List of French Jews accused of controlling and destroying France

Whereas the publication of a list targeting 160 Italian Jewish university professors accused of lobbying in favour of the "Zionists" has caused widespread indignation (see Engage and Bennauro) and led to the closing down of the site and for an investigation to be launched, there is also a long list of French Jews accused of "controlling and destroying France" - and guilty of lobbying for Israel - which did not make the headlines. The list is careful not to designate them as French Jews, but only as Jews: Jewishness being their nationality. It was posted on 14 January on the French people, make yourselves heard! (Français, exprime-toi!) blog and is entitled "List: Jews who control and destroy France" ("Liste Juifs qui dominent et détruisent la France"). Two days later, a further 17 names were added. It lists Jews, half-Jews and maybes, and comprises scholars, politicians, journalists, comedians, writers, artists etc.! Several blogs have asked for the list to be removed but without success so far.

For sale: The Manual of Inquisitors by Nicholas Eymerich

A copy of The Manual of Inquisitors, written in the 14th century by Nicholas Eymerich and published in Portuguese by Edições Afrodite in 1972, recently came up for sale for Euro 40.

Interestingly, it was classified under: "Portuguese-Jewish culture, Marranism, History". As the juxtaposition of culture/persecution reveals, Jews were routinely treated with the most horrendous cruelty in Europe. And to illustrate the point, this is how the booksellers casually present the book: "This volume contains some basic texts for the study of the Inquisitorial Institution. At its base there is the text of the Manual of the Inquisitors, whose first printed publication was of 1578 (but two centuries before it was already famous and celebrated) and it is presented as an important work in all the legal literature that was in force in the Peninsula. Initially it is a result of the work of Friar Nicolau Emérico (1320-1399) of the Order of the Preachers and the grand inquisitor of Aragão, where he became famous for his great competence in the subject and where he began building his Directorium Inquisitorum". How extraordinary: "famous for his great competence in the subject"!

Biographical details from Answers.com
Nicholas Eymerich (c. 1320 - 4 January, 1399) was a Roman Catholic theologian and inquisitor general of the Inquisition of the Crown of Aragon in the later half of the 14th century. He is best known for authoring the Directorium Inquisitorum.

He entered the local monastery of the Dominican Order on 4 August, 1334.In 1357, Eymerich replaced Nicola Roselli as the Inquisitor General of Aragon, as Roselli had been raised to a cardinal. A year after obtaining the position, Eymerich was given the honorific Chaplain of the Pope as a recognition of his diligence in pursuing heretics and blasphemers. However, the zeal he displayed as inquisitor general earned him many enemies, including King Peter IV of Aragon. Peter IV sought to have Eymerich removed from office in 1360 when the inquisition interrogated the Franciscan spiritualist, Nicholas of Calabria.

A further example of Eymerich as inquisitor general is his sentence of the Jew, Astruc Dapiera in 1370. Dapiera was a native of Barcelona accused of sorcery. He was sentenced to publicly repent in a cathedral, and then to life imprisonment. Eymerich also ordered the piercing of heretics' tongues with a nail so they could not blaspheme. He was the first inquisitor to get around the Church's prohibition against torturing a subject twice by interpreting directive very liberally, permitting a separate instance of torture for a separate charge of heresy.

His epitaph describes him as praedicator veridicus, inquisitor intrepidus, doctor egregius.

Eymerich's most prominent and enduring work was the Directorium Inquisitorum, which he had composed as early as 1376. It defined witchcraft, and described means for discovering witches. In compiling the book, Eymerich used many of the magic texts he had previously confiscated from accused sorcerers. The Directorium Inquisitorum was to become the definitive handbook of procedure for the Spanish Inquisition until into the seventeenth century.

Zan Studio of Ramallah - anti-Israeli artists invited to Belgium

A major Palestinian cultural festival - Masarat/Palestine - is taking place this year in Brussels and Wallonia (Flanders does not participate). In the run up to the festival, the city of Mons (where the SHAPE is based) held an exhibition of works by Zan Studio of Ramallah, an "artistic association of young graphic designers", to be repeated later this year. The choice is shocking because Zan Studio militates against the existence of Israel. The organisers could have picked Palestinian artists who think otherwise (see interview below). Zan Studio’s modest artistic talents do not explain the choice either. Why then were they chosen? Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday, but not in Brussels, the capital of Europe!

Basel Nadr, a founding member of Zan Studio, gave an interview to a Belgian NGO and explained his total rejection of Israel. His views are frightening:

"For us, and for the vast majority of Palestinians, Israel, within the 1948 borders, is a colony, and the people, or their descendents, who live there, are colonialists. The creation of Israel is, for us, an unlawful dispossession that began in 1948."
(This is an outright exaggeration – to put it mildly. A recent survey by the Near East Consulting indicates that 72% of Palestinians support a peace settlement with Israel and 69% should change its position regarding Israel.)

"I observe that [Israeli] art is comparable to that of Europeans, Westerns. It serves to prove that they have no links with the land they occupy, its history, its evolution."

"At present, I am opposed to most cooperation projects … For exchanges between artists to take place, we need to be on the same footing or to cooperate in the fight against Zionism. Many of the present initiatives are based on the false idea that peace is possible prior to our recovering all our rights. That’s unacepptable."

The political posters on the Zan Studio website reflect their implacable hostility to Israel, to the U.S. and to the West. All the usual stereotypes are trotted out. One poster accuses Israel of being a criminal State for its supposed incarceration of children, it shows a chained teddy bear with a lock marked "Made in Israel". Another depicts the well-rehearsed half orange/half grenade, labelled "Product of Israel". And, surprise surprise, the Coca Cola can poster, the Johnson's baby shampoo poster, the Picasso’s Guernica poster, and this one.

The festival is being sponsored by the French Community of Belgium. See:
Palestinian festival sparks controversy - Belgium
Wallonia-Brussels presents Masarat/Palestine 2008
Also in Brussels in February 2008:
International citizens' tribunal to try Israel in Brussels
and Solomonia:
Palestinian clowns to tour Belgium
The above poster was sponsored by three Belgian NGOs

The Archbishop and anti-Semitism, by Stephen Pollard

This piece was posted by Stephen Pollard on his blog:

"Credit where it's due. Rowan Williams, who previously I had thought at best a waste of space and, sometimes, a lot worse in his attitude towards Israel, has made a remarkably strong attack on antisemites and the elision of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Last week he delivered the Wiener Lecture in the House of Lords. The topic was blasphemy, but his focus was also on how societies should be judged by how they treat 'the other', and especially their Jews:

"Yet again, we should remember some of the history of anti-Semitism. Some of the passionate polemic against Jewish people in the New Testament reflects a situation in which Christian groups were still small and vulnerable over against an entrenched religio-political establishment; but the language is repeated and intensified when the Church is no longer a minority and when Jews have become more vulnerable than ever.

It is part of the pathology of anti-Semitism (as of other irrational group prejudices) that it needs to work with a myth of an apparent minority which is in fact secretly powerful and omnipresent. It is the pattern we see in the workings of the Spanish Inquisition, searching everywhere for Jewish converts who might be backsliding; it is the myth of the Elders of Zion and comparable fantasies of plots for world domination; it is the indiscriminate attribution (not only by certain Muslims) of all the evils of the Western world to an indeterminate 'Zionism'.

A rhetoric shaped by particular circumstances has become so embedded that the actualities of power relations in the real world cannot touch it. There are many instances where the habit of imagining oneself in terms of victimhood has become so entrenched that even one’s own power, felt and exercised, does not alter the mythology.""

Tarik Ramadan: "Boycott Israel at the International Book Fair of Turin"

Hopefully, the organisers of the Turin International Book Fair will not cave in to Tarik Ramadan's demand. Posted by Bennauro at Israele senza se e senza ma (Israel without ifs or buts): "The Union of Arab Writers has written a letter of protest at the designation of Israel as a guest of honour for the next edition of the Turin International Book Fair, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports. The letter slams Israel's invitation to the event, timed to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state. Yesterday the imperious voice of the self-styled Swiss intellectual, Tariq Ramadan, Hassan al-Banna's grandson, has called for the boycott of the Book Fair. "Whoever has a clear conscience should boycott the Fair and with it whatever comes from Israel" said the islamic reformer, "one of the world’s top 100 intellectuals," as Prospect magazine calls him (ADNKronos). I would rather agree with writer Paul Berman who, in a much-discussed article in the New Republic last year (June 4), entitled "Who’s afraid of Tariq Ramadan?" accuses Ramadan of being Janus-faced, of presenting himself as a reformer of Islam when he is in fact a die-hard "Islamist". "A master of Taqqya" I might add. Barred by the Homeland Security Department in 2004 from entering the United States, where he planned to teach at dhimmified Notre Dame, Mr. Ramadan struggled to look like a "moderate" muslim when, in a televised debate with now French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Ramadan refused to condemn the stoning of women for adultery as prescribed by Islamic law, offering only to institute a temporary moratorium on the practice. Here is the exchange (20 November 2003): Sarkozy: A moratorium.... Mr. Ramadan, are you serious? Ramadan: Wait, let me finish.Sarkozy: A moratorium, that is to say, we should, for a while, hold back from stoning women? Ramadan: No, no, wait.... What does a moratorium mean? A moratorium would mean that we absolutely end the application of all of those penalties, in order to have a true debate. And my position is that if we arrive at a consensus among Muslims, it will necessarily end. But you cannot, you know, when you are in a community.... Today on television, I can please the French people who are watching by saying, "Me, my own position." But my own position doesn't count. What matters is to bring about an evolution in Muslim mentalities, Mr. Sarkozy. It's necessary that you understand.... Sarkozy: But, Mr. Ramadan.... Ramadan: Let me finish. Sarkozy: Just one point. I understand you, but Muslims are human beings who live in 2003 in France, since we are speaking about the French community, and you have just said something particularly incredible, which is that the stoning of women, yes, the stoning is a bit shocking, but we should simply declare a moratorium, and then we are going to think about it in order to decide if it is good.... But that's monstrous--to stone a woman because she is an adulterer! It's necessary to condemn it! Ramadan: Mr. Sarkozy, listen well to what I am saying. What I say, my own position, is that the law is not applicable--that's clear. But today, I speak to Muslims around the world and I take part, even in the United States, in the Muslim world.... You should have a pedagogical posture that makes people discuss things. You can decide all by yourself to be a progressive in the communities. That's too easy. Today my position is, that is to say, "We should stop." Sarkozy: Mr. Ramadan, if it is regressive not to want to stone women, I avow that I am a regressive. Ladies and gentlemen, this man has called for the boycott of Israel at the International Book Fair of Turin..."

The Daniel Pearl Standard - a responsible journalism

Daniel Pearl was murdered by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan six years ago. His father pays homage to his memory in the WSJ and points to the role played by the media in "fermenting hate and inhumanity". Judea Pearl pleads for a responsible journalism and proposes the Daniel Pearl standard.

"One of the things that saddens me most is that the press and media have had an active, perhaps even major role in fermenting hate and inhumanity. It was not religious fanaticism alone.

This was first brought to my attention by the Pakistani Consul General who came to offer condolences at our home in California. When we spoke about the anti-Semitic element in Danny's murder she said: "What can you expect of these people who never saw a Jew in their lives and who have been exposed, day and night, to televised images of Israeli soldiers targeting and killing Palestinian children."

At the time, it was not clear whether she was trying to exonerate Pakistan from responsibility for Danny's murder, or to pass on the responsibility to European and Arab media for their persistent de-humanization of Jews, Americans and Israelis. The answer was unveiled in 2004, when a friend told me that photos of Muhammad Al Dura were used as background in the video tape of Danny's murder.

Al Dura, readers may recall, is the 12-year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly died from Israeli bullets in Gaza in September of 2001. As we now know, the whole scene is very likely to have been a fraud, choreographed by stringers and cameramen of France 2, the official news channel of France. France 2 aired the tape repeatedly and distributed it all over the world to anyone who needed an excuse to ratchet up anger or violence, among them Danny's killers.

The Pakistani Consul was right. The media cannot be totally exonerated from responsibility for Daniel's murder, as well as for the "tsunami of hate" that has swept the world and continues to rise."

Mr. Pearl is a professor at UCLA and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation (www.danielpearl.org), which is committed to the promotion of East-West understanding, tolerance and humanity.

Palestinian festival sparks controversy - Belgium

Haviv Rettig reports in The Jerusalem Post: "A Belgian government Web site has begun advertising a performance of Palestinian clowns that conveys "the real life of Palestinians separated from their water, their land, their history and their relatives by the wall of segregation." The group of Palestinian clowns from Ramallah will tour Belgium in February as part of the "Masarat" festival of Palestinian art announced by the French Community of Belgium. Under the unique Belgian system of government, the French Community is an official institution of the Belgian government responsible for the education system and cultural life of some four million French-speaking Belgians. While the festival is meant to be a cultural festival - the French Community has sponsored similar seasonal events showcasing the cultures of Congo and Benin - some observers of Belgium in the Jewish world are worried it will become politicized. As part of the festival, an official Web site of the French Community, agenda.be, lists the clown performance with the title "Circus Behind the Wall." The Web site describes the visit as "a clown, acrobats and a circus as a means of resistance and struggle." According to French Community Minister of International Relations Marie-Dominique Simonet, the festival focuses on Palestinian culture separate from Israel because Israel is a "rich country" - outside the "north-south" framework of the festivals, which try to showcase a poorer southern nation. At the same time, the minister added, Israel already enjoys cultural and scientific cooperation with Belgium's French Community. Meanwhile, the French-speaking Belgian newspaper La Libre quotes Palestinian representative in Brussels Leila Shaid as saying that, in the paper's words, "we should not always talk of Israel when we talk about Palestine and... it should be possible to show 'simply' artists of a country." But some people are not as confident that the festival can be disconnected from politics, and anti-Israel politics at that. Reached by phone on a visit in Israel, Joel Rubinfeld, president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations of Belgium, said that "there is a strong political message behind this. When you speak about Palestinians or Israel today, everything is political. Buying a Jaffa orange in the supermarket is a political gesture." Rubinfeld calls himself a "pro-Palestinian Zionist, since I want to see a Palestinian state," and he believes Simonet may not know about the political messages being explicitly portrayed throughout the festival, including in the "resistance" message of the circus performance. Yet, he says, it is Simonet's "responsibility" as the minister in charge of the initiative. Over the past few year, flare-ups of violence in the Middle East have resulted in some vandalism and attacks directed at Jews in Belgium. "I will tell Minister Simonet that she has to be very careful that political activities aren't being carried out under the cover of culture, that this isn't the sort of thing that will excite young people to go into the street to throw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue or attack a rabbi in the street," Rubinfeld said.”

On the same subject, see the official Wallonia-Brussels website: Wallonia-Brussels presents Masarat/Palestine 2008

Also in Brussels in February 2008: International citizens' tribunal to try Israel in Brussels
and Solomonia’s comments