11/08 Links Pt2: Ian Austin is a “hero of the Jewish community” as he declares “Labour is poisoned with anti-Jewish racism”; Kristallnacht without Jews; Nikki Haley accepts prestigious Theodor Herzl award ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Ian Austin is a “hero of the Jewish community” as he declares “Labour is poisoned with anti-Jewish racism” and announces he will not seek re-election

The former Labour MP Ian Austin, who resigned from the Party over antisemitism, has given a series of powerful interviews this morning condemning antisemitism in the Labour Party and announcing that he will not be seeking re-election.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Austin, who is an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, was asked if his decision to leave the Labour Party and stand down as an MP was “personal”. In response, he explained: “I joined the Labour Party as a teenager in Dudley. I was a councillor there in my twenties, I worked for the Party and for the Labour Government in my thirties, and I became an MP and a Government minister in my forties, so this has been my life. This has been my life.

“I can’t really believe it’s come to this,” he said, “but I’ve got to be honest with people: I think that Jeremy Corbyn is unfit to lead the Labour Party. I think he’s certainly unfit to lead the country.”

Asserting that only two individuals can be Prime Minister the day after the election, Mr Austin remarkably declared: “I’ve sadly come to the conclusion that it can’t be Jeremy Corbyn,” and endorsed the Conservative Party Leader instead.

Visibly emotional, Mr Austin pointed out that he “could just disappear off back to Dudley, never say a word, keep quiet — but I think people in politics have got to stand up and tell the truth and you’ve got to do what you think is right, however difficult it is.”

In support of his decision, Mr Austin asserted that Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, have spent their careers in politics “working with, defending, supporting all types of extremists, including antisemites,” and backing genocidal antisemitic terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hizballah, whom Mr Corbyn has described as “friends”.

Mr Austin insisted that he has “thought about this long and hard,” and said: “But most shameful of all…you know under his [Mr Corbyn’s} leadership a political party with a proud record – a long history – fighting for equality, fighting racism, has become poisoned with anti-Jewish racism and it is a complete and utter disgrace, a complete disgrace.”

Just devastating! The heroic @IanAustin1965 on Sky News:

"@jeremycorbyn isn't fit to lead the @UKLabour. He isn't fit to lead the country. At every opportunity, he backs our country's enemies. I don't think he loves this country. I don't think he's a patriot." pic.twitter.com/SgjMY9zbKq
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 7, 2019

This is not true. It is a complete lie.
I was appointed an unpaid trade envoy in July, along with 27 other MPs and peers from different parties, including Labour, to promote UK trade and exports
John should withdraw this lie and apologise. https://t.co/HP8GLJTCJD
— Ian Austin (@IanAustin1965) November 7, 2019

BBC Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism shortlisted for British Journalism Award, as is maker John Ware

BBC Panorama is a finalist in the British Journalism Awards in the category of ‘Investigation’ for its programme titled “Is Labour Anti-Semitic?”, which explored antisemitism in the Labour Party.

The episode’s creators, John Ware, Leo Telling, Neil Grant and Rachel Jupp, have also been shortlisted in the ‘Politics Journalism’ category.

The programme, which was televised in July, showed former Labour Party employees speaking out publicly to reveal Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and it is understood that they and Mr Ware have now commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party. The libel cases are being brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Melanie Phillips: Sky papers review and podcast

I took part today with Ian Dunt in our regular newspaper review discussion on Adam Boulton’s Sky show All Out Politics. We ended up talking about just one topic: the issue in the UK’s general election of the antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.

Our narrow focus was caused by this week’s dramatic Jewish Chronicle front page. Under a huge headline reading to “To all our fellow British citizens”, it declares: “This front page is addressed not to our usual readers – but to those who would not normally read the Jewish Chronicle. In other words, to non-Jews. This is why”.

The rest of the front page is filled by a JC editorial pointing out the vast majority of British Jews believe Corbyn to be an antisemite, that he has allied with antisemites throughout his career and has actively impeded attempts to deal with the antisemitism in the Labour party. “If this man is chosen as our next prime minister”, it says, “the message will be stark: that our dismay that he could ever be elevated to a prominent role in British politics, and our fears of where that will lead, are irrelevant”.

You can watch the discussion below. Ian and I subsequently did a podcast with Adam Boulton about the election campaign so far, which you can listen to here.

Maajid's post on one page at FACEBOOK

People of any political persuasion must acknowledge:
1) Every party will have some policies you don’t like
2) Every party will also have rogue members, or leaders, who said nasty things too
3) usually, if a party has policies you disagree with, you simply don’t vote for them
— أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) November 7, 2019

Gavin Shuker accuses erstwhile Labour colleagues of “chucking the Jews under the bus”

Gavin Shuker, a former Labour MP who quit the Party over antisemitism, has accused his former colleagues who remained in Labour of “chucking the Jews under the bus.”

Reacting to the news that Labour’s Deputy Leader, Tom Watson, will not stand for re-election, Mr Shuker declared on BBC’s Newsnight that “the moderates in the Labour Party have lost”.

Mr Shuker said that those who remained in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party “have done a deal with the devil” in order to pursue certain policy objectives while ignoring the problems that, Mr Shuker said, Mr Corbyn’s leadership presents, including antisemitism. As to their choice to remain in the Party when he and others left, he said: “history will judge them.”

With Mr Watson gone, Mr Shuker said of the moderates that “the fig leaf of Tom Watson is no longer there and their shame is there for all to see.”

Labour election candidate defended ‘Jewish final solution’ slur

A Labour election candidate defended her chief campaigner after he wrote about a ‘Jewish final solution’, Jewish News can reveal.

Laura McAlpine, who is aiming to unseat Conservative Robert Halfon in Harlow in December’s election, supported top aide Brett Hawksbee in emails to colleagues, seen by Jewish News, despite one party official warning Hawksbee had “breached IHRA (the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism) in almost every single way possible”.

Hawksbee blogged in September 2018: “The fear of many on the left is that the ideological successors of the bombers of the King David Hotel, the mass murderers who decimated Deir Yassin, would be quite happy to see a pogrom in Gaza and the West Bank, a Jewish final solution to the Palestine problem.”

McAlpine resisted calls from party officials to publicly condemn the remarks. One email circulated to Labour staffers reads: “She (McAlpine) isn’t happy with the first line (of the apology) because she doesn’t want to be disloyal to someone who ‘organises so much for her and who she is on the phone with three times a day’.”

The email continues: “She also echoed his view that the context somewhat excuses the remarks. I made it clear that her loyalty is now to the reputation of the Labour Party but not sure what impact that made.”

Labour election candidate quits as JC reveals she likened actions of the Israeli government to those of a child abuser

A Labour general election candidate has quit after the JC exposed her postings in which she likened the actions of the Israeli state to that of a child abuser.

Kate Ramsden – the candidate for the Scottish seat of Gordon – stood down as it emerged she had claimed antisemitism smears against Jeremy Corbyn were being "orchestrated by the wealthy establishment."

In an apparent reference to Jewish suffering in the Holocaust, the Unison trade union official also wrote of Israel: "Like many abusers, unable to reflect on their own abuse, and ending up recreating it in the abuse of others, exerting their power in those weaker than themselves because once they were the powerless."

On Thursday Labour said Ms Ramsden had stepped down for "personal reasons" and claimed the party had detected her numerous social media postings relating to the party's antisemitism crisis in advance of the JC's revelations.

They claimed the party has opened an investigation into her conduct and that the disciplinary case would go before Labour's ruling NEC.

But evidence shown to the JC revealed she had deleted evidence of the social media postings after due diligence checks had been carried out at Labour's HQ.

Labour officials accused of covering up MP hopeful's antisemitism

Labour Party officials are facing damning new claims of a cover-up of blatant antisemitism by a candidate selected to fight next month's general election.

Evidence shown to the JC confirms that staff in Labour's compliance unit told a candidate standing for election in the Scottish seat of Gordon she could remain if she deleted a blog comparing the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser.

In an apparent reference to Jewish suffering in the Holocaust, Labour MP hopeful Kate Ramsden wrote: "Like many abusers, unable to reflect on their own abuse, and ending up recreating it in the abuse of others, exerting their power in those weaker than themselves because once they were the powerless."

This latest revelation comes hours after shadow chancellor John McDonnell claimed his party's approach to antisemitism had been "rapid and at times ruthless."

Ms Ramsden, a senior official with the Unison trade union, also wrote that antisemitism claims against Jeremy Corbyn were "orchestrated by the wealthy establishment who do not want a socialist Labour government."

Gideon Bull withdraws candidacy after CAA publicises past ‘Shylock’ comment, but Labour candidates who have said and done worse remain

Gideon Bull, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate in Clacton, has withdrawn his candidacy after Campaign Against Antisemitism publicised a past comment he made referring to a Jewish fellow Labour councillor as “Shylock” earlier this year, in an apparent reference to the villainous Shakespearean Jewish moneylender.

Cllr Bull reportedly made the comment when he was a Labour councillor at Haringey Council in London, where he also served in the cabinet. The recipient of his abuse made a complaint.

In his withdrawal statement, Cllr Bull said that he used an “analogy when referring to a housing decision” and “was not referring to the councillor”, and after being informed that the comment was “offensive”, he said that he “immediately apologised and explained that I did not know that Shylock was Jewish and I would never have mentioned Shylock if I had known this. I grew up in a working class area in Ilford where this was a common saying, but I didn’t know it was offensive. This was a genuine accident and I reiterate my sincere apology for this mistake.”

The revelation came after an analysis by Campaign Against Antisemitism showed how supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are trying to place a cast of Jew-haters, antisemitism-deniers and Jew-baiters in dozens of constituencies ahead of general election.

John McDonnell’s Faction Says; “Stand Together Against Zionists and Other Racists”

Just hours after McDonnell claimed Labour’s stance against antisemitism served as an “example” to others his own Labour faction ran a Facebook post saying:
“We need to stand together Jew and Gentile [sic] against Zionists and other racists”

Just last month the hard left Labour Representation Committee hosted disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson at an event where he praised expelled Labour member Jackie Walker.

John McDonnell is President of the faction, Walker runs the group alongside McDonnell as BME Officer.

Walker was elected at their AGM in February this year, McDonnell spoke at the event.

The statement comes just hours after McDonnell claimed the Labour Party had “done everything the Jewish community has asked of us” at a Labour press conference.

A survey by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research conducted amongst UK Jewry last year found that 82% of respondents feel “Israel plays a ‘central’ or ‘important but not central’ role in their Jewish identities.”

Kristallnacht without Jews

Imagine if the president had responded to ISIS atrocities against the Yazidis by issuing a condemnation which did not mention either ISIS or the Yazidis. That's essentially what former President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in response to Kristallnacht, the nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany. On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, Nazi mobs torched hundreds of synagogues, smashed the windows of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes, and murdered nearly 100 Jews. Another 30,000 were dragged off to concentration camps.

At his press conference on Nov. 11, Roosevelt was asked if he had anything to say about the violence. "No, I think not," he replied. In the face of widespread public revulsion against the German horrors, the president's aides decided a statement might be prudent. In the statement he made on Nov. 15, Roosevelt did not use the words "pogrom" or "violence," or make any reference to Adolf Hitler, the German government, or their Jewish victims.

Roosevelt gave 348 press conferences between 1933 and the autumn of 1938. He never once brought up Hitler's oppression of the Jews. Drawing attention to the Jews' plight would have increased the pressure on the Roosevelt administration to accept more refugees - something FDR strongly opposed.

Interior Secretary Harold Ickes was invited to participate in a post-Kristallnacht broadcast on CBS Radio. As was customary, he submitted the draft of his speech to the White House. Ickes wrote in his diary, "the President wanted us to cut out all references to Germany by name as well as references to Hitler, Goebbels, and others by name."

Holocaust survivor celebrating bar mitzvah on 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht

A 93-year-old Holocaust survivor is holding a special bar mitzvah celebration in New Jersey on the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Fred Behrend is celebrating the 80th anniversary of his bar mitzvah this week at Congregation Beth El, a Conservative synagogue in the township of Voorhees, CBS 3 Philly reported. He had a party on Wednesday and will have a ceremony in the synagogue on Saturday, which is also the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogrom that marked a major escalation of the Nazi war against the Jews.

“It’s incredible,” Behrend said of the celebrations.

Behrend had his original bar mitzvah ceremony 80 years ago in Cuba, where his family had fled from Germany before settling in the United States.

At the synagogue ceremony on Saturday, Behrend will recite a blessing over a 200-year-old Torah scroll that survived the Holocaust. He will use a yad, a pointer used to follow along with the text, that his father rescued from a concentration camp, CBS reported.

“I had the feeling as if my father was looking down and saying to me, ‘It’s well done, I’m proud of you,’” Behrend said.

António Guterres on Kristallnacht: Chilling daily reminders of antisemitism

António Guterres used the podium at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Lower Manhattan to speak out about the need for “continued vigilance” against rising hatred and intolerance.

The secretary-general of the United Nations was at the museum on Thursday to commemorate the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, which is Nov. 9 and 10. Close to 300 people were in attendance.

“Kristallnacht was not just the night of broken glass, it was the night of broken lives and broken societies,” Guterres said. “This museum calls on us to witness and summons us to speak.

“Never again means telling the story again and again, especially in these times,” he continued, citing recent incidents targeting Jews, which he called “chilling daily reminders of the persistence of antisemitism.” He specifically referenced repeated vandalization of Jewish graves and the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which took place in October of last year.

The secretary-general said that terrorists and neo-Nazis are ramping up recruitment and radicalization, and that they use the Internet as a tool to spread bigotry. He said online efforts are specifically targeted at luring in young and vulnerable people. Guterres called for urgent action by parents, teachers and political leaders “before underground hatred becomes an overt and alarming new normal.”

He then assured the crowd that the UN is “fully engaged in this fight.”

To commemorate the anniversary of #Kristallnacht, one of the biggest soccer teams in Brazil stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and Israel. The seats in the stadium and the team's jerseys are adorned with the yellow star. The back of the jerseys read: "AM ISRAEL CHAI". pic.twitter.com/1wiHhezmOq
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) November 7, 2019

Archbishop of Canterbury calls on universities to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism

Canary Mission: Meet The SJP Member Who Harassed A Holocaust Survivor

MUST WATCH Video: Ayah Ali verbally harassed a Holocaust survivor. No surprise that:
- she supports the GENOCIDE of Jews
- her FATHER shares David Duke conspiracy theories
- she’s a BOARD MEMBER of the antisemitic Benedictine SJP

Israel scrambles to prevent EU from labeling settlement products

Israel is growing increasingly concerned about an expected European Court of Justice decision that would mandate European countries to label Israeli products imported from settlements in Judea and Samaria.

The ECJ is currently considering a request from France’s top tribunal “for clarifications of rules on labeling goods” from Judea and Samaria, east Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.

The issue was first raised when an Israeli winery in the Binyamin region in southern Samaria and French-Jewish advocacy group Organisation Juive Européenne appealed a French court’s decision that determined that wines produced beyond the Green Line cannot be labeled as "Made in Israel."

The ECJ is expected to issue its final ruling on the matter on Nov. 12 and is likely to rule that goods imported from Judea and Samaria must be labeled as such, as opposed to ones imported from sovereign Israel.

Until now, European governments could ignore Brussel’s guidelines on labeling but the ECJ's decision on the matter, which cannot be appealed, will be legally binding for all EU member states.

In practice, it would mean that any anti-Israel activist could potentially seek legal action against settlement products labeled as made in Israel, Israeli officials warned.

“This ruling will be a boon for BDS,” an Israeli official said, referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. “We know that they’re following this with great interest.”

Brooke Goldstein: Correcting the Record on Psagot’s Case Against Labeling

Anonymous Israeli officials have been claiming that many EU countries have simply not implemented the labeling guidelines, so it would have been better policy to just ignore them and pretend they didn’t exist. This is a misleading and dangerous position. Countries like Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, and others have indeed been ramping up their enforcement of the European Commission guidelines on labeling and sending letters to EU importers. What these anonymous Israeli officials seem to be asking is for private companies to simply ignore the fact that their goods are being targeted for discriminatory treatment designed to cripple the Israeli export market.

Despite the fake news disseminated by certain media outlets, this case has not and will not make things worse for Israeli exporters. If Psagot Winery had not brought suit, the door would have been left open for anyone to bring European importers to court in an attempt to force them to abide by the labeling regulations. Psagot’s legal case does not change this — it challenges those regulations themselves with the aim of preventing any future legal cases against Israeli products.

Even in the event of an unfavorable decision from the ECJ, Psagot’s case will be remanded back to France, where it will be challenged on anti-discrimination grounds. Discriminatory labeling requirements that single out Israeli goods will likely be challenged in every European jurisdiction that attempts to implement them, on the basis of local anti-discrimination laws. Moreover, if there is an adverse ruling by the ECJ this month, the EU Parliament and Council could amend the food regulation at issue and annul its application with respect to West Bank and Golan Heights products, as was done in the Western Sahara Polisario case.

The case before the ECJ was brought by an Israeli company exercising its legitimate rights to avail itself of the judicial process to protect its commercial interests, and by extension, the commercial interests of all Israeli companies that do business in Europe. Any concerns that this case could harm Israeli exporters further are completely unfounded, as even an unfavorable decision would not change the status quo. Before the case was brought, EU countries were enforcing the notice and the European Commission was touting the regulations as binding.

It is deeply troubling that Israeli government officials would signal to the ECJ prior to its ruling that the Israeli government not only expects a negative decision, but is prepared to blame its own citizens for the outcome. Israel’s Foreign Ministry would be well-served to instruct its bureaucrats to spend more time defending Israeli interests abroad and less time demonizing Israeli companies behind the shameful cloak of anonymity. (h/t MtTB)

One BU department rejects anti-Israel post-doc associate; one weighing her application

Boston University’s sociology department has rejected the candidacy of Sarah Ihmoud, an anti-Israel postdoctoral associate, as a professor, JNS has learned from a university source late Thursday.

However, the university’s women’s studies department is apparently still considering whether or not to hire Sarah Ihmoud.

Ihmoud presented her paper, “Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies, and Israeli Settler Colonialism,” to the university. In it, she alleges that the “rape and killing of Palestinian women was a central aspect of Israeli troops’ systematic massacres and evictions during the destruction of Palestinian villages in 1948.”

She also wrote that “Israeli officials’ repressive policies and incitement against the Palestinian people work to empower and embolden Israeli settler society to embody the power of the state and viciously attack Palestinians. This is clearly exhibited in the attacks on Palestinian women’s bodies inside Al-Aqsa mosque these last weeks in Jerusalem, by both settler publics empowered by the state’s military protection, and members of the state security forces.”

McGill University student newspaper doubles down on antisemitic rhetoric

One of Canada's largest student newspapers, the McGill Daily, has doubled down on its description of Zionism as "colonial," "racist," and "violent."

In an editorial published this week, the editors of the paper at McGill University in Montreal defended an earlier decision not to print a letter submitted by two Jewish students in defense of Zionism, arguing: “any dialogue that gives a platform to ideas which dehumanize a group of people only serves to amplify those views.”

The letter, penned by law students Michael Aarenau and Josh Shapiro, was prompted by the paper's decision in September to characterize Zionism as “A modern political movement advocating the colonial establishment of a Jewish state in the biblical land of Israel [whose] ideological roots can be traced to the nationalist and European colonial movements of the 19th century."

The definition continued: "Zionism has come to represent a racist attitude and violent practice towards Palestinians that recognizes only Israeli/Jewish hegemony and legitimacy to self-determination in Palestine,” before directing students to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement's website for more details.

In response, Aarenau and Shapiro wrote: "Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people to express their right to self-determination. Nothing more, nothing less.

"[T]he Zionist project, at its core, intends to safeguard the rights of the Jewish people as well as promote equality for all - including the non-Jewish minority that resides there."

Of the referral to the BDS website, they added: "We can’t imagine the Daily ever allowing a mens’ rights organization define feminism, so we can’t help but ask why they believe that those who are inherently opposed to Jewish self-determination get to define it."

Pompeo in Halle: World must work together to fight antisemitism

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the world to unite in the fight against antisemitism during a visit to the Halle synagogue on Thursday evening, the site of a deadly antisemitic terror attack on Yom Kippur.

“I wanted to come here and share America’s sympathy for what took place here, and remind the world that antisemitism is not just limited to certain places,” said Pompeo at the synagogue, expressing solidarity with the local community and responding to rising antisemitism in Germany.

“You can find it everywhere; you can find it in [the United States],” he said, adding that US President Donald Trump had made “stamping out” global antisemitism one of his top priorities.

“The world must work together against this threat and this vicious attack against religious freedom, and in particular the religious freedom of the Jewish people.”

The ceremony, which took place amid a heavy police presence in the city, was also attended by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog. The leaders laid a wreath outside the synagogue, near the location where one of two passersby were killed.

“There is no question as to the rampant rise of antisemitism across Europe,” said Herzog, who spent much of the day meeting and listening to the concerns of local community leaders in Berlin and Halle.

“It’s truly a miracle that the Jews of Halle didn’t suffer a massacre on Yom Kippur. Global leaders must unite in a relentless fight against antisemitism – by protecting Jewish institutions, and most importantly, by means of education and firm legislation against hate crimes.”

U.S. @SecPompeo in Halle (#Germany) at sight of Yom Kippur Synagogue terror attack this month:

“The world must work together against this threat and this vicious attack against religious freedom, and in particular the religious freedom of the Jewish people.” pic.twitter.com/FcrEZnpyBF
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 7, 2019

Poland expels Swedish neo-Nazi seeking weapons training

Poland on Friday expelled a Swedish neo-Nazi in the country to attend a paramilitary training course on automatic weapons similar to the type used in a deadly white supremacist’s attack on mosques in New Zealand.

“Today at 8:00 am (7:00 GMT) Anton T. was put aboard a plane to Sweden,” Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for Poland’s special services coordinator, told AFP without providing a surname for legal reasons.

Swedish media have identified the man as Anton Thulin, a 22-year-old man previously convicted of an attempted bomb attack against a refugee center in Sweden.

The man’s presence in Poland constituted “a serious, real and current threat to security and public order,” special services said in an official statement on his expulsion.

Anton T. “is a member of the Neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement which aims to create, by way of a revolution, a national-socialist Republic of the North,” said the statement.

“He came to Poland to attend a paramilitary training course, during which he wanted to learn how to operate the same type of weapon that Brenton Tarrant used during the attack in Christchurch,” it added.

Glasgow community's disgust after vandals wreck memorial to Holocaust victims

A Glasgow community has expressed its digust after vandals destroyed a newly-erected memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

A plaque commemorating the lives of thousands of people murdered during World War II was planted in the rose garden in Queens Park, Glasgow, in August.

It is thought to be the first memorial of its kind in Scotland.

The Romani Rose Tree Memorial was unveiled at a ceremony on the commemoration of the date in 1944 when more than 4000 Roma people were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau in one day.

But the charity which instigated it being installed was horrified when the plaque was ripped from is plinth.

A spokesman from Romano Lav, a Govanhill-based charity, said: "Romano Lav unveiled our memorial on Roma Holocaust Day this year.

"We are saddened by the vandalism of the memorial and will be looking to replace the plaque as soon as we can."

On Facebook the group posted: "It is especially important that this memorial is placed in Govanhill as Govanhill is where the vast majority of Roma people in Scotland call home.

Italian far-right leader denies downplaying threats to Holocaust survivor

Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini on Friday denied minimizing threats made to 89-year-old Holocaust survivor and senator for life Liliana Segre, which prompted her to be given police protection.

Auschwitz survivor Segre, born in Milan in 1930, was on Thursday given a police escort after receiving over 200 hate messages and anti-Semitic threats a day on social media.

“Being anti-Semitic in 2019 is the stuff of the mentally ill. I do not minimize anything,” Salvini told journalists in Florence, the day after he said, “I get threats too, every day.”

Salvini, who frequently highlights threats made against him on social media because of what critics see as his divisive anti-migrant rhetoric, asked why threats against Segre were given more attention.

'Fauda' to be remade in India

The Israeli television series Fauda – about a counterterrorism unit operating in the West Bank and Gaza that has become a huge international hit on Netflix – will be adapted into an Indian version, The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Thursday.

The new version, which will examine the conflict between India and Pakistan, will be made by Mumbai-based Applause Entertainment, a company that has made Indian versions of The Office, Criminal Justice and Hostages.

Applause Entertainment will partner with YES Studios, which created the original Israeli series. It will go into production next year and its release is planned for late 2020.

Fauda, which means “chaos” in Arabic, was developed by Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, and was inspired by their experiences in the IDF.

Fauda debuted on Israel’s YES cable network in 2015. Its thrilling action and intricate story of the undercover unit’s missions, and the parallel story of the Palestinians they face off against was immediately popular in Israel. It has been widely reported to be something of a guilty pleasure among many Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, who enjoy that about half the series is in Arabic and that the Palestinian characters are complex.

1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible revealed in Washington, D.C.

A 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible, which experts estimate was written in the 10th century in Tiberias, was unveiled to the public on Thursday at the Museum of the Bible.

Called the “Washington Pentateuch," this is one of the oldest, intact Hebrew Bible manuscripts of our time. It contains the entire five books of the Torah and was in a private collection for the last 40 years until it was acquired by the museum two years ago.

"This is one of the oldest and most intact Pentateuch manuscripts, certainly in the US and it's among the oldest in the world," Dr. Jeff Kloha, chief curatorial officer at the Museum of the Bible, told The Jerusalem Post. "The standard Hebrew text was produced beginning in about the 8th century. And this particular example is from the 10th century, and it carries the texts that are still used today and forms the basis of virtually all modern translations."

He said the Bible has “some beautiful micrography, which creates a very visually interesting page. It's just a beautiful manuscript.”

The binding is from the 14th century - one of the oldest intact bindings from that period, according to Kloha.

"The colophon at the end of the manuscript actually has some information that damaged pages that were replaced in 1141," the curatorial officer explained. "There's also a note that indicates that it was given as a gift in 1835 to an Archbishop in Crimea. Then, it made its way to a private collector in Israel and in London."

Dr. David Stern is the Harvard University Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Jewish and Hebrew Literature. He told the Post that he was very excited about the opportunity to get a close look at the book.

“Books are like people,” he said, explaining that seeing the old Bible is “like talking to a 1,000-year-old person."

In a bittersweet ceremony, these orphans, who lost parents serving in the IDF and security forces, celebrated their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs with the IDF Chief of the General Staff.

We celebrate their coming of age while remembering the sacrifice that their families gave. pic.twitter.com/AGDM53MrSS
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 7, 2019

Lauder calls for religious faiths to fight antisemitism, xenophobia

As antisemitism and violence against other religious communities continues to rise across the globe, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) is set to host a conference on Friday in Rome that addresses interreligious dialogue and coexistence.

At the conference, entitled “Human Fraternity: A Jewish Reflection for Common Coexistence,” WJC president Ronald S. Lauder will address the meeting taking place at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Other speakers will include Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and Father Nuno da Silva Gonçalves, rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

According to the WJC, the initiative for this conference “was born following the co-signing of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, in February in Abu Dhabi.”

The document’s introduction makes it clear that its aim is “to be a joint declaration of good and heartfelt aspirations. It is a document that invites all persons who have faith in God and faith in human fraternity to unite and work together so that it may serve as a guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect in the awareness of the great divine grace that makes all human beings, brothers and sisters.”

One of the main declarations in the document states that “religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood.

“These tragic realities are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings. They result from a political manipulation of religions and from interpretations made by religious groups who, in the course of history, have taken advantage of the power of religious sentiment in the hearts of men and women in order to make them act in a way that has nothing to do with the truth of religion.”

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley accepts prestigious Theodor Herzl award

"Israel is not going away," declared former American Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in Manhattan Wednesday night, as she accepted the World Jewish Congress' Theodor Herzl Award.

The award is presented to individuals who work to promote Herzl’s ideals for a safer, more tolerant world for the Jewish people. Previous recipients include the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former US Secretary of State General Colin L. Powell, former Israeli President Shimon Peres, Elie and Marion Wiesel, and, posthumously, Ronald Reagan and Axel Springer.

A staunch supporter of the Jewish state during her time in the UN, in her acceptance speech Haley recounted how, as a freshman at the United Nations, it became clear to her that bullying Israel had become an ingrained habit within the institution.

"Outdated customs" such as the "monthly Israel-bashing session" at the Security Council had fostered an illusion among other members that Israel could simply be pushed off the world stage.

“The UN’s bias against Israel has long undermined peace, by encouraging an illusion that Israel will go away. Israel is not going away. When the world recognizes that, then peace becomes possible,” Haley said.

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