Hamas brutally represses Gaza demonstrations. Media nowhere to be found.

Last week I reported that Gazans planned a major anti-Hamas rally on Sunday, July 30. I also noted that this news was essentially censored from all Palestinian Arabic media, even Hamas' archrival Fatah did not report on these plans.

A lot of what happens in Gaza is simply not reported by the media.

Thankfully, Gazans publish their own videos and photos on Telegram and similar social media, and the indomitable Imshin has put together a thread showing the demonstrations on Sunday - and Hamas' brutal repression of them. 

Here is her thread. And Western media is essentially complicit in Hamas' censorship and repression by adhering to terrorist directives not to report things that make them look bad.

1/ This afternoon there were demonstrations against Hamas all over Gaza Strip.
This is Khan Younes.
#TheGazaYouDontSee

2/ This afternoon there were demonstrations against Hamas all over Gaza Strip.
This is Nuseirat "refugee camp".

3/ At first Hamas took over the demonstrations, turning them into "pro-Hamas" demonstrations.

 https://t.co/Stq7PCx3Hi  t.me/abualiexpress/…

אבו עלי אקספרסתומכי חמאס משתלטים על מוקדי הפגנות ועושים להן "המרה". הם מניפים דגלי חמאס. כדי להגיב לכתבה לחצו כאןhttps://t.me/abualiexpress/47288

4/ Then the guns came...

5/ And the shooting at demonstrators started.

 More footage of dispersing anti-Hamas demonstrations in Gaza.

 Demonstrators injured by Hamas "security" thugs.

More demonstrators injured by Hamas this afternoon.
These are brothers Salama and Rami Barbakh whose father was killed by Hamas in the past.

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Algeria voted to Security Council. Let's spend five minutes looking at this wonderful country.

Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Tuesday, on the election of Algeria as a member of the UN Security Council.

Let's take a quick look at what life is like in Algeria today.

- A law was passed in 1962 that ensured that anyone without a Muslim grandparent couldn't be a citizen. Some 140,000 Jews had to leave, and the laws, while changed, ensure that they cannot become citizens today.

- Algeria routinely arrests human rights activists.

- There are credible reports of torture in prisons.

- The judiciary is not independent and effectively controlled by the president.

- There are laws that restrict women's rights.

- Men who beat women can be pardoned if the woman is pressured to marry him. 

- There are laws that criminalize many forms of speech, both in mainstream and social media. Some journalists were harassed and intimidated.

- Laws restrict activities of any religion besides Sunni Islam.

- Gays can be imprisoned under the law for homosexual acts.

- Movies and books must be approved before being allowed into the country.

- Protests in Algiers are essentially illegal.

- Black Algerians, Black migrants and non-Muslims are widely discriminated against.

So Algeria is a racist, homophobic, misogynist, apartheid dictatorship whose citizens have no freedom and limited rights. 

One reason you don't hear much about countries like Algeria in the news is because if the media and human rights groups would judge all countries with the same standards and campaign against all abuses with the same energy, criticism of Israel would be invisible in the tsunami of actual serious human rights abuses worldwide.  And they don't want to live in a world like that. 

A set at the Security Council is a very high honor. Outside of groups like UN Watch, who is protesting giving this honor to a country as contemptuous of human rights as Algeria is?

No one cares. 

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Saudi Arabia to allow Jews and bikinis in new tourist islands

Globes reports:

Sources familiar with the matter have told "Globes" that Saudi Arabia will allow Israelis to vacation on the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which it purchased from Egypt in 2016. Saudi Arabia plans building a bridge linking the islands to Egypt.

The long-range vision of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to develop his country and open it up to the world including huge tourism ventures along the Red Sea coast right up to the Gulf of Eilat. The Saudis also plan to make the islands of Tiran and Sanafir into busy tourist destinations with hotels and casinos.

...a solution is emerging that will leave Egypt with a vestige of sovereignty, thus achieving two goals: firstly, Egypt will have a veto on what happens on the islands; secondly, maintaining the peace agreement and giving Israelis the opportunity to vacation on the islands. Israeli passport holders entering Egypt from Taba or Sharm el-Sheikh airport, will be able to spend time in the hotels and casinos operated by Saudi companies on the islands.

The planned tourist spots will be specifically geared towards in international audience. For Saudi Arabia, this includes unprecedented freedoms for tourists:

Saudi Arabia’s giga-project, Red Sea Destination is set to welcome visitors in 2023, ahead of their opening RSG’s senior travel trade director Loredana Pettinati announced that women will be allowed to wear bikinis at the destination.

Pettinati when asked about the current regulations in the kingdom, said at a press conference in Dubai that no restrictions will be imposed on women and there will be no specific gender rules in place at the destination.

Pettinati also explained that as a European expat, she feels comfortable and said that “across Saudi Arabia, we do not have to wear an abaya, women are allowed to drive. There will be no distinction between women and men entering any facility, anywhere.”

She also explained that a man and woman booking a hotel will not be asked if they are married or not.

Saudi Arabia is still a huge violator of human rights, but its modernization is highly significant and pushes it in the right direction. These moves should be celebrated. 

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Hundreds of liberal US rabbis embrace a form of BDS

JTA reports:

 More than 330 American rabbis, including some who occupy prominent roles in major cities, are pledging to block members of the Religious Zionist bloc in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government from speaking at their synagogues and will lobby to keep them from speaking in their communities.

An open letter now circulating says they will not invite members of the bloc “to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.”

Its signatories come from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements. There were no Orthodox signatories.

This is prominent US Jewish leaders embracing BDS.

Every synagogue is free to invite whomever they want to speak, and not to invite people they don't want. But when they say that they will protest other synagogues' choice of speakers, and encourage their congregations to protest those other congregations, that is not a commitment to "Jewish and democratic values." 

That is shutting down free speech.

That is identical to BDS.

Imagine these same rabbis' reaction if Orthodox synagogues encouraged their members to picket their choice to allow Arab or Leftist MKs to speak at their synagogues. Yet they are encouraging the same kind of activities from their own members - in the name of democracy!

I have not dug deeply into the new Israeli government, mostly because every article about it is speculation. Likud is still by far the majority of the government, not the far right, and they will be the ones setting the agenda, just as they have for most of the past decade.  

The cabinet members have not even been finalized.  

With every political party, including in the US, there is a huge gap between what they say when campaigning and what they actually do when governing. Often, their party platforms include things to make the extremists of their parties happy while the leaders have no desire to actually implement them.

Moreover, the hysterical headlines coming out of Haaretz, US media other outlets are rarely correct. For example, reporting about the proposed change to the Law of Return is riddled with major errors.  

In short, the reporting so far about Israel's future government has been high on hysteria and nearly nonexistent on what the government will actually do.

Israeli's policies can and should be criticized when appropriate. But the criticism should be based on actions, on real legislation, not rumors or even falsehoods written by partisan reporters and columnists. 

The thought of of Reform Jews coming out to protest and disrupt a member of Israel's cabinet speaking at an Orthodox synagogue in the US is far worse than anything that Ben Gvir has done - and is likely to do. That is not "Jewish and democratic values." That is hate. 

And it shows that, ideologically, these rabbis are more on the side of BDS - spreading false rumors, looking for publicity rather than waiting for the truth to come out, trying to shut down free speech  - than on Israel's side.

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Hamas closes Gaza beach resort because a promotional video showed a family, including young girls, swimming (update)

Gazans have been furiously downloading this video of the Bianco Resort which was originally uploaded to Facebook a year ago. Apparently it was re-uploaded to Instagram about a week ago.

Gazans were scandalized by video showing a family wearing swimming suits.

Palestinian media are eagerly reporting the story about how scandalous the video is - while publishing the video itself to allow everyone to see these pre-pubescent girls splashing in the pool and hot tub. (The shirtless father is receiving some attention, too.)

The hotel issued a statement explaining that the family shown were Christians, not Muslims, and that the video was publicizing that the resort offers private chalets and pools for families to be able to swim together.

That wasn't good enough.

Today, the Gaza Ministry of Tourism closed the Bianco Resort.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Gaza decided to close a chalet in the Bianco resort in the northern Gaza Strip until further notice; "For non-compliance with the conditions and procedures followed in implementing the events and activities, which violate the customs and traditions of our authentic conservative people."

The Bianco Resort has been in the news before.

Last summer, a man in one of the private chalets took a video of his wife who could be seen for a split second swimming nude. That man was arrested by Hamas. At that time, the resort thanked Hamas for the arrest and said it upheld the moral standards of Gaza.

Also last year, Islamists in Gaza bombed the resort because it was holding a mixed-gender concert. 

The media tends to stay away from stories like these for two reasons: they don't want to publicize how extreme Hamas is in regulating how regular Gazans, including Christians, may act.

And because they don't want people to realize that Gaza has many luxury resorts and it not the bombed-out shell that the media wants the world to believe it is.

UPDATE: According to some media, this is the video that upset Hamas - a party at that same resort with young men and women together. 

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Why Hamas' beating of protesters is a big story

This story encapsulates how much the media ignores stories from the territories that don't involve Israel.

Last night, many members of the Eshtewi family held a protest outside the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. One of their sons, Mahmoud (in some reports Abul Magd) has been in Hamas prisons for months without charge. The family demanded that Haniyeh come out to talk to them, and they chanted slogans and held up banners.

Hamas police came and started beating them, injuring a number of family members including a female journalist Buthaina Eshtewi, and two brothers were arrested and taken away to an unknown destination.

In one story we have:

• Detention without charge
• Peaceful protesters being beaten
• Peaceful protesters being arrested

In the grand scheme of things, this is not that big a deal. But the complete absence of any western media ever reporting stories like this while eagerly reporting on similar stories that can be blamed on Israel reveals a much bigger issue here. 

Even if the media does not consider this newsworthy, "pro-Palestinian" NGOs would be expected to be compiling statistics of these sorts of events, and issuing annual reports counting the number of arrests, beatings, imprisonment without trial, cases of torture, people killed by police - all the statistics that are being zealously kept and often inflated by these same NGOs against Israel, even though they often claim that they are non-partisan.

Journalists, NGOs and diplomats have an unwritten agreement to ignore these sorts of stories to ensure that the news that filters out to the world is one-sided against Israel. The tiniest anti-Israel stories in the Hebrew press get translated and quoted prominently while Arabic stories like these get ignored. The decision as to which stories get coverage is not newsworthiness or the level of human rights being violated. No, the major decision-making is based on a single factor: whether the Jewish state can be properly blamed. 

This ensures that generations of young people are brought up on biased, one-sided news stories based on simplistic memes of Jewish oppression and Arab victimhood.. It takes real effort to find out the truth and practically no one will spend the time, since there is an assumption that the news media will do their jobs. And the very people who should investigate this bias are the people who practice it. 

This particular case is not a big story. But the situation that causes stories like this to be ignored day in and day out is indeed a very big deal. 

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