October 2, 2015
Uprooted Palestinian 
But perhaps most astounding of all is the campaign of threats and intimidation on college campuses here in America. This is extensively covered in a recently-released report entitled “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech,” put out by Palestine Legal. The attacks are going on in some cases with the collusion of university administrators, who as a group are beginning to look very much like the US Congress in terms of the extent to which they are under control of the Jewish lobby. The full report is available here. (H/T to Aletho News)
Report Examines Widespread Attacks on Palestinian Human Rights Activists on College Campuses
A nonprofit legal advocacy organization has documented and responded to nearly 300 incidents of censorship, punishment, and other actions intended to “burden” advocacy for Palestinian human rights. The incidents point to a pervasive problem on American campuses, which is chilling the rights of individuals to engage in free speech.
The incidents are largely a result of pressure from defenders of Israel to the increased success of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli military occupation.
What happens when the mayor of a German city not only commits the unpardonable sin of calling for a boycott of Israeli goods but even has the temerity to suggest that Israel is partly responsible for the refugee crisis in Europe? As the article below reveals, a campaign will get under way to make such a public official pay dearly. Albrecht Schröter is the mayor of Jenna, a city located in eastern Germany, in the German state of Thuringia. Reportedly the campaign against him has been launched, oddly enough, by a so-called “messianic Jew.” Schröter, by the way is a Christian, and, according to one of the comments about him which can be found here, he served as a pastor before going into politics full time.
Criminal Complaint Filed Against German Mayor for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate
Jerusalem Post
(sourced from The Ugly Truth)
A German Jew filed a criminal complaint against the mayor of Jena, Albrecht Schröter, alleging he incited hatred toward Israelis because of his call to boycott products from the Jewish state and blaming Israel for the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe.
The Thüringische Landeszeitung newspaper reported on Tuesday that Andreas Neumann filed the criminal complaint against Schröter with the public prosecutor’s office in Gera.
According to a fax sent to the Mayor’s office, Neumann seeks a 15,000 Euro penalty, as well as a temporary restraining order against the Mayor’s allegedly anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Neumann said “Schröter’s call has a clear anti-Semitic character and is, in my view, clearly incitement to hate.”
Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, told the Post on Thursday “it would be a good sign if the court sees him [Schröter] as an anti-Semitic agitator.”
Neumann said Schröter’s support of a boycott of Israeli products, for example, Soda Stream, targets all Jewish people, as well as Palestinians. “Two generations before my time my ancestors had to wear a ‘label’ and one called it a yellow star,” said Neumann, who sees a parallel between the label on Israeli products from the disputed territories and the Nazi-era designation to dehumanize Jews.
According to Thüringische Landeszeitung, Neumann is a member of a “messianic Jewish community” in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. The president of the Jewish community in Augsburg, Alexander Mazo, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Neumann is not a member of the community’s 1,500 registered Jews, which is part of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Efforts to reach Neumann on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Schröter unleashed a storm of criticism last month after he said Israel is partially responsible for the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. Schröter , a social democratic politician, called on his party colleague, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to “show less restraint” toward the Jewish state. Schröter is currently in Ramallah working on a city partnership between Jena and the headquarters of the Palestinian authority.
Schröter, who has declined to answer Post queries, as well as from the main German Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine, told Thüringischen Landeszeitung that the complaint against him is absurd and unfounded.
Samuels told the Post that Schröter needs to be challenged. “Schröter has a very confused form of anti-Semitism. He is not a clear anti-Semite but a confused anti-Semite. He has an IQ problem and the worry is what impact will it have on the young generation. Germany faces mass migration and there is a need for inclusion. He is not making it easier.”
Samuels asked, “is this what his [Schröter]followers and voters wanted?” The head of the Social Democrats in the state of Thuringia, Andreas Bausewein., where Jena is located, told the Thüringer Allgemeine on Thursday that the party opposes a boycott of Israel and “I don’t share the problem analysis of Albrecht Schröter.”
Bausewein, like Schröter, however, blamed the U.S for being largely responsible for the instability in the Middle East.
Samuels said the anti-American thinking from Bauswein and Schröter is part of a world view of “conspiracy theorists.”
He said the confused thinking from the SPD politicians Thuringia may be linked to the its role as a former communist state of the German Democratic Republic . The East German communist state rejected Israel’s existence and was fiercely anti-American.
***
The insult paid to Schröter regarding his “IQ problem” would seem to be in total contradiction to the compliments and praises posted about him here. One of the comments is by Christine Lieberknecht, who served as prime minister of Thuringia from 2009-2014:
I know Albrecht Schroeter for the last three decades. We were both ordained in 1984. Albrecht Schroeter played a prominent role in the Jena peace movement of the 1980s as well as in autumn 1989. The peaceful revolution in 1989 left a decisive impact on his life as it did equally on me. The freedom achieved was to be shaped and Albrecht Schroeter took responsibility. For the last 25 years I watched him engaged in shaping things courageously. The exceellent development of Jena as a city of science and light with many twin cities worldwide and home to a renowned university are further proof of Schroeter’s peace-promoting activities. Jena was successful in developing and implementing an innovative image of the future based on a great tradition in humanities and in technology. I whole-heartedly congratulate Albrecht Schroeter on his nomination and wish him all success in the contest.
Do you get the feeling that those targeted the most by Jewish smear campaigns are in many cases the best and brightest that societies have to offer? Funny, isn’t it, that the nastiest, most corrupt war-mongering politicians never seem to ignite Jewish ire the way people like Mayor Schröter in Germany or the Palestine solidarity students in America do.
Reykjavík Wasn’t Ready for ‘Brutal’ Zionist Backlash, Says Israel Boycott Author
Councillors in Iceland’s capital were not ready for the “brutal backlash” from Israel and its US lobby groups, Björk Vilhelmsdóttir has told The Electronic Intifada.
She was the Reykjavík city council member who proposed the shortlived boycott of Israeli goods that passed on 15 September by a 9-5 majority.
It was Vilhelmsdóttir’s last legislative act before she left the council. She is currently in the occupied West Bank, volunteering with the solidarity organization International Women’s Peace Service.
The purpose of the boycott, she explained, had been to give “a clear message to Israel that we know how they treat Palestinian people and that we know they do not comply with international human rights conventions and laws.”
“We wanted to respond in a peaceful, but effective way,” Vilhelmsdóttir added.
“Brutal backlash”
On 22 September, the city council rescinded the measure after a storm of pressure and threats, including specific economic threats, from Israel, its supporters and its lobby groups.
“That makes me very sad, but I forgive my colleagues,” Vilhelmsdóttir said. “They had no other option because they were not prepared for this brutal backlash from Israel, the United States and the Zionist lobby.”
Even Vilhelmsdóttir said she was surprised by the fierce reaction.
“I didn’t imagine that the Israelis and the Zionists in the US would accuse us in the city council of anti-Semitism and hate,” she said. “I have never felt that hate – only a desire for peace and love.”
Silver lining
But the former councillor is clear where the responsibility lies: “I blame Israel’s government. My opinion is that they are the worst enemy to the Jewish people, because many people do not understand the difference between Judaism and Zionism. But there is a big difference between them. One, Judaism, is a faith, and the other, Zionism, is a political ideology which produced Israeli apartheid policy.”
Still, Vilhelmsdóttir sees a silver lining to the controversy.
“The message is coming through,” she said. “The discussions which dominated Iceland’s political life in the last 10 days have raised the profile of the boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] movement, and I think people are now very much aware of the Zionist apartheid system in Israel against the Palestinian people.”
The result, she thinks, is that now more people than ever will boycott Israeli goods.
***
As highly as I think of Ms. Vilhelmsdóttir for assuming the initiative she did and introducing the measure in the Reykjavík City Council, I feel obliged to take issue with her when she draws a distinction between Judaism and Zionism and giving what comes across very much as a pass to Judaism.
Yes, Judaism “is a faith,” but what kind of a faith is it? The Old Testament is full of blood and genocide. The concept of “chosenness” is derived from the books of the Old Testament, as well as from the Talmud, and is a major component in the thinking of a good many religious Jews today, particularly in the settler movement in Israel.
This is not to say that there aren’t religious Jews who have opposed the policies of the Israeli government and have advocated a just resolution with the Palestinians, and it’s nice that there are such Jews around, but they do seem to be very much in the minority.
And maybe it’s time we started considering the possibility that a nation founded upon a religion whose texts speak approvingly of such things as genocide against whole peoples, down to and including women and children and even infants, is a significant cause for concern, and that a major part of the problem we are seeing today might just well be the religion itself.
But of course if you say that, be sure you’re not in Germany, or that you don’t hold a seat on the Reykjavík City Council–and if you’re a student or faculty member at a US university, don’t get any funny ideas about academic freedom or open political debate, or else some avid, dual-citizen disciple of Maimonides, perhaps with a firm notion of his or her own “chosenness,” might take a notion to accuse you of supporting terrorism.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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