Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

The Ryerson Centre for Free Expression hosted a virtual forum earlier this month on the definition of anti-Semitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). With governments and institutions around the world encouraged by pro-Israel groups to adopt the IHRA guidelines, four experts debated whether the IHRA definition is fighting anti-Semitism or silencing critics of Israel.

Professor Faisal Bhabha from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, and Dr Sheryl Nestel from Independent Jewish Voices Canada, argued against the definition and warned of its chilling effect on free speech. They voiced concerns over the way in which it is being weaponised by pro-Israel groups to suppress critics of the Zionist state, citing examples from Europe and America. Their interlocutors were Bernie Farber, former chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and Richard Marceau, Vice President at the Centre for Israel and Jewish affairs; they defended the IHRA definition as a key instrument in the fight against anti-Semitism, offering both clarity and examples as a guideline.

In the 90-minute debate Nestel, pointed out that one of the eleven examples of anti-Semitism included in the definition is to [deny] the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour. This, she suggested, makes her an anti-Semite under the IHRAs definition because she believes that Israel is a racist endeavour. As a Jew with many holocaust survivors in the family, this is nonsensical.

The debate highlighted the complexities and confusion around this contested issue; more importantly, though, it exposed the contradictions and dangers of a definition that conflates criticism of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism in the vague and loose manner that it does. Throughout the debate, Farber and Marceau dismissed the concerns of their opponents and argued that the fearmongering by Bhabha and Nestel was exaggerated. Indeed, although one of the people who drafted the IHRA definition, American attorney Kenneth Stern, has himself warned that right-wing Jews are weaponising it to suppress criticism of Israel, this was dismissed by its advocates.

READ: Churchill was an anti-Semite who embraced Zionism as a colonial tool

It was ironic, therefore, that following the debate, a prominent pro-Israel group demanded Bhabhas expulsion from the teaching profession. The professors crime, claimed Bnai Brith Canada, was that he had made remarks about Zionism that the group deemed were beyond the pale of any academic debate. Confirming the very threat that Bhabha and Nestel had warned about so powerfully, the group launched a petition demanding Bhabhas dismissal. Bnai Brith Canada, by the way, claims to be an advocate for human rights which, presumably, includes free speech.

The offending comments equated Zionism with white supremacy. Zionism isnt about self-determination, argued Bhabha, its about Jewish supremacy. Given the history of white supremacy and the recent Black Lives Matter protests highlighting the crimes associated with racist ideology, Bnai Brith Canadas outrage might be understandable. No one who claims any moral high ground would wish to be associated with a racist ideology that seeks the domination of one ethnic group over another.

However, ask any Palestinian if equating Zionism with white supremacy is outrageous, and I suspect that they would cite the 750,000 who were ethnically cleansed from their land by Zionists in 1948 as reason enough to make such a comparison. As is the fact that the Palestinian refugees have never been allowed to return to their homes simply because they are of a different ethnicity and will upset the demography of Zionist Israel. Ask the Palestinians who are confined in Bantustans and camps which are little more than open-air prisons; who cant drive on roads built for use by Jews only, or live in modern housing settlements built for Jews only: ask them; they know a thing or two about a political ideology founded on ethnic supremacy.

Just as many white people, especially on the political right, struggle some would say refuse to understand the legacy of slavery and fail to grasp why protestors wish to tear down statues of slave traders, many pro-Israel groups only view Zionism through the lens of Jewish self-determination. Palestinians are absent in their victorious reclamation of the land without a people for a people without a land, one of the many Zionist myths. Bnai Brith and many such organisations seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that the story of ethnic domination and supremacy stares them in the face. As a group advocating human rights, its members would wouldnt they? surely call out white supremacists who claim that their vision of North America as a representation of white self-determination is not racist. And yet they reject any such criticism of Zionist Israel.

Bnai Brith have proven my point, Prof. Bhabha told me. My argument in the debate was that the IHRA definition is dangerous if adopted into law or policy, especially on university campuses, because it would result in the suppression of free speech, the demonisation of Palestinian human rights defenders, and the spread of Islamophobia.

Repeating concerns raised during the debate about the misuse of the definition by pro-Israel groups, Bhabha explained that his comments were intended to present different perspectives on the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. The statements attributed to [me] by Bnai Brith are taken out of context for the sole purpose of distortion in order to cast aspersions on my motive and meaning. This is not surprising coming from a group that cares more about cheerleading extremist Israeli policies than about promoting equality in Canada, and which never misses an opportunity to denigrate Muslims or Arabs.

Bhabha and Nestels description of the IHRA definition as a tool weaponised by Zionist groups to suppress criticism of Israel while endangering free speech cannot simply be dismissed as scaremongering, as their opponents insisted on doing during the online Ryerson debate. Rather than helping in the fight against crude anti-Semitism and protecting Jewish communities around the world, the definitions misuse is undermining this crucial struggle by conflating criticism of the Zionist state of Israel with criticism or abuse of Jews.

READ: Israels incitement against the Palestinian curriculum

Genuine anti-racists can see the flaws in adopting the IHRA definition and its examples without question. Stopping anti-Semitism should not require a blind eye to be turned to Israels abuse of Palestinians and their legitimate rights. If Muslims, for example, insisted that it is Islamophobic to criticise a Muslim country or political ideology without exception, or that criticising the serial human rights abuses of, say, Saudi Arabia, was cited in seven out of eleven examples of Islamophobia, I have no doubt that they would be told in no uncertain terms that such a move would be a threat to freedom of speech.

Israel does get singled out, as Bhabha and Nestel agreed, but not in the way that Zionist groups claim. Putting aside Israels many human rights violations and contraventions of UN Resolutions which would normally trigger the kind of sanctions weve seen imposed on Russia and Iran, no serious definition of racism would even contemplate putting the protection of a political entity at its core. This is the exceptionalism enjoyed by the Zionist state that is rarely, if ever, extended to anyone else. In that way, therefore, Israel does indeed get singled out for special attention.

The campaign to disqualify Bhabha from teaching is the latest example of how this privilege operates. The IHRAs conflation of anti-Jewish racism with criticism of Israel in its definition of anti-Semitism has empowered Israels supporters to weaponise one of historys ugliest forms of racism to shield the Zionist states ethnic domination from criticism. The Jews who suffer from anti-Semitism dont benefit from this, Israel does, at the expense of the Palestinians whose land it occupies.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

The granddaughter of a female pioneer seen in shorts in a quarry in Mandatory Palestine reveals that the propaganda scene was in fact staged

AMONG THE HANDFUL OF surviving photographs depicting female pioneers during the pre-state British Mandate period, one of the best known is a picture of Aviva Alef.

She was photographed in the summer of 1941 next to an open rail-cart full of rocks at a quarry at Kibbutz Ein Harod. The man who took the image was Zoltan Kluger, one of the greatest photographers in the country at the time, and who documented the Jewish state in the making for various Zionist organizations.

Over the years, the iconic photo became a symbol of groundbreaking female equality in the Zionist movement. Just this week, however, 79 years after it was taken, Aviva Alefs granddaughter decided to reveal the true story behind the picture, which is now in the official photography collection of the State of Israel.

My grandmother became a symbol of female pioneers against her will, her granddaughter, Yael Avrahami, told Haaretz.

In contemporary Israel, every year when the weather warms up, a controversy resurfaces in the countrys schools over the appropriate length of female students shorts. Someone recalled the picture and retrieved it from the archives, noted Avrahami, a biblical studies lecturer at the Oranim Academic College of Education in Kiryat Tivon, northern Israel.

FULL STORY The true story behind this iconic photo that became a symbol of gender equality in the Zionist movement (Haaretz)

Photo: Aviva, left, at work in the quarry near Kibbutz Ein Harod in Mandatory Palestine, August 1941 (Zoltan Kluger/GPO)

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

Addressing the virtual summit of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) on Sunday, Netanyahu said I want to thank President Trump for all he has done for Israel. Israel has never had a better friend in the White House."

He added, Israels security has been strengthened immeasurably by President Trumps bold decision to withdraw from the dangerous nuclear deal with Iran.

Describing the Iranian nuclear deal as a farce, Netanyahu urged other countries to follow in Trumps footsteps and sanction Iran.

Its time for all responsible countries to join the United States and sanction Iran.

Ahead of the expiring Iranian arms embargo, the Zionists' ambassador to the UN also warned the Security Council on Sunday about the dangers of not renewing Iranian arms embargo set to expire in October.

Danon made some baseless claims about Iran's violations, including transfers of "illicit arms to its proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and recently even to Libya." This weaponry, which is "freely transported throughout the Middle East and used by armed militias and terrorist groups, poses a strategic threat not only to Israel but to the entire region," he claimed.

He, in consequence, accused Iran of violatingnot only Security Council Resolution 2231 but also of UNSCRs 1701 and 1559.

Danon also called attention to what he considered Iran's additional destabilizing activity in Lebanon.

Danon urged "the international community, and particularly the UNSC, to act swiftly and with great resolve to respond to Iran's violations, by using all means necessary to extend the arms embargo on Iran beyond the current October deadline."

The United Nations Security Council is due to hold the first round of talks on Wednesday on a USproposal to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran, which is currently set to end in October under Tehrans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The United States circulated a draft resolution on the measure to the 15-member council on Monday, diplomats said, but council veto-powers Russia and China have already signaled their opposition to the move.

Washington has long argued that the arms embargo on Iran should not be lifted. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, Britain or France to pass.

The USdraft would ban the sale, supply, or transfer of arms or related materiel by Iran and prohibits countries from selling, supplying or transferring arms or related materiel unless approved by a Security Council committee.

It requires countries to inspect cargo in their territory if they have reasonable grounds to believe the cargo contains banned items and also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas - with the consent of the flag state - for the same reason.

The United States circulated the draft resolution after UNSecretary-General Antonio Guterres reported to the Security Council earlier this month claiming that cruise missiles used in several attacks on oil facilities and an international airport in Saudi Arabia last year were of Iranian origin.

If Washington becomes unsuccessful in extending the arms embargo, it has threatened to trigger at the Security Council a return of all UNsanctions on Iran under the nuclear deal, even though it quit the accord in 2018.

Diplomats say Washington would face a tough, messy battle.

MNA/FNA13990409000301

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

Ahmed Erekat was not the first Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli occupation forces in cold blood, nor will he be the last to be killed because he tried to attack them. The young man was shot dead as he helped his sister with her wedding preparations. Instead of the bride rejoicing, the Zionists turned her wedding into a funeral for the entire Erekat family, and all Palestinians.

Heinous crimes like this are committed on a regular basis, and the Israelis and their supporters try to justify them on every occasion. They tell their pre-packaged self-defence claims to the world; defend their presence on occupied land and claim to be fighting against anti-Semitic terrorists who deny the Jewish people a homeland in Israel. They kill and displace the indigenous people and then justify their despicable criminal acts without batting an eyelid. Amazingly, the world not only believes them but also sympathises with them, as if they are the victims instead of the people they are killing and displacing. It is a cowardly world that sees with only one eye; a world without a conscience that supports the criminals at the expense of the victims. The Zionists are skilled at lying and deceiving the people; it has become a key part of the Zionists code of conduct. Their occupation itself is based upon the lie that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land.

Oh, and that it was promised to them by a God which most Israelis no longer apparently believe in. A poll reported by Haaretz claimed in 2018 that only 30 per cent of Israelis say they are religious. Nevertheless, that doesnt stop Zionists in Israel from quoting rabbis who incite against the Palestinians, who are referred to as gentiles. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who died in 2013, was a revered halachic scholar, reported the Times of Israel, who was also known for some problematic statements about Jews, Arabs, Americans and others. On making peace with Arabs he said in August 2000, How can you make peace with a snake? The purpose of Goyim [gentiles], he said in 2010, is to serve us. Without that, they have no place only to serve the People of Israel.

READ: Erekat blames Netanyahu for his nephews murder

While the Zionists view the land of Palestine from a paradoxically religious yet not religious perspective, we find the puppet Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas and his pro-Oslo gang, which was created solely to protect Israel and its occupation, pursuing and arresting every Palestinian who views the issue from an Islamic perspective. The PA is hostile towards the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in Gaza and incites the world against it. The PA even informs the occupation authorities about Hamas resistance efforts and members, and arrests them. The split between Hamas and Fatah, which controls the PA, tears the social fabric apart, spreading hatred and animosity.

While the PA dotes on the Palestinians in the West Bank, it deprives those in the Gaza Strip of their most basic human rights, such as access to education, health, electricity, water and more. It also deprives Gaza of the tax revenues and aid donated by friendly states. Abbas, whose term of office actually expired in 2009, has been playing a dirty role in the Israeli-led siege imposed on Gaza since 2006, when Hamas defeated Fatah in free and fair elections. Difficult as it is to comprehend, the Zionists advise their agent Abbas not to intensify the siege on Gaza in such a severe way that the situation explodes and turns against them.

Having betrayed his homeland and the Palestinian people, this traitor and his treacherous posse have destroyed the spirit of collective action and cooperation against the Israeli occupation, as was once the norm. They have replaced the trust and confidence that once spread between all Palestinians with mutual suspicion. They have even destroyed the morality of the people.

The PA under Abbas has not been content with what he calls sacred security coordination with Israel, but has also stripped the West Bank of its ability to resist the occupation. It knows that its existence is linked to the continuation of the occupation, so much so that if the Israelis decided to end it, the treacherous PA would probably beg them to stay. The authority is actually an integral part of the occupation which suppressed protests against Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the decision to annex the West Bank through the so-called deal of the century.

However, although there has not been any tangible reaction from the Palestinians on the ground thanks largely to the PAs collaboration with Israel, the flame of resistance is still burning in the hearts of the Palestinians. Neither Abbas nor can anyone else extinguish it. The day will come when the flames will burn the Oslo Accords and eliminate the delusional, invalid and colluding PA, and turn against the usurper occupier so that the land of Palestine will be returned to its rightful owners, the Palestinians.

Such is the collusion of the Palestinian Authority with the Zionist entity that Mahmoud Abbas and his Oslo people have to accept that the extrajudicial execution of Ahmed Erekat was carried out safe in the knowledge that they would not do anything other than pay lip-service to condemnation and condolences. For that reason alone, it is hard to conclude anything except that the killing was carried out with their blessing.

OPINION: Israels military checkpoints are places made for its colonial violence

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

VILNIUS, Lithuania Lithuanian Jewish leaders on Tuesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of falsifying history after he defended the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states during World War II.

While paying tribute to those who perished fighting the Nazis, the Jewish community dismissed Putins attempt to play down Soviet crimes in Lithuania and fellow Baltic states Latvia and Estonia.

We, the descendants of the Jews of Lithuania, oppose this falsification of the history of the enslavement of our independent Lithuania, community leader Faina Kukliansky and lawmaker Emanuelis Zingeris said.

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They issued a joint statement in response to Putins article in US magazine The National Interest earlier this month in which he described the Baltic states annexation as incorporation.

Their accession to the USSR was implemented on a contractual basis, with the consent of the elected authorities, Putin wrote, saying it was in line with international and state law of that time.

Putin has repeatedly accused the West of playing down the Soviet contribution to the Nazi defeat an estimated 27 million Soviet troops and civilians were killed in World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, June 26, 2020. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

But for many in the Baltic states, which were independent states after World War I, the Soviet takeover marked the start of decades of often brutal Soviet occupation rather than liberation.

Lithuanian Jews who had a guarantee of ethnic continuity in independent Lithuania became the ethnic group most persecuted by the Soviet occupiers, Jewish leaders said.

The majority of Lithuanias Jews didnt want a Soviet government. The massive fight later by the Soviet Union and its satellites against Zionism became the hallmark of the entire period of Communist rule.

The Soviets invaded the Baltic states in 1940 under their infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Nazi Germany. A year later, in June, they deported some 43,000 Baltic citizens, including thousands of Jews.

That drive was cut short when Germany turned on its former allies the same month, pushing the Red Army out of the Baltic region as it invaded the Soviet Union.

In 1944-45, the Soviets put an end to the Nazi occupation during which almost all of the regions Jews were killed heralding the renewed deportations of hundreds of thousands and prompting an armed resistance that only ended in 1953.

Moscow refuses to recognize the Soviet takeover of the Baltic states as an occupation and it has never offered an apology or reparations.

In March 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence, before joining the European Union and NATO in 2004.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

Dozens of large companies have paused their advertising campaigns on Facebook (and Instagram) for July and in some cases for the rest of the year. Among the biggest names: Starbucks, Clorox, Adidas, Reebok, and Coca Cola.

The reason? Brands are unhappy with Facebooks responses to hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

The pressure has appeared to work, at least somewhat, so far, as the company agreed to an audit on Tuesday.

The campaign, called Stop Hate for Profit, is being organized by a handful of groups including the NAACP, Color for Change, and the Anti-Defamation League. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Yahoo Finance that the measure was less about denting the companys finances than causing a wave of public relations pressure, designed to appeal to its conscience, and compel the social networking giant to rethink its hands-off policies when it comes to problematic content.

(Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The mission is gaining steam and Facebook announced a new measure last week to label posts that are newsworthy but violate its rules.

Appealing to Facebooks (FB) conscience and not its pocketbook is the right move, some market observers say.

"Facebook has had a lot of bumps in the road, but this too shall pass, said James Cakmak, a partner at asset management firm Clockwise Capital. There is no other platform that offers this scale and ROI other than Google. In other words, theres no other place to go.

Facebooks business model is such that it can be a smart and viable option for small businesses advertising locally, because of the companys ad targeting features. This makes it really durable because even without big-name companies advertising, the little guys will likely stay on the platform.

The crux of the Facebook ad game is small business, said Beth Egan, a professor of advertising at Syracuse University. Big companies are important, but pulling out wont have major impact.

Another investor, Satori Fund fonder and portfolio manager Dan Niles, who owns a fair Facebook position that he recently added to, told Yahoo Finance that its important to realize Facebooks top 100 advertisers the big names only account for 20% of its revenue and that it has 8 million advertisers.

This isnt the first effort at boycotts targeting Facebook and social media, he said. Facebook has kept going up through them.

Still, Facebook may make some concessions and changes brought up by the organizers of the boycott especially given the audit announcement. While it may not hurt the bottom line too much, that doesnt mean that the campaign wont hit some of its objectives.

--

Ethan Wolff-Mannis a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. Follow him on Twitter@ewolffmann.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

Good morning and welcome back to Speed Lines, The Drive's morning roundup of what matters in the world of cars and transportation. On tap today: EV startup Byton is reportedly on the ropes, Nissan has a lot of explaining to do but it also has an electric crossover, and Ford joins Honda in boycotting Facebook and other social media platforms to combat hate speech.

Nissan went into 2020 with more problems than I'd care to devote space to here: tanking profits, an international executive scandal up top, an aging lineup, a contentious relationship with alliance partner Renault, an unclear path for luxury division Infiniti, a need for aggressive cost cuts, global pandemic... how much time do you have?

So one place you wouldn't want to be, except as a fly on the wall, is Nissan's annual shareholders meeting. That was held Monday in Yokohama and, according to Automotive News, there are a few big takeaways here.

First is the turnaround plans led by the Nissan Ariya crossover set to debut July 15. It's an EVthe latest Leaf is very good, but Nissan has to go where the buyers are and that means SUVswith Tesla-fighting range and the newest version of the ProPilot hands-off automated driving system. Between electrification and autonomy, it represents a lot of what Nissan has in store for the future.

But at the meetingwhich was attended only by a few hundred people, for obvious reasonsshareholders had a lot to say. From Automotive News:

Shareholders voiced discontent with a range of issues, from compensation and the revival plan to business to relations with partner Renault and the legacy of former chairman Ghosn.

Earlier this year, Nissan issued pay cuts to executives and scrubbed the year-end dividend to investors, as the company struggles to rebound from its first full-year net loss in 11 years.

But one shareholder criticized the boards decision not to cut the compensation of outside, non-operational directors. Their pay stays the same. Keiko Ihara, the outside independent director who chairs the compensation committee, defended keeping their pay steady as way to separate the responsibility of those charged with executing the business plan and those who oversee it.

Another shareholder slammed French partner Renault, which owns 43.4 percent of Nissan, as deadweight in the alliance because French people excel at art but are weak in technology.

Pretty heated, to say the least. Shareholders also slammed Nissan's management as being fractured and too "democratic" right now, and said the public perception is definitely that the company conspired to get rid of former megaboss Carlos Ghosn. In other words, it's going to take more than just a fancy EV to convince investors that things can be made right.

Given the pandemic's effect on sales, manufacturing and investor capital, this year is poised to be an abysmal one for startups in the autonomy and EV space. Now's not a great time to be a small player, let alone one that doesn't yet have a revenue stream. I foresee an industrywide contraction that could impact several nascent companies.

The next on the list could be Chinese-backed EV startup Bytonremember Byton? it's the one with the screenswhich announced it will suspend production for six months starting July 1 as it faces a potential bankruptcy reorganization. Byton had already furloughed its U.S. employees back in April. Here's a report on the latest from Reuters:

The company, which is backed by state-owned automaker FAW Group and battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, said it was also actively raising funds to address issues relating to unpaid staff salaries and that it hoped to start paying employees from July.

The new coronavirus epidemic has brought great challenges to Bytons financing and production operations, it said in a statement.

After careful consideration and joint consultations with our shareholders and management, we have decided to, from July 1, kickstart a plan to lower employee costs and promote the companys strategic reorganization, it said.

Byton was planning to sell its EV crossover in several European countries in the second half of 2021. But now's an extremely unappetizing time to be funding a risky EV startup, so who knows if Byton will make it there or not.

Spurred on by the wave of public support for Black Lives Matter and anti-racism causes, the #brands are finally getting woke to what a hate-and fake news- filled cesspool Facebook and Twitter are. In particular, Facebook, which owns Instagram, is being faulted for failing to curb hate speech and disinformation on its platform, and as such big advertisers like Microsoft, Adidas, Clorox, Puma and Best Buy are pulling their ads from the platform. It's already hitting Facebook pretty hard where it countsin the wallet.

What does this have to do with cars? Well, Honda has pulled its ads off Facebook, and now, as The Detroit Free Press reports, Ford is doing the same. Those are two major companies for Facebook to lose, and in Ford's case it includes YouTube, Instagram and Twitter tooall places that have struggled with how much to police their platform.

From the story, quoting spokesman Said Deep:

A#StopHateforProfit campaignled by a coalition of civil rights groups includingthe NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League comes in response to"repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms."

Ford is reevaluating its presence on all social media platforms, Deep said.

"The existence of content that includes hate speech, violence and racial injustice on social platforms needs to be eradicated," he said in a statement. "We are actively engaged with industry initiatives led by the Association of National Advertisers to drive more accountability, transparency and trusted measurement to clean up the digital and social media ecosystem."

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

As someone who has worked in media for the better part of the last decade, Ive been quite disappointed at the way certain figures who have demonstrated themselves to be bigots with tremendous amounts of prejudice have been normalized. None have been as effective in their bids for normalization and acceptance by mainstream society, as the Reverend Al Sharpton. Besides for his maintenance of a considerable media presence on MSNBC and his hosting of his own program on the network, he is still routinely introduced on various programs as a civil rights activist. Indeed, the accolades continue being sent his way, even given his troubling background.

My public relations agency has represented a myriad of interests promoting minority communities. In fact, over the years we have represented a number of individuals who are significant donors to the Anti-Defamation League, the latest organization working together with Sharpton. Civil rights issues in the African American community are indeed serious; and they should be taken seriously by leaders of the Jewish community. Indeed, it is important for there to be a united front among those in other minority communities in calling out racism in any way it may manifest itself. Its incumbent upon us as Jews to call out racism and Ive been personally heartened by the participation of members of the Jewish community in some of the peaceful demonstrations that have taken place.

But that does not and should not ever take place at the expense of promoting anti-Semites or bigots of any stripe. Indeed we are doing a disservice to the African American community by propping up someone like Al Sharpton by doing so. There are many decent and impressive civil rights activists within the African American community who deserve our support, and certainly deserve a platform. Al Sharpton is not one of them.

For those that dont know, Al Sharpton has a long and storied history of Jew hatred, that has been well documented over the years. Sharpton played a central role in provoking the rioters in Crown Heights back in the summer of 1991. Riots that led to the death of Yankel Rosenbaum. If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their Yarmulkas back and come over, said Sharpton, during that three day stretch of riots.

Sharpton never properly offered genuine remorse for this sort of rhetoric. And his actual participation and fomenting of violence in the form of these riots is something that the Jewish community can never forget. Sharptons list of anti-Jewish screeds go well beyond the rhetoric he employed during those riots. Sharpton has referred to Jews in the past as diamond merchants, white interlopers, and Jew bastards.

Is it therefore not unreasonable to ask why the ADL and Jonathan Greenblatt are proudly collaborating with this Jew-hating bigot in the #StopHateforProfit campaign. This isnt about the merits of the campaign. Its about a figure who no Jewish lay leader ought to be working with when it comes to issues of civil rights. Its not only a disservice to the Jewish community; but also a slap in the face to the African American community as well. The African American community deserves better.

Josh Nass is an award winning public relations executive and attorney specializing in crisis communications and reputation management. Nass has built a thriving practice that has grown to include a diverse portfolio of clients in a wide range of different industries. Among the fields Nass Strategies caters to are the healthcare, financial services, media and nonprofit sectors. Over the years the firm has represented the nations largest nursing home chains and their respective executives; a number of different venture capital firms and hedge funds in the financial sector, numerous high profile individuals; and several different media outlets. Clients have included The New York Observer, NYC based NGN Capital, the London Center for Policy Research, SW Management, Rainbow Apparel Company, Rockport Healthcare and many more. Nass Strategies has also been involved in providing media counsel to political campaigns both domestically and internationally. The firm has a staff fluent in Russian and Hebrew, and is active in working with clients based abroad. The firm also has a vast network of politically connected nonprofit clients. Those include but are in no way limited to American Friends of Likud, One Israel Fund and The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. Nass got his start working in politics; having appeared dozens of times across Fox News, MSNBC and other cable networks by the time he had graduated college. In August of 2014, Nass ceased his on-air political punditry, marking his official foray into the public relations arena. Having already executed national media campaigns on behalf of numerous nonprofit and public advocacy groups as well as for several high profile individuals, Nass has quickly rose to prominence as a speaker and commentator on the subject. In addition to traditional media placement, Nass has been a sought after practitioner for crisis communications and reputation management issues. In June of 2014, Nass was placed on The Jewish Weeks 36 under 36 list. Josh prides himself on the unique and untraditional approach he brings to the execution of public relations campaigns. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brandeis University and holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

This 2019 photo shows Duncan Lemp in Venice, Italy. (Mercedes Lemp via AP)(Photo: Mercedes Lemp via AP)

During a congressional debate last week, U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsinbemoaned that while there are frequent mentions about Black Americans killed by police, nobody talks about Duncan Lemp or other white victims of police shootings.

The Wisconsin Republican was wrong. Lemp's name frequently comes up, particularly with one group of people the followers of theboogaloo boys, a gun-toting extremist movement that sees itself as preparing for a violent civil war against government tyranny.

RELATED: The boogaloo movement is gaining momentum. Who are the boogaloo 'bois' and what do they want?

Lemp, 21, was killed in March by police, who had a no-knock warrant and charged into his Maryland home in search of weapons.

Since his death, Lemp has become a symbol to the movement, whose followers are known as boogaloo boys or bois.

Lemp's death has received international attention and has "helped solidify the nascent boogaloo movement into a defined online subculture," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist and hate groups.

His name is on one of the movement's flags and there are frequent mentions of him on Facebook. Followers, who are known for wearing Hawaiian shirts, are sometimes urged to identify themselves as Duncan Lemp when interviewed by journalists.

"Duncan Lemp's death has really animated the boogaloo movement," said Alex Friedfeld, a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.

"In the wake of Lemp's death a lot of boogaloo followers called for violence against police," he said.

Lemp's family and police provided markedly different versions of what happened in Montgomery County, Maryland, when police charged into the home Lemp shared with his parents at 4:30 a.m. March 12.

The warrant was issued because authorities believed Lemp had several firearms, including an assault weapon, despite having a juvenile criminal record that prevented him from possessing the weapons, according to media reports.

Police in Maryland say a bedroom door was booby-trapped to "detonate a shotgun shell at the direction of anyone entering, according to a Washington Post story quoting police.

Police said Lemp held a weapon at the time of the raid and detectives seized three rifles and two handguns.

Attorneys for the family dispute the police account and say Lemp was sleeping at the time police opened fire. The attorneys said police "initiated gunfire and flashbangs through Duncan Lemps bedroom window in the front of the house" before officers forced their way into the house, according to the Post story.

"Duncan Lemp became this unifying martyr figure" for the boogaloo movement, said Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

His death, she said, helped them "orientate themselves to one person and one cause."

Boogaloo followers often say, "We are Duncan Lemp," Friedfeld noted.

In the article on the center's "Hatewatch" webpage, Miller wrote that "there are well over 100 boogaloo Facebook groups, most replete with memes fantasizing about or encouraging violence against police."

Followers of the boogaloo movement showed up at protests in Milwaukee and elsewhere over the death of George Floyd at the hands Minneapolis police after an officer knelt on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes.

The boogaloo boys, a loosely organized group, toting guns, have joined some of the protest marches around Milwaukee.(Photo: Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Milwaukee protest organizers largely shunned the boogaloo boys, several of whom brought semi-automatic rifles to the rallies.

Earlier this month, three men who are believed to be boogaloo followers were arrested in Las Vegas and charged with "conspiracy to cause destruction." Prosecutors say the trio planned to arm themselves with Molotov cocktails and target police during a Black Lives Matters protest on the Las Vegas strip.

Grothman invoked Lemp's name during a House debate Thursday when he charged that some people were trying to "racialize the issue" of police reform by focusing on Black victims of police violence.

He asked his fellow congressional representatives why Lemp's death was not getting national attention.

"You don't hear about it talked by anybody in this body (House of Representatives), or anybody on national TV," Grothman said. "And you know why they don't talk about it? Because they want to tear this country apart. They don't want to talk about when white people are killed, because they want to enrage Black people and they want to make white people feel guilty and not like America."

Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman(Photo: handout from the candidate)

So why would Grothman use Lemp's name to make a point on the floor of Congress?

"I never heard of him and I never googled the boogaloo boys," Grothman said in an interview Friday.

Grothman said he got Lemp's name from an article given to him by Republican staff that included several names of white victims of police violence. He said he only had time to state one name, so he picked Lemp's name "at random."

"I just picked Duncan Lemp," Grothman said. "Apparently I picked the wrong guy."

Miller, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said boogaloo followers would see the use of Lemp's name in Congress as a message.

"It's a way to call out to an extremist movement," Miller said. "This is their martyr, they know what he's referring to.'

Contact Cary Spivak at (414) 550-0070 or cspivak@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cspivak or Facebook at facebook.com/cary.spivak.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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Posted By admin on June 30, 2020

The acute paucity of newTV shows to write about or review this week (indeed, this entire month) presents an opportunity for reflection today.

By coincidence, the current TV Blogunder its present author reached a milestone on Monday: No. 1,500. And voila! A TV Blog is born (or, more to the point, contrived).

For the record, ittook approximately 2,130 days to reach this point after taking up this task on Sept. 16, 2014. Can it really be going on six years of this? Yes, it really can be.

The overwhelming majority of these columns averaged about 700 words apiece. That amounts to a rough estimate of 1,050,000 words.

To say that this six-year period presented an embarrassment of riches for a TV column that had to be written five days a week is an understatement -- despite the handfulof fallow weeks each year when new shows are few and far between. Traditionally, this takes place every June and August.

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While reviews of new shows are themeat and potatoes of this daily blog, no single show, news topic or TV personality surpasses the man who emerges as the undisputed star of the last 1,500 of these TV blogs.

He is, not surprisingly, Donald Trump, whose journey from reality-TV star to reality-TV president has been chronicled (or at least mentioned) in upwards of 161 of theseblogs.

As noted more than once here, for journalists, he is a living, breathing gift that keeps on giving. As a matter of fact, he attained this status longbefore he so famously descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce his candidacy for president and denounce Mexicans.

Though hisname appears more often than any other person -- man or woman -- in these TV Blogs, he was far from the only man to be featured prominently here.

Unfortunately for the others, their names arose here because of their behaviors in the workplace toward women(alleged or otherwise).

Besides Donald Trumps evolution from Apprentice boss to apprentice president, this was possibly the second-mostconspicuous story of the TV Blog from 2014 to the present day -- namely, the derailing of some of the biggest stars of TV news and beyond in the #MeToo era.

In 2014, all were stars either in front of the cameras or running things from their spacious offices. Today, they are long gone -- Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill OReilly, Roger Ailes(deceased), Les Moonves and probably others.

The last six years and 1,500 TV blogs encompassed a generational shift in late-night television. DavidLetterman, Jay Leno and Jon Stewart moved on.

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Trevor Noah took their place. Conan OBrien, now the elder statesman oflate-night, saw his one-hour TBS show reduced to half an hour.

Maybe Letterman, Leno and Stewart got out at the right time because audiences for late-nightshows and so-called linear television in general are not what they once were (although Leno continues to have a TV career with Jay Lenos Garage on CNBC).

Perhaps that has been the most consistent and ongoing of the stories that have been covered here: An evolution in television that has seen an explosion not only in theamount of video content that is available to the average person or household, but an expansion in the means of delivering all of it too.

Traditional TV setsreceiving over-the-air signals or requiring cable connections have given way to an array of broadband-based services whose only requirement for delivery is the presence of a Wi-Fi signal.

Maybe TV today can be summed up by revising the famous three-word phrase attributed to the late architect LudwigMies van der Rohe, Less is more. Perhaps TV today can be described as more is more. Or, for those inclined toward criticism of the medium, more isless.

For those of you who have gotten this far in this blog without bailing, thank you for reading No. 1,501. And thank you for reading all of theothers (those of you who did).

Heres to 1,500 more. Oy vey.

File photo of Donald Trump courtesy of ABC.

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