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2 HASHALOM August
2016
August 2016
HASHALOM
3
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Editor: Prof Antony Arkin
Editorial Board: Mrs Mikki Norton, Mrs Michelle Shapira
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SOME ANTI-SEMITIC
CONSPIRACY
THEORIES
Prof Antony Arkin
EDITORIAL
Editoria
l
02
Out of Perspective
03
Mishna Impossible
04
Israel
05
PM speaks at ceremony marking 40 years since
05
Entebbe rescue operation.
A Visit to the Old and New Hells of Europe
06
Provides a Reminder of Israel’s Importance
Olympics-Kenyan-born runner Chemtai going the
07
distance for Israel
Postcard from Israel
08
Israel’s Counterterrorism Lessons for Europe
09
Jewish World
10
6 Millennia old but ‘almost fresh,’
10
Masada seeds unravel barley’s origins
Never be silent: Memorial tribute to life of Elie Wiesel
11
Community New
s
12
Bubkes
12
Past Tense
13
KwaZulu Natal Zionist Council
14
Limmud
15
Beth Shalom
16
The Victor Daitz House
17
Umhlanga Jewish Centre
18
Union of Jewish Women
19
Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation
20
Sisterhood of Temple David
21
Divote
22
Wotsup Wizo
23
Durban Holocaust Centre
24
Talmud Torah
25
Young Israel Centre
25
Akiva College
26
Durban United Hebrew Congregation
28
Eden College
29
Letters to the Editor
30
Above Board
31
Cooking with Judy and Linda
31
Social and Personal
32
Diary of Events
32
On our Cover
32
In a speech delivered to the European Parliament in Brussels last
month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed
that “a number of rabbis in Israel... made a clear announcement
demanding that their government poison the water to kill
Palestinians”. This vicious anti-Semitic canard has been exploited
since medieval times to define, marginalise and murder Jews. He
received a standing ovation.
As Yair Rosenberg writes in Tablet, there are many other hateful
and ignorant conspiracy theories. On June 26, 2012, at a United
Nations anti-drug conference in Tehran, Iran’s then vice president
Mohammad Reza Rahimi, blamed the Talmud for the international
narcotics trade. The New York Times reported. “The Zionists are in
firm control of the illegal drug trade. The Islamic Republic of Iran will
pay for anybody who can research and find one single Zionist who
is an addict. They do not exist. This is the proof of their involvement
in drugs trade”. Today, Rahimi is serving a five-year sentence in Evin
Prison for corruption, presumably because the Zionists got to him.
Besides being immune to drugs, Jews are protected from alcohol.
In 2008, Vanity Fair writer ,Amy Collins, recounted a friend’s trip
to Russia. He asked a local peasant why there was such antipathy
everywhere against Jews. “It is because Jews have a secret vegetable
they eat so they don’t become alcoholics like the rest of us. And they
refuse to share that vegetable with anyone else”.
Besides knowledge of magical herbs, Jews control the Animal
Kingdom! On August 21, 2015 the BBC published a claim that
Hamas captured a dolphin being used as an Israeli spy off the coast
of Gaza. According to the newspaper Al-Quds, this newest secret
agent was “stripped of its will” and turned into “a murderer” by the
Israeli security services”. This Zionist hero captured the hearts of
many, #freedolphinfromhamas began trending on Twitter.
Some conspiracy theories, besides being hateful and ignorant,
are hilarious. Last June Asghar Bukhari, a founder of the Muslim
Public Affairs Committee in Britain, misplaced one of his shoes.
He blamed it on the Jews. “Are Zionists trying to intimidate me”
he asked on Facebook. “Someone came into my home yesterday
while I was asleep. I don’t know how they got in, but they didn’t
break in - the only thing they took was one shoe ... to let me know
someone had been there. Of course I can’t prove anything, and
that’s part of the intimidation - to make me feel vulnerable in my
own home. It’s psychological. Share this widely, for if it is happening
to me, I am sure it is happening to many, many others who have not
exposed it “. Bukhari’s rant soon spawned the immortal hashtag:
#MossadStoleMyShoe.
Less than a day after Abbas made his crude anti-Semitic accusation
he retracted it. Admitting to the New York Times it was “baseless”,
he said he had not intended to “harm Judaism or to offend Jewish
people” and condemned anti-Semitism.
Background for this article: names of companies are not mentioned
purposefully. I remain objective, relying on those old-fashioned
literary objects called facts. What follows is an outline of a day spent
with a Responsible Investor. He has the elaborate title of “Head of
Responsible Investments” at a large Scandinavian Bank. His work
brings him to all parts of the world, but this particular day was spent
on site filming at a quarry. Now, this particular quarry attracts a lot of
attention from investors in the parent company. Despite there being
over 600 quarries world-wide on the books, all of them run to the
same high ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) standards, this
quarry is repeatedly singled out. Why? Because it is located a couple
hundred metres over the Green Line on disputed territory with the
Palestinian Authority. The Responsible Investor had been on a fact-
finding visit to us before 2 years previously, and today he was back.
Wednesday 0615: the investor and his cameramen land on an overnight
flight from London. While they change clothes and freshen up, I buy my
guests double-espressos and toasted mozzarella rolls. I talk to kill time,
as we are scheduled to arrive at 0830. I ask about the sustainability
analyst who accompanied the investor on the previous visit, and who
is now on maternity leave. The cameraman is also a Swede. Tall, lanky,
well-built, and named Sven, not to be stereotypical or anything.
0800-0830: On the drive, I try and find out more about the film. He
surprises me by saying he does this often; that is making short films
of contentious investments, and then uploading them on YouTube
or Twitter. This film is not slated for mass media, rather aimed at
critical NGO customers of the bank who are pushing the bank for
disinvestment in the parent company, or else they are threatening
to leave the bank as customers. So technically, it’s not a boycott (of
an Israeli company), nor a tertiary boycott (of the parent company),
but rather a “super-tertiary boycott” of the investor of the parent
company. Did I just coin a new phrase?
0830-0930: We meet Rami, the quarry manager. After the mandatory
safety briefing, we sit chatting informally in his office about the quarry:
its operating history, location, boundaries, neighbours, production
capacity and market. The questions are mainly directed to Rami, but
his English is patchy, and I find myself interjecting as an informal PR
officer. Sven has long since silently set up the camera and started
filming. We move from the office to show off the newly refurbished
worker facilities, which include showers, kitchen and dining area,
and a training room. Well over half of the quarry’s employees are
Palestinian citizens, who enjoy and use these facilities with their
Israeli counterparts.
0930-1230: We’re driving around the quarry now. Sven is filming
furiously from different vantage points. It’s sweltering outside, though
I can’t complain. Ramadan has recently started, so all the Muslim
workers aren’t eating or drinking, but pretending to be working. We
hear stories about previous films, about a company mining in Canada,
telecoms in the DRC, about exotic locations in Western Sahara and
Brazilian rain forests, and about a huge solar project in the Nevada
desert. We return to the office for water. And then the penny drops.
When the investor tells me the film on the solar farm had garnered
over 7 million views, I ask him what is more important to him: ROI
or the number of followers on his Twitter account? He explained his
methods are unorthodox in investment banking, but as a former
journalist, sitting behind a desk relying on reports was not his style.
He has to investigate, to understand the complexities on the ground¸
and then to report the story. He explained further that he got scarred
from reporting on the war in Kosovo, and gravitated towards the
corporate world. Sven goes out for a second round of filming. This time
I accompany him with Yonatan, one of the foremen, who is amused at
the Hollywood antics at a place of work.
1230-1330: Lunch break. We are joined by Ilan, a polyglot who
speaks 9 languages fluently, and who is happy to test out his broken
Swedish. I had briefed him previously, and he turned out to be very
articulate, needing no second invitation to dispense his world views
on the political situation and BDS. Sven starts to film him, and I join in
the conversation, rambling on about the quarry being a microcosm of
peace and normality which BDS perversely tries to destroy.
1330-1430. Ilan is a professional translator, and sat with the investor
to interview Palestinian workers (speaking Arabic) on camera for the
film. He had interviewed workers on his previous trip too, so he knew
some of the workers are already second-generation employees of
the quarry, and that they earn a net salary over 3 times what they
would earn working in a Palestinian quarry, and that they earn the
same as their Israeli co-workers and receive exactly the same training
and opportunities as all the other company employees. They wrap it
up at 1430, very satisfied, and travel to their hotel. He phones me at
1700 informing me he will cancel the planned visit to our HQ the next
day. He has met with our CEO on the previous visit, and doesn’t want
to waste his time. He has all the material he needs and will fly out that
night. What remains to be said? If only all investors were actually this
responsible.
OUT OF PERSPECTIVE
By David Arkin
The Responsible
Investor