JORDAN TAKES OVER ISRAEL IN PAGE & MOY TRAVEL BROCHURE

In Page & Moy's latest Wildlife & Culture Travel Brochure they advertise a trip to 'Cairo & the Red Sea'. In the map of the area the letters J and part of O of Jordan are over Israeli territory. The ZF spoke with Page & Moy who assured us that this was not a political statement and was only for graphical convenience, and nor did they mean to cause offence. They have assured us that they will be amending this map in all future brochures.

Click on the picture above to enlarge the map.

To see the brochure in its original form see page 30.

SIMPLY THE BEST

A past graduate of the ZF 6th form programme is currently serving in the IDF and has contacted the ZF asking us to send letters to the soldiers who are currently on their Officers course. These young people have to go through rigorous training for 2 months and subsequently are signing up for an extra year in the army. Here is an excerpt of her email to us:
 
The soldiers in Officers school are giving up extra time of their lives in order to DO more. They are the best of the best and they don't even realise it. I plan on letting them know the importance of what they're doing as some of them are feeling very down. The desert gets very cold at nights and only this week some of them suffered from frostbite.
 
We are asking you to write letters of gratitude to give them motivation and to thank them for defending Israel. The best way of sending the letters is by emailing them to office@zfuk.org by Thursday 13th January, so that we can present them in time for their graduation at the end of January.

PALESTINE ADVERT IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC "TRAVELER" MAGAZINE

This advert recently appeared in the new National Geographic Traveler magazine. It gives the following false impressions:
• that Palestine is a country
• that Jerusalem is part of Palestine
• that Palestine extends from the Med to the Jordan
• this advertisement would mislead tourists, since on travelling to territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, they would not find the sites and facilities which the advertisement promotes
As you may remember, the Advertising Authority Agency recent banned an Israeli Government Tourist Office advert for that all of the areas featured on the map were part of the state of Israel.
click here to read

Please send reasoned complaints to the ASA regarding this advert.
Complaints can be made here

Click the image below to enlarge.

MEETING WITH BRITISH RED CROSS HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

written by Adrian Korsner

A delegation organised by the ZF including Jonathan Lux and His Honour Dennis Levy QC from the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (and UK Assn.), together with Jamie Slavin of The Board Of Deputies and Adrian Korsner from the UK Zionist Federation, met on 10th December with Michael A Meyer OBE, the Head Of International Law at the British Red Cross.
They handed a letter Mr Meyer expressing theirsadness at the apparent inaction by the ICRC in the matter of verifying the wellbeing of Gilad Shalit, imprisoned by Hamas for more than 4 years. Mr Meyer read the document and then asked Jonathan Lux to speak on the matter.
Mr Meyer then spoke, on behalf of the British Red Cross which he made clear was NOT the ICRC. The ICRC had a right to visit Prisoner's of War or Civilian Internees held as a result of an international conflict and could only visit if allowed to by the holding body (Hamas). An international conflict was one between two independent states. Since Hamas was not a state, the conflict could not be considered international.
Despite this, Mr Meyer said that, in twenty eight years at the Red Cross, he could not remember any prisoner ever having received as much attention as Gilad had. The ICRC had made repeated requests for access.
The ICRC had a remit, only to address matters from a moral standpoint, The ICRC is a completely impartial observer and has to act in this way. It is essential that actions taken or statements made do not alienate it from either side in a dispute as, if it did, it would lose all potential access. Its remit is to work, behind the scenes, not to organise marches or demonstrations.
The visitors asked Mr Meyer to take the following request to the ICRC. They asked that the ICRC made every attempt to maximise, absolutely, its efforts to visit Gilad and to express publicly its disappointment if it was unsuccessful. They also asked that the ICRC used all its considerable 'Moral Powers' to harness the plight of Gilad with the world's press. Mr Meyer listened intentively to all that was said and agreed to present the views of the group to the ICRC in Geneva.

ANTI-ISRAEL U.N. OFFICIAL RESIGNS

German law professor Christian Tomuschat, the anti-Israel and anti-American official heading the U.N. committee to enforce the Goldstone Report, has resigned. The biased U.N. probe now has no leader, and is in disarray.

This unprecedented resignation follows a global campaign by UN Watch that exposed Professor Tomuschat's egregious bias and breach of his obligation under international law to be objective and impartial:

• UN Watch's team of researchers tracked down and translated Professor Tomuschat's German academic writings. We published a 30-page report revealing how he had frequently compared Israeli actions with the "barbarism" and "inferno" of World War II; how he performed legal work for PLO leader Yasser Arafat; and how he repeatedly accused Israel of “state terrorism.” This was reported worldwide.

• When Tomuschat delivered his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in September -- calling for the investigation of Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni for alleged war crimes in Gaza -- UN Watch was the only group to take the floor and directly challenge Tomuschat for his bias, stirring reactions from Tomuschat as well as the council president himself.

• When Tomuschat then appeared at a U.N. press conference, journalists followed up on UN Watch's campaign and challenged Tomuschat to defend himself.

Finally, thousands of UN Watch supporters worldwide have been taking action on our website every day to demand from the U.N. that Tomuschat resign. In the end, he gave in.

It's one more UN Watch victory for the genuine principles of human rights, international law, and Middle East peace and security.

ZF RESPONSE TO MICK DAVIS (JC 19 NOVEMBER)

The comments by ZF Chairman Harvey Rose in today’s JC were edited and did not reflect the tone of what he said.
 
Rose was quoted as follows: “ …. while agreeing with "much" of Mr Davis's position, [Harvey Rose] said: "How Israel is perceived in the UK has a direct bearing on our comfort levels in Britain . It troubles me that so many people place the blame entirely on Israel ."
 
What he actually said to Simon Rocker (the reporter) was:
 
“I think that the comments of Mick Davis of the LJCC are very interesting and I agree with much of what he says.
 
“The majority of leadership are left of centre.  We at the ZF are more in the centre but as we seem to be the organism most willing and ready to stand up in support for Israel when needed, this has given the impression that we are on the right of this debate.
 
“There is no doubt that how Israel is perceived has a direct bearing on our comfort levels in Britain .
 
“I believe we need to concentrate on how we can present to the media a more balanced and factual position on events that all too often produce a one-sided anti-Israel response from the media.  
 
“It is certainly my opinion that the failure to reach a two state solution is more at the door of the Palestinians than the Israelis. It troubles me that so many people place the blame entirely on Israel : “If only Israel did this or did that, then peace would prevail.”
 
“Obviously Israel has its part to play but to continually give the Palestinians and their leadership a free pass does nothing to move the peace process forward. Until we get these important messages across the comfort levels of Jews in this country will not improve.”
 
 

ISRAEL CONNECT EUROPEAN LONDON CONFERENCE REPORT

Israel Connect European Young Leadership Conference
London, 15th – 17th October 2010

This weekend saw over 100 participants attend Israel Connect’s Annual European Conference. After a few years of trying different iterations and methods, we can definately say that we have taken this event to a new level.

All feedback received from the participants has been extremely positive, going into detail about how much they benefited from the programme, and how much they appreciated the opportunity to meet and discuss with other like-minded Young Professionals.

This conference was made up of over thirty ‘alumni’ graduates from previous Israel Connect European (ICE) Young Leadership groups, and over seventy participants from around the UK and Europe who have not previously experienced the Israel Connect Europe programme. In previous years we have always used the London conference to launch a new cohort of the ICE Young Leadership Programme. However, unlike pervious years, we have postponed the start of the ICE programme to January. This was as we learnt that the participants of the new group were not able to network effectively and form as a group, due to the vast number of additional people at the conference. Despite the impressive line up of speakers, we felt this was the right method. Due to not welcoming in the new ICE group this year, we were originally slightly worried about numbers, but we need not have been!

Our speakers for the weekend included:

- MK Nitzan Horowitz. Current Israeli Member of Knesset (Meretz) and former Journalist (Foreign Affairs commentator and head of the International desk at Channel 10). Nitzan provided two great sessions for the group talking about the current situation in Israel, along with the equality opportunities that Israel presents and how he thinks they need to be improved.
- Hillel Neuer. Director of UN Watch (Human Rights NGO), lawyer and regular commentator. Frequently quoted as an expert on U.N. and human rights issues by major media. Hillel gave us an account of the mockery that is the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and introduced us to the concept of lawfare, which he predicts is the next bit method that some will use to deligitimise Israel.
- Yehuda Avner. Israeli former diplomat who served as ambassador to United Kingdom and Australia. Served as advisor to Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. Originally from UK. Amb. Avner gave an incredibly vivid and colourful account of his past experiences with previous Prime Ministers, and shared his advice of how best to deal with hostile audiences and questions. Never before has Israel Connect seen such a large group of Young Professionals sit so still, and soak up every word of a speaker.
- Ofer Laufman. Chairman of the Department for Diaspora Activities of the World Zionist Federation. Ofer spoke as the representative of the WZO, and gave an impressive account of the need for activists. If anyone was unsure why they were attending the conference, they realised the need after they heard Ofer speak.
- Andrew White. Founder of the Beyond Images education and advocacy project on Israel, working as a lawyer. Andrew gave the inspiration needed for the seminar, moving away from primarily facts and analysis, to looking at the need for advocates in the community, and showing the resources available.


Saturday night was a time to let our hair down with the annual Israel Connect European club night. Over 150 people attended, with lots of networking and mingling occurring after an intense day and a half of study.

Sunday morning was a break for the non-alumni group, as the alumni of the ICE programme participated in focus workshops looking at the new outline for next years programme, and how we could improve it. Following this was the essential session of ‘what about the alumni?’. Here the alumni group of over 30 sat and discussed avidly what role they should play in the ICE programme, and how they can best stay connected without the reality of having regular seminars throughout the year. Lots of suggestions arose, and it is fair to say that everyone in the session was inspired about realizing the potential of the group, and the impact we could have.

What was most incredible about the conference, was the feedback from the speakers and observers (eg. Jewish Agency representatives). All speakers and presenters were incredibly impressed with the high quality of participants on the programme, their enthusiasm, and eagerness to get involved and learn. They confirmed what we thought – this truly is an incredible and valuable programme.