Belgium: charges dropped on Israel-Nazi comparison

The Belgian court of appeals in Brussels found two of those who were responsible for the website of the Belgian Islamic Center (Centre islamique belge, CIB) guilty for inciting to racial hatred. In total they stood trial for six charges.

29 year old Abdel R. (Rahman Ayachi) and 33 year old Raphaël G. (Gendron) each got a fine of 2,000 Euro, half of which is conditional. The court dismissed two charges of Holocaust denial, as the defense attorney, Sébastien Courtoy, requested.

The judge in the first instance sentenced the accused for ten months, half conditional and a fine of 25,000 Euro, for all charges.

The most important charge for Holocaust denial involved a video montage of a minute which was circulated on assabyle.com, the CIB website. In it the rhetoric and gestures of the former Israeli Foreign Minister, David Levi, were compared to those of Adolf Hitler. Parallels were also drawn between the military actions of the Nazi troops and certain operations of the Israeli army.The document was drawn-up by Lebanese students and circulated abroad. The two accused copied it and circulated it in Belgium.

The court took into consideration Friday that the accused "hadn't the intention at all to deny, minimize, justify or approve the genocide by the Germany national-socialist regime during World War II. On the contrary, namely to remind and to emphasize its atrocities by a comparison which can appear shocking, and which they blame the Israeli government."

The civil charges by the Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CGKR), and those of two people, on an individual basis, were accepted. 34 others were rejected.

Source: Islam in Europe
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Well, depicting an Israeli politician as Adolf Hitler and as a Jewish Nazi pig seems to be OK.

Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman is a Zionist pig

Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman is a Zionist Hitler

Both cartoons are by Belgian cartoonist Ben Heine

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- Ben Heine's cartoon provokes stream of anti-Semitic abuse

- Serge Gainsbourg's portrait by Ben Heine deleted from Wikipedia

Dominican friar slams "Madoff the Pharisee" and Israel

First came news that the Vatican issued a decree lifting excommunication of traditionalist bishop Richard Williamson who claims that gas chambers didn't exist, then came news that Portuguese Dominican friar Bento Domingues O.P. wrote an article in the Público newspaper stating that :

"For eight years we were made to believe in all the deceptions by George Bush and his clique and in the shameful Wall Street dealings. We are now being made to believe that Barack Obama is the saviour of the superpower and that he will save the world.

It is normal that each group seeks to attract the President to its own camp and there is no doubt that those who wield little power elected Obama. But it will be the most powerful who, to the benefit of the virtuality of the market economy and its dynamism, will divert Obama's attention away from the poorest peoples in the Americas, Africa and Palestine. Israel has already done enough to show that even with Madoff the Pharisee in jail, the U.S. will continue to have faith in Israel, in spite of having committed all manner of crimes against humanity."

All the obscene anti-Semitic ingredients are here: Jews (the most powerful), personified by Madoff the Pharisee and Israel, are such power grabbers and selfish cheats that they are responsible for all the ills and poverty in the world. At least Frei Bento Domingues is frank about his antipathy for Jews, and doesn't hide behind sophisticated arguments to hide the fact.

Source: Ver

Israel 1969, Jorge Luis Borges

Israel 1969 - 40 years ago

"Borges was anti-totalitarian, philosemitic and a Zionist", Raphaël Lellouche

"You shall be an Israeli, a soldier,
You shall build a country on wasteland,
making it rise out of deserts."


I feared that in Israel there might be lurking,
sweetly and insidiously,
the nostalgia gathered like some sad treasure
during the centuries of dispersion
in cities of the unbeliever, in ghettoes,
in the sunset of the steppes, in dreams,
the nostalgia of those who longed for you,
Jerusalem, beside the waters of Babylon.
What else were you, Israel, but that wistfulness,
that will to save
amid the shifting shapes of time
your old magical book, your ceremonies,
your loneliness with God?
Not so. The most ancient of nations
is also the youngest.
You have not tempted men with gardens or gold,
and the emptiness of gold
but with the hard work, beleaguered land.
Without words Israel has told them:
Forget who you are
Forget who you have been
Forget the man you were in those countries
which gave you their mornings and evenings
and to which you must not look back in yearning.
You will forget your father's tongue
and learn the tongue of Paradise.
You shall be an Israeli, a soldier,
You shall build a country on wasteland,
making it rise out of deserts.
Your brother, whose face you've never seen,
will work by your side.
One thing only we promise you:
your place in the battle.

In In Praise of Darkness
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentinian writer
Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni
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Israel 1969

Temí que en Israel acecharía
con dulzura insidiosa
la nostalgia que las diásporas seculares
acumularon como un triste tesoro
en las ciudades del infiel, en las juderías,
en los ocasos de la estepa, en los sueños,
la nostalgia de aquellos que te anhelaron,
Jerusalén, junto a las aguas de Babilonia,
¿Qué otra cosa eras, Israel, sino esa nostalgia,
sino esa voluntad de salvar,
entre las inconstantes formas del tiempo,
tu viejo libro mágico, tus liturgias,
tu soledad con Dios?
No así. La más antigua de las naciones
es también la más joven.
No has tentado a los nombres con jardines,
con el oro y su tedio
sino con el rigor, tierra última.
Israel les ha dicho sin palabras:
olvidarás quién eres.
Olvidarás al otro que dejaste.
Olvidarás quién fuiste en las tierras
que te dieron sus tardes y sus mañanas
y a las que no darás tu nostalgia.
Olvidarás la lengua de tus padres y aprenderás la lengua del Paraíso.
Serás un israelí, serás un soldado.
Edificarás la patria con ciénagas: la levantarás con desiertos.
Trabajará contigo tu hermano, cuya cara no has visto nunca.
Una sola cosa te prometemos:
tu puesto en la batalla.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899- 1986), Argentinian writer

British bishop faces German probe for Holocaust denial

"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"

"German prosecutors said Friday they had launched a probe against a controversial British bishop on suspicion of inciting racial hatred for comments he made about the Holocaust on Swedish television.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in the southern city of Regensburg said it had opened an investigation against Richard Williamson, 68, for remarks he made in an interview broadcast this week.
"I believe there were no gas chambers... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers," said Williamson during an interview with the SVT channel.

"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"

Six million Jews [includin 1.5 million children] were murdered by Nazi Germany during World War II including vast numbers by systematic extermination in gas chambers.

This week, Pope Benedict XVI reportedly decided to cancel the excommunication of four bishops who were consecrated in 1998 by the conservative French bishop Marcel Lefebvre, including Williamson.

The pope has already signed the decree lifting the excommunication, which will be made public later in the week, according to the Italian report Thursday which the Vatican neither confirmed nor denied.

Lefebvre, who died in 1991, was excommunicated in 1988 by pope Jean Paul II for having consecrated the bishops in defiance of the Vatican's authority.

Since assuming office in April 2005, Benedict has made great efforts to heal the schism with the more traditionalist Catholic movement.

Lars-Goran Svensson, the Swedish programme's producer, said the interview had been pre-recorded in Germany last November and its airing at this time was "pure coincidence.""

Source: EJP

Catalunya government: a Palestinian holocaust is taking place

"Holocaust survivors have no need for moments of silence for dead Jews from people who have no respect for live Jews."

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the government of the Spain’s Catalunya region for cancelling its public commemoration of International Holocaust Day on January 27th as a way to protest Israel’s operations in Gaza. An official from the city of Barcelona, where they memorial was to be held, was quoted as saying, "Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian holocaust is taking place is not right."

"The Wiesenthal Center denounces this perverted inversion of truth and memory by officials in Barcelona. Holocaust survivors have no need for moments of silence for dead Jews from people who have no respect for live Jews," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center. "In dealing a telling blow against Hamas in Gaza, Israel ensures that the terrorist organization's open goal of making the Holy Land 'Judenrein' (free of Jews) will never happen," he added.

"The Catalunya government would do well to learn the moral difference between a terrorist group targeting civilians who protected themselves by using their women and children as human shields and a member state of the United Nations doing what any government, including Spain would do: eliminate such a threat against her civilian population. Israel should be rightfully proud of the extraordinary steps her military took to minimize casualties among civilians, cynically put in harm’s way by Hamas," Cooper concluded."

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Center

- ¿Qué està pasando en Cataluña?, Pilar Rahola
- The anti-Israel hysteria, by Pilar Rahola, Pilar Rahola
- 46 per cent of Spanish have a negative/very negative view of Jews

Anti-Israel protesters routinely shout "We are all Hamas"

"The recent Gaza operation left many well-meaning foreigners baffled by one question. As New York Times correspondent Ethan Bronner put it: "How can a war that looks so awful... be supported by such a vast Israeli public?" Bronner's article offered some correct answers: Hamas' deliberate use of human shields, which makes civilian casualties inevitable; our conviction that our army nevertheless strives to avoid such casualties; Hamas' commitment to our destruction.

However, there is also another factor. It is often termed "double standards," but goes considerably deeper than that. Consider a few examples: "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!" was the slogan shouted at a Dutch rally against the Gaza war last week. Similarly offensive slogans were shouted at rallies in other countries, which collectively drew hundreds of thousands of protesters.

Many Israelis have asked where all these protesters were while 6,000 Hamas mortar shells and rockets pounded the South over the last three years. But that is actually the wrong question. Hundreds of thousands worldwide also protested America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet would never have dreamed of protesting against Saddam Hussein or the Taliban. There is a known double standard among some Westerners whereby only Western actions merit condemnation, while non-Western thugs get a pass. This is outrageous and should be fought, but it is not unique to Israel.

No anti-American demonstration, however, ever featured protesters shouting "Americans to the gas!" Nor did anti-American demonstrators shout "we are all al-Qaida," thereby implying support for the 9/11 attacks - whereas anti-Israel protesters routinely shout "we are all Hamas," thereby expressing support for suicide bombings, shootings and rocket launchings that have killed hundreds of civilians.

Hence the underlying message of these demonstrations is not "we object to killing Palestinians," but rather "we support killing Jews." Worse, that message is not socially unacceptable: If it were, hundreds of thousands would not attend rallies where such slogans are chanted; these would be fringe affairs attracting a few dozen people at most.

And that is a major reason why Israelis and foreigners view Gaza differently: A world where publicly calling for killing Jews is socially acceptable is not one whose standards Israelis find morally persuasive. (...)

Other examples abound - like the fact that most of the countries condemning us have killed far more civilians in their own wars than Israel ever has. Or that none of the people who keep proclaiming that this country may defend its citizens, "but not like that," has ever suggested any potentially effective measure that they would consider justified.

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The bottom line, however, is this: We can support a war that looks awful to others because we start from different premises - that killing Jews is unacceptable, and this country has an obligation to prevent it; that we are entitled to use the same methods of self-defense as other countries; that international law must apply either to both sides or to neither; and that not every Palestinian accusation parroted by aid workers or journalists is necessarily true.
.

Granted, our critics claim to accept these premises as well. But their actions, as detailed above, speak far louder than words."

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Source: Civil Fights: Why Israelis and foreigners view Gaza differently, by Evelyn Gordon, TJP

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Photos: Brussels, January11, 2009, anti-Israel demonstration: both placards nazify Israel. One reads: "Gaza = Dachaus", the other "Tzipi Livni, Hitler's Wife"

Palestinians threaten Europe with Muslim minority

Source: Islam in Europe blog

"Since when are European Muslims a weapon? Threatening that European Muslims will use violence to get their wishes is a very dangerous double edged sword. Unless they want to be seen and treated as a foreign weapon, it is a threat that European Muslims should strongly reject.

A couple of warnings from the Palestinians.

First, from the PLO representative in the EU, Leila Shahid [strangely enough Ms. Leila Shahid is ... the grand-niece of Hajj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem*, and a niece of Yassir Arafat], regarding the compromise resolution accepted by the EU in Strasbourg. Shahid was concerned that the statement did not mention article 2 of the Euro-Mediterranean agreement with Israel, which states the relations between the two will be based on respect for human rights.

Shahid deplored the compromise, saying that:

"A watered down text feeds the violence of the citizens of Arab origins living in Europe. They have the impression that the same rules don't apply to everybody when it comes to human rights."

This is not the first time that Shahid uses the Muslim citizens of Europe as a threat.

The second comes from Talal Nassar, the chief Hamas spokesman in Syria:

Mr Nassar warned that Europe's Muslim population would not forget the EU's lack of hard action.

"The European position through this was not good and effectively supported the Zionists," he said. "They should understand that Europe will be the first to get damaged by the Islamic movements there. Revolutions always arise out of injustice."

Now the Arabs see Europe as raising empty slogans while doing nothing on the ground. If these massacres had been done against animals Europe would have been upset about animal rights. When it is Arabs or Muslims being killed no one does anything."

Sources: La Libre (French), The National (English)

See also: Leila Shahid on the war in Gaza"

* On Hajj Amin al Husseini, see:
- Europe Reimports Jew Hatred, by Daniel Schwammenthal
- Jeffrey Herf: The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust - Review by Karl Pfeifer (Engage)