Politics Anti-Semitism, Israel and the wider world

[berkut76]

BDS ‘Jew-hater’ convicted for violent assault in Germany

More on self-hating Jews.

A Berlin court convicted on Monday a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activist for assaulting people during a presentation by an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust at Humboldt University in the capital.
In a dramatic setback to the claim of the BDS campaign that it is a nonviolent initiative targeting the Jewish state, the Berlin court declared Stavit Sinai guilty for her violent conduct.

The Berlin daily B.Z. titled its article about the BDS activists at the trial: “It is so shameful. Disgusting hatred of Jews in and in front of the Berlin courtroom.”
Sinai’s conviction appears to be the first criminal penalty for violent BDS activity in Germany.
The paper reported about the anti-Israel extremist: “Lecturer Stavit S. is guilty. She hit the door of the hall ‘wildly’ from the outside, injuring two people... Either she pays €450, or sits in prison for 30 days.”
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2017 that three BDS activists – Sinai, Ronnie Barkan and Majed Abusalama – stormed the Humboldt University in Berlin to disrupt a talk titled “Life in Israel – Terror, Bias and the Chances for Peace” by Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie and Deborah Weinstein, an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust, now 85 years old.

The court dismissed the criminal trespass charges against the three. Abusalama said he is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza. He lives in the United Kingdom.
Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency, which documents threats to the democratic order of the city-state, deemed the conduct of the BDS activists to be antisemitic in its 2018 report. Last year, the Bundestag declared BDS to be an antisemitic movement.

B.Z. reported that Barkan is a 43-year-old Slovak and Sinai is a 35-year-old Romanian, both having Israeli passports. Barkan previously disrupted a Holocaust film festival in Berlin.

 

[berkut76]

Bari Weiss, Rose Ritch resign after harassed over their Jewish identities

The past two weeks have seen the resignations of two powerful Jewish female voices: former New York Times editor and columnist Bari Weiss, and former University of Southern California student government vice president Rose Ritch. Weiss and Ritch both cited outright hostility against their Jewish identities and solidarity with the State of Israel as the reasons for their decisions to step down from their positions.

At first glance, both women appear to check all of the requisite boxes on the progressive checklist of suitable qualifications to hold such positions. Weiss cites her accomplishments of bringing in political dissidents, minority voices and other “voices that would not otherwise appear in your pages,” while Ritch cites her plurality of identities including “queer, femme or cisgender” as rendering her qualified “as electable when the student body voted last February.”

Yet in her resignation letter excoriating the blatant hypocrisy she had experienced during her tenure at the Times, Weiss signals that the “lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to democratic society have not been learned.”

Both Weiss and Ritch assert that it is their respective Jewish identities that have led to their verbal harassment and vilification in the physical and virtual space. Ritch’s critics argue that her support for Israel has rendered her complicit in racism and by consequence guilty of espousing racist ideology. In her resignation letter, Ritch cites an aggressive social media campaign designed “to impeach her Zionist ass,” despite university claims to “nurture an environment of mutual respect and tolerance.”

Similarly, in her letter of resignation, Weiss cites “constant bullying” by colleagues who disagreed with her views. “They have called me a Nazi racist,” chiding her about “writing about the Jews again.” In addition, several of her colleagues insisted that Weiss be rooted out if the company is to be a “truly inclusive” publication.

As David Suissa, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, so keenly identifies in his recent article assessing Ritch’s resignation, “Arguably the worst insult in America today – ‘racist’ – is being weaponized against Jews who have the nerve to support the existence of a Jewish state.”

 

[berkut76]

Former MLB player Decker says antisemitism is ‘rampant’ in pro baseball

Former pro baseball player Cody Decker said that antisemitism is “rampant throughout baseball” and that an Oakland Athletics coach should be suspended for making a Nazi salute after a game.

Decker, who played briefly for the San Diego Padres and for Israel’s national team in the World Baseball Classic, spoke candidly on the topic with TMZ Sports on Saturday. He detailed several instances over the course of his career in which he was singled out for being Jewish and called Jewish slurs by fans and teammates.

Decker said that while playing a minor league game against the Frisco Rough Riders in Texas, several members of the opposing team called him and fellow Jewish teammate Nate Freiman “kikes.” He also said he was fired from a team the day after being called into a coach’s office to “explain my Judaism to him because he was born again Christian".

And in 2012, Decker said he was at a bar with teammates when a group of girls asked him to leave the table when they found out he was Jewish.
The talk was spurred by a recent incident involving Oakland A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson, who was widely criticized for making a Nazi salute — he claims “unintentionally” — after a recent game against the Texas Rangers.
“In the world today of Covid, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players,” Christenson said in a statement last week. “My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did is unacceptable and I deeply apologize.”

Decker said he accepted Christenson’s apology but that he should be educated on the issue and suspended nonetheless.
“Actions have consequences. That’s not cancel culture, that’s life,” Decker said.
Decker took issue with the A’s response for saying it “looked like a Nazi salute.”
“No, he did a Nazi salute. He did a Nazi salute twice,” Decker said. “Let’s not sugarcoat around it … I really, really despise their response. I hate every half-measure response Major League Baseball always makes.”

 

[berkut76]

Justin Goldstein, a local Jewish teacher, said that while he disagrees with Cawthorn’s policies, he feels that the post and the other symbology do not necessarily indicate that Cawthorn is a white supremacist.

“My personal opinion is that this is a whole lot of nothing,” said Goldstein, a scholar in residence at Yesod Farm+Kitchen, a Jewish farm in the area.

“This is indicative of the state we’re in as a nation, which is the way we police each other’s language without getting into the meat of a different point of view,” said Goldstein, who until recently was the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, an egalitarian synagogue in Asheville. “He probably could have chosen his words better. It’s probably a good lesson for a 25-year-old congressional candidate that his choices matter, but it’s also a lesson for us, the left, to not read too much into language that may not actually be a dog whistle.”

Cawthorn’s visit to Hitler’s vacation home alarms his NC district’s Jews

 

[berkut76]

Chess great slams antisemitism of NY socialist group against Israel

“A NYC Socialist questionnaire stipulating that candidates refuse to visit Israel. Repulsive. As always, the far left meets the far right when it comes to intolerance, especially anti-Semitism,” wrote Kasparov in a tweet to his over 564,000 followers on Twitter.

The questions about Israel come at the end of the 12-page questionnaire, which was sent out late last month," the New York Post reported.

Respect much of what DSA stands for. I’m also a Jew and Zionist opposed to annexation and disagree w/Israeli gov’t’s treatment of Palestinians,” state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) tweeted, adding: “But singling out Israel for special condemnation, among all questionable regimes we deal with, is anti-Semitism, and must be called out.”

“So let me get this straight. Per this questionnaire it would be ok for me to travel to Iran, the country of my birth, which hangs men for being gay and may stone women for adultery, but not to Israel,” wrote 2021 Manhattan district attorney candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein on Twitter. Farhadian Weinstein is a former federal prosecutor and a former senior prosecutor in in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

So let me get this straight. Per this questionnaire it would be ok for me to travel to Iran, the country of my birth, which hangs men for being gay and may stone women for adultery, but not to Israel.

The New York Post reported that liberal Manhattan Democrat, state Sen. Brad Hoylman, wrote: “This is repugnant and should be withdrawn.”

The New York tabloid reported that former Councilman David Greenfield, who oversees the largest Jewish charity in New York, the Met Council, termed the questions “Antisemitism. Plain and simple.”

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[berkut76]

Biden's campaign disavows Linda Sarsour's claim to speak for Democrats

A spokesperson for Joe Biden's presidential campaign has distanced the candidate from Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, after footage circulated online of her appearance at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

Sarsour has drawn ire for her comments in support of the BDS movement, and equating Zionism with white nationalism. She has also proved reluctant to disavow Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, despite his antisemitic rhetoric.

“The Democratic Party is not perfect, but it is absolutely our party [at] this moment,” Sarsour said on a panel hosted by the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly, one of a number of councils and caucuses run on the conference fringe.

Her appearance was quickly disavowed by the Biden campaign.

“Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of antisemitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform," Andrew Bates, Director of Rapid Response for Biden told reporters, adding "She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever."

However, her appearance on the panel has been seized on as evidence of antisemitic figures being welcomed back into the Democratic fold.

Sarsour is one of three former organizers of the Women's March who stepped down from the event last year, after the Democratic National Convention pulled their sponsorship over allegations of antisemitism during meetings made against them by two of the event's co-founders.

Tamika Mallory, who was co-president of the March, appeared on The View to address the allegations, but during the course of the interview refused to denounce Louis Farrakhan, whom she once described as the GOAT (greatest of all time).

“I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric,” Mallory said at the time. “I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities.”

Mallory also appeared this week at the Democratic Convention, speaking briefly to the Black Caucus on police brutality against Blacks.

Sarsour, meanwhile, used her platform, via video link, to tell delegates: “I am here to say that I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking to defeat fascism and I hope our Muslim American community understands how important this election is.”

She added that should the Democrats be successful in their bid to unseat President Donald Trump. “I promise you I will be the one to help hold Joe Biden and Kamala Harris accountable for our communities.”

A Democratic official has since said: "The caucus and council chairs come up with their own programming and select their own speakers."

The response was inadequate for Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks, who said in a statement that her appearance is evidence of her becoming the face of the Democratic Party, Jewish Insider has reported.

“It is outrageous that the Democratic National Committee would allow Linda Sarsour to represent their party to American voters,” said Brooks. “Sarsour’s blatant antisemitism finally made her so treif (non-kosher) that the radical Women’s March organization had to force her out of her leadership role, but she’s still kosher for the Democrat Party.”

But Sarsour was defiant. Shortly after Bates made his statement, she took to Twitter to respond: “Just came here to remind you that you need a coalition to defeat Donald Trump and that Muslim Americans are an important voter bloc in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania & I know a little something about how to organize them.”

 

[berkut76]

Syrian refugee arrested for violent attack on Austrian Jewish leader

The Austrian authorities apprehended a Syrian refugee on Sunday for allegedly attacking the leader of the Jewish community in the city of Graz.

According to a report in the mass circulation paper Kronen, police officers arrested the 26-year-old Syrian suspect in Graz who had fled Syria six years ago. His name was not released.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday that an assailant on Saturday attacked the president of the tiny Jewish community in Graz, Austria, with what is believed to have been a baseball bat.

When Elie Rosen, the head of the 150-member Jewish community, left his car, he was attacked by the stranger with a wooden stick and managed to escape back into the car. The attacker hit Rosen’s vehicle with a bat before he fled.

The Graz synagogue was attacked twice over the past week. Last Wednesday, antisemitic pro-Palestinian graffiti was smeared on the building.

The slogan “Free Palestine” was written on the synagogue, a phrase that typically means the elimination of the Jewish state.

“In Graz, we are dealing with a stronger left wing and anti-Israel antisemitism,” he said. “We can clearly determine that.” The attack was not carried out by right-wing extremists, Rosen told the daily Wiener Zeitung.

It is unclear if the Syrian man is also being charged with defacing the synagogue.

In a letter to Rosen, Shimon Samuels, director for international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote "You carry a great responsibility for the phoenix character of rebirth of the Graz synagogue, burned down in the Kristallnacht Reichspogrom of 1938 .Yet we find troubling the recidivist assaults on the synagogue, first the outer wall smeared with Palestinian activist slogans, next the smashing of windows, followed by this attack against you."

Samuels added that "You have received expressions of support from political leaders across all parties in Austria. They must also take action to prevent recurrence, by timely identification, indictment and punishment of the perpetrators.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center stands in solidarity with you and your community."

 

[berkut76]

SS Officer hailed as a 'hero' by New Zealand media dies at 97

A decorated Waffen-SS officer has died, aged 97, in New Zealand. During his lifetime he was a controversial figure having been lauded by local media as a "remarkable survivor" of WWII and a "pioneer" of skiing in his adopted country, to the dismay of many Kiwis.

Willi Huber was born in the Austrian Alps in 1923, the son of a farmer. At 17, he volunteered to serve with the Waffen-SS, in which he served as both a machine-gunner and then as a gunner in Panzer tanks, including in the Russian invasion in 1941. During the course of his service he was awarded two Iron Crosses, one first and one second class for his role in the eastern campaigns.

Following the war he was interred as a political prisoner in an American POW camp, before moving to New Zealand in the 1950s. There, he married and had four children. He also helped found the Mt. Hutt ski area, spending a winter living alone in a hut he built at 2000 meters while he mapped out ski runs and the route for the access road before installing the infrastructure, online magazine Stuff reported.

However, during his lifetime he appeared to show little remorse for his actions under Nazi rule,

A 2017 report on a Sunday news program broadcast by TVNZ showed a smiling Huber recalling the time he met Hitler, aged 9, New Zealand-based Israel advocacy website Shalom.Kiwi reported at the time. “Can you imagine?” he mused, chuckling. “I give it to Hitler, he was very clever. He brought Austria out of the dump.” Reflecting on Austria's economic status after the World War I, he added that Hitler had "offered a way out" for the Austrian people.

When quizzed by the host of program about the concentration camps, he agreed that the SS “were wrong but that is about all," adding, "what could we do?”

He also said that he and his comrades were unaware of the camps, telling the host: "We, as soldiers never, never had the slightest inkling — maybe the high command. It never occurred to us what happened in Germany or Poland."

The program caused controversy at the time for its uncritical, almost fawning portrayal of Huber, billing him as a "remarkable survivor:" of the war, and focussing on his contribution to New Zealand's skiing scene. One viewer commented on the program's Facebook page: "Willie Huber once turned to someone I know and said: 'Hitler really wasn’t that bad you know.' This Sunday News program didn’t challenge his claim to ‘know nothing’, it wasn’t investigative and it was damaging. It sickens me. In fact, I actually vomited."

The piece wasn't the only uncritical portrait of Huber in New Zealand's media — in 2014 Stuff hailed him as a "heartland hero" for his role in setting up the Mt. Hutt Ski Area.

Speaking to the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation following Huber's death, renowned Nazi Hunter and Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, Dr Efraim Zuroff commented:

"As a historian, I can state unequivocally that serving in a Waffen-SS unit on the Eastern Front, there is no way that Mr Huber could possibly not have been aware of the massive atrocities carried out by the SS and the Wehrmacht in the territories of the Soviet Union, where 1,500,000 "enemies of the Reich," primarily Jews, were murdered individually during the years 1941-1943.

"Huber's statements ring incredibly hollow in the face of the historical record of the Holocaust on the Eastern Front. If we add the fact that he volunteered for the SS, and his comments that Hitler was 'very clever,' and that he 'offered [Austrians] a way out' of the hardships after World War I, it's clear that Mr. Huber was an unrepentant Nazi, who doesn't deserve any sympathy or recognition

 

[berkut76]

Wiley remains defiantly antisemitic: 'I'm right, Jews do run the earth'

British rapper Wiley has doubled down on his recent antisemitic comments, insisting, "I'm right. I'm right. The Jewish community do [...] run the Earth."

But speaking to the 1 Po show on YouTube, Wiley again insisted that there is enmity between Jews and Black people, the latter being oppressed by the former.

"I’m right. I’m right. The Jewish community do own a lot of s*** on this planet, and they do, with other societies, run the Earth. They own everything," he said. "I’m not antisemitic if I say the Jewish community’s very powerful, they own this, they own that – I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong. If I say there's Sheikhs who own a lot of oil - am I wrong?

“A lot of what I’m going on about is institutional, deep-rooted, systemic, it’s in-place anyway… I’ve never had a problem with anyone in business other than with some of the Jewish community that I’ve worked with,” he added. “The Jewish community does stick together.”

People had a problem with what I said the other day," he said, "and I felt they’re going to shut down this and this and this, but before even that I was on the ‘net and I saw the chief rabbi compare black people to monkeys. They didn’t take down his Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. When I saw that I learned something – you can’t make somebody care about your history more than they care about their own.”

During the course of the 34-minute interview, he insisted that the removal of his accounts was an act of racism against him as a Black person, perpetrated by Jews.

“Twitter, shut down – who owns Twitter, do you reckon? Instagram, shut down – who owns Instagram, do you reckon? Facebook – shut down – we all know who owns Facebook. YouTube, Google, who owns that do you reckon? That’s the first lot of people who have shown who they are."

However, he remained defiant, insisting that the bans - far from chastising him - would only serve to further his message.

“My thing was just to show my people, you know what, you know that unfair world? It really does exist. And once I say this, they’re going to try to shut me down, but in spirit, in life, ka-boom, I’m just going to get bigger. It’s been like that for time. It’s systemic. It needs to change. We all need to come together instead of throwing ourselves to them. They chew you up and spit you back out again.”

 

[morris]

Poland’s ruling nationalists was ramping up rhetoric against gay people and Jewish compensation claims in an attempt to boost President Andrzej Duda’s campaign before last election, say experts.

Duda has equated “LGBT ideology” with communism, while public television has attacked his main rival Rafal Trzaskowki for being open to discussing Jewish compensation claims from the Holocaust — a subject the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party considers closed.

The issue of compensating Jews for assets seized during the Holocaust and the communist era is a particularly sensitive one for Poland, where there are multiple legal claims relating to Jews and non-Jews who were dispossessed.
Poland’s public television channel TVP accused Trzaskowki of acting against the national interest by failing to rule out any discussion on this issue with Jewish international organisations. The channel is widely regarded as following the PiS government’s political line.

Trzaskowski since launched legal action against TVP for the attack, which used terms such as “foreign lobby” and “rich groups” interpreted by some analysts as a clear reference to Jewish people.

 

[berkut76]

Joe Biden calls Delaware Chabad torching ‘deeply disturbing’

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the torching of the Chabad center at the University of Delaware.

The incident “is deeply disturbing — as an alum of @UDelaware and as an American,” read a tweet Thursday from Biden’s Twitter account. “We need a full and swift investigation into what happened Tuesday night. With antisemitism on the rise across the country, we all have a moral obligation to speak out and give hate no safe harbor.”

The Tuesday night blaze, which resulted in damages estimated at $150,000-$200,000, was ruled an arson by the state fire marshal on Wednesday. The blaze required 45 firefighters, including from neighboring fire companies, to bring the fire under control, according to local media reports.

“It is heartbreaking to learn the fire at the Chabad Center was set intentionally,” Jerry Clifton, the mayor of Newark, Delaware, said in a statement. “This is a sickening act of hostility that threatens the safety and security of our inclusive, welcoming neighborhoods. My thoughts are with the Jewish community and those affected by this tragedy.”

The Delaware fire comes just a week after another Chabad center, in Portland, Oregon, caught fire twice, though the cause of those blazes is still unknown.

 

[berkut76]

Biden criticized by Jewish community for meeting with Farrakhan supporter

The Biden campaign said the meeting was designed "to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

However, it has since emerged that in 2918 and 2019 Blake Sr made a number of antisemitic and anti-white posts on social media.

On August 23 Blake Sr took to Facebook to post a picture of himself, and the message "my son is alive and stable," in reference to the shooting. But earlier posts on the same account included racists slurs, in November 2017 he posted: “The same pink toe Jewish people that control the interest rate control the interest rate they control Minds and money.”

Other posts made between 2017 and 2019 included the phrases: “A jew can’t tell me sh*t period,” “The Jewish media picks and chooses who is a terrorist and [who] is not,” “A cracker jew can do whatever to a white woman for years but let a jig try it,” and “One day pink toes will burn frfr,” which stands for “for real for real,” according to The Washington Times.

He also posted "I’m with Farrakhan,” a reference to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of making antisemitic comments, and said that the victims of the October 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh were warned ahead of time.

Biden has been sharply criticized for meeting with Blake, and accused of putting Black lives ahead of Jewish lives.

 

[berkut76]

Roger Waters: I've never spoken a single antisemitic word in my life

When asked about those who have criticized former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as being antisemitic, Waters said Corbyn was the victim of a “conspiracy,” initiated by Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry.

“[Israel] used the antisemitic smear campaign to destroy Jeremy Corbyn’s chances” of electoral success, he stated, before criticizing Labour for not dismissing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

In the past, Waters has publicly condemned other artists, such as Madonna, for performing in Israel. "If you believe in human rights... don't play in Tel Aviv," he said in a statement directed at Madonna.

Waters' claim that he has “never spoken a single antisemitic word or act in [his] entire life, or had an antisemitic thought in [his] head in my entire life” is contradicted by previous actions and statements.

During a concert he held in 2013, an inflatable pig marked with a Star of David was featured.

In a 2013 interview with the left wing website Counterpunch, he suggested that some artists don’t take controversial positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict partly because “the Jewish lobby is extraordinary [sic] powerful” in the US music industry. He also claimed that the “right wing rabbinate” is responsible for promoting bigotry against non-Jews among Israelis.

In 2017, Waters compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany, said there were no harsher regimes in the world – and then contradicted both himself and facts several times in an hour-long live video chat on Facebook.

Earlier this year, he called Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson “the puppet master who is pulling the strings of Donald Trump, [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, and what’s his name…the ambassador, Greenberg, I think his name is,” Waters said, and went on to describe Adelson as a “right-wing fascist racist bigot.”

“Unfortunately this crazy, crazy, crazy guy is also incredibly rich and has the tiny little…prick of Donald Trump in his pocket,” he continued.

 

[Ivan le Fou]

^
He sounds a lot like Ilhan Omar.

 

[berkut76]

Why did a university invite a Palestinian terrorist to speak?

At the time, I was a 14-year-old kid living in Trenton, New Jersey, whose only care was how the Baltimore Orioles were doing. This event changed my life, as well as the lives of the other 350 people who were on those planes.
I agonize over the subsequent acts of terror that have been committed all over the world ever since my personal experience. What cause can justify the threatening and taking of innocent lives?

Imagine the horror and disgust that I, my family and other hijack victims experienced when we read that Leila Khaled, one of the hijackers directly involved in the 1970 attacks, had been invited by San Francisco State University to address a forum on Gender, Justice and Resistance.
Ms. Khaled is a convicted terrorist. She is a member of the PFLP. She is a symbol not of justice and resistance, but of wanton terrorism and death.
Khaled spent only a few days in jail. After her failed hijacking of the El Al plane, she was transferred by the Israeli sky marshals to the British police and released in exchange for hostages when a fifth plane was hijacked to secure her freedom.

Had Khaled ever apologized for her role in the hijackings or taken steps to show that she is committed to nonviolent efforts to achieve her desired end, I would not object to her speaking at San Francisco State. People who genuinely learn often make the best teachers.
But even after 50 years, Khaled has never expressed remorse or disavowed her actions or those of her comrades.
The most distressing and disheartening thing, 50 years after this horrible experience, is that the world has not eradicated this type of terrorism. As recently as January 2020, the PFLP (through Palestinian NGOs) receives financial support of millions of dollars from European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, UN-OCHA and UNICEF.

In theory, San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney is correct in stating that a university is a place where different ideas are presented, discussed and analyzed so that individual conclusions can be drawn. But does that justify giving an unrepentant terrorist a forum to address the students?
What will she teach them? The proper way to hijack an aircraft, based on her success in 1969, and what mistakes to avoid based on her failure in 1970?

SFSU is no stranger to antisemitism. They have prevented the presentation of pro-Israel and Jewish ideas. In fact, SFSU had been recently sued by Jewish students who claimed that they were victims of systemic anti-Semitism. Not long ago, SFSU prevented then-Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat from speaking at a public event, and San Francisco Hillel was excluded from a fair on campus.

 

[berkut76]

Florida Latinos flooded with antisemitic conspiracy theories

The exact origin of the messages — which are circulating in groups on WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging app, or on social media — is unclear. But they reflect both the themes in the QAnon theory and rhetoric deployed widely on the right that urges voters to fear disorder if Trump is unseated.

The theories have also been amplified by more respected outlets. Radio Caracol, a well-regarded Columbian radio network, hosted someone who claimed that Jewish American financier George Soros is “the world’s biggest puppet master” and, in August, ran a 16-minute paid segment claiming that if Joe Biden wins the election, it would lead to a dictatorship in the United States run by “Jews and Blacks.” Radio Caracol has since apologized.

In another instance on Friday, the Miami Herald’s Spanish partner, El Nuevo Herald, included an advertising insert called “Libre” that included antisemitic views and attacked Black Lives Matter. The paper apologized and ended its relationship with Libre.

“What kind of people are these Jews?” the ad insert said, according to Politico. “They’re always talking about the Holocaust, but have they already forgotten Kristallnacht, when Nazi thugs rampaged through Jewish shops all over Germany? So do the BLM and Antifa, only the Nazis didn’t steal; they only destroyed.”

Dina Siegel Vann, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs, said the antisemitic conspiracies appear to be coming mostly from the right. She said she’s “very concerned” about them and that her office has been reaching out to media outlets to combat the stereotypes.

But she said that the spread of conspiracy theories doesn’t surprise her given QAnon’s increasing popularity and the significance of Florida in the coming election.

“I would be surprised if Florida were not inundated,” she said. “You have it all over the country, and Florida is a very important swing state. Latinos are such an important constituency in Florida.”

She said that before this year, among Latino communities, “you didn’t see these types of conspiracy theories in the least.” While Annette Taddeo, a Columbian-American Jewish state senator from Miami, did call out the Radio Caracol segment as a “disgusting message,” Siegel Vann said she’s disappointed that there hasn’t been a stronger response to the anti-Semitism from opinion makers and government officials.

“There should have been an outcry in the media itself and there should have been an outcry in government from both parties,” she said. “You didn’t see that.”

 

[berkut76]

Survey on Holocaust knowledge among US Millenials, Gen Z 'worrying'

According to the Claims Conference, the results of the Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey showed a “worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge” among the respondents. Some 63% of the sample were unaware that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, and 36% thought that number to be “two million or fewer.” At least nine states reported more than 60% of respondents were unaware that six million Jews were killed. Eight states had more than 30% of respondents claim they believed less than two million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

More importantly, around 20% of the young sample in New York “felt” as though the Jews caused the Holocaust. Out of the nationwide sample, 11% believed that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

“The results are both shocking and saddening, and they underscore why we must act now, while Holocaust survivors are still with us, to voice their stories,” said Conference Claims president Gideon Taylor. “We need to understand why we aren’t doing better in educating a younger generation about the Holocaust and the lessons of the past. This needs to serve as a wake-up call to us all, and as a road map of where government officials need to act.”

In line with the report, around half of the respondents (49%) had been exposed to Holocaust denial claims on social media or elsewhere. Some 56% reported seeing Nazi imagery plastered across their social media feeds, and the states that reported this the most were Nevada, New York, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota and Washington (all above 60%).

 

[Deleted member 11302]

If this were not real it would be filed under "sad jokes":

U.N. rebukes only Israel for violating women's rights - UN Watch

GENEVA, September 18, 2020 — The Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Belarus were among members of the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council, a principal organ of the world body, who voted on September 14th to single out Israel as the only country in the world to be rebuked...

unwatch.org

Some of the usual suspects actually abstained from voting in this nonsense, but I would have appreciated it had Germany voted against this BS. Hey, at least France and Scandinavia don't disappoint....

 

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An analysis by the new curriculum by IMPACT-se, a research and policy institute that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula through UNESCO-derived standards on peace and tolerance, has found that educational textbooks for use in Palestinian schools throughout the West Bank remain openly antisemitic, encourage violence, and promote jihad and martyrdom.
Some 82% of the books remain unchanged from last year, while 152 modifications were found within the remaining 40 books, according to IMPACT-se's analysis. However, 88% of those adjustments either keep the problematic material intact or amplify it.

In one such modification, a reading comprehension exercise on Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who led the Coastal Road Massacre killing 38 Israelis, was replaced by text on Khalil al Sakakini, a notorious antisemite and Nazi sympathizer. Mughrabi meanwhile remains within the book, having been moved to a different section where she is lauded as the "crown of the nation."

The new curriculum also refines the definition of "Jihad" from being a private obligation of all Muslims to being specifically a religious war against Israel. In line with previous textbooks, Israel’s existence is entirely negated on regional maps. Not a single map mentions the name “Israel” out of the over 200 maps across the PA curriculum.

"The UK Government remains deeply concerned about allegations of incitement in the Palestinian Authority's (PA) curriculum," he added. "Anti-Semitism, violence and hate have no place in society. We repeatedly raise our concerns with the highest levels of the PA. The Foreign Secretary [Dominic Raab] did so with the Palestinian Prime Minister and Minister for Education on his most recent visit."

Similarly, Norway's Foreign Minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, assured a Member of the Norwegian Parliament that the Norwegian government feels "there is a good and close dialogue with the Palestinian education authorities on the issue," adding "Some changes to the curriculum have already been made by the Palestinian Authority's textbook quality control committee." She further warned that continued financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority would depend on changes being made to improve the content of textbooks.

"It is disastrous that 1.3 million Palestinian children are condemned to yet another year of sitting in PA and UNRWA schoolrooms to be fed hate and incitement on a daily basis," Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se said. "The Palestinian Prime Minister and Minister of Education told senior European government ministers from donor countries to their faces, as late as the beginning of September that change is coming, obviously knowing full well it was not. Recalculating the number of suicide bus bombers for a lesson in addition is not the kind of change they were hoping for."

New Palestinian curriculum shows no improvements, antisemitism remains

 

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Due to the concerted efforts of many lawyers and activists, Zoom has cancelled a webinar hosted by San Francisco State University (SFSU) which was slated to feature Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled as one of its guest speakers.

"Zoom is committed to supporting the open exchange of ideas and conversations, subject to certain limitations contained in our Terms of Service, including those related to user compliance with applicable US export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws," Zoom said in a statement, according to the Lawfare Project. The newly-established #EndJewHatred movement was also involved in pressuring SFSU to prevent Khaled's talk.
"In light of the speaker’s reported affiliation or membership in a US designated foreign terrorist organization, and SFSU’s inability to confirm otherwise, we determined the meeting is in violation of Zoom’s Terms of Service and told SFSU they may not use Zoom for this particular event," the statement continued.

"We applaud Zoom’s decision to prohibit Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled from utilizing its services to promote the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s message of violence and antisemitic hate," Darshan-Leitner said. "Providing any material support to terror groups including Internet conferencing services is a blatant violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

"It is disgraceful the SFSU would even offer this dangerous terrorist group the opportunity to promote its messages and threats of violence against Jews and Israelis," the Shurat HaDin president said. "We warn other Internet platforms not to consider allowing designated terrorist groups that have targeted Israelis and Americans to utilize their services. These companies are facing potential civil and criminal liability."

Zoom cancels Leila Khaled webinar at San Francisco State University