Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Donald Trump: Good for the Jews? EoZ symposium in Jerusalem TONIGHT

I will be hosting and moderating this symposium/debate in Jerusalem tonight at 7:30 PM.

A roundtable blogger discussion and debate

Moderated by Elder of Ziyon

Brian of London: Explaining left wing US Jews to Trump voters

Varda Meyers Epstein: The Most Pro-Israel President Ever (or is he?)

Gidon Shaviv: From Pallywood to Fake News - a tale of caution

Adam Levick: Why Zionists should reject the Alt-Right

Suggested donation ₪40

TUESDAY, MARCH 14 7:30 PM

PICO JERUSALEM

Poale Tzedek 2, 4th floor

(corrner of Pierre Koening)

Talpiot, Jerusalem

It should be fun! Trump is possibly the most divisive issue in the unapologetically Zionist world and there is a lot of stuff to talk about.

If you are in Israel, come on out and see us!

You can register on Facebook here, or just let me know in the comments you plan to come.

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.

Is it even possible to be a pro-Palestinian feminist?

This article in The Nation is being reported all over:

Her arguments are really nutty, but Sarsour knows how to get publicity.

So let's use her own methodology to ask whether it is possible for Linda Sarsour, or anyone else, to be a feminist while supporting Palestinian Arabs.

According to the UN, there are no specific laws or provisions in the Palestinian Authority or under Hamas rule that protect women against domestic violence and sexual violence.

If women are not able to provide/show evidence of “force”, “threats” and/or “deception” to support rape claims, they risk being criminalized for “adultery.”

The Palestinian Authority has adopted the Jordanian 1960 "rape marriage" law that says that a rapist will not be prosecuted if he marries his victim. These laws often result in rape victims being coerced by family or courts to marry their rapists.

While rape is illegal, the woman is often the one who must defend herself since the rape laws only apply “provided that such a woman is not a prostitute and is not known for her immoral character.”

Murderers who claim to have murdered women in order to ‘maintain family honor’ can be exempted from judicial sanction.

Marital rape is not against the law.

This study showed that Palestinian women only went public about being abused sexually only where the abuse was extremely traumatic, publicly apparent, and the victim absolved of blame. 10% of the women who went public were murdered. Usually the family would respond with measures like hymen reconstruction, marriage to the rapist, and abortion to “nullify” sexual abuse.

Women are not allowed to marry without permission from their guardian, Men may marry up to four wives.

A Palestinian Arab man can divorce his wife for any reason, but Palestinian women can request divorce only under certain circumstances. When a divorce is initiated by the woman it means that she must give up any financial rights and must return her dowry.

Sexual abuse of women and children are rampant but swept under the rug. 37% of married Palestinian women were exposed to some form of violence by their husbands in the previous year alone, nearly 12% exposed to sexual violence in the previous year. 65% of those who were exposed to violence stayed quiet about it because of cultural mores.

20% of Palestinian women are married before they are 18, almost always to older men, which is a human rights violation. Because of child marriages, 10% of all Palestinian women between 15-19 give birth in any year.

The highest rates of violence against women are found where the families tend to be more religious, in Gaza and Hebron.

The Palestinian Basic Law, by saying that ‘the principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be a principal source of legislation’, can be interpreted in a manner which undermines the rights of women according to a UN study.

I'm not even going into Shari'a law here, which is far worse than Palestinian law for women. (Linda Sarsour has publicly defended Shari'a law, which calls into question her own qualifications to be called a feminist.)

Liberal "Pro-Palestinian" activists rarely if ever mention any of the issues listed here. The media is also complicit in its silence on these topics. Yet Palestinians know all about them, and it is likely that Sarsour is quite aware of them and chooses to remain silent, because that would blunt her anti-Israel message.

Her hate for Israel is more important to her than the rights of Palestinian women.

Sarsour says "You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There’s just no way around it." Which means that Sarsour is not a feminist by her own definition because she does not stand up for the rights of Palestinian women who are suffering so badly under a patriarchal, Islamic-based system of laws and customs. In fact, her anti-Israel stance is her way to divert attention from the very real discrimination and abuse that Palestinian women suffer.

Sarsour, with her silence, is actually enabling the daily abuse of Palestinian women from the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the misogynist Palestinian society that she idealizes for the cameras.

Linda Sarsour, and all so-called "feminists" who use their platform as a means to bash Israel, are in fact anti-feminist and tacitly support discrimination against and abuse of Palestinian women that happen every day.

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.

03/13 Links Pt2: The Dirty Little Secret of Palestinian Journalism; Intel buying Mobileye for $15 billion

From Ian:

The Dirty Little Secret of Palestinian Journalism - with Agence France-Presse Collusion

Nasser Abu Baker, Chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), who also works as a correspondent for Agence France-Press (AFP), also lashed out at Al-Quds for publishing the Israeli advertisement. "We are determined to combat normalization and those who promote it," he vowed.
Abu Baker, who recently ran in the election for the Fatah Revolutionary Council, is the architect of the PJS campaign to boycott Israeli journalists and media outlets. His political activism constitutes a flagrant violation of the regulations and principles of AFP, and a conflict of interest. However, this does not seem to bother his employers at the French news agency, who apparently do not see a problem with one of their employees running in the election for Fatah's Revolutionary Council.
Abu Baker and his colleagues have one mission: to "combat normalization" with Israel. For them, this task far exceeds in importance exposing financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA) or reporting about assaults on freedom of expression. It is also evidently more important than protesting the arbitrary arrest and torture of their colleagues at the hands of the PA and Hamas.
One can only imagine the response of the Western mainstream media if the chairman of the Israeli Journalists Union or the Government Press Office called for a boycott of Palestinian journalists.

Arab-Israeli teen rounds on ‘hypocritical’ BDS campaign in UK address

An prominent Israeli Arab teenager has rounded on the “hypocritical” campaign to boycott Israel as he outlined his journey to becoming a high-profile supporter of the Jewish state during an address at University College London.
Mohammed Zoabi, who is preparing for his IDF service, said he was determined to ensure there was dialogue after another talk by an Israeli speaker at the campus was shut down last year.
The 19-year-old from Nazarath Illit previously had to flee Israel after receiving death threats over videos he posted online calling for the return of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers.
He said: “I’m sick of conflict, I’m sick of hatred, I’m sick of fearing for my life. I’m sick of so many things, but I think when you’re tired of something and not optimistic about the future, you don’t give up.”
At the talk, organised by UCL Friends of Israel and StandWithUS, he recalled the experiences that led him to his current views, starting with the rocket attacks during the 2006 conflict with Lebanon.
“I remember hearing a siren and hearing my mum yelling, grabbing me to the bomb shelter. She was screaming there was a rocket coming at us”, he says.
Their Christian neighbours were yelling for their children and upstairs a Jewish neighbour was calling to their kids in Hebrew. He recalls being struck by the way violence didn’t discriminate, how in that moment all fled the same threat.

Vic Rosenthal: The transformative power of the Palestinian narrative

The hundred-year war between the Jewish people and the Arabs that hate them will not be over any time soon.
There are a million stories that prove it. This is just one.
Most Israelis remember the heartbreaking tragedy that took place twenty years ago tomorrow, at the Island of Peace at Naharayim on the Israel-Jordan border. This lovely spot was owned by Jews before the War of Independence, and in 1921 an electric power plant was built there by Pinchas Rutenberg, “the man who brought electricity to Palestine.”
The area was cultivated by Israeli farmers. In 1969 the IDF blew up Rutenberg’s villa, which was used as a staging point for terrorist attacks into Israel. But in 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty. The Jordanians got the island, but agreed to lease the land back to Israel so that the farmers could continue to use it. It is a beautiful place, and Israelis often visited it, including school groups. It was used as an example of what peace would be like.
A group of schoolgirl from Beit Shemesh was there on March 13, 1997. Jordanian Corporal Ahmed Daqamseh was insulted by their behavior, saying that they were making noise while he was praying. A driver, he took an M16 from another soldier and opened fire at them, killing seven 13- and 14-year old girls and injuring 6 others. Had the rifle not jammed, these numbers would have been higher.

Of course Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah praises today's terrorist as a "martyr"

This morning a Palestinian Arab stabbed two Israeli policemen multiple times. They killed him.

Naturally, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah is extolling him as a "martyr" and making sure that his act is viewed as a religious obligation.

This is all to let the next terrorist know exactly how his acts will be honored.

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.

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Ali Abunimah and his Electronic Intifada colleague Asa Winstanley marked last week’s International Women’s Day by denouncing a Reuters report that described “Israel’s women combat soldiers” as being “on [the] frontline of battle for equality.” As far as the Electronic Intifada crew was concerned, this was a “Pathetic Reuters propaganda piece for Israel’s occupying killers” because these Israeli women should be condemned as having joined a “battle for equal rights to murder Palestinian babies.” Judging from the 90 re-tweets and 66 “hearts” the tweet garnered, many of their fans appreciated this view.

Since accusing Jews of murdering babies has been a favorite of Jew-haters since the Middle Ages, I thought it was perhaps time to document that Abunimah is one of the foremost purveyors of this age-old calumny in our time. The slideshow below offers just a glimpse of the numerous examples that can be found in Abunimah’s Twitter output, reflecting his ceaseless efforts to demonize the world’s only Jewish state in pretty much the same terms that Jew-haters from the Middle Ages to the Nazi “Third Reich” found so useful.

Let me just add a few relevant points that are useful to keep in mind when you watch the slideshow. While Abunimah relentlessly accuses Israel of wantonly murdering Palestinian children, he himself glorifies terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad – that are only too happy when they succeed in murdering Israeli children – as noble “resistance,” or as the “Palestinian defense forces.” And Abunimah has nothing to say about the obscene glorification of killers – including the killers of Israeli children – by Palestinian and Arab society. The most recent example is from today’s news about the hero’s welcome prepared for the Jordanian soldier who was just released from prison after serving a 20 year sentence for killing seven Israeli school girls on March 13, 1997, during a school field trip to the “Island of Peace,” a joint Israeli-Jordanian tourist resort. But given Abunimah’s open admiration for groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it seems fair to assume that as the son of a high-ranking Jordanian diplomat, he may well warmly sympathize with the glorification of this killer by his fellow-Jordanians.

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.

03/13 Links Pt1: Israel bars entry to British BDShole; The Israelization of anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Israel bars entry to British activist over BDS support

The Chairman of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a pro-BDS organization, was denied entry into Israel Sunday night. In a joint statement the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority and the Strategic Affairs Ministry said British national Hugh Lanning was denied entry over alleged efforts to promote boycotts against Israel.
“The organization Mr. Lanning heads is one of the leading anti-Israel delegitimization and BDS organizations in Britain, and one of the largest in Europe,” the ministries said in a statement Sunday night.
Spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry Sabine Haddad said Lanning landed in the afternoon, but the decision to deny him entry was only reached at approximately 9:00 p.m.
Hugh Lanning has served as chairman of the PSC since 2009 and worked as a head of prominent trade unions in Britain.
The statement, from the Population and Immigration Authority and the Ministry of Public Security, cited the PSC's connections to other British groups critical of Israel and the presence of some of its members on ships that aimed to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010. The statement said Lanning had personally met with top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza in 2012. Included with the statement was a picture of Lanning standing for a group photo with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, said Sunday night that “Whoever acts against Israel should understand that the rules of the game have changed. No sane country would allow entry to key boycott activists working to harm the country's core interests and lead to its isolation”.
Interior Minister, Aryeh Deri, said “The decision we made tonight is an unequivocal statement against boycott activists,” adding that a Knesset law passed last week allowing the Interior Ministry to refuse entry to supporters of boycotts is “another step in fully implementing this policy.”

Antisemitic global terrorist Carlos the Jackal faces trial in France

Carlos the Jackal, the 67-year-old Venezuelan terrorist who executed horrific terror attacks in the 1970s and early 1980s , will be tried in France on Monday for the deadly bombing of a Paris shop he has allegedly committed 40 years.
Carlos, whose real name is Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, was apprehended in 1994 by French police and is serving a life sentence for the murder of two French policemen and a Lebanese revolutionary. He had also been convicted for four bombings in the cities of Paris and Marseille in the early 1980s, which resulted in the death of 11 people and injured close to 150.
Carlos, who is known to be sympathetic with the Palestinian cause not unlike multiple modern-day lone wolf terrorists who target Western countries in the name of political and religious agendas, is the former leader of a gang that attacked targets for pro-Palestinian causes.
The international terrorist has expressed his hatred of Jews and the Jewish state on numerous occasions in the past. As AFP reported in 2014, while in prison Carlos verbally attacked a female prison official, calling her an "Israeli," "Zionist" and "dirty Jew." He was later fined for his antisemitic lashout.
In a different antisemitic incident that occurred in 2009, Carlos issued a campaign in which he endorsed France's Anti-Zionist Party. He expressed his solidarity with the views of the anti-Israel party in a move that came after he had blamed Israel for framing him in the three murders he was charged with. Carlos, who joined the Front for the Liberation of Palestine back in 1970, has made multiple remarks against Israel in the past, with one of them being that Israel was "the first terrorist state in history."

The Israelization of anti-Semitism

Monika Schwarz-Friesel and Jehuda Reinharz are the authors of Inside the Antisemitic Mind: the Language of Jew-Hatred in Contemporary Germany, available through Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England.
Antisemitic attacks throughout the centuries have been grounded in demonizing Jews as the ultimate evil. This concept was found repeatedly in the messages we studied. For example, in one 2007 letter to the Israeli Embassy, the writer states, “The Israelis are and remain, no matter what a show they put on, the greatest racists, war criminals, warmongers, murderers, child-murderers, violators of international law, torturers, robbers and thieves, Nazis, liars, [and] terrorists…” Another message sent to the embassy in 2008 announces plainly, “Here’s one in the kisser for you, you filthy Jew. You’re to blame for the misery in the world!”
In addition to demonization, a second millennia-long antisemitic idea delegitimizes the very existence of Jews, paving the way first for segregation and then elimination or genocide. Just as Jews have no right to exist, it is claimed, a state so abysmally evil and destructive has no right to exist. In the minds of these antisemites, Israel has become the Collective Jew and should be destroyed. Racist delegitimization draws on stereotypes of Jews as exploiters, parasites, and homeless nomads, as in this message from 2006 sent to the Central Council of Jews in Germany: “Only dissolution of the Israeli state can counter the Jews’ solidarity and thereby also their highly aggressive tendencies as a united people that ruthlessly indulges its congenital aggression and frustration. The Jews who move away from Israel will then have the possibility of settling elsewhere. In Old Testament times, the Jews were already a nomadic people that emigrated at one point to Egypt, at another to Babylon, the latter, by the way, because of moral turpitude, after which they moved back to Israel.”
Looking at the messages as a whole, there was little variation among the different years except the spikes we noticed during times of military conflict such as the 2014 war in Gaza. This event ignited a storm of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish commentary in Europe and the United States that continues to this day—spread most widely online. It is also interesting to note that these conflagrations were defined always in one-sided terms, with Israel as the sole aggressor. This unilateral framework applies not only to Israel’s military conflict with the Palestinians and Arab States but also to the condemnation of Israel for human-rights violations that are defined as almost exclusively characteristic of Israel in comparison to the records of other countries.
When Israel, the Jewish state, is denounced as uniquely evil and immoral, antisemitism is clearly at play. Modern antisemites have turned “the Jewish problem” into “the Israel problem.” In this world where we are trying to eliminate racism, misogyny, homophobia and more, it is time to include the age-old hatred of Jews as well.

A story in Commentary about choices and behaviors within anti-Trump organizations pointed me towards this interesting (and accessible) piece of academic research that discusses experiments on the impact extreme tactics have on popular support for political causes and organizations.

The paper looks at what “counter-normative, disruptive, or harmful” political tactics do for two key goals of any social movement: (1) raising the profile of a movement and its causes and (2) gaining support from the wider public (which can take the form of increased membership, donations, or general friendliness towards the movement’s goals).

In theory, profile-raising and support-building should go hand-in-hand since the public needs to know about a group and understand its mission and purpose before they can support it. But in our media-saturated age, it often requires extreme tactics to gain attention – especially when competing with other causes, or with other individuals and organizations claiming to represent your issue.

This is where extreme tactics such as “inflammatory rhetoric, blocking traffic, and damaging property” come into play since such rhetoric and actions are likely to get you on the nightly news (as well as more web site hits and social media likes) than quietly cultivating the public through rational discourse. But, as it turns out, even those friendly to causes such as animal rights, Black Lives Matter or the anti-Trump movement (the subjects of the study linked above) become less likely to support those causes if their proponents turn to such extreme tactics.

In the meaty discussion section of their piece (starting at page 17 if you want to skip the description of their experiments), the authors of the study try to answer the question of why social movements turn to such tactics, given that they seem to be empirically counterproductive. One explanation they suggest is that participants don’t understand or appreciate the negative impact of extreme tactics, confusing increased attention with increased support.

The authors also qualify their findings by pointing out that some activists might have goals outside of winning popular support, towards which extreme tactics might make sense, priorities such as “winning funding, impacting powerful elites, psychologically empowering disadvantaged individuals, fostering commitment in existing supporters, and cathartic expression.”

To this list I would add another item drawn from experience dealing with the decades-long extremism of the BDS “movement:” fantasy-politics in which the public does not even exist to protestors, except as props in a drama taking place within the protestor’s own individual and collective heads.

Scientific evidence that the BDSer’s choice of tactics is likely to limit their effectiveness is a useful thing to know. But such insights can also guide our choices in fighting against BDS and other forms of anti-Israel propaganda, highlighting the importance of tactics and language that will make those we want to persuade feel not just good about us but good about themselves for supporting our cause.

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.

How to prove that BDS is antisemitic

The Jerusalem hotel I am staying in is in the neighborhood of French Hill, which is considered an "illegal settlement" by B'Tselem and most of the world.

Before 1967, French Hill was a Jordanian military outpost that had few if any residents. Israel established the neighborhood after 1967, partially in order to join Mount Scopus, which had been isolated in 1948, with the rest of Israel.

It turns out that one of the very best falafel places in Jerusalem is French Hill Falafel.

Unfortunately, I cannot taste how good its falafel is; it is owned by an Arab and isn't kosher.

As much as 16% of the residents of French Hill are Israeli Arabs. Which means they are "settlers."

People who support BDS - and the UN - say that any business that operates in "occupied territory" is profiting from the "occupation" and must be shunned. Such a list is being prepared by the UN and is supposed to be published later this year in accordance with previous resolutions.

Will French Hill Falafel be on that list?

It is operating inside an "illegal settlement." It is owned (almost certainly) by an Israeli Arab. It only exists because the neighborhood exists; its customers are by and large Israelis, both Arab and Jew.

By any definition, French Hill Falafel is profiting from the "occupation."

If it was owned by a Jew, then of course it would be on the boycott list.

But it is owned by an Arab.

Up the hill from the falafel joint is the excellent Israeli burger chain Burgers Bar.

So the acid test for BDS is to ask them: Would you boycott French Hill Falafel?

Then ask: Would you boycott French Hill Burgers Bar?

Obviously the BDSers don't boycott Arab-owned businesses anywhere, even those owned by Israeli Arabs. They only boycott Jewish-owned businesses and multinational businesses who seem to benefit Jews.

Which answers the question.

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.

After Reform leaders bask in Abbas' glow, they attack Netanyahu in meeting

I noted on Friday that American Reform Judaism leaders met with Mahmoud Abbas, and from all reports they found that they agreed with nearly everything he said.

Union of Reform Judaism president Rick Jacobs emphasized how "impressed" he was with Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier who funded the Munich Olympics massacre and whose antisemitic rhetoric includes referring to Jews' "filthy feet" when they visit their holiest spot.

In contrast, the URJ meeting with Netanyahu apparently combative ("candid" is the word used). They complained about the "muezzin bill" that limits the volume of amplified calls to prayer before 7 AM; and they complained about the bill that would legalized settlement construction after the fact in very limited circumstances.

In other words, they parroted the Palestinian position on virtually everything, willing to give the benefit of the doubt to those who want to destroy Israel and showing contempt for those trying to protect it.

They treated Abbas like an honored head of state who truly wants peace and Netanyahu as a person who knows less about how to protect the State of Israel than they do.

So, Rick Jacobs - whose side are you on?

Perhaps you should go through this blog's archives to find out the truth about Abbas and what Palestinians really want, since your entire worldview seems to be based purely on The New York Times and the Forward.

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.

Real life Purim joke: Iran's FM says Achashverosh is a hero for saving Jews

From Javad Zarif's Twitter:

Yes, Zarif is saying that the man who eagerly signed the decree calling for the genocide of the Jews of Persia is a hero for later countermanding that decree at his wife's behest.

This would be considered a high form of Purim humor if anyone else had said it.

(His assertion that Iran "gladly" took in Jews during the Holocaust is an exaggeration as well. One Iranian diplomat did save hundreds of Jews, confident that the leader of Iran at the time who was very good to the Jews would back him up. Also, several thousand Jews were among over 100,000 Polish refugees who had been interned in the Soviet Union who ended up in Iran in 1942.)

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.

Haaretz declares all of Israel to be an illegal settlement

As bad as reading Haaretz online is, it is more disgusting to see it on paper.

Here is a headline from Sunday's edition. I honestly couldn't read the entire (full page broadsheet) article itself because the headline tells you all you need to know.

Here is what we can tell Haaretz believes by publishing this.

The "occupation" did not begin in 1967, It didn't even begin in 1948. No, any Jew who dared move to Palestine since 1917 is an "occupier" who stole Palestinian (meaning Arab) land.

Let's think about this for a second.

Any Jew who moved to Palestine a hundred years ago was an immigrant, by definition.

Haaretz, that bastion of supposed liberalism, is saying that Jewish immigrants are thieves - criminals - by their very presence on "Palestinian" land, even those that purchased the land. It's all the same crime.

At the very same time that liberals are rising up in defense of immigrants seeking a better life elsewhere, Haaretz is declaring that Jewish immigrants who were fleeing persecution had no right to move to their ancestral homeland and are in fact criminals for doing so.

If anyone would make such a blanket statement about immigrants in any other context, they would be pilloried by the very same people who read and trust Haaretz.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sickening.

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.

03/12 Links: Murderer of 7 schoolgirls given hero's welcome in Jordan; Trump throws Mahmoud Abbas a lifeline

From Ian:

Daily Mail: A sick new low for foreign aid: Palestinian boys and girls pretend to execute an Israeli soldier – as teachers at schools funded by YOU tell their pupils that terrorists are heroes

Britain is pumping huge sums of foreign aid into Palestinian schools named after mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has found 24 schools named after Palestinian terrorists and evidence of widespread encouragement of violence against Israel by teachers, with terrorists routinely held up as heroes for schoolchildren.
Pictures of ‘martyrs’ are posted on school walls, revolutionary slogans and symbols are painted on premises used by youngsters, sports events are named after teenage terrorists and children are encouraged to act out shooting Israeli soldiers in plays.
Head teachers openly admit flouting attempts by British and European donors to control the curriculum at schools. They print overtly political study aids for pupils, some even denying the existence of Israel, and teachers boast of encouraging pupils to emulate teenage attackers killed in the most recent wave of terrorist attacks in the region.
One senior teacher from a prominent West Bank school, asked what he would say to a pupil threatening to attack Israelis, told this newspaper: ‘I would tell them go in the name of God.’

Watch: Murderer of 7 schoolgirls given hero's welcome in Jordan

A hero's welcome is planned for the Jordanian soldier released last night after serving 20 years in prison for murdering seven Israeli schoolgirls during a class trip in 1997.
Ahmed Daqamseh was a soldier in the Jordanian army when he opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the “Island of Peace” of Naharayim on March 13, 1997, as part of a class trip.
Daqamseh was sentenced to life in prison for the massacre, which in Jordan usually means 25 years in prison. However, he was released five years early following repeated calls for his release. In 2013, 110 out of 150 Jordanian MPs signed a petition calling for his release.
In 2011, then-Jordanian Justice Minister Hussein Mjali caused an uproar when he called for Daqamseh’s release, claiming that he is “a hero. He does not deserve prison. If a Jewish person killed Arabs, his country would have built a statue for him instead of imprisonment."

'Israelis are human waste. We must get rid of them'

Ahmed Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the “Island of Peace” of Naharayim on March 13, 1997, as part of a class trip, killing seven Israeli schoolgirls justified his murderous actions Sunday after being released from prison five years early.
"The Israelis are the human waste which the nations of the world vomited up before us," Daqamseh told Jordanian media less than a day after his release. "Unfortunately, they occupy the purest land after Mecca and Medina."
"We must eliminate this waste by incineration or by burial," Daqamseh added.
Daqamseh relayed a message of continouous war with Israel to the Jordanian people. "Do not believe the lie of normalization with the Zionist entity. Do not believe the lie of the two-state solution. Palestine is one, from the sea to the river, from Rosh Hanikra to Um Rash-Rash. They forged the names of the cities, and unfortunately, many Arabs say 'the State of Israel.' There cannot be a State of Israel.
Daqamseh's car was surrounded by supporters after his release Saturday night. The supporters chanted, cheered, and filmed the event as the vehicle made its way towards his village. His tribe planned to hold a large party in his village Sunday afternoon for Daqmeseh, who they call a "hero soldier."