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Thursday, November 23, 2023

11/23 Links Pt2: The Debate on “From the River to the Sea” Exposes the Hypocrisy of Wokeness; Calls to oust U.N. official over Australian trip funded by Palestinian lobby groups

From Ian:

Special Rapporteur accused of ‘gross violations of UN rules’ on Australia trip
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Rights Francesca Albanese breached UN rules by having her trip to Australia funded by pro-Palestinian lobby groups, according a UN watchdog NGO.

Albanese was in Australia last week, during which she addressed the National Press Club, delivered the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide and made several media appearances. The staunch Israel critic has in the past posted on social media about the “Jewish lobby”, endorsed comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and justified terrorism against Israeli civilians.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer accused Albanese of “gross violations of UN rules and basic professional ethics”.

“Her recent trip to Australia as Special Rapporteur was sponsored by known Palestinian lobby groups in that country: The Australian Friends of Palestine Association and Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, as well as the Free Palestine Melbourne and Palestinian Christians in Australia,” Neuer wrote, adding that Albanese “repeatedly echoed the Hamas narrative, claiming Israel’s right to self-defence was ‘non-existent’.”

Neuer noted that Article 3 of the Code of Conduct for UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures requires that representatives not “‘seek nor accept instructions’ from any ‘non-governmental organisation or pressure group whatsoever,’ or accept any ‘favour, gift or remuneration’ from any ‘non-governmental source for activities carried out in pursuit of his/her mandate.’”
Calls to oust U.N. official over Australian trip funded by Palestinian lobby groups
An expensive Australian trip last week by a UN official who told Hamas they have “a right to resist” was funded by Palestinian lobby groups in breach of the UN’s own Code of Conduct, according to a watchdog group that today filed papers with the world body calling for her removal.

In a letter sent today by UN Watch, an independent Swiss non-governmental watchdog group that holds special consultative status with the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is being asked to take action to remove Francesca Albanese from her post as the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur tasked with investigating “Israel’s violations.”

The full text of the letter follows below.

22 November 2023

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
The United Nations
New York, NY 10027
United States

Dear Secretary-General Guterres,

We are deeply concerned over gross violations of UN rules and basic professional ethics by Ms. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights. Her recent trip to Australia as Special Rapporteur was sponsored by known Palestinian lobby groups in that country: The Australian Friends of Palestine Association and Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, as well as the Free Palestine Melbourne and Palestinian Christians in Australia. As part of this trip, Ms. Albanese delivered the annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide and made media appearances, including an address to the National Press Club, in which she repeatedly echoed the Hamas narrative, claiming Israel’s right to self-defence was “non-existent.”

As you know, independence and impartiality are basic requirements for UNHRC Special Procedures under Article 3 of the Code of Conduct, which requires them to be “free from any kind of extraneous influence…either direct or indirect.” In addition, they may not “seek nor accept instructions” from any “non-governmental organization or pressure group whatsoever,” or accept any “favour, gift or remuneration” from any ”non-governmental source for activities carried out in pursuit of his/her mandate.”

The lobbyists’ sponsorship of Ms. Albanese’s trip constitutes a blatantly prohibited form of favour, gift or remuneration under Article 3. The financial favour further subjects Albanese to prohibited direct or indirect influence. Indeed, these groups have urged her to sue an organization that called out­­­ her pro-Hamas remarks. All of this is on top of Ms. Albanese’s disgraceful antisemitism and support for terrorism.

She has said that “America is subjugated by the Jewish Lobby.”

Last year, she told a Hamas conference, “You have a right to resist.”

Since October 7th, she has whitewashed Hamas’ atrocities. She routinely portrays Israelis as Nazis.

In light of the above gross violations of UN rules and basic ethics, we urge you to take action to remove Ms. Albanese immediately from her position as Special Rapporteur.

Sincerely,
Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director


Australian media ‘duped’ by UN Rapporteur for Palestine claiming to be ‘impartial’
Sky News host Sharri Markson says the Australian media has been “duped” by UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese, who claimed to be “impartial”.

Ms Markson says the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine travelled to Australia on a trip “funded by the Palestinian lobby”.

“Where she only had angry words to say about Israel,” she said.

“Albanese's trip to Australia was sponsored by Palestinian lobby groups, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, as well as the Free Palestine Melbourne and Palestinian Christians in Australia groups.”

Ms Markson was joined by commentator Jason Morrison and former speaker of the house Bronwyn Bishop to discuss this.


The Debate on “From the River to the Sea” Exposes the Hypocrisy of Wokeness
For the past month, ever since the terrorist group Hamas unleashed a barbaric attack on the State of Israel, debates have been raging in the press, on college campuses, even in the U.S. Congress, about whether the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” should or should not always be considered a call for the extermination of Israel and the murder of all the Jews who live there—in other words, the way Hamas uses it.

The fact that we are even debating this question at all is entirely antisemitic.

Regardless of what the phrase from the river to the sea did or could mean, to various different groups at various different times, at this point it is clear that it is, at the very least, also a slogan of the U.S. designated terrorist group Hamas, and that the terrorist group and its supporters use the phrase as a genocidal call to antisemitic violence. If there was any other chant that was readily understood by many to be calling for the wholesale slaughter of any other minority group, would anyone in their right mind have the audacity to say it is fine to use as long as that is not how it was intended? Dream on.

Antisemites like Rep. Rashida Tlaib claim that when they use the phrase, they have their own special, well-thought-out interpretation: After she was censured by Congress, Tlaib tweeted that “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” Which begs the question: If that was actually true, and that is what she meant, then why not just say that? Even if she was, absurdly, just calling for Israel to peacefully coexist with an entity that openly wants to kill every man, woman and child of Jewish descent, why would she do so using a phrase that can also clearly be understood as a call for Jewish genocide?

Tlaib and her Squad friends are very quick to label what they consider anti-Muslim or anti-black “dog-whistles” when they hear them, and to pretend that every legitimate criticism of their behavior is somehow really racist or sexist, but they have no problem making use of a phrase that clearly also means, and has long meant, “let’s kill all the Jews.”
Jeffrey Herf: From the River to the Sea
When Hamas revised its charter in 2017, it tapped into the narratives of the global Left–with stunning effectiveness.

The mass murders by Hamas on October 7 were the outcome of its core ideology, clearly expressed in its founding charter of 1988. That “ideology of mass murder” has its origins in the fusion of Nazism and Islamism that first took place in the 1930s and 40s, and then persisted in the Islamist politics of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, of which Hamas is an offshoot. Hamas’ ability to gain supporters, first in the universities, now in the streets, rests as well on its revised charter of 2017, which draws on the anti-Zionism of the secular Left. Hence a close reading of the revised charter, whose language and arguments now echo on campuses and in the streets, is in order.

The authors of the Hamas charter of 1988 were explicit about their ideological connections to the radical antisemitic conspiracy theories that had emerged in 20th-century Europe, and to the virulent hatred of Jews, Judaism, and therefore Israel that they derived from their anti-modernist Islamist interpretation of Islam. Yet the deadly implications of this document received far too little attention in the mainstream media of the West, despite being easily accessible online in English and German translations. Instead, an objectively pro-Hamas Left began developing among academics in Europe, Britain, and the United States, as became apparent in 2014 during one of Hamas’ attacks on Israel. They found themselves in the peculiar position as leftists of repeating Hamas’ arguments.

They did so because they had adopted the view of Israel that had become the common coin of the international Left since the 1960s. According to that view, the Jewish state is in reality a colonialist and racist endeavor built on the expulsion of the indigenous population in 1948. Relying on that profound misinterpretation of the events surrounding Israel’s founding, they were willing to make common cause with an organization that is profoundly hostile to the modernist values that had long been associated with at least some segments of leftist politics.

Seventy years of Soviet and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) propaganda mischaracterizing Zionism and Israel, equally unbalanced UN resolutions, and New Left romance about third-world revolutions had placed Israel on the “wrong” side and the Palestinians on the “right” side of the global divide between oppressors and oppressed. In the course of doing so, a distinctive leftist form of antisemitism, expressed in the language of anti-Zionism and support for armed attacks on Israel, fostered an opening to support not only the secular PLO but also Hamas. In Britain, that support and leftist antisemitism gained political influence in 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn won election as the leader of the Labour Party. This bizarre fusion of the Islamist Right and the secular Left was the first time since the Hitler-Stalin pact that leftist organizations made common cause with a movement of the extreme right, and the only time I can recall when they supported a group rooted in religious fanaticism. Their shared antagonism to Israel surmounted the contrasting ideological starting points.
US Jews attempt to trademark 'From the river to the sea' Palestinian
Two Jewish American men have submitted separate trademark applications for the expression "from the river to the sea," triggering a flurry of reactions. A prominent legal expert has cautioned that the move might have unintended consequences for both the Jewish community and Israel.

"It could backfire, and eventually all kinds of people we don't want to wear hats and shirts with this slogan will buy the goods and use them, and it will spread around the world," said Lihi Katzenelson, a partner at Arnon, Tadmor-Levy Law Firm, who specializes in trademarks and intellectual property.

Joel Ackerman and Oron Rosenkrantz filed trademark applications for the phrase that refers to the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The slogan became popular when the Palestinian nationalist movement first used it in the 1960s. It has since been used to express Palestinian aspirations of a Palestinian state that covers all of this territory and, therefore, wipes Israel off the map.

Ackerman, representing River to the Sea LLC, seeks to trademark the entire chant: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," Rosenkrantz of From The River To The Sea Shop LLC has applied only for "from the river to the sea."

Application only applies to hats and shirts
Katzenelson explained that if the men receive the trademark, they can enforce their rights against third parties that try to use it. However, she clarified that the applications filed a week ago apply only to hats and shirts in these cases. Moreover, receiving the trademark could take between nine months and a year.

To receive a trademark in America, the owner must prove use – like in Israel, which could also prove a challenge. Finally, if the brand would go through, it would only apply in America, meaning that in other areas, such as Europe, where the slogan has become popularized, it would still be able to be used.

"We don't know for sure what the outcome will be, but the chances [of their receiving these trademarks] is not that good," Katzenelson said. "Since it only applies to hats and shirts, stopping its use on other services and goods would be very difficult."


CBC Article Whitewashes Genocidal Intent Behind “From The River to The Sea, Palestine Will be Free”
In a lengthy article published November 21 titled: “What does ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ mean?”, Brishti Basu, a senior writer with CBC News, spent nearly 1,700 words seeking to explain the intricacies of the anti-Israel phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

While explaining the hateful nature of the phrase would be a worthwhile journalistic endeavour, Basu’s article instead effectively whitewashed the term and her report featured four of five sources who expressed support for the anti-Israel phrase.

It’s noteworthy that Basu’s social media is replete with anti-Israel content and she previously signed an anti-Israel open letter back in 2021 (read letter by clicking here) which claimed that Israel carried out “indiscriminate airstrikes,” “escalating violence against Palestinians,” “forced expulsions,” and which alleged taht there’s a “… deep reluctance (by Canadian journalists) to cover the ongoing nature of the Israeli occupation…”

Basu paraphrased one interview subject, Yousef Munayyer of the Arab Center Washington, D.C., as stating that “the phrase is used to reference the lack of freedoms Palestinians have in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

However, Basu failed to explain to readers that more than two million of the Arabs between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River live in Israel, where they enjoy full and equal rights as citizens or residents.

Another interviewee, Dox Waxman of the University of California, Los Angeles, made the ridiculous comparison to Israel’s governing Likud party, whose views he characterizes as wanting “to have Jewish sovereignty, essentially, from the river to the sea.”

What Basu failed to add is that unlike Israel, even those who oppose a Palestinian state, anti-Israel terrorist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) proudly and unabashedly glorify the use of extreme violence targeted towards innocent Israeli civilians as a means to that end.

Both groups, for instance, openly call for the violent destruction of Israel, and use the phrase “from the river to the sea” as a call to arms to violently destroy Israel.
NGO Monitor: Doctors Without Borders (MSF): Systematically Ignoring Israeli Victims and Hamas Terror

NGO Monitor: MSF in Gaza: Terror-linked Employee and Hospital

NGO Monitor: NGO Monitor analysis of the European Commission Palestinian funding review

'Israeli's Have Seen This Before' |The Malki Foundation Chairman On NewsX | NewsX

Israel-Hamas war opens up German debate over meaning of ‘Never again’

‘I immediately thought about the Jews of the Holocaust,' Julianna Margulies calls out ‘silence on antisemitism’

European Jewry will disappear by 2050, predicts bestselling Dutch-Jewish writer

New Shopping Guide Grades Businesses on Support for Israel, Jewish People — and Hamas

$13b. in hidden foreign funds linked to 300% antisemitism rise in US

Anti-Semitic activist screams 'free Palestine' as he's sentenced to seven years in prison for beating Jewish man in Times Square mob attack in 2021: Family accuse judge of being 'racist'

Pro-Israel parents booted from heated school board meeting

Jewish professor John Strauss is booted from USC campus after pro-Palestine students released EDITED video of him condemning Hamas as murderers and calling it hate speech

Antisemitism Is Infecting My College Campus — And So Many Others

The Media’s Real-Time Effort to Discredit The IDF

Canadian Media Must Demand Accountability From Those Who Signed Petition Denying Hamas Sexual Attrocities

‘Hamas Restricts Journalists in Gaza,’ New York Times Confesses — That Could Explain the Hospital Obsession

Columnist In The Hill Times Condemns Israel For Daring To Fight Hamas

La Presse Columnist Blames “Jewish Organizations” For Antisemitism

ABC CORRECTS FALSE SUGGESTION ISRAEL VIOLATED CEASEFIRE

BOTHSIDES-ISM REACHES NEW AND RIDICULOUS HEIGHTS AT THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Ireland's 'lack of Jewish influence' helps support for Palestine - former envoy

Pro-Israel Parties in Commanding Position Following Shock Election Result in Netherlands

Legal group calls on Michigan bar to investigate, sanction Tlaib over anti-Israel rhetoric

Seth Frantzman: The city of Sderot on the eve of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire

Egyptian author, a liberal activist, forced to flee for backing Israel over Hamas

JPost Editorial: Palestinian conspiracy theories

Unpacked: What Is Life Like for Palestinians in Gaza?
Life for Palestinians in Gaza under Hamas has been extremely difficult. Palestinian civilians lack basic water, sanitation, and electricity infrastructures, as well as access to upward economic mobility and the rights to freedom of speech and self-expression. The constant suffering from rampant political and economic corruption has left civilians in Gaza with a sense of despair and a longing for a change in leadership.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Brief history of the Gaza Strip
01:55 The First Intifada and economics
03:58 The Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada
05:08 The Disengagement and Palestinian elections in Gaza
06:23 The Hamas Charter and Hamas rule in Gaza
07:51 Egyptian and Israeli blockade
09:08 Hamas tunnels in Gaza
11:01 Water infrastructure in Gaza
13:00 Debt and economic corruption
14:27 Hamas leadership's extravagant lifestyle
15:25 Hamas executions of Palestinians
16:47 March, 2019 Gazan protests against Hamas, #WeWantToLive
18:28 Lack of basic human rights in Gaza
20:51 Palestinian perspectives of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War
22:12 The Christian minority in Gaza
23:13 Hamas prevents Gazans from fleeing
24:16 What do Palestinians want when the war ends?




Iran's FM visits Lebanon: Hezbollah planning larger attacks on Israel? -

Hezbollah attacks Israel with heavy barrage on eve of Gaza war ceasefire

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The Houthis show off ship they hijacked - analysis

Iran-backed Hezbollah claims five of its fighters - including son of an MP - were killed by Israeli airstrikes amid skirmishes at the Lebanese border

NOVEMBER 23, 2023 9:33 AM

The day I (almost) lost my body on the internet





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