Egyptian media spinning Abuhatzeira tomb ban

From Al Masry Al Youm:

For the first time in years, nine-year-old Sherif and his friend Mahmoud, residents of the village of Damtu, are able to play freely outside their house, which is located across from the tomb of Abu Hasira, a 19th-century Jewish rabbi, after years of deprivation due to security orders.

Sherif, Mahmoud and all of the village residents were finally able to enter the area around the mausoleum without fear. Previously, anyone who tried to enter the area would be beaten, humiliated or imprisoned for weeks because former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly’s security forces had turned the area around the shrine into a military barracks, forbidding anyone from approaching it.

The festival, scheduled for 9 to 10 January, is held on the annual anniversary of the death of Abu Hasira, whose mausoleum is located in the village of Damtu outside Damanhour. A number of political groups in Egypt announced Monday that they plan to protest at the Abu Hasira festival.

The usual security measures were absent around the tomb, which is located on top of the small village’s highest hill. Only one police vehicle with five policemen can now be found at the mausoleum, and for the first time in years, dozens of village residents are visiting the shrine.

Abu Hasira was born in Morocco and, according to Jewish lore, the ship that was carrying him to Palestine sank. Abu Hasira floated on a straw mat that eventually landed on Syrian shores. The rabbi, according to Jewish tradition, went from Syria to Palestine and then on to Egypt.

He died in Damtu in 1880. Every year, thousands of Jews come to celebrate the anniversary of his death.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, together with a number of village residents and activists from the Beheira Governorate, visited the tomb, which Jews failed to visit for the first time after activists declared they would form a human shield to prevent any Israelis from setting foot in the area.

Abu Hasira’s tomb lies in the center of Damtu. It is located on a 5-meter-high hill, where a closed shrine encloses the rabbi’s tomb, and three other tombs, which Jews say belong to his grandchildren. Abu Hasira’s tomb is covered with a large piece of black cloth embossed with Hebrew phrases embroidered with gold thread.

The room that includes the mausoleum is 30 square meters in area and includes three oil paintings of the Jewish rabbi, a marble plaque written in Hebrew at the entrance, and a group of small coin-like pieces placed on top of one of the adjacent tombs. It also contains a small, broken wooden painting and nine wooden windows, most which have been broken as a result of rocks being thrown at them.

After the revolution, a group of people tried to demolish the tomb, but village residents stopped them.

“We are against the tomb, but at the same time we are against demolishing it in such a manner. The revolution didn’t erupt to demolish such tomb,” said Mohamed Fawzym, one of Damtu’s residents.

Umm Abadam, a 50-year-old woman, might be the only resident suffering from the festival's cancellation. She benefited from being the closet neighbor to the tomb.

She used to earn money cooking food for the visitors of the tomb.

“What were [visitors] doing? I used to sell to them. In the beginning, they bought cows and goats from the village. People from Tanta used to come here and sell them cloth. But the number of visitors has decreased, and I was forced by security to not sell them anything,” Umm Abadam told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Bassiony Mohamed, another village resident, shed light on another aspect.

“We had suffered a lot from the visits of Jews. Secret police were all over the place. During the festival, we weren’t able to move freely. The secret police were summoning the people who live close to the tomb and threatening them if something bad happens at the festival,” Mohamed said.

While the article sheds some light on the situation, it is filled with spin.

The newspaper is trying hard to make it sound like the residents have no problem with Jews, but only with the security services that made their lives miserable. But articles about the pilgrimage from previous years show real Jew-hatred, and not merely people upset at the security forces:

In 2008, villagers described it as "another foothold of Jews in Egypt", and complained about practices of the Jewish revelers from the "slaughter of pigs and drinking, dance and exercising unethical behavior."

A group of lawyers sued to stop "this harassment and moral pollution" caused by the Israelis and the Jews of Europe to the people of the village.

The earlier article made it sound like the security cordon was in place only for the week that the pilgrims would arrive, unlike the Al Masry al Youm article that says it was year-round.

Villagers also described "alcoholic celebrations spilled over the tomb, and then the slaughter of sacrifices that are often sheep or pigs, roasting meat, and dancing. Celebrants then hysterically sing Jewish melodies as they become almost naked, and then say some prayers, entreaties and tears to the tomb, burning, beating their heads on a wall and asked for their needs."

And the Facebook groups and others who are determined to stop Jews from coming to Egypt are explicit that they simply don't like Jews in Egypt.

We don't even have to go to previous years to see the hatred of Jews from the residents of the village. A blog called AntiAbuHosira quotes a newspaper as saying the villagers would allow Jews to come "over their dead bodies." Another Facebook group calls on the tomb to be "destroyed immediately."

And who exactly broke every window with rocks?

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Iran's currency in freefall; leaders panicking

From Reuters:

Iran's currency has slid 20 percent against the dollar in the last week despite central bank intervention, and Iranians concerned about the economy said on Tuesday attempts to send text messages using the word "dollar" appeared to be blocked.

The central bank reportedly pumped $200 million dollars into the market last Wednesday after new and much tougher U.S. sanctions prompted nervous Iranians to change rials into hard currency, accelerating a rise in the price of dollars on the open market.

Saying it would act to stabilise the currency, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) imposed a rate of 14,000 rials to the dollar - up from record lows of around 18,000 rials - but many exchange offices would not sell at that price.

By Tuesday the exchange rate had risen again to around 17,000 rials, according to exchange bureaus, 50 percent more than the CBI's "reference rate" of 11,240 rials.

The currency slide is a huge risk for consumer prices in a country where the official inflation rate - considered an underestimate by many economists - is already around 20 percent and rising.

In a hint of political sensitivity over the issue, Iranians, long used to controls over Internet and mobile communications, said they were unable to send text messages containing the word "dollar".

"My colleagues and I tried to text each other in the office and to our surprise we found that texts that included words like 'dollar' and 'foreign currency' could not be delivered," said Malek, a 45-year-old government employee in Tehran.

Newspapers reported on the problem, adding that officials had denied filtering text messages. Reuters calls to officials went unanswered.

The head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, Asadollah Asgaroladi, estimated that annual inflation stood at 40 percent this month and that it would have been 27 percent without the currency slide, Khabaronline, a website close to the government, reported.

There is nothing in the official Iranian press about this.

In related news, India is set to cut Iranian oil imports:

The union government [in India] has told refiners to reduce Iranian oil imports and find alternatives as New Delhi may not seek a waiver that would protect buyers of Tehran's oil from a fresh round of U.S. sanctions, two industry sources said on Wednesday.

India, Iran's second largest oil buyer after China, is already struggling to pay for the crude due to existing sanctions, and fresh U.S. measures aimed at isolating Iran over its nuclear programme will make payment even harder.

The South Asian country buys from Iran about 12 percent of its oil needs, or 350,000-400,000 barrels per day (bpd) and worth $12 billion annually.

Indian oil firms were told by officials at a meeting on Monday that the government was not planning to seek an exemption from the U.S. sanctions, and were advised to reduce dependence on Iran and be ready with alternative supply sources.

It looks like the increased Western sanctions against Iran - and threats of new sanctions - are finally starting to take effect. It is a shame that they were not in place years before.

Is this a case of better late than never?

(h/t Yoel)

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Two tunnel families shooting each other in Rafah, Egypt

Two competing family owners of Gaza smuggling tunnels have escalated their war with each other on the Egyptian side of Rafah.

Five people have been injured in recent days from gunshots between the clans. There have also been kidnappings.

Witnesses say that the families shoot at each other during the afternoons.

The families have installed machine guns on the roofs of their houses. Some Palestinian Gazans go through the tunnels to help with the fighting.

The report says that there is effectively no police presence in Rafah since the Egyptian Revolution; the military guards the border and the entrances to the city only.

The tunnel trade to Gaza remains lucrative and strong as ever.

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Haniyeh again says "Jihad is the only option"

Ismail Haniyeh was quoted in a Gulf newspaper as saying that Hamas remains committed to "resistance" - and he didn't mean protests.

The Hamas leader in Gaza said that "resistance that did not stop as many people imagine, but we are at the stage of study and planning to come back strong as ever, because the Palestinians know that their holy places will not return except by Jihad."

Haniyeh added that "the resistance of the Palestinian people is the only option to restore the Islamic holy sites, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that jihad is our choice for the restoration of holy places in Palestine."

Haniyeh returned to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening after finishing his trip that led him to Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey.

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Another Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated

From Iran's PressTV:

A terrorist car bomb explosion around a square in northern Tehran has killed yet another Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded two bystanders.

The victim, identified as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was a chemical engineering graduate of Iran's prominent Sharif University of Technology and served as marketing deputy of Iran's Natanz nuclear installation.

Witnesses say they spotted a motorcyclist attaching a sticky bomb to a car near a college of the Allameh Tabatabaei University in the Iranian capital on Wednesday.

An investigation is underway over the incident.

Wednesday's terror bombing bears the hallmark of a 2010 terror attack that killed Majid Shahriari, another university professor, in Tehran.

On November 29, 2010, unidentified terrorists slapped adhesive bombs onto the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated them.

Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi, the current director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to a hospital.

On December 2, 2010, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that the Israeli Mossad, the American CIA, and the British MI6 all played a role in those attacks.

Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another scholar at Tehran University, was assassinated by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010.

The terror bombing took place near the professor's home in northern Tehran.

Many analysts assume that the Mossad is behind these assassinations. At least one longtime Iran observer thinks that most of the recent examples of sabotage and assassinations are really from internal Iranian opposition.

Another possibility:

A top Iraqi security official claims that the Mossad has increased its recruitment efforts in country's Kurdish region, focusing mainly on Iranian refugees.

According to France's Le Figaro, the move is part of Israel's efforts to wage an intelligence war against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The refugees, which according to the paper's sources are Iranian dissidents, are recruited by Israeli agents to target Iranian nuclear experts.

(h/t Yoel)

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Tel Aviv named "Best Gay City"

From JPost:

Tel Aviv was voted the best gay city of 2011, according to an online poll on LGBT travel website gaycities.com.

"The gay capitol of the Middle East is exotic and welcoming with a Mediterranean c'est la vie attitude," the website said.

Tel Aviv garnered 43 percent of the vote, far ahead of the next competitor, New York City, which raked in 14%.

Other cities on the list included Toronto, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, New Orleans, and Mexico City.

I wonder how Ramallah did.

After all, as a tiny percentage of gay people know, the Palestinian Arabs are far more tolerant towards gays than Israel is, and every gay person who voted for Tel Aviv in this poll is obviously "pinkwashed" with evil Zionist propaganda.

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ISESCO denies Jewish Temples existed; publishes "media plan" on how to defeat Zionism

A press release from ISESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly denounced the Israeli occupation army’s publication of a photo of the Holy Aqsa Mosque without Qubat Al-Sakhra (the Dome of the Rock).

In a communiqué released today, ISESCO affirmed its rejection of what the so-called religious authority of the Israeli occupation army in the occupied city of Al-Quds did when they published a photo of Al-Aqsa Mosque without the Dome of the Rock. This photo, ISESCO underlined, depicts the true intention of the Israeli occupation authorities to judaize the city and establish the alleged Temple in the so-called “Temple Mount” on “the ruins” of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially as a model of the Temple has been built in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the calls of the Jewish rabbis to demolish the First Qibla and the Third Holy Mosque have increased.

"Alleged" Temple? "So-called" Temple Mount?

I guess we can see the importance of education, science and culture to ISESCO.

Elsewhere, ISESCO makes its Temple denial more explicit:

[N]o trace was found of this temple after many excavations and archaeology digs carried out by Israeli and western archaeologists. An increasing number of Israelis refute the Jewish allegations about the temple, having conducted their own investigations, excavations and studies which all point to the non-existence of the temple in the alleged site at any time in history.

It is this document that proves that ISESCO is a sham organization, whose purpose has nothing to do with Islamic culture or history - but rather to uproot any vestige of Jewish history.

The document is called "Media Plan for Publicising the Cause of Al Quds Al Sharif in the West and Mechanisms for its Implementation." It looks like it was written in late 2004. ISESCO is the architect of a plan on how to spread Islamic propaganda in the West and how to counter Jewish claims to Israel and Jerusalem.

And it makes its goals quite clear, in this paragraph describing its idea of the Jewish view of Jerusalem:

Jerusalem is at the heart of the Jewish faith, the cornerstone of its spiritual and intellectual edifice and of the dream of rebuilding the Hebrew state in accordance with the false Zionist slogan of the “Return to Zion”, or “Return to Jerusalem”, ensuring its continuity and the continuity of the Israeli presence in the Arab region. This presence is vital for the West since Israel acts as a shield that protects the western civilisation from confronting the so called “Arab backwardness, barbarity and savagery”. Thus, Jerusalem is the cornerstone of the spiritual edifice and the Zionist Jewish entity. Were it to be dislodged, the whole edifice and the Zionist entity itself would crumble like a deck of cards.

That is the entire goal of this media plan! It describes short, medium and long term goals to do exactly this dislodging of Jerusalem from Judaism.

For example, do these objectives sound familiar?

1- Gaining the support of some intellectual, cultural and political role-players who can impact on the Western public opinion about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the question of Al Quds, by adopting the international resolutions of legitimacy and the related UN resolutions as a starting point in the media plan.

2- Penetrating Western activities or fields of activities, particularly those of influential media, cultural, intellectual and economic spheres in such a way as to ensure their responsiveness to the other’s point of view and their outlook on the official stance of their countries as subservient to and reflective of the interests of the Zionist movement with its various formations and bodies, and not of the interests of their own countries, in particular economic and vital interests.

3- Discreetly and indirectly encouraging trends critical of Zionism and the Israeli judaisation policies in Jerusalem within western circles and in a way that would prevent the targeting, isolation and annihilation of these trends by the Zionists movement and its concealed and visible tentacles.

It is almost as if Walt, Mearsheimer, Blumenthal, Friedman, Mondoweiss and others are acting in a play written by ISESCO!

Can you imagine a genuine cultural or educational organization creating a document on how to spread propaganda in order to destroy an entire culture?

Anyone who wants to truly understand how the anti-Israel crowd is using the media should read this document.

(h/t CHA)

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The kosher symbol from the 6th century

From Ha'aretz:

A 1,500-year-old seal with the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah has been discovered near the city of Acre.

The ceramic stamp, which dates from the Byzantine period in the 6th century CE, was found during ongoing Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Horbat Uza, east of Acre, which are being undertaken before the construction of the Acre-Carmiel railroad track.

It is thought the stamp was used to mark baked goods, and is known as a “bread stamp.”

“A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period,” said Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority,

“The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Acre - a region that was definitely Christian at this time - constitutes an innovation in archaeological research,” Syon said.

“Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Acre, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period,” Jaffe and Syon added.

Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where other archaeological finds, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them, have alluded to it having been a Jewish settlement.

The stamp bears the image of a seven-branched menorah, and the handle of the stamp is engraved with Greek letters. According to Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is probably the name Launtius, which was common among Jews of the period and has appeared on other Jewish bread stamps.

“This is probably the name of the baker from Horbat Uza,” Jaffe and Syon said.

I know, I don't usually highlight archaeological findings that are so new - only 1,500 years old.

But it still predates Islam!

(I wonder if this hechsher was considered reliable...."You trust the seven-branch menorah? It isn't mehadrin!")

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New pro-Israel apps developed - over a weekend

Last month there was a "hackathon" by Like for Israel to create innovative pro-Israel apps (mobile, Facebook, web.)

Here are some of the apps developed over a weekend:

Israel Challenge trivia game on Facebook

Israeli Foods - wine and food blogs and videos, for Android

2See Israel - Aggregator of Israel photos, for Android

The Truth About Israel - factual information about Israel written in Arabic, for Android (website)

Like Israel - automatically put a "Like" stamp on any nice photos you take in Israel, for iPhone

Delegit - Chrome app that allows you to report any websites that attempt to delegitimize Israel when you come across them

Not bad for a couple of days.

You can visit the Like for Israel Facebook page for more info.

(h/t Niv)

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HRW director finds fault with Israel for willingness to help Arabs

Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, just proved today that his hatred of Israel trumps his interest in human rights.

Ha'aretz reported:

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Tuesday that Israel is preparing to absorb Alawite refugees once Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime collapses, which he expects to happen in the coming months.

"Assad is not the same type as [Former Libyan leader Muammar] Gahdafi, who fights until the last bullet down in the sewer. The day that the Syrian regime will fall, it will issue a blow to the Alawites, and we are preparing to absorb those refugees."

At a time that Syrians are being slaughtered by the thousands, Israel is making contingency plans to help an Arab minority who would be in grave danger. This is a moral imperative - and one that not one Arab country has yet publicly accepted.

Does Ken Roth praise Israel? Does he slam Arabs for not doing the same?

Of course not! He's the head of Human Rights Watch, and he knows who to blame for everything!

That's right - this arbiter of morality, the man in the forefront of the human rights movement, chooses to insult the only country that is willing to save people's lives.

It is worth mentioning that Israel, through the years, has absorbed many Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants - well over 100,000 of them. And it offered, a number of times, to accept many more if the Arabs would conclude a peace agreement with Israel. And that the Palestinians are discriminated against, by law, in every Arab country.

But from the perspective of the leader of Human Rights Watch, it is Israel and only Israel that must be insulted and berated, even when it is trying to save lives.

The reason that Human Rights Watch has turned into a parody of human rights is in no small part due to the sickening bias that Ken Roth and his people have against Israel.

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Terror attack against Israelis foiled in Bulgaria?

JPost reports:

A suspicious package found last week on a bus carrying Israeli tourists from Turkey to Bulgaria was the cause for Israel’s request to boost security over its citizens traveling in the country, according to reports in the Bulgarian press.

The Sofia News Agency Novinite quoted Dan Shenar, head of security at the Israeli Transportation Ministry, who confirmed he had requested the increased security. Bulgarian authorities have launched an investigation to determine what was inside the package and who placed it on the bus.

But Bulgaria denies it:

Bulgaria's border police have no information of a bomb being found in a bus boarded with Israeli tourists traveling towards a Bulgarian winter resort, the country's Interior Ministry has stated.

On Sunday, Israeli media reported that Bulgarian authorities last week foiled a bomb attack targeting a bus chartered to take Israeli tourists to a local ski resort. According to the report, there is an ongoing investigation concerning a terrorist group based in Europe and linked with Hezbollah.

The device was allegedly found by Bulgarian authorities last Tuesday.

However, representatives of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry told the Bulgarian National Radio on Monday that they have not received any information of such device being discovered.

There are also reports of increased security in Bulgaria around Israeli tourists, also being denied:

Increased police presence is reported in Bulgaria's top winter resort of Bansko with 50 policemen patrolling, and another 80 expected by the end of the month.

The information was reported Saturday by the Bulgaria "Trud" (Labor) daily. According to it, Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, had given a permit to include one army company to assist security effort at the resort.

A large number of tourists from Israel are currently vacationing in Bansko.

On Thursday, Russian Israeli website IzRus, published information that the plot was unearthed by Bulgarian secret services, which promptly informed their Israeli colleagues.

The same day, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry refuted allegations that the level of security had been raised due to claims that Hezbollah might be planning attacks on Israeli citizens in the country.

The controversial information was officially rejected by the Foreign Ministry, which said Friday morning that it had received no such tip-off.

The reassurances were echoed Friday by Bulgarian Ministers of Defense, Transport and Economy.

So what is the truth?

A possible hint comes at the end of both the previous links:

On Friday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov advised the media against publishing sensational information about possible terrorist attacks in the country, explaining that such reports would hurt the ties between Bulgaria and the Arab countries.

(h/t Yoel)

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Ibish shows his dishonesty again, "proves" Gaza is "occupied"

In a sarcastic article in Now Lebanon, Hussein Ibish tries to pretend that anyone who says Israel isn't occupying Gaza is delusional:

Israel continues to control Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters, the entry and exit of people and goods (with the exception of the Egypt crossing), its electromagnetic spectrum, a “buffer zone” in which unarmed Palestinians are routinely killed, and deploys into all parts of the territory and withdraws at will. As a consequence, no impartial observer can or does doubt that occupation continues.

It is fascinating: At no point does Ibish bring forth a definition of "occupation." And no wonder. Because the definition is clear - and it shows that Israel is not occupying Gaza by any sane criterion. (Saying the UN calls it "occupied" is not a sane criterion.) And none of the examples he brings has anything to do with the legal definition of occupation.

The Hague Conventions definition of 1907 is the only legal definition of occupation. That's it. The Fourth Geneva Conventions does not define it at all.

And here it is:

Art. 42. Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.

The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.

Amnesty International expanded on this definition when the US invaded Iraq:

The sole criterion for deciding the applicability of the law on belligerent occupation is drawn from facts: the de facto effective control of territory by foreign armed forces coupled with the possibility to enforce their decisions, and the de facto absence of a national governmental authority in effective control. If these conditions are met for a given area, the law on belligerent occupation applies. Even though the objective of the military campaign may not be to control territory, the sole presence of such forces in a controlling position renders applicable the law protecting the inhabitants. The occupying power cannot avoid its responsibilities as long as a national government is not in a position to carry out its normal tasks.

The international legal regime on belligerent occupation takes effect as soon as the armed forces of a foreign power have secured effective control over a territory that is not its own. It ends when the occupying forces have relinquished their control over that territory.

The question may arise whether the law on occupation still applies if new civilian authorities set up by the occupying power from among nationals of the occupied territories are running the occupied territory’s daily affairs. The answer is affirmative, as long as the occupying forces are still present in that territory and exercise final control over the acts of the local authorities.

Now, Ibish would argue, Amnesty themselves says that ISrael still occupies Gaza. But that proves that Amnesty is hypocritical, not that Israel is the occupier.

Legal scholar Abraham Bell adds:

[T]here is no legal basis for maintaining that Gaza is occupied territory. The Fourth Geneva Convention refers to territory as occupied where the territory is of another "High Contracting Party" (i.e., a state party to the convention) and the occupier "exercises the functions of government" in the occupied territory. The Gaza Strip is not territory of another state party to the convention and Israel does not exercise the functions of government-or, indeed, any significant functions-in the territory. It is clear to all that the elected Hamas government is the de facto sovereign of the Gaza Strip and does not take direction from Israel, or from any other state.

Some have argued that states can be considered occupiers even of areas where they do not declare themselves in control so long as the putative occupiers have effective control. For instance, in 2005, the International Court of Justice opined that Uganda could be considered the occupier of Congolese territory over which it had "substituted [its] own authority for that of the Congolese Government" even in the absence of a formal military administration. Some have argued that this shows that occupation may occur even in the absence of a full-scale military presence and claimed that this renders Israel an occupier under the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, these claims are clearly without merit. First, Israel does not otherwise fulfill the conditions of being an occupier; in particular, Israel does not exercise the functions of government in Gaza, and it has not substituted its authority for the de facto Hamas government. Second, Israel cannot project effective control in Gaza. Indeed, Israelis and Palestinians well know that projecting such control would require an extensive military operation amounting to the armed conquest of Gaza. Military superiority over a neighbor, and the ability to conquer a neighbor in an extensive military operation, does not itself constitute occupation. If it did, the United States would have to be considered the occupier of Mexico, Egypt the occupier of Libya and Gaza, and China the occupier of North Korea.

Moreover, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that foes of Israel claiming that Israel has legal duties as the "occupier" of Gaza are insincere in their legal analysis. If Israel were indeed properly considered an occupier, under Article 43 of the regulations attached to the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, it would be required to take "all the measures in [its] power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety." Thus, those who contend that Israel is in legal occupation of Gaza must also support and even demand Israeli military operations in order to disarm Palestinian terror groups and militias. Additionally, claims of occupation necessarily rely upon a belief that the occupying power is not the true sovereign of the occupied territory. For that reason, those who claim that Israel occupies Gaza must believe that the border between Israel and Gaza is an international border between separate sovereignties. Yet, many of those claiming that Gaza is occupied, like John Dugard, also simultaneously and inconsistently claim that Israel is legally obliged to open the borders between Israel and Gaza. No state is required to leave its international borders open.

What do Israel's critics answer to these legal arguments? They don't. They sputter about "blockades" and "airspace" and other irrelevant criteria that have zero legal basis. Like Ibish, they make up their minds first and try to find facts later. Ibish here shows that he is no better than groups like Free Gaza who simply make stuff up to support what they don't know but what they fervently believe.

Ibish shows his dishonesty also by claiming that only Israel's "right wing" says Israel is not occupying Gaza. He's lying, of course. Israel's Supreme Court says that Gaza isn't legally occupied. . As the Turkel Report quoted them:

In Al-Bassiouni v. Prime Minister, the Supreme Court of Israel held that since the disengagement in 2005, Israel does not have ‘effective control’ over the Gaza Strip. Because of the importance of this conclusion, the actual wording of the Supreme Court is cited below:
‘… since September 2005 Israel no longer has effective control over what happens in the Gaza Strip. Military rule that applied in the past in this territory came to an end by a decision of the government, and Israeli soldiers are no longer stationed in the territory on a permanent basis, nor are they in charge of what happens there. In these circumstances, the State of Israel does not have a general duty to ensure the welfare of the residents of the Gaza Strip or to maintain public order in the Gaza Strip according to the laws of belligerent occupation in international law. Neither does Israel have any effective capability, in its present position, of enforcing order and managing civilian life in the Gaza Strip.’

Ibish cannot bring up the slightest legal argument that Gaza is occupied. Neither can anybody else. That's why he instead falls back on sarcasm and the argument that, for example, since the UN Security Council says it is occupied, it must be.

 Yet that same UN Security Council stated (resolution 1973) that a blockade of Libya, enforcing a no-fly zone there, freezing its assets, restricting travel, and bombing the hell out of it, cannot be considered "occupation" ("while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory") - and the allies specifically insisted that they did not want to occupy Libya. Yet what is the difference between what the UN sanctioned in Libya and how Israel treated Gaza? Oh, yes - Gazans can move people and goods through Egypt.

But is there any merit in the Security Council declaring something to be occupied even if the law says otherwise? Not according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, who write in a legal analysis on their site about when occupation ended in Iraq:

From a political point of view, it is difficult to conclude otherwise in the face of a Security Council resolution that clearly states that occupation has ended. However, it is the reality and not the label that matters. As a matter of law, though, a formal proclamation of the end of occupation would be of limited importance if the facts on the ground indicate otherwise. [7 ] The test remains whether, despite any labelling in the Security Council resolution, a territory or part of it is " actually placed under the authority of the hostile army " as required by Article 42 Hague Regulations.

If the Security Council's stating that occupation has ended has no legal consequence, its declaring that it hasn't ended is equally unimportant. The only thing that matters is whether the facts onthe ground support the definition, not the definition itself that may be politically motivated.

The simple fact is that nowhere in the world has there ever been a legal occupation when the occupiers were not physically present on the ground. The fact that Israel-bashers want to change the law and the English language to shoehorn their bizarre theories of what "occupation" means into one that damns Israel and Israel alone does not make it so.

Proof by assertion is still not considered proof, at least by anyone who is honest. If Ibish wants to try to prove that Gaza is occupied, he needs to actually find answers to the legal and definitional proofs that state otherwise. (He also needs to state whether he believes that Israel is legally obligated to provide, say, health care and nutrition education to Gazans, which are things that legal occupiers are obligated to do.) His failure to do so shows that he is not nearly as serious of a scholar as he pretends to be.

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How news is manufactured, Al Arabiya style

From Al Arabiya:

A Moroccan minister of the ruling moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) told a crowd in Rabat that he anticipates Palestine to be liberated as more “walls” protecting Israel continue to fall during the Arab Spring, Moroccan Media reported on Tuesday.

Abdelkader Aâmara, minister of industry, trade and new technologies, was speaking during an event to commemorate the 2009 war on Gaza organized by the Moroccan initiative for the support of Palestine, Nossra and a student initiative against normalization with Israel.

Meanwhile, Khaled al-Sufyani, a Moroccan activist for a group that supports Iraq and Palestine, seconded Aâmara by saying that the liberation of Palestine will be in the “near future.”

“Victory over the Zionist project is coming, as my brother Aâmara has said a while ago,” according to Nossra, a web site.

Sufyani warned Moroccans not to rely on prime minister and PJD chief Abdelilah Benkirane alone to support Palestine. He accused André Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew and a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, of pushing the kingdom toward normalization with Israel.

But here's one interesting detail:

Aâmara, a member of Gaza Freedom Flotilla, decried the small audience at the event, saying that people have to “participate in such events because they are a media message that should reach the world.”

So some Israel haters gave a speech to very few people in Rabat - and Al Arabiya features it as a worldwide story!

I found photos of the entire anti-Israel event. Lots of speakers and presentations, and it looks like it was done in a fair sized auditorium, but unfortunately there are no crowd shots.

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Jordan banning Israeli tourists from bringing in food

From YNet:

Jordanian authorities have issued an unusual order banning the entry of food through its western border crossings, apparently in an attempt to get Israeli tourists to spend more money during their stay in the kingdom.

According to a new warning published on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website, "For security and safety reasons, the entry of packed cooked food into Jordan through the border crossings has been banned."

What does security have to do with cooked food, you ask? Well, a short inquiry reveals that the Jordanians are not really concerned that Israelis are hiding weapons in their pots and pans.

Officially, Jordan explains that it won't allow the entry of food which has not undergone a veterinary health check and has not received a phytosanitary approval. The Foreign Ministry, for some reason, turned this instruction into a security warning.

But the real reason, apart from the sanitary excuse, is that Jordanians have had enough of seeing Israeli tourists avoiding local restaurants and failing to spend any money during their short visits to Petra.

The neighboring kingdom thinks it's unfair that Israelis tour the country, use tourist infrastructures, enjoy Jordanian treasures but infuse no money into the local economy.

According to a Jordanian source, Israeli tourists arriving for one-day visits usually bring along bottles of water, sandwiches and cooked dishes. Some even enter restaurants with the homemade food.

In order to deal with the situation, the kingdom is also planning to raise the entrance fee to the popular Red Rock site in Petra. As of March, the tariff will climb from 50 Jordanian dinars (about $70) to 80 dinars ($113). This is the second price hike in the past year – up from only 20 dinars ($28).

Some 100,000 Israelis visit Jordan every year, many of them for one-day trips which allow them to bring along homemade food and avoid spending money on a hotel.

This isn't the first time Jordanians come up with creative ways to deal with the Israeli "stinginess". In the past, they enacted a law forcing a group of more than six tourists to hire a local guide and increased the border-crossing fee.

I'm not sure if this was intentional, but combined with Jordan's previous ban on tefillin and yarmulkas, and given that there are no kosher restaurants in Jordan, this means that religious Jews can no longer visit Jordan on even short trips unless they don't eat anything beyond potato chips.

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Fatah/Hamas "unity" continues as they attack each other

Today's "unity" news:

Ismail Haniyeh's triumphant tour of Arab capitals, meeting with the leaders of countries like Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey, is really upsetting Fatah. He is now in Egypt again, and a source told Egypt's Youm7 that the PLO regards these meetings as proof that Egypt recognizes two governments and two prime ministers, one from Gaza and one from Ramallah, in contradiction with the "unity" agreements forged in Cairo.

Notably, Egypt's prime minister did not meet with Haniyeh on his first leg of his trip to Cairo, but he was pressured to do so by the Islamist elements who regard Hamas as their natural allies.

PLO complaints to Tunisia about them meeting Haniyeh resulted in them inviting Abbas for celebrations on the first anniversary of their revolution.

After Hamas complaints that Ramallah was not sending over adequate medical and pharmaceutical supplies to Gaza, the PA sent over truckloads of aid. But the PA director of public relations for the Department of Health, Omar Nasr, blamed Gaza's shortages on Hamas, pointing out that the de facto government dismissed the person in charge of Gaza's medicine and replaced him with a Hamas hack who doesn't know how to administer the stockpiles.

Meanwhile, the PA Health Ministry called upon international organizations to investigate allegations that Hamas is stealing drugs and selling them to patients rather than providing them for free as they are supposed to.

Yesterday, Hamas angrily denied Fatah statements that there were elements in Gaza who were fighting against reconciliation. Mahmoud Aloul, Fatah Central Committee member, reiterated the charge, in light of the supposedly humiliating delay of Fatah members attempting to enter Gaza on Friday.

The PCHR condemned Hamas for that incident, drawing an angry response.

Meanwhile, Hamas arrested the leader of Fatah Youth in Gaza.

And Mahmoud Zahar criticized the PLO negotiating with Israelis at the Quartet talks in Amman, saying that if Abbas is betting on peace with Israel rather than unity with Hamas, it will lose.

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