03/17 Links: Victim of J&S attack id'ed as IDF soldier Gal Keidan, 19; UNHRC to call for Israeli arrests, settlement boycott; PMW: UNHRC should condemn the PA and Hamas for abuse of Palestinian children

From Ian:

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Victim of West Bank attack identified as IDF soldier Gal Keidan, 19

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday identified the victim of a West Bank stabbing and shooting attack earlier in the day as Sgt. Gal Keidan, 19, from the southern city of Beersheba.

Keidan, who served in the IDF’s 334th Artillery Battalion, will be buried in the Beersheba Military Cemetery at 11 a.m. on Monday, the army said.

He will be posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.

Two other Israelis were critically injured in the attack, which began at around 9:45 a.m. near Ariel Junction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, conveyed his condolences to Keidan’s family.

US envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt responded to the attack on Twitter, saying his country “condemn[s] today’s brutal attack by a Palestinian terrorist who murdered at least 1 Israeli & injured others near Ariel.”

In a follow up post, Greenblatt said: “Disgustingly, but not surprisingly, Hamas & Palestinian Islamic Jihad welcomed the attack & no doubt the Palestinian Authority will reward the terrorist under its pay for slay policy.”

1 Israeli killed, 2 critically injured in West Bank terror shootings

One Israeli was killed and two were critically injured in a pair of shooting attacks in the northern West Bank on Sunday, the military said.

The attack began at around 9:45 a.m. near the Ariel Junction, where the terrorist assaulted a soldier with a knife and managed to gain control of his weapon, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said.

The attacker then fired at passing vehicles, hitting a civilian in the first vehicle. A second vehicle was hit, but managed to flee the scene. A third car stopped, and the attacker, whom Conricus said “appears to be a Palestinian,” took it and fled the scene.

“I saw the terrorist. He fired at my vehicle and I ran away while it was still running. The terrorist then stole the car, and I saw him continue driving in the direction of Tel Aviv,” the driver of the third vehicle told the Ynet news site.

Conricus said that the suspect then continued to the nearby Gitai Junction, where he shot at a soldier standing at a hitchhiking post, injuring him.

Netanyahu, Rivlin condemn West Bank terror shootings, vow to apprehend attacker

Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, condemned the terror attack that took place Sunday morning at a pair of junctions in the northern West Bank in which one Israeli was killed and two were injured.

“We are in the midst of pursuing the terrorists in two locations in the Ariel area,” Netanyahu said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting. “I affirm my support for the IDF soldiers, the Shin Bet and the security forces chasing the terrorists. I’m sure they will catch them… as we did in every previous case.”

The IDF said it was not immediately clear whether the shooter had acted alone.

“My thoughts are with the families who are right now coming to terms with the terrible news from the horrific terrorist attack, and with the security forces who are right now in pursuit of the terrorists. The State of Israel will seek out, find and defeat all those who attack us,” Rivlin tweeted.

Several lawmakers used the attack as a platform for political statements over how to best handle Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

Culture Minister Miri Regev said the attacks “were a direct result of the rampant incitement on the part of Ahmad Tibi, who on Friday demonstrated that he was not prepared to condemn the murder of an innocent child in her bed and encouraged martyrs simultaneously.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad praise deadly West Bank terror shootings

The Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups praised a pair of shooting attacks in the northern West Bank on Sunday, in which one Israeli was killed and two others were critically wounded, calling them “heroic.”

Early Sunday, close to the Ariel Junction, a terrorist assaulted a soldier with a knife, managed to gain control of his weapon and shot him dead, an IDF spokesman said.

The attacker then fired at multiple passing vehicles, hitting two cars and injuring a civilian, and then took another person’s automobile and fled in it, the spokesman said.

The suspect drove to the nearby Gitai Junction, where he shot at a soldier standing at a hitchhiking post, wounding him, and then continued on to Bruqin, an Palestinian village where Israeli security forces were pursuing him, the spokesman added.

“Hamas praises the heroic Salfit operation that happened this morning, which came in response to the occupation’s crimes,” Hamas said in a statement posted on its official Telegram account, referring to a Palestinian town near Gitai Junction. “This courageous and bold operation affirms that resistance, in all of its forms, is the most powerful and successful option to deter the occupation, foil its plans and protect and defend our people’s rights and holy sites.”

JPost Editorial: A bad world record

The 40th session of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, scheduled to open this week, is set to assail Israel in a series of harsh reports. At least one of the five to seven reports will accuse the Jewish state of “war crimes” over the IDF’s response to violent Palestinian protests on the Gaza border last year.

According to the pro-Israel watchdog group UN Watch, other reports will accuse Israel of human rights violations in the West Bank and on the Golan Heights, and could blacklist companies doing business in territories captured by Israel in the Six Day War.

Calling it “a world record,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said the UNHRC is again singling out Israel “while giving a free pass to the world’s worst abusers.

“The March 18 assault will culminate in five biased resolutions condemning Israel, the drafts of which have been obtained by UN Watch,” the organization said. “Iran, North Korea and Syria will get only one resolution each, while there will be none on Turkey, Zimbabwe, China, Pakistan and other oppressive regimes.”

The main focus of the meeting is expected to be the findings of an investigation that the council approved in May into the killing by IDF security forces of some 190 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 6,000 in riots along the Gaza border last year, from their start on March 30 through to December 31.

UN investigators, led by Argentina’s Santiago Canton, allege that Israeli security forces may have committed “war crimes.” Israel refused to cooperate with the probe, accusing Gaza’s Hamas regime of using the protests as a cover to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel.

An early version of the report was released in Geneva last month, when the UNHRC’s commission of inquiry into Israel’s “assault” on legitimate “civilian protests” on the Gaza border condemned the Jewish state for committing “crimes against humanity.”

UNHRC to call for Israeli arrests, settlement boycott

The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to call for the arrest of IDF soldiers responsible for Gaza deaths at border and for a boycott of West Bank settlements when it gathers in Geneva on Monday for the last week of its 40th session.

The day-long meeting of the 47-member council will involve the reading of seven reports on alleged Israeli human rights abuses and the tabling of five resolutions demanding action. No other country has that many reports or resolutions leveled against it.

The non-governmental group UN Watch plans to hold a rally against the proceedings outside the UN building in Geneva.

Among the most contentious of the reports is a 22-page document by a UNHRC Commission of Inquiry, which accused Israel of war crimes in its protection of the Gaza border against Palestinian infiltrators and protesters.

With less than a day to go before the meeting, the full report has yet to be published. But its conclusions, were already included in a resolution titled: “Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

That resolution called for the passage of all the conclusions of the Gaza report.

This includes a call “that States parties to the Geneva Conventions and/or to the Rome Statute carry out their duty to exercise criminal jurisdiction and arrest persons alleged to have committed, or who ordered to have committed, the international crimes described in the present report, and either to try or to extradite them.”

Palestinian Media Watch blasts UN claims Israel targets Gaza children

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) released a report Sunday to counter the claims of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that Israel is responsible for the injuries and deaths of several Palestinian children who protested at the Gaza border, and to call on the international body to look at the situation from a different perspective.

“If the UNHRC was sincere in its protection of children and human rights, it would recognize that Israel’s defensive measures are merely a response to the immediate and real danger posed by Palestinian terrorists, including the teen terrorists,” said Maurice Hirsch, head of legal strategies at PMW. “Additionally, it would condemn the PA and Hamas for indoctrinating entire Palestinian generations to hate Jews and Israel, and for the recruiting of Palestinian youth to carry out terrorist attacks."

The UNHRC will meet in Geneva on Monday, and is expected to condemn Israel, with a focus on its treatment of Palestinian children. The organization debates Israeli actions against the Palestinians at every council session as part of agenda item 7. PMW said it wanted to preempt this discussion.

The UNHRC report specifically examines demonstrations held in Gaza between March 30 and December 31, 2018, the response of Israeli security forces to the demonstrations and the impact on civilians in Gaza and Israel. According to the report, some 40,000 to 50,000 Palestinian men, women, children, elders, civil society and political activists and public figures took part in demonstrations on May 14, the peak of the march, and not coincidentally, the day that the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Gaza is home to two million people, about half of whom are children. The report found that some 35 children were killed by live ammunition and another 1,642 children were injured by a combination of live ammunition, shrapnel, rubber-coated metal bullets or direct tear-gas canisters during the demonstrations.

The report details the deaths of these 35 children, noting their ages and how they were killed. For example, it describes the death of a 13-year-old schoolboy at the Gaza City demonstration site as follows: “Israeli forces shot a schoolboy in the leg as he stood in a crowd on Jakkar Street, approximately 300 meters from the separation fence.”

PMW: UNHRC should condemn the PA and Hamas for abuse of Palestinian children

On Monday the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will meet in order to go through its regular routine of criticizing Israel.

For 25 years the PA has been teaching Palestinian children and youth that terrorist murderers are heroes; that Jews are "the most evil among creations," and Israel is "the enemy"; and that Israel has no right to exist.

These intertwined messages have been used by the PA as a means to mobilize and recruit Palestinian children and youth to take an active part in acts of terrorism against Israelis.

While the PA rightly criticizes Hamas when it uses these same messages to children to fuel the weekly violent confrontations on the Gaza border, the PA is itself guilty of the same crimes against Palestinian children.

Ignoring the wider context, intentions, and actions of the Palestinian terrorists, the PA and its representatives, and Hamas, the UNHRC is set to condemn Israel for the deaths of the Palestinian terrorists killed during these confrontations.

If the UNHRC was sincere in its protection of children and human rights, it would condemn the PA and Hamas for indoctrinating entire Palestinian generations to hate Jews and Israel, and for recruiting Palestinian youth to carry out terrorist attacks. Click to read the report as a PDF

Iranians arrested in Buenos Aires with poorly forged Israeli passports

Authorities in Buenos Aires have arrested two Iranians suspected of traveling on fake Israeli passports, according to local Argentinean media.

Police are treating the two, a man and woman, as possible terror suspects, and have raised the alertness level, daily Clarin reported.

The couple, named as Sajjad Naserani, 27, and Mahsoreh Sabzali, 30, were arrested last week after they entered Argentina on the apparently fake passports.

The passports listed their names as Netanel and Rivka Toledano. The passport ID numbers actually belonged to a French-Israeli couple named as David and Brigitte Assouline, according to Argentinean media.

Authorities initially suspected the passports had been stolen and doctored, but later concluded they were fake after finding several spelling mistakes in Hebrew. One picture of the passports carried in Argentinian media shows the word “Israel” misspelled, among many other flubs.

Two arrested in violent assault on Argentina’s chief rabbi

Argentine police arrested two suspects on Saturday in the brutal assault last month against the country’s chief rabbi, Gabriel Davidovich.

Davidovich was beaten and seriously injured by assailants who broke into his Buenos Aires home in the middle of the night on February 25, while he and his wife were there.

The rabbi was hospitalized with serious injuries, including nine broken ribs and a punctured lung. The intruders, who also stole valuables and money from the home, reportedly shouted: “We know you are the rabbi of the Jewish community” during the attack.

Police raided the suspects’ homes after an intensive investigation that included examining extensive security camera footage, according to reports.

During the arrest raid, police found a vehicle used by the assailants parked outside one of the suspects’ homes, as well as clothes in one of the homes that were believed to have been used during the attack.

Manhunt on for Perpetrator of Deadly West Bank Terror Attack

One Israeli was killed, and two others were wounded, in a Palestinian terror attack in the West Bank on Sunday morning.

According to Hebrew news site Walla, the incident began at 9:45 a.m. when an assailant stabbed an IDF soldier to death at the Ariel junction in the West Bank. He then stole the soldier’s rifle and opened fire on passing cars.

The soldier was later identified as 19-year-old Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan of Be’er Sheva.

The driver of one of the cars, who has been named as 47-year-old Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger, was critically wounded.

Another vehicle was commandeered by the terrorist, who then fled the scene.

The terrorist then drove to the nearby Gitai Avishar junction and fired on a group of soldiers and civilians, wounding one, before escaping again.

According to media reports, the terrorist subsequently entered the Palestinian village of Burqin, and a manhunt is now underway there.

Palestinians distribute sweets after terrorist attack in Ariel - report

Palestinians distributed sweets in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning following the terror attacks in Ariel, according to a video tweeted by the Palestinian Information Center, an Arabic news site, on Sunday.

"Distribution of Candy in the southern Gaza Strip, Khan Yunis, to celebrate the heroic morning," the tweet translates.

At least one Israeli was killed and two others were injured in two attacks outside the West Bank settlement.


"Where is the world outrage and condemnation?" Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted after hearing of what he called the "barbaric" event.

Palestinians in Gaza celebrating the Ariel attack. pic.twitter.com/PiTnXKb4ES

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 17, 2019

You won’t have the world media all over this story. "Human rights” organizations around the world will not condemn this murder. Neither will Waleed Aly, Linda Sarsour, and others. And sports teams will not be holding a minute’s silence for the victims. https://t.co/Y6ccNBTW0X

— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) March 17, 2019

Report: IDF Is Preparing to ‘Go All the Way’ Against Hamas

The IDF has prepared a plan for a war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that will “go all the way” and destroy the terror organization.

According to Hebrew news site Walla, Israel’s military echelon has approved a plan to reconquer the Strip, at least temporarily, and destroy Hamas militarily. The army believes that the need for such an operation may be imminent, as the situation in Gaza is extremely volatile.

The IDF is considering several reasons that could set off a conflict: The unintentional death of a senior official or Palestinian children during the ongoing border riots, the Hamas leadership’s desire to distract from the economic crisis in the Strip, and the rise of Palestinian Islamic Jihad as an even more radical and violent organization than Hamas.

In addition, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has a strong desire for Hamas’ decimation, either by Israel or through a Hamas “surrender” induced by economic and political pressure.

Hamas is aware of this, and therefore likely wants some kind of mediation from Egypt that will persuade Israel to remove economic restrictions on the Strip. Without this, the IDF believes Hamas may deliberately trigger a major war.

'Israel will destroy you and we won't do a thing to stop it'

Egyptian officials assail Hamas leaders in Gaza on Thursday night after missiles are fired at Tel Aviv during their meeting • "Even if the Israelis decide to dismantle your rule in Gaza by assassinating each and every one of you" we won't "lift a finger."

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Thursday, minutes after sirens blared across central Israel and a loud boom overhead shook the area, senior Egyptian intelligence officers became outraged during a meeting with Hamas officials in Gaza.

"Just so you know," they leveled at Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, "if Israel decides to launch a comprehensive military operation in Gaza we won't do a thing to stop it, even if it decides to simultaneously topple Hamas and conquer the Gaza Strip."

The dramatic exchange was relayed to Israel Hayom by a senior Egyptian official who attended the meeting.

"The atmosphere at the start of the meeting was very relaxed and cordial," the Egyptian official said. "A short while before the meeting we had returned from Israel with answers. We believed Hamas would accept them and facilitate a more stable and long-term cease-fire. A few minutes later an assistant to the Egyptian delegation entered the [meeting] room with a worried look on his face and handed the Egyptian delegation leaders his cell phone.

"The smiles were immediately replaced with grim faces; the delegation heads turned to Sinwar livid and told him: 'How far do you think you will get with this double game of yours? We are sitting here to hammer out the details of a cease-fire with Israel and behind our backs, you are authorizing your people to fire missiles at Tel Aviv?'"

The tones grew even tenser, the Egyptian official continued.

Honest Reporting: Four Years of Gaza Rockets Erased

If the New York Post was my newspaper, I’d be fire a salvo of nastygrams to every writer, proofreader and editor whose fingerprints were on a story about the weekend’s Gaza rocket fire.

According to this report, Israel has enjoyed a respite from Palestinian rocket fire since 2014.

Residents of southern Israel, who have been under rocket fire would beg to differ. In fact, they could just point to the Post’s own coverage of other rocket attacks this past November, June, May, ad nauseam . . .

Honest Reporting: Rockets on Tel Aviv: New York Times Switches Correct Headline

The firing of two rockets from Gaza towards the Tel Aviv metropolitan area for the first time since 2014 produced plenty of headlines, mostly leading with Israel’s response.

While most headlines did mention that Israeli air strikes on Gaza were in retaliation for the rockets, they still left an impression that “it all started when Israel fired back.”

So it was a pleasant surprise to see the New York Times, of all media outlets, publish this headline that got it spot on:

We even tweeted our appreciation, savoring the moment.

But this is the New York Times and it didn’t take long for normal service to be resumed – some four hours later to be precise.

IRGC Commander: All of Israel within reach of Hezbollah's missiles

All of Israel is within range of Hezbollah’s missiles, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said in an interview with Iranian media on Sunday.

“The current status quo and the current capabilities of the Resistance Front of the Islamic Revolution are all the unique accomplishments of the Islamic Revolution which cannot be verbally described and they rather should be sensed,” he said in an interview with the Persian-language Soroush Magazine.

“While they once dreamed of their territorial expansion from the Nile River to the Euphrates River, and they were after realizing this wish in the past 50 years, today you can see that they have been unable to expand their land even for an inch; they even have lost some of the territories they had already occupied and are under full siege from all around their borders,” he continued.

Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war – the Second Lebanon War – in 2006, and has since then morphed from a guerrilla group to an army with a set hierarchy and procedures. With the help of Iran, it has rebuilt its arsenal since 2006 and has hundreds of thousands of short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach deeper into Israel.

“To put it in a nutshell, we can say that the enemy has not been successful in the region and all its plots and operations have ended up with nothing but failure for them and success for the Islamic Revolution and the Resistance Front,” Jafari said.

Jerusalem court orders closure of disputed building on Temple Mount

A Jerusalem court on Sunday ordered the temporary closure of a building at the center of rising tensions on the city’s Temple Mount in recent weeks.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court said the building known as the Gate of Mercy or Golden Gate on the Temple Mount should be closed while legal proceedings continue.

The site’s administrator, the Waqf religious organization, was given 60 days to respond.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry rapped the decision, arguing that the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court did not even have the authority to rule on matters pertaining to the Temple Mount because it is “occupied territory.”

“East Jerusalem, which includes the Al-Aqsa Mosqua, is part of the Palestinian lands occupied since 1967. The area is not subject to Israeli law,” Amman said in a statement.

The foreign ministry called on Israel to cancel the court’s decision and not harm the status quo at the flashpoint site.

The court order came two days after Palestinian worshipers ripped the doors off the building shortly after Friday prayers, despite instructions from the Waqf urging calm.

A group of protesters also raised the Palestinian flag on the roof of the building, which was then removed by police.

Hamas detains rights workers as it disperses Gaza protests

Palestinian rights groups say Hamas briefly detained four of their researchers as it dispersed protests in Gaza against recent tax hikes.

Hundreds of Gazans gathered for a third day on Saturday to protest the tax hikes, which have made life even harder in the territory. Gaza has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power more than a decade ago.

Two researchers from the Al-Mezan rights group, one from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and one from Al-Dameer were held for a few hours before being released. Online videos show Hamas forces raiding homes, attacking protesters with clubs and firing into the air.

Several Palestinian factions have signed a statement urging Hamas to stop its crackdown and lower the taxes.

TODAY: Hamas in Gaza shoots own people for 3rd day, chasing protesters through streets of Dir al-Balah, Khan Yunis & Jabalya, beating, arresting demonstrators, journalists, human rights activists.

MONDAY: @UN_HRC to condemn only Israel, for entire day. In 7 reports.#EndItem7 pic.twitter.com/H8f8PfxyLt

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 16, 2019

Palestinian factions call on Hamas to withdraw its security forces from the streets and to stop its crackdown on Palestinians protesting economic crisis and high cost of living. pic.twitter.com/l3ffSqBShN

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 16, 2019

Fatah calling on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to revolt against Hamas. https://t.co/PxKyEyB1Ut

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 16, 2019

Hamas is now sending its supporters to the streets to protest against Mahmoud Abbas and the sanctions he imposed on the Gaza Strip. https://t.co/uUDjyHsO3s

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 16, 2019

Report: Fatah official uses old photo from Iraq as if it is of a Palestinian man who was beaten by Hamas in Gaza. https://t.co/HTaAcP5QGO

— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 16, 2019

US Navy veteran held in Iran gets 10 years, lawyer says

A US Navy veteran from California has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, his lawyer said Saturday, becoming the first American known to be imprisoned there since US President Donald Trump took office.

Though the case against Michael R. White remains unclear, it comes as Trump has taken a hard-line approach to Iran by pulling the US out of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran, which in the past has used its detention of Westerners and dual nationals as leverage in negotiations, has yet to report on White’s sentence in state-controlled media. Its mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Obviously the concern is that the Iranians are using this as a tool against the United States, given the other individuals who are in custody,” Washington-based lawyer Mark Zaid told The Associated Press.

White’s arrest was first reported by IranWire, an online news service run by Iranian expatriates, which interviewed a former Iranian prisoner who said he met White at Vakilabad Prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad in October.

IRAN on UN women's rights committee defends regime, attacks US & France

Iran’s representative to the 2019 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Farideh Olad Qobad defended her regime's record on women's rights. She attacked America's "economic war" on Iran, and rebuked France’s "irresponsible use of its position at the United Nations Security Council to interfere in other countries’ affairs," calling on Paris to instead deal with the "widespread discontent" in its own country. March 14, 2019.

Why J Street is losing to the far Left

The announcement from the J Street lobby that it plans to sponsor a free trip this summer for college-age students to compete with the popular Birthright Israel program provoked predictable outrage. Many in the pro-Israel community already despise J Street as a Trojan horse organization that seeks to undermine support for the Jewish state. The idea of it shepherding Jewish kids around the West Bank to meet with Arabs who will trash Israel infuriates and deepens the resolve of some to exclude the left-wing lobby from communal organizations.

But while any efforts to undermine support for Birthright – one of the most successful programs ever devised by the organized Jewish world – should be opposed, those who are blowing their top over this can calm down. As J Street indicates, their trip has room for only 40 students and those who want to go will have to compete to get their ticket. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands who have gone on Birthright during its history, and it's clear that J Street's effort will be a drop in the bucket by comparison.

More to the point, rather than an effort to influence impressionable youths who might otherwise have emerged from a Birthright trip with their Jewish identity and connection to Israel strengthened, those who go on the J Street tour will probably be a self-selected group who are already radicalized.

But the key point to take away from this effort is that what J Street is doing, albeit in a backhanded way, is to affirm a basic Zionist principle that is undermining its efforts to compete with even more radical groups: the centrality of Israel to Jewish life.

Palestinian Terror Group’s Propaganda Appears at Cornell and Binghamton

A coalition of student groups at Cornell University has renewed the call for a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign at the university. Led by the Cornell chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the effort is expected to culminate in a vote in the Student Assembly in late April.

In a recent op-ed published in the Cornell Daily Sun, SJP presented the BDS movement as a peace-loving appeal to human rights and respect for international law. But a closer look at the histories of SJP and Cornell Collective for Justice in Palestine (CCJP) on campus shows a much different picture.

In 2013, Cornell SJP published a blog post in support of Rasmea Odeh, a member of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). At the time, Odeh was facing deportation for falsely claiming that she had never been previously convicted of a crime or imprisoned.

In fact, Odeh was tried and convicted for her role in the 1969 bombing of a supermarket in Jerusalem, which killed two Hebrew University students. Her trial was attended by an observer from the International Red Cross, who deemed it fair. The SJP blog post makes no mention of the attack, claiming instead that the deportation proceedings were an “attempt to criminalize and dehumanize Odeh.”

As recently as this week, Cornell SJP hosted a teach-in entitled, “From Ferguson to Palestine: A Conversation Surrounding Struggle,” featuring an event flyer that appeared to depict a rifle, and explicitly mentions the PFLP, a US State Department-designated terrorist organization.

Berkeley Revolution Books is truly Revolting

Berkeley's Revolution Books, an anachronism in a city known for them, is a clean well lit place for all your Marxist–Leninist–Maoist literary needs. Looking for a book on smashing patriarchy? Got a fetish for Bob Avakian fan fiction? Revolution's your place, ideally located minutes away from the UC Berkeley campus. Its where all the cool bourgeois kids from Cal pay full retail for books on dismantling capitalism.

Recently Revolution dabbled in some revolting Jew-hate, placing signs around campus trivializing the Holocaust

From the facebook page of Tikvah, the UC Berkeley Zionist group:

This sign yet again shows us that anti-Semitism is never found far behind anti-Zionism. This kind of anti-Zionist rhetoric from the far left is becoming increasingly prevalent, and it has strong similarities with the false narratives of white supremacists and Islamists. We condemn it completely and urge Revolution Books to remove their signs immediately.

BBC News reports rocket attack on TA fifteen hours later

Notably, the BBC’s report did not include any information concerning the related topic of some other protests which have been taking place in the Gaza Strip over the past few days.

“Palestinians in the Gaza Strip took to the streets on Friday for the second successive day to protest against Hamas and the dire economic condition in the Strip, with some reports saying the terror group used live fire to put down the demonstrations. […]

The center of the demonstrations was in Deir el-Balah, where Hebrew media reports said protesters burned tires and blocked one of the central Gaza city’s main roads.

Similar protests were also taking place in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip. […]

Quoting the demonstrators, the Ynet news site said they were beaten by security forces loyal to Hamas, the Islamist terror group that rules Gaza. The Hamas members also reportedly used live fire to disperse the protests.”

Those familiar with the BBC’s serial under-reporting of Palestinian affairs will not be surprised by the fact that those demonstrations against Hamas have to date received no coverage.

Latvians honor Nazi collaborators in commemoration march

For the 19th year in a row, about 1,000 people took part in a march commemorating Latvian Legion, who were Nazi collaborators that volunteered with the SS-Waffen brigade during World War II, in the country's capital Riga on Saturday.

Veterans taking part in the march were supported by a large group of people holding Latvian flags, flowers and signs, while some also wore military uniforms sporting swastikas and Nazi SS insignia.

Some of the veterans and their supporters also wore Nazi scarves or black leather jackets, which had red and black swastika patches stuck onto their sleeves.

1000 participantes en conmemoración de las Waffen-SS en #Riga
Los participantes llevaban uniformes y mostraban símbolos nazis como la esvástica, banderas, parches y insignias de las SS @EHDonbas pic.twitter.com/qdmXyWi3pe
— Sare Antifaxista (@Antifaxismoa) March 16, 2019

Despite concerns that there would be clashes between demonstrators and those opposing the controversial march, police said no violence had been reported.

Several people stood behind the barriers holding signs in protest to the commemoration march, which read that "They fought with Hitler," "If they looked like Nazis, and acted like Nazis – they were Nazi" and "the Legion Waffen is a criminal organization."

Pittsburgh Jews Reach Out to Christchurch Muslim Community After Attack on Mosques

Members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community are reaching out to the Muslims of Christchurch after the massacre at two mosques in the New Zealand city on Friday in which 50 worshipers were killed by a white supremacist gunman.

Marnie Fienberg — whose mother-in-law was one of the 11 Jews murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October, also by a white supremacist assailant — wrote in NOW Magazine, “New Zealand may be half way around the globe, but it’s the same story of hate and violence against people peacefully praying to their Creator.”

“I wish I was there to comfort the families and help support them in their pain and agony,” she said. “I can’t stop crying for those left behind, especially the children — children who are old enough to understand that there is loss, but don’t understand the meaningless and utterly insane hatred that spawned it. Remembering the look on your children’s faces when you told them that their grandmother is dead from hatred haunts you every day.”

“No one — no matter one’s religion, age, colour, anything — should be harmed in any way while peacefully praying in a house of worship,” Fienberg added. “To the families that are reeling, I want to say that we in the Jewish community are your siblings; we are all children of Abraham. We are appalled at this attack and mourn your loss deeply. We pray for peace, and I personally will pray today that your families are sitting beside Allah in paradise.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is collecting donations for Christchurch’s Muslim community.

Jason Katims will create a pilot of the series about young adults with autism.

Amazon Studios is producing an American version of the acclaimed Israeli TV show On the Spectrum.

Amazon has ordered a pilot of the remake from writer Jason Katims, who created the hit shows Parenthood, Friday Night Lights and more. The original show was created by Dana Idisis for Yes, and follows the lives of three 20-somethings in Tel Aviv who are on the autism spectrum.

Idisis has spoken publicly about her brother with autism who inspired the show, and Katims has a son with autism, an experience which was the inspiration for a character on Parenthood.

According to The Observer, the US versions of the main characters - Jack, Violet and Harrison - will stick closely to the personalities of the original show: Amit, Zohar and Ron.

On the Spectrum, which premiered in Israel last year, has won praise both locally and abroad. In May it won the top prize at the SeriesMania competition in France, a month after it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. And earlier this month the show was the big winner at the annual Israeli Television Academy Awards, taking home the prizes for best drama, director, actress, screenplay, cinematography, editing, artistic direction, casting and post-production.

Israel’s RightHear orients visually impaired at McDonald’s

An Israeli application already helping people with visual impairments to find their way through 1,000 large venues such as malls and airports is now providing audio orientation to Israelis in their local McDonald’s restaurant.

“When we started, we were thinking of large complex environments like malls and airports because this is where sighted people usually get lost,” says Idan Meir, cofounder and CEO of RightHear in Ra’anana.

“But we learned from user feedback that even small environments can be difficult for the blind or people with other orientation challenges. We realized we could create an impact there as well.”

Getting the RightHear system into small venues could most efficiently be accomplished by partnering with chains, leaders of the four-year-old company concluded. So about a year ago they approached McDonald’s Israel, the country’s largest burger chain.

An exhibit in South Africa recalls the exodus of Ethiopian Jews to Israel

In 1983, when Danny Abebe was 9 years old, his Jewish family decided one Rosh Hashanah night to leave their remote village in Ethiopia — with some 700 others — due to war and a series of famines that had wracked the country.

“We didn’t know where [we were going], nobody told us,” he recalled. “We walked barefoot to Sudan – we walked 800 kilometers [500 miles], over three weeks, walking 45-55 kilometers a day,” or between 28 and 35 miles.

Abebe didn’t know it then, but he was part of the historic Operation Moses, the secret airlift by the Israeli government of some 7,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over seven weeks between 1984 and 1985. At the opening of “Operation Moses: 30 Years After,” an exhibition at the South African Jewish Museum that showcases the stories of 10 such individuals — he spoke of the heartbreak faced along the way.

Gavin Morris, director of the South African Jewish Museum, said an important element of the exhibition is that it acknowledges the Jewish presence in Africa over two millennia.

“There’s a tendency to think of Jews in this day and age as white, middle- or upper-class people, where the reality historically has always been very different,” Morris told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“We bring a lot of African schoolchildren through the museum – I’d like them to see that Jews are not homogenously white, Ashkenazi, middle-class people, but that we are a very diverse culture and community and the lived experience of the Ethiopian Jews is much closer to their known experience and is maybe something that would resonate a bit more closely,” said Morris.

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