I continue going through the Palestinian Question display in the halls of the United Nations. Part 1 here.
I'm not going to spend too much time on this UNRWA section; the problems with UNRWA having a different definition of refugee from the one spelled out in the Refugee Convention is a topic we have covered many times, and by no stretch of the imagination can anyone say there are 5 million refugees today.
The display, as mentioned, does not mention the Intifadas. It also skips over Oslo and Arafat's refusal to accept a state. True, the UN wasn't involved but the history matters, people reading this as their education on Palestinian history learn virtually nothing about why they do not have a state - because they rejected it many times.
UNSC 1515 does not say much beyond that the UN endorses the Quartet's roadmap.
The roadmap does not mention Jerusalem as capital of Palestine at all, although it implies that it should be divided: "a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem that takes into account the political and religious concerns of both sides, and protects the religious interests of Jews, Christians, and Muslims worldwide, and fulfills the vision of two states, Israel and sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security." But there is nothing in that text, a least, that precludes Israel maintaining control over all of Jerusalem.
The exhibit again ignores Israel's peace offer in 2008 that would indeed have divided Jerusalem.
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In the zero-sum world of BDS politics, last month’s
Eurovision Song Contest could not be perceived as anything but a massive defeat
for the boycotters. Their extreme
efforts to get the program moved from Israel, their strong-arming of artists to
now show up, and their incessant calls for boycott could not prevent the
thousands of people who visited Israel for the event or millions watching the
song contest on TV from seeing the actual Israel, rather than the dystopia of
BDS fantasies and *gasp* making up their own minds, rather than let the BDSers
think for them.
The one bright spot for the boycotters were the antics of
the Islandic band Hatrio Mun Sigra which did not misbehave during their
performance, but did engage in politics by sneaking out a Palestinian flag
during the announcement of the winner (it wasn’t them, BTW).
What little heat their “reveal” generated was soon forgotten,
except for some BDSers looking for a fix and the Icelandic government which may
punish the band for not playing by the rules.
But I got re-interested in the controversy when this
piece appeared in Tablet revealing that – for all their goth, outsider posing,
the members of Hatrio Mun Sigra are part of a hereditary caste of Iceland’s
elite – the sons of diplomats and bankers – playing at punk while demonstrating
their wokeness in the way all European aristocrats do these days: by dissing
the Jewish state.
One need only look at the pale, scrawny members of the band
to combine their appearance and background into a single well-worn phrase:
white privilege. In fact, if that term
had any meaning among the people who use it the most, one might be led to think
that anti-Zionism is the touchstone of the most melanin-deprived elite.
This fits nicely with the concept of Palestinian privilege
that titles this piece. For example,
sixty million of the world’s refugees (including those from Syria for whom the
world shows such concern) is supported by the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) whose budget is comparable to the money spent on a UN
agency, UNWRA, dedicated solely to not solving the problem of five million
Palestinian “refugees.”
Many commentators describe Palestinian behavior such as refusing
tax revenue from Israel unless it includes sums they have committed to pay
those who killed Israelis or doing everything possible to derail an economic
conference dedicated to their economic improvement as the acts of “spoiled
children.” But another way to look at those choices is as the acts of an
outraged elite doing everything in their power to preserve their wealth, power
and position in society.
The poverty such choices might cause the average Palestinian
might seem to counter any discussion of privilege, but keep in mind that the
elite making these decisions are not impacted by them. The wealth they have skimmed off foreign
donors is not likely to be seized, and their positions of power is not
threatened by those below them (unless the masses organize under the rule of a new
elite of fanatical Islamists). Similarly, the privileged Palestinian elite
has no fear that parents of members of Hatrio Mun Sigra or their pals in the
European diplomatic core will hold Palestinian members of their caste to
account.
The privilege model also helps explain why members of this
elite in “Palestine” are so quick to lash out at fellow Arab tyrants who seem
to be distancing themselves from “the sacred cause.” After all, with dozens of Arab nations allied
with even more Islamic ones within the halls of the United Nations, having
their way internationally has been taken as a given by Abbas and Company. So condemning Arab leaders for not sacrificing
their own interests is the equivalent of the rich and powerful condemning
President Roosevelt as a traitor to his class.
Given how much our own intersectional elite demands they get
to decide who gets to speak and who does not based on their own ever-changing
ranking of privilege, it’s interesting how the power relationships described
above: where European hereditary castes prove their progressive bone fides by
embracing the anti-Israel cause, all in support of the least progressive
regimes on the planet, is not mentioned (or shouted down when someone else
brings it up).
Interesting, but not surprising. After all, rank does have its privilege.
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On April 14, 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a frigate, hit an Iranian naval mine while sailing in the Persian Gulf. The explosion injured 10 of her crew and nearly sank the ship. Four days later, the U.S. Navy destroyed half the Iranian fleet in a matter of hours. Iran did not molest the Navy or international shipping for many years thereafter. Now Iran's piratical regime is back yet again.
While Iran categorically denied responsibility for Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, the evidence against Iran is compelling. The U.S. Central Command noted that "a U.S. aircraft observed an IRGC Hendijan-class patrol boat and multiple IRGC fast attack craft...in the vicinity of the M/T Altair," one of the damaged tankers.
Staging deniable attacks that fall just below the threshold of open warfare on the U.S. is an Iranian specialty. But it would require a large dose of self-deception to pretend that Iran isn't the likely culprit, or that its actions don't represent a major escalation. Firing on unarmed ships in international waters is a direct assault on the international order. To allow it to go unpunished isn't an option.
The U.S. should declare new rules of engagement to allow the Navy to engage and destroy Iranian ships or fast boats that harass or threaten any ship, military or commercial, operating in international waters. The world cannot tolerate freelance Somali pirates. Much less should it tolerate a pirate state seeking to hold the global economy hostage through multiplying acts of economic terrorism.
Nobody wants a war with Iran. But not wanting a war does not mean remaining supine in the face of its outrages. We sank Iran's navy before. Tehran should be put on notice that we are prepared and able to do it again.
Iran will break the uranium stockpile limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the spokesman for the country’s atomic agency said Monday, while also warning that Iran has the need for uranium enriched up to 20 percent, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.
The announcement indicated Iran’s determination to break from the 2015 accord, which has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the deal last year and reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, sending its economy into freefall.
The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, made the announcement during a press conference with local journalists at Iran’s Arak heavy water facility that was carried live on Iranian state television.
“Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time we will pass this limit,” he said, putting the date for the breach of a key provision of the agreement at June 27.
The development comes in the wake of suspected attacks on oil tankers last week in the region, attacks that the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia have blamed on Iran and which Iran has suggested were carried out by the US. It also follows four other oil tanker attacks off Fujairah in recent weeks. Iranian-allied rebels from Yemen have also struck US ally Saudi Arabia with drones and missiles.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged the international community to immediately snap back sanctions on Iran if it goes ahead with its threat to enrich uranium beyond the levels set by a landmark nuclear pact.
Iran said earlier Monday that it would break the uranium stockpile limit set by the 2015 accord in 10 days, and warned that Iran could enrich uranium up to 20 percent — just a step away from weapons-grade levels.
Netanyahu, one of the agreement’s most vociferous critics, said Israel was not surprised by the threat.
“In the event it acts upon its threats and violates the nuclear deal, the international community must immediately impose the sanctions that were set previously. Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, during a ceremony that commemorated Israeli presidents and prime ministers who have passed away.
The nuclear deal has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the accord last year and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, deeply cutting into its sale of crude oil abroad and sending its economy into freefall.
The Monday announcement by Behrouz Kamalvandi, timed for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, put more pressure on Europe to come up with new terms for the nuclear deal.
Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the US sanctions, and Netanyahu has urged other powers to follow the lead of the US and pull out of the deal as well.
Yesterday, Jason Greenblatt, speaking at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York, said, “I will let David’s comments stand for themselves. I think he said them elegantly and I support his comments.”
The Times of Israel reported this as if Greenblstt also supports unilateral annexation, editorializing, "In an interview published by the New York Times last Saturday, Friedman suggested that some degree of annexation of the West Bank would be legitimate."
What TOI didn't bother reporting is that Greenblatt said explicitly to look at Friedman's words, not the New York Times headline - which was a lie.
And then it quotes Friedman saying no such thing. “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank."
Isn't that exactly what every peace plan since Clinton has said? No one is talking about annexation - they are saying that under any possible agreement, Israel will hold on to some part of the territories, and there might be some land swaps.
Even Jimmy Carter said the exact same thing. Visiting the "settlement" of Neve Daniel in 2009, he said, "This particular settlement is not one that I envision ever being abandoned, or changed over into a Palestinian territory. This is part of the close settlements to the 1967 line that I think will be here forever."
Did Carter say he supported annexation? Not at all, and neither did Friedman or Greenblatt. All of them are talking about Israel retaining territory under a peace agreement.
The false reporting in the New York Times has already spawned J-Street mailings, Palestinian condemnations and a riot at the Gaza border. This is not the first time that the NYT has ascribed motives to newsmakers that align to their own wishful thinking than to their actual words. Irresponsible journalism is not innocuous - it could cost people's lives.
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The Ofer Military Court on Sunday indicted a Palestinian man for the aggravated rape, assault and kidnapping of a seven-year-old Jewish girl.
The suspect, a janitor at a school in the Binyamin region of Judea and Samaria, met the girl at the school and fostered a relationship with her by occasionally speaking to her and giving her candy.
On the day in question, the suspect took the girl by the hand and forcefully led her to a nearby house, where he brutally raped her. After the act, the suspect released the girl.
Attorney Haim Bleicher from the right-wing Honenu legal aid organization, who represents the family, issued a statement saying, “This was an exceedingly brutal and appalling incident, as other people were present [during the rape], apparently Palestinian laborers who humiliated the girl, degraded her and aided the suspect. It appears to be an act of pure hatred by a group of scum who flouted all human decency simply because the victim was Jewish.”
If more than one Arab was present, this changes from what could have been considered "only" a rape of a child into an entirely new level of depravity. It may have been a full blown, sick conspiracy and pre-planned antisemitic incident where Palestinian workers chose to aid the rape of a Jewish child because she was Jewish.
The indictment did not mention anyone else present, although there is no reason to doubt that the police are still investigating.
Imagine if a group of Jews had been accused of doing this to an Arab girl. The headlines would be screaming and the story would be front page of The New York Times. Left wing Jewish groups would be shouting about how they have nothing to do with such a crime. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch would be falling over themselves to push out press releases and tweets outdoing the other on how this is evidence of a sick Israeli society. (If the story was true, they would be right!)
But this event is mentioned just as another criminal case, and only in Israeli media. NGOs are silent.
As sick as it sounds, there is no doubt that part of the reason that the world media and NGOs will not talk about this story is because the child victim is a "settler," and as such deserves no human rights.
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Last week, the UN confirmed that it will send a representative to the Bahrain economic conference sponsored by the US later this month.
The deputy UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Jamie McGoldrick will be representing the organization at the economic workshop in Manama meant to help the Palestinian economy.
This is another blow to the PLO which has been doing everything it can to pressure countries not to attend.
As has been the trend over the past couple of years, the only group of nations that seem to be slavishly following Palestinian demands are the Europeans, who as of yet do not plan to attend.
The PLO's United Nations representative Riyad Mansour downplayed the participation of the UN as being at a "low level."
Taysir Khaled, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said that it is not too late for the withdrawal of the Arab countries from the conference, as he invoked that they should adhere to the Palestinian national consensus to boycott the Manama workshop.
There are conflicting stories as to Israel's level of participation, with the organizers apparently not anxious to have members of Israel's caretaker government attend. Reports indicate that only a private business delegation from Israel will attend.
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Continuing my series of re-captioning or editing cartoons...
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"The entire world will pay dearly," if the Muslim world doesn't "act" to save Jerusalem from Israel's plots - this is the warning from one of the most important religious figures in the Palestinian Authority on his Twitter account.
Repeating the PA libel that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs and PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash wrote: "The Israeli plot against the Al-Aqsa Mosque is becoming more dangerous and expanding from day to day. If the Muslims don't act now, something will occur whose end is bad and bitter, and then the entire world will pay dearly. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is religion and faith, and nothing is too valuable for it. 'So take warning, O people of vision' [Quran, Sura 59:2, Sahih International translation]."
[Twitter account of PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash, June 2, 2019]
The words Al-Habbash chose to end his tweet were a quote from the Quran, which can be interpreted as a warning to Jews: "So take warning, O people of vision"
[Quran, Sura 59:2]
This sentence is the continuation of a verse that describes Allah's punishment of the Jews: "It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture [Jews] from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allah ; but [the decree of] Allah came upon them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts [so] they destroyed their houses by their [own] hands and the hands of the believers. So take warning, O people of vision."
[Quran, Sura 59:2, Sahih International translation].
During a recent sermon he held in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque in Russia, Al-Habbash also called on Muslims to protect Jerusalem in "the struggle between truth and falsehood":
The rise of antisemitism in the US is something to never be tolerated in any capacity, said Ambassador Dani Dayan, Israel’s Consul-General in New York, to an audience on Sunday.
“When we say ‘never again,’ we mean never again,” Dayan said at the start of the Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference in New York. Dayan explained that “‘never again’ doesn’t mean [just] that another Holocaust will not happen again.”
He told the audience that “the Jewish people will not go back to the days of ‘just’ small pogroms here and there. ‘Never again’ meaning we will not expect cartoons in leading papers [with antisemitic stereotypes], it means that Jews will not be afraid to go to shul on Shabbat.”
“Never again means we are fed up with antisemitism,” Dayan said. “We are fed up with the BDS, with Louis Farrakhan and the Women’s March. We’re fed up with neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The State of Israel doesn’t have jurisdiction outside the country, but it doesn’t mean we don’t care.”
The title of the 116th Congress’ proposed bill H.R.2407 is reminiscent of the question, How long since you stopped beating up your wife? It has so many inherent, incriminating assumptions, it’s too late for you to argue you never beat up anyone and besides, you’re single. Here’s the title: “H.R.2407 – Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.”
Introduced in the House on April 30, 2019 by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), the bill now enjoys the support of the entire lineup of Democratic crazy-left culture heroines: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Pramila Jayapal.
The stated purpose of H. R. 2407 is: “To promote human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and require that United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes.”
There are countless international agreements demanding special treatment of children in war time and under military occupation, who are defined as human beings under the age of 18. They must receive special care and special protection. But there’s precious little in the broad available literature that deals with military occupation lasting 52 years, in areas that are crisscrossed by different political authorities. And almost nothing about police treatment of minors who engage in blatant violent behavior, including arson and murder against civilians.
Needless to say, in its current version, H. R. 2407 has nothing to say about these real issues. A combined failure of a succession of Israeli governments to either annex or give up the liberated territories, combined with Israel’s decisions in 1993 and 2005 which culminated in the partial or complete takeover of said territories by gangs of Arab terrorists, has created a sadly inadequate combination of off-the-cuff and contradictory laws and regulations over the treatment of children who seek to kill and/or rob civilians.
Mrs. Elder and I visited the UN on Friday as invited guests of the Israel Mission to the UN.
Prominently displayed near the Security Council is this large wall display on the "Question of Palestine and the United Nations."
As one would expect, there are a lot of omissions and falsehoods.
Starting with:
Muslims did not consider Palestine a holy land. They considered Jerusalem to be holy (which is what Al Quds means,) and venerated a specific site in Hebron, but I have never heard anyone say that the entire land was considered holy. After all, the boundaries of that land had never been set by Muslims when they controlled it.
There is no wonderment about how the UN General Assembly supposedly violated the UN Charter. And notice how the principle of self determination for peoples does not extend to Jews, according to the Arab rejectionists.
The use of the word "Palestinians" is anachronistic, since the word at the time referred almost exclusively to Jews both by Jews themselves and by the rest of the world.
Again, it probably wouldn't have been called Palestine since that word was associated with Jews at the time, and institutions like the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and the Palestine Post were Jewish.
The exhibit does not wonder why the Arabs couldn't establish a state. It does not mention Egypt's takeover of Gaza or Jordan's illegal annexation of the West Bank.
Nothing is said about the terror attacks by Palestinian fedayeen on Israel's borders in the 1950s and 1960s. Nothing about the founding of the PLO in 1964, or Fatah in the 1950s. Nothing about the constant threats to destroy Israel from Egypt, Syria and other Arab nations.
It doesn't say what country Israel "occupied" the West Bank and Gaza from - because they belonged to no country. Which is one reason the land is not considered legally occupied - Israel had and has a legal claim to the land. It is disputed.
The 500,000 Palestinians supposedly displaced is a made up number. This UN source says between 100,000 and 300,000. I cannot find any source saying any higher numbers.
While there were some tiny villages that were destroyed, the vast majority of Arabs fled because they did not want to live under Jewish rule - Israel did not expel them, by and large, except for known terrorists and suspects. Gazans fled to Jordan on buses provided by Israel!
UNSC 242 did not mention Palestinians. In no way can it be interpreted as saying that any of the territories Israel captured were Palestinian. It didn't mention these "500,000" displaced persons, either.
Israel did not deport or transfer a single Jew to the territories. They went voluntarily. There is no violation of Geneva; in fact the entire reason additional language was added to the Rome Statute saying "transfer, directly or indirectly" was because the Arab world wanted to ensure that international law would find the settlements illegal ex post facto.
The UN doesn't mention that Palestinians were offered a state a number of times and turned it down. It doesn't mention the 1970s airplane hijackings, the two deadly intifadas, bus bombings, suicide bombers. Only Palestinian victimhood is allowed to be mentioned, not Palestinian responsibility.
There's more.
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An invitation to several chareidi youths to join in his son’s wedding has cost the mayor of the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Dir Kadis his job. The four Jews, whom the mayor claims were invited to “embarrass” him, were seen in a widely distributed video singing and dancing at the wedding, clearly as welcome guests – and as a result, the mayor has been fired and removed from his position on the PA’s Education Committee, Haaretz reported Sunday.
The incident took place last Wednesday, as the son of Radi Nasser was wed. Four Jews, residents of Modiin Ilit (Kiryat Sefer), attended the wedding in the nearby village. The son worked with the Jews in Modiin Ilit, and apparently invited them to the wedding. Footage of the event shows a happy circle of dancers, with the Jews hoisted on the shoulders of the guests as they celebrated the event.
But when the footage hit social media sites, the recriminations began. The Fatah movement, of whom Nasser was a member, condemned the dancing, saying that it was “insulting” to Palestinians. Nasser was summarily thrown out of Fatah. Editorials in PA newspapers reiterated the “insult” narrative, saying that Palestinians should not be inviting “representatives of the occupation” to their events.
Nasser attempted to deny that he invited the youths. “They were invited by garage workers at the entrance of the village who fix the Jews’ cars,” he said, adding that they were put up to it by his political enemies, and that he had the youths thrown out of the wedding when he found out what was happening. But the denials fell on deaf ears – at least in part because he is seen dancing with them.
Fatah said that a no-confidence meeting would be held to remove Nasser from office and that the names of the Jewish attendees would be passed on to the Palestinian security forces.
Dar Kadis is near the Jewish community of Modi'in Illit. I am told that while most Jews won't go visit that village any more, there are still plenty that do, to buy inexpensive products or to have their cars repaired. There is enough business from Jews from Modi'in Illit, Hashmonaim, Matityahu and other communities that Dar Kadis businesses are dependent on it for their livelihoods.
So it is not at all surprising that there are friendships between these "Jewish settlers" and their Arab neighbors.
In this case, the antisemitism is directed from the Palestinian Authority as official policy. Being Friends with Jews is a fireable offense.
(h/t Ben Garson)
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Fatah is calling a general strike in the territories on June 25, the day of the economic conference in Manama meant to help the Palestinian Arabs.
Jamal Moheisen, a member of Fatah's central committee, said that all the national forces and the Palestinian people will rally on the 24th before the Bahrain conference on Thursday. On June 25, a comprehensive strike will take place.
He added that "these events come to convey the message of the Palestinian people to the occupation and the world and the people in Manama, that this meeting is a disgrace, a betrayal and a stab in the back of our people and a betrayal of the age."
Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt couldn't have scripted anything better. The point of the conference, from what they have said, is to point out how Palestinian leadership has failed their people for their own political ends. And here, instead of attending the Bahrain conference to help come up with a path to giving the people better lives, they are insisting that the people don't work.
Which means that those who get paid by the hour or the day, or who run small businesses, will not get paid.
And for what? What positive outcome would result from a general strike? None. It doesn't hurt Israel or the US. It only hurts the people they pretend to represent.
In Bahrain, Arab nations will try to come up with ways to help Palestinians, while their own leaders are hurting them. Palestinians aren't idiots. They will see this all happening in real time.
All we need is video of Fatah thugs beating up people who try to open shops.
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The annual al-Quds Day march in Berlin is often cited as a prime example of the rise of so-called new anti-Semitism in Europe: hatred of Jews in connection with Israel, often by people from Muslim societies.
Despite attempts by organizers in recent years to suppress some expressions of anti-Semitism, the march by hundreds of participants features frequent calls about killing Israelis, Zionist conspiracies and chants of “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Flags of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are on display, and imams regularly preach anti-Semitic verses from the Quran to the crowd in Farsi and Arabic.
“Under the guise of ‘Israel criticism,’ they use classic anti-Semitic stereotypes, identifying Israel as having ‘Jewish characteristics’: ‘domineering,’ ‘greedy’ or a ‘child killer,’” sociologist Imke Kummer observed about the marchers.
(Iran launched al-Quds Day in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel, and international events of support have followed. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.)
Such agitation is seen worldwide. To many, it’s especially troubling on streets where the persecution of Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators was so brutal that it moved whole societies in Europe to vow “Never again.”
Curiously, however, some of the incidents documented at the al-Quds Day march in Berlin have been classified by authorities as forms of far-right anti-Semitism, independent watchdog groups have discovered.
Critics say the march example and other mislabeled incidents are facilitating attempts to politicize anti-Semitism and complicating the apparently losing battle to solve it.
“It means we can’t really use the official statistics on anti-Semitism in Germany,” Daniel Poensgen, a researcher at the Department for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism, or RIAS, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
There’s a brief but quite telling scene in the remarkable documentary, “From Slavery To Freedom,” that recently premiered at a Jewish film festival in Washington, D.C.
The film is about Natan Sharansky, the most famous of the hundreds of Soviet Jewish “refuseniks,” referring to those who were refused exit visas to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s and ’80s. They lost their jobs, and many were imprisoned. Sharansky’s dramatic plight became the central rallying call for the Soviet Jewry movement. A well-known human rights activist in Moscow, he was accused of being a CIA spy, convicted in a sham trial and sentenced to 13 years of hard labor. He spent nine years in the Soviet gulag, much of that time in solitary confinement, before being released in a prisoner exchange in February 1986 and emigrating to Israel.
In the scene I referred to, Sharansky is shown in 2017 re-creating for the camera crew his walk to freedom across the famous Glienicke bridge, known as the “Bridge of Spies,” connecting East and West Berlin, where he was released by the KGB to U.S. officials on the other side. As he narrates his memories of the emotional moment, he is suddenly recognized by a middle-aged American Jewish tourist who happens to be walking by.
“Natan?” the man asks, stunned to see this iconic figure standing before him.
“Yes,” Sharansky answers.
“Oh, my God,” the man says, his mother at his side. “We marched for you in Philadelphia in 1980,” he exclaims excitedly.
A bemused Sharansky smiles and shrugs it off.
But in a phone interview this week with The Jewish Week from his home in Israel, Sharansky, who recently retired from his nine-year post as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, acknowledges being “upset” with American Jewry for failing to educate its youth about one of the most successful human rights campaigns in history. (h/t IsaacStorm)
The UK Parliament is for the first time to devote an hour-long debate to Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The debate has been called by MP Theresa Villiers and will take place on Wednesday 19 June at 16:30 in Westminster Hall.
"This is a neglected aspect of the Israel/Palestine conflict and this debate is a long-overdue attempt to give this issue equal prominence with the far more familiar issue of Arab/Palestinian refugees," says Lyn Julius of Harif, a UK organisation representing Jews from the MENA.
Some 850,000 – a larger number of Jewish refugees – were driven out from Arab countries at the same time. The majority found a new home in Israel, but some tens of thousands were resettled in the UK .
In 1947-48 (and in some cases much earlier) Arab countries deliberately targeted their Jewish populations. In all Arab countries, violence, expropriations and expulsions ensured that Jewish communities, which in many cases had existed for thousands of years, ceased to exist. Most who left were forcibly deprived of their property.
·
At the time this injustice was recognised by international actors: the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised on a number of occasions that the plight of the Jewish refugees fell within its remit. This is also why UNSC Resolution 242 refers to “a just settlement of the refugee problem” without specifying the “Arab” or “Palestinian” refugee problem.
Some countries today, namely the US and Canada, have also recognised this refugee issue as the injustice it is.
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about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
Oped in the Jerusalem Post (with links)
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The Jerusalem Post published an oped of mine on the Al Durah affair. Here
it is, unedited, with links: Al Durah Affair 20 Years On Today is the 20th
annive...
Monday, June 17, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
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