Monday, February 11, 2019

970 Jewish Lobby sabotages Angela Davis award, because of her support for Palestine

Jewish Lobby sabotages Angela Davis award, because of her support for Palestine

Newsletter published on January 11, 2019

(1) Lobby targets Blacks who defend Palestinians; Angela Davis event cancelled
(2) Angela Davis 'stunned' after Award Revoked over her support for Justice in Palestine
(3) Mayor Woodfin (Birmingham, Alabama) demands details of Angela Davis decision
(4) Birmingham mayor: protests came from 'local Jewish community and some of its allies'
(5) Civil Rights Award Rescinded From Angela Davis After Jewish Community Objections
(6) Lobby faces Backlash over Birmingham Institute's recission of Angela Davis award
(7) Louis Farrakhan: Jews are termites. Says he's not anti-Semite but 'anti-termite'
(8) The Art of the Smear - The Israel Lobby Busted
(9) Dynamic Silence: media blackout; or only negative reports

(1) Lobby targets Blacks who defend Palestinians; Angela Davis event cancelled

From: JUDY schuchmann <judyschuchmann1@gmail.com>


Angela Davis is latest Black target of Israel lobby

Ali Abunimah Lobby Watch 7 January 2019

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has canceled its annual gala at which iconic Black scholar and activist Angela Davis was to receive a prestigious human rights award.

Randall Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, expressed his “dismay” at the decision, which he said came “after protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies.”

“The reactive decision of the BCRI did not create an opportunity for necessary consensus dialogue,” Woodfin added.

Davis is the latest prominent Black intellectual and outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights to be targeted by the Israel lobby.

Roy S. Johnson, a columnist for several Alabama newspapers, revealed Monday that those demanding the cancellation were “primarily – though not exclusively – from the city’s Jewish leadership, according to a source familiar with a decision that transpired quickly, and stunningly, in a span of just a few days.”

Last month, Southern Jewish Life, a communal publication serving southern states, ran an article criticizing the BCRI for honoring Davis, claiming that she is “an outspoken voice in the boycott-Israel movement, and advocates extensively on college campuses for the isolation of the Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing and is connected to police violence against African Americans in the United States.”

While there is vocal and growing opposition to Israel’s policies among American Jews at large, the leaders of established Jewish communal groups, including the Birmingham Jewish Federation, tend to be strongly pro-Israel.

The Birmingham Jewish Federation was reportedly among the groups that pressured BCRI.

Others who pressured BCRI to ditch Davis reportedly included General Charles Krulak, a retired Marine commander and former president of Birmingham-Southern College.

Support for Palestinians

Angela Davis, a Birmingham native, has long been an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights and an advocate of the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement to hold Israel accountable for its violations and crimes against Palestinians.

Davis has also stood up for Rasmea Odeh, the Palestinian activist and torture survivor deported from the US in 2017 following a conviction for immigration fraud.

Adam Milstein, a major financier of anti-Palestinian groups, took note of the BCRI’s decision on Twitter:

    The Birmingham (AL) Civil Rights Institute canceled its Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award for #AngelaDavis after protests from local #Jewish community and concerned Americans. #BCRI concluded she unfortunately does not meet all of the award's criteria https://t.co/09y7c4tMPd pic.twitter.com/tAAxymyBNK
    — Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) January 7, 2019

Milstein was named in a censored Al Jazeera documentary about the Israel lobby leaked by The Electronic Intifada in November, as a founder and financier of the anti-Palestinian smear website Canary Mission.

That same film, The Lobby–USA, also identified how Israel and its agents are targeting and attempting to co-opt Black leaders and activists in order to disrupt growing Black identification and solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was founded in 1992 to commemorate the city’s role in the struggle against institutionalized American racism.

In a statement Saturday, BCRI noted that in September its board “selected Angela Davis to receive the prestigious Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala in February 2019.”

    The associated gala event, scheduled for February 16th at Haven has been cancelled. Ticket purchasers will received a full refund. pic.twitter.com/YKrt6nfnzK
    — BCRI (@bhamcivilrights) January 5, 2019

“In late December, supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision,” BCRI added, without naming or further characterizing the groups or their objections.

“Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based,” BCRI stated.

“Therefore, on 4 January, BCRI’s Board voted to rescind its invitation to Ms. Davis to honor her with the Shuttlesworth Award.”

Targeting Black voices

Davis is the second high-profile Black intellectual to be targeted by pro-Israel lobby pressure in recent weeks.

In November, Marc Lamont Hill was dismissed from his role as a CNN political commentator following an Israel lobby campaign of lies and smears misrepresenting a speech he made at the United Nations in support of Palestinian rights and BDS.

Temple University also faced pressure from the Zionist Organization of America to dismiss Hill as a professor – a step it has not taken amid warnings that this would violate Hill’s First Amendment rights.

Hill called BCRI’s decision to withdraw its award from Davis “shameful.”

    This is shameful. I stand with my dear sister and friend Angela Davis. https://t.co/gj69Fpk0AQ
    — Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) January 7, 2019

Hill is one of many people expressing consternation at BCRI’s decision to disinvite Davis who is widely recognized as a groundbreaking Black radical theorist, prison abolitionist and anti-racism activist who throughout her life has faced institutional pressure and persecution for her stances.

    Very disappointing that Birmingham Civil Rights Institute decided to rescind its decision to honor Angela Davis. Calling to boycott Israel for violating int’l law and human rights is not only a constitutionally protected right, but also the right thing to do. #IStandWithAngela https://t.co/pUlZQ2h3HR
    — Jamil Dakwar (@jdakwar) January 6, 2019

    To argue that Angela Davis is unworthy of a civil rights award is beyond shameful. And to dance around the fact that it’s due to her outspoken support of Palestinian rights makes it outrageous. https://t.co/dC2yplrFYE
    — JewishVoiceForPeace (@jvplive) January 7, 2019

    .@bhamcivilrights is rescinding its decision to honor Angela Davis for calling to boycott Israel for violating human rights while @TheKingCenter is honoring warmonger, #MLK holiday opponent and anti-civil rights proponent @SenJohnMcCain.

    This is disgraceful.#IStandWithAngela https://t.co/DgyStZrjWU
    — Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) January 7, 2019

Alabama columnist Roy S. Johnson also condemned the decision as an insult to the memory of Fred Shuttlesworth, the preacher and leader in the struggle against segregation for whom the BCRI award is named.

Shuttlesworth, Johnson wrote, “would not have bowed to anyone trying to dissuade him from honoring someone who fought the same fight – even if they fought with a different fervor, even if they were decidedly more revolutionary.”

But by disinviting Davis, Johnson added, “one of our most venerable cultural institutions, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, did just that – it crumbled.”

(2) Angela Davis 'stunned' after Award Revoked over her support for Justice in Palestine


Angela Davis Says She's 'Stunned' After Award Is Revoked Over Her Views on Israel

Angela Davis, the activist and scholar, said this week that she was 'stunned' after a civil rights group in her native Birmingham, Ala., reversed its decision to honor her with an award amid protests over her support for a boycott of Israel.

Professor Davis, once a global hero of the left who has since earned renown for her scholarship, had been selected for the human rights award months ago by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but the group's board rescinded the honor on Friday.

In announcing the move, the institute did not offer an explanation, saying only that 'she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based.' But Professor Davis said in a statement on Facebook on Monday that she had learned it was because of her 'long-term support of justice for Palestine.' The revocation of the award, she added, was 'not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice.'

In a statement expressing dismay at the controversy, Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham said the decision had come amid 'protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies.'

The institute did say in its statement announcing the revocation that it had begun hearing from 'concerned individuals and organizations' in late December, around the time the magazine Southern Jewish Life published a piece about the award by its editor, Larry Brook.

In it, he wrote that 'for some in the community, there might be some indigestion' at the now-canceled February gala where Professor Davis, who retired from t

Mr. Brook noted that Professor Davis has supported the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as B.D.S., which seeks to apply economic pressure to Israel until it ends the occupation of the West Bank, treats Palestinians equally under the law and allows the return of Palestinian refugees.

Many Israelis and their allies oppose the movement, viewing it as anti-Semitic and an existential threat to the country. Supporters, including Professor Davis, describe it as a necessary response to what amounts to modern-day apartheid.

[A boycott drive put Israel on a blacklist. Now Israel has one of its own.]

Professor Davis, who has delivered that message on college campuses and elsewhere, has also joined prominent black celebrities and thinkers in comparing the struggles of Palestinians to those of African-Americans. Among those celebrities is the actor Danny Glover, who received the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's human rights award in 2003.

Israel and its allies have defended against the boycott movement around the world, including in the United States, where polls of young people show support growing for the Palestinian cause.

In recent years, more than a dozen states have passed laws to restrict contractors from boycotting Israel. Some of the laws are being challenged as violations of First Amendment rights.

[She wouldn't promise not to boycott Israel, so a Texas school district stopped paying her.]

In his statement, Mayor Woodfin called on the institute and those who opposed its decision to engage in dialogue.

The institute's reversal provided 'an opportunity to engage in conversation about how we work together to resolve our differences constructively and continue to move our community forward,' he said. 'I would be pleased to facilitate and participate in any such conversation, now and in the future.'

In her statement, Professor Davis said her activism often involved the linking of movements around the world to those within the United States.

'I support Palestinian political prisoners just as I support current political prisoners in the Basque Country, in Catalunya, in India, and in other parts of the world,' she said. 'I have indeed expressed opposition to policies and practices of the state of Israel, as I express similar opposition to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to other discriminatory U.S. policies.' ...

(3) Mayor Woodfin (Birmingham, Alabama) demands details of Angela Davis decision


Mayor Woodfin demands details of Angela Davis decision from BCRI

Updated 7:22 AM; Posted 3:25 AM

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has accused leaders of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute of 'poor stewardship' and demanded details of the decision to announce an award and then withdraw it from controversial activist Angela Davis.

The board voted on Jan. 4 to rescind the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award that had been previously announced was going to Davis. It canceled the Feb. 16 gala where she would have received the award.

'The crisis of leadership at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute represents a clash of values, wherein the institution responsible for stewarding powerful, poignant and respectful dialogue, has demonstrated that they do not value dialogue with residents of Birmingham and the public at large,' Woodfin wrote in a statement released on the city web site on Jan. 11. Woodfin serves as an ex-officio member of the board.

'Because of their poor stewardship, some in the local and national media are misconstruing the crisis of leadership at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute as a clash of cultures, ethnic groups, or races. Let me be clear - it is not.'

Woodfin also clarified his previous remarks on the issue to note he was not criticizing the Jewish community, despite letters sent by Jewish organizations in the city opposing the award for Davis.

'It was not my intent to suggest that the entire Jewish community was opposed to Dr. Angela Davis receiving the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award,' Woodfin said.

'Birmingham's Jewish community is not monolithic in thought,' Woodfin said. 'I consider myself an ally of Birmingham's Jewish community. In fact, African American and Jewish leaders in Birmingham have worked together to build bridges during some of Birmingham's darkest times. I expect us to continue to do so. With that said, members of the community, Jewish and otherwise, were indeed vocal in their opposition of Dr. Davis receiving the Shuttlesworth Award.'

More discussion and public dialogue should have taken place, Woodfin suggested.

'Dialogue should have allowed for the full measure of discussion about the merits of the recognition by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, including supporters and dissenters of some of Dr. Davis' positions,' he wrote. 'In fact, the community has heard little from the BCRI. This is unacceptable.'

Woodfin mentioned the resignation of three BCRI board members this week.

'While the resignation of some members from the Board of Directors from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute signals a first step, there are still unanswered questions surrounding their situation,' he wrote. 'We know very little about what transpired on that board that has brought us to this point.'

Woodfin said that on Monday, Jan. 7, he submitted a list of items and actions from the board and staff at BCRI, including:

Minutes: A release to the public of all minutes of  the BCRI board of directors from September 2018 - Saturday, January 5. Honoree: A release, to my office, of the official,  written communication shared, or yet to be shared, with Dr. Davis  regarding the initial invitation to Birmingham as well as communications  rescinding the invitation. Apology: Issue an apology statement to the  community-at-large for the poor handling of the process. Criteria: A release of the award selection criteria  to help the community understand the full range of your selection  rationale. Facilitation: Invite representatives from stakeholder  organizations to meet directly with the board of directors this week. Woodfin said he had received copies of BCRI board minutes from September-December 2018 BCRI Governance 2018).

Woodfin noted that the City of Birmingham provides the primary funding for the institute.

'The City of Birmingham is the largest donor to the BCRI, and as such we have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the use of public resources reflect the values of the City of Birmingham,' he wrote. ...

(4) Birmingham mayor: protests came from 'local Jewish community and some of its allies'


Birmingham Civil Rights Institute under fire for rescinding Angela Davis honor
Institute says activist and professor 'does not meet all criteria' and that 'concerned individuals' asked it to reconsider

Jamiles Lartey and agencies

Tue 8 Jan 2019 06.32 AEDT First published on Tue 8 Jan 2019 06.21 AEDT

Davis, a Birmingham native, has spent decades fighting for civil rights. She was an active member of the Black Panther party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the US communist party. She is now an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that protests Israel's treatment of Palestinians. It is this ideological affinity that appears to have inspired the revocation of the BCRI honor.

BCRI president and chief executive Andrea Taylor said in October the institute would be 'thrilled to bestow this honor' on Davis, who she said was 'one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak'.

But on Saturday the BCRI announced that in late December, 'supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision'.

Its statement added that 'upon closer examination of Davis' statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria' for the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights award.

The statement did not indicate what criteria it found Davis did not meet, or identify the origin of the requests to reconsider.

In a statement expressing 'dismay', Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin said the protests came from the 'local Jewish community and some of its allies'. He called it a reactive and divisive decision and offered to facilitate dialogue in response. ...

(5) Civil Rights Award Rescinded From Angela Davis After Jewish Community Objections


January 8, 20192:16 PM ET

SHERREL WHEELER STEWART

FROM WBHM 90.3 FM

Updated 4:54pm E.T.

The Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award is supposed to honor the civil rights leader's legacy and raise funds for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. But after some members in the city's Jewish community objected to giving the award to human rights activist Angela Davis, this year's award presentation is derailed and the community is divided.

In October, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute's board announced it would honor Davis at a February event. Now, it says, the award presentation is canceled because Davis' statements and public record do not "meet all of the criteria on which the award is based." Attempts to get more details from the board regarding its decision have been unsuccessful.

The controversy set off social media responses around the country and a protest outside the Civil Rights Institute, where local activists called for leaders of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to resign after the organization canceled plans to honor Davis. The Birmingham mayor said he's dismayed by the decision.

Temple University professor and commentator Marc Lamont Hill, who has faced criticism himself over his past comments supporting Palestinians, tweeted in support of Davis.

"This is shameful," he wrote.

(6) Lobby faces Backlash over Birmingham Institute's recission of Angela Davis award


Birmingham Institute's recission of Angela Davis award over BDS becomes an embarrassment to pro-Israel groups that applied pressure

Philip Weiss on January 10, 2019

There are two big stories involving Israel and BDS in the American news this week. One is the Senate Republicans pushing a bill to punish supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and thereby divide the Democratic Party.

The other is the uproar over the decision by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to rescind an award to Angela Davis because of the activist/scholar's support for BDS, which one Birmingham Jewish group claimed 'targets the Jewish people excessively.'

Davis was to receive the Fred Shuttlesworth prize on February 16. The BCRI changed its mind about the award, and canceled the gala, because of what is being reported as pressure from the Jewish community.

The story is proving to be a giant embarrassment to both the Civil Rights Institute and those Jewish organizations, showing the overreach of the Israel lobby. Angela Davis is now being showered with praise and the Institute is being condemned internationally; so much so that the top three officers of the organization resigned within days of rescinding the award (the chairman is a former Honda executive). And one Jewish organization that applied pressure on the BCRI has tried to back away from its own letter to the Institute!

Roy Johnson, a reporter for AL.com, summarized the scandal on Roland Martin's show.

This has been a big blow to the institute, it's been a black eye that certainly extends around the world, the coverage has been global. You had to see some heads roll ... The board is in the crosshairs of a lot of people in this city.

Both the Birmingham City Council and the Birmingham School Board made statements in support of Angela Davis, a native daughter of the city. Davis will be honored at a 'grassroots' event on February 16, Johnson said; and it sounds like that event will be a gala of its own. 'Organizations around the city are coming out in favor of honoring Angela Davis.'

Johnson stated bluntly that the decision was a mistake. He is still trying to determine 'how they came to this extremely bad decision, and what were the factors, what were the pressures ... and how they could not see this fallout coming.'

As for those pressures: 'It came ... due to pressure from Jewish organizations, from many Jewish organizations in the city.'

Two of those organizations are the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center and the Birmingham Jewish Federations. The executive director of the Federations publicly condemned the award on the organization's Facebook page (a post later removed, according to NPR). The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is surely sensitive to the Federations because, according to federal nonprofit filings, the Institute has received many gifts over the years from people who also give money to the Federations.

As for the Holocaust Education Center (BHEC), Roy Johnson reported at AL.Com that on January 2, its board sent a letter to the Institute, in which it 'expressed concern and disappointment' over the award and urged the Institute to 'reconsider your decision.'

In the letter, obtained by AL.com, the organization cited 'recent outspoken support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, [which] is very troubling as it targets the Jewish people excessively.

'We do not suggest that Israel should be immune from criticism,' it continued, 'but BDS ignores gross human rights transgressions by other countries around the world and focuses solely on Israel, the world's only Jewish state.'

Johnson reported that the BHEC's entire executive committee and its director signed the letter but they are now trying to walk it back.

'Our intention was to go on record about our concerns in a private letter sent to BCRI leadership,' [Board President Deborah Layman] said in an email to AL.com, responding to query about the BHEC's letter. 'We had no further part in the decision made by BCRI to cancel the event, and we were surprised at their decision.'

Regrets they've had a few: 'I haven't run across anyone in the Jewish community that expected that BCRI would comply with their request and then cancel their event,' Johnson said on Roland Martin's show.

The award had also been slammed in Southern Jewish Life magazine, which headlined its story: 'Prominent BDS activist Davis to receive Civil Rights Institute's Shuttlesworth Award,' and referred to Shuttlesworth as a 'towering' figure in the civil rights movement.

The embarrassment is resonating in terms of black-Jewish relations, of course. The two groups were allies during the civil rights struggle, but BDS is evidently pushing the mainstream Jewish organizations apart from black institutions. And people are making the connection between Davis's rebuke and CNN's firing of Marc Lamont Hill because he had said at the U.N. that Palestine should be free 'from the river to the sea.'

The list of casualties is a long one. I'd add history teacher Joel Doerfler's resignation from the Riverdale Country School last spring after he came under an onslaught of pressure for his pro-Palestinian views, mounted by donors to the school who met privately with the American Jewish Committee to coordinate their campaign. And of course the firing of Steven Salaita at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign after he had tweeted his outrage over the Gaza massacre of 2014 and the school's chancellor sought to 'appease among others, pro-Israel donors.' The chancellor later resigned from UIUC largely because of the embarrassment that case caused. But Salaita's career was in the process derailed.

The Angela Davis case looks to be different because the pushback is so instantaneous, the embarrassment so keen, and the damage is being experienced by the bad guys, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, and the Jewish Federations.

On that Roland Martin show, Joe Madison of Sirius XM radio says, 'It takes you back to the 60's and even the 50's ... I'm just so glad that Fred Shuttlesworth is not alive to see this.'

Rina Shah Bharara  says what Rashida Tlaib says (and is being unfairly maligned for saying), this is about the American interest: 'Last I checked this is the United States of America, it's not Israel. This whole idea of defending Israel at all costs is so confuses me on so many levels. I see it happening most out of the right. It's coming out of the left as well. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians ... why we can't inject our American ideals into this ... and say this is wrong.'

While William Spriggs, an economist at Howard University says something we are bound to hear more and more as BDS breaks up the Democratic Party's traditional affiliation with Israel:

'It creates division within the progressive community when we don't need division.'

More responses. The NPR story on the case quoted Jewish Voice for Peace:

To argue that Angela Davis is unworthy of a civil rights award is beyond shameful. And to dance around the fact that it's due to her outspoken support of Palestinian rights makes it outrageous.'

A JVP Academic Advisory Council letter in support of Davis- 'The decision seems to stem from a misinformed view that to advocate for Palestinian human rights is somehow offensive to the Jewish community' — has over 350 academic signatures. JVP is also collecting signatures from non-academics.

And here is a National Lawyers Guild statement:emphasizing the ways that the civil rights movement inspired BDS.

it is appalling that the award would be rescinded due to Dr. Angela Davis's support of Palestinian political prisoners, and the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The BDS movement is part of a long tradition of freedom movements using economic pressure as a non-violent tactic. This legacy is particularly strong in the American South. In fact, Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the movement, points out BDS was' inspired partly by the American civil rights movement.' The well-documented and internationally recognized violations of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli government and military are an intentional consequence of ideological, political, legal, economic, and military systems known better as Zionism.  BDS is not, and should never be confused with, anti-semitism. Rather, it is our moral consciousness put into action. Suggesting that BDS is synonymous with anti-semitism invisibilizes Jews, including members of the NLG Southern Region, who oppose the state of Israel's human rights record and support BDS as a non-violent resistance strategy.  Palestine matters because ending colonialism matters. Palestine matters because we must stand up and say that all people have the right to dignity, and self-determination. Palestine matters because the fight against global white supremacy won't be over until the structural inequalities throughout Israel/Palestine are addressed and made right.

The NLG makes the obvious connection to the Republican Party's efforts to go after BDS, an effort many Democrats will surely join after the shutdown ends!

This week the US Senate attempted to bring bill S1 to the floor that would attempt to silence the BDS movement and chill our freedom of speech. Dr. Angela Davis has always spoken truth to power, and devoted much of her lifelong activism to international solidarity.  By connecting U.S. grassroots campaigns against state violence and racism to movement struggles in other parts of the world, Dr. Davis helps the world become more intimate. She brings us closer to understanding the nature of justice, and that the collective work needed to dismantle systemic injustice requires that we call out all oppression.

I'd note that Alabama Senator Doug Jones was one of four Democratic senators to side with Republicans on that BDS measure in a vote two days ago. And Doug Jones is a former vice chair of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. He surely feels much of the pressure that the BCRI did. I imagine donors are a concern for him.

Thanks to Adam Horowitz.

(7) Louis Farrakhan: Jews are termites. Says he's not anti-Semite but, rather, "anti-termite"


Louis Farrakhan: Jews are termites

Nation of Islam leader posts on Twitter: 'I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm anti-termite.' Twitter says company policy not violated.

Guy Cohen, 18/10/18

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan Nation of Islam leader Louis FarrakhanREUTERS Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan posted a video segment to his Twitter account on Tuesday in which he tells his followers that he is not an anti-Semite but, rather, "anti-termite."

Embedded video

MINISTER FARRAKHAN @LouisFarrakhan I'm not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.

Twitter said in response on Wednesday that it would not be suspending Farrakhan’s account in the meantime, noting that its policy barring "dehumanizing" language, which was announced in late September, has not yet gone into effect.

Therefore, the company established, "Louis Farrakhan's tweet comparing Jews to termites is not in violation of the company's policies."

Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, responded to Farrakhan’s words by tweeting, "Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous. The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl."

"For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants ‘infesting our country,’ this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you," she added.

Chelsea Clinton _ @ChelseaClinton Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous. The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl. For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants "infesting our country," this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you:

MINISTER FARRAKHAN I'm not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.

Embedded video 50.9K

(8) The Art of the Smear - The Israel Lobby Busted

By Sheldon Richman

November 19, 2018 Information Clearing House, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50625.htm

In 2016 and 2017 Al Jazeera produced a program that unmistakenly documents the Israel government and U.S. Israel lobby’s all-out effort to spy on, smear, and disrupt American students and other activists who are working to build an understanding of the Palestinians’ plight. The Lobby — USA, however, has never been broadcast by Al Jazeera. Reporting indicates that it was suppressed after pressure from the lobby on the government of Qatar, which funds Al Jazeera. Nevertheless, it is now available at The Electronic Intifada and on YouTube. What the program presents is shocking.[ see: https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876 and https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-final-episodes-al-jazeera-film-us-israel-lobby/25896]

The Lobby — USA, which features an undercover journalist who won the trust of key pro-Israel operatives and who videoed revealing meetings, demonstrates beyond question the lengths to which the Israelis and their supporters in the United States will go to prevent a change in American thinking about the beleaguered Palestinians. The effort aims to smear Palestinian students in the United States and pro-Palestinian American activists and political candidates who criticize Israeli policy as anti-Semites and enablers of terrorism. The paid pro-Israel operatives, guided by Israeli government officials and embassy staff, have used social media and other channels in an attempt to destroy the career potential of student activists who work to raise Americans’ consciousness about the Palestinians. Establishment news operations, such as the Washington Post, are also implicated. Major targets are activists in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Al Jazeera produced a similar program about Israeli interference in British politics, which led to resignations of a key Israeli embassy official and other reactions that confirmed Al Jazeera’s damaging charges.

I could not do justice to the program even in a long article. Instead, I will urge readers to watch it in its entirety — and think carefully about what it means.

As one critic of Israel asks on the program, if Russia or Iran or China were doing what Israel and its American friends are doing, most people would be outraged. This is hardly the first time that Israel and friends have been caught covertly and overtly trying to influence discourse and even elections here through smear campaigns against activists, writers, and political candidates, but this is certainly among the most flagrant and elaborate examples.

Let’s step back from the poisonous trees for a moment to view the forest. In 1948 the leaders of a European and nominally Jewish movement, Zionism, unilaterally declared the existence of the State of Israel, which they proclaimed the nation-state of all Jews everywhere, a status recently reaffirmed by the Israeli Knesset. (The UN General Assembly recommendedpartitioning Palestine into a larger Jewish state and a smaller Palestinian state, but it had no power to actually create the state of Israel.)

It so happened this state was built on land taken by force from the long-standing majority indigenous Palestinian population, most of which was Muslim and Christian. Hundreds were massacred, three-quarters of a million were driven from their homes, and the remainder were subjected to martial law for two decades, before being given third-class citizenship with no power to improve their legal status. (Arab nations half-heartedly tried to assist the overwhelmed Palestinians, although the king of Jordan worked with Israel to divide the spoils.) Almost 20 years later, the rest of Palestine was taken through warfare, producing what are known as the occupied territories in the West Bank, with its apartheid-like regime, and the Gaza Strip, which is nothing more than an open-air prison under a cruel Israeli blockade.

Why? Because a "Jewish State" could not be realized if it were populated by non-Jews. And if some non-Jews remained, the state could not be a liberal democratic state, with equality under the law, for obvious reasons. All this was aided from the start by European Christians who, apparently guilt-ridden over how the Jews of Europe had been tyrannized, culminating in the Nazi genocide, opted to assuage their guilt with the land, blood, and liberty of the innocent people of Palestine, long the plaything of colonial powers.

Since that time, Israel has repressed the Palestinians in a variety of ways, depending on whether they are in the state as it existed in 1949; the West Bank, which was seized during the June 1967 war; or the Gaza Strip (also called the Gaza Ghetto), also seized in that war. Meanwhile, millions of refugees — people (and descendants of people) driven from their homes by Zionism’s terrorist militias, have been confined to refugee camps, stateless, rightless, and destitute. At various time, Israel, with America’s backing, has cut deals with Arab states and Palestinian quislings for the purpose of keeping the Palestinians from winning their rights either in a single secular democratic state or through a two-state plan. Western political and media establishments have overwhelmingly sympathized with the Israelis and demonized the Palestinians (and Arabs and Muslims generally). It didn’t take long for the public to be propagandized, against all evidence, into believing that the Palestinians are the aggressors and the Israelis the victims. Apparently, a person is anti-Semitic if he objects to having his property stolen by someone who claims that property in the name of the Jewish People.

But after so many decades of Israeli wars, massacres, repression, and routine brutal dehumanization, the tide has started to turn. Israel pulverized Gaza and its people one too many times; it shot and broke the bones of too many children before too many video cameras. And so public opinion, especially among younger Americans — and particularly among younger Jewish Americans, has been turning against Israel. Then the BDS Movement arose to accomplish what a similar movement help to accomplish against apartheid South Africa: bringing world attention to an intolerable situation and take concrete steps to change it.

All of this has been too much for Israel’s ruling elite and its supporters in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere, and they are fighting back. They know they can’t win on the merits. Well-documented historical studies and basic morality have seen to that. So they smear their opponents as Jew-haters and supporters of terrorism. As one Israel lobby operator puts it in the Al Jazeera program, you discredit the message by discrediting the messenger — which is what The Israel Project, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Israel on Campus Coalition, Canary Mission, Emergency Committee on Israel, Israeli Embassy in Washington, Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, and the other co-conspirators have set out to do. Their goal, as their leaders themselves acknowledge, is to identify criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

But it goes beyond that. The Israel lobby realizes that the anti-Semitism charge no long sticks so tenaciously to people who merely indict Israel for its obvious mistreatment of the Palestinians. So the lobby has resorted to a broader brush: it says that those who support BDS and the Palestinians are anti-American, anti-democracy, and anti-all-blessed-things. BDS and Students for Justice in Palestine, the lobby contends, are hate groups. This of course is patently absurd, but Israel’s side observes no limits it what it is willing to say and perhaps do to destroy the reputations anyone who realizes that the Israeli emperor has clothes.

Al Jazeera, the Electronic Intifada, Max Blumenthal’s The Gray Zone Project, and others have performed a much-needed service on behalf of freedom, justice, and decency.

(9) Dynamic Silence: media blackout; or only negative reports


Western Voices World News defines dynamic silence as:

Dynamic Silence was invented by Rabbi Feinberg of the American Jewish Committee in 1947 as a method of closing off all access to the public media - and thus the larger culture - for people or organizations deemed to have an unacceptable point of view. In spite of minor changes and adaptations, it can still be understood as being comprised of two parts. In the first part, unfavored individuals are denied unmediated exposure to the public. In the second part, only negative aspects of the unfavored individuals are reported. This starts a downward spiral of de-legitimization in the public eye in which the harder unfavored individuals try to get public exposure, the more negative and unflattering that exposure becomes until, finally, nobody wants to be associated with the ideas of beliefs of the unfavored individuals.

This page was last modified 11:34, 8 December 2007.


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