How to Find Favour With Antisemites

Judging by the number of plaudits and shares this sickening propaganda (by Na'amod: British Jews Against Occupation) has attracted from many of the usual suspects on social media, one way appears to be to invent alternate words to the Vidui (Confession) prayer, a key part of the liturgy of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar:

"ASHAMNU: We are guilty – There is a segregated justice system in the West Bank, with Palestinians tried in military courts which have a near-100% conviction rate.
BAGADNU: We have betrayed – The aspirations of freedom, equality and justice held by Palestinians and Israelis have been betrayed by those with the power to end the occupation.
GAZALNU: We have stolen – Land legally owned by Palestinians has been seized for the construction of settlements, and homes legally constructed by Palestinians have been demolished under the false pretense of security.
DIBARNU DOFI: We have slandered – Israelis who have the courage to speak out against the occupation, such as the veterans in Breaking the Silence, are falsely accused of lying by some of the most powerful voices in the land.
HE’EVINU: We have caused others to sin – Every day young Israelis are forced to spend their military service in the occupied territories, upholding a system of violence and discrimination against their neighbours.
VE-HIRSHANU: We have caused wickedness – By sustaining diaspora support for Israeli occupation and the consistent policies of division, dispossession and denial of basic rights.
ZADNU: We have sinned wilfully – The facts and reality of occupation are unequivocal, yet human rights activists like Omar Shakir have faced deportation from Israel instead of being listened to.
CHAMASNU: We have extorted – Those who uphold the occupation have made false promises and engaged in gross corruption in order to retain their positions of power.
TAFALNU SHEKER: We have become attached to lying – Falsely slurring members of our community, failing to address the concerns of countless British Jews, presenting arguments based on fear rather than justice.
YA’ATZNU RA: We have given harmful advice – Hasbara programmes enter schools, universities and synagogues around the world, presenting disingenuous arguments to justify continued military control of Palestinian lives.
KIZAVNU: We have deceived – Palestinians are constantly maligned as terrorists bent on the destruction of Israel, while the violent rhetoric of many Israeli leaders is overlooked.
LATZNU: We have mocked – The aspirations of Palestinians to live in freedom and dignity are heartlessly dismissed by the political leaders who would rather expand the occupation than bring it to an end.
MARADNU: We have rebelled - Against the universal principle of 'B'tselem Elokim' (divine likeness) by prioritising one narrative and rejecting another, yet so similar to our own.
NIATZNU: We have provoked – Israeli politicians outlined plans to annex the Jordan Valley, promising endless occupation to the Palestinians who live there.
SARARNU: We have turned away – Attempts to bring about a resolution to the occupation have been abandoned by Israeli political leaders, who have no concern for the Palestinians and Israelis who are harmed by it.
AVINU: We have been perverse – The romanticisation of military might and the use of the language of security in order to justify injustices has become a feature of dialogue around Israel.
PASHANU: We have been negligent – Children are regularly subjected to harsh and immoral conditions when processed through the military courts, being denied contact with their families and subjected to unnecessary practices such as blindfolding.
TZARARNU: We have caused grief – There have been over 3500 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the past 10 years.
KISHINU OREF: We have been stubborn – Calls for peace and justice fall have been roundly ignored by those in power, and the occupation continues with no end in sight; this year we will let calls for change and transformation ring loud throughout our community.
RASHANU: We have been wicked – The occupation has raised immeasurable hands to strike and has caused division in our own community.
SHICHATNU: We have corrupted – By venerating nationalist passions we compromise our morality for the sake of upholding occupation; this year we will listen to the voices that have too long been trampled; we will hear the stories that must be told of racial profiling, of imprisonment, of nighttime break-ins.
TIAVNU: We have been despondent [literally, loathsome] – Yet we can be courageous and unafraid in the ways we create a movement for Jews who confront support for occupation, in the communal spaces closest to our heart.
TAINU: We have strayed – From our rich tradition of resistance to tyranny; this year we will return to our deepest commitment to freedom (cheirut) from slavery.
TITANU: You have let us go astray – We have grown up in the British Jewish community that is so dear to us. Yet we have not felt able to express ourselves and our commitments fully when it comes to fighting against the occupation."

Meanwhile, my spies tell me that some of our old friends in the anti-Israel movement are advocating the tactic of refuting (or trying to!) the points made in this important report pictured above, released last month.

Rogues with a Brogue (video)

In Belfast on Tuesday, heavily outnumbering pro-Israel counter-protesters, dozens of raucous members of an outfit calling itself BDS Ireland (part of part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement along with Sinn Fein) yell their opposition to Northern Ireland's first friendly football match against Israel in Windsor Park. Over 5,000 Israel-haters signed a petition demanding the match's cancellation, but the match went ahead, the home team winning by 3 goals to nil.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFZDo7r5AuI

"The Israel Haters Would Never Inconvenience Themselves by a Boycott of Israeli Technology" (video)

An antidote to anti-Israel hate and lies. 

The admirable UK life peer Baroness (Ruth) Deech on all that Israel is doing for the world, and on the squalid BDS movement in the UK.

She ends on an optimistic note.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpn1qx9S218

(J-TV. The Global Jewish Channel)

BDS? Did She or Didn't She?

From a website dedicated to BDS:

Balloon Expandable Stent

B-Stent

Invented in Israel by an Israeli!

Preferably before an emergency situation (whereby your judgement may be clouded by urgency and the optimum medical response) please inform your Cardiologist to ensure that a Balloon Expandable Stent is NEVER used. Request open heart surgery!

First things first. B-Stent does not stand for Beyar Stent, although its inventor, Prof. Rafael Beyar, an invasive cardiologist and biomedical engineer at the Technion and former dean of its medical school, did come up with the original design for a metal stent, used to keep clogged arteries open.

“The B is for balloon expandable, not Beyar or best,” said Beyar, who developed the idea with his brother, Motti, a mechanical engineer.

It was 1989, and the Beyar brothers were considering a heart stent based on the stent used by urologists.

“People didn’t believe you could have a stent for the heart,” said Beyar.

“But our concept was, if you could do it for urology, why not for cardiology?”

The advantage of a stent, which is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery that’s recently been cleared, is its ability to hold arteries open while offering enough flexibility for “the tortuous path of arteries,” added Beyar.

The stent stays in the artery permanently, holds it open, improves blood flow to the heart muscle, and relieves symptoms such as chest pain.

“The results in patients were remarkable,” said Beyar. “You could see where the [diseased] artery starts and ends. You could get around curves and get good results. No one else had that.”

By then, Instent, the brothers’ startup, had been formed, and clinical trials in the early 1990s led to the final product in 1995. By that time, Instent merged with the American company Medtronics, which took the product to market worldwide.

“We were racing against the clock to get it out there,” said Beyar. “Some investors said we were wasting our time, that it was too risky. But we stuck with it because we saw the results and believed it would change the world.”

Other Israeli Stents to watch out for:

* InStent with American partner, Medtronic/beStent line and the crimper.

* Medinol with American partner, Boston Scientific/Nir cardiac stent line market leader.

* Angiosonics Inc. a catheter-delivered ultrasound for thrombolysis, a non-invasive therapeutic ultrasound in the heart; early studies have shown that it could break up clots in peripheral vessels.

* Laser Industries a Sharplan holmium/yag laser for unblocking multiply-occluded coronary vessels.

AND boycott – Diagnostic Cardiology tools:

* BioSense Ltd., CARTA & NOGA systems hardware-software non-fluoroscopic intrabody navigation and 3-D mapping system, hailed as the missing, real-time link between diagnostics and therapeutics.

There is something truly truly sick about boycotting products intended to save lives just because they are made in Israel, a leader in medical breakthroughs and scientific technology.

There is something truly truly sick about expecting a patient whose life depends on equipment to boycott it because it was the invention of Israeli hands and Israeli brains.

A patient requiring a life-saving operation would have to be fanatical indeed to comply with the above.

Nevertheless, on hearing through the grapevine that Baroness Tonge, who recently underwent cardiac surgery in London, required two stents, I can't help wondering, in view of her two most recent Facebook posts, whether she checked the provenance of those stents first.

On the Muslim Response to moving the Tel Aviv Regime's US Embassy to Al Quds, & the role of BDS (video)

On the satellite propaganda channel of the land of the ayatollahs, urbane presenter Raza Kazim  talks to Oxford Professor Tariq Ramadan regarding the appropriate Muslim response to Donald Trump's proposal to move the US embassy in Israel "The Tel Aviv Regime" to Jerusalem (noted the shocked emphasis in his voice, as if Jerusalem has as scant relevance to Jews, Judaism and Israel "The Zionist Entity" as it does to, well, er, to the text of the Quran. 

Professor Ramadan discusses the pressure Muslims in the UK and the West can exert ("as citizens we are here to speak out"), and then launches into a spirited discussion of BDS strategies. 

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H83D-i6eI4s)

Bonus: Here's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni5HL6N0kbM) the former Mr Witz with his usual good sense:

                                      

BDS: 20th Century Arab Anti-Jewish Boycotts Repackaged for Our Time (video)

First, in two minutes, the BS in BDS:

Now, got an hour to spare?  Then listen to this.  "Listen" is the operative word, because there's no need to watch at the same time.

Professor William Jacobson traces the true history of the BDS movement.

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hyDuyYW8R8)

To quote the uploader:

Related blog post, http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/12/... Summary: Anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement is a repackaging of the Arab anti-Jewish boycotts from the 1920s/1930s and subsequent Arab League boycott, using language of 'social justice' to appeal to Western liberals.

A Chrislam Carol

Statement by several score of European legal eagles, including to my certain knowledge a chap who wore his Jewish identity lightly, eschewed Jewish communal life, but suddenly threw himself vigorously into the work of a body formed of fellow as-a-Jews whose sole purpose is denigrating Israel.

Not that he is signing "as a Jew" on this occasion, for the signatories represent a cross-section of anti-Israel legal opinion in today's Eurabia.

"Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a global, peaceful movement led by Palestinian civil society that seeks to put pressure on Israel to honour its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law as demanded by numerous UN resolutions, in particular to end the occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories, stop systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel itself, and permit the return of Palestinian refugees.

Modeled on the Anti-Apartheid Movement that mobilized civil society against apartheid in South Africa, the BDS movement has become a powerful and effective global movement in the advocacy of measures aimed at pressurizing Israel to comply with international law, and at persuading other states and business enterprises to withhold all support for Israel’s violations of international law.

The mobilization of civil society in the interest of human rights, such as the campaign against apartheid in South Africa and the Civil Rights movement in the United States, has not been obstructed by foreign governments. The effectiveness of BDS, however, has prompted not only Israel but also some other states to adopt measures to suppress this movement.

France, the United Kingdom, Canada and certain state legislatures in the United States, have adopted laws and taken executive action to suppress, outlaw and in some instances, criminalize the advocacy of BDS. Such measures aim to punish individuals, companies and private and public institutions that adopt ethically and legally responsible business, investment and procurement decisions.

Other States, notably Sweden, the Netherlands and Ireland, have taken the position that, while they do not endorse a boycott of Israel, the advocacy  of BDS is  a lawful exercise of freedom of expression, a deeply cherished freedom enshrined in national law and international human rights conventions. Reputable human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Human Rights Watch, have likewise taken the position that individuals, associations, public and private institutions, local governments and businesses are entitled to advocate and implement BDS in the exercise of the fundamental right of freedom of expression.

States and organizations that view BDS as a lawful exercise of freedom of expression are correct. Whether one approves of the aims or methods of BDS is not the issue. The issue is whether in order to protect Israel an exception is to be made to the freedom of expression that occupies a central and pivotal place among fundamental human rights. States that outlaw BDS are undermining this basic human right and threatening the credibility of human rights by exempting a particular state from the advocacy of peaceful measures designed to achieve its compliance with international law."

More here (note the photo, in which a couple of familiar faces appear.)

Meanwhile, in anticipation of a speech, Baroness Tonge seems to be happy:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38281950

But I digress.

An exhortation by her ladyship re "O Little Town of Bethlehem":

has prompted a well-received (by western Israel-haters) response on the thread by an Arab follower, posting a despicable distortion of history and insult to both Jews and Christians entitled "I met Jesus today".

His name was Palestinian 
Issa… Jesus he was called 
On the altar of “chosen-ness” he was crucified 
Time and time and time again 
***** 
His face was Palestinian 
Olive, with a hint of agony 
Yet 
Years of torture fail to conceal the glow 
The purity of his soul peeks through 
The sparkle in his eyes invites you to dive in 
***** 
His pain was Palestinian 
The colour of his words 
Grips your guts 
And squeeze… squeeze … squeeze 
Until you lose consciousness 
You fall on your knees 
Begging for forgiveness 
***** 
His faith was Palestinian 
“Their sadism too much to bear 
In the street I waited for a car 
No way out but to kill myself 
Twilight hour the fall of night 
The call to prayer woken my heart 
Healing balsam caressed my soul 
Maybe…. In this life… still…there is something worth living for” 
***** 
His heart was Palestinian 
Carved with sorrow 
Filled with love 
Flames of rage and roars of thunder 
Hound his torturer to his grave 
***** 
His tears were Palestinian 
His first crucifixion… he was only fourteen 
On the second, he was nineteen 
From then on
He was crucified every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year 
***** 
His dignity was Palestinian 
Anguished by his rapists 
With his broken back he stood tall 
His wounds run deep… his head held high 
He saw the rainbow in the horizon 
When all gave up he gave them hope 
***** 
His smile was Palestinian 
It has been said: 
“To smile when confronted with most severe oppression 
Is an act of Resistance 
Rooted 
In unparalleled beauty” 
The smile of Issa 
Was Palestinian 
 ***** 
His resilience was Palestinian 
“As he punched me in the face 
I felt stronger 
As he kicked me in the stomach 
I felt stronger 
As he slashed my arm 
I felt stronger”, he said 
 ***** 
His hope was Palestinian 
Insha’Allah, ya rab, Alhamdulillah 
Bouncy words sprinkled around 
Buds of trust bloom and grow 
His broad grin whiffs you to life 
His nightmares close their eyes 
His tales of horror lie to slumber 
When all lost hope he saw a future 
I saw Jesus today

Just another reminder of the duplicitous nonsense that unites so much of the anti-Israel movement today.

UK Israel-Haters Lilt New (& Not So New) Lyrics

A sweet and gentle ballad from Scottish PSC chief Napier's forces:

Maybe it will be translated into Spanish, to the rhythm of castanets.

Don't miss, by the way, Khaled Abu Toameh's article on a brave Palestinian Arab friend of Israel here

Meanwhile, rather disturbing, yet so utterly predictable in a way which supports the writer's point, is the suspension from Britain's Labour Party of a prominent Jewish donor, Cornwall-based Michael Foster, who in the Mail on Sunday last month forthrightly denounced the hard left antisemitism gripping the party.

On social media yesterday, the left-leaning Zionist David Hirsch, of the Engageonline website, summed up Corbyn in able terms:

When Corbyn is challenged about antisemitism he does not respond in a straight and honest way. The thing is, he usually understands the issue better than the journalist or the member of the public who is asking him and he takes advantage of that fact to shimmy round it.

So he does three things. (1) he reassures everyone that he is against antisemitism and all racism. *obviously*. (2) acts all hurt and angry and he explains that there is a difference between support for the Palestinians, backing the peace process and criticizing Israel on the one hand, and antisemitism on the other. And (3) he implies that he is being asked in bad faith by Tories and Zionists; that the people who worry about antisemitism are only pretending to be worried and they know very well that the charge is disgraceful and dishonest. 

What Corbyn knows very well but pretends not to is that the issue is about his political support for antisemitic movements and individuals. When he said that he believes Hamas and Hezbollah are forces for peace and justice in the Middle East, he did not mis-speak, that is what he believes. He believes that Zionism and imperialism are the primary oppressive forces in the world and he sides with those who oppose Zionism and imperialism, no matter how unpleasant they may be and no matter how he may find this or that thing they do or believe to be distasteful. Corbyn is not only critical of Israel; he supports some of those who hate Jews, he supports the exclusion of Israelis from the human community and he encourages people to regard the overwhelming majority of Jews as enemies.

Corbyn knows that there is a relationship between his political support for those who want Israel wiped out and the incidents of open antisemitism which he is asked to 'deal with'. He knows that there is a political problem of antisemitism in the Labour Party and he knows it begins with him and his own faction. But he does not respond to this challenge straightforwardly and honestly.

The Chakrabarti inquiry was this pantomime of obfuscation played out on a formal and public stage. 

See too a recent thoughtful article on the Engageonline website here

Pappe, Have You Heard Him?

I've said it before and I'll say it again (par the old British television commercial for a well-known, now defunct, chain of gentlemen's outfitters aka High Street tailors: "John Collier, John Collier, the window to watch!"):

David Collier, David Collier, the website to watch!

In the comparatively short time that David Collier has been blogging, he's produced some absolute gems.


And in case you haven't heard yet, he's caught out anti-Israel ex-pat academic Ilan Pappe admitting to what is the Big Lie of the BDS movement.

To quote reader Harvey:

"This post from David Collier is one of the most important scoops to come out of the on-going battle against BDS for some time. David attended a talk by the execrable Ilan Pappe last week in which Pappe kindly pulled the rug from under the BDS . He confirms what we have always suspected, that there was never a call for Boycott from within Palestinian society. It was a lie but the hard left brigade needed it to be compared to the South Africa model which was a call for boycott from within South African society. Pappe in this one short clip disproves it."

 But as Pappe laughingly says, "It's a desperate call ... for historical records":

For more on this see Collier's post here

And also see Elder of Ziyon here

(Update: And BBC Watch here)

Here's a long but valuable video by David Collier beginning "I'm going to talk about BDS"

Incidentally, the  very long-established Jewish communal newspaper in Perth, Western Australia, The Maccabean, has ruffled a number of leftwing communal feathers by refusing an advertisement from the New Israel Fund.   I reckon that befits the place where Australia's first ongoing Zionist body was born, and a newspaper that has always been proudly supportive of Israel.

Read about the brewing contretemps here

Cherchez Les Greens: "We Must Force Israel into a Perennial State of Existential Anxiety"

Get Up! is an Aussie organisation that describes itself as politically progressive and supports "social justice".

On the Facebook page of its national director, Paul Oosting, it's described as "a people-powered social movement".

The sort of issues that turn its members on can be seen here 

As reported (behind a paywall) in today's The Australian by senior writer Sharri Markson:

'A director of activist group GetUp! supports a boycott of ­Israeli products and wants to “force Israel into a perennial state of existential anxiety”.

Fresh from revelations GetUp! chairwoman Sarah Maddison campaigned for the Greens during the federal election, comes news that another board member, Sara Saleh, publicly supports the Boycott ­Divestment Sanctions movement on Twitter.

In a speech in March, Ms Saleh said the media fabricated news in support of Israel and claimed Israeli soldiers were banned from taking their phones into Gaza so they could not post to Facebook photos of them doing unspeakable things to dead Palestinians.

“It would come then as no surprise that after years of indoctrination, most Western news outlets are biased in favour of ­Israel, skewed at best, one-sided at worst in their media reports,” Ms Saleh said, adding this ­included “fabrication of news”.

“Not only were journalists banned from Gaza but even IDF soldiers were barred from bringing in their phones, probably to avoid photos of them doing unspeakable things to the dead and then posting it up on Facebook for likes.”

At the Australians For Palestine forum in March, Ms Saleh also said: “We must crack their ethno-nationalist supremacy to the very core. We must go further than ­resisting through ­remembrance alone, we must force Israel into a perennial state of existential anxiety.’’

During the federal election, Ms Saleh was involved in the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network’s IvotePalestine campaign, which had the support of all 51 Greens candidates....' [Emphasis added]

Full text courtesy of that very group of Israel-haters, APAN, who are urging their members to rally to write letters in response:

That reminds me: Michael Danby, re-elected Labor MP for Melbourne Ports at the recent federal election, recently wrote a superb analysis of how the Greens have been stirring up anti-Israel acrimony.

See his article here

Meanwhile, the lowdown on NGOs and BDS:

Oz Boy Goes To Tunisia

A delegate's passport

On 3 August the London Daily Telegraph's defence correspondent, Con Coughlin, reported inter alia:

'The Israeli government has reacted angrily to plans by the Gulf state of Qatar to support a group backed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn which wants to impose a global trade and cultural boycott on the Jewish state.

 Qatar has emerged as the main financial backer of a conference to review the aims of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign which opens in Tunis on Thursday....

Relations between Israel and Qatar, which has been accused of funding Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil), have become strained in recent years over the Gulf state’s close ties with Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that is committed to Israel’s destruction.

At today’s meeting in Tunis, which is being hosted by the Qatari-funded Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, delegates will be asked to review BDS’s attempts to organise a global boycott against Israel, as well as exploring ways to make the anti-Israeli boycott even more effective.'

Sad  to say, one of those delegates is a Sydney academic of Jewish extraction, Dr Peter Slezak, a stalwart of the BDS movement in Australia, and not to be confused with a Sydney medical practitioner of the same name.

It appears that Dr Slezak has been enjoying the conference, if this page is any indication. 

Further reports about the conference here and here

 Meanwhile, former Baptist minister Rev. Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision, has claimed that there appears to be no substance to allegations that World Vision's man in Gaza, Mohammad El Halabi, has been siphoning off millions in aid money to Hamas.

NGO Monitor analysis here

Says the Tim Costello:

"On June 15th, 2016, Mohammad El Halabi, the manager of operations for World Vision in Gaza, was arrested on his way home from routine meetings. On the 4th August 2016 date, after 50 days in Israeli state detention, Mohammad was charged with providing support to Hamas. World Vision was shocked to learn of these charges against Mohammad.

World Vision programs in Gaza have been subject to regular internal and independent audits, independent evaluations, and a broad range of internal controls aimed at ensuring that assets reach their intended beneficiaries and are used in compliance with applicable laws and donor requirements. Based on the information available to us at this time, we have no reason to believe that the allegations are true. We will carefully review any evidence presented to us and will take appropriate actions based on that evidence.

World Vision subscribes to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality and therefore rejects any involvement in any political, military or terrorist activities and maintains its independence as a humanitarian aid agency committed to serving the poor, especially children. World Vision has detailed procedures and control mechanisms in place to ensure that the funds entrusted to us are spent in accordance with applicable legal requirements and in ways that do not fuel conflict but rather contribute to peace.

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. World Vision has been working in Israel/Palestine for over 40 years, striving to give hope to over 500,000 of the most vulnerable children, through education, health, child protection and resilience programs”  (Hat tip: J-Wire)

See also here and  here  Hat tip: Ian

A Save the Children representative is now also being investigated.

And now, a representaive of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been arrested by the Israeli authorities who have accused him of links to Hamas.  See here

"A Setback in the Fight Against Prejudice": High Court judge upholds British local councils' BDS initiatives

Founded in Britain at the end of 2014, Jewish Human Rights Watch JHRW) first came to public attention when, as I mentioned at the time, it mounted a demonstration outside the anti-Israel NGO War on Want.  More recently, they sponsored a full-page ad in The Guardian in response to one advocating an academic boycott of Israel.

They have also sought judicial reviews against local councils passing BDS resolutions (Leicester City Council,  Swansea City Council and and Gwynedd Council) alleging that those resolutions breached equality law requirements, and “failed to have regard “to the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment of Jewish people”.

 Defence counsel for the councils concerned called this legal action “misconceived”,  brought because JHRW “wants to stop local authorities debating Israel’s actions,” and argued that the councils“were exercising their right to freedom of expression protected by both the common law and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

.Yesterday, 28 June, Lord Justice Simon, ruled at the High Court in London that however, said that the councils had nothing unlawful. (If so-minded, you can read the entire ruling, in all its legalese, here).

The JHRW intends to appeal the judge's decision:

https://twitter.com/jhrwatch

Needless to say, the BDS crowd (including War on Want) are cock-a-hoop at the judge's decision.  As gleefully reported here:

'....Rob Stewart, Leader of Swansea Council described the decision as “a victory for freedom of expression and the rights of elected councillors to debate and speak about issues of public interest through notices of motion.”

Stewart added: “It was a difficult decision to go to court on this matter. However, given that this was an issue about the democratic rights of councillors to speak on matters of public interest, we believed there was no other option than to defend that fundamental right in court.”

According to the Swansea Council leader, “as part of the court’s judgment costs have been awarded to the Council and, on behalf of the council taxpayers of Swansea, we will now be seeking to recover them from the applicants.”

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, meanwhile, said: “This judgement confirms that councillors have the right to shine a spotlight on a legitimate area of public debate and to discuss issues that are of concern to their electorate.”

 Labour councillor Mohammed Dawood, who proposed the motion, said: “I understand the organisation has the right to appeal but I am very pleased with the result. As a council we have a right to express an opinion and I feel that is what was being questioned.”

Responding to the ruling, War on Want said it was “pleased that the court has rejected attacks on local councils standing up for Palestinians.”

Ryvka Barnard, Senior Campaigner on Militarism and Security at the charity, added that “attempts to stifle grassroots solidarity with Palestinians will not work. We are confident that this ruling will give confidence to more councils to stand up for justice.”....'

Not a squeak, it seems, from Gwynned Council's leader yet.

"When Someone Says They Are Not Anti-Jewish, They Are Only Anti-Israel – That is a Lie" (video)

BDS Norfolk is a genteel and bourgeois-looking collection of dedicated Israel-bashers in and around the English cathedral (and now university) city of Norwich (yes, where the first European blood libel of the Middle Ages occurred).

Note the money symbols

Although many look ready for the pipe and rocking chair, the BDSers there are a dedicated lot, it appears, holding various demos calling for the boycott of Israeli products and an end to arming Israel, with a few stunts along the way.

They have even photographed and plugged the rows of old and oldish books in the cathedral library with "Palestine" in their titles, as if that somehow proves that there was an independent nation so-named until da Joos stole it.

And just look (above) how they've made these coins spin!  It's so naive and laughable it's almost charming!

Anyway, here's World Jewish Congress (WJC) president Ronald S. Lauder addressing the plenary session of "Building Bridges, Not Boycotts," the international summit on the delegitimisation of Israel at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and affirming his organisation's commitment to the fightback against BDS.

Addressing more than  1,500 students, dignitaries, public officials and representatives of Jewish organisations at the conference convened by, inter alia,  the WJC and Israel’s Mission to the United Nations, Lauder pledged that the WJC “will commit all of our resources, and all of our abilities, to help fight BDS."

 And he observed, inter alia:

"I wonder if all those people who support BDS have the slightest understanding of what this movement really means. Those BDS supporters who join  marches on campus and chant: ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!’  I wonder if they realize that the River is the Jordan, the Sea is the Mediterranean. These activists are calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. The Muslim groups have their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood ...

Make no mistake. The BDS movement doesn’t support the Palestinian people. It is strictly a campaign to delegitimise Israel, which is simply the latest attempt to deny the Jewish People their right to self-determination. Every other people on earth have the right, but BDS wants to deny that basic right to Jews.... ”

 "[T]he day of the quiet Jew ... of the ghetto Jew are long over," he warned.

As reported here, Lauder has also recently declared:

“Over the last 20 years, and for the first time since the Holocaust, antisemitism is acceptable again.  Unlike the antisemitism of the past, today it comes not just from the Far-Right, but increasingly it comes from the Far-Left. And the new target for this age-old hatred is not the ‘International Jew,’ as Henry Ford called us. Today, it is the Jewish state of Israel, which is constantly vilified throughout the media, on the internet, at the United Nations, and on almost every college campus.

Let’s make one thing crystal-clear right now. When someone says they are not anti-Jewish, they are only anti-Israel, that is a lie. When you hold the only Jewish nation to a different standard than any other country, when you make up lies about the only Jewish nation, its past and its present, and when you want the only Jewish nation on earth to disappear, that makes you an antisemite. Pure and simple...."

 Pertinent new graphics on BDS by Edgar Davidson here

Islamic/Leftist Antisemitism, BDS, and the "Apartheid" slur : A British Muslim speaks out (video)

This 15-minute J-TV  video comprises a wonderful tribute to Israel by the wonderful Dr Qanta Ahmed (in conversation with Dr Alan Mendoza), speaking from the heart and from experience about BDS (incidentally, there's a compelling new article here  showing why BDS is antisemitic), the "Apartheid" slur, and Islamist/Leftist antisemitism.

A must-watch from a channel that has produced a number of excellent videos (check it out):

Keziah's Curse

Ah, the curse of naivety!

I mean, just look at the recent comments by Pamela Hardyment I posted yesterday.

And at this further one today.

And at this squalid nastiness:

And then consider the foolishness exemplified by Jewish students who happily support slurs against the Jewish State.

 "Stupid kid. You think you know it all. So did I at your age. But the truth is, you know absolutely nothing about the forces of racist evil you are trying to help unleash."

For that is the bottom line of a comment by one exasperated commenter on an article by Ms Keziah Berelson.in the University of Edinburgh's student magazine earlier this month extolling that univerity's student unions's shameful passage of a pro-BDS motion.

Ms Berelson had proclaimed inter alia: 

"As a Modern Orthodox Jew, a recent graduate from the University of Edinburgh and a former President of the University’s Jewish Society ... I congratulate the student body’s decision to pass a motion of BDS. This is a victory for minority rights and democracy at the University. BDS is a non-violent campaign called for by over 170 Palestinian civil society organisations which use the methods of boycott, divestment and sanctions from institutions and companies who benefit from and contribute to Palestinian oppression in order to pressure the Israeli state to operate within the boundaries set by international law....  This vote shows that EUSA and Edinburgh University students are still committed to liberation politics....

It saddens me that this successful move by BDS campaigners is overshadowed by accusations of anti-Semitism, which detract from the terrifying rise of fascism on UK and European streets. The Zeig Heils and blood-painted swastikas daubed onto vans in Dover earlier this year and the fascist demonstration held in Golders Green this Saturday have been eclipsed by fearmongering of pro-Palestinian successes. We must not let them rise again. I understand why Zionist Jewish students will feel intimidated by this decision but I must ask that you speak to fellow Palestinian students. How has this reaction affected them? How safe do they feel on campus?....

.... Do not assume a political opinion based on my religion or creed, for we are not all the same and we will not be silenced. Not in my name."

Among the justifiably appalled comments beneath her article this one stands out:

"I am currently studying in a University in Israel with a large Arab student body (Uni of Haifa), and I have to comment about how surprised I was at the ignorance of what Apartheid actually was. To describe Israel as an Apartheid state (which you allude to by saying that BDS brought down the Apartheid regime in South Africa) undermines the suffering that the non-whites suffered in SA and maximises the suffering of the Palestinians. There is no law in Israel forbidding an Arab to ride the same bus as a Jew (and such a law would be actively denounced by just about every Israeli, Jew and not), but this was the foundation of the Apartheid State. This goes on, the gist of what I am saying is that Israel does not have the multitude of discriminatory laws that South Africa had, and given the fact that 50% of Israeli Jews were exiled from Arab countries following the creation of the State of Israel, it is nearly impossible to accurately differentiate between Jew and Arab.

On another note, I am interested in the pressure being brought to bear on the State of Israel, what about on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas? Neither of which have held elections in about 10 years? Or to end their incitement to murder Jews, which has seen a 70 year old woman killed, among others. Please tell me if you can how murdering a 70 year old woman advances the creation of the Palestinian state? Hamas rules over Gaza, and instead of building a state, they have committed to shot rockets into Israel? Do you not think that it would be better for the people of Gaza if they built their state instead of trying to kill Jews that have anyway left their land? The follow on from this is that if they did build their state instead of trying to kill us, I think that they would get the freedom that they claim to want. What about the Egyptians who have also restricted the Rafah crossing into Gaza? Why does BDS singularly go after the Jewish State?

In summary, I have to say what you have done is not in my name. I would rather do the hard work on the ground, discussing our differences and working out how we can live together, instead of a one-sided narrative that absolves the other side of any responsibility for their actions. Both sides have a lot of work to do, and as long as you and the BDS movement focusses only on the Israeli transgressions and fails to understand the literal fear for our lives that is an every day reality for many of us, which would only be exacerbated by handing over power to a dysfunctional PA ... with ISIS not too far away (neither Syria nor Sinai are far from the borders of what would be the Palestinian State), is to many of us anti-Semitic. If not in intention, then in what it could well result in with us forced into a suicidal situation. By all means encourage dialogue, encourage reflection, encourage meaningful steps to peace but do not expect us to take kindly to you trying to force us to commit suicide, however well intentioned you may think you are being."

 But nobody has said it better than this great guy.

Meanwhile, some more ravings by Scottish PSC chief Napier:

"It is Clear That Many British Muslims Reserve a Special Hatred for British Jews"

An interesting article's just appeared by an Arab supporter of Israel regarding the moral bankruptcy of BDS and how it is damaging the Palestinian people.

It's by Fred Maroun, who was born and grew up in Lebanon, left that country in 1984, and now lives in Canada.

But have you read David Collier's latest blogpost?

It's a real disturbing eye-opener regarding what's going on across British campuses.

And as Mr Collier has remarked today on social media:

Can we now put the question "is BDS antisemitic?" to bed please. I've been to scores of events on campus, and yes, I have heard plenty of rabid antisemitism. But that was always just my experience, my opinion. Until yesterday. We have a few things to build on. We know that without the Palestinian and Islamic societies BDS wouldn't get any airtime at all. We know that standing for positions with the student unions is being used as a way of pushing the BDS cause. We know that on many campuses, especially in the south, events that BDS hold have a mainly Muslim audience. During Apartheid week, in the count for the events I attended, it was always above 70%.

So what do we know now. We know that many of these people in the BDS audience, supporting Apartheid week, think adultery is a crime worth stoning. We know that there is huge support for Sharia law implementation amongst them (rather than democracy), we know that they do not on the whole support freedom of speech, that they have a real problem with gays and of course, that there is a problem with antisemitism.

Which means that in the BDS room.... in the room that just coincidentally happens to have a problem with the Jewish state, there are gay hating, Jew hating, freedom hating, liberty hating people pretending to support a humanitarian cause, just so another one of their pet hates gets fed. And we also now know we are not talking about just a 'tiny minority of them'. It is done now, the argument is over. Whatever BDS inside a book (in theory) might be, we know that in practice much of the crowd is antisemitic. The university has to recognise this and end the practice on campus. BDS is a wagon of antisemitsm.. It is time to force the people off the bus.

And more essential if depressing reading.

 'For at least twenty years, the British Jewish community has been out in front when it comes to interfaith work. As Britain’s Muslim population has grown, British Jews assumed that interfaith models that led to huge advances in relations with British Christians, could apply just as well to relations with British Muslims. Indeed building bridges with British Muslims has become the focus of outreach work by British Jews.

Today, our analysis of the ICM survey of British Muslims for Channel 4 and Juniper Television shows that the gradual buildup of understanding and friendship between Britain’s Jews and Muslims has been utterly eclipsed by growing antisemitism amongst British Muslims.

On every single count, British Muslims were more likely by far than the general British population to hold deeply antisemitic views. It is clear that many British Muslims reserve a special hatred for British Jews, rating Jews much less favourably than people of other religions or no religion, yet astonishingly British Muslims largely do not recognise antisemitism as a major problem.

It has long been suspected that sections of the British Muslim population harboured hatred towards British Jews. This survey goes some way to identifying pockets of prejudice, but it also shows that the prejudice is horrifyingly widespread.

From the ICM survey data made available by Channel 4 and Juniper Television, we have been able to identify some of the worst pockets of prejudice. Antisemitic British Muslims are more likely to be men, to be older than 35, to be social renters, to be in employment, to have been born outside Britain, to live south of the Midlands in England, or in Scotland, and they are overwhelmingly likely to sympathise with terrorism, violence and extremism.

The data is frustratingly limited in one [sic] some respects, and one in particular: it does not delve into the various political and religious movements that comprise the British Muslim population.This data shows that Jews remain the "canary in the coal mine", as they have been throughout history: those who harbour hatred of Jews also hate British society and sympathise with our most deadly enemies. Britain must confront rampant antisemitism within its Muslim population, but also amongst the general population, whose shocking views should be no less concerning simply because the views of British Muslims are worse.'

See the results of the survey with analysis and full report here

Another county heard from: arch-secularist Keith Porteous Wood:

 But at least he's apologised ...

"They've Got It Coming, They'll Soon Be Running, 'Cos This Land Belongs to Palestine" (video)

Some familiar and not so familiar faces in this video outside Arsenal's football ground before the Arsenal/Watford match on 2 April.

There's quite a bit of hustle and bustle in this footage by BDSer Alex Seymour, and two youngsters bubble with enthusiasm for the anti-"apartheid" cause.  The goal (no pun intended) here is to expel Israel from the sport's governing body FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

The "singer" may be considered to provide comic relief, but stick with the video until the end to learn the burden of the song: "The Zionist losers and their friends the abusers/They've all got it coming/They'll soon be running/ 'Cos this land belongs to Palestine..." Makes a change from the usual Israel-hating chants, I suppose.

"BDS is Nothing Less than a Declaration of Economic War against the Jewish People"

"BDS is antisemitism pure and simple...."

A truly excellent, even uplifting, speech this past week by Aussie federal Liberal MP Michael Sukkar (a Roman Catholic of Lebanese and Norwegian parentage):

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

"It is with some dismay that I rise today to acknowledge that 2016 marks 15 years since the seeds of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, also known as BDS, began against Israel at the World Conference against Racism held in Durban in 2001. What passes for left-wing thought in our day and age has never been noted for coherent logic or factual accuracy. Nowhere are these leftist moral and intellectual failings more obvious than on the question of Israel in general and on the BDS campaign against the only democracy in the Middle East.

The member for Fremantle [Melissa Parke], who, I must say, made my day with her recent announcement of her departure from this place, exemplifies the Left’s noxious intellectual bankruptcy on matters Middle Eastern. By hitching her wagon to the anti-Israel BDS she exemplified how those who claim the rubric of progressive are actually quite oppressive when it comes to the Jewish People.

Ah, so ...

Make no mistake, BDS s nothing more than a declaration of economic war against the Jewish people. We have all seen the BDS causes and the antisemitic ugliness. We saw this on the streets in mob-scene blockades of Jewish owned businesses in Melbourne. We have also seen BDS in all of its genocidal ugliness when its founder, the Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, made it clear that the movement would settle for nothing less than the elimination of Israel as we know it.

Barghouti [see, e,g. here] makes no bones about his ultimate objective. He declared in 2014:

“Definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

Re Israeli General Benny Gantz; on this site

It is clear that all those who support BDS, including the member for Fremantle, would grant the right of national self-determination to the Palestinian people but are determined to deny that right to the Jewish People.

Support for the BDS program, at the very time we watch the rest of the Middle East sink into the bloody abyss of inter-ethnic and interfaith conflict, can only be explained by two possibilities. Either the member for Fremantle and her BDS buddies are afflicted by a terminal state of delusion or a more ancient and insidious bigotry lurks beneath their fine words and lofty proclamations.

Proponents of BDS like to claim that they hold the moral high ground, but their uncritical endorsement of Barghouti and others like him puts them in very dubious company indeed. It is a strange bedfellows relationship when feminists and socialists put themselves in league with the sharia-law-advocating Jihadi fanatics of Hamas. In fact, just a few days ago in Gaza a senior Hamas commander, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, was tortured and executed because he was gay. According to the New York Times, the Hamas minister for defence: …is harsher than other leaders—he wants his army to be pure.

But I guess disagreements over the status of women and gay rights pale by comparison to the fundamental issue that unites the so-called progressive left and the ultraconservative sharia-compliant Islamic right—mutual hatred of the Jewish State.

The Palestinian constitution declares that a future Palestine will be an explicitly ethnic Arab state whose legal code will be founded upon Islamic sharia law. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has vowed it will be a Jew-free country, declaring he ‘won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli’ within its borders.

I will conclude with a simple observation that BDS is antisemitism pure and simple. It is antisemitic because it seeks to deny to the Jewish people the same rights of national self-determination that it supports for the Palestinians. BDS is also antisemitic because it supports the cause of a Palestinian state ethnically cleansed of Jews. It is for these reasons that BDS has been categorically rejected by the Australian People, who have consigned this movement to the extreme margins of our society."   [Emphasis added]

  More of that ilk regarding BDS:

Meanwhile, in the dear old Motherland:

David Collier has a good post about this UCL iniquity here