It's come to this: Louvre and other French tourist sites refuse to book Israeli student groups
Paris' famous Louvre art museum and several other French cultural sites have refused to book reservations for a group of art history students from Tel Aviv University who were planning to visit.
Last month, Sefy Hendler, who teaches in the university’s art history
department, began finalizing the itinerary. Hendler, who also writes
for Haaretz, contacted the administration of the Louvre and of
Sainte-Chapelle, the medieval Gothic chapel, to schedule visits there.
Both institutions declined his request. Sainte-Chapelle responded that
there was no space available on the date requested. The Louvre refused
to allow the visit even though three possible dates were proposed for
it.
“It surprised me that a place that receives nine
million visitors a year didn’t find room for us,” Hendler told Haaretz,
referring to the Louvre, “even though we asked to tour in the middle of
the week.”
After being turned down, Hendler attempted to make
arrangements for a visit on the same dates and times, using names of
fictitious educational institutions from Italy and Abu Dhabi in the
Persian Gulf – and was told that space was available.
At that point, the TAU faculty member said he
considered cancelling the entire tour, but ultimately he decided to
provide details of the incident to the president of French Friends of
TAU, Francois Heilbronn, who pursued the matter with the institutions
involved, as well as with French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin.
The Louvre is claiming that they don't understand how this happened.
The administration of the Louvre responded that it was “disturbed”
over the incident and initiated an internal investigation into the
matter, but told Heilbronn added that the reservation system at the
world-famous museum is almost entirely automated. By contrast,
reservations for visits to Sainte-Chapelle are handed manually by staff.
Philippe Belaval, the president of the National
Monuments Center, which administers Sainte-Chapelle, said his
organization conducted an internal investigation that revealed recurring
irregularities, but at this stage it was not clear that the incident
involving the TAU students constituted a case of discrimination due to
their origins.
Hendler said he does not accept this explanation.
“It’s clear to me that when you say no to Israelis, it’s a
discriminatory and racist act. They don’t care whether you’re left- or
right-wing. They simple don’t want the Israeli in the narrow sense
through which they view him. It’s an incident that I simply don’t
understand,” he noted.
You don't say. And I thought that if we gave the 'Palestinians' their reichlet, the Europeans would suddenly become our biggest fans. You mean they won't? Oh my....
“What was the idea? That if we don’t see the 'Mona Lisa' [at the Louvre]
then the occupation [of the West Bank] would end? It’s completely
foolish,” Hendler said.
As my kids would say, "boker tov Eliyahu" (a colloquial way of saying "Welcome to the real world").
Your tax shekels worked hard on Sunday as Tel Aviv University hosted about 300 demonstrators promoting 'Naqba day,' the 'Palestinian' narrative that refers to the founding of the State of Israel as a 'catastrophe.'
Arab students carried
pictures of relatives and read testimonies of Palestinians who were
forced from their homes and villages during Israel's War of
Independence.
"The tragedy of the Palestinian people began in '48 and continues to this day," the students said.
One demonstrator, a communications and law student, said that "in
order for Arabs and Jews to live together we must recognize the tragedy
of our people, our oppression, our expulsion. It cannot be denied."
The student stressed that "this day is even more important considering the current wave of hate crimes we have been witnessing."
YNet said that there were 300 protesters. The picture above is a picture of the counter-protesters. How many do you think are there? YNet obviously thinks it's less than 300. I'm not convinced.
Across from the
demonstrators were a few Jewish students who were protesting against
marking Nakba Day. One of the counter-protesters accused the
demonstrators of grieving over Israel's creation: "Let us remember the
facts: Arabs rejects the partition plan, they started the war, and they
are still trying to destroy us. We are here to fight for the truth."
Note that there are Jews on both sides of the protest, but Arabs are only on one side. Only Jews delude themselves that the Arab narrative is somehow more true than ours.
Think about this the next time you are asked to contribute to Tel Aviv University.
Hezbullah terrorist's appearance at Tel Aviv University canceled
Finally:
Breaking: the visit of convicted #hezbollah terrorist tmrw at TelAvivU is CANCELED. Once again, sanity won (but not without a fight).
— Ido Daniel (@IdoDaniel) April 6, 2014
Leftists hold 'occupation conference' on ruins of Arab village
Nationalist Baruch Marzel crashed a conference about the 'occupation' at Tel Aviv on Thursday, and decried the hypocrisy of holding the conference on the ruins of the Arab village of Sheikh Munis.
Nationalist activist Baruch Marzel succeeded in entering a Tel Aviv
University conference on "influences of the occupation" on Israeli
society this Thursday. As Professor Daniel Bar-Tal waxed on about "war
crimes" of moving populations from "occupied territory," Marzel spoke
out about the "real occupation."
"You're on an Arab mosque, here is the occupation. You're in the
occupation, you profit off of the occupation," leveled Marzel at the
professors, pointing to the hypocrisy of the university which was
founded on what was previously the Arab village of Sheikh Mounis.
"You live the occupation, there's a mosque under this building that
they destroyed, and expelled the people to Hevron where I live,"
continued Marzel.
After members of the conference tried to silence Marzel by accusing
him of not being used to academic guidelines of debate, Marzel fired
back "I'm used to the truth."
I'd be happy to trade Sheikh Munis for the rest of the country. Let the 'Palestinians' have Sheikh Munis and we'll keep Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, etc.
This is rich: UK Nobel prize co-winner boycotts university of his Israeli co-winner
These people have no shame. None. Tom Gross reports.
François Englert, 80, a Belgian Holocaust survivor, was yesterday
awarded the Nobel Prize in physics together with British physicist Peter
Higgs.
Englert is a Sackler Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy
at Tel Aviv University, and has taught at, done research at, and been
associated with Tel Aviv University for over 30 years. He is also a
professor emeritus at the University of Brussels.
Interesting – but not surprisingly – in their reports yesterday,
media outlets with a track record of hostility to Israel, such as the
New York Times, did not mention in their quite lengthy articles that
Englert, a Belgium-born Jew, is a professor at Tel Aviv University, and a
Holocaust survivor.
In 2004, Englert, Higgs and Robert Brout won the Wolf prize, an
Israeli award granted by the Wolf Foundation and seen as a precursor to
the Nobel. (Englert’s colleague Robert Brout passed away in 2011;
otherwise he may have also shared yesterday’s Nobel Prize.)
(Tom Gross exclusive:) Englert’s British co-winner of Nobel Prize for
Physics, Professor Peter Higgs, effectively refuses to acknowledge the
fact his co-recipient teaches at Tel Aviv University. Higgs is calling
for an academic boycott of Israel, and refused to attend the Wolf prize
ceremony.
On Monday, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to two American
Jewish professors, James Rothman and Randy Schekman, together with
Thomas Suedhof of Germany. They narrowly beat their Israeli colleagues
to the prize. Hebrew University professors Howard Cedar and Aaron Razing
were thought to be frontrunners in the run-up to the announcement.
Both Israeli and Diaspora Jews have won an incredibly high number of Nobel Prizes.
Be prepared: US Navy sending ships 'in case' US citizens need to be evacuated
Thanks guys, but I think it's a lot more likely that you'll need to evacuate US citizens from Gaza.
CNN is reporting that the United States has sent three warships to the Eastern Mediterranean 'in case' they need to evacuate US citizens from Israel.
CNN reported on Monday that the US Navy is
returning warships to the eastern Mediterranean in the event that US
citizens in Israel will need to be evacuated if the Gaza conflict
intensifies.
Two US officials said that
an evacuation is a remote possibility and that US citizens interested in
leaving Israel now can do so via commercial flights.
"This is due diligence. It is better to be prepared should there be a need," CNN quoted a US official as saying.
The
USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall had been en
route from the eastern Mediterranean to the US for the Thanksgiving
holiday before they were given the order to turn back around, according
to the report.
Maybe it's just me. I look at this and think that it's an overreaction, but yesterday I had a cup of coffee with someone who told me about a yeshiva here (and there are many) in which the foreign students are in lockdown mode (okay, that yeshiva is close enough to Gaza to be in the line of fire).
New York
University's Tel Aviv program was suspended for the rest of the
semester, and its students and faculty were evacuated to London.
The
university is considering whether to reopen for the spring semester,
according to NYULocal, a student news blog. The northern Tel Aviv campus
was evacuated due to the current violence between Israel and Gaza
terrorists firing rockets into Israel.
The 11 students may
transfer to NYU overseas campuses in London, Prague or Florence, or
return to New York, according to the blog.
The NYU administration said it did not think the students were in any immediate danger.
And for those of you with children here, perhaps this is the time to tell a story that my rabbi told when I was in yeshiva 34 years ago (when there was no war on).
In 1967, when my rabbi was studying in the Ponevich yeshiva, all of the foreign students fled in the lead-up to the war. When they returned after the war, many of the Israelis did not want to speak to them because they felt their fleeing showed a lack of faith in the Almighty. It took the intervention of Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach zt"l (the memory of the righteous is a blessing), who argued that not going home would have been a lack of honor to their parents, to allow the foreigners to be accepted back into the yeshiva social life.
If you're a kid studying here and your parents demand that you come home, ask your rabbi, but you may not have much of a choice. If you're a parent with children studying here, ask your rabbi, but puling your kids home now may be showing a lack of faith.
Just my humble opinion.... I live here and have no intention of fleeing.
Your tax shekels at work producing more anti-Israel 'academia'
If you pay taxes in Israel, you are supporting the work of Shlomo Sand, the radical author of The Invention of the Land of Israel. Sand sits in the academic ivory tower at Tel Aviv University. You (and I) pay his salary.
What is a homeland, and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for them throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land?
Following the acclaimed and controversial Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest running national struggle of the twentieth-century. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand's account dissects the concept of 'historical right' and tracks the invention of the modern geopolitical concept of the 'Land of Israel' by nineteenth cntury Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel, it is also what is threatening Israel's existence today.
In other words, this clown is denying the authenticity of the Bible at yours and my expense. And you wonder where our taxes go?
Freedom of speech: Tel Aviv University President Joseph Klepter on Naqba day
Here's a quote from government-funded Tel Aviv University's President, Joseph Klepter, regarding his university's celebration of Naqba day, the day that commemorates the 'tragedy' of the establishment of the State of Israel (link in Hebrew, translation mine).
The university is proud of the fact that for many years it has allowed students from all across the political spectrum to hold political events, so long as they are legal and so long as the organizers under that there will be no words of incitement to violence or racism at the event, and that the course of studies at the institution will not be disrupted.
He then goes on to cite the famous Voltaire quote about "I may not agree with anything you say but I will kill myself for your right to say it."
How much does Dr.(?) Klepter not understand about western concepts of free speech? Let me shorten it to two small points:
1. Free speech means the right to say anything, at least so long as it does not pose a clear and present danger to others' lives. Yes, at least in the US, that includes the right to racist speech (Israeli 'liberals' would be horrified to hear that the Israeli right would be completely allowed in the US to say what it thinks of the Arabs).
2. Free speech does not include the right to have the government pay for your right to speak. That means that a state-sponsored university does not have to allow events at which the state's existence is mourned as a tragedy, and the government does not have to pay for them. That means that Israel's law revoking funding from government-funded institutions who sponsor events commemorating the naqba is completely in keeping with western political thought. A government is not required to fund its own demise.
So here's hoping that when the law is enforced and Tel Aviv University loses all of its government funding, Dr. Klepter will continue to be a supporter of free speech.
Here's video of the Naqba day protest at Tel Aviv University on Monday.
Let's go to the videotape.
The crowd was more or less split between those attending the memorial and a particularly raucous crowd of counter-demonstrators waving Israeli flags, singing the national anthem, honking horns and drowning out the memorial ceremony, with some protesters occasionally chanting “Havenu Nakba Alechem” (“We brought a Nakba upon you”)
Tel Aviv University defied the law on Monday and allowed a Naqba Day demonstration to go ahead. Hopefully, someone will bring an enforcement action to cut off their funding in response. But in the meantime, the Naqba day demonstration brought a strong reaction from Right wing demonstrators.
Some 200 right wing protestors faced off with 400 leftist protestors who sought to hold a Palestinian 'Nakba Day' ceremony – commemorating the "disaster" of the foundation of the State of Israel – at Tel Aviv University, Monday.
Three protestors were arrested after the confrontations. The right wing protestors called out at the organizer of the event, who was arrested: "Traitor!"
Protestors from the right waved Israeli flags and signs that read: "When I came to Israel there was no Palestinian nation," and "I'm proud to be Israeli," they also sang Israeli songs. They also prevented the ceremony's organizers from speaking and booed them repeatedly.
During the ceremony the leftist activists read out what they said was "an alternative Yizkor prayer." Six Arab students presented their personal stories and those present stood for a moment of silence.
In addition the right wing protestors shouted: "Death to terrorists," and "terrorists out." One of them burnt a cardboard drawing of a Palestinian flag. Another shouted out: "Murderers, where were you when a little girl was killed." The left wing protestors responded with: "You're the murderers."
Earlier on Monday a Knesset Education Committee turned into a loud confrontation when the Committee Chairman Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) called on the university to cancel the events. "Today they're reading out Yizkor for the Nakba fallen tomorrow they'll hold a memorial day for Nazi soldiers, he said."
The law says that if you take money from the government and you observe Naqba Day, you lose your government funding. We're waiting.
Your tax shekels and charitable donations at work: Tel Aviv U planning naqba commemoration
They've been commemorating naqba day at taxpayer and donor financed Tel Aviv University (TAU) for years. The difference this year is that we now have a law on the book that forbids anyone who gets money from the government (which would include TAU) from conducting naqba commemorations. Education Minister Gideon Saar has urged TAU's President to comply with the law.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar asked Tel Aviv University President Professor Joseph Klaftner over the weekend to reconsider his decision to allow students to organize an “outrageous” on-campus ceremony to commemorate Nakba Day.
...
TAU announced this week that it would allow students to organize a Nakba Day commemoration under certain provisions, including hiring six school security guards to monitor the day’s events. The school administration also prohibited organizers from using a PA system and hanging flags and banners.
Speaking with the university president, Sa’ar said he thought the university’s decision to allow the ceremony was “false and outrageous,” Army Radio reported.
Students organizing the event said the commemoration would include a moment of silence to emphasize the importance of the Palestinian day of mourning, which falls on the day after the Gregorian date of Israel’s independence.
The event at TAU’s Antine Square is scheduled for May 14.
In addition, organizers will read an alternative version of “Yizkor,” the prayer for Israel’s fallen soldiers traditionally read at memorial ceremonies.
If the university goes through with this, the government will take away all their funding... won't they?
The significance of the security guards is that the students have to pay for them and not the university (link in Hebrew). The university apparently hopes that by having the students pay, the university will not be deemed a sponsor and therefore in violation of the law.
Two Israeli universities - Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University - were ranked in the top 100 in the world in an annual ranking issued by The Times Higher Education (THE) World Top Universities by Reputation 2012. THE issues the survey annually.
The Times Higher Education (THE) World Top Universities by Reputation 2012 ranked the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 61-70 range and Tel Aviv University in the 81-90 range.
Ankara, Turkey's Middle East Technical University was the only other university in the Middle East to make the list, coming in at the 91-100 range.
This wasn't the first time that Israeli universities were recognized by the publication. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was ranked the 121st best university in the world and Tel Aviv University the 166th in the publication's World University Rankings 2011-2012. On the same list, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and Bar-Ilan University were ranked in the 201-225 range and 301-350 range respectively.
According to the weekly, the rankings of universities are determined according to the "overall measure of their esteem that combines date on their reputation for research and teaching."
I'm amazed that the Technion is not higher up, but it's nice to beat Turkey. Heh.
A British physician and medical school professor has written a letter to Tel Aviv University urging it to discipline two of its professors who signed onto a letter calling on an Irish author not to accept a prize from the State of Israel, and calling for support of the BDS (boycott-divest-sanction) movement.
Prof. Stuart Stanton, president of the British Society of Urogynecology and chairman of Hadassah UK, wrote to TAU rector Prof. Aron Shai and president Prof. Yossi Klafter after Prof. Rachel Giora and Dr. Anat Matar, along with 10 other Israeli activists, wrote a letter that was published in the Guardian, calling for British author Ian McEwan to turn down the Jerusalem Prize.
McEwan is set to receive the prize, Israel’s highest literary honor for foreign writers, at a ceremony at the Jerusalem International Book Fair on February 20.
The letter also reiterated support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.
...
Stanton – a visiting professor in Hadassah’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department who goes to Jerusalem to teach, consult and operate on a voluntary basis – said in his letter that with academic freedom comes responsibility, and that if the two lecturers had been working for a public or private company, they would have been suspended.
“Academic freedom is not just a privilege and a right, but it also entails a responsibility, and you must be painfully aware that many Jews, myself included, find this public call by other Israelis, particularly lecturers from your university, for boycott divestment and sanctions, utterly unacceptable and degrading,” he said.
Calling for the university “to take a stand,” he stated, “It is hard for me to understand how you will continue to employ them [the lecturers], and compromise and prejudice the name of your university. Their actions are totally counterproductive to fundraising for your university abroad, particularly in the UK.
“I hope you will give consideration to taking disciplinary action against them and look forward to hearing from you,” he said.
"We are firmly against BDS in all its forms, but there is something particularly insidious in calling on writers and thinkers, and academics for that matter, to participate in boycotts,” said Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “Closed minds are not the solution to the problems in the region."
What Dr. Stanton is calling for is what common sense would dictate. Unfortunately, common sense is in short supply in most of Israel's universities.
Both Giora and Matar have a long history of this sort of behavior (some of which is set out at the link), but I'd be very surprised to see Tel Aviv University take any action against them.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni's bald friend, Ahmad QreiAbu Ala, gave a two-hour harangue at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, in which he decried, among other things, Israel's 'paranoia.'
Qurei apologized to the listeners if some of his remarks sounded harsh, but he said he wanted them to understand how Palestinians perceived Israelis, in hopes that it would lead to better understanding between the two peoples.
“I’m not talking to criticize,” he said. “I am telling you how the Palestinians look in the mirror and see their neighbor. The Israeli is perceived as a brutal soldier,” Qurei said.
“It is the image of one who looks down [on us]... The image of one who has no respect for our national aspiration and determination to achieve it, one who is imprisoned by his own vision as an eternal and only victim,” he said.
“Palestinians are often surprised and saddened by the Israeli society’s indifference to the constant suffering of the Palestinian people,” Qurei said.
“We often wonder how can a society that belongs to the developed world, with all its scientific, economic and military achievement, be so indifferent toward the suffering of the victims and be capable of turning a blind eye or shrinking responsibility for the agony and the pain of the Palestinians,” he said.
Unfortunately, he said, the Palestinian image of an Israeli is that of a killer of sons, husbands and wives, a soldier who is armed and arrogant and whose finger is always on the trigger.
“How can a state after 62 years of establishment and in spite of its tremendous military, economic and scientific superiority continue to live in a constant state of paranoia?” Qurei asked.
“How can a multi-ethnic, pluralistic, open, question-oriented society be infected by self-inflicted isolation coupled with symptoms of fundamentalism and racial discrimination?” he asked.
“How can they [Israelis] remain passive, how can their collective consciousness remain silent, when they see images of a woman of 80 years old being evicted from her home in Sheikh Jarrah?” he asked.
He continued to question how Israelis could accept the “looting and seizing” of West Bank Palestinian land, the construction of the “apartheid separation wall, the uprooting of trees and the arrest and torture of Palestinians.”
Qurei wanted to know how these events could take place in the era of live television, with broadcasting that transcends borders.
Israel is the “last colonial power in the post-colonial era,” he said.
Oh, I don't know. Let's start with the continuing incitement to destroy the State of Israel (and expel all its Jews) that is daily fare in the 'Palestinian' media. Let's continue with the obsession with Israel at the UN where over 120 countries(!) agreed this week to sponsor an anti-Israel resolution in the Security Council (when was the last time 120 countries agreed on anything?). Let's continue with the UN 'Human Rights' Council, whose obsession with Israel is boundless, and which has a separate agenda item for Israel, while finding nothing to criticize in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Cuba and other paragons of human rights. Let's continue with Iran's stated and continuing obsession with destroying the Jewish state. Let's continue with the 'Palestinians' refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Let's continue with the 'Palestinians' murdering over 1,000 Jews between 2000 and 2004 shortly after they were offered a reichlet that would have threatened Israel and they turned it down! Do I need to go on?
By the way, could any Jewish Israeli politician speak at a 'Palestinian' university, the way Abu Bald spoke at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, and say things that the 'Palestinians' wouldn't like to hear, without endangering his or her life? (Answer: No).
It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you. And this mamzer has a hell of a nerve to lecture us about it.
'Constant suffering'? What a load of horse manure.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
