The more scurrilous a lie, the more impervious it is to fact and reason.  Such has been the history of the Israel/apartheid slander, which reached its apogee in 2017 with the release of a report by a United Nations panel.  The study, published by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ignores decades of Middle East history in finding that the region’s only democracy was guilty of racial domination of Palestinians in the manner of White rule over Black people under the former regime in South Africa.
 
The use of the apartheid analogy has resonated greatly with racial justice protesters in the United States, who have found intersectional solidarity with the pro-Palestinian cause and consequently embraced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement because of its purported connection to the struggle against racial oppression, wherever it occurs.  That this false narrative, built on calculated distortion, will do nothing to remedy racial inequality in America has done little to dissuade activists who are determined to view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one driven by race, rather than by land and history.
 
What makes this myopic, race-based view of the Middle East not only misleading but also ironic is the relationship that Israel is steadily building with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa.  While Israel’s breakthrough peace deals with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have captured the world’s attention and invited a reimagining of the region’s future, the Jewish state’s burgeoning ties with Africa have gone largely unnoticed, with the exception of the recent Sudan agreement.
 
Since Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016 became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit Africa in nearly 30 years, Israeli-African cooperation in areas such as agriculture, economic development, high tech, and military and cyber security have progressed throughout the continent.  Israel’s recent opening to the Gulf states has hastened this development, as African countries have come to see Israel as an open and engaged partner, rather than as a nefarious object of the Arab world’s derision.  Israel’s lack of imperial or territorial designs in Africa and the easing of pressure from the Arab and Muslim world to shun the Jewish state have enhanced the trust Israel is building with its African partners.
 
Israel’s areas of technical expertise have inspired field projects in Africa from agriculture to medicine.  The combination of Israel’s hard power and soft power has strengthened the Jewish state’s strategic hand, as it has invested economically in Africa and provided arms and military and security training to some of its allies.  But Israel’s eagerness to positively engage its allies, expressed through development projects and humanitarian assistance, has come to characterize these burgeoning relationships. One example occurred in February, when B’nai B’rith co-sponsored a conference in Rwanda marking the 25th anniversary of the massacre in that country and the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust; the gathering became a springboard for discussing future Israeli-led humanitarian activities in Rwanda. This positive tenor has largely withstood the controversy generated by the uncertain status of the approximately 40,000 African refugees in Israel, whose futures are a subject of intense debate among the Israeli public.
 
The emerging story of Israel’s relations with Africa continues to defy international perceptions of the Jewish state, not to mention directly contradict vile caricatures of Israel as a racist and imperialist nation.  Deeper engagement by diaspora Jewry in the racial justice cause can and should strengthen relations between Black people and Jews, but for role models, inspiration and a glimpse of a brighter future, both sides need look no further than the growing ties between Israel and Africa.

Anti-Semitism’s lengthy history is built on ignorance and the perpetuation of lies by people who hate Jews. It’s a disease far more incurable than a pandemic.

Over the centuries, despots disliked a people whose theology introduced a code of morality and justice that flipped civilizations. From pharaohs to Hitler and too many others to name, rulers responded with force and power, mostly sentencing Jews to slavery, ghettos and death.

Today, people continue to foment hate fueled by ignorance and lies, and still targeting Jews. The weapon of choice for ignorance and lies is a platform of recklessness called social media. Oh sure, when used responsibly, social media is a very productive tool. Such responsible behavior is not common these days.

But on Oct. 12, Facebook, with its users representing one-third of the world’s 7.8 billion people, decided to do something really bold about this recklessness by simply acting responsibly — the social media platform decided not to allow people to lie about the Holocaust.

Days later, Twitter announced its “hateful conduct policy” issued its own prohibition of “attempts to deny or diminish” violent events, including the Holocaust. Twitter has taken aim primarily at white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Facebook’s Monika Bickert announced in a blog a hate speech policy update, specifically “to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

The company’s decision was prompted by the recent rise in anti-Semitism, not just vandalism or insults, but shootings and physical attacks, and an “alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust.” Bickert noted a recent survey that showed that one in four American adults between ages 18 and 39 believed the Holocaust is a myth.

One might wonder how on earth is this ignorance possible in the United States?

For decades, survivors have made presentations. Newsreel footage starkly shows the horrifying, shocking images. Books on the subject fill libraries. Two-thirds (34) of the states in the U.S. mandate some form of Holocaust or genocide education.

About the same number of states have impressive museums, mostly in major population centers, or monuments seen by many others. The 16 U.S. states without such mandates have less population cumulatively than California.

There are 43 countries in the world with Holocaust museums or memorials. In Europe, Germany boasts 22 memorials and museums. France has 13 Holocaust memorials or museums. Greece has 10 museums and monuments. Those numbers don’t include memorials and displays in synagogues and temples.

Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center — makes available “ready to print” exhibitions. Auschwitz-Birkenau is widely visited, but the solemnity of this hallowed earth is lost with eye-catching signage that welcomes tour buses.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has exhibitions ready for travel. Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation has created captivating holographic interviews of survivors that will give life to eyewitness accounts long after survivors take their final breaths.

The United Nations and its agencies, notably UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization), with all of its flaws, embraces Holocaust education with permanent displays of art and various publications.

In May, the latest Holocaust-related legislation passed in Congress was the Never Again Education Act. More than 30 countries have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.
Despite all of the access to information, what has the world learned? It has learned that ancient hate thrives in the modern world.

So, Facebook’s banning of Holocaust denial is an important, courageous act of media leadership.

It’s been a long time coming and B’nai B’rith International has long advocated such a move. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is to be commended, though the company admits that enforcing the policy, policing the platform, will be quite a challenge.

Twitter’s announcement is equally welcome. But if the bright Facebook and Twitter coders can write algorithms and direct users with hashtags and other tools, they should be able to identify keywords that will curb the volume of hate posts before they hit the digital universe.

Germans worked hard to keep the Holocaust secret.

Rumors swirled as work camps becoming death camps — Dachau, Chelmo, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Auschwitz — were shockingly real. But the Nazi’s own record-keeping carefully lays out the horrific truth of the Holocaust.

Nazis even documented mass shootings, starvations, experimental surgeries, the crematoria, the piles of skeletal bodies. Thousands of camps dotted Nazi-controlled European countries. Eleven million people, more than six million Jews, were systematically murdered.

Of course anti-Semitism didn’t begin, or end, with the Holocaust, and rulers have been complicit in Jew hatred for thousands of years.

With the modern Jewish State of Israel maturing nicely at 72, the lies that generated anti-Semitism continue today from across the political spectrum, from extreme Islamists and with U.N. resolutions denying any ancient Jewish connection to the Western Wall, not to mention any Jewish roots there in general.

The United Nations could and should learn from the example of Facebook. Resolutions that deny undeniable Jewish history insult the U.N. mission. As for other media — all media — they should learn from the Facebook and Twitter examples.

For a media platform that could never police itself adequately from lies, rage baiting and hate — all things wrong — Facebook got this one right.
​
And Twitter followed.

Read Charles' expert analysis in InsideSources.

A lot goes on to keep the viewer spellbound in "God of the Piano," an award-winning and much talked about Israeli film written and directed by Itay Tal that’s currently available for viewing online. Anat, its protagonist, is a pianist from a musical family who gives birth to a deaf baby. Throughout the movie, her actions shock us. Almost as a contrast, she uses speech to hide rather than reveal. Information about her inner life is withheld from us. Few clues are provided, so God of the Piano is indeed a mystery. The assumptions we make about Anat’s motivation become a component of the narrative as we are compelled to understand what drives her recklessness.  

Played by the beautiful Naama Preis, Anat may hope that her son’s talents will be the catalyst to reconnect with her detached, virtuoso father; if so, this plan fails. In the end, the identity of the god of the piano, if there is one, is still unknown to the audience, and perhaps to Anat herself. 

​The god referenced in the title may only exist in Anat’s imagination, but devotees of the instrument can attest that Israeli goddesses of the piano are quite real and we can hear them every day.

For the past two decades, Jerusalem-born Orli Shaham has received critical acclaim for her brilliant pianistic technique and her special affinity for classical composers of the last three centuries, particularly Mozart. She also enjoys a reputation as a musical commentator, on both NPR and on her own show, “Dial a Musician,” broadcast over the Classical Public Radio Network. As an educator, she has achieved recognition as one who has developed the concert experience to encourage the love of the classical repertory in children as young as four.  

Shaham appears throughout the world playing with noted orchestras, in recital and in chamber music, often onstage with her equally renowned violinist brother, Gil Shaham. She has acquired a following through her acclaimed recordings. In 2019 she initiated The Mozart Project for Canary Classics, a series of CDs that will eventually encompass all of the composer’s works for piano. Shaham will finish the complete piano sonatas over the next year and releases a new excerpt each week via her website.

Inspired by her own twin boys, Shaham in 2010 founded “Baby Got Bach” (now called Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard), curated concerts she hosts for kids including stories, performances with youthful guest artists, hands on encounters with musical instruments and the playing of specially adapted pieces by the “Three Bs” and others. These special events have been produced in music venues nationwide. With the recent pandemic, the pianist has now brought her Bach Yard “play dates” to children who can view the concerts online. 

In 2010, she was named by Marker, the Israeli magazine, as one of Israel’s 100 most influential people.  Speaking and writing about the positive aspects of failure, she has noted: “Do not strive for perfect balance. The greatest creativity occurs when we let ourselves meet imbalanced moments.”

​Playing professionally by age 11, Wolf went on to study at the Tanglewood Institute and Boston University, obtaining two degrees by age 23 from London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she now teaches.