UNRWA-Hamas Symbiosis Detailed in New Film
In a new documentary video entitled UNRWA Goes to War, journalist David Bedein builds a seemingly incontestable case against UNRWA, showing the close symbiotic relations between it and the terror group Hamas.UNRWA Goes to War
The video shows that not only did UNRWA schools serve as repositories for rockets in the last Gaza war, and not only were rockets launched from places adjacent to UNRWA institutions – the students at the schools are themselves educated to hate Israel and aspire to destroy it.
Bedein launched a scathing attack on UNRWA in a video he produced and published three years ago, earning a furious rebuttal from the UN group.
“While the UNRWA slogan is 'Peace Starts Here,' a more appropriate slogan would be 'War Starts with UNRWA,'” the film charges. It shows footage of what it says are UNRWA elementary school students participating in military-style displays in plain sight of their teachers, in afterschool activities organized by Hamas.
Vote for the Dishonest Reporter of 2014
Now’s the time to vote for the Dishonest Reporter of 2014. It’s our annual recognition of the year’s most skewed and biased coverage of Israel and the Mideast conflict. Make your voice heard and we’ll announce the ignoble winners by the end of the year.Elliott Abrams:Liberty and the Palestinian Authority
Vote for one reporter or news service, along with a brief reason for your choice. This year’s nominees are:
1. The Lancet: for publishing an open letter about Gaza by avowed anti-Semites.
2. Channel 4: for Jon Snow’s over-the-top Gaza video.
3. New York Times: for turning Gaza’s casualty count into a game of numbers.
4. Washington Post: for publishing an op-ed — on the Jewish new year — calling for the end of the Jewish state.
5. Haaretz: for using its politicized agenda as a marketing tool.
Even Human Rights Watch, whose bias against Israel is notorious, had to acknowledge basic facts about the PA:Jennifer Rubin: Forget the ‘peace process,’ Palestinians need reform
"Complaints of torture and ill-treatment by West Bank PA security services persisted. ... PA security services and men in civilian clothes identified as security employees violently dispersed peaceful protests and arbitrarily detained protesters and journalists. ... Palestinian courts did not find any West Bank security officers responsible for torture, arbitrary detention, or prior cases of unlawful deaths in custody."
Donors to the PA do not like to acknowledge and discuss these violation of human rights by the PA, because they do not fit into the usual narrative that Palestinians want and deserve self-government, but are denied it by Israel, and the only problem for the cause of liberty is the Israeli occupation.
Simple, but wrong. The PA itself is an increasingly repressive entity, with Abbas abusing the powers of his office to fight political enemies (and protect corruption). This is not exactly news, but until it is recognized and fought by donors it will continue and expand. It's ironic that all those groups, especially in Europe, who consider themselves champions of Palestinian rights wish only to condemn Israel -- while they continue to ignore the threat to Palestinians that emerges from their own officials and government bodies.
First, decades of anti-Semitic propaganda and enticement to violence have had predictable results. A large segment of the Palestinian population’s world view is at odds with reality. Thanks to ceaseless propaganda and censorship of outside news, they continue to subsume facts (Hamas’s defeat) to propaganda. Attitudes toward Israel have hardened, making compromise virtually impossible.
Second, insisting the Palestinians want and are prepared for peace does not help. In fact it cements the notion that their current mindset is sufficient for a peaceful resolution. It is not. The emphasis from the West should be on institution-building and civil society in Palestinian communities, including one would hope, a free media.
The bottom line is that peace will be the result of a successful process of replacing the toxic political environment created by Abbas and Hamas with a functioning society with a free flow of ideas. Political and economic improvements can change Palestinian attitudes about their own future and about Israel. Mindlessly returning to the same failed “peace process” makes things worse, which is what you can say for just about every feature of the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.