Interview with Mavi Marmara witness contradicts UN report

The Turkish author of a book about the Mavi Marmara, Şefik Dinç, who was on board the ship, gave an interview with Israel's Channel 1 and further confirmed Israel's version of events - and contradicted the extraordinarily biased and false UNHRC report about the ship.

The UNHRC claimed, for example, that the IDF used live ammunition from the helicopters before the soldiers landed. This means that the IHH supporters were just standing on deck, being picked off one by one, without running away. Of course, not a single video of the incident shows a Turkish passenger down while the IDF troops descend to be mercilessly beaten.

Şefik Dinç confirms the IDF version of event, that troops only opened fire when they saw their comrades' lives were in danger.

Interviewer: According to your eyewitness account, IDF soldiers only opened fire when they felt that their own lives or the lives of their fellow soldiers were in danger.

Dinç: As you know, I was on board the ship. I saw with my own eyes that when the soldiers came on helicopters and started landing on the ship, they did not fire. It wasn’t until the soldiers were met with resistance and realized that some of their friends’ lives were in danger that they began using live ammunition.

Interviewer: Did you notice anyone using knives or iron bars?

Dinç: Actually, I saw no knives being used. I did see iron bars being used.

The UNHRC report allows that the IDF did not treat elderly or women passengers harshly, but claims extreme abuse of the men, as well as insults to the women.

134. In the process of being detained, or while kneeling on the outer decks for several hours, there was physical abuse of passengers by the Israeli forces, including kicking and punching and being hit with the butts of rifles. One foreign correspondent, on board in his professional capacity, was thrown on the ground and kicked and beaten before being handcuffed. The passengers were not allowed to speak or to move and there were frequent instances of verbal abuse, ncluding derogatory sexual remarks about the female passengers.

The account of Dinç, who is a man, is quite different:

Interviewer: In your book, you describe cases of humane treatment from IDF soldiers [of the detained ship passengers], such as removing their handcuffs, and even an interesting encounter in Israel with a Jew of Turkish descent who gave you his mobile phone.

Dinç: The soldiers uncuffed some people who were having difficulties, particularly older people, women, and people who did not act aggressively. As for the Israeli policeman, his Turkish was excellent, we spoke, and he said that he had immigrated to Israel from Istanbul. He asked me if I contacted my family and whether I had a telephone to make a call. I told him I didn’t, and then he gave me his own mobile phone so that I could call my family. I thank him again.

The "witnesses" interviewed by the UN had motive to lie - after all, they were motivated to go on a mission to demonize Israel to begin with. Even so, the UN believed their testimony over video evidence that contradicted their stories, saying that the already biased witnesses were more reliable than the video that was released (para. 20.)!

Yet here is a real witness who had no incentive to lie, and whose account corroborates the IDF's version of events in almost every detail.

Don't expect the UNHRC to acknowledge that their very methodology of gathering evidence was flawed from the start.

(h/t Joel)

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Fermale Al Azhar students protest full-body searches

Interesting story in Egypt's Al Masry al-Youm:

Female students at Al-Azhar University in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig on Sunday staged a sit-in on campus, claiming they had been assaulted by campus security after refusing to submit to body searches.

Police eventually dispersed the protesters, arresting ten male students that had been supporting their female colleagues.

According to one protester, female students were beaten by campus police after they asked to be searched by female security personnel.

Another student said protesters had been dispersed with fire hoses, claiming that ambulances had been prevented from aiding students injured in the melee. Only one student, reportedly suffering from internal bleeding, was allowed to be taken to hospital, the student said.

Nevertheless, female students have continued to demonstrate off campus, calling for the dismissal of University Dean Abdel Aziz Gibril for allowing the violations. They have also called on Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb to protect them from alleged security excesses.

According to one anonymous security source, students pelted security personnel with stones, injuring two men.

Sounds like a human rights issue. Yet there is no mention about these protests outside the Egyptian media.

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Will Zionist expansionism never end?

From Iran's PressTV:

Iran's Ambassador to Armenia Ali Saqa'ian says Israel is creeping into the South Caucasus region and putting the safety of the entire region in jeopardy.

"The Zionist regime [of Israel] is covertly infiltrating into the South Caucasus region, posing a serious threat to regional security," Saqa'ian said on Sunday.

"This is an extremely important region, and this is why Western powers, the US, and even the Israeli regime have an eye on it," he was quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.

I wonder if these Zionists are stealing land, or buying it?

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Fears increase over Hezbollah designs for a Lebanon coup

Khaled Abu Toameh wrote last week:

Hizbullah and Iran now have a common interest in escalating tensions in the Middle East: Hizbullah, with the help of Iran, may be planning to stage a coup in Lebanon to cover up and divert attention from its role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

.Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plan to visit Lebanon in the coming weeks should be seen in the context of Hizbullah's plot to take over the country. Some Lebanese have gone as far as condemning the visit as a "provocation," noting that it would also raise tensions between Lebanon and Israel because of Ahmadinejad's plan to tour the border between the two countries.

The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon is about to publish the results of its investigation into the killing of the former prime minister. According to reliable sources, the report is expected to hold Hizbullah responsible for the assassination.

Now that its true face is about to be unmasked, Hizbullah is of course panicking and searching for ways to get out of the sinkhole.

Hizbullah's rhetoric and actions in recent weeks suggest that the Shiite organization is up to no good....

"Hizbullah does not acknowledge the Lebanese state as sovereign," said Michael Young, an opinion editor at Beirut's The Daily Star and author of "The Ghosts of Martryrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life Struggle."

Young pointed out that Hizbullah had already staged something similar to a coup two years ago. "The armed takeover of Beirut in May 2008 confirmed that Hizbullah would fire on its fellow citizens and regarded state authority and the rule of law as thin veneers to be swept away when necessary," he said.

Ahmadenijad would of course welcome the opportunity to export the "Islamic Revolution" to Lebanon. Instability in the region would divert attention from his nuclear ambitions and allow him to fulfill his dream of wiping Israel off the map.

A victory for Iran and Hizbullah in Lebanon would also be a victory for Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad -- and Al-Qaeda.

We've mentioned a number of troubling stories in recent weeks in Lebanon, many of which Toameh details as well.

Ya Libnan quotes a Kuwaiti newspaper that echoes these concerns, and even puts on a date:

As soon as the Iranian president Mahmouad Ahmadinejad leaves the country Hezbollah is reportedly planning to oust the state and the government institutions.

“October 16 would be the start of the scheme of ousting the State and the government through creating discord and security tensions in areas that are apt to stir (sectarian) sensitivities, such as the Beirut area of Tariq al-Jdideh or the city of Tripoli, ” Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai reportedly quoted its diplomatic sources as saying.

Ahmadinejad will be arriving on October 13 on a 2-day official visit to Lebanon.

Arab diplomatic sources have reportedly warned against a deterioration of the security situation in Lebanon, saying “armed de facto forces may try to impose their political agenda by force.”

The sources added that “the Arab, regional and western countries following up on the Lebanese situation” have been directly and indirectly informed that Hezbollah and its allies “will not agree to any political settlement that contradicts with their goal of overthrowing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) .”

“They would implement their agenda of changing the regime in case they failed in overthrowing the tribunal,” the sources warned.

On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a denial of any plans for a coup - but that denial was also implicitly a threat. In his words:

[W]e must not run away and say that Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria want to implement a coup - this is vacuous talk, since we are not thinking about that. If we wanted to take over, we would have done it in 2005, but we do not want that and did not do it. Likewise, we would have taken over the country in 15 August 2006 if we had wanted that. So this talk has no basis- stop it, and do not go into side matters. Return to the foundational issue.”

The subtext is that Hezbollah can take over the country whenever it wants, so the rest of the country must toe Hezbollah's line - or else.

(h/t Samson for Toameh link.)

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Gaza humor

Al Arabiya in Arabic has an article about the jokes that Gazans tell each other, to get an idea of how they think and what the political atmosphere is.

Thanks to Ali, I got them translated. (Auto-translslation rarely works for humor!)

The humor from the first set of jokes come from the fact that they are, in many ways, true.

1) Netanyahu has surgery in his foot in August. Various Palestinian factions declare responsibility. (This one reminds me of a very old Dry Bones, where a terrorist reads a newspaper about a gas explosion in Israel killing some kids, and asks his secretary to call the newspapers and claim responsibility, saying that terrorists must keep up on the news.)

2) Hamas forced students to repeat final exams in the Strip. The reason? 8 of the top 10 scores were from Fatah members and only 2 were from Hamas.

3) "Capture an Israeli soldier and receive a free Hummer! Offer valid until Israeli jails are emptied" (presumably from prisoner swaps.)

4) An Israeli soldier tried to search a woman. She told him, "Get out of my face or I'll make sure you are in the headlines."

The bulk of the recent jokes, however, are about the electricity shortages in Gaza:

5) Benefits of electric outages include:
* Helps students get to bed early.
* Allows for romantic time with your wife under candlelight.
* The frequent deaths because of fires and generators exploding increase the chance of men getting invited to funerals and houses of consolation, where they could receive free meals.

6) The Gaza electric company has been renamed. The new name is the "Sabotage of Electricity Company."

7) Advertisement from electric company: "We give you a good excuse for not accepting guests into your house: just say that 'We are saving our candles for birthday parties only.' "

8) Another ad from electric company: "Are you worried about your husband staying out too late? We insure he comes home early by cutting off the electricity on places where he could be hanging out with his friends!"

9) Another ad: "We cut off the electricity, so you can enjoy the great outdoors!"

10) Another ad: "We protect women's rights by ensuring that she receives her dowry, her ring, and her generator."

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Washington Post pulls cartoon WITHOUT Mohammed

Last Sunday, the Washington Post refused to publish the following cartoon:

The catch is - Mohammed is not depicted in the picture at all.

Yet, the Washington Post and other newspapers refused to run the cartoon, out of the potential that some Muslims somewhere might be offended.

The WaPo's ombudsman writes:

[Cartoonist Wiley] Miller is fuming. The award-winning cartoonist, who lives in Maine, told me the cartoon was meant to satirize "the insanity of an entire group of people rioting and putting out a hit list over cartoons," as well as "media cowering in fear of printing any cartoon that contains the word 'Muhammad.' "

"The wonderful irony [is that] great newspapers like The Washington Post, that took on Nixon . . . run in fear of this very tame cartoon, thus validating the accuracy of the satire," he said by e-mail.

...Yes, Miller was trying to be provocative. But "Non Sequitur" followers expect that. And there's a difference between provoking anger and provoking readers to think.

Surely some may be displeased by "Where's Muhammad?" But unlike with the Danish cartoons, it's hard to imagine it would incite protests. Miller intentionally did not depict Muhammad, and the cartoon is not a blasphemous attack on the prophet. If anything, it's a powerful and witty endorsement of freedom of expression.

Post editors believe their decision was prudent, given the past cartoon controversies and heightened sensitivities surrounding Islam. But it also can be seen as timid. And it sets an awfully low threshold for decisions on whether to withhold words or images that might offend.

"Timid" is way understated. "Utterly dhimmified" comes a bit closer. At least the WaPo ombudsman gets it.

(h/t Jawa Report)

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Palestinian Authority TV quiz show: Israeli cities are "Palestinian"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

The following are transcripts from this PA TV program,The Cedar and the Olive Tree,whose purpose was to reinforce the message that the Palestinian Authority does not recognize the legitimacy and jurisdiction of Israel anywhere. PMW is citing a number of examples from the program, including messages that recur, to demonstrate the use of repetition as one method of political indoctrination used by the Palestinian Authority and PA TV.

PA TV is under the direct control of the office of PA Chairman  Mahmoud Abbas.

The following are transcripts from different days:

Host: "Name five cities in Palestine and we'll give you a prize."
Teenage Girl: "Haifa, Acre, Ramallah, Jaffa, and Jerusalem."
[Note: Haifa, Acre, Jaffa and Jerusalem are cities in Israel. The girl was rewarded $100 for correct answer.]

Host: "Can you name five cities in Palestine?"
Woman: "I'm here for a visit; I don't know."
Host: "You don't know five cities in Palestine?"
Woman: "No."
Host: "You mean you haven't heard of Jerusalem?"
Woman: "I've heard of Jerusalem."
Host: "But not Gaza? Ramallah?"
Woman: "And also occupied Palestine."
Host: "Palestine is completely occupied, and we want it liberated. Say the names after me: Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah, Haifa, Jaffa, Bethlehem."
[Note: Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa are cities in Israel. The woman was handed $100 for correct answers.]

Host: "Haifa is a Palestinian city; can you name other Palestinian cities?"
Man: "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Nazareth, Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem."
[Note: Haifa, Jaffa, Acre are cities in Israel. Other residents gave similar answers and received $100 for correct answers.]

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 12, 2010]

Host: "I want you to name five Palestinian cities."
Woman: "Ramallah, Jerusalem, Haifa, Acre, Gaza."
Host: "I want you to name five Palestinian cities that you've visited."
Woman: "Nahariya, Acre, Jenin, Gaza."
[Note: Jerusalem, Nahariya, Haifa and Acre are cities in Israel. Other residents gave similar answers and received $100 for correct answers.]

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 13, 2010]

Host: "Can you tell me which countries share a border with Palestine?"
Man: "In the north - Lebanon and Syria; in the east - Jordan; in the west - the Mediterranean; in the south - Egypt and the Sinai."
[Israel was not cited as a bordering country, yet it was the "correct" answer and he was awarded $100.] 

Host: "Can you name four Palestinian cities?"
Woman: "Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Ramallah." 
[Note: Acre, Haifa and Jaffa are cities in Israel. The woman received $100 for correct answer.]
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 16, 2010]

Host: "Which countries share borders with Palestine?"
Man: "Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt."
[Note: Israel was not cited as a bordering country yet the host rewarded him with the $100.] 
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 18, 2010]

Host: "Name three Palestinian cities."
Woman 1: "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre." [Note: all are cities in Israel.]
Host: "Which countries surround Palestine?"
Woman 2: "Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt."
[Note: Israel was not cited as a bordering country. Both received $100 for "correct answers.] 
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 18, 2010]

Host: "Which countries share borders with Palestine?"
Man: "Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria."
[Note: Israel was not cited as a bordering country yet the host rewarded him with the $100.] 
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 22, 2010

On Aug. 20, six different people were asked to define five cities in Palestine.
Their answers were:
1. Acre, Jaffa, Hafia, Gaza, Ramallah
2. Gaza, Jericho, Haifa, Jaffa, Acre
3. Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jenin
4. Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, El-Bireh, Nablus
5. Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, 
6. Acre, Haifa, Lod, Nazareth, Ramallah
[Note: The respondents received $100 each for portraying Israeli cities Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Acre as Palestinian cities.]

 [PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 20, 2010] 

Host: "Can you name five Palestinian cities?"
Woman: "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre."
[Note: Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are cities in Israel. The respondent received the $100 cash prize.]

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 23, 2010]

Host: "Do you know which countries share borders with Palestine?"
Woman: "Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and the Mediterranean."
[Note: Israel was not cited as a bordering country yet the host rewarded her with the $100.] 

Host: "Can you name three cities on the Palestinian coast?"
Woman: "Acre, Haifa, Jaffa."
[Note: All are cities on Israel's coast. In all cases, the respondents received $100 for "correctly" defining Israeli cities as Palestinian cities.]

[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 30, 2010]

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Those evil settlers and their Zionist chemicals!

From the Hamas-oriented Palestine-Info (UK) site:

Zionist settlers destroyed tens of fruitful olive trees in Al-Mughir town, northeast of Ramallah, on Friday after spraying them with a chemical material.

Local sources said that the settlers spoiled 55 olive trees using a white chemical material unknown to locals, adding that the material dries the trees and slowly kills them.

They noted that farmers could not reach the area, which is adjacent to a Zionist settlement, fearing attacks by those settlers.

In another location, Zionist settlers attacked tents pitched by shepherds in the Jordan Valley and damaged drinking water ponds for cattle, witnesses reported.

They noted that the settlers infiltrated into the area under the cover of darkness on Friday night, adding that shepherds were not present at time of the attack.

So these religious settlers attacked on Friday night? And somehow damaged a water pond? (How does one do that, exactly?)

And, better yet, they sprayed an unknown chemical that slowly destroys olive trees - and the trees are already destroyed?

This steaming pile of garbage was, unsurprisingly, immediately picked up by Iran's ABNA news agency. And no doubt believed as absolute truth by the many who reflexively believe the most ridiculous anti-Israel stories without the slightest capacity for critical thought.

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WSJ on Mabhouh investigation

It is worth reading the WSJ on how the trail to Mabhouh's killers has grown cold, as well as Haaretz' coverage.

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Crazy Water Park re-opens

The Crazy Water Park in Gaza, which was torched last month, has re-opened.

But the lessons of the torching have not been lost on Gaza's upscale cafes and resorts.

An article in Elaph talks about Hamas' ban of women smoking hookahs in Gaza. Restaurants are enforcing that law against single women (apparently, women in restaurants with their families are allowed to smoke.) The restaurant owners are explicitly saying that they saw what happened to the Crazy Water Park, which irritated the Hamas theocrats and did allow women to smoke, and they do not want to have the same thing happen to them.

The good news, of course, is that the poor, suffering, starving, imprisoned Gazans - who are smuggling food out of Gaza to Egypt - now can relax and enjoy themselves again at a nice looking water resort.

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Some notes on the staged rock throwing of Silwan

A few follow-ups on the video and photographs of the events at Silwan on Friday.





The photographs of the incident that do not show the entire context have been reproduced all over the place. I have yet to see any of the media mention that the stone-throwers smashed the rear windshield of the car with their peacful protest pebbles. In fact, from the video one can see that out of all the photographers that were there, only the videographer took footage of the car afterwards showing the damage; the rest rushed to the kid. (Most of the media showing the video do not bother to show that part of the footage either; Al Jazeera is the best example but even Fox only showed it momentarily after showing the kid being hit three different times.)


The driver was swerving to avoid a different stone-thrower. In other words, he had a car behind him and two kids in front of him; if he would have stopped he would have been in mortal danger.


The kid who was hit, Amran Mansur, recalls the incident in a way that is completely at odds with what we could see:

"I had just left the Friday prayers at the neighborhood's protest tent when I saw a car speeding towards me," remembers Amran Mansur, 11, who was ran over by David Be'eri, chairman of the Elad Association promoting Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem.

Amran was released from the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem early on Saturday. "I couldn’t run away in time, I didn't even have time to signal him with my hands," he says. "It was clear he did it on purpose. I was on the sidewalk, so there's no chance it wasn't deliberate."

Palestinian Arab kids learn how to lie to the media early. Of course, there was the earlier footage showing Mansur about to throw a stone at a different car, so he was at the scene for at least some time; he was running full-speed towards the car, not away, and he was in the middle of the street, not the sidewalk.

There were about six or seven journalists at the scene, possibly more than the number of stone throwers. It is hard to imagine that this event was not at least partially staged by them.

And while the journalists keep a "professional" distance from kids endangering the lives of Israeli motorists, they rush to help out the injured kid. Well, sort of. If he had been badly injured - say, neck or back injuries - their manhandling of him and forcing him into the car could have paralyzed him.

Someone should interview the photographers on the scene and ask them straight out: why were you so conveniently at that intersection at that time? Were the kids throwing stones because you were there? Did anyone tell them where to go or how to act? What news agencies were represented? Where is the rest of the footage between the first part and the second? How long were the boys there? How many other cars were stoned?

Even though this is a perfect example of a photograph not telling the truth, you just know that they are thinking Pulitzer and not the consequences of their actions.

UPDATE: See Media Backspin on why this looks like a set-up, from the perspective of a news photographer.

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The dismantled Al Aqsa Brigades didn't get the memo

Yet again, the supposedly dismantled, Fatah-associated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have shown up:

Fatah's armed wing the Al-Aqsa Brigades said Friday that their response to the killings of two Palestinians in Hebron was "only a matter of time."

In a statement, the Al-Aqsa Brigades cited the men as "friends" of the armed wing of Fatah, and said the two groups had participated in joint missions in the West Bank during the Second Intifada.

Where does the Al Aqsa Brigades get its funding from, if not from the "moderate" Fatah that supposedly dismantled it years ago?

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Islamic Jihad leader in hospital for hunger strike against PA

An Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank was arrested on September 29th. He then started a hunger strike to protest his arrest. He claims that the PA tortured him.

He just entered a hospital because his condition was deteriorating.

This story is nearly nonexistent in the non-Arab media.

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Sir Alexander Galloway's opinion on the refugees, 1952

A couple of months ago I found a 1958 article about the Arab refugee problem that quoted "Ralph Galloway", a UNRWA official, as saying "The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. they want to keep it an open sore, as an affront to the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die."

It turns out that the the speaker was not named Ralph Galloway, but Sir Alexander Galloway.

Alexander H. Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky have a fascinating, scholarly article in Middle Eastern Studies about this man, as well as how his name ended up getting changed to "Ralph" in the quotes.

Alexander Galloway was the head of UNRWA in Jordan in July, 1951. At the time, Jordan's economy was a mess, especially after the assassination of King Abdullah, and UNRWA represented a lucrative source of income:

At the time of Galloway's appointment UNRWA was one of the major sources of income for the Hashemite Kingdom as a whole, along with the annual remittance from the British Government. In 1951 UNRWA imports and local expenses accounted for 25% of Jordan's total balance of payments, a figure that rose to 33% in 1952 and 35% in 1953. In September 1951 the Jordan Development Bank was founded with 80% of the capital coming from UNRWA and with Galloway as a Managing Director.

UNRWA also contributed 8.7% of public sector wages in Jordan. This figure rose to 9.8% in 1953 and 12.4% in 1954 when the organization employed some 2500 persons....The sense that international staffers were being paid disproportionately high salaries was present before Galloway's arrival. Hugh Dow of the British Consulate in Jerusalem wrote to T.W. Evans in the Middle East Secretariat of the Foreign Office on 13 March 1951 and noted that the high administration costs of UNRWA were based on 'Lake Success allowances' saying 'shorthand typists employed by UNRWA are receiving salaries almost equal to my own basic pay'.[44] Similar concerns regarding the larger salaries paid to UNRWA's international staffers were reportedly expressed by Lebanese officials and were of sufficient gravity to be mentioned in confidential briefings by UNRWA officials to Canadian Foreign Ministry representatives.[45]

Proposed budgets for 1952 saw UNRWA's overall costs increasing to almost $80 million, representing a potentially lucrative source of income for the Jordanian government.[46]

Jordan's resentment over international UNRWA employees continued to grow, and Galloway was replaced because of this dispute in April 1952.

Afterwards, he wrote an article for the Daily Express describing the problems of the Arab refugees and the political issues. Here are some excerpts:

The Jordanian population fear the settlement of large numbers of refugees in their country. But they are aware that it means the spending of large sums of money in Jordan. They want the cash. They want to spend it on schemes for the development of Jordan. If the refugees benefit from this arrangement, so much the better.

In Syria the Government is a dictatorship by which a number of much-needed and healthy measures are being inaugurated.

There is plenty of room for development. Half a million refugee families could settle on agricultural schemes with benefit to themselves and to the country.

Like other Arab countries, Syria may not be anxious to take the first step in a programme which indicates acceptance of the fact that the refugees will not return to Palestine. In Syria the activities of the Agency are controlled to a high degree by Government. Local Agency employees are dismissed at will. Internationals are scrutinized and followed about by Security Police. The prestige of United Nations does not stand high.

Occasionally the United Nations country representatives are summoned to Beirut or discussions. During the past year I attended several discussions. They achieved little. Decisions were seldom taken, except to postpone decision, although much was often said about unity of effort, sense of high purpose, avoidance of the "Colonial approach."

In Beirut and elsewhere to a lesser degree, some useless work goes on. Staff begets more staff. Plan follows plan. Typewriters click. Brochures and statistics pour out. The refugees remain and eat, and complain and breed; while a game of political "last touch" goes on between the local Governments and the Director, UNRWA.

What is the solution? Of course the problem is difficult. Refugee settlement, except under dictatorship, is a long, expensive business. Somehow or other the Arab Governments, the United Nations, UNRWA and some of the refugees have got to face facts.

There is a need of a change of heart and a better atmosphere. There is need to distinguish between a tempting political maneuvre and the hard, unpalatable fact that the refugees cannot in the foreseeable future return to their homes in Palestine. To get this acceptance is a matter of politics: it is beyond the function of UNRWA.

Second, a determined effort should be made to get the "host" countries to take over relief from the Agency, thus freeing it to get on with the much more important task of resettlement.

It must be kept quite clear in all discussion that the refugee retains his absolute political right to return to his former home whenever he can. Without this condition being implicit in any arrangement there can be no progress.

The authors note that the last paragraph seems to have been written almost by habit, probably based on the fact that Arab governments were so hell-bent against naturalizing the refugees - as they remain today.

Later, Galloway was quoted by Reverend Karl Baehr, Executive Secretary of the American Christian Palestine Committee, in front of a Senate committee:

In April of 1952, Sir Alexander Galloway, then head of the UNRWA for Jordan, said to our study group, and this is really a direct quote from what he said, "It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel."

Then, by way of emphasis he said, "Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die."

When asked what he felt the solution to the problem was, Sir Alexander Galloway in essence said: Give each of the Arab nations where the refugees are to be found an agreed-upon sum of money for their care and resettlement and then let them handle it. If, he continued, the United Nations had done this immediately after the conflict – explaining to the Arab states "We are sorry it happened, but here is a sum of money for you to take care of the refugees" – the problem might have been solved long ago. The Arab states would have had to do something constructive about the problem, or lose status in the eyes of the world. This way, said, Sir Alexander, the burden is on the United Nations and the governments that support the United Nations, and we are powerless to solve it.

There's much more to the paper. One tiny detail that I thought was important was this one:

Galloway's own archives do not include any documents pertaining to UNRWA. Copies of his monthly reports from Amman are found in British records but only through October 1951. In the absence of other contemporary documents, including UNRWA archives which remain closed to researchers, clues to the situation Galloway faced in Amman are found in the confidential reports of Sir Henry F. Knight to the Foreign Office, and telegrams from Geoffrey Furlonge, British ambassador to Jordan.

Why is UNRWA, a publicly funded organization, allowed to keep its archives from some 60 years ago closed?

(h/t Andrea)

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2491 people managed to escape "the world's largest prison" last week

From Ma'an:

Almost 3,500 Palestinians passed through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza last week, officials reported.

Border administrators said 1651 Palestinians returned to Gaza, most of whom were patients who had received treatment in Egyptian hospitals, whilst 1821 left Gaza through the terminal. Officials said 276 Palestinians were refused permission to cross.

Crossings officials said the Erez pedestrian crossing between northern Gaza and Israel was partially open during the week, recording the exit of 941 individuals from Gaza, including 652 residents, 245 foreign nationals, and 44 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.

That's a pretty porous prison!

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