Today’s anti-Semitism is a product of a new civic religion that could be termed "Palestinianism."

On Sunday, Robert S. Wistrich – the director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – emailed the following column to ‘Jerusalem Post’ Editor-in-Chief Steve Linde, asking that it be published in the coming week. Wistrich died suddenly on Tuesday. We dedicate his last column to perpetuating his memory. May his words live on.

There are few topics of more pressing concern today to Jewish communities around the world than the current resurgence of anti-Semitism. Thus, there could have been no more appropriate time for the 5th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism to meet than last week in Jerusalem. It was a large and impressive gathering of participants from all over the world, initiated by the Foreign Ministry, together with its Diaspora Affairs Department.

In my own remarks to the conference I emphasized the need to free ourselves from certain outdated myths. My first point was that even today, Jews in Israel and the Diaspora are fixated on the dangers of far-right traditional anti-Semitism – whether racist, religious or nationalist. While neo-fascism has not altogether disappeared, it is in most cases a secondary threat.

Second, there is an illusory belief that more Holocaust education and memorialization can serve as an effective antidote to contemporary anti-Semitism. This notion, shared by many governments and well-meaning liberal gentiles, is quite unfounded. On the contrary, today “Holocaust inversion” (the perverse transformation of Jews into Nazis and Muslims into victimized “Jews”) all-too-often becomes a weapon with which to pillory Israel and denigrate the Jewish people. Hence the approach to this entire subject requires considerable rethinking, updating and fine-tuning.

Third, we must recognize much more clearly than before that since 1975 (with the passing of the scandalous UN resolution condemning Zionism as racism) hatred of Israel has increasingly mutated into the chief vector for the “new” anti-Semitism.

By libeling the Jewish state as “racist,” “Nazi,” “apartheid” and founded from its inception on “ethnic cleansing,” its enemies have turned Zionism into a synonym for criminality and a term of pure opprobrium.

Hence, every Jew (or non- Jew) who supports the totally “illegitimate” or immoral “Zionist entity” is thereby complicit in a cosmic evil.

Fourth, today’s anti-Semitism is a product of a new civic religion that could be termed “Palestinianism.”

The official Palestinian narrative seeks to supplant Israel with a judenrein Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. In the case of Hamas, this intent is absolutely explicit. With Fatah, it is partly veiled for tactical reasons.

But when it comes to the Palestinian ideology and the millions around the world who support it, virtually all actions of self-defense by Israel are instantly classified as “genocide,” demonized and treated as part of a sinister Jewish-imperialist conspiracy. Not surprisingly, then, pro-Palestine demonstrations, beginning in the summer of 2014, were often accompanied by ugly chants of “Death to the Jews” and anti-Semitic incidents.

My fifth point is closely related to this reality. Since the turn of the 21st century, anti-Semitism has undergone a process of growing “Islamicization,” linked to the terrorist holy war against Jews and other non-Muslims with its truly lethal consequences.

Yet most debates skirt around the issues of Iran and radical Islam.

However, if we do not confront the prime danger posed by radical Islamist and genocidal anti-Semitism, how can our common struggle hope to succeed? One of the symptoms of this vain policy of appeasement pursued by America and Europe is the almost Pavlovian reflex after every terrorist, anti-Semitic outrage to immediately disconnect it from any link to Islam. Of course, Islamist is not identical with Islam, only a minority of Muslim believers support terrorism, and stigmatization is wrong. Equally, we must empower moderate Muslims wherever we can.

But denial does not work. Levels of anti-Semitism among Muslims clearly remain the highest in the world, and the horrific consequences of jihadi movements like Islamic State for all minorities are impossible to ignore. Nothing can be gained by sweeping this threat under the carpet.

The Islamists are the spearhead of current anti-Semitism, aided and abetted by the moral relativism of all-too-many naive Western liberals.

My sixth observation relates to the need for Israelis and Diaspora Jews to rediscover, redefine and reassess their Jewish identity, core Jewish values and the depth of their own connection to the Land of Israel as well as to their historic heritage. I was privileged to have authored two years ago the exhibition “People, Book, Land – The 3,500-Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land” for the bold project initiated by the Simon Wiesenthal Center together with UNESCO. Against all the odds and in the face of predictable opposition, it opened at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in June 2014.

In April 2015, the exhibit was even shown at UN Headquarters in New York, and it will soon come to Israel. This is not merely a historical exercise, for it shows the extraordinary tenacity, cultural vitality, spirituality, and metaphysical as well as physical bonds of Jews and Judaism to the Land of Israel. None of this was intended, it should be emphasized, to negate the historical presence and significance of Christianity and Islam in this land.





http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Anti-Semitism-and-Jewish-destiny-403703

Video: Israeli mobs celebrate “Jerusalem Day” with anti-Palestinian rampage in Old City



Thousands of young Israelis, many of them children, rampaged through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem on Sunday chanting “Death to the Arabs” and other racist and anti-Muslim slogans.

Some attacked bystanders and journalists and banged on the shutters of Palestinian stores that had been ordered to close at midday.

The mob march was the climax of “Jerusalem Day,” an Israeli national holiday to celebrate the occupation of the eastern part of the city in 1967. Zionist militias ethnically cleansed and captured the western sector of Jerusalem in 1948.

Under international law, Israel’s purported annexation of Jerusalem following the 1967 conquest is null and void and is not recognized by any country in the world.
Racist chants

Sunday’s violent scenes began as occupation forces allowed large numbers of religious and nationalist Israeli Jews to flow into into the area of the Damascus Gate in the late afternoon.

This is an entrance to the walled Old City that was long a bustling market for Palestinians from surrounding villages until Israel made access to the city virtually impossible for millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.


Israelis, many chanting racist slogans, rally at the Damascus Gate before marching into Jerusalem’s Old City, 17 May.

Groups of young men and boys banded together in circles, chanting and dancing.

The atmosphere quickly shifted to that of an angry mob, which first turned on two women who held the Palestinian flag and then, with increasing frequency, toward random Palestinian bystanders and journalists, according to The Electronic Intifada’s Charlotte Silver, who reported from the scene.

Haaretz published a video of a mob attacking a Jordanian television crew and The Times of Israel captured video of young Israelis harassing a female journalist and preventing her from speaking to her cameraperson.

Many sang Bible verses set to popular music, often embellished or altered to justify Israeli rule over Palestinians. Among the numerous racist slogans was “A Jew is a soul, an Arab is a son of a whore.”

The frenzied, sustained and widespread nature of the racist vitriol is documented in a large amount of footage obtained by The Electronic Intifada, only a small part of which is included in this post. This video, shot by the Jerusalem resident known as Zalameh, provides a good sense of the mixture of Jewish extremism and outright racism on display:



The video also shows two women holding a Palestinian flag being verbally abused.

But Israeli Border Police on horseback, armed with sound bombs and guns, kept most Palestinians out of the Damascus Gate area. Police monitored the crowd, attempting to intervene when a pack of marchers would attack someone, Silver said.
“May they all die”

In this video, several youths who spoke to Silver make virulently racist comments. One says that they had come to celebrate the “liberation of Jerusalem from the Palestinians,” others chiming in with “may their memory be erased.”



“May they all die today, all together,” another interjects. A child asserts repeatedly that Jerusalem was “liberated” from “the donkeys.”

Similar expressions could be heard throughout the day from the chanting mobs.

Israel expert Dena Shunra notes that the curse calling for someone’s name or memory to be erased was typically used for enemies as despised as Adolf Hitler; its use by Jewish youths against Palestinians is an indicator of extreme levels of hatred.

While deeply disturbing, children cannot be held responsible for spouting such views. But the large number of children participating in the hate march underscores the systematic indoctrination and anti-Palestinian incitement to which Israeli youth are exposed.
Jewish women as Jewish “goods”

The marchers then entered the Old City, charging down the narrow streets which are usually full of Palestinian business owners and shoppers.

Members of the anti-miscengenation group Lehava, some again appearing to be very young, also took part in the march, shouting “Arab beware – my sister is not abandoned goods” (see video at the top of this post).

They also chanted, “Girls of Israel, for the Nation of Israel [Jews].”

These are warnings to Palestinian men to stay away from Jewish women who are described, in effect, as property exclusively available to Jewish men.
Religious hatred

The same marchers can also be heard singing “Kahane still lives” to the tune of a popular religious-nationalist song, “Our Father Still Lives” – which refers to Abraham.

Meir Kahane, the assassinated Brooklyn rabbi who founded the the Jewish Defense League, is thus elevated almost to the level of a biblical patriarch.

Kahane also founded Kach – an organization so racist and extreme that even in Israel it was outlawed and classified as a terrorist group.

He is most remembered for his demand that the entire Palestinian population be expelled from lands occupied by Israel.

Voices can also be heard chanting that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a “homo” and a “son of a whore,” among other slogans calculated to provoke and denigrate.

The expressions of virulent, even genocidal, hatred for Palestinians are reminiscent of the “Death to the Arabs” marches in the city which culminated in the abduction and burning alive of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khudair last July.

Demolish Jerusalem’s mosques

Jewish extremist organizations handed out leaflets demanding that the Israeli government demolish Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock to make way for a Jewish Third Temple in their place.

The destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest places for Muslims, is a long-standing goal of some Israeli Jewish organizations backed and financed by the Israeli government.

The leaflet in the picture, collected at the Sunday march, states:

In honor of Jerusalem Day, we all demand of the Israeli government: to bring down the mosques on the Temple Mount so that we can build the Temple and renew the offering of sacrifices.

It is signed by an organization called “Returning to the [Temple] Mount.”


A leaflet distributed at a “Jerusalem Day” march calls on the Israeli government to “bring down” the al-Aqsa mosque so it can be replaced with a Jewish temple.

The atmosphere of intense hatred and religious-nationalist chauvinism was no doubt encouraged by a declaration from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “Jerusalem was always the capital of the Jewish people alone – and not of any other nation.”

The march culminated in a mass rally at the Western Wall, attended by education minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) party among other government figures.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-mobs-celebrate-jerusalem-day-anti-palestinian-rampage-old-city

When Israel was formed they were not given Jerusalem.

What has that got to do with the points he is making?

We know there is racism from some Israelis and also extremists, this is also a very huge problem, but again why are you detracting from some very real facts in regards to antisemitism?
If anything you are proving his points.

Also when Israel was formed Jerusalem had been a majority Jewish population for centuries. This changed the moment Jordan invaded and took control and expelled many Jews.





A Picture a Day -- Jewish Expulsions from Jerusalem -- 1929, 1936, 1948

The Library of Congress collection includes pictures of Jews being evacuated during Arab riots and pograms in 1929 and 1936.  In 1948, Life Magazine's John Phillips photographed the heart-wrenching pictures of Jews of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem captured by Jordanian soldiers or being expelled.

Jews fleeing Jerusalem's Old City after 1929 pogroms



[url=http://jews evacuating the old city during the 1936 arab revolt against britain/]Jews being evacuated from the Old City[/url] during the 1936 Arab revolt against Britain  (the soldiers are British)

A group of Orthodox Jews fleeing Old City in 1936  guarded by Jewish policemen and British Tommy

 

Jews being evacuated from the Old City during the 1936 Arab revolt against Britain

 

The expulsion of Jews from the Old City under the guns of Jordanian soldiers (John Phillips)

  

Policy-makers in European capitals and in Washington oppose Jewish construction in all sections of Jerusalem.  Radical leftist tourists fly in to Jerusalem to join Palestinian demonstrators protesting Jews returning to homes they were chased from in 1929 and 1936. 


The actual photos presented here may not be seared into the Jewish people's collective memory.  But they are permanent scars on their collective heart.  It's a fact that those policy-makers should bear in mind.  It's another important emotion behind the declaration, "Never again."

Jews streaming into the Jewish Quarter 2011

This picture on the right was taken earlier this month in Jerusalem during Jerusalem Day celebrations commemorating the reunification of the city during the 1967 war.
 
For millions of Jews, it represents actualization of the age-old prayer, "And to Jerusalem, Your city, in compassion may You return, and may You abide within it as You have spoken.  May You rebuild it soon in our days as a structure that is eternal..."

The Right of Return

The UN emissary, Count Folke Bernadotte (1895-1948) arrived in Palestine in May 1948 to mediate a cease fire. The recently proclaimed Israeli government consented to his appointment because, as president of the Swedish Red Cross, he saved 15,000 Jews from the Nazi Camps during WW2. Now, in Palestine, having witnessed the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes and villages, he called for the unqualified return of all Palestinian refugees expelled as a result of the conflict. He declared:

“It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine”.



For this, he was assassinated by Jewish underground terrorists, the Stern Gang headed by Itzhak Shamir, on 17 September 1948, as his motorcade drove through Katamon west of Jerusalem. Shamir later became Israel's Pime Minister in 1983 and also in 1988.

It was partly as a tribute to Count Bernadotte that the UN General Assembly issued its Resolution 194 on 11 December 1948 calling for:

1. Return of all expelled Palestinians (Art. 11)
2. Protection of and free access to the Holy Places (Art. 7)
3. Demilitarization and UN control over Jerusalem (Art.
4. Free access to Jerusalem (Art. 9)

Only the day before, on 10 December 1948, The UN published The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 13 of that Declaration states that every person has the right to return to his/her home. To prevent that person from returning, no matter what the reasons are for his/her exodus, is itself a war crime.

The right of the refugees to return to their homes is not only a sacred and legal right, but also a possible one. Studies show that 80% of Jews live on 15% of historic Palestine. The remaining 20% of Jews live on 85% of land that belongs to Palestinians.

The Right of Return is an inalienable right sacredly held by all refugees and entitles them to return at any time to their homes. This Right can never be diminished by the passage of time or by any treaty unless the refugees themselves declare otherwise, or forfeit that Right altogether, but under no duress of any kind.



The expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948. Approximately 750,000 indigenous Palestinians became homeless

Children of a Palestinian family from Haifa 1 year after their expulsion (L) and 60 years later (R)

We repeat: The Right of Return is an inalienable and non-negotiable right. Period.

International Law considers agreements between occupiers and occupied as null and void if they deprive civilians of their right to return to their homes, of their right to repatriation and of their right to restitution.

Acceptance and implementation of Resolution 194 was made a condition for Israel’s entry into the United Nation.

No surprise, then, that the Zionist leadership quickly welcomed it. But Resolution 194 has never been implemented despite its reaffirmation by the UN on more than 130 occasions. Despite this miscarriage of justice, Israel was admitted as a member of the UN on 11 May 1949 “as a peace-loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is willing to carry out those obligations”. This peace-loving State has defied more UN Resolutions than any other member state of the UN.



Resolution 194 remains the major legal foundation on which the Right of Return is based. It states that the General Assembly “resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at their earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return…”

A number of international conventions including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 9, 13 and 30, the UN Resolution 242 passed in 1967 and many others, call on Israel to permit the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes. It must now be forced to do so. Or be expelled from the UN.



As a result of the Nakba (1948) and the Naksa (1967), 55 Palestinian refugee camps dot the region.







They Shall Return...Homeland Is Not For Sale.

http://www.1948.org.uk/right-of-return/

Yes the right of return Sassy, which is what the PLO, Fatah and Hamas have promised Palestinian refugees and why?
Because they do not recognise Israel, they recognise on Palestine which incorporates all of Israel.
Do you believe Israel should exist?

For the record, I believe Palestine should exists, just as Israel should and want a two state solution.
Do you really want that sassy?
Because both Hamas and Fatah think Palestine should incorporate all Israel. Do you believe that?

When are you going to mention the 800,000 Jewish refugees sassy?
Why is it, they were rehoused?
Why is it the Lebanese, Jordanians and Palestinians keep refugees?
To continue the war with Israel?
They, the Jordanians, the Lebanese etc could house them all, yet choose no to, why?
Because they use the, to continue a conflict

You really need to get your facts straight. Netanyahu will not countinence a 2 stage solution, both Hammas and Fatah have said they will be happy with the 1967 borders.

Netenyahu has formed a government that thinks Israel should take over the whole of Palestine.

Every other refugee in the world is after some years housed, yet Fatah, Hamas ensures they stay refugee's, why?
To continue to play a victim card. I they cared for these people, they would not lie to them, they promise them a return. A return, that they themselves deny Jews from Jerusalem, of which the later took up new hones offered. Fatah and hamas need refugees, to use them. They could house them, its better for world attention they do not, it plays on sympathy. Yet fail to see the refugees are really being fucked and raped by Fatah and Hamas. They deny them a home.

Belatucadros wrote:When are you going to mention the 800,000 Jewish refugees sassy?
Why is it, they were rehoused?
Why is it the Lebanese, Jordanians and Palestinians keep refugees?
To continue the war with Israel?
They, the Jordanians, the Lebanese etc could house them all, yet choose no to, why?
Because they use the, to continue a conflict

Don't be a dick, because THEY WANT TO GO BACK TO THEIR OWN LAND.  The 800,000 Jewish refugess did not come from Israel.  We chose to put them there and deprive another people of their own land.  Not content with that, Israel has now pushed it's borders further and further across Palestine illegally and terrorises them every single day.  You just want to close your eyes to it.  They consider they have the right of return to a country their relatives don't come from, but refuse the right of return to people who have legal documents showing they owned the land.

risingsun wrote:You really need to get your facts straight.  Netanyahu will not countinence a 2 stage solution, both Hammas and Fatah have said they will be happy with the 1967 borders.  

Netenyahu has formed a government that thinks Israel should take over the whole of Palestine.

Your whole argument is on one man, Netanyahu.
So by your argument, is what Republicans say that Obama is a Muslim?
You are so Naive, Netanyahu ruled against the segregated buses. If he wanted all Palestine, he could take it and use any excuse over security to do so.
Why did Israel withdraw from gaza Sassy and its settlements?
Is that really wanting all of Palestine?

risingsun wrote:

Belatucadros wrote:When are you going to mention the 800,000 Jewish refugees sassy?
Why is it, they were rehoused?
Why is it the Lebanese, Jordanians and Palestinians keep refugees?
To continue the war with Israel?
They, the Jordanians, the Lebanese etc could house them all, yet choose no to, why?
Because they use the, to continue a conflict

Don't be a dick, because THEY WANT TO GO BACK TO THEIR OWN LAND.  The 800,000 Jewish refugess did not come from Israel.  We chose to put them there and deprive another people of their own land.  Not content with that, Israel has now pushed it's borders further and further across Palestine illegally and terrorises them every single day.  You just want to close your eyes to it.  They consider they have the right of return to a country their relatives don't come from, but refuse the right of return to people who have legal documents showing they owned the land.

I do not insult you but you do, and why? Because my words speak true.
What about the Jews who wanted to go back to their land?
They knew itwas impossible, they accepted this, they moved on. Fatah and Hamas use them, to lie to them, they will get their land back. The Jews will never get their land back in Arab countries or Jerusalem and you will never fight that they do. Yet you fight for people who should have been housed years ago. Tat is why you are a hypocrite. You do not even fight for the million Lebanese refugees because of the Palestinians creating a civil war there?You fail to see both sides use the as a measuring stick. When will the fuck you learn. I at least see both sides of the argument, you only see one, and hence why you constantly insult. You insult because you are intolerant to the truthe