A schoolgirl's 3-minute video confirms there is no future for British Jewry

Update: As you can see from clicking the link, the video has now been removed from the Speak Out Challenge website but here is a screenshot below I saved, and the whole video is actually interspersed with the response video from Brian of London at the bottom of this page. Also worth mentioning that the antisemites on twitter are apoplectic at my actions that they say have led to this girl being 'censored'. In fact, the Speakers Trust had already decided not to send the girl through to the Grand Final and, moreover, in my letter to the CEO I specifically said I was not asking for the video to be removed. I was asking for the right to respond to the lies (and specifically have the School hear the response). Brian's video does this.
Another Update: This explain the 'Peace loving' schoolgirl's perverse views on 'Palestine'. 

(SEE FURTHER UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

This is actually a good news and bad news update to the posting yesterday about how a 3-minute anti-Israel hate speech full of lies and blood libels by Leanne Mohamad of Wanstead High School won the 2015-16 Jack Petchey “Speak Out” Challenge Redbridge Regional Final.

The good news is that I have had a response** (see below) from the  CEO of the Speakers Trust (who run the competition on behalf of the Jack Petchey Foundation); she states that the judging panel have now decided unanimously against sending Leanne Mohamad through to the Grand Final. The reason is that they had the same concerns to those I raised. Note, in particular, how the speech was in breach of the two 'fundamental rules made explicit during training'.

The bad news is that the more I think about Leanne Mohamad's speech, and the jubilant reaction to it, the more it is evident that there is no long-term future for British Jewry (and it seems Brian of London agrees with me). Here we have a very well-educated child in an affluent suburban school who has been groomed and brainwashed into accepting a 'Palestine' narrative that is even more extreme than that proposed by Hamas. Yet, she seems to have had the full support of all the school's teachers and pupils as well as the local authorities who clearly bought into, and supported, the same narrative because so much of Britain's political and academic class is controlled by the Islamic/leftist alliance that deems 'Palestinians' as the ultimate victims of our age and Israelis as the ultimate villains.

A very large proportion of schoolchildren are being brought up with the same extreme views as Leanne Mohamad. People with these views are already dominant in Britain's Universities with their "Israel apartheid" weeks and their closing down of any pro-Israel speech on campus.  Things are clearly going to get a lot worse with the influx of immigrants who have been fed the same antisemitic propaganda from birth. In 5 years time Leanne Mohamad may be intimidating Jewish students on a University campus with her lies and in 15 years time it is highly likely that Leanne Mohamad will be a member of Parliament (she is after all just a younger version of many like her now in the Labour party). Judging by the comments yesterday of Teresa May someone like her would be welcome in the Conservative party and could even become Prime Minister.

Leanne's narrative is driven by hateful antisemitism that refuses to acknowledge any rights of the Jewish people, and completely ignores the reality of Palestinian terrorism and rejectionism, the fact that the 'poor Palestinians' are the recipients of more aid per person than any other people in the world, and that most of the billions of dollars given in aid that have not ended up in terrorist bank accounts has been spent on terror tunnels and weapons. It is a narrative that is clearly promoted not just in Leanne's mosque, but also by the BBC, Sky News and almost every main stream newspaper. That is why not a single person in authority at Wanstead High School or on the various Redbridge committees even questioned the legitimacy of what Leanne was saying or noticed that her speech was in breach of both of the competition's fundamental rules.

The 'official' Jewish leadership of the UK ultimately bears some responsibility for allowing this narrative to take hold, when the simple truth was all that it needed to expose it. Now Jewish parents in the UK are having to send their children to schools and colleges where the Leanne Mohamads dominate all debate, while the Jews cower in silence. That is the future for Jews in the UK.

**Response from Julie Holness, CEO

Thank you very much for your email, which my colleague Rebecca Griffiths has this morning forwarded to me. We take your concerns very seriously. 

Every year thousands of young people are trained in the art of public speaking. They are encouraged to speak out on something they feel passionately about and of course they bring with them their history and culture and beliefs. 

There are, however, two fundamental rules that are made explicit during the training:
- the speech must have a positive and uplifting message - in fact this is one of the core terms of the agreement with the Jack Petchey Foundation.
- a speaker should never inflame or offend the audience or insult others and this, by definition, means that propaganda is ruled out absolutely from the outset.

It is, however, the school that votes through its most talented speaker in an Assembly final and an independent panel of judges from the local community who select their regional winner. Speeches at this level will have been further developed and even rewritten, with the training guidelines but without our input on content. Judges do not mark a speaker down because they disagree with a point of view but they are clearly briefed on the those guidelines. Unfortunately, with over 18,000 young people trained annually, a speech that does not observe these ground rules may very rarely get through on passion and delivery. 

Last Saturday a Speakers Trust and Jack Petchey Foundation judging panel decided unanimously against sending Leanne Mohamad through to the next stage and she will not be speaking at the Grand Final. These were precisely our concerns. 

As a Speakers Trust trainer I was responsible for managing the schools in Redbridge and I have a close affinity with the region. Please let me know if you would like me to forward your email to Wanstead High School so that your comments and reservations may be heard. 

If you wish to discuss this further you have my home office number below, which you are welcome to use at any time. 

Kind regards,
Julie Holness
Chief Executive Officer
Speakers Trust
Getting the Public Speaking

And here is my follow-up:

Dear Julie

Thank you for your very fast response to my letter, which is greatly appreciated.
I am pleased to hear that the judging panel found that the speech by Leanne Mohamad was in breach of both of the fundamental rules you cited and that, as a result, she will not be speaking at the Grand Final. 

What I do not understand is that if, as you say, these "two fundamental rules are made explicit during the training" how on earth was it possible for a speech like this not only to be accepted in the first place but to actually win the Redbridge Final? It seems that there must have been a complete breakdown of the competition processes at many levels. It also seems to me that political activists in Redbridge and the School have hijacked the competition to promote what is, ultimately, a deeply antisemitic narrative. 

What I would like to know is how the damage done is going to be redressed. The lies and blood libels in Leanne's speech, which went totally unchallenged, actually go far beyond what even the terrorist organisation Hamas claims. To say these blood libels are deeply offensive to me and my many family members in Israel (some of whom have been murdered by the Palestinian terrorists whose narrative Leanne presents) is an understatement. Yet I see that the video is STILL on your website http://www.speakoutchallenge.com/leanne-mohamad-winner-jack-petcheys-speak-challenge-redbridge-regional-final-2015-16/  on a page which congratulates Leanne as the Redbridge winner. 

I am not, incidentally suggesting that the video must be taken down or censored. But if it is left there must be a clear statement about how it has breached the rules, why it is so offensive and why nothing like that can ever be accepted in the future. There must also be a proper video response. 

As far as the School is concerned I have already written to the Head Teacher, but I think you should also seek answers from them to the above questions.  It frightens me to know how such extreme, hateful and ignorant views have not only become main stream in such a school, but have become a mark of excellence with apparently unanimous support.

Yours

Edgar

See also: How to win a UK child's charity award - make a speech full of lies and blood libels against Israel 

UPDATE: The Jewish Chronicle has picked up the story, although curiously (given that it failed to cover the story first time when the child won the competition) it headlines with the good news that the Panel unanimously voted the speech out of the final.

UPDATE: Brian of London has produced a superb response video. This is what I will ask the head Master of Wanstead High School to show to all the pupils. Please watch it all:





Update: This explain the 'Peace loving' schoolgirl's perverse views on 'Palestine'. 

How to win a UK child's charity award - make a speech full of lies and blood libels against Israel

Update: As you can see from clicking the link, the video has now been removed from the Speak Out Challenge website but here below is a screenshot I saved and the whole video is actually interspersed with this response video from Brian of London which is also on my update here.

UPDATE: see here for good news and bad news outcome to this story.

Thanks to Daphne Anson for first alerting me to this story.

How do you win an award with a British Charity whose mission statement is

To enable young people (aged 11 – 25 years in London and Essex), to achieve their potential by inspiring, investing in, developing and promoting activities that increase their personal, social, emotional and physical development.  

Obviously, you make a hate speech containing nothing but blood libels against the State of Israel (a speech that also includes the statement "Islam is perfect" and ends with the raising of the Palestine flag and the call to "Free Palestine" which is wildly applauded). Here is self-explanatory letter I have written to the person in charge of this particular scheme at the Charity:

Dear Ms Griffiths (becky.griffiths@speakerstrust.org)

I have been a long term supporter of the Jack Petchey Foundation [personal details were added here].  What I was not aware of was that the Charity was now in the business of supporting vicious blood libels against the State of Israel.

Specifically, I have watched the speech by Leanne Mohamad of Wanstead High School  that won the 2015-16 Jack Petchey “Speak Out” Challenge Redbridge Regional Final. This speech consists of three minutes of solid lies and blood libels claiming that every day since 1948 (when the State of Israel was established) the 'defenceless' Palestinians have been slaughtered, with 30,000 children murdered.

For the record there are no verified instances of Palestinian children being 'murdered' by Israel, although many dozens have died as a result of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups launching unprovoked rocket attacks against Israeli civilians (often from schools and hospitals) and then using their own children as human shields when Israel has responded. In fact, Amnesty International (an organisation that has traditionally been hostile to Israel) reported just this week that most of the child casualties of the 2014 conflict (that was started by Hamas) were actually killed by Hamas rockets falling short of their 'target'.  In contrast, there have been several hundred Israel children murdered by Palestinian terrorists who all operate as part of 'official' groups (Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad) and each such murder is a cause of rejoicing in the Palestinian territories. A catalogues of the most recent murders can be found here. Three especially brutal examples you should read up about are:the Ma'alot School massacre; the Haifa school bus massacre; and the Fogel family massacre.

As for the lie that Palestinian children cannot sleep because they are 'bombed every night', perhaps Ms Mohamad is actually thinking of the Jewish children of Sderot who really were bombed almost every day between 2005 and 2014 by the Palestinians of Gaza.

You must surely be aware that supporting hateful and vicious political propaganda puts the Jack Petchey Foundation in breach of its Charity Commission obligations as made clear in the Commission's document here.  

Before I make a formal complaint to the Charities Commission I would like to know what the Charity is going to do about it and, in particular, whether and when it plans to at least put the record straight for the children of Wanstead High School, in terms of ensuring they hear the truth about what is happening in 'Palestine'.  

Yours sincerely

I have also written to Mr Hamlyn (whs@wansteadhigh.co.uk) the Head Teacher at Wanstead High School and Trudy Kilcullen  (CEO of the Jack Petchey Foundation CEO, mail@jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk). And I copied in Jonathan Arkush (President of the BoD) as this must surely be of concern to them.

UPDATE: see here for good news and bad news outcome to this story (including response to my letter).

Incidentally I should really sue Ms Mohamad for plagiarism** (**satire for all you antisemites out there) since it seems her speech was based entirely on my definition of what it means to be a Palestinianist:

Catch a Jew: the most revealing book about Israel's enemies

I finally got round to reading all of Tuvia Tenebom's book last week having had it for a few months and only previously read a few extracts. The book exposes the total corruption and lies of the multiple NGOs (non Government Organisations) and charities who operate in Israel/Palestine and who are massively funded by foreign governments (especially the EU) to deligitimize Israel, and organise Palestinian 'resistance' and propaganda.

Even for a seasoned 'activist' like myself (who has dedicated much time to investigating and exposing the anti-Zionism of the Western narrative and media, anti-Semitism of Palestinians, and who spends a lot of time in Israel), the overall message of the book was shocking and deeply depressing. It shows on the one hand that the irrational antisemitism that underpins the universal anti-Zionist narrative is even more deeply rooted than I feared; and on the other hand that most Israelis are even more oblivious of this than I suspected.

I think this is one of the most important - and in many ways brilliant - books I have read. Crucially, the reviews and extracts I had read did not do the book justice and in many respects were quite misleading. For a start, the popular narrative that Tuvia is a right-wing Zionist is itself a lie. This lie is promoted by those (including many who call themselves Zionists**) who are uncomfortable when their liberal ideas are blown apart by facts, especially when the person who reveals those facts is a Jew using unconventional methods. Rather than confronting the evidence that Tuvia presents (and it really is more clear-cut and damning than most of what you will have seen elsewhere) critics fall back on the 'right-wing Zionist' (or even 'racist') slur to discredit the fact finder and close down the debate (take a look, for example, at this review of the book in Tablet Magazine). In fact, Tuvia is not a 'rightest' in any normal sense of the word and nor, it seems, a Zionist. Some of his harshest criticism is reserved for ultra-orthodox Jews and 'right wing extremists'. The fact that he refers to the Israeli Labour party as 'centrist' indicates that he is naturally a man of the left.  Indeed, both Netanyahu and Lieberman refused interviews with him since (in Tuvia's words) "both their teams have concluded that I am a leftist troublemaker" and his Bohemian lifestyle puts him socially in the extreme liberal category.

But his 6 months in Israel clearly make Tuvia realise that most of the 'left' are the opposite of the liberal intelligentsia that they claim to be. They are intolerant, shallow and hypocritical; the Jews among them are among the most self-hating, while the non-Jews (of the European and other NGOs) are driven by antisemitism. These activists ignore the most brutal behaviour of Arabs while spending their entire lives looking for Jews in Israel who 'misbehave'. Their objective is to use evidence of such misbehaviour  (no matter how trivial and contrived - indeed it is normally set up by the activists themselves) as 'proof' that Jews do not deserve to have their own country.  It's as simple as that. Hence the book's title "Catch a Jew". These people are determined to make most of Israel 'Judenfrei'.

Readers of my blog will know that that I have spent a lot of time exposing the antisemitism behind some of the most popular and respected NGO's and charities.  However, even I was shocked by the extent to which supposedly 'humanitarian' organisations like the International Red Cross and Medecin Sans Frontiers are actually just political anti-Zionist machines. And the depravity and lies of Israeli NGOs like B'Tselem are also at a level far worse than I ever imagined or reported (and remember B'Tselem are Yachad's main Israel partner).

By being able to cast himself as a different character, depending on who he was meeting, Tenenbom discovered what people really understand and believe. Hence, he exposes a level of antisemitism in supposedly moderate and highly educated Arabs, that almost all Israelis (and certainly the entire Israel media) refuse to acknowledge or accept. But it is what he discovers about 'leftist' Israelis and the NGO activists that is most revealing. For example, Haaretz writer Gideon Levy - man who has dedicated his life to the Palestinian cause and who can find no good Zionist Jew and no bad Palestinian -  is a liar who speaks no Arabic and does not have a single Palestinian friend. In fact Tuvia finds that many Israeli leftists love the Arabs far more than they love the Jews, but do not actually have any Palestinian friends. Their love of Palestinian Arabs is based on a purely theoretical view of what the Palestinians are and what they want. The leftists want - and believe - that the Palestinians are like them and that they yearn for peace and mutual respect. The reality that Tuvia finds everywhere is that, when speaking among themselves (as opposed to their NGO friends and Jews) the Palestinians actually yearn for a Jew-free state encompassing the whole of Israel. And the NGOs have brainwashed their followers to believe that this is the only ethical solution also.

One especially poignant passage is this one:

I meet a very nice couple, both widely known, highly educated, highly intellectual, exemplary self-haters, optimal Arab lovers, and they touch me deeply. They are Israeli Jews and I won’t identify them, what they do, or in what part of the town they reside. They tell me three interesting stories.

(1) They live in a beautiful home, which was renovated for them by an Arab contractor whom they knew and blindly trusted. When the contractor was about done with his work, for which he was handsomely paid, he presented them with a wonderful gift, for which he did not want to get paid: a big olive tree that he planted in their garden. They were very touched by his gesture and thanked him profusely. He listened to their thanks, looked them straight in the eye and said: “You don’t have to thank me. I didn’t do it for you, I did it for myself and my family.” They did not understand what he was saying, and he explained: “Soon you will move out of this house.” How so? “Because soon this land will be free of Jews.” They were devastated. How could he say such a thing to them

(2) Years ago, many years ago, the lady was gang- raped by a bunch of Arab youth.

(3) Years later, their granddaughter was sexually abused by an old Arab friend.

These three stories are the total sum of their personal experience with Palestinians, yet they won’t allow themselves to be affected by any of these incidents. The man explains to me: “I believe in humanism, I believe that the Palestinians are good people and that they want to live with us in peace. I believe that we have done them wrong and I believe that they have not done us wrong. It doesn’t matter to me if what I believe in is factually right. I know it’s not, but I don’t care about facts! I want to believe, even if everything I believe in is false.

This is an attitude I have discovered myself in many conversations with Israelis (especially in Tel Aviv) and my British friends find it very hard to believe. For example, after the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar in 2011 several Israelis told me that they not only felt no sympathy for the Fogel family 'because they chose to live in the occupied territories' but also felt the act was justified as the 'Itamar settlement was a humiliation' for the Palestinians.

Other parts of the book also provide extensive evidence of things I have suspected and written about. For example:

• I have long moaned about the anti-Zionist bias of Israeli films. Tuvia discovers that almost every Israeli non-fiction film is funded by external NGOs under condition that they support the anti-Zionist narrative. So basically if you want to make a film and do not have your own funding, your only option is to make an anti-Zionist one. But, because of the leftist domination of academia and the arts, almost all Israel government arts funding also goes to film-makers and artists who promote an anti-Zionist narrative.
• While I have reported on the anti-Zionist activities of the foreign funded NGOs I was unaware of just how many there are, how well funded they are, and the extent to which they are changing facts and behaviour. For example, it is the NGOs who have created the 'Bedouin' crisis that threatens to disrupt the entire Negev and its future development. The NGOs have even brainwashed the Bedouins into regarding themselves as 'Palestinian Arabs' (something they never considered themselves to be 20 years ago). Elsewhere the NGO activists scour the land looking for anything to photograph and video that can cast Jews in a bad light. Most of the time the incidents they report were actually set up by  the activists themselves (including helping Arabs attack Jews). They also bribe Arabs to invent 'crimes' committed by Jews.
• The International Red Cross - which exerts enormous power and influence in Israel (Tuvia reports on how IDF soldiers and Police cower when confronted by ICRC people) - is run by an unelected group of Swiss nationals (no other nationals are allowed) and this antisemitic group gets decide what constitutes international law. It is they who decided that, of all the many disputed territories in the world (including China's occupation of Tibet and Turkey's occupation of Northern Cyprus) only Israel's 'occupation' is illegal. 
• The contrast between the media's narrative about the relative prosperity and freedom of Jews and Arabs and the reality (such as in Hebron where the Jews are ghettoised with no freedom of movement, and forbidden from any type of building work on their homes, while their Arab neighbours have no such restrictions; and the many Palestinian mansions all over the 'West Bank').

However, the most disturbing lesson of the book is Tuvia's contrasts between the beliefs of the majority of Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Muslims. The Jews are naive, riddled with self-doubt and crippled by excessive compassion;  but the Palestinians are united in the belief that one day the whole of Israel will belong to them. Witnessing the way Jews have already lost control of areas in Israel he implies that ultimately this contrast will result in the end of the Jewish State unless things change dramatically.  I am not as pessimistic as Tuvia, but if Israel continues to produce 'generals' like Yair Golan and politicians who are not prepared to stand up to them, then Tuvia will be proved right.

**The fact that the organisers of the Limmud conference actually cancelled Tuvia's invitation to speak on its panel session, exposes Limmud as being completely worthless.

***The Amazon cover page for the book says:

This book recounts the adventures of Tuvia Tenenbom, who wanders around Israel of our time calling himself "Tobi the German". In the course of numerous interviews Tuvia extracts information, sentiments, hidden theories and delusional visions motivating the miscellany of peoples forming the present-day Holy Land. Does Palestinian wife number one hate the Jews more than she hates wife number two? Who does a young German tourist hate more, her dead Nazi grandpa or the just-born Jewish baby? Who finances cash-rich NGOs pursuing a Judenrein Israel? Who sets Palestinian olive groves on fire and why? What do you see from a Piper Cherokee above a Bedu camp? Who are the flaming feminists who sacrifice their lives for the rights of polygamists? Whose land is this, anyway? In the course of his seven-months journey Tobi the German discovers Syrian flags growing inside apples, she-asses who used to be men, five-star refugee camps, flying prophets, cash-loving guardians of the poor, masturbating monks in eternal love of Palestinians, human rights activists in eternal hatred of Jews, cash-rich rabbis without congregations, families growing in cemeteries -- among many others. Catch the Jew!, the most humorous composition on the Middle East to date, is a polyglot spin around a cultural miscegenation in a very small space. However, it is never-daunted author finds that with labneh, strudel, olive oil, apple pie, kebab, rugelach, hummus and schnitzel, a happy tummy can bear us through even the most appalling matters. Except the conclusion.

On the appropriate response to antisemitic lies and blood-libels directed at Israel

Following my report on  Sunday's counter-demo against an antisemitic 'pro-Palestinian' attempt to spew lies and hatred in London and close down a Jewish-Israeli store a commentator expressed concern at the (well-meaning) banner here held up by one of the pro-Israel demonstrators, feeling it was far too defensive.

Indeed this is a subject I've addressed before - notably here - but it seems few people understand it so I will attempt to make this very simple using the following hypothetical analogy:

Jackie White looks after her 80 year old mother Iris who has been house bound in London with dementia for 10 years. One day a man Patrick Bates with a history of psychopathic violence and delusions, tells the local media that Iris has been murdering street children in Brazil every day for the last 10 years and that he plans to kill her to stop this. 

What should Jackie's reaction be? Should she:

a) Attempt to counter the accusations of Patrick Bates by providing proof of Iris's long-term disabilities and explaining what a caring woman she has always been.

or

b) Expose Patrick Bates as the liar and dangerously insane psychopath that he clearly is.

If she chooses a) she has already entered into a narrative in which 'both sides' are talking about whether or not Iris is a child killer. A reasonable 'headline' for the media would be:

"Jackie White denies her mother is a child killer"

If she chooses b) she has put the focus solely on the dangerous Patrick Bates. A reasonable headline would be:

"Lying madman threatens to kill 80-year-old housebound woman with dementia"

Given the obvious preference for b) can anybody explain to me why, in response to the obvious lies and blood libels about Israel originating from psychopathic killers like Hamas, Israel supporters choose the equivalent of option a) above and hence ensure that:

1. The lies and blood libels ("Israel massacres children", "Israel is an Apartheid state" etc) become the focus of the discussion
2. The lies and blood libels get repeated ad nausea and hence become intrinsically associated with Israel
3. The systematic lying and psychopathic behaviour of the Palestinians and their supporters is totally ignored.

So, in future, Israel supporters must avoid saying what Israel 'is not' and focus on exposing the lies and psychopathic behaviour of the Palestinians and their supporters. Since almost all of the lies against Israel are simply a reflection of what her accusers really do, the accusations should be turned back against them; for example, here are the kind of things that the banners should say:

"There are 58 apartheid countries in the world: they are the 58 Islamic countries."
"Palestinians glory in the murder of Jewish children"
"The greatest honour in Palestinian society is to kill a Jew in cold blood"
"Believing Palestinian lies inhibits peace"
"Accepting Palestinian lies encourages them to kill"
"Arabs ethnically cleansed Jews from every one of their countries"
etc

We should also be telling the stories and showing the faces of the many Israelis murdered by Palestinians including the hundreds of children.

See also:

• Responding to the Israel is Apartheid State lie 
• The day the Jews of London fought back

All these progressive thinkers, intellectuals and peacemakers cannot be wrong

Read the antisemitic abuse following today's counter demo

I reported earlier on today's counter-demo against an antisemitic  'pro-Palestinian' attempt to spew lies and hatred in London and close down a Jewish-Israeli store. As this video from the anti-Israel agency Russia Today shows, the counter demo was clearly both a surprise and shock to the antisemites who normally have free rein over London's streets.

But just check our the continual stream of antisemitic abuse in the comments on the video. I have captured a few screen shots below:

The day the Jews of London and their friends fought back

Update: see this follow-up for people who think none of this has anything to do with antisemitism.

Today, like so many days in London over the last 10 years, a group of antisemites who go under the laughable guise of 'Palestine supporters' planned to:

1. March through the streets of London shouting despicable lies against Israel without being challenged
2. Hand out leaflets spewing more lies, hatred and antisemitic blood libels to unwitting Londoners trying to enjoy a day out in the sunshine; and finally
3. Lay siege to a modest Jewish Israeli-owned shop with the explicit intention of forcing it out of business, without a murmur of protest against them.

But NOT today. They met their match because, thanks to outstanding work by Gemma Sheridan (see update* about this below), Paul Besser, Joseph Cohen, Yochy Davis,  and others, Israel supporters had found out their plans and, at short notice, got together an impressive counter demo. And for over 3 hours Israel supporters were right in the faces of the antisemites ensuring that not a single Londoner or tourist heard their lies unchallenged.

It all started when the antisemites gathered in Soho Square and were about to serenade the visitors there trying to have a peaceful lunch with their classic tune "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free".  They were greeted first by Ishmael Sali, who they assumed would be joining their hatefest.


The look on their faces was quite something to see when Ishmael pulled out a large Israeli flag (see more pictures of Ishmael below), followed by others doing the same. Within seconds the terrorist supporting goons were surrounded by more people with Israel flags (more people in fact than the antisemites) and for the 20 minutes they stayed there singing the Israel supporters drowned out their noise with their own, including with some impressive shofar blowing.

When the antisemites started their march toward Covent Garden they were surrounded and followed all the way. For the 2 hours they were outside Sabon Israel supporters made sure to counter their lies. In particular they made sure the lies in these leaflets they were handing out did not go unchallenged:

And their ludicrous stunts - like letting off smoke bombs in red and then in the colours of 'Palestine' and attempting to throw a bag filled with shit were muted.

Even when their demo outside Sabon ended (to a rousing rendition of Hatikvah) the antisemites were followed all the way back. For once they did not have the streets of London to their own and they did not like it one bit.

Although still relatively small in numbers today's direct action by Israel supporters was a thousand times more effective than anything done in the last 10 years by the entire set of organisations run by Britain's 'official Jews' combined (UPDATE: Note I am referring to those 'official' demos and not other direct action events like today of which there have been quite a few). In fact I have no doubt that if the Board of Deputies and CST were aware of what was going to happen they would either have tried to stop it or would have made sure the Israel supporters were penned in as far away from the action as possible (which they manage to do every time) to maintain the image of the 'trembling Jew' **(UPDATE: see below comments about this from the President of the BoD).

Every time the 'Palestine Solidarity Committee' plans one of these stunts I can't help thinking of this. And it's about time they are shown up for the bigots they are.

UPDATE: Look at the antisemitic abuse after a video of the counter demo was posted.


PS I like these photos from today (courtesy Sharon Zacks):

and this one courtesy of Israel Advocacy Movement which perfectly sums up the day:

And here is what Israel Advocacy Movement says about today:

***TODAY WE SCORED A DECISIVE VICTORY***
London Palestine Action tried to close down an Israeli cosmetics shop in London called Sabon, their reason? Because the Sabon factory is in Kiryat Gat, a city well within the 1949 Armistice Lines, this was not a protest against "settlements", disgracefully this was a protest against the very existence of Israel.
London Palestine Action promoted this event for over a month, yet without advertising we were able to mobilise far more activists than they had. For one of the first times in years, our chants of "1, 2, 3, 4 stop the boycott, stop the war, 5, 6, 7, 8 stop the boycott, stop the hate", drowned out their screams of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"... a call for the destruction of Israel.

With our activists and supporters robed in Israeli flags we were successful in obscuring their message of hate.
The cherry on the cake, was when Chloe organised our supporters to end the day with a shopping spree in Sabon... the perfect response to a boycott.
For those that couldn't make it today, please take 5 minutes to head over to https://www.sabonuk.co.uk/en/ and support a great business that has found itself the focus of a vile and bigoted hate campaign.
Thank you so much each and everyone who came and continues to support Israel with us.

UPDATE: Wow it seems we REALLY got to them:

..and check the antisemitic abuse on the view comments

*UPDATE: Gemma Sheridan was working solidly on this - and the counter-demos that took place the day before - for six weeks and deserves special credit.

**UPDATE: Following my posting of this article the President of the Board of Deputies (Jonathan Arkush) wrote this response (which he is happy for me to share here):

Dear Edgar

I was very pleased indeed to read about the counter-demonstration.  You rather did the Board a disservice with your wide-of-the-mark comment.  The Board has always supported demonstrating and indeed has organised many of the leading ones.  The very last thing we would do is to have restricted this type of event !  Provided, obviously, any demonstration is conducted within the law I can assure you it will have the Board’s support.
I think you are aware that under my presidency the Board has spoken up and acted loudly and clearly for British Jews and Israel and I assure you will continue to do so without fear or favour.
What we need to do is to act with unity.  Let us support each other strongly and steer away from making derogatory comments – we can save those for the real opposition.
Regards  

Jonathan

UPDATE: a commentator expressed concern at the (well-meaning) banner saying "Israel is not an apartheid state etc") held up by one of the pro-Israel demonstrators, feeling it was far too defensive. I have written about this here.

See also:

• On the appropriate response to the lies and blood libels against Israel
• Israel's 'apartheid' system does not seem to be working too well ...
• Making Frinton-on-Sea a Zionist-free zone. 
• The antisemite test

Clearly religion played no part in Sadiq Khan's victory

Moronic Israeli General's own goal and gift to the antisemites of the world

Probably the worst and most inappropriate speech ever given by any Israeli in a position of authority. And on Holocaust Memorial Day. Makes you wonder why anybody bothers to fight antisemitism.The antisemites are salivating over this.

Letter from a (now former) Labour Party member

A friend has sent me the following letter that he wrote to his (Labour) MP and Party Chairman in April 2013 (i.e. over 3 years ago). Note the people (including soon-to-be Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and of course now leader Jeremy Corbyn) he identifies as being at the heart of the party's antisemitism problem. He did not get a reply to the letter and he did resign as a result.

Anybody who thinks the Enquiry into 'antisemitism and other forms of racism' set up by Corbyn is going to end in anything but this outcome is deluded.

See also:

• Exclusive results of Labour's enquiry into antisemitism
• Is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism
• The antisemite test
• The antisemite game
• comparison between radical leftists and Islamists 
• what leftists believe
• why anti-Zionist are antisemities 
• empirical evidence that anti-Zionism equals antisemitism

Exclusive: Results of the Enquiry set up by Corbyn to investigate antisemitism and other forms of racism*

* Satire. But given that the Enquiry was set up by Corbyn to investigate 'other forms of racism' in addition to antisemitism, and given it is chaired by Chakrabarti - a woman who has yet to find an Islamic terrorist she does not seek to defend - do not expect the actual results to be much different.

16 May 2016 Update (this is not satire): Shami Chakrabarti joined the Labour Party the same day as being appointed the 'independent chair' of this enquiry.

1 July 2016 Update (not satire): The report has been published. Seems none of this was satire after all.

See also:

• Is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism
• The antisemite test
• The antisemite game
• comparison between radical leftists and Islamists 
• what leftists believe
• why anti-Zionist are antisemities 
• empirical evidence that anti-Zionism equals antisemitism

And there are people who seriously think Corbyn will purge Labour of its antisemites

He is one of the biggest antisemites of them all. He scores 10 out of 10 in this antisemite test.

See also:

• The Corbyns: their anti-Israel hatred is a hereditary compulsive obsessional disorder
• The antisemite test
• The antisemite game
• Plenty more antisemites like Naz Shah
• Why are people surprised Naz Shah is an antisemite?
• Real lesson of Malia's antisemitism that people are missing

The Antisemite Test

Following on from the Antisemite Game I now present the Antisemite Test (mainly because there is a really pathetic one circulating at the moment*):

*Here is the pathetic one (I recall seeing this in the Jewish Chronicle recently - I think it was by 'comedian' David Schneider). A lot of people thought it was excellent but, especially because of point 6, it is actually a complete cop-out since it actually exonerates people like Ken Livingstone and even Naz Shah:

Update: Exclusive results of Labour's enquiry into antisemitism

See also:

• Is anti-Zionism the same as antisemitism
• The antisemite test
• The antisemite game
• comparison between radical leftists and Islamists 
• what leftists believe
• why anti-Zionist are antisemities 
• empirical evidence that anti-Zionism equals antisemitism

The antisemite game

See also:

• The antisemite test
• Plenty more antisemites like Naz Shah
• Why are people surprised Naz Shah is an antisemite?
• Real lesson of Malia's antisemitism that people are missing

Nothing special about Naz Zhah - plenty more antisemites like her in the Labour Party

 

Naz Shah should consider herself unlucky because she was stupid enough not to remove the most blatantly antisemitic of her Facebook postings once she became a 'public figure'.

There are many others in the Labour Party whose views are identical to hers but who have been a bit more careful; they restrict their public displays of antisemitism to simply spewing blood libels against the Jewish State and denying it the right to defend itself against terrorists, while supporting those same terrorists. The party leader Jeremy Corbyn is one such person, although like Ken Livingstone and Gerald Kaufman he has at least come in for some genuine scrutiny. But why have so many others avoided it? In particular, it seems almost every Muslim Labour MP shares the exact same views as Naz Shah, so maybe their ethnicity puts them 'out of bounds' under the ludicrous assumption that 'minorities cannot possibly be racist'.

I therefore present a just a small sample of other antisemitic Labour MPs:

• Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. Watch her spewing blood libels and hatred against Israel for daring to defend herself from Hamas rockets. Moreover, this MP actually resigned her position as Shadow Education Minister in order to protest the decision to attack ISIS in Iraq.
• Rupa Huq  MP for Ealing Central is not just an obsessive Israel hater but was also obsessively concerned that Party leader Ed Milliband was a Jew. Here she is with yet another blood libel against Israel. She also defended Naz Shah's antisemitism.
• Shabana Mahmoud, Labour MP for Birmingham who actually took part in a violent protest to shut down Sainsburys for daring to stock Israel produce
• Yasmin Qureshi labour MP for Bolton SE who compared Israel to the Nazis
• Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East who blatantly lied to deligitimize Israel in Parliament (leading to David Cameron to make his own ignorant anti-Israel response)

As I said in a previous post about the newly elected female Muslim NUS President, no matter how well educated and secular they are, it seems many immigrants (and their children) from Muslim countries can NEVER shake off their sense of Islamic supremacism and most of all their antisemitism. It is in their bones.

There are many more, but I will leave it up to our leaders at the Board of Deputies and CST to do the work  (yes that was a joke - the BoD and CST are much more likely to be providing support for the above MPs in 'combating Islamophobia). To date only a handful of bloggers (such as Richard Millett) have been highlighting the views of these people.

Update: Plenty of politicians have defended Naz Shah's antisemitism and not just Labour ones like Ken Livingstone and Rupa Huq. And what a surprise - they include Baroness Warsi.

See also:

• Playing the antisemite game
• The antisemite test 
• Why are people surprised Naz Shah is an antisemite?
• Real lesson of Malia's antisemitism that people are missing

Why are people surprised that Naz Shah is an antisemite - it did not need a Facebook investigation to find this out

So yet another Labour MP Naz Shah is exposed today as a vicious antisemite based on the above Facebook messages she posted (and incidentally she is one of 11 MPs appointed to investigate antisemitsm!). But why are people are surprised? Her views are no different to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and, indeed, no different to the Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan (who will almost certainly be elected, and whose well documented history of vicious antisemitic Israel hatred has been ignored by Britain's 'official' Jews who now bow down to him). In fact, a couple of months ago I posted the following about Naz Shah on Facebook when discussing the London mayoral election (in which Khan's has taken all of George Galloway's natural support):

However, much he has tried to cover it up in the last year, Khan's record on issues that matter to Muslims is pretty much the same as Galloway. So Khan made Galloway irrelevant in this election. Labour pulled the same trick successfully in the 2015 election by having candidate Naz Shah against Galloway. Naz Shah easily won, but that's mainly because her views on Israel are identical to Galloway's so she was assured the Muslim vote in preference to him. It was Naz Shah incidentally who recently stated that no Israelis have ever been killed by Palestinians throwing rocks. http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/13/british-politician-claims-rock-throwing-palestinians-neither-killed-or-injured-israeli-children/

I also noted Naz Shah's views on Israel after last year's election. and Ben Judah has for a long time reported about her and Bradford politics. If you are able to delve deeply enough you will find the same antisemitic Israel-hating views in every 'progressive' Muslim politician. We just saw it with the newly elected NUS President Malia Bouattia. And it is not restricted to left-wing politicos. The most perfect example of all is 'Conservative' peer Baroness Warsi. As I said in my last post, no matter how well educated and secular they are, it seems many immigrants (and their children) from Muslim countries can NEVER shake off their sense of Islamic supremacism and most of all their antisemitism. It is in their bones.

And now expect the standard game to be played out as follows:

1. Politician X is discovered to have made multiple antisemitic statements, supported terrorism against Israel and called for the destruction of the Jewish state.
2. X says these statements do not represent their real views and/or were taken our of context.
3. X says that he/she is a fierce anti-racist who loves Jews but disagrees with the policies of Zionists. 
4. Media and other politicians claim that X is being smeared by a Zionist campaign of hatred.
5. Board of Deputies issues a statement expressing concern, but follows it up by saying they now accept that X is in no way antisemitic and they look forward to a series of meetings with X, during which they will apologise for ever suggesting X was in any way antisemitic.
6. X is promoted and appointed to chair a committee on antisemitism, and also becomes a much-loved media personality.

See also:

• Nothing special about Naz Shah
• Playing the antisemite game
• The antisemite test

The real lesson of Malia's antisemitism that everybody is missing

For all those (including especially British Jews) demanding unlimited immigration from Muslim countries, imagine millions more like Malia - only less educated and more extreme - in positions of power. This is the future of the UK.  No matter how well educated and secular they are, it seems many immigrants (and their children) from Muslim countries can NEVER shake off their sense of Islamic supremacism (which includes contempt for Christianity) and most of all their antisemitism. It is in their bones.

And, of course, like all leftists Malia is a Palestinianist.

Islam is not at war with the West

Making it hard to do business in Israel

Letter I was handed at Bank Leumi last week

Elder of Ziyon has just posted an article based on his friend's experience of having her Chase credit card rejected in Israel. In the light of this I thought it worth reporting what happened to me last week when I went into my Bank Leumi branch in Tel Aviv to get a new cheque book (I have a foreign resident's shekels account that I use mainly to pay standing orders for my apartment and to get cash from machines).

I actually found my personal representative ZZ who (although like the dozen other workers had nobody with them) told me I had to wait. After 10 minutes ZZ called me over and said simply "you cannot have a cheque book because we are closing your account - you have 28 days to transfer your money because you do not have a minimum $50,000 in your account". Now, for those who do not know how Israeli banks operate, I need to point out that even a modest account like mine (which has never been less than $8,000 shekels equivalent in credit in 9 years) pays enormous fees - including commission on every single cheque, standing order payment and cash machine usage as well as uninvited correspondence. In fact, my typical monthly fees are around 180 shekels ($45) for things that would cost nothing in a UK account. Moreover in 9 years I have received the grand sum of about 10 shekels in interest despite part of the money ($3,000) being in a 'savings account' that has never been touched.

So why suddenly - and without any warning - were they closing my account? ZZ printed out the above letter with the explanation (they never sent me this letter and had I not by chance needed a new cheque book I would never have known, so my account would have been closed without my knowledge and my money would have been seized). I have since found out that the 'risk compliance pressure' on Israeli Banks has come from the US Government who do not want their nationals having foreign accounts for fear of them being used for money laundering and terrorism; I do not understand why having lots of money in such accounts (as opposed to little) makes the 'risk'  lower rather than higher and nor do I understand why British citizens should be penalised. It turns out that all the other Israel banks are introducing similar restrictions which means I will have no Israeli shekel account and no obvious means of paying my bills.

Palestinianism: The Western world's fastest growing religious cult

"Celebrity" Palestinianists include Roger Waters, Jeremy Corbyn, Barak Obama, and the entire editorial team at the BBC, Sky News and Guardian. Newly committed Palestinianists can gain rapid acceptance in the community with this mobile phone app.

*This really is the UN definition and it is unique to Palestinians who - unique among all refugees in history have their very own dedicated and permanent UN refugee agency (UNWRA).

The growth of Palestinianism also explains the 'poor Palestinians' receive per capita five times more international aid (most provided by European and US taxpayers) than any other people in the world.

Story that Government has stopped funding War on Want is a lie*

War on Want website 3 April 2016: Does this look like they are bothered by criticism of being anti-Israel?

I am sorry to have to  break this news to everybody celebrating the Telegraph story that the Government has stopped funding the antisemitic 'charity' War on Jews Want as a result of its anti-Israel incitement. The above is a screenshot from War on Want's website today, which gives you a pretty good indication of how un-bothered they are by the Telegraph story (War on Want essentially does nothing other than campaign against Israel so, as far as they are concerned, the Telegraph is simply advertising what they do best). The Press release from War on Want that is referred to in the highlighted section is reproduced below. They claim they have not been criticised by the Government and that they have not sought Government support for years.

For once War on Want is more or less telling the truth (it's incredible how many Jews continue to delude themselves that David Cameron's government would ever actually take real action against Israel haters). War on Want no longer asks for direct funding from the British government**  for the simple reason that it gets it indirectly from the EU and Comic Relief (which of course is run by the government funded BBC). As I pointed out only last month, Comic Relief recently awarded War on Want its largest grant ever £590,719 (in 2013 it got £139,407 from Comic Relief and in 2014 it only got  £27,790). But it is the EU that continues to be their main financier**  - which, of course, is also partly funded by British taxpayers.

As my many previous reports on War on Want confirm, Cameron's government and the Charities Commission know all about War on Want's activities and refused to do anything about it - publicly at least. Maybe behind the scenes they were sufficiently embarrassed to suggest discreetly to War on Want that they should stop applying for direct Government funding. Either way, Gilligan's Telegraph report will make no difference at all except almost certainly lead to increased funding from Comic Relief and the EU and some additional Israel haters who have now been alerted to what they do.

Here is the War on Want Press release

War on Want has dismissed the story in today's Sunday Telegraph suggesting that it has had its funding 'pulled' by the UK government and that the charity has been criticised by the government over its support for human rights in Palestine.

John Hilary, Executive Director at War on Want, said: "The story in today's Telegraph is a complete fabrication. War on Want has not sought any UK government support for its operations for a number of years now, so it is absurd to suggest that we have had our funding 'pulled'. The insinuation that we have been criticised by the government for standing up for the rights of the Palestinian people is equally bogus. We will be contacting the Telegraph to help it set the record straight."

*I've had a lot correspondence since I posted this. The point is that the story is not what it seems to be and there has been no change in Government policy because of Gilligan's 'revelations' (which some of us have been writing to our MPs and the Charities Commission about for years). It is true that the Government - through the Dept of International Development (DfID) has stopped funding new War on Want projects. But my understanding is that WoW's claim that they stopped asking for DFID grants a while back is also true. That is why this whole story is a facade. WoW weren't going to get any new DFID funding anyway, but they will continue to get mega funding from the EU and Comic Relief which are indirectly funded by the Government and directly funded by UK taxpayers.  I did NOT base my article above on the WoW denial. I based it on my previous correspondence with the Charities Commission, WoW themselves, my MP and Comic Relief. The fact that the Comic Relief grants will continue is especially depressing since I was given a little bit of hope two years ago that they might stop funding them but then - bang - they recently gave them their biggest grant ever. The acid test will be if the Government stop their funding via the EU. Given Cameron's record I would say you need to be a deranged optimist to think that he would, even if he could, but we can all hope I suppose.

** I understand the amounts which are shown from the DfID on their recent accounts are for projects that started a few years ago.

See also:

• Why you should not give a penny to Comic Relief
• In deeds rather than words David Cameron is the most ant-Israel PM in 45 years
• Comic Relief funds the people who legitimize the murder of 4-year-old Adelle Biton
• Smoothie drinks fund War on Want
• Anti-Israel Charities
• War on Want: the anti-Israel charity funded by duped Brits 
• Comic Relief funding the war on Jews update
• Why does this woman deserve our charity: it's all about the cult of 'Palestinianism'.
• A reminder to avoid buying a red node 
• Oxfam and Comic Relief funding Palestinian Jew hatred.
• Comic Relief Responds to my complaint about its funding of "War on Jews"
• Comic Relief invests millions in arms, tobacco and alcohol
• Comic Relief provides for extremist groups
• The shocking truth about Comic Relief

Jerusalem Post has become yet another Israel paper that thinks its main role is to deligitimize Israel

Whereas Haaretz is the standard source of anti-Israel articles used by external media organisations to deligitimize Israel, it seems that in the last two years the Jerusalem Post (once considered 'right wing' and strongly pro-Zionist')  has been desperately trying to outdo Haaretz.

Today's top two headline 'stories' in the JPost are a perfect example. The main 'story' is actually just an opinion piece that uses exactly the same narrative as Israel-haters the world over - drawing a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli soldiers. It even uses the standard anti-Israel trick of suggesting that Palestinians only use stones and slingshots (rather than knives and guns) to attack Israelis, emphasizing this in the photocaption which says:

Splitscreen: Palestinian with slingshot at demonstration and IDF soldier who shot dead a wounded terrorist in Hebron

The second ‘story’ with the ludicrous and offensive title "Has Tunisia replaced Israel as the Middle East's only genuine democracy" is piece of pure nonsense based on an article in the Economist –  a magazine that has been at the forefront of pumping out anti-Zionist (and even pure antisemitic) lies and propaganda for several years. Did nobody at the Jerusalem Post check that? Doesn't the JPost have its own writers? And regarding 'democratic Tunisia' perhaps the 'author' should have checked the JPost's own recent articles such as this one; and he has forgotten the fact that Tunisia is known to have the largest proportion of ISIS fighters and supporters in the Arab world (hence the terrorist attacks of 2015). [Update: Here is some real apartheid in Tunisia]

It is a shame that the Jerusalem Post has decided its main role is to pump out propaganda pieces rather than reporting the News. If they focused on the latter they might, for example, have discovered that the Palestinian woman who they lavishly praised two weeks ago for winning the $1 million Global Teacher Prize is actually very proud to have married a man who massacred a group of Jews walking home from synagogue in Hebron in 1980. Instead it took blogger Aussie Dave at IsraellyCool to find that out (it really was not hard; update: see Brian's rant about this)

Perhaps the April Fools article about the Guardian focusing on Israel hatred because it is profitable was not really such a spoof after all. Just as fourth rate Israeli academics can become big stars in the West by promoting anti-Zionism, it seems the same is true of media outlets.

See also:

• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists JPost says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists"
• Responsibility for British deaths in Tunisia
• Antisemitic rhetoric increasing in Tunisia under Muslim Brotherhood
• Hannan al-Hroub winner of global teacher prize married a terrorist 
• The radical anti-Israel agenda of the Economist
• Economist and its antisemitic cartoon