| 04/03 Links Pt2: Fox News Rips Richard Silverstein; Israeli Co. helps save Chileans after earthquake Posted: 03 Apr 2014 03:00 PM PDT From Ian:
Richard Millett: Palestine Solidarity Campaign holds anti-Israel hate event at P21 Gallery.Meanwhile, Jehan al Farra, an alumnus of the Islamic University in Gaza, definitely was in London. She had been in the UK since September studying for a Masters in Computer Studies.
Her main preoccupation last night was describing the problems of studying in Gaza, especially getting to and from academic institutions there due to fuel shortages.
During the Q&A an audience member pointed out that she is highly articulate and very confident, which is a tribute to her teachers and the syllabus. This was a difficult point for her to address without admitting that, just maybe, the situation isn't as bad as her and her colleagues were attempting to portray. Fox News Rips Richard SilversteinOn International Women's day, March 8, a devastating new film about the endemic culture of brutally oppressing women within Islamic society was debuted. This film is now being shown on campuses and other venues across America.
So Fox News ran a piece on the film and asked CAIR for a representative to defend their anti-free speech stance. Instead of sending someone from their organisation, they put forward Richard Silverstein to speak for them! Let that sink in: Muslim Brotherhood linked group CAIR puts forward a Jewish blogger from Seattle to attack a film about the horrendous treatment of women in Muslim society.
Seriously. Richard Silverstein is now on the CAIR rolodex as an official apologist! It's pretty hard to reconcile his claim to be "pro-Israel" with an organisation which the Anti Defamation League (ADL) describes as: Islamophobia in action? 'Honor Diaries' screening shut down by CAIR...CAIR isn't doing the dirty work here or even its own research. The group is relying on the facts and arguments presented by Richard Silverstein, a progressive blogger who discredits the film on his blog: "One has to ask why a film about the purported abuse of Muslim women was produced by Jews, and ones with a distinct ideological agenda at that."
CAIR links to his blog on Twitter to make the case: A Jew can't be profiling human rights abuses against Muslim women. Real Peace with the JewsThe Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is based on the claim that it would deny Israeli Arabs their rights to the land and cancel the "historic rights" of the Palestinian people in Palestine. If the Palestinian leaders had any real interest in Israeli Arabs, they would have agreed to the proposal given by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and accepted them and all their property and land, as Lieberman offered, as citizens of Palestine. The truth, however, is that despite the claims that Israel is discriminatory, colonialist and an apartheid state, even Israeli Arabs have no desire to exchange Israeli citizenship for a Palestinian Authority passport. By refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state the Palestinians are in fact admitting that they have no intention of ending the conflict. The Palestinian leaders claim they are willing to recognize the fact of Israel's existence, but not its right to exist. Israeli Teens' Initiative to Defend Zionism Goes ViralA controversial letter sent to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu several weeks ago, by high school seniors declaring their disdain for the IDF for ideological reasons, has finally received a response.
Uri Marco, a senior at the Amit Amihai Yeshiva in Rehovot, gathered some friends and wrote a second letter: a letter defending Zionism, the IDF, and Jewish nationalism.
"We, the undersigned, support and strengthen the Israel Defense Forces - who protect our country - and God-willing, [we] are going to serve with great love and great joy in the IDF, out of a desire to contribute to the people who settle in the Land of Israel," the letter said. IDF Officer Sets the Facts Straight about Security Crossings Hezbollah Terrorist to Speak at Tel Aviv University?Students at Tel Aviv University are hoping to prevent the appearance of a convicted terrorist at an event organized by Arab students next week. According to Lev Solodkin, head of "The Israelis", a Zionist activist group on campus, Arab groups have invited Mohammed Cana'ana, who was convicted of planning a terror attack against Israelis, for which he spent several years in prison.
The Arab groups are organizing a "Land Day" event to protest against the establishment of Jewish towns and villages within the 1949 armistice lines that they claim as theirs. Cana'ana is the featured speaker at the event next Monday. The anti-Israel campaign in GermanyThe grand tactic of discriminatory boycott against Israel is brutally simple. Anti-Israel campaigners know that in order to win, they don't have to make a genuine case to the majority of the German public.
They just need to channel the misconceptions, prejudices and stereotypes of their receptive audience, a small but noisy minority. They just need enough committed trouble makers to intimidate and harass businesses, retail chains, investors and academic institutions to force them to reconsider their ties with Israel.
Their biggest ally of these political henchmen is the silence and inaction of the rest of the unsuspecting German and European society. Their narrative runs unopposed in media, internet, town halls, campuses and places of worship. They libel, malign and delegitimize Israel and go unchallenged – and are audacious enough to claim victory by default.
Not just the Far-Left, the vast majority of the freedom loving people of Germany are just as much part of this well-laid game plan. To succeed in their agenda the anti-Israel campaigners are counting on their complacency and inaction. (h/t Yenta Press) Ray Hanania (very anti-Israel) Contrast between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activismBDS stands for "Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions" and is the war cry of a wide array of disjointed pro-Palestinian voices. Some BDS activists support boycotting Israel's illegal settlements which steal land and goods from the militarily occupied West Bank of Palestine. But many others, driven by hatred and emotion, use BDS to boycott everything related to Israel, including Israel itself within the 1948 borders. The Boycott-Everything BDS movement (BEBDS) is driven by the failure that has been inherent in the Palestinian cause since the 1930s. The lack of good Arab leadership and effective strategy has imprisoned Palestine in Israel's occupation. The truth is that Israel's success is only half because of the power of AIPAC and the successes of the pro-Israel movement. The other half of Israel's success over Palestine is fed by the failure and fanaticism that plagues the Palestinian activist movement. American Studies Association seeks $100,000 to support its Israel boycottLegal Insurrection has extensively covered the American Studies Association anti-Israel academic boycott and the reaction. See our American Studies Association Tag for full coverage going back to early December.
Two recent events we reported on were the rejection of the ASA boycott by two large regional ASA Chapters, the California ASA and Eastern ASA.
We've also reported on the widespread rejection by over 250 university presidents and ASA's sources of funding.
While ASA always puts a strong face on its status, an email appeal to fund-raise $100,000 sent out today suggests that ASA is not doing as well as it says. Leading Manhattan Congregation Vows to Pull Support for Israel Parade Unless 'Anti-Israel' Groups Are Barred From ParticipatingA leading Manhattan rabbi, representing some of the largest Sephardic communities in New York City, on Wednesday threatened to pull his support from the annual Celebrate Israel Parade, on June 1, unless the parade organizers bar "anti-Israel" groups from participating this year.
In a letter seen by The Algemeiner, Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D., spiritual leader of four Manhattan Sephardic institutions, the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue, the Moise Safra Community Center, the Magen David Congregation of Manhattan and the Sephardic Academy of Manhattan, addressed his concerns to the leaders of New York's Jewish Community Relations Council, the JCRC, which organizes the parade and has insisted in letters that its "open tent" policy is to encourage all Jewish groups to be involved. StandWithUs Protests Coming Falk Lecture at SDSUSan Diego is calling on the community to join in protest against San Diego State University offering course credit to students to attend a lecture by anti-Israel extremist Richard Falk on April 7.
Falk speaks at SDSU as part of the Holster Series presented Mondays by Professor Jonathan Graubart Ph.D/JD from 4-6:30pm.
"Richard Falk has built a career on the public advocacy of offensive, extremist, and intellectually irresponsible views," said Nicole Bernstein, executive director of StandWithUS-San Diego. "By offering course credit to attend a one-sided lecture, it effectively normalizes anti-Israel discourse into acceptable college 'teaching material. Time to Apply for JVP's BDS Boot campLast year's JVP organized BDS boot camp was held in New York. This year- lucky us- it will be in Northern California.
Because "Jewish" Voice for Peace is Jewish in name only, last years' happy campers were offered Ramadan accommodations, but not kosher food. Marketing- its all about knowing your audience. How the New York Times Demonizes the Israeli PeopleGiven that it is undisputed that Salah murdered Tenenbaum, how, exactly, are Israelis demonizing Salah by considering him a terrorist? Either The Times reporter is unwilling to accept that the slaughter of Tenenbaum is an act of terrorism, or, worse, she believes it's at least arguable that such acts are not in fact reprehensible.
News reporters should not inject their own personal opinions into news articles. But Rudoren has done just that by maintaining that Israelis "demonize" Salah by regarding Tenenbaum's murderer a terrorist.
By implying that Israelis are somehow unreasonable or unjustified in viewing the self-confessed Palestinian murderer of a Holocaust survivor as a terrorist, Rudoren herself demonizes the Israeli people. The New Yorker Equates Israel's Annexation of Jerusalem with Nazi AnschlussThe New Yorker likes to insert into its articles digs at Israel. Another one popped up in the introduction to a piece on the Russian annexation of Crimea. George Packer writes,
"Annexation has an ugly sound, owing to an unhappy past. The term describes, among other tragedies, Saddam Hussein's attempt, in 1990, to swallow Kuwait whole, as the nineteenth province of Iraq; Indonesia's invasion, in 1975, of East Timor; Morocco's absorption, the same year, of Western Sahara; and Israel's declaration, after the 1967 war, of East Jerusalem as part of a united capital. The German word for it is Anschluss. Like most coerced unions, annexations come wreathed in clouds of lofty, dishonest language—key themes are popular will, historic grievance, divine providence—but they almost always happen at the end of a gun."
The magazine has a reputation for skillful writing, but not so much for accuracy or for making sound historical analogies, especially when it comes to Israel.
With the exception of Israel, the annexations Packer lists - by Iraq, Indonesia, Morocco and Germany - share common traits; they were unprovoked acts of aggression ordered by authoritarian rulers. Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem was the result of a defensive war fought by a democratic state responding to aggression committed by Jordan. That's a big difference. Guardian Review of 'Noah' Slams Israel for 'Land Grabs'Then, a more modern villain appears in Diski's tale:
Perhaps it simply goes to show how right the Lord was to give up hope in mankind's essential goodness. Or, as is the way of the Bible and in particular the Priestly writer's text, it was simply having one of its expositional geopolitical history moments, to explain why the Canaanites (with Noah's curse on them) had to vacate their land so that the tribe of Israel could move in and settle there. Nothing to do with sex, but a florid way of giving grounds for how things got to be the way they are, and ever should be. Just as Israel today chooses to explain its land "rights" on the basis of that ancient, patched-together, fanciful book.
A great read, and a delightful puzzle, but as the contradictory and whimsical interpretations of the rabbis show, hardly a reliable basis for justifying real-world land grabs. Dubious folk-historical territorial claims, on the one hand; an ancient parable to warn of the next man-made destruction of the planet modern, on the other. I look forward to what the least biblical of biblical films will do with this most malleable of texts. As we saw with Guardian religion blogger Andrew Brown's contention that new archaeological evidence that camels weren't domesticated until 1,500 years after the stories in Genesis are supposed to have taken place" undermines Zionism, we see again the paper's dexterity in weaving in anti-Zionist narratives into even the most disconnected cultural, historical, or political phenomenon. Galloway Claims Israel Engineered the Unrest in UkraineGalloway's comments were made several weeks ago during his show on the state-owned Iranian Press TV. They were posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
"The Zionists sent gunmen to the Maidan in Kiev to help a revolution, the cutting-edge and heavy lifting of which, was being done by actually outright Nazi anti-Semites," Galloway claimed.
"The bizarre alliance in the Maidan between former Israeli army officers [is] the most ugly alliance you can possibly imagine. [This] is part of the thinking of this… Well, if these Nazis come to power in Kiev, and they hate Jews so much, the remaining Ukrainian Jews will feel that they have to go and settle in Palestine," he continued. Galloway: Zionist Gunmen and Ukrainian Nazis Intimidate Jews into Settling in Palestine Putin Ally Accused Of Pushing Jews-Killed-Jesus ThemeA St. Petersburg city councilman from Russia's ruling party made statements suggesting that Jews killed Jesus.
Vitaly Milonov made the statements last month during a meeting of the St. Petersburg City Council, where he serves as a lawmaker for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, the svodka.net news website reported this week.
"They vilify any saint, it is in their tradition of 2,000 years, beginning with the appeals to crucify the Savior, ending with accusations of anti-Semitism against St. John of Kronstadt," Milonov said during a March 19 speech before the city's legislative council, according to the report. Warsaw demolishes ghetto wall, promises reconstructionThe demolition of the wall bordering the square in the former Warsaw Ghetto known as the Umschlagplatz was first reported Tuesday by the Virtual Shtetl website.
The brick wall, which in some places is topped with barbed wire, has been in poor condition for some time. It appears, however, that it is being demolished to allow for the cutting of trees and other vegetation, according to the Virtual Shtetl.
Historians reportedly are not sure whether the wall is the original from World War II. Greece's Romaniote Jews face extinction, 70 years after AuschwitzIoannina, a postcard-pretty town in northwestern Greece with a medieval fortress perched by a bright blue lake and surrounded by snow-capped mountains, once was the center of Romaniote Jewish life. Today, however, the community in Ioannina numbers fewer than 50 members, most of them elderly. The last time the community celebrated a bar mitzvah was in 2000.
The community's leaders fear for its future.
"It is very difficult," said Moses Elisaf, the community's president. "We try to do our best to keep the traditions, but the numbers are very hard." Israeli service gives boost to Turkey's Internet rebellionAn Israeli Internet filtering start-up called GreenTeam has been drafted to help Turkish citizens who are trying to get around their government's bans on Twitter and YouTube — and the call came from Turkish citizens themselves. "On Tuesday we noticed there was a lot of traffic on our servers, more than usual," GreenTeam CEO David Allouch told The Times of Israel. "A check of the IP addresses connecting to us showed that most of them originated in Turkey — with about 100,000 connections from Turkish users over a 24-hour period."
Over the past several weeks, Turkish government officials, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have railed against Twitter and YouTube, accusing them of undermining his rule, and calling them "society's worst menace" and "threats to national security." The bans came after Twitter users sent links to conversations of alleged wiretaps in which Erdogan instructed his sons to move millions of dollars in cash out of their homes to evade a government corruption investigation. Those conversations were also posted on YouTube. US sees potential for Arab-Israeli security cooperationAccording to the New York Times, Dempsey said such collaboration with nations "who may not have been willing to be partners in the past" may be increasingly possible due to joint interests and in the face of common threats to stability posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions, Syria's civil war and Egypt's ongoing chaotic state.
"What I mean is the Gulf states in particular, who heretofore may not have been as open-minded to the potential for cooperation with Israel, in any way," he said.
Such cooperation could involve intelligence sharing and joint exercises, the New York Times reported, quoting anonymous US military officials. Lockheed Martin appoints former IAF pilot as Israel Managing Director for Technology SectorLockheed Martin appointed a former Israel Air Force F-16I pilot as its Israel Managing Director for the technology sector, the US defense corporation announced on Wednesday.
Shelly Gotman "will lead Lockheed Martin's growing presence in the Israeli technology sector. He will be responsible for securing new programs, engaging local academic institutions with technological research, and developing a long-term plan for investment in Israel, where Lockheed Martin has operated for over 40 years," the company said in a statement. Israeli Company to Unveil Brain Surgery Module in San FranciscoThe Israeli company Mazor Robotics Ltd. will unveil its new Renaissance Guidance System brain module at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) annual meeting in San Francisco next week.
The brain module, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for both spine and brain surgery, offers accurate surgical access to areas of the brain. Hilfiger comes to Holy Land for store launchAmerican fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to oversee the opening of Israel's first ever Hilfiger retail store.
The flagship store will be opening in the urban city's developing Sorona neighborhood, which in recent months has scene an extreme face-lift with brand new high class restaurants. Game of Thrones prank throws fansThe Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem enjoyed a sudden surge of interest from all over the globe after an April Fool's trick stormed across the Internet quicker than a raven can fly.
Local fans of the popular "Game of Thrones" television series were delighted to read on the museum's Facebook page on Tuesday that the final episode of the series was to be filmed within the walls of the ancient fortification.
Unfortunately for them, the news was about as real as Whitewalkers and dragons. Israeli startup helps save Chileans after earthquakeMillions of Chileans were alerted to an approaching tsunami this week by mass notification technology developed by an Israeli company, eVigilo.
After a major earthquake rocked Chile on Tuesday, the authorities had little time to inform citizens about an approaching tsunami. Thanks to the government's efforts to have eVigilo's capabilities become a central part of large-scale emergency contingencies, first-responders could communicate with the resident's on the coast in real time, sending out evacuation orders through multiple platforms.  |
| Agreement reached on SA 1998 antisemitic broadcast Posted: 03 Apr 2014 01:00 PM PDT From PoliticsWeb.za: On 8 May 1998, Radio 786, a Muslim community radio station operated by The Islamic Unity Convention (IUC), broadcast a programme which featured extensive anti-Jewish, recycled conspiracy fantasies and Holocaust denial. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) lodged a complaint against the IUC with the then Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), contending that it amounts to hate-speech.
Antisemitic claims made in the broadcast were that Jews were the secret, conspiratorial engine behind catastrophic world events such as the First and Second World War, and Communist revolutions; that they stole natural resources from countries such as South Africa; controlled world banking for their own benefit; and invented the Holocaust to invoke sympathy to among other things, facilitate the creation of the State of Israel.
Following convoluted legal tussles that took place around the constitutionality of the relevant sections of the Broadcasting Code of Conduct, the SAJBD and the IUC squared up at a hearing in December 2012, held under ICASA's Complaints and Compliance Committee.
Yesterday evening a settlement was reached in which the IUC recognised that the material aired on Radio 786 could be viewed as antisemitic and nonsensical. The SAJBD welcomes this acknowledgment by the IUC.
In reality, 16 years of complex legal wrangling, which reached the Constitutional Court twice, could have been avoided had this acknowledgement been made by the IUC right at the outset.
That being said, the SAJBD is satisfied with the outcome which has vindicated its decision to confront and expose what was a very hateful and defamatory attack on the Jewish people.
Below is the Joint Statement by the SAJBD and IUC. For more information, please contact Mary Kluk on 083 775 8618 or Tzvi Brivik on 082 77 88844
JOINT STATEMENT
Sixteen years ago, Radio 786 aired a radio show that featured Dr Yakub Zaki as a guest speaker.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBOD) Radio 786 contends that the broadcast amounts to advocacy of hatred based on race that constitutes incitement to cause harm ("hate speech") and accordingly that it constitutes a breach of the applicable code of conduct for broadcasters.
Whilst recognising that some Dr Zaki's comments may have been viewed as nonsensical, and anti-Semitic, Radio 786 maintains that the broadcast does not amount to advocacy of hatred based on race or that it constitutes incitement to cause harm and accordingly does not constitute a breach of the applicable code of conduct for broadcasters.
For the past sixteen years, both Radio 786 and the SAJBOD have fought to vindicate their positions and beliefs.
In the spirit of Ubuntu and in the hope that South Africa and all its people and communities will grow as a result of this experience, both sides have agreed to close this chapter by this settlement.
Radio 786 recognises that the broadcast caused offence and distress to members of the South African Jewish community. SAJBOD, on the other hand, recognises that there was no intention of Radio 786 to cause any such offence or distress.
Both parties reaffirm their commitment to freedom of speech and a pluralistic society in which the dignity and equality of all are respected and protected. This is a bit short of an apology by the Islamic radio station. It looks like the SAJBD was just sick and tired of pursuing this. This is not the first offensive antisemitic guest on that radio show. Here is information about a 1996 broadcast as well as more details on Zaki's interview: In 1996, Radio 786, a Muslim radio station, had to apologize for airing an interview with Dr Ahmed Huber who spoke of the 'Holocaust swindle'. Two years later the same radio station interviewed Dr Yaqub Zaki who, besides claiming that the "million plus" Jews who died in the Second World War had died of infectious diseases, spent much of his time engaged with elaborate Jewish conspiracies, including a bizarre connection between Jewish financiers, the Boer War, Alfred Milner and Zionism. In June this year [2007] (following an eight year legal wrangle brought by the Jewish Board of Deputies against the radio station and lengthened by technical disputes) the Independent Broadcasting Authority found Radio 786 guilty of contravening its broadcasting codes. Zaki's birth name was James Dickey. More on Zaki from 2005: Dr Yaqub Zaki, deputy leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, has said that he would be "very happy" if there were a terrorist attack on Downing Street. Dr Zaki, who is an author and academic, told the Scottish edition of the Sunday Times that he would have no objection to such an attack, and would not mind what happened to the "inmates" of No 10.
... Dr Zaki is not exactly proposing an attack on Mr Blair, but he is saying that he would be perfectly happy if one took place. His actual words were: "I say go ahead."
...Dr Zaki is, in his way, a national figure, serving the Muslim Parliament at a very high level, and an educated person of some standing. It is possible that some Muslims might have taken his remarks seriously, though obviously I hope they do not.
Dr Zaki, despite his remarks, is one of those Muslims who have been deemed "moderate" by the authorities. He serves on the Muslim Parliament, which is supposed to be a moderate body. So, too, is the Muslim Council of Great Britain (MCB), which has more than 400 affiliate bodies.  |
