Zionists keeping Fairfax Funky at the local Festival

Local Marin Zionists are keeping Fairfax funky at the local Festival.

For years, an anti-Israel group has commandeered the walkways at the annual Fairfax Art Festival, spreading their nastiness under a banner reading "History Exhibit"

Yes, Really.

The myth of  Disappearing Palestine

Perhaps you've seen previous 14 Friends of Palestine displays, complete with Rachel Corrie diorama?

This year, the local community decided to fight back.  Local pro-Israel activists set up a table

The historical displays on the footbridge were met with considerable interest.

The table was reported to be a resounding success.  The best practices antidote to  "narrative" is history,  and  always remember- when we fight back, we win.

Big fat lies from Marin's 14 Friends of Palestine

Fat chance we’d ever get the truth from Jane Jewell’s Marin-based group, 14 Friends of Palestine.

On their website,  the group spreads the egregious lie that “Israel restricts the amount of food going into Gaza, a ruthless and deliberate policy whereby the dietary needs of the Gazan people are chillingly calculated to keep the population alive at a near starvation level.”

It’s a complete falsehood.

There are no restrictions on food going into Gaza, and Gaza farmers export agricultural products to the Middle east and Europe.  Rather than facing starvation, obesity is becoming a public health priority in Gaza. Gaza's stores, and restaurants are filled with luscious offerings

Gaza exports agricultural products.  “Strawberries are an important source of income in Gaza for Palestinian farmers and their families,” said the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit, which facilitates the exports. “The export and sale of strawberries from the Gaza Strip has yielded revenues of about 13m NIS so far this harvest season, a 290% improvement over last year,” 

Rather than a population kept at “near starvation levels”, peer reviewed medical literature documents the Palestinians' struggle with Western rates of obesity.  

An article published earlier this year  (PLoS One. 2019 Jan 25) Epidemiology of coronary artery disease and stroke and associated risk factors in Gaza community found

The overall obesity in our study was found to be 47.8%, with higher prevalence in females (60.2%), the mean BMI was 30.35. It is in line with previous study performed in urban Palestinian population of Ramallah, describing an obesity prevalence up to 41% (49% and 30%) in females and males respectively.

The cross-sectional study covered 5 Gaza governorates,  both urban and rural.

An earlier article,  Obesity and overweight: prevalence and associated sociodemographic factors among mothers in three different areas in the Gaza Strip-Palestine, published in BMC Obesity concluded:

·        

The prevalence of obese and overweight cases among women is high. Obesity is a serious public health problem in the Gaza Strip and must be emphasized because the trend is continuously increasing.

A glance at Gaza's social media proves beyond a doubt that there are no restrictions on food entering Gaza,  and that there is no current risk of "starvation".

From the Facebook page of Gaza's Al Jayyar for chocolate

Starving Gaza? Al Jayyar for Chocolate

Starving Gaza? Al Jayyar for Chocolate

Just what does Jane Jewell think is being restricted?

Photos from the buffet at Gaza's Almathaf, proudly displayed on their facebook page

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Is it ignorance, or are Jane and her friends just big fat liars? Your guess is as good as mine.

Jane Jewell. Photo from Washington report on Middle east Affairs

Greta Berlin and friends: Berkeley hate-fest

(Guest post by DrMike and Emunah)

Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech Movement, is a city known for its devotion to various liberal/radical causes.  But those who preached against war and prejudice might well wonder what has happened when an otherwise liberal church has aligned itself with raw anti-Semitism.  

The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists brought the notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon to town a few years ago  and faced a community protest.  A supporter of Atzmon showed up with a Hassan Nasrallah  shirt and a  Hamas flag. Nasrallah has called for the genocide of the Jewish people, saying  “If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide. (Daily Star, Oct. 23, 2002)  Since when is incitement to genocide a Unitarian value?   Atzmon delivered as expected- and people left his talk in tears, upset by his intolerance and hatred.  Can't say that we didn't warn them. 

Attorney Stephen Pearcy is wearing ashirt featuring Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant group Hezbollah,  who has  commented: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli.”

Now one might think that after this fiasco that the BFUU had learned its lesson.  Apparently, though, they have decided that promotion of anti-Semitism is one of their values.  In the wake of the Greta Berlin controversy, in which the leader of the Free Gaza Movement was found to have repeatedly and deliberately promoted Holocaust denial and Nazi propaganda, Berlin found herself unwelcome not only across the internet but also in person.  When the likes of Ali Abunimah, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine--who promote vicious lies about Israel and compare Gazans to Jewish victims of the Nazis-- denounce you for anti-Semitism, you know you've gone way past the point of no return. So Berlin's speaking engagements to promote her book began to disappear.  Enter the BFUU, which decided to host Berlin after a well-respected bookstore in Marin County cancelled her appearance.  They weren't alone-- a Marin group called 14 Friends of Palestine, whose leader Jane Jewell has promoted a lame excuse that Berlin's computer was hacked and who also posts admiringly on Atzmon's website, came on board to co-sponsor the event.  Jane stood gleefully in the BUU, selling t-shirts and absorbing the hate.

Not content to have only Berlin speak, the BFUU then invited two other charter members of the "not only do we hate Israel, we're not so keen on Jews" club--Alison Weir  and Jeffrey Blankfort.  And they had the unmitigated gall to title the evening "On Zionism and Anti-Semitism".

Though Berlin was visibly disappointed that there were fewer than 2 dozen people in attendance, we're happy to help spread her words, as well as Weir's and Blankfort's, to a wider audience.  Because when confronted by Jew-hatred and lies, it's important to out, name and shame not only the perpetrators, but those who facilitate them.

On October 18 , the BFUU hosted Greta Berlin, Alison Weir and Jeff Blankfort in a talk on anti-Semitism and Zionism.  This is the first part of our summary of the talk

The BFUU’s own Rev. Ben Myers began the talk with a sincere blessing for dialog and communication. Rev Myers led the room in song evoking Rabbi Nachman of Breslav’s teaching that the whole world is a narrow bridge.  The main thing is to not to fear at all.   He left the hall before the speakers began.  It was a smart choice.

Greta’s handlers were very carefully not to let her speak about her most current outing as a card-carrying holocaust denier.  Greta’s time was limited to discussing her book “Freedom Sailors”., the story of the first blockade-running flotilla to Gaza.   She discussed the role of Texas Activist Riad Hamad in organizing the flotilla and  his $25,000 donation of matching funds to help buy the boat.  Its a generous amount of money for a middle school teacher to have at his disposal. She discussed how his suicide was inadvertently caught on camera, though she neglected to mention how he had clumsily taped his mouth and bound his hands together in an effort to implicate the “Zionists” in his death.  She discussed readily lying on her press releases in an effort to mislead the Israelis.  Greta’s world  appears to be truth optional- facts be damned if they don't advance her ideology.

Even before the flotilla departed there was trouble. Then as now, infighting plagued the anti-Israeli activists. Greta declared: 

“When the boats finally arrived on the 21st of August, nobody was talking to anybody else. Because we were mad at the Greeks. The Greeks hated the Americans. The Americans hated the Greeks. We had boat people vs. land people. If you get 2 activists in a room, you get 14 opinions.  If you get  44 activists in a room, you get a war, I'm not kidding.”

After arrival in Gaza, Greta described how “ the Palestinians took care of us for 5 days. “.

Greta Berlin greeting her minions in Gaza

 Indeed they did.  As Paul Larudee reported  in his talk on the flotilla in Hayward, a while back:

“It was a huge celebration. It was just amazing After that it was Palestinian hospitality run amok. They put us in the best hotels. They still have nice hotels there... The prime Minister and his entire cabinet invited us to dinner near his home...it was right after the Olympics you remember so he gave us all medals that said “Free Gaza”...one honor after the other....”    This was in what they allege is the world's largest outdoor prison, and an equivalent to Auschwitz

Free Gaza  and Ismail Haniyeh

 

 Greta is convinced of the success of her mission, saying  "We made them 3 promises before we left."

#1 - We would return.

#2 - We would take out Palestinians. And

#3    We would make sure that the world would know.

"And we have done all 3 of those. Gaza has been put on the map because of the Free Gaza Movement. Viva Palestina, the Global March to Jerusalem, the Gaza Freedom March. None of those would have happened had it not been for Free Gaza. "

Shhh. Don't tell Greta- all of those high profile publicity stunts have been abject failures.

Later:: Alison Weir on anti-Semitism

Leader of 14 Friends of Palestine Endorses Greta Berlin's Anti-Semitism

Cross-posted at Bluetruth   Written by our friend, Drmike


Anyone reading this post is likely already familiar with the sordid story of Greta Berlin, the co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement, whose ships of fools have brought extensive amounts of humanitarian supplies such as expired medications and used shoes in PR stunts to support the Hamas regime in Gaza.  If not, the short of it is that Berlin has been outed for tweeting a link to a video by the late, unlamented British Holocaust denier Eustace Mullins which claimed that the Zionists were the ones responsible for murdering millions of their fellow Jews in Europe. And if that wasn't enough, posting a 1943 Nazi propaganda film to her Facebook page. And if that wasn't enough, coming up with multiple different explanations for what she did, none of which held up under further examination.  All of these contortions have been extensive documented by Avi Mayer in a first post and then in a followup (readers should continue to hit "read next page" as they scroll to the bottom of his posts).

Once Berlin had provided an irrefutable example of the darkness of anti-Semitism that exists in the core of the anti-Israel movement, others in the movement faced a choice. They could support Berlin, a tireless supporter of the right of Palestinians to try to destroy the Jewish state by any means necessary; or they could denounce her anti-Semitism either on politically expedient grounds or because they were truly disgusted by her overt Jew-hatred.  (Of course, the fact is that it is indeed anti-Semitic to oppose the right of the Jewish people-- and only the Jewish people-- to their own national self-determination, and and to deploy lies equating Israel with Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa.)

The breakdown of the actors in this drama is interesting:  leading the charge against Berlin was Ali Abunimah,  whose Electronic Intifada blog promotes a so-called "one state solution" which would turn Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into the 24th Arab nation.  Once Abunimah had discredited Berlin's lame explanation that she had posted the Nazi film as part of a Facebook discussion group (he documented that said group did not exist), then others fell in line behind him. Even Jewish Voice for Peace, just as they waited for Abunimah to denounce the ex-Israeli Gilad Atzmon before taking a position on Atzmon's anti-Semitic droppings, only issued a statement cutting ties with the FGM once Abunimah had given them tacit permission. 

As of this posting, one member of the FGM advisory board, Naomi Klein, has resigned because of this. The remaining board members of the Free Gaza Movement have been strangely silent other than a statement on the FGM website distancing themselves from the post.  Of note the advisory board includes Noam Chomsky and Jeff Halper, both of whom use their Jewish identification as credentials to denounce Israel.  

On the Dark Side, in what should be a surprise to nobody, one of Berlin's staunch defenders is Atzmon, who himself links to Holocaust deniers and has left a lengthy trail of anti-Semitism across the internet, including such statements as calling burning down a synagogue "a rational act".  Paul Larudee, another flotidiot who also leads the International Solidarity Movement in northern California, also supports Atzmon.  And in genteel Marin County, there's a homegrown group of PWHI (People Who Hate Israel) called 14 Friends of Palestine; their spokesperson is a grandmotherly British lady named Jane Jewell.  Jewell appears to be on familiar terms with Atzmon, as this post on his blog shows (Atzmon himself goes amusingly ballistic here, saying about Abunimah "Yet, one would expect that after his recent failed attack on myself and my work, Kosher Commissar Ali Abuminah, would think twice before he allies himself with the darkest Zionist and Israeli Hasbara forces around.")

So Jane Jewell, busy with helping Free Gaza Movement board member Ann Wright (silent on Berlin's anti-Semitism) finds the time both to send a letter to Jewish Voice for Peace (presumably condemning their rejection of Berlin) and to put a supportive post on Atzmon's site.

Now in Marin County, 14 FOP has hosted events at the First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo.  Will the church now dissociate itself from an organization led by an open supporter of anti-Semitism?  Stay tuned.