Israel Matzav

The truth about Pamela Geller

On Friday, the Forward reported that the Great Neck Synagogue is coming under pressure from 'Jewish' Leftist groups to cancel an appearance by Pamela Geller, who writes the blog Atlas Shrugs.

New York activist groups Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Jews Say No! announced their opposition to a speech set for April 14 by Pamela Geller, an activist known for her extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric, at the Modern Orthodox Great Neck Synagogue.

In an email sent to JVP activists on April 3, the organization called on members to contact the Great Neck Synagogue and ask it to cancel the event. Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP’s executive director, told the Forward on April 4 that at least 50 people had contacted Great Neck Synagogue at the group’s behest.

“Our hope is that the synagogue will cancel her appearance,” Vilkomerson said. “The kind of venom that she spews against Islam is completely inappropriate for a synagogue.”

Pam hit back. 

Here is the full statement I gave to the Forward (they only used one or two sentences):

"These are not truly Jewish organizations. Their fundamental allegiance is to the political left. They are consistently anti-Israel, and manifest complete indifference -- or worse -- when innocent Jews are murdered in cold blood by Islamic jihadists, and when the Gaza Muslims celebrate those murders. Jewish history is plagued with these quislings, who are willing tools serving as the public face for supremacists and annihilationists.

The left uses these Jews to defame and destroy a Jew who is truly standing up for Israel and for the principles of freedom and human rights that the Jewish State represents. It's inexcusable. The kapos had guns to their heads. What's their excuse?"

These savages speak whenever and wherever they want, but challenge the big lies and the manufactured myths and you are in for a world of pain. Huge props to the Great Neck synagogue for standing firm for free speech -- a Jewish value, I might add. I urge my readers and all freedom lovers to join me at the Great Neck synagogue on April 14th and drown out these voices of darkness.

At Yid with Lid, Jeff Dunetz discloses who Pamela Geller really is.

Here is the truth about Pamela Geller. There are people in the world who see a wrong, give a quick "oh that's so sad" and get on with their lives. Then there are others who see a wrong and go all out to right it. That’s Pamela-- someone who goes out of her way to do what we call in Hebrew, Tikun Olam, repair the world.

Let me explain what I mean with a story the Progressives would never repeat.

On the morning of December 10, 2007 Aqsa Parvez huddled in a Missis­sauga, Candad bus shelter with another Grade 11 student, a girl she had been staying with for the past couple of days. They had plenty of time to make it to their first class at Apple­wood Heights Secondary School. As they waited, Aqsa’s 26-year-old brother Waqas, a tow-truck driver, showed up at the bus stop. He said that she should come home and get a fresh change of clothes if she was going to be staying elsewhere. Aqsa hesitated, and then got into his car.

Less than an hour later, Muhammad Parvez phoned 911 and told the dispatcher that he had killed his daughter. Within minutes, police and paramedics arrived at 5363 Longhorn Trail, a winding suburban street near Eglinton and Hurontario, and found Aqsa unconscious in her bedroom. The 16-year-old wasn’t breathing. The para­medics started CPR, found a faint pulse, and rushed her to Credit Valley Hospital, 10 minutes west. She died just after 10 that evening. The official cause was “neck compression”—strangulation.

Aqsa Parvez was buried in an unmarked grave. Her family refused to acknowledge her life, because she "dishonored" them. In defiance of her devout father she began taking off her hijab, the traditional Islamic headscarf, when she went to school, and would put it back on when she returned home. Her dad would go to her school during school hours and walk around trying to find her, trying to catch her not wearing Islamic garb, talking to boys or hanging out with "non-Muslims".

Pamela grabbed that wrong by the neck and did what she could to eradicate the evil. She raised money (and threw in her own) for a tombstone for Aqua’s grave. When the family refused to allow the memorial stone, she did not give up:

“.. we inquired as to purchasing a plot near Aqsa's body, we could not. Not a tree. Not a rock. Not a bench. All the plots were owned by the Islamic Society of North America. I tried to contact the family at that time, but they would not take my calls -- I spoke to the them once, but they pretended not to speak English. And they were adamant: the family refused to allow the headstone to be put on Aqsa's grave, and according to the cemetery, could remove it if it were placed there by others.”

Feeling that this Muslim girl’s memory shouldn’t be tossed out like the trash, Pamela found a way to honor her memory— Aqsa Parvez grove and plaque in the American Independence Park in Nes Harim, Israel.

This is only one of many examples of the hard work of Pamela Geller to protect and honor Muslims, how she has provided safe-houses for Muslim girls threatened with honor killings, how she has fought against those who would destroy Israel.

Read the whole thing.

Pamela and I got our starts in blogging around the same time, commenting on a certain other blog I won't mention. We've been in touch by email from time to time - unfortunately, we have still never met in person.

There are a lot of bloggers out there. I don't know any that are as passionate about what they write as Pamela is. She writes what she believes and she doesn't pull punches. She has gone outside her blog to support the causes in which she believes. Even if you don't agree with her all the time (I agree with her most of the time, but not all), you have to admire her commitment to her causes and her passion for promoting her views. She's the one blogger I know that everyone has heard of. And she's also a single mother of four daughters - I don't know how she does it. But I'm thrilled that she's on our side here in Israel.

So if you're in the New York area on April 14 (I won't be), go hear Pamela speak. You won't be disappointed.

Labels: blogosphere, Pamela Geller

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:45 AM