from #Facebook
"Huge crowd last night at the #LiberationShabbat service at the UW Madison tent encampment (liberated zone)! Organized by a group of #UWMadison#Jewish students. Very moving! And a quick transition afterwards in time for the Muslim call for prayer in the same space, beautiful!"
@faab64@palestine@israel
Once again this false map is used. In 1947 the UN resolution called the whole area "Palestine" and called for partitioning it into an Arab State and a Jewish State (as well as a small international area around Jerusalem and Bethlehem).
#US / Brown University agrees to hear divestment proposal if encampment is cleared
Brown University has agreed to hear a divestment proposal from student protesters in May, on the condition that the current encampment protest is peacefully disbanded.
[...] The University has previously said that the endowment is not directly invested in weapons manufacturers. Brown’s Investment Office is contractually obligated not to disclose the content of the managers’ portfolios but assured that none have a specific focus on defense manufacturing.
[cont’d] #US / Billionaire Donor Barry Sternlicht Assails Brown’s Deal With Protesters
Jewish money in US academia is still not a problem apparently… imagine it’d be #Qatar, for example, withholding donations from Universities not condemning Israel for war crimes in Gaza, apartheid, settler violence, mass arrests, illegal occupation, attacks on academic and press freedoms, etc.
Favorite quote: […] the two sides did not agree on “facts and moral clarity,” as well as the scale of Israel’s invasion of Gaza … not sure what he means by “moral clarity”, but I doubt it anything justifies Israel massacring innocents civilians.
[…] Mr. Sternlicht, 63, said that no deal with protesters could be fruitful because the two sides did not agree on “facts and moral clarity,” as well as the scale of Israel’s invasion of #Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack..
#Israel / 'Don't trust the Gentiles who make promises'
Still looking for an excuse for a massacre in Rafah, #Netanyahu delivered a statement ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying: "My wife Sara and I met with Holocaust survivors who will light the torches of remembrance this evening. One of them, Michael Bar-On, told us: 'Don't trust the Gentiles who make promises.' He is right."
Netanyahu added that "During the Holocaust, there were great leaders in the world who stood by. The first lesson of the Holocaust is that if we don't defend ourselves - no one will defend us. And if we have to stand alone - we will stand alone."
Netanyahu. who's manifestly NOT an expert on the #Holocaust, drew harsh criticism from Yad Vashem researchers for Holocaust denialism when he claimed that the Final Solution was the idea of Palestinian national leader Hajj Amin al-Husseini.
אבל אם כבר רמזים, למה לא להזכיר שתיאוריטיקנים אמריקאים אחראים לתאוריות האאוגניות שהזינו את היטלר ושתעשיינים אמריקאים מימנו, תמכו ואפשרו טכנית את ההוצאה לפועל של השואה? יהיה מעניין לראות כמה רפובליקנים אמריקאים ימשיכו לתמוך בישראל לאחר מכן... בינתיים הוא מנסה להכנס בביידן ספציפית עם כל הזהירות המתבקשת...
Al Jazeera’s pre-recorded ‘final report’ from #Israel as ban enacted (this will have not have the effect that ISR desires. Ppl can view repression on social media & other news sites) @israel@palestine.a.gup.pe
The student protests erupting across American universities represent something far beyond a cyclical wave of campus activism. They reflect a profound political crisis that has laid bare the fractures within the Democratic Party.
Pressure on Israel and Hamas is growing it seems. While Israeli officials attempt to pressure Hamas by warning the the failure to compromise would lead to an immediate invasion of #Rafah ("This means that an operation in Rafah and in other parts of Gaza will take place in the very near future," Galant), for the first time since October, the Biden administration puts a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel:
#ADL / Annual Antisemitism Report (with TAU): "Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2023
Concern for the Future of Jewish Life in the West"
I had to read it again: "Concern for the Future of Jewish Life in the West"... Also absent in the aftermath of October 7th discussion is any reference to the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza, for which it is under active investigation both in the #ICJ and #ICC and is an obvious contributor to the rise in anti-war protests around the world.
Reminder: The #ADL is a controversial North American organization, claiming to be an authority on the subject of antisemitism. It has been criticized for its equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism and for allegedly undermining left-wing and pro-Palestinian activism.
The #ADL has been accused of inflating the number of antisemitic incidents to support its narrative of rising antisemitism. For example, in 2017, the ADL included 163 bomb threats to synagogues in its "harassment" statistics, even though these threats were attributed to a single disturbed individual. Critics argue that this "alarmism" serves the institutional imperative of the ADL and other similar organizations. https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/adls-campaign-to-silence-criticism-of-israel-by-calling-it-anti-semitism.html
Critics also argue that the #ADL's conflation of #antisemitism with #anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel silences legitimate criticism of Israel's policies and actions toward Palestinians. They claim that this equation deflects attention from the actions of the Israeli government, soldiers, and settlers, and threatens the livelihoods of journalists and academics who deviate from the ADL's narrative. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/05/adl-pro-israel-advocacy-zionism-antisemitism
In May 2022, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt sparked controversy by equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and labeling groups advocating for Palestinian rights, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), as "extremist." This comparison was criticized by both ADL staff and external observers, who argued that it undermined the ADL's ability to build coalitions with other groups and fight antisemitism effectively. https://jewishcurrents.org/adl-staffers-dissented-after-ceo-compared-palestinian-rights-groups-to-right-wing-extremists-leaked-audio-reveals
The Report:
Interestingly, though, the authors do not perceive criticism of Israel as antisemitism. They state that "criticizing Israel, including in harsh terms, is NOT antisemitism." However, seeking its elimination as the national home of the Jewish people, including through the false argument that it is an unlawful colonial enterprise, is antisemitic. The problem is, of course, that Israel is a "colonial" byproduct, while calling for its elimination is not a conclusion of such an observation more than the elimination of the USA, Australia, New Zealand, or any other colonies.
The authors identify several factors that have contributed to the rise of antisemitism, including:
The war in Gaza
The rise of populism in the West
The spread of antisemitism on social media
The failure of academia to address antisemitism on campus
The influence of foreign funding on academia
The failure of political leaders to condemn antisemitism
[...] The Report notes that hate speech was articulated even before Israel launched its campaign in Gaza, including on leading university campuses, and thus urged against seeing the recent wave of antisemitism as an emotional response to the war. "Some antisemitic attackers emphasize their problem is with Israel, not with Jews, and then attack Jews and Jewish institutions."
[...] Dr. Carl Yonker, Senior Researcher and Project Manager at the "Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry," TAU, who wrote a study for the Report on antisemitism in the United States, said: "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, post-October 7 incidents were also led from the far right in America. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and others glorified Hamas and used the war to spread antisemitic propaganda along with conspiracy theories, according to which the crisis will advance the replacement of the white majority in the West by migrants from the Middle East. The fringes in the United States are encroaching on the political center from both right and left, making combating antisemitism much trickier."
Someone, who identified as Jewish and disliked the ADL's tactics, once suggested to me that there's a financial model for collecting data when we were discussing @babka.social, which wanted to take down an instance because they didn't like my posts ...🤔 especially anything tagged with #ArabJews which infuriated Serge ... Not sure how it works, or if the #ADL is inflating numbers (at least from social media) but transparency is one of their problems IMHO.
@oatmeal@martinvermeer@israel@palestine ADL now includes criticism of Israel or protest actions against Israel as “antisemitic incidents” and doesn’t differentiate between those and actual antisemitic incidents so yes they are inflating their numbers.
Satellite images show IDF logistics route towards Rafah
For the past five days, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been working on a logistics route that extends on the Gaza side of the border near the former airport towards Rafah.
🔶️ Armored vehicles are visible in the Planet images shared by Jake Godin.
🔶️ The IDF has set up a logistics center at a (new) military base south of this point (31.2118,34.2799).
Can't receive aid if the #terrorists don't want aid.
Israel's military said 10 projectiles were launched from #Rafah in southern #Gaza towards the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. However, other crossings remain open.