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Tag: Jew

  • Singaporean Family Earns Ire Of Other Singaporeans For Supporting Pro-Settler Israeli NGO

    Singaporean Family Earns Ire Of Other Singaporeans For Supporting Pro-Settler Israeli NGO

    StandWithUs has been described as a “notorious right-wing pro-settler organization that works closely with the Israeli Foreign Ministry”.  The aim of the American not-for-profit is to enhance Israel’s image in the eyes of the world. The grassroots group concentrates on three main areas: Media Action for Israel, Call to Action for Israel and Educational Action for Israel.

    A Singaporean Christian family has drawn the criticism of some for supporting StandWithUs. In a message to the pro-settler group, the Singaporean family said:

    “As Singaporeans, we are thankful to Israel for the IDF’s help during our country’s infancy. Our military and our country are indebted to Israel. As Chinese with an ancient culture, we are inspired by the Jewish culture, which is of a similar vintage as ours. Chinese and Jews have much to learn from each other. As Christians, we are lovers of Israel and all its people; it is the birthplace of Christianity and central to the coming of HaMashiach. We remain contrite for anti-semitism in the Christian heritage and are committed to return to the Jewish roots of the faith. Today, we celebrate these things and our hearts are full. We stand with Israel, we stand with Jerusalem, now and always. Am Yisrael Chai!”

    StandWithUs shared the Singaporean family’s picture in their Facebook and captioned it, “We LOVE our supporters of Israel from around the world! This week we received this message from a family in Singapore.”

    Facebook user Shaffiq Haz who is from Singapore, in responding to the right wing group’s sharing of the picture said: “You guys do know . .. a large percentage of Palestinians are Christians . . .right . .. and they are similarly oppressed . . ”

    Hidhir Arafat Ariana Aifa, another Facebook user from Singapore said: “Where does Israel stand in the map?? Obviously nothing… the biggest bully which call other place their country…shame on you.”

    Other Facebook users from Singapore, like Mohd Jamil Mohd Said agreed that Israel was a bully. He said, “Zionist STEALS Palestinian land and kills innocent woman and children. Lets not forget that…!!!!”

    The Singaporean family though got support from some others.Facebook user Magdalene Shane Lee said, “I am Singaporean, and I support Israel too. They are a secular nation among theocratic nations, as we are.”

     

    Sources: The Independent – Singapore and StandWithUs

  • 50 Yahudi Indonesia Jamu Ulama Muslim, Diplomat Amerika, Sempena Perayaan Seder

    50 Yahudi Indonesia Jamu Ulama Muslim, Diplomat Amerika, Sempena Perayaan Seder

    Merdeka.com: 50 orang Yahudi Indonesia berhimpun dalam perayaan Seder, yang merupakan sebuah tradisi makan malam bersama yang dilangsungkan setiap tahun sejak berabad lamanya.

    Antara yang diundang ke majlis yang diadakan di Indonesia pada Jumaat lalu (22 Apr) termasuklah Timbalan Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat (AS) Antony Blinken dan beberapa orang ulama Muslim.

    Ustaz Suhai Suat, salah seorang ulama Muslim yang menghadiri majlis jamuan tersebut memberitahu rancangan televisyen Israel Channel 10 bahawa semua agama di dunia ini mempunyai tujuan yang sama, iaitu keamanan.

    “Maka itu kita tidak sepatutnya mengancam antara sesama manusia,” menurut Ustaz Suhai.

    MENGENAI KAUM YAHUDI INDONESIA

    Antara ulama lain yang turut hadir ke majlis perayaan tersebut termasuk Ketua Umum Ikatan Mubaligh Seluruh Indonesia, Kiayi Haji Yayan Hendrayana, serta Ketua Umum Gerakan Pemuda Islam Indonesia (GPII), Encik Karman.

    Menurut Encik Blinken seperti yang ditukil oleh laman Times of Israel: “Lelaki dan wanita yang berbeza kepercayaan agama dapat berhimpun untuk meraikan perayaan tradisional Yahudi di negara yang majoriti penduduknya beragama Islam. Ini adalah sesuatu yang amat baik.”

    Majlis perayaan Yahudi yang disambut meriah itu menandakan sesuatu yang penting di negara tersebut, hanya tiga tahun setelah anggota pelampau Islam memberikan tekanan kepada pihak berkuasa supaya menutup satu-satunya saumaah (synagogue) di ibu kota Indonesia itu, lapor Times of Israel.

    Yahudi Indonesia kebanyakannya merupakan keturunan kaum Yahudi Iraq dan Belanda yang berhijrah ke sana sejak tahun 1920-an.

    Memandangkan agama Yahudi tidak diiktiraf di Indonesia, kad pengenalan mereka lazimnya diletakkan sebagai beragama ‘Kristian’.

    MENTERI ISRAEL: ADA KERJASAMA RAHSIA INDONESIA-ISRAEL

    Bulan lalu, Perdana Menteri Israel Benjamin Netanyahu bertemu dengan beberapa wartawan Indonesia di pejabatnya di Baitulmakdis.

    Beliau mengatakan, sebenarnya banyak hubungan dua hala terjalin antara Indonesia dengan Israel.

    “Banyak sekali kesempatan untuk menjalankan kerja sama dua hala, terutama dalam bidang teknologi air dan teknologi tinggi,” ujar Encik Netanyahu kepada wartawan dari pelbagai wartawan media Indonesia.

    Menurut media Israel lagi, pada awal bulan Mac, Timbalan Menteri Luar Israel Tzipi Hotovely memberitahu parlimen Israel bahawa Tel Aviv mempunyai hubungan rahsia dengan Jakarta.

    Namun demikian, pemerintah Israel melarang Menteri Luar Indonesia Retno L. P. Marsudi masuk ke wilayah Ramallah untuk melantik Konsul Kehormatan.

    Menurut pihak Israel, ia tidak mengizinkan Menteri Luar Retno masuk ke Israel kerana beliau bukan sekadar mahu ke Baitulmakdis sahaja, tetapi dipercayai ada rancangan lain.

    Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

  • Lee Hsien Loong: Israel And Palestine Must Resume Direct Negotiations Towards “Just And Lasting Two-State Solution”

    Lee Hsien Loong: Israel And Palestine Must Resume Direct Negotiations Towards “Just And Lasting Two-State Solution”

    JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (April 18) urged Israel and the Palestinian Territories to resume direct negotiations towards a “just and lasting two-state solution”, and expressed gratitude to Israel in helping Singapore build up its defence capabilities.

    Noting that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex one, he said: “Progress will require enormous imagination, determination and political leadership on both sides, as well as getting the stars aligned in the right places in the firmament, with the great powers supporting you.”

    Mr Lee, speaking at Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he was conferred an honorary doctorate, is on the second leg of a week-long trip to the Middle East.

    He is visiting both Israel and the Palestinian National Authority in Ramallah to signal Singapore’s friendship with both sides and better understand developments in the region, he said.

    He expressed hope that “both sides will take steps to resume direct negotiations and to work towards a just and lasting two-state solution.”

    The Prime Minister is on his first official visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. He met Jordan’s Chief Advisor for Religious and Cultural Affairs Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad Bin Talal before crossing the border to Jerusalem on Monday.

    In his speech, Mr Lee noted that Singapore and Israel share a “longstanding friendship” with the earliest Jews – mostly from Iraq – migrating to Singapore in the 19th century.

    Singapore is now home to a small Jewish community, numbering a few hundred, but “has contributed to our society out of proportion to its numbers”, he said, adding that the Republic’s first Chief Minister, David Marshall, was a Baghdadi Jew.

    He also shared an anecdote on how Dr Albert Einstein had visited Singapore in 1922 to urge the Jewish community to donate towards the setting up of Hebrew University. The community raised about £750 (worth about US$300,000 today). A week after his visit to Singapore, Dr Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

    Through the years, more Jewish expatriates including Israelis came to work and live Singapore. There are now 2,500 of them – enough to sustain a successful kosher restaurant, he shared.

    Israel was also the only nation that responded to the Republic’s call for help to set up a military when it became independent in 1965. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) sent advisors who were nicknamed “Mexicans” for operational security, said Mr Lee.

    “By July 1967, guided by the IDF team, the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) commissioned our first batch of officer cadets from the Officer Cadet Course. This was a decisive step in building up a credible and professional defence force for Singapore,” said Mr Lee.

    “Without the IDF, the SAF could not have grown its capabilities, deterred threats, defended our island, and reassured Singaporeans and investors that Singapore was secure and had a future… We will always be grateful that Israel helped us and stood by us at our time of great need.”

    Singapore, he added, learnt two things from Israel at that time — which Mr Lee’s father, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew who was then the Prime Minister — told one “Mexican general”: “How to be strong and how not to use our strength”.

    Over the years, ties between both nations have expanded beyond defence and security, with companies from both sides very active in exploring opportunities in technology research and development.

    In fact, the Singapore-Israel Industrial Research & Development Foundation (SIIRD) has provided US$170 million (S$) in funding for about 150 projects since 1997, said Mr Lee who witnessed on Monday the signing of three agreements between the Hebrew University and the National Research Foundation, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University respectively to manage the Hebrew’s University’s research in Singapore.

    Mr Lee was also optimistic about the future, referring to a recent interview by former Israeli President Shimon Peres who painted a vision of Israel in 2048 – 100 years after its founding – that will be much better for the nation and Middle East. Mr Peres envisioned that borders will become less relevant, while science and technology will force people to become more open-minded to the world.

    “Today, such a Middle East looks a long way off – perhaps more distant even than 2048. But I sincerely hope that one day, Mr Peres’ vision will be realised. Swords will be turned to ploughshares. Israel and your neighbours will live side-by-side, in peace and prosperity,” he said. “And your friends in Singapore and around the world will rejoice with you too.”

    Multiple efforts have been made to broker an agreement on a “two-state solution” in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Palestinian state created in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, lands seized by Israel in the 1967 war.

    However, such a solution appears remote because of ongoing Jewish settlement building; a split between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions; preoccupation within the Palestinian National Authority about who may succeed aging President Mahmoud Abbas; and a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings of Israelis.

    Efforts led by the United States to broker peace between Israel and Palestine collapsed in April 2014, although France is making another push by convening an international peace summit to work towards a two-state solution.

    Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Maliki Osman recently told parliament that Singapore welcomes the latest French initiative.

    “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is longstanding and resonates with many in Southeast Asia including Singapore and Singaporeans … Singapore’s position on this has been consistent. We support the rights of the Palestinian people to a homeland. We have also voted for several Palestinian-related resolutions at the United Nations National Assembly,” Dr Maliki said during the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Committee of Supply debate two weeks ago.

    Mr Lee will meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as other Israeli high-tech industry leaders on Tuesday, and Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Rami Hamdallah on Wednesday.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • UK Academics Boycott Universities In Israel To Fight For Palestinians’ Rights

    UK Academics Boycott Universities In Israel To Fight For Palestinians’ Rights

    More than 300 academics from dozens of British universities have pledged to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest at what they call intolerable human rights violations against the Palestinian people.

    The declaration, by 343 professors and lecturers, is printed in a full-page advertisement carried in Tuesday’s Guardian, with the title: “A commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians.”

    The pledge says the signatories, from a variety of universities in England and Wales, will not accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions, act as referees for them, or take part in events organised or funded by them. They will, however, still work with individual Israeli academics, it adds.

    The advert says the signatories are “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and its apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement”.

    In a statement on behalf of the organisers of the boycott, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, of the London School of Economics, said Israel’s universities were “at the heart of Israel’s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people”.

    He said: “These signatures were all collected despite the pressures that can be put on people not to criticise the state of Israel. Now that the invitation to join the commitment is in the public domain, we anticipate many more to join us.”

    The initiative brought immediate criticism from the British and Israeli governments. The British ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, said he was “deeply committed” to promoting academic and scientific ties. He added: “As David Cameron has said, the UK government will never allow those who want to boycott Israel to shut down 60 years worth of vibrant exchange and partnership that does so much to make both our countries stronger.”

    The Israeli embassy in London published a scathing response to the ad, saying: “Boycott movements only aim to sow hatred and alienation between the sides, rather than promoting coexistence.

    “The only path to advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians passes through the negotiation room. Israel has called time and again for the renewal of talks immediately, without any preconditions. Those who call for a boycott against Israel during a month which saw 45 stabbing attacks – in which more than 100 Israelis were wounded, and 10 were murdered – blatantly ignore the lives of Israelis, and the conditions necessary for peace.”

    The advert was also condemned by Richard Verber, senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He told Jewish News: “We would ask why these academics are singling out Israel in such a discriminatory fashion. At a time of immense, often barbaric, upheaval in other parts of the Middle East, Israel remains a beacon of academic excellence and progressive thinking.

    “In the complex conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, boycotting either side will lead to zero progress. Their energy would be much better spent encouraging academic dialogue and relations between like-minded Israelis and Palestinians who believe in a brighter future.”

    The advert comes less than a week after a group of writers, academics, MPs and others, among them JK Rowling, Simon Schama and Zoë Wanamaker, wrote to the Guardian to criticise the idea of such boycotts. The letter followed a pledge in February by hundreds of artists and musicians to instigate a cultural boycott of Israel due to the country’s “unrelenting attack on [Palestinian] land, their livelihood, their right to political existence”.

    The counter-letter called boycotts singling out Israel “divisive and discriminatory”. It said: “We will be seeking to inform and encourage dialogue about Israel and the Palestinians in the wider cultural and creative community. While we may not all share the same views on the policies of the Israeli government, we all share a desire for peaceful coexistence.”

     

    Source: www.theguardian.com

  • Benjamin Netanyahu Distorts History, Claims Mufti Of Jerusalem Instigated Adolf Hitler To Terminate Jews

    Benjamin Netanyahu Distorts History, Claims Mufti Of Jerusalem Instigated Adolf Hitler To Terminate Jews

    REUTERS — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provoked controversy on Wednesday, hours before a visit to Germany, by saying the former Muslim elder in Jerusalem convinced Adolf Hitler to exterminate the Jews.

    In a speech to the Zionist Congress late on Tuesday, Netanyahu referred to a series of attacks by Muslims against Jews in Palestine during the 1920s that he said were instigated by the then Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.

    Husseini famously flew to visit Hitler in Berlin in 1941, and Netanyahu said that meeting was instrumental in the Nazi leader’s decision to launch a campaign to annihilate the Jews.

    “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews,” Netanyahu said in the speech. “And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’

    “‘So what should I do with them?’” Netanyahu said Hitler asked the mufti, who responded: “Burn them.”

    Netanyahu, whose father was an eminent historian, was quickly harangued by opposition politicians and experts on the Holocaust who said he was distorting the historical record.

    Palestinian officials said Netanyahu appeared to be absolving Hitler of the murder of six million Jews in order to lay the blame on Muslims. Twitter was awash with criticism.

    “It is a sad day in history when the leader of the Israeli government hates his neighbor so much that he is willing to absolve the most notorious war criminal in history, Adolf Hitler, of the murder of six million Jews,” Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s secretary general, said.

    “Mr Netanyahu should stop using this human tragedy to score points for his political end,” said Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis.

    Even Netanyahu’s defense minister, close ally Moshe Yaalon, said the prime minister had got it wrong.

    “It certainly wasn’t (Husseini) who invented the Final Solution,” Yaalon told Israel’s Army Radio. “That was the evil brainchild of Hitler himself.”

    It is not clear what sources Netanyahu was relying on for his comments. A 1947 book “The Mufti of Jerusalem” and a newspaper report at the time said a former Hitler deputy had testified at the Nuremberg war crimes trials that Husseini had plotted with the Nazi leader to rid Europe of its Jews.

    Husseini was sought for war crimes but never appeared at the Nuremberg proceedings and later died in Cairo.

    HISTORICAL RECORD

    But the point several historians made was that Netanyahu was distorting timelines and drawing false conclusions.

    The meeting between Husseini and Hitler in Berlin took place on November 28, 1941. More than two years earlier, in January 1939, Hitler had addressed the Reichstag and talked clearly about his determination to exterminate the Jewish race.

    “To say that the mufti was the first to mention to Hitler the idea to kill or burn the Jews is not correct,” Dina Porat, a professor at Tel Aviv University and the chief historian of Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, told Israel Radio.

    “The idea to rid the world of the Jews was a central theme in Hitler’s ideology a long, long time before he met the mufti.”

    Porat and others pointed out that the murder of the Jews began in June 1941. Even if the mufti wanted the Final Solution to be expanded, he wasn’t the one who came up with the idea.

    “For somebody who knows something about history and grew up in the house of historian Professor Benzion Netanyahu, he should know well,” Porat said of the prime minister. “But in my humble opinion, to say that the mufti gave Hitler the idea is wrong.

     

    Source: www.huffingtonpost.com