Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 07, 2021

West Point scholar says the IDF strike of the Al Jalaa Tower was legal

I've noted before that the legal analyses given by NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not only biased against Israel but they betray an ignorance of the laws of armed conflict.

One of the incidents in the Gaza war this year that was heavily criticized was the airstrike against the Al Jalaa Tower, which the IDF says housed Hamas intelligence operations. Was this strike legal under the laws of armed conflict? Many claimed it wasn't.

Michael N. Schmitt, the G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the United States Military Academy at West Point and a law professor at other institutions, writes about the laws of war in relation to journalists and specifically whether Israel's strike at the Al Jalaa Tower, which housed Al Jazeera and other media outlets, was legal under the laws of war.

After determining that in this case journalists are definitely considered civilians and that their offices are definitely considered civilian objects, and that no one claims that the media outlets were broadcasting propaganda that would make them legitimate targets, Schmitt describes the relevant laws around the airstrike (emphasis mine):

The fact that the civilian media facilities in Al Jalaa Tower were destroyed implicates the rule of proportionality. When aspects of a target are clearly separate and distinct, harm to the part thereof that is exclusively civilian counts as collateral damage factored into the proportionality analysis (AP I, art 51.5(a)).

There is some disagreement on whether a building that contains both apartments or offices used for civilian purposes and others that have been converted to military use should be considered a military objective in its entirety or as consisting of separate and distinct entities. The better view, but one that does not appear to have achieved universal consensus, is that if an attacker can surgically strike that aspect of the building used for military ends, harm to the remaining sections must be factored into the proportionality analysis.

In this case, however, there is no indication that the IDF had intelligence indicating precisely which sections of the Al Jalaa Tower its opponents were using or that the IDF fielded weaponry capable of surgically neutralizing those sections and any conflict-related material therein. Therefore, if the Israeli reports of Hamas using the building are accurate, the entire building constituted a single military objective, damage to which did not have to factor into the IDF’s proportionality calculation.

As to the requirement to take precautions in attack, since the building itself housed Hamas’ material and operations, alternative targets were not on the table. Further, there is no indication that different tactics or weapons could have avoided civilian harm. Indeed, in that the building itself qualified as a single military objective and the attack injured no civilians, collateral damage (as that concept is understood in the law of armed conflict) was minimal. Video footage of the attack, which involved dropping a multi-story building in an urban area without significant damage to other structures in the vicinity, confirms that the strike was an impressive example of careful avoidance of collateral damage by the IDF.

The IDF’s hour-long warning of the attack was likewise a paradigmatic example of an effective warning. If IDF reports that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were able to evacuate the building and remove military material from the facility before it was struck are accurate, the warning appears to have exceeded that required by the law of armed conflict because it involved some sacrifice of military advantage by the IDF.

The IDF has accused Hamas and other Palestinian organized armed groups of using the presence of civilians and civilian media as shields against attack. These organizations have a long history of using human shielding as a tactic against Israeli attack and, on that basis, the IDF’s claim is colorable. However, during urban warfare, it is common to use civilian buildings for military purposes simply because the realities of the urban environment necessitate such use (U.S. Army, Commander’s Handbook, para 2.27). Absent an intent to shield, this practice does not violate the prohibition on human shielding. More facts would be required to confirm the intent of the Palestinian organized armed groups in Al Jalaa Tower before confirming a violation of the law of armed conflict on the basis of human shielding.

I would add here that Hamas didn't take over the offices during the war, but they had been using the offices for quite a while, and deliberately placed them in a civilian building. In this case, saying that Hamas used human shields is definitely something to consider.

Counter-allegations that the IDF used the attack as a ploy to end unfavorable media are unsupported by the available facts. So long as the Israeli assertion that Hamas and other groups used the Al Jalaa Tower for military purposes is accurate, the building qualifies as a lawful military objective that may be attacked. Indeed, even if Israel harbored a secondary motive of putting an end to unfavorable media coverage, the attack would still be lawful, as attackers often have multiple objectives in mounting an attack. Only if the Israeli account was knowingly false would the operation be unlawful as a direct attack against a civilian object. An analogous analysis applies to charges that the attack amounts to collective punishment, for strikes on lawful military objectives are not collective punishment under the law of armed conflict.

Overall, the Al Jalaa strike mission planners appear to have carefully considered the law of armed conflict. The IDF’s Military Advocate General’s Corps’ international law specialists undoubtedly played a key role in the planning and approval of the operation, as they do in all IDF military operations (see here for a discussion of MAG practices). Based on open source information presently available, the strike complied with the law of armed conflict rules governing attacks, including those affecting the media.

Schmitt is someone who knows the laws of war - as he has to, because he teaches that topic to the military. In a previous article, over some 88 pages, he and another military law scholar look in detail at how Israel's military legal system works, and they are uniformly impressed. Unlike HRW and Amnesty, they actually researched the topic, going to Israel and seeing how careful the IDF is to conform to the laws of war.

IDF operations are clearly well-regulated and subject to the rule of law. The IDF has extremely robust systems of examination and investigation of operational incidents, and there is significant civilian oversight, both by the Attorney General and the Supreme Court. With respect to the MAG Corps, the Authors found its officers to be exceptionally competent, highly professional, and well-trained.

In some cases, the IDF goes beyond the law in protecting civilians.

In particular, Israel has adopted an inclusive approach to the entitlement to protected status, particularly civilian status. Examples include Israel’s positions on doubt, its treatment of involuntary shields as civilians who are not directly participating and its view that individuals who ignore warnings retain their civilian status. Although these positions might seem counterintuitive for a State that faces foes who exploit protected status for military and other gain, such positions are well suited to counter the enemy’s reliance on lawfare. In this regard, Israel’s LOAC interpretations actually enhance its operational and strategic level position despite any tactical loss. Along the same lines, in many cases, the IDF imposes policy restrictions that go above and beyond the requirements of LOAC.

In short, the people who claim that Israel targets civilians are ignorant at best, malicious liars at worst.

(h/t Irene)

07/06 Links Pt2: Antisemitism and the Left: A Memoir; Meet Orphaned Land, the Israeli Heavy Metal Band With Arab Fans; Tarantino praises his life in Israel, teases movie in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Antisemitism and the Left: A Memoir

‘I swam in a sea of antisemitism for years and didn’t notice the water was filthy,’ writes Kathleen Hayes in a memoir of her life in the revolutionary left.

The beliefs that give our lives meaning are passed down to us by people we cherish. For those on the Left, these men and women are often dearer than family: comrades with whom we have worked and fought; shared jokes, drinks and beds; endured a third round of brain-numbing discussion on a glorious summer day while other people thoughtlessly picnic in the park. Our evolving sense of what is true is inextricably entwined with our respect and, most of all, our love for the person who teaches it to us. We think that the things they say and write and the ideas in the books they recommend must be true — because we know them to be honourable, intelligent people and we love them.

I was a devoted Trotskyist for 25 years. My initiation took place at a protest against Natan Sharansky. It was 1987. I was a callow nineteen-year-old Berkeley student and anti-apartheid activist; my soon-to-be comrades were the smartest, funniest, most good-hearted yet irreverent people I had ever known. There was, predictably, a guy in the picture — my genial bespectacled boyfriend who had introduced me to the party — and the uneasy suggestion that my sudden conversion to Marxism wasn’t a purely intellectual epiphany. I had almost certainly never heard of Sharansky (or Shcharansky, as he was at the time), but when an older comrade I particularly admired asked me, a glint of mischief in her eyes, whether I’d like to come to a ‘bright red demo’ against an anti-communist traitor who had spied on the Soviet workers state, I’d heard almost everything I needed. I joined their small picket line in front of the San Francisco hotel where Sharansky was speaking; and when it was over I soaked up my new comrades’ attention and praise like a parched little flower after a long drought.

‘I never saw any antisemitism,’ we so often hear today. And so I didn’t, or seldom did, in the decades of leftist political activity that followed. It was embedded in the fabric, a thread that ran unseen throughout an avowedly emancipating worldview and was inextricable from it. It stitched together a legacy that included Marx’s sometimes-troubling writings about Jews; subterranean beliefs about an association between Jews, trade and capitalism; longstanding hostility to Jewish ‘particularism’; a Marxist heritage that could claim some principled opponents of antisemitism in its ranks but also many who were ambivalent or complacent about it, sometimes with deadly consequences, some outright antisemites, and every shade between. I suspected none of this the day I joined that picket line: quite the contrary, despite all the fulminating against Zionism and the Anti-Defamation League. A prominent sign carried that day — ‘20 million Soviet citizens died smashing Third Reich!’— established beyond all doubt that the party was firmly on the side of good against evil. And, of course, staunchly against antisemitism.

#HappeningNOW: Live interview with @YosephHaddad slaying the ‘Israel apartheid’ lie!

Watch ?? here on @The_ILF Facebook page: https://t.co/IOVMljacvr https://t.co/QfKYXgF2J7
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 6, 2021

Jews Should Not Echo the Claim of ‘Systemic Police Racism’

The fantasy that the key to public safety is being kinder to criminals—rather than kinder to the victims of crime—not only sacrifices the physical resources that police need to keep Jews safe. It’s coming back to bite them. The climate of lawlessness that reigns in many of America’s big cities following last summer’s protests against law enforcement appears to have fed the rise in hate crimes. And the increase in violent repeat offenders thanks to “progressive” reforms is feeding this trend. Last month, for example, Brandon Elliot brutally assaulted an Asian woman while hurling ethnic insults at her. Elliot, who was on lifetime parole for fatally stabbing his mother in front of his 5-year-old sister, typifies the violent profile of many of this past year’s hate crime perpetrators.

It is nonsensical to pretend that violent actors don’t often act violently, or that it is “racist” to arrest violent criminals if they belong to certain racial categories. Three back-to-back police shootings in April earned angry accusations of police racism from congresspeople, celebrities, and Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League. But from the evidence so far, it appears the shooting of Daunte Wright outside Minneapolis was a fatal act of negligence. The shooting of Adam Toledo in Chicago was a tragic but defensible life-or-death millisecond decision that an officer was forced to make while responding to shots fired in a dark alley at 2:30 a.m., in a city whose homicide rate is up 22% this year and has had over 1,000 shooting victims since January. The shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant was a heroic fast-action that saved the life of an innocent Black girl who was about to be stabbed. If we say a Black teenager who is about to stab a young girl may not be shot by police, even after refusing to drop her weapon, we are really saying that different rules apply to different races. We are saying that we judge not by actions but by the outcomes we wish to see and the demographic statistics we feel would be fair.

It should worry us to our marrow, as Jews, that false allegations of human evil are being used against people responsible for preventing actual criminality. Practically speaking, it is also stupid to promote an ideology that will be used to discriminate against us, while depriving us of the physical protection we continue to need against criminals and psychopaths of all religions, races, and political beliefs. We should worry that judging rectitude by race and not by behavior will boomerang on us.

And so it already has. No matter how many synagogues fly BLM banners, Jews are lumped together with police in this morality play. Jewish students on campuses have been ousted from BLM-aligned groups on the grounds that supporting Israel makes them intrinsically racist. And that was only a preamble to the nightmare of the last few weeks: Israel widely depicted in America as the racist cop, hated and condemned regardless of the law or the spuriousness of allegations of racism and brutality. The stage was set for the recent violent attacks on Jewish pedestrians in Manhattan and outdoor diners in Los Angeles—and for members of Congress to pile on.

More than ever, we need robust and empowered law enforcement that continues to make intelligent adaptations in order to check the rise in hate crimes and the environment of disorder that supports it. The police racism narrative is false, and Jews need to speak out against it—not only because it’s wrong, but because it’s uniquely dangerous to us.

Orphaned Land

If the heavy metal band Orphaned Land’s message to the world is one of peace and unity, it came through loud and clear at their 30th-anniversary show. The concert took place in June at Heichal HaTarbut (the Culture Palace), also known as the Charles Bronfman Auditorium—the largest concert hall in Tel Aviv, and the home of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. This wasn’t an ordinary heavy metal show—but no Orphaned Land concert is ever an ordinary heavy metal show. Backed by the 45-piece Israel Chamber Opera Orchestra, as well as by the metal a cappella band Hellscore (“If hell had a choir, it would sound like Hellscore,” their website tagline puts it), the veteran Israeli metal band celebrated their anniversary in highbrow style, with an audience of nearly 2,400 witnessing this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

This certainly isn’t the first time a famed metal band has collaborated with classical musicians: There was Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony and Cradle of Filth and the Budapest Film Orchestra, for instance. But Orphaned Land’s show was not just a mix of metal guitars, growl-style vocals, and classical musicians. Their lead singer, Kobi Farhi, is a dead ringer for Jesus, he frequently sings in a chantlike voice, and the music is rife with Jewish and Arabic influences and biblical overtones. All of this makes for a surreal experience: One minute felt like a bunch of headbanging metal dudes playing klezmer music took over a classical concert, and the next minute felt like the soundtrack to a sweeping biblical Hollywood epic played from the loudspeakers at Ozzfest.

A few days after the concert, I met Farhi and Uri Zelha, the bass player who is the only other founding member still in the band. I’d actually interviewed them before—30 years ago, over the phone, when we were all still in high school. I wrote a column about new upcoming bands for an Israeli teen magazine; they were a high school metal band with lofty aspirations. They were also the only band I interviewed for my column that eventually made it—on a global scale, no less.

During their impressive career, Orphaned Land mixed their progressive metal style with a variety of styles: a few death metal growls, piyyutim (Jewish liturgical poems), and Middle Eastern folk music, becoming pioneers of the subgenre known as Oriental Metal.

This is barely an exaggeration. Amnesty and HRW knowingly hire anti-Israel activists.

The New York Police Department has not yet (as of this writing) released its second quarter hate crime statistics, but the New York Post has the numbers.

While there was a huge increase in anti-Asian crimes, from 21 to 105 in the first six months of the year, anti-Jewish hate crimes remain the most prevalent in New York, with 113 incidents so far this year.

Hate crimes against everyone else mentioned in the article is not even in the same ballpark.

There were 28 anti-Black incidents, 11 anti-white, 4 anti-Hispanic and 5 anti-Muslim.

07/06 Links Pt1: After Palestinians reject deal, Israel to send 700,000 vaccines to South Korea; Israel’s Critics are Repulsed by Jewish Sovereignty and Military Power

From Ian:

After Palestinians reject deal, Israel to send 700,000 vaccines to South Korea

Israel will send South Korea some 700,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that are due to expire shortly in a deal signed between the two nations on Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced, calling the deal a “win-win” situation for both countries.

The deal comes weeks after the Palestinian Authority backed out of a similar agreement, saying the vaccine doses were too close to their expiration date despite Israel using the same batches to vaccinate its teens.

Under the deal with Seoul, Israel will supply doses for immediate use that are set to expire by the end of the month. In return, Israel will receive the same number of doses from South Korean orders later in the year.

“We continue to protect the lives of Israeli citizens,” Bennett said in a statement.

“The vaccines are efficient and life-saving — that’s a fact. We agreed to an exchange that is a win-win situation. South Korea will receive vaccines from our existing stocks and we will be repaid from their future orders,” Bennett said.

The agreement was negotiated by Israel’s Health Ministry together with the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council.

The statement said the agreement was made with the cooperation of Pfizer and came after several conversations in recent days between Bennett and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The agreement will go into effect in the next few days after South Korea inspects the vaccines, the statement said. The Korean vaccines will arrive in Israel sometime during the fourth quarter of 2021.

The South Koreans chose moving forward, hard work and prosperity, and the Palestinians together with the Arab states used @UNRWA to nourish grievance, hate and war:https://t.co/TG10LOsjua
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 6, 2021

Israel's long a brutal occupation of Korea create a fundamentally unequal situation between the countries, where Seoul has no choice but to accept second-hand vaccines in what amounts to medical apartheid. I am doing this right @hrw @btselem? https://t.co/qNCCUzzgYe
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) July 6, 2021

Israel confirms vaccine less effective against Delta variant, eyes third dose

Israel’s Health Ministry released data on Monday showing that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine appears to largely prevent hospitalization and serious cases, but is significantly less effective against preventing the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

According to the ministry, the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 has dropped by some 30 percent to 64%, given the spread of the Delta variant. The data shows that during May, when the strain was less prevalent, the vaccine was 94.3% effective.

The Delta variant, which is believed to be twice as contagious as the original strain of COVID-19, is thought to be responsible for 90% of new cases in Israel over the past two weeks.

The data, however, also shows that the vaccine is still highly effective against preventing serious symptoms and hospitalization. During May, that figure stood at 98.2%, and during June, it was 93%.

On Monday evening, the Health Ministry said that 369 people had been diagnosed with coronavirus since midnight, bringing the total number of active cases in the country to 2,766.

There were 70 people hospitalized and 35 in serious condition. A week ago there were just 22 people in serious condition.

From The Action Group for Palestinians in Syria, June 25:

Syrian security forces have tightened military grip around Deraa and its outskirts, south of Syria.

Local sources told AGPS that all access roads to the city centre have been blocked except for the Sajneh road, where three military checkpoints have been pitched.

Palestinian refugees have expressed concerns over a new wave of forced military conscription and arbitrary manhunts in the area.

This comes only a weeks after Palestinians who had been forced out of the Deraa area were allowed to return after three years - under Russian mediation:

A former commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the al-Lajat area told Enab Baladi that Russia’s mediation through its affiliate 8th Brigade had allowed the return of displaced families from the villages of al-Shayyah, al-Shomara, al-Modawara, and Alali to their homes.

He added that the residents of those areas had been displaced since 2018 in the villages of Hauran, and their areas were controlled by the 9th Division and Hezbollah-affiliated forces.

He pointed out that residents took the return decision after Russia guaranteed them that the Syrian regime’s security apparatus would not arrest them.

The Palestinians in Syria have every reason to be concerned.

However, "pro-Palestinian" activists - and even Palestinian media - have been silent about these latest moves by Syria.

Just more evidence that unless Israel is involved, no one cares about Palestinians.

The Palestinian Authority has been arresting and attacking political opponents and protesters for years, but this is the first time that the Palestinian masses have been openly and publicly fighting back to a great extent.

Yesterday, there were more protests against the apparent murder of Nizar Banat in Ramallah. The PA police responded by arresting, beating and dragging many of the protesters.

When the PA arrested Abi Al-Aboudi and others, his wife, journalist Hind Sherida, went to the police station with her family and joined others in a protest chant to release the detainees. The police came out and beat, pepper sprayed and arrested the protesters, and pulled Sherida by the hair in front of her children. Her 77-year old father was pepper-sprayed and beaten. They then beat Hind inside the police station.

Many other well known figures were arrested and beaten: political activist Omar Assaf, researcher Khaled Odallah, Omar Al-Jallad, Tayseer Al-Zabri, Adham Karajah, Hussam Barjas, Khaled Awad, Omar Al-Auri, Osama Al-Bdeir, Sri Othman Hammad , Adly Hanaysha, Bashir Al-Khairy, and Ahmed Al-Kharouf.

Also journalists Aqil Awadeh, who was severely beaten and taken to hospital for treatment, Muhammad Hamayel, Mays Abu Ghosh, Muammar Orabi, and Amid Shehadeh. The police also confiscated the equipment and phone of journalist Badr Abu Najm.

Palestinian organizations are publicly calling for all political prisoners to be released and they are condemning these arrests. They include the National Democratic Forum, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestinian People's Party, the Popular Resistance Movement and the Palestinian National Initiative.

The Palestinian Medical Syndicate issued a statement that the arrest of doctors on the grounds of freedom of opinion is unacceptable and in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law and freedom of opinion.

The Union of Palestinian Women's Committees condemned the Interior Ministry for allowing the beating of women at these protests.

The official Wafa news agency has been largely ignoring the protests, with occasional statements from government officials against insulting the police or the government. The people are reading about the protests in other media.

This level of protest is unprecedented, and it resembles the Arab Spring protests.

The Twitter account of Human Rights Watch has blocked me, meaning that they can no longer see my tweets.

While I don't know what exactly I tweeted that caused them to do this, I have been a vocal critic of the group and of its leader, Ken Roth, who has interestingly not blocked me.

There are many reasons why one may want to block another user - harassment or offensiveness would be two of them. But that doesn't apply to a large organization, with well over 4 million followers, which probably has a team of people to support their social media accounts.

On the other hand, there are many reasons why a human rights organization would not want to ever block users. After all, freedom of expression is a human right, and by blocking someone, they are making it more difficult for legitimate criticism to be aired - and impossible for such criticism to be considered.

I have stridently criticized HRW for a long time. I was one of the people who exposed their Middle East researcher Marc Garlasco as a collector of Nazi memorabilia - and he had less bias than most of their researchers on Israel. Even during that incident, I revealed that HRW employed sock puppets to defend Garlasco. HRW called the criticism a "conspiracy."

Since then, I have exposed HRW's lies, deceptions and bias numerous times. And I have argued that its bias against Israel crosses the line into antisemitism. But I document all of my assertions - it is hardly harassment.

On the other hand, I have started to note its director Ken Roth's obsession with posting things about Israel by creating this graphic this past weekend to respond to every time he mentions Israel:

That is trolling - but it is trolling Roth, not Human Rights Watch.

No matter what the reason, this is not a good look for an organization that pretends to care about freedom of expression. Roth once thanked PA prime minister Shtayyeh for his "pledge" that the PA will no longer arrest people for political speech, a transparent lie as we've seen in recent weeks where the PA has arrested numerous critics. Yet HRW has no compunction to try to limit my own criticisms of them.

It appears vindictive, not dispassionate.

In other words, Human Rights Watch is acting the way it falsely accuses Israel of acting.

HRW often uses shallow analysis that assumes that since it cannot figure out a legitimate military target that Israel attacked, there was no such target and Israel acts like an animal, lashing out with multi-million dollar weapons just for spite. Anyone who has actually studied the IDF knows that there are multiple layers of decision-making for every airstrike, and the IDF tracks virtually every bullet. Yet HRW pretends that Israel acts capriciously and that the army acts reflexively and without consideration.

It turns out that HRW - or at least whoever is in charge of their social media - is the one that makes decisions based on emotion and not on facts.

It would be nice if we lived in a world where a human rights organization, that often accuses others of acting with impunity, would be open to criticism and not act with impunity itself. While even the most anti-Israel newspapers will issue corrections for errors of fact, NGOs like HRW never do. They promote the myth that they are objective observers and that their opinions have more moral weight than anyone else's, that their research is objective, that their rulings are inviolate.

When you look a little closer, you see that they are the ones who act out of emotion. They are the ones who show bias. And they are the hypocrites who pretend to care about basic human rights like freedom of expression but are unwilling to tolerate criticism, no matter how well sourced.

07/05 Links Pt2: Anti-Israel Item Before Largest US Teacher’s Union Overwhelmingly Defeated at Assembly; Students for Justice in Palestine Spreads Anti-Israel Blood Libel

From Ian:

Anti-Israel Item Before Largest US Teacher’s Union Overwhelmingly Defeated at Assembly

An anti-Israel item placed before the National Education Association (NEA)’s Representative Assembly was overwhelmingly voted down, with only 23 percent of representatives supporting it, while another was sent back to committee.

The largest union in the United States, the NEA has more than three million members, and exercises considerable influence both in national Democratic politics as well as over curriculum and other educational activities.

New Business Item 29 brought before the 8,000-member assembly employed virulent anti-Israel language that referred to Palestinian terrorism as a “heroic struggle” against alleged Israeli “military repression” and “ethnic cleansing,” and demanded the NEA “publicize its support for the Palestinian struggle for justice and call on the United States government to stop arming and supporting Israel.”

It cited a cost of $71,500 in order to implement its stipulations.

Following strong opposition, including from Jewish members, the item was defeated by a margin of 77 percent to 23 percent.

The Cleveland Jewish News reported before the vote that the NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus had mobilized strongly against the item, with chair Patrick Crabtree saying, “I’m almost positive 29 is so divisive, it will go down in flames.”

The caucus also opposed NBI 51, which calls on the NEA to “use existing digital communication tools to educate members and the general public about the history, culture, and struggles of Palestinians.”

Citing a budget request of $5,500, it would have the NEA “recognize the existence and sovereignty of Palestine and Palestinian children and families,” including by placing an article in the union periodical NEA Today acknowledging members’ work “fighting for the rights of Palestinian children and families.”

The Representative Assembly adjourned before NBI 51 came to a vote, sending it back to committee.

These items, the Jewish Affairs Caucus leadership said in a letter, “could inadvertently exacerbate antisemitic sentiment, or anti-Arab sentiment, in the United States, and G-d forbid, lead to hate crimes of some sort.”

Washington State’s ‘Native Education’ 5th-grade curriculum attacks Israel

Public school officials in the state of Washington have inserted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into mandatory 5th-grade lessons on Native American history.

Children as young as 10 are being taught to associate the Native American experience with the Palestinians’ “fight to be free from Israeli dominance.”

The lesson is part of an otherwise informative Native American curriculum called Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State, which was developed by the Tribal Leaders Congress on Education, the Washington State School Directors Association and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Subsequently, the curriculum was approved by all 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington State. It has since been widely used in K-12 public schools after state legislation in 2015 required the teaching of Native American history.

The bizarre inclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be at odds with the curriculum’s self-described “place-based approach,” in which teachers and students are supposedly encouraged to focus on “the context of tribes in their own communities.”

“Unfortunately, we’re finding this sort of politicization of Israel in public schools across the United States,” said my colleague Steven Stotsky, who investigates bias in K-12 education for the CAMERA International Student Leadership Institute.

“In this case, I find it particularly troubling that the curriculum is being used by anti-Israel activists to divert attention away from Native American history,” Stotsky said. “It’s as unfair to Native Americans as it is to Jews. And ultimately, it’ll damage the credibility of the entire curriculum, as people figure out what’s going on.”

Troubled as well, I contacted the organizations behind the curriculum.

Jews who suffer from self-hatred - what does it mean?

Says Peter Beinart, quite literally the guy who called for One State Solution and annihilation of the Jewish state. I don’t think he is exactly the best suited to lecture on Jewish leadership! pic.twitter.com/gq0xxNwYnu
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 5, 2021

Elder Comix: Islamophobia!

This is about the hysterical reactions to organizations that have issued statements against antisemitism.

Al Monitor has an article on Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror camps - and they interview a couple of the campers who attended the Hamas camp.

Mohammed makes it clear that the camps are recruitment for terror groups.

Mohammed, 14, told Al-Monitor, “I joined the camp in order to defend my land against Israeli attacks and subsequently join the ranks of al-Qassam Brigades.”

He stressed that although his family does not belong to Hamas, they let him join the camp for the second time — the first time was in 2019.

“I don't find the training to be hard or inappropriate for my age. On the contrary, I want to learn more martial arts,” he said.

He pointed out that he learned how to dismantle and load weapons and shoot. He also received scouts and physical training.

As disturbing (and illegal) as that is, 12 year old Khalil shows how the kids are brainwashed to want to die:

Khalil, 12, from Gaza City who joined the summer camp for the first time, told Al-Monitor, “I will participate in the camp in order to strengthen myself and learn self-defense skills so I can fight Israel, become a martyr and go to heaven.”

Teaching kids that they should want to die is about as disgusting and immoral as it gets.

Not that "human rights" groups give a damn about that.

07/05 Links Pt1: David Singer: Israel signals end to EU-funded unauthorised building in Area C; Will Palestinians denounce Mufti Hussaini, and Hitler?

From Ian:

David Singer: Israel signals end to EU-funded unauthorised building in Area C

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s declaration in January 2020 – made before he was elected Israel’s Prime Minister – should now set off alarm bells in the EU:
“Our objective is that within a short amount of time, and we will work for it, we will apply [Israeli] sovereignty to all of Area C, not just the settlements, not just this bloc or another… We are embarking on a real and immediate battle for the future of the land of Israel and the future of Area C"

The EU then responded:
"Demolitions and seizures of humanitarian assets are contrary to Israel's obligations under international law".

Representing these EU-funded structures as “humanitarian assets” was deceptive and misleading. They are “political structures aimed at stopping Israeli sovereignty being applied in Area C “.

EU intervention and meddling in Area C of the 'West Bank' over the last ten years will seemingly no longer be tolerated by Israel’s new Government.

The EU claims to have given the PA 34.4 million EURO since the beginning of the year.

The PA financial reports say that the PA hasn't received even one single euro cent.

I wonder who, @vonderleyen @JosepBorrellF @EGiaufretEU @EUpalestinians @EUinIsrael, isn't telling the truth? pic.twitter.com/0k3s4P2VgQ
— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. ???? ??''? ????? ???? (@MauriceHirsch4) July 5, 2021

Will Palestinians denounce Mufti Hussaini, and Hitler?

That the Palestinian institute does not denounce Hitler — and anyone who cooperated with him, outright and without any justification — is a huge ethical and moral failure. Since the dawn of history, nations formed alliances in ways that served their interests, and that’s understandable.

Hitler, however, was not an average autocrat with whom an alliance was debatable. Hitler was a psychopathic leader who unleashed endless evil among his followers. Believing that other ethnicities or races were inferior and deserved to be exterminated belonged to Medieval times. But by the Twentieth centuries, such ideas had become morally reprehensible. That some Palestinians still believe, today, that an alliance of expediency with Hitler was justifiable, is a problem.

Now the question is this: Why does IPS still support Hussaini, even though some of its most influential leaders, such as the Chicago academic activist Rashid Khalidi, do not think highly of Hussaini?

In his most recent book, the picture that Khalidi painted of Hussaini was as such: “[A] bitter split between those loyal to the mufti… and the mufti’s opponents, led by the former Jerusalem mayor Raghib Al-Nashashibi… resulted in hundreds of assassinations in the late 1930s [and] gravely sapped the strength of Palestinians.”

Al-Nashashibi was forced into exile in Beirut in 1938, “after his life was threatened and his house in Ramleh burned with the loss of all his books and papers. This was undoubtedly the work of the mufti’s men,” according to Khalidi.

So Mufti Hussaini was not only someone who did not see the moral failure in allying with Germany’s Hitler, he was also a charlatan who threatened the lives of his political rivals in Jerusalem and sent them into exile. And yet, the IPS celebrates Hussaini’s life as one of the founding fathers of the Palestinian national movement. Until those Palestinians start denouncing such characters and learning from their mistakes, their movement will remain as ethically and morally challenged as it is today.