"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.)
 |
| http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38281950 |
"They've had a fantastic success rate. Police have to be here 24 hours a day ... costing the taxpayer a right few good quid ..."
'.... Duncan Taylor, who has the franchise for the McDonald's at Thornbury, says the flag and banner-waving protests have hit the store hard but it is not just the tills that have been affected.
Mr Taylor, who also has the McDonald's at Kirkgate and Forster Square as well as two in Sheffield, said demonstrators have been outside the Thornbury business everyday since August 1 "unfairly targetting" it.
He says takings are down considerably and he is having to cut workers' hours meaning they take less home for their families although he is trying to find them more work at his other branches.
Mr Taylor has met the protesters to explain he is an independent business and the UK franchises deal with McDonald's UK arm and have no contact whatsoever with the US parent company.
He said:
"I just want business as usual. I'm being unfairly targeted, it's been a nightmare. We've explained this to them, we've had a meeting. We are being caught up in the crossfire so to speak.
"I feel really sorry for my staff who are losing hours because of this, it's hard on them and their families. They are also being abused by the protesters,they've had eggs thrown at them.
"Some of the protesters have also been shouting at customers and jumping in front of cars to stop people from coming in. I have reported this to the police who do come up. I don't want to make any of this worse but I wanted to put the record straight." [Emphasis added]
Mr Taylor said his McDonald's franchise is a major sponsor of Bradford City's Disabled Football Team.
"We work very hard with the community, from sponsorship of a local football team to helping with litter-picks and cleaning up graffiti."
He said his Forster Square branch was also feeling the pinch with a noticeable reduction in the number of Asian [sic; he was probably not referring to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and persons from SE Asia] customers visiting it, there have also been protests outside the McDonald's in Ingleby Road, Girlington.
A McDonald's UK spokesman said:
“As a company that operates in more than 1,200 communities in the UK, we respect employees and customers from all backgrounds.
The paper added:"McDonald’s UK does not donate to the Jewish United Fund or any political organisations and refutes any suggestion that we have taken a position related to ongoing political or religious conflicts.” ...'
'The Bradford protesters have not just been targetting McDonald's in the city, they have also gathered outside Tesco and Sainsbury's stores.
In one protest outside Tesco Express in Otley Road, Undercliffe, earlier this month about 30 men, women and children gathered outside for about six-hours with banners and leaflets denouncing Israel and the supermarket giant, earlier they had been at the Tesco in Canal Road urging people to sound their car horns in support of forcing the store chain to take Israeli goods off its shelves. [Emphasis added]
Despite protests it seems supermarkets in Bradford are standing firm and are are not giving in to demonstrators....
A Tesco spokesman said: “Like all major UK retailers, we sell some products that are sourced from Israel. We do this in line with the Government position on trade with Israel, and we mark all products clearly with the country of origin, so customers can make informed choices about what to buy.”....
[A Sainsbury's] spokesman said: "As a non-political organisation, Sainsbury's would never take such a decision on grounds other than ensuring the quality or safety of ourStates Hasan Faridi's Yorkshire Standard:
'.... Dozens have been gathering on a daily basis outside the eatery on Thornbury Road to “educate people about companies that support, fund or trade with Israel”.
Spokesperson for the protesters, Faisal Mohammed, said: “In 150 days, we’ve seen a minimum of 4,000 people turn away. A lot of regulars who used to come don’t come anymore and we’re seeing mainly new faces.
“It feels good to have got to this stage. We came together as individuals who barely knew each other but now it has progressed a lot more.
“We can’t see any breaks coming to the train of the boycott campaign and I can only see it bigger.” ....
A spokesperson from McDonald’s said: “We respect the right to protest outside our restaurants, but we ask that this is carried out peacefully and is not disruptive to our customers and employees.
“The safety and security of our customers and employees is our top priority and we will continue to work with the local police and community to ensure that any protests are conducted in a safe and peaceful manner.”
Local police have been monitoring the protests.'And just fancy that!:
 |
| The Israel-haters' massive erection |
"By their behaviour in vandalising and destroying Mosques and Churches, the Jews have demonstrated that they cannot be entrusted with the sanctity and security of this Holy Land". In a pamphlet written by Hewitt, entitled What Does Islam Say?, he advocates the death penalty for apostates and adulterers, and demands that homosexuals suffer "severe punishments" for their "great sin" [Ibrahim Hewitt, What does Islam Say?, The Muslim Educational Trust, April 2004].'
 |
| http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4003/uk-charity-commission-interpal |
"What a mean-spirited, one-sided and divisive stunt you chose to politicise your church with this Christmas.
In an ideal world there would be no walls.
In an ideal world there would also be no suicide bombers – radical Islamist Palestinians who hate the Jews that live close to them so much that they are willing to indiscriminately kill them and others – be it in a shopping centre, disco, pizza restaurant or if they are sitting at their Passover Seder.
Be in no doubt that Israel built a security barrier only after enduring a wave of horrific terrorism that left thousands dead and maimed for life.
Your completely partial representation of the situation negates their loss of life and shows gross insensitivity to their families – and by extension to all Israelis and the Jewish community in the UK, none of whom were untouched by these murders...."
'.... What began as a clever propaganda ploy by Yasser Arafat—as part of his lifelong attempt to erase Jewish history—has been picked up by American evangelicals. That Jesus of Nazareth was born and lived as a Jew is an obvious historical fact, just as, for example, Robert E. Lee commanding the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. The background of Jesus Christ, however, inarguably the most famous person in history, is of great importance. His life as a Jew is increasingly being called into question by Muslims, who are working overtime to open “interfaith dialogue” channels with American Christian leaders.
The revisionists originally were the usual suspects: Arafat, mainline church scholars, media types. But now this revisionist history has burrowed-into the American evangelical community.
Incredibly.
In February, 2000, popular author Philip Yancey referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian rabbi” in the pages of Christianity Today.
Ed Stetzer, president of research at LifeWay—the resource arm of the Southern Baptist Convention—referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew” in a September 12, 2011 blog post entitled “Monday is for Missiology: Some Thoughts on Contextualization.”
In a banner above his May 9, 2012 blog post, “Solidarity Fast With Palestinians?” Assemblies of God minister and Palmer Theological Seminary Professor Paul Alexander referred to Jesus as “the Palestinian Jew.” Alexander, professor of Christian Ethics and Public Policy at Palmer (the seminary of Eastern University) has long advocated for the Palestinians.
Knowingly or unknowingly, some evangelical leaders are advancing a false narrative concocted by the likes of Arafat and the PLO....'Fletcher continues:
'British writer Paul Wilkinson is also very familiar with this type of anti-Israel agenda:
“The portrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Palestinian refugee who lived under military occupation has, in recent years, been used as a powerful propaganda weapon against Israel by an increasing number of pro-Palestinian Evangelicals. This blasphemous depiction of Jesus ominously echoes what Palestinian authors, clerics, and political leaders have been saying publicly of late in a brazen attempt to claim Christ as one of their own. By propagating their Islamicized version of ‘replacement theology’ (now rebranded ‘fulfillment theology’ or ‘messianic fulfillment’ by leading pro-Palestinian Evangelicals such as Stephen Sizer and Gary Burge), Islamic scholars have endeared themselves to many in the Church who have cast off the restraint of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. The forging of unholy Evangelical-Muslim alliances in the name of ‘dialogue’ and ‘bridge-building’ is reminiscent of the unholy alliance which suddenly developed between Herod and Pilate during the trial of Jesus – they were sworn enemies who united against a common enemy; today the common enemy is Israel. Like the false prophets of old who prophesied lies in God’s Name, pro-Palestinian Evangelicals, or ‘Christian Palestinianists’ as we might call them, are running with a message they believe is from God, but God has not sent them, for they have not stood in His council (Jeremiah 23:9-32).”' [My emphasis]Remarks Evelyn Gordon in a great article here:
'Christmas this year brought the usual spate of Palestinian historical revisionism, including the by-now routine claim that Jesus was a Palestinian. This, as Jonathan Tobin noted, tells us a lot about the Palestinian mindset and prospects for peace. But to me, the most striking aspect of this story is that objections to such historical revision come almost exclusively from Jews, whereas many Christian churches and organizations seem to have no problem with it. After all, it’s not only Jewish history and the Jewish religion Palestinians thereby erase; they are also erasing Christian history and the Christian religion.
What, for instance, becomes of the famous scene of Jesus evicting money-changers from the Temple if, as Palestinian officials claim, the Temple never existed? (They refer to it strictly as “the alleged Temple”; for examples, see here and here.) Or what becomes of Mary’s husband Joseph, who was “of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:4), if, as Palestinians claim, the Davidic kingdom never existed?
Even if you want to claim, in defiance of all the evidence, that Jesus himself wasn’t a Jew, his entire story as related in the Gospels takes place in a Jewish state with a largely autonomous Jewish political and religious leadership, albeit subject to some control from the Roman Empire. According to the Gospels, it is this Jewish leadership that arrests and tries Jesus, though the Romans ultimately crucify him. If no Jewish state with the power to arrest and try ever existed (as Palestinians, again, routinely claim; see here or here, for instance), how did this most foundational of all Christian stories ever occur?
Granted, the Christians most sympathetic to this Palestinian revisionism generally represent liberal churches that aren’t wedded to a literal reading of the Bible. Nevertheless, belief in Jesus is ostensibly fundamental even for liberal Christians–and absent the historic Jewish kingdom of the Gospels, there quite literally is no Jesus...'(Privately advises a scholar, pertinently:
'... the New Testament itself says that Bethlehem where Jesus is supposed to have been born is called Bethlehem of Judea, in the NT [book of Matthew 2:1]. Get that. The NT itself says that Jesus was born in Judea. No mention of Palestine. Apparently, this is a usage of Judea in the narrow Jewish sense referring only to the former kingdom of Judah, not the broad Greco-Roman usage of Judea which referred to the whole country, all of the Land of Israel, roughly speaking. I deduce from the fact that the same chapter of Matthew calls the country "Land of Israel" twice [2:20-21].')To quote Professor Phyllis Chesler:
'Lets' set the record straight before the year ends:
Israel is not an apartheid Nazi state. Islam is the largest practitioner of both gender and religious apartheid.
Infidel violence against or hatred of Muslims is a mere drop in the bucket. Muslim-on-Muslim violence is a pandemic and indigenous feature of Muslim-Muslim relationships, beginning with the endless religious feuds between Sunni and Shiia Muslims.
Today, Muslims are torturing, exiling, and blowing each other up in Egypt, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan—to name only a few Muslim-majority countries.
While the West may be imperfect, mea culpa, mea culpa, Islam has a very long and bloody history of imperialism, colonialism, anti-Black racism, conversion via the sword, slavery, and the above mentioned apartheid.
The miserable Brits have just built a large "Security Wall" at St James Church in Piccadilly and plan to use it to continue demonizing the Jewish state for the next twelve days. It is an "art installation," political theatre, very trendy.
Not shown, never mentioned, are the names or graves of Israeli civilians, including children and the elderly, who were being blown up and butchered during the height of the Al Aqsa Intifada; not mentioned are those who were disabled for life; but mainly, it is forbidden to say that the "security wall" worked, that the number of Israeli civilian casualties plunged because it existed. [Emphasis added]
Jesus was not a "Palestinian." He was a Jew, some say he was a rabbi, and that the Last Supper was a Pesach seder. The attempt to appropriate Jesus as a victimized "Palestinian" by the very Muslims who are slaughtering Christians all over the Middle East and who have driven Arab Christians out of Bethlehem is typical, disgusting, and must continually be exposed.
Israel may not be a perfect nation but its Arab citizens, both Muslim and Christian, are the only Arabs in the Arab world who enjoy religious freedom, can vote and express themselves freely, and who have been peacefully elected to Parliament.
As Hamad Amar, a Druze citizen of Israel and the Speaker of Israel's Knesset has written in The Hill, an American Congressional blog:
"In our whole region consisting of over 350 million Arabs, there are only 1,658,000 Arabs who have complete political and religious freedom and have the right to vote in full democratic elections. It is no coincidence that all of these Arabs live as full and equal citizens in the one Jewish State." [Emphasis added]
Israel values human life, its enemies value death, murder, martyrdom. To redeem Gilad Shalit, Israel released terrorists with blood on their hands to return as glorified heroes and to resume their "careers" as terrorists. Jews value life this much....'As for Hamas, its Islamist vision was displayed yet again very recently, when Gaza's Interior Minister, Sharia-advocate Fathi Hammad, declared publicly:
“We shall liberate our land, Allah willing. We shall liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque, and our cities and villages, as a prelude to the establishment of the future Islamic Caliphate. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are at the threshold of a global Islamic civilization era....
The fuel and spearhead of this era will be Gaza, and its mujahideen and leaders will be from Gaza, Allah willing....
[Addressing Fatah:] We just sit and talk to the Jews. Enough with that! Come join us, the legions of the believers, which have translated the Koran into victory, the law of the Prophet's ancestors into glory, and Jihad into liberation....
We shall be coming with a third Intifada, an armed revolution, a Jihadi revolution, Allah willing.... Gaza and the West Bank will fuse together, along with our brothers within the 1948 borders, in a second Battle of Hattin [the first was in 1187], in order to uproot the Jews”.
'Many of these same liberal Christian groups have also turned a blind eye to the ongoing slaughter of Christians in Syria and Iraq, the worsening persecution of Christians in Egypt and various other anti-Christian atrocities worldwide, preferring to focus all their energies on vilifying the one Middle Eastern country where, to quote Israeli Arab priest Father Gabriel Nadaf, “We feel secure” as Christians. ...[T]his contrast between the terrible plight of other Middle Eastern Christians and the safety they enjoy in Israel is increasingly leading Israel’s Arab Christians to rethink their former identification with the state’s opponents; one result is that the number of Arab Christians volunteering for service in the IDF shot up more than 60 percent this year (though given the minuscule starting point, the absolute numbers remain small). But no such rethinking has occurred among anti-Israel Christians in the West....' [Emphasis added]But to return to that reprehensible replica wall. If you're passing, add a pro-Israel message. Am Yisrael Chai will do!
“The myth that Jesus was a Palestinian is told to anyone who arrives on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem or other Christian holy sites under the Palestinian Authority.
However, the facts once again don’t add up. The Jewish province of Judea was destroyed by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 C.E. when the Romans quashed the Bar Kochba-led Jewish revolt. To sever the Jewish connection with the Land of Israel, the Roman emperor changed its name to Syria Palaestina, eventually becoming known in English as Palestine.
According to Christian scholars, Jesus was crucified somewhere between 26 and 36, a full hundred years before the term Palestine had even been coined.
The world at that time did not have a single mosque and Islam and the Arab conquest of this land was still six centuries away.
I don’t know what if anything schoolchildren are taught these days about history and religion, but it’s clear many are woefully if not wilfully ignorant.'"Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus" is just one of one of hundreds of distortions, misrepresentations and falsehoods found about Judaism and Jewish history by a recent comprehensive study of the 28 most widely used social studies textbooks in the United States. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127797
“Nazareth: The city where the Jews murdered the first Palestinian of its [Nazareth's] sons.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 24 Jan. 2000;
Yasser Abu Ciedo, Palestinian artist: "Our struggle today against the other [Israel] is an eternal one. It started 2000 years ago and continues until today. I demonstrate this through the figure of Jesus, who came to the world with a message of justice and the other side did what they did to him. Here [he shows a painting] I demonstrate the following idea: the Israeli soldiers are wearing army uniforms while Jesus has nothing except for the truth. This is the Palestinian from the beginning of the struggle until its end - if it will ever end..." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 21 July 2000;
“The Palestinian Galilee village [in Israel] of Kfar Kana takes pride in the fact that here the Palestinian Messiah [Jesus] succeeded in turning water into wine.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 14 Dec. 2004;
“The Shahids (Martyrs) will cry, ‘We shook the palm trees alongside Lady Earth and the lady of the people, the Virgin Mary, and with her son the first Palestinian Shahid (died for Allah).” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 17 Jan. 2005;
“They [Christians] read in the holy book [the Bible] the name of 'Palestine' and the real [Palestinian] names of our villages and cities… We must not forget the Messiah [Jesus] is Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 18 Nov. 2005 [Palestine Media Watch Comment: The PA assumes that few Palestinians read the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. For were Palestinians to read the Bible they would learn that Jesus was a Jew, there was no “Palestine,” and the Hebrew names used by Israel today, including the name “Land of Israel,” are the names found in the Bible];
"It was quite natural that the Palestinians rose to save their sanctuaries [in Nazareth in Galilee]… since lord Messiah [Jesus] and his mother [Mary] are both Galileans and Palestinians." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 9 March 2006; “Christianity was born in our Arab countries and the Messiah [Jesus] is a Syrian Palestinian, born in Nazareth.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 28 Oct. 2006;
“Palestinians are used to death like this. The suffering of the first Palestinian – the Messiah – started with the Last Supper.” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 30 April 2008;
"We must not forget that the Messiah [Jesus], peace be upon him, is Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian, who is sanctified by hundreds of millions of believers in this world." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 18 Nov. 2008;
Palestinian Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "We're talking about an ongoing chain [of prophets of Islam], from Adam to Muhammad, representing the call for monotheism and the mission of Islam… The prophets were all of the same religion [Islam]… [e.g.] Jesus was born in this land in Bethlehem… He also lived in Nazereth, moved to Jerusalem, so he was a Palestinian … We respect Jesus, we believe in him [as a prophet of Islam], just as we believe in the prophet Muhammad." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 21 April 2009);
"The Pope's visit is an opportunity for the Palestinian leadership to present its cause… so that His Honor [the Pope] will assume his religious and political responsibility towards the people of the Holy Land, the Arab Palestinian people, the people of the Messiah [Jesus]." Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 9 May 2009;
Palestinian Authority Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "Jesus was born in this land; he took his first steps in this land and spread his teachings [of Islam] in this land. He and his mother [Mary], we may say, were Palestinians par excellence." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 12 May 2009;
Dr Tayseer Al-Tamimi, PA Chief Justice of Religious Court, and Chairman of Supreme Council of Islamic Law: "Jesus is the only Palestinian prophet." Palestinian TV (Fatah), 9 June 2009;
Mustafa Barghouti ,: "We always remember that Jesus was the first Palestinian who was tortured in this land". Palestinian TV (Fatah), Christmas Eve, 2009;
Fatah Communications and Education Authority statement in honor of International Women's Day from the official Fatah website, 8 March 2010 : "If we are proud of the holiness of our land, then we are proud and pride ourselves that the first and most important holy woman among the nations and peoples is from the holy land: The Virgin Mary - the woman of love and peace - is of the nation of Palestine, whose roots are grounded in the depths of history. Our movement takes note of its pride in all the women Shahidas (Martyrs), prisoners, Palestinian fighters, who have become a model of sacrifice and a school that teaches the meaning of giving and of sacrifice." (http://www.palvoice.com/index.php?id=23043)All this is the legacy of Arafat’s ploy in the mid-1990s to choose the Church of the Nativity to declare that "This is the birthplace of our Lord the Messiah, the Palestinian" and to thereby portray, as they did in a Nativity pageant, the Palestinians as Jesus rejected and crucified and IDF paratroopers as the Roman Legion, the Israeli government as merciless, expansionist Imperial Rome, and rightwing settlers and their supporters as the Jews who declined to accept the divinity of Jesus' message. What lent Arafat credibility in his avowals of inclusiveness for Bethlehem’s Christians – 80 per cent of the town’s population in 1948 – was his marriage to a Christian and his frequent statements that he would fly the Palestinian flag "from the churches and from the mosques," mentioning the churches first. The second intifada or Al Aqsa uprising –pointedly named for a mosque – marked the turning point, along with with a rising global tide of Islamisation.
