I am not an historian, decent author or a journalist, and the chances are that unless there is a link or reference to somewhere else, the perpetrator is yours truly – Renaud Sarda. I created this blog as a focal point, to arm people with arguments and facts that they can perhaps use to counter biased media reporting and anti-Israel propaganda, and to help counter (BDS) campaign. I am a Zionist/Sephardi/Jew who will fly the Israeli flag, and defend whatever Israel does.
On Tuesday I went to see the Israeli show The City at the Underbelly, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
I believe in the right to peaceful protest but this was something else. This was frightening.
A crowd of people were screaming and shouting in my face, chanting at me: “There is blood on your tickets” and wilfully intimidating the public in the hope that they would be too afraid to go in.
Mostly it worked. A small number of people including five bewildered girls ran the gauntlet with help from the police.
The Fringe staff were wonderful and tried to offer some sympathy. “Is this Scotland?” I thought. Did I just get vilified for going to a theatre performance?
I am not ignorant of the current situation in Israel/Palestine. It is one of many conflicts that rage throughout the globe.
However, it is time for people to do some soul-searching.
The Israeli show is the only one that will be forced to shut down at the Fringe this year.
At the recent Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstrations in France there were shocking outbreaks of antisemitism and in London placards that read “Hitler was right”.
How easily passion can turn dark. I wonder how the Scottish public going to the Fringe will respond.
Will they congratulate the protesters on their success at shutting these artists down, or (if another safer venue can be found) will the public dare to run the gauntlet like I did?
Sir Peter Bottomley: "If Israel is relying on other people to be silent they will go on with the lack of proportionality, devastation and the death"
Prime Minister David Cameron is coming under pressure from Conservative backbenchers to take a more robust stance over Israel's actions in Gaza.
Margot James - previously regarded as a pro-Israeli voice - has condemned its "wholly disproportionate" attacks.
And former ministers Sir Peter Bottomley and Alistair Burt have also raised concerns about Israel's actions.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the government believed there had to be an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel says it is defending itself from attacks by Palestinian militants and it blames Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying fighters deliberately operate from civilian areas.
Since Israel began its offensive in Gaza on 8 July, 1,422 Palestinians have been killed and 8,265 injured, most of them civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry.
'Just not working'
UK MPs are on their summer break, but the BBC News Channel's chief political correspondent Norman Smith said it was clear there was growing disquiet among backbenchers.
It comes as the US government said the shelling of a UN shelter in Gaza was "totally unacceptable and totally indefensible".
Mr Burt said that statement from the US - Israel's closest ally - was "really quite extraordinary".
He stressed that he was not speaking for the UK government, but told Channel 4 News Israel's policy of "trying to get at Hamas through women and children" was "just not working and it's wrong".
"It's not proved effective in the past, it doesn't deter Hamas, it doesn't secure the peace of Israel or of Gaza, so something more needs to be done," he said.
'Devastation'
A former Conservative defence minister, who did not wish to be named, described the Israeli action as "disproportionate... unforgiveable and deliberate".
He called on the government to adopt a much more robust and vigorous approach in challenging Israeli actions.
Sir Peter Bottomley has written to the Israeli ambassador in London to protest against the Israeli army's treatment of Palestinians.
The letter accuses Israel of appearing to "value differently the lives of Israelis and Palestinians".
The MP said he had handed a copy of the letter to the Conservative Party's Chief Whip, Michael Gove.
Speaking on the BBC News Channel, Sir Peter said: "If Israel is relying on other people to be silent, they will go on with a lack of proportionality and the devastation and the death.
"Anyone who looks at the pictures of what is going on in Gaza, which is a very enclosed area, most know that the Israelis know what they are doing - and that what they are doing is wrong. Many Israelis know it is wrong."
'Unacceptable'
Stourbridge MP Margot James, a parliamentary aide to Commons leader and former Foreign Secretary William Hague, has called on the government to "rethink" its policy, according to Channel 4 News.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, she wrote: "My constituents, not all of them Muslim, regard the Israeli action as wholly disproportionate to the threat posed by Hamas.
"I ask that the government rethinks policy towards the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"The scale of suffering in Gaza is far too great, the loss of life, and particularly the lives of children and other vulnerable individuals, cannot be justified on the grounds of defence in proportion to the level of threat faced by Israel from Hamas.
"I also think that we should make it clear that it is unacceptable for Israel to just dismiss US proposals for peace without any debate whatsoever."
'Rockets and tunnels'
Questioned about Ms James' call for a rethink, an aide to Mr Hammond told BBC News: "The foreign secretary and the prime minister have been very clear that we need unconditional ceasefire and that needs to happen immediately."
A Foreign Office spokesman later said the UK was "deeply concerned about the current situation" and that "all our efforts" must be focused on achieving a ceasefire.
"Israel has the right to defend itself, but must do so in a way that complies with international law," the spokesman added.
"After a ceasefire has been agreed, we can then move to more substantive discussions on the underlying issues, including Israeli restrictions on Gaza, the conditions in Gaza and the threats to Israel from rockets and tunnels."
Israel says its target is Hamas, but Gaza's health ministry says most victims have been civilians
Tensions rose after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank last month, then a Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and killed in Jerusalem on 2 July.
Israeli air strikes on Gaza and rocket fire from Gaza into Israel - for which Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility - increased, and on 8 July Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, which it said was aimed at stopping rocket attacks and destroying Hamas' capabilities.
Israel says it will not stop its operation in Gaza until all the tunnels - which militants use to infiltrate Israeli territory - have been destroyed.
A senior Israeli official has told the BBC that 70-80% of Hamas' offensive tunnel network into Israel has been "neutralised", but said the operation would not stop until all had been destroyed.
A window was smashed at the synagogue in north Belfast earlier this month
BY CAHAL MILMO – 31 JULY 2014
Incidents of antisemitism in Britain rose by more than a third in the first six months of this year, indicating rising hate crime against Jews prior to the current conflict in Gaza and Israel, according to new figures.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors attacks on the Jewish community, said it had recorded 304 incidents in the first half of 2014, including the desecration of a Manchester cemetery, physical assaults and a poster displaying an antisemitic image of a hook-nosed man pasted on a Hertfordshire street.
The rise of 36 per cent in incidents compared to the first half of 2013 comes after it was revealed that there has also been a doubling in the number of attacks on British Jews since the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza last month to about 130. The figure is the highest monthly figure since February 2009, which coincided with the wake of the last conflict in the Occupied Territory.
The CST said the sharp rise in incidents, which range from graffiti on homes to a gang attack by UK-based Polish extremists, had no clear cause but may be due to a real-terms increase in assaults as well as improved reporting to police and its hotlines.
The organisation warned there was potentially a worsening problem with antisemitism in Britain. Mark Gardner, the CST’s spokesman, said: “Even more worrying is that since the period covered by this report, CST has already recorded over 130 further antisemitic incidents.
He said: “There is no excuse for this wave of racist intimidation and violence and we call upon all good people to unequivocally condemn it.”
The figures coincide with figures published last month which showed Britain’s Muslim community is also the target of large numbers of hate crimes.
A study by Tell MAMA, which monitors anti-Muslim attacks, and academics at Teesside University recorded 734 incidents over 10 months between 2013 and 2014. In the weeks following the murder of off-duty soldier Lee Rigby in May last year, assaults rose by almost 400 per cent.
The report found that Muslim women wearing traditional dress were the most likely to be targets of physical assault with victims reporting they had been spat at and veiled garments pulled or ripped as well as lit cigarettes thrown at them.
The CST study found that the majority of incidents against Jews - 232 - related to abusive behaviour such as verbal abuse in the street, graffiti on family homes and antisemitic abuse via social media.
Video: Community shocked as windows smashed at Belfast synagogue on Somerton Road
source: Belfast Telegraph
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There were also 22 physical assaults, including an incident in north London park in June when a music festival was attacked by a group of up to 20 far-right Polish activists, during which a man’s kippah skull cap was pushed from his head and another man was stabbed. Organisers of the festival in Tottenham said the skinhead attackers were from a group naming itself “Emigrants United - London” previously associated with racist graffiti in the park where the event had been held.
The total number of physical assaults nonetheless represented a fall from the same period last year and was the lowest for the first six months of the year since 2001.
The report found there had also been a marked increase in antisemitic incidents in London with a total of 144 attacks, a rise of more than half compared to 2013.
In nearly two thirds of the incidents across the country where the ethnic appearance of the offender could be identified, the attacker was described as white northern European (58 per cent) with 27 per cent described as south Asian.
There were also 27 incidents of damage to Jewish property or monuments including an incident in June when gravestones in a cemetery in Blackley, Greater Manchester, were smashed and pushed over as well as being sprayed with graffiti. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with criminal damage in connection with the incident.
Social media is increasingly being used to transmit threats or abuse targeted at British Jews with 54 incidents compared to 35 over the same period last year.
Politicians voiced concern that as the Israeli military action continues in Gaza, a backlash of antisemitism against British Jews will grow.
The highest figure for antisemitic incidents over a six month period - 629 - was in 2009 and coincided with the last major Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Incidents since the start of Operation Protective Edge began three weeks ago include an assault on a rabbi near a Jewish boarding school in Gateshead and bricks being thrown through the windows of a Belfast synagogue.
In another incident, a group of men in four or five cars drove through a Jewish area of Manchester shouting “Heil Hitler” while throwing eggs and drink cans at pedestrians.
John Mann, the Labour chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, said: “From the feedback we are receiving, it is likely that the volume of antisemitic incidents will increase significantly before the year’s end.”
Antisemitic incidents
Poster
Based on a drawing by a French artist, a poster showing a hook-nosed Orthodox Jewish man was found in Hertfordshire in June. It was adorned with stickers in Polish, one of which appeared to blame pornography and prostitution on Jews.
Tweets
An increasing number of antisemitic attacks occur via social media. An expletive-strewn message on Twitter declaring “war against the Jew in Britain” to ensure “this nation again belongs to our own folk” was posted in June.
Graffiti
The homes of British Jews have been scrawled with antisemitic slogans. In one incident in February, a house in London was defaced with graffiti describing Jews as “rats” and a crossed-out Star of David.
Cemetery desecration
In June, the Jewish cemetery at Blackley, Greater Manchester, was vandalised. Some 40 gravestones were pushed over or smashed. It followed another incident in the same week where anti-semitic graffiti and Swastikas was discovered scrawled on tombs.
En plein mois de juillet, Gan Israël, une colonie de vacances juive située à Nice, a été visée par des antisémites, et a été précipitamment fermée.
Voici le témoignage d’une des mamans qui a envoyé ses deux filles, 4 et 6 ans, dans cette colonie de vacances :
« Une « jeune » d’environ 14 ans a tenté la semaine dernière de pénétrer dans la colonie de vacances.
Elle a tenté de sauter par dessus la grille et elle était très agressive. La police est rapidement arrivée et l’a arrêtée. Suite à cela, un groupe de « jeunes » est arrivé, et a commencé à insulter les juifs.
Des renforts de police sont arrivés, pour protéger les enfants.
Finalement, le responsable de la colonie de vacances a décidé de fermer car la sécurité des enfants n’était plus assurée.
Mes filles ont 4 et 6 ans !
Est-ce normal que des enfants ne puissent pas aller en colonie de vacances, aient des activités normales, simplement parce qu’ils sont juifs ? Dans quel genre de pays sommes-nous, si des petits enfants ne sont pas en sécurité à l’école ?
Le directeur, contacté par téléphone et par email, n’a pas donné suite à nos demandes d’interview.
L’ancien footballeur Eric Cantona dans une vidéo envoyée à Mediapart, publiée ce 31 juillet sur Youtube, appelle les Français à faire pression sur Hollande contre Israël, en partageant au plus grand nombre la lettre ouverte « Palestine, monsieur le président, vous égarez la France », signée Edwy Plenel, dans laquelle le directeur de Mediapart, aux positions anti-israéliennes notoires, fustige le soutien à Israël du chef de l’État français.
« Monsieur le président, cher François Hollande, si cela n’est pas encore fait je vous invite vivement, expressément, à lire la lettre d’Edwy Plenel, sur le site Mediapart, qui vous est adressée. Si vous aussi comme moi avez été sensibles à cette lettre, faites-la circuler, faites-la partager, filmez-vous, pour demander au président François Hollande de la lire expressément. », déclare un Cantona visiblement pas au meilleur de ses performances d’acteur.
Le « Bad boy » marseillais avait appelé au boycott sportif d’Israël en 2013. M. Platini a assumé la tenue de l’Euro Espoirs en Israël malgré les appels au boycott sportif d’Israël des dirigeants palestiniens et des organisations pro-palestiniennes. Le président de l’UEFA a regretté que « le football soit pris en otage » par la politique.
PARIS (JTA) — Thousands of people attended France’s largest pro-Israel rally since the launch of the Israel Defense Forces’ offensive in Gaza.
The crowd, estimated by police at 8,000, gathered near Israel’s embassy in Paris’ 8th Arrondissement under heavy police guard Thursday, shouting “long live Israel” and singing the French and Israeli anthems while waving both countries’ flags.
The gathering Thursday was the first time that CRIF, the umbrella organization representing French Jewish groups and communities, convened a large event in support of the Jewish state since the launch on July 8 of the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas.
Paris has seen dozens of anti-Semitic incidents since then, both during and after unauthorized protests against Israel. Nine synagogues have been targeted.
Organizers warned protesters in fliers handed out at the rally not to respond to “provocations by counter demonstrators.”
Titled “Rally of Friends of Israel,” the gathering’s main message was that Israel has a right to defend itself, according to the organizers.
The gathering was held “because we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself against blind attacks against its population,” organizers wrote, and “because Hamas is a terrorist group that has taken the Palestinian population hostage.”
Serge Salfati, a leader of the far-right Jewish Defense League of France criticized CRIF’s decision to hold the rally, at the police’s recommendation and for safety reasons, inside a confined space instead of outside at a march.
“When pro-Palestinians march against the law and against Israel, I am supposed to be confined away from the public eye three weeks too late, and am being deprived my right to march,” he said in explaining his decision not to attend.
The French Jewish Defense League was nonetheless represented at the rally, Salfati said.
I love Britain. This country has played a disproportionate role in the betterment of humanity – from the freedoms we all enjoy, the laws that protect us, the language that millions of us communicate with and the culture that enriches us. I will always be eternally grateful to Britain for providing shelter to four generations of my family when they otherwise would have been murdered in the Russian pogroms or Hitler’s war of extermination. Without the benefits of British citizenship, we could never have enjoyed the comfortable, happy and secure lives that we have led for the past one hundred years. I imagine most of the Anglo-Jewish Community feels the same way about Britain. I am very lucky to have encountered little anti-Semitism in my life, an experience backed up by the Anti-Defamation League’s report earlier this year which stated that the levels of anti-Jewish prejudice in the United Kingdom were at anall time low.
However my belief in British exceptionalism has been shaken these past few weeks. Ever since the time of the British Mandate, there has been a rather nasty and unpleasant attitude towards Israelis amongst segments of British public opinion. At times this has exploded into outright hostility from the usual suspects – the Left Wing press as well as certain politicians, ambassadors and businessmen with interests in the Arab world. When Israel has undertaken some of her largest defensive operations such as Lebanon in 2006 or Cast Lead in 2009, there have been outpourings of anti-Israel sentimentwithin the media and on busy shopping streets. To counter this prevailing attitude there have always been a plethora of British Prime Ministers on both sides of the political divide who have heroically stood with the free world and with Israel – Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to name the most notable.
When is a great international arts festival not a great international arts festival? When it can’t uphold even the most basic principles of free speech. Last night a play by an Israeli theatre company was forced to cancel its run at the Edinburgh Fringe as the result of the barracking of a group of anti-Israeli thugs. The show, The City, is now homeless and on the hunt for a new venue.
Where exactly would they like these Israelis to perform, I wondered? Outside the walls of the city possibly? Would that be more conducive to their medieval vision of the world? Owing simply to their nationality – owing simply to their race - a theatre company is being silenced. What does the artistic community have to say about this capitulation? They’re rather in favour of it actually.
Why bring up race, you say? Because, make no mistake, race is the issue here. With every other nation on earth, extraordinary pains are taken to separate the government from the people. Putin, bad; Russian people, good. Chinese communist party, bad; Chinese people, great. Iranian mullahs, bad; Iranian people, lovely. Only in this one instance do we suddenly make an exception. Do we suddenly decide to demand the collective punishment of a whole population and its creative industries for the actions of its leaders. Strange, that.
When the state-funded Mariinsky Ballet come to town this weekend, there will be no letter asking the Royal Opera House to rescind the invitation. When the Qatar Philharmonic get a chance to show how cultured their slave-addicted state is at the Proms in September, there will be no commotion. When the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra drape themselves in the colours of a nation state that’s committed to abusing human rights whenever it can, we cheer.
And when, once in a blue moon, there’s a protest against an enemy that isn’t Israel, how do we behave? Last year there was the smallest, politest, most embarrassed-looking picket for the opening of the London Symphony Orchestra season with Putin-suck-up Valery Gergiev. Compare this to the ferocity of the protests when Jews are involved. Compare it to the humiliation of the Israel Philharmonic at the Proms a few years back.
We know what this is about. The lesson is all too clear. There’s no need to pretend, dear protestor. The key differentiating feature of the Gaza conflict is not the scale of the conflict (that’s exceeded by virtually every other war taking place in the world today), it’s the race of what many consider to be the offending party.
The irony is that, on paper, there are any number of good reasons to give this production a damn good kicking. It’s a hip-hop opera for Christ’s sake! ‘A cult hit – written entirely in rap and hip-hop songs’! It probably would have died on its arse within a few nights.
But this is now about something much bigger. It’s about defending artistic freedoms against xenophobia and racism. If the Edinburgh Fringe thinks it’s fine to give in to bigots, I might have to give up on the Edinburgh Fringe.
Police in Calais have discovered what French news media are callingunvéritable arsenal de guerre – a veritable arsenal of war -- on board a London-bound bus.
A Eurolines bus left Amsterdam bound for London via Calais on Tuesday when border police searched baggage and found three loaded automatic pistols, three Smith & Wesson revolvers and a semi-automatic Luger, as well as two Italian-made firearms, a Czech-made firearm, a silencer and almost 500 rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Police have not identified the owner of the firearms. The bus was carrying 35 passengers, all of whom, as well as the driver, have been questioned. DNA tests have been carried out on 12 passengers who joined the bus in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, where the baggage was loaded onto the bus.
Police said technical work was underway on evidence gathered including the DNA.
Prosecutors in Bologne-sur-Mer said Thursday that all passengers and the drive had been left free to go. A judicial investigation is ongoing to establish who owns the baggage.
The find echoes the discovery in Marseille on board a bus from Amsterdam on May 30 of a Kalashnikov linked to the shooting dead of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on May 24. The arms were in baggage belonging to Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman of Algerian origin with links to jihadists in Syria, who was on the bus and is now awaiting extradition from France to face charges in Belgium for the shootings.
British police may be particularly worried that the arms found this week were on board a bus bound for London, as a million-strong demonstration in support of Hamas-controlled Gaza is planned for the city on Saturday.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A woman that police said was dressed in blankets was shot in the leg by an officer at a security checkpoint at the entrance to the Western Wall.
The woman, who was later identified as being a member of the extreme “Jewish Taliban” sect, did not stop at the checkpoint Wednesday evening when asked to by security guards, according to the Israel Police.
Police fired a warning shot into the air and, when she continued walking, fired at her legs.
The woman, 35, identified as haredi Orthodox reportedly was dressed in layers of clothes and blankets, in keeping with the modesty rules of the sect.
She was treated on the scene by Magen David Adom and then taken to the hospital for further treatment.
The former Saudi intelligence head, Turki al Faisal, publicly blames Hamas for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the resulting casualties
Al Faisal’s comments came in an interview published Sunday by Al-Sharq-al-Awsatthat were then reported in English by the website Algemeiner.
“Hamas is responsible for the slaughter in the Gaza Strip following its bad decisions in the past, and the haughtiness it shows by firing useless rockets at Israel, which contribute nothing to the Palestinian interest,” Faisal said.
This increasingly anti-Hamas sentiment is shared by various other Arab writers and officials.
Recently, Saudi columnist Nasser Al-Sarami urged people not to be deceived by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood’s intentions. “While the poor, defenseless people… stand exposed to rockets and tanks, the jihadi and Brotherhood leaderships flee to the fortified holes they prepared for themselves. This, in addition to the leaderships that are based in countries outside the conflict zone, hundreds of miles away… This is the [Muslim] Brotherhood, the leaders of Hamas and the savage organizations. Beware of them!”
Hamas has caused more Palestinian suffering than Israel has, Egyptian journalist Kamal Gabriel wrote:
