Roger Waters: "One Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state ..."

He's done it again: made remarks that suggest that he' might be at least a teeny weeny bit antisemitic.

The incorrigible Roger Waters of the rock group Pink Floyd seemingly needs no excuse to deride and demonise Israel.

But  famous British violinist Nigel Kennedy's remarks at the BBC Proms (described  below) have been characterised by Waters as the "inspiration" for issuing a new open letter denouncing Israeli "apartheid" and calling on fellow musicians to boycott Israel (see here for details).

Note, in this extract, the reference to pro-Israel Baroness Deech's maiden name, just in case her Jewishness might not be at once apparent (incidentally, this distinguished lady's father, Josef Fraenkel, was a renowned Yiddishist and co-author of Theodor Herzl, which appeared in 1943):

"Nigel Kennedy the virtuoso British violinist and violist, at The Recent Promenade Concerts at The Albert Hall in London, mentioned that Israel is apartheid. Nothing unusual there you might think, then one Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state and prevailed upon the BBC to censor Kennedy’s performance by removing his statement. Baroness Deech produced not one shred of evidence to support her claim and yet the BBC, non political, supposedly, acting solely on Baroness Deech’s say so, suddenly went all 1984 on us. Well!! Time to stick my head above the parapet again, alongside my brother, Nigel Kennedy, where it belongs. And by the way, Nigel, great respect man. So here follows a letter last re-drafted in July."

"If 'music is a great equaliser ... a bridge'," why boycott Israel?"  That's the question I'd put, if I could, to Nigel Kennedy (who used that phrase; see below), and not only to Mr Kennedy, but to Waters and other musicians who refuse to perform in Israel and who encourage others to follow their example.

Speaking from ["East"] Jerusalem in 2007 Mr Kennedy told the leftist Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz:

"I grew up in South London. There were Christians and Muslims and Jews, people from all over the world: the Balkans, India. As a boy, when I had no idea about religion, I nevertheless understood that there were many types of people with different beliefs, that there are many religions and that you have to respect all of them because they are all valid. That's what made me have diverse interests, and not be single-minded."

But he went on to say:

"I became aware of the Palestinian story while I was a student in New York. My girlfriend then was Palestinian, and, through her, I began to familiarize myself with and understand the problem even before the [separation] wall and the other atrocities. She had to return home every year or she would lose her citizenship, and, like it was for all of us students, that wasn't exactly her thing. Then I understood that it was simply a way to harass the Palestinians and prevent them from studying.

And today, I was really shocked when I saw the wall here. It's a new type of apartheid, barbaric behavior. How can you impose collective punishment and divide people from one another? We are all residents of the same planet. I would think that the world learned something from South Africa. And the world should boycott a nation that didn't learn. That's why I won't perform in your country." [Emphasis added]

Recently, speaking on BBC Radio 4 about his appearance at the BBC Proms, where he performed Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" with the young members of the Palestine Strings, Mr Kennedy said (listen here; hat tip: reader Jean Vercors):

"Music is a great equaliser and you can't make music unless it's a collaborative affair .... [It] represents an idealistic form of politics.... These problems of apartheid in Israel at the moment are extreme.  And when it was South Africa people did something about it [BBC interviewer enthusiastically "Yeah ..."] .... [Music's] a bridge whih shows that every human being from whatever background can get on with another human being from whatever background. People can work together. "

And here he is at the concert itself, using that "apartheid" word again, to a standing ovation.
 .
"Just marvellous!" says Al Beeb's news anchor at the end of this report on rehearsals, in which the appearance of the young players from the Disputed Territories is presented as a "boost for Palestine"; I assume she's paying tribute to the musicians' undoubted skills and not to the political propaganda:

Mr Kennedy, who in 2007 also said

 "I have lived [in Krakow] for the past seven years.... My life in Krakow is very rich when it comes to music.... I also play with a Klezmer trio, Trio Kroke. Kroke is the Yiddish word for Krakow. We play everything, from Jewish music to Balkan music...."

is undoubtedly well-meaning, but his and Waters' characterisation of Israel as an "apartheid" state is wrong, for it is not that at all, as this black South African leader's daughter, who knows what real apartheid is, eloquently explains (hat tip reader Ian).

"You Who Kiss The Shoes & Feet Of The Jews, Listen!": Adelaide Islamic Cleric's Hate Speech

Thanks to the ever-vigilant Memri.org here's a prime example of "cultural enrichment" ; it comes from the lips of Shekh Sharif Hussein of the Islamic Da'wa Center of South Australia, ranting against American foreign policy and its "lackeys":
 

Transcript here
Hat tip: reader Ian

Max Brenner Boycott Flops In Sydney

Does the shade of Helen Thomas lurk in Sydney?

"And jews also have a homeland its called Germany" has commented someone on the Facebook page of the group that staged a rally in Parramatta on the weekend against Max Brenner.

Although the comment, made at the weekend, has attracted only one "Like" it is perhaps instructive that not one of the anti-Israel BDSers (leftists and Muslims) who've used and left comments on the page has (so far at least) seen fit to rebuke the apparently Muslim commenter for his obscene Thomas-like remark or to distance themselves from it.

(Better lift your game, guys and girls; you wouldn't want to leave the impression that you're Jew-haters. Would you?)

There were high hopes for the rally, to be addressed by, according to the Facebook page, Richard Green (indigenous speaker); Ahmad Qasem (Palestinian activist); Paul Mcaleer (Maritime union of Australia); Lutfi Zayed (Palestinian activist); Marlene Carrasco (University of Western Sydney student union organiser).

A media release proclaimed:

'Protest to go ahead. Parramatta Town Hall 1pm Saturday 17th August

The Palestine Action Group has decided to continue with a protest against Israeli Chocolateria chain, Max Brenner, in spite of threats by Parramatta Council of fines of over $2000. The demonstration, part of the global movement calling for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, was organised well in advance of the threat of fines being issued today. The Palestine Action Group has been coordinating with the NSW Police, who are facilitating the demonstration.

Lutfi Zayed, a Palestinian activist with PAG, was contacted today and threatened by Council staff to cancel the protest or be fined. “They say that we live in a free country” says Lutfi, “where our right to protest and express our beliefs are protected. But these threats scrap any notion of the right to free speech or freedom of assembly. We’ve had almost identical protests before without any trouble.”

Damian Ridgwell, one of the 19 activists charged and acquitted in relation to a protest against Max Brenner in Melbourne in 2011, says “the victimisation of Palestine solidarity activism must stop. This is not the first time that fundamental democratic rights have been suspended for those who oppose Israel’s crime of Apartheid.”

“This is nothing less than censorship. As well as banning our protest, a meeting hosting a Palestinian refugee in the Town Hall has also been banned, even thought the room was booked and paid for.”

Dale Mills, Lawyer and researcher at Sydney University in Law in the field of political protest, says “Never in living memory has a council issued fines against protests in these circumstances”. He describes this as an attack on democratic rights. “If this became established Council practice in NSW it would be the end of the right to protest”.'

Despite the bravado and the bluster, the rally itself is perceived to have been a dismal flop. Organisers seem reluctant to post photographs or footage of it.  That's thought to be because although the number of attendees was expected to be over 300 (plus some 120 possibles), only a fraction of that number (itself a fraction of the 2,664 invitees) turned up.

See photographs here, where, in her accompanying article, Shirlee Finn observes deliciously of an obvious irony:

"And last, and by no means least, as the third photo shows, whilst this was going on outside Max Brenner’s chocolate shop, three Muslim girls, complete with hijabs, were sitting there drinking their hot chocolate !!!"

 Update: here's that Great Graphic Moment In BDS History, made into a poster (hat tip: reader Ian):

 Nice one, IsreallyCool!

Pro-Morsi Islamists March in Sydney (video)

Now that the Muslim Brotherhood is active there (its first base, apparently, in the Sourthern Hemisphere) and that Hizb-ut-Tahrir musters strong in Sydney, we should not be too surprised that a raucous march against the Cairo crackdown on Morsi's supporters took place there on the weekend.

More surprisng, perhaps, are the "Islam is a religion of peace" placards that some of the demonstrators carried. 

"Delusion & Terrorism": The Muslim Brotherhood (Now Active Down Under) & Its Global Supporters (videos)

With the revelation that the Muslim Brotherhood is now active in Australia, having opened an office in Sydney's western suburbs, here is a timely video about the aims and actions of Muslim Brotherhood that could teach Al Beeb's Jeremy Bowen as well as Robert Magid's detractors a thing or two:

In Jerusalem, a vast throng of Islamists demonstrates in support of Morsi:

 (Read more here)

In London, a rally in support of Morsi is told "Egypt is a model for all the Arab world".  I seem to detect some loud hostile-sounding chants about Israel ...

In Paris, more pro-Morsi demonstraters: see here and here  (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)

And similar high jinks in Sydney ...

(Don't blame me for the white format - Blogger works in mysterious ways sometimes!)

What's So Heinous About Magid's Message?

Much has been written regarding Australian Jewish News publisher Robert Magid's latest foray into the debate over asylum seekers and immigration policy, reminiscent of the earlier furore that greeted his views.   The usual suspects have been out in force: the leftwing oh-so-democratic Australian Jewish Democratic Society has gone so far as to open a petition against him. On the left-leaning Galus Australis site a rabbi has written a rejoinder to Magid, a number of commenters (including this blogger) have reacted indignantly to Magid's views, and so have communal representatives.

As the ABC (itself obviously biased towards so-called asylum seekers, as news bulletin after news bulletin, both before and after Kevin Rudd's opportunistic "get tough" policy was announced in the lead-up to the imminent federal election, has made abundantly clear) explained in a recent Lateline programme that trotted out two no doubt well-meaning Jewish opponents of Magid's position:

'An article by the publisher of Australia's major Jewish newspaper has sparked fierce debate in the Jewish community about refugee policy.

 In a piece titled Curb Your Compassion, Robert Magid argued that the Holocaust experience was generating misplaced sympathy among Jews towards asylum seekers....

He was accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment when he warned of an increase of Islamic extremism in Australia if authorities couldn't verify the identities of asylum seekers arriving by boat. He also warned Jews should curb their enthusiasm for supporting boat people.'

Magid (himself the son of immigrant parents, the much-admired and well-remembered philanthropists Isadore and Ira Magid) told Lateline:

'.... Nothing I've said had anything to do with racial hatred. Last thing I would be accused of if anyone knows me is of racial hatred....

What's happened is the whole thing is skewed because we see images of people on boats fearing to be drowned and we feel compassion towards them but we don't see the people who are waiting many years and who are eligible to come but are prevented from coming as a result of the queue jumping. ...

To bring that [Holocaust] analogy to the situation of people who pay smugglers rather than wait for their turn to be accepted as refugees is not the kind of compassion that I support.' 

He's reasonably observed:

“It’s not a question of who’s more compassionate. The Jews who had the gas chambers behind them would have gone to any country. I feel a hell of a lot more sympathy for people starving in Darfur.

These are the people who should have first priority, not people who have the money and cunning to jump the queue.”

What's so heinous about that?

And he's warned:

 "If al-Qaida or another jihad organization wished to create a network of terrorists in Australia, undocumented illegal immigration would ensure the Australian authorities had no way of verifying their bona fides."

Again, what's so heinous about that?
 

Warning sign, Sydney: http://al-qods.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MG_2060.jpg

Videos On Refugees, Borders, & Prospects For Peace

Three great videos (hat tip: reader Ian): click here for a snappy offering entitled "Israel's Borders: The Partition Plan and Beyond" which comes from the same source as this equally snappy one made last year that tells in a nutshell how and why the "Palestinian refugees" got that way, and why they've stayed that way.

And click here for the famous American comedian Jackie Mason proving he's not just a funny fella, giving Rabbi Mark Golub his views on prospects for peace.