Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Video: Victim of rape and torture in Iran

Harrowing:

(h/t Barbara L)

UNRWA keeps lying

UNRWA's Chris Gunness tries to defend the indefensible in a YNet op-ed:

All refugee communities, whether those under the care of UNRWA or UNHCR, have their refugee status passed through the generations while their plight remains unresolved. Refugees in Kenya administered by UNHCR are a good example. In this regard, the accusation that UNRWA uniquely perpetuates the Palestine refugee problem is ignorant of international refugee law and practice.

I cannot find any UNHCR documentation on the status of children born to real refugees, so I cannot address that specifically. However, UNRWA's definition of refugee is far removed from the definition that the UN established and uses today for all other cases.

The UN defines a refugee as someone who

owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his [or her] nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him [or her]self of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his [or her] former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

UNRWA's definition is completely different:

...any person whose "normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict."

Palestine refugees are persons who fulfil the above definition and descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition.

There is nothing in the UN definition that explicitly includes children the way UNRWA does, even if in some limited circumstances they do so.

But there is a much more important difference. The 1951 Convention on Refugees has exacting and specific criteria on how someone can end his or her refugee status:

(1) He [or she] has voluntarily re-availed himself of the protection of the country of his [or her] nationality;
(2) Having lost his nationality, he [or she] has voluntarily reacquired it; or
(3) He [or she] has acquired a new nationality, and enjoys the protection of the country of his [or her] new nationality; or
(4) He [or she] has voluntarily re-established himself in the country which he [or she] left or outside which he [or she] remained owing to fear of persecution.”

UNRWA has no definition on how a person can lose their "refugee" status. If they leave the areas of UNRWA operations, they cannot avail themselves of UNRWA services, but they still define them as refugees forever.

By any definition, including the UN's, Palestinian Arabs who received Jordanian citizenship should no longer be considered refugees, and the camps in Jordan should have been demolished long ago.

By any definition, Palestinian Arabs who live in the territories are not refugees. They are in what was Palestine! The worst you can say is that they are displaced persons, which again makes no sense for anyone born after 1948.

There is an additional difference. UNHCR works diligently to resettle or repatriate refugees so they no longer require UN services. UNRWA, on the other hand, works diligently to prolong people's refugee status so UNRWA can stay in business.

This is why UNHCR has reduced the numbers of refugees in its purview most years of its existence, and UNRWA's refugee rolls have ballooned.

Gunness writes:

On the question of resettling refugees, all internationally accepted paradigms for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict envisage the refugee question being resolved in the context of a just and durable solution, based on UN resolutions and international law, agreed by the parties and in consultation with the refugees. It is the failure of the parties to reach such an agreement that is perpetuating the refugee crisis.

Yet in the earliest UNRWA reports, the organization - and the UN - actively desired to resettle or repatriate refugees:

65. The General Assembly at its fifth session, recognizing that direct relief could not be terminated as envisaged in its resolution 302 (IV), authorized the Agency, by resolution 393 (V), to continue to furnish such relief for the period 1 July 1951 to 30 June 1952, and considered that "the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement, is essential for the time when international assistance is no longer available and for the realization of conditions of peace and stability in in the area".

Gunness gets it exactly backwards. Gunness is saying that a resolution of the refugee problem depends on the peace process. His forebears in the UN, however, correctly noted that peace depends on solving the refugee problem!

This was the UN's original mandate for UNRWA, albeit implicit. And this shows how UNRWA has turned from a pro-active agency dedicated to truly reducing the number of refugees into a huge bureaucracy dedicated to maintaining the status quo - and making it worse.

There is only one country where the number of UNRWA refugees - tens of thousands of them - was successfully reduced, and in fact eliminated. That country is Israel, and the refugees have been equal citizens for six decades.

A neutral UN human development and humanitarian agency whose work promotes universal values in the Middle East cannot be blamed.

Oh, yes it can be. UNRWA used to try to work with Arab countries to integrate refugees into their societies. It used to create works programs with the aim of making the refugees self-sufficient. Now it does nothing to reduce the descendants of the refugees' dependency on aid.

If UNRWA wanted to do something positive, it would immediately leave the Jordanian camps and tell the government of Jordan that they are responsible for their own citizens' well-being. (There is the exception of the Jerash Gaza camp, where the residents should be allowed to move back to their homes in Gaza!)

The UNRWA should also transfer all of its budget for Gaza and the West Bank to the PA, and tell Mahmoud Abbas that he is responsible for the welfare of his own citizens.

And in Lebanon, UNRWA can keep its neutrality while insisting that Palestinian Arabs there be treated with equal rights, publicly pressuring Lebanon to ease its onerous restrictions that they place uniquely on Palestinian Arabs. As it is, UNRWA's supposed "neutrality" allows it to blame Israel for numerous perceived injustices but it does not have a negative word towards any Arab regime, even as Jordan strips citizenship from its Palestinian population.

Gunness is a hypocrite and a liar, and UNRWA as it exists today must be dismantled to bring it more in line with how a refugee aid organization is supposed to work.

Israeli singer to perform in Marrickville, epicenter of Australian BDS!

This is so great:

Marrickville mayor Fiona Byrne has a prior engagement and will not be attending tonight's concert by the award-winning Israeli singer Efrat Gosh at the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville Road.

Gosh, named Israeli female artist of the year last year, was originally going to perform just a single gig in Sydney last weekend.

However, the Israeli embassy in Canberra and the Zionist Federation of Australia decided to promote a second show as a direct consequence of the council's controversial "boycott Israel" proposal earlier this year.

Led by Byrne and her fellow Greens with the support of Labor councillors, the council planned to join the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

It earned condemnation from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, as well as messages of support from polemicist John Pilger and human rights lawyer Julian Burnside.

A more recent pat on the shoulder came from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The move was eventually scuppered after a vocal three-hour council meeting in April.

"We wanted to bring Israeli culture specifically to Marrickville to show another colour of Israel," said the Israeli embassy spokeswoman, Einat Weiss.

"We realised that a lot of people who live in Marrickville didn't know anything about the real Israel."

Update: More here. (h/t Israel Muse)

UNDOF: Syrian army allowed "Nakba Day" protesters to go to border

Further proof that of official Syrian complicity in the May 15 and June 5 protests:

Syrian armed forces allowed Palestinian demonstrators to cross the Israel-Syrian border in the Golan Heights during Nakba and Naksa Day protests, a United Nations report released on Wednesday said, AFP reported.

The report on the UN Disengagement Force (UNDOF), which monitors the ceasefire between Syria and Israel did not accuse Syrians of organizing the demonstrations, but said that Syrian armed forces were near the locations of the protests on May 15 and June 5.

This supports the Telegraph story showing a May 14th memo where the Syrian government is shown to have organized the protests, as well as my earlier supposition that this would explain the absence of amateur video of the protests from the Syrian side.

A possibly different UN report apparently also confirmed Israel's contention that some Syrian casualties were from mines that exploded from fires, although it blamed Israeli smoke grenades and tear gas for igniting those fires. Video at the scene showed tires set afire by the rioters.

This still doesn't adequately explain why UNDOF disappeared on those days instead of trying to perform its duties. UNDOF is claiming that since April, Syria has stopped them from accessing some villages near the border, "ostensibly for reasons of safety and security of the military observers" as anti-government protests have allegedly spread to the area.

At any rate, the protests gave cover for the UN to extend UNDOF's mandate.

(h/t Joel)

Latest Zionist plot: Sending prostitutes with AIDS to infect PalArabs

From Iran's German-language radio website:

The Zionist regime wants to spread the HIV virus among Palestinian workers to force the Palestinian nation to its knees through fornication. Schahed Saad, secretary general of the Palestinian workers' union, said the Zionist regime imported 150 HIV-infected prostitutes from Russia within the 1948 occupied territories to be introduced to Palestinian workers, who are there, to infect them with AIDS.

According to the report to the HIV-infected prostitutes arrive in occupied Palestine and visit the areas where Palestinian workers are employed, where they seduce and infect them.

Poisoning the wells with bubonic plague is so 14th century. If you are an evil Jewish stereotype, you have got to get modern, and what can be more trendy than infecting your enemies with AIDS?

One might think that the transmission mechanism seems a bit slow to achieve full genocide. However, you must remember - these are money-grubbing Jews we're talking about. They need to extract cash from horny Palestinian Arab men while infecting them. It's just so perfect!

Now, the only question remaining is why the Iranian media did not seem to want to publish this in English, but instead chose German.

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Yet more photos of abject horror from Gaza

Small children are being forced to play in massive amounts of dihydrogen monoxide because of repressive Zionist policies! You can even see their eyes watering....

Here is a new water and amusement park in Khan Younis. The photos were taken yesterday.

(h/t Terror Watch via Joel)

UPDATE: Israellycool has new photos of the equally squalid Movenpick Hotel in Gaza. Sounds like the NGOs are flush with cash to burn!

Transparency in journalism

From Jonathan Tobin in Commentary:

There was a time not so very long ago when blogging and journalism were two completely different things. Many, if not most bloggers did not publish under their own names and mainstream journalists sniffed their disapproval. But as most journalists now write as much if not far more for the Internet than print, the idea that blogging is somehow antithetical to journalism is a distinctly antique notion.

It is in this context of a journalistic world in which constant online news updates and accompanying commentary is a given that we must view the revelation this weekend that a popular Middle East blog was a hoax. The blog, which went under the name “Gay Girl in Damascus,” purported to be the musings of a Syrian-American lesbian who was a critic of the Assad regime. Interest in the blog went up in recent months as unrest in Syria made the commentary from this seemingly fearless writer all the more fascinating.

But, as we learned this weekend, it was all a hoax. The “gay girl” turned out to be one Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old American graduate student living in Scotland who was known in Palestinian and anti-Israel activist circles. ....

This incident makes it all the more important for consumers of news and opinion on the web to know more about the sites they are reading. In the end, there is no substitute for transparency. Blogs and websites that operate without it are a standing invitation to fraud of one sort or another.

While this is true, Tobin is implying that somehow news sites are more transparent, and therefore more reliable, in their reporting than blogs are. While there are some checks and balances in the news media that do not exist in cyberspace, this is not the same thing as transparency.

One only has to go back a month to see The New York Times state confidently that Khaled Meshal of Hamas accepts a two state solution. And he said no such thing.

This was indeed a failing of the New York Times' fact checking, but it was also one out of thousands of examples of a lack of journalistic transparency. In fact, most newspapers online do not contain links to external sources in their stories where an interested reader can check out information first hand.

This topic strikes close to home for me. My blog is anonymous. Not only that, but my blog is biased. I am a Zionist and I am not going to pretend otherwise. So how can I convince anyone to listen to me?

The answer is transparency. I try to make sure that when I write something I will link back to the original source, when possible. I encourage and expect my readers to check my sources and call me on it if I am wrong.

This applies to polls, government reports, transcripts of important speeches, Arabic newspapers, historical documents, even public domain books. If I can find an original source, I will link back.

When my team and I went painstakingly through Arabic media to determine which "civilians" in Gaza were in fact terrorists, I made sure that every discussion on the topic was in the comments system so that anyone could double-check our work. (Unfortunately, the old comment system is no longer here.)

Newspaper websites usually do not do this. If they quote a poll or a report or a speech, they will not link back to the source unless it is on their own site.

Since newspapers occasionally interview people, to my mind their responsibility is to make the entire raw interview available online so readers can make up their own minds as to the context of the statements that the news media choose to highlight. What exactly did Meshal say to Bronner? Exactly at what point did he depart from Meshal's words and into his own interpretation of what he said? Was there a mistranslation or just sloppy reporting? Did Bronner ask leading questions to get the answers he wanted? All of this is important information.

Transparency would allow good reporters - and bloggers - to be valued, and sloppy ones to be exposed.

So this is not a blog vs. newspaper issue. It is simply an issue of how transparent the news media is in reporting its stories. It is making clear to the world what the raw facts are and what the interpretations and assumptions behind them are. It would expose the memes that lazy journalists use (hawkish Likud, moderate Abbas.)

And it is not likely that we will see the news media become truly transparent any time soon. They consciously nurture the myth that they are somehow special, that their opinions are more informed than those of non-journalists, that they do not suffer from bias. Opening up their methodology is something that many reporters will fight hard against, because deep down they know when they take shortcuts and make assumptions in their stories.

But transparency is the only way to know that what you are reading is the truth.

(By the way, it wouldn't be such a bad idea if professional journalists admitted where they found their stories to begin with. Youknow, hat tips. It would be nice to see how much of their work is being done by us bloggers.)

Further illustrations of what flotilla humanitarians look like

People might be confused when they hear the words "peace activists" or "humanitarian workers" when referring to those who choose to sail to Gaza in flotillas. So, in a continuation of this morning's post on the topic, I can illustrate exactly what they mean when they use those magic words.

Handcuffed, blindfolded protesters beaten by Syrian soldiers (video)

This was said to have been taken in Daraa on June 9:

(h/t IsraelMuse via email)

Study: Correlation between Shari'a and violent materials in US mosques

Middle East Quarterly has a fascinating, and seemingly scientifically sound, study by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi that finds a correlation between violent extremism in literature found in mosques with the level of adherence to Shari'a law in the same mosques in the US.

Abstract:

A random survey of 100 representative mosques in the U.S. was conducted to measure the correlation between Sharia adherence and dogma calling for violence against non-believers. Of the 100 mosques surveyed, 51% had texts on site rated as severely advocating violence; 30% had texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19% had no violent texts at all. Mosques that presented as Sharia adherent were more likely to feature violence-positive texts on site than were their non-Sharia-adherent counterparts. In 84.5% of the mosques, the imam recommended studying violence-positive texts. The leadership at Sharia-adherent mosques was more likely to recommend that a worshipper study violence-positive texts than leadership at non-Sharia-adherent mosques. Fifty-eight percent of the mosques invited guest imams known to promote violent jihad. The leadership of mosques that featured violence-positive literature was more likely to invite guest imams who were known to promote violent jihad than was the leadership of mosques that did not feature violence-positive literature on mosque premises.

PREFACE
The debate over the connection between Islam and its legal doctrine and system known as Sharia on the one hand and terrorism committed in the name of Islam on the other rages on among counter terrorism professionals, academics, policy experts, theologians, and politicians. Much of this debate centers on the evidence that the perpetrators of violence in the name of Islam source the moral, theological, and legal motivations and justifications for their actions in Sharia. Much of the opposition to this focus on Sharia centers on the argument that Sharia is and has been historically malleable and exploited for good and bad causes.

This study seeks to enter this fray but at a more empirical level. Since we know that mosques are in fact a situs of recruitment and “radicalization” for terrorism committed in the name of Islam, this study seeks to enter into that domain to determine if there is an empirical correlation between actual, manifest Sharia-related behaviors and the presence of violent and jihad-based literature, and further, the promotion of that literature. While the presence of violent and jihad-based literature alone does not necessarily suggest the worshippers at such a mosque adopt the violent literature’s approach to the use of violence, if the imams at such mosques also promote the literature, and if those mosques are more likely to invite guest imams and speakers who are known to promote violent jihad, the presence of these factors together would be strongly suggestive of an environment prone to jihad recruitment. Thus, this study also seeks to determine if the spiritual leadership in these mosques is supportive of this genre of literature.

The study website, Mapping Sharia, gives more details, such as the types of incitement to violence in the texts in these mosques. For example:

al-Misri: Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller)
"If someone does this [prevents others from accepting Islam], then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission."

Saabiq: Fiqh-us-Sunnah (The Book on Acts of Worship)
“The truth of the matter is that he [who] becomes an unbeliever... is to be killed for his unbelief."

Qutb: Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones)
"If someone [prevents others from accepting Islam], then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission."

This is an important study and needs to be widely publicized.

Gazans "treated like animals" at Egyptian border

Writer and editor Ramzy Baroud is hardly reliable, but this article in his Palestine Chronicle is interesting:

Governed by political and cultural sensitivities, most Palestinian officials and public figures refrain from criticising the way Palestinians are treated at the Rafah border.

However there is really no diplomatic language to describe the relationship between desperate Palestinians - some literally fighting for their lives - and Egyptian officials at the crossing which separates Gaza from Egypt.

"Gazans are treated like animals at the border," a friend of mine told me.

Having crossed the border myself just a few days ago, I could not disagree with her statement.

The latest "permanent" reopening has come with its own conditions and limitations, involving such factors as gender, age, purpose of visit and so on.

I was one of the very first Palestinians who stood at Rafah following the announcement of a "permanent" opening.

Our bus waited at the gate for a long time.

I watched a father repeatedly try to reassure his crying six-year-old child, who displayed obvious signs of a terrible bone disease.

I'm not sure how obvious a bone disease can be from the outside, but anyway....

"Get the children out or they will die," shouted an older passenger as he gasped for air.

The heat in the bus, combined with the smell of trapped sweat was unbearable.

Passengers took it upon themselves to leave the bus and stand outside, enduring disapproving looks from the Egyptian officials.

Disapproving looks. This is terrible!

Our next task was finding clean water and a shady spot in the arid zone separating the Egypt and Palestinian sides.

There were no toilets.

A tangible feeling of despair and humiliation could be read on the faces of the Gaza passengers.

So far this sounds just like passengers around the world on airplanes that are delayed on the tarmac.

No-one seemed to be in the mood to speak of the Egyptian revolution, a favourite topic of conversation among most Palestinians.

All Palestinians are treated very poorly at the Rafah crossing and they continue to suffer even after the toppling of Mubarak, his family and the dismissal of the corrupt security apparatus.

The Egyptian revolution has yet to reach Gaza.

When the bus was finally allowed to enter about five hours later, Palestinians dashed into the gate, desperately hoping to be among the lucky ones allowed to go in.

The anxiety of the travellers usually makes them vulnerable to workers at the border who promise them help in exchange for negotiated amounts of money.

Notice what he doesn't say - whether these workers are Egyptian or Palestinian. Since he hasn't yet crossed the border, it sounds like the latter.

All of this is actually a con, as the decision is made by a single man, referred to as al-Mukhabarat, the "intelligence."

Some are sent back while others are allowed entry.

Everyone is forced to wait for many hours - sometimes even days - with no clear explanation as to what they are waiting for or why they are being sent back.

The very ill six-year-old held onto his dad's jacket as they walked about, frantically trying to fulfil all the requirements.

Both seemed like they were about to collapse.

The Mukhabarat determined that three Gaza students on their way to their universities in Russia were to be sent back.

They had jumped through many hoops already to make it so far.

Their hearts sank when they heard the verdict.

I protested on their behalf and the decision was as arbitrarily reversed as it was originally made.

Our hero!

Those who are sent back to Gaza are escorted by unsympathetic officers to the same open spot to wait for the same decrepit bus.

Some of those who are allowed entry are escorted by security personnel across the Sinai desert, all the way to Cairo International Airport to be "deported" to their final destinations. They are all treated like common criminals.

The Israeli siege has choked Gaza to the point of near complete strangulation. Egypt is Gaza's only hope.

"I beg you to open the crossing... You brothers of Egypt have humiliated us for so long. Isn't it time we had our dignity back?" said Naziha al-Sebakhi, 63, one of the many distressed faces at the Rafah border.

As they crossed into Egypt, some of the passengers seemed euphoric.

The three Russian students and I shared a taxi to Cairo.

Despite everything, the young men seemed to hold no resentment towards Egypt.

"I just love Egypt. I don't know why," said Majid pensively, before falling asleep from sheer exhaustion.

People having to wait at an international crossing and being subjected to the laws and procedures of the land as to whether they can enter another country. Awful!

(h/t Israel Muse)

"Unity": Hamas turns up the rhetoric against Fatah and the PA

Hamas media and politicians have been fairly low key about criticizing the PA since the "unity" agreement was struck, but that has been changing lately.

Besides the public spats over who is going to be the "unity" prime minister, we are seeing:

The Hamas MP, Mona Mansour, who was engaged in a protest in Nablus yesterday is now accusing PA police of stripping her and her daughter of their hijabs while they were being arrested. She also says that journalists were attacked.

Hamas is saying that the latest visit by Jews to the Tomb of Joseph is being "protected by Fatah security" who is keeping people away.

A deputy to the president of Hamas' legislative council now says that there can be no reconciliation as long as Fatah continues to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank.

Sounds like "unity" is fraying badly, but they will try their hardest to ensure that this does not escape into the English-language media before....September. Then all hell will break loose.