Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

New UNHRC session will talk about "right to nationality"

One of the documents supporting the 13th session of the Human Rights Council that started yesterday is A/HRC/13/34, Report of the Secretary-General on the right to nationality.

It includes this interesting paragraph:

Birth on the territory of a State and birth to a national are the most important criteria used to establish the legal bond of nationality. Particularly in the context of migration, a child may therefore have a link to more than one State. In cases where States have adopted diverging rules on the acquisition of nationality, a conflict of laws between these States could leave the child stateless. In such cases, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness contributes to resolve this type of conflict of norms by providing, in article 1, that contracting States must grant nationality to a person born on their territory who would otherwise be stateless. Article 4 also provides that contracting States must grant nationality if a person is born to one of their nationals outside of a contracting State and would otherwise be stateless. According to article 7 of the Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam, State parties should make every effort to resolve the issue of statelessness for any child born on their territories or to any of their citizens outside their territory. Obligations to grant nationality to children born in the territory of a State and that would otherwise be stateless are also contained in article 20 (2) of the American Convention on Human Rights, article 6 (4) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and article 6 (2) of the European Convention on Nationality.

The UN has not been too successful in trying to push its agenda against statelessness but, given that Palestine is not and never has been a state, one can't help but notice the hypocrisy where the UN has never asked Arab nations to allow children of Palestinian descent born on their territory to become citizens.

The entire "Palestinian refugee" problem could be eliminated if the UN would just follow up on its own noble principles.

Iranian director set to make Mohammed film

From Screen Daily:

Highly regarded Iranian auteur Majid Majidi is lining up the historical epic Mohammad, which at $30m is by far the most expensive and ambitious project ever to be assembled out of Iran.
Pre-production is under way and Majidi and producer Mehdi Heidarian are aiming for worldwide distribution by mid-2011.
Majidi, whose Children Of Heaven earned Iran’s first Oscar nomination in 1999 and who most recently directed the comedy The Song Of Sparrows, co-wrote the screenplay with Kabuzia Partouvi, the writer of Border Café and The Circle.
It is understood the focus will be on what sources describe as a “visually rich and sensitive” account of the childhood years of Mohammad up to the age of 12, well before he became the Prophet of Islam.
Majidi and Partouvi spent three years writing the first draft and pored over historical detail. Sources claim the project has the support of an extensive team of highly qualified international historians and researchers, although any visual depiction of Mohammed by an actor is likely to spark controversy.
The film-makers are targeting a wide multi-faith global audience.

PA media continues its support for terror

A prominent UK Muslim cleric is set to issue a comprehensive fatwa against suicide bombing and Islamist terrorism.

His followers are mostly in southern Asia and the UK, and is a very welcome move. It will be interesting to see if there is any scholarly reaction from other, more extremist Muslim scholars.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority continues to glorify suicide bombers. Palestinian Media Watch recently found a fairly disgusting representative sample:

Palestinian Authority TV news recently chose to feature a Palestinian mother promoting her son's death as a positive goal.

Upon learning of her son's death in an Israeli air strike, the mother explained that she had always hoped for her son's Shahada - death as a Martyr -- and recommended that other mothers likewise "sacrifice their child for Palestine."

The words of another woman, chosen by PA TV news for the pre-recorded news report, described how Palestinian society sees Martyrs as grooms. This is based on the Islamic tradition, promoted actively by the PA and Hamas, that Martyrs will marry 72 virgins in Paradise.

PA TV news report:

Mother upon news of son's death in an Israeli air strike: "We had always hoped for his [my son's] Martyrdom (Shahada), knowing he wanted to die as a Martyr (Shahid). Every time he went out, we would say to him, 'May Allah be with you.' We knew that he wanted to die as a Martyr. Praise to Allah, he sought Martyrdom, and he achieved it. My message to every mother is to sacrifice her child for Palestine."
Second woman: "By Allah, we welcome every Martyr as if he were a groom among us."

[PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 11, 2010]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that these two ideas -- that death is a higher value than life and that Martyrdom death leads to a wedding between the Martyr and the virgins of Paradise -- have been promoted actively by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for years.

Palestinian schoolbooks teach children that aspiring to death is better than life:

"O heroes, Allah has promised you victory ... Do not talk yourselves into flight...
Your enemies seek life while you seek death."
They seek spoils to fill their empty stomachs while you seek a Garden [Paradise] as wide as are the heavens and the earth...
Death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers. These drops of blood that gush from your bodies will be transformed tomorrow into blazing red meteors that will fall down upon the heads of your enemies."
[Reading and Texts Part II, Grade 8, p. 16. Schoolbook currently in use in PA schools.]

I wrote to the organization that monitors PA (as well as Israeli) textbooks to ask them if indeed this textbook is in current use and says these things, as I couldn't find it in any of their reports. They just replied and confirmed that the schoolbook is still being used, and pointed me to the report that mentioned it. Here is the larger context of what the moderate PA is teaching its schoolchildren today:

Read and Enjoy: [Excerpts] from the “Heroes Oration” by Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti:

O heroes. God has promised you victory and you have promised him patience. Keep your promise and He will keep His promise. Do not talk yourselves into flight…

Your enemies seek life and you seek death. They seek spoils to feed their empty stomachs and you seek a garden the width of which is both Heaven and earth [i.e., Paradise]. Do not be sad to encounter them, for [the taste of] death is not bitter in the believers’ mouth.

These drops of blood that flow from your bodies will be transformed into red fiery shooting stars that will come down upon the heads of your enemies.
(Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 16)

“You probably know what a great reward God has prepared for the Muslims who fight the infidels.”
(Language exercise, Reading and Texts, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 15)

The Jihad Fighter’s Intention
The Jihad fighter should intend to support God’s religion and work for exalting His word, not [for obtaining] booty or fame. Jihad has not been enacted in Islam for the purpose of taking possession of other nations’ wealth, or for the purpose of forcing people to embrace Islam. The Muslims do not fight out of desire for fighting, or out of love of bloodshed, nor for the sake of national or tribal solidarity. Rather, Jihad has been enacted in Islam for the sake of exalted purposes such as:

1. Saving the oppressed and the weak and opposing tyrants and oppressors who make the people taste [all] forms of suffering and seize control over them.

2. Creating the proper climate for the worship of God. [That is to be done] by opposing the oppressive forces that entice the people away from their religion.

3. [Making] the Muslim nation strong and dreaded, [so that it will] not be harmed by the greedy and the malicious.

Activity
I will write a paragraph comparing the goals of Jihad in Islam and the objects of war among other nations.
(Islamic Education, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) pp. 32-33)

There are dozens of other examples of texts that glorify terror, jihad and martyrdom.

The only counterexample that Impact-SE found that seemed to be against Jihad and martyrdom was this single case:

It is nice for a man to die for his homeland but it is nicer for him to live for his homeland.
(Linguistic Sciences, Grade 8, Part 2 (2002) p. 89)

This is the reality - the official PA policy, in its media and its schoolbooks, is to raise generations of children to love war and terror - nearly two decades after the PLO supposedly rejected terrorism at Oslo.

Is Google predictive search bigoted?

Asharq Al-Awsat mentions:

According to a study conducted by the London-based Arab Media Watch organization, the predictive searches suggested by the Google search engine with regards to the word "Arab" for the most part are a negative depiction of Arabs.
The results of this study which were also reported by the BBC suggested that the Google predictive searches when questions like "Why are Arabs…" and others are asked result in negative or stereotypical options for questions about Arabs. For example, in the case of the question "why are Arabs…" the predictive results include answers like rich, violent, and stupid, and even more insulting variations.

I just tried it, and indeed Google shows things like "rich," "violent," "ugly," "stupid" and "rude."

Perhaps this is because Google Predictive Search was invented in Israel?

Well, not quite. Because for "Why are the Jews" Google shows "so rich," "so powerful," and "so hated." For "Why do Jews..." we get "have big noses," "have glassy eyes" and "run Hollywood."

For better or for worse, Google is showing what people are searching on. To me, keeping it as it is would be far more valuable as it can track bigoted attitudes worldwide. In fact, I'd love to see a breakdown by country for predictive results like these.

Latest Mabhouh rumor - Assassins jammed hallway cameras

Firas Press quotes Arabic Asharq Al Awsat (couldn't find the original) as saying that the Mabhouh assassins had an electronic device that jammed the hallway cameras at the Rotana hotel.

They quoted an unofficial Israeli source as saying that some 19 minutes of camera footage is missing, between 8:24 and 8:43 PM, when the actual assassination took place.

The source said that there is no way that the assassins left enough evidence to prove who did it.

Gaza infighting update

From Ma'an:

A bomb was detonated in the car of the Gaza police operations chief on Monday morning, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said.

“At approximately 06:00 on Monday, 01 March 2010, unknown persons detonated a bomb in a car belonging to Talal Banat, 44, chief of police operations in Gaza, when it was parked near his house in al-Nasser Street in the north of Gaza City,” PCHR said in a statement.

There has been a big increase in bombings of cars belonging to Hamas leaders this year, especially police.

English-language media still silent on Dubai anti-semitism

Earlier today I reported that the Arabic-language Al Khaleej (The Gulf) newspaper quoted the head of the Dubai police as ranting about how "Israelis" have been hated since the time of Pharaoh, how "Israelis" have had mental problems for thousands of years and how UAE authorities will now start looking for Jewish facial features and names to stop them from entering the UAE.

Every single English-language news outlet has been reporting his comments as saying that he was slamming "Israelis," not Jews, and some saying that he would be looking for "Israeli" facial features, not Jewish ones.

The Arabic American paper Al Watan tells it like it is in its headline:

Dubai announces prevent the entry of Israelis and Jews, holders of foreign passports after the assassination of Mabhouh

The Western media is simply not willing to accept that Arab anti-semitism is a regular fact of life, and they work overtime to portray it is simply anti-Zionism. A man that they have been quoting for weeks as their main source for the investigation into the Mabhouh assassination has been revealed to be a conspiracy-theorist nutjob and the English-language media are censoring his comments.

Is it because they do not want the world to believe that Arabs hate Jews, or is it because it would retroactively make their reporting of police work in Dubai look too credulous?

Hamas leader disowns his son

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, in a letter written from prison in Israel, has disowned his son Mosab.

Mosab is the person who famously converted to Christianity and just wrote a book saying that he helped Israeli security services foil many terror attacks.

Dubai police chief: UAE to stop Jews from entering country

Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said today that the UAE will "deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship."

But his Arabic remarks went way beyond any English-language news agency that quoted him into naked Jew-hatred. From an Arabic interview in the Khaleej Times:

Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, said Israel is a rogue state, and that goes beyond international legitimacy and laws. Its leaders have sick mentalities, and they need psychologists, saying that its use of passports shows great arrogance and contempt for the world.

(Tamim said hat) the leaders of "Israel" have blood on their hands the blood of others throughout history, pointing out that the "Israeli" people are human beings like any other people who want to be loved and open to others but that the successive governments, the Governments of bloodshed and assassinations, and wars and the Governments of the occupation and aggression, are not interested in peace in the world at all.

He added that the vanity which haunts the "Israeli" mentality stems from the time of Pharaoh, and their hate comes up to this day and age.

He said that the entire world should study the mentality of the "Israeli" leaders throughout history. Their sick psyches needs to be analyzed by psychology professors, who need to examine why they launch crises, and why they brought on themselves hate from others, since the time of Moses, peace be upon him.

He said we will train our personnel in the passport of the forms and features of the Jewish people and their names, noting that no one can hide their features of Jewishness. He asked the appropriate departments to prepare nationality and residency sessions to familiarize the staff with [Jewish] forms and names, especially since most Jews hold dual passports [with Israel.]

He pointed out that the number of Jews, compared with the Europeans, is nothing, and even within Palestine itself.

This is the clown that is being quoted soberly by Western news agencies. One can only wonder why they didn't mention these other parts of his rant.

Fox Business pushing investment in Syria

Fox Business Network is spending a week in Syria, trying to convince businesses that Syria is the next big place to invest.

See here and here.

Later this week they plan to visit the PA as well.

Bizarre Mabhouh sideshow

Muhammed Nasser, one of the Hamas members who some reported (apparently mistakenly) as having been arrested in Syria as a potential collaborator in his assassination, has just muddied the waters a little more.

Nasser is saying that Mabhouh was being tracked by Arab national intelligence agencies who fear the growth of Islamist movements. He says that Mabhouh would complain to him about how they are following him, "haunting him day and night."

The commenters at Firas Press are astonished that a Hamas leader would say anything to deflect the blame towards Israel.

In general, the rumors about Mabhouh are now far outstripping the facts that are being reported in the Arab press.

Hamas claims yesterday's bomb was no big deal

The large blast that I mentioned yesterday in the Shati camp in Gaza was just a big misunderstanding, according to Hamas.

It wasn't aimed at any Hamas leader or anything like that. Just that a youth, unaffiliated with any of the many militant groups in Gaza, decided to put together his own bomb and it exploded prematurely...but caused no damage or injuries.

Because any kid in Gaza can pick up some TNT and explode a bomb large enough to force entire blocks to be cordoned off, and yet not get hurt or cause any damage.

The original story mentioned that the Hamas police kept everyone - including reporters -away from the site.

A perfectly rational explanation!

How PalArab press translates an AFP article

AFP reports on Purim in Hebron, and Palestine Press Agency translates it to Arabic. Some of the interesting differences, with the Arabic in italics:

"The Tomb of the Patriarchs is all we have," declared rabbi Baruch Marzel, who heads the 600 Jewish settlers installed in an enclave in the heart of the Palestinian city. "If we do not have rights to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, (then) we do not have the right to be a nation."
Said Rabbi Baruch Marzel, leader of the 600 Jewish settlers living in Hebron, told AFP that "Tomb of the Patriarchs is all we have... If we do not have the right in the Ibrahimi Mosque, we would have no right to be a nation."
Amazingly, there were no disturbances aside from occasional volleys of stones thrown by small groups of Palestinian youths.
There was no incident yesterday with the exception throwing some stones at Palestinians.

PalPress also quoted this part of the AFP article:

But Abdelaziz, a 49-year-old grocer watching the procession go by, was hard-pressed to conceal his disgust.

"They make fun of us each year. They are even happier than the previous years because of the announcement by Netanyahu," he seethed.

"It is a provocation," said Adnan al-Jaabar, an 18-year-old Palestinian. "The sanctuary is ours, not the Israelis'."

Gaza tunnels on sale!

Palestine Today reports that Gaza is suffering a glut of smuggled items, so much so that Rafah tunnels are closing down as the demand is now outstripped by supply.

You can now buy a smuggling tunnel itself for $20,000, down from the $150,000 it cost during the heyday of smuggling.

The industry, which used to employ 10,000 workers, is down to a mere thousand, according to the article. And the wages for a successful shipment has gone down from 100 shekels to 40.

The tunnel owners are also wanting to sell because Egypt has stepped up its destruction of the tunnels, and they fear that the new Egyptian wall will close all of them fairly shortly anyway.

From Ma'an:

A 19-year-old rabbit raiser in Jenin said he was "shocked and terrified" when his newest animal gave birth to what he described as a tiny baby elephant on Sunday.

Muhammad Alawna raises rabbits as a hobby on his small farm north of Jenin, and works construction in Israel during the week.

“I was concerned when I saw a black baby elephant next to nine white baby rabbits," Alawna told Ma'an, adding that the creature died only five hours after it was born. He said he was baffled as to how the elephant was produced.

The mother rabbit, Alawna explained, is a Dutch breed which he bought six months ago from a farmer in the northern West Bank village of Jaba in Jenin district.

I haven't yet figured out the Mossad connection, but you just know that they are behind this somehow.