UJ Poli Sci Prof Adam Habib on USA visit in 2010

I know one so-called university that will not be getting a donation from me in 2011. The Senate of the University of Johannesburg in South Africa voted this week to suspend its two-year-old joint research project with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev to battle algae that are infesting the South African city’s reservoir. Sixty percent of the UJ Senate voted to end the venture. UJ Deputy Vice Chancellor, South Africa TV personality and Political Science Professor, Adam Habib, applauded the decision, as did the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, South Africa Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), and the Nehawu Union.

In effect, it voted to boycott an Israeli university. The BDS movement applauded the University of Johannesburg.

I hope they raise a glass of contaminated, algae infested, South African water in a toast.

Will Nelson Mandela return his 1997 honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University of the Negev? No. Did it matter that Ben Gurion conducts joint projects with Palestinian and Jordanian institutions and scholars? No, they are “institutes” and don’t have “university” in their names. Did it matter that Israel pulled out of Gaza several years ago? No. Did it matter that Be’er Sheva has been attacked by missiles from Gaza as recently as this week? Nope.

Uri Keidar, Chairperson of the Ben-Gurion Student Association wrote to University of Johannesburg officials to report his disappointment at their “disturbing” decision. The national chair of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Zev Krengel, condemned the Senate’s vote.

One obvious response is to make it worth their while to carry Israeli products. This shows that those encouraging a boycott are in the minority and it also exemplifies that it’s simply good business, not only moral business, to carry Israeli goods.

So please go out and buy some Israeli products. Today, tomorrow, on November 30. Whenever you have a chance.

Here’s part of the Stand With Us message:

On Tuesday, November 30, anti-Israel activists in New York City plan to demonstrate and call for boycotts of stores that sell Israeli products. Their target is Ricky’s because it carries Ahava goods. But this action in New York is just one of many. Boycotters have been energetically lobbying other stores across the country to drop Israeli products, from local co-ops to Costco and Trader Joe’s.

The pro-Israel, pro-peace community urges you to join a counter campaign. We are making November 30 a BIG (Buy Israeli Goods) Day. Let us show anyone that calls for boycotts of even one or two stores, that it will always be met with a much larger counter-movement to buy Israeli goods.

StandWithUs and the America-Israel Chambers of Commerce calls on schools, college campuses, synagogues, community organizations, and individuals to designate Tuesday, November 30, as the day to actively Buy Israeli Goods. Go to your local stores and request Israeli products. Whenever a boycott is called, respond by purchasing the very Israeli goods that are being targeted and let store managers know they should keep them well-stocked on the shelves.

The holiday season is fast approaching. When you go holiday shopping, choose presents from the wonderful array of Israeli-made items, from fine Israeli wines to the high quality Ahava beauty products, Israeli jewelry, shoes and clothing lines, and of course, food. Select Sabra or Tribe hummus, great Israeli wines and Osem cookies to grace your holiday party.

UPDATE: I am including all products made in the Land of Israel, and these include products made by Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria/West Bank. There is no distinction between these goods.

I believe that if there will be peace, Israel will relinquish about 96% of the West Bank and many of the Jewish communities there will have to leave or become part of the new Palestine (to date, the Palestinians reject this possibility entirely).

However, until that day, every Israeli who lives in Judea and Samaria is living on DISPUTED land, with the support and encouragement of every Israeli government since 1967. In other words, they are not rogues or criminals and many of us recognize that while there are extremists among them, the majority of the settlers are good people who have chosen to live where they do for a variety of reasons, many of them idealistic and with a view to supporting Israel.

Or you could shop at Tiffany’s and forget about folks in Israel. Or if you’re in Canada I guess you could shop at your local Birks jewellery stores.

With this move, these individuals have succeeded in what the Israeli-Arab and Palestinian-led boycott movement (the so-called “BDS” for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) has failed to achieve: putting a huge kosher stamp on boycotting Israel and opening the door for a large-scale international regime of sanctions and divestment against the country.

One of the key organizers of the letter told an Israeli newspaper in an interview that Ariel, over the Green Line, is a criminal city in violation of international law and added that apartheid roads for Jews only lead there. Both statements are false. A.B. Yehoshua who came out in support of the boycotting actors, stated that the entire settlement endeavor is destroying the chance for peace and perhaps the settlers should just accept that they can live in a Palestinian state.

To date, the Palestinians have emphatically demanded that no Jews remain in the new state of Palestine once it is established.

The timing of this letter was certainly in keeping with the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli position most of the Left, whether in or outside of Israel, has taken over the past several years. Peace talks in Washington are about to launch and this boycott serves to highlight divisions in Israel and opens a door to the claim that Israel should be able to keep settlements and towns beyond the Green Line.

In keeping with the theatrical theme, the Palestinians are putting on some shows of their won. Salam Fayyad has announced the Palestinians are a year away from having the infrastructure for a state. He did this despite previous criticism from Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinians will not declare a state unilaterally. Mahmoud Abbas is no slouch himself when it comes to theater and in a sparkling performance on American television, he has stated that the peace talks will fail if Israel does not prolong its construction freeze in the settlements.

That freeze expires on September 26 and Netanyahu is under severe pressure to lift it. However, it appears that he may indeed extend it briefly in order to take this card out of the Palestinians’ hands. However, what is more pertinent is the Palestinian acting. For months, they have been dodging any talks at all and shifting the blame to Israel. Now that American pressure has compelled them to at least show up at the table, they are pretending they want to be there. For example, a number of Palestinian ministers have recently filmed one minute films, in English, telling Israelis how much they desire peace and what great peace partners they are.

Great peace partners don’t publish one thing in English and something different in Arabic. Historian Ephraim Karsh noted in his blog a couple of days ago that the Arabic press release by the PA about the upcoming peace talks makes no mention of a two-state solution at all. Great peace partners don’t scratch and claw away from the table for months and months while maintaining an international campaign of vilification of their peace partner.

The American administration is putting on its own show with these peace talks. They are obviously meant to have an impact on upcoming American elections by depicting Obama’s leadership as pro-active. How anything can come out of such talks when the Palestinians have done everything in their power to avoid them reveals more about American optimism and hubris than about the Palestinians whose goals are crystal clear.

Getting back to the Israeli actors and authors who have attached themselves to the Ariel boycott, it seems they’ve forgotten some things. Israel is a democracy. This democracy chose to support the construction and development of the town of Ariel. This democracy has also consistently included this town within its final borders in peace offers made to the Palestinians. As citizens of this democracy, they are just as culpable regarding the existence of Ariel as any other Israeli citizen. Their boycott undermines the legitimacy conferred by Israel’s support of this town.

The irony, of course, is that they can’t separate themselves from this democracy and its actions. They are its citizens. By legitimizing a boycott of a town their government has supported for decades, they are also supporting a boycott of Israel itself. After all, if the town is illegitimate, so are the state’s actions in support of the town. And if the state itself has sinned by creating this city, then it deserves the same response as the town itself.

This story is another example of how the Left not only weakens Israel, but has come to strengthen its enemies. I write this as somebody who, in theory at least although I am not sure how to do it in practice, believes that Israel will have to exit Judea and Samaria and possibly even unilaterally. One thing that is clear to me, however, is that Israel can only act when it is in a position of strength. When it is in a position of weakness, its enemies are strengthened.

In a public statement, the student union of the ruling Moderate party (Fria Moderaternas Studentforbund) writes “We can unload the ships”.

The statement refers to the boycott that the Swedish Dockworkers Union currently is imposing on Israeli cargo arriving to Sweden as well as Swedish cargo destined for Israel. In response to the Dockworkers Union’s boycott, the young Moderates offered to offload and load those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.
Their statement reads:

“Today, the Swedish Dockworkers Union has initiated a blockade of goods to and from Israel. The reason is that Israel did not let through a number of ships which were aiming to break their naval blockade of Hamas. To so clearly take a stance for Hamas and their unlimited naval access to accept all the goods they wish, including weapons, is a manifestation of hate towards Israel, not a support for the suffering population. Those who really want to have peace in the Middle East should instead take a stance against the terror group Hamas and the horrible suffering which it has caused Gaza’s population. It is Hamas’s fault that people are suffering in Gaza, not Israel’s.”

As a sign of their support of Israel the students have consequently decided to act in order to break the Swedish blockade against Israel and load and unload those ships which the dockworkers refuse to handle.
Anyone in Sweden interested in helping the Moderate Student Union can contact chairman Gustav Dymov for further information and contact details:

Email: gustaf@fmsf.se

Great initiative, and one that they explain clearly and emphatically. Good for them!

h/t to Lumpy, Grumpy and Frumpy blog.

As a result of several international musicians cancelling their concerts in Israel, due to political pressures, Israeli singer-songwriter Geva Alon held a free concert in solidarity with music lovers at the Barby club in Tel Aviv Thursday night. He was accompanied by several Israeli musicians — most notably Alma Zohar, Eran Tzur, Yael Deckelbaum and Ninet Tayeb.

While only a few international musicians have decided to cancel their concerts in Israel — most notably Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, The Pixies and Devendra Banhart — the recent cancellations have caused many Israeli musicians and music fans to grapple with the intersection of politics, culture and boycott at home.

According to Geva Alon, the point of the concert was to give something back to music fans who were disappointed by cancellations. He also held tickets to Elvis Costello and the Pixies, and was supposed to open for Devendra Banhart at the Barby, the same night that the solidarity concert was eventually held. Politics, Alon has mentioned, is beside the point. “I wanted to give something back to the music fans, who were disappointed by the cancellations, just as I was … boost people’s morale,” he said in an interview after the performance.

In keeping with the a-political tone of the event, Shaul Mizrahi, the manager of the Barby, said onstage, “I’ve heard people say this is a right-winged initiative. We are neither left nor right – this has nothing to do with politics.”

Regarding to Devendra Banhart’s cancellation, musician Ninet Tayeb said in an interview, “I too thought, like many others, that he [Banhart] is above all politics and religion… why should you mix politics – the dirtiest thing on earth, with music – the purest thing?”

Other musicians acknowledged the political situation in Israel, citing it as a reason that music is so essential to Israelis. “You don’t make art where everything is good – you make art where everything is shit,” said musician Alma Zohar.

Several attendees of the concert had bought tickets to concerts that had been cancelled. Many of them argued that cancelling concerts is not an effective way to change the political situation in Israel, nor is it the right way to share the musicians’ opinions about the conflict with the public.

“Of course I have empathy for people in Gaza, but this isn’t political … We crave for music and culture here. Only in the past few years did international artists start coming to Israel – we want and need them here,” said Vered Sustiel, office manager at Geva Alon’s booking agency. She argued that it wasn’t fair that music fans be “punished”, declaring the fans are not connected to the Israeli government’s political policies.
Itamar Shelach, 25, from Tel Aviv noted the difference between cultural and economic boycotts. “Divesting from companies directly involved in the occupation, or boycotting goods from the settlements could be effective and legitimate, but a cultural boycott is not.”

Others attendees defended Israel’s actions. “[The international musicians] don’t live here — they don’t understand… Israel has given Palestinians so much …but they [the Palestinians] chose Hamas democratically,” said Tirtzah Elmaliach, who had to make do with refunds to her tickets for Santana, Costello, and The Pixies. “Either way, we will survive, even if the whole world is against us,” she said.

But not all the attendees had the same opinions about the cancellations. Tuval Klein, who also attended the concert said, “I have a different political opinions than most people in Israel, who think that [internationals] criticize Israel because they hate Jews. This is not the case – they [the internationals] criticize Israel because they don’t agree with Israel’s policy.”

The cancellations, what Israelis now commonly refer to as the “cultural boycott”, have been thoroughly discussed in Israeli press. Many pieces that have appeared in Israeli papers, online media and social networks, have supported the cancellations, citing them as a possible incentive for Israel’s political policies to change.

Yoana Gonen, from the Coalition of Women for Peace, voiced her support of the international musicians’ decisions to cancel due to Israel’s current political situation. “I hope that the BDS movement will succeed [...] If this international momentum is lost, maybe we all will be doomed to more decades of occupation, siege, poverty, bombings and separation,” wrote Gonen in a Facebook note that evoked massive feedback. “And maybe, [we] should all take a deep breath and stop blaming the artists who refuse to come here and the activists who wrote to them [...] and start crossing [our] fingers in hopes that this movement will succeed.”

Other publications have supported the cancellations as well as raised hope for a change in the political atmosphere within the Israeli public. A piece by Rogel Alpher, published in newspaper Ha’ir Tel Aviv was named, “The Pixies and Elvis Costello are right. We are the problem.” Alpher wrote, “Cultural terrorism? I’m for it […] it finally stimulates political thought that has disappeared from the Israeli public for too long, it takes out the apathy that has taken us over […] Cultural terrorism is a good thing: nobody dies from it. It’s effective. It works […] until now, leftists didn’t go out into the streets to demonstrate, to act […] now leftists will rise to fight for their right to be part of this world…”

A piece by Udi Hirsch that appeared on the online paper Walla!, ended on a more pessimist note, “…Israel’s governments over the past years […] have done everything to terminally crush our illusions, and turn Israel into a leprous country […] thanks to them [the governments], the next [international] artist won’t let us wait nervously until the very last minute: he just won’t come to begin with.”

Here is the cheesy video by John Greyson that’s intended to goad Elton John to cancel his Tel Aviv concert in June. Greyson is a professor of Film at York University in Toronto. This is a simple video with some stock footage (unattributed, of course), a singer or singers who abuse Elton John’s music and some fancy editing. This type of simple project requires time, thought, planning and execution. I’d love to find out whether Greyson uses York University equipment, or time, when he’s supposed to be teaching students or preparing a book or whatever a professor of film is supposed to to to progress in his career, to make little propaganda films like this. If so, is that permitted at his university?

Watch it, please. It is cheesy, but the best part is when he tries to claim that Bibi is using gay tourism as a band-aid for Israeli war crimes…right after the film mentions the killing of a gay man in Egypt. No mention of what happens to gay men who live under Palestinian rule in Gaza or the West Bank, though. Nope. Also, no mention of any Palestinian violence whatsoever. Apparently, Israel just acts in a vacuum because it has nothing better to do than attack Palestinians for fun. There’s also no mention of the rights enjoyed by gay men and women in Israel, a country whose military (!!) accepts the rights of gay partners as equal to heterosexual partners (in the US we still have “Don’t ask, don’t tell).

Hey Elton, this isn’t about gay politics. That was just part of the attempted manipulation. Peace will be forged when the two sides come together. People like Greyson are helping the extremists – on both sides – to harden their positions and gain greater traction. The boycott movement targets one side only, Israel, while studiously ignoring or glossing over the evils of the Palestinians and many Arab countries that stand in opposition to Israel (that’s why Greyson ignores the lack of gay rights in Palestinian areas in his cheesy video). That’s a recipe for greater friction, not greater understanding or peace.

None of the boycott-movement manipulators can explain why the Palestinians rejected the 2008 Olmert peace plan when he was Israel’s PM. It offered the Palestinians a state over 100% of Gaza, 96% of the West Bank with land inside Israel to exchange for the missing 4%, tens of billions of dollars in reparations, a limited return of original refugees, and a division of Jerusalem that included an international force (that included Arab armies) to control the Holy Basin (the area with the key historic holy sites in Jerusalem) so that everybody and nobody would be sovereign. It was an exceptional offer; a true offer of peace! There could be a Palestinian state standing today, had the Palestinians accepted. They didn’t.

There are excuses being bandied about as to why they didn’t, such as the excuse that Olmert was a weak prime minister. They’re fig leaves to cover the nakedness of their position. We could have peace already, with two states living side by side. No talk of occupation, apartheid, Nazis, anti-Semitism or Gay band-aids. Peace. Real peace. But some people don’t want peace with two states. They want a single state, so that the only state of the Jewish people would cease to be the only state of the Jewish people. Apparently, everybody else gets to have a state, but not Jews, unless they are willing to make it an Arab state with people who have expressed hostility to them for 100 years.

Apparently, having a thriving democracy that creates exceptional art, exceptional technology, has vigorous freedoms of speech in place, a strong judiciary, a strong and free press, a robust electorate and political universe, provides freedom of religion to its many minorities, is composed of many minorities of all colors and stripes, views itself as the expression of a Jewish longing to return to Zion for thousands of years AND has offered to compromise on the land with the Palestinians 5 times in history, including 3 times in the past decade, IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Apparently, Israel needs to become a different country in order to appease those who oppose it.

Imagine, if you will, Elton, what would happen if the same forces for boycotting Israel would instead apply pressure to their friends among the Palestinians to give up the dream of overtaking Israel (a vision of which you can see at the conclusion of Greyson’s cheesy video), and instead focus on peace and compromise. Imagine how quickly this conflict would settle if the Palestinians were made to recognize, by their friends like Greyson, that compromise is not only inevitable but the only true recipe for peace. Ahh, then we would have two states and peace faster than you can say Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

I hope you enjoy your concert and your visit in Israel.

More on John Greyson:

Trying to get people to boycott a Tel Aviv student film festival (he’s a film professor!)

Trying to get an international film festival to reject Israeli films while organizing an openly biased Palestinian film festival

Unsuccessfully trying to manipulate Margaret Atwood to boycott a prize she was awarded by a foundation that gives out the prize in Israel (in the link, you can read her eloquent response to supporters of cultural boycotts and why she rejects them)

UPDATE: Elton John performed in Israel…and it was good. Needless to say, with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict, his performance meant nothing, just as Elvis Costello’s stupid boycott of Israel meant nothing.

After the Boycott and Divestment forces failed at Berkeley last week, where the student body president, Will Smelko, vetoed an initial resolution demanding divestiture from investments in two American arms manufacturers, General Electric and United Technologies, because of their supposed participation in Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, Stand with Us reports that UC San Diego is up next. A virtually identical bill to Berkeley’s has been proposed and is up for a vote with the student senate on April 28th.

Here is what the Berkeley student body president wrote in his veto of the bill, a veto that was held up after extensive lobbying by both pro and con forces:

Whereas, The act of singling out Israel, a sovereign nation involved in an incredibly complex, intense, and historic conflict over land and borders, without providing adequate context, creates an array of questions and issues that compel the ASUC Senate to thoroughly examine and reconsider features of the bill:
1) Major divestment strategies deserve substantial scrutiny and deliberation, for example the consideration of testimony or evidence regarding: (a) the likely or probable impact of mandatory divestment on existing or future ASUC or UC Finances; (b) the likely or probable effect on the safety or security of human beings in Palestine and Israel; and (c) the overall effectiveness of a blanket divestment policy in achieving the aims of peace and security for any human being or group of people
2) Given that some ASUC Senators and others have compared the Israel/Palestine conflict with that of South African apartheid in the 1980s, it should be noted that a) the analogy itself is highly contested, and b) the divestment strategies employed against the apartheid government were not introduced and agreed upon after mere hours of discussion, but involved lengthy and serious deliberation and analysis
3) To achieve and maintain campus unity and peace, the perception of the bill as a symbolic attack on a specific community of our fellow students and/or fears of the bill being used as a tool to delegitimize the state of Israel cannot be understated; and
Whereas, While the ASUC as a body has stated convincingly that it does not want ASUC and UC dollars going to fund weapons, war crimes, or human rights violations, this veto has to do with the mechanism by which the ASUC achieves its mission of building peace and goodwill in a way that avoids the shortcomings of the bill (a selective, one-sided focus on a specific country that lacks important historical context and understanding)…

Smart guy, is Mr. Smelko.

Well, the Palestinians are also smart and they have taken virtually the verbatim attack at Berkeley and have reconstructed it for a vote in one day at UC San Diego.

The pattern is obvious and it seems as if along with Israel Apartheid Week, Jewish students as well as non-Jewish supporters of Israel on California campuses and beyond, can now expect their university lives to be hijacked in yet another way by the unholy alliance between the Muslim and leftist students who seek to harm Israel.

A few weeks ago, the chancellors of the UC system were up in arms over the actions of a couple of anonymous students who participated in a small number of racist incidents. At that time, these chancellors did not take into account the activities that single out Jewish students on these campuses. It is time now to put a stop to this campaign. It is led by the Palestinian Authority, under the guidance of the Fatah Sixth Congress which determined that the Palestinians would employ methods against Israel that resemble the struggle against South Africa. Seriously, read the final platform of the Palestinian Sixth Congress which includes the statement that they are committed to implementing:

“activities for escalating the international campaign for boycotting Israel, its products, and its institutions, utilizing the experience of South Africa.”

In other words, student bodies and university campuses are being hijacked by one of the parties to this Middle-East conflict. It is naive to think otherwise. It would be contentious, to say the least, if they permitted these political activists to have a victory on one of their campuses when these chancellors and leaders are in a position to stop the instigation.

Without snarling, swearing or doing anything that entails making an enemy out of a potential friend, those of you who are reading this should write letters to the leaders of the UC system and in the next day to the leaders of UC San Diego.

Whatever happens with this vote, I believe that we now know that this type of advocacy is only going to increase. We know what the agenda is and how they plan to execute. I think it’s time to figure out similar tactics that target Muslim and Arab countries and make it a point to make those countries pay a price every time (and in advance) anti-Israel forces single out Israel.

chancellor@ucsd.edu. Link and address to UCSD’s Chancellor, Mary Anne Fox.

UPDATE: If somebody is going to update my posts without asking, please check your spelling first so that I don’t look bad in a post about university education.

Everyone should boycott Israeli Academia. Uh… except for me.

We already brought you one excellent example of Israeli apartheid and now it is time to bring all of our readers yet another hideous example of Israeli apartheid.

Our previous example of Israeli apartheid told of a non-Jewish Arab Israeli citizen with full voting rights in Israel who was a member of the same fitness club as Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff who is Jewish. In South Africa’s apartheid regime, a black and a white couldn’t share the same bus, get married, or have the black person vote for the country’s government, and they definitely did not share fitness facilities. Obviously Israel has much to learn about apartheid.

However, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Ronnie Kasrils have all compared Israel to an apartheid regime and in light of that we at Jewlicious.com have a responsibility to update our readers with as many examples of Israeli apartheid as we can find. Today’s example is the ongoing education of Omar Barghouti.

Omar Barghouti first came to my attention as a speaker at the York University Let’s-Make-Israel-A-Single-State conference a few months ago. There he spoke about settlers and indigenous people, without differentiating whether the “settlers” were inside or outside the Green Line. I didn’t hear his talk but in the abstract of his presentation at York University, he proposed a system that works quite well in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Iran and Libya:

…Addressing the basic requirements of justice, the secular democratic state model has the best chance to ethically de-dichotomize and decolonize, or de-zionize, Palestine, thereby leading to a just and lasting peace that is anchored in international law and universal human rights and is conducive to ethical coexistence. Such a process of non-violent transformation requires a revitalized, democratized Palestinian civil resistance movement with a clear vision for a shared, just society and international support for Palestinian rights and for ending all forms of Zionist apartheid and colonial rule, mainly through boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDS, campaigns.

Just as a side note, Omar Barghouti was permitted to present at the York conference although he has no Ph.D. and isn’t an academic. His bio at the conference stated that he is:

…A founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights…He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

Using those standards, it’s surprising that the York conference didn’t invite me to give a talk about Zionism and justice, but what can you expect when the conference itself was organized by another fella, Mazen Masri, who didn’t have a doctorate. Master’s degrees are apparently excellent degrees – and in fact all you need – to possess when decrying Israeli apartheid.

An interesting omission on the conference’s bio of Omar Barghouti is that he is currently studying for a doctorate at an Israeli university – Tel Aviv University. Of course, Mazen Masri, the conference’s co-organizer, earned one of his degrees, a law degree, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. APARTHEID!!

Just in case this isn’t fully clear, allow me to explain. The apartheid state of Israel funds its public universities with taxpayer funds. Needless to say, these are the taxes paid primarily, though not solely, by the apartheid-monster-like secular and modern Orthodox Jewish Israelis to the apartheid state of Israel (there are serious tax collection problems in the Haredi and Arab sectors because of poverty rates and rejection of the authority of the state). Then, these apartheid-funded apartheid universities allow non-Jewish Palestinian Arabs (or Israeli-Arabs if you prefer) to study within them at apartheid-taxpayer subsidized rates. True success is measured by the urgency and vigor of the graduate’s attacks on Israel. Mr. Masri and Mr. Barghouti are indeed poster children for how efficiently and effectively this system works.

In fact, it works so well that Mr. Barghouti decided to stick it out after his master’s and go for the doctorate.

Now, you may be thinking in your little apartheid-loving mind that somebody should try to get Barghouti out of Tel Aviv University since the tax dollars could go to another student who might decide to, you know, practice apartheid instead of decry apartheid. Well, you apartheid-junkie, you think just like a colonizing settler who is victimizing the indigenous Barghoutis! In fact, some of them wrote letters and put out a petition addressed to TAU complaining that apartheid regimes don’t subsidize their enemies.

Go and tell that to the apartheid President of Tel Aviv University:

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
May 3, 2009
Dear Governors and Friends,
I am writing to you to clarify the University’s standing on the recent debate regarding Omar Barghouti, a Tel Aviv University master’s student of philosophy. Mr. Barghouti is leading an international campaign to boycott Israeli universities, despite being a student at one of those universities.
A university campus should be a place that encourages and tolerates free speech, no matter how offensive the expressed opinions may be to the majority of students and faculty at that institution, or indeed to the public at large. Our university has adopted a similar policy also in previous occasions. Moreover, if legal issues are involved, a university does not have the authority to prosecute individuals. Rather, such a matter should be pursued by the State through legal channels.
In response, therefore, to the petition calling for the expulsion of Mr. Barghouti that will be submitted to us in the near future, the University cannot and will not expel this student based on his political views or actions. He will be assessed only on the basis of his academic achievements and excellence.

Yours faithfully,
Prof. Zvi Galil

It is easy to understand why the world needs a boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and its apartheid policies, isn’t it?

By the way, when a Forward reporter asked Barghouti about his subsidized Israeli education, Barghouti said that he “wouldn’t discuss his personal life.”

Of course not. Who has time when one is fighting apartheid?

Trader Joe’s in San Francisco being vandalized. Will TJ’s press charges? Should they draw more attention to these folks or should they let this fade away.

It is surprising that the store employees didn’t defend their products. These hooligans march into their store and the employees sit so passively as if it was normal. Can you imagine if these product progromists walked into a Chaldean owned 7/11 in Detroit and pulled this stunt? They would be crushed by baseball bats.

Can you imagine if they walked into a mom and pop store selling Israeli oranges in Koreatown in LA? They would be running for cover from shotgun blasts.

I guess in SF the store employees were alerted to be passive and not risk anything. Basically they were doing what they were told.

But why didn’t anyone else do anything? If they marched into our TJ’s first off they would have to deal with Dale, who would have punched out their lights. Then they would have had to deal with shopping carts whizzing in their direction being flung by angry grandmas. Perhaps a rack of cereal might have accidently fallen on their heads? Better call a lawyer for your accident claims!

Not that I am in any way at all advocating any violence. I am just saying that this was a shocking assault and these product progromists picked their TJ target very well. If they had pulled this vandalism somewhere else, they would not have such pretty pictures, the camera would likely have been smashed.

Hat tip to Scott Jacobs

Say NO! to meaningless sloganeering and empty gestures!

From Amazon.com: Multinational corporations have many enemies but few as creative and funny as the Yes Men. In 1993, Mike Bonanno made news by switching the voice boxes of Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls and returning them to store shelves. In 1996, Andy Bichlbaum made a splash by programming kissing, swimsuit-clad men into 80,000 copies of an action video game. When the two met, a collaboration was born. In 1999, they created a Web site parodying that of the World Trade Organization (WTO).Though the WTO denounced the spoof site, and though its creators felt the satire was self-evident, legitimate speaking invitations began arriving by e-mail. Undaunted, the Yes Men donned thrift-store suits and went where they’d been asked, posing as WTO spokemen and making outrageously callous statements. Their audiences were unfazed, prompting the Yes Men to raise the stakes again and again.

In 2008, the Yes Men premiered The Yes Men Fix the World at Sundance, a movie which follows the two as they infiltrate the world of big business and pull off outrageous pranks that highlight the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet. Invited to present their film at the Jerusalem Film Festival, they originally agreed and then pulled out, citing their adherence to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Asked why they don’t boycott the Congo or the US, Andy Bichlbaum said that “we haven’t been invited to the Kinshasa Film Festival (and we wouldn’t have been able to afford the private security force if we had been). More importantly, changing U.S. policy (and the direct and indirect results of that policy, e.g. in the Congo) is going to take a lot more than a boycott—whereas in Israel, a boycott could actually work.” Given that the bulk of their revenue comes from the US, one can’t help note that that sure is a convenient answer.

The duo then wrote an open letter to the organizers of the Jerusalem Film Festival articulating the reasons for their decision not to present their film there. I in turn decided to write an open letter to Andy and Mike expressing why I will no longer pay to see their films or buy their books. Read it after the bump!

Dear Yes Men,
I regret to say that I have taken the hard decision to not pay to watch your film “The Yes Men Fix the World,” in solidarity with intelligent and caring people who recognize that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (http://www.bdsmovement.net/), in whose name you withdrew from the Jerusalem Film Festival, is a misguided and malicious effort whose aim is more to harm and libel Israel than it is to actually further peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

This decision does not come easily as for years I have enjoyed and felt a strong affinity with your antics aimed at exposing greed, stupidity and corruption, in both the corporate and governmental sectors. I’ve lived in New Orleans and even returned last year for two weeks of volunteer humanitarian work. While rebuilding homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, I couldn’t help but recall your HUD prank that highlighted the destruction of 500 undamaged public housing units in New Orleans. I too am horrified by the actions of corporations like Exxon and Dow who cause death and destruction with relative impunity.

But despite the appreciation I have for your work, I cannot abandon my common sense and decency. Your comparison of Apartheid era South Africa to Israel is simply false and totally inaccurate. Palestinian civil society has had ample opportunity to live in peace with Israel, but these opportunities have been continuously stymied by their government’s rejectionism. If peace and compliance with International norms of conduct is what you want, you’d have more success boycotting the Palestine Authority and Hamas.

It is painful to do this, but I am left with no choice when you lend credence to marginal ignoramuses in Israel and around the world who revoltingly use the term “fascist” to describe Israeli policies. In doing so you trivialize the crimes committed by actual fascists and dishonor the memories of their many, many victims. More importantly, you do nothing to advance the cause of peace. I know what I’m talking about and it’s painful to think about just how wrong you are in this case.

Of course things in Israel are less than ideal, when are they ever ideal when one lives in a perpetual state of conflict? When rockets rain on your countrymen? When the possibility of random terrorist attacks against civilians is a daily reality? When world leaders wish you and yours to be wiped off the face of the earth? When your country is singled out as the worst abuser of human rights truly while genocidal maniacs defiantly visit world capitals unhindered?

Is it Anti-Zionism or merely age old Antisemitism rearing its ugly head again less than 70 years after the fires of Auschwitz were finally put out? And what of the Jews that lend succor and support to our enemies? Is it self hatred or merely survival instinct that motivates their deeds? Whatever words are applied to such actions, our entertainment dollars mustn’t help lend an aura of normalcy to individuals that make these decisions. For me, that’s the bottom line.

There is certainly another way to do things in Israel/Palestine, and that is what we must fight for, however difficult our task. We must eschew the otherwise well intentioned simple minded sloganeering and empty gestures of the Yes Men and the self righteous fools behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. We must appeal to the Palestinians to seek the way of a negotiated peace and to elevate new leaders that will unite them for a better future for them, for us and for all our children.

As for the Yes Men film, there is another way for it to be seen in Israel… and in Palestine, and anywhere else, so that the people most in need of comic relief, who would never have been able to see it at the Jerusalem Film Festival anyhow, will be able to see it too, and for free. It’s called Bit Torrent and the film is already available there, free of charge for anyone with a Bit Torrent client like uTorrent. Why reward a bad decision with your hard earned money? Folks like you have to learn that there are repercussions to their decisions. I’m not suggesting a boycott of the Yes Men, let each be guided by his or her conscience. But I’ll be damned if you see a nickel of my hard earned money. Unless you eventually reconsider and figure out more productive ways to advance peace in the Middle East.

L’shanah haba’ah beyerushalayim Andy and Mike you shmendricks!

You will never work in this town again.

Ken Loach accuses Israel of state terrorism, massacres. He convinces the Edinburgh Film Festival to return 300 pounds that the Israeli’s had provided to the festival to support the festival bringing an Israeli filmmaker. The film’s subject matter? Love. Some up-and-coming Israeli filmmaker is the latest victim of the lunacy of Ken Loach.

Hollywood beware – Ken Loach is a raving anti-Israel maniac. Don’t buy his crappy films at Cannes.

Loach wants to Boycott Israel? Ok, Let’s boycott Ken Loach. Boycott his new film Looking For Eric. Boycott his old films. Post negative reviews of his films on Amazon, Netflix, on DVD sites. Let Ken Loach’s films rot on the shelves. Don’t fund his future films. Does he have a star on the Walk of Fame? Does anyone know?

Cultural terrorist Ken Loach needs to see that “every action has a reaction,” as Bob Marley ZZ”L has said.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday returned a 300-pound grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken Loach, the British Times reported on Wednesday.

The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.

According to the Times, Ezer’s film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women’s film festival in Israel.

Loach on Monday urged film goers to boycott the festival after pro-Palestinian activists protested the grant for the Israeli film. Loach has long been an outspoken critic of Israel and its actions in Gaza and Lebanon.

“The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable,” the Times quoted Loach as saying. “With regret, I must urge all who might consider visiting the festival to show their support for the Palestinian nation and stay away.”

Watch this video where he initiates a tribunal against Israel.

Protesters from Answer-LA and CSU Long Beach’s Muslim Student Association staged a series of protests in February. Jewish and israel students were taunted, harrassed and verbally assaulted.

Is there a nationwide boycott effort underway on college campuses? Our experience at CSU Long Beach would seem to say, “yes.” And it may be illegal.

On March 18th, Zo Farooqui, an assimilated Muslim student senator (whose Facebook page features the quote “Kiss French. Wear Italian. Drive German. Drink Russian.”) submitted a sophisticated, albeit totally false set of accusations against Israel, and nearly got the Student Senate to pass the resolution.

Title: Resolution in Support of the Call for the Immediate End to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza and a Boycott of Goods and Services that Maintain Business Relations with Israel

Sponsored by: Senator Zo Farooqui

Date Submitted: March 18, 2009

WHERAS from December 27, 2008 to January 22, 2009 attacks launched by the Israeli government on Gaza have resulted in over 1,300 deaths and 5,300 injuries, with more than 60 percent of the victims consisting of women and children;1

WHEREAS schools, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, civilian infrastructure, and UN compounds have been targeted; (read the whole resolution below)

Thanks to some quick thinking Senators, they did not let their campus be a tool in the hands of the MSA – and the effort failed on the second reading.

Jewish students alerted to the issue rallied at the meeting for Israel. Community members sent dozens of letters within hours to the Senators when the word went out about the boycott effort.

Farooqui attempted to change the resolution to only target future contracts with Motorola and Caterpillar – when faced with the charge by Student Senate Treasurer, Brian Troutner, that breaking the existing contracts would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Senator Everett Bryan of the College of Engineering spoke up and said that asking the school to boycott companies won’t have an impact on the situation in Israel, and instead there are financial side effects and social side effects. The Associated Students can’t take a side on a conflict between two groups because it is a student organization which represents both groups. The negative effect of the boycott will be felt on students, not companies. He was also bothered that there was no end-date, doesn’t think resolution is humanitarian based, instead it’s politically charged, and recommended rejection. He suggested that the MSA and Hillel to write a resolution together that isn’t a boycott and addresses loss of civillian life. (notes courtesy of Sheryl Cohen)

Congress passed a law in 1977 creating the Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Department of Commerce, in response to the Arab boycott of Israel. It specifically makes illegal agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

If there is a nationwide effort among Muslim Student groups, part of the larger boycott movement against Israel, they might be breaking the law. If they are going across state lines with communications that in effect commit a crime, they can be guilty of some other nasty stuff.

And more so, if they conspire together to deprive Israel and Israelis of certain rights in the US, be they business dealings or any other, they may be guilty of racketeering and conspiracy charges too

Title: Resolution in Support of the Call for the Immediate End to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza and a Boycott of Goods and Services that Maintain Business Relations with Israel

Sponsored by: Senator Zo Farooqui

Date Submitted: March 18, 2009

WHERAS from December 27, 2008 to January 22, 2009 attacks launched by the Israeli government on Gaza have resulted in over 1,300 deaths and 5,300 injuries, with more than 60 percent of the victims consisting of women and children;1

WHEREAS schools, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, civilian infrastructure, and UN compounds have been targeted;

WHEREAS this recent act of blatant violence contributes to the 18-month blockade enforced by the Israeli government on the Gaza strip through strict patrol of its borders. The aforementioned act has resulted in the devastation of Gaza’s infrastructure up to and including the collapse of its economy, causing 80 percent of the population to rely on international aid for the basic means of survival;2

WHEREAS Israeli occupation forces have demolished electricity, gas, and water resources of the region, leaving half of the Gaza population consisting of children in an open-air prison with no option of becoming refugees;3

WHEREAS Israel’s continuous denial of medical supplies in the region constitutes a violation of their signatory obligation to the First Geneva Convention, and causes an inability to treat the wounded, resulting in otherwise preventable deaths;4

WHEREAS Human Rights Watch has found that the Israeli government has used the controversial chemical weapon white phosphorus which “sticks to human skin and will burn right through to the bone” in areas of high civilian density;5

WHEREAS the Fourth Geneva convention renders Israel’s actions a war crime based on its intent and grotesque disproportionate use of military action;6

WHEREAS arbitrary damage of property, denial of rest areas (shelters), and discrimination based on political ideology and other actions put the Israeli Government in direct violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 5, 12, 13, 15, 17, 21 and 24; be it

RESOLVED that the Associated Students of California State University, Long Beach stand in solidarity to condemn all violence against civilians in the region and demand the removal of the blockade on Gaza, including the opening of its borders, while condemning Israel’s disproportionate aggression toward the Palestinian people; be it further

RESOLVED that ASI participates in a boycott of companies that have any economic ties to the Israeli state, be it finally

RESOLVED that ASI urges California State University, Long Beach, its foundation and its auxiliary to end all business action, including investments, and procurement with companies that maintain business with the state of Israel.

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
Campus Rabbi, Long Beach Hillel
Associate Rabbi, UC Irvine Interfaith Center
Director, Jewlicious Festivals

Feel free to voice your own concerns in a civil manner to President McCormickTelephone: 732-932-7454 • Fax: 732-932-8060.

Facebook never dreamed it could become another battleground in the war of ideas, words, and politics that surround the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When Facebook abruptly changed the country of people who live over the green-line to “Palestine” from “Israel”, Israelis were pissed off. Not wanting to be in their shoes for a second, I can understand why Facebook did a 180 so fast. I mean who wants to be in the way of a group of angry Israelis who found themselves virtually living outside of Israel, even as their government discusses keeping them out of a future Israel.

For their part, Palestinians of the West Bank are threatening to leave Facebook if this compromise reached — that allows Israelis living in major Israeli cities to keep their country as Israel—takes place. The ever pro-Arab Reuters reports:

“Facebook users in the Israeli West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Ariel can now choose between Israel and Palestine,” Barker said last week in an email to Reuters….

“We also offer Hebron in both Israel and Palestine,” Barker said… about 18 West Bank settlements were currently listed on Facebook and that many more would be added in the future, giving users the option of choosing Israel or Palestine.

This virtual war within the world of Facebook has been continuing for a while, ever since groups for and against listing Palestine and Israel popped up. Various anti-Israel groups think Israel should not be listed, and some groups want to see the label Palestine disappear too.

Palestinian users have set up their own Facebook group whose members threatened to cancel their accounts if Palestine was removed from the site. Called “If Palestine is removed from Facebook… I am closing my account,” the group has over 4,700 members. [ED: This group does exist but has 4,398 members]

“We created this group to let our voices be heard not only among Facebook’s management but all the users, and to tell everyone that Palestine is and will always be a country,” Saif Qadoumi, the group’s 20-year-old founder, told Reuters.

Those familiar with Facebook realize that these members threatening to leave can come from any place, and that 4,700 out of over 15,000,000+ users is nothing for Facebook to loose, well, uhm face, over. And since this group was created by students from Dalhousie University, it seems even further proof that no one in the West Bank is being disenfranchised Facebook-wise.

And the last bit of irony – if Hamas succeeds in capturing the West Bank, those users can kiss Facebook goodbye anyway, because it will be banned as it is in Syria, Burma, Bhutan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iran.

ed note: Gawker calls Facebook’s solution “appeasement”