This one stopped me, made me wonder if I need to have my eyes adjusted.
This is an invitation to a benefit next spring for Canadian friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. On the cover of the invite you will see Arianna Huffington, Thomas Friedman of the NY Times, Fareed Zakaria of CNN fame, and Aayan Hirsi Ali. They'll all be speaking at the May 31 event at a Toronto synagogue.
Hold on. This is the same Simon Wiesenthal Center that is building a "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem on a 12th Century Muslim cemetery.
Muslims are very angry about the desecration of the Mamilla cemetery, and many non-Muslims are too. Below is a photo of the cemetery that I took a couple months ago. Some British tourists were surveying the scene with uncomprehension. Those are gravestones in the foreground, and the construction walls of the Museum of Tolerance right on top of them. "Grotesque," says Rashid Khalidi, whose ancestors are buried there, as are many other historical figures.
Mamilla Cemetery Desecration
This giant dis to Muslims in the name of "Tolerance" is the reason that Jews Say No has weekly demonstrations outside the Simon Wiesenthal's NY branch. Many Jews want nothing to do with this project. Frank Gehry, who was supposed to design the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, bowed out of the project when the facts were brought to his attention.
I wonder if the Toronto speakers' lineup will last when word gets out about the endorsement. Will Zakaria hang in there? He took a truly noble stand against the ADL when they came out against the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.
Here is Khalidi leading a group of the Palestinian families who are appealing to the U.N. to stop the desecration of the Mamilla Cemetery. He writes: “It is a matter of grave concern that Israeli authorities are continuing to treat the Islamic religious sites and cultural heritage in the Holy City of Jerusalem in a manner that amounts to further desecration.” He's referring to the fact that Israel has granted scores of Jewish historical sites the legal status of cultural heritage sites, but no Muslim sites are on its frekking list. Here's a post about Mamilla in that Jim Crow context, from an American Muslim group that is justifiably up in arms. And here's a deeply angry, turbulent, overwhelmed post I did about that pattern back in September. Called the "Pharaoh of Jerusalem," it describes the destruction of Muslims' access to the tomb of Samuel, which both Jews and Muslims consider holy. This still makes me upset.
Reminder: We're talking about a city that Theodor Herzl promised the Ottoman sultan (and the Pope too) would be extraterritorialized if the Zionists ever got a stake in Palestine, because of these sensitivities...
P.S. Also testimony to the power of the media. Three powerful figures, all media figures. Tables start at $18,000. That's power. Thanks to Jeff Blankfort.
For too many people, the name “Simon Wiesenthal” means a saint, any project bearing his name can do no wrong, and any criticism of him amounts to sacrilege.
Of course, the center takes full advantage of this.
Poland is littered with neglected Jewish Cemetaries, in perfectly desirable central urban areas, that would make space for schools, hospitals and nurseries for blue eyed Christian children…….
Or maybe a Polish Museum of Tolerance?
Poland is also littered with Jewish property that you do not plan to return. What hypocrisy.
eee – your comment is meaningless drivel.
Please remember to borrow your faily brain cell before typing. You might then stand a chance of writing something coherent.
Of course it is for you. What do you care that the Poles have stolen the property of millions of Jews. And of course, this is a taboo subject for the cult because how can it explain based on its belief system that it does not support doing justice in the Polish case?
You once claimed a steel works was stolen. To reclaim it, you have to go back to Poland. Unless of course you weant the Poles to dig it up and air mail it to you.
poland stole nothing from you. it was the nazis and the commies. long before you and yours sought refuge in poland we stood resilute with a sword in one hand and a brick in the other. when you and yours ran from the paradisus Iudaeorum to take the land of innocents we once again rebuilt our ruined cities anew.
“Poland is also littered with Jewish property that you do not plan to return.”
Put it in the bill, send it to me, and I’ll see it’s paid. Anything to stop your whining.
Mooser, the bill has been sumitted to Polish Government. But there is great reluctance to settle the bill by paying the money to Israel as opposed to Polish Jewish communities. Individual claims are in their thousands. There is a government comission that settles the claims by restoring ownership.
From my iPhone, so no links
“there is great reluctance to settle the bill by paying the money to Israel as opposed to Polish Jewish communities.”
What? Poland thinks it should send the compensation for the property of Polish Jews to Polish Jews?
There are plenty of descendants of Polish Jews here in Australia. Get the Polish Gov’t to send the money to me, and I promise I’ll pass it on to those descendants.
I’m still adjusting my eyes. Have they no shame?
Why should contemporary Jews be concerned with historical Muslim graves? Do Gentiles hesitate to disturb the graves of rats?
Look what alec dragged in from the gutter.
Alec you forgotten (irony alert) with your comment.
Having family in Panama I noticed that Frank Gehry, having withdrawn from Tolerance, is designing a Museum of Biodiversity on a prime site in Panama City. Perhaps tolerance is the human version of biodiversity.
Maybe it’s Zakaria’s way of atoning for the ADL thing because he wants to continue working at CNN. I’m sure the good guys in Toronto will prepare a nice reception for them.
If Arianna is really concerned with the little guy, the oppressed and tolerance, she’ll either excuse herself from the invite or condemn the Museum of Tolerance in her speech there. I would prefer she excuse herself altogether.
It’s about time Arianna moves into the light on this issue rather than indulging the darkness of Zionism.
I’m glad I long ago gave frequenting the Huffington Post on account of her strict no pay for contributors policy and the heavy duty spyware installed on her site (trust me the javascript routines are intensely disturbing: your very respiration is tracked on that place and resold).
Really what a horrible project with which for her to associate herself.
Okay, but your comment above is very misleading.
Friedman is such a hypocrite. Pushed for the war in Iraq based on a “pack of lies” Pushing for military action against Iran.
This is important
Zadroga Bill…Jon Stewart
Stewart ripped it up last night. Bringing attention to how our Reps had enough time to pass legislation that benefited most of them (millionaires) but the Republican filibuster of the ZADROGA BILL( 9/11 first responders) will keep this bill from moving forward. Go watch Stewart at Huffington Post or at the Daily shows website.
CALL YOUR SENATE REPS (ESPECIALLY THE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE FILLIBUSTERING THIS BILL) CALL THEM, EMAIL THEM DEMAND THAT THEY STAY THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS AND PASS THIS BILL. OR PASS IT NOW. THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. BUT CLEARLY THEY FEEL NO SHAME
Stewart Spends Last Show Of 2010 ENTIRELY On 9/11 First Responders Bill (VIDEO)
link to huffingtonpost.com
Prof Cole over at Informed Comment has the AlJazeera segment that was devoted to 9/11 responders and their health issues. Stewart brought up how absurd that aljazeera has spent more time on this critical issue than U.S. MSM outlets
link to juancole.com
Lately it’s no big surprise for the Wiesenthal Center to invite an ex-Muslim like Aayan Hirsi Ali to their event. Lots of Zionist organizations have recently added Islamophobia to their ideological toolkits. Tom Friedman and Arianna Huffington have been on enough Israel-funded junkets to make their appearance no big surprise either. But I am very surprised at Fareed Zakaria’s presence. Strange bedfellows.
For those that missed it before, I came across a really excellent talk by Saree Makdisi a few months ago going into the ancient and modern history of the site, and the issues surrounding the “Museum of Tolerance”, even the design. Links here (if, as a last resort, you use the itunes link the talk number is now 188):
link to mondoweiss.net
Really, I am not trying to be rude, but acting like this in regard to those attending this event, the great “surprise,” is like following a bunch of Alzheimer patients. I am waiting for the day when you are shocked that Zionists are stealing more Palestinian land
I was not very happy with your description of the tomb of Samuel as being “both a mosque with a minaret and a Jewish place of worship”. This is true only since 1967. It has been a Muslim sanctuary since the crusaders. This is not the only case were Jews have gate-crashed Muslim holy places; the Abraham mosque in Hebron, the so-called Tomb of Joseph in Nablus and the Tomb of David on Mount Zion (which was a mosque until 1948). The Tomb of Rachel, however really was a joint venture with a mosque doubling as a Jewish and Christian place of worship.