Comments (0)Israeli Flags Defaced in Vancouver
February 1, 2010JTA Wire Service
Two Israeli flags that were part of an Olympic display in Vancouver were removed after being defaced.
The Israeli flags were covered in paint with the words “Free Palestine” written on them, the Vancouver Sun reported Sunday. They were removed last month.
The display on the streets of the city features 450 international flags from 80 countries.
Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 12. Israel is sending three athletes.
The flags will be replaced before the start of the games, according to the Sun. Their slots are now empty.
Sarkozy’s Grandson Undergoes Brit
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first grandson was circumcised according to Jewish tradition.
Sarkozy’s grandson, Solal, was circumcised in a Jewish ceremony by a mohel, the president’s friend Patrick Balkany told French Radio J Sunday, according to the French news agency AFP.
“It happened like all circumcisions, with a rabbi and a mohel,” said Balkany, who was present at the brit for Solal, the son of Jean Sarkozy and Jessica Sebaoun, born Jan. 13.
Sarkozy did not attend the brit, apparently because of work-related obligations, but Balkany said the president’s entire family was present, including his parents and brother.
Jessica Sebaoun is “a very observant Sephardic” Jew and the French president “sees no problem with that,” said Balkany, the mayor of Levallois-Perret, a town northwest of Paris.
Sarkozy, Balkany noted, has a “Catholic family, a Jewish grandfather and evidently, he was marked by that double culture.”
Balkany, who also has Jewish roots, said that when he met Sarkozy more than 20 years ago, one of their first conversations was about their shared “Jewish origins.”
Holocaust Survivors Protest ‘iMussolini’ Feature
Holocaust survivors are protesting Italy’s best-selling iPhone application—a collection of the speeches of Italy’s World War II fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
“iMussolini,” which sells for about $1.10 on the Italian iTunes store, was launched Jan. 21, just days ahead of Italy’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration on Jan. 27.
Subtitled “the man who changed the history of our country,” iMussolini topped the iPhone app download list on Sunday.
Its creator, Luigi Marino, 25, told reporters over the weekend that it was being downloaded about 1,000 times a day.
The app contains audio, video and text of more than 100 speeches dating back to 1914.
Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. Under his rule, Italy became a close ally of Nazi Germany; Mussolini’s regime introduced harsh anti-Semitic legislation in 1938.
“It is a disgrace and a surrender to crass commercialism that the Apple computing company has approved the release of this ‘app’ through their online iTunes store,” Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement.
“We are protesting to them as their tight regulation and control of release of such apps makes them responsible,” he said. “This is an insult to the memory of all victims of Nazism and Fascism, Jew and non-Jew, and should be condemned for its offense to decency and conscience.”
On the iTunes page, Marino wrote that iMussolini was a “history-related application” that “does not celebrate Fascism,” as it was simply a collection of original speeches. He also called on users to avoid posting comments about the app that celebrate or apologize for fascism. Apple already removed some extreme comments.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.