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Will UNRWA Continue to Confine Descendants of Arab refugees from 1948 to the indignity of 59 refugee camps?
A Nigun in My heart
Writing this a few days after the yaarzeit of my friend and teacher Elchonon Devor.
Sitting at my desk in Jerusalem , in awe of a man whose modesty encompassed him.
There is a smile on my face when you contemplate this man, who came into my life as a Hebrew school teacher when I was ten- 62 years ago.
Elchonon Devor lived “kiruv” in his bones, before people knew how to spell KIRUV
Elchanon lived before “Batei Chabad” existed and before the concept of Kiruv was widely known.
The Rebbe advised a young Elchonon to reach out to children whose parents knew less than nothing about Torah, instead of teaching elite Jews in a Talmud Torah.
Let me take you to the days of yesteryear, on – 18th of Elul 1960 – when I turned 10.
My concerns then were baseball cards, collecting stamps, devouring encyclopedias,and watching westerns, while planting an imaginary chart in my head, calculating the days until my Bar mitzvah, when I could chuck this Hebrew school stuff and get on with playing little league, instead of wasting time learning Hebrew , a language I would never use
And then it happened. This singing smiling red bearded pied piper walked into our Hebrew school class, and all bets were off. Suddenly, Hebrew school was fun.
Elchonon Devor captured our attention. “You don’t read Hebrew, You sing Hebrew.. You zingin…
Each week, he would teach us new chants that we would never forget.
That is how each class began. He made Hebrew school exciting.
And he made Jewish history come to life as he taught us.
On a somber note, that was year of the Eichmann trial, when Elchonon Devor reeled a TV into class to watch this monster on trial in Jerusalem, which he used this to teach us Jewish history and faith in God.
There were stories that Elchonon Devor taught us so that we at the age of ten would never forget.
Such as the anecdote about his teacher who was taken to a concentration camp by the Nazis while his wife and children were marched to the gas chambers.
Elchonon told us that he heard his wife and the rest of their family chanted psalms of the Hallel as they were taken to the gas chambers, while Elchonon‘s teacher was assigned to a work detail .
For more than sixty years , whenever I hear the Hallel, I think of Elchonon ‘s story of Kiddush HaShem… hearing Jews chant Hallel en route to their execution.
And I cannot forget the patience and enthusiasm that Elchonon conveyed to young boys , during those precious moments of donning Tzitzit for children who had never seen a tallis katan.
And the way in which Elchonon taught us “Netilat yadaim”.
What kid is not cynical about washing hands after going to the bathroom?
Yet Elchonon got us to believe that HaShem is speaking to you when you wash your hands
And when Elchonon taught the exodus, he made the class and Tanach coming alive.
Elchonon asked us not to see the movie TEN COMMANDMENTS. Which was showing at the time.
And our Hebrew school class never saw it.
And then the crisis hit.
We were forced to sing Christmas carols in public school.
This was just before the 1962 US Supreme court decision that disallowed prayer in public schools.
Our Protestant teachers assured us that we could also sing Jewish songs
All we knew was “zum galle galle” and “hava nagila”.
Elchonon had a solution. He taught us real Jewish songs to compete with the Christmas carols
Elchonon brought in SHLOMO CARLEBACH as our music teacher
He taught us BARCHI NAFSHI. ESO EINAI. VCHULAM MEKABLIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxwEeCiH8Jg&ab_channel=israelchanel
Elchonon’s class would make a star studded performance at our public school after weeks of practice.
It is that love of “zingin Torah” which I have never forgot.
Elchonon Devor inspires me to this day.
Will be sharing my work on Shleimut HaAretz,with the family of Elchonon Devor in the weeks to come.
https://israelbehindthenews.com/2022/07/14/pikuach-nefesh-alert-a-strategic-approach-2/
Written on Erev Rosh Hodesh Elul, the day I arrived in Eretz Yisrael 52 years ago .
Between the lines
The definition of reading between the lines is “to understand what someone really means or what is really happening in a situation, even though it is not said openly.”
The ability to discern what someone means especially when their intentions are cloaked in ambiguity is particularly useful especially when trying to unravel pontifications uttered by politicians and reported by the general media.
Those who resort to waffling and speaking in riddles work on the assumption that listeners or readers will be mesmerized into believing their pronouncements and thus will not be prepared to dig deeper in order to elicit real intentions.
After more than half a century of confronting this phenomenon, I believe that I have managed to see through the fog of deliberately deceptive language employed by those who use it to confuse the unsuspecting public.
Perhaps some examples will explain the latest attempts at fooling the masses.
The current situation concerning Iran is a classic case of how official pontifications seek to muddy the facts and lull an ignorant, or should we say deliberately naïve, public into believing the unbelievable.
Biden Administration Official: “we have lost nothing by keeping the door open to a deal with Iran.”
Biden: “we are discussing restraining Iran with the EU.”
EU spokesperson: “the USA is likely to support the latest Iran nuclear deal proposals.”
US State Department: “the US is encouraged by the latest Iranian offer. A deal with Iran is now closer than it was two weeks ago.”
Between the lines: Only a fool or someone decidedly dense cannot see the escalating narrative in these official pronouncements. Take careful note of the phrase “restraining Iran” because this definite non-slip of the tongue has now replaced the hitherto “we will prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” As Iran has already proudly announced that it already has the capability to produce these weapons restraining the Mullah regime is a farce.
It is patently obvious to all but serial appeasers that Iran is well on the way to joining North Korea in obtaining the means to blackmail and threaten all its neighbours, develop missiles to deliver its weapons and create instability and chaos far and wide. All the Mullahs of Tehran need to do is listen to the pathetic prattling from Washington and the EU and draw the inevitable conclusions. You can be sure that they have internalized how Russia, China and North Korea have successfully thumbed their collective noses at the international community. No doubt they have also recalled how 1930’s capitulation to terror, refusal of the democracies to act and abandonment of the Jews demonstrated that where there is a lack of will, evil can triumph.
In the United Kingdom at present, a battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister is taking place. Having narrowed the crowded field down to two candidates these aspiring politicians are frantically vying for the votes of Party members who will decide the outcome. In an all-out effort to secure the support of Jewish members both the Foreign Secretary and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer have promised to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions, secure a UK-Israel free trade deal and fight BDS.
In a sign that desperation is rampant, both have also issued cautious support for moving the UK Embassy to Jerusalem.
Between the lines: No doubt some may be stampeded into joyfully believing these politically dubious promises but a closer examination reveals their fragile façade. Fighting BDS is a no-brainer because that is already policy. Since the UK’s Brexit, securing free trade agreements with other countries is normal and therefore one with Israel is nothing exceptional. Exactly how either Truss or Sunak could counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions, especially in the face of determined USA, European, Chinese and Russian appeasement, has not been disclosed and is therefore just another one of those amorphous slogans designed for gullible consumption.
The biggest blooper of them all however is the assertion that these two politicians will work towards the relocation of the UK Embassy to Israel’s Capital. You would have to be totally ignorant of the UK’s sordid history post-Balfour in trying to thwart Jewish sovereignty to actually swallow this. The ingrained antipathy of the Foreign Office towards Jewish sovereignty which saw the deliberate creation of the Hashemite Kingdom on territory guaranteed for Jewish settlement and subsequent acts by the Mandatory power to prevent Jewish immigration may have failed to prevent Israel’s re-establishment. It has not however dissipated the continuing refusal by the Foreign Office to recognize Jerusalem as our Capital nor is this deeply ingrained prejudice likely to change.
Why there should be any sort of euphoric ecstasy over these meaningless pledges is symptomatic of a refusal to read between the lines.
If ever you needed a better example of how easy it is to fool some people most of the time just read what one of the architects of the Oslo disaster claimed this week.
Following the “foot in mouth” performance of PA President for life, Abbas in Germany, all but the most ideologically befuddled know that any sort of peace with this sort of inciter is a non-starter. However, this did not stop one of the architects (Yossi Beilin) of the disastrous Oslo sell-out deal from proclaiming: “there won’t be a more pragmatic or moderate Palestinian leader than Mahmoud Abbas.”
Between the lines: Given half a chance the lemmings of the extreme left championed by post-Zionist media and academic “experts” are ready to sell sovereignty to even the most vile of Holocaust slanderers. Their narrative is that there is nobody else better placed to appease and therefore we had better hasten to sell our birthright before Abbas departs. Reading between the lines makes it clear that the choice, as always, is really up to us. Do we abandon all self-respect and throw ourselves at the mercy of those who in every generation rise up to murder us or do we finally assert our historic and legal right to sovereignty?
When Saudi Arabia announced it would allow Israeli planes to overfly their territory great jubilation ensued and one could have been forgiven for believing that the messianic age had already dawned.
Between the lines: I cautioned at the time that it might be prudent to await developments because in this part of the world the gap between euphoria and reality can change in the blink of an eye. Well, Iran, the intended recipient of international largesse has put a spanner in the works. Oman, which needs to also give permission for overflights, has succumbed to Iranian blackmail. This is the perfect example of how a neighbourhood bully and terror-promoting regime can successfully intimidate and get away with it.
Meanwhile, the online booking site for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar replaced Israel with Palestinian Occupied territory and then renamed it Palestine.
Between the lines: Obviously there is a major gulf (pun intended) between Abraham Accord signatories and those who continue to cleave to the PLO/Iranian-sponsored rejectionist camp. From the lack of outraged response, it seems that most have yet to understand this.
Reading the small print and understanding exactly what lies behind overinflated rhetoric is indispensable to keeping several steps ahead of disastrous outcomes.
Terrorists trained by Israel unleashed against Israel
From Iran to teachers on strike: A week of deals concerning Israel
Yaakov and Lahav discuss all the deals that are concerning Israel right now, from the teachers union striking and concerns that the will not reach an agreement with the Education Ministry before September 1, to the impending signing of the new JCPOA between the US and Iran.
Then, they are joined by Noam Bedein, CEO of Middle East Ecotourism to discuss the Dead Sea and the good news that good come out of a dried-out situation.
A mass murderer of Jews goes to Berlin
Eighty-one years after the Mufti of Jerusalem visited Hitler and asked him to kill all the Jews, Mahmoud Abbas, his current successor as leader of the Palestinian cause, arrived in Berlin.
At a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Abbas refused to apologize for the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes and falsely claimed that Israel had carried out “50 holocausts” against Arab Muslims.
Scholz, Merkel’s successor, said nothing at the joint press conference, but later tepidly condemned the remarks. “I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” he tweeted. Why should he be? This is who Abbas is.
After an Arab Muslim recently opened fire at a bus stop and shot a number of Israelis and American tourists, including a pregnant woman who was hit in the stomach, Abbas’s Fatah celebrated the attack, posting on Facebook, “Praise to the rifle muzzles.”
In 1929, years before Hitler took power, the Hebron massacre by the Muslim settler population brutally killed the local Jewish men, women and children, mutilated their bodies and scattered limbs and organs. Every year, the Palestinian Authority honors three of the killers as “martyrs.” One of the PA’s martyrs, Muhammad Jamjoum, confessed to murdering five Jews. Another, Ataa al-Zir, murdered three innocent people back when Hitler could only dream of killing Jews.
The Palestinian cause is the modern standard bearer of the Nazis. The terrorist group whose representative was invited to Berlin has killed more Jews than anyone since the Nazis. And has spent more time lying about it than any ordinary Holocaust denier in Germany.
Abbas earned his doctorate for his Holocaust denial thesis from the USSR’s Patrice Lumumba University, created to train third-world assets for a Communist war on free nations. The KGB reportedly recruited the “Palestinian” terrorist leader, gave him the code name “mole” and put him to work under the man who now serves as Putin’s special representative in the region.
When Abbas wasn’t working for the Communists, he was being inspired by the Nazis. Edy Cohen, an Israeli researcher who wrote a book on Hitler’s Mufti, warned that Abbas’s Holocaust denial thesis was “inspired by and based on the work of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust.” Abbas and Eichmann had both made killing Jews and lying about it their life’s work.
Thirty-one years after the visit by Hitler’s Mufti, Abbas and the Palestinians made their grand bid to replace the Nazis with the Munich Massacre of Israeli Jewish athletes.
The Munich Olympics were meant to show off the new Germany. And they did. German authorities had refused to provide security because it would clash with the country’s image makeover, and so the Muslim terrorists were able to freely operate in the Olympic Village.
The unarmed Israeli coaches and athletes fought the eight armed Muslim terrorists for their lives. Some were killed outright, one was castrated, while others were taken hostage. Germany rejected Israeli pleas to allow them to send a hostage rescue team. Shortly after the massacre was over, it began secret negotiations with the terrorists to cut a deal to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization.
After the massacre, the bodies of deceased terrorists were sent back and buried with full honors. Those terrorists who were arrested were shortly afterward released. The Olympics initially refused to even postpone the games and made no reference to the massacre. It took over 40 years for the Olympics to officially commemorate the dead athletes and coaches.
Abbas was one of the senior officials who planned the massacre and provided the money to carry it out. Scholz decided to hold a joint press conference with a Holocaust denier responsible for the worst post-Holocaust massacre of Jews on German soil. Was he really surprised or disgusted? And will there be any consequences?
As Stephen M. Flatow, an American father whose daughter Alisa was brutally murdered in a bus bombing in Israel, wrote in a recent editorial, “Germany sent the Palestinian Arabs $199 million last year.”
“Let’s not lose sight of the incredible hypocrisy of governments that shed crocodile tears over the Munich massacre, and then send hundreds of millions of dollars to a man who helped perpetrate it,” he writes.
The German representative in Ramallah repeatedly boasts of all the money flowing from Berlin. None of that money will stop. No diplomatic relations will be cut.
In the past few months, Abbas has met with President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Romania’s Klaus Iohannis – the Islamic terrorist leader was decorated with the “Star of Romania.”
The only country to turn down a visit by Abbas was the Saudi kingdom.
When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, often accused of antisemitism by the Left, visited Israel in 2018, he “broke protocol” by not scheduling a visit with Abbas. That was a rare exception to the world leaders who have hugged and shaken hands with the terrorist boss.
Biden, Putin and Xi Jinping have all paid tribute to Abbas and to the notion that Israel’s existence on its own land represents some sort of “occupation,” when the only occupation is the one carried on by the Arab Muslim colonists who terrorize Israel’s indigenous Jewish population.
Despite clamoring about the occupation, Abbas promised Xi Jinping to stand with China in its occupation of Hong Kong and the repression of fellow Muslims in Xinjiang. He endorsed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Not surprising for a dictator who was last elected in 2005.
Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, an imaginary place that never existed and still doesn’t, claims to represent an equally imaginary Palestinian people. Whom does he actually represent? A poll of the Arab Muslim settlers living in the terrorist-occupied territories in Israel earlier this year revealed that 73% want Abbas to resign and that he would lose any election. So there isn’t going to be an election and the big lie of “Palestine” will keep on going.
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Abbas is a terrorist who doesn’t represent anyone except his armed minions and state sponsors. A “Palestinian” state is as historically legitimate as Islamic State, and its leader is as legitimately in office as was Adolf Hitler. The only thing that the murderous leadership of a fictional terror state have ever given the world is international terrorism.
Despite these indisputable facts, Scholz chose to welcome Abbas. And the rest of the world’s leaders will go on welcoming the Holocaust denier and former KGB agent the way that Berlin once welcomed Hitler’s Mufti. What was once the ugliness of the Nazi regime has become the multinational human rights consensus of the international community.
The Mufti of Jerusalem and Mahmoud Abbas have a simple message. Hitler invited the Mufti of Jerusalem because he agreed with his call to kill the Jews. World leaders continue to invite Abbas over because they agree with his message.
It would be undiplomatic of them to say so. They invite him to say it for them instead.
Preparedness for land warfare remains crucial, think tank tells president
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Thursday presented President Isaac Herzog with a treatise on threats posed to Israel.
“The latest Israeli clashes in the Gaza Strip with Palestinian terror organizations have created an impression that with changes in the nature of warfare, the military threat to Israel has entirely changed,” President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Dore Gold said at the event. “There has been a school of thought that has arisen which has downgraded the importance of land warfare and instead stressed the centrality of airpower in deciding the outcome of wars. Along with their focus on airpower, some analysts have ceased to look at how topography, terrain, and strategic depth can influence how wars are terminated.”
The treatise – Preserving Israel’s Doctrine of Defensible Borders – is a major security and public diplomacy initiative that analyzes the threats posed to Israel by terrorism, as well as Israel’s current territorial requirements, with special emphasis on the West Bank, which is strategically vital for Israel to retain if it is to fulfill its existing security and defense needs.
The work on the book began in a joint conference with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in 2004 and was presented to the US Congress and published in the framework of a special 2006 session of the Herzliya Conference.
The core research – first updated in 2014 – offered a comprehensive assessment of Israel’s critical security requirements, particularly the need for defensible borders based on UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) and confirmed by past US governments.
The latest update – carried out in 2020 by Gold and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser in the wake of military operations and new threats from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran – highlights the vital importance of Israeli control of the aerial and ground dimensions of the West Bank, and the risks entailed for Israel by the stationing of an international force as a lesson from recent history.
“It was important to define defensible borders in the Israeli context as such borders that allow Israel to effectively defend itself by itself, at any time, against all potential military threats from near and far, including those emanating from within the territory Israel controls. It means that all the resources necessary to achieve Israel’s defense requirements are within its borders and under its security responsibility, especially since the Palestinians refuse to accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Kuperwasser said.
PFLP Ties of the Six Designated Terror NGOs
The Ministry of Defense, building off a ISA (Shabak) May 2021 press release, explained that these NGOs diverted humanitarian funds from European donors to the PFLP and recruited members into the terror group. Relatedly, a security official told Israel’s N12 news site on October 23, 2021 that these NGOs provided a funding “lifeline” for the PFLP, employed PFLP terrorists, and that PFLP terror operatives used NGO offices for meetings.
On August 17, 2022, Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz announced that the appeals of Addameer, Bisan, and UPWC were rejected, and he had finalized the designations. Head of the IDF’s Central Command Gen. Yehuda Fuchs also rejected appeals made by Al-Haq and DCI-P. That night, IDF forces raided at least seven PFLP-linked institutions, including the offices of Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan, and UPWC. According to Al-Haq, IDF forces “shut down the main entrance with an iron plate leaving behind a military order declaring the organization unlawful.”
Since 2007, NGO Monitor has published numerous reports, based on open sources, documenting the close connections between these and other Palestinian NGOs and the PFLP. It is likely that Israeli authorities possess further materials on the NGO-PFLP ties, but it is unknown whether they will make this public.
See below for details – all previously published by NGO Monitor – regarding each of the designated organizations, including organizational ties between the NGOs and the PFLP, as well as individual links between NGO board members, officials, and employees and the terror group. A crucial aspect of these developments is the reaction from European funders. As detailed below, reaction in Europe have been varied, with some officials seeking to strengthen anti-terror funding mechanisms, while others have sought to discredit the designations. There is also data related to foreign governmental funding to these organizations.
Footnotes
- According to Francis’ LinkedIn profile, she has held the role of Director of Addameer since November 2005.
- According to Addameer’s official website, as of November 20, 2020, Habash was a member of Addameer’s board of directors.
- According to Addameer’s official website, as of November 19, 2020, Abu Aoun was employed as an attorney at Addameer.
- According to Addameer’s official website, as of November 20, 2020, Al-Safadi was a member of Addameer’s board of directors.
- According to Addameer’s official website, as of November 19, 2020, Ghazawneh held the position of research and documentation unit coordinator at Addameer.
- According to Addameer’s website, as of November 19, 2020, Sa’adat held the position of field researcher at Addameer.
- As of a May 15, 2019 video posted on Facebook by Ma’an News. Riyad Arar is referred to as DCI-P’s Child Protection Program Director from as early as April 2016.
- As of a May 13, 2017 article posted on DCI-P’s Arabic language website.
- As of a September 2019 article in Asdaa Press, November 2018 article posted by An-Najah National University, and a February 2018 article in Ma’an News.
- According to Palestinian media, Kayed Al-Ghoul and Miariam Abu Daqqa are members of the PFLP political bureau. As identified by the Palestinian academic organization PASSIA, Jamil Al-Majdalawi is noted to also be a “member of the politburo.” Al-Jarro is described as a “former leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” in his bio for a 2017 conference commemorating the violent Palestinian uprising of 1987-1993. See below for details about Majdi Yaghi’s PFLP affiliation.
- According to Experts-Solidaires, a French NGO that partners with UAWC, Arbid was UAWC’s financial director at the time of his arrest. An Arabic-language media source identified him as UAWC’s accountant.,
- According to a document published by Amnesty International on August 16, 2018. His LinkedIn profile listed him as a member of UAWC at the time of his arrest. He is also seen in a March 21, 2019 photo at a UAWC event. According to an Addameer report updated on May 2012, Farraj has been the “finance and administration director at UAWC for the past 15 years.”
- George Habash is the founder of the PFLP.
- According to a July 2012 article published in Ma’an News Agency.
- According to a May 2019 UAWC article.
- According to a 2019 International Middle East Media Center article.
- The PFLP refers to Sami Madi as a “member of the leadership of the Front in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, and a leader of the PFLP media committee and the Front’s representative on the Refugees’ Committee.” Additionally, according to Electronic Intifada, Madi was a “PFLP activist” who on the day he was killed “had led a demonstration that day to mark the 48th anniversary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”
- Note first source dates to 2014, and second to 2018.
- As of a September 2020 statement by FIDH
- According to Hadfnews, as of October 25, 2020 Suhair Khader serves as the vice president of UPWC.
- According to UPWC, as of April 8, 2020, Samira Abd Al-Alim serves as “a member of UPWC’s board of directors.”.
- According to UPWC, as of September 27, 2021, Iktimal Hamad serves as the head of UPWC.
- According to Maannews, as of February 9, 2021. Iktimal Hamad serves as a PFLP Central Committee member.
- In May 2017, WATC inaugurated a youth center for girls in the town of Burqa, near Nablus. As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, the center was named after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who in 1978 murdered 38 civilians, including 13 children. Funding for this building was provided by Norway, UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), and Palestinian Authority Ministry of Local Government. Upon learning that the center had been named after a terrorist, the Norwegian government and the United Nations issued strong condemnations. Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende stated that “We have asked for the logo of the Norwegian representation office to be removed from the building immediately, and for the funding that has been allocated to the centre to be repaid.”
- As of a November 2018 Mundubat article.
- According to a January 2019 interview published in “noticias de Gipuzkoa.”
- As of an October 2018 post on “Coordinadoro Extremena De Organizaciones No Gubernamentales Para El Desarrollo” website and a November 2017 UPWC Facebook post.
- According to an October 2019 article in Arabic language media.
Interfaith peace dialogue is branded a ‘Zionist plot’ by anti-Israel group
A group that organises popular anti-Israel demonstrations has attacked interfaith dialogue, claiming it is a covert Zionist strategy to cover up Israeli “apartheid”, the JC has learned.
The Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) — which arranged a major gathering outside Downing Street as Israel fought Palestinian Islamic Jihad last week — branded interfaith work between Jews and Muslims “faithwashing”.
PFB launched its campaign at a meeting at a London art gallery on 16 June under the title “How interfaith groups are being used to normalise Israeli apartheid”.
In a video of the meeting, Daud Abdullah, director of the news website Middle East Monitor and the former deputy chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, is seen warning of “the misuse of interfaith dialogue to cover-up the crimes committed against the Palestinian people”. He claimed that such dialogue was favoured by “rich Jewish philanthropists” to “influence opinion in the Muslim community” and blunt its opposition to Israel.
During a question-and-answer session, James Thring, an activist who has appeared on former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke’s radio programme, said the underlying problem was “Talmudism”.
He claimed this was “the source of many Israeli actions”, because it meant Jews “think they are the chosen people, they think they have the right to attack other people, to deceive other people, to rob other people”.
His words were not challenged. Another speaker asked how the “trap” of attending interfaith sessions in synagogues could be avoided. And Rifat Odeh Kassis, a prominent Palestinian advocate and writer, said that the only acceptable interfaith events would be those that were “resistance-orientated”.
Marc Goldberg, Head of Investigations at the Community Security Trust (CST), said the event was part of a growing effort to undermine the interfaith movement, which is supported by many Jewish and Muslim leaders to foster mutual understanding.
In 2020, the then-Bristol University professor David Miller — since sacked for suggesting that Jewish students were agents of a foreign power — criticised Jews making chicken soup for the East London Mosque.
It was an example of how interfaith could be “exploited” to “normalise Zionism”, he claimed.
Attempts to delegitimise such dialogue had been gathering momentum for years, Mr Goldberg said.
In 2018, the pro-Iranian Islamic Commission on Human Rights (IHRC) claimed interfaith involved Jews “cosying up to mosques and Muslim groups” and was “nothing more than a deceitful attempt to normalise the continuing murder, maiming and dispossession of the Palestinian people”.
In May 2019, a talk by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein at the Mahfil Ali Mosque in Harrow was cancelled after claims she was “heavily involved in Zionist activities”, Mr Goldberg said.
Fiyaz Mughal, a co-founder of both Muslims Against Antisemitism and the interfaith network Faith Matters, told the JC that he found the claims made at the PFB meeting “disgusting”.
He said: “Those who seek to smear, falsify and undermine interfaith work do not understand what binds our communities together, and their malicious attempt to politicise this must be rejected.”
Rabbi David Mason of Muswell Hill synagogue, a leading proponent of interfaith activity, told the JC: “I’m proud we have built positive relationships with Muslim communities in my borough and across London.
“Although differences will always occur, be working together we create friendships and model a better society.
“The idea that such positive interfaith work is a Zionist plot grotesquely misses the point of our achievements.”
