Struggle
19-06-2007 / United States
USA - 51 Nobel Prize laureates against British boycott
Fifty-one Nobel Prize laureates from around the world signed a petition slamming Britain's University and College Union's proposal to impose an academic boycott on the State of Israel.
"We, Noble Prize laureates, condemn the UCU's shameful decision to boycott contact and exchange of information with Israeli educators and academic institutions," the petition said.
The idea of a petition was presented by Technion Professor Aaron Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry.
Ciechanover appealed to his good friend, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who took it upon himself to seek the signatures of fellow laureates.
The petition also condemns the boycotts proposed by UNISON, the largest union in the British Trades Union Congress, and the British National Union of Journalists, calling on British companies not to buy Israeli products.
"Not only do such boycotts encourage the extremists," the petition said, "but they also praise and glorify prejudices."
Source:
www.ynetnews.co
Date: June 19, 2007
By: Zvi Zinger
18-06-2007 / United States
USA - Columbia President Backs Israel on boycott
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger challenged the British academics, making him the first American college president to speak out on the issue. In an interview he was at a loss to explain why he was the first US University president to speak up against the threatened boycott.
Bollinger said that if Britain’s University and College Union “is intent on pursuing its deeply misguided policy, then it should add Columbia to its boycott list. ... Boycott us, then, for we gladly stand together with our many colleagues ... against such intellectually shoddy and politically biased attempts to hijack the central mission of higher education.”
Although other university and college presidents have yet to speak out, David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, the coordinating body for the country’s higher education institutions, said he finds the British action “reprehensible.”
And the American Association of University Professors, which has a membership of 45,000 and is dedicated to defending academic freedom, adopted a motion at the June 1 meeting of its academic freedom and tenure committee saying that the boycott is “contrary to the association’s position condemning such boycotts.”
Date: 18/06/07
Posted: 20/06/07
16-06-2007 / United States
USA- Man sentenced for more than 6 years for anti-Semitic letters
24 yearsold Elijah Wallace also admitted in federal court to mailing eight threatening letters, in which he threatened to either kill or hurt the recipients. They included a pastor, the pastor’s daughter and daughter-in-law, and a rabbi.
US Attorney Thomas Colantuono says such behavior simply cannot be tolerated.
Source:
www.fosters.com
Date: June 16, 2007
By GRETYL MACALASTER
15-06-2007 / Brazil
Brazil - A seminar to combat Hate Crimes over the Internet
The Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro hosted a seminar to combat Hate Crimes over the Internet. For the first time in Brazil, the main characters on the struggle from federal police, federal government, NGOs, civil society and judiciary, from many states of Brazil, met in a single place to expose what is being done in this combat to identify, arrest and suit hate speech placers and owners of websites and portals in Portuguese language aimed to Brazilian people, using foreign countries service providers to violate Brazilian laws. As result of this seminar, a law project was send to Ministry of Justice to change anti-racist Brazilian law to specifically typify as crime hate speech and racism using any means over the Internet.
Date: July 15, 2007
15-06-2007 / Argentina
Argentina– An Argentine Judge Lectures on the Holocaust
On Friday, 13th July 2007, Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas delivered a lecture in Tucumán on the subject: "The Holocaust and the Lesson to be Learned by a Law-Abiding State – From Argentina's Perspective". Judge Rafecas is also a senior lecturer on criminal law at Buenos Aires University. In his lecture he noted that Nazi symbols and antisemitic slogans were to be found at the detention centers that had existed during the period of military rule in Argentina. He also said that Argentina had opened its gates and welcomed the most evil of the Nazi criminals while at the same time closed them to Holocaust survivors. "We of the new generations have received a heavy burden of a legacy: to improved Argentina's image on the organizational level in order to bring it back to the international community".
Date: July 15, 2007
Source: http://www.daia.org.ar/ Microejecutivo de noticias
13-06-2007 / Britain
Britain - Universities urged to combat campus anti-semitism
Student unions must be brought within the Race Relations Amendment Act to protect Jewish students and university leaders must crack down on anti-semitism on campus, Lady Deech, the independent adjudicator for higher education, urged last night.
She told the House of Lords that increasing anti-semitism posed a threat in British universities and strongly condemned the proposed academic boycott of Israel by members of the University and College Union.
She was supported by Lord Moser, the former director of the Central Statistical Office and warden of Wadham College, Oxford, who said he had never been more concerned about the "rising tide of anti-semitism throughout Europe, including this country" since he escaped from Berlin with his family in 1936.
Source: http://education.guardian.co.uk/
Date: June 13, 2007
By Donald MacLeod
13-06-2007 / Britain
Britain– British Academicians Publish a Letter in the Times Denouncing the Academic Boycott
On 13th June 2007, some 250 academicians and intellectuals published an announcement in the Times denouncing the proposed academic boycott of Israel. In their opinion, the boycott would be "bad for Britain, for academic freedom, for the Palestinians and for peace".
Robert Winston, a productivity expert, said that the intention to boycott of Israel is unworthy. "Academicians in Israel are the same people with whom we have to work in order to promote better understanding. I believe that the boycott is supported by a small minority in Britain", he wrote.
Source:
http://www.ynet.co.il/
Date: June 13, 2007
Posted: 14/06/07
12-06-2007 / Indonesia
Indonesia – A Conference on Tolerance Attended by Members of Various Religions was Held on the Island of Bali
The answer to Iran: On 12th June 2007, a conference on the issue of tolerance was held on the Indonesian island of Bali with the participation of representatives of various religions from all over the world. "I hope that people will learn from the past", said a Holocaust survivor who attended the conference.
This special conference was held by an American organization whose goal is to combat radicalism in the Muslim world by supporting moderate clerics. Among those participating in the conference were Holocaust survivors, former President of Indonesia Abdu Rahman Wahid and the Hindu spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Also among those attending were victims of terrorism in Israel and in Indonesia. One of the participants, Sol Teichman, 79, born in Czechoslovakia, was a child when his country was occupied by the Hungarian army and the Germans. Seventy members of his family were murdered by the Nazis, and Teichman, himself, was in the Auschwitz, Dachau, Kaupering and Landsberg concentration camps until he was liberated by the Allied Forces. Teichman called on the world to behave with tolerance and not to forget the Holocaust. "I hope that the world has learned from the past", he said. "We must try and improve our live instead of destroying them?
Source:
http://www.nrg.co.il/
Date: 12th June 2007
11-06-2007 / United States
USA - ADL launches anti-boycott campaign
The Anti-Defamation League has launched a new series of print and on-line advertisements aimed at combating the campaign among British trade unions to boycott Israel.
"When British unions single out Israel for boycott... that's not activism, that's anti-Semitism," read one of the ads printed in The New York Times.
The goal of the campaign is to point out that, in singling out Israel, the boycott campaign is more about Israel than about the rights of Palestinians.
"You can't assume it's clear to everybody that this is a biased campaign " explained ADL National Director Abe Foxman. "One needs to explain it to people."
Source: www.jpost.com
Date: Jun. 11, 2007
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07-06-2007 / Venezuela
Venezuela– The Association of Jewish Communities in Venezuela Registered a Complaint against a Woman Journalist who Made Antisem
On 7th June 2007, the Association of Jewish Communities in Venezuela (CAIV) issued a complaint to the country's Broadcasting Authorities (CONATEL) and to the Director of National Radio against the journalist Cristina González for remarks she made offending the Venezuelan Jews. On 28th May 2007, she had said during the "Latest News" program broadcast over "National Radio" that masses of Jews had recently entered Venezuela, some of them "Mossad" agents". In the complaint the CAIV said that "The journalist hinted that under the cover of the [40th anniversary] celebrations of our community, illegal acts were, and are being, committed. In that she has exposed our community to hatred and public disgrace".
Source:
http://www.caiv.org/
Date: June 7, 2007
05-06-2007 / Ukraine
Ukraine- Kiev Mayor orders removal of anti-Semitic Kiosks
The mayor of Kiev ordered the removal of kiosks in the Ukrainian capital that sell anti-Semitic literature.
Leonid Chernovetsky said last week that his city was going to remove the "illegally installed kiosks" selling anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic pamphlets and periodicals published by MAUP, a private Kiev university with a history of anti-Semitism. MAUP's bookstall, not far from the Babi Yar ravine where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis, was removed May 30.
MAUP publishes a wide spectrum of anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic articles and books by Ukrainian and foreign authors.
MAUP publishes a wide spectrum of anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic articles and books by Ukrainian and foreign authors.
Date: 05/06/07
Posted: 06/06/07
01-06-2007 / Britain
Europe- OSCE official condemns call for academic boycott
Professor Gert Weisskirchen, the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE on Combating Anti-Semitism, has expressed grave concerns about anti-Israel resolutions passed yesterdayby the University and College Union(UCU) in Great Britain. The motions encourage boycotts of Israeli scholars and academic institutions and call for a stop of EU funding for Israeli research.
“Anti-Israel boycott motions are a morally reprehensible attack on academic freedom,” said Gert Weisskirchen in Berlin. “Actions such as these that stifle critical dialogue are counterproductive to all attempts to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East. Of all countries in the Middle East, Israel is the leading arena for Jewish and Arab academics to work together in a spirit of cooperation and excellence.”
As a noted social scientist with a long college teaching record, Gert Weisskirchen warned that attempts to curtail the academic freedom of others can backfire on those institutions that launch calls for academic boycotts. He condemned all attempts at collective punishment for individual Israelis, due to the political situation in their region, recalling previous instances in which academics have discriminated against Israeli academics and students.
“A new chapter in the sad history of anti-Semitism in the academic sphere has been written by yesterday’s decision to boycott Israeli institutions,” according to Weiss kirchen. He thanked the General Secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, for her public dissent against the boycott and her promise to hold a referendum on its implementation.
He urged her to call the referendum as soon as possible to repair potential damage to the reputation of British academia."
Gert Weisskirchen, who is also the foreign policy spokesman for the German Social Democratic party, said that boycotts against Israel in the academic sphere are being misused as a tool to express political criticism. He warned against a potential increase in anti-Semitism on Jews worldwide when institutions and organizations adopt
boycott strategies.
“Anti-Israel boycott motions are a morally reprehensible attack on academic freedom,” said Gert Weisskirchen in Berlin. “Actions such as these that stifle critical dialogue are counterproductive to all attempts to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East. Of all countries in the Middle East, Israel is the leading arena for Jewish and Arab academics to work together in a spirit of cooperation and excellence.”
As a noted social scientist with a long college teaching record, Gert Weisskirchen warned that attempts to curtail the academic freedom of others can backfire on those institutions that launch calls for academic boycotts. He condemned all attempts at collective punishment for individual Israelis, due to the political situation in their region, recalling previous instances in which academics have discriminated against Israeli academics and students.
“A new chapter in the sad history of anti-Semitism in the academic sphere has been written by yesterday’s decision to boycott Israeli institutions,” according to Weiss kirchen. He thanked the General Secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, for her public dissent against the boycott and her promise to hold a referendum on its implementation.
He urged her to call the referendum as soon as possible to repair potential damage to the reputation of British academia."
Gert Weisskirchen, who is also the foreign policy spokesman for the German Social Democratic party, said that boycotts against Israel in the academic sphere are being misused as a tool to express political criticism. He warned against a potential increase in anti-Semitism on Jews worldwide when institutions and organizations adopt
boycott strategies.
Source: www.engageonline.org.uk
Date: 01/06/07
Posted: 03/06/07
01-06-2007 / United States
USA- Academic boycott of Israel denouced
Charles Small, director of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, denounced the British Academic Union's boycott of Israeli academe.
He said, “Scholarship is intended to be based on an honest search for truth that examines all sides of a given issue and context,” Small says. “The fact that the UCU voted to reject this basic premise and boycott Israeli scholars and academic institutions goes against the very nature of real scholarship. The UCU decision is based on a one-sided view of the Middle East conflict. It undermines academic freedom and sets different standards for people based on their origin rather than on their scholarship or ideas.”
He adds, “It is incredible that some are attempting to de-legitimize Israel, the only democracy in the region, while a significant radical social movement, Hamas, gains strength that is anti-Enlightenment, genocidal in its anti-Semitism, not to mention anti-democratic, sexist and homophobic, and in fact governs Israel’s neighboring Palestinian Authority.”
Source:
http://www.yale.edu/
Date: 01/06/07
Posted: 03/06/07
01-06-2007 / Ukraine
Ukraine- Kiev Mayor takes measures against anti-Semitic literature
The mayor of Kiev--has taken steps to restrict the activities of the country's main publisher and distributor of antisemitic literature--the Inter-regional Academy of Personnel (MAUP Mayor Chernovetsky expressed frustration at years of attempts by his administration to get police and prosecutors to restrict MAUP's publishing under the country's hate speech laws, which have only been successfully applied once. He decided instead to appeal to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich to cut off government financing to MAUP, but since it is a private university, such a step is unlikely to have a significant impact. In the meantime, the mayor vowed to use any law or regulation he could to shut down the nearly 30 MAUP kiosks that operate in Kiev. The "Kommersant" reporter accompanied municipal officials on their way to one of these kiosks, where in addition to MAUP publications, the infamous antisemitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was openly on sale. A spokesman for MAUP vowed to contest the kiosk's closure in court. Although not mentioned in the article, the mayor's action may have been motivated by recent press reports that MAUP is distributing Holocaust denial literature near Babi Yar--the infamous site of a Nazi massacre.
Source:
http://www.fsumonitor.com/
Date: 01/06/07
Posted: 04/06/07
01-06-2007 / Belgium
Belgium– A Supermarket Chain Opposes the Boycott of Israeli Products
On 1st June 2007, the "Delhaize" supermarket chain
decided not to permit non-government organizations (NGOs) to continue their calls for boycotting Israeli products and their fundraising activities in the chain's shops. The chain intends prohibiting all activities of this nature connected with the Vlaams Palestina Kommittee.
Date: June 1, 2007
Posted: June 7, 2007
31-05-2007 / Britain
US- Foundation boycott British VCV boycott on Israeli academia.
An American research foundation announced on Thursday that following the decision of the British University and College Union (UCU) to consider launching an academic boycott of Israel it has cancelled its plans to open a grant application process for UK research. The $150 million Goldhirsh foundation supports scientists around the world in the quest for a cure for brain cancer funds research. In a letter to British academic institutions, foundation leader Elizabeth Goldhirsh writes: "As a director of a $150 million foundation that supports scientists around the world in the quest for a cure for brain cancer, I am profoundly disappointed in your union's decision to boycott Israel today."This action represents a severe setback for academic freedom and open discourse. Moreover, the decision to single out and demonize Israel above and beyond all other countries - remaining silent over Russia's brutal occupation in Chechnya, for example, or China's ongoing oppression of Tibet - is, at best, troubling. At worst, it points to a far more sinister and tragic motivation. "Equally disturbing is to do so at a time when Israel's civilians are facing near-daily missile attacks from Gaza and her partner for negotiations is an organization that dispatches suicide bombers and refuses to recognize the Jewish State's right to exist." Given this decision, I am deeply saddened to say that while my foundation had been considering opening up our scientific grant process to British researchers we will no longer be able to do so. I urge you to work against this boycott and restore learning's highest ideal of fairness free of prejudice to British academia.
Source: ynetnews
Date: 31/05/07
Posted: 04/06/07
31-05-2007 / Ukraine
Ukraine- Arrest of suspect of cemetery desecration
Police in Chernigov, Ukraine have detained a suspect in the May 23 vandalization of a Jewish cemetery there. The suspect is a 14-year-old youth who faces charges of "mockery of a grave." Nineteen gravestones were damaged in the incident.
Date: 31/05/07
Posted: 06/06/07
31-05-2007 / Ukraine
Ukraine– A MAUP Kiosk Closed Down
On 31st May 2007, a kiosk belonging to MAUP disseminating antisemitic material was torn down. It had been set up about a month earlier. The police was present during the dismantling having arrived together with the workers.
Date: May 31, 2007
28-05-2007 / Argentina
Argentina– Denunciation of the Antisemitic Inciedent at a High School in Tucumán
On 28th May 2007, the umbrella organization of the Jewish community in Argentina, DAIA, sharply denounced the antisemitic incident at the Colegio Nacional High School in Tucumán where swastikas were discovered in the Headmaster's office. The DAIA was joined in this denunciation by the National Institute for the Prevention of Discrimination, Xenophbia and Racism.
Date: May 28, 2007
Posted: May 31, 2007
28-05-2007 / Latvia
Latvia- Anti-Semitic publisher found not guilty
The publisher of an anti-Semitic and anti-Russian newspaper was found not guilty of inter-ethnic incitement by a court in Riga, Latvia. Aivars Garda, publisher of the newspaper "DDD", and two of these employees, faced fines if they had been found guilty in the two year old case. The paper has published articles referring to Jews as “kikes” and containing numerous derogatory statements about Russians living in Latvia. Past attempts to sanction the paper and its publisher under the country’s anti-incitementucsjucsjucs statutes have failed. Latvian courts have successfully applied anti-incitement laws only in two cases in which the accused were perpetrators of violence who happened to use racist language during an assault attack. No publisher of anti-Semitic or racist propaganda has been successfully prosecuted under these laws, which the prosecutors in the Garda case admitted were difficult to apply.
Date: 28/05/07
Posted: 06/06/07
