Let's see how "human rights" groups discuss this morning's deadly PA raid in Tulkarm - if at all

This morning, the Palestinian Authority clashed with terror groups in Tulkarm, leaving one person dead.

The specifics are disputed depending on whether one is reading  PA-affiliated or terror-affiliated media.

According to the PA:

The Political Commissioner General and the official spokesperson for the security establishment, Major General Talal Dweikat, said today, Wednesday, that the security services removed dangerous materials and barriers from inside the Tulkarem camp.

Dweikat added, in a telephone conversation with WAFA, that the Palestinian security forces had received several complaints from institutions and individuals in Tulkarm governorate, about the presence of dangerous materials and barriers in front of children's schools and on the roads inside the Tulkarm camp. Accordingly, the security services moved and removed them, to prevent any risks that might arise. about its existence.

He pointed out that after the security force finished its mission, some armed youths opened fire in front of the governorate building, which necessitated the intervention of the security forces to take the necessary measures and measures to control the security situation and prevent any manifestations that threaten civil peace in Tulkarm governorate.

"Dangerous materials" appears to be a euphemism for explosives - IEDs that terrorists bury in the road, that are meant to slow down Israeli forces when they conduct arrests and raids. We already know that these IEDs are a danger to children - even the UN reluctantly admits this. (Update: Other media confirm explosives near schools.)

 It appears that the PA, perhaps for the first time and ahead of the beginning of the school year, decided that IEDs and iron barriers in front of schools is already a step too far when it puts children at risk. 

And the terrorists were not happy about their hard work of risking the lives of their neighbors to be able to possibly damage an Israeli vehicle being removed, so they naturally started shooting at the PA forces.

Hamas media says that the PA used bulldozers to remove the barricades. 

One person died - the accounts differ as of this writing but it appears that the gunmen killed an innocent bystander while shooting at the PA forces. Terror media says the PA killed the man. 

.This video shows some of the tear gas, and apparently one older man - a father of a "martyr" so he may have been one of the protesters - was injured.

Will "human rights groups" side with the terrorists in this case? The PA did what Israel does - employed bulldozers and shot tear gas to quell a violent demonstration, and possibly used live fire. NGOs usually adopt the narrative that the PA is almost as bloodthirsty as the IDF.

On the other hand it is hard for them to say that the PA should allow IEDs and barricades to be placed in the middle of public areas and near schools. Amnesty and HRW have never, to my knowledge, berated the local armed groups for putting their own people at risk, and they are loathe to start a new complicating narrative that might indirectly exonerate the IDF for its own similar raids. 

So chances are that they will remain silent, and the dead Palestinian bystander will not be mentioned at all. 

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The Lebanese have always denied Palestinians access to their water network. Almost no one knows, and no one cares.

I spend a lot of time reading reports and news articles about how terribly Palestinians are treated in  Lebanon - they cannot become citizens, they cannot access many jobs, there are many laws discriminating against them, they may not build in the camps, they cannot own land outside the camps. It is official, widespread and sanctioned discrimination that is far closer to apartheid than anything Israel has ever done.

But sometimes I still learn something. 

UN Habitat wrote a long report on the State of Lebanese cities in 2021. On page 134, I saw something that surprised even me:

Water access standards is one of a range of determinants of slum living conditions. By definition, there are substantial differences between slum and non-slum households in terms of access to water and sanitation. The non-inclusion of slum settlements from service provision is often directly related to the legal tenure of the land in question. The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme promotes the ‘need to enact laws and policies to dissociate the tenure status from service provision’ (WWAP, 2019:105). Palestinian camps, officially not connected to the public network, are relevant urbansited instances

I may be the first person on the planet to read page 134 of this report.

By and large, Palestinian camps in Lebanon are located in the middle of urban areas. The existing water infrastructure might not be ideal but it exists.

Lebanon decided long ago to deny Palestinian access to municipal water.

One would think that some NGO might have written about this over the past 75 years. But it is really hard to find anyone even elliptically talking about this.

Interpal says, "Palestinian refugees are forced to buy unregulated drinking water from local vendors." The World Health Organization says, "In Shatila, drilled wells within the camp provide water for drinking and other domestic purposes. These wells are managed by entrepreneurs who sell the water to residents, and distribute it as drinking water to households."

No one seems to ask why Lebanon never extended their water supply that already surrounds the camps into the camps themselves. And the people who clearly know about this don't seem to be very bothered by it. 

There is a massive amount of anti-Israel reports published by NGOs and the media. New ones appear literally every day - the UN has a weekly newsletter listing them. Hardly any of them even mention human rights abuses against Palestinians outside those that are blamed on Israel. 

Interestingly, whenever I mention a problem like this on Twitter, the Israel haters are so offended that they try to change the subject back to how Israel is the worst violator of human rights in the history of mankind.

This bias hurts Palestinians because they cannot even get basic media coverage of their very real suffering in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. No one is interested in these issues because the giant NGO industry is fueled by antisemitism, and they actively discourage highlighting any problem that doesn't blame Israel.

No Jews, no news.

(h/t Irene)

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Terrorist groups have now seized eight UNRWA schools in Lebanon

From Naharnet:

An explosion was heard at dawn inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The explosion resulted from “a hand grenade that was hurled near a school belonging to the UNRWA agency in the camp’s al-Fawqani street,” NNA said, adding that the incident caused no casualties.

UNRWA had reported Saturday that another school compound was taken over by armed groups in the camp.

“This brings the total number of schools taken over by armed groups in the camp to eight, risking the start of the school year in time for 5,900 children,” UNRWA warned.

“We are getting credible reports of severe damage to the school buildings and looting of children’s education material and equipment from the schools,” it said.

The Lebanese camp of Ein el-Hilweh gets worse and worse, but since there is no actual shooting and Israel can't be blamed, no one cares too much.

Just like you almost never read about the concrete wall surrounding the camp since 2017.

Yes, Lebanon really keeps Palestinians in an open-air prison. Banksy doesn't seem to care too much. 

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Ein al-Hilweh camp: Terrorists still control schools, 200-400 homes destroyed - and human rights groups silent

On Friday, UNRWA issued a situation report on the Lebanese Ein el-Hilweh camp where there had been fierce fighting at the start of the month. 

While the media has largely lost interest as the cease fire took hold, the camp is still largely controlled by terror groups:

 Reports indicate that armed fighters are allegedly still deployed in some areas and continue to be intermittently present in UNRWA schools in the northern schools compound, along with the nearby UNRWA camp services office – a serious violation of the neutrality of UNRWA installations. The reported presence of fighters in areas around the school compound has prevented UNRWA staff from accessing these installations. Reports indicate that the ongoing presence of armed fighters in some areas is also preventing the return of some residents to their homes.  

At a Thursday press conference,  Director of UNRWA affairs in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus added more information, saying that between 200-400 houses were completely destroyed. A UNRWA school complex for over 3,000 children had been “violated"  and other schools and a health center were also damaged.

She noted that “it is s not safe for any UN personnel to access (some) areas currently, we’re also not having clearance from the Lebanese military to go inside those areas on the Lebanese military being in control of access to the Ein El-Hilweh camp.”

Far more houses were destroyed by the fighters in Ein el Hilweh than were destroyed by Israel in Gaza in May - but unlike for Gaza, there are no news articles about these destroyed homes with interviews of distraught homeless Palestinians. 

Amnesty has not issued a single press release about the fighting and damage. Neither has Human Rights Watch. 

If they cared so much about the welfare of Palestinians, then why haven't they condemned the fighting and ongoing militant control of large swaths of the camp?

This is again more proof that human rights is not what drives obsessive NGO and media coverage of Israeli actions, but old fashioned antisemitism.

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Gazans plan a major anti-Hamas protest on Sunday

Last night there were anti-Hamas demonstrations in various locations in Gaza.

The protesters reject the disastrous conditions that the Gaza Strip is going through, and demand as good a life as the children of Hamas leaders enjoy.

Here's one that was posted on TikTok this week although I don't know when it occurred:

There are actually two stories here. One is that there are demonstrations like these altogether, and the other is that the media roundly ignores them.

Hashtags accompanying videos of last night's demo say "Where is Al Jazeera?" nearly as often as they say the slogan of the demonstrations, "We want to live."

Earlier this month, the leaders of the protests issued a list of demands to Hamas to improve their lives. 

The word "Israel" is not mentioned - they blame Hamas and Hamas alone for their predicament.

They are demanding more hours of electricity, timely payment of Gaza government salaries, and for Hamas to stop taking out "taxes" on the money Qatar sends to Gazans (as well as an increase.)

If the demands aren't met, the protesters plan a huge set of demonstrations this coming Sunday, July 30. 

So why are these issues not being covered by the media, including Arabic media?

One major reason is that there is an unwritten rule: unless problems can be blamed on Israel, they must not be publicized. And even ordinary Palestinians have internalized this rule when they speak to reporters on the record. 

When they are assured anonymity, they are much freer to criticize their leaders, but most reporters aren't even interested in asking the right questions. The international media has its own narrative to uphold, and that one coincides with that of the PA and Hamas - always blame Israel and Israel alone. 

Yes, there is censorship from Hamas and the PA, and they routinely will insult their political opponents on their own media so we know about their own infighting. But popular protests like these do not benefit the PA, because they have their own critics and protesters, and the optics of showing Palestinians protest against their own leaders is problematic for both sides. 

These sorts of things only get any traction when they are too big to ignore. 

This Sunday's protests will probably not bother Hamas - they will repress them and try to keep them quiet. But any Middle East media that ignores those protests are clearly not media that can be trusted to report anything accurately.

Which is essentially all the media in the region.

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Palestinian homes in Lebanon are literally falling apart. No one cares, because there is no way to blame Jews.

The homes of Palestinians in Lebanese "refugee camps" are literally falling apart.

The Union of Palestinian Right of Return Committees in Lebanon issued  a statement this week holding the UNRWA Administration and the Engineering Department responsible for the collapse of houses on its residents in the Palestinian camps.

The real problem is that Lebanon severely restricts building materials into the camps, which are overcrowded and getting worse. Apparently the committee doesn't want to upset the Lebanese authorities so they prefer to blame UNRWA. 

A report by a Palestinian human rights group in Lebanon last December says that hundreds of Palestinian families have seen their ceilings collapse. The report prepared by the Palestinian Association for Human Rights noted the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon still live in camps that cannot be expanded despite being there for seven decades. They note the imposition of strict restrictions by the Lebanese authorities on the entry of building materials in the camps.

"Anxiety has become part of the lives of refugees and their daily bread for their children, for fear of their homes falling over their heads and sudden disasters that they cannot bear the consequences of, as happened with the family of the Palestinian refugee Muhammad Atta Azzam from Rashidieh camp, whose roof suddenly collapsed" last November, the report said. In October, the roof of another house in Burj al-Barajneh camp, south of Beirut, collapsed on a family while they were sleeping, and it is getting worse.

There was another recent Arabic article about the number of dilapidated houses in various Lebanese camps.

Outside of one French media outlet, I could not find any mention of this in English. 

Now, imagine this was happening in Gaza. There would be numerous stories about this, all of them blaming Israel (not UNRWA as most of these articles do.) In fact, UNRWA would convene an emergency international donor gathering, and nations around the world would pledge to fix these buildings. we woul  see charities asking for money to help the Palestinians - all with an undercurrent of blaming Israel. 

Is it because they care about Palestinians, or because they love to find excuses to paint Israel in a bad light? What we see in Lebanon proves that it is most definitely the latter. 

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Another Palestinian killed in clashes - but no one cares about him. Here's why.

Another Palestinian has been shot dead during clashes.

Although this happened last week, it is barely mentioned in Palestinian or international media. His name is not published in lists of Palestinians killed this year. In fact, his name has not been published at all.

Because it happened in Lebanon.

One person was killed and several others wounded in overnight clashes in south Lebanon's restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, a Palestinian official said Thursday.

The clashes pitted members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement against Islamist groups in the camp, located near the coastal city of Sidon, said senior Fatah official Mounir Makdah.

"One person was killed and seven wounded," he told AFP, adding that "all Palestinian forces are working to put an end" to the violence.

Clashes between rival groups are common in Ain al-Helweh, which is home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Syria.

An AFP correspondent said shooting had mostly subsided around dawn but that sporadic gunfire could still be heard later in the morning.

The situation remained tense and armed men deployed to the streets of the camp, while schools run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, were closed.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the factions themselves to handle security.

So here we have an area completely controlled by Palestinians, effectively a micro Palestinian state, and where they regularly shoot each other. 

Imagine what a Palestinian state would be like!

Not only has the victim not been identified in the media, but also which faction shot him. All those details are not important when Israel isn't involved.

Here's video of what they camp sounded like during the clashes:

As of today, UNRWA schools and health clinics in the camp remain closed because of the tension.  The media doesn't seem too upset over that, either. And the UNRWA Twitter feed hasn't mentioned a word.

It is almost like a conspiracy of silence when Jews aren't involved.

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

 

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