MEMRI: Official Fatah Facebook Page Honors Japanese Terrorist Kozo Okamoto
On August 12, 2018, Fatah's official Facebook page posted a photo of Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto and information about him. Okamoto was one of three terrorists, members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), who carried out an attack in Israel's Lod Airport on May 30, 1972, in which 26 people were killed and 79 were injured. Before participating in the attack, in 1971, Okamoto trained in Lebanon with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Okamoto's fellow terrorists were killed in the course of the attack, and he himself was sentenced by an Israeli court to three consecutive life sentences, but was released after 13 years as part of the Jibril Agreement, a prisoners exchange deal between Israel and the PFLP-General Command.Kushner is right about the United Nations
The following is a translation of the post on Fatah's Facebook page:[1]
The August 12, 2018 post on Fatah's Facebook page
"Who Is Kozo Okamoto?
"1. A Japanese fighter who carried out an attack against the Zionists in Palestine.
"2. Converted to Islam at the age of 24 and participated in an operation at Lod Airport in 1972, in which 26 Zionists were killed. He was captured after he ran out of ammunition.
"3. He was sentenced to death but following pressures by Japan his sentence was changed to life in prison.
"4. He was released in 1985."
It should be noted that this is not the first post about Okamoto to appear on Fatah's official Facebook page. On May 18, 2016, a post appeared headed "Who Is Comrade Kozo Okamoto, the International Revolutionary?," which said: "On May 30, 1972, a squad of three Japanese commandos stormed the Lod Airport. They threw five grenades: three at the planes parked at the airport, one at the customs office there, and another at the vehicles parked at the airport. As a result 26 Israelis were killed and over 80 were injured. After throwing the grenades the squad started retreating from the airport, and clashed on the way with an Israeli patrol near Ramla prison, wounding five members of the patrol unit.[2] Two of the three Japanese commandos gave their lives [in the attack]: Tsuyoshi Okudaira (whose nom de guerre was Bassam), and Yasuyuki Yasuda (whose nom de guerre was Salah). The third, Kozo Okamoto (whose nom de guerre is Ahmad), was wounded and captured. The operation was planned by the PFLP.
Jared Kushner may be right in seeking to disrupt the current structure of US assistance to the Palestinians. Since 1950, America has contributed more than $6 billion to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA supports roughly 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who were displaced during the 1948 and 1967 Israeli-Arab wars. About 30,000 of UNRWA’s 5 million Palestinians are first generation refugees. UNRWA’s most visible operations are in Gaza, a nearly impossible responsibility made even more difficult, as Hamas and the Israelis are on the brink of a fourth war in the last decade. Like any organization established in the 1950s, it is time for 21st Century disruption. Re-visioning UNRWA, however, requires thoughtful diplomacy and economic nuance.Fearing Gaza crisis, Israel asks US to scale back aid agency cuts
The international community should not regard UNRWA as a monolith. Circumstances in Jordan, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem are vastly different than in Gaza, Syria, or the sealed refugee camps in Lebanon. UNRWA primarily provides health, education, and social services; make no mistake this assistance is life-saving to the most vulnerable. But after 70 years, the structure and incentives have ossified to create welfare dependency. Most Palestinians would prefer the dignity of a state, a job, and the potential of a real future than food basket deliveries, generation after generation. While acknowledging its good work in tough places, UNRWA subsidizes dysfunctionality and an unsustainable status quo in most of the Levant. Here are three suggestions to hack UNRWA.
Kushner is right to demand a fundamental re-ordering of UNRWA. The UN agency serves as a welfare and humanitarian relief provider which after 70 years subsidizes despair and continued conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Yet, hacking UNRWA raises a few cautionary flags given that disruptive change can do real harm. The administration must ensure that UNRWA can start the school year for all of its students, particularly in Gaza. Imagine the Israelis and Palestinians on the brink of war with schools closed indefinitely. Further, an UNRWA exit strategy will require intense international cooperation. Lastly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the death bed of big ideas and failure is a real possibility. The world today is vastly different from the one in 1950 when UNRWA was created. Disrupting the UNRWA’s organizational model is essential if the Middle East wants to see a different future.
Israel has asked the United States not to withhold funds from the U.N. agency responsible for assisting Gazans out of concern that this would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled enclave and increase the probability of armed conflict.
Sources familiar with the details told Israel Hayom on Sunday that the Israeli position was presented to the Trump administration several months ago, and remains unchanged.
Officially, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides educational, health and social services to some 5 million Palestinian "refugees" living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
However, the agency has been accused of engaging in anti-Semitic incitement, and Hamas terrorists have used UNRWA facilities in Gaza to target Israeli civilians.
In January, the Trump administration cut tens of millions of dollars in funding for UNRWA, demanding that it undertake a "fundamental re-examination."
The State Department notified UNRWA then that the U.S. was withholding $65 million of its planned $125 million funding, and said that additional U.S. donations would be contingent on major changes by UNRWA.