[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 05/20 Links Pt2: Re-liberating Jerusalem; Anti-Semitism scholar Robert Wistrich dies at 70 ~ EoZ

From Ian:

It's been almost 50 years since Israel unified Jerusalem and turned it from a dusty and depressed backwater into a truly radiant international capital city sparkling with energy and creativity.
There is more to come. The dynamic vision for Jerusalem 2020 in the transportation, cultural, recreational and business fields unveiled this week by Mayor Nir Barkat is exciting and uplifting.
Yet as we approach Jerusalem Liberation Day this Sunday, hefty question marks hang over the city's future. These uncertainties stem from government hesitations in the face of international and Arab pressure for re-division of the city (Heaven forbid).
Instead of acting decisively to buttress Israel's sovereignty, security, economy and social vibrancy in Jerusalem, we have a stalemate in government decision-making.
In fact, the threats to Jerusalem as a living, breathing, growing, safe and open city -- and to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and the epicenter of the global Jewish community -- come mainly from neglect on Israel's part.
The fourth Netanyahu government, taking office this weekend, must rebuff deleterious foreign pressures, stop dithering and act to re-establish forward motion, Zionist momentum, in Jerusalem. Here's how: (h/t Bob Knot)

The state of Palestine? Still mired in Jew hatred

With the Palestinians taking Israel to the International Criminal Court and trying to kick Israel out of the international soccer league, FIFA, while still boycotting normal, constructive, personal, economic or cultural ties with Israel, their war against the Jews continues. Even if Pope Francis – whom I respect – has been seduced by Palestinian self-pity to recognize the "state of Palestine," even if much of the world continues to blame Israel exclusively, the fact remains. Palestinian rhetoric and behavior reflect their honest intentions: their official organs and most of their leaders seek Israel's destruction and hate the Jewish people – not just "Zionists" – so much, they keep their people miserable rather than make any accommodation with the Jewish state. The Palestinians' self-destructive commitment to delegitimizing Israel rather than building their state or improving their lives proves they are motivated by bigotry.
Pope Francis ignored those realities, added to the Jewish people's collective anguish, and showed he believed in ghosts by recognizing "the state of Palestine" – a phantom entity. Whether or not he called the BDS bully, stalemate king and terrorist cheerleader Mahmoud Abbas an "angel of peace" is irrelevant. The pope's recognition discourages peace by encouraging Palestinian intransigence and extremism without encouraging Palestinian compromise and realism.
I understand the pope's need to mollify Palestinians.
Palestinian Christians and churches are vulnerable to the whims of cruel neighbors, who have destroyed Christian religious sites, raped young Christian girls, brutalized Christian families. Flattering the Palestinian Authority is an attempt to help oppressed Christians, who are suffering en masse and leaving in droves.
Unfortunately, mollifying bullies encourages them, denying crimes legitimizes them and coddling Palestinians only feeds their all-or-nothing rigidity. Although it is fun to blame Israel's "occupation" for all Palestinian Christians' troubles, a 2012 report by the nonpartisan Gatestone Institute on "The Disquieting Treatment of Christians by the Palestinians" noted that the Christian Arab population plummeted between 1949 and 1967. When Jordan and Egypt illegally controlled the West Bank and Gaza, two-thirds of Palestinian Christians fled. The situation stabilized when Israel fully controlled the areas, then deteriorated with increased Palestinian autonomy since the 1990s' Oslo Peace Accords.

Israeli national judo team detained at Morocco airport, passports confiscated

After Moroccan authorities refused to allow an armed Israeli escort
Members of Israel's national judo team were detained on Wednesday at a Morocco airport and had their passports confiscated by local officials, Israeli media reported. At the time of reporting the nature of the complication was unclear.
The seven-member Israeli national judo team flew to Morocco early Wednesday for an important tournament despite recommendations from Israel's national security agency to avoid travel to the Arab nation without bodyguards.
According to the Ynet website, Moroccan authorities refused to grant permission for an armed Israeli security detail to accompany the 11-member delegation. The team decided nonetheless to attend the fifth annual World Judo Masters event May 23-24 in Rabat, Morocco since the event could provide the judokas with sufficient points to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. (h/t Bob Knot)

Zion Awakening: Back! But not with a bang! Natalie Bennett BDS supporter dodges the question on 'Boycott Israel'

Been a while. But no better place to resume duties on the front line than with the 'Queen of BDS' Natalie Bennett of the green party. Watch how she dodges my question. I then proceeded to disrupt the event just to make the evening uncomfortable for her and her minions.

The UN's Delivery of Metaphorical Palestinian Keys

Is the pope seeking to a new replacement theology, where not only has the Vatican replaced Jerusalem as the center of divine revelation, but history itself can be updated? Is Israel being supplanted today the way the painting at the Vatican shows Judaism being replaced?
The news media has certainly rallied to such vision. The New York Times decided to cover the celebrations of Jerusalem Day on May 17, 2015 from a purely Arab point of view. The day in which Israelis celebrate the reunification of their holiest city from which they were expelled and barred from reentry was characterized as a moment of protest. The atrocities committed by Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs during 1949-1967 vanished and this year's celebration was mocked.
The Times questioned the very essence of Israeli rights to Jerusalem as it quoted a Palestinian man ""How would you feel if somebody marched through your living room, without your permission?"" Whose house is this anyway?
A Vanishing Point has interesting features: our eyes are drawn there; but the subject matter blurs and disappears.
The world's attention is focused on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Jews and Palestinian Arabs are focused on Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. As they do, Palestinians grab hold of the dangling key and Israelis don't see the golden key in their hand. Everyone wonders what the future will bring and ventures predictions as they gaze into the distance.
And as they do so, all reality disappears.

Jewish anti-Zionism: The proxy honor-killing

Not having the constitution to actually kill their embarrassing family member – most Jewish anti-Zionists, like Judith Butler and "Jewish Voice for Peace," are pacifists – they have to outsource the job, a proxy honor-murder if you will. Thus they connect with groups that do have both the constitution and the will to kill their offending family member, namely Jihadi groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, and American Muslims for Palestine.
Ironically, these latter groups are engaged in their own form of extra-familial honor-killing, namely killing those who have shamed them by establishing their autonomy in the midst of – in the heart of – Dar al Islam. The Palestinian notion of justice involves revenge for lost honor, washing one's blackened face in the blood of the dishonoring enemy. If that sounds improbable to you, consider the following a fortiori: if they will kill their own daughters for shaming them, how much the more will they kill outsiders for doing so?
So when Jews, Israelis or Diasporic, adopt the Palestinian lethal narrative about Israel, when they ally with sworn enemies of Israel, when they ignore all the evidence that the journalists' lethal narratives are dishonest violations of all the principles of a responsible free press, when they promote causes (like BDS) that target Israel's very existence, they engage in this proxy honor-murder.
Apparently nothing short of perfection is acceptable to these honor-driven moralists. Anything short of that perfection brings on the wrath of a shamed family member, determined to save his or her moral stature at the expense of his beleaguered people.
This shame motivation explains the irrational drive behind the moral posture. Not only do these Jews hold their own people to the highest standards, but (in a deeply racist fashion) they hold the Palestinians to no moral standards. On the contrary, their murderous hatreds are merely the expected response to the unbearable suffering Israelis inflict upon them.
And, alas, like the enemies of their people, who kill their daughters on suspicion alone, these Jews do so even though their family member, Israel, is not guilty as charged, is indeed one of the most cutting-edge progressive and inclusive cultures on this deeply troubled planet.

European Jews fearful a year after Belgium museum attack

A year after a gunman murdered four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Jews across Europe increasingly fear for their safety and warn they are on the front-line of an Islamist war against democracy itself.
Since the attack in the Belgian capital on May 24, 2014, Jews have been slain in jihadist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen. Jews were also murdered in a similar attack in the French city of Toulouse in 2012.
"The threat of jihadist attacks in Europe is not limited to the Jewish community," European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor told AFP.
"Islamist extremists see European democracy and freedom as their primary enemy. However, Jews remain on the frontlines," he added.

When Professors Turn Foolish They Turn Really Stupid

It took a George Orwell to point out that higher learning and stupidity make a regular couple. "There are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them," wrote Orwell, laconic and lucid together. The luminary of that era who left a bonanza of political idioms, among them "Big Brother," "Doublethink", and "More equal than others," found that intelligent people can be gullible people. He's a reminder that professors may lack a modicum of common sense. He learnt that to parley with learned people may be to parley with fools. We don't have to upturn rocks to uncover Orwell types. Look no further than a fashionable cause or a conventional wisdom and you'd find them – fool believers clinging for dear life to nonsensical notions.
In our troubled landscape one collecting point attracts more such pairings than any other point. A vast deposit of learned fools sticks to the brouhaha over Palestinian rights and Israeli wrongs. "A sore evil under the sun," old King Solomon said. He might have been prophesying the cock-and-bull morality play called BDS. The boycotting of Israel is a fashionable cause that brings learned fools out in droves. Everyone and his aunt glow with righteous wrath when the boycott show hits town. Clever people love to hang their faculty gowns on the peg of anti-Zionism. It's a cause that thought leaders and their disciples can't afford to miss.
A state for the Palestinians is conventional wisdom writ large. Overbearing professors kicking up dust swell the BDS bubble to the point of bursting. If a rousing brass band accompanied all the fuss and bother it would play a rendition of John Brown's Body. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of Palestine. It will trample over Israel where victims of occupation pine. As foot soldiers of human rights for their favorite people, intellectuals have found their holy grail. And it's known by three capital letters.
"BDS is a rights based movement which is opposed to racism in all its forms – including, explicitly anti-Semitism."
You can picture Orwell beaming.

Hundreds of UC Alums Join 23 Groups Urging Schools to Adopt State Department Antisemitism Definition

Fueling a roiling debate over antisemitism on college campuses, more than 500 alumni from the University of California wrote a letter to UC President Janet Napolitano on Tuesday urging the UCs to adopt a number of measures to rein in antisemitic acts against students.
Joining a coalition of 23 organizations that simultaneously sent a missive to the UC president, the alumni called on UC administrators to adopt the State Department definition of antisemitism, which includes the demonization or delegitimization of Israel along with a more religious or ethnic prejudice or hatred directed against Jews.
The students called on the UCs to train campus staff and authorities to "identify anti-Semitic behavior, and direct them to develop clear protocols for addressing campus antisemitism with the same promptness and vigor as they do other forms of racial, ethnic, and gender bigotry and discrimination."
They called for greater on-campus initiatives aiming to educate students about antisemitism and anti-Jewish behavior.
"No student should feel harassed, intimidated, threatened or marginalized. We implore you to better protect Jewish students at the University of California," they said, commending three UC student bodies for adopting resolutions condemning antisemitism.

Natan Sharansky: Campuses are flooded with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

A great deal has been written recently, and rightly so, about the rise of anti-Israel sentiment on American college campuses. Twelve years ago, when I first proposed that one could use the "three Ds" – double standards, delegitimization and demonization – to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism, most of the examples I found to illustrate my points came from Europe and international organizations. Yet today, nearly every American campus is as awash in double standards, efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state and rhetoric demonizing Israel as the newspapers of Europe or the committees of the United Nations.
For this reason, the Jewish Agency's Israel Fellows program, designed to connect Jewish college students with Israel, is the most quickly growing of all of the agency's initiatives. From its humble origins just five years ago, with representatives, or shlichim, on a dozen campuses, it now reaches more than 80 colleges and universities, with more to come. These fellows are what we might call the special forces of our nearly 2,000 shlichim to Jewish institutions worldwide. And this year, because of the unique challenges that arose following last summer's war in Gaza, we strengthened our efforts and sent in reserves, fellows who had served in previous years and were ready to do so again.
These dedicated men and women, who operate as part of each college's local Hillel team, work to bring Israel- related events to their campuses, to encourage students to visit Israel, and to strengthen the pro-Israel voice in campus debates. They are charged not only with convincing students to join Israel-experience programs, but also with accompanying them while there, developing relationships and encouraging them to speak up for Israel when they return to school. Such trips are among the most important and successful of all the post-Birthright programs, in that they use students' positive energy about Israel to help change the atmosphere on campus.

Foreign Ministry Indirectly Assists Boycott of Judea and Samaria

There is anger in the Jewish community in New York City following a decision by the Israel Consulate to allow the radical New Israel Fund (NIF) to march in the Celebrate Israel parade in Manhattan on May 31.
"We were surprised to learn that we, in New York, have to fight the NIF while it is the Israel Consulate, which is supposed to represent the Israeli interest, that harms us and indirectly encourages a boycott of Israel or of Judea and Samaria," Rabbi David Algaze, one of the most important rabbis in NYC, told Arutz Sheva.
"How can it be that we receive a slap in the face from – of all places – the Israeli Consulate, which is supposed to represent Israel proudly and uprightly, without folding before organizations that do not send a clear and consistent message against political movements that pretend to be Jewish and Zionist, but support harming the state of Israel, in Tel Aviv, Hadera, Ariel or Kfar Adumim. This takes gall," he said.
The Vice President of Public Affairs at the New Israel Fund, Naomi Paiss, has written that the NIF sees the boycott on Judea and Samaria as legitimate and has no problem giving grants to groups that support that boycott.

The Biggest Mistakes Pro-Israel Advocates Make #5: How to Win Over the Next Generation

Mistake #5: Same old, same old.
The mistake I'm about to talk to you about is committed by pretty much every single pro-Israel group ever. It also annoys me to no end. It's not like it's any more damaging than the other mistakes, I just find it the most grating. After all, why are organizations paying thousands of dollars to bring in top speakers like Prof. Alan Dershowitz or the Israeli Ambassador who deliver brilliant, passionate speeches, only to have around 10 people show up, all Jewish senior citizens who are already converted (and maybe the one young student who works part time for a production company who was paid to film the event – in other words most likely me)?
The problem is, young Jews in general aren't raised with a sense of pride in their heritage. They take our history for granted as a result, and don't seem to care enough to organize events on their own. Therefore, members of the older generation, in other words, Holocaust survivors and their children, usually end up taking all the initiatives. The reason for this is obvious – those who survived the Holocaust saw firsthand what widespread antisemitism can do so they are determined to stop it. They also intimately understand how important Israel's existence is in order to protect us from what they have known to be a long history of very fickle governments.

Edgar Davidson: Charles meets IRA leader but won't visit Israel

Prince Charles has upset some people today by meeting IRA leader Gerry Adams, although nobody ever bats an eyelid when he - and the Queen - visit terrorist-sponsoring corrupt Arab regimes, which they do all the time.
Charles did make one visit to Israel in 1995 to 'represent the Queen' at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. It is the ONLY 'official' visit ever made by a member of the British Royal Family (his father Prince Philip visited his mother's grave in Jerusalem in 1994 but the Royal Family and the British Government made clear that this was only in a 'private capacity'). The anti-semitic Arab arse-licking goons who have dominated the British Foreign Office for years have never allowed the Queen to visit Israel in case it 'upsets our Arab friends'. But Prince Charles's aides went further than that in 2007 when they ruled out any official visit declaring:
"Acceptance would make it hard to avoid the many ways in which Israel would want HRH [Prince Charles] to help burnish its international image."
If David Cameron is even half the 'friend' of Israel that he and some of his naive Jewish supporters think then he should demand that the Queen finally accepts Israel's long-standing invitation to visit their country.

Common Core-Approved Workshop Teaches Sympathy for Hamas

A Common Core-approved workshop on the Middle East conflict titled "Whose Jerusalem?" has sparked controversy among critics who charge that the program portrays Israel and America in a negative light while cultivating sympathy for terrorist group Hamas.
The "Whose Jerusalem?" curriculum was created by Boston University professor Carl Hobert, who describes the goal of his program as "educational civil disobedience, where students are learning about the Middle East and they're putting pressure on our government to create a Palestinian state." It has already been used in numerous high schools and has now been approved as part of the Common Core national curriculum.
Students participating in the program are assigned to portray various parties to the Middle East conflict including Arab, Israeli and American leaders, and to negotiate an agreement on how to divide Jerusalem.
Describing how he uses the program to influence students' thinking, Hobart explains, "When a student goes, 'I am devoutly Jewish and I've got family members in Israel. I would like to be a member of Likud Party.' Guess what we make that student? A member of Hamas."

LegalInsurrection: Let My Apology Tour To Israel begin

I'm leaving Friday for a two week Apology Tour to Israel. I will deliver the speech referenced in the link, possibly.
I hope I don't violate the Logan Act.
I'll start in Haifa and northern Israel, where I'll be a guest at the University of Haifa Law School and will travel up the coast and then to towns and places of interest along the Lebanese border. After that it's down to Tel Aviv, then to the South along the coast to Sderot, and the areas bordering Gaza. After a visit with faculty at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, it's to Jerusalem, where I'll be staying in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Along the way, I'll focus on meeting people, not just visiting places. Among others, I'll visit with the families of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, killed in the terrorist bombing by Rasmea Odeh of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969. I'll also see many of the bloggers we link to, and many others with whom I've become acquainted online over the past couple of years.
Building relationships and strengthening ties is what The Apology Tour is all about. It's not actually about the apology.

Could Israel really be barred from world soccer?

When Palestinian motion comes up for FIFA vote on May 29, it will need a three-quarters majority to pass. If it does, Israel's teams would be banned from int'l competition
Israel's diplomatic battles have spread to the soccer field.
On May 29, the body that governs world soccer, FIFA, will vote on whether to suspend Israel from international play.
FIFA's 209-member countries will vote on a motion introduced by the Palestinian Football Association, which is calling for the suspension on claims that Israel is hindering Palestinian soccer and breaking international law.
Here's what the Palestinians want, how Israel is fighting back, and how this could all shake out.

Jewish Rights Group Slams Palestinian Attempts to Suspend Israel From FIFA

Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) said on Tuesday it was "appalled" by a Palestinian Football Association initiative to suspend Israel from FIFA, calling it another "front waged in the context of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign."
"We are appalled at the temerity of the Palestinan Football Association (PFA) demand that FIFA suspend Israel at your forthcoming Congress in Zurich," wrote the group's international relations director, Dr. Shimon Samuels, in a letter to FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter.
The center said the initiative was "redolent of the 'Kaufen nicht bei Juden' boycott of Jewish stores across Nazi Germany in the 1930′s."
The group slammed Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub, saying "he has recruited one more arm against Israel, abusing FIFA as collateral damage … and vilifying the beautiful game."

Israel urges UNESCO to knock Palestinian bid for FIFA ban

Israel's envoy to UNESCO on Tuesday called on the international body's director general to express opposition to the Palestinian move to have Israel banned from FIFA, as the head of the world soccer body said his hands were tied on the issue.
Ambassador Carmel Shama-HaCohen said in a letter to Irina Bokova that the move by the Palestinian Authority was "negative and false politics by the Palestinians against Israel" which "broke records of audacity and depravity," according to a Hebrew translation of the missive published by Israeli news site Ynet.
"Sport, culture and education are meant to bridge and join people together. In their way the Palestinians are insistent upon using them as political explosive vests and roadside bombs," he said.

Former UK soccer chief comes to Israel's defense in FIFA row

One of English soccer's former top executives, Simon Johnson, has launched a campaign to stop Israel being suspended from FIFA.
Speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, he disclosed that he has written to FIFA and to many of his soccer management contacts internationally in an attempt to stave off the proposal of the Palestinian soccer association which is due to be debated by FIFA next week.
Johnson, now the chief executive of the UK Jewish Leadership Council, said he sent letters to a wide range of international figures including FIFA's General Secretary Jerome Valcke; the president of CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) and FIFA Vice President Jeffrey Webb; the Oceania Football Confederation's General Secretary Tai Nicholas; and the president of the US Soccer Federation and FIFA Executive Committee member Sunil Gulati.
Johnson, who until a year ago was director of corporate affairs at the English Football Association and in charge of the England's bid for the 2018 World Cup, told the Post that if the Palestinians' proposal to exclude Israel were to pass, "It would be an appalling act of delegitimization.

PA soccer head looks to outplay Israel on diplomatic field

For many years Israelis knew Rajoub, who is also known by his nom de guerre Abu Rami, as the strongman of the West Bank by virtue of his position as the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, at least during Yasser Arafat's reign in the PA. Subsequent events, such as Operation Defensive Shield, the major 2002 anti-terror campaign in the West Bank; the collapse of the organization he led; and a falling-out with his Fatah rival Mohammed Dahlan — weakened him considerably. But that was many years ago.
More recently, Rajoub became chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. While it seemed like an odd career move at first, it helped him reestablish his status in Fatah and on the Palestinian street.
Anyone familiar with Palestinian politics knows that Rajoub has become one of the strongest people in the local political arena in recent years. He is a close associate of Abbas, is intimately involved in talks with Hamas and with Israel, and is beloved of Fatah's field operatives. He holds Fatah's third-highest position (Mohammed Gheim, also known as Abu Maher, who officially holds Fatah's second-highest position as secretary-general of its central committee, has retired), and many governors of the various West Bank cities and commanders of security agencies were once officers under his command.
So after having lost his power in the West Bank, as the Israelis thought, Rajoub is once again in the headlines here.

No to peace match, yes to Israel soccer ban, Palestinians say

While Rajoub did not dismiss out of hand the idea of a "match for peace" between the Israeli and Palestinian teams, he said conditions are not yet ripe for such a game.
"Yesterday, you raised a very great idea … It's a creative idea, I like it," he told Blatter at the press conference.
"But we have to pave the road for that. We have to prepare the environment. But this should be an endgame. This should be a purpose for you and I urge you not to give up," he said.
Blatter is visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah to try to mediate the dispute between the two governments and convince the Palestinian Football Association to drop the bid to suspend Israel from FIFA's agenda in a May 29 meeting in Zurich. Israel in turn has been making efforts to blunt the effort by the Palestinians.

Why Does Israel's Football Team Play In Europe?

Israel began competing in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954 despite significant opposition from some existing members.
A number of Muslim states refused to play against the new national side, which culminated in the bizarre spectacle of the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa - won by Israel without playing a single game.
FIFA, determined to avoid the embarrassment of a country qualifying for the fledgling international tournament without kicking a ball, arranged a play-off with Wales.
Israel duly lost the two-legged tie, suffering 2-0 defeats at home and away.
Six years later, Israel hosted and won the 1964 AFC Asian Cup, which remains the country's sole international football trophy.
However, the achievement was arguably undermined by the pre-tournament withdrawal of 11 of the 16 intended participating countries.
Israel triumphed with just three wins, against India, South Korea and Hong Kong.
An official video history of the competition released by the AFC in January 2015 omitted any mention of the 1964 tournament.

Honestreporting: An Inciting Angel and Missing Trees

The New York Times doesn't believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas incites to violence, saying Israel only "claims" he does; and what happened to all those olive trees that CNN says were chopped down and "seized" by Israeli settlers?
Get the latest information on press distortion when HonestReporting's Yarden Frankl joins Voice of Israel's Josh Hasten in-studio to provide this week's examples of media bias.

How a BBC WS News bulletin misled on Jerusalem Day

MacDonald is of course describing Jerusalem Day or Yom Yerushalayim – the national holiday marking the reunification of the city after nineteen years of division due to the occupation by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. That context is glaringly absent from her distorted description of the purpose of the event.
Among the numerous events taking place on May 17th to mark the occasion was the traditional march to the Western Wall, which for geographical reasons obviously has to pass through what MacDonald bizarrely finds necessary to describe as "the predominantly Muslim old walled city".
Not unrelated to the content and style of this news item is the fact that this year, two political NGOs unsuccessfully petitioned the High Court in an attempt to prevent the march (now in its thirtieth year) from passing through the Old City's Muslim Quarter. One of the political NGOs which filed the rejected petition was the foreign funded Ir Amim.
One of Ir Amim's employees is Ahmad SubLaban – apparently the same inadequately introduced man given a platform by the BBC World Service from which to promote political propaganda.

Robert Fisk misrepresents Stephen Harper's views on antisemitism (Part 2)

Blaney's office further dismissed the CBC story by noting that they "won't dignify [their] bizarre conspiracy theory with further comment."
So, while Fisk likely based his column on the original CBC report, published on May 11th, he evidently didn't notice the CBC's follow-up story (and subsequent news articles elsewhere), published later in the day, contradicting their original report.
It seems reasonable to expect a professional journalist with decades of experience to engage in some basic fact-checking before making such a allegation. We encourage editors at The Independent to revise Fisk's column accordingly.

Poland to Publish Extensive List of Auschwitz Staff

Poland is preparing an extensive list of the personnel who served in the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, the EFE news agency reported on Tuesday.
According to new data, more than 8,700 people worked at the camp, nearly double the previous figure.
The initiative could lead to new war crime charges being brought up against the few dozens of the workers still living, the report noted.
An investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a public body which is responsible for investigating Nazi and communist war crimes against Polish citizens brought the new information to light.
Media reports on Tuesday specified that the updated list of people who served in the camp includes more than 8,700 names, including 186 women.
Older documents calculated between 4,000 and 5,000 staff members, of which only about 770 were convicted in the aftermath of World War II.

London Jews Mobilize to Oppose Potentially Large Neo-Nazi Rally

Jewish residents of the London neighborhood of Golders Green are bracing themselves for a potentially sizable neo-Nazi rally organized by a coalition of far-right fascist groups.
The rally's organizers say they are targeting "Jewish privilege" through their protest, to be held on July 4 - the first Shabbat of the month - in what is the heart of northwest London's Jewish community.
It follows a largely unsuccessful demonstration by anti-Semites in Stamford Hill, northeast London, which is home to the largest Orthodox Jewish community in Europe.
But unlike the previous demonstration - which featured less than 30, largely middle-aged neo-Nazis, who were kept away from Jewish areas by a police cordon - there are genuine concerns that July's rally could be more successful, given the momentum the campaign has gained among the far-right on social media.
British Jewish community leaders have approached Home Secretary Theresa May with a request to ban the event.

70 years on, Hitchcock Holocaust doc finds an audience

"This was a woman," the narrator explains, as the camera pans over a figure so emaciated and burnt that the dead body is barely recognizable as human.
It's one of the more arresting scenes in "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey," a highly unusual Holocaust documentary, shot and scripted 70 years ago, and crafted with the help of the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. But it almost didn't see the light of day.
The recently completed film had its New York premiere Tuesday night at Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.
"German Concentration Camps" draws heavily on the footage taken at Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and Dachau by combat and newsreel cameramen in the weeks after liberation. It shows those who had managed to survive gas chambers, typhus epidemics and starvation conditions taking the first steps toward rebuilding their lives. They are deloused. They get hot showers for the first time in years and hot meals. There are piles of clean clothes, and women rejoicing in trying on the donated dresses, pumps and wide-brimmed hats.
"Some of the most touching parts show the restoration of what I can only call humanity," said Jane Wells, a documentarian and the daughter of the film's producer, Sidney Bernstein.

Backstreet Boys play to more than 8,000 Israeli fans

American boy band The Backstreet Boys performed for a sold-out crowd of more than 8,000 Israeli fans in the central city of Ra'anana on the first night of its three concerts Tuesday night.
The five band members, A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell, said the performance was a "big honor" for them and apologized for not making it to Israel sooner.
"Thanks for your love. We'll be back here," they told the crowd.
They are set to play two more gigs, tickets for which were sold out weeks ago.
The band arrived in Israel on Sunday and took to social media to document some of its travels to the Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Masada, before Tuesday's performance.

Record Number of French Jews to Visit Israel With Taglit-Birthright

A historic number of young French Jewish adults will be arriving to Israel this summer on the Taglit-Birthright Israel program. The educational organization will bring 1,500 French Jews to Israel to learn about the Jewish state and immerse them in their Jewish heritage.
"This is the largest number of French Jews to ever come on the program," Recruitment Director, Emmanuel Sion told Tazpit News Agency. "In 2013, we only had 82 participants and last year, we had 940 summer participants."
Europe's largest Jewish community is located in France, which has an estimated population of 500,000 Jews.
"The Jewish community in France is in a crisis. Many young Jews are asking themselves about their future and what their place is in French society due to the anti-Semitism," Sion told Tazpit.

Anti-Semitism scholar Robert S. Wistrich dies at 70

Robert S. Wistrich, one of the world's foremost scholars of anti-Semitism, died late Tuesday evening after suffering a heart attack in Rome, where he was due to address the Italian Senate about rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
Wistrich, 70, was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the head of the University's Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.
Over the course of his career, Wistrich edited and published dozens of books about the fate of Jews and their treatment by other nations.
Among his notable works was the 1989 book "The Jews of Vienna in the age of Franz Joseph," which won the Austrian State Prize in History. Two years later he published "Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred," which later served as the basis for a three-hour British-American television documentary on anti-Semitism.
His book "A Lethal Obsession: Antisemitism — From Antiquity to the Global Jihad," published in 2010, was awarded the Best Book of the Year Prize by the New-York based Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

Robert Wistrich, "Antisemitism and the Left From Marx to the Present"