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Monday, April 25, 2016

PLO engages in "earthquake washing" as Israeli aid to Ecuador ignored

When Israel sends teams of people and equipment to aid victims of natural disasters around the world, it is derided by haters as merely trying to distract the world from Israeli crimes.

The bigoted logic is that since the Jewish state is inherently evil, than anything good it does is also evil.

Last week, for the first time as far as I can tell, the PLO sent a team of doctors to a disaster area, in Ecuador.

The pan-Latin America Telesur network reports it this way:
Latin America sent three quarters of the world's rescuers to Ecuador, Europe the second-highest amount, and the United States zero.

Latin America far surpasses any region in sending humanitarian aid and rescue experts to Ecuador for earthquake relief, with Venezuela sending almost a third of all rescue specialists and Palestine sending 19—19 more than the United States.

Palestine is the only country outside of Europe and Latin America that sent rescue experts to Ecuador, though Russia sent 30 tons of humanitarian aid, and China sent a satellite and a 911 system, mobile hospitals and US$100,000 to the Ecuadorean Red Cross.

Latin America sent a total of 702 rescuers, with even impoverished and violence-ridden Honduras sending a rescuer. Cuba sent the most after Ecuador’s neighboring countries and Mexico, followed by left-wing Bolivia.

Europe also sent almost 200 rescuers, some collectively with most of the rest from France and Spain.
I don't know if any US aid workers have arrived yet, but certainly the US offered to send help immediately after the disaster.

And the Israel delegation was completely ignored by this article. As JPost reports:
The Israeli humanitarian aid charity IsraAid set up a field hospital in a village in Ecuador in the wake of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed 654 and injured thousands.

The field hospital was set up in the coastal village of Canoa, where 98 percent of the buildings were destroyed in the initial April 16 earthquake that hit Ecuador’s Pacific coast. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck four days later, on Wednesday.

The American Jewish Committee is collaborating with IsraAid to provide the emergency assistance.
The mission includes veteran aid workers, a medical workers, and a psychosocial team, IsraAid said. The team will provide food and relief supplies; emergency medical assistance; and child friendly spaces and psychosocial support to the survivors of the temblor, with an emphasis on women and children. The field hospital began operating on Saturday evening, according to the Times of Israel.
The Israelis came at the same time as the Palestinians, so Telesur's omission (which was repeated in other news media)  is curious.

Are the Palestinian Arabs engaging in "earthquake washing" to try to make themselves look good while they continue to cheer murderers of Jews back home?

The truth is a little different. They sent teams to Ecuador because Ecuador helped Gazans in 2014.
"We don't forget our friends, a deadly earthquake has hit Ecuador, there are many victims, we care for Ecuador and we will help the people of Ecuador no matter how moderate our capabilities are,” Faisal Abu Shahla, a representative of Fatah, stated.
But you know that the PLO has seen how the media coverage of Israel sending aid to disaster areas is positive, and they want to benefit from this as well.

Not that there is anything wrong with them sending help, even for PR purposes - if victims get helped, the motivations of the helpers really doesn't detract from the good things they do.

Except, according to the haters and antisemites, when Israel does it.




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