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Israel Tag

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has banned LGBT activities in the West Bank, launching a search for gay rights activists. The main target of the crackdown is a group called Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society. The leading Palestinian gay rights group was planning to hold a meeting of its members later this month. "The attack on us is unprecedented," a member of Al-Qaws told The Jerusalem Post. "They are calling us traitors and corrupt people, and many are calling for our execution. We are afraid for our lives."

The Palestinian grandmother of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wished "ruin" on President Donald Trump in an ongoing controversy over Michigan lawmaker's proposed visit to Israel. "May God ruin him," Tlaib's grandmother was quoted saying by news agency Reuters.

Yesterday, Israel denied visas for Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, after pressure from Trump, under a law permitting the government to bar entry to advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The decision kicked off a firestorm, including false accusations by former Democrat Vice Presidential candidate and current Senator Tim Kaine that Israel had imposed a "Muslim ban".

Anti-Israel representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both of whom support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (though they denied that while running for office), are planning a trip to Israel. BDS is widely recognized as anti-Semitic and subterfuge for the destruction of Israel. Both also credibly have been accused of making anti-Semitic statements themselves.

The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement insists it is merely "pro-Palestinian" and not anti-Semitic. There is a mountain of evidence otherwise, but sometimes there is a clarifying moment as to how calls to boycott Israel have become mainstreamed. Such a moment came on Twitter regarding India's recent moves in Kashmir, which we covered in India Revokes Special Status for Muslim-Majority Kashmir, May Open Up Region to Hindu Immigration.

Legal Insurrection has long tracked and opposed the spread of anti-Israel curricula at the university level, and has documented efforts to push that political activism into high school and elementary schools. Our research and litigation exposing anti-Israel activism in a third-grade class in Ithaca received national attention, VIDEO: Activists manipulate third-graders into hating Israel. One of the most audacious anti-Israel propaganda efforts is taking place right now in California, through the proposed California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). As described below, Legal Insurrection joins over 80 groups in opposing ESMC and urging California educational authorities to revise the curriculum to remove clear politicization designed to imbue young students with hatred of Israel.

A team of American and Israeli archaeologists claim they found the Church of the Apostles supposedly built over the home of Jesus Christ's apostles Peter and Andrew. From Fox News:
Experts from the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology at Kinneret College, Israel and Nyack College in New York, have been excavating the site of el-Araj on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The archaeologists believe that el-Araj is the site of the ancient Jewish fishing village of Bethsaida, which later became the Roman city of Julias.

The Netherlands and Belgium have joined Switzerland in freezing funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid reports of a major corruption and sexual misconduct scandal surrounding the organization. The report included names of top UNRWA officials, such as Director-General Pierre Krähenbühl.

A leaked internal report implicated top officials from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in a major corruption scandal including sex crimes and abuse of power. The UN agency's ethics office described the charges as "an extremely grave and significant reputational, operational and security risk to the agency." The senior UNRWA officials were involved in "sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives," copy of the report obtained by the AFP news agency said.

Dr. Einat Wilf writes and lecture extensively on Zionism and anti-Semitism. A point we've made here repeatedly, particularly as to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is that while in theory there is a difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, in the real world they are almost always the same.

There are really only two ways to consider the borders of Israel when it declared independence in May 1948: the entirety of the Palestine Mandate OR the proposed border put forward by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947. As discussed below, only one of these is legally valid, while both options demonstrate that Israel does not occupy any “Palestinian Land.”

The United Nations once again established its reputation as a forum for smearing and delegitimizing the State of Israel. The UN's Economic and Social Council passed a resolution condemning Israel as the only country in the world that violates women's rights. The 54-nation UN council passed the resolution by a margin of 40 to 2, with nine abstentions. The United States and Canada were the only member nations that voted against the resolution. The supporters of the move included the who's who of the leading violators of women's and human rights such as Iran, China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Sudan. India, Israel's prominent defense ally, joined the arch-rival Pakistan in condemning the Jewish State. Germany and the United Kingdom were among nine nations that abstained from voting.

Israeli security services have arrested a Hamas bomb-maker who entered the country on humanitarian grounds for medical treatment. Israel's domestic security agency the Shin Bet caught the 35-year-old explosives expert, Fadi Abu al-Sabah, who was in possession of forged medical documents claiming he couldn't receive proper treatment in Hamas-held Gaza.

On July 7-9, 2019, the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States, Christians United For Israel (CUFI), will hold its annual Summit in Washington, D.C.  Thousands of CUFI attendees will gather inside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to hear from speakers such as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In this post we will describe the preparations by leading anti-Israel groups to protest outside the venue, and cause a disruption inside the venue, as laid out at a planning meeting recently held in Maryland.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new community in the Golan Heights named after U.S. President Donald Trump. The Israeli Prime Minister convened a cabinet meeting at the site on Sunday as part of the formal inauguration. U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, along with officials from the Golan region attended the ceremony renaming the neighborhood of Bruchim to "Ramat Trump," or "Trump Heights" in English.

Germany's leading national student associations have joined forces to fight the anti-Israel boycott movement—Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)—on college campuses. Perhaps the first academic initiative of its kind in Europe, the alliance comprises student groups from across the political spectrum.