Portland, Oregon's Human Rights Commission Voted to BDS Companies in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Portland's Willamette Week's headlines were:

Portland’s Human Rights Commission Sparks Anger With Vote to Divest of Companies in Israel

Oh, they are so smart, the HRC Human Rights group in City Hall..

 Human Rights Commissioners are appointed by the Portland City Council.   The Human Rights Commissioners are volunteers who work without pay.   They had 2 people on their committee who voted for BDS against Israel and chatter is they didn't even know what they were voting for.  Since then they have renounced their votes but are not allowed to do so by the Human Righters.  Once you've voted, you've had it!

Portland is going wild.  This Portland government council dumped all their Walmart bonds.  Not appropriate for them.  Politically incorrect company. 

 "The idea, championed by City Commissioner Steve Novick, led to Portland City Hall last December expanding its "do not buy" list of corporations in which it refuses to invest its $940 million portfolio. That list currently includes Wal-Mart and fossil-fuel companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

                                                                           

Barzeli Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel, Portland's sister city.  This city has suffered greatly from rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza.  They've had to move underground to do surgeries quite often.  They care for Arabs as well as Jews.  

A step further to controlling Israel came their way.  "Earlier this month, the Portland Human Rights Commission, an independent offshoot of the city's Office of Equity and Human Rights, endorsed a proposal that would ask the city to grow its "do not buy" list—to include companies that activists say play a role in the state of Israel's occupation of Palestine."

As a teacher and  student of history and a publisher of 3 blogs defending Israel and her rights to exist, I am appalled!!  Their history of Israel and their knowledge is worse than a 1st grader. 

 Israel is a legitimate state and there NEVER WAS A STATE OF PALESTINE!  And these people are making blind votes pertaining to the existence of Israel!  Evidently we have several left wing anti-Israel groups in town today.  "Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation   says the true goal of groups such as Occupation-Free Portland", one of them, " is to undermine Israel. 
 "This has nothing to do with human rights," says Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation.. "It is yet another attempt by the boycott/divestment/sanction movement to de-legitimize the state of Israel and demonize the supporters of the state of Israel."  

So all the Jews assembled yesterday afternoon at 4pm were demons, to the Human Rights Commission, including a few rabbis.   Israel has been legitimate in 1922 to the League of Nations and in 1948 to the United Nations, and yet after 67 years it still has to defend itself.  

I was born and raised in Portland, and this is the first time such anti-Semitism has shown itself, to come down on Israel in such a way. 

The BDS Movement stands for Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning somebody you are tying to control and change.  It's an unsuccessful effort to isolate Israel and create new Boycotts against the only democratic state in the Middle East. 

The first reference I've noticed is to BDS G4S, a British security company that provides equipment and services to Israel's 5 prisons.  Political prisoners are held there.  The BDSers claim they are held without trial and are tortured.  By being the supplier of goods and service, the demonstrators against this company claim they are participating in Israel's use of torture and holding them in prisons.  More than 6,000 Palestinians are held this way to discourage them from resisting Israel's apartheid policies.

None of these claims are true, including the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state.  Quite the opposite is true.  1.7 million Arabs are citizens.  Arabs serve in the Knesset.  Everyone votes.  

  This is what happens in Israel:

1. Proper custody and internment resources - improvement in the living conditions with the goal of reaching international standards, through optimal utilization of resources and development of alternatives to imprisonment.

2. Corrections - maximum utilization of the period of imprisonment to efficiently treat the offenders in order to enable them to successfully reintegrate into society.

Security Prisoners

There are some 4,500 security prisoners and detainees incarcerated in the Israel Prison Service, about 50% of whom are considered prisoners “with blood on their hands.” These prisoners include men, women and minors.

Among the security prisoners one finds senior members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, terrorists who were on their way to a suicide mission and were apprehended by the defense forces; dispatchers; attack planners; those responsible for preparing the explosives, etc. As the primary incarceration authority, the Israel Prison Service is responsible for the incarceration of these prisoners, while accommodating their basic needs in accordance with the law.

 B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, tells a more accurate report than the Portland council.  Their report is on Gaza of which holds Palestinian terrorists who have been shelling Southern Israel for years, through the past 2 Intifada at least since 2001.  Far from being tortured, the criminals; terrorists and all, are paid by the PA for being in prison. 

Hamas from Gaza, terrorist

According to the PA  more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners (as of December 2012) serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients of PA salaries. This means that Palestinians convicted of crimes such as theft do not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers do. 

 The Israeli Police noted that since 13 April 2008 the police is no longer responsible for any prison facilities(thereafter, the responsibility of the Prisons Service). The police no longer hold Palestinian detainees, other than for interrogation purposes." They are questioned.  That's it.  The police are not like those in Syria or any other Middle East country.  
                                                                 

"Updated: 

  14 Oct 2015

At the end of August 2015, 5,373 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners were held in Israeli prisons, 341 of them from the Gaza Strip.* An additional 977 Palestinians were held in Israel Prison Service facilities for being in Israel illegally, 13 of them from the Gaza Strip. The IPS considers these Palestinians – both detainees and prisoners – criminal offenders. A few dozen other Palestinians (we do not have precise figures) are held in IDF facilities for short periods of time. The following data were provided by the military and by the IPS."

" In January 2015, the PA Ministry of Finance announced that the PA budget includes ‎transfer of salaries to prisoners in Israeli jails who were from Gaza. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, ‎Jan. 6, 2015] This openly contradicts the PA claim that the PA no longer pays salaries ‎to prisoners.‎"  When they are released, the PA pays them anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.  

Students who protested and were for BDS in London were made up of many Arabs, I noticed.  All the women pictured were wearing scarves.  Politics against Israel are showing.  

There have been a lot of terrorists trying to kill Jews, and many of these have been a slaughter, horrible murders against Israelis.  

Portland invests with the farming company of Caterpillar. That's one company out of 4 they are divesting from.   "The city isn't currently invested in Motorola, Hewlett-Packard or G4S. It is invested in Caterpillar, and does buy products from the companies, including fire equipment from Motorola paid for with money fromPortland's $72.4 million fire bond issue, which voters approved in 2010.  

"The Human Rights Commission didn't do their homework," says the federation's Horenstein. "The fact that they could consider a controversial issue like this without reaching out to the mainstream Jewish community is mystifying."  Evidently the meeting yesterday went pretty badly.  All the board wanted was reasons WHY they should not invest and they felt they didn't hear them.  It didn't make any difference, since it seems they already had made up their vote before the meeting had started. 

 The meeting was called for one building, and then changed a couple of hours before they were to start in another building about 8 blocks away.  It's amazing at least about 50 people made it there and wanted to have a chance to speak. 

 Human Rights?  Where are the rights of Israelis against a mob of uneducated and highly biased people  bent on doing BDS to fracture the  economy  of Israel  ?  

" The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has accused the volunteer group of legitimizing a campaign that could foster anti-Semitism, and Mayor Charlie Hales has said he would block the effort to divest from the four companies."  I certainly hope he succeeds.  

I see from the article by the Human Rights Commission that the Sabeel Movement is mentioned.  This is a religious movement. "The  Sabeel Movement,  connected to the Presbyterians who is working hard to delegitimatize Israel and refuses to see that its goals amount to anti-Semitism.  Their creed and teachings have also reached the Methodists, I'm afraid.  They both are groups that believe in the replacement theory of Christianity in that Israel is no longer important and has been replaced by them.  This is the motivation behind their being against Israel so much.  Some peace movement they are.  They are nothing but a strictly anti-Semitic group.  

"For those of you who may want to “relive” the Portland Human Rights Commission meeting or see it for the first time, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ybZ3UuTv8 . Our effort to persuade the HRC to reconsider their misguided endorsement of a BDS proposal to boycott or divest from four companies doing business in Israel failed by a vote of 6 to 5. We are awaiting word from the mayor’s office on next steps to ensure that this goes no further." from Michael and Bob H. 

Update: 11/11/15,  from the commission, advertizing Sabeel (anti-Semitic religious group) . 

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-sabeel-movement-is-harming-israel.html

11/11/15  http://fosna.org/occupation-free-portland-  

The mayor of London thinks BDS people are fools.  http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-mayor-of-london-just-proved-that-bds-supporters-are-fools/?omhide=true&utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_campaign=20151110_m128177901_11%2F10+Today%27s+Israel+Connection%3A+Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_term=mayor-of-london_png_3F1447136493

update-1 Update: Does the commission want to also boycott this?  It's something to help people with eye problems.    It's made in Israel.  https://www.facebook.com/israelmakingtheworldabetterplace/videos/477540789084466/?fref=nf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6K08RFRQs facts about Israel

Additional note: > 

> Jewish Boycott - Very informative (Read to the end)

>

> A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khomenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

>

> In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

>

> "Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

>

> "A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

> Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

>

> If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

>

> Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

>

> Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

> Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

>

> "Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

>

> They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

>

> "Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

>

> Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

>

> "In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

>

> Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.  

This is also posted on my Jewish Bubba blog.  

Reference:  http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/g4s
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oehr/62221?
http://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners
http://mops.gov.il/ENGLISH/CORRECTIONSENG/Pages/IPS.aspx
http://ips.gov.il/Web/En/Default.aspx
http://www.wweek.com/2015/10/28/portlands-obscure-human-rights-commission-sparks-anger-with-israel-palestine-vote/
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.611971
https://t.e2ma.net/message/gepgq/kxahhk HRC's endorcement of BDS
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=1005 Palestinian prisoners being paid by PA
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4454760,00.html PA pays upon release huge sum
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.634334 how other countries keep terrorists
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2015/06/palestinian-backed-bds-movement-abetted.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html  (Sabeel)