#BDSFail University of Illinois overturns vote to divest

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
University of Illinois rejects BDS resolution passed by student government
February 13, 2020

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) rejected a BDS resolution passed by the student government in the early hours on Thursday morning. “Illinois Student Government (ISG) is an independent organization that can pass non-binding resolutions on any topic it chooses,” said the university in a statement. “It provides students the opportunity to engage in discourse on issues such as this one that have been debated around the world for centuries, but does not represent the university administration.” “ISG resolutions are non-binding, and the university has no plans to act on this one,” continued the statement.  READ MORE

FREE BEACON Student Activists Demand UChicago Divest From Israel Students at the University of Chicago are demanding that the university disclose and retract its investments in Israel in a push to pressure the school to divest from what they term an Israeli occupation and human rights abuses. …This is not the first time that the University of Chicago has come under fire from anti-Israel student activists. Its student government voted to recommend that the university divest from Israel in 2016…

ALGEMEINER Hateful Anti-Zionism at Duke University Press Duke University Press has a long history of promoting antisemitic views masquerading as academic scholarship. Their authors have compared Israelis to Nazis, and have updated antisemitic blood libels by alleging that Israel specifically targets Palestinian children to maim them and then profits from their incurred disabilities…Duke University Press is recognized by some as the “publisher of choice” for those who support boycotting Israel.

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“World champion Sagi Muki posts photo with Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei at Paris Grand Slam, hopes he will visit Israel”

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israeli judoka makes ‘friend for life’ with Iran champ who fled country
by Staff
February 11, 2020

Israeli judoka Sagi Muki posted a photo to Instagram Monday showing him embracing former Iranian champion Saeid Mollaei, who fled to Berlin following the World Championships in Tokyo last summer after the Iranian government ordered him to lose bouts in order to avoid competing against an Israeli. Muki and Mollaei are now at the Paris Grand Slam tournament, where their very public friendship in the wake of last year’s events was on display. READ MORE

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Arab countries are looking back more fondly on their Jewish heritage

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Arab states showcase Jewish heritage and memory with renovation projects
by Seth J Frantzman
February 8, 2020

Throughout Middle Eastern countries where Jews were once prosperous, numerous Jewish sites are getting a makeover and Jewish history being remembered. It is a major change from the past decades when Jewish history in many Muslim countries was sidelined, or even purposely erased. Recent stories from Morocco, Egypt , Lebanon, Afghanistan and northern Iraq paint a surprisingly bright picture. In northern Iraq, US diplomatic staff visited the tomb of the Prophet Nahum in the town of Al-Qosh. Ambassador Matthew Tueller attended with Acting US Consul Elisabeth Rosenstock-Siller. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Homecoming: Alexandria synagogue hosts Egypt’s largest Jewish prayers in decades 180 members of Egyptian-Jewish Diaspora return to fete renovated Eliyahu Hanavi shul, even as country’s tiny Jewish community prepares for a Jew-free future

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“The poll found that 64% of Palestinians favor a return to armed struggle in response to the plan”

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Poll finds Palestinians overwhelmingly reject Trump plan
by Joseph Krauss and Mohammed Daraghmeh
February 11, 2020

Ninety-four percent of Palestinians reject President Donald Trump’s Mideast initiative, according to a poll released Tuesday, which also found plummeting support for a two-state solution with Israel and nearly two-thirds backing armed struggle. The first survey of Palestinian public opinion to be released since Trump’s plan was announced undercuts the administration’s claims that opposition to the plan is largely confined to the Palestinian leadership and raises concerns that the implementation of the proposal, which heavily favors Israel, could ignite a new round of violence. READ MORE

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Jewish director Waititi plays Jojo’s imaginary friend Adolf Hitler in the film (written by a supermodel)

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Jojo Rabbit director says critics wouldn’t be as harsh if they knew he’s Jewish
by Staff
February 12, 2020

“Jojo Rabbit” director Taika Waititi said that there would have been much less of a backlash against his Oscar-winning Nazi-themed comedy if his critics were aware that he was Jewish. “They did a press screening with a lot of Jewish press, and a lot of the comments were ‘I wish we’d known that he was Jewish before we’d watched the movie,’” the New Zealand native, who is of Maori and Jewish origin, said in an interview with Variety. “It feels almost like buying into it, if you start considering the fact that you might have to put on the poster: ‘Don’t worry, the director’s Jewish!’ READ MORE

KVELLER Taika Waititi’s Oscar Win Is Extra Special for Māori Jews Like Me Taika Waititi’s Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit is a win for Jews and Māoris alike. Waititi, as you may know, is a mix of Māori and Jewish — his mother is Jewish and his dad is Māori, a part of the Te Whānau-ā-Apanui tribe. He has referred to himself as a “Polynesian Jew.”

TIMES OF ISRAEL Up for six Oscars, ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is based on a novel by this supermodel author When author Christine Leunens wrote a novel about a young German named Jojo who discovers a Jewish girl, Elsa, hiding in his home during World War II, she did not know that years later it would become an Academy Award-nominated film. But that’s what happened: Her 2008 novel “Caging Skies” has been adapted into the hit film “Jojo Rabbit.”

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“Atlantic” honors documentary featuring unhinged conspiracy theory, “one worthy of noted antisemites like Henry Ford, Mel Gibson, or David Icke”

Posted on February 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CAMERA BLOG
The Atlantic Peddles Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in Featured “Documentary”
by Karen Bekker
February 13, 2020

The Atlantic, a century-and-a-half-old, well-respected publication, now includes on its website a video series that it describes as, “a showcase of cinematic short documentary films, curated by The Atlantic.” On Tuesday, February 11, the publication posted Mahdi Fleifel’s “I Signed the Petition, and Now I’m Freaking Out,” produced by Nakba Filmworks, and it quickly moved up to the list’s most-watched spot. The introduction to this video, written by Emily Buder, relays that it captures an actual conversation between filmmaker Fleifel and a friend named Faris who lives in the UK. In the course of the conversation, Faris makes wild claims about Israel that are not only untrue, they are so farfetched that they veer into conspiracy theory territory. READ MORE

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BDS Blacklist: Israeli Foreign Minister Katz slams UN Human Rights, brands issuing of report “shameful surrender to pressure by countries and organizations that are interested in harming Israel”

Posted on February 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

UN WATCH
UN Releases Anti-Israel Blacklist, Fueling Global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign
February 12, 2020

The office of UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet today released an unprecedented blacklist of companies doing business “related to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” which for the UN includes the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The UN blacklist names 94 Israeli companies, including the country’s major banks and its water, railway and telephone utilities, as well as 18 international companies including Airbnb, Motorola, and General Mills…The controversial database, which Bachelet’s office has yet to produce on any other state, was mandated by a March 2016 resolution of the UN Human Rights Council that was sponsored by Kuwait on behalf of the 22-member Arab Group, Pakistan on behalf of the 56-nation Islamic group…. READ MORE

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Palestinian security funding to be cut off in proposed US budget

Posted on February 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Trump administration’s 2021 budgets excludes funding for Palestinian security forces
February 11, 2020

U.S. funding for Palestinian security forces was excluded in the Trump administration’s budget released on Monday for the 2021 fiscal year—the first time that a U.S. government budget excluded funds for that purpose. The budget request does consist of $200 million for a “Diplomatic Progress Fund” that could be used to implement the administration’s Mideast peace plan, details of which were released on Jan. 28. And while it includes an “agreement to resume security assistance in the West Bank,” such an arrangement would likely require the Palestinian Authority to accept the plan, which it has already rejected. READ MORE

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“Bernie is that Jew who has taken his people’s suffering and offered it entirely outward, in the service of other causes”

Posted on February 9, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Jewish nightmare of Bernie vs. Trump
by Yossi Klein Halevi
February 12, 2020

Ask British Jews what advice they would offer to American Jews, based on their experience fighting Corbynism, and the answer is unequivocal: Don’t wait until it’s almost too late to fight for your political home. Don’t pretend it can’t happen to you…More than any other leading politician, Sanders is responsible for mainstreaming the Corbynist wing of the Democratic Party. The party’s anti-Zionists, like Linda Sarsour [and Rashida Tlaib, see story below], have gathered around Sanders. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Why Jewish voters are turning on Bernie Sanders Sen. Bernie Sanders hopes to be the first Jewish president, but it seems the Chosen People are choosing other options…Former Vice President Joe Biden was the first choice of 31% of Jewish Democrat voters nationally, compared to 11% for Sanders, according to a Pew Research Center survey published last week. 

WASHINGTON EXAMINER Former Democratic lawmaker removed from Rashida Tlaib event after shouting, ‘What about your anti-Semitism?’ Dov Hikind, a former lawmaker who sued New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for blocking him on Twitter, attended the [Congresswoman Rashida] Tlaib event on Sunday with the hopes of asking the freshman Democrat about a tweet she shared from Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi that claimed a young Palestinian boy was murdered by Jews in east Jerusalem last week. “What about your anti-Semitism?” Hikind asked before being drowned out by “Rashida” chants from the crowd. Hikind was then walked out of the event by several police officers.

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At NY Harvard Club: “The audience erupted in “mob-like” fury at her query” of featured Palestinian speaker

Posted on February 9, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Jewish Harvard Club member assaulted during pro-Palestinian lecture, lawsuit says
by Kathianne Boniello
February 8, 2020

A Jewish member of the Harvard Club claims she was assaulted by a professor during a pro-Palestinian lecture at the swanky venue — and then was booted by the Ivy League institution. Vanesa Levine is suing to get reinstated to the prestigious Midtown club, whose notable present and past members include Michael Bloomberg, John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Levine, 28, a marketing manager in Brooklyn, said she was a newly minted member of the 154-year old club when she and her mom attended a February 2019 lecture called, “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine” by Rashid Khalidi, a former press officer for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. READ MORE

Harvard graduate Vanesa Levine posted a video on Facebook earlier this month claiming, “a Palestinian man physically and verbally assaulted me because he was threatened by my words”

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