Channels

Photo: Ori Porat
Prof. Alan Dershowitz
Photo: Ori Porat

Alan Dershowitz: World obsessed with Israel

Harvard professor says six million additional people have died since WWII because of obsessive focus on Israel. Weekly Diaspora press roundup

The international community's obsessive focus on the State of Israel caused it to miss out on genocides all around the world, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz told a rally in a Toronto synagogue last week, according to a report in the Canadian Jewish News.

 

"Six million additional people have died since the end of the Second World War because of this obsessive focus on Israel," Dershowitz was quoted as saying, citing global inaction over the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and the slaughter currently taking place in Darfur.

 

He added that Iran's denial of the Holocaust was aimed at de-legitimizing Israel, demonizing Jews and, legitimatizing attacks on Israel and attacks on Jews.

 

The rally was organized by Canadian Jewish community organizations, and included Holocaust survivors, a Catholic priest, and the Canadian minister of intergovernmental affairs, who received an ovation after blasting anti-Israel bias among Canadian members of parliament.

 

US Jewish activism focuses on American social justice

Meanwhile, New York's The Jewish Week reported on a "new breed of savvy, grass-roots Jewish activism taking hold," working towards achieving social justice within the United States.

 

According to the article, major US Jewish organizations are "pulling back" from American issues to "focus increasingly on Israel and anti-Semitism." Taking their place are "innovative, community-oriented progressive groups… for whom social-justice issues resonate strongly."

 

One organizer described the new trend as "the future of Jewish activism" in the United States .

 

Examples cited in the report include Chicago Jewish group which created a day labor center for Hispanic workers.

 

Jewish teens attacked in Australia

The Australian Jewish News said Melbourne police were investigating whether a physical assault on two ultra-Orthodox teenagers, one of whom was on crutches at the time of the attack, was motivated by anti-Semitism.

 

The teenagers were reported to be waiting for a tram in Melbourne, "when a car pulled up and one of its passengers allegedly shouted, 'you killed our cousins in Lebanon.'"

 

One of the teenagers, who was suffering from a broken leg, then had one of his crutches taken from him and used against him as an assault weapon, while the other youth received minor facial injuries, the report added.

 

The AJN noted that this was not the first anti-Semitic assault of its kind in Australia. "Last October, another Orthodox man, Mencahem Vorchheimer, was assaulted by a group of footballers as we walked to synagogue on Simhat Torah," the report said, adding that police have not yet charged any suspects over the attack.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.05.07, 19:06
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment