If Arafat Were Alive Today He'd Be Horrified To Find Himself Entombed
by Marwan Barghouti
Credit: BDalim via Wikimedia Commons
Kishon Prison, December 26 - Much has changed since our beloved Raïs passed away in 2004, some of which he would appreciate, and some of which he would decry. But perhaps the most important thing the legendary Yasser Arafat would notice if he were among the living today, and which would spark his unmitigated disapproval, is that he lies interred in Ramallah.
Abu Amar, as we often called him, came to personify the Palestinian national struggle; despite his bitter differences with leaders of other factions among our people, no one before or since could make a more convincing case for the last, and perhaps only, consensus figure among our leadership. If he lived and breathed now, he would certainly find discouraging the worsening divisions between, for example, Fatah and Hamas, and the fact that we stand nowhere appreciably closer to the hoped-for liberation of our homeland than when he departed this mortal coil. That, and the fact that he wouldn't be living and breathing for long under all that dirt and concrete.
Some might try to alert the Raïs to the momentous departure of Israel, settlers, soldiers, and all, from the entirety of the Gaza Strip in 2005, presaging, we all hoped, a similar development in the rest of Palestine. I contend he would remain unswayed by that observation, for three main reasons: no such retrenchment of Zionist settlements has followed - the opposite, they have only expanded in the decade-and-a-half since; Fatah lost its short-lived control of the Gaza Strip soon after, as irreconcilable rifts widened between the movement and Hamas; and his attention would be unable to focus on any supposed victories while entirely occupied by the dark, airless tomb in which he would find himself.
What would our larger-than-life, legendary leader say if he came back to life today? Would he marvel at the new town of Rawabi? Would he nod approvingly at the continued misery of those who dwell in refugee camps after four generations rather than admit the attempt to drive in the Jews into the sea in 1948 has failed? Would he criticize his political heirs' enriching themselves on funds provided for the benefit of ordinary Palestinians, when those leaders, after all, are just following his example? Would he see as wisdom or folly the continued refusal of any Palestinian leadership to outline a feasible, reasonable resolution to our conflict with Israel? In my assessment, he would panic at being entombed, and soon suffocate back to death.
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These are countries that wrongly believe Israel’s presence in the West Bank is illegitimate. But these are also countries whose official policy is Israel and the Palestinians should pursue a negotiated two-state solution. What kind of negotiation can take place with a partner like the Palestinians, who are taking punitive unilateral steps?
Of course, they are not just dissembling when it comes to the ICC. When European countries say they want a two-state solution, the aim is supposed to be peace. Yet European donations to so-called human rights NGOs that have ties to terrorists are commonplace.
Many of the Palestinian groups working to have Israelis prosecuted for war crimes share personnel with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Just last week, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested PFLP members in the West Bank who were part of a 50-person terrorist network. One of them was responsible for murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb in August. He and several others work for a number of European-funded NGOs, including in top financial positions, while being leaders of the PFLP.
The PFLP is recognized as a terrorist organization by the EU, and these revelations about their work in NGOs are not new, but these European countries keep funding them.
The hypocrisy is so screamingly obvious that it is practically smacking the staffers at various development agencies run by European governments in the face. It’s hard to understand how they can live with the cognitive dissonance. And yet they’ve been doing this for years, although research institutions and Israeli government officials from the Strategic Affairs and Justice Ministries have brought these issues to their attention.
These countries need to decide: Do they want a negotiated settlement or punitive unilateral Palestinian action? Do they oppose or support terrorists? They say one thing, but their money talks, and it says the opposite.
Most of the regimes that shape international bodies and legal tribunals have no respect for the values of peace, tolerance, and human rights, resulting in the manipulation of the ICC and other bodies.
European countries that join forces with oppressive regimes in these bodies grant them legitimacy. Without this legitimacy, the international bodies would have been dismissed as nothing more than a circus that should be ignored because they are being controlled by outcast regimes. But the Europeans have systematically stood by those who distort the very values they have championed.
The European elites continue to live according to the illusion that the world will embrace Western values and be built under the auspices of international law using global legal and political bodies. If you confront European countries with the reality that there are major cultural gaps between Europe and most of the world, you will be dismissed as racist.
We know what the ruling will be: The ICC will become the first international tribunal to rule that the “state of Palestine” is sovereign over all disputed areas of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Just two weeks ago, the media reported that high-ranking legal scholars in Israel’s Attorney General’s Office had warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to take steps to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley, out of concern that the ICC would decide to launch an investigation against Israelis for that “crime” too.
It was obvious to anyone who keeps tabs on the ICC that there would be an investigation of Israel, regardless of whether sovereignty was applied to the Jordan Valley or not. The legal advisers’ warning not only demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the ICC, but also gave it more motivation to act against Israel by supplying it with proof that the court is influencing a state’s conduct with threats of legal action.
This was not the first time that legal authorities in Israel, including some at the top ranks of their profession, have operated in a manner that unintentionally spurs on the ICC to proceed with its anti-Israel actions. High-ranking legal authorities have talked about the Israeli legal system as a “defensive shield” against ICC investigations, as if the ICC were acting out of professional legal motivations rather than political and diplomatic ones.
As long as Israel continues to treat the ICC as a legal entity, and as long as it maintains relations with ICC staff under the assumption that their intentions are good, as long as Israel continues to make legal arguments as if anyone at the ICC is listening, it will continue to lose the battle. We must wake up and take more stringent political steps — as the United States already has — before the nightmare of indictments against Israeli soldiers becomes a reality.
Here's the very latest Jewish conspiracy theory to take over the world, courtesy of Youssef Nabil Fawzi at Sudanese news site Sudanile.
Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century" is a Jewish plot to destroy the Arab world, as originally written by Theodor Herzl.
Apparently, Herzl wanted to relocate the Palestinians to the Sinai. (Fawzi seems to be mixing up Herzl and a plan floated at a 2004 Herzliya conference.) But he does mention Herzl as being behind the desire for Israel to stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates as he supposedly said at the First Zionist Conference in Basel in 1897.
Fawzi says that Zionists adopted the geopolitical strategy created by Halford John Mackinder in 1904, which he summarized then as:
"Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland [from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic.]; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island [Afro-Eurasia]; who rules the World-Island commands the world."
Somehow, East Europe has been transformed into the Middle East.
Israel plans on using mercantilism, "a political idea in the basis that the amount of wealth is limited in the world and that the best strategies are to obtain the largest possible share of this wealth through colonialism or similar means in order to deprive countries of their resources..." So Israel's support of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia is really meant to subdue Egypt, for example.
Part of the plan is to redraw the borders of the Middle East, using Israel's evil "normalization" plan. What it really means is "normalization is carried out with countries close to the borders of Israel in order to preserve the safety of Israel. The demolition of the borders threatens states beyond and ignite the flames of war and where this is what actually happened in both the Sudan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, while the countries that refuse normalization like Syria are completely destroyed."
We learn so much from this analysis: "Israel targets expanding its borders by seizing Sinai first, and then extending in all geographical directions to the north, south, west, and east, and then re-demarcating the borders to other countries after re-dividing those countries first into small states as happened in Sudan by its separation in the south and as it will also happen with the separation of its west, and as is currently happening in Libya. This explains that biblical plaque that was placed at the entrance to the Israeli Knesset where it is written: 'Your borders, Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile' so that they do not forget their first goal was the establishment of the State of Israel and then dominate the world and America itself."
How is Israel depopulating the Sinai in order to take it over? By helping ISIS, of course.
And this is only Part 1 of Fawzi's thesis!
Wow, those Jews are really smart, but not smart enough for the likes of Youssef Nabil Fawzi!
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As I have been reporting, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah has been using its demands that elections be held in Jerusalem as an excuse to push elections off altogether.
Hamas has been calling Fatah out on this. A recent column in Hamas' Al Resalah says that, sure, Jerusalem is important, but by rights Arabs who live in Jaffa and Nazareth should vote as well, not to mention Palestinians who live abroad. Abbas' begging Israel for permission to hold elections in Jerusalem is a source of shame for Palestinians. If he wants elections, just do the elections where possible. "In the end, we affirm that the city of Jerusalem is the core of our Palestinian cause and should not be mortgaged to narrow factional interests as it is now used in the matter of elections," the article concludes.
The Palestinian Liberation Front, a recognized terror group that supports Mahmoud Abbas, responded on Voice of Palestine radio saying that when Hamas says that elections should be held without Jerusalem it means that they support Trump's Deal of the Century and the "occupation." It also said the PA leadership will continue its contacts with the international community to pressure Israel to remove obstacles to holding elections in Jerusalem.
Voice of Palestine also interviewed Palestinian official Adnan Ghaith who said that elections without Jerusalem would be a "stab in the side" of the Palestinian national project.
The official PA radio station continued on, with Adnan Al-Husseini, member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, agreeing that without Jerusalem there should be no elections.
How convenient that the person who has stayed in power for 15 years is unwilling to risk it all with elections - and remember that his party lost the last elections.
The entire dysfunction of the Palestinian leadership is apparently not a topic of interest to the hundreds of Western journalists in the region.
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After days of protests across Iran last month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared impatient. Gathering his top security and government officials together, he issued an order: Do whatever it takes to stop them.
About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on Nov. 15. The toll, provided to Reuters by three Iranian interior ministry officials, included at least 17 teenagers and about 400 women as well as some members of the security forces and police.
Iran is very upset at this story. That discomfort has proven, yet again, that Iran is antisemitic.
The Iranian ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, tweeted:
Reuters News Agency, part of Thomson Reuters which was sold to a Canadian Zionist figure by its original British company several years ago, has unfortunately in recent years pursued a policy of prejudice and lies against Iran ...
Reuters policy is in line with the policy that [Rupert] Murdoch, the owner of the Zionist media empire, had formally stated years ago: Jewish-owned media in the world have a duty to support Israel. Not surprisingly, the same top priority today comes from Reuters' Canadian and Zionist owner from Toronto, supporting Israel.
An Iranian diplomat is tweeting antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The Canadian he is referring to is David Binet, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Woodbridge Company which controls over 60% of Thomson Reuters stock.
The only sources that Binet is Jewish comes from antisemitic sites, although some Jews do have that surname. I see nothing linking Binet with any Zionist causes or charities.Not to mention that Reuters is hardly Zionist!
If Iran was against antisemitism as it always claims, it would fire Baeidinejad. Instead, the official state media Tehran Times and Mehr News proudly reported on the tweets - scrubbing his mention of the word "Jewish" in their English translations, proving that the regime knows very well that the diplomat is an antisemite and repeating the official Iranian position that Jews control the media.
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A recent news item indicates that among the candidates for seats in the World Zionist Congress – founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897 – are Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben Ami.
To tell the truth, when I see the petulant babyface of Peter Beinart, I experience a feeling of nausea. A misozionist and tikkunist*, Beinart was one of the more successful figures at monetizing his brand with his 2010 article “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment.” It was followed by a book which expanded on his thesis that established American Jewish organizations were “failing” young liberal Jews because they were not sufficiently sensitive to the “fact” that Israel was viciously oppressing Palestinian Arabs.
Beinart continued to write and speak on this theme, and as often happens, as time passed he became more and more extreme in his anti-Israel expression. Nevertheless, he continues to insist that he is a Zionist. For someone like myself, who believes that the survival of the Jewish people everywhere depends on a strong Jewish state, the hypocrisy of a comfortable American Jew telling Israelis to commit suicide is infuriating.
The mention of hypocrisy immediately brings to mind the organization J Street, which was midwifed in 2007 by a large infusion of cash from groups connected to George Soros (an infusion that J Street lied about until it was exposed). J Street, which also took money from individuals connected to Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to lobby the US Congress, claims to be “pro-Israel and pro-peace,” but its consistently anti-Israel actions have proven it to be neither. Like Beinart, J Street appeals to American Jewish progressives and liberals, who either don’t see or don’t care that the objects of their support are enemies of the Jewish state.
J Street is led by Jeremy Ben Ami, who is himself a study in hypocrisy (or psychopathology of another sort). His father, Yitzhak Ben Ami, was a member of the etzel, the underground army organization led by Menachem Begin that fought the British and the Arabs to create the state of Israel. He came to America during the Holocaust as part of the “Bergson Group,” in an attempt – scuttled by the liberal Jewish establishment of the time – to mobilize support to rescue the doomed Jews of Europe. Thus, Jeremy is on the opposite side of his father’s struggle.
Beinart and Ben Ami are two of a type that has begun to flourish in recent decades: Jews that make a career for themselves – either for money, academic advancement, fame, or all of the above – by exploiting the fact that they have Jewish parents to give them an aura of authority with which to attack the state of Israel. Although they have no personal stake in the consequences of their advice, they give it with a pretense of great moral weight.
Beinart’s complaint (unfortunately) no longer makes sense. In recent years, many “establishment” Jewish organizations in the US – the ADL, Hillel International, the Federation system, the Union for Reform Judaism, and others have moved farther and farther away from supporting Israel. In some cases the reason is simply practical fund-raising: they would like to be acceptable to a new group of donors who are less pro-Israel than their parents, a consequence of the concentrated anti-Israel indoctrination they have received in American universities. In other cases, like the ADL, the dominant personalities in the organizations have been replaced by political operatives with a leftist (and anti-Israel) orientation.
I think that the Obama Administration also had much to do with this, providing support for J Street as their go-to Jewish group, as well as generating a continuous flow of propaganda against the Netanyahu government. The theme was “we love and support Israel, but Netanyahu is making it a racist theocracy.” Liberal American Jews seem to have been very susceptible to this approach.
The change stood out for me when I reread Beinart’s seminal 2010 article. I don’t think that today he would be able to say that the “American Jewish establishment” univocally supports Israel. Indeed, the truth is closer to the opposite. And the “establishment” has been joined by groups like J Street and If Not Now; even Jewish Voice for Peace is being treated as a legitimate representative of a segment of the Jewish population. None of this is an accident: a great deal of money has been expended by anti-Israel foundations like the Ford Foundation and Soros-connected foundations in order to accomplish this. And Beinart himself has been a tireless soldier in this campaign.
***
The World Zionist Congress consists of delegates from all over the world, in proportion to the Jewish populations of various countries. An election will be held to select them this January, and American Jews can vote for one of several slates of candidates. One is ironically called “Hatikvah”; its platform is a politically-correct compendium of left-wing causes, and its slate contains Beinart and Ben Ami, as well as the full panoply of American Jewish virtue-signalers and opportunists. For those Liberals/Progressives who can’t quite stomach Beinart or Ben Ami, there is a very slightly less aggressively left-wing platform and slate provided by the Union for Reform Judaism.
With due respect for Herzl, I think that the World Zionist Organization and its Congress have outlived their usefulness now that the Jewish state has been reestablished and is thriving. Israel does not need financial contributions from the diaspora, and it needs advice and political pressure even less. The WZO should dissolve itself and turn over whatever resources it has to the true Zionist entity in the world (just ask the Iranian regime), the State of Israel.
For now, I recommend that American Zionists vote for the Herut Zionists, which – unlike “Hatikvah” and the Reform slate, does espouse true Zionist goals like the ingathering of exiles and the development of all of Eretz Yisrael. _______________________ * Misoziony (pronounced mis-OZ-yoni) is the extreme and irrational hatred of the Jewish state. It is antisemitism raised up one level of abstraction, although almost all misozionists are antisemites as well. Tikkunism is the ideology that replaces the traditional mitzvot of Judaism with an imperative to engage in left-wing social action
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Elena of Avalor is the first Jewish Disney princess.
There are some mistakes, but altogether it is refreshing.
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Trump’s and Johnson’s words are especially apt in light of the assault against Israel launched on Friday by the International Criminal Court. Responding to a petition by the Palestinian Authority, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced the opening of an investigation into Israeli "war crimes" allegedly committed by the Israel Defense Forces during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014. The absurd probe is the latest in a long line of discriminatory measures taken against the Jewish state by the so-called "international community."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this very issue when he lit the first Hanukkah candle at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
"2,200 years ago, the Maccabees fought the war of liberation for the Jewish people and the Jewish faith against the anti-Semitic Greeks," said Netanyahu. "They wanted to extinguish our faith, to stamp on our freedom, to drive us out of this land, to say that we have no right to exist."
He went on: "We have fought against immeasurable odds, as no people has fought in history. We crossed the abyss from extinction to survival, independence, and now a thriving democracy. And yet, we find ourselves now, in the beginning of the 21st century – in the year 2019 – where the International Criminal Court, that should know otherwise, has set forth decrees that are just as anti-Semitic as the decrees of the Greeks."
Trump and Johnson couldn’t have said it better themselves.
2019 has been a year marred by a number of targeted mass shootings around the world, leaving minority populations reeling from the hate flung their way. But in the face of such darkness, it has also produced some remarkable moments of outstanding courage and determination not to let hate win.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have listed their the top ten moments of hope and hate this year, with mass shootings in El Paso, Texas Christchurch, New Zealand, and Jersey City topping the list; mass shootings account for half of the hate list. Three of the shootings took place in mosques and synagogues; one occurred on Yom Kippur.
On the hope list, it is the moments of human kindness that stand out: a Muslim woman defending a Jewish family against antisemitic hate on the London underground, while in Oregon a teenager inspires a new law to mandate Holocaust education in schools.
In August, 22 people were killed and 26 injured after a gun-man drove for more than 11 hours specifically to target Mexicans at a Walmart in El Paso, an attack which the ADL’s Center on Extremism noted was "the deadliest white supremacist attack in the U.S. in more than 50 years."
The attack came just months after a similar onslaught against Muslims in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March which left 50 dead. In both Christchurch and El Paso the shooters posted messages to web chat board 4Chan, stating white supremacist views.
"The attack on Christchurch underscored the fact that white supremacy is a global terror threat whose ideology manifests around the world and results in acts of violence in many instances," the ADL said in their report.
The Orthodox Jewish community in the New York Metropolitan area has been the target of a number of attacks over the last year, culminating in the killing of three people at a Kosher supermarket in an attack in which a policeman also lost his life. The targeted attack was tied to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, which has professed antisemitic beliefs.
Synagogues were also the targets of the next two events on the list, at the Chabad Congregation of Poway, California, and in Halle, Germany. The Poway shooter was another who posted a manifesto online, speaking of his hatred for non-Christians and holding up the Christchurch shooter as a role model.
But as difficult as these attacks are, the top event on ADL's hope list is a timely reminder that hate can be overcome.
THE GLOBAL interconnectedness of contemporary antisemitism means that the effort to confront and roll it back must also be global. Arabs who recognize the damage antisemitism has done to their own societies should also recognize that on the right-wing fringes of American racism, Arabs and Muslims fare little better than Jews in the pantheon of those most vigorously despised and demonized. Americans, for their part, should see that Arab antisemitism is also their problem, and bear up to the responsibilities of fighting it.
But how? What is the American role in fighting antisemitism in Arab countries – and who are America’s natural allies in that struggle?
The most common answer one hears revolves around the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and with good reason. The conflict exacerbates the problem – and an eventual resolution, in my judgment by way of a two-state solution – will clear much of the swamp in which Arab antisemitism festers.
After generations of a US diplomatic focus on high politics to resolve the conflict, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, has placed new emphasis on the economic dimensions of the challenge. Creating new business partnerships based on “win-win” outcomes for Israelis and Palestinians alike could in due course augment traditional diplomacy and help build the range of viable Palestinian institutions necessary for sustainable governance.
But functional approaches by themselves are no panacea. We must not forget that among the September 11 hijackers were several well-educated and well-heeled young people. Their extremism flowed not from economic disadvantage but from a cultural pathology of brainwashing. To expunge that pathology, Arab autocrats – beginning with those allied with the US – must at last expunge this vile content from the schools, mosques and media they control.
A difficult truth about political life is that while it usually takes two or more parties working together in good faith to advance brotherhood and peace, it often takes only one to block or tear down that work. That is why our efforts to build a better world cannot rest. It is also why, as the God of Abraham is our witness, fighting antisemitism as well as anti-Islamic and anti-Arab bigotry is ultimately one seamless fight that must involve people of good will everywhere. Arabs and Jews simply must stop hating each other so that together we can face the truly dangerous people who hate us both.
The writer is a Moroccan publisher. He is on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council and an international counselor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
David Collier has written a walloping
200-page report (available for download as pdf) exposing the anti-Israel bias and obsession
of international human rights group Amnesty
International. In its sheer breadth of coverage, the report is an
astonishing body of work, but then we’ve come to expect nothing less from
Collier. We watched on, not so long ago, as he issued a similar bombshell, his multipart exposé
of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. That report appeared to necessitate
Collier infiltrating a secret Labour Facebook group.
David Collier
This is like the kind of spy
stuff you read about in novels. It would take guts to do that and not a little
caution, sustained over a lengthy period of time, in order to avoid detection. But
Collier’s unconventional methods of research have borne fruit, witness the fact
that Boris Johnson is in and Corbyn is most definitely out.
Collier is using new and
different tacks in the fight for Israel and against antisemitism. The way he
uses social media, for instance, is something we haven’t seen before, at least
not with this level of commitment. What has Collier uncovered about Amnesty and
what can we, as regular people, do to emulate his work going forward? I spoke
with Collier to learn more:
Varda Epstein: Tell us about Jewish
Human Rights Watch. How did this body come to commission you to investigate
Amnesty International? Tell us about your background and credentials. What sort
of manpower and hours were devoted to this project?
David Collier: Jewish Human
Rights Watch is a UK-based NGO. They fight anti-Israel bias the clever way,
either by challenging it in the courts or exposing the toxic nature of those
that stand against us. For example, they have been fighting the legality of
local town councils passing BDS motions and this effort and the publicity they
caused, may have played a part in the UK Government’s recent
announcement that it is going to ban councils from pursuing such motions
altogether.
I have done work for them
before, when they commissioned a report
on antisemitism in the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The report
successfully clipped the SPSC’s wings. We both saw bias in Amnesty as a major
issue, so it was natural they would turn to me for this project.
I have been fighting
anti-Israel bias for two decades. My own strategy is different from most. I
don’t push pro-Israeli material so much. Our problem is not whether or not
Israel is perfect – it doesn’t have to be – Israel has every right to be a
state that makes mistakes like all states do. Our issue is that our enemies are
full of toxicity and hate. This is their biggest weakness and we should spend
more time exposing them for what they are. If you engage in a “did/didn’t”
argument with an anti-Israel activist, the bystander becomes confused. Far
better just to show the person you are arguing with is a terrorist-sympathizing
antisemite. Bystanders understand this much more clearly. We will never
convince an anti-Israel activist he is a hatemonger, so don’t both trying, just
expose his hate to others.
The Amnesty research took
months and well over 1000 man hours. There were hundreds of thousands of social
media posts to cover. During the summer of 2019, I didn’t sleep much.
Varda
Epstein: Why do we care about Amnesty International’s bias? What is the impact
of this organization?
David Collier: We cannot
overstate the impact of NGOs like Amnesty. They are the bridge between actions
on the ground and International forums such as the UN, UNHRC and even the ICC. The NGOs are seen as legitimate and
impartial “judges” and their findings carry real weight. None more so than
Amnesty. If Amnesty is simply pushing raw anti-Israel propaganda as evidence
during a UN hearing, they legitimise the UN’s own bias against Israel. In
effect Amnesty acts as the glue which reinforces a global anti-Israel bias – if
they played fair, things would look very different.
Ashira Prem Rachana is a "human rights researcher" for Amnesty International
Varda Epstein: Was Amnesty International always so political? Did it ever do good work? Was there a turning
point?
David Collier: Yes, of course.
Amnesty’s sterling reputation was legitimately earned and this is, in part, why
the situation is both tragic and difficult to address. Amnesty relies on the reputation
from the good work it used to do to shield it from criticism today.
Originally, and in the much
simpler days of the Cold War, Amnesty dealt solely with political prisoners. As
the NGO arena became more overcrowded and competitive, Amnesty sought growth –
both in the areas it monitored and in the type of work it undertook. They
became more political. They felt it necessary to let go of crucial rules they
imposed on themselves to stay clear of conflict of interest issues. In truth
there were logical reasons for them to do so – but they put nothing in its
place and were slowly devoured by activists using Amnesty resources for their
own narrow interests. The decline has been gradual and going on for decades.
Nadine Moawad, MENA communications manager for Amnesty International
Varda Epstein: Your report states that a consultant for Amnesty, Hind
Khoudary, tweeted support for a terror organization, referring to known Islamic
Jihad terrorists as “heroes.” Tell us about that. Was the tweet issued as a
private citizen? Does it matter?
David Collier: It doesn’t
matter at all. I think one of the things Amnesty will do to deflect the
criticism of the report is to suggest some of these people weren’t associated
with Amnesty when they made the unacceptable comments. This is irrelevant. Imagine
a judge going home and tweeting as a private citizen that terrorists are heroes
– would any sane person consider him fit to be a judge? With Khoudary, there
were numerous tweets. At roughly the same time she called the two terrorists
heroes, she also retweeted advice to people in Gaza not to publicly say
anything that would ‘hurt the resistance’. This person is a hard-core
Palestinian activist and a supporter of terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad. At
no point can she be considered impartial, not before or after the time she made
those tweets. As it happens in this case, I think she was listed as an Amnesty
consultant at the time – but in any event, it is absurd to believe she would
ever tell the truth about what is taking place on the ground.
Varda Epstein: How does it feel when you see that Amnesty staffer Laith
Abu Zeyad regularly retweets WaadGh who tweeted a smiley face in relation to the terrorist murder of
Rina Shnerb? Do you ever need a mental health day in your work?
David Collier: That’s a good
question, my wife certainly thinks so. Sadly, I have been doing this for so
long I am used to it. This is what I do, I swim in the sewers with these
people. I have to get into their heads and understand them. If I was sickened
by what I saw, I would never be able to do the research properly. I am even
forgiving. Had Zeyad only retweeted her once, I’d have written it off. We all
make mistakes. But she was a common source for him, they interacted. He must
know the type of politics she pushes. This is the problem - these people don’t
even have to hide these associations because nobody cares.
Varda Epstein: What did you find to be the most shocking fact to come
out of your investigation?
David Collier: There is the big
picture and the little picture. The most shocking single fact I found was a
person listed as the regional Media Manager for Amnesty writing a Facebook post
in Arabic that instructed terrorist factions not to “claim their martyrs” but
rather to let the West think they were innocent civilians – not terrorists. The
most shocking part of it all, though, is the big picture. We all know Amnesty
is biased, but the report exposes the level of that bias – it shows that
Amnesty operates with a subconscious (I don’t believe it is a conspiracy)
political world vision. One that hates Israel most of all, but is biased
against India, ignores the persecution of Christians and is strategically
anti-West. I call it subconscious because it is merely the sum of the parts.
Most of the parts carry a similar bias and this translates into Amnesty policy.
Amnesty is a danger to any Western nation that allows them to operate freely
and more fool the nation that pays attention to their findings.
Varda Epstein: This website, Elder of Ziyon, plays a role in your
report. Can you describe the context? What is the importance of bloggers and
tips from regular people in your investigative work?
David Collier: Elder of Ziyon
plays a role in all my reports. It is probably one of, if not the best, archive
of relevant information stretching back to the Second Intifada. If you are
writing about almost any issue relevant to the conflict, a search of the Elder
site is always advisable. In this report for example, I wouldn’t have known
that Saleh Hijazi, the Amnesty Deputy Director MENA had used images of
terrorists for his Facebook profile, if not for Elder’s website. It both saves
me time and acts as a great source for additional knowledge.
Saleh Hijazi, Amnesty International MENA deputy director used this image of PFLP terrorist and airline hijacker Leila Khaled for his profile photo.
Varda Epstein: What hope do you have that your report will instigate
positive change? Do you think there is hope that Amnesty International can be
reformed? Where might Amnesty International turn its sights instead of Israel,
to make the world a better place?
David Collier: Amnesty won’t
change from within. They can’t, this is what they are now. What needs to happen
is that we need to expose to others the toxicity within. We need to reach its
membership; the political alliances and every forum in which Amnesty has
influence. Show those people the report. Only real external pressure will ever
work and even then, I do not know if it is possible to salvage without a
complete rebuild.
What should they be doing?
Every Human Rights NGO on the planet should currently have one single goal: The
abolition of the UN Human Rights Council and the construction of a new UN human
rights body that has strict, points-based criteria about membership. The UNHRC
should be leading the way on global human rights issues and such a body could
be such a force for good. Instead it is infested with and controlled by
despots. Nothing would improve global human rights more than a properly run
UNHRC, so if you see an NGO currently working with them – rather than calling for
their abolition, you can automatically say that NGO is not a true human rights
NGO.
Sahar Mandour, Amnesty International researcher, Lebanon
Varda Epstein: Can you tell us about your roots and also about the
person you are, today? What makes you a fighter, a person dedicated to digging
deeply to fight against antisemitism?
David Collier: I was born in
the UK and lived in Israel for 19 years. I was part of the Oslo generation,
land for peace, two states, and all that. I worked intensively with
Palestinians during the 1990s. I published a monthly newspaper and used the Al
Ayam publishing house in Ramallah. I worked for peace. Then came the second
Intifada. Israel’s problem isn’t so much the Palestinians, as the global
movement that has turned them into a cause. This conflict should have ended in
1949. The reasons it didn’t have nothing to do with Israel, nor – and I can
hear people shout at me – with the Palestinians. They weren’t even a thing in
1949. The war against Israel is an international one. The Palestinian identity
as we know it today was created from the outside. I recognise this and this is
where I fight my battles.
There is no single thing that
led me to be a fighter. I lost close friends, but then so have most Israelis. I
think I fight because I have to. I do not see it as a choice. People often ask “what
would you have done” when referring to the rise of the Nazis, the creation of
Israel, and other important milestones in history. Well, we are at war now - it
is a global battle and the stakes are higher than most people imagine. If you
are not doing anything today, there is your answer.
Varda Epstein: What’s next for David Collier?
David Collier: I was writing a
book in 2015 when Corbyn was elected to lead the Labour Party. The last four
years have been an enormous time consuming and emotional rollercoaster. Corbyn
was merely a symptom of a growing problem and I see him simply as the first
wave. Boris has now been elected and we have 5 years of opportunity to continue
fighting. I am scared people will think the job is done – it would be a huge
mistake to think that. On the immediate horizon I can go back and hopefully
finish the book. It addresses the rise of the Palestinian identity as a weapon
with which to fight against Israel. I am going back to the British archives in
London to help me as much of the evidence is there. So fingers crossed, the
next major thing for me would be to have my book published.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The next time you encounter someone who says they are pro-Palestinian and that their group supports peace, ask them to answer one of these questions:
1. Should Palestinians, if they want, become citizens of Arab countries they have been residing in? Or must they remain stateless until they have a "right of return" to Israel?
For seven decades, Arabs have been resisting implementing UN conventions against statelessness with the very poor excuse that Palestinians want to remain stateless until they "return." This is clearly not true because every time some have had the opportunity to become citizens - of Egypt, Lebanon or Jordan - they flocked to take advantage of it.
If you don't support Palestinians becoming citizens of the lands they were born in, you aren't pro-Palestinian. You simply want to use them as pawns to help destroy Israel.
2. What have you done to fight Palestinian laws that discriminate against women or gays, or that prohibit free speech?
There are many NGOs and activist groups that pretend to care about Palestinian rights, but when those rights are being withheld by the Palestinian leadership itself, suddenly Palestinian rights aren't so important. When have they held vigils against the significant human rights violations of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority? They never have - only against Israel.
3. Do you support peace between Israel and Arab states independent of the Palestinian issue?
Many of these groups have the word "peace" in their names. Israel has improved its relations with many Arab and Muslim-majority states in recent years. Is this something they celebrate or oppose?
Every time these people are cornered into exposing their hate, see how fast they try to fall back to "whataboutism."
Because they know they are hypocrites.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
A variation of this claim, that Jesus was actually a Philistine, also features as a staple of anti-Israel propaganda, including the roundly debunked notion that Palestinians are actually Canaanites.
The idea that Palestinians are Philistines is equally false.
Unlike modern day Jews and Palestinians, the Philistines were an ancient, non-Semitic, sea-faring people, whose form of worship was unconnected to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
In other words, the Philistine ethnicity, culture and religion are all entirely different from that of modern day Palestinians.
The Philistine connection to the Israelites began when the former invaded and occupied a portion of the Kingdom of Israel in about 1000 BCE, but were later defeated by ancient Israel’s King David.
In roughly the seventh century CE, the Philistines were conquered by the Kingdom of Babylonia and subsequently wiped out as a distinct culture.
In other words, in addition to being culturally, ethnically and religiously unrelated to Jews or Palestinians, the Philistines no longer exist.
However you look at it, the truth is in no doubt: Jesus was a Jew.
According to this @nytopinion piece, there was an "Ottoman province of Palestine."
Only problem is, it never existed. Palestine was a term given to the land by Europeans. It was never used by the Ottomans. pic.twitter.com/T9ehwcba7w
In the Gaza Strip, the Christian population has plummeted from about 3,000 a decade ago to an estimated 1,000 today, most of them Greek Orthodox.
On Sunday, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reversed a decision made earlier this month, making the welcome announcement that in accordance with “security orders,” Gaza Christians would be allowed to travel to the holy cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, for Christmas.
The situation of Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has deteriorated dramatically in the last century, and especially since the PA took control of the city in 1995. In 1947, Christians comprised about 85% of the city’s population, but that figure had plunged to 16% by 2016, and is estimated since then.
Bethlehem’s mayor at the time said that, “Due to the stress – either physical or psychological – and the bad economic situation, many people are emigrating: either Christians or Muslims, but it is more apparent among Christians because they already are a minority.”
A study by the Pew Research Center found that the decline in the Arab Christian population was both a result of a lower birth rate among Christians compared to Muslims and the fact that Christians were more likely to emigrate than any other religious group. A statistical analysis of the Christian exodus cited a lack of economic and educational opportunities among a community known for its middle-class status and higher education.
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.4 billion adherents (almost a third of the world’s 7.8 billion people). While it may seem ironic that the only place in the Middle East where Christians are thriving is the Jewish state, it is also a cause for concern. We wish our Christian readers a happy Christmas – and pray along with them for those undergoing persecution for practicing their faith.
Out of 3,000 Christians who lived in Gaza in 2007 when Hamas seized power, no more than 700-800 remain, among 1.8 million Muslims. Gazan Christian Khalil Sayegh told me, "The Christians are suffering from the current situation in Hamas-controlled Gaza....They cannot hold government jobs. But, in addition...Christians in Gaza have to tolerate being harassed in the streets just for being Christians."
"While Hamas claims to protect Christians, its presence in Gaza has empowered Islamist radicals who harass Christians and even physically attack them....There have been several attempts to bomb Gazan churches."
I asked Khalil if there are any Christmas decorations in Gaza. He explained that a YMCA facility is decorated, but only inside the building. Otherwise there's no sign of holiday festivity in the streets. The authorities "reject any indication of Christian celebration." The writer is an adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.
Dubai Police Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan is a clown. We used to follow his antics when he had daily press conferences about the apparent Mossad assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai.
Even though he is a publicity hound, recent tweets of his are newsworthy, because he has 2.8 million followers and many Arabs, for some reason, trust him.
In a series of tweets of his predictions for 2020, Khalfan wrote:
2020 (will witness) the melting away of the Palestinian leadership from the perspective of the Arab world and from a global perspective. 2020 will witness overt Arab-Israeli ties, with a number of (Arab) countries that have not announced this (yet.)
He also predicted that Iran's popular revolution will be successful and that Iran's Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif will seek asylum in a foreign country.
Khalfan is predicting what his UAE rulers are hoping for, which indicates that the Gulf states are not slowing down in their embrace of Israel.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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