Feb. 14, 2020
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February 12, 2020
UNHRC Releases ‘Blacklist’ of Companies Conducting Business in Israeli Settlements
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) published a list on Feb. 12 of companies that conduct business with residents living in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which critics are calling a blacklist.
The list consists of 112 companies that the UNHRC states are involved in emboldening Israeli efforts to build settlements and demolish Palestinian homes, utilizing natural resources in the areas in question and engaging in “practices that disadvantage Palestinian enterprises, including through restrictions on movement, administrative and legal constraints.” The report states that each of the businesses can appeal to be removed from the list if they can prove they are not involved in the aforementioned activities.
The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said in a statement, “While the settlements as such are regarded as illegal under international law, this report does not provide a legal characterization of the activities in question, or of business enterprises’ involvement in them.”
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said in a statement, “Curiously, out of more than 100 territorial disputes in the world today, including in Tibet, Kashmir, Crimea, Western Sahara and Northern Cyprus, the UN chose only to blacklist companies doing business in Israel’s disputed territories.”
He accused U.N. High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet of allowing “her office to become a tool for the discriminatory anti-Israel [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement, which singles out the Jewish state for boycott, divestment and sanctions. With the blacklist, the UN has now become Ground Zero for global BDS.”
Yoel Mester, the deputy permanent representative of the Israeli Mission to the U.N. and Geneva, accused the UNHRC of not sending “our Mission an advance copy of the ‘database’ report for fact check, as is customary with such country specific reports.”
Bad faith: @UNHumanRights did not send our Mission an advance copy of the "database" report for fact check, as is customary with such country specific reports.
We did not get a fair prior notice before publication either https://t.co/atPWb8Hk39— Yoel Mester (@YoelMester) February 12, 2020
Israeli Foreign Minister Gilad Erdan condemned the list.
“The publication of the blacklist’s [sic] will hurt the livelihoods of Palestinians who work in Judea and Samaria,” he tweeted. “We will do everything in our power to thwart this shameful decision.”
1/2 Another disgraceful decision by the @UNHumanRights, which proves the UN’s #antisemitism and Israel-hatred. The UNHRC proves again its rotten and makes decisions with no connection to #humanrights.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) February 12, 2020
2/2 The publication of the blacklist’s will hurt the livelihoods of Palestinians who work in Judea and Samaria. We will do everything in our power to thwart this shameful decision.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) February 12, 2020
Jewish groups also denounced the list.
“The UNHRC’s decision to publish this list is yet another example of the body’s entrenched and biased focus on Israel,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Indeed, the database includes companies that provide basic goods and services to those areas, including water, electricity, gasoline, bakeries, dry goods and supermarkets.”
He added that the list emboldens the BDS movement.
“By singling out Israel, the UNHRC’s actions also violate a key clause in the widely accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” Greenblatt said.
The American Jewish Committee similarly tweeted, “The UN has not created blacklists targeting companies active in disputed territories anywhere in the world – except those held by Israel. The body’s hypocrisy and double standards toward the Jewish state are staggering.”
The UN has not created blacklists targeting companies active in disputed territories anywhere in the world – except those held by Israel. The body's hypocrisy and double standards toward the Jewish state are staggering. We call on SecGen @AntonioGuterres to denounce this outrage.
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) February 12, 2020
StandWithUs Israel Executive Director Michael Dickson tweeted, “There is nothing new about @UN Blacklist launched against the world’s only Jewish country. The list, created by the notorious, morally-bankrupt @un_hrc is torn from the darkest days of history. Those supporting it will live in infamy as do the anti-Semitic boycotters of days past.”
There is nothing new about @UN Blacklist launched against the world's only Jewish country. The list, created by the notorious, morally-bankrupt @un_hrc is torn from the darkest days of history. Those supporting it will live in infamy as do the Antisemitic boycotters of days past. pic.twitter.com/8x4rmh2ois
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) February 12, 2020
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Vegas Man Who Allegedly Wanted to Attack Synagogue Pleads Guilty to Possessing Bomb-Making Parts
A Las Vegas man pled guilty on Feb. 10 to possessing bomb-making components in order to bomb a synagogue, attack the Las Vegas Anti-Defamation League (ADL) headquarters and conduct a shooting at an LGTBQ bar, federal authorities said.
Conor Climo, 24, pled guilty to charges of possessing materials to make an explosive device and to the charge of possessing an unregistered firearm. He also admitted to being a member of the Feuerkrieg Division, an international neo-Nazi group that calls for violence against its perceived enemies and is an offshoot of the Atomwaffen Division. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism (COE), Atomwaffen “has been implicated in five murders nationwide.”
Additionally, Climo admitted to being in contact with an FBI informant on an encrypted online chat in which he communicated his plans with the informant, according to the Associated Press. He was initially arrested in August.
Climo is scheduled to be sentenced on May 14; he could face up to 10 years in prison. He will also undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
According to the COE, Climo reportedly told the informant that he wanted to utilize “an eight-man sniper platoon for a shooting attack targeting Jews” as well as “a Molotov cocktail to set fire to a synagogue.” Additionally, Climo had July 2018 chats on Discord, an internet chat platform for video gamers, that read, “F— The K— Laws” and “St. Roof did nothing wrong.” “St. Roof” is an apparent reference to Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017 in the shooting deaths of nine African Americans at a prayer service in Charleston, S.C., in 2015.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Our team at @ADL’s Center on Extremism warned law enforcement about the suspected neo-Nazi’s online activity & provided them background on the neo-Nazi group he allegedly belonged to.”
Our team at @ADL’s Center on Extremism warned law enforcement about the suspected neo-Nazi’s online activity & provided them background on the neo-Nazi group he allegedly belonged to. More here: https://t.co/TeuzSNIvOV https://t.co/WllH7tPnlo
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 11, 2020
Ripple Effect: Fathers
My late father was a renowned educator.
He touched hundreds if not thousands of people’s lives.
His vision and teachings were simple and clear.
Do the right thing.
Be a mensch (good person).
Take responsibility.
Follow a strong moral compass with absolutely no compromising.
He led with conviction and was an exceptional role model of everything he believed in. Recently someone shared with me a recording of him addressing the staff of a summer camp where he was the director.
I have not heard his voice in 16 years.
I had forgotten how thick his Bostonian accent was and how absolutely normal his voice sounded. Somewhere in my mind his voice was more godlike. In my head he had a deep, loud, heavy, overpowering voice. Funny what time and the imagination can do.
His words and the things he was talking about in this recording reminded me just why he was beloved by so many and why he was so influential. He had humility and charm. He was honest and shared the stage oh so gallantly with my mom.
There was one segment that I particularly liked where he talked about his legacy. He wondered how someone he influenced or touched as an educator would write about him in a chapter of the book about their life. How would they describe him as someone who shaped them?
Would their words be of kindness? What lesson did they take from all he tried to teach them? What did they remember and take note of?
What mattered most?
My father was not one who cared about what people thought of him.
He truly wanted to know what mark he left on his students.
More than that he wanted to bring to the attention of the educators he was talking to how everything they do influences the youth they work with.
In an all-boys class I was teaching in a LA County probation lockup
facility, many of the young men were fathers to multiple babies with multiple young women.
I struggled in trying to teach them the responsibility of fatherhood and the meaning and great joy they could derive from actually being involved both with their children and the women they had the children with.
One day I tried an exercise asking about their own fathers.
In a class of 12 students not one had a relationship with their father.
Most didn’t know them or had never met them.
“Write three things you want to ask your father.”
I asked them to write them on the paper in front of them.
My tough, rough gangbangers started getting very agitated.
The probation officer in the room motioned me to stop what I was doing.
“Ms., this isn’t good,” he whispered.
“I ain’t got nothing, Ms.” one said.
“Why would I ask him anything?”
“He’s a motherfucker.”
I hit a nerve. They were pissed.
“I don’t want to ask him shit,” another said.
“How can I ask something to someone I don’t know?”
The probation officer was right. This was not good.
But I love the “not good,” because under it lives the great.
“Okay, put down the pens,” I say.
“Stand up.” I motion.
Now they are doubly pissed.
When I feel tension in the room, I use a ball as a talking stick and throw it to people to speak.
“Stand up, people,” I say again.
“Ms…” they whine.
I love when my rough guys turn into little boys.
“Okay,” I tell them.
“When I throw the ball to you, tell me one thing you want to say to your father.”
Somehow, they cooperate.
“Why did you leave?”
“Why didn’t you stay?”
“Why did you do drugs?”
“Why did you get locked up?”
This was not good either and not really going anywhere.
I stop. I think.
“Okay, let’s change it,” I say.
“One thing you want to tell them about you. Can you think of something positive about yourself?” I ask them.
I repeat, “Something positive, good that you are proud of.”
I ask them to come into a closer circle.
“Give it to me, Ms.,” one says.
I throw the ball to him.
He says, “I AM NOT LIKE YOU.”
He is super proud.
“Okay,” I say.
“Me! Me!” Another one raises his hand.
“I am getting me a high school diploma.”
“Nice!” I say.
“I am taking care of my ma, since you’re AWOL.”
They laugh.
The mood swings a little.
“One more thing,” I tell them. “One wish.
What do you wish for, for you and your father?”
I throw the ball.
“I wish I knew you.”
“I wish we hung out.”
“I wish you came to visit me.”
“I wish I could visit you.”
“I wish you taught me how to be a father.”
It’s quiet. I take the moment.
“How many of you have kids?” I ask them.
Most raise their hands.
“I want to invite you to be the father you didn’t have.
Think about that.
Don’t say anything.
Just let that sit,” I say.
It goes to a deeper level of quiet.
Some of them look down.
I know I am in a tricky place talking about a tricky topic.
“No shame,” I say. “Just take it all in.”
Then I move to something lighter.
Because you always need to lighten the heavy.
We laugh, release a little and have some fun.
These boys are kids themselves, kids in desperate need of love and compassion.
Typically, when a group culminates, they fill out a survey.
One of the questions is “How will your relationships change after participating in this class?”
One kid from this group wrote, “No change. I will now have a relationship with my son.”
I think about my Dad and how he taught the importance of truth and dedication. I think about this kid and hope that what he writes about me is that I motivated him to be a better Dad.
On the back of the survey he wrote:
“Ms., I never thought I mattered to my son. I didn’t know he could be wishing for me. I’m gonna make sure to have a relationship with him when I get out.”
I know that the change is not being someone you are not. It is actually being who you are.
Our job as facilitators of change is not to move mountains, but with ease and care to gently help the water to flow downstream just where it was supposed to go.
If we do this, I am sure that only good will be written on those pages my father was so interested in.
Naomi Ackerman is a Mom, activist, writer, performer, and the founder and Executive Director of The Advot (ripple) Project a registered 501(c)3 that uses theatre and the arts to empower youth at risk to live their best life.
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Brooklyn Orthodox Community Gives Nearly $50,000 to Family of Slain Jersey City Cop
(JTA) — A crowdfunding campaign spearheaded by an Orthodox community in Brooklyn raised some $48,000 for the family of the police officer killed in the Jersey City attacks that also left three dead at a kosher market in the city.
A check was presented Tuesday to the widow and five children of Det. Joseph Seals 40, at City Hall in Jersey City.
Carmine Disbrow, president of the Jersey City Policemen’s Benevolent Association, accepted on behalf of the Seals family. Seals was an 18-year law enforcement veteran.
The campaign through The Chesed Fund, which had a goal of $25,000, was spearheaded by Jewish leaders in the Orthodox community of Flatbush and administered in conjunction with the Yeshiva World News website.
More than 1,400 donors gave to the campaign, mostly from New York and New Jersey, but also from Israel and around the world.
The two shooters who targeted the JC Kosher Supermarket in the Dec. 10 spree gunned down Seals during an encounter at a nearby cemetery. The assailants later killed three people at the supermarket before being shot dead by police.
Brooklyn Orthodox Community Gives Nearly $50,000 to Family of Slain Jersey City Cop Read More »
Jussie Smollett Indicted Again Over False Reports of Hate Crime
(JTA) — Jussie Smollett, the “Empire” actor who had charges dropped last year for lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack, has been indicted by a special prosecutor on the same charges.
The special prosecutor, Dan Webb, said in a statement Tuesday that Smollett faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct over four false reports that he gave to police in which he said he was the victim of a hate crime “knowing that he was not the victim of a crime,” The Associated Press reported.
Cook County prosecutors had dropped charges against Smollett, 37, in March 2019, the case was sealed and the actor’s record expunged. The Chicago Prosecutor’s Office said then that Smollett had performed community service and forfeited his $100,000 bond.
Police concluded that Smollett, who is Jewish, black and gay, had staged the early-morning downtown Chicago attack in January 2019 on himself and had paid two Nigerian brothers, one who appears on “Empire,” to carry it out.
Smollett told police after the attack that two men “gained his attention by yelling out racial and homophobic slurs towards him” before attacking, pouring an “unknown chemical substance” on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.
Smollett’s openly gay character Jamal Lyon was written out of the final two episodes of the fifth season of “Empire” and did not return for the show’s sixth and final season.
Jussie Smollett Indicted Again Over False Reports of Hate Crime Read More »