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→ 15 July 2019
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Israel-Embassy-Sponsored Scholarship Should Be Terminated Kristin Crowe | Salient

NZFOI: This article describes Student for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) campaign to have an Israeli government academic prize withdrawn. It is a step toward mounting further pressure on the Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) to adopt BDS. Salient is the VUW weekly student magazine.

On Thursday, 16 May, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a meeting at Berrigan House to protest a scholarship for essays on the Israeli State—a state whose political systems they say are inherently “racist” and “brutal”.

The Embassy of Israel Prize in Political Science and International Relations is listed on Victoria’s website through the Department of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations. The $250 scholarship is awarded to one student per year on the merit of an essay on one of the given topics—including ”Israel and the Middle East”, ”Israel’s bilaterial relations with its neighbours”, and ”Israel’s democracy in the context of the Middle East”. The winner is selected by the Head of Department, and the winning essay “may be provided” to the Ambassador.

In the wake of a century of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, US interventions have failed to produce peace. Israel’s continued presence in Gaza and the West Bank—including building settlements illegally in Palestinian territory, restricting the flow of commercial goods to Palestine, and denying Palestinians the right to vote—has sparked an international protest movement. Proponents are calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state.

Many universities in the US, Canada, and New Zealand have SJP groups which promote BDS on their campuses. Victoria is not currently participating in BDS protest, and maintains ties with Israeli universities. Lecturers from these universities have appeared on Kelburn campus, drawing criticism.

SJP at VUW are calling for the university to terminate the prize, calling VUW’s partnership with Israel “unjust” because the political climate in Israel is “directly comparable” to Apartheid South Africa.

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→ 14 July 2019
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New Zealand Jewish Council accuses Green Party MP of ‘antisemitism’ | Stuff

Golriz Ghahraman

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman has been accused of antisemitism by the New Zealand Jewish Council.

The MP has come under fire after responding to a tweet on Thursday which suggested Mary and Joseph, the mother and father of Jesus according to the New Testament, were refugees. 

“They were literally Palestinian refugees. And she (Mary) normally had her hair covered because that’s what modesty looked like in her culture…but let’s keep fighting about what race mermaids are,” Ghahraman tweeted. 

New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses said calling Mary and Joseph Palestinian refugees was disrespectful to the Jewish community.

“Ms Ghahraman, by refusing to acknowledge that Jesus was Jewish, including when many people pointed out her error, is continuing to erase that connection, a favourite tactic of those who aim to delegitimise the modern day Jewish presence in the land,” she said. 

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→ 7 June 2019
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The Netherlands makes fighting antisemitism a national priority | Jerusalem Post

The government previously has not budgeted a lump sum for fighting antisemitism, only for specific issues connected to it such as security at Jewish institutions.

The Dutch government has allocated $3.535 million towards fighting anti-Semitism – the first time Holland has placed the fight on its list of national priorities.

The funding, earmarked earlier this week during budget talks among members of the ruling coalition, establishes the fight against anti-Semitism as a key point demanding government attention alongside education, immigrant integration and five additional issues.

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→ 5 June 2019
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NZ votes against Israel in WHO resolution with false accusations | UN Watch

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (above), Director-General of the World Health Organization, blames Israel for violating the health rights of Palestinians and Syrians in the Golan in a report which was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 22, 2019.

Intriguingly New Zealand decided to vote in favour of this resolution. Its recent voting history at the UN, in relation to Israeli issues suggests that the New Zealand government has turned from a founding supporter of Israel to one of its most active opponents. New Zealand must re-think its root cause analysis. How many Holocausts must humanity endure before it realises the necessity for a Jewish homeland where all Jews may live without fear of subjugation, persecution and eradication? — NZFOI

GENEVA, May 22, 2019 — The annual assembly of the UN’s World Health Organization today voted 96 to 11 for a resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab bloc and the Palestinian delegation, that singled out Israel over “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, condemned the delegates’ abuse of the UN body as a forum to target Israel.

“Out of 21 items on the meeting’s Agenda, only one—Item No. 14 against Israel—focused on a specific country. There was no agenda item or resolution on any other country, including Syria, where hospitals and medical infrastructure have suffered devastating bombings by Syrian and Russian forces; Yemen, where 19.7 million people lack access to health care service due to the current crisis; or Venezuela, where the health system has collapsed, causing millions to flee the country,” said Neuer.

“Today’s resolution is a fantastic lie. The UN reached new heights of absurdity by enacting a resolution which accuses Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, even as in reality Israeli hospitals provide life-saving treatment to Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime’s barbaric attacks,” he said.

“Shame on France, Belgium and Sweden for encouraging this hijacking of the annual world health assembly, and diverting precious time, money, and resources from global health priorities, in order to wage a political prosecution of Israel, especially when, in reality, anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they are providing world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs—including last week to Palestinian leader Jibril Rajoub—as well as to Syrians fleeing Assad,” Neuer added.

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→ 27 May 2019
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German Jews warned not to wear kippas | Stuff

Israel’s president said Sunday (Monday NZT) he is shocked by a German official’s comment that he wouldn’t advise Jews to wear skullcaps in parts of the country, which is drawing mixed reactions at home.

Felix Klein, the government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, was quoted Saturday as saying: “I cannot recommend to Jews that they wear the skullcap at all times everywhere in Germany.”

He didn’t elaborate on what places and times might be risky.

“The statement of the German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner that it would be preferable for Jews not wear a kippa in Germany out of fear for their safety, shocked me deeply,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement.

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→ 23 May 2019
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No, Israel isn’t a country of privileged and powerful white Europeans | LA Times

Mizrahi Jews

Along with resurgent identity politics in the United States and Europe, there is a growing inclination to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of race. According to this narrative, Israel was established as a refuge for oppressed white European Jews who in turn became oppressors of people of color, the Palestinians.

As an Israeli, and the son of an Iraqi Jewish mother and North African Jewish father, it’s gut-wrenching to witness this shift.

I am Mizrahi, as are the majority of Jews in Israel today. We are of Middle Eastern and North African descent. Only about 30% of Israeli Jews are Ashkenazi, or the descendants of European Jews. I am baffled as to why mainstream media and politicians around the world ignore or misrepresent these facts and the Mizrahi story. Perhaps it’s because our history shatters a stereotype about the identity of my country and my people.

Jews that were expelled from nations across the Middle East have been crucial in building and defending the Jewish state since its outset.

Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, was not established for just one type of Jew but for all Jews, from every part of the world — the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia, Asia and, yes, Europe. No matter where Jews physically reside, they maintain a connection to the land of Israel, where our story started and where today we continue to craft it.

The likes of Women’s March activist Tamika Mallory, Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill and, more recently, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) falsify reality in their discussions of Palestinians’ “intersectional” struggle, their use of the term “apartheid” to characterize Israeli policy, and their tendency to define Israelis as Ashkenazi Jews alone.

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→ 14 May 2019
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CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday 2pm: “Denial”

Deborah Liptstadt

On Sunday in Christchurch we will be screening the movie “Denial”, the fascinating story of how a British court found David Irving guilty of being a fraudulent Holocaust denier after accusing historian Deborah Lipstadt of libel after she called him out.

Here’s an article by Lipstadt commenting on Anti-Semitism in the US today.  However, there are themes here that should resonate with New Zealand readers. 

The NZ government’s silence regarding the recent Gaza rocket attacks, and not calling out BDS actions in New Zealand as anti-Semitism show how conflicted our government’s attitudes are in relation to Israel.

The screening will be on Sunday, May 19, 2pm, Northwood Villa Clubrooms, Northwood Villa Crescent, Northwood, Christchurch 8051. Please bring a plate of finger food for afternoon tea.  We’d be grateful if you refrained from bringing any pork and/or seafood products.  

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→ 10 May 2019
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Arkansas white supremacists shout ‘6 million more’ | Jerusalem Post

American neo-Nazis protested in favor of Dr. Michael Link, who used to teach in Arkansas Tech University for 50 years and told students that the Holocaust “didn’t happen.”

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→ 3 May 2019
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How an anti-Semitic cartoon ended up in the New York Times | CNN

Reporters in the New York Times (NYT) newsroom could hear the protesters outside on Monday.  “Shame on you!” they shouted.  Some held signs that accused the newspaper of being anti-Semitic.  Others waved American and Israeli flags.

the demonstrators packed Eighth Avenue in New York City in response to a recent cartoon that was baldly anti-Semitic.  The image appeared in international editions of The Times last Thursday.  It called to mind “a very dark time in Jewish history,” lawyer Alan Dershowitz said at the protest.  “I ask myself, how could it happen?”

That’s what staffers at the Times wanted to know too.

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→ 3 May 2019
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Gov’t report: Bot network operating Eurovision boycott campaign | Jerusalem Post

The Eurovision Song Contest Finals are set to begin on May 14.  In NZ, it isn’t a big thing but it does garner a several hundred million TV audience.  This year it is being held in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Consequently, the BDS Movement has made great effort to have it boycotted.  Manipulation of social media seems to be the tactique du jour and the BDS Movement have taken to it with alacrity.

“The anti-semitic BDS Activists are trying every deceptive way to attack Israel, even when dealing with Eurovision which aims to unite people and cultures,” Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said Thursday.  “We have now proven that the boycott organizations are not only antisemitic and support terror, but lie and fabricate support for their agenda.”

The ministry said it began investigating the issue in November 2018.  Last month, it sent information on the 232 accounts in question to both Twitter and the European Broadcasting Union.  As of Thursday, the Ministry said, 33 of the accounts had been closed.

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