"Jew" in Pakistan forced to flee home

From the Express Tribune (Pakistan):

LAHORE: A man wrote that his name was ‘Jew Jurian’ on his national identity card form. The data entry clerk then assumed he was a Jew. Thus for the first time in the history of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC), a Pakistani was officially declared a Jew.

The problem was that he was a Christian.

The bigger problem for Jurian, as he told The Express Tribune, was that he was accused of being a Jew – and subsequently, through the twisted logic of twisted souls, of blasphemy.

After thorough investigations, Jurian was released by the police, along with three others, in May 2003. Almost nine years later, he and his family still face death threats.

Qaiser Azeem, one of the other three men, was stabbed to death two years later. Another, Mushtaq Ahmed, was also shot after testifying against religious extremists accused of terrorism.

Despite the families of Jurian and those murdered fleeing the area, death threats still continue. An FIR [First Information Report - initial police report] obtained by The Express Tribune seems to confirm this.

According to the FIR, registered at Bakri police station by Jurian against unknown extremists, the victim (Jurian) was detained for blasphemy in 2002. Despite being declared innocent, he and his family received death threats. Through his father, Maqbool Masih, he then contacted Kamran Micheal, the provincial minister for human rights and minorities and submitted an application.

In his application he appealed to be saved from extremists. He also said that the assistant sub inspector of Baghbanpura police station is providing security to such extremists.

The contents of the FIR further stated that the victim received threatening calls continuously. Late at night on October 25, 2011, he received a call from a stranger calling him an infidel (kafir). This being a regular occurrence, Jurian and his family have now left the area. Only one Christian family lives in the area, Mohallah Green Park, situated in Shalimar Town, Lahore – and Jurian claimed that some local residents are in contact with religious extremists. He also alleged that a police official at a local station sympathises with extremists, and they have worked together to create trouble for Jurian and his family, eventually forcing them to leave. He alleged that the Baghbanpura police have continuously harassed his family and conducted various raids at his home.

Jurian, his family, and the families of those already victim to such extremists have left the city to live an underground existence. Be they Jew, Christian or unclassifiable, this is obviously an unacceptable state of affairs.

Who are we to judge? It's a cultural thing, and multiculturalism must be celebrated.

(h/t Dan)

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Unity! Hamas accuses Fatah of political arrests

That famed Palestinian Arab unity keeps on going.

The latest accusation comes from Hamas, who said that Fatah arrested 8 Hamas members in the West Bank over the weekend - including a journalist.

They also accuse Fatah of extending the detention of other Hamas members, and of firing a teacher who is a member of the group.

One of the major issues between the two sides has been political arrests, and even while the heralded "unity" meetings are taking place - the arrests continue.

Nabil Sha'ath, the Fatah leader who traveled to Gaza last week to keep the appearance of unity going, charged  that there are still some in Hamas who do not want reconciliation between the two sides.

Naturally, Hamas responded with an angry denial, saying Sha'ath's remarks were "irresponsible and baseless."

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British atrocities against Palestinian Arabs, 1936-39

Here are excerpts from "The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936 – 39", by Matthew Hughes:

Punishment in the form of the destruction of Arab property across urban and rural areas of Palestine was central to British military repression after 1936, the countryside being badly hit although there were some egregious house demolitions in urban areas. Destruction and vandalism became a systematic, systemic part of British counter-insurgency operations during the revolt, and justified by the legal measures in force at the time. Alongside the destruction, soldiers looted properties, something not officially sanctioned; indeed officers often tried to stop the men pilfering. Alongside the blowing up of houses—often the most impressive ones in the village—and the smashing up of Arab villagers’ homes, there were ‘reprisals’ in the form of heavy collective fines, forced labour and punitive village occupations by government forces for which villagers bore the cost.

Abuses went unreported as the British heavily censored the Palestinian Arabic-language newspapers, while commanders such as Major-General Bernard Montgomery in northern Palestine banished newspaper reporters so that his men could carry on their work untroubled by the media.

During army searches, soldiers would surround a village—usually before dawn so that they could catch any suspects before they fled—the men and women then divided off, held apart from the houses, often in wired ‘cages’, while soldiers searched and often destroyed everything, burnt grain and poured olive oil over household food and effects.41 The men meanwhile were ‘screened’ by passing hooded or hidden Arab informers who would nod when a ‘suspect’ was found, or by British officials checking their papers against lists of suspects. If the army was not on a reprisal operation but was following up an intelligence lead and looking for a suspect or hidden weapons, any destruction was incidental to the searching of properties—troops also used primitive metal detectors on such operations. On such operations, however, brutality against villagers could occur as the army tried to extract from them intelligence on the whereabouts of hidden weapons caches or suspects, as happened at the village of Halhul in 1939. In some cases, the brutality would then extend to the vandalism of property as a means of gaining information. The level of destruction varied, the army using the excuse of weapons searches to justify any damage if there were complaints. Army engineers would also demolish houses or groups of houses.

The largest single act of destruction came on 16 June 1936 in the Arab city of Jaffa when the British blew up between 220 and 240 buildings,47 ostensibly to improve health and sanitation, cutting pathways through Jaffa's old city with 200–300 lbs gelignite charges48 that allowed military access and control. By this act—headlined in al-Difa‘ as ‘goodbye, goodbye, old Jaffa, the army has exploded you’—the British made homeless up to 6,000 Palestinians, most of whom were left destitute, having been told by air-dropped leaflet on the morning of 16 June to vacate their homes by 9 p.m. on the same day.49 Some families were left with nothing, not even a change of clothes.

In June 1936, Muslim religious leaders wrote to the High Commissioner detailing how police officers on operations ‘stamped’ on things, destroyed everything, ‘smashed doors, mirrors, tables, chairs wardrobes, glass, porcelain’ and ripped women's clothing and bed linen. Soldiers mixed in margarine and oil with foodstuffs, they trampled on ‘holy books’, and they destroyed wooden kitchen utensils, as well as glasses, clocks, smoking pipes and basins.59 In the same month, another protest complained about police and soldiers hitting innocent people, insulting their dignity, stealing items and destroying furniture, goods and provisions.60As one rebel recounted, servicemen,61Searched houses, each one by itself, in a way that was sabotaging on purpose, and they looted some of the assets of the houses, and burnt some other houses, and destroyed provisions/goods. After putting flour, wheat, rice, sugar and others together, they added all the olive oil or petrol they could find. And in every search operation they destroyed a number of houses of the village and damaged others. They also put signs on other houses to destroy them in the future if there are any incidents near the village, even if that incident is only cutting telephone wires.

A British doctor in Hebron during the revolt, Elliot Forster, recalled the effect of living under sustained British military occupation. Accustomed to local life, Forster worked in Hebron's St Luke's Hospital and held surgeries in outlying villages. He lived through periods of intense military operations as the army and police fought local guerrillas. The rule of law collapsed as troops ran amok, shooting Arabs at random simply because they were in what was, in effect, a ‘free-fire’ combat zone. While some officers tried to restrain the men, local Arabs moved about Hebron and the surrounding countryside in fear of their lives, not from rebel actions but because of the violence meted out by marauding troops and police. ‘Anyone who sees the army nowadays runs like a hare—I do myself!’ wrote Forster.79 In engagements with rebels, the army would shoot Arabs near the battle zone, even when these were old men and boys tending their flocks. Forster daily treated local people brought in to his hospital with gunshot wounds. Candid as to when he was treating a real rebel, most of the time he was tending gunshot wounds inflicted by trigger-happy British troops. He included a well-documented account of policemen executing in broad daylight in October 1938 an Arab suspect travelling in a police vehicle through the Manshiya district of Jaffa, an outrage witnessed by non-British European residents, and repeated examples of troops robbing Arabs of money, including young children who were relieved of their pocket money.

For the soldiers, their activities in Palestine were unremarkable, their job being ‘to bash anybody on the head who broke the law, and if he didn't want to be bashed on the head then he had to be shot. It may sound brutal but in fact it was a reasonably nice, simple objective and the soldiers understood it’.83Regimental histories and contemporary regimental journals did little to hide the reprisals, destruction and collective fines, recording how villages were ‘beaten up’, homes burnt and men detained in cages ‘on orders from above’ because of rebel activity nearby.84 While euphemisms would be used—‘the search was drastic enough to shake the villagers’85—regimental journals would cheerily and sportily describe the trashing of a village, as with the Essex Regiment at the ‘sack’ (obvious pun intended) of Sakhnin, 25–26 December 1937, with physical force that stopped short of outright torture or blatant wanton destruction—or these were not reported.

It was common British army practice to make local Arabs ride with military convoys to prevent mine attacks. Often, soldiers carried them or tied them to the bonnets of lorries, or put the hostages on small flatbeds on the front of trains, all to prevent mining or sniping attacks. ‘The naughty boys who we had in the cages in these camps’ were put in vehicles in front of the convoy for the ‘deterrent effect’, as one British officer put it.89 The army told the Arabs that they would shoot any of them who tried to run away.90 On the lorries, some soldiers would brake hard at the end of a journey and then casually drive over the Arab who had tumbled from the bonnet, killing or maiming him, as Arthur Lane, a Manchester Regiment private candidly recalled:91… when you'd finished your duty you would come away nothing had happened no bombs or anything and the driver would switch his wheel back and to make the truck waver and the poor wog on the front would roll off into the deck. Well if he was lucky he'd get away with a broken leg but if he was unlucky the truck behind coming up behind would hit him. But nobody bothered to pick up the bits they were left. You know we were there we were the masters we were the bosses and whatever we did was right …. Well you know you don't want him anymore. He's fulfilled his job. And that's when Bill Usher [the commanding officer] said that it had to stop because before long they'd be running out of bloody rebels to sit on the bonnet.

British accounts also detail soldiers bayoneting innocent Arabs and Arab fighters in battle being machine gunned en masse by men from the Royal Ulster and West Kent regiments as they came out to surrender near Jenin. ‘At one time the Ulsters and West Kents caught about 60 of them [Arab guerrillas] in a valley and as they walked out with their arms up mowed them down with machine guns. I inspected them afterwards and most of them were boys between 16 and 20 from Syria …. No news of course is given to the newspapers, so what you read in the papers is just enough to allay public uneasiness in England.'

Up to fifteen men died in Halhul, mostly elderly Palestinians (the youngest victim was thirty-five, the oldest seventy-five) who died after being left out in the sun for several days in a caged enclosure with insufficient water. Halhul villagers also claim that soldiers shot a local man at a well during the same operation—in fact, it seems that soldiers beat the victim and then left him to drown in the well.

"Before or after destroying the village [of Al Bassa,], almost certainly the latter, RUR soldiers with some attached Royal Engineers collected approximately fifty men from al-Bassa and blew some of them up in a contrived explosion under a bus. Harry Arrigonie, a British Palestine policeman at al-Bassa at the time, recalled what happened in his memoirs, with the British ‘herding’ about twenty men from al-Bassa ‘onto a bus. Villagers who panicked and tried to escape were shot. The driver of the bus was forced to drive along the road, over a land mine buried by the soldiers. This second mine was much more powerful than the first [i.e., the rebels’ mine] and it completely destroyed the bus, scattering the maimed and mutilated bodies of the men on board everywhere. The villagers were then forced to dig a pit, collect the bodies, and throw them unceremoniously into it."

A letter in Arabic of 8 September 1938 giving the Palestinian side of events extends the atrocity to include premeditated torture. The letter dates the rebel mine explosion to 10.30 p.m. hours on 6 September, following which, on the morning of 7 September, soldiers came to al-Bassa. They shot four people in the streets, in cafes and in the homes of the village, after which the soldiers searched and looted the village, before gathering and beating inhabitants with sticks and rifle butts. The British then took one hundred villagers to a nearby military base—Camp Number One—where the British commander selected four men (the letter lists their names) who were tortured in front of the rest of the group. The four men were undressed and made to kneel barefoot on cacti and thorns, specially prepared for the occasion. Eight soldiers then told off the four men and two per Arab detainee set about beating them ‘without pity’ in front of the group. Pieces of flesh ‘flew from their bodies’ and the victims fainted, after which an army doctor came and checked their pulses. The army then took the group of villagers to another base—Camp Number Two—while soldiers destroyed the village of al-Bassa. All of this happened on the morning of 7 September, with the army withdrawing at 1 p.m. on the same day.

The article goes into much more detail and gives many more examples.

The British destroyed other villages as well - Kaukab Abu al-Hija, for one. Yet it is extraordinarily difficult to find details on these events.

Yet even after the author goes to great lengths to detail these horror stories, he concludes this way:

Britain lost control of Palestine in the late 1930s during the Arab revolt. Faced with similar disturbances, other imperial powers responded much more harshly than the British did in Palestine, as even a cursory glance at other twentieth-century counter-insurgency campaigns shows, whether it is the Spanish in the Rif mountains, the Germans in Africa before the Great War and during the Second World War, the Japanese in China, the Italians in Libya, the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Portuguese in Africa or the Soviets in Afghanistan. These actions included systemic, boundless violence, large-scale massacres of civilians and POWs, forced starvation, overt racism, gross torture, sexual violence and rape, the removal of legal process, the use of chemical and biological weapons against civilians, ethnic cleansing, extermination camps and genocide. This does not excuse British abuses in Palestine but it provides some comparative context. Put simply, in Palestine the British were often brutal but they rarely committed atrocities. Indeed, by moderating its violence, Britain was probably more effective as an imperial power. Perhaps this is the best that can be said for the British ‘way’ in repressing the Arab insurgency in Palestine: it was, relatively speaking, humane and restrained—the awfulness was less awful—when compared to the methods used by other colonial and neo-colonial powers operating in similar circumstances, an achievement, of sorts.

This study was released in 2009. Yet it made no discernible impact. No news articles about the revelations, no calls for public inquiries, no angry British demanding answers, no apologies from British who feel bad that these actions were done in their name.

The next time any smug British journalist or politician decides to talk about supposed Israeli atrocities against Palestinian Arabs - ask them how it compares with Britain's record against those very same people.

(h/t CHA for research)

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Another Qassam rocket explodes - in Gaza

The Gaza NGO Safety Office sent out an SMS message on Sunday morning:

08 Jan: Overnight Pal[estinian]. op[erative]s. attempted to fire 1 HMR [home made rocket] from Al Bureij Camp, MA [Middle Area], but the rocket exploded prematurely. No reports of injury or damage.

Just because you haven't heard about any rockets from Gaza doesn't mean they aren't still trying to fire them.

And as I have shown, as many as 30% of rockets explode on the ground or fall short in Gaza, sometimes causing injuries or even death.

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Coptic businessman on trial in Egypt over Mickey Mouse cartoon

From Al Masry al Youm:

The Central Cairo Prosecution has referred Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris to trial over charges of defamation of religion.

In June, Sawiris posted a picture depicting Mickey Mouse wearing a beard and Minnie Mouse wearing a face veil on his Twitter account, a cartoon that many Muslims considered offensive.

Sawiris later apologized for posting the cartoon, however, his apology did not manage to calm the anger of Salafis who filed a report accusing him of defaming religion.

Salafi groups also launched a one-month campaign to boycott companies that Sawiris owns or is a partner in, such as Mobinil and Al-Masry Al-Youm, causing heavy losses, particularly for his mobile phone company.

On 25 June, Mamdouh Ismail, the lawyer for Jama'a al-Islamiya, and 14 other lawyers filed a suit over the incident, accusing Sawiris of intentionally ridiculing Islamic icons and attire.

According to the paper, Ismail said Sawiris has openly said he rejects Article 2 of the constitution, which states that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is its language, and Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation.

Ismail added that Sawiris previously expressed his rejection of the veil, which he said provides proof that the former intentionally derides Islamic dress.

Other Islamist movements also criticized Sawiris after he posted the cartoon.

In July, Mohamed Morsy, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, criticized Sawiris and described him as "a corrupt icon from the former regime."

A lawsuit is one thing - but now this is a criminal prosecution, decided upon after months of deliberation and thought. Before the Islamists officially take over.

Welcome to the new Egypt.

Keep in mind that people like Sawiri were the ones that the West latched onto as the face of the new Egypt - liberal, self-critical, open-minded and secularist - during the revolution. Based on the election results so far, that crowd ended up being a very small minority in Egypt.

Here's the offensive cartoon he posted:

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The real apartheid in the Middle East (video)

From Stand With Us:

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Western Union shuts down Gaza operations

From Ma'an:

International money transfer service Western Union has stopped its service to many currency exchange stores in the coastal enclave over concerns about money laundering, [Palestinian Monetary Authority Governor Jihad] al-Wazir said.

While the currency centers were able to use Money Gram and Money Express, the PMA was working to resolve the Western Union shutdown as soon as possible, he added.

Money laundering in Gaza? Geez. What's the world coming to when you can't trust funders of terrorists who shoot rockets at innocent civilians to be honest in their business dealings?

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Haniyeh: "We will not lay down our arms"

From AFP:

The prime minister in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday promised "difficult days" for Israel, and at a rally in Tunis urged Arab Spring revolutionaries to fight for an independent Palestine.

Ismail Haniya received an ovation from the crowd of some 5,000 men, women and children gathered in a stadium waving Palestinian, Tunisian and Hamas flags.

"We promise you that we will not cede a single part of Palestine, we will not cede Jerusalem, we will continue to fight and we will not lay down our arms," he said, urging "the people of the revolution to fight the army of Al-Quds" as Jerusalem is known in Arabic.

"To Tunisia we say: 'It is us today who are going to build the new Middle East'."

Haniya insisted "We will not recognise Israel", as the crowd chanted: "Death to Israel", "The Tunisian revolution supports Palestine", and "The army of Mohammed is back".

Some wiped their feet on the Star of David.

Haniya's visit does not sit well with representatives of the Palestinian Authority led by president Mahmud Abbas, with a source telling AFP: "The Palestinians are furious."

Jews in Tunisia asked the government earlier Sunday to take steps to avoid a repeat of anti-Semitic slogans chanted during the Hamas leader's visit.

Islamist activists welcoming Haniya were heard chanting slogans like: "Kill the Jews, it is our duty", along with anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian messages.

I'm sure when they say "death to Israel" they mean it metaphorically, like "jihad" and "intifada" and "resistance." Nothing to worry about here.

(h/t CHA)

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Work accident!

22-year old Jihad Anwar al-Habib was killed this morning "while performing a Jihad mission," according to Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades.

Unfortunately, Islamic Jihad didn't describe the circumstances of his death. His face was mostly intact, though.

There was a large funeral for the mujahid in Gaza City.

The sheikh who spoke exhorted the crowd not to be fooled by the tricks and ploys of those who are calling for "popular resistance." He also reminded them that Habib's blood was not spilled in vain.

May many more jihadists follow precisely in his footsteps.

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Arab pride will ensure no unity between Hamas and Fatah

I've been covering the increasingly hostile spat between Hamas and Fatah over what appears to be a minor incident: Fatah members being forced to wait at the Erez crossing to enter Gaza.

The Fatah members left in a huff, saying that Hamas disrespected them; Hamas responded by saying it will charge one of them with blasphemy for "cursing God."

Now Fatah has again increased the rhetoric. The Fatah Central Committee is demanding an apology from Hamas for how they treated their members.

And if they don't get it, they will re-assess the entire idea of unification with Hamas.

They also called on their "Arab brothers" to be aware of "Hamas' tricks" in Gaza.

They also said

Some of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza have blood on their hands with the blood of our people and our movement; they are not in a position to accuse, for it is they who should be tried for their crimes against the Palestinian national project and the right of freedom fighters of our people as well as their insistence on deepen and consolidate the division that serves only the Israeli occupation and the few leaders of Hamas in Gaza who benefit.

They further said that Hamas' threats to charge one Fatah member with blasphemy are "threats, lies, and an inappropriate use of religion to pour oil on the fire of division."

Hamas today responded by accusing Ramallah of not providing adequate medicines for Gaza.

This incident sheds light not only on why the entire "unity" scenario is a sham, but on why peace with Israel is impossible.

Here we have a case of wounded pride, of Fatah members feeling slighted, and it has turned into the equivalent of an international incident between the two sides, with rhetoric that one simply would not see outside the Muslim world. No one is even attempting to back down or to tone down the rhetoric - on the contrary, they are bringing up old grievances.

Both sides hate each other, and even though their leaders will grimace in their vain attempt to "unify" so they can fight Israel, there is no unity there, and there never will be. If there ever is an election (something that Mahmoud Zahar yesterday said would not happen by May as scheduled) the losing side is likely to ignore the results and keep whatever territory they already rule. Arab pride will not allow admitting defeat, or guilt.

If this is how Hamas and Fatah talk to each other when they are trying their hardest to pretend to be unified, how can anyone ever think that there could be peace between them and Israel?

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Morning links

"Popular resistance" - 4 terrorists with 12 bombs, gun and knife caught at one of those inhumane checkpoints

Stonegate: Divisions in Hamas' leadership exposed in Sudan

Abbas' honoring a child-murderer is ignored by the Left

Volume of trade between India and Israel is now $5 billion annually; expected to triple when a free trade agreement is signed later this year. Sorry, Israel-haters.

Solving a problem begins by calling it by its proper name, at Treppenwitz

You know how the Left pretends to be against discrimination? Well, that doesn't apply to the ultimate evil of Jews wanting to live in their ancient homeland. Left wing group petitions High Court against allowing a Jewish settler from being a judge.

Over 100 mosques attacked over the past five years - in the Netherlands.

Israeli ophthamologists from Tel Hashomer Hospital go to Nablus to help treat eye diseases, do a surgery marathon. A young boy asked why the Jews were helping his grandfather; his parents answered "not all Jews are bad."

The biggest kids' store in the Middle East is in Israel - and owned by an Israeli Druse.

A flashmob of religious and secular women in Bet Shemesh:



Israelis saving the world again: an artificial pancreas.

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US: MB will honor peace treaty. MB: No, we won't.

Who are you going to believe?

From Ha'aretz on Friday:

The Muslim Brotherhood gave the United States assurances regarding the maintaining of Egypt's peace deal with Israel, a top U.S. official said on Thursday, despite recent comments by party leaders claiming that the 1979 treaty did not bind Cairo's new regime.

From Israel HaYom today:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday denied remarks made by U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland that the Islamist group made guarantees to the U.S. that it would continue to respect Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

In an interview over the weekend with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam Arian, said, "We never promised that we would honor the peace treaty with Israel. The treaty is not sacred and we can and should make changes in it."

Another senior member of the party told the London-based newspaper Asharq Alawsat, "The movement's position is not to recognize the Zionist entity and not to recognize peace agreements with hostile entities, and this position will never change."

The truth? Egypt simply cannot risk the billions of dollars it receives from the US every year, so the Muslim Brotherhood will do the minimum necessary to appease the US while dismantling every discernible manifestation of an actual peace with Israel.

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The ally from hell (Goldberg/Ambinder)

From Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic:

Nuclear-weapons components are sometimes moved by helicopter and sometimes moved over roads. And instead of moving nuclear material in armored, well-defended convoys, the SPD prefers to move material by subterfuge, in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic. According to both Pakistani and American sources, vans with a modest security profile are sometimes the preferred conveyance. And according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, the Pakistanis have begun using this low-security method to transfer not merely the “de-mated” component nuclear parts but “mated” nuclear weapons. Western nuclear experts have feared that Pakistan is building small, “tactical” nuclear weapons for quick deployment on the battlefield. In fact, not only is Pakistan building these devices, it is also now moving them over roads.

What this means, in essence, is this: In a country that is home to the harshest variants of Muslim fundamentalism, and to the headquarters of the organizations that espouse these extremist ideologies, including al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (which conducted the devastating terror attacks on Mumbai three years ago that killed nearly 200 civilians), nuclear bombs capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads. And Pakistani and American sources say that since the raid on Abbottabad, the Pakistanis have provoked anxiety inside the Pentagon by increasing the pace of these movements. In other words, the Pakistani government is willing to make its nuclear weapons more vulnerable to theft by jihadists simply to hide them from the United States, the country that funds much of its military budget.

The article gets even scarier after that.

(h/t Yoel)

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Report: Egypt demanding $500 billion from Israel for Sinai damage

Egyptian media is reporting that Egypt has prepared a 750 page document detailing Israel's liability for damage done to the Sinai while Israel controlled it from 1967 to 1982.

Rose El Youssef says that the report being given to the UN. It details how Israel supposedly ravaged the Sinai and hurt the Egyptian economy. It includes some 190 maps.

Among the ludicrous charges:

• Israel destroyed the fishing industry
• Israel destroyed 40% of the coral reefs
• Israel took lots of oil from the Sinai
• Israel stole 25% of the precious gems and marble, leaving worthless rocks behind
• Israel took the entire contents of two gold mines, leaving nothing of value left
• Israel disrupted international maritime trade through the Suez Canal, depriving Egypt of revenue
• Israel killed 250,000 (!) Egyptians and injured a million more 
• Israel looted all Egyptian banks in Gaza the day before the Six Day War, in the "biggest military robbery in modern history"
• Israel stole priceless artifacts from Egypt's museums in the Sinai and gutted archaeological sites there
• Israel emptied out 30% of the fresh water wells in the Sinai, and placed there pipes that continue to drain Egyptian water towards Israel today
• Israel stole millions of tons of valuable sand, worth $49 billion in today's prices
• Israel used the Sinai to research desert agriculture Israel benefits from the research but the Sinai desert lands were weakened as a result
• Israel destroyed Sinai's wildlife and stole many exotic animals to make medicines being sold to Europe
• Israel shot down Libyan Airlines Flight 114 (that is true, details at Wikipedia; the plane strayed into Israel accidentally and purposefully refused to acknowledge the IAF pilots' attempts to contact them)
• And, of course, Israel destroyed Egypt's air force "for no reason" at the beginning of the 1967 war

You can't make this stuff up. 

I think if Israel managed to steal $50 billion worth of sand, then Egypt's cash flow problems are over - the rest of the sand in the Sinai must be worth trillions! Who needs oil when you have such valuable sand?

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Movie night open thread

I am in the mood to watch The Princess Bride. I only saw it once and forgot most of it.

I know, I know. Inconceivable.

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Unity! Hamas to charge Fatah member for "blasphemy"

On Friday, a delegation of four Fatah officials tried to get into Gaza but left in a  huff after being forced to wait, they said for an hour, at the Erez crossing.

Hamas denied it, saying that they only waited for ten minutes.,

Now Hamas has upped the ante:

The row over a Fatah delegation that said it was denied entry to Gaza continued Saturday as Hamas said delegate Sakher Bseso may face prosecution for blasphemy.

Four Fatah officials tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday for reconciliation talks, but said they were refused entry by Hamas border guards. The group said they waited for 45 minutes at the Erez crossing before giving up and returning to the West Bank.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza swiftly responded that the delegation only waited for 10 minutes at the border, and refused to wait any longer for border guards to call their supervisors to arrange the group's entry.

The ministry said Fatah delegate Sakher Bseso "cursed God" and insulted the officers. On Saturday it announced that "certain officials" had started legal proceedings against Bseso for blasphemy.

"Bseso should be ready to stand in a court and be judged," the ministry said in a statement.

Bseso told Ma'an he did not curse God and reiterated that the delegation was visiting Gaza for talks to implement the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah.

Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf insisted Friday that the delegation was refused entry to Gaza and accused Hamas leaders of holding the strip hostage. Some Hamas leaders are not interested in reconciliation, Assaf said in a statement.

Can't you feel the love?

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Latest Latma

I like the commercial about Ilan Grapel.

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The fake refugees of 1948

In 1949, the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) held a months-long conference in Lausanne with Israelis, Arab countries and representatives of Palestinian Arabs to discuss how to solve the issues that came up from the 1948 war, including boundaries, Jerusalem and refugees.

The Commission was frustrated by both the Israelis and Arabs, as the Arabs wanted the repatriation of refugees to be the prerequisite for any other discussions, while Israel wanted the problem to be solved in context of a comprehensive peace plan. The Commission, with delegates from the US, France and Turkey, often sided with the Arabs and spent much of its time trying to find formulas to allow many or most of the refugees to go to Israel.

I came across a very interesting article in the Palestine Post, July 13, 1949, by Jon Kimche, regarding this Commission.

Perhaps the failure of the Commission is best indicated by its failure to have done anything about the 200,000 Arab refugees who have fled, not from Israeli occupied territory, but from Arab occupied Palestine. There was no political obstacle to their repatriation. Yet they continue to sit in camps and refugee villages without anyone lifting a finger to get them back to their homes. Next there are 200,000 destitute Arabs who are not refugees but who draw assistance form the relief funds or live in refugee camps. Their problem will not be settled by repatriation of genuine refugees. What are they waiting for? In other words almost half the total problem of the so-called refugees could have been tackled without waiting on Israeli agreement for anything. It detracts considerably from the humanitarian argument used to persuade Israel to do something quick while these conditions continue unbettered.

It seems to have been well known, at least among those who followed the issue, that a significant number of "refugees" did not come from the territory controlled by Israel!

This seems consistent with research that Efraim Karsh did to count the number of 1948 Arab refugees. He calculated between 583,000-609,000 refugees from Israeli territory during the war. But the UNRWA's first count of "refugees" done at the end of 1949 came up with 962,000! (I believe that they reduced that number in their second estimate to something lower than 900,000 after accounting for fraudulent claims, mostly for people who died and who didn't exist.)

The first UNRWA report accepted that there were over 150,000 destitute Arabs who were seeking aid from the Agency who were not refugees, so it is unclear if they were included in that initial number - or if they ended up being included anyway. UNRWA and other organizations at the time also freely admitted that the Arabs were exaggerating their numbers. "Many of the needy are now actually in poorer circumstances than the average refugee because the latter receives food, medical care and some clothing, little of which is available to the non-refugee."

I had not been previously aware of the number of "refugees" who fled from areas that ended up being in Jordan or Gaza. Perhaps they left out of fear that the Zionist forces would reach them. But it looks like many of them took advantage of the free food and medical care that UNRWA provided. I don't know if Kimche's numbers are accurate - they seem somewhat exaggerated -  but it appears that a large proportion of the "refugees" in 1949 were nothing of the sort.

And chances are that many of them and their descendants are still defined as "refugees" today.

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Gazans in Jordan: "We are like the living dead"

Al Quds al Arabi has an article about one of the most discriminated groups of Palestinian Arabs - the Gazans of Jordan.

Most of Jordan's Gazans fled there in 1967 because they or their parents didn't want to live under Israeli rule. Unlike the West Bank Palestinians who Jordan naturalized in 1949, these Palestinians from Gaza have been treated as if they don't exist.

There are over 100,000 Gazans in Jordan.

The article talks about Mohammed Khalil Shami, born in Aqaba in 1969, who has never left Jordan in his life. When he returned with his family on vacation in a nearby town, he was stopped at a checkpoint that other Jordanians could sail through. He was held for several hours.

Instructions from Amman on how to treat Gazans at any point in time are arbitrary and secret. In this case, Shami complained about how he could be treated like foreign spies when he has lived in Jordan his whole life?

People of Gazan descent in Jordan have restrictions on land ownership, business ownership and jobs. Some register their businesses under the names of Jordanian friends.

Shami says that Gazans in Jordan are "the living dead."

A pharmacist friend of his complains that pharmacists, among others, cannot get licenses. "We have received education in the best universities in and outside Jordan, our skills are very important but we are just ghosts - the ministries do not give us a license to practice our profession and no one wants to recognize our existence at all."

Others complain about things as simple as getting cell phones, not to mention health benefits. "Is there anything more humiliating than this?"

I had covered the disgraceful plight of Gazans in Jordan in 2010. I ended off asking these questions:

How many times have you read about this "open-air prison?" How many human rights groups have championed the cause of Jordanian Gazans? What op-eds have ever been written, shaming the Hashemite Kingdom on how poorly they treat their Arab brethren? How many flotillas and convoys are being organized to help out the women and children? How many people are working to divest from Jordanian products because of this shameful discrimination?

And the answer:

Zero, zero, zero, zero and zero.

(Related: Jordanian Gazans prove that Arabs don't really care about the "right to return.")

(h/t Arthur)

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Tunisians greet Haniyeh: "Kill the Jews!" (updated)

From Point of No Return:

Cries of 'Out with the Jews!', 'Kill the Jews!' greeted the arrival at Tunis airport of the Hamas chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, StandWithUS (France) reports.

A few hundred people gathered on 5 January at the Tunis-Carthage airport to welcome Haniyeh. As they waited for him they sang antisemitic chants and slogans to the glory of Palestine and the liberation of Gaza. They carried Palestinian flags, the flags of the Ennahda movement, and the black flags of the Salafists.

Ismail Haniyeh was arriving in Tunisia from Turkey for a two-day visit.

CiFWatch adds that the clip also includes “Killing the Jews is a must!” (0:16) and “Chasing away the Jews is a must!” (0:20).

These must be those moderate Islamists we've been hearing so much about.

The YouTube comments include quite a few Tunisians who are deeply embarrassed about this.

UPDATE: Translation from commenter Sammish at the Point of No Return blog:

Speaker(One person):"Kick the jews:
Crowd:"Duty" [wajib] (It is a duty)

Speaker:" Expel the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty".

Speaker: "Kill the Jews"
Crowd: "Duty"

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