Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

06/10 Links Pt2: Dr. King's pro-Israel Legacy; My own Jihad on “Stop the Occupation” Web Pages

From Ian:

Dr. King's pro-Israel Legacy (in 5 minutes) (h/t ProIsraelBayBloggers

Down the Middle East Memory Hole

In presenting his case that Israel is very far from being a colony, Friedman may be seen as offering a strong refutation to Ari Shavit’s showy “confession” in My Promised Land that Israel is indeed guilty of the sin of colonialism: the very sin so frequently invoked by its enemies to vilify and delegitimize it. For these enemies, the idea that Jews are native to the region is inadmissible—intolerable. And therein lies a clue both to their expunging of any memory of their own Jews and to their obsessive fixation on the un-erasable affront embodied in the existence of the Jewish state.
For what is it that really delegitimizes Israel in the eyes of its detractors? Why is the BDS movement so set against it, and not against, for example, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, to say nothing of Turkey, all of which occupy territories hastily cobbled together into states by the Treaty of Versailles and/or the disappearance of the colonial system—and all of which behave reprehensibly toward their remaining non-Arab, non-Islamic, and non-Turkic minorities? The answer is so obvious that I hesitate to put it in words. (h/t Norman F)

My own Jihad on “Stop the Occupation” Facebook Pages

It all started when I made up an alias facebook account so I could say what I really wanted to on Israeli news and Pro-Israel pages. Dare I say, maybe even this very one? Being right-wing when it comes to Israel, I didn’t have the desire to sift through anti-Semitic hate messages to my personal account. It’s funny how some leftist “humanitarians” spew the most venom at complete strangers with whom they don’t agree with. I decided to go undercover in my quest to spread the truth and confirm it for myself.
The truth is a very touchy subject when it comes to Israel. No one wants to hear it. No one wants to face it. To my surprise, I received much support for my blunt and honest statements. People were glad someone finally said what they wanted to say but felt they couldn’t. It’s hard to in this sugar-coated politically correct day-and-age. I decided to go onto Pro-Palestinian or rather Israeli-hate pages and enlighten them. That lasted about half a day before I was kicked out of all of them. Not for Muslim bashing, but for having another opinion. The “Free-Gaza” and “Stop the Occupation” activists don’t really like other opinions besides their own or actual facts. Truth seekers they are not. They want to play the victim and keep it that way. You may think facebook pages are nothing to worry about, yet these groups are in the thousands, which represent the millions. They create events and incite violence. They are not just a reflection of hate but the activists of it.
I could have stopped there, but what I saw on those pages drove me further in. I will discuss my other persona I used later. I was not shocked at the photoshoped images taken out of context with blatant false information as headlines. I was not shocked at the despicable hatred towards Israelis, specifically Jews. Yes, young Muslim’s living in America still refers to Jews as descendents of Apes and Pigs. I wasn’t even shocked at the thousands who joined these pages or hundreds of likes on pictures supporting terrorism. People justified the killing of Israeli children in the name of “resistance”. What did surprise me (from reading people’s comments) was how many actually believed the complete and utter hate propaganda.

"Unity government" calls to kill Jewish civilians, West forced to stay quiet

The world is happy to pretend that Hamas joining the PA is not a problem at all, and in fact its a good thing:

A top UN envoy has met with four ministers of the new Palestinian unity government in the formerly Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, assuring them of United Nations support, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told an Israeli security conference on Sunday that Palestinian unity deal with the Islamist Hamas movement must be supported.

“In the interest of a future peace deal and of a legitimate and representative government, intra-Palestinian reconciliation... should be supported,” Barroso told delegates at a conference in the coastal city of Herzliya.

In fact, this support of a unified Hamas/Fatah government is effectively the legitimization of terrorism.

If the world wants to embrace Hamas as part of the Palestinian Arab leadership, that means that it is embracing this:

Hamas has called on members of its armed wing in the West Bank to target Israeli soldiers
and civilians in a bid to ease the plight of its prisoners in Israeli jails, a party spokesman said on Monday.

“We call on the men of resistance in the West Bank, primarily the Al-Qassam Brigades, to fulfill their duty in protecting the prisoners on hunger strike by targeting the occupation soldiers and its settlers,” Hamas spokesman Hussam Badran wrote on his Facebook page Monday.

“The occupation must pay a high price in the blood of its soldiers and settlers until it is persuaded to solve the issue of prisoners on hunger strike. This is everyone’s task, on the individual and organizational levels,” he wrote.

If Hamas is part of the government, a statement like this must be immediately condemned not only by the UN and EU and US but by the PA itself.

But it won't be. It will be ignored by the world community, not wanting to embarrass Abbas into publicly pretending he is against terrorism, which would jeopardize the "unity" government that embraces.... terrorism.

So not only is "unity" with Hamas the antithesis of peace, it also creates a scenario where public incitement to terror is tacitly accepted by the supposedly progressive EU and UN. Before, the West could brush off such statements as just the rantings of a terrorist organization; by ignoring them now the West is effectively saying that the PA government can legitimately hold such positions.

The same people who fall over themselves to condemn the horror of an Israeli government agency approving a possible stage in the building of some houses in a few years are utterly silent when representatives of the Palestinian government calls for terror attacks (and keep in mind that to Hamas, all Israelis are "settlers.") Priorities, you know.

The real fruit of "unity" is the mainstreaming and acceptance of Palestinian terrorism in the world community.

(h/t Josh K)

"Breaking the Silence" silences IDF soldier (video, now with subtitles)

From Arutz-7:

Far-left anti-IDF group Breaking the Silence received a taste of its own tactics on Friday, after a nationalist from the Samaria Residents' Council "participated" in a "witness testimony" propaganda event.

Breaking the Silence events usually feature "testimony" from (alleged) former IDF soldiers, who spin personal stories about the Israeli military's activities in Judea and Samaria. Accusations usually include systemized abuse of Palestinian Arab prisoners, racism, and more, and are rarely if ever substantiated.

But on Friday, one activist - Tamir Yacobi from the grassroots Samaria Resident's Council, which aims to protect and empower Jewish Samaria residents - decided to present testimony of his own, crashing a "Breaking the Silence" event in Tel Aviv.

Yacobi begins to laud the IDF, and the humane way it treats Palestinian Arab terrorists while they are in Israeli detention.

"I enlisted in 2006, to the Armored Corps, to the 75th Battalion of the illustrious 7th Brigade, which took part in many famous battles, and participated at all of Israel's wars," Yacobi stated. "The Brigade is also known as 'Storm from the Golan'. After we enlisted, we were imbued with the IDF fighting spirit, and told of heroic deeds and fierce battles. I thought I would be honored to serve my country in that brigade."

Yacobi is then seen being interrupted and escorted offstage by security personnel from Breaking the Silence, who are heard telling him that "there is a line" for dedicated speakers and that he was breaking the rules.

Here is the full statement Yacobi intended to say, and that Breaking the Silence wanted silenced.

... From time to time, we were switched to Infantry duty, patrolling various points in Israel. Our patrols caught quite a few Palestinians attempting to cross from the Palestinian Authority areas into Israel.

I can never forget seeing them for the first time... they were just sitting there, in the holding cells, their eyes covered and their hands tied. I was just a young soldier. So I asked one our sergeants, 'what are you going to do with them?' He looked at me with empty eyes and said: 'Nothing, we're transferring them to the Police or to the Border Police.' I could not imagine what they would suffer there...

That was, before I discovered that they would be held for three days, and then set free. In fact, before we transferred them to the police, we provided them with blankets and food, and even cigarettes…

Are you getting that?! These people, who did not cross the border for nothing, some of whom may well have been bent on murder, just because their victims belong to a different nationality, as did the Nazis and before them the Crusaders, would be returned safely to their homes!

However, their intention did not prevent me, or any other IDF soldier, from providing them with all of the human rights they are entitled to. And we do that, knowing that there is a good possibility that one of them could be a heinous terrorist bent on slaughtering me – me, the one that calls you brothers and sisters – or your children and your families.

And that is the virtue that makes the IDF the most moral army of the world, and turns you people into hypocrites tainted with anti-Semitism that try to besmirch the most moral army in the world with lies and slander.

But here, at least, your attempt to use the IDF as a pawn in your political game didn't succeed. And you know why? Because we Israelis know the truth full well, and we know who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys. And you? Have you understood that yet?

(h/t Yoel)

06/10 Links Pt1: Report Debunks Killed in ‘Cold-Blood’ Claim; The Palestinians’ Self-Inflicted Tragedy

From Ian:

Report Debunks ‘Cold-Blood’ Claim on Palestinian Deaths

Israelis, Erekat said, “killed 66 Palestinians in cold blood” since negotiations started last summer. A new report, however, investigates the backgrounds of those killed, finding that a majority were members of radical terrorist organizations.
B’Tselem, an Israeli monitoring group, lists 43 Palestinians who were killed by the IDF from August 2013 through the end of March. In his report, Lt. Col (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, finds an overwhelming majority of those killed were combatants from radical Islamist terrorist organizations.
Those terrorist groups include Hamas and its al-Qassam Brigades military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades (Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing), al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Fatah’s military wing), the al-Qaeda associated Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
It is important to note that the nine people who were not affiliated with an organization were killed in response to standard military procedures. Three were killed as they approached a military outpost at the Gaza border and three others were killed participating in violent demonstrations. After firing at an IDF force, another Palestinian man was killed, and another instance included a woman shot by return IDF fire following an initial escalation of violence emanating from Gaza.

Controversial show on Jewish ties to Israel finally goes on display

A UNESCO exhibition on the history of the Jewish people’s ties to the Land of Israel will open Wednesday in Paris, six months after its originally scheduled debut had been canceled on short notice due to pressure from Arab member states.
The exhibit, entitled “People, Book, Land: The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land,” was authored by Israeli historian Robert Wistrich for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which partnered with UNESCO on the initiative.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wistrich and several representatives of the Wiesenthal Center, will be hosted by French President Francois Hollande in the Elysee Palace, a few hours before the exhibition will be ceremoniously opened in the presence of some 300 diplomats and other dignitaries.

No End to the Palestinians’ Self-Inflicted Tragedy

The very existence of naqba commemorations is therefore instructive in a way few realize. It informs us that Palestinians have not admitted or assimilated the fact – as Germans and Japanese have done – that they became victims as a direct result of their efforts to be perpetrators.
It informs us that Palestinians would still like to succeed today at what they miserably failed to achieve then.
And it informs us that they take no responsibility for their own predicament, which is uniquely maintained to this day at their own insistence.
If readers doubt this, consider the following vignette: in January 2001, John Manley, then-foreign minister in Jean Chretien’s Canadian government, offered to welcome Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Canada. The Palestinian response? Mr. Manley was burned in effigy by Palestinian rioters in Nablus, and Palestinian legislator Hussam Khader of Fatah – not Hamas or another of the Islamist groups –declared, “If Canada is serious about resettlement, you could expect military attacks in Ottawa or Montreal.” A similar offer by then-Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock also received a threatening Palestinian rejoinder.
Why this astounding response by a government official to an offer of refugee relief? Because establishing a Palestinian state and resettling the refugees and their descendants inside it or abroad would remove any internationally accepted grounds for conflict. That’s why helping to solve the Palestinian refugee problem is regarded as a hostile act – by Palestinians.

Nike short film has Star of David-like logo on bad guys

Nike released a short film yesterday that already has millions of views. As Adweek describes it:

The concept is that mad scientists have created clone versions of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Andrés Iniesta, Franck Ribery, David Luiz and Tim Howard. The human versions, you see, take too many risks on the field, and their percentage chances for success aren't great (prior evidence notwithstanding, apparently). The clones, meanwhile, precise and machinelike in their decision making, have been engineered to take no risks (the Germans have perfected this, of course, but never mind) and are ready to stomp on their frail human opponents with ruthless mathematical efficiency.

Thus, events are set in motion that lead to the ultimate showdown—as Nike calls it, "The Last Game." This isn't just a football match. It's Deep Blue vs. Kasparov for the future of world football.

Here are the cyborgs, with their uniforms:

OK, I understand that the logo represents a soccer ball. I can also understand that the creators of the video would choose the most symmetric, machine-like representation for their design.

But didn't anyone at Nike over the past several months of development look at it and notice that it is also essentially a Star of David?

Like this...

Did no one at Nike think to rotate the logo 30 degrees, so no one would associate the Jewish star with the inhuman, heartless, cyborg players?

(This is an example of the figure-ground optical illusion, where you can see one image or the other, but not both.)

(h/t Manny)

Yesterday I reported - probably exclusively - that the Waqf was setting up a summer camp on the holy ground of the Temple Mount, as they have for several years, where Muslim kids would learn arts and crafts and play sports.

Today, Palestine Today writes that Israeli police barred campers and counselors as well as others from entering the compound, setting up barricades at the entrances.

I don't know if this will become a new policy. The reports before the holiday of Shavuot where it looked like the police would allow Jews exclusive access for parts of the holiday apparently never happened. And without a consistent policy these moves are almost worthless, as they appear arbitrary rather than principled. Without consistency the Muslim leaders just conclude that they need to make more noise and threats and riots in order to sway Israeli authorities to bend to their will.

In what is almost certainly an example of projection, the report claimed that the police hurled "insults and abuse and threats of beatings and detention."

Orryia Kohen noted in the comments:

I work at the Western Wall, and just recently learned that people aren't allowed to bring into the area guitars (or any other musical instruments). People coming to attend a military swearing-in ceremony weren't even allowed to bring helium balloons, because it is deemed disrespectful. I think a summer camp would be kicked out of the area in five minutes.

Hamas and Fatah "unity" troubles increase

YNet reports:

Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have clashed with Hamas supporters late on on Monday despite a unity deal between the two rivals, witnesses said.

The confrontation was the latest sign reconciliation efforts are in trouble.

Police broke up a Hamas rally in the West Bank late on Monday. Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader, said officers stopped a convoy of 30 cars, seized Hamas banners and beat him and other protesters as well as journalists.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas has kept the banks closed for the seventh consecutive day not allowing any workers to receive their salaries - or even the families of terrorists from receiving their "salaries." Hamas is closing the banks because Abbas refuses to pay the 50,000 or so Hamas workers who took over the jobs of Fatah workers who were forced out in the Hamas Gaza coup. (The Fatah workers continued to draw salaries for years even when they weren't working.)

Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said yesterday that his movement should repudiate the reconciliation agreement. In regards to the bank crisis in Gaza, he asked how the new "unity" government could pay the absent Fatah workers and stop paying the Hamas workers who are actually working.

Short film to scare Arab Israelis away from joining the IDF

Apparently, Palestinian Arabs are very nervous about giving their own people freedom of choice.

As we've mentioned many times, Arab leaders are against any Palestinian Arabs voluntarily choosing to become citizens of any country - Arab or non-Arab.They want them to remain stateless, because if they decide to improve their lives, they will no longer be pawns in the power games of Palestinian politics.

Here's a new example. Israel has stated that it wants to recruit, on a voluntary basis, Arabs who do not have to serve.

In Israel, army service is important for getting jobs later in life, both because of the practical experience that many soldiers get but also because of the informal networking that inevitably follows army service. Besides that, some Israeli Arabs feel loyalty to their country and they actually want to serve.

This is causing panic among the Palestinian Arab elites who fear that their little empires will be destroyed without an artificially created unity, enforced by their own policies that keep their people miserable and take away freedom of choice for their people, freedom to work together with Israeli Jews to build a better Middle East.

This new video, ironically, claims that Israel is doing the brainwashing by allowing Arabs the freedom to choose whether to serve in the IDF or not. That freedom is anathema to Palestinians: (turn on closed-captioning)

So who is guilty of brainwashing?

Look how Electronic Intifada characterizes this piece of agitprop:

A new dark, psychological short film by Nadim Hamed produced by Eyad Barghouti in cooperation with the Palestinian civil society groups 7amleh and Baladna makes a bold statement against Israel’s latest attempts to enlist Palestinian citizens of Israel in the occupation army.

Project X features Samer Bisharat (star of Oscar-nominated Omar) as a youth who is brainwashed into serving in the army. But instead of gaining the privileges promised by a Palestinian collaborator, the young man realizes only devastating psychological and social costs as a result of his choice to serve.

The artistically potent short takes up one of the most pressing issues facing the nearly 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel who face daily systematic discrimination from education to employment and severe restrictions on land ownership.

You see? In the haters' logic, by trying to eliminate discrimination, Israel is causing discrimination!

Who really wants equal rights for Arabs in Israel? Clearly, not the people who made this film. Clearly, not the self-proclaimed arbiters of what a "good" Palestinian must do at Electronic Intifada.

06/09 Links Pt2: Red Cross Betrays Its Role - What HaAretz Refused to Print; Code Pink's BDS Fail

From Ian:

The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] Betrays Its Role — What HaAretz Refused to Print

I think that Art 49:1 sufficiently defines the meaning of transfer for the purpose of the whole article. The authors of Geneva 4 most likely did not think it necessary to repeat the adjective “forcible” in the subsequent paragraphs of Article 49. Moreover, trying to claim a non-forcible form of transfer is seeking to force a definition.
Moreover, since Article 49 and indeed all of Geneva Convention 4 are concerned to protect those upon whom forbidden actions would be practiced, then the people upon whom transfer and deportation are practiced are the ones to whom Article 49 extends its protection, the transferees and deportees. This does not include the pre-war residents of the occupied territory who are protected in various ways by other parts of Geneva Convention 4.
The ICRC changed its interpretation of Geneva 4:49:6 after the Six Day War in order to fit in with the mood of international anti-Israel hatred. This is pointed out in the letter below sent by me to HaAretz but not published. The unpublished letter below applies just as well to Anton Camen’s recent op ed in the Jerusalem Post as it does to Jakob Kellenberger’s piece in HaAretz in 2002:

The Horror of Holocaust Denial

Over the last few weeks, the Holocaust has appeared surprisingly often in the news. In most cases, the reason has been the surprising degree of ignorance or denial that so many people have about this cataclysmic event. The most disheartening reports have addressed the role of educators in spreading misinformation. Worse, they have illustrated that Holocaust denial is not just an ordinary form of ignorance but rather a modern cloak for the return of old-fashioned anti-Semitism.
The Anti-Defamation League’s much-heralded ADL Global 100 survey showed that 35% of adults worldwide have never heard of the Holocaust. Of those who have heard of it, 21% think it was a myth or exaggeration. One may quibble about the ADL survey’s methodology, but this study presents the best available evidence that we have about global attitudes. This revelation has been accompanied by three disturbing recent stories over the last few weeks.

Holocaust denier’s invitation to concentration camp memorial nixed after media exposé

German journalist Christoph Hörstel, a zealous supporter of Iran’s regime and Hezbollah and an alleged denier of the Holocaust, was invited to an event at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp to commemorate the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Hitler by German officers.
German author Tilman Tarach reported on Friday about the slated event on the website of the Berlin-based Jungle World weekly, causing organizers of the Sachsenhausen memorial to cancel Hörstel’s appearance the same day.
The planned participation of Hörstel showed that Germany’s remembrance culture had “gone to the dogs,” Tarach said. Organizers turned victims into perpetrators with the “planned event of a Holocaust- denier or relativist,” he wrote.

Al Azhar University condemns a rabbi

On Monday, Rabbi Yehuda Glick went to the Temple Mount. His presence reportedly caused a near riot.

According to the Al Aqsa Foundation, he and 13 "settlers" actually went up to the Dome of the Rock, which seems highly unlikely (we've seen Moshe Feiglin do this but the vast majority of religious Jews would not go there because of its extreme sanctity.)

His presence caused the Muslims there to supposedly force him and the other Jews out of the complex. They claim he was insulting them (which, in their minds, he probably was - by standing there.)

The Al Aqsa Foundation issued a press release criticizing Glick, and this got picked up by Al Azhar University - the most prestigious Sunni institute of Koran study. Al Azhar issued its own statement:

Al-Azhar strongly denounced here today Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Glick's breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Mughrabi Gate and ascension to the perimeter of the dish of the Dome of the Rock, accompanied by a group of Jewish settlers and guarded by special units of the Israeli police.

Al-Azhar's Sharif warned in a statement of the severe consequences of the recurrence of such aggressive acts that contribute to the breach of security and peace in occupied Palestine and hamper efforts dedicated to a just peace.

The statement called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League and the international community to take a firm stand against these provocative practices and prevent their recurrence in the future.

This is the first tme I've seen Al Azhar join this particular bandwagon of antisemitic hysteria.

Beitunia Pallywood again: The injury of Mohammed Azza/Azi/Aziz (update)

The HRW report I mentioned earlier today does shed light on something: the time of the shooting of the injured youth Mohammed Azza.

HRW says:

Israeli forces shot and wounded Azza in the chest at around 12:20 p.m., about 15 meters from where Nawareh and Salameh were later fatally shot, Azza’s father and a witness told Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch has not seen any video footage of Azza at the time he was shot. Azza stated he was not throwing rocks at that time.

...According to the reports, Azza suffered a gunshot injury to the left anterior chest wall and the left lung.

We have video from Camera 2 of Azza apparently being shot:

Starting from 12:20:00 on the security cam (37:20 of the video) you can see Azza moving towards the lower right side of the view, right next to a burning tire. He is hurling lots of stones, breaking some into smaller pieces on the ground.

Now that we have established how truthful Azza is in his testimony, we can go on.

At 12:20:42 on the CCTV time we see Azza suddenly crouch and turn - again, completely inconsistent with being shot in the chest with live fire, but possibly consistent with being hit with a rubber bullet. Two Arab girls in the lower right of the screen barely flinch at the sound, and continue to walk into the apparent line of fire, unconcerned.

Azza staggers back north, where he is quickly aided by a few people who help bring him to an ambulance.

There are photos of, supposedly, Azza with what appears to be a lot of blood. (I am not sure at what point he loses his light colored top/scarf.)

At least one photo appears to have been retouched, though. Here is the first one from the photographer's Facebook page:

Here's the version from Palestine News Network:

That is very bright blood, especially on dark clothing.

In the video, no blood is apparent on the street after the shooting. Still, this photo of him being carried to the ambulance seems to show blood on the carrier's jeans.

HRW's account is wildly different from the "eyewitnesses" that they love to quote. Mohammed told The Guardian that he was shot in the back, not the chest.

Fakher Zayed in the same Guardian video says that he witnessed three youths get shot: first one in the chest, the second in the back, and the third in an unspecified area, a half hour after the second. Since Nawareh was facing south and Salameh was facing north, and Azi was according to the video and HRW hit 85 minutes before Nawareh, none of what Zayed says squares with the facts (unless there was a mystery fourth incident.)

Azza's account of the events to The National is also utterly inconsistent with his statements elsewhere and with the video:

“The protest wasn’t so big when we got there [at about 10.30am], there were only around 70 boys and four soldiers who were shooting rubber bullets and tear gas. When we went to the front, everyone was moving fast and throwing rocks. I was looking directly at a soldier under the vine tree and I wasn’t moving,” Mohammed recalls, sitting next to his father in their detached home.

“Then I heard the sound of the rifle. I thought it was a rubber bullet but then I felt something burning inside me. I started running with some of the other guys and they told me that I had been shot in my back. Some people picked me up and carried me to the ambulance.”

So he was looking directly at the soldier who shot him and he was shot in the back? He started running with them even though no one is seen on the video?

None of this bothers Human Rights Watch. HRW says that Azza suffered wounds "to the chest" but then later says that "Mohammed Azza, 15, told Human Rights Watch that Israeli forces shot him in the back earlier during the protests." So HRW, trying to square the accounts, instead of showing skepticism over Azza's words compared to the medical report, seems to be claiming that Azza was shot twice!

The accounts are absurdly inconsistent, and they do not jive with the video at the moment that HRW says the event occurred, but HRW just shrugs and insists Israel shot him with live fire in the chest, causing him to...crouch down and run under his own power.

Here is the supposedly critically wounded Azza, smiling for the camera in a photo posted on the day after the incident:

And here is is five days later:

I have no idea what really happened at 12:20 PM on May 15. I do know that Azza is lying, big time, about what he was doing at the time, as are all the other "eyewitnesses" and his family. Based on his reaction and the reaction of the passersby, I think it is highly unlikely that he was hit by a live bullet.

More importantly, Human Rights Watch also has no idea what really happened - but that doesn't stop them from pushing their own theories as if they are fact.

(h/t Bob Knot)

UPDATE: I wrote this based on HRW's time of 12:20 for the incident. But DCI is claiming that they have a CAM 3 view of the incident that happened around 13:00. (Conveniently, we don't have CAM 1 footage at 13:00, it starts at 13:04, and that's the highest quality camera.)

Someone is wrong.

06/09 Links Pt1: G-d Bless Australia!; Will the West Fund Hamas?; Iran’s Neighbors Introduce Draft

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: G-d Bless Australia!

Of course, neither the EU, nor the Obama administration, could have gotten away with the ridiculous notion that Jews building housing for themselves on Jewish land is some crime against humanity, were it not for progressive-left diaspora Jews who assured them that they were correct to focus their ire on those other Jews over there, the bad ones – like our friends Yosef and Melody – who live where neither Barack Obama, nor Mahmoud Abbas, want them to live.
If western-left diaspora Jews blame their fellow Jews for the attacks against those Jews, then how could we possibly expect anything less from non-Jewish western leaders? If we will not stand up for ourselves, why in this world would we expect them to stand up for us?
The fact of the matter is that diaspora Jewry made a highly consequential error when it agreed with Mahmoud Abbas that Jews should not be allowed to build housing for themselves in Judea. Obama and the Europeans could not make a stink about Jews building homes were it not for the fact that western Jews went along with it. Certainly it would have been far more difficult for someone like Obama to object to Jews who build housing for themselves if his Jewish friends and advisers had not gone along and if the diaspora Jewish community had not done so.
We have no one to blame but ourselves, but in the meanwhile we still have some friends in the world.
Thank you, Australia.

Greg Sheridan: Resisting a destructive tide of prejudicial terminology

WHEN Attorney-General George Brandis told Senate estimates the Australian government would not under any circumstances refer to East Jerusalem as occupied East Jerusalem, he was not changing government policy.
He certainly was not changing Coalition government policy. He was changing policy as it evolved when Bob Carr was foreign minister, but this was not longstanding Australian foreign policy.
The Abbott government, on election, reverted back to the longstanding Australian government practice of seeking neutral language to describe territory in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank which are disputed between Israel and the Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in several statements and interviews had made it clear that the government did not regard all Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. Most importantly, she also did not state that the settlements were legal either.
The truth is they concern disputed territory, the status of which will have to be resolved in negotiations. This is what the relevant UN resolutions provide for, although UN resolutions themselves are not by their nature binding international law of and in themselves.
Brandis was right in international law. More importantly, he demonstrated significant political courage on a vexed and extremely complex issue.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Will the West Fund Hamas?

One thing is certain: both Hamas and Fatah hope to use the unity government as a ploy to attract financial aid from the international community, particularly Western donors. The unity government, which is backed by Fatah and Hamas (designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.), actually serves as a front for receiving funds from the international community for both parties .
Abbas, however, has realized that Western donors are not going to fund a government that pays salaries to thousands of Hamas employees, including members of the movement's armed wing, Ezaddin al-Kassam.
Meanwhile, the PA and Hamas have turned to some Arab countries for help. According to Palestinian sources, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, has promised to pay the salaries of the Hamas employees for May. But it is not clear whether the emir will continue to channel funds to the unity government in the coming months.
This, of course, does not bode well for the future of the reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah. All that is left for the two parties to do now is to try to persuade the Western donors to increase their financial aid to the unity government in order to solve the crisis over the wages of the Hamas employees.
It remains to be seen whether American and European taxpayers will agree to pay salaries to thousands of Hamas civil servants and militiamen in the Gaza Strip, who have not renounced their intent to commit acts of terrorism or destroy Israel.

Water sports! Arts and crafts! Muslim summer camp on Temple Mount

For the third year in a row, Muslim leaders are setting up a summer camp on Judaism's holiest site.

The camp launched yesterday, with some 400 boys and girls ages 6-13 attending for 17 days.

Activities include "sports, artistic, religious and Quranic sessions" as well as "water sports."

Children will also fan out to teach Muslim visitors the "truth" about the stolen Jewish holy spot and those who talk to the most people will win prizes.

During Ramadan the children will also learn about recycling. Because, after all, they are very progressive.

Fake video of Jew hit by taxi goes viral in Arab media

This video has reportedly been viewed over 1.5 million times after it was posted to the Al Quds newspaper website:

Fortunately, the video is fake. It was created by Israeli Yossi Shahar six months ago using Adobe After Effects and he posted it as an example of how to use the program. (And the effect is very impressive.)

Apparently Arabs are quite gleeful at the idea of a Jew being brutally hit by a taxi. Of course, they claimed that this was a "settler" in their version.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

HRW lies about Beitunia

In a move that surprises no one, Human Rights Watch has released a report on the Beitunia shootings that uncritically reports every anti-Israel claim and ignores everything that is self-contradictory:

Video footage, photographs, witness statements, and medical records indicate that two 17-year-old boys whom Israeli forces shot and killed on May 15, 2014 posed no imminent threat to the forces at the time. The boys, who had been participating in a demonstration in the West Bank, were apparently shot with live ammunition, Human Rights Watch said.

Video footage clearly shows Israeli soldiers firing in the direction of the boys, Nadim Nawareh and Mohammed Salameh, and the boys falling to the ground. Medical records indicate that the two boys, as well as 15-year-old, Mohammed Azza, whom Israeli forces also shot and seriously wounded, suffered wounds to the chest caused by live ammunition. Nawareh and Salameh were shot right through the chest. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch they heard the sound of live ammunition being fired, quite distinct from the sound of rubber bullet fire, at the time the three boys were shot.

“The willful killing of civilians by Israeli security forces as part of the occupation is a war crime,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Israel has a responsibility to prosecute the forces who targeted these teens, and also those responsible for assigning the use of live ammunition to police a demonstration.”

The Israeli military stated that it is investigating the killings but that its forces “did not use live fire,” only rubber bullets and teargas. However, rubber bullets are specifically designed not to penetrate bodies. It is highly unlikely that, at a range of at least 60 meters, rubber bullets would have caused the injuries that killed Nawareh and Salameh and wounded Azza. Nawareh’s family retrieved what may be the live bullet that killed him.

Offenses committed by Israeli security forces as part of the occupation, such as deliberate attacks on civilians, would be subject to prosecution under international humanitarian law as war crimes. Israeli forces have repeatedly shot Palestinians who posed no imminent threat with live ammunition during similar protests, including at an April 4 demonstration in the same location, and the Israeli military has a poor record of bringing soldiers to justice for such acts, Human Rights Watch said.

The boys were shot in three separate incidents but in virtually the same location in the town of Beitunia, where Palestinians had earlier held a demonstration to commemorate “Naqba Day,” which marks the expulsion of Palestinians from present-day Israel from 1947 to 1949. After the demonstration, there was a violent confrontation during which Israeli forces fired rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas at Palestinians who threw rocks at the forces.

A photojournalist taking pictures at the time, Samer Nazzal, told Human Rights Watch that Israeli forces shot rubber bullets at a group of Palestinians who gathered to carry Nawareh away. Human Rights Watch viewed a series of Nazzal’s high-shutter-speed photographs taken immediately after Nawareh was shot that show a projectile, apparently a rubber bullet, coming from the direction of the Israeli forces. It struck the head of a Palestinian medic, who was wearing a bright orange vest and was part of the group carrying Nawareh.

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem reported that Israeli occupation forces also shot and wounded a 23-year-old man in the arm that day with live ammunition.

...Witness statements, medical reports, security camera videos, news media videos and photographs by journalists, which Human Rights Watch viewed, indicate that Israeli forces fired live ammunition.

As we have shown conclusively, at least Nadeem Nawarah's fall to the ground was accompanied by what was undoubtedly the firing of a rubber bullet.

Nazzal and the other "eyewitnesses" are lying.

Nazzal, 28, a photographer and journalist for Raya news, told Human Rights Watch that he arrived at the scene at around 1:30 p.m., after the clashes had started. He later heard Israeli forces fire both rubber bullets and live ammunition. Witnesses at demonstrations, as well as Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights monitors, have repeatedly confirmed that the sound of live fire is easily distinguished from the sound of the type of rubber bullets used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Nazzal said:

There were seven or eight soldiers on foot in an elevated area, behind a concrete wall and fence, about 60 meters away. There were also a lot of [military vehicles] about 200 meters away from us. There were dozens of protesters, most of them doing nothing but watching, and about 20 others were throwing rocks. Two or three of them would run forward and throw rocks at a time, but because the soldiers were in an elevated place and shielded, none of the rocks seemed to actually hit them. They were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets constantly, and once in a while we would hear live ammunition.

I started taking photos of the clashes as soon as I got there. Nadim [Nawareh] decided to cross the street. At that time he wasn’t throwing rocks; he was just crossing the street. As soon as he was in the middle of the street he was shot straight in the chest. I saw it. I was just 15 meters away from him. I heard the bullet, and he dropped to the ground and didn’t move.

Zayed, the store owner, and Abbas Mamoni, another journalist, corroborated Nazzal’s account.

Nazzal took a rapid series of photographs that show a projectile flying toward the group evacuating Nawareh, and apparently striking the head of a man wearing a medic’s fluorescent vest. The man stumbles and holds his head in subsequent images.

This photograph, if accurate, exactly corresponds with the second gunshot sound in the CNN video, a sound identical to the first one that corresponds to Nawarah's fall. If the sound of a rubber bullet is so easily distinguishable from that of live fire - and it is - then the two shots were of the same type and Nawara was not hit by live fire.

HRW pretends to look at the inconsistencies but dismisses them with what can only be described as a wild conspiracy theory: (There are links in HRW's report that do not go anywhere, and there are no links to the description of the rifle.)

Some commentators and news reports have incorrectly stated that the CNN footage could not show Israeli forces shooting live ammunition because the assault rifles seen in the footage have attachments that are used to fire rubber bullets. However, the Israeli military has used at least one type of assault-rifle attachment, produced by Israel Military Industries, that allows forces to fire rubber bullets, but also to fire live ammunition without removing the attachment. A brochure states that the 22-centimeter-long “launcher” can be “attached to any rifle with NATO flash suppressor” and allows “immediate 5.56-mm lethal firing capability without removing adapter.”

Human Rights Watch could not determine whether the gunshot in the video fired a live round or a rubber bullet, or to rule out the possibility that Nawareh might have been killed by another gunshot that the video did not record.

The gunshot in the CNN video was accompanied by the appearance of a paper wad (you need to go frame by frame to see it) that accompanies many but not all rubber bullet firings, but do not correspond with live fire. In addition, the sound of a live fire round even from such a rifle would sound different, as HRW emphasizes. So HRW prefers a conspiracy theory involving several layers of IDF command over the clear evidence from the CNN video and photographs that HRW relies upon.

HRW's presentation of the facts here simply do not jive with the reality of the videos and the photos. The organization casts no doubt on the supposed bullet that Nawara's family has shown to the media that could not possibly have passed through a human body as an expert showed. And it is credulous regarding "eyewitnesses" who are known to lie.

But HRW isn't interested in discovering the truth - it is interested in damning Israel.

(h/t Gidon)