Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 16, 2015

01/16 Links Pt2: Kontorovich: ICC’s undermines its own independence with Palestine inquiry

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: ICC’s undermines its own independence with Palestine inquiry

The ICC’s Prosecutor announced today the opening of a “preliminary examination” into “the Situation in Palestine.” This means she will consider, on jurisdictional, evidentiary and policy grounds whether to open an investigation into crimes that may have been committed during this summer’s Gaza conflict. Opening such an investigation is a fairly standard step after receiving a declaration of acceptance of jurisdiction under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, and would not normally warrant much notice (other preliminary investigations also involve alleged crimes by the U.S. in Afghanistan and the U.K. in Iraq, though precious few Americans or British are aware of this).
But this decision of the prosecutor is quite different, and extremely significant. The decision to open the inquiry involved the prosecutor determining that the Palestinian Authority is in fact a “state,” a necessary precondition to jurisdiction under the Rome Statute, the Court’s constitutive treaty.
The ICC has never accepted jurisdiction over what is clearly at most a “marginal” state – one that is not a U.N. member, that has not ever claimed to govern any territory, and whose recognition by other states is limited (for example, the U.S., Canada and most Western European states do not recognize the existence of a Palestinian state). This is clearly dramatically different from anything the Court has done before.
But the prosecutor did not actually determine the Palestine qualifies as a “state” under the well-established legal definitions of the term. Rather, she said that the U.N. General Assembly’s vote in 2012 to call Palestine a “non-member state” is dispositive of the question. In short, she substituted the determination of the General Assembly for her own. The GA is not a judicial body, but a political one. Its determinations are political, not legal. (It also has no power under the U.N. Charter, to create or recognize states.)

ICC prosecutor opens probe into alleged Israeli war crimes

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor on Friday opened an initial probe to see if war crimes have been committed against Palestinians, including during last year’s Gaza conflict.
“Today the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine,” her office said in a statement, adding it may lead to a full-blown investigation.
Her decision comes after the Palestinians formally joined the ICC earlier this month allowing it to lodge war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints against Israel as of April 2014.
At the same time, the Palestinians also recognized the ICC’s jurisdiction retroactively, to cover the period during last summer’s war in Gaza that killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and 72 Israelis.
“A preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with a (full) investigation,” Bensouda said.

FM calls to dismantle ICC after launch of ‘war crimes’ probe

Liberman charged it was a “scandalous decision whose only goal is to try and harm Israel’s right to defend itself against terror.”
He said the decision was “solely motivated by political anti-Israel considerations,” and that Israel would not tolerate it, adding that he would recommend against cooperating with the probe.
“Israel will act in the international sphere to bring about the dismantling of this court which represents hypocrisy and gives impetus to terror,” Liberman continued in a statement released to the press.
Netanyahu also blasted the decision, accusing the ICC of being “part of the problem.”
“It’s scandalous that mere days after terrorists massacred Jews in France, the ICC prosecutor opens a probe against the Jewish state. And this is because we defend our citizens from Hamas, a terror group that signed a unity pact with the Palestinian Authority and war criminals who fired thousands of rockets at Israeli citizens,” charged the prime minister.
“Unfortunately, this makes the court part of the problem and not part of the solution,” he continued.

Filipinos burn fake Charlie Hebdo poster saying it is a Zionist conspiracy

From Naharnet/AFP:

Muslims marched in Middle East cities Friday to protest the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, as Qatar warned the image would "fuel hatred".

The largest rally was in Jordan, where around 2,500 protesters took to the streets of the capital Amman amid tightened security, while demonstrations also took place in east Jerusalem and Khartoum.

The crowd, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood and youth groups, set off from the Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman holding banners that read "insulting the prophet is global terrorism".

Jordan's opposition Islamic Action Front party, the political wing of the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has branded the publication of the cartoon as "an attack on Muslims across the world".

King Abdullah II, who last weekend joined world leaders on an anti-terror solidarity march in Paris, on Thursday said the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo was "irresponsible and reckless".

A protest against the cartoon in Tehran was canceled, with no official reason given, as senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani told worshipers its publication amounted to "savagery".

In Tunis, worshipers at El-Fath mosque interrupted prayer leader Noureddine Khadmi as he delivered a sermon saying: "We are all against insults made against our prophet but it is not a reason to kill".

Charlie Hebdo journalists "deserved to be killed because they insulted our prophet many times," the worshipers cried out.

Saudi Arabia's top religious body, the Council of Senior Ulema, also criticized the publication of Mohammed cartoons that it said "have nothing to do with the freedom of creativity or thought".

Its secretary general Fahd al-Majid warned that publishing such images would only "serve extremists who are in search of excuses for killing and terrorism".

Qatar condemned the publication:

Qatar warned Friday that publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed would "fuel hatred and anger", as a leading Muslim body called for peaceful protests against French weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Qatar "condemned the reprinting by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and other European press of pictures offensive to Prophet Mohammed," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Freedom of speech does not mean insulting others, hurting their feelings, and mocking their religious beliefs and idols," said the statement published by the official QNA news agency.

"These disgraceful actions are in the interest of nobody and will only fuel hatred and anger," it warned, describing them as a "violation of human values of peaceful coexistence, tolerance, justice, and respect among people."

RT adds:

Pakistani police fired tear gas and used water cannons on protesters in Karachi, with AFP photo journalist injured in the protests.

Earlier on, dozens of Pakistani lawmakers marched near the country’s parliament in Islamabad, calling for "death to blasphemers."

"All political parties are with us… All Muslim countries should condemn these blasphemous cartoons," Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Yousaf said, NBC reported.

Egypt’s top religious institution, the Al Azhar mosque, has expressed its outrage at the magazine’s new cartoon, describing it as a “blatant challenge to the feelings of Muslims who had sympathized with this newspaper,” AP reported.

Muslims in Aleppo on Thursday marched through the southwestern Syrian city, burning a “Je suis Charlie” poster.

Protesters in the Philippines marched in the southern town of Marawi, burning images of the magazine’s new cover.

"It's been a great (hic) run."

The respected CNN anchor who insulted me on Twitter during an epic and bizarre meltdown is now gone. Buh-bye!

From AdWeek:

CNN confirms longtime correspondent Jim Clancy has left the network after nearly 34 years. Clancy made the announcement to colleagues in an email obtained by TVNewser, calling CNN “one of the greatest news organizations in the world” and “a family to my own family.”

The timing of Clancy’s announcement comes just days after the veteran journalist had an extended debate via Twitter over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

In a statement to TVNewser, a CNN spokesperson “Jim Clancy is no longer with CNN. We thank him for more than three decades of distinguished service, and wish him nothing but the best.”

To be honest, I'd have preferred a real apology that indicated that he understood what he was saying and regretted it. And CNN should have issued a statement on how they will ensure that people with such obvious bias are not hired in the future to as journalists.

By doing it this way, CNN can pretend he left to "spend more time with his family" or whatever, instead of owning up to the fact that some journalists at CNN are anything but objective and forthrightly addressing the issue.

This is the second CNN personality that I've been involved in losing their job.

01/16 Links Pt1: Are Jews Safe in Europe?; Stop Comparing Anti-Islamic and Anti-Semitic Cartoons

From Ian:

Are Jews Safe in Europe?

There are three lessons from the explosion of European anti-Semitism.
First, hatred of Israel can no longer be separated from loathing of Jews. Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are one and the same. The hard-core anti-Israel protests that engulfed Europe showed that the demonstrators aimed to dismantle the Jewish state because of its Jewishness. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called contemporary anti-Semitism "pretend criticism of Israel," an "expression of Jew-hatred at pro-Palestinian demonstrations."
The second lesson is that mere opprobrium from European leaders is insufficient. To their credit, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Italy last summer condemned "the anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility toward Jews [and] attacks on people of the Jewish faith and synagogues." But rhetoric is not enough.
So the third lesson is the need for a zero-tolerance policy toward violent anti-Semitic rallies. And Europe should immediately adopt the U.S. State Department's definition of modern anti-Semitism, which includes anti-Zionism/Israelism. Finally, terrorist entities like Hezbollah and other jihadi networks should be banned. In sharp contrast to the United States, Europe allows Hezbollah's so-called political wing to operate and recruit within the 28-member European Union. Worse, with Europe striking Hamas from its terrorist list, there has been an active attempt to legitimize Islamist groups.
Change must ultimately start at the grassroots, turning anti-Semites and their political and religious movements into pariahs.
Absent this change, the safety of Jews, as well as European democracy, will continue to be jeopardized.

Caroline Glick: The answer to French anti-Semitism

January 16 is the nine-year anniversary of the beginning of the Ilan Halimi disaster.
On January 16, 2006, Sorour Arbabzadeh, the seductress from the Muslim anti-Jewish kidnapping gang led by Youssouf Fofana, entered the cellphone store where Halimi worked and set the honey trap.
Four days later, Halimi met Arbabzadeh for a drink at a working class bar and agreed to walk her home. She walked him straight into an ambush. Her comrades beat him, bound him and threw him into the trunk of their car.
They brought Halimi to a slum apartment and tortured him for 24 days and 24 nights before dumping him, handcuffed, naked, stabbed and suffering from third degree burns over two-thirds of his body, at a railway siding in Paris.
He died a few hours later in the hospital.
In an impassioned address to the French parliament on Tuesday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave a stirring denunciation of anti-Semitism, and demanded that his people stop treating it as someone else’s problem.
In his words, “Since Ilan Halimi in 2006... anti-Semitic acts in France have grown to an intolerable degree. The words, the insults, the gestures, the shameful attacks... did not produce the national outrage that our Jewish compatriots expected.”
Valls insisted that France needs to protect its Jewish community, lest France itself be destroyed.
Valls words were uplifting. But it is hard to see how they change the basic reality that the Jews of France face.
When all is said and done, it is their necks on the line while humanity’s conscience is merely troubled.

Sarah Honig: 'Charlie' makes them laugh

The inclination, subliminally or otherwise, to isolate Jews in a separate classification is pervasive.
The assumption that the bad guys aren’t primarily after non-Jews even offers a sense of semi-safety to the presumably uninvolved onlookers.
The segregation of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel terror into a different category is abetted by the two-faced denunciation of the Paris bloodshed by Mahmoud Abbas and his on-and-off Hamas partners in Gaza. They enable terror on a grand scale, but then deny culpability.
They pro forma condemn carnage but endorse, glorify and bankroll the perpetrators.
Sanctimonious pen-warriors don’t take Abbas or Hamas to task for their wrongdoing and blatant deception. Europe’s media further adds insult to injury by helping disseminate the false analogy between the demonized and dehumanized Jews of Hitler’s Germany to Europe’s Muslims who claim to be equally as collectively demonized.
Disagreeable as it surely is to tar any group collectively, there’s too much cynical PR profit in drawing this parallel for it to be taken at face value. Comparing Holocaust- era Judeophobia to Islamophobia is not only spurious but colossally galling.
For one thing, Jews never engaged in terror against Germans.
If anything, they regarded themselves as German patriots.
Then comes the minor matter of Arabs having been among the most vociferous promoters of Judeophobia in Nazi times. They still are to this day.
But Europe’s self-acclaimed pen-warriors are loath to take note, expose the chutzpah and sincerely fight against mega-hypocrisy. With rare exceptions, they are nothing like the gallant guardians of their own conceited portrayals. Their syrupy catchphrases in the end give succor to the implacable enemies of us all. “Je suis Charlie” makes the jihadists laugh.

Ambassador Prosor in UNSC: The Situation in the Middle East

Latest hilarious "proof" of Palestine

A tweet by "History of Palestine":

A rare image of a map of Palestine in the New York Tribune on June 17 of 1917. #Retweet pic.twitter.com/ALZnMGDGVX
— History of Palestine (@MatarMalak) January 16, 2015

Guess what on the caption was cropped out of this map that supposedly proves that Palestine was a state?

The New Judea!

The map wasn't describing an existing state - it was describing and anticipating a new Jewish state!

(If it was describing "historic Palestine" as defined now by Palestinian Arabs, then where is the Negev?)

The ancient, as well as potentially modern, Jewish state was commonly referred to as "Palestine" in English-language media for hundreds of years before 1948. Here's just one of many maps of "Palestine" from the 1800s that shows its divisions into the sections for the twelve tribes of Israel:

The idea of an Arab state of Palestine is less than 100 years old. The Israel-haters pretend that the Palestine referred to for hundreds of years previously, that was universally associated almost exclusively with Jews, is identical to the "Palestine" that they claim exists now. I recently showed how they do this by claiming a link to the Jewish Palestine soccer club of 1934.

You can read the entire 1917 article here or click on the thumbnail to the right. It was written months before the Balfour Declaration and was advocating a new Jewish state in the area that was then called Palestine.

Here's the last paragraph of the article that idiotic Israel-haters are using as "proof" that an Arab Palestinian state existed in June 1917:

(h/t/ @dlp6666 )

From Ma'an:

Hamas-affiliated parliament members in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday reactivated the coastal enclave's parliament, which had been suspended since a unity deal between Fatah and Hamas was agreed upon in April.

The convening of the session, which was attended exclusively by Hamas legislators, represents a major eruption of tensions within the Palestinian coalition government and presents yet another hurdle for officials trying to hold the agreement together.

Deputy speaker of the Gaza parliament Ahmad Bahar delivered a speech at the beginning of the session in which he warned of a possible "blowup" in the Gaza Strip as a result of the delay in reconstruction, the ongoing crippling Israeli siege, and the Palestinian Authority's failure to pay monthly salaries to civil servants employed under the former Hamas government.

Bahar also criticized the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for his participation in the recent Paris rally against terrorism in his speech.

Abbas, he said, should have instead invited the world leaders to "confront Israel's terrorism."

The Fatah movement, on the other hand, considered the parliament session in Gaza a unilateral move by the Hamas bloc and a negative step back from reconciliation.

Fatah-affiliated lawmaker Faisal Abu Shahla told Ma'an reporter that holding a session without any of the other factions present indicates that "partnership according to Hamas means that Hamas can do whatever it wants and whenever it wants and all others should only be supportive."

Abu Shahla slammed the criticism against president Abbas at the parliament, adding: "President Abbas is an elected president, so how could he be attacked and accused at the Palestinian parliament!"

The "elected" Mahmoud Abbas just started the 11th year of his four year term.

I also love that Fatah is upset over "unilateral moves" and accuses its opponent to "do whatever it wants and whenever it wants and all others should only be supportive." Hamas had a good teacher.

Meanwhile, Hamas is now blaming Abbas for the "siege" of Gaza!

Palestinian MP Fathi Hammad said Wednesday that the unity government and President Mahmoud Abbas are part of the siege on Gaza and an obstacle for reconstruction of the war-torn territory.

Hammad, a Hamas official, told Ma'an that the unity government must be held accountable for promising to hold elections within six months.

He also accused the unity government of failing to stand beside the people of Gaza and warned that the ongoing blockade could lead to a "popular explosion."

They sound like they are ready to accept the responsibilities of statehood, don't they?

The cartoonist that the PLO assassinated

Another meme that has been spreading by Israel haters after the Charlie Hebdo murders is the lie that Israel had assassinated famed Palestinian Arab cartoonist Naji al-Ali in 1987.

As evidence, they point to the fact that Israeli diplomats were deported from the UK after the incident.

As usual, they aren't telling the whole truth. All evidence indicates that Naji al-Ali was killed by the PLO. Britain never said Israel was behind the assassination - they were upset that the Mossad knew that the PLO was going to assassinate al-Ali and did not inform British intelligence.

Believe it or not, Electronic Intifada has a reasonable description of what happened:

On Wednesday July 22 1987 at five in the afternoon, Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali parked his car in southwest London, and walked a few meters towards the offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas where he worked. He was shot in the head by a gunman, dressed in a denim jacket, who walked calmly away down Draycott, near Sloane Square and vanished.

After five weeks in a coma on a life support machine at St Stephen’s hospital and the neurosurgical department of Charing Cross hospital in London, Naji al-Ali died at 5am on Saturday, August 30, 1987 at the age of 49.

A friend of Naji al-Ali was quoted saying that he had been warned his life was in danger in a telephone call from a senior member of the PLO in Tunis. The telephone call, two weeks before the murder, came after the publication of a cartoon attacking a female friend of PLO leader Yasser Arafat. “The cartoon was famous in the Arab community,” the friend said. The caller said: “You must correct your attitude.”

“Don’t say anything against the honest people, otherwise we will have business to sort you out,” the caller continued. Naji al-Ali ignored the warning and published a cartoon lampooning Arafat and his henchmen on 24 June.

Ten months after Naji al-Ali was shot, Scotland Yard arrested a Palestinian student who turned out to be a Mossad agent. Under interrogation, the Jerusalem-born man, Ismail Suwan, said that his superiors in Tel Aviv had been briefed well in advance of the plot to kill the cartoonist.

By refusing to pass on the relevant information to their British counterparts, Mossad earned the displeasure of Britain, which retaliated by expelling two Israeli diplomats from London.

Security first (ElderToons)

Inspired by this excellent op-ed by Brendan O'Neill.

01/15 Links Pt2: Saddam Hussein - Fatah and PA hero; Pat Condell: Nothing to do with Islam

From Ian:

PMW: Saddam Hussein - Fatah and PA hero

According to a famous saying, you can "know a man by his friends." Just yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party chose to remind Palestinians of the deep friendship between former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Palestinian Authority and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat. They posted a picture on the official Fatah Facebook "Main Page" of Arafat and Hussein warmly shaking hands.
The PA and Fatah's honoring of Saddam Hussein who was convicted by an Iraqi court and executed in 2006 for crimes against his own people, is nothing new. Last year, speaking in Mahmoud Abbas' name, Talal Dweikat commemorated Saddam Hussein as a "great leader and fighter" at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the establishment of the Arab-Iraqi army
Palestinian Media Watch has reported extensively on Palestinian glorification of Saddam Hussein, including Fatah publishing admiring comments and pictures such as this: "He smiled to deny the enemy the pleasure of victory. May Allah have mercy on you, Saddam Hussein."

Prosecutor claims Argentina’s president hid Iran role in 1994 bombing

The Argentinean prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center on Wednesday accused Argentina’s president and foreign minister of covering up Iran’s involvement in the attack.
Alberto Nisman filed a 300-page complaint naming President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and others of seeking to “erase” Iran’s role in the bombing at the AMIA community center offices in which 85 people were killed. He said he wants to question the president and other officials who he claims are involved in the cover-up.
Nisman claims that the president decided to “not incriminate” former senior Iranian officials for their roles in planning the bombing, and instead has sought a rapprochement with Tehran, “establishing trade relations to mitigate Argentina’s severe energy crisis,” the Buenos Aires Herald reported.
When her agreement with Iran was challenged in the Argentinean courts, “and here is the criminal (aspect), the president ordered to divert the investigation, abandoning years of a legitimate demand of justice, and sought to free the Iranians imputed (in the case) from all suspicions, contradicting their proven ties with the attack. She decided to fabricate ‘the innocence of Iran’,” the newspaper quoted Nisman as alleging. (h/t Vandoren)

Pat Condell: Nothing to do with Islam (h/t dabney)

2015 Hasby Award - Best Young Defender of Israel

The nominees for the Hasby Award for Best Young Defender of Israel are:

Ryan Bellerose

Chloe Valdary

Daniel Mael

Muhammed Zoabi

Sarah Bernamoff

Samantha Hamilton

Jake Birell

Another killer category, and one I am happy to have added this year. But, damn, this is hard to decide..

The 2015 Hasby Award for Best Young Defender of Israel goes to...

In the aftermath of CNN's Jim Clancy's bizarre anti-Israel meltdown last week on Twitter, we haven't heard much from him.

Many embarrassing tweets from that night of his rants had been quietly deleted - to see which ones of his are gone (not including his replies, alas) compare this snapshot from yesterday with this one from January 8.

Plenty of people who merely tweeted him once were instantly blocked. In fact, Clancy only discovered the block functionality of Twitter on that very same day:

CNN has been completely silent. But criticism has been mounting, most recently from disability rights organizations upset at his use of the word "cripple."

While one report of his did air last Friday, I don' t know if he has been on the air this week.

Now, his Twitter account has been taken down.

Yes, the media personality who praises the "block" function has been permanently blocked. To paraphrase him, let us praise the Lord's wisdom and grace!

It sure looks like CNN is quietly lowering the boom on Clancy, but trying very hard to do it under the radar.

Meanwhile, anyone tried to include Clancy's meltdown on his Wikipedia page have been stymied by one of his apparent fans who doesn't want this story to get any bigger than it already is.

(h/t Israellycool)

01/15 Links Pt1: French PM Issues Blistering Denunciation of Antisemitism

From Ian:

‘We Haven’t Shown Enough Outrage:’ French PM Issues Blistering Denunciation of Antisemitism

It was an electrifying moment: in a voice crackling with anger and pain, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls denounced the rise of antisemitism in France before the country’s National Assembly yesterday, pointedly observing, “We haven’t shown enough outrage.”
Valls was speaking following the funerals of seven of the victims of last week’s Islamist terrorist attacks in France, in which a total of 17 people, including four Jews trapped in Friday’s siege at the HyperCacher market in eastern Paris, were murdered in cold blood.
Though his speech covered a wide range of issues, and included an emotional plea to recognize that France is “at war with jihadism and terrorism…not against Islam and Muslims,” Valls was determined to highlight the threat posed by antisemitism, declaring: “I say to the people in general who perhaps have not reacted sufficiently up to now, and to our Jewish compatriots, that this time [antisemitism] cannot be accepted.”
The address brought to mind the impassioned “J’Accuse” letter, penned by the great French writer Emile Zola in 1898, in response to the antisemitism displayed by the French government during the infamous trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish military officer who was convicted and publicly humiliated on fabricated charges of treason. In that letter, Zola spoke with disgust “of the hunting for the ‘dirty Jews,’ which dishonors our time.”
When Valls asked with anger, “How can we accept that cries of ‘death to the Jews’ can be heard on the streets?” the echoes of Zola’s words were unmistakable.
In his speech, Valls was explicit that the “first question that has to be dealt with clearly is the struggle against antisemitism.” (h/t Guest)

France envoy to JPost: Jewish crisis has 'nothing to do with Israel and the Palestinians'

In a modern synagogue in the capitol on Tuesday, alongside members of Congress, Obama administration officials and hundreds of deeply troubled Jewish Americans, France's ambassador to the United States apologized for his country's conduct last week.
"We failed," Ambassador Gérard Araud told the audience. "We have not done enough. It's obvious."
Araud, once France's envoy to Israel, said he was "ashamed" at the prospect of his Jewish compatriots fleeing France out of fear, after the latest anti-Semitic attack in his homeland on Friday claimed the lives of four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket.
"We have to consider that we are at war," he said, warning that the very soul of France is at stake. "The first line of democracy is the journalists and the Jews."
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday night, Araud expanded on the dimensions and targets of that war.
France's challenge, he said, is delineating between criticism of the Israeli government and a growing, radical opposition to the existence of Israel as a vehicle for hatred against the Jewish people.

French Muslim Students Yell “Allahu Akbar,” Dishonor Moment Of Silence For Charlie Hebdo Victims

Throughout many schools in France, Muslim students refused to comply with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. While some spoke obnoxiously loudly during the 60 second period, others yelled “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is great.” In another incident, a group of young Muslims dishonored the moment of silence, telling their teacher, “You reap what you sow,” the Washington Post reports.
At another school in Seine-Saine-Denis, some 80 percent of students refused to honor the moment of silence, saying that the Charlie Hebdo staff “deserved what they got” for insulting Islam’s Muhammad, reports Le Figaro. In another incident in Lille, a young boy threatened to shoot his teacher “with a Kalashnikov” for asking him to remain silent during the minute of remembrance. Others spoke highly of jihadists who had joined ISIS and fought on behalf of Islam abroad.
“You do not understand the Prophet, they should not have drawn it… He is above men,” was another student’s explanation as to why he was not going to respect the minute of silence.

People seem surprised that Hamas pretended to condemn the murder of Jews in Paris saying there was "no justification for killing innocents." (A close reading of the Hamas statement shows that they didn't condemn the murder of Jews, but only of the Charlie Hebdo employees.)

Since Palestinian Arab groups celebrated the murder of Jews praying in Jerusalem so recently, and Hamas students even made a music video about that attack, obviously killing Jews is not considered a bad thing for these terrorists and their supporters.

But there is something that they do consider a bad thing: the idea of Jews moving to Israel. And when attacks on Jews i Europe prompt more Jews to consider making aliyah, the Arabs get very upset.

Dr. Hanna Issa, Secretary General of the Islamic-Christian Committee to Support Occupied Jerusalem and Holy Sites, condemned Netanyahu's and Lieberman's calls inviting French Jews to move to Israel, saying that they will all be moved into the territories. His statements were reported in dozens of Arabic media outlets.

But it is not only living Jews who enrage Palestinian Arabs when they move to Israel. Dead ones are just as bad.

Supreme Islamic Council head Sheikh Ekrema Sabri railed against the Paris Jewish victims being buried in Israel. he called the idea "unacceptable" and characterized it as "a direct attack on the city of Jerusalem."

Adnan Husseini, who calls himself the "governor of Jerusalem," said that the idea of bringing the bodies of Jews to be buried in Jerusalem is "an Israeli superstition" that reflects the Israeli government's "tension and confusion and inability to deal with political issues" they face.

By coincidence, one of the stories from this date in 1948 being tweeted out by 1948 War was this one, that explains how things really haven't changed:

Arab Nat Com Saleh Ed-din Abbasi says Haifa Arabs are 'now united, paying with precious blood to keep country purely Arab' [15 Jan 48]
— 48 Arab Israeli War (@1948War) January 15, 2015

Today is the 13th anniversary of the death of Raed Karmi, one of the major Fatah terrorists of the second intifada. Fatah's Facebook page has a number of posts and videos celebrating his life of murdering Jews.

Here is his terror history:

Since the beginning of the current wave of Palestinian violence in October 2000, Karmi had been the leading member of a murderous Tanzim cell that was responsible for numerous shooting attacks in the Tulkarem area, in which both Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed and wounded.

In media interviews, Karmi had made it clear that he was determined to continue terrorist attacks against Israel and that he wanted to expand them. In a CNN interview on August 23, 2001, Karmi stated firmly: “We train the teenagers to carry out terrorist attacks inside Israeli territory.We train 17- and 18-year-olds to attack settlers, kidnap soldiers inside Israel.” In other interviews, he also described his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli restaurateurs in Tulkarem.

Raed Karmi acted directly under Marwan Bargouti, head of the Tanzim in Judea and Samaria and was under his direct supervision.

Raed Karmi was involved in the perpetration of many terrorist attacks, including:

Numerous shooting attacks on IDF and Border Police bases in the area of Tulkarem.

Oct 20, 2000: participated in shooting attack on bus of Golani soldiers that mistakenly entered the city.

Dec 7, 2000: Shooting at an Israeli vehicle near the village of Burke, seriously injuring soldiers and a female civilian.

Jan 23, 2001: Kidnapping and murder of two Tel-Aviv restaurant owners, Motti Dayan and Etgar Zeitouny, in Tulkarem.

May 31, 2001: Karmi participated in a shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle in Baka el-Sharkia, in which Zvi Shelef of Mevo Dotan was killed.

June 18, 2001: Shooting attack near in Einav, in which an Israeli civilian, Dan Yehuda of Homesh, was killed and Alex Briskin was injured.

July 4, 2001: The murder of Eliahu Na’aman near the village of Suweika.

July 30, 2001: Shooting attacks near the Israeli Arab village of Bir Saha, in which three Border Policemen were injured – one, Hani Abramov, a female officer, was severely wounded.

Aug 26, 2001: The murder of Dov Rosman of Netanya near the village of Zaita.

Sept 6, 2001: Shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle near Kibbutz Bahan, in which an off-duty IDF officer, Lt. Erez Merhavi was killed and a fellow female officer was injured.

Oct 5, 2001: Shooting attack in which an Israeli citizen, Hananya Ben-Avraham of Elad, was killed.

Oct 28, 2001: Karmi was involved in a shooting attack near Kibbutz Metzer in which an IDF officer, Yaniv Levy, was killed.

Oct 29, 2001: Attempt to detonate a bomb in the home of a naval officer in Raanana.

Nov 19, 2001: Shooting attack on a taxi near the Shavei Shomron junction, in which three Israeli citizens, including the rabbi of Shavei Shomron, were injured.

Nov 28, 2001: attempt by two suicide bombers to infiltrate into Israeli territory, foiled by reinforced IDF forces along the Green Line near Tulkarem.

Dec 15, 2001: An abortive suicide attack in which the explosive charge blew up prematurely near Shaar Ephraim; only the terrorist was killed.

As the terror trial against the PLO gets underway, it is important to note that Karmi was supposedly in PA prison while he was carrying out his attacks. As Haaretz noted at the time:

Israel demanded that the PA arrest Karmi on June 14, 2001, one day after signing the Tenet Document. The PA held Karmi in "defensive detention," which allowed him to leave prison and take part in shooting attacks.

So the PLO would tell its European friends that Karmi was in jail, while they were actually promoting his terror career and using the jail as a means to protect him from Israel!

I mentioned last month that the Gisha NGO, the "legal center for freedom of movement" which is well-funded by many European governments and organizations, goes out of its way to avoid condemning Hamas for its restrictions on freedom of movement into and out of Gaza.

The last time it condemned Hamas for blocking Gazan;s movement, as far as I can tell, was in 2011. The many examples since then have gone unremarked by this "freedom of movement" organization.

Here is how Gisha reported on the closing of the Erez crossing last week:

Erez Crossing closed last Thursday, January 8, following a disagreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and is operating only for exceptional cases: Medical patients, Israeli citizens, and UNDP and UNRWA staff. According to Palestinian sources, the crossing was closed after Hamas placed a container on the Palestinian side of the crossing designed to be used as an office for its employees. The container is said to obstruct passage, and both Israel and the PA objected to its installation. PA employees on the Palestinian side of Erez refuse to work until the container is removed. Gisha calls on all parties to immediately resolve the matter, which is impacting on the civilian population and its ability to travel.

Hamas effectively installed an additional gateway for travelers to go through before entering and leaving Gaza. Yet it took three days for Gisha to even mention this on its site, and when it did it studiously avoided blaming Hamas for its unilateral move that caused the crossing to be closed. The entire press release was clearly only published reluctantly. Erez remained mostly closed for an entire week until it was re-opened today, and this is Gisha's only mention of it.

On the other hand, within one day of Israel closing the crossings last November due to rocket fire, Gisha immediately and expansively condemned Israel, calling it "collective punishment."

It is interesting that this EU-funded organization shows so little regard to Gazans when Hamas is the party guilty of restricting their freedom of movement.