Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Jordan

Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts

Sunday, May 28, 2023

75 years ago: Jordan imprisons Jews, calls them "prisoners of war"

From the Palestine Post, May 25, 1948:

These prisoners, for the most part, weren't fighters. They were workers at the electric plant.

Which means they were hostages, not prisoners of war.

And at least some of them remained hostages until a prisoner swap the end of the year. From December 1:

I don't know if there were any Arab workers at the Palestine Electric Company, but if there were, they sure didn't become hostages. Only the Jews.

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Jordanian MP's tribe proud of his smuggling arms to Israel

In a story that was originally censored by the Israeli media, a Jordanian MP was arrested in Israel after being caught smuggling a large cache of weapons to the West Bank.

Imad Al-Adwan was caught smuggling 160 handguns and 17 M16 rifles at the Allenby Crossing on the Jordan River on Saturday night.

Adwan's tribe in Jordan issued a statement casting doubt on the charges, but saying that they are proud of his actions.

The statement said that Adwan "has a patriotic and national spirit" who exhibits a "desperate defense of the Palestinian cause." It stressed "our lack of confidence in the Zionist side and its narrative," and yet says "we are all proud of our son and his actions."

The Adwan tribe also called on the Jordanian government to make every possible effort to "restore the member of the Jordanian legislative authority from the hands of the Zionists, as soon as possible," considering that their son "is not a representative of his constituency, but of all Jordanians."

Other Jordanian groups likewise tried to simultaneously call Israeli officials liars while admitting that this kind of action was exactly what Adwan would do.

The National Forum to Support the Resistance and Protect the Homeland in Jordan called for Adwan's immediate release, saying that "despite the lack of information received, which comes from the Zionist occupier only, every Jordanian knows is that Representative Imad Al-Adwan breathes Palestinian concern and identifies with the heroics of the revolutionary Palestinian youth."

For its part, the Jordanian Workers Party is incensed at Israel's breach of protocol for not honoring Adwan's parliamentary immunity. "This procedure should not have taken place in the first place, given that the representative holds a diplomatic passport, and international norms require that his car not be searched, and his arrest is contrary to international norms."

From what I can tell, Adwan does not benefit from diplomatic immunity for any actions done in a private capacity - and presumably the government of Jordan did not want him to smuggle weapons.

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Jordan's Foreign Ministry reiterates that the Temple Mount - and the Kotel - must be Judenrein

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement today saying that the holiest site in Judaism must never have Jews.

The Ministry condemned the "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif." which it says "constitutes a violation of the historical and legal status quo existing in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a violation of the sanctity of the holy places."

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sinan Al-Majali, stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is "a place of worship for Muslims only."

Majali added "the Israeli government bears responsibility for the escalation in Jerusalem and in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the deterioration that will worsen, if it does not stop these incursions into Al-Aqsa."

What are the boundaries of Al Aqsa? Well, they include the Kotel. The Jordanian government considers the Kotel to be a part of Al Aqsa Mosque, and therefore they are saying that Jews have no right to be there, either, except perhaps for very limited times that the Ottoman Empire allowed Jews to visit since 1852, which they consider the beginning of the "status quo."

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The @NYTimes twists the facts about Al Aqsa this morning - and omits the most important one

This morning's New York Times article about the clashes at Al Aqsa mosque, written by Raja Abdulrahim and Patrick Kingsley, is filled with anti-Israel bias.

And it does not mention the single most important fact that would change the entire complexion of the article.

The Israeli police raided the most prominent holy site in Jerusalem early on Wednesday to detain scores of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside, prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace and the Israeli Air Force to respond with strikes on military sites in Gaza.

The phrase "prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace" is incredible.

Israel doesn't "prompt" deadly rocket fire. That decision is made solely by terror groups, and they will always have an excuse. But the "Newspaper of Record" shares the logic of terror groups that shooting rockets into the south of Israel is a "natural response" to events in Jerusalem.

And note the wording, "into Israeli airspace." Were they firing balloons? While some of the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome, others hit the ground (a factory was damaged and others fell harmlessly in unpopulated areas.)

Why couldn't the NYT say that rockets were fired into Israel or towards Israeli residential areas - phrases which would be far more straightforward and accurate? Because that might make readers a little sympathetic to the victims of the rockets! Rockets that are fired into "airspace" aren't dangerous. If it wasn't for gravity, they wouldn't have hit anything at all!

The police forced their way into one of the two main prayer halls at the contested holy site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. In the ensuing confrontations, police officers struck Palestinians with batons and Palestinians fired fireworks. Palestinian news outlets said the police had fired tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets.

Now, which came first - the batons or the fireworks? The Times implies that the fireworks were shot to defend against batons, which is clearly the opposite of the truth..

Here are some of the spent fireworks casings.

Clashes often occur at the Aqsa Mosque compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount, during periods of tension in the region. Officials and diplomats have been warning that the overlap of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins on Wednesday evening, could make such clashes more likely.

The police said the Palestinians had locked the doors of the prayer hall, the Qibli Mosque, from the inside and barricaded the entrances, hours after the taraweeh prayers, which are held nightly during Ramadan. The police said they had raided the mosque after prolonged attempts to persuade the worshipers to leave.

...Some Palestinians had called for worshipers to go to Aqsa for itikaf, a tradition of staying overnight in a mosque for worship, which is practiced especially during Ramadan. They expressed concern that with Passover beginning, more Jewish worshipers would come to the site.

This is a gross perversion of the truth. And there is no doubt that Raja Abdulrahim is knowingly deceiving the readers.

Israel made an agreement with the Jordanian government, which controls the Waqf at Al Aqsa, that there would be no i'tikaaf at Al Aqsa on weeknights. The reason is because Palestinian and Islamist groups have urged Muslim youth to stay overnight in order to attack Jewish visitors the next morning.

Israel arranged that other nearby Jerusalem mosques would be able to accommodate any Muslims who want to adhere to the custom. In previous years, Al Aqsa did not allow i'tikaaf either.

The Waqf issued a memo confirming that no one was to stay overnight outside of Thursday and Friday nights, and the last ten days of Ramadan.

Israeli forces have been enforcing the agreement. Up until this morning, the worshipers have left peacefully. This frustrated the Islamists who have been trying to incite violence since Ramadan started. There were plenty of articles in Arabic claiming Israeli forces violently removed the worshippers, but there was no video that could incite the public.

The Islamists needed that video.

So last night, Palestinian youth barricaded themselves in the prayer hall hours after the last prayer of the night. They had already stockpiled fireworks and stones. And when they refused to leave, Israeli forces entered to enforce the Waqf agreement.

Now they had the video they wanted, as they shot fireworks and threw stones from within the holy site.

The New York Times purposefully omits anything about the agreement with the Waqf, and gives credence to the idea that Jews are the ones who are the aggressors here and Muslims have the right to block Jews from quietly praying on Judaism's holiest site:

For decades after capturing the site from Jordan in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Israel prevented Jews from praying at the compound. But they have been tacitly allowed to do so in recent years, which has angered many Palestinians and Muslim states in the region.

And the Times further justifies the violence:

Some Jewish activists recently called for sacrificing a goat at the compound to observe Passover, something that the Israeli police have repeatedly said they would prevent.

The NYT desire to hide the fact about the agreement with Jordan to avoid events like that of this morning is clear here:

Since Ramadan began two weeks ago, the police have been forcing Muslims to leave the Aqsa compound after the nightly taraweeh prayers to ensure that they do not stay overnight. The police have also prevented many young Palestinian men from entering the mosque compound for morning prayers, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Without mentioning the Waqf memo, the reader is left with the impression that Israeli police want to disrupt an important and sacred Muslim tradition for no discernible reason.

This article may adhere to the New York Times' objectivity guidelines, but it is not objective. Every phrase is slanted to damn Israel, and the most crucial information that exonerates Israeli police actions is simply missing.

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Arab media knows that the Waqf agreed no overnight stays in Al Aqsa - but refuse to report it

For the second Sunday night, Palestinian Muslims attempted to stay overnight in the Al Aqsa mosque in a ritual known as i'tikaaf - and Israeli forces politely removed them without incident.

As I have been reporting, the reason there has been a call for i'tikaaf this year when it has hardly ever been demanded in the first weeks of Ramadan in the past is because the Muslims want to disrupt Jews visiting the Temple Mount the next morning. This is explicitly said in Islamist media calling on herds of worshipers to "defend" the mosque from the Jewish "stormers."

Israel and Jordan, along with the Jordanian Waqf, agreed that there would only be i'tikaaf on Thursday and Friday nights, and the last ten days of Ramadan, when Jews are not allowed to ascend the next day.

Last weekend the Waqf agreement was not well publicized and there was widespread anger at Israel removing the worshippers. But during the week, Arabic social media turned its anger at the Waqf, and they published the Waqf's memo stating that no i'tikaaf would be performed until the end of Ramadan.

Everyone knows about the agreement now.

But Palestinian media reporting on Sunday night's removal of female worshippers (by female Israeli police officers) do not say a word about the Waqf agreement.

Which is just more evidence that Palestinian media cannot be trusted to report anything accurately. They are propaganda sources, and any truth that they publish is purely coincidental.

Even the official Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting about the removal of the worshippers without mentioning the agreement that those worshippers are violating.

They are trying to incite violence - when the entire purpose of the ban on i'tikaaf is to minimize the chances for violence.

Isn't that a problem?

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The bizarre maps erasing Israel in Jordan's geography textbooks

Jordan complained that Bezalel Smotrich stood behind a map showing Jordan as part of the Jewish state under the original definition of Palestine before Sykes-Picot. They were quite insulted.

So I looked at the Jordanian geography textbooks, and saw plenty of maps (not all of them) that erased Israel, like this one:

But this map in a seventh grade geography book from 2019 has nothing to do with reality.

From left to right, the first one is captioned "1946."

The second one shows the 1947 UN partition plan that was never accepted by anyone, and the caption is "1949-1967."

The third shows the Green Line created in 1949, and is captioned "2008."

The key shows green as "Arab lands" and the white as "occupied lands."

According to this textbook, all of Israel is "occupied," and somehow in 1967 Israel occupied the lands it gained in 1948. (As far as I can tell, Israel isn't mentioned.)

If Jordan is going to complain about Smotrich's map, they should explain maps like these.

(h/t Yoel)

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As soon as @Amnesty started their "Apartheid" campaign, they STOPPED mentioning Lebanese/Jordanian discrimination against Palestinians

In 2007, Amnesty International wrote a 5-page report describing the institutionalized and legal discrimination against Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon.

It ended off with these recommendations for the Lebanese government:

To this end, the Lebanese authorities should:
 urgently repeal or revise all laws and policies that directly discriminate against Palestinian refugees;
 take immediate steps to improve conditions in the camps and gatherings;
 register all non-ID Palestinian refugees under Lebanese jurisdiction without delay;
 end the discrimination facing Palestinians in the labour market;
 ensure that adequate health care is available to all;
 ensure that all children have equal access to education.

That report, 16 years ago, was the last time that Amnesty dedicated a report to the plight of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Nothing has changed since then. The discriminatory laws are still in place, Palestinians still cannot own land, they still are banned from many jobs, they still have no access to Lebanese health care, babies born are not given citizenship.

By any definition, including Amnesty's own definition, this is apartheid against Palestinians in Lebanon. But Amnesty never calls it such, and it has not considered this issue worth a follow-up report since the first decade of the century.

Amnesty would briefly mention Arab discrimination against Palestinians in their annual reports on every country. From their annual report on 2014:

Thousands of Palestinian long-term refugees continued to live in camps and informal gatherings in Lebanon, often in deprived conditions. They faced discriminatory laws and regulations, for example denying them the right to inherit property, the right to work in around 20 professions, and other basic rights.

And for 2019:

Lebanon also continued to host tens of thousands of long-term Palestinian refugees, who remained subject to discriminatory laws excluding them from owning or inheriting property, accessing public education and health services, and working in at least 36 professions. At least 3,000 Palestinian refugees who do not hold official identity documents faced further restrictions, denying them the right to register births, marriages and deaths.

2020:

Over 470,000 Palestinian refugees were registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, including 29,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria. The 180,000 of them estimated to be still living in the country remained subject to discriminatory laws, excluding them from owning or inheriting property, accessing public education and health services and from working in at least 36 professions.

But when you look at the Lebanon entry of Amnesty's latest annual report, covering 2021, there is not a word about discrimination and mistreatment of Palestinians in Lebanon.

Nothing has changed. The overcrowded camps are still there, the discriminatory laws are still there. Amnesty's decision not to mention that which had been in every annual report until now must be deliberate.

Perhaps it was a mere clerical error, an oversight, a regrettable mistake?

Let's look at Amnesty's annual reports on Jordan concerning the non-citizen Palestinians who live there.

2019:

On 14 October, the Ministry of Labour raised from 11 to 39 the number of professions barred to non-Jordanian nationals seeking employment. Among them were long-term Palestinian refugees not holding Jordanian citizenship, most of whom were from the Gaza Strip; they continued to be denied other basic rights and services, too.

2020:

Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip continued to be excluded from basic rights and services as they do not have Jordanian citizenship.

But in the latest 2021 report, there is not a word about Jordanian discrimination against hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are not citizens. And they are still suffering from the same discrimination they were the year and decades before.

Why would Amnesty excise any mention of Arab human rights abuses against Palestinians in its 2021 report when they were mentioned in previous reports, and their situation has not gotten any better?

Here's why.

Amnesty released its 2021 annual report in March, 2022. This was shortly after Amnesty issued its report falsely accusing Israel of "apartheid" against Palestinians.

As soon as Amnesty issued its anti-Israel report, in which it had invested so many hours and so much money, it removed any mention of Jordan and Lebanon treating their Palestinian residents far worse than Israel does!

This is unlikely to be a coincidence. Amnesty's libel against Israel would have been diluted by their mentioning how Arab nations officially discriminate against Palestinians who have lived within their borders for decades. They did not want people to point to their own reports showing that Arabs really are guilty of apartheid against Palestinians, with discriminatory laws aimed specifically at them. 2022 was the year that Amnesty dedicated to attacking Israel - even creating T-shirts and swag and encouraging "stunts" to get publicity for their crusade.

Amnesty is not soberly reporting on accusations of Israeli human rights abuses. It is enthusiastically promoting an anti-Israel campaign. Mentioning that their fellow Arabs treat Palestinians worse than "racist, Jewish supremacist" Israel would damage that message.

So they erased all human rights abuses against Palestinians that they couldn't blame on Israel.

Which proves that Amnesty is not the impartial arbiter of human rights it pretends to be. At least when it comes to the Middle East, it is an anti-Israel propaganda outlet. It happily throws Palestinians in Lebanon and Jordan under the bus. To them, demonizing Israel is a far more important mission than mere human rights.

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Former Jordanian MP: Israel wants to take over Jordan

Salim Al-Batayneh, a former member of Jordan's parliament and a critic of the government, wrote an op-ed saying that Israel plans to expand to take over Jordan.

"Jordan is at the heart and depth of the Israeli targeting," he says, pointing out that before the first partition of Palestine in 1921, the Jews wanted to include parts of Transjordan in the Jewish state.

After 1967, according to Al Batayneh, Israel's expansionist plans only increased. He quotes a supposed article by an Israeli in the Times of London saying, "When the Jews gain full control over Aqaba and the Gulf, we will be able to attack the Hijaz and destroy the superstitious holy places in Mecca and Medina."

Sounds legit!

He also repeats the lie that Yasir Arafat said at the UN in 1990, claiming that the Israeli 10-agorot coin includes a map of Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.

The former politician soberly warns in the end of the article, "Israel has a long-awaited satanic program, and now is the time it will implement it."

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Arabs on social media very upset at Jordanian, Egyptian condemnations of Jerusalem attack

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that condemned the attack at the Jerusalem synagogue in the middle of a "both-sides" warning against escalation:

Amman, January 28 - Today, Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs stressed the need to take urgent and effective steps to stop the dangerous and condemnable state of escalation, which has claimed the lives of Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and threatens to erupt into cycles of violence for which everyone will pay the price..

Today, the official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sinan Majali, said that Jordan condemns the attack that targeted civilians in a synagogue in East Jerusalem, as well as all acts of violence targeting civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories..

He added that Jordan condemns violence against civilians in all its forms and stresses the need to respect the sanctity of places of worship.

Majali stressed the need for immediate action to prevent the escalating cycle of violence from worsening, to intensify efforts to restore calm, and to stop all unilateral and provocative measures that push for further escalation and tension..

Majali stressed the need to stop the dangerous deterioration that perpetuates despair and fuels extremism by joining efforts to restore confidence in the feasibility of the peace process by resuming serious and effective negotiations to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution so that everyone can enjoy security and peace.

When it was posted on Twitter, it was strongly condemned - and in fact, the tweet was "ratioed," a rare tweet where there were more comments against it than "Likes." Typical was this comment, "30 martyrs since the beginning of the year, we haven't heard anything from you, and when 10 pigs [Jews] died, it became necessary to calm things down..." Many pointed out that this may be the official government statement but most Jordanians support murdering Jews.

In Amman, Jordan, sweets were handed out in celebration of the attacks.

The Egyptian condemnation of the attack was stronger than Jordan's:

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday morning, January 28, 2023, the Arab Republic of Egypt expressed its total rejection and strong condemnation of the attack that took place in East Jerusalem on Friday, January 27, which resulted in the death of 7 people and a number of injuries, stressing its condemnation of all operations targeting civilians.

Egypt warned of the severe risks of the ongoing escalation between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, calling for the exercise of the utmost restraint, and an end to aggression and provocative measures in order to avoid falling into a vicious circle of violence that worsens the political and humanitarian situations and undermines de-escalation efforts and all chances of reviving the peace process.

Moreover, Egypt offered its sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured.

This drew hundreds of angry reactions on Facebook and expressions of joy at the Jerusalem massacre.

Similarly, an Egyptian businessman with nearly 8 million followers, Naguib Sawiris, tweeted that both the Israelis in Jenin and the murderer in Jerusalem were terrorists. Thousands of Egyptians denounced his statement.

Interestingly, Saudi Arabia issued a "both-sides" statement that included a general condemnation of targeting civilians without saying anything about the Jerusalem attack. It did not get nearly the amount of angry responses as Egypt or Jordan did.

Incidentally, both Turkey and the UAE described the Jerusalem attack as "terrorist," angering Hamas.

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Jordanian "expert" says Israeli Left is promiscuous, the Right is Taliban

Arab media have been very excited at the doom and gloom articles in Israeli and Western media predicting civil war or a collapse of Israeli society. Haaretz articles are especially prized and translated.

But it's been a couple of months, and the audience is thirsting for more.

Awad Deif Allah Almalahimah writes in Jordanian news site Khaberni his own expert analysis of how Israeli society is irrevocably split in two, based on his first-hand observations - 20 years ago in the West Bank.

It is quite clear that he has no idea what he is talking about, but his audience doesn't know that.

The Ashkenazi Jews of European origin live in and around Tel Aviv. They are a morally decadent society, with addiction to alcohol and drugs, prostitution, moral decay, homosexuality, sexual transformation, and other perversions and reprehensible things.

As for the fanatics, most of them are concentrated in the West Bank, especially in the areas of Hebron, Jerusalem, and other places, and the enemy has a goal for their concentration there. Here I will tell you some manifestations of religious intolerance:

During my more than seven visits to the West Bank, about two decades ago, I witnessed the concentration of Falasha Jews in Jerusalem, and their residence is confined to certain places, and they do not work in any work or jobs at all. And they consider them as breeding machines, as it is common to see a woman and a man accompanied by 10 children or more, as they walk in the street. Their clothes are shrouded in black - as are their hearts - and their beards are very long, which may reach the knee, and they wear their headscarves that indicate their fanaticism, and their women wear the veil, and no part of their bodies or faces appear, as if they were a copy of the backward terrorist organization ISIS - which had not appeared yet, Perhaps ISIS copied it from the Falasha Jews - yes, ISIS, the organization of the killers, a creation of America and Zionism to distort the great Islam. And the majority of the Falasha Jews, as I mentioned earlier, are given remunerative and generous salaries and benefits, without doing any work, and their services to the entity are represented in breeding new Zionists.

In addition to what I mentioned above from my personal observations, I will tell you what happened to the religious fanatics of the entity. Imagine that about 50,000 Zionist girls do not leave their homes unless they wear the veil. The prohibition of eating, selling, or dealing with pork began to spread. Separation of men and women began to spread in all places. The prohibition of women from working, obliging them to stay at home, and preventing them from going out except accompanied by a mahram began to spread, and strictness began to prohibit doing any work on Saturdays at all.

Contrasting this strict society, the other section is the secularists who brought with them the life of the West with all its vices.

...Accordingly, they are not a people, but rather a population with diverse cultures, religions, languages, customs, traditions, values, morals, and concepts. Because it is a mixed society of immigrants from most, if not all parts of the world. Nothing binds them absolutely except the illusion of the motherland. Where they came from: Western Europe / Eastern Europe / North America / South America / and the Middle East, including some Arab countries / India / Russia / Canada / South Africa / Ethiopia / Britain, and others.

They are not a real, interdependent, cohesive society, with calling for intimacy, coexistence, unity, and rejection of division. Rather, the population of the entity spreads dissonance, division that reaches the point of conflict, and the rejection of the other who came from origins that are not homogeneous, but discordant in everything. God willing, the seeds of the collapse, annihilation, and disappearance of this artificial entity lie in it.

Not to belittle the real problems in Israeli society, but Arab "experts" have been making the claim that Israel is not a real country but a collection of people with nothing in common since 1948.

The last sentence makes it clear that there is a lot of wishful thinking going on here.

By the way, notice how this writer says that Zionism created ISIS. A similar mindset can be seen in this article from Yemen that says that Zionism was behind the burning of the Quran in Sweden.

If you don't like it - it is Jewish (or "Zionist.")

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01/24 Links Pt1: The continuing lie of the “Gaza blockade”; As Billions Flow to Jordan, US Remains Mum on Extradition of Palestinian Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi; Who will celebrate World Hijab Day this year?

From Ian:

Palestinians are playing the long game on world stage – Israel could lose

The United Nations General Assembly recently approved a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render an opinion on whether the continuing Israeli occupation of the territories has become permanent, and in fact an annexation of the territories. In principle, the Court’s opinions are not binding, and its decisions cannot be directly translated into steps against Israel. However, in practice, the petition of the case to the ICJ is part of a broader Palestinian strategy, and in the present international climate is liable to have significant implications.

In recent years, the Palestinians have adopted the practice of involving international institutions in their conflict with Israel. These efforts include their appeal to the ICJ on the legality of the separation fence, a push for the establishment of international commissions of inquiry after every military operation in Gaza, complaints to the International Criminal Court that led to a pending investigation of Israeli actions related to the conflict, and a drive to have Palestine admitted as a member state of various international organizations.

The Palestinian activity in international organizations is coordinated and aggregate. For example, the General Assembly’s recognition of the State of Palestine in 2012 provided the basis for the determination that the International Criminal Court has the authority to investigate Israeli actions related to the conflict. An ICJ decision that the Israeli occupation is illegal would serve as the basis for additional proceedings against Israel.

Developments in Israeli law are also liable to affect the legal ramifications of the ICJ proceeding. In 2004, it published an opinion that the construction of the separation fence in the territories was a violation of international law. In practice, no steps were taken against Israel as a result of that ruling. A significant factor in Israel’s ability to fend off the opinion was the fact that the Supreme Court had looked into the issue and concluded that the fence was legal under international law. In several places, the Supreme Court even intervened and ordered that its location be modified in order to comply with international law.

However, it seems that the Supreme Court’s willingness to impose international law on Israel’s activities in the territories is no longer as resolute as in the past. In recent years, the court has refrained from intervening in issues related to international law. If the Override Clause is enacted, the Court’s authority to review Israeli actions in the territories will be weakened even more, and the Knesset will be able to pass legislation such as the Settlement Regulation Law, which the Court struck down in 2020. In this situation, it is quite likely that international tribunals will pay no attention to proceedings in the Israeli Supreme Court and not view them as a reason to refrain from investigating the issues.

PMW: The continuing lie of the “Gaza blockade”

In 2022, United Nations officials and reports, many countries and their representatives, and the Palestinian Authority continued to perpetuate the lie alleging that Israel has applied a “blockade” on the “besieged Gaza Strip.”

While the lie was commonplace and even often embellished by claiming that “Gaza is the biggest prison in the world,” statistics released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the so-called “occupied Palestinian territory” (OCHA) reveal the truth.

According to the OCHA statistics, in 2022 there were 424,417 exits via the Erez crossing from Gaza into Israel. 14,909 exits were for Gazan patients, who were accompanied by 10,930 people, entering Israel to receive medical treatment. There were also 573 entries into Israel to visit imprisoned terrorists.

Alongside the entry of the Gazans into Israel, OCHA also reported that 74,096 truckloads of commodities entered Gaza from Israel via the Kerem Shalom crossing in 2022. According to the statistics, only 5% of the truckloads were carrying humanitarian products.

In addition to the 74,096 truckloads of commodities, thousands of trucks entered Gaza from Israel carrying fuel:

While statistics released by the Israeli Defense Ministry showed that from 2017-2021 Israel - incredibly - allowed 11,499 new vehicles into Gaza, the number of new cars that entered Gaza from Israel in 2022 has not yet been released.

The OCHA website further revealed that in 2022, in addition to the 424,417 exits from Gaza into Israel, there were an additional 245,145 exits from Gaza, via the Rafah crossing, into Egypt.

In addition to the movement of people, 32,353 truckloads of commodities also entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. All the commodities that entered Gaza from Egypt were for commercial use. No humanitarian goods entered Gaza from Egypt.

A child of Oslo watches the Tel Aviv protests

Yet as a child of Oslo, born and raised in the dark years of rampant terror in which parents lost friends and friends lost parents, in which the obituary sections drove home realities that were decades premature, I have to ask myself: Does the Supreme Court really fulfill these functions in the name of protecting democracy and civil liberties? If so, shouldn't its decisions to rein in government policies be devoid of political bias?

In Oct. 1995, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's government pushed the Oslo B agreement through the Knesset by a 61-59 majority. It did so by promising members of Knesset, from a right-wing party, positions in the government in exchange for their votes. Where were the calls for reining in majority rule back then?

At the time, the left was perfectly happy to win by the slimmest of majorities, however it was achieved. This was the case even though the ramifications of the vote were severe. They did not only threaten civil rights but the physical lives and safety of hundreds of thousands if not millions of Israelis.

Ten years later, I spent the summer of 2005 in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. I witnessed firsthand what it was like for the people there when Ariel Sharon turned his back on everyone who voted for him and rammed the disengagement plan through, firing anyone in his government who dissented.

Yet for some reason, the Supreme Court, sans Justice Edmond Levy, decided that it was not its place to interfere. It stood by as the government sent soldiers to expel citizens from their homes, crushing any semblance of their civil liberties.

Sadly, we are still paying for this decision to this day, with Hamas now ruling the dunes where once our hothouses bloomed.

This two-faced approach proves that we should not blindly accept the rhetoric employed by the protestors. This controversy is not really about civil rights or the strength of Israel's democracy. It's about power. Political power and judicial power. It is about people who want influence over the future of the State of Israel even when the majority of the people chose not to elect them.

It's hard to contain the feelings that bubble up when I hear friends on the left who supported Oslo and then the disengagement talk about how the Supreme Court is the defender of civil rights in this country. The Supreme Court proved otherwise when it abandoned the people of Gush Katif. They proved that their own politics supersede their supposed commitment to upholding the civil rights of all Israelis, making this argument against the reform null and void.

Jordan trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount

There was a brief international incident at the Temple Mount on Tuesday:

Jordan’s ambassador to Israel visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Tuesday after earlier leaving the holy site in protest at being held up by police at the entrance, prompting a diplomatic protest from Amman.

The Jordanian foreign ministry said it summoned Israel’s envoy Eitan Surkis after Ghassan Majali was allegedly “refused entry” to the Temple Mount. A statement from the ministry said Surkis was handed a letter of condemnation.

But Israeli police — and also Jordanian reports — indicated that rather than refusing him entry, cops briefly held him up since he hadn’t coordinated the visit with them.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement rejecting that visits of Jordanians to the site need to be coordinated with Israel:

The political advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ambassador Ahmed Al-Deek, considered the statements of the Israeli spokesman a flagrant violation of the existing historical, political and legal situation in the mosque.

He noted that the attempt to justify the Jordanian Ambassador Ghassan Majali's objection to the reason for the absence of "prior coordination" is also a change in the legal status of the mosque.

Ambassador Al-Deek confirmed that the Islamic Endowments Department is exclusively responsible for organizing entry and exit to the mosque, and is also responsible for all mosque affairs and its courtyards, and that Muslims do not need any prior coordination or permission from the occupation police to enter the mosque.

So Jordan claims that Israeli demands for prior coordination is a new demand, and a violation of the status quo on the holy site.

Is that true? Of course not.

In 2012, Director of the Jordanian Public Security Lieutenant General Hussein Majali visited the site "under strict Israeli guard," Arab media reported. No one complained about that - the controversy about that visit is that one of the Israeli police was a woman whose hair was uncovered.

In 2013, Prince Hashem bin Al-Hussein, King Abdullah's brother, visited the Temple Mount, also "under the escort of Israeli security and police," entering through the Mughrabi Gate that visitors use. No one said a word about any violation of the status quo.

Because it was, and is, the status quo.

In 2021, however, Jordan started signaling they wanted to change the status quo. Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah canceled his planned visit to the Mount at the last minute because Israeli police were going to accompany him as he entered, and he felt that this was an insult.

They didn't say at the time that Israel was violating the status quo, but that the existing status quo was unacceptable to them. (You may recall that Jordan briefly blocked Bibi Netanyahu from visiting the UAE by not giving his flight permission to cross their airspace, in a diplomatic temper tantrum.)

This week's incident must be seen in that context. Jordan wants to change the status quo, and how better to do that than to insist that Israel is violating the status quo?

That's how gaslighting works, after all.

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EU delegation storms the Temple Mount, seems to agree it should be Judenrein

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that a delegation from the EU visited the Temple Mount this morning, where they politely listened to anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda spouted by the head of the Waqf, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib.

The delegation included 35 representatives and consuls from the European Union.

Al-Khatib "stressed the importance of their visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque as an Islamic mosque under the tutelage of King Abdullah II, the guardian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif."

Al-Khatib accompanied the 35 representatives and consuls on a tour where he described "the occupation’s attempt to change the status quo" on the site.

He then told them that the only ones that should be changing the status quo were the Muslims, claiming that there were many Hashemite construction projects there that Israel prevents from being completed.

In a sane world, new construction projects on the Temple Mount would be considered a violation of the status quo.

Al Khatib then described his description of the status quo: he called for a "return to the historic status quo of the mosque as an Islamic mosque for Muslims alone, with its 144 dunams, with all its prayer corners, courtyards and complexes, below the ground and above it."

According to Jordan News, the delegation aimed to "confirm European support for the legal and historical status quo of the holy site and its Hashemite Custodianship."

No one seemed to disagree with the Waqf's definition of that status quo as not allowing any Jews to ascend.

The signed agreement between Jordan and Israel does not give the Hashemites custodianship over the Temple Mount. It says "Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines."

Which means that Israel makes the decisions, while respecting and giving priority to Jordanian wishes. But the language makes it clear that the ultimate decisions are up to Israel.

Notice also that the agreement says nothing about Jordanian influence on Christian sites, which al-Khatib claimed are under Waqf custodianship as well.

I doubt that anyone from this delegation has ever read the actual agreement, which is the only document that matters under international law - an agreement that explicitly gives Jews "freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance."

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Jordanian dental association doing its part to uproot the Zionist entity, but Jordanian dentists don't play along

From Jordan's Ammon News:

The Council of the Jordanian Dental Association (JDA) announced that it will not participate in the AEEDC / Dubai 2023 conference, due to the confirmation of the participation of a Zionist delegation in the exhibition activities.

The JDA Tuesday called on all colleagues not to participate in this event, under penalty of union accountability.

The Council also addressed the Jordanian national companies for dental supplies, the Association of Dental Laboratory Owners, Dental Technicians, and all workers in the dental sector to adhere to boycotting the conference.

It is noteworthy that this refusal to participate in the AEEDC conference by the Jordanian Dental Association (JDA) is the third in a row for the same reason.

As far as I can tell, there are no Israelis even giving talks at the conference. The Jordanian Dental Association is boycotting the conference because two out of 570 exhibitors are from Israel!

Last year, the conference attracted 66,000 participants from 155 countries and the exhibition featured 4,800 products. The event generated some $3.9 billion of business deals.

Is the JDA hurting Israel, or itself, by not attending?

This is part of the old, outdated zero-sum mentality of the Israel haters. They are willing to definitely hurt themselves for an infinitesimal chance that they would hurt Israel. It is a hugely diluted version of the mentality that produces suicide bombers and car rammers.

The article says that the JDA boycotted the event last year as well. But guess what?

Plenty of Jordanians attended anyway!

Note also that many countries that have no relations with Israel had no problem attending.

It appears that the JDA threatened their members in 2021 not to attend as well, and also in 2022, but clearly most Jordanian dentists are not willing to hurt their careers by boycotting major events where they can learn the latest tools and methods.

It is another case of a boycott that pretends to be successful when in fact it fails miserably.

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Why don't the Palestinians join the Negev Forum? Because it contradicts their entire purpose of destroying Israel

The third Negev Forum met this week in Abu Dhabi.

The forum has participants from the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco as well as Egypt.

The goal of the forum is to advance multilateral projects in the fields of health, regional security, education, water and food security, tourism and energy. It is not a peace summit - it is very focused on specific mutual interests to countries in the Middle East, to benefit all.

The US tried to get Palestinians to join the meeting. They refused. And Jordan said that they won't attend unless the Palestinians do.

Now, why won't the Palestinians attend? Certainly they could benefit from talks about health, water and energy. According to Arab News, the reason they refuse is "Palestinians view the forum as an attempt to sideline its key demands of independence and an end to the Israeli occupation."

But that is not what the forum is about.

The only way the Palestinian refusal makes sense is if you understand the Palestinian mindset.

They have joined lots of international forums - but, invariably, they use those platforms to attack Israel. Whether it is about the world's oceans, or climate, or women, or the disabled, the Palestinians enthusiastically join - and then the entire session grinds to a halt as a Palestinian representative uses his allotted time to bash Israel.

To them, these conferences not a means to join the world community as an equal member. They aren't for information exchange. They aren't to work together to solve problems. To Palestinians, international foraare arenas of war, nothing more.

But the Negev Forum accepts Israel as a permanent part of the Middle East. It isn't marginalized - it is a key player. And the Palestinians cannot stomach the idea that Israel itself is considered legitimate.

Palestinians cannot hijack this conference. So boycotting, and shaming Jordan to do the same, it meant to somehow injure the conference altogether.

This has nothing to do with settlements, or human rights, or international law. The Palestinians refuse to attend a regional forum where they would benefit because it accepts Israel's existence - and Palestinian leaders still hope Israel will disappear.

Their childish behavior here is further proof that they have no interest in peace or becoming a responsible state. The entire purpose of the Palestinian national movement has always been the destruction of Israel. And they think that boycotting this event helps that goal in a tiny, tiny way.

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01/10 Links Pt1: The perpetual dictator and the missing peace: The story of Mahmoud Abbas; Ambassador Nides’ delusions about Palestinian terrorism

From Ian:

Bassem Eid: The perpetual dictator and the missing peace: The story of Mahmoud Abbas

During these long 18-plus years, peace has eluded the region primarily through Abbas’s personal obstinance. In 2008, Abbas walked away from a third Israeli peace offer that would have relinquished Israeli control over the Old City, location of the holiest site in the Jewish faith, the Temple Mount. Under his rule, Palestinian public education and news media fully normalized and are even saturated in antisemitism, often featuring explicit calls for violence against Jews. Abbas’s public statements and speeches place all of the onus for peace on Israel, as the Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt succinctly wrote: “The Abbas approach should be rejected by the international community, not merely because of its bias against Israel, but also because it recycled the same-old ideas that have pushed Palestinians down the pointless loop of delegitimizing Israel rather than the hard climb of reaching compromise.”

Over 2 million Palestinians live under the tyrannical power of Abbas’s PA in the West Bank, including me and many of the people I care most about. Abbas is the real occupier of our cities and our homeland, not our future partner Israel, which has consistently had a majority in favor of peace and not Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader who has explicitly supported the idea of a Palestinian state so long as Israel maintains the necessary security controls.

Abbas has offered us neither democracy nor independence, but we remain a free people. It is time for the Palestinian nation to reach a new agreement with Israel and the international community, abolishing the dictatorial rule of Abbas and the PLO and instead granting our people what we truly deserve: peace with dignity alongside our neighbor, the Jewish State of Israel.

Netanyahu government breaks sharply with predecessor in dealings with PA

On Jan. 5, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a series of retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority. These included sanctions against senior Palestinian officials, the withholding of Palestinian funds collected by Israel and a halt to illegal Palestinian construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria.

The measures were swiftly implemented: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, on returning from a trip to Europe, found himself waiting in line at the Allenby Bridge crossing after Israel stripped him of his VIP pass. On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the transfer of $40 million in confiscated Palestinian funds to Israeli victims of terrorism, money that would have gone to support terrorists had it reached P.A. hands.

“The difference that we’re seeing, the actions of the government on all fronts, is really quite substantial,” IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of legal strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, told JNS.

The measures, coming less than two weeks into the tenure of the country’s new government, are partly a response to the P.A.’s orchestration of a vote at the United Nations on Dec. 30 calling on the International Court of Justice to render an opinion on the legal status of Judea and Samaria. (Al-Maliki’s VIP pass was reportedly confiscated because of a meeting he had at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.)

“What the government did is focus on punishing the P.A. leadership. The government is saying that there’s a cost and a consequence for these actions,” said Hirsch. “P.A. subversion at the United Nations is a complete and utter breach of the Oslo Accords. The VIP permits are a function of the Accords. There’s no reason why we should have to continue as if nothing happened. They have to pay the price,” he added.

Israel’s move to freeze taxes and tariffs it collects on behalf of the P.A.—and which the P.A. uses to award terrorists and their families as part of its “pay-for-slay” program—is also a welcome decision, according to Hirsch. An Israeli law to withhold the funds has been on the books since 2017, but only half-heartedly enforced, he noted. “This will be particularly effective and forceful with the P.A.,” he said, as it will cost them 100 million shekels ($28 million) a month.

US: Israel’s Withholding of Funds over Palestinian Terrorism ‘Exacerbates Tensions’

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday described a series of Israeli measures meant to curb and punish Palestinian terrorism as a “unilateral move” that “exacerbates tensions.”

Israel’s Security Cabinet last week approved the measures in response to what it described as the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing “political and legal war” against the Jewish state. The previous week, the U.N. General Assembly, at the urging of the P.A., passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

“We have continued to make the point that unilateral actions that threaten the viability of a two-state solution, unilateral actions that only exacerbate tensions—those are not in the interests of a negotiated two-state solution,” said Price.

He added that Washington has “been consistent in our own strong opposition to the request for an ICJ advisory opinion concerning Israel…. We believe this action was counterproductive.”

As part of the measures, Israel on Sunday transferred $39.5 million of taxes and tariffs collected for the P.A. to the victims of terrorism and their families.

At a press conference, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “We promised to fix this, and today we are correcting an injustice. This is an important day for morality, for justice and for the fight against terrorism. There is no greater justice than offsetting the funds of the Authority, which acts to support terrorism, and transferring them to the families of the victims of terrorism.”

Palestinian Prime Minister calls new Israeli sanctions 'final nail in the coffin'