Tuesday, July 04, 2023




Times of Israel reported on Monday:
The Israel Defense Forces says troops located hidden underground storage sites with weapons and explosives inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin.

After lengthy gun battles with armed Palestinians who were holed up inside the mosque, Israeli forces managed to break in, the IDF says.

The IDF says that on the ground floor, troops found two underground storage sites containing explosives, weapons, and other military equipment.

Using a mosque as a military site is a war crime.

Article 53 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I says:

Without prejudice to the provisions of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 14 May 1954, and of other relevant international instruments, it is prohibited:

(b) to use such objects [historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples] in support of the military effort

Additional Protocol II has identical language.

It was Hamas and Islamic Jihad that turned a mosque into a military target by firing from it and storing weapons within. 

The fact that most Muslims are not upset at Palestinian terror groups for treating their mosques that way indicates that hate for Israel is more important to most Muslims than the sanctity of the mosque. 

I don't see any fatwas on the topic, but my guess is that the Islamists pretend that this is a case of "defensive jihad" - defending Islam as a whole from destruction - which gives them wide latitude to even violate normative Islamic principles of war.  It appears to be the justification for suicide bombings, and female suicide bombers, for example. Under that mindset, using mosques for war transforms from something reprehensible into an obligation.

 



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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, July 03, 2023

From Ian:

Stephen Pollard: A vote against the BDS Bill is a vote to allow the boycott of Jews
Let’s make one thing clear from the start. The BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – campaign is antisemitic. No ambiguity, no ifs, not buts. It singles out the world’s only Jewish state and demands that it – that Jews, in other words – is boycotted.

The more naïve of those who push BDS might like to think they are somehow elevated people pursuing an elevated cause, but they are not. They are no less antisemitic in their actions than skinheads and extremist Muslims who believe Jews are vermin.

That, in short, is why the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill matters. By removing the ability of local councils and organisations to set their own foreign policy, it prevents them from acting in support of a campaign which seeks to boycott Jews.

There is no room for shades of grey here. You either think it’s fine to boycott Jews – in which case you will oppose the Bill – or you don’t, in which case you will support it.

That’s why tonight’s second reading is so important. It’s a vote on the principle of the bill. Those who intend to oppose that principle are saying they have no issue with boycotts of Jews. You can pretend your vote means something else, but we see you.

Which is one reason why Labour’s opposition – not initially couched as opposition but as a ‘reasoned amendment’, tabled in the name of Keir Starmer - is so important to note. Sir Keir talks a good game of making Labour a fit home for Jews, and he has tackled some of the more egregious antisemitism in his party. But when push comes to shove, and he is presented with a clear test of his commitment to the cause of tackling antisemitism, he is on the wrong side.
It's almost certain Labour will oppose Michael Gove’s BDS ban
It now seems almost certain that the Labour Party is going to oppose Levelling-Up secretary Michael Gove’s new Bill to outlaw boycotts of Israel by councils and other public bodies.

As we report elsewhere, Gove’s shadow, Lisa Nandy, has told the party’s MPs that she has serious “concerns” about the BDS (Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment) campaign that the Bill is designed to curb.

She says she recognises that BDS often becomes a vehicle “to whip up hate against the Jewish community”, adding that “we do not support action that singles out any one country for different treatment, or any action designed to promote xenophobia and racism.”

So far, so encouraging. But Nandy – who happens to be a former chair of Labour Friends of Palestine – also thinks that Gove’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill goes too far. It would, she says, lead to restrictions on free speech, and make it impossible for public bodies to boycott China, in protest at its treatment of its Uyghur minority.

However, what Nandy appears to dislike most is that the Bill has teeth. It would create powers to levy fines on institutions that make procurement or investment decisions in order to sustain boycotts.

Nandy would prefer to let them continue to make whatever decisions they choose, so long as they do so “in accordance with an ethical investment framework that is applied equally across the board”.

I’m not quite sure what that means. On Friday, Labour tabled a “reasoned amendment” repeating most of Nandy’s arguments, but this said nothing to explain what this nebulous concept would mean in practice.

But if the government doesn’t accept it at the Bill’s second reading on Monday, Labour will abstain, and then vote against the Bill on a three-line whip when it comes back for its third and final reading.
Israel Police studying France riots
Israeli law enforcement is studying the riots that have swept across France following the killing of a 17-year-old youth in the Paris suburbs on June 27.

Nahel Merzouk, reportedly of Algerian descent, was shot to death during a traffic stop following a car chase in Nanterre. This led to six consecutive nights of violent rioting.

A Paris firefighter died overnight Sunday while trying to extinguish a blaze in an underground parking lot, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who added that 157 people had been arrested between Sunday and Monday. More than 3,000 people have been detained since Nahel’s death.

Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai at the weekly meeting of the police command on Sunday morning ordered operations, intelligence and foreign relations divisions to “examine what led to the protests and the extreme reaction of the French protesters, what the police’s orders were, how they acted before the event that led to the protest, and what during the event led to violent riots across France,” the police said in a statement.

Israel is closely monitoring and deeply concerned about “waves of antisemitism sweeping over France,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

“In recent days, we have witnessed criminal assaults against Jewish targets. We strongly condemn these attacks and support the French government in its fight against antisemitism,” he added.

In May 2021 violent riots exploded in cities across Israel during the 11-day war with the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.
Amnesty UK tweeted:
The [UK Anti-Boycott] bill gives special status to Israel, making it the only country in the world which cannot be excluded from its provisions, and treats Israel and territories it occupies in the same way, contrary to the UK’s long-established policy and international law.

The bill is intended to stifle principled opposition to Israel’s illegal settlements and the Israeli authorities' racist system of apartheid against Palestinians.

Boycotts, divestment & sanctions are forms of peaceful protest that have been used to press for human rights change.

Think:
✊The Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa
🚌The Montgomery Bus Boycott
🛢️The BP oil spill
In the 1890s, merchants in Butte, Montana boycotted Chinese and other Asian businesses, tried to stop customers from entering them, and threatened anyone who hired Chinese people.


No doubt they felt that they were upholding human rights - of non-Asian people. Even this flyer talks about "morals."

What, exactly, is the difference?

More the to point, Jews have been boycotted many, many times in our history. I once gave a brief list of Arab boycotts:

1891: Arabs request the Ottoman Empire not sell land to Jews.

February 1909: "In Hebron, where out of a total population of 18,000 about 2000 are Jews, the Arabs decide to boycott Jewish merchants."

January 1915: The American Jewish Yearbook reports "At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted
by Mohammedan women."

April 2, 1920, AJC: "Rosh Pinah: Thirty Arabs attack Arab workmen in fields belonging to Jewish inhabitants in endeavor to bring about boycott by Arabs against Jews."

June 4, 1921: "Haifa: Arabs issue proclamation urging the populace to boycott the Jews and drive them out of their villages."

1922: Arab Congress calls on Arabs to boycott Jewish businesses in Palestine.

1924: MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION voted to authorize the Executive Committee to promulgate an economic boycott against the Jews. The economic boycott, however, was later abandoned.

1929: Arab Congress vows to compel Arabs to boycott Jewish merchandise. Syria prohibits import of merchandise produced by Jewish businesses in Palestine. 

1931: World Islamic Congress passes resolution requesting Muslim countries to boycott trade with Jewish businesses in Palestine. Arab Labor Federation pickets Jewish businesses in Palestine. 

1945: Arab League Council adopts Resolution 70, recommending that all Arab states establish national boycott offices. 



There was also a major boycott in Poland of Jewish businesses (accompanied by pogroms) in the 1910s.

And of course the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (accompanied by pogroms) in the 1930s.

But the boycotts of Jews didn't end there. In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia refused to do business with any company owned by Jews or with Jews in important positions. In 1960, it weas revealed that tourist companies would not allow Jews to visit Gulf countries because they adhered to the Arab boycott, and Aramco refused to hire Jews in its New York office. In 1975, the Arab world still refused to work with Jewish bankers. 

This was all at the time of the "Zionism is Racism" UN resolution, proving that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are the same thing. 

The BDS boycott is a direct continuation of the Arab League boycotts of Jews.  Don't take my word for it: this document on the BDS Movement website gives a history of BDS, and it prominently features the Arab boycott of Jews (pretending that they were only boycotting "Zionists:") It praises the explicitly antisemitic Arab League boycott successes and mourns when it weakened in the 1980s and 90s.  It even looks at the Arab League boycott of Jewish businesses to learn lessons for BDS today. The document, written in 2007, is saddened that at that point in time, only Syria and Lebanon were still adhering to the Arab League boycott - you know, those two human rights powerhouses.

There is another reason that BDS is provably antisemitic. They do not boycott Israeli Arab businesses - only the businesses owned by Israeli Jews

This antisemitism is what Amnesty-UK is supporting. And it has exactly as much to do with "human rights" as the Arab League boycott - or the Butte boycott of Chinese people - did.






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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Today's raid by the IDF on terror targets in Jenin is revealing a huge terrorist infrastructure, with large arms caches and command and control centers, in the heart of the Jenin "refugee camp."

Why is there a "refugee camp" in Jenin? 

The city has been under Palestinian Authority control for nearly three decades. The residents live in "Palestine, so they aren't refugees or even the grandchildren of refugees. They live in the land they claim as their own, under Palestinian rule. There is no definition of "refugee" in the world that would call these people refugees. 

Yet they live, rent free, in a  cramped "refugee camp" and the world pays for their housing, as well as their schooling and their medical care - all services way beyond what real refugees receive.

One can see from a satellite image the clear outlines of the Jenin camp. The structures are much smaller than in the surrounding town and the roads, such as they are, are narrow.


In 2002, after the IDF went into Jenin and destroyed the terrorist infrastructure in fierce fighting with heavy casualties on both sides, the Israeli housing minister offered to rebuild the camp elsewhere where residents could have larger houses and wider roads - to live like normal people in their land.

The idea was vehemently rejected.  

One of the self-appointed leaders of the camp said that the Israeli offer to rebuild everything better was really a plot "to erase the camps from existence, because these camps as a political reality constitute living testaments to the Nakba of the Palestinian people." (source, page 128)

That's exactly it. The camps are considered an important symbol of "resistance," not a place where human beings actually live. When UNRWA wanted to rebuild the camps and widen the roads, the same self-appointed leaders again opposed the plan, because wider roads meant the IDF could more easily enter. UNRWA and the committee remained at an impasse for months before the actual camp residents got their own committee together and said they wanted the UNRWA plan. The residents committee head said:
If we left it to debate we would have needed another five years. We agreed with the UNRWA plan. The families I meet now are happier and they are happy with the roads. If the Israeli army uses the road once (a day), we use it 100 times a day.
This is the way things have been since 1948. Ordinary Palestinians are stuck with leaders who actively want to use them as "symbols" of  misery - by keeping them miserable. 

These leaders choose to keep hundreds of thousands of  people in "camps" - places that are ideal for terrorists to flourish, where the leaders can cry to the TV cameras about how Israel is bombing these densely populated areas and where they really, really hope that civilians die.

Real leaders would have demolished these camps decades ago and told UNRWA that their services are no longer needed because Palestinians are a proud people who take care of their own. Leaders whose main goal is the end of Israel would grasp any opportunity to make Israel look bad - and therefore they keep so many residents miserable in camps where terrorists build huge caches of explosives near children's bedrooms. 








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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The limited potential of the operation in Jenin
What can we expect from the IDF’s current operation in Jenin?

According to the IDF, the goal of the operation is to disable the massive terror infrastructure that Palestinian groups have built in the Jenin refugee camp.

Over the past year and a half, due to the policies of the previous government and to IDF support for those policies, the area has become a mini-Gaza. In September 2021, in conjunction with then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Central Command head Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs ordered a five-month moratorium on IDF operations in Jenin, in the interest of “strengthening the Palestinian Authority.”

The current operation then is geared towards repairing the damage caused by the policies of the previous government and Central Command. As IDF Spokesman R. Adm. Daniel Hagari explained Monday morning in a spate of television and radio interviews, the purpose of the operation is not to seize control over Jenin or parts of the city. It is not directed against the P.A. It is meant simply to regain the tactical advantage and degrade the capabilities of the terror groups operating in the refugee camp.

As a limited, tactical engagement, the operation has limited, but important, potential. Over the past several weeks, the Palestinians have shot four rudimentary rockets at Israeli communities from Jenin. Although military experts insist these were mere pop guns, the missile industry in Gaza began the same way in 2000. Today, missiles from Gaza have ranges that cover most of the country. The operation in Jenin can destroy all the rocket workshops and kill or arrest all of the terrorist operatives engaged in the development of the rocket program.

The operation in Jenin can also disrupt and degrade the Palestinian terror capacity by killing and capturing the terror commanders and foot soldiers who together have been carrying out shooting, stoning, roadside bomb and pipe bomb attacks against Israelis throughout the region. These attacks have made life a crap shoot for tens of thousands of Israeli citizens who live and work in the communities in northern Samaria and the Binyamin region.

In the hours before the operation in Jenin began, Palestinian terrorists carried out four shooting attacks against Israeli vehicles, communities and IDF personnel in the area around the city. To get a sense of the magnitude of the problem, every day Palestinians from Jenin and the wider area carry out hundreds of stoning attacks against Israeli vehicles on the roads. And according to the Shin Bet, in May alone, Palestinians attacked Israeli vehicles with Molotov cocktails 139 times. They carried out 51 pipe bomb attacks and 11 shooting attacks.

While some of the terror infrastructure behind these attacks is located in Nablus, and in villages like Huwara and Umm Tzafa, because of the free rein terror groups enjoy in Jenin, the bulk of the operational infrastructure is located in Jenin.
Inside the Jenin Refugee Camp, the Palestinian ‘Martyr’s Capital’
Since Monday’s predawn hours, the Jenin refugee camp has been the epicenter of intense fighting between Palestinian terror groups and the Israel Defense Forces.

The camp is home to 18,000 Palestinians densely packed in an area about half a square kilometer (0.2 square miles) in size. Established in 1953, the U.N.-administered camp is often referred to by Palestinians as the “Martyr’s Capital.” Between 2000 and 2003, during the Second Intifada, at least 28 Palestinian suicide bombers came from the Jenin camp.

The refugee camp became a stronghold of terror, particularly for those aligned with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a number of smaller local factions. PIJ receives direct support from Iran while other factions often receive indirect assistance. Tehran’s relations with Palestinian terror groups, like its other regional proxy militias, are overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared in 2014, “I believe the West Bank should be armed just like Gaza.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have transferred tens of millions of shekels to terror groups in the camp in 2023 alone.

The results speak for themselves. In 2023, 50 attacks against Israelis came from the Jenin Camp. Since September, 19 terrorists have fled to the camp after carrying out attacks. Ten homes inside the camp have been demolished by Israeli authorities so far in 2023.

One PIJ terrorist killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in May had worked to establish rocket capabilities for the terror group in Jenin. Israeli intelligence has also detected an increase in the quality of explosive charges being used in the camp. Soldiers operating in the camp on Monday discovered a weapons laboratory and an improvised rocket launcher.

A major security operation by the Palestinian Authority seeking to crack down on the terror groups in 2022 failed as soon as it started because the terror groups had far higher morale. The operation’s leader was subsequently dismissed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.

When Israel raided the camp in 2002, it met fierce, well-armed resistance.
  • Monday, July 03, 2023
  • Elder of Ziyon


(Guest post from an anonymous author)

The US State Department has restored full funding to UNRWA schools since the Biden administration took office. Now they are eliminating research funding to Israeli schools in Judea and Samaria. US State Department Matt Miller has confirmed the new policy in a recent press briefing. He explained that it is consistent with long-standing policies, despite the significant change in policy.

Does this policy violate current US civil rights laws?

Two specific statutes are relevant: Title VI and Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both statutes prohibit discrimination based on, among other things, national origin. Title VI applies to any recipient of federal funding, and Title VII applies to any US employer (typically those larger than 15 employees).

The US government is not only the largest employer in America, but also in the entire world. The US government employs many sub-contractors, which includes federal grant recipients. As an employer, the US government is beholden to the same civil rights laws as anyone else.

Title VII should apply to the territories, based upon a straightforward reading of the text. The definition of terms section clearly states that the law applies to commerce between a State and any place outside the state.
"The term 'commerce' means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States; or between a State and any place outside thereof; ..."
Therefore, if the US disburses funds to foreign researchers, they in effect become sub-contractors of the US government, regardless of their physical location.

According to the US Office of Civil Rights (OCR), Title VI applies to all federal educational grant recipients. The OCR expects all recipients to conform to applicable civil rights laws regarding discrimination, or they risk losing further federal funding.

For example, if Ariel University received a US grant funding research, in order to continue receiving funding, Ariel University could not engage in discriminatory practices against its Palestinian Arab students. No one argues against such civil rights laws. They are based upon widely held principles and should be embraced.

No one claims Ariel University violates any such laws. It has a large contingent of Arab students who are treated equally with everyone else.

The State Department has claimed that the disputed territories should be kept separate from Israel until the final status is determined through mutually agreed upon negotiations between the interested parties. They claim that establishing "facts on the ground" in disputed territories creates tensions, exacerbates violence, prejudices negotiations, deprives Palestinian Arabs of their land, and is an "obstacle to peace." We have heard such arguments for years, without having a real opportunity to properly address them. In the latest policy shift, the State Department implies that promoting Israeli educational institutions in disputed territories is somehow bad for Palestinian Arabs living there. The many Arab students of Ariel University would disagree with that claim.

If the recipient of federal educational grants is prohibited from specific forms of discrimination, the granter of such funding should also be held to the same standards. Therefore, OCR should emphasize adherence to Title VII just as much as it does Title VI.

Now consider the Palestinian recipients of US federal funding. UNRWA has 96 schools, 2 of which are in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited an UNRWA girls school in Ramallah in 2021.

Today, I met with educators and students at Jalazone @UNRWA Girls School in Ramallah. I was inspired by their stories and dreams for the future, and I spoke to UNRWA officials about how to make their work stronger, more efficient, and more accountable. pic.twitter.com/MREcnTnSzb

— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) November 17, 2021

 Ms. Thomas-Greenfield made no mention of UNRWA textbooks inciting intolerance of Israeli Jews.
She also ignored the fact that single-gender schools are a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.

Since UNRWAA receives US federal funding, UNRWA is required to abide by US civil rights laws, the same as any other recipient. UNRWA may not discriminate based on national origin. However, UNRWA's very existence is a violation of Title VI since it only provides services to people who claim Palestinian nationality. 

Furthermore, UNRWA as a rule does not employ Israelis, which is also a violation of Title VII. Moreover, the UNRWA school textbooks have violated OCR guidelines regarding diversity and inclusion for decades, which is yet another reason to halt US funding of UNRWA.

While the US State Department may argue the geographic location of certain funding recipients is the distinguishing criterion for their policy, that argument is contradicted by facts. The State Department continues to fund Palestinian Arab institutions in the disputed territories, which may be a violation of existing civil rights laws. Meanwhile they restrict funding to Israeli institutions in the very same geographic area in the absence of any laws that could justify such discrimination.

Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination based on national origin. The law focuses on the behavior of the employer, which in this case is the US Government. Title VII makes no mention of disputed territories.

It isn't only UNRWA. The US Office of Palestinian Affairs offers grants to create "partnership between American and Palestinian institutions" in the West Bank and east Jerusalem under the Sustainable U.S.-Palestinian Higher Education Partnerships program. Those grants are not available to Israeli institutions in the same geographic locations.  And clearly Israeli Jews are not allowed to become students at these institutions that can receive these funds.

This sure sounds like discrimination based on national origin by the US Office of Palestinian Affairs, and their grants to Palestinian institutions that discriminate against Jews violates Title VI. 

In summary, the US State Department policy in the West Bank is problematic on many levels. It is a double standard that could conceivably be analyzed in the context of the IHRA definition. It is also a double standard that demeans Palestinian academics by holding them to a lower standard than those applied to Israeli institutions. The US State Department policy may also be illegal according to US law. I have yet to see any widely published analysis of this subject. I hope that this can be an impetus for further research.

(My appreciation to EoZ for publishing this essay.)

 

 



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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 




Atidna describes itself this way:

Atidna is a coalition of educators and social entrepreneurs, Arab citizens of Israel together with Jews from the State-Zionist Camp in Israel.

We, Israeli educators, society and entrepreneurship, believe that true integration will only begin when all of us, Arabs and Jews alike, will see the Arab Israeli public as an equal partner in a Jewish and democratic state.

The vision:
An Arab-Jewish partnership based on mutual respect and full civil equality in the State of Israel as a Jewish-democratic state. A strong Arab community, proud of its culture and heritage, which is integrated into Israeli society.

Atidna's mission:
Building a young and courageous leadership of Arabs and Jews, who have equal rights and duties, and who are proud of their identity and culture and are committed to the challenge of the successful integration of the Arab minority in the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. The movement works to create a critical human mass connected to Atidna values by developing and leading child, youth and student empowerment programs. Atidna is committed to supporting the building of a trusting, optimistic, independent and integrated Arab-Jewish community at the decision-making centers and throughout Israeli society. Atidna is committed to building a young Arab leadership avenue, which has an optimistic but practical outlook on life, which recognizes the challenge and the importance of the task and is ready to mobilize them into action in the spirit of Atidna’s values.

What makes Atidna special?
Atidna is a coalition of educators and social entrepreneurs, Arab citizens of Israel together with Jews from the State-Zionist Camp who joined together to work for successful integration in the State of Israel.
Atidna builds a community! All of Atidna’s programs are interconnected and create a multi-generational leadership community that creates change.

Addressing a diverse target audience from elementary school, students and adults.

Building a critical mass to create social change.
In short, Atidna wants to build a proud Arab society in Israel that embraces Zionist values and which will benefit everyone.

And therefore, the anti-Zionists are screaming bloody murder.




We may be at a pivotal moment. If we wake up in a few years and discover that a right-wing Zionist youth movement is flourishing in Arab society and is slowly crowding out the old movements, we will not be able to say that we did not know. You don't have to go far to identify the long-term vision: the realization of the dream of Netanyahu and his friends on the deep right: the emergence of a significant right-wing Arab current in Israeli society.

 In fact, Atidna admits it themselves. "In the long run, we hope that the social movement will become a political movement and be part of the coalition and part of the government," said Dr. Dalia Padilla, a co-director of the movement, in an interview with the "Jerusalem Post". A source in Atidna who left the movement with a slammed door was impressed that the targets are more focused. "The talk was about a Jewish-Arab party that would cut off from the territory the existing leaders of the Arab public in the Knesset," said the source, "a party that would weaken the left."


Al Quds al Arabi summarizes the Haaretz piece::
A new journalistic investigation, this time published by Hebrew-language Haaretz, revealed a project to obliterate the identity of the rising generations of the Palestinians of the interior in cunning ways and by building Zionist Arab youth movements. The talk is not only about an Israeli initiative aimed at corruption, but rather an unprecedented strategic right-wing governmental project whose malicious goal is to produce a “new Arab citizen” in Israel, i.e. a “good Arab” whose identity is a hybrid without a backbone and who has no demands inconsistent with a long-term vision sponsored by the Zionist right.  
The Hebrew newspaper, which published an extensive investigation on the matter last Friday, confirms that this project will explode in the face of its sponsors as soon as the Arab youth discover that the Jews only intend to use them as "Shabbos goys,"  i.e. a mere means to Judaize the country.
I have no idea how much traction Atidna has made in the Israeli Arab community, but the anger from the Left on an initiative from the Right to tackle systemic inequalities between Jews and Arabs in Israel feels so much like the reaction from "progressives" in the US to hearing an intelligent Black conservative. They feel betrayed that members of their pet causes might disagree with their own philosophy - which proves that their own pretense as being the only champions of minority rights is a sham. 

A Zionist Arab, like a Black conservative, indicates that some minorities do not want to be treated as if they cannot think on their own. And the "progressives" cannot handle that. 

Haaretz' article is, to put it bluntly, racist. Arabs are free to go shopping in the marketplace of ideas; if some of them choose to become Zionist, that is their right. If the Israeli Left is so convinced that Atidna holds no benefit for Arabs then Atidna is not a threat to them and they can make jokes about it, not panicked articles about waking up in a world where an Arab party is part of a right-wing government. 

The fear permeating this article is that a significant number of Arabs just might become Zionists if given a chance to learn what Zionism really is. This is a community that the Left felt that they have in their pockets and they are alarmed at even the possibility that many Arabs might be more attracted to the Right than the Left when they are exposed to real Zionism, not the racist caricature of Zionism that fills Haaretz articles. 

If some Arabs want to embrace Zionism - and certainly some do - then no one should infantilize them and tell them that they cannot. 

Because that is racist. 

(h/t YMedad)



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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Zachary Foster has become a popular anti-Zionist tweeter in recent months, to the point of becoming essentially a troll more interested in scoring points than in facts.  (Before he blocked the terrific Adin Haykin, they had a number of entertaining exchanges.)

Yet in the past, I have found his scholarly papers to be very interesting and illuminating, and they tell a story that does not at all support the current Palestinian lies about their history. Sadly, he seems now to be more addicted to "Likes" than to the truth. 

A 2011 unpublished master's thesis by Foster also upends current Palestinian lies, especially from Rashid Khalidi.

The period 1914-1923 is what, the most influential of these writers, Rashid Khalidi, has called the “critical years,” in his widely-praised  award-winning work on the subject, Palestinian Identity. He argues that as a result of the “rapid, momentous, and unsettling changes” from the outset of World War I in 1914 to roughly 1922 or 1923, “the sense of political and national identification of most politically conscious, literate and urban Palestinians underwent a sequence of major transformations. The end result was a strong and growing national identification with Palestine.”  Importantly, Khalidi writes, this full-fledged national loyalty was felt by a “significant proportion of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine”and by 1922, “important elements of the country’s Arab population had already come to identify primarily with Palestine” (my emphasis). He adds that the “most common self-description of political groupings during the mandate was as Palestinian Arab.”....Although Khalidi might like to think that “no one” could possibly dispute the widespread existence of a Palestinian identity during this thirty year period, with careful attention to evidence rather than hyperbole and polemic, I believe we can gain a much more accurate understanding of precisely when, how and why a unique Palestinian identity became widespread.
Foster then demolishes Khalidi, showing that he primary identification of Palestinian Arabs before the 1936 revolt were with their cities, or with Syrians/Egyptians or Arabs in general. 

Foster uses interesting analysis methods to come to this conclusion. For example, "not a single book was written on the history of Palestine out of sheer passion and love for Palestine until the 1930s. As we stated previously, this is in complete contrast to the city histories – all of which seem to have been written out of the authors devotion and love for the hometown." And then, "In 1936 and 1937, alone, eight books were published on the Palestine issue, more books than had been published in the preceding sixteen years combined. If the historical works are a guide to identity in Palestine, then, it seems that the major shift from city to Palestine did not obtain until the mid-late 1930s."

This is also fascinating (I put footnote text in parentheses):
The other major work on Palestine in the pre-1936 period is al-Barghouthi and Totah’s Tarikh Filastin, but, as previously mentioned, this was written at the behest of the British authorities to be used in the Mandatory education system. To be sure, this does not make the book irrelevant for the study of Palestinian identity. It does, however, suggest that it was not necessarily a natural idea for an Arab intellectual to pen a book on “the History of Palestine” in 1923.(Indeed, Totah wrote his Ph.D dissertation on the history of Arab education. Palestine is a totally irrelevant analytical category in his dissertation, as discussed above.)  And, indeed, this point is reinforced throughout the text, such as in their etymological discussion of this place we now call Palestine. Four names are offered which have historically been used to describe the region, Filastin being merely one of them. (The other three are ‘ard kana’an, ‘ard al-mi‘ad, and al-‘ard al-muqqadisa.)

Those translate to the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land and the Holy Land. Foster doesn't mention that Khalil Totah was a Christian Quaker; while he was born in Ramallah his view of Palestine was through the lens of the Bible rather than as an Arab. It is curious that Foster doesn't spend more time talking about how religion was a more important marker of identity than being a citizen of "Palestine" as well.
 
As far as identifying as Palestinian, Foster notes,
While Filastin emerged as a geographical, social and political space by the 1920s, it seems that “al-‘Arab” (the Arabs) or “al-Muslimin” and “al-Masihiyyin” (the Christians) were still preferred over “al-filastiniyyin” (the Palestinians) throughout the Mandate period to describe the region’s inhabitants. Very rarely is the word Palestinian used to describe the people of the region, who instead preferred to describe themselves, their culture, their land and their people as Arab.

One reason that Foster doesn't mention is that Jews at the time enthusiastically identified as Palestinian, and Palestinian Arabs - especially the literate ones who were espousing nationalism - didn't want to be identified with the Jews.  

Foster, quite reasonably, uses "loyalty" as a metric to see whether nationalism was more important to Palestinians than their hometowns or Arabness (he also seems to ignore clans, which were much more important in how Palestinian Arabs self-identified.) I'm still not convinced that most Palestinian Arabs identified as being loyal to Arab Palestine even into the 1940s. Here's why.

Foster is only looking at written texts of the time for evidence of loyalty. While literacy soared in Palestine between 1900-1948, a significant number of Palestinians, especially in rural areas and villages, were still illiterate in 1948, and there is no evidence that they identified with "Palestine." Moreover,  Arab actions during the 1948 war speak louder than the printed word that Foster relies on. While many defended their own towns, practically none defended anyone else's town - they fled along with their own community members. There was no loyalty to, or sacrificing for, an Arab Palestine.  The loyalty Foster sees is the written loyalty of intellectuals, a theoretical loyalty that they were trying to instill in their readers, not a reflection of actual loyalty that would make one fight for and die for one's country. 

Indeed, it was the Arab intellectuals who fled the fastest in 1947-48.  While the Jewish Palestine Post took heroic measures to ensure that it would put out a paper every day even during the worst fighting and when its own building was bombed, the Arab newspapers in Jaffa and elsewhere simply stopped publishing when the war reached them.




Last issue of "Falastin", blaming the British for Arabs fleeing Jaffa



So while Foster proves that loyalty to Arab Palestine was close to nonexistent before 1936, he doesn't go far enough because of his reliance on written materials as evidence of "loyalty" without keeping in mind that the loyalty espoused was more theoretical and prescriptive than real. It ignores the larger context that includes the people whose mindset hadn't changed for centuries. These were Arabs who easily moved from one part to another of the Arab world for economic reasons or because of wars, who did not accept the Western division of the region with arbitrary borders as relevant to their lives, and who thought that they could migrate to other Arab areas in 1948 as many of their ancestors migrated to Palestine - never dreaming that their fellow Arabs would refuse to accept them and treat them as brothers upon their arrival. 

Their identity as Palestinians was forged largely because of their mistreatment by the rest of the Arab world and its refusal to integrate them in their own societies in the 1950s, not from the Arab intellectuals of the 1910s or 1930s who created a new nationalism as a response to Zionism. The shame of their being so badly mistreated by their own people is what fuels the desire to create theories after the fact of a pre-1948 Palestinian identity, an identity that was extraordinarily weak.





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Sunday, July 02, 2023


Palestinian media is reporting:
Pilgrims stuck in the Jordanian city of pilgrims said that hundreds of pilgrims are still stuck on the Jordanian side since 3 am.

The pilgrims told Safa news agency on Sunday that hundreds are still stranded due to the departure of 140 buses from Saudi Arabia yesterday, which caused overcrowding and a major crisis in the Jordanian city of pilgrims.

They indicated that the reason for the crisis was the occupation's closure of the crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan due to the Saturday holiday for the occupation, and this coincided with the arrival of pilgrims' buses.

They pointed out that the occupation's procedures in the inspection and audit process cause obstacles and a slow entry process for pilgrims to the Palestinian territories.
Last year they falsely blamed Israel for delays in returning from Jordan during the summer. They lied then and they seem to be lying now. 

The Israeli side is open on Saturdays from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM. It appears that the buses arrived to the Jordanian terminal in the middle of the night. I doubt that the Jordanian terminal was even open then.

At any rate, the Israeli side is certainly open today from 7:00 AM, and won't close until 10:30 PM, yet the photos of the crowds in Jordan are being published within the past couple of hours (I'm writing this at 7:30 PM Israel time.) So it certainly isn't the Israeli side that is causing the delays. (Reportedly, from Sunday through Thursday the Israeli side is now open 24 hours but the Israeli borders webpage does not reflect that.)

The Arabic Facebook page covering the crossing does not say a word about problems on the Israeli side, which is recognized by travelers as being far more professional than the Jordanian side.





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Terrorists, not Jewish homes, cause violence in the West Bank
Palestinian terrorists have never wanted for pretexts to attack Jews.

In 1929, it was the presence of Jews at the Western Wall – the retaining wall of the Temple Mount complex, Judaism’s most sacred site – that was used as a rallying cry by the antisemitic mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, to incite the mobs that murdered dozens of Jews in Hebron and throughout the land.

In 1936, as former Jerusalem Post reporter Oren Kessler documents in his book, Palestine 1936, it was the immigration of Jews to Palestine and their purchase of local land that was exploited by the leaders of the Arab revolt that claimed the lives of hundreds of Jews.

In 1947 and 1948, it was the formation of the Jewish national home that served the commanders of the Arab irregular forces that attacked Jews and destroyed Jewish property in an effort to prevent the State of Israel from coming into being.

And today it is the construction of homes for Israeli families in the Jewish heartland that Palestinian terrorist groups use as an excuse to murder Jews in their homes, on the roads, in their synagogues, and elsewhere.

If it were true that the construction of homes causes violence, it would follow logically that the absence of such construction should bring about a lull in that violence. But the 10-month settlement freeze declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government in November 2009 did no such thing.

Numerous Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during that period, and the Palestinian leadership came up with one excuse after another to refuse to come to the negotiating table.

What drives Palestinian terrorism is the persistent refusal to countenance any sovereign Jewish presence in this land, the hatred and dehumanization of Jews, the ongoing incitement to violence in Palestinian schools and mosques, and the Palestinian Authority’s incentivization of terrorism by means of financial inducements and rewards.

So, no, Mr. Secretary-General. Jewish homes do not cause violence. Terrorists cause violence. And to compare the construction of homes to the wanton murder of innocent civilians is to engage in a stunning perversion of basic morality that brings shame to the UN and to your office.
Jonathan Pollard: Vigilante actions are a result of absence of government counter terror policy
The problem, as I see it, is that the settlers feel that they are considered “hefker - abandoned - by the Left, the army, the current government, and the Americans. Nobody seems to understand that the presence of their communities is the only thing standing in the way of another Gaza being created, this time hard upon the vital center of our country. So, in what they see as the absence of an army policy that will act decisively to prevent this, what are the settlers expected to do? Wait to be murdered?

Personally, I am opposed to vigilante actions of any kind. However, in this particular situation, I understand that such behavior is being undertaken by those who have lost hope of any effective government counter terror policy. This is why I will not follow Rabbi Lichtenstein in blanket condemnation of the frustration and fear of those giving it back to the Arabs in their own coin, but call out to the government to make it unnecessary.

As far as I’m concerned, the Arabs occupying our G-d given Land in Judea and Samaria are our enemies. You can see it when they openly celebrate the murder of our people and none of them, including their leaders, criticize it. You can see it in all the polling that’s done by reputable organizations, that clearly shows they will never accept our presence. Basically, they constitute a clear and present threat to our survival and should be treated as such.

If rabbinic figures, such as Rabbi Lichtenstein, who encourage settling Judea and Samaria, consider the vigilante action conducted by a small number of the settlers and others contrary to Torah, I suggest they should also devote their commentary to pushing for a more robust government counter terror policy.
PMW: The centrality of Antisemitism to PA ideology - PMW Director Marcus explains PA political and religious Antisemitism
Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus spoke about PA Antisemitism at several events last month. One was a panel discussion “From East to West: The Export of Antisemitism from Arabic Media,” hosted by PMW and CAMERA Arabic at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Marcus also spoke at a live-streamed conference organised by Pulse of Israel called “Unmasking Jew-hatred within the Palestinian national movement.”

The following are excerpts of two articles summarizing Marcus’ talks and his and PMW’s findings on PA Antisemitism:

Palestinian antisemitism is systemic and should be exposed By Steven Gruzd
“The image that Palestinians portray in the English media is very different from the messages they send to their own people in Arabic,” Itamar Marcus said. “Incidents of Palestinian antisemitism aren’t isolated examples; they are systematically disseminated by the Palestinian Authority (PA).” Jewish leaders have been criticised for not bringing enough attention to this reality, and Western governments have been castigated for continued support for the Palestinians in spite of their Jew-hating racism.

Marcus is the founder of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli non-governmental organisation that monitors incitement and extremism – usually in Arabic – in Palestinian media and schoolbooks. He was speaking at “Unmasking Jew-hatred within the Palestinian national movement”, a live-streamed conference organised by Pulse of Israel on 25 June.

Marcus showed several examples, including from PA President Mahmoud Abbas, of Palestinian political antisemitism that propagates the myth that Jews are evil, threaten humanity, and have brought hatred on themselves by their actions and character. The PA also posits that Israel is an illegal, alien, settler-colonial implant in “Palestine” with no right to exist, created by Europeans who wanted to solve their own “Jewish problem”. Abbas has claimed that Zionists fabricated the Holocaust, and were in cahoots with the Nazis.

Marcus also gave examples of Palestinian religious antisemitism. Leading Palestinian Muslim clerics have declared on television that Jews are apes and pigs, cursed, and subhuman. Those who murder Jews are celebrated as heroes, martyrs, and role models.
[The South African Jewish Report, June 29, 2023]
  • Sunday, July 02, 2023
  • Elder of Ziyon


Stephen Flatow makes a good point:
Israel’s pursuit of terrorists into the Palestinian Authority city of Jenin this week echoes the Biden administration’s ongoing policy of sending US troops into other countries in pursuit of terrorists.

Israel’s leaders know that US forces killed Bilal al-Sudani and 10 other ISIS terrorists in Somalia on January 25. “This action leaves the United States and its partners safer and more secure,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Secretary Austin was absolutely right. Whether terrorists are in Jenin, three miles from Israel’s border; or Somalia, 7,000 miles from America, they must be pursued.

Israel was watching when the US carried out airstrikes on Iran-backed terrorists in Syria on March 23, killing 11 of them. US President Joe Biden said the airstrikes demonstrated his commitment to the principle that the US government must be “prepared to act forcefully to protect our people.”

Biden was right. Whether the terrorists are in Syria, 6,000 miles from the US; or in Jenin, 10 miles from the Israeli city of Afula, every government must act forcefully to protect its people.

Israel surely was paying attention when a US drone strike in northwestern Syria killed ISIS terrorist Khalid Ayyd Ahmad Al-Jabouri on April 3. A Pentagon statement said the killing was justified because it “will temporarily disrupt the organization’s ability to plot external attacks.”

Which, of course, is exactly what Israel is doing when it sends its troops into PA cities such as Jenin. Disrupting enemy attacks saves lives.

Flatow notes that US Centcom counted 38 anti-terror operations in May - more than one a day.

What Flatow doesn't mention is that sometimes, US forces kill civilians as well.

In May, the US announced the assassination of a major Al Qaeda leader - but they had actually killed a 56-year old sheep-herder and father of 10. As far as I can tell, the US has not yet admitted that they made a mistake, claiming that the man was also Al Qaeda without providing a name and any evidence.

Another civilian was killed in a US-led coalition airstrike in February of this year. And in the past, the US has been involved in massacres - 10 civilians including 7 children in Afghanistan in a single airstrike in 2021, to give one example of many. 

Like the US, Israel is targeting terrorists. Like the US, sometimes innocent people are killed. Like the US, Israel tries very hard to minimize civilian casualties.

Unlike the US, Israel is dealing with terrorists on its very doorstep. Unlike the US, ordinary Israeli civilians are in clear and present danger from these terrorists, who would attack Israeli civilians within days if Israel wouldn't stay on the offensive. And unlike the US and UK, Israel is far more transparent in its investigations and admitting mistakes. 

And Israel is subjected to far more scrutiny and media attention for civilian deaths than the US and UK are - by US and UK media!

No one wants civilian casualties except for the terrorists themselves. No one works harder to avoid those civilian casualties while balancing them against real, imminent danger of terror attacks than Israel does. 

The US and UK should spend at least as much time criticizing their own actions as they do Israel's. 




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 



The secretary general of the Islamic Jihad terror group, Ziyad Al-Nakhala, gave an extensive interview to an Iranian newspaper, and he mentioned a few things that the Western media rarely reports.

While most people understand that Iran funds most of Islamic Jihad's operations, Al-Nakhala admits that Islamic Jihad essentially is part of Iran's military, and that its decisions originate in Iran.

First he praises the Iranian regime for providing the technical expertise to build weapons:

We gained from the Islamic Revolution other expertise in the level of manufacturing and arming. Today, we see the action of the resistance taking different roles from the past, and the Palestinian has more experience than before, and today the Palestinian manufactures many weapons with which he confronts the occupation and manufactures them locally, with the exception of machine guns. Missiles, anti-tank weapons, and explosives are manufactured locally. An important part of this expertise was gained by the Palestinian people from our brothers in the Islamic Republic, and this has a great impact, and what we are witnessing today of resistance action in which missiles are used to strike the occupied cities, and in particular Tel Aviv, and all the central cities of Israel. These experiences from the Islamic Republic benefited the resistance and the Palestinian people , in addition to the expertise of mortars and explosives.
But then he says that it was Iran's leader who called for local armed groups in West Bank towns like Jenin:
When His Eminence [Ayatollah Khamenei] called for the arming of the West Bank, ...everyone cooperated in order to bring about change and a qualitative shift in the Palestinian situation, and programs were developed for this, whether through smuggling of weapons or by purchasing weapons from the Israelis themselves. The important thing is that there was a lot of focus in order for the West Bank to move from a state of coexistence and calm to a state of resistance that we see today, and this, of course, was completely consistent with the directives of His Eminence the Leader on the possibility of arming the West Bank.  During our visit to Iran and during the meeting with His Eminence the Leader, His Eminence confirmed  once again to develop the armament of the West Bank, and the development of resistance work in the West Bank.

Interestingly, Nakhala also downplays the amount of money Iran provides for terror operations and "martyr" families, because he is aware that there is a backlash in Iran of how much it provides to Palestinians while Iranians are in severe financial straits. "I say this so that people can be reassured, because it is possible for them to think that the Palestinian people took all the money of the Islamic Republic," he says, which means that this is a very sore point and Iranian citizen anger is a threat to terror groups like Islamic Jihad.

Al-Nakhala then emphasized that the targets of terrorists are specifically Jews, and the purpose of terror attacks is to frighten Jews into fleeing:

We are optimistic and we will win even if 10 or 15 years pass. years, but we are optimistic that if we exert more effort, the Zionist project will disintegrate, because the reality of the Jews in Palestine is that they came to this country in order to live in peace, stability and an opportunity for life, but when the opportunity for life and peace is not available and when the Jew finds only the place where he is killed is Palestine, he will inevitably leave.  He came to Palestine to live in safety and stability. When he does not find this stability and peace, so he returns to where he came from, because there is no Jew in the world today whose life is threatened like the Jews in Palestine. Jews in other countries live and prosper. The only Jew who is killed is in Palestine. We must work to change the conviction of the Israeli that the chance of life here is non-existent and that the only place in which the Jew is killed is Palestine, and therefore he must leave this country. 
So while these terror groups claim in English that they have nothing against Jews, they freely admit that their targets are specifically Jews and the only people they want to terrorize are Jews. 

Notice also that Al-Nakhala admits that the purpose of Zionism is for Jews to live in peace and security - not to steal land, as they usually tell the West and each other. (h/t kweansmom)






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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

  • Sunday, July 02, 2023
  • Elder of Ziyon
Egypt's Al Ahram has an op-ed about how high tech companies in Israel are supposedly trying to marginalize Arabs. 

The author, Asim Abdel Khalek, says, "In the Negev desert, the giant Cisco company operates and has two outlets in the two Palestinian towns of Hurra and Ar'arat, working with IBM as part of Israel's plan to settle Jews and deport the Palestinian Bedouins. "

Cisco (and IBM) are cooperating with Israel to deport Arabs from the Negev? Where did it get this information from?

From the "Who Profits?" BDS organization. And their description of Cisco's activities in Israel and in Palestinian areas shows that every fact - even heavy investment in training and hiring Israeli Arabs and Palestinians - can be twisted to fit the BDS agenda.

"Who Profits" writes about Cisco:

In the Naqab, where ten Cisco technology equipped hubs are planned, two are located in Palestinian towns – one in Hura and the other in Ar’arat al-Naqab (two out of seven Palestinian Bedouin towns in the Naqab).[10] These hubs form part of the Israeli government’s industrialisation and resettlement plan which strives to create jobs in the Naqab, in the hope of drawing Jewish Israelis to settle in the region, while concentrating its Palestinian communities into ghettoized residential areas.   
First of all these aren't Cisco centers, but Israeli tech hubs that use Cisco equipment. 

And where do they get the idea that these hubs are ways to expel the Bedouin from the Negev?

They just made that up. 

After all, Israel isn't trying to kick the Bedouin out of the Negev. They want them to live in communities that have infrastructure, unlike the slapdash and illegal communities that Arabs build all over the Negev, but Israel does not want unemployed Negev Arabs - on the contrary, Israel invests huge sums in their welfare. 

This other section of the Who Profits site shows how insane their hate is, and how eager the BDSers are to throw Palestinians under the bus for their own goals:

In 2008, Cisco signed a collaborative deal with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, for the investment of 10 million USD for the development of the Palestinian hi-tech sector. The investment was managed by Gay Hetzroni, then the manager of the software development department at Cisco-Israel.

The deal involved outsourcing work to Palestinian engineers and technicians, led by Cisco-Israel. This Cisco project was a milestone in setting a trend in the outsourcing of work to a skilled, yet comparatively cheap Palestinian workforce by Israeli and Israeli intermediaries of international companies. Palestinian workers are paid well below the wages of an Israeli hi-tech worker (2500 and 4000 USD respectively). Since Cisco’s deal in 2008, the Israeli subsidiaries of Intel, Microsoft and Mellanox, have also outsourced work to Palestinian technicians. This outsourcing process reduces production costs through exploitation, and entrenches the dependency of Palestinian economic development on the economic and political interests of the occupying power.
According to the BDSers, any investment in Palestinian high tech is bad, because they get paid less than Israelis do, so it is exploitation.

Which means that every high tech company on Earth that outsources jobs to India or Indonesia or China is exploiting their workers - even though those jobs pay far higher than the average salary in those places.

Cisco invested tens of millions into training and growing the Palestinian high tech sector, and that investment helped bring other companies into the West Bank, along with thousands of jobs. As Forbes wrote in 2013:

Buoyed by training, investment or partnerships from Israelis or Israeli subsidiaries of American companies, more than 300 Palestinian technology firms now employ 4,500 people, FORBES estimates, up from just 23 firms in the six-year period leading up to 2000. More are on the way: There's at least $100 million in venture cash from Israeli or Western sources either looking for deals or recently put to work in Palestinian or Israeli Arab startups (with the latter community, representing one-fifth of the country's citizenry, increasingly agitating to get in on the action). Meanwhile, Chambers and his peers at U.S. technology giants have pushed their Israeli subsidiaries to outsource research and development projects to Palestinian startups or to hire local Arabs.    

...  a $50 million fund called Al Bawader (Arabic for "early signs") [is] earmarked solely for investments in Israel's Arab community. The funding is unlike anything before seen in the Middle East. The Israeli government has put money into Al Bawader, as have individual Israeli Jews, Israeli-Arabs--and Palestinians. 

More Palestinians, and more Israeli Arabs, are getting more jobs that pay more money. 

But BDS is against this. 

This shows again that the BDS movement does not give a damn about Palestinians.





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

AddToAny

EoZ Book:"Protocols: Exposing Modern Antisemitism"

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Hasbys!

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Blog Archive