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Friday, April 15, 2022

04/15 Links Pt1: UN rapporteur posted support for terror ‘icon’ Leila Khaled; Palestinians Clash With Israeli Police at Temple Mount; Game Changer: Israeli laser-based air defense shoots down drones

From Ian:

UN Official Takes a Final, Parting Shot at Israel
Lynk is true to form in his report to the UNHRC, where his inflammatory rhetoric again shows his bias. For example, he characterizes Israel as “a covetous alien power” caught in “the fever-dream of settler-colonialism.” In Gaza, he says, Israel subjects the population to a “medieval military blockade” aimed at the “indefinite warehousing of an unwanted population.” Overall, Israel’s “intent is for the Palestinians to be encased in a political ossuary, a museum relic of 21st century colonialism.” Sounds like a calm, objective analysis, doesn’t it?

Lynk rests his argument on what can charitably be called a creative reading of the law. He notes that the Convention Against Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute both speak in terms of race. Thus, the essence of the crime of apartheid, he says, is one race oppressing another. This raises some inconvenient questions. For example, are Israeli Jews a race? Or are they a nation with a diverse population? Are Palestinians a separate race? And didn’t the UN resolve this whole matter when it repealed the “Zionism is racism” resolution?

Clearly, Lynk is uncomfortable with these questions, and would rather not deal with them. Instead, he tries to rely on a novel theory proposed by Norwegian professor Carola Lingaas, who “argues that race in international criminal law should be constructed according to the perpetrator’s perception of the victims’ ostensible otherness. The perpetrator’s imagination as manifested through his behavior defines the victims’ racial group membership.”

Strict definitions of race should be avoided, she says. Imagination is what matters. Is that what the drafters of the Convention Against Apartheid and the Rome Statute had in mind? Not likely.

In any event, as historian Benny Morris recently said when he addressed the apartheid issue in The Wall Street Journal, the conflict is not about race: “Instead, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essentially national, a struggle between two nations over the same tract of land.” And that goes straight to heart of Lynk’s argument: the issue of Palestinian self-determination. As Lynk would have it, Israel’s apartheid regime has denied Palestinians a state of their own. Of course, the world community offered Palestinians a state in 1947. They rejected it, and tried to murder every Jew in Israel.

And, of course, except for their intransigence, the Palestinians could have had a state several other times since then. Instead, they opted for continued violence and the maximalist goal of Arab dominion “from the river to the sea.”

As Lynk notes, his mandate only extended to the West Bank and Gaza. So he says nothing about Israel proper. Therefore, he sees no need to acknowledge that Israeli Arabs are full citizens, serve in the ruling government coalition, the Knesset, Supreme Court, IDF, and in every facet of private and public life.

None of this has to do with race, much less anything that could be called apartheid. Nevertheless, as Morris notes, “The use of terms like racism and apartheid is a way to engage and influence readers in the US and Europe, where race is a burning issue.” The apartheid claim helps spread the narrative of Palestinian victimhood. Certainly, it supports the BDS movement. But most importantly, for Lynk and his fellow travelers, it delegitimizes the Jewish state. For the “human rights” crowd at the UN, that’s what it’s all about.
UN rapporteur posted support for terror ‘icon’
Disturbing anti-Israel posts by the new UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine raise further questions about her suitability for the role following the controversy over her appointment last week.

Israel has already objected “in the strongest terms” to Italian legal expert Francesca Albanese being chosen for what is at least nominally a politically neutral role.

She has described Israel’s “occupation” as a “colonial project that has turned into apartheid”.

Now online investigators GnasherJew have uncovered further material that seems to make absurd any notion of Ms Albanese maintaining neutrality .

In one post in 2015, she celebrated terrorist Leila Khaled, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Alongside a news story on Electronic Intifada, which revealed “Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled” was to tour South Africa, Ms Albanese wrote: “Go Leila go!”

The same year, she shared a story about a border official in Latin America who drew a picture of a penis on the passport of an Israeli citizen and wrote “Viva Palestinia”.

She also shared a post likening Israelis to the Nazis. It featured two pictures of soldiers. The accompanying text read: “In the first pic, a Nazi soldier, a dog, a man on the ground – who is a Jew. In the second pic, an Israeli soldier, a dog, a man on the ground – who is a Palestinian.”
Why Is the Palestinian Authority Hiding Its Finances From the World?
In an effort to hide its practices and prevent any external scrutiny, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has blocked access to all the financial reports it used to publish.

Since 2008, as part of an agreement to receive funding from the World Bank, the Palestinian Authority has been required to publish a range of financial documents, including its annual budget and monthly budget performance reports. While the PA temporarily honored the commitment to publish its annual budget, it has not done so since 2019. In contrast, with the exception of a few minor incidents (exposed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and then rectified), the PA had been relatively meticulous in publishing its monthly budget performance reports.

Until recently (as shown below), the website of the PA Ministry of Finance provided access to all the current and previous budget performance reports.

The last PA budget performance report published was for January 2022. Now, however, even this option has been blocked, and the PA is preventing any outside scrutiny.

The PA’s decision to block all access to the reports on the site of the Ministry of Finance was taken after PMW used the reports to demonstrate how the PA spent 841 million shekels in 2021 alone, paying financial rewards to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists, and the families of dead terrorists.

Amazingly, while the PA is taking active steps to prevent any semblance of financial transparency, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh is holding high-level meetings with UN and other officials in preparation for the upcoming gathering of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) — an international group of donors that coordinates aid to the PA


UN Watch: U.N. Elects Saudi Arabia to Women’s Rights Commission
Saudi Arabia was today elected to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for a four-year term beginning in March 2023, at the first meeting of the body’s 68th session, and expiring in March 2027, at the close of its 71st session.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to a women’s rights commission is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the independent non-governmental organization UN Watch, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Commission on the Status of Women, according to its website, is the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

The Commission describes itself as “instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.”


Turkish foreign minister says ties with Israel dependent on Palestinian rights
Turkey’s foreign minister said Wednesday that Ankara is seeking a “sustainable relationship” with Israel, but those ties depend on Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

“We are seeking to establish a sustainable relationship,” said Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking to Israeli journalists in Ankara at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “Since 1949, our relations have had its ups and downs. I can tell you that those were due to the violations of Palestinian rights, and not due to the problems in our bilateral relations.”

“We expect from the Israeli side to respect the international law on the Palestinian issue for a sustainable relationship,” he stressed.

Turkey has for years been a strident critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and Jerusalem accuses Ankara of being a key haven for the Hamas terror group, creating friction between the allies. Though ties were strained for years earlier, diplomatic relations between the sides were not officially downgraded until after the 2010 Mavi Marmara raid, in which 10 Turkish nationals on a ship attempting to bust the naval blockade around Gaza were killed in a clash with Israeli troops who boarded their vessel.

Cavusoglu said that Israel and Turkey have common interests and that Turkey is “ready to develop bilateral cooperation and regional dialogue through a positive agenda.”

He pointed out the potential for cooperation in energy, trade, investment, science and technology, agriculture and food security.
IDF closes off West Bank, Gaza for Passover after skirmishes in Jerusalem
The Israeli military on Friday afternoon closed off border crossings with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, amid widespread fears that the weekend could see yet more violence following bloody skirmishes between police and Palestinian protesters atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Friday.

The closure — normally a standard practice during festivals and holidays — comes as increased tensions around the convergence of the Passover, Ramadan and Easter holidays in the coming days have set the region on edge, following weeks that have seen an uptick in West Bank clashes as Israeli forces have attempted to crack down on Palestinian terror following a rash of deadly attacks.

In contrast to the morning’s intense fighting, during which more than 150 Palestinians and three Israeli police officers were wounded, afternoon prayers for the second Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque ended relatively calmly.

Following the prayers, thousands of Palestinians gathered in the area, chanting nationalist slogans, footage showed. Some bore the Palestinian flag, while others carried green banners associated with the Hamas terror group.

The West Bank and Gaza closure began at 4 p.m. and was to remain in effect until just after midnight Saturday-Sunday. The army was still allowing Palestinians to return to the West Bank after 4 p.m. Friday, but no one was allowed out.

Exceptions can be made for humanitarian and other outstanding cases, but will require the approval of the Defense Ministry’s liaison to the Palestinians, known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Israeli Wounded in Suspected Terrorist Stabbing in Haifa
A 15-year-old Arab Israeli girl stabbed on Friday a Jewish Israeli man in an incident police say represents a suspected terrorist stabbing attack.

The attack took place in the northern city of Haifa. The man, 47, sustained moderate wounds and was hospitalized in stable condition.

Officers who arrived at the scene arrested the suspected attacker, a resident of Haifa.

Police said in a statement that the girl’s father called police earlier in the day to warn them that his daughter said she intended to perpetrate an attack in Jerusalem.

Israel in heightened security alert due to a wave of Palestinian and Arab terror that saw total of 14 people killed in attacks since March 22.
Senior US diplomat calls family of Palestinian woman shot dead by IDF
A senior Biden administration official on Thursday called the family of an unarmed Palestinian woman who was shot dead by Israeli troops earlier this week to offer his condolences.

The call by George Noll, who heads the Palestinian Affairs Unit in the US Embassy to Israel, to the family of Ghada Sabateen represents a relatively rare decision by the administration to weigh in on the killing of a Palestinian who is not an American citizen.

The widowed 47-year-old mother of six did have American relatives, though.

“The United States welcomes Israel’s decision to investigate her shooting death,” the Palestinian Affairs Unit tweeted, in an apparent reference to the IDF’s statement on the Sunday incident, which said it was “clarifying” what had happened. The IDF has yet to announce any formal investigation into the matter.

Asked Thursday for an update on the effort to ascertain the circumstances of Sabateen’s death, an IDF spokesperson issued the same statement the military made four days earlier.

In footage of the incident Sabateen, who was partially blind, could be seen raising her hands as she ran at a makeshift checkpoint in her West Bank village of Husan, when soldiers shot her, causing her to fall.

The army said at the time that Sabateen had approached Israeli soldiers “in a suspicious manner.” A military spokesperson later confirmed that she was unarmed.
Amid violence on Temple Mount, Ra’am warns coalition in danger; PM holds assessment
The leader of the Islamist Ra’am party said Friday that he had informed his coalition partners that violent clashes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem were a “red line” that could further harm Israel’s unstable government.

“The continued harm to Al-Aqsa is a red line for us, including in the context of coalition stability,” Mansour Abbas said in an interview on Radio Al-Shams.

“In the case of Al-Aqsa, there are no political considerations,” he added, referring to the holy site by the name of the mosque there.

The current Israeli government has been brought to the brink of collapse in recent days after a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party quit the coalition, causing it to lose its razor-thin majority. The 120-member Knesset is now deadlocked, with both the coalition and opposition comprising 60 seats apiece.

The Ra’am chief’s comments came as clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Temple Mount early Friday morning. Over 150 Palestinians were injured according to the Red Crescent; Israel said three officers were also hurt. The Muslim Waqf authorities said hundreds were arrested, while a police source quoted by the Kan public broadcaster said 400 were detained.

The Ra’am party sharply condemned the police response, repeating that “Al-Aqsa is [part of] the faith and there is no place for political considerations regarding it.”

“Muslims have the exclusive right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The daily invasions are an aggression against that exclusive right,” Ra’am added.
Palestinians Clash With Israeli Police at Temple Mount
More than 150 people were wounded on Friday in clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Israeli police said that before dawn “dozens of masked men” marched into al-Aqsa chanting and setting off fireworks before crowds hurled stones towards the Western Wall – considered the holiest site where Jews can pray.

A Palestinian Red Crescent official said 117 people were rushed to hospitals and “dozens of other injuries” were treated at the scene. Israeli police said three officers were hurt.

According to the Israel Police, the Palestinian demonstrators also waved flags of the Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s governing body Hamas.

The latest clashes come after three tense weeks of deadly violence in Israel and the West Bank, and as the Jewish festival of Passover and Christian Easter overlap with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The day prior, Israel’s army announced that crossing points with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be closed during the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which was also the second Friday of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.

The shutdown will start on Friday, April 15, 2022, at 4:00 PM, and will last until Saturday, April 16 at midnight.

Palestinians are allowed to attend Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque but must return to the West Bank by the time the general closure begins.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that Israeli authorities did not enter the mosque.


The Israel Guys: EXPOSED: The Real People Behind the Terror Attacks in Israel
You’ve likely heard about all of the recent terrorist attacks in Israel. What you haven’t heard is who is really to blame. On today’s program, we show you examples of international media reporting about terrorist attacks. They’re just a little bit biased.

Also, the mainstream media will be sure to not emphasize the fact that all of these attacks are happening inside “Israel proper”, not in the “West Bank”. AND, many of these attacks are being committed by Israeli Arab citizens.




Following CAMERA UK complaint, BBC removes ‘Jews revere al Aqsa’ claim
Last month we noted that a report by BBC East Midlands which appeared on the BBC News website’s ‘Leicester’ page on March 28th included the claim that al Aqsa is “a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews”.

CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC pointing out that the BBC’s style guide states that Temple Mount should be referred to as such and “should also be described, though not necessarily in the first four pars, as known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif “.

We noted that al Aqsa is the name of a mosque at the site – not the title of the entire site – and that in contrast to the inaccurate claim in the report, Jews do not ‘revere’ al Aqsa: for Jews the holy site is Temple Mount.

On April 6th we received a reply from BBC Complaints informing us that it would take more time to address our complaint. On April 12th we received a response from the BBC News website:
“Thank you for getting in touch about our article Arrests at pro-Palestinian Leicester drone factory protest.

You’re quite right and we have removed “al-Aqsa” from the sentence.

Please accept our apologies for the oversight and thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

The amended paragraph now refers to:
“…a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.”

However, our complaint also drew attention to the fact that the same inaccuracy appeared in a previous report dating from August 2021. Despite acknowledging the error, the BBC News website has yet to correct that earlier report.
In ‘game changer,’ Israeli laser-based air defense shoots down drones
The Defense Ministry revealed Thursday that a laser air defense system it is developing successfully shot down drones, rockets, mortars, and anti-tank missiles in a first series of tests last month.

According to the head of the ministry’s research and development team, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yaniv Rotem, the tests were conducted at “challenging” ranges and timings.

“The use of a laser is a ‘game changer’ and the technology is simple to operate and proves to be economically viable,” he said.

In a video released by the ministry, the laser-based system can be seen intercepting a rocket, a mortar, and a drone at an undisclosed location in southern Israel’s Negev desert, during March of this year.

The ministry has been testing the laser-based defense system for several years, shooting down a drone with it last year. The recent tests were the first to be successful against the other threats, including unguided projectiles and anti-tank guided missiles. (The latter was not shown in footage released by the ministry.)

Its research and development department initially planned to deploy the anti-missile system by 2024, but the military has pushed for an earlier deployment. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced in February that Israel would deploy the system within the year.

This was apparently driven by concerns that in a future conflict, the military would not have sufficient interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome and other air defense systems to shoot down incoming rockets, missiles, and drones.

“Every effort is being made to make the system operational as soon as possible and enable an efficient, inexpensive, and innovative protection umbrella,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Wednesday.
Israel successfully tests laser defense system and intercepts drones

'Iron Beam' laser defense system succeeds in first test



Abbas to convene PA leaders amid calls for ending security cooperation
Leaders of the ruling Fatah faction on Thursday urged the Palestinian leadership to implement resolutions calling for halting security coordination and terminating signed agreements with Israel.

The Fatah leaders said that Israel’s latest actions and policies “confirm the failure of the plan for confidence-building measures” between the Palestinians and Israel.

They were referring to statements by Defense Minister Benny Gantz about the need for confidence-building measures between the two sides.

During his last meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Gantz announced his intention to “continue advancing confidence-building measures in economic and civilian areas.”

Gantz also emphasized the Israelis’ and Palestinians’ shared interest in deepening security coordination and preventing terrorism and violence.

The call by the Fatah leaders to cut all ties with Israel came amid rising tensions in the West Bank, where five more Palestinians were killed by IDF soldiers in the areas of Ramallah, Jenin and Bethlehem over the past 48 hours.

The appeal also came as Abbas called a meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Sunday to discuss the latest flareup of violence and the possibility of implementing the resolutions concerning the Palestinians’ relations with Israel.


Egyptian TV: The Jews Plotted To Form A 'Global Kingdom,' Destroy Non-Jewish Nations In A Scheme Outlined In The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
On February 4, 2022, Channel 2 (Egypt) aired news report about Jewish assimilation that claimed that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion contains the outline of a Jewish scheme to establish a "global kingdom" and destroy non-Jewish nations. The report claimed that the Jews failed to integrate into European societies because of "their enmity towards humanity" and their "hostile Jewish personality" that was formed because they lived in ghettos. It also claimed that wars and conflicts erupted because of Jewish "schemes." It is noteworthy that Egyptian TV channels are known for airing antisemitic shows and reports. For example, in 2002 Egyptian TV aired an antisemitic Ramadhan TV series titled "A Horseman Without a Horse," in which The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a central subject (see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 3383 and 7279.)

"Because Of Their Enmity Towards Humanity, The Jews Failed In Assimilating Into European Societies... The Ghetto Life Of Seclusion Formed The Hostile Jewish Personality"

Narrator: "Because of their enmity towards humanity, the Jews failed in assimilating into European societies. Wars and conflicts erupted because of their schemes.

"The ghetto life of seclusion formed the hostile Jewish personality. It provided a fertile breeding ground for secret schemes against the world's nations.

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion "Laid Down The Foundations For The Destruction Of The Non-Jewish Nations, So That [The Jews] Can Take Over The World"

"The most famous of these schemes included what came to be known in the world as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which consisted of secret documents, in which Jews drew their plans to establish a global kingdom, and in which they laid down the foundations for the destruction of the non-Jewish nations, so that they can take control of the world."
State Department Report on Iranian Rights Abuses Is ‘Indictment’ Against Tehran Regime, Says Advocacy Group
An advocacy group dedicated to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons called on the US administration to consider a new government report on human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic while it conducts talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which reviews the status of human rights in 198 countries and territories, was released Tuesday by the US State Department. Its section on Iran blamed the Tehran regime for “significant human rights issues,” including unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and restrictions on religion and free expression.

“Secretary [Antony] Blinken and the State Department are clearly under no illusions about the Iranian regime’s grotesque human rights abuses,” said the heads of the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) advocacy group, Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, in a statement Thursday.

“The Biden Administration should ask itself, before making any agreements with Iran, whether shifts in US policy will improve the lives of those suffering at the hands of the Iranian regime or enrich and empower their abusers. If the President has indeed put human rights at the center of American foreign policy, as he has pledged, then there is no rationale for making it easier for the regime to reach new depths of depravity.”

The State Department’s lengthy Iran section detailed government discrimination against minorities, noting concerns that LGBTQI+ individuals have been executed under specious charges. Iranian women, too, faced disproportionate punishment for crimes like adultery, including death sentences.

The report added that members of Iran’s 9,000-strong Jewish population describe government restrictions and discrimination, and said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of routinely engaging in “egregious antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial and distortion.”
EU politician urges Oberlin College to fire Iran regime ‘criminal’
Charlie Weimers, a prominent Swedish member of the European parliament demanded on Thursday that the Ohio-based Oberlin College summarily fire its professor, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, for his alleged role in covering up the mass murder of at least 5,000 innocent Iranian prisoners during the summer of 1988 in Iran.

When asked by the Post if Oberlin College’s president Carmen Twillie Ambar should dismiss Mahallati, Weimers told The Jerusalem Post: “Absolutely! Not today or tomorrow, it should have been yesterday.”

He added: “Any person serving for the world’s largest terror sponsoring regime should be sanctioned, especially those at the top and those who seek to cover up the crimes against humanity by that regime, like Mr. Mahallati.”

The United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, have classified Iran’s regime as the top international state-sponsor of terrorism.

Ambar has refused to meet with the families of the victims of 1988 massacre.

Weimers told the Post that “it is an absolute disgrace that Oberlin College President Ambar refuses to meet with the families of over 5,000 innocent victims of crimes against humanity.

"For a college that states that it seeks a ‘respectful exchange of ideas and shares an enduring commitment to a sustainable and just society,’ the last thing one would expect is that it employs a man with blood on his hands while serving for the largest terror sponsoring government in the world and that its President snubs victims and their families of that terrorist regime, who seek to ensure a just society.”

Weimers is widely regarded as one of the leading champions within the European Parliament of the victims of the theocratic state in Tehran, Iranian dissidents and for the promotion of Iranian democracy and civil rights.






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