NOVANEWS
August 08, 2010
Israeli airport officials harassed an American of Lebanese descent recently. According to YNET:
Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years under Clinton and is currently the president of the University of Miami, was held for two-and-a-half hours at Ben Gurion Airport during which she underwent a humiliating security debriefing because of her Arab last name – all this despite the fact that her hosts notified the airport ahead of time that she is a VIP…..
When Shalala arrived at the airport, she was not recognized as a VIP and was even afforded what she claims to be “special” treatment because of her Arab last name. She claims she was held for two-and-a-half hours during which she was asked invasive and humiliating personal questions. Despite the delay, she managed to board the flight to the US. Officials who spoke with her said she was deeply offended by the treatment she received.
Deeply offended huh? So what’s this in the Miami Herald:
Shalala, 69, was “delayed by questions and a full luggage search that lasted almost three hours, but she didn’t miss her plane,” said Margot Winick, a University of Miami spokeswoman, in an email.
Shalala was asked personal questions for about two hours, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Shalala was unavailable Saturday morning and university spokespersons declined to comment in detail on the incident, but released a statement from the president:
“While I was inconvenienced, Israel’s security and the security of travelers is far more important,” said Shalala, who is of Lebanese decent. “I have been going in and out of Israel for many years and expect to visit again.”
So what happened at the university between her being “deeply offended” and her expecting “to visit again”?
August 07, 2010
Jewish Chronicle: all the news that’s fit to omit
You’d think a Jewish woman losing an eye when she was shot with a tear gas canister would be news in the Jewish Chronicle but curiously the editor thought that the news was only fit to delete. Check this out from Tony Greenstein’s blog:
Dear Mr Pollard,[Editor of the Jewish Chronicle]
Below is a link to a story I blogged about an ordinary American Jewish student, Emily Honochowicz, who lost an eye peacefully protesting at a checkpoint in Jerusalem, the same day as the Mavi Marmara. A tear gas canister having been shot directly at her.
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-american-jewish-art-student-emily.html
I realise that the habits of editing tabloid newspapers die hard but isn’t it time you covered not just this but the more general drift towards a police state in Israel? The attacks on secular Arab MK Haneen Zoabi, no supporter of Hamas, a liberated woman but clearly not the type that Israel’s knee-jerk supporters like, being the object of virulent abuse in the Knesset.
Instead of being an echo chamber to Jonathan Hoffman isn’t it about time you actually started reporting the more uncomfortable facts? When people look back this period of the Jewish Chronicle will come to be seen as one of its darkest and least glorious chapters.
regards
Tony Greenstein
Back came the intrepid journalist’s reply:
Dear Mr Greenstein,
Thank you for your email, which will make a fine addition to my ‘delete’ folder.
Stephen Pollard
Sent from my iPhone so please reply to
stephenpollard
So spake the editor of the oldest Jewish newspaper in the world.
ADL denounced by CNN anchor
Well this could be a career decision by a courageous CNN anchor, Fareed Zakaria.
I don’t think any of us has written about the breathtaking hypocrisy of the misnamed Anti-Defamation League in opposing the construction of a mosque and Muslim community centre a good two blocks away from where the World Trade Centre once stood. Well, just quickly, there has been a proposal to construct a mosque about two blocks or so away from “ground zero”. Lots of Tea Bag Types, or whatever they’re called, have opposed the project that they are calling the “ground zero mosque“. And the ADL has lent its weight to what is a nasty islamophobic campaign smearing all Muslims as having been involved in the twin towers attack known as 9//11. Here’s the statement from the ADL:
Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said in a statement. “In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnecessarily — and that is not right.
Now, the ADL give awards for this and that and this Farood Zakaria got the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. The what? Never mind what. It was a prize that this Farood Zakaria got and now he’s returning it. This is from the Huffington Post:
Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize,” Zakaria writes in next week’s Newsweek. “I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.
This guy writes for Newsweek and is a CNN anchor. I hope we won’t be placing ex- in front of those job titles he currently still has. Mind you, how did he ever admire the ADL?
But he is a plucky chap. Foxman is on the case:
“I am not only saddened but stunned and somewhat speechless by your decision to return the ADL Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, you accepted in 2005,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a letter to Zakaria. “As someone I greatly respect for engaging in discussion and dialogue with an open mind I would have expected you to reach out to me before coming to judgment.”
Foxman added that the League “did not oppose the right for an Islamic Center or a mosque to be built” but rather “[made] an appeal based solely on the issues of location and sensitivity.”
But the plucky chap responded:
Does Foxman believe that bigotry is OK if people think they’re victims? Does the anguish of Palestinians, then, entitle them to be anti-Semitic?
