Belgian students call for boycott of Israel at Brussels tourism fair

BRUSSELS (EJP)---Some 60 pro-Palestinian activists wearing a T-shirt calling for a boycott of Israel circled a Belgian stand promoting Israel at the annual tourism fair in Brussels on Saturday.
___________
The very anti-Israel Belgian Francophone TV channel even covered the event and reported that many of the protesters were students from the Free University of Brussels.  Belgian Jewish leaders, as usual, keep a low profile ... and say nothing.

T-shirt with Carlos Latuff's drawing. See Brussels : IDF child killer Christmas demonstration

Portuguese 15th c. anti-Semitism compared to Israeli cruelty towards Palestinians

Israel-bashing has become such a sport and Israel-bashers' resources are endless and fanciful.  Joseph Dana [1], a great expert, has come up with a historical comparison that no Portuguese has ever dreamt of.  And in the process he even manages to get his facts wrong.

"Attacking children and youth is one of the most perverse forms of collective punishment. In the 15th century, King Manuel of Portugal [wrong again, it was not King Manuel but his predecessor and cousin, King John II - see below - picture] ordered the first born [wrong] child of almost two thousand Jewish families be banished to the remote island of São Tomé in order to collectively punish [wrong] the Jews for not converting to Christianity upon their arrival to Portugal from Spain. Eventually, Portugal forcibly converted its Jewish population, but over [it is either "almost" as written above or "over" as written here, not both in the same paragraph] 2000 children were banished to the island. [...]

The Portuguese banished Jewish children to a remote island, Israel banishes Palestinian children to remote concrete jails."

Click to enlarge (Pidgins and Creoles: References survey, by John A. Holm)

[1] "Dana’s writing has been published in the Nation, Electronic Intifada, The National, Alternet, Huffington Post, Haaretz and Al Jazzera English. His reporting from the West Bank has been feature in the New York Times." (from his blog)

Spain: more anti-Israel indoctrination in schools

Also: Amnesty International Promotes Anti-Semitism Among Children

Source: Spain, Israel and the Jews

Two Galician associations known as Cosal and Buserana will adhere to the Rumbo a Gaza (literally, Road to Gaza) campaign, officially intended to send another flotilla to the Gaza Strip. They'll also try to gain public support through "informative" activities in schools. Chicha Martínez, member of both of the associations, explained in Cee's municipal plenary room that an agreement was reached in order to perform their activities in schools of Corcubión, Cee and Muxía municipalities, and that the number of schools to visit will grow during the next days.

Martínez's conference in Cee's municipal plenary room was completed with a documentary about the Gaza flotilla stopped by the Tzahal the night between Sunday, May 30, and Monday, May 31, 2010.

First of all, sending another flotilla to the Gaza Strip would be opposed to U.N.R.W.A.'s official policy. Martin Nesirsky, a U.N. spokesperson, explained last July that even the U.N.R.W.A. considers that routes for supplies to enter by land through Israel's border are well established, and that those routes are the way to send the humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Secondly, it should be noted that the last Gaza flotilla seemed to be an act of provocation rather than a humanitarian campaign, if we attend to the evidence that demostrate the pre-planned violence by the activists and I.H.H.'s ties with international terrorism.

Finally, we must ask ourselves about the supposed democratic and legal legitimacy of the arrangement between the aforementioned Galician associations and Corcubión's, Cee's and Muxía's municipal authorities. This is not about teaching schoolchildren lessons on universal human values, democracy or ethics. What Cosal and Buserana associations are trying to do is to gain support by indoctrinating kids into an specific political ideology.

Cairo: Belgian anti-Israel journalist captured, beaten, accused of spying

Serge Dumont is Jewish and his real  name is Maurice Safatti.  He works for the notoriously anti-Israel Belgian newspaper Le Soir and is their correspondent in Israel.  His articles are much appreciated by anti-Zionist blogs such as France Palestine Solidarité. See HERE. Here is what we wrote about him in 2008 : Belgian newspaper Le Soir claims that Israel prefers Western immigrants and which is typical of his style.  We hope that he is safe and that he will be released as soon as possible.

European newspapers are reporting that a Belgian correspondent in Cairo has been beaten, detained and accused of spying.

The papers say Serge Dumont was covering a demonstration in support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when he was taken by unidentified people in civilian clothes to a military post, where he was accused of espionage.

Dumont, whose real name is Maurice Sarfatti, reports for newspapers in Brussels, northern France and Geneva.

The papers said that Dumont told them by telephone that he was punched repeatedly in the face Wednesday and called him a supporter of opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.  The newspapers said they were vigorously protesting what they said was an attack on freedom of information.

Jostein Gaarder: my op-ed was not anti-semitic only "legitimate Israel-criticism"

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

"Five years after the fact and Jostein Gaarder has not learned a thing. He is considered an intellectual."

Five years after having written one of the most ludicrously anti-Semitic op-ed’s in Norwegian history, Jostein Gaarder still considers it to have been an expression of “legitimate Israel-criticism”.

In 2006, author and academic Mr. Jostein Gaarder wrote one of the most shockingly anti-Semitic op-ed's in Norwegian history. The op-ed was published in Aftenposten. Here is an excerpt:

"There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the Serbs’ ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history."

On January 27th Aftenposten published a story on how the Holocaust Centre is receiving funds to carry out a survey of attitudes towards Jews. In that context the director of the Holocaust Centre, Mr. Odd-Bjørn Fure, mentioned Gaarder’s op-ed as an example of why voices in Israel are identifying anti-Semitic voices in Norway. Here are another couple of lines from Gaarder’s 2006 op-ed:

"We do not believe in the notion of God’s chosen people. We laugh at this people’s fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God’s chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity."

Today Aftenposten publishes a letter from Gaarder where Gaarder insists that Fure is on the wrong track. Gaarder’s points are the following:

1) That he is not an anti-Semite.  [Our comment: nobody in Europe is ...]
2) That in the op-ed of 2006 he specifically recognizes Europe’s responsibility for the Holocaust and acknowledges the Jews’ need and right to have their own national home. [Our comment: European intellectuals view themselves as magnanimous.  They even recognise "Europe’s responsibility for the Holocaust" and graciously grant Jews the right to have a State!]
3) That his infamous op-ed of 2006 was far from anti-Semitic, and merely full of compassion, humanism, empathy, and what not. Is this why he writes the following:

"We call child murderers ‘child murderers’ and will never accept that such have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages. We say but this: Shame on all apartheid, shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hizballah, or the state of Israel!"

Read the full piece HERE

Jostein Gaarder - a better friend to the Jewish people than Israel, by David Hirsh (2006)

Norman Finkelstein to testify at 'trial' of French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy

Context: A Bertrand Russell 'tribunal' to try philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy for warmongering, unbridled imperialism and Zionism etc., organised by the association the Natives of the Republic (les Indigènes de la République). 

It now turns out that Norman Finkelstein will testify live by video conference from New York at the "trial" to be held this evening in Paris ...  He will be a shining star among a bunch of nonentities.

The preposterous "charges" against Bernard-Henri Lévy are :

- Advocacy of unbridled imperialism and Zionism
- Intellectual dishonesty, as a characteristic of the errors of philosophy, the accumulation of capital and power
- False accusation of an imaginary crime against Iran
- Warmongering and advocating humanitarian imperialism
- Aiding in the creation and promotion of SOS Racisme with a view to silencing autonomous movements of immigration
- Dissemination of false news likely to sow discord between Christian and Muslim religious communities.

This is not a pipe, this is not a Jew, this is a bank client

Background: Pro-divestment rally attended by NIF, EU grantees turns to antisemitism (NGO Monitor)

"The event featured an antisemitic episode, when one rally leader drank fake blood out of a wine glass – an apparent reference to the libel of Jews drinking Christian blood as wine – to highlight Israel’s alleged brutality.  The target of the rally was Dexia, a bank with an Israeli subsidiary. The use of the ugly blood libel motif – codified as antisemitic by Europe’s rights monitoring agency – raises important questions about the relationship between the BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) Movement and antisemitism."

This is not a pipe. This is not a Jew. This is not a Star of David.  This is not the flag of the State of Israel. This is not an anti-Semite. This is a nasty Dexia Bank shareholder.

INTAL is a Belgian NGO.  One of its main activities is the demonization of Israel and the importation of the Israel-Arab conflit to the streets of Brussels.  In May last year INTAL "coordinated" a demonstration against French-Belgian Dexia Bank for doing business in the West Bank "colonies" (this is how settlements are called in Belgium).  Jews/Israelis were shown as bloodthirsty cannibalistic clowns who enjoy their glass of Palestinian blood. 
As most NGOs, INTAL receives taxpayers' money.  Charles Michel, the Minister in charge of allocating the funds was informed and has recently undertakent to look into the matter.  This is the totally surrealistic and convincing explanation INTAL has offered (translated from the Dutch) :

 "According to the clowns' own version, they symbolised Dexia shareholders - therefore [!] in no way [!] did they represent either Israel [!] or Jews [!] - who wanted to thank Jean-Luc Dehaene in a playful manner for the lucrative investments make by Dexia in the [Israeli] colonies".