Boycott of Israel prompts two universities to quit American Studies Association
(JNS.org) Brandeis University and Penn State Harrisburg on Wednesday announced they have withdrawn from the American Studies Association (ASA) following the ASA membership’s Dec. 15 vote to endorse a boycott of Israel.
“We view the recent vote by the membership to affirm an academic boycott of Israel as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster,” the Brandeis American Studies Department said in a statement. “We remain committed to the discipline of American Studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture—freedom of association and expression.”
Dr. Simon Bronner, the head of the American Studies department at Penn State Harrisburg, said in a statement, “In the wake of the passage of the resolution by the ASA to boycott Israeli institutions, which programs and departments such as Penn State Harrisburg’s program in American Studies consider to curtail academic freedom and undermine the reputation of American Studies as a scholarly enterprise, the chair of the American Studies program at Penn State Harrisburg plans to drop its institutional membership and will encourage others to do so.”
Chinese foreign minister visits Israel, stresses economic cooperation
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“Our two economies are highly complementary, and the mutually beneficial cooperation between us enjoys a very bright future,” said Wang, who was on a three-day visit to Israel.
Netanyahu said, “Our strengths complement one another. China has massive industrial and global reach. Israel has expertise in every area of high-tech. And I think the combination could be very, very beneficial to China and of course to Israel.”
“We both value education and families,” added the prime minister. “We value knowledge and learning. We place importance on taking initiative and being entrepreneurial, something which both Israel and China have in great supply.”
Hacker threatens Israeli banks
(JNS.org) A hacker has threatened three Israeli banks—Discount, Yahav and the First International Bank of Israel—that if they do not hand over a certain sum in Bitcoins by the end of next week, details of their customers will be sold to criminal organizations, Israel Hayom reported.
The hacker, who apparently sent his threat to the banks’ Hebrew websites, claimed to have set up a botnet network in Israel that enabled the hacking of customers’ computers, exposing details such as passwords and credit card numbers. The hacker claimed to have obtained information on 3.7 million bank customers.
An Israeli banking official said that, as of now, the banks do not view the threat as serious. It is unclear why the hacker asked for Bitcoins, a digital currency whose value has dropped by around 60 percent in recent weeks.
Two Palestinian gunmen killed after IDF troops attacked during arrest operations
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Two Palestinian gunmen were killed during separate Israeli arrest operations in Judea and Samaria.
In the first incident, Israel Defense Forces troops were fired upon during an arrest operation in the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday night. The troops returned fire, killing one Palestinian.
The incident began around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night when Israeli counter-terror forces entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest an Islamic Jihad operative who had planned attacks on transportation arteries in Judea and Samaria. A disturbance broke out and Palestinians opened fire on the Israeli soldiers. The soldiers then responded with return fire, wounding several Palestinians. In addition to gunfire, the soldiers were also attacked with improvised explosive devices, an Israeli military spokesperson said. The wanted Islamic Jihad operative was not captured in the operation. Palestinian media reports identified the dead man as 22-year-old Hamas operative Nafa Jamil Saadi, a Jenin resident.
In the second incident, which took place early Thursday morning, Israeli troops killed a wanted Palestinian man, who opened fire on them in Qalqiliya as they attempted to arrest him. An Israeli military spokesperson said the wanted man, 28-year-old Saleh Yasin, had fired at Israeli troops several times in recent weeks. Yasin was an intelligence officer in the Palestinian Authority security forces.
Native American academics endorse boycott of Israel, call Palestinians ‘indigenous’ to land
(JNS.org) The council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, mirroring the recent move by the American Studies Association.
“As the elected council of an international community of Indigenous and allied non-Indigenous scholars, students, and public intellectuals who have studied and resisted the colonization and domination of Indigenous lands via settler state structures throughout the world, we strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples,” read a Dec. 15 declaration by the NAISA.
The NAISA declaration ignores the fact that Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel.
“By attempting to portray the Palestinians as the ‘indigenous people’ of the territory on which the State of Israel and the administered territories exist and the Jews as the colonial settlers, they are perpetrating the big lie of Palestinian history,” wrote Jonathan Tobin, senior online editor of Commentary magazine. “Jews are not foreigners in Israel as Europeans were in Africa. They happen to be the indigenous people of their ancient homeland and efforts to deny this isn’t scholarship. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and those who would deny them the same rights accorded other peoples are practicing bias, not scholarship.”
Spain draft law could grant Sephardic Jews citizenship
(JNS.org) Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP) has submitted a draft law that could grant citizenship to descendants of Jews expelled from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. The possibility of the bill was first announced last year by Spanish Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon. If the law is ratified, eligible Jews won’t have to relinquish their current nationalities to become naturalized Spanish citizens.
In April 2013, Portugal’s parliament ratified a similar measure granting citizenship to Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Portugal during the same period.
“The Popular Party recalls that Portugal recently passed a law that confers Portuguese nationality to descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews and the Spanish government must take an analogous measure,” the Spanish bill reads, according to the World Jewish Congress.
Mohamed Morsi faces espionage charges for conspiring with Hamas and Hezbollah
(JNS.org) Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, along with nearly three dozen Muslim Brotherhood leaders, will stand trial on espionage charges for conspiring with foreign terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah to commit terror acts inside of Egypt.
Among those joining Morsi on trial will be Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and Freedom and Justice Party chairman Essam El-Erian.
According to the prosecution’s statement, the Muslim Brotherhood leaders are charged with “collaborating with foreign organizations to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, revealing defense secrets to a foreign country, funding terrorists and military training to achieve the purposes of the international organization of the Brotherhood,” Ahram Online reported.
Specifically, the prosecution accuses the group of sponsoring terror attacks on the Egyptian Army and police in the Sinai Peninsula following Morsi’s ouster.
Morsi is also on trial for the killing of protestors outside of his presidential palace in December 2012.
Prince Charles ‘deeply troubled’ by plight of Mideast Christians
(JNS.org) The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, said that he is “deeply troubled” by the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
“I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East,” Prince Charles said at a London reception honoring Middle East Christians that was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Britain’s chief rabbi, The Telegraph reported.
“It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Prince Charles was joined by Jordan’s Prince Ghazi on a tour of Middle East Christian churches in Britain, including a Syriac Orthodox Cathedral and a Coptic Orthodox Church, where he was presented with an icon of St. George in honor of his baby grandson Prince George.
Anti-Israel mock eviction notices placed on University of Michigan student doors
(JNS.org) A student group at University of Michigan recently mirrored a popular tactic of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) groups by placing mock eviction notices from the school’s Housing Department on student doors, threatening “dorm demolition in three days.” The fake notices described how “excessive uses of force by Israeli forces during evictions has led to Palestinians being injured and killed.”
Created by the student group Students Allied for Freedom & Equality (SAFE), the notices—placed Dec. 10—were followed by an article in The Michigan Daily student newspaper describing the prank as “a tool of political satire intended to emulate a situation that thousands of Palestinians confront on a regular basis.” The article, penned by SAFE, called for students to create their own BDS group on campus.
“The campaign manipulated unknowing students by leaving out key facts and evidence while leading them to believe the Arab-Israeli conflict is one-sided and has a clear right and wrong,” wrote University of Michigan student Molly Rosen in an article for campus blog of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).t
Rosen added, “The Mock Eviction campaign broke the peace of mind of thousands of students on campus and was only constructive in tearing communities and individuals at the University apart.”
The school’s Housing Department promptly responded to the student body in an email that condemned SAFE for violating university policy. The email said students who received the notices “did not have the ability to choose whether to engage in this conversation.” It is unclear whether or not SAFE will be penalized for its actions.
Sean Penn says he is with Jacob Ostreicher following escape from Bolivia
(JNS.org) Actor Sean Penn, a leading advocate for the release of Jacob Ostreicher, told The Associated Press that he is with Ostreicher following a “humanitarian operation” to free the Jewish businessman “from the corrupt prosecution and imprisonment he was suffering in Bolivia.”
Ostreicher, a 54-year-old Brooklyn native, traveled to Bolivia in December 2010 to oversee rice production and was arrested in June 2011 on suspicion of money laundering and criminal organization. No formal charges were ever been brought against him, but he spent 18 months in prison before being released on bail in December 2012, after which point he had remained in Bolivia on house arrest.
Penn wrote in an email to The Associated Press that Ostreicher is safe, doing well, and receiving medical attention.
In May, Penn testified on Ostreicher’s case in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.
“I thank Sean Penn for his tireless work to free Jacob,” U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who held the hearing in May, said in a statement Tuesday.
Boycott of Israel a ‘big mistake,’ says former American Studies Association president
(JNS.org) Former American Studies Association (ASA) president and Stanford University Professor of English Dr. Shelley Fisher Fishkin said she believes the ASA’s boycott of Israeli universities is a “big mistake.”
“As a scholar, I deeply value the free exchange of ideas,” Fishkin told JNS.org. “Academic boycotts make the free exchange of ideas impossible. For that reason, I think the ASA’s endorsement of the boycott was a big mistake.”
Fishkin, who served as ASA president from 2004-2005, was part of a group of eight former ASA presidents who sent an open letter to ASA members—66 percent of whom endorsed the boycott of Israel in a Dec. 15 vote—opposing the move on the grounds that it is “antithetical to the mission of free and open inquiry for which a scholarly organization stands.”
The boycott is counterproductive because it is targeting some of Israel’s most open-minded institutions, Fishkin told JNS.org.
“Israeli universities are often at the forefront of fostering dialogue between Arabs and Jews, of educating the future leaders of Arab universities, and of providing the next generation with the tools of critical thinking that can allow them to construct a society more equitable and just than that of their parents,” she said.
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