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Home > Newsletters
The Yale Initiative
for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
Newsletter
Volume 1 No. 4
28 November 2006
YIISA Seminar Series
The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism currently
runs a seminar
series entitled Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective that
is open to all.
The video of the Milton Shain seminar entitled "Continuities,
Discontinuities and Contingencies: Anti-Alienism, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism
in 20th Century South Africa - presented on November 9 is now available
on our website. click
here for video link
Matthias Kuntzel will provide the next seminar presentation on Thursday,
November 30 at 4:15. His seminar is entitled “Hitler's Legacy: Islamic
Antisemitism in the Middle East. Kuntzel is a professor at Technical College,
Hamburg. Please note that his paper will be made available soon on the
seminar website.
On December 7, Guy Raz, NPR journalist, and former senior reporter
for CNN-Jerusalem will present a seminar entitled "Nazism to Islamism:
How the Media Discounts the Impact of Antisemitism."
He recently completed a five-part series on NPR entitled "Exploring
the Language of Post 9/11 US Policy." You can access the radio
documentaries - Click
here to listen
Visiting YIISA Fellow David Hirsh of Goldsmiths College, University
of London is back at YIISA for the remainder of the academic semester. He
will also return during the Spring Semester.
In Berlin Last Week
The document attached with this newsletter was drafted by Charles Small
and the Honourable Professor Irwin Cotler. It was presented by Charles at the
OSCE expert meeting on "Best Practices in Combating Anti-Semitism" in
Berlin on November 20 and 21 at the
Bundestag/ German Parliament - Berlin. Charles read
it into the record and distributed a copy to those in attendance. He
encouraged all present, especially members of governments, to address
the incitement engaged by members of the Iranian regime, and that governments
respond to these developments as prescribed in the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Upcoming Yale Seminars of Interest
NOV. 28, Tuesday at 7:00
500 Bereaved Palestinian and Israeli Work Together for Peace
Hear two members of this important group, The Parents Circle, discuss their
journey from loss to advocacy.
Yale Law School Auditorium, 127 Wall Street
NOV. 29, Wednesday at 7:30
SHIMON PERES, Nobel Laureate and former Israeli Prime Minister
Woolsey Hall, College and Grove Streets
This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Caravan for Democracy/Slifka Center/Yale Friends
of Israel/Jewish Federation of Greater N.H./Yale College Council
DEC. 5- Tuesday at 4:30
ELIE WIESEL, Noted author, human rights activist and Nobel Laureate will
present the next Chubb Lecture on December 5 at 4:30 p.m. in the Levinson
Auditorium of Yale Law School, 127 Wall St. This event is free and
the public is welcome. Wiesel has dedicated his life to working for peace
and human rights around the world, earning him the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of Liberty
Award, the French Legion of Honor and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. He
has received more than 120 honorary degrees from institutions of higher learning
in the United States, Europe and Israel.
Articles of Interest
IRANIAN PAPER: GREAT WAR TO WIPE OUT ISRAEL
COMING
Editorials in Iranian newspapers claim '50 percent of Israel already destroyed,'
say 'Israel must collapse'
Iranian newspapers Keyhan and Resalat have urged Muslims
around the world to prepare for a 'great war' to destroy the State of Israel.
The newspapers published the editorials, translated from Persian by MEMRI,
the Middle East translation service, to mark 'Quds' day on October 20, an Iranian
'holiday' calling for the
"liberation" of Jerusalem and war against Israel.
Read article
here
THE NEXT ACT: Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or
more?
by Seymour M. Hersh
Issue of 2006-11-27; Posted 2006-11-20
A month before the November elections, Vice-President Dick Cheney was
sitting in on a national-security discussion at the Executive Office
Building. The talk took a political turn: what if the Democrats won both
the Senate and the House? How would that affect policy toward Iran, which
is believed to be on the verge of becoming a nuclear power? At that point,
according to someone familiar with the discussion, Cheney began reminiscing
about his job as a lineman, in the early nineteen-sixties, for a power
company in Wyoming. Copper wire was expensive, and the linemen were instructed
to return all unused pieces three feet or longer. No one wanted to deal
with the paperwork that resulted, Cheney said, so he and his colleagues
found a solution: putting “shorteners” on the wirethat
is, cutting it into short pieces and tossing the leftovers at the end
of the workday. If the Democrats won on November 7th, the Vice-President
said, that victory would not stop the Administration from pursuing a
military option with Iran. The White House would put
“shorteners” on any legislative restrictions, Cheney said, and
thus stop Congress from getting in its way.
Read
article here
IRAN AND SYRIA HELPING HIZBALLAH REARM
Posted Friday, Nov. 24, 2006
As Lebanon's government tries to maintain its shaky grip on power, sources
tell TIME that Tehran and Damascus are shipping weapons to the militant
Shi'ite group. Iran is smuggling weapons through Syria to rearm
Lebanese allies Hizballah, despite renewed efforts by United Nations
peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to seal off the mountain borders with
Syria in the wake of last summer's war between the Shi'ite militia and
Israel, according to reports by Saudi and Israeli intelligence sources
that have been confirmed by Western diplomats in Beirut.
Read
article here
CHILLING ECHO FOR LEBANON, MIRROR OF REGIONAL TENSION
By Michael Slackman
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 26. In April 1975, gunmen fired on a church
in East Beirut in what appeared to be an attempt to kill Pierre Gemayel,
founder of the main right-wing Lebanese Christian militia. He was not
killed, but the shooting set off a cycle of revenge that became a 15-year
civil war.
Read
article here
U.N. SAYS SOMALIS HELPED HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS
United Nations, Nov. 14 --More than 700 Islamic militants from Somalia
traveled to Lebanon in July to fight alongside Hezbollah in it war against
Israel, a United Nations report says. The militia in Lebanon returned the favor
by providing training and --through its patrons Iran and Syria -- weapons to
the Islamic alliance struggling for control of Somalia, it adds.
Read article here
SUDAN'S PRESIDENT SPEWS ANTI-SEMITISM
Nov. 28, 2006 (Jerusalem Post) By David Byers - Sudan's President
Field Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir claimed Tuesday that reports in western
newspapers of hundreds of thousands dead in his country's brutal civil war
are all part of an Israeli-led worldwide conspiracy.
Read
article here
HAMAS INSISTS NO GOVERNMENT WILL RECOGNIZE ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post, Nov. 10; New York Times, Nov. 14 -- Hamas agreed Nov. 10
to fold its eight-month old government if that would restore international
aid. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he would likely resign in the next
two or three weeks to make way for a national unity government more acceptable
to international donors. Mohammed Shbair, who was president of the Islamic
University in Gaza City for 12 years before his retirement last year, is set
to replace Haniyeh. Hamas insisted yesterday it would not recognize Israel
even after a unity government takes power in the Palestinian territories.
Read article here
ANALYSIS: No Technical Solution to Ongoing Qassam Rocket Fire
By Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz -- Israel wasted many years in fruitless debate
over a technological solution to the problem posed by the Qassam rockets fired
against Sderot and the western Negev. It is best not to delude the citizens
of Israel with false promises: Even if a miracle does take place and a decision
on the appropriate technilogical solution is made, it would be two to three
years before emergence of the first results.
Read
article here
UK MUSLIM ORGANIZATION SAYS IT MADE A "GRAVE ERROR" OVER DAVID
IRVING
A Muslim organisation said yesterday that one of its founders had made
a "grave mistake" when he sent money and letters of support to the
historian David Irving, jailed this year in Austria for Holocaust denial. Asghar
Bukhari, a former chief executive of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC),
which describes itself as a civil liberties group, admitted sending a donation
to help Irving fight a libel case in 2000.
Read
article here
POLICEMAN WHO KILLED SOCCER FAN IS HELD
Sarkozy orders crackdown on football violence after
riots that stunned Paris
Sunday November 26, 2006, The Observer
French prosecutors yesterday opened an investigation into the shooting
of a football fan by a police officer during an outbreak of soccer hooliganism
that has shocked Paris. Last night the plainclothes police officer, Antoine
Granomort, was in custody after shooting dead a 24-year-old fan and wounding
another, apparently with the same bullet, during an attack by Paris Saint-Germain
fans on a supporter of an Israeli club, Hapoel Tel Aviv, after Thursday night's
Uefa Cup match.
Read
article here
PSG: le policier a été libéré après son
audition comme témoin assisté
LEMONDE.FR avec AFP • Mis à jour le 26.11.06
Antoine Granomort, le policier qui a tué jeudi soir Julien Quemener,
un supporteur du PSG, alors qu'il portait secours à un spectateur
juif a été
entendu comme "témoin assisté" dans la
soirée de samedi 25 novembre par le juge d'instruction parisien
Henri Pons, en l'absence de la juge d'instruction Nathalie Dutartre qui
a été saisie de l'enquête. A l'issue de l'audition,
le mis en cause a été laissé libre, a-t-on appris
de source judiciaire. Par ailleurs, un supporteur du PSG, interpellé jeudi
soir, a été mis en examen et placé en détention
provisoire samedi dans le cadre d'une seconde information judiciaire.
Read
article here
I AM NOT GUILTY
“By praising the Jews and Christians, by attempting to travel to
Israel and by predicting the so-called rise of Islamist militancy in the country
and expressing such through writings inside the country and abroad, you have
tried to damage the image and relations of Bangladesh with the outside world...
Are you guilty or not?”A Bangladeshi judge reading the charges
being brought against moderate Muslim journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury,
at the start of his trial Monday. Choudhury, editor of the English-language,
pro-Western Weekly Blitz newspaper in the capital of Dhaka, responded, “Not
guilty.” Choudhury has already faced persecution and 17
months of imprisonment for writing articles friendly to Israel and critical
of Islamic militants, and for attempting to travel to Israel in 2003. If
he is convicted, Choudhury could be hanged. (Wall Street Journal,
Nov. 15)
Read
article here
PRESIDENT CHIRAC SAID HE WAS HORRIFIED BY THE REPORTS OF RACISM
Saturday, 25 November 2006
French President Jacques Chirac has condemned violence that
led to the shooting of a French football fan by a plain-clothes police officer.
The policeman fired into the crowd after he was physically attacked while
seeking to protect a fan from anti-Semitic abuse, officials say.
The violence broke out after Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv beat Paris Saint
Germain (PSG) 4-2 in a European match. Mr Chirac said he was horrified
by the reports of racism and anti-Semitism.
Read article here
RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM SPEECH BY DOMINQUE DE VILLEPIN AT A WORLD
JEWISH CONGRESS DINNER (excerpts) - Claims that France is Serious About Fighting
French Antisemitism.
Paris, November 12, 2006
France is pursuing a determined fight against anti-Semitism in our country
and globally. Since 2002 we have been doing everything possible
to step up prevention and crack down on anti-Semitism.
Read
article here
BRITISH 'SILENTLY BOYCOTT' ISRAELI ACADEMICS
The International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom warns against a
“silent boycott” in Britain against Israeli institutes of higher
education. The council said that Israeli researchers wishing to publish articles
in Britain were asked to remove the name of which ever Israeli academic institute
they belonged to as a condition for publishing their articles.
Read article
here
MAYOR LIVINGSTON DECLARES WAR ON RACE EQUALITY WATCHDOG
Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer, November 26, 2006
A furious clash over multiculturalism has erupted after the
Mayor of London accused Trevor Phillips, head of Britain's race equality watchdog,
of peddling falsehoods and failing victims of racism. Ken Livingstone is refusing
to attend a two-day conference this week on race relations being organised
by Phillips, casting a shadow over what was meant to be a celebration of 30
years of anti-discrimination law.
Read
article here
THE JOKE IS ON THE RACISTS, SAYS RELAXED 'BORAT'
Sacha Baron Cohen has stepped out of character to answer critics of his
alter ego, Borat, explaining that the comic creation should not be taken literally
but that it "works as a tool" for exposing prejudice and racism.
The 35-year-old British actor, who has played the lewd and dim-witted Kazakh
journalist throughout all the publicity for the hit film, defended his comedy
against the complaints and lawsuits it has generated.
Read
article here
JUST ANTISEMITIC LAUGH? HARDLY
By Charles Krauthammer, November 24, 2006; Page A41
"Borat" is many things: a sidesplitting triumph of slapstick
and scatology, a runaway moneymaker and budding franchise, the worst thing
to happen to Kazakhstan since the Mongol hordes, and, as columnist David Brooks
astutely points out, a supreme display of elite snobbery reveling in the humiliation
of the hoaxed hillbilly. But it is one thing more, something Brooks alluded
to in passing but that requires at least one elaboration: an unintentionally
revealing demonstration of the unfortunate attitude many liberal Jews have
toward working-class American Christians, especially evangelicals.
Read
article here
Quotes and Headlines
SUDAN: DOZENS KILLED IN DARFUR ATTACK(Darfur) Up to 30
villagers were killed and 40 wounded when armed men riding horses and camels
attacked a village in the western Darfur region, an African Union spokesperson
said. The attackers were suspected to be the janjaweed, the Arab terrorists
who have been slaughtering black Africans across the region. The three-hour
attack on Nov. 11 took place in the town of Sirba in West Darfur State, close
to the Sudan-Chad border. On Nov. 13, Chad declared a state of emergency in
the capital, Ndjamaena, as well as some eastern areas on the Sudanese border
where raiders on horseback have killed hundreds of non-Arab villagers in attacks
in recent weeks. (New York Times, Nov. 14)
LEBANESE ALL-PARTY TALKS FAIL(Beirut) Lebanon’s government
was plunged into crisis Nov. 12 after five Cabinet members resigned in what
appeared to be an attempt by Hezbollah to cause its collapse. Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora attempted to hold his government together by refusing to accept
the resignations. Hezbollah piled on pressure by announcing street demonstrations
this week to force the government to accede to the group’s demands for
greater Cabinet representation. All-party talks aimed at averting the crisis
broke down in Beirut on Nov. 11 after Siniora’s allies rejected demands
by Hezbollah and its allies for representation that would have given them sufficient
power to veto key legislation. Hours after the talks failed, the five Cabinet
ministers representing Hezbollah and its Shia ally, the Amal movement, resigned.
Under the Lebanese constitution, if eight ministers resigned, the government
will have to be dissolved and therefore could not accept the UN international
tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of the country’s former
prime minister, Rafik Hariri. (New York Times, Nov. 11; National
Post, Nov. 13)
“The fact that the leader of a nation such as Iran can threaten the
very existence of another nation, as he does towards Israel, is not something
that we can tolerate or would ever tolerate.”Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, responding to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s
escalating nuclear ambitionsthe main topic of Olmert’s hour-long
meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush this week.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Bush to start
a “new partnership” with Iran, and to reopen diplomatic
negotiations, if Iran were forthcoming to the Americans about its nuclear
project. (New York Times, Nov. 14)
“With the wisdom and resistance of the nation, today our position
has stabilized. I’m very hopeful that we will be able to hold the
big celebration of Iran’s full nuclearization in the current year.”Iranian
leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, expressing hope that Iran would celebrate
the completion of its nuclear fuel program within the Islamic state’s
current calendar year, which ends on March 20. Meanwhile, experts from
the International Atomic Energy Agency have found unexplained traces of plutonium
and highly enriched uranium in a nuclear waste facility in Iran. Both
materials can be used in building a nuclear warhead. (NYT, Ha’aretz,
Jerusalem Post, Nov. 14,15)
“We won’t talk to the Zionist regime [Israel] because
it is a usurper and an illegitimate entity. But we will talk to the U.S.
government… Should it correct its behaviour, we will talk to them.” Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, the hard-line Iranian president, offering conditional grounds
whereby he would talk to the United States. Furthermore, the Iranian leader
Monday re-iterated his desire for the annihilation of the Jewish State, Monday,
when he said: “We will soon witness its disappearance and destruction.” (NYT,
Ha’aretz, Jer. Post, Nov. 14,15)
“It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to
arm itself with atomic bombs. [Ahmadinejad] is preparing another Holocaust
for the Jewish state.”Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, in a speech to delegates at the annual United Jewish Communities
General Assembly in Los Angeles Monday. Speaking to Israeli Army Radio
on Tuesday, Netanyahu said, “We must do everything to ensure that
[U.S. President] Bush holds to his promises to prevent a [nuclear] armed Iran,
but we must also prepare Israel for defending itself should the need arise...
Israel has the capability, but if we wait years it will no longer exist… Iran’s
goals are global, and we are the first target. Every month that passes
Iran comes closer to its goal.” In addition, Netanyahu suggested
that Israel should file a complaint with the International Court of Justice
in the Hague against Iranian President Ahmadinejad, “for his plans
to commit genocide,” adding that “We must come together
and build a ‘Manhattan Project’ to guarantee that Iran doesn’t
arm itself with nuclear weapons.”
(Ha’aretz, Jer. Post, Nov. 14)
“Iranian President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] is a disgrace to religion. He
is the number one Holocaust denier. He has said he’s going to destroy
Israel. But he can still go speak at the United Nations. There is something
wrong with that.” Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace laureate and
Holocaust survivor, on the Iranian threat. “If [Ahmadinejad]
continues, Iran should be expelled from the UN as long as he is president. To
preach genocide is against the genocide convention.” (Nat’l
Post, Nov. 14)
Related Links
Engage Website
Scholars for Peace in the Middle
East
Coordination
Forum for Combating Antisemitism
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Stephen Roth Institute
for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and
Racism
US State Department
- Report on Global Anti-Semitism
Wikipedia on Antisemitism
US Commission on Civil Rights
US Holocaust
Museum
Wikipedia - Antisemitism
Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism | ISPS
| yiisa.program@yale.edu
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