Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Norman Finkelstein is no stranger to controversy. The American Jewish scholar is one of the world’s leading experts on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the political legacy of the Nazi holocaust. Apart from his parents, every member of Finkelstein’s family, on both sides, was exterminated in the Nazi holocaust. His 2000 book The Holocaust Industry, which was serialised in the Guardian, became an international best-seller and touched off a firestorm of debate. But Finkelstein’s most recent political intervention came about by accident.

Last month, Naz Shah MP became one of the most high-profile cases to date in the ‘antisemitism’ scandal still shaking the Labour leadership. Shah was suspended from the Labour party for, among other things, reposting an image on Facebook that was alleged to be antisemitic. The image depicted a map of the United States with Israel superimposed, and suggested resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict by relocating Israel into the United States. It has been reported that Shah got the image from Finkelstein’s website. I spoke with Finkelstein about why he posted the image, and what he thinks of allegations that the Labour party has a ‘Jewish problem’.

*

Did you create the controversial image that Naz Shah reposted?
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/jamie-stern-weiner-norman-finkelstein/american-jewish-scholar-behind-labour-s-antisemitism-scanda

Jonathan Freedland (My plea to the left, 30 April) asks us to imagine if a country far away was created for black people and asks if the left would treat it as it does Israel. As a Palestinian I want to tell him that if, instead of a country for Jews, a country for black people or any other group had been created in our homeland without our consent, we would have objected and resisted as Palestinians with the same vigour.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44580.htm

UK councils face anti-Semitism claim over settlements goods ban

A group is taking legal action against three UK councils at the High Court on Wednesday in an attempt to strike down their decisions to support boycotts on Israeli goods manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW), which describes itself as an anti-racism campaign group, has won a judicial review against three authorities - Leicester, Swansea and Gwynedd – on the basis that a boycott of settlement goods is “anti-Semitic”, illegal and violates the Local Government Act 1988 and the Equality Act 2010.

In court, JHRW representatives argued that its aim was not to silence criticism of Israel but to stop local councils abusing their powers and failing to have "due regard to the impact of their actions upon the Jewish community".
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-councils-taken-court-over-anti-semitic-support-bds-339603008

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

: It’s important to understand what my two posts about the current bout of UK mass-hysteria are and aren’t. They are about correcting the historical record. They are about understanding the important distinctions between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. They are about preventing the Israel Lobby from setting the political agenda concerning debate around Israel.

They are not an argument that Zionism is evil personified. They are not an argument that Zionism=Nazism or Zionism=genocide. They are not a tool for the anti-Semitic right or left to use in an effort to claim that Israel itself is a state conceived in sin, which must be extirpated root and branch.

Anti-Semitism exists. But not in the places and among those the Lobby claims it does. We must oppose anti-Semitism. But anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/05/01/guardians-peter-beaumont-piles-on-ken-livingstone-mangles-nazi-era-and-zionist-history/

1933 Zionists sign a deal with Hitler - The Transfer Agreement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8_bFF8c-Jk

How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis

Last year, socialist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership of the UK’s Labour Party by a landslide.

Since then, there has been a steady flow of claims by Israel’s supporters that Corbyn has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism.

This has only accelerated in the lead-up to a major test for Corbyn, the UK local elections on 5 May.

Even as this story was in preparation, two more victims were claimed in the war against his leadership.

Lawmaker Naz Shah and the former mayor of London, long-time Palestine campaigner Ken Livingstone, were also suspended from the party – within hours of being accused of anti-Semitism.

But an investigation by The Electronic Intifada has found that some of the most prominent stories about anti-Semitism in the party are falsified.

The Electronic Intifada can reveal that a key player in Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” covered up his involvement in the Israel lobby.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-lobby-manufactured-uk-labour-partys-anti-semitism-crisis/16481

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

When Sophia Deeg, a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was protesting on the streets of Berlin in support of the Palestinian cause, one passer-by spat in her face. Others shouted,"How can you do this?" and accused her of being an anti-Semite.

"Of course I'm not an anti-Semite, and anti-Semitism cannot be read out of anything I ever wrote or said," Deeg, a 63-year-old journalist and translator, told Al Jazeera. "On the contrary, I feel hurt and attacked myself whenever I hear someone utter something racist or anti-Semitic."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/04/germany-bds-movement-paradox-anti-semitism-160421084206294.html

Am Freitag(09-02) protestierten »Antideutsche« gegen die Premiere eines israelischen Filmes. Gespräch mit Dror Dayan
http://www.jungewelt.de/2016/03-09/036.php?sstr=pal%C3%A4stina

Israeli beach volleyball team to play in Qatar under Israeli flag
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770965

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

At a conference in Jerusalem last month, hundreds of Israelis and their supporters gathered under one roof, with an explicit aim to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Palestinian-led human rights campaign.

The panellists - including the US comedian Roseanne Barr - called for varied methods to fight the movement, including the "targeted civil elimination" of BDS leaders, which some have called a euphemism for assassinations. Among the speakers at the Stop the Boycott conference was the European Union's ambassador to Israel, who said that Israeli settlement products were "welcome on the EU market".
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/palestinians-slam-eu-double-standard-settlements-160408132605465.html

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The top European Union diplomat in Tel Aviv has encouraged the sale of goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking in Jerusalem on Monday, Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said that “settlement products are welcome on the EU market.”

Faaborg-Andersen made his comments at a conference aimed at stopping the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) in support of Palestinian rights, sponsored by the Israeli publications Yediot Ahronot and Ynet.

“Let me make something 100 percent clear: the European Union is against BDS,” Faaborg-Andersen said. “Our policy is totally the opposite of BDS, our policy is one of engagement with Israel.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-settlement-goods-welcome-europe-says-eu-envoy

What sours Israel-EU relations

In the corridors of power in Jerusalem, one can detect a sense of satisfaction lately. Ministers and senior officials believe that the world is coming closer to Israel in policy and values in the aftermath of the March 22 Brussels terror attacks and the migration crisis in the European Union and the United States.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/european-union-israel-relations-mogherini-brussels.html#

U.S. states, academies crackdown on BDS

On March 18th the Illinois Investment Policy Board blacklisted 11 companies from doing business with the state for allegedly boycotting Israel.

The Illinois legislation behind this move, SB 1761, was passed in 2015. It made Illinois the first state in the country to punish companies for boycotting Israeli trade. Now, Illinois is the first state to actually form a list of companies barred from working with the state’s government due to their alleged boycott of Israel.

As the list of the blacklisted companies illustrate, the law even applies to companies who have ceased to conduct business with Israeli companies in the West Bank, but continue to work with Israeli companies within Israel’s 1948 borders. Companies blacklisted by Illinois include G4S, a security giant that recently announced it would sell its Israeli subsidiaries for financial concerns; Karsten Farms, a South African company that stopped working with an Israeli settlement company in 2013, and British retail chain, the Cooperative Group, that stopped trading with companies in Israeli settlements.

Colorado and Florida joined in on passing anti-BDS legislation this month. The states both approved legislation similar to Illinois to block companies thought to be boycotting Israeli trade from doing business with their governments.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/1327-u-s-states-academies-crackdown-on-bds

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

In Potsdam sorgt die Entlassung eines Rabbineranwärters am Abraham-Geiger-Kolleg für Furore. Der 25-jährige Armin Langer hatte zuvor scharfe Kritik an der politischen Ausrichtung des Zentralrates der Juden und seinem Vorsitzenden, Josef Schuster, geübt.....

.......Langer argumentierte hingegen, mehr als 95 Prozent der antisemitischen Straftaten in Deutschland würden von Menschen ohne Migrationshintergrund begangen. "Wenn jemand behauptet, dass es Antisemitismus vor allem unter Arabern gibt, der ist entweder dumm und hat schlechte Berater – oder er ist einfach ein Rassist", schrieb der Student weiter, um im sarkastischen Ton eine Umbenennung der Interessenvertretung in "Zentralrat der rassistischen Juden" vorzuschlagen....

http://www.heise.de/tp/news/Student-darf-nach-Kritik-an-Zentralrat-der-Juden-kein-Rabbi-werden-3155751.html

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Bernie Sanders confirmed on Friday that he will not attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington next week, and his campaign revealed that the candidate’s offer to address the gathering by video link was turned down by the organizers.

In a letter to Robert Cohen, the group’s president, released on Friday afternoon, Sanders wrote that while he “would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference,” like all of the remaining presidential candidates, his campaign schedule made it impossible for him to attend in person.

“Since AIPAC has chosen not to permit candidates to address the conference remotely,” Sanders added, “the best that I can do is to send you a copy of the remarks that I would have given if I was able to attend.”

Michael Briggs, his communications director, confirmed that an offer to speak via video link was rejected.
https://theintercept.com/2016/03/18/aipac-rejects-sanders-offer-to-speak-via-video-as-romney-and-gingrich-did-in-2012/

Black student leader disinvited from AIPAC for opposing Hillary Clinton

The powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC has disinvited a youth leader from a major Black civil rights organization from its annual conference.

Da’Shaun Harrison, 19, is the vice president of the NAACP chapter at Morehouse College, the historically Black institution in Atlanta, Georgia, from which Martin Luther King Jr. graduated.

Harrison had his invitation to attend the conference revoked after AIPAC learned that he participated in an October protest against Hillary Clinton and that he supports Palestinian rights.

For years AIPAC, the most influential arm of the Israel lobby on Capitol Hill, has been recruiting students from historically Black colleges in an effort to counter growing support for Palestinian rights among young people of color.

Presidential frontrunners, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom are scheduled to speak at AIPAC’s conference, have attracted protests on the campaign trail from young Black activists involved in the movement to end state-sanctioned racial violence.

Harrison spoke to The Electronic Intifada about how AIPAC rescinded his invitation.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/black-student-leader-disinvited-aipac-opposing-hillary-clinton

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said he will not be attending the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) next week, after over 5,000 people signed a petititon urging him not to share a stage with "Islamophobes, anti-immigrant activists, and religious extremists".

"Unfortunately, I am going to be traveling throughout the West and the campaign schedule that we have prevents me from attending," Sanders wrote in a letter to AIPAC President Robert Cohen.

Instead, he offered to send written remarks that he requested be distributed to AIPAC members.

Meanwhile, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, in addition to all three GOP hopefuls - Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich - have confirmed they will speak at the conference.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bernie-sanders-says-he-will-not-attend-aipac-conference-196157799

Pro-Israel lobby in uproar over 'neutral' Trump

It may seem self-evident that a “neutral” broker should manage negotiations between adversaries.

Not so, when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian violence. At least, that is the message ahead of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference that starts in Washington on Sunday.

Ever since Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, promised to be a “neutral” negotiator between Israelis and Palestinians, his intentions behind that phrase have been scrutinised by analysts.

“It’s a very significant distinction from his opponents,” Yousef Munayyer, director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, told Middle East Eye.

In the absence of the US president and the Israeli prime minister, Trump, together with the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, among other White House hopefuls are headlining this year’s AIPAC conference.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pro-israel-lobby-tizzy-over-trump-633647284

You Don’t Need a Weathervane to See Which Way the Wind–and Sheldon Adelson–Blows

I published a new piece at Mint Press this week: Haaretz Columnists Propose Genocide In Lebanon, Promote Right of ‘Artists’ To Rape Young Girls ‘For Their Art.’ Give it a read.

Excuse the arcane reference in the post title to a revolutionary Dylan song from my youth. But if you did need a weathervane to tell which way Sheldon Adelson was “blowing” in this presidential election, you’d look no farther than Israel HaYom’s front page.

Yesterday, the lead story falsely claimed that the radical left was using a new “weapon” against Trump: violence. The subheader read:

“Many want to see Trump fail; protests have now become violent; Chicago rally crashed…”

The report featured several videos, only one of which shows any violence (and that is one short clip featuring a shoving match between two groups of individuals whose allegiances cannot be identified). The videos show protesters waving placards, they show people shouting at Trump rallies. But they don’t show any violence. But far be it from Bibiton to be held to the same standards as real newspapers.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/03/14/you-dont-need-a-weathervane-to-see-which-way-the-wind-and-sheldon-adelson-blows/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

On Tuesday of last week, Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, met with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The meeting was conducted in an atmosphere rife with rumors and uncertainty: uncertainty about whether Israel would (again) embarrass Biden during his visit with an announcement of settlement expansion; whether Obama had indeed planned to meet Netanyahu in Washington D.C. later this month; and whether Netanyahu really did cancel his visit to the U.S. so as to avoid influencing the U.S. presidential primaries.

Prior to Biden's arrival in the area, it was clear his agenda would ignore the Israeli occupation and focus on American-Israeli cooperation in Syria, Iran and ISIS, and the perpetual question about (the size of) American military aid to the Jewish state.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1313-the-u-s-will-not-end-israeli-occupation

Now isn’t the time to liberate Palestine

Last month France presented to Israel its initiative for an international conference in Paris on peace in the Middle East. It anticipated Israel wouldn’t directly reject its proposal, but instead would claim to be “studying” it. France is aware of this common Israeli tactic, as it is one that Israel has used to gain the upper hand in all negotiation initiatives, even those of its strongest ally the United States.

The Jewish state has one unequivocal requirement for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: direct negotiations, without preconditions. Israel then takes its time "studying" the negotiations and then simultanously establishes facts on the ground through Judaisation and settlements that are difficult to undo.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/aicoment/1310-now-isn-t-the-time-to-liberate-palestine

Billionaire donor using British Council to combat Israel boycott

New documents seen by The Electronic Intifada, obtained under freedom of information laws, show that the British Council has been quietly working to thwart the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestinian rights.

The revelations about the government-funded program come as the UK attempts to ban local government from boycotting companies complicit in Israeli human rights abuses.

The Electronic Intifada has also discovered that Nathan Kirsh, a billionaire businessman profiting directly from Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank, is a donor to the British Council’s little-known anti-boycott project BIRAX: the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/billionaire-donor-using-british-council-combat-israel-boycott/15991

Mossad bleibt im Matsch stecken

Der israelische Geheimdienst sollte die Überführung eines U-Boots von einer Werft in Kiel nach Haifa begleiten. Dabei blieb das Auto der Agenten im Morast in Quarnbek stecken.
http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Schleswig-Holstein-Magazin/Mossad-bleibt-im-Matsch-stecken/NDR-Fernsehen/Video?bcastId=25231230&documentId=33911090

Mossad Agents Monitoring Dolphin Nuclear-Armed Sub Get Stuck in Mud, German Mayor Sends $2,000 Towing Bill to Mossad
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/03/05/mossad-agents-monitoring-dolphin-nuclear-armed-sub-get-stuck-in-mud-german-mayor-sends-2000-towing-bill-to-mossad/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

A fascinating and volatile drama has been unfolding in recent weeks around the intrigue that begins in Jerusalem and winds through Moscow, Damascus, Beirut, Ankara, Tehran and Canberra. Israel, Russia, Turkey, Australia and Iran are the key players, while Syria and Lebanon have supporting roles. To the players in the field, the game is reminiscent of a regional chessboard with a lot more than two contestants.
It all began with an official state visit that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was supposed to have made to Australia on March 17. The visit was scheduled via direct contacts between Jerusalem and Canberra. Israel and Australia enjoy a close, warm relationship, and the Australian government officials were very excited for the visit of the popular Israeli president. They cleared their schedules for him, and one high-level government official even canceled a planned trip abroad.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/vladimir-putin-erdogan-netanyahu-syria-missiles-security.html#

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The Israeli government played a direct role in recent policy and legislative moves in the US, UK and other countries to suppress the free speech rights of citizens calling for the boycott of Israel over its human rights abuses.

Israel is now planning to significantly step up its efforts to thwart the Palestine solidarity movement, through its embassies in key capitals.

A 23 February article in Israel’s Ynet takes to task Israeli politicians for making too much public noise about the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

It cites as an example the fuss Israeli politicians made about the “subvertisements” Palestine solidarity activists placed on the London Underground this week.

Ynet claims that Israeli politicians helped the activists achieve their goal by giving them free publicity.

“The government, which prefers to deal with BDS activists quietly and under the radar, is now forced to deal with local politicians who threaten to ‘hijack’ this work to serve their local political interests,” the article states.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-quietly-pushed-anti-bds-legislation-us-uk

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Israeli director Udi Aloni, who won the top audience at Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, has labelled the Israeli government "fascist" and urged Germany to cease its military support of the Jewish state.

At a Q&A session about his award-winning film Junction 48, hours before being presented with the Panorama Audience Award for best fiction film, Mr Aloni said Germany supported the “fascist regime of Israel”, according to a report by Channel 10 News.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-winner-berlin-film-festival-berlinale-fascist-udi-aloni-netanyahu-a6887486.html

Ich habe gesucht in die deutsche Medien die Aloni Deklarationen , aber KEINE sprechen es ......

Art, theory and action: Udi Aloni interviewed
https://electronicintifada.net/content/art-theory-and-action-udi-aloni-interviewed/8834