Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: work permits

Showing posts with label work permits. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Keeping Them Out: "It Begins Every Time We Wake Up Alive" (Judean Rose)

Residents of Efrat Concerned for their security say yes to only Jewish and foreign workers

Interview with Stephanie Treger

Stephanie Treger is determined to keep her family safe by keeping Arabs without Israeli citizenship out of Efrat where she lives. Here in Efrat, in the heart of Judea, we know what happened on October 7^th. Regular Gazans stampeded that fence, alongside Hamas, and joined right in with the slaughter.

From Treger’s point of view then, there is no choice. We have to stop letting them in to clean our schools; build our homes; and fill our prescriptions at the pharmacy. To be clear, “them” means non-Israeli Arabs.

As such, Stephanie Treger has sparked a modest grassroots effort to explore the exclusive use of Jewish and foreign labor in her town. She began by gathering the opinions and ideas of lots and lots of women. A petition was carefully composed in language hopefully inoffensive to all, and circulated in both Hebrew and English.

Will Treger succeed in her mission? Where are things going, and how will it all play out? Will the residents of Efrat be forced to allow the entry and use of non-Israeli Arab labor?

Stephanie Treger

A busy mother of eight, Stephanie gave graciously of her time to answer my many questions about this initiative. As I always do with interview subjects, I asked her for a few lines of biographical data from which I would cobble together my intro. What she wrote was so cool, I’m quoting it here verbatim:

My name is Stephanie Treger, I am 36 years old. I live in Efrat, Gush Etzion, Israel, with my husband Brandon and our eight children. We made aliyah seven years ago from South Africa, Cape Town. We own Power Coffeeworks, a coffee roastery in Shuk Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem. We made aliyah based on our Zionism and belief in the Jewish people, our past, present, and future.

Varda Epstein: You’re one of the women at the forefront of the effort to bar non-Israeli workers from Efrat. The petition has been up since December 7^th, a full two months after the October attacks. Why now? Were the attacks the impetus for this effort or had you already been working on this?

Stephanie Treger: Correct, I am. It did take some time to get the ball rolling to start this initiative. I believe the women who have started this organisation together with me were in survival mode for some time after 7/10. Most of our husbands and partners are serving, which left us alone, and once the true magnitude of the devastation became apparent, we got right on it.

It also took time to go public; even with a simple petition it had to be done slowly, the wording of our letter needed to be politically correct. We took opinions from many women at the start. This is a very large issue, politically and emotionally. There are over 3 million Arabs living in Judea and Samaria who need jobs, and who also fulfill jobs that keep our cities running. Before the attacks on 7/10, this was a background issue for us all, but we just carried on as normal, it was just too big to deal with.

Varda Epstein: Efrat is a very modern town with many professionals among the residents. Are you meeting any resistance to your campaign? Can you talk about that? What percentage of Efrat residents would you say support allowing in only Jewish and foreign workers?

Stephanie Treger: In all honesty, I am shocked at the lack of support to date. At the same time, though we have not yet opened the tables for discussion, we are at least not in argument with or meeting resistance from non-supporters. Still, nearly two weeks after launching a simple petition, we have only retrieved 650 odd signatures in a city of over 14,000 residents.

After the 7/10 massacre by thousands of non-Israeli Arabs, I am surprised that this community, made up of extremely intelligent professionals, would want to resume “the norm” and continue bringing in non-Israeli Arab workers. At two months after 7/10, our eyes have been truly opened, watching the videos and testimonies of the survivors as they are released. We know how horrific this infiltration was and how it was planned. The intelligence collected to launch such an attack took a certain kind of evil genius. This was planned meticulously and we have proof of that from a variety of sources.

How can we possibly stand by and say “Never again”? More like “again” every few years, if we continue on in this way.

Varda Epstein: Some would say the idea of barring entry to your town of a specific ethnic demographic is racism. What would you say to them?

Stephanie Treger: I am a non-racist South African. I was raised in a racist country, and this is not racism. This is not an issue of color or ethnicity. This is an issue of protecting our families from a cult of terrorists whose sole intention is to murder us. If that were not the case, we would be living in peace. Simple.

We Jews cherish life. We want peace, we do not want war and we do not want poverty, but sadly, until Hamas and the other terrorist cells seize to exist, we have to protect our people.

Varda Epstein: Arab workers can only enter and work in Efrat accompanied by a security guard. Why is this measure not enough to keep the residents of Efrat safe?

Stephanie Treger: Since this rumor was brought to the fore, I have documented many occasions where Israeli Arabs were not accompanied by armed guards. So no, the measure is not enough to keep us safe.

The problem here is manpower and I don't personally blame the municipality or the mayor as some do. We have a huge problem on our hands. Our resources are low, we have zero manpower and I have no doubt that our local government is trying to find solutions. But we also need to take responsibility as a community.

We have to mobilize and work within the system to find solutions. There are many residents in this community who do not work. These residents could pull together and assist in cleaning the schools or work at local cafes. There are ways to create solutions but we need all hands on deck.

Varda Epstein: What types of work have Arab workers performed in Efrat, up until now?

Stephanie Treger: This exact question is what prompts my concerns for our safety. The Arab workers who have previously worked in Efrat have been able to cover every corner of our city possible. From cleaners in homes, to cleaners in schools and emergency departments; from workers in our cafes and restaurants to garbage disposal to street cleaners; and from handymen to construction workers.

There is an endless untold amount of intelligence that might have been and probably was collected by Arab workers, endless over the passing years. The workers are often unaccompanied by security, and safety checks are lax, in my opinion.

Varda Epstein: Why would a mostly right-wing populace hire Arabs to begin with? Why not Jews—their own people?

Stephanie Treger: This seems to be the crux of our struggle. We are not hiring Jews because Jews are more expensive. Jews need to shell out for taxes, arnona, and pensions. At the same time, the incomes of prospective Jewish employees are low because they must pay the same taxes as their prospective (Jewish) employees.

Arabs, conversely, can charge below half-price; be paid in cash; they have no amenity payments; and do not contribute to our society. This is something that needs to be dealt with at government level. Government now has this issue on its table. Cabinets are approving “no entry”. Now they need to find the solutions to manage it.

Varda Epstein: The petition appears to distinguish between Israeli and non-Israeli Arabs. Why? Are only non-Israeli Arabs dangerous? You don’t want to keep out the others?

Stephanie Treger: Personally, I see no difference at present. Even if Israeli Arab X doesn't want to be a terrorist, Hamas is holding guns to the heads of X’s children. Should he refuse to comply with the cult of Hamas, his entire family will be annihilated. I too, would surrender if my children's lives were at risk.

I may want to keep them out, but it’s illegal to keep them out. Israeli Arabs with ID cards cannot legally be held back from entering any part of Israel.

Varda Epstein: This campaign was started by women. Why do you think that is? Are men less concerned with this issue?

Stephanie Treger: Men are at the forefront on the borders; we women are at the forefront of our homes. It's pointless having the men protect our borders if we are not doing the same in our communities. I live in a 35-year-old home. My doors are not secure, and my window frames are old. I do not have a safe room. I am home alone, with 8 children under 13.

Gd forbid there was an infiltration of Efrat. I, as a woman, armed or not, would not be able to protect my family. We women want to serve and protect and it begins every time we wake up alive.

Varda Epstein: Is there some kind of precedent that led to this effort? Are non-Israeli workers known to attack their Jewish employers?

Stephanie Treger: My sister sat in her safe room for 23 hours with her baby and husband in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on 7/10, while her sister-in-law, cousins, and friends were raped, beheaded, burnt alive, and brutally murdered next door. Some taken hostage. My passion for this initiative is personal. I also have a love for my people. Never again is NOW.

Varda Epstein: There are Arab businesses that have cropped up right on Efrat’s doorstep, just outside the northern gate, and many Efrat residents appear happy to frequent them. But recently, a video was released showing one of these new business owners calling for settlers to die. How do feel about that?

Stephanie Treger: When you see videos of neighboring Arabs promote the death of "settlers" we naturally get concerned. Videos such as those directed by Corey Gil-Shuster are eye-openers to us all. The specific video I have in mind is of a man who lives adjacent to Efrat. His property borders that of our beautiful coffee shop that we and our children love to enjoy during the day and in the evenings.

In this man's driveway is a car wash and a laundromat which until 7/10 were used by the Jews of Efrat. He was earning his living from the Jews of Efrat. Since 7/10 he has closed his gate and is not earning a salary to support his family. So to what extent do we believe that at some point the consequences of poverty will kick in?

When will he get angry enough with the Jews of Efrat that eventually he will fall in with a terrorist organisation to have revenge on the people he hated before we even shut him down.

This new reality is sad but true. We Jews who live in Judea are at risk for terror and we must not take risks in protecting our families and our people.

Varda Epstein: Do you think that there is a reluctance among the residents of Efrat, even after the events of October 7, to adopt a general attitude of distrust toward non-Israeli Arabs, especially those with whom they’ve formed casual relationships? Is there a feeling of, “Oh, he’d never do something like that. He’s always polite and friendly, and gives me good service.”

How would you illustrate the dangers of this outlook, from your perspective?

Stephanie Treger: I would point them to the words of Professor Arye Eldad, who headed the plastic surgery and burns unit at Hadassah Medical Center, and is also a former member of Knesset:

I was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National Skin Bank, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where I was the chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in Beersheba after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied all the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my friend and colleague Prof. Lior Rosenberg, and discharged to return to Gaza. She was invited for regular follow up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheba. One day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a suicide belt. She meant to explode herself in the outpatient clinic of the hospital where they saved her life. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they would forgive her.

This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a civilizational conflict.

Varda Epstein: Is this campaign going to continue to be a local, Efrat phenomenon, or do you have bigger plans for this—perhaps to take this national?

Stephanie Treger: We will see; we can't manage alone. We all need to hold hands. We were lucky to see that it went to government last week. We will take it day by day and do our best to succeed. It's all we can do really.

NOTE: Go to PETITION to see, sign, and share.

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Apartheid! Israeli firefighter dies, another seriously injured trying to rescue an illegal Palestinian worker who fell into a pit

Another story of how little Israel cares about Palestinian lives:

Two people were killed and a third was in critical condition after falling into a pit in the northern village of Deir al-Asad on Sunday.

Two of the men were firefighters who fell into the hole during an attempt to extract the third, a Palestinian laborer who had earlier plunged inside and lost consciousness.

The firefighters were pulled from the eight-meter-deep hole by other rescue personnel at the scene, according to a Magen David Ambulance service statement.

Medics tried to revive them while they were being taken to Nahariya’s Galilee Medical Center in critical condition, MDA said.

One of them was later declared dead. He was named as Adnan Assad, 40, from Beit Jann.

Rescue workers at the scene also pulled the Palestinian man, in his 20s, from the hole. He was also taken to the hospital in critical condition and was declared dead several hours later.

According to police, he was a Palestinian laborer staying in the country illegally.

Two firefighters risked their lives - and one paid the ultimate price - to save a Palestinian.

And notice that the Israeli firefighter was an Arab himself - working on helping people alongside his Jewish colleagues. There is no distinction between them.

In other words, reality is completely different from the lies you see in the anti-Israel media.

But anyone who cares to know the truth already was aware of this.

Adnan Assad was a 40 year old father of three, including a two month old baby. May his memory be a blessing.

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The new wave of terror may be hurting the Palestinian economy

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics published its labor report for the second quarter, and it shows that the number of Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements increased to 164,000 from 153,000 in the first quarter.

However, this is not the highest number for Palestinians working for Israelis. It reversed a year-long trend of fewer Palestinians working for Israelis.

In the second quarter last year, some 211,000 Palestinians worked for Israelis - 182,000 in the Green Line and 29,000 in the settlements. That number decreased by 13,000 between the second and third quarters.

A drop from 211,000 to 153,000 in less than a year is a dramatic change, before the modest rebound this quarter.

The Israeli GDP has continued to steadily increase during this time period so this drop doesn't seem to be a reflection of more general economic trends.

It seems likely that as terror attacks increased over the past 18 months that Israeli employers are getting more skittish about hiring Palestinians, worried that some workers might go on a murder spree.

Obviously, only a tiny percentage of Palestinian workers are potential terrorists. But there have been enough incidents of Palestinian workers in Israel who either instigated or facilitated terror attacks in Israel to make Israeli employers think twice before hiring.

Given that Israeli employers pay far higher salaries than Palestinian employers - this quarter the average daily wage increased to NIS 289, far more than double the Palestinian average - the "heroic Palestinian youth" of Jenin and Nablus appear to be making the lives of ordinary Palestinians worse.

But there are no true brave Palestinian who are willing to say that out loud.

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Jordan's unemployment rate is much worse than in PA-controlled areas

Palestinians have it easy.

Whenever there is any statistic announced that shows that life for them isn't perfect, they have someone to blame: Israel.

So, for example, when there are some people in Gaza who are food insecure, it must be Israel's fault - even though it is much worse in neighboring Egypt, and even though Israel does not limit food into Gaza at all.

When the unemployment rate in the West Bank is at 14%, that sounds very high. It must be Israel's fault. Except that neighboring Jordan's is at nearly 22%.

Whose fault is that?

To the world, Palestinians have zero responsibility for their own problems. That is mostly because Palestinians insist that this is the case. This way they avoid doing any actual nation-building, and the EU keeps sending experts who do the work for them.

For three decades.

The fact that Palestinians choose to spend about 6% of their budget on terrorist "salaries" and family payments hundreds of millions of dollars that could go to help normal Palestinians - does not faze the rest of the world.

And the fact that Israel employs some 125,000 Palestinians, with salaries more than double their domestic worker counterparts, doesn't mean anything either.

The only narrative allowed - in the media and from NGOs - is that all Palestinian problems come from Israel.

And the world is happy - nay, eager - to believe it.

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Amnesty's latest anti-Israel report's scope and methodology proves its bias was intended from the outset (update)

Amnesty just released its latest anti-Israel report, "Automated Apartheid: How facial recognition fragments, segregates and controls Palestinians in the OPT."

The 82 page report was conceived from the start to be biased against Israel. This can be seen from just the introduction.

By Checkpoint 56 in H2, a towering barrier features two turnstiles, and at least 24 cameras on the outside. Palestinians rely on passage through the checkpoint to access most, if not all, of goods and services, work, education, family life, and healthcare. It is here where witnesses described coming face to face with a new facial recognition system, Red Wolf, in 2022.

Palestinians are the only racial group of residents in H2 required to use these checkpoints, and the system relies on databases consisting exclusively of Palestinian individuals’ data.

Palestinians are not a racial group. Here Amnesty is apparently again using a definition of "racial discrimination" based on the ICERD definition which explicitly says that its definition does not apply to treating citizens and non-citizens differently. Amnesty's use of the word "racial" here has only one purpose: to assume that Israel's racism as a basis for the report itself.

Similarly:

In Hebron City and East Jerusalem the rights of Palestinians are violated through a range of legal and military measures that help maintain Israel’s system of apartheid over Palestinians.

Amnesty lied about "apartheid" in its earlier reports, and those definitions have been thoroughly debunked. But since Amnesty is more interested in propaganda than accuracy, it now uses the term as if it was a fact and this report is meant to build on that assumption. As a result, any alternative explanations for its findings are discounted or ignored - everything must support the lie that Israel engages in "apartheid" against non-citizens, which is nonsensical, since by that definition every country in the world practices apartheid.

The constant surveillance Palestinians face means they not only live in a state of insecurity, but they are also at risk of arbitrary arrest, interrogation, and detention.

If Palestinians are being arrested or detained based on being identified by surveillance, then by definition the arrests are not arbitrary. Israel is only arresting those people it is looking for; the vast majority of Palestinians pass through the checkpoints with no problem. This is the opposite of arbitrary.

But "arbitrary arrest" sounds so much worse, so Amnesty lies.

Neda, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, spoke of the impact this oppressive technology has on her daily life: “I’m being watched the whole time…[it] gives me a really bad feeling everywhere in the street. Every time I see a camera, I feel anxious. Like you are always being treated as if you are a target.”

For better or worse, residents of every urban area on Earth have cameras pointing at them all the time. Police can request the video footage from private security cameras, too. There is no fundamental difference between what Neda is describing and what everyone in every city experiences.

This report establishes that facial recognition technologies are providing the Israeli authorities with powerful new tools for curbing freedom of movement – a pre-requisite for the realization of basic rights – adding further layers of technological sophistication to the system of apartheid that Israel is imposing on Palestinians in the OPT. This is achieved via:

• The establishment of compounding technological infrastructure to expand the reach of Israeli authorities’ control. As checkpoints govern the ability of Palestinians in H2––the area of Hebron under military rule by the Israeli Civil Administration––to travel outside their homes, Israel is able to contain Palestinians geographically, using domination by way of military force and surveillance tools such as Red Wolf and Blue Wolf to deter resistance.

Even if you call Israel's presence "occupation," the Geneva Conventions allows great latitude in allowing the occupier to maintain security of both civilians and soldiers. Checkpoints are not illegal. As we will see, the only people that the new technology stops are those who are already wanted.

Palestinians define attacking Jews as "resistance." Deterring resistance is not only legal but an obligation, to normal moral people.

• Surveillance as part of a coercive environment aimed at forcing Palestinians to leave areas of strategic interest to Israeli authorities, by making their ordinary lives unbearable.

Really? Cameras make their lives unbearable? Has a single Palestinian ever moved his family to avoid cameras? This is just another example of how Amnesty makes things up and knows that no one will look too closely at how their supposedly factual assertions are simple lies.

This report is based on field visits to Hebron and East Jerusalem, involving observations, interviews, and the collection of visual evidence, as well as on open-source intelligence and previous reporting. Between May and June 2022, Amnesty International met with Palestinian families, activists, students and experts from across Hebron and East Jerusalem, who were routinely exposed to daily surveillance. In doing so, Amnesty International researchers gathered testimonies and experiences related to the human rights harms associated with the deployment of invasive and wide-reaching remote biometric surveillance technologies, in particular facial recognition.

Given the sensitive nature of the research, risk of leaks, and risks posed to Amnesty researchers, a decision was made from the beginning of the research not to engage directly with Israeli officials.

Meaning, all of Amnesty's "research" involved looking at only one side of the issue. And this was a deliberate decision, not only not to include Israeli officials but not to include any Israelis who might contradict the premise of the report that Israeli is racist.

How can Amnesty claim to be objective when its decides, at the outset, to only look at sources biased in one direction?

Amnesty International issued a right of response letter to the state of Israel on 19 April 2023 but had not received a response at the date of publication.

Amnesty has been working on this report since 2021 - but gives Israel less than two weeks to respond to an 82 page report. One of those weeks includes Remembrance Day and Yom Haatzmaut. Yeah, that's real objective.

Amnesty International has found that facial recognition technology is used extensively by the Israeli authorities to support their continued domination and oppression of Palestinians in the OPT. With a record of discriminatory and inhuman acts that maintain a system of apartheid, the Israeli authorities are able to use facial recognition software – in particular at checkpoints – to consolidate existing practices of discriminatory policing and segregation, violating Palestinians’ basic rights.

Amnesty International is not convinced that the security justifications which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians – including restricting their freedom of movement – justify the severe restrictions that the Israeli authorities have imposed. While some of Israel’s policies may have been designed to promote legitimate security objectives, they have been implemented in a grossly disproportionate and discriminatory way which fails to comply with international law. Other policies have absolutely no reasonable basis in security and are clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate. This includes differential treatment in the occupied territories, supporting the settlement of Jewish Israelis in the OPT, the designation of closed military zones, and the imposition of certain restrictions on movement such as travel bans. Examined in the context of systematic discrimination and oppression, and in the light of the mass human rights violations these policies have entailed, it becomes clear that genuine security considerations, including in the context of the deployment of facial recognition, are not the driving force behind these measures.

There is no way for Amnesty to know any of this without mind-reading capabilities. These aren't conclusions - they are assumptions. Given that the number of terror attacks against Jews has increased dramatically during the time period that Amnesty researched and wrote this report, plus the rise of new terror infrastructure like Lion's Den, these two paragraphs are Amnesty's way of saying Jewish lives don't matter.

Amnesty's position is that any technology to save the lives of Jews and soldiers is disproportionate.

Their "Methodology" section shows more intentional bias by Amnesty:

To design the research project, Amnesty International established an advisory committee in early 2022 consisting of half a dozen researchers at the forefront of research on surveillance in the context of the OPT, with proven track records of scholarship and human rights advocacy in relation to the topic. They included academics, lawyers, campaigners and activists. The advisory committee was crucial in informing the research project, including but not limited to formulating the research questions, identifying potential witnesses and research partners, and addressing ethical and security-related concerns associated with the project.

So the advisory committee included only people who hate Israel. And no distinction was made between the supposed experts and "campaigners and activists." There is not even the pretense of objectivity.

Here is one perfect example of Amnesty's bias. The report relies heavily on testimony from Breaking the Silence, but ignores when their testimony proves that the facial recognition actually makes the lives of Palestinians at checkpoints easier. One BtS report quoted four times says:

You have this system called Red Wolf.

Okay, give more details.
A person arrives and goes through a security check. He gives me his ID. I put it into [the system]. If it goes green on the computer, he goes through a security check and moves on. If it goes yellow, I have to call... Yellow is unidentified, unknown, something like that. There’s this number you call, the division, the DCL (District Coordination and Liaison office, a regional unit of the Civil Administration), and they tell you what to do. And if it’s red, there’s the protocol. You lock down the whole turnstile [at the checkpoint], call to have him picked up because he’s wanted for arrest.

And they come to get him?
Yes.

Would that happen a lot?
No. It never happened. They (the Palestinians) are not idiots. In the end, there are openings that aren’t this checkpoint.

And usually, when there’s a yellow, what would actually happen?
It’s a computer bug. I never really had a yellow. For the most part, they’re all green, or they have no ID, and then you turn them around.

Can this system identify them even without putting in the ID [number]?
Yes. There’s something like ten cameras. Once they arrive and pass through inside, it essentially takes photos, identifies them, to help you as the soldier standing there. It catches the face before [they enter], and it displays the face for you on the computer. If it’s someone who’s been coming through there a lot, the computer already knows them. It takes photos of everyone who passes there essentially. And you, as a soldier, a commander, standing there, can match the face to the IDs until the system learns [to recognize] the face. It recognizes him, and then he comes, and he’s already lit green for me even before he showed me an ID, and so it makes the process shorter for him, in theory.

And then, after you see green?
He can go through the turnstile with no problem.

So the system allows Palestinians who live in Hebron to zip through checkpoints without having to show their ID each time.

Amnesty doesn't even consider that the systems could be used to ease Palestinians' lives, nor does it allow that the security gains and lives saved by these systems have any value at all.

Amnesty's scope for this report deliberately omits the high tech checkpoint at Qalandiya that speeds Palestinian workers through and saves them the hours that they used to spend there. It also uses facial recognition to help make things go much faster. There is no way that someone with any intellectual honesty can look at Qalandiya and conclude that the facial recognition is hurting them in any way.

But Amnesty chose not to include that in this report, because it would contradict the anti-Israel message that Amnesty intended this report to be all along. If report readers knew about Qalandiya, they might think that checkpoints in Hebron that use facial recognition also are better then the old system of checking IDs.

Similarly, Amnesty quotes an IDF report about the surveillance system in Hebron, but doesn't quote the part that explains why it is necessary: "The main challenge in Hebron is the friction between the Jewish residents and the Palestinians, who live right next to each other - so when a security incident breaks out, the force has to react within seconds. The new cameras which give us a clearer picture of what is happening in the field, and thus solve the timing problem."

Amnesty doesn't mention, or airily dismisses, the actual security reasons for surveillance. Which is the entire problem. There are alternative explanations for this technology that make far more sense than Amnesty's assertion that these systems are "clearly shaped by the intent to oppress and dominate." How exactly that oppression and domination would help Israel in any way is not defined. In fact, such a deliberate mistreatment as Amnesty describes would make life worse for Israelis as well. But according to Amnesty, Jewish supremacists just love to harass Palestinians for no reason, and even spend millions of dollars to create high tech methods to make their lives miserable.

Those are Amnesty's "facts" before they wrote one word of this report.

The report was conceived, researched, scoped and written with assumptions of unmitigated Israeli evil If you never encountered Amnesty's bias beforehand, this report alone is enough to show that the entire organization is a joke.

Yet the New York Times wrote essentially a press release for this anti-Israel report, without reporting any bias at all.

Because people who share a bias cannot notice it in others.

UPDATE: NGO Monitor adds lots more.

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Israel considering increasing number of work permits from Gaza. News media silent.

Palestinian site Amad reports:

Hebrew sources announced, on Sunday evening, that Israel is considering increasing the number of work permits from the Gaza Strip, and the number of regular work permits may reach about fifty thousand in the coming months.

An informed Israeli security source indicated that the number could be increased as well, and this contributes to improving the economic situation of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

I didn't see this in Hebrew media, but there is little reason to think this isn't true.

And it is representative of the type of story that the news media isn't interested in.

Israel spends a great deal of time and money trying to ensure that Palestinians' lives can be as good as possible while not compromising the security of Israelis.

It is a very difficult job.

Another recent example of Israel taking great efforts to help ordinary Palestinians is that Israel is starting to operate the crossing into Jordan for 24 hours a day to make things easier for Palestinian travelers.

A nation's first priority is the safety of its own citizens. There have been countless cases of Palestinians taking advantage of Israeli efforts at being humane - suicide bombs smuggled in by hospital patients, for example.

In this case I cannot blame the media completely for avoiding stories where Israel acts humanely towards Palestinians. Bad news is news and drives ratings; good news doesn't.

But when coverage of Israel is so unrelentingly negative, no one even considers that the truth is not what is being reported. People who do not follow news in Hebrew and Arabic are left completely in the dark.

Gaza is a mess, and giving Gazans jobs is the single most important thing that can be done to help them out. Gaza is also run by a terrorist organization.

The line between helping people who haven't done anything wrong and not helping their leaders who openly preach genocide against the Jewish people is one that is a real news story. And it is one that the media is not interested in covering.

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World Council of Churches is upset when Israel makes life EASIER for Palestinians

In 2018, the World Council of Churches website wrote about how arduous the journey through checkpoints was for Palestinians going to Israel to work or find jobs:

At 4.45, the Qalandiya checkpoint is already crowded, as thousands upon thousands of Palestinians try to make their way to Jerusalem each day.

Qalandiya is the main checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem, and ecumenical accompaniers (EAs) from the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (WCC-EAPPI) visit regularly in the early mornings.

“If you live in East Jerusalem outside the wall, or in Ramallah for example, and you work in Jerusalem, you need to be at the checkpoint early if you want to get to work on time. Getting through the checkpoint can take anything between one and several hours,” one of the EAs explains.

It was definitely not an enjoyable experience to go through the checkpoint then, and the WCC wanted to make sure the whole world knew it.

Now in 2023, the WCC revisited the checkpoints, and found things are quite different:

Machsom Watch was founded in January 2001 by three Jewish Jerusalemite women who saw military checkpoints around Jerusalem and in the West Bank and decided to do something about it. Now 88, Barag pursues human rights as energetically as ever.

Over the past five to ten years, she has noticed big changes at checkpoints: there are no more long lines of people. In fact, thousands of people come, they cross quickly, and the whole process is computerized.

This sounds great, right? Israel has cut the wait time for the Palestinian workers by hours every day. What could be wrong with that?

When your job is to demonize Israel - plenty!

“The Israeli military will tell you: look what we have done to make life easier for Palestinians, but in reality, the system is much more difficult and complicated, but you cannot see it,” says Barag. “There are over 100 types of permits.”

“As human rights people, we must do something about this inhumane system of control,” she says. “We do not want to make the situation easier.”

She realizes this seems like a contradiction—but what she is saying, is that the occupation should not become easier to administer because humans are increasingly less visible in the process. “Let us not open the space for soldiers to operate a machine—one that is bureaucratic—and where the gates open and close remotely,” she says. “We do not want to make the occupation more palatable; we want to see an end to the occupation.”

If the "occupation" would end and there would be two states - there would still be a border crossing between the two states! It would probably be harder for Palestinians to go to work in Israel than it is today.

And the World Council of Churches will be there to condemn that, too.

Because the problem isn't that Israel is unfair to Palestinians. The problem is that Israel exists, and the WCC is doing everything they can to remedy that situation.

(h/t Simon Wiesenthal Center)

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In the midst of terror wave, Israel making it EASIER for Palestinians to enter Israel. Good luck finding the media reporting this.

Here's a story you won't read anywhere else - because it does not fit the Narrative.

There is a problem with Palestinian workers in Israel. In order to find and get jobs, they often resort to (Arab) brokers who take advantage of them, take a cut of their salary and treat the workers as subcontractors which means that they do not get basic employment benefits and protections.

Israel doesn't have to combat this. But it does.

Israel offers "job search" permits - allowing Palestinians to go to Israel to find jobs, not just to go to work.

I had never heard of that, but Palestinian media is mentioning that Israel increased the number of visits that job seekers can take to Israel from 15 to 20 without getting s new permit.

Israel issues permits to Palestinians who are residents of the West Bank, have no security impediments, and are either married aged 22 years or over, or single, aged 27 or over.

This sounds almost foolhardy. Obviously the people with permits are checked as they cross the checkpoint, but you know terror groups are trying to take advantage of this. And while Israel would be fully within its rights to block any such job seeking by non-Israelis, it still allows them in - even as ten Israelis have already been murdered in terror attacks this year.

This story completely contradicts everything you ever read about how Israel treats Palestinian Arabs in the media and in human rights reports. I am not sure that this has ever been published in English before, anywhere.

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You can learn a lot from a single photo of a school in Gaza

On Sunday, the Acre Secondary Girls School in Khan Younis, Gaza, along with many other schools, hosted a Palestinian official over video link who spoke about the evils of normalization and the necessity of boycotting the "Zionist entity."

Afterwards the girls held up signs against normalization for their Facebook page.

Here's one of the photos.

Let's look at this in more detail.

Most of the signs say "No to normalization" and "don't pay for Israeli bullets."

Gaza stores are filled with products from Israel. Hamas controls Gaza. They could ban all Israeli goods - but they don't, because this is what Gazans want.

And since Gazans started working in Israel again, everyone is trying to get work permits.

Hamas itself isn't boycotting Israel, and every Gazan knows this. So what is this about? Why a school day wasted on having the girls make posters and pose?

Because the point isn't boycott. It is to instill hate for Israel. That hate has to be reinforced day in and day out, and "normalization" is another vector, along with whipping up anger at Israel in other ways.

Let's look closer at the people in the picture.

Front and center, we have a girl holding a sign that says, "Normalization is treachery."

With a dagger on her sign.

No one has a problem with a violent image.

Now let's look at the principals of the school in the background:

They look like they are in Afghanistan.

The heads of the school are teaching the girls that a burqa is the preferable way to cover up, not just a hijab. Students can barely read their expressions.

Finally, the name of the school itself - Acre, named after a city in Israel. The school's very name is meant to teach the girls that they will "return" to Acre and other Israeli towns, and they will get rid of the Jews there.

This is an ordinary photo from Gaza - but it teaches a lot, if you are willing to learn it.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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12/08 Links Pt1: Lies, libels and the justification of terror; 12% of Gazans Have Fled Gaza Since Hamas Took Over; The UN envoy to Hamas; Far-Left Groups Accused of Campaign to Delegitimize IDF Soldiers

From Ian:

Lies, libels and the justification of terror

Nov. 29 marked the 75th anniversary of United Nations Resolution 181, which called for the creation of two states, a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine. The Jewish community accepted those terms, and declared the State of Israel, while the Arab community refused, and launched a war that they then lost. Over time, however, Palestinians developed their own version of the “big lie” in the form of the “nakba” myth, a retelling of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war in which the would-be genocidal Arab armies that failed in their mission to eliminate the Jewish state are reimagined as the helpless victims of a horrible catastrophe (or “nakba,” in Arabic) of destruction and displacement. The legend of the nakba is at the heart of much of modern anti-Zionism.

Right on cue, on Nov. 30 the United Nations General Assembly voted to officially commemorate the founding of the State of Israel as a nakba. U.N. resolutions are not legally or morally binding, and they obviously cannot create truths. But they do lend a sheen of credibility to an otherwise ridiculous claim. Such a resolution makes it easier for the big lie to spread, because people can rely on and appeal to the GA’s “authority” on the matter without having to defend or even care about the details of such a heinous accusation. And once a lie has become officially acceptable to speak in the halls of power, it is only a matter of time before it gets picked up and amplified by popular culture. This one certainly did not take long.

On Thursday, Netflix began streaming the Jordanian film “Farha,” which purports to focus on the experiences of a young girl during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The hero watches as Israeli soldiers, portrayed as inhumanly cruel, brutally and graphically murder innocent Palestinian families, including children. While the film claims to be “based on” true events, the director has admitted that it is not factual, and that these scenes did not actually occur. But that does not mean they will not have a very real-world effect on anti-Jewish hate and violence, because many will watch the movie, and few will read the disclaimer.

There are two reasons to publicly correct the record on the nakba. First, it is simply not true. There are primary sources, from the Jordanian side, attesting to the fact that the vast majority of Arabs who left their homes did so voluntarily, or under orders from the invading Arab armies, not the invaded Israelis. Many left confident that the combined armies of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt would quickly overwhelm the tiny Jewish state. As the Jordanian newspaper Filastin reported, “The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies.” But as another refugee quoted in another Jordanian newspaper, Ad Difaa, explained that “The Arab government told us: Get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get in.”

Second, it is incredibly dangerous. In 1976, Mahmoud Abbas said that “The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live” (emphasis added).

Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Lironne Bar Sadeh (Irish Times): Israel Is Not an "Apartheid" State

The letter in the Irish Times, "Israel and the Palestinian people" (Nov. 30), signed by various Irish luminaries, repeats the usual canard that Israel is an "apartheid" state.

This is an outrageous falsehood. Israel is in fact the only long-lasting liberal democracy in the entire Middle East. It is the only country in the region with freedom of speech, party, press, and association and judicial transparency.

It has equality under the law for all its citizens, a fifth of whom by the way are Israeli Arabs, both Muslim and Christian. It is also the only country in the region with rights and equality for the LGBTQ+ community. In terms of its legal and political systems, its vibrant press and rich civil society, Israel is remarkably similar to Ireland.

Those who signed the letter think they are helping in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but in fact they are not. By constantly demonizing Israel and ignoring the deep flaws on the Palestinian side, such as the Islamic fundamentalism of Hamas, and the squalid corruption of the Palestinian Authority, they make themselves morally and intellectually bankrupt.

People who genuinely want to help the Palestinians should encourage democratic, moderate forces within Palestinian society and those who will eventually realize that peace with Israel can only come about through dialogue and mutual compromise, not by demonization and intransigence. It is tragic that some people in Ireland, instead of supporting Israel and the moderate Arab forces in the region, prefer to demonize Israel as much as possible and fail to condemn Iran and the forces of extremism which blight the region.

12% of Gazans Have Fled Gaza Since Hamas Took Over

In the 15 years since Hamas seized control of Gaza, 12 percent of the Strip’s population has fled, according to a study released by an organization associated with the terror group. The report appears to mark the first time Hamas is acknowledging — indirectly — widespread Gazan emigration since it violently seized control of the Strip in 2007.

The report, written by the Hamas-affiliated Council on International Relations, was published in September and recently seen by the Tazpit Press Service. It claims that over 60,000 Gazan residents have migrated from the Gaza Strip in recent years to escape poverty and war.

The CIR report blamed Israel’s blockade of Gaza for the Strip’s poverty driving Gazans to flee. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2007 to prevent weapons smuggling.

The Strip has seen several waves of immigration due to dire unemployment rates, growing poverty, sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority, and rounds of conflict with Israel. The CIR did not acknowledge Hamas’s authoritarian rule as a contributing factor.

“Gaza is being emptied of its residents,” the authors of the report said.

The Palestinian Authority has no data on the scope of migration from the Gaza under Hamas rule. Till now, Hamas hid the data, making accurate numbers difficult for human rights organizations to gather. The CIR’s chairman of the board is Basem Naim, who is also a senior figure in Hamas.

Various estimates in the past year shed some light on the Gaza exodus.

Between 2007-2021, approximately 236,000 Gazans left the Strip, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, WAFA, reported during the summer. That number is also about 12 percent of the total residents of the Strip.

Based on those numbers, it appears that an average of around 17,000 Palestinians have left Gaza every year since 2007.

The best insurance against a third intifada: 19% of Palestinian labor market employed by Israelis

The second quarter Palestinian labor statistics show that there are 903,000 Palestinians working in the West Bank and Gaza, 182,000 who work in Israel and 29,000 who work in the settlements.

This means that 18.9% of Palestinians are employed directly by Israelis.

This is, by far, the highest percentage of Palestinians working for Israelis in at least ten years, and possibly since before Oslo. I sampled some previous years: In 2021, the percentage was less than 16%; in 2016, 13%; in 2012, 10.4%.

This doesn't include Palestinians who are indirectly employed by Israel, for example, those who work for local computer consultants who get most of their work from Israelis.

If one out of every five Palestinians works for Israelis, that is a significant number of people who will not want a new intifada that would jeopardize their jobs.

And neither would any Palestinian leader, in the West Bank at least. Because the 19% only tells half the story. The average wage for those who work for Israelis is typically more than double that of local Palestinian workers. I estimate that over 35% of all wages to Palestinian workers comes from Israeli employers.

A third intifada would destroy the Palestinian economy and anger the 211,000 Palestinians who work - or hope to work - in Israel.

This is why Israel is trying to expand work permits to Gaza. The same logic applies, and even Hamas would not be eager to upset a labor force that desperately wants to work.

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Hamas Understands Israel Has A Means Of Deterrence That May Be Even Stronger Than Iron Dome (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

Last week, Israel announced plans to build an industrial zone next to Gaza, creating thousands of new jobs for Palestinian Arabs. This news comes at a time when the number of Palestinian Arabs working in Israel has been increasing.

In an article for The Algemeiner, Elder of Ziyon notes data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicating that the number of Palestinian Arabs working in Israel has jumped:

The number of Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements skyrocketed from 153,000 to 204,000, an increase of 33% in a single quarter. Of those, the number of workers in settlements — which the Palestinian Authority opposes — went up from 22,4000 to 31,000, an increase of 38%. [emphasis added]

Despite the PA's official disapproval of Arabs working in Judea and Samaria, historically they have had to admit that they cannot offer an alternative to employment in the settlements. Already in 2011, Shahar Saad, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Workers' Union

stated that despite the desire to implement the decisions of the PA leadership regarding the boycott of products and workers in the settlements, the implementation of that decision is difficult. According to him, the Palestinian Authority does not produce enough alternative jobs. [adapted from Google translation from Hebrew]

For Israel, creating jobs and providing employment for Palestinian Arabs makes sense, though the motivation differs between creating jobs for West Bank Arabs and Arabs from Gaza.

Last year, The Times of Israel reported that Israel was distributing 16,000 new work permits, in an effort to support the Palestinian economy which faced reduced international aid and a difficult year due to the pandemic. But more than shoring up Abbas,

“This measure will strengthen the Israeli and Palestinian economies, and will largely contribute to the security stability in the area of Judea and Samaria. Economic stability is the key to preserving security in the region,” said COGAT head Ghassan Alian in a statement.

That's all well and good for Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, but is Israel creating this new industrial zone in order to shore up Hamas in Gaza?

Back in 2020, The Associated Press reported that Israel was increasing the number of work permits for Gazans from 5,000 to 7,000. According to the article, this was part of an unofficial truce negotiated by Egypt between Israel and Hamas in exchange for a reduction in rocket fire from Gaza and in the number of weekly protests along the border.

But the following year, when additional permits were distributed, the rationale was different. There were 3,000 more work permits made available, bringing the number of permits up to 10,000. And this time the reason for the new work permits was clear:

COGAT said the permissions are “conditional upon the continued preservation of the region’s security stability for the long term.” [emphasis added]

Haaretz puts this into perspective.

In April, the paper claimed that according to Israel's military intelligence assessment, Hamas was not prepared for war and was unlikely to respond with its own violence in response to clashes between Arabs and Israeli forces in Jerusalem. But the reason for Hamas's reluctance was more than just because it was still recovering from the fighting last year. There are approximately 15,000 Gazans working in Israel, providing important support for the Gazan economy. But there is more to it than that:

These workers have become a powerful lobby in Gaza, and Hamas' leader in the enclave, Yahya Sinwar, is said to take their position into consideration. Any hasty action by Sinwar against Israel could prompt harsh criticism from this group.
...Sinwar, who was nearly deposed in an internal vote for Hamas' leadership last year, is now also taking credit for major infrastructure projects in Gaza. A war would endanger any progress the Gazan economy has made, and therefore, Israeli officials say, Sinwar would like to refrain from escalation. [emphasis added]

This would explain Sinwar's change in tactics, from inciting Gazans against Israel to inciting Arabs in Israel, claiming that Hamas is the defender of Al Aqsa and calling on them to attack Jews in order to defend it.

But Gazan employment in Israel is apparently not the only source of pressure on Sinwar.

Last week, Hamas announced that the health of one of the 2 Israeli hostages it holds is in danger. The terrorist group is trying to use them as bargaining chips to gain the release of terrorists and the periodic updates about their health is psychological manipulation towards that end. However, both of them suffer from mental illness, and because of the sympathy that creates, the Hamas exploitation of the hostages is not getting the leaders the response they expected.

And that is another problem for Sinwar:

Hamas needs a deal because of the important status of the security prisoners in the eyes of the Palestinian public, and because of a pledge that hasn’t been fulfilled: When Sinwar was released from prison in 2011, in the Shalit deal, he promised his associates who remained behind that he would help get them freed. [emphasis added]

When it was first suggested that Hamas should be included in the 2007 elections in Gaza, it was suggested that having the responsibilities of government would have "a moderating influence" on the terrorist group. The current situation is not a confirmation of that suggestion. The issue of Gazans working in Israel is not a moderating influence -- it is pressure applied by Israel on Sinwar to maintain calm in order to protect his position and stay in power, even as he tries to take credit for this boost to the economy. His "campaign promise" to his fellow terrorists, on the other hand, applies pressure on Sinwar to foment violence.

Al-Monitor claims that Israel is in fact taking a degree of risk every time it takes steps to either create new jobs for Palestinian Arabs or distributes additional work permits. According to this view, these workers could potentially be recruited to carry out attacks inside Israel. Such concerns are all the more credible in light of the violence we have seen Hamas instigate.

The same article also claims that while Hamas instigating attacks on Israel could threaten the employment opportunities for Gazans in Israel and ultimately harm the Gazan economy, there is an external threat to those jobs as well. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been an influx of Ukrainian immigrants to Israel. In March, Interior Affairs Minister Ayelet Shaked said in an interview with Al-Monitor that "between 100,000 and 200,000 Jews could immigrate to Israel in the coming months.” It remains to be seen if Ukrainian immigration will put a dent in the number of jobs available for Palestinian Arabs, though that industrial zone being built in Israel adjacent to Gaza would indicate it might not.

For years, Hamas terrorist leaders have been exploiting Gazans as human shields for protection in order to evade the consequences of their actions. Yet, regardless of how they feel about Israel, Gazans are practical enough to work there in order to make a living -- and they expect Sinwar and the other Hamas leaders not to mess up their opportunity to support their families, something that Hamas on its own is consistently failing to do.

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The number of Palestinians working in Israel and settlements skyrocketed in the first quarter

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of Palestinian workers in Israel and working in Israeli settlements increased by a huge amount in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter.

The increase was so large that it more than made up for the decrease of people employed in Palestinian-controlled areas.

The number of Palestinian workers in Israel and the settlements skyrocketed from 153,000 to 204,000, an increase of 33% in a single quarter. Of those the number of workers in settlements - which the PA officially tries to ban - went up from 22,400 0to 31,000 people, an increase of 38%.

At the same time, the number of workers within the Arab areas of the West Bank and Gaza decreased from 939,000 to 904,000 in the first quarter.

The survey didn't mention the average wages of the workers in the West Bank and Gaza. Over the past few years, the daily wage was far less than half that of workers in Israel, which was NIS 268 ($78.80) a day in this report. In 2020, the average Palestinian wage was NIS 104 a day.

If we assume that this number has increased to NIS 112, that means that fully 35% of the total income for Palestinians comes from Israeli employers.

The PCBS didn't mention workers from Gaza. Today it was announced that Israel would increase the number of worker permits from Gaza by 3500.

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