Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 14, 2022

Virtual reality is here: Israel haters have been living there for years

There is a lot of talk about virtual reality, virtual real estate, virtual money. And a lot of people are thinking a great deal about how these spaces intersect with the real world and what it means when people spend so much of their time in virtual spaces.

Israel haters have been living in such a space for years. And the problem is when no one can distinguish between the virtual and real.

In the virtual reality world of Israel haters, Israel is the worst human rights violator on the planet. Israel is guilty of colonialism, apartheid, genocide, white supremacism, racism, persecution and an illegal occupation. Israeli forces regularly disregard the laws of war by violating the rules of distinction and proportionality. Terrorists are freedom fighters who have the right - or obligation - to attack the "occupier" which includes killing Jews in the name of "resistance."

None of this is remotely true in the real world.

But you do not need 3-D headsets to join the virtual world of the haters. They love their virtual world so much that they have been moving it into the real world as fast as they can. They arrange rallies and demonstrations, they write letters to newspapers and politicians, they tweet in the same spaces as the people who inhabit reality.

And they teach at universities, which are now pretty much a part of the virtual world with the students not realizing that they have become part of an experiment where they can become residents of a world of lies. Some of them join the real world and spread the lies to more people who don't realize they are now living, partially, in this virtual reality where facts are not important, where feelings are dominant and where human rights have been inverted to encourage Jew-hatred.

In virtual worlds, people can make up whatever rules they want. As long as others accept them, they have the force of natural law. One can change the laws of physics. When the virtual world of Israel haters leaks into the real world, it has lots of people who are willing to change reality as well.

One example is in the realm of international law. Jews wanting to live in their ancestral lands are now counted among the worst war criminals - as bad as war rapists and mass murderers and slavemasters - according to the Rome Statute.

There are builders of these worlds who intend to create a new reality. Amnesty and HRW, together with Palestinian NGOs and some media, know quite well that their world is not real - but they love their constructed worlds and want to mold the real world around it.

You cannot talk to people in these virtual worlds. Because they constructed a world that is so far from reality, their basic rules and objective facts are different from the real world. To them, the evil of the "Zionists" is so absolute and so clear that it is axiomatic. They can only argue amongst themselves within their carefully constructed world, and they are clueless about the real world that they sometimes are forced to inhabit.

If sociologists want to understand what the future of virtual reality is, they just need to understand the nature of the virtual reality that has surrounded Israel for decades.

Of course, the sociologists would need to understand that their own "realities" might be constructed as well.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

02/14 Links Pt1: Recent antisemitic events should serve as a wakeup call for Israel; UN Watch: Pillay is biased against Israel, must be ousted from UNHRC probe

From Ian:

Recent antisemitic events should serve as a wakeup call for Israel

Colleyville, Whoopi Goldberg, Amnesty International. These are just some of the names and headlines that have been circulating around the world and the hot topics of conversation in the Jewish community. Whether the nature of these incidents, verbal or otherwise, was antisemitic and what the ramifications will be for the Jewish community as a whole and Israel, in particular, has been the discussion held around many a Shabbat table in the last few weeks.

So often, these kinds of conversations wind up circling back to rising antisemitism in the diaspora and the diaspora Jewish community’s response, how they should fight back or even, at least within Israel, asking what Jews are still doing living outside of Israel. It’s time that we, in Israel, start to change our perspective.

Once upon a time, when Israel was still a newly born state, fighting every day for its survival, Israelis viewed Diaspora Jews as their saving grace. They looked to them for support, lobbying, assistance with government relations and money. Israel relied on them to help in their struggle and continued existence, and diaspora Jewry readily accepted that role. But somewhere along the way, there was a shift. Israel is no longer the brand new “little engine that could.” Instead, Israel became the Start-up Nation, a nation of strength, a nation of fighters and tech and innovation. And slowly, Israel stopped relying on Diaspora Jewry and started taking their support for granted. Sadly, in addition to the change on Israel’s side, change was also seen on the Diaspora side. No longer was support for Israel unquestionable. Jews around the world have become more critical and questioning – especially among the younger generations. Now, diaspora Jewry is facing a rise in antisemitism – something that until now, young Jews have yet to contend with and face. In many cases, this antisemitism stems directly from anti-Zionist and anti-Israel sentiments and diaspora Jews are automatically the target for those attacks.

This rise in antisemitism and ignorance surrounding its nature has already woken up diaspora Jewry, we in Israel must wake up now. We need to take responsibility for our brothers and sisters around the world, just as they once took responsibility for us. We need to find ways to build a bridge and connect with them. We need to encourage the strengthening of Jewish and Israel education in diaspora communities so that the younger generation remembers what their ancestors fought for all those years ago and be ready to take up the fight themselves.

Case Study The Anatomy of ONE of Amnesty’s Falsehoods

There’s nothing new in Amnesty International’s latest report seeking to delegitimize Israel’s existence.

The dogma of anti-Israelism — not criticism of Israel, but opposition to the survival of the Jewish and democratic state — is many decades old. Palestinian leaders violently opposed immigration by the children of Israel to the Land of Israel before the State of Israel even existed. In 1948, the Arab world went to war to prevent a United Nations compromise calling for both a Jewish and an Arab state on the coveted territory. And for decades, the Palestinian national movement has viewed the struggle against Jewish self-determination as, in the words of historian Benny Morris, a “zero-sum game: if the Jews win, we are lost.”

While Middle Eastern fundamentalists continue to issue pithy calls to “wipe Israel off the map,” radical NGOs have taken the longer route, using reams of paper and scores of footnotes to demand the same. Now, even organizations that were once mainstream have radicalized and joined that number.

This drift to radicalism, too, has been years in the making. In 2009, Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, issued a stunning rebuke of the organization he created, lamenting that it had lost perspective, abandoned its mission, and risked undermining its own reputation, largely because of its unjustifiable obsession with Israel.

Long before that, and certainly before 2010 when Salman Rushdie charged Amnesty International with “moral bankruptcy,” Amnesty officials expressed similar concerns. In 1970, the group’s US chairman Mark Benenson publicly slammed the organization, charging that its reporting on Israel “reveals the zeal of the prosecutor, convinced of the defendant’s guilt,” and “omits material which would help the defense.”

Two years later, after Amnesty appeared to shrug at the massacre of Israeli Jews by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics, Gidon Gottlieb, Amnesty’s representative to the UN, resigned, citing his colleagues’ “moral obtuseness” and the organization’s “climate of tolerance from inhuman acts by ‘the underdog.’”

Anti-Israel extremism and rejectionism have been the consistent background music accompanying conversations about the Jewish state, and before that about Jewish immigration to the Levant. Amnesty might have brought some new tinsel to the party. But the bubbles are flat, the ashtrays are full, and the phonograph keeps spinning the same, stale tune.

Several fatal flaws in Amnesty's 'apartheid' smear

While much has been written refuting Amnesty’s report accusing Israel of imposing an apartheid regime on Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, their argument, in its declarative accusation cited below, is also a priori flawed on at least three accounts:
Israeli authorities impose a system of domination and oppression against the Palestinian people in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and against Palestinian refugees.

The first flaw is the use of the term “Palestinian” to refer to Arab Israelis. This represents the frequent attempt by anti-Israeli NGOs – in this case Amnesty – and media outlets to use the term “Palestinians” i.e., Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank – to describe Arab Israelis – i.e., Arab citizens of Israel. This is an attempt to create a completely false equivalence.

The Atlantic magazine recently presented the results of research demonstrating that, in fact, Arab Israelis, by a large majority, do not consider themselves of Palestinian nationality (to the extent that a stateless group can be considered a nation, of course), but either just “Arab” or “Arab-Israeli” .

Moreover, there is a growing trend among Israeli Arabs to hold a positive view of Israel, which of course for good reason was never the case in apartheid South Africa.

Nasser Al-Hadmi is the head of the Jerusalem Committee against Demolition and Displacement.

He is also apparently a member of Hamas.

He is in Palestinian media today warning about plans by "Jewish settler groups" to "storm" the Temple Mount during the Passover season.

Al Resalah says, "The Jewish settlement associations are working to mobilize their members for a major attack on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the coming month of Ramadan, which coincides with the holidays for the Jews."

He is counting Shabbat Hagadol which is Sabbath before Passover, the fast of the first born which is the day before Passover, the entire holiday of Passover itself, Yom HaAliya and Yom HaShoah, all of which occur during the Hebrew month of Nisan, which coincides this year with Ramadan.

Israel often has to juggle access to holy places where Jewish and Muslim holidays coincide, but the haters are trying to use this year's coinciding calendars as excuses for violence and a repeat of last year's Hamas rocket attacks on Jerusalem.

Nasser al-Hamdi wants a pre-emptive "explosion" to pressure Israel to take away Jewish rights in Jerusalem, saying, "Unless things explode in the coming Ramadan, the occupation will impose a new reality, permanent prayers for settlers inside Al-Aqsa, and setting times for Jews to pray in the mosque, especially in Bab Al-Rahma."

This is as explicit incitement to violence as can be.

Last year, Israel temporarily expelled al-Hamdi and three other Hamas activists from Jerusalem in order to keep the calm. He might still be under that ban. Given that he has made clear his desire to start an explosion in Jerusalem this April, they might need to do more in order to keep things calm.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Arab antisemites following their Nazi forebears

It has been widely reported that some Arab countries like Kuwait and Lebanon are banning the film "Death on the Nile" because it stars Israeli Gal Gadot. Anti-Israel groups in other countries like Jordan and Egypt are calling to ban the film as well.

This is not the first time Arab nations have banned films of Israelis, Zionists or Jews. Lebanon had previously banned Schindler's List and Wonder Woman.

The Wall Street Journal wrote in 2009 that the Lebanese even banned books about or by some Jews like "Sophie's Choice","Schindler's List"; Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem", books by Philip Roth, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer - and even The Diary of Anne Frank. According to the article, "all books that portray Jews, Israel or Zionism favorably are banned." Previously, Arab countries have banned films with Frank Sinatra or Elizabeth Taylor for Jewish or Zionist ties.

The Arab censors have good company, as this 1936 story shows:

It turns out that there are other Nazi antecedents for Arab and Palestinian antisemitism that occurs today.

Recall how modern antisemites like to claim, every Christmas, that Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian refugee who was "crushed on the cross by occupation"?

Their antisemitism was also anticipated by the Nazis.

Just as Palestinian Christians claim Jesus as one of their own, so did German Christians in the 1930s, aghast at the idea that their Lord and Savior could have been a Jew who lived in Judea.

It started in 1934:

And this was picked up and expanded upon by Julius Streicher in Der Sturmer ahead of Easter in 1937:

The parallels between today's Arab antisemites and Nazi antisemites are striking. Yet apologists for modern antisemitism prefer to claim that today's version is merely "anti-Zionism."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

My next random page from Amnesty to fisk is page 210. It coincidentally comes right after my last section.

Page 210 says:

ATTACKS AGAINST HEALTHCARE WORKERS AND MEDICAL FACILITIES
Over the years, Israel’s army has repeatedly targeted medical facilities during its military offensives. According to the NGO Medical Aid for Palestinians, 147 hospitals and clinics, and 80 ambulances, were damaged or destroyed in military offensives on Gaza between 2008 and 2017. In the same period, 145 medical workers – most of them ambulance drivers – were killed or injured.

Israel's targets are legitimate military targets. Sometimes they are Hamas hiding in medical facilities that Israel tries to verify are empty.

Here are only a few examples of how Hamas uses medical facilities. Amnesty does not mention any of them.

Wafa hospital, where the IDF repeatedly ensured that no patients were there and that Hamas was firing from it:

Terrorists using an ambulance:

And again:

In the 2009 war, I categorized dead "medics" who were terrorists:

Azmi Abu Dallal. medic, was a member of the Nuseirat Battalion of the Al Qassam Brigades.
Ahmed Al-Khatib, nurse, was a field commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.
Mohammed Abu Hassir, medic, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades:

Ihab ‘Umar Khalil al-Madhoun, physician, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades.
Yaser Kamal Shbeir, medic, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades.
Anas Fadel Na'im, medic, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades:

Ra'afat Sami Ibrahim, medic, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades.His obituary says that he had been responsible for firing rockets at Israel.
Issa Abdul Rahim Saleh, physician, planted explosives and acted as a spotter for the Al Qassam Brigades.
Abdullah Sa'id Saleh al-'Imawi, nurse, was a fighter for the Al Qassam Brigades who specialized in armor. He also fought in the Fatah coup. He was killed together with his squad leader, Tareq Fadel Abdullah Ja’afar.
Ihab Jaser Ahmed al-Sha'er, physician, was an apparent fighter ("mujahid") for the Al Qassam Brigades.

Hamas also used ambulances to transport terrorists many times in that war.

Shifa Hospital is the de facto Hamas headquarters. It was reported by journalists before Hamas threats to punish them.

There was a Hamas sniper position on the tenth floor of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society building in 2014.

Hamas booby-trapped an UNRWA medical clinic, and blew it up when IDF soldiers entered.

Amnesty categorized these three Islamic Jihad terrorists as innocent "ambulance drivers."

Here is the martyr poster for 'Aatef Saleh al-Zameli. Note that he is not wearing scrubs. He's in uniform.

The name of the "nurse" killed was actually Yousef Ahmad Sheikh al-Eid. Here is his Islamic Jihad martyr poster:

The "paramedic" Yousef Jaber Darabih was also a proud member of the jihadist terror group:

Amnesty's not mentioning how Hamas and Islamic Jihad use medical locations and equipment as covers for terrorism is a highly relevant fact that Amnesty is purposefully omitting in order to demonize Israel and whitewash Hamas/Islamic Jihad crimes.

Does that sound objective to you?

EoZ book, "Protocols: Exposing Modern Antisemitism," is now for sale!

I am pleased to announce that my book has been released.

Protocols: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (EoZPress, 2022) is based on my essays on the blog over the past several years, somewhat expanded and improved.

Today we have updated, and equally fictional, versions of the Tsarist forgery about the Elders of Zion. protocols. The new protocols might not take the same written form as the older forgery, but they are imprinted in the minds of modern antisemites. These protocols include ideas such as: the Jewish lobby controls the American government; Israel ethnically cleanses non-Jews from Israel; Zionism is racism; Israel violates international law in myriad ways; and Jews use the Holocaust to justify their own Nazi-like crimes.

In some circles these new protocols have practically become a religion, and the people who believe the new lies are as fanatic as the ones who believe the old ones.

This book defines and exposes modern antisemitism. It shows how the scourge of Jew-hatred is as virulent as it ever was and how modern antisemites hide their hate behind the pretexts of "human rights" and "international law." Protocols identifies and refutes the arguments of today's haters. It is indispensable to understand how the "world's oldest hatred" has returned and how it tries to disguise itself.

It is especially relevant today, as so called "human rights" and "progressive" organizations are twisting the definitions of "racism," "apartheid" and "genocide" specifically against Israel and only Israel - a perfect example of how the Jewish state has replaced the Jewish people as the stated target of the world's oldest hatred.

The book is divided into five parts.

After defining what antisemitism is, I describe different manifestations of the hate that comes from the Left, the Right, the Arab world and others.

Section 2 looks at what international law really says, not what Israel haters claim. I also show how international law itself has been hijacked by those who hate Israel. Topics include how the media gets basic human rights law wrong in various Gaza conflicts, how NGOs redefine "human shields" to exonerate Hamas, the "right of return" and who is a refugee under international law.

Section 3 looks at how supposed experts and pundits keep getting Israel wrong, and why. It also looks at how anti-Israel thinkers have been against the Abraham Accords, actually rooting for them to fail.

Section 4 includes my takedowns of the most articulate and clever demonizers of Israel, and how they use propaganda techniques to make their lies harder to recognize and counter. I take on Peter Beinart, Judith Butler, Noura Erakat and more.

Finally, Section 5 reviews how "human rights organizations" have been using their platforms to attack Israel. I show in detail how they use half-truths to give an overall false impression of Israel. It is very relevant today in the wake of Amnesty's and Human Rights Watch's accusations of Israel as guilty of apartheid. I could write an entire book twice as long as this one just taking apart their reports since 2009. (Maybe I should!)

The people I sent advanced copies to - all academics and prestigious authors - have enthusiastically endorsed Protocols. Examples:

Elder strikes again. Incisive, insightful, illuminating, and overall devastating essays on topics of deep concern to Jews and their allies today: antisemitism, anti-Zionism, the left's turn against the Jews, the abuse of "international law," the dishonesty of many Israel-haters, etc. Elder's work is truly substantive, not only displaying greater intellectual breadth and depth than so many of the "academics" who weaponize their work against the world's only Jewish state but decisively shredding their webs of dissimulations and lies. If only there were a committee of Elders of Zi(y)on running the world....

-Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College, editor, Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS

This is a brilliant and forceful book about modern antisemitism—except that it is really an anti-propaganda weapon of war. Our venerable Elder of Zion has written a witty, pithy, and yet comprehensive work; his argumentation and documentation are superb, smart, and based on a knowledge of Judaism, history, warfare, and propaganda. He skewers Jew haters/anti-Zionists with such skill that the reader is prompted to laugh, cry, and/or fly into a rage—and all at the same time. Elder exposes all the “word games” with which journalists confuse legal reality, the Big Lies, about “racism” and “apartheid,” the quadruple standards by which Israel alone is judged by the “academic fraudsters,” and by the NGOs, the UN, the churches, the media, the Palestinian terrorists, and by all the many Masters of the zero sum game. Dare I say, that this work is a Bible of sorts and should immediately be translated into Arabic and distributed all over the Middle East—as well as read into the record, annually, at the United Nations.

- Phyllis Chesler, author, The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It

Antisemitism is both the oldest hatred and the newest, and in exposing the lies behind the modern embodiment of the infamous "Protocols", Elder of Ziyon has written the essential reference handbook. In tackling the broad range of hate campaigns, from manipulating the slogans of international law and human rights in the United Nation, to the fake media experts and the NGO anti-Zionist jihad, the New Protocols is a concise and fact-filled response.
-Professor Gerald Steinberg, NGO Monitor

Right now the book is available as paperback and e-book. In the near future I hope to have a hardcover edition as well as well as extended distribution beyond Amazon so it can be ordered from all major booksellers.

If you like this site, you will love this book!

02/13 Links: Archaeology proves Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel; Amnesty’s problem with Israel – too many Jews; Abbas openly calls on Palestinians to murder Israelis

From Ian:

David Collier: Amnesty’s problem with Israel – too many Jews

Amnesty’s definition of ‘Apartheid’ means ‘Jewish majority rule’

These are some of the problems in Israel inside Amnesty’s ‘Apartheid’ report:
The report makes clear that they have a problem with Israel’s ‘law of return’ which is the basis of the world having a refuge for Jewish people (page 82).
Amnesty has a problem with Hebrew being the dominant language (page 212).
They have a problem with Jewish majority state control (throughout the document).
Amnesty has a problem with the Jewish state ‘owning’ its own land (throughout the document).
It has a problem with urban renewal projects (throughout the document)
Amnesty has a problem with the Jewish state building towns to house Jewish refugees and immigrants (page 146)
It has a problem with a Jewish majority anywhere – referring to the impact of that majority as ”Judaization’ (example page 22)
Amnesty has a problem when the Jewish state embarks on social and economic development programs (page 153)
Amnesty has a problem with normal economic restraints (such as a state not having enough money to invest as much as it should – see investment on classrooms on page 213)
It has a problem with there being more ‘Jewish localities’ than non-Jewish ones (page 146).
Amnesty scream ‘Apartheid’ when they see a housing shortage (you know, like we have in the UK)

The bottom line is this: Amnesty International have a problem with a Jewish majority state – period.

Wanting to destroy Israel
Being in the majority comes with perks. Most people will speak the same language as you, worship the same god as you and celebrate the same holidays as you. A nation’s culture is shaped by the majority. Christmas day is a big holiday in the UK – not so much in Saudi Arabia. The UK’s flag and many of the state’s emblems carry a cross – which you won’t tend to find on the state emblems in Indonesia. Nothing of this is untoward. The UK is not an Apartheid state because Easter is celebrated with a public holiday – and Ramadan isn’t. And inside pre 1967 Israel – this is what Amnesty are calling ‘Apartheid’ – this is what they want to tear down. They want to destroy the Jewish state.

So remember, when you see Amnesty say ‘Apartheid’ – what they mean is democratic representation inside a Jewish majority state. And when they say they want to ‘end it’ be in no doubt that they are talking about the deliberate destruction of the only democratic nation in the MENA region.

Why are they doing it? – Simply because the Islamist / hard-left alliance have taken a firm grip of what was once Amnesty’s soul.

Richard Landes: Antisemitism and Amnesty International

The report denies the State of Israel’s right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism.

What the outside world heard: “Israel dismisses amnesty report as antisemitic.” For many this response offers proof of the “Livingstone formulation”: Jews use “antisemitism” to silence legitimate criticism of Israel.

What the accusers do not want, is that their audience see them spreading illegitimate anti-Jewish memes at a time when hostility to Jews is most decidedly on the rise even in Western countries formally wedded to Nie Weider. Like Freud, publishing Moses and Monotheism in German, in 1939, they throw fuel, refined fuel, on the flames of the often denied longest hatred. But don’t call them antisemitic. Freud wasn’t.

In order to frame the issue as Israeli apartheid and crimes against humanity, this report systematically projects malevolence – the racist desire to dominate – onto the Israelis, even as it conceals the patent malevolence of her enemies. As such, the report resembles the classic supersessionist projection of ill-will and dominion onto the Jews who allegedly take their “chosenness” as a warrant to dominate gentiles cruelly. This same hostile projection informed the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and like the denizens of the early 20th century, some in the early 21st century will take this report as a warrant for the destruction of the accused.

Indeed, an earlier draft of the report (sent to journalists to prepare for the official release) claimed that “This system of Apartheid originated with the creation of Israel in May 1948 and has been built and maintained for decades.” After much commotion (by the IHRA definition, this is antisemitism), the reference to 1948 was removed from the final English version. But the hasty and limited removal of this reference merely tried to conceal the driving force behind the report, the scaffolding upon which AI assembled it: Israel itself is a racist endeavor, an illegitimate nation. Israel delendus est. As such, like all supersessionists in pre-modern periods (Christians, Muslims), this allegedly civil-society discourse reveals itself incapable of tolerating the existence of an autonomous Jewish entity.

Is this antisemitism? You be the judge. Is it reasonable for Zionists to say that this report fans the flames of Jew-hatred? Yes. Does that mean that Jews are again suppressing legitimate criticism of Israel with the antisemitism charge? You be the judge. Does it mean that you owe it to yourself to read the devastating critiques of this malevolent report? Yes. Does it mean that if the charges against AI are accurate, this Report is a fire accelerant thrown into a combustive global community? You be the judge.

And if you so judge, then speak out. Words matter, especially when the words one opposes are weapons in a cruel war.

Amnesty International’s pseudo-scholarship

Clearly, when a report such as this refers to disputed territories—areas of Judea, Samaria, and sections of Jerusalem which have had a Jewish presence and identity since biblical times—as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” it has already revealed the political bias inherent in its view of the situation about which it has written this report.

In addition to a return, the AI report calls for full reparations for any Palestinian losses of wealth and property, something they never have considered, of course, for the more than 800,000 Jews whose businesses, wealth, and property was seized when they were expelled from Arab countries upon Israel’s birth. The fate of the Jews is never of concern to human rights activists or the virtue-signaling activists on campuses calling for an intifada to “free Palestine” from the current grip of Jews.

“Israel must grant equal and full human rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT in line with principles of international human rights law . . ,” the report demands. “It must also recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT. In addition, Israel must provide . . . full reparations. These should include restitution of and compensation for all properties acquired on a racial basis,” meaning what, that any properties acquired by “white” Jews who appropriated them from “brown” Arabs during the War of Independence and in 1967?

AI should know that the demand for a right of return, a notion referred to by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters as “sacred” and an “enshrined” universal human right granted by UN resolutions and international law, in fact, has no legal standing at all, and is part of the propaganda campaign that is based on the thinking that if Israel cannot be eradicated by the Arabs though war, it can effectively be destroyed by forcing it to commit demographic suicide. AI, as an international organization that professes to be an authority on human rights and international law, should know the facts and the truth, but, apparently, it does not.

In the first place, the right of return claim uses the fraud as its core notion that the Palestinians were “victimized” by the creation of Israel, that they were expelled from a fictive land of “Palestine” where they were the indigenous people. Except that when historian Joan Peters used the expression “from time immemorial,” in her book of the same name, she proved just the opposite.

As Professor Efraim Karsh, head of Mediterranean Studies at King’s College, University of London, and the author of Fabricating Israeli History: The New Historians, points out, “this claim of premeditated dispossession is itself not only baseless, but the inverse of the truth. Far from being the hapless victims of a predatory Zionist assault, the Palestinians were themselves the aggressors in the 1948-49 war, and it was they who attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to ‘cleanse’ a neighbouring [sic] ethnic community. Had the Palestinians and the Arab world accepted the United Nations resolution of November 29, 1947, calling for the establishment of two states in Palestine, and not sought to subvert it by force of arms, there would have been no refugee problem in the first place.”

Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist party in #Israel, in response to accusations of apartheid:

"I would not use the term apartheid…”pic.twitter.com/7KleK4TOhz
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) February 12, 2022

From the Jerusalem Post:

Lebanon's State Shura Council decided this month to reverse an order issued in December allowing Palestinian refugees to work in trade-union regulated professions, after complaints that the order would encroach on the rights of Lebanese professionals and claims that the order was trying to pave the way for naturalizing Palestinian refugees.

The reversal was made after the council accepted an appeal by the Maronite League, the head of the league, Neamatallah Abi Nasr, announced on Thursday, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).

In December, amended regulations published by the country's Labor Ministry stated that Palestinians who were born in Lebanon and officially registered in the records of the Lebanese Interior Ministry will be allowed to work in professions that are in general limited to Lebanese citizens only, such as law, engineering and medicine, among others.

The appeal filed by the Maronite League claimed that the labor minister had overstepped his authority when he issued a decision allowing Palestinians to access previously barred professions. The appeal had claimed that the decision violated the country's constitution, adding that the league was blocking attempts to "change the modern and historic face of Lebanon and attempting to impose a new demographic status quo," according to L'Orient Le'Jour.

Palestinians in Lebanon have no path to citizenship, unlike all other Arabs.

Palestinians in Lebanon cannot buy land.

Palestinians in Lebanon cannot expand their residences in overcrowded "refugee" camps.

Babies born in Lebanon to Palestinians cannot become citizens.

All of this is Lebanese law - laws specifically written to marginalize and oppress Palestinians as a separate group from all other Arabs.

This is the definition of apartheid.

Not once has Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch urged Lebanon to allow Palestinians who have lived there for seven decades become citizens. Even though they urge countries with other stateless minorities to give them a path to citizenship, when it comes to Palestinians, they instead agree that they should remain stateless until they can "return" to an Israel they never lived in and were never citizens of.

Amnesty hasn't written a full report on the plight of Palestinians in Lebanon since 2007. In 2006, it admitted that "state policies and practices in Lebanon discriminate, effectively on grounds of racial and national origin, against Palestinian refugees who reside in Lebanon." Meaning that Lebanon was guilty of apartheid against Palestinians in 2006 by its own definition, but it refused to use that word - and still does.

Which just proves that Amnesty doesn't really care about Palestinian rights unless it can blame Israel.

Today's analysis of a random page of the Amnesty "apartheid" report is for page 207.

This section of the report (pages 204-210) is called "Cruel and arbitrary restrictions on access to healthcare in the OPT."

This page is about how Israel sometimes denies or delays patient requests by Gazans or their companions to travel to Israeli or Palestinian hospitals.

This section did not have any provable lies. But it has a complete disregard for the truth.

It does not mention a single reason why Israel might place restrictions on patients or alleged patients leaving Gaza.

In 2004, a 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two named Reem al-Reyashi faked a limp as she blew herself up at the Erez crossing from Gaza, killing 4 people.

In 2005, Wafa al Bass attempted to smuggle a suicide belt into Israel which she intended to use at the Israeli hospital where she was being treated for burns.

In 2006, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) who had received an entry permit into Israel on humanitarian grounds was arrested at the Erez Crossing. He planned to establish terrorist cells in the West Bank.

In 2007, two female suicide bombers at the Erez Crossing who received authentic entry permits into Israel using false medical information were arrested. They planned to carry out a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and in Netanya.

In 2017, two sisters who had permission to enter Israel - one of whom had cancer - were caught trying to smuggle explosive material at the Erez crossing.

Hamas has used Gaza ambulances to transport terrorist leaders to Egypt, so Gaza ambulances must be thoroughly checked.

The Shin Bet has discovered "time after time [Hamas] attempts to pass funds and/or instructions to terrorist elements in the West Bank via Gaza residents entering Israel and even seriously ill patients." It also says that senior medical officials in Gaza were involved in issuing falsified medical certifications,"In some cases, the passage of imposters to Israel was done in an ambulance."

The also doesn't mention how many times Egypt denies permits to Gaza patients. Hundreds of Gazans are denied entry to Egypt every month even after they go through the process of getting permits, which indicates that Egypt is also concerned about terrorism infiltration.

Perhaps the most egregious part of this section was this image of empty pharmacy shelves in Shifa Hospital from 2017:

No context was given, but since it is in the section of the document about Israel's "cruel and arbitrary restrictions on access to healthcare" it is assumed that Israel had denied the passage of medicines into Gaza.

But Israel never denies medicine to Gaza.

This photo was taken when the Palestinian Authority decided to strangle Gaza's medical infrastructure during one of its political battles with Hamas. This included denying medical permits. And Amnesty knows this, because it reported about it in its 2017 annual report:

The Palestinian government based in Ramallah imposed several punitive measures against Gaza in a bid to pressure the Hamas administration to give up control of Gaza. These measures impeded the civilian population’s access to medical care, essential services including water and electricity, and education. This contributed to violations of the rights to health, an adequate standard of living, and education.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in March the West Bank authorities suspended the payments for transfers of people in need of medical treatment outside Gaza, delaying the referrals of some 1,400 patients. NGOs reported that procedural delays resulted in the deaths of several patients, including babies. The UN reported delays in the transfer of essential medicines and medical supplies to hospitals in Gaza, affecting patients’ long-term health.

Yet these six pages do not mention the words "Hamas" or "Egypt" or "Palestinian Authority" or "terror" once. No, Amnesty is hell bent on denying any context and any indication that Gaza medical woes are not entirely because of fictional "Israeli apartheid."

Amnesty knows the truth damned well. And it goes out of its way to ensure that its readers do not know that truth.

Yes, it is possible to lie without saying a single verifiable falsehood. This section of the report proves this.

On Martin Luther King Jr. day, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, offended all decent humans by saying Israeli Jews are slave owners and Palestinians are their slaves:

The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately. Given the history of Jewish humble beginnings and persecution, there should be no ambiguity as to the ethical, moral, and dehumanizing marginalization and enslavement of other human beings. The United States of America must be a major influencer of calling this injustice both immoral and intolerable.

I would also hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the U.S. government in ending the immoral enslavement. Dr. King continuously preached a Gospel of justice, so that all people could live in dignity.

He didn't say it was "like slavery" or "comparable to slavery." This idiot said it is slavery.

And to add to the antisemitism, he called on the Jews who obviously control America to tell the government to stop this "slavery."

On January 22, after criticism, he doubled down:

While my reference to these injustices as “slavery” may seem extreme to many and, of course, offensive to most Israelis, no one who is informed regarding the use of military power and racial bias to control the lives of Palestinian citizens can honestly avoid the truth of this situation.

And now, he triples down on his antisemitic libel, by redefining "slavery" to mean pretty much anything he wants it to mean, with an insane definition of the term. And as "proof" he says that he was enslaved himself as he was growing up.

Yes, really.

People do not have freedom to be who they are in community with everybody else, they are limited.
That is slavery.
They don't have the opportunity to do and have the opportunity to be able to engage the way others are able to engage in society. They are set aside and they are treated as though they are in no way related to the larger context of what it means to live in community. It is taking the power of government, the power of individuals who have money and abilities, to set others aside and keep them away from the wealth of communities and at the same time marginalize them at every part of their lives.
I know that feeling because I experienced it as a child. I grew up in the south and I know that it is equated, again, to slavery through my experience. I don't need anybody to read a book on that one. It's what I have had to learn to live with most of my life.

Silly me, I thought slavery meant owning human beings and depriving them of all rights. I didn't realize that an expert who somehow attended college in the South was enslaved.

And he is mystified how anyone can be offended by his redefining slavery to mean anything Jews do that he doesn't like:

It's difficult for me to see how my sharing words that would encourage something different, a coming together a community of giving individuals opportunities to see their own self-worth. To build bridges of hope to new community, living, and what that means in integrating people and allowing individuals to have the same opportunities. Why is that such a bad context to address on Martin Luther King's birthday?

He's practically saying, "I'm a Black man, how dare you disagree with me about what slavery means?"

We have a pattern here: terms like "apartheid" and "genocide" and "slavery" and "persecution" are given brand new definitions to apply only to Jews.

The irony is that by doing this, the modern antisemites are cheapening the terms themselves, trivializing real slavery (which still exists today in the Arab world) and real persecution and real genocide and real apartheid.

Which means that to these bigots, inciting hate against Jews is more important than actual genocide and slavery and apartheid.

02/12 Links: It’s Time to Give Arab Countries Their Due for Normalizing Relations With Israel; Lebanon bans Death on the Nile due to Gal Gadot’s role; Farrakhan Podcast, Speeches Can Be Found on Spotify

From Ian:

It’s Time to Give Arab Countries Their Due for Normalizing Relations With Israel

To their credit, Arab rulers are telegraphing that benefits to peace extend to people rather than being confined to governments. Last September, upon entering the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, I was required to show my US passport, which specifies my place of birth as “Israel.” The Arab guard, wearing the traditional kandura and keffiyeh, broke into a broad smile after checking my documents and warmly addressed my family and me in Hebrew with a hearty welcome, “bruchim habaim.”

Throughout our stay, open displays of Judaism were greeted by Emiratis with a greater, not lesser, degree of friendliness and warmth. When describing these experiences, I sometimes hear the retort that the rarity of antisemitism in the UAE is a result of strict anti-blasphemy laws. While it is true that any act of hatred or intolerance towards any religion in the UAE is punishable by a five-year jail term or strict fines, another reason for the propagation of religious tolerance is due to a traditional reverence upheld by Arab culture. As Robert Nicholson, Director of the Philos Project, explains of Arab society, “the expectation isn’t to hide one’s faith, but to profess it openly while affirming the role that religion plays in political life.”

Validating Nicholson’s point is an awareness that religious avoidance remains prevalent in Western Europe, where antisemitic attacks are rampant. According to the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Report on Antisemitism in 2021, the European continent led the world in antisemitic incidents, with almost 50 percent of all attacks occurring on its soil. North America closely followed, with the US accounting for 30 percent of all antisemitic attacks in the region. Simply put, an Arab country like the UAE provides a safer haven for Jews than most liberal European metropolises, which are still considered popular vacation destinations for many.

Promoting the success of the Abraham Accords depends on Jewish organizations institutionalizing trips to Arab countries whose leaders are propelling exchanges with Israel. While gap year programs and groups like the March of the Living must commit to teaching US Jewish youth about the horrific enormity of the Holocaust by traveling to Poland, more must be done to bolster tourism to friendly Arab countries. Marinating in a history plagued by sadness and victimization must be tempered through teaching about a future wedded to prosperity and friendship.

UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose visions of tolerance predate his region’s steady progression towards peace, should be hailed in the same vein as the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Jewish day schools must ensure that students recall the Abraham Accords signing ceremony with the same enthusiasm that their parents welcomed the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. Rather than retreat to outdated hatreds and engage in provincial politicizations, Americans across the political spectrum must be unambiguous about their support for the Abraham Accords and work to educate others on the promising new era reshaping the Middle East.

Israel, UAE issue call for joint space research proposals on climate, environment

The space agencies of Israel and the United Arab Emirates have published a call for joint space-based research proposals, inviting universities and research institutes to submit project offers in the agriculture and water fields.

The research will be based on data collected by VENµS — a satellite operated by the Israeli and French space agencies that monitors vegetation and environment characteristics.

A joint Israeli-Emirati committee will select a single project to fund with $200,000 for a two-year period, which “will leverage big data analytics, informatics and related techniques to expand humanity’s collective scientific knowledge about Earth and how we can live more sustainably,” according to a statement.

“Global collaboration is key to leveraging space to protect our planet. By partnering alongside other leading nations in the space sector, we are contributing to expanding the global base of scientific knowledge to help humanity develop solutions to its greatest challenges,” said Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and head of the UAE Space Agency.

Israel’s Science, Technology and Space Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen added that the project “shows how technology connects nations.”

“The VENµS satellite is helping find solutions to deal with climate change.‏ The joint research will help advance shared issues between the UAE and Israel, including those in the field of agri-tech, climate change and others. ”

Bahrain Confirms Israeli Officer Will Be Stationed in the Country – State Agency

Bahrain’s foreign ministry confirmed in a statement on Saturday that an Israeli officer will be stationed in the country, according to the state news agency.

The appointment will be related to the work of an unnamed international coalition of more than 34 countries, the report said.

Bahrain also said that the coalition’s task includes securing freedom of navigation in the territorial waters of the region, protecting international trade and confronting piracy and terrorism.

Earlier media reports said Israel would send a naval officer to an official posting in Bahrain, the first time an Israeli military officer has been posted to an Arab country.

From the Wall Street Journal:

When Yaakov Baruch, a member of majority-Muslim Indonesia’s tiny Jewish community, set out to build a Holocaust museum in his country, he wanted it to stand as a symbol against genocide and bigotry. He reached out to Yad Vashem, the main Holocaust museum in Israel, for images and other exhibition material illustrating Nazi horrors against European Jews. Late last month, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, he hosted an opening ceremony that was attended by the German ambassador to Indonesia.

The museum—a modest single-story structure in the lakeside town of Tondano on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island—now faces calls for its closure.

A number of Muslim clerics and Islamist politicians have argued it has no place in Indonesia, which, like many predominantly Muslim nations, doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Israel. By focusing on historical wrongs against Jews, they say, it distracts from Israel’s present-day treatment of Palestinians.

A major Indonesian television network, tvOne, hosted a 90-minute prime-time debate this past week titled, “Fuss Over the Jewish Museum.” The program featured conservative Muslim figures, one of whom used dehumanizing and inflammatory language and called the Holocaust a giant hoax. Mr. Baruch, also on the program, pushed back.

...In the days after the Holocaust museum’s Jan. 27 opening, senior clerics with Majelis Ulama Indonesia, an influential clerical body, gave interviews to local television networks criticizing the project. Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, who heads the organization’s international-relations division, said although he condemns the Holocaust, the situation in the Middle East means the timing isn’t right for a museum covering it.

Hidayat Nur Wahid, a vice-speaker of Indonesia’s national legislature, called on local political leaders to reject the museum, saying it could be part of a campaign for normalizing ties with Israel, and could be used by Israel as a propaganda tool.

As is always the case with antisemitism, the excuses to oppose anything that shows Jews as human beings are all over the place - and antisemitic:

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly, Dr. HM Hidayat Nur Wahid, MA supports the attitude of MUI and Islamic organizations that reject the presence of the Holocaust Museum and the Holocaust photo exhibition in Tondano, Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi.

"We support the attitude of the MUI Chair for Foreign Cooperation and International Relations, Prof. DR Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim. He asked to stop the photo exhibition and the Holocaust Museum in Tondano, because it has the potential to create unrest and is counterproductive to efforts to defend Palestine that the Indonesian government and people are fighting for," said HNW, as he is known, Monday (31/1/22) in Jakarta.

According to HNW, apart from that, the Holocaust Museum also has the potential to trigger unnecessary uproar among the Indonesian public. Where we are currently concentrating on dealing with the wave of Omicron variants," he added.

This member of Commission VIII DPR RI also questioned the motive for the opening of the photo exhibition and the Holocaust Museum in Tondano. “What interest? This needs to be questioned. If the reason is preventing anti-Semitism, then, Indonesia, which does not ratify the law, is actually being shown acts of terror and genocide and a kind of holocaust by Israel against the Palestinians every day," he explained.

Israel's intolerant behavior towards Palestine is what Israel always shows. As a party who claims to be a victim of the Nazi Holocaust, Israel should not repeat the same thing to other nations, in this case Palestine. However, the proof is that Israel is no less cruel to the Palestinians.

"So the Holocaust museum, if needed, should be for Israel itself. To raise collective awareness in Israel how evil the holocaust is, so that Israel itself will not repeat it against any nation. So that it can bring peace and stop the crimes of the Holocaust, racism and Israel's intolerance towards Palestine," quipped HNW.

So, he continued, clearly, there is no need for a Holocaust museum in Indonesia, which is already very tolerant, not racist, and has not carried out the Holocaust against any ethnicity or nation. In fact, the Indonesian people have experienced a kind of holocaust perpetrated by the henchmen of the Dutch colonialists, Westerling et al, against tens of thousands of civilians in South Sulawesi in 1946-1947.

If we continue, we will open a lot of veils about the nature of the Holocaust and the events that preceded it. Because apparently there are also important documents; Haavara Agreement, which was agreed in 1933 between the Zionist organizations in Germany and Britain with the Nazi regime for the migration of 60,000 German Jews to Palestine.

"So we should be very suspicious if there is an ulterior motive for establishing a museum in Indonesia. Perhaps this is part of a maneuver to smooth the plan to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and Indonesia.

The Deputy Chair of the PKS Shura Council, in fact, said that the opening of the photo exhibition and the Holocaust Museum in Tondano tends to hold more negative potential, and forcing its presence in Indonesia is also like an exhibition of intolerance and manipulation of Israel's contemporary history as a looting and colonial state, terrorists and terrorists. crimes against humanity against Palestine.

Therefore, HNW urges that the committee of the Holocaust photo exhibition and museum in Tondano be tolerant of the Indonesian nation and state which rejects Israel's occupation of Palestine. And therefore, in order to immediately close and there is no need to continue the Holocaust museum.

At least this other critic was honest in his Jew-hatred:

Member of Commission I DPR from the PKS faction, Sukamta, commented on the construction of the Holocaust Museum by the Jewish community in Tondano, Minahasa, North Sulawesi. Sukamta assessed that this issue is quite sensitive in Indonesia.

Sukamta said that the state of Israel is identical with the Jews, although there are also Jews who do not agree with the establishment of the State of Israel.

One thing is for sure: None of the "anti-Zionists-not-antisemites" will condemn the Indonesian critics of the museum for their clear Jew-hate. Because there are lots of exceptions to allow antisemitism for these "progressives," and being Muslim is one of them.