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Will the Left Devour its Creators?

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One can only hope. Though their movement is largely a Jewish creation at its roots, many on the harder edge of the self-styled “progressive” left now openly call for an end to Israel. The dust-up over Bayreuth, Germany’s award to Code Pink is illustrative.

THE Bavarian city of Bayreuth is slated to award 10,000 euros in April to a US-based activist group — Code Pink — that supports a boycott of the Jewish state and has participated in a conference in Iran that included some who cast doubt on Jewish WW2 Holocaust stories.

The decision by Bayreuth to award the Wilhelmine von Bayreuth-Preis has sparked outrage from Jewish organizations.

“It is hard to imagine that any due diligence was undertaken by the Wilhelmine von Bayreuth Award committee before it decided to bestow its highest honor to this group,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Cooper provided three examples of Code Pink’s anti-Israel agitation. In the first example, the group’s activists are seen in a video in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was equated with Adolf Hitler: “Hitler, Yahoo, You Will See, Palestine Will Be free!” they chanted at a protest in front of an AIPAC conference in 2015.

“This genocidal chant alone should disqualify Code Pink from any ‘tolerance award’ in Germany,” Cooper said.

In the YouTube video link provided by Cooper, Code Pink’s chanted in 2015: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Critics say this type of rhetoric seeks the dissolution of Israel.

“Then there is the matter of Code Pink‘s top leaders participating — in what in Germany would be a criminal enterprise — an anti-Semitic Holocaust Denial Conference convened by the serial human rights deniers in Tehran,” he said.

Cooper added the third reason for disqualifying the group was the “desecration of Judaism‘s holiest site — Western Wall — by Code Pink to promote the anti-Semitic, extreme anti-peace, BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement.”

“Bayreuth dishonors itself and the values that the award articulates by such a choice,” he said. “The Simon Wiesenthal Center urges Bayreuth not to honor those who validate deniers of the Nazi Holocaust, who seek the destruction of the Jewish democratic state of Israel.”

Bayreuth said it decided to honor Code Pink because it is “engaged as a grassroots democracy movement and for an end to military conflicts.”

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Jewish “Anti-Defamation League,” told the Post on Tuesday: “This is an organization which engages in the most extreme anti-Israel behavior. It pushes boycotts against Israel, disrupts Israeli speakers wherever they appear and seeks to bring other progressive groups into their obsessive anti-Israel orbit. Whatever one’s views on Israel, Code Pink’s positions are beyond the pale. The nature of Code Pink alone should disqualify them from receiving an award from any responsible body. When one adds to that the history of Bayreuth and its links to the anti-Semitism of Richard Wagner, it is particularly important for the city to withdraw this award.”

Wagner, a 19th-century composer, was a severe critic of Jews who aimed to purge German music of Jews and any Jewish artistic influences. Israel-state sponsored orchestras generally do not perform Wagner because of his association with German “anti-Semitism” and the Hitler movement. Hitler was wildly enthusiastic about Wagner.

(In 1938, some Bayreuth citizens damaged the city’s synagogue because of their outrage at anti-German acts committed by Jews. The synagogue, many will be surprised to learn, was still in full operation even after more than five years of National Socialist government in Germany.)

Code Pink has joined the BDS movement calling for a full-blown boycott of Israel. Code Pink’s Web site lists a page titled “Justice for Palestine” and urges people to boycott Ahava cosmetics and Sodastream products.

The Israeli consulate in Munich contacted the mayor of Bayreuth about the Code Pink award. He declined to cite specifics.

In a 2014 BuzzFeed article by Rosie Gray titled “Antiwar Activists, 9/11 Truthers Gather In Tehran For Anti-Zionist Conference,” Gray wrote Code Pink chief Medea Benjamin attended the event and that “conspiracy journalist and 9/11 truther Wayne Madsen, and PressTV contributor Kevin Barrett are all reportedly at the conference. Other reported attendees include Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the anti-Semitic French comedian whose performances have been banned in several French jurisdictions, several Holocaust deniers…”

Medea Benjamin spoke on the panel titled “Israel Lobby vs. The US National Interest (especially as it relates to Middle East policy).” The conference was founded by former Iranian President and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Press TV wrote that the 2015 conference “goal is to unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics.”

Bayreuth’s press release states Code Pink deserves the award because of the group’s contribution to “tolerance and humanity in cultural diversity.”

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Source: Jerusalem Post and National Vanguard correspondents

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