Berlin still has not pulled out of ‘anti-Israel’ Durban III

“Germany’s behavior toward the UN’s Durban III conference raises serious questions about its commitment to combat modern anti-Semitism. As an event which will commemorate the hatefest held in Durban in 2001, and its Durban Declaration, which singles out only one country on Earth – the Jewish state – it is shocking that Germany has not refused unequivocally to withdraw in solidarity with Israel, the United States, Canada, Italy and other European nations.” Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Source: JPost by Benjamin Weinthal

Germany’s Foreign Ministry is moving forward with preparations for the September Durban III anti-racism conference in New York City, a UN-sponsored event that presumably will single out Israel for attacks, as have previous “Durban” events.

In addition, speaking last week in the UN Security Council, a German Foreign Ministry undersecretary blasted Israel for its construction of settlements in the West Bank.

When asked if Germany planned to participate in Durban III, a German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that the federal government “will decide on its participation in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the international racism conference in light of the ongoing preparatory negotiations.”  The spokeswoman added that the German government was “against racism and all other forms of discrimination.  In the context of the international racism conference, [Germany] works to ensure that no individual countries are separately pilloried.”

Last April, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to repair relations that had been strained by Berlin’s criticism of the way Israel has been addressing the Middle East peace process. There were also reports of heated exchanges between the two leaders.

Europeans exporting hatred of Israel to South Africa

"The tribunal coordinator, former Belgian senator Pierre Galand, said the tribunal would compare Israel to apartheid South Africa, putting questions to the Jewish state about crimes against humanity."

Ben Levitas, another vice chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, told JTA that the Jewish community has expressed great concern about the tribunal.

“This is not a court that reflects public opinion," Levitas said. "They have been very selective in their choice of witnesses.”

The anti-Israel kangaroo court is the idea of a radical anti-Zionist Belgian Pierre Galand who says that Israel is a "rogue state" (for more on his anti-Israel militancy click HERE).   Among the "tribunal" patrons there is another Belgian, François Houtart, a priest, former professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and Israel hater, who was accused of having molested a young boy from his family: "In 2009, Houtart signed the Appeal for the removal of Hamas from the EU terror list and he became instrumental in the Russell Tribunal against the state of Israel. In 2010, a cousin of Houtart (female) filed an anonymous complaint to the Adriaenssens commission that her brother was sexually abused by Houtart, while he stayed at their house. The priest admits having inappropriately touched his cousin twice around 1970." The cousin decided to come forward when she heard that his supporter were working to nominate him for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.  See also: Francois Houtart, Belgian Activist Priest, Admits Sexual Abuse.  This fact doesn't seem to embarrass the "tribunal" crowd.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (JTA) -- Ten years after the notorious U.N. anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, that devolved into an Israel-bashing frenzy, anti-Zionist forces are mobilizing again to hold another anti-Israel conference in South Africa. This time, Israel will be on trial.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine -- a standing organization that held two tribunals against Israel last year in Barcelona and London -- has been called for Nov . 5-6 in Cape Town “to probe whether the treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories meets the criteria of the United Nations convention against the crime of apartheid.”

The South African Zionist Federation has called the event, which is to involve prominent South Africans and already is making national headlines here, “an irrelevant talk shop.”

“Despite its name, the Russell Tribunal is not an impartial, accountable judicial body,” a vice chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, Ben Swartz, told JTA. “Rather it is a loose association of lobbyists pushing a narrow, one-sided political agenda, in this case the delegitimization of the State of Israel.”

He called it “a pointless political smear campaign by a self-appointed group of anti-Israel activists.”

But because of the attention it is receiving in South Africa, the tribunal is likely to be a damaging public relations exercise against Israel. The event has won several key endorsements in the country, including from South Africa’s leading federation of trade unions, the ruling African National Congress party, the South African Communist Party, and Zackie Achmat, the AIDS activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

While the tribunal said it invited Israel, Dov Segev-Steinberg, the Israeli ambassador to South Africa, denied the claim.

Norway carnage and Israel, by Manfred Gerstenfeld

Just a few hours before the young people were massacred they were being indoctrinated against Israel by the socialist camp organisers.  Above well-known anti-Israeli Foreign Minister Store was welcomed at the Utoya camp while in the background posters were hanging with "Boycott Israel" written on them. His rant against Israel was reported by the media as being news. This video  shows him criticising Israel.

Source: Ynet
"[...] It was clear from the beginning that Israel would somehow be drawn into the general debate on these terror attacks. The first reason is that there is an obsession in Norway with Israel, and its mentions in the media probably exceed those of, for instance, its giant neighbor Russia whose acts are far more relevant to Norway than those of remote and small Israel.

There were other reasons as well. Terror in a democracy and how to defend oneself against it is an issue that almost by nature draws in references to precedents from Israel. Additionally, the inefficient and slow reaction of the Norwegian police to the Utoya massacre can best be evaluated when one compares it to how Israel reacts to such events.

For South African priest Christian Zionism is the new heresy like apartheid

And there is a famous Belgian behind this...  He is Pierre Galand, of the Free University of Brussels.  The University of Brussels is on record as being the first university in Europe where a distinguished member resigned because of the piling up of antisemitic incidents and inflammatory anti-Jewish/Israel rhetoric by some academics (Prominent Belgian Jewish figure resigned from Brussels University Board to denounce anti-Semitic incidents).

Pierre Galand, international co-ordinator of the Tribunal, is organising a session of the kangaroo court "Russell Tribunal on Palestine" in South Africa. South Africa was chosen because he accuses Israel of being an apartheid State.  The "session" will take place in November in Cape Town and he has enlisted the support of  two well-known Israel-bashers Desmond Tutu and John Dugar, as well as ... Winnie Mandela.

At the press conference, a priest Rev. Edwin Arrison, on behalf of Kairos (a viciously anti-Israel Christian group) said: 

"From the side of the churches it is important that we show our support for this tribunal. It is important because just as we declared apartheid a heresy, the new heresy we are facing today is Christian Zionism and because  of Christian Zionism there is so much support coming particularly from Christians in the USA.  There are many of us who say that  "no, we cannot allow the Bible, Christianity and so on to be misused in this way"."

"Apartheid in Israel" was on all the press conference participants' lips.

NGO Monitor has a special report on Pierre Galand: "PIERRE GALAND (BELGIUM) USING POLITICAL NGOS TO PROMOTE DEMONIZATION AND; ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE UN AND THE EU" and an UPDATE (2004) 

Captain of French ship to Gaza lied to Greeks and the Israelis

No wonder the ship and the crew were French.  This exploit like so many others makes the French people so proud.

Source: Sweden, Israel and the Jews (Lone Flotilla Boat Fails to Enter Gaza)
 

Not missing the Flotilla:
Shoppers at newest Gaza Mall
Photo Credit: EoZ blog 

Early yesterday afternoon a single boat from the “Fizzled Flotilla” entered Israel’s territorial waters and was stopped by the Israeli Navy. The ship's activists had misled Greek authorities by stating that they were headed for Egypt, but they changed course to head for Gaza. 

The boat was boarded without incident; this represented, we hope, the end of protest cruise season this year. The Ship to Gaza movement, which last year brought little or useless aid to Gaza  residents, was represented today by the French-Corsican registeredDignite al Karama. Like last year’s Mavi Marmara it is a passenger ship, and carried no aid supplies.  But unlike theMavi Marmara, it carried no club- and knife-wielding mercenary jihadists, just a small number of protesters.

A flotilla information press release dated yesterday lists 16 passengers and crew, including Swedish repeat cruiser Dror Feiler. (Seems that Swedish author Henning Mankell missed the boat this time.) Since Feiler was barred from entering Israel for 10 years last year, we will see if Israeli immigration authorities prosecute him this year.

A talkback comment titled “Swedish news agency TT manipulates reporting” by Fredrik on the Ynet news item stated:

Prominent Belgian Jewish figure resigned from Brussels University Board to denounce anti-Semitic incidents

"According to Brotchi the situation at Brussels University is not isolated. "It is comparable to what is happening in other universities in Europe and elsewhere with the academic boycott of Israel campaigns where anti-Zionism takes the form of anti-Semitism. But this is no reason to stay without reaction"." 

BRUSSELS (EJP)---A prominent figure of the Jewish community of Belgium has resigned from the Board of Free University of Brussels (ULB) after denouncing several grave anti-Semitic incidents within the institution.

Jacques Brotchi, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and honorary professor at the ULB, told EJP: "I resigned from the Board of the University Foundation which collects funds for research because I deeply deplored the absence of a strong and appropriate reaction from the university authorities to a succession of anti-Semitic incidents."

In his letter of resignation addressed to the ULB Rector, he wrote: "I don’t feel at home anymore at ULB."   He added, "I asked if the university of free-examination has not become the university of free anti-Semitism."  

The Belgian Senate voted last week a resolution tabled by the Socialists urging the Belgian government to recognize a Palestinian state. Jacques Brotchi and two other Senators from the MR (Liberal) party abstained. "We abstained because the resolution doesn't condemn the political objective of Hamas which is to destroy the state of Israel", Brotchi explained.

The incidents, which have been repeatedly denounced by the Union of Jewish Students of Belgium (UEJB), included the staging of an Israeli military checkpoint on the university campus, the invitation of anti-Semitic French comic Dieudonné to a conference and the absence of reaction to the comments he made, a Nazi-style student feast and the publication of an article in the magazine of Solvay, the [elite] economics and management school, in which the author used anti-Semitic stereotypes and prejudices comparable to those of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

As one student put it, "the situation at the university has become particularly difficult for Jews."

Related story

Jewish students denounce Brussels University debate on French controversial comic

The Union of Jewish Students urged the academic authorities to take measures against the "deteriorating climate" on the campus.

Brotchi, who is also a member of the Belgian Senate for the Liberal party, has met the university authorities to explain his decision but he didn’t had the impression they understood the gravity of the situation.

"I explained them that I know Jewish families who prefer to send their children study at UCL, the Catholic university," he told EJP.

In an interview published last month by the Belgian weekly Le Vif-L’Express, the Rector, Didier Viviers, flatly denied that his university has become anti-Semitic "because of  several regrettable incidents", and spoke of a "smear campaign."

According to Brotchi the situation at Brussels University is not isolated. "It is comparable to what is happening in other universities in Europe and elsewhere with the academic boycott of Israel campaigns where anti-Zionism takes the form of anti-Semitism."  "But this is no reason to stay without reaction," he added. 

Fatah praises Belgian Senate for supporting Palestinian State

Not a single Belgian senator opposed the resolution. Representatives of the whole political spectrum voted for, with a few who abstained.  Belgium is in a deep political crisis but still finds time to express hostility against Israel!  Flemish and Walloon alike.

Fatah Praises Belgian Draft Resolution Supporting Palestinian State

RAMALLAH, July 16, 2011 (WAFA) – Fatah movement Saturday praised the Belgian Senate decision on Thursday to adopt a draft resolution submitted by the Socialist group, calling on the Belgian government and all the EU countries to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, Saturday said Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal.

In a press release by the movement’s Information and Cultural Commission, Nazzal said that the Belgian decision devotes the anti-extremism parliament, as well as expresses the independence and freedom of opinion of the Belgian representatives.

Nazzal said that the cornerstone of our disagreement with some European countries is that they discretely grant Israel the right to veto the Palestinians’ self-determination. [Not Belgium]

He added that Israel’s procrastination in negotiations over the past 20 years is a proof that the occupying state will not allow the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination, as well as it aims to control the Palestinian future without any time limit.

Fatah expressed hope that the Belgian government will enact the draft resolution and called to terminate the Israeli veto power over the lives of 10 million Palestinians.