JC news

French film 'Anti-Semite' banned from Cannes

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:16:58 +0100

A controversial film on the subject of antisemitism produced by an Iranian company was removed from the Cannes Film Festival schedule because it breached the event's guidelines.

The film, called "The Anti-Semite" was due to be screened at the annual cinema festival, but organisers pulled it from the programme.

Shot in nine days by Dieudonné, a French comedian and far-left activist known for his inflammatory statements and stunts about Jews and Israelis, the film features scenes with Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.

A report issued by the Anti-Defamation league noted that Dieudonné, who has been prosecuted for racist and antisemitic performances and remarks, "is known for his performances which routinely include Holocaust denial, praise for Adolf Hitler, Nazi salutes, slurs against the Talmud and other antisemitic language".

According to AFP, the film features scenes mocking the Auschwitz concentration camp, and shows the comic in Nazi fancy-dress. It was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Centre.

Explaining the ban, Cannes Film Market executive director Jerome Paillard said: "Our general conditions ban the presence of all films threatening public order or religious convictions, as well as pornographic films or those inciting violence."

Cannes is no stranger to controversy over artistic reactions to the Holocaust. At the 2011 festival, Lars von Trier made headlines with a string of remarks about him being a Nazi who understood and even sympathised with Hitler.

EU to look into antisemitism on continent

Simon Rocker — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:03:03 +0100

The European Union has commissioned a major investigation into antisemitism by the London-based Institute for Jewish Research (JPR).

An online survey, which will be carried out by Ipsos MORI, will gather evidence on the experience of antisemitism in nine EU countries.

Jon Boyd, executive director of JPR, which will be collaborating with experts in Israel and Europe, said: "It is clear to all observers of contemporary Jewish life that antisemitism continues to be a major preoccupation and worry in Jewish communal circles.

"If it is ever to be effectively tackled, it is essential to have shared, reliable data. This survey is designed to provide that data: this is an important and unique opportunity for thousands of European Jews to share their experiences and voice their concerns with policy makers working at the highest European and national levels."

The study, which will be published next year, has been commissioned by the EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, head of the agency's department of equality and citizen's rights, said: "Antisemitism remains an issue of concern today, not only to Jews, but to everyone in the EU."

The nine countries are Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Sweden and the UK.

Israelis urged to 'uphold Jewish values' after Tel Aviv asylum seeker protests

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:54:00 +0100

Jewish organisations have reacted with horror after protests in Tel Aviv over asylum seekers descended into a violent riot.

The demonstration, held in the impoverished Hatikva neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, saw around 1,000 people take to the streets to call for the removal of African asylum seekers.

It is estimated that as many as 60,000 African migrants have passed through the Sinai Peninsula and across the southern border with Egypt into Israel since 2005, many from war-torn parts of Sudan and Eritrea. Israel is a signatory to the 1951 UN treaty on war refugees and accordingly cannot send asylum seekers back to places where they would be in danger.

The influx, in a country which already has a high gulf between rich and poor, has made their presence controversial and led some groups and politicians to demand their expulsion. The Interior Minister has also questioned the impact of the refugees on the Jewish nature of the state. Eli Yishai called the situation "the crumbling of the Zionist dream".

Wednesday's demonstration came not long after a series of rapes blamed on African migrants and after a week of rising tensions between asylum seekers and Israelis in pockets of south Tel Aviv.

The Israeli Prime Minister, who has identified the numbers of asylum seekers as a problem in the past, strongly condemned the violence. "I want to make it very clear that there is no room for the kinds of expressions and actions we saw," he said. "I say this both to public officials and to the residents of south Tel Aviv."

The Zionist Youth Council, the representative body of British Zionist youth movements, condemned "the violent acts of racism that took place against African asylum seekers".

They said in a statement: "No matter our beliefs of freedom to protest, speak out and voice our opinions these rights do not extend to violence against others, threats of violence or theft and destruction of property."

Quoting the line in Leviticus that 'when a stranger resides in your land, you shall not wrong him…for you were strangers in the land of Egypt', they added: "As Jewish, Zionist organisations we support a fair and just state of Israel and we encourage all citizens to act in manner that upholds Jewish values and the values of the state of Israel."

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said: " While we recognize the complexity involved in properly addressing this issue, and sympathise with Israeli citizens whose personal security has been compromised by the lawlessness and violence of some migrants, we are disturbed by inflammatory public statements made by certain Israeli officials, some of which has veered into racism. "These statements are counterproductive and only serve to further inflame tensions."

Kosher chocolate chip change causes controversy

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:40:08 +0100

Jewish cooks across the US have been left distraught after a popular brand of chocolate chips was stripped of its "parev" label.

The Trader Joe's semisweet chocolate chips have long been a staple of the kosher kitchen, with people using them to whip up all manner of milk-free desserts.

But due to a change in the factory equipment last month for cost-cutting purposes, the product is no longer certified as kosher. Although the recipe is the same, a spokeswoman for the company explained that after the cleaning process used was altered recently, Trader Joe's was compelled by the Food and Drug Administration to label bags with a warning about milk allergies, thus affecting the product's parev status.

Shoppers have reacted to the news by seizing any packets that still have the old label, with one customer in Chelsea, New York, buying 90 bags on one visit.

Rabbi Chaim Fogelman, of the kosher supervisor OK Kosher, said: "As much as everybody wants us to label these parev, under no circumstances would we want to label something parev when we have a hunch there might be a dairy chip in the bag."

More than 4,600 people have signed an online petition calling for the change to be reversed.

"Many of us rely on their being parev - and not dairy or dairy-equipment - to meet our dietary needs," the petition reads.

Shulamis Labkowski, a Jewish mother from California, told the Wall Street Journal: "I'm hoping once they realise the significance to such a large amount of people, they'll reconsider."

"They are so delicious the way they are - why would you want to change the recipe?" asked signatory Zippoirah Freedman.

Another woman added: "Keeping kosher is so much more enjoyable with Trader Joe's chips. We beg of you, have mercy, and keep our chips parev."

Dame Gail Ronson to head charity for the blind

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:43:43 +0100

Dame Gail Ronson has been appointed president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

She takes over at the eye health and sight loss charity from the Duke of Westminster.

Dame Gail, a leading charity fundraiser and campaigner, said the appointment was a “huge honour” and a “substantial responsibility”.

“For over 30 years I have been involved in charitable activities in the social welfare sector and I have been a supporter of RNIB for over a decade,” she said.

“My grandmother had a vision loss because of macular degeneration and I know only too well how invaluable it is to be able to access the right advice and support.

“I have visited some of RNIB's amazing centres and seen the life-changing work they do.”

An investiture ceremony will be held in October to mark Dame Gail’s elevation to the role.

Apology: Mr McTernan

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:55:21 +0100

On May 13 2011, we published an article entitled "Pears funded charity which hosted jihadist" which related to the Pears Foundation, a charity called Forward Thinking, and an individual called Tafazal Mohammed.

We have since accepted that Mr Mohammed is not a jihadist and have apologised to him, the Pears Foundation and Forward Thinking for this error. It follows that there was no basis for linking Forward Thinking's director, Mr McTernan, to any jihadist. We apologise to Mr McTernan for the distress caused.

Fears over commercial plans for Serbia death camp

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:37:06 +0100

Historians and Jewish leaders who met this week in Serbia to discuss the future of the country’s largest death camp are concerned that the site could be subsumed in a commercial development.

There are plans for Staro Sajmište, on the outskirts of Belgrade, to become a “multi-functional” development, with a memorial merely part of the mix. There are already nightclubs and a restaurant on part of the site.

“Serbia was the only country outside Poland and the Soviet Union where all Jewish victims were killed on the spot without deportation, and was the first country after Estonia to be declared ‘Judenfrei’,” said historian Christopher Browning, who was at the conference.

Around 7,000 Jewish women and children were murdered at Sajmište between November 1941 and May 1942. A further 10,600 mainly Serbian victims were murdered or died of disease and starvation while interned there from 1942 to 1944. Despite its significance, the site remains derelict.

“Above all, it should be a place of public education,” said Alexandar Nécak, former president of the Jewish communities in Serbia.

Australian school guard faces rape trial

Dan Goldberg — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:33:44 +0100

A Jewish man who worked as a security guard at an Orthodox Jewish boys’ school in Melbourne has been committed to stand trial on charges of sexually abusing children.

David Samuel Cyprys, 44, will face 40 charges of child molestation — including multiple counts of rape — against 12 students at Yeshivah College in the 1980s, magistrate Luisa Bazzani ordered this week.

Mr Cyprys, 44, who runs a company called Shomer Security, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

In her ruling, Ms Bazzani reprimanded Yeshivah’s former principal, Rabbi Avrohom Glick, who first claimed he had never heard any allegations about sexual abuse and then changed his testimony to admit he had heard claims more recently. Ms Bazzani described his testimony as “unfathomable”.

Some of the witness statements during the two-week hearing fuelled longstanding claims that Yeshivah’s director, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner, the chief rabbi of Chabad in Melbourne until his death in 2008, knew of the allegations and covered them up. Mr Cyprys was released on bail; he will return to court next month.

Brooklyn prosecutor under fire over Charedi sex abuse

Nathalie Rothschild — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:27:48 +0100

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has come under fire for his handling of accusations of child sex abuse in the strictly Orthodox community.

A recent New York Times article outlined the prosecutor’s close ties to influential rabbis in Brooklyn’s expanding Orthodox neighbourhoods and reported that victims’ rights groups have accused Mr Hynes of failing properly to investigate the growing number of abuse allegations.

Mr Hynes has been criticised for not speaking out against a Charedi policy requiring members of the community to report suspicions of abuse to a rabbi, who then decides whether or not to notify the police.

Mr Hynes has also refused to make public the names of those formally charged and convicted of sexually abusing children within strictly-Orthodox communities in Brooklyn. He has argued that revealing names of perpetrators within the insular, tight-knit communities would leave victims exposed.

Mr Hynes defended himself in an op-ed for the New York Daily News. He called suggestions that he has covered up or downplayed sex offences “absurd”. He pointed out that he founded Kol Tzedek in 2009, a programme aimed at addressing the problem of sex abuse going unreported in the Orthodox community.

Since Kol Tzedek’s inception, Mr Hynes said, “we have made 95 arrests; 53 cases have been adjudicated, with a conviction rate of 72 per cent”.

Mr Hynes’s defence came after New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and former mayor Edward Koch weighed in on the debate.

In a statement to the New York Times, a spokesman said Mr Bloomberg “completely disagrees” with the decision by the DA not to challenge a strictly Orthodox advocacy group’s refusal to report allegations of child sexual abuse. In a blog, Mr Koch accused the DA of “blessing the obstruction of justice”.

Tel Aviv tour for Cirque du Soleil

Sarai Sinai — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:25:29 +0100

A contemporary yet magical entertainment extravaganza is coming to Israel this summer.

Renowned for its daring and graceful performances inspired from around the world, Cirque du Soleil will be bringing its acts to Tel Aviv this August 2012.

Cirque du Soleil originates from Canada and has since then travelled all around the globe gathering more than 100 million spectators since its creation in 1984. This year alone, more than 15 million people will be attending a Cirque du Soleil show.

The circus act will also be touring in numerous other countries including Germany, Spain, Greece, France, Turkey and Austria.

The show that will be performed this year goes by the name of "Alegria" and has been defined as "a baroque ode to the energy, grace and power of youth".

Cirque du Soleil which is known for its "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment" guarantees its spectators an extremely unique experience.

Lithuanian youth head backs Nazi leader

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:43:32 +0100

The head of Lithuania’s national youth association (ULNY) has denied that the country’s wartime puppet leader authorised the transportation of thousands of Jews to the Kaunas ghetto — and maintained that Jews cannot join his movement.

Youth leader Julius Panka claimed that Juozas Ambrazevicius, the acting prime minister of the provisional government of Lithuania for six weeks in 1941, was not responsible for the imprisonment of 30,000 Jews despite the existence of documentary evidence to the contrary.

“Documents have been falsified and there are false statements on the internet. Certain groups are using them to make trouble,” said Mr Panka.

The ULNY is one of the organisers of the annual march in the centre of Vilnius on the nation’s independence day, which is attended by a large number of neo-Nazis.

Mr Panka said that his group would not admit Jews or other minorities as members. “To be a member, you must be a full Lithuanian,” he said.

He denied that this is a Nazi policy: “They were National Socialists. We only seek to defend Lithuania. The threats are emigration and immigration. With one million Lithuanians living abroad and immigration by other groups, we are threatened.”

His comments come after last week’s four-day commemoration of Ambrazevicius, whose remains were repatriated from the US and reburied at the state’s expense. The urn holding his remains was placed on the altar at the Church of the Ascension of Christ in Kaunas.

Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis defended the memorial in parliament, saying that Ambrazevicius was entitled to full honours because he was posthumously given Lithuania’s highest national award. Culture Minister Arunas Gelunas — whose office in Vilnius used to be a Jewish bank, confiscated during the Holocaust — also personally supported the use of public funds.

Prominent anti-Nazi campaigners, including Weisenthal Centre Israel director Efraim Zuroff, have expressed outrage at the state’s involvement in the commemoration.

How does Mr Panka feel about the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were wiped out? Can he not understand how these ceremonies offend Jews? He replied: “There are just a few activists trying to make trouble, that is all.”

However, Mr Panka defends Ambrazevicius, painting the late prime minister as a resistance fighter: “Ambrazevicius was prime minister for only six weeks… When he realised that the Nazis would not allow Lithuanian independence, he went into the woods with the resistance.”

So why has this new version of events emerged only now, in 2012?

“Politically, this time is right. For some time since 1991 [the end of Soviet rule] we had a left-wing government. Now is the right time.”

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Ambrazevicius events, the only remaining active synagogue in Vilnius was vandalised with green paint this week.

There is significant resistance to the revisionist tendency in Lithuania. A conference on Ambrazevicius’s achievements was scheduled to be held on Thursday at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, but many members of the university staff have objected and were due to hold their own counter-conference this week.

Rare Hebrew treasures saved from skip

Jonathan Kalmus — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:39:52 +0100

Thousands of Jewish books, some over 200 years old, have been saved after being discovered by workmen in a dilapidated house.

A passer-by alerted Higher Crumpsall Synagogue last Saturday after seeing hundreds of Jewish books being thrown into a skip in Salford by workmen.

The synagogue's Rabbi Arnold Saunders investigated and found that thousands of books had been stored in the terraced house's attic and were being buried by rubble or thrown away.

The former owner had moved away but had not been able to organise the disposal of the books - mainly Hebrew religious texts including chumashim, Tanach, Talmud and rabbinic commentaries - due to illness.

The books included a copy of the Book of Job dating from 1807, a rare 19th-century sheet music volume of United Synagogue chazanut melodies, and a Torah scroll mantle.

Rabbi Saunders negotiated with the builders to clear the books in a mass operation involving 40 members of Manchester volunteer organisation Misaskim, which normally supports bereaved families at funerals and shiva houses. Owners of a Manchester refuse tip also agreed to close for two hours on Sunday while volunteers painstakingly sorted the old texts from tons of rubble from the house.

Some books are now being sold and the money will contribute to burying unsalvageable books containing God's Hebrew name. The Manchester Beth Din has donated a burial plot in Rainsough Jewish cemetery.

Rabbi Saunders paid tribute to the volunteers. "It just shows what can be achieved when everybody pulls together. When I saw how many books there were, I was stunned - it was a veritable Aladdin's cave. The thought of all these books going to a tip would have been heartbreaking."

Chelsea welcomes Hapoel to European football event

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:37:43 +0100

Israeli football club Hapoel Tel Aviv have joined European champions Chelsea and other leading clubs at a London seminar to discuss how sport can help young people.

The three-day conference began on Tuesday with representatives of Europe's biggest clubs, including Manchester United, Everton, and Feyenoord.

The seminar was aimed at encouraging clubs to share their ideas on promoting fair play, tackling racism and providing equal opportunities. Participants discussed how football and other sports could help young people from impoverished backgrounds.

Four members of Hapoel's education and social action unit - Mifalot - took part. The scheme was set up in 1997 for Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian children to teach them about integration.

Meir Orenstein, Mifalot's director-general, said: "We are honoured to be recognised by the Premier League, the British Council and the European Union as one of the world leaders in the field of community outreach.

"After extensive work in over a dozen countries we are branded as a bank of know-how in this field, and we are happy to share that with colleagues from different European clubs."

Gay rights challenge to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:34:30 +0100

A gay rights campaign, in which a Jewish journalist is prominent, is to force each member of the House of Lords, including the Chief Rabbi, to record their position on gay marriage.

The "Out4marriage" campaign will ask every MP and peer to record a video, send a tweet or add their name to a list of those who back equal marriage. Those who do not respond or issue no comment will be added to a public list of those who do not support the move.

Lord Sacks has been under pressure to take a stand on government plans to introduce marriage for same-sex couples, being urged to "speak out" against the proposals by head of the Federation Beth Din Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein.

The Chief Rabbi's Office has so far refused to comment on the issue. Both the Reform and Liberal movements have backed a plan to allow same-sex couples to have a civil marriage.

Ben Cohen, founder of gay news website Pink News, has been part of the team running the Out4Marriage campaign. This week, volunteers filmed supportive MPs, including Golders Green's Mike Freer.

Limmud goes to Jerusalem

Nathan Jeffay — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:33:34 +0100

When it comes to Jewish learning, the Diaspora normally looks to Jerusalem for inspiration. But, Jerusalem residents have taken their lead from Britain, and run their own Limmud conference.

Speakers spanned the religious spectrum from the Charedi politician Rabbi Haim Amsalem to Reform activist Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the Hiddush movement that critiques the Charedi community.

Around 500 people attended the daylong conference, which was the first mainstream Limmud event in Jerusalem (there have been some special events for immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in the past).

“I attended three Limmud UK winter events and one summer event and they moved me like virtually nothing in Israel had done before,” said Nadia Levene, a British immigrant to Israel, explaining why she organised the event. “I realised that this was what Jerusalem needed. In these times of religious angst between Jewish stream and after our summer of discontent, we needed some unity, some open discussion.”

Author David Hazony, one of the speakers, admitted: “I was initially skeptical whether it was possible to replicate the success of Limmud UK in Jerusalem, mostly because there is such a wealth of Jewish learning options in the Israeli capital.” But he said that the “sense of openness and mutual respect which is unique to Limmud events across the globe” made it a success.

ITV 'Strictly Kosher' reality show star fined

Jonathan Kalmus — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:32:50 +0100

ITV’s Strictly Kosher star Joel Lever has been fined nearly £6,000 for fire safety breaches at his Manchester shop.

Mr Lever became famous for his over-the-top antics selling ball gowns to Jewish mothers on the documentary which was screened last year.

But last Thursday he pleaded guilty to eight charges relating to poor fire-safety provisions at his Mon Ami Boutique in Prestwich.

The breaches included blocked fire escapes, a faulty fire alarm and not appointing a person responsible for fire safety, all prior to the ITV programme filmed extensively at Mon Ami.

Mr Lever was fined £5,778 at Bury Magistrates Court. He said: “I was ignorant. Now I know all about fire safety and have employed a company to improve all our health and safety measures.”

Design firm reinstates Israel on wall maps

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:30:09 +0100

An interior design company has had to "re-draw" a wall world map which omitted Israel for being "too small."

Customer Joanna Koenigsberg, of Sidcup, planned to decorate walls in her new home with panels in different designs from online company Binary Box. But two of the company's map designs, one labelled with country names and one covered in different flags in the shapes of countries, each omitted Israel, giving Jordan a Mediterranean coastline.

Ms Koenigsberg said: "I was saddened because I really liked these designs, but I can't accept this fiddling with the truth."

After being contacted by the JC, the company said it was an "error" and was not politically motivated. Aidan Stonehouse, graphic designer at Binary Box, said the sticker panel had been redesigned to include Israel.

Ms Koenigsberg said she was pleased with the response, and said the company had sent her the new designs. "Of course we have no idea how many were sold of the old ones, or who designed them, but it was a decent response. I don't feel there was any political element to the oversight."

Camden slaps ban on Islamist group

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:29:49 +0100

A group which promotes extreme Islamist organisations has been banned from using a taxpayer-funded neighbourhood centre.

The Ministry of Dawah has held lectures at the Camden Council-backed venue in north London for more than two years. Its glorification of Osama bin Laden, and extreme Islamist clerics such as Anwar al-Awlaki, was revealed in the JC last week.

The King’s Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association (KCBNA) runs the Kings Cross Neighbourhood Centre. Camden Council is its biggest funder, having given the association thousands of pounds in the past two years.

An event planned for last Sunday night did not go ahead and Dawah supporters were told not to travel to the centre as there were “venue booking issues”. The group had said events would be “cancelled until further notice”.

But Nasim Ali, KCBNA executive director, confirmed that he had suspended the group’s bookings following last week’s revelations.

Council leader Sarah Haywood had told the KCBNA to take responsibility for the Ministry of Dawah’s conduct after being informed that the group’s actions might be breaching the government’s Prevent counter-extremism guidelines.

Last year’s Prevent review included clear directives to local authorities, stating that “propagandists for terrorism and for ideologies taken up by terrorists should not be permitted to make use of publicly owned venues” and that authorities “must be ready to take appropriate action”.

Camden’s Prevent co-ordinator had been made aware of concerns about the Ministry of Dawah earlier this month but the council failed to make clear what direct action it was subsequently taking.

Mr Ali said: “Camden Council raised concerns about the group. We do not want to support any organisations whose activities are a concern to Camden Council or may be detrimental to the work we are trying to do.

“We work with all sections of the community and over the past 32 years have helped to unite this diverse community and provide services to support that ethos. We work with people from all different faiths, ethnicity, culture, sexuality and backgrounds.”

South Africa and Denmark in settlement labels move

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:27:45 +0100

The recent decisions by the governments of South Africa and Denmark to identify the origins of products made in West Bank settlements on their labels did not surprise the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Diplomats monitoring the efforts of pro-Palestinian organisations to promote boycotts of Israel have been expecting them to focus on settlement products for some time.

In a way, explains one diplomat, the fact that the BDS (boycott, sanction, divestment) movement has merely succeeded in pushing through boycotts of West Bank goods is a measure of the Israeli government’s success in fending off more sweeping boycott attempts.

“While the BDS activists may say that they are not anti-Israel, just anti-occupation, we know their true intentions,” said one Israeli official. “But they know that there are well-meaning people out there, unhappy with Israel’s policies in the West Bank, and they can sell them on a limited boycott.”

In recent months, there have been ongoing discussions within the Israeli government and Zionist organisations regarding the correct response to the BDS campaigns. “We realised,” said one expert who participated in these meetings, “that the actual circle of activists was rather small and their effect generally was limited only to a few committed supporters. Perhaps the Israeli response should be more low-key, rather than drawing attention to them — which is what they want.”

Diplomats and members of Jewish organisations fighting delegitimisation of Israel believe that the bottom-line is that they have succeeded in seeing off at least 90 per cent of the boycott attempts around the world.
But while the diplomats believe that Israel is winning most of the battles, the decisions to label settlement produce — such as the decision last month by the UK Co-op to cancel contracts with agricultural export companies that also sold settlement goods — is seen as “a slippery slope” which could lead to boycotts of Israelis and Israeli companies in general.

That is why Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor went as far to denounce the South African decision as “a racist measure”.

“The problem is that many people around the world simply lack the knowledge about what is happening in the region,” says an Israeli diplomat. “And even though they have legitimate criticisms, their ignorance is easily exploited by those who want to isolate Israel.”

Mitzvah Day's Laura Marks sweeps the Board of Deputies poll

Simon Rocker — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:25:19 +0100

The head of a campaign to encourage more women into Jewish leadership roles set the perfect example on Sunday when she topped the poll for vice-president of the Board of Deputies. Laura Marks, founder of the cross-communal social action event Mitzvah Day, was elected senior vice-president - just four months after becoming a deputy.

The other two vice-presidential positions were secured by Alex Brummer, award-winning Daily Mail City editor and vice-chair of the Board's international division, and senior vice-president for the past triennial, Jonathan Arkush.

They defeated Jerry Lewis, who lost his bid for re-election as vice-president, and family solicitor Denise Lester, in an election in which more than 80 per cent of deputies voted.

Ms Marks, who represents the Movement for Reform Judaism and is the first non-Orthodox officer for more than a decade, said she was "amazed, honoured, flattered" by the result.

Although "a new girl" at the Board, she said that she believed the "work I do for the wider community stood me in better stead than I reckoned.

"And it's gratifying because I couldn't have got through on a Progressive-only vote. The fact that the support base must have been wider is important for the community and for the Board."

When one Orthodox deputy, Anthony Spencer of Borehamwood Synagogue, asked during hustings how she could defend Jewish tradition as a Reform member, he was loudly heckled from the floor. In contrast, Ms Marks was widely applauded when she declared: "I firmly believe…that the Board of Deputies represents all Jews in this country."

Board president Vivian Wineman and treasurer Laurence Brass had already succeeded in winning second terms unopposed.

Under the single transferable vote system used, each deputy was allowed to put down two names, with candidates requiring 55 votes to gain election. After first preferences were counted, Ms Marks had 65 votes and Mr Brummer 56, followed by Mr Arkush with 48, Mr Lewis, 36, and Ms Lester, 17. When second choices in the next round were added, Mr Arkush rose to 57, ahead of Mr Lewis on 48.

Mr Brummer said: "It is a terrific new team, the Board has been refreshed."

Mr Arkush - who along with Mr Brass has been mooted as a contender for the presidency in three years' time - said: "I am very pleased and gratified we have got such a team. I believe that the vote for me constituted a strong endorsement." Three months ago he had unleashed controversy after a strong attack on the Jewish Leadership Council, only to issue an apology after a backlash against the Board.

But Mr Arkush reconfirmed that he could not see how an organisation could be accountable it if were unelected. "I said it was therefore unacceptable [for the JLC] to assume political leadership of our community. I still believe that to be the case," he said.

While he supported the JLC's role as a strategic agency, he remained concerned that it should "stick to its remit"; it was a council of people including some leaders, not "the Jewish leadership, so I continue to believe it should change its name".

Sorry Baroness Ashton, Iran won't concede in Baghdad

Emanuele Ottolenghi — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:22:26 +0100

When, over a year ago, tensions began to publicly surface between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, the Western press concluded that Ahmadinejad was the more moderate element — at least in terms of relations with the West and nuclear diplomacy. But a year later, as Iranian negotiators met their international counterparts in Baghdad for another round of talks, their roles have reversed. It is Khamenei who is behind the drive for compromise.

This is not to say that the Supreme Leader is a moderate or that he has abandoned Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But he is alarmed at the damage Iran has suffered from international sanctions and fears the survival of the regime is now in question. The Baghdad talks were set in motion by a clear desire to relieve pressure and thus save the regime from implosion. That is part of the reason for the resurgence of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s former president, the father of Iran’s nuclear programme and the most astute politician in the country.
His proxies have been vociferously pushing their more accommodating views, not so much to forego nuclear weapons, but to gain respite for Iran’s battered economy while blaming Ahmadinejad and his administration for mismanaging the economy and drawing sanctions for his uncompromising stance. In the process, Rafsanjani is hoping to unseat Ahmadinejad and restore his own clout.

It would be a mistake, though, to assume that Iran is ready to forego nuclear weapons. The Western press has interpreted last weekend’s visit to Tehran by Yukiya Amano, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a sign that Iran was making concessions on more intrusive inspections — a necessary component of any nuclear deal. Then, 24 hours before negotiators were due in Baghdad, a deal was announced.
Iran was keen to bag a deal to prove its sincere readiness to compromise. Amano was keen to “nail Iran to a document” — as a Vienna-based Western diplomat tracking Iran’s nuclear programme said — but probably sceptical about the likelihood of a breakthrough.

Amano was keen to ‘nail Iran to a document’ - as a Vienna-based Western diplomat closely tracking Iran’s nuclear programme said - but probably skeptical about the likelihood of a breakthrough. After all, he went to Iran uninvited. He did not obtain permission to inspect the Parchin complex – the military site where Iran is presumed to conduct tests for its nuclear weapons’ programme. And the Iranians are still denying access to scientists and original documents the Agency wishes to see to better understand the history and nature of the nuclear programme.

Amano has won a major tactical victory — he forced Iran to commit to an agreement Iran did not want to sign by exploiting a moment of weakness of the regime, when Tehran needed to project a conciliatory image. Now, if the agreement falls through because the minor details still holding it up remain insurmountable, the fault will be Iran’s.

But all this remains secondary to the biggest issue — that Iran’s regime is nervous enough about its own survival to negotiate. For Baroness Ashton, who leads the negotiations, this is proof that in exchange for reassurances that the West is not after regime change, Iran will concede. Nothing is further from the truth — the regime is on the edge of a precipice and pushing it over the cliff would be, long term, a much wiser choice than a compromise bound to save the regime from domestic implosion. Continued diplomacy will buy Iran time — and unless it leads to a deal that is tantamount to nuclear capitulation, it will leave Iran to continue its quest for nuclear weapons. Only regime change will save the region from the threat of a nuclear Iran.

Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies

Writer aims for Seinfeld star's approval

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:21:37 +0100

An aspiring filmmaker from Chingford is one step away from having her film professionally critiqued by Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm writer Larry Charles, having reached the finals of a national competition.

Actress and comedy writer Alexis Strum has previously starred in Persona, a drama series only available on mobile phones, and has acted alongside Sir Ian McKellen and Richard E Grant.

She wrote and starred in the surreal six-minute comedy Shoes, about a terrible waitress, after becoming disheartened by comedy scripts she was sent.

The film is now in the finals for Shooting People's Film of the Month. The winner, determined by viewer votes, will be announced next Friday.

She said: "I wrote the film after having some terrible experiences with bad customer service. And I was sick of reading unfunny scripts I was sent to act in, so I decided that like Miranda and Ricky Gervais before me, I would write a role for myself. I wrote the script, then approached Jewish actor Steve Furst, who has appeared in Little Britain and Skins.

"I then courted a few directors before I secured BBC director Dermot Canterbury to make the short film and I am currently entering it into worldwide film festivals."

Ms Strum said she was desperate for Borat writer Mr Charles to see her film, describing him as "my idol."

She added: "However, the real plan for Shoes is to find a producer to help me turn it into a TV series."

'British Jews have new confidence' leaders tell Knesset

Nathan Jeffay — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:20:53 +0100

Israelis should stop sensationalising the problems facing Jews in the UK, a British Jewish leader urged in the Knesset on Tuesday.

Mick Davis, head of the Jewish Leadership Council and chairman of the UJIA, said: “The hyperbole and headlines which dominate the discourse in Israel about the UK often harm our community and bilateral relationship.”

Mr Davis was addressing a special meeting of a Knesset subcommittee on diaspora affairs, which chairwoman Einat Wilf convened “to address the challenges faced by the Jewish and pro-Israel community in Great Britain”.

He acknowledged that Britain was “the hub of hubs” of the movement to delegitimise Israel, saying that it “exports” deligitimisation due to the international importance of its media. He voiced concern about boycotts, saying that even when limited to settlement produce and not all Israeli goods, they are “the thin end of the wedge”.

But he insisted that the community was fighting back with new confidence. There was a “new approach in the public arena,” he said, and went on to argue that Israel’s supporters could take advantage of Britain’s importance and “recast London into a global hub of fighting deligitimisation”.

Dermot Kehoe, chief executive of Bicom, echoed this, saying: “We should not just see the UK as a threat, but as an opportunity to win the argument.”

Mr Davis stressed repeatedly that British Jewry was, in the main, at one with the general British population. “Things are not as bad as I read about,” he said.

But the Zionist Federation’s representative at the meeting sharply dismissed Mr Davis’s assessment. Addressing Ms Wilf, Andrew Balcombe, chairman of the ZF’s Israel office, said: “I think, madam chairman, that you should understand that from an activist point of view, that speech would have been terrific five or 10 years ago.” He hit out at Mr Davis as removed from reality, saying that the top officials in the JLC — which the ZF has refused to join — are “maybe 27 levels above what is going on on the ground”.

Asked after the meeting about his objections, he said: “I disagreed with the description of the state of British Jewry in relation to Israel. The word antisemitism was hardly mentioned, the divisions in the leadership of the Jewish community were not mentioned, and the overstretched and underfunded work done by activists was hardly mentioned.”

Michael Dickson, Israel director of the organisation StandWithUs, told the meeting that on occasions pro-Israel action was “hindered by our own side”. One small group of UK Jewish leaders had tried to block a campus tour by a pro-Israel Muslim speaker for fear of “inflaming the campus atmosphere”, he said.

There had been a “strategic underinvestment in real pro-Israel grassroots action in the UK”, Mr Dickson said.

The meeting was organised to brief Israeli politicians on the situation in the UK, but there was one obvious problem — a lack of Knesset members. Only Einat Wilf remained for the whole meeting, and just one other, Anastassia Michaeli of Yisrael Beiteinu, made an appearance.

Asked about the absence of her parliamentary colleagues, Ms Wilf, who represents the Independence party, said: “I do my best to promote the subject. Sadly, still, Israeli-diaspora relations are an elite preoccupation among MKs.”

She pledged to bring the proposals, including Mr Davis’s suggestion of a “Big Conversation” between Israel and the diaspora, to a full plenum of the Knesset.

Globe director's Dromgoole's 1967 Israel Habima links

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:19:13 +0100

Habima's performance of The Merchant of Venice will not be the Globe's artistic director's first brush with Shakespeare with an Israeli spin.

As a toddler, Dominic Dromgoole joined his director father in Israel where he was working on Habima's production of Othello.

Patrick Dromgoole, who also took the Joe Orton comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane to Israel, worked in Israel for three consecutive summers and was awarded a medal by Habima: "a small star of Israel with a cross in the centre".

His third visit was in June 1967 and the run coincided with the Six-Day War. Dominic, then aged three, was airlifted out of Israel to Cyprus along with his mother and siblings as fighting broke out; they were taken to safety after British Embassy staff spotted his brother's "very English, very Victorian teddy bear".

In his memoir Will & Me, Mr Dromgoole recalled his arrival in Israel: "The sound of a thousand voices belting out the Israel national anthem as our ship pulled into Haifa" and "the fierce tears and greedy clutching when people re-met".

Mr Dromgoole said that the Habima actors he met "treated Shakespeare with the same devotional enthusiasm" as his parents did. "Israel in 1967 had the innocent enthusiasm for the classics of a company that was improvising its own destiny…"

He later discovered that his father, who was having an affair with the Habima actress playing Desdemona, stopped rehearsals and instead began entertaining the troops.

"Soldiers weary from the whizz flash bang of modern warfare would return from a battlefield of tanks and artillery to find my father, standing on the back of a truck, giving his very fine version of 'Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more…' from Henry V."

Patrick Dromgoole's involvement with Habima began soon after the company brought over its production of Anski's The Dybbuk to the Aldwych as part of London's World Theatre season. The production, disparaged as "a museum piece" by one critic, was nonetheless a sell-out.

UK support for Israel 'declining'

Simon Rocker — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:17:36 +0100

Pro-Israel sentiment in the UK has dropped from 25 per cent to 17 per cent in a decade, while support for the Palestinians remained at the same level at 18 per cent.

Comparison of polls taken between 2001 and 2011 taken by Bicom showed that most people did not take sides and there was “a general public coolness” towards both Israel and the Palestinians, according to evidence presented in the Knesset.

Sympathy was at its highest for the Palestinians at 40 per cent in November 2006 (when it was 33 per cent for the Israelis) and for Israel at 36 per cent the following year (when it was the same figure for the Palestinians).

One in five blamed Israel for the failure to settle the conflict, compared with only eight per cent blaming the Palestinians in the most recent poll. Two thirds held both sides responsible and five per cent neither.

Sixty-four per cent supported Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state (although 46 per cent made it conditional on a peace agreement); eight per cent rejected the idea of a Jewish state.

PCC backs Guardian over Jerusalem

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:12:39 +0100

The Press Complaints Commission has backed the Guardian after the newspaper refused to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

A picture of passengers on the city’s light railway observing a minute’s silence during the country’s Holocaust Memorial Day appeared in the Guardian’s centre pages, and on its website, last month.

The caption alongside the picture initially referred to the city as Israel’s capital, prompting a later “correction”.

The paper noted that the caption “wrongly referred to the city as the Israeli capital. The Guardian style guide states: ‘Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel; Tel Aviv is’”.

Media-monitoring group HonestReporting complained to the PCC, claiming that the Guardian had breached the regulatory body’s clause on accuracy.

The PCC rejected the claim. In its ruling it briefly outlined the UK Foreign Office’s guidance on the issue, which recognises that Israel “maintains that Jerusalem is its capital city, a claim not recognised by the UK and the international community”, but stops short of designating Tel Aviv as the capital.

But the PCC went on to conclude: “The Commission was of the view that the newspaper was entitled to refer to Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel. There was no breach of the code in this instance.”

HonestReporting said the ruling was “astonishing and outrageous”.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “Aside from a sovereign state’s right to determine its own capital, international convention maintains that a capital city is usually where a state’s central political institutions reside.

“We believe that this flawed ruling has the potential to further delegitimise Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital, giving the British media carte blanche to follow the Guardian’s lead.”

Joe Hyams, HonestReporting chief executive, added: “This ruling is an absolute outrage. The PCC’s role is to maintain standards of media accuracy, not to make political and politicised rulings.

“What mandate does the PCC have in deciding that the location of foreign embassies determines a host nation’s capital status?”

Amir Ofek, press attaché at the Israeli embassy in London, said: “Jerusalem was the capital of ancient Israel long before London was the capital of England. It remains the capital of Israel today, and the home of Israel’s legislature, government and Supreme Court.

“This is something that the PCC has failed to understand.

“For the Guardian to reject Israel’s determination of its own capital flies in the face of history.

“For it to go further and insist that Israel’s capital is Tel Aviv is presumptuous and unfounded.”

Security clampdown at Globe for Habima's Merchant in Hebrew

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:08:21 +0100

Shakespeare's Globe has stepped up security in anticipation of next week's two performances by Israel's Habima Theatre Company in order to avoid a repeat of the scenes at the Proms last year.

The Hebrew-language production of The Merchant of Venice has been beset by controversy, with a group of high-profile stage names calling on the Globe to boycott the Israeli company.

Pro-Palestinian activists have made clear their intention to disrupt proceedings with demonstrations at both performances. Both shows are now sold out.

"Come along to these protests outside the Globe London…to tell the Globe that Israeli apartheid must leave the stage," wrote the Palestine Solidarity campaign on Twitter. The Zionist Federation has arranged a counter-demonstration.

Last September the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's concert at the BBC proms was interrupted by anti-Israel protesters who sang about "Israeli apartheid" as the performance began. The BBC was forced to halt its live broadcast as a result.

Although additional security measures had been promised by the Royal Albert Hall, only limited bag searches were conducted.

In a letter sent this week to ticket-holders, the Globe reserved the right "to refuse admission to anyone we have reason to believe may cause a disruption" and that "any objects or material which could be used in disrupting the performance will be deemed prohibited items".

The organisers warned that individuals who attempted to disrupt the show would be asked to leave and advised that ticket-holders should leave bags at home.

The letter also said that there would be "enhanced security processes in place" including extensive checks of bags and audience members, with food and drink banned in the auditorium and no video or photography equipment allowed at the venue.

The audience has been advised to arrive up to 90 minutes before curtain-up, with plans for the show to be significantly delayed "if the majority of the audience arrive after 7pm".

When the festival was announced, Habima's Rut Tonn expressed concern about protesters causing trouble.

"I have my concerns," she said. "It's very important for us to do it and also for Israel that it goes well."

'Be loyal to Israel' pleads foreign minister Lieberman

Martin Bright — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:05:44 +0100

Diaspora Jews should support Israel’s government regardless of its political complexion, according to its controversial Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Jewish National Fund in London on Tuesday evening, Mr Lieberman said that Jews who organised a petition against his visit were a legitimate part of the debate about the future of Israel.

However, he said that it was his personal view that Jews around the world should be loyal to the Israeli government. “My expectation from all Jewish communities around the world is that they support any Israeli government. It doesn’t matter if you have a left government or a right government.”

In discussion with author and political commentator Douglas Murray at the Pillar Hotel in Hendon, Mr Lieberman said Israel suffered from the plethora of mass media outlets ranged against it. He said he had counted 16 Arab channels on his hotel television (“not counting the BBC”).

When the issue of media hostility was raised by the JC in the question-and-answer session, he added in an aside “including the Jewish Chronicle.”

Mr Lieberman saved his most forthright comments for the discussion of Iran. He said engagement with President Ahmedinejad sent “a bad message” and warned that a nuclear Iran would present “the biggest threat to the entire world”.

He said there was a danger this would lead to a “crazy nuclear arms race” in the region with untold consequences. “It will be the reality like horror movies in Hollywood with leaks of nuclear technologies, dirty bombs.”

Mr Lieberman also used his visit to meet Foreign Secretary William Hague. The Foreign Office refused to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the visit, emphasising that the Israeli Foreign Minister was an elected member of his country’s government.

Discussions with Mr Hague are understood to have focused on Iran in advance of the high-level talks in Baghdad with the so-called P5+1 nations (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany).

Mr Hague was also keen to use the occasion to seek Mr Lieberman’s perspective on the new coalition in Israel and whether it offered a fresh chance to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.

Speaking at the JNF event, the Israeli Foreign Minister expressed his hope that this government would be the first in history to reach a full term, but in the context of the peace process, he said he believed that the ball was in the court of the Palestinians.

Israel skeptical on Iran talks in Baghdad

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:04:33 +0100

Western diplomats participating in the Baghdad talks that began on Wednesday were upbeat about the possibility of reaching a deal which would limit Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

A delegation from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council along with Germany, headed by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Baroness Ashton, presented a detailed framework that would limit the level of enrichment that Iran may carry out and remove the 100kg of uranium that Iran has already enriched to 20 per cent purity.

Iran’s delegation, led by the secretary of its Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, the envoy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded with a five-point plan.

While no final agreement is expected to be reached in the two-day round of talks, Western diplomats involved said that “this time there is a clear understanding that the Iranians know what they have to do. The ferocity of the international sanctions has persuaded them they have no choice”.

Israeli officials, however, were more dismissive. Amos Gilad, the head of the Defence Ministry’s Diplomatic-Security bureau, said on Monday that: “They are now at the point where they could develop nuclear weapons, yet on the other hand need to postpone a decision to go ahead by a few months.”

Meanwhile, according to a BBC report, the UK’s National Security Council last week discussed legal considerations regarding potential British involvement in any hostilities in the Persian Gulf region.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said in response: “We do not advocate military action against Iran and we continue to believe that the twin-track process of pressure and engagement offers the best hope of resolving this issue.”

Lieberman visit triggers bitter community clash

Simon Rocker — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:55:18 +0100

The Reform Movement has stood by its attack on visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman after coming under fire at the Board of Deputies.

Reform’s rabbinic spokesman Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner said last week that it had been “surprised and dismayed” that he had been asked to address the Jewish community, declaring that he held “fundamentalist right-wing views from outside the consensus of mainstream Israeli society”.

At Sunday’s Board meeting Jonathan Hoffman, deputy for Woodside Park Synagogue, deplored her statement, while Malvyn Benjamin (Hendon Synagogue) said that such criticism did “immense damage”.

But Reform chairman Jenny Pizer told the Board: “We cannot condone the views that he expresses publicly both inside and outside Israel about the minority groups in that country.”

Asked to comment by Mr Benjamin, outgoing Board vice-president Paul Edlin would say only: “We support the democratically elected government and people of Israel without question.”

An online petition launched by Habonim-Dror protesting at Mr Lieberman and the JNF, attracted more than 300 signatures.

Signatories included chairman of Liberal Judaism’s rabbinic conference Rabbi Aaron Goldstein, Ilana Fenster, who jointly chairs the Zionist Youth Council, Anthony Tricot, who is a board member of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation, and prominent Orthodox educator Maureen Kendler.

Mrs Kendler said: “Mr Lieberman’s agenda is far from the vision of equality and fairness that I think Israel should stand for”.

The petition accused JNF of being involved in “activities which jeopardise the possibility of peace and Israel’s ability to maintain a strong democracy”.

It gave as examples the eviction of Palestinians from homes in Silwan, east Jerusalem and the displacement of Bedouins living in the Negev town of Al-Araqib to make way for trees.

Yachad director Hannah Weisfeld said: “A significant number of our supporters have expressed concern over the JNF’s ongoing involvement in activities in east Jerusalem and the Negev. In this context, the JNF’s invitation to Mr Lieberman is a cause for concern to many of our supporters, not least because of his party’s track record of bringing anti-democratic legislation in front of the Knesset.”

But Samuel Hayek, chairman of JNF UK — which hosted the meeting with Mr Lieberman on Tuesday night — said that the “libellous” claims had “no foundation. JNF UK is not involved in any of the disputes with sections of Israel’s Bedouin citizens”.

JNF UK is a separate charity from KKL-JNF in Israel, although it does send funds to the Israeli body.

Mr Hayek said that the petition had “provided a great deal of ammunition and encouragement to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel groups. The JNF, as the flag bearer of Israel in the United Kingdom, stands firmly against the demonisation of Israel.”

But Habonim fieldworker Jem Stein countered: “As a Zionist youth movement, we are committed to living out our values of justice and equality as enshrined within Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The petition raises the concern that certain actions of the JNF run contrary to these values — a concern the JNF has yet to answer.”

Mr Lieberman met Board president Vivian Wineman and representatives of other community organisations on Tuesday morning.

Street wars as pro-Palestinians take anti-Lieberman rage to Hendon

Bernard Josephs — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:48:40 +0100

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators came eyeball to eyeball on Tuesday as they staged rival rallies in Anglo-Jewry’s heartland where Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was addressing a JNF meeting.

The presence of the controversial minister, which caused a heated debate in the Jewish community and enraged anti-Israel groups, brought hundreds of people onto the streets outside Hendon’s Pillar Hotel in north-west London where he was speaking.

Police struggled to keep the two sides apart as they chanted, waved flags and banners and exchanged insults.

There were Jews and Muslims on both sides with pro-Palestinian demonstrators supported by Jews For Justice for Palestinians, Neturei Karta and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Produce. The pro-Israel side was supported by British Muslims for Israel.

“I never thought I would see a Palestinian flag flying near my home,” said one woman, who had draped an Israeli flag over her shoulders.

Brian Sacks, from Finchley, confessed that while he was not a fan of Mr Lieberman, he was standing up for “peace, for negotiations and for Israel”.

Finally the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, still waving banners and chanting, retreated under police protection towards Hendon tube. All along the route they were confronted by youths waving Israeli flags.

“We turned back the anti-Zionists. This is anti-fascism work at its finest,” declared Ari Soffer, director of the British Israel Coalition which organised the pro-Israel rally.

He took a swipe at those Jews who, while supporting Israel, declined to demonstrate in support of the right-wing Mr Lieberman.

“British Jewry no longer has to suffer under pusillanimous leadership in the face of vicious anti-Israel sentiment. Now Jews, Christians and Muslims are standing up against the bullies who make up the anti-Israel network.”

GCSE question asks "why do some people hate Jews?"

Simon Rocker — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:44:25 +0100

Education Secretary Michael Gove has strongly criticised an exam board over a GCSE religious studies question in which pupils were asked: “Explain, briefly, why some people are prejudiced against Jews.”

Last Thursday more than 1,000 students — including pupils at JFS — sat the paper, which was set by one of the three major English exam boards, AQA.

Mr Gove declared: “To suggest that antisemitism can ever be explained, rather than condemned, is insensitive and, frankly, bizarre. AQA needs to explain how and why this question was included in an exam paper.”

He said that it was “the duty of politicians to fight prejudice, and with antisemitism on the rise we need to be especially vigilant”.

A spokesperson for AQA said: “The board is obviously concerned that this question may have caused offence, as this was absolutely not our intention”.

But, she added, the question “acknowledges that some people hold prejudices; it does not imply in any way that prejudice is justified”.

The JC understands that Mr Gove’s department had been contacted by a senior educational figure in the Jewish community.

Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, also took issue with the question. “Clearly this is unacceptable and has nothing whatsoever to do with Jews or Judaism,” he said.

“We will be taking it up with the examination board and it seems to me that it is also something to raise with the Department of Education, with which we are meeting anyway to discuss antisemitism in schools.”

Ofqual, which regulates exams, said that it was in discussion with AQA: “We will take appropriate follow-up action if necessary.”

Rabbi David Meyer, the executive head of Hasmonean High School, whose pupils do not sit the AQA exam, said that the question had “no place” in an exam paper.

“The role of education is to remove prejudices and not to justify them,” he said. The question “plants suggestions and implies ideas that shouldn’t be instilled into students”.

AQA’s spokesperson said that the question was part of a paper focusing on Judaism and the “relevant part of the syllabus covers prejudice and discrimination with reference to race, religion and the Jewish experience of persecution.

“We would expect [students to refer]to the Holocaust to illustrate prejudice based on irrational fear, ignorance and scapegoating.”

Educator Clive Lawton, formerly an A-level chief examiner for religious studies for another board, said: “I do understand why people might react negatively to the question, but it is a legitimate one.

“Part of the syllabus is that children must study the causes and origins of prejudice against Jews.”

Minister offended after Orthodox Israeli refuses to shake her hand

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:49:56 +0100

A Belgian minister has complained that a Charedi counterpart refused to shake hands at an official meeting with her because she is a woman.

Laurette Onkelinx was in Geneva at the World Health Assembly conference with Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman when she offered her hand as a greeting.

Mr Litzman declined, prompting her to post on her Facebook page complaining that her hands were clean.

She said the experience had only happened to her once before, with an Iranian politician.

"This kind of fundamentalist attitude, connected to a certain perception of religion and women, profoundly troubles me," she wrote.

Orthodox lingerie company owner sued for sacking 'hot' employee

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:31:42 +0100

A woman has taken legal action against a lingerie company claiming that her Orthodox Jewish employers dismissed her for being "too hot" and too well-endowed.

Lauren Odes worked at the New York warehouse "Native Intimates" for a week in April. She alleges that during her time there she was told to dress less provocatively, including being asked to tape down her breasts and wear a dressing gown over her clothes to cover up.

Ms Odes, 29, said she believed her clothing was acceptable given that the company sold thongs and provocative underwear. On the Native Intimates Twitter account, the company boasts that it offers "the finest in intimate apparel, including corsets and bustier bras".

She said that the employers called her tight-fitting clothes, including leather and sequin-studded boots, "too hot". She was later sacked from her job, which involved inputting data for the company.

She is being represented in her gender and religious discrimination lawsuit by the prominent feminist lawyer Gloria Allred. The lawsuit claims she "was simply fired for being attractive and for not conforming to the religious strictures imposed by top management, apparently for having female body parts, despite having ably performed her professional duties".

"I understand that there are Orthodox Jewish men who may have their views about how a woman should dress," said Ms Odes, who is Jewish. "But I do not feel that any employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me.

"We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our body. I don't believe any woman should be treated as I was."

Banker: Germany supports euro out of Holocaust guilt

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:22:50 +0100

The former central banker of Germany has claimed that the country has allowed itself to be held hostage to the rest of Europe out of guilt for the Holocaust.

Thilo Sarrazin stepped down from the Deutsche Bundesbanke in 2010 in the wake of controversy over a book he wrote, in which he referred to Jews having genes that "differentiate them from others" and other comments critical of immigration and minorities.

His new book "'Europe Doesn't Need the Euro", about the Eurozone crisis, looks set to be as polarising. His argument, as detailed in extracts published in the German media, is that Germany feels it has to bail out the rest of the continent because it can only "finally atone for the Holocaust and World War II, when we have put all our interests and money into European hands".

His claim is based on Angela Merkel's opposition to Euro-bonds, which has put the German leader at odds with much of the rest of Europe.

Jürgen Trittin, parliamentary leader of the German Green Party, labelled it "pitiful" to "invoke the Holocaust to secure the maximum possible attention for his theories on euro bonds".

"Either he is speaking and writing this appalling nonsense out of conviction," added Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, "or he is doing it with despicable calculation".

Iran withdraws Azerbaijan envoy over Eurovision dispute

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:14:29 +0100

The Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan has been recalled to Tehran following a row over the Eurovision Song Contest, which is taking place this week in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.

In recent days Iranian clerics and politicians have attacked Azerbaijan for hosting a "gay parade" which they said was inappropriate for the country, which is officially secular but has a Shi'ite Muslim majority. Ayatollah Sobhani, a top Iranian cleric, said that this was anti-Islamic behaviour.

Ali Hasanov, a spokesman for President Ilham Aliyev, said: "I do not know who got this idea into their heads in Iran. We are hosting a song contest, not a gay parade."

Iran and Azerbaijan share a border and are regional rivals. Relations have deteriorated between the two in recent months as Azerbaijan has grown closer to Israel, cracking down on suspected Iranian terrorist plotters and signing a deal to buy weapons from Israel.

The dispute over the notoriously flamboyant music contest has now prompted Iran to withdraw its ambassador.

It came as Israel failed to qualify for the finals of this year's competition. This year's hopefuls, a rock band called Izabo, were unable to convince the judges that their song "Time" was worthy of a spot in Saturday's contest. It is the second consecutive year that Israel has failed to qualify.

There is still hope for another Jewish musician; according to Ynet, Turkey's entry, Can Bonomo, is of Jewish descent.

British ministers reportedly consulting lawyers over Israel Iran strike

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:34:14 +0100

The British Government has reportedly consulted lawyers over its options if fighting breaks out between Israel and Iran.

In Baghdad later today representatives from the five Security Council nations and Germany will meet Iranian officials to discuss the regime's nuclear ambitions.

But according to a BBC report, the British government has been examining its options for if the negotiations do not achieve any progress.

A report by Nick Robinson said ministers have begun taking legal advice on what Britain's role would be if a confrontation took place between Israel and Iran.

Israel has refused to rule out a strike on Iran to prevent it from gaining nuclear capabilities.

Mr Robinson said that the government's law officers were considering the legality of a range of choices, from supporting Israeli action diplomatically to dispatching Royal Navy ships to the region. The latter would most probably be a move designed to protect the Iran-controlled Straits of Hormuz – the gateway for a fifth of the world's oil.

Israeli envoy talk cancelled by South African university

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:22:53 +0100

A South African university pulled the plug on a scheduled talk by an Israeli envoy at the last minute following a campaign by pro-Palestinian activists.

Yaakov Finkelstein was due to give a non-political lecture on Monday at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which is in the east of the country.

Mr Finkelstein, the deputy Israeli ambassador to South Africa, was the subject of a concerted campaign by pro-Palestinian groups, who urged the university to cancel his visit on the grounds of an academic boycott of Israel.

According to the Independent Online, the university's deputy vice-chancellor cancelled the talk only hours before it was set to begin, emailing staff to tell them he had "reconsidered the sensitivities that the visit of the Israeli Deputy Ambassador has generated".

Professor Joseph Ayee added that he had cancelled it because of "reputational damage" and "the negative publicity".

A university spokeswoman said they aimed to reschedule the talk "in a collegial environment in the near future".

"The lecture was non-political, there was no reason to call it off but when threats and violence put pressure to prevent the presentation, it is a problem," said Mr Finkelstein, "There are several factions who want to sabotage academic freedom to politicise this, some are from the university and some outside."

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies expressed disappointment that the deputy ambassador had been blocked from "a place of dialogue, communication and debating".

"This would have been a perfect platform to discuss pressing issues," said spokeswoman Mary Kluk.

Last year the University of Johannesburg voted in favour of an academic boycott on Israel, despite longstanding ties with Israel's Ben Gurion University. Earlier this week South Africa's trade minister announced a plan requiring goods from the settlements to be labelled as such, a decision critcised as racist by the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Israeli climber aids Turk stranded on Everest

Sarai Sinai — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:31 +0100

An Israeli climber who was said to be 300 yards away from reaching the Everest summit abandoned his climb in order to assist an injured Turkish climber.

The Times of Israel reported that upon being rescued by a helicopter, Nadav Ben Yehuda was found to be suffering from severe frostbite which could have caused him to lose fingers. Eight people died climbing to the Everest summit this week.

Mr Ben Yehuda reportedly saw many bodies strewn along the summit's path. It has also been found that in addition to assisting the Turkish climber, he also helped two other injured climbers of British and Georgian nationality.

Had he reached his goal, the 24 year old would have been the youngest Israeli ever to scale Mount Everest.

Mr Ben Yehuda, during his preparation, had already triumphed in a stair-climbing competition at Ramat Gan's Moshe Aviv Tower, which involved 13 ascents of the skyscraper's 78 storeys.

The rescue comes almost two years after the clash on the Gaza-bound flotilla. Nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists died during fighting on board, an event which led to soured relations between Turkey and Israel.

Family destroyed in fatal car crash in Israel

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:48:42 +0100

Eight members of the same family have died after a car accident in northern Israel.

Rafael Attias, a teacher, was with his wife and seven of their children when the brakes on the car failed as they drove near to Tiberias.

The brake failure led Mr Attias to lose control of the vehicle at a speed of around 80 miles per hour. It subsequently overturned and burst into flames. The victims were unable to escape the car.

Only his seven-year-old daughter, Rachel, survived as she was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car.

Mr Attias had previously contacted the emergency services to alert them to the fact that the vehicle was malfunctioning. The Transport Ministry has announced it will look into the accident.

Irish Israel boycott proposal 'cynical and hypocritical'

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:39:22 +0100

Jewish leaders have criticised the Irish foreign minister for a "cynical" call to boycott some Israeli goods.

Eamon Gilmore said that he might push the European Union to block goods produced in the West Bank, in order to pressure the Israeli government into making policy changes.

He said that settlements made "the achievement of a two-state solution in the Middle East impossible" and said that if there was no change on the matter "we may have to look at some additional measures".

But Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, described the call for a boycott as "cynical and hypocritical.

"His remarks show that some European leaders would like to see Israel being coerced into making unilateral concessions," he said. "Minister Gilmore is taking aim at the only liberal democracy in the Middle East while keeping quiet about those who really wreak havoc in the region: the Assads, Ahmadinejads and their allies H i zbollah and Hamas."

Mr Gilmore's comments coincided with decisions taken in Denmark and South Africa requiring products made in West Bank communities to be specifically labelled as such.

"Instead of encouraging economic co-operation, certain governments seem eager to jump on the bandwagon of the global anti-Israel movement in an effort to pander to their electorates," said Mr Lauder. But he said that West Bank producers employed numerous Palestinian workers, so "by doing so, they are making things worse, not better".

British politicians call for Munich silence at London Olympics

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:02:43 +0100

A Conservative MP has tabled an early day motion urging the International Olympic Committee to observe a minute of silence at the games this summer in memory of the Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich tournament.

Bob Blackman, who represents Harrow East, sponsored the EDM noting that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, when 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and referees were killed by terrorists from the PLO faction Black September.

"It would be a fitting tribute to the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and referees to hold a minute's silence at this year's and every subsequent games to promote peace," reads Mr Blackman's EDM.

His motion has been supported by MPs from a range of parties, including Westminster MP Mark Field, Corby MP Louise Mensch and Belfast East MP Naomi Long.

Nearly 47,000 people have added their names to a petition calling for a silence, launched by the widow of one of the Israeli men murdered at the Munich Olympics.

At every games since 1976 the families of the Munich victims have requested such commemorations to be arranged for the opening ceremonies, but have been turned down by the IOC every time.

Last week the IOC president Jacques Rogge said the request would be turned down this year. He wrote: "The IOC has officially paid tribute to the memory of the athletes on several occasions."

Israel's Bar Refaeli is number one on Maxim 'hot list'

Sarai Sinai — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:58:31 +0100

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli has been ranked number one in Maxim magazine's annual "Hot 100" list.

Ms Refaeli, who has modeled for top lingerie and swimwear companies, including Victoria's Secret, has graced the covers of magazines including Sports Illustrated and Marie Claire.

She is also well known for her relationship with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, which ended for good last year.

After Maxim released the news, Ms Refaeli took to Twitter to thank them. She said: "So happy and honoured...this is very exciting!"

Also on Maxim's list was actress Mila Kunis, who was ranked closely behind Ms Refaeli at number three.

Ms Kunis was born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family and is known for playing successful roles in box office hits including Black Swan, along side Israeli-born co-star Natalie Portman.

Scarlett Johansson, who has a Jewish mother, was also on the list at number 17.

Netanyahu warns 'no concessions' ahead of Iran nuclear meeting

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:20:11 +0100

Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his belief that Iran intends to destroy Israel using nuclear weapons.

The Israeli Prime Minister, speaking the day before an international meeting , focused on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, takes place in Baghdad, called for steps to be taken to ensure Iran does not get an atomic bomb.

Mr Netanyahu called for the international officials, who represent the US. Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany, "to make clear and unequivocal demands that Iran stop all of its nuclear enrichment activity, remove from Iran all the material that has been enriched until now and dismantle the underground nuclear facility near the city Qom".

He told civil servants: "Iran wants to destroy Israel and it is developing nuclear weapons to fulfil that goal. Against this malicious intention, leading world powers need to display determination and not weakness.

"They should not make any concessions to Iran."

After the last meeting of the group in April Mr Netanyahu complained that the Ahmadinejad regime had been given a "free pass" after talks were disbanded, allowing Iran to enrich uranium without obstacle for five more weeks.

Mabhouh family unhappy about Mossad Dubai assassination film

Sarai Sinai — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:52:19 +0100

Relatives of the Hamas terrorist, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, have declared that they will attempt to block the release of an Israeli film which is based on his assassination in Dubai.

Ahmed al-Mabhouh, a cousin of al-Mabhouh, said that the family would consider legal action if necessary in order to prevent the film from being released.

He has argued that the film distorts the image of his cousin and the nature of events surrounding his assassination in a Dubai hotel in 2010.

It has been widely assumed that the Israeli Mossad was responsible for Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death, despite the spy agency neither confirming nor denying involvement in the assassination.

A younger brother, Faik al-Mabhouh, told Haaretz that "the film attempts to slander my brother's name, turning him from a freedom fighter into a womaniser".

The film, he complained, portrayed his brother "in such a way that insults him and his struggle for the freedom and independence of the Palestinian people".

Micha Scharfstein, the film 's producer, has dismissed the attacks. He said: "Mabhouh, from our point of view, was a murderer with blood on his hands, and I don't see any reason not to do a movie about it".

Mark Zuckerberg changes relationship status to 'married'

Sarai Sinai — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:56:21 +0100

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, revealed his secret marriage to long-term partner, Priscilla Chan, on May 19 through a status update on the social networking site this Saturday.

Mr Zuckerberg's status about his wedding has received nearly one million 'likes' and over 700 comments.

Mr Zuckerberg met his Chinese-American wife as a student at Harvard and had been dating her for ten years.

Guests attending the surprise ceremony, which was held at Mr Zuckerberg's home in Palo Alto, California, were unaware that it was a marriage ceremony until they arrived.

According to The Times of Israel, Mark Zuckerberg was "raised Jewish and had a barmitzvah" but "describes himself as an 'atheist'". It is not thought that the wedding ceremony involved any religious element.

The announcement came just a day after Facebook revealed its plan to begin selling shares in the world stock market, making it one of the biggest and most anticipated events in corporate history.

Facebook will be selling shares at $38, giving the social networking site a value of around $104 billion. Zuckerberg owns 24 percent of Facebook, also making him one of the richest young billionaires in the world.

Israeli band in Azerbaijan for 2012 Eurovision Song Contest

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:56:22 +0100

If some of the musicians performing at this year's Eurovision Song Contest would have trouble locating the host country, Azerbaijan, on a map, for one singer the competition has been something of a homecoming.

Ran Shem-Tov, the lead singer of Israel's entry – rock band Izabo – has revealed that his grandfather came from Baku, the Azari capital.

Mr Shem-Tov told an Azari news site that he was enjoying his stay in the country and in particular, seeing the foods that he remembered from home.

Izabo, which Paddy Power gave odds of 200 to one of winning, will perform at the first semi-final on May 24 for a place in Saturday's final.

The rock band took its name from Michelle Pfeiffer's character "Isabeau" in the 1985 film Ladyhawke.

Although their chances are not looking high for the contest, Izabo can already claim one victory at Eurovision. Eli Hadar, the five-month-old daughter of band member Shiri Hadar, is the youngest attendee to have been given an official delegate pass by the organisers.

Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran, has built ties with Israel over recent months and earlier this year agreed to purchase Israeli weapons systems worth £1 billion.

Red Hot Chili Peppers urged to boycott Israel

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:38:51 +0100

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been targeted by anti-Israel campaigners who want the band to cancel a planned gig in Tel Aviv.

The band is due to perform in the country in September, a decade after they cancelled a gig because of concerns about terrorist attacks.

The group Boycott From Within is calling for the rock band to pull out of the gig, which is part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' world tour, because of the political situation.

"High profile performances, such as your scheduled gig, have served the government's agenda of whitewashing its war crimes and creating an image of Israel as a "modern state", where celebrities come to perform and see the sights," wrote the BDS campaigners in a letter to the California-based band.

"Not performing is very effective in promoting justice in the region," they added. "It is with great admiration of your art and activism that we suggest that a people oppressing another should not have the benefit of enjoying it or cynically using it as a tool of self-justification. In view of the aforementioned facts, you can make a difference and promote justice and human rights, by deciding not to play in Israel."

The boycotters also criticised the promoter of the concert, Israeli producer Shuki Weiss, for having sent Israeli officials tickets to concerts in the past.

"This is not just corruption within the system, but corruption that serves to whitewash Israel's war crimes against the Palestinian people, using international artists such as you," they said.

The Chilis were due to perform in Israel a decade ago, when they cancelled at the last minute following two suicide bombings in the space of one week. The attacks killed 35 people in total.

Two of the band's ten albums were recorded with Haifa-born guitarist Hillel Slovak, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Staines renamed after Ali G embarrassment

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:39:02 +0100

The town used as the launch-pad for Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy career has opted to change its name to remove the stigma left by Ali G.

Councillors in the Surrey town of Staines agreed to rename their home as Staines-upon-Thames, in a bid to shake off the legacy left by the foulmouthed comic character.

Celebrations were held in the town on Sunday after the name-change, with a maypole dance and a regatta.

A councillor told the BBC that the decision went further than Ali G and was an attempt to highlight the proximity of the river.

"I regard Ali G as someone who put Staines on the map, we're just telling people where it is," said Colin Davis.

In the comedy series Da Ali G Show, which first aired in 2000, Sacha Baron Cohen's shell-suit wearing character was the leader of "Da West Staines Massiv".

Mr Baron Cohen retired the Ali G character several years ago. His latest comedy alter-ego, Admiral General Aladeen, is in cinemas this week.

Call for justice after death of Lockerbie bomber Megrahi

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:35:27 +0100

The mother of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has said she feels no pity at the death of the man convicted of the attack.

Susan Cohen, whose only child, Theodora, died on Pan Am 103 when she was 20, said that the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi deserved to die.

Megrahi, who was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds in 2009, was given a life sentence for the 1988 terror attack, which left 270 people dead.

"He was a mass murderer. I feel no pity around him," said Mrs Cohen, from New Jersey. "He got to die with his family around him. My daughter, at age 20, died a brutal, horrible death. You call that justice?"

Mrs Cohen, now 74, reiterated her belief that Megrahi should have been tried in the US and given the death penalty. "Watching him be released from prison was very painful for me," she said.

She also said she did not believe he had been wrongly sentenced and called for the investigation into what happened to continue. "We cannot let Megrahi's death stand in the way of the Scottish and American government finding out who else was involved in the bombings and the specifics of how it was done," she said. "I don't believe conspiracy theories that Megrahi was innocent."

Among those killed over Lockerbie were Jewish victims from Britain, America and Israel, including David Dorenstein, a 25-year-old with hopes of becoming a writer, and Marc Tager, a charity worker from north London who was 22 at the time.

Laura Marks romps to victory in Board elections

Simon Rocker — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:56:29 +0100

Mitzvah Day founder Laura Marks became the new senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies, after topping the poll in Sunday's election.

Daily Mail City editor Alex Brummer, vice-chairman of the Board's international division came second, with the third vice-presidential place clinched by Jonathan Arkush, senior V-P in the past triennial.

But sitting vice-president Jerry Lewis lost his seat at the top table; the other unsuccessful candidate was family solicitor Denise Lester.

Ms Marks's success was all the more remarkable since she became a deputy only in January. But she has enjoyed an increasingly high profile as the chair of a Jewish Leadership Council's commission to encourage more women into leadership roles.

She gained 65 first preferences, followed by Mr Brummer, 56: Mr Arkush, 48: Mr Lewis, 36; Ms Lester, 17.

Under the single transferable vote system, that meant that Ms Marks and Mr Brummer were elected on the first round: after second preferences were included, Mr Arkush pipped Mr Lewis by 57 votes to 48.

More than 80 per cent of deputies took part in the ballot.

Irish minister told that Israel boycott will not secure peace

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:36:18 +0100

Supporters of Israel are calling on the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs to "build bridges" rather than seek a boycott of Israeli goods.

Earlier this week Eamon Gilmore hinted that he planned to push the European Union to block goods produced in the settlements, in order to pressure the Israeli government into making changes in policy.

Mr Gilmore said settlements in the West Bank were "making the achievement of a two-state solution in the Middle East impossible.

"If there isn't a change in Israeli policy in relation to settlements in particular, I think we may have to look at some additional measures," he said.

Cork-based human righst activist Barry Williams said that singling out Israel would "not secure a lasting peace".

Mr Williams has now set up a petition seeking to oppose a boycott.

"If Gilmore wishes to seek a boycott of Israeli settlement goods, we seek [an] EU wide boycott of Moroccan goods made in occupied Western Sahara and Indonesian goods made in West Papua New Guinea," the petition reads. "We urge the minister not to seek a boycott of Israeli goods, instead he should look to build bridges between various communities in the Middle East."

The Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestment campaign has gained steam in Ireland in recent months. In December, anti-Israel protesters repeatedly disrupted the Israeli Film Days festival and police officers were brought in.

Earlier this month Alan shatter, Ireland's Justice Minster, said anti-Israel activists had waged a "cyber-bullying" campaign to force an Irish folk music group to cancel its performances in Israel.

Iran's Ahmadinejad wants to come to the London Olympics

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:19:21 +0100

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has "no business" attending the London Olympic Games this summer, the World Jewish Congress said this week.

The Iranian leader told the country's official news agency that he wanted to go to the games to watch some of the 50 Iranian athletes who had qualified compete for gold.

But he added that he had a hurdle to cross in his route to the Olympics. "The host has a problem with this," he said.

Unwanted guests can be prevented from attending if British government officials decide their presence is not conducive to "the public good". A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that she could not comment on individual cases.

"It's difficult enough to stomach that a man like the Iranian president is regularly given the opportunity to deliver from the podium of the United Nations hate speeches that are filled with antisemitic canards, invective against Israel and the West, and denial of the Holocaust," said a spokesman for the WJC.

"No senior Iranian government officials should be allowed to attend the Olympics under the cover of diplomatic immunity. Ahmadinejad's presence in London – and that of other dictators - would almost certainly steal the limelight from the sporting events."

Noting that the Iranian regime has in the past attempted to stop its athletes participating in events with Israelis, he called for the International Olympic Committee to take strong action in the event that this happened this summer.

He said: "The Olympics are, or rather, should be, about sports, and athletes from all nations including Iran must be welcome to participate provided they abide by the rules of the games."

Earlier this year, Westminster cut ties with Tehran after a group of extremist students raided the British mission in Iran.

Mr Ahmadinejad did not comment on the Olympic logo, which last year Iranian officials condemned as a "disgraceful" reminder of the word "Zion".

Egypt presidential debate: Israel is enemy

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:30:56 +0100

Both leading candidates in Egypt’s presidential elections, scheduled to take place next week, have said that they will “review” the Camp David peace accords with Israel if elected.

In the first-ever televised presidential debate last week, independent Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul-Futouh called Israel a “strategic enemy”, citing its nuclear arsenal and treatment of the Palestinians. He said Israel will remain an enemy even following the future creation of a Palestinian state.

Amr Moussa, the former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Arab League, referred to Israel as an “adversary”.

Thirteen candidates are running in the elections, which will take place on May 23, with a run-off between the two leading candidates scheduled for June 16 if no candidate receives over 50 per cent of the votes.

The main thrust of Mr Abul-Futouh’s attacks on Mr Moussa was that he had been a minister of deposed president Hosni Mubarak’s regime and had been silent over crimes committed against the Egyptian people. Therefore he was unworthy of serving as president.

Mr Moussa accused Mr Abul-Futouh — until recently a member of the Muslim Brotherhood before breaking with the movement to run for the presidency — of still adhering to the principles of the Islamist parties, and not looking out for the interests of all Egyptians.

Mr Moussa is currently leading in the polls, with Mr Abul-Futouh a distant second. Polling, however, is unreliable and tends to under-represent the Islamist vote.

Absent from the debate was Mohammed Mursi, also regarded as a potential front-runner in the race. Mr Mursi is the official candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood and was the chairman of its Freedom and Justice Party.
Mr Mursi is generally thought of as a lacklustre and uncharismatic contender who, at the last moment, stood in when the party’s preferred candidate was disqualified. However, he is supported by the Brotherhood, which surprised everyone last year by winning 47 per cent of the seats in the parliamentary elections.

Why Koreans love Jews

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:09:16 +0100

I was sipping tea with a South Korean friend of my father’s when he asked: “Do you go to church?” It’s a much more common getting-to-know-you question in Korea than in the north-eastern United States, so I replied: “I actually don’t go to church, I’m Jewish.” When the oohs and ahs from members of the family, who were thrilled to learn I was part of the tribe, had subsided, my father’s friend proclaimed: “I forgot your dad is Jewish! Koreans are the Jews of Asia!”

This family’s reverence for the chosen people is representative of a small but growing Korean interest in Jewish culture and its remarkably strong similarities to Korean culture.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl works at Central Synagogue in New York City, and her vast knowledge of Judaism is helpful in understanding this phenomenon. She is half-Korean, making her the only Korean rabbi in the world. She says: “Jews and Koreans have a lot of shared values: education, value of history, respecting our ancestry and passing on traditions. I think Koreans especially admire the way Jews have kept a distinct culture over years of diaspora life.”

Many Koreans would be surprised to learn that there is a Jewish population in South Korea, albeit a small one. The exact number is hard to say, but anywhere from 500–600 is the general estimate.

Rabbi Osher Litzman heads up Seoul’s Chabad House. He says that Jews in South Korea are well established, and have professions ranging “from ambassadors and diplomats to CEOs, ESL teachers, students and members of the US military”.

In March this year, Chabad celebrated a milestone in Korea’s Jewish life by dedicating the first-ever Sefer Torah — a handmade Torah scroll from Israel — made specifically for the Korean Jewish community. The event began with a ceremony at the Seoul Grand Hyatt, which included powerful remarks from Israeli Ambassador Tuvia Israeli. The celebrations continued into the streets with a parade through the city and revellers singing and dancing with the new Torah. They ended up at the Chabad House for dancing and l’chaims, rivalling any night out in Seoul.

Julia Bass is a freelance journalist currently living in South Korea.

A longer version of this article originally appeared in Seoulist Magazine in May 2012

Test for Israeli coalition over IDF law

Anshel Pfeffer — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:43:54 +0100

The new Netanyahu-Mofaz coalition got off to a rocky start this week with major disputes over a new law on national service for yeshivah students and the future of settler outposts in the West Bank.

One of the main tasks of the coalition — which was formed last week with the support of 94 Knesset members — is to re-draft the Tal Law, which currently exempts yeshivah students from IDF service.

The Knesset has until August to pass a new law, following the High Court’s ruling that it is unconstitutional.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has committed himself to equality in national service, the Charedi members of the coalition dealt him a blow on Monday when they announced they would not participate in the committee charged with drafting a new law.

The Shas chairman, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, said on Monday that his party’s members would not co-operate with the committee following a ruling by Shas spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadya Yossef, that “there is to be no negotiation on the basic right of yeshivah students to study Torah”.

Mr Yishai accused the committee’s chairman, MK Yochanan Plessner (Kadima), of planning to force a new law on the yeshivahs.

United Torah Judaism, the smaller Charedi party in the coalition, is also expected to boycott the committee.
Meanwhile, the government still has to come up with a solution to the outposts issue. This was exacerbated by a High Court ruling that five houses in the Givat Ulpana neighbourhood of Beit El, which were built on privately-owned Palestinian land, be demolished by the end of next month.

A private-members bill by Likud MK Miri Regev proposes that the ruling be bypassed by extending Israeli law to all the settlements, enabling the land to be confiscated from its Palestinian owners.

On Sunday, the government’s legislative committee was to vote on the proposal, with a majority initially in favour. Mr Netanyahu, who was warned by advisers that such a law would leave Israel liable to charges in the international court, tried to get Ms Regev to drop her proposal but, when she refused, ordered the Likud’s ministers on the committee to vote against it.

The outposts are just one item on a list of issues holding up a renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Mofaz, now the Vice-Prime Minister, proposed in 2009 a comprehensive peace plan that included establishing an interim Palestinian on the Gaza Strip and 60 per cent of the West Bank within a year, and then negotiating a permanent settlement.

A close adviser to Mr Mofaz said this week: “The plan is not part of the new coalition’s official policy, since there are other member-parties and parts of the Likud which are opposed, although Netanyahu is well aware of it, as are senior officials in the PA and the US administration. President Obama’s last speech on the Palestinian issue included similar details. As a member of the innermost forums dealing with diplomatic issues, Mofaz will try to push his plan’s principles.”

On Saturday night, Mr Netanyahu’s personal representative, Yakov Molho, delivered a letter from the Prime Minister to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The letter was the answer to a previous Palestinian letter detailing Mr Mr Abbas’s demands, which included a full freeze on all settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and an Israeli commitment to negotiating on the basis of the pre-1967 borders.

In his letter, Mr Netanyahu reiterated that he is prepared to immediately re-enter negotiations on all issues without any preconditions.

Anger over deal on Palestinian hunger strike

Nathan Jeffay — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:32:53 +0100

Though it was widely welcomed, some Israelis are furious about the agreement that ended the Palestinian hunger strike.

On Monday, around 1,500 protesting Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails agreed to eat, after securing concessions from the authorities, and after several deaths. Most had been refusing food since April 17 and some from before that date.

The deal included a commitment to end solitary confinement, to allow family visits to prisoners from Gaza, and the setting-up of an Israeli panel to examine ways to improve conditions. Prisoners who are currently held without charge or sentencing will be freed after six months unless fresh information is brought before a military judge.

“It’s a victory for terrorists and every victory for terrorists is a loss for a free society,” said Meir Indor, chairman of the Almagor organisation, which represents families of terror victims, arguing that any deal opens the floodgates to high-security prisoners’ demands.

He is also concerned about Israel’s “goodwill” gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (which is not part of the prisoner deal) to transfer the bodies of 100 terrorists killed in the course of their attacks to Ramallah. “Their graves will become a monument to martyrdom,” said Mr Indor.

An Israeli official emphasised that Israel has received a guarantee from prisoners to not engage in any terrorism-related activities in prison. If they do, the improved conditions will be revoked.

Outrage over honour for Lithuanian Nazi leader

Jessica Elgot — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:29:34 +0100

The puppet prime minister installed in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation is to be commemorated in the capital this week, and reinterred with full honours.

The remains of Juozas Ambrazevicius will be returned from the US to Vilnius for a ceremony this weekend, before being reinterred in Kaunas, in central Lithuania.

Mr Ambrazevicius became prime minister in June 1941, after the Nazi invasion, but was removed just two months later after the government was dismantled.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff said the Lithuanian government had tried to distance themselves from the ceremony. “But we now understand the government has paid for the transportation of the remains,” he added.

The former professor of Yiddish Studies at Vilnius University, Dovid Katz, now editor of website Defending History, said: “Jewish people in Lithuania, who have excellent relations with Lithuanian neighbours and friends, are in a state of shock that the government and parliament could do this to them: financing the reburial with full honours.

“The duplicitous policy of honouring the victims, for the consumption of naive Jewish foreigners, as well as the perpetrators, to satisfy the local antisemitic far right base, is just not on.”

Mr Ambrazevicius — who died in the US in 1974 — has been linked to the establishment of the Kovna ghetto to imprison Kaunas’s Jews, and to the setting up of a concentration camp.

Hollande pledges to fight antisemitism

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:26:12 +0100

New French President Francois Hollande used his inauguration address to stress his commitment to fighting antisemitism.

“France will help all democratic powers in the world and will respect all nations who oppose oppression and respect women’s rights,” Mr Hollande said. “I will oppose any discrimination, keep the principle of laicité [secularity] and fight against racism and antisemitism.”

The new Finance Minister, Pierre Moscovici, who is Jewish, also highlighted the president’s stand against antisemitism.

“He was always clear on this subject and a friend of the State of Israel as well. He will be firm and vigilant. I am sick of all those caricatures that see danger to Israel and the Jews within the Socialist Party.
“All we want is to help a peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Mr Hollande’s government features three Jewish and three Muslim ministers, among them Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who is considered pro-Palestinian.

But Socialist Party First Secretary Martine Aubry — considered close to the Muslim community and unfriendly to Israel — is not in.

French Jewry is pleased with the nomination of Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has good relations with the community.

‘Brainwashed’ councillor is former Nazi

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:48:08 +0100

A former neo-Nazi who once daubed buildings with swastikas has been elected as a local councillor.

Margaret Burke won a seat on Milton Keynes Council earlier this month after demonstrating her remorse to local Labour Party officials and describing her earlier activities as those of a “brainwashed idiot”.

During the 1980s, Mrs Burke ran a pro-Hitler organisation with her husband. She wore Nazi-style uniforms and organised racist leafleting.

After the couple divorced, Mrs Burke joined the Animal Liberation Front and was jailed for vandalising a butcher’s shop.

She told the Milton Keynes Citizen that she regretted her actions and had dedicated herself to working for the community to make amends.

Milton Keynes Labour leader Kevin Wilson said the candidate selection panel had been aware of Mrs Burke’s past and had “questioned her at length”.

He said her post-Nazi behaviour had been “exemplary” and it would have been “wholly wrong to deny her the possibility of being a candidate”.

But her selection was criticised by the town’s first black councillor, Danny Waite, who said he could not bring himself to vote for Mrs Waite after being racially abused by her 30 years ago.

Community Security Trust communications director Mark Gardner said Mrs Burke’s racist group had been “a somewhat infamous bunch of ‘Hollywood Nazis’, who took perverse pleasure in pretending to be Nazis. She seems determined to make up for her past and that is to be welcomed”.