Books Endangered?
NEW YORK — An Egyptian Jewish group has asked the United Nations to help recover the community’s historic archives. The Historical Society of Jews from Egypt says Egypt won’t release the documents for fear of restitution claims, the Jerusalem Post reported. The society has written to UNESCO asking it to intervene. The letter was prompted by comments from Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who said last month that he “would burn Israeli books myself if found in Egyptian libraries.”
Ruling Upheld
PITTSBURGH — A U.S. appeals court revoked the citizenship of a man who was an SS guard at Nazi concentration camps. The June 10 ruling affirmed one by the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh revoking the citizenship of Anton Geiser of Sharon, Penn., who admitted that during most of 1943, he was an SS guard at Sachsenhausen near Berlin. He also admitted to being a guard at Buchenwald. While he was at Sachsenhausen, more than 3,000 prisoners were murdered or died from brutal treatment. Geiser, 81, came to the United States from Austria in 1956 and became a U.S. citizen in 1962. Efforts to denaturalize him began in 2004.
Envoy Slams British Anti-Israel Bias
LONDON — Israel’s ambassador to London came out against what he called widespread British bias against the Jewish state.
“Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a one-state solution, a euphemistic name for a movement advocating Israel’s destruction,” Ron Prosor wrote in a June 10 Daily Telegraph opinion piece.
“Israel faces an intensified campaign of delegitimization, demonization and double standards,” he added, noting that British traditions of fair-mindedness apparently no longer apply when it comes to Zionism.
Prosor, who took office in November pledging to promote Israel and confront pro-Palestinian apologists, aimed special criticism at British academics who want their Israeli counterparts boycotted, and at British media coverage of the Middle East.
The article was published as British Foreign Secretary David Milliband wrapped up a visit to Israel.