Norway: union rep wants to boycott the Histadrut, calls it an apartheid organization

"This is an organization only for Israeli Jews. In our world this is apartheid." Apartheid?  Arabs and other ethnic groups have had full right to membership from 1960 and Histadrut has currently over 200,000 Arab members.

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

The leader of Fellesforbundet (The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions), Lars Frøysa wants to boycott the Israeli Histadrut, on the grounds that it is an apartheid organization, according to an article in Vårt Land

This is an organization only for Israeli Jews. In our world this is apartheid. We think that the labour movement has an obligation to protect all workers, says Lars Frøysa. He is leader of the local chapter at Celsa Armeringsstål in Mo i Rana, who has submitted the motion.

He further claims that in spite of the Union’s rejection of the proposal, he is convinced that they will prosper at the ballot, since members are free individuals.

Our old friend Hilde Henriksen Waage, the historian and researcher who on occasion slips into activist mode on Israel related matters, has been consulted (apparently nobody was available at the Histadrut for comments, but that may reflect a certain insensitivity and ignorance on Jewish matters, since probably they were closed for Yom Kippur observation in addition to the weekly days of rest for workers, in Israel on Friday and Saturday):

From its inception in the 1920ies, Histadrut was am important instrument for the Zionist movement in the construciton of the Israeli State. They were mainnly concerned with building their own economy separate from the Palestinian. Their goal was to ensure that Jews got the jobs as well as maintaining high salaries.
– How did LO (The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) view them?
– Histadrut was an important reason why the Labour party and the LO embraced the Jewish project. They saw the society they wanted to create in Israel as their socialistic paradice. It was almost like a religious conversion, says Henriksen Waage, who underlines that she is not updated on the development in later years for this organization.

If our rabid Unionist, Lars Frøysa, had cared to check the facts and not only let himself be guided by his hatred of Jews in general, Israeli Jews in particular, he might have discovered that Arabs and other ethnic groups have had full right to membership from 1960 and has currently over 200,000 Arab members.

Also inconvenient is the fact that the Histadrut cooperates fully and advocates on behalf of Palestinian workers and activists. But he may not have wanted to notice that, since that would have forced the realization that Israel is not an apartheid state, also when it comes to union matters.

But that neither the VL journalist nor Henriksen Waage should be unable to find relevant information on Histadrut, in terms of historical background and current policies is disappointing, or maybe they could not be bothred to find the info?

The The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions has indicated that it wont accept this proposal, but nevertheless has singled Israel out for special treatment on more than 4 separate items. As far as I can tell, there are none for Arab dictators, even now that it is in vogue to want to get rid of them (as long as major Norwegian interests are not jeopardized). Again.


Well some sanity has prevailed. Union rejects motion to boycott Israel

Brussels Mayor says Israeli ‘checkpoint’ staged in the center of city ‘exceeded limits’

But stops short of condemning (let alone apologising) and calls the organisers pacifists.

BRUSSELS (EJP) ---The Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, said he “regretted” the proportions taken by a anti-Israel demonstration held last month in the heart of the Belgian capital by a group of pro-Palestinian associations who wanted to "denounce the apartheid regime in Israel and encourage people to boycott it."

The associations described as "pacifists" staged an Israeli checkpoint in the middle of Rue Neuve, the main commercial street in Brussels. The images were then filmed and broadcast on Facebook and YouTube.

This staging drew many angry reactions within the Belgian Jewish community especially since it had been authorized by the city and that it occurred one day after the brutal assassination by Palestinians of five members of an Israeli family in Itamar.

The staging ended with the murder of an Arab boy by an Israeli soldier. His mother then filed a Palestinian flag on the body of her child while the audience applauded and shouted "boycott Israel".

"I am ashamed of my city, ashamed of my country today. It is time to look at the reality and act. I invite you to visit a checkpoint at the border and you will forge your own opinion", wrote Julia Szerer, a young 19 year old girl in an email sent to the mayor.

Frederique Ries, a Brussels City Councillor and Euro MP, also wrote to the Mayor, denouncing a "false caricature whose only effect is to import the Middle East conflict in Belgium."

"Criticism is allowed, it is obvious. In Belgium as well as in Israel. But freedom of expression to which I am very attached has its moral and legal limits which have been exceeded. This amounted to incitement to hatred and violence", she stressed in her letter.

In response, the Mayor "regretted the proportions taken by the event" and said he was "sorry" that people have been shocked.

"Without commenting on the content of their message, it is clear that the organizers have exceeded the limits that were set" , Freddy Thielemans said.

"I asked police to be vigilant in the future regarding the authorization of such actions on public space. While preserving the right to freedom of expression, we will do our utmost to prevent such a scenario happening again."

In 2008, a similar staging was held in the town of Nivelles near Brussels.[Wiesenthal Centre denounces bogus 'Israeli' assault on Arabs subliminal Jew-hatred inculcation and Former Belgian Minister sparks ire of Jewish community with remarks on Israel]

Other anti Israel demonstrations staged in Brussels and authorised by the Mayor.

Triodos Bank boycotts Dexia Bank for involvement in Israel

Triodos Bank is a European self-styled ethical bank .  It has decided to exclude Dexia Bank (read boycott) for involvement in Israel.  Search the Triodos site for boycotting for excluding Saudi Arabia for human rights violations and predicatably the return is nil ...  Triodos writes that Dexia is a Belgian bank.  In fact, and Triodos knows it full well, Dexia is a French-Belgian bank, but the extremely violent pro-boycott campaign comes from Belgium and is tainted with antisemitc tones, like the European multisecular blood libel accusations.  As revealed by this blog and NGO Monitor : Pro-divestment rally attended by NIF, EU grantees turns to antisemitism : "The event featured an antisemitic episode, when one rally leader drank fake blood out of a wine glass – an apparent reference to the libel of Jews drinking Christian blood as wine – to highlight Israel’s alleged brutality.  The target of the rally was Dexia, a bank with an Israeli subsidiary. The use of the ugly blood libel motif – codified as antisemitic by Europe’s rights monitoring agency – raises important questions about the relationship between the BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) Movement and antisemitism."

Brussels: demonstration against Israeli blood drinkers - blood libel revisited

Triodos Bank announcement: Dexia excluded for involvement in Israel

Belgian bank Dexia has been excluded from the Triodos sustainable investment universe because of its ongoing financing of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Dexia in Israel
Dexia Israel Bank (DIB), a subsidiary of Dexia, has financed Israeli settlements in the past. In response to shareholder and stakeholder pressure, DIB stopped new loans to Israeli settlements in June 2008. There are also indications that current loans are being withdrawn, although the longest maturity loan in the portfolio will not end until 2017. DIB’s actions have caused uproar in Israel and a regional council major in southern Israel called for a DIB boycott.

Despite the freeze on new loans and withdrawal by DIB, the bank still has loans outstanding to the Municipality of Jerusalem. Jerusalem lies at the heart of the occupied territories and since 1967 East Jerusalem has been under Israeli government rule. Settlements have been established for Jewish Israeli occupants only and settlers receive substantial financial benefits, as well as access to land and natural resources in the disputed territory. By financing the municipality, DIB loans are potentially being used to finance human rights abuses against Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’ will worsen the conflict, by Denis McShane

In Europe, the obsession with Israel is total.  Pick up any European newspaper any day and the obsession is there for all to see - it is an obsession Europeans and Muslims share.  And things are not about to change. 

Source: The Jerusalem Post

The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?

Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greekowned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.

Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.

May we talk of the western Sahara and Morocco, or Algeria’s closure of the border there, making life far worse than that of Palestinians in Ramallah or Hebron? No, better not.

Voltaire – anti-Semite that he was – should be alive today to mock the hypocrisy of the new high priests calling anathema on the heads of Jews in Israel.

Wiesenthal Centre to Irish P.M.: "Economic Meltdown Cannot be Camouflaged by Anti-Semitism"

Unfortunately, Europeans just can't stop themselves.  Their multi-secular vicious obsession with Jews as a force for evil and now with Israel is all-consuming.

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Centre

In a letter to Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels lamented that "the Centre was struck by the timing of an event in Dublin, sadly reminiscent of financial scapegoating of the 1930's."

The letter continued, "In the midst of Ireland's greatest post-war crisis, a poster illustrating an atomized Europe around a Star of David, invites the public on 3 December to an Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign book launch/wine and cheese reception. The book, 'Europe's Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation', apparently, presents the EU as encouraging 'the Apartheid State of Israel' and "calls for a continuation and deepening of international activism and protest to halt the EU's slide into complicity," adding that "it explores the complex political ties that have prevented European countries from holding Israel to account."

Samuels asked, "Who are these complex political ties?" noting that "the poster, and book cover it features, arguably fit the 2004 "Working Definition of Anti-Semitism" of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, to which Ireland is, ipso facto, party."

He explained that in the late 1980's, he had "led a mixed caucus of Irish-American and Jewish-American United States Senators and Congressmen to Jerusalem and Dublin, co-organized by the Irish Development Authority. The declared purpose of the hosts was, to adapt from the empathy of American Jewry for the Jewish State, a programme to enhance the affinity of Americans of Irish origin to the economy and land of their roots - then enjoying an economic boom."

Samuels stressed, "Anti-Semitic scapegoating has too often served to deflect attention from economic suffering. In the 1930's, this led democracies into the abyss."  The Centre urged the Prime Minister "to publicly condemn the timing of this poster and the book cover's subliminal message."

"In wishing Ireland a speedy recovery, we are confident that the people of Ireland will never allow the circumstances of the meltdown - reportedly, extortionate bank fees, obscene bonuses and mismanagement - to be camouflaged by anti-Semitism," concluded Samuels.

Mustafa Barghouti, major Israel-basher, awarded France's highest honour (2)

"There isn’t any place in the world where apartheid is so systematic as it is today in Palestine… You are talking about a situation where we the Palestinians are prevented from using all our main roads because they are exclusive for Israelis and Israeli Army and Israeli settlers. This did not happen even during the segregation time in the [United] States." (Mustafa Barghouthi)

"I do not accept calls for the boycott of Israel products for the reason that they are kosher or because they come from Israel." (Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Minister)

Mustafa Barghouti, BDS leader awarded France's highest honour (1)

Whereas the official line of the French government is that Israel boycott appeals are illegal, the same French government awards the highest honour, the Legion of Honour, to someone who makes the most vile accusations against Israel and is a leader in the BDS movement.  Doesn't this smack of hypocrisy and blatant duplicity on the part of the French ?
 
There Could Never Be Peace Without a Minimum of Justice (Editor Palestine Monitor)
18 November 2010

Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestine, PNI, thanked the Socialist International for its constant efforts to support the cause of peace in Palestine and in the Middle East, and he apologised for questioning whether the current discussion could be called a debate when the representative of the Israeli Labour Party had left immediately after giving his speech.

He urged participants to face the reality that there was a deadlock in the so-called peace process. It was not hard to imagine what would happen to the proximity talks, and the very big risk of failure due to the continuation of the same policy of settlement expansion, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, and oppressive measures in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel was negotiating via bulldozers. He mentioned Aualage, a small village in Bethlehem in the heart of the West Bank which was losing all its land to Israeli bulldozers and a wall that was three times the length and twice the height of the Berlin Wall. Time was of the essence because we were about to lose the opportunity for peace based on the two-state solution. It was clear that Israel was trying to gain time through the peace process, imposing its own solutions through settlements and wall-building.

He feared that Israel was not considering an independent Palestinian state, but rather a cluster of bantustans and ghettos, each separated from the other. What was being consolidated on the ground was a system of apartheid, he asserted. How else, he asked, could the situation be described when Israel controlled 80% of the water resources in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli settlers were allowed to use 48 times more water than Palestinian citizens who had to buy Israeli products at Israeli prices and pay for the water Israel had taken from them. No other word could be used for the segregation of roads and street, or the situation where a husband and wife living in Jerusalem could not live together if one had an ID for the West Bank. He himself had been a physician in Jerusalem for 15 years but now for five years had not been allowed to enter Jerusalem.

Mustafa Barghouti, BDS leader awarded France's highest honour (1)

To the dismay of many, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest decoration in France, by outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner, a friend of 25 years and "a resistant for the freedom and independence of Palestine". Mustafa Barghouti made his views of Israel and the United States (Europe seems to be OK for him) clear in an op-ed (05/04/2010) in the Financial Times entitled "Israel knows apartheid has no future". He argued that "apartheid is here" and that "notions of racial supremacy and colonization" are "antiquated". He is a leader of the the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement of which he has "spoken on many American and European campuses". He also accuses Israel of  "ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem".

Excerpts:

"After decades of military rule over Palestinians and theft of our land, Israeli leaders are increasingly seeing the writing on the wall. [...]

Apartheid is here. There is one set of Israeli laws applied to Palestinians in the West Bank and another set applied to Jews in the West Bank. Israeli settlers live illegally in beautiful subsidized housing on stolen Palestinian land while we are relegated to smaller and smaller bantustans. [...]

Presidents and congressional leaders will always face opposition to US calls for constraining Israeli growth in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- if not from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Zionist Organization of America then from the John Hagees of the Christian right. [...]

We are now in the early stages of a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) directed at this Israeli government for its refusal to abide by international law. Such action successfully overturned Jim Crow laws in the American South and apartheid in South Africa, and we are slowly applying it to Israeli occupation and apartheid. But until students seize on it with the same moral fervency as earlier generations did against Jim Crow and South African apartheid, we will achieve only marginal success.

Belgian boycott Israel "success story"

Perseverance pays.  After two years of unrelenting efforts 78 NGOs (repeat 78 NGOs after a two-year campaign - since November 2008) have scored a major success against Israel. 

Belgian newspaper Le Soir - a great promoter of Israel boycotts and punishments - reports that 15 account holders with the Belgian-French Dexia Bank had closed down their accounts in protest at Dexia's operations in the West Bank "colonies" ("settlements" in French with a nasty connotation). 

Fifteen customers is a remarkable number considering that Dexia, being a major European bank, probably has hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers.  But as the Quebec-Israel Committee rightly points out : "Since its launch in Quebec, the BDS campaign has achieved nothing but dismal failures ; failures which it amazingly claims as successes, thanks to an absurd rhetoric that only seem to fool its own followers". Hopefully Le Soir readers will not be fooled either !

The anti-Israel militants are anti-US too.

For more details see: Presse belge: les Belges "réussissent" une opération de boycott contre Israël

Norway: F.M. Støre stops Israeli submarine testing in Norway'

"Only Israel is singled out, time and time again, for this kind of special treatment."

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

NRK today reports that Norway is refusing to allow German submarines, intended for Israeli, to be tested in Norwegian waters. NRK writes: "MFA’s resolution is a marked tightening of Norway’s politics versus Israel". Meanwhile FM Jonas Gahr Støre argues that this has little to do with Israel, and everything to do with Norwegian restrictions on selling arms and services to countries in war or in warlike situations.

Which is the correct interpretation?

If one looks at only this one situation regarding the submarine-testing, F.M. Støre might arguably be said to have a point. Norway has imposed upon herself amazingly strict restrictions on the sales of arms and services, in spite of which we still manage to export a massive amount of arms and services.

If one looks at a broader range of Norway-Israel issues, one finds that the former's relations to the latter is quite unique. Only Israel is singled out, time and time again, for this kind of special treatment. For examples, study the posts in the following category: boycott.

Freedom of expression belongs to professors and students alike, by Amnon Rubinstein

"Academics cannot seek shelter behind their much-touted freedom, while denying the students' right to express their own opinions. If what is alleged in Ha'aretz is true, then these TAU professors are violating the law."

Source: The Jerusalem Post

According to a recent report in Ha'aretz, students at Tel Aviv University are complaining bitterly about leftist professors. The students are said to be hurt by the professors' positions, "but are afraid to express contrary views, lest this harm their grades."

So wrote Prof. Nira Hativa, head of the university's center for advancement of teaching. She added that in many end-of-year feedback forms, students complained about professors who "attack the state of Israel, the IDF, the Zionist movement and even worse than that." She also added that the complaints allege that "Leftist professors, as distinct from rightist ones, feel absolutely free to express their political views, even when there is no relevance whatsoever to the subject they teach." The head of the university's student union tells of similar student complaints, and the talkbacks to this news item - whatever their credibility - also told about students who are afraid to argue with such professors.

THIS NEWS item did not surprise me. A small group of anti-Zionist, anti-Israel faculty members has turned Tel Aviv University into a podium from which to broadcast their political propaganda.

Two notable instances: a group of 30 professors signed a pro-Iranian petition last year warning against Israeli and American designs and "adventurism" against the Islamic Republic, without even mentioning its president's threat to wipe Israel off the map and his Holocaust-denying outbursts. The second example was a conference held by the Tel Aviv Law School in which the subject was the alleged mistreatment of "political prisoners" (i.e. convicted Palestinian terrorists) that invited, as guest speaker, a released prisoner sentenced to 27 years in jail for throwing a bomb into a Jewish civilian bus. This is not academic freedom. This is using academic podiums to deliver Israel-bashing propaganda.

When I taught at Columbia University, I could see how TAU guest professors would stoke the flames of anti-Israel rhetoric; one of them insisted that the university show the film Jenin, Jenin, which charges Israel with perpetrating a famously imaginary massacre. The usual defense of these TAU excesses is that all professors are entitled to academic freedom. This is inherently true in principle. Academic freedom, a special niche of the freedom of speech principle enshrined in Israeli law, should incorporate marginal and iconoclastic views. This is especially true in a society like Israel which suffers from a constant state of emergency and stress.

But academic freedom, like all human rights, is not unlimited. Austrian and German courts rightly decided that Holocaust denial is not protected speech; Jean Paul Sartre went further, believing that all anti-Semitic expressions are unprotected by the right to freedom of speech. A call to boycott Israel, such as was made by a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University's political science department, is certainly unprotected, in a similar way to the Supreme Court's ruling that a party which seeks the destruction of Israel cannot run in the Knesset elections.

But there is one further point: academics cannot seek shelter behind their much-touted freedom, while denying the students' right to express their own opinions. If what is alleged in Ha'aretz is true, then these TAU professors are violating the law. Article 5 of the Student's Rights Law states this explicitly: "Every student has the freedom to express his views and opinions as to the contents of the syllabus and the values incorporated therein." In other words, the students, too, have a measure of academic freedom. If the allegations made by the students - probably mainly in TAU's social sciences departments - are true, the university is violating the students' lawful rights.

The writer is a professor of law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a former education minister and Knesset member, as well as the recipient of the 2006 Israel Prize in Law.
http://www.amnonrubinstein.org/

European Union Sponsors Racist Jerusalem Art Event

"The local people told me months ago that Israelis cannot go. Our team [of 12 Dutch activists and eight artists] had to promise that we would not allow peaceful Israelis to come." (Merlijn Twaalfhoven)

Source: Solomonia and The Jerusalem Post

"Just one of those artsy-fartsy events, scattered around various locations locations througout Jerusalem. No big deal right? One catch: No Jews allowed. Peace without dialogue? Impossible :

"[...] last weekend I duly RSVP'd to a guests-only invitation to the Al-Quds Underground, touted as an unconventional festival with more than 150 small shows in private spaces in the Old City. Performances included music, storytelling, dancing, short acts and food. Locations were living rooms, a library, courtyards, gardens and more unique places. My expectation of a celebration of Jerusalem's diversity was dashed, however, when I arrived late Saturday afternoon at the Damascus Gate meeting point. Politely asked in English by Jamal Goseh, the director of the a-Nuzha Hakawati Theater near the American Colony Hotel, "Where do you live?" I responded in Arabic that I live in Jerusalem. From my accent and appearance, he discerned that I am an Israeli.

Al-Quds Underground's artistic director Merlijn Twaalfhoven of Amsterdam then told me, along with some Israeli peace activists who had arrived, that we were not welcome. My reply that I had been invited was to no avail, nor was my guarded threat to pen an expose of their racism.

And so here it is. For the sake of fairness, I met Twaalfhoven the next day to allow him an opportunity to explain... or dig himself a deeper hole. (Goseh declined my request for an interview.) "We want to bring art to the world," he began. "I sometimes break through the boundaries between art and life. That is the core of my work."

A visionary creator of art happenings such as a dance performance at the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah and the Long Distance Call concert on the rooftops of the Turkish half of the divided Cypriot city of Nicosia, Twaalfhoven said he had vaguely heard that the Arab League had chosen Jerusalem as Al-Quds 2009 Capital of Arab Culture and that the Israeli government had banned the festival as a political event forbidden under the Oslo Accords. "I don't know the details. I thought it was a good idea to bring people together."

Twaalfhoven then added, "The local people told me months ago that Israelis cannot go. Our team [of 12 Dutch activists and eight artists] had to promise that we would not allow peaceful Israelis to come."

Apologetic over what had happened, he then spilled the beans. The €50,000 project was funded by the European Union through the Dutch charity Cordaid [the Dutch Catholic organisation for relief and development aid NGO has often been criticised by NGO Monitor for its anti-Israeli stance] and the Alexandria-based Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures [co-funded by the European Union]. To have said no to racism would have meant to scuttle the budget.

Al-Quds Underground's no-Israelis rule is part of a larger policy set by the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee. This BDS movement, founded in 2005, can take credit for the cancellation of Leonard Cohen's September concert at the Ramallah Cultural Palace [...]""

- The Festival website
- Initiator and artistic director Merlijn Twaalfhoven shares his daily experiences in his diary (in Dutch)

- "Time to scrutinize ´Cordaid´", Manfred Gerstenfeld, TJP, 2007
- NGO Monitor reports on Cordaid
- A Clouded EU Presidency: Swedish Funding for NGO Rejectionism

ADL calls on European Union to counter academic boycotts of Israel

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged the European Union to disqualify any university that adopts an anti-Israel academic boycott from participating in the E.U.'s student exchange program, Erasmus.

The board of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, a participant in the Erasmus program, is slated to consider an anti-Israel academic boycott resolution on November 12. While Norway is not a member of the European Union, the Trondheim institution benefits from its participation in Erasmus.

In a letter to the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Mr. Maroš Šefèoviè, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman noted the Commissioner's "unique position to have a positive influence" in working to counter anti-Israel academic boycotts.

"Academic boycotts are clearly antithetical to the spirit and purpose of the Erasmus program to enhance academic cooperation," said Mr. Foxman. He called on Mr. Šefèoviè to make clear that "there is no place within the Erasmus program, or any of the E.U.'s Lifelong Learning programs, for institutions that adopt a policy of boycotting Israeli academics and institutions."

According to the European Union, "Erasmus is the E.U.'s flagship education and training programme, enabling more than 180,000 students to study and work abroad each year, as well as supporting co-operation actions between higher education institutions across Europe."
____________
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

Torbjørn Digernes and the Palestine-lobby

NTNU rector Torbjørn Digernes has asked the board not to vote for a boycott of Israel. He has also said that he is "saddened" by some of the criticism directed against him. Yet let us look as his "form" so far:

1. Digernes has endorsed and possibly also financed a seminar-series which has been: a) organized by the same individuals who stood behind the call for boycott b) had as its primary objective to prepare the ground for the debate concerning boycott, which the NTNU board of directors wil take on November 12th c) so critical of Israel that it might as well have been offered by the Norwegian Palestine Committee.

2. Digernes has thus politicized his university, thrusting it into the forefront of a political campaign against the one country on earth with which Norway already has "strained" relations, thereby demeaning NTNU staff and students by dividing them into two political camps.

3. Digernes has avoided open debate by refusing to speak to, for instance, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post. He primarily makes himself known through the university newspaper - Universitetsavisa - which can hardly be expected to function as a critical voice.

It appears quite obvious that this goes far beyond the NTNU board merely deciding, on November 12th, whether or not to boycott Israel. Rector Digernes cannot merely wash his hands of the situation at which he himself has had such an obviously active hand.

What we need to discuss now is to what extent Torbjørn Digernes has behave properly as an NTNU rector. If he has not, he ought to resign.

Yet who in Norway has the political courage to go up against the Palestine-lobby, which has the power and influence to enroll the rector of NTNU in its campaign in the first place?

- Norway university to vote next month on boycott of Israel (Haaretz)
- Norway's second-largest university to vote on Israel boycott (TJP)
- A-ha! Norwegian University is Latest Focus of Academic Boycott (Z Word)

Wiesenthal Centre to Norwegian PM : "Condemn University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Its Rector Torbjorn Digernes"

"Condemn Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Its Rector for Campaign to Disestablish Jewish Self-Determination"

Paris, 26 October 2009

In a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, deplored "a new stage in Norwegian incitement to Jew-hatred, the outrageously anti-Israel bigotry of the Middle East seminar at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim."

Samuels continued, "The virus of antisemitism in Norway's media, unions, NGOs and even government circles is now infecting academia. NTNU has deformed free and open scholarly discourse based upon mutual respect into a campaign of hate propaganda, led by masters of disinformation who exploit their academic credentials to call for boycott of their colleagues who happen to be Israeli. Most disturbing is the role of NTNU's Rector, Torbjorn Digernes, who has declared his support for this campaign."

The letter noted that, "as membership of the NTNU Student Union (SIT) is obligatory, any classroom dissident is repressed. Never since Quisling has there been such academic prejudice in Norway, and never since Hitler has any University Rector in Europe granted it his personal blessing."

Samuels pointed to Norway's "obligations, as a State Party to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to combat all forms of antisemitism under the Berlin Declaration of 2004 – a document which includes the singling out of Israel as a contributing factor to the scourge of Jew-hatred."

He added, "It is ironic that, as a democracy and a major donor country to the United Nations and other international programmes, Norway persistently takes positions regarding Israel – a fellow democracy - that harm every hope for peace in the Middle East and alienate world Jewish opinion."

The Centre urged the Prime Minister "to investigate the growing epidemic of antisemitism in your country, and to begin root canal treatment with a condemnation of the Rector of NTNU and its campaign to disestablish Jewish self-determination."

The letter was shared with Ms Marit Arnstad, both in her capacity as Chair of the NTNU Board and as Deputy Chair of StatoilHydro; Prof Juan Ramon de la Fuente, President of the UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Universities (IAU); and OSCE Secretary-General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is an international Jewish human rights organization with a worldwide membership of 440,000. Established in 1977, with headquarters in Los Angeles, it draws the lessons of the Holocaust to the analysis of contemporary issues of prejudice and discrimination. The Centre is an NGO in consultative status to the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Organization of American States and the Council of Europe.
For further information, please contact Dr Shimon Samuels at +33.609.7701.58

- Letter to VG: Will NTNU boycott Israel?
- Norway has decided to teach Israel a lesson
- Norwegian scholars call for Israel boycott
- NTNU students protest biased seminars
- NTNU rector Torbjørn Digernes: "Seminar series is praiseworthy initiative"
- SPME: NORWEGIAN ACADEMICS CALL FOR ISRAEL BOYCOTT
- Ilan Pappé dismisses Digernes’ objectivity-defense:"We are all political"
- Stephen Walt recommended by Bin Laden, speaks at NTNU
- Criticism builds against unbalanced NTNU seminars
- NTNU student to dean: "We will not give in"
- Israeli weekly on NTNU
- Dignernes’ blog down after SPME article
- NTNU: A NORWEGIAN HATE UNIVERSITY
- Morten Levin and the serpent’s egg
- Why should Digernes resign ?

Five Belgian universities debate 'apartheid' Israel academic boycott

"The academic boycott of Israel is "a call upon intellectuals and academics worldwide to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural in situations as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid" ... Belgium is not an exception ... A number of individuals of conscience have decided to invite Samia Botmeh to hold a speaking tour of Belgian Universities."

After, Belgian Christian unions support "Boycott Israel" conference with Ilan Pappé and Samia Botmeh, it is the universities' turn to debate the issue.

Source: Academic Boycott of Israel: Opening the Discussion

In April 2004, in light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law and given that all forms of intervention and peace-making had failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, a call was issued in occupied Palestine for a boycott of all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until it complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights. A year later, following the initiative of the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), another call was issued by nearly two hundred organizations from the Palestinian Civil Society for a broader policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.[1]

The academic boycott of Israel is "a call upon intellectuals and academics worldwide to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural in situations as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid."[2] Yet the very idea of an academic boycott might seem audacious and sensitive, and rightly so, for many scholars and universities that struggle precisely for the right of freedom of expression and exchange of knowledge. The academic boycott of Israel thus raises a number of questions such as why is there a need to Boycott Israel? What is the nature of the proposed boycott? Why Israel? Or what are the conditions of academic freedom in occupied Palestine as oppose to Israel?

Today the Academic and Cultural Boycott, and the broader Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, has gathered a remarkable international support that and it has achieved numerous and significant victories all over the world. Belgium is not an exception and several cultural institutions, organizations, and individuals openly advocate for the BDS in its various forms, and are working hard to raise awareness and support for the call made by the Palestinian civil society. Yet the rationale and the terms of the call for Academic boycott of Israel remain often unclear. This brings about tremendous confusion and triggers heatedly discussions around its motivation, legitimacy, and-or effectiveness.

In order to address the misinformation and uncertainties surrounding the Academic Boycott of Israel and the rising interest among University staff and students, a number of individuals of conscience have decided to invite Samia Botmeh to hold a speaking tour of Belgian Universities. Samia Botmeh is director of Birzeit University’s Center for Development Studies and lecturer in economics and gender studies. She is also a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

Tuesday 20th October
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Moderator: Prof. Sarah Bracke

Wednesday 21st October
- Universiteit Gent
Moderator: Prof. Ruddy Doom

- Vrije Unversiteit Brussel
Moderator: Patrick Deboosere

Thursday 22nd October
- Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve
Moderator : Prof. Jean Bricmont
(See: Jean Bricmont and The De-Zionization of the American Mind - The anti-US ravings of an arrogant man and Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges)

Friday 23rd October
- Université Libre de Bruxelles
Moderator : Prof. Eric David
(Eric David is the spiritual father of the calamitous and now defunct Belgian Universal Jurisdiction Law, a.k.a. "a law against justice"... (see below).) A previous debate was held at the ULB in May this year.

[1] Palestinian United Call for BDS against Israel
[2] Call for Academic And Cultural Boycott of Israel
________
On the Belgian Universal Jurisdiction Law, see :
The Suit Against Sharon in Belgium: A Case Analysis, Manfred Gerstenfeld's interview of Irit Kohn (JCPA)
and
NGO Monitor's report by Anne Herzberg:
NGO "LAWFARE" - Exploitation of Courts in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Resort to National Courts: Criminal Prosecutions
Belgium: Ariel Sharon and the Limits of Universal Jurisdiction, p.p. 23-27

Boycotting Israel: what about Sahara and the Norwegian Oil-fund ?

"Israel is perhaps the only country on earth with which Norway has strained relations, and ask ourselves "how has it come to this?""

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (Anti-Semitism and the anti-Israel lobby in Norway)

The Norwegian Oil-fund is invested in holdings throughout the world. For ethical reasons it has divested from Wal-Mart (USA) and Elbit (Israel), which makes many Norwegians recall how Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen [photo] on January 8th of this year marched under a banner saying "USA and Israel axis of evil". It is also worthwhile recalling how LO (TUC) leader Roar Flåthen singled out one country – Israel – for criticism in his May 1st speech this year.

On a very basic level the question is whether it makes sense for the Norwegian Oil-fund to divest from precisely Wal-Mart and Elbit, while continuing to invest in companies which are guilty of far graver sins. On another level we might observe that Israel is perhaps the only country on earth with which Norway has strained relations, and ask ourselves "how has it come to this?"

Norwatch reports on how Norway allegedly has become "Rich on plunder". Excerpt below:

By Erik Hagen
Norwatch, published in English 6 October 2009

Norwatch has revealed that the Norwegian Government’s Pension Fund has invested massively in the plunder of valuable natural resources in occupied Western Sahara. Calculations made by Norwatch show that eight international fertiliser companies in which the Pension Fund is part owner import a total of two-thirds of all the phosphate that Moroccan authorities export from the occupied areas through their wholly owned state phosphate company.

The value of the phosphate rock that these companies buy must, according to Norwatch’s estimate, have reached at least 535 million euros last year. This income goes, more or less directly, to the Moroccan state.

While the Pension Fund is investing billions in phosphate companies, other investors in Scandinavia have divested themselves of companies that buy phosphate originating in Western Sahara.

If Norway cannot ethically invest in Elbit, then where can we invest ?

- Norway gets on fine with Saudi Arabia and China ...
- Norway: divest in Israel, invest in Turkmenistan

Belgian Christian unions support "Boycott Israel" conference with Ilan Pappé in Brussels

Source: Arab European League

Organiser: Brussels Palestine Collective
Partner: ACV/CSC (Confédération des syndicats chrétiens de Belgique). The talk will be held at the unions' headquarters in Brussels.

"Seeking peace through justice:
The BOYCOTT of Israel !
A legitimate reponse to 62 years of Nakba and 42 years of Occupation
A talk about the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement"

Belgium - "Dexia Bank Get Out of Israel" campaign goes on

Contrary to these claims (Dexia Israel stops financing Israeli settlements, U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel) the campaign in Belgium against the French-Belgian bank Dexia has been unsuccessful. The organisers are still at it, with the backing of Le Soir newspaper. The vicious images below tell the whole story.

What has the U.S. to do with this ? Nothing, except that the organisers don't like the U.S. either.

"The United States of America

In Dexia We Don't Trust

In You We Do

TEN DOLLARS"

More on this:

Belgique - la campagne "Dexia hors d'Israël" continue

Norwegian scholars call for Israel boycott

Source: SPME Emily Tall, University of Buffalo, and Manfred Gerstenfeld

Twenty-one Norwegian academics at the University of Tromsø have signed a call for a boycott of all Israeli academic institutions. The initiative calls for the University to “establish an academic boycott of Israel,” of Israel’s “institutions of education, research and culture, and the institutions’ representatives, regardless of religion and nationality.”

The University of Tromsø has 9000 students and is known in Norway as the “peace university.” It was a leading force in Norway during the massive boycott of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The city of Tromsø has a twinning relationship with the city of Gaza and inhabitants of Tromsø turned out in good numbers for a Gaza demonstration in January.

The boycott call comes at the same time that the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim has begun a series of lectures on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The lectures are supposed to build a “broad perspective.” The list of speakers includes the American Stephen Walt and the Israelis Ilan Pappe and Moshe Zuckerman. The latter claimed initially on German radio that 400,000 people were killed during Operation Cast Lead. These names and those of several Norwegian anti-Israeli lecturers leave little doubt about the pro-Palestinian thrust of the series.
________

NTNU rector Torbjørn Digernes: “Seminar series is praiseworthy initiative”
NTNU is one of Norway’s most prestigious universities. This autumn the university is presenting a series of seminars on the Palestine-Israel conflict where all of the speakers, as well as the members of the organizing committee, are known adherents of the Palestinian narrative. Why is the Israeli narrative not given equal attention? Is Israel so fundamentally evil that her perspective is irrelevant? NTNU rector Torbjørn Digernes says that all speakers at the seminar are required to be objective, and that he as rector stands by the decision to host the seminars.

Unauthorized translation from NTNU’s Rector’s Page: HERE
(Norway, Israel and the Jews blog)

Anatomy of a media manipulation, Manfred Gerstenfeld

Belgian NGO urges Muslims to boycott Israeli "bleeding" dates during Ramadan

"Europeans were urged by the Nazis and their Belgian Rexist allies to boycott Jewish businesses. What started as economic discrimination ultimately led to racial laws and Genocide in the 40s. Never again should any European, especially those who proclaim their leadership in the field of human rights, aid and abet another effort to harm the rights of the Jewish people to a secure life and future." (Simon Wiesenthal Center, 2003)

Muslims in Brussels are being urged by a Belgian NGO, INTAL, to boycott Israel and Israeli dates during Ramadan. It seems that it is the first time ever that in Belgium - a country of Christian culture - (and in Europe) Muslims are being specifically targeted by non-Muslims with a view to boycotting the Jewish State. Muslims account for 30% of the population in Brussels, which is also the "capital of Europe". Israeli dates are very popular in Europe.

Boycott Israel: don't buy large dates !

Boycottons les dattes israéliennes - Action de sensibilisation à l'occasion du Ramadan (Let's boycott Israeli dates - an awareness campaign during Ramadan)
-------------------------------------------
Already in 2003, Oxfam Belgium, a highly politicised European NGO, was responsible for the infamous poster calling for the boycott of Israel by showing a bleeding orange, with the caption "Israeli fruit tastes bitter". INTAL's campaign goes one step further : it draws from the Oxfam Belgium poster, but is firmly set on political-religious ground : referring to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and even giving the start date. INTAL also proposes to go on July 16 at 5 a.m. to the fruit market to try to dissuade grocery shops from stocking "large" Israeli dates (supposedly non-Israeli dates are smaller).

Both campaigns are reminiscent of the 1370 Catholic legend that "holy communion wafers began to bleed after being stabbed with daggers by the Jews of Brabant at the synagogue in Brussels".

This image featured until recently on the website of the influencial Belgian-Palestinian Association (Brussels-Wallonia). Poster created by Oxfam Belgium and withdrawn by Oxfam International following a worldwide campaign led by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Campaigners were asked to express their dismay and outrage by sending the following letter sent to Oxfam International :

"Mr. Ian Anderson

Chairman, Oxfam International Secretariat

Dear Mr. Chairman:

As an international NGO, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is well aware of the important humanitarian work that Oxfam performs on behalf of the needy of the world. However, the boycott effort against Israeli agricultural products, which we reached through the main Oxfam website, violates your provisions against ethnic and racial discrimination. Further, this political campaign violates Oxfam's mission statement.

Mr. Chairman, in the 1930s, Europeans were urged by the Nazis and their Belgian Rexist allies to boycott Jewish businesses. What started as economic discrimination ultimately led to racial laws and Genocide in the 40s. Never again should any European, especially those who proclaim their leadership in the field of human rights, aid and abet another effort to harm the rights of the Jewish people to a secure life and future.
We urgently request your direct intervention to expunge any link of this campaign to Oxfam International and that Oxfam International instruct its Belgium operation that this boycott of Israeli farmers violates Oxfam's mission statement and should therefore be terminated immediately.

Signed,"

More on INTAL:

- Zan Studio of Ramallah - anti-Israeli artists invited to Belgium (interview by INTAL)

and on the Oxfam Belgium poster:

- Belgium: Arab European League mourns Wim De Neuter, martyr for Palestine

UK says no to arms embargo on Israel

"The petition, initiated by a man named Yusuf Ibrahim, was signed by over [rather ONLY] 38,000 people."

The British government has refused to heed a petition calling on the UK to impose an arms embargo on Israel and press other countries to stop supplying arms to the Jewish state.

The government responded last week to a petition posted in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead on the official Web site of the Prime Minister's Office. The petition, initiated by a man named Yusuf Ibrahim, was signed by over 38,000 people.

Anyone can post petitions on the Prime Minister's Office site, and the government will respond to those that get more than 500 signatures.

The petitioners asked the prime minister "to do everything in his power to impose an arms embargo on Israel in light of the recent Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip and to apply pressure on countries supplying Israel with arms that breach international agreements with the intention of restoring lasting peace to the region," the petition read. It claimed Israel was responsible for exacerbating tensions in the region.

"Only a complete arms embargo will send a clear message to Israel that this government will not accept the prolonged armed conflict which is aggravating existing tensions in the region."
The petition also stated that an embargo would show that Britain was committed to establishing peace in the region and "will have a far reaching impact in terms of marginalizing the ideologies of radical extremist groups."

In its response last week, the government said it did not believe an embargo would benefit the region and that Israel had a right to defend itself. [...]

Source: article by Jonny Paul in JPost

Miliband 'dismayed' by boycott calls