Free Republic

JNS.org – Canadian indigenous rights activist Ryan Bellerose recently visited Israel, where he filmed a video in support of the Jewish state in coordination with the Israel education and advocacy group StandWithUs. “Indigenous status means that your people had a coalescence and a genesis on the land,” said Bellerose, who founded the pro-Israel group Calgary United with Israel, in the widely watched video. “Everything that makes Jews Jewish—their spirituality, their traditions, their culture, their language, everything—it stems from Israel.” Bellerose belongs to the Métis community, a native group recognized by the Canadian government as aboriginal. He is also a Zionist...

The IDF Civil Administration on Monday morning dismantled and seized seven portable structures and other building parts that had not yet been assembled in E1, a strategic corridor connecting Jerusalem with Ma'ale Adumim to the east. The structures were set up illegally without permits apparently in the last several days, in the latest Arab land grab attempt in the key region. Jerusalem Belt Forum praised the law enforcement, saying, "we welcome the (Civil) Administration for its enforcement activity this morning." "At the same time, we are witnesses in recent days to a phenomenon in which the Palestinians and the European...

Speakers at a Wednesday evening University of London Student Union (ULSU)-sponsored panel called for the destruction of Israel as a solution to ridding the world of antisemitism, The Algemeiner has learned from a British watchdog group. According to a UK Media Watch report, several panelists issued the calls during an event centered on the theme of antisemitism in the Labour Party and how the current scandal is being used to silence critics of Israel and bring down party leader Jeremy Corbyn. A leaflet handed out at the beginning of the panel, titled “Labour Jews Assert,” stated, “some people…are wielding ‘antisemitism’...

There are some resemblances to a traditional children’s carnival. The children are dressed in beautiful, bright colors. Young girls are bearing flowers in their hair, and the children moving around to loud, fun music, waving flags and singing songs. The one exception at this children’s festival in Gaza is that the songs, musical acts and dances are about guns, bombs and killing Israeli soldiers. It’s the eighth annual Khan Yunis festival and hundreds of young children seated in a stadium watch the show—one in which other children dance around role playing the killing of Israeli citizens, the waving of guns...

A Fake Museum for a Fake Palestine The Palestinian Museum is as empty as its soul. May 20, 2016 Daniel Greenfield    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. 150 years ago, Mark Twain visited Muslim-occupied Israel and wrote of “unpeopled deserts” and “mounds of barrenness,” of “forlorn” and “untenanted” cities. Palestine is “desolate,” he concluded. “One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings.” The same is true of the Palestinian Museum which opened with much fanfare and one slight problem. While admission is free,...

A school built in Gaza using German funds is educating their students on hatred and violence for Israel and providing children with military training At the end of March, a Hamas-affiliated news agency distributed a video showing a Palestinian teacher indoctrinating school children with hatred for Israel and support for an armed struggle against it. The teacher used the letters of the Arabic alphabet as a didactic tool to teach them "the fundamental Palestinian national principles" even before they learn to read. The video did not specify the name of the school; however, data collected by the Intelligence and Terrorism...

The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of illegal Palestinian buildings, some of which are EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to building Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. "In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement. It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in Judea as state land, with...

The Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hosted on Sunday the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Yoav Mordechai, for a discussion of illegal construction in Judea and Samaria. According to information presented to the committee, about 550 illegal structures were built by Arabs in Areas C in the course of 2014, as opposed to 150 illegal structures built by Jews. Bearing in mind that the Arab population in Areas C is smaller than the Jewish one – about 90,000 Arabs compared with about 400,000 Jews – the rate...

Mabye it was because the interview was with the Dubai based Al-Aribiya instead of Western media, and Martin Day, British government spokesman, was more than candid of his governments "anti-Israel political activities" inside the State of Israel: There is this report today in JPost that the rest of the MSM, at the time of this post, has not bothered to cover: "British spokesman Martin Day said in an interview in Dubai with Al-Arabiya television last week that the British government was "taking practical steps towards freezing settlement activities." "For instance," Day said, "we finance projects aimed at halting settlement activities....

Betzalel Smotrich, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, has written a letter to US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that is worth reading in full: [Emphasis below mine, SB] His Excellency Mr. Daniel B. Shapiro Ambassador of the United States of America to the State of Israel Honorable Sir: Re: The Position of the State Department of the United States regarding the issue of the illegal Arab encampment adjacent to the town of Susiya Last week, a statement was issued by the State Department of the United States (Mr. Kirby) relating to the issue of an illegal Arab encampment near the...

A brazen campaign to erase an ancient Jewish village from the map is being led by European-funded NGOs, a report has revealed, once more casting a spotlight on the leading role played by European state funding in the anti-Israel movement. The illegal Arab settlement of Khirbet Susiya, located next to the Jewish town of Susya in Judea, is currently the target of a demolition order by Israeli authorities, having been illegally constructed on the ruins of an ancient, Talmudic-era Jewish village of the same name. […] Now, it has been revealed that the campaign is being led by European-funded Israeli...

A very unusual case of smuggling took place on Thursday, as huge quantities of gold, steroids and smart phones were found in the car of a European Union (EU) representative in Israel, as he drove into the country from Jordan. Dozens of kilograms of gold, hundreds of smartphones and a full package of steroid drugs were discovered by customs inspectors in the car as it tried to pass through the Allenby Border Crossing from Jordan, reports Channel 2. The EU diplomat was detained and later released, and his driver - an Arab resident of the northern Atarot neighborhood of Jerusalem...

Reining in illegal Arab construction is simply "not a top priority" for the government, according to a statement the state conveyed to the Supreme Court. The state was responding to demands that it carry out demolition orders issued against an illegally built Arab school just outside of Jerusalem. The school's construction was funded by the European Union. The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed the case on Wednesday, rejecting claims by Regavim, an NGO which monitors illegal construction in the Arab sector, that the state is intentionally avoiding enforcement of building laws. ...

Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- A former U.S. diplomat is speaking out against the secret trial of a former Moldovan defense minister who has been sentenced to 10 years hard labor for selling MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States in 1997. E. Wayne Merry, a former State Department official who helped negotiate the 1997 sale, says he publicly is describing the U.S. government’s version of events to help show there was no pricing conspiracy involved in the sale of the 21 jets. “The trial is not just about a Moldovan politician,” Merry said in a January 31 discussion...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani said that negotiations with the Europeans aimed at easing international concerns over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme were on the right track. AFP/File Photo But Rowhani nevertheless said he was disappointed that one promised incentive -- Iran's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) -- had failed to materialize despite EU support. "As part of their commitments, the Europeans were supposed to support Iran's membership of the WTO, which they did. But we feel the Europeans did not support Iran enough. They have to get Iran become a member," he told...

Driver fury over Euro cycle laws Motorists face soaring premiums for bike crashes Cyclists v motorists: talk about it here or email us at letters@observer.co.ukJoanna Walters, transport editorSunday August 4, 2002The ObserverA furious row is set to erupt between Britain and Europe over proposed legislation to make car drivers responsible for all accidents involving cyclists - even when the bike rider has broken the law and is in the wrong. To the delight of cyclists and the dismay of drivers, a European law is being planned to force motorists to pay compensation and damages in all accidents with cyclists. The...