On September 22nd, the UN Conference dubbed Durban IV, the review and 20th anniversary celebration of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism will take place in New York at UN Headquarters, and is hyped to re-confirm the hate manifesto that was issued in Durban, South Africa at Durban I. The formal conference and the NGO parallel conference gave rise to some of the most antisemitic hate since that of the Nazis before and during WWII. That this is happening again, reinforcing the libels and hatred, supplies the anti-Israel haters with more than just fodder to feed their blood lust. It is fuel and fan to the attacks on Jews, to threats against Israel from terror regimes like those of Iran and Gaza, and the potential to create serious carnage as one saw with the riots in Israel in May and June. Many universities are hotbeds with Jew hating pro-Palestinian students, faculty, and organizations that shed no light on the real issues, portray Israel as the hub of evil in the world, deny history, facts and data, and work against peaceful co-existence.
Please see the campaign to Stop Durban IV being carried out on social media by End Jew Hatred Canada, supported by CAEF. Send these images to your friends, and post on your social media. Encourage truth. To date 19 countries have pulled out. We need more democratic countries to withdraw.
Read full story by Melanie Phillips, published today in her blog.
Watch the Webinar on Sunday, September 19th that explains the UN farce and discredits the conference.
Read Elan Carr, former UN Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism in the New Europe, September 8th, 2021 on the depravity of Durban.
Should Canada Fund Terrorism Against Israel? No? Then help stop it!
On September 14th CAEF presented a fulsome report via webinar on the indoctrination of UNRWA students in schools and summer camps for Arab Muslim children. In both, from a very young age, children are taught to hate Jews, to kill Israelis, to eliminate Israel. Canada is one of the donor funding countries, so Canada must be accountable for the actions of its donee, ie UNRWA. The UN Relief and Works Agency has a long history of sabotaging all efforts to hold it accountable, to revise its curriculum, to meet the UN requirement that education contribute to peaceful co-existence not incitement and terror. Why is Canada NOT withholding funds and taking this information seriously?
See the video, made this summer, showing children in full military training to kill.
If you missed it, check out our Special Bulletin
David Bedein, Director of the Bedein Center, responds to the questions submitted by our Web Talk viewers. Read here.
Boycott the Boycotters
Promoting a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream did not take off in Canada, for several reasons: because that isn’t how the Jewish establishment operates, the Jewish community’s impact might be very small, and because there are no retail Ben and Jerry’s stores. The ice cream is sold in major supermarkets and our effort to bring the antisemitic policy to the attention of some supermarket executives was ignored. However, CAEF went so far as to contact Kof-K kosher certification to suggest they withdraw their certification of this ice cream. An idea worth exploring we felt.
Kof-K management was courteous enough to contact CAEF and advise that a. they are fulfilling a contract in regards to the labelling of B&J ice cream as kosher, and b. the real owner of the brand is Unilever so if people want to make a recommendation, make it to the right level of the company. It seems B&J operate very independently, and their board made this decision to remove its product from sales in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem (I guess one would have to cross the street and buy it in west Jerusalem after January 2022.)
The Kof-K company was good enough to advise that they tried to address the dispute by being in touch with both the Yesha Council, the Israeli government, the Unilever company, pointing out a few important facts, such as the high percentage of Arabs who work for the company in Israel, the geographic discrimination that penalizes Jews, the fact of co-existence demonstrated in the work place that employs both Arabs and Jews, and that this decision encouraged by the PA government primarily hurts Arabs. The rep from Kof-K spoke with Arabs and Jews, but to no avail.
Congratulate Kof-K for being principled and taking steps to alleviate the conflict. Don’t congratulate Unilever for tolerating this discrimination.
Do congratulate the State of Arizona for divesting in all Unilever shares it holds because of this discriminatory B&J policy.
Five more states are considering shedding this asset as well, with New Jersey reporting as recently as yesterday that they too may uphold their ban on BDS by dumping Unilever. See article by by Ross Kerber for Reuters.
If Islamism is one Source of Jew hatred, What is Being Done to Challenge it?
Firstly, CAEF acknowledges with heartfelt appreciation the Muslims who stand up against antisemitism, stand with Jews, and of course, stand up for human rights worldwide. We celebrate the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism and have enormous respect for their members. We were very happy to receive their High Holy Day greeting which is shown here.
We do take issue with the fact that many Islamic teachers, scholars, and preachers are evoking Jew hatred, enhancing it, enabling it, and go unchallenged. There are examples in Canada, and here is a story about the depth and breadth of the problem in the US, so it may need investigation here.
The Algemeiner on July 20th, 2021 published the story that “An associate professor of communication theory at Bridgeport University in Connecticut, the Iraqi-born Mohammed Al-Azdee, was speaking to The Algemeiner in detail about his latest research project: examining the content of khutbahs, the weekly sermons delivered in American mosques by imams. He emphasized that some of the core assumptions he had made in advance of his research turned out to be in error. The professor believed that there was little antisemitism among Muslim clerics in the US but his research belied this belief and he presented his findings candidly if not disconcertedly for he truly believed that criticism of Israel was not laden with Jew hatred. The opposite is what he found. Read the story here.
Now for Love of Zion
CAEF is pleased to introduce you to Jewbelong.com, a creative new force in communicating about and confronting antisemitism, with boldness of message, colour, positioning. The creative team behind Jewbelong is as impressive as are their messages. Check this out and explore their website. Interesting, evocative, hilarious, and educational.
And Special from Australia
CAEF received this lovely message from Australia and we are delighted to introduce Ben Adler and Paul Khodor to our thousands of readers. Enjoy the music and do have a Happy, Healthy 5782. We apologize for not being able to send this out before Yom Kippur but the message itself is heartwarming. Enjoy!
“Shana tova! I hope this finds you well.
My name is Ben Adler, I am an Australian violinist. Along with pianist Paul Khodor, we have just released a soulful new arrangement of Avinu Malkeinu, which we recorded last week in the hope of providing a salve to our communities around the world after such a difficult year:
We hope you like it.
We would love for you to consider sharing it with your community, be it on social media, in any e-newsletters you might be sending out in the leadup to Yom Kippur, and through any other channels you think appropriate. As you know, it's tradition to listen to music that prepares us for Yom Kippur these Ten Days of Repentance, and it's our goal to bring warmth to as many Jewish hearts as we can.
Thanks and gmar chatima tova,”