- Michelle
Submitted by correspondent Tom Ifrach
Source: Jerusalem Post
By Jonny Paul
Conservative parliamentarian John Howell asked pro-Palestinian activist about the ‘100 rockets which hit Israel’ earlier this month. By www.johnhowellmp.com
A British MP says he fears for his life after receiving death threats for defending Israel in an exchange with a constituent.
The Conservative MP for Henley, John Howell, has been offered police protection for meetings with voters after an email exchange with the constituent was posted online.
Constituents who want to meet him must now call a constituent hotline.
Pro-Palestinian activist Harry Fear, from Watlington in Oxfordshire, sent Howell an email on March 10 asking what he was doing “to see that Israel halts the military actions that are taking place in defiance of international law and basic human decency.”
A photograph of a building exploding accompanied the email with a caption stating: “Only a few hours ago, Israel felt it necessary to inflict this destruction and death on the [Gaza] Strip.” The photo was in circulation back in 2009 and is completely unrelated to recent events in Gaza.
Responding to the email, Howell said: “And what is your position, Harry, on the 100 rockets which have landed in Israel over the weekend?” Fear posted the question, together with the MP’s reply, on his blog and Facebook page. He included the MP’s contact details and instructed people write to Howell “civilly, expressing discontent with his conduct.”
The Conservative MP said he received around 30 emails; some were “worrying.”
“There are a huge number of emails from pro-Palestinian and Arab fanatics, some from the UK and some clearly not, some equally threatening,” Howell said.
One email said: “You will suffer the consequences of this corruption and callousness.”
There was also a series of emails from some calling himself “Jihad Alshamie,” who told him: “It is people like you who deserve to die.”
“The last thing I want to appear as is a drama queen, but you have to take seriously a threat when it says, ‘I would like to see you dead,’” Howell said.
“It is not just a question of me, it is my family and my staff. All it takes is one person out there who is weird enough, with a distorted view of life, to make an attempt to carry this out.”
In 2010, Labor MP Stephen Timms was stabbed at a constituency meeting by Roshonara Choudhry, who was said to have been inspired by radical websites, for his support of the Iraq war. She was found guilty of attempted murder and jailed for life.
Last year, members of the Muslims Against Crusades group made death threats against Conservative MP Mike Freer for his support of Israel, when he visited constituents at a north London mosque.
“I have been helped by the House authorities in Parliament, who are assessing the level of risk, and also by Thames Valley Police, who have provided extremely good security advice. If I feel at all unsafe there can be a policeman with me at a surgery [district office],” Howell said.
Howell said that Fear was not responsible for the threats but questioned the way Fear interpreted his response. He said he only wanted to address the lack of balance in Fear’s email.
“My stated position on the Middle East is that in order to have peace we need a secure and universally recognized Israel alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state,” Howell said.
Continuing to pursue the issue, Fear said that the MP’s response was “deeply disturbing” and “latently abusive,” as Howell “did not extend me the professional practice (or even human courtesy) of writing a proper and serious reply.”
Fear has sent a complaint to Parliament and the Conservative Party. He has also sent the correspondence to The Guardian and The Independent.
The Zionist Federation of the UK has called for people to write letters expressing support for Howell.
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By Eli E. Hertz
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| Time to boycott Emma Thompson |
Dismay at Globe invitation to Israeli theatre
The guardian, Thursday 29 March 2012
Open Letter:
We notice with dismay and regret that Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London has invited Israel's National Theatre, Habima, to perform The Merchant of Venice in its Globe to Globe festival this coming May. The general manager of Habima has declared the invitation "an honourable accomplishment for the State of Israel". But Habima has a shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Last year, two large Israeli settlements established "halls of culture" and asked Israeli theatre groups to perform there. A number of Israeli theatre professionals – actors, stage directors, playwrights – declared they would not take part.
Habima, however, accepted the invitation with alacrity, and promised the Israeli minister of culture that it would "deal with any problems hindering such performances". By inviting Habima, Shakespeare's Globe is undermining the conscientious Israeli actors and playwrights who have refused to break international law.
The Globe says it wants to "include" the Hebrew language in its festival – we have no problem with that. "Inclusiveness" is a core value of arts policy in Britain, and we support it. But by inviting Habima, the Globe is associating itself with policies of exclusion practised by the Israeli state and endorsed by its national theatre company. We ask the Globe to withdraw the invitation so that the festival is not complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land.
David Aukin producer
Poppy Burton-Morgan artistic director, Metta Theatre
Leo Butler playwright
Niall Buggy actor
David Calder actor
Jonathan Chadwick director
Caryl Churchill playwright
Michael Darlow writer, director
John Graham Davies actor, writer
Trevor Griffiths playwright
Annie Firbank actor
Paul Freeman actor
Matyelok Gibbs actor
Tony Graham director
Janet Henfrey actor
James Ivens artistic director, Flood Theatre
Andrew Jarvis actor, director, teacher
Neville Jason actor
Ursula Jones actor
Professor Adah Kay academic, playwright
Mike Leigh film-maker, dramatist
Sonja Linden playwright, iceandfire theatre
Roger Lloyd Pack actor
Cherie Lunghi actor
Miriam Margolyes actor
Kika Markham actor
Jonathan Miller director, author and broadcaster
Frances Rifkin director
Mark Rylance actor
Alexei Sayle comedian, writer
Farhana Sheikh writer
Emma Thompson actor, screenwriter
Andy de la Tour actor, director
Harriet Walter actor
Hilary Westlake director
Richard Wilson actor, director
Susan Wooldridge actor, writer
To the Members of the U.K.'s Theater and Film Industries
Eli E. Hertz | April 2, 2012
Writing this letter is a good way for me to discuss your denial of facts and the disrespect that you bestow on your British people's history.
Did you know that your government was the leading force among the fifty-one member countries – the entire League of Nations – that unanimously declared on July 24, 1922:
"Recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish People with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstructing their National Home in that country."
Did you know that Britain as Mandatory became the official administrator and mentor over Jewish Palestine, the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where the "Mandate for Palestine" clearly stated as follow:
Article 5: "The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign power." The territory of Palestine was exclusively assigned for the Jewish National Home.
Article 6: "The administration of Palestine ... shall encourage ... close settlement by Jews on the land, including State land and waste land not required for public purpose."
Jewish settlements are legal, and there are no "Occupied Palestinian Territories."
Did you know that your country's hero Sir Winston Churchill had that to say about Jewish "Occupation" of Palestine:
"When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride."
My friend, the British world of culture: It is not "The settlements" nor is it the "Occupation" that Arabs reject. They reject the internationally recognized lawful right of Israel to exist as a legitimate, secured, Jewish political entity – But you choose to collaborate with Arabs that deliberately and systematically call for the destruction of Israel.
Palestinian Arabs have underscored their rejectionism to peace with wave after wave of terrorism at every juncture – that is, before the 1967 Six-Day War and even prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and this too is being ignored by you.
If we talk culture, you would be most interested to know how the [British] Palestine Royal Commission described Jewish culture's achievement after their visit to Jewish Palestine in 1937:
"With every year that passes, the contrast between this intensely democratic and highly organized modern [Jewish] community and the old-fashioned Arab world around it grows sharper, and in nothing, perhaps, more markedly than on its cultural side. The literary output of the [Jewish] National Home is out of all proportion to its size. ... But perhaps the most striking aspect of the culture of the [Jewish] National Home is its love of music.
"All in all, the cultural achievement of this little [Jewish] community of 400,000 people is one of the most remarkable features of the [Jewish] National Home."
In fact, the term "Palestine" applied almost exclusively to Jews and the institutions founded by new Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, before the state's independence. Take for example today's Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was originally called the "Palestine Symphony Orchestra composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews."
My British friends, if you are indeed aware that the path you have embarked on leads to hate and destruction, and if you have freely chosen to walk in that direction, please think it over.
Eli E. Hertz, New York.
