Antisemitism updates

It never gets old does it? Antisemitism, sometimes overt and sometimes disguised as “only” anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism, is still prevalent in certain quarters and never quite goes away.

The latest incidents – to name just a very few – occurred all round the world.

In Britain, where the Labour Party has not really internalized the fact that it lost the election, another anti-Israel and antisemitic hate-fest is about to take place (as if the Al Quds Day march wasn’t enough). This time it’s the Palestine Expo 2017 festival. Officially it is supposed to celebrate all things “Palestine”. In reality it will be another excuse to bash Israel. Just take a look at the organizers and the main preacher – via Harry’s Place:

When Ismail Patel and his Friends of al-Aqsa group organise a conference on Palestine, one can be confident that the speakers will be suitable for the cause. Namely, hating Israel and loving Hamas. This is Mr Patel’s lifelong mission.

Hate preacher Ebrahim Bham to speak at Palestine Expo 2017

Sure enough, the prominent South African preacher Ebrahim Bham is on the bill for Mr Patel’s Palestine Expo, which will be held next weekend at the QE II Centre in Westminster.

Mr Bham’s preaching record shows that he is a perfect match for Mr Patel.

The Israeli People? Nazis!
In a sermon on Israel, Bham knows exactly where to turn. Tell people the Israelis are like the Nazis. First he quotes Goebbels:

“People tell me that Jews are human beings. Yes, I know they are human beings. Just as fleas are also animals. Just as fleas are also animals, they are also part of human beings like that.”

Those words, he then says, explain Israelis today:

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Rejecting Jews and Christians
Bham doesn’t have it in for Israelis alone. Oh no. All Jews and Christians are agents of Satan, he says in another sermon:

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Proud Support For Harsh Sharia Punishments
As for Muslims, they need to be kept in line by way of brutality.

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Standing Up For Jihad and A Caliphate
Let’s talk about jihad and the caliphate. Mr Bham is quite keen on both topics.

There’s a lot more at the link if you have the stomach for it, but I’m sure you get the picture by now.

A Facebook page demanding to stop the Palestine Expo was set up and the Jewish community asked the Communities Secretary Sajid Ravid for help in stopping this Expo, but as Harry’s Place noted, all to no avail:

I would really like to have a “difficult conversation” with Sajid Javid. He had suggested he would deny the QE II venue to Palestine Expo. Then he relented and the event is scheduled to go ahead in the heart of Westminster, with Mr Bham in attendance.

I guess enough is never enough.

I cannot understand the British, who have been the target of three major terror attacks carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam, allowing any of these Jihad-supporting, Sharia-promoting, antisemitic and anti-Western parades and festivals to go ahead. When will they come to their senses?

In another disgusting attack on Israel, a representative of British Jewish war vets refused to lay a wreath in fury at the insult to the memory of Jewish fighters who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War after a trades union representative compared the “Palestinian struggle” to the Spanish war:

A representative of Jewish veterans of the Spanish Civil War refused to lay a wreath at a memorial in London yesterday in protest at a speaker linking the event to the struggle of the Palestinians.

Martin Sugarman, Jewish veterans’ representative

Martin Sugarman, a writer on Jewish military history, objected to comments made by Tosh McDonald, president of the train drivers’ union, Aslef.

Anti-Zionist-not-antisemite Tosh McDonald

For more than 20 years, Mr Sugarman has laid a wreath of poppies shaped in the form of a Magen David at the annual commemoration for the 4,000 British members of the International Brigade who fought against General Franco’s fascists in the 1930s.

Nearly a fifth of the British volunteers in Spain were thought to be Jewish.

Mr Sugarman said the event, at the International Brigade Memorial Trust’s memorial to the fighters on the South Bank, traditionally focused on remembrance and stayed clear of contemporary politics.

But the Aslef leader, he said, had compared the Palestinian struggle against Israeli “oppression” with the republican cause in Spain.

It “insulted the memory of the overwhelming majority of Jewish fighters who went to Spain,” he said.

Mr Sugarman said shortly after Mr McDonald had finished speaking, “I stood up and held up my wreath. I said words to the effect that it was inappropriate to have politicised the event and in protest, I was leaving and was not going to lay my wreath.”

Tosh McDonald. What a name! Tosh in name and his words are tosh too.

In response, the International Brigade Memorial Trust posted a statement on its site which defended Mr McDonald: “Tosh expressed the view that, just as the Spanish Civil War had been the great cause of young people in the 1930s, or that the anti-apartheid campaign had been the great cause of his generation, the plight of the Palestinian people was the equivalent great cause for many young people today. During the speech, Tosh also clearly and unequivocally denounced anti-Semitism and said it had absolutely no place in the labour movement.”

Well, of course! Some of his best friends are Jewish I’m sure! What a sick joke.

Meanwhile our “friends” in the UN have not let us down, and are busy demonizing Israel as ever. The Nobel Peace Prize (what a misnomer!) laureate Jody Williams launched a vicious attack on Israel last week:

Last week, the UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People sponsored a two-day anti-Israel hate-fest called: Ending the Occupation: The Path to Independence, Justice and Peace for Palestine. It was held to mark 50 years since Israel liberated the so-called occupied territories from Jordan, Egypt and Syria (my words, not theirs).

Aussie Dave compiled a video of the highlights (or rather lowlights) of Williams’ speech:

As Dave says:

What is it about so many Nobel Prize winners and their moral bankruptcy?

A very good question, but I would venture a guess that the Nobel Peace Prize was irrevocably demeaned after being awarded to arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat. It has never recovered from that insult.

And still at the UN, UNESCO does not give up in its mission to delink Israel from Jewish history and Judaism. It cooperates actively and eagerly with Palestinian efforts to delegitimize Israel and gives massive support to Palestinian claims to Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. The latest UNESCO assault is on the city of Hebron and the Jewish claim to the Cave of Machpela, the Cave of the Patriarchs. But this time Israel hit back, in the form of Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipy Hotovely, who explained the UNESCO farce to foreign ambassadors in Israel:

Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely spoke with foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem this week about the upcoming UNESCO vote on World Heritage Sites in Danger. She explained that the Tomb of Machpela (Cave of the Matriarchs & Patriarchs) in Hebron is not in danger, rather has freedom of worship for Jews and Muslims alike. She accused the Palestinian Authority of politicizing UNESCO with fake history and denying Israel’s rights to the burial site of the Jewish founding fathers and mothers.

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The deputy minister commented on Muslim prayer services during the holy month of Ramadan, which ended on Sunday. The Tomb of Machpela complex was reserved for Muslims only on every Friday of the month. PA and Israeli officials worked together to provide smooth access for worshipers. She noted, unlike in other places in Israel and around the world, there were no violent incidents throughout the entire month.

“We did not get any complaints from Palestinians. There is a big gap between what is really happening and the delegation that is trying to politicize UNESCO.”

She also said that photographs the PA delegation is using to push through the emergency recognition of the site as a Palestinian heritage site have nothing to do with the actual Tomb of Machpela.

What? Palestinians lie? Who’da thunk it?

…A sharing agreement between Israel and the PA regarding the holy site stipulates that ten days out of the year will be reserved for exclusive Muslim worship and ten days of of the year will be for Jewish worship. last year, during Ramadan, a large, elaborate mezuzah was ripped off. It was replaced and no damage occurred this year. However vandalism of Jewish items is common during Muslim-only prayer times.

Hotovely also displayed a map of Hebron showing the division of the city since 1997. The PA enjoys 80% of the city including four Jewish holy sites which are off limits to Jews, despite the Hebron Accords. H1 Hebron, the PA side, includes several shopping centers, a sports arena, four hospitals, three universities and hundreds of factories and warehouses that do regular business with Israel.

Hotovely also stressed that the Palestinians agreed to the sharing arrangement of the Cave with Israel! So why are they complaining now?

Watch Tzipy Hotovely in action:

 

In a move that would be considered surprising by those who do not understand Israel and the importance Israelis give to Israel’s Jewish character, Tzipi Livni, of the leftist Zionist Union party, also defended Israel’s claim to the Cave of Machpela at UNESCO:

“At first I thought I would not come because they have taken terrible decisions, but then I thought, if I am getting a hearing here at UNESCO, I am going to say what I have to, not only on the issue of women, but also what I think about the decisions that are on their table about Hebron next week. They are going to hear what one woman from Israel thinks of these decisions. We can make a difference here. I lead the opposition in Israel, but not an opposition to the history of my people nor an opposition to the truth. These resolutions won’t harm my people’s ties to these sites, but they will harm UNESCO and the ability to advance shared efforts. This is not the way. It prevents cooperation, the kind we are trying to do here today.”

She made her comments at a seminar entitled Fostering Women’s Empowerment and Leadership” event where she met UNESCO chairwoman Irina Bokova and others.

 

Kol hakavod to both Tzipis, Hotovely and Livni, for so eloquently defending, from both ends of the political spectrum, Israel’s legitimate claims to Jewish holy sites.

This is something that should be a no-brainer to everyone, but antisemites lost their their minds and their common sense when their brains were overtaken by hatred.