"The Jews still live off one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind, but the Holocaust happened 65 years ago. You and I weren't responsible for it, period. You can, for that matter, wonder what's the difference between the Holocaust and that they're doing in Palestine. That is also mass murder. They salivate about apartheid, but they are building a wall and settlements on land that isn't theirs. And in our society they've really also built a wall around themselves. Although I understand that they have an enormous trauma and therefore dread foreign people."
Source: Islam in Europe
Belgian P Magazine interviewed politician Selahattin Koçak (Flemish socialist party) on integration policy. Following are selected segments:
Q: Do you think that Muslims are better integrated than Jews, who seldom commit crimes? [This is typical. Jews have lived in Europe for many centuries, but Europeans still wonder if they are well integrated. Europeans believe that Jews are immigrants ...]
A: "Absolutely! Your article from several weeks ago about the way in which Jews have closed themselves off from the rest of our society, doesn't that say enough? I was shocked by it. Especially by the way in which they silence their own people. It's unfair that you can't criticize Jews in the least without being accused of antisemitism. Michael Freilich (editor of Jewish magazine Joods Actueel), is in my view a much more dangerous figure than Abu Imran (leader of Shariah4Belgium). He does nothing else than sifting every day through all the papers, looking for one slanted word about Jews, so he could respond very offended. He does his job very well, because he naturally draw all Jewish readers behind him. But he also creates 'we-them' thinking."
"The Jews still live off one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind, but the Holocaust happened 65 years ago. You and I weren't responsible for it, period. You can, for that matter, wonder what's the difference between the Holocaust and that they're doing in Palestine. That is also mass murder. They salivate about apartheid, but they are building a wall and settlements on land that isn't theirs. And in our society they've really also built a wall around themselves. Although I understand that they have an enormous trauma and therefore dread foreign people."
"But it also has to do with money. A community that has enough money, can withdraw from the majority. You see that all over the world. A community that isn't as rich, is doomed to integrate, and I mean that positively."
Thursday 30 December 2010
Spain: Salafists organized 10 conferences in 2010
Sources: Islam in Europe and ABC (Spanish)
There were ten Salafist congresses in Spain during 2010, compared with only one in 2008.
Experts warn that 10% of the nearly 1,000 mosques in Spain preach Jihad during Friday sermons, with about 70-80 imams from Morocco and Algeria used for this radical discourse.
Salafists have spread from Catalonia to other areas in Spain: to the Ebro Valley in Basque Country and the Henares Corridor in the south, between Madrid and Guadalajara. Their main means of spreading their doctrine is through their congresses. In 2008 there was only one, in Reus (Catalonia). This year there were ten: eight all across Catalonia (three in Girona, two in Tarragona, two in Barcelona and one in Lleida), one in Basque Country (Biscay), and one in Castile-La Mancha (Guadalajara).
Salafist scholars from Jordan, egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belgium come to Spain to run workshops, usually attended by 2000-3000 people. These preachers have extensive religious training, coupled with a lot of charisma, and their visits are an effective tool for radicalization. Their speeches, in contrast to the limited knowledge of many local imams, have an impact on the Muslim community, and prevents their integration in Western society.
The conferences are also a source of funding. Significant amounts were collected in recent months to fund new Salafist mosques. In addition, the Salafists want to export their 'religious police' from Catalonia to other places in the country, with one such force already growing in Olot (Girona) (see also T&P's report)
There were ten Salafist congresses in Spain during 2010, compared with only one in 2008.
Experts warn that 10% of the nearly 1,000 mosques in Spain preach Jihad during Friday sermons, with about 70-80 imams from Morocco and Algeria used for this radical discourse.
Salafists have spread from Catalonia to other areas in Spain: to the Ebro Valley in Basque Country and the Henares Corridor in the south, between Madrid and Guadalajara. Their main means of spreading their doctrine is through their congresses. In 2008 there was only one, in Reus (Catalonia). This year there were ten: eight all across Catalonia (three in Girona, two in Tarragona, two in Barcelona and one in Lleida), one in Basque Country (Biscay), and one in Castile-La Mancha (Guadalajara).
Salafist scholars from Jordan, egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Belgium come to Spain to run workshops, usually attended by 2000-3000 people. These preachers have extensive religious training, coupled with a lot of charisma, and their visits are an effective tool for radicalization. Their speeches, in contrast to the limited knowledge of many local imams, have an impact on the Muslim community, and prevents their integration in Western society.
The conferences are also a source of funding. Significant amounts were collected in recent months to fund new Salafist mosques. In addition, the Salafists want to export their 'religious police' from Catalonia to other places in the country, with one such force already growing in Olot (Girona) (see also T&P's report)
Wednesday 29 December 2010
Israel-hater and Nobel Peace Prize candidate Belgian priest admits child abuse 40 years ago
We wrote this post in October : François Houtart, Hamas supporter Belgian priest, the next Nobel Peace Prize laureate ? and this one in 2009 François Houtart, a Belgian anti-Zionist priest, awarded UNESCO prize for tolerance and non-violence. One of his recent initiatives aiming at delegitimising Israel is his support for the Israel-bashing Russell Tribunal created by another Belgian Pierre Galand.
It has now come to light that the "Pope of anti-globalisation" was a child molester. His cousin was so shocked when she heard that he was being nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and the way he was being celebrated as a great man in Belgium that she decided to speak out. This is a translation of part of her account of the facts, which, unsurprisingly, differs from Houtart's own account minimising the horror of what happened :
"[...] the man committed the crime of rape on my brother 40 years ago. My father died this year and was the same age as A and was his friend. He venerated him as a great man until that night when he stayed over at my parents' home and broke twice into my brother's room to rape him. Before this happened a third time, my brother told my parents who kept him their own room. But the next morning over breakfast, they treated A as if nothing had happened so that he could give his lecture in Liège. My brother had been "left" with a neighbor. A few days later, my father went to find A in Leuven to speak with him about what he had done to his son and asked him to apologize. But he did not and went one further, he told my father that "Nothing could be more normal!" After this my father banished him forever as a friend. My brother was never recognized as a victim of child abuse! It is hard to imagine that A has not committed other rapes on other children ...".
Source: Daily Mail
A Belgian Catholic priest and would-be Nobel Peace Prize holder has admitted that he sexually abused an eight-year-old boy 40 years ago. The case only came forward when his cousin, the sister of his victim, came forward in reaction to a campaign to nominate Francois Houtart for the accolade. She told the Belgian church authority that looks into child abuse, the Adriaenssens commission, that the abuse on her brother happened in 1970 while he stayed at their house.
Houtart, 85, was a prominent third world activist and chairman of a development agency that he founded in 1976, Center Tricontinental, until he resigned from the board in November in light of the allegations.
He is currently in Ecuador and was not responding to phone calls or emails but told Belgian newspaper, Le Soir, that he twice touched ‘the intimate parts’ of a boy he described as his cousin and said the incident was ‘inconsiderate and irresponsible’.
It has now come to light that the "Pope of anti-globalisation" was a child molester. His cousin was so shocked when she heard that he was being nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and the way he was being celebrated as a great man in Belgium that she decided to speak out. This is a translation of part of her account of the facts, which, unsurprisingly, differs from Houtart's own account minimising the horror of what happened :
"[...] the man committed the crime of rape on my brother 40 years ago. My father died this year and was the same age as A and was his friend. He venerated him as a great man until that night when he stayed over at my parents' home and broke twice into my brother's room to rape him. Before this happened a third time, my brother told my parents who kept him their own room. But the next morning over breakfast, they treated A as if nothing had happened so that he could give his lecture in Liège. My brother had been "left" with a neighbor. A few days later, my father went to find A in Leuven to speak with him about what he had done to his son and asked him to apologize. But he did not and went one further, he told my father that "Nothing could be more normal!" After this my father banished him forever as a friend. My brother was never recognized as a victim of child abuse! It is hard to imagine that A has not committed other rapes on other children ...".
Source: Daily Mail
A Belgian Catholic priest and would-be Nobel Peace Prize holder has admitted that he sexually abused an eight-year-old boy 40 years ago. The case only came forward when his cousin, the sister of his victim, came forward in reaction to a campaign to nominate Francois Houtart for the accolade. She told the Belgian church authority that looks into child abuse, the Adriaenssens commission, that the abuse on her brother happened in 1970 while he stayed at their house.
Houtart, 85, was a prominent third world activist and chairman of a development agency that he founded in 1976, Center Tricontinental, until he resigned from the board in November in light of the allegations.
He is currently in Ecuador and was not responding to phone calls or emails but told Belgian newspaper, Le Soir, that he twice touched ‘the intimate parts’ of a boy he described as his cousin and said the incident was ‘inconsiderate and irresponsible’.
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Prominent Norwegians sympathetic to Hamas and hostile to Israel
"Norway, according to the cable, has engaged with Hamas, and the organization’s vow to destroy Israel “was ignored or characterized as only rhetoric by the Norwegians.” “Although the GON [Government of Norway] would deny it, there are clear signs that contacts with Hamas go beyond a tactical desire for dialogue to a level of sympathy for Hamas positions. The FM once told DCM [deputy chief of mission] for example that one could not expect Hamas to recognize Israel without knowing which borders Israel will have. While the FM expresses some sympathy for Hamas’ positions only in unguarded moments, other prominent Norwegians go further.”"
Source: TJP ('Norwegians in UNIFIL causing negative view of J'lem', by Herb Keinon)
WikiLeaks doc.: Norway laboratory for understanding Israel’s difficulties in Europe: The country sanctifies dialogue, has an aversion to force.
Norway’s aspirations to be a “moral superpower” and play a key role in the Middle East peace process could be constrained by its tense relationship with Israel, anti-Semitism at home and its approach to Hamas, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by the Oslo-based Aftenposten paper.
The cable, written on February 13, 2009, by Kevin Johnson, the deputy chief of the US Embassy in Norway, summarizes Oslo’s aspirations to be a leader in the Middle East peace negotiations. The cable could serve as an important source document for those seeking to understand the difficulty Israel has in getting its narrative across in Europe.
According to the analysis in this cable, the Oslo process seemed to herald a new peacemaker role for Norway, which it relished. But as the Oslo Accords crumbled, “ties between Norway and Israel weakened,” the cable read. “The Lebanon wars had a major impact, with approximately 20,000 Norwegians serving in UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon from 1978 to 1998. These soldiers came home with sympathetic reports about Palestinian refugees and negative impressions of Israelis. Israeli settlements and walls in the West Bank, and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza contributed to Norwegians’ increasingly negative view of Israel,” the US diplomat wrote.
“Norwegian society values dialogue above all,” the cable read. “Talk, even without any expectation of results, is seen as valuable. Anyone who draws a line and refuses to talk to an opposing party is seen as a radical unilateralist. Conversely, Norwegians are extremely opposed to the use of military force to achieve goals, no matter how laudable.”
Source: TJP ('Norwegians in UNIFIL causing negative view of J'lem', by Herb Keinon)
WikiLeaks doc.: Norway laboratory for understanding Israel’s difficulties in Europe: The country sanctifies dialogue, has an aversion to force.
Norway’s aspirations to be a “moral superpower” and play a key role in the Middle East peace process could be constrained by its tense relationship with Israel, anti-Semitism at home and its approach to Hamas, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by the Oslo-based Aftenposten paper.
The cable, written on February 13, 2009, by Kevin Johnson, the deputy chief of the US Embassy in Norway, summarizes Oslo’s aspirations to be a leader in the Middle East peace negotiations. The cable could serve as an important source document for those seeking to understand the difficulty Israel has in getting its narrative across in Europe.
According to the analysis in this cable, the Oslo process seemed to herald a new peacemaker role for Norway, which it relished. But as the Oslo Accords crumbled, “ties between Norway and Israel weakened,” the cable read. “The Lebanon wars had a major impact, with approximately 20,000 Norwegians serving in UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon from 1978 to 1998. These soldiers came home with sympathetic reports about Palestinian refugees and negative impressions of Israelis. Israeli settlements and walls in the West Bank, and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza contributed to Norwegians’ increasingly negative view of Israel,” the US diplomat wrote.
“Norwegian society values dialogue above all,” the cable read. “Talk, even without any expectation of results, is seen as valuable. Anyone who draws a line and refuses to talk to an opposing party is seen as a radical unilateralist. Conversely, Norwegians are extremely opposed to the use of military force to achieve goals, no matter how laudable.”
Monday 27 December 2010
Europe: antisemitism has entered the bloodstream
Antisemitism has entered the bloodstream, by Hans Rustad (via Norway, Israel and the Jews blog)
The revelation that Wikileaks’ contactpersons in Sweden and Russia are the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir and his son Johannes Wahlström, is an indication that antisemitism now has entered the bloodstream of the establishment.
For people outside of Europe this is very hard to fathom. It has to do with a much deeper development in Europe, one that should worry Americans. Europe is shifting, groping, undergoing a major transformation, and people within the media establishment are allowing extremists to play a role. That is because political correctness, as practised in Europe, dulls the senses and deprives people of normal reflexes. Extremists may enter the fray, unnoticed.
Under normal circumstances Wahlström would never have been given a second chance. He burned his bridges when he wrote an article for a leftist magazine, Ordfront, back in December 2005, alleging that Israel controls Swedish media. This in itself was not shocking. That is staple food on the left. What caused an uproar was that he cited two of Swedens most experienced and renowned Middle East correspondents, Peter Löfgren from Swedish Television, and Lotta Schüllerqvist from Dagens Nyheter. It was they who explained how Israel rules and manipulates and bullies Swedish editorial rooms and journalists. Except for one thing: they never said as much. It was all a lie. Wahlström invented the whole story. He met both of them, but never bothered to write down their real replies, instead he invented what he wanted them to say.
He used them cynically, arrogantly and one must say – stupidly. How could he possibly expect to get away with it? He did not of course. Both Löfgren and Lotta Schüllerqvist wrote scathing denounciations and the editor of Ordfront was obliged to retract.
Read the whole piece on Document.no
- Harry's Place has been following the Julian Assange/Israel Shamir connection
- Andrew Brown also wrote about the connection in The Guardian : WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir - WikiLeaks is represented in Russia and Scandinavia by a father and son team with a disturbing record of antisemitism
The revelation that Wikileaks’ contactpersons in Sweden and Russia are the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir and his son Johannes Wahlström, is an indication that antisemitism now has entered the bloodstream of the establishment.
For people outside of Europe this is very hard to fathom. It has to do with a much deeper development in Europe, one that should worry Americans. Europe is shifting, groping, undergoing a major transformation, and people within the media establishment are allowing extremists to play a role. That is because political correctness, as practised in Europe, dulls the senses and deprives people of normal reflexes. Extremists may enter the fray, unnoticed.
Under normal circumstances Wahlström would never have been given a second chance. He burned his bridges when he wrote an article for a leftist magazine, Ordfront, back in December 2005, alleging that Israel controls Swedish media. This in itself was not shocking. That is staple food on the left. What caused an uproar was that he cited two of Swedens most experienced and renowned Middle East correspondents, Peter Löfgren from Swedish Television, and Lotta Schüllerqvist from Dagens Nyheter. It was they who explained how Israel rules and manipulates and bullies Swedish editorial rooms and journalists. Except for one thing: they never said as much. It was all a lie. Wahlström invented the whole story. He met both of them, but never bothered to write down their real replies, instead he invented what he wanted them to say.
He used them cynically, arrogantly and one must say – stupidly. How could he possibly expect to get away with it? He did not of course. Both Löfgren and Lotta Schüllerqvist wrote scathing denounciations and the editor of Ordfront was obliged to retract.
Read the whole piece on Document.no
- Harry's Place has been following the Julian Assange/Israel Shamir connection
- Andrew Brown also wrote about the connection in The Guardian : WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir - WikiLeaks is represented in Russia and Scandinavia by a father and son team with a disturbing record of antisemitism
Sunday 26 December 2010
Germany: long-standing anti-Semitic, anti-Israel exhibit in Cologne city centre
Some say anti-Israeli sentiments are high in Cologne, and that this helps explains the civil society’s failure over the years to mount widespread protests against the “Cologne Wailing Wall.”
“If one shows a figure with an Israeli flag devouring a Palestinian child, this reminds us of the most scurrilous accusations of ritual murder in European anti-Semitism...”
In a recent op-ed in Le Monde, German writer Peter Schneider complained that when dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflit "Germany is still petrified by the notion of guilt" ... Really ? Another Germman Israel-basher is Prof. Christian Tomuschat. There seems to be a lot of them.
German mayor slams ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ exhibit, By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL (TJP)
City partners in Tel Aviv and Bethlehem blast ‘anti-Semitic, anti-Israel presentation.’
Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters (Social Democratic) and its sister city partnerships, Cologne-Tel Aviv and Cologne-Bethlehem, issued a joint statement last week blasting the long-standing anti-Israel exhibit in his community’s bustling Cathedral Square pedestrian-only zone.
According to the resolution, “The anti-Semitic and anti- Israel presentation of the socalled ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ spreads hatred against humans and feeds anti-Israel resentments.”
RELATED:
Cologne tolerates 'anti-Semitic’ exhibit
Members of the major parties on the Cologne city council, representatives of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, the Society for Christian- Jewish Relations in Cologne, and the local Jewish community also signed the resolution.
Roters and the Cologne authorities called on Walter Hermann, the organizer of the “Cologne Wailing Wall,” to “immediately remove the installation that shows contempt for humanity” and said the city of Cologne would no longer accept Hermann’s exhibit and approach. The resolution said that Hermann has displayed his hatefest against Israel since 2004. During his visit to Israel earlier this month, Roters presented the resolution to his Tel Aviv counterparts.
Hermann’s display of an anti-Semitic cartoon in January triggered a legal complaint and a grassroots campaign from the non-Jewish theater director Gerd Buurmann. The cartoon showed a man sporting a Star of David on his bib as he devoured a young Palestinian boy with a fork while draped in an American flag and a knife with the word “Gaza.” A glass filled with blood stood next to to his dinner plate.
“If one shows a figure with an Israeli flag devouring a Palestinian child, this reminds us of the most scurrilous accusations of ritual murder in European anti-Semitism...”
In a recent op-ed in Le Monde, German writer Peter Schneider complained that when dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflit "Germany is still petrified by the notion of guilt" ... Really ? Another Germman Israel-basher is Prof. Christian Tomuschat. There seems to be a lot of them.
German mayor slams ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ exhibit, By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL (TJP)
City partners in Tel Aviv and Bethlehem blast ‘anti-Semitic, anti-Israel presentation.’
Mayor of Cologne Jürgen Roters (Social Democratic) and its sister city partnerships, Cologne-Tel Aviv and Cologne-Bethlehem, issued a joint statement last week blasting the long-standing anti-Israel exhibit in his community’s bustling Cathedral Square pedestrian-only zone.
According to the resolution, “The anti-Semitic and anti- Israel presentation of the socalled ‘Cologne Wailing Wall’ spreads hatred against humans and feeds anti-Israel resentments.”
RELATED:
Cologne tolerates 'anti-Semitic’ exhibit
Members of the major parties on the Cologne city council, representatives of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, the Society for Christian- Jewish Relations in Cologne, and the local Jewish community also signed the resolution.
Roters and the Cologne authorities called on Walter Hermann, the organizer of the “Cologne Wailing Wall,” to “immediately remove the installation that shows contempt for humanity” and said the city of Cologne would no longer accept Hermann’s exhibit and approach. The resolution said that Hermann has displayed his hatefest against Israel since 2004. During his visit to Israel earlier this month, Roters presented the resolution to his Tel Aviv counterparts.
Hermann’s display of an anti-Semitic cartoon in January triggered a legal complaint and a grassroots campaign from the non-Jewish theater director Gerd Buurmann. The cartoon showed a man sporting a Star of David on his bib as he devoured a young Palestinian boy with a fork while draped in an American flag and a knife with the word “Gaza.” A glass filled with blood stood next to to his dinner plate.
Friday 24 December 2010
Brussels : IDF child killer Christmas demonstration
"NGOs are exploiting Christmas for radical attacks against Israel, through politicized carols, cards, and messages." (NGO Monitor)
An anti-Israel march (yet another one) will take place in Brussels on 26 December. The demonstration poster carries a drawing by Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff (who won 2nd prize in the 2006 Iranian International Holocaust Cartoon Competition). The drawing shows - birth of Jesus and Christmas reference - a pram being hit by an Israeli missile. The coordinator is Nordine Saïdi, a Belgian politician, who is a Dieudonné supporter. He has been called admiringly and approvingly by Baudouin Loos of Le Soir as an "educator and militant for the autodetermination of the peoples" (understandanbly that means focusing on the Palestinian people). A number of revolutionary (read anti-Israel) NGOs subsidised by taxpayers' money will also take part in the demonstration.
We have been told that a demonstration was held yesterday at the Free University of Brussels (a hotbed of anti-Israel militancy). Demonstrators wore T-shirts with the printed image of a pram being hit by a missile . The same ?
May 2010 in Brussels :
Brussels: demonstration against Israeli blood drinkers - blood libel revisited
On Nordine Saidi, see Brussels: Jihad by vuvuzela !
An anti-Israel march (yet another one) will take place in Brussels on 26 December. The demonstration poster carries a drawing by Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff (who won 2nd prize in the 2006 Iranian International Holocaust Cartoon Competition). The drawing shows - birth of Jesus and Christmas reference - a pram being hit by an Israeli missile. The coordinator is Nordine Saïdi, a Belgian politician, who is a Dieudonné supporter. He has been called admiringly and approvingly by Baudouin Loos of Le Soir as an "educator and militant for the autodetermination of the peoples" (understandanbly that means focusing on the Palestinian people). A number of revolutionary (read anti-Israel) NGOs subsidised by taxpayers' money will also take part in the demonstration.
We have been told that a demonstration was held yesterday at the Free University of Brussels (a hotbed of anti-Israel militancy). Demonstrators wore T-shirts with the printed image of a pram being hit by a missile . The same ?
May 2010 in Brussels :
Brussels: demonstration against Israeli blood drinkers - blood libel revisited
Wednesday 22 December 2010
The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal, Denis MacShane
"Kauft nicht bei Juden" will worsen the conflict, JPost
The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal.
Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?
Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greek owned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.
Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.
The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal.
Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?
Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greek owned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.
Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.
Sunday 19 December 2010
We can't rely on Europe, warns Israel ambassador
"When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid." After Frits Bolkestein's warning, here comes another similar warning.
"A stark warning that Israel cannot rely on the support of European leaders in the battle against the deligitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state was issued this week by Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor.
Source: Jewish Chronicle
At a packed meeting at London's New West End Synagogue, the envoy warned: "When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid."
He lambasted politicians who felt they were taking a sufficiently principled stand by simply stating that Israel had "a right to exist." If he had found it necessary to state that Britain has a right to exist ,"people would wonder what I had been drinking?" he declared.
The ambassador also slated those who professed Israel's right to defend its people, yet took every opportunity to criticise it over actions such as the war against missile attacks, or the building of the anti-terror wall.
Israel, he said, was facing a "new kind of warfare," aimed at attempting to cast it out of the family of nations. "Our adversaries are crossing the line every day. There is more pressure, more demonisation." It was also important to state, he said, that the international campaign in favour of a Palestinian right of return "would not result in a two-state solution but in the destruction of the state of Israel.""
More HERE
"A stark warning that Israel cannot rely on the support of European leaders in the battle against the deligitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state was issued this week by Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor.
Source: Jewish Chronicle
At a packed meeting at London's New West End Synagogue, the envoy warned: "When push comes to shove, no-one in Israel really thinks that Europe will come to its aid."
He lambasted politicians who felt they were taking a sufficiently principled stand by simply stating that Israel had "a right to exist." If he had found it necessary to state that Britain has a right to exist ,"people would wonder what I had been drinking?" he declared.
The ambassador also slated those who professed Israel's right to defend its people, yet took every opportunity to criticise it over actions such as the war against missile attacks, or the building of the anti-terror wall.
Israel, he said, was facing a "new kind of warfare," aimed at attempting to cast it out of the family of nations. "Our adversaries are crossing the line every day. There is more pressure, more demonisation." It was also important to state, he said, that the international campaign in favour of a Palestinian right of return "would not result in a two-state solution but in the destruction of the state of Israel.""
More HERE
Friday 17 December 2010
Minuscule Luxembourg wants to punish Israel
"There is growing frustration with Israel after its refusal to commit to a new settlements freeze," (European diplomat)
See also by Melanie Phillips The Europeans move in for the kill
Europe being Europe, even tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg with a population of barely half a million wants to punish Israel.
BRUSSELS (AFP-EJP)---The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its readiness to recognize a Palestinian state at an "appropriate" time but stopped short of outright recognition despite mounting pressure to break the Middle East impasse.
Pressure has built on the European Union to flex muscle after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on construction in the West Bank, with 26 former European leaders last week demanding sanctions, and Argentina and Uruguay joining Brazil in recognizing an independent Palestinian state. [...]
"There is growing frustration with Israel after its refusal to commit to a new settlements freeze," a European diplomat told AFP as negotiators quibbled and clashed over a joint EU stand.
But after long and prickly negotiations, Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels adopted a statement that "notes with regret that Israel has not extended the moratorium as requested by the EU, the US and the Quartet," describing settlements as "illegal" and "an obstacle to peace."
In the letter to Ashton released last week, 26 former EU leaders, including her predecessor Javier Solana, urged her to threaten Israel with sanctions for failing to respect the freeze. But the idea was apparently rejected by a majority at the ministerial meeting although some among them, like Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, were in favour of a "tougher" stance against Israel.
See also by Melanie Phillips The Europeans move in for the kill
Europe being Europe, even tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg with a population of barely half a million wants to punish Israel.
BRUSSELS (AFP-EJP)---The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its readiness to recognize a Palestinian state at an "appropriate" time but stopped short of outright recognition despite mounting pressure to break the Middle East impasse.
Pressure has built on the European Union to flex muscle after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on construction in the West Bank, with 26 former European leaders last week demanding sanctions, and Argentina and Uruguay joining Brazil in recognizing an independent Palestinian state. [...]
"There is growing frustration with Israel after its refusal to commit to a new settlements freeze," a European diplomat told AFP as negotiators quibbled and clashed over a joint EU stand.
But after long and prickly negotiations, Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels adopted a statement that "notes with regret that Israel has not extended the moratorium as requested by the EU, the US and the Quartet," describing settlements as "illegal" and "an obstacle to peace."
In the letter to Ashton released last week, 26 former EU leaders, including her predecessor Javier Solana, urged her to threaten Israel with sanctions for failing to respect the freeze. But the idea was apparently rejected by a majority at the ministerial meeting although some among them, like Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, were in favour of a "tougher" stance against Israel.
Tuesday 14 December 2010
WikiLeaks: US diplomats find Norwegian anti-Israel FM arrogant and not smart
"How could it not occur to Mr. Støre, that constantly changing tack – without consulting senior partners – that, one day having tea with Hamas, another day, choosing foolishly, and as the only Western representative, to sit and listen to Ahmadinejad’s foul ranting at UNs Durban 2 conference in Geneve in 2009, would have a very high political price?"
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (All is fine in my little belly button, sulks Støre)
Our FM Jonas Gahr Støre reacts with incredulity to WickedLeaks that US embassy crew find him not smart, arrogant, in it for himself and with an attitude problem. "Sincerely, I have not heard any of this conveyed to me in Washington", he says – adding that perhaps this might have been the case for US diplomats during the Bush Administration, because they interpreted any sign of independent thinking as something inherently bad.
Too bad for him, then, that US diplomats posted in Oslo in the reign of Obama, continue to sound alarms that all is not well with Norway’s foreign policy. A diplomat wrote in 2009 this about Støre: "Although smart and dynamic, some people wonder if his arrogance might not work too well in negotiations".
Ouch! And with that zinger, the bubble vision he wanted to present to us, of himself as a worldly leader, standing up to the big wigs, burst – and there he was, left with his tiny fig leaf, too small to cover the bald patches where normally you would have expected to see experience, political clout, and maybe even integrity.
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (All is fine in my little belly button, sulks Støre)
Our FM Jonas Gahr Støre reacts with incredulity to WickedLeaks that US embassy crew find him not smart, arrogant, in it for himself and with an attitude problem. "Sincerely, I have not heard any of this conveyed to me in Washington", he says – adding that perhaps this might have been the case for US diplomats during the Bush Administration, because they interpreted any sign of independent thinking as something inherently bad.
Too bad for him, then, that US diplomats posted in Oslo in the reign of Obama, continue to sound alarms that all is not well with Norway’s foreign policy. A diplomat wrote in 2009 this about Støre: "Although smart and dynamic, some people wonder if his arrogance might not work too well in negotiations".
Ouch! And with that zinger, the bubble vision he wanted to present to us, of himself as a worldly leader, standing up to the big wigs, burst – and there he was, left with his tiny fig leaf, too small to cover the bald patches where normally you would have expected to see experience, political clout, and maybe even integrity.
Thursday 9 December 2010
Netherlands: Al-Qaeda mouthpiece run by Dutch extremists
Source: Islam in Europe
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
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
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Positively Moore-ish - Charles Moore on Israel, its Foes, and the Battle for Public Opinion
"All I want to ask my fellow Europeans is this: are you happy to help direct the world's fury at the only country in the Middle East whose civilisation even remotely resembles yours? And are you sure that the fate of Israel has no bearing on your own?"
Source: Daphne Anson
There are two observations that some historians make about post-Reformation Britain. The first is that the sixteenth-century abolition of Romanish superstitions and of medieval cults such as that of “Little St Hugh”, the boy allegedly ritually murdered by Jews at Lincoln and venerated as a martyr, and that century’s introduction of the Bible in the vernacular into parish churches, prepared the way for the philosemitism that underlay Cromwell’s decision formally to admit Jews to England in 1656. The second is that antipathy to the Church of Rome and its adherents has always been far stronger in modern Britain than antipathy to Jews; in other words, that anti-Catholicism has been the British equivalent of continental antisemitism.
I believe this interpretation of British history to be broadly true, and we might perhaps cite the so-called 1904 Limerick “pogrom” (an exaggeration, to be sure, since it lacked bloodshed), which entailed rioting and a mass boycott of Jewish shopkeepers following a local priest’s ranting that Jews were usurious “leeches”, as an example of Catholic prejudice in the non-Protestant component of the United Kingdom.
Nevertheless, since Pope John XXIII’s Nostra Aetete document of 1961, which absolved Jews from the “deicide” calumny and asserted that Jews “should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God”, there have been Roman Catholics – such as the late Irish-born Father William Smith, who headed Australia’s Institute of Social Order, and the Sisters of Sion – who have worked tirelessly to forge robust links with Jewry.
This photograph shows the non-Catholic judeophile Margaret Thatcher (remember her attachment to the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits, and to the Conservative Party intellectual Sir Keith Joseph, and how her Cabinet was jocularly said – by a former prime minister, Harold Macmillan – to contain “more Old Estonians than Old Etonians”?) in Rome last year; flanking her are two notable judeophile British Catholics – on her right, former New Statesman editor Paul Johnson, an acclaimed historian of Jewry, and on her left, former Daily Telegraph and Spectator editor Charles Moore.
I’d like to share with you extracts from some of the superb articles that Mr Moore, who writes an occasional op-ed piece for the Telegraph, has written – they are magnificent in the case they make for traduced and beleaguered Israel, and deserve to be more widely known. Please note especially Moore's observations on Israel's poor PR efforts, which I quote at the end.
‘As a boy ... I cheered as Israeli courage swept away the outnumbering Arabs who tried to destroy it again and again. I bought books about the Six-Day War, many of which carried pictures of glamorous female Israeli soldiers.
But then a different narrative supervened. People called "the Palestinians" began to be mentioned. Once upon a time, the word "Palestinian" had no national meaning; it was simply the description on any passport of a person living in British-mandated Palestine. During the 19 years to 1967 when Jordan governed the West Bank, the people there had no self-rule, and no real name. UN Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to leave territories it occupied in 1967, does not mention Palestinians; it speaks only of "Arab refugees". Palestinian nationality came along, as it were, after the fact, a nationality largely based on grievance.
Source: Daphne Anson
There are two observations that some historians make about post-Reformation Britain. The first is that the sixteenth-century abolition of Romanish superstitions and of medieval cults such as that of “Little St Hugh”, the boy allegedly ritually murdered by Jews at Lincoln and venerated as a martyr, and that century’s introduction of the Bible in the vernacular into parish churches, prepared the way for the philosemitism that underlay Cromwell’s decision formally to admit Jews to England in 1656. The second is that antipathy to the Church of Rome and its adherents has always been far stronger in modern Britain than antipathy to Jews; in other words, that anti-Catholicism has been the British equivalent of continental antisemitism.
I believe this interpretation of British history to be broadly true, and we might perhaps cite the so-called 1904 Limerick “pogrom” (an exaggeration, to be sure, since it lacked bloodshed), which entailed rioting and a mass boycott of Jewish shopkeepers following a local priest’s ranting that Jews were usurious “leeches”, as an example of Catholic prejudice in the non-Protestant component of the United Kingdom.
Nevertheless, since Pope John XXIII’s Nostra Aetete document of 1961, which absolved Jews from the “deicide” calumny and asserted that Jews “should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God”, there have been Roman Catholics – such as the late Irish-born Father William Smith, who headed Australia’s Institute of Social Order, and the Sisters of Sion – who have worked tirelessly to forge robust links with Jewry.
This photograph shows the non-Catholic judeophile Margaret Thatcher (remember her attachment to the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits, and to the Conservative Party intellectual Sir Keith Joseph, and how her Cabinet was jocularly said – by a former prime minister, Harold Macmillan – to contain “more Old Estonians than Old Etonians”?) in Rome last year; flanking her are two notable judeophile British Catholics – on her right, former New Statesman editor Paul Johnson, an acclaimed historian of Jewry, and on her left, former Daily Telegraph and Spectator editor Charles Moore.
I’d like to share with you extracts from some of the superb articles that Mr Moore, who writes an occasional op-ed piece for the Telegraph, has written – they are magnificent in the case they make for traduced and beleaguered Israel, and deserve to be more widely known. Please note especially Moore's observations on Israel's poor PR efforts, which I quote at the end.
‘As a boy ... I cheered as Israeli courage swept away the outnumbering Arabs who tried to destroy it again and again. I bought books about the Six-Day War, many of which carried pictures of glamorous female Israeli soldiers.
But then a different narrative supervened. People called "the Palestinians" began to be mentioned. Once upon a time, the word "Palestinian" had no national meaning; it was simply the description on any passport of a person living in British-mandated Palestine. During the 19 years to 1967 when Jordan governed the West Bank, the people there had no self-rule, and no real name. UN Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to leave territories it occupied in 1967, does not mention Palestinians; it speaks only of "Arab refugees". Palestinian nationality came along, as it were, after the fact, a nationality largely based on grievance.
Tuesday 7 December 2010
Jewish community in Belgium was target of major terror attack, according to magazine
Typically, the news do not seem to be of any interest to Belgian journalists !
ANTWERP (EJP)---Terrorist suspects arrested two weeks ago in Belgium and Holland planned to target the Jewish community with a major terror attack, a Jewish magazine said, quoting information obtained by a Dutch newspaper from judicial sources.
According to "Joods Actueel" in Antwerp, Dutch daily newspaper "Het Parool" received the information from a anonymous source "close to the investigation". Belgian authorities didn't confirm nor deny the news reports.
Quoting a senior European counter-terror expert, CNN already mentioned two weeks ago that members of the terror group arrested in Antwerp and their associates in Germany and the Netherlands had discussed targeting Jews in Belgium as well as NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The suspects were using a jihadist website to plan an attack on an unspecified target, police said at the time.
Antwerp is home of around 18,000 Jews while 15,000 live in Brussels.
To see CNN report (23/11/2010) go HERE
ANTWERP (EJP)---Terrorist suspects arrested two weeks ago in Belgium and Holland planned to target the Jewish community with a major terror attack, a Jewish magazine said, quoting information obtained by a Dutch newspaper from judicial sources.
According to "Joods Actueel" in Antwerp, Dutch daily newspaper "Het Parool" received the information from a anonymous source "close to the investigation". Belgian authorities didn't confirm nor deny the news reports.
Quoting a senior European counter-terror expert, CNN already mentioned two weeks ago that members of the terror group arrested in Antwerp and their associates in Germany and the Netherlands had discussed targeting Jews in Belgium as well as NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The suspects were using a jihadist website to plan an attack on an unspecified target, police said at the time.
Antwerp is home of around 18,000 Jews while 15,000 live in Brussels.
To see CNN report (23/11/2010) go HERE
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
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
Sunday 5 December 2010
IDF officers get photo of dead child from Spain
Source: Ynet (IDF officers get photo of dead child)
'How will you explain this to God?' says letter sent from Spain to homes of officers exposed on 'war criminals' website. 'I've gotten used to curses, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant,' reserve colonel tells Ynet.
Colonel (res.) Bentzi Gruber, a deputy commander of an Israel Defense Forces division, was at a training base in Tze'elim last week. His wife called to tell him that he had received a letter from Spain, which didn't particularly surprise him. But when she opened the envelope, she was shocked. "Unfortunately, I've gotten used to curses and scathing words against me, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant," he tells Ynet.
Gruber is just one of the officers who received a threatening poster from Spain, after his name appeared on a website referring to IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead as "war criminals".
The poster includes a picture of a young child buried in the sand. His head is the only thing sticking out and he appears to be dead. Two hands in the background, apparently belonging to a soldier, are directed at him. The picture's caption reads, "How will you explain this to God?'
The letter was sent in an envelope from Madrid to the homes of Colonel (res.) Gruber and several other IDF officers, including Central Command Chief Avi Mizrahi and outgoing Military Intelligence Director Amos Yadlin. Some of the posters include a picture of an injured or dead young woman being held by a soldier. The English sentence is similar. The army does not know at this stage the exact number of letters sent to the officers' home. The website included dozens of addresses of IDF officers, most of whom are believed to have received such letters.
Read the whole piece HERE
What do Spaniards thing of Jews:
1) 58.4% of the Spaniards think that the "Jews have much power because they control the economy and the media". Among university students this attitude encompasses the 62.2%, and among people "interested in politics" this attitude encompasses the 70.5%. All of this means that anti-Semitism in Spain is highly worrying and intolerable, due to its level and to the fact that it's higher among educated and informed people.
2) 34.6% of the Spaniards have unfavourable or totally unfavourable opinions about the Jews. This attitude encompasses 34% of the far-rightists (who rate the Jews with 4.9 points in a scale from 1 to 10) and 37.7% of centre-left-wingers (who rate the Jews with 4.6 points in a scale from 1 to 10). This case is unique in Europe because far-rightists show less unpleasantness towards the Jews than centre-left-wingers.
3) Among those who admit to be "unpleasant towards the Jews", 17% of them attribute this attitude to the "Middle East conflict"; 29.6% of them attribute this attitude to "their religion", "their customs", " the way they are", etc.; others among them attribute this attitude to "general unpleasantness", "the power" and "the money"; 17% of them attribute this attitude to reasons they don't know. This means that only a small percentage of the Spaniards show unpleasantness towards the Jews due to "the State of Israel and its policies".
'How will you explain this to God?' says letter sent from Spain to homes of officers exposed on 'war criminals' website. 'I've gotten used to curses, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant,' reserve colonel tells Ynet.
Colonel (res.) Bentzi Gruber, a deputy commander of an Israel Defense Forces division, was at a training base in Tze'elim last week. His wife called to tell him that he had received a letter from Spain, which didn't particularly surprise him. But when she opened the envelope, she was shocked. "Unfortunately, I've gotten used to curses and scathing words against me, but when such a thing arrives at your doorstep, it's very unpleasant," he tells Ynet.
Gruber is just one of the officers who received a threatening poster from Spain, after his name appeared on a website referring to IDF soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead as "war criminals".
The poster includes a picture of a young child buried in the sand. His head is the only thing sticking out and he appears to be dead. Two hands in the background, apparently belonging to a soldier, are directed at him. The picture's caption reads, "How will you explain this to God?'
The letter was sent in an envelope from Madrid to the homes of Colonel (res.) Gruber and several other IDF officers, including Central Command Chief Avi Mizrahi and outgoing Military Intelligence Director Amos Yadlin. Some of the posters include a picture of an injured or dead young woman being held by a soldier. The English sentence is similar. The army does not know at this stage the exact number of letters sent to the officers' home. The website included dozens of addresses of IDF officers, most of whom are believed to have received such letters.
Read the whole piece HERE
What do Spaniards thing of Jews:
1) 58.4% of the Spaniards think that the "Jews have much power because they control the economy and the media". Among university students this attitude encompasses the 62.2%, and among people "interested in politics" this attitude encompasses the 70.5%. All of this means that anti-Semitism in Spain is highly worrying and intolerable, due to its level and to the fact that it's higher among educated and informed people.
2) 34.6% of the Spaniards have unfavourable or totally unfavourable opinions about the Jews. This attitude encompasses 34% of the far-rightists (who rate the Jews with 4.9 points in a scale from 1 to 10) and 37.7% of centre-left-wingers (who rate the Jews with 4.6 points in a scale from 1 to 10). This case is unique in Europe because far-rightists show less unpleasantness towards the Jews than centre-left-wingers.
3) Among those who admit to be "unpleasant towards the Jews", 17% of them attribute this attitude to the "Middle East conflict"; 29.6% of them attribute this attitude to "their religion", "their customs", " the way they are", etc.; others among them attribute this attitude to "general unpleasantness", "the power" and "the money"; 17% of them attribute this attitude to reasons they don't know. This means that only a small percentage of the Spaniards show unpleasantness towards the Jews due to "the State of Israel and its policies".
Thursday 2 December 2010
Flemish quiz show: Jews are "most disgusting nation on Earth"
The video can be viewed here (with English sub-titles). The scariest thing is that all on the show are laughing their heads off. It seems that Mr Peumans apologised to the Turks, but not to Belgian Jews... The Turks reacted immediately and nobody is going to say that they are "sensitive". Sadly, one is still waiting for a reaction from the Belgian Jewish community.
Source: South Capitol Street and Today's Zaman (Leading Flemish lawmaker expresses regret over anti-Turkish remarks)
President of the Flemish parliament in Belgium Jan Peter Peumans has said he did not mean to offend Turks with remarks he made during a live quiz show on a local TV channel, the Turkish Embassy in Brussels said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Peumans said he is sorry because the situation has caused consequences beyond his intention,” read the embassy’s statement.
When asked which nation was the most disgusting on the face of earth in famous French philosopher Voltaire’s opinion during the “De Pappenheimers” quiz show on the VRT channel on Sunday, Peumans — who is also a member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) — said that among the choices presented to him — “Flemish, Jews or Turks” — he knew the answer was Jews, but because he “did not have the courage to say anything against them” he would say Turks instead. “I really knew it [correctly] but I do not have any courage to say something new about Jews. They are very sensitive people. I once said something about their liberalism and it really caused me a lot of trouble,” Peumans had said. Following his words, film director Jan Eelen, another contestant, told Peumans that “it appears saying something against Turks is not a problem, then.”While it is true the the question was quoting the anti-semite Voltaire, not saying that it is a fact that the Jewish people are disgusting, it is still an inflammatory question for a popular broadcast quiz show.
Source: South Capitol Street and Today's Zaman (Leading Flemish lawmaker expresses regret over anti-Turkish remarks)
President of the Flemish parliament in Belgium Jan Peter Peumans has said he did not mean to offend Turks with remarks he made during a live quiz show on a local TV channel, the Turkish Embassy in Brussels said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Peumans said he is sorry because the situation has caused consequences beyond his intention,” read the embassy’s statement.
When asked which nation was the most disgusting on the face of earth in famous French philosopher Voltaire’s opinion during the “De Pappenheimers” quiz show on the VRT channel on Sunday, Peumans — who is also a member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) — said that among the choices presented to him — “Flemish, Jews or Turks” — he knew the answer was Jews, but because he “did not have the courage to say anything against them” he would say Turks instead. “I really knew it [correctly] but I do not have any courage to say something new about Jews. They are very sensitive people. I once said something about their liberalism and it really caused me a lot of trouble,” Peumans had said. Following his words, film director Jan Eelen, another contestant, told Peumans that “it appears saying something against Turks is not a problem, then.”While it is true the the question was quoting the anti-semite Voltaire, not saying that it is a fact that the Jewish people are disgusting, it is still an inflammatory question for a popular broadcast quiz show.
Ireland no longer blocks EU data sharing with Israel
Ireland blocks EU data sharing with Israel (JTA, July 8, 2010)
Ireland blocked a European Union plan to allow sharing of European citizens' personal data with Israel over concerns that Israeli officials could not be trusted with the information.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern on July 6 formally objected to the EU’s recognition of Israel’s data protection standards, which would have allowed the exchange of personal information, forcing a full debate of the proposal at a committee hearing. A spokesman for Ahern said the Irish government had the “gravest concern” that information supplied to Israel could be used to forge passports for use by intelligence agencies.
Ireland expelled an Israeli diplomat from Dublin last month as punishment for the alleged illegal use of forged Irish passports in the killing of Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel in January. [...]"
According to JSS and Bruxelles2 the agreement has been ratified. Jonathan-Simon Sellem of JSSNews writes (translation) :
"This information sharing agreement is essential for the international fight against terrorism. Indeed, the agreement should enable EU countries to receive information from a centralized source on terrorists monitored by Israel. When they visit Europe (if they do not live there), may therefore be a particular target for observation by the secret services of the country visited.
As for the opposition to the agreement by the Irish, many Israelis have questioned whether, in the end, Ireland was not somewhat afraid that a connection between Palestian Islamists and IRA terrorists would come to light. Eventually, after a big circus to position itself at the forefront of the European anti-Israel pack, Ireland has decided to keep quiet and let the agreement go ahead. It was an astute media stunt as Ireland is now perceived as one of the best European friends in the Arab world. But let's face it, the reason why Ireland is so highly regarded in the Islamic world is to be found in its direct support for Hamas and its government-funded flotillas which aim at financially support Mahmoud A-Zahar ..."
Ireland blocked a European Union plan to allow sharing of European citizens' personal data with Israel over concerns that Israeli officials could not be trusted with the information.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern on July 6 formally objected to the EU’s recognition of Israel’s data protection standards, which would have allowed the exchange of personal information, forcing a full debate of the proposal at a committee hearing. A spokesman for Ahern said the Irish government had the “gravest concern” that information supplied to Israel could be used to forge passports for use by intelligence agencies.
Ireland expelled an Israeli diplomat from Dublin last month as punishment for the alleged illegal use of forged Irish passports in the killing of Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel in January. [...]"
According to JSS and Bruxelles2 the agreement has been ratified. Jonathan-Simon Sellem of JSSNews writes (translation) :
"This information sharing agreement is essential for the international fight against terrorism. Indeed, the agreement should enable EU countries to receive information from a centralized source on terrorists monitored by Israel. When they visit Europe (if they do not live there), may therefore be a particular target for observation by the secret services of the country visited.
As for the opposition to the agreement by the Irish, many Israelis have questioned whether, in the end, Ireland was not somewhat afraid that a connection between Palestian Islamists and IRA terrorists would come to light. Eventually, after a big circus to position itself at the forefront of the European anti-Israel pack, Ireland has decided to keep quiet and let the agreement go ahead. It was an astute media stunt as Ireland is now perceived as one of the best European friends in the Arab world. But let's face it, the reason why Ireland is so highly regarded in the Islamic world is to be found in its direct support for Hamas and its government-funded flotillas which aim at financially support Mahmoud A-Zahar ..."
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Prof. Christian Tomuschat, German Israel-basher heads GOLDSTONE II
"Tomuschat associated the military practices of the Jewish state with the “barbarism which was the particular hallmark of World War II.” Israel, wrote Tomuschat, “overruns a country like a steamroller,” and “butchers everything in its way.” Accusing Israel of classifying civilian targets as military, Tomuschat said its actions could be regarded “as a relapse to the Inferno of World War II.”"
Take Action : Urge UN to Remove Biased “Goldstone II” Official
Source: UN Watch - Report: German Professor Heading U.N.’s ‘Goldstone II’ Committee
Accused Israel of World War II 'Barbarism', Removal Urged
Prior to Chairing U.N. probe, Christian Tomuschat said Israel was "State Terrorist" uwilling to inestigate
GENEVA, Oct. 21 - The German law professor heading the U.N. committee to enforce the Goldstone Report has a history of comparing Israeli actions with the "barbarism" and "inferno" of World War II, and should be removed for lack of impartiality by the U.N. Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said a report submitted by UN Watch today to the world body's Geneva office. Click here for summary and full report.
In his September 27 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Christian Tomuschat, a professor emeritus at Humoldt University, faulted Israel for failing to investigate allegations of war crimes by the country’s senior leadership, specifically naming Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the 2009 war with Hamas. The Tomuschat Committee will report to the council again in March 2011.
However, according to “Goldstone II,” the 29-page report by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitor of the world body, Tomuschat’s credibility is severely impaired by his prior legal work for PLO leader Yasser Arafat, which Tomuschat said he “could not recall,” and by a series of public statements and writings that show his lack of impartiality on the Arab-Israel conflict.
Based on newly-translated materials, the report reveals that in German academic essays published in 2006 and 2007 on the Lebanon war, Tomuschat associated the military practices of the Jewish state with the “barbarism which was the particular hallmark of World War II.” Israel, wrote Tomuschat, “overruns a country like a steamroller,” and “butchers everything in its way.” Accusing Israel of classifying civilian targets as military, Tomuschat said its actions could be regarded “as a relapse to the Inferno of World War II.”
Tomuschat also said that “the observer gets the impression that the Israeli armed forces inconsiderately geared itself toward the overall concept of the Totalen Krieges.” This concept is most famously associated with Goebbels' 1943 "Total War" speech delivered under a giant banner.
Other key findings from the report:
• In a 2002 essay, Tomuschat singled out Israel as a prime example of “state terrorism,” a charge he repeated in a 2007 interview, in which he added that killing terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden would be “absolutely illegal under international law.”
• Prior to heading the U.N. inquiry to assess Israel's system of investigations, Tomsuchat had already made up his mind, saying in 2002 that Israel ordered the “systematic commission of war crimes,” and that “in such instances, there is little hope that the judicial system will conduct effective investigations and punish the responsible agents.”
• When a German academic journal featured a debate on the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Tomuschat was the one chosen to present the side opposed to Israel."
Other examples of Tomuschat’s statements on Israel include:
• Israel is bombing “entire families”;
• Arab nations rightly feel that Israel receives “far better treatment”;
• Israel targets U.N. peacekeepers;
•Israel seeks “to reduce humanitarian law to irrelevance”;
• Israel’s policy is to “bomb a country out into a lunar landscape”;
• Israel’s peace concessions are a cynical plan for “dominance.”
Take Action : Urge UN to Remove Biased “Goldstone II” Official
Source: UN Watch - Report: German Professor Heading U.N.’s ‘Goldstone II’ Committee
Accused Israel of World War II 'Barbarism', Removal Urged
Prior to Chairing U.N. probe, Christian Tomuschat said Israel was "State Terrorist" uwilling to inestigate
GENEVA, Oct. 21 - The German law professor heading the U.N. committee to enforce the Goldstone Report has a history of comparing Israeli actions with the "barbarism" and "inferno" of World War II, and should be removed for lack of impartiality by the U.N. Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said a report submitted by UN Watch today to the world body's Geneva office. Click here for summary and full report.
In his September 27 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Christian Tomuschat, a professor emeritus at Humoldt University, faulted Israel for failing to investigate allegations of war crimes by the country’s senior leadership, specifically naming Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the 2009 war with Hamas. The Tomuschat Committee will report to the council again in March 2011.
However, according to “Goldstone II,” the 29-page report by UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitor of the world body, Tomuschat’s credibility is severely impaired by his prior legal work for PLO leader Yasser Arafat, which Tomuschat said he “could not recall,” and by a series of public statements and writings that show his lack of impartiality on the Arab-Israel conflict.
Based on newly-translated materials, the report reveals that in German academic essays published in 2006 and 2007 on the Lebanon war, Tomuschat associated the military practices of the Jewish state with the “barbarism which was the particular hallmark of World War II.” Israel, wrote Tomuschat, “overruns a country like a steamroller,” and “butchers everything in its way.” Accusing Israel of classifying civilian targets as military, Tomuschat said its actions could be regarded “as a relapse to the Inferno of World War II.”
Tomuschat also said that “the observer gets the impression that the Israeli armed forces inconsiderately geared itself toward the overall concept of the Totalen Krieges.” This concept is most famously associated with Goebbels' 1943 "Total War" speech delivered under a giant banner.
Other key findings from the report:
• In a 2002 essay, Tomuschat singled out Israel as a prime example of “state terrorism,” a charge he repeated in a 2007 interview, in which he added that killing terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden would be “absolutely illegal under international law.”
• Prior to heading the U.N. inquiry to assess Israel's system of investigations, Tomsuchat had already made up his mind, saying in 2002 that Israel ordered the “systematic commission of war crimes,” and that “in such instances, there is little hope that the judicial system will conduct effective investigations and punish the responsible agents.”
• When a German academic journal featured a debate on the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Tomuschat was the one chosen to present the side opposed to Israel."
Other examples of Tomuschat’s statements on Israel include:
• Israel is bombing “entire families”;
• Arab nations rightly feel that Israel receives “far better treatment”;
• Israel targets U.N. peacekeepers;
•Israel seeks “to reduce humanitarian law to irrelevance”;
• Israel’s policy is to “bomb a country out into a lunar landscape”;
• Israel’s peace concessions are a cynical plan for “dominance.”
Tuesday 30 November 2010
‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’ will worsen the conflict, by Denis McShane
In Europe, the obsession with Israel is total. Pick up any European newspaper any day and the obsession is there for all to see - it is an obsession Europeans and Muslims share. And things are not about to change.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?
Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greekowned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.
Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.
May we talk of the western Sahara and Morocco, or Algeria’s closure of the border there, making life far worse than that of Palestinians in Ramallah or Hebron? No, better not.
Voltaire – anti-Semite that he was – should be alive today to mock the hypocrisy of the new high priests calling anathema on the heads of Jews in Israel.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Kauft nicht bei Juden – “Don’t buy from Jews” – is back. The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe’s oldest political appeal. Once again, as the tsunami of hate against Israel rolls out from the Right and the Left, from Islamist ideologues to Europe’s cultural elites, the demand is to punish the Jews. That the actions of the Israeli government are open to criticism is a fact. But what are the real arguments?
Firstly, that Israel is wrong to defy international law as an occupying force on the West Bank. But what about Turkey? It has 35,000 soldiers occupying the territory of a sovereign republic – Cyprus. Ankara has sent hundreds of thousands of settlers to colonize the ancient Greekowned lands of northern Cyprus. Turkey has been told again and again by the UN to withdraw its troops. Instead, it now also stands accused of destroying the ancient Christian churches of northern Cyprus. Does anyone call for a boycott of Turkey, or urge companies to divest from it? No. Only the Jews are targeted.
Or take India; 500,000 Indian soldiers occupy Kashmir. According to Amnesty International, 70,000 Muslims have been killed over the past 20 years by these soldiers and security forces – a number that far exceeds the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same period. But the Islamic ideologues focus on Jews, not Indians.
May we talk of the western Sahara and Morocco, or Algeria’s closure of the border there, making life far worse than that of Palestinians in Ramallah or Hebron? No, better not.
Voltaire – anti-Semite that he was – should be alive today to mock the hypocrisy of the new high priests calling anathema on the heads of Jews in Israel.
Sunday 28 November 2010
Wiesenthal Centre to Irish P.M.: "Economic Meltdown Cannot be Camouflaged by Anti-Semitism"
Unfortunately, Europeans just can't stop themselves. Their multi-secular vicious obsession with Jews as a force for evil and now with Israel is all-consuming.
Source: Simon Wiesenthal Centre
In a letter to Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels lamented that "the Centre was struck by the timing of an event in Dublin, sadly reminiscent of financial scapegoating of the 1930's."
The letter continued, "In the midst of Ireland's greatest post-war crisis, a poster illustrating an atomized Europe around a Star of David, invites the public on 3 December to an Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign book launch/wine and cheese reception. The book, 'Europe's Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation', apparently, presents the EU as encouraging 'the Apartheid State of Israel' and "calls for a continuation and deepening of international activism and protest to halt the EU's slide into complicity," adding that "it explores the complex political ties that have prevented European countries from holding Israel to account."
Samuels asked, "Who are these complex political ties?" noting that "the poster, and book cover it features, arguably fit the 2004 "Working Definition of Anti-Semitism" of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, to which Ireland is, ipso facto, party."
He explained that in the late 1980's, he had "led a mixed caucus of Irish-American and Jewish-American United States Senators and Congressmen to Jerusalem and Dublin, co-organized by the Irish Development Authority. The declared purpose of the hosts was, to adapt from the empathy of American Jewry for the Jewish State, a programme to enhance the affinity of Americans of Irish origin to the economy and land of their roots - then enjoying an economic boom."
Samuels stressed, "Anti-Semitic scapegoating has too often served to deflect attention from economic suffering. In the 1930's, this led democracies into the abyss." The Centre urged the Prime Minister "to publicly condemn the timing of this poster and the book cover's subliminal message."
"In wishing Ireland a speedy recovery, we are confident that the people of Ireland will never allow the circumstances of the meltdown - reportedly, extortionate bank fees, obscene bonuses and mismanagement - to be camouflaged by anti-Semitism," concluded Samuels.
Source: Simon Wiesenthal Centre
In a letter to Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels lamented that "the Centre was struck by the timing of an event in Dublin, sadly reminiscent of financial scapegoating of the 1930's."
The letter continued, "In the midst of Ireland's greatest post-war crisis, a poster illustrating an atomized Europe around a Star of David, invites the public on 3 December to an Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign book launch/wine and cheese reception. The book, 'Europe's Alliance with Israel: Aiding the Occupation', apparently, presents the EU as encouraging 'the Apartheid State of Israel' and "calls for a continuation and deepening of international activism and protest to halt the EU's slide into complicity," adding that "it explores the complex political ties that have prevented European countries from holding Israel to account."
Samuels asked, "Who are these complex political ties?" noting that "the poster, and book cover it features, arguably fit the 2004 "Working Definition of Anti-Semitism" of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, to which Ireland is, ipso facto, party."
He explained that in the late 1980's, he had "led a mixed caucus of Irish-American and Jewish-American United States Senators and Congressmen to Jerusalem and Dublin, co-organized by the Irish Development Authority. The declared purpose of the hosts was, to adapt from the empathy of American Jewry for the Jewish State, a programme to enhance the affinity of Americans of Irish origin to the economy and land of their roots - then enjoying an economic boom."
Samuels stressed, "Anti-Semitic scapegoating has too often served to deflect attention from economic suffering. In the 1930's, this led democracies into the abyss." The Centre urged the Prime Minister "to publicly condemn the timing of this poster and the book cover's subliminal message."
"In wishing Ireland a speedy recovery, we are confident that the people of Ireland will never allow the circumstances of the meltdown - reportedly, extortionate bank fees, obscene bonuses and mismanagement - to be camouflaged by anti-Semitism," concluded Samuels.
Saturday 27 November 2010
Mustafa Barghouti, major Israel-basher, awarded France's highest honour (2)
"There isn’t any place in the world where apartheid is so systematic as it is today in Palestine… You are talking about a situation where we the Palestinians are prevented from using all our main roads because they are exclusive for Israelis and Israeli Army and Israeli settlers. This did not happen even during the segregation time in the [United] States." (Mustafa Barghouthi)
"I do not accept calls for the boycott of Israel products for the reason that they are kosher or because they come from Israel." (Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Minister)
Mustafa Barghouti, BDS leader awarded France's highest honour (1)
Whereas the official line of the French government is that Israel boycott appeals are illegal, the same French government awards the highest honour, the Legion of Honour, to someone who makes the most vile accusations against Israel and is a leader in the BDS movement. Doesn't this smack of hypocrisy and blatant duplicity on the part of the French ?
There Could Never Be Peace Without a Minimum of Justice (Editor Palestine Monitor)
18 November 2010
Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestine, PNI, thanked the Socialist International for its constant efforts to support the cause of peace in Palestine and in the Middle East, and he apologised for questioning whether the current discussion could be called a debate when the representative of the Israeli Labour Party had left immediately after giving his speech.
He urged participants to face the reality that there was a deadlock in the so-called peace process. It was not hard to imagine what would happen to the proximity talks, and the very big risk of failure due to the continuation of the same policy of settlement expansion, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, and oppressive measures in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel was negotiating via bulldozers. He mentioned Aualage, a small village in Bethlehem in the heart of the West Bank which was losing all its land to Israeli bulldozers and a wall that was three times the length and twice the height of the Berlin Wall. Time was of the essence because we were about to lose the opportunity for peace based on the two-state solution. It was clear that Israel was trying to gain time through the peace process, imposing its own solutions through settlements and wall-building.
He feared that Israel was not considering an independent Palestinian state, but rather a cluster of bantustans and ghettos, each separated from the other. What was being consolidated on the ground was a system of apartheid, he asserted. How else, he asked, could the situation be described when Israel controlled 80% of the water resources in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli settlers were allowed to use 48 times more water than Palestinian citizens who had to buy Israeli products at Israeli prices and pay for the water Israel had taken from them. No other word could be used for the segregation of roads and street, or the situation where a husband and wife living in Jerusalem could not live together if one had an ID for the West Bank. He himself had been a physician in Jerusalem for 15 years but now for five years had not been allowed to enter Jerusalem.
"I do not accept calls for the boycott of Israel products for the reason that they are kosher or because they come from Israel." (Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Minister)
Mustafa Barghouti, BDS leader awarded France's highest honour (1)
Whereas the official line of the French government is that Israel boycott appeals are illegal, the same French government awards the highest honour, the Legion of Honour, to someone who makes the most vile accusations against Israel and is a leader in the BDS movement. Doesn't this smack of hypocrisy and blatant duplicity on the part of the French ?
There Could Never Be Peace Without a Minimum of Justice (Editor Palestine Monitor)
18 November 2010
Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestine, PNI, thanked the Socialist International for its constant efforts to support the cause of peace in Palestine and in the Middle East, and he apologised for questioning whether the current discussion could be called a debate when the representative of the Israeli Labour Party had left immediately after giving his speech.
He urged participants to face the reality that there was a deadlock in the so-called peace process. It was not hard to imagine what would happen to the proximity talks, and the very big risk of failure due to the continuation of the same policy of settlement expansion, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, and oppressive measures in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel was negotiating via bulldozers. He mentioned Aualage, a small village in Bethlehem in the heart of the West Bank which was losing all its land to Israeli bulldozers and a wall that was three times the length and twice the height of the Berlin Wall. Time was of the essence because we were about to lose the opportunity for peace based on the two-state solution. It was clear that Israel was trying to gain time through the peace process, imposing its own solutions through settlements and wall-building.
He feared that Israel was not considering an independent Palestinian state, but rather a cluster of bantustans and ghettos, each separated from the other. What was being consolidated on the ground was a system of apartheid, he asserted. How else, he asked, could the situation be described when Israel controlled 80% of the water resources in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli settlers were allowed to use 48 times more water than Palestinian citizens who had to buy Israeli products at Israeli prices and pay for the water Israel had taken from them. No other word could be used for the segregation of roads and street, or the situation where a husband and wife living in Jerusalem could not live together if one had an ID for the West Bank. He himself had been a physician in Jerusalem for 15 years but now for five years had not been allowed to enter Jerusalem.
Friday 26 November 2010
Mustafa Barghouti, BDS leader awarded France's highest honour (1)
To the dismay of many, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest decoration in France, by outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner, a friend of 25 years and "a resistant for the freedom and independence of Palestine". Mustafa Barghouti made his views of Israel and the United States (Europe seems to be OK for him) clear in an op-ed (05/04/2010) in the Financial Times entitled "Israel knows apartheid has no future". He argued that "apartheid is here" and that "notions of racial supremacy and colonization" are "antiquated". He is a leader of the the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement of which he has "spoken on many American and European campuses". He also accuses Israel of "ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem".
Excerpts:
"After decades of military rule over Palestinians and theft of our land, Israeli leaders are increasingly seeing the writing on the wall. [...]
Apartheid is here. There is one set of Israeli laws applied to Palestinians in the West Bank and another set applied to Jews in the West Bank. Israeli settlers live illegally in beautiful subsidized housing on stolen Palestinian land while we are relegated to smaller and smaller bantustans. [...]
Presidents and congressional leaders will always face opposition to US calls for constraining Israeli growth in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- if not from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Zionist Organization of America then from the John Hagees of the Christian right. [...]
We are now in the early stages of a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) directed at this Israeli government for its refusal to abide by international law. Such action successfully overturned Jim Crow laws in the American South and apartheid in South Africa, and we are slowly applying it to Israeli occupation and apartheid. But until students seize on it with the same moral fervency as earlier generations did against Jim Crow and South African apartheid, we will achieve only marginal success.
Excerpts:
"After decades of military rule over Palestinians and theft of our land, Israeli leaders are increasingly seeing the writing on the wall. [...]
Apartheid is here. There is one set of Israeli laws applied to Palestinians in the West Bank and another set applied to Jews in the West Bank. Israeli settlers live illegally in beautiful subsidized housing on stolen Palestinian land while we are relegated to smaller and smaller bantustans. [...]
Presidents and congressional leaders will always face opposition to US calls for constraining Israeli growth in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- if not from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Zionist Organization of America then from the John Hagees of the Christian right. [...]
We are now in the early stages of a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) directed at this Israeli government for its refusal to abide by international law. Such action successfully overturned Jim Crow laws in the American South and apartheid in South Africa, and we are slowly applying it to Israeli occupation and apartheid. But until students seize on it with the same moral fervency as earlier generations did against Jim Crow and South African apartheid, we will achieve only marginal success.
Thursday 25 November 2010
The European Union wishes good luck to the Israel-bashing Russell tribunal
Belgian newspaper Le Soir reports that the European Commission - accused by the Russell kangaroo court of complicity with Israel - declined the invitation to stand before the kangaroo jury, but sent a letter wishing "good luck" to the work of the London "conference".
Among the outstanding members of the court, Le Soir lists Stéphane Hessel, Mairead Maguire and John Dugard - three well-known Israel-bashers.
The boss of the court, Belgian Pierre Galand, is happy with the "growing notoriety of the tribunal gained thanks to its seriousness". Well neither the BBC nor the British newspapers covered the session. So much for the notoriety.
Pierre Galand announced that the next two sessions to be held in South Africa in October 2011 and the United States in 2012 will examine whether the "apartheid" accusation is reflects what is going on in the occupied territories and the role of the Unites States and in the United States in this "dossier".
- Israel lynching tribunal coming to the United States in 2011 (Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Belgium)
- The judgment of the "embarrassing sham kangaroo spectacle"
Among the outstanding members of the court, Le Soir lists Stéphane Hessel, Mairead Maguire and John Dugard - three well-known Israel-bashers.
The boss of the court, Belgian Pierre Galand, is happy with the "growing notoriety of the tribunal gained thanks to its seriousness". Well neither the BBC nor the British newspapers covered the session. So much for the notoriety.
Pierre Galand announced that the next two sessions to be held in South Africa in October 2011 and the United States in 2012 will examine whether the "apartheid" accusation is reflects what is going on in the occupied territories and the role of the Unites States and in the United States in this "dossier".
- Israel lynching tribunal coming to the United States in 2011 (Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Belgium)
- The judgment of the "embarrassing sham kangaroo spectacle"
Wednesday 24 November 2010
100 "famous" Norwegians hate "apartheid" Israel
"Norway’s case is unique because it is a country dominated by a political, media and cultural elite with deep-rooted anti-Israeli attitudes stemming from their political world view. It poses a threat to Israel because it may be the place where precedents are set in the campaign to delegitimize Israel." (Manfred Gerstenfeld)
Norway, Israel and the Jews reported about these "famous" Norwegians : "The posterboy for the call appears to be Egil Drillo Olsen, coach of the national football team. The rest of the names are the usual diehards, readers of this blog will recognize many of them. There is the usual apartheid rhetoric and such."
OSLO (EJP)---One hundred famous Norwegians, led by the country’s national football coach, have signed a petition demanding a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, accusing its educational institutions of “playing a key role in the occupation” and equating it with apartheid. A Norwegian ex-premier denounced their boycott call.
Egil Drillo Olsen, coach for the national Norwegian football team, recently wrote in Aftenposten, the country’s second largest paper, that the call to boycott Israel was "in line with what 90 percent of the world’s population believes. There cannot be many other opinions".
The petition is the last item in a string of similar and high-profile initiatives to have taken place in Norway over the past two years. It was signed by coach Olsen and 99 other public figures from the arts and culture, who stated that a boycott is "necessary" not only to help Palestinians, but also to "support Israelis opposing the occupation".
Norwegian former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called the boycott call "unhelpful" and "not representative" of the current government’s policy. Bondevik, who presided over the Norwegian government for seven years over the period 1997 until 2005 on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party, added he wished to "reassure" Israelis that "boycott is not an issue in Norway".
But Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a senior researcher of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist trends in Scandinavia, alleges Norway is a "pioneer" in the Western world promoting boycotts and hatred against Israel. Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, notes some "uniquely Norwegian developments unparalleled elsewhere in the West".
Norway, Israel and the Jews reported about these "famous" Norwegians : "The posterboy for the call appears to be Egil Drillo Olsen, coach of the national football team. The rest of the names are the usual diehards, readers of this blog will recognize many of them. There is the usual apartheid rhetoric and such."
OSLO (EJP)---One hundred famous Norwegians, led by the country’s national football coach, have signed a petition demanding a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, accusing its educational institutions of “playing a key role in the occupation” and equating it with apartheid. A Norwegian ex-premier denounced their boycott call.
Egil Drillo Olsen, coach for the national Norwegian football team, recently wrote in Aftenposten, the country’s second largest paper, that the call to boycott Israel was "in line with what 90 percent of the world’s population believes. There cannot be many other opinions".
The petition is the last item in a string of similar and high-profile initiatives to have taken place in Norway over the past two years. It was signed by coach Olsen and 99 other public figures from the arts and culture, who stated that a boycott is "necessary" not only to help Palestinians, but also to "support Israelis opposing the occupation".
Norwegian former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called the boycott call "unhelpful" and "not representative" of the current government’s policy. Bondevik, who presided over the Norwegian government for seven years over the period 1997 until 2005 on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party, added he wished to "reassure" Israelis that "boycott is not an issue in Norway".
But Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a senior researcher of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist trends in Scandinavia, alleges Norway is a "pioneer" in the Western world promoting boycotts and hatred against Israel. Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, notes some "uniquely Norwegian developments unparalleled elsewhere in the West".
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Paris museum : suspended Israel-bashing exhibit to re-open today
Update: according to AFP, Kai Wiedenhöfer's exhibition is to open today. It is difficult to tell because as reported "a thorough search of the museum's website on Wednesday by Israel National News did not reveal any mention of the exhibition either in French or in English, nor any indication that it was either currently being shown, or was scheduled to appear". Clever tactics by the museum.
Source: Elder of Ziyon (Paris museum suspends Israel-bashing exhibit)
I mentioned on November 10th that the Museum of Modern Art in Paris was showing an "award winning" collection of photos from the Gaza Strip meant to bash Israel. Not only were the photos biased, but the very rules of the award were created for a single purpose - to compare Israel to Nazis.
Last Sunday, a group of Zionists mobilized on Facebook to create a unique counter-protest. In the words of the leader of the group, Jean-Patrick Grumberg :
"With the active support of members of the Europe-Israel group, volunteers recruited on Facebook, and members of the JDL, leaflets was distributed on Sunday 21 November, before the exhibition opened.
The flyer was a perfectly neutral, and could not be construed as an attack. Photos, taken from Palestinian sites, with this title: "Disturbing Gaza photos." Thus, we followed the logic of the show: the audience was invited to see for themselves that there is another truth, in Gaza.
Source: Elder of Ziyon (Paris museum suspends Israel-bashing exhibit)
I mentioned on November 10th that the Museum of Modern Art in Paris was showing an "award winning" collection of photos from the Gaza Strip meant to bash Israel. Not only were the photos biased, but the very rules of the award were created for a single purpose - to compare Israel to Nazis.
Last Sunday, a group of Zionists mobilized on Facebook to create a unique counter-protest. In the words of the leader of the group, Jean-Patrick Grumberg :
"With the active support of members of the Europe-Israel group, volunteers recruited on Facebook, and members of the JDL, leaflets was distributed on Sunday 21 November, before the exhibition opened.
The flyer was a perfectly neutral, and could not be construed as an attack. Photos, taken from Palestinian sites, with this title: "Disturbing Gaza photos." Thus, we followed the logic of the show: the audience was invited to see for themselves that there is another truth, in Gaza.
Sunday 21 November 2010
Norwegian historians on thinner ice than Sonja Hennie after the war
Norwegian historians are complaining that a German exhibition is "romanticizing the occupation". Yet as Helle Aarnes reveals in her book "Tyskerjentene", Norway had more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation. Surely these were not all the result of date-rape?
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
Two Norwegian historians are claiming that Germany is romanticizing the occupation of Norway, when it is a fact that more Norwegian soldiers fought for Hitler than against him, that it was the Norwegian police who rounded up the Norwegian Jews, and that such a large number of Norwegian women swarmed to the Hugo Boss-dressed German soldiers that Norway ended up with more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation.
A current exhibiton in the German Historical Museum in Berlin is named “Hitler und die Deutsche”. It deals primarily with the Führer cult, also as it developed in Norway.
Norwegian historians take offense
Dagbladet tells of how the married couple Ms. Jorunn Sem Fure, professor at Humbolt University in Berlin, and her husband Odd-Björn Fure at the Center for Holocaust studies in Oslo, find that the exhibition “Hitler und die Deutsche” romantizes the occupation of Norway. The couple claims that the exhibit exaggerates the support the occupation found in Norway. Ms.Jorunn Sem Fure says: “Our Norwegian history of occupation is seen with German eyes – without understading for those who had been defeated”.
The Fures have sent a letter of complaint – in Norwegian – to the German Historical Museum. Since it has not yet been translated, the museum has not yet responded. (This brings to mind how Director Bodil Børset of the Hamsun centre, in a letter written in Norwegian and published in a Norwegian newspaper, invited Israeli academics to visit the centre. When the academics read about the invitation in Haaretz, they accepted it. And never heard from Ms. Bodil Børset again.)
The Fures are acting in accordance with how we Norwegians would like to be portrayed – as a people who fought heroically against the German occupiers. This is of course to a large extent also true. But regard the following:
Norwegian soldiers fought for Hitler
More (regular) Norwegian soldiers fought for Germany than against her: 5500 Norwegians donned German uniforms. This goes only for regular soldiers, if you count those who claim to have been resistance fighters during the war you end up with different figures. Some of these soldiers partook in subduing the uprising in Warszaw in 1944.
Also, it was discovered only last week that some of these Norwegian soldiers served in German concentration camps.
Additionally we might have had a Norwegian death camp at Beisfjord except nobody can say for sure since it burned to the ground at the end of the war and nobody is talking.
WWII Norway – more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation
Historian Helle Aarnes has written the book “Tyskerjentene” [Sleeping with the enemy] about how up to 100 000 Norwegian women had romantic entanglements with German soldiers. As a result Norway had more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation.
Norwegian police sent the Norwegian Jews to their deaths
It was Norwegians who rounded up and transported the Norwegian Jews to their deaths. Not Germans. Germans merely gave the order, the Norwegian Jews were sent to their deaths by fellow Norwegians.
Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews
Two Norwegian historians are claiming that Germany is romanticizing the occupation of Norway, when it is a fact that more Norwegian soldiers fought for Hitler than against him, that it was the Norwegian police who rounded up the Norwegian Jews, and that such a large number of Norwegian women swarmed to the Hugo Boss-dressed German soldiers that Norway ended up with more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation.
A current exhibiton in the German Historical Museum in Berlin is named “Hitler und die Deutsche”. It deals primarily with the Führer cult, also as it developed in Norway.
Norwegian historians take offense
Dagbladet tells of how the married couple Ms. Jorunn Sem Fure, professor at Humbolt University in Berlin, and her husband Odd-Björn Fure at the Center for Holocaust studies in Oslo, find that the exhibition “Hitler und die Deutsche” romantizes the occupation of Norway. The couple claims that the exhibit exaggerates the support the occupation found in Norway. Ms.Jorunn Sem Fure says: “Our Norwegian history of occupation is seen with German eyes – without understading for those who had been defeated”.
The Fures have sent a letter of complaint – in Norwegian – to the German Historical Museum. Since it has not yet been translated, the museum has not yet responded. (This brings to mind how Director Bodil Børset of the Hamsun centre, in a letter written in Norwegian and published in a Norwegian newspaper, invited Israeli academics to visit the centre. When the academics read about the invitation in Haaretz, they accepted it. And never heard from Ms. Bodil Børset again.)
The Fures are acting in accordance with how we Norwegians would like to be portrayed – as a people who fought heroically against the German occupiers. This is of course to a large extent also true. But regard the following:
Norwegian soldiers fought for Hitler
More (regular) Norwegian soldiers fought for Germany than against her: 5500 Norwegians donned German uniforms. This goes only for regular soldiers, if you count those who claim to have been resistance fighters during the war you end up with different figures. Some of these soldiers partook in subduing the uprising in Warszaw in 1944.
Also, it was discovered only last week that some of these Norwegian soldiers served in German concentration camps.
Additionally we might have had a Norwegian death camp at Beisfjord except nobody can say for sure since it burned to the ground at the end of the war and nobody is talking.
WWII Norway – more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation
Historian Helle Aarnes has written the book “Tyskerjentene” [Sleeping with the enemy] about how up to 100 000 Norwegian women had romantic entanglements with German soldiers. As a result Norway had more Lebensborn programs than any other occupied nation.
Norwegian police sent the Norwegian Jews to their deaths
It was Norwegians who rounded up and transported the Norwegian Jews to their deaths. Not Germans. Germans merely gave the order, the Norwegian Jews were sent to their deaths by fellow Norwegians.
Norway - Cowardice: 100 youths harass 2 Israeli salesgirls
"The two Israeli girls were selling cosmetics. Their only sin was to be Israelis selling Israeli products. Whoever you are and whatever you do, please take action: show the thugs that you won’t stand for this sort of behavior, and purchase some Dead Sea cosmetics products."
The picture shows a Jewish tailor-shop in Oslo in 1940, with the graffiti saying: "Palestine calls, Jews not tolerated in Norway".
Today [19/11] 100 youths, associated with various left-of-centre groups, directed a boycott action at two Israeli girls who were selling cosmetics in a shopping mall in the the centre of Oslo.
The demonstrating youths were attending an anti-globalization seminar co-financed by among other the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and Fritt Ord. The latter is a private foundations describing its paramount objective as being to “protect and promote freedom of expression and the environment for freedom of expression in Norway” [!!!].
The demonstrating youths were attached to various left-of-centre organizations, among them: Sosialistisk Ungdom (Socialist Youth) and Rød Ungdom (Red Youth), the youth group of Rødt (Red).
The two Israeli girls were selling cosmetics. Their only sin was to be Israelis selling Israeli products. The demonstration was unannounced and therefore illegal – one is required to notify the police in advance of staging demonstrations.
Sources: NRK, Adresseavisen, VG, Document
Denmark – Israeli salesclerk shot
The picture shows a Jewish tailor-shop in Oslo in 1940, with the graffiti saying: "Palestine calls, Jews not tolerated in Norway".
Today [19/11] 100 youths, associated with various left-of-centre groups, directed a boycott action at two Israeli girls who were selling cosmetics in a shopping mall in the the centre of Oslo.
The demonstrating youths were attending an anti-globalization seminar co-financed by among other the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and Fritt Ord. The latter is a private foundations describing its paramount objective as being to “protect and promote freedom of expression and the environment for freedom of expression in Norway” [!!!].
The demonstrating youths were attached to various left-of-centre organizations, among them: Sosialistisk Ungdom (Socialist Youth) and Rød Ungdom (Red Youth), the youth group of Rødt (Red).
The two Israeli girls were selling cosmetics. Their only sin was to be Israelis selling Israeli products. The demonstration was unannounced and therefore illegal – one is required to notify the police in advance of staging demonstrations.
Sources: NRK, Adresseavisen, VG, Document
Denmark – Israeli salesclerk shot
Saturday 20 November 2010
Durban III: Anne Bayefsky criticizes Belgium lead role on behalf of the 27 European Union countries
“Is Germany going to stand side-by-side with a Holocaust denier [Ahmadinejad] having genocidal ambitions and claim this is the right forum by which to combat racism and xenophobia?”
"Responding to Bart Ouvry’s [a spokesman for Belgium’s Foreign Ministry] statements, Bayefsky told the Post that some EU states had opted not to participate in Durban II before Ahmadinejad speech. Those states, Bayefsky said, “did not leave only as a consequence of Ahmadinejad. They pulled out in advance because they recognized that the Durban Declaration and its followup processes harm the cause of combating racism...” [...] Bayefsky said Belgium was pushing the Durban Declaration against Israel and the commemoration event. If Belgium sought to fight racism, “there would be no need to make any mention of the Durban Declaration. They could adopt a statement against racism and refer to the convention on the elimination of all forms racial discrimination,” she said."
US doesn't support UN plan to hold Durban III next year
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL AND JORDANA HORN, TJP
10th anniversary event mooted for Sept. in NY at UN headquarters; ADL, pro-Israel NGOs appalled by idea of celebrating ‘notorious’ 2001 meeting.
A commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Durban I antiracism event is slated to take place in September 2011 at UN headquarters in New York, a source familiar with the plans told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
But Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US Mission to the UN, told the Post on Thursday, “The US does not support the decision to hold the 10th anniversary of the Durban I Conference in New York City in September 2011. We do not believe it would be an appropriate time and venue.”
According to the UN insider, “Negotiators Tuesday spent time arguing about the date. Western states tried to object to September 21 on the basis that there were plans for other events already that day and GA [General Assembly] resolutions are never specific about dates so the issue should be left to future negotiations.”
Next year’s conference is intended to honor the initial Durban I event in South Africa and the follow-up Durban II review conference in Geneva last year. [The US, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland walked away from Durban II because the event was tainted by anti-Semitism and disparate treatment toward Israel.]
Officially known as the World Conference against Racism 2001, Durban I was marred by anti-Semitism and attacks on Israel’s right to exist. Last year’s Durban II showcased Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirades against Israel as well as his denial of the Holocaust.
According to Natalie Kohli, senior adviser for the UN’s Human Rights Council Review, opposition to the commemoration is expected from the US, Israel, Canada, Australia and others.
Belgium is taking a lead role in negotiating on behalf of the 27 European Union countries regarding Durban III.
The Post learned that South Africa is pushing for a September 21, 2011, date, when most heads of state would be in New York for the annual session of the US General Assembly.
When asked whether Germany planned to participate in the Durban commemoration event, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Post via e-mail on Tuesday, “The discussions on the annual UN anti-racism resolution and the questions raised in this connection regarding a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Durban conference are currently still taking place in New York. Therefore, the outcome of the discussions cannot be anticipated at this time.”
The spokesman added, “The federal government is working actively within the UN against the misuse of the justified issue of the international fight against racism. This is also its position during the current negotiations.”
After considerable public pressure and media editorials urging Germany to boycott Durban II in 2009, then-foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pulled the plug on Germany’s involvement in the Geneva Durban II event at the eleventh hour.
Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and an expert on international human rights law, told the Post on Wednesday that the German Foreign Ministry’s statement was “shockingly misleading.”
“Last year, Germany voted against the resolution which decided specifically to hold a ‘Durban III,’ which nevertheless passed handily,” Bayefsky said. “Last year’s resolution also decided the event would be held in September 2011 in New York City, and would be scheduled during the opening days of the General Assembly so that heads of state and of government could be pressured into coming.
“The bottom line is, Germany has followed the decision to hold Durban III and the process of fleshing out the event details closely,” she said. “It is fully aware of precisely what can be anticipated from the current negotiations, since it knows full well that those meetings are fiddling at the edges and have no bearing whatsoever on the decision to have the event, which has already been made. Germany voted with their feet at Durban II, and voted against the resolution on Durban III last year.
“So why is Germany feigning ignorance days before they have to cast a vote on the details of the same meeting to which they objected the year before? Germany knows that Iranian President Ahmadinejad opened Durban II and that he will certainly come to Durban III along with his usual participation at the opening of the General Assembly.
"Responding to Bart Ouvry’s [a spokesman for Belgium’s Foreign Ministry] statements, Bayefsky told the Post that some EU states had opted not to participate in Durban II before Ahmadinejad speech. Those states, Bayefsky said, “did not leave only as a consequence of Ahmadinejad. They pulled out in advance because they recognized that the Durban Declaration and its followup processes harm the cause of combating racism...” [...] Bayefsky said Belgium was pushing the Durban Declaration against Israel and the commemoration event. If Belgium sought to fight racism, “there would be no need to make any mention of the Durban Declaration. They could adopt a statement against racism and refer to the convention on the elimination of all forms racial discrimination,” she said."
US doesn't support UN plan to hold Durban III next year
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL AND JORDANA HORN, TJP
10th anniversary event mooted for Sept. in NY at UN headquarters; ADL, pro-Israel NGOs appalled by idea of celebrating ‘notorious’ 2001 meeting.
A commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Durban I antiracism event is slated to take place in September 2011 at UN headquarters in New York, a source familiar with the plans told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
But Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US Mission to the UN, told the Post on Thursday, “The US does not support the decision to hold the 10th anniversary of the Durban I Conference in New York City in September 2011. We do not believe it would be an appropriate time and venue.”
According to the UN insider, “Negotiators Tuesday spent time arguing about the date. Western states tried to object to September 21 on the basis that there were plans for other events already that day and GA [General Assembly] resolutions are never specific about dates so the issue should be left to future negotiations.”
Next year’s conference is intended to honor the initial Durban I event in South Africa and the follow-up Durban II review conference in Geneva last year. [The US, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland walked away from Durban II because the event was tainted by anti-Semitism and disparate treatment toward Israel.]
Officially known as the World Conference against Racism 2001, Durban I was marred by anti-Semitism and attacks on Israel’s right to exist. Last year’s Durban II showcased Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirades against Israel as well as his denial of the Holocaust.
According to Natalie Kohli, senior adviser for the UN’s Human Rights Council Review, opposition to the commemoration is expected from the US, Israel, Canada, Australia and others.
Belgium is taking a lead role in negotiating on behalf of the 27 European Union countries regarding Durban III.
The Post learned that South Africa is pushing for a September 21, 2011, date, when most heads of state would be in New York for the annual session of the US General Assembly.
When asked whether Germany planned to participate in the Durban commemoration event, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Post via e-mail on Tuesday, “The discussions on the annual UN anti-racism resolution and the questions raised in this connection regarding a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Durban conference are currently still taking place in New York. Therefore, the outcome of the discussions cannot be anticipated at this time.”
The spokesman added, “The federal government is working actively within the UN against the misuse of the justified issue of the international fight against racism. This is also its position during the current negotiations.”
After considerable public pressure and media editorials urging Germany to boycott Durban II in 2009, then-foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pulled the plug on Germany’s involvement in the Geneva Durban II event at the eleventh hour.
Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and an expert on international human rights law, told the Post on Wednesday that the German Foreign Ministry’s statement was “shockingly misleading.”
“Last year, Germany voted against the resolution which decided specifically to hold a ‘Durban III,’ which nevertheless passed handily,” Bayefsky said. “Last year’s resolution also decided the event would be held in September 2011 in New York City, and would be scheduled during the opening days of the General Assembly so that heads of state and of government could be pressured into coming.
“The bottom line is, Germany has followed the decision to hold Durban III and the process of fleshing out the event details closely,” she said. “It is fully aware of precisely what can be anticipated from the current negotiations, since it knows full well that those meetings are fiddling at the edges and have no bearing whatsoever on the decision to have the event, which has already been made. Germany voted with their feet at Durban II, and voted against the resolution on Durban III last year.
“So why is Germany feigning ignorance days before they have to cast a vote on the details of the same meeting to which they objected the year before? Germany knows that Iranian President Ahmadinejad opened Durban II and that he will certainly come to Durban III along with his usual participation at the opening of the General Assembly.
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