Your Daily Spiel For May 15

Natalie Portman refuses to attend The Genesis Prize Foundation ceremony in Israel. (Georges Biard photo/Wikimedia Commons)

Fifty-eight Palestinians were killed and up to 2,700 were wounded yesterday in protests in Gaza coinciding with the new U.S. Embassy opening in Jerusalem. Since the end of March, protests have been going on next to Israel’s security fence. Protesters have been burning tires and sending burning kites over the border to set fire to Israeli farms.

Looks like Natalie Portman will receive her award after all. Although Portman refused to attend The Genesis Prize Foundation ceremony in Israel, she will still receive the “Jewish Nobel” award.  Portman stated that she did not want to appear to be supporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who would be presenting the award and speaking at the ceremony.

Before the Eurovision song contest, Rafi Kishon, a political hawk, said that Israel didn’t have a chance at winning because of how anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Europe is. The official jury at the song contest contributes 50 per cent of the votes, but the other half is up to the television viewers. The audience gave Israeli singer Netta Barzilai 317 points, bringing her total to 529; almost 100 points more than second-place Cyprus.

A labour arbitrator rejected a York University laboratory technologist’s grievance for posting anti-Semitic Facebook messages. The technologist was dismissed from the Toronto university in 2016. He posted statements claiming that “Jews” or “Zionists” should be blamed for a number of current and past historical atrocities.