Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Responsible for Torture
For the mainstream media and human rights organizations, human rights violations are news only when they come with a "made in Israel" sticker on them.How not to help Palestinian children
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has used international aid funds to build prisons and detention centers in the West Bank where torture has become the norm.
Dr. Ammar Dwaik, Director General of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian group, revealed that his group received 782 complaints regarding torture -- 168 in the West Bank and 614 in the Gaza Strip.
Both Hamas and the PA each fears that in a free election it could lose some of its power. Why hold an election if you are not sure about the results?
Needed desperately: scrutiny of Palestinian society by international media and human rights groups -- beginning with Palestinian prisons. Anyone stepping up?
Quite perversely, the PA nurtures an environment where children learn that attacking Israelis is somehow a noble cause. Palestinian youths grow up in streets bearing the names of Palestinian killers, and attend football stadia named after terrorist murderers. Terror groups instil hatred by indoctrinating children to achieve their political goals, whilst recruiting from amongst the young. Terrorists impress upon these malleable children their murderous and twisted ideology.Tel Aviv gunman shot and killed in northern Israel
We must ask questions of the Israeli government on this issue and encourage them to make further improvements and where, as much as possible, ensure that the judicial system in the West Bank, mirrors that of the civilian system in Israel. Those are legitimate questions to ask and ones that will be willingly acknowledged in democratic Israel.
It is also important, however, to take an active role in encouraging Palestinian society to promote positive role models for children. Too many of those who take part in this debate have nothing to say on these issues, they never mention Palestinian incitement, and they refuse to hold the PA to account for its failings.
So long as advocates continue to ignore these issues, they are not helping Palestinian children. These children will just continue to be subjected to a poisonous stream of incitement and hate that manifests itself in 13 and 15 year old Palestinians walking the streets of Jerusalem with knives intent on stabbing innocent Israelis. This is an ideology that teaches children that if they die trying to killing innocent Israelis then they will be heroes, and possibly honoured with a school in their name! If those who claim to care about Palestinian youth really want to help then they must start asking tough and searching questions of the Palestinians, just as they do of Israel. Simply relying on the binary ‘Israel bad, Palestinians victims’ narrative risks condemning the next generation of Palestinians to a further cycle of hate and violence.
Nashat Milhem, the gunman who killed three Israelis last week in Tel Aviv, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in an exchange of fire in northern Israel on Friday afternoon.
He was located near his home in the Arara area. Initial reports said he had been “neutralized.” It was later confirmed that he had been killed.
Milhem was tracked down to the building where he was hiding out, and attempted to flee. During the chase, he opened fire on the forces, and was shot dead, Israeli security officials said.
Channel 2 reported that the Israeli forces, from an elite police unit, had sought to capture him alive, but were fired upon by Milhem, who was using the same weapon he used for last Friday’s shootings.
Channel 2 said he was tracked down to a building where his family had lived in the past.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and other Israeli leaders praised the security forces for the operation.
Ya’alon: Suspected Tel Aviv shooter may have been influenced by IS
A fugitive Arab Israeli suspected of killed two people in a Tel Aviv bar last Friday, before he went on to murder a cab driver whose taxi he hailed to make his escape, may have been influenced by the Islamic State terrorist group, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Friday.IS-linked group claims Cairo attack that targeted Israelis
“[There] are a few Israeli Arabs who enlist on behalf of spreading [extremist] ideology and go to fight in Syria or Iraq — or try to operate from here,” Ya’alon said during an interview with Army Radio.
“Who knows the motives of the terrorist who operated in Tel Aviv just a week ago,” he added.
The Israel Police on Friday was set to officially request the assistance of the Palestinian Authority in searching for 29-year-old Nashat Milhem, who allegedly killed two people in a shooting attack outside the Simta Bar on Tel Aviv’s busy Dizengoff Street last Friday, New Year’s Day, before fleeing in a cab, killing the driver, and disappearing.
An organization affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist group on Friday claimed responsibility for a Thursday attack on a hotel and tour bus that had been awaiting its Israeli passengers in Cairo.East Jerusalem Hamas cell ‘planned to kill Netanyahu’
In a statement carried by IS supporters on Twitter Friday, the group claimed the attack a day earlier left dead and injured among tourists and the security officers protecting the hotel.
Egypt’s Interior Ministry, however, said no one was hurt in the incident at the Three Pyramids Hotel, but the attack damaged the hotel’s facade and also a bus parked in front of the building.
Egyptian officials on Thursday said a gang of youths hurled fireworks and fired birdshot at the tour bus outside a hotel near Cairo’s pyramids. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said no one was hurt in the incident. But the Israeli Arab tourists said there had been heavy and lengthy gunfire.
According to a ministry statement, the attack targeted police guarding the hotel, who returned fire. The hotel’s facade and the bus parked in front of the building, which had been scheduled to ferry tourists from the northern Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm and the central city of Jaffa, were damaged in the incident.
“The first thing they fired was flares, and then they started firing at the bus. Later they started firing birdshot at the hotel and tried to throw Molotov cocktails at the bus,” said Jaber Jabarin, one of the Israelis staying at the hotel, who witnessed the attack.
After throwing Molotov cocktails, Jabarin said the attackers “started firing at the hotel with live bullets.” He described heavy, continuous gunfire.
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment with the city’s district court on Friday against two Arab Israeli residents of East Jerusalem who allegedly plotted to kill Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an event at the capital.4 Palestinians attempt to stab soldiers in West Bank, are killed
According to the indictment, Hazem Ziad Amran Sandouqa, a 22-year-old resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, and Fahdi Daoud Muhammad Abu Qaian, a 19-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the Negev, planned, along with Hamas activist Ahmad Jamal Mousa Azzam, 24, to plant explosives in the Jerusalem Payis Arena at a time when Netanyahu would be scheduled to speak at the site, Ynet reported.
The indictment said the three planned to place the device beneath the stage at the multi-purpose sports arena in Malha on a future occasion at which Netanyahu was to appear, but never set a final date for the operation.
The indictment added that the Hamas activist rented an apartment in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis and purchased explosive materials both personally as well as through the help of Sandouqa, Channel 2 reported.
Israeli reservist soldiers on Thursday shot dead three Palestinians as they tried to carry out a stabbing attack near the junction of the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank.Temple Mount Visits Down in 2015
“Three attackers, armed with knives, attempted to stab soldiers guarding the Gush Etzion junction,” the IDF said in a statement, and confirmed that all three attackers had been killed. No one else was wounded in the incident.
Less than two hours later, further south, a fourth Palestinian attempted another stabbing attack. He approached a group of soldiers at the Beit Anoun Junction outside of Hebron and attempted to stab one of them, the IDF said. As he was trying to attack the soldier, the other forces on the scene shot and killed him, the IDF said.
The Walla news website said that the soldiers in the Etzion Bloc junction incident had received a tip-off about an imminent attack shortly before the trio approached. Other Hebrew media reports said the three were all members of the Kawasbeh family, and that they had sought to “avenge” the death of a relative who was buried on Wednesday, having been killed in the course of a terror attack in Israel.
The number of Jews and non-Jews, excluding Muslims, that visited the Temple Mount (Har Habyit in Hebrew) in 2015 dropped from previous years, according to a report in Makor Rishon.Hamas sympathizers vow to 'slaughter Jews' in Jerusalem rally
In the case of Jewish visitors, mostly religious, their numbers dipped slightly in 2015, solely due to the police restricting the physical number of Jews allowed onto the Jewish holy site.
Many Jews wait in line for hours at the gates to the Temple Mount, only to be denied entrance by the Israeli police. In addition, All Jewish visitors must receive special instructions from the police and some even undergo body searches.
By the end of 2015, Israeli Police were only allowing 15 religious Jews onto the Temple Mount at any given time, and only during very limited visiting hours, restricting visits to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Thousands of Palestinians rioted in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, north of Jerusalem, on Tuesday, firing weapons in the air, waving knives and chanting slogans threatening to "slaughter Jews." Footage of the riot, which took place roughly 100 yards from the capital's French Hill neighborhood, was aired by Channel 10 News on Thursday.Haniyeh: We won't back down from 'Palestine'
The incident took place during the funeral of terrorist Muhammad Said Ali, killed on Oct. 10 when he attempted to stab two policemen. His body was returned to his family earlier this week.
The report showed crowds of mourners, waving Palestinian and Hamas flags, brandishing swords and guns, and chanting, among other things, "Itbah al-yahud" -- "slaughter the Jews."
Channel 10 Arab affairs analyst Zvi Yehezkeli said the presence of Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades operatives was overt. He noted the riot was in line with Hamas' efforts to escalate the current wave of terrorism.
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh continued to threaten Israel on Thursday, declaring in a speech in Khan Yunis that Hamas will never back down from its goal of controlling all of what it considers “Palestine”, and urging Palestinian Arabs to continue attacking Israelis.PMW: Fatah praises and encourages “heroic” murderers of Israelis
"Hamas will not accept a solution apart from Palestine on all the land from the river to the sea," he said in the speech, excerpts of which were quoted by NRG/Makor Rishon. “We are building the power underground and above ground. Behind enemy lines. On the earth, sea and sky.”
“We are building the power here that will surprise the world, not just to defend Gaza, but to liberate Jerusalem and liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to free all of Palestine,” said Haniyeh, whose relatives have in the past received medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. “The building of power here in Gaza is part of the strategic plan of our people."
The terrorist leader added that "we will not allow for the intifada, that the Palestinians are carrying out against military personnel or civilians since October in the West Bank and Israel and has reached its 100th day, to be brought down.”
Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub said this week that he and the Fatah movement “bless and encourage” Palestinian killers of Israelis. Such murderers, like Muhannad Halabi who stabbed two Israeli civilians to death, are “heroes and a crown on the head of every Palestinian.” Rajoub, Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, said this on the anniversary of the launch of the Fatah movement:Fatah leader: Terrorists, murderers are “heroes and a crown on the head of every Palestinian
“Yesterday in Hebron, they escorted 17 Martyrs to burial. This is of course a source of pride for all of us. I say that whoever carried out individual acts of heroism, we in the Fatah movement bless and encourage them. We consider them heroes and a crown on the head of every Palestinian. At this point, when there is weakening and frustration, there is a group of people, beginning with our brother Muhannad Halabi (i.e., murdered 2) and ending with the last Martyr... There is a competition between individuals. This is one of the issues we need to address - are we for or against it? I say that we in the [Fatah] Central Committee have discussed this matter, and we are in favor." [Official PA TV, Jan. 2, 2016]
This is not the first time Rajoub has supported terror and murder. Palestinian Media Watch reported that Rajoub already has congratulated terrorists who have killed Israelis in the current terror wave.
Fatah leader: Allah loves young Palestinians who stab Israelis. It is “peaceful resistance
Fatah leader praises Palestinians for heeding PA: They made Israel "worry, with rocks and knives
Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Drums of war
Drums of WarTeacher who urged students to support ISIS jailed for 4 years
War in the Middle East is not news. After all, at any given moment in this violent and complex region, there is at least one war being waged, either inside a country or between two of them. Most of the countries in the area fought a war of some kind during the last thirty years. The list includes Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel.
However, the probability of an imminent war moved up a notch over the past few days and on the horizon there are early signs of deterioration that may lead to a much vaster war than we have been witness to in our lifetimes. The current situation may develop into a war of total destruction, a war using every means available, between two regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Actually, these two countries have been fighting one another for years in other arenas: in Iraq, Iran supports the Shiite majority whereas the Saudis are aiding the Sunni minority. In Syria, the Saudis support and aid the rebels, while Iran is sacrificing its top officers and soldiers in order to help Assad survive the Sunni jihadist attacks.
A Bedouin elementary school teacher was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday after the Beersheba District Court convicted him of supporting the Islamic State group and encouraging his students to join its forces in Iraq and Syria.In Sinai, ISIS Grows with Iran’s Help
Muhammad Abu al-Kian, 28, from the southern Bedouin town of Hura, struck a plea bargain with the Southern District Attorney's Office by which he pled guilty to supporting an illegal organization and conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to the indictment, apart from his role as a teacher, al-Kian also served as a preacher at a local mosque. He would head secret meetings attended by local youths and introduce them to Islamic State's radical religious indoctrination.
He has planned to form an Islamic State cell and travel to Syria, to join the jihadi group's forces.
Through the Iran-Hamas-ISIS axis, the Sinai branch of what it is now viewed as the world’s most dangerous terrorist group is flush with Tehran’s money, weapons, technology, and expertise. And Iran is well aware of this. Hamas’ military wing is dependent on Tehran for its funds and equipment, and would not risk a rift with Iran by consorting with ISIS without Iran’s approval. Hamas is short of funds and understands, more than ever, that it needs Iran for financial and operational support, especially in view of the deteriorations of its relations with Egypt and its bruising fight with Israel.Douglas Murray: Did my taunt push the new ‘Jihadi John’ to join Isis?
Moreover, Iran has also continued arms deliveries to Hamas through the Red Sea and the Sinai even though it must be aware of the fact that ISIS will take its cut of these shipments as payment for helping smuggle them into the Gaza Strip.
In short, Iran knows Hamas is aiding and abetting ISIS in Sinai, and Hamas knows that Iran knows it.
I offered to get Abu Rumaysah a one-way ticket to Syria only weeks before he fledISIS member seen in execution video believed to be British 'bouncy castle' salesman
Even if Abu Rumaysah does turn out to be the new ‘Jihadi John’, shown on video this week presiding over the murder of five innocent men, I’m not sorry I encouraged him to go to Syria and join Isis.
The last time I saw the 32-year-old Briton (born to a UK Hindu family as Siddhartha Dhar) was at a BBC studio in London. He was one of a group of people who had been central to the extremist group al-Muhajiroun and its offshoots for years. In 2009 they had, through a front organisation, lured me into a set-up with more than a hundred Islamists which soon became violent and from which I was extracted by the police. It was unpleasant, but it did lead to the then Labour home secretary finally proscribing al-Muhajiroun. Since then I have been advised not to be in the proximity of any of their members or affiliates.
So 18 months ago, when the BBC asked me to discuss ‘What should be done about British Islamic extremists’ on their Sunday Morning Live programme, I said yes. When they said that the other guests would include not only Fleet Street heroine Dame Ann Leslie and Isis expert Shiraz Maher but also Abu Rumaysah, I explained that I wouldn’t and couldn’t be in the same room as him. And so on the day itself, while the rest of us broadcast from one studio, Abu Rumaysah broadcast his views from the studio next door.
The masked militant in an Islamic State video showing the killing of five men accused by the group of being Western spies is believed to be a Londoner known as Sid who once sold inflatable bouncers.'Jihadi Junior' Is Son of Female British Islamist with Links to Lee Rigby Killers
Siddhartha Dhar, who left Britain for Syria while on police bail after his arrest on suspicion of belonging to a banned group and encouraging terrorism, has been identified by media as the spokesman in the militant organization's latest film.
The video also features a young boy wearing a black bandanna around his head and army-style camouflage clothing, threatening in English to "kill the kaffir (unbelievers) over there."
Sunday Dare, a Londoner of Nigerian origin, identified the child as his four-year-old grandson Isa. Dare told British media his daughter, who grew up a devout Christian named Grace before converting to Islam and changing her name to Khadijah, had taken London-born Isa to Syria with her to join Islamic State.
The young boy in the new Islamic State execution video is the son Grace Dare, a female British Islamist who has links to the killers of soldier Lee Rigby.Jenny McCarthy Proposes Vaccinating ISIS Members in Hopes of Giving Them Autism (satire)
The child, who is shown wearing camouflage and a black headscarf, is Isa Dare, whose mother converted to Islam and then fled to Islamic State to become a jihadi bride.
Grace Dare, who changed her name to Khadija after converting, grew up in a Christian family of Nigerian descent. She started attending the Lewisham Islamic Centre, however, and grew increasingly radical in her Islamic beliefs.
Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who murdered soldier Lee Rigby on the streets of London, are also believed to have worshipped there, although the mosque denies this.
Grace’s father, Henry Dare, confirmed to the Telegraph that the child in the video, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Junior”, is indeed his grandson Isa.
Last year, Grace boasted about her son on social media, posting of Isa holding an AK-47 rifle that he seemed only just big enough to lift.
In a bold plan aimed at degrading the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, actress and activist Jenny McCarthy has proposed vaccinating ISIS members in hopes of giving the jihadi fighters autism.Adelson ‘offered Obama $1b for Iron Dome for Israel’
“While vaccines are too dangerous to give our children, there’s no better way to fight the Islamic State than to make sure all their fighters are vaccinated,” McCarthy told The Mideast Beast. “Sure, a handful of their fighters may be saved from measles or polio, but the thousands of them infected with autism will more than offset this.”
President Obama has so far balked at implementing the plan, noting the idea of a link between the vaccines and autism has been thoroughly debunked. But McCarthy, an outspoken “anti-vaxxer,” earned the support of former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.
“I once had a constituent tell me that a polio vaccine had caused autism in her young child,” Ms. Bachmann said. “It’s about time we began weaponizing these dangerous vaccines.”
Jewish-American billionaire and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson reportedly offered US President Barack Obama to personally finance $1 billion for the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system for Israel.Deputy FM tells the world 'Israel is ours' - through art
After congress passed a bill to fund the Iron Dome system in 2013, Adelson contacted Senate Minority leader Harry Reed and asked him to convey the message to the White House, Politico reported Thursday. The revelation came as part of a profile of Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough.
“In 2013, Reid used his open channel to float a proposal—not made public until now—that stunned Obama and his staff,” the report said. “Congress had just passed a funding bill for the joint Pentagon-Israel Iron Dome missile system when Reid fielded a phone call from Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas multibillionaire and GOP donor.”
“Obama was thrown off his guard momentarily,” the story reported. “‘What?!’ Obama asked Reid.
But when the president “regained his footing,” he said that he didn’t think private financing of munitions would set a good precedent. He asked Reid to thank Adelson but turn him down. “The idea died.”
In recent days Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) has redecorated her office, hanging a famous painting of the artist Baruch Nachshon in a prominent place, and in doing so making a strong statement of Jewish land rights to Israel.The Koran praises ‘Qaum Mousa’ (The Jewish people)
The painting features depictions of the Cave of Machpelah in Hevron where the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs other than Rachel are buried, as well as Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria, and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
It bears the following ancient rabbinical exegesis from Genesis Rabba 79:7 that notes how the purchase of the three sites is recorded in the Torah: "three places where the non-Jews cannot say to the Jewish people that they stole them: the Cave of Machpelah, the Holy Temple and Joseph's burial place."
Hotovely told Arutz Sheva about the new painting in her office, saying it sends a clear message to visiting dignitaries.
"The picture shows the holy sites to the Jewish nation and the attachment of the people of Israel to these places," explained Hotovely.
"The talk about rights and historical attachment is part of the change in discourse that I am trying to lead."
Isn’t it time for the Muslim ummah (people), through its Muslim ulama (scholars), to manifest the Koranic truth about the status of Qaum Mousa (the Jewish people) within the ummah? The Koran (5:21) is clear as to whom God granted the holy land. Why not have a group of Muslim ulama, especially from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, convene and issue a fatwa regarding the status of the holy land in Islam? Also, what would happen if we Muslims considered Qaum Mousa (the Jewish people) as Ahlul Kitab (the People of the Book)? Historically speaking, Jews and Muslims lived together in a state of harmony, prosperity and peace. From the time of our beloved prophet Muhammad and his Jewish wife, called Umm-ul-Mu’mineen or the “Mother of Believers” (Safiyyah bint Huyayy) in Medina, to the 20th-century Jewish communities in Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Levant, Iraq and Yemen, we coexisted in religious peace. Unfortunately, those Jewish communities were recently dismantled, not for religious reasons but for political ones.US arrests two Iraqi-Palestinian refugees on terrorism charges
My uncles Mohamed and Nabil, leather merchants, had close Jewish associates in Egypt before the government of Egypt “facilitated” (that is, forced) the Jewish community there in dismantling itself and leaving the country. No one felt free enough to admit it out loud, but I would hear murmurings here and there about how Egypt has declined since the Jews left. Ironically, it seemed as though the Jews were always getting blamed – even their eviction made some of my parents’ friends bitter! In the late Seventies, our family immigrated to California, where I received an education at the highly acclaimed Berkeley and Stanford universities. I had little time to think about the plight of the Jews as I was making my way in America, but I did notice that my Jewish professors and schoolmates in college seemed to be more than reasonable people. They were bright and motivated, taking breaks at odd times of the semester to observe some holiday or other with their family, loyal to their heritage.
Those impressions stayed with me and eventually brought me to become deeply involved in solving the Arab-Israeli conflict on a grassroots level.
Two men from the Middle East who came to the United States as refugees were arrested on federal terrorism charges in California and Texas for supporting Islamic militant groups, US officials said on Thursday.PM slams 'hypocrisy' of leftists fueling PA executions
They are the latest in a series of similar cases in a US campaign against extremism. Neither man was charged with plotting an attack on the United States. One man was charged with supporting the Islamic State militant group overseas and both were charged with providing false information about their ties to what were described as international terrorist groups.
The men, arrested in Sacramento and Houston, were not involved in a single plot, but they may have been in contact with each other, a source familiar with the two cases said.
Both men are Palestinian who were born in Iraq. The man arrested in Houston, Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, entered the United States as an Iraqi refugee in November 2009, according to a court document.
Al-Hardan was charged with providing material support to the Islamic State militant group and for making false statements about ties to the group when seeking US naturalization, according to an indictment in federal court in Houston unsealed on Thursday.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded on Friday to an investigative report that appeared last night on Channel 2's "Uvda" show, which revealed how radical leftist activists hand Palestinian Arabs over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to be executed.Right-Wing NGO Files Complaint with Police Against Radical Activists in Land Brokers Scandal
Right-wing activists infiltrated leftist groups and caught the activist Ezra Nawi on camera saying he gives the PA the names of Arabs who are interested in selling land to Jews, so that the PA can torture and "kill them." Other radical leftists were also exposed involved in the activities.
"The investigative piece published yesterday on the 'Uvda' program revealed the true face of radicals among us, who were driven crazy by hatred of the settlements, which brought them to hand over innocents to torture and execution," said Netanyahu.
According to the prime minister, "the investigative report served as additional testimony to the cruel conduct of the Palestinian Authority, which tortures and murders Palestinians whose only 'crime' is selling land to Jews."
The PA has long had a law banning the sale of land to Jews in Judea and Samaria, and has made no secret of its policy of executing Arab sellers.
The leaders of Ad Kan (Heb: Up to here), the NGO whose members infiltrated left-wing human rights NGOs in order to expose their methods, on Friday filed a complaint with the police against activists Ezra Nawi, Guy Butbia and Sa’id Awad from Ta’ayush, and Nasser Nawaj’ah from B’Tselem.B'Tselem defends executing Palestinians who sell land to Jews
Ad Kan, whose report was presented on Thursday night by Israel’s Channel 2, also approached Deputy Police Commissioner Roni Ritman, head of the Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit, and handed him their findings, including hidden camera photographs and additional evidence against the NGOs, in an effort to spur an investigation of allegations that these individuals and their organizations conspired to turn over to Palestinian security Arab land brokers who sold land to Jews. According to the allegations against them, the members of these NGOs knew full well that the land brokers would be facing torture and possible executions, since selling land to Jews is a capital crime in the Palestinian Authority.
MK Avi Dichter (Likud) is planning to ask the Attorney General to launch a criminal investigation against B’Tselem, Ta’ayush and other extreme left-wing NGOs. Dichter wrote on his Facebook page Friday: “Over the past week I’ve seen some very serious evidence of secret operations by several organizations such as Ta’ayush, B’Tselem and other organizations pretending to be human rights organizations. Only some of them were broadcast in the [Channel 2 show] Uvda, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. This is a criminal activity that must be investigated by police and the Shabak.”
B'Tselem acknowledged the deeds in a Facebook post, but chose to defend Nawajiya rather than to denounce him.PreOccupiedTerritory: Btselem: Ratting On Anne Frank Was Following The Law (satire)
"Nasser Nawajiya, who is mentioned in the report, is a B'Tselem field operative in southern Har Hevron, but he is also a Palestinian from the village of Khirbet Susya... When he found out about a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who pretended to be a real estate salesperson and offered to sell land, part of which belonged to [Nawajiya's] family, he reported it to the Palestinian authorities.
"This is the only legitimate channel for a Palestinian, given that Israeli authorities do not defend Palestinian landowners in the area from settlers taking over their land," wrote B'Tselem.
The alleged "crime" that is being reported is selling property to a Jew, which is illegal under the Palestinian Authority and punishable by death.
B'Tselem added that it "opposes all torture and all executions...whether they are done in Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) cellars or in the Palestinian Authority," but did not comment on the fact that the sales are reported with the full intention that the seller should be killed.
Ironically, the Facebook post attacked "Uvda" for basing its report on video footage, and claimed that the group behind the expose is politically motivated: "The program ignored the differences in power in the area as well as the question of who the right-wing organization serves and who stands behind it. It is not clear if 'Uvda' even checked the series of events."
The human rights organization Btselem defended the unknown persons who revealed Anne Frank’s hiding place in this city, saying that whoever did so was reporting a crime, which should be a good thing.Debunking the ‘Inciting Rabbis’ Myth
Organization spokeswoman Ayama Moser told reporters that the fate of the Frank family was of secondary concern, since the main principle to follow is the law that required all Dutch Jews to report to various train depots for deportation, a legal order that the Franks had flouted. Whoever eventually told the Gestapo they were hiding in a secret annex of an office building should be celebrated, not condemned, as the Frank family was in clear violation of the explicit law under the Nazi regime of the time.
“What the Frank family, from Otto on down, was doing was nothing less than a crime, since the law prohibited Jews from remaining in Amsterdam after they had been ordered to assemble at the train station for ‘resettlement’ in the east,” said Moser. “The law also prohibited the sheltering of such Jews by their non-Jewish neighbors, which means that the anonymous party who informed the authorities stopped a crime in progress and saved whoever was sheltering them from further violations of the law.”
Moser emphasized that the fate of the family was of secondary concern to the human rights group, if at all. “What happened to Anne and her family at Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and elsewhere is an internal Nazi matter, and should not concern us,” she intoned. Anne was interned at Auschwitz, where others in her family were murdered, while she was eventually transferred to Belsen and died there in 1945 of typhus. Only the father, Otto, survived the war, and eventually published his daughter’s diary in edited form, a work that helped generations of people give a face and personality to one of the nearly six million victims of the Holocaust.
This week, after the gag order was finally lifted, Levinson published a profile of the main suspect, Amiram Ben-Uliel. And the profile proves his point. Ben-Uliel actually is the son of a mainstream religious Zionist rabbi and grew up in a settlement. But he dropped out of school as a teenager, left his family’s home, and largely severed contact with them. In fact, he largely severed contact with the entire mainstream religious community, as evidenced by what I personally consider the profile’s most telling detail: When he married a fellow extremist two years ago, the only guests at the wedding were the couple’s parents.Soldier kicked off commanders’ course for ‘Death to Arabs’ post
That might not sound shocking to American ears, since private weddings aren’t unheard of in America. But Orthodox Jewish weddings are massive community affairs. Guest lists typically number in the hundreds, and it’s considered a mitzvah to attend and help the bride and groom rejoice. Nor does community involvement end there: A traditional Orthodox wedding is followed by seven nights of parties, the sheva brachot, at which the newlyweds are the guests of honor. Each is typically hosted by a different relative or friend, and each must include at least one guest who didn’t attend the wedding or any of the earlier parties.
In short, in Jewish tradition, weddings aren’t private affairs; they are communal events deliberately designed to welcome the young couple into the community. Thus, by having a private wedding, Ben-Uliel and his bride were explicitly and pointedly turning their backs on their community and its religious traditions.
An Israeli soldier has been thrown off a commanders’ course for writing “Death to the Arabs” in a post on Facebook.Thousands Attend Funeral of Mexican-Born IDF Soldier Killed in Accident
Amir Sharabani, a combat soldier in the Kfir Brigade, told friends that he wrote the words “in a moment of temper and frustration,” Channel 2 reported Thursday. “Everyone makes mistakes. I didn’t know I’d pay such a high price,” he said.
Sharabani responded on a Facebook thread about the death of three children in the southern Bedouin town of Rahat earlier this month, when a heater set their bedroom on fire. An Israeli Jewish woman had posted that she was surprised the television news was covering the tragedy. Sharabani’s response came after Arab surfers cursed the woman and wrote insulting comments, among them, “If only you would die, damn all the Jews!”
Later, Sharabani told his friends that he regretted what he had written in a moment of “temporary stupidity.” He said he was from a religious home with “values and an education of respecting all people, whoever they are, regardless of their backgrounds.”
Some 2,000 people on Thursday attended the funeral of Mexican-born Israel Defense Forces Capt. Yishai Rosales—killed days earlier in a training exercise at the Tze’elim Base in southern Israel—at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
During the exercise, a soldier with the Armored Corps’s 75th Battalion fired an 81 mm mortar shell that exploded right next to Rosales, who was taking part in a different drill nearby. Rosales sustained critical wounds and died shortly afterward. Another soldier was lightly wounded.
Yishai’s father, Aharon, bid his son an emotional farewell.
“You have gone away and left us with broken hearts, but we know you are in heaven,” he said. “The day will come when we will meet again, our dear son. In the meantime, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will watch over you among the righteous. Your mother and I are waiting for you and your gigantic smile to walk through the door, but we know it will never happen again….We cannot imagine the Shabbat table without you. Every Shabbat we will leave a chair for you next to the table, so you can be with us. You have left us and taken a large part of our hearts with you.”
