04/30 Links Pt2: Inclusivity, Sure. But Not for the Zionists; The Jew-Hatred Elephant in the Room; The dangerous immorality of Human Rights Watch; Iran banned from international Judo till 2023 over Israel

From Ian:

Inclusivity, Sure. But Not for the Zionists.

Two years ago, I wrote about a scandal involving Williams College’s student-led Council’s decision to vote against recognizing a club because, student comments suggested, it was pro-Israel. Ultimately, the college administration stepped in and approved the club anyway.

Now in Southern California, another prestigious small college, Pomona College, may be headed down a similar road. Not content to make the usual symbolic statements against Israel, Pomona’s student government, the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) voted unanimously to boycott, as far as its internal spending is concerned, companies said to “support the occupation of Palestine.” The resolution not only draws on a blacklist found on the website of the notoriously Israel-obsessed U.N. Human Rights Council but also promises to cooperate with the anti-Israel club, Students for Justice in Palestine, in monitoring compliance.

At the same time, ASPC adopted the “end goal” of banning, across the five-college consortium of which Pomona is a member, individual clubs from violating the boycott. Clubs found in violation would be defunded. In other words, ASPC and other student governments in the consortium may recognize a Jewish group; but they won’t fund one unless it goes along with the boycott.

When the resolution was first discussed without a word of objection, the outgoing senior class president explained that it was “a great concrete example of how we can stand in solidarity with all students.” The mission of ASPC to foster an “inclusive campus climate” has room for everyone, except for Zionists, who may feel less than included by the ASPC’s use of an anti-Israel litmus test to allocate money it takes in from mandatory student fees.

As Janie Marcus of the Claremont Progressive Israel Alliance, a pro-Israel student group that operates across the consortium, puts it, the resolution “marginalizes Jewish students who view Israel as the Jewish homeland and directly targets these Jewish students.” Her own organization could be defunded if the ASPC achieves the goal it has just endorsed.

Melanie Phillips: How Biden is smashing America’s moral compass and dragging the West behind it

Durban 2001 indelibly marked the moral collapse of the United Nations. It was the point at which the “anti-racist” and “human rights” movement turned itself into a propulsive motor for anti-Semitism, serving as the launching pad for the campaign of demonization, delegitimization and destruction of Israel that has continued ever since.

The countries that in 2011 boycotted the Durban process held the line against this bigotry. That was then. Now, shockingly, the United States has obliterated that line. Last month, it reversed the Obama administration’s Durban position.

Having just rejoined the U.N. Human Rights Council, America promoted a statement of commitment to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance linked to “recalling the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action.”

Obama had repudiated this declaration on the grounds of its unjust demonization of Israel and the “hateful and anti-Semitic displays” around its creation. The Biden administration has embraced it.

Now there is to be a yet further attempt to re-weaponize Durban. In September, the United Nations plans to hold a 20th-anniversary meeting where the original declaration will be reconfirmed.

As the blogger “Elder of Zion” has observed, given America’s endorsement of Durban at the Human Rights Council, it’s entirely possible that the Biden administration will attend the September meeting—and thus associate the United States with what the Obama White House condemned as a commemoration of the “hateful and anti-Semitic displays of the 2001 Durban Conference.”

Shocking as all this is, it makes perfect sense in light of the Democrats’ embrace of intersectionality and identity politics. Intersectionality holds that Jews and the State of Israel are “white privileged” oppressors (even though most Israeli Jews are brown-skinned, coming from regions of the Middle East).

According to this dogma, Israel can’t be the victim of Iran or the Palestinian Arabs (although it indubitably is), and no people of color can be anti-Semites (which some indubitably are).

Is Spain a Champion of the “Zionism = Apartheid” Campaign of Durban IV?

The Madrid-based NGO, ACOM (Action and Communication on the Middle East), has charged the Unidas Podemos party as, reportedly, funded by Iran. Its leader, Pablo Iglesias, has, until last month, been Spanish Deputy Prime Minister and is now candidate for the Community of Madrid Presidency.

Iglesias was on the staff of HispanTV, Iran’s mouthpiece to Spanish language viewers across Latin America. He has called Israel. “a criminal state… an illegal country…” and apparently stated, “Wall Street is almost all in the hands of Jews… the Jewish lobby supports initiatives against the peoples of the world.” He is a leading figure in the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign and a close friend of British Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Podemos has declared regions of Spain accepting the boycott, as “zones free of Israeli apartheid,” reminiscent of “Judenrein” (cleansed of Jews) areas of the Nazi programme.

Another Podemos leader, Sonia Vivas, claimed at an international aid conference that, “Jews should be held accountable for supporting Israel.”

During the March 2021 session of the Geneva Human Rights Council, the Wiesenthal Centre addressed a letter to European and other democracies that had either voted against or abstained on participating in Durban II and III, both opened by then Iranian President Ahmadinejad, spewing Jew-hatred. We had urged that the recipients boycott the 20th anniversary of the Durban antisemitic hatefest.

Our letter to the Spanish government reached the centre-right opposition Partido Popular (PP), who raised the issue in Parliament. The response of the present left and extreme left government coalition has rendered Spain as a leader of an opposite campaign in Europe and Latin America, calling to support Durban IV at the UN in September.

This represents the ideology of Podemos, which would have likely led the Inquisition and expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492… Today, they apparently seek a second expulsion of the Jews, this time, from the Land of Israel.

Caroline Glick: The Jew-Hatred Elephant in the Room

The key to the world's prolonged success in ignoring the Palestinian elephant of Jew-hatred is the widespread denial that anti-Zionism, and using a double standard to judge Israel, are forms of anti-Semitism. In a world where it is unacceptable to say that the Jews alone among the people of the earth are to be denied self-determination in their ancestral homeland, it would be similarly unacceptable for the Palestinians to define their national identity through their rejection of the Jews and co-opting of Jewish history.

In a world in which Israel is judged by the same standard as its fellow democracies, it would be impossible for the U.S. embassy or The New York Times to hide the plain fact that for the past two weeks, Arabs have been senselessly beating Jews in the streets of Jerusalem.

The thing about hatred is that when it is not confronted, it grows. Now that everyone feels comfortable turning a blind eye to Palestinian hatred and everyone is getting away with blaming the Jews for Palestinian assaults against Jewish Israelis, others are enthusiastically joining. On university campuses throughout the United States, for instance, Jewish students are subjected to anti-Semitic ostracism, boycott and harassment. The anti-Semites discriminating against Jewish students know that all they have to do to get away with their hateful conduct is to couch their rhetoric as "opposition to Israel." And instead of being punished or expelled for their bigotry, they are embraced by others who like the anti-Semitism exception and seize the license to hate Jews while ironically spouting their commitment to fighting all forms of discrimination.

In France, when Palestinians in Gaza or Judea and Samaria open a new terror campaign against Israel, Muslim extremists often attack Jews. And since they do so as a means of "protesting" Israel, they get a free pass for vandalizing synagogues and Jewish schools and beating Jews in the streets.

With the rise of Senator Warren's fellow progressives to leadership in the Democratic Party, we are likely to see more tales about how "U.S. military aid," "the Benjamins" and, of course, "the occupation" are the "elephants in the room." This disingenuous rhetoric will be geared toward achieving two goals—supporting the Palestinian war against Israel and protecting the real elephant in the room.

The Caroline Glick Show: Episode 3 - The rising specter of Middle East War

The Biden team's rush to appease and empower Iran is increasing the prospects of a major war breaking out in the MIddle East. In the third episode of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour, Caroline and guest host Dan Diker, a political warfare expert from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs discuss the impact of the Biden administration's tilt against Israel in light of the rise in Palestinian violence against Israeli Jews through street beatings and missile strikes; and Iran's growing confidence that it can attack Israel directly and through its terror proxies.

s Israel's prolonged political instability and the growing chance tht Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon be replaced by an inexperienced successor, anti-Semitism is also playing a larger and more dangerous role in global affairs.

Lee Smith: The Sentimental Antisemite

The CIA’s case for Palestinian statehood was based on analysis. Then the analysts turned out to be wrong.

The fact that Brennan, of all people, doesn’t even try to make that case is revealing. With his emotive (rather than analytical) movie review and tweets, he inadvertently pointed to a key new assessment: There is no genuine U.S. security or intelligence case that supports prioritizing or even pushing Palestinian statehood.

Brennan is right that the daily circumstances of ordinary Palestinians are tragic. Most simply want to lead dignified lives, enriching and enjoying their families and communities. The fact that many can’t, however, is not the fault of Jerusalem or Washington, nor even primarily of the Arab regimes, which for so many years used the Palestinians as pawns to advance their own domestic and international interests. With the Abraham Accords, a coalition of prominent Arab states publicly and unreservedly gave up on the rejectionism that still drives the sclerotic ruling cadre in Ramallah, and embraced Israel’s dynamic economy, society, and military as models and partners. Shimon Peres’ dream of real peace finally started to materialize under Netanyahu and Trump, two men he abhorred. But it came true nonetheless.

For Brennan, the palpable tragedy here is not the fate of ordinary Palestinians, who often get lost in the shuffle, or even the moral well-being of Israelis who insist on protecting themselves against terror attacks. It is the fact that the house of cards he spent 30 years building on the Resolute desk came crashing down.

Now it is clear for all to see that the decades Brennan and his colleagues spent working on the Middle East were wasted on wrongheaded myths and sentiment. They had access to endless acres of the most highly classified intelligence assembled by the most powerful country in the world, but somehow, they misread it. They were wrong about the peace process, wrong about Israel and the Palestinians, wrong about the politics of the Middle East. What they spent their careers passing off to policymakers weren’t precious secrets that explained the laws of political gravity, but poetry in translation.

The dangerous immorality of Human Rights Watch

A little over a decade ago, the late Robert L. Bernstein wrote an op-ed for the New York Times, expressing distress for the toxic turn the organization he founded was taking. He wrote, “Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.”

He did not deny that open societies, like Israel, have flaws, but that they also have apparatus in place to correct them whereas closed societies do not. He highlighted the great number of mechanisms that Israel has in place (separate courts, free press, etc.), to be a free, open and democratic society. Yet, he charged that, “Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields…Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.”

Indeed, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has long ago parted from its initial noble mission and arguably has been actively working against it.

Human Rights Watch has been intensifying and undermining the organization’s initial goals in a way that not only harms Israel, but also harms the people in those closed societies

Bernstein founded HRW to help people who are being abused and who desperately need advocacy.

Yet almost 10 years ago, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth accepted money from a Saudi billionaire on the condition that Human Rights Watch would not “support advocacy of the LGBT community in the Middle East and North Africa.” And so, HRW would stay quiet as gay men in Iran are forced to undergo gender reassignment surgery even when they identify as a male, lest the Iranian regime execute them (which they often do). And Iran is only one of the 13 countries that punishes by death anyone with LGBTQ identity, most such countries are in the Middle East and North Africa – the region Roth agreed to remain hush on for that period. Last year HRW stated that they regret their previous decision to have accepted that money and that they returned the money to the donor.

Yet, under the leadership of this man, HRW has intensified its anti-Israel hysteria, despite Israel being a safe haven for people who are LGBTQ. This obsession comes not only at the expense of the Jewish democratic state, but also of citizens trapped in closed societies with abusive regimes that get overlooked, the very people Bernstein founded HRW to help.

Legal Insurrection: Experts Slam Human Rights Watch For Biased and Inaccurate Report Accusing Israel of “Apartheid”

Don’t let its satirical name fool you; EoZ is one of the most thorough and prolific blogs correcting the record on Israel in existence. The Elder’s excellent original research is often featured in our work here at LIF. Elder has already published multiple posts on the “Apartheid” report, many of which aptly note that Israel’s neighbors in the Arab League and beyond are actually guilty of the sins of which Shakir myopically accuses Israel:
Every nation has the right to determine who is eligible for citizenship, and many countries favor those whose ancestors belong to the same nation. This is not racism.

Throughout the report, HRW asserts that Israel’s laws that give preference to Jews – as one would expect in the world’s only Jewish state, especially when most of its neighbors are irredeemably antisemitic – are not pro-Jewish laws, but anti-Palestinian laws. This is absurd, because no non-Jew can receive automatic citizenship. The entire basis of the report is that Israel is discriminating against Palestinians and it simply does not allow that it is moral for Jews to have and maintain their own state where they can be safe from persecution.

This law creates a reality where a Jewish citizen of any other country who has never been to Israel can move there and automatically gain citizenship, while a Palestinian expelled from his home and languishing for more than 70 years in a refugee camp in a nearby country, cannot.

And every single Arab country has laws banning Palestinians from becoming citizens – laws that were on the books since the 1950s, ostensibly to “support” Palestinians. Unlike Israel’s laws that give preference to Jews becoming citizens and that do not discriminate against Palestinians specifically, the laws in all Arab League states say that all Arabs can become citizens except Palestinians. For over 70 years, they have been languishing in the countries they were born in and have not had a path to citizenship.

If Israel’s laws giving positive preference to Jews (similar to laws in Spain, Italy, Poland and many other nations) is “apartheid” and “racial discrimination,” then most certainly every Arab country whose laws specifically discriminate against Palestinians is guilty of the same.

But HRW never says that. Isn’t that interesting? The epithet “apartheid” only applies to the Jewish state. Isn’t that a super interesting coincidence?

HRW has a problem with the entire concept of a Jewish state, and by extension with the idea of a Jewish people.

Israel Advocacy Movement: Human Rights Watch libel Israel - Am Yisrael Live

Live with Alexander Menashe and Joseph Cohen

Media Fail to Ask Tough Questions After Preposterous HRW Claim About Israeli “Apartheid”

Shakir’s Personal Anti-Israel Vendetta
It is not the first time that the NGO takes a jab at Israel. The particular researcher who compiled the report, Omar Shakir, was forced to leave Israel in November 2019 after his work visa was not renewed due to his support of the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Nevertheless, the vast majority of news reports have failed to document either of these important facts.

For over a decade, Shakir has fought a campaign denying Israel’s right to exist and smearing the Jewish state with the kind of barbs more typically heard in the cesspit of online discussion. On various occasions, he has stated that Israel has “effectively turned Gaza into an open-air prison.” Moreover, Shakir was involved in compiling a discriminatory UN database of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, aimed at bolstering BDS campaigns against Israel.

Consequently, the report largely recycled existing materials from known anti-Israel organizations, without engaging in independent investigative work. As Israeli columnist Ben Dror-Yemini notes:
In the 200 or so pages of the report, HaMoked is mentioned 62 times, Adalah 77 times, Gisha 92 times and B’Tselem 151 times. But the record goes to Haaretz newspaper, which is cited a massive 190 times. In reality, Shakir did no fact checking or investigations of his own, and the concept of fairness does not even come into it. He pored over anti-Israel publications that pretend to be objectively critical and gathered anything that matched his preestablished hostility. The outcome was decided in advance.”

Deliberate Provocation — and Not For the First Time
This is not the first time in recent memory that Israel has faced such claims. In January this year, Israeli organization B’Tselem made exactly the same case, as it took the dramatic step of publishing an op-ed in The Guardian, and sending press releases to numerous newspapers around the world, accusing Israel of “apartheid.”

Just like today, news organizations worldwide gave prominent coverage to the report claiming that Israel is no longer a democracy but an “apartheid regime” devoted to cementing the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians. By uncritically portraying this group as a leading proponent of human rights, the media effectively facilitated the hijacking of the word “apartheid” by anti-Israeli activists whose goal is to foster doubt about Israel’s right to live in peace within secure borders.

In January, even the usually stridently anti-Israel The Guardian was taken aback, with a subsequent editorial published, admitting “It was a deliberate provocation by B’Tselem… to describe the Palestinians in the Holy Land as living under an apartheid regime.” But a few months later, when exactly the same claim resurfaced, the Guardian, amongst others, just couldn’t resist helping spread the baseless libel.

As ever, the failure of journalists to do their job and ask tough questions of Israel’s detractors means that the truth is the first casualty of HRW’s ongoing war against the Jewish State.

Do we really have to post this again for the educationally historically stupid? I think we do so tag the people that lie about a fake #Apartheid in #Israel I’ve cut it down to a minute for those that have short attention spans pic.twitter.com/XTOfOkHNCm

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) April 30, 2021

This ‘analysis’ by @cliveabaldwin, much like the rest of the @hrw report, makes complete mockery of international law and human rights. It is replete with malicious lies and gross distortions of law and fact. Is no more than a hate screed & Palestinian propaganda. https://t.co/xJJbDAyAmg

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 30, 2021

Bernard Henri-Levy: The Metaphysics of the Sarah Halimi Affair

So, in the face of this debacle of law and language, what are we to do?

How can we repair the tear in the fabric of which we are all a part?

I recently suggested that the new legislation proposed by the French president be known as “Sarah Halimi’s Law.” And I repeat that this would be a form of reparation.

Sarah Halimi’s family has suggested that new facts may soon appear and open the possibility of a retrial. In the last century, France knew a few such reversals, which, however rare, brought powerful consolation.

For the time being, one thing is certain.

The judges are wrong to take offense at the offense taken to their judgment or, in this case, to their failure to judge.

For this affair has been a sinister revelation for us all.

We are witnessing the collapse not just of the prosaic meaning of “law and order,” but the collapse of the spirit of a nation’s laws and its language, the way we order the relation between ourselves and that which gives our lives purpose, meaning, and strength.

And this problem, this abyss, this malaise at the heart of the republic’s democratic civilization, is something that we, the French people, must ponder and repair together.

First personAt Sarah Halimi rally in Paris, signs French Jewry is nearing a breaking point

Joining the stream of people converging on Trocadero Square, I soon realized that this event would be significantly different from the dozens of Jewish community gatherings I had attended in France.

The atmosphere, rhetoric, symbolism and attendance at the “Justice for Sarah Halimi” protest rally on April 25 suggested to me that France’s Jewish community is entering a new phase in the decades-long slip of its members’ confidence in their future here.

The rally — an event with 20,000 participants, one of the largest communal gatherings in decades — was sparked by an April 14 decision by France’s highest court. It affirmed that 31-year-old Kobili Traore was unfit to stand trial because Traore, a Muslim, had smoked so much marijuana before the 2017 slaying that it rendered him temporarily psychotic.

The killing of Halimi, a 65-year-old physician and kindergarten teacher, infuriated French Jews also because they widely see it as the latest in a series of ideologically motivated murders by Islamists, which have claimed the lives of at least 10 Jews over the past decade.

But unlike many previous protests by French Jews over this issue, the April 25 one was not primarily about antisemites at all. Instead, it was a cry against the actions of authorities that French Jews almost unanimously regard as cherished allies in the fight against jihadists and other haters of Jews.

This significant thematic twist is the least of what makes me think of April 25 as a milestone.

This community, which I thought I knew very well, was suddenly unrecognizable to me.

Gone was the familiar informality that usually accompanies such gatherings. Like funerals, they are solemn but social events for members of a tight-knit community where reunions are uplifting — especially after a year of lockdown.

A Guide to L’Affaire Halimi

In an interview with Le Figaro a few days after the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision, the intellectual Alain Finkielkraut, one of the very few to keep a sane mind throughout the Hamili saga, said this: “The experts were not unanimous … In these conditions, it was left to the court to decide if the one who, after having massacred Sarah Halimi, threw her out of the window while crying out ‘Allahu akbar!’ was conscious of what he was doing. Right now, one thing is certain: Kobili Traoré’s mind was clear and coherent enough, in the midst of a full-blown psychotic episode, to direct his murderous impulse against a Jewish victim …”

Finkielkraut blamed the verdict on judicial animus not toward Jews but toward France’s president—and he was probably right. A few days before the decision was rendered, Emmanuel Macron had made the mistake of publicly expressing his “wish” for the trial’s outcome, something the judges could not but take for political pressure. Then, once the judgment was made, Macron reiterated his stance and asked for a revision of the law on penal responsibility. Acutely aware that the 2022 presidential campaign will focus on security issues, and that his most serious contender will be the anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen, Macron also had to face the throat-cutting of a policewoman by an Islamist migrant from Tunisia that hit the news on April 23, one week after the decision not to prosecute Traoré. In such a context, the politicization of the Sarah Halimi case—and of the seeming leniency of French law for antisemitic murderers—was unavoidable.

In the aftermath of the Traoré decision, Sarah Halimi’s sister’s lawyers—Francis Szpiner and Gilles-William Goldnadel—announced their intention to press charges against Traoré, this time from Israel, where the sister lives. The idea is to subject Traoré to judgment by a legal system that allegedly protects Jews, as opposed to the French one. French Parliamentary Representative Meyer Habib, who is close to Goldnadel, went one step further when he alluded to a possible Eichmann-like kidnapping of Traoré by the Mossad, so that Sarah Halimi’s killer could get the trial he deserves. (Habib later “nuanced” his remark, if such a word can apply.)

It is telling that when it looked for a helping hand in its search for justice, the Halimi family, which hails from North Africa and is observant, didn’t reach out to the usual left-wing star lawyers of the secular French Ashkenazi Jewish establishment, who have for years made news fighting racism and antisemitism in France. Instead, the Halimis called on Goldnadel, a fierce adversary of the “assimilated” Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (CRIF), and an implicit ally of Marine Le Pen.

The recent public announcement from Szpiner and Goldnadel that they will file a complaint in Israel should be seen as a publicity move with no prospect of success, but which also serves as a declaration of war against both the French government and the “assimilated” French Jewish establishment. Never mind that all this makes French Jews look less French, and more estranged, in the court of public opinion. It seems bound to drive the Halimi family to bitterness and disappointment, if not to downright madness. But this is the 21st century. In France, anyway, and perhaps elsewhere as well, madness is here to stay.

Son of Slain French Jew #SarahHalimi Speaks Out Against Court Ruling

Iran banned from international Judo till Sept 2023 over Israel

The International Judo Federation on Thursday partially upheld an initial ban against Iranian participation in sanctioned events over its refusal to allow its athletes to compete against Israeli opponents.

Iran was already under indefinite suspension since September 18, 2019 but the move that was overturned in March by the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IJF reinstated the punishment as a retroactive four-year ban and it will end on September 17, 2023.

The CAS overturned the permanent suspension and sent the matter back to the IJF Disciplinary Commission. In a release to the media it stated that it had “determined that the Islamic Republic of Iran Judo Federation committed severe violations of the IJF rules and that sanctions compliant with the IJF regulations should be imposed on it.

“However, the CAS Panel concluded that the kind of sanction (unlimited suspension) imposed … had no legal basis in the IJF regulations. Accordingly, the Panel partially upheld the appeal and annulled the decision taken by the IJF Disciplinary Commission on 22 October 2019,” the court said.

In describing the severity of Iran’s actions, it quoted from the CAS ruling, which explained that Iranian athletes were “required to lose before even getting to the point where he had to face an Israeli athlete in an attempt to disguise the underlying true motive from the IJF and the public.”

The IJF said it “continues to defend the fundamental human values and rights of all its members, with a special emphasis on the rights of athletes and reiterates its commitment to fight against any form of discrimination in the sport of judo.”

Peterborough City councillors suspended in Labour anti-semitism probe

Seven city councillors are among a group suspended by the Labour Party over alleged anti-semitism.

The Peterborough City councillors, and seven other party members from the city and north west Cambridgeshire, are facing an internal party investigation.

It is understood councillors Ansar Ali, Angus Ellis, Samantha Hemraj, Mohammed Jamil, Shabina Qayyum, Mahboob Hussain and Aasiyah Joseph are suspended.

Labour said it took "all complaints of anti-semitism extremely seriously".

The Party said complaints "are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken".

"We are determined to root out all forms of anti-semitism from our party and it is testament to our commitment to zero-tolerance that we will not be influenced by an election timetable," they added.

Calls for controversial London mayoral candidate to step down after his video interview with antisemitic hate preacher David Icke resurfaces

Brian Rose, a London mayoral candidate and podcaster, has been asked to step down from his run after a video interview promoting an antisemitic conspiracy theorist hosted on his website resurfaced.

A 2020 video podcast featured an interview with the antisemitic hate preacher David Icke, who explained to Mr Rose how Israel was was using the COVID-19 pandemic to “test its technology”. He then went on to detail how the Jewish state was supposedly responsible for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, and that a group of American “ultra-Zionists” were responsible for covering up the story.

Mr Icke also suggested that there was a hidden hand of “ultra-Zionist extremists” who run the world through a series of shadowy organisations. In addition, he referenced the Rothschild family and its supposed role in the “Illuminati”, another common antisemitic trope.

Mr Rose failed to challenge Mr Icke on any of his points during the interview.

Mr Rose also drew the ire of fellow mayoral candidate, Luisa Porritt. Ms Porritt, running as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats, criticised Mr Rose’s passivity, stating: “No candidate seeking to represent our diverse and liberal city should be giving a platform to sickening, antisemitic conspiracy theories about the tragedy of 9/11. Brian Rose is not only weird but dangerous and he should withdraw immediately.”

However, when questioned on hosting Mr Icke, Mr Rose did not believe he had acted inappropriately. He stated: “When he was on my show we didn’t discuss these things and I don’t allow anything illegal to be discussed. We weren’t discussing what you were talking about. You’re reading off titles, but I’m talking about what content was – I believe in freedom of speech, I believe in people.”

Will next antisemitism envoy address push to sideline IHRA definition?

With antisemitism on the uptick, the role of the next US Special Envoy to Combat antisemitism will take on more importance than ever. However, fault lines have been emerging within the Democratic Party over how to define and combat Jew-hatred.

According to reports, a number of names have been floated for the next antisemitism envoy, including the former longtime head of the anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman, Holocaust historian and Emory University Professor Deborah Lipstadt, ADL vice president Sharon Nazarian, National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry CEO Mark Levin and former National Council of Jewish Women CEO Nancy Kaufman, among others.

While Foxman and Lipstadt have the backing of mainstream pro-Israel Democrats, Kaufman has been touted by progressives as their favored choice. The anti-Israel group IfNotNow, which supports the BDS movement, has endorsed Kaufman's nomination.

Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the Trump administration, said that the names being floated for the next envoy reflect the emerging split within the Democratic Party over the issue of antisemitism.

"I would suggest that candidates like Abe Foxman, Deborah Lipstadt and Sharon Nazarian would take a more centrist approach to combat antisemitism;,while Nancy Kaufman has made statements that would put her on the left of the Democrat Party," said Cohanim.

Idaho, West Virginia Enact Anti-BDS Law; Alabama Furthers Holocaust Education

The governors of Idaho and West Virginia signed into law this week anti-BDS legislation, while the Alabama State Senate passed a resolution promoting Holocaust education.

Idaho’s Anti-Boycott Against Israel Act, signed by Gov. Brad Little, said a public entity in the state may not enter into a large-scale contract with a company “unless the contract includes a written certification that the company is not currently engaged in, and will not for the duration of the contract engage in, a boycott of goods or services from Israel or territories under its control.”

West Virginia’s “prohibition on contracting with companies that boycott Israel,” signed by Gov. Jim Justice, noted that the state “has an economic and a humanitarian obligation to denounce and reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel, and to prevent the state or any of its instrumentalities from contracting with companies that engage in the movement.”

The Alabama legislature encouraged and endorsed Holocaust education by stating that public schools should teach students about the history of antisemitism and the Holocaust, as well as “the impact of personal responsibility, civic engagement and societal response in the context of the Holocaust.”

Wisconsin to require Holocaust education starting in 5th grade

Students in Wisconsin will now be required to study the Holocaust at least twice between fifth and 12th grade.

A bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Tony Evers mandates that lessons about the Holocaust and other genocides be included in social studies classes at least once between fifth and eighth grade, and again in high school.

“This bill will affect generations of kids in our state and bring increased awareness, and recognition in our schools to the tragedies of the Holocaust, the pervasiveness of antisemitism to this day, and hopefully cultivate a generation that is more compassionate, more empathetic, and more inclusive,” Evers said in a statement.

The measure, which was passed unanimously by the Legislature, makes Wisconsin the 19th state to require Holocaust education in high school, according to the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum.

Evers signed the bill at the offices of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, which advocated for it.

Penn State student government adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism

The Penn State University Park Student Government (UPUA) voted unanimously on Wednesday to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

The vote follows an April 8 resolution by the student government to fight antisemitism on campus.

"Penn State is not immune to the disease of antisemitism," the resolution noted. "In 2019, the Daily Collegian released an article 'History of Hatred: An in-depth look at antisemitism at Penn State' which documented the history of antisemitic events at Penn State, including 17 at Penn State between the years 2001 and 2018."

It also cited the 2017 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the city where Penn State is located.

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism on university campuses remains a concern in countries throughout the world, including the US, with many higher learning institutions supporting the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement, something many countries around the world have recognized as antisemitic.

Canterbury Christ Church University adopts International Definition of Antisemitism

Canterbury Christ Church University has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Last year, the University acted to remove its brand from Urban Dictionary after Campaign Against Antisemitism alerted it to its advertisements featuring alongside antisemitic and offensive entries on the controversial website.

Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism by universities.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has consistently backed efforts by the Government to encourage widespread adoption of the Definition by local authorities, universities and public bodies. The UK was the first country in the world to adopt the International Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism, Lord Eric Pickles and others worked hard over many meetings with officials at Downing Street.

Oregon University Fires Jewish Shakespeare Scholar Who Highlighted Alleged Antisemitism, Sexual Abuse by Senior Management

A Jewish professor at a private university in Oregon was fired from his position on Tuesday, weeks after highlighting alleged sexual abuse of students by board trustees, along with detailing on social media the antisemitic harassment he experienced at the hands of senior college leaders.

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner — a professor of Shakespeare Studies at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon — was terminated “with cause,” according to a university statement on Tuesday afternoon. The same statement denounced Pollack-Pelzner as “insubordinate” and accused him of having “interfered with the university’s administration of its responsibilities.”

In late March, Pollack-Pelzner, the faculty trustee on the university’s board, reported that four of the other trustees on the board had been accused of sexual harassment by students and faculty.

“That’s more than 10 percent of the Board. Three of those trustees are still on the Board,” Pollack-Plezner wrote on his Twitter feed at the time. He pointed out that similar sexual abuse charges had been made against one of the accused trustees by three students in the recent past.

However, the university responded by accusing the professor of lying, insisting that he had “deliberately circulated false statements about the university, its employees and its board.”

Central to Pollack-Plezner’s concerns about the university were the antisemitic remarks allegedly made to him by Linfield’s president, Miles K. Davis. In their interactions, Davis was said to have made comments about measuring the size of Jewish people’s noses, claimed that “some people” were overly sensitive to the appearance of swastikas on campus, and accused Pollack-Plezner of harboring a “secret agenda” to grab power.

UK’s Jewish Student Union Blasts Reinstatement of Bristol Professor Accused of Antisemitism

The UK’s Jewish student union expressed “contempt and outrage” on Thursday after the University of Bristol reinstated a professor accused of violent antisemitic rhetoric, pending an investigation.

David Miller, a Professor of Political Sociology and member of the university’s School for Policy Studies, has been criticized by Jewish student groups and members of parliament for “inciting” antisemitism, promoting conspiracy theories, and calling for the “end” of Zionism.

The controversy began in 2019 when a slide show from one of Miller’s classes was revealed, which had charged that a massive Jewish-Zionist conspiracy is “one of the five pillars of Islamophobia.”

Miller has claimed that the criticism of him is “directed by the State of Israel.”

Britain’s Union of Jewish Students and the Bristol Jewish Society said in response to Miller’s reinstatement, “It is with contempt and outrage that we have learned that David Miller and the environment of hate which he creates has returned to campus.”

Both groups called on the University of Bristol to “immediately suspend Miller, pending the completion of its investigation.”

“Hate has been allowed to fester at Bristol and Vice Chancellor Hugh Brady is ignoring the pleas of his Jewish students in not taking action to suspend Miller,” they added. “It is high time that the university acted to prevent further harassment of its Jewish students, and avoid another mark against the university’s record.”

Guardian downplays antisemitism of professor who evoked global Zionist conspiracy

However, the Guardian reporter entirely omits criticism of Miller by most of the organised Jewish community – including the CST, Board of Deputies, Holocaust Educational Trust, and Union of Jewish Students (UJS). Many non-Jewish activists and leaders have similarly condemned Miller, such as Nick Lowles, chairman of the anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate.

Further, more than 100 MPs and peers – from every major political party – sent a letter to Professor Hugh Brady, head of the university, demanding action against Miller in light of his racist attacks on Jewish students.t,

The fact that the Guardian ignored the crisis at Bristol University involving Miller’s antisemitism for months, and then, when finally covering it, framed it in terms of a Tory attack on the professor and his university, is just another example of the media outlet’s institutional failure to take anti-Jewish racism seriously when the racists are on the left.

New York Times on Ramadan Events in Israel

The New York Times, once priding itself as the “paper of record,” is far better recognized today as the “paper of advocacy.” Nowhere has this been more apparent than in its coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Events are deemed un-newsworthy unless they can be used as an indictment of Israel and its Jewish population.

A case in point is the publication of Isabel Kershner’s article of April 23/24, 2021 (online/print) titled “Israelis and Palestinians Clash Around Jerusalem’s Old City.” It was the first and only article discussing hostilities in Israel during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Editors made sure the desired narrative was conveyed right up front in the subtitle/blurb underneath the headline:
The violence broke out as an extremist Jewish supremacy group marched in the city, chanting, “Death to Arabs.”

To ensure the identity of the villains was firmly establish in readers’ minds, the lede re-emphasized:
Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians erupted overnight in Jerusalem as hundreds of supporters of an extremist Jewish supremacy group staged a march, chanting ”Death to Arabs,” near the Old City.

The obvious implication was that Israelis had provoked confrontations with Palestinians entirely because of the formers’ Jewish supremacist and racist views.

Report: Antisemitic Acts in Canada Increase for Fifth Year, Some Prompted by COVID

Antisemitic incidents in Canada rose for the fifth consecutive year in 2020, marking an 18.3 percent jump in the number of offenses in 2019, according to B’nai Brith Canada’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.

A record 2,610 acts were recorded in 2020 for an average of seven acts per day and 50 incidents per week.

“Each represents an individual affront to the fraternity, humanity and decency expected of all Canadians,” wrote Ran Ukashi, special adviser to the League of Human Rights — an agency of B’nai Brith Canada — in an introduction to the report. “Jews remain the most-targeted religious community for hatred in Canada.”

According to the report, there were 2,483 incidents of harassment, 118 cases of vandalism and nine acts of violence.

They were not limited to a particular geographic location, though the majority occurred in Ontario and Quebec, which have large Jewish populations.

Several regions did report a decrease in the number of antisemitic incidents from 2019.

However, that was not enough to offset the 226 percent rise in incidents in Atlantic Canada, including Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, going from 61 acts in 2019 to 199 in 2020. All of the incidents were classified as either harassment or vandalism.

NY man threatened lawmakers, called Congress ‘Zionist Occupied Gov't’

A New York City man who referred to Congress as a “Zionist Occupied Government” was convicted Wednesday on charges of threatening to “slaughter” lawmakers just days after the storming of the US Capitol.

A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Brendan Hunt, 37, of Queens, also known as “X-Ray Ultra,” of threatening to assault and murder members of Congress. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

In the days after the Capitol riot, Hunt posted threatening social media posts, including a video called “KILL YOUR SENATORS” in which he rants, “[W]e have to take out these Senators and then replace them with actual patriots. This is a [Zionist Occupied Government],” according to the Department of Justice.

“Zionist Occupied Government,” or ZOG, is a catchphrase among white supremacists who believe that the US government is controlled by Jews. The evidence against Hunt included white supremacist material and documents downloaded from his’s electronic devices, including Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kampf.”

LA Resident Spray-Paints Over “The Jew Is Guilty” Graffiti

A Los Angeles resident discovered graffiti stating “The Jew Is Guilty” on the sidewalk of the Abbott Kinney area of Venice Beach on April 20. The resident, Daniel Khalili, posted a video of himself on Instagram spray-painting over the graffiti.

Khalili told the Journal that he found at least three instances of the phrase on the sidewalk in the area. He decided to take matters into his own hands and cover up the graffiti with spray paint because he thinks the city has been too slow in prior circumstances. “I didn’t want whoever put that on there to think that this is something that can be put on and people can just walk by and look at it and be okay with it.”

He isn’t concerned about any legal repercussions from covering up the graffiti with spray-paint, which could be considered vandalism under the law. “I’ve seen in the last year a lot of destruction done in the name of social justice, and when I walk and I see blatant anti-Semitism right in front of me, right in my backyard on the floor, I was not worried about the repercussions that could be possible I could face upon doing this.” And if he does face any legal repercussions, “so be it. But I will always stand up for my people.”

Khalili added that he has received a lot of positive feedback on Instagram for crossing out the graffiti, and that he has even gotten messages from people in Europe who were surprised that such graffiti existed in Los Angeles. “They didn’t think that anti-Semitism reaches all the way to California.”

Four years in prison for first police officer convicted of far-right terrorism

A police officer found guilty of being a member of the banned neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action has been jailed for four years and four months.

Benjamin Hannam, a 22-year-old from Edmonton in North London, has now been fired from by the Metropolitan Police for gross misconduct following his conviction earlier this month. Last year, it was alleged that he belonged or professed to belong to the proscribed group National Action between December 2016 and January 2018 and that he falsely represented himself in his application to join the Metropolitan Police in this connection.

With his conviction at the beginning of April, Mr Hannam became the first police officer to be convicted of far-right terrorism after being found guilty at the Old Bailey of membership in National Action, lying on his application to join the police and possessing guides to knife-fighting and bombmaking. It is understood that the ban on reporting the case was lifted after Mr Hannam admitted possessing an indecent image of a child.

Mr Hannam, who reportedly has autism, was apparently “desperate to impress” an older National Action organiser who gave him free stickers, but he ended his association with the organisation before he joined the Metropolitan Police.

Sentencing Mr Hannam at the Old Bailey today, Judge Anthony Leonard QC told him that “I consider what you did to be very serious and you have harmed public trust in the police by your deceit”, as he sentenced Mr Hannam to four years and four months in prison.

BREAKING - @UConn student Kristopher Pieper has been arrested in connection with the swastikas on campus.

More than have a dozen antisemitic incidents have happened since October 2020 at the school and many students have expressed anger over the administration's lack action! https://t.co/TGo8CaZ7ML pic.twitter.com/TtPybu0aPD

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) April 29, 2021

Oxygen to India: Israeli group dispatching medical aid to COVID-stricken country

An Israeli nonprofit announced Wednesday that it was dispatching a large shipment of medical aid to India, where hospitals are struggling to cope with a huge spike in coronavirus cases.

IsraAID is buying supplies especially for the consignment, which will depart from Tel Aviv in the next few days. They include oxygen machines and other essentials that hospitals are lacking to treat COVID-19 patients, and may be expanded to include syringes for vaccination.

In the last week, India has been reporting some 350,000 new daily cases, more than any other country at any point during the pandemic. “We have watched closely with concern as we’ve seen growing case numbers in India and the reports coming out of the country in recent days, and it became clear that the time has come to act,” IsraAID spokesman Ethan Schwartz told The Times of Israel.

Yotam Polizer, IsraAID’s CEO, called the situation in India “overwhelming” and said that sending aid is an act of global responsibility.

“With life in Israel returning to a pre-pandemic ‘normal,’ it is crucial to remember our shared responsibility to partner with communities facing the worst of it,” he said. “The pandemic will not be over for anybody until it is over for everybody.”

Russian Jewish Chess Player to Challenge World Champion for Title in UAE

Russian Jewish chess player Ian Nepomniachtchi will challenge the current world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, for the title in Dubai later this year after winning the FIDE Candidates Tournament on Monday with a round to spare.

The Russian grandmaster, 30, will go head to head with the Norwegian world champion in a 14-game match from Nov. 24 through Dec. 16 at Expo Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The winner will take home $2.4 million.

Nepomniachtchi, officially third in the world rankings, learned chess at the age of 4 and was a candidate master at 7, according to The Guardian. He won several European youth titles as a preteen and in one match even defeated Carlsen, who started playing chess much later.

Nepomniachtchi was awarded his first Russian title in 2010, the same year he was a European champion; his second was in 2020 when an opponent had to forfeit due to COVID-19.

Virtual Lag B’Omer-Iftar Celebration Celebrates Jewish-Muslim Dialogue, ‘Interfaith Diplomacy’ in Gulf

The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) hosted a virtual webinar on Thursday about the importance of religious tolerance and coexistence between the Muslim and Jewish communities.

The Zoom event was in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer, which begins Thursday evening, and Iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast. The month-long Ramadan ends May 12.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of Interreligious Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, moderated a panel discussion that featured Bahrain’s Ambassador to the United States Sheikh Abdulla Rashed Al Khalifa, the United Arab Emirates’ Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba and former Ambassador of the United States to the Sultanate of Oman Marc Sievers.

AGJC is the umbrella organization for the Jewish communities of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that aim to enhance Jewish life in the region. It runs under the leadership of Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, based in Dubai, and Bahrain-based president Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo.

“Both Sefirat Ha’omer and Ramadan share a common theme as they are a time for reflection,” Rabbi Abadie told The Algemeiner by email. “As we celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday and Iftar dinner together as the AGJC with our Muslim neighbors, it’s a time for us to reflect on where the region is today and the role that interfaith diplomacy has played in getting us here.”

The Thursday event began with Abadie explaining the holiday of Lag B’Omer, followed by Muslim peace activist Loay Alshareef, who talked about Ramadan.

Peace is so beautiful...
Jews and Muslims, from UAE and Israel, dance together today celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'Omer 🇮🇱🇦🇪@kaisos1987 pic.twitter.com/EoASXMmKls

— Yonatan Gonen (@GonenYonatan) April 29, 2021

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