When they have 'served' their country i.e. Exxon or Halliburton They are Discarded

January 2, 2018, 4:25 pm

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Letter to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from a Dying US army veteran of Iraq War.

Tomas Young Cuellar

Below is a very moving letter from a dying veteran of Iraq to George Bush, whose lies took the US into a war whose aim was the maintenance of the US’s oil supplies rather than ‘democracy’ or upholding human rights.  Indeed we have a situation now where torture is worse, there are numerous petty tyrants, one of the highest rates of executions in the world and, as is always the case with imperialism, a divide and rule legacy.  

 

In this case hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in a sectarian war that the US deliberately created in order to the heat off itself.

Not only are the sunni-shi’ite conflicts, but regular attacks on the Christian community and other minority faiths and of course the remnants of the Jewish faith have all but been driven out.

Tony Greenstein

"You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage."
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

chief war criminal

Partner-in-crime Dick Cheney

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes.

The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

Tomas Young.

30 March 2013 Last updated at 04:58

Tomas Young: Suicidal veteran takes parting shot at Bush 

By Martin Vennard BBC World Service

An Iraq war veteran who lost the use of his legs in the conflict has decided to end his life. Tomas Young has also written a letter to former President George W Bush and ex-Vice-President Dick Cheney, accusing them of being responsible for what happened to him and others injured and killed in Iraq.

When President Bush stood on the rubble of Ground Zero just after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and pledged to go after those responsible, Tomas Young, 22, took up the call and joined the US Army.

But instead of being deployed to Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda and its allies, he ended up in Iraq in 2004 following Saddam Hussein's capture by coalition forces.

On the fifth day into his deployment, Mr Young's unit came under fire from insurgents in Baghdad. He was hit and his spine was severed.

Continue reading the main story   

“Start Quote

It's not that he wants to die - he simply doesn't want to suffer any more.”

Claudia Cuellar Tomas Young's wife

After his return to the US he campaigned from his wheelchair against the conflict and in 2007 was the subject of a documentary, Body of War.

But now his condition has deteriorated to such an extent that he wants to put an end to his suffering.

"He felt he's gone as far as his physical shell will take him and he is ready to rest,"his wife, Claudia Cuellar, tells BBC World Service, speaking on his behalf because he has difficulty talking and tires easily.

"We accepted a certain level of suffering,"she says. But last year his pain and discomfort increased dramatically and he grew weary of repeated hospital visits to treat infections and other ailments.

"He didn't want to do any more procedures or surgeries,"Ms Cuellar says.

"I felt like I was losing him emotionally and psychologically. I felt that it was just too hard to get through the course of a single day and we had to have the conversation that people have when..."she said, not finishing her sentence.

Tomas Young and Claudia Cuellar The couple met when he was undergoing rehab in Chicago in 2008

"I could sense that he was suffering to a level that just wasn't right for us as a couple. I can keep him around for me, but that isn't fair to his journey.

"It's not that he wants to die - he simply doesn't want to suffer any more,"Ms Cuellar says.

But she adds: "He's the person I love the most in the whole world. I will miss this person."

In 2008 Mr Young suffered a pulmonary embolism and an anoxic brain injury due to a reduced oxygen supply that impaired his speech and arm movement. A colostomy operation last year provided only temporary relief.

Unable now to eat solid food, he is fed through a tube in his stomach. The skin on his hips is breaking down, exposing raw flesh and bone.

"That's probably the toughest one for me, to see that deterioration,"she says.

Medical marijuana eases his discomfort and gives him peace of mind without the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, Ms Cuellar says.

Tomas Young's letter

"I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbours, much less to the United States... The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in US history."
Mr Young says he wrote to Mr Bush and Mr Cheney on behalf of the wounded veterans and relatives of those killed and injured in Iraq.

"On every level - moral, strategic, military and economic - Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr Bush and Mr Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.
"My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness."
Claudia Cuellar and Tomas Young Cuellar says she and Young share the same values and sense of humour

Cuellar says of the letter: "We just want to share the story of our struggle, which is the story of the struggle and suffering of so many, so that we can begin to look at the realities of the consequences of war."

Claudia Cuellar was interviewed on the BBC World Service programme Weekend

Ms Cuellar moved to Kansas City to be with Mr Young after they met while he was in hospital in her hometown, Chicago, in 2008.

Once injured, the US State abandons you

She says Mr Young, who is virtually bedridden and in hospice care, cannot legally be helped to commit suicide in Missouri and so will have to starve himself to death.

He will continue to take food and liquids until their first wedding anniversary on 20 April. After that they will stop talking publicly about his case and spend time together until they feel the time is right for him to end his life.

Claudia Cuellar was interviewed on the BBC World Service programme Weekend.

---

Just 0.7% of state land in the West Bank has been allocated to Palestinians, Israel admits

January 2, 2018, 4:27 pm

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The share of land for settlers and Palestinians

 Jewish settlements in West Bank have been allocated 38 percent of 1.3 million dunams of Israeli state land

Har Adar settlement

By Chaim Levinson | Mar.28, 2013 | 12:00 PM |
       


Over the past 33 years the Civil Administration has allocated less than one percent of state land in the West Bank to Palestinians, compared to 38 percent to settlers, according to the agency’s own documents submitted to the High Court of Justice.

The West Bank includes 1.3 million dunams (approximately 325,000 acres) of “state land,” most of which is allocated to Jewish settlements.

The declared policy of the previous Netanyahu government was to remove Jewish construction from private Palestinian land in the West Bank and to approve all construction on state lands.

According to the classification of the Civil Administration, a small amount of “state land” was registered with the Jordanian authorities until 1967. But most declared “state land” was declared as such after 1979.

The need for such a declaration emerged in October 1979, when the High Court struck down as unconstitutional the state’s practice of seizing Palestinian land, ostensibly for “military needs” but in practice in order to establish Jewish settlements.

It was after 1979 that the process of the wholesale declaration of territory as state land began. According to the law in the West Bank, any land with continuous agricultural cultivation for at least 10 years becomes the property of the farmer; land under cultivation cannot be seized by the state.

Although the Civil Administration team charged with determining which lands are cultivated is supposed to base their conclusions on testimony and aerial photos, a senior official in the Civil Administration conceded recently in the Ofer Military Court that the decisions are political.

The hearing at which the official was speaking was over the state lands declared with regard to the Hayovel outpost. The latter has been at the heart of a High Court case for over seven years. The state had decided to retroactively authorize Hayovel, but aerial photos clearly show a number of houses and cultivated land, and the road to Hayovel goes through private Palestinian land. The state therefore devised a method of declaring the area between cultivated spots, for example, between trees, as “uncultivated” and thus it could deem it state land. Palestinians claiming ownership of the land petitioned against the decision through the organization Yesh Din and attorney Michael Sfard.

In a court hearing in January an official from the Civil Administration’s oversight unit, Gilad Palmon, told the court: “The official who decides on the declaration [of state land] is at the political level, the defense minister. Another Civil Administration official, Yossi Segal, said: “The political echelon decides the size of the area.”

Three years ago the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Bimkom − Planners for Planning Rights asked the Civil Administration, by dint of the Freedom of Information Law, for figures on the extent of state lands in the West Bank. The Civil Administration refused to provide the information and the organizations asked the court to intervene.

The Civil Administration’s representatives told the court that there are 1.3 million dunams of state land in the West Bank and that it could not provide additional data. Jerusalem District Court Judge Yoram Noam did not accept the response and instructed the agency’s representatives to provide more information.

The Civil Administration subsequently provided the court with the following details: 671,000 dunams of state land is still held by the state. Another 400,000 dunams were allocated to the World Zionist Organization. Most of the Jewish settlements, both residences and agricultural land, are on this land.

Another 103,000 dunams of state land were allocated to mobile communications companies and to local governments, mainly for the construction of public buildings.

Utilities such as the Mekorot water company, the Bezek communications company and the Israel Electric Corporation received 160,000 dunams, 12 percent of the total state land in the West Bank.

Palestinians have received a total of 8,600 dunams (2,150 acres), or 0.7 percent of state land in the West Bank.

The Civil Administration told the court that of this, 6,910 dunams were in the Jenin district, land allocations made a long time ago that are now in areas A and B (under full Palestinian control or Palestinian civilian and Israeli military control, respectively). One dunam was allocated for a stone quarry in the Hebron district; 630 dunams in the Bethlehem district were allocated for Bedouin; 1,000 dunams were allocated in the Jericho district and 10 dunams were allocated in Tul Karm.

Nir Shalev, a researcher for Bimkom, said: “Israel has claimed for years that the settlements are built only on state land, a claim that is repeatedly shown to be inaccurate. The data on allocations to the Palestinians, which the Civil Administration was forced to reveal, show the other side of coin: Israeli policy determines that state lands in the West Bank are for the use of Israelis only − mainly settlers.”

Because state land is essential for the expansion of settlements, a great deal of pressure is exerted to influence the decision of where such lands are declared. Haaretz checked and found that even when the state claims that certain lands are state lands, the process of determining usage beforehand is careless, and land declared as state land also includes private Palestinian land and cultivated land. One example of such carelessness regards the large settlement of Givat Ze’ev, northwest of Jerusalem. Next to the settlement is a home belonging to a Palestinian man, Saadat Sabri, who also cultivated a plot of land nearby.

In 2006, when building began on the separation barrier, bulldozers destroyed his fields. Although aerial photos clearly showed the land was cultivated the state declared the land to be state land in 2010 and joined Sabri’s plot to Givat Ze’ev. Sabri petitioned the High Court against the move.

Researcher Dror Etkes found that land important to the expansion of settlements was declared state lands, including territory near Susya, Tekoa, Ma’aleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba and other Jewish communities.

In the center of Ma’aleh Adumim, for example, is land that aerial photos from the 1970s show as partially under cultivation. Yet in 2005 the entire area was declared state land and is now built on.

“The findings, which are a sampling, prove the claims that Palestinian landowners have been consistently presenting over the past few decades: Under the aegis of the broad declaration of lands as state lands, which includes almost a million dunams, Israel has taken over extensive cultivated areas, which were stolen from their owners through administrative decisions over which public and legal oversight is minimal, because they were supposedly not cultivated.”

The director of Yesh Din, Haim Erlich, said: “Yossi Segal, who is in charge of abandoned property in the West Bank, reveals the painful and ugly fact that we have been aware of for some time: The survey, which is supposed to be professional, has become a political tool.”

The Civil Administration did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

Would 750 hours benefit YOUR store without payroll costs?

January 2, 2018, 4:33 pm

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Boycott Workfare – Boycott Homebase

The Lies Homebase Tells to Increase Profits

Homebase do one thing and say another

Boycott Workfare is a UK-wide campaign to end forced unpaid work for people who receive welfare. Workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst threatening the poor by taking away welfare rights if people refuse to work without a living wage. We are a grassroots campaign, formed in 2010 by people with experience of workfare and those concerned about its impact. We expose and take action against companies and organisations profiting from workfare; encourage organisations to pledge to boycott it; and actively inform people of their rights.

 Know your rights on workfare schemes!  

 “Would 750 hours with no payroll costs benefit YOUR store?”

This poster was leaked from the Haringey Homebase store.  I's called Stage 1 of the Work Experience Experience.  Now of course a free 750 hours will benefit any store, or rather the profits of that store.  But for the staff it's a different matter.

It shows exactly how employers view workfare: an easy way to cut the wages bill. Homebase claim “We ensure they work alongside, not replace, paid colleagues”, but a staff member has told us that since tens of workfare placements were brought in, overtime has been cut for everyone. Some people’s hours have been cut from 48 down to 8 – far below the threshold for Working Tax Credits – because that is all they are contracted for.

It turns out 750 hours with no payroll costs – the figure for just one week in just one of Homebase’s 342 stores – does have a massive impact on the paid work available. Apparently it’s an effect that is popular with the regional manager, who we’ve heard has been trying to get all Homebase stores in her region to use workfare, and has been suspending or moving managers who don’t.

 

Homebase have been quick to claim that the scheme is voluntary, but our source told us that workfare workers have all been told “work for free or lose your benefits”. As Boycott Workfare have exposed, even on paper the Work Experience scheme is only voluntary if you say ‘yes’, since it is backed with the threat of Mandatory Work Activity which carries up to three year sanctions.

The new slavery -    Workfare

Haringey Homebase is not advertising for workers and we’ve heard that managers have been instructed to tell people on workfare that there are no jobs for them. This, despite the fact that last year the boss of Home Retail Group – who also own workfare exploiters Argos – was paid £1.1 million.

The public response to this story has been immense with hundreds of comments on Homebase’s Facebook page deleted, and the company taking it offline at times. But it hasn’t yet been enough. In a week where people claiming benefit have been smeared by the Chancellor, the fact of the matter is that it’s not people on benefits who are scrounging off the taxpayer, it’s businesses. We need to show Homebase that they can’t get away with workfare exploitation and we won’t go away until everyone working in their stores is paid.

Contact Homebase and their parent company Home Retail Group. Order leaflets from Boycott Workfare for a pop-up action at your local store. Help spread the word!

Oh, and if you were ever tempted to think this is a one-off mistake, this is what someone else told us this week: “a friend of mine who was working 40 hours per week at Argos has just had his hours cut by half because they have been getting workfare in. Now he can’t afford his rent.”
Feel free to contact Argos, Homebase’s sister company, too.  

Oops! Homebase let cat out of the bag about using workfare to reduce wage bills

Crosspost from Pride's Purge

On their Facebook page today, Homebase have denied they’re using unemployed people from the government’s Workfare scheme to work for them for free:
Posted by Tom Pride in hopeless naivety (it’s not satire – it’s workfare!)

Only someone very naive could believe private firms are participating in the government’s workfare scheme because they want to provide work experience for unemployed people out of the goodness of their own hearts and not as a way of reducing their wage bills by using forced labour at taxpayers’ expense.

But ask any of them and they’ll swear the workfare people they’ve taken on are extra to their requirements and are not – repeat not – replacing jobs they would normally have had to pay someone a proper wage to do.

Well. It looks like Homebase have accidentally let the cat out of the bag.
Here’s a poster currently displayed on the wall in the manager’s office of Homebase Haringey – which clearly shows the company is using workfare as a means to reduce their payroll costs:
This is particularly interesting, as Homebase have recently been lying to telling the public they’re not participating in workfare at all. See my previous post about that here:

Looks like Homebase just can’t stop themselves telling porky pies about workfare, doesn’t it?

Homebase are so embarrassed about using workfare – they’re reduced to lying about it

Saturday Mar 2013

On their Facebook page  today, Homebase have denied they’re using unemployed people from the government’s Workfare scheme to work for them for free:

Which is a bit strange when you consider the above tweet from Finsbury Park Job Centre Plus on Wednesday:

See what I mean?

Could it be that Homebase are so embarrassed by their participation in Workfare that they’re reduced to telling porkies about it?

Related articles by Tom Pride:
Salvation Army denies existence of Workfare scheme it participates in (no – not satire)
Victory as online campaign forces Sue Ryder off Workfare scheme
Sue Ryder executives looking to profit from the privatisation of NHS services
The Sue Ryder charity and its sinister Orwellian doublethink
Admit it UK charities – you were conned by Cameron and his so-called ‘Big Society’ garbage
Cameron’s Big Society – TOFFS paying SPIVS to rip off PLEBS
A4e given over 45 million of taxpayers money – to give classes on using toilet paper

How NOT to defeat Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

January 2, 2018, 4:40 pm

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Amir Sagie’s of Israel's Foreign Office has some novel advice – shoot the messenger not the message

Update at Sussex University

A magnificent victory at Sussex University for the BDS campaign.   The significance of this vote isn’t simply in the massive majorities, but the fact that students today are tomorrow’s decision makers.  Everything points in one direction – that the Zionists have lost the propaganda war and it is but the last lap to ensure that that translates into action.

Those who argue for the ‘piss process’ (as Israelis call it) are really trying to put off the day of judgement.  When asked what they mean by ‘peace’ they have nothing but the status quo to defend. 

Below is an interesting article from our enemies on how they think they can defeat BDS.  One thing is for sure; notwithstanding defeatists like Norman Finkelstein, BDS is the only show in town.  Notice how the racism oozes into Sagie's speech – ‘Muslim money pouring into Academia’ now if a supporter of Hamas were to speak of ‘Jewish money pouring into Academia’ there would be the inevitable cries of ‘anti-Semitism’.  But Muslims are fair game.


You can see the essential  weakness of the Zionist argument by the fact that their main defence is not 'expropriations are justified' but 'why pick on us when there's Syria and China etc.'.  Their only resort now is that of South Africa in its dying days of Apartheid - to say they may be bad but there are others who are worse!

The results were:

Should the University of Sussex Students' Union lobby the University to end its contract with Veolia Environmental Services?
Total valid votes -  1467
Yes - 1111 - 76%
No - 356 - 24%


Should the University of Sussex Students’ Union continue to boycott Israeli goods?
Total valid votes - 1639
Yes - 1179 - 72%
No - 460 - 28%

The anti-Veolia referendum result was   won by over 3-1!!

And the specific motion calling for a boycott of Israeli goods was won by over 2.5-1 or 44%.  Let's see how the Zionists turn that into a victory!!


Tony Greenstein

Israel’s top anti-BDS man

Wed, 02/06/2013 - 04:33

Trends to expect from BDS & how to klap them

By: ANT KATZ

Amir Sagie, the director, civil society affairs department, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the Keynote Guest speaker at Sunday’s overwhelmingly successful Israel Advocacy Seminar in Joburg.

This speech, by the man at the forefront of combatting the global BDS movement, was extremely informative and useful to all present – given that it was an Israel advocacy seminar.

MyShtetl took a complete transcript of the speech. However, the information has been edited to exclude strategically sensitive information from the eyes of anti-Israel forces who are becoming increasingly common users of the website.  [now I wonder what ‘strategically sensitive information’ might be?  Surely these democrats don’t have anything to hide?!! - TG]

“Combating BDS Internationally”

The issue of Settlements is increasingly becoming more of the core campaign in fighting BDS.

OVERVIEW – there are seven eminent issues in the current phenomena of the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement globally:

Labelling of goods is becoming a bigger issue

Labelling of goods – which has been a major issue in SA but which is also of much concern in EU and, most recently, within the UN.

South Africa's Jewish community distinguished itself by its support of Apartheid - it is the most pro-Zionist Jewish community in the world

In recent weeks in the EU, political will was translated into operational activity with legislators trying to find the legislative mechanisms to label goods from occupied territories.

They have found that they only have an existing legal framework covering labelling of agricultural products. But even there concerns about discrimination have been raised by Denmark, Holland, the UK and others. We are watching the situation closely.

The workers most affected by any such changes will be the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are working in the Jordan Valley and other areas.

Boycotting international cultural exchanges

Attempts to boycott international cultural exchanges are another growing phenomenon. The UK is a major problem area which is growing. It has targeted Madonna and other leading musicians.

In the UK Israeli culture has been a huge success, the critics and the public liked the Israeli culture.

But one of the recent consequences has been that the increased investment in security and keeping order in and around venues is of concern to promoters and local authorities. Now this additional cost is scaring event organisers off.

BDS hasn’t been able to scare any major performers from coming to Israel. Even though artists have been getting threats (even on their lives) but they keep coming.
[presumably being Black, Stevie Wonder isn’t a major artist, nor Roger Waters nor Santana to name but 3]

Researching the legal frameworks

Legal sphere: various ministries have been investing heavily in this area – in research, mainly in key countries in the EU. For us to challenge BDS initiatives we need to understand the legal environment. Over the last six months Israel has taken on two (court) cases in partnership with UK Jewry. We are trying wherever possible to challenge BDS morally and legally. But some legal systems are not geared to this. France’s legal system (provides ways to challenge boycotts) while the UK (legal) system is not (similarly geared).
[a pity then that one of those legal challenges, against the Universities College Union] was described by a spokesman for Lawyers for Israel as an ‘act of epic folly’!!]

Problems on university campuses

Academics and campuses are another area of concern. Most of our work is around North American campuses and we have to apologise if we are not spending enough time here. The good news is that most US campuses are not infected by BDS - but we have found that students are ambivalent about Israel.

In reality we have 10 West Coast campuses, most in California, that have been troublesome.

Apartheid Week is declining in its support and numbers of participants. We are not making too much fuss over this. Sometimes it is better to not add traction (to these initiatives).

We have found that we have bigger problems with faculty members. The newer faculty members are informed by the growing anti-Israel environment that exists today.

We are following developments closely and we have had issues over the last few days at a Brooklyn College.

We are trying to restrain the pro-Israel groups from lashing out at BDS-ers. We would prefer not to give traction to (their initiatives) and focus our enrgy to use more productively and proactively.

Muslim money pouring into Academia [substitute ‘Jewish’ for ‘Muslim’ to get a racist flavour of the comment]

Money is being poured into North American universities by wealthy countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

There is a proliferation of increasingly strong faculties of Islamic Studies adding strength to both students and faculty.

Civil society groups being infiltrated by BDS

Certain civil society groups are increasingly being infiltrated by BDS. The most noteworthy areas of their influence are:

Churches – we are trying to build partnerships but this has become a bigger challenge recently.

Labour unions – national unions, and more particularly international union groups, are areas we are addressing.

Boycott, divest & sanction campaigns

The boycott, divest and sanction campaigns have been concentrated on two popular product ranges - Ahava and Sodastream. Their impact has been negligible.

Sodastream have appointed lobbyists – an initiative that is paying dividends.  [how interesting! and also given journalists all-expense paid trips, like John Keenan of Brighton's Argus, to come and visit]

Of more concern and a bigger potential threat to Israel is the multinationals who are being accused of being active in occupied territories. There is a concern that a number of international companies who are under pressure may come to us and tell us they have to leave as their activities in Israel are standing in the way of their global operations.

Challenges and threats

Hard-core BDS-ers are in the minority – but we are increasingly seeing ‘spill-over’ into some sensitive constituencies – mainly liberals.

We accept that we won’t be able to change the minds of BDS-ers. We are more concerned about trying to fine tune our strategy to target the spill-over.

We need to reclaim the narrative. For too many years we have left it for the Palestinians to build the narrative – even domestically in Israel.

What is now important is the need to develop a more provocative message with regard to explaining the reality about the peace process and settlement development.

Dispelling the Myths

The Palestinian-driven narrative has resulted in numerous myths having taken hold over recent years. These can be grouped into three major groups of myths:

1. Israel is jeopardising Palestinian statehood by doing everything it can to frustrate their efforts;

2. New settlements and expansion – by building relentlessly Israel is making sure there will never be the possibility of a viable state; and

3. Israel is opposed to reconciliation and is working pro-actively against the reunification of PA and Hamas.

Let’s debunk these three common myths:

MYTH #1: Frustrating Palestinian Statehood

In recent years the number of checkpoints has been reduced to the minimum required to make it easier for Palestinians to move around. The economic growth rate is incredible in Palestine: building of homes and malls, the proliferation of cars – Israel is fully supportive in every way it can be (of this growth).

We have been working with the Palestinian Authority on all aspects of preparing for their Statehood. This is happening in respect of security – with a lot of help from the US mainly, and the Europeans.

In the past year not one single Israeli was killed in the West Bank.

Israelis is doing everything we can to help build a strong economy in Palestine, to build strong institutions that will be required for Statehood, building new towns and cities.

Some Palestinians talk about boycotting Israeli goods. But the two economies are so interconnected that there is no viable possibility of an economic boycott. Palestinians even use Israeli currency.

MYTH #2: New settlement development

No new settlements have been added in the West bank in at least four years. The (geographic) footprint hasn’t changed at all. We have only added buildings within the existing (settlement) borders.

Netanyahu’s 10-month freeze was (absolute) – residents couldn’t even enclose a balcony.

MYTH #3: Frustrating reconciliation between parties

This is nonsense. Israel is opening its arms for the PA to return to the (negotiating) table with no preconditions whatsoever.

A large part of this myth is that the population in Israel has been moving to the right! We need to put these facts right. The (political position that) was the main claim of the left parties 20 years ago, is now supported by 60 to 70 percent of Israelis.

Support of Israelis for a two-State solution is at 80 percent. But not on terms that (creates a risk that) there will be no Israel!

Public opinion has moved to the left and that is where it is today.

The UN Human Rights Council report that follows trends suggests a process (whereby) Israel will remove 100 percent of its citizens from the West Bank.

This can never be. They are building the ladder higher and higher (to the extent that) it cannot be climbed.

How Israel can deal with these issues

How we deal with things – here are some of our conceptual strategies:

We as Civil Society Affairs have to build partnerships. We are not just there to fight against BDS – we need to keep working on this as you are doing here.

When the time comes for a resolution to be tabled anywhere, you can’t (simply) call on someone the night before and lobby (them for their vote). We have learned that these relationships have to be built over time.

Importantly, we need to reclaim the narrative – for many years we have left it for the Palestinians to build the narrative – both globally and in Israel.

Let me give you an example: How many Jews (never mind others) are aware of the role of the Palestinians played in Holocaust? They were actively promoting it. [a complete fabrication which exonerates the Nazis.  If anyone were guilty of such a role it is the Zionist leadership under Ben-Gurion which actively opposed the rescue of Jews to any other country bar Palestine which they knew was barred.  The Zionist leaders not only abandoned their own chaverim (comrades) but the masses of European Jewry who they considered anti-Zionist and not the kind of Jew they wanted].

The Palestinians have been tempted (to link up with anti-Jewish forces) three times over the years.

First there was the collaboration with the Nazis to annihilate the Jews in both Europe and in Palestine. [this myth is based on the pro-Nazi views of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj-al-Amin Husseini. But Husseini came fourth in elections to the post of Mufti and it was the British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel who nonetheless appointed this reactionary buffoon.  If anyone was responsible for the Mufti’s act ions it was the Zionists themselves – Samuel had been an ardent member of the Asquith government and had long lobbied for the equivalent of the Balfour Declaration.  It should also be pointed out that the SS battallions he did form in the Balkans did not take part in the deportation of Jews, with the exception of 300 from Kosovo.  So ‘bad’ was their attitude to Jews that they were sent for ‘retraining’ to France where they promptly mutinied and joined the French resistance.  The only known instance of an SS group rebelling].This was followed by a similar collaboration with the communists. More recently, after the fall of communism, they have collaborated with Jihadists and radical Islamists (with a view) to annihilate the Jews.

We have to remember these things and we must tell (people) about it.

We have to reframe the Middle East, to contextualise it. And we have to be very frank with ourselves.

There is a belief that that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the core problem of Middle East. It isn’t! Although settlement seems to be (seen as) the biggest obstacle of peace, it isn’t.

For example, in respect of Syria and the consequences of the aftermath (of their civil war) – we can’t simply sit back and believe it will all be okay.

We are facing huge strategic weapons, the largest chemical weapons stockpiles in the world are in Syria. They are shipping these weapons to their neighbours.

[It is noteworthy that the morning after Amir Sagie made this statement in Joburg Israel acted against shipments to Lebanon -ED]

Pillar of Defence (Israel’s attack to stop Palestinian rockets in November 2012) put a lot of wind into the sails of BDS. They have been trying their hardest to build energy out of it.

Unfortunately for them, the paradox is that there are no more missiles being fired at Israel.

SA Zionist Organisations and Israel

We appreciate the (valuable) work you are doing (to counter BDS) here in South Africa. And it is not taken for granted. We wish you and us all the best (in our endeavours).

Seminar convener and FairPlay chair Ben Swartz said after Amir Sagie had spoken that there were “two significant take-aways” for him from the speech, which were:

1. That BDS are more obsessed with punishing Israel than they are about helping the Palestinians – making resolution that much harder; and

2. The importance of our driving our own narrative.

Both Agie and Swartz paid tribute to Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein who had introduced the subject of the historical lack of driving the real narrative to wide applause in the morning session – see: LIVE-BLOG 11h44 post!

Amir Sagie has been involved with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) since 1998. During his time there he has served as the Spokesman and head of the Public Diplomacy department in the Israeli Embassy in Beijing, China; he supervised the China, South Korea and Mongolia Desk in the North-Asia Department; he worked as the Deputy Director of the Information and Internet Department. He managed the MFA’s main website as well as Israel’s missions’ website infrastructure; he served as DCM of the Israeli Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal; and he worked as Deputy Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Policy Department, the Strategic Affairs Division.

Currently Amir holds the position of Director of the Civil Society Affairs Department in the Public Diplomacy Directorate.

Israel's New Generation of Racists

January 2, 2018, 4:42 pm

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This is an Older Post From 2013 Which Has Been Updated

Like the Jesuits, the Zionists Believe that if you get a child young, s/he will be a racist for life

The waving of Israeli flags in abundance tells a simple message to Arabs - you aren't wanted in a 'Jewish' State

Beitar fans protest the hiring of 2 Moslem Chechen players

A very interesting video on individual racist attacks on Palestinians in Israel.  One doesn’t of course hear about this in the ‘free’ press.

The chief racist who neither speaks, hears nor talks of the anti-Arab racism he has fostered

Incidents of discrimination have doubled each year since 2008 and increasingly perpetrated by youth 2013-04-04

The ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ jails conscientious objectors

January 2, 2018, 4:44 pm

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Israel set to jail teenage conscientious objector for eighth time

 In the modern equivalent of Sparta, to refuse to engage in the repression of the occupation is itself a crime.   And to think they used to call the Jewish state-to-be a ‘light among the nations’!!

Tony Greenstein

Photograph: Amir Cohen/REUTERS

 Nathan Blanc has spent more than 100 days in prison over the past 19 weeks due to his refusal to enlist in Israeli army

Harriet Sherwood, Jerusalem, The Guardian, Monday 1 April 2013

Israeli soldiers on patrol: most Israelis grow up knowing that compulsory military service – three years for boys, two for girls – lies at the end of their school days. 

It is a routine Nathan Blanc knows well. At 9am on Tuesday morning, the 19-year-old will report, as instructed in his draft papers, to a military base near Tel Aviv. There he will state his objection to serving in the Israeli army. Following his refusal to enlist, Blanc expects to be arrested and sentenced to between 10 and 20 days in jail. He will then be taken to Military Prison Number 6 to serve his time. And then, following his release, the cycle will begin over again.

The reason why Blanc knows what to expect is that this will be the eighth time the teenage conscientious objector has been jailed in the past 19 weeks. Since the date of his original call-up for military service, Blanc has spent more than 100 days in prison; on one occasion, he was released on a Tuesday and re-imprisoned two days later on a Thursday.

Blanc began to consider the possibility of refusing the draft several years ago. "It was a very hard decision, it took me a long time to get to it,"he says.

The turning point was Operation Cast Lead, the war in Gaza that began at the end of 2008 and ended three weeks later with a Palestinian death toll of around 1,400. In a statement issued when he was first imprisoned, Blanc said: "The wave of aggressive militarism that swept the country then, the expressions of mutual hatred, and the vacuous talk about stamping out terror and creating a deterrent effect were the primary trigger for my refusal."

The government, he said, was "not interested in finding a solution to the existing situation, but rather in preserving it … We will talk of deterrence, we will kill some terrorist, we will lose some civilians on both sides, and we will prepare the ground for a new generation full of hatred on both sides … We, as citizens and human beings, have a moral duty to refuse to participate in this cynical game."

In an interview with the Guardian, he says: "The war going on in this country for more than 60 years could have ended a long time ago. But both sides are giving into extremists and fundamentalists. The occupation was supposed to be temporary, but now no one speaks of it ending."

The Israeli state, he adds, keeps people "under our control"without democratic rights. Palestinians are subject to "collective punishment" for the actions of a few.

Most Israelis grow up knowing that compulsory military service – three years for boys, two for girls – lies at the end of their school days. "Going to the army" is a deeply ingrained, collective experience in Israeli national identity.

For some, it's an eagerly-anticipated patriotic duty; for others, a rite of passage; for a few, a difficult moral dilemma. But it is rare for people to refuse on grounds of conscience. Blanc says that since November, he has been the only conscientious objector among the 300-400 inmates in Military Prison Number 6.

Most of his friends have come to accept his position – "we had the arguments a long time ago"– and some who are currently serving as combat soldiers now say they admire it. His parents, despite some anxiety, are supportive.

Blanc rejected the option taken by some objectors of claiming a medical condition that would exempt him from military service. "I didn't want to lie. This is a point of principle."

Neither could he seek exemption of the grounds of pacifism. "The army has a narrow definition of pacifism – someone who would never apply force in any circumstances. The [IDF's] conscience committee asks tough questions, and I would not be able to say never. I think force should be used rarely, but it can't be completely ruled out."

Blanc is willing to undertake national service in lieu of the compulsory stint in the army, but thus far the military has refused to countenance this.

In a statement, the IDF said it could not comment on Blanc's specific case, but conscription was a result of Israel's security situation. Although there were limited grounds for exemption, those called up were "fully aware of their responsibilities towards the military and the consequences for failing"to carry them out.

Blanc hesitates when asked if he would describe himself as a patriot. "I feel a strong connection to this country, and I'm proud of it in many ways. But I have an aversion to nationalism."

Prison life has taken some adjustment. Blanc, who shares a tent with around 20 other prisoners, is woken for roll call around 5am and works eight hours a day in the kitchen. The inmates, who wear surplus US military uniforms, can make calls on a public phone but are forbidden to keep their mobiles. There is a prison library, but no gym.

"I have no idea how long this will go on for,"said Blanc. "The bad scenario is that I will be put in front of a military court and sentenced to something like a year in prison. The better scenario is that they'll get tired of this, and will let me do national service instead."

It is hard for Blanc to see beyond the game of cat-and-mouse in which he and the IDF are currently engaged, but he says: "I don't want to deal with politics and conflict all my life."He would like to study science or technology at university.

He brushes aside a suggestion that his current stance could harm his future prospects. "I'm proud of what I'm doing. I may have caused some damage to my future, but it's minor compared to the principle at stake."

American Democracy Comes to Iraq as Oil Strike Leader Arrested

January 2, 2018, 10:13 pm

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The price of Iraqi oil: union leader in court for organising strike

Hassan Juma’a Awad Federation of Iraqi Oil Unions

An oil workers’ union leader will appear before a court in Basra on Sunday charged with organising strikes, reports from activists in Iraq say.

The real purpose of the UN invasion

UPDATE (Sunday 7 April): The hearing has now been adjourned to 15 April, activists have heard.

Hassan Juma’a Awad, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, faces up to five years in prison, under a law banning strikes that was passed under Saddam Hussein and has not been repealed.

The charge arises from strikes and demonstrations in February by workers at the state-owned South Oil Company, the country’s largest “native” oil producer. Hundreds of workers had gathered at the SOC’s offices demanding the resignation of the director.

Hashmeya Muhsin, head of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union, at a Basra union meeting. Photo: David Bacon.

The union Hassan Juma heads “is still technically illegal: Saddam’s ban on public-sector unions was the sole Saddam-era dictate kept in place under the US occupation, and Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki hasn’t shown any interest in changing it since most US troops left”, according to the Toward Freedom web site here. A protest letter by international human rights and labour groups, reported here  and here, points out the oil ministry has banned union organisation at the companies it controls – despite that contravening ILO convention 98, which Iraq has ratified, and breaching the right to freedom of association included in the Iraqi constitution.

Hassan Jumaa speaking into the megaphone

AddHassan Juma

eral international trade unions have protested about the threats to Hassan Juma’a and other activists, including the British TUC here. And here are activists at the World Social Forum last week expressing their solidarity on YouTube. There is a good blog post by a UK-based activist who has worked with the Iraqi oil workers’ union here.

The international oil companies who are negotiating big contracts with the Iraqi government have predictably kept quiet about this threat to workers’ rights. Shell, which is planning a big gas-gathering project together with South Oil Company, is among

If you can do anything – write a letter to the Iraqi ambassador, demonstrate, get your trade union to kick up a fuss – it all helps.

And here’s what I think this sort of issue has to do with this site’s broad subject matter. What oil companies expropriate is not only thick, black liquid carrying energy, but also the hard work of workers who got it out of the ground. As well as owning and controlling the oil, those companies inflict hardship and humiliation on those workers – in “liberated” Iraq, with the help of Saddam’s labour laws. Solidarity with such workers is surely one of the many starting-pionts for any movement to supercede the dehumanised energy system and the social system of which it is part. 

TUC Statement - Solidarity with Iraqi workers

Harassment of oil union leader

March 2013

Drop charges against Iraqi oil union leader, says TUC

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady has urged the Iraqi government to desist from persecuting and harassing trade unionists in the oil industry. Union leaders from the sector globally - IndustriALL - and UNITE in the UK have also called for the case against Hassan Juma'a Awad, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), IndustriALL's affiliate, to be dropped.

In a clear reprisal for trade union activism at the state-owned Southern Oil Company (SOC), Hassan Juma'a was summoned before the Basra Court on 20 March accused of organising a strike and demonstration by SOC workers in February. He is due to stand trial in April, and this is far from the first time he has been targeted by the authorities.

Frances' letter reads:

25 Mar 2013

Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in London
21 Queen's Gate
London SW7 5JE

Your Excellency

We are deeply concerned about the continuing violations of union rights and freedoms in Iraq, in particular in the oil sector.

Most recently, Hassan Juma'a Awad, Chairman of the Federation of Oil Unions, has been charged of organising an entirely legitimate strike at the Southern Oil Company. We also understand that eight Southern Oil Company workers have been summoned to the General Inspector's Office in the Ministry of Oil in order for the Ministry to investigate their role in recent demonstrations in Basra, where workers engaged in peaceful protest.

The Iraqi constitution guarantees freedom of association and peaceful demonstrations, and the Iraqi Government is, by virtue of its membership of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) bound to uphold freedom of association and free collective bargaining. Yet for years, we have had to complain that the Ministry of Oil has repeatedly harassed union activists, including transferring them to distant work sites, reprimanding them, filing criminal complaints against them and imposing heavy fines and penalties on them.

The Ministry has banned union organizing at the companies affiliated to it, which is also a violation of ILO convention 98, which Iraq has ratified. These attacks on freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively maintain the repressive laws and policies of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The Iraqi government should cease forthwith the continued repression of freedom of association and worker rights, based on laws issued under a dictatorship. We further believe that the government you represent should immediately cancel the orders issued by the Ministry of Oil to union activists, including all transfer orders, reprimands and arbitrary penalties against union activists. Charges against Hassan Juma'a Awad, and any other workers who have had retaliatory legal action taken against them, should be dropped.

Finally, we urge you to encourage your government to expedite the passage of a new, ILO-compliant labour law, allowing all workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively.

I would be grateful if you could convey our concerns to your government, and I look forward to your positive response on these urgent and important matters.

Yours sincerely

FRANCES O'GRADY

General Secretary

Arafat Jaradat - Israel says he didn't die of torture but the attempt to resuscitate him after being tortured!

January 4, 2018, 10:27 pm

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Arafat Jaradat

Set up after the Nazi Doctors' Trial at Nuremburg, the World Medical Association now gives carte blanche to State Torture

There can be no more damning criticism of Israel and Western imperialism than that the system introduced after 1945 to ensure that never again were doctors integral in state torture and  murder, following the Doctors Trial at Nuremburg, has effectively been abandoned.

The World Medical Association was specifically set up to ensure that no more Dr Josef Mengels and the other Nazi doctors who participated in the ‘twins’ experiments and other horrors, would escape scrutiny and justice.  Instead the  WMA sat on its hands whilst doctors supervised torture in Guantanamo and even appointed as its President for 2 years, the torture supporting head of the Israeli Medical Association Dr Yoram Blachar.  Indeed the Israeli Medical Association has a position on Israeli doctors’ involvement in torture which is akin to the attitude adopted by the SS Doctors – it approves of it in the case of those it deems enemies of Zionism.

sisters of Arafat

How else to explain the fact that according to Haaretz (10.8.09.) the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) cut all links with the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights precisely because they kept raising the question of torture of Palestinians and what the IMA was doing about it. http://azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/israel-medical-association-defends.html
The only ‘excuse’ that Israel has offered as to why a healthy young man of 30 should die 2 days after arrest, having admitted that when Israeli doctors examined him he was fit for torture, was that those trying to resuscitate him bruised him in the process!  The last desperate gamble of a regime caught on its own petard.  It reminds me of when the Birmingham 6, having been beaten up by the Police were then beaten up by the prison warders and the latter was used as an excuse to say that police confessions were not obtained by torture.

US 'democracy' in action at Abu Ghraib

As always the indefatiguable Dr Derek Summerfield is refusing to allow the weasels words   of the IMA and WMA to go unchallenged.  A doctor is there to preserve health not to supervise its destruction.

Tony Greenstein

Letter from Dr Derek Summerfield, Honorary senior lecturer at the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry

Dear campaign colleagues and other supporters,

In this week's Lancet, the international medical journal, there is an article concerning the case of Arafat Jaradat who was tortured to death by Israel’s Shin Bet secret police.   The key point is of course why the Israeli doctor(s) who examined a fit and healthy 30 year old, just arrested, died 2 days later- having expired during interrogation by the Israelis own admission. The mass of documentation we have been citing since our campaign started in 2009 - from AmnestyInternational, Defence of Children International-Palestine/UnitedAgainst Torture Coalition, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Public Committeee Against Torture in Israel etc - makes crystal clear the integral role Israeli doctors play in the security/interrogation units whose routine output is torture. This is medical collusion with torture on an institutionalised basis, in violation of all medical ethical codes including the Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association. The disclaimer the Israeli Medical Association have issued in this case, quoted in the Lancet article, is of course the standard form of words they trot out routinely at such times, and deeply cynical, as the documentary record attests.

Abu Ghraib and the trailer trash torturer

As we have discovered, the World Medical Association, who were created specifically to oversee medical ethics worldwide, are in violation of their mandate in their refusal to address our campaign (despite representing 725 physicians from 43 countries) and the evidence to which we point. The WMA has allowed itself to be neutered by the IMA, though will speak out when reports of medical collusion in other (non-Western) countries reach them. We are still trying to elicit a response from the next level up, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, as you know. I will send the Lancet article to them this week.

Please circulate as widely as possible.

Dr Derek Summerfield
Campaign Convenor

Israeli doctors accused of collusion in torture

 The Lancet, Volume 381, Issue 9869, Page 794, 9 March 2013

Sharmila Devi

Questions are being raised about the involvement of Israeli doctors in the suspected torture of a young Palestinian detainee who died in custody last month.

The death of a Palestinian prisoner in disputed circumstances in an Israeli prison has reignited a longstanding controversy over alleged physician complicity in torture as well as sparking renewed Palestinian anger over the estimated 4600 prisoners held by Israel.

The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) denied that medical professionals were involved in torture or abuse and said that as far as it knew, torture was not approved or used by Israeli security forces or prisons. However, human-rights campaigners say Palestinian prisoners have long suffered from beatings, sleep deprivation, prolonged and painful handcuffing, humiliation, and medical neglect—considered torture under international standards.

Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old petrol attendant with two children, was arrested on Feb 18 on suspicion of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails during a West Bank demonstration held last November against Israeli military action in the Gaza strip. Palestinians say his arrest, months after the demonstration, and his interrogation was part of a longstanding Israeli policy to coerce prisoners to become informants after their release.

Palestinian leaders say some 800 000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces since 1967, and Jaradat was the 203rd prisoner to die. He died after several days of interrogation by Israeli's Shin Bet internal security service on Feb 23 at Israel's Megiddo prison. An autopsy was held the next day at Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine in the presence of Saber Aloul, the Palestinian Authority's chief pathologist, who said bruising on the body was evidence of torture.
Israel's health ministry said on Feb 28, after examining new findings from the autopsy that there was no evidence Jaradat was physically abused or poisoned, nor was it possible to determine his cause of death.

Israeli officials had originally attributed his death to a heart attack and said bruising and broken ribs were “characteristic findings of a resuscitation, which the medical crew from the Israel Prison Service and Magen David Adom engaged in for 50 minutes in an effort to save his life”.

Additional samples taken from the body were still undergoing microscopic and toxicology tests and results were not expected for several weeks. “The signs that appeared during the autopsy show clearly that he was subjected to severe torture that led immediately to his death”, Issa Qaraka, the Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs said at a Ramallah press conference after being briefed by the Palestinian pathologist who attended the autopsy.

Kamil Sabbagh, Jaradat's lawyer, told an Israeli military judge a couple of days before his client's death that he was being forced to sit for long periods during interrogation, had complained of back pain, and seemed terrified of returning to the Shin Bet detention centre where he was being held. The judge ordered an examination by a prison doctor. Jaradat died at Megiddo prison and it was not known when he was moved there.

Derek Summerfield, an honorary senior lecturer at the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry and campaigner against what he called Israeli physicians’ violations of human rights, says he wanted to know what part doctors played in the circumstances of Jaradat's death. “By Israel's own admission, Jaradat was seen by Israeli doctors 2 days earlier and they found him in good health. The key medical ethical question is what were these doctors examining him for, if not to assess whether he could withstand torture”, he tells The Lancet. “This is precisely what the campaign regarding medical collusion with torture in Israel was launched for in 2009 and it continues to run.”

The IMA said in a statement: “The IMA vociferously objects to the claim that medical professionals are involved in torture or abuse, and we will continue to do everything possible with the tools available to us to inform doctors about their obligation to report and to conduct themselves appropriately.”

The IMA and human rights organisations have called for responsibility for prisoners’ health to be taken away from the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and given to an outside body, such as health maintenance organisations (HMO) or the health ministry, which a year ago set up a standing committee to which doctors can report suspicions of torture.

“It's true that every doctor has a conflict of interest between the patient and the system in the HMOs and also in the army”, Avinoam Reches, who heads the IMA's Ethics Board, told Ha'aretz newspaper.  “But in the case of the IPS, the problem is severe because the treatment is given to people who have no freedom of choice whatsoever.”

Palestinians and human-rights groups demanded an independent investigation into Jaradat's death. 

---

Send a Postcard to Ahed Tamimi – Let Her Know that Millions are Thinking of Her

January 9, 2018, 8:22 pm

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Whilst Israel gaoled a 16 year old Palestinian girl for slapping the soldier who nearly killed her cousin 

a Settler walked free for the same 'crime'

Like South Africa before it, Israel has no sense of its own absurdity.  The suggestion that Israel's military is in danger from a 16 year old Palestinian girl who dared to slap a heavily armed Israeli soldier who, moments before, had shot her cousin in the head, almost killing him, is something only a state that is paranoid beyond measure could believe.  Even more amazing is that Israel believes everybody else is as stupid as it is.  Yet Israel is not alone.  

All settler colonial states demonise their opponents and transform them into superhuman devils.  South Africa did exactly the same.  A siege mentality is common to all settler communities.  Israel really is no exception.

There has been massive reaction world wide to the gaoling of Ahed and Israel’s threats of rape, sexual abuse as well as indefinite imprisonment of a young girl.  Like South Africa before it and indeed Nazi Germany from which it claims its origins, the Israeli state is incapable of looking in the mirror because it is afraid of what it will see.

The racism of what has happened cries out.  A Jewish child would never see the inside of an Israeli gaol for such a minor misdemeanour.  As the Ha’aretz article below shows, an adult settler thug of a woman walked free of all legal consequences after giving an Israeli soldier a slap. Why? Because she is Jewish and Ahed isn’t.

Please send a postcard to Ahed to let her know we are thinking of her as she begins another night in a cold and lonely Zionist cell. 

Tony Greenstein

Brighton says – Release Ahed Tamimi 

What Kind of State is it that Gaols a 16 year old girl?

 

Both Ahed Tamimi and Yifat Alkobi were questioned for slapping a soldier in the West Bank, but little else about their cases are similar — simply because one is Jewish, the other Palestinian

Noa Osterreicher 05.01.2018 

This slap didn’t lead the nightly news. This slap, which landed on the cheek of a Nahal soldier in Hebron, did not lead to an indictment. The assailant, who slapped a soldier who was trying to stop her from throwing stones, was taken in for questioning but released on bail the same day and allowed to return home.

Yifat Alkobi - a violent settler who slapped a soldier protecting children from rock throwing settlers - nothing happened to her

Prior to this incident, she had been convicted five times — for throwing rocks, for assaulting a police officer and for disorderly conduct, but was not jailed even once.

In one instance, she was sentenced to probation, and in the rest to a month of community service and practically a token fine, as compensation to the injured parties. The accused systematically failed to heed summonses for questioning or for legal proceedings, but soldiers did not come to drag her out of bed in the middle of the night, nor were any of her relatives arrested. Aside from a brief report by Chaim Levinson about the incident, on July 2, 2010, there were hardly any repercussions to the slap and scratches inflicted by Yifat Alkobi on the face of a soldier who caught her hurling rocks at Palestinians.

Mohammed Tamimi (15) - Ahed's cousin was nearly killed by a rubber bullet fired directly at his head by soldiers shortly before Ahed slapped an Israeli soldier

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit said at the time that the army “takes a grave view of any incidence of violence toward security forces,” and yet the assailant goes on living peacefully at home. The education minister didn’t demand that she sit in prison, social media have not exploded with calls for her to be raped or murdered, and columnist Ben Caspit didn’t recommend that she punished to the full extent of the law “in a dark place, without cameras.”

Like Ahed Tamimi, Alkobi has been known for years to the military and police forces that surround her place of residence, and both are considered a nuisance and even a danger. The main difference between them is that Tamimi assaulted a soldier who was sent by a hostile government that does not recognize her existence, steals her land and kills and wounds her relatives, while Alkobi, a serial criminal, assaulted a soldier from her own people and her religion, who was sent by her nation to protect her, a nation in which she is a citizen with special privileges.

Jewish violence against soldiers in the territories has been a matter of routine for years. But even when it seems like there’s no point asking that soldiers in the territories protect Palestinians from physical harassment and vandalism of their property by settlers, it’s hard to understand why the authorities continue to turn a blind eye, to cover up and close cases or not even open them, when the violators are Jews. There is plenty of evidence, some of it recorded on camera. And yet the offenders still sleep at home in their beds, emboldened by divine command and amply funded by organizations that receive state support.

Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi at Ofer military prison in the West Bank January 1, 2018AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP

In the winter it’s nice to get warm and cozy under these double standards, but there’s one question that every Israeli should be asking himself: Tamimi and Alkobi committed the same offense. The punishment (or lack thereof) should be the same. If the choice is between freeing Tamimi or jailing Alkobi, which would you choose? Tamimi is to remain in custody for the duration of the proceedings — trial in a hostile military court — and is expected to receive a prison sentence. Alkobi, who was not prosecuted for this offense, and was tried in a civilian court for much more serious offenses, lived at home for the duration of the proceedings. She was represented by a lawyer who did not have to wait at a checkpoint in order to serve his client and her only punishment was community service.

The Likud and Habayit Hayehudi cabinet ministers have no reason to rush to pass a law that would apply Israeli law in the territories. Even without it, the only thing that matters is if you were born Jewish. Everything else is irrelevant.

Suspended by Labour for writing a satirical poem about Tony and Cherie Blair

January 10, 2018, 4:36 pm

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Crooked McNicol and the Corrupt Compliance Unit Suspends Kevin Higgins for a Poem!

Kevin Higgins

There can be fewer things guaranteed to annoy Labour’s incompetent General Secretary, Crooked McNicol, than poking fun at Tony & Cherie.  McNicol is not renowned for his sense of humour and taking the p*** out of his hero is guaranteed to make him see red I mean blue. 

It’s bad enough that that Corbyn fellow got back in, despite Crooked’s best endeavours.  To rub salt in the wound by writing so-called humorous poems maligning St. Blair of Basra just has to be a disciplinary offence.

Naturally when the overworked Compliance Unit got to work, it was felt that there was no alternative but to suspend the irascible poet in case he wrote any more such poems.  Writing poems of this nature brings the Labour Party into disrepute and should be dealt with severely. 

Unfortunately others poets and that kind of troublemaker seem to have had other ideas and a letter has been circulating with these malcontents names attached.

Naturally I deplore this kind of thing and I hope that Crooked has had a pleasant New Year.

Tony Greenstein

Kevin campaigning with Stephen Morgan MP who gained the Portsmouth South seat for Labour in the June election

 Letter re: my suspension from UK Labour Party signed by 38 writers & activists

30-12-2017

To whom it may concern,

            On June 27^th 2016 poet Kevin Higgins was suspended from the British Labour Party, of which he is an overseas member in the Labour International CLP

            Kevin’s offence was, apparently, that he had written satirical poems about several of Jeremy Corbyn’s then critics in the Parliamentary Labour Party. This occurred at the start of the unsuccessful attempt to force Corbyn to resign as Leader in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum.

            After receiving what he describes as a “peculiar series of emails” from UK Labour HQ in early 2017,  on March 15^th last Kevin wrote to the party’s Governance & Legal Unit informing them that he wished to make a Subject Access Request under current UK Data Protection legislation. Under this legislation the UK Labour Party are legally obliged to disclose to Kevin, within forty days, all documents relating to him in their possession. Nine months later they have yet to respond to Kevin’s request, putting them in clear violation of their legal obligations.

           
 In April UK Labour HQ invited Kevin to be interviewed by telephone about the accusations against him, one of which was announcing on social media that he had rewritten Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife’ and turned it into a satire on Tony and Cherie Blair. Kevin’s interview was to take place on Tuesday April 18^th but was cancelled by UK Labour HQ when Theresa May called a General Election that morning.

            Kevin has heard nothing from the UK Labour Party since, though he continues to pay his membership fee and campaigned for the party while on holiday in the UK during the General Election campaign in May.

            We think it absurd that someone can remain suspended from the UK Labour Party for eighteen months for the supposed crime of writing satirical poems and call on the party’s Legal and Government Unit to immediately clarify this situation.

Your faithfully,

Ruth Aylett 
Joe Bilsborough

Pat Byrne

Matthew Caley

Ailbhe Darcy

Kate Ennals

Martina Evans

Luke Ming Flanagan MEP

Neil Fulwood

Frankie Gaffney

Owen Gallagher

Lisa Goldman

David Graeber

Chris Guiton

Gillian Hamill

Ian Horn
Steve Hudson

Mike Jenkins

Darrell Kavanagh

Paul Laverty

Quincy R. Lehr

Jessie Lendennie

Dave Lordan
Tricia Neda McLaughlin

Terry McMahon

Anne McShane

Andy Newman
Marcus Nicholson 

Harry Paterson

Steve Pottinger

Mike Quille

Penelope Shuttle

Nick Toms

Clare Turner

Vivien Walsh

Helen Watson

Cathy Wilson

Susan Millar DuMars

For background to this case see here.  

UPDATE 3/1/2018 the above letter has been published in today's issue of The Morning Star newspaper and there is also an article about the case which you can read here. 

UPDATE 4/1/2018 article about the case in this week's Galway Advertiser.  

UPDATE 5/1/2018 I am interviewed about the case on Broadsheet on the Telly. Apologies for bad sound quality on my link, entirely my fault. I am. in some senses. a technological troglodyte. But, in the words of Manuel, "I learn. I learn!"

Jewish Chronicle Hits a New Low - A Vile Article Attacking 16 year old Ahed Tamimi

January 11, 2018, 9:17 pm

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Zionist 'Human Rights’ Lawyer’ Arsen Ostrovsky Defends the Israeli Army against Ahed 

 

Usually human rights lawyers defend the individual against the State.  In Israel it would seem that human rights lawyers defend the State against the individual.  But that would not be fair because Ahed’s lawyer Gaby Lasky has a fine record of standing up for the individual.

The Jewish Chronicle has managed to find the only 'human rights lawyer' in the world who defends State violence against a child because she 'provoked' them.  It's akin to having a feminist lawyer defending a rapist because his victim was also provocative.  The obscenity of the Jewish Chronicle and its far-Right Editor Stephen Pollard beggars belief.

Ostrovsky is the 'human rights lawyer' who is also Director of an Apartheid Institute

Arsen Ostrovsky is Director of the Israeli Jewish Congress which tells us that its ‘vision is promoting the principle of Israel as the State of the Jewish People.’  In other words it is opposed to Israel being a state of its own inhabitants.  It is a strange form of human rights when you only defend the rights of one section of the population.  This is the Zionist version of human rights.

Zionist 'human rights lawyer' Arsen Ostrovsky - who defends the 'human rights' of the Israeli army against a 16 year old girl Ahed Tamimi

The Israeli Jewish Congress’s goalis ‘Promoting and strengthening the Jewish character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state as stated in the Proclamation of Independence.’  The problem is that Israel can either be a Jewish or a democratic state.  It can’t be both.  In practice as the new Jewish State Bill is making clear, Israel is a state of its Jewish citizens first and foremost.

If Ostrovsky is a human rights lawyer then Dr Harold Shipman was an example of medical ethics at their best.  And by the same token the Yorkshire Ripper was a committed supporter of women's liberation and Jimmy Saville was, as the BBC used to maintain, someone devoted to children’s rights. 

What is surprising is that so many Jewish people surrender their critical faculties when reading the Jewish Chronicle under its far-Right tabloid editor Stephen Pollard.  Pollard is better known for his defence of anti-Semites such as the Polish MEP Michael Kaminski, who is nonetheless an ardent supporter of Israel, as most anti-Semites today are.

Professor Mordechai Kedar - an advocate of rape against Palestinian women

In what is a new low, even for the Jewish Chronicle, the self-styled ‘Israeli human rights lawyer’ Arsen Ostrovsky decries the comparison of Ahed with Malala, the West’s favourite human rights symbol.  

Ostrovsky writes that ‘Well, for starters, Malala, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was shot in the head...’ What he didn’t say was that Ahed’s cousin Mohammed, just an hour before her confrontation with soldiers invading the grounds of her house, was also shot in the head and likewise nearly died.

Despite the acts of violence of the Israeli army against the Tamimi family, one of whom was murdered only this week, this despicable ‘human rights lawyer’ accused the Tamimis, who have a long history of opposition to colonialism going  back to the 1930’s of ‘provoking’ the Israeli army.  

Ben Caspit who wanted to 'exact a price in the dark, without witnesses or cameras' with a 16 year old girl

Ostrovsky is no difference from apologists for rape who argue that their clients were 'provoked' by the victim.  Ahed has herself been the subject of threats of rape and sexual violence.   Ma'ariv columnist Ben Caspit, a Zionist liberal mind, wrote in an article (Hebrew) that

“In the case of the girls, we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras”, 

and what would you do with a 16 year old girl in the dark, without witnesses or cameras?  The threat of sexual violence barely needs stating because in Israeli society the threat of rape and sexual violence against Palestinians, including children, is ever present.  

Threats of rape and violence against Palestinian women are standard.  There is former Colonel Mordechai Kedar, a Professor at Bar Ilan University who argues that because of the 'honour' system amongst Palestinians, the threat of rape will deter the men from engaging in resistance.

'The ill-treatment of Palestinian minors held within the Israeli military detention system is “widespread, systematic and institutionalised,” a report by the UN children’s fund found.  Israeli Abuse Of Palestinian Children In Prison ‘Systematic,’ Says UN Report

According to the Jewish Chronicle's 'human rights lawyer' Ostrovsky it is those with guns who are ‘provoked’ by civilians who have the audacity to resent them trampling over their grounds, stealing their land and water and who fire tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrations.

Steven Pollard is happy to defend antisemites as long as they are pro-Israel like Michal Kaminski

If you want to sign this letter to the Jewish Chronicle please write to:  tonygreenstein104@gmail.com

Dear Editor,

Even by the Jewish Chronicle’s abysmal standards the attack on Ahed Tamimi by ‘human rights’ lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky was a disgrace.  [Give her an Oscar:  Ahed Tamimi has a track record in provoking the IDF], 5^th January 2018]

Ahed is a 16 year old girl who has been detained without access to her parents or lawyers. Ostrovsky compares Ahed with Malala, who was shot in the head.  He fails though to mention that barely an hour before Ahed was filmed slapping a soldier her cousin, 15 year old Mohammed, was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.

Far from Ahed provoking Israel’s military, the soldier she slapped had entered the grounds of her home uninvited.  The provocation was entirely that of the soldiers.  Nabi Saleh, the village where Ahed lives has had its land and even its only spring confiscated for the use of the nearby settlement Halamish. 

Ostrovsky’s portrait of the Tamimi family as violent is outrageous.  They live under military rule. It is the Tamimis who have been subject to violence.  Only this week another cousin 17 year old Musab died after being shot in the neck.  Their father Bassem has been arrested 9 times and severely tortured. 

Ahed was dragged out of her bed at 4 am in the morning by soldiers.  This is an outrageous way to detain a child.  This could not and would not happen to a Jewish child. 

As Ha’aretz noted, when a Jewish settler Yifat Alkobi, who is an adult, slapped a soldier and engaged in five separate acts of violence, including throwing stones, she was bailed not imprisoned.  Ahed faces a 14 year prison sentence as she is tried in a military court that has a 99.74% conviction rate. 

Ahed’s only offence is to peacefully resist a violent occupation.  An occupation, the reality of which the Jewish Chronicle takes care not to report.

Yours faithfully,

Below is an excellent article by Jonathan Cook, the ex-Guardian journalist who lives in Nazareth, on who is the David and who is the Goliath.

Tony Greenstein

Ahed Tamimi’s arrest sheds a disturbing light on how children are targeted by Israel

Jonathan Cook 8 January 2018

Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi may not be what Israelis had in mind when, over many years, they criticised Palestinians for not producing a Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.

Eventually, colonised peoples bring to the fore a figure best suited to challenge the rotten values at the core of the society oppressing them. Ahed is well qualified for the task.

She was charged last week with assault and incitement after she slapped two heavily armed Israeli soldiers as they refused to leave the courtyard of her family home in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah. Her mother, Nariman, is in detention for filming the incident. The video quickly went viral.

Ahed lashed out shortly after soldiers nearby shot her 15-year-old cousin in the face, seriously injuring him.

Western commentators have largely denied Ahed the kind of effusive support offered to democracy protesters in places such as China and Iran. Nevertheless, this Palestinian schoolgirl – possibly facing a long jail term for defying her oppressors – has quickly become a social media icon.

While Ahed might have been previously unknown to most Israelis, she is a familiar face to Palestinians and campaigners around the world.

For years, she and other villagers have held a weekly confrontation with the Israeli army as it enforces the rule of Jewish settlers over Nabi Saleh. These settlers have forcibly taken over the village’s lands and ancient spring, a vital water source for a community that depends on farming.

Distinctive for her irrepressible blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, Ahed has been filmed regularly since she was a small girl confronting soldiers who tower above her. Such scenes inspired one veteran Israeli peace activist to anoint her Palestine’s Joan of Arc.

But few Israelis are so enamoured.

Not only does she defy Israeli stereotypes of a Palestinian, she has struck a blow against the self-deception of a highly militarised and masculine culture.

She has also given troubling form to the until-now anonymised Palestinian children Israel accuses of stone-throwing.

Palestinian villages like Nabi Saleh are regularly invaded by soldiers. Children are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, as happened to Ahed during her arrest last month in retaliation for her slaps. Human rights groups document how children are routinely beaten and tortured in detention.

Many hundreds pass through Israeli jails each year charged with throwing stones. With conviction rates in Israeli military courts of more than 99 per cent, the guilt and incarceration of such children is a foregone conclusion.

They may be the lucky ones. Over the past 16 years, Israel’s army has killed on average 11 children a month.

The video of Ahed, screened repeatedly on Israeli TV, has threatened to upturn Israel’s self-image as David fighting an Arab Goliath. This explains the toxic outrage and indignation that has gripped Israel since the video aired.

Predictably, Israeli politicians were incensed. Naftali Bennett, the education minister, called for Ahed to “end her life in jail”. Culture minister Miri Regev, a former army spokeswoman, said she felt personally “humiliated” and “crushed” by Ahed.

But more troubling is a media debate that has characterised the soldiers’ failure to beat Ahed in response to her slaps as a “national shame”.

The revered television host Yaron London expressed astonishment that the soldiers “refrained from using their weapons” against her, wondering whether they “hesitated out of cowardice”.

But far more sinister were the threats from Ben Caspit, a leading Israeli analyst. In a column, he said Ahed’s actions made “every Israeli’s blood boil”. He proposed subjecting her to retribution “in the dark, without witnesses and cameras”, adding that his own form of revenge would lead to his certain detention.

That fantasy – of cold-bloodedly violating an incarcerated child – should have sickened every Israeli. And yet Mr Caspit is still safely ensconced in his job.

But aside from exposing the sickness of a society addicted to dehumanising and oppressing Palestinians, including children, Ahed’s case raises the troubling question of what kind of resistance Israelis think Palestinians are permitted.

International law, at least, is clear. The United Nations has stated that people under occupation are allowed to use “all available means”, including armed struggle, to liberate themselves.

But Ahed, the villagers of Nabi Saleh and many Palestinians like them have preferred to adopt a different strategy – a confrontational, militant civil disobedience. Their resistance defies the occupier’s assumption that it is entitled to lord it over Palestinians.

Their approach contrasts strongly with the constant compromises and so-called “security cooperation” accepted by the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas.

According to Israeli commentator Gideon Levy, Ahed’s case demonstrates that Israelis deny Palestinians the right not only to use rockets, guns, knives or stones, but even to what he mockingly terms an “uprising of slappings”.

Ahed and Nabi Saleh have shown that popular unarmed resistance – if it is to discomfort Israel and the world – cannot afford to be passive or polite. It must be fearless, antagonistic and disruptive.

Most of all, it must hold up a mirror to the oppressor. Ahed has exposed the gun-wielding bully lurking in the soul of too many Israelis. That is a lesson worthy of Gandhi or Mandela.

By +972 Blog

|Published January 5, 2018

Ahed Tamimi's lawyer: Her case is making people see the occupation again

Gaby Lasky, the human rights attorney representing Ahed Tamimi and her mother Nariman, talks to +972 about what it means for a Palestinian to be put on trial in the occupier’s military courts, and some of the dangerous precedents being set.

By Joshua Leifer

Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky (C-L) speaks with her client sixteen-years-old Ahed Tamimi (2R) before she stands for a hearing in the military court at Ofer military prison near the West Bank of Ramallah, January 1, 2018. (Activestills)

The video of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi confronting two Israeli soldiers outside of her home in the village of Nabi Saleh has become ubiquitous, broadcast across every media platform for weeks. So have the pictures of Ahed, handcuffed and surrounded by guards in court. Posters of Ahed have even appeared on bus stops in London. What those images often fail to properly convey is that Ahed is being detained in a military prison and being tried in a military court, and how that differs from the way a minor would be treated in an Israeli civilian court.

Attorney Gaby Lasky represents Ahed Tamimi and her mother, Nariman. Lasky, a former secretary general of Peace Now and a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council for the left-wing Meretz party, has spent much of the last decade defending Palestinians, many of them involved in the popular struggle against the occupation.

I spoke with Lasky on Thursday about the challenges of working in Israeli military court, where 99.7 percent of Palestinian suspects are convicted; about the cases against Ahed Tamimi and her mother, Nariman; and about the structural injustices built into the Israeli legal system in the occupied territories.

The difficulty of Ahed’s case goes beyond the legal challenges Palestinians living under occupation face when arrested by the Israeli army, Lasky told me. “The video shows the essence of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” she stressed. Depending on where you stand, and perhaps who you are, watching the 16-year-old girl face down two heavily armed Israeli soldiers can reinforce either the Palestinian and Israeli narrative.

The following has been edited for length. 

What does it mean that the judge is wearing the same uniform as the prosecution?

The military court is not a court of justice in the regular sense; it’s an organ of the occupation. It perpetuates the occupation. Both the judge and the prosecution are wearing the same uniform, and are part of the same system, and the defense is not.

What are some of the obstacles in a case like Ahed’s that would be different if she were being tried in a civilian court?

First, it would be much, much easier to get her released from detention. I brought to court a lot of examples of adults who were released in cases where their offenses were greater than hers. [Civilian] courts in Israel do tend to release [suspects on bail]. Her being a minor would have made things even easier in an Israeli court. Cases in military court are more difficult from the get-go much because the laws are stricter, the charges are heavier, and rights are only partially protected.

But the difficulty with Ahed’s case is not only that we’re facing a military court; it’s the fact that the video shows the essence of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Someone can see the narrative of the Palestinians in that video, and on the other side, Israelis can see the narrative of Israel in that video.

When you talk about an offense in a regular court, you can always talk about the circumstances of the incident. In this case, the circumstances are a 16-year-old girl who was born into occupation. The military court doesn’t take those things into consideration. It’s not an issue that is brought to the table. It’s a given. But if you want to see the whole picture, you have to talk about these things.

What is the case against Ahed?

The most serious charges against her are the ones regarding the video incident. She has 12 different charges in her indictment regarding five different incidents. Regarding the video, she’s charged with assault of a soldier, disrupting the work of a soldier, and incitement.

She has other charges regarding stone-throwing but they are old — one of them is almost two years old. Nobody thought to report it or arrest her or question her at the time. The evidence against her regarding all of the other incidents was produced only after she was arrested and they found old pictures of Ahed [on her mother’s Facebook].

But it was only after her arrest that soldiers were asked to come and give testimony regarding what they saw two years ago. They were presented with these pictures after she was in every newspaper or television program, and then asked if they could identify her in a photo line-up. That’s how they obtained all of the evidence against her.

What is the case against Nariman, Ahed’s mother, who was arrested hours after her daughter? Would a civilian court ever consider live-streaming on Facebook as a form of incitement?

It’s really dangerous that the prosecution is implying that live-streaming is the worst form of incitement. It would mean that a reporter doing a live report at a demonstration where someone says, “come join us in the demonstration,” would constitute incitement in the eyes of the prosecution. What the prosecution is trying to do is very dangerous for freedom of the press.

Ahed’s case has been all over the news, getting a lot attention for a case in Israeli military court. But what aren’t we hearing about? What’s not getting out to the public?

Most people don’t know that the occupier has courts that put on trial people living under occupation just because they don’t follow the rules of the occupier. The Israeli public doesn’t want to hear about the occupation, and it’s the same for the court of the occupation.

It is amazing that a 16-year-old youngster has forced everyone to have an opinion about the occupation, to have to deal with the fact that people are born into occupation, that their rights are infringed upon, and that they’re taken to prison when they’re 16 years old for offenses that don’t merit detention in Israel.

Some in the Israeli public think the soldiers behaved as they should, others say they were humiliated. It was this humiliation that brought about Ahed’s arrest. But even so, everyone now has to deal with the occupation and what it does to the soldiers and to the people who live under occupation. Even without wanting to, Ahed’s case opened a door that has been closed for a long time for most of the public in Israel.

Joshua Leifer is an associate editor at +972 Magazine. 

This is why Israel, 70 years after 'independence' is a settler-colonial state

January 12, 2018, 10:26 pm

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A Beginner’s Guide to the Unrecognized Villages of Israel

If there is one thing Israel fears more than anything it is delegitimisation. That is why Israel hates BDS because it challenges the legitimacy of the Israeli state.  All political parties in Israel know that, despite pretensions and its claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East, it is an outpost of the West in the Orient.

Hotel Cliff, occupied East Jerusalem. Confiscated from its Palestinian owners under the Absentees' Property Law, the State now recommends to return a small portion, i.e. the parts owned by Palestinian residents living in the West Bank. (Photo: Mahmoud Illean)

Israel is different from any ‘normal’ bourgeois democratic state in the West because it is a state based not on all of its inhabitants but on the Jewish part.  It is an ethno-nationalist state.  That is why the Jewish State Bill is so important to Netanyahu because he wants to make it explicit in the Israeli equivalent of a constitution, a Basic Law. 

When states recognise Israel as a Jewish state they are automatically recognising that it is an Apartheid state, a state not of all its citizens but its Jewish citizens.

Most states in the West like the UK have some form of equalities legislation.  Indeed equalities is written into European law.  But in Israel the whole state is based on ethnic discrimination.  Being Jewish is not a religious identification so much as a national/racial one.  In the Israeli ID card you can be Jewish on the basis of both nationality and religion.

Of course within the Jewish tribe there are numerous differences, not least because the definers of who is Jewish, the Chief Rabbinate, will not accept anyone who is converted by non-Orthodox rabbis.  So you can immigrate to Israel under one definition of being Jewish but once there you will not be recognised as Jewish by those who define personal matters, the Chief Rabbinate for purposes of birth, marriage and death.

There is therefore in Israel, just like in Nazi Germany, which was based on the Aryan race, a mixed race – Jewish bastards, mamzerim, half Jews or in Nazi Germany, Mishlinge.  Israel has come to resemble nothing so much as the State that was responsible for the decimation of some third of world Jewry. 

Despite claiming its legitimacy from the Holocaust Israel uncannily resembles Nazi Germany’s racial structures.  It was this observation by Hannah Arendt, in her seminal book Eichmann in Jerusalem – the Banality of Evil which led to her ostracisation and demonization by the Zionist movement.  She noted, amongst other things that the condemnation of the Nazis’ Nuremburg Laws during the Eichmann Trial, which prevented marriage between Jews and non-Jews was ironic in view of the fact that Jews and non-Jews couldn’t marry in Israel too.

Israel has to keep up pretensions which was why it passed a Law against racial discrimination when the Jewish Nazi Rabbi Meir Kahane was elected to the Knesset in 1984.  However the law had to exempt discrimination on the grounds of religion which meant that racism, in effect was legalised in Israel.  As a result Kahane voted for it!

The unrecognised villages of Israel are the living proof that Israel, even today, sees its Zionist role as the colonisation and settlement of the land with Jews and the uprooting and dispossession of Arabs.  In those Arab villages and towns which are recognised, planning laws prevent their development.  No extra land, because 93% of Israel is ‘Jewish’ land is allocated to the expansion of Arab lands.  Despite their population having increased over 10 fold since the Israeli State was founded, the land allocated to Israel’s 20% Arabs has not increased.  If anything it has been subject to further confiscation.  That was the purpose of the Absentee Property Law which was passed by the Israeli Labour Party government in 1950.

Despite the wilful refusal of western leaders to recognise it, Israel is the world’s last apartheid state.

Tony Greenstein 

Thousands of Arab Bedouins in Israel's Negev desert are denied power, water, sewage, and roads by the state. And their villages are under constant threat of demolition.

Photo: Aniqa Raihan

 December 25, 2017 Aniqa Raihan Foreign Policy in Focus

It’s no secret that there is an occupation happening in and around Israel.

Most people agree that the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been occupied since 1967. Much less thought and literature is dedicated to the treatment of Palestinians living inside modern-day Israel proper. I decided to head over there and see for myself.

It is commonly believed that Palestinian citizens of Israel — officially known as Arab Israelis — enjoy full equality in the Jewish State. There are Arab members of parliament, the Arab population in Israel has been growing steadily for decades, and the Arab cultural scene is thriving in places like Haifa. While all of these statements are true, Palestinians insist that occupation still exists inside the state of Israel, and nowhere is that fact more apparent than in the unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev desert.

Before the creation of modern Israel, the Negev desert, which constitutes the southern half of the country, was almost entirely populated by Arab Bedouins. Nearly 90 percent fled during the Nakba of 1948. 11,000 Bedouins remained, a population which has now grown to over 200,000.

Of the Bedouins still living in the Negev, half live in government-designated towns and cities, much like Native reservations in the United States, and the other half live in unrecognized villages. The Bedouin are Israeli citizens, but because their villages aren’t formally recognized by the state, they have no access to state services including water, electricity, telephones, sewage systems, and roads.

Today, the unrecognized villages of the Negev desert have the highest unemployment and poverty rates in Israel. I visited three villages to understand the effect of occupation.

Be’er Sheva, Israel (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

Be’er Sheva is the largest city in the Negev desert. It is home to 205,000 people, about 10 percent of whom are Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Originally founded in 4,000 BCE, Be’er Sheva has been at times a Bedouin encampment, part of the Ottoman Empire, and now, the fourth most populous metropolitan center in Israel. It is a thriving college town, a growing tech hub, and interestingly, the chess capital of the world.

Less than 5 miles away are unrecognized villages where people live in tents and tin shacks.

Wadi an-Na’am, an unregistered Bedouin encampment outside Be’er Sheva, Israel (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

The largest of the unrecognized villages is Wadi an-Na’am. It was established in the 1950s by internally displaced Bedouins from surrounding villages who’d been forcibly removed from their homes and lands, but it’s never been officially recognized.

In the 1970s, Israel built Neot Hovav, the country’s primary toxic waste disposal facility, in Wadi an-Na’am. Since its establishment, the facility has experienced frequent accidents, fires, explosions, and leaks, resulting in birth defects and long-term health problems in the Bedouin community.

The village is also surrounded by military firing zones, where the Israeli Defense Forces carry out military drills and trainings using live ammunition. Unexploded shells are often left behind from these exercises. The last accident killed two children aged 8 and 10.

A power plant outside Wadi an-Na’am, a Bedouin village that gets no electricity from the state. (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

An electric power plant is clearly visible from the village.

This plant generates electricity for Be’er Sheva and surrounding localities, but not for Wadi an-Na’am or the 45 other unrecognized villages like it. People in the villages depend instead on an inconsistent combination of solar panels and generators. Adalah, a human rights and legal organization, currently has three open cases regarding elementary schools in Wadi an-Na’am that lack electricity.

Israel recently announced its intention to relocate the residents of Wadi an-Na’am to the nearby town of Segev Shalom. The villagers oppose this plan because it would destroy their agrarian lifestyle. In 2015 the Association for Civil Rights in Israel presented two alternative options, both of which would allow the villagers to maintain their way of life, but the relocation will move forward as originally proposed.

Umm al-Hiran, a Bedouin village on the verge of demolition by Israeli authorities. (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

I also visited Umm al-Hiran,  an unrecognized village on the verge of demolition. Like Wadi an-Na’am, Umm al-Hiran was established in the 1950s by order of the Israeli military governor as part of a state-sanctioned effort to relocate and concentrate the Bedouin. Half of the village was briefly granted recognition in 2008, but the decision was reversed two years later.

The state has marked Umm al-Hiran as the site of a future Jewish development to be called Hiran, a project that necessitates the demolition of the entire village. Residents filed appeals and fought back in court, but in 2015, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected a petition to prevent demolition of the village. Construction was briefly halted following protests led by Adalah, but is expected to continue soon.

A memorial to a Bedouin man shot and killed by Israeli police as he fled home demolitions in Umm al-Hiran. (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

At 3 a.m. on January 18 of this year, Israeli police arrived at Umm al-Hiran to conduct home demolitions. A local teacher named Yacoub Abu Al-Qia’an got in his car and began to drive away, but was shot at by the police.

One of the bullets hit his right knee, causing him to lose control of his vehicle and accelerate into a group of officers. One officer was killed, as was Yacoub. Israeli authorities initially declared him a terrorist connected to ISIS, but retracted when video evidence surfaced proving that he was shot before his car accelerated.

A memorial stands at the scene of the shooting.

A tribal cemetary is most of what remains of al-Araqib, a Bedouin village that Israeli authorities have demolished over 100 times. (Photo: Aniqa Raihan)

And finally, I visited the most notorious of the unrecognized villages, al-Araqib. This village, which was once home to 600 people, has been demolished 119 times. Now, only 5 tents and a tribal cemetery remain. There are more graves than villagers.

Amazingly, the demolitions aren’t even the worst past: Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of this years long tragedy is the government’s demand that the residents of al-Araqib pay for the cost of demolishing their homes.

I have been part of the movement for Palestinian justice for a year and a half now. I have spent hundreds of hours reading about the blockade of Gaza, the murders of Mahmoud Shaalan and Rachel Corrie, the intifadas, the checkpoints, the BDS movement, and more, but I was still shocked by what I saw in the Negev desert. The Bedouin are continually displaced and disenfranchised by the state — and too often, they are also erased from the mainstream Palestinian narrative.

This is occupation, pure and simple, and it is 70 years past time the world recognizes it.

Aniqa Raihan is a former Next Leader at the Institute for Policy Studies and a past member of Students for Justice in Palestine at George Washington University. She’s currently traveling in Israel-Palestine. 

A Comedy of Errors from the Jewish Chronicle – Marcus Dysch in Another Fine Mess

January 13, 2018, 7:35 pm

≫ Next: Sam Semoff – a Fighter, a Socialist and a Jewish Anti-Zionist - an Adopted Son of Liverpool Departs This World

≪ Previous: This is why Israel, 70 years after 'independence' is a settler-colonial state

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Jewish Chronicle Report of Labour Against the Witch-hunt takes Fake News to Trump Levels

Dysch is a Zionist clown who confuses Moshe Machover with me - but at least he got Jackie Walker right!

The Jewish Chronicle under Stephen Pollard, a former editor of the Daily Express, has been the main vehicle spearheading the fake anti-semitism witch-hunt.  Pollard is a member of the cold-war Henry Jackson society.  He is a far-Right Zionist whose concern over anti-semitism is entirely cynical.  Pollard has no hesitation in supporting anti-Semites like the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski on the condition that they are supportive of the Israeli state.

Debate between Pollard and Freedland in which Pollard supports a far-Right anti-Semitic Polish MEP Michal Kaminski on the grounds that he is an ardent supporter of Israel - today over 90% of fascist and anti-Semitic parties support Zionism and hate Jews

Marcus Dysch is the Jewish Chronicle’s Political Editor and a devoted Zionist.  Dysch seems to have chosen the wrong career.  He would have been much better suited to creative writing and fiction than news, which requires at least a modicum of truth.  His latest effort is an article ‘Labour activists to picket party’s Jew-hate hearings.’ 

What I wondered was a ‘Jew-hate’hearing.  Is it something Jackie Walker and me are expected to go to where members of Labour’s National Constitutional Committee can tell us how much they hate us?  Hardly seems worthwhile going to let alone picketing.  Maybe our placards should say ‘Jew haters out of the Compliance Unit, McNicol out of Southside’ (Labour Party HQ).

Dysch and Pollard

Laurel and Hardy

Compared to Dysch, the previous Political Editor of the JC, Martin Bright, was a paragon of virtue.  In line with editor Stephen Pollard’s determination to take the JC down market and at the same time reduce its readership to the bare minimum, Dysch has decided that he will take to inventing the news.

The two photographs accompanying his piece are headed ‘Tony Greenstein and Jackie Walker’.  However the photographs themselves are those of Moshe Machover and Jackie Walker.  I guess having got one of them right Dysch will be perfectly happy .  After all 50% is better than nothing!

Or perhaps Dysch was subconsciously trying to pay me a compliment by confusing me with Professor Machover. 

Dysch alleges we are fighting charges of ‘Jew hatred.’  Not true we are challenging fake allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance i.e. hatred of Zionism and Israel’s racist state.  Dysch however can’t even get the IHRA right.  He describes it as the International Holocaust Memorial Alliance. 

Marcus Dysch - not one of the great intellects in the Zionist firmament

The nice thing about the Jewish Chronicle is that it doesn’t pretend to be neutral.  The idea that there might be a Chinese wall between comment and news is quite a quaint concept at the JC.  Fact and fiction are mixed up with commentary with gay abandon.

Thus Dysch writes that Marc Wadsworth ‘was suspended from the party in July 2016 after verbally abusing Ruth Smeeth, a Jewish MP.’  No Mr Dysch, this is an allegation.  It is not yet proven.  Indeed film of the incident proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was noabuse.  In most areas of the world you are innocent until proven guilty but at the house journal of Britain’s Zionists it is the opposite way round.  Dysch probably thought he was on the West Bank when he wrote the article and thought this was the same as Israeli style military justice where there is a 99.74% chance of being convicted.

But what is one lie amongst many?

Dysch also manages to get the date of my proposed hearing wrong, it was supposed to be the 26^thnot the 25^th.  It is also untrue that I was suspended ‘for writing offensive blogs about Louise Ellman, another Jewish MP.’  The blog in question, Time to Deselect Louise Ellman MP for Liverpool Riverside and Tel Aviv North – Apologist for Israel's Occupation Forceswas written on 20^thJune 2016 whereas I was suspended on March 18^th 2016.  Predicting the future is not one of the things that Crooked McNicol’s Compliance Unit is best known for.

Join Labour Against the Witchhunt and help organise a meeting in your CLP against McNicol's attack on supporters of Palestine

It is also untrue that we debated whether saying the United States is ‘servile’ to Israel is anti-Semitic.  It was accepted by virtually everyone at the meeting bar Gerry Downing, who came up with the phrase and Ian Donovan that of course it was anti-Semitic and also ludicrous.

What Dysch goes to great lengths to avoid telling his readers though is that the first half of the meeting was devoted to telling a small anti-Semitic group, Socialist Fight, that they were unwelcome in Labour Against the Witchhunt.  The reason being that they confuse the number of rich Jews in America with the reasons for American foreign policy namely its support for Israel.  Socialist Fight aren’t ‘Jew haters’ but their politics are without doubt anti-Semitic.

Looking on the bright side however, it is true that Dysch not only got the day of the meeting right but also the fact that Jackie and myself chaired the meeting!  He also correctly reported that Moshe Machover had been elected as Honorary President of LAW.  In the circumstances Dysch should be given a medal for at least getting some things right!  I therefore thought it only right that I write a letter congratulating him on these things.

Tony Greenstein 

Marcus Dysch,

Political and Creative Writing Editor,

The Jewish Chronicle,

28 St. Albans Lane
London NW11 7QE

mdysch@thejc.com

Dear Marcus,

Please allow me to congratulate you on your most recent article for the Jewish Chronicle, ‘Labour activists to picket party’s Jew-hate hearings.’  (12.1.18.).  It was, for you, a model of accuracy and perspicacity.

Not only did you get the date of the meeting of Labour Against the Witch-hunt correct but you also accurately reported the fact that Jackie Walker and myself chaired the meeting.  Indeed, you even managed to get right the fact that Moshe Machover was elected as Honorary President of LAW.

Unfortunately, from there on in it was all downhill. The caption to the photographs accompanying the article said ‘Tony Greenstein and Jackie Walker’.  Unfortunately the photograph that was supposed to be me was in fact Moshe Machover.  I realise that compared to some of your howlers this was small beer but I thought I’d mention it all the same.

Similarly the Zionist IHRA definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ stands for International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (not International Holocaust Memorial Alliance). 

I know that you will think me churlish and pedantic but I was notsuspended for ‘writing offensive blogs’ about Louise Ellman MP, the despicable supporter of the Israeli military’s child abuse. My blog Time to Deselect Louise Ellman MP for Liverpool Riverside and Tel Aviv North – Apologist for Israel's Occupation Forceswas written on 20^thJune 2016 whereas I was suspended on March 18^th 2016.  To the best of my recollection, June usually comes after March in the calendar year unless there is a new Zionist calendar. I am also told that she is the MP for Tel Aviv South not North (as well as the part-time MP for Liverpool Riverside).

I realise that you made your mind up long ago that we were all guilty but Marc Wadsworth was not suspended from the Labour Party ‘after verbally abusing’ the detestable Ruth Smeeth MP.  This was an allegation that Marc denies so any journalist worth his salt would have put the words ‘alleged’ before your phrase.  I realise that in Israel’s military courts you are guilty until proven innocent (and just 0.26% of the accused are found not guilty) but in Britain the burden of proof is still on the prosecution to prove guilt.

I also note your curious header ‘(Labour)party’s Jew-hate hearings.’ Does this mean that when Jackie and I attend our hearings people are going to tell us how much they hate us because we are Jewish? I realise that you find the concept of journalistic ethics somewhat alien but could I remind you that the allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ against us are denied?

You also got the date of my hearing and that of Marc Wadsworth wrong, but what is one mistake amongst so many?

Gerry Downing was not excluded because his website carried ‘anti-Zionist conspiracy theories‘.  He and Socialist Fight were excluded because they were anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.  Anti-Semitism, White Supremacy and White Zionism aka Richard Spencer we leave to you and your Zionist bedfellows.

Can I also remind you that Jackie Walker was not suspended for comments about Jews being the chief financiers of the slave trade?  I realise, following the teachings of a certain Mr Goebbels that the more often you repeat a lie the easier it is to believe it, but the fact that Jackie did not include one word in what was a private conversation does not mean she subscribes to the view that Jews were the main  financial sponsors of slavery. Jews, being White, played a significant part but they were by no means the only people involved in this deathly trade.  Jackie was suspended for being a Black Jewish anti-Zionist.

Apart from these minor errors of fact your article was a model of accuracy.  You were also right to say that Professor Moshe Machover was reinstated to the Party but wrong to say there were any ‘concerns’ about the article he wrote.  It was a model of historical accuracy.

I never thought the day would come when I would begin to miss your predecessor as Political Editor, Martin Bright.  I hope you won’t take offence at my suggestion but have you ever considered writing fiction?  Creative writing can, I am told, be very fulfilling, personally and career wise.  I suspect with your imagination you would be a best seller.

With kind regards

Tony Greenstein

Vice-Chair

Sam Semoff – a Fighter, a Socialist and a Jewish Anti-Zionist - an Adopted Son of Liverpool Departs This World

January 14, 2018, 10:57 pm

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≪ Previous: A Comedy of Errors from the Jewish Chronicle – Marcus Dysch in Another Fine Mess

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Sam was a true Jewish Comrade and a Scourge of Racism and Zionism

Sam in 2003 when I went up to Liverpool before heading off to Scotland with my daughter

Sam in 2003 when I went up to Liverpool before heading off to Scotland with my daughter

It is still difficult to believe that Sam, who was 75, will no longer be with us.  That unique blend of Liverpudlian humour and an American accent. Sam was raised on a poultry farm in New Jersey, having been born in Philadelphia, but only because his mother went into labour there.  Sam's doctorate was in Molecular Cell Biology, and that was why he came to Britain in 1979.  I met him shortly after he came here.

Sam only had one child. Shelah he had only one grandchild - Karlaya Mae. Whilst he had two brothers, only one is still alive.  Sam has I'm told left numerous nieces and nephews scattered across the States, from New York to California.

Sam was a community activist in Liverpool whose speciality was health campaigns.  In particular he was the scourge of the PFI takeover of Liverpool’s new hospital, the cutbacks and all the other attacks.  Sam was also a class fighter.  He rejected Zionism for the same reasons that he rejected all forms of racism. 

Sam speaking at one of many demonstrations he participated in

He was a medical researcher and worked for years at Liverpool University.  He lost a battle in the Employment Tribunal and then the Employment Appeal Tribunal under the right-wing judge Simon Brown, who was hostile to all equalities legislation.  He was fighting against the endemic racism of one of the old style colonial outposts, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.  The School had been founded, like its London counterpart, as part of the attempt to colonise Africa which was then known as the Dark Continent on account of the impenetrability for White people of its interior.  Because of malaria and other diseases, White men were unable to conquer the savage interior of Africa and that was the reason the tropical medicine schools were founded.  They were the medical spear of British colonialism.

Sam threw himself into a variety of grassroots community campaigns in Liverpool and was highly respected amongst the Black and Somali communities.

It was Sam’s hatred of racism that meant that he could be no other than an anti-Zionist.  I first met Sam in around 1980 and we worked together at first in the British Anti-Zionist Organisation.  We also resigned from BAZO together when we had accumulated enough proof that it was controlled by Iraqi Baathists.  Sam went on to be a committed activist in Liverpool Friends of Palestine.

I left Liverpool in 1974 but I used to come back quite often to see my parents.  Whenever I returned I would make a point of going for a drink with Sam and a meal, often with his former wife Lil.  When my children came up to Liverpool they stayed with his daughter Shelah and Karlaya Mae.  Sam took very easily to being a grandfather and baby sitting.

Sam was a dedicated Jewish anti-Zionist and proud of that fact.  He could always be counted on to sign a Jewish anti-Zionist petition or letter.  Sam really was the unsung hero of our movement.  Whereas people like me have risen to prominence (and infamy!) Sam was someone who preferred to stay in the background.

The last time I saw Sam was in June 2016 when I came to speak at a Liverpool Friends of Palestine meeting in the wake of my suspension from the Labour Party over the fake anti-Semitism campaign.  It was a packed meeting that the Zionists had, as usual, tried to have cancelled.  Afterwards the speakers and Liverpool activists went for a Chinese meal in the centre of Liverpool where we discussed the latest attacks inside the Labour Party.  Sam had, like so many of us, left the Labour Party in the Blair years and had come back with the election of Jeremy Corbyn.

I stayed with Sam in his flat in Ullet Road and I was shocked then at the deterioration in Sam’s health.  He had to walk around with oxygen canisters.  I wondered how long Sam could continue to survive.  However he hadn’t lost his sense of humour and he thoroughly enjoyed the meeting.  Sam had previously enjoyed smoking cannabis but he was now no longer able to smoke anything. Many was the time when we smoked dope  together!

I can remember over 30 years ago Sam was busy helping to produce an issue of the short-lived Liverpool Labour Briefing, which included an article by me.  When I got married in 1989 Sam came down and stayed with us in Brighton as he did three years ago when I was extremely ill and thought I was going to die. 

Sam was one of those who was to the forefront in trying to remove the racist Zionist MP for Liverpool Riverside and the supporter of Israel’s abuse of Palestinian children, Louise Ellman.

The short video clip I am including here for the first time was when I was visiting Liverpool on the way to Scotland with my daughter Ellie.  It was in 2003 and I still had my Renault 5!  In the clip I had taken my late mother and Ellie to meet Sam, I think in Lodge Lane, Liverpool 8, which was near where he lived.

Sam was the best of comrades and never had an ill-word to say about anyone.  It is really hard to imagine that Sam is no longer with us.  My heart goes out to Sam’s daughter and his grandchild, Karlaya Mae.  He will be sorely missed.

There are a lot of tributes at the Save Liverpool Womens Hospitals Facebook Page, please have a look at them and post your own tribute if you knew Sam or at his Facebook page.  Here are also some of the tributes that have been paid on his own Facebook page.

Tony Greenstein 

The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism is an Exercise in Political Fraud

January 15, 2018, 8:02 pm

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≪ Previous: Sam Semoff – a Fighter, a Socialist and a Jewish Anti-Zionist - an Adopted Son of Liverpool Departs This World

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Theresa May’s antisemitism fraud

Conflating and confusing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is the key to the defence of Israel

Theresa May has demonstrated total support for Zionism and Israel -  this is perfectly compatible with her support for supplying the Saudis with weaponry in order to perpetrate war crimes in the Yemen.  That makes May also a war criminal.

It is, after all, hard to defend the ongoing murder of Palestinian children, the theft of land, the apartheid economy and Zionism's other crimes other than by demonising critics of Israel and Zionism as ‘anti-Semitic’.  False accusations of anti-semitism are a staple of Israeli and Zionist propaganda. 

The reactionary and racist Eric Pickles, former Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel who was happy to exonerate the anti-Semitic Michal Kaminski whilst pontificating about false 'antisemitism'

That is why it is disappointing that Jeremy Corbyn followed in the footsteps of Theresa May when she adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.  Corbyn only adopted the short 39 word introduction to the IHRA, as opposed to the full 450 word versin, but nonetheless it was a mistake. The IHRA in its totality is poisonous. The whole purpose of the IHRA is to demonise criticism of Israel and Zionism. Why? Because Israel is a lynchpin of US and Western foreign policy.  The IHRA has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.  The reason why anti-Semitic world leaders such as the Poland and Hungarian governments support it is precisely because it is aimed at leftist criticism of a Israel – a key ally of western imperialism.

If Theresa May was seriously interested in combating anti-Semitism there is a much shorter 21 word definition which Professor Brian Klug gave in a lecture at the Berlin Jewish Museum in 2014, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, ‘What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Antisemitsm’? Echoes of shattering glass’. he defined anti-Semitism thus:

‘antisemitism is a form of hostility to Jews as Jews, where Jews are perceived as something other than what they are.’

It is a 21 word definition, whereas the IHRA is 450 words.  Why?  Because you need 450 words in order to conflate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

One of the key movers behind this false definition of anti-Semitism is the far-Right former Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel Sir Eric Pickles. Pickles it was who defended the tie up between the Tories and the far-Right European Conservative and Reform group in the European Parliament. The ECR group was chaired by Michal Kaminski, a Polish MEP who was the mainstay of the
Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne.  Jedwabne was a village where on 10^th July 1941, Poles supporting the Polish Nationalist Party herded up to 1600 Jews into a barn which they then set alight. Polish historians Jan Thomas Gross and Anna Bikont wrote Neighbours and The Crime and the Silence describing what happened.  On July 10^th2001, on the 60th anniversary of the pogrom, Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski attended a ceremony at Jedwabne where he made a speech stating the murderers were Poles whose crime was both against the Jewish nation and against Poland.  A memorial to the murdered Jews was also erected.

Jan Thomas Grosz, the historian of Jedwabne, faces being stripped of Poland's Order of Merit by Poland's anti-Semitic and Zionist government

The person who led the campaign against this national apology was Kaminski. He went as far as to state that far from Poles apologising to Jews it was the Jews who owed the Poles an apology.  Presumably those Polish Jews who hadn’t been exterminated in the Holocaust since less than 10% of Poland’s 3.3 million survived World War II.  See Once no self-respecting politician would have gone near people such as Kaminski

The Polish government is currently considering whether to strip Gross of the Order of Merit, Poland’s highest award, from Gross for saying that the Poles killed more Jews than they killed Germans.

The Jewish Chronicle, which is so hot on 'antisemitism' in the Labour Party was remarkably supportive of an actual anti-semite

Another member of the ECR who Pickles defended is Roberts Zile, Latvian MEP for the National Alliance/LNNK. In March every year he marches with the veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS. [Jewish Chronicle March 8, 2012 Calls to ban Baltic neo-Nazi marches] Zile told the Latvian parliament that he was against the trial of Konrads Kalejs, a close assistant of Viktors Arajs, chief of the Arajs Commando, which participated in the killing of tens of thousands of Jews in Latvia and Belarus.  

Pickles told the BBC that ‘the Latvian Waffen-SS were only conscripts fighting for their country, and to say otherwise was a Soviet smear.’  Pickles omitted the fact, as Jonathan Freedland noted, that ‘a substantial minority of the Latvian Waffen-SS were eager volunteers, including veterans of pro-Nazi death squads who had already taken part in the first phase of the Holocaust.’

Despite confirming that only the short introduction has been adopted by the Labour Party, crooked Iain McNicol's monkeys in the Compliance Unit are using all of the definition

It is the Tories that should be attacked for their willingness to work with anti-Semites.  Indeed Theresa May has only just visited Poland to give comfort to their government in their battles against the European Union.  This has given the green light to Iain ‘Crooked’ McNicol and the Compliance Unit to apply the IHRA anti-Semitism definition inside the Labour Party, including its 11 examples of ‘anti-Semitism’, 7 of which relate to Israel.

The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is not only nonsense but is, by its own definition anti-Semitic!  One of the examples of ‘anti-Semitism’ is:

‘Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.’ 

Leaving aside the fact that the Jews are not a nation and therefore have no right to self-determination, it begs the question why it is racist to oppose their self-determination anyway?  People oppose the right to self-determination of the Scots or the Catalans, is that racist?  All that self-determination means is the right to form a state.  

A memorial to the dead Jews of Jedwabne that the Zionist supporting Kaminski did his best to stop going up

What the IHRA is saying is that Israel is the national embodiment of all Jews.  That means all Jews, including me, owe their loyalty to Israel.  That in itself is anti-Semitic.  But according to another of the IHRA’s 11 examples of ‘anti-Semitism’ ‘Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel’is anti-Semitic.  If Israel is the national state of all Jews then it is quite right to hold Jews responsible for it.  So according to one section of the IHRA, the IHRA itself is anti-Semitic!!

Sir Stephen Sedley, a Jewish former Court of Appeal Judge has written an excellent article Defining anti-Semitismfor London Review of Books.  Sedley first homes on the introduction to the IHRA:

‘Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed towards Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, towards Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.’  Sedley notes that “‘A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred’ invites a string of questions. Is anti-Semitism solely a matter of perception? What about discriminatory practices and policies? What about perceptions of Jews that are expressed otherwise than as hatred?”  Sedley observed that ‘These gaps are unlikely to be accidental. Their effect, whether or not it is their purpose, is to permit perceptions of Jews which fall short of expressions of racial hostility to be stigmatised as anti-Semitic.’

Hugh Tomlinson QC also gave an Opinionon the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism.  He too attacked the introduction saying that

‘The phrase “a certain perception” is vague and unclear in the context of a definition. The use of the word “may” is also confusing. If it is understood in its usual sense of “possibility” then the definition is of little value: antisemitism “may be expressed as hatred towards Jews but may also be expressed in other (unspecified) ways”. This does not work as a definition.’

The reason that the definition is deliberately left vague, open-ended and unclear is because in order to define criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic it is necessary to make the definition as unclear as possible.  The lack of clarity is deliberate.

The Zionist EUMC definition of anti-Semitism was like the hydra Hercules faced.  No sooner had one head been killed than another grew

As Mike Cushman’s article on the Free Speech on Israel site explains, the IHRA definition is not new.  It arose originally as the so-called EUMC [European Union Monitoring Committee] Working Definition on Anti-Semitism in 2003.  It was drawn up by Kenneth Stern of the American Jewish Committee.  Its purpose was to confuse people by labelling criticism of Israel as ‘anti-Semitic’.  It had no other purpose.  In 2013, having been largely rejected by civil society groups like the lecturers union, UCU and the National Union of students, the successor group to the EUMC, Europe’s Fundamental Rights Agency, took it down from its website. Israel lobbyists finally concede that EU has ditched anti-Semitism “definition”  However no sooner had the EUMC definition of anti-Semitism died than the IHRA surfaced.  Like a many headed Hydra, the EUMC resurfaced as the IHRA.  Like Hercules, we need to kill it again and this time to make sure that it is dead and buried.

Theresa May’s antisemitism fraud

Mike Cushman

Theresa May misled the British public by pretending that the IHRA definition of antisemitism included the examples linking antisemitism to criticism of Israel and urging all public bodies to collude in this chilling of free speech.

A year ago, Theresa May urged all UK public bodies to adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) document on antisemitism. The document contained a 39 word definition:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities

It also 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism, seven of them relating to Israel.

It has always seemed strange that the IHRA website contained no details of the document’s adoption and the only record of it is a press release from the Romanian chair. ECCP (European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine) has pressed hard to discover what lay behind this strange lack of documentation and has finally obtained confirmation from the IHRA secretariat that, while the 39 word definition was adopted, the examples were not.

While the Government press release announcing the Government’s adoption of the definition is ambiguous about its scope, the Government’s response to the Home Affairs Select Committee leaves no room for doubt. The Committee wished to add ‘without additional evidence to suggest antisemitic intent’ to three of the most contentious examples. The Government’s response makes clear that they, like the Committee,  assert the definition includes the examples.

Theresa May announced the adoption, not in Parliament where she might have been challenged, but at a meeting of Conservative Friends of Israel. At the meeting, she described Israel as a state that “guarantees the rights of people of all religions, races and sexualities”. Not only is that manifestly untrue in relation to both Palestinians and Jews of Ethiopian descent; it deliberately confuses criticism of Israel with antisemitism experienced by British Jews.

Robert Zile, MEP for Latvia's LNNK, marches every year with the veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS - he is part of the same political group in the European Parliament as the Tories

May must have known that only the short definition had been adopted but her Government has been rolling it out as including the eleven exemplars. The definition itself is poor: what is ‘a certain perception’; why is ‘hatred towards Jews’ reduced to a disposable extra; what is antisemitism towards non-Jews or their property? The exemplars, however, are beyond doubt an attack on the free expression guaranteed by UK and European law as demonstrated by Hugh Tomlinson QC. Use of them to restrict activity or speech would, in the QC’s opinion, be unlawful. May and her Government have not ceased urging public bodies to adopt the examples despite their dubious legality and fraudulent provenance.

Sajid Javid’s letter to Local Authorities urging IHRA adoption

In January 2017 Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, wrote to all local authorities urging them to adopt the definition and commending the examples, saying: ‘it gives examples of the kind of behaviours which depending on the circumstances could constitute anti-Semitism’.

Regrettably many Councils have responded to Javid’s call. All too often they have done this by forcing through adoption without consultation or debate and refused to respond to criticisms of their actions.

While some Councils such as Newham have amended and mitigated some of the worst aspects of the document, others have made it worse. The strident advocacy group We Believe in Israel —itself an offshoot of BICOM, the Israel promotion organisation from which leading members of Labour Friends of Israel graduated—promoted a doctored version. Their version omitted, silently, the qualifier ‘depending on context’ from the preamble to the examples. This more aggressive text, going beyond Javid’s encouragement, has been adopted by several councils.

Government minister Jo Johnson tells Universities to clamp down on free speech

In February 2017, Jo Johnson, Minister for Higher Education, urged the whole document on Universities, particularly in relation to Israel Apartheid Week activities. As a result, students and staff in several universities have had their rights to free expression curtailed for partisan reasons and risked disciplinary action.

In May the Zionist Federation urged all parliamentary candidates to back the definition.

When the Labour Party NEC discussed adoption they, singularly, restricted adoption to the 39 words.

The examples themselves are bad enough but they are marginally limited by their introduction: “Contemporary examples of antisemitism  … could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to…”. Even this constraint is too much for Israel’s more militant apologists. They have become fond of stating that an activity they disapprove of is, without qualification, antisemitic under the definition; urging churches, Local Authorities, universities, the police and others to take punitive action on this amplified interpretation. We have not noted any occasion on which a Government spokesperson has criticised them for this unmandated extension.

Labour Party bureaucrats, despite the Party’s restricted adoption of the IHRA definition, extended its reach still further in their action against Moshé Machover. They redefined the IHRA to include ‘pejorative language which may cause offence to Jewish people’.

The definition itself has a troubled history. It is a mildly revised version of a draft working definition circulated by, but never adopted by the European Union Monitoring Committee on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) in 2005. It was widely criticised and formally retired by the EUMC’s successor body. Despite that Israel’s defenders continued to promote it and use it and behind the scenes sought its revalidation by another body.

The EUMC definition was based on a draft by Kenneth Stern of the American Jewish Committee. In 2016 Stern testified to the US Congress that he opposed his definition being codified into law; it was only intended as an aid to diplomats.

May’s shameless fraud is achieving its desired result, the emboldening of all those who wish to suppress criticism of Israel. It is an attempt to allow only convenient historical analysis and anodyne commentary on the mistreatment of Palestinians. Early British assertion of the inclusion of the examples in the definition is being used in Europe and beyond by forces wishing to bolster Israel. The document is regularly cited by those who attempt to disrupt and close down public meetings on Palestine and Israel.

May has also energised those who wish to remove Zionist blinkers and freely debate Israel and Palestine. We will continue to speak out and defy those who would brand ethical campaigning as antisemitic.

Six Reasons why no one should adopt the so-called “EUMC” or IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism

– Posted on 18 décembre 2017

A policy advisory accompanying the fact sheet about the

IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Working Definition of Antisemitism

ECCP and Free Speech on Israel,¹ December 2017

Antisemitism is commonly understood in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) as racism or racial discrimination directed at persons or a group of persons because of their Jewish religion, origin or identity.

Governments, political parties and public and private institutions, however, are being approached to adopt so-called “new and universal working definitions of antisemitism” which have one common theme: all stipulate that not only Jews but also the State of Israel can be the target of antisemitism.

Formulated in almost identical language, these “working definitions of antisemitism” are promoted alternatively as official definitions of the EUMC(the EU’s European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia) or the IHRA(International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance). In the United States, a similar document is presented as the “State DepartmentWorking Definition of Antisemitism”.

None of these “working definitions” should be adopted by anyone,because:

1. The definition of antisemitism promoted in these “working definitions” has already been dismissed as invalid by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). The EU has adopted neither the so-called “EUMC working definition” nor that of the IHRA. No one has any legal obligation to adopt either of these definitions.

The so-called “EUMC working definition” was never adopted by EUMC. In 2007, EUMC was closed down and replaced by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). A document entitled “EUMC Working Definition of Antisemitism” was removed from FRA’s website in 2013; FRA explained that it had never been viewed as a valid definition of antisemitism; that the Agency was not aware of any official EU definition of antisemitism; and that the document was removed in a clear-out of non-official documents.

Nevertheless, the “EUMC Working Definition” continues to be presented as if it were an official EU document. Since 2016 moreover, the same text has also been promoted as the “IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism”. No one is obliged to endorse either of these definitions which have indeed already been dismissed as invalid by the EU FRA. They have no legal force.

2. The so-called “IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism” hasn’t even been adopted by the IHRA itself.

The IHRA is an inter-governmental organization disseminating information about the holocaust. Established in 1998, it currently has 31 member states and a permanent office in Berlin.

The IHRA website features a press release publicising the adoption in Bucharest in May 2016 of a “ non-legally binding IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism” by the plenary of member states.

The content of the IHRA press release is identical with the language of the document falsely called the “EUMC Working Definition”. The entire press release has been cited publicly, including by the UK government and the European Parliament, as the IHRA definition. This is incorrect.

In response to enquiries, the IHRA’s Berlin office has clarified that the Working Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the IHRA at its meeting in May 2016 is the 40-word definition cited below in Section 3. See this document for further details. To be precise and clear – the Working Definition adopted formally by member states of IHRA is notthe entire press release, but only the two sentences (which appear in a box in the press release).

The remainder of the press release repeats the guidance and ‘illustrative examples’ from the EUMC definition, most of which identify a range of criticisms of Israel as prima facie examples of antisemitism. For the avoidance of any uncertainty, the guidance and examples were not adopted by the IHRA. Naming the whole bundle (formal definition plus guidance and examples) as ‘‘the definition of the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance‘‘ has undoubtedly added to its apparent authority and emotional force, but we now know that this attribution is invalid.

3. The definition adopted by the IHRA is so vague and unspecified as to have no value for the fight against antisemitism.

The wording of the definition adopted by the IHRA is:

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” [Emphasis added]

These two sentences and forty words are characterized by quite inappropriate and unnecessary vagueness, verging on obscurity, indicated above by the emphasised words and phrases. What is this certain perception? Why is it not explained in clear language? If antisemitism may – but doesn’t necessarily – express itself as hatred toward Jews, what are its other expressions? Under what circumstances and why would antisemitic acts be directed also toward non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, and who are these individuals?

We suggest (see point 4 below) that this vagueness and obscurity of wording can only be seen as deliberate. It is of no value in identifying antisemitic acts or statements. But it does provide an apparent necessity to accompany the definition with an interpretative explanation, that is, an opportunity for introducing concepts that would otherwise be unconnected with the understanding of antisemitism.

The illustrative examples circulated with the IHRA Working Definition suggest that antisemitism can be directed not only toward Jews but also toward the State of Israel and its supporters. This interpretation does appear to make sense of the otherwise obscure IHRA definition. However, the clarification now provided by the IHRA reveals that these examples and the extended interpretation of antisemitism were not adopted by the IHRA plenary.

4. All “working definition” documents suggest, through their ‘examples’, that antisemitism can be directed not only toward Jews but also toward the State of Israel (“a Jewish collectivity”) and its supporters. However, these examples and the extended interpretation of antisemitism were not adopted by the IHRA and have, indeed, no basis in international law.

Both the so-called “EUMC working definition” and the IHRA press release provide very similar examples to claim and illustrate that antisemitism can manifest itself as hatred against the State of Israel. The clarification provided by the IHRA now reveals that these examples were never adopted by the plenary of its members. However, they have been widely perceived and handled as if they were part of the “IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.”

These illustrations begin by stipulating that the “State of Israel, which is perceived as a Jewish collectivity”, may be the target of antisemitism. This is followed by a list of examples of allegedly antisemitic attacks against the State of Israel, including, among others, “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”, or, “applying double standards by requiring of the State of Israel a behavior not demanded of any other democratic nation”.

The assertion that the State of Israel must be viewed as a “Jewish collectivity” underlies all these ‘illustrations’. This assertion in fact reflects Israel’s discriminatory laws and Zionist ideology which define Israel as the state of a “Jewish nation”, a state that includes and represents Jews both in Israel and worldwide, and excludes its Palestinian population of citizens and refugees.

Under public international law, however, Israel, like any other state, represents all its citizens and not a “Jewish collectivity”. In fact, many Jews worldwide are not – and do not wish to be – represented by Israel. Under public international law, Israel is, moreover, bound by the prohibition on racial 

discrimination, and has to respect and protect the human rights of all its population. These include the fundamental rights to return, property and equality of its Palestinian refugees and citizens. There is no basis in international law for a right to self-determination of a “Jewish people” at the expense of these fundamental rights of Palestinians or of the UN- recognized right to self-determination of the Palestinian people; and no right for Israel as occupying power to carry out a policy of population transfer in order to colonize and annex occupied Palestinian territory. Accordingly, necessary criticism of Israel’s system of racial discrimination, segregation and apartheid does not constitute hatred toward Jews; nor do civil society campaigns and resolutions of the UN and EU apply double standards, demonize the State of Israel or pose threats to its existence, when they hold Israel accountable to the universal standards of international law.

5. In practice, adoption of the “EUMC” or IHRA Working Definition tends to undermine:

• respect for the right to freedom of expression;
• respect for international law related to Israel and the Palestinian people, and
• the fight against antisemitism.

European local, regional and central governments and authorities, parliaments and public institutions have a legal duty under their respective domestic laws and constitutions, EU law and international customary and treaty law to:

• Respect and protect the right to freedom of expression in their country;
• Uphold international humanitarian and human rights law including with regard to Israel and the Palestinians. This includes, at least, the duty to give no recognition, aid or assistance to Israeli policies or practices which violate the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people and/or the universal prohibitions on racial discrimination and on permanent acquisition of occupied Palestinian territory.

On this basis, more than 200 legal scholars have called on European governments to recognize that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a legitimate movement for Palestinian human rights, independent of whether they themselves support it. In fact, the EU, as well as the governments of the Netherlands, Ireland and Sweden and the Spanish parliament have publicly confirmed that, while not in support of boycotts or sanctions against Israel, they consider non-violent BDS campaigning to be a guaranteed right of citizens that falls under freedom of expression.

In the same vein, legal experts (Dubuisson, 2005; Tomlinson, 2017) have alerted decision makers to the flaws in the “EUMC” and IHRA Working Definitions of Antisemitism, in particular the conflation of political criticism of the State of Israel with antisemitism. Their analyses and legal opinions have warned of the risk that adoption and application of these definitions could undermine legitimate criticism of, and freedom of expression and democratic debate about, the State of Israel and its policies.

Practical experience meanwhile shows that these “working definitions” are being used almost exclusively to restrict the freedom of expression of European individuals, groups and organizations that criticize Israel and/or work for Palestinian rights.In Germany, for example, political parties are tabling policy motions for adoption by city governments – based on the IHRA Working Definition and under the pretext of the fight against antisemitism – which would prevent German cities from granting public space and subsidies to groups, organizations and events deemed supportive of the “antisemitic BDS movement.” Everyone who speaks out against Israeli policies that violate 

Palestinian rights or criticizes Israel’s self-definition as “state of the Jewish people”, including Jewish citizens of Germany and Holocaust survivors, is liable to be smeared and targeted as antisemitic. In the UK, France, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark also the IHRA Working Definition has been used by governments, authorities, political parties, parliaments and universities in an attempt to discredit as antisemitism, or to restrict or criminalize, legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and support of Palestinian rights.

Adoption and application of the “EUMC” or IHRA Working Definition also undermines the fight against antisemitism itself. By muddying the waters about what antisemitism is, these fabricated definitions encourage false allegations and entail a risk that genuine claims of attacks motivated by anti-Jewish sentiments are not taken seriously. Moreover, the claim that Israel and all Jews are one and the same obstructs recognition of the diversity among Jewish communities and of the many Jews who support efforts for Palestinian rights; it also encourages the perception that all Jews are responsible and accountable for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. Finally, the conflation in these “working definitions” of political criticism of Israel with antisemitism supports the converse (and erroneous) notion that uncritical support of the State of Israel is an indicator of commitment to the fight against antisemitism. In this way it gives legitimacy to and encourages alliances with political forces that express support of Israel’s policies against the Palestinian people while pursuing a racist or even anti-Semitic agenda. One example is the increasing public tolerance and legitimacy in the United States of the racism of white supremacists who are also staunch supporters of the State of Israel.

These and other related issues are discussed by the renowned political philosopher and activist with Jewish Voice for Peace Judith Butler in this videoabout BDS and the fight against antisemitism.

6. The “EUMC” or IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism is a tool for an Israeli political agenda that should be rejected by everyone

The “working definition” was developed in the context of Israeli debate in the early 2000s about a “grand strategy toward the European Union” that would strengthen EU-Israel relations, while also allowing Israel to maintain its illegal settlement enterprise and thwart EU pressure for a two-state solution and respect of the rights of its Palestinian citizens. Israeli and US-based Zionist Jewish charities, think tanks and lobbyists adopted a propagandistic initiative aimed at silencing criticism of Israel’s policies by branding it as “new antisemitism”. They claimed that “new antisemitism” among European civil society, the EU and the United Nations takes the form of “double standards” and the “demonization and de-legitimization” of the State of Israel. The “EUMC” or IHRA “Working Definition of Antisemitism” is a tool of this initiative.

Drafting of the “working definition” was completed in 2004. Since then, it has been promoted by the 

Israeli government and, among others, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Simon Wiesenthal Center, European Jewish Committee (ECJ), NGO Monitor and UN Watch in particular, but not only, in their fight against the growing, Palestinian civil society-led BDS movement.

Meanwhile, the willing governments of Romania, the UK and Austria have adopted what is now called the “IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism”, while the European Parliament has undermined the EU’s principled position by passing a resolutioncalling on member states to adopt and apply the definition, despite its dismissal as invalid by the EU’s own Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) .

Efforts to achieve official endorsement of the “working definition” have been spearheaded by individuals affiliated with these Israel-lobby groups who also serve as “experts on antisemitism” in the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the IHRA and/or the European Union, including its Commission, Parliament and, formerly, EUMC. Since neither the OSCE nor the EU has so far been willing to adopt the fabricated definition, the inter-governmental IHRA was selected as the body that would give it some official standing.

PDF

GERMAN/ 

1* ECCP (European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine) is a network of 42 European committees, organizations, NGOs, unions and international solidarity movements from 19 European countries, dedicated to the struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom, justice and equality.

* Free Speech on Israelis a Jewish-led UK organisation which was founded to counter the use of claims of antisemitism to suppress legitimate criticism of Israel.

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A Momentous Day for Democracy as Chief Witch-hunter, Ann Black is sacked

January 16, 2018, 6:54 pm

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NOW is the Time to Drop All the Suspensions and Reinstate those who were Auto-Excluded

Well no one can say it hasn’t been a good day for democracy.  The witch-hunting of socialists under the bogus pretext of anti-Semitism, i.e. opponents of the world’s only Apartheid state, Israel, is coming to an end in the Labour Party.

Christine Shawcroft is a good socialist and she has stuck up for her principles in the past, notably over her support for Lutfur Rahman, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets was was deposed, the victim of despicable racism from Sir Eric Pickles, the Tory Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel and the Labour Right.  He was also the victim of judicial racism in the form of Judge Richard Mawry.

Of course no-one objects to genuine racists, including anti-Semites, being expelled or disciplined where there is clear evidence unrelated to Israel.  I mean ‘old-fashioned’ anti-Semitism that means hatred or hostility to Jews as Jews.  Hostility to Zionism is not anti-Semitism, it is anti-racism.

If the anti-Semitism witch-hunt had been about racism then why, when Islamaphobia is 4 times worse than anti-Semitism have there been no prominent cases? 

Why when anti-Roma racism in Britain is 6.5 times as bad as anti-Semitism do we have nothing said about it?  We have Labour Councils still driving gypsies from pillar to post and evicting them and making them homseless yet nothing is said.  Why?  Because unlike anti-Semitism, anti-Roma racism doesn’t accord with the foreign policy objectives of the Labour Right.

The rightwing press and media went to town on today’s events. The absurd Tory blogger, Guido Fawkes headed his story Red Terror before going on to call me a ‘nutjob’ for calling for Black’s removal the night before.

Jasmine Beckett, whose own seat was only gained by 1 vote, having conducted a disgraceful smear campaign against her opponent, cites Ben Kentish's quotes from me on Ann Black

The Independent, which has secured the services of a mole inside the Labour Against the Witchhunt Facebook page, eavesdropped on a conversation between Jackie Walker and myself.  I had called for the picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesdayand  to have posters saying ‘Sack Black’.  Jackie, being of a somewhat more conservative political temperament than me, opposed this.  Our conversation was good natured but it was private to members of a closed Facebook page.  Nonetheless it was splashed over the Internet today, Twitter included.   Other media organisations to reprint the LAW Facebook post included the Huffington Post.

The Jewish Chronicle’s Political Director, Marcus Dysch, was particularly busy on Twitter.  Dysch whose trademark is to see how many mistakes he can get into one article seems obsessed with me at the moment. Dysch went apoplectic.  Apparently I am ‘calling the shots’ in the Labour Party at the moment.  In pursuit of his favourite hobby Dysch makes a few more mistakes including saying that my disciplinary hearing is next week.  Sorry Dysch but your informant has obviously not leaked the latest news to you.  No it isn’t!

Despite saying that 'you almost couldn't make it up'  that is exactly what the idiot Dysch has done

Dysch is reassured that Labour will only be seen to take anti-semitism seriously if it expels a Jewish anti-racist!

Dysch had to be reassuredby the paid perjurer and taxi fare dodger himself, the Jewish Labour Movement’s Chair Jeremy Newmark that the NCC hearings to try Jackie Walker and me will be unaffected by what has happened today.  Dysch, whose extreme stupidity is quite amazing, even for Jewish Chronicle journalists, suggeststhat I am ‘orchestrating oversight of the procedures.’  

Let’s break this down – Jon Lansman and others on Labour’s National Executive Committee decide to get rid of that old hatchet-woman Ann Black and put in as Chair of the Disputes Committee the much more sensible socialist Christine Shawcroft.  At the same time I call, in a closed Facebook page for the removal of Black.  This coincidence has now become, in the morbid mind of Dysch me orchestrating what happened. 

Sad to say, when Lansman decided that Ann Black had to go, he didn’t consult me! Of course that is both wrong and foolish and I have told him so to his face.  However I can live with this slight.  Dysch is an excellent example of how mediocre the Jewish Chronicle’s journalists have become when you think of people like Bernard Josephs , or T.R. Fyvelor Chaim Bermant.  If Dysch seriously thinks that my expression of an opinion had had a decisive effect on what happened he needs to see the men in white coats.

The letter of suspension that Ann Black sent to Brighton & Hove Labour Party

Of course what I was doing was expressing a widespread sentiment, not least in Brighton and Hove Labour Parties that Ann Black, being a vicious liar and witch hunter, who suspended a party for the crime of voting for the wrong people, had to go.  She was hostile to democracy and a relic of the Blair days.  It is a wonder how she ever managed to crawl onto the Left slate.

However the witch hunt has not gone away. Much as I hate to admit it, Jeremy Newmark is correct, at least so far.  The decisions of the Disputes Committee today have no effect on cases that have already gone to the Disputes Committee, of which there are a large number.  It is imperative that we now demand a freeze on all such cases until the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report on natural justice, due process and transparency are introduced.  The previous procedures of the Compliance Unit which has led to the presentation of the cases before it, coupled with the right-wing bias of the NCC, has led to injustice in scores of cases.

That is why we call on people to support Labour Against the Witchhunt’s picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesday and above all Join Labour Against the Witchhunt.

Tony Greenstein 

A Momentous Day for Democracy as Chief Witch-hunter, Ann Black is sacked

January 16, 2018, 7:41 pm

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0

0

NOW is the Time to Drop All the Suspensions and Reinstate those who were Auto-Excluded

Well no one can say it hasn’t been a good day for democracy.  The witch-hunting of socialists under the bogus pretext of anti-Semitism, i.e. opponents of the world’s only Apartheid state, Israel, is coming to an end in the Labour Party.

Christine Shawcroft is a good socialist and she has stuck up for her principles in the past, notably over her support for Lutfur Rahman, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets was was deposed, the victim of despicable racism from Sir Eric Pickles, the Tory Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel and the Labour Right.  He was also the victim of judicial racism in the form of Judge Richard Mawry.

Of course no-one objects to genuine racists, including anti-Semites, being expelled or disciplined where there is clear evidence unrelated to Israel.  I mean ‘old-fashioned’ anti-Semitism that means hatred or hostility to Jews as Jews.  Hostility to Zionism is not anti-Semitism, it is anti-racism.

If the anti-Semitism witch-hunt had been about racism then why, when Islamaphobia is 4 times worse than anti-Semitism have there been no prominent cases? 

Why when anti-Roma racism in Britain is 6.5 times as bad as anti-Semitism do we have nothing said about it?  We have Labour Councils still driving gypsies from pillar to post and evicting them and making them homseless yet nothing is said.  Why?  Because unlike anti-Semitism, anti-Roma racism doesn’t accord with the foreign policy objectives of the Labour Right.

The rightwing press and media went to town on today’s events. The absurd Tory blogger, Guido Fawkes headed his story Red Terror before going on to call me a ‘nutjob’ for calling for Black’s removal the night before.

Jasmine Beckett, whose own seat was only gained by 1 vote, having conducted a disgraceful smear campaign against her opponent, cites Ben Kentish's quotes from me on Ann Black

The Independent, which has secured the services of a mole inside the Labour Against the Witchhunt Facebook page, eavesdropped on a conversation between Jackie Walker and myself.  I had called for the picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesdayand  to have posters saying ‘Sack Black’.  Jackie, being of a somewhat more conservative political temperament than me, opposed this.  Our conversation was good natured but it was private to members of a closed Facebook page.  Nonetheless it was splashed over the Internet today, Twitter included.   Other media organisations to reprint the LAW Facebook post included the Huffington Post.

The Jewish Chronicle’s Political Director, Marcus Dysch, was particularly busy on Twitter.  Dysch whose trademark is to see how many mistakes he can get into one article seems obsessed with me at the moment. Dysch went apoplectic.  Apparently I am ‘calling the shots’ in the Labour Party at the moment.  In pursuit of his favourite hobby Dysch makes a few more mistakes including saying that my disciplinary hearing is next week.  Sorry Dysch but your informant has obviously not leaked the latest news to you.  No it isn’t!

Despite saying that 'you almost couldn't make it up'  that is exactly what the idiot Dysch has done

Dysch is reassured that Labour will only be seen to take anti-semitism seriously if it expels a Jewish anti-racist!

Dysch had to be reassured by the paid perjurer and taxi fare dodger himself, the Jewish Labour Movement’s Chair Jeremy Newmark that the NCC hearings to try Jackie Walker and me will be unaffected by what has happened today.  Dysch, whose extreme stupidity is quite amazing, even for Jewish Chronicle journalists, suggests that I am ‘orchestrating oversight of the procedures.’  

Let’s break this down – Jon Lansman and others on Labour’s National Executive Committee decide to get rid of that old hatchet-woman Ann Black and put in as Chair of the Disputes Committee the much more sensible socialist Christine Shawcroft.  At the same time I call, in a closed Facebook page for the removal of Black.  This coincidence has now become, in the morbid mind of Dysch me orchestrating what happened. 

Sad to say, when Lansman decided that Ann Black had to go, he didn’t consult me! Of course that is both wrong and foolish and I have told him so to his face.  However I can live with this slight.  Dysch is an excellent example of how mediocre the Jewish Chronicle’s journalists have become when you think of people like Bernard Josephs , or T.R. Fyvel or Chaim Bermant.  If Dysch seriously thinks that my expression of an opinion had had a decisive effect on what happened he needs to see the men in white coats.

The letter of suspension that Ann Black sent to Brighton & Hove Labour Party

Of course what I was doing was expressing a widespread sentiment, not least in Brighton and Hove Labour Parties that Ann Black, being a vicious liar and witch hunter, who suspended a party for the crime of voting for the wrong people, had to go.  She was hostile to democracy and a relic of the Blair days.  It is a wonder how she ever managed to crawl onto the Left slate.

However the witch hunt has not gone away. Much as I hate to admit it, Jeremy Newmark is correct, at least so far.  The decisions of the Disputes Committee today have no effect on cases that have already gone to the Disputes Committee, of which there are a large number.  It is imperative that we now demand a freeze on all such cases until the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report on natural justice, due process and transparency are introduced.  The previous procedures of the Compliance Unit which has led to the presentation of the cases before it, coupled with the right-wing bias of the NCC, has led to injustice in scores of cases.

That is why we call on people to support Labour Against the Witchhunt’s picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesday and above all Join Labour Against the Witchhunt.

Tony Greenstein 

Jewish Chronicle ‘Journalist’ Marcus Dysch Threatens to sue Tony Greenstein for Libel

January 17, 2018, 10:48 pm

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≪ Previous: A Momentous Day for Democracy as Chief Witch-hunter, Ann Black is sacked

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Dysch Doesn’t Like Being Called a Racist – I don’t like being Called an anti-Semite!

  

Help Me Defend This Action Against the Zionist Liars and Defamers

Well I woke up today to be greeted by a friendly message from Marcus Dysch threatening me with libel.  Which immediately presented me with a problem.  Having gone to bed rather late, I didn’t get up till 11.30 and therefore I missed the 11 am deadline.  I therefore had no choice but to respond to the effect that wild horses or even a free lunch with JC Editor Stephen Pollard wouldn’t persuade me to delete the said tweets.

Mr Greenstein You have until 11am this morning to delete your libellous tweets calling me a racist. If they are not gone at that point I will instruct a lawyer. Marcus

Dysch is a journalist who takes a perverse pride in seeing how many mistakes he can cram into one article. In Labour activists to picket party’s Jew-hate hearings which is not on the JC’s  site, Dysch excelled himself.  First there were two photographs of Moshe Machover and Jackie Walker in the article which were captioned Tony Greenstein and Jackie Walker!

Dysch is the most poisonous member of the Jewish Chronicle’s staff.  A die hard Zionist, smear and libel are his only talents.  Compared to him, his predecessor Martin Bright was a man of the Enlightenment.  Most journalists, even those on the JC I have dealt with usually make some attempt to contact you before going into print.  Not so Dysch. 

It would seem that Marcus Dysch, the Jewish Chronicle’s sour-faced Political Editor is a sensitive soul underneath.  He can dish it out but he can’t take it.  Accusations and insinuations of anti-Semitism are his stock in trade but he squeals when accused of being a racist.  Dysch apparently objects to this and similar tweets

Dysch describes me as 'noxious' for criticising Louise Ellman - a supporter of Israeli child abuse

In his article in last week's Jewish Chronicle Labour activists to picket party’s Jew-hate hearings Dysch referred to proposed disciplinary hearings against Marc Wadsworth, Jackie Walker and myself.  After I sent a letter to the editor, the headline was changed to Suspended Labour activists plan to picket party’s antisemitism disciplinary hearingsalthough the content remains the same including a reference to ‘Jew-hatred.’  Needless to say it was littered with his usual mistakes.

it seems there's something Dysch doesn't want me to read!!

In the same article Dysch referred to the bogus 'International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance' definition of anti-Semitism as the International Holocaust MemorialAlliance.  Things could only get better.

Dysch alleged that I had been suspended for ‘writing offensive blogs’ about Louise Ellman MP.  Not so.  My first blogon Ellman was written on 20^th June 2016 whereas I was suspended on March 18^th 2016.  I assume that even Dysch can count beyond 3 months. 

Dysch also stated as fact that Marc Wadsworth had been suspended for ‘verbally abusing’ Ruth Smeeth MP.  Not so, this was an allegation.  People are still innocent until proven guilty.  This 'mistake' of course is perfectly understandable.  Dysch is  more at home with an Israeli ‘justice’ system in which the Military Courts achieve conviction rates of 99.74% (only Palestinians of course, Jewish settlers get to go before civilian courts). I doubt if even Stalin achieved that rate of success and Hitler certainly didn’t. 

Dysch should though be congratulated for spelling our 3 names right. But then again it's possible a sub-editor corrected them.

Dysch's lie that my attack on Ellman was because she was Jewish rather than that she was a supporter of Israeli abuse of Palestinian children

Already Dysch and the Jewish Labour Movement have the knives out for Yasmin Dar, the new Asian member of the NEC

In another articleDysch wrote that ‘veteran Jewish Labour MP Louise Ellman had been racially abused in blog posts written by Mr Greenstein.’  This is not only a lie it is racist.  It assumes that all Jewish people are Zionists and therefore if you criticise anyone who is Jewish you are automatically anti-Semitic.  I said nothing about Ellman’s ‘race’ nor did I mention that she was Jewish. Being Jewish was irrelevant. The fact that she was a Zionist was significant. 

Perhaps I’ve racially abused the non-Jewish Joan Ryan MP too for making similar comments? What I criticised Ellman for was her behaviour in a debate on Israeli abuse of Palestinian children in January 2016 when 3 times she intervened to defend the Israeli military.  Dysch, is incapable of reporting such simple facts.

It would be churlish to go through all Dysch’s mistakes and malevolence and it is hard to distinguish one from the other. There used to be a tradition that newspapers didn’t mix fact and comment. It is a tradition that Dysch is oblivious to. 

Dysch simply made up a statement by PSC Director Sarah Colborne accusing Palestinians opposed to Israel's attack on Gaza as being anti-Semitic

Dysch has become obsessed with the possibility that it may prove more difficult expelling Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and myself for ‘anti-Semitism’ because there is no evidence that we are anti-semitic and there is a limit to even the inventive skills of McNicol's hacks.  As the article below shows, Dysch is not beneath inventing a quote or two when it suits his purpose (such as a lack of anything to write).

Dysch was severely censured for making up an 'anti-semitic' quote from PSC Director Sarah Colborne

The JLM are shameless - fearing that there is no evidence to justify expulsion they are putting overt pressure on the NEC & Corbyn to ensure that Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth & Tony Greenstein are expelled

What we are seeing is a growing desperation by the Zionists.  Only today Jeremy Newmark, the perjurer from the Jewish Labour Movement was visiting Jeremy Corbyn's office to put the pressure on to ensure that Jackie, Marc and myself are expelled.  Newmark knows the evidence doesn't stack up so he is trying to exert naked political power.  The fact that Christine Shawcroft was my silent witness at my investigaative meeting apparently is seen as relevant by these people. 

It is essential that Corbyn's office give a full account of what transpired today and dispel the impression that the JLM, the British branch of the racist Israeli Labour Party, is being bought off at the expense of expelling anti-racists from the Labour Party.

Some of my more recent posts involving Dysch include:

Why Am I Being Expelled? According to the Jewish Chronicle for Criticising Louise Ellman, Labour MP

A Comedy of Errors from the Jewish Chronicle – Marcus Dysch in Another Fine Mess

Why do we tolerate Labour MPs Joan Ryan, Louise Ellman and Ian Austin - all of whom support Israel’s abuse and torture of Palestinian children?

Palestinian Children are Caged like Animals with the support of Labour's Despicable MPs Louise Ellman and Joan Ryan

 Is it anti-Semitic to describe Ellman& Ryan as Israeli MPs? Zionism & Dual Loyalty

Suspended Labour activists plan to picket party’s antisemitism disciplinary hearings

Up till today Dysch had resisted the temptation to respond to me directly.  Silence was clearly the better part of valour.  For example I wrote to him on the 18^th December 2017 in response to a letter he had sent to a good friend of mine:

Mr Dysch,

XXXX has kindly forwarded me a copy of your email exchange.  I have a few comments.

You are much mistaken if you think I have questioned Louise Ellman's loyalty to this country.  I am not concerned with loyalty to states or nations.  I prefer to think of adherence to certain universal values such as human rights and anti-racism as being of greater import.  Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel and I am neither a patriot nor a scoundrel.

My jocular reference to Ellman as being the MP for Tel Aviv South is on a par with my reference to the non-Jewish Joan Ryan as the MP for Jerusalem Central.  In the days of the Apartheid regime in South Africa, we called John Carlisle, the Tory MP for Luton North, the MP for Pretoria.  Perhaps you think that too was racist?

Carlisle's allegiances were with the South African Apartheid State and Ms Ellman and Ryan's allegiances are with the Israeli apartheid state.  There is nothing, contrary to your silly assertion in the Jewish Chronicle, in the least anti-semitic about such an accusation.

In a week when a double amputee in Gaza, posing no threat to anyone, was murdered by an Israeli sniper with all the legal impunity that Israel grants its military killers, it is right and proper to call out MPs like Ellman for their support of Israel's egregious human rights violations and its   normative racism.

I know of course that nothing Israel does will disturb the conscience of an apologist for Israel's crimes such as you. The murder I described above or Liebermann's attack on the Arabs of Wadi Ara this week, that they do not belong, probably passed you by.  As a Zionist these are things to keep within the family.

I note that you referred to me as 'noxious'.  I don't believe that we have met so what you are really referring to are my opinions.  There was a time when Jewish Chronicle columnists, of the calibre of Chaim Bermant and TR Fyvel stuck to criticising someone's argument rather than attacking the messenger.  I realise that it that this would be rather difficult for you and so the making of personal insults is a necessary substitute.

Please be assured though that I take being attacked by a racist journalist for being 'noxious' as a compliment.  Long may I be harmful to journalistic toe rags such as yourself.

Kind regards

Tony Greenstein

As you can see I had already called Dysch a racist and I have no doubt that in his uncritical support for all of Israel’s acts that is the only fair description of him.

>>Mr XXXX

Many thanks for your email.

Given your repetition of Mr Greenstein’s suggestion that Mrs Ellman’s loyalty to this country is in question due to her comments on Israel, I can only assume you too are overly familiar with the sort of antisemitism you bizarrely appear to be attributing to me.

And I did mean noxious, which by any definition can mean “very unpleasant”. It could just as easily be applied in your own case.

Best

Marcus

But I have something to ask of you dear readers

Just over a month ago, I launched a crowdfunding appeal for £25,000.  So far it has reached just over £7,000 – 28% of the target.  My appeal was to fund a libel action against the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and also to bring an Injunction against Labour’s Crooked General Secretary Iain McNicol.

The latter task was accomplished successfully and without any cost (Crooked McNicol funded it via a costs order!).  It has thrown the expulsions of Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and myself into disarray.  The launching of proceedings against the CAA is imminent.  But now I need to defend myself from this racist toe rag of a journalist who is suing me.  For that I will need to obtain further legal advice and in the area of libel law that does not come cheap.  If Dysch were to succeed on some legal technicality then it would not just  be me who is affected.  Dysch will have access to unlimited funding from Israeli Minister Gilad Erdan’s slush fund.  So that is why I ask you to do 2 things.

1.     IFyou can afford it please make a donation

2.     

      Whether you can afford it or not please share and circulate my appeal widely in the movement and on social media  We cannot allow the Zionists to silence us.

If you are able to make a donation please click my Crowdfunding Appeal

More on Dysch

If Dysch seriously believed I was responsible for removing Anne Black then he is more stupid than he looks

The original post by Dysch attacking Corbyn for allegedly associating with a holocust denier also said that the massacre of over 100 Palestinian women and children at Deir Yassin was simply an 'allegation' - this was later corrected but without mentioning that the article had been corrected - a breach of journalistic ethics until Asa Winstanley pointed this out to Pollard

In an article attacking Jeremy Corbyn, Dysch referred to the Deir Yassin massacre as 'alleged' - even David Ben Gurion apologised for the cold blooded murder of over 100 Palestinian civilians but to Dysch, this was just an allegation.  JC Editor Stephen Pollard, after criticism, deleted the word 'alleged' but failed to explain at the bottom of the article, as is good journalistic practice, that an alteration had been made until it was pointed out to him that screen prints had already been taken

EXCLUSIVE – Rogue Anti-Semitic Palestine Solidarity Group in Teesside claims affiliation to National PSC

January 19, 2018, 8:17 pm

≫ Next: Ha'aretz Compares Israel’s Policy of Expelling Black African Asylum Seekers to Eichmann's Expulsion of the Jews of Vienna in 1938-9

≪ Previous: Jewish Chronicle ‘Journalist’ Marcus Dysch Threatens to sue Tony Greenstein for Libel

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PSC nationally has suspended Teesside Organiser Mehdi Husaini from membership but it is essential that he is expelled

Mehdi Husaini on the left calls for zero  tolerance but it doesn't apply to zero tolerance for racism

This is not a story of fake anti-Semitism such as the Jewish Labour Movement alleges against activists.  This is not about the defence of the racist Israeli state.  It is about people, one person in particular, Mehdi Husaini, who regularly posts virulently anti-Jewish material.  I don't know whether he personally hates or dislikes Jews nor do I much care.  I am quite prepared to believe that he welcomes Jewish anti-Zionists but on the other hand he is prepared to post and distribute the most offensive and vicious anti-Semitic material and at the end of the day it is not his subjective intentions but what he does that matters.

We are therefore calling for PSC nationally to expel him as soon as possible and for members of Teesside PSC Facebook group and members of the local group to dissociate themselves from him as soon as possible.

From Exeter to the Orkneys you will find on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign website over 50 local groups with more springing up all the time.  Palestine is a popular cause.  Unfortunately there isn’t one, yet, in Teesside.  Instead there is a bogus group claiming to be one in Teesside.  It is not, however recognised by PSC nationally and it doesn’t appear on the list of groups.

This group is headed by a certain Mehdi Husaini, a retired university academic who is also active in the Universities and Colleges Union and a member of the Labour Party.  The group has never applied for PSC recognition, even though it insists on using the PSC name on its publicity materials and social media. That Mehdi Husaini and some of the group around him have difficulty in telling the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism would likely mean that any application to achieve official recognition would be rejected without some drastic changes in the group. 

Husaini has previously stood as a Labour candidate for Middlesborough Council

As is well known, Zionist groups make accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ against all of their critics. In 99%+ cases these allegations are bogus, false and often libellous.  However, just as a stuck clock is right twice a day, so Zionists occasionally get it right too.  We should be aware of the following:

i.                    One reason that some people can’t tell the difference between hostility to Jews and hostility to Israel/Zionism is because supporters of Israel repeatedly attack all supporters of the Palestinians and opponents of Zionism as anti-Semitic.  The Zionist movement has done its best to associate the crimes of Zionism and Israel with that of all Jewish people.

ii.                  The primary responsibility for the growth of what is termed ‘anti-Semitism’ is that of Israel’s supporters and the Zionist movement.  Many people are fooled into believing that the self-proclaimed ‘Jewish state’ speaks on behalf of all Jews and are therefore fooled into making ‘anti-Semitic’ comments or statements.  We should be extremely tolerant and understanding of this phenomenon and part of the job of the solidarity movement is to educate people who are deceived by Zionism into making stupid and anti-Semitic comments. 

It seems every atrocity in the world is based in Israel!

iii.                These people are not anti-Semites.  They are not hostile to Jews on a racist basis but they have been taken in by Zionist and Establishment propaganda.  However there are some people, of which Mehdi Husaini is a good example, who refuse to learn or educate themselves.  They should be cut off from the movement.

iv.                However that does not absolve us from making it clear that support for the Palestinians has nothing to do with racism, be it anti-Jewish racism or racism in general.

v.                  Anti-Semitism is of no help to the Palestinians.  Historically anti-Semitism and Zionism were seen as two sides of the same coin.  The anti-Semites wanted Jews to leave the countries of their birth and the Zionists agreed that they didn’t belong.  Without anti-Semitism there would have been no Zionism.

Mehdi Husaini refuses to accept that the Teeside PSC group is unrecognised by PSC nationally

 The Teesside PSC group has two main social media outlets:  it has a Facebook group and a Facebook page.  Husaini has repeatedly posted antisemitic material in the group, on his personal timeline and in posters for promoting actions.

A couple of weeks ago I was alerted to the fact that there was a PSC group in Teesside which was publishing overtly anti-Semitic imagery and articles on its Facebook group and in its promotional materials.  The administrator of the Facebook group and chair of ‘Teesside PSC’, Mehdi Husaini, kept posting articles that were anti-Semitic. Sometimes, he apologised for his ‘mistakes’ when the nature of the content was pointed out.  Of course anyone can make a mistake once or even twice but when they repeatedly make mistakes of the same nature then it is clear that there is a political problem.  But in many cases he simply denied that they are anti-Semitic and accused group members of being racist against him for expressing concern about it.

Husaini has long been involved in campaigning for progressive causes and has served on a number of equality bodies, including as chair of the now-defunct Racial Equality Council Cleveland.  And the Teesside group did organise some useful actions opposing Israel’s military attacks on Gaza at the time of its formation in 2014. As Husaini became increasingly active on social media, however, his willingness to endorse anti-Semitic material has become more apparent.

Huaini reaches into the depths of the political sewer to find material for his hate filled posts

The first example was a poster promoting a Teesside PSC protest against Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which was held in Middlesbrough on 16 December 2017.  Of course that’s a worthy cause and the group was right to feel outrage at Trump’s actions, but was it really necessary for the event poster to include an image which portrays a Hasidic Jew rubbing his hands with glee over a globe and the slogan "Zionism, the cancer of the earth"?

But that turned out to be nowhere near the worst of it as, looking through the Teesside PSC Facebook group, I saw that Husaini had repeatedly used it to promote some truly vile anti-Semitic propaganda.

In January 2016, he shared an 'Ancient Swastika' video titled 'Lord Rothschild and the Illuminati New World Order', which starts off going on about the Rothschilds, cites the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion (4:48) and then shows a sermon by Pastor Ray Hagins in which he claims that Adolf Hitler has been defamed as a mass murderer when he was merely trying to"cleanse the world" of Jewish "liars and deceivers". The second half of the film is a eulogy to the Fuhrer, showing him in sympathetic scenes such as being kind to children. The original video can be viewed here.

In July 2017, he posted an article from a white supremacist website, TheRealistReport.com, titled 'Jews caught operating White sex slavery ring in Israel', which argues that white men "need to deal with the Jewish problem, sooner rather than later". Full link Jews caught operating White sex slavery ring in Israel

In December 2017, members of the Facebook group were treated to a delightful film called 'The Israeli Lobby - a danger to the world', which commences with former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad's notorious antisemitic lecture claiming that Jews invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy as part of their plot to achieve world domination.

A particular favourite of Husaini’s is the ‘Real Jew News’ website of far-right ranter Brother Nathanael Kapner, who publishes articles and videos warning how “Jewry is destroying Christianity throughout the world”. Here’s one example from that.

Mehdi Husaini posts anti-Semitic and racist stuff like this regularly whilst denying that there is a problem - he also refused to stand down as Administrator of the Facebook Group and blocked me and others instead

As you can see from the screenprints, Husaini has faced some challenge to his social media output and a number of people joined in the fray, including myself, criticising his actions and trying to explain the difference between Jews and Zionists, Judaism and Zionism, etc.  Sadly, these interventions were in vain as Husaini responded that his posts couldn’t be anti-Semitic because X, Y or Z member of the group had ‘liked’ them and accusing his critics of being racist against him.

In another incident, Husaini claimed a video showed IDF troops attacking Palestinian demonstrators, but it was actually film of Moroccan police using violence against protesters in Morocco.

He offered this pitiful defence to challenges from myself, Steve Cooke, Barbara Campbell and other activists recently:

“Defence to challenges from myself, Steve Cooke, Barbara Campbell an’t need to defend myself [against] those who do politics sitting on chairs. Never seen participating in demos which were organised. You do not know what hate means. I have suffered from it being a black and a Muslim. I have always fought throughout my life against racism, Xenophobia, Fascism, Zionism. Please stop the tirade against me being black. If you don’t like then tough. Don’t be a judge of everything I do Mr Cooke & Mr Greenstein & Ms Campbell & leave.r

Husaini's pathetic response to accusations of antisemitism - 'I'm black'!

Sadly, despite the Facebook group having over 400 members, very few other than those named have been willing to challenge Husaini’s antics and those who do tend to be thrown out of, and banned from, the group – as indeed has now happened to the activists named above.

When Steve Cooke, the Teesside-based comrade who tipped me off about these goings-on, contacted key group member Nader Alhussain to express concerns about the anti-Semitic poster for the 16 December protest, expecting that he would be able to talk some sense into the group’s leader, Alhussain reacted by blocking him on Facebook rather than raising the issue with Husaini.

Other members have said they shared our concerns about the anti-Semitic politics of Husaini, but they have been reluctant to take a strong stand against Husaini, at least not in public.  A number have also reported that they no longer take part in the Teesside group’s activities because of its vile rhetoric, which they feel undermines the credibility of the Palestinian liberation cause.

But there has been an encouraging development in the last few days.  Comrade Cooke reported his concerns to the PSC national office and they have taken steps to address them.  Just before this blog went to press, PSC national secretary Ben Soffa wrote to Steve and myself as follows:

“PSC's Executive Committee agreed that an interim suspension was appropriate in this case, which will remain in place whilst the investigation into Mr Husaini's compliance with our constitution takes place. This will now take place over the coming weeks before going back to the Executive for decision at its next meeting. This will be its first meeting after our AGM next Saturday, so the date can't be confirmed until new members are consulted, but provisionally, I'd expect this to be on the 10th of February.

“We are dealing with the status of the Teeside group as a separate matter, as whilst clearly Mehdi Husaini is a significant part of that group, we would wish to address those leading it more generally.”

 Husaini has gathered around him a number of people who are either sympathetic to him or unwilling to challenge him.  These include Len Junier, who is a former Labour councillor who has now left the Labour Party.  He won't say anything against Mehdi.   

Another member is one Jolanda Fitzgerald, who is a Green Party member, She was the Green Party’s PPC at the last election.  Her politics seem to have moved towards conspiracy theories.

Mehdi Husaini has a long track record.  He was chair of Cleveland’s Racial Equality Council for many years.  However, the organisation collapsed in the late 1990s after it was taken to an employment tribunal for racial discrimination and lost the case.  See Widlinski v Racial Equality Council of Cleveland and others [1996] IT/38275/96

Here is a video made of a demonstration on 26 July 2014 against Israel’s Operation Protective Edge attack on Gaza when over 2,200 Palestinians including 551 children were murdered.  https://youtu.be/jf4qrr9mgPc - including speech by Mehdi Husaini from 17:05.

You can see here an album of photos from the 26 July 2014 demo: 

Tony Greenstein 

Ha'aretz Compares Israel’s Policy of Expelling Black African Asylum Seekers to Eichmann's Expulsion of the Jews of Vienna in 1938-9

January 20, 2018, 6:03 pm

≫ Next: Labour Against the Witchhunt - Support Our Lobby of Labour’s National Executive Committee Tuesday 23rd January 11.00 a.m.

≪ Previous: EXCLUSIVE – Rogue Anti-Semitic Palestine Solidarity Group in Teesside claims affiliation to National PSC

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According to the Zionists' Fake (IHRA) Definition of Anti-Semitism this article in Ha’aretz is Anti-Semitic

At the present time the Israeli government, with the full support of the Israeli Labour Party, is doing its best to physically expel all its estimated 40,000 Black African asylum seekers, most of whom are from Sudan and Eritrea.  B.Michael in Israel's sole liberal daily, Ha'aretz makes the comparison between this and Adolf Eichman's policy in 1938 Austria where, between March 1938, when Hitler invaded till December 1939, Austria's Jewish population was reduced from 192,000 to 57,000.

One of the 11 examples of ‘anti-Semitism’ according to the bogus International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ is ‘Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’.  Not only is anti-Semitism out of control in the Labour Party but it would appear that Israel, especially its liberal press, is suffering from an epidemic!

B.Michael in his normally pungent and satirical style, compares the policy of Adolf Eichmann towards the Jews of Vienna to Israel's policy of forcing out Black African asylum seekers.  Eichmann's policy of impoverishing, terrorising and stripping Jews of their rights was considered a massive success at the time in forcing the Jews out of Austria.  Israel is only just learning how to accomplish the same feat.  Israel’s refugee population of 60,000 has already been reduced by 10,000-15,000 through a combination of tactics such as imprisonment in the desert camp at Holot, depriving them of the right to work, pogroms and racist attacks.

Israel has learnt well, as B.Michael says, from the Jews traditional enemies.  Just as the anti-Semites used every trick in the book to force out Jews so Netanyahu does the same to Black non-Jews.  But we shouldn't just blame Netanyahu. The Israeli Labour Party and its new, even more right-wing leader Avi Gabbay, is fully behind Netanyahu’s stance.  The refugees from Eritrea are bogus, no matter that every international body and human rights agency says that Eritrea is one of the worst police states in the world.

Unlike the Israeli Labour Party, Netanyahu is quite honest - it doesn't matter if the refugees are fleeing persecution - they are not Jewish

What is the crime that these refugees have committed that Israel is seeking to force them out and deport them to 3^rd world countries such as Rwanda, a breach of international law in itself?  Well there are two crimes that these refugees have committed.  Not only are they not Jewish in a Jewish state but they are also Black.  Faced with this double criminality, Israel really has no choice to act if it is to preserve itself as a Jewish state. This is why a Jewish State cannot be other than a racist state.  It isn't like England, a Christian state only in so far as the head of state is head of the Church of England.  It isn't even like the Islamic state of Iran where although the law is derived from the Sharia, the 20,000 or so Jews in Iran don't suffer any civic penalties as a result.

Is Israel being racist by forcing out these refugees?  According to its own criteria it’s just seeking to preserve its racial or ethnic purity.  Indeed just accusing the Israeli state of racism is itself anti-Semitic because the IHRA definition also states that 'claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour' is anti-Semitic.

David Sheen's video is particularly shocking in that it shows how members of the Israeli government, including its present 'Culture' Minister Miri Regev deliberately fanned the fires of racism and enabled a pogrom to take place against the Africans of Tel Aviv.

It used to be the case that Jews experienced pogroms in Eastern Europe.  It is Israel's unique achievement to turn Jews into pogromists.

The last of the three articles from Ha’aretz here is about a Kenyan Jew Kimani who was deported the moment he set foot on Israeli soil.  Normally people who have converted to Judaism, are admitted under the racist Law of Return.  That includes conversions carried out by the Conservative, Liberal or Reform strands of Judaism.  Ultra Orthodox rabbis have been trying to change this to only Orthodox conversions for years but they haven’t succeeded because this would cut off the vast majority of American Jewry at a stroke.  However Kenya’s small Black African Jews have far less political clout and unlike American Jews they are not White.

Of course there are some people who will say that none of this is racist but then there are some people who deny the Holocaust and even people who say the Earth is flat.

Tony Greenstein

Opinion The Sick Historical Precedent for Israel's Asylum-seeker Expulsion Push

Israel's push to expel 45,000 African asylum seekers and migrants borrows from Eichmann's 1938 playbook for expelling Austria's Jews

B. Michael Jan 11, 2018 11:03 AM

African asylum seekers at Israel's Saharonim detention center. Ilan Assayag

Sometimes even history’s sense of humor exceeds the boundaries of good taste. This time it’s no joke; it’s not even irony or sarcasm. It’s just a bitter, sardonic spit in the face.

On March 13, 1938, Austria was annexed to the Nazi Reich amid cheers and excitement. Slightly more than five months later, on August 26, 1938 the Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration (the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung) was opened, headed by a talented executive named Adolf Eichmann.

Its objective was to organize and expedite the expulsion of Jews from Austria. It bears remembering that in 1938, before the war, the Final Solution and the death camps, the Nazis “merely” wanted to purify the Reich of the stinking Jews swarming in it.

Eichmann, a disciplined and diligent manager, developed an efficient system for accelerating emigration: forbidding Jews to work, rescinding their rights, discriminatory and humiliating laws, confiscation of property, taxes, boycotts, exclusion, monetary incentives, turning a blind eye to acts by the racist rabble and of course, threats of imprisonment for those who refused to leave.

And it worked.

Demonstrators for and against expulsion of asylum seekers at a Tel Aviv protest, January 9, 2018. The sign says: "The rehabilitation of south Tel Aviv begins with the expulsion of the infiltrators." Moti Milrod

Within around three months Eichmann’s immigration authority expelled 45,000 Jews. Many others abandoned everything and fled for their lives, without availing themselves of Adolf’s services.

Most of those who remained were murdered.

The state founded by those fugitives now also has an immigration authority. It, too, is essentially an expulsion authority. It deals with exporting members of inferior races and religions. Recently it has been assigned the weighty task of expelling 45,000 burdensome blacks. They are burdensome because they aren’t white, and also a bit because they aren’t Jews.

Holot internment camp in the Negev desert

They are non-Jews and blacks, which is really too much.

For years the Israeli expulsion network has been using against them the entire arsenal of abuses that proved itself in Eichmann’s office – forbidding them to work, denying them rights, passing discriminatory and humiliating laws, taxes, boycotts, exclusion, monetary incentives, turning a blind eye to the acts of the racist rabble and of course, threats of imprisonment for those who refuse to leave.

But it’s not working so well. Blacks, it turns out, are like crabgrass. They aren’t easy to uproot. There was no choice but to ceremoniously announce an “operation.”

The Population, Immigration and Border Authority is also seeking to hire workers; expulsion workers. Help wanted ads were published in newspapers, and one of the prerequisites is “experience in this field of endeavor.” There are lots of Jews with related experience, but most of them experienced it as expellees, not as expellers, and that’s not what’s required.

Nor is there any point in approaching veterans of the Nakba – when more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes during the War of Independence. They’ll deny it ever happened. It seems, therefore, that the best list of those with “experience” can be found in Yad Vashem. The immigration authority ought to look there.

This operation to deport refugees is a co—production of Interior Minister Arye Dery and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. They’ve allotted two years to the mission of expelling 45,000 shvartzes. How shameful! Eichman and his team at the Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration expelled 45,000 Jews in a few months. Dery, Erdan and their team at the Central Bureau for the Emigration of Shvartzes need two years to expel an equal number of people. Oy vey, look how we fall short. We obviously still have a lot to learn from them. But we can at least say that we’re moving in the right direction.

Only Ms. History looks at us from above, with a malicious smile on her face as she sees the persecuted become the persecutor, the refugee become the expeller, the uprooted become the uprooter, the oppressed become the oppressor, the beaten become the beater, the trampled become the trampler. “It’s true,” she whispers to herself, “I really am repeating myself. But I find this role reversal exceedingly funny.”

I don’t find it funny at all. My parents were expelled from Vienna. My country is desecrating their memory.

B. Michael

Haaretz Contributor

The UN refugee agency calls on Israel to stop deportation campaign targeting asylum seekers, offers help incoming up with 'alternative solutions'

Haaretz and Ilan Lior Jan 09, 2018 6:25 

Multiple African asylum seekers who were forcefully deported from Israel suffered abuse, detention and torture after they were made to take hazardous journeys when they were sent away from the Jewish state, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a rare statement released Tuesday.

The UN refugee agency's statement, which quoted a speech by agency spokesperson William Spindler, noted that the agency conducted research into the subject and highlighted 80 individual cases of people who risked their lives after they were relocated by Israel and then had to make hazardous journeys to Europe through Libya.

According to the world body, its staff conducted interviews with the asylum seekers in question to better understand their plight. "Feeling they had no other choice, they travelled many hundreds of kilometers through conflict zones in South Sudan, Sudan and Libya after being relocated by Israel," the statement recounted the difficult experiences of the asylum seekers as they were told to UN staff who interviewed them in Italy.

The interviews took place between November 2015 and December 2017 in reception centers and informal encampments around Rome. All the interviewees are adult men, and some are reported to have family members still living in Israel. They all came into the Jewish state via the Sinai area, and the UN statement said that "in every case they reported torture, mistreatment and extortion before reaching Israel." 

The statement went on to say that the men suffered "abuse, torture and extortion before risking their lives once again by crossing the Mediterranean to Italy"after Israel had sent them away.

The refugees also reportedly told UN staff that they were transferred from Israel to countries in Africa with very little money to support them later on their way, and that when they arrived they faced minimal accommodation and limited aid. "They reported feeling unsafe many experienced extortion and detention," the statement stressed.  

The statement also lamented the fact that while Israel has become a temporary shelter for tens of thousands of asylum seekers, "since Israel took over refugee status determination from UNHRC in 2009, only ten Eritreans and one Sudanese have been recognized as refugees."

The agency called on Israel to halt its planned deportation of thousands of asylum seekers, namely those who fled to Israel from Eritrea and Sudan and are now slated to be sent back to the African continent.

The UNHCR "is seriously concerned over Israel's plans announced on January 1st to forcibly relocate Eritreans and Sudanese to countries in Africa or have them face indefinite detention," the statement said. "At a time when UNHCR and partners in the international community are engaged in emergency evacuations from Libya, forced relocation to countries that do not offer effective protection and the onward movement of these people to Libya and Europe is particularly worrisome."

The agency extended an offer to help Israel in finding other possible ways to handle the situation, saying that it "stands ready to work with Israel to find alternative solutions for the protection needs of asylum seekers, in line with international standards. This includes resettlement out of Israel, as has happened previously."

Last week, Israel's Population, Immigration and Border Authority announced that it was launching its campaign to begin ridding Israel of its African asylum seekers, declaring that many Eritrean and Sudanese nationals will have to leave the country within the coming months or be incarcerated indefinitely.

There are some 35,000 Eritrean and Sudanese natives living in Israel, who have another 5,000 children who were born here. The overwhelming majority of the adults have temporary visas that they must renew every three months. The next time many of them come to renew their visas, they will be told it is the last renewal and that they will have to leave before the visa expires. The authority will propose that they either return to their countries of origin, or leave for Uganda or Rwanda.

First Israel Deported a Convert From Kenya. Now Birthright Might Cancel an Entire Trip for African Jews

Plan to bring 40 Ugandan converts on an Israel tour is at risk amid fears the participants wouldn't be allowed in, officials at the Jewish Agency and world Conservative movement say

Judy Maltz Jan 04, 2018

Plans to bring a first-ever group of Ugandan Jews to Israel on a Birthright trip are in jeopardy following the recent deportation of a member of their community.

The group of 40 Ugandans had been scheduled to arrive in Israel in late May on the free 10-day trip available to young Jewish adults from around the world. But Birthright officials are now concerned the group may be turned away upon arrival, just as 31-year-old Yehudah Kimani was, because the immigration authorities do not consider them Jewish.

The trip has been in the planning for two years.

The prospective participants all belong to the Abayudaya community, which has been practicing Judaism for more than 100 years. Its members, however, only underwent formal conversions over the past 15 years, most of them under the supervision of Conservative rabbis.

In late December, Kimani, who hails from Kenya but lived for a year among the Abayudaya while converting, was detained upon entering Israel and deported the following morning, even though he had a valid tourist visa.

On Wednesday, at a special session of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, an Interior Ministry official defended the decision to deport Kimani and insisted he was not Jewish despite his conversion.

According to officials at the Jewish Agency and world Conservative movement, following Kimani’s deportation, Birthright notified them of its intention to cancel the trip from Uganda, fearing a similar fiasco when the group arrived. Marom Olami, the young adult division of the world Conservative movement, has helped arrange details of the itinerary.

According to the officials, the Jewish Agency and world Conservative movement persuaded Birthright to refrain from any drastic moves at this point. Birthright officials responded that they would consider moving forward with the trip if two conditions were fulfilled: only Ugandans who converted after 2009 would be allowed to participate, and every participant would obtain prior approval from the Interior Ministry.

In response to a request for comment on Thursday, Birthright said: "Birthright Israel has received a request to bring a group of Jewish young adults from Uganda and is currently examining it."

The Abayudaya community is estimated to number between 1,500 and 2,000 members. Most were converted in 2002, before a smaller wave in 2008.

Only in 2009, however, did they join the world Conservative movement, and for that reason, the Jewish Agency only recognized the Abayudaya as an official Jewish community from that year. The assumption is that anyone who was converted after 2009 will have a better chance of entering Israel. (Kimani, however, was converted in 2010, and that did not prevent him from being deported.)

Yehudah Kimani blows the shofar with his son. Courtesy of Francis Kimani

The status of the Abayudaya community has been under discussion between the Conservative movement, the Jewish Agency and the Interior Ministry for the past five years. The ministry still does not recognize members of the community as Jewish and, in response to queries over the years, has said it is still studying the matter. The ministry has the final say on who gets recognized as a Jew in Israel and who is allowed to enter the country.

Asiimwe Rabbin, a 28-year-old member of the community, applied last year to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return after visiting the country. Anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent or a Jewish spouse, or anyone who has converted in a recognized Jewish community (regardless of the affiliation) is eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.

Last week, Rabbin received a letter from the Jewish Agency notifying him that, for the meantime, his request had been rejected because the Interior Ministry had still not recognized the Abayudaya community as Jewish. Any decision on the matter, the letter warned, “can take several years.”

Jewish Agency representatives met last week with Interior Ministry officials hoping to obtain guarantees that the Birthright group from Uganda would be welcomed into Israel. No agreement of substance came out of the discussion, and a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for next week.

Birthright has brought more than 500,000 participants to Israel from 67 countries since its inception in 1999. Several members of the Abayudaya community have taken part in other programs in Israel in recent years, but this would be the first time such a large group was coming.