{"article":{"id":267268,"heading":"BDS resolution and antiSemitism at UC Davis","author":"commentary","created":"2015-02-06 18:09:23","modified":"2015-03-12 01:06:36","last_modified":"Thu, 12 Mar 2015 08:06:36","article":"

Supporters of the effort to isolate Israel have tried to argue that their BDS—boycott, divest, and sanction—campaign is aimed only at the State of Israel and not Jews. But just as the demonstrations throughout Europe protesting Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Hamas terrorism were conducted in a manner that is indistinguishable from traditional anti-Semitic incitement so, too, have the pro-BDS crowd at universities and colleges often quickly descended into expressions of Jew-hatred. This unfortunate truth was demonstrated again last week at the University of California, Davis when a debate about a BDS resolution led to anti-Semitic activity.



On January 29, the UC Davis student government voted to recommend the school’s Board of Regents divest from companies that “aid in the illegal occupation of Palestine,” which is to say, by the Palestinians’ own definition, all of Israel. This prejudicial measure, aimed at seeking the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet, passed by an 8-2 vote.

It is to be hoped that the school’s board will reject this specious argument as almost every other major institution of higher learning in the country already has done. But the really significant aspect of this event was what happened during the debate prior to the vote.

As the Washington Free Beacon reported, when pro-Israel students tried to speak, pro-Palestinian and Arab students did their best to shout them down. As a tape of the event shows, the anti-Israel mob chanted “Allahu Akbar” when divestment opponents had the floor. No action was taken by the school to prevent this incitement or to allow speakers to be heard.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. Days later, students at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity awoke the following Saturday to discover that swastikas had been spray painted on their house.

Taken together these incidents illustrated that the campaign for divestment had created what can only be described as a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus. A place where students cannot speak up in defense of Israel without fear of being heckled and shouted down by Islamist chants or of having anti-Semitic vandalism committed is not a place where Jews can feel safe to study or to live.

Nor is this an isolated incident. A study of the problem issued by the Israeli government last month showed a marked rise in anti-Semitic activity on American campuses in the past year. This was particularly true during Israel’s most recent war with Hamas as terrorist missiles rained down on the Jewish state’s cities. During this period there was a 400-percent increase in anti-Semitic activity over the previous year. In the majority of those cases where violence was reported, the perpetrators were identified as being of Muslim or Arab descent.

The point here is not to silence those critical of Israel or to outlaw BDS. Those who seek to wage rhetorical war on Israel in the United States have the same rights of free speech as its defenders. But when, as invariably happens, their actions cross over from criticism of Israeli policies to overt acts of anti-Semitism, the pretense that their anti-Zionist agitation is not an act of prejudice against Jews cannot be sustained.

Those who would deny to the Jews the same rights of sovereignty and self-defense that are never questioned anywhere else on earth are not merely engaged in politics. Treating Israel in a way that no other country is treated and ignoring real human-rights abuses elsewhere shows they are engaged in an act of bias. Bias against Jews is called anti-Semitism and it is long past time for all decent persons, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, to call BDS by its right name: hate speech.

The line that supposedly exists between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is an imaginary one. As events at UC Davis proved, this debate has ceased to be theoretical. Those who claim to oppose anti-Semitism must no longer treat BDS as merely an issue on which reasonable persons can agree to disagree. Those who are neutral about BDS or who treat it as a merely a difference of opinion are not promoting a fair debate about a topical issue. They are aiding and abetting hate.

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"https:\/\/www.commentarymagazine.com\/2015\/02\/05\/campus-incitement-proves-anti-zionism-still-equals-anti-semitism-bds-uc-davis\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"BDS and the poisonous effect on campus climate","numcomment":32,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2015\/02\/267268.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":267270,"heading":"reframe, reframe, reframe!","article":"\r\nAs you already know UC Davis passed a divestment resolution this week. Earlier today, it was discovered that the Jewish fraternity house AEPi was spray painted with two swastikas. \r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article8865731.html\r\n\r\nAlmost all media coverage has tied together this hate crime with divestment and quoted AEPi students claiming it was because of divestment that this happened. We are hoping to lift up the statement below from SJP and their allies, saying how we are proud to work in a coalition with SJP and all the others signed on, in support of human rights, and how we also condemn both hate crimes and efforts to group non-violent efforts like divestment in with these hate crimes. \r\n\r\nSac Bee could use some letters to the editor and please feel free to share other media coverage that warrants a response. \r\n\r\nDear UC Davis Community,\r\nAs a coalition of students and campus organizations at UC Davis, we condemn the actions taken sometime during the night of January 31st, 2015 by an unknown person(s) who defaced the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house, which is a Jewish interest fraternity, with swastikas.\r\nJust as we condemned the hanging of a noose, the defamation of the Palestinian dove, or calling students \u2018terrorists\u2019 based on their physical appearance or beliefs, we equally condemn the display of the swastika. This reminds us that anti-Semitism, along with all other forms of hate, including, but not limited to, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and misogyny, still exist and are rampant trans-nationally and on our university campuses.\r\nWe reject any attempts to blame this on any single student community, including the UC Davis Divestment movement. We hope that the university investigates and exercises due diligence in holding those responsible for this hate crime to the fullest extent of the law.\r\nSincerely,\r\nThe Undersigned:\r\nStudents for Justice in Palestine at UC Davis\r\nMuslim Student Association at UC Davis \r\nArab Student Union at UC Davis\r\nPakistani Student Association at UC Davis\r\nAfghan Student Association at UC Davis\r\nM.E.Ch.A. de UC Davis \r\nBlack Student Union at UC Davis \r\nSikh Cultural Association at UC Davis\r\nS.M.A.R.T. (Students Matter: Activism, Retention, Teamwork) Coalition\r\nOfficers of the Davis Unit, UAW 2865\r\nHannah Kagen-Moore, Davis Unit UAW 2865\r\nDuane Wright, Davis Unit UAW 2865\r\nMai Sartawi, National Lawyer\u2019s Guild\r\nClaire White, Student National Vice President, National Lawyer\u2019s Guild\r\nGonzalo Cortes Moreno, Lawyer and Constitutional Law Professor (King Law School)\r\nArmando Figueroa, ASUCD President\r\n\r\n-- \r\nGabi Kirk, Campus Liaison\r\nJewish Voice for Peace\r\n1611 Telegraph Ave., Suite 1020\r\nOakland, CA 94612\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"GK","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-06 19:47:15","modified":"2015-02-06 19:47:15","fileurl":""},{"id":267271,"heading":"You can't reframe the truth","article":"DAVIS - It's been a week of religious tensions at UC Davis. It all supposedly stems from a heated student government debate over the boycott of Israel which was then followed by two separate hate crimes at student Jewish organizations.\r\n\r\nAs seen in cellphone video posted on YouTube, Jewish students walked out in protest as the student senate adopted an advisory resolution asking UC Regents to divest from businesses with connections to Israel.\r\n\r\nThey were met with the Islamic chant, "Allahu Akbar." Days later, after that advisory vote, two spray-painted swastikas were found at Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity house off-campus.\r\n\r\nThat's what most students on campus know about.\r\n\r\n"I think it's really sad. no one deserves that kind of treatment," Riley Osner said.\r\n\r\n"It's pretty surprising to see hate like this at a school like UC Davis. You think everyone one is accepting," Akhil Mehra said.\r\n\r\n"One of my friends is part of the Jewish fraternity," Ed Ju said. "I just saw on Facebook. He posted a petition to sign for people to ask the board to take some action in this matter."\r\n\r\nIt's been revealed that anti-Semitic graffiti was also scrawled at in the men's bathroom at Hillel House, a Jewish organization off-campus.\r\n\r\nAn investigation is underway into that incident.\r\n","author":"Margo","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-06 22:29:25","modified":"2015-02-06 22:29:25","fileurl":""},{"id":267272,"heading":"BDS and Nazi graffiti strikes UC Davis","article":"In the wake of the U.C. Davis student senate passing an Israel divestment resolution last week, two swastikas were found spray-painted at Alpha Epsilon Pi, the university\u2019s largely Jewish fraternity.\r\n\r\nThat act of vandalism triggered the launch of a petition demanding condemnation from all U.C. Davis administration and student senators. \u201cShould there not be a unanimous condemnation,\u201d the organizers wrote, \u201cthen we ask for the immediate resignation of every official who refuses to condemn this act of hate.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe divestment resolution at U.C. Davis, which on Jan. 29 passed 8-2 with two abstentions, will be followed in close order by two more Israel divestment votes in California.\r\n\r\nOn Feb. 10, the Stanford University student senate is scheduled to vote on a measure that urges the university to divest from companies that maintain \u201cthe Israel occupation.\u201d The measure was introduced on International Holocaust Remembrance Day by a broad coalition of student groups under the banner \u201cStanford Out of Occupied Palestine,\u201d according to Rabbi Serena Eisenberg, executive director of Hillel at Stanford, and supporters have been posting flyers in dormitories and campaigning door to door.\r\n\r\nIn a meeting set for Feb. 8, the U.C. Student Association, a coalition of students from all U.C. campuses that aims to provide a collective voice for the system\u2019s students, will hold a board meeting on the UCLA campus. On the agenda is a resolution authored in part by a Students for Justice in Palestine member that would urge U.C. to withdraw assets from companies that \u201csell equipment, materials and technology to Israeli defense forces.\u201d\r\n\r\nLike all of the other student senate resolutions \u2014 including one that passed at U.C. Berkeley in April 2013 \u2014 this resolution is nonbinding and only urges university leaders to take a course of action. Requiring a two-thirds vote to pass, the resolution had been scheduled for an original vote late last year but was tabled, twice, ostensibly to allow individual campus associations to discuss the matter.\r\n\r\nAt Davis, the series of events began Jan. 29 at an Associated Students of U.C. Davis hearing, where the divestment measure was debated. Written by members of the Davis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the measure called on the U.C. Board of Regents to divest from four corporations that \u201caid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.\u201d The pinpointed corporations include Caterpillar, Veolia and Raytheon.\r\n\r\nJust before the measure was voted upon, current and past Aggies for Israel presidents Julia Reifkind and Danny Eliahu spoke against it. Addressing the crowd, Reifkind said, \u201cTo those of you who have brought this toxic resolution forward today, with the knowledge it will pass, I say this to your so-called victory: You have divided our campus and damaged lives.\u201d\r\n\r\nAdded Eliahu: \u201cTearing down the Israelis is not the same thing as advocating for the Palestinians. As students, we should be working together towards a future of peace, justice, human rights and mutual respect for both peoples.\u201d\r\n\r\nLater, Reifkind told J., \u201cWe knew this bill would pass. Instead of staying in the room and fighting, we decided to do something revolutionary. We encouraged everyone who agreed with us, that [the resolution] is divisive and didn\u2019t belong on campus, to stand up and walk out.\u201d\r\n\r\nMore than 100 Jewish and pro-Israel students did just that. And as they walked out, pro-Palestinian audience members cheered, and on a video posted on the Aggies for Israel Facebook page, it sounds as if several people shout \u201cAllahu Ahkbar\u201d (God is great).\r\n\r\nU.C. Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a Jan. 30 statement that divestment from Israel \u201cdoes not reflect the position of U.C. Davis or the [U.C.] system\u201d and that \u201cthis type of call to action will not be entertained.\u201d\r\n\r\nAfter the vote, ASUCD senator Azka Fayyaz posted two Facebook photos with the captions: \u201cHamas & Sharia law have taken over UC Davis\u201d and \u201cIsrael will fall\u201d (plus additional words).\r\n\r\n","author":"Dan Pine","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-07 02:22:21","modified":"2015-02-07 02:22:21","fileurl":""},{"id":267273,"heading":"UC Davis Senator Azka Fayyaz","article":"UC Davis Senator Azka Fayyaz seems to have a problem with Jews. Drawing Jew Horns on Netanyahu is not a political statement- thats good old fashioned anti-Semitism","author":"Hmmm","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2015-02-07 02:40:43","modified":"2015-02-07 02:40:43","fileurl":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/sen.jpg2frkl0.jpg","image":{"original":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/sen.jpg2frkl0.jpg"}},{"id":267274,"heading":" Hamas On Campus","article":"At U.C. Davis, Students for Justice in Palestine chant "Allahu Akbar," endorse terrorism\r\n\r\n\r\nBY: Adam Kredo\t\r\n\r\nAnti-Israel activists at the University of California, Davis heckled Jewish students and shouted \u201cAllahhu Akbar\u201d at them during a vote last week on a resolution endorsing a boycott of the Jewish state, according to video of the event obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.\r\n\r\nThe commotion erupted late Thursday evening as pro-Israel students attempted to counter a student government resolution to divest from Israel as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.\r\n\r\nActivists waving Palestinian flags shouted at the Jewish and pro-Israel students as they left the meeting room ahead of an eight to two vote in favor of the divestment resolution, which is part of a larger movement by anti-Israel groups to attack Israel and pro-Israel students on campus.\r\n\r\n\u201cAllahhu Akhbar!\u201d a large group of activists shouted in unison as the pro-Israel students filed out of U.C. Davis\u2019 meeting room, according to video provided by a member of Aggies for Israel, a pro-Israel student group at Davis.","author":"Adam Kredo","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-07 02:45:17","modified":"2015-02-07 02:45:17","fileurl":""},{"id":267280,"heading":"unbelievable wanking!","article":"I find it hard to believe...\r\nthis incredible wanking about the world's well earned disgust with Israel.\r\nand\r\nAs if it wasn't obvious, the anti-Semitic canard is wearing real thin.","author":"those poor widdle Zionists","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-07 06:22:22","modified":"2015-02-07 06:22:22","fileurl":""},{"id":267289,"heading":"drown out the voices you don't like","article":"JVP and Gabi Kirk have it right. There are 1 1\/2 billion Muslims on earth. It is easy to drown out the voices we don't want to hear or don't want to be heard\r\n\r\nCheck out the Electronic Intifada. They posted their article on line dozens of times. Its good marketing, and it makes them look good for google","author":"Gabi Kirk is right","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2015-02-08 03:13:19","modified":"2015-02-08 03:13:19","fileurl":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/spam.jpg","image":{"original":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/spam.jpg"}},{"id":267294,"heading":"try this","article":"why don't the Zionist psychopaths in Israel seek forgiveness from the people they have stolen the land from, murdered their kin and have committed outrages against for the last 60+ years?\r\nI'll leave that question to the non indoctrinated sane members of the human family...\r\n","author":"a solution","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-08 15:30:59","modified":"2015-02-08 15:30:59","fileurl":""},{"id":267295,"heading":"Jews are indegenous","article":"The Jews have lived in this land for 3500 years. the Palestinian people weren't invented until the 1960's","author":"Red Emma","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-08 17:00:44","modified":"2015-02-08 17:00:44","fileurl":""},{"id":267300,"heading":"' Jews have lived in this land for 3500 years'","article":"nonsense.\r\nPalestinians were there for thousands of years as well as Jews.\r\nThe Zionists must use confusion about changed borders beyond the control of the ranchers, farmers and fishers who lived there to attempt to discredit a people who were living on their land until some degenerate English 'lord' gave it to these European invaders who never had any claim upon the land through ancestors ever having lived there..\r\nThey have this all too predictable menu of lies to support a nation that never existed until 1947.","author":"cut the BS","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 03:44:34","modified":"2015-02-09 03:44:34","fileurl":""},{"id":267301,"heading":"Palestinians are a recent invention","article":"There is no mention of a "palestinian " people in history. Nice try.\r\n\r\nDuring the years of the British mandate, the Jews were "palestinian".\r\n\r\nHere's what the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica has to say about Palestine, er "Southern Syria"","author":"Vee","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2015-02-09 06:35:32","modified":"2015-02-09 06:35:32","fileurl":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/palestine.jpg","image":{"original":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/palestine.jpg"}},{"id":267302,"heading":"Palestinians are a recent invention","article":"There is no mention of a "Palestinian " people in history. Nice try.\r\n\r\nDuring the years of the British mandate, the Jews were "Palestinian".\r\n\r\n ","author":"Vee","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2015-02-09 06:37:39","modified":"2015-02-09 06:37:39","fileurl":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/pal_people_do_not_exist.jpg","image":{"original":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/02\/pal_people_do_not_exist.jpg"}},{"id":267303,"heading":"True","article":"The vast majority of Arabs in Israel are recent immigrants, and yes, there weren't called "Palestinians" under recently.\r\n\r\nMost of them came to pre-state Israel because the Jews had fixed it up so nice, that there were actual jobs for them.\r\n\r\nRobert F Kennedy as a cub reporter for the Boston Post documented this, writing in 1948 "The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence."\r\n\r\nSo, of the 650,000 "refugees", the vast majority of them were not indigenous, or even native born but were recent economic migrants\r\n\r\n","author":"dude's right","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 07:05:31","modified":"2015-02-09 07:05:31","fileurl":""},{"id":267307,"heading":"usual psycho-babble from the invaders","article":"Unsupportable opinion from a cult that collaborated with the Nazi cult that benefited from the 'work' camps like Auschwitz who provided labor to further the financial bottom line of the Warberg and Rothschild ( Zionists ) interests.\r\nYour cult will also end up feeding more Jews into the death camps.\r\nWorld disgust is growing at your self appointed superiority and cruelty.\r\nAs stated before, you have no legitimate claim upon this land.\r\nOnly more legal disingenuous BS.\r\nThere was no 'Israel' until it was stolen from the people who lived there through terrorism from 1947 on.","author":"cut the BS","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 14:53:44","modified":"2015-02-09 14:53:44","fileurl":""},{"id":267308,"heading":"Wow","article":"One person gives facts and quotes. The other spouts gibberish. I know where my sympathies lie.\r\n\r\nWow. He didn 't even try and address the issues","author":"Wow","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 15:21:24","modified":"2015-02-09 15:21:24","fileurl":""},{"id":267310,"heading":"a correction","article":"and the Zionist don't seem to be able to even respond the facts.\r\nLike the fact that most of the Israelis never had any ancestors who lived in the middle east.\r\nThe rest of their BS consists of sloganeering and occluded history.\r\nTalk about avoiding the real issues here.\r\nTypical Zionist hypocrite.","author":"cut the BS","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 18:28:45","modified":"2015-02-09 18:28:45","fileurl":""},{"id":267312,"heading":"Palestinians are recent migrants","article":"And again, you are wrong. The majority of Israelis have their origin in the people of the Middle east.\r\n\r\nAnd because a "Palestinian" can trace his origin to Saudi Arabia or to Syria, does not make him "indigenous" to Israel. ","author":"again you are wrong.","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-09 23:18:07","modified":"2015-02-09 23:18:07","fileurl":""},{"id":267314,"heading":"Demographics of Israel","article":"Easily searchable\r\n\r\nJewish 75.1% (of which Israel-born 73.6%, Europe\/America\/Oceania-born 17.9%, Africa-born 5.2%, Asia-born 3.2%), non-Jewish 24.9% (mostly Arab) (2012 est.)\r\n\r\nThose of European and American ancestry make up about 2.2 million (36%) of the Jewish population","author":"Demographics of Israel","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-10 05:39:40","modified":"2015-02-10 05:39:40","fileurl":""},{"id":267316,"heading":"again with the menu of lies","article":"The present demographics 60 plus years after the colonial invasion is merely the result of mass murder and terrorism.\r\nYou know, the origins of the Israeli state in 1947.\r\nStill doesn't mean the people who were either mass murdered, driven off or imprisoned in the ghettos of occupied Palestine have any less right to their life and lands.\r\nBy an illegitimate Nazi pirate enterprise with renegade nuclear weapons.\r\nNever having signed the nuclear non proliferation treaty, they have the sickening gall to glibber about Iran's nuclear energy program, who has. ","author":"cut the BS","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-10 06:20:22","modified":"2015-02-10 06:20:22","fileurl":""},{"id":267317,"heading":"Most palestinians are recent immigrants","article":"Most Arabs in the area between the river to the sea are recent immigrants- you can tell by looking at common "Palestinian" surnames\r\n\r\nal-Masri - the Egyptian\r\nal-Mughrabi - the Moroccan\r\nal-Djazair - the Algerian\r\nal-Yamani - the Yemeni\r\nal-Afghani - the Afghan\r\nal-Turki - the Turk\r\nal-Hindi - the Indian\r\nal-Hourani - the Hauranite (from southern Syria)\r\nal-Kurdi - the Kurd\r\nal-Ajami - the Iranian\r\nal-Shami- the Syrian\r\nKhamis - Bahrain\r\nal-Araj- part of Morocco\r\nHalabi - Aleppo, Syria\r\nBardawil - named after a lake in Egypt\r\n\r\nThe Hebron Arabs migrated from Syria, while most of the Arab population along Israel's coastal plains is of Egyptian origin.\r\n\r\nOver the centuries, there were several waves of Arabs passing through Israel, but, interestingly, very few of them actually settled here until the Jewish return to the Land intensified in the mid 1800s. The greatest numbers of Arabs began to stay --obviously, for economic reasons-- during the British Mandate period and through the establishment of the State of Israel. Among those who migrated were Egyptian peasants, Trans-Jordanian tribes, Kurds, Circassians, and Southern Syrians.\r\nhttp:\/\/rslissak.com\/content\/arab-muslim-... The Arab world may refer to all of these as "Palestinians", but each group is proud of its actual origins. ","author":"Most palestinians are recent immigrants","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-10 06:30:39","modified":"2015-02-10 06:30:39","fileurl":""},{"id":267326,"heading":"One more for the collection","article":"\r\nFrom Remarks on the present condition and future prospects of the Jews in Palestine, by Arthur George Harper Hollingsworth, 1852:\r\n\r\n The population in Palestine is composed of Arabs, who roam about the plains, or lurk in the mountain fastnesses as robbers and strangers, having no settled home, and without any fixed attachment to the land. In many of the ruined cities and villages there exists also, a limited number of Christian families, uncivilized, and not knowing correctly from what race they derive their origin. Poor, and without influence, they tremblingly hold their miserable possessions from year to year, without security, and without wealth, in a land which they confess is not their own. ...\r\n\r\n The Arab and Christian populations diminish every year. Poverty, distress, insecurity, robbery, and disease continue to weaken the inhabitants of this fine country. Ruins fall upon ruins; solitudes increase in the deserted vallies. The land mourneth for its inhabitants. ...\r\n\r\n Amongst the scattered and feeble population of this once happy country, is found, however, an increasing number of poor Jews; some of their most learned men reside in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias. Their synagogues are still in existence. Jews frequently arrive in Palestine from every nation in Europe, and remain there for many years'; and others die with the satisfaction of mingling their remains with their forefathers\u2019 dust, which fills every valley, and is found in every cave.\r\n\r\n This Jewish population is poor beyond any adequate word ; it is degraded in its social and political condition, to a state of misery, so great, that it possesses no rights. It can shew no wealth even if possessed of it, because to display riches would secure robbery from the Mahometan population, the Turkish officials, or the Bedouin Arab. These Jews live chiefly on alm, collected from the nation in all parts of the world. There is no people more charitable, though that charity is generally exclusive, than the Jew. This money is precarious in .its amount, frequently tardy in its arrival, always uncertain when it may be received, lost sometimes in its passage, and accompanied ever by the degradation of receiving a distant and unsettled charity, supporting a wretchedly impoverished and famishing people. No advancement is made by the Jew of Palestine, in trafficking, in commerce, in farming, in the possession of settled houses or lands. There alone, where he ought to be first, he is last; and where in all other countries a Jew thrives and increases in wealth, in that one he is spiritless from oppression, and without energy, because without hope of Protection. He creeps along that soil, where his forefathers proudly strode in the fulncss of a wonderful prosperity, as an alien, an outcast, a creature less than a dog, and below the oppressed Christian beggar in his own ancestral plains and cities. No harvest ripens for his hand, for he cannot tell whether he will be permitted to gather it. Land occupied by a Jew is exposed to robbery and waste. A most peevish jealousy exists against the landed prosperity, or commercial wealth, or trading advancement of the Jew. Hindrances exist to the settlement of a British Christian in that country, but a thousand petty obstructions are created to prevent the establishment of a Jew on waste land, or to the purchase and rental of land by a Jew. \u201c\r\n\r\n ...Agricultural pursuits are attended with much hazard, for, in the vicinity of the Jordan there are many Arabs, who support themselves chiefly by plunder. ...What security exists, that a Jewish _ emigrant settling in Palestine, could receive a fair remuneration for his capital and labour? None whatever. He might toil, but his harvests would be reaped by others; the Arab robber can rush in and carry off his flocks and herds. If he appeals for redress to the nearest Pasha, the taint of his Jewish blood fills the air, and darkens the brows of his oppressors ; if he turns to his neighbour Christian, he encounters prejudice and spite ; if he claims a Turkish guard, he is insolently repulsed and scorned. How can he bring his capital into such a country, when that fugitive possession flies from places where the sword is drawn to snatch it from the owner\u2019s hands and not protect it ?\r\n\r\n ,,,Now, how is this poor, despised, and powerless child of Abraham to obtain redress, or make his voice heard at the Sublime Porte? The more numerous the cases of oppression, (and they are many), the more clamorous their appeals for justice, the more unwillingly will the government of the Sultan,\u2014partly from inherent and increasing weakness, partly from disinclination,\u2014act on the side of the Jew. They despise them as an execrated race ; they hate them as the literal descendants of the original possessors of the country. ...","author":"one more time","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-11 08:25:01","modified":"2015-02-11 08:25:01","fileurl":""},{"id":267328,"heading":"in the know","article":""One person gives facts and quotes. The other spouts gibberish. I know where my sympathies lie.\r\n\r\nWow. He didn 't even try and address the issues"\r\n\r\nThat's because it's a bona fide skinhead, an actual live in the flesh German immigrant, a child-mind with gossamer canards in a tattered brown shirt.","author":"in the know idVer:aa3b082286db45209ed2b6ec7d4","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-11 16:24:25","modified":"2015-02-11 16:24:25","fileurl":""},{"id":267338,"heading":"love BSD","article":"why does this world have to have the pestilence of these sick cowardly degenerate Zionists?\r\nThe major reason the UN is shown to be a tool that never touches Israel's criminality.","author":"hate Zionists hate","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-12 18:58:29","modified":"2015-02-12 18:58:29","fileurl":""},{"id":267341,"heading":"UN = UNFair and UNjust","article":"The UN repeatedly singles out Israel- and gives a free pass to the worst human rights violators in the world\r\n\r\nCheck out UN Watch:\r\nUN Watch believes in the United Nations' mission on behalf of the international community to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" and provide for a more just world. We believe that even with its shortcomings, the UN remains an indispensable tool in bringing together diverse nations and cultures. UN Watch is keenly aware that member states often ask the UN to fulfill mandates and tasks that are neither feasible nor within the means provided. While it would be unrealistic to ignore the UN\u2019s weaknesses, we advocate finding ways to build on its strengths and use its limited resources effectively.\r\n\r\nUN Watch is foremost concerned with the just application of UN Charter principles. Areas of interest include: UN management reform, the UN and civil society, equality within the UN, and the equal treatment of member states. UN Watch notes that the disproportionate attention and unfair treatment applied by the UN toward Israel over the years offers an object lesson (though not the only one) in how due process, equal treatment, and other fundamental principles of the UN Charter are often ignored or selectively upheld.\r\n","author":"wrong","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-12 21:28:30","modified":"2015-02-12 21:28:30","fileurl":""},{"id":267342,"heading":"so tell me","article":"why don't you tell the readership just how many UN resolutions Israel has abidded by.\r\nIt just proves how toothless it is when it comes to the two assholes on the world's block, Israel and its bitch, the USA.","author":"cut the BS","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-12 21:40:17","modified":"2015-02-12 21:40:17","fileurl":""},{"id":267344,"heading":"Sheepdog - Nazi poo","article":"Keep the propaganda going, old Nazi.","author":"laughing man","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-02-13 02:00:29","modified":"2015-02-13 02:00:29","fileurl":""},{"id":267515,"heading":"'Nazi -poo"","article":"Na-tional Socialism\r\nZI-onist\r\nNazi\r\nWho are the NAZIs?\r\nThey occupy Palestine at this moment.","author":"Right","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-03-03 22:22:31","modified":"2015-03-03 22:22:31","fileurl":""},{"id":267536,"heading":"The Arabs are the invaders","article":"Arabs initiated the imperialistic colonization of the Mid east and North Africa","author":"Just so you know","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2015-03-06 04:20:21","modified":"2015-03-06 04:20:21","fileurl":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/03\/awkward.jpg","image":{"original":"http:\/\/la.indymedia.org\/\/uploads\/2015\/03\/awkward.jpg"}},{"id":267581,"heading":"well then...","article":"these people were sure there before the European invasion of Zionists in 1947.\r\nThanks for the support.","author":"so tell me","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-03-09 23:59:42","modified":"2015-03-09 23:59:42","fileurl":""},{"id":267593,"heading":"except for one thing","article":"The Jews were there long before the invention of Christianity or Islam","author":"Donatella","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-03-10 23:08:56","modified":"2015-03-10 23:08:56","fileurl":""},{"id":267602,"heading":"and so?","article":"Sure there were Jews there as well as all the other religions that lived there.\r\nThen came the wave of zionist Jews who murdered their way into Palestine in 1947. And who never had any ancestors who ever set foot there.","author":"Deamer","parent_id":267268,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2015-03-12 01:06:36","modified":"2015-03-12 01:06:36","fileurl":""}]}