This serves to show that it is virtually impossible to turn the anti-Israel/Jewish trend in Europe and that Jews like George Sluizer play an important part in the demonization of Israel process in Europe. The media are only too eager to spread stories like these. Sluizer, until now unknown to the vast majority of Europeans, has become instantlly a famous man, a celebrity.
Source: Elder of Ziyon and Haaretz
"Dutch media this month published articles accusing Ariel Sharon of murdering Palestinian children in Lebanon. Former officials who worked with Sharon said the publications were false. The Israeli foreign ministry called the claim "a modern blood libel".
The claim first appeared in the Volkskrant, the third largest paper in the Netherlands, in an interview with the well-known Dutch-Jewish director George Sluizer. According to Sluizer, 78, he witnessed Sharon killing two Palestinian toddlers with a pistol in 1982 near the refugee camp Sabra-Shatilla while filming a documentary there.
"I met Sharon and saw him kill two children before my eyes," said Sluizer, who lives in Amsterdam. Sluizer repeated the accusation in an interview for Vrij Nederland, an intellectual magazine, published on November 13 ahead of a screening of his film at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. "Sharon shot two children like you shoot rabbits, in front of my eyes," he said.
The children, according to Sluizer, "were toddlers, two or three years old. He shot them from a distance of 10 meters with a pistol that he carried. I was very close to him." Sluizer added he thought this happened in November, when Sharon was Israel’s minister of defense, but he was not sure of the month.
His account was published in a special Volkskrant supplement for the film festival, which opened on Wednesday. The festival featured Sluizer’s fourth and most recent film about Israel, in which he is filmed telling a Sharon effigy that he wished Sharon would have died at Auschwitz."
Showing posts with label Conspiracy theories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conspiracy theories. Show all posts
Friday, 19 November 2010
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Norwegian politician backs vicious anti-Israel art (Cliff Hotel - an Odyssey)
Kjetil Finne's comment is interesting: "When the entire Western world believes it is uncomplicated to use the mullah-cartoons, surely I must be able to use the star of David". What motivates and enrages him and many others in Europe is the spurious belief that the one billion plus Muslims are powerless and being threatened by Israel, the Jews and the West ...
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
A Norwegian politician is helping Norwegian artist Kjetil Finne display his art at the offices of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Finne’s art is based on the Cliff Hotel, which is claimed by a Norwegian woman employed at the Representative Office of Norway to the Palestinian Authority.
It’s not one piece either, but an entire collection. NRK reports:
"The exhibition “Cliff Hotel – An Odyssey” is a strong attack on the Israeli occupation and confiscation of Palestinian property. It sets out from Cliff Hotel, which in its time was an assembly point for foreign intellectuals, authors, artists and journalists. Israel used the socalled absentee law against the owners of the hotel and his Norwegian wife. […]
The exhibition “Cliff Hotel – An Odyssey” contains photographs from the occupied West bank, manipulated with Jewish symbols and political quotes.
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
A Norwegian politician is helping Norwegian artist Kjetil Finne display his art at the offices of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Finne’s art is based on the Cliff Hotel, which is claimed by a Norwegian woman employed at the Representative Office of Norway to the Palestinian Authority.
It’s not one piece either, but an entire collection. NRK reports:
"The exhibition “Cliff Hotel – An Odyssey” is a strong attack on the Israeli occupation and confiscation of Palestinian property. It sets out from Cliff Hotel, which in its time was an assembly point for foreign intellectuals, authors, artists and journalists. Israel used the socalled absentee law against the owners of the hotel and his Norwegian wife. […]
The exhibition “Cliff Hotel – An Odyssey” contains photographs from the occupied West bank, manipulated with Jewish symbols and political quotes.
Friday, 10 September 2010
European Parliament: Spanish representative derides US "Jewish lobby"
Source: Z-Word (A Spanish Socialist, by Eamonn McDonagh)
Emilio Menéndez del Valle represents Spain’s ruling PSOE party in the European Parliament and was formerly his country’s ambassador to Jordan and Italy. He has an op-ed in yesterday’s El País about the Israel-Palestine negotiations in which he doesn’t hold back on the power of the Jewish lobby in US politics ["poder del lobby judío en EE UU"] and goes so far as to say that America’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been kidnapped by Jewish power. Another brave socialist speaks out about Jewish power. Well done, Emilio.
One particular part of his article deserves special attention. He says that Israel’s claim to be recognized as a Jewish state is a :
"… contradictio in natura given that 20% of the population of Israel is Arab, not Jewish."
So without a uniform national identity among its inhabitants states can’t claim to represent a single national identity. Irony can’t be Menéndez del Valle’s strong point because judged on this basis his own country, the Kingdom of Spain, doesn’t come out very well as it obliges a large minority of its citizens (Catalans, Basques, Muslim inhabitants of the colonial enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and, at least to some degree, Galicians as well) to accept Spanish national identity in spite of the fact that they don’t feel themselves to be Spanish in any way and that they see the Spanish state as robbing them of their right to self-determination.
My advice to Mr. Netanyahu would be that Israel should drop its demand to be a recognized as a Jewish state when the Kingdom of Spain dissolves itself and is replaced by a confederation of independent Iberian nations.
- 35% of Spaniards do not like Jews
- WSJ: anti-Semitic riff by EU Commissioner met with "collective yawn" in Europe
Emilio Menéndez del Valle represents Spain’s ruling PSOE party in the European Parliament and was formerly his country’s ambassador to Jordan and Italy. He has an op-ed in yesterday’s El País about the Israel-Palestine negotiations in which he doesn’t hold back on the power of the Jewish lobby in US politics ["poder del lobby judío en EE UU"] and goes so far as to say that America’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been kidnapped by Jewish power. Another brave socialist speaks out about Jewish power. Well done, Emilio.
One particular part of his article deserves special attention. He says that Israel’s claim to be recognized as a Jewish state is a :
"… contradictio in natura given that 20% of the population of Israel is Arab, not Jewish."
So without a uniform national identity among its inhabitants states can’t claim to represent a single national identity. Irony can’t be Menéndez del Valle’s strong point because judged on this basis his own country, the Kingdom of Spain, doesn’t come out very well as it obliges a large minority of its citizens (Catalans, Basques, Muslim inhabitants of the colonial enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and, at least to some degree, Galicians as well) to accept Spanish national identity in spite of the fact that they don’t feel themselves to be Spanish in any way and that they see the Spanish state as robbing them of their right to self-determination.
My advice to Mr. Netanyahu would be that Israel should drop its demand to be a recognized as a Jewish state when the Kingdom of Spain dissolves itself and is replaced by a confederation of independent Iberian nations.
- 35% of Spaniards do not like Jews
- WSJ: anti-Semitic riff by EU Commissioner met with "collective yawn" in Europe
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Donald Bostrom, Swedish Blood Libel Journalist Plans Visit to Israel
"Despite the blood libel, the National Federation of Algerian Journalists presented him with an award for excellence. Bostrom, in his acceptance speech, charged that 1,000 Arabs were victims of organ harvesting since 1960."
Source: article by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu in INN
A nationalist group has appealed to Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) to prevent the entry of Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom, who spread the blood libel alleging that IDF soldiers sold organs of Arab terrorists. Bostrom published his allegations in August and is planning to arrive in Israel next month for the Dimona Conference in the Negev.
Im Tirtzu (If You Wish) wrote to the minister, "Everyone understands the difference between his poisonous anti-Semitic articles and freedom of expression" and knows that his articles "are a modern blood libel that recall the same form of anti-Semitism in Europe in the Middle Ages. Anyone who thinks this is freedom of expression should return to school learn history." The group asked Yishai "to take all possible measures to prevent this journalist... from stepping foot on the Land of Israel."
Last week, a media watchdog official wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Bostrom’s allegations "are ugly, false, and harmful to peace efforts." Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), that Bostrom’s article in Aftonbladet, Sweden’s leading daily, "has quickly metastasized to mainstream Muslim media, spawning cartoons of Jews stealing body parts and drinking Arab blood. These have been published in Syria, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, to name a few."
Last month, an Algerian newspaper claimed that gangs directed by Jews round up and smuggle Algerian children into Israel, where they sell their organs. Iranian Press TV reported, "An international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs is gathering momentum."
Levin noted that despite the blood libel, the National Federation of Algerian Journalists presented him with an award for excellence. Bostrom, in his acceptance speech, charged that 1,000 Arabs were victims of organ harvesting since 1960.
After Israeli officials and media harshly condemned the report by Bostrom, who admitted that his report was unconfirmed and based on unsubstantiated claims by Arabs in Judea and Samaria, Aftonbladet stated there was no evidence of the charges but still demanded an international inquiry.
However, Levin wrote, "Francis Delmonico, a Harvard surgeon and international transplant specialist who was quoted in the Aftonbladet article on the issue of organ theft in general, told me he found the Aftonbladet charges completely inconsistent with his extensive interaction with Israeli doctors…. Like many others, Dr. Delmonico noted that Mr. Bostrom's scenario in which Ghanem [an Arab] was supposedly shot before having his organs removed for trafficking was ‘not feasible from a surgical vantage.’" Ghanem’s family refuted several "facts" that Bostrom wrote in his original accusations.
- Anatomy of a Swedish Blood Libel - Allegations of Israeli organ theft are ugly, false, harmful—and they spread, Andrea Levin, WSJ
Source: article by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu in INN
A nationalist group has appealed to Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) to prevent the entry of Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom, who spread the blood libel alleging that IDF soldiers sold organs of Arab terrorists. Bostrom published his allegations in August and is planning to arrive in Israel next month for the Dimona Conference in the Negev.
Im Tirtzu (If You Wish) wrote to the minister, "Everyone understands the difference between his poisonous anti-Semitic articles and freedom of expression" and knows that his articles "are a modern blood libel that recall the same form of anti-Semitism in Europe in the Middle Ages. Anyone who thinks this is freedom of expression should return to school learn history." The group asked Yishai "to take all possible measures to prevent this journalist... from stepping foot on the Land of Israel."
Last week, a media watchdog official wrote in The Wall Street Journal that Bostrom’s allegations "are ugly, false, and harmful to peace efforts." Andrea Levin, executive director of CAMERA, (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), that Bostrom’s article in Aftonbladet, Sweden’s leading daily, "has quickly metastasized to mainstream Muslim media, spawning cartoons of Jews stealing body parts and drinking Arab blood. These have been published in Syria, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, to name a few."
Last month, an Algerian newspaper claimed that gangs directed by Jews round up and smuggle Algerian children into Israel, where they sell their organs. Iranian Press TV reported, "An international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs is gathering momentum."
Levin noted that despite the blood libel, the National Federation of Algerian Journalists presented him with an award for excellence. Bostrom, in his acceptance speech, charged that 1,000 Arabs were victims of organ harvesting since 1960.
After Israeli officials and media harshly condemned the report by Bostrom, who admitted that his report was unconfirmed and based on unsubstantiated claims by Arabs in Judea and Samaria, Aftonbladet stated there was no evidence of the charges but still demanded an international inquiry.
However, Levin wrote, "Francis Delmonico, a Harvard surgeon and international transplant specialist who was quoted in the Aftonbladet article on the issue of organ theft in general, told me he found the Aftonbladet charges completely inconsistent with his extensive interaction with Israeli doctors…. Like many others, Dr. Delmonico noted that Mr. Bostrom's scenario in which Ghanem [an Arab] was supposedly shot before having his organs removed for trafficking was ‘not feasible from a surgical vantage.’" Ghanem’s family refuted several "facts" that Bostrom wrote in his original accusations.
- Anatomy of a Swedish Blood Libel - Allegations of Israeli organ theft are ugly, false, harmful—and they spread, Andrea Levin, WSJ
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
For Portuguese Nobel laureate Saramago the Bible is a 'handbook of bad morals'
"It [the book] might offend Jews, but that doesn't really matter to me.""The Bible is a manual of bad morals [which] has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible, we would be different, and probably better people."
Despite being an unrepentant communist, José Saramago seems to have a taste for pomp, graces and honours. In this photo he is humbly bowing to the king of Sweden while (shock and horror for an anti-bourgeois) receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998 from the hands of the monarch. Portuguese bloggers are having a field day poking fun at Saramago's new anti-Jewish tirade and believe that it is a publicity stunt ... communist style. (Portuguese Nobel Laureate's Remarks on Jews and the Holocaust Are "Incendiary and Offensive", ADL, 2003)
Source: AFP (extracts)
Speaking at the launch of his new book "Cain", José Saramago, who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature, said society would probably be better off without the Bible. Roman Catholic Church leaders accused the 86-year-old of a publicity stunt. The book is an ironic retelling of the Biblical story of Cain, Adam and Eve's son who killed his younger brother Abel.
At the launch event in the northern Portuguese town of Penafiel on Sunday, Saramago said he did not think the book would offend Catholics "because they do not read the Bible".
"The Bible is a manual of bad morals (which) has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible, we would be different, and probably better people," he was quoted as saying by the news agency Lusa.
Saramago attacked "a cruel, jealous and unbearable God (who) exists only in our heads" and said he did not think his book would cause problems for the Catholic Church "because Catholics do not read the Bible. "It might offend Jews, but that doesn't really matter to me," he added. Father Manuel Marujão, the spokesman for the Portuguese conference of bishops, said he thought the remarks were a publicity stunt. "A writer of José Saramago's standing can criticise, (but) insults do no-one any good, particularly a Nobel Prize winner," the priest said.
Rabbi Elieze Martino, spokesman for the Jewish community in Lisbon, said the Jewish world would not be shocked by the writings of Saramago or anyone else. "Saramago does not know the Bible," the rabbi said, "he has only superficial understanding of it."
The author caused a scandal in Portugal in 1992 with "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ." The book depicted Jesus losing his virginity to Mary Magdalene and being used by God to control the world.
- Anti-Israel writer José Saramago's foundation to be housed in Casa dos Bicos in Lisbon
Friday, 4 September 2009
Aftonbladet: behind the banner 'freedom of press', by Lisa Abramowicz
"Is there any other country in the world that has been as demonized and delegitimized as Israel in Aftonbladet during the last 30 years?" Source: article by Lisa Abramowicz, Secretary General of the Swedish Israel Information Center in Stockholm, in EJP
On August 17 Sweden's largest-circulation newspaper, Aftonbladet published an article on a two-page spread on its culture pages which included a disturbing photo of, among other things, a person who had been the subject of an autopsy, Bilal Ahmed Ghanem.
In the article the Israeli army is accused of stealing organs from dead Palestinians for use in Israel. Indeed, the article even insinuates that the Israeli army is killing Palestinians for the very purpose of using their organs for Israeli patients.
Israeli officials have commented on the picture of the dead man, a wanted Palestinian resistance fighter. According to the IDF, the photo is of an ordinary autopsy. The photo was taken in 1992 (!). Ghanem was killed in a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militia. The photograph is the same as the one found in Boström's book Insh'allah from 2001. No new evidence of organ theft has surfaced.
Donald Boström says that he doesn't know whether or not any organs where stolen, but that he was told by the family that they believe that to have been the case. According to Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh on August 25, the Ghanem family hadn't spoken to any foreign journalist of their suspicions at the time of their son's death, only that a foreign journalist was taking pictures during the funeral and then disappeared. (Palestinian family: We never told ‘Aftonbladet’ organs were taken)
This is a very important detail in the context, as Boström has pointed out in interviews that he is not the one suspecting organ theft, but the family he has been speaking to. He assumes the role of mouthpiece for the family. Clearly Boström is lying when he says that the Ghanem family has spoken to him about this. No further autopsies have been performed on Ghanem or any of the other Palestinians allegedly killed. There are no witnesses. Nothing at all to indicate that any crime of organ theft has taken place.
Then why was Ghanem autopsied by Israel when the cause of death was clear, Boström asks? Certainly to determine the cause of death and whether he had been killed by Israeli or Palestinian fire. Something which isn't always completely obvious. A lot of people are in fact killed by so-called "friendly fire" in the war between Israelis and Palestinians. (Most of the Israeli soldiers killed during the Gaza war this winter fell to friendly fire.)
The accusations are unreasonable for medical reasons since the organs of people who have been injured or killed by gunshots are unsuitable for transplantations. Per Gahrton, president of the Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden, told Expressen that he chose not to include the rumors of organ theft in his book "Palestinas frihetskamp", which was released last year: "There isn't enough support? But if the Palestinians are to continue with spreading rumors of the Israelis gathering organs they'll have to show a body that is missing organs", Gahrton says.
The head of human rights organization Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, Bassem Eid, is one of the foremost human rights activists in Israel and the Palestinian territories. He, too learned of the rumors of organ theft. Eid could find nothing to support the information. "I have never seen an article like this in any Arab newspaper. No one has reported on this subject - because it is just a rumor", Bassem Eid says.
Boström writing and Aftonbladet publishing is certainly due to them their feeling that this is an opportune moment, after the Gaza war and with Israel’s new right-wing government.
A corruption scandal has erupted in New Jersey, in which, among many other things, an American rabbi is charged with being involved in the transporting of Israelis to the US in order to sell and donate their organs there. Ergo, it is likely that the state of Israel is party to this foul affair and that these matters are somehow interconnected. Hence the publication value, apparently.
Boström and Aftonbladet want a legal investigation into the matter of organ theft. But in a society where rule of law reigns, something both Israel and Sweden are, a prosecutor will only press charges if he/she has enough evidence to convict the accused. Anything else would be a waste of society resources. A court - including the International Criminal Court in The Hague - is not supposed to investigate rumors in a propaganda war. As for the cases invoked by Boström, it's not a matter of "insufficient evidence"; but of "absolutely no evidence".
Jesper Svartvik, president of the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism, comments that "the text is an example of criticism of Israel alluding to and mixing in ancient anti-Semitic myths, in this case the medieval myths of ritual murder. Shakespeare’s Shylock can also be sensed in the background, wanting his pound of flesh at any price." Therefore, it is not so strange that Jews in Sweden, Israel and all over the world have taken offence at the article in Aftonbladet.
Åsa Linderborg, chief cultural editor, admits that she has never heard of the historical anti-Semitic myths of ritual murder, despite holding a Ph. D. in history ! Now, editor-in-chief Jan Helin would prefer discussing the matter of freedom of speech and the press as well as the forceful Israeli reaction to discussing the veracity of the article or how appropriate it was to publish it. I can understand that, as it enables him to portray Aftonbladet as a victim of Israel's "aggression".
Ref. Aftonbladet August 28, with the war headline "Israel attackerar Aftonbladet (Israel attacks Aftonbladet)" at page 1 and references to pages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Did anyone say "Exaggerated backlash"?
The freedom of information legislation is part of the constitution. No preliminary censoring is to be used. But if you publish a text that is of a dubious nature, you will have to suffer being criticized and questioned. Freedom of speech is not absolute. There is also a law against hate speech, and incitement, although judicial tolerance is extremely lenient. For chief cultural editors and editors-in-chief there is also something called press ethics and standards. The heads of Aftonbladet do not seem to take those very seriously.
It is worth studying the publication policy of Aftonbladet regarding Israel over a period of time, and that goes for all of its pages. Is there any other country in the world that has been as demonized and delegitimized as Israel in Aftonbladet during the last 30 years? It is clear that Aftonbladet’s policy regarding freedom of speech and of the press has been completely different concerning, for example, the Danish Muhammad cartoons or Lars Vilks' roundabout dogs (which weren't published in Aftonbladet) a few years ago. AB declined because they didn't want to offend Muslims. But offending Jews and Israelis is apparently fine.
I don't think that either Linderborg or Helin were unaware of the ruckus that would be caused by publishing this lousy and poorly substantiated article. I think that they were consciously attempting to push the boundaries of what can be written about Israel and Jews and hide behind the banner - freedom of the press.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Norway: Socialist Anette Trettebergstuen and the non-existent “Israeli newspaper”
"The post questions how Trettebergstuen, a secular, female homosexual, can single out for criticism the one state in the Middle East which is the most tolerant of secular, female homosexuals like herself."
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
Imagine that an Israeli politician reads an Israeli blog and gets the impression that she is being persecuted by a Norwegian newspaper. Imagine that the Israeli politician proceeds to alert Israel of this erroneous conclusion through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Now picture how Norwegians, watching all of this, would react. Would they not be amused? Would they not perhaps suggest that the Israeli politician was being just a tad paranoid about the "persecuted by Norwegians" thing, and would not such a suggestion be legitimate? Oh yes. Yet it is exactly this which has happened, except the other way around.
Yesterday Labor parlamentarian Annette Trettebergstuen read this post [Secular, gay politician boycotts Jerusalem gay pride], here on NIJ. The post questions how Trettebergstuen, a secular, female homosexual, can single out for criticism the one state in the Middle East which is the most tolerant of secular, female homosexuals like herself. Unfortunately Trettebergstuen’s interpretation of the post led her to conclude that some "Israeli newspaper" was slamming her for her sexual preferences. Subsequently the politician proceeded to post her thoughts on the matter on Twitter, whereupon this site immediately published a post alerting to the facts of the matter. By then, in a flurry of social networking, Trettebergstuen had already moved on to Facebook where she repeated her mistaken suspicion of being targeted by "an Israeli newspaper".
Below we see how Trettebergstuen and someone claiming to be Mads Larsen, author of the novel "Pornopung" (Shaved male genitalia) joke about the imagined "Israeli newspaper".

Related:
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
Imagine that an Israeli politician reads an Israeli blog and gets the impression that she is being persecuted by a Norwegian newspaper. Imagine that the Israeli politician proceeds to alert Israel of this erroneous conclusion through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Now picture how Norwegians, watching all of this, would react. Would they not be amused? Would they not perhaps suggest that the Israeli politician was being just a tad paranoid about the "persecuted by Norwegians" thing, and would not such a suggestion be legitimate? Oh yes. Yet it is exactly this which has happened, except the other way around.
Yesterday Labor parlamentarian Annette Trettebergstuen read this post [Secular, gay politician boycotts Jerusalem gay pride], here on NIJ. The post questions how Trettebergstuen, a secular, female homosexual, can single out for criticism the one state in the Middle East which is the most tolerant of secular, female homosexuals like herself. Unfortunately Trettebergstuen’s interpretation of the post led her to conclude that some "Israeli newspaper" was slamming her for her sexual preferences. Subsequently the politician proceeded to post her thoughts on the matter on Twitter, whereupon this site immediately published a post alerting to the facts of the matter. By then, in a flurry of social networking, Trettebergstuen had already moved on to Facebook where she repeated her mistaken suspicion of being targeted by "an Israeli newspaper".
Below we see how Trettebergstuen and someone claiming to be Mads Larsen, author of the novel "Pornopung" (Shaved male genitalia) joke about the imagined "Israeli newspaper".

If this site inadvertently led Trettebergstuen to believe that she was being written about by a Israeli newspaper – our sincere apologies. If however Trettebergstuen just jumped at the opportunity of accusing Israel of something nasty, or just was not concentrating very well while she read – then the apology is for her to make. We do need to maintain certain standards here. After all, Trettebergstuen is a member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committe (see textbox beneath photograph).
Related:
"Norwegian journalists keep close tabs on Norwegian politicians. From time to time Norwegian journalists also visit this site. Yet no newspaper has picked up on Annette Trettebergstuen’s made-up story about the "Israeli newspaper". Hopefully, one will do so tomorrow.
The reason this story is important is that it serves as an illustration of how easy it is to make erroneous allegations against Israel. Bad news about Israel is believable because Israel itself is bad. And how do we know that Israel is bad? Well, because we read bad news about Israel all the time. And why do we read so much bad news about Israel? Well obviously, it’s because Israel is just so dreadfully bad. And how do we know that Israel is so bad?"
The reason this story is important is that it serves as an illustration of how easy it is to make erroneous allegations against Israel. Bad news about Israel is believable because Israel itself is bad. And how do we know that Israel is bad? Well, because we read bad news about Israel all the time. And why do we read so much bad news about Israel? Well obviously, it’s because Israel is just so dreadfully bad. And how do we know that Israel is so bad?"
"This site has no problems with homosexuality. To the contrary, this site applauds homosexuality. Regions with a high proportion of gays prosper. Regions with low tolerance levels of homosexuality tend to fail. Besides, no homosexual ever threw a molotov cocktail at us. This site has a problem with those segments of society which attribute the origin of all their troubles to someone else, in this case Israel, just because it is convenient and the zeitgeist allows for it. A society at perfect health just does not behave like this.
Annette, we are not slamming your sexuality. We are bemoaning the state of the Norwegian Middle East debate and how people are conditioned to react. And we are not an Israeli newspaper, we’re a Norwegian blog."
Annette, we are not slamming your sexuality. We are bemoaning the state of the Norwegian Middle East debate and how people are conditioned to react. And we are not an Israeli newspaper, we’re a Norwegian blog."
Friday, 14 August 2009
Dutch journalist Desiree Rover says Jews caused flu outbreak
A journalist from Holland who linked Jews to the recent outbreak of a flu pandemic drew heavy criticism from a prominent Dutch Jewish organization this week, which said her claim was tantamount to an anti-Semitic blood libel. Holland's largest daily, De Telegraaf, last week printed an interview with Desiree Rover, 61, who proposed the bird flu pandemic, caused by the virus H5N1, was part of an international conspiracy to reduce the world's population. (Swine flu, or H1N1, is a related virus.)
Rover is quoted saying the conspiracy can be traced back to descendants of the Khazars in the Caucasus believed to have converted to Judaism 1,200 years ago. De Telegraaf quotes her saying these descendants are now "praying to another god; Lucifer, Satan or however you want to call him" and "are called Rockefeller, Rothschild, Brzezinski and Kissinger."
Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) - an local anti-Semitism watchdog - said this is the first time he has heard such claims from Rover, adding that her words suggest that "she does not seem to be right in her head." Tales of Jews spreading disease "is nothing new," he told Haaretz, "and stories of Jews poisoning wells are known from many centuries ago, and her words are giving rise to that anti-Semitism." CIDI, he added, will look into the possibility of lodging a formal complaint against Rover, though no decision has been made.
Source: article by Cnaan Liphshiz in Haaretz
Rover is quoted saying the conspiracy can be traced back to descendants of the Khazars in the Caucasus believed to have converted to Judaism 1,200 years ago. De Telegraaf quotes her saying these descendants are now "praying to another god; Lucifer, Satan or however you want to call him" and "are called Rockefeller, Rothschild, Brzezinski and Kissinger."
Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) - an local anti-Semitism watchdog - said this is the first time he has heard such claims from Rover, adding that her words suggest that "she does not seem to be right in her head." Tales of Jews spreading disease "is nothing new," he told Haaretz, "and stories of Jews poisoning wells are known from many centuries ago, and her words are giving rise to that anti-Semitism." CIDI, he added, will look into the possibility of lodging a formal complaint against Rover, though no decision has been made.
Source: article by Cnaan Liphshiz in Haaretz
Friday, 19 December 2008
UCU calls off proposed Israel boycott
Now the UCU pretends there was never any intention to boycott Israel's academic institutions ..."The British trade union at the heart of the call for a boycott of Israeli academia has dropped its proposed boycott following a threat by members to take legal action.
Last May, the University and College Union (UCU), the largest trade union for academics in the UK, voted at its annual conference in Manchester on a motion that proposed an academic boycott of Israel.
Motion 25 called for the dissemination of the testimonies of a UCU delegation that would visit the Palestinian Authority to "promote a wide discussion of the appropriateness of continued educational links with Israeli academic institutions." This was widely interpreted as a boycott call and led to many questioning how a minority had managed to hijack the agenda of union to pursue a sinister political agenda. The motion also demanded a boycott of Ariel University Center (Ariel College) in the West Bank.
After the motion passed, two eminent Oxford University academics and UCU members, Michael Yudkin, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry, and Denis Noble, Emeritus Professor of Physiology, pointed out that any academic boycott would violate a core principle accepted in the profession - that academics do not discriminate against colleagues on grounds of race, sex, religion, national or ethnic origin, or other personal characteristics.
"It's considered such an important professional principle that the union's rules set it out twice," Yudkin said.
The two academics put together a group of 12 UCU members from universities across the country and sought legal advice from the London-based lawyers Mishcon de Reya.
After obtaining an opinion from two eminent barristers, Michael Beloff and Pushpinder Saini, ruling the motion to be unlawful and contrary to the union's rules, the UCU group threatened to sue the union unless it dropped its boycott call.
"We are happy that the union has withdrawn the proposals that threatened the principle of non-discrimination," Yudkin said.
He said it went against the grain for members to have to use the law against their union but said that if it violated its own rules on such an important matter, there was no choice.
"It's now time for the union to give up its obsession with imposing boycotts and do its best to restore the reputation of UK scientists and scholars," he added.
"It is great news that for the fifth year running the union has, in the end, decided not to try to boycott Israeli universities," Dr. David Hirsh, lecturer at University of London's Goldsmith College and editor of the Engage Web site said. "It is not so great that the union's general-secretary continues to turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism, in spite of having been alerted, formally, informally, urgently, consistently and by a large number of both Jewish and non-Jewish members."
Speaking on behalf of the Stop the Boycott group, Henry Grunwald said: "The UCU's decision is a victory for common sense and for all those who oppose a boycott of Israeli academics. We have always known that such a boycott was discriminatory. We hope this marks the end of union's destructive flirtation with a policy that discriminates against Israelis and does nothing to help Palestinians."
However, the union has insisted there was never a boycott motion and thus its position has not changed.
Hunt insisted that the motion was a "to provide solidarity with the Palestinians" and not to boycott Israel's academic institutions.
"I made clear to delegates that the union will defend their right to debate this and other issues," she said.
"That position, and the position of the union, has not changed. There was no motion calling for a boycott and the implementation of Motion 25 within the law will continue," she added."
Article by Jonny Paul, The Jerusalem Post
- Jon Pike's report of the UCU NEC meeting which decided to implement the boycott by not implementing it
- UCU drops boycott of Israeli academics
Friday, 22 August 2008
Chris Blackhurst mirrors antisemitic conspiracy theory in the Standard
Source: Engage (post by David Hirsh)"Chris Blackhurst is the City Editor of the London Evening Standard. In his 11 August column in the paper he praises the British government's efforts to attract Islamic investors to the City of London by constructing financial schemes which are compatible with Muslim religious law. Blackhurst goes on:
"So it's disappointing to hear that the Government is being subjected to enormous pressure by those who believe Islamic banking is the thin edge of the wedge, a precursor to the UK becoming a Muslim nation. The pro-Israel lobby especially is very worried and consequently vociferous in opposing it."
1......The term "pro-Israel" is being used here as a synonym for "Islamophobic".
2......The "pro-Israel lobby" is assumed to be capable of subjecting the British government to "enormous pressure".
3......The "pro-Israel lobby" is held to believe that "Islamic banking is the thin end of the wedge, a precursor to the UK becoming a Muslim nation."
4......Blackhurst offers no evidence to link the "pro-Israel lobby" to those who oppose Islamic finance.
This paragraph casually mirrors the themes of antisemitic conspiracy theory."
It is often said that anti-Zionism is a manifestation of left wing antisemitism. This paragraph, however, is an example of anti-Zionist rhetoric which is entirely mainstream politically and is not at all of the left."
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