JVP uses Syrian Crisis to Blame Israel

JVP is "concerned" about the ongoing humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in the Yarmouk camp in Syria. Isn't that special?

JVP can't resist using this rather weak statement of concern as yet another opportunity to jab Israel, blaming them indirectly for the plight of Palestinians in Syria.  Not a word of reproach is directed toward the Arab regimes that kept 4 generations stranded in squalid camps, deprived of citizenship   JVP claims Israel has the denied the right of the Yarmouk  Palestinians to "return to their homes", as stipulated by UN Resolution 194.

JVP is perpetuating one of the longest lasting myths of this conflict- that there is an internationally sanctioned  "right" of return.

The relevant section from UN General Assembly Resolution 194 is cited below (full text available here)

Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date...

From  Camera's Backgrounder: The Palestinian Claim to a “Right of Return”

Do Palestinians who fled Israel in 1948, and their descendants, have a legal or moral right to return to their former homes in Israel? Is it true that most other refugees around the world have already exercised such rights of repatriation? Palestinian spokesmen, and groups including Amnesty International, have repeatedly asserted that Palestinians do have a legal and moral right to return to Israel. Most legal authorities, however, contend that the relevant legal instruments, including UN General Assembly Resolution 194, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, offer no support for these claims. Moreover, many analysts have pointed out that because an Arab and Palestinian-initiated war against Israel created a similar number of Jewish and Palestinian refugees, and because Israel settled the Jewish refugees, the Arab side should settle the Palestinian refugees....

Because this only recommends that refugees be permitted to return, it can hardly be characterized as creating a “right.” Moreover, the requirement that returnees first accept living “at peace with their neighbors” meant that Palestinian returnees would have to accept Israel's right to exist, something that very few of them, even today, seem truly willing to do. Further, it did not even hint at any return rights for descendants of refugees.

No, JVP is not lobbying Congress or mobilizing in the street to help the long suffering Palestinians of Yarmouk They are not organizing flash-mobs or phone in campaigns to bring attention to the plight of these particular Palestinians. Suffice it to say, there are no flotillas or flytillas or "Global marches" to Yarmouk.

JVP and its partners on the delegitimization circuit aren't in this to help the Palestinian people. If they were perhaps this real humanitarian crisis would merit more than a blip on a web page.  The end game has never been about helping the Palestinian people or establishing a Palestinian state. Its been about destroying the Jewish one.

Spread Hummus, not Hate

Bad news for those who enjoy made in America Sabra Hummus.  30,000 cases of the classic style hummus have been recalled because of possible listeria contamination. To see if your hummus has been subject to recall, you can check the SKU code at the US Food and Drug Administration website, here.

Sabra joins Blue Bell creameries,  Wegmans Organic Frozen Spinach,  and Carnival brand and Kitchen Cravings brand caramel apples all of which have experienced listeria recalls this year.

Anti-Israel activists are taking advantage of the recall to spread their special brand of hate on the Government's Food Safety Facebook page. Its just more of the same petty, small-minded activity we see on social media whenever anything peripherally related to Israel comes up.

Disgraced academician Steven Salaita also got in the act.

Imagine how much nicer the world would be if these "activists" spread hummus instead of hate.

Josh Bornstein falls victim to elaborate hoax at the Times of Israel

More Pallywood from the haters of truth and the haters of Israel.

Josh Bornstein was just the victim of an elaborate hoax, perpetuated by haters, and  facilitated by a lack of  editorial control on the part of the Times of Israel.

The Times of Israel is an online Jerusalem-based newspaper founded in 2012 to document developments in Israel, the Middle East and around the Jewish world.   It has a "blog" feature, to allow activists and independent journalists to share their work.

From the website of the Times of Israel,

Posts are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and The Times of Israel assumes no responsibility for them. In case of abuse, report a post.

A racially charged blog post was published, using the name of an Australian attorney and writer, Josh Bornstein.  Bornstein  responded that he had never started a blog at Times of Israel, and the post was removed, but not before the backlash began.

The Times of Israel described the elaborate hoax, writing

The Blogs platform on the Times of Israel was breached in an elaborate manner by a malicious hoaxer who on Thursday posted a hateful and racist post.

This hoaxer, it turns out, had opened a blog on the website some weeks ago using the identity of Josh Bornstein, a respected Australian lawyer, appropriating Bornstein’s name, biography, photograph and taking steps to lend the blog credibility.

Times of Israel staff had no reason to suspect this was a hoax, also given that half a dozen posts were published on this blog in subsequent days, all on topic and perfectly reasonable. As we found out Thursday, these posts were taken from Bornstein’s articles elsewhere on the internet.

After establishing his credibility on The Blogs platform, the impostor Thursday published a blog post that was vile and disturbing in the extreme. Shortly after it was published, we removed this blog post and the entire blog, and began investigating what had transpired. The post had also been copied to an online archive with the obvious intent of causing maximum harm.

We are dismayed that The Times of Israel fell victim to such a malicious and hateful hoax. Needless to say, we are appalled that the Times of Israel’s blog platform was taken advantage of in this manner.

We sincerely apologize to everyone who was affected, directly or indirectly. Most especially, we apologize to Josh Bornstein.

That hasn't prevented anti-Israel activists from posting archived and screen-shot copies of the removed article in an effort to demonize the Jewish people, Israel, and the Times of Israel. Agitprop sites on Facebook and Twitter continue to post the removed article without explanation

 Sami the Bedouin uses hoax  article to demonize the Jewish people 

Glenn Greenwald perpetuates the lie

The falsified and  fraudulent Josh Bornstein blog post in the Times of Israel shows how far anti-Israel activists will go to demonize the nation state of the Jewish people. Its yet another example of Pallywood from the haters of truth and the haters of Israel.

UPDATE:
From the incomparable Elder of Ziyon- a neo-Nazi takes credit for the hoax.

Holocaust Remembrance Ceremonies in the Bay Area

Via the Jewish Community Relations Council:

Holocaust Remembrance Ceremonies in the Bay Area

Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, "The Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism," is marked annually on the 27th day in the month of Nisan, a week after the end of Passover. A variety of public observances will be held in recognition of this occasion throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

April 12 - 13th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day with the City of Berkeley, The Magnes (Berkeley)
April 13 - Santa Clara County Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony, County Government Building (San Jose)

April 14 - The 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Mira Shelub, Temple Sinai (Oakland)
April 15 - An Evening on the Holocaust and Resistance, Temple Isaiah (Lafayette)
April 15 - Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, Congregation Beth El (Berkeley)
April 15 - Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, Congregation Beth Emek (Pleasanton)
April 15 - Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, Peninsula Temple Sholom (San Mateo)
April 15 - Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, Congregation Beth Am (Los Altos Hills)
April 19 - Sonoma County Holocaust Commemoration Ceremony, The Friedman Center (Santa Rosa)
April 19 - Marin Community Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, Congregation Rodef Sholom (San Rafael)
April 19 - Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day in San Francisco, JCCSF (San Francisco)

April 19 - Yom HaShoah Remembrance Service, Temple Beth Torah (Fremont)

All are encouraged to attend, participate and pay tribute.

Aiming Below the Belt. Anonymous takes down site of Israeli Urological Association

Proving Saul Alinksy's old adage "the threat is worse than the thing itself", Anonymous's threat of an "Electronic Holocaust" aimed at Israel has been less than successful.

The promised April 7 day of rage targeted websites throughout Israel,  yet only a handful were taken out of service.  Some soft targets, such as the websites of musicians Shalom Hanoch,  Ivri Lider,  Hadag Nachash and the Israeli Center for Excellence through Education were hacked. Government websites were unaffected.

In a move that can only be described as hitting below the belt,  the Israeli Urological Association was temporarily taken down. 

From Newsweek:

Benjamin T. Decker, senior intelligence analyst at Tel Aviv-based geopolitical risk consultancy the Levantine Group, says that this cyber attack represents the least effective of the last four years of attacks as Israeli authorities grow increasingly capable of defending against these cyber attacks.

“The ‘electronic Holocaust’ has not had the grandiose impact of erasing Israel from the internet,” he says. “It’s important to note that this is being led exclusively by the Middle Eastern contingent of Anonymous, rather than the entirety of the organisation.”

“For most of these claimed hacks, the websites were back online within 10 to 15 minutes,” he adds. “I would say this had significantly less impact than last year’s and going back farther, this is probably the most miniscule of the annual OpIsraels that there have been.”

Caterpillar and Tiaa-Cref. Lies the BDS'ers told me.

Caterpillar. One way or another, the BDS'ers are obsessed by it. Even Medea Benjamin  of Code Pink found Caterpillar irresistible, and kept an investment of $180,000 in Caterpillar stock in her Foundation until 2011.

Caterpillar. Another BDS fail

Its no wonder. Caterpillar performs, both in the field and in the market.  Caterpillar continues to pay a dividend yield of 3.27%, compared to the average 2% dividend paid out by other companies in the S and P index.

Gaza loves their Caterpillars, too, and neither JVP nor the Corries have been able to convince them to give 'em up, begging the question of just who and what is this "Palestinian civil society" we keep hearing about?

Caterpillar in Gaza

But, but, but, you say "Tiaa-Cref divested."   Ummmm.  No.  Several socially conscious funds removed Caterpillar from their portfolio in 2012 as the result of an employee labor dispute. When the issue was resolved Caterpillar was returned to the listing.

In 2012,  the We Divest Website- a JVP sock puppet site proudly proclaimed Caterpillar Removed from TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Funds , heralding it as a "Victory for Pro-divestment Advocates". The carefully worded press release implied that Tiaa-Cref's choice was the result of activist pressure, when the reality was different. It was another routine business decision manipulated by anti-Israel activists and transformed into yet another BDS hoax

Notice how JVP and friends aren't that quick to announce that today Tiaa-Cref has over $3.4 million invested in Caterpillar in their Social Choice Equity Fund, marking another great big BDS fail ?

Jewish Heritage Festival in Sacramento

It sounds like a perfect day in the Central Valley sunshine. There will be yummy food, great music and 4,000 of your closest friends. Come to the Jewish Heritage Festival in Sacramento. The renowned  a capella group, the Maccabeats will be performing. 

May 17, 2015
12:30-5:00pm
Raley Field, 400 Ball Park Lane in West Sacramento.

San Francisco State University proud of new relationship with An-Najah University, the "greenhouse for martyrs."

The President of San Francisco State University took a principled stand this week supporting a University boycott of Indiana, after the state passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA , a  law widely interpreted to be anti-gay.

From Les Wong,  in an email sent to the students of SFSU  

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students:

I am dismayed, if not extremely disappointed, in the recent legislation signed into law in Indiana. It is unconscionable for this great University to spend its resources in a state that attempts to legislate discrimination of any kind.

By this note, I am informing the campus community that no San Francisco State University funds from any source--general funds or auxiliary--will be used to support employee or student travel to Indiana. This action is effective today, Monday, March 30, 2015 until further notice. Any travel authorized prior to today may proceed as planned with approval of the appropriate vice president.

We are researching similar legislation reputed to be existent in other states to determine further action.
As a member of the NCAA Division 2 President’s Council, I will not attend a required meeting of the Council to be held in April in Indianapolis. A copy of this note is being sent to NCAA President Mark Emmert and to CSU Chancellor Timothy White.

Our commitment to social justice on this campus remains a point of pride for me. The vice presidents, deans and Academic Senate's Executive Committee all endorse this action.

Les Wong, President

President Wong's stand in support of social justice flies in the face of recent actions on the San Francisco State University campus, including the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between SF State and An-Najah National University in Nablus, marking SF State’s first MOU with an academic institution anywhere in the Arab and Muslim world.

An-Najah National University is widely considered a breeding ground for terror and intolerance in the disputed Palestinian territories.

From the venerable Anti-Defamation League's overview on the Islamic Palestine Block Student Cell at An- Najah University

An-Najah University, in the West Bank city of Nablus, has been a flashpoint in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians since at least 1980, when violent anti-Israel protests led the Israeli military to close the school intermittently. Today the student council of An-Najah is known for its advocacy of anti-Israel violence and its recruitment of Palestinian college students into terrorist groups. The council, almost completely controlled by factions loyal to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, glorifies suicide bombings and propagandizes for jihad against Israel. Hamas has described An-Najah as a "greenhouse for martyrs." 

From Matthew Levitt, director of the Washington Institute's Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence, and Policy, 

Al-Najah is the largest university in the territories and "the terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and radicalization of students for which al-Najah is known typically take place via various student groups," among them the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc. "Of the thirteen members of Al-Najah's 2004 student council, eight," he says - "including the chairperson - belong to Hamas's Islamic Bloc."

This is yet another inglorious moment  for San Francisco State- a university  with a considerable history of turning a blind eye to terrorism and anti-semitism within its own halls

Khalida Jarrar arrested for involvement with Terrorism

You'd never know just who Khalida Jarrar is by glancing at the headlines on anti-Israel agitprop sites or on social media.

To the Electronic Intifada, Khalida Jarrar is a "lawmaker"

To extremist JVP, Khalida Jarrar is a "feminist"

To Michael Letwin, Khalida Jarrar is simply a suffering victim with no back-story, who suffers from an unnamed "chronic illness"

The reality is quite different. Khalida Jarrar is involved with the terrorist PFLP group- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist-Leninist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PFLP took responsibility for the terror attack on the Jerusalem synagogue last year which killed 5 rabbis

From the Jerusalem Post

In August 2014, the IDF ordered Jarrar to leave her home in Ramallah and move to Jericho. She was told that she would not be permitted to leave the district of Jericho without permission from the IDF commander in the West Bank. Jarrar refused to comply with the order and waged a campaign in protest against the decision to “exile” her to Jericho.

According to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Jarrar is one of the dominant militant forces in the PFLP, and advocates for military resistance against Israel. Jarrar has been involved over the past few months in strengthening the PFLP in the West Bank, the Shin Bet said, including pushing its members to be take part in terror attacks. 

The IDF arrested her only after the injunction failed to halt her activities which posed a risk, the Shin Bet said.

Administrative detention, the holding of a person by the state without a trial is lawful under international law. Article 78 of the fourth Geneva Convention states that if a nation “considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment.” Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also allows for administrative detention during times of public emergency that threaten the life of a nation.

Jibril Rajoub. Not a good sport

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the international governing body of football/ FIFA.  Founded in 1904, it has 209 member associations

From their mission statement

FIFA’s primary objective is "to improve the game of football constantly and promote it globally in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values...”

Football can inspire communities and break down barriers. Football is for all. FIFA believes that everybody has the right to play football free from discrimination or prejudice and we are striving to ensure that this is the case.

Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association is unclear on the concept of building coexistence through sport . He has stepped up his lobbying of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association  in an effort to get Israeli players banned from the beautiful game.. 

Jibril Rajoub isn't a  very good sport. Listen to him urge his followers to slaughter Israelis in this clip from Palestinian Media Waatch.


Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub: “I’m telling everyone: Fatah has decided that our relations with the Israelis are relations between enemies. There is no kind of coordination between the Israelis and us. Everyone can be certain that any form of mutual coordination ended a day after they declared war on the National Unity Government... OK, brother, here is the occupation, am I stopping you from slaughtering a settlement?  No one is stopping anyone. Don’t lie and tell me: ‘the [PA] Security Forces and Mahmoud Abbas,’ and so on [stop you]. Drop it, OK? No one is stopping anyone. Our political decision is resistance in the occupied territories in order to bring an end to the occupation [using] all forms of resistance.”

UPDATE

 FIFA President Sepp Blatter says he will attempt to persuade the Palestinian Football Association to withdraw a bid to get Israel suspended from world football's governing body.

"I will try to convince him that such a situation should not occur at FIFA," Blatter told reporters after attending Tuesday's Confederation of African Football (CAF) Congress.

"A suspension of any member affects badly the whole organisation," he added.

In which Enno Raschke rips Max Blumenthal a new one

Max Blumenthal's colleague, “independent journalist”  Rania Khalek recently tweeted a link to a video that she characterizes as Max "lay[ing] out Zionist collaboration with Nazi Germany.

What happens when Yad Vashem historian Enno Raschke watches it?  He characterizes Max’s bastardization of history as  “disgusting foolish and fraudulent,” concluding “That's not collaboration, it's Pikuach Nefesh - which calls to abandon all other principles in order to save innocent life.”

Check out the result on Storify.  Thanks to Nurit Baytch  for compiling these. 
 

Slap on the wrist for Berkeley SJP

In direct violation of campus policy, UC Berkeley's Students for Justice in Palestine distributed several hundred fake eviction notices under the doors in Unit 2 during "Israel Apartheid Week".  Its the same tired old tactic we've seen for years by a group desperate to be noticed.

Via the Daily Cal

“We do not allow any solicitations out of respect for the students residing there,” said Adam Ratliff, spokesperson for the campus’ Division of Student Affairs, in an email. He said he is not aware of any planned response to SJP for breaching dormitory policy.

No, there was no consequence to this breach of the Code of Student Conduct. Yet again,  the spoiled children of SJP  have been allowed to flagrantly violate campus rules with impunity by campus administrators too spineless to endorse their own guidelines.

Akron Ohio in partnership with Israel

All -American city Akron has joined in a  $5 million partnership with 5 Israeli companies as part of an “Advanced Waste Water Treatment Demonstration Project.” MemTech, WaTech-Mekorot,  Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; and the Israel Export Institute will be involved with this project, that is poised to put Akron at the forefront of water recycling.

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said. “This is really a significant announcement to be identified as the single place in North America for these high-tech companies, ”adding “The technology eventually could help Akron deal with its ongoing combined sewage overflow issues with the federal government as well as help with the high-tech needs of wastewater facilities”

 

From the City of Akron Press Release:

 

“This Project will create new jobs and investment through business attraction, further our water initiative, and place Akron in the forefront of water innovation and technology,” said Mayor Plusquellic. “We are being entrusted with an exclusive platform and pipeline for Israeli companies to demonstrate innovative technologies and new solutions for water treatment worldwide.”

Mayor Plusquellic also mentioned Akron’s past experience with projects in Israel including: being the first US City to partner with an Israeli municipal utility in Netanya, Israel, to develop and commercialize new water technology solutions; creating a partnership with Mekorot, to promote bi-lateral cooperation and innovation; and including the Israeli water company delegation in the Akron Global Water Alliance Launch Event last October. Plusquellic particularly noted Akron’s $500,000 investment in the Targetech Innovation Center, an Israeli incubator that nurtures science, technology, research and development, and commercializes these efforts in Israeli and the U.S. market through Akron

Looks like BDS is all wet in Akron.

Documenting Palestinian war crimes during Operation protective edge

According to an Israeli  investigation, during Operation Protective Edge, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organisations violated the Law of armed conflicts, in Gaza by  intentionally and systematically employing military strategies designed to maximize harm to civilian life and property, both in Israel and in Gaza.

1. Hamas and other Terrorist Organisations in Gaza Committed War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity By Deliberately Attacking Israeli Civilians

2. Hamas and Other Terrorist Organisations in Gaza Embedded their Military Activities amongst the Civilian Population and Exploited Hospitals, U.N. Facilities, Schools, Mosques, and Homes for Military Operations

3. Hamas and other Terrorist Organisations in Gaza Directed the Movement of Civilians in Order to Shield Military Assets and Operations

4. Hamas and other Terrorist Organisations in Gaza Utilized Additional Unlawful Tactics

The conclusion:

Throughout the 2014 Gaza Conflict, Hamas and other terrorist organisations in Gaza made systematic use of blatantly unlawful military strategies that were designed to heighten civilian suffering both in Israel and in Gaza. Hamas and other terrorist organisations in Gaza intentionally attacked and terrorised Israeli civilians by way of rocket and mortar fire, causing civilian deaths, injuries, lasting psychological trauma, and civilian property damage.

For the first time, Hamas extended its assaults against civilians to an additional battlefront, this one subterranean, sending militants through cross-border tunnels to attack residents of Israeli border towns. By deliberately targeting Israeli civilians and the civilian population in these ways, as part of a widespread and systematic policy, Hamas and other terrorist organisations in Gaza violated customary norms of the Law of Armed Conflict and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

Read this important paper here

JVP values: strengthening antisemitism

Jewish Voice for Peace claims: If you want to act on your values and not just talk about them, Jewish Voice for Peace is for you.

Is strengthening  antisemitism one of  your values?  Apparently it is for JVP, who proudly proclaim in the same handout that they seek to “Strengthen the BDS movement”

JVP Values: Promoting anti-Semitic movements

Really, JVP?  These are your values?

The BDS movement seeks the end of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. It  seeks to deprive the Jewish people of self determination in their ancient homeland, and as such is an anti-Semitic movement. If you promote and strengthen a movement that believes that all people have the right to self determination except the Jewish people, you are promoting and strengthening antisemitism.

Read  Alan Dershowitz's Ten reasons why the BDS movement is immoral and hinders peace, who writes

The BDS movement is immoral because it promotes false views regarding the nation state of the Jewish people, exaggerates its flaws and thereby promotes a new variation on the world's oldest prejudice, namely anti-Semitism. It is not surprising therefore that the BDS movement is featured on neo-Nazi, Holocaust denial and other overtly anti-Semitic websites and is promoted by some of the world's most notorious haters such as David Duke.

Jewish Voice for Peace values. Providing cover for anti-Semites

In Israel, nearly anyone can be an archaeologist

Israel stands at the crossroads of civilization, and is so rich in archaeology and antiquities that even today, new discoveries are being made, sometimes in the most unlikely manner.

Via Biblical Archaeology

While patrolling the Roman-Byzantine ruins at Horbat Siv in central Israel,  inspectors from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) found an intact 1,400-year-old oil lamp that had been dug up by a porcupine.

In response, the  Israel Antiquities Authority  put out a warning to all amateur porcupine archaeologists:

“The IAA calls on all porcupines to avoid digging burrows at archaeological sites and warns that digging at an archaeological site without a license is a criminal offense.”

Porcupine in Israel

Jewish Voice for Peace Values. Supporting Terror

Jewish Voice for Peace claims: If you want to act on your values and not just talk about them, Jewish Voice for Peace is for you

JVP values

Is promoting terror one of  your values?  Apparently it is for JVP, who proudly proclaim in the same handout that they “organized a solidarity fast for Khader Adnan”

JVP Values: Supporting Terror

Khader Adnan? 

Really, JVP?  These are your values?

Khader Adnan is a leader of Islamic Jihad  widely recognized as a terrorist organization by the EU, US, UK, Israel, Australia, Canada, and Japan.

Islamic Jihad's handiwork

Islamic Jihad's handiwork

Check out Adnan’s terrorist ideology and his extremist rhetoric as he solicits suicide bombers at a 2007 event, urging   “Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? “Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?”

Jewish Voice for Peace values. Providing cover for terror

Cesar Chavez on Zionism

This month we celebrate the birthday of Cesar Chavez, a friend to Israel and the Jewish people.

Following the 1974 UN Resolution equating Zionism with racism, Chavez  wrote to Rabbi Sidney Jacobs of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

From the letter, reproduced below:

The following statement was adopted by the National Executive Board of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO

The recent United Nations resolution condemning Zionism as racism is an affront to the Jewish people who have been history’s primary victims of racism.

As an embattled minority who have suffered the humiliation and degradation of racial and economic discrimination in this country, we know first hand the ravages brought by intolerance and prejudice. This resolution will encourage the latent anti-semitism that has been a blot on world history and continues to stain the conscience of mankind

A national Home for the Jewish People is the natural and legitimate aspiration of one of history’s most oppressed minorities. We are proud to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in America in affirming Israel’s right to live in peace with her neighbors. As  democratic trade unions and human beings we can do no less.

Warmest personal regards. Viva la Causa!

Cesar Chavez, President

Are the bus ad battles coming to an end?

In  2010, King County officials in Seattle initially agreed to accept  an anti-Israel ad  but backed off after getting after considerable  public outcry. Soon afterward  Metro transit system  barred all political advertising on buses. The federal appeals court was asked to determine if the County’s decision violated the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaigns (Seamac) first amendment rights in refusing the ad.   In Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign v. King County, 11-35914,  the court  has decided 2-1  that King County Metro Transit did not violate free-speech rights , ruling in the county's favor:

 “The county’s decision to reject SeaMac’s ad was both reasonable and viewpoint neutral, and thus did not violate the First amendment."

Judge Paul Watford, joined by Judge Alex Kozinski  ruled  “Because the county simultaneously rejected all of the proposed ads on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - from opposing viewpoints - no reasonable jury could find that it engaged in viewpoint discrimination” and concluded "We believe the county’s decision to reject  Sea Mac’s ad was indeed reasonable, given the serious threat of disruption running the ad would have posed".

The ninth circuit decision may give our local MUNI an escape clause allowing them to reject the divisive and provocation ads promoted by such fringe groups Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine

BDS LARP ing at Hewlett Packard

From Emunah:

In 2002  Tzipi Shemesh, 29, was one of three people killed and 86 injured  in Jerusalem when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb. It was packed with nails and metal debris meant to maximize human suffering.  Tzipi was killed instantly. Her husband,  Gadi died shortly afterwards in hospital. Tzipi was 5 months pregnant with twins.

They left behind their two daughters - Shoval, age 7 and Shahar, age 3.

Over 1,000 people attended Tzipi and Gadi's funeral.  Shoval drew a picture of a heart and flowers, and wrote a  message to her parents."I am writing you a letter because I am parting from you. I won't see you for a very long time."

During the second intifada, 1,218 Israeli people were killed and 8,341 were wounded in an unrelenting series of attacks that targeted Israeli people in buses, cafes and discos.

That number has dropped significantly in recent years, due to a series of security procedures that Israel has put in place, including its security barrier and system of checkpoints.

These procedures serve as a nonviolent way to save lives, in the absence of a real and lasting peace. Who could possibly object?

Apparently, Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee and other local extremists groups object. To them, Palestinian inconvenience trumps Jewish lives. To them, nearly everything trumps Jewish lives.

On March 18, they held a protest at Hewlett Packard headquarters in Palo Alto, protesting HP’s role in developing the technology that insures Israeli citizens remain safe.

In spite of press releases sent out by Carol Sanders not a single member of the press showed up, missing what might have been one of the most bizarre and baffling anti-Israel events in recent memory

Organized in part by Dalit Baum, the AFSC “Director of Economic Activism for Palestine”  the event featured silly hats, ill fitting wigs and octogenarians engaged in what can only be described as political activism meets  LARP- live action role playing.

BDS protest at Hewlett Packard

BDS Protest at Hewlett Packard

BDS protester keeping it classy

The  “HP Stakeholders Coalition” includes American Friends Service Committee; American Muslims for Palestine; Code Pink; Ecumenical Peace Institute; Friends of Deir IbzI'a; Friends of Sabeel NorCal; International Solidarity Movement; Jewish Voice for Peace –Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and South Bay Chapters; Peninsula Peace & Justice Center; QUIT! Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism; Rossmoor Voices for Justice in Palestine; San Jose Peace & Justice Center; Bay Area Women In Black; Berkeley Women In Black; 14 Friends of Palestine; BDS Marin; Justice for Palestinians

There was also a small counter protest

People saw the flags from their office windows, and came down to join the group.

LARP ing- another jump the shark moment in the inglorious history of Bay Area anti-Israel activism.