FLASHBACK: Demonization: Durham NC City Council bans police exchanges with Israel.

In a statement endorsed unanimously, the City Council prohibited international police exchanges “in which Durham police officers receive military-style training.” The statement, after an intense lobbying campaign by anti-Israel activists and over the objection of police groups, mentioned only Israel by name in the opening paragraph of the document.

It did so even though there have been no such exchanges for over a decade, and none are planned, with the Israel National Police. A single one-week trip that the former Durham police chief Jose Lopez once took to Israel involved how to deal with and manage mass casualty situations. By his own statement to the City Council, “none of the training had anything to do with militarization.”

There were a few other truly memorable speakers out of the 50—some who shamed the Council proceedings with their gross bigotry and others who dignified the meeting with measured and thoughtful commentary.

One speaker who identified himself as Jihad Shawwa struggled to get a video to play then went on a tirade about Zionism and the IDF being a “terrorist organization.” You can watch that circus beginning at the 1:07:33 mark.

Later, the crackpoterry resumed when a minister from the Nation of Islam delivered a 2-minute anti-Jewish rant, referring to a “synagogue of Satan” and accusing Jews of having “an inordinate amount of control” in city politics.

More at the link.