Monday, September 03, 2018
A salute to Joan Peters
Joan Peters is sorely missed right now. Four years after her death and 34 years after the publication of her bestselling book "From Time Immemorial," the U.S. administration is recognizing her claims about so-called Palestinian refugeeism.
Through her thorough research, Peters was the first to expose the lie that is Palestinian refugeeism. Now, when UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, is trying to fool the world into believing there are 5.2 million Palestinian refugees, is the perfect time to return to Peters and her grand opus.
In her 1984 book, Peters exposed for the first time how the United Nations altered the criteria for Palestinians to gain refugee status, thereby exacerbating the problem far beyond its actual scope. She discovered that by changing the definition and allowing the descents of Palestinian refugees to inherit refugee status, Palestinian refugees in large part did not fit the U.N.'s own definition of who is a refugee.
Peters exposed the very document in which the U.N. decided to invent another form of refugeeism, one unlike anything else the world had ever known. She interpreted a series of data and by doing so convinced quite a few people that many of the Palestinians who were afforded refugee status were not residents of the country "from time immemorial," as they had claimed, but were, in fact, migrant workers who had recently arrived in the country. Others would follow in Peters' footsteps, and while they may have corrected her data a bit, she was still the first. Peters' groundbreaking research slaughtered a sacred cow the academic world had avoided at all costs.
Seth Frantzman: Netanyahu is tragically right – the world fails to protect the weak
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was excoriated over the weekend on social media for giving a speech in which he extolled the tragic reality of the world. “The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive.” This is “fascism” people shouted on social media.IsraellyCool: MUST WATCH: Palestinians Answer the Question “When Was Palestine Established”
“It left me speechless,” tweeted Julia Ioffe. His comments echo Hitler, claimed one article. Former US Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder claimed Netanyahu was channeling the Athenian maxim from Thucydides “the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.” But the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian war Daalder wrote. He forgot to add who they lost it to. Sparta. A city-state that was obsessed with being strong even more than the Athenians were.
For all of those who are outraged about Netanyahu’s statement, I have a question. Where were they in August 2014 when Islamic State launched its attack on the weak, peaceful, defenseless and vulnerable Yazidis in northern Iraq? When ISIS overran their villages and separated men and women, and then systematically machine-gunned the men into mass graves like the Einsatzgruppen did in 1941, where were they? Did they go to Sinjar to help in the fight against ISIS? The wealthy and the strong from the West who are today outraged and offended, were they there to help in the defense of Sinjar? And what have they done since for the 6,000 women and children kidnapped and sold into slavery? For four years now, more than 3,000 women are still missing, enslaved in the years 2014-2018.
These are the weak. Who helped them? Well, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) helped them in 2014. Who was it that formed a human wall against ISIS in 2014 at the gates of Erbil and Baghdad? It was Kurdish Peshmerga and Shi’ite militias aided by US air power. It was the strong. When ISIS came knocking it was tens of thousands of young men from southern Iraq, imbued with religious devotion and flags of Hussein and Ali who went to fight and die, their names never recorded or known in the places where people are offended by the word “strong.” It was poor Kurdish men, underpaid and having to buy their own uniforms, rifles and boots, who went to stop ISIS.
Who joined ISIS? 50,000 people from all over the world, including 5,000 mostly middle class, strong, people from Europe. Did the strongest nations prevent the 5,000 from Europe from joining? No. They let them join. They let them book tickets to Turkey. They even let them return.
Palestinian Arabs are asked when Palestine was established, as well as follow-up questions like: What was the ancient capital? Who was the ruler? What was the currency? What was the flag?
The answers are as illuminating as they are varied.
Form your own conclusions. For me it is clear: a separate palestinian identity was only formed in recent times, after World War I, as a response to the increasing Jewish presence in the land (See my history series for more proof of this). And they are making up their history as they go along.
In contrast, if you ask Israelis similar questions regarding the history of the Jewish people in Israel, they will know, and there will be consistent answers.
The Oslo process – 25 years on
WHILE THE conflict with the Palestinians will not end any time soon, Israel is blooming. Israel’s cautious strategy of conflict management (rather than conflict resolution) of recent years has been successful in minimizing the domestic and international damage from the continuous Palestinian hostility. Israel’s willingness to make concessions is useful for retaining social cohesion at home and for gaining points among friends abroad.New Movie Takes a Look Back at the Tumultuous Oslo Accords
At the international level, Israel nourishes its relations with its main ally, the US, and has developed strategic partnerships with many important states. The continuous turmoil in the Middle East and Iranian behavior sensitizes the international community to Israel’s security needs, which reduces pressures for meeting unrealistic Palestinian demands.
The Oslo process amounted to a partition of Palestine (Land of Israel), since it led to a situation where more than 95% of the Palestinians in the West Bank and all Palestinians in Gaza live under Palestinian rule. As we have seen in other parts of the world, partitions can be messy and without clear-cut political outcomes. Indeed, the Oslo process failed to attain peace and security for Israel, but it much relieved the Jewish state of the Palestinian burden. The limited Israeli military presence in the West Bank is only marginally concerned with the welfare of the Palestinians; the security of the Israelis is its main goal. Israel is no longer responsible for the Palestinians, and they are on their own.
Despite the anti-Israel rhetoric, the “occupation” of the Palestinians has practically ended. Anyone visiting Ramallah, with its cafes and shopping centers, can see it for himself.
Most Israelis have supported the traditional Zionist pro-partition position that led to Oslo, although misgivings about the wisdom of choosing Arafat as a partner were widespread. Israelis also supported the withdrawal from Gaza and the establishment of a security barrier that signal a desire to disengage from territories heavily populated by Arabs.
While Israeli society paid dearly for the Oslo experiment, it can honestly say, “We tried to make peace with the Palestinians.” Such a feeling is a prerequisite for treating future armed conflict as a “no-choice (ein breira) war.” This attitude, prevalent since the Palestinian terrorism campaign that started in 2000, has been central in forging great Israeli resilience to withstand protracted conflict, and an unwillingness to make dangerous concessions.
Is there any reason to be optimistic that there can be a true peace deal for the Israelis and Palestinians?Vanessa Redgrave: Still Hating After All These Years
“I don’t think there is another alternative, neither for the Palestinians, nor for us,” Shimon Peres says in his last interview, shown in the new film The Oslo Diaries. “The only alternative is an ongoing war. But contrary to what people think, in war there are no victories, only victims. No war is ever finished, unless it’s being replaced by peace.”
Was Peres, who died two years ago, correct? Hold on to that question.
The documentary, which is playing now in New York at Cinema Village, will be screened at the Marlene Meyersen JCC in Manhattan on September 6 and will air on HBO. It is worth seeing. It is not overly graphic, but a few scenes are tough to watch. We see Israeli corpses after a suicide bombing, and we see a Palestinian child who has been killed. We see Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sing a song of peace, and then people crying after he is assassinated by a right-wing Israeli gunman.
Directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan do a good job of using archival footage to show the fateful tensions of the difficult time period of the 1990s, most notably when Rabin argued with members of the Knesset who said that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat couldn’t be trusted. They should be praised for showing the suffering and trepidations of both the Israelis and Palestinians. But there is a need to balance a utopian idealism with the reality of the facts on the ground. The directors succeed at times, but fail at others.
The Oslo Diaries tells the story of the Oslo negotiators, who first met in secret — and arguably illegally. At first, Israeli professors Ron Pundak and Yair Hirschfeld dealt with a Palestinian negotiating team led by Abu Ala.
The spectacle of thespians making political interventions is rarely a dignified one. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood’s elite from radical posturing. From the old days, Marlon Brando is one example, Jane Fonda another, while in our own time we can give a mention to Sean Penn for his embrace of the late Venezuelan dictator (and the author of that country’s present misery) Hugo Chávez.Under pressure, UAE says it will treat Israelis equally at upcoming sports event
A particularly notorious example of fawning before autocrats and dictators is British actor Vanessa Redgrave. Unarguably one of the most brilliant screen performers of the post-war era, Redgrave identified as a “revolutionary Marxist” in the 1970s. In keeping with the trajectory of the New Left, whose ideas about Jews were pretty similar to the Old Left, she was a vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause.
In 1978, Redgrave won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Julia, a searing drama about resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War. Given that she had just narrated a pro-PLO documentary, many outraged Jews pointed to the irony of Redgrave being honored for her portrait of a Jewish woman on screen. The Jewish Defense League (JDL) picked up the cudgels for an anti-Redgrave campaign that included burning her in effigy. During her acceptance speech, Redgrave saluted the audience for having “refused to be intimidated by the threat of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums, whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world, and to their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.”
The great majority of mainstream Jews, who certainly kept groups like the JDL at arm’s length, scoffed at Redgrave’s hypocrisy, and particularly her appropriation of Jewish victimhood to score political points against “Zionists.” In subsequent years, Redgrave was to claim that her statement had cost her several starring roles — an intimation that “Zionist hoodlums” were also running movie studios. She never expressed regret.
Israelis will be able to compete equally at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, after the United Arab Emirates reversed its policy of banning athletes from the Jewish state from using Israeli symbols, the International Judo Federation (IJF) said Monday.Jewish UK Labour lawmaker vows to see Corbyn ousted
In July, the federation stripped the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia from hosting two international tournaments due to their failure to guarantee equal treatment of Israeli athletes, who were not allowed to compete under their nation’s flag or play the national anthem if they won.
In a statement, the federation said it was “pleased to announce that… the UAE Judo Federation confirmed in an official letter sent to the IJF that all nations participating in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam will have the possibility to do so in equal conditions.”
The tournament is due to take place on October 25-27.
The federation praised the UAE for its “fair-play and mutual friendship and respect,” and for taking a “huge step forward in establishing and promoting peaceful relationships between all nations of the world.”
A Jewish UK Labour party lawmaker who is at the forefront of demands for leader Jeremy Corbyn to step down due to accusations of anti-Semitism vowed Sunday that the campaign will not end until a new figure is at the party helm.Arab MKs back UK's Corbyn amid anti-Semitism accusations
MP Margaret Hodge, who had faced party disciplinary action after clashing with Corbyn over his handling of anti-Semitism in Labor, promised to “stand and fight” as she addressed the Jewish Labour Movement annual conference in north London Sunday.
Corbyn has come under prolonged attack for allegedly allowing anti-Semitism to spread in the left-wing party and for refusing to adopt fully the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism in Labour’s new code of conduct.
“Corbyn has a problem to deal with, and the problem is that he is the problem,” Hodge declared.
The MP for Barking warned that even if the party’s ruling National Executive Committee embraces the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism — which it had refrained from doing — it would not be enough to repair the damage.
A group of Arab lawmakers in Israel on Sunday praised British Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party has been battling accusations of anti-Semitism for months.
In a letter to Britain's Guardian newspaper, Israel's Deputy Knesset Speaker Ahmad Tibi and three other members of the Joint Arab List party said Corbyn had a "longstanding solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world, including his unflinching support for the Palestinian people."
Since unexpectedly becoming Labour leader in 2015, after decades spent on the left-wing fringes of the party, Corbyn has repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic sentiments within the party and among groups he supports.
Corbyn has responded to protests by meeting Jewish community leaders and reassuring Jewish people they are welcome in the party. He has previously apologized for what he has described as "pockets" of anti-Semitism in his party.
Israel's own Labor party suspended relations with Corbyn in April, accusing him of sanctioning anti-Semitism and showing hostility toward Israeli policies.
In their letter, the Arab MKs said they recognize Corbyn as "a principled leftist leader who aspires for peace and justice and is opposed to all forms of racism, whether directed at Jews, Palestinians, or any other group."
Jewish Leaders Outraged Over ‘Black Hitler’ Farrakhan’s Prominent Appearance at Aretha Franklin’s Funeral
Jewish leaders voiced outrage on Sunday over the prominent attendance of Nation of Islam leader and notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan at legendary singer Aretha Franklin’s funeral on Friday.Whistleblower responds to Dutch government over contested award to UN rights chief
Farrakhan was given a front-row seat on the dais, sitting next to controversial African-American leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and only three seats away from former president Bill Clinton.
“It was absolutely jarring to see one America’s leading purveyors of antisemitism given a place of such prominence at Aretha’s funeral,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League told The Algemeiner. “We join the country in mourning the Queen of Soul but this was an honor that an unapologetic hatemonger like Farrakhan didn’t deserve.”
Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement to The Algemeiner, “Like millions of other Americans who grew up listening to Aretha Franklin’s amazing voice, I was saddened by her passing. Putting Louis Farrakhan in a seat of honor in the first row on stage, near President Clinton and amidst a generation of African American political and religious leaders was equally saddening.”
“50 years ago Aretha Franklin received an award from Martin Luther King Jr. and toured the country to raise money for the struggling Civil Rights Movement,” he added. “For decades Farrakhan has stood against everything MLK lived and died for. He hates America and hates Jews. Aretha Franklin wasn’t a hater. The sight of his smiling face on stage soured the heartfelt music and words during the marathon tribute to a great icon.”
Dear Minister Blok and Minister Kaag,Lapid to Lana Del Rey: You were lied to
I write to reiterate my concerns about the Government of The Netherlands’ decision to award the 2018 Human Rights Tulip to the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. The Government’s response (attached) to my letters dated 27 August (attached) and 29 August (attached) does not address my concerns, nor those of a growing number of organisations, which have called on the Government to reconsider its decision, specifically because of the retaliation against the three whistleblowers at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The Dutch Government has to date taken a strong principled approach that all human rights are indivisible, and it has been a strong advocate for freedom of expression and human rights defenders.
The Dutch Government states that “the decision to award the Human Rights Tulip to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is based on his personal commitment and unwavering support for human rights defenders during his mandate as UN High Commissioner”. Whistleblowers who report human rights violations are human rights defenders.
The Dutch Government appears to be willing to overlook the violation of the rights of whistleblowers and human rights defenders at OHCHR. We disclosed gross violations of human rights including child sexual abuse and the endangering of Chinese dissidents. Yet our rights have been violated – we have been defamed, harassed and blacklisted by OHCHR under Mr Al Hussein’s tenure as High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Government Accountability Project (GAP), the lead organisation supporting whistleblowers in international organisations has repeatedly called for Mr Al Hussein to be placed under investigation for his mistreatment and retaliation against whistleblowers.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid penned a letter on Monday to singer Lana Del Rey after she canceled an upcoming appearance in Israel.Israeli professor draws ire for call to boycott Ariel U conference
“You’re sitting in New York after canceling your performance in Israel because of pressure from Roger Waters and other vocal BDS activists,” the MK wrote. “It’s a shame, because you were lied to. You became another one in a series of people being used by Palestinian terrorist organizations without knowing the facts.”
Lapid did not relate to the fact that Del Rey rejected a plea from Waters last month, and never claimed to support a boycott of Israel.
In announcing her cancellation over the weekend, the singer-songwriter wrote that it was “important for me to perform in both Palestine and Israel and treat all my fans equally,” but that she could not line up a show for Palestinians in time.
Nevertheless, Lapid took it upon himself to offer the singer “a list of facts they kept from you.” That list included Israel’s multiple offers of peace deals to Palestinians over the years; the disengagement from Gaza; the Arabs who serve in the Supreme Court, the IDF and the government; and the persecution of homosexuals in the Gaza Strip – “The LGBT community are threatened with hanging (Did Roger Waters tell you that? Maybe it’s worth asking him?),” he wrote.
An Israeli professor has drawn criticism for his calls to boycott a conference at an Israeli university in Samaria.Vassar Disorientation Guide urges students to “Slap a Zionist”
Professor Ofer Aharony, a theoretical physicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, emailed invitees to an Ariel University conference on cosmology and particle physics, asking them not to attend. Arguing that the university was not situated inside Israeli territory, Aharony said the decision to hold a conference there was a violation of international law and a crime against humanity.
Taking his efforts even further, Aharony penned a letter, signed by a number of professors from universities in the Palestinian territories, United States, Britain, Finland and Belgium, that appeared in the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Friday.
In the letter, titled "Don't Let Science Legitimize Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories," the signatories say that "Ariel University in the occupied West Bank is the wrong venue for a conference on cosmology and particle physics starting on Monday 3 September and running until 6 September. The settlements are illegal under international law and have been denounced by the International Court of Justice and numerous U.N. resolutions. Human Rights Watch has noted that Ariel's 'development is inseparable from a history of continuous dispossession of Palestinians from their land and restrictions on their freedom of movement.'"
Students at numerous schools have created a “Disorientation Guide” to be distributed to incoming first-year students to offset official Orientation Guides.IsraellyCool: Boy George Proved Again Just How Awesome He Is
A Disorientation Guide (full copy embedded at bottom of post)(pdf.) was just distributed at Vassar College, and it was loaded with anti-Israel, pro-BDS invective.
I was mentioned in it, based on my lecture on free speech which generated fabricated campus hysteria and an attempt, endorsed by the Vassar Student Association, to prevent me from speaking.
I did end up speaking, under heavy security. You can watch my 45-minute lecture and 1.5 hour Question and Answer.
The campus reaction after my appearance was quite different than the hysteria that preceded the event. One student wrote in the campus newspaper of the “misrepresentation of facts” regarding me that preceded my appearance. Another student wrote in a student publication devoted to political discourse:
“It’s time to acknowledge that H2A and the VSA lied to us.”
You are probably already aware that singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey succumbed to the forces of evil and cancelled her appearance at Israel’s Meteor festival, in the face of intense bullying and intimidation by the likes of Roger Waters. If not, you are now.
Lost in the news is that musician and icon Boy George was encouraging her to play in Israel, despite the pressure.
@LanaDelRey Go to Israel and entertain your fans. We all pray for a time when Palestine is free and musicians can celebrate with those free Palestinians. You may, (like those condemning you) have no helpful solutions. You have 'music' and it is a magical healing force.
— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) 21 August 2018
Not that this is surprising. He has always been a friend of Israel and champion of playing for all of his fans, wherever they may be.
Oh, and he’s just a real mensch.
God bless. Thinking of you! x https://t.co/UynopDA15F
— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) 25 May 2018
Honest Reporting: The Sun Sets on Tel Aviv
Amidst the continuing issue of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism and support for extremists, The Sun focused on his paying tribute to disgraced former UN official Richard Falk.Antisemitic flyers taped to Detroit church entrances
Falk was formerly a UN special rapporteur. He has been repeatedly called out for his antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel comments.
“Highlights” of Falk’s tenure at the UN included blaming the Boston Marathon bombing on “American global domination,” “Tel Aviv” trying to ban a pro-Israel human rights watchdog group UN Watch from attending UNHRC sessions, and publishing antisemitic cartoons and articles on his blog. US officials routinely and repeatedly called for Falk to resign.
UN Watch documents the open antisemitism on Falk’s blog here.
Unfortunately, The Sun attempted to add some information to a Falk quote and failed. We tweeted The Sun to alert it to its erroneous claim that Tel Aviv is Israel’s capital:
Antisemitic flyers featuring crude caricatures of Jews were discovered Sunday morning outside the First United Methodist Church in Ferndale and reported to police.Is Roseanne Barr moving to Israel, for real this time?
The black-and-white flyers were taped to three entrances of the church, 22331 Woodward Ave., and expressed support for the controversial far-right websites The Daily Stormer and Infowars.com.
The flyers blamed Jewish people for the fact that The Daily Stormer, a virulently antisemitic publication, was booted from a succession of website domains since August 2017. "They are coming for your free speech next," the flyers said.
The flyers say they were produced by a local Daily Stormer "book club," but there was no other identifying information on them.
Jill Warren, a member of the church's congregation, said they reported the flyers to Ferndale police.
"We need to make sure people are safe on our property, and hopefully whoever put them there will realize that we’re vigilant and not going to allow that kind of thing," said Warren, whose husband, the Rev. Robert Schoenhals, is the church's minister.
Ferndale Police Lt. Dennis Emmi said the department dispatched an officer to the church and took a police report. However, it does not appear that the flyers constitute a crime.
"It appears to be not a criminal matter at this point as it appears to fall under freedom of speech," Emmi said. Still, the department will investigate to try to determine who posted the flyers and if violations, such as trespassing, occurred, he said.
“In the end, it still may be non-criminal and fall under the First Amendment," Emmi said.
The flyers also featured an image of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones with a Star of David placed over his mouth. Jones is the controversial creator of the Infowars website whose profiles, podcasts and channels were removed last month from Facebook, YouTube and Apple's media platforms for purported hate speech and inciting violence.
Actress and comedian Roseanne Barr may be moving to Israel once Roseanne spin-off The Conners airs, she told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in his latest podcast.‘This Is Our Heritage,’ Zulu King Declares Following Emotional Visit to Israel
"I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there," Barr stated in the podcast. "It's my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman."
Barr's original TV show Roseanne was canceled by ABC in May following a Twitter post made by Barr including racial slurs directed towards former Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett.
The new show The Conners, scheduled to air in October, is a spin-off series following Roseanne's family, removing her character from the plot.
"My friends told me... you've made a fatal mistake; you apologized to the left," Barr told Boteach. "Once you apologize to them, they never forget, they just try to beat you down until you don't exist."
"I'm staying neutral," Barr commented regarding the upcoming spin-off. "Not wishing bad on anyone and I don't wish good for my enemies."
Barr says that once the spin-off airs, she will be far enough away to avoid seeing it.
After asked by Boteach what her plans are in Israel during the release of the new series, Barr said "I just want to go swim in the Kinneret."
A descendant of Shaka kaSenzangakhona — the legendary 19th-century Southern African king more commonly known as Shaka Zulu — has returned from a visit to Israel with a pledge to mobilize solidarity with the Jewish state among his fellow South Africans.US lawmakers push Trump to keep Iraqi Jewish Archive in America
“I landed in Israel during trying times whereby the people of G-d are being persecuted,” said Nkosi Zwelakhe Mthethwa — a Zulu king from the Mthethwa tribe — in remarks carried by this week’s edition of the South African Jewish Report.
“I came to lend my voice of support that as a believer myself, I can’t keep quiet,” the king stated. “I will mobilize Christians all over the world to support, because this place [Israel] is our tangible and intangible heritage site.”
The king was part of a group of distinguished South Africans who visited Israel from August 11-17 on a trip organized by advocacy group South African Friends of Israel (SAFI).
Others on the trip included Sibongile Cele, the deputy chair of the African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League Ward 125 in Johannesburg, who described her trip as “a life changing, inspirational, very emotional experience.”
South Africa’s vocal BDS movement exercises considerable influence within the ruling ANC, and has pressured activists and community workers to boycott the visits to “apartheid” Israel organized by SAFI.
The White House is facing pressure not to return an Iraqi Jewish Archive, seized following the capture of Baghdad in 2003, to Iraq.
Three members of Congress – Reps. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), Daniel M. Donovan Jr. (R-NY) and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) – recently addressed a letter to President Donald Trump demanding that he prevent the documents from being returned to Iraq later this year.
"In 2003, in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters, U.S. forces in Iraq found a trove of Jewish artifacts," the letter reads. "The U.S. rescued these precious documents and brought them to the United States. … We strongly object to these documents being returned."
The three lawmakers said that although "they respect the right of any nation to have its rightful cultural and historical artifacts returned to it. … In this case, the return of these treasures to the custody of the Iraqi government would be extremely inappropriate."
The authors propose that since Iraq "no longer has any Jewish community due to its own history of persecution" it would be better to keep the archive in the United States, because it is "possible to return at least some of these artifacts to their original and rightful owners, many of whom fled to Israel and the United States, or their descendants."
Earlier today I was honoured to attend a special WWII commemoration at Brookwood Cemetery, at which the brave Palmach men whose lives were lost during SOE Operation Botswain in 1941 were remembered. pic.twitter.com/LsEIvI8eaN
— Mark Regev (@MarkRegev) September 2, 2018
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