Lyn Julius: UNWRA and the Jews
From an early stage in the conflict, the UN was co-opted by the powerful Arab-Muslim voting bloc to skew its mandate and defend the rights of only one refugee population – the Palestinians. The UN dedicated an agency, UNWRA, to the exclusive care of Palestinian refugees.There are ten UN agencies solely concerned with Palestinian refugees. These even define refugee status for the Palestinians explicitly: one that stipulates that status depends on ‘two years’ residence’ in Palestine.The definition makes no mention of ‘fear of persecution’ nor of resettlement. Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population in the world, out of 65 million recognised refugees, permitted to pass on their refugee status to succeeding generations, even if they enjoy citizenship in their adoptive countries. It is estimated that the current population of Palestinian ‘refugees’ is 5,493, million. Instead of resettlement, they demand ‘repatriation’, an Israeli red line. (This begs the question: why would any Palestinian wish to return to an evil, ‘apartheid’ Israel?)
In contrast to the $17.7 billion allocated to the Palestinian refugees, no international aid has been earmarked for Jewish refugees. The exception was a $30,000 grant in 1957 which the UN, fearing protests from its Muslim members, did not want publicised. The grant was eventually converted into a loan and paid back by the American Joint Distribution Committee, the main agency caring for Jews in distress.
Yet on two occasions the UN did determine that Jews fleeing Egypt and North Africa were bona fide refugees. In 1957, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, August Lindt, declared that the Jews of Egypt who were ‘unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of the government of their nationality’ fell within his remit. In July 1967, the UNHCR recognised Jews fleeing Libya as refugees under the UNHCR mandate.
Needless to say, no Jew still defines himself as a refugee. Despite the initial hardships, they are now all full citizens of Israel and the West. As such, they are a model for the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in their host countries or in a putative state of Palestine alongside Israel.
For any peace process to be credible and enduring, the international community would be expected to address the rights of all Middle East refugees, including Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries. Two victim populations arose out of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Arab leadership bears responsibility for needlessly causing both Nakbas – the Jewish and the Arab. As the human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler observes: ‘Put simply, if the Arab leadership had accepted the UN Partition Resolution of 1947, there would have been no refugees, Arab or Jewish.’
Ruthie Blum: Palestinian Refugees: Trump's Reality Check
The Trump administration's reported plan to overturn US policy on the issue of Palestinian refugees is long overdue. According, initially, to media reports, the new policy -- scheduled to be unveiled in early September and based on sealed classified information from the US State Department -- will reduce the number of Palestinians defined by the UN as "refugees" from five million to 500,000, thus refuting the figures claimed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The UN figures include descendants (not only children, but grandchildren and great grandchildren) of Palestinians across the world who have never even set foot in Israel, the Gaza Strip or the Palestinian Authority (PA). The new plan will also apparently include a rejection of the Palestinians' so-called "right of return" to Israel of refugees and their descendants.On the Palestinian Refugee Issue, President Trump Is Magnificently Right
Washington also announced that it is cutting all US funding to UNRWA, and will reportedly "ask Israel to 'reconsider' the mandate it gives UNRWA to operate in the West Bank."
This reining in of UNRWA operations -- which began in January 2018, when President Donald Trump imposed a $65 million freeze on America's annual funding -- is significant, as it is the first time an American administration has actually sought out and acted upon evidence about the Palestinian refugee organization. Until now, the US has continued to provide billions of dollars to UNRWA, even as monitoring organizations – such as UN Watch, Palestinian Media Watch and NGO Monitor – have repeatedly exposed the complete and ongoing abuse of its mandate, which is already rather a marvel:
"A more precise working definition of a mandate is difficult but necessary to determine how UNRWA's mandate is derived. The Secretary-General recently discussed the meaning of the term for the purposes of identifying and analysing mandates originating from resolutions of the General Assembly and other organs. The Secretary-General referred to the nature and definition of mandates for the purpose of his exercise:
"...Mandates are both conceptual and specific; they can articulate newly developed international norms, provide strategic policy direction on substantive and administrative issues, or request specific conferences, activities, operations and reports.
"For this reason, mandates are not easily defined or quantifiable; a concrete legal definition of a mandate does not exist....
"Although the term "Palestine refugee" is central to UNRWA's mandate, the General Assembly has not expressly defined it. The General Assembly has tacitly approved the operational definition used in annual reports of the Commissioner- General setting out the definition. The operational definition has evolved slightly through Agency internal instructions but in practice there are political and institutional limits on the extent to which the Agency is able to develop the definition itself...."
This is long overdue. The 1948 War led to one of the many exchanges of populations during the 20th century -- 1.5 million Greeks were expelled from Turkey and 1 million Turks expelled from Greece in 1923, for example. After World War II, 12 million Germans were expelled from the Czech Republic, Poland, and other parts of Eastern Europe, many of whom had lived there for centuries. Millions of Hindus and Muslims moved across the border when Pakistan separated from India upon independence in 1947. None of the transferred populations are treated as refugees, except for the Palestinians.
Roughly equal numbers of Arabs and Jews were displaced as Arab states expelled Jewish populations that in some cases, e.g. Iraq, had lived there for 2,500 years, long before the Arabs. The young Jewish state absorbed almost a million Jewish refugees from Muslim countries while the displaced Arabs were kept in permanent refugee status as a bargaining chip. "Right of return" simply meant Muslim refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state. The so-called peace process in the Middle East always has failed due to the asymmetry of demands: as the Israeli cartoon Dry Bones put it, land for peace means the Arabs want land and the Jews want peace. As long as the Western nations humored the Arab delusion that the Jewish state could be eliminated, the Arab side had no incentive to negotiate. The Arab side refused to accept its defeat in 1948. It is the loser who decides when the war is over, and the message from Washington is, "You lost. Deal with it."
I wonder what my never-Trump conservative Jewish friends and ex-friends will say now. I say, "God bless Donald J. Trump."
David Collier: JVP and other fringe groups align with Holocaust Deniers to attack British Jews
When it comes to writing the history of these unfolding events, the Jewish anti-Zionists groups like JVP (Jewish Voice for peace) will have their name in lights in the hall of shame.PM: UNRWA harms Palestinian refugees, should close down
I don’t know what the situation is in the US, but I would imagine with over five million Jews, the environment does not resemble Europe. That a few groups of anti-Zionist Jews have taken it upon themselves to publish a timely (which is why it is about the UK) public letter on the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a direct attack on British Jews. When you consider that if 75% of the groups listed combined together to put all their people into a single demonstration, they wouldn’t match the regular Shabbat turn out of a single average synagogue in the UK, you begin to realise how vile and insidious this is.
As the research also uncovered:
Then it reaches a whole new level of nasty.
- Multiple signees who are members of antisemitic Facebook Group Palestine Live
- Groups that seem to have been invented for the letter
- People that signed more than once
- Bloggers who call themselves organisations
- Groups that are not actually Jewish organisations
- Groups that share antisemitic material and even one represented by a Holocaust Denier
The JVP letter and the ‘peace’ groups
For the most part these are not ‘peace groups’ at all. This is not about borders, Gaza, ‘settlements’ or Jerusalem. Almost all the groups in the letter support BDS and are fighting to remove Israel from the map. One thing that is difficult to understand sometimes is that each Jewish community exists uniquely within it’s own context. British Jews, French Jews, Brazilian Jews, American Jews, Israeli ex-pats, the environments are so different that sometimes even when we seem to be saying the same thing, we are talking about entirely different dynamics.
Here in the UK we are fighting a high-stakes battle against rising left-wing antisemitism. British left-wing Zionist groups understand this and from left to right, British Zionists of almost every political persuasion recognise there is a problem with Jeremy Corbyn. So what kind of dangerous game is the Executive Director of the US group Jewish Voice for Peace, Rebecca Vilkomerson playing, when she publicly aligns with antisemites and Holocaust deniers to weaken the position of Jewish people in the UK?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his support for the U.S. decision Friday to halt funding for the U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees, saying that "the United States did a very important thing."
Speaking during a visit to a school in the central Israeli community of Yad Binyamin Sunday, Netanyahu said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, was actually harming the Palestinians by perpetuating their status as refugees.
"Have displaced people from all over the world not arrived in Israel? Have we kept them as refugees? No, we absorbed them. That includes those who came from Arab countries. Did we perpetuate their refugee status? No," he said.
"[But] that is not what happens with the Palestinians. They created a special institution, not to integrate the refugees and rehabilitate them, but to perpetuate refugee status.
"UNRWA should close down and the refugees should be rehabilitated."
Netanyahu said the number of remaining Palestinian refugees who fled following the State of Israel's establishment in 1948 is "much lower than the number reported by UNRWA."
The Prime Minister's Office also expressed support for the move.
PM Netanyahu: "The US has done a very important thing by halting the financing for the refugee perpetuation agency known as UNRWA. It is finally beginning to resolve the problem. The funds must be taken and used to genuinely help rehabilitate the refugees," pic.twitter.com/sjRAMJei6z— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 2, 2018
JCPA: UNRWA Go Home!
The U.S. administration’s move on the issue of refugees, UNRWA, and the “right of return” is correct and will hopefully be successful. President Trump is the only American president to brave to challenge the absurdity of the Palestinian “red lines” such as Jerusalem and the refugees.JCPA: “Palestine” Refugees or “Palestinian” Refugees?
He is the only one who brings the Palestinians down from their fantasy world to reality. No government in Israel can accept the “right of return,” whose true goal is the destruction of the State of Israel.
Therefore, President Trump should be encouraged to act against UNRWA. One should not be overly concerned by security officials’ warnings that Trump’s steps on the refugee issue will lead to a new intifada or place in Israel’s charge the issues of the education, health, and welfare systems of the refugees in place of UNWRA.
Such warnings have been made before, when President Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and when he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians must get used to the new reality led by President Trump, also in view of the habitual weakness shown by the Arab states on the issue of the Palestinian refugees. They have other problems and are not interested in a confrontation with the Trump government; the danger from Iran and Islamic State terrorism concerns them more than the Palestinian problem.
Now is the time to establish new facts on the ground.
Amb. Alan Baker RespondsUNRWA Lobbyists: Israel and Saudia Arabia Keep it Afloat as US Funds Dry Up
The reason we have consistently refrained from using the word “Palestine” in any context, at least since the mid-1950s, is the connotation given to it, meaning the Palestinian state. If we use the term, it’s tantamount to our acceptance and recognition of the state.
Even the 10 September 1993 Rabin letter to Arafat accompanying the Oslo Accords refers to the “Palestinian Liberation Organization” in order to avoid using the word Palestine. There was considerable discussion about this with Rabin and Peres.
For this reason, while theoretically Andi Pacurar and Adir Bar Yochanan are correct in their observation, Abu Mazen, Saeb Erekat and their ilk would be the first to welcome it.
In any event, Resolution 242 refers to “the just solution to the refugee problem,” which we in Israel have always claimed to mean all refugees – Jewish ones as well.
It should always be remembered that a Palestinian state has never existed. Prior to 1967 the West Bank was under Jordanian rule while the Gaza Strip was run by the Egyptian military. Using the term “Palestine” leads to confusion about that fact.
The Israeli defense establishment is the strongest advocate for the UN Relief and Works Agency in the country. In the United States, UNRWA’s strongest lobbyist is Saudi Arabia. In recent months, both the Israeli defense and security apparatus and Saudi Arabia have been working, separately and uncoordinated, on behalf of a shared interest: stopping the Trump administration’s attacks on the organization.Dovish US Jews warn UNRWA cuts endanger Israel’s security
Reports from the United States that the $200 million cut to American aid to UNRWA is only the beginning not only shook up the organization itself, they also came as a shock to the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Israel’s main opponent to any punitive measures against the UN entity, as well as the Saudi royal family, which is the third-largest donor to UNRWA.
COGAT objects to cuts in aid to UNRWA on practical grounds. No one denies that for years, the organization has fostered the perpetuation of the Palestinians’ refugee status and even expanded it by making refugee status something that can be passed down through the generations, but even so, the defense establishment hates sudden changes. It wants quiet, and is afraid that if UNRWA is unable to help hundreds of thousands of needy Palestinians due to budget cuts, Israel will see rioting, an escalation in violence and terrorist attacks.
In the early 2000s, then-COGAT Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad was already working to protect UNRWA. A decade later, as head of the Diplomatic-Security Branch of the Defense Ministry, he coordinated with then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren to torpedo a congressional initiative against the organization. UNRWA might be bad, Gilad told Oren, but Hamas is worse. Gilad’s successors have kept to that line, and like the IDF they see the UNRWA as the lesser of two evils.
The liberal Middle East advocacy group J Street excoriated the defunding decision, saying it would weaken PA President Mahmoud Abbas and make it more difficult for him enter formalized peace talks.
“This decision continues the administration’s disturbing pattern of actions that ignore the recommendations of US and Israeli intelligence and military leaders and appear designed to exacerbate suffering among the Palestinian people and marginalize the Palestinian Authority leadership,” the organization’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said in a statement, adding that it was “recklessly endangering the security of Israel and countries across the region.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein also suggested that pulling the aid would hurt Israel by undercutting the PA and materially harming the quality of Palestinian life.
“Further impoverishing Palestinians only empowers extremists, undermines the P.A. and harms Israel’s security,” the California Democrat said. “Completely cutting off funding to UNRWA is inhumane and undermines our own interests in the region.”
.@UNRWA literally perpetuates patriarchy. Strange that more liberals don't support US defunding of this sexist institution. pic.twitter.com/X1FuCabfNA— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) September 2, 2018
Palestinians consider going to UN over UNRWA funding cut
The Palestinian Authority is considering turning to the UN in a last-ditch effort to force Washington to continue funding the agency that deals with Palestinian refugees and their descendants.Corbyn calls on the UK to 'fill the gap' after U.S. ends UNRWA funding
The US announced on Friday that it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which it castigated for its practices, and will no longer fund the agency at all. The move drew swift condemnation from Palestinians, warnings from the agency’s administrators and praise from Israel.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Saturday that the Palestinian leadership was considering going to the UN General Assembly and Security Council in a bid to get the US to reverse its decision.
Rudeineh said Washington’s latest decision “promotes terrorism” and is a violation of UN resolutions.
A day earlier, he described the move as a “flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions.”
It’s unlikely that the UN General Assembly can force the US to fund the agency, which serves millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and refugee camps around the region, and the US would veto any Security Council resolution against it.
UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn took to social media Saturday evening to call the US's decision to end its funding of UNRWA "shameful" and called it "a vital UN refugee agency."Former UK chief rabbi warns of ‘existential threat’ to British Jews by Corbyn
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) supports roughly five million Palestinians in Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Corbyn further stated that the “UK must help to fill the gap” left by contributing more to the agency.
The State Department said that the US has decided to end all funding for UNRWA and described the agency as “irredeemably flawed.”
The Palestinian leadership is currently considering going to the UN General Assembly and Security Council to challenge the US administration’s decision, said Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh during an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
Britain’s former chief rabbi has defended his scathing criticism of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, warning that Jewish people are thinking about leaving the United Kingdom because of the “existential threat” of anti-Semitism.
Jonathan Sacks told the BBC in an interview published Sunday that for the first time in the 362 years Jews have lived in Britain, many question whether it is safe to raise children there.
He singled out Corbyn for failing to address anti-Semitic attitudes in the main opposition party, saying the Labour leader would pose a danger as prime minister unless he expressed “clear remorse” for past statements.
Sacks said “when people hear the kind of language that has been coming out of Labour, that has been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyn’s earlier speeches, they cannot but feel an existential threat.”
Last week, Sacks branded Corbyn a dangerous anti-Semite, and accused him of giving “support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate, who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map.” The Labour leader, Sacks said, uses “the language of classic prewar European anti-Semitism.”
Asked Sunday morning if his criticism of Corbyn went too far, Sacks said “absolutely not.”
“I had to issue a warning, anti-Semitism has returned to mainland Europe within living memory of the Holocaust,” he added.
Former Chief Rabbi @rabbisacks says @jeremycorbyn “is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was then” #marr pic.twitter.com/9S8z5embkJ— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) September 2, 2018
Former British prime minister urges Labour to act on anti-Semitism
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged his opposition Labour party Sunday to adopt the internationally agreed definition of anti-Semitism in order to resolve a bitter row that has engulfed the party for months.Dame Margaret Hodge accuses party leadership of having ‘a hatred of Jews’
The issue has opened up deep and bitter divisions within Britain’s main opposition party.
And its current leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has come under prolonged attack for refusing to adopt fully the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism in Labour’s new code of conduct.
He has also been accused of allowing anti-Semitism to spread in the left-wing party.
The Labour leadership has argued the definition, signed by 31 countries and used by many British institutions, does not allow for full criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
The four clauses rejected by the party relate to unfair singling out of Israel or questioning the loyalty of Jews who support Israel.
Accusations of anti-Semitism continue to consume Labour as a senior party figure claimed the leadership has a “hatred of Jews”.UK Labour lawmakers said set to quit party over anti-Semitism scandal
Dame Margaret Hodge made the damning claim as she launched a fresh all-out attack on Jeremy Corbyn.
The former minister, who attends a Jewish Labour Movement conference in London on Sunday with ex-PM Gordon Brown, told the Sunday Times: “All (the leadership) can think about is their internal Labour party and their hatred of Jews.
“Jeremy has allowed anti-Semitism and racism to run rife. He needs to renounce much of what he did.”
Labour MPs are said to be poised to hold another vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn’s leadership, according to the Sunday Times.
Mr Corbyn brushed aside a 172 to 40 defeat in a similar vote in 2016, insisting his mandate from grassroots members was more important.
A group of parliament members from the UK’s Labour Party are reportedly on the verge of breaking away and forming a new party out of frustration with Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to anti-Semitism and his handling of the widespread scandal surrounding the issue.Senior UK Labour official: Party has a week to save itself
After veteran Labour MP Frank Field quit the Party on Thursday, saying the opposition party had become a “force for anti-Semitism,” up to 15 fellow lawmakers intend to follow in his footsteps, The Times reported on Sunday.
Labour “rebels” have also been pushing to hold a no-confidence vote against Corbyn, hoping to recruit more MPs to join a breakaway, the report said.
Corbyn has been under mounting attack for his own allegedly anti-Semitic positions and has been accused of failing to root anti-Semitism out of Labour, Britain’s main opposition party. Earlier this week, Britain’s former chief rabbi Lord Sacks called Corbyn a dangerous anti-Semite. Labour dismissed that claim as absurd and offensive.
Meanwhile, former Labour prime minister Tony Blair called Corbyn’s handling of anti-Semitism “a truly shameful episode for the Labour party,” The Times said.
As new reports of Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's associations with Palestinian terrorists and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists continue to surface, the party – which has seen a spike in anti-Semitism among members since Corbyn was elected leader in 2015 – is preparing for a week that could determine its fate.UK's acclaimed 'Yes Minister' writer skewers Corbyn in Times letter on irony
Party leaders are scheduled to meet in London on Tuesday to debate adopting the full version of the working definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which includes clauses addressing criticism of Israel and Israeli policies.
Corbyn is under growing pressure in the party to adopt the full version, but he and his associates have resisted doing so and are pushing for a softer definition of anti-Semitism.
It is unclear how the 32 members of the Labour leadership intend to vote. The decision could rest with the Jewish party members who back Corbyn.
The next day, Wednesday, Labour MPs are scheduled to appear in Parliament for a discussion on the "anti-Semitism debate" within the party. A number of MPs are expected to voice sharp objections to Corbyn's stance on the issue and his handling of the crisis over anti-Semitism in Labour, which has consistently made headlines in recent weeks.
There are rumors in Labour that Corbyn could be ousted as party head, or that some moderate Labour MPs might resign and establish a new party.
The co-creator of one of Britain’s most acclaimed political satires has taken outraged and bitter, but subtle, aim at Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, over Corbyn’s inflammatory assertion that British Zionists “don’t understand English irony.”
Corbyn’s remarks, merely the latest in a stream of allegedly anti-Semitic utterances and activities by him and other Labour members, prompted Britain’s former chief rabbi Lord Sacks to denounce Corbyn last week as a dangerous anti-Semite. Taking Corbyn’s speech, which was originally made in 2013 but resurfaced last month, to refer to British Jews, Sacks called it “divisive” and “hateful” and charged that it “undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.”
In a brief letter to The Times of London published Saturday, Jonathan Lynn, co-writer of “Yes Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” — 1980s BBC TV comedies that gently skewered the hypocrisies of British government — Jonathan Lynn wrote: “I am Jewish. Although I wrote ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister,’ Corbyn says I don’t understand English irony. My co-writer Tony Jay [who died in 2016] was only half-Jewish, so perhaps he half-understood irony and was able to supply some. The Labour Party continues to deny that Corbyn is an antisemite but as Sir Humphrey said: ‘Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied.'”
The tone and source of this are perfect. cc: @davidfrum pic.twitter.com/dx1f8PV6z5— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) September 2, 2018
Yes Prime Minister On the Arabs and Israel
IsraellyCool: No Antisemitism Here…Now Move Along (To Attend the Kol Nidre Service)
A Jewish “anti-racist activist” and a member of Jewish Voice for Labour are part of the line-up at a meeting to discuss dismiss the antisemitism of Jeremy Corbyn and company.QC says Israel created ‘to compensate for the Holocaust’
We already know what happened at the last such meeting on August 21. And we already know why the organizers reserve the right to refuse entry – no Jews allowed (or at least Jews who support Israel).
Well, actually, now the net has widened to no Jews who take seriously the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – that’s right, this meeting to let people know antisemitism does not exist in the Labour party has been scheduled for the evening of Yom Kippur.
I don’t think at this point there is anything more these Labourites can do to convince us antisemitism is thriving in their party. Perhaps advertise they are serving bacon bits at the meeting?
It was at an event organised by the Palestine Return Centre in 2013 that Jeremy Corbyn suggested that Zionists “having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives … don’t understand English irony”.Inaccurate framing of Corbyn remarks continues on BBC Radio 4
I have never attended a PRC event where antisemitism has not run free. It was at a PRC event where Gerald Kaufman referred to ‘Jewish money‘ and at another where Jenny Tonge placed herself on the path to resignation/dismissal. The former spokesman of the PRC, Sameh Habeeb, was dropped as a Labour council candidate earlier this year and suspended from the Party for alleged antisemitic remarks.
Now I read that the PRC has paid for an opinion on the IHRA definition of antisemitism from the eminent Human Rights barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC.
We are not told how much the eminent barrister was paid but wonder of wonders, his learned opinion is not very favourable to the definition (Irony, Jeremy!) Yet another of our finest legal minds is commissioned by an Israel Hate organisation and comes up with a negative learned opinion of the IHRA. Mirabile dictu. He joins his eminent silken colleague, Hugh Tomlinson QC.
If the PRC thought that Mr Robertson’s learned opinion might influence Labour’s NEC which meets on Tuesday, I have sad news. They’ve wasted their money. There are many adjectives one might use to describe this opinion. ‘Learned’ is not one of them.
The most egregious of the untruths in the opinion is this one: ‘It [Israel] was established by the resolution of the Security Council in 1947, to compensate for the Holocaust, granting over half of Palestine – a country which at the time contained 1.3 million Arabs and a small minority of Jewish settlers.’
As noted here previously, by the time Barton was presenting that report he had been provided with a transcript of edited parts of Corbyn’s speech which showed that he was not talking about “a particular group” of people but about British Zionist Jews. He had also been told by the man who recorded Corbyn’s 2013 speech that as far as he knew, he was the only ‘pro-Israel activist’ present. Nevertheless – and even as it was obvious that Rabbi Lord Sacks’ comments were based on the fact that he did not buy into the notion that Corbyn was referring to a “particular group” present at a particular event – Barton continued to amplify the team Corbyn framing which hinders audience understanding of those comments.Abbas: Trump offered us peace plan based on confederation with Jordan
Later on in the same programme listeners heard an item described in its synopsis as follows:
“We discuss the latest row over Jeremy Corbyn – the former Chief Rabbi has described some of the Labour leader’s remarks as the most offensive made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech.”
Presenter Chris Mason began by playing a recording of part of Powell’s 1968 ‘rivers of blood’ speech followed by a recording from the 2013 speech by the person he described as “the then obscure Labour back bencher Jeremy Corbyn”. Listeners next heard a reading of some of Lord Sacks’ related comments including:
“It was divisive, hateful and like Powell’s speech it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.”
Declaring that “we’re going to explore both sides of the argument”, Mason went on to introduce his first contributor as “Jewish, a journalist and a member of the Labour Party”. He did not however inform listeners of the relevant fact that Michael Segalov is a Corbyn supporter and apparently a member of Momentum.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said at a meeting with left-wing group Peace Now and members of the Knesset that Trump's negotiation team had offered him a peace deal based on a confederation with Jordan.Netanyahu prevented uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Jews
Abbas commented that he would agree to such a plan under the condition that Israel were part of the confederation.
"I want a three-party confederation with Jordan and Israel and I am asking Israel to accept such a proposal," Abbas was quoted as saying.
Shaqued Morag from 'Peace Now' meets with Mahmoud Abbas. Shaqued Morag from 'Peace Now' meets with Mahmoud Abbas.
According to him, it was Israel that refused to negotiate on important issues and even to meet him in the past.
"I met Trump four times," Abbas emphasized, arguing that he was in favor of a demilitarized state of Palestine.
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry will publish a new book in the coming days, including memoirs of the time he served under President Barack Obama and his failed attempt to achieve peace between Israel and the PA.JNF-USA Gaza Border-Crisis Tour in 11 Major Cities Puts Spotlight on Civilian Needs
From excerpts of the book published over the weekend by Jewish Insider, a clear picture emerges: The Kerry and Obama duo sought to evacuate Judea and Samaria and abandon Israel's security, and only Prime Minister Netanyahu's steadfastness prevented the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes.
Kerry reveals that Netanyahu rejected the plan presented by US General John Allen to then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, according to which when Israel evacuated Judea and Samaria, the United States would place American troops on the border of a future Palestinian state, while the IDF would be stationed in close proximity and ready to respond to any threat.
According to Kerry, Netanyahu insisted that the IDF must maintain a long-term presence in Judea and Samaria, the duration of which would be left up to Israel.
“It was now clear to all of us that Bibi was not interested in actually addressing the security questions in a way that could allow for the eventual withdrawal of the IDF,” he wrote.
“I concluded that this wasn’t about security [...] I let him know I thought he was creating an insurmountable stumbling block if he couldn’t accept the best advice of one of his ally’s most brilliant military minds. He smiled and said we’d table the discussion for now.”
Jewish National Fund (JNF-USA) wrapped up a presentation to Jewish communities in major cities across the United States about the environmental crisis in southern Israel caused by Palestinian rioters in Gaza, led by Hamas. Titled the “Gaza Border Crisis: The Trauma, The Damage, The Needs,” the 11-city tour kicked off in Los Angeles on Aug. 19 and ended on Aug. 30 in New York.HR's Daniel Pomerantz debates Gaza rockets on i24News
On Wednesday evening at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood, Pa., outside of Philadelphia, more than 200 people filled seats to listen to three Israeli speakers: Michal Uziyahu, director of community centers in the Eshkol region; Sarit Khanoukaev, a 21-year-old resident of the hard-hit city of Sderot, located less than a mile from Gaza; and Yedidya Harush, who represents the Halutza communities and Gaza Envelope region.
They told powerful stories of resilience in the face of Hamas protests and arson terror since March 30, the beginning of the Palestinian “March of Return.” They have also had to deal with rocket fire and Red Alerts, sending residents to bomb shelters at all hours.
To date, 10,000 acres of land in Israel’s south has been burned by incendiary kites and balloons—the size of about 10,000 football fields.
If more Palestinians die than Israelis, does that mean that Israel is to blame? HR's Daniel Pomerantz and former Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer debate on i24News.
Number of terrorist attacks on Israelis rises by 15% in July
The number of terrorist targeting Israelis increased by 15 percent last month over June’s tally of 220 incidents.Palestinian man tries to attack settler with metal rod – IDF
Throughout July, Israeli security services documented 255 attacks including 11 in Jerusalem, Shabak (Israel Security Agency) said in its monthly report published this week.
Two Israelis were killed in attacks in July, one of them a soldier who was killed by a sniper from Gaza. The other fatality was a civilian who was stabbed to death in the West Bank, along with two other victims who sustained moderate to mild injuries.
Despite the increase, the figures in July were well below those of May, when 365 incidents were documented — the highest number in over two years of terrorist attacks on Israelis.
Nearly two-thirds of the attacks recorded in July involved firebombs.
IDF soldiers arrested a Palestinian man who tried to beat an Israeli man with a metal bar outside the Tekoa settlement in the central West Bank on Sunday, the army said.Security forces arrest Palestinian woman with knife at West Bank checkpoint
No injuries were reported.
The military said no shots were fired during the arrest.
Israeli troops then searched the area for additional evidence or signs of additional attackers, the army said.
Residents of the settlement said the Palestinian, who was not armed with a firearm or a knife, initially threw rocks at passing cars and then tried to drag a man out of his vehicle and attack him.
Eventually, a number of residents wrestled the Palestinian man to the ground before security forces arrived.
Security forces on Sunday detained a Palestinian woman who was apparently planning to carry out a stabbing attack at a Jerusalem checkpoint, police said.Israel strikes airbase near Damascus, Arab media reports
Guards at the Qalandiya checkpoint north of the capital stopped a woman who was acting suspiciously. She had raised suspicion by approaching Israeli guards manning an area meant for vehicular traffic instead of the pedestrian passageway.
When the women ignored instructions from security guards they used pepper spray on the suspect, police said. A knife was found in her bag.
The suspect, in her 30s, was from the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Qalandiya, the statement said.
She was taken away for further questioning.
A series of five explosions that rocked the Mezzeh airbase southwest of Damascus late Saturday night was caused by an Israeli airstrike, Arab media reported on Sunday.Ukrainian city remembers slain Jews on Holocaust anniversary
Several reports said the strike had caused an unknown number of casualties, while others said Syrian air defenses countered the strike.
The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an Israeli airstrike had caused an unknown number of deaths and injuries.
According to Arab social media, Maher Assad, the younger brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad, was wounded in the strike and an unnamed Iranian general was killed.
Maher Assad, 50, is considered the second most powerful man in Syria. He is the commander of the Republican Guard and the Syrian army's elite 4th Armored Division.
The reports were not corroborated by any Israeli source. A military spokesperson said the IDF does not comment on foreign media reports.
The Ukrainian city of Lviv, once a major center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, commemorated the 75th anniversary of the annihilation of the city’s Jewish population by Nazi Germany and honored those working today to preserve what they can of that vanished world.Amid rising anti-Semitism, BBC sends 8 British Jews to Israel for new TV show
City authorities honored recipients during a ceremony Sunday with 75 sculptured glass keys modeled by an American artist on an old metal synagogue key that she found at a Lviv market. The commemorations, including a concert amid the ruins of synagogues, come amid a larger attempt to revive the suppressed memories of the Jews who were once an integral part of life in the region.
“God forbid our city once suffered such a misfortune,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said at the ceremony. “Today we cannot even imagine for a moment the pain, humiliation and grief that thousands of Lviv’s people suffered in the last century.”
Iryna Matsevko, deputy director of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe and one of the organizers, said it was the first time the western Ukrainian city has acknowledged the efforts in such an extensive way.
Within hours of the release of the trailer for the BBC’s new two-part primetime television program, “We Are British Jews,” a flurry of anti-Semitic comments were posted.
In the unprecedented program, set to air in the UK on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 4 and 5, the BBC sent eight British Jews to Israel. Produced and directed by a British Jewish woman, Lucie Kon, the programs were filmed against the backdrop of a rising wave of anti-Semitism in Britain and “fierce debate within the Jewish community about how it should best relate to Israel and the conflict with the Palestinians.”
But as the show’s trailer went live on YouTube Thursday, the clip’s comments section was filled with a stream of anti-Semitic vitriol.
“You can’t really be both Jewish and British simultaneously. It’s one or the other. Choose your tribe,” read one. “The goblin Queen of England is genetically Jewish. So is Prince Charles. So are the Rothschilds,” said another. Yet one more read, “If you love Israel so much, why don’t you move there?”
Kon, recognizing the massive differences of opinion among Brits, says she “felt passionately about making a series that would demonstrate that diversity and division facing the [Jewish] community today.”
The group of Jews is perhaps not as diverse as the producers would have liked: Half are in their 20s, while one is in his 30s, one is late 50s and two are in their 70s. There are no hardline anti-Zionists in the group; Kon says the challenge of casting was quite difficult.