12/28 Links Pt2: "Intersectionality" includes Palestinian Arabs but not minorities persecuted by Arabs; ~ EoZ

From Ian:

"Intersectionality" includes Palestinian Arabs but not minorities persecuted by Arabs

Intersectionality is a lie, as Daniel Greenfield shows, adding ithat "It’s not just a lie in its negative hateful aspects, but in its promise of a utopia once the 'white devils' and their 'white privilege' are out of the way."It ignores Black-Black racism in Africa. It ignores minorities persecuted by Arabs.

"The left claims that it’s fighting for equality. What it’s actually fighting for is a tribal society where the notion of equal rights for all is as alien as it is in Iraq, Rwanda and Afghanistan, where democracy means tribal bloc votes and where the despotism of majority rule invariably ends in terror and death."

Why does intersectionality include Palestinian Arabs but not minorities persecuted by Arabs like Yazidi in Iraq, the Copts in Egypt or the Bantus in Somalia? Why does it ignore Black-Black racism in Africa where dozens of different Black ethnic groups opress and persecute other minority Black ethnic groups? Discussed here are examples of discrimination and ethnic conflict in countries like Lybia, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Uganda.

In discussing slavery and state racism, our host Biram, president of the IRA (Initiative de Résurgence du mouvement Abolitionniste de France-Mauritanie), emphasised the ‘the ideological and religious foundations of slavery and racism with the state in Mauritania’....Biram returned to the central facts around slavery in Mauritania, notably the practice of guardianship – women and children are left to the cruelty of men and women, heartless masters with neither faith or reason.

"...'Where is the compassion of this community calling itself Muslim? What human values form their identity? What goes on in the heads of those men and women who exercise such cruelty, barbarism and cynicism? The inhumanity of these practices challenges our very confidence in what’s human when humanity is capable of undertaking such acts. An ideological, military and police machinery is consistently mobilised to this effect. There has never been any form of respite for the men, women and children assigned to the deadly status of slaves.'

"'Mauritanian society is deeply slavery-oriented and as such has produced deeply unjust inequalities. Certain techniques involving humiliation, torture and even being put to death are employed in the aim of keeping slaves dependent on their masters through fear, shame and submission.

"Biram explained this in strong terms; the master recognizes no right to a dignified life or free black existence as human beings. As a result, children and women remain without protection or security, being at the mercy of arbitrary, cruel and unbearable Moorish masters who defy contemporary humanity through the use of barbarous and wicked treatment and the denial of the most basic of rights. ... This system is rooted in an enduring ideological base, one which constitutes an untouchable and immutable dogma and which gives rise to a logic of extermination and annihilation of the moral and ethical character of black people.

"...Mauritania as a racist and slave state must be overcome for the purpose of building a fair, free and egalitarian Mauritanian society. This Mauritania will be one in which citizens have the rights of citizenship, rather than one in which black people are reduced to indignity under Moorish oppression..."

Black Lives Matter could make a difference in the lives of people of color if it tried to change the situation in the countries described above instead of rioting in the USA. It might do even more good if it told the Palestinian Arab advocates to fight Arab persecution of minorities and leave democratic Israel out of the equation..

Teacher with Mediterranean and Jewish heritage left bewildered as his trade union insists he's black Jason Wardill, who is a design technology teacher, was surprised to be invited by the National Education Union (NEU) to a meeting of black teachers last year.

A teacher has voiced his bewilderment after his Left-wing trade union insisted he was black.

Jason Wardill, who is a design technology teacher, was surprised to be invited by the National Education Union (NEU) to a meeting of black teachers last year.

Mr Wardill, 42, is of Mediterranean and Jewish heritage and has been trying to stop his union referring incorrectly to his ethnicity ever since – with no success.

He says he feels its actions are 'discriminatory' against other ethnicities and religions.

The NEU – which has been at the forefront of the campaign to keep schools closed during the pandemic – says it treats black as a political term rather than a signifier of African heritage.

Therefore the term includes 'all members who self-identify as black, Asian and any other minority ethnic groups who do not identify themselves as white'.

When Mr Wardill – who now works as an area site manager for an academy trust in Lincolnshire – contacted it to say he was not black, the NEU informed him that since he did not consider himself white, he had to be registered as such.

He told the Daily Mail: 'It made me feel pretty helpless. BAME would be absolutely fine, as it encompasses everything.'

The union has been accused of putting political battles before the interests of pupils, bragging that it had 'made the running in this crisis' when schools across the country were shut and children's education was in tatters.

Mr Wardill said when he registered to join the union and was asked for his ethnicity, he ticked 'mixed other' because it was 'the only option available for me'.

'Jewish was an option in the religion section only, which leads me to believe the NEU doesn't recognise Jewish as a race. They only appear to recognise it as a religion,' he commented.

David Collier: A win for the whole Jewish community – make no mistake

2020 may have been a bad year for almost everyone, but it is ending on a note that gives the Jewish community in the UK something to celebrate. On Friday I received an email that contained a decision from the Professional Standards Authority on the Nazim Ali ‘Al Quds’ antisemitism case.

Jewish Community Nazim AliThe Professional Standards Authority decided that the General Pharmaceutical Council’s Fitness to Practise Committee erred in its approach to antisemitism and referred the decision to the High Court. This is important and welcome news. The Nazim Ali story

Nazim Ali is well known to those in the Jewish community fighting antisemitism. Ali has been a visible face of anti-Zionist, antisemitic activity, fronting the Al-Quds day march for years. But it was his public remarks at the 2017 Al-Quds demo, about ‘fake Jews’, Rabbis, the Board of Deputies and Grenfell, that led to the complaints about him to the General Pharmaceutical Council.

It took three years to organise and in the end, the hearing by the ‘Fitness to Practise’ Committee of the General Pharmaceutical Council was a complete whitewash. The Committee was not interested in witness statements provided by Jews, nor did they pay any attention to the IHRA definition of antisemitism. In the end they dismissed the antisemitism charges because the Committee did not understand what the comments meant and couldn’t be bothered to take the effort to find out. It was an exercise in colonial, supremacist thinking that tried to find the middle ground between the racist and the victims.

After the decision was made public, UKLFI, as early as the 16th November, wrote to the Professional Standards Authority to notify them of ‘serious concerns about Nazim Ali decision’. Others involved such as Jonathan Hoffman also turned to the PSA. On Friday the PSA gave their response. The Committee had ‘erred in its approach’ to antisemitism. They have referred the case to the High Court to quash the judgement – they want a do-over – this time conducting a hearing that deals with antisemitism properly.

France’s Macron Rebuked by Jewish Leader for Controversial Comments on Antisemitic Figures From Country’s Past

President Emmanuel Macron was the subject of a rare and stinging criticism from the head of France’s Jewish community last week, in the wake of a major media interview in which the French leader opined that two of the most notorious antisemites in his nation’s history should not be judged by that fact alone.

“I don’t see what the urgency was with [Macron] raising this issue again, and I admit that I am in total incomprehension,” Francis Kalifat — president of CRIF, the communal organization representing French Jews — told Jewish broadcaster Radio J last Thursday.

Kalifat was commenting on Macron’s interview in the latest edition of the magazine L’Express, in which the French leader spoke at length on the thorny topic of French national identity and culture.

Centrally, Macron lamented that “in most Western societies, we are witnessing some form of victim primacy.”

“The victim’s speech prevails over everything and crushes everything, including that of reason,” he noted.

Discussing the darker aspects of French history, Macron drew on the examples of two prominent French antisemites to make the point that recognizing their hatred of Jews should not obscure their broader importance.

Macron stated that Marshal Philippe Pétain — who led the wartime collaborationist government created following the Nazi invasion of France in 1940 — should also be remembered for the decisive role he played during World War I, when his victory at the Battle of Verdun in 1916 helped pave the way for Germany’s defeat in that conflict.

Macron said that while he strongly rejected Pétain’s “antisemitism and spirit of defeat” in relation to the Nazis, “I cannot deny that he was the hero of 1917 and a great soldier” — echoing similar remarks he made on the subject of Pétain in 2018, during the centenary commemorations of the end of World War I.

More than 4000 Palestinians were murdered by the Assad regime since Syria’s Civil War began in 2011.

I have never once seen Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib call for a boycott of Syrian products.
— Yoni Michanie (@YoniMichanie) December 27, 2020

Contemporaneous news reports refute this propaganda. But propagandists will propagandize. As they do. Revisionist history aside, it’s long past time that Europe, the US and the Arab world end UNRWA’s abuse of Palestinian human rights. https://t.co/DNB62cxIhI
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) December 28, 2020

Top Ten: Some of HR’s Most Popular 2020 Reads

In 2020, our work had a definite, quantifiable impact on the way Israel was covered in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and more. Below, is a list of some of HR’s most popular pieces of the year. These are the ones that made news organizations around the world stand up, take notice, and think twice about spreading misleading news about Israel. By tracking and calling out the way the Jewish state is sometimes depicted in the media, we helped set the record straight.

Here’s to a happy, healthy 2021 – one where anti-Israel bias will continue to be exposed by HonestReporting.

1) Ilhan Omar’s Hypocrisy (VIDEO)
After the US imposed additional economic sanctions on Iran, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar condemned the decision, tweeting that “sanctions are economic warfare.” This is an interesting point, given that Omar is one of the BDS movement’s biggest supporters.

2) BBC Equates Israel, Nazis From Halls of Yad Vashem
As world leaders from 49 countries gathered in Israel to remember the Holocaust and take a stand against rising antisemitism, the BBC found a way to drag Israel’s name through the mud. Reporter Orla Guerin editorializes about Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians, something that has nothing to do with the story at hand.

3) Success: Facebook to Update Antisemitism Policy After Campaign Including HR
In August, Facebook replied to an open letter sent to its board of directors by HonestReporting as part of a coalition of over 100 organizations. The letter urged the social media giant’s board of executives to adopt a clear hate speech policy based on the widely accepted working definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

CAMERA Prompts ‘NewsHour’ Correction About Lebanon’s Palestinian Refugees

CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted an on air correction of last week’s PBS “NewsHour Weekend” report which had grossly inflated the number of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and overstated the percentage of the registered refugees living in refugee camps.

As CAMERA previously reported, the Dec. 20 segment entitled “Palestinian refugees celebrate Biden-Harris win, hope for relief” repeatedly inflated the number of Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon. Host Hari Sreenivasan introduced the segment, stating: “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees or UNRWA says more than 470,000 refugees are living in Lebanon, most of them have been there for generations.”

Later in the broadcast, correspondent Leila Molana-Allen repeated the inflated 470,000 figure: “There are more than 450,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon . . .”

In fact, according to UNRWA, “Over 470,000 refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with 180,000 estimated for planning purposes to be residing in the country.” Similarly,UNICEF reports: “Currently, the number of Palestine refugees in Lebanon is approximately 192,000 (174,422 Palestine refugees in Lebanon and 17,706 Palestine refugees from Syria).”

In a separate error, Molana-Allen reported that “Most of [the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon] live in camps like these, which were never meant for long term use.” Yet, according to UNRWA, “About 45 per cent of them live in the country’s 12 refugee camps.” In other words, according to UNRWA, most do not live in the refugee camps.

Reuters’ Gaza Parkour Article Contorts on Israeli-Egyptian Blockade

In 2020, 25,069 people have exited the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian-controlled crossing into Egypt, according to the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In contrast, also this year, some 58,000 Gazans have left the territory via the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing into Israel, according to OCHA. Thus, the number of exits from the Gaza Strip via Israel is more than double the number of exits via Egypt, so why does Reuters cite the former’s much more porous blockade and not the latter’s? Moreover, all commercial and industrial imports, plus fuel, go through the Israeli-controlled go through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing — not via Egypt.

Reuters practice in the past has been to rightly note the more stringent Egyptian blockade alongside the Israeli blockade. See, for instance:

“Israel says the restrictions on Gaza imposed by itself and Egypt . . . ” (Aug. 28, 2020)

“Many of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians have never left the 360 sq km (140 sq mile) enclave, which Israel and Egypt have largely blockaded for years” (Aug. 11, 2020)

” . . . its borders sealed off by neighbouring Israel and Egypt.” (Sept. 30, 2020)

“The 40-km-long area is flanked by Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the south. Both countries have imposed restrictions on movement, citing security concerns over Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States.” (Aug. 24, 2020)

“Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt tightly restrict cross-border movement with Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas Islamists.” (Aug. 11, 2020)

CAMERA has brought the omission to Reuters’ attention. Stay tuned for any updates.

BBC News errs on Israel’s Coronavirus vaccination drive

On the afternoon of December 24th the BBC News website published a short report titled ‘Israel orders third national lockdown’ on its ‘Live’ and ‘Middle East’ pages.

The report closes with the following paragraph:
“The clampdown comes days after Israel began vaccinating the general population against the novel coronavirus. After initial success in containing the disease, the country has struggled to curb the pandemic since a second wave hit in July.”

In fact the vaccination drive which began on December 20th does not yet cater for “the general population” but is currently directed at health sector workers and people over the age of 60, with the aim being to expand the criteria in the near future.

Nevertheless, at the time of writing nearly 380,000 Israelis have already received the first dose of the vaccination against Covid-19, making Israel the country with the highest vaccination rate per 100 people according to data collected by Oxford University.

Interestingly, BBC audiences have to date not seen any reporting on the topic of Israel’s vaccination campaign, including on the website’s ‘Israel’ page or its dedicated ‘Coronavirus vaccines’ page, which does include reports on vaccination drives in Europe, Latin America, the US and elsewhere.

Guardian re-writes history of the Arab boycott

Holmes’ claim that Israel has been “isolated in the Middle East for its crippling occupation over the Palestinian territories” is completely ahistorical.

The Arab states’ boycott of Israel began in 1945, three years before Israel declared independence, and 22 years before Israel occupied even one square kilometre of the West Bank.

“Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries.” All Arab “institutions, organizations, merchants, commission agents and individuals” were called upon “to refuse to deal in, distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods.” – Arab League Council on December 2, 1945

The boycott’s goal was clear: to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state and, then to reverse the outcome of Israel’s War of Independence.

Though, in the decades following the Six Day War, Arab leaders would begin using the language of human rights and putative concern for the Palestinians in an effort to garner sympathy for their anti-Israel crusade from the Western left, only those blind to the ubiquitous demonisation of Israel and Jews in the Muslim and Arab world during this time could conceivably view the boycott as a movement based on humanitarian concerns.

Among those gullible enough to fall for the boycotter’s re-branding of hate as ‘progressive’ politics is the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent.

Lmfao his example for someone getting denied tenure is Norman finkelstein in 2007, the author of the interesting “the holocaust industry” but now blogs for Unz pic.twitter.com/jLFRgj8s7H
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) December 27, 2020

This is just bizarre. @AFP is claiming that the city of Bat Yam is known for its retired Mossad agents.

Say what?

Where on earth did that come from?! pic.twitter.com/muP8GyTVSH
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 28, 2020

German NGOs, MPs make Wiesenthal list of top 2020 antisemitism outbreaks

Some German cultural groups and politicians are on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of 10 worst cases of antisemitism and anti-Israel activity in 2020, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The anti-Nazi, human-rights organization is due to publish its list on Tuesday. “German elite launch all-out assault to re-legitimize antisemitic BDS,” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that targets Israel, the Wiesenthal Center wrote.

“Meeting secretly for a year, the so-called Union of Cultural Institutions comprising over two dozen of Germany’s Who’s Who – including the Goethe Institute, the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Berlin Deutsches Theater, the German Academic Artists Exchange, the Berliner Festspiele and the Einstein Forum – attacked the Bundestag’s BDS vote as violating free speech,” said entry No. 7 on its top-10 list.

“The signees specifically thanked Andreas Görgen, Foreign Ministry Director-General for Cultural Affairs and Communication, ‘for advice and discussion contributions.’ The SWC criticized Görgen earlier for defending a leading proponent of BDS in South Africa,” the Los-Angeles based Wiesenthal Center wrote.

In April, the Post uncovered and reported on Görgen’s tweets in support of the pro-BDS academic Achille Mbembe, who was accused of minimizing the Holocaust.

Top Jewish Group Blasts Online Retailer for Selling Hitler Hoodies

A leading Jewish group slammed an online seller on Sunday for offering a sweatshirt bearing the image of Adolf Hitler.

The London-based, Hong Kong-founded discount retailer Vova.com describes the sweater as “New Fashion Men’s casual Adolf Hitler Funny Graphic Printed Hoodies.”

Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Europe’s Director for International Relations, sent Vova an outraged message, saying, “Vova prides itself that it is ‘on mission to provide high quality products from the most trusted companies worldwide.’ Vova has betrayed that mission.”

Samuels said that something that describes Hitler as “casual” and “funny” is not a “high quality product” from “a most trusted company.”

“The banalization of this archetype of hate and discrimination is scathing!” he asserted.

There has been fury from a civil-rights group after a Melbourne P-plater was snapped displaying the Nazi swastika while driving over the West Gate Bridge. https://t.co/5P8Vl7rYgK
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) December 27, 2020

Economic Analyst Pinpoints Israel's Rating Strength

Christian Esters, Senior Director at Standard & Poor's Global Ratings, told the Israel Democracy Institute on Monday that Israel's main strength lay in "the fact that Israel has had a current surplus on its balance of payments in each of the past seventeen years...the largest surplus in the world among countries that do not export raw materials."

The cumulative surplus has led to the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves by the Bank of Israel now amounting to more than 40% of GDP.

Esters estimated that the increase in debt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic was considered moderate in comparison with other developed Western countries such as the U.S., UK, and France.

Work on 'Wonder Woman 3' under way, studio announces

After "Wonder Woman 1984," starring Gal Gadot, became the most successful film release of the pandemic, Warner Studios announced Sunday that work is already under way on a third Wonder Woman film, to star Gadot and be directed by Patty Jenkins, like the first two in the series.

"Wonder Woman 1984" earned $16.7 million in the US and Canada during its opening weekend, a better box office debut than any other movie released during the coronavirus pandemic, studio estimates said Sunday.

Typically a weak opening weekend during Christmas, the studio hailed the ticket sales with just over a third of North American theaters currently open, according to media analytics company Comscore.

Estimates before the pandemic affected the movie industry approximated earnings at close to $1 billion, but current assessments have the movie, which cost $200 million to make, earning $180 million.

"'Wonder Woman 1984' broke records and exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics in its first 24 hours on the service, and the interest and momentum we're seeing indicates this will likely continue well beyond the weekend," said Andy Forssell, executive vice president and general manager for WarnerMedia's direct-to-consumer operations.

"During these very difficult times, it was nice to give families the option of enjoying this uplifting film at home, where theater viewing wasn't an option," he added.

The movie played in 2,150 theaters, with nearly half of HBO Max's subscribers also streaming the movie on Christmas Day, according to company data.

More than 20,000 olim from 70 countries moved to Israel in 2020 despite pandemic

The Jewish Agency for Israel estimates that it will have assisted more than 20,000 olim (new immigrants) from 70 different countries make aliyah by the end of the year despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aliyah and Integration Ministry and the Interior Ministry helped in the effort, the Jewish Agency said.

Making aliyah has been a challenge for Jewish families worldwide, especially with limitations on mobility and international travel.

According to the Jewish Agency, during the January-November period this year, some 10,200 people arrived from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the former Soviet Union; 3,120 from Western Europe, including 2,220 from France; 2,850 from North America, including 2,550 from the US; 1,500 from Latin America; 280 from South Africa; and 90 from Australia and New Zealand. The total number of olim from Ethiopia in 2020 is expected to be 1,200, including 650 in December.

“A wonderful thing happened to us: Twenty thousand Jews immigrated to the State of Israel during this pandemic year,” Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog said in a meeting with children who immigrated to Israel during the pandemic from all over the world. “Twenty thousand people who were ready to leave everything behind, in a challenging period of global turmoil, to come build a new life in Israel.”

The aliyah numbers for the year coincided with a sharp increase in people interested in moving to Israel. Since the start of 2020, the Jewish Agency has received some 160,000 inquiries about immigration to Israel and has opened about 41,000 new aliyah application files, including 28,000 from Western countries, twice the number in 2019. There was also a 41% increase in files opened for young adults aged 18-35 from Western countries.

The Jewish Agency estimates that Israel can expect an influx of about 250,000 olim to Israel over the next three to five years, assuming that the government implements a national plan for such a large wave of immigration and absorption.

Isaac was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1924 and ran away to British Mandate Palestine as a teenager. He served in the Palmach and later in the Mossad, and helped smuggle the last Jews out of Syria. (He's the one in glasses.) pic.twitter.com/Kc22XlUHUk
— Matti Friedman (@MattiFriedman) December 28, 2020

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