Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: UNRWA-USA

Showing posts with label UNRWA-USA. Show all posts

Monday, August 08, 2022

@UNRWAUSA uses a dead Islamic Jihad terrorist as a prop for fundraising

I received a fundraising letter from UNRWA USA, written by its "Director of Philanthropy," Hani Almadhoun.

It included this section:

For my family, word got out that a 26-year-old relative lost his life. In a rush to report the news, they shared an image of his younger brother, and confusion followed. Later it was confirmed that our cousin was indeed the victim of the unprovoked attacks.

His 26-year old relative was Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun - a terrorist for Islamic Jihad, of the North Gaza Brigade, pictured above.

Yes, UNRWA-USA is using the death of a terrorist as a means to raise money for UNRWA. And its director is part of a family that supports Islamic Jihad.

But why would anyone expect that UNRWA-USA's fundraising arm is not linked to terrorism? Or that they wouldn't defend an Islamic Jihad terrorist as an innocent civilian victim of Israeli aggression?

UNRWA-USA raises some $4 million annually. Is anyone checking where that money goes?

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!

New @UNRWAUSA Communications Manager once belonged to "F**k Israel" FB group

UNRWA USA announced some new hires that they are excited about.

Here is one of them: Diala Ghneim, Communications Manager.

Canary Mission has a page on her and says that she has supported terrorists on Facebook (she took down that link) and is/was a member of the “F**k Israel" Facebook group.

Ghneim was also a student activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Rutgers University.

Her current Facebook page show that she "likes" the BDS movement and many anti-Israel groups.

A typical Facebook post claims that Jesus was a Palestinian with the type of propaganda we would expect at UNRWA schools.

UNRWA-USA doesn't have the same neutrality requirements that UNRWA has, as it is not a UN agency. So the hate and lies can be freely shared, as we've seen many times in the past.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Read all about it here!

UNRWA-USA tries to cash in on Beirut explosion

From a fundraising email from UNRWA-USA:

On Tuesday, a massive explosion in Lebanon tragically destroyed or damaged nearly half the capital city of Beirut, left at least 137 dead, thousands injured, and reportedly 300,000 homeless.
Before the blast, this tiny, famously-resilient country, which hosts more refugees per capita than any country worldwide, has been in the midst of a severe economic and financial crisis, while facing a growing number of COVID-19 cases, and an ongoing political deadlock.
Our hearts are with everyone living in Lebanon and with the support of UNRWA USA donors, like you, will provide relief for the population the Agency is mandated to serve -- nearly half a million Palestine refugees who, like their Lebanese hosts, are living day by day under very difficult and worsening conditions.
Will you help provide refugees in Lebanon with immediate relief?

The closest UNRWA Palestinian camp (Shatila) is not near where any of the damage from the blasts were.

So if you want to help the Lebanese victims of the blast, UNRWA is not where you should send your money.

UNRWA-USA prefers that you don’t realize that. It is using the explosion as a means to raise money for their own purposes.

Worse, they continue to lie about “nearly half a million Palestine refugees” in Lebanon when there are in fact less than 175,000 living there according to a 2017 census.

A real charity doesn’t need to mislead potential donors. But UNRWA-USA relies on antisemitism, hate and lies to get donations.

Now @UNRWA even brags that American citizens are "Palestine refugees" with USA propaganda campaign

Last year, UNRWA-USA - the American fundraising arm of UNRWA - started a "UNRWA Alumni" program to get people who grew up in the Middle East, going to UNRWA schools, to proudly say that they are "Palestine refugees."

The video is terrible and hard to understand, but each of the people speaking identify themselves as "Palestine refugees" - and are American citizens.

It just points to the absurdity of UNRWA considering anyone descended from people who lived in Palestine in 1948 to be forever "refugees" and forever eligible for UN benefits.

UNRWA-USA even admits that its agenda is political:

Dr. Yassine Daoud is a Palestine refugee now living in Maryland, but more than that, he is a successful medical doctor, caring father, and supportive husband to award-winning Palestinian author and public speaker Laila El-Haddad. As our country discusses who refugees are and what refugees looks like, this family has taken it upon themselves to help reshape that narrative, through participating in charitable events, giving back to their American and Palestinian communities, and sharing their own story.

There is a further irony in UNRWA using its fake "refugees" as a means to change American attitudes towards real refugees, as can be seen from this other story of a successful UNRWA graduate:

Today, Nada Kiblawi is a successful entrepreneur and businesswoman living in northern Virginia, alongside her husband and three adult children. The now retired founder and co-owner of NHK Consulting, Nada provided engineering services to some of the world’s largest and most reputable companies.

Born and raised in this camp and in poverty, Nada sadly recalls that she was deprived of a normal, happy childhood. “I’m at a loss of words when I think back upon my childhood years,” she says. “All children born refugees are deprived a childhood. My land, home, and youth, were stolen from me and those of the fourth generation of refugees born into and raised in camps. "

Why is no one pressuring Lebanon to treat their hundreds of thousands of Palestinians like human beings? Why are they still in disgusting camps after for generations? Because UNRWA exists! As Kibwali shows, generations of kids grow up to blame Jews for "stealing" land they have never seen and that many families had not even been there for as long as they have been in Lebanon. But if it wasn't for UNRWA, Lebanon would have been forced to take responsibility for the refugees, the way every other country has to. Because of UNRWA, the issue can be pushed off another few generations, with more kids being taught incitement against Israel and Lebanon, which literally has apartheid laws against Palestinians, is not mentioned by UNRWA or UNRWA-USA.

UNRWA instills this sort of antisemitism and it keeps people of Palestinian ancestry in these terrible conditions by virtue of its very existence.

The propaganda continues with the story of Mohammed Eid:

I grew up in a 200-square-foot house, with five siblings and our parents in Rafah Camp in Gaza. The street was my living room, my study area, and where I played. As a child, I had never seen a baseball field, a swimming pool, or the cinema.

Baseball field in Gaza?? Well, Gaza has some very nice soccer fields. And swimming pools.

And it used to have cinemas, but Hamas outlawed them.

Now, the question is, why Mohammed Eid, who was an toddler when the Palestinian Authority was created, grew up in a "refugee camp" at all? Israel tried to move Gazans into real houses - but the UN passed resolutions against it and those who tried to take advantage were threatened. Yet under PA and Hamas control, these camps still exist. People who live in their own country under their own rulers are not refugees. Why is Eid's family treated like one?

Because UNRWA exists. Because it has brainwashed generations to say that their homes are in Israel and they cannot live as equal citizens in a Palestinian state next to Israel.

UNRWA-USA is engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to extend the "refugee" problem forever. And it takes only a little effort to look at the words of their star propagandists to see how this works.

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UNRWA-USA blames Israel for Abbas cutting services to Gaza

UNRWA-USA executive director Abby Smardon writes about her recent visit to Gaza. Of course, her preferred place to publish is the rabidly anti-Israel Mondoweiss:

I’ve visited the Gaza Strip for each of the past six years, including in 2014 a few months after Israel’s devastating military assault. And yet, I’ve never seen Gaza like I did when I had the privilege of visiting this summer.
I call it a privilege because, due to the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel (with the support of Egypt), which is part of Israel’s now 50-year-old military rule over Palestinians in the occupied territories, internationals allowed in and out of Gaza are few, and Palestinians even fewer. This illegal land, air, and sea blockade, which has just entered its tenth year and amounts to collective punishment, as has been noted by the UN and human rights groups, has decimated the economy of Gaza and allowed for the near complete destruction of critical infrastructure. Experts use the term “de-development” to describe this once-bustling Mediterranean coastal enclave of two million Palestinians.

Why is Gaza worse now then it was in Smardon's previous visits?

Upon arriving in Gaza, which requires a permit from Israel and extensive humanitarian coordination, I immediately saw the crippling effects of the ongoing electricity crisis which has been wreaking havoc since March. Electricity is now only available for 2-4 hours a day, a situation that has been exacerbated by internal Palestinian political divides. This has brought life to a near complete stop for many in Gaza, and has enormous public health and environmental implications.

Smardon goes on to describe how things are so bad because of the electricity crisis:

The first day of my visit, I visited a water pumping station at Al-Shati refugee camp by the coast. There, I witnessed raw sewage pumping directly into the water. The sewage would normally flow to a treatment plant, but without electricity, that’s not an option. Instead, it pumps directly into the sea, not far from where people swim and fish. Their fish will be contaminated, just like their water. The sea, which is at the heart of Gazan culture, now poisons them. Despite more than 65% of the shoreline being unsafe for humans, people continue to go to the beach because it’s the only source of relief left during the sweltering summer.
At an UNRWA health clinic, I met with doctors and nurses who are facing the challenges of the electricity crisis both at work and home. A nurse shared with me that she wakes up at 2 am to do her family’s laundry because that’s usually when she has electricity. A doctor told me that he only gets 3-4 hours of rest each night because the heat keeps him awake. Regardless of their personal struggles, they both come to the clinic every day committed to providing quality healthcare for their fellow Palestine refugees.
Because the medical equipment runs on a different current than the clinic’s back-up generator, x-ray, ultrasound, lab testing machines and others aren’t able to run at full capacity, and the machines will break down much sooner than they should. The World Health Organization warns that at least 30 hospitals, 70 primary health care centers, and a blood blank in Gaza are at severe risk of full or partial closure due to continued power outages and not enough fuel or spare parts for back-up generators. It’s a health catastrophe in the making.

And Smardon's conclusion?

Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip deserve humanitarian support, but no amount of assistance will ever substitute for the necessary political action, including that of the US, to stop the violation of human rights that Palestinians face on a daily basis. Lifting the blockade on Gaza would be a start.

Smardon knows that Gaza's electricity and medicine crisis - and it really is a crisis - is the result of the Palestinian Authority decision to cut services that they had provided.

But UNRWA's fundraising arm will never demand that Palestinians take responsibility for other Palestinians. No, she insists that Israel is the guilty party. Even though Israel provides all the fuel that Gaza (and its sponsors) are willing to pay for, and Israel was supplying all the electricity it could directly before Abbas demanded that it reduce the amount and he stopped paying.

Just more proof that UNRWA-USA is an anti-Israel organization, and doesn't really want to help actual Palestinians.

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The alternate universe of @UNRWAUSA's Israel haters

Last night was the Institute for Middle East Understanding annual gala.

The Israel-hating, terror-supporting members of UNRWA-USA attended and tweeted about the event.

team @unrwausa is at @theimeu gala! be sure to stop by and say hello! https://t.co/zvnwKFtYt2
— lena badr abdelhamid (@lenambadr) May 3, 2016

They were very happy to have a chance to see BDS activist and academic fraud Marc Lamont Hill.

Thank you for all you do, @marclamonthill! https://t.co/YspFFgwTjF
— Abby Smardon (@abbysmardon) May 4, 2016

They were starstruck by serial liar and antisemite Roger Waters.

.@RogerWaters loves Palestine and so do we! @abbysmardon #IMEUgala pic.twitter.com/QWCCuYpSYF
— Laila (@lailamo) May 4, 2016

The IMEU honored Hanan Ashrawi, whose organization Miftah has pushed antisemitic memes and supports violence against Jews. In a normal world, someone who had been linked to the worst kind of bigotry would be shunned forever. But Hanan Ashrawi is a rock star to the UNRWA-USA gang:

"The violence is created by the occupation which is the highest form of violence." Hanan Ashrawi. @theIMEU pic.twitter.com/NPLff9OSnO
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

Yes, these mental midgets really believe that "occupation" is the "highest form of violence" when tens of thousands of people are being slaughtered in Syria only a few miles away. These people honestly believe that Palestinians are not responsible for their own explicit support of terror because "occupation" is so terrible - but they would never dare justify violence by those whose lands are occupied by Russia or China or Turkey or Morocco.

Why is Israel, unique in the world, responsible for the violence that is done by others? The reason is because the targets of that violence are Zionist Jews. That's the only difference, and this new version of antisemitism disguised as a political opinion is heartily embraced by these women of UNRWA-USA.

They claim they support non-violence but they do not say a word against the violence practiced and supported daily by their pet Palestinians. They do not spend a penny on any programs to teach Palestinians that they must live in peace with Jews. They do not say a word against a regime that has taught its people incitement instead of normalization; turning terrorists into heroes instead of pariahs,

This is UNRWA-USA.

"@imeu challenges ignorance. Victims will not be silenced, will not be blamed anymore." Hanan Ashrawi. #Palestine
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

The implication again is that stabbing Jews is a morally neutral or honorable activity and that the people who do it are justified because they are "victims." What a great message from a tax-deductible NGO.

Incredible to have @rogerwaters perform at @theIMEU gala and talk about how he's blacklisted 4 supporting #Palestine pic.twitter.com/P4LMJDIfmc
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

A person who spends his entire life trying to blacklist artists for performing in Israel is whining about being "blacklisted?" I am not aware of a single concert that was cancelled because of Waters' politics.

Hypocrisy, justification for terror, rabid hate for Israel, inversion of reality, and enthusiasm for people who support antisemitism and terror attacks. That is the IMEU and that is UNRWA-USA.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

.@UNRWAUSA goes to anti-Israel groups to hire interns

Earlier this year this site (and others) exposed the fact that essentially every employee of UNRWA-USA expressed anti-Israel views on social media. All of those accounts were made private or taken down as a result.

Just in case you need more evidence that American Friends of UNRWA is an anti-Israel organization, meet their intern from last summer, Hashem Abi Sham'a:

He explicitly calls Israel an "apartheid state" and supports BDS:

Earlier, he said that Israel is not part of a Middle East that he envisions.

Sham'a's internship has ended, he now goes to school in Ireland.

But how was this anti-Israel activist recruited to work fror UNRWA-USA?

UNRWA-USA recruits its interns directly from people who are members of anti-Israel groups!

UNRWA-USA does not even pretend to be even-handed - if you hate Israel, you are a candidate to work for UNRWA USA!

(h/t Bob Knot)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Another @UNRWAUSA worker shows her hate for Israel (before hiding it) (UPDATE)

Yesterday, I reported that UNRWA-USA communications director Laila Mokhiber took down her Twitter account after it was found to have anti-Israel posts that violate UNRWA's standards.

It appears that nearly all of UNRWA-USA workers have now made their Twitter feeds private, frightened by what others would have discovered that would embarrass their already embarrassing agency.

But not before I took some screenshots from the feed of one of them.

Nada El-Eryan, grants officer at UNRWA USA, is another UNRWA worker in America who proudly shows how anti-Israel she is.

Tweeting under the handle "nadabrain" she has written or retweeted:

Nada does not mention UNRWA as her employer on Twitter, and she says that what she tweets are not the views of her unnamed employer.

But she does describe herself as a "Palestinian American activist" which pretty much shows how she cannot be considered objective.

Her timeline also makes it clear she works for UNRWA even if she doesn't want to say so explicitly.

My coworkers celebrate birthdays in the best ways ever! I ❤️ Pierre Krahenbuhl! Thank you to everyone… https://t.co/h7wW95lifW
— Nada E. (@nadabrain) July 20, 2015

If Laila Mokhiber was forced to close her Twitter account by supporting "Israeli Apartheid Week," then Nada El-Eryan has shown that she is equally partisan while celebrating her association with UNRWA on Twitter. And this is directly against UNRWA's stated mandate.

By the way, UNRWA-USA 's Twitter account has a public list of 74 (!) Twitter accounts for chapters of the anti-Israel "Students for Justice in Palestine."

A very strong indication of where UNRWA's sympathies lie.

(h/t JethroSteve)

UPDATE: Bob Knot did his Facebook magic again on Nada El-Eryan. Check out all of these anti-Israel groups and events she supports:

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

UNRWA-USA communications director tweets hate for Israel (UPDATE)

(See update below)

Remember how UNRWA pretends to be non-partisan?

UNRWA-USA communications director Laila Mokhiber sent out this tweets showing her support for "Israeli Apartheid Week:"

Not exactly objective, is it?

As soon as Avi Mayer tweeted about it, she protected her account from being seen publicly:

And soon thereafter, it was gone!

And this is a communications director who openly supports hate for Israel! Even though she no longer tweets under her name, she still has her hate and she still has her job.

How long is UNRWA going to keep pretending that it is non-partisan?

UPDATE: Mokhiber's Facebook presence is still online at the moment and it shows plenty of other anti-Israel activity and support for terrorists:

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The anti-semitism underlying UNRWA-USA fundraising

Here is UNRWA's chart describing the number of registered "refugees" under its purview in each of the five areas it works.

If you look at the American Friends of UNRWA fundraising site, however, you find that there is a hugely disproportionate effort meant to appeal to help less than half the people in the chart.

UNRWA-USA is hosting four separate 5K runs this year, specifically for Gaza children.

Besides that, UNRWA-USA has a Gaza emergency appeal, a "protect civilians" appeal that is specifically for Arabs in Area C and Jerusalem (that heavily invokes "settlers,") a shelter rehabilitation appeal specifically for the West Bank, and a "job creation program/Olive Tree Initiative" that is also specifically for the West Bank.

Oh, and a very general Syria Emergency Appeal.

Unlike the five fundraising programs in the territories, the Syria program does not specify whether it is for shelter or food or schools or mental health; it is a very generic, general appeal because things in Syria are really bad too. Unlike their articles about WB and Gaza aid recipients, there is nothing about specific needs of Syrian Palestinians like food or clothing or medicine.

UNRWA-USA does not have any specific appeals for Lebanese UNRWA aid recipients, even though the situation in Lebanese camps is far, far worse than they are on the West Bank. UNRWA-USA does not appeal for any funds for the 2.1 million Jordanians receiving aid, including those who are not Jordanian citizens who are even further discriminated against by Jordan.

Here is a chart of the keyword tags in UNRWA-USA articles that are region-specific:

Lebanon	3
Jordan	3
Demolition Watch (WB)	8
Syria	9
Settler Violence (WB)	10
Gaza Solidarity 5K	11
West Bank	17
Gaza	27

In other words, UNRWA-USA spends at least 83% of its fundraising effort in region-specific appeals to areas whose problems can be blamed on Israel and on Jews, even though only 40% of UNRWA aid recipients actually live in those areas.

No more than 0.2% of all Palestinian "refugees" receiving UNRWA aid live in Area C of the West Bank, where those evil "settlers" live, yet UNRWA-USA expends more effort appealing for funds to help the tiny number allegedly affected by "settler violence" than for the millions of aid recipients in Jordan and Lebanon combined.

This is especially incredible given that most of the Syrian Palestinian population have lost their homes and are forced to live in horrible conditions in Lebanon and Jordan, yet their plight is little more than a footnote in UNRWA-USA's fundraising efforts.

No one is saying that the lives of Gazans are great, but Israel is not stopping any legitimate rebuilding efforts. Lebanon, on the other hand, blocks any new building entirely, even as hundreds of thousands of new real refugees are flooding in. But UNRWA-USA is silent about that.

The subconscious message being given is that UNRWA donors care about the "refugees" only when their plight can be blamed on Israel or on Jewish "settlers," and UNRWA aid recipients in other areas aren't nearly as important.

This means that whether they mean to or not, UNRWA-USA is using latent antisemitism as a fundraising gimmick - and also fueling that same antisemitism by implying that Palestinians who can blame their plight on Jews are somehow more worthy of aid than those whose lives are made hell by their fellow Arabs.

Which further means that UNRWA-USA cares more about demonizing Jews and Israelis than about objectively helping the people who need the most help.

It looks like American Friends of UNRWA cares more about demonizing Jews than they do about helping Palestinians.

There are no UNRWA-USA fundraisers to raise cash for Nahr el-Bared and Yarmouk and the Jerash camp in Jordan while there are multiple fundraisers for Gaza and the West Bank (where there shouldn't be any "refugee camps" anyway.) If there is a better explanation as to why American Friends of UNRWA believe that one set of Palestinian "refugees" is more deserving of funds than the others, I'd love to hear it.