Today’s Top Stories
1. Congress is mulling a bill that would “expand how the Department of Education defines anti-Semitism in advising learning institutions on how to identify discrimination.” The JTA explains:
The measure expands previous guidelines sent periodically to educational institutions receiving federal funding to define anti-Semitism according to a definition first published by the State Department in 2010.
It adopts the definition set forth by the European Parliament Working Group on Anti-Semitism: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Both definitions also outline when criticism of Israel crosses into anti-Semitism, citing the “three D’s” first advanced by Natan Sharansky, the Israeli politician and former prisoner of the Soviet gulag: Demonization, double standard and delegitimization.
2. A controversial piece of legislation passed its first of several Knesset hurdles yesterday. MKs approved the first reading of the “Regulation bill,” which would retroactively legalize a number of illegally built settler outposts. In a must-read explainer, the Times of Israel clarifies exactly what is and isn’t in the bill, and what it means on political, legal and international levels.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Haaretz: For the first time, Israel denied entry to a foreign national BDS activist.
Isabel Phiri of Malawi was rejected for a tourist visa after she landed in Israel on Monday afternoon, on the basis of her activism for the World Council of Churches group which supports the BDS movement.
The Strategic Affairs Ministry says the churches council has been advancing the EAPPI plan (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine) since 2002, and said its activists arrive in Israel for specific periods for anti-Israeli activities.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Six Palestinians from eastern Jerusalem were arrested for using Facebook and Instagram to incite attacks on Israelis. According to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld,
“The messages and photos they put out received hundreds of likes, comments, and positive feedback.”
• Two wounded in Hamas-Salafist clashes in southern Gaza.
• Former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni discussed the future of the peace process and US-Israeli relations under Donald Trump in a Washington Post Q+A.
Around the World
• The director of the Polish Culture Institute in Berlin was fired for “too much Jewish-themed content.”
• Due credit to Carole Cadwalladr and The Guardian’s Sunday paper, The Observer, for prompting Google to remove “Jews are evil” and other inappropriate automated search suggestions.
Google’s autocomplete feature aims to suggest common searches after a user enters one or more words into the site’s search box or address bar of its Chrome browser.
Typing the phrase “are Jews” into Google, the search engine suggested “evil”, for “are women” it again suggested “evil” and for “are Muslims” it suggested “bad”, an Observer article reported.
• NY Times public editor: Some tweets from our political reporters during the election campaign were ‘outrageous’ and some journalists deserve to be disciplined. (Related reading: Why US Election Coverage Is a Wake Up Call for Israel’s Supporters.)
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– David Horovitz: Why John Kerry failed to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace
– Jonathan Tobin: Kerry’s bitter alternative reality
– Andrea Peyser: Colleges aren’t just politically correct — they’re anti-Semitic
– Dr. Yasser Awad: The academic answer to BDS efforts
– Burak Bekdil: Erdogan’s gritted-teeth peace with Israel
– Annika Hernroth-Rothstein: The normalization of anti-Semitism
– Emma Green: Are Jews white?
– Thane Rosenbaum: How the Holocaust became a weapon against the Jews
– Karen Glaser: The fear driving British Jews to Jewish schools
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA HonestReporting, Zuhair A. Al-Traifi;
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