Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Updates on India investigation on diplomat attacks

The "freelance journalist" Syed Kazmi seems to have been up to his ears in the Iranian terror plot in India. From Hindustan Times:

Syed Ahmad Kazmi, 50, the freelance journalist arrested for allegedly facilitating an attack on an Israeli diplomat’s wife in February, was in ‘indirect touch’ with the operational head of an international conspiracy to target Israeli diplomats, Delhi Police claimed on Thursday. They also claimed he was paid to help such activities in the capital.

Nabbed by the Special Team from his Jor Bagh residence on March 6, Kazmi was allegedly paid $5,500 by one Seyed Ali Sadr Mehdian, an associate, ‘to provide assistance in India’ for the international terror plot during two trips the former made to Tehran in 2011, Delhi Police Commissioner BK Gupta said.

“Mehdian directed Kazmi to meet Houshang Afsar Irani of Iranian origin, when the latter came to Delhi. Kazmi and Irani had receed the Israeli Embassy together and also discussed the matter of targeting Israeli diplomats through explosive devices,” the commissioner said.

Irani, who is in his early 40s and has an open arrest warrant issued against in his name along with three of his other associates, is the man who stuck the magnetic explosive device on the Innova vehicle carrying Tel-Yehoshua Koren, 42, the wife of an Israeli defence attaché, on the afternoon of February 13, police said.

Technical surveillance, police said, revealed that Irani was in touch with Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, the operational commander and one of the three Iranian men who were poised to target Israeli diplomats in Bangkok on February 14.

Masoud had fled the Thai capital after an accidental explosion at the module’s hideout only be arrested from the Malaysian airport hours later.

“It must be stated that technical investigation has also clearly established telephonic contact between Kazmi and Irani,” said the Commissioner, choosing not to comment on the suspected direct link between Masoud and Kazmi.

On March 9, HT had reported on how Delhi Police zeroed-in on Kazmi after their counterparts in Bangkok helped them get hold of his number from the callers’ list of one of the three Iranians arrested there.

Kazmi and his wife, police claimed, have been receiving foreign remittances regularly and, “till date his wife has received Rs18,78,500 while he received Rs 3.80 lakh as foreign remittances regarding (the source of which) there is no satisfactory explanation,” Gupta said.

And later:

Arrested on charges of facilitating an ‘international conspiracy’, Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, 50, had used a global, cellular phone-based closed user group (CUG) to remain in touch with his handlers in southwest Asia for more than a year, sources claimed.

The freelance journalist, who was nabbed by the special team from his Jor Bagh residence on March 6, had allegedly been using a mobile SIM card purchased from Tehran, Iran, to communicate with Seyed Ali Mehdiansadr and Mohammadreza Abolghasemi since early 2011.

“When he went to Iran in 2011, Mehdiansadr and Abolghasemi paid him in dollars and also provided him the SIM card to dodge domestic technical surveillance. He was communicated with and also issued instructions from his handlers in Tehran through this line,” said a senior police officer.

His ‘hotline’ to Tehran, police claimed, played a major role in connecting the technical dots between him, Houshang Irani — the man who executed the attack, and Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, the alleged operational commander of the global operation.

Also:

The man who attached a bomb to the car of the Israeli diplomat on February 13 reached the Indira Gandhi International Airport a little over an hour after the explosion and waited six hours for a flight to Kuala Lumpur, officials said on Monday.

Houshang Afshar Irani, the Iranian who is suspected to be the bomber, rushed to the airport immediately after the terror strike. The explosion was reported at 3.20 pm on February 13 and investigators have found records of Irani entering the airport around 4.30 pm.

“It was found during investigations that Irani checked in at the airport counter around 4.30 pm, just a little over an hour after the bomb blast. So, even before immigration authorities could be alerted, he was through with his travel documents and could flee India,” an official said.

But even though the evidence is mounting, many in India - including journalists - are calling for Kazmi's release, claiming that all the evidence is "circumstantial" and a contrived Zionist plot. Rallies are being held throughout the country to support him.

There was a candle-lit vigil at India Gate on March 13 and a sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar on March 16, which saw the tremendous participation of people from a wide array of walks of life, blurring religious and ideological lines. A delegation of 13 Muslim MPs, led by Sultan Ahmad of the Trinamool Congress, also visited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and urged him to ensure no injustice was carried out in the case.

Kazmi's son Shauzab Kazmi, SQR Illyasi of Jamaat e Islami and I addressed a public meeting organised by the Democratic Students Union in Jawaharlal Nehru University on March 16. "Kazmi's arrest does not come as a surprise, as it follows the well-known pattern of a minority witch-hunt by the Indian state," said the DSU.

Condemnations of Kazmi's arrest have also come from the Communist Party of India and the Lok Janshati Party.

"Government has made the arrest without a proper probe," said CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan. "This journalist dealt with the Palestine and Israel issue, what's the harm in that? [This] is an attempt by the government to please Israel."

There have been many solidarity marches, peaceful protests, sit-in demonstrations and press conferences held by Kazmi's supporters across the country - including in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Meerut, Lucknow, and even as far afield as the UK and Muscat.

"It is good to see people standing up and speaking out for my father, who has been framed on totally bogus charges," said Kazmi's 23-year-old son, Shauzab. He has been busy attending protests, giving press conferences, meeting lawyers, and looking after the family ever since his father's arrest.

Meanwhile, his supporters have planned a huge demonstration outside the Indian parliament on March 26.

(h/t Challah)

BDS Fail: Intel builds high tech empire in Israel

From The Media Line:

In Israel’s high tech economy, the local operations of Intel Corp. stand out as a kind of high tech economy all of its own.

The world’s biggest maker of computer chips has been operating in Israel for four decades, long before many of the country’s start-up entrepreneurs were born. It has four research and development centers that have produced some of the company’s best-selling products and, in contrast to most of the technology multinationals present in Israel, also manufactures products in plants in Kiryat Gat and Jerusalem.

With nearly 8,000 people on its payroll, it is the largest private sector employer in Israel, accounting for 10% of all the jobs in Israel’s total electronics and software industry. Last year, its exports reached $2.2 billion, making it the country’s biggest single exporter of high technology. It even acts as a venture capitalist.

In 2011 Intel’s Israel operations marked a new milestone by both developing and producing a product entirely inside the country.

“Today Intel Israel is at the core of the global company, with a central role in developing new products like Sandy Bridge and the Ivy Bridge. We ourselves are in sync for the first time, with a product both designed and produced in Israel,” Maxine Fassberg, an Intel vice president and general manager for Israel, told The Media Line on the sidelines of a news conference on Sunday to discuss the company’s 2011.

All told, products developed in Israel accounted for 40% of worldwide sales for Intel last year, said Muli Eden, who arrived in Israel last week to take up the post of Intel Israel president alongside Fassberg.

Total exports by Intel from Israel since 1999 have reached $22.4 billion. Last year as it was re-tooling in Kiryat Gat, Intel made purchases of $628 million in Israel – everything from production equipment to lunchroom napkins – and contributed indirectly as much as $4.5 billion to the economy. The U.S. company has invested in 64 start-ups since 1998.

“Israel is the No.3 foreign country in the world in terms of Intel’s investments. After the U.S., China, India, its Israel. Intel invests more in Israel than in Europe,” said Oren Reiss, the outgoing general manager of the Kiryat Gat plant.

Additionally, ex-Intel employees have formed about 20 start-up companies every year since 2006, creating about 250 workplaces. “We regard ourselves as a school for the Israeli industry,” Fassberg said.

The article goes on to say that even through wars and rockets, Intel Israel has never missed a manufacturing deadline.

(h/t/ Yoel)

Hamas backs off blaming Egypt for fuel crisis - blames Israel, PA instead

Hamas Gaza political leader Mahmoud Zahar has distanced himself from statements made a Gaza official recently that blamed Egyptian intelligence for Gaza's artificial fuel crisis.

An Egyptian officlal blasted Hamas in a newspaper interview, saying "the Hamas government instigated a crisis with Egypt to escape from its responsibilities towards the sector ...they make up and promote false information by claiming that Egypt was behind the electricity crisis in Gaza in order to deceive and mislead the Palestinian citizens."

Zahar, sensing that Hamas' relations with Egypt are not in good shape, instead decided to blame - who else? - Israel, and the PA as well. He said that "the Israeli occupation authority bears the responsibility of 100% of the crises within the Gaza Strip, because the Israeli occupation legally responsible for providing the Gaza Strip with supplies, stressing that the Authority in Ramallah owns the electricity company, which is responsible for providing fuel."

This is of course a baldfaced lie, since Hamas has been refusing to accept fuel via Kerem Shalom that Israel has been willing to provide.

The same official denied that Egypt ever agreed to ship fuel through Rafah, saying that a jerry-rigged pipeline there is too dangerous. If there is only one mistake it could explode and kill the hundreds of people who use that crossing every day.

He also claimed that Hamas did agree to have fuel shipped temporarily through Kerem Shalom, something that Hamas spokesman Abu Marzouk denied.

Former "America's Next Top Model" contestant now an IDF soldier

Remember Esther Petrack, the first observant Jewish woman to compete on America's Next Top Model?

The Jerusalem-born model moved back to Israel - and is now a soldier in the IDF and planning to become a tank instructor:

She says in an interview that her fellow girls in the Israeli army are nicer than the ones she lived with while doing the show.

(h/t O)

Egyptians protesting fuel shortages, not happy with Hamas

Egypt Independent reports:

The crisis resulting from the shortage of fuel and butane gas cylinders escalated on Tuesday, with taxi drivers blocking roads and people staging protests in various governorates.

In Sohag, taxi drivers blocked a railway and set fire to the signals, completely halting train movement in both directions, and the residents blocked the Akhmim Bridge that connects the east and the west of the city. They also threatened to storm the governor’s office if he did not solve the crisis, prompting him to call security services for protection.

Altercations took place between drivers and gas station employees in Fayoum. Both sides fought with knives but no injuries were reported. When the drivers threatened to set fire to the station, the police had to intervene and regulate the distribution of fuel among the cars.

In Minya, scores of people protested the shortage and blocked the roads, demanding that government officials resolve the problem. In Kafr al-Sheikh, cars queued in front of gas stations, obstructing traffic in the city, while in Beheira people clashed with taxi drivers for raising their tariffs.

The Egyptian Gazette adds:

Some drivers linked the crisis to smugglers, who reportedly buy up the subsidised petrol to sell abroad.

Which means - Gaza.

Egyptians are not happy with the idea of selling fuel at a low rate to Hamas while they cannot get any for themselves, which might be one reason Egypt has been dragging its feet on sending fuel to Gaza.

The Media Line details other problems between Hamas and Egypt:

Over the weekend, Yusef Rizka, adviser to Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh, whose Hamas movement has ruled the Mediterranean enclave since seizing power in 2007, charged that the leadership in Egypt is using the fuel crisis for “political extortion.” But Cairo charges that Gaza smugglers are buying subsidized gasoline in Egypt and reselling it at a profit at home.

The latest bickering comes against a background of disappointment on the part of the two neighbors.

Cairo accuses Hamas of taking advantage of the lawlessness in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by turning a blind eye to a flood of 1,300 stolen cars being smuggled into Gaza and allowing drugs grown there to be shipped out. They accuse the Islamic group of being behind the circulation of some $40 million of counterfeit U.S. currency in Egypt.

A senior Hamas security source sheepishly admitted that purloined vehicles had made there way to Gaza, but denied it was on a large scale. “It’s only 15 cars, not 1,300,” he told The Media Line on condition of anonymity.

But Egyptian accusations go deeper. Officials in Cairo say Hamas and other terrorist groups backed by Iran have turned Sinai into a staging ground for attacks on Israel. In fact, Israel says it has repeatedly foiled Sinai operations directed from Gaza. Its air force killed Zuhir Al-Qaisi, heads of the Popular Resistance Committee in a targeted assassination March 9, saying he was planning an attack from Sinai.

Cairo has been unhappy that Qatar, the distant, tiny but hugely wealthy Gulf emirate, supplanted it as mediator in the latest attempt to negotiate a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and its rival Fatah movement, which retains control of the West Bank. The talks have failed so far, but Qatar’s involvement was a blow to Egyptian prestige.

Hamas has it grievances, too. Expectations that the interim military government that replaced Mubarak would open the border between Gaza and Egypt and undermine Israel’s blockade have been disappointed; months after it was opened, traffic through the sole crossing point -- Rafah Terminal -- is severely restricted.

Moreover, Hamas officials themselves have been subject to delays travelling in and out of Gaza through Egypt, their only route to the outside world. Over the past few weeks, dozens of Hamas field commanders were blocked from crossing through the terminal Last month, Atef Edwan, a Hamas lawmaker, former minister and official in charge of refugees, was denied permission to visit Egypt when he landed at Cairo Airport and was told that he would be taken directly to Rafah, Hamas sources in Gaza told The Media Line.

Even Haniyeh, the prime minister, has been subject to insulting treatment, the security sources said. When Haniyeh left Gaza for a tour of the Gulf (including Iran, despite Cairo’s disapproval) his crossing at Rafah was delayed for two hours, allegedly for technical reasons, and his meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal Al-Janzouri was cancelled.

IANS adds:

Yousef Rezqa, an aide to the head of the Hamas government Ismail Haniya, told Xinhua that the Egyptian intelligence, who works to topple the Hamas rule, "is behind the crisis."

"The crisis is completely political. Particularly, the Egyptian intelligence has a hand in it. We hope that Egypt will be part of the solution, not part of deterioration of the crisis," said Rezqa.

Hamas expected the post-Mubarak Egypt to cozy up with the terrorist group, but it hasn't happened yet. The question is whether things will change when the new Islamist government is fully in place.

Toulouse murder suspect an Islamist

The suspect in the horrific Toulouse murders is named Mohammed Merah, 24.

From CNN:

About 300 police officers surrounded a house in the south of France on Wednesday, trying to coax a man whom authorities called a self-styled al Qaeda jihadist to surrender after a series of shootings that left seven people dead.

Soon after special operations police mounted their raid in Toulouse at 3:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. ET Tuesday), shots rang out from inside, wounding two officers, police said.
But as the standoff stretched to its sixth hour, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the suspect would surrender at noon (7 a.m. ET).

"The suspect told me -- and I hope he told me the truth -- that he will surrender at 12 p.m.," Gueant said.

The 24-year-old suspect is accused of killing seven people in the last 10 days: a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school on Monday, and three soldiers of north African origin who had recently returned from Afghanistan in two earlier incidents.

Interior Minister Gueant said the suspect is a French national of Algerian origin who spent considerable time in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"He claims to be a jihadist and says he belongs to al Qaeda. He wanted to avenge the Palestinian children and take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions," he told reporters at the scene.

The minister did not say how he knew this.

The suspect reportedly belongs to a little-known group called Forsane Alizza, or Knights of Glory, which the French government banned in January for trying to recruit people to fight in Afghanistan.

Police tracked the suspect down via his brother's IP address, which was apparently used to respond to an ad posted by the first victim, Gueant said.

Imad Ibn Ziaten, a paratrooper of North African origin, arranged to meet a man in Toulouse to sell him a scooter which he had advertised online, the minister said. The victim said in the ad that he was in the military.

A message sent from the suspect's brother's IP address was used to set up an appointment to inspect the bike, an appointment at which the paratrooper was killed on March 11, Gueant said.

Four days later, two other soldiers were shot dead and another injured by a black-clad man wearing a motorcycle helmet in the southwestern French city of Montauban, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Toulouse.

In the attack at the private Jewish school Ozar Hartorah on Monday, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet and driving a motor scooter pulled up and shot a teacher and three children -- two of them his own young sons -- in the head.

The other victim, the daughter of the school's director, was killed in front of her father.

Police said the same guns were used in all three attacks.

Police launched an intense manhunt, and on Wednesday night, zeroed in on the house, located about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Jewish school.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the four victims arrived in Israel where they will be buried in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.

"Today, all Israel is in pain and mourning over the deaths of innocent children and a dedicated father," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the families as the coffins were lowered from the plane.

The teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, was born and raised in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, but pursued his religious studies in Israel. He married and had children, before returning to teach at the Toulouse school, the consistory said.

His sons, Gabriel, 4, and Arieh, 5, will be buried with him.

The other victim, 7-year-old Miriam Monsonego, will be laid to rest at another cemetery.

The funeral is underway now.

The Telegraph is liveblogging the standoff.

Overnight open thread

Have a good evening!

More details on nefarious plot to destroy Al Aqsa with an earthquake

A couple of weeks ago I reported that an Islamic leader in the territories claimed that Israel was preparing to create an artificial earthquake to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple in its place.

Today a variant of this plan has come to light, thanks to the extensive intelligence network of the Islamists.

From Qudsmedia:

An expert in the affairs of Al-Aqsa warned of Israeli plan he described as "very dangerous" that targets the holy mosque and paves the way for a takeover by Jews and the extension of their control by the year 2020. The expert said that Israel is using 28 earthquake experts who are taking part in the planning to provoke an earthquake from underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque, which would be "the beginning of its demise."

The expert explained this during a symposium on Israeli plans to demolish al-Aqsa at the University College of Applied Sciences that the earthquake against al-Aqsa would be set off in 2020.

I wish I was one of the 28 experts dedicated to setting off an earthquake under Al Aqsa - precisely enough not to damage the Kotel - but I'm sure that the cunning Zionists managed to find just the right people to hatch this villainous plot.

Saudi Grand Mufti says to destroy all churches in the Gulf

From Arabian Business in a story I missed last week:

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia has said it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” following Kuwait’s moves to ban their construction.

Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, stressed that since the tiny Gulf state was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, it was necessary to destroy all of the churches in the country, Arabic media have reported.

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric made the comment in view of an age-old rule that only Islam can be practiced in the region.

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom. He is also the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas.

Elliott Abrams adds:

This report brought back memories of a trip to Saudi Arabia that I took in January 2001, before joining the Bush Administration. I travelled there as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the delegation (which included Cardinal McCarrick) met with government officials and religious authorities. To several, we made the argument that as Saudis claim to value religious faith and practice so deeply, surely they could understand the terrible hardship they were creating for the many Christians who lived in the Kingdom by forbidding them to worship. They can worship at home, came the reply (somewhat disingenuously, for we knew that the religious police often broke up such private religious services). That isn't enough, we argued, especially for Roman Catholics whose religion includes the sacraments that only a priest can administer. And there are roughly a million and a half Catholics, mostly Filipinos, here in Saudi Arabia, we said. Too bad, came the reply; they knew our rules before they came, and the rule is no religion other than Islam in Arabia. No churches. Period.

Well, we noted, there are churches in every other country on the Arabian Peninsula: Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE. You are the only exception. Are you suggesting that all those churches should be closed? Yes, came the reply. Every one of them.

Will this statement be vehemently condemned by the Western world? Will the UN hold a special session to denounce this bigotry and intolerance? Will other Muslims rise up in disgust and strongly oppose the Mufti's words, saying that he does not speak in their name?

(h/t Yoel)

Pukewashing: Knesset votes to ban underweight models in ads (includes gratuitous photos)

From Ha'aretz:

The Knesset yesterday passed a law banning the use of underweight models in advertising. The so-called "Photoshop law" also requires that any ad agency digitally altering photos to make models look thinner must disclose the fact in the advert.

The legislation is an effort to change idealized perceptions of beauty that, according to evidence presented to the Knesset, encourages eating disorders such as anorexia.

The law also bars the use of overly thin images from foreign advertising here, as defined by the commonly used medical measure of body mass index. Models with an index of 18.5 or less - or who appear to have such a low index - will not be allowed to appear in advertising.

Data from the Knesset's Research and Information Center presented at legislative hearings revealed that there are about 1,500 children, including teenagers, diagnosed with eating disorders in Israel annually. Evidence presented to the Knesset showed that exposure to idealized media images of bodies is one risk factor in developing an eating disorder, by glorifying the thin body.

As every Israel hater knows, this is a transparent attempt on the part of Knesset to distract the world from Israeli crimes. It is pukewashing.

Alisa Gourari, an 18-year-old model who was runner-up in the World Super Model competition, has modeled for Max Mara and Valentino. She has starred in a number of Israeli advertising campaigns but is too thin to meet the requirements of the new law. She said the debate over underweight models is important, but she too said the law applied limits without regard to whether the model was healthy at his or her weight.

Here is Gourari:

She does look scarily skinny.

Here are some of the 55 other Israeli models from Fashion Model Directory. Unfortunately, they do not mention the models' weights, so I cannot calculate which ones would be affected by this law. You guys will have to do the exhaustive research yourselves.

Israela Avtau

Elinor Gal

Yael Goldman

Shelly Hazan

Hial Marin

Tehila Rich

Tal Shomron

(h/t Dan)

Extreme leftist accusing Israeli textbooks of "turning nice Jewish boys into monsters"

From The National (UAE):

One asserts that Israel's Palestinian citizens shun modernisation and are building houses illegally. Another alleges the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank steals water from Israel. And elsewhere, that Palestinians have been a "terrifying demographic problem" for Israel.

Such statements are part of mainstream schoolbooks in Israel that teach an "anti-Palestinian" approach in a bid to prepare Jewish children to be aggressive towards Palestinians once they serve in the army, according to a new book.

To be released this month in the UK, the book - Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education - is the first to publicly provide evidence that Israeli schools have racist textbooks, said Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University who has researched dozens of Israeli schoolbooks published since the 1990s.

"I was looking for reasons of why nice Jewish boys turn into monsters when they join the army," said Ms Peled-Elhanan, in an interview at her home just outside Jerusalem.

"They never meet Palestinians face-to-face as children, so the textbooks are all they know."

Variants of this article will start appearing momentarily, even though the book is still a month away from being released. This means that Nurit Peled-Elhanan's vitriol and lies can be unopposed for quite some time before anyone can take the time to prove that her research is biased and often blatantly dishonest. And how many people will spend the $80 to actually read it? They will read the articles in Al Arabiya and The Guardian and believe that they know what they need to know about the book.

How do I know she is a liar? Because when she gave a presentation about her thesis (not even a scholarly paper) at the request of the PA, IMPACT-SE demolished it by looking at the very same textbooks she felt were problematic.

It seems unlikely that her research methods have improved much since then.

I excerpted parts of that report in this post last year, in response to her interview in The Guardian then.

As the IMPACT-SE report concluded:

From what we have shown, it is clear that Dr. Peled-Elhanan set out with the objective of labeling the Israeli curriculum racist. Motivated by her personal political agenda rather than an investigative spirit, she shot her arrow and then drew a target around it – or stated her preconceived thesis and then tried to find evidence for it. That was not an easy task, since Israeli school textbooks do not contain significant racist material, but she was not deterred by this problem. She made a formidable effort to find supposed evidence, whatever the cost.

By the way, rockets are still being shot from Gaza

But the "cease fire" is still holding, as long as your definition of "cease fire" is one-sided:

A two-day lull in Gaza rocket fire came to an end on Monday morning when a Qassam exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

The Color Red alert sounded in several area towns around 9:50 am, and residents were urged to seek shelter. The rocket hit shortly after.

And today:

A mortar shell fired from Gaza exploded in an open area in Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

The EU and PA collaborate to destroy Oslo

This week is the annual meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on Assistance to the Palestinians in Brussels. At this conference, the PA is presenting a paper, entitled "Equitable Development: Moving Forward Despite the Occupation," which includes this recommendation:

To tackle proactively the growing phenomenon of inequitable socio-economic conditions and quality of life driven by constraints on our ability to implement our development agenda throughout the land within the June 1967 borders – in particular, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the ‘seam zone’, the Jordan Valley as well as all other parts of the so-called ‘Area C’.

Their press release accompanying the paper was a bit more explicit:

This paper sets out the policies the government will take in the latest stage of our journey towards our own free country, an independent Palestine. While Israel, through its demolition and annexation policies on the ground, is destroying the possibility of reaching a two state solution, the paper calls on the international community to step up their efforts in Area C and East Jerusalem, if they are still committed to the idea of the two state solution.

The Oslo accords, of course, says that the final borders were up for negotiations, and until that is solved Area C is under exclusive Israeli control. Some 97% of Palestinian Arabs live in Areas A and B. When the PA is telling its Western donors to pay money to develop Area C, they are telling them to defy Oslo.

Beyond that, this idea has nothing to do with state-building. It is purely political, and meant to pressure Israel. The PA knows quite well that structures built without cooperation with Israel are often destroyed, and it also knows that Israel would face criticism when destroying illegally built structures funded by the EU.

The proof comes from a widely cited Guardian article last week:

Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills. The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity.

Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Nor are the vast majority of Palestinian communities in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The solar energy has replaced expensive and clunky oil-powered generators.

According to the Israeli authorities, these solar panels – along with six others in nearby villages – are illegal and have been slated for demolition.

Nihad Moor, 25, has three small children. The family live in a two-room tent kitted out with a fridge, TV and very old computer. She also has a small electric butter churn, which she uses to supplement her husband's small income from sheep farming.

"The kids get sick all the time. At the moment, because of a change in the weather, they all have colds. Without electricity I wouldn't even be able to see to help them when they need to use the [outdoor] toilet at night," Moor says. "I don't want to imagine what life would be like here if [the panels] were demolished."

Imneizil's solar system was built in 2009 by the Spanish NGO Seba at a cost of €30,000 to the Spanish government. According to the Israeli authorities, it was built without a permit.

World newspapers and bloggers seized on the idea that Israel was heartlessly demolishing the power source for this tiny village.

In fact, the entire village is illegal, and was built only in recent years:

Major Guy Inbar, a spokesman for Israeli military authorities, said of the demolition orders: "All the tents and buildings have been built illegally. Of course the solar panels were also built illegally. Using the backing of international assistance does not give immunity to violations." He stressed, however, that no final decision has been taken yet regarding the fate of the panels and turbines and that a subcommittee of military administrators is studying the matter.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denies that Israel is harming peace prospects through its policies in Area C. "We are acting in the framework of signed agreements. We were willing to move forward to sign more agreements, but that is not happening because the Palestinians refuse to negotiate." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made an Israeli freeze on settlements in the West Bank a precondition to resuming peace talks.

This idea of funding illegal development projects in Area C did not originate with the Palestinian Arabs. As the incident above illustrates, it was first thought of by European NGOs, working outside the framework of the Oslo accords.

And last year, the EU itself released a paper showing that they also want to sidestep Oslo and use these gimmicks to pressure Israel politically.

State building efforts in Area C of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the EU are therefore of utmost importance in order to support the creation of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. Full and effective Palestinian development of Area C will require the re-designation of Area C to Areas A and B. This objective has to be pursued at the political level. Enabling measures should, however, be pursued in the interim to support Palestinian presence in and development of this area.

Among the EU report recommendations:

Supporting development projects in Area C including by for example building new schools, community centers, clinics, municipal buildings, roads, irrigation, water and other infrastructural projects.

Supporting Palestinian private sector development in Area C in areas such as tourism, site protection, industrial parks, wastewater treatment, solid waste, landfills, water pipelines, electricity infrastructures etc.

Enabling the PLO/PA to plan and develop programs in Area C.

The new PA document mirrors the EU recommendations from last year of bypassing Oslo and Israeli law and building in Area C without coordination or even a master plan.

The intent is clear: to embarrass and pressure Israel. The Guardian played its role perfectly. After all, who can be against clean solar energy? Only a monster, it seems, would demolish solar panels sorely needed by a village that sprung up sometime in the past decade.

Interestingly, the EU officially says that it does not want to circumvent existing agreements between Israel and the PLO:

From the Commission prospectives, beyond this emergency situation, its is important the framework established by the Tripartite Action Plan must not be destroyed. The achievement of Paris meeting of 9 January 1996 must not be cast aside.

The PA's announcement yesterday must be seen in the entire context of a major international attempt to circumvent the Oslo accords and to pressure Israel. If only the same effort would be made to pressure the PLO to go back to the negotiating table.

Obviously, when the PLO feels that Europe will do all their work for them, they won't even consider negotiations. These initiatives are meant to bypass talks and to go straight to the PLO-demanded final solution of taking land without any compromise or concessions. It is no wonder that the PLO feels that it can ignore peace talks - it knows that Europe is backing them up.

UNRWA in 1966 saw no problem giving aid to terrorists

In 1966, Congressman H. B. Frelinghuysen and Senator Edward Kennedy both demanded that UNRWA stop giving food and other aid for any members of the Palestinian Liberation Army, the military wing of the PLO.

From the New York Times, June 13, 1966:

This became a particularly touchy issue for the US when the PLA announced that it would fight alongside the Vietcong.

UNRWA, however, didn't understand the problem with providing free aid to people who wanted to destroy Israel. At this time UNRWA was already thoroughly biased as it wholeheartedly identified with the Palestinian Arab cause against Israel. Its response to the US demand is remarkable in how clueless UNRWA was even then.

From JTA, October 17, 1966:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees admitted to the General Assembly here today that it is providing rations to refugees who are members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the group sworn to make war against Israel and receiving military training for that sole purpose.

Strong objections to such UNRWA activity was voiced here by many governments at the Assembly last year. Among the opponents to UNRWA aid for the PLO were not only Israel but also the United States, which contributes 70 percent of the UNRWA budget. However, Laurence Michelmore, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, which provides relief, housing and education for the Arab refugees, reported to the Assembly today:

"A special aspect of the question of ration rolls deserves mention. Doubts have been expressed by some Governments about the propriety of the Agency's issuing rations which may be consumed by young men in military training under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The host governments (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon) do not consider that these doubts are well-founded. In the light of these differences, arrangements have been made for special added donations to the amount of $150,000 which meets the total cost of any rations consumed by the young men in question.

"The Commissioner-General is satisfied that these arrangements provide a practical means of disposing of the problem insofar as the Agency is concerned. Contributors to UNRWA, who may have been concerned about this matter, may thus be assured by the Agency that their contributions will not be used to furnish assistance to refugees receiving military training under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization."

It was noted here immediately that Mr. Michelmore did not disclose the source of the $150,000 worth of "added donations," which, it is believed, come from the Arab countries. However, it was observed that he has made it clear that, whatever the source of the extra funds, the monies are being channeled through the United Nations agency in the form of rations.

A highly placed spokesman for the Israeli delegation, asked about Mr. Michelmore's statement regarding the furnishing of UNRWA rations to military trainees in the PLO, stated: "It is outrageous that the United Nations lends itself as an instrument in this sort of operation."

A couple of weeks later, the US condemned UNRWA for its tone-deaf response:

The United States Government strongly condemned today the provision of United Nations relief to Arab refugees serving in the Palestine Liberation Organization and the failure of the United Nations organization in charge of refugee relief to remove from its ration rolls the large number of refugees who are not entitled to U. N. aid.

These statements were made by U.S. Ambassador Harding F. Bancroft, the American representative in the General Assembly's 101-member Special Political Committee.

Referring then to the problem of aiding members of the PLO, Mr. Bancroft told the Committee: "Since the Palestine Liberation Army came into existence, many young men on the agency's ration rolls have been recruited into it -- and yet have remained on the ration rolls. The United States delegation made clear last year that we consider it inadmissible for a U. N. agency to supply rations to men serving in an army dedicated to the solution of the repatriation question by armed force and, indeed, to the overthrow of the government of a member of the United Nations."

He recalled that the United States objected last year to the provision of UNRWA aid to members of the PLO and told the Assembly: "My government's position as stated last year is one of principle. We believe the Assembly should not give the impression that it condones or regards with indifference the involvement of any United Nations agency with an organization which avows such purposes."

In the end, nothing happened. The US continued to fund UNRWA and UNRWA continued to provide aid to terrorists. In fact, in response to an incident after the 1967 war where Israel forced some 4000 PLA members to leave Gaza, UNRWA went out of its way to say that they were still refugees under its rule and as such should continue to get aid. I don't know all the details from the episode, but the UNRWA report for 1966-67 says:

[B]etween three and four thousand young men among the registered refugees in Gaza were forced to leave the Gaza Strip because the Israel authorities believed them to be members of the Palestine Liberation Army. They are now housed in a government-run camp in the Tahrir Province. UNRWA regards this group as falling under paragraph 6 of General Assembly resolution 2252 (ES-V) and has at the request of, and in agreement with, the Government of the United Arab Republic, undertaken to give assistance to the group.

UNRWA: part of the problem in the 1960s and still part of the problem today.

Park Slope Co-op BDS vote next week

The Park Slope Co-op, in Brooklyn, will vote next week whether it should hold a referendum to boycott Israeli goods.

Often, co-op meetings are sparsely attended and as a result the anti-Israel crowd can take over and force their opinions on the entire group. Only people who are members of the co-op can attend and vote at the meeting, and the anti-BDS organizers are trying to get as many members to come as possible to ensure that the measure is defeated.

If you are a member of the co-op, or if you know someone who is, please encourage them to attend (and to RSVP to the pro-Israel organizers.)

More information here and here.