No religious tolerance for exiled Jew in Libya

Despite statements from Libya's National Transitional Council that the country would practice "patience, honesty and tolerance," in the post Gadhafi era, this assurance does not seem to extend to the Jewish people. Tripoli native Dr. David Gerbi was exiled with his family at the age of 12, along with 38,000 other Libyan Jews, after Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. When Dr. Gerbi returned to Tripoli recently to try and clean a synagogue that had been left to decay and ruin, he was forced to flee from protesters chanting "No place for Jews or Zionists."

CLICK HERE to read the full story by Rabbi Abraham Cooper in the National Post


    Protesters demonstrate against Jewish presence in Libya
Oct.7.2011 Marco Longari/AFP via National Post



Gilad Shalit's release strengthens Israeli social contract

A concise and powerful explanation by Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on how Gilad Shalit's release makes Israeli society stronger by reaffirming the country's unwritten social contract

GOOGLE EXPLAINS WHY ANTI-SEMITIC WEBSITE RANKS SO HIGH

FSWC  recently received an email petition asking Google to remove an antisemitic website (CLICK HERE to sign the petition). The website dates to the late 1990's and the petition has been around for a few years now. What's new is the Google ranking of the website: type in the word "Jew" and the hate site "Jew Watch" is at the top of the rankings. Google thinks this issue is serious enought to merit an explanation, which you can read by CLICKING HERE.

Avi Benlolo on Gilad Shalit's release on Sun News

FSWC President & CEO Avi Benlolo speaks with David Akin on The Daily Brief on Sun News about the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the implications of this historic prisoner exchange. Click on the image to go to the interview.

Concordia cancels radical Islamist conference - Ryerson, McMaster & York host hate preachers

A conference featuring speakers with a history of anti-Semitic, anti-Gay hate speech set to take place at Concordia University this weekend has been cancelled by the campus Muslim Student Association (MSA). The Islamic Education and Research Academy’s (IERA) “Calling the World Back to Allah” conference was sponsored by the MSA and scheduled for Concordia on October 21. After conversations with representatives from the university’s administration, Concordia’s MSA withdrew its support and cancelled the event. The IREA website lists the Montreal event as still active but lists the location as TBA.

In reply to a letter of concern sent by FSWC President and CEO Avi Benlolo, Concordia’s President, Frederick Lowy, wrote “this event was cancelled on Friday, October 14th.  It goes without saying that Concordia University does not espouse or support the attitudes ascribed to the speakers slated for that event.”

IERA speakers have called for the death of homosexuals and referred to Jews and other non-Muslims as “filth” as well as calling Jews specifically “cursed.” They also support the stoning of women. Regrettably, despite the attention drawn to the nature of the IREA speakers, the MSAs at McMaster University in Hamilton has and Ryerson University in Toronto will host Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, who has suggested on his website that homosexuality should be made a crime. Yesterday York University’s MSA welcomed IERA speaker Yusuf Chambers who has endorsed hate preacher Zakir Naik’s pronouncement that homosexuality should be punishable by death. Naik was been banned from Canada more than a year ago for his fundamentalist views.

Sheraton Hotels cancelled the IERA event scheduled to take place in Toronto on October 23 after the nature of the hate speech of the speakers was publicized. The IERA Facebook site lists the new conference venue as the Canadian headquarters of the North American Islamic Society in Mississauga.

Israel Shakes Hands With the Devil

Most Israelis are anxiously awaiting the release of Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli prisoner of war captured on June 25, 2006 by Hamas in a cross-border raid near the Kerem Shalom crossing (in Israel). Shalit has been held in Gaza as a bargaining chip for five years and for the Hamas leadership, it's finally pay day.

The group effectively ransomed Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails -- many of them with blood on their hands. For instance, three members of the Hamas cell who in 2005 abducted and murdered Sasson Nuriel -- Ali Mohammed Ali Qadi, Abdullah Nasser Arar and Said Ibrahim Shalaldeh -- are reportedly on the list of prisoners to be freed.

Israeli families who have suffered from the loss of their loved ones are suffering yet again. Arnold and Frimet Roth are begging the Israeli government not to release Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who aided and abetted the Sbaro suicide bomber who killed 15 people including their 15-year-old-daughter Malka.

Read More. . .

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center alarmed at attempts by radical Islamic organization to establish roots in Canada

FSWC is alarmed about an extremist British Islamic organization attempting to establish itself in Canada through a conference featuring anti-Semitic, anti-Gay speakers. The Islamic Education and Research Academy’s (IERA) “Calling the World Back to Allah” conference has scheduled speakers who called Jews “cursed,” and “filth,” have called for the death of homosexuals and support the stoning of women .

FSWC commends Sheraton Hotels for cancelling the use of their Toronto facilities for a gathering of hate-mongers on October 23. However, according to IERA’s Facebook site, the new venue the organization plans to use for the conference is the Canadian headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga.

FSWC has also discovered that IERA is making inroads at Canadian universities: the IERA conference is scheduled for October 21 at Concordia University in Montreal, while one of the IERA featured speakers, Abdullah Quick, is slated by the University of Toronto’s Muslim Student Association to present an 18-week series of seminars on Islam.

“We are extremely concerned that Concordia would allow such an event that insults Canadian values of tolerance and diversity to occur on its premises,” said FSWC President and CEO Avi Benlolo.  “We also call upon the University of Toronto to distance itself from the bigotry expressed by Mr. Quick and look forward to a statement to that effect by the University as soon as possible,” he added.

Despite the issue of an IERA press release  which stated an “international team of speakers, staff and volunteers have never called for violence or hatred towards members of the Jewish or Homosexual communities,” the speakers can be seen and heard making exactly those types of statements at the following link.

IERA claims its condemnation and threats to the safety of homosexuals is in the context of “criminal law in an Islamic state.”

Anti-Zionist Conspiracy Theorist behind Toronto’s “Stop the Cuts” Protests

The author of an anti-Semitic Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) thesis that claimed Holocaust education programs were part of a Zionist conspiracy to perpetuate Jewish victimhood has been exposed as a key individual behind the Toronto "Stop the Cuts" actions aimed at hampering attempts to restore fiscal responsibility at Toronto’s City Hall.

Jenny Peto, whose Masters' Thesis for the Sociology and Equity Studies in Education program at OISE alleged that the mainstream Jewish community "is dominated by racist...ideologies," was revealed by an anonymous reader of the blog Eye on a Crazy Planet to be the registrant of http://www.torontostopthecuts.com/, the website that is the central information repository for the activists. Peto's thesis, titled, "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education" was condemned in Ontario's Legislature by both the Minister for Citizenship and Opposition MPPs as being a "hateful and poorly researched...piece of garbage."

Understanding who is behind the radicals who want to prevent the Mayor from managing the city's fiscal crisis is instructive in unraveling some of their motives.

A number of vociferous anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations and individuals still harbour a grudge against the Mayor for his efforts to keep the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid out of Toronto's Pride parade and his attempt to prevent anti-Semitic al Quds Day activities held by the Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO) from taking place on City property.

Until now the individuals organizing the anti-Ford actions remained mostly in the shadows; we have now learned the media contact number for “Stop The Cuts” is the same as the number for a woman whom anti-Semitic author Peto refers to in her thesis' acknowledgments as her "partner." 

When told of Ms. Peto’s involvement in “Stop the Cuts” Adrienne Batra, the Mayor’s Press Secretary said, "It's not surprising that someone who is clearly misinformed on so many issues would be participating in spreading this type of hysteria. The Ford administration is going through a thoughtful process on how to fix our City's finances, something that will, ironically, even help out those involved with this website."

Tarek Fatah and Ayaan Hirsi Ali talk about anti-Semitism in the Arab world and the dangers of radical Islam

Watch this riveting discussion between author-activists Tarek Fatah and Ayaan Hirsi Ali at a recent FSWC event.

Jewish Resolve: Drawing strength from Yom Kippur

By Avi Benlolo in the Huffington Post

October 7, 2011- As on Yom Kippur of 1973, Jewish communities around the world -- and Israel in particular, are facing an external threat of historic proportion.
It was 38 years ago that a consortium of Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jewish people. It was a sadistic attack, timed to happen when Jews in Israel would have their guard down -- in synagogue, with all communications closed (no electricity or fire is permissible) and likely weak and tired from fasting.
But Jewish resolve and the need for survival was greater than the hatred unleashed on the tiny state by Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq with troops and aid from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Morocco, Cuba and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. Many nations further participated in attempting to destroy Israel by funding and supplying this war effort -- including the former Soviet Union through its alliance with Egypt and Arab states.
Israel was victorious and for many Jews today, Yom Kippur is more than just a day of private reflection and atonement. It is a day of Jewish pride and strength, and an expression of our resolve and effort to survive in our ancestral homeland despite the incredible suffering our people have endured throughout the ages.
And because Yom Kippur is a holiday that brings Jews together and fills synagogues around the world to the rafters, it is a holiday that unifies us and recommits us and strengthens us for the coming year. This re-strengthening of our commitment to Israel and our culture and religion was indeed the secret weapon the Arabs missed in 1973 when they launched their attack.
The enemies of Israel and the Jewish people should know that our resolve today is greater than it was even on Yom Kippur in 1973. When we say that never again will there be a Holocaust and the gathering of millions of Jews into concentration camps where they will be gassed -- or annihilated by Gazan bombs or a nuclear Iran, we are serious. Israel does not stand alone -- not among Diaspora Jews and not among Western nations like Canada who rightly understand that Israel is the defender of freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

CLICK HERE to read the full article

Will Canada follow Germany's lead and open dormant Nazi war files?

On the heels of a German decision to re-open hundreds of dormant investigations into Nazi war criminals, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff is planning a campaign to track down any Nazis still alive. Read more about it here

Will the Canadian government follow suit? We've contacted the War Crimes department in Ottawa and will let you know when we receive a response.

Does CBC Radio think Israel has been occupied since 1948?

In response to a recent CBC Radio interview in which a Palestinian representative to Canada made a number of questionable statements left unchallenged by the CBC interviewer, FSWC sent the following letter of concern to the CBC. Early Warning will let our readers know as soon as we receive a response.


Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) would like to register its concern about a recent interview on CBC Radio.
CBC Radio's 'The Current' broadcast an interview on Monday, September 26, 2011 of Linda Sobeh Ali, the Charge d'Affaires of the Palestinian delegation to Canada, in which she was allowed, unchallenged, to make a number of outrageous assertions, including that Israel has been "occupying" Palestinian land since 1948, the year of Israel's independence. In effect, that claim makes it clear that the Palestinian representative accords no legitimacy to Israel as a nation. Her comments belie the Palestinian leadership's stated aspirations for a two-state solution. This deception on the part of the Palestinian leadership is also revealed by its ongoing refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or to engage in peace talks unless conditions favourable to them are pre-arranged. We believe the lionization of suicide bombers, terrorists and child murderers and continued incitement to violence in the official Palestinian media provide further illustration of the actual intent of the Palestinian Authority's leadership.


CLICK HERE to read the full letter to the CBC