"Shut up," Miftah explains (updated)

As I have been reporting, the Miftah NGO published an article in Arabic - on Passover - saying that Jews drink Christian blood on that holiday.

First, Miftah silently removed it.

Then they claimed (in English and Arabic) that my revelation of the article was a "smear campaign" and defended the article as part of robust debate, but explaining that they took it down because it might be  "misunderstood."

Then as they saw their donors and other prominent organizations questioning their decision to defend the article and they issued an apology, but only in English.  Their Arabic-speaking readers never saw the apology, although they still see their attack on me.

Now, look how they respond to people asking about this:

From the Miftah Facebook page, in response to some strident questions about the episode:

MIFTAH · 1,094 like this

7 hours ago · 

• Dear Friends,
  Comments, including constructive criticism, are welcome on this page. However, we will not tolerate hate language or slander. These comments will be removed. Thank you.

  
  

  • 

    Gad Grunwald You claim in your mission to want "an active and in-depth dialogue, the free flow of information and ideas" if so, may i ask why your apology from 1 April wasn't posted in your Arabic website (onlly posted in English). The antisemitic article of Al Zaru’s was on your Arabic website. It seems your apology is just for your English public whom never read the article, and the Arabs whom have read it have no idea that Miftah doesn''t support the Jewish blood libel during Passover.

    
    
  • 

    MIFTAH Once again, MIFTAH does not need to explain itself any further on this subject. Any further comments on this subject will be removed.

    
    

This is Miftah's idea of an "active and in-depth dialogue!"

UPDATE: Gad's comment was indeed removed. That was followed with:

• Sol Robinson I kinda feel like in fact you DO need to explain yourself further. Why was there no arabic language apology? Why when it was pointed out that you had in fact published antisemitic literature was your response to call the pointing out of said publishing a "smear campaign?" Why was it possible for this to get published in the first place? I would appreciate an answer.

  37 minutes ago
• 

  MIFTAH MIFTAH offered an answer to its readers. It was not an article published by the organization's writers and it was taken down when the mistake was realized.

  33 minutes ago
• 

  Omri Schwarz Why was the apology only written in English?

  15 minutes ago
  
  
  

  • Gad Grunwald why was my comment removed ? Or are you making a point that MIFTAH stands for "active and in-depth dialogue, the free flow of information and ideas"

    1 · 21 minutes ago · Edited
  • 

    Jonathan Simon I believe what people would like to see is an Arabic-language apology for the blood libel along with an explanation for the Arabic audience about the history of the Passover blood libel and how it is a hateful lie. It would have to amount to a complete denunciation of the message posted. Anything short of this will be inadequate. Who wrote the article does not matter. That MIFTAH was the mouthpiece for it does matter.

    3 · 23 minutes ago

Someone needs to keep track of the comments Miftah is deleting.

Read More

Miftah blood libel update

It has been over two weeks since Miftah published its blood libel in Arabic, and it still has refused to apologize in that same language to those who read it. Indeed, the Arabic readers can still read Miftah's attack on me, calling my reporting a "smear campaign" (even its English attack on me remains on its site, even after its belated English apology.)

Since then, the story continues on.

American Thinker mentioned it, noting that Miftah's founder Hanan Ashrawi was hardly as moderate as she represents herself to the West.

In spite of her self-portrait as a "moderate," Ashrawi has been an exponent of some of the main tenets of the familiar Palestinian narrative. She was the highly articulate official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process, 1991-1993. At the United Nations Durban I Conference on August 28, 2001 she said, "I represent a narrative of exclusion, denial, racism, and national victimization." She spoke of her heavy heart "leaving behind a nation in captivity held hostage to an ongoing Nakba, as the most intricate and pervasive expression of persistent colonialism, apartheid, racism, and victimization." Israeli settlements, she declared, leads to "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank.

However, without mentioning me, it says:

The criticism of the article in Miftah and consequent reluctant "apology" by the website is significant. It illustrates that a rapid response by independent and courageous media to inaccurate statements and prejudiced accusations can and sometimes does result in rectifying them and shaming the accusers.

The Jerusalem Post belatedly reported on the issue today, concentrating on the NGOs that fund Miftah:

Writers for MIFTAH – a nonprofit founded in 1998 by Hanan Ashrawi, a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause who is well regarded by Western officials – resurfaced a centuries-old smear over the Passover holiday on their Arabic website that accuses Jews of using Christian blood in the preparation of Passover matza.

Invocation of the blood libel shocked Jewish groups after it was picked up in English by a blog called the Elder of Ziyon.

The collective pressure from these groups over several days was apparently enough to force a retraction from MIFTAH – only after the nonprofit initially refused to apologize.

But the true shock has come from MIFTAH’s benefactors, who have struggled to distance their financial support over several years from the organization’s more extremist activities.

The governments of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Norway, among other EU members, have provided funding for MIFTAH at least through 2011, according to NGO Monitor, which tracks the financing of major nongovernmental organizations.

And the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded through an act of US Congress, has provided MIFTAH with nearly $180,000 between 2007 and 2012.

“The whole funding process is very cloudy – it’s not very transparent at all,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “The NED didn’t do their due diligence.

Hanan Ashrawi was able to sell [MIFTAH’s] activities as pro-peace and pro-civil society, and they didn’t look to see what kind of organization they’re running. It was probably based more than anything on personal connections, which is obviously a problem.”

Made aware of these concerns, the NED told The Jerusalem Post that its financial support for MIFTAH was directed toward its young leaders program, and was never directed toward its website operations.

NED’s spokesman noted that additional funding for MIFTAH was not granted this year by the NED board of directors.

But when asked how the NED tracked its funding as earmarked for youth programs, as opposed to its website operations, they had no additional comment.

(I do not understand why JPost uses all-caps for Miftah. It is not an English acronym.)

NGO Monitor revisited the issue today as well, adding the responses from three of the Miftah's funders: NED, UNESCO and Oxfam.

A couple of German media outlets also covered the story, concentrating on the funding of Miftah by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Heinrich Boell Stiftung German organizations.

So far, I have not seen any responses from them, nor from the governments of Ireland, Norway, Austria or any of the other funders of Miftah. You can see their email addresses and Twitter accounts at the end of http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-cant-hanan-ashrawis-miftah.htmlthis post.

Read More

Oxfam covers for Miftah's doubletalk

So far, most of the NGOs that fund Miftah have been silent during the blood-libel controversy I discovered.

Oxfam, however, just responded to a couple of my readers' inquiries (and then to mine) with a canned response which illustrates a troubling downplaying of the issue:

Thank you for making us aware that a blog post published on the website of one of our partners, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), included reprehensible anti-Semitic statements.

MIFTAH has removed the offensive blog post and issued a public apology on its website. MIFTAH has assured Oxfam that the individual behind the post has been reprimanded. Oxfam Is clearly on record as opposing the use of language or acting in ways which promote hate or discrimination.

Oxfam has worked with MIFTAH since 2010. Currently, MIFTAH and three other partners are implementing Oxfam’s regional project Supporting Women’s Transformative Leadership in Changing Times. The project targets marginalized women and men to support women’s rights and gender justice with the goal of increased empowerment, self-confidence, and leadership roles for women in public and private spheres.

Oxfam is surely aware that the section of Miftah's site where the offensive article was published was not a "blog" but an essay section where they republish articles they think are interesting for their readers. They even index the section so their readers can read other articles from the same author, and Nawaf al-Zaru has been featured five times.

Oxfam should also be aware that the "apology" was not issued in Arabic, the language of the hateful essay, meaning that Arabic-language readers of Miftah have no idea what Miftah's opinion on the medieval blood libel is, and for all they know Miftah supports that heinous lie.

Moreover, Oxfam must also be aware that Miftah did not issue its English apology until it felt under pressure to do so.

Finally, this response did not even address one of the writer's points about Miftah, that they have praised suicide bombers.  And not in their "essay" section, either, but under their own name. (NOTE: Since that essay was discovered and publicized, Miftah has also silently removed that essay - but you can still find it archived at the UN!)

Clearly, Oxfam wants to find excuses for Miftah instead of holding it to a standard that it would hold any Western NGO.

Read More

Miftah silently removes its essay praising suicide bombers

I noted last week that Miftah, the NGO that published the medieval blood libel as "open dialogue," also published an essay - under its own name - that praised female suicide bombers:

Fighting Back

Palestinian women have also participated in the resistance. As the conflict grew more intense and young men were recruited to carry out military operations against Israeli targets, several young women also decided to join the ranks of the resistance movement. In January 2002, 28-year-old nurse Wafa Idrees, detonated a bomb in Jerusalem’s Jaffa Street, killing one Israeli and injuring 150 others. She was also killed in the blast.

This marked the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause. Over the next two years, seven other women carried out similar operations, the most deadly of which was carried out by Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old attorney from Jenin. Hanadi detonated explosives strapped to her body in a busy Haifa restaurant, killing 19 Israelis and injuring 50 others.

As it initially did with the blood libel article when it was exposed, Miftah has now silently removed that piece as well.

No apology. No mention of why it published an essay that is purportedly against its own stated core values to begin with.  Once again, Miftah is acting like a child caught next to a broken lamp, football on the floor,  rather than an organization that takes responsibility for its actions.

In only one week, I am the one that prompted Miftah to remove the blood libel essay, I am the one that prompted Miftah to apologize for it, and I am the one that prompted Miftah to remove the essay praising terrorists (although NGO Monitor also called them on it.). If it wasn't for our shaming them, nothing would have happened. When is Miftah going to take responsibility for its own actions rather than waiting for "obscure websites" to "smear' them? I could find an encyclopedia of lies in the Miftah site - but why should I be the one doing this?

Miftah appears more concerned over Hanan Ashrawi's reputation than the truth. You can find the offensive essay archived at the UN's UNISPAL site (and, at the moment, in Google's cache.)

Miftah's problems are deeper than just one "junior level staffer" - they are systemic to the organization, and as long as its funding NGOs ignore the problem, things won't get any better.

Read More

Those Palestinian Arab "moderates" sure love to incite violence

Ha'aretz reports:

A 64-year-old Palestinian security prisoner died of on Tuesday morning at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, sparking clashes in Hebron between protesters and Israeli security forces and the declaration of a three-day hunger strike by other Palestinians jailed in Israel. Security was beefed up in prisons in case of further unrest.

Maysara Abuhamdieh, from Hebron, had been serving a life sentence since 2002 for attempted murder, membership in Hamas and weapons possession.

After being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in February, Abuhamdieh was under the medical care in Be'er Sheva. A week ago, after his condition was judged to be terminal, the Israel Prisons Service initiated an early release request for Abuhamdieh, who died before for the request could be processed.

I am deliberately quoting Ha'aretz because if there was the slightest possibility that Israel was responsible for Abuhamdieh's death, they would report it.

Mahmoud Abbas has no such qualms, as his official WAFA news agency reports:

The presidency Tuesday held the Israeli government fully responsible for the death of Palestinian prisoner Maysara abu hamdiya, who died due to medical negligence by the Israeli prison services.

President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that the arrogance of the Israeli government stopped in the way of responding to Palestinian efforts to secure the release of the prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiya, who died in prison due to medical negligence by the Israel Prison Service.

“We tried working on Abu Hamdiya’s release due to his medical condition, but the Israeli government refused to respond to the PA’s efforts in releasing him, which led to his death,” he said.

What did our new favorite PA NGO, Miftah - that claims to be dedicated to the "philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information" - have to say?

Miftah said it deplored his death "following medical negligence in which he... did not receive the care and proper treatment by the management of prisons of the occupation."

This is similar to how both the PA and Miftah responded to the death of Arafat Jaradat. The same Ha'aretz article reports

In February Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner, died of a heart attack in Megiddo Prison. Other inmates claimed that he was in good health and that his death was the result of torture while in prison at the hands of Israeli security forces. Poisoning and torture were ruled out as causes of death in Jaradat's autopsy.

How did Miftah report it?

His family, and frankly the entire Palestinian people, knows better. Jaradat, seen also by a Palestinian doctor who participated in the autopsy, was covered in wounds, bruises and contusions. He had two broken ribs – which Israel claims is the result of CPR efforts to revive him – and massive bruising on his chest, shoulders and face. According to Prisoner Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe, Jaradat also had broken bones in his neck, arms and legs. During a court session in the middle of his interrogation process, his lawyer, Kameel Sabbagh said Jaradat was extremely fatigued and had complained to him of severe pains from the beatings and from being tied in the same position for several hours on end.

Other bits and pieces of Jaradat’s story are surfacing, all which incriminate Israel and its interrogators in his brutal death. According to his family members, the night he was arrested, an Israeli intelligence officer brought him briefly back to see his family so he could “bid them farewell.”

There is zero evidence for broken bones in his "neck, arms and legs," nor of alleged torture, nor of the absurd story about "bidding farewell." But Miftah reports them as fact.

The most absurd rumors and lies gain currency in the PA, not from fringe characters but from the PA itself as well as from Western-funded NGOs who will blindly believe the most absurd, uncorroborated reports and dismiss any information that comes from Israel.

Is inciting Arabs to start riots something you would expect from "peace partners" and from NGOs that claim to support peace and democracy?

Read More

Miftah apologizes for blood libel - but only in English!

Miftah, the somewhat obscure Palestinian Arab NGO founded by media darling Hanan Ashrawi, issued a belated apology for publishing an article that declared that Jews drink Christian blood on Passover.

From JTA/Times of Israel:

A Palestinian nonprofit organization has removed an article from its website that accused Jews of using “the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover.”

The Miftah organization, founded by Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi and funded by European and Western governments, reportedly apologized for publishing the article, after first refusing to apologize and condemning the Jewish bloggers [sic] who publicized the article.

The apology was first reported by Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon.

The apology expressed the organization’s “sincerest regret.”

“It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member. The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, as founder, has nothing to do with the day to day management at Miftah and was no way involved in this incident,” the apology issued Monday said.

The original article in Arabic by Nawaf Al Zaru was first exposed by the Elder of Ziyon blog. It criticized President Obama for his tribute to Passover, by holding a seder in the White House.

“Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between ‘Passover’ and ‘Christian blood’..?! Or ‘Passover’ and ‘Jewish blood rituals?!’” read the article posted March 27. “Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe are real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover.”

Miftah on March 30 defended the publishing of the article in a statement on its website, calling it a “smear campaign.”

While the belated apology is welcome, it is obviously not sincere.

The apology says "We are whole-heartedly committed to fighting racism, hatemongering, discrimination and persecution of any kind wherever it should exist, and especially in our own society."

Yet the original offensive article was written and published in Arabic. Two days later,  Miftah's Arabic website shows no indication of regret, apology or condemnation of the classic blood libel against Jews that it published. Readers of the Arabic website have only been exposed to the original blood libel article and to Miftah's justification for it but they have not been informed by NGO that claims to "fight hatemongering" that there was anything wrong about the original article.

(In fact, their attack against me and original justification for the blood libel article as part of "its mandate for open dialogue" remains on its website as well. Was that also written by a "junior staff member"?)

As we saw back in the days of Yasir Arafat, saying one thing in English and another in Arabic is a classic way to appease the West while keeping the status quo to the intended audience.

Indeed, Miftah has previously happily published the modern equivalents of the blood libel, parroting false claims that Israeli Jews targeted and stole organs from Palestinian Arabs, Ukrainians and Haitians. And Miftah itself ridiculed the idea that such accusations are in any way anti-semitic.

In other words, this apology rings hollow. But it was necessary, not because Miftah cares about doing the right thing, but because it was clearly under pressure from its donors to do something so as not to embarrass them. In fact, even UNESCO denounced the blood libel published in Miftah:

The U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has partnered with Miftah on various projects, rebuked the group Tuesday.

“UNESCO condemns all forms of hate literature, including anti-Semitic articles such as the one Miftah published and later apologized for,” UNESCO spokesman Roni Ameland told the Free Beacon over email.

“UNESCO does not fund Miftah nor does it have any formal relations with it,” Ameland said. “UNESCO did support several gender-focused workshops and activities organized by Miftah in the past but its collaboration with the organization ended in 2011.”

UNESCO did not fund Miftah directly, Ameland said. “It just paid for specific contracts concerning specific projects.”

Miftah's about-face was not a result of an epiphany where it realized how offensive the article was. It was simply a belated attempt at firefighting.

That may be enough for its donors, anxious to fund seemingly liberal Palestinian Arab NGOs and unwilling to have the controversy reflect on them. And in one sense the insincere apology is still a victory because Miftah will be more careful about publishing anti-semitism in the future.

But don't be fooled into thinking that Miftah is sorry. If it was, it would apologize and educate the audience that the original article was addressed to - the Arabic speakers who still believe, based purely on what they have read in Miftah, that the medieval blood libel is true.

Read More

ADL, Wiesenthal Center slam Miftah for anti-semitic article

From The Algemeiner, following up on my scoop and Miftah's idiotic response:

Two prominent Jewish civil rights groups have slammed a Palestinian NGO for opting not to apologize for publishing an article which promoted the classic anti-Semitic Passover blood libel accusation on its website. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have voiced their dismay that MIFTAH, which is chaired by Hanan Ashrawi, a well known media personality in the West and which posted the article that claimed “Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover,” has not apologized, and in fact asserts the publication of the blood libel was in keeping with its policy of “open dialogue.”

“They have compounded the offense, by now asserting they are the injured party,” the ADL told The Algemeiner.

“The MIFTAH statement defending the decision to post the blatantly anti-Semitic article by al-Zaru on its Arabic language Web site and claiming it is being “smeared” is outrageous. They made a bad mistake and they should have offered a full-throated and sincere apology,” added the 100 year old NGO.

“In defending its publication of an article on the Miftah website which hatefully invoked the oldest anti-Jewish canard of all, the Blood Libel to slander the Jewish nation during Passover, the Palestinian NGO cites its commitment to “open dialogue”. With whom? Genocidal Jew-haters?” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner in an email.

“Tragically, the publication of this Arabic language article is in keeping with the ongoing campaign to demonize the nation of Israel, Jews, and Judaism, once assumed to be the domain only of Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood and Iran but that today taints the PA and some of its supporters,” he added.

Cooper also said that the publication of accusations such as this one hurt the cause of Peace. “It is not lost that the editorial decision by Miftah to provide a platform for this canard took place in wake of President Obama’s trip to the Holy Land where he tried to re-instill hopes for peace and reconciliation. Every anti-Semitic slander in the theological, academic and media domains further erode such hopes,” he said.

“Perhaps the editors of Ms Ashrawi’s Miftah should do exit interviews with Arabs, including those from Gaza, whose lives have been saved through blood transfusions at Icholov, Rambam, Shaare Tzedeck and Hadassah hospitals in Israel,” concluded Cooper

The ADL called out Ashrawi by name saying, “Hanan Ashrawi certainly knows better and so should those responsible for posting the highly offensive article.”

The organization also provided a list of complaints against the actions of MIFTAH highlighting multiple offenses. ”There are several things wrong here” wrote the ADL, “first, an irresponsible editorial decision to post the article containing the classical anti-Semitic blood libel charge – second, the article only appeared on the Arabic language site, makes clear it was intended primarily for an Arabic speaking audience – third, the completely unacceptable defense of the posting.”

I expect this story to explode in the next couple of days in the media as well as through watchdog groups. Unfortunately, I cannot blog again until Tuesday night because of Passover, so any media inquiries will have to wait until then before I can answer them. Until then, my previous posts on the topic should provide enough background and other information.

Chag sameach!

Read More

Why can't Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah apologize for publishing antisemitism?

Last week I exposed a truly vile anti-semitic article on the website of the Miftah NGO founded by Hanan Ashrawi, claiming that Jews drink Christian blood on Passover.

Yesterday, instead of apologizing for the offensive article and condemning the anti-semitism that they legitimized, Miftah attacked me for publicizing it and asking for their funders to ask questions about where their money is going. They wrote that I "wrongly accused MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi of promoting Jewish blood libel during Passover through its publication of an Arabic-language article that briefly addressed the subject" - yet I showed this is exactly what they did by any definition!

Indeed, Miftah's reaction tells us more about the organization than the original, offensive article did. They said they removed the article not because it was a sickening piece of antisemitic trash, but because it might invite "further misunderstanding." Even their pathetic denial that they promoted the Jewish blood libel is belied by the fact that they consciously chose to publish an article, during Passover, that did precisely that.

The clear message that Miftah is giving its audience is that they believe that the classic anti-Jewish blood libel is acceptable discourse in Palestinian Arab society, and merely part of (as they call it) a fulfillment of "mandate for open dialogue."

If I was a funding NGO, I would be far more concerned over Miftah's defense of its publishing the article than the article itself. After all, they had time to craft an appropriate apology to Jews worldwide, and a condemnation of the article and of its author - and they refused to do so.

Any Western newspaper, organization or major website would have not only fallen over themselves to distance themselves from the Jew-hatred exhibited in Miftah, but they would have fired the writer and the editor on the spot.

Why didn't Miftah?

The only possible explanation is that Miftah does not truly consider this article to be offensive. They think that those pesky Jews are making a big deal out of nothing. They believe that Jews are bloodthirsty anyway (at least the Zionist variety) and to Miftah it is not a great leap to say that Jews must have been that way forever. The site has literally hundreds of articles accusing Israeli Jews of "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs, to give only a tiny example of lies that Miftah accepts and promotes as fact. A previous Miftah article states that  "there are documented reports from Haiti that organs are being stolen by Israelis without international justice intervening to put an end to such criminal practices against innocent vulnerable people." When the editors of Miftah believe such things already, how much of a stretch is it to believe that Jews ritually murder non-Jews to drink their blood?

Miftah's response was that "its work speaks for itself." I hope every funder of Miftah takes that statement very, very seriously when deciding whether to continue to send money to an organization that is utterly unrepentant about publishing pure hate.

And if Miftah belatedly issues a vague statement condemning antisemitism (probably together with one condemning Israel), we now know that it is only doing it to protect its funding and not because it actually considers antisemitism to be abhorrent.

That train has already left the station.

Here again is the contact information of some of the NGOs that financially support Miftah:

Representative Office of Norway repram@mfa.no TWITTER @NorwayMFA
The Anna Lindh Foundation info@euromedalex.org Facebook  TWITTER - @AnnaLindh
Oxfam UK enquiries@oxfam.org.uk Facebook TWITTER - @OXFAM
National Endownment for Democracy info@ned.org Facebook  TWITTER - @NEDemocracy
Secretariat for Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem segreteria.gerusalemme@esteri.it  @FarnesinaPress
Heinrich Böll Foundation info@boell.de Facebook Arab Middle East FB TWITTER - @boell_stiftung
Austrian Development Agency oeza.info@ada.gv.at
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ireland contact page  List of Twitter contacts TWITTER - @dfatirl
Konrad Adenauer Foundation - Palestinian Territories Info.Ramallah@kas.de TWITTER - @KASOnline
International Republican Institute webpage contact TWITTER - IRIGlobal
UNESCO - English media editor  r.amelan@unesco.org TWITTER - @UNESCO

Read More

Lebanese newspaper also says Jews drink Christian blood on Passover

As I wrote previously, the anti-semitism in Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah NGO is not an anomaly, rather, it represents mainstream Arab opinion.

From MEMRI:

On March 28, 2013, the Lebanese daily Al-Sharq published an article by Lebanese writer Sana Kojok that claimed that during Passover, the Jews eat matzah made with the blood of non-Jews. The article also called on the Palestinians to turn the Israelis' holiday from one of joy and pleasure into one of weeping and wailing.

Following are excerpts from the article:

"... The Zionist Jews have special holidays dedicated to them: Sukkot... on which they witness the beginning of the agrarian year... Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which they celebrate for eight days, [and during which] they light candles every evening; for them, this holiday symbolizes the Jews' celebrations of the victory over the Greek rulers! [During] the holiday of masks, Purim, which is celebrated in early spring, religious Jews tell the story of Queen Esther, drink alcohol, and dress in costume.

"However, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins today, strange and bizarre rituals are held, according to instructions by the Talmud: Houses are cleared of all leaven, that is, all bread and bread products containing yeast, which are called 'hametz' in Hebrew. Yesterday, they burned the bread in their homes because this needs to be done one day prior to the holiday.

"Additionally, on the holiday eve, the Zionist Jews eat unleavened bread which during its preparation is mixed with blood – but that blood must be from a non-Jew!! This unleavened bread is called 'matzah.'

"Imagine someone eating matzah made with blood!? How do these barbarians think?? Such barbaric behavior – even in eating and drinking?!

"Their 'precious' Talmud states: 'In certain cases, a man can kill a devil if he prepares the Passover matzah properly. The Jews have two blood-soaked events that satisfy God's will – one is the holiday of matzah containing human blood, and the other is the circumcision of our children...'

"The matzah referred to here is the matzah of the Jewish holiday of Passover!

"Today, they are not satisfied only with eating their blood-soaked matzah. Today, [there is a call] for settlers to invade the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and celebrate Passover [there].

"How can the world expect us to negotiate with people who crave the blood of human beings – not only in their wars, but even in their holidays?? If they want to conduct their ceremonies and their witchcraft, let them do so – but without provoking Palestinian feelings, and without harming the holy tenets of Christianity and Islam.

"Their damned Talmud neither respects nor recognizes any monotheistic religion. The Palestinians should challenge the Zionist aggressors and turn their holiday from one of joy and pleasure at the taste of blood into one of weeping and wailing."

The article then goes on to quote the bogus "prophecy" of "former US president Benjamin Franklin."

Notice that there is no pushback within the Arab world for either of these cases of the classic Jewish blood libel being disseminated in mainstream media and respected NGOs. It is simply accepted as fact. Apologists may try to say that these viewpoints are aberrations, but the silence that accompanies them - and the refusal of a single prominent Arab to condemn them in Arabic - tells us much more than the antisemitic articles themselves do.

(h/t Elihu)

Read More

Miftah attacks me, refuses to condemn its blood libel

Miftah has responded to my exposé of their anti-semitic article last week:

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH strongly denounces the smear campaign being carried out against it and, by association, its founder Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. The obscure pro-Israeli website “The Elder of Ziyon” has wrongly accused MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi of promoting Jewish blood libel during Passover through its publication of an Arabic-language article that briefly addressed the subject.

The disclaimer at the opening of the “News and Analysis” section clearly states that, “The views represented in [News and Analysis] are solely those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MIFTAH, but rather fulfill its mandate for open dialogue.” For the record, to avoid further misunderstanding, Al Zaru’s article has been taken down from MIFTAH’s website.

MIFTAH has and always will promote the principles of democracy and a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Articles published in its name on both its Arabic and English websites are proof of this philosophy. Neither MIFTAH nor Dr. Ashrawi has ever been associated with anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic campaigns due to their philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information. MIFTAH has always been focused on the promotion of the Palestinian narrative in the service of achieving a free, democratic Palestine, part of which is honoring freedom of speech.

It is in this spirit that MIFTAH is deeply disturbed by this recent slander campaign against it. Not only is the premise of their argument erroneous in characterizing MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi, but the underlying purpose of sabotaging MIFTAH’s reputation with its international partners is nothing short of abhorrent.

MIFTAH has been in existence for well over decade and has published countless articles on Palestine, which show its true colors. It is fair to say that its work speaks for itself.

This is truly amazing.

The reason they took the article down wasn't because of its pure hate, its slander against an entire people, its invocation of the worst of all historic anti-semitic canards. The reason is "to avoid further misunderstanding."

Let's be clear: An editor at Miftah, an NGO dedicated supposedly to principles of democracy and peace,  saw this article and decided - according to Miftah's own words here - that  the classic blood libel against Jews is a legitimate part of "its mandate for open dialogue."

Fully half of the article talks about the blood libel. It didn't "briefly address the subject," as Miftah's ridiculous attack on me suggests - it was the linchpin of the entire article, asking how President Obama could possibly support Israel and have a Passover Seder at the White House in light of the "fact' that Jews drink Christian blood on Passover. In no way was it only "briefly mentioned." In no possible way was this an oversight.

And yet, even after publishing this, Miftah claims that "Neither MIFTAH nor Dr. Ashrawi has ever been associated with anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic campaigns due to their philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information."

In other words - Miftah does not denounce the article, and does not even say that it is inaccurate today! Miftah refuses to condemn it, it will not call it anti-semitic, it indignantly will not apologize for publishing it, it will not denounce the prominent Jordanian author of the piece, it will not say that it will change its policies on accepting articles - but instead it accuses me of "slander"!

A supposedly liberal Palestinian Arab NGO refuses to condemn the ugliest Jew-hatred published in its name by its own editors, and instead claims that it is part of "open dialogue" and implies that it is "accurate and credible information." But keeping it up on their site might promote 'misunderstanding."

Please. They took it down because it embarrassed them, not because they found it offensive. 

As far as their claim that they only published it because of their commitment to "open dialogue" - how many pro-Israel articles can one find in their website? Yup, that's right.

As I wrote on Friday, Miftah also published an article romanticizing female suicide bombers who targeted innocent civilians. That article was written by a Miftah employee, their main editorial writer named Joharah Baker.

Indeed, Miftah's work does speak for itself.

If Miftah is so convinced that it has nothing to hide and it is so proud of its work, then it should welcome people emailing to the EU and US NGOs that fund it to question its editorial policies. It should not be running scared about the possibility of losing funding, rather it should be confident that it acted appropriately when it published the article by Nawaf al-Zaru, whose anti-semitism has been on display for at least four years. It should be proud of its adamant refusal to apologize for publishing pure Jew-hatred. Isn't that how a liberal, pro-democratic organization should act?

And I feel free in asking my readers again to email to these same NGOs and ask them if they want to be associated with an organization that cannot force itself to squeeze out even a half-hearted apology for publishing, promoting and promulgating this sickening filth.

Read More

Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah NGO also praises female terrorists

As my readers look a little deeper into Miftah, which published an outrageous piece of anti-semitic hate only two days ago, Yenta Press found this piece written by Miftah's Johara Baker:

Fighting Back

Palestinian women have also participated in the resistance. As the conflict grew more intense and young men were recruited to carry out military operations against Israeli targets, several young women also decided to join the ranks of the resistance movement. In January 2002, 28-year-old nurse Wafa Idrees, detonated a bomb in Jerusalem’s Jaffa Street, killing one Israeli and injuring 150 others. She was also killed in the blast.

This marked the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause. Over the next two years, seven other women carried out similar operations, the most deadly of which was carried out by Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old attorney from Jenin. Hanadi detonated explosives strapped to her body in a busy Haifa restaurant, killing 19 Israelis and injuring 50 others.

Not a word of condemnation. On the contrary, this article shows a clear romanticism in describing unspeakable acts of terror aimed squarely at innocent civilians - what it calls "resistance."

And this is in English!

In Arabic, I found this piece that says that if Hamas decides to respond to international sanctions with terrorism, then the responsibility for the deaths belongs to the US.

To be fair, Miftah officially claims that it is against some terrorism. It did condemn a couple of attacks on Israeli civilians many years ago. But its funders must be aware that the same organization that sometimes claims that terrorism is immoral cannot turn around and lionize the bravery and dedication of female terrorists.

One gets the impression that Miftah's condemnations are perfunctory while the praise for the terrorists themselves reflects more of how they really think.  For example, they regard Dalal Mughrabi as a heroine. 

If Miftah wants to be hypocritical, that is no big deal. The question is whether the European and American NGOs that fund it want to be part of that hypocrisy.

Read More

Email addresses of NGOs that support Miftah

Here is a list of email addresses of some of the organizations that financially support Miftah, which published a blatantly anti-semitic article on Wednesday. So far, they have not responded to numerous tweets, so here is a chance for you to do something that can make a difference.

Representative Office of Norway repram@mfa.no
The Anna Lindh Foundation info@euromedalex.org Facebook
Oxfam UK enquiries@oxfam.org.uk Facebook
National Endownment for Democracy info@ned.org Facebook 
Secretariat for Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem segreteria.gerusalemme@esteri.it
Heinrich Böll Foundation info@boell.de Facebook Arab Middle East FB
Austrian Development Agency oeza.info@ada.gv.at
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ireland contact page  List of Twitter contacts
Konrad Adenauer Foundation - Palestinian Territories Info.Ramallah@kas.de
International Republican Institute webpage contact
UNESCO - English media editor  r.amelan@unesco.org

I have emailed all of the organizations listed here and am waiting to hear back.

If you receive any response, please let me know.

Read More

Why the Miftah antisemitism story is so important

On Thursday, I reported exclusively that Miftah, an NGO that was founded by Palestinian Arab media darling Hanan Ashrawi, had published as pure an anti-semitic screed as is imaginable - resurrecting the reprehensible blood libel that Jews ritually slaughter Christian children and consume their blood on Passover.

Miftah is an organization that is ostensibly dedicated to promoting Western, liberal idea like democracy and equal rights for women. At least, that's what they tell their donors, which in 2011 included Oxfam, the Anna Lindh Foundation, Norway, Ireland, UNESCO and the US-based National Endowment for Democracy:

Miftah presents itself as a transparent NGO dedicated to its ideals and principles.

Yet, within hours of my publicizing the disgusting article on its website, Miftah simply deleted it - no explanation, no apologies, no excuses. It simply pretended that the hugely offensive piece never existed, hoping that no one would notice their cover-up.

This is not how a transparent organization should act.

Here we see what happens when a supposedly liberal Arab organization is faced with the exposure of bigotry and hate in its midst: it sweeps it under the rug. And, so far, the NGOs that fund Miftah have been complicit in this silence, hoping that the controversy will go away.

And this is the problem.

While these same liberal organizations would be the first ones to complain when they see an example of anti-blackracism, Arab antisemitism is not regarded as nearly as toxic an issue. They know, as all observers of the Middle East know, that Arab antisemitism is endemic. It is the rule, not the exception.

Instead of demanding accountability and the eradication of hate among organizations funded by these Western NGOs and governments, Arab antisemitism is tacitly accepted as "one of those things," or justified as a side effect of Israeli policies.

However, this example of naked hate has no excuse. The classic blood libel has nothing to do with Zionism, nothing to do with modern Israel. It is a pure throwback to the Christian antisemitism of the Middle Ages. And it exists, today, in the Arab world.

Just like the scourge of Christian Jew-hatred has been largely marginalized by modernity, by exposure and by shaming the haters, this is what must happen to today's Muslim anti-semitism. It is not acceptable, it is not something to be hidden away when it gets exposed. It must be confronted and, most importantly, the people who practice it must be shamed. Shame is the West's biggest weapon to fight Arab hate and it is one that too often is ignored because of a mistaken, cowardly idea that there is nothing to be gained by shaming people who are easily enraged.

The offensive article was not written by a marginal figure or a loose cannon. Nawaf al-Zaru has written other articles for Miftah, and similarly his blood libel article is still visible on major Arab media, today. Not only that, but al-Zaru is regarded as an Arab expert on Israel and Hebrew. He has written numerous articles and books, and was the editor of at least two Jordanian newspapers. Indeed, he had written a more expansive version of the blood libel article in 2009, in response to an earlier Passover seder at the White House.

His viewpoints aren't an aberration. They are mainstream. I see the same kinds of writings nearly every day in the Arab media, although not always as explicit.

By ignoring the hate, the funders of Miftah are tacitly endorsing it. And people like Hanan Ashrawi will not be called to account for overseeing a publication and website in which such hate can be published, past all the editors and webmasters and other gatekeepers whose salaries are being paid by these NGOs.

The NGOs themselves should be falling over themselves to distance themselves from Miftah. The Anna Lindh Foundation says "Our purpose is to bring people together from across the Mediterranean to improve mutual respect between cultures." How exactly can that purpose fit in with Miftah's encouragement of hate of Jews? Shouldn't people be tweeting them about this?

Oxfam says "We strive to do what we say we will do. Read about our core values and operating principles against which we measure ourselves." One of these is that "Unjust policies and practices, nationally and internationally, must be challenged and people’s rights must be respected." Should Oxfam be measured by their own words? They are on Twitter as well.

Part of UNESCO's mission is "to contribute to the building of a culture of peace." How can Arab Jew-hatred contribute to peace? Shouldn't people tweet to them as well?

The National Endowment for Democracy is a US-based NGO that also supports Miftah. They say that "NED provides hundreds of grants each year to non-governmental groups working abroad in the areas of human rights, independent media, the rule of law, civic education and the development of civil society in general." How does Miftah's hate and cover-ups fit in with that vision? You can tweet them and ask.

Miftah is not the problem - it is a small symptom of the real problem. But to fix things we must start somewhere. And you, right now, can directly ask all of these NGOs and governments that fund Miftah what they are doing to uphold their own standards and distance themselves from the naked hate that Miftah apparently feels is acceptable discourse in the Arab world.

Read More