Eugene Kontorovich: A Palestinian State Free of Jews?
In short, the Palestinians couching their objection as one about removing “settlers” rather than Jews does not change the harsh reality. There is simply no precedent in international practice for the demand. Whatever term one uses for such a demand, Netanyahu was clearly right to call attention to the extraordinary nature of the demand. It is also disappointing that, instead of exercising moral leadership on this issue, the ADL went against its mission by seemingly excusing singular treatment for Jews.Honest Reporting: The Ethnic Cleansing of Jerusalem
Yet the most controversial part of his comments were two words: ethnic cleansing. Indeed, the phrase invites criticism because there is no precise legal definition of the term. However, it is generally used to refer to the purge of other ethnic groups, rather than the group doing the cleansing. Indeed, that is why the international community demands that Israel remove the settlers itself, so the Palestinians won’t have to. One might call it ethnic pre-cleansing. Again, there is no international precedent for a country being required to forcibly remove its own population en masse.
While it may not be entirely apt, ethnic cleansing is definitely part of the story. Jews lived throughout what would later be called the West Bank until its conquest by Jordan in 1949. The Jordanians expelled every single Jew from the area they controlled. Unlike the flight of Arabs from Israel, the purge was clearly coercive, by the fact that not one Jew was left in the Jordanian occupied territory. This expulsion was clearly ethnic cleansing, and indeed it left the area clean.
Israel wrested this area, including the Old City of Jerusalem, from Jordanian control in the Six Day War. Much of the international community believes Israel was legally required to maintain the Jew-free status quo created by the Jordanian expulsion 19 years earlier. Any Israelis who do move into the area, in this view, are illegal settlers, and should be removed.
Assume that the presence of settlers is illegal. The only reason these people were “settlers” was the Jordanian expulsion of 1949, and their subsequent 19 year enforcement of a Jew-free territory. International law scholars like to say that Israel, as an occupying power, must maintain the prior status quo. Even assuming that is true, pointing out that the status quo was itself a result of recent, complete to-the-last Jew ethnic cleansing should hardly be bad form.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has been condemned from all sides for a video in which he accused the Palestinians of seeking to “ethnically cleanse” Judea and Samaria. His charge that the Palestinians are seeking a state in which there would be no Jews was met by shock and revulsion from the international community. The media reported the reactions by the U.S. State Department and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dismissing the Prime Minister’s claim.Gerald Steinberg: 15 Years Since Durban — the Conference That Ushered in an Era of Israel-Demonization
The message was clear: How dare the Israeli Prime Minister make such a baseless accusation. What would lead him to think that the Palestinians would want a state with no Jews?
It seems that everyone who condemned the remarks needs a brief history lesson. Because in 1948, ethnic cleansing was exactly what was done to the Jews in Jerusalem and parts of Judea — the exact same places that the Palestinians demand as part of their state.
There had been a Jewish community living in the Old City of Jerusalem for thousands of years in 1948. Some residents’ families had lived there for generations.
But in an instant, this continuous Jewish presence was forcibly destroyed. Some Jews were murdered at gun point. The rest were forced out with nothing but the shirts on their backs.
For both supporters and detractors of the state of Israel, no single conference of the past 15 years has had a more enduring impact on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict than the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa.
The event, which took place in September 2001, was hijacked by many of the over 1,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in attendance, as well as by governments that reject Israel’s right to exist. Multiple instances of antisemitic imagery and language were reported at the UN-sponsored NGO Forum, and Jewish attendees were intimidated and excluded. Even the initial governmental draft, prepared at a UN preparatory conference in Iran, sought to demonize Israel, reinstating the antisemitic slander that Zionism equals racism. In the mainstream Jewish community, the overwhelming majority of which professes the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, there were no delusions as to whom was being targeted as a whole when the term Zionist was used in such a derogatory context.
The virulent antisemitism and anti-Israel atmosphere led the United States and Israel to withdraw their delegations, noting the absurdity that a conference intended to combat xenophobia and intolerance instead singled out one particular ethnic group of one particular nation state for demonization.
While some of the anti-Israel rhetoric was ultimately removed from the final governmental Declaration and Programme of Action, the NGO Forum overwhelmingly adopted its own Final Declaration that depicted Israel as committing “crimes against humanity,” “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid” and “genocide” against the Palestinians. The NGOs at Durban also called for “a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state…the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.”
It takes a Judas to know one
On Tuesday night, the person touted as “Israel’s most famous living author” appeared on the BBC to promote his latest book. In the course of his interview with Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, Amos Oz engaged in his second favorite activity (after receiving international awards and having his novels turned into movies starring the likes of Natalie Portman): he slammed the nation of his birth, which turned him into a cultural icon.Global antisemitism: A modern-day Entebbe
To be fair to Oz, bashing the Jewish state that he represents with such panache is key to his success abroad. Talent is a factor, of course, but it is neither sufficient nor a prerequisite to inspiring adoration among the literati and political elites.
Indeed, had he not been the darling of the Left, the odds are slim that Oz would have been invited by the UK network to discuss Judas, his take on the famous traitor whose story constituted the “Chernobyl of Western anti-Semitism for 2,000 years,” and the basis for “pogroms, inquisitions, persecutions and the Holocaust.”
From the BBC’s point of view, having Israeli literature’s crown jewel provide a stamp of approval for its own dim view of the Jewish state is an opportunity not to be missed or squandered.
Nor does any topic segue better into what Wark was really after than “persecution.”
With virtuosity born of brilliance, Oz managed to go above and beyond the call of duty – “defending” his homeland by likening it to the worst of evil regimes.
The Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, a partnership of NGOs and the Foreign Ministry, hosted at the United Nations in New York on September 7 a day-long High Level Forum for Combating Antisemitism.‘BDS is the New Face of Terrorism’ Says Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked
The forum was co-sponsored by the governments of Canada, Israel, the United States and the European Union. Both the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the president of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, addressed the gathering.
A theme which ran through the day was that antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem; it is everybody’s problem. Antisemitism is a racist virus which spreads to other victims, a precursor of harm which threatens us all.
A metaphor which many speakers used is that antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. Antisemitism is a warning of global community self-destruction. To preserve the human community, we need to work against antisemitism.
Within the confines of the UN, this expression of the need for global solidarity is both understandable and welcome. A few speakers noted the contrast between that forum and typical UN activity, which is characterized by disproportionate focus on Israel to the exclusion of real human rights violators and the platform it gives to antisemitism through explicit demonization of Israel and implicit demonization of the Jewish community worldwide for their existing and even presumed support for Israel.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told the Jewish National Fund in New York on Sunday that the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement is the new face of terror.Australian MP: It’s beyond the pale if Hamas used our money to build tunnels
Shaked, a top official with Israel’s Bayit Yehudi party, addressed the JNF Conference in New York on Sunday, speaking on the issue of the BDS Movement and how its activities impact Israel in daily life. She condemned the movement, likening its activities to the tunneling of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
“The BDS movement is digging tunnels to undermine the foundations and values of Israel,” she said. “We have to stop these tunnels as well.”
The movement constitutes an existential threat at its core, she added. “Supporters of the BDS movement are attempting to destroy our very right to exist. They refuse to accept our most natural, basic and simple right: the existence of the State of Israel.”
Regardless of what mask terror wears, she said, one simple truth stands out: “You cannot defeat the enemy unless you call it what it is. That is why I am not afraid to do so. We are fighting Islamic extremism,” she said pointedly, underscoring a fact that has not once been uttered during the entire eight years of the entire reign of the the Obama administration.
“If Australian money was spent on building [Hamas attack] tunnels, that is beyond the pale,” Australian MP Michael Danby said Sunday with reference to the recent World Vision scandal at a Jerusalem Press Club and NGO Monitor-sponsored event.BDS Settler Colonial activists exploit Standing Rock Sioux pipeline dispute
When Danby, a senior member of the opposition Labor party on foreign affairs and with 18 years in parliament under his belt, weighs in on an issue, he often draws attention, including from top governmental ministers.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced in August that Hamas had infiltrated World Vision and redirected tens of millions of dollars – 60 percent – of the organization’s budget to its “military” wing.
The World Vision organization, which operates in 100 countries and employs 46,000 people, fell victim to a complex Hamas takeover scheme, a senior Shin Bet source said, adding that Hamas’s armed wing stole $7.2 million a year from the budget, which was supposed to pay for food, humanitarian assistance, and aid programs for disabled children, and channeled the funds to buy weapons, build attack tunnels and direct toward other preparations for war with Israel.
Viewing BDS as Settler Colonial Ideology helps us understand and explain not only the BDS intellectual approach under the guise of solidarity and intersectionality, but also how BDS operates its ground game.British gov’t minister warns municipal councils considering Israel boycott
Solidarity isn’t solidarity when BDS is involved, it’s a ruse to take over and repurpose other causes, and that recognition is beginning to catch on, Viewing BDS as a Settler Colonial Ideology is gaining traction.
Another example has showed itself in recent weeks during protests over a pipeline to run through Standing Rock Sioux territory and burial grounds. The protests gained national attention, and at least for the moment have been resolved when the Obama administration agreed to temporarily halt construction and reevaluate approvals for the project.
As these protest grew, the usual BDS suspect groups latched onto the Standing Rock Sioux’s cause for the specific purpose of tying it to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
The official BDS Movement website issued a call to action, From Standing Rock to Occupied Jerusalem: We Resist Desecration of our Burial Sites and Colonizing our Indigenous Lands. The poster, which has been shared widely, incorporates the #nodapl hashtag used for the protests over the pipeline:
A British Cabinet minister threatened to take investment decisions away from municipal councils if they choose to boycott Israel.Watchdog: US Government ‘Violating Law’ by Funding Pro-BDS Campus Centers With Tax Dollars (INTERVIEW)
The office of Sajid Javid, Britain’s secretary for communities, issued the warning this week in a statement following a similar warning he made earlier in the week at a meeting with Jewish religious leaders at the Chief Rabbi’s Conference, The Jewish News of London reported Wednesday.
Amid growing recognition that unions are urging a boycott of Israel, the government has issued new guidance aimed at preventing local authorities deciding against purchases from companies or countries on ideological grounds.
Any council found flouting the new rules “could face action, including the possibility of having power over these investment decisions taken away, with central government stepping in instead,” Javid’s office said.
During the meeting with Jewish leaders, the minister, who was business secretary under former Prime Minister David Cameron, said: “Wildcat boycotts and sanctions have no place in these crucial [investment] decisions, and I will not hesitate to act if any council decides to introduce restrictions that are not in line with U.K. foreign and defense policy.”
The US government is “violating the law” by using tax dollars to fund antisemitic and anti-Israel activity on college campuses, a member of a Washington, DC-based think tank told The Algemeiner on Friday.CAMERA Letter Writers Have Impact
According to Jennifer Dekel, director of research and communications at the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), federal funding is unlawfully being awarded to college and university Middle East National Resource Centers (NRC) that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Under funding stipulations set by Title VI of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, the Middle East NRC’s “are required by the law to give assurances that they will maintain linkages with overseas institutions of higher education…that many contribute to the teaching and research of the Center,” she said.
Instead, many directors and faculty members associated with Middle East NRC’s “pledge support for an academic boycott of Israel,” she told The Algemeiner, thereby “removing any assurance that they will maintain ties with any Israeli institutions of higher education.”
In an attempt to “end biases in the program,” Dekel said, Congress “changed the law in 2008 to state that federal grants can only be awarded to academic programs that ‘reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views and generate debate on world regions and international affairs.’”
This amendment, she said, has been woefully ignored.
The Outrage of BDS Is Suspiciously Selective The BDS movement diverts attention from human-rights abuses inflicted by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas against the Palestinian people.BDSing Aussie Professor Writes of "Israel's Vampiric History"
Allison Brown and Patrick Connors claim that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is part of a long, honorable continuum (Letters, Sept. 12). I beg to differ. There is nothing honorable about the BDS movement’s goal of preventing dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis who try to forge paths of mutual understanding and respect. Nor is there anything honorable about BDS’s attempts to shutter businesses in Judea and Samaria that provide good-paying jobs to Palestinians. BDS’s support of entrenched Palestinian rulers leave Palestinians with little hope of escaping the oppression of their corrupt leadership. Furthermore, the BDS movement diverts attention from human-rights abuses inflicted by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas against the Palestinian people.
Hatred for the “other” deflects responsibility away from autocratic regimes’ neglect and abuse of their people. Israel is the “other” for the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as America is the “other” for North Korea. Supporters of BDS buttress the despots who deny their people basic rights such as freedom of the press, inclusion for the LGBTQ community and other minorities, justice for women and children and freedom to worship—or not to.
Lynn C. Koss Fayetteville, N.Y.
The target of these New York campaigners, like the rest of the BDS advocates, is the existence of Israel itself. Omar Barghouti, a leading founder of the BDS movement, stated it with full clarity: “definitely, most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.” That means all of Palestine—no Israel.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have a higher standard of living in Israel than in any Arab country. And they have full democratic rights.
Barry Salwen Wilmington, N.C.
Regarding those victims of Israel: The Palestinian Authority September elections suddenly have been scrubbed. Fatah fears Hamas’s West Bank gains. Hamas is horrified at a surging Fatah in Gaza. An increasingly despotic Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas continues in the 12th year of a four-year term.
Richard D. Wilkins Syracuse, N.Y.
Cooperating with BDS can be illegal per the federal statutes outlawing cooperation with the Arab League boycott of Israel, namely the 1977 amendments to the Export Administration Act and the Ribicoff Amendment to the 1976 Tax Reform Act.
Daniel H. Trigoboff Williamsville, N.Y.
Once upon a time, 2002 to be precise, two Aussie academics, one of Lebanese Christian background and the other Joo-ish co-sponsored an online anti-Israel petition A journalist for the Melbourne Age (from the Fairfax stable of Aussie newspapers and thus no great friend to Israel) reported inter alia on 6 June that year:‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ Rallies Against Jewish Club Owner’s Right to Bar Anti-Israel Event
"Angered at Israel's treatment of Palestinians, the pair last month launched an online petition calling for the boycott. They have collected about 100 signatures but have also provoked a counter-petition that attacks the pair for singling out Israel and failing to request similar boycotts of academic contacts with totalitarian regimes such as China and the Arab states."
The Lebanese-born academic referred to was anthropologist Ghassan Hage, then of the University of Sydney and now of the University of Melbourne.
As I well recall, the online petition he co-sponsored, soon became a laughing stock. How the two co-authors must have exulted at seeing the number of signatures steadily rise, only to realise that swelling the numbers were such monikers as "Adolf Hitler" and "Yasser Arafat" and even, if I recall correctly, "Ariel Sharon". Thus adorned with signatures each more preposterous than the last, and teeming with pro-Israel comments, the flopped petition was in effect put out of its misery when its "add signature" facility was hidden from public view so that no further sport could be had with it.
A group of about fifty actors, playwrights and other theatrical types, led by the Jewish Voice for Peace, whose stated mission includes seeking “an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem,” signed a letter protesting the cancellation of a Black Lives Matter benefit concert that had been scheduled for 9/11 at Feinstein’s/54 Below near Times Square in Manhattan.Zephyr Teachout gives mixed signals on Israel position
Signatories include playwright Sarah Ruhl, singer Justin Vivian Bond, playwright Annie Baker, novelist Alice Walker, and actors Wallace Shawn, Tonya Pinkins and Kathleen Chalfant.
Back in 2013, Alice Walker’s speech at the University of Michigan was cancelled because of her views on Israel. Walker has likened Israel to the Jim Crow racist system she grew up with in the South. Kathleen Chalfant has been a long time supporter of BDS.
An email the club owners sent out to ticket buyers read, “The owners and managers … strongly believe in and support the general thrust of the goals and objectives of BLM. However, since announcing the benefit they’ve become aware of a recent addition to the BLM platform that accuses Israel of genocide and endorses a range of boycott and sanction actions.
High-profile leftist law professor and congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout, under attack by Republicans for refusing to take a stand on the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, has just decided to do so, telling The Post, “I don’t support BDS.”PreOccupiedTerritory: It’s Sexist To Expect Feminists To Stand Up For Women In Muslim Countries By Carly Morrison, Feminist Activist (satire)
But Teachout, the all-but-certain winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the right to run in a Hudson Valley election expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the nation, also said she opposes Gov. Cuomo’s new order barring the state from doing business with BDS-supporting companies and went on to seemingly give a nod of support to many BDS backers.
Teachout, accused by fellow Democrats of being anti-Israel when she mounted a surprisingly strong primary challenge against Cuomo in 2014, refused last week in a debate with her long-shot primary opponent to say whether she backed Cuomo’s anti-BDS order, prompting a tough attack from national Republicans.
“I’m running for Congress,’’ is all she would say as she ducked a BDS question in the Time Warner Cable-sponsored debate.
Her refusal to take a stand on Cuomo’s order prompted the National Republican Congressional Committee to blast Teachout’s position as “shameful,’’ contending she was failing “to say whether she supports an effort to destroy the Israeli economy in the name of Palestine.’’
The male-dominated media would have you believe that being a feminist means seeking equality for women everywhere, but the male-dominated media has no right to define for us what being a feminist means. It’s sexist for anyone to tell us feminists that we’re supposed to fight for the equality of women in the Muslim world. An outrage.Wikipedia to erase entry on Israeli terror victim Dafna Meir
Feminism doesn’t mean what you men say it means. It means what we women say it means. And if we decide it means ignoring the yawning inequality between men and women in Muslim countries, then that is what it means. You can’t define for us what our movement wants.
Definitions themselves are a patriarchal institution, after all, and we will have no part of them. Etymology – et- him-ology – has been dominated by men forever. Linguistics – lingu-his-tics – has the same defect. Sorry, men, but this is not your rule book to interpret anymore. You are in no position to tell us we have to use words the way they have been used throughout their history. His-tory.
If we want, we can claim that laws mandating the hijab, niqab, and other coverings actually empower women, and none of you are allowed to say boo. You just want an excuse to rape them, probably. So your opinion counts for nothing. You simply do not understand that when a pre-teen Muslim woman in Gaza is given by her father in marriage to a much older man, that is an act of liberation, a way of asserting cultural independence from you white males and your assumptions about what is good for women. You sexist pigs.
No offense intended to pigs. At least to the sows.
On Monday morning, at approximately 8 o’clock IDT, the Wikipedia Hebrew-language community finished their vote regarding whether to erase Dafna Meir’s entry from the online encyclopedia.CAMERA's UK Media Watch Prompts Telegraph Correction on 'Illegal' Settlements
At the end of the vote, 39 editors voted in favor of erasure, whereas only 29 voted against. Following these results, it is expected that the entry will be erased.
The discussion was initiated because one editor claimed that Wikipedia is not a memorial service, and therefore Dafna Meir does not merit a special entry in the virtual encyclopedia. According to that editor, “It does not make sense that terror victims and fallen soldiers should receive special entries and others [should] not. Since it has been decided that there is no place for memorials on Wikipedia, it is important that this article be erased.”
In the course of the deliberations, a long list of reasons not to erase the article was also raised. Among them was a claim that Wikipedia does indeed have articles on various terror victims and fallen soldiers. For instance, there is a Wikipedia entry for Major Roi Klein, who died after jumping on a grenade to save his soldiers' lives.
Previously, we posted about an article published in the Telegraph on Sept. 18th which included the following passage concerning the U.S. position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.US designates founder of Hamas media outlet championed by BBC staff
We noted that, in fact, the US government has not characterized the settlements as “illegal” – opting instead for the non-legal designation of “illegitimate.” We tweeted the Telegraph journalist who wrote the article, and emailed editors, calling out the error. Today, they corrected the passage, which now reads:
We commend Telegraph editors for the correction.
Last week the US State Department announced the designation of the former Hamas interior minister – and occasional BBC quotee – Fathi Hamad (also spelt Hammad).Rothschild Blvd to become Innovation Blvd for a day
“As a senior Hamas official, Hammad has engaged in terrorist activity for Hamas, a U.S. State Department designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and SDGT. Hammad served as Hamas’s Interior Minister where he was responsible for security within Gaza, a position he used to coordinate terrorist cells. Hammad established Al-Aqsa TV, which is a primary Hamas media outlet with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood. Al-Aqsa TV was designated in March 2010 by the Department of the Treasury under E.O. 13224.”
Readers may recall that when Israeli forces carried out strikes on communications antennae on buildings housing Hamas’ TV stations (including Al-Aqsa TV) during the conflict in 2012, the Foreign Press Association – which at the time was headed by the BBC’s Jerusalem bureau chief Paul Danahar – and the then BBC Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison promoted the false accusation that Israel was “targeting journalists”.
Israel’s trendy Rothschild Boulevard will be transformed into “Innovation boulevard” for a day next week to celebrate the city’s standing in the so called Start-up Nation and as an innovation festival takes place in the Mediterranean city that never sleeps.Australia in talks with Israel for tax treaty, says Treasurer Scott Morrison
Held between Sept. 24 and 29, the DLD Innovation festival will take place in conjunction with the Digital-Life-Design conference in Tel Aviv that is expected to attract Israeli and international entrepreneurs and investors to discuss tech matters, business, funding issues and provide a venue for entrepreneurs and investors to meet and make deals. Modeled after the DLD events in Germany, the Israeli version is organized by start-up guru Yossi Vardi.
As part of the innovation festival, and a smart cities summit that will be held as part of the activities, Tel Aviv municipality is planning to transform Rothschild Boulevard, which is at that heart of the city’s financial district and has its sidewalks peppered with restaurants and coffee shops, into a showcase on September 27 of interactive and virtual reality displays, robots, talking trees and video and street art that will be open and free to the public.
Musical projects that combine technology, art, games and start-ups will be on display, as well as digital technologies that enable three dimensional textiles, and knitware that increases body heat when rubbed.
The innovation festival will include more than 100 tech events in the city this year, the municipality said in a statement.
The Turnbull government will introduce a tax treaty between Australia and Israel to improve business relations between the two countries.In Pictures: IDF Beduin patrol unit on the Gaza border
The treaty is linked to the government's plan to boost innovation in Australia as well as its push to further trade between the two countries as Israel's technology sector booms.
Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the tax treaty on Friday at the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
"The government has now formally commenced negotiations with Israel on a tax treaty that will improve trade and investment by removing tax barriers for business which I'm hopeful will be included in the first half of next year," he said.
Speaking after the lunch, Mr Morrison said it was too soon to say whether the treaty would include a taxation information exchange agreement – an agreement that allows authorities in each country to request information relating to specific criminal or civil tax investigations.
"We've just started that process and the government hasn't come to any final view on a lot of these matters so we'll just work that process over the next 12 months," he said.
The Desert Reconnaissance Battalion is tasked with patrolling along the Gaza Strip helping to Israeli communities.
Composed of mostly Beduin soldiers, they use unique tracking skills to prevent infiltration from Gaza and deal with other threats that arise.
Today, setting off from Kissufim, we will be seeing how they carry out their daily mission and speaking with the volunteer soldiers and commanders as well as understanding the threats and innovations used to counter them.
Forbes lauds Tel Aviv: Beautiful destination, beautiful people
Tel Aviv continues to draw tourism accolades, with Forbes magazine ranking it among the top 20 most beautiful destinations in the world.
The ranking is based on the input of Beautiful Destinations, the largest travel and lifestyle community active on the major social media websites. The company analyzed the places tagged most frequently over the last six months on social media photo-sharing site Instagram, ultimately coming up with a top 20 destination list.
Photographer Sivan Askayo wrote of Tel Aviv: "Tel Aviv is a stylish, completely contemporary Mediterranean metropolis. But the real seductive power of Tel Aviv is not necessarily in its cafes and restaurants, but in its people, who love the good life."
Tel Aviv-Jaffa is joined on the list by New York, Venice, Barcelona and Santorini.
The Forbes ranking is one of several enjoyed by Tel Aviv, among them National Geographic's Top 10 Beach Cities, and The Wall Street Journal's list of the most innovative cities.