[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 05/28 Links Pt2: BDS boycotts Youth Peace Forum, MLA message board rife with Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

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BDS Movement boycotts online peace discussions among Israeli and Arab youth

Maybe it’s a fool’s errand, but at least it’s an attempt to get youth talking to each other.
Which is why it has been attacked since its inception by BDS movement supporters.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is the official international boycott organization. The American Studies Association adheres to its academic boycott guidelines.
PACBI issued a statement calling for a boycott of this year’s YaLa conference, Boycott YaLa-Young Leaders Group and Its Online Normalization Conferences:

Washington Free Beacon: Professors Engage in Anti-Semitic Rhetoric on Secret Listserv

The highly charged rhetoric about Israel, revealed last week on a leaked listserv, show that some professors involved in the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) resolution to boycott Israel are motivated by the belief that Jewish people are nefariously pulling the strings in American academia.
The leaked comments have spurred accusations of anti-Semitism in the MLA’s ranks and prompted outrage among Jewish leaders who say that this type of discourse is motivated by a deep seated bias against Jewish people and the state of Israel.
The charges of anti-Semitism were underscored by a controversial Facebook posting by one of the professors involved in the debate questioning the deaths of 6 million Jewish people in the Holocaust.
Other professors involved in the debate referred to colleagues who oppose the boycott measure as “Zionist attack dogs” and claimed that they “control and twist the media.”

South Africa’s de Klerk: Israel not an apartheid state

As opposed to the racial segregation in South Africa, “you have Palestinians living in Israel with full political rights,” and “you don’t have discriminatory laws against them, I mean not letting them swim on certain beaches or anything like that. I think it’s unfair to call Israel an apartheid state. If [Secretary of State John] Kerry did so, I think he made a mistake.”
In April Kerry had said that Israel was liable to become an apartheid state if, in the absence of a two-state solution, it chose to annex all or part of the West Bank without granting full citizenship to the Palestinians. He later retracted his remarks.
After the interviewer interjected to clarify that Kerry had stressed that Israel was not at present an apartheid state, de Klerk said that in a future scenario, Israel could only be deemed “apartheid” if it became a binational state and its binational government discriminated against Arabs.
“The test will be, do everybody living then in such a unitary state — will everybody have full political rights? Will everybody enjoy their full human rights? If they will, it’s not an apartheid state,” he said.

Caroline Glick: Our world: Pope Francis’s unfriendly visit

The Palestinians – and their Islamic and Western supporters – de-Judaize Jesus and proclaim him Palestinian in order to libel the Jews and criminalize the Jewish state. It seems like it would be the job of the Bishop of Rome to set the record straight. But instead, Francis’s discourtesy indicated that at a minimum, he doesn’t think the fact of Jesus’s Judaism should be mentioned in polite company.
Francis’s behavior during his public meeting with Netanyahu could have been brushed off as much ado about nothing if it hadn’t occurred the day after his symbolic embrace of some of the worst anti-Jewish calumnies of our times, and his seeming adoption of replacement theology during his homily in Bethlehem.
Consider first Francis's behavior at the security barrier.

Christian Middle East Watch: Visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land

While statements from Rome have been encouraging in overall Christian-Jewish relations, at a local (Middle Eastern) level church representatives have shown a wholehearted support for the anti-Israel BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.
The infamous 2009 “Kairos” document issued by Palestinian Christian leaders encourages Western churches to support boycotts against Israel and has spawned several national supportive “Kairos” organisations around the world. This unbalanced and blatantly anti-Israel document was signed by the heads of all the branches of Catholicism in the region.
The Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land has fully imbibed the “occupation rhetoric” of the PLO and PA, partly in the mistaken belief that this support will somehow inoculate Catholic Christians against persecution by Muslims. Far from this being the case, there are many and repeated examples of brutal persecution of Christians within the PA-controlled areas.
All the traditional Christian denominations prefer to ignore both what is happening to their own people at the hands of Muslims and the inconvenient fact that Jewish Israel is the only Middle Eastern state where Christians can freely exercise their religious beliefs and practices.
Against this background, last weekend’s visit by Pope Francis revealed political bias in every step of the programme. Take a look at his convoluted travel arrangements, for example.

Jewish Scholar: Toure Comment ‘Disgusting,’ ‘Anti-Semitic’

Responding to a Twitter user who recounted his family’s survival from concentration camps and immigration to the United States, Toure responded: “The power of whiteness.”
The remark sparked torrents of angry comments on Twitter and led the Simon Wiesenthal Center to accuse Toure of “reverse-racism” and “disgusting anti-Semitism.”
“It’s obviously absurd and smacks of intense and disgusting anti-Semitism. It’s reverse-racism basically,” Efraim Zuroff, Israel office director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told the Blaze.
“There is no question that part of the anti-Semitism that we see has its roots in the form of jealousy. This is a perfect example: ‘Jews made it because they’re white and Jews,’” Zuroff said.

DUNETZ: Antisemitism Is Systemic At MSNBC

The past two weeks have seen a series of tweets by MSNBC hosts displaying a lack of sensitivity about the Holocaust which some would call anti-Semitic. Combining those tweets with the network’s history of hiring anti-Semites such as Al Sharpton, who led two anti-Semitic pogroms in New York City, and former political reporter Pat Buchanan, who was fired from MSNBC because of racism, while the network ignored his anti-Semitism, there seems to be systemic problem at the progressive network.
MSNBC's fortnight of strange Holocaust tweets began on May 12th with Ed Shultz's ridiculous claim that gay people were really the ones being persecuted by Hitler.

The new face of German fascism

Udo Voigt, the first member of Germany’s far-right anti-immigrant party to enter the European Parliament, has faced legal action in the past with comments such as Hitler was “a great man.”
The son of a Nazi SA assault division member, Voigt, 62, is a former army officer who was the chief candidate for the extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which scored one percent in the German vote for the EU-wide election Sunday.
Three years after being found guilty in 2004 of promoting Nazism after he called Hitler “a great man,” Voigt questioned the number of Holocaust deaths and demanded the return of German land lost after World War II.

Calgary Herald Cartoon: Why the Security Fence? Good Question. Why the Bulletproof Popemobile?

Today’s Calgary Herald cartoon notes the double standard applied to Israel for its security measures:

Pope: If Only I Had A Wall Like This !

If he had a wall like this, his flock might be better protected from Islamist killings which have now reached epidemic proportions.
Like in Nigeria, where last week 162 were killed and another 120 injured by two bus bombs set of in a market in the Christian district.
Or the previous month when 105 were massacred and 50 left wounded in the Christian village of Yar Galadina.
This may be a new phenomenon for you.
But take it from us – the most hunted and oppressed nation in the history of the world.
We’ve learned how to look after our own.(h/t Bob Knot)

This is what's wrong with university divestment

Divest or not, universities and their students will continue using fossil fuels, which are practically indispensable, at least for the time being. If Israel bears some of the blame for the plight of Palestinians and the failure of peace negotiations, so does the Palestinian Authority and the people living under it.
In April, the president of the student government at Loyola vetoed a resolution to divest from companies operating in Israel. The Rev. Michael Garanzini, the president of Loyola, said the measure would be impossible to implement because most of the school's investments are in funds, not individual corporations. Worse, he said: "It is one-sided, it is focused on one party in a complex international situation. It is felt as extremely unfair by our Jewish faculty, staff and students." (h/t Jewess)

FIFA president says he won’t sanction Israel

Officials have threatened to call once again for Israel’s expulsion at the FIFA Congress in Sao Paolo, which will take place on the sidelines of the June-July 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“I separate politics and sport,” Blatter said at a joint news conference with Israel Football Association head Avi Luzon in Jerusalem.
“I don’t know on what items the FIFA Congress should take action against the IFA, if they are (acting) according to the statutes and regulations of FIFA.
“So far, we haven’t seen any breach of regulations… until then, who could take action against somebody who is a good member of FIFA? I can tell you that your federation is a good standing member,” he said.

SFSU Professors Met with Terrorists Tied to American Deaths on Taxpayer's Dime

California Public Records Act inquiry revealed that multiple professors from San Francisco State University met with terrorists on a trip funded by the university. Professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker, along with Abdulhadi's husband, met with terrorists Leila Khaled and Sheikh Raed Salah during the "Labor Delegation to Palestine 2014" which began on January 5th, 2014 and concluded on February 14th, 2014.
Eight organizations- the AMCHA Initiative, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, and Zionist Organization of America- sent a letter to CSU Chancellor Timothy White, SFSU President Leslie Wong, CSU Vice Chancellor and Chief Audit Officer Larry Mendel and CSU Attorney Carrie Hemphill Reith concerning the matter. (h/t Bob Knot)

Anti-Israel Students' Divestment Win at DePaul Short-Lived

With approximately 10 percent of the DePaul University student body participating in last week’s anti-Israel divestment referendum vote, apathy appears to be the big winner on the Lincoln Park campus. Still, by a vote of 54 percent to 46 percent (1,575 to 1,333), the “DePaul Divests” referendum, an initiative of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), has passed.
“Following two months of campaigning at DePaul University, student coalition DePaul Divest declares victory in a campaign to divest from corporations that profit off of human rights violations perpetrated against Palestinians via the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine,” according to SJP’s press release.
But divestment supporters’ victory celebration was short-lived, as DePaul University President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., issued a public statement explaining the complexities of the measure and the financial impact it could have on students.

BDS lie caught on video

The sponsor of a failed anti-Israel divestment resolution at the University of Washington is caught on video falsely informing fellow senators that 75% of all anti-Israel divestment resolutions have passed. In fact the opposite is true.
Student senators at the University of Washington (ASUW) met in committee this past Tuesday, just prior to the anticipated divestment vote to gather information from the resolution’s sponsors and opponents.
ASUW Senator Marnie Brown can be seen on the video below asking student senator and BDS activist Peter Brannan to comment on the series of BDS divestment failures across the country. Brannan responds by claiming that “about 3/4 of the [divestment] resolutions brought before student governments have passed.” This is false.

Is a small Guatemalan town expelling its Jews?

Indigenous residents of San Juan La Laguna, a small town of under 10,000 in the Guatemalan state of Sololá, have asked members of the Jewish community — comprising 10 ultra-Orthodox families, most of whom arrived only recently — to identify themselves in a municipal registry and leave within the next few months.
The registry was established to verify whether immigrants from the Jewish community are legally in the country and where they are from, information which has not been asked of other foreigners granted temporary visas.

Russia Refuses to Return Disputed Chabad Archive

A Moscow court on Thursday rejected a US order for Russia to hand over a disputed Jewish archive, instead imposing a fine on Washington for keeping part of the collection.
The dispute over the Schneersohn Library - a collection of more than 12,000 texts and 50,000 documents venerated by Hasidic Jews - has for years damaged Russia-US cultural ties.
The Moscow arbitration court rejected a US court ruling in 2013 that imposed a $50,000 (37,000 euro)-per-day fine on Russia as long as the collection was not handed over to New York's Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch community, which considers itself the legal heir to the archive.
The Russian court instead imposed its own $50,000-per-day fine on the United States for keeping some of the archives at the Library of Congress.

German car maker Audi reveals Nazi past

An historical investigation commissioned by the company — the last German auto company to do so, preceded by Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW — found that when Audi was operating under the name Auto Union, it struck a deal with the SS, by which more than 3,700 inmates from Nazi concentration camps were put to work for the company.
The 500-page report, authored by historians Martin Kukowski and Rudolf Boch and published Monday, revealed that the Nazi SS divisions built seven labor camps for this purpose.
Another 16,500 laborers — not interned in concentration camps — also were made to work for the car company in the Saxon cities of Zwickau and Chemnitz, in addition to 18,000 at a plant in Bavaria where more than 4,000 died, the report noted.

In first, Poland to pay pensions to Shoah survivors abroad

Poland is making it easier for Holocaust survivors and other victims of Nazi or Soviet oppression to apply for monthly pensions, possibly enabling tens of thousands of Israelis with Polish roots to start receiving payments as early as next summer, The Times of Israel has learned.
The government in Warsaw recently changed its laws to allow the Polish Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression to transfer a “monthly pecuniary allowance” of about €100 (NIS 470 or $135) to eligible claimants who reside outside of Poland and do not have access to a bank account in the country.

Los Angeles, Eilat join forces on tech initiatives

In a memorandum of understanding modeled after a state plan, the city of Los Angeles on Friday signed an agreement with the city of Eilat, Israel, to create a joint task force to explore ways to join forces on environmental and clean-technology initiatives.
Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who had worked on the state agreement when he was an assemblyman, said Eilat is a perfect partner for Los Angeles, as they share many of the same problems and issues, particularly in dealing with a scarcity of water.
“This takes our 55-year-old relationship with Eilat to foster development and research,” said Blumenfield, noting Eilat and Los Angeles have been Sister Cities since 1959.

Massachusetts Gov. Patrick leading trip to Israel

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is heading out of the country on a trade mission to Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Patrick has said the goal of the nine-day trip is to expand opportunities for economic development and job creation in the innovation economy. He leaves Sunday and arrives in Israel on Monday.
In 2013, Massachusetts was Israel’s 12th largest import partner within the United States, with Israel importing $212 million in goods and services.

Tech seed fund brings MIT, Israeli R&D closer

Under the deal, students from both institutions are to work together to develop ideas based on research done at both schools. Ideas will be submitted to a panel for review, and those found worthy of further development will receive seed money from the fund.
The program is administered by MIT’s International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI), which arranges for MIT students to spend time at institutions around the world. MISTI works with all Israeli universities and runs joint research and education programs for MIT students in Israel. The group operates an internship program for MIT students in Israel, who work in companies such as Teva, IBM and Intel, said David Dolev, managing director of MISTI MIT-Israel and assistant director of MISTI worldwide.

Timberlake hits Kotel ahead of TA gig

Pop star Justin Timberlake, whose Tel Aviv concert at Yarkon Park takes place Wednesday night, arrived from Turkey and landed in Israel at 3 in the morning on Tuesday.
He was accompanied by his wife, Jessica Biel, and his parents, Randall Timberlake and Lynn Harless. Timberlake’s last concert was on Monday, May 19, in Moscow.
Timberlake avoided much of the paparazzi awaiting him at Ben-Gurion International Airport and headed straight to Jerusalem and the Western Wall.

Israel Daily Picture: Chapter: Jewish Festivals -- The Gates of Jerusalem's Old City -- In Honor of "Jerusalem Day"

Israel celebrates "Jerusalem Day" today, commemorating the reuniting of the city of Jerusalem during the 1967 war. For 19 years, between 1948 and 1967, the city was split between warring Jordanian and Israeli forces.
Thousands of Israelis will visit Jerusalem today, dance to the Western Wall, and march around the Old City's gates. We present here antique pictures of the gates, some taken 160 years ago.

Israel Daily Picture: Chapter: Jewish holidays: Israel Commemorates "Jerusalem Day," Celebrating the Unification of Jerusalem in 1967

David Rubinger's iconic 1967 picture of Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall is one of the most famous pictures in modern Jewish history.
The photo was taken just hours after the Israel Defense Forces captured Jerusalem's Old City during the Six-Day War after the Jordanian army fired on the Jewish half of the city.
Israel Daily Picture has discovered that the Western Wall has been a magnet for Jewish soldiers over the last century.
We present these pictures for "Yom Yerushalayim" which begins Tuesday evening.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 5/28/2014 06:00:00 PM