Will He or Won't He Be Going to Britain?

Palestinian Authority Mufti Ekrima Sa'id Sabri has form in the antisemitic stakes.

'In a 1999 interview regarding the political situation on the Temple Mount, Sabri stated, "If the Jews want peace, they will stay away from Al Aksa. This is a decree from God. The Haram al-Sharif belongs to the Muslim. But we know the Jew is planning on destroying the Haram. The Jew will get the Christian to do his work for him. This is the way of the Jews. This is the way Satan manifests himself. The majority of the Jews want to destroy the mosque. They are preparing this as we speak."

In a 2000 interview with the Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Sabri responded to a question about the Holocaust by stating, "Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairytale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity. It is not my fault if Hitler hated Jews, indeed they were hated a little everywhere. Instead, it is necessary to denounce the unjust occupation endured by my people. Tomorrow I will ask John Paul II... to support our cause."

On February 20, 2005, Sabri appeared on Saudi Arabian Al Majd TV to comment on the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister. Sabri stated, "Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."' [Emphasis added, here and below]

Here he is on Voice of Palestine Radio (Fatah) a couple of weeks before 9/11 asking Allah to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to destroy Israel, America and Britain.
Inveighs he:

"Allah, destroy the U.S., its helpers and its agents. Allah, destroy Britain, its helpers and its agents. Allah, prepare those who will unite the Muslims and march in the steps of Saladin. Allah, we ask you for forgiveness before death, and mercy and forgiveness after death. Allah, grant victory to Islam and the Muslims…"

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbEpqtPn5QQ

It's reported he'll be in the UK from the 11th to the 15th of this month as part of a delegation organised by Pro-Palestinian group EuroPal

To quote blogger Vlad Tepes:

"(Meanwhile, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and of all people, Michael Savage, have been banned from entering the UK for reporting that many Muslims like this one, say exactly what they say)"

Yet it seems he has yet to apply for a visa.  And a petition is afoot to ensure that he is not granted one.

'... Joan Ryan MP, Labour Friends of Israel chair, said she was horrified Sabri was attempting to visit parliament “given his reported views on the holocaust, terrorism and the Jewish people."

She added: “If these reports are true, he should not be allowed into the UK, let alone into Parliament.'  (Report here)

 In the meantime. elsewhere in Europe:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOV7dUTwj6o

To quote the uploader:

'A group of protesters demonstrated against the recent desecration of the International Brigades memorial at the Fuencarral cemetery in Madrid on Saturday, condemning the Anti-Semitic graffiti Nazi symbols found on the monuments. SOT, Paco Arnaure, Political activist (Spanish): "We are here at the Fuencarral Cemetery because there has been an attack by fascist groups on the memorials for the international volunteers who fought for the Spanish Republic, the International Brigades and also the Soviet volunteers, who have their own monument here as well." SOT, Javier Ruiz, Political activist (Spanish): "These people came here to defend what we today know as democratic values, and they fought in a war –and even died in it – to defend these values." SOT, Roman, Political activist (Spanish): "Fascists and nationalists are getting back on their feet in Europe, and I think this is very dangerous for Europe. I can personally say this is happening in Ukraine, where nationalist battalions, people with fascist ideologies, are killing their own people. And Europe is supporting that. So sometimes I ask myself why Europe is nurturing this fascism." '

"We Thought We Had Abolished The Beast Of Anti-Semitism From Our Shores & Had Made It Totally Unacceptable"

So the frightful George Galloway, Respect MP for Bradford West, is up to his noisome nonsense again, proclaiming, with his customary demagogic fervour, that Bradford is "an Israel-free zone".

That's the Yorkshire city which, as I briefly described here, owes an immense debt to Jews who settled there in the nineteenth century and contributed materially to the civic and cultural life of the locality.

Declares Galloway:

“We have declared Bradford an Israel free zone. We don’t want any Israeli goods. We don’t want any Israeli services. We don’t want any Israeli academics coming to the university or college. We don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford if any of them had thought of doing so.

We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. And you have to do the same.”

Regarding this barbarous call, the Yorkshire Post reports:

'A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “We have received two separate complaints about comments attributed to George Galloway MP during a speech he gave at a public meeting in Leeds on August, 2 2014. We are currently investigating the complaints.”

Bradford Council leader Councillor Dave Green has condemned Mr Galloway’s remarks. He said: “George Galloway may be a member of parliament but he does not speak for Bradford. He can only speak for himself and his party.” He described the comments as “deliberately divisive.”....

Reaction to the film on the social media site Twitter was angry and immediate. Julie Lenarz wrote: “He’s a disgrace to country/office.”.... ...Samuel LBS tweeted: “I wonder if George Galloway wants Muslim Arabs who are Israeli citizens banned from Bradford as well?”

Mr Galloway last night defended his speech and said he looked forward to hearing from the police inquiry. He said that “at least 95 per cent” of Israelis supported the military actions of the Israeli Government in Gaza.'

The Bradford Telegraph and Argus adds:

'Nigel Grizzard, a commentator on Jewish affairs, said: "George Galloway is a very extreme politician and these are very extreme remarks which are not helpful in any shape or form....

Israeli tourists with an interest in textiles visited Bradford, he said, "Whether they will want to come now is a different matter."

Mr Galloway said there was wide-spread support for the scale of military action taken in Gaza and added: "Bradford is the centre of peace studies, why on Earth would you want those people here?"

He said he could not comment on the police investigation until he knew further details of the nature of the complaints.

Mr Galloway made similar comments that Bradford should be an 'Israel free zone' after he was invited to speak at a rally in City Park last month.

At that event he also called on other city MPs and councillors to 'twin' with Gaza, though Bradford Council leader David Green later suggested that any move to twin with communities in that region should involve both Gaza and Israel. The process would have to go through normal council procedures.'

Here's a video of that rally in City Park.  Yes, City Park, Bradford, England. Hear a familiar Scottish voice rant. Hear the hordes of Islamists rave. A "centre of peace studies" indeed.

More anti-Israel hatred expressed there:

To quote the splendid Douglas Murray:

'Certainly, across Europe there is a new hatred in the air -- but this hatred is also the old one. The people on the streets of Paris, Berlin, London, Amsterdam and other cities across Europe include the descendants of some of those who fought against, fought for, allied or collaborated with the evil regime which spurred this hatred on last time. But most of the perpetrators are not those people. Most of them are of immigrant backgrounds. In Britain, these are mainly from the Indian sub-continent (with a smaller group from the Gulf countries); in France and the Netherlands, they are from North Africa; in Germany and Austria, largely from Turkey.

All the peoples of Europe can see this but none of them want to identify it. We live so in terror of being politically incorrect. We live in a rightful disgust for racism of any kind. And yet here we see -- and nowhere more clearly than in Germany -- the new racist nightmare for Europe. We thought we had abolished the beast of anti-Semitism from our shores and had made it totally unacceptable. And yet here are people Europe has imported in their millions, failed in varying degrees to assimilate and who now (in considerable numbers) look as if they have taken up precisely the hatred we had all hoped to have left behind. These are dark days in the Middle East. But they are darker days in Europe. Whether we deal with this returned evil or not will be the challenge of this generation.'

 As a Spanish analyst (quoted here) observes: 

"It is possible legitimately to criticize Israel. But it smells fishy when all of the blame is attributed to Israel, without even mentioning the small detail that a terrorist and jihadist group that rules Gaza has infringed on every conceivable humanitarian principle, by using civilians as human shields, and launching missiles from apartment blocks, while their leaders are living comfortable in Qatar, guests of a sheik.

 It is not difficult to unmask an anti-Semite: someone who frivolously abuses the term "genocide," a word that has such profound significance for the Jewish people ....'

Another, quoted in the same article, remarks:

"There is no territory more occupied than the body of a Palestinian woman, or a strip narrower than the female spirit severed by the violent imposition of the superstitions of Allah and the followers of Mohammed. We had better not even mention the situation of Palestinian homosexuals. This selective outrage by top progressives when it involves Israel is indeed anti-Semitism."

And writes the staunchly pro-Israel French academic Guy Millière:

'....All French politicians are ready to condemn anti-Semitism in general terms (except members of the National Front); none are ready to call the anti-Semitism that is exploding in France today by its name: Islamic anti-Semitism....

Almost all French politicians adopt an attitude of appeasement toward the enemies of Israel and Jews. They never define Hamas as an Islamic terrorist organization. They close their eyes to the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish hate speech disseminated by the enemies of Israel in the Middle East, and to the irony that France finances that speech. They act as if they did not see that the hate speech France finances in the Middle East is now spreading throughout France........All reports major French television reports on Israel's war against Hamas are made ​​from the point of view of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. No report speaks of Hamas's genocidal Jew hatred or of the use of Arab women and children as human shields. Journalists from major French media outlets act as if they did not know that by adopting a watered-down vision of the protesters and rioters in France, and by describing the war from the point of view of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, they are playing a dangerous game that could lead to more pogroms and even civil war....

French politicians also know that France's Muslim population now amounts to 15% of its total population and that radical Islamist organizations are particularly well established. The Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the main French Muslim organization; it attracts tens of thousands of people in each of its annual meetings and openly lends political support to Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. French politicians do not want a confrontation with the UOIF.

French politicians also know that more than 750 neighborhoods in France are considered "no go zones" by the police, and that the authorities have lost control of them.

They also know that 70% of all inmates in the French prison system are Muslim , and that self-proclaimed imams and gang leaders have taken over many prisons. They know that these prisons have been transformed into recruiting centers for jihadists, and that regaining control of these prisons is an almost impossible task. Mohamed Merah and Mehdi Nemmouche, the Brussels Jewish Museum killer, became jihadists while in French prisons.

French politicians know, as well, that more than 800 French Muslims are being trained in the Islamic State, in Iraq and Syria.

They know that Muslims vote. Eight million Muslims clearly have greater political weight than do four hundred thousand Jews. [The greater clout at the polls in Europe and in Australia  that Muslims now have compared to Jews owing to their far greater numbers must, of course, be a central worry for all who support Israel, whether Jew or non-Jew.]

The major French media are also scared and paralyzed. Criticizing radical Islam on French television is now almost impossible. Organizations fighting "Islamophobia" are extremely vigilant and extremely well funded....

On July 21, Meyer Habib, a MP representing French citizens living in Israel, said that "an atmosphere of Kristallnacht" spreads over the country. Many French Jews agree.'

Writes that fine American, Lieutenant-Colonel Allen West:

'Watch this video of a former US Marine being attacked by a pro-Hamas mob this past Saturday in Washington DC. What makes me angriest was the way these animals surrounded the Marine and began shouting “Allahu Akhbar” and then attempted to coerce the DC police who finally showed up at the scene. This Marine’s crime was that he stood with an American and Israeli flag. He was punched, kicked, and spat upon by these ravenous savages. It is only by way of violence and intimidation that these supporters of Islamism and jihadism achieve their goals. And to think this occurred right in our nation’s capital, just as in Paris and London....

We have allowed a cancer to infiltrate Western Civilization and it is metastasizing at an alarming rate. This cancer will indeed destroy the host unless a precision emergency surgical procedure is conducted. 

Those who support Islamic terrorism live side-by-side with us — the evidence is clear as to why. When in our country an American, who has served his nation, cannot express his First Amendment right of freedom of speech and expression without being attacked by a mad mob there is something very wrong.

This goes beyond the scope of multiculturalism. It is a matter of survival and respect. Perhaps those who attacked the Marine would do better living in Gaza with their Hamas brethren. And you can bet that behind this violent protest you will find the instigation of Muslim Brotherhood front groups ....

When tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide....'

It's not the first time that Colonel West has given that warning, and I doubt that it will be the last.  Abetted by the perverse and destructive Left, a terrible force has been allowed to penetrate the soft underbelly of the democratic West, and the recent demonstrations against Israel in Western capitals and other large cities has thrown that fact into sharp relief.  The Jews are the canaries in the coalmine, as seen in what one commentator has termed "The Hate-Wave all over the Islamicised West".

Spain's Citizenship Offer to Sephardim: Muslims demand parity

Welcoming Spain's offer of Spanish citizenship to the descendants of Jews who were expelled from the country by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel/Israel Returns (motto: "Find our lost brethren") notes in the Jerusalem Post  inter alia:

'[I]n recent years, Spain has focused its efforts primarily in the direction of tourism and commerce, such as encouraging the creation of a network of “Juderias,” or Jewish quarters, throughout the country to appeal to Jewish tourists.

And there is no doubt that an economic rationale also lies behind the new law on citizenship.

Spain has suffered enormously since the global financial crisis hit in 2008. Its current unemployment rate is 25 percent, a growing number of young people are emigrating and the country endured a double-dip recession from which it is only now beginning to emerge.

The prospect of forging anew a link with potentially millions of people of Sephardi ancestry, and the possible windfall that might ensue as a result of increased investment and tourism, was surely not lost on the decision-makers in Madrid when considering the citizenship bill.

And that, of course, is what makes this development so decidedly ironic: the Expulsion happened in part because Spain wanted the Jews’ assets, and now they are welcoming Jews back for the same reason.

Nonetheless, regardless of their motivations, the governments in Madrid and Lisbon are to be commended for the gesture. These are historic moves, signifying that tangible steps are at last being taken to address the injustices that were perpetrated on Iberian Jewry in the 15th century.

Coming at a time of rising anti-Semitism across Europe, it is refreshing to see European states making an effort to welcome Jews so openly.

This sends a strong signal to other countries on the continent, and underlines how Europe’s historical connection with the Jewish people truly does stretch back over the centuries....' [Emphasis added]

Portugal, which expelled its Jews in 1497, has a similar law to the one Spain has introduced, and the prospect of acquiring Iberian citizenship is reportedly proving irresistible to many Sephardim, including Israelis and yordim (a fact which has not been lost on anti-Israel fanatics on social media, who envisage a mass exodus of people of such a background out of the Zionist Entity).

It's entirely natural that people whose ancestors left the Iberian peninsula under terrible duress should welcome the posthumous defeat for Ferdinand and Isabella that the legislation provides.

But if such people expect to re-enter a Golden Age for Iberian Jewry such as existed in medieval Spain pre-Expulsion they may be disappointed.  For not every Spaniard is a Jose Maria Aznar, that staunch friend of Israel and Jewry, as this report on antisemitism in Spain indicates. (For Portugal see here)

Meanwhile, Spanish Muslim voices, claiming that the new legislation in favour of Jews is discriminatory, are demanding a comparable right of return, and they have their supporters. 

Reports Ha'aretz:

'Spanish Muslims are urging their government to grant citizenship to descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain, following a bill granting that right to Jews whose ancestors were forced to leave during the Inquisition.

The demand was made this week in a statement by the Association for Historical Legacy of Al-Andalus, the Spanish news agency EFE reported on February 17.

“The Spanish state should grant the same rights to all those who were expelled, otherwise their decision is selective, if not racist,” Bayi Loubaris, the association’s president, told EFE.

The association named several families currently residing in North Africa as candidates for receiving Spanish citizenship.

Several other prominent Muslims and legal experts accused the Spanish government of pursuing a double standard following the approval on February 10 of a bill proposing to naturalize descendants of Sephardic Jews, which the governments said was to atone for the expulsions 500 years ago....

“Recognition of the Sephardic community is symbolic, necessary and just. The same applies to those who have kept their Andalus-Moorish identity in exile,” Manuel Antonio Rodríguez, a professor of law at the University of Cordoba, told the El Confidencial daily on Sunday.

In 2006, the United Left party in the parliament of the autonomous Spanish region of Andalusia submitted a bill which proposed recognizing the rights of descendants of Muslims who were expelled but the bill never made it to a vote.'

Portugal has rejected such demands:

'Portuguese lawmakers who drafted the country’s law on Sephardic Jews rejected calls to naturalize the descendants of Muslims who were expelled, citing the fact that the expulsion of the Muslims was part of a war to end the occupation of Spain by North African invaders.

“Persecution of Jews was just that, while what happened with the Arabs was part of a conflict,” Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a Spanish lawmaker who drafted Portugal’s law of return, said. ”There’s no basis for comparison.”

As for Spain, read this and meditate ...