UNESCO Archives - The New Antisemitism

October 5, 2023 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The Delegitimization of Israel: A Cancer With A Cure!

There are several ways to make something disappear from the public eye. It can be removed in one swoop, or it can be progressively reduced to oblivion without anyone noticing, let alone doing anything to stop it. Some call it “the salami effect”. You slice away a very thin piece of the issue at a time so that it is barely noticeable, and eventually, the salami is all gone. It looks like Israel has been cursed with this mode of operation by her foes for several decades.

Natan Sharansky developed the 3D test to determine if antisemitism is at play in any way, shape or form. He came up with the three filters to pass everything through: Delegitimization, Demonization and Double Standards. These three criteria can be used individually. But people can also compound them and use double standards to delegitimize Israel’s existence, which makes it even easier to demonize Israel and the Jewish people.

The delegitimization of Israel has been going on for a while now. The attempt at erasing Israel’s biblical, historical, geographical and archeological heritages has been somewhat successful, even though it is not founded on facts. But, let’s face it, people are less and less checking for truth, and facts don’t matter as much as they used to. So, when the United Nations or UNESCO declare that a Middle East site is not Jewish but Palestinian, few people verify the accuracy of the statement.

The latest such decision was made a few days ago about ancient ruins near Jericho in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank.) The old city of Jericho (one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world) was recognized as a World Heritage Site in Palestine, as reported by the Washington Post. The decision was made at a meeting of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. This organization was created to promote the educational, scientific and/or cultural aspects of world sites, aiming at their preservation for generations to enjoy. Lately, it would appear that UNESCO has become more political than educational.

Not too long ago, the Temple Mount was also declared a historical Palestinian site. It was in 2016 when UNESCO adopted a resolution referring to the Temple Mount as “the al-Aqsa Mosque,” and or “Haram-al Sharif,” only mentioning “Temple Mount” in parenthesis and promoting a site stripped of its very deep Jewish roots.

All these attempts at dejudaizing Israel can be extremely damaging and are only fueled by historical revisionism, encouraging more people to delegitimize Israel. When it comes to Israel’s legitimacy in the Holy Land, before people jump to conclusions, here are a few questions that they should ask themselves:

• Can Palestine be defined biblically, historically, geographically or archaeologically with certainty?
• What are the Palestinian language, foods, and customs?
• Why did the Palestinian flag change from a Blue and white rectangle with a yellow star of David to a flag resembling the Jordanian flag?
• Why do Palestinian stamps, ID cards, Passports, coins and bills prior to 1948 all have the two letters yod and aleph (short for Eretz Yisrael, meaning “Land of Israel”) near the word “Palestine”?
• Where does the word Palestine originate from?
• Where is Palestine mentioned in the Bible?

These are legitimate questions that people of goodwill ought to ask about Palestine and then decide for themselves. I could answer all these questions, but it is better for people to do their own research and not feel like there might be a bias in the answers I would give.

For decades now, Israel’s legitimacy has been shaved off a thin slice at a time. Originally, these moves used to raise some eyebrows, but they don’t anymore. Israel continues to be more and more delegitimized by her foes, but there is an easy solution. People must educate themselves about factual truth and debunk the lies.

No other country in the world has suffered and continues to suffer like Israel. The reason is a biblical one. Israel is where Jerusalem is and where the end-times stage will be set very soon. A lot is at stake in the area. It was once said that if Israel is akin to the End-Times clock, Jerusalem is the hour hand and the Temple is the minute hand, and boy, is that clock near the midnight mark!

Satan is operating on borrowed time and he is eagerly waiting to set his antichrist on the scene to go full force against Israel. Both Israelis and Arabs are being deceived by Satan and used against each other. They, like we all do, need Yeshua (Jesus) to come into their lives and settle their eternal destiny. The cure for the cancer of the delegitimization of Israel is education, but more importantly, the cure for the world spiritual cancer is the death and resurrection of Yeshua for all mankind, including Jews and Arabs.

February 26, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Hitler would be very proud of the Aalst Carnival in Belgium!

The city of Aalst, Belgium has officially held its carnival since 1923. Parades of that sort actually go back to the Middle Ages. Aalst almost always makes the news for its 3-Day carnival taking place yearly at the end of February. The organizers repeatedly claim that the satirical tone of the carnival is to be remembered when one considers any of its floats. They claim to poke fun at people indiscriminately. Freedom of press and freedom of expression are at the core of the Aalst Carnival, and within reason, in a world where these two are quickly being squeezed out, if not disappearing altogether, this is a breath of fresh air that we must respect. Unless it is taken too far!

Going back to the French Revolution of 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen said in its article 11, “The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law. Furthermore, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights added in its article 19, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Important boundaries for all of mankind were put in place to protect our freedoms on just about every level. The laws are in place to protect us, but keep in mind, that even if something is not illegal, it does not mean it is appropriate. We should never allow ourselves to abuse the power of free speech, even in a satire!

Belgium also has some very specific boundaries regarding freedom of speech, like most countries in the West. Through an organization known as UNIA, Belgium monitors and defends people who have been victims of discrimination. They are very helpful in determining when freedom of speech crosses the line and becomes racism and/or incitement.

The 2019 Aalst Carnival featured some giant orthodox Jews with grotesque facial features, wearing pink outfits with oversized shtreimels (Jewish fur hats) with rats on their shoulders and money bursting out of their pockets. The depiction was so despicably antisemitic that even UNESCO–not Israel’s strongest supporter over the years–decided to remove the Aalst Carnival from its list of “cultural heritage of Humanity.”

The embarrassment created by the UNESCO removal in 2019 should have taught the organizers a lesson and should have given them a serious incentive to put an end to the antisemitic elements of the carnival. Instead, it appears that it emboldened them to go further. This would be outrage at any time of history, but in 2020, it is oil thrown onto the fire of global antisemitism. This will inevitably provide justification to those who want to kill Jews, as we are starting to witness that again.

The “Aalst Jews of 2020” were again wearing oversized shtreimels, dressed in black this year, but the bottom half of their bodies were that of insects or vermin; ants to be exact.

A small replica of the Western Wall was also paraded with words “complain ant” (words that apparently look like the words Western Wall in dutch.) Joining the crowds were dozens of people wearing caricatural orthodox Jewish garb and large fake crooked noses, not to mention the many flyers with stereotypical renditions of Jews with side curls, crooked noses and curly hair.

The 1940 Nazi propaganda film “The Wandering Jew” depicted Jewish people as rats coming out of sewers to invade the world. Jews were compared to parasites and vermin. In other Nazi works, they were compared to insects like lice that must be exterminated. You know the rest of the story. Antisemites currently do not need any incentive to hate the Jews, so why go there?

Without the help of Aalst Carnival, global Jews are again at risk for their lives. Comparing them to insects or rats is giving antisemites justification for their actions, When the mayor of Aalst was asked, he responded that there was no antisemitism in his city. Seriously? Even Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes ONLY stated that the carnival “was causing damage to our values and the reputation of our country.” Unfortunately, words never condemn actions unless they are followed by consequences for those actions.

The Aalst Carnival MUST stop its antisemitism and all other kinds of xenophobic displays or it should not be allowed to continue. I don’t care how funny people think it was–as all watchers were smiling or laughing as the floats passed by them–it continues to fuel the unnecessary and irrational global tsunami of antisemitism that is now claiming Jewish lives again!

In 2013, they chose to wear Gestapo uniforms, walked around wearing cans labeled “Zyklon B” — the poison that the Nazis used to kill Jews in gas chambers, and paraded a cattle car similar to those used to transport Jews during the Holocaust. At this rate, it won’t be long before the floats look like crematoria or gas chambers!

Well, actually, it was only a day later that the city of Campo de Criptana, Spain featured such a float in their parade. Nazi uniforms, train car and crematoria along with prisoners in striped outfits. Some say that the village is a great friend of Israel. Even if they are, what a poor way to commemorate the Holocaust!

Is it time for all the Jews of Belgium to make aliyah to Israel?

Aaslt you would make Hitler very proud!

October 27, 2017 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

UNESCO Is Under New Jewish Leadership, So What?

Just a few days ago, UNESCO voted to elect their next Director General to replace the current exiting Director, Bulgarian Irina Bokova. At the end of the process, it came down to two candidates: One from Qatar and one from France. The favorite was Qatari candidate Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, but he lost to French candidate Audrey Azoulay (30-28.) The UNESCO Director General’s position is a 5-year term , open to a second term.
UNESCO is an acronym for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Of the 195 countries members of UNESCO, 60 are either Muslim countries, members of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), or observer members of the OIC. This constitutes almost a third of of the countries part of UNESCO. The fact that UNESCO has a strong anti-Israel bias cannot be denied and its strong Muslim membership might be a factor but it isn’t the ONLY factor. Many other countries represented, also have very strong anti-Semitic sentiment against Israel. The result has been a plethora of resolutions against Israel over the years.
in 2011, UNESCO officially recognized Palestine (107/14) and added the “new state” to its roster. Immediately after, the United States pulled its funding. Then, in 2016 UNESCO declared that the Temple Mount/Western Wall in Jerusalem had no Jewish connection and called it by its Arabic name, thus stripping it from all Jewish identity and opening the door for more violence between Palestinians and Israelis. Continuing on its campaign to delegitimize everything Jewish, UNESCO recently declared that Jerusalem had no right to be the capital of Israel. The vote took place on Israel Independence Day, making one wonder if the date was selected to further humiliate Israel.
The day before the vote to elect the new director, the United States expressed their decision to leave UNESCO over their flagrant anti-Israel bias. Within hours, Israel followed suit declaring that electing French AND Jewish candidate Audrey Azoulay was not enough to keep Israel as a member.
The United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump have been very vocal about their support of Israel. The electing of Nikki Haley has the US ambassador the United Nations has already yielded some amazing changes in favor of Israel. So it is clear that agencies such as the UN or UNESCO can be reformed in favor of a more balanced outlook on world affairs– something they were both started for. What Audrey Azoulay will accomplish as new Director General of UNESCO is yet unclear, but time will tell.
Miss Azoulay served as Minister of Culture (2016-17) in the François Hollande Socialist government. She arrives at a critical time for UNESCO and will have an uphill battle to restore credibility to an agency that has seen its integrity erode over the last decade. But the departure of both Israel and the US–outside of a great loss of financial contributions–might make matters worse for Israel. Two major voices of reason are lost in a community that clearly shows bold animosity against Israel. Miss Azoulay’s challenge will be to ensure that the remaining members will not continue to re-write history “sans Israel.” Her Jewish family heritage gives her an appearance of credibility, but it will be a long road to restore UNESCO’s credibility, at least among those who don’t try to re-write history.
As I see it, UNESCO is part of the global libel against Israel, easily pushed forward by an anti-Semitic community and even more easily accepted by many uneducated masses who couldn’t care less about authentic history.

October 4, 2017 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Why Did Palestine Really Joins Interpol?

On Thursday, September 28, Palestine was accepted as the newest member of INTERPOL. INTERPOL is the “INTERrnational POLice” Agency that was started in 1923 with the goal of coordinating various world police forces and sharing intel across borders. In the second article of its constitution, INTERPOL states the reason for its existence:” To ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’; To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.

The creation of the INTERPOL Agency was needed and has resulted in the cooperation of worldwide police forces to fight international crime over the years, and that’s a good thing. But the recent addition of Palestine to the INTERPOL roster might be creating problems more than solving them. By admitting the State of Palestine, INTERPOL admits that Palestine exists as a state. That is its first mistake, and it creates a false premise for the rest of the process. The geographical area known to the world as Israel that was renamed Palestine never ceased to be Israel. Until the 1960’s the word “Palestine” was simply used to describe Israel, nothing more, nothing less. After the arrival on the Middle East scene of Yasir Arafat, Palestine took on a new meaning and became politically charged. A newly displaced people were created. A struggle was justified and terrorism popularized.

It took over fifty years of patient international nagging punctuated by regular acts of terrorism for Palestine to exist. Exist in the mind of those who cretaed it that is! But today, Palestine also exist in the politically correct, brainwashed minds of many people who would rather root for the fictional underdog instead of checking if that underdog has legitimate reasons to complain. So the question is no longer “Does Palestine exist?” but “How come Palestine isn’t recognized by more international agencies?”

Over the last few years, the Palestinian authority managed to get recognized by about fifty world organizations, including the United Nations, UNESCO and the ICC (International Criminal Court) only to name a few. The moment that the Nobel Peace Prize was given jointly to Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat, was a defining moment for all those who understand the concept of peace. It made the Nobel Organization look like a bunch of fools and tarnished their reputation for good. Then, the inclusion of Palestine as a “Non-Member Observer State” at the United Nations in 2012 solidified the obvious bias that the UN has had against Israel for several decades.

So it was only a matter of time before INTERPOL joined the others. Of the 192 countries belonging to Interpol, more than two-thirds voted in favor of the inclusion of Palestine. These were not only Arab countries. But to those who are interested in the facts, the integrity of the Palestinian Authority leaves a lot to be desired. Millions of donated funds have been used for the building of tunnels to infiltrate Israel illegally whenever possible and perform more acts of terrorism. Schools and hospitals in Gaza have been repeatedly used to hide and use weapons against Israel, not only ignoring the safety of Palestinian civilians but also using them as human shields.

By admitting Palestine as one of their new members, INTERPOL exposes itself to a corrupt body more interested in the complete destruction of Israel than in any international police cooperation. Sure, the Palestinian Authority might show good faith by sharing some intel that would lead to the arrest of a few Palestinians or other criminals, but that is most likely not their overall intention. In the meantime, it also gives them access to other intel that could be used to hurt Israel. How many of us really believe that the Palestinian Authority will ” ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities” as stated in INTERPOLS’s constitution. Instead, it will use its recent international vindication to further demonize Israel and the Jewish people.

It is ironic that INTERPOL’s inclusion of Palestine would ignore their repeated violations of human rights and in the same breath declare in their constitution that their cooperative work is always done “in the spirit of the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.” Seriously? By accepting Palestine as their newest member, INTERPOL will tarnish their reputation and further facilitate the Palestinian agenda of Israel’s annihilation. Now “Palestine” has the backing of an international body of police forces to fulfill that agenda, and don’t think for a minute that they won’t use it to their advantage!

January 15, 2017 By Olivier Melnick 10 Comments

The anti-Israel Paris Conference needs to be “Trumped!”

Less than a week before Mr. Obama walks into the sunset–or at least walks out of the White House– further damage to US/Israel relations is still possible. Beyond a shaky relationship that has been crumbling over the past eight years, Israel is a risk once again because 72 world leaders are being manipulated by her fiercest foes. They are about to meet in Paris on January 15 and decide on the fate of the tiny Jewish State. Like a thorn in the flesh of our global village, according to these leaders, Israel must accept and recognize Palestine for her [Israel] own good.

Neither Mr. Netanyahu nor Mr. Abbas will be attending the Paris Conference. Mr. Abbas isn’t interested in negotiations (nothing new here) and Mr. Netanyahu, while opened to negotiating, will only do it with no preconditions AND in person with Mr. Abbas. But the world has “a wonderful plan for Israel” even if it leads to its destruction!

Several ambassadors wrote a letter ahead of the conference, explaining why it is in Israel’s interest to accept a two-state solution and finally recognize Palestine. They are asking France to lead the way in recognizing Palestine, and this could very well take place on January 15 in Paris, UNILATERALLY.

Last December, in passing resolution 2334, the United Nations officially made the building of settlements in the “disputed territories” illegal and punishable by international law. Not all within the US government were thrilled with the US abstention that facilitated the passing of resolution 2334 by the UN. As a matter of fact, several senators are currently proposing that the UN be defunded of taxpayers money if they don’t reverse the measure. President Elect Donald Trump has also expressed his disagreement and has asked Israel to hang tight until January 20, 2017, the official date of his inauguration into office.

We mustn’t forget that earlier in 2016, UNESCO decided that the Temple Mount–one of the oldest Jewish site– biblically, archeologically and historically wasn’t Jewish but was a Muslim site. Both the UN and UNESCO (as a UN agency) joined by the current US administration are simply ignoring factual, historical truth. In a recent article, journalist Maria Polizoidou said it well,
“The US and the UN – both the Security Council and UNESCO – are not who determine what is historically true and what is not. These shameful votes should be reversed immediately; if not, all funding should be withdrawn from the United Nations, by United States and all freedom-loving democracies. They are now, to paraphrase the words of the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Lenin, ‘paying for the rope with which members of the UN will hang them.'”

The Paris Conference on Israel/Palestine without Netanyahu or Abbas will possibly lead to a vote in favor of recognizing “Palestine.” The two main countries that are interested in such a move are France and the United States (under the current administration.) President Hollande of France will be out in May and Obama will be out in on January 20th. Both are lame ducks and have nothing to lose. They both believe that their legacies would benefit from a declared state of Palestine on their watch. By the end of Sunday, the arrogant world leaders who chose to convene in Paris might have enough momentum to push forward yet another United Nation resolution on January 17, only three days before our new POTUS is sworn in. If they could only take these few facts in consideration:

• The land of Canaan was given to the Jewish people through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by divine decree in a covenant without preconditions as seen in Genesis 15:18-19: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.” Geographically speaking the real estate includes much more than current Israel even if you add the Gaza Strip and the West bank back in. They might not believe that the Bible is a binding document, but they will find out soon enough that it is!

• The two-State solution isn’t an option for the Palestinians. Any map of “Palestine” published by the Palestinian side includes all of Israel “from the River to the Sea” with no room for Jews.

• Israel became a state on May 18, 1948 after being voted in by the United Nations and back then Palestinians didn’t exist.

• No other sovereign state ever had to give land conquered at war back to the enemy except for Israel. The territory gained during the Six-Day War isn’t to be returned unless Israel wishes to commit a geographical suicide.

The hatred of the Jews existed long before Israel was reborn. The voluntary or forced shrinking of the Land of Israel will never stop those who loathe the Jews from hurting them in the Land or anywhere else in the world. For anybody to think that Israel is the biggest obstacle to world peace in general and Middle East peace in particular is ludicrous. This is a false premise historically, geographically, archeologically, politically AND last but not least…Biblically. How could these 72 countries ignore the carnage in Syria, the ethnic cleansing in so many other parts of the world and the myriad of crimes against humanity committed daily, and yet, concentrate their effort on pushing the Jewish state off the cliff?

But then again, there is always a chance that the whole thing will get “Trumped” in a few days. President Elect Donald Trump has been called a “Nazi”, “Hitler”, a “Racist” and many other names. He has much on his plate and many opportunities to show his true colors early. He might surprise us all.

Am Yisrael Chai!

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