Blood Libel from Al Awda co-founder Zahi Damuni

Dr. Zahi Damuni is the co-founder and the first executive director of the anti-Israel extremist group Al Awda.   He's well published, and has taught biochemistry at the university level.

You'd think he'd have some rudimentary research skills.

You'd be wrong.

Blood Libel from Al Awda co-founder Zahi Damuni 

Yesterday, Zahi Damuni  published a photo, claiming it represented the 1967 mass murder of Egyptian prisoners of war.

Blood libel.

The actual photo was taken during the Yom Kippur war, in 1973, by photographer Micha Bar-Am.  Its captioned  "Suez Canal.October 1973.  A trench with Egyptian prisoners of war captured by the Israelis along the banks of the Suez Canal."

Suez Canal.October 1973.A trench with Egyptian prisoners of war captured by the Israelis along the banks of the Suez Canal.

This modern day blood libel  has been shared over 900 times, proving again that a lie can travel half-way across the world, before the truth gets a chance to put on its pants.

Incidentally Zahi Damuni has at least 3 separate Facebook accounts.   Not suspicious at all.

Birds of a feather. Al Awda hosts Carlos Latuff. JVP promotes it.

Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is not a peace group.  The extremist group does not accept the existence of Israel within any border, promotes intolerance, rationalizes violence, and has pushed conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic tropes to its followers.

According to the venerable Anti-Defamation league (ADL), Al Awda has openly supported terrorist groups, writing that 

"At least five communiques from the PFLP including one in conjunction with the Al -Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and one joint statement with Hamas were distributed via Al-Awda's main listserve. Nearly all of the communiques expressed support for terrorist activity, extolling "martyrs", encouraging the "resistance" and detailing violence against Israeli troops"

Its co-founder Zahi Damuni has called for "armed struggle" against Israel, stating that the  "armed Palestinian resistance must react in the middle of Tel Aviv".  

Its not surprising that controversial San Francisco State Professor Rabab Abduhadi  would appear at a terror-enabling gala.   Its not surprising that the gala would feature the notoriously anti-Semitic , holocaust denying cartoonist  Carlos Latuff

And its also not surprising that Jewish Voice for Peace would endorsed and promote this event on their Facebook page.

The only thing that is surprising is that anyone, anywhere still believes that JVP is a progressive peace group.

Extremist Al Awda Perpetuates Intel BDS Hoax

The BDS' holes will do nearly anything to claim victory.  Routine restructuring of a corporate portfolio, the usual ups and downs of the financial market- its all used to tout the "success" of the BDS movement- the momentum, as they like to say is "unstoppable".   As often as not, in the absence of any real success the BDS'ers  will invent something out of thin air.  It's happened before. It will happen again, because at its core, the BDS movement is morally bankrupt and is built on a fragile foundation of lies.

This is one of the more elaborate BDS schemes I can remember.

A fake press release was recently sent out announcing that Intel is suspending investments in Israel, pending an investigation  of war crimes, and a  fake website was set up that mimics Intel's real PR site. The site has since been removed.

Intel found out about the hoax and issued a terse statement:

An unknown individual has sent what purports to be a news release to some members of the media concerning Intel’s operations in Israel. This is a hoax. The purported news release does not come from Intel and is false.

Extremist truth optional group Al Awda  helped perpetuate the fraud, with an email blast to their group yesterday. They've had no issue disseminating misinformation in the past.

 The text of the fake press release follows:

 Intel To Suspend Investments in Israel Due to Assault on Gaza

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:- Intel is suspending previous plans to invest an additional $6 billion in Intel's Kiryat Gat facility in Israel until further notice.

- Intel will conduct a reevaluation of its business relationship with Israel to ensure compliance with Intel's stated Code of Conduct guidelines and Corporate Responsibility goals.

---

SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 7, 2014 – Intel CEO Brian Krzanich today announced the suspension of a previous decision to invest an additional $6 billion in Intel's Kiryat Gat facility in Israel and that a reevaluation of its business relationship with Israel will be conducted. The review will help to ensure compliance to Intel's stated Code of Conduct guidelines and Corporate Responsibility goals.

"Intel takes seriously our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. "We view corporate citizenship as the relationship forged between Intel, the communities in which we operate and society in general. At Intel, corporate citizenship is firmly anchored in our corporate values."

Intel's Code of Conduct serves as a compass that guides the actions of employees, directors, and business partners, ensuring consistent and uncompromising integrity as we build trusted relationships around the world. Intel is also a United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) LEAD member. The first two UNGC Principles are regarding human rights.

Intel releases an annual Corporate Responsibility Report. "For us,corporate responsibility means achieving business success in ways that demonstrate respect for people and the planet and uphold the values and high standards of ethics expressed in our Human Rights Principles and our environmental health and safety policies," adds Krzanich. "In all our activities, we need to uphold Intel's long-standing, global reputation as a role model for socially responsible behavior."

Intel Israel is the country's largest private-sector employer. Mooly Eden is Intel Israel president and is also in support of the decision. He is confident that Intel Israel is "here to stay", despite the investment
suspension. Eden has been speaking to Israeli government officials over the past weeks regarding its military policy and the negative attention it brings to the country and those businesses that operate within. "Intel has consistently been recognized as one of the world's leading corporate citizens and most ethical companies," states Eden. "Our commitment to doing the right thing runs deep in our corporate culture. We don't view corporate responsibility as a fad or marketing scheme."

The Kiryat Gat facility is only 15 miles from the northern Gaza Strip. Reports of the destruction and loss of life resulting from Israel's recentassault on Gaza, in addition to the blockade that Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza for the past several years is not something thatbusiness leaders can continue to ignore.

Further details on Intel Israel's business evaluations will be released in the coming weeks.

PRESS CONTACT
Nick Veritas
Intel Corporate, Assistant Director
Communications & Public Affairs
+1 408 805 0679
nick.veritas@newsroom-intel.com

UPDATE

Al Awda has issued a retraction

'Zahi Damuni' zahi@al-awda.org wrote:


Apologies to all. But this story appears to have been a hoax.

More ignorance from Al Awda

All too often, the Israel haters come out with a statement so offensive, so jaw-droppingly ignorant,  and so inaccurate all you can do is shake your head in wonder.

Todays clueless comment comes from Zahi Damuni, co-founder of the extremist group Al Awda, who writes: 

"What we have is Gaza like situation in the Yamouk camp. Every now and then there is food delivery  and people act like the siege is over. Its not over until its over... "

To Zahi Damuni: At least 85 people have died from hunger in theYamouk camp in Syria. 20,000 more Palestinians are starving.

From the Independent:

“Bread is a dream for children inside Yarmouk Camp,” says Fuad, a Syrian Palestinian music teacher who tries to help bring food to the 20,000 Palestinians besieged inside Yarmouk. Standing by a barrier of sand and rubble that blocks an entrance to the camp in south Damascus, he adds that “people have been trapped in there for 185 days and are sick because they are eating weeds we used to feed our animals”.

Contrast that with Gaza where three separate surveys found "alarming" rates of obesity.  In  Gaza, food comes in regularly.  Food is also exported.

In December alone,  4522 truckloads of goods entered Gaza. 2,135 of those carried food, while the others carried humanitarian and construction materials

54 truckloads of goods were exported from Gaza, including 37.5  truckloads of strawberries,   7 of spices,  9 of flowers, and one of cherry tomatoes.

For Zahi Dumani to imply an equivalence between Syria and Gaza is a sign not only of his tenuous grasp of reality, but also of his moral and intellectual bankruptcy.

As of today, no flotillas or global marches are being planned to break the siege of Yarmouk.

Al Awda: And the War continues

If its May, it must be Nakba season. And true to form, a variety of anti-Israel events are scheduled throughout California . Our local Al Awda's promotional poster carries the promise of continued "resistance"- a thinly veiled threat of violence.

The theme of continued violence carries over to the Southern California Al Awda, who have declared No Return = No Justice = No Peace!, and have scheduled a day of rage at the local Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Blvd.

Zahi Damuni's hate filled invective begins:

"Of all Zionist war crimes, none was as massive as that committed in the 1948 era with the wholesale expulsion of the Palestinian Arab people from their homes, towns and villages, as part of a calculated plan to uproot an entire population and empty the land of Palestine from its indigenous inhabitants.

The Nakba ("Catastrophe" in Arabic) of 1948 refers to this planned ethnic cleansing when the vast majority of Palestinians were ruthlessly attacked, massacred and driven from their homes into refugee camps by Zionist terror groups, and not allowed to return in violation of international law...."

And of course, he is wrong.

What Israelis, Jews and most of the world celebrates as Israel's independence, people opposed to Israel's birth commemorate as the "Nakba"- the Catastrophe. Roughly 650,000 Arabs were displaced in Israel's war of Independence. The vast majority fled without seeing a single Israeli soldier. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war. Others responded to a call from Arab leadership to leave, and were promised a quick return following a victory over Israel. That victory never came. A handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the war.

A 1948 British police report from Haifa explained that “every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe.” In her autobiography, Golda Meir writes about going to Haifa to try to persuade the Arabs to stay.

Thousands of these handbills were distributed in Haifa, in an effort to convince the Arabs not to leave.



Israel's declaration of independence- that most Zionist of all documents states

"WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. "

The true catastrophe- the real Nakba- is that after 64 years Al Awda continues to wage a war on the Jewish state- a war of words, a war of hate, a war of agitprops.