Watchdog Group Launches Petition to Keep CAIR Off American College Campuses

The watchdog group Stopantisemitism.org is calling on the U.S. Department of Education and Georgie State University to keep the “terror-affiliated” Council on American-Islamic Relations off U.S. college campuses.

“The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American front group for the terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Muslim Brotherhoods, is infiltrating the U.S. education system,” said the petition, which already has nearly 2,000 signatures. “Their anti-American agenda is infecting school curriculums, poisoning the minds of our students and our future leaders with Islamist propaganda, anti-Semitism, and anti-American bias. CAIR Georgia is one of the many groups driving these anti-American and anti-Semitic campaigns.”

The appeal by StopAntisemitism.org was launched in response to the CAIR chapter in Georgia, urging GSU to end its relationship with the project Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange due to its partnership with Israel.

Liora Rez, director of Stopantisemitism.org, talked to JNS about CAIR’s “infiltration” on college campuses, saying: “CAIR is constantly inserting the Palestinian/Israeli conflict into the center of every issue from veganism to law-enforcement exchange programs such as GILEE. Their constant targeting of Israel, and calls for violence and the dismantlement of the State of Israel, creates a dangerous environment of anti-Semitism on campuses across the country in which Jewish students are being targeted and bullied.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, CAIR has “a long record of anti-Israel activity. Its leadership has accused Israel of being a racist state engaged in genocide and Israel supporters in the U.S. of promoting ‘a culture of hostility towards Islam.’ Its chapters partner with various anti-Israel groups that seek to isolate and demonize the Jewish state.”

In 2007, federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal conspiracy to financially support the terrorist group Hamas as part of the Holy Land Foundation case. In 2009, the FBI severed relations with CAIR because of concerns of its continued ties with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. At least seven CAIR board members or staff have been banned from the United States, arrested, indicted, convicted or have pleaded guilty to terrorist charges.

The United Arab Emirates also designated CAIR as a terrorist entity in 2014.

More recently, in November 2018, CAIR Los Angeles director Hussam Ayloush was widely condemned for calling for Israel’s “termination.”

Israel’s police seen as ‘leading police entity in the world’

Founded in 1992 as a joint project of GSU and local law-enforcement community, GILEE’s mission is to “enhance law enforcement executive development and international cooperation for the provision of better law enforcement services and public safety through the protection of civil rights,” according to its website. Israel is one the program’s 25 partner countries.

GILEE started as an exchange program with the Israel Police to help with security preparations ahead of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta amid concerns about possible terrorist attacks following the one that took place at the 1992 Munich Olympics, GILEE’s founding director Robert Friedman explained to JNS. He said “Israel Police is seen as a leading police entity in the world and as such it provides a great training opportunity” for law-enforcement officials around the world.

Former Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich said that “over the years, hundreds of Israel police officers have had the distinct honor to participate in GILEE delegations and exchange information and best practices in almost every law enforcement area imaginable, including counter-terrorism, forensic sciences, bomb disposal, community policing, and more recently, leadership training. These exchanges have undoubtedly increased the knowledge and professionalism on both sides, and the personal relationships between law-enforcement personnel have proven to be invaluable.”

CAIR Georgia is allegedly funding and recruiting GSU’s student government members to be the campaign surrogates for CAIR’s anti-Semitic campaign against GILEE, according to Stopantisemitism.org.

“This campaign is one of countless efforts by CAIR to implement its anti-American agenda on college campuses and legitimize anti-Semitism under the veneer of anti-Israel advocacy. College campuses should serve their students, not terror-affiliated organizations,” the petition stated.

CAIR Georgia has been led since 2016 by anti-Israel activist and Muslim American attorney Edward Ahmed Mitchell, who is also an editor of AtlantaMuslim.com. Mitchell did not respond to requests for comment regarding the petition and CAIR Georgia’s actions.

“Student initiatives should be led by students; CAIR is not a student organization,” said Rez. “[CAIR] markets itself as a Human Rights Group for Muslims when, in fact, it’s closely linked to terror groups and spreads anti-Semitism and Islamists propaganda in the U.S. We should be very vigilant about allowing organizations like CAIR to poison the minds of our kids and future leaders with their hateful agendas.”

Speaking to JNS, Friedman declined to comment on the activities of CAIR and instead highlighted the “broad-based diverse support” GILEE has received in its 28 years from global and national partners “who respect what GILEE does and appreciate the positive impact and added value we bring to professional law enforcement leadership development.”

This is not StopAntisemitism.org’s first petition against CAIR. In April, the organization called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Elan Carr, the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, to investigate CAIR and its connections to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

Last spring, students recruited by CAIR introduced a resolution urging GSU to withdraw its police department from the GILEE program because of the latter’s partnership with Israel. Mitchell spoke at the student government hearing on campus in support of the resolution, which ultimately failed to pass, but also accused Israeli law enforcement of exercising racial profiling against Palestinians, indefinite detention and excessive force.

The Atlanta chapter of the pro-BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace and CAIR Georgia are similarly now co-sponsoring a petition that calls on the mayor of Atlanta to “immediately halt the Atlanta Police Department’s partnership” with GILEE. The letter accuses Israel of being “human-rights violators” and said the Jewish state is “known for its police militarization and human-rights violations against Palestinians.”

It open letter continued: “We also call on the City of Atlanta to end any other partnerships it has, or might enter into, with the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli police and other agencies that violate human rights. The IDF and the Israeli police have a long history of subjecting Palestinian people, Jews of Color and African refugees to racist bigotry and violent brutality. Common tactics include extrajudicial killing, excessive force, racial profiling and repression of social justice movements.”

Rez noted that “this campaign is one of countless efforts by CAIR to implement its anti-Semitic and anti-American agenda on college campuses and legitimize Jew-hatred under the veneer of anti-Israel advocacy. Georgia State University has a responsibility to serve their students, not terror-affiliated organizations like CAIR.”

StopAntisemitism.org Launches ‘Antisemite of the Year’ Contest

StopAntisemitism.org is accepting nominations for their “Antisemite of the Year Award.” The watchdog group is calling on the public to select the most notoriously vile anti-Semites who not only spread hatred, but also incite violence against the Jewish people.

StopAntisemitism.org is a leading organization focused on exposing anti-Semites from the radical right, radical left and among religious extremists, on holding them accountable and on creating consequences for their anti-Semitic actions.

Inform the public about Jew-haters, every Sunday the watchdog group features an “Antisemite of the Week” on its website and social-media platforms, engaging more than 500,000 followers regularly. Past spotlights include Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), BDS activist Ariel Gold, American neo-Nazi David Duke and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

The campaign will keep known anti-Semites on the public’s radar and unmask new offenders.

Nominations for the award will be accepted through Nov. 14 on the organization’s website. Finalists will be revealed on Nov. 21.

A public voting period will take place through Dec. 21 to decide which bigot deserves the shameful title. Nominators and voters will also have the chance to win one of 10 $180 Amazon gift cards.

“It’s all about naming and shaming,” says StopAntisemitsm.org’s national director Liora Rez. “There are far too many anti-Semites promoting Jew-hatred without any consequences. It’s time to stop this racism and discrimination.”

The 2019 “Antisemite of the Year” will be announced on Dec. 30.

Anti-Semitic Poster Found at Maltz Museum

An anti-Semitic poster was posted on an electronic sign in front of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, apparently as part of a coordinated attack on houses of worship in several states.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported July 16 that flyers were posted at synagogues in Washington state, outside of Houston and in Marblehead, Mass., on the north shore of Massachusetts.

StopAntiSemitism, which maintains a website that targets anti-Semitic acts, posted photographs of the Maltz Museum’s sign and an identical flyer posted at Wesley United Methodist Church in Salem, Mass.

A Beachwood Police Department report on the incident said a museum employee contacted police July 18. “This is clearly an act of hate and we don’t want to give the purveyors of hate, these people, more attention than they deserve,” said David Schafer, managing director of the Maltz Museum. “We work closely with the Federation (Jewish Federation of Cleveland), law enforcement. We have been, currently are and in the future will be, vigilant with response to the world we live in today. We exist to be a response to bias and hate in our world, in our community.”

Schafer said this is not the first time the Maltz Museum has been targeted with an anti-Semitic poster.

Beachwood Police Chief Gary Haba said his department reported the incident to the Department of Homeland Security Fusion Centers to share the information with other agencies.

“From what I was told, this same flyer was distributed in other states,” he said. “We reported it to the Fusion Center, which goes to the federal agencies.”

Haba said a Jewish day school in Beachwood and the Maltz Museum were both targeted with flyers nearly a year ago.

James Pasch, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, confirmed the Maltz Museum incident was part of a multi-state coordinated “flyering” episode.

“It’s deeply disturbing,” Pasch said. “It’s a targeted attack, specifically on Jewish institutions in the Jewish community for the sole purpose of sending a direct message of hate and fear and intimidation. When it comes to messages of hate, we could try to avoid some of the online messages that we see, but the purpose of specifically attaching a flyer to Jewish institutions, in this case probably one of the most visible Jewish institutions in our region, is so that we can’t avoid it so the hate is in our face. it is very targeted in its purpose.”

“As always, the safety and security of our Jewish community and its institutions is of utmost importance to the Jewish Federation of Cleveland," Bart Bookatz, chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland's Security Committee, stated in an email. "The anti-Semitic flyer that was posted outside of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage last week was not an isolated incident, with similar flyers being posted at Jewish institutions around the country. We are working closely with local law enforcement, the FBI, ADL, and SCN, the homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America.”

White House Officials Headline Conference Focusing on the ‘New Antisemitism’

US Attorney General William Barr called antisemitism a “cancer” at a recent Department of Justice summit on the topic notable for its focus on anti-Israel activity and for speeches by the top leaders of the departments of Education, the Treasury and the FBI.

The conference was bracketed by speeches by Barr and three other top officials of the Trump administration: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“I am deeply concerned about the rise in hate crimes and political violence that we have seen over the past decade,” said Barr. “And this trend has included a marked increase in reported instances of antisemitic hate crimes. We can all agree this trend is intolerable. We must have zero tolerance for violence that is motivated by hatred for our fellow citizens whether based on race, sex, or creed. Antisemitic violence is especially pernicious because it targets both Jewish ethnic identity and religious practice.”

“The most ancient and stubborn form of racism throughout Western history has been antisemitism,” he continued. “In the United States today, we do not have state-organized violence. But increasingly we are seeing hate inspired violence against the Jewish community perpetrated by individuals and groups.”

“I think of the various forms of antisemitism as very much like different kinds of cancer,” he added. “A healthy body with a strong immune system can have success in preventing cancers from emerging and spreading. But if the immune system weakens cancer can emerge. Some might be localized. But others can rapidly metastasize and become systematic. Like a physical body, a body politic must have an immune system that resists antisemitism and other forums of hatred.”

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen added that “Unfortunately, fighting antisemitism — perhaps the world’s oldest hatred — requires unyielding vigilance. We must confront those responsible for hateful acts wherever and whenever they are found: in our cities, on our college campuses, in our workplaces, online, and particularly as to those who intimidate, terrorize, or cause harm to others.”

Elan Carr, the State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, said the lineup was a sign of how seriously the administration is taking what he called a “time of striking growth in antisemitism around the globe.” He said that growth extends from Europe to the United States, “where vandalism in New York and other cities, according to the Anti-Defamation League, occurs on a fairly regular basis, and campuses have become hostile places for Jewish and pro-Israel students.”

Anti-Israel activity — at colleges and by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel — was perhaps the major theme of the summit, with two of the four panels largely devoted to aspects of the topic: “Antisemitism on Campus” and “Combating Antisemitism While Respecting the First Amendment.”

Carr noted at least three sources of present-day antisemitism: the “white supremacist far right,” the “anti-Zionist far left” and “radical Islam.” DeVos said that “BDS stands for antisemitism.” She described her department’s investigations into incidents of alleged discrimination aimed at pro-Israel students at Williams College in Massachusetts and at a pro-Palestinian event sponsored by departments at Duke University and University of North Carolina.

Liora Rez, executive director of “StopAntisemitism.org”, told The Jerusalem Post that “Today’s DOJ Summit on Combatting Antisemitism mirrored what we are seeing via our social media platforms and tips from our followers. Universities with Middle Eastern Studies Departments experience higher than average incidents of antisemitism and increased hostile environments for Jewish students. While the media focuses only on alt right antisemitism, we must be honest with ourselves and confront the ever-increasing threat from the radical left we see on college campuses masked as activism.”

Police investigate swastika found in front of New Jersey home

A swastika was found this morning in front of a Teaneck, NJ home

The New Jersey suburb has a very high population of Jewish residents.

It is at least the 10th incident in less than a year in which swastikas were found in public places across the state, NJ.com reports.

One of the other incidents involved someone drawing a swastika and racist graffiti inside a county high school classroom.

The incident came the same day that vandalism was reported at a kosher deli a mile away, in which its building and a nearby sidewalk were spray-painted with graffiti.

Police said the two events were unrelated, according to local reports. 

"Synagogue of Satan" Graffiti Found on NY Chabad

The words “Synagogue of Satan” were discovered on a New York Chabad building on the morning of May 23, as first reported by the Stop Antisemitism watchdog.

The aforementioned graffiti was spray-painted on the Chabad of Staten Island synagogue and the letters “SOS” – presumably standing for “Synagogue of Satan” – were also found on the Yeshiva Zichron Paltiel of Staten Island across the street.

Chabad of Staten Island Rabbi Moshe Katzman told SI Live that the Chabad has typically “left a door open” but now they “can’t do that anymore.” Chabad of Staten Island Associate Director Mendy Katzman told SI Live that they’re going to increase security in response to the vandalism.

“We’re here, we’re staying,” Rabbi Katzman said. “Life goes on.”

Anti-Defamation League New York and New Jersey Regional Director Evan Bernstein told the Journal in a phone interview that there is speculation in the Staten Island community that the graffiti was in response to the Lag B’Omer holiday or due to tensions in the community from Hasidic Jews erecting a religious eruv before receiving Consolidated Edison’s approval.

“Anti-Semitic graffitis are the hardest hate crimes for NYPD [New York Police Department] to solve,” Bernstein said. “Unless there’s videotape of it or a direct witness, it’s almost impossible to solve. Very, very difficult.”

Bernstein added that “it’s incredibly concerning” to see a “huge spike” in anti-Semitic incidents in New York in the fourth quarter of 2018 continue on into the first quarter of 2019.

ADL New York and New Jersey tweeted:

Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) told SI Live, “This has become more and more common in our city and it’s absolutely reprehensible. As a Jew, as a Staten Islander, and as our Congressman I refuse to sit by when these kind of incidents occur in this district.”

The NYPD told SI Live that they are investigating the matter.

StopAntisemitism.org Exposes Anti-Semitic Cartoon in the New York Times

StopAntisemitism.org racks up major accomplishments in April, including exposing the vile anti-Semitic NY Times cartoon.

Yesterday’s landmark announcement that the Trump administration is pursuing a foreign terrorist organization designation for the Muslim Brotherhood exemplifies the broad success of StopAntisemitism.org, the watchdog group announced today.

Just seven months after its launch, Stop Antisemitism’s social media reach in April exceeded a monthly high of 400,000 people on Facebook and a weekly high of 130,000 people on Instagram. This fast-growing audience benefits from unparalleled informational resources exposing and holding accountable the anti-Semites who threaten and undermine the security of the Jewish people and the broader values of the United States.

Stop Antisemitism has powerfully translated its massive reach into tangible impact. After the watchdog issued a petition asking U.S. Attorney William Barrand Special Antisemitism Envoy Elan Carr to investigate the alleged terrorism ties of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), including its affiliations to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the White House announced Tuesday that it is seeking to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Nearly 100,000 individuals have endorsed Stop Antisemitism’s past and current petitions. The recent petition on CAIR’s alleged terror ties was picked up by national media and garnered 35,000 signatures despite the fact that it was aggressively censored by Change.org.

Stop Antisemitism last Friday used a tip from one of its social media followers to be the first one to expose the anti-Semitic cartoon in The New York Timest hat depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuas a dog guiding the blind President Donald Trump, who was also wearing a yarmulke. After Stop Antisemitism posted the cartoon, it sparked a global uproar which prompted The New York Timesto issue two apologies.

Amid the rising tide of bigotry among younger Americans, more than half of Stop Antisemitism’s social media followers come from the crucial demographic of users under age 35.  Stop Antisemitism works with its younger social media followers on Instagram to help expose anti-Semitic incidents such as April’s swastika posts and racist threats in Jacksonville, Fla. Once Stop Antisemitism’s posts on that incident went viral, the teenagers involved were subjected to further discipline by the local school board. The need for this social media engagement is clearer than ever following the deadly attack at Chabad of Poway.

“It’s not enough to repeat the motto ‘Never Again’. Stopping anti-Semitism requires action on all our parts,” said Liora Rez, Executive Director of Stop Antisemitism. “For too long, countless Americans have buried their heads in the sand as virulent anti-Semitism threatened their safety, their core values, and their way of life. No longer! Stop Antisemitism has proven a path to defeating anti-Semitism by holding anti-Semites accountable and creating consequences for their despicable behavior.”

Full story here.

Change.org suppresses Jewish watchdog's petition

Change.org admitted to burying a Jewish watchdog group’s petition targeting Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

• The petition calls the congresswomen’s loyalties into question and accuses the Muslim group CAIR of being “an American front group for the Hamas terrorist organization.”

• Change.org said the petition didn’t violate its terms, but took steps to restrict its visibility from users.

Change.org is suppressing an inflammatory petition from a Jewish watchdog group demanding a federal investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Though the petition didn’t violate Change.org’s terms, the platform took steps to restrict its “discovery on our platform,” Change.org told StopAntisemitism.org, the watchdog group, in an email shared with The Daily Caller News Foundation. The petition is hidden from users who search for it on the platform.

The petition, which had more than 32,000 signatures by Tuesday evening, accuses CAIR, a Muslim activist group, of being “an American front group for the Hamas terrorist organization.” The petition also challenges Omar and Tlaib’s loyalties to America. Both congresswomen previously leveled the same charge against supporters of Israel.

“There’s no doubt that Tlaib and Omar have close-knit ties with Hamas affiliated CAIR and we, as concerned citizens, call on Attorney General and U.S. Special Envoy for Anti-Semitism to investigate these ties,” the petition states. (RELATED: Rashida Tlaib’s Ties To Anti-Semitism Run Deeper Than Previously Known)

Omar and Tlaib both spoke at CAIR fundraisers this year. Omar stirred controversy with remarksshe made about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks while speaking at a CAIR event earlier this month.

Change.org also added a banner above the petition telling users to “consider researching this issue before signing or sharing” it.

The platform took those steps after reviewing challenges to the petition’s accuracy, Change.org spokesman David Barre told TheDCNF in a series of emails.

“A flag on a petition doesn’t automatically lead to action by us. We have to assess each situation individually to determine what response, if any, is appropriate,” Barre wrote in an email to TheDCNF.

“We actually will conduct moderate research on a flagged petition to see if any of the user claims have any basis in mainstream media,” Barre added. “Depending on the nature of the flag, we may ask for substantiation from the claimant that would establish their claims, including legal documents or a detailed letter outlining their claims with relevant evidence.”

Barre declined to say what specific language in the petition led to its suppression.

CAIR faced accusations of terror ties in 2008 and 2009.

CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in 2008 when former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, a U.S.-based Muslim charity, were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, which the State Department has labeled a terrorist organization.

A federal judge concluded in 2009 that there is “ample evidence” of ties between three U.S.-based organizations, including CAIR, and radical organizations, including Hamas.

CAIR spokesman Arsalan Bukhari did not return TheDCNF’s email seeking a response to the Change.org petition.

A page on CAIR’s website calls it “internet disinformation” to label the organization a “front group for Hamas.”

Zachor Legal Institute, a legal organization combating anti-Israel movements within the U.S., threatened to bring legal action against Change.org over the suppressed petition.

“Change.org is at odds with its own rules, procedures and guidelines. They refuse to provide substantive responses or uphold their stated mission,” Zachor President Marc Greendorfer said in a statement to TheDCNF. “The company that claims to empower individuals around the world to be agents of positive change is complicit in our problems.”

Barre wrote in another email to TheDCNF: “Change.org is an open platform and we care deeply about free speech and empowering our users to create the change they want to see. When a petition is flagged by users, we review its content to see if it violates our stated policies and to determine whether or not the petition should be removed.”

“Since this petition itself does not violate our terms, we have not removed any specific language or phrase in the petition but taken steps to ensure users know we are aware of their concerns by adding a banner,” Barre added.

“We are not in a position to determine whether the content on our platform is true or false. In this case, as soon as we received a user claim, we let the petition starter know about the claim for their own protection and to give them the opportunity to amend or remove the petition. If/when we receive more information from the claimant substantiating their claims, we may be compelled to take further actions,” Barre said.

Neither Omar nor Tlaib responded to requests for comment.

Original story here.