Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, has no problem participating in
the annual Haaretz conference sponsored
by Btselem and Breaking the Silence. That was the upshot of a shocking news piece
that appeared in the Jewish
Press on Sunday. That a conference by fifth column newspaper Haaretz was to be co-sponsored by fifth
column NGOs Btselem
and Breaking
the Silence is not shocking and no surprise. All three share a common goal:
undermining the State of Israel. But why on earth would Revivi grace the conference
with his presence and lend credibility to these three fifth column entities
bent on Israel’s destruction?
Especially since David Elhayani, head of the Council for
Judea and Samaria, canceled his own scheduled talk at the conference. Elhayani
announced his withdrawal from the conference after he was pressured to do so by
the Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families and the Wounded IDF Veterans
Forum. These two organizations begged Elhayani not participate in a conference
sponsored by organizations that actively work to harm IDF soldiers. Elhayani
did the smart thing for his political career and canceled his talk:
“I agreed to participate in the Haaretz conference in order to make the important voice of the communities [in Judea and Samaria] heard and to represent a sane voice on that day. At the same time, I can’t help recognizing the pain of bereaved families and terror victims that see these organizations as partners in activities against IDF soldiers, who suggest that my participation would add to their pain.”
Elhayani then tried to get Oded Revivi to back out along
with him:
“Therefore, I announced that I am canceling my participation and ask that my friend Oded Revivi, head of the Efrat local council, who is also scheduled to participate in the conference, listen to the voices of these dear families and cancel his participation.”
Is it possible that Elhayani only grudgingly canceled his
participation when pushed into a corner by bereaved families? Could the decision
have been made in consultation with others? Elhayani has joined Gideon Saar’s
New Hope Party, and Israel is in the midst of yet another election cycle. It sure
wouldn’t look good for Elhayani to be seen hobnobbing with fifth column agents during
an election cycle. Why, on the other hand, should it matter to Elhayani (or
Gideon Saar) what Revivi, a free agent, does with his time?
My theory is that Elhayani withdrawing his participation
from the conference meant that Revivi would become the conference’s main
settler sell-out attraction, with all the attendant publicity. Revivi would
have been smart enough to see this golden opportunity. That may be why Revivi
then refused to withdraw from the conference. From the Jewish Press:
Revivi said he does not plan to cancel his participation in the forum. “I will go to every possible platform to give my opinion about our rights to the Land,” Revivi said in a statement.
Sure enough, Revivi went ahead and participated in filming
for the conference. From Arutz 7:
Efrat Council head Oded Revivi today participated in filming for the Haaretz newspaper conference, despite many calls he received to boycott it, which was also attended by representatives of organizations that delegitimize the State of Israel and the IDF.
In his opening remarks, Revivi explained his participation, "I came despite the calls and requests for a boycott. I am unwilling to be boycotted and I am unwilling to boycott others. I came because the truth must be told."
Like Elhayani, Revivi appears to have his heart set on
taking his political career in a national direction. He has managed to garner
more attention than would seem proportional to his small town role as mayor of
Efrat. Revivi has been cited by the New
York Times, the Washington Post,
and the Atlantic, and even wrote an
op-ed for the LA
Times. He has done so riding on the cachet of being a dependable settler
“expert” to call on for quotable quotes.
It is worthy of note that most Efratians (as we call
ourselves) would be appalled to know that Revivi took part in the Haaretz conference. Ahead of the
conference, Efrat council member and Opposition head Avraham Ben-Tzvi, gave the
following statement to the Jewish Press:
“Even if Mayor Revivi participates in this conference, he speaks in his name only, not in the name of Efrat residents. It’s embarrassing that the mayor chooses to not include Efrat’s name on pro-settlement petitions and statements supported by the majority of the residents of Efrat, Gush Etzion, Hebron, and other settlements, but has no problem sitting down with these anti-Zionist and anti-IDF organizations.”
How bad are these “anti-Zionist” and “anti-IDF”
organizations? Bad enough that in January, Education Minister Yoav Gallant took
the extraordinary measure of issuing
an order banning groups that slander the IDF and call Israel an
"apartheid state" from giving talks in Israeli schools. Only last
month, Btselem did just that, agitating against Israel through the launching of an international campaign that libels Israel as an apartheid state. Breaking the Silence, on the other hand, is more focused on defaming the
IDF, telling wild lies of cruelty by IDF soldiers to Arab civilians. Both organizations
are heavily funded by private European individuals and European government
sources. This too, is no surprise, Europe being the place where millions of
Jews were forced into gas chambers.
Btselem
Here is a small taste of a long bulleted list hosted on the NGO
Monitor website under the heading of “political activity” on
the egregious anti-Israel activities of Btselem:
· Accuses Israel of “apartheid,” perpetrating “war crimes,” “beating and abus[ing]” Palestinians, “demolition of [Palestinian] houses as punishment,” and forced “deportations.”
· In January 2021, B’Tselem launched a discriminatory and hateful campaign, under the banner of “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” As part of the campaign, B’Tselem attacked Israel’s role as a haven for the Jewish people (the Law of Return) and used the phrase “from the river to the sea” – echoing long-standing Palestinian terminology for the destruction of Israel. (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis: “From the “River to the Sea”: B’Tselem’s Demonization Crosses the Line.”)
· In December 2020, B’Tselem, alongside a number of Israeli, Palestinian, and international organizations, issued a declaration headlined “Israel must provide necessary vaccines to Palestinian health care systems.” The NGOs falsely claim that Israel has “legal obligations” to “ensure that quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control,” while altogether ignoring that Palestinians residing in Jerusalem are part of the Israeli health care system; that under the Oslo Accords the PA is responsible for health care of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and that the PA has adopted its own vaccine policy for its population.
· In July 2020, in the context of the Black Lives Matter protests, Hagai Elad compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the death of George Floyd, stating that “I think about us and the Palestinians, and see the picture of George Floyd in my mind. We have our knee on their necks while holding an argument with ourselves on how we wish to continue doing so.”
· In September 2019, B’Tselem published a report titled “Playing the Security Card: Israeli Policy in Hebron as a Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinian” stating that “For 25 years, Israel has been openly pursuing a policy of segregation in the center of Hebron…Some features of the regime employed in Hebron recall certain aspects of the apartheid regime in South Africa.” (The report was funded by the European Union.)
Breaking the Silence
 |
| BtS Spokesman Dean Issacharoff's commander calls BS on Issacharoff's lies. |
Breaking the Silence, like Btselem, has no compunction about
lying to drive home its anti-Israel narrative. After Breaking the Silence Spokesman
Dean Issacharoff trumpeted lies about his military service and that of others
with whom he served, speaking of unspeakable (and imaginary) human rights violations against
Arabs, his “brothers” in arms (including his commanders) refuted those disgusting
lies with a video that really packed a wallop, if you’ll excuse the pun:
Having just celebrated Purim, it is unfathomable, not to mention reprehensible, that
settler leaders would grace such a conference for any reason. The conference
was not a platform for talking about Jewish land rights or spreading a different narrative and the truth. On the contrary,
participating in such a conference is to pal around with Amalek, a latter day Haman, pretending
that this will somehow benefit the Jewish people. And if we learn anything from
Purim it is that you give such monsters no quarter because participating in their events turns you into just another pawn to be put into play by evil.
The participants and sponsors of today’s conference were not
there to listen to dupes like Elhayani or Revivi. Nor were they there to learn because the truth has no meaning to them, liars to a man, every one. The
purpose of the fifth column NGOs and the conference they sponsored on behalf of the most
anti-Israel newspaper in Israel, was to lie and cheat and cause Jewish blood to
be spilled and to steal Jewish land they openly promise to give to enemies
of the Jewish people. By their actions, the evil ones name themselves among those enemies, proclaiming their hate for Israel loud and clear to the world at large. The righteous have no place among them.