37 Netanyahu snubs Obama by evicting Palestinians from Jerusalem homes

(1) Lubavitch text on usury
(2) Ultra-Orthodox blamed for shooting attack at Israel Gay Bar
(3) Swastikas had been painted at entrance to Gay center
(4) Netanyahu and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni vow to catch the killer
(5) Israeli eviction of Palestinian families denounced
(6) Netanyahu snubs Obama by evicting Palestinians from Jerusalem homes - where is Noam Chomsky?
(7) Dalai Lama compares Tibetan fate to Warsaw Uprising
(8) Sweden refuses to assist German prosecution of Bishop Williamson
(9) How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market

(1) Lubavitch text on usury

From: D Masneri <alphadm@free.fr> Date: 03.08.2009 11:18 PM

"Actualité juive" is a "respectable" weekly jewish magazine published in France.

http://www.actuj.com/accueil

Every issue includes an insert containing lubavitch texts commented by a rabbi. In the april 7th, 2009 issue, one can read :

"Positive Mitsva N° 198
It's the command we were instructed to demand interest from a non-jew to whom we lend money, so that not only we don't help him and don't do him a service, but we *harm* him by lending money with interest, something we are forbidden to do to a jew."

I already knew this Mitsva, but it's the firt time I read that its goal is to harm gentiles.
I translated the french verb "nuire" ("nuisions") by "to harm".

Here is a scan of the magazine page :

  http://www.cijoint.fr/cjlink.php?file=cj200908/cijmNY94nK.jpg

The text is in the third column : "Mitsva positive n° 198"

Comment (Peter M.):

"You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not the bottom ..." (Deuteronomy 28:12-13).

"You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite, interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent. On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite you may not charge interest ..." (Deuteronomy 24:19-20).

(2) Ultra-Orthodox blamed for shooting attack at Israel Gay Bar

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_oc4zMfPFgJL7HONtuRFlkOrBrA

Israeli gays in shock after gunman's deadly rampage

By Ron Bousso (AFP) – August 1, 2009

TEL AVIV — Israeli gays were in shock on Sunday after a gunman killed two people, but some said such an attack in a country where homosexuals are often vilified by religious groups was only a matter of time.

Saturday's shooting at a community centre for gay and lesbian teenagers in the heart of Tel Aviv sent fear coursing through members of the Jewish state's vibrant homosexual community -- but it also came as little surprise.

Noa Shalev was at a party nearby when she heard the news that two people had been shot and 11 others wounded by a black-clad and masked gunman at the Bar Noar ("Youth Bar").

"People wanted to be angry, people wanted to cry, but I simply felt fear," Shalev said outside the scene of the attack where representatives of the gay community were meeting to weigh their reaction to the unprecedented killings.

The fact that the unidentified shooter was still at large and being hunted by police only deepened her anxiety.

"You tell yourself 'someone is after me, after me and no one else'," the 26-year-old student said.

Striped flags of the gay community and flowers decked police barriers outside the club on Sunday. Placards placed on the ground read "The death of human rights", "Down with homophobia" and "We are not afraid."

Inside the community centre, tables and chairs were strewn upside down on the floor amid the bloodstains.

Police said a teenage girl and a man in his 20s were killed on the spot and 15 people injured, including three seriously. It was the worst attack ever on Israel's gay and lesbian community.

The coastal city of Tel Aviv has for years been a proud bastion of Israel's gay and lesbian community, earning an international reputation for its openness and plethora of gay clubs and bars.

Although there are small gay communities in the main cities, Tel Aviv's image contrasts strongly with a general conservatism in Israeli society and a public disgust towards homosexuals expressed by religious groups.

Sitting next to Shalev, Yael Relevi said that the shooting was merely the latest in a long history of attacks and threats against members of the gay community over recent years.

These included a stabbing attack by an ultra-Orthodox Jew during a Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem four years ago.

"It made me feel bad when I realised that we were subject to such hatred. The incident surprised me, but it follows many attacks against the community," Relevi, 22, said of Saturday's attack.

Yoav Zemer, 58, donned a pink shirt on Sunday morning, and said he refuses to be scared off by the attack. But he was still unable to hold back the tears.

"Yesterday's incident will return. It didn't target only us, it targeted Israel which used to be a source of pride and pluralism," Zemer said.

He has been beaten up more than once in the 30 years or so since he came out as a homosexual.

Yitzik Dror, a spokesman for the gay and lesbian community centre, said the Tel Aviv attack followed years of incitement against homosexuals.

But he refused to point the finger of blame at ultra-Orthodox MPs who have lashed out at homosexuals, including one who labelled them "worse than beasts."

"We ask all MPs to end incitement in general, not just against the gay community," Dror said.

Gal Ochovski, a well-known member of Israel's gay community, said it had only been a matter of time before violence against the country's homosexuals came to this.

"Everyone living in Israel knows that in such an atmosphere of violence such a thing could happen. Israel is both a very tolerant place for gays and lesbians but also a very violent place," he said.

"Sometimes, unfortunately, the two can collide."

(3) Swastikas had been painted at entrance to Gay center

2 Shot Dead at Gay Center in Tel Aviv

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: August 1, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/world/middleeast/02israel.html?em

TEL AVIV (Agence France-Presse) — A masked man opened fire on a crowd at a gay community center in Tel Aviv late Saturday, killing three people and wounding at least 10 others, the Israeli emergency services said.

Israeli paramedics evacuated a wounded man following a shooting attack at a gay community house in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

A young man and a young woman were killed on the spot and the third victim died in hospital, the authorities said, and one of those who were wounded was in serious condition.

The gunman, who was dressed in black, unloaded an automatic weapon as he fired on the group of young gay men and lesbians near the entrance of the center, witnesses said, and he then ran away.

No one had been arrested by early Sunday.

The Tel Aviv police chief, Shahar Ayalon, ordered the closing of a nearby gay bar in the city and urged such establishments to remain vigilant.

Leaders of the gay community said they believed that the shooting was a homophobic attack.

“It is not surprising that such a crime can be committed given the incitement of hatred against the homosexual community,” the president of Tel Aviv’s gay and lesbian community, Mai Pelem, told reporters.

In the past, swastikas had been painted at the entrance to the center.

The head of Israel’s gay and lesbian national association, Mike Hamel, said: “In our worst nightmares we could not have imagined that the hatred against our community, which is hurting nobody, could go this far.”

The Israeli minister of internal security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, said he thought that the attack had homophobic motives.

He promised that the police would do everything possible to arrest the gunman, military radio reported.

If the motive is confirmed, it would be the worst homophobic attack against Israel’s gay and lesbian community.

(4) Netanyahu and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni vow to catch the killer

Page last updated at 18:09 GMT, Sunday, 2 August 2009 19:09 UK

Gay Israelis rally after shooting
Protesters said it was the country's worst hate crime

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8180655.stm

Hundreds of Israelis have joined a rally organised by the gay community after shootings at a gay youth centre.

Two people died and at least 11 were hurt when the gunman opened fire at the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association before fleeing.

The city's Mayor, Ron Huldai, said the motive was unclear and police declined to comment except to say a Palestinian link was not suspected.

But the protesters condemned the attack as Israel's worst hate crime.

"I fear that if the man who did this is not found, the consequences to the gay community might be far-reaching - they might live in fear," said 47-year-old lawyer Arnon Hirsch. ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring the killer to justice.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who attended the rally, said the attack should strengthen young people who wanted to come out of the closet.

People from the gay community are allowed to serve openly in the military, and couples are given a measure of legal recognition.

(5) Israeli eviction of Palestinian families denounced

Reuters
Published: August 02, 2009, 22:44

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10336981.html

Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families on Sunday from homes in occupied Arab East Jerusalem and allowed Jewish colonists to move in, despite pressure from Israel's main ally, the United States, to freeze the expansion of colonies.

Police said they were acting on eviction orders issued by an Israeli court, which upheld a colonist organisation's land ownership claim based on 19th-century documents.

In legal proceedings stretching back to the 1980s, Palestinians have disputed the claim in the Shaikh Jarrah province that has become a focal point of colonist development plans in occupied East Jerusalem.

"We are thrown out and they let settlers [colonists] inside our house. God is with us," a Palestinian resident screamed at police as Jews entered the dwellings.

Police clad in black uniforms and carrying assault rifles cordoned off the area while the Palestinians' belongings were packed into removal vans. AFP reported that Israeli police clashed with protesters and detained around 10 people. Border guards and an ambulance were seen at the scene of the clashes, the report said.

Israel took the step in the midst of a dispute with the US over President Barack Obama's demand to halt Jewish colony expansion in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called the evictions "totally unacceptable", noting that international mediators recently appealed to Israel to stop "provocative actions" in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel was demonstrating its "utter failure" to respect international law.

"Israel, the occupying power, once again has shown its commitment to the settler [colonist] organisations by evicting more than 50 Palestinians, many of them children, from the houses where they have lived for more than 50 years," he said.

Two weeks ago, the US State Department had summoned Israel's ambassador, Michael Oren, and told him plans to build another 20 homes for Jews in occupied East Jerusalem should be suspended.

(6) Netanyahu snubs Obama by evicting Palestinians from Jerusalem homes - where is Noam Chomsky?

50 Palestinians evicted from their Jerusalem homes

By BEN HUBBARD (AP) – August 02, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD99QS94G3

JERUSALEM — Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families in east Jerusalem on Sunday, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department.

Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

U.N. staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said.

Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years.

The status of east Jerusalem is one of the most explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel took control of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, a move not recognized by any other country. Since then, Israel has to boosted the Jewish presence there, building neighborhoods where about 180,000 Jews live. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

Organizations linked to the Jewish West Bank settlement movement also have bought properties inside Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem and moved Israelis in.

About 270,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem, or 35 percent of the city's total population of 760,000.

The international community has pressured Israel to refrain from evicting Palestinians and building new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, saying such moves hamper peacemaking efforts.

State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said such actions in east Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel's obligations under U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

"Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community," she said in a statement.

Robert Serry, the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, called Sunday's evictions "totally unacceptable."

"These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace," he said in a statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also condemned the move.

"While Israeli authorities have promised the American administration that home demolitions, home evictions and other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped, what we've seen on the ground is completely the opposite," he said in a statement.

Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused.

"Now our future is in the streets," she said. "We will remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we must go back home."

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

(7) Dalai Lama compares Tibetan fate to Warsaw Uprising

Agence France-PresseJuly 28, 2009

http://www.canada.com/news/Dalai+Lama+compares+Tibetan+fate+Warsaw+Uprising/1837275/story.html

WARSAW - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday compared the fate of the Tibetan people to Polish insurgents who rose up against Nazi Germany in the doomed 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

"Since 1956 in many parts of Tibet there is a similar situation. Even the Chinese, communist military sometimes used bombs, airplanes," he said during a visit to a Warsaw museum dedicated to the battle.

Hailing the Polish people's "desire for freedom", the Dalai Lama lit a candle at the foot of a vast black memorial wall inscribed with thousands of names of Polish resistance fighters killed in the Uprising launched August 1, 1944.

The rebellion, which lasted 63 days, saw 200,000 civilians and 18,000 resistance fighters massacred by the Nazis.

He also rang a bell decorating the memorial wall before hanging a large white scarf on it, a Buddhist symbol of purity and happiness.

"Very moving" he said following the visit. "I always admire the Polish people's spirit and also I think the desire for freedom," he said.

"Of course unfortunately one enemy gone and another enemy comes. (It's) seen very clearly in this museum," the Dalai Lama said referring to the fact that after Nazi Germany's defeat, Poland was ruled by a communist regime installed by the Soviet Union.

"Now you really got genuine freedom. Freedom gives rights. I think you have to realize with rights also there is duty and responsibility . . . " he said.

The Dalai Lama, 74, arrived in Warsaw Monday for a three-day visit. He lectured several hundred students Tuesday morning at Warsaw University and was expected to be named an honorary citizen of the Polish capital Wednesday morning.

Beijing accuses him of wanting full independence for Tibet, a claim which he himself has called "totally baseless", insisting instead on an autonomous status for his Himalayan homeland within China.

He has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule.

© Copyright (c) AFP

(8) Sweden refuses to assist German prosecution of Bishop Williamson

From: Josef Schwanzer <donauschwob@optusnet.com.au> Date: 01.08.2009 03:12 AM

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1492791.php/Sweden_refuses_assistance_in_priests_Holocaust_denial_inquiry_

Sweden refuses assistance in priest's Holocaust denial inquiry
By DPA
Jul 30, 2009, 12:56 GMT

   Regensburg, Germany - Sweden has refused to summon a journalist for questioning in a possible German prosecution of Richard Williamson, the fundamentalist Catholic clergyman who caused a furor by questioning the scale of the Holocaust.

   Prosecutors in the German city of Regensburg admitted Thursday the inquiry was effectively stalled.

   Williamson, a British leader of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), gave an interview last year to a Swedish TV journalist near the German city, where the SSPX, an advocate of old-style Catholicism, has a seminary.

   A re-broadcast of the interview this year, just after Pope Benedict XVI ended the excommunication of Williamson and three other SSPX leaders, triggered a storm worldwide.

   Regensburg prosecutors opened an inquiry to see if he could be charged with Holocaust denial, which is a crime under German law.

   They asked their Swedish counterparts to summon the journalist for questioning. But Sweden replied there was no legal basis to interrogate the journalist as requested.

   Prosecutor Guenther Ruckdaeschel said this was apparently because of journalistic privilege in Sweden, although he said, from a German point of view, the argument made no sense.

   'Legally, we can't see why. It wouldn't be any problem here to question a journalist,' he said.

   'If we don't get anything from Sweden, we'll just have to see how we can get on without this testimony.'

Population studies show that 5 million to 6 million European Jews were killed by all causes,including death camps, starvation, disease and battle, during the Nazi period.

In the interview, Williamson, 69, appeared to question that, contending there was no historical evidence of Nazi gas chambers and claiming 'only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews' had been killed in concentration camps.

Through his lawyer, he has told the German prosecutors he was assured his remarks were for broadcast in Sweden only, where there is no law against doubting the Holocaust.

(9) How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com>  Date: 31.07.2009 10:29 PM

By Rebecca Dube
Published July 29, 2009, issue of August 07, 2009.

Six months ago, Ronen came to the United States from Israel on a life-or-death mission. He needed a kidney transplant, or he would die.

Soon after he arrived and moved into a donated basement apartment in Brooklyn, a man approached him and offered to give him what he wanted most in the world — for a fee. Ronen would have to pay $160,000 for a kidney; the "donor" would get $10,000.

Ronen is 35, and he has endured nightly dialysis sessions for 15 years. The Forward is not publishing his last name to protect his privacy. Because of his failing health, he cannot work. His rabbi raised money to get him to New York because organ donations are so rare in Israel. Today, his dream is simple: to get a kidney transplant and "to live a normal life, to marry and to work, and to make a family."

But there were two problems with the broker's offer: He could promise only that the black market kidney would match Ronen's blood type, not his antibodies, and Ronen didn't have anywhere near the asking price. So he turned down the man — but not without some regrets.

"He says to me, 'Even if you are nice, even if you make a lot of contacts, you need a kidney, Ronen, not just talking,'" Ronen said. "And he's right."

Ronen is still looking for a donor. The man who, by all indications, approached him, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, is looking at a possible five-year federal prison sentence.

Rosenbaum was arrested July 23, and charged with conspiracy to transport human organs. It is perhaps the most bizarre subplot of the FBI's massive money laundering and corruption investigation that yielded 44 arrests in New Jersey and Brooklyn, including the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield; two state assemblymen; five rabbis, and numerous other public officials.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Rosenbaum told an undercover federal agent on July 13 that he'd been brokering kidney sales for 10 years from his home in Brooklyn.

"I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint, before assuring the undercover agent that he'd brokered "quite a lot" of kidney transplants, including one two weeks prior to their conversation.

Rosenbaum is the first person charged in the United States with trafficking in live human organs, medical ethicist Arthur Caplan said. His arrest has illuminated a dark side of the medical world, where the desperately poor sell body parts to the desperately ill, brokers make a profit and medical centers turn a blind eye.

"There is probably more of this going on," said Caplan, who serves as director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and is co-directing a United Nations task force on international organ trafficking. "It is a very lucrative business."

The exposure of the organ-trafficking operation surprised most of the medical establishment, who knew of such activity happening overseas but not in the United States. But Rosenbaum's alleged business was an open secret for years among a certain community of Jewish transplant seekers.

"Over the years, dozens of people have asked me to help them get in touch with 'Isaac — the organ broker from Brooklyn.' I always refused to do so," said Robert Berman, founder and director of the New York-based Halachic Organ Donor Society, which encourages organ donation among observant Jews in the United States, Israel and other countries.

Berman said that while he personally supports the idea of changing the law to allow people to get paid for giving someone else a kidney — after all, he noted, doctors get paid for doing the operation — he does not condone any illegal activity.

"The black market is obviously not ideal. People get ripped off," he said.

Berman founded the Halachic Organ Donor Society to combat the notion that Jewish law does not permit organ donation. Because of that misperception, he said, Israel has one of the lowest organ donor rates in the world, which is why many Israelis travel to the United States in hopes of finding a match.

"Jews have no problem putting themselves on the list to get an organ, but when it comes to donating, they have a lot of religious reasons not to," Berman said.

An expert in the organ black market said that Rosenbaum was America's main broker for an international trafficking network. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, said she told the FBI about Rosenbaum's operation back in 2002.

Scheper-Hughes did not respond to interview requests; however, she told the New York Daily News and WNYC public radio that Rosenbaum recruited impoverished kidney sellers from Moldova — where, she said, she visited a village where 20% of the men had sold a kidney. According to the criminal complaint, Rosenbaum told potential clients that the kidney sellers came from Israel.

Scheper-Hughes said that the kidney sellers described Rosenbaum as a thug who threatened them with a pistol if they expressed hesitation once they arrived in the United States for the operation.

But to potential clients, Rosenbaum presented a kind and caring face.

"He tried to help me," Ronen said of his would-be broker. Ronen related that even after he turned down the offer, the broker called and gave him advice on how to find a volunteer kidney donor. "My feeling is that he is a good person, I can trust him," Ronen said.

Medical centers interview potential transplant donors to make sure they are suitable matches, and a psychological screening is usually included, as well. Because paying for organs is illegal, Rosenbaum would create fictional relationships between the recipient and the seller, according to the criminal complaint, and would coach both of them on what to say.

"I put together the story," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint. "Could be neighbors, could be friends from shul, could be friends from the community, could be friends of his children… business friends."

More careful screening probably would expose fake relationships, Caplan said, but clearly that didn't happen, as Rosenbaum allegedly operated his trafficking ring successfully for a decade without detection.

"Some hospitals just don't care," Caplan said, noting that medical centers make about $100,000 per kidney transplant. "They want to make the money and do the transplant — they're not picky."

Caplan opposes legalizing the sale of human organs, saying that exploitation is inevitable no matter what the legal status. Medical centers should standardize and tighten their donor screenings, he said. According to Caplan, the going rate for kidney sellers ranges from $500 in India to $10,000 in Israel.

"The people who sell are almost always incredibly poor. They're usually up to their eyeballs in debt," Caplan said. "The people who are involved in this are past the point of desperation. They're not making some sort of calculated decision."

The black market for kidney donation is thriving because demand far outstrips supply. More than 80,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, and every year about 4,500 die while waiting, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Last year, 16,517 transplants were performed in the United States: 10,550 with cadaver organs from people who died, and 5,967 from living donors.

For people like Ronen, who have been playing by the rules, there's not much to do but wait and hope — even though time is running out.

"It is very difficult," Ronen said. "We need a miracle."

Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com