Monday, July 08, 2019
From Ian:
The Mirage of an International Jerusalem
PMW: PA lies to its own people to justify cutting health care
The Mirage of an International Jerusalem
The United States decision on December 6, 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to transfer the American embassy there from Tel Aviv was one of the more momentous acts of diplomacy ever undertaken by a U.S. administration in Middle Eastern affairs. So much so that nobody believed President Donald Trump would actually do it, until he did.Prominent Imam Decries 'Palestine' Obsession of U.S. Muslim Leaders
When he did, most Israelis and most pro-Israel Americans approved or were positively delighted. By contrast, the American political class, Republicans and Democrats alike, was stunned—even though the president had merely fulfilled a legislative mandate, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, that had been passed near unanimously by both houses of Congress and promulgated by another president, Bill Clinton, 22 years earlier in 1995, only to be repeatedly deferred by successive White Houses for over two decades. The Department of State, for its part, put on a stern face and obeyed.
What came next was no surprise. The “international community,” from the United Nations General Assembly to the European Union, not to mention the Arab League and the World Islamic Conference, stridently rejected the American initiative. Two weeks after the decision was announced, 128 of the 193 member states of the General Assembly approved a resolution—ES-10/L.22—drafted by Turkey and Yemen and demanding that “all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem and do not recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.” Only eight countries, including Israel, sided with the United States.
This international condemnation relied on a venerable notion: that the legal status of Jerusalem—does it belong to Israel? To the Palestinians? To both? To neither?—was a settled matter, and that the answer to those questions was “none of the above.” Instead, international law and legal precedent had carved out the city as an international ward.
There is, indeed, a long legal history, built of many resolutions and agreements, to just that effect. But there are two problems with this settled conviction. First, its roots in law have been egregiously misrepresented. Second, the claim that Jerusalem actually belongs to the state of Israel rests on strong legal, moral, and demographic foundations.
Let’s start with the law.
As Islamist Watch has pointed out many times before, Islam is enormously diverse – containing many competing schools of theology, schools of jurisprudence, sects, ethnicities, cultures and mysticisms. Islamism is also not a single force; it comprises dozens of (both) competing and collaborating radical ideologies.
One of the most intriguing divisions, then, within both American Islam and Islamism of late has been growing dissent over the question of liberalism.
Should Muslims seek partnerships with left-wing organizations, given that some progressivist policies evidently conflict with both conservative Muslim and theocratic Islamist beliefs?
There is growing dissent within U.S. Islamism on the question of partnerships with progressives.
We addressed this issue in a recent piece on "theo-progressivism" – the curious rise of Islamists who appear to have genuinely embraced progressivist politics, and the anger of more traditional voices who believe progressivism to be a corrupting influence. ... This is a fascinating topic, and we will continue cataloguing the fractious debate over the issue among Muslim communities and Islamists.
The latest example comes from Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, founder of the Lamppost Education Initiative. Writing on Facebook, Ali laments:
Muslim national political and social agenda = free Palestine, marriage equality, gender equality, LGBTQIA equality, legalize marijuana, infanticide, sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants, and socialist economic policies. Soon it will include legalize prostitution, pedophilia, and incest. Polygamy is a long shot.
Not everything on this list is bad. But, one does need to ask just how many of these are islamic or universally acknowledged moral goods?
PMW: PA lies to its own people to justify cutting health care
As part of its self-inflicted financial crisis, in March 2019 the Palestinian Authority decided that Palestinians would no longer be referred to Israeli hospitals. At the time, the PA justified this by claiming it was costing the PA $100 million a year. PMW has just learned that this figure is false and that the PA was in fact lying to its own people by exaggerating the cost of treatment to justify the prohibition.
When the decision was announced, PA Ministry of Health Spokesman Osama Al-Najjar explained:
"This decision was made in response to the deduction of sums [Israel transfers] from the taxes that [Israel] collects each month for the Palestinian coffers. He added that the cost of the referrals to the Israeli hospitals is $100 million a year."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 27, 2019]
However, comprehensive statistics provided to Palestinian Media Watch by Israel's Ministry of Finance in response to a freedom of information request prove that the PA leadership are once again not telling their people the truth.
From 2010 - 2018, the years covered by the statistics, the cost of treating the Palestinians in Israeli hospitals never reached $100 million. In the nine years covered by the statistics, the PA expenditure on treatment for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals averaged $62 million year, with the highest expenditure ($83 million) registered in 2014, the year of the last Gaza war.
