Vienna Hotels Canceling BDS Events

Vienna Hotels Canceling BDS Events

Hotel Kaiserwasser and Hotel Regina in Vienna, Austria, have canceled a BDS event by a British-Palestinian lawyer. News agency Heute.at reported that Hotel Kaiserwasser canceled the event due to charges of antisemitism and one employee received threats by the Jewish community. Some have disputed this:

“Nonsense,” said Raimund Fastenbauer, general-secretary of the 7,000-member Vienna Jewish community, adding that he informed the hotel about the “antisemitic character of BDS” movement targeting the Jewish state.

The Hotel said it canceled the event due to “operational unfeasability,” according to Heute.at. Fastenbauer told the news site, “Nazis demanded, ‘Don’t buy from Jews,’ BDS formulates the [Nazi] demand in a similar way today.”

Stefan Schaden, a board member of the Austrian- Israeli Society, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday: “BDS has an antisemitic agenda and leads a campaign of demonization, delegitimization and double standards against Israel. At first glance, BDS Austria may appear to be an independent NGO. However, there is no such organization in the Austria’s Interior Ministry’s central register of associations, and by their own account, they are coordinated by the Palestinian National Council (PNC).”

The event scheduled British-Palestinian lawyer Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, who planned a talk called “Apartheid and its Applicability to Israel/Palestine.”

Karmi-Ayyoub also works as a “consultant for the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.” NGO Monitor claims Al-Haq has links “to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine organization.” The United States and the European Union consider this group a terrorist organization.

The cancellation comes after student organizations at the University of Vienna canceled BDS events scheduled at publicly funded buildings:

“As student representatives it is important for us to criticize the academic boycott against Israel, which entirely excludes Israeli academics,” the student council of the University of Vienna said.

The rejection of BDS by continental student organizations is believed to be the first major European opposition to the hubs of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic academic initiatives in the UK and the US.

”There are rising violent anti-Semitics attacks on, above all, American universities, which are connected to BDS and Israel Apartheid Week. Academic events from Jewish professors are regularly disrupted. And hostility toward the existence of Israel is expressed by the burning of Israeli flags,” the student council added.

Jews in France no longer feel safe and are immigrating to Israel, the student group noted. An anti-Semitic riot took place against the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Haifa in Salzburg. Businesses in Paris were vandalized with anti-Semitic slogans, as well as Synagogues in Germany. The students said these examples of the manifestations of anti-Semitism are just a few of many, and that anti-Semitism remains part and parcel of everyday life in Europe.

Green Party, Socialist, Left List, and Communist students all joined with the student council to condemn the BDS movement and antisemitism as well.

A hotel in Chicago has found itself in hot water over a conference it will host later this month.

https://twitter.com/Cameron_Gray/status/842197122053201921

@HyattMcCormick Are you allowing a convicted terrorist speak at your Hotel?Shameful! #RasmeaOdeh Hotel number:+1 (312) 567-1234. @POTUS pic.twitter.com/hJxaM7EZCY

— Dr.Estella Sneider Bessudo (@DrEstella) March 8, 2017

The Hyatt McCormick will host a Jewish Voice for Peace conference later this month. One of the speakers? None other than convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Professor Jacobson has blogged quite a bit on her since she became an organizer for those women’s marches in January and March. He even wrote about her relationship with JVP:

Because we have covered both Rasmea and JVP so extensively over the years we have witnessed that relationship grow. Rasmea is part of JVP’s intense campaign to delegitimize Israel through “intersectionality” theory. That goal also serves Rasmea’s purpose of generating publicity and fundraising to defend a criminal case she is facing for immigration fraud.

She’s not the only anti-Israel speaker. As the professor described, she will speak with numerous anti-Israel activists. The itinerary includes numerous anti-Israel talks along with panels to prop up the disgusting BDS movement.

People on social media have asked the hotel to cancel the event, but the hotel has not budged:

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