From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Dieudonne trial over ‘gas chambers’ remark starting
(JTA) — The French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala is standing trial for saying that a Jewish journalist should have died “in the gas chambers.”
The trial in criminal court begins Wednesday for Dieudonne, who has been convicted seven times for inciting racial hatred against Jews.
He was filmed with a hidden camera in 2013 making the comment about Patrick Cohen, according to The New York Times. The footage, which was broadcast on French television, led the French government to investigate Dieudonné and ban his show.
If Dieudonne is found guilty of violating France’s laws banning racist speech, he faces a fine of up to $45,000 and one year in prison. He has been charged almost 40 times under hate-speech laws.
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From PressTV
Israel soldiers shoot Palestinian in West Bank
Israeli soldiers have shot and injured a Palestinian teenager during scuffles with a group of young Palestinians at a refugee camp north of the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a convoy of several buses, transporting Jewish extremists and escorted by more than 15 Israeli military vehicles, arrived at the premises of Joseph’s Tomb in the heart of Nablus, located approximately 49 kilometers (30 miles) north of al-Quds (Jerusalem), early on Tuesday.
Clashes then broke out in the nearby Balata and Askar refugee camps between young Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.
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From Ynet News
Former Mossad chief: I don’t trust Netanyahu, his actions will cost us
Meir Dagan says PM’s speech won’t change Obama’s mind on Iran, adds Sharon had arguments with US but kept it quiet while Netanyahu insists on making fights public.
While the Mossad is very careful not to appear to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position on Iran, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan has no qualms about criticizing the prime minister.
“Netanyahu’s position will not change the West’s position on the Iranian issue, but his actions bring our relationship with the Americans to an extreme point and this might extract an unbearable price from us in the future,” Dagan said during an event at the Tel Aviv Museum on Wednesday.
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From PressTV
Israeli settlers storm Islamic religious sites in West Bank
Dozens of Israeli settlers have stormed Islamic religious sites in a village in the occupied West Bank and insulted Muslims.
A large number of settlers backed by Israeli army troops entered the village of Awarta, northwest of Nablus, early on Monday and performed Jewish rituals at the Islamic holy shrines at the western side of the village, Head of Awarta village council, Hani Darawsheh, said.
According to Palestinian media sources violence against the Palestinian population in the West Bank has recently increased as settlers attack Palestinians and their properties as well as holy Islamic sites.
On Saturday, Israeli settlers assaulted and stabbed a Palestinian man, 38, in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).
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From Ynet News
‘Europe is facing a new Jewish exodus’
Speakers at high-level pan-European forum on eve of International Holocaust Day compare today’s anti-Semitic atmosphere to situation in continent in 1930s. PRAGUE – A two-day international meeting organized by the European Jewish Congress (EJC) together with the Czech government opened in Prague on Monday, the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to discuss the rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
The fourth international “Let My People Live!” conference gathered for the first time a high-level and official pan-European forum to discuss practical ways to combat the rise of anti-Semitism, racism and religious radicalism in Europe.
Participants included speakers of parliaments, lawmakers, lawyers, experts and politicians who focused on the rise of the radical right and Islam and the threats to Jews in the continent.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Benjamin Netanyahu Stuns Israel Backers by Embracing Republicans on Iran
Bipartisan Unity in Danger as Premier Sides With GOP Congress
By Nathan Guttman
Washington — Within one week, the fundamentals of the mainstream pro-Israel community have been shaken like never before.
Its centerpiece legislative effort — the drive to impose new sanctions on Iran — has been frozen in place and, more importantly, the notion that support for Israel is a bipartisan issue in American politics has suffered a serious blow.
The source of the setbacks suffered by the organized Jewish community could be tracked down to one event: House Speaker John Boehner’s January 21 invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak on Iran in front of a joint meeting of Congress — and Netanyahu’s acceptance of the invitation, by prearrangement — without consulting Boehner’s Democratic counterparts and without telling President Obama about his outreach to a head of state to visit. From that moment, events spiraled downward quickly, leaving the community with more questions than answers and with blame being assigned in all directions.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Some Argentine Jews aim to revoke foreign minister’s AMIA membership
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Two member parties of AMIA have requested that Argentina’s foreign minister, Hector Timerman, be expelled from the Buenos Aires community organization.
On Tuesday, Plural Jai and AMIA Es De Todos sent AMIA President Leonardo Jmelnitzky formal requests to revoke Timerman’s membership for his role in brokering a pact with Iran in 2013 to jointly investigate the deadly 1994 bombing at the center. The pact has been widely criticized.
AMIA’s elected members help implement Jewish initiatives throughout Argentina.
The requests followed a Holocaust commemoration ceremony at the AMIA building.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
GOP trip to Israel funded by ‘hate group,’ Southern Poverty Law Center says
(JTA) — An upcoming Republican National Committee trip to Israel is being fully funded by a hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an American civil rights organization.
The trip, which will take 60 RNC members to Israel for nine days beginning Saturday, is being paid for by a subsidiary of the American Family Association, which the law center in a news release last week called a “hate group” known for its “extremism and its demonizing attacks on minorities.”
In the release, the law center said that association spokesman Bryan Fischer has made remarks that are anti-gay and racist, equating gay rights activists to Nazis and saying black people “rut like rabbits.” Fischer also has said that “we are a Christian nation, and not a Jewish or Muslim one.”
Richard Cohen, the law center’s president, in a letter to RNC members wrote, “Given that the disease of anti-Semitism is flaring throughout the world, we certainly understand your desire to show your commitment to Israel at this time. But accepting funding from an extremist group like the AFA would make a mockery of that commitment and legitimize its extremism.”
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From Ynet News
France to target online anti-Semitism
President Hollande says internet service providers which ignore anti-Semetic, Holocaust-denial theories ‘will be regarded as accomplices’, urges penalties for providers which do not comply.
French President Francois Hollande called on internet service providers to take action against the spread of anti-Semitism online.
During a visit to France’s Holocaust Memorial on Tuesday, Hollande said Internet service providers cannot ignore anti-Semitic and Holocaust- denial theories that are disseminated on social networks. Otherwise, he says, “they will be regarded as accomplices.”
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