are more likely to be harassed and insulted on campuses where BDS activism is prevalent than where the campaign has yet to take hold. This is not a coincidence or unintended consequence of the BDS campaign, but one of its central goals. By demonizing Israel and portraying Jewish sovereignty as a malign force, BDS activists work to convince young Jews to distance themselves from the Jewish state, its supporters, and their fellow Jews.
Institutions that hinder Jewish survival with their support for BDS are themselves struggling to survive.
BDS is both a cause and a symptom of decline on the part of the institutions that embrace its agenda. This is particularly evident in liberal Protestant churches that have enlisted in the movement. These churches have been suffering a catastrophic decline in numbers for more than half a century and have used anti-Israel activism to differentiate themselves from pro-Israel Evangelicals.
Instead of confronting and working to reverse this decline, these churches have worked to hinder the ability of the Jewish people to defend themselves and survive in an increasingly dangerous world.
As they hinder Israelis' ability to pursue and achieve their material interests, these churches fail to take the steps necessary to ensure their own survival. In sum, churches that are at the forefront of the BDS movement fail to evangelize. BDS activism becomes an all-encompassing agenda that diverts time, energy, and money away from the original founding purposes of what are meant to be faith-based communal institutions.
In sum, BDS activism is not only harmful to Israelis and Palestinians, but damaging to diaspora Jews, the institutions that embrace the movement, and the function of democracy itself.
The Supreme Court ruled that previous guidance on this issue exceeded the Secretary of State's powers. In response, a Government spokesperson said: "We are committed to ensuring public bodies take a consistent approach to investments and to stop local boycotts. We will therefore bring back new legislation that addresses the technical points raised by the Supreme Court".
The Conservative Party manifesto included a commitment to "ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries", which "undermine community cohesion".
At the time, Communities Secretary Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP said: "Town hall boycotts undermine good community relations, weakening integration and fuelling antisemitism. Local public bodies should focus on their day jobs – such as running libraries and collecting bins, rather than running a divisive foreign policy from town halls".
The commitment was confirmed in a subsequent statement underlining the Government's pledge to "prevent public institutions from creating independent sanctions and boycotts against: Foreign countries or those linked to them; the sale of goods and services from foreign countries; UK firms which trade with such countries".
Then-Minister for the Cabinet Office, Rt. Hon. Oliver Dowden MP said: "Our public institutions should focus on their day job, not try to set foreign policy by making rules on which countries they will and won't do business with. By stopping this unsanctioned activity we can get better value for taxpayers and put an end to boycotts that divide communities and sow hatred".
One has to be unusually callous to revel publicly in the coronavirus-related death of an 88-year old Holocaust survivor, yet Leen Dweik did not hesitate.
A 2019 graduate of New York University, Dweik served as president of the NYU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the main force on campus behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that targets the Jewish state. Born in Budapest, Aryeh Even survived the war in Hungary before emigrating to Israel by himself as a teenager in 1949. He went on to have four children and 18 grandchildren, then became the first Israeli to succumb to COVID-19.
Dweik reacted to the news of Even's death by posting on Twitter, "anyway should I paint my nails red or green today."
What's surprising is not Dweik's combination of political zeal and personal coldness. She has called for abolishing the State of Israel and made headlines last year for a public confrontation with a visibly flustered Chelsea Clinton, whom she accused of provoking the massacre of 49 Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand.
What's surprising is that NYU condemned Dweik's brand of activism.
"With almost 500,000 alumni," wrote NYU spokesman John Beckman, "NYU does not routinely respond to its graduates' social media posts, but the reported Twitter post by a former NYU student about the first Israeli death from COVID-19 was shameful and callous."
He added, "The death and disruption caused by this pandemic should be reason to draw us together in sympathy, not be fodder for divisiveness and indifference. NYU denounces such insensitivity; it is at odds with our campus' values."
This episode comes as the anti-Israel BDS campaign continues to permeate campuses not only in New York but throughout the country. Pro-Palestinian students have passed votes to impose BDS on the Jewish state, and university administrators have often remained indifferent or even supportive when BDS-animated anti-Semitism surfaces.
Positively, there have been some encouraging countervailing forces at work not only at NYU but also Fordham University and Columbia University.
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz is urging the Justice Department "to closely monitor New York City" for potential religious discrimination amid the pandemic after its mayor singled out "the Jewish community" following the breakup of a large gathering of Orthodox Jews.
In a letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Bill Barr, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Cruz lauded a Justice Department memo issued this week asking federal prosecutors to keep watch on state and local orders crafted to help stop the coronavirus that risk infringing on individuals' civil liberties.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's chastising of Jews after a local funeral drew a crowd of thousands, Cruz added, raises questions about whether one faith "is being singled out for special burdens."
"This is dangerous in and of itself," Cruz, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's Constitution subcommittee, wrote to Barr. "But it is especially dangerous to single out the Jewish community in a city that is experiencing a substantial rise in violent anti-Semitism."
"The Department of Justice should not hesitate to closely monitor New York City to ensure that the mayor's rhetoric does not translate into constitutional violations," Cruz added.
The mayor's press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, responded to the letter by noting that de Blasio "has apologized to anyone he offended by his word choice. That was certainly not his intention."
De Blasio "cannot stand idly by if there are gatherings that pose a risk to New Yorkers' health and safety," Goldstein added by email in response to Cruz's letter, which sought greater attention to all local officials who might single out specific religions "under the guise of protecting public health."
For months the Jewish communities of NYC begged the city administration for increased NYPD presence, as Jews were getting smashed in the head with bricks. We were told the manpower was unavailable. Today that was shown to be a lie. pic.twitter.com/NYQX9qYsKS
Dozens of Jewish organizations and Jewish leaders are unhappy with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and they let him know about it in an open letter.
The letter released Wednesday accused de Blasio of "scapegoating" the Jewish community in response to a large Hasidic funeral in Brooklyn on Tuesday night for a rabbi who had died of the coronavirus. Jewish Insider posted the letter, which included signers from across the denominational spectrum as well as some city and state lawmakers.
De Blasio in a tweet early Wednesday condemned "the Jewish community" in a trio of Twitter posts announcing that he had instructed his Police Department to fine or even arrest social distancing violators.
The letter pointed out that the funeral for Rabbi Chaim Mertz had received a street permit from the Police Department, calling the action "a mistake." Similarly, the letter said, "it is also a mistake to single out an entire community and then threaten incarceration."
The signatories requested a meeting with the mayor "to discuss constructive approaches to respond to the pandemic."
"In the midst of an historic wave of anti-Semitic hate violence in New York City, our community — like the Asian community — has been feeling the pain of being singled out and blamed for the spread of this deadly disease," read the letter organized by the New York Jewish Agenda group.
"It was strictly through NYPD's permission," Moshe Weiser, a long-time liaison between police and the Hasidic community, tells @aefeldman. "If they would say no, it would be no."https://t.co/wm8OyBsuaY
Two days after New York City's mayor called out "the Jewish community" when vowing to crack down on gatherings, city police intervened in another funeral in a Jewish neighborhood, resulting in a tense scene and at least one arrest.
A video shared on Whatsapp showed a chaotic scene on a street corner in the heart of Borough Park, with a Judaica store visible on one corner of the street.
Dozens of police officers directed a large group of visibly Orthodox Jews away from the area, many of whom wore masks and stood in the street. Some were crowded together behind yellow police tape.
Someone off-camera can be heard in the video. "This is getting violent over here, they just arrested somebody," he said.
The episode came two days after a funeral for a Hasidic rabbi in Williamsburg drew at least a thousand people to the streets in violation of social distancing rules imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has hit the city's Orthodox Jewish population hard. Despite the New York Police Department's knowledge of the funeral beforehand, the crowd grew unmanageable and ultimately was dispersed by police, who issued 12 summonses in the process.
After breaking up an illegal and massive gathering of ultra-orthodox Jews in New York City this week, Mayor de Blasio felt it was appropriate to send a reminder to the entire Jewish community that they deserve to be called out specifically for their actions. Through this act of public service, the mayor aptly celebrated Israel's Independence Day, the birth of the modern Jewish state, by reminding "the Jewish community" why being lumped together and blamed collectively is one of the reasons they should count themselves lucky they have a state.
Many Jewish New Yorkers were initially outraged at being called out en masse, especially when they wouldn't be caught dead at that other synagogue, you know the one. However, they felt better when the mayor's office explained that it was all a performance art piece to demonstrate the need for the State of Israel.
"This tweet was clearly in recognition of Israeli Independence Day" said stressed-out staffer, and part time hot-dog salesman, Frankie Alto. "What the mayor was trying to say was, "it's stuff like scapegoating demonstrated here that makes them Jews want to have their own state and thank God they now have Israel because 1930s-style tweets like this could really set a ball rolling."
"Sorry to any Yids I offended with this," said the Mayor later that day. "I obviously want them all to feel safe in this city. I was just trying to spread a little extra joy to the state they're actually loyal to."
In both Britain and America, the Jewish community is increasingly badly served by leaders who seem less and less able to distinguish between the friends and the enemies of the Jewish people.
In America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has been convulsed by controversy over appointing Dianne Lob as its new chairman. Lob is the former president of HIAS, an organization originally established to assist Jewish refugees but which has morphed into a body closely associated with anti-Israel and Islamist groups.
In Britain, this week a Conservative MP, Robert Halfon, mounted a startlingly outspoken attack on the Jewish community's main representative body, the Board of Deputies, for having a "left of centre political agenda."
His criticism was triggered by its weekly bulletin that, he said, read like a "political broadcasting service" for the Labour Party.
The background to this fracas is the replacement of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by Sir Keir Starmer — a former human-rights lawyer, Director of Public Prosecutions and a more centrist figure than his far-left predecessor.
Since he became leader a month ago, Starmer has strenuously portrayed himself as anxious to deal with the scourge of antisemitism that consumed the party under Corbyn. His instant charm offensive towards Jewish community leaders had them purring straightaway. What he says, however, is less important than what he does. And this is causing some concern.
For although he has rid his shadow ministerial team of most of Corbyn's far-left faction, he has still appointed some Labour MPs with backgrounds of deeply problematic views about Israel and the Jewish people.
In the meantime, another unforeseen hurdle has appeared. A large unedited internal report has reached the media. It claims that the complaints department was highly dysfunctional. This department was staffed with supporters of the former moderate Labour leader, Tony Blair. These people, so the claim goes, did their best to damage Corbyn. The report states that it was true that the department did not handle antisemitism complaints efficiently. Yet that was the case with all other complaints as well.
The publication of the report has possibly compromised the privacy of several Labour party employees. This could lead to legal cases against the party. Labour is not submitting this report to the EHRC. Yet an individual has published that he had done so.
Even if the party under Starmer meets the 10 conditions of the Jewish organizations, one wonders whether many Jews will return to vote for Labour. The reconciliation is largely a symbolic matter. Jews are only 0.4% of the British population. At best, their votes are influential in a few constituencies. What is far more important for Labour is that Jewish representatives stop saying that the party is institutionally antisemitic.
There remain other handicaps for consciously Jewish voters to vote Labour. The party has many pro-Corbynite members. They are organized in the Momentum Group. There are even a number of Corbynites in the shadow cabinet.
There is another issue which should be brought to the fore. In 2014, Labour proposed a motion in the House of Commons that the UK should recognize Palestine. It was accepted with a huge majority. However, the Palestinian Arabs have continued to reject all Israeli peace proposals.
A Jew who votes for Labour is voting for a party that wants to recognize a people whose largest party, Hamas, wants to commit genocide against Jews. The second-largest party, Fatah, rewards murderers of Israeli citizens. Lisa Nandy was one the MPs who voted for the motion. Nevertheless, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) supported her in the recent Labour election for chairperson.
Jews who vote Labour in the future cannot plead innocence and that goes for JLM members as well.
The community may trust Keir Starmer to clear up Jeremy Corbyn's mess on antisemitism, but the clock is ticking and words must start translating into action.
Since being elected, he has been keen to stress that he's not Jeremy Corbyn.
When he got the job, he apologised, committed to "tear out this poison" of antisemitism, and arranged a call with communal leaders. They said he had "already achieved in four days more than his predecessor in four years", fighting the scourge.
He has got off on the right foot, and it has bought him trust and time. While there is no point acting hastily ahead of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report later this year, it is important to be decisive.
This week saw his first real test, and truth-be-told, it was a lukewarm response.
A mediocre 6-out-of-ten.
Ex-shadow ministers Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy spoke at a virtual meeting, featuring expelled and suspended activists including Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein.
Walker was kicked out for making comments which were "grossly detrimental" to the party. She previously said "many Jews were chief financiers of the slave trade", claimed Holocaust Memorial Day only commemorates Jewish victims, and that she hadn't "heard a definition of antisemitism that I can work with".
Top UK Jewish groups sharply criticized the Labour party on Thursday for failing to live up to its promises to root out antisemitism from its ranks after it failed to discipline several officials who took part in an online conference with activists previously expelled from Labour for antisemitism.
After Jeremy Corbyn became the party's leader in 2015, Labour was wracked by a number of antisemitism scandals, with several touching the far-left Corbyn himself. After Labour was overwhelmingly defeated in last December's general elections, new party leader Keir Starmer pledged to eradicate antisemitism from the party.
However, The Jewish Chronicle revealed that MPs Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy addressed an online forum of far-leftists on Wednesday involving a number of members who had been disciplined for antisemitic statements or activities.
These included Tony Greenstein and Jackie Walker, who were both expelled from the party for antisemitism.
Abbott and Ribeiro-Addy also made statements on Wednesday's call that minimized the issue of antisemitism in the party.
Afterward, the Labour party issued a statement saying, "The previous comments made by some of the individuals on this call are completely unacceptable. These are not people who support the values of the Labour party. This is being made clear to the Labour MPs who attended the call in the strongest possible terms and they are being reminded of their responsibilities and obligations."
UK Jewish organizations were quick to speak out, with the resident of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, saying, "It is completely unacceptable that Labour MPs, and even ordinary members, should be sharing platforms with those that have been expelled from the party for antisemitism."
Referring to the BOD's "Ten Pledges" that Labour must take in order to fight antisemitism, Van der Zyl said, "Indeed, this breaches the Board of Deputies' Ten Pledges that Keir and the other Labour leadership contenders signed up to. We would urge Labour to take swift and decisive action to show that this is a new era, rather than a false dawn."
The JC is reporting that Aslam Choudry, a former Labour Mayor of Brent, in London, has said that he made a "mistake" when he posted a video suggesting that "the Jewish lobby" controls the United States.
Cllr Choudry, who represents the Dudden Hill ward on the local council and is the Chair of Brent's Audit Committee, reportedly posted the video in a WatsApp group. The video apparently said that just as in Nazi Germany one could not criticise the Nazi Party, so in contemporary America one cannot criticise the "Jewish lobby", comparing the situation to other totalitarian states. "Both sides, Democrats and Republicans, they both bow down to the Israeli lobby", the narrator on the video explained, apparently using the phrases 'Jewish lobby' and 'Israeli lobby' interchangeably.
The video was from Real Face Media, a channel that purports to "spread the true message of Islam."
Other members of the WatsApp group, among them local Jewish residents, were appalled, with one writing, according to the JC, that they were "absolutely disgusted". Another is apparently referring the matter to the Labour Party.
Cllr Choudry wrote in reply: "I'm sorry sent by mistake".
In 2016, Cllr Choudry shared a video on social media with the caption, "Zionists are even worst [sic] than animals," for which he said "I apologise unreservedly".
A notorious academic at the University of Bristol is among numerous far-left activists to attack Sir Keir Starmer over "Zionist money" behind his leadership campaign.
Labour members and far-left activists have criticised the new Labour Leader following the revelation that Jewish philanthropist Sir Trevor Chinn donated £50,000 to his leadership bid. One activist claimed that Sir Keir had been "bought" and was "in the pocket of the Israel lobby", adding that "Our Leader, Shadow Foreign Sec and Shadow Home Secretary all in the pocket of Israel." Sir Trevor also made a donation to the campaign of Lisa Nandy, the new Shadow Foreign Secretary.
Defending himself against accusations of antisemitism, the activist said: "Let's be clear. I am not suggesting these MPs are being controlled by Israel or that Israel is 'pulling the strings'. Trevor Chinn is a well known pro-Israel lobbyist so it's fair to assume that his donations have bought influence."
It is understood that a complaint has been submitted to the Labour Party.
Activist Gillian Lazarus has also uncovered numerous similar themes in Facebook groups populated by far-left Labour activists.
But now a prominent and notorious lecturer, Prof. David Miller, has also intervened, reportedly claiming that, because Sir Keir is "in receipt of money from the Zionist movement," he is "obviously not going to" conduct "a proper investigation" into the leaked Labour report into the handling of antisemitism cases at Party headquarters. The remarks were apparently made after he took part in an online broadcast with the disgraced former Labour MP, Chris Williamson.
Prof. Miller also talked about what he referred to as the "witch hunt" against Labour members accused of antisemitism, appearing alongside controversial activists Asa Winstanley and Kerry-Anne Mendoza, the editor of The Canary, which is presently under investigation by the Government's Independent Advisor on Antisemitism.
Prof. Miller, a sociology lecturer, has a history of spouting conspiracy theories about Zionism and conspiracies involving various Jewish community organisations and figures that has reportedly discomfited his Jewish students. The University of Bristol has failed to take action against him.
Sir Keir Starmer must suspend Salma Yaqoob from the Labour Party in anticipation of her joint event with the expelled Labour activist Tony Greenstein, in line with his election pledge.
On Tuesday 12th May, Birmingham Stop the War intends to host a public event featuring Ms Yaqoob and Mr Greenstein, along with the author Paul Keleman.
Sir Keir made a pledge during his leadership election campaign that he would suspend Labour MPs and members who gave a platform to former members expelled in the wake of antisemitic incidents.
Mr Greenstein was expelled from the Labour Party on three charges relating to comments he made on social media and his blog. The first charge related to "repeatedly using 'zio' as a term of derision, stating 'Gay zionists make me want to puke' and referring to others as 'Zionist scum'"; the second charge related to abuse, including calling the Jewish then-Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman a "supporter of child abuse"; and the third charge related to an e-mail sent by Mr Greenstein to the General Secretary of the Labour Party in which he appeared to make a distasteful joke about the Nazis' "final solution", their plan to annihilate European Jewry.
Ms Yaqoob, the former Respect Party leader who stood to become Labour's candidate for West Midlands Metro Mayor, is a recent member of the Labour Party, and she has her own deeply troubling record in relation to the Jewish community.
In a 2013 tweet (that she has since deleted), Ms Yaqoob stated: "Iceland arrests 10 Rothschild bankers…wow", and linked to an article making this false claim and featuring a prominent image of the banker and philanthropist Lord Jacob Rothschild. The article linked in turn to a longer piece on the "Political Vel Craft" website, which is known for disseminating extreme conspiracy theories.
LMFAOOOOO -> Labour HQ ran ads targeted just to Jeremy Corbyn and his closest circle to convince them they were running the campaign they wanted, then ran different messages to everyone else. https://t.co/tMMipE9YCT
Croatia's leftist president walked out of a state ceremony in protest Friday after one of the participants wore a T-shirt displaying a salute used during World War II by a pro-Nazi regime in the country.
"This is a deliberate provocation," Zoran Milanovic said. "I don't want to be part of it."
The salute is often displayed by Croatia's far-right extremists. Many glorify the WWII Croatian state although tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascists were killed in its concentration camps.
Friday's incident happened during a formal ceremony marking the anniversary of a 1995 military operation when Croatia's army liberated a swath of territory held by rebel Serbs during the countries' 1991-95 war.
Croatian media reported that a man, apparently a former fighter from the 1991-95 conflict, was wearing a T-shirt with the WWII salute which prompted Milanovic's walkout. Other top officials, including conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, stayed.
"No one knew they would wear those T-shirts," said Plenkovic. "Anyone who died for Croatia has my respect … we are here to honor the fallen." Illustrative: German troops being welcomed by civilians as they passed through a Dalmatian village in Croatia on their way to the Adriatic coast on October 23, 1943. (AP Photo)
Croatia's conservative government has faced criticism for failing to curb pro-Nazi sentiments in the country. The dominant conservative party, the Croatian Democratic Union, has a strong right-wing faction.
Jay Leno and numerous other international celebrities are teaming up for a virtual "Saving Lives Sunday" event of music and comedy in honor of first-responders and to support the United Hatzalah coronavirus emergency response fund, according to a press release from the volunteer-based organization.
The event, a virtual telethon to help United Hatzalah in its fight against the coronavirus, is set to take place on May 3, 8:00 p.m. Israel time (1:00 p.m. EST) and will include American late-night talk show host Jay Leno, Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard, Israeli actress Rona Lee Shimon, American actor Adam Kantor, Israeli singer Dudu Aharon and Amar'e Stoudemire, an American-Israeli former NBA star and current Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball player.
The show will a running time of one hour, and will be free for viewers, who will be able to stream the event on United Hatzalah's YouTube page or the 'Saving Lives Sunday' website. Viewers will also be given information of donating to United Hatzalah.
"Saving Lives Sunday: A Streaming Event Honoring First-Responders and Welcoming Home Eli Beer is a way to bring people together during a time of enforced distance, stress, and uncertainty," said Dov Maisel, United Hatzalah's Vice President of Operations.
"Our volunteers have been putting themselves and their families at risk every day by responding to all types of medical emergencies as well as undertaking an incredible amount of humanitarian assistance calls since the virus swept across the globe. While we cannot come together in person to say thank you and show our support, we can still come together and show our gratitude through this virtual medium," Maisel added.
"To restore films is to touch history," said Meir Russo, the manager of the Israel Film Archive (IFA), which is located in, and is part of, the Jerusalem Cinematheque. "And digitizing our collection and making these films widely available have always been our dreams and our goals."
After years of intensive work on digitizing its collection of Israeli film clips, the archive is posting many of its gems online and plans to make more available, with the goal of eventually digitizing everything in its vast collection, more than 5,000 hours of film.
The IFA features a copy of virtually every film ever shot in Israel, including feature films, documentaries, newsreels and home movies, with clips that go back to the 19th century, among them an 1896 film produced by the Lumière brothers shot in Palestine which is believed to be the earliest film made here still in existence. These films and clips provide a fascinating and unique glimpse into Israeli history; but in the past, only scholars doing research at the IFA had access to them.
The coronavirus outbreak underscores the importance of digitization, and the Jerusalem Cinematheque has made a number of classic clips from the IFA available on the cinematheque website recently.
These include a clip about a 1949 tuberculosis outbreak in Israel, a snowy day in Jerusalem in 1950, a 1935 dog show in Tel Aviv, a 1955 fashion show in Haifa, a private visit with Albert Einstein, comedian/actor/director Uri Zohar (now Rabbi Zohar) reciting poetry in a dress, and much more.
As the nation prepares to hold virtual Memorial and Independence Day ceremonies, Toldot Yisrael releases special programming on volunteers from overseas
With countrywide lockdowns in place, Israelis will for the first time mark Memorial Day and celebrate Independence Day at home and away from friends and relatives.
The Israeli government has put in place a number of measures aimed at ensuring social distancing and preventing the spread of the coronavirus for the back-to-back holidays. On Memorial Day, Israelis are barred from visiting cemeteries and memorial sites. On Independence Day, they will not be allowed to leave home except for essential services or medicine. Buying food will not be permitted, and public transportation will be halted.
A wide variety of virtual events will be broadcast online to ensure that those stuck indoors can still mark Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) and celebrate Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day).
In cooperation with the Rabbinical Council of America, the Jerusalem-based nonprofit organization Toldot Yisrael has released a special one-hour program for both holidays.
The program, "From Remembrance to Independence: Behind the Scenes of Israel's Founding," highlights the American contribution to the state's creation and is available online.
"We actually created a program because we wanted to make sure that people still had the opportunity to celebrate," Aryeh Halivni, founder and executive director of Toldot Yisrael, told The Media Line. "Someone who is on their own can watch this video, or schools and synagogues can send it out and say that 'we're going to watch this together as a community.'"
Featuring eyewitness accounts relating to Israel's founding, the video also includes historical footage and inspiring messages from Israeli and American Jewish community leaders, including late Israeli President Shimon Peres and Rabbi Shmuel Goldin.
But the stars of the show are undoubtedly the overseas volunteers, or "machalniks," who present compelling testimonies about the 1947-1948 civil war, which followed the UN decision to divide the area into a Jewish and an Arab state, and Israel's subsequent War of Independence.
ARSEN OSTROVSKY BEFORE the establishment of the State of Israel, the nation's first president and one of the great Zionist leaders, Chaim Weizmann, reportedly travelled to London, where he was asked by a Lord in the British Parliament: "Mr Weizmann, why Palestine [as it was then]? Why not try elsewhere, somewhere you would have less enemies, less struggles, less difficulties, somewhere closer?"
Weizmann replied: "My dear Lord, why is it that you insist on driving two-and-half hours – every weekend – to visit your elderly mother, when there is a perfectly decent, nice old lady living just across the street?"
So why did I make aliyah in 2012, all the way from Sydney – which is about as far away from Israel as possible?
Well, the short answer is, I'm a Jew, I'm a Zionist, and after 3000 years of our people dreaming, fleeing persecution and saying year after year, "Next Year in Jerusalem", I said, "Enough is enough! I'm coming home!"
Seven-and-a-half years, five apartments, two wars, one wife, a (Sabra) child, puppy and countless elections later (I stopped counting after the three this past year), with each passing day I feel only a sense of reaffirmation that this was unequivocally the best decision of my life.
GROWING up in Australia, instead of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the biggest concerns weighing on our collective minds were which footy code to watch on the weekend and which pub to go to for a schooner after work.
It's not that I ever felt out of place in Australia. Never for a moment. It's just that in Israel, I feel there is a sense of mission and purpose, that you are part of something bigger – a Zionist story that is still unfolding and where you can truly shape the future direction of the Jewish state.
Even to this day, I still get Israelis looking at me with amazement when I say I came from Australia. For many of them, they consider Australia an oasis, a place to explore after army service and often struggle to understand how one could leave the comfort and ease of "down under" for the dogged fight of life in the Holy Land.
Arsen with Australia's ambassador to Israel, Chris Cannan; and Israel's ambassador to Australia, Mark Sofer.
But there is this automatic sense of respect. Everyone in Israel just loves Aussies!
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These aren't exactly essentials like flour and oil. They have other brands of similar goods. They choose to sell the Israeli products anyway - because there is demand for them in Gaza.
Plus, they are kosher!
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WHICH BRINGS us to one peculiar side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: a spike in the desire of Israelis living abroad to return home, and an increase in the interest of Diaspora Jews to make aliyah.
According to Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, the government should prepare for a "major wave of immigration to Israel when the coronavirus crisis ends."
In a recent interview, Herzog referred to the fact that Jewish communities around the world have been hit hard both by the virus and by the antisemitism that it has evoked. He said that the Jewish Agency has been receiving thousands of inquiries from Israelis, and hundreds from British, French and American Jews.
Two families who arrived this month – a couple from France and the Israeli parents of American-born children returning after a 14-year stint in New York – told Channel 12 on Wednesday that a major factor in the timing of their move was Israel's handling of the pandemic. Both said they felt far safer in Israel, from a health standpoint, than in the US and Europe. The now former New Yorkers pointed to all the people in Brooklyn "who are dying like flies."
The French wife stated that Israel, unlike her country of origin, does not have a shortage of surgical masks.
Two young Israeli men studying in Italy who came rushing back when the crisis struck expressed the same sentiment. One told Channel 12 that he used to take Israel for granted, but when he witnessed Italian hospital staff refusing to provide ventilators to any patient over the age of 60, he had an awakening.
"Even if Israel ran out of equipment, it would find a way to acquire the machines before letting anyone die," he said.
It's a great lesson for all the Israelis who have been whining and winging about the country's "disastrous" healthcare system in general and the Health Ministry's "poor" management of the COVID-19 crisis in particular. Sadly, it's a message most of us won't hear, especially not now, when the decreasing number of patients on ventilators has enabled us to focus the brunt of our anxiety on the decimated economy.
First and foremost, the US will benefit if the administration invokes the snapback sanctions articles because it is the right thing to do. As the IAEA reported and Salehi acknowledged, the Iranians are comprehensively breaching all of their commitments under the JCPOA. There is no substantive justification for maintaining the fiction that the deal is still salvageable. There is clearly no substantive justification for selling Iran conventional weapons.
This brings us to the second reason, and to Iran's defenders – particularly the EU and the Democrats: If the US triggers the snapback sanctions, the move will critically harm the European Union which, under German leadership has consistently advanced a harshly anti-American foreign policy. If the EU responds to a US move to trigger the snapback sanctions by insisting the US has no authority to act, the position will boomerang.
Even before the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic, many EU member nations were rejecting the EU's authority to dictate a unified anti-American, pro-Iranian foreign policy.
In February 2019, Poland co-hosted a summit on Iran in Warsaw with the US. Then EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Federica Mogherini refused to participate in the conference that bought more than a dozen key EU states along with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE together to discuss the threat Iran poses to global security.
The EU's utter failure to manage the coronavirus pandemic has struck a massive blow to the EU. Its incompetence has convinced millions of Europeans who had previously supported the EU that they have nothing to gain from it. Their national governments are the only instruments to protect their lives and liberty.
The EU's weakened was apparent earlier this month when several EU member states angrily rejected an attempt by current EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell to pass a resolution condemning the Trump Middle East peace plan and Israel's intention to apply its law to parts of Judea and Samaria in the framework of the Trump plan.
If the EU subverts a US effort to restore UN sanctions on Iran, its action is liable to destroy whatever is left of Brussel's power to dictate a unified EU foreign policy.
For Miriam Peretz, there is one goal in life: Sanctification of death—Rogel Alpher, Haaretz, April 28, 2020, (from the Hebrew).
From the Al-Qassam Brigades to the Zionist soldiers: The Al-Qassam Brigades love death more than you love life.—Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV,Nov. 18, 2012.
Explode, onward, explode, and let your soul be liberated.…How beautiful the [explosive] belt is on your waist; anyone who faces you as an enemy will be humiliated. Water your land with blood, when your weapon speaks. Smile on the day of your death as a Martyr…Onward to Paradise, and Allah is the one who will remain for your children—Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV, Nov. 12, 2019.
Of course, Haaretz, an allegedly "Israeli" daily, has every right to print whatever depraved drivel and reprehensible rubbish it wishes. It must, however, be prepared to bear the commercial consequences thereof.
For decades, under the ludicrous—indeed, almost lewd—pretext of being the "paper for thoughtful readers", it has given a platform for the grotesque garbage, noxious nonsense and preposterous poppycock of the likes of Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, who regularly condone—or at least, express sympathetic understanding for—Palestinian-Arab terror attacks against Israel/Israelis—while demeaning, de-legitimizing and demonizing Israeli punitive and preemptive countermeasures against them.
But this week (April 28)—on National Memorial Day, when Israel remembers its fallen warriors, it might just have carried its caustic crusade against the Jewish state one outrage too far. On what is arguably the most hallowed date on the national calendar, Haaretz chose to publish a toxic tirade by its arrogant and pompous TV critic, one Rogal Alpher, against Miriam Peretz, arguably one of Israel's most noble public figures. A twice bereaved mother, Peretz lost two of her sons, Uriel and Eliraz, both IDF officers, killed in action, and her husband, Eliezer, who died at the age of 56, shortly after the death of Uriel, his eldest son—reportedly from an illness brought on by the grief over his loss.
For many, Peretz has become a symbol of the ability to rise above personal sorrow and tragedy and to rally the strength to contribute to others and to Israeli society at large, devoting her life to educating youth and young IDF soldiers on Jewish and Zionist values.
As of this writing, Israel, population 9.2 million people, has suffered 219 fatalities in the coronavirus pandemic. Of the nearly 16,000 confirmed cases, more than half have now recovered. Fewer than 100 Israelis are currently on ventilators.
Compare those figures to other countries. Israel has 25 fatalities per million citizens - which puts us at about 50th in the world. Sweden, which chose a radically less interventionist approach, has about 10 times as many deaths as Israel - about 2,500 - in a population only slightly larger than ours at 10 million. Belgium, population 11 million, has over 7,500 fatalities - 34 times as many as Israel. Austria, with over 8.5 million people, has almost 600 dead. In the U.S., with a similar-sized Jewish community to Israel's, the most conservative estimate puts the death toll among Jews deep into four figures.
Israel's leaders and authorities made decisions that its citizens generally heeded, that were designed to maximize the defense against a mysterious virus that disproportionately targeted the elderly - our parents, our pioneers. For now, the numbers and the comparisons suggest, that strategy has been remarkably effective. The writer is founding editor of the Times of Israel.
In several countries, nursing homes are being turned into dying homes. We condemned thousands of elderly people to the most atrocious death, in extreme solitude, deprived of their loved ones, without holding the hands of their children, without speaking to a priest, even brought to the crematorium en masse, without even the slightest funeral ritual being allowed.
It is a form of anthropological transgression that clashes intimately with the conscience of Western civilization.
Half of the deaths from Covid-19 in Europe have been in nursing homes. It is not a coincidence. We deliberately sacrificed these elderly in a form of social Darwinism.
If our conscience will resist this terrible temptation, the West might have some future. Otherwise, it will be transformed forever.
The Covid-19 epidemic destroyed the anthropological, social and cultural illusions on which we Westerners have lived for half a century. Armed with hedonistic rhetoric, we thought we were safe, that we even had abolished death. This disease destroys those illusions and our false consciousness. It forces us to return to the truth of the human condition. Western man now knows that death exists!
We in the West dreamed of transhumanism, gender-free, abolition of borders, digitalization of the world; the very words "border", "nation", "people", "identity", "family", were taboo. Now we rediscover all of these are crucial to fight the disease.
This crisis has served to remind us that the family is the fundamental and basic framework that allows life to flourish and unfold, especially when existence is threatened with being pulverized.
A 62-year-old man died of COVID-19 on Friday morning, the 21st resident of a Yavne'el nursing home to die as a result of the coronavirus.
The Baruch Padeh Medical Center in Tiberias said the man had complex underlying health conditions.
The fatality took the national death toll from the novel coronavirus to 223.
The Health Ministry said Friday morning that the overall number of cases rose to 16,004, up 134 in 24 hours as the downturn in infections persisted.
Meanwhile, the gap between the number of recovered patients and active cases continued to grow, with the number of recovered patients rising to 8,758 — an increase of 346 over the previous 24 hours.
According to the health data, 105 people are currently in serious condition with COVID-19, 82 of them on ventilators. Another 82 are in moderate condition, while the vast majority (6,836) of the active cases are displaying mild symptoms.
In recent days, Israel's infection rate has dropped off significantly, with only dozens of new cases being reported every 12 hours, and the government has announced steps to ease restrictions on businesses and travel. A son accompanied by his daughter stand two meters away from his mother's balcony as he meets with her in Jerusalem during the coronavirus pandemic, on April 30, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
The lower number of cases has coincided with a drop in testing. Though the ministry says it has the capacity to run 15,000 samples a day but not enough suspected cases to test.
Israel on Thursday returned to some semblance of normalcy, with much of the country opening up following two days of ramped up restrictions in place for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays.
A group of doctors and nurses from Hamas-run Gaza received training inside Israel without coordination with the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah, Fathi Abu Warda, an adviser to the ministry, told Al-Monitor. "Four doctors from the Gaza government, including the director of international cooperation in the Gaza Health Ministry, Abdul Latif al-Hajj, received training inside Israel. Six nurses and lab technicians underwent another training session inside Israel, also without our knowledge. Everyone was taken aback that Gaza had coordinated such training, since the PA is known for coordinating with the Israeli side, not the Hamas government."
Abu Warda noted that the Gaza government also refused to send samples to Ramallah to be tested for the coronavirus and sent them to Israel instead. Nor was ministry informed about the laboratory to be established in Gaza with donations from Chinese and Israeli companies. "It seems that Gaza was able to find a direct outlet to communicate with the Israeli side without us knowing," he said.
A well-informed source in the Gaza government said they do not want to talk to the media about the issue so as not to publicize that there are relations between Israel and the Gaza government. Sources claimed Hamas hides the relationship to avoid accusations of normalization with Israel.
ACCUSATIONS that Jews created coronavirus, that affected Jews are being punished, and calling COVID-19 the "Jew flu" are just some examples of antisemitism expressed online by Australians during the current pandemic.
It comes amid a global trend of antisemitism tied to the outbreak, with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz saying this week that antisemitism, which was already on the rise, "has gotten another boost".
"We can't allow this phenomenon to become legitimised by repetition. We need to join hands with Diaspora Jewish communities … to uproot this scourge wherever it shows its head," he said.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry research director and Australian Hate Crime Network (AHCN) co-convenor Julie Nathan, who has been documenting Australian examples, said although the discourse is the latest mutation of antisemitism, "It relies on the familiar dehumanising techniques deployed by all racism.
"Australian racists online have been posting comments and sharing various images, presumably originating from overseas, portraying the coronavirus as a 'Jew', as well as accusing 'the Jews' of creating and spreading the virus, and expressing the wish that all Jews die from the virus," she said.
"It is disconcerting, but not surprising, that antisemites are using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to attack Jews online and to spread anti-Jewish conspiracy theories."
She said it was too early to conclude whether the number itself of antisemitic incidents in Australia has changed during the pandemic.
Israel Advocacy Movement: Idiots blame virus on Jews
Amid reports intimating that the White House is conditioning its support for Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank on negotiations over a Palestinian state, the administration stressed Friday that it continues to back Israel's annexation plans, as long as they're carried out in the framework of the peace plan President Donald Trump presented on January 28.
"Our position has not changed," a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Jerusalem told The Times of Israel on Friday. "As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the [Trump peace plan] foresees as being part of the State of Israel."
In exchange for American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the areas the administration's "Peace to Prosperity" vision earmarks as part of Israel, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to freeze all settlement activity for the next four years in areas the plan envisions for a future Palestinian state, "and negotiate with the Palestinians in good faith on the basis of the Vision," the spokesperson added.
"This will give the Palestinians an opportunity to come to the table and negotiate a peace agreement that will result in the establishment of a state of their own. The United States stands ready and willing to offer wide-ranging assistance to facilitate a final peace agreement."
On Thursday, the US news website Axios published an article entitled "West Bank annexations must come in context of Palestinian state, White House tells Israel."
Some observers understood this to mean that the administration would only agree to recognize Israel's annexation if Jerusalem agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The possible collapse of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty and potential destruction of a stable regional ally, the Hashemite Kingdom, is one of the stronger arguments against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex West Bank settlements this year.
The 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, as well as the 1979 treaty signed with Egypt, have been a foundation cornerstone of Israeli regional security and gateway to the Arab world.
The value of the two treaties, in an otherwise hostile region, has only increased in relation to the growing threats from Iran and ISIS and other Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups.
So the idea of an Israeli plan, either unilateral or in conjunction with the US, that would risk those treaties and the stability of Israel, after a decade of regional turmoil, has to give one pause.
"Unilateral annexation will damage stability in the Middle East" and harm Israel, said former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ami Ayalon.
"The peace treaty with Egypt and the peace treaty with Jordan are in a way the two cornerstones of our [regional] policy and our security for the last 30 to 40 years," he said.
Israeli farmers left an agricultural enclave in neighboring Jordan apparently for the last time Thursday, as the extension of a lease enabling their use of the border land expired.
Jordan's Foreign Ministry confirmed the Israeli farmers would no longer be allowed to work their fields in the area, ending a more than 25-year arrangement meant to shore up a historic peace agreement.
The announcement reflected the poor relations between the countries, which have been underscored by Jordan's vocal opposition to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Dhaifallah Al-Fayez, said the additional harvesting period "will end this evening."
In November, Jordan resumed control over the Naharayim and Tzofar enclaves, after refusing Israel's requests to renew the 25-year lease on the lands that was part of the 1994 peace treaty between the countries.
Do not let the United Nations fool you. Although it may have essentially closed its doors in favor of online meetings in the age of coronavirus, its obsessive anti-Israel bias is alive and well. Through its numerous bodies, the UN falsely paints Israeli policy, not COVID-19 itself, as the primary threat to Palestinian health.
Take, for example, the infamous United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which expressed anger at Israel for its efforts to quell the spread of the virus in East Jerusalem, which it says constrains free movement (currently experienced by practically every other civilized society on the planet). Unfortunately for UNRWA, the mukhtar (village chief) of the East Jerusalem village of Silwan, disagrees with their assessment, evident when he stated that the Arab sector desperately needs a lockdown to be enforced by the IDF Home Front Command.
While East Jerusalemites have complained about the government's response to the virus in their neighborhoods (and their complaints may well be justified), Israel has by no means neglected the densely populated area. Writing on April 21st, Haaretz reported that an IDF Brigadier general was tapped to serve as an adviser to Mayor Moshe Leon for handling Coronavirus management, specifically in East Jerusalem. And according to OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel has established 10 Coronavirus testing facilities in East Jerusalem, and most local residents can be treated at other hospitals in the city.
Moving on to the next UN body. Within the notoriously anti-Israel Human Rights Council, a group of independent experts accused Israel of discriminating against Palestinians when it released hundreds of Israeli prisoners as a protective step against an outbreak in the prison system, yet did not release Palestinian prisoners. These experts failed to mention that the released prisoners' sentences were nearly completed, were not considered dangerous, or were not incarcerated for security-related offenses.
Iran on Friday slammed Germany's ban on the activities of Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to the "propaganda machine" of Israel and US.
Germany branded the Iranian-backed group a "Shiite terrorist organization" on Thursday, with dozens of police and special forces storming mosques and associations across the country linked to the Lebanese terror group.
In a statement issued overnight, Iran's foreign ministry said the ban ignores "realities in West Asia."
The Islamic republic said the move was based solely on the goals of the "propaganda machine of the Zionists and America's confused regime."
It "strongly" condemned the decision it said showed "complete disrespect to the government and nation of Lebanon, as Hezbollah is a formal and legitimate part of the country's government and parliament."
Iran said Hezbollah had a "key role in fighting Daesh's terrorism in the region," using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
"The German government must face the negative consequences of its decision in the fight against real terrorist groups in the region," it added.
The organizer of the annual anti-Israel al-Quds Day rally, which is attended by Hezbollah operatives, pulled the plug on its mid-May event in the heart of Berlin after the German government banned all Hezbollah activities within the territory of the federal republic. The office of the Berlin Senator of the Interior, Andreas Geisel, tweeted on Thursday: "The organizer of the al-Quds march canceled today the demonstration for this year. Interior Senator Andreas Geisel: We are all spared one of the most disgusting antisemitic events. Good news for Berlin."
Berlin's city-state has permitted the Iranian regime-sponsored demonstration to proceed each year since 1996. The current Berlin government and its social democratic party mayor Michael Müller have faced criticism over the years for not seeking to legally ban the al-Quds march. Müller's administration said it would lose a legal battle to outlaw al-Quds.
Al-Quds Day calls for the obliteration of the Jewish state and is attended by neo-Nazis, Hezbollah members and supporters, left-wing activists for the Palestinian terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activists are also present at the protest.
When even Saudi Arabia is ahead of EU, welcoming Germany's designation of #Hezbollah as a terrorist organization! https://t.co/xQYSBi2gYW
Israel should remember San Remo, rather than the feckless UN Partition Plan, as the anchor of its international status. Lets start with a "San Remo St." in Jerusalem - maybe even renaming Kuf Tet B'November, the street that honors the partition plan. https://t.co/mm9RlLdpaR
Syria accused Israeli helicopters of carrying out airstrikes in the Syrian Golan Heights in the early hours of Friday morning.
"From the occupied Golan airspace, enemy Israeli helicopters attacked positions in the southern region with several missiles," Syrian state news agency SANA said shortly after midnight.
SANA said the missile strike in the area of Quneitra caused "only material damage." It did not report any casualties or specify what was targeted.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, confirmed the strikes, saying they targeted military positions of Iranian forces and pro-Iran militias.
The attack follows a series of strikes on Iran-linked forces in Syria in recent weeks.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday appeared to confirm that Israel was behind an airstrike against pro-Iranian forces in Syria on Monday, saying the military was working to drive Tehran out of the country.
Israel bombed a munitions warehouse in central Syria on Friday morning in a rare daylight strike which sparked a massive explosion, according to reports from Syria.
The attack appeared to be the fifth strike attributed to Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the past two weeks, coming less than 12 hours after Israeli attack helicopters reportedly bombed Iran-backed forces in the Syrian Golan Heights late Thursday night.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the arms cache that was bombed on Friday morning by Israel was located outside Homs and contained missiles and ammunition belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
Damascus officially denied that Israel was responsible for the explosion, saying it was the result of "human error" while transporting munitions, Syrian state media outlet SANA reported. This was widely seen by defense analysts as an attempt to cover-up yet another Israeli strike on Syrian soil.
According to Syrian media, the attack triggered huge secondary explosions, apparently as the munitions inside the warehouse detonated. SANA reported that at least 10 people were wounded in the blasts.
A pair of airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in Syria earlier this month that were attributed to Israel targeted a warehouse outside of Palmyra and the entrance to an underground facility near Damascus, according to satellite images released by an private Israeli intelligence firm Thursday.
Jerusalem has never officially acknowledged conducting the strikes, though Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has hinted at Israel's involvement, repeatedly commenting that the military was working to force out Iran from Syria.
On April 20, Syria accused Israel of conducting an airstrike on a target near Palmyra. Nine pro-regime fighters were reportedly killed in the attack, three of them from the Syrian army and six foreigners, including Hezbollah members, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
A week later, the Israeli military was accused of carrying out another attack, on the Mezzeh military airfield outside Damascus. Four pro-Iranian fighters were killed in that strike, according to the Observatory. Three Syrian civilians were also reportedly killed by shrapnel, though it was not clear if the fragments came from the incoming missiles or Syria's air defenses.
Israeli authorities say the Palestinian Authority is violating their sovereignty by operating in Jerusalem on the pretext of combating the coronavirus outbreak.
The PA and east Jerusalem residents say their activities are limited to medical and relief assistance and are unrelated to issues of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Over the past few weeks, some east Jerusalem residents have been detained by the police on suspicion of acting on behalf of the PA and its ruling Fatah faction to prevent the spread of the virus in several neighborhoods and villages in the city.
Police officers detained the PA "governor" of Jerusalem Adnan Gheith on Sunday morning.
Last Friday, PA Jerusalem Affairs Minister Fadi al-Hidmi was briefly detained by the police.
The two officials are suspected of overseeing the work of "emergency relief committees" that were established in Arab neighborhoods and villages in Jerusalem after the coronavirus outbreak last month.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has signed a new law that gives his office administrative and financial authorities similar to those of the PA government. Palestinian legal experts have criticized the move.
The law paves the way for the creation of a parallel PA government in the West Bank, critics said. The expansion of authorities for the PA president's office comes at a time when Palestinians are facing an economic crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, they said.
The Palestinian parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council, has been paralyzed since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip. The parliament's absence has paved the way for Abbas and the PA government to pass dozens of laws and regulations in the past 13 years.
The controversial law, published in the Palestinian Official Gazette Al-Wakae' on March 19, says the Office of the Palestinian Presidency shall enjoy an independent financial position within the "state budget" and have the authority to carry out financial activities. It further authorizes Abbas's office to work directly with the private sector.
The law states that the head of the Office of the Palestinian Presidency shall enjoy the powers granted to the head of a government department and receive a salary equal to the salary of a minister. It also authorizes the office to open branches in Palestinian cities.
"The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security... accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338... commits itself... to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides... the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence... the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist... are now inoperative and no longer valid." — Letter from former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, September 9, 1993.
Why do the Palestinians still need an organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization whose declared goal is the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle? The presence of the PLO bluntly contradicts Arafat's letter in which he claims that the PLO "recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security" and "renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence."
If the PLO did recognize Israel's right to exist, why does its largest faction, Fatah, continue to refer to areas inside Israel as "occupied" territory? ... They openly say and show that they consider all of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as "occupied" territories that need to be "liberated." This wording lays bare the straightforward lies of the PLO and Arafat about their ostensible support for the two-state solution. At least they should get credit for being honest about what they want.
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