Pro-Israel kopers ondergraven Ahava boycot campagne

Dit is misschien wel de beste manier om anti-Israel boycots te pareren: een buycott. Wanneer de geboycotte producten alleen maar meer verkocht worden, gaat de lol er wel af voor de boycotters, al zullen ze dat niet direct toegeven. En aangezien winkeliers en bedrijven zich doorgaans vooral door de verkoopcijfers laten leiden, is dit een zeer goed antigif. Dus wanneer je van een boycot hoort, mail of Twitter dan je vrienden met de oproep bij de betreffende winkel zoveel mogelijk Israelische producten te kopen!

 

Over de boycot campagne tegen Israel zie ook op YouTube de video:

"All you need to know about the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement"

 

RP

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Pro-Israel shoppers defy Ahava products boycott call

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
25/07/2010

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=182493

 

Best sales weekend Maryland store has ever seen.

 

 

WASHINGTON – A call to boycott Israeli-made Ahava products in a Maryland beauty supply store backfired last week when pro- Israel activists countered by purchasing the shop's entire Ahava inventory.

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 last Saturday, the organization sent out an action alert urging supporters to visit the store and buy Ahava.

"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."

Rona Kramer, a Maryland state senator, was among those answering the Community Relations Council call. When she heard of the boycott, she though "it's a good opportunity for the community to show its support for Israel."

Though in the midst of a re-election campaign, Kramer pushed back her schedule to hit the store on Saturday morning. When she got there at 10:15 a.m. the store had already sold out of many Ahava lines, but she managed to tally up a $200 bill.

It was the first time she had ever bought Ahava products, a brand that uses Dead Sea minerals in hand creams, body lotions and other beauty products. "I've been using them since I bought them and they're wonderful," she said.

Faith McDonnell, another area pro-Israel activist, was moved to show up on Saturday morning because she figured many members of the Jewish community wouldn't be able to come due to observance of Shabbat.

"There were a lot of Christians who were standing with the Jewish people and Israel on this," McDonnell said.

In its literature announcing the event, the Sabeel DC Metro chapter that organized the action said it was held on Saturday morning to take advantage of the large crowds attending a farmers' market held by the store.

Paul Verduin, who cocoordinated the Saturday event and was one of 12 participants, said he wasn't disappointed by the outcome, which saw Ahava sales boosted.

"We operate under the concept of witness. We're trying to testify to the fact that Ahava is one of the products being sold in the US claiming to be an Israeli product when it is made in the West Bank," he said, saying that Sabeel is a nonviolent organization that seeks a "just peace" between Israelis and Palestinians.

In his letter announcing the boycott, Verduin described Ahava products as "made by West Bank settlers from natural resources stolen from the Palestinian people."

In a statement on the subject, Ahava countered that "the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The minerals are mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally."

Further, it states that Mitzpe Shalem, a West Bank kibbutz where Ahava products are produced, "is not an illegal settlement."

Ahava North America CEO Michael Etedgi told The Jerusalem Post that despite boycott actions in California, New York and Texas as well as in Washington, DC, business has not suffered, nor has he heard from any company that plans to stop selling Ahava as a result.

"None of our retail partners are thinking about it, and we have a complete and open dialogue with them about the situation," he said. "I'm happy and they're happy. They're trying to put the political issue aside."

But he added, "I'm not saying it's not disruptive or annoying... No one wants to have people demonstrating outside their front door."

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."

Still, Verduin said that his Sabeel chapter intended to carry on with its efforts.

"We will continue this until the occupation stops," he said.

The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center is a Christian liberation theology organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded by a Palestinian Anglican priest, Rev. Naim Ateek, the former canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem, and is an official partner of the Presbyterian Church USA.

 

 

Hamas politie in Gazastrook verbiedt tonen lingerie en pyjama's in etalages

 

Waterpijp schijnt ook voor mannen verboden te zijn. Eerder al werd vrouwen verboden om zonder partner of mannelijk familielid naar het strand te gaan, en alcohol is al lang verboden. De Gazastrook wordt steeds meer een gevangenis, niet vanwege de zogenaamde Israelische blokkade maar omdat Hamas mensen, en vooral vrouwen, het ene na het andere plezier ontzegt. Films, uitgaan, dansen en ander plezier wordt binnenkort waarschijnlijk ofwel alleen voor propaganda gebruikt, of verboden, alleen voor vrouwen dan wel voor iedereen.

 

RP

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Gaza: Police ban lingerie displays in stores
Published yesterday (updated) 28/07/2010 20:15
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=303310

 

Gaza - Ma'an - Gaza police announced Wednesday restrictions on women's lingerie and dress stores across the Strip.

Among the prohibitions include displaying lingerie or pajamas in store windows, having fitting rooms or cubicles inside shops, and using tinted glass for store windows. Security cameras inside women's stores will also be banned.

Gaza police spokesman Brigadier Ayman Al-Batniji said the new restrictions will "protect morals and allow people to feel comfortable as they walk down the street."

The announcement follows a wave of new regulations aimed at women.

On 18 July, the Gaza Interior Ministry issued a ban on women smoking water pipes (arghileh) in public places, with Batneiji telling Ma'an that the practice "contradicts" Palestinian traditions and values.

Other bans include a prohibition on women from riding motorcycles and attending wedding parties extending over midnight.

On Saturday, Gaza government police seized inventory from several shops and vendors, which a police report said displayed "immoral words." The clothing, manufactured in Gaza City, was mostly cotton shirts with the words "Porn Man Clothing" written on them in bold letters.

Britse premier haalt in Turkije hard uit naar Israël

Onfaire, eenzijdige kritiek op Israel en stilzwijgen over de misdaden van Hamas is zeker niet voorbehouden aan links, zo blijkt maar weer. Camerons liefde voor Turkije komt waarschijnlijk vooral voort uit economische motieven, net als de Britse houding tegenover bijvoorbeeld Libië.

 

De kritiekloze houding tegenover Hamas, dat natuurlijk in de eerste plaats verantwoordelijk is voor de problemen in de Gazastrook, is een groot obstakel voor vrede. Zolang Hamas aan de macht is in de Gazastrook lijkt een oplossing van het conflict onmogelijk.

 

RP

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Britse premier haalt in Turkije hard uit naar Israël
dinsdag 27 juli 2010 19:07

Door Jeroen Langelaar - Elsevier

http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Nieuws/Buitenland/271763/Britse-premier-haalt-in-Turkije-hard-uit-naar-Israel.htm

 

De Britse premier David Cameron heeft tijdens zijn bezoek aan Ankara, de hoofdstad van Turkije, opvallend hard uitgehaald naar Israël. Zo vergeleek hij de situatie op de Gazastrook met die van een 'gevangenenkamp'.

 

De toespraak van Cameron was  doorspekt met lovende woorden over Turkije en de Brits-Turkse relaties.
Hij beloofde zich 'gepassioneerd' in te zetten voor toetreding van Turkije tot de EU. Toetreding is volgens de Conservatief 'vitaal voor onze economie, vitaal voor onze veiligheid en vitaal voor onze diplomatie'.

Gaza
Cameron maakte ook van de gelegenheid gebruik om hard uit te halen naar Israël. De Britse regeringsleider noemde het optreden van de Israëlische marine tegen een boot met Gaza-activisten eind mei – waarbij negen doden vielen – 'onacceptabel' en eiste nogmaals een uitputtend onderzoek naar het incident.

Ook vergeleek hij de situatie op de Gazastrook met die van een 'gevangenenkamp'. 'Laat me duidelijk zijn dat de situatie in Gaza moet veranderen,' aldus Cameron. 'Humanitaire goederen en mensen moeten in beide richtingen de grens over kunnen. Gaza kan niet en mag niet een gevangenenkamp blijven.' Hamas noemde hij niet.

Vriendschap
Wel riep Cameron zowel Turkije als Israël op, om de vriendschap tussen de twee staten, waar de afgelopen tijd de klad in is gekomen, niet te laten verwateren.

Ron Prosor, de Israëlische ambassadeur in Groot-Brittannië, vindt de uitspraken van Cameron ongepast. 'De mensen in Gaza zijn gevangenen van de terroristische organisatie Hamas,' aldus Prosor. 'De situatie aldaar is een direct gevolg van Hamas' regels en prioriteiten.'

 

 

Ministerie van Gezondheid in Gaza klaagt over onbruikbare donaties van hulpkonvooien

 

Een groot deel van gedoneerde medicijnen en medische apparatuur aan de Gazastrook blijkt niet bruikbaar. Een deel hiervan is afkomstig van de Free Gaza Flotilla. Deze spullen zijn geen hulp maar een last, want ze moeten wel worden verwerkt. Gebruiken sommige 'vredesactivisten' Gaza als illegale dumpplaats?

 

Reporter: "These are disintegrating machines, and medicines that have passed their expiry date by months and even years. They arrive here without any supervision, under the slogan of breaking the siege on Gaza, the population of which is grateful for any initiative to support it. But here, we face a different story with regard to donations."

 

Mounir Al-Boursh: "These burial shrouds were donated to us. This shroud is 125 cm long. It is deplorable that our Arab brothers are sending burial shrouds for the children of Gaza."

 

Reporter: "While they await the medicines that they really need, the workers are busy loading these medicines, on their way to the garbage dumps rather than to hospitals. In Gaza, the decomposition of these medicines creates a huge problem, in the absence of incinerators or designated places. Even if the sick are saved from this medicine, the environment will definitely not be spared their perils and catastrophic effects, above and below the ground."

 

RP

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MEMRI Special Dispatch|3120| July 26, 2010
Palestinians/Inter-Arab Relations

Gaza Health Ministry Officials Complain that Medical Donations Supplied by Aid Convoys Are Past Their Expiry Date or Otherwise Useless


Following are excerpts from an Al-Jazeera TV report on the medical supplies delivered by aid convoys to Gaza. The report aired on July 20, 2010.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/2557.htm.
To view the MEMRI Guide to the Middle East's page about the Flotilla, visit http://www.memri.org/flotilla/.

Reporter: "This is the warehouse of the Ministry of Health in Gaza. To visitors it seems as if everything is fine, but officials here think otherwise. These are medicines donated by various countries and institutions. Much of it has become a burden rather than a blessing."

 

Gaza Health Ministry official Mounir Al-Boursh: "This is Tamiflu, for swine flu, or H1N1. This is two million dollars worth of aid, but the epidemic is over, and unfortunately, some countries get rid of their stocks..."

 

Reporter: "Munir Al-Boursh, the head of the donations department in the Health Ministry in Gaza, says that only 30% of the medical aid donated after the war benefited the hospitals and health services."

 

Mounir Al-Boursh: "A certain country sent ten truckloads of medicine, accompanied by an official delegation, but all these medicines were past their expiration date."

 

Reporter: "We asked about these dialysis units, standing in a corner of the warehouse, which had arrived in one of the aid convoys.
"Why are they not taken to the hospitals?"

 

Gaza Health Ministry official Bassam Barhoum: "These devices were past their expected life span when we got them. In other words, all operational hours were used up in their country of origin."

 

Reporter: "These are disintegrating machines, and medicines that have passed their expiry date by months and even years. They arrive here without any supervision, under the slogan of breaking the siege on Gaza, the population of which is grateful for any initiative to support it. But here, we face a different story with regard to donations."

 

Mounir Al-Boursh: "These burial shrouds were donated to us. This shroud is 125 cm long. It is deplorable that our Arab brothers are sending burial shrouds for the children of Gaza."

 

Reporter: "While they await the medicines that they really need, the workers are busy loading these medicines, on their way to the garbage dumps rather than to hospitals. In Gaza, the decomposition of these medicines creates a huge problem, in the absence of incinerators or designated places. Even if the sick are saved from this medicine, the environment will definitely not be spared their perils and catastrophic effects, above and below the ground."


================
For assistance, please contact MEMRI at memri@memri.org.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.
MEMRI
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Phone: (202) 955-9070
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www.memri.org

De Palestijnse terrorist wiens dochter in Israel was genezen

Waarom wordt iemand een zelfmoordterrorist? Is het wanhoop, armoede of jarenlange indoctrinatie en religieus fanatisme? Volgens Barry Rubin het laatste, en dat wordt ondersteund door het feit dat zelfmoordterroristen niet armer zijn dan de gemiddelde Palestijn. Ook de plegers van 9-11 waren niet door wanhoop en armoede tot hun daad gekomen, net als Mohammed Buyeri en andere plegers van aanslagen. Uit onderstaande voorbeelden blijkt ook dat Israelisch wangedrag niet de oorzaak is van geweld tegen Israel, al zal dit soms zeker meespelen. Israelische concessies of juist goed gedrag blijken in dit geval geen enkele invloed te hebben op het gedrag van de terrorist.

 

RP

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The Terrorist Whose Daughter Was Cured

Posted: 24 Jul 2010 10:13 AM PDT

By Barry Rubin

This is a remarkable story in human terms but there is an extremely important point for understanding the Middle East embedded in it as well.

On June 14, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on a police car travelling on a road, en route from Beersheba to Jerusalem. One policeman, Yeheshua Sofer was killed. Two others were wounded. Sofer was due to be married in three months. It took a month but members of the cell were finally captured. They spoke quite freely about this attack and others they had planned for killing Israelis.

During the interrogation, one of the leaders remarked that only two weeks earlier his six-year-old daughter had been given a free operation in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem to remove a tumor from her eye. The operation had been paid for by an Israeli organization.

Reading this, I recall a number of similar past instances. In one famous case, the Palestinian who later attacked Israel had been saved from injuries inflicted by another Palestinian in a quarrel. There have also been examples of terrorists playing on the sympathy of Israelis claiming they needed medical attention--especially in one bloody attack on the Gaza-Israel border--not to mention the use of women and children to smuggle weapons or even to carry out suicide attacks.

The Western reader--if he doesn't go in for some elaborate theory in which somehow Israel is still to blame--might see this and other such cases as examples of human ingratitude, the kind of thing often found in private life. There is also a psychiatric explanation: the person involved is in some way deranged, causing him to behave in an "illogical" manner.

Yet beyond irony and insanity, both falling short of the needed explanation, this kind of situation is important because it challenges the common Western theme of kindness and concession as inevitably leading to moderation and peace. There is another misleading flip side of this view, too: the concept that what seems like inexplicable violence or "fanaticism" is a direct response to ill treatment.

Thus, for those locked into the kindness breeds kindness model (which often does work in personal life), terrorists must be shown to be suffering from poverty or personal suffering (even though statistics show this to be untrue) or understandable outrage at bad treatment (ignoring the possibility of their engaging in alternative behavior, like making a compromise peace or building a democratic society).

Yet the main missing explanation explaining such behavior is ideology and world view. If you think that the divine being has ordered you to wipe out Israel and the Jews (or Christians and the West also), if you have no self-critical facility whatsoever, if you believe (and are told by the West) that you are always a victim, if you put a priority on revenge rather than improving your situation, and if you view your opponent as sub-human (racism is more frequently deployed by elements in some parts of the "Third World" against the West than vice-versa nowadays, whatever was true in the past), then your conscience will be untroubled by having your daughter healed as a gift and trying to kill the maximum number of Israelis thereafter.

Where have things been different? Obviously, one can insist on one's dignity and right to have a country of one's own without developing such behavior. We have seen this in dozens of cases over previous decades. You don't have to invoke such names s Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr or Mahatma Gandhi in this case. Quite average nationalist leaders far from sainthood have pulled it off repeatedly.

Indeed, such an approach is not only more moral but more effective. After all, if you are willing to compromise with your opponent, the latter is more willing and able to give you more of what you want. If the Palestinian movement had adopted such an approach--which is still lacking to this day--there would have been a Palestinian Arab state in 1948 (UN partition), or in 1979 (Anwar al-Sadat peace initiative) or in 2000 (Camp David/Clinton plan), or at many other times in history.

Of course, there are cases--fewer but genuine--of individual Palestinians saving the lives of Israelis who would otherwise have been murdered. But here's the catch: those people have to hide their identities from other Palestinians while to kill deliberately Israeli children, even in 2010, makes one a hero.

Moreover, it is also misleading to conclude that people want to wipe out Israel because it is doing something so horrible--that there is a proportionality at work here--as to justify such treatment. Again, the problem lies in the ideology and worldview of the radicals, as well as their expectation of total victory, that drives the process. Israelis as a whole discovered this between 1992 and 2000. Sympathy, an attempt to provide a balanced narrative, aid, payments, concessions, compromises, offers all failed. Indeed, not only did they fail but in many respects these actions made things worse--at least more dangerous--for those who tried that method.

One of the times I came closer to being killed so far was when an Arab driver returning from taking supplies to the Gaza Strip or bringing workers into Israel so they could make living smuggled in a suicide terrorist. Six months after the day I saw the dead killed by that attack in the street around the corner from my home, a high-ranking U.S. diplomat told me--with pomposity and a slur on Israel that would have marked him as a vicious antisemite if he weren't a Jewish careerist--that no terrorist had ever come into Israel that way.

Incidentally, and this is an absolutely true story, the day before the March 1996 bombing, I had passed by a woman in full Islamist dress (by no means normally dressed for an Israeli Arab Muslim woman who might merely wear modest clothing and a hijab) outside the Dizengoff Center mall looking at the door (and possibly checking out the security) about 20 yards from where the suicide bomber blew himself up some hours later. I thought to myself: what a great democratic and open country this is that in the midst of a terrorist bombing campaign she could walk through Tel Aviv without anyone bothering her in the least. I wondered later if this was coincidental or part of the terrorist operation. If you want to compare the reality of Israel from the way it is portrayed in biased media and academic writings, ponder that story.

These stories are in no way to say that you don't treat children with eye tumors, or not let people make a living or send in supplies, or look askance at people merely because they belong to a specific national or religious group.

But you also let wishful thinking take over your mind or allow hopes of gratitude to bolster your expectations in an irrational manner.

And you never ever strengthen individuals or organizations who want to kill you and wipe you out on the basis of believing that generosity will make them moderate.

This basic calculus, of course, does not apply just to Israel's situation but to a West facing attacks by revolutionary Islamists--including the September 11 terrorists and those in Britain's tube or Spain's railroad attacks--as well. The idea that compromises, concessions, flattery, and gifts are going to buy popularity or immunity will simply not work.

Note to Western leaders, academics, and journalists reading this: Remember to condemn the people who commit deliberate terrorist murders and refuse to make real peace, not the ones who operate for free on the "enemy" side's children and take risky concessions to try to achieve peace.

===================
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com .

 

 

Eerste vrouwelijke Arabisch-Israelische paratrooper in IDF

 

We lezen veel over de problemen tussen Joden en Arabieren in Israel, maar sommige Arabieren zijn hardstikke goed geintegreerd en zijn trots op hun land en dienen met opgeheven hoofd in het Israelische leger.

 

RP

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Faces of the IDF: Israel's First Female Arab-Israeli Paratrooper

http://www.israelpolitik.org/2010/07/23/faces-of-the-idf-israels-first-female-arab-israeli-fighter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Israelpolitik+%28IsraelPolitik%29

 

July 23, 2010

As part of a new feature here at Israel Politik, we are proud to launch "Faces of the IDF," where every week we will showcase a different Israeli soldier and their unique story.

As a "citizen army," Israel's defense forces are a reflection of the country's multi-ethnic population -  and more than that, comprises a complete cross-section of Israeli society. Male and female, rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white and everything in between. In short, everyone who makes Israeli society what it is today serves together as they live together in everyday life.

While this is nothing out of the ordinary for Israelis, the following story really is making waves. And that is the story of Corporal Eleanor Joseph, the first female Arab paratrooper.

Corporal Joseph, an Israeli-Arab born in Haifa, always saw herself in the IDF.  Recalling an incident in which Katyusha rockets were launched by Hezbollah, which caused casualties in her Arab neighborhood, Eleanor realized "if someone tells me that the service in the IDF is just killing Arabs, I remind them that Arabs are killing Arabs."

And so, Eleanor signed up to become a member of Israel's elite Karakal Unit – a dedicated combat unit comprised of men and women serving together – in order to protect Israel's 7 million Jewish, Christian, and Muslim citizens

The road to completing paratrooper training is long and difficult; it requires great endurance, stamina, and integrity.  Many who start do not finish.  But Corporal Joseph was determined to succeed because "ultimately, [Israel] will always be my home too," she says and adds that despite the conflict and difficulties, hope still exists:  "I still believe there will be peace, and belief creates reality."

To read more of her inspiring journey, click here (in Hebrew)

Al Jazeera meldt dat medische hulp van Gaza flottielje grotendeels onbruikbaar is

Al Jazeera, niet de Jerusalem Post of Arutz 7, meldde het volgende:

 

"The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration"
(Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).

 

Ik ben de afgelopen weken veel weggeweest en heb dus de media niet zo goed gevolgd, maar heb zo mijn twijfels of dergelijke informatie is doorgedrongen.

Ook onderstaande uitspraken van een van de organisatoren van de Libanese vloot, zullen de NRC en Volkskrant waarschijnlijk niet hebben gehaald:

 

"Qashlaq revealed his position in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on June 19, 2010. He said that "the day will come when the ships [which arrive at the Gaza Strip] will take the remainder of the European garbage which came to my country [i.e., Israel] back to their homelands, Gilad Shalit will return to Paris and they [the leaders of Israel will return to Poland. Let the murderers go home. After they return we will pursue them everywhere all over the world and try them in court for the slaughters they have carried out from Dir Yassin to this day."

 

Ben benieuwd wat Anne de Jong en al haar supporters daarvan vinden.

 

RP

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Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
July 25, 2010

Yasser Qashlaq, the Lebanese flotilla organizer, claims the ships will soon set sail for the Gaza Strip. Syria and Hezbollah are involved. Considering Qashlaq's anti-Semitic stance and links to terrorism, he apparently wants a violent confrontation (possibly contrary to the wishes of many of the passengers).
www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/ipc_e110.htm


1. Yasser Qashlaq, chairman of the Free Palestine Movement and organizer of the Lebanese flotilla to the Gaza Strip, said the ships would leave within a few days. Qashlaq asked Lebanese politicians not to make difficulties, but rather to cooperate so the flotilla might succeed (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010). His previous declarations about its sailing were not realized, but nevertheless it is possible that this time the ships will set sail, despite a large number of international objections.

2. The current situation of the flotilla is as follows:

A. The ship called Maryam reached Tripoli and is currently participating in the routine processes required by law before a ship set sail. Rima Farah, ship spokesperson, said that contacts had been made with a number of countries to acquire authorization for the ship to be received at their harbors, because it cannot sail directly from Lebanon to the port of Gaza. Samar al-Hajj, coordinator for the organizing committee, is the director of the ship's logistic activities. Note: The ship will carry only women passengers (Al-Diyar website, July 21, 2010).

B. The ship called Nagi al-Ali (formerly Julia) is ready to set sail, and according to the organizers all that remains to be done is to load the cargo. Most of the passengers will apparently be correspondents.

C. The organizers may have another ship, but they are not divulging any information about it.

3. Yasser Qashlaq said he did not rule out the possibility that Israel would try to halt the flotilla because "there is no limit to the crimes of the entity of the occupation." He also said that there would be peace activists aboard the ships and that the cargos would include humanitarian equipment, and that any attempt to stop them would be "a terrorist action" (DayPress news website, July 20, 2010).

4. In our assessment, the ships were purchased and the flotilla organized with the involvement and support of Syria and Hezbollah, although both do not want to expose their roles and use organizations like the Free Palestine Movement as fronts for their activities.

5. Qashlaq revealed his position in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV on June 19, 2010. He said that "the day will come when the ships [which arrive at the Gaza Strip] will take the remainder of the European garbage which came to my country [i.e., Israel] back to their homelands, Gilad Shalit will return to Paris and they [the leaders of Israel will return to Poland. Let the murderers go home. After they return we will pursue them everywhere all over the world and try them in court for the slaughters they have carried out from Dir Yassin to this day."

6. Considering the stated positions of Qashlaq and some of those involved in the flotilla, and especially their close ties with Syria and Hezbollah, he apparently wants a violent confrontation between the passengers and the Israeli Air Force and Navy with a lot of media coverage. His intention is to defame Israel, even if his agenda is not necessarily that of the other passengers aboard the ships.

7. More proof that this flotilla, like that of the Mavi Marmara, is meant mainly to create a media circus and incite anti-Israeli propaganda, and not to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip was made public by an Al-Jazeera TV investigative report.

8. The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration (Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).

Hoofd opvolger Goldstone commissie ontkent vooringenomenheid

 

Volgens mij is nog nooit het juridische systeem van een ander land zo onder een vergrootglas gelegd, zeker niet van een democratische rechtsstaat.

 

Israel is acutely concerned about the Goldstone follow-up committee, whose mandate includes examining the efficiency, independence and professionalism of Israel's court system and its adherence to internationally accepted standards.

 

It fears the unprecedented UN investigation into the effectiveness of both the Israeli civilian and military hierarchies, by a committee whose motives and preconceptions it acutely mistrusts, could undermine the credibility of the Israeli judiciary internationally and leave Israel vulnerable to censure in international legal forums.

 

Die vrees lijkt me geheel gegrond, gezien de uitspraken van een van de leden en de benoeming van dit panel door de VN. Volgens Gerald Steinberg van NGO Monitor zijn alle drie de leden verbonden met de International Commission of Jurists die bekend staat om zijn vooringenomenheid tegen Israel. Het zou alom door het westen veroordeeld moeten worden als politiek vooringenomen, en het mandaat zou betwist moeten worden. Zitten wij te wachten op een commissie die met een agenda ons rechtssysteem komt onderzoeken, terwijl landen als Iran, Cuba, Saudi-Arabië en Pakistan, allen leden van de VN mensenrechtenraad, vrijuit gaan?

 

Zie ook: VS en Europa maakten in Afghanistan dezelfde burgerslachtoffers als Israel in Gazastrook

 

RP

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

Goldstone committee head denies bias
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
07/25/2010 02:05
www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=182483

German jurist Christian Tomuschat says he won't step down.


BERLIN - The chairman of the UN committee responsible for following up on the findings of the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead acknowledged on Saturday that he had helped prepare an advisory opinion analyzing legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the 1990s, but said he could not recall whether he had done this work on behalf of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In any case, said German jurist Christian Tomuschat, the legal work had been objective, should not be regarded as "a blemish" and did not constitute a reason for him to step down from the Goldstone follow- up panel.

The Jerusalem Post had asked Tomuschat to comment on information it received over the weekend to the effect that he and four other international jurists prepared a brief for Arafat in 1996 concerning the international law aspects of the peace process, which suggested that Arafat should bring his case to the UN General Assembly, which could then refer it to the International Court of Justice.

The fact that Tomuschat had worked directly for one of the relevant parties should have been disclosed to Israel when his appointment to the Goldstone follow-up committee was made, but this was not done, according to the information received by the Post.

The panel was appointed last month by the UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, and is about to start its work, with a view to publishing a report in October.

Tomuschat's appointment had already attracted criticism from pro-Israel legal watchdogs because of his characterization of Israel's policy of targeted killings as akin to "state terrorism."

Furthermore, the Post learned over the weekend, Tomuschat has already made plain his conviction that states are incapable of effectively conducting investigations into alleged excesses by their military forces. His established stance on this issue is relevant because the mandate of the panel includes examining whether the Israeli judicial system is capable of properly investigating the alleged IDF excesses documented in the Goldstone Report.

Tomuschat set out this assessment in a study titled "The Individual Threatened by the Fight Against Terrorism?" In that study, published in 2002, he wrote: "In such instances, there is little hope that the judicial system of the state concerned will conduct effective investigations and punish the responsible agents. Nowhere have excesses committed by security forces been adequately punished."

In the same study, he also wrote that "If a state strikes blindly against presumed terrorists and their environment, accepting that together with the suspects other civilians lose their lives, it uses the same tactics as the terrorists themselves. In this perspective, many actions carried out by the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories would also have to be scrutinized very carefully.

"Normally," he went on, "states see themselves as guardians of human rights. However, by ordering the systematic commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity they themselves deserve the same blame as those targeted by them."

Tomuschat said on Saturday that he had done nothing that should require him to resign from the committee, that he was "not biased" against Israel, and that he had been in Israel many times and had participated in legal forums there.

Israel is acutely concerned about the Goldstone follow-up committee, whose mandate includes examining the efficiency, independence and professionalism of Israel's court system and its adherence to internationally accepted standards.

It fears the unprecedented UN investigation into the effectiveness of both the Israeli civilian and military hierarchies, by a committee whose motives and preconceptions it acutely mistrusts, could undermine the credibility of the Israeli judiciary internationally and leave Israel vulnerable to censure in international legal forums.

Critics of the panel, and its membership, have asserted that it is incapable of performing its work fairly because all three of its members are affiliated with the International Commission of Jurists, which "has had a long history of anti-Israel bias going back to Jenin [after the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield in 2002]," according to Gerald Steinberg of the NGO Monitor human rights watchdog. "Involving ICJ officials in an UN-related commission is another illustration of the link between the UN [Human Rights] Council and ideological NGOs," he said earlier this month.

The other two committee members are Malaysian Param Cumaraswamy and American Mary Davis.

Tomuschat, in a 2007 interview in which he discussed Israel's killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004, said, "Targeted killings are as ruthless as the attacks of terrorists."

Asked if Israel's targeted killings constituted "state terrorism," Tomuschat said, "It is very much in that direction."

 

VS en Europa maakten in Afghanistan dezelfde burgerslachtoffers als Israel in Gazastrook

 

De burgerslachtoffers die tijdens de Gaza oorlog vielen waren niet uitzonderlijk hoog, en het resultaat van een oorlog tegen een vijand die zich tussen de burgerbevolking verschuilt en grotendeels onzichtbaar is. Nu blijkt (wederom) dat de Westerse troepen in Afghanistan het wat dat betreft niet beter hebben gedaan, en ook bij hun operaties veelvuldig burgerslachtoffers vielen. Ook zij vechten tegen een grotendeels onzichtbare vijand die zich schuilhoudt tussen burgers, al is het gebied velen malen groter en dunbevolkter. Moet er ook een Goldstone rapport komen over de landen die troepen in Afghanistan hadden en hebben, en moeten de politici van die landen worden aangeklaagd voor het Internationaal Strafhof, zoals velen wat betreft Israel bepleiten? Het is natuurlijk terecht dat landen worden aangesproken op burgerslachtoffers, en zij moeten er alles aan doen die te vermijden. Maar het is natuurlijk bizar wanneer regeringen van landen waar een en ander al relatief goed geregeld is, waar een onafhankelijke rechtsspraak heerst en soldaten worden gestraft voor wangedrag, waar onafhankelijke journalisten vrijelijk over deze zaken kunnen schrijven en mensenrechtenorganisaties opereren, internationaal worden vervolgd terwijl schurkenstaten en niet-statelijke gewelddadige en extremistische organisaties vrijuit gaan.

 

RP

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

 

Leaks on mass civilian casualties in Afghanistan could form basis for Goldstone style prosecutions against US, Britain and other coalition countries

Robin Stepherd

http://www.robinshepherdonline.com/leaks-on-mass-civilian-casualties-in-afghanistan-could-form-basis-for-goldstone-style-prosecutions-against-us-britain-and-other-coalition-countries/

 

 

This weekend's release of thousands of secret official files about coalition operations in Afghanistan paints a harrowing picture of the fog of war, most troubling of all of the accidental killings by our soldiers of hundreds of innocent civilians – revellers at wedding parties, kids in school buses, ordinary people going about their daily business who tragically found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Given that the Taliban systematically hides behind the civilian population this sort of thing is, of course, inevitable. Nonetheless, it is understandable that the revelations by Wikileaks have caused embarrassment to the governments of all the coalition countries.

But for those coalition countries in Europe – Britain first among them – who are currently cheerleading the passage of the Goldstone Report on Gaza through the United Nations this is more than an embarrassment. In the light of Goldstone, it represents an outright threat to the security of their soldiers on the ground as well as to their national interests in international tribunals.

In my experience, the MidEast crowd at the British Foreign Office and its equivalents elsewhere in Europe tend to be a little on the slow side. So, let me spell this out so there is no ambiguity.

International laws, norms and procedures to a great extent operate on the basis of precedent. So when Britain and other European countries allowed the Arab dictatorships to push a report through the United Nations specifically designed to criminalise the Israeli military's attempts to deal with terrorists hiding behind a civilian population in Gaza, they simultaneously set a precedent for all countries, including their own.

Now that it has been revealed — via official documents — that British soldiers, for example, have been involved in exactly the same kind of operations against exactly the same kind of terror groups using exactly the same tactics and resulting in exactly the same kind of outcomes in terms of the loss of civilian lives, British soldiers and ministers could face exactly the same kind of censure and penalties as Israel.

This could range from the purely verbal assaults of the kind mounted by European governments during Operation Cast Lead right up to prosecutions in international tribunals or through universal jurisdiction laws in countries around the world that have adopted them.

Of course, I am using Goldstone as both a concrete precedent in its own right, but also as a proxy for the whole panoply of terror-appeasement policies and norms that outfits such as the British Foreign Office have allowed to develop, or have actively supported, in the international community over decades.

The Foreign Office and its equivalents are thus proved not merely to have been engaged in the vilest of discriminatory hypocrisy over Israel, Goldstone and all that it represents, they are shown to have been deliberately and wilfully allowing a depraved anti-Israeli agenda to take precedence over their own national interests.

I didn't realise that undermining one's own military or one's own national interests was what our diplomats were being paid to do. Perhaps they would care to comment?

 

Trouw: Gevoel van naderend onheil groeit bij Joden

 

Niet alleen in Zweden en Duitsland voelen Joden de druk van een toenemend antisemitisme....

 

Wouter

___________

 

Gevoel van naderend onheil groeit bij Joden

http://www.trouw.nl/opinie/podium/article3140544.ece/Gevoel_van_naderend_onheil_groeit_bij_Joden_.html

Trouw Podium / 26 juli 2010

Ron en Rosa van der Wieken, Network on Antisemitism - beheerders dejoodselobby.org

 

 

Antisemitisme is overal, niet alleen onder jongeren. Ook de media meten met twee maten als het om Joden gaat.

De lokjood is geen antwoord op het gevoel van naderend onheil onder Joden. Antisemitisme zit veel dieper en heeft grotere tentakels in de maatschappij dan een straatincident.

Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog leidde het antisemitisme een sluimerend bestaan in het westerse onderbewustzijn. Om daar langzamerhand te verdwijnen, hoopten de optimisten.

Maar het onbehagen onder Joden in Nederland en andere West-Europese landen neemt juist toe. Het aantal incidenten mag dan beperkt blijven, het gevoel van onveiligheid en naderend onheil groeit.

Joden hebben eeuwen geleefd als minderheid in een vaak vijandige omgeving. Daardoor is er een gevoeligheid ontwikkeld voor voorspellende signalen, die door niet-Joden vaak worden ervaren als triviaal. Wat bedoelen wij?

Joden moeten op hun tellen passen als er felle discussies oplaaien en wettelijke acties dreigen tegen de vermeende barbaarsheid van koosjer slachten en jongensbesnijdenis. Joden ervaren de diepe haat die in toenemende mate anoniem wordt uitgedragen via het internet als bedreigend. Er zijn voorbeelden te over te vinden. Op websites, zoals Maroc.nl, maar ook in de 'gewone' Nederlandse pers. Harry Mens heeft het op tv ongegeneerd over een Joodse kongsi. Steeds vaker horen wij hoe Israëlische Joden worden vergeleken met nazi's.

Dat schept onbehagen. Onbehagen dat toeneemt als rechters cartoons laten passeren waarin wordt geïmpliceerd dat de Joden hun eigen holocaust hebben verzonnen.

Antisemitisme, een negentiende-eeuwse term, betekent alleen haat tegen Joden, niet jegens andere semieten. De oorzaak ervan ligt in xenofobie, afkeer van alles wat anders is, en religieuze motieven. In de laatste eeuw is de religieuze factor van minder betekenis geworden en spelen xenofobie, afgunst en hebzucht een grotere rol, alsmede de oeroude behoefte van heersers om een zondebok te creëren.

Het is onjuist om te stellen dat er alleen kritiek is op de staat Israël, niet op het Joodse volk. Kritiek op het handelen van de staat Israël is op zichzelf niet anders dan kritiek op de handelingen van welke staat dan ook. Het wordt antisemitisme in twee gevallen. Ten eerste als het bestaansrecht van de staat Israël wordt ontkend of betwijfeld. Ten tweede wanneer Israël selectief wordt bekritiseerd en zijn daden met een unieke meetlat worden gemeten die niet geldt voor andere naties.

Dat laatste is het geval. In Iran worden homo's en dissidenten geëxecuteerd, China bezet al 60 jaar Tibet, Mugabe hongert en martelt zijn burgers dood, de Janjaweed in Soedan heeft 300.000 doden op zijn geweten, in Congo zijn sinds 2007 vijf miljoen mensen vermoord en de lijst gaat via Kirgizië, Koerdistan en Tsjetsjenië door over bijna de hele wereld. Maar de media publiceren meer over Israëls daden dan over alle andere samen.

Op de vraag waartoe deze disproportionaliteit dient, is steevast het antwoord: van Joden mag je verwachten dat ze beter zijn dan de rest van de wereld. Zij zijn zelf slachtoffers geweest en moeten beter weten. Dat is antisemitisme. Je stelt eerst dat je van Joden mag verwachten dat ze beter zijn, maar je bewijst tegelijkertijd dat ze slechter zijn.

De VN-Veiligheidsraad neemt meer resoluties aan tegen Israël dan tegen enig ander land. De UNRWA besteedt meer geld aan Palestijnse vluchtelingen dan aan alle andere vluchtelingen in de wereld tezamen.

De overmaat aan verslaglegging en aandacht voor het Midden-Oostenconflict speelt in op het oeroude onderbuikgevoel van weerzin tegen Joden en creëert een Jood-vijandige sfeer die onvoorziene gevolgen kan hebben.

© Trouw 2010, op dit artikel rust copyright.

 

Woordvoerder Verenigde Naties tegen hulpkonvooien Gaza over zee

De VN ondersteunt voor de verandering Israels positie, en is tegen meer schepen die zogenaamde hulp naar Gaza moeten brengen maar in werkelijkheid vooral Israel willen delegitimeren. Onlangs is overigens in de Gazastrook een luxe shopping mall geopend, nadat eerder al een Olympisch zwembad en luxe hotels hun deuren openden. Daar heeft de gemiddelde Gazaan wellicht niet veel aan, maar blijkbaar is er wel bouwmateriaal in Gaza, en vindt Hamas het belangrijker dat dat voor deze zaken dan voor de bevolking wordt gebruikt.

 

RP

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

United Nations to Flotillas: Aid Should be Transferred by Land, Not Sea
IDF Spokesperson 25 July 2010 , 12:43 Jonatan Urich
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/07/2501.htm


 "There are established paths for the transfer of goods into the Gaza Strip by land. This is the proper way to transfer aid to the residents of Gaza." These words were spoken by United Nations Spokesperson Martin Narisky, regarding an additional flotilla expected to arrive from Lebanon. Narisky continued, "We prefer that any additional aid will be sent via land, especially during this sensitive time following the recent proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians."

The UN Spokesperson's mention of this topic comes as a response to a letter from the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, in which she refers to the flotilla expected to arrive from Lebanon as people whose sole intention is to break the maritime blockade imposed on Gaza.  In this letter sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Shalev wrote that "Israel maintains her right, based on international law, to use any means available in order to prevent the ships from striking the maritime blockade."

"Furthermore," Shalev added in her letter, "we cannot afford to deny the possibility that the ships are carrying weaponry or carrying passengers with provocational intentions seeking a confrontation."

Minister of Defense: "This is an unnecessary provocation."

On Friday (July 23) Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak spoke about the Lebanese flotilla, saying, "This is an unnecessary provocation like the previous flotillas and we view  the Lebanese government as responsible for ensuring that this flotilla will not leave, and if it will, it will be escorted by the Israeli Navy to the Ashdod port."

"There is a way to transfer goods, not including weapons, to the Gaza Strip, by way of the Ashdod port, just as it was done in the past," Barak emphasized. "If it happens that the Lebanese flotilla does go out to sea regardless of this, and refuses to be escorted by the Israeli Navy to Ashdod, there will be no choice but to stop them at sea."

Joden ontvluchten Zweedse stad Malmo wegens groeiend antisemitisme

 

Nog een artikel over het zogenaamde nieuwe antisemitisme, dat vooral van moslims en jongeren van Arabische komaf afkomstig is. In Zweden is het nog een stuk extremer dan hier, maar ook in Nederland voelen veel Joden zich niet meer veilig, vooral in de grote steden. Dit is niet alleen diep triest, maar ook iets waarvoor wij ons moeten schamen. Laten we het in Nederland alsjeblieft niet zo ver laten komen als in Zweden, waar antisemitisme geaccepteerd lijkt te zijn door grote groepen autochtonen.

 

RP

 

PS: Passend is wellicht de video Leo Fuld - Where can I go? (Wo Ahin soll Ich Geh'n?)

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

Published 16:36 11.07.10
Jews reluctantly abandon Swedish city amid growing anti-Semitism
The Muslim population in Malmo lives in segregated conditions that seem to breed alienation and anger directed at Israeli policies.
By Donald Snyder, The Forward
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jews-reluctantly-abandon-swedish-city-amid-growing-anti-semitism-1.301276

MALMO, SWEDEN - At some point, the shouts of "Heil Hitler" that often greeted Marcus Eilenberg as he walked to the 107-year-old Moorish-style synagogue in this port city forced the 32-year-old attorney to make a difficult, life-changing decision: Fearing for his family's safety after repeated anti-Semitic incidents, Eilenberg reluctantly uprooted himself and his wife and two children, and moved to Israel in May.

Sweden, a country long regarded as a model of tolerance, has, ironically, been a refuge for Eilenberg's family. His paternal grandparents found a home in Malmo in 1945 after surviving the Holocaust. His wife's parents came to Malmo from Poland in 1968 after the communist government there launched an anti-Semitic purge.

But as in many other cities across Europe, a rapidly growing Muslim population living in segregated conditions that seem to breed alienation has mixed toxically with the anger directed at Israeli policies and actions by those Muslims - and by many non-Muslims - to all but transform the lives of local Jews. Like many of their counterparts in other European cities, the Jews of Malmo report being subjected increasingly to threats, intimidation and actual violence as stand-ins for Isra

"I didn't want my small children to grow up in this environment," Eilenberg said in a phone interview just before leaving Malmo. "It wouldn't be fair to them to stay in Malmo."
Malmo, Sweden's third-largest city, with a population of roughly 293,900 but only 760 Jews, reached a turning point of sorts in January 2009, during Israel's military campaign in Gaza. A small, mostly Jewish group held a demonstration that was billed as a peace rally but seen as a sign of support for Israel. This peaceful demonstration was cut short when the demonstrators were attacked by a much larger screaming mob of Muslims and Swedish leftists who threw bottles and firecrackers at them as police seemed unable to stop the mounting mayhem.

"I was very scared and upset at the same time," recalled Jehoshua Kaufman, a Jewish community leader. "Scared because there were a lot of angry people facing us, shouting insults and throwing bottles and firecrackers at the same time. The sound was very loud. And I was angry because we really wanted to go through with this demonstration, and we weren't allowed to finish it."

Alan Widman, who is a strapping 6-foot-tall member of parliament and a non-Jewish member of the Liberal Party who represents Malmo, said simply, "I have never been so afraid in my life."

The demonstrators were eventually evacuated by the police, who were not present in sufficient numbers to protect their rally. But some participants complained that the police's crowd-control dogs remained muzzled.

The Eilenbergs are not particularly religious, but they have a strong Jewish identity and felt unable to live in Malmo as Jews after this episode. Eilenberg said he knows at least 15 other Jewish families that are thinking about moving away.

Anti-Semitism in Europe has historically been associated with the far right, but the Jews interviewed for this article say that the threat in Sweden now comes from Muslims and from changing attitudes about Jews in the wider society.

Saeed Azams, Malmo's chief imam, who represents most of the city's Muslims, is quick to disavow and condemn violence against Malmo's Jews. Recently, he, along with Jewish leaders, have been participating in a dialogue group organized by city officials that seeks to address the issue. But Azams also downplayed the seriousness of the problem, saying there were "not more than 100 people, most under 18 years old," who engage in violence and belong to street gangs."There are some things I can't control," he said.

There are an estimated 45,000 Muslims in Malmo, or 15% of the city's population. Many of them are Palestinians, Iraqis and Somalis, or come from the former Yugoslavia.
But the problem is not just Muslims, and not just Malmo's.

A European Problem

A continentwide study, conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, released in December 2009, found that that 45.7% of the Europeans surveyed agree somewhat or strongly with the following statement: "Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians." And 37.4% agreed with this statement: "Considering Israel's policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews."

"[There is] quite a high level of anti-Semitism that is hidden beneath critics of Israel's policies," said Beate Kupper, one of the study's principal researchers, in a telephone interview with the Forward, citing this data and a tendency to "blame Jews in general for Israel's policies."

Kupper said that in places where there is a strong taboo against expressions of anti-Semitism, such as Germany, "Criticism of Israel is a great way to express your anti-Semitism in an indirect way."

According to Bassam Tibi, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Goettingen in Germany, and author of several books on the growth of Islam in Europe, Muslims form a significant subset of this problem. "The growth of the Muslim diaspora in Europe is affecting the Jews," Tibi said. Among some Muslim populations in Europe - though not all - "every Jew is seen as responsible for what Israel is doing and can be a target."

In Malmo, this population's role in the problem is seen as significant. Most of Malmo's Muslims live in Rosengard, the eastern part of this de facto segregated city, where the jobless rate is 80%. Satellite dishes dot the high-rise apartments to receive programming from Al-Jazeera and other Arabic-language cable networks that keep Malmo's Muslims in constant touch with the latest Arab-Israeli developments.

Sylvia Morfradakis, a European Union official who works with the chronically unemployed, those who have been without work for 10 to 15 years, said that the main reason that 80% to 90% of Muslims between the ages of 18 and 34 can't find jobs is that they can't speak Swedish.

"Swedish employers insist workers know Swedish well, even for the most menial jobs," Morfradakis said. She added, "The social welfare concept for helping without end does not give people the incentive to do something to make life better."

But Per Gudmundson, chief editorial writer for Svenska Dagbladet, a leading Swedish newspaper, is critical of politicians who blame anti-Semitic actions on Muslim living conditions. He said that these politicians offer "weak excuses" for Muslim teenagers accused of anti-Semitic crimes. "Politicians say these kids are poor and oppressed, and we have made them hate. They are, in effect, saying the behavior of these kids is in some way our fault," he said.

According to Gudmundson, some immigrants from Muslim countries come to Sweden as hardened anti-Semites.

The plight of the Jews worries Annelie Enochson, a Christian Democrat member of the Swedish Parliament. "If the Jews feel threatened in Sweden, then I am very frightened about the future of my country," she said in an interview with the Forward.

A Chabad rabbi's experience

Because he is the most visible Jew in Malmo, with his black fedora, tzitzit and long beard, Malmo's only rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, 31, is a prime target for Muslim anti-Jewish sentiment. The Orthodox Chabad rabbi said that during his six years in the city, he has been the victim of more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents. An American, Kesselman is a soft spoken man with a steely determination to stay in Malmo despite the danger.

Two members of the American Embassy in Stockholm visited him in April to discuss his safety. From Keselman's account, they had good reason to worry.

The rabbi recalled the day he was crossing a street near his house with his wife when a car suddenly went into reverse and sped backward toward them. They dodged the vehicle and barely made it to the other side of the street. "My wife was screaming," the rabbi said. "It was a traumatic event."

Local newspapers report that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo doubled in 2009 from 2008, though police could not confirm this. Meanwhile, Fredrik Sieradzki, spokesman for the Malmo Jewish community, estimates that the already small Jewish population is shrinking by 5% a year. "Malmo is a place to move away from," he said, citing anti-Semitism as the primary reason. "The community was twice as large two decades ago." The synagogue on Foreningsgatan, a fashionable street, has elaborate security. Reflecting the level of fear, the building's glass is not just bullet-proof, Jewish communal officials say; it's rocket-proof. Guards check strangers seeking to enter the synagogue.

Some Jewish parents try to protect their children by moving to neighborhoods where there are fewer Muslims in the schools so that confrontations will be minimized. Six Jewish teenagers interviewed recounted anti-Semitic abuse from Muslim classmates. According to their families, though the incidents were reported to the authorities, none of the perpetrators was arrested, much less punished.

One victim was Jonathan Tsubarah, 19, the son of an Israeli Jew who settled in Sweden. As he strolled through the city's cobble-stoned Gustav Adolph Square on August 21, 2009, three young men - a Palestinian and two Somalis - stopped him and asked where he was from, he recalled.

"I'm from Israel," Tsubarah responded.

"I'm from Palestine," one assailant retorted, "and I will kill you."

The three beat him to the ground and kicked him in the back, Tsubarah said. "Kill the Jew," they shouted. "Now are you proud to be a Jew?"

"No I am not," the slightly built teenager replied. He said he did this just to get them to stop kicking him. Tsubarah plans to go to Israel and join the army.

Weak government response

Many Jews fault Swedish police for not cracking down on anti-Semitism. Most hate crimes in Malmo are acts of vandalism, said Susanne Gosenius, head of the newly created hate crime unit of the Malmo Police Department These include painted swastikas on buildings. According to Gosenius, police do not give priority to this type of crime. "It's very rare that police find the perpetrators," she said. "Swedes don't understand why swastikas are bad and how they offend Jews." According to Gosenius, 30% of the hate crimes in the Malmo region are anti-Semitic.

Members of Parliament have attended anti-Israel rallies where the Israeli flag was burned while the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved, and the rhetoric was often anti-Semitic-not just anti-Israel. But such public rhetoric is not branded hateful and denounced, said Henrik Bachner, a writer and professor of history at the University of Lund, near Malmo.

"Sweden is a microcosm of contemporary anti-Semitism," said Charles Small, director of the Yale University Initiative for the Study of Anti-Semitism. "It's a form of acquiescence to radical Islam, which is diametrically opposed to everything Sweden stands for."

A dialogue initiative

The situation has generated some points of potential light. Recently, Ilmar Reepalu, the mayor of Malmo, convened a "dialogue forum" that includes leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as city officials, to improve social relations in the city and the city government's response to conflicts.

During an interview in his office, Imam Saeed Azams said it was wrong to blame Swedish Jews for Israel's actions. The wheelchair-bound Azams stressed the importance of teaching young Muslims to stop equating the Jews of Malmo with Israel. But this seemed to include an assumption that Jews, in turn, should not permit themselves to be seen as pro-Israel.

"Because Jewish society in Sweden does not condemn the clearly illegal actions of Israel," he said, "then ordinary people think the Jews here are allied to Israel, but this is not true."

The imam is an advocate of dialogue with Jewish leaders, and welcomed the creation of the dialogue forum. Reepalu, Malmo's mayor, has appointed Bjorn Lagerback, a psychologist, to take charge of the newly formed forum. And Sieradzki, the Jewish community leader, was optimistic about its prospects to eventually improve relations.

Reepalu created the forum in the wake of last year's violence against the Jewish demonstrators and his own controversial remarks that angered Jews. Saying that he condemned both Zionism and anti-Semitism, Reepalu criticized Malmo Jews for not taking a stand against Israel's invasion of Gaza. "Instead," he said, "they chose to arrange a demonstration in the center of Malmo, a demonstration that people could misinterpret."

Interviewed at Malmo's city hall, Lagerback acknowledged an "awful situation" in Rosengard, where fire trucks and ambulances are often stoned by angry Muslim youth when the emergency vehicles go there. But like the imam, he hastened to add that those engaging in violence were a small number of young people. He attributed such behavior to living conditions of poverty, overcrowding and unemployment, as well as to cultural differences.

Swedish experts agree that integration of Muslims into Swedish society has failed, and this undermines the development of a more diverse society. Many pupils in heavily Muslim schools reject the authority of female teachers.

"We are Swedish but second- or third-class citizens," said Mohammed Abnalheja, vice president of the Palestinian Home Association in Malmo. The organization teaches children of Palestinian descent about their bond to a Palestinian homeland. "We have a right to our country, Palestine," he said. "Palestine is now occupied by Zionists."

Abnalheja was born to Palestinian parents in Baghdad and came to Malmo with his parents in 1996. He has never been to the place he calls Palestine.

Meanwhile, 86-year-old Judith Popinski says she is no longer invited to schools that have a large Muslim presence to tell her story of surviving the Holocaust.

Popinski found refuge in Malmo in 1945. Until recently, she told her story in Malmo schools as part of their Holocaust studies program. Now, some schools no longer ask Holocaust survivors to tell their stories, because Muslim students treat them with such disrespect, either ignoring the speakers or walking out of the class.

"Malmo reminds me of the anti-Semitism I felt as a child in Poland before the war," she told the Forward while sitting in her living room, which is adorned with Persian rugs and many paintings.

"I am not safe as a Jew in Sweden anymore," a trembling Popinski said in a frail voice. But unlike others, she intends to stay in Sweden. "I will not be a victim again," she said.

Duitsland: het gedeelde antisemitisme van neo-nazis en migrantenjongeren

 

Toen ik dit voorjaar in Berlijn was, viel me de enorm strenge bewaking op van alle Joodse gebouwen in de stad. Toen ik iets te dicht bij wilde komen om een foto van een synagoge te maken, werd ik onvriendelijk vermaand. Het leek lichtelijk overdreven.... en 'snachts in het café hoorde ik Hebreeuws praten zonder dat het iemand opviel. De Israelische toeristen die er toen waren hadden, achteraf gezien, geluk, want na het Gaza vloot incident is het niet meer raadzaam dit te doen, zo blijkt uit onderstaand artikel.

Net als in Nederland is de officiële reactie op het nieuwe antisemitisme, dat niet van neo-nazi's komt maar van groeperingen die zich met de Palestijnen identificeren, nogal slap (wat niet wil zeggen dat men wel altijd adekwaat reageert wanneer extreem-rechts de boosdoener is).

 

RP

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Anti-Semitic Alliance

The Shared Extremism of Neo-Nazis and Migrant Youth

By Sven Röbel

Following an anti-Semitic attack in Hanover, German authorities have identified a new source of anti-Semitic hatred in Germany: young migrants from Muslim families. The ideological alliance has officials concerned.

It was supposed to be a carefree festival in Sahlkamp on the outskirts of the northern German city of Hanover. Billed as an "International Day" to celebrate social diversity and togetherness, the June celebration included performances by a multicultural children's choir called "Happy Rainbow" and the German-Turkish rap duo 3-K. Music from Afghanistan was also on the program.

But then the mood suddenly shifted.

When Hajo Arnds, the organizer of the neighborhood festival, stepped onto the stage at about 6:45 p.m. to announce the next performance, by the Jewish dance group Chaverim, he was greeted with catcalls. "Jews out!" some of the roughly 30 young people standing in front of the stage began shouting. "Gone with the Jews!"

The voices were those of children -- voices full of hate, shouted in unison and amplified by a toy megaphone. Arnds, the organizer, was shocked. He knew many of the children, most of them from Arab immigrant families in the neighborhood.

A social worker, Arnds tried using the tools of his profession -- words -- to save the situation. But his words were met with stones, thrown at the stage by people taking cover in the crowd. One of the stones hit a female Chaverim dancer in the leg, resulting in an angry bruise.

Inflammatory Propaganda and Criminal Violence

Arnds immediately cancelled the dance performance. Still speaking through the microphone, he said that he wasn't sure whether the festival could even continue after this incident. When adults walked to the front of the crowd to confront and talk to the children, they were verbally abused, and some of the teenagers ran away. The Jewish dance group was taken to a safe place, and the festival was allowed to continue. The last performance of the evening was by a duo singing Russian songs. "They're not Jews," one of the young people in front of the stage shouted, "so they can perform here." A criminal complaint was not filed with the police until several days later.

Until now, attacks on Jews, Jewish institutions and Jewish symbols have almost always been committed by right-wing extremist groups. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, the German Interior Ministry documented 183 anti-Semitic offences committed by right-wing radicals, including graffiti, inflammatory propaganda and physical violence.

The stone-throwing incident in Hanover, however, has finally forced the authorities to take a closer look at a group of offenders that, though largely overlooked until now, is no less motivated by anti-Zionist sentiments: adolescents and young adults from an immigrant community who are influenced by Islamist ideas and are prepared to commit acts of violence.

An informal and accidental alliance has been developing for some time between neo-Nazis and some members of a group they would normally despise: Muslim immigrants. The two groups seem to share vaguely similar anti-Semitic ideologies.

Right-wing extremists and Islamists, says Heinz Fromm, the president of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), are united by "a common bogeyman: Israel and the Jews as a whole." While German right-wing extremists cultivate a "more or less obvious racist anti-Semitism," says Fromm, the Islamists are "oriented toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and support "anti-Zionist ideological positions, which can also have anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic overtones." Both extremist movements, says Fromm, "ascribe extraordinary political power to Israel and the Jews, and their goal is to fight this power."

'A Tree, a Noose, a Jew's Neck'

Although the BfV has not separately identified anti-Semitic crimes associated with Islamist groups until now, investigators are paying close attention to the development of anti-Jewish tendencies within the milieu.

Anti-Semitism from the two groups shows itself in different ways in Germany. On the one hand, there are the efforts of extremist right-wing groups, which tend to follow a certain pattern. During a football match in April, for example, supporters of SV Mügeln-Ablass 09, a district-league football club in the eastern state of Saxony, chanted "a tree, a noose, a Jew's neck" and "we're building a subway, from Jerusalem to Auschwitz," until the match was stopped.

According to the German government's response to a parliament inquiry by Left Party politician Petra Pau, Jewish cemeteries in Germany are defaced, vandalized or destroyed about once every 10 days. Memorial sites are also frequently targeted. Last month, for example, extremists defaced a memorial plaque in the western city of Bochum, a Jewish cemetery in Babenhausen in the state of Hesse and a memorial in Beckum in the Münsterland region.

On the other hand, say BfV officials, Islamist ideologues are creating problems with their anti-Israeli tirades, which are being broadcast on the Internet and television. "You can expect this sort of propaganda to have an impact on certain social groups," says Fromm.

The Israelis' bloody military intervention against a flotilla of aid vessels off the coast of Gaza on May 31, in which nine Turkish activists where shot dead, has triggered a new wave of hate. The Jewish community in Berlin promptly reported "a rapid increase in anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews on the Internet." This is particularly the case on Facebook where, according to Jewish officials in Berlin, users like Ulubas L. are spreading their message of hate with statements like: "The only good Jew is a dead Jew."

Breeding Ground

TV productions like the Iranian series "Zahra's Blue Eyes," broadcast into the living rooms of immigrant families in Germany, only add to the problem. The program is based on a horror story in which a fictitious Israeli general has doctors remove the eyes of a Palestinian girl so that they can be transplanted into his blind son.

Such propaganda apparently serves as a breeding ground for anti-Jewish sentiments among poorly integrated members of the immigrant community -- sentiments which can quickly explode into violence. In late June, for example, two Israeli tourists made the mistake of conversing in Hebrew at a Berlin nightclub. Another guest, apparently of Palestinian descent, asked them where they were from. When one of the tourists, a 22-year-old man, replied, "from Israel," the man attacked him and his companion.

The situation escalated when a Turkish-born bouncer intervened and attacked the Israelis with pepper spray. The tourists were able to flee and required medical treatment. Law enforcement officials assume that the attack was the result of "anti-Semitic sentiment." The bouncer and the man who attacked the Israelis, whose identity is still unknown, are being investigated for aggravated assault and battery.

The Jewish community in Worms, located in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, was also the target of a recent attack. In mid-May, unknown assailants tried to set the city's historic synagogue on fire. Forensics experts later identified eight sources of fire at the crime scene. In addition, a Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of the synagogue's library.

Understanding the Background

The community was lucky; the building did not go up in flames. Nearby, the police found letters claiming responsibility, written in broken German: "As long as you don't leave the Palestinians alone, we won't leave you alone." It is still unclear whether the pamphlets indicate that the perpetrators were Islamists or were left there as a red herring. According to the state's Interior Ministry, the authorities are "working hard to investigate all possible leads."

Meanwhile residents and social workers are trying to understand the background and motives of the adolescents who attacked Jewish dancers with stones at the "International Day" event in Hanover's Sahlkamp neighborhood.

There is no visible evidence of Jewish life in the district, which has about 14,000 residents. According to the police, the stone-throwing incident on June 19 was the first case of anti-Semitic violence in the area. So far, authorities have identified 12 possible suspects. They are between 9 and 19 years old, many are not yet old enough to be prosecuted, and 11 of them have an "Arab immigrant background," according to the public prosecutor's office in the city. No one has said anything yet on the possible motives for the attack. The only comments, so far, came from a little girl, perhaps 10 or 11 years old, who was addressed immediately after the attack by a woman attending the neighborhood festival.

"What's going on here?" the woman asked.

"The Germans say: Foreigners out!" the girl replied. "Why can't we say: Jews out?" Then she ran away.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,706245,00.html

 

Hamas en Hezbollah solidair met massamoordenaar al-Bashir van Soedan

 

Het zou natuurlijk niet mogen verbazen gezien de doelstellingen en acties van beide organisaties. Zowel Hezbollah als Hamas vinden het een nobele zaak om zoveel mogelijk Joden te doden (Hezbollah leider Nasrallah heeft zelfs gezegd dat het een goede zaak is dat de Joden zich in Israel verzamelen want dan hoeft men ze niet wereldwijd te vervolgen om ze te doden), en beide maken gebruik van klassieke antisemitische stereotiepen over Joodse almacht (in het handvest van Hamas worden de Protocollen van de WIjzen van Zion aangehaald om de kwade intenties van de Joden te 'bewijzen'). Toch is het in vooral progressieve kringen bon-ton geworden om beide als legitieme verzetsbewegingen te beschouwen die opkomen voor Palestijnse c.q. Libanese rechten. Misschien dat hun beider warme steun voor de crimineel en massamoordenaar Omar al-Bashir de ware aard van deze organisaties nog wat verheldert.

 

RP

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Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
July 25, 2010
www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hamas_e121.htm

Hamas and Hezbollah expressed sympathy with the president of Sudan over the second arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for counts of genocide.


Overview

1. On July 12, 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a second warrant of arrest against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for three counts of genocide. Soon after, Hezbollah and Hamas expressed unequivocal solidarity with the president of Sudan, condemning the international community (mainly the US) and the international system of justice, claiming it serves political elements of world powers.

2. Hamas' support for the president of Sudan despite the serious genocide allegations, as well as its harsh statements against the international system of justice, is all the more notable considering Hamas' worldwide efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel and its leaders. Those efforts include making use of international and country-specific systems of justice to sue Israeli top officials.

The arrest warrant

3. On July 12, the ICC issued a second arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for three counts of genocide committed against three different ethnic groups in Sudan. The counts include: genocide by killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and "deliberately inflicting on each target group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction".

4. Al-Bashir still faces another ICC arrest warrant, which is not revoked by the one issued on July 12. The previous warrant, dated March 4, 2009, was issued against Al-Bashir for five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forced transfer, torture, and rape) and two counts of war crimes (intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities, and pillaging).

The reaction of Hamas

5. Speaking at a ceremony naming a street after the shaheeds of the "Freedom Flotilla", the Hamas de-facto administration chief Isma'il Haniyah said the following: "Even as the international community remains silent over real crimes and state-sponsored terrorism directed against the Palestinian people in Gaza and those who sympathize with them, [false] allegations are leveled against the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir". He further expressed complete solidarity with the Sudanese president (Ma'an, July 14, 2010).

6. This is not the first time that Hamas has expressed sympathy with Al-Bashir. When the first arrest warrant was issued against him for crimes against humanity and war crimes, Hamas called on Arab countries and the world of Islam to stand up for Al-Bashir and Sudan against the "unfair attack on it". Hamas declared "unequivocal solidarity" with the president, rejecting the "unfair allegations against him". According to Hamas, those allegations serve a system of international justice that "reflects the interests of the US and ignores the doings of the true criminals", i.e., Israel (Aqsaa.com, July 15, 2010).

The reaction of Hezbollah

7. On July 13, Hezbollah published the following announcement on its website (Al-Intiqad), expressing solidarity with the president of Sudan: "Hezbollah is hereby expressing complete solidarity with Sudan-with its president, its government, and its people-over the new allegations leveled against the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, by the International Criminal Court. Those allegations are a new form of verdicts issued by international elements according to the whims of their superiors, with the purpose of furthering political objectives. Hezbollah condemns the silence of the international legal institutions over the ongoing and escalating Zionist crimes, a silence motivated by the instructions of arrogant countries. Yet those [international legal] institutions act in accordance with political interests in Sudan and in other countries to serve those ruling countries [i.e., the US and Western countries]. This makes those courts biased and unquestionably political" (Al-Intiqad, July 13, 2010).1

============
1 Hezbollah published the announcement on the Arabic version of its website.
It is nowhere to be found on the English version.

Joodse heimwee naar Zion ongehoord in Ramallah

 

De Palestijnse fans van Boney M zullen zeker ook bekend zijn geweest met één van hun grootste hits, "Rivers of Babylon", en wie weet had het nummer bij hen juist associaties opgeroepen met de Palestijnse 'verbanning' uit Jeruzalem, Jaffa, Safed en andere plaatsen waar een deel van de Palestijnen hun wortels had.

 

Wouter

 

Zie ook: Israel boycot

Elvis Costello en de boycot van Israel

BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) voor Israel?

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The Associated Press / July 22, 2010
Boney M asked to skip hit in West Bank gig
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jH-40LukweU-pTqtUy8NewItYahQD9H43R900

(AP) – RAMALLAH, West Bank — When the iconic 1970s disco group Boney M rocked Ramallah this week, the local music festival prevented the band from performing one of its biggest hits.

Lead singer Maizie Williams said Palestinian concert organizers told her not to sing "Rivers of Babylon." The song's chorus quotes from the Book of Psalms, referring to the exiled Jewish people's yearning to return to the biblical land of Israel.

Palestinians often question the Jewish historical connection to the Holy Land. Organizers said they asked for the song to be skipped, deeming it "inappropriate."

"I don't know if it is a political thing or what, but they asked us not to do it and we were a bit disappointed that we could not do it because we know that everybody loves this song no matter what," she said.

The band performed its other big hits, like "Ma Baker," "Daddy Cool," and "Rasputin" in front of hundreds of screaming fans.

The Palestinian International Festival started Monday and runs through Saturday, bringing international performances to the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron and Bethlehem.

The concert comes amid a Palestinian campaign to get international artists to boycott Israel. The Pixies and Elvis Costello, among others, have canceled concerts in Israel following pressure from pro-Palestinian groups.

"I believe you should entertain wherever you are asked to entertain, whether it is Israel, whether it is Palestine, whether it is Lebanon, where ever it is, we go," Williams said in Ramallah.

"At the end of the day, politics is one thing and entertainment is another thing and when I got into the entertainment business I didn't get into it for politics. I got into it to make people happy," she said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGyfxOCYvtM

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.

When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land

When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Requiring of us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land

Let the words of our mouth
and the meditations of our heart
be acceptable in thy sight here tonight

Let the words of our mouth
and the meditation of our hearts
be acceptable in thy sight here tonight

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.

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