COMBATING BDS WITH A PUSH OF THE BUTTON

NOA AMOUYAL

Anti-Israel demonstrators march behind a banner of the BDS organization in Marseille, June 13.. (photo credit:GEORGES ROBERT / AFP)

The condemnation of Israel as a cruel apartheid state is common in social media today. It is so loud and vociferous that it often feels like there is nothing one can do to combat it.

During Israel’s last two conflicts against Hamas in the Gaza Strip – operations Protective Edge (2014) and Pillar of Defense (2012) – the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya realized that this loud voice spewing lies against Israel could be just as threatening as the rockets being fired against it.

Former IDC student body chairman Yarden Ben Yosef and his colleagues created Act.IL, a wide-ranging grassroots campaign app that lets individuals combat BDS in the palm of their hand. The software is a joint venture of the IDC, the Israeli American Council and the Maccabee Task Force.

“Act.IL is the place where all pro-Israeli advocates, communities and organizations meet to work together to fight back against the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state,” the app’s description in the iTunes store reads.

But Act.IL is more than just an app. It is a campaign that taps into the collective knowledge of IDC students who together speak 35 languages, hail from 86 countries and have connections to the pro-Israel community all over the world.

“When you work together, with the same goals and values, you can be incredibly powerful in the social media landscape,” Yosef explained.

In this virtual situation room of experts, they detect instances where Israel is being assailed online and they program the app to find missions that can be carried out with a push of a button.

Yosef gives an example of an Australian business that refused to serve Israelis. As retaliation, the app instructed its users to criticize the firm in Facebook, bringing its rating down from a 4.6 out of 5 to a dismal 1.4.

“We can send a clear, direct message this way. Blatant anti-Israel sentiment is not acceptable,” he said.

Act.IL is not, however, operating alone. Fighting delegitimization is a global effort that is strongly supported by the Strategic Affairs Ministry headed by Gilad Erdan. Working with the government, Yosef believes, is a strategic way to combat Israel’s much debated image problem.

“Our goal of changing Israel’s image is the responsibility of its citizens, not just the government. Our power is in the collective and working together. We will only change things if we work alongside the government,” he said.

Shoham Nicolet, co-founder and CEO of IAC, is eagerly anticipating what Act.IL can do once it’s in the public’s hands.

“We saw the impact and the results of the app in no time [during its initial limited distribution]. We see how many posts are promoting hate and antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, even before app was [officially] launched. I can only imagine what will happen when it’s open to the public,” he said.

While it may be difficult to get Israelis to agree on much, a platform like Act.IL offers world Jewry an opportunity to fight for one thing the majority can rally behind: Israel.

“Israel is torn between many disagreements and split between society. But when it comes to the existence of the state and the legitimacy of the State of Israel is under attack, it’s clear that everybody should be involved and defend the country,” Prof. Uriel Reichman, president and founder of the IDC, said.

“It’s not just criticizing settlements, but it’s a very sophisticated attack against the Jewish state. Some of the activities are a sad reminder of Nazi Germany in its very basic characteristics of Jews,” he said, pointing to many posts that rely on classic antisemitic motifs of Jews with hooked noses and blood on their hands to convey their message.

Reichman said the Act.IL project is a powerful representation of everything the IDC stands for: exemplary research and hi-tech prowess, the fact that its student body is a (mostly) international one, and being proud advocates of the State of Israel.

Herzliya, where the IDC is based, is a primarily left-wing city. But for Yosef and Reichman, combating BDS is not a partisan issue.

“They want to make the Jewish state a pariah state of the civilized world. Everyone in my view should protest against it,” Reichman said.

“There’s no place more natural, in my view, to combat BDS than the IDC, and there is no better partner than the IAC to build the bridge between Israel and the Jewish world,” Yosef added. “This isn’t about Right, Left. It’s about being Israeli and doing what’s best for Israel. Our enemies don’t care what party we belong to.”

Turkish takeover in Jerusalem

David M. Weinberg

Hakanaid Turks infantry storming walls of Jerusalem​

The fireworks and fanfare of the Jerusalem liberation jubilee have shoved under the radar a blockbuster expose about the unruly situation in east Jerusalem. Alarm bells should be ringing about the nefarious intensifying involvement of Erdogan’s Turkey and other radical Islamist groups in Jerusalem political and social affairs.

Dr. David Koren and Ben Avrahami are the advisors on east Jerusalem affairs for the Jerusalem Municipality. They lead the municipal team that oversees all of Jerusalem City Hall’s interactions with the Muslim and Christian populations of the city. They are intimately familiar with the thicket of contradictory interests, tensions, and disagreements that inform daily life in earthly Jerusalem.

The two experts have just published a rare, breathtaking and shocking description of political trends in east Jerusalem. Their article, “East Jerusalem Arabs Between Erdogan and Israel,” published in the new, important Hebrew intellectual journal Hashiloach (Vol. 4, May 2017), offers a brief account of the fruits of normalization and Arab east Jerusalemites’ increasing integration into the Israeli scene, But mainly it serves as a wake-up call regarding countervailing toxic trends.

According to Koren and Avrahami there has been very significant erosion in the status of the veteran east Jerusalem mukhtars and the influence of Fatah political infrastructures and Palestinian Authority leaders. Into the vacuum have stepped elements identified with Hamas, with the northern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and with the Muslim Brotherhood in its wider context.

Through a series of civic associations, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations, sometimes at the neighborhood level and sometimes more extensive, they are investing tens of millions of dollars per year in dawa (missionary) activities, mainly charitable enterprises and educational programs to attract the young to Islamic values.

There is a direct line, say the article authors, from civic dawa to radicalization and active enlistment in the armed struggle against Israel. This includes active social networking which glorifies terrorists, martyrs, and prisoners, and explicitly calls for violent resistance to Israel. These networks were also the source for the libel that Al-Aqsa mosque is endangered by the Jews/Zionists, and for dissemination of an incredible volume of disinformation related to Israeli actions on the Temple Mount.

The authors ask for particular attention to the mounting involvement of Erdogan’s Turkey, which is the worldwide Brotherhood’s main patron. Turkey now enjoys unprecedented popularity among the Arab residents of east Jerusalem, the authors write. The Turks’ public support of the Palestinian cause and adoption of the Al-Aqsa issue, and their decision to inject millions of dollars into east Jerusalem, have won them great sympathy and support.

The Turks fund a great part of the dawa activities in the city, with Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri as the lead Turkish agent. (He is a former grand mufti of Jerusalem appointed by the PA and today the most prominent representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city.) The Turkish consulate in Jerusalem, the Turkish government assistance agency, and a string of Turkish organizations that have local branches in Israel or the West Bank, are directly implicated in this subversive activity too. As a result, Turkish flags today fly everywhere in east Jerusalem and prominently on the Temple Mount as well.

The Turks also have injected significant sums to those who do their bidding on the Temple Mount, for various activities such as Quran-recitation groups, transportation of worshipers to and from the mosque, iftar feasts in Ramadan, renovation and cleaning campaigns, and the like. In general, the Islamist forces on the Temple Mount operate, intentionally or not, to Turkey’s benefit and the detriment of Jordan. They may believe that the replacement of the Jordanian presence by a Turkish presence would be a positive and welcome development.

The main loser here is Jordan, which long enjoyed the status of Guardian of the Holy Places and protector of the Arabs of Jerusalem. This also is the context of the PA’s intensive activity in the international arena, and especially at UNESCO, ostensibly intended to protect the Islamic holy places against an Israeli takeover. This tactic allows the PA to convey to its critics that it is the true defender of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem against the threat of “Judaization,” while at the same time gnawing at Jordan’s historic role as guardian of the Mount and seeking to counteract the emerging Turkish dominance in Temple Mount affairs.

Attention should be devoted also to another mounting force in Jerusalem, the Islamic Liberation Party, or Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has several thousand supporters in the city. This Salafist group, like ISIS, seeks to proclaim a global Islamic caliphate from Al-Aqsa. It has acquired growing influence on college campuses throughout the West Bank, including al-Quds University near Jerusalem. Sheikh Issam Amira of the al-Rahman Mosque in Beit Safafa is the group’s most conspicuous preacher, and he enjoys freedom of activity and speech on the Temple Mount.

While the Liberation Party does not advocate violent jihad, some party members could “advance” from a Salafi mindset to a Salafi-jihadist outlook and join the ranks of ISIS. This may explain, say Koren and Avrahami, the presence of ISIS cells and ISIS operatives in Jerusalem, such as Fadi al-Qunbar, who carried out the terrorist truck-ramming attack in East Talpiot in early 2017, and the ISIS cell that was apprehended in the Shuafat refugee camp several months earlier.

In short, the disintegration of Palestinian secular nationalist organizations and institutions in east Jerusalem, alongside Israeli torpor, has facilitated the rise of Islamist factions and hostile foreign actors.

The enlarged foreign presence in the heart of Israel’s capital touches the deepest chords of the issue of Israeli sovereignty in the eastern part of the city. Koren and Avrahami warn that this presence cannot be easily eliminated. While significant security action and determined diplomatic maneuver are clearly mandated, Israel will have to do more to “recapture” east Jerusalem. It will have to assume full responsibility for the services that east Jerusalem Arab residents need, with major budgetary repercussions.

In a future article, we will look at the remedies for this situation being implemented by Mayor Nir Barkat of Jerusalem (and more still required) in order to increase east Jerusalem Arabs’ sense of belonging to a united Jerusalem. Also to be considered are the complicated proposals coming from the political Left for redistricting of the city into independent boroughs or divesting some Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinian Authority.

David M. Weinberg (www.davidmweinberg.com) is director of public affairs at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

Barak says Netanyahu giving in to pressure from far right

TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Former Israeli prime minister says Likud party has been ‘taken over’ by settler movement

Former prime minister Ehud Barak attends a press conference organized by the Israeli Labor party, in Tel Aviv, January 29, 2017. (FLASH90)

Former prime minister Ehud Barak charged Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was being heavily pressured by the extreme right in terms of state affairs and policy, adding that the Likud party had been “taken over” by the settler movement.
“I do not like the Netanyahu’s changing discourse,” Barak said during an event in Tel Aviv, according to the Walla news site.
“In recent years he has been in a state of mind that is rooted in his parents [beliefs] and has been exacerbated by the fact that the settler-aligned right has taken over the Likud.”

Barak further asserted that the prime minister’s disposition was holding him back from handling the country’s affairs properly.

“[Netanyahu] is pessimistic, passive, very anxious and feels like a victim. Because you are not doing anything to prevent them,” the ex-Israeli leader said.

“This is not a good recipe for strategic decisions, and leads to paralysis, and to pessimistic prophecies that validate themselves because nothing is done to prevent them,” Barak concluded.

Last month, Barak reportedly agreed to an initiative that would have seen him contend for the leadership of the Labor Party, but the plan fell through when other candidates refused his demand that they drop out of the race.

Barak’s reported interest in the leadership of the Labor Party comes despite a number of recent denials by the former prime minister that he was weighing a return to politics, including in January when he said he had no plans return to political life or challenge Netanyahu for the premiership.

Over the past year, the freshly bearded 75-year-old former politician has become an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, with his diatribes against the prime minister and his governing coalition on Twitter and television prompting speculation that Barak was preparing to throw his hat in the ring.

Barak was the IDF’s longest-serving chief of staff and the country’s most decorated soldier, before becoming prime minister in 1999 after defeating Netanyahu in elections.

Following his defeat in 2001 to the late Ariel Sharon, Barak temporarily retired from politics, but returned to the Labor Party in 2005. From 2007 to 2013 he served as defense minister, the last four years of which Netanyahu was prime minister.

In 2011 he split from Labor along with four other MKs, forming the short-lived Independence Party in order to remain in Netanyahu’s coalition despite the objection of most of Labor. The party was effectively disbanded upon Barak’s retirement from politics in 2013.

Palestinian activist: Anti-Israel BDS is “bulls…”

   Rebel Media

MOROCCAN MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING, DISMEMBERING JEWISH COUPLE

by: JTA

If it wasn’t a hate crime, then why did he mutilate the bodies?

Sam Toledano and Vicky Chetrit, the Jewish couple murdered in Morocco. (photo credit:Courtesy)

A court in Morocco sentenced to death a gardener who was convicted of murdering a Jewish couple last year in Casablanca.

The Court of First Instance of the coastal city sentenced Mustapha Rerhay, 51, to death on Monday, the Le 360 news site reported, for the killing of Sam Toledano and Vicky Chetrit, a high-profile couple in the Jewish community for whom the killer had worked.

Rerhay dismembered the couple’s bodies and disposed of the parts in various places in Casablanca. He stole jewelry and other possessions from their home in an attack police insisted was financially motivated, not a hate crime.

But the news site Diaspora Saharaui, which is critical of the government of Morocco over its occupation of Western Sahara, suggested in its reporting that the police version does not explain the mutilation of the bodies.

“Moroccan authorities tried to present the crime as motivated by greed, but a simple thief would not have mutilated the bodies and dispersed their parts across the city,” the report said, citing the rarity of cases involving mutilation in Morocco.

Noting the couple’s high profile within the Jewish community, the news site urged Moroccan police to examine alternative motives for the crimes.