03.09.2020
Editorial Note
IAM previously reported on Israeli radical activist-academics who often take upon themselves an Arab identity. Dr. Uri Davis converted to Islam, Prof. Ariella Azoulay added Aisha to her name, and Dr. Tom Pessah wears a Keffiyeh, to name a few.
In a similar vein, last month, Dr. Stavit Sinai from the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Konstanz in Germany, was convicted in Germany for using violence while interfering in an event in 2017 at Germany’s Humboldt University, hosting MK Aliza Lavie and a Holocaust survivor. She was part of a group of BDS activists who shouted and yelled during the conference, but she injured two people when she slammed the doors on them.
Such a behavior is not surprising, as Sinai was a student of Prof. Shlomo Sand and was chosen to become his teaching assistant at Tel Aviv University. Moreover, she was his Hebrew book editor of The Invention of the Jewish People. Naturally, When Sand’s book was criticized she wrote an op-ed in Sand’s defense, in Haaretz.
Responding to her op-ed, Galil Elyashiv, former Mossad operator, criticized her writing, “it is difficult to ignore a sentence in which the author ends her article. In her efforts to characterize Prof. Sand’s virtues, she emphasizes ‘that he fought in the wars of occupation and oppression of his country.’ Is that what the Department of General History at Tel Aviv University calls the Israeli wars since the War of Independence, or did the author forget, in her anger, what she learned?”
Clearly, Sinai’s scholarship is an extension of Sand’s.
For example, Sinai argues in an academic paper that when the state of Israel was accepted into the United Nations in 1947, it was “coinciding with the beginning of the Palestinian “Nakba” – which included the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who became refugees – and culminating in the 1948 War.”
This is, of course, a false narrative. Had the Palestinians won the war with their allied Arab states, there would have been no Israel.
Sinai also argued, based on Sand’s theories, that Zionism’s nourished myths of the “Jewish people” claiming to have a common ancestry and a “territorial myth” which they name the “Land of Israel.” She borrows from Sand, that “Combined these two myths form the myth of exile, return, and revival, which regards the broadly defined territory known as Palestine as the biblical land from which ancient Judeans were exiled in the first or second century CE and as the place to which present-day Jews ought to return.” She erroneously espouses Sand’s false assumption that during the late previous century, the Zionists invented the longing of Jews to their ancestral homeland. She writes, “These political myths were cultivated by late 19th-century and early 20th century intellectuals whose secular reading of the sacred scriptures approached the Bible as a historical source… Anachronistically projecting their contemporary understanding of nationalism on the political structures that prevailed in the ancient past, this cohort of scholars has qualified ancient Judea as a modern sovereign nation and drew simultaneously a direct line from the ancient Hebrews to the Jewish communities of the present (Sand 2010).” In other words, she borrowed Sand’s claim that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of Khazarian converts, and as such, there is no linkage to the Biblical Jews. Even if accepting this theory as true, there is enough linkage by the Sephardi Jews, as can be seen in the writings of Shlomo Iben Gabirol, Maimonides, or even the documents from the Cairo Geniza, to refute these claims.
Sinai joins Sand in his “Jewish People denial” and takes his teaching a step further. Sinai is a longstanding BDS activist, in 2012 She was among the group of BDS activists who interfered with a performance in Berlin of the Gevatron, the Israeli Kibbutz folk singers group. The Israeli news media broadcasted this, where Sinai is seen shouting and screaming.
In September 2019, Sinai was filmed protesting Israel’s Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff, when the Israeli Seret Film Festival was held. She shouted at the megaphone, as described by her BDS peers, that “This whitewashing extravaganza was attended by the apartheid Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff and other supporters of Israeli crimes.”
Evidently, Sinai is not only anti-Israel but also anti-Semitic. For example, Aish HaTorah, a Jewish Orthodox educational organization based in Jerusalem, published an article by Rabbi Ken Spiro, titled “The Bible as history.” The Rabbi presented his case, that “not only were Jews recording history well before Herodotus, but while Herodotus might record the events, the Jews were looking at the deeper meaning, and that deeper meaning can be found most importantly and most significantly within the Bible itself.” One of the comments to his article was written by Stavit Sinai, then, a student in the Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University, positing: “Not only this article, like the rest of the articles in this category, are afflicted with a blatant historical distortion and anachronism, but also, every word is saturated and replete with horrific racism. It is amazing to see how the feelings of the supremacy of Jewish religion and culture are absorbed.”
Arguably, holding such negative views of Judaism, Sinai should not be teaching Jewish History.
Now Sinai and her BDS team known as the Humboldt3, have been seeking donations from the anti-Israel crowd. They opened a fundraising account and titled their cause as “BDS Activists on Trial – Support the Humboldt3,” asking the public to “Help us in taking Israel to court!” with 118 donors who have raised 5,609 Euros.
The German court ordered Sinai to pay 450 Euros fine, but she already announced her preference for a prison term, pictured wearing a Keffiyeh. Probably to maximize her service for the Palestinian cause.
Sinai is just one of many uber-radical Israelis teaching in Western universities who devote all their energies to delegitimizing Israel. A recent study by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University which analyzed security threats to Israel, named international delegitimization as a severe threat. More needs to be done to expose Sinai and other Israeli foot soldiers in the army of degetimizers.
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https://jewishjournal.com/news/worldwide/320283/bds-activist-convicted-of-assault-in-berlin-court/
BDS Activist Convicted of Assault in Berlin Court Bhttps://twitter.com/Stav_Si/status/1292136763872477185yAaron Bandler
August 13, 2020
A boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activist was convicted in a German court of assault that authorities said was committed while protesting a 2017 event at Humboldt University in the German capital.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the incident occurred at a speaking event featuring Israeli Knesset Member Aliza Lavie and Israeli Holocaust survivor Deborah Weinstein, who were talking about life in Israeli. The activist, Stavit Sinai, and two other BDS activists disrupted the event.
The court convicted Sinai of banging on a door at the event, which resulted in injuries to two people. Sinai has to either pay a fine of 450 euros ($530.39) or serve a 30-day prison sentence.
Sinai, who calls herself an Israeli dissident in her Twitter bio, argued in a tweet that she was punched in the face at the event; accompanying the tweet was an image containing a statement that she didn’t regret her conduct and that she won’t be paying the fine.
“There’s no punishment that can silence me from speaking about the crimes of apartheid,” the statement read. “I am confident that one day the apartheid criminals would be sitting here instead of me.”
Sinai and the two other activists also faced charges of criminal trespassing; those were dismissed.
Frankfurt Mayor Uwe Becker, who is also the Hesse commissioner to combat anti-Semitism, praised the court’s decision as “an important success against the violent character of BDS and its supporters.”
“It unmasks the violent character of the BDS movement, because it shows that even Holocaust survivors are attacked by BDS when they speak out for the Jewish state,” Becker told the Post. “So it makes clear that the aim of BDS is not about peaceful protest against political decisions in Israel but the aim is the destruction and delegitimization of the Jewish state by all means.”
He added that the decision also shows that the BDS movement aims to silence views that oppose its narrative.
“It makes clear that BDS is lying about their history when they want to present themselves as a Palestinian human rights movement,” Becker said. “They are lying about their aims, when they proclaim the borders of 1967 as their major goal, and they are lying about their means when they want to present themselves as a peaceful movement.”
Ronnie Barkan, one of the other activists who was charged with disrupting the 2017 event, argued in an Aug. 3 Medium post that Sinai was banging on the doors because she was trying “to find out the details of the person who had just punched her in the face. Thanks to one of the Zionist witnesses who inadvertently showed the judge a video that he had never published before — the punching was clearly visible — giving immense credibility to Stavit’s testimony while discrediting each and every Zionist witness that testified against us.”
He also wrote that the trespassing charges were dismissed “on the basis of formality flaws by the prosecution” and said it was a win for them to be able to promote “an unapologetic discourse of resistance to the criminal Israeli apartheid regime in Berlin — the last standing bastion for Zionism.”
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BDS ‘Jew-hater’ convicted for violent assault in Germany
Conviction appears to be the first criminal penalty for violent BDS activity
AUGUST 5, 2020 16:27 A Berlin court convicted on Monday a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activist for assaulting people during a presentation by an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust at Humboldt University in the capital. In a dramatic setback to the claim of the BDS campaign that it is a nonviolent initiative targeting the Jewish state, the Berlin court declared Stavit Sinai guilty for her violent conduct.The Berlin daily B.Z. titled its article about the BDS activists at the trial: “It is so shameful. Disgusting hatred of Jews in and in front of the Berlin courtroom.” Sinai’s conviction appears to be the first criminal penalty for violent BDS activity in Germany. The paper reported about the anti-Israel extremist: “Lecturer Stavit S. is guilty. She hit the door of the hall ‘wildly’ from the outside, injuring two people… Either she pays €450, or sits in prison for 30 days.”
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2017 that three BDS activists – Sinai, Ronnie Barkan and Majed Abusalama – stormed the Humboldt University in Berlin to disrupt a talk titled “Life in Israel – Terror, Bias and the Chances for Peace” by Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie and Deborah Weinstein, an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust, now 85 years old. The court dismissed the criminal trespass charges against the three. Abusalama said he is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza. He lives in the United Kingdom.
The B.Z. journalist, Anne Losensky, wrote that the trial was about “trespassing and assault,” adding that “all three seem to enjoy the trial so they can use it as propaganda against Israel.” Losensky wrote that “they wear masks made of the Palestinian scarf [keffiyeh] – a symbol of the annihilation struggle against Israel.” She continued that they showed “raised fists – as if the criminal court were a tribunal against Israel.” According to the newspaper, Sinai declared: “I regret nothing.” Her lawyer said Israel’s policy is “apartheid.” Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency, which documents threats to the democratic order of the city-state, deemed the conduct of the BDS activists to be antisemitic in its 2018 report. Last year, the Bundestag declared BDS to be an antisemitic movement. B.Z. reported that Barkan is a 43-year-old Slovak and Sinai is a 35-year-old Romanian, both having Israeli passports. Barkan previously disrupted a Holocaust film festival in Berlin. BDS activists also protested outside of the courthouse.
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German antisemitism commissioner praises verdict against BDS activist
“Monday’s court decision against an activist of the antisemitic BDS movement… is an important success against the violent character of BDS and its supporters.” By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL AUGUST 11, 2020 19:07 The Hesse commissioner to combat antisemitism lauded a Berlin court decision convicting a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement activist for assault. “Monday’s court decision against an activist of the antisemitic BDS movement for assaulting people during a presentation by an Israeli survivor of the Holocaust at Humboldt University in Berlin is an important success against the violent character of BDS and its supporters,” Uwe Becker told The Jerusalem Post. On Monday Stavit Sinai was found guilty of inflicting violence on people at the talk. According to reports, she hit the door of the hall “wildly” from the outside, injuring two people. She is required to pay either €450, or face a prison term of 30 days. “In two ways, this decision is an important milestone in the fight against Israel-related antisemitism in Germany,” Becker said. “It unmasks the violent character of the BDS movement, because it shows that even Holocaust survivors are attacked by BDS when they speak out for the Jewish state. So it makes clear that the aim of BDS is not about peaceful protest against political decisions in Israel but the aim is the destruction and delegitimization of the Jewish state by all means. “Secondly, this act of violence shows that BDS is not defending freedom of speech but BDS is trying to suppress any other opinion that is not compatible with the political agenda of BDS. “It makes clear that BDS is lying about their history when they want to present themselves as a Palestinian human rights movement. They are lying about their aims, when they proclaim the borders of 1967 as their major goal, and they are lying about their means when they want to present themselves as a peaceful movement.” The Post reported in 2017 that three allegedly antisemitic BDS activists – Sinai, Ronnie Barkan and Majed Abusalama – stormed the Humboldt University in Berlin to disrupt a talk titled “Life in Israel – Terror, Bias and the Chances for Peace” by then-Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie and Deborah Weinstein, an Israeli Holocaust survivor, now 85. Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency, which documents threats to the democratic order of the city-state, deemed the conduct of the BDS activists to be antisemitic in its 2018 report. Last year, the Bundestag declared BDS to be an antisemitic movement. Becker said the court’s decision is an “important signal that the fight against the antisemitic BDS movement is more and more successful. And it shows that it is important to unmask BDS and to help society to look behind the curtain of this dirty theater. “We have to [go] from BDS to promote BIS, ‘Buy from, Invest in and Support the State of Israel.’”
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Stav @Stav_SiAug 6 Violence = the murder of 551 children and the liquidation of 89 entire families. Violence = 7 decades of the crime of #apartheid. Violence = getting punched in the face by an organizer of a propaganda event in which you were stuttering. #Humboldt3 vs. #CrimesAgainstHumanity
עליזה לביא @aliza_lavie Aug 5 3 שנים חלפו מאז ההתפרעות הגסה באוניברסיטת הומבולדט בברלין. לשמחתי סתווית סיני שהתפרעה, האשימה בשקרים ותקפה – הורשעה. מותר להביע דעות ולהתווכח אך לאלימות, לתקיפה ולהשגת גבול – להרצאה שתואמה מראש ובה השתתפה גם ניצולת שואה – אין מקום.
twitter.com/ZvikaKlein/sta…
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/humboldt3
BDS Activists on Trial – Support the Humboldt3
€5,609 raised of €9,000 goal
118 donors 823 shares 118 followers
TEAM FUNDRAISER
Ronnie Barkan and Stavit Sinai are organizing this fundraiser.
Created July 3, 2020
Help us in taking Israel to court!
We are 3 BDS activists who are facing our second trial (Aug. 3rd, 2020) on trumped up charges of trespassing and assault, for protesting the actions of apartheid representative MK Aliza Lavie in 2017.
MK Lavie took part in overseeing the brutal assault on Gaza in 2014, which resulted in 2200 being killed, including 551 children and 89 entire families that were obliterated. She later acted as the Israeli Head of Mission to the European Council — defending the systemic mass incarceration and torture of Palestinian children and the premeditated massacre of unarmed demonstrators along the fence of the Gaza ghetto.
We confronted Lavie as she arrived at the Humboldt University in Berlin, on an explicit anti-BDS propaganda tour — doing public relations in collaboration with the Israeli foreign ministry in the attempt to justify Israeli racist and criminal policies against the Palestinians. During our protest we read out loud from Richard Falk and Virginia Tilley’s UN report, which squarely accuses Israel of practicing The Crime of Apartheid — as a form of an institutionalized regime that constitutes a crime against humanity.
After our previous trial (March 4th & 11th, 2019) was left without a verdict, we are now being taken to court for the second time. We will again reject the accusations against us — that serve as an instrument of political persecution against the BDS movement which is widely suppressed in Germany. Instead, we will challenge the court by stressing:
➊ Our obligation to confront individuals such as Lavie who are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity
➋ That we have not forgotten the universal moral duty to resist crimes against humanity
➌ Reminding the court of its responsibilities under international law and the Nuremberg principles in not acting as bystanders nor shielding the perpetrators of grave crimes
➍ We are committed to resisting Israeli apartheid and will continue to do so despite the consequences of the trial
We now ask for your support and solidarity in confronting Israel again in the German court. This is also a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness and educate the public on challenging Israeli crimes.
Financials
Each one of us is being represented by a different lawyer and this is according to German requirements. We currently have no organizational backing and will be covering the legal fees, and possibly a fine should the verdict be against us, out of our own pocket.
The expected amount for all three of us may reach 9000€ and above.
Please help us in covering the mounting legal fees as well as the educational activities that lie ahead.
You can help us by contributing here, or alternatively make a direct Bitcoin deposit to the following address:
3G7Ucgnx24TNpXuQBVRMVQG4r6fUJG3EAt
THANK YOU!
Stavit, Majed and Ronnie
https://medium.com/humboldt3
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https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2364235257191563 BDS בעברית 5 September 2019 · Stavit Sinai faces off apartheid representatives @ Babylon Berlinסתוית סיני מול שגריר ישראל ג’רמי יששכרוף ובאי פסטיבל SERET בברלין – ארוע תעמולה למדינת האפרטהייד הנערך בחסות שגרירות ישראל ומשרד העלייה והקליטה.
The Israel-sponsored Seret Film Festival held its gala event on Sep. 1st at BABYLON Berlin. This whitewashing extravaganza was attended by the apartheid Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff and other supporters of Israeli crimes. Across the street we held a #BDS demonstration, which also included some singing and speeches in English and in Hebrew. In this video: Stavit Sinai (#Humboldt3) faces off the apartheid representatives on the other side of the street, in their language.
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https://www.mako.co.il/news-world/international/Article-c3d916c08964a31004.htm
צפו: “מפוצצים” הופעה של הגבעטרון
חבורת הגבעטרון הייתה יעד למחאה של פעילי שמאל קיצוניים, ביניהם גם ישראלים, בהופעה בברלין. גדעון גוריון מהגבעטרון מספר: “עמדנו על הבמה המומים לחלוטין אבל לא זזנו מהמקום. ההרגשה שלנו הייתה נוראית, היינו חסרי אונים”
חדשות 2|חדשות
רסם 09/10/12 19:41
פעילי שמאל קיצוני מאירופה הפסיקו הופעה של להקת הזמר העברי “הגבעטרון” בברלין בצעקות נגד מדינת ישראל. חברי הלהקה אומרים: חלק מהמפריעים היו ישראלים. לסדרנים לקח לא מעט זמן להוציא אותם, ובאותו הזמן ההופעה הופסקה.
“לא הכינו אותנו לאפשרות שיקומו מפגינים מהקהל, הכל נראה רגוע ושלו, לא הייתה שום הכנה”, מספר גדעון גוריון, חבר להקת הגבעטרון. “עלינו לבמה והתחלנו, כרגיל, עם השיר ‘ים השיבולים’, כשעברנו למחרוזת הבאה פתאום קמו מארבעת הפינות האולם אנשים עם חולצות אדומות, הוציאו דגלים ושלטים והתחילו לצעוק”.
“עמדנו על הבמה המומים לחלוטין אבל לא זזנו מהמקום”, מספר גוריון, “הקהל בעצמו סייע לסדרנים להוציא את המפריעים. היו מעט הרמות ידיים בין המתפרעים לבין הקהל. ההרגשה שלנו הייתה נוראית, היינו די חסרי אונים, אבל בסוף הכל הסתדר וההופעה המשיכה עד הסוף כרגיל”.
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https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1226689
סתוית סיני | נמצא אויב העם
- 25.10.2010
- 00:21
- עודכן ב: 04:30
נראה כי זמן רב חלף מאז שנכתב ספר שעורר תשומת לב ציבורית כה גדולה כפי שעורר ספרו של פרופ’ שלמה זנד, “מתי ואיך הומצא העם היהודי?” (הוצאת רסלינג). ואולם, סמוך לפרסומו של הספר בפברואר 2008, לא נמצא ולו היסטוריון אחד שהסכים להתייחס לטענות שבספר. בחלוף כמה חודשים הודו רבים מהמומחים מן החוגים להיסטוריה של עם ישראל, שהטענות ההיסטוריות שהעלה זנד היו ידועות ומוכרות להם, וכי דבר לא חודש בספרו.
ובכל זאת, ההתקפות הקשות על הספר לא בוששו לבוא עם הפיכתו לרב-מכר בצרפת ובמיוחד כשנעשה “פצצה תרבותית”, שריתקה חוגים שונים ברחבי אירופה (ובאחרונה אף באסיה). אולם עם פרסום מאמרו של רונן שובל, ראש תנועת “אם תרצו” (“ההמצאה של זנד”, הארץ 19.10), נחצה הגבול שמבדיל בין ביקורת לגיטימית על טקסט ובין כתבי הסתה משתלחים, הגובלים בנאצה ודיבה.
שובל רואה בדבריו של זנד ביטוי קיצוני “להתקפה אוטו-אנטישמית נגד המדינה”, ש”מכוון להעלמת העם היהודי”. הוא מאשים אותו ב”אפליית מדינת ישראל על רקע יהדותה”, ב”רטוריקה מסיתה”, ב”ביטול היהדות של המדינה והפיכתה ל’מדינת כל אזרחיה’, ב”קבלת טענת ‘השיבה'”, בניסיון “לעקור את עצם קיומו של עם ישראל” ו”להפוך את היהדות לדת”. לפי שובל, זנד אף גרוע ממכחישי השואה, משום שהוא מתוחכם יותר ומכיוון שאין דבר שמסייע יותר לאנטישמיות מאשר “אוטו-אנטישמיות פסוודו אינטלקטואלית”. מדבריו, עולה כי זנד הוא אויבה מספר אחת של מדינת ישראל, האשם במספר עבירות על החוק שדינן מאסר: בגידה, הסתה, חתירה, אפליה וגזענות.
לו היה נוטל שובל קורה מבין עיניו, היה מבחין בכך שפרופ’ זנד הוא מבין המתנגדים הבולטים בשמאל למימוש זכות השיבה של הפלסטינים, ומהבודדים שקוראים להכרה מיידית ונחרצת בזהות הישראלית – על אפם וחמתם של המתנגדים. גם זכותם של היהודים להגדיר את עצמם כעם אינה מוטלת בספק, ממש כפי שזכותו של גבר להגדיר עצמו כאשה. ואולם, אין חובה לקבל את נכונותה ואמיתותה של הגדרה עצמית זו. לו זנד היה עושה כן הוא היה חוטא למקצועו כהיסטוריון, המחויב אך ורק לאמת. כחוקר, ביקש זנד לא יותר מאשר למתוח ביקורת על המהות וההומוגניות בתפישת “העם היהודי”, שכה מוכרת למי שהתחנך בישראל, במיוחד לאחר 1967 – דבר שאינו שונה במאום ממה שציין בכתביו מייסד המדינה, דוד בן-גוריון.
יש להישמר מלראות את דבריו של שובל כעשבים השוטים בשולי השיח הפוליטי בישראל. אלה משקפים את המגמות האנטי-ליברליות והממוקדות-אתנית, שגוברות בימים אלה, והופכות כה מקובלות בישראל. ממי שעומד בראש תנועה קיקיונית, נהפך שובל למייצג ודובר ציוני נאמן בתרבות הפוליטית בישראל. בתרבות זו ניתן אפשר לכנות”אנטישמי” כל מי שמעז למתוח ביקורת על פוליטיקת הזהויות בישראל או מבקש לשנותה, או לזהותו כמי שחבר למכחישי השואה, גם אם הוא בן לפליטי מלחמת העולם השנייה וגם אם לחם במלחמות הכיבוש והדיכוי של מדינתו.
הכותבת היא תלמידת מחקר בחוג להיסטוריה כללית באוניברסיטת תל אביב.
israel-academia-monitor.com 