What are the lessons we can learn from the below? (Lily)
Algemeiner(http://www.algemeiner.com)
(1) Anti-Semitic Flyers Distributed in Sydney Again; Neo-Nazi Group Wants Jews Out of Australia , 29 September 2014
The Australian Online Hate Prevention Institute (OPHI) is charging that a fringe neo-Nazi group is again distributing crude anti-semitic flyers in the Sydney area, after a previous episode of such behavior shocked that city’s Jewish residents.
Entitled, “The world’s foremost problem,” the new antisemitic flier by the group, “Squadron 88,” is based on the subtitle of Henry Ford’s “The International Jew,” the English language version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which first brought that antisemitic forgery to prominence in the United States and the English speaking world, OPHI said in a statement on their website.
In reply to an email from The Algemeiner, an anonymous member of the group said the cell was founded ”A little over 4 months ago,” and claimed they were not a small organization.
“We by no means have small numbers, however we dont talk exact numbers,” the group member said.
Vowing to ”Bring back white Australia,” when asked “what should be done with the Jews of Australia?” he replied, ”We dont care what happens to them as long as they are not here.”
When then asked if they believed Jews should be allowed to live in Israel, the individual replied that ”Israel was created based on holocaust lies, we do not recognise Israel as a state, however as long as they are not in Australia…”
The flier, according to OPHI, depicted Squadron 88 as “a group that will do what needs to be done for white Australia.” 88 is white supremacist shorthand for Heil Hitler (H being the 8th letter of the alphabet).
On Aug. 25th, residents of a predominantly Jewish street in the city’s suburb of Bondi, told The Algemeiner that they were “disgusted” to awaken to anti-Semitic flyers that were slipped under their doors overnight.
The pamphlets were hand delivered in mail boxes and included classic tropes about Jews controlling the media and being responsible for “race mixing” and “drug abuse.”
“Jews have been kicked out of countries 109 times through history,” the flyer claimed, “Could it be that having them in a European country is harmful to the host?”
The message also included a reference to Stormfront.org a renowned neo-Nazi community website.
Abraham Blasenstein, a Jewish resident of Bondi who received the flyer, told The Algemeiner at the time: “It is part of an increase in anti-Semitism that such low people as the ones who issued these flyers feel comfortable coming out of the woodwork.”
Blasenstein said, “It is not a pleasant thought that there are some people that would like to do the worst to you for no reason other than their cruel character. It was the smallest touch of what it must have felt like for Jews in Europe before WWII. There, there was no hope and no support, at least now in Australia it is reasonable to believe that most decent people will find this type of leaflet appalling.”
The events comes after a terrifying ordeal on Aug. 7th, when a gang of eight teens got on a city bus carrying about 30 Jewish schoolchildren between the ages of 5 and 12, and proceeded to taunt and threaten them including saying they would “slit their throats,” according to police.
Watch a video report of the terrifying hate attack on the schoolbus:
(2) Left-Wing Israeli Journalist Justifies Her Own Exclusion by Palestinians , 29 September 2014
By Ben Cohen
Amira Hass, the long-serving correspondent on Palestinian affairs for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, has written about her exclusion from a conference last week at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank on the grounds that she is an Israeli citizen. At the same time, Hass was quick to offer an explanation that largely justified the Palestinian decision.
Hass, known for her trenchant criticism of Israeli policies, wrote of her surprise at being told by one of the organizers of the conference, entitled “Alternatives to Neo-Liberal Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – Critical Perspectives,” that there is a rule “at Birzeit stipulating that Israelis (Jewish Israelis, that is) are not allowed on the university grounds.” Hass continued: “When friends and acquaintances (including lecturers) telephoned afterward to find out what had happened, I then understood that the rumor going around was that students had attacked me. And so, for the sake of truth, this is not what happened. What did happen was that two lecturers demanded that I leave. So I left.”
Revealingly, Hass commented: “I was at that moment reminded of the image that Israelis commonly have of Palestinians: irrational hotheads.”
However, Hass was quick to rationalize her exclusion. She reported, without comment, that another Israeli leftist, the anti-Zionist academic Ilan Pappe, had been invited to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit which was then held off-campus, in order to not to violate the ban on Israeli Jews.
In her concluding remarks on the episode, Hass expressed sympathy with the emotional impulse behind the ban. “I understand the emotional need of Palestinians to create a safe space that is off limits to citizens of the state that denies them their rights and has been robbing them of their land,” she wrote. “As a leftist, however, I question the anti-colonialist logic of boycotting left-wing Israeli Jewish activists. In any case, such leftists do not seek kosher certificates while opposing the occupation and striving to put an end to the Jewish regime of privileges.”
In a statement, Bir Zeit University denied that a rule banning the presence of Israelis was in existence. “The administration has nothing against the presence of the journalist Hass,” the statement said. “The university as a national institution differentiates between friends and enemies of the Palestinian people… and works with every person or institution that is against the occupation.”
Hass’s experience will bolster the view that the Palestinian boycott campaign doesn’t distinguish between Israelis of different political stripes. Commenting on the mild unease expressed by Hass that the exclusion applies only to Jewish, and not Arab, citizens of Israel, the influential political blog Harry’s Place asked rhetorically, “If Hass is correct in still asserting she has been subjected to double standards – will anyone be calling for a boycott of Birzeit?”
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