Erdogan at UN summit: Zionism a ‘crime against humanity’
(JNS.org) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grouped Zionism with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as a “crime against humanity” in a speech at a United Nations summit on tolerance held in Vienna on Wednesday, Israel Hayom reported.
“Just like Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it becomes unavoidable that Islamophobia must be regarded as a crime against humanity,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan was speaking at the fifth global forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was seated behind Erdoğan on the dais, did not react.
Erdoğan’s comments echoed U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on Nov. 10, 1975 by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), which determined “that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The resolution was revoked in 1991 by UN General Assembly Resolution 4686.
“The status accorded to Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly [in recognizing it last November as a non-member observer state] was indeed a historic achievement. This has been a very important turning point in global peace,” Erdoğan added.
The non-governmental monitoring organization UN Watch criticized Erdoğan’s comments and urged all members of the alliance’s High-Level Group, which comprises eminent people, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “to denounce remarks that fundamentally contradict the very purpose of a forum supposedly dedicated to mutual tolerance.”
“Erdoğan’s misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his resort to Ahmadinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel,” UN Watch said on its blog.
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Oxford students overwhelmingly reject BDS movement
(JNS.org) The Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a motion to promote the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
A motion “in protest of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its hindrance of attempts to create a Palestinian state” was defeated 69-10. Magdalen College, one of the constituent colleges of Oxford University, had already voted 39-3 against the motion.
The vote came amid increased tensions on campus in Britain. Anti-Israel MP (Member of Parliament) George Galloway set off a firestorm when he walked out on a debate with an Israeli student at Brasenose College, Eylon Aslan-Levy, after he found out of Aslan-Levy’s nationality. Galloway had posted on Facebook that he refused to debate Aslan-Levy because he was “a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel,” according to the Independent.
“Tonight Oxford students showed that their commitment to intellectual freedom is unshakeable,” Aslan-Levy said Wednesday after the BDS motion was defeated, according to The Jewish Press. “In rejecting calls for a boycott against Israel by a seven-to-one margin, we demonstrated resoundingly that we want Oxford to continue to cooperate with Israeli academics, trade with Israeli businesses and—yes—debate with Israelis in debating societies.”
After Magdalen College rejected the motion, student Henry Watson told The Guardian, “The boycott goes against everything the university stands for. The idea that we are not going to read your books or articles or hear your arguments on the basis of your nationality is ridiculous.”
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Israeli hospital partners with church to treat Palestinian children
(JNS.org) An Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv is partnering with the Living Bread International Church to provide medical care to children in Gaza and the West Bank. The Jerusalem-based church and the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center are calling the project “Rescue the Child.”
Israeli and Palestinian authorities have approved the coordination of the project and the moving of the patients from Gaza and the West Bank into Israel for treatment. “It is such a move of God to reach out in love and compassion to children, who are in a state of hopelessness. Isn’t it like God to team up a Church and a Jewish hospital to show love to the enemies of Israel during this time?” said Karen Dunham, director of Living Bread International Church, according to the Christian News Wire. Dunham has been dubbed by news sources as “the Mother Theresa of Israel.”
“I believe that as an Israeli citizen, we always have a right to defend ourselves from any aggression. However, we will always stretch out our hand for peace and show compassion to the suffering of children,” said Aharon Cholow, the director of international resources for Friends of Assaf Harofeh.
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Norway questions funding of PA after Palestinian Media Watch findings
(JNS.org) Recent findings by Palestinian Media Watch on the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) glorification of terrorism against Israel were featured in a news report by a television station in Norway, one of the countries contributing funds to the PA, renewing a debate in the Scandinavian country on that funding.
The Norwegian state-owned station NRK found that Norway gives the PA about 300 million kroner ($52,628,700) a year, and directly correlated that funding to the PA’s incitement of hatred and glorification of terror.
“[Palestinian] children grow up learning that Jews are ‘Satan with a tail’… Adults hear that Jews are evil and not to be trusted. It is perhaps not surprising that the [Palestinian] hatred is growing,” the NRK report stated. “The messenger is a [PA] government that receives large amounts [of money] from Norway.”
Norwegian State Secretary Torgeir Larsen, who was interviewed in the report said, “There are examples in the book (PMW’s Deception) that clearly express hatred. There are also examples of anti-Semitism, which you find in Palestinian society. But these are examples. And it’s also important for me to emphasize that those (i.e., PMW) who have put together these examples—I do not doubt the content—are part of an ongoing political battle.”
An NRK journalist, however, independently interviewed several Palestinians. One Palestinian man interviewed in a café stated, “I believe that there is a Protocol for they [Jews] are planning to control the world.” Another Palestinian man said, “According to what we read and understand from history, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion exists. My information is based on history books and the media.”
PMW Senior Analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik was also interviewed for the NRK report and said what PMW reports “is definitely the general [PA] message.”
“We don’t provide just a few examples that we have chosen to make it look extreme,” he said. “I think that Norwegian and other leaders will be surprised to hear what the Palestinian leaders, with whom they talk about peace, say in Arabic.”
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New satellite images: Iran seeking alternative path to nuclear weapons
(JNS.org) New satellite images of an Iranian nuclear site reveal that Iran may be close to producing weapons-grade plutonium, theTelegraph reported.
The images, taken Feb. 9, show steam rising from the Arak nuclear plant, an indication of heavy water production.
“The steam indicates that the heavy-water plant is operational and the extent of the air defence emplacements around the site make it suspicious,” said Stuart Ray of McKenzie Intelligence Services, who analyzed the photos on behalf of the Telegraph.
The Arak site is broken up into two components, one is the nuclear reactor site, which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been allowed to inspect, and the other is the heavy water site, which the IAEA has been barred from.
The release of the satellite photos come following nuclear talks in Kazakhstan between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group, comprised of the five permanent members on the UN Security Council—the U.S., UK, France, Russia and China—plus Germany. According to the New York Times, the two days of talks ended with an agreement for further negotiations sometime in March over a proposal that would “sharply constrain Iran’s stockpile of the most dangerous enriched uranium.”
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Egypt changes election date that conflicted with Easter
(JNS.org) After a large outcry by Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, Islamist President Mohamed Morsi has changed the upcoming parliamentary election date in order to avoid a conflict with Easter celebrations.
Despite the change, some Coptic leaders expressed dismay over the Islamist government’s disregard for Christians.
“If [the clash of dates] was an unintentional mistake then it can be forgiven as long as it’s corrected. Otherwise it will be a negative message from the president which marginalises the Copts and excludes them from participating in the election,” said former Coptic Member of Parliament Hana Greis, Ahram Online reported.
Meanwhile, the divide between Egypt’s ruling Islamists and the liberal opposition is growing.
The main opposition group—an alliance of left wing secular parties known as the National Salvation Front, led by former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei—says it will boycott the upcoming parliamentary election, the New York Times reported.
The election has been scheduled to begin on April 27 and will take four stages to complete.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org