Husam and Lily, Together At Last

Picture from, "Staff & Collective" at AROC.


Lily Haskell is located on the far left. She actually looks happy.

Lily Haskell, Program Director
Lily Haskell is a Moroccan American activist who has been working with AROC since 2007. She has previously interned with the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Chapter, and worked with several youth development organizations: Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, Girls Inc of Alameda County, and Diversity Works. As a volunteer, she currently also organizes with Break the Siege. Previously, Lily has contributed and led Arab organizing and educational initiatives through cultural and political work, as well as anti-war organizing. Lily graduated from Wesleyan University with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology.

Husam Zakharia is located on the far right, a smug look with eyes closed.

Husam Zakharia, Legal and Outreach Coordinator
Husam Zakharia began working for the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in 2009. He has volunteered time to the organization before working, with ADC-SF and AROC on and off for four years, and has been on the board organizing at UC Berkeley for Students for Justice in Palestine. He has also assisted in coordinating university-wide elections for UC Berkeley's Associated Students of the University of California and has won campaigns for CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education). Husam is a co-owner and operator of the Berkeley Free Clinic and currently volunteers his time as a lay health care worker treating acute illnesses in the East Bay. He has a degree from the University of California Berkeley majoring in Near Eastern Studies, with an emphasis in Arabic Language and Literature.

Both of them are cretins. Anti-semitic and proud of it. Haters of the Jewish community. They freely associate with other anti-semites and groups that seek the destruction of Israel, the slaughter of Jews, and the demonization and deligitimization of the Land of Israel with the use of lies and half-truths.

Lily Haskell.

She is a member of AROC, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, as well as a former intern of the National Lawyers Guild/San Francisco. On December 9, 2008, at an anti-Israel rally, with use of a bullhorn, Lily led this vile chant:

"Israel Supporters watch your backs, or we'll push you down a shaft!"

This was said in response to the untimely demise of our brother Dan Kliman who just recently had fallen to his death in an elevator shaft.

Three of us heard this loud and clear. This vile woman, Lily Haskell, entertained no moral qualms whatsoever, took no issue with issuing a threat in public, in front of police and bystanders, knowing full well that only we would understand its meaning. Her evil behavior will not be forgotten.

Husam Zakharia. Also a member of AROC, and another cretin. An anti-semite who recently assaulted a young Jewish woman on UC Berkeley Campus.

The assault and battery even made the news in Arutz Sheva:

Anti-Israel Activist Attacks Jewish Girl on Campus

So, Lily and Husam are indeed together at last. Now we know where Husam gets his paycheck that allows him to take one class at UCB in order to maintain a presence there. Our eyes are on you Husam, you asshole. As for you Lily, let go of the hate, let go of the hate.

Ahava Sales Skyrocket in Maryland: When we fight back we win

When the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington found out that the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel DC had organized a protest and boycott call at Ulta in Silver Spring, Maryland last Saturday, the organization sent out an action alert urging supporters to visit the store and buy Ahava.

The store completely sold out of Ahava products.

“They cleaned the shelves out. It was the best Ahava sales weekend the store has ever seen. They had to order an expedited shipment” afterward, said Arielle Farber, director of Israel and International Affairs for the Community Relations Council. “The greater Washington community is not going to stand for this campaign to delegitimize Israel."....

Carrie Lannon, Ulta’s director of public relations, said in a statement that “Ulta selects the products that its stores carry based strictly on products’ sales and customer interest. Ulta does not take a position on or get involved with politically charged issues in relation to the merchandise that it offers in its stores.”

Read the full story here:

The moral, folks? When we fight back we win.
Here's how to help:
sign up here
http://www.buycottisrael.ca/form.php

Do you support Israel? Are you fed up with calls to boycott Israeli goods and services? Want to do something about it? NOW YOU CAN. Sign up for BUYCOTT ALERTS today.

They'll alert you when a boycott initiative needs to be countered, and we'll let you know the results of every BUYCOTT action.

I Am Trying So Hard To Have Patience With Bad History

Alice Walker is trying my last nerve one more time. You may recall that Alice has popped up in this blog in the past, speculating that Israeli sandals are made with prison labor and exchanging racist blessings with little old ladies.

Well, now she's written an introduction to Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation by Saree Makdisi. I will probably never read this book--I imagine that fairly few people will read this book--but the introduction is so very special that I have to share a few passages with you.

Alice begins with what has become a fairly common theme in her writings about Israelis and Palestinians, the analogy that she draws between her childhood in the racist American South, and the situation of the Palestinians. She continues:

After four hundred years of enslavement followed by over a century of brutal harassment and soul thrashing by white supremacists who had all along wanted only our labor or our land (when we, African or Native American people, possessed land) this internalized self-hatred kept people of color in the United States timid and bowed down with feelings of unworthiness and shame. Like the Palestinians of the last Sixty years, since the coming of European Jews to settle in Palestine after Hitler and the Holocaust in the Thirties and Forties, or like the indigenous people of South Africa (or Africa in general) my people (African, Native American and Poor European) could not fathom, for the longest time, what had hit them. After all, who could imagine it?

Please note, once again, that for Alice, Jews living in what is now Israel before the 1930s simply do not exist, despite the fact that in 1914, say, Jews were 7.6% of the population of Palestine, and in 1922, it was over 11%. Once again, also, for Alice, Jews are 'Europeans'. The thought of proud Sephardi families tracing their lineage in Jerusalem back dozens of generations, or of Jews from North Africa and points farther east made refugees from Arab countries simply does not exist in the hypnotic historical fantasy she's engaging in here.

There you are sitting by your own fire, living peacefully with your family and clan, never having harmed anyone (for the most part), praising and worshiping your own peculiar god. In come a trickle, and then a flood of strangers. First, you feed them, offer them a seat by your fire. Let them admire your little ones. Perhaps you generously teach them how to plant whatever grows around your compound. Perhaps you give them a turkey to keep them from starving in what they persist in calling “the wilderness.” Perhaps you lend them a starter set of goats. Living in the lap of generous nature, speaking generally, there is a certain kind of greed and stinginess that is quite beyond your understanding.

And here comes the next part of the fantasy...the simple, tribal, bucolic life assumed to have happened in Palestine before the nasty (not even Poor) European Jews showed up. I think what Alice is presenting here is loosely based on the Thanksgiving story we were taught as children--if she mentioned teaching the Yahud to plant fish in the corn hills, I could be sure--but it does seem to leave out the complex history of the region, in favor of a sort of general sentimentalized fantasy about simple tribal life.

In contrast to that simple, honorable life, of course, is the 'greed and stinginess' of the European Jew, quite beyond the understanding of the innocent and naive Palestinians. Greedy, greedy Jews. Enough said.

And of course, missing from Alice's patronizing portrayal of happy rural Arabs is any understanding that these simple country folk know what Jews are. They have a long history with them. They've banned them from holy sites of their own faith, for example, and occasionally massacred them. Alice refers a few passages back to "being black and living in the United States under American style apartheid. The daily insults to one’s sense of being human. Not just the separate toilets and water fountains with their blatantly unequal lettering and quality of paint, but the apparent determination of the white population, every moment, at every turn, to remind any person of color, no matter how well spoken or well dressed, or how well educated or in what position of authority in the black community, that they were niggers, objects of ridicule, contempt, and possible violent abuse." Yes. That's what it was like to live as a Jew in the Arab world, Alice.

I'm reminded of a seder where I listened as a man told his daughters about growing up Jewish in Baghdad. "We had good friends who weren't Jewish," he said, "but you had to remember all the time that anything could happen." Then he told a story about walking to school while boys threw stones at him and called him a Jew.

But I digress, I digress from Alice's happy ahistorical history of the European Jewish Conquest of the Palestinian Tribal Lands. Let's look at the next paragraph.

Way back in Europe, though, your “guests” have come up with a plan to assuage their hunger for more: more land, more money, more crops, more food, more things to buy and sell, and drawn maps that have your “territory” on it like a large pie, and they are busy dividing up slices of it. You, sitting by your fire, your little ones clamoring for a bedtime story or another mango, date, olive or fig, are not on the map at all.

At this point, please notice, Hitler, who's been so far presumed to be these folks' reason for being here just vanishes, and the Jews morph into full-fledged European imperialist invaders. Please note, also, that I am not actually sure that mangoes were grown in Mandate Palestine. I could be wrong, and Israel does grow mangoes for export now. And this is a dumb thing to focus on. But I'm not sure about the mangoes.

Coming back to your fire, the strangers smile at you, learn your language, as if respecting it, admire your culture. But you notice they’ve brought strange gadgets that they use to measure things. At first you and your neighbors laugh: these crazy people, you say to each other, why, they would measure even the sky! But soon you do not laugh, because they have measured a road that goes right through your living room. They have destroyed all the villages on one side of yours, already. You did not know, because you couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing, and besides, you do not understand their language, though they, many of them now, certainly understand yours. Why should you learn the language of your guests, you think.For a long time it doesn’t make sense to make the effort. And when you begin to understand that your guests are your enemies, it seems horrible to you to try to learn to speak their wicked tongue.

I'm deeply intrigued by the way the whole Israeli War of Independence, especially the part where five peaceful, rustic, innocent Arab nations rolled tanks into the fledgling State of Israel, appears to simply not exist in Alice's narrative.

I'm equally impressed at her portrayal of mid-twentieth-century Palestinians as having, apparently, never seen 'measuring gadgets' before.

But mostly I'm appalled. This woman either knows nothing of the history of this conflict she opines so freely on, or she's lying about it to appeal to a certain audience, and either is shocking. Alice Walker's version of the origins of the Israeli/Palestinian struggle is historically false, bigoted against both Jews and Arabs, and based on a twee, prepackaged narrative of the invasion of indigenous lands. Epic fail.

Shop Gaza!

After eating at Roots, and sleeping in luxurious comfort at the Gaza Commodore, what does the typical Gaza tourist want to do? They want to shop! And now, all their shopping dreams have come true, with the opening of the Gaza Mall

According to the Gaza mall website and the wonders of Google translate:

"The Gaza Center for shopping the first shopping mall in the Gaza Strip is owned by a group of partners, investors, and consists of the Mall of two levels: the ground is a fast-food restaurant and hypermarket has all the needs of the family and institutions, while the upper floor is dedicated to clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, children's games." (Yes, what comes to my mind, too is "just like the Warsaw ghetto")

The Gaza Mall, which was officially opened on Saturday, is the first mall in the Gaza Strip to be opened since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.

Demonizing Israel for love or money

Its been obvious for some time that the Internet is one of the main fronts in the battle for hearts and minds in the war in the Middle East. Qatar believed in the power of the web so strongly, they hired a large public relations firm, Fenton Communications to advocate on line for Hamas, er...Gaza...

According to an article by Ken Timmerman, Qatar hired the public relations firm to

• Train a spokesman for the group and provide “leadership development curriculum for student leaders”
• Conduct “spokesperson training sessions” for student leaders
• Monitor social networking and mainstream media outlets and blogs
• Develop press materials and “pitch stories to university and mainstream press”
• Train students how to research, compose, and produce propaganda clips
• Conduct outreach “to potential political partners in the United States”the cash from Qatar bought a sophisticated U.S. media campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion to generate support for the Hamas-led government and the people of the Gaza strip.

After Fenton communication registered as a foreign agent the story was exposed, and they dropped the account like a hot potato.

Don't despair, children. Even if you don't have the power, backing and funding of a Middle eastern emirate behind you, there are still ways you can demonize Israel via the net.



h/t fatima

Yes, you too can troll the Internet, demonizing Israel in your spare time. The volunteers trained by MAS will act and speak as ordinary net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal. They work around the clock writing anti-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Sign up as a "virtual volunteer" for the Muslim American Society, and they'll show you how.

Yawn: Marking 5 years of Failure: BDS Media Day fizzles

A call from the usual suspects to turn July 9th into BDS Media day has taken on water and sunk like a brick. Locally, the Meserele verdict and ensuing “Will loot for justice” riots took precedence over the non story of BDS "success".

Anti-Israeli activists were urged by their handlers to “celebrate their achievements” on July 9th by

- Publishing BDS articles in the local and national press;

- Briefing journalists on BDS activities, establish enduring relationships and make a case with them on why they should cover BDS;

- Staging public actions with focus on media, such as direct action and launching of high profile campaigns, publicize legal actions, expose violators and promote public debates;

- Use alternative media to mark the anniversary;

The day instead was marked by neither sound nor fury, nor press coverage.

I visited the Berkeley Bowl, a local independent grocer on July 9th, to see what was happening in the campaign to bully the Bowl into compliance by the local enforcers of "political correctness". The store was quiet, though I couldn’t help but notice they’ve added a new line of Israeli olive oils to their stock.

The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement has a long history of failure. The single best documentation of the divestment movement can be found here

"During the very period when BDS was supposedly on the march, the size of Israel’s economy (as measured by GDP) nearly doubled from $110B to $190B. Now given that the BDS project is based on their activity having economic consequence for the Jewish state, the takeaway from this chart seems to be that such consequence has been an explosion of growth in the Israeli economy."

A recent article in Bloomberg News called the Israeli economy one of the world's "happy stories"

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman described Israel was one of the small number of countries, such as Canada and Australia, that were able to weather the current crisis well. Israel’s rebound from the global financial crisis has been powered by exports, which make up almost 50 percent of gross domestic product.

Israel’s economy expanded an annualized 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010, led by exports.

Omar, what were you saying about "momentum" in the BDS movement again?

SF Board of Supervisors and SFPD agree: shut up and take it, Jews!

The following three violent Jew-beating incidents are brought to you by the members of the SF Board of Supervisors who encourage or enable popular anti-Semitism by expressing their hatred of Israel.
It is also brought to you by the numerous opinionated politically correct windbags for whom SF is the centre of the world, and by the letter J.


Incident ONE
Several angry Palestinians and their supporters attack one old Jewish man wearing a kippa and blowing a shofar. This happened on the sidewalk in front of the Israel consulate before an anti-Israel protest on Tuesday July 6, after four o'clock. There were about fifty or sixty people present – thirty Palestinians and their friends (International ANSWER members, Codepink, etc.), twenty police officers (SFPD), and maybe ten Jews. Once violence broke out, the mob rushed the elderly Jewish gentleman with arms flailing, intent on mischief.
For several seconds, no one intervened, not even the SFPD. It is quite likely that the San Francisco officers were unfamiliar with even the concept of 'violence'.

The pro-Palestinian side notes the accusation that the Jew had committed a shocking and offensive act by blowing a shofar, and shows more of the rally here.
They did not put the actual incident itself on youtube.


Incident TWO
Richard Becker and his posse get rowdy with another Jewish gentleman. Several courageous Palestine supporters, one Jew.
Same place as the above incident, with much the same police response.


Incident THREE
Big Palestinian wrestler tries to strangle a weasely little man holding an Israeli flag directly in front of the Israeli Consulate. After several minutes, the police intervene. For which they are roundly cursed by Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER (Richard Becker's handyman and household servant).


The three Jews involved were all cited by the police. Jews are supposed to be passive.
Whereas critics of Israel are examples embraced by a large segment of the San Francisco population, and have the moral support of Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, and other members of the SF Board of Supervisors.

INTERNATIONAL ANSWER ENABLES JEW HATING MOB

At an anti-Israel protest yesterday in San Francisco's financial district three middle-aged Israel supporters were attacked. Fortunately no one was hurt. One of the victims, an elderly gentleman with a shofar, was rushed by several young Arab-Americans while Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER screamed abuse.

Later a large Arab American tried to crush a pro-Israel activist whom he attacked after trying to destroy the sign that the activist was holding.
Forrest Schmidt hastened to add oil to the blaze after police had separated the two.

A third pro-Israel demonstrator was tackled by people standing around Richard Becker, head of International ANSWER.
Again, Forrest Schmidt was instrumental in furthering disruption.


Mister Schmidt seems to be developing quite a talent for making an already venomous and hate-filled event even more dangerous and explosive.
Who knows - this skill may 'come in handy' in Oakland after the Mehserle verdict is announced.



In all three instances, the SF police were markedly absent, and did not prevent the attacks.

After these assaults, the police persuaded the pro-Israel side to move to the other side of the street due to the great likelihood of further acts of aggression.

For the next two and a half hours, the crowd of Arab-American teenagers, liquor store owners, SF State U and Berkeley professors, and International ANSWER agitators screamed invective, and revolutionary slogans that promised to eradicate Israel.


"Falastin Arabbiya, kullu kullu Shah'ddiya"
'Palestine belongs to the Arab world, we are all its martyrs' - a holy war chant indicating Jihadi sentiments.


"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
This oft-repeated chant is the promise to ethnically cleanse Jews and Israel off the map.


"Ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeeq ya Falastin"
'With our souls and our blood we will redeem you oh Palastine' - the war cry for the momentous battle to eradicate the Jewish stain on the holy land and reclaim it for the Arabs and Islam.


There were several speeches about genocide, claiming that Israel was guilty of ethnic cleansing, despite the Arab population of Israel proper increasing several fold since independence, thus mirroring the massive increase in people labeled 'Palestinian' in surrounding countries.

There was no mention whatsoever of the massacres perpetrated by Jordan against Palestinians during Black September, nor of the desperate struggle of Lebanese Christians, Muslims, and Druze against the terror unleashed in Beirut by the PLO during that country's civil war, nor even of the mistreatment and expulsion of 'Palestinians' in the Gulf States after Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Crimes against Arabs by other Arabs, no matter how horrendous, are not part of Richard Becker's agenda. Even if they dwarf the number of Palestinian deaths from the Arab world's war against the Jews a hundred fold.


In contrast to other hate-fests organized by stalwarts such as Richard Becker, Forrest Schmidt, Lily Haskell, and the revolutionarily inclined faculty members of several universities in the Bay Area, this time there was scant mention of Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran - though there was repetitive angry rhetoric about Afghanistan and Iraq, and praise for the fighters in those countries 'resisting' imperialism.

I did not see any members of the National Lawyers Guild there, but their presence was nevertheless keenly felt - certainly by the SFPD, who seemed quite hesitant about their abilities to control the hostile mob.


Around seventy revolutionaries and Jew-haters, about forty Israel supporters, and perhaps two dozen of SF's finest.
Also in attendance: Jim Harris aka Tom Joad (hack for JVP / ISM), plus self-righteous harridans from Codepink and Women in Black. And several nice middle class Berkeley Jew-haters.

Not present: the San Franciscan pro-Palestinian politicians who endorsed the anti-Israel resolution tabled two weeks ago, representing the public face of the effort to attack Israel in the SF political establishment: Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, et al.


This demonstration was NOT about peace, it was NOT about justice for Palestinians, it was NOT about achieving an equitable solution to a political problem; it was about Jew-hate.
Which the pro-Palestinian side demonstrated repeatedly.

Jethro Tull hate speech page on Facebook

Today the Jethro Tull fan facebook page is populated by racists and anti-Semites.


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jethro-Tull-Fans/7835344629


There are quite a number of Jethro Tull fans in the Arab world. Many of them seem to be old-fashioned bigots and psychopaths in the style of Husseini and As-Sawad.


Sample one: "Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them"

Sample two: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews - when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."


I am baffled why this is has happened.

Not being a Jethro Tull fan, I do not know if their music is a natural fit for racial hatred and Arabic revisionism - probably everything in this world can be bent to those goals.
And seemingly everything in Cairo, Jordan, and Damascus, is.

Currently there are several Jew-haters there saying the most appalling things. Please report that page for racism/hate speech.

"The internet seemingly exist for FOUR things: recipes, cute kitten pictures, pornography, and anti-Semitic rants."


Fair enough. The pro-Palestinian crowd do not use computer access for recipes or cute kitten pictures.
They make up for that by overusing the other two categories.

Rallying for Shalit - Pro-Israel in San Diego: An example to be emulated

Can we do something about Israel hate? You bet we can! And someone is doing it. The San Diego Israel Coalition held a rally for Gilad Shalit, in captivity for four years.
Here's a video of NBC TV News coverage - Gilad Shalit Rally in San Diego




It is quite a coup for a brand new organization to get network news coverage for their event. Watch these folks and learn!

In San Diego Jewish News, Tinanarie Bernard reports about the San Diego Israel Coalition :?

... Following the now infamous flotilla incident, a new group has formed in San Diego — the San Diego Israel Coalition — to discuss what individuals can do locally to support Israel. Before the Coalition even formed, the group, eager to support Israel amid local pro-Palestinian rallies, managed to do something small, remarkable and upwardly focused: they, along with Morris Casuto of the Anti-Defamation League, organized a peaceful pro-Israel counter rally. The counter rally drew local press and helped empower the local community to take back the dialogue from an increasingly noisy and hostile media.

“We took the other side by surprise and motivated hundreds of San Diegans that there was a place for them to stand up and show their support for Israel,” said Audrey Jacobs, who, along with Michael Lurie, is organizing the group.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response, Jacobs and Lurie formed the San Diego Israel Coalition, “a grassroots, passionate, inclusive pro-Israel group focused on powerful and peaceful Israel advocacy in San Diego, working in partnership with all local pro-Israel organizations,” Jacobs said.

By the time this article goes to print, they will have had their first community-wide meeting to mobilize future actions.

.. For more information on the San Diego Israel Coalition, email Audrey Jacobs at sdisraelcoalition(at)gmail.com.

The San Diego Israel Coalition joins a growing number of grass roots groups like San Francisco Voice for Israel and the San Diego team group, the Orange Country Task Force and others. They will be working together to beat state-wide BDS initiatives and other organized "spontaneous" anti-Israel activity. They need our help. If you live in California, they need you! Wherever you live, you would do well to follow their example.

Ami Isseroff

Kill A Jew Day: Anti-Semitism on Facebook

kill a jew day
Date:
Friday, July 9, 2010
Time:
12:00am - 11:30pm
Location:
Everywhere
Description

you must kill at least one jew


Forgive me if I don't link to it. Over 100 people have reported they will attend the event, "Kill a Jew day" on Facebook . And no, don't try and convince me its all in jest. Anti-Semitism is no joke.
According to the JTA, Anti-Semitic incidents around the world more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year. The record number of incidents -- cases that show clear anti-Semitic content and intention -- included 566 incidents of vandalism of Jewish property, which constituted 49 percent of all incidents. Hundreds of incidents against Jewish people and property did not meet the criteria. Many other incidents went unreported.

Perhaps if enough people report this page it will be shut down, as a direct incitement to violence. If that happens, expect Jewish Voice for Peace to claim that the voices of the people have been muzzled by the Zionist lobby.

UPDATE: The Jewish Internet Defense Force reports that 240,000 people received notice of this story as the result of action alert they initiated , and the offending event was removed in hours.

AMSTERDAM UNSAFE FOR JEWS

More and more Dutch Jews are leaving the country of their birth for a safe haven elsewhere. That, in short, is the message of an article by Charles Sanders in the Telegraaf newspaper and a related piece by Jeroen Langelaar in Elsevier magazine in the Netherlands.


QUOTE:
“'Grote delen van de stad zijn voor ons niet meer toegankelijk, het is wachten tot de eerste slachtoffers vallen,' zegt hoogleraar Herman Loonstein zaterdag in De Telegraaf.”

[Translation: “Large parts of the city (Amsterdam) are no longer safe for us, it’s a matter of time before the first victims occur”, said professor Herman Loonstein, in the Saturday edition of the Telegraaf’.]

Sources (in Dutch): Telegraaf article, Elsevier’s magazine.


According to Hirsch Ballin, former minister of Justice and current minister for the interior in the decommissioned Dutch government, the Jews just have to report their victimhood more often - if there is any anti-Semitism in Holland, it is up to them to let the authorities know. He himself disagrees with the idea that there has been any noticeable increase.

QUOTE:
"In de Tweede Kamer stelde Hirsch Ballin dat dat Joden meer aangifte moeten doen als ze slachtoffer van antisemitisme zijn. Hij vindt het moeilijk een trend te constateren. Cijfers zouden niet uitwijzen dat sprake is van toename."


[Translation: In the Second Chamber, Hirsch Ballin postulated that Jews have to complain more if they are victims of anti-Semitism. He finds it difficult to discern a trend - figures apparently do not indicate any increase.]



This is flatly contradicted by the Centre independent Jewish watchdog group CIDI, which calls the ministers statement utter balderdash.


QUOTE:
"Het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI) noemt de uitleg van de minister beneden alle peil. "Hij beroept zich nota bene op het Antidiscriminatiebureau Amsterdam dat juist signaleerde dat gevallen van antisemitisme het meest gestegen zijn van alle soorten discriminatie." "

[Translation: The Centre for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) considers the explanation of the minister unacceptably base. "He bases this on the Antidiscrimination Bureau Amsterdam, which nota bene declared that cases of anti-Semitism have increased more than any other kind of discrimination".]


Recent CIDI figures show a disturbing increase in serious incidents, almost always perpetrated by Euro-Arabs.

["Bijna altijd zijn jonge Marokkanen de aanstichters. Het aantal gemelde incidenten groeide vorig jaar met 55 procent tot 167 gevallen." (Almost always it is young Moroccans who are the offenders. The number of incident-complaints rose last year by 55% to 167 cases'). - De Telegraaf, third paragraph of cited article.]



THE TELEGRAAF ARTICLE

As usual, the commentary underneath the Telegraaf article, by the salt of the earth, shows a remarkable level of bias, pooh-pooing, denialism, and outright Jew-hate. Several comments have been removed because they were unacceptable, EVEN to the famously tolerant editors of that newspaper.

Readers said that the CIDI figures had been tweaked by orders of the Israeli government, that it was the Jews' own fault, that it was justified because of Israeli behaviour towards the Palestinians, and that in any case it was perfectly understandable and normal.


This statement, by reader Luuk in Groningen, is indicative of attitudes among the Dutch: "Laat de Joodse belangenorganisatie's hun thuisland Israël maar eens op de vingers tikken over de discriminatie van Palestijnen. Geen wonder dat er steeds meer mensen een hekel krijgen aan Joden" ('Better the Jewish interest groups should criticise their home country Israel over the discrimination of Palestinians. No wonder that more and more people have started despising Jews').

Note here the combination of several ideas: Jews are foreigners in the Netherlands (where they have been for centuries), Jews are to blame for what Israel does, Jews in Europe belong in Israel but also don't belong in Israel because it belongs to the Palestinians (!), and it is both natural and good to despise Jews. The contradictions and conflation in his thinking is largely typical of European muddle-headedness - as is the repulsive quality of his opinion.


Several readers postulated that Amsterdam Jews should loudly demonstrate against Israel and the misbehavior of their own people.
If they didn't do so, then they deserved to be hated and discriminated.

A few reactions were from Jews relating incidents - largely outnumbered by anti-Israel vituperation.

Several others showed a marked racism towards Arabs, loathing of politicians, hatred of Islam, and general European xenophobia, as well as completely bagatellizing the issue and expressing politically correct Dutch sentiments - 'if Israel was destroyed, there wouldn't be any problem, the Holy Land was stolen by Jews from Arabs in any case. Foreigners (by which was meant native-born non-Germanics) were despicable and both Arabs and Jews should just shut up!'



THE ELSEVIER ARTICLE

What bothers many of Amsterdam's Jewish citizens especially is the behaviour of the police, who refuse to act, and usually do nothing. Given that the Dutch police are primarily an extension of the infamous Dutch governmental bureaucracy, that is not surprising - this author has had reason to complain about official apathy while living in the Netherlands - but professor Herman Loonstein particularly mentioned an incident in Buitenveldert where a Jewish man was pelted with eggs, and the Amsterdam police flat-out refused to pursue the matter.


"Nope, if you-all ain't got photos of the perps, we ain't gonna do jack"


['Nee, als jullie geen foto’s van de daders hebben, is er voor ons écht geen beginnen aan']


Even Job Cohen (former mayor of Amsterdam, now important national politician) has no interest in Jewish problems, and prefers to go and express his sympathy to Moroccans whenever there have been anti-Islamic incidents. The departure of Jews from Amsterdam because of discrimination, according to professor Loonstein, is a non-issue for Cohen.

He reports that many Jews are emigrating to England and Israel to rebuild the peaceful and safe life they once knew in Amsterdam.

In which Carol Sanders gets what she deserves and whines anyway

In a June 17 letter to the editor of the J weekly Berkeley's Carol Sanders of Bay Area Women in Black and Jewish Voice for Peace complains about her treatment when she showed up to protest the day schools, summer camps, artists and falafel vendors of "Israel in the Gardens".

Was poor Carol expecting sympathy from the parents who had to push strollers through her protest to their watch children perform on stage? She didn't get any.
Read what the commenters to her letter to the J have to say:

From Dan
But when it comes to creating anti-Israel fiction, I must admit that Carol takes a back seat only to her husband, Colonel Sanders, who is forever accusing Israel supporters of “fowl play.”

From Sol:
So why so much contempt for BAWIB & JVP? Well maybe it’s because they can always be found marching side by side with those who portray Israel with Nazi Germany and proudly wave the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah. Maybe it’s because when Hamas fires rockets into Sderot BWIB & JVP calls it self defense and when Israel attempts to enforce a blockade to keep weapons away from Hamas they call that war crimes.

From Rfaelmoshe
Organizations such as Women In Black and “Jewish” Voice for Peace, are fake peace groups that often stand next to groups that openly support terror against Israel. These groups have held mock public Jewish religious ceremonies (“taschlich”) condemning Israel, which is as offensive as an antebellum minstrel show to many of us.

From ssholin:
What was offensive was that Jews who came together with their families and friends to celebrate Israel’s existence had to be confronted with the constant drivel and hostility towards Israel by BAWIB and JVP who were harassing people entering the festival.

From CadanceM
Not that long ago, Carol and her friends in Women in Black sponsored Gilad Atzmon, a notorious anti-Semite, as a fundraiser for the International Solidarity Movement. And yet she still wonders why she gets no respect from the local Jewish community. Maybe respect needs to be earned, Carol, and you’ve just realized how far outside the tent of the community you’ve placed yourself.

JEW HATE IN PORT OF OAKLAND

On Sunday morning, at five thirty, a number of anti-Israel activists gathered at on the Oakland docks to form a picket line to prevent the unloading of an Israeli ship.

[NOTE: This article is cross-posted HERE.]

The only problem was that they picketed the wrong ship. It wasn’t an Israeli ship, but a Chinese ship. The Israeli ship didn’t arrive till evening.


QUOTE: “Some 500 anti-Israel protestors arrived at the Oakland, California port early Sunday morning, hoping to block an Israeli ship from unloading its cargo. However, the ship did not arrive, and the crowd prevented workers from unloading a Chinese ship instead.”

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138178

Proving that longshoremen aren't stupid, the dockworkers decided not to endanger themselves by tackling with the rabble.

QUOTE: "Free, free Palestine! Don't cross the picket line!" the picketers shouted – and in fact, the longshoremen chose not to clash with them, for fear of “getting into fistfights,” a union leader said. No one was arrested."

Smart move. Some of Dick Becker's cronies are undoubtedly diseased, in addition to being dim.



THE FEW

What's also very amusing is the varied reportage of the numbers. According to one article on Indymedia, over a thousand protestors showed up.
One thousand angry people. At five thirty in the morning. To protest an Israeli ship. Which wasn't there.

Pretty much the same source then avers that it was five hundred people. Or three hundred.


QUOTE 1: " This morning was the first half of a victory. 1,000 picketers from around the SF Bay. The first shift for unloading the Israeli ZIM Line ship was cancelled. "

QUOTE 2: " Just left the Oakland Docks where 300 people are blocking the entrances to two gates into the berth where the Israeli Zim cargo ship is to be unloaded. The action started this morning at 5:30am PST. The longshore workers are scheduled to start their shift at 7:00 and 8:00 am this morning. "

Source for BOTH quotes:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/20/18651307.php?show_comments=1#comments


The photos accompanying the Indybay articles show about two hundred people:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/06/20/0_1_06_20_10_0851_jpg.jpg
and:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2010/06/20/p0478lr.jpg

Please note the Turkish flags. It would be interesting to find out whether the Bay Arae anti-Israel crowd now also has links to the Turkish government, in addition to their connections to Hamas, Hezbollah, as well as reported funding from the Saudis and Qatar, inter alia.


" ... Jess Ghannam of Free Palestine Alliance and Richard Becker of the ANSWER Coalition ... "


Most of the signs carried by the protestors were provided by International ANSWER (tel. 415-821-6545).

[Non-union disruption of legitimate commerce sponsored by: Labor/Community Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian People: Arab American Union Members Council, ANSWER- Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, Palestine Youth Network, US Palestine Community Network, Al Awda- Right to Return Coalition, Arab Youth Organization, MECA-Middle East Children's Alliance, SJP-Students for Justice in Palestine, AROC-Arab Resource and Organizing Center, ISM-International Solidarity Movement, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, International Socialist Organization, Peace and Freedom Party – SF & Contra Costa Counties, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, Bay Area US Labor Against the War, Bay Area Committee for Peace and Justice, Barrio Unido, Movement for Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrant Workers, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupation, Friends of Deir Ibzi’a, Socialist Viewpoint, FMLN in Northern California, San Jose Justice for Palestinians, Code Pink – SF, World Can’t Wait – SF, International Action Center, Uhuru Solidarity Movement, Skyline Against Cuts, Industrial Workers of the World – SF, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Social Justice Committee, Party for Socialism and Liberation, QUIT!- Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, Fred Hirsch, Executive Board Member of Plumbers & Fitters Local 393 & Delegate to South Bay Labor Council, Progressive Democrats of the East Bay, La Voz de los Trabaja-dores, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism – No. Calif., National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, and many labor activists in the Bay Area, and others. ]


Among the organizers, which also included all the usual Jew-haters, one group deserves especial notice: The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee - members of ILWU #34, 10, and 6. They include Railroad workers, Airline Mechanics , and Inboatmens Union, Ferry and Tug sailors affilated to the ILWU and the West Coast merchant seamen union.

Apparently none of these people actually knew when what boat was arriving where.

Not surprising, really - they tend to ignore facts.

Anti-Israel Action at the Oakland Port June 20, 2010

In a new low for Indybay, a website known for its inaccuracy and bias, attendance at an anti-Israel protest at the Oakland docks was misreported 3 times in the same article. Indybay claimed over 1,000 ,then 500 then 300 protesters in the same article. Click on the screen shot to see "independent reporting" at its personal best.
Streaming video and still shots show about 75 protesters.



Yep, folks. Its a "historic" action, indeed. Imagine getting 75 protesters out of bed early on a Sunday morning without even their morning latte.

UPDATE

The protesters are now calling for another action at 4:00 pm. Hampered not only by deficiencies in basic counting, but in rudimentary online research as well, they have only just learned that the Zim Shenzhen is delayed in getting into Oakland. When do you think they'll figure out thats its flying under a UK flag?

Proud of Israel? Pride in Israel!

The LGBT International Film Festival opened Thursday June 17 at San Francisco's beautiful Castro theater. In addition to the expected huge lines, there was an unusual twist. There were protesters. No, it wasn't the Westboro Community Church, but rather QUIT (Queers doing something regarding Israel- does anyone remember what their acronym stands for anyway?). QUIT was upset that the film festival had the audacity to allow the Israeli consulate to endorse the festival, and formed a picket line claiming “There is no justification for queer institutions to ignore this request for solidarity.” Yet not a single person honored their picket.

QUIT calls Israeli sponsorship of the festival "pinkwashing", claiming the Israeli government uses its liberal policies on gay rights to deflect external criticism. Why does Israel's progressive record on gay rights upset gay activists? Perhaps its because they keep wanting to frame Israel as a right wing theocracy, when it just refuses to fit into that mold.

Israel remains one of the most progressive countries in the world on LGBT issues and QUIT just doesn't want you to know this. But luckily, the intrepid activists from San Francisco Voice for Israel were there.

From the SF voice for Israel handout:
LGBT Rights in Israel:
* Gays have had full civil rights since 1992
* Gays have full rights to serve in the military
* Gays have partner adoption rights
* Gays have partner benefits for governmental employees
* Same gender marriages preformed abroad are recognized.

LGBT Pride in Israel
* The first transgender person to win the Eurovison contest was Israeli Dana International with her song "Diva".
* Openly gay singer Ivri Lidder is one of Israel's most popular entertainers.
* Openly gay movie producer Eytan Fox has created such popular movies Yossi and Jagger, Walk on Water and The Bubble
* Openly gay politicians have served in the Kenneset and on many local councils.

Just as the LGBT community wants equality, Israel strives for equality amongst the family of nations. Israel must be treated as an equal in the United nations. Israel must be treated fairly by the international news media, and must be recognized by its neighbors with normalized relations. With this in mind, San Francisco Voice for Israel will be marching again in the San Francisco pride parade on June 27, celebrating not just Israel's progressive record in LGBT rights, but acknowledging Israel's striving for equality in a very judgmental world.

DEAD BABIES IN GAZA

Infant mortality is significantly lower in Gaza (17.71 per 1,000 live births) than in Iran (34.7), Turkey (24.8), Libya (20.87), Iraq (43.16), and Egypt (26.2), and only slightly higher than that of Jordan (17.03), Syria (16.14), and Lebanon (16.4).

Gaza's infant mortality rate is actually ranked 109 out of 224 countries and regions worldwide.

Accurate information on mortality in Gaza and elsewhere is easily available from the CIA World Factbook.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

[According to Wikipedia, The World Factbook (ISSN 1553-8133; also known as the CIA World Factbook) is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office. Other companies—such as Skyhorse Publishing—also print a paper edition. The Factbook is available in the form of a website, which is partially updated every two weeks. It is also available for download for use off-line. It provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 266 entities including U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.
The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U.S. government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements. However, it is frequently used as a resource for academic research papers. As a work of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain. Source: Wikipedia.]



CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORP. NEWSCASTER BLOOPER


However, these facts are UNKNOWN or UNAVAILABLE to CBC correspondent Peter Mansbridge, who on June 1 asserted that Gaza currently has "an infant mortality rate among the highest in the world."

It is unclear what led Peter Mansbridge to this odd conclusion - perhaps he was talking to an activist at a cocktail party, or reading one of the handouts from an anti-Israel rally. Conceivably his informant was a student or professor at York University in Toronto....... where anti-Israel agitation and misinformation is rife.


"An infant mortality rate among the highest in the world!"


My dear mister Mansbridge, you do know that you need to do your research before you state something as fact, don't you? Especially when an egregious falsehood might be construed as slander?
Perhaps even riling up the rabble for riot-mode?

Do the words 'due diligence' and 'substantiation' mean something to you?

I hope they do...... please ask your handlers at CBC to either paste them all over your basement or tattoo them on your forehead.

Or you could request that the biased assistant or editor who inserted that blatant bit of propaganda in your script be assigned elsewhere - I suggest Pakistan or Afghanistan; places with shockingly high infant mortality rates.

Cold Chicken in the Desert

This email was just received from local anti-Israel organizers:

To gain insight into the US-Israeli sadistic policy of siege against the Palestinian people, below is a list of prohibited items in May 2010:

sage, cardamom, cumin, coriander, ginger, jam, halva, vinegar, nutmeg, chocolate, fruit preserves, seeds and nuts, biscuits and sweets, potato chips, gas for soft drinks, dried fruit, fresh meat, plaster, tar, wood for construction, cement, iron, glucose, industrial salt, plastic/glass/metal containers, industrial margarine, tarpaulin sheets for huts, fabric for clothing, flavor and smell enhancers, fishing rods, , various fishing nets, buoys, ropes for fishing, nylon nets for greenhouses, hatcheries and spare parts for hatcheries, spare parts for tractors, dairies for cowsheds, irrigation pipe systems, ropes to tie greenhouses, planters for saplings, heaters for chicken farms, musical instruments, size A4 paper, writing implements, notebooks, newspapers, toys, razors, sewing machines and spare parts, heaters, horses, donkeys, goats, cattle, chicks.

No heaters for chicken farms????
No heaters for chicken farms!!!!

Does that mean cold chickens?
Truly sadistic. Inhumane. Brutal. Genocidal.
Cold chicken in the desert.
This cannot be. Quick. Form a vigil at Barbara Lees office.
Write Letters to the editor.
Vandalize Israeli food.
Ignore the 2,000 Uzbeckis killed this week and the 400,000 fleeing for their lives.
There are cold chickens in Gaza.

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY-- CALL YOUR FRIENDS AND SHOW UP NOW!

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URGENT ACTION CALL

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The SF Board of Supervisors has not yet taken up the anti-Israel resolution on the agenda; more pro-Israel speakers are needed. This debate will likely last well into the evening.

San Francisco City Hall is located on Van Ness between McAllister and Grove Streets. If coming by BART or Muni, use the Civic Center station.

The anti-Israel crowd is present in great numbers, and are using the same tactics that they used at the Berkeley University meetings.

"There are more keffiyehs here than in the shuk"

Show up and make your voice heard!

As usual-- please remember that you are addressing the Board of Supervisors, not the audience. Be polite, be focused, be an effective advocate.
Speeches will be limited to 2 minutes or less, so please plan what you are going to say. The JCRC staff will have talking points available to help you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the anti-Israel resolution passes, G-d forbid, this will affect not only the city's economic climate, but also future Democratic Party politics. In these hard times, neither of those eventualities is desireable. Daly and Avalos may not grasp the damage that they are doing, but I am sure that others are more sane, more rational, and more concerned with the image of our city than those two.

The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine: Facing the Music

According to the Jewish Federation of Orange County, The University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine) has suspended the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for one year and placed it on disciplinary probation for an additional year. The MSU is also required to collectively complete 50 hours of community service. As a result, it will not be allowed to conduct organized campus events until at least the fall of 2011.

According to a UCI campus document, suspension means that the recognition of the MSU organization has been revoked. No current executive officer listed on the Dean of Students registration application form will be allowed to act as an “authorized signer” for any other student organization at UC Irvine during the suspension. The effective dates pertaining to the suspension are from September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2011.

This action is the direct result of a campaign of hate,incitement and intimidation organized by the MSA against Zionists and Jewish students on campus. According to Roz Rothstein of Stand with Us:

The Muslim Student Union (MSU) and Muslim Student Association (MSA), allied with extremist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), focus single-mindedly on one goal: demonizing Israel. This is not your normal student activism. MSU and MSA members are obsessively driven by their mission. They are determined, methodical, focused, well-funded and strictly organized. The leaders are usually devout and infuse religious and moral justifications into the movement, making hatred of Israel akin to a religious as well as social justice cause.
The MSU, MSA and SJP groups don’t just plan actions for their own schools. SJP and the 600 MSU/MSA chapters across North America use the Internet to coordinate their anti-Israel strategies and to share their best practices. They exchange anti-Israel propaganda. They share fliers, props and slogans. They analyze what was effective and refine their tactics and execution for the upcoming year.

On February 8, 2010, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren visited the Orange County, California campus to give a talk to UCI students and community members. During the 90-minute event, Oren was repeatedly interrupted by members of the Muslim Student Union, 11 of whom were arrested. One of those arrested was the president of the MSU at UCI. The investigation of this incident revealed the Muslim Student Union’s organized plot to prevent Oren from delivering his presentation.

The MSU brought fringe speakers to the campus, including Malik Ali,a radical Islamic preacher whose primary goal is the overthrow of the American government and its replacement with an Islamic dictatorship. He declared during a campus speech just steps from the UC Irvine administration building, “Ya’ll (Jews) are the new Nazi’s.” Ali also confirmed his public support for terrorist organizations Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

The disciplinary action taken involving 11 students arrested was not disclosed because of laws meant to protect their privacy

Read more here