Google Earth and the Campaign to Wipe Israel Off the Virtual Map

From the Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs:

Virtual Israel, as represented by Google Earth, is littered with orange dots, many of which claim to represent "Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war."

Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile.

Each dot links to the "Palestine Remembered" site, where further information advancing this narrative can be obtained.

Many of the claims staked out in Google Earth present misinformation, and sites known to be ruins in 1946 are claimed to be villages destroyed in 1948. Arab villages which still exist today are listed as sites of destruction.

The Google Earth initiative is not only creating a virtual Palestine, it is creating a falsification of history. The concept of "replacement geography" replaces the historical connection of one people to the land with a connection between another people and the land.

The inclusion of virtual Palestine, superimposed on Israel in the core layer of Google Earth, is an example of replacement geography advanced by technology.

Those wishing to explore Israel in Google Earth are immediately taken to a politically motivated narrative unrelated to their quest. Google should remove the narrative and treat Israel as it treats every other country on the globe.

The core layer of Google Earth should be ideology free and not serve as a platform for indoctrination or a campaign to wipe Israel off the virtual map.

Al-Dura Trial: Karsenty Wins in Paris

The truth emerges about Palestinianism, Palestiniasts, Pallywood and the al-Dura hoax. Via HonestReporting. com:

The iconic images of Mohammad al-Dura's alleged death in Gaza inflamed Palestinian sentiment and provoked terrible bloodshed. Despite the evidence that Israel was not responsible for firing the bullets that hit al-Dura, and doubts as to the credibility of the footage taken from the scene, this libel has continued to prevail.

HonestReporting has brought you the news directly from the trial of Philippe Karsenty, who accused France 2 and its reporter Charles Enderlin of knowingly broadcasting doctored footage of the al-Dura incident.

To recall, France 2 successfully sued Karsenty who then appealed against the verdict. At the appeal trial, some of the raw footage taken during that fateful day in Gaza was aired to a packed courtroom that witnessed numerous examples of "Pallywood" staging of events. France 2, however, only made available some 18 out of 27 minutes of footage that apparently exists.

Evidently, these scenes and the unreliability of France 2's cameraman Talal Abu Rahma has convinced the French appeals judge. Philippe Karsenty has won the appeal against his libel conviction.

Media commentator Tom Gross, who has previously reviewed (see our exclusive video) the al-Dura affair for HonestReporting, said in response to the verdict:

Today's ruling shows there are serious doubts about France 2's version of events, and that the entire world press - including the American TV networks - were irresponsible in being so quick to take at face value the claims of a local Palestinian cameraman working for France 2, a cameraman who has admitted his partisanship.

Karsenty said in a statement released after his victory:

The al-Dura lie is an assault on our ability to think, to criticize, to evaluate, and finally to reject information - especially the right to reject information on which we base our most cherished assumptions. One of Europe's most cherished assumptions is that Israel is a vicious Nazi-like entity that deliberately murders Palestinian Arab children. Moreover, polls conducted in Europe have identified Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, greater than Iran and North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The al-Dura hoax is one of the pillars on which these assumptions rely.

Now it is time for France 2 to acknowledge that it created and is continuing to perpetuate the worst anti-Semitic libel of our era.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

At the time of writing, the full judgment had not been released to the media. However, Take A Pen's Endre Mozes was in the courtroom delivering firsthand accounts of proceedings to HonestReporting. Mozes spoke with some of the lawyers involved who had seen a copy of the judgment prior to its forthcoming release.
Amongst his observations and the comments from these lawyers was the court's acceptance of the argument that protagonists operating in non-democratic regimes such as the Palestinian areas are inherently less reliable and should be carefully scrutinized as should have been the case with Talal Abu Rahma.

Essentially, the court decided the level of doubt associated with the al-Dura footage warrants deep analysis. It is perfectly legitimate to question it, not libelous.

Philippe Karsenty's efforts have opened up France 2 to scrutiny and serves as an example of how the media should be held accountable for their material and the consequences of their reporting. France 2's al-Dura footage has been shown in court to be unreliable and possibly fake. Along with a number of investigations concluding that Israel was not responsible for the bullets that allegedly killed the boy, the icon that is al-Dura - the edifice upon which so much hostility has been directed at Israel, aided and abetted by a willing media - comes toppling down.

WHERE IS THE COVERAGE?

So far, despite access to Reuters and Associated Press wire reports, only Jewish and Israeli media have published the trial verdict. The mainstream media has regrettably remained silent. Is the same media that did so much to propagate the al-Dura libel without verifying the facts now too embarrassed to admit that they may have erred?

If your local media outlet has not covered this story, write to it and ask why not. While Philippe Karsenty has had his day in court, the State of Israel and all of those victims of the terror and violence fueled by images of al-Dura deserve nothing less.

Some of our own subscribers were not even in their teens in 2000 when the al-Dura case occurred and may not even remember it. Some of those who do remember have questioned why we should continue to pursue this case several years later.

We believe that, irrespective of how long it may take, the truth will emerge. Accountability and justice do not dissipate over time. HonestReporting will continue to hold the media to account and to revisit those cases where an injustice has been done.

COMING SOON - THE BIG LIES

HonestReporting will be bringing you the court's full judgment as part of a brand new interactive resource - The Big Lies. Using multimedia resources, including audio and video footage, al-Dura is but one of a number of case studies where untrue accusations have been reported as facts. This exciting resource will enable you to examine the lies, how the media presented them, and the real facts, as well as further resources to counter the next "Big Lie".

NGOs promote "Israeli Apartheid Week"

Islam-loving NGOs promote "Israeli Apartheid Week", where lies, fabrications, and false accusations are the order of the day. Via NGO Monitor:

War on Want, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Keshev, I'lam and ICAHD, (whose funders include the EU, Finnish and British governments, and NIF), are joining a number of extremist NGOs to promote "Israeli Apartheid week."

Israeli Apartheid week (IAW) was first held in Canada in 2004. In 2008 it encompasses events in Canada, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, the USA and the Palestinian Territories. Its stated aim, in line with the NGO declaration from the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism in Durban, is "to create a widespread awareness of Israeli apartheid and to bolster support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign." The organizers assert the "imperative of" "isolat[ing] the Israeli apartheid regime."

Despite serious critiques of such "apartheid" rhetoric, many NGOs continue to use it as a political tool to delegitimize the existence of Israel. War on Want (WoW), which is funded by the UK and Irish governments, featured in Warwick University's program. On February 7, 2008, WoW's Senior Global Justice Campaigner, Ruth Tanner spoke on "Resistance day’: ‘Resisting the occupation: should we bother?" Berkely University, exhibited an ICAHD photographic display and Linda Ramsden, Chair of ICAHD UK is a listed speaker of the UK event. Rochama Marton, founder and President of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), which receives money from the EU and Finnish Embassy among others, addressed a panel at the UK university, SOAS on February 11, 2008. On February 14, SOAS will also host a panel on "Media and Normalising Israeli Apartheid," which lists Yizhar Be’er, Executive Director of Keshev and former executive director of B’Tselem, and Haneen Zoubi, General Director of NIF and British council-funded I’lam, as speakers.

IAW's material selects and distorts facts to support its destructive political agenda, including baseless claims of "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians, the "720 km long concrete wall", and that "[t]orture is used against virtually every Palestinian arrested." The participation of NGOs, funded by governments and the NIF, which claim to promote universal human rights, in an event which distorts these values to demonize Israel, is highly troubling.

Poles don't want to live with the Jews

Received by email. The link to the article is in Polish, but here it is, translated into English:

Warsaw commemorates the events of March 1968.

[In March 1968, the Polish authorities provoked student demonstrations, which were utilized to escalate the government-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign started by the communist party leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in the Middle East in June 1967--VR].

However, the prejudice toward the Jews isstill alive. TNS OBOP [the oldest research and marketing information company in Poland and Central Europe -- <http://www.tns-global.pl/about>] conducted a poll at the request of the Inter-Cultural Center for Professional Adaptation [MCAZ]. The poll probed our attitudes toward immigrants.

An excerpt from this study was included in the invitation to a press conference that we received in the newspaper from the MCAZ.

It shows that only 27% of Poles would want a Jew as a neighbor.

More people would like to have immigrants from Africa as neighbors (31%).

We asked Warsaw residents if they would like Israelis as neighbors. The most frequent answer was: "I do not harbor any prejudices, but I would not like to live next to a Jew."

Why? Explanations varied. "It's a tradition" - explained Barbara Mazur from the Wola district. "Because you never know what to expect from them" - said Jan Kasprzak, an economist from Wilanow.

Tolerance from a Distance.

The results of the TNS OBOP poll do not agree with a study just published by the daily Polska. It concluded that Poles do not consider themselves anti-Semites. Fifty seven percent believe that we are free of prejudice.

Why such discrepancy between studies? Prof. Janusz Czapinski, Warsaw University Institute of Psychology, explains that this is a typical [Polish] reaction. "A question about anti-Semitism involves a big distance from the topic. The respondents do not require any contact with the Jews to respond to the question. In the case of neighborhood the distance significantly shortens. At this level antipathy and reservations may surface. I suspect that if a question was asked whether the respondent would have accepted a Jewish son or daughter in-law, even fewer people would give a positive answer" - says the professor. "The truth is that Poles are tolerant, but only from a distance."

Shallow, but Wide Piotr Kadlcik, chairman, Warsaw Jewish Congregation, has no illusions. In his opinion, anti-Semitism in Poland even 40 years after the March events is a big problem. "It is widely spread, but fortunately shallow" - he diagnoses. "It means that we know that we would not want a Jew for a neighbor or a boss, but when asked for a reason, we have usually a problem with an explanation. Why? Because the majority of people saying that has never had any contact with a Jew" - adds Kadlcik.

How to change this situation? Kadlcik has a simple recipe: "Educate, educate, and more educate" - he says.

This year education means.... official ceremonies. Their organizers rely on two events: the staging of the play "Forefathers" [This classic 19th century Polish play, which was stopped in January 1968 for supposedly exaggerated anti-Russian accents in the staging of the drama, caused protests from students and writers.] and the placing of a commemorative plaque at the Gdanski railroad station in Warsaw [Many thousands of Jews - including my family and close relatives - left Poland in 1967-1971 from this station; there is already a commemorative plaque there placed by the "Shalom"Foundation 10 years ago. I don't understand why a new one is needed. See http://www.izrael.badacz.org/zydzi_w_polsce/katalog_mazowsze_warsaw_inne.html
Scroll all the way down to the last picture].

More cemetery vandalism in Polish area

From JTA:

A swastika defacing a Jewish grave in northeastern Poland is the third such desecration in the area this year.

The swastika in Suwalki was discovered last week in the town's Jewish cemetery.

“We notified the prosecutor’s office, and the local authorities are not dealing with it since the cemetery just last month came under the ownership of the Jewish community in Poland," Monika Krawczyk of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland told JTA. "We are not going to clean it up since it testifies to attitudes of some local residents today.”

Earlier this year in Augustow and Bialystok, swastikas and the expression “Jude Raus,” meaning "Jews Out" in German, were found on gravestones in Jewish cemeteries.

Krawczyk added, however, that she was hopeful as thousands of non-Jewish Polish students had recently participated in cleaning up cemeteries across Poland.

Vanessa Redgrave says IDF practices infanticide

Vanessa Redgrave, another twisted Islamist puppet, says the IDF practices infanticide.