Source: On a program of the Dutch NTR TV station, a number of Dutch Turkish youths said that they approved of the Holocaust. One of them said, "What Hitler did to the Jews is fine with me". [They should be told what Hitler said about Muslims...]
The Center for the Information and Documentation Israel has called on the Minister of Education to investigate anti-Semitic prejudice among high school students.
An earlier study among Amsterdam high school students showed the existence of much stereotypical prejudice against Jews.
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
After Canada, Holland to reconsider UNRWA funding
"Last year Canada stopped its core funding of roughly 10 million dollars annually for UNRWA. In 2011 UNRWA enjoyed a budget of 1.23 billion dollars, roughly half of it provided by the U.S and the European Commission – its two largest donors, followed by Sweden, Britain and Norway."
THE HAGUE (EJP)---Holland will "thoroughly review" its policy on the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal [photo] told the parliament in The Hague.
The Dutch ruling party called UNRWA’s definitions "worrisome." Holland is UNRWA’s 6th largest donor, with an annual contribution of roughly 30 million dollars.
Rosenthal announced the review in reply to a question by the speaker of his own faction, the Liberal VVD.
"UNRWA uses its own unique definition of refugees, different to the UN’s. The refugee issue is a big obstacle for peace. We therefore ask the government acknowledge this discrepancy, which leads to the third-generation Palestinian refugees," VVD speaker Hans Ten Broeke said.
Minister Uri Rosenthal promised to "thoroughly review the subject and adopt a balanced resolution on it." He added: "I understand many involved parties regard UNRWA’s approach as highly important as it helps clarify matters and bring them into focus."
The minister’s position is expected to be submitted in the coming weeks in a letter to parliament.
UNRWA was set up in 1949 by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as an independent body entrusted with caring for Palestinian refugees who fled their homes in the years 1946-1949. Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA extends the definition of refugee also to descendants.
Additionally, UNRWA refugees keep their status after gaining citizenship. UNHCR is responsible for all refugees except Palestinians.
According to UNRWA, there are approximately five million Palestinian refugees worldwide.
Last year Canada stopped its core funding of roughly 10 million dollars annually for UNRWA. In 2011 UNRWA enjoyed a budget of 1.23 billion dollars, roughly half of it provided by the U.S and the European Commission – its two largest donors, followed by Sweden, Britain and Norway.
The Dutch ruling party called UNRWA’s definitions "worrisome." Holland is UNRWA’s 6th largest donor, with an annual contribution of roughly 30 million dollars.
Rosenthal announced the review in reply to a question by the speaker of his own faction, the Liberal VVD.
"UNRWA uses its own unique definition of refugees, different to the UN’s. The refugee issue is a big obstacle for peace. We therefore ask the government acknowledge this discrepancy, which leads to the third-generation Palestinian refugees," VVD speaker Hans Ten Broeke said.
Minister Uri Rosenthal promised to "thoroughly review the subject and adopt a balanced resolution on it." He added: "I understand many involved parties regard UNRWA’s approach as highly important as it helps clarify matters and bring them into focus."
The minister’s position is expected to be submitted in the coming weeks in a letter to parliament.
UNRWA was set up in 1949 by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as an independent body entrusted with caring for Palestinian refugees who fled their homes in the years 1946-1949. Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA extends the definition of refugee also to descendants.
Additionally, UNRWA refugees keep their status after gaining citizenship. UNHCR is responsible for all refugees except Palestinians.
According to UNRWA, there are approximately five million Palestinian refugees worldwide.
Last year Canada stopped its core funding of roughly 10 million dollars annually for UNRWA. In 2011 UNRWA enjoyed a budget of 1.23 billion dollars, roughly half of it provided by the U.S and the European Commission – its two largest donors, followed by Sweden, Britain and Norway.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Holland: comparing persecuted Jews in the 30s to Muslims today
"Yet if the main threat is revolutionary Islamism and the collapse of national identity, stability, and democracy, then Europe is in a lot of trouble."
Source: Barry Rubin (What's Happening in Europe: Holland As A Case Study on Islam and Israel). Excerpts:
"Another development in Europe, however, is rising antisemitism. Here's an article providing examples of both sympathetic and unsympathetic reactions on the issue by various Dutch figures.
Having reliable statistics at last regarding the number of Muslims in Europe also makes it timely to discuss that issue. The European left often argues that Muslims face imminent persecution and even massive repression. One of the more sophisticated versions of this theme comes from the Dutch Labor Party journalist and intellectual Geert Mak in one of the country's leading newspapers: "No, in the comparison between Jews and Muslims it's not about deportation and mass-murder. It's about the beginning, about the 1930s, when Jews felt themselves excluded and when it was spoken about them as it is now about Muslims."
Yet how can one deal with this issue without noting the fact that Islamists who are Muslim have committed more than 10,000 terrorist attacks in the last two decades? Or the fact that in many mosques in the West, preachers systematically incite hatred for Jews and Christians? Or that a whole series of special privileges are demanded by local Muslim leaders that break the Western democratic tradition of equal treatment under law? Or that the overwhelmingly main cause of growing antisemitism in Europe comes from the Muslim sector of the population?
Needless to say, Jews in the 1930s weren't doing any of these things. There was not a single incident of violence by Jews against the Christian majority. While Jews were sometimes accused of religiously preaching hatred against Christians, those claims were always false. And far from asking for special privileges, most Jews were trying desperately to assimilate culturally while the rest only wanted to be left alone. If one ignores these differences it is impossible to understand the situation today.
Here's one little detail reported by the French press agency, AFP that provides an ironic example of the problem. A Lebanon-born Swedish citizen named Munir Awad was arrested in Somalia in 2007 and again in 2009 in Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The Swedish foreign ministry helped get him freed on both occasions. Awad expressed his gratitude. Now Awad has been again arrested--in Sweden--after participating in a plot to "kill as many people as possible" in an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons he found objectionable.
Source: Barry Rubin (What's Happening in Europe: Holland As A Case Study on Islam and Israel). Excerpts:
"Another development in Europe, however, is rising antisemitism. Here's an article providing examples of both sympathetic and unsympathetic reactions on the issue by various Dutch figures.
Having reliable statistics at last regarding the number of Muslims in Europe also makes it timely to discuss that issue. The European left often argues that Muslims face imminent persecution and even massive repression. One of the more sophisticated versions of this theme comes from the Dutch Labor Party journalist and intellectual Geert Mak in one of the country's leading newspapers: "No, in the comparison between Jews and Muslims it's not about deportation and mass-murder. It's about the beginning, about the 1930s, when Jews felt themselves excluded and when it was spoken about them as it is now about Muslims."
Yet how can one deal with this issue without noting the fact that Islamists who are Muslim have committed more than 10,000 terrorist attacks in the last two decades? Or the fact that in many mosques in the West, preachers systematically incite hatred for Jews and Christians? Or that a whole series of special privileges are demanded by local Muslim leaders that break the Western democratic tradition of equal treatment under law? Or that the overwhelmingly main cause of growing antisemitism in Europe comes from the Muslim sector of the population?
Needless to say, Jews in the 1930s weren't doing any of these things. There was not a single incident of violence by Jews against the Christian majority. While Jews were sometimes accused of religiously preaching hatred against Christians, those claims were always false. And far from asking for special privileges, most Jews were trying desperately to assimilate culturally while the rest only wanted to be left alone. If one ignores these differences it is impossible to understand the situation today.
Here's one little detail reported by the French press agency, AFP that provides an ironic example of the problem. A Lebanon-born Swedish citizen named Munir Awad was arrested in Somalia in 2007 and again in 2009 in Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The Swedish foreign ministry helped get him freed on both occasions. Awad expressed his gratitude. Now Awad has been again arrested--in Sweden--after participating in a plot to "kill as many people as possible" in an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons he found objectionable.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Netherlands: Al-Qaeda mouthpiece run by Dutch extremists
The Jihadist Ansar Al Mujahideen site is mostly run by Dutch Muslim extremists.
The Dutch behind Al Ansar not only fill the website with English and Dutch hate-texts and propaganda, but also use computer servers in Amsterdam. These Dutch Muslim extremist had close ties with the Hofstad Group in the past.
The terror cell which was recently arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria discussed attacks in the Jewish Quarter in Antwerp, train routes, and crowded locations [Jewish community in Belgium was target of major terror attack, according to magazine], and used the site collect money and recruit fighters for a Chechen Jihad group. The site is registered by Ali Mahmoud, with a Brussels PO Box. New members are only accepted to the site if they're trusted by the other Jihadists.
Ansar Al Mujahideen – one of the most important propaganda mouthpieces of al-Qaeda worldwide - is carefully watched by security services, also in the Netherlands. Sources confirm that the website is not only facilitated by the Dutch, but also financed in the Netherlands. The website publicizes official announcements by al-Qaeda.
Intelligence sources confirm that the English part of the website is run by a dozen Dutch Muslim extremists, including several women. Those Dutch members were formerly the driving force behind the now-defunct Dutch extremist website Thabaat, which was tried to members of the Hofstad Group.
Read the full article HERE
- Former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein: "No future for Orthodox Jews" in Holland
- NGO Monitor reveals Dutch gov´t funding for Electronic Intifada
Monday, 6 December 2010
Former EU Commissioner: "No future for Orthodox Jews" in Holland
"Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline), Manfred Garstenfeld's recent book about Judaism in the Netherlands. The book describes how even bar-mitzvah parties now have guards and tells of a young man from Rotterdam who kept a journal of how he was called "cancer-Jew" time and time again."
Sources : Radio Netherlands and Islam in Europe
Prominent VVD politician Frits Bolkestein believes there is no future for 'active' Jews in the Netherlands. The conservative politician made his remarks in an interview with newspaper De Pers.
In the interview, Mr Bolkestein says that when he talks about active Jews he means those who are recognisable as such, for instance Orthodox Jews. The former EU Commissioner says there is no future for this group in the Netherlands because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing''.
He feels that this group of Jews should encourage their children to emigrate to either the United States or Israel, because he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the government's proposals for fighting anti-Semitism.
Bolkestein told De Pers: "I'm pessimistic. Because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - that's mostly about the West Bank - is still rampant. I don't foresee any speedy solution and then antisemitism continues to exist. Many Moroccan and Turkish youth don't care at all about the rules". Arabic TV broadcasters which are viewed here via satellite, also play a role in that process, he says.
Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline), Manfred Garstenfeld's recent book about Judaism in the Netherlands. The book describes how even bar-mitzvah parties now have guards and tells of a young man from Rotterdam who kept a journal of how he was called "cancer-Jew" time and time again.
- Netherlands: Use 'decoy-Jews' to fight antisemitism
- Amsterdam: Hitler salutes
- Netherlands: Socially acceptable antisemitism
- NGO Monitor reveals Dutch gov´t funding for Electronic Intifada
Sources : Radio Netherlands and Islam in Europe
In the interview, Mr Bolkestein says that when he talks about active Jews he means those who are recognisable as such, for instance Orthodox Jews. The former EU Commissioner says there is no future for this group in the Netherlands because of "the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing''.
He feels that this group of Jews should encourage their children to emigrate to either the United States or Israel, because he has little confidence in the effectiveness of the government's proposals for fighting anti-Semitism.
Bolkestein told De Pers: "I'm pessimistic. Because the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - that's mostly about the West Bank - is still rampant. I don't foresee any speedy solution and then antisemitism continues to exist. Many Moroccan and Turkish youth don't care at all about the rules". Arabic TV broadcasters which are viewed here via satellite, also play a role in that process, he says.
Bolkestein made similar statements in Het Verval (The Decline), Manfred Garstenfeld's recent book about Judaism in the Netherlands. The book describes how even bar-mitzvah parties now have guards and tells of a young man from Rotterdam who kept a journal of how he was called "cancer-Jew" time and time again.
- Netherlands: Use 'decoy-Jews' to fight antisemitism
- Amsterdam: Hitler salutes
- Netherlands: Socially acceptable antisemitism
- NGO Monitor reveals Dutch gov´t funding for Electronic Intifada
Friday, 19 November 2010
European blood libel and lie of the day
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."
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."
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Rotterdam: top official has links to anti-Israel and anti-US radical Turkish organization
A top official in Rotterdam, Bilal Taner, is in contact with a Turkish radical-Islamist organization, which is fiercely anti-Israeli and anti-American, openly supports the Hamas terror organization and glorifies martyrdom for Jihadists.
The warm personal connection with Rotterdam senior adviser Bilal Taner was recently clarified when he was extensively congratulated in an orthodox-religious manner on the Haksöz Haber website for the birth of his daughter. This website serves as a platform for radical Islamists, anti-Israeli and anti-American authors. The radical Turkish movement reject societies which are not based on the Koran.
The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism wrote in a 2005 report that "Haksöz is a Turkish-language Jihad website which glorifies martyrdom, calls for resistance against the occupation in Iraq and the Palestinian territories and shows torture scenes in Iraq". The website shows photos of dead Hamas members with titles such as "to the light of the Koran" and "The martyrs light our way."
The movement supports the armed struggle of Hamas, Which is called a terrorist organization by the EU. In the German-language American Jewish Committee 2006 report "Antisemitism - Made in Iran" (Antisemitismus - Made in Iran) it says: "The goals of Haksöz include uniting Muslims in the battle against Israel and the United States".
The orthodox-religious congratulations to 'our brother in Rotterdam' is signed by prominent members of the Turkish Hasöz Haber movement. Several of the congratulations to the Rotterdam policy official come from important activists who were passengers on the Mavi Marmaris, one of the ship in the flotilla which recently tried to break through the Gaza blockade. The attempt ended in a bloody encounter with the Israeli navy where several people were killed. The dead activists are honored as martyrs by Haksöz.
Read the whole piece here (Islam in Europe and De Telegraaf)
The warm personal connection with Rotterdam senior adviser Bilal Taner was recently clarified when he was extensively congratulated in an orthodox-religious manner on the Haksöz Haber website for the birth of his daughter. This website serves as a platform for radical Islamists, anti-Israeli and anti-American authors. The radical Turkish movement reject societies which are not based on the Koran.
The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism wrote in a 2005 report that "Haksöz is a Turkish-language Jihad website which glorifies martyrdom, calls for resistance against the occupation in Iraq and the Palestinian territories and shows torture scenes in Iraq". The website shows photos of dead Hamas members with titles such as "to the light of the Koran" and "The martyrs light our way."
The movement supports the armed struggle of Hamas, Which is called a terrorist organization by the EU. In the German-language American Jewish Committee 2006 report "Antisemitism - Made in Iran" (Antisemitismus - Made in Iran) it says: "The goals of Haksöz include uniting Muslims in the battle against Israel and the United States".
The orthodox-religious congratulations to 'our brother in Rotterdam' is signed by prominent members of the Turkish Hasöz Haber movement. Several of the congratulations to the Rotterdam policy official come from important activists who were passengers on the Mavi Marmaris, one of the ship in the flotilla which recently tried to break through the Gaza blockade. The attempt ended in a bloody encounter with the Israeli navy where several people were killed. The dead activists are honored as martyrs by Haksöz.
Read the whole piece here (Islam in Europe and De Telegraaf)
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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
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
Friday, 21 August 2009
Dutch prosecutors found that a Holocaust-denying cartoon was punishable
"The Holocaust cartoon "is punishable because it offends Jews on the basis of their race and/or religion."
Background: Muslim European group posts anti-Semitic cartoons
Background: Muslim European group posts anti-Semitic cartoons
The Dutch prosecution service had received complaints "about two cartoons published on the website of the Arab-European League (AEL) [founded by Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese born Belgian Muslim leader] lobby group, one of which allegedly shows Jews denying that the Holocaust happened".
"The Holocaust cartoon "is punishable because it offends Jews on the basis of their race and/or religion."
"The AEL has agreed to remove the cartoon from its Dutch website, said the statement. "If it complies, charges will be provisionally dropped.""
Source: EJP
______________
"Hitler goes Dutroux", AEL blog
From the Arab-European League: Anne Frank in bed with a paedophile Hitler (in a reference to Marc Dutroux, a Belgian serial killer and criminal, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 and 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered).
______________
From: Exploiting Anne Frank, by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
"Yet contemporary political iconography has matched it with another image of Anne that is equally obscene: A drawing featured in a 2006 Holocaust cartoon contest sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri shows a wasted-looking young girl sinking desolately under the bed sheets, while propped up next to her, a bare-chested, swastika-laden Hitler crows, "Write this one in your diary, Anne!" Above the head of the Führer's victim, a wordless bubble registers the grief of the devastated girl.
The fact that this graphic is vile has not kept it from being widely distributed by, among others, the Arab European League, a Belgian-Dutch Islamic political organization headed by the popular leader Dyab Abou Jahjah. In the wake of the Danish cartoon controversy, Jahjah was offering payback, declaring, "Europe too has its sacred cows."
Indeed it does, but Europe's murdered Jews are not among them. Anne Frank, dead before she had turned 16, was no saint but rather one more addition to the mounds of anonymous corpses at Bergen-Belsen. One need not sacralize her memory in order to pay it a decent respect. Until recently, most people have found it proper to do so, but in an age of resurgent anti-Semitism, respect for even the Jewish dead has become a dwindling commodity."
More on Dyab Abou Jahjah :
- More Hezbollox in London
- Zionists behind Abou Jahjah being barred from re-entering UK
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Rotterdam fires Tariq Ramadan over Iranian TV show
"The enlightened Ramadan makes talk shows for the Islamic fascists of Tehran; without any twinges of conscious, since the Islamic republic is evidently his ideal republic. It is clear where this Dutch-subsidised bridge builder is building his bridges to. To the fascist Islamic regime of Ahmadinejad. [...] This club of liars and state rapists is who Tariq Ramadan, the Rotterdam builder of bridges, works for. Anyone who works for the immoral, extremely violent and anti-Semitic Iranian regime, not out of any necessity and certainly voluntarily, may not and cannot ever build bridges with Dutch money. And if Ramadan has unexpectedly built a small bridge, we should destroy it as quickly as possible. Because the other side of that bridge, the bank on which Islamic fascism thrives, must never be a Dutch polder." (Afshin Ellian)
Hopefully he will not be allowed to enter the US.
Background:
- Tarik Ramadan has show on Iranian TV
- Rotterdam should get rid of this Islamist
- Rotterdam: complaint about Tariq Ramadan prayer
NRC.nl reports :
The Rotterdam city government wants to break ties with the Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan, sources at city hall say.
Ramadan (46) has been an adviser on integration for the city of Rotterdam for two years. Recently, he has come under criticism because he hosts a weekly talk show on the Iranian TV station PressTV, which is financed by the Tehran regime.
The sources at Rotterdam city hall said the board of council executives and the mayor feel Ramadan has lost credibility as an adviser on integration issues. The decision was expected to be made official after a 2 p.m. board meeting on Tuesday.
Rotterdam hired the Egyptian-Swiss theologist to help 'bridge the divide' between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The city government also funds Ramadan's chair at the Erasmus University, where he has been a visiting professor of Identity and Citizenship since 2007.
Ramadan, whose principal message is that Islam and European culture do not have to be at odds, is a controversial figure. He already came under fire in the Netherlands in April because of statements that were allegedly homophobic and misogynistic.
The right-wing liberal party VVD dropped out of the local coalition after the city decided to extend Ramadan's contract for another two years. An investigation commissioned by the city had come to the conclusion that the allegations against Ramadan were unfounded.
The Rotterdam city government was surprised last week when it learned about Ramadan's cooperation with the Iranian TV channel. Three local opposition parties immediately called for his resignation, as did the ruling Christian democrats, CDA, in the Dutch parliament.
Ramadan defended his position in a letter to NRC Handelsblad on Tuesday saying: "The present controversy says far more about the alarming state of politics in the Netherlands than about my person."
- European Union invites extremist Muslim representatives to interfaith dialogue
Hopefully he will not be allowed to enter the US.
Background:
- Tarik Ramadan has show on Iranian TV
- Rotterdam should get rid of this Islamist
- Rotterdam: complaint about Tariq Ramadan prayer
NRC.nl reports :
The Rotterdam city government wants to break ties with the Muslim philosopher Tariq Ramadan, sources at city hall say.
Ramadan (46) has been an adviser on integration for the city of Rotterdam for two years. Recently, he has come under criticism because he hosts a weekly talk show on the Iranian TV station PressTV, which is financed by the Tehran regime.
The sources at Rotterdam city hall said the board of council executives and the mayor feel Ramadan has lost credibility as an adviser on integration issues. The decision was expected to be made official after a 2 p.m. board meeting on Tuesday.
Rotterdam hired the Egyptian-Swiss theologist to help 'bridge the divide' between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The city government also funds Ramadan's chair at the Erasmus University, where he has been a visiting professor of Identity and Citizenship since 2007.
Ramadan, whose principal message is that Islam and European culture do not have to be at odds, is a controversial figure. He already came under fire in the Netherlands in April because of statements that were allegedly homophobic and misogynistic.
The right-wing liberal party VVD dropped out of the local coalition after the city decided to extend Ramadan's contract for another two years. An investigation commissioned by the city had come to the conclusion that the allegations against Ramadan were unfounded.
The Rotterdam city government was surprised last week when it learned about Ramadan's cooperation with the Iranian TV channel. Three local opposition parties immediately called for his resignation, as did the ruling Christian democrats, CDA, in the Dutch parliament.
Ramadan defended his position in a letter to NRC Handelsblad on Tuesday saying: "The present controversy says far more about the alarming state of politics in the Netherlands than about my person."
- European Union invites extremist Muslim representatives to interfaith dialogue
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
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Tarik Ramadan has show on Iranian TV
"In his essay, Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom argues that the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible. The distinguished academic was dismissed on April 22, 2008 without any explanation and a Holocaust conference held on 16-18 May in Berlin refused his article and warned that he would be arrested if he attended the conference and presented his essay. The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust but the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs…" (PressTV)
Dutch site ScienceGuide reveals that Tariq Ramadan has his own show "Islam & Life" on Iranian broadcaster PressTV. On his show Ramadan discusses various social and political issues from an Islamic point of view. According to PressTV this is "A weekly show presented by Tariq Ramadan on the world's fastest growing religion and the daily challenges faced by its followers especially in the West."
The most recent show, for example, was about Islam and art. Recent shows discussed Islam and student involvement, Changing Europe and Islam, Obama and the Muslim world, Islam and science, and the concept of freedom in Islam. All shows are available online.
ScienceGuide reports that Ramadan is joined on his show by British parliament member George Galloway, who was kicked out of the Labour Party for his support of Saddam Hussein, as political commentator.
Dr. Nicholas Kollerstrom, a former astronomer at University College London, who was fired for Holocaust denial, is also on the show. Kollerstrom wrote: "Let us hope the schoolchildren visitors are properly taught about the elegant swimming-pool at Auschwitz, built by the inmates, who would sunbathe there on Saturday and Sunday afternoons while watching the water-polo matches; and shown the paintings from its art class, which still exist; and told about the camp library which had some 45,000 volumes for inmates to choose from, plus a range of periodicals; and the six camp orchestras at Auschwitz/Birkenau, its theatrical performances, including a children’s opera, the weekly camp cinema, and even the special brothel established there."
PressTV says: "In his essay, Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom argues that the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible. The distinguished academic was dismissed on April 22, 2008 without any explanation and a Holocaust conference held on 16-18 May in Berlin refused his article and warned that he would be arrested if he attended the conference and presented his essay. The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust but the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs…"
PressTV is fully paid for by the Iranian government. After the recent presidential elections that station became so militant that a British presenter resigned. Nick Ferrari said at the beginning of July: "I imagine they’ve been told what to do, and I can’t reconcile that with working there."
Professor Ramadan continued with his program in the weeks after the election, without any objection or protest against the course of events. ScienceGuide says this is remarkable given that the Iranian government made arrests on university campuses and among colleagues of Ramadan. Ramadan works for the city of Rotterdam as a 'bridge-builder' in the framework of the 'Islam-debates' that the city organizes. Following this report, CDA (Christian-Democratic Appeal) parliament members Jan Jacob van Dijk and Mirjam Sterk turned with questions to the Dutch government, saying Ramadan should not continue as integration advisor to the Rotterdam municipality. Van Dijk says that this is not just a local Rotterdam issue since professor Ramadan is considered a very influential opinion leader in international media and at important universities such as Oxford. The parliament and government have a responsibility towards the content and credibility of the integration debate.
Sources: Islam in Europe and ScienceGuide 1, 2 (Dutch)
Ramadan criticised over Iran connection
Tarik Ramadan: "Boycott Israel at the International Book Fair of Turin"
Dutch site ScienceGuide reveals that Tariq Ramadan has his own show "Islam & Life" on Iranian broadcaster PressTV. On his show Ramadan discusses various social and political issues from an Islamic point of view. According to PressTV this is "A weekly show presented by Tariq Ramadan on the world's fastest growing religion and the daily challenges faced by its followers especially in the West."
The most recent show, for example, was about Islam and art. Recent shows discussed Islam and student involvement, Changing Europe and Islam, Obama and the Muslim world, Islam and science, and the concept of freedom in Islam. All shows are available online.
ScienceGuide reports that Ramadan is joined on his show by British parliament member George Galloway, who was kicked out of the Labour Party for his support of Saddam Hussein, as political commentator.
Dr. Nicholas Kollerstrom, a former astronomer at University College London, who was fired for Holocaust denial, is also on the show. Kollerstrom wrote: "Let us hope the schoolchildren visitors are properly taught about the elegant swimming-pool at Auschwitz, built by the inmates, who would sunbathe there on Saturday and Sunday afternoons while watching the water-polo matches; and shown the paintings from its art class, which still exist; and told about the camp library which had some 45,000 volumes for inmates to choose from, plus a range of periodicals; and the six camp orchestras at Auschwitz/Birkenau, its theatrical performances, including a children’s opera, the weekly camp cinema, and even the special brothel established there."
PressTV says: "In his essay, Dr Nicholas Kollerstrom argues that the alleged massacre of Jewish people by gassing during World War II was scientifically impossible. The distinguished academic was dismissed on April 22, 2008 without any explanation and a Holocaust conference held on 16-18 May in Berlin refused his article and warned that he would be arrested if he attended the conference and presented his essay. The West punishes people for their scientific research on Holocaust but the same Western countries allow insults to prophets and religious beliefs…"
PressTV is fully paid for by the Iranian government. After the recent presidential elections that station became so militant that a British presenter resigned. Nick Ferrari said at the beginning of July: "I imagine they’ve been told what to do, and I can’t reconcile that with working there."
Professor Ramadan continued with his program in the weeks after the election, without any objection or protest against the course of events. ScienceGuide says this is remarkable given that the Iranian government made arrests on university campuses and among colleagues of Ramadan. Ramadan works for the city of Rotterdam as a 'bridge-builder' in the framework of the 'Islam-debates' that the city organizes. Following this report, CDA (Christian-Democratic Appeal) parliament members Jan Jacob van Dijk and Mirjam Sterk turned with questions to the Dutch government, saying Ramadan should not continue as integration advisor to the Rotterdam municipality. Van Dijk says that this is not just a local Rotterdam issue since professor Ramadan is considered a very influential opinion leader in international media and at important universities such as Oxford. The parliament and government have a responsibility towards the content and credibility of the integration debate.
Sources: Islam in Europe and ScienceGuide 1, 2 (Dutch)
Ramadan criticised over Iran connection
Tarik Ramadan: "Boycott Israel at the International Book Fair of Turin"
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Holland to reevaluate its funding of anti-Israel NGO
"Sources say Verhagen reproached senior figures in the Dutch Foreign Ministry upon learning this and gave instructions to launch an internal investigation on the matter. It showed that the embassy in Israel gave Breaking the Silence 19,995 euros to help put together its 2009 report, which discusses Operation Cast Lead and was released earlier this month. Had this figure been five euros higher, it would have required approval from The Hague."
These clever guys at the Dutch embassy in Israel ... choosing to give as much money as possible (19,995 euros) - short of the of 5 euros more (20,000 euros) which would have required government approval. Just for the great pleasure of demonizing Israel.
"Following protests by Israel, the Netherlands will reevaluate its funding of an organization that alleged that Israeli troops used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza. Acting on instructions from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, Harry Knei-Tal, met last week with the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and complained about the Dutch embassy's funding of Breaking the Silence.
The Israeli ambassador suggested that the Netherland's funding of the organization should be terminated. "The Dutch taxpayer's money could be better used to promote peace and human rights," a source quoted Knei-Tal as saying.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen [Dutch Foreign Minister deplores revived antisemitism in Europe] - considered one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the European Union - did not know that the embassy in Tel Aviv was funding Breaking the Silence. He learned about it after the organization's funding sources were published in an article in The Jerusalem Post [Europeans funding 'Breaking the Silence'].
Sources say Verhagen reproached senior figures in the Dutch Foreign Ministry upon learning this and gave instructions to launch an internal investigation on the matter. It showed that the embassy in Israel gave Breaking the Silence 19,995 euros to help put together its 2009 report, which discusses Operation Cast Lead and was released earlier this month. Had this figure been five euros higher, it would have required approval from The Hague.
The director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry told the Israeli ambassador that in light of the probe, funding for Breaking the Silence would be reevaluated because of the political sensitivities of the issues covered by the organization.
Breaking the Silence, which was founded by Israeli army veterans, has collected what it says are damning testimonies from soldiers who took part in the January offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The report contains almost 30 anonymous testimonies. An Israeli diplomat said that in the meeting last week, Knei-Tal said Israel was a democratic country and that such funds should go to places without democracy. Breaking the Silence was a legal and legitimate organization, he said, according to sources, but its funding by the Dutch was unreasonable "in light of the political sensitivities.""
Source : article byBarak Ravid in Haaretz
- Anti-Israel campaigning by Dutch Christian NGO and Oxfam
- Dutch government split on Israel ties
These clever guys at the Dutch embassy in Israel ... choosing to give as much money as possible (19,995 euros) - short of the of 5 euros more (20,000 euros) which would have required government approval. Just for the great pleasure of demonizing Israel.
"Following protests by Israel, the Netherlands will reevaluate its funding of an organization that alleged that Israeli troops used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza. Acting on instructions from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands, Harry Knei-Tal, met last week with the director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry and complained about the Dutch embassy's funding of Breaking the Silence.
The Israeli ambassador suggested that the Netherland's funding of the organization should be terminated. "The Dutch taxpayer's money could be better used to promote peace and human rights," a source quoted Knei-Tal as saying.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen [Dutch Foreign Minister deplores revived antisemitism in Europe] - considered one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the European Union - did not know that the embassy in Tel Aviv was funding Breaking the Silence. He learned about it after the organization's funding sources were published in an article in The Jerusalem Post [Europeans funding 'Breaking the Silence'].
Sources say Verhagen reproached senior figures in the Dutch Foreign Ministry upon learning this and gave instructions to launch an internal investigation on the matter. It showed that the embassy in Israel gave Breaking the Silence 19,995 euros to help put together its 2009 report, which discusses Operation Cast Lead and was released earlier this month. Had this figure been five euros higher, it would have required approval from The Hague.
The director-general of the Dutch Foreign Ministry told the Israeli ambassador that in light of the probe, funding for Breaking the Silence would be reevaluated because of the political sensitivities of the issues covered by the organization.
Breaking the Silence, which was founded by Israeli army veterans, has collected what it says are damning testimonies from soldiers who took part in the January offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The report contains almost 30 anonymous testimonies. An Israeli diplomat said that in the meeting last week, Knei-Tal said Israel was a democratic country and that such funds should go to places without democracy. Breaking the Silence was a legal and legitimate organization, he said, according to sources, but its funding by the Dutch was unreasonable "in light of the political sensitivities.""
Source : article byBarak Ravid in Haaretz
- Anti-Israel campaigning by Dutch Christian NGO and Oxfam
- Dutch government split on Israel ties
Monday, 15 June 2009
EU won't upgrade its ties with Israel and the usual cacophony
Unsurprising decision, attended by the usual European cacophony from the good friends and the not so good friends of Israel. uropean Union foreign ministers welcomed on Monday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's endorsement of the goal of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel as expressed in his Bar Ilan speech on Sunday evening, but said it was not enough to raise EU-Israel ties to a higher level, Reuters reported.
The ministers, who were due to meet Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman later on Monday, questioned the preconditions cited by Netanyahu for establishing a Palestinian state, as well as his defense of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
"That's good but it's only a first step," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said before the talks in Luxembourg.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said that Netanyahu's speech was "not sufficient." "Nothing was said on the settlements ... but this stopping of the settlements is essential," said Kouchner, who in an earlier statement rejected any preconditions to peace negotiations.
The EU and Israel have agreed in principle to upgrade an "association agreement" defining their ties, but the 27-nation bloc has put the upgrade on a hold, and says it wants a firm commitment from Israel to seek a so-called two-state peace accord with the Palestinians.
Other EU ministers joined US President Barack Obama in expressing support for Netanyahu's "endorsement." Netanyahu's endorsement of a Palestinian state is a "step in the right direction," Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the EU presidency, said on Monday.
Kohout added that while the prime minister's comments on Sunday needed more analysis "the acceptance of a Palestinian state is there."
Kohout spoke to reporters upon arrival at a session of EU foreign ministers who were meeting with Lieberman.
Source: TJP
The Netherlands ...
- Dutch government split on Israel ties
- Geert Wilders: EU is not Israel's friend
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Dutch government split on Israel ties
Ruling center-right party supports upgrading European Union's relations with Israel despite standstill in peace talks with Palestinians. Labor oppose, saying it would be 'completely ridiculous to give Israel presents now'Source: article by Hagar Mizrachi @ YNet
The Dutch government is spilt over whether relations between the European Union and Israel should be upgraded. The Labor party, headed by Finance Minister Wouter Bos, opposed stepping up political and commercial ties with Israel, days before a European Parliament session matter slated for next week.
Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Thursday that the center-right Christian parties, including the ruling Christian Democratic Appeal party headed by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, support Foreign Minister Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen's [see: Dutch Foreign Minister deplores revived antisemitism in Europe] pro-Israel stance.
Labor, the country's second largest party, on the other hand, demand that any upgrading of ties with Israel should depend on the continuation of the political peace process with the Palestinians.
Labor member Marcel van Dam, who is currently visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority as part of a European delegation, said it would be "completely ridiculous to give Israel presents now".
Foreign Minister Verhagen is also slated to visit Israel and the Gaza Strip later on in the month, to evaluate for himself the progress of efforts to rebuild the Strip.
Verhagen has also been receiving criticism from home. Last week, former Prime Minister Dries van Agt and former Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek, both members of Verhagen's Christian Democratic Appeal party, published an op-ed, in which they adamantly opposed supporting Israel.
Israel must show 'earnestness'
The two expressed an opinion similar to that of the finance minister, saying that Israel should first show "earnestness" with regards to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Christian Union party, which is the third most important in the Dutch coalition, is now working to prevent the application of economic pressure on Israel that has been demanded by the Labor party. According to Christian Union members, improving economic ties with Israel and the Palestinians may bring the vision of peace closer.
Arie Slob, the party's representative in the lower house of the Netherlands' parliament, published an article on Friday calling the move "a primitive and authoritarian attempt" to impose a peace agreement on Israel.
"The Palestinians are not living up to the terms set by the international community, including renouncing violence and recognizing Israel. Any attempt to pressure Israel now will only lead to a 'three-state' solution," he wrote. [...]
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Rotterdam: complaint about Tariq Ramadan prayer
"God, strengthen their belief, those who are in Palestine, and let them celebrate their victory over their enemy, your enemy, enemy of the faith."
"Let Islam and the Muslims triumph and let your word triumph everywhere."
Video
"The VVD party (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) in Rotterdam published a translation of the following clip, in which Tariq Ramadan [also an Oxford University professor] is praying for the Muslims of Palestine.
The VVD demands explanations as to how such prayers affect the context of his job as adviser to the municipality.
(...)
(2:47) God, let your light and appearance descend on their grave. God, strengthen the belief of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
(3.13) God, strengthen their belief, those who are in Palestine, and let them celebrate their victory over their enemy, your enemy, enemy of the faith.
(3.26) Only with your victory and mercy, you generous God. Allah, strengthen their belief in Palestine, in Chechnya, in Afghanistan, and in Morocco, and in Algeria, and in Tunisia, and in Egypt, and in Sudan, and in Kashmir, and in the whole world and out of the way places, you merciful God.
(4.01) Accept everything of them, and let them stand with both feet on the ground, and give them a place in your paradise, with the chosen believers and with the martyrs.
(4:15) God, strengthen their belief, those who are in prison and who live under torture. They are innocent. God, our enemies, your enemies, and enemies of the faith, let us leave to you.
(4:38) Let Islam and the Muslims triumph and let your word triumph everywhere. (...)"
Source: Islam in Europe
- Rotterdam: Municipality to investigate Ramadan tapes
- US: Obama backs Tariq Ramadan's visa rejection
"Let Islam and the Muslims triumph and let your word triumph everywhere."
Video
"The VVD party (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) in Rotterdam published a translation of the following clip, in which Tariq Ramadan [also an Oxford University professor] is praying for the Muslims of Palestine.
The VVD demands explanations as to how such prayers affect the context of his job as adviser to the municipality.
(...)
(2:47) God, let your light and appearance descend on their grave. God, strengthen the belief of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
(3.13) God, strengthen their belief, those who are in Palestine, and let them celebrate their victory over their enemy, your enemy, enemy of the faith.
(3.26) Only with your victory and mercy, you generous God. Allah, strengthen their belief in Palestine, in Chechnya, in Afghanistan, and in Morocco, and in Algeria, and in Tunisia, and in Egypt, and in Sudan, and in Kashmir, and in the whole world and out of the way places, you merciful God.
(4.01) Accept everything of them, and let them stand with both feet on the ground, and give them a place in your paradise, with the chosen believers and with the martyrs.
(4:15) God, strengthen their belief, those who are in prison and who live under torture. They are innocent. God, our enemies, your enemies, and enemies of the faith, let us leave to you.
(4:38) Let Islam and the Muslims triumph and let your word triumph everywhere. (...)"
Source: Islam in Europe
- Rotterdam: Municipality to investigate Ramadan tapes
- US: Obama backs Tariq Ramadan's visa rejection
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Anti-Israel campaigning by Dutch Christian NGO and Oxfam
"The Web site omits any of the barrier's security benefits, and focuses solely on the human suffering it has caused by separating some Palestinian families and dividing their communities and businesses."List of "barriers" here, but only one gets European NGOs' attention
"The security barrier between Israel and the West Bank is getting a commercial face-lift. A venture by a Dutch organization allows Internet users around the world to get their personal message on the Palestinian side of the barrier, part of which is a concrete gray wall, for €30 per missive.
The maximum 80-character messages, which are sent over the Web and then spray-painted on the wall by a Ramallah-based Palestinian group, are then digitally photographed, with three copies of their missives on the wall sent back to clients via e-mail.
Both humorous and serious messages are acceptable, while obscene, offensive and extremists texts will be rejected, the organizers say.
Some of the messages shown at www.sendamessage.nl are blatantly political while others are surprisingly romantic.
"Elisabeth and Jakob - Forever in my heart - Anna," one message pictured on the Web site reads.
Others are unequivocal.
"Take down that wall," reads one message spray-painted in red capital letters.
The initiators of the Dutch-Palestinian venture say that the goal is to encourage Palestinians living in the West Bank.
"Your message on the wall reminds Palestinians that they have not been forgotten. It helps them keeping [sic] hope alive. That's the message you are sending to them, whatever the words are," the site says.
"Our aim is to make sure there is another method of communication aside from throwing rocks," said Ben Melis, a director of the Dutch organization which initiated the project. "We have no illusion that what we are doing will make the wall go away or change things, but we want to address the issue to raise awareness."
He said that more than 800 people from around the world had sent a message via the Web site since it was launched a year and a half ago.A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday that the office was "unaware" of the international spray-paint venture.
The Web site omits any of the barrier's security benefits, and focuses solely on the human suffering it has caused by separating some Palestinian families and dividing their communities and businesses.
Potential customers are told that there is no danger for Palestinians in spray-painting on the wall in the West Bank, noting that the territory is "a lot more stable than in far away Gaza."
"'Our' Palestinians will never risk their lives to get your message on the wall," the Web site states.
The initiative, which was started by a group of Dutch advertisers during a visit to Ramallah, is supported by the Dutch NGO ICCO [Interchurch Organization for Development Co-operation] as well as Oxfam.
Organizers say that the revenue is intended to support grassroots social and cultural projects in the West Bank via accredited Palestinian NGOs, and that the money does not go to buy weapons for the Palestinians."
Source: article by Etgar Lefkovits in TJP
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Exploiting Anne Frank to advertise a holiday rental in Amsterdam
"An online accommodation agency I came across recently used one of the most tasteless slogans I’ve ever seen to advertise a holiday rental in Amsterdam.
"Amsterdam Stay Apartments present the Anne Frank apartment," read a banner across the top of the apartment’s Web page. "Live like Anne Frank during your Amsterdam stay," it promised, "with the keys to your own roof attic apartment.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
What on earth could these people have been thinking? The apartment, said the Web page, occupies the top floor of a building "just opposite the Anne Frank house" in a "lively and picturesque area known for its restaurants, night life, specialty shops and cultural attractions."
A converted garret with a steeply sloping ceiling, it comes complete with high speed Internet, a private terrace and a full supply of bed linen. Though "ideal for two," it can sleep up to four.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
The Web page made her sound like some bohemian celebrity, not a teenage diarist who for two long years hid with her family and friends in a cramped "secret annex" until they were betrayed to the Germans and shipped off to Nazi death camps.
Anne died in Bergen Belsen at the age of 15. The Anne Frank House is now a museum that draws as many as a million visitors a year. The "secret annex" has been preserved, and exhibits tell the tragic story that unfolded in that hidden space.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
What does it mean, this transformation of World War II terror into a market-driven synonym for trendy charm? Is it just another form of "Shoah business?" Or has Anne’s name become a talisman so abstract and disembodied that it can be cut and pasted and used without reference to the totality of its meaning? You know - Anne Frank, a pretty young girl living tucked away in a cozy attic apartment, sweetly dreaming of movie stars and confiding in her diary.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
"Commercializing Holocaust suffering (or stoicism or heroism) - through ignorance or malice -cannot be condoned," my brother, Sam Gruber, the president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, wrote in an angry response to the apartment ad.
"Even when done in a way that is meant to celebrate the victim, such exploitation actually belittles her," he wrote. "Maybe the apartment owner figured if Broadway, Hollywood and publishers around the world could make money selling their version of Anne Frank, ‘Why not me, too?’ After all, the Anne Frank House is a big Amsterdam tourist destination. Why shouldn’t the neighbors cash in?"
Actually, Anne Frank does enjoy protection, and by the time you read this column, the "Anne Frank Apartment" Web page already may have changed its wording or even be off-line.
I informed a friend at the Anne Frank House about the ad and he assured me that the Anne Frank Foundation, which oversees the museum, would be taking action. The foundation has legal control over the Anne Frank name, he explained. No one can name anything Anne Frank without its permission.
"This is to prevent Anne Frank from being used for commercial or touristic purposes," he told me. "Otherwise we would have the whole neighborhood filled with Anne Frank cafes and the like."
For many years I’ve written about how abstract ideas of Jews and Jewish culture can become commercialized commodities in European countries where few if any Jews live today. Clearly there is a correlation between the attempt to use Anne Frank to rent an apartment and the ways that Jews, Jewish symbols and Jewish stereotypes are used in other types of Jewish-themed tourist promotion.
This is particularly evident in Eastern and Central Europe, where a growing number of "Jewish-style" cafes project an increasingly standardized ambience of kugel, candlesticks, klezmer and kitsch."
Read the full article here
Source: Living like Anne Frank?, by Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA
Using Anne Frank:
- Israelis are not Nazis, David Hirsh
- Exploiting Anne Frank, The most tasteless T-shirt ever, Alvin H. Rosenfeld
- Anne Frank in bed with Hitler cartoon (European-Arab League), ADL
"Amsterdam Stay Apartments present the Anne Frank apartment," read a banner across the top of the apartment’s Web page. "Live like Anne Frank during your Amsterdam stay," it promised, "with the keys to your own roof attic apartment.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
What on earth could these people have been thinking? The apartment, said the Web page, occupies the top floor of a building "just opposite the Anne Frank house" in a "lively and picturesque area known for its restaurants, night life, specialty shops and cultural attractions."
A converted garret with a steeply sloping ceiling, it comes complete with high speed Internet, a private terrace and a full supply of bed linen. Though "ideal for two," it can sleep up to four.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
The Web page made her sound like some bohemian celebrity, not a teenage diarist who for two long years hid with her family and friends in a cramped "secret annex" until they were betrayed to the Germans and shipped off to Nazi death camps.
Anne died in Bergen Belsen at the age of 15. The Anne Frank House is now a museum that draws as many as a million visitors a year. The "secret annex" has been preserved, and exhibits tell the tragic story that unfolded in that hidden space.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
What does it mean, this transformation of World War II terror into a market-driven synonym for trendy charm? Is it just another form of "Shoah business?" Or has Anne’s name become a talisman so abstract and disembodied that it can be cut and pasted and used without reference to the totality of its meaning? You know - Anne Frank, a pretty young girl living tucked away in a cozy attic apartment, sweetly dreaming of movie stars and confiding in her diary.
"Live like Anne Frank?"
"Commercializing Holocaust suffering (or stoicism or heroism) - through ignorance or malice -cannot be condoned," my brother, Sam Gruber, the president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, wrote in an angry response to the apartment ad.
"Even when done in a way that is meant to celebrate the victim, such exploitation actually belittles her," he wrote. "Maybe the apartment owner figured if Broadway, Hollywood and publishers around the world could make money selling their version of Anne Frank, ‘Why not me, too?’ After all, the Anne Frank House is a big Amsterdam tourist destination. Why shouldn’t the neighbors cash in?"
Actually, Anne Frank does enjoy protection, and by the time you read this column, the "Anne Frank Apartment" Web page already may have changed its wording or even be off-line.
I informed a friend at the Anne Frank House about the ad and he assured me that the Anne Frank Foundation, which oversees the museum, would be taking action. The foundation has legal control over the Anne Frank name, he explained. No one can name anything Anne Frank without its permission.
"This is to prevent Anne Frank from being used for commercial or touristic purposes," he told me. "Otherwise we would have the whole neighborhood filled with Anne Frank cafes and the like."
For many years I’ve written about how abstract ideas of Jews and Jewish culture can become commercialized commodities in European countries where few if any Jews live today. Clearly there is a correlation between the attempt to use Anne Frank to rent an apartment and the ways that Jews, Jewish symbols and Jewish stereotypes are used in other types of Jewish-themed tourist promotion.
This is particularly evident in Eastern and Central Europe, where a growing number of "Jewish-style" cafes project an increasingly standardized ambience of kugel, candlesticks, klezmer and kitsch."
Read the full article here
Source: Living like Anne Frank?, by Ruth Ellen Gruber, JTA
Using Anne Frank:
- Israelis are not Nazis, David Hirsh
- Exploiting Anne Frank, The most tasteless T-shirt ever, Alvin H. Rosenfeld
- Anne Frank in bed with Hitler cartoon (European-Arab League), ADL
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Exploiting Anne Frank, by Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Article in The Weekly Standard: I want to go on living even after my death. -Anne Frank
"In January, a stenciled image of a smiling Anne Frank wearing a red and white kaffiyeh appeared on the walls of buildings in Amsterdam. Soon after, an enterprising Dutch business firm called Boomerang transferred this image to designer T-shirts and postcards. The cards were distributed free throughout the Netherlands, no doubt to boost sales for Boomerang's politically chic new line of shirts. But it was a risky marketing move to promote a product featuring the face of Amsterdam's most famous martyr made over to look like Yasser Arafat's daughter.
The Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands expressed outrage. So did Dutch Jewish organizations. But that response was not universal. Some were drawn to the newfangled Palestinian Anne Frank and endorsed the artist's political point, which one blogger interpreted to be that "the Zionists, in the name of Jewry, [were] doing to the Palestinians what was done to Jews in Europe." This simplistic formula has become a staple in the rhetoric of contemporary anti-Zionism. The charge it makes is baseless, but it is rhetorically catchy and now routinely employed to tar Israel with the Nazi brush. (...)
Yet contemporary political iconography has matched it with another image of Anne that is equally obscene: A drawing featured in a 2006 Holocaust cartoon contest sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri shows a wasted-looking young girl sinking desolately under the bed sheets, while propped up next to her, a bare-chested, swastika-laden Hitler crows, "Write this one in your diary, Anne!" Above the head of the Führer's victim, a wordless bubble registers the grief of the devastated girl.
The fact that this graphic is vile has not kept it from being widely distributed by, among others, the Arab European League, a Belgian-Dutch Islamic political organization headed by the popular leader Dyab Abou Jahjah. In the wake of the Danish cartoon controversy, Jahjah was offering payback, declaring, "Europe too has its sacred cows."
Indeed it does, but Europe's murdered Jews are not among them. Anne Frank, dead before she had turned 16, was no saint but rather one more addition to the mounds of anonymous corpses at Bergen-Belsen. One need not sacralize her memory in order to pay it a decent respect. Until recently, most people have found it proper to do so, but in an age of resurgent anti-Semitism, respect for even the Jewish dead has become a dwindling commodity.
It gets worse. A few years ago, a writer quoted on the website aljazeerah.info presented the following scheme to copycat Anne Frank's story for partisan purposes:
"Consider. A propaganda book [Anne Frank's diary] that is designed to elicit sympathy for the Jewish people, via the mechanism of a young girl who is hiding from bad men, is required reading in many USA schools. That got me thinking. If it works for Jewish people, why will it not work for someone else... ? If a Palestinian writer were to take the story [of a Palestinian girl] and give it the same treatment and the same style as The Diary of Anne Frank, maybe the book would become as popular as The Diary of Anne Frank. It would not hurt to try."
Actually, there are writers who have been trying all along, appropriating the memory of Anne Frank and turning Jews into Nazis and Palestinians into Jews. The equation is fraudulent--one more instance of applying the symbols of Jewish suffering to anti-Jewish ends--but repeated often enough, it begins to catch on. And so we now have a plethora of Anne Frank lookalikes.
"Meet today's Anne Frank," wrote Yusuf Agha in an article entitled "The Anne Franks of Palestine" on YellowTimes.org a few years ago. Agha quoted one Suad Ghazal declaring, "I am the Palestinian Anne Frank, and Israeli Hitlers who are all around me take pleasure in torturing me." Others write in this same self-pitying, self-deluded vein.
What does it all signify? Anti-Semitism is back, sometimes packaged anew. One especially cruel innovation is to convert the victims of Nazi slaughter into advocates for causes they had nothing to do with and never would have condoned. These Anne Frank makeovers exemplify this trend and also point up its morally corrosive side.
To bed Anne Frank with Hitler and drape her in Yasser Arafat's trademark headscarf is tantamount to killing her a second time. And to substitute made-in-the-Middle East counterfeits for the real Amsterdam diary is to lie against history itself."
Related:
Netherlands merchant puts Anne Frank in a kaffiyeh, Little Green Footballs
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Israel, an irreparable mistake, by Chris van der Heijden
Bert @ Dutch Blog Israel has a post (Angels and demons) on double standards: balanced shades of grey when dealing with WWII Dutch collaboration and a pitch-black approach when it comes to Israel:"In order to provide a cheerful note to a somber day, here is a picture of a feline Hitler-lookalike, found here via the weblog of a Dutch journalist-blogger who today will tell Dutch-Jewish teenagers how as a young girl she lived in hiding from the Germans and their Dutch collaborators.
By the way, the son of such a collaborator, who is a respected and successful historian and journalist, wrote a book on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary, titled Israel, an irreparable mistake.
Last week I saw him - online - on Dutch television being interviewed about the book. That his father was a very senior member of the most notorious and anti-Semitic part of the Dutch National-Socialist Movement (another son - a famous actor, playwright and screenwriter - tells us about their father's wartime past on his website) is of course not the man's responsibility, and normally a person's parents' past is not necessary relevant when judging that person's work. Nevertheless, I could not help noticing that this historian - who became famous with his book Grey Past, in which he fervently argues in favor of a balanced, non-judgemental approach towards the history of WWII and attacks the ways in which the Dutch until the 1980s and 1990s divided the players of that history rigorously into goed and fout (right and wrong) or white and black - has no problem whatsoever with a black-and-white-approach when it comes to judging (the genesis of) the state of Israel (and the immediate aftermath of that genesis).
I have no idea about Chris van der Heijden's expertise in history of Zionism and/or the Middle East, but from what he said on television and from the available online information about this book it is crystal clear that for him Israel is not white or grey but pitch-black. In the interview he tells about a Palestinian girl who was raped and murdered by Israeli soldiers during Israel's War of Independence (1948-9). This sad and shameful episode of Israel's history, which appears in Ben Gurion's diary, was made public in the fall of 2003 through an article in Ha'Aretz ( and not only three years ago, as VdH claims ).
I am sure that Israeli soldiers committed more criminal acts during that war than that single one (a war is a war, which is a fact, not an excuse), the most (in)famous act being Dir Yassin. But why does this historian pick out only one sad horror story that highlights the guilt and cruelty of only one side, and not also mention the massacre - perpetrated by Jordanian and other Arab soldiers and 'irregulars' - of the defenders of Kfar Etzion after they had surrendered, on the eve of the declaration of Israel's independence? Or the massacre of 79 civilians, among them many nurses and doctors, who traveled in a civilian convoy to the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, one month earlier?
A friend of mine sent me a quote by Hans Teeuwen, a popular Dutch comedian, a quote which illustrates very well the contrast between Chris van der Heijden's passionate plea for a balanced approach to the history of WWII and his utterly one-sided view of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict, and which might shed some light on the rationale behind his work: "Well, people talk all the time about those Jews and everything, but those Germans were no angels either!"."
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