Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 05, 2022

The UN Commission of Inquiry says Israel's legal basis is UNGA 181. That is not true at all. (But they are lying for an anti-Israel reason.)

UN investigator Miloon Kothari gave a half-hearted, obviously insincere apology for his statements from over a week ago that the "Jewish lobby" controlled social media and his questioning of Israel's legality altogether, saying "I would go as far as to raise the question as why are they [Israel] even a member of the United Nations."

His response to that was,

I also wish to clarify that my comment on Israel's membership of the United Nations was made to highlight the fact that every member of this body should uphold. and respect findings and recommendations issued by it. in accordance with relevant UN General Assembly resolutions. What I wanted to highlight is the non-compliance of Israel with UN decisions related to its obligations under international law, a concern the Commission extensively covered in its first report to the Human Rights Council. At no place in the interview did I question the existence of the State of Israel. On the contrary, in several instances, during the media interview in question, I have defended the existence of the State of Israel. This is fully consistent with the position of the Commission, as also stated in our first report and stressed in the letter of our Chair to the President of the Council: “The Commission does not question the status or United Nations membership of either of the concerned states of its mandate. The foundations for the legality of the State of Israel, alongside that of the State of Palestine were laid out by General Assembly resolution 181 and are not and never will be in question by this Commission” I did not intend to suggest that Israel should be excluded from the United Nations.

He is asserting that UN General Assembly Resolution 181 is the legal basis for the State of Israel.

This is not remotely true.

First of all, General Assembly resolutions do not have the status of international law.

Secondly, you can read Resolution 181: it did not declare the Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. It recommended the Security Council implement the provisions listed there and suggested that if either or both states declare their independence then the UN should treat their application for membership with sympathy.

When the Arabs rejected the resolution, it became a dead letter. It is valuable in the sense that it showed that the UN overwhelmingly supported a Jewish state in Palestine, but it is has no legal weight.

Some people claim that Israel itself has used UNGA 181 as its legal basis in its Declaration of Independence. It is true that Israel's Declaration of Independence referred to the resolution as onne of many reasons supporting the right of the Jewish people to a state, but that is not the legal basis for it. The Declaration says:

In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.

This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.

The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.

Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.

In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.

On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.

This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.

ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.

Resolution 181 was one of many pieces of evidence showing that Jews have the right to a state of their own. It was not the legal basis for that state.

So what is the legal basis for the State of Israel?

This 2004 legal analysis notes:

Sir Lauterpacht, a renowned expert on international law and editor of Oppenheim’s International Law, clarified that, from a legal standpoint, the 1947 UN Partition Resolution had no legislative character to vest territorial rights in either Jews or Arabs. In a monograph relating to one of the most complex aspects of the territorial issue, the status of Jerusalem,⁷ Lauterpacht wrote that to be a binding force, the “Partition Plan” would have had to arise from the principle pacta sunt servanda,⁸ that is, from agreement of the parties at variance to the proposed plan. In the case of Israel, Lauterpacht explains:
“… the coming into existence of Israel does not depend legally upon the Resolution. The right of a State to exist flows from its factual existence – especially when that existence is prolonged, shows every sign of continuance and is recognised by the generality of nations.”
Reviewing Lauterpacht’s arguments, Professor Stone added that Israel’s “legitimacy” or the “legal foundation” for its birth does not reside with the United Nations’ “Partition Plan,” which as a consequence of Arab actions became a dead issue. Professor Stone concluded:
“… The State of Israel is thus not legally derived from the partition plan, but rests (as do most other states in the world) on assertion of independence by its people and government, on the vindication of that independence by arms against assault by other states, and on the establishment of orderly government within territory under its stable control.”⁹

That is Israel's legal claim to statehood - surviving and being recognized as a state. And if the COI doesn't know that basic fact, it is incompetent to do anything.

But it does know the truth, and it is lying for a specific reason.

Kothari is making two wrong assertions here: that Israel's legal foundation is based on Resolution 181, and also that the "State of Palestine" has the same legal basis. This is doubly absurd: not only is 181 not legally binding, but the Palestinian Arabs of the time rejected it - which is the exact reason it cannot be legally binding! They cannot turn back the clock and say that, sorry, we now accept UNGA 181 decades after we ripped it up.

It seems that the Commission making up the claim that 181 is the legal basis for Israel in order to pretend that Palestinians have an equal claim to nationhood as Israel does!

That is a breathtakingly cynical twisting of international law to create a legal basis for Palestinian statehood - and once you realize that this is a lie, one may wonder what exactly the legal basis for a nonexistent State of Palestine is to begin with?

This analysis shows that this commission is pretty much founded on lies.

(h/t Myths and Facts)

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08/04 Links Pt2: Bernard-Henri Levy: Socialism for Imbeciles; As Biden is applauded, we’re left wondering; Antisemites Celebrate the Death of Jews; World-class tennis coming back to Israel after 26 years

From Ian:

Bernard-Henri Levy: Socialism for Imbeciles

Just a few days after the miserable provocation—in the midst of commemorating the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup—by Mathilde Panot, the head of the left-wing party La France Insoumise in the Assembly, 38 of her colleagues from La Nupes (the New Ecological and Social People’s Union left-wing alliance) piled on in abjection.

The resolution they were planning to present must have been truly disgusting for it to have disappeared from the National Assembly’s site.

But agencies have provided enough extracts for us to know that we were dealing with an unprecedentedly violent attack against the “apartheid regime” supposedly imposed by Israel on the “Palestinian people,” calling for BDS-style reprisals.

We should first note that such calls for boycott are illegal in France: Two memorandums said this in 2010 and 2012 … it was confirmed in 2020 in a dispatch dedicated to the “suppression of discriminatory calls for boycotts of Israeli products …”

Then we might note that the delegitimization of the State of Israel is also not very legal: Doesn’t it go against a resolution initiated by President Macron that, using the definition of antisemitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, criminalizes anti-Zionism?

And so we observe that we have, in France, 38 elected legislators whose first initiative would have been to place themselves, twice over, outside the law.

The will to annihilate Israel is not lacking champions in my country. But never before, in this body, had we gone so far. Recognizing immediately a unitary Palestinian state? To be clear, that would include everything between Gaza and the West Bank—and therefore, if words mean anything, the full territory of Israel.

We can then observe the push of a fully uninhibited left-wing antisemitism.

French Jewish leaders condemn Israel 'apartheid' bill as dangerous leftist obsession

A senior French rabbi has criticized 37 left-wing members of parliament who signed a draft resolution condemning the Israeli government for "practicing apartheid and committing war crimes against Palestinians."

Moshe Lewin, senior advisor to France's Chief Rabbi and Vice President of the Conference of European Rabbis responded to the draft, saying that "the dangerous obsession of the leftist parties against Israel broke new records.

"Member of Parliament Jean-Luc Mélenchon feels an inexplicable phobia towards Israel," Lewin said about the leader of the extreme-left wing France Unbowed Party. Mélenchon ran for president in the 2022 elections and ended up in third place.

It’s quieter in this place. Studying in the classroom, the forest, the lab, or the sea, you can hear yourself think It’s quieter in this place. Studying in the classroom, the forest, the lab, or the sea, you can hear yourself think

"While France is facing a big economic crisis, a war in Ukraine and diplomatic tensions in Taiwan, the members of the left-wing parties found time to propose a scandalous bill, the likes of which have not yet been seen [in French history]," Lewin said.

"The Palestinian lobby is working behind the scenes to incite and strengthen the flames of incitement. This proposal could increase the manifestations of hatred and antisemitism toward the Jewish community throughout France."

A proposed resolution by French members of parliament from the leftist parties condemning the Israeli "apartheid regime", demanding a boycott and imposing sanctions on Israel, has caused an uproar among political circles and the Jewish community, the senior adviser said.

Frimet Roth: As Biden is applauded, we’re left wondering

Recent blatant discrimination against our murdered Jewish child, Malki Roth, is a hard pill to swallow.

First came the preferential treatment of the Abu Akleh family which was granted a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington. The latter followed that up with a phone call to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Saturday to pressure him to publicize the conclusions of Israel’s investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing. And to do so asap!

On the heels of those attempts to appease Palestinian supporters came the assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri. In its wake, President Biden’s speech was replete with assurances regarding his administration’s commitment to eliminate terrorists.

But they rang hollow for us. We heard him declare:
The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm. You know, we – we make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.

Where is that resolve vis a vis Ahlam Tamimi? Why isn’t the President determined to defend Americans from her incitement to terror and to bring her to justice for the murders she has committed?

Tamimi need not be found – because she isn’t hiding. The regime granting her refuge – the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – has a valid extradition treaty with the U.S. and is a revered ally.

In fact, there is a State Department reward of $5 million for Tamimi’s capture. She has been indicted by the Department of Justice and her extradition has been formally demanded. The pieces are all in place for justice to happen.

Amnesty issued a report yesterday about Ukrainian forces violating international law:

Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February, Amnesty International said today.

Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.

As far as I can tell, Amnesty has never said anything close to this concerning Hamas purposefully placing its rockets, tunnels, command and control centers and ammunition depots within or underneath residential areas. To be sure, they say that Hamas shouldn't do this, but they never say the (accurate) statement that placing military objects in civilian areas change the areas themselves into military targets.

Military targets are valid targets under international law. Of course, the attacker must do everything possible to minimize civilian deaths and damage, and weigh the value of the target against the expected damage to civilians. But they are not obligated to avoid attacking areas where valid military objects are just because they are placed in a civilian area.

The only time I could find the word "military targets" used in this context on an Amnesty report about Gaza was during the 2009 Gaza war, when Amnesty said nearly the opposite in regard to Israel: “Fighters on both sides must not carry out attacks from civilian areas but when they do take cover behind a civilian house or building to fire it does not make that building and its civilian inhabitants a legitimate military target. Any such attacks are unlawful.”

An Amnesty search for the words "legitimate military target" shows that it mentions that attacks on military objects embedded in civilian areas in Afghanistan, Syria, Yugoslavia and elsewhere are legitimate as long as the attack doesn't have a disproportionate impact on civilians.

In every case, militants purposefully hiding themselves or their weapons in a civilian area makes the area a legitimate military target. With Israel in Gaza, it does not make make the area a legitimate military target.

Different international law standards for Israel and everyone else? That's standard operating procedure for Amnesty.

___________________________________________

That isn't the only double standard even in that one Amnesty Gaza document. They say there,

“Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “This clearly increases the risk to the Palestinian families concerned and means they are effectively being used as human shields.”

But when Hamas shoots from residential areas, Amnesty does everything possible to exonerate them from the charge of human shielding:

Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law. Reports have also emerged during the current conflict of Hamas urging residents to ignore Israeli warnings to evacuate. However, these calls may have been motivated by a desire to minimize panic and displacement, in any case, such statements are not the same as directing specific civilians to remain in their homes as “human shields” for fighters, munitions, or military equipment. Under international humanitarian law even if “human shields” are being used Israel’s obligations to protect these civilians would still apply.

Besides the obvious double standard of changing the definition of human shields, note that Amnesty believes reports of the IDF forcing residents to stay in their homes - but goes out of its way not to believe reports that Hamas demands that residents stay in their homes.

(h/t Akiva Cohen)

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Occupation Forces Palestinian Official To Divert Precious Water To His 4 Pools (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Moroccan pool Jericho, August 4 - A high-ranking functionary of Mahmoud Abbas's government blamed Israel for exacerbating the shortage of natural and agricultural resources, observing that to keep his spa, garden, and swimming facilities functioning, he has no choice but to deplete those public resources, all thanks to Israeli policies that fail to maintain sufficient supply for both his needs and those who must drink, bathe, wash, and cook.

Palestinian Authority Deputy Assistance Minister for Prisoner Affairs Fashla Sharmuta lamented the desperate state of water resources available to Palestinians, with the situation so dire that by the time he fills the Olympic-size pool at his home, plus his four jacuzzis, his wading pool, his wave pool for surfing practice, his backup lap pool, his decorative fountains and ponds around his property, and irrigation for his expansive lawn, not enough remains for ordinary Palestinians to access what they need for agriculture, food, and basic hygiene.

"It's the Occupation's exploitative water policies," he explained in an interview. "They take all the water from the aquifer and divert streams for their illegal settlements." Israel's water sources come in the main from desalination, the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret Lake), rain reservoirs, recycled wastewater, rivers from melted mountain snow, and the like. Palestinian government bodies charged with coordinating the maintenance and repair of water supply infrastructure have long refused to engage with their Israeli counterparts, leaving that infrastructure's decay to worsen, increasing wastage and decreasing supply.

"It's a longtime problem," agreed Abbig Hattub, assistant manager of a Jericho-area water park that has never cut back on its water use. "We go through millions of liters a day during the summer, and that puts a dent what's available for regular homes and businesses. It's a brutal thing the Occupation forces us to do, prioritizing commercial leisure activities over basic necessities."

The warped priorities that the Occupation produces exert effects even on Palestinian areas not technically under occupation. The Gaza Strip, which has no Israeli soldiers or settlers in it, suffers electrical power shortages because Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli civilian communities fell short and struck the territory's power plant instead. Hamas and the allied Islamist militant terrorists chose to delay allowing repairs to the facility, the damage to which, and the consequent human suffering from lack of electricity throughout the territory, was obviously Israel's fault. Hamas officials also pointed to the fact that Israel's existence as a safe place for Jews leaves Muslims no choice but to continue trying to kill Jews in order to prove Israel's existence does not make them safe.

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08/04 Links Pt1: Sunni Arab Leaders Are No Longer Willing to Wait for the Palestinians; UN will rue burying debate on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine; Neuer: Democracies Denounce Antisemitic U.N. Commissioner

From Ian:

Dennis Ross and David Makovsky: Sunni Arab Leaders Are No Longer Willing to Wait for the Palestinians

In speaking to Arab leaders of nine states in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, President Biden said that "we will operate in the context of the Middle East as it is today: a region more united than it has been in years....Increasingly, the world is seeing the Mideast through the lens of opening and opportunity."

As he told an Israeli television interviewer, "the more Israel is integrated into the region as an equal and is accepted, the more likely there is going to be a means by which they can eventually come to accommodation with the Palestinians down the road." Biden is saying that ties with the Arabs give Israel a gateway to an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

For Sunni Arab leaders, what began as under-the-radar cooperation against terror and traditional security threats is now expanding to include domestic economic needs. With Israeli business people now doing business in Saudi Arabia, albeit on second passports, the phenomena is clearly not limited to the countries that have made formal peace with Israel.

What the Palestinian leadership has failed to realize is that the needs of Arab states now mean they are no longer willing to wait for the Palestinians, particularly because they doubt the Palestinian leadership is capable of doing anything to help resolve the conflict. The continuing Palestinian public incitement against Israel, which necessarily legitimizes violence, gives the Israeli public little reason to think that the Palestinians will ever make real peace.

Israel working on 5-way summit with Abraham Accords' leaders

Some two years after the signing of the Abraham Accords that saw Israel and four Arab states announce the normalization of relations, a summit of all signatories is in the works, Israel Hayom has exclusively learned.

According to the plan that Israel is currently drafting, the heads of state of each country would participate in the high-profile gathering that would take place in one of the five countries. Several months ago Israel hosted the inaugural meeting of the Negev Forum, which saw the foreign ministers meet in Israel's southern desert. But the new summit, if it takes place, will be a-political as much as possible.

Although Israel has yet to receive a confirmation on the participation from any of the other signatories, officials in Jerusalem are proactively trying to secure a final date for the summit before the Knesset election on Nov. 1.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who has visited three of the four Arab countries as foreign minister in recent months, hopes to hold an official visit in Rabat in the coming weeks or months.

MEMRI: Senior Bahraini Journalist: The American-Israeli-Arab Negev Forum Promotes The Best Solutions For The Palestinian Issue; I Hope More Countries Will Join It

On June 27, 2022, the steering committee of the Negev Forum, comprising senior diplomats from the U.S., Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, held its first meeting in Bahrain's capital Manama. This forum was established at the Negev Summit, which was held in southern Israel in March 2022, with the participation of the foreign ministers of Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, the UAE and the U.S.

The meeting's closing statement notes the member states agreed to increase the cooperation between them, to hold annual meetings at the level of foreign ministers, and to form working groups in the spheres of clean energy, education and coexistence, food and water security, health, regional security and tourism. The participants stressed their commitment to a negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "as part of efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace." They also noted that the working committees were meant to promote the wellbeing of the peoples of the region, including through initiatives to strengthen the Palestinian economy and improve the Palestinians' quality of life.[1]

At a press conference following the steering committee's meeting, 'Abdallah bin Ahmad Aal Khalifa, an undersecretary at Bahrain's ministry of foreign affairs, said that the goal of the Negev Forum is to build a regional framework for expanding the cooperation and coordination among the member states.[2] Adding that the forum is open to the participation of additional regional countries, he stressed that it is not a military forum but is intended to promote cooperation between Bahrain, Israel, Morocco, the UAE and the U.S. in order to develop the region. "The six [member] states are jointly committed to taking advantage of the numerous opportunities for cooperation between Israel and its neighbors," he said, "so as to actualize common interests and promote a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will [enable] attaining a comprehensive peace" and enhancing the quality of life and the wellbeing of the Palestinians.[3]

Against the backdrop of the steering committee's meeting, Bahraini media figure 'Ahdia Ahmed Al-Sayed, formerly the chair of the Bahraini Journalists Association, wrote an article in the Emirati daily Al-Ittihad in which she welcomed the holding of the steering committee's meeting in Bahrain. Al-Sayed, known for supporting peace with Israel, stated that, unlike those who exploit the Palestinian issue, the Negev Forum establishes ties between the Arab countries, Israel and the U.S., aspires to improve the life of the Palestinians and promotes peace between the Palestinians and Israel. Al-Sayed called on more countries to join the forum, so it can constitute the kernel of a strong regional alliance on all levels.

David Singer: UN will rue burying debate on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

The United Nations Security Council has lost any authority to broker an end to the Jewish-Arab conflict - after its 26th July Quarterly Open Debate: “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question” proceeded for 5 hours without any speaker making reference to a new solution emanating from Saudi Arabia to resolve the 100 years-old conflict.

That Saudi solution – the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the 'West Bank' into one separate territorial entity to be called “The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”- had been published on 8 June in Al Arabiya News.

The article was written by Ali Shihabi – a confidante of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – Saudi Arabia’s next King and driving force behind NEOM – a $500 billion megacity of the future to be erected in Saudi Arabia on an expanse of land the size of Israel.

The Security Council’s silence in commenting on this Saudi solution ever since its publication has been arrogant and breathtaking. This solution offers an alternative to the solution unsuccessfully pressed by the UN for the last 29 years: The creation of a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan.

The Security Council had an obligation to notify UN member States of the emergence of this new solution since its last Quarterly Debate and encourage the members to consider its pros and cons as a replacement for the UN plan that was clearly dead in the water.

The Security Council and its vast bureaucracy could certainly not claim ignorance of this Saudi proposal.

By Daled Amos

Representative Andy Levin's defeat in the Democratic primaries has brought out his defenders, who staunchly defend his Jewish bonafides.

Like Mehdi Hassan, for example:

Because nothing establishes the unassailability of your position on Israel like being a synagogue president.

Sheesh, indeed.

If you do a search on Twitter, it seems that everyone knows that Levin was a synagogue president, and thinks it actually means something. Twitter doesn't track how many tweets come up, but in a Google search, over 9,500 hits come up.

More dishonest is Hassan's deft little twist that the opposition to Levin must be based on his support for Palestinian human rights -- a nice touch.

Peter Beinart certainly agrees:

Left unsaid is the fact that Jewish opposition to Levin was not about his support for Palestinian human rights.

Israel-supporters were more concerned with backing for the rights of Israelis in their homeland.

After all, Levin is the one who introduced the H.R.5344 - Two-State Solution Act, which if passed would have established (among other things):

o It is the policy of the United States that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza are occupied territories and should be referred to as such consistently in official United States policies, communications, and documents.
o...the United States should maintain diplomatic relations with the Palestinians, including by reopening a United States consulate in Jerusalem and allowing for the reopening of the Palestine Liberation Organization foreign mission in the District of Columbia. [emphasis added]

So according to Andy Levin -- the Congressman and former synagogue president -- Jerusalem should once again be a divided city.

And according to Levin's bill, the Western Wall belongs to the Palestinian Arabs.

But the problem with Levin's stand goes beyond his wanting to undo Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem.

On November 18, 2019, Secretary of State Pompeo announced a change in US policy on Israeli settlements:

After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with President Reagan: the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.

On November 21, Levin responded with a letter he initiated, signed by such Israel-haters as Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal, Henry Johnson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others.

A copy of Levin's letter, with the signatures, is available online.

Pompeo wasted no time in responding and rebutting Levin's claims, writing:

I am in receipt of your letter of November 21 in which you criticize the State Department’s determination that the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not categorically inconsistent with international law - a decision which you contend reverses “decades of bipartisan US policy on Israeli settlements.” You further argue. in conclusory fashion, that this determination “blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

While I appreciate your interest in this important issue, I could not disagree more with those two foolish positions. [emphasis added]

In response to Levin's claim that "the State Department's decision to reverse decades of bipartisan U.S. policy on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank," Pompeo wrote:

First, the State Department’s determination did not reverse any policy with regard to Israeli settlements. Rather, the State Department reversed a legal determination by Secretary Kerry made during the waning days of the Obama Administration, that the establishment of settlements was categorically inconsistent with international law. That determination was made in a failed attempt to justify the Obama Administration’s betrayal of Israel in allowing UNSCR 2334 — whose foundation was the purported illegality of the settlements and which referred to them as “a flagrant violation” of international law — to pass the Security Council on December 23, 2016. [emphasis added]

In response to Levin's claim that the US policy on settlements, as reflected in UN Resolution 2334 had bipartisan support, Pompeo reminded him:

Secretary Kerry’s determination did not enjoy bipartisan consensus. Rather, it received bipartisan condemnation, including from leading Democrats in both chambers of Congress. Indeed, an overwhelming number of Senators and House Members, on both sides of the aisle, supported resolutions objecting to the passage of UNSCR 2334.

...No less a Democratic spokesman than the Senate Minority Leader [Schumer] publicly stated at his AIPAC address on March 5, 2018, that “it’s sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace.” [emphasis added]

Levin goes so far as to challenge Pompeo on The Geneva Convention, "This State Department decision blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which affirms that any occupying power shall not 'deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.'" -- which Levin apparently is taking literally, as if the Israeli government was actually transferring Israelis to these areas, a claim Pompeo rebuts with a reference to Eugene Rostow, former Dean of the Yale Law School and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the Johnson Administration. He was responsible for the draft of UNSCR 242, a foundation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Pompeo quotes Rostow, who stated in 1983 that “Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in the West Bank.”

Former Ambassador David Friedman writes in his book, Sledgehammer:

I was deeply grateful that 106 members of the House, led by Congressman Andy Levin of Michigan, wrote to Pompeo to condemn his decision. Without that letter, the record supporting the decision might have been incomplete insofar as some members of the Legal Department at State were reluctant participants.. But the letter created a platform for a more fulsome response. [p. 165]

Hassan, Beinart and other defenders of Levin will of course continue to attempt to muddy the waters on the reaction against Levin's attempt to impose his leftwing politics on Israel.

But the fact remains that Andy Levin no more represented support of the Democratic Party for Israel than did the Israel-haters he found it convenient to ally himself with.

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Before 1948, Jews could cool down at hotels in Ramallah

Yisrael Medad found this ad in Haaretz from 1935:

It says that Ramallah is the nicest place in Eretz Yisrael, and invites people who want to escape the heat and enjoy the clean air to visit the Grand Hotel Ramallah. The hotel featured dances and tennis as well as running water.

I found the equivalent ad in English in the Palestine Post:

It turns out that hotels in Ramallah before 1948 enjoyed holding dance contests on weekends. Here's an ad for the Harb Hotel Kit-Kat Casino from 1933:

The interesting thing is that while these ads attempted to attract Jews to the hotels, the main clientele for the dances was Arab.

Just as in Egypt, the social scene for Arabs in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s was far more liberal than today.

The Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah today has a pool, but there are restrictions on who can go, as this 2019 poster (the most recent one I could find) states in the small print:

A woman visiting the hotel alone who wants to swim is out of luck. And you simply cannot find photos of people swimming in that pool because photos of women swimming would cause an uproar.

A mixed-couples dance is severely restricted under Palestinian rule today - in fact, the rare times it happens, trouble follows, and the dance scene there is mostly under the radar.

It is ironic that the more conservative Palestinian society becomes, the more "progressive" its supporters are.

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Andy Levin's synagogue celebrates Tisha B'Av with a yoga class

In response to a tweet about Andy Levin, who touted himself during his campaign as a former synagogue president, Melissa Braunstein asked, "Why hasn’t an article been written about that synagogue? Are the members all like Levin politically speaking?"

The answer is that his synagogue is as fringe about Judaism as Levin is about Israel.

His synagogue is Congregation T'chiyah, a Reconstructionist synagogue. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, only 1% of Jews identified as Reconstructionist at the time. Since then, the survey has lumped them in with "others" which are at 4% total. About 2.5% of American synagogues in 2002 identified as Reconstructionist.

Either way, they represent a tiny slice of American Judaism.

The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism does not believe in a personal God. He defined God as "the sum of all natural processes that allow people to become self-fulfilled." This is not mainstream Judaism, or mainstream religion.

Levin's congregation describes itself in progressive word-salad style.

At this time, services - when they are held - are in a rented room of a Methodist church that is also considered progressive.

Their calendar does not mention Tisha B'Av this coming Sunday. Instead, they are having a yoga class.

My point isn't to slam Reconstructionist Judaism, although I strongly disagree with everything about it. I'm just saying that all the people who pretended that Levin was some sort of SuperJew for being the president of a synagogue are gaslighting the Jewish community, because a synagogue like this - that says nothing about Israel on its webpage and in its programming - is not at all mainstream.

Just like Andy Levin's political views are not at all mainstream among American Jews.

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08/03 Links Pt2: Missouri AG Investigates Morningstar Over ESG, Compliance With Anti-BDS Law; How the ‘awokening’ of the media erased the working class and the Jews

From Ian:

Missouri Attorney General Investigates Morningstar Over ESG, Compliance With Anti-BDS Law

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has launched an investigation into whether Morningstar Inc violated a state consumer-protection law through its evaluations of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, his office told Reuters.

The review is two-pronged, covering ESG matters as well as whether the financial research firm violated a separate Missouri law aimed at protecting Israel from a campaign to isolate the Jewish state over its policies towards Palestinians.

Staff for Schmitt said it is the first instance of a state looking into ESG ratings products potentially breaching such laws, on the books in more than 30 US states.

“Missouri has been a leader in pushing back against woke ESG investing, and my office will continue to look out for consumers,” Schmitt — a Republican who on Tuesday won his party’s nomination for a US Senate seat — said in a statement.

Morningstar Chief Executive Kunal Kapoor said the company was evaluating Schmitt’s action.

“Sustainability introduces new choices for investors; Morningstar provides the data and insights to help investors of all types weigh those choices in their decision making,” Kapoor said in a statement.

In a pair of July 26 civil investigative demands to Morningstar and to its Sustainalytics ESG-ratings unit, Schmitt said they may have violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act such as by misrepresenting or omitting facts.

Jonathan Tobin: How the ‘awokening’ of the media erased the working class and the Jews

This was also made possible because most journalists themselves were different from their predecessors. Up until fairly recently, most members of the press came from working-class backgrounds, not elite universities. But by the 21st century, those joining top mainstream journalism outlets became almost exclusively filled with such graduates, more likely than not coming from upper-middle-class and wealthy families.

The focus on race and the acceptance of woke ideological constructs like critical race theory and intersectionality that young journalists have embraced was exemplified by the Times’ “1619 Project,” which falsified American history in order to present a view of the United States as not merely having a flawed past but as irredeemably racist. These theories aren’t motivated by a desire for greater equality as those 19th-century papers that reflected their working-class readers’ views did. CRT and intersectionality oppose equality since they see race as a permanent and insuperable barrier between people.

What Ungar-Sargon points out is that this allows elites to ignore economic inequality and “transforms economic guilt into racial guilt.” Obsessing over a problem that can’t be solved also allows the affluent to keep their status and to think it is a function of their own “superior virtue.” One of the great ironies of our age is the way that the left perpetuates inequality and undermines democracy all the while claiming to be defending these values.

In this way, the working class, which liked Trump, was erased by the racial moral panic. But as she also writes, it also accounts for the way the same liberal elites in journalism are willing to mainstream critical race theory that grants a permission slip for hatred of Jews as beneficiaries of alleged “white privilege.” In this manner, the great “awokening” in the press has also mainstreamed anti-Semitism while elite liberal Jews look the other way or ignore this tragic development.

The picture she paints of a smug mainstream press staffed by well-off members of the educated classes is a disturbing one that explains a great deal about what’s wrong with journalism and America in the 21st century. She hopes that this can be corrected by consumers of the news choosing to “starve the people making money off your emotions” and rage, and seek to understand those with different points of view and carve nonpolitical spaces in people’s lives. But as long as major media outlets are not only exacerbating our divisions but profiting from them, it’s difficult to see a path out of this abyss of wokeness.

ADL must listen to its critics

It is ADL policy then, expressed by Hershenov herself, that Muslims are "vulnerable" and "marginalized," that they need to call out Jew-hatred in their community on their own, there's nothing for the ADL to do about it, and that Jewish "Islamophobia" is a parallel phenomenon. She then cites rises in hate crimes against Muslims (third highest year) but not the much greater rise of hate crimes against Jews (68% of all religious hate crimes), many committed by Muslims.

The ADL has been fixated on threats from the right because they are clinging to an outdated paradigm that supposes victim groups with a leftist orientation welcome Jews as allies, and they do not want to alienate those groups by criticizing them. The ADL seems paralyzed by the left's shift to woke-think, which casts Jews as undeservedly privileged and "white adjacent" oppressors who support "racism and genocide" against the "darker skinned" Palestinians. Indeed, it signed a petition supporting the "Black Lives Matter Movement" (which accuses Israel of genocide in its platform), a petition signed by violently anti-Israel (and hence anti-Semitic) groups like JVP and Anti-Zionist Shabbat.

Generals tend to fight the last war. Here the ADL has shown an adamant reluctance to analyze leftist Jew-hatred like they do, should do and have always done with white supremacist bigotry. Recently, Greenblatt has announced some dramatic changes in the ADL's attitude towards left anti-Semitism, but will he walk the walk?

We need to see that the ADL is developing a genuine strategy to combat modern anti-Semitism in all its forms, not just creating some catchy buzzwords. Will Greenblatt re-educate ADL staff about leftist, Islamist and black supremacist anti-Semitism? Will he revamp ADL workshops to include these forms of Jew-hatred, instead of focusing almost exclusively on the threat from white supremacists? Will he take action based on his newer understanding about the left? Will the ADL, for example, seek to have frank discussions with black pastors about black anti-Semitism and urge them to educate their congregations? There is so much to do, and so much ADL can do.

But until the ADL alters its strategy and begins to educate the Jewish community, and the black, gay, trans, feminist, Muslim and Hispanic communities, about the rise and dangerous nature of modern-day Jew-hatred, they deserve all the criticism they are getting, and more.

Caroline Glick: ‘Jewish leaders have betrayed, failed our community’

834 views Premiered 23 hours ago Jewish community leaders have “betrayed and failed” their constituents, according to Avi Goldwasser of the Jewish Leadership Project. He says they are either “cowards or delusional or both.”

In a conversation with his colleague, Charles Jacobs, and Caroline Glick on this week’s “Mideast News Hour,” Goldwasser stresses the leadership’s unwillingness to confront the problems facing the Jewish people.

They also talk about the challenges leaders face - their fears of both losing their jobs, harming relations with donors and simply not knowing what to do.

Jacobs says that when anti-Semitism rises, a lot of people run away - including Jewish leaders.

“They're paralyzed,” according to Jacobs. “They're like deer in the headlights. The train is coming, and they are stuck.”

Whoopi Goldberg really needs to stop talking. Preferably altogether, but certainly when it comes to talking about Nazis and the Holocaust.

via GIPHY

First she said Nazis were white people attacking other whitepeople. That was in February.

Now, only six months later, Goldberg has lumped the members of a conservative student association with neo-Nazis after the latter protested outside a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) summit last week. Goldberg falsely asserted that TPUSA allowed the protesters into their event, and was therefore “complicit.” “You let them in and you knew what they were, so you are complicit,” she said.

Except that never happened. TPUSA never let these horrible people into their summit. TPUSA security, in fact, made every effort to disperse the neo-Nazi protesters. Since the protest took place on a public sidewalk, however, security was unable to remove them.

Horrifying to see swastika flags and antisemitic signs being displayed earlier today at the Tampa Convention Center outside of Turning Point USA’s #SAS2022 conference. pic.twitter.com/alypSZRgsB
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 24, 2022

TPUSA participants themselves went out and confronted the demonstrators, but could not persuade them to leave. Only after the TPUSA students gave up and entered the building for their event, did the protesters at last quit the scene.

This was all easily verifiable. Today, everything is verifiable. Because everyone has a phone, duh.

TPUSA students confronted and argued with these individuals. Our security attempted to remove the "nazis" but were unable to intervene because they were standing on the public sidewalk. TPUSA students ultimately left the scene, at which point these individuals dispersed. pic.twitter.com/K5uNuIxAku
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) July 26, 2022

But Whoopi, of course, has absolutely no interest in verifying what happened or in learning the truth. Her only interest is to demonize those who are different from her, in this case, conservatives. Goldberg took one small piece of information—the fact that neo-Nazis protested outside the event—and embroidered it to suit her narrative, claiming that TPUSA welcomed the protesters, something that never occurred. Then Goldberg broadcast the slanderous falsehoods to the world, leading her audience to believe that conservatives in general, and Republicans in particular, are in fact, neo-Nazis, and share the same Nazi beliefs.

Even if we are to give Goldberg the benefit of the doubt that she received bad information—that someone did, in fact tell Goldberg that TPUSA let the neo-Nazis into their event, it was Goldberg’s job to verify the story before blabbing it to the world. But Goldberg—or rather Caryn Elaine Johnson, Goldberg’s real name—already knows that she can libel anyone she likes: Jews, conservatives, Republicans, and whites, and nothing much will happen to her. At most, she’ll eventually be forced to give a lackluster apology and perhaps receive a short suspension. All worth it for the ability to continue spreading her toxic and xenophobic views to her idiot audience of millions.

After Goldberg’s obnoxious comments of last January, in which she described the Holocaust as white people fighting each other, “This is white people doing it to white people, so y'all going to fight amongst yourselves,” she apologized the next day, and received a two-week suspension.

This time, Goldberg qualified her comments later in the same show, saying “My point was metaphorical.”

It was only after TPUSA issued a cease and desist letter to ABC, threatening legal action, that anyone bothered to apologize for all the vicious lies spread not just by Whoopi but other cast members of The View, for example Joy Behar, who told the audience that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “did nothing” to stop the protesters. DeSantis had attended the event a day earlier, when no demonstrations were taking place. But what does The View care about the truth?

But back to the apology, because it was too slow to come and even when it did, it didn’t begin to address the malignant nature of the on-air defamation. The slander took place on a Monday. The apology, which was not really an apology and didn’t come from Whoopi, came only on the following Wednesday, in the form of a legal note read on air by The View co-host Sarah Haines:

“On Monday we talked about the fact that there were openly neo-Nazi demonstrators outside the Florida Student Action Summit of the Turning Point USA group,” read Haines. “We want to make clear that these demonstrators were gathered outside the event and that they were not invited or endorsed by Turning Point USA.

“A Turning Point USA spokesman said the group ‘100 percent condemns those ideologies’ and said Turning Point USA security tried to remove the neo-Nazis from the area but could not because they were on public property. Also, Turning Point USA wanted us to clarify that this was a Turning Point USA Summit, and not a Republican Party event. So, we apologize for anything we said that may have been unclear on these points.”

The View apologizes for wrongly linking neo-Nazi protestors to Turning Point USA. pic.twitter.com/uVUo7Cfykr
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 27, 2022

UPDATE: The View has issued yet another formal correction to TPUSA and its students LIVE on air. The apology was issued by Sara Haines. Whoopi remained silent and has not retracted her comments that TPUSA “metaphorically” embraced “Nazis." https://t.co/rcTawUTbpX pic.twitter.com/rANUlmXZwO
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) July 27, 2022

In other words, The View doesn’t apologize for its assertions, only that said assertions should have been clearer.

TPUSA was not at all satisfied with the on-air reading of a legal letter by Haines, nor should it have been. According to Fox News, “A TP spokesperson balked at Haines, not Goldberg, making the apology.”

The lame, forced apology from Goldberg, such as it was, came only one day later, a full three days after she broadcast her libelous claims. “You know, in Monday’s conversation about Turning Point USA, I put the young people at the conference in the same category as the protesters outside,” said Goldberg. “I don’t like it when people make assumptions about me, and it’s not any better when I make assumptions about other people, which I did. So my bad. I’m sorry.”

WATCH: @TheView's Whoopi Goldberg apologizes for lumping in @TPUSA attendees with the neo-Nazis that protested outside TPUSA's summit pic.twitter.com/PJeGsx4uWp
— Jackson Richman (@jacksonrichman) July 28, 2022

Even now, Goldberg-really-Johnson apologizes not for her calumny, as she should, but for mistaken assumptions. In so doing, Goldberg/Johnson has minimized her vilification of a student organization as some minor error in understanding, rather than a wholesale effort at character assassination. In such an apology, there is no mistaking the insincerity of the supplicant. This is not ignorance, but hate.

Not that it matters. Caryn Elaine Johnson’s audience laps up every lie she feeds them, even begging for more. And anyway, she can always apologize some more or take a two-week vacation.

Exploiting the Holocaust and Nazi ideology to serve her own egocentric interests? Why not? What does she care about a mess of "white" people, fighting?

And anyway, nothing really happens to her when she says these things. People like her, and listen to her. So she stays.

For her, it’s a win-win situation. Johnson/Goldberg can say what she likes with impunity. And cry all the way to the bank.

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

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Cults of personality are funny

Here is a screenshot of part of the English edition of Lebanon's Al Manar newspaper:

That's five photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on five separate stories.

All of them fawn over him.

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08/03 Links Pt1: Palestinians Commit Suicide as Their Leaders Live in Hotels and Villas; U.N. body determines Palestinian Authority condones torture and ill-treatment against civilians

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Commit Suicide as Their Leaders Live in Hotels and Villas

Many residents of the Gaza Strip undoubtedly regret the day they voted for Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election.

The last protest, which took place in 2017 under the slogan "We Want to Live!", was brutally crushed by Hamas's security forces and armed militias.

"In all countries of the world, you pay taxes for the services that the state provides you, except for us. In return, there are no hospitals, no education, no electricity, no water, no public utilities, not even rodent control." — Khalil Talmas, Gaza Strip resident, Facebook, July 27, 2022.

"'We Want to Live!'... is a cry of pain from the depths of a crushed and exhausted Palestinian people. It is a cry against taxes, extortion, repression and corruption." — Anas Al-Jazzar, Twitter, July 28, 2022.

Other Palestinians said that the current protest was directed not only against Hamas, but also against the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank....

These Palestinians pointed out the corrupt leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and their family members are leading comfortable lives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in five-star hotels and big villas in Qatar and Turkey, while most people were living in poverty and unemployment and misery.

U.N. body determines Palestinian Authority condones torture and ill-treatment against civilians

Last week, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) — a subsidiary of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — convened in Geneva to investigate, for the first time, instances of torture and ill-treatment carried out or condoned by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

After the completion of the hearings, CAT released its findings on Friday in a 15-page set of concluding observations, in which the committee determined that the PA is liable for the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian civilians, and set forth recommendations as to how the PA can better ensure their well-being.

The committee’s recommendations include: categorizing torture — which is currently considered a misdemeanor — as a felony; banning unlawful and torturous detentions; and creating a domestic commission to investigate any allegations of torture and ill-treatment. CAT also recommended the PA implement policies to democratize the Palestinian system of government, including safeguarding free speech.

In preparation for the hearings, CAT, which holds broad powers to probe incidents of torture and cruel treatment, reviewed a report submitted by the PA, as well as alternative reports submitted by a dozen American, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, the Palestinian Coalition Against Torture, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Clinic on International Human Rights and others.

Felice Gaer, former vice-chair of CAT and director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, told Jewish Insider, “One of the most important things a review can do is to raise cases because it clarifies government policy, and also causes the state to pay special attention to those cases thereafter.”

David May, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, suggested to Jewish Insider that the PA has used the international body as a way to put more pressure on Israel. “When the Palestinians joined all the various [human rights] bodies […] starting in 2014, the goal was twofold,” he said. “One, to establish themselves as a state to try to gain international recognition without having the instruments of statehood — so, to essentially be granted statehood by the U.N., even though it doesn’t really exist on the ground — and the second part was to put the screws on Israel.”

Baha'i family in Iran whose home was burned down

From Iran International:

Security forces laid siege to a village in northern Iran Tuesday and started demolishing houses and farms belonging to members of the persecuted Baha’i faith.

Simin Fahandej, a spokeswoman for the Baha’i International Community, told Iran International Tuesday that over 200 security forces were deployed to block the roads leading to Roshankouh, a village in Mazandaran Province, and begin demolition of the houses and farms belonging to Bahai’s.

According to Fahandej, security forces arrested some Bahai’s who tried to stop the operations, confiscated mobile phones of some villagers to prevent them from recording videos and publishing them on social media, and warned locals not to take any photos or videos of their operations.

A video posted on social media by the Baha'i International Community Tuesday shows security forces using heavy construction machinery to demolish buildings in Roshankouh.

Since early June security forces and the judiciary of the Islamic have intensified pressure on the followers of the Baha’i faith, raiding over a dozen households, arresting tens including three of the former leaders of the community, and shutting down businesses.

Iran's persecution of Baha'i fits Human Rights Watch and Amnesty's definitions of apartheid far better than Israel's treatment of Palestinians. This was pointed out in an article by South African Winston Nagan for PBS back in 2012: "Having grown up with the indignities of the apartheid system in South Africa, I bristle whenever I hear anyone equate a government's treatment of a portion of its citizenry to apartheid. Usually, the claims are exaggerated. But in Iran today, the government's treatment of the Baha'i community bears striking similarities."

He pointed out:

Both Blacks in South Africa and Baha'is in Iran have been excluded from being legislators.

Both have been excluded from universities.

Both have been limited under the law from building their own educational institutions.

Both have been excluded from certain jobs.

Both have had their property confiscated for no reason.

Hundreds of members of both groups have been executed for their political beliefs.

Iran has even banned Baha'i from burying their dead according to their laws. It has demolished Baha'i cemeteries and built parks and cultural centers on top of them.

Since that article, things have only gotten worse:

Under Iranian law, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians are the only religious minorities accepted. Baha'is are considered to be "unprotected infidels," according to a July 2019 report by the UN special rapporteur to Iran, Javaid Rehman.

Despite facing persecution, Bahai's are forbidden by their faith to lie about their religion. This means that the new identity card application prevents them from applying for and obtaining official identification, as they cannot claim affiliation to one of the three legally recognized minority religions.

Iran's policy towards the Baha'i is arguably worse than that of apartheid-era South Africa towards Blacks, because it is meant to ultimately ethnically cleanse them from the country altogether - something that is nearly complete in Yemen.

Even though Israel has none of the discriminatory laws against Arabs that Iran has towards the Baha'i, major human rights NGOs have decided to declare only Israel guilty of apartheid. This hurts the Baha'i because these NGOs resist using the term anywhere else for their own anti-Israel propaganda purposes. This means that the Baha'i are not able to easily use that appellation to pressure Iran to treat them better.

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From KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, July 31:

The Arab League called on the Arab States on Sunday to reactivate the boycott of Israel, describing it as a peaceful resistance to press Israel to abide by international resolutions.
The League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories Affairs Saed Abu Ali made the remarks at the 95th meeting of the Arab boycott offices in Cairo.
He said Israel's international boycott had achieved success at both popular and official levels.

Compare with an Arab League press release from October 24, 2017:

The Arab League (AL) called on Arab States on Monday to reactivate boycott of Israel, describing it as a peaceful resistance to press Israel to abide by international resolutions.
AL Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories Affairs Saed Abu Ali made the remarks at the 91st meeting of the Arab boycott offices in Cairo.
He said that the international boycott of Israel had achieved success at both popular and official levels.

Yes, they are practically word for word the same.

And the idea of an Arab League boycott is now a joke with direct trade relations between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE, and indirect relations with who knows how many others.

But the Arab League Boycott Office continues with its annual or semi-annual meetings, and they have to justify their existence, so they call the reactivate the boycott. Again and again.

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