DISPATCHES FROM TOM GROSS
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001549.html
CONTENTS
1. Norwegian festival refuses to show film on disabled children because they are Israeli
2. A “unique desk accessory” for British and Irish children
3. After wiping Israel off the map, Air France succumbs to pressure and reinstates it
4. Paris mayor refuses to bow to pressure and dismantle “Tel Aviv” section of beach
5. American Jewish rapper banned in Spain for refusing to condemn Israel
6. “The Palestinian case against BDS” (By Bassem Eid, Fikra Forum)
7. “How the boycott hurts Palestinians” (By Brett Kline, Haaretz)
8. “Dilemma for Israel boycotters as scientists make HIV breakthrough” (By Sarkis Zeronian, Breitbart)
9. “The New Racists: Jew Hate” (By Douglas Murray, Gatestone Institute)
10. Israel: it’s not what the Arab and international media told us (By Haisam Hassanein)
Tom Gross writes: Jeremy Corbyn, the clear front runner to become the new leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party in three weeks from now, has started to distance himself from his connections to anti-Semites, extreme Islamists and Holocaust deniers.
Corbyn was scheduled to share a platform this week with Carlos Latuff, a cartoonist who (in the words of The Guardian) “regularly uses anti-Semitic imagery in his cartoons but denies being anti-Semitic.” Two of his cartoons are above. Corbyn has now pulled out of the joint event with Latuff, but questions remain over his ties to other anti-Semites, including one of Britain’s most prominent self-proclaimed Holocaust deniers Paul Eisen (who masquerades as a pro-Palestinian activist and heads an organization called “Deir Yassin Remembered”); the Rev Stephen Sizer, who was censured by his own Church of England for promoting what the church called “clearly anti-Semitic conspiracy myths about the 9/11 attacks being carried out by Jews”; and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Ra’ed Salah who Corbyn invited to tea in the British Parliament, saying “Salah is a voice that must be heard”.
Both the last two Labour Party prime ministers have criticized Corbyn in recent days. In a speech on Sunday, Gordon Brown said Labour did not want a leader who “favored alliances with Hizbullah, Hamas, Putin and Chavez,” while Tony Blair said that if the party elected Corbyn, it was “walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below.” Another senior figure Alan Johnson said to elect Corbyn would be “madness”.
The Guardian is among those leftist British newspapers that have (in a lead editorial in recent days) urged its readers not to vote for Corbyn. However, the leading columnist of the Independent newspaper and favored BBC commentator, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, has defended Corbyn and said concerns about his links to anti-Semites were nothing more than the worries of “extreme Zionists” which, she said in a column on Sunday, were the real “forces of darkness”.
***
Leading Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid: “Unfortunately, almost all of those so ostensibly dedicated to finding a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have their own agendas, and these may not be to the advantage of either Palestinians or Israelis. A prime case in point is the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. As a Palestinian dedicated to working for peace and reconciliation between my people and our Israeli neighbors, I do not believe that the BDS advocates are helping our cause. On the contrary, they are just creating more hatred, enmity, and polarization.
“Recently, I was asked to talk at the University of Johannesburg. I criticized Israel for its settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its lack of leadership in helping the Palestinians, and then began to speak about the BDS movement. At this point, my talk was disrupted by students wearing BDS and other radical T-shirts. They interrupted me and did not allow me to continue speaking, and in the end the event had to be abandoned. Even in my own country, I have never witnessed the kind of raw hatred and sheer unreasoning aggression that confronted me on this occasion.
“As a Palestinian who actually lives in east Jerusalem and hopes to build a better life for his family and his community, BDS is the kind of “pro-Palestinian activism” we could well do without. For our own sake, we need to reconcile with our Israeli neighbors, not reject and revile them.”
***
Haaretz columnist Brett Kline: “How much contact do the BDS boycott proponents have with average Palestinians, not those who work in offices in [comfy, EU-funded offices] Ramallah? If they were to come to Husan and dozens of other villages like it in the West Bank, the European and American activists would find that Palestinian entrepreneurs and workers want and need more contact with Israelis, not less.
“‘We small-time entrepreneurs in Palestine cannot survive without working with Israelis, and the benefits are mutual,’ Samir states. ‘For us, the boycott is ridiculous. Nobody here likes the Israeli occupation, but cutting ties would be a death wish.’
“Mahmoud Ibrahim al-Shushe, adds with a trace of anger, ‘The boycott is absolutely not the way to end the occupation. The people in Europe and the U.S. don’t know what they are talking about.’”
***
Egyptian student in Israel, Haisam Hassanein, in a graduation address at Tel Aviv university last week: “I arrived to Israel knowing only what I had learned in the movies and in the media. So, at the airport, when the security official asked why I decided to come here, I half-joked, ‘I always heard the Jews are bad people, and I came to see this for myself.’
“I expected to find that people here were unfriendly, and especially unhappy to meet Egyptians. I was pleasantly surprised to find just the opposite. I was invited everywhere, from Shabbat dinner, to Ramadan Iftar meals, to plays and even to political gatherings. And the diversity I found here was as surprising as the warmth of the people.
“How fascinating is it to be in a country where you go a beach and see a Muslim woman, a gay couple kissing, and a Hassid sharing the same small space? … Perhaps the greatest revelation of my being here was that in spite of all the conflicting histories and identities, people are still able to live their daily lives in a spirit of cooperation….”
Tom Gross adds: I attach a transcript of Haisam Hassanein’s speech (shortened for space reasons) at the end of this email. Or you can watch a video of his 7 minute graduation speech at Tel Aviv University last week, if you scroll down here. I recommend watching it.
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