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Posted by Miriam Elman on May 01, 2016 6 Comments
This past week, during the intermediate days of Passover (Chol Hamoed), nearly 900 Israeli Jews, roughly 100 to 300 per day, ascended Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Thousands of tourists also visited the sacred place over the course of the week. The site is the place of the two Jewish Temples in antiquity. It’s considered Judaism’s “holiest of holies” and is treasured by Jews across the planet. [caption id="attachment_136001" align="alignnone" width="600"]The Jewish Temple, replica The Jewish Temple, replica[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 30, 2016 1 Comment
Earlier today I saw a tweet by Arsen Ostrovsky regarding the bombing of Mike's Place in Tel Aviv in 2003: https://twitter.com/Ostrov_A/status/726424919148470272 I had heard of it, but only vaguely. The list of Palestinian suicide bombings is so enormously long, I couldn't remember the details. It was not one of the higher profile bombings, unlike the Dolphinarium disco (21 dead), the Sbarro Pizza restaurant (15 dead including 7 children), or the Park Hotel Passover Seder (30 dead). As with other Palestinian terror attacks I have researched and written about, I learned that there were stories within stories, and surprises that made terror from decades ago so real today: So I set out to learn the story of the suicide bombing at Mike's Place.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 28, 2016 2 Comments
Anti-Israel boycott campaign, the so-called BDS movement, and other anti-Israel groups are carrying out a coordinated campaign to hijack the May Day demonstrations in Germany with an aim of spreading their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel message. The blatant anti-Semitism and the hatred of Israel these groups propagates is getting so repugnant that it is unnerving even the old left-wingers who otherwise never missed a chance of criticising the Jewish State. The attempts by some moderate groups to keep anti-Israel agitators from taking over the Labour Day events have failed. A resolution tabled by a prominent left-wing activist Jutta Ditfurth seeking to expel openly anti-Semitic groups from the event was rejected overwhelmingly by the organising committee, forcing Ditfurth and her environmentalist group groups to leave the alliance.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2016 8 Comments
By now, it is common for supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses to interrupt speeches and chant "Long Live the Intifada." At UT-Austin, the chant was shouted by a group from the Palestine Solidarity Committee as they interrupted an event put on by the Israeli Studies Department. The group was led by law student Mohammed Nabulsi, who will be interning at "Palestine Legal," which serves as the lawfare division of the BDS movement: Similar chants we have covered at Legal Insurrection include Northeastern University, San Francisco State, City University of NY, and UC-Davis. The Intifada is the bloody campaign of terror launched by Palestinians mostly against Jewish civilians.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 22, 2016 3 Comments
Tonight is the First Night of Passover, in which we celebrate the Exodus from Egypt. My favorite passage from the traditional Passover Haggadah is one that is evergreen:
"For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!"
If you have been reading Legal Insurrection the past years, you understand that this passage remains as true today as ever before. Fourteen years ago, during the 2nd Intifada, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a Passover seder at the Park Hotel in the seaside town of Netanya, Israel:
The suicide bomber, Abd El-Basset Oudeh (resident of Tulkarm, born in 1977), arrived at the hotel disguised as a woman after shaving off his beard and moustache, putting on makeup, and wearing a straight hair wig. He wore women's shoes, blue feminine-cut jeans, a brown shirt, and a brown leather jacket with a leopard-print collar. A fake Israeli ID card in a woman's name completed the disguise. The explosive belt worn by the suicide bomber was designed as a vest with pockets that hid approximately 10kg of explosives.

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 21, 2016 9 Comments
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a non-Jewish organization that gives cover to the anti-Israel boycott movement (BDS) and its political war on Israel by washing away the stains of anti-Semitism that are central to the BDS movement’s founding, actions and identity. As we noted in a prior post, JVP operates in multiple arenas to exploit Jewish culture and traditions, putting them into service for a vehemently anti-Israel propaganda campaign:
In its written materials and presentations, JVP reinforces that its anti-Israel positions are consistent with Jewish values. Toward this end, it usurps the Jewish life cycle and religious holidays by incorporating anti-Israel themes into traditional celebratory and commemorative events”.
This JVP identity theft of Jewish heritage and narrative is particularly visible at Passover, which begins April 22 this year.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2016 3 Comments
One of the most common questions I get when I give speeches about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has to do with its funding. BDS, including in the U.S., has plenty of money to organize, fly people around, and coordinate efforts across dozens of campuses and multiple countries. Yet BDS portrays itself as just a bunch of concerned people seeking to do social justice. The money angle, though, is barely exposed. Some of the funding comes from the fundraising efforts of tax-exempt groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation. Some of it comes from churches and church-related groups like Sabeel North America and American Friends Service Committee, which use their tax exempt status to fund anti-Israel activities. Meanwhile, faculty groups like the American Studies Association exploit and arguably violate their tax exempt status by promoting academic boycotts.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 19, 2016 4 Comments
Even before the smoke could settle over the site of yesterday’s bus blast in Jerusalem that left 21 people wounded -- two of them seriously -- the Palestinian leadership is praising and celebrating the  terror attack. The armed-wing of PLO-Fatah, active in the territory under Palestinian Authority control, applauded the Jerusalem bus blast, calling it the beginning of a new phase in Intifada, the renewed campaign of terror against Israel. Hamas, the Islamist outfit controlling Gaza said it “welcomed” the Monday’s terrorist attack, calling it “natural reaction” to supposed Israeli crimes. In the eyes of these terrorist groups, the mere presence of Jews in their historic homeland amounts to a provocation and the Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel constitutes a crime -- severe enough to justify a deadly campaign of terror and incitement that started much before the State of Israel was even proclaimed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2016 3 Comments
It's beginning to look like it will be another hot summer in Israel. There was a bus explosion near Jerusalem earlier today. At first there was confusion as to whether it was a bomb or some technical failure. Police have just confirmed that it was a small bomb, though it remains unclear as of this writing if it was planted or a suicide bombing. https://twitter.com/MickyRosenfeld/status/722106508297781248 https://twitter.com/MickyRosenfeld/status/722097364958388224

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 14, 2016 6 Comments
Twelve years ago President George W. Bush delivered a two-page letter to the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The exchange took place at a White House press conference on April 14, 2004. [caption id="attachment_168208" align="alignnone" width="595"]President George W. Bush and PM Ariel Sharon, Cross Hall, White House press conference, April 14, 2004 | credit: White House archives President George W. Bush and PM Ariel Sharon, Cross Hall, White House press conference, April 14, 2004 | credit: White House archives[/caption]

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 12, 2016 3 Comments
Terrorist group Hezbollah is using the conflict in Syria to prepare for a war with Israel, reveals a report published by the UK-based research group BICOM. In 2015, Iran funnelled a billion dollars to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. According to a strategic analysis released by Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM) on Monday, Iran-backed Hezbollah's missile stockpile is now estimated to be around 100,000-150,000, with large portion of it hidden among Lebanon's civilian population. Hezbollah entered the Syrian civil war 5 years ago to fight on behalf of Iran-backed dictator Bashar Al Assad. Since then 5,000 of its 20,000-strong fighting force is pinned down in Syria. The terrorist militia now controls territory within Syria, creating a base for Iran -- a fallback option in case Assad regime were to collapse. The Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal gave Iran a signing bonus of  $150 billion. Flushed with fresh cash, regime in Tehran is making up for the past cuts it had to make in funding its proxy terrorist group across the Middle East including Hezbollah.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on April 12, 2016 5 Comments
While anti-Israel propaganda is common on college and university campuses, there appears to be a filtering down to the public education system. We already have seen attempts to proselytize students into becoming "freedom fighters for Palestine" at an Ithaca, NY, third grade class.  Now the Newton (MA) Public Schools are embroiled in controversy over anti-Israel bias in the public high schools.

Alleged Anti-Israel Bias At Newton South High School

Last week, Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) released a video about the years-long controversy over Newton South High School's curriculum for teaching about the Middle-East.  The issue first arose in 2011:

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 10, 2016 13 Comments
In a recent post, we highlighted how Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is being promoted in America’s liberal Protestant churches. As we discussed, a malicious strain of anti-Israelism has taken root in these progressive churches largely because of a deep-seated organizational dysfunction:
A vocal and strong minority within the church have led the charge, aided and abetted by a host of venomously anti-Israel Palestinians and their useful fools—a coterie of Jewish enablers. Together, they’ve pushed hard for divestment and boycott initiatives against Israel, gaining an institutional footing by exploiting the language of human rights, monopolizing the discourse, and drowning out dissenting voices”.
UCEIO, Huge News on church divestment Our focus in the prior post was on three U.S. mainline churches—the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the Unitarian Universalist Association (Church) (UUA). All three will feature a number of anti-Israel resolutions at their annual meetings this spring. "Officials" of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) recently decided to divest from three companies in its portfolio that do business in Israel and allegedly assist in the violation of Palestinian rights. That investment decision is not the end of the story, however.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 07, 2016 6 Comments
We have been documenting a clear shift in tactics by anti-Israel campus activists, led by Students for Justice in Palestine joined by other groups. The shift is towards disruption of Israeli and pro-Israeli speakers on campus in order to create a hostile campus environment. We have reported on several such recent disruptions, including at UC-Davis, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota Law School, UT-Austin, Kings College (London), U. Windsor, University of South Florida, and anLGBTQ Shabbat Event in Chicago. Even events that are not disrupted are protested, such as the appearance of actor Michael Douglas and human rights hero Natan Sharansky at Brown University. It happened again yesterday at San Francisco State University, where anti-Israel activists have co-opted student protests over proposed budget cuts. International Business Times reports:

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 06, 2016 6 Comments
In a post last December we highlighted the history of Israel’s prisoner exchanges with various Palestinian armed factions. As we noted:
For the past three decades, Israel has been forced to exchange scores of incarcerated terrorists for a mere handful of its POWs. In the majority of these lopsided prisoner swaps the Israeli soldiers had already been killed and came home in body bags. And in many cases the freed terrorists have gone on to perpetrate further terror attacks”.
Israeli soldiers, either dead or alive, have proven to be valuable bargaining chips. So basically, as we discussed, Palestinian terror organizations have been running a prisoner-exchange extortion racket. Now it looks like Israel may again be forced to pay a steep price for several of its civilians too. On Friday, Hamas publicly claimed for the first time that it was holding two Israeli men in captivity.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 03, 2016 8 Comments
I don't know Kay Wilson. But I've seen her on social media, both Facebook and Twitter. She frequently makes reference to how she was carved up and butchered by Palestinians, but harbors no hatred of Palestinians. Israelly Cool has extensive archives on Kay Wilson. I never really knew her story, though. But that story is in the news in Britain as part of the British coming to terms with their role in supporting terrorism against Jews in Israel through financial aid to charities and the Palestinian Authority. Several of our recent posts have addressed this British soul-searching:

Posted by Occam's Razor on March 30, 2016 4 Comments
We reported previously on the deceptive anti-Israel Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign at NYU, in which BDS supporters try to co-opt unrelated divestment movements, such as fossil fuel. This campaign has now morphed into a boycott petition at NYU’s Graduate Student Union (GSOC-UAW Local 2110). Meanwhile the deceptive tactics continue. This episode illustrates, yet again, the strategy of pro-Palestinian activists in taking over student governments and other associations and hijacking them for their own agenda. If all goes according to plan, there will be a referendum on a Boycott and Divestment petition that includes a call for Academic Boycott and a call to shut down NYU-Tel Aviv). The referendum, open to all union members, is tentatively scheduled for April 18-22. NYU GSOC Logo We cover below the following: I. Some background on anti-Israel activity at NYU II. Background on SJP's Divestment campaign at NYU III. Background on BDS at the University of California's union last year IV. Background on NYU's new radicalized union. V. Discussion of the petition itself (including (a) the process; (b) campaigns and (c) the substance of the actual resolution) VI. The opposition campaign and counter-petition (which NYU faculty, students, and alumni can still sign) VII. Conclusion

Posted by Jonathan Levin on March 28, 2016 8 Comments
Great Britain's Foreign Office and Department for International Development ("DFID") have funneled million of Pounds, at least, to terrorists.  The report from the Daily Mail details how the UK's policy of spending .7% of revenue on foreign aid distorts priorities and leads it to fund terror.  The Daily Mail report builds on a broader investigation from Palestinian Media Watch ("PMW") evidencing the Palestinian Authority's ("PA") attempts to hide banned payments to terrorists from Western donors.

Palestinian Media Watch blows the whistle

In its exposé, The Daily Mail cites PMW's recent report discussing the PA's deception of Western donors.  According to the Daily Mail, "a devastating new report to be released this week by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the Authority no longer funds terrorists." Drawing on original Palestinian media, PMW documents the PA's fraud on international donors.  In 2011, PMW exposed that the PA was funneling foreign donations to terrorists and their families.  Following international outcry, in 2014, the PA formally placed funding for convicted terrorists in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Organization - the parent of Fatah and the PA itself.
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