04/10 Links: Clinton takes Sanders to task over Gaza; Today's Anti-Semitic Tweet From UK Labour ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Clinton takes Sanders to task over Gaza comments

Hillary Clinton blasts fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders over comments he made saying Israel reacted with disproportionate force during its military campaign in the Gaza Strip in 2014.
“Hamas provokes Israel. They often pretend to have people in civilian garb acting as though they are civilians who are Hamas fighters,” she tells CNN’s State of the Union, according to Politico. “It’s a very different undertaking for Israel to target those who are targeting them. And I think Israel has had to defend itself, has a right to defend itself.”
Sanders came under fire last week from Israeli officials and the ADL after he suggested in an interview with the New York Daily News that Israel had killed 10,000 innocents in Gaza in 2014. The former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, now a Knesset lawmaker with Kulanu, even accused him of spreading a “blood libel.”
Sanders, for his part, doubles down on the contention that Israel reacted disproportionately in Gaza, after acknowledging over the weekend that he got the death toll wrong.

Bernie Sanders Was Asked an Anti-Semitic Question. Here’s How He Should Have Answered.

“As you know,” opened the questioner, “the Zionist Jews–and I don’t mean to offend anybody–they run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign.” As this unfolded, Sanders began wagging his finger in dissent, and interjected to deem “Zionist Jews” a “bad phrase.” His interlocutor, pressed to articulate a question, concluded by saying, “What is your affiliation to your Jewish community? That’s all I’m asking.”
“No, no, no, that’s not what you’re asking,” Sanders quickly replied, in a nod to the question’s underlying prejudice. “I am proud to be Jewish,” he declared, to cheers from the audience. But then Sanders did something odd. Rather than using the question as a teaching moment to address and rebuke its anti-Semitic underpinnings, Sanders instead immediately pivoted to his stump speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Talking about Zionism and Israel,” he said, “I am a strong defender of Israel, but I also believe that we have got to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinian people.” He never challenged the actual contents of the question, let alone labeled it anti-Semitic.
Needless to say, Sanders has mustered far more outrage for Wall Street, systemic racism, and Islamophobia, than he did when confronted with anti-Jewish prejudice. His reserved response to the anti-Semitic questioner stands in stark contrast to his powerful rebuke of anti-Islamic prejudice back in October, when he movingly embraced a Muslim student on stage.
...
All that said, as understandable as Sanders’ response may have been in the moment, it still represents a missed opportunity. Sanders had the chance to educate a young progressive audience about the perils of anti-Jewish prejudice, and he didn’t quite rise to the occasion as he has when coming to the defense of other minorities, or when railing against millionaires and billionaires.

An open letter to Bernie Sanders from the Israeli left (satire)

Dear Bernie,
We are writing to you with much appreciation and esteem to tell you that -
You belong with us.
Come, emigrate to Israel and leave the dirty work to Hillary Clinton, your competitor for the Democratic candidacy.
She is intelligent, she is not Jewish, she thinks like you, but knows how to hide it.
Come to our land, dear Bernie.
In Israel, even though we are only a small percentage of the general public, we have managed to gain control of the entire country.
We have writers like Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman and playwrights like Yehoshua Sobol.
We have succeeded in establishing organizations that write, photograph and help BDS, such as B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Yesh Gvul and Peace Now.

Hamas Endorses Sanders for President, Calls Him “Jew We Can Believe In” (satire)

Less than a week after erroneously claiming that Israel killed “over 10,000 innocents” in the 2014 Gaza War, Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has earned the endorsement of the Islamist group Hamas.
“Sanders is just our kind of Jew,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Al Aqsa TV yesterday. “Whereas Hillary Clinton is a Zionist c**t from hell, Sanders is a Jew we can believe in. We thus wholeheartedly endorse him for U.S. President, and look forward to him freeing American foreign policy from the grip of the Rothschilds and Co.”
The endorsement follows the New York Daily News’ release of an interview transcript in which the Vermont senator suggested “10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza” by “indiscriminate” Israeli force in the 2014 conflict (Palestinian figures put the death toll at 2,251 Gazans, including 1,462 civilians).
Speaking to the Mideast Beast, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said Abu Zuhri’s announcement “proves that Hamas is not the anti-Semitic monster the American media portrays it as,” adding: “Not only do we share Hamas’ desire to end the banking industry’s control over world affairs, but also Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Indeed, once elected, President Sanders will invite Hamas leader Comrade Meshaal to the White House in order to brainstorm ways to secure a lasting peace in the region.” (h/t Yenta Press)

Labour councillor, 20, suspended over claims she called Hitler 'the greatest man in history' in latest anti-Semitic scandal to hit Corbyn's party

A Labour councillor has been suspended for shockingly offensive anti-Semitic tweets, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The discovery of Aysegul Gurbuz’s vile comments is the latest in a series of anti-Semitic scandals to hit the Labour Party.
The 20-year-old student is alleged to have called Adolf Hitler the ‘greatest man in history’ and said she hoped Iran would use a nuclear weapon to ‘wipe Israel off the map’.
Miss Gurbuz, who is Muslim, became Luton’s youngest councillor when she was elected to the High Town ward last year.
But last night Miss Gurbuz was suspended after the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism found a series of disturbing posts on her Twitter account from 2011 to 2014.
One tweet, written in January 2013, said: ‘The Jews are so powerful in the US it’s disgusting.’
Another post, in October 2012, said: ‘Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain.’ And Adolf Hitler was praised as the ‘greatest man in history’ in a tweet in October 2011. (h/t Bob Knot)

Corbyn ‘Concerned’ by tomorrow’s Anti-Semitic Tweet From Labour Councillor (satire)

Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn expressed his concern following tomorrow’s tweet from a Labour Party Councillor alleging that the Joooz secretly run the banks from a secret enclave in the Swiss Alps. Labour, which lately appears lately to strive to be the “Socialism” in “The Socialism of Fools“, was taken very much off guard by tomorrow’s tweet, as this type of thing simply does not happen in Labour.
The Councilor who will send the tweet, from Luton or Birmingham or maybe Manchester, is now “under investigation” and will be expelled from the Party the day after tomorrow, after which he or she will quietly be re-admitted some time around August.
In other news, members of Labour’s Environment and Ecology Committee have proposed a tree-saving initiative in which instead of a full-page statement, the Party will denounce future anti-Semitic tweets with a terse “Please see our last statement on this subject.”
Mr. Corbyn for his part stressed that tomorrow’s tweet will be an isolated incident. “I am extremely concerned with tomorrow’s tweet. However, I must state that tomorrow’s tweet is not part of any pattern of anti-Semitism within the Party. And neither was the previous incident. Nor the incident before that. Nor the one before that. Nor the one before that. Nor the one before that. Nor the one before that.”

Clinton Wonders Why Labor Pols Can’t Just Delete Antisemitic Evidence (satire)

The frontrunner for the Democratic Party presidential nomination expressed puzzlement today at continued revelations of antisemitism among British Labor Party politicians, specifically asking aides to explain why those party officials didn’t just delete the problematic tweets.
In response to yet another Labor Party figure who posted anti-Jewish sentiments on social media – this time a woman who praised Hitler – Hillary Clinton added the voice of her experience to the public sphere, citing the precautions that she would take if there were incriminating digital evidence that could prove politically damaging. In particular, the former First Lady, Secretary of State, and New York Senator suggested that removing such evidence from the server where it resides should more than suffice to prevent incrimination.
“I understand they suspended her from the party – she could have avoided that by using a private server and selectively deleting files,” said Clinton of former UK Labor Councillor Aysegul Gurbuz. “Obviously, the most prudent political course involves not expressing certain things at all – it’s best not to have any actual personal convictions other than ‘say what will get you elected’ – but we all mess up, and in case you mess up, the intelligent thing to do is to delete the evidence of that mess-up.”

After six months, ‘significant drop’ in attacks on Israelis seen

Six months into a deadly wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, officials in Jerusalem said Sunday that new statistics show a significant drop in attacks on Israelis over the past weeks, but stressed that counter-terror efforts would persist.
The last few months have seen a “significant decline” in the number of attacks, including in the number of “significant” attacks, the Shin Bet security service reported.
The Shin Bet said figures showed “only” three significant attacks in April, as compared to 20 in March and 78 in October, at the start of the uptick in attacks.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Shin Bet attributed the decline to Israeli efforts to foil attacks, along with “effective deterrent action” and “determined activity to counter Palestinian incitement.”
The agency, which presented the numbers to the government cabinet Sunday morning, said Israel’s counter-terror activity has left the Palestinian public feeling that the “escalation is pointless.”

PM accuses Islamic leader of ‘heating up’ Temple Mount

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused an Arab Israeli Islamist leader of stirring up trouble on the Temple Mount ahead of this month’s Jewish holiday of Passover, saying Raed Salah should be in prison.
Salah, head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, was sentenced last year to 11 months in prison for incitement to violence and racism over an inflammatory sermon he delivered in 2007 in Jerusalem. He has appealed the sentence. He has previously served terms for similar offenses.
“We recognize the attempts by Raed Salah to heat up the area of the Temple Mount ahead of the Passover holiday,” Netanyahu said at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “This man is a one-man detonator.”

PA says in talks with Israel on ending IDF raids in West Bank

Senior Palestinian officials say that security talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel are currently focused on a proposal to halt all Israeli military activity in West Bank cities, in accordance with a schedule to be agreed upon by both parties.
The discussions come after the Palestinian Authority rejected an Israeli proposal to first end military operations in Ramallah and Jericho, and subsequently evaluate whether it could then extend to other West Bank cities. Haaretz newspaper reported last month that Israel had proposed to halt operations in the two West Bank cities, except in cases of “ticking bombs” — terrorists who are about to carry out attacks.
Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel that there are currently intense discussions underway, although it is unclear how the Israeli political echelon will respond to the Palestinian demand for an end to all Israeli operations in West Bank cities, or even to the fact of the discussions being held with Israeli defense officials.

Hamas denounces PA cooperation with Israel in foiling attack

Hamas on Sunday expressed concern at the joint security operations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority after PA forces arrested three suspected would-be terrorists on their way to an attack over the weekend.
“The cooperation between the PA and Israel in arresting the three fighters is a serious escalation in the coordination between them,” said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, according to reports.
Zuhri’s comments came the day after PA security forces detained three Palestinian youths who had been missing since March 30, foiling a planned large-scale terror attack against Israeli targets, according to Palestinian Authority sources.
PA forces had conducted intensive searches for the three since they were reported missing.
The trio were found in an open area north of the West Bank city of Ramallah by a joint force of Palestinian police and the Palestinian Internal Security service, according to Palestinian sources who spoke to The Times of Israel.

Arab MKs back Bahloul, calling young Palestinians ‘victims of occupation’

Last week, Bahloul said he would not characterize the Palestinian man who stabbed an IDF soldier in Hebron on March 24 as a “terrorist,” because he attacked a soldier and not a civilian. Several Zionist Union MKs, including party leader Isaac Herzog, condemned Bahloul’s comments. Bahloul, the only Arab lawmaker in the Zionist Union, repeated the statement on Saturday, and MK Eitan Cabel, a veteran labor legislator and Herzog ally, said Bahloul does not belong in the faction anymore.
Joint List MK Yussef Jabareen justified Bahloul’s comments and slammed the Zionist Union.
“International law recognizes the right of a nation under occupation to resist the occupation,” Jabareen stated. “Young Palestinians are victims of the occupation whose basic rights are negated and whose lives have been made miserable for five decades.”
Jabareen added that, “instead of providing an alternative to the reality of occupation and the cycle of bloodshed, the Zionist Union is lining up with the Netanyahu government’s policies and an atmosphere of belligerence, ultra-nationalism and militancy.”
According to the Joint List lawmaker, the government is the terrorist in the story, because it is destroying the chances for peace, and whoever wants peace should “resist the presence of soldiers in the West Bank.”
MK Essawi Frej (Meretz) said that the Zionist Union “showed its real face in relation to Arab society.

Vic Rosenthal: Why the excitement? Bahloul only represents his party.

The truth is that there is no occupation, except perhaps the ones operated by Hamas and the PLO in Gaza and Ramallah. The truth is that under international law, the borders of the state of Israel approximate those of the British Mandate, and its area was not reduced by the 19-year Jordanian occupation that ended in 1967. The truth is that the ‘Palestinian people’ is an artificial construct of very recent origin, developed in order to oppose Jewish self-determination in the land that was set aside for them in international law. Neither law nor justice is on the Arab side.
The ‘Palestinian’ who stabbed the soldier and was killed was therefore not a freedom fighter. He was an insurgent, a terrorist who is trying to overthrow a legitimate democratic sovereign in order to establish a racist apartheid state. Judging by Palestinian Arab propaganda in their official media and by their actions during the recent intifada, it would not be unreasonable to assume that their success would be accompanied by mass murder, if not genocide. This is hardly a just goal.
While it’s possible to understand why Arabs prefer the occupation narrative, it is hard for me to see why Jews – especially those who call themselves Zionists – would do so. Accepting it and, worse, negotiating with it as a basis, negates Zionism because it presupposes as a starting point that the Jews are here on land that belongs to the ‘Palestinians’, rather than the reverse.

IDF colonel cleared in shooting death of rock thrower

An Israeli colonel was Sunday cleared of all charges by the IDF prosecutor’s office in the shooting death of a Palestinian teenager last summer.
Muhammad Ali al-Kasbeh hurled a large rock at Col. Yisrael Shomer’s vehicle at the Qalandiya checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah on the night of July 3, 2015. The stone “smashed the windshield and entered the vehicle,” according to the IDF.
Shomer, commander of the Binyamin Brigade in the West Bank, got out of the vehicle and shot at the fleeing 17-year-old assailant, killing him.
Video from the incident released by the B’Tselem human rights organization stirred controversy at the time, as some questioned why Shomer had opened fire at the Palestinian who appeared to no longer present an immediate threat to the soldiers.

Foreign Policy Mag Labels Hamas “Palestinian Resistance Group”

Hamas is a terrorist organization. Unfortunately, many media outlets have a hard time using this accurate terminology, preferring language such as “militant” or “extremist” to describe Hamas.
Foreign Policy magazine, however, has lowered the bar even further by reproducing a Getty Images photo with the caption:
Supporters of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas hold a rally in Gaza City on March 24.
We located the original photo on the Getty Images website where the caption reads:
Members of Hamas carry symbolic coffins during the support to uprising [sic] in Jerusalem and West Bank event, in Gaza City, Gaza on March 24, 2016.
This would appear to indicate that it was Foreign Policy itself that came up with the “resistance group” description.
Is indiscriminately launching thousands of rockets into Israel “resistance?” Is targeting Israeli civilians for murder “resistance?” Is abusing your own people by using them as human shields “resistance?”
No. It’s terrorism and it’s time that Foreign Policy stopped sanitizing Hamas.

Palestinian UN draft calls to resolve final status issues within a year

A draft resolution by the Palestinian Authority distributed to UN members last week calls for the immediate resumption of peace talks with Israel and a final status agreement within a year, as well as a complete halt to all Israeli settlement activity.
A copy of the resolution was posted to the UN Report blog on Friday.
Israeli daily Haaretz, which first reported on the resolution, said the Palestinians want the Security Council to vote when PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in New York on April 22 for a high-level signing ceremony for the landmark climate agreement reached in Paris in December. Dozens of international politicians are expected to attend the ceremony.
The UN draft calls on “all parties to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process according to its agreed terms of reference and within the time frame specified by the Quartet [of Mideast peacemakers] in its statement of 21 September 2010.”

US undecided on veto of UNSC resolution against West Bank settlements

The United States has yet to decide whether or not to support a Palestinian drive to push forward a UN Security Council resolution later this month condemning West Bank settlements.
“We understand there is an early draft that the Palestinians have shared informally in New York,” US State Department Deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington on Friday.
The US is one of five nations that have veto rights on all resolutions that come before the 15-member Security Council.
The US vetoed an anti-settlement resolution at the UN in 2011, which was the only veto cast by the US during President Barack Obama’s tenure.
The US also has worked against similar initiatives at the council out of a belief that the best step forward is the resumption of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Cruz Courts Brooklyn Jews, Says Obama Treating Netanyahu ‘Shamefully’ (VIDEO)

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told a group of Orthodox Jewish supporters in Brooklyn on Thursday that the Obama administration has treated Israel’s prime minister “shamefully,” Newsday reported.
During a campaign stop, where he took part in baking Passover matzah, Cruz said his administration would make it a priority to clean up the diplomatic mess caused by Obama and mend the relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I give you my word, after these seven long years of an administration that turned a blind eye and a cold shoulder to Israel, in January 2017, that will end,” he stated.
Cruz has been campaigning hard in New York, attempting to garner the religious vote ahead of the state’s April 19 GOP primary. According to a Wednesday poll by Monmouth University, Cruz is in third place to win the primary with 17 percent of votes, behind New York real estate mogul Donald Trump’s 52% and Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 25%.
Upon leaving the matzah-baking event, Cruz told Jewish Insider that he anticipates his steady support of Israel to play a major role in how voters cast their ballots. “It the right thing to do so, regardless, but I would be grateful if it also earned the support of many people in New York and elsewhere,” he said. According to a March Gallup poll, Cruz has an only 20% favorability rating among Jewish voters.

Israel 'quietly' adopting Levy Report to legalize outposts

Nearly four years after the historic Levy Report was presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, sources responsible for the document have confirmed that despite refusal to formally adopt the report, the government is quietly implementing many of its proposals.
In the summer of 2012 a legal panel commissioned by the Israeli government to assess the status of Judea and Samaria according to international law produced a set of findings widely referred to as the Levy Report, named after the panel’s chief, Edmond Levy.
The report found that the case of Judea and Samaria was sui generis, and as such is not within the penumbra of international laws restricting government action in hostile territory occupied in wartime.
Thus, according to the Levy Report, there was no legal impediment to Israel building in or developing areas of Judea and Samaria.
Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately condemned the report, as did the Israeli Left.

UN: IDF has razed more Palestinian structures this year than all of 2015

The civil administration demolished more Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank over three months in 2016 than it did in all of the previous year, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.
“Thus far in 2016, the Israeli authorities have demolished 539 structures in Palestinian communities in Area C of the West Bank, compared to a total of 453 in Area C in all of 2015,” it said.
The Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria says it removes Palestinian and Beduin structures that were built illegally without permits.
Many of those structures are temporary ones, in herding Palestinian and Beduin communities, where the civil administration often carries out enforcement actions.
Some of the structures house animals. A portion of the more modern modular structures, which the civil administration has demolished, are constructed with funding from the European Union.

UN Envoy Tells EU To Step Up Pressure On Israel Over West Bank Demolitions

The European Union must raise political pressure on Israel over accelerating West Bank demolitions that run against international law and increasingly affect aid projects sponsored by the bloc, a U.N. envoy for Palestinian territories said.
With more than 540 demolitions and confiscations in the occupied West Bank so far this year, the Israeli military has already matched or exceeded the total of 2015, tightening the squeeze on Palestinians living there.
Robert Piper, a United Nations assistant secretary general and the head of humanitarian affairs for the Palestinian territories, briefed EU officials on that in Brussels on Friday, urging them to respond.
“We have entered a new and fairly disturbing phase in terms of the confrontation between international humanitarian law and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank,” Piper told Reuters.
The Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, says it carries out the demolitions because the structures are illegal: they were either built without a permit, in a closed military area or firing zone, or violate other planning and zoning restrictions.

Muslim leaders to focus on Palestinians, terror at Turkey summit

The OIC said the summit was to issue a resolution on the Palestinian issue and support for international efforts to relaunch a “collective political process.”
The gathering comes at a time of rising Islamophobia in many Western nations in response to a spate of attacks by the Islamic State group.
Islamic leaders will also “consider the situation of Muslim communities in non-OIC member States and the issue of combating terrorism.”
Turkey has also been a victim of several bloody IS attacks, and the Istanbul summit comes a day after the US warned of a “credible threat” of attacks in the city.
Under Erdogan, who has made Islam one of central themes of his politics, Turkey has upped its economic and political influence throughout the Islamic world, particularly in lands in the Middle East once part of the Ottoman Empire.
However this policy has has not always met with success and frosty relations with several Muslim states, including Egypt, have led some analysts to conclude its aim of “zero problems with neighbors” ended up having exactly the opposite effect.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas bans ‘national unity’ conference in Gaza City

Hamas banned a conference in Gaza City on Saturday that was supposed to call for ending divisions among the Palestinians and achieving “national unity.”
Hamas security officers raided the conference hall at the Al-Quds Hospital and expelled the organizers and participants, sources in the Gaza Strip reported. According to the sources, the officers summoned some of the organizers for interrogation.
The conference was organized by political activists, journalists and academics who belong to a group called Nationalists for Ending the Division and Restoring National Unity.
Several Palestinian factions strongly condemned the ban and accused Hamas of seeking to foil efforts to end the 10-year-old Hamas-Fatah dispute.
The factions said the ban was an assault on public freedom in the Gaza Strip.

Brussels attackers planned fresh Paris strike, prosecutors confirm

The attackers who struck Brussels on March 22 initially planned to launch a second assault on France, Belgium’s Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday.
But the perpetrators were “surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation” and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead, the office said in a statement. It didn’t provide any more details.
Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels Airport on March 22. A subsequent explosion at Brussels’ Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 people the same morning.
Investigators have found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels attacks and the group that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.
Sunday’s statement provides confirmation of what many have suspected: the series of raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacks — including the capture of key Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam — pushed the killers to action.

Swede held over attacks ID’d as Palestinian ‘brainwashed’ by jihadis

Osama Krayem lived a delinquent lifestyle in Rosengard, an immigrant neighborhood in the Swedish city of Malmo, before he was “brainwashed” and joined Islamic militants in Syria, community activists and his aunt said Saturday.
The 23-year-old is now under arrest in Belgium where prosecutors accuse him of involvement in the Brussels attacks.
Krayem grew up in Rosengard, a district notorious in Sweden for high crime and unemployment rates where more than 80 percent of the residents are first- or second-generation immigrants. Muhammad Khorshid, who runs a program in Rosengard to help immigrants integrate into Swedish society, told The Associated Press that Krayem comes from a Palestinian family.
“He was well-known to the local police for multiple criminal activities like thefts, for instance,” said the 46-year-old Khorshid, who is from Iraq. He said Krayem “was the perfect target for radicalization — no job, no future, no money.”

Hate leaflets calling for killing of Ahmadi Muslims distributed across London

Leaflets calling for members of the Ahmadi Muslim community to be killed have allegedly been distributed in universities, mosques and shopping centres in London.
Followers of the Muslim Ahmadi sect, which preaches a message of peace and tolerance, have long been subject to violent attacks and persecution in Pakistan, where they are branded worse than apostates by hardliners and forbidden by the state to call themselves Muslims.
Now the wave of persecution appears to have spread to the UK, with a man admitting in a public statement that he killed Ahmadi shopkeeper Asad Shah in Glasgow for disrespecting Islam. The unusual statement coincides with the distribution across London of leaflets calling for followers of the religion to be killed.
A leaflet undersigned by the global anti-Ahmadiyya Khatme Nubuwwat organisation in Stockwell Green, and distributed in several London locations, has been obtained by IBTimes UK.
The group denies spreading anti-Ahmadiyya hate speech.

4 Arrested for Antisemitic Attack in London Tunnel

Four men in London were arrested on Friday in connection with an antisemitic incident.
The incident took place on Friday at 1.30 am in London’s Blackwall Tunnel. A 28-year-old Jewish man was driving through the underpass, when the four occupants of a car driving alongside him began shouting antisemitic epithets, according to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police.
The London branch of Shomrim, an international, Jewish volunteer neighborhood patrol organization, said the men shouted “F—ing Jews” and “Kill the Jews” at the victim, whose partner and child were with him, and threw eggs at his car, according to the UK Mirror.
The four men arrested, aged 20 and 22, remain in custody at an east London police station, as authorities investigate the incident.

Austria to seize Hitler home amid anti-Semitism spike

Adolf Hitler's house will become Austrian state property, Vienna announced Saturday - in a move for the public's protection.
Hitler's image has become an icon of white supremacy for neo-Nazi groups - getting stronger, like aging wine, as the decades pass.
As such, seizing Hitler's home prevents neo-Nazis in Austria from using the home as a sort of shrine and deters extremism, Austrian officials believe - a move made after years of discussion over what to do with the property, BBC News reports. Meanwhile, Hitler's unmarked home still attracts a small following of supporters who frequent the venue at Braunau am Inn, where Hitler was born in April, 1889.
"We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria," ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck stated to AFP.
"We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi [sympathizers]."

Facebook bans user for criticizing anti-Semitism

Facebook temporarily banned an Australian gym called IDF Training after the owner responded to an anti-Semitic message.
The Australian news site The Age reports that someone posted an offensive comment on the gym's Facebook page, calling the owner a "pig f----er" and declaring that "Australia is against israel [sic]."
The owner, Avi Yemini, responded by sharing the post, with the added hashtag "#saynotoracism." An anonymous browser soon reported Yemini's post as offensive and Facebook suspended the account for three days.
"I've spoken to Facebook explaining that it was in fact his vile message that was in breach of their terms, and that I couldn't believe that not only are they siding with the racist user, they are penalizing an advocate for understanding and tolerance," he said.
Yemini returned to Australia and opened IDF Training after serving in the IDF's Golani Brigade. He now teaches people martial arts and self-defense based on the IDF's methods. He has also encouraged the gym's members to join the IDF.

Israel Credited With Saving Jerusalem’s ‘Tomb of Jesus,’ Causing Rival Christian Groups to Unite in Its Repair

The Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem is crediting Israel with saving a holy Christian site, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the shrine around what many believe is the tomb of Jesus, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, is in a dilapidated state and desperately in need of repair. But it was not until Israel shut it down for fear it would collapse that rival Christian groups set aside their differences to save it.
Rev. Samuel Aghoyan, the Armenian Patriarchate’s representative at the Holy Sepulchre, told the Times, “If the Israeli government didn’t get involved, nobody would have done anything.”
On February 17, 2015, Israeli police barred religious pilgrims and the monks who guard the tomb from entering the holy site for several hours after receiving reports that it was at risk of caving in. “The message was clear: Fix it, or else,” the New York Times noted.

No-surgery device to remove skin lesions okayed in Europe

The device will be launched commercially by Omega Pharma, a partner of BioLineRx in Modi’in, Israel. BioLineRx licensed the product in December 2014 from Innovative Pharmaceutical Concepts.
“We in-licensed BL-5010 as a pre-clinical asset, completed all the necessary pre-clinical and clinical studies, successfully changed the development pathway in Europe from a drug to a device, developed a new and unique applicator for the product, and extended the product’s patent life by many years,” said Dr. Kinneret Savitsky, CEO of BioLineRx.
“We are very pleased with the CE mark approval for BL-5010, which is the final step necessary before the product’s launch as an OTC treatment in Europe, expected over the next few months.”
Savitsky said she hopes the regulatory approval for BL-5010 will expedite the potential expansion of the product to other markets as well as to additional indications.

‘Superman’s Got Nothing on Israel’ Wins First Place in New Video Competition (VIDEO)

An inspirational video entitled “Superman’s got nothing on Israel!” received the top prize at the first-ever “Inspired by Israel” video contest this week.
The winners of the contest — sponsored by the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, 12 Tribes Film Foundation, Israel Video Network and Rogatka — were announced on Sunday and awarded at the Tower of David Museum in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the sponsors, the goal of the contest was to “entertain, educate, and inspire people about Israel.”
Grand prize-winner Rachel Lester from Los Angeles, received $7,500 for her “Superman’s got nothing on Israel!” submission. A junior at the University of Southern California, where she is majoring in cognitive science and minoring in digital studies, Lester said in a statement: “Taking part in the first-ever ‘Inspired by Israel’ contest was incredibly rewarding not only to see how much my friends, family, and community came together to support me, but to see and hear firsthand how many people were touched by my video. This contest gave me the opportunity to spread my love for Israel’s humanitarian aid farther than I ever thought possible, so I’m very happy that I got a chance to participate. Winning the grand prize, especially as a non-professional full-time student who made the video completely on my own, was an incredible that I can’t even put into words!”
The runner-up prize went to Joshua Fleisher, a Jerusalem-based videographer, for his “Incredible Video of a Jerusalem Secret,” for which he received $2,500.

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