Around the Jewish World

SA JEWISH REPORT STAFF

‘Zionists stole my shoe’

LONDON: A Muslim leader has attracted ridicule over claims that “Zionists” broke into his house and stole one of his shoes.

Asghar Bukhari, a founding member of the grassroots group Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK, posted the accusation on Facebook under the heading “Are Zionists trying to intimidate me?”

Bukhari wrote: “Someone came into my home, 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.

“Now think about that, the only thing they took was a single shoe – they left one shoe behind to let me know someone had been there. Of course I can’t prove anything and that’s part of the intimidation.

“The game is simple – to make me feel vulnerable in my own home. It’s psychological. Neither can I do much about it.”

Thousands of tweets were posted in response, with people including Maajid Nawaz, the founder of anti-extremism group Quilliam, making fun of Bukhari under the nationally trending hashtag #MossadStoleMyShoe.

Bukhari, who regularly posts anti-Israel messages through his Twitter page, has since removed the post from his Facebook page, though not before uploading a video to YouTube in which he also accused Zionists of stealing his slippers. – Jewish Chronicle

Neo-Nazis planning to destroy Israeli flags

LONDON – Neo-Nazis plan to destroy Israeli flags during a protest at the heart of the Jewish community next month.

Organisers of the July 4 demonstration in Golders Green, north-west London, have also urged supporters to attend a secret burning of the Talmud ahead of the event.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a white supremacist activist, wrote on his website that a “private ceremony” would be held to burn the religious texts “in recognition of its racist anti-white teachings”.

He said his group of nationalist demonstrators would hold further protests against the Jewish community in Finchley, Stamford Hill and other locations later in the summer.

The decision to destroy Israeli flags would be “in solidarity with those oppressed by the illegal state of Israel”, Bonehill-Paine wrote.

“Activists are welcome to bring Israeli flags on July 4 as we will be destroying them in an act of opposition to Israel.

“This will be a show of solidarity by English people who recognise that Israel is a corrupt state which is responsible for horrific war crimes.

“To avoid prosecution we will not be burning flags, we will dismember them by hand.”

Bonehill-Paine also outlined opposition to the Shomrim volunteer security group. He claimed the Jewish group had approached his supporters and urged them to patrol with Shomrim volunteers.

But he added: “We are an ideological force of opposition, the agenda of this movement is clear and we will not coward away from our objectives or goals.”

Bonehill-Paine has faced a series of criminal charges for incidents including malicious communications and harassment. – Jewish Chronicle

A solution for South Africa?

EILAT – A new demo village in southern Israel’s Arava Desert showcases cutting-edge Israeli solutions for housing, energy, water and agriculture needs of populations out of reach of national water and energy grids in any part of the world.

The village, built in the environmentally forward Kibbutz Ketura ahead of last December’s sixth annual Eilat-Eilot Green Energy Conference, is a central feature of the Eilat-Eilot Off-Grid Hub, a project of the nonprofit Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative.

The village has three solar-powered model structures constructed by volunteers from Kibbutz Lotan’s Eco-Building Programme – a thatch-roofed communal building with simple yet innovative sources of natural light and ventilation; a straw-and-wool insulated plywood house roofed with palm leaves (for ventilation) and metal (for protection from the elements); and a dome-shaped, thermally balanced “Earth Bag” house made with sacks of local soil.

These structures spark creative thinking about inexpensive, sustainable green building, says Tomer Weinstein, manager of the Eilat-Eilot Off-Grid Hub.

The first four Israeli start-ups demonstrating their products in the village are HomeBioGas (backyard biodigesters that convert organic waste into clean biogas for cooking, heating and lighting, as well as organic liquid crop fertiliser), Kalisaya (portable solar energy generator), Ulysses (remote, real-time monitor for production and consumption of energy and water) and SunDWater (solar-powered water-purification system for drinking and agriculture). – Israel 21c