Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

BDS organizers get sued by Lebanese businessman!

Lebanese anti-Israel activists are being sued by a concert promoter for their boycott campaign against a popular British rock group.

Samah Idriss, director of Dar al-Adab publishing house, received a court summons this Thursday from Beirut's commerce court. Idriss is implicated in a lawsuit for his involvement in a Lebanese boycott campaign against the British rock group Placebo last year. Jihad el-Murr, who heads the company that organized the event, filed the suit on 10 July 2011.

El-Murr is suing Idriss, as well as three other groups involved in the campaign: the Aidoun Refugee Rights Center, the Campaign to Boycott the Supporters of Israel in Lebanon, and the Global BDS Campaign in Lebanon. El-Murr, a self-described famous businessman from a prominent family, is demanding US$180,000 compensation for his company’s financial losses allegedly caused by the boycott campaign.

Lebanese activists called for the boycott in protest of Placebo's performance in Tel Aviv four days before their concert in Beirut, that was scheduled for 9 June 2010 at the Forum de Beirut. Only in July 2011, a year after the event took place, did el-Murr notice the ‘financial losses’ he claims were caused by the campaign. He called the campaign against cultural normalization with Israel both “malicious and deceptive.” El-Murr argues that the 1955 Lebanese law supporting a limited boycott of Israel does not apply to the Placebo concert. “The famous rock band does not even deal with politics,” he added.

El Murr described the boycotts as "ridiculous" last year.

Placebo played in Israel on June 5th, and they did play in Beirut on June 9

It does not appear that the boycott effort in Lebanon had any effect because the concert hall in Beirut looks pretty full to me:

Which is a win-win - the Lebanese roundly ignored the BDSers and the only way for the BDSers to counter the lawsuit would be for them to admit that their efforts were fruitless!

(h/t Dan)

Where on Earth could this be?

Here is a photo of a pretty nice looking school. Do you know where it is?

It is in Ras al-Amud, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, and it is one of the many Arab schools that Israel is spending millions building and upgrading.

From Israel21c:

When the 2011-2012 school year began in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, millions of shekels in sparkling new or renewed classrooms, computers and sports facilities greeted 42,153 students and their teachers.

Many of the 59 public schools approved and budgeted under the Jerusalem Education Authority of the Ministry of Education have been neglected, undersupplied or overcrowded for decades. Since taking office in November 2008, Mayor Nir Barkat has been implementing improvements to get these facilities on par with schools in the western sector of the city, says Stephan Miller, advisor to Jerusalem's mayor.

"The mayor and municipal professionals work regularly with members of the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem through the leadership of the community centers as well as organized groups of residents such as the Mayor's Forum of Eastern Jerusalem Principals and the Mayor's Forum for Welfare in Eastern Jerusalem," Miller tells ISRAEL21c.

"The completion of the Mayor's plan will lead to a significant change in education in eastern Jerusalem."

New schools, including approximately 200 classrooms, have been built in the eastern part of the city. The municipality is currently investing the unprecedented sum of NIS 300 million (about $69 million) in the planning and construction of 285 additional new classrooms for Arab schoolchildren.

This year alone, 42 new classrooms will be opened in new buildings, 18 at the start of the year and the remainder in coming months. Six additional kindergarten classrooms were completed in time for September, including one for special education. In addition, more than 40 public school classrooms were renovated and adapted to pupils' needs, with emphasis on the Shoafat refugee area in northeast Jerusalem.

The municipality also built new sports facilities in south central Beit Tzafafa and in Isawiya in the northeast.

Another NIS 750,000 (more than $170,000) per year has been approved for programs to advance gifted and outstanding pupils, strengthen girls' education and reduce school violence. An additional NIS 1.5 million is newly designated for the public schools' organizational expenditures.

The municipality and the Education Ministry have shared costs for these initiatives, says Miller, and further upgrades are still to come.

"As you can imagine, from vision to construction takes time, and the mayor has moved swiftly since taking office to fast-track these plans," says Miller, "which is why they are ready so early in his first term."

New classrooms wouldn't be as valuable without updated equipment inside them. So with the assistance of Israeli branches of companies such as Ernst & Young and Intel, the municipality rang in the new school year by distributing 1,720 mobile and desktop computers to schools, kindergartens and teachers in eastern Jerusalem.

An additional 350 new donated computers were given to schoolchildren to take home.

There was more good news for teachers: Seven classrooms in six schools in the eastern part of the city were converted into technologically sophisticated learning centers with the installation of interactive whiteboards, which can display educational software, web sites, past lessons and other features. Teachers and principals alike have been receiving computer training courses to maximize their use of these new tools.

"We are committed to investing in eastern Jerusalem and reducing the gaps, which are the result of years of neglect," said Barkat upon announcing the improvements at the start of September. "We cannot countenance a situation in which Jerusalem pupils have no classrooms, roads or basic infrastructures. These investments will lead to an increase in residents' quality of life."

If you want to have fun, ask people who claim to be "pro-Palestinian" if they support Israel improving Arab schools in Jerusalem.

By the way, it is possible that the school pictured above is the same one where, before construction, archaeologists found a handle with the name "Menachem" inscribed on it in Hebrew.

(h/t Cheryl)

Freed would-be suicide bomber Wafa al Bass tells Gaza kids to be like her

Ynet reports:

"A would-be Palestinian suicide bomber freed by Israel in the prisoner swap for soldier Gilad Shalit told cheering schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip the day after her release on Wednesday she hoped they would follow her example.

"I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs," Wafa al-Biss told dozens of children who came to her home in the northern Gaza Strip.

Biss was travelling to Beersheba's Soroka hospital for medical treatment in 2005 when Israeli soldiers at the Erez border crossing noticed she was walking strangely. They found 10 kgs (22 lbs) of explosives had been sewn into her underwear.

A member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, Biss was sentenced to a 12-year term for planning to blow herself up.

After she spoke, the children cheered and waved Palestinian flags and chanted: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine."

How nice, refreshing and peaceful.

In case you forgot who she is:

Egyptian journalist insists she didn't pressure Shalit

From AFP:

An Egyptian journalist under fire for interviewing Gilad Shalit as Hamas handed him to Egypt denied on Wednesday that the Israeli soldier had been pressured to give the interview.

Shahira Amin, celebrated in Egypt for quitting her job as a state television reporter during the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February, conducted Tuesday’s interview for the state-owned Nile Television.

An Israeli official accused her of violating “all the basic ethical rules of journalism” by interviewing Shalit, just moments after he had spent five years in captivity and was being released at the start of a prisoner exchange.

But Amin told an Egyptian chat show that she asked Shalit to do the interview and he consented.

The interview was conducted on no-man’s land in the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, she said. Shalit was accompanied by Hamas members and Egyptian intelligence agents.

“He was tired. I sat with him at first for two minutes and said: ‘I understand you want to see your parents as soon as possible and don’t want to give interviews,’” she said.

“But the world wants to know how you are doing so don’t deprive us of some words,” she said. “If he had refused, we wouldn’t have pressured him.”

The Egyptian Gazette, a government-owned English daily, reported on its website on Wednesday that the head of Egypt’s state television also said that no one forced Shalit to conduct the interview.

When you are just released from captivity but not yet free, and a masked member of the group that has been threatening your life every day for five and a half years is standing right behind you with his hand practically touching your back, how much free will do you have to say "no"?

No, no pressure at all.

New variant of Stuxnet discovered

From eWeek:

A new worm targeting industrial control system manufacturers has a strong resemblance to Stuxnet, leading researchers to dub it "Son of Stuxnet"

Symantec researchers have discovered a new worm in the wild that has the potential to attack and cripple industrial control systems, much like Stuxnet did.

The new worm, dubbed Duqu, shares a lot of the code with Stuxnet, leading Symantec researchers to believe it was either created by the same team or by another group with access to the Stuxnet source code, Symantec researchers said in a 46-page whitepaper released Oct. 18. Unlike Stuxnet, which was designed to attack a very specific type of computer system, Duqu does not have appear to have a clear target.

Discovered a little over a year ago, Stuxnet is considered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever developed. It compromised several industrial control systems at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. Observers believe Iran's nuclear program had been set back years by the malware. Despite the fact that researchers around the world have analyzed Stuxnet, the source code is "not out there," according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of F-Secure, noting that "only the original authors have it."

"Duqu is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack," Symantec Security Response researchers wrote on the Symantec Connect blog. The researchers did not speculate on its origins.

Considering the time and resources required to develop tools like this, Lookingglass’ CTO Jason Lewis told eWEEK that a nation state was the likely author.

Duqu's primary purpose at the moment appears to be intelligence-gathering from industrial control system manufacturers, according to Symantec. ...

"The key thing missing here, unlike Stuxnet, is we don't know what they are looking for," Symantec said.

At the moment, Duqu only creates a back door on infected systems and connects with a command-and-control server somewhere in India, according to Symantec. The backdoor is open precisely for 36 days, after which the malware self-destructs.

The C&C server appears to not have sent any instructions yet, Symantec said. The short 36 day lifecycle implies there is a specific target, according to Lewis.

According to McAfee's analysis of the worm, the malware installs drivers and encrypted DLLS that can act as keyloggers on the system to monitor all processes and messages. It also has no mechanism to replicate itself.

McAfee researchers Guilherme Venere and Peter Szor are fairly confident that Duqu was created by the same developers responsible for Stuxnet. They based their conclusions on the fact that both viruses utilize similar encryption keys and techniques, injection code and fraudulent digital certificates which had been issued to companies in Taiwan. The digital certificate keys appear to be real, which also make the programs look legitimate.

I don't know how difficult it is to modify Stuxnet to do other things, but the description here isn't making much sense to me. I cannot see the value of using already-known exploits to try to gather new infomation when everyone with any concept of computer security would have already put up defenses against it.

On the other hand, Symantec says that this code uses a new stolen digital certificate from Taiwan that had not been breached before, and that the code seems to have been written in December 2010. A normal hacker is not usually able to steal digital certificates - that requires real-world espionage.

(h/t CHA, Zach)

Hamas flag in one hand, gun in the other

A photo taken during yesterday's celebrations in Kfar HaShiloach (Silwan), Jerusalem. I am not sure if this is one of the released prisoners.

Wonderful.

Archbishop Hanna was taking part in these peaceful celebrations as well:

Lots more photos from this Arabic site.

(h/t Moshe)

NYT uses Shalit as pretext to slam Netanyahu

An absurd editorial in the NYT:

Now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has compromised with Hamas, we fear that to prove his toughness he will be even less willing to make the necessary compromises to restart negotiations. And we fear that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Fatah faction, who were cut out of the swap altogether, will be further weakened.

Just this one paragraph oozes anti-Israel bias.

Couldn't the NYT have equally have the concern that Abbas would become ideologically more militant as a result of the deal to gain more street cred among the happy hordes of terrorist worshippers who came out to celebrate yesterday?

No, their fear is only that Israel, by showing flexibility, will become more intransigent - without a word about Abbas' preconditions.

Yes, those new preconditions, added only a year or two ago, that Israel must stop all building in Judea, Samaria and most of Jerusalem before negotiations. The NYT is calling these "necessary compromises" but in fact it is evidence of the PLO's strategy of saying no to everything until it gets what it wants, unilaterally.

One has to ask: If Mr. Netanyahu can negotiate with Hamas — which shoots rockets at Israel, refuses to recognize Israel’s existence and, on Tuesday, vowed to take even more hostages — why won’t he negotiate seriously with the Palestinian Authority, which Israel relies on to help keep the peace in the West Bank?

One "has" to ask that question?

Israel and Hamas were never in the same room during the Shalit negotiations, as far as I can tell - Hamas bragged that they didn't even sign the same piece of paper as Israel.

And the NYT is using this as evidence that Israel is more amenable to negotiating with Hamas than with the PLO? Even when Israel has been the one party that has been begging for negotiations to restart and the PLO has been the one refusing?

Incidentally, Hamas was willing to give something up - Gilad Shalit. The PLO has offered nothing. Perhaps if the Times had ever pressured Abbas to compromise on land, there would have been peace by now. Instead, by writing editorials like this, they give Abbas more reason to stick to his favorite word - "No."

The newspaper of record is twisting facts to fit its views, and this editorial proves it as much as it can be proven.

See also Jewlicious.

The pledge that released prisoners signed

From IMRA:

Raanan Gissin told IMRA today that the Palestinian prisoners being released today in the Shalit deal are signing the same standard form as was signed by prisoners released in the past.

The following is IMRA's translation of the Hebrew version of the declaration signed by convicted Palestinians released by Israel. The text was provided to IMRA by the IDF Spokesperson's Office (the same text was signed by those who had not been sentenced yet with minor changes):

Declaration and Commitment

I the undersigned (name) (ID)

1. It was brought to my attention that beyond requirements and as a good will gesture by the Government of Israel, within the framework of its relations with the Palestinian government and the renewal of the efforts for peace, the military command decide to ease my sentence, subject to my signing this declaration and commitment.

2. I hereby declare that I oppose all terror and violent actions and I hereby commit to desist from all actions against the security of the State of Israel or the security of the region in general and include in this terror or violent activities, and support or aid to it, in any way including:

A. To desist from returning and carrying out a crime of the type of crimes that I was convicted of as well as any other crime;
B. Not to belong to a terror organization or illegal group of any kind;
C. Not to engage in inciting activities, and included in this incitement to carry out terror or act illegally against the peace process;
D. Not to be involved and not to support or aid terror activities against any person and any act of violence or action that may cause the public or any part of it damage or fear or any other damage;
E. To desist from illegally entering the area of Israel or the Israeli communities in the territories.

3. I am aware that the remainder of the prison sentence that I was sentenced by the court in the region is conditional, as of the day of my release, for the course of three years, and the condition is that I will not carry out a crime that could hurt the security of the area or the security of the State of Israel and including that desisting from any act of terror or violence and support or aid for such activities, in any way, as detained in Paragraph 2.

4. Likewise I am aware that if I violate a condition of the conditions of the release the court will have the right to activate the remainder of the sentence that was in effect prior to my release and to decide that I bear this punishment in addition to any other punishment that is imposed on me.

5. I hereby confirm that the wording of my commitment and declaration was explained to me in Arabic and that after its significance was made clear to me I signed the document out of my free will.

Date
Signature of the prisoner
Confirmation
I the undersigned Name Rank Personal Number Position

From Ma'an:

Released prisoners pledge to continue resistance

Sounds like Israel can start rounding them up again.

(h/t Cheryl)

NPR declares Hamas' Gaza to be a state

From NPR:

STEVE INSKEEP, host, Morning Edition: Now, of course you used the phrase, at the moment – as the days go on, the attention will turn back to where the peace process, or the lack of the peace process, goes next. What does this prisoner exchange mean for relations between Israel and Hamas, the group that had been holding – had been holding the soldier?

SHEERA FRENKEL, NPR reporter in Israel: I think that, as time goes on, we're already beginning to see(ph) murmurs of groups that are asking why Israel has released so many prisoners. And I think, as time goes on, there's going to be more and more people questioning whether Israel should continue to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for soldiers. In the long run, there's hope that this will create diplomatic ties that may eventually lead to Hamas and Israel making peaceful borders, eventually, in the future, some sort of dialogue through the Palestinian Authorities in the West Bank that will lead to peaceful times ahead. But that's the optimism at the moment, and I think this is a very optimistic moment. The pessimistic Israelis, and I do think, in the coming days, it will be the majority of Israelis, will say that this is a brief respite and that, likely, he will not be the last Israeli soldier that is captured by a neighboring state.

Congratulations, Hamas. You have achieved state recognition by the (partially) US-government funded public radio network.

Maybe you can open some embassies now.

(h/t notmidwest)

"Human Rights" Watch

Human Rights Watch does it again:

Yea... let's open the borders now we released some murderers! Of course no word of HRW demanding the same from Egypt. Of course no word on the prisoners with blood on their hands, who got released in this swap. No word on how Shalit came out of prison - weak and pale, while his "counter-prisoners" were strong and of good health. No word on Shalits words for the wish of peace and no word for released Hamas prisoners who want to continue rather today than tomorrow with their fight.

In which parallel universe is HRW living? Seriously.

Ousted FIFA chief blames bribery woes on - wait for it...

Zionists!

Background from ESPN last June 20:

Jack Warner quit as a FIFA vice president Monday and soccer's governing body dropped a bribery investigation of him, saying the "presumption of innocence is maintained."

Warner and Asian soccer chief Mohamed bin Hammam were suspended by FIFA last month amid the gravest corruption crisis to rock the scandal-hit organization. The two leaders were accused of offering $40,000 cash payments to Caribbean voters during bin Hammam's failed presidential campaign to unseat Sepp Blatter.

And now, today:

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has blamed Zionism for the circumstances that led to him and former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam being forced out of world football.

Warner, 68, resigned from FIFA after ethics investigations were begun into a meeting he held with Bin Hammam where FIFA say payments were made to Caribbean soccer officials ahead of the election for FIFA president in June.

Qatari Bin Hammam was handed a lifetime ban by FIFA for his role in the affair while a number of Caribbean officials were given suspensions last week.

“I will talk about the racism that is within FIFA. I will talk about the levels of religious discrimination which I sought to correct. I will talk about the Zionism, which probably is the most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was mounted,” Warner said.

And who can argue?

(h/t Russell)

Iran's Supreme Leader warns about "Zionist Protocols"

From Tehran Times:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that the policies that the global hegemonistic system’s media outlets have adopted are in line with the dangerous goals of the Zionist protocols.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in an address to a number of intellectuals, academics, athletes, economists, and literary and cultural figures in the western city of Kermanshah on Tuesday.

“The efforts made by the global hegemonistic system’s media networks to highlight deviant and crude paradigms are in line with the dangerous goals of the Zionist protocols,” he observed.

What could he possibly mean by "Zionist Protocols"?

A possible clue: The Tehran Times mentioned what appear to be the same protocols in a story about an anti-Israel computer game last year:

Iran released two anti-Israeli computer games on the eve of the Quds Day.

“Devil Den 2” and “Freedom Convoy”, which have been produced by the School Students Basij Organization, were unveiled during a ceremony on Thursday.

“Devil Den 2” is about the Israeli protocols, Brigadier Mohammad-Saleh Jokar, the director of the organization, which is affiliated to the Education Ministry, said in the ceremony.

“The illegitimate regime has said in its protocols that they will abolish all beliefs,” he stated.

“We have witnessed that the foundations of the illegitimate Zionist regime have been weakened and our younger generation must be familiarized with the protocols and the antihuman ideology of the regime,” he added.

Nah, I'm stumped.

But it can't possibly be anything anti-semitic, because we know that Iran respects all adherents of "divine religions."

Yesterday I noted that Hamas was building a massive 10,000 sq. ft.stage to celebrate the release of hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, and I noted that it seems that Hamas can find all the building materials it needs - wood and iron - when it wants to build something.

I wondered if UNRWA was bothered at all that all these valuable building materials that are supposedly banned from Gaza are being used for terror rallies rather than, say, building houses.

Israel Awareness emailed UNRWA's Chris Gunness with that question:

Will UNRWA mention this – that Hamas has enough building materials to build plenty of homes, but refuses to use them? Will you urge Hamas to use it for the greater good?

Or will you condemn Israel for not allowing enough building materials into Gaza?

Gunness' answer, in part:

There’s no doubt that right now we all need to redouble our efforts to ease the suffering of the ordinary people of Gaza and to think again about the blockade policy.

I would imagine that the stage is built with materials which came in to Gaza through the tunnels. Because of the blockade policy the tunnels trade from which Hamas takes a fifteen per cent tax is booming. The Israeli blockade policy has empowered Hamas. Another reason you might think to lift the blockade.

I agree that we need to build houses for people who are homeless from the war and since their homes were bulldozed by the Israeli authorities ten years ago in the south. To do that, the UN needs to bring in thousands of trucks from Israel and to do that, the blockade needs to be lifted.

From what I can tell, Gunness is saying that while Hamas is the de facto government in Gaza, they are not responsible for the well-being of their citizens. Only UNRWA builds houses, leaving Hamas without that responsibility.

So, UNRWA's position is that Hamas is perfectly entitled to use building materials that could be used to build houses for people that have been homeless for ten years (way before the Gaza closure, by the way) for whatever it wants - terror rallies, weapons bunkers, tunnels to kidnap Israelis, whatever. Hamas has no fear that UNRWA will say anything remotely critical of it, and it equally has no fear that it will ever have to actually take responsibility for its people the way every other government in the world is expected to (besides the PA.)

No, Chris Gunness' condemnations are never aimed at Hamas, but rather concentrated on one entity in the Middle East, and one only.

BBC reporter not quite sure why a terrorist was in prison

At the BBC website there is a video clip of reporter Jon Donnison speaking to one of the freed terrorists in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Taha.

Donnison starts the interview off by saying, "'You are 31 years old, 10 years in prison, serving a life sentence for being a member of Hamas, I mean, how do you feel today?"

Was Taha serving a life sentence only for being a member of Hamas?

Well, it seems he was a bit more involved than that.

From the MFA site:

Ahmed Abd Al Karim Ali Abu Taha was born in 1980 and resides in Ramallah. Abu Taha was involved in preparing explosives for Hamas terrorists in Ramallah, including the car bomb that exploded in Giva'at Ze'ev in Jerusalem on 29 July 2001. A member of the Ibrahim Abu Rub and Ballal Baraguti organizations, he transported the suicide bomber Ra'ad Baraguti from Ramallah to Jerusalem, where he exploded on Hanevi'im Street on 4 September 2001 and injured 14 people. It is interesting to note that his father, Abd Al Karim Ali Mustafa Abu Taha, works in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Also, according to the list of prisoners given out by Israel, he was sentenced to 27 years, not life. He only intended to kill scores of people, but he wasn't successful.

But when the BBC gets such a great interview, with someone who actually knows English, why should they bother reporting those little inconvenient facts? It might insult Mr. Taha, and that wouldn't be polite.

(h/t Yedidya)

Abbas claims Israel promised him another major prisoner release

At a rally in Ramallah celebrating the release of hundreds of Arab terrorists, Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Israel agreed to release a many prisoners to him.

He said, " It is not a secret if I say that there is an agreement between us and the Israeli government to release another batch similar to this one after [this prisoner swap] is finished, God willing."

Ha'aretz says that "it was the first mention of such a release."

Abbas went on to praise the prisoners, some of whom are cold blooded multiple murderers of innocent civilians, as "freedom fighters, and Mujahideen for the sake of God and the homeland."

One reason Shalit looked so ill at ease in his interview (UPDATE)

A number of people have noted how cruel it was to force Shalit to be subjected to an inane interview on Egyptian TV, delaying his release for ten excruciating minutes:

And while we can attribute his hesitation to answer and his discomfort to the idiotic questions, there is another reason for his distress, as can be seen from this photo immediately before or during the interview:

(Getty Images claims this was an interview with Hamas TV before he was released, but no such interview seems to have occurred and the microphone, background wall and chair seem to match those in the Egyptian interview.)

(h/t JSSNews)

UPDATE: AP verifies it was in Egypt:

UPDATE 2: AP wrote about it as well:

Armed Hamas militants were in the area during the interview. One of them stood behind Schalit's chair, wearing a a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades – Hamas' military wing – and a video camera in his hand.

(h/t David)

UPDATE 3: The interviewer insists that Shalit wasn't pressured to do the interview. Yeah, right.

Amnesty International becomes even more of a joke

Amnesty International put out a nonsensical press release:

The prisoner exchange involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners highlights the need for the humane treatment of all detainees in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today.

“This deal will bring relief to Gilad Shalit and his family after an ordeal that has lasted more than five years. Many Palestinian families will feel a similar sense of relief today when they are reunited with their relatives, many of whom have spent decades under harsh conditions in Israeli detention," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.

Cable TV, free college degrees, excellent medical care, smuggled cell phones...the horrors never stop.

Since 27 September, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike in protest against recent punitive measures imposed by the Israeli authorities.

Prisoners are demanding that the Israel Prison Service end the arbitrary isolation of prisoners and allow them regular family visits.

Amnesty forgot to mention the whole chickens! I'm sure there is an international convention on the rights to have whole chickens! And unlimited satellite TV of terrorist channels, which is another demand.

The fact that they are detained on Israeli territory makes it difficult, if not impossible for their families to visit them, as the Israeli authorities often refuse to grant them travel permits.

Since Amnesty is on record as saying that Gaza is "occupied" - against its own definition of the term - this means that Amnesty is insisting that Israel build prisons in Gaza itself! Will Hamas sign on for that?

Amnesty throws in another unwarranted dig at Israel:

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or deporting people from an occupied territory. In the event that those prisoners being exiled abroad or transferred to Gaza from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have not given their consent, Israel would be violating its obligations under international humanitarian law.

But the terrorists and Hamas agreed to the deportations. One of them insisted today to go to Egypt instead of Gaza, out of fear that she would be killed in Gaza! In other words - they did give their consent, so this paragraph serves no purpose except for Amnesty to imply Israeli human rights violations with no evidence.

Not to mention - they are lying about Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions:

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.

The terrorists do not have all the privileges of Geneva's "protected persons." As the ICRC writes:

If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered " unlawful " or " unprivileged " combatants or belligerents (the treaties of humanitarian law do not expressly contain these terms). They may be prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.

Unlawful combatants do not qualify for prisoner of war status. ....This protection is not the same as that afforded to lawful combatants. To the contrary, persons protected by the Fourth Convention and the relevant provisions of Protocol I may be prosecuted under domestic law for directly participating in hostilities. They may be interned for as long as they pose a serious security threat, and, while in detention, may under specific conditions be denied certain privileges under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They may also be prosecuted for war crimes and other crimes and sentenced to terms exceeding the length of the conflict, including the range of penalties provided for under domestic law.

But beyond that, Amnesty is not even entertaining the possibility that these terrorists remain a danger to Israel - something Geneva addresses!

Keep in mind that Amnesty never called for Shalit's release. Even though he was kidnapped specifically to be a hostage, even though his capture and captivity were completely against the Geneva Conventions - Amnesty did not think he deserved to be released unconditionally.

This is only the latest embarrassment to come out of Amnesty.

It banned Zionists from an Israel-bashing forum last night in London.

The Canadian government dismissed Amnesty's "stunt"at calling for George W. Bush to be arrested when he visits Canada, noting that they never demanded the same from Castro, Gorbachev or other despots who have set foot on Canadian soil.

(HRW, not to be outdone, mimicked Amnesty's call to Canada.)

That's Amnesty - an organization that fervently believes that Hamas terrorists should be treated with more deference than US presidents.

(h/t Anne, Brad, see also Omri)

PLO envoy to Ottawa asked to leave after tweeting anti-Jewish video

From the Globe and Mail:

The Palestinian envoy to Canada has been told she’s not welcome in Ottawa after she tweeted a link to a video that the federal government deemed an offensive diatribe against Jews.

Now, Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata. The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives.

The diplomatic cold shoulder was sparked when Ms. Sobeh Ali took to Twitter this month to circulate a link to a video posted on YouTube, telling her followers on the social-media message system to “check this video out.”

The video shows a Palestinian girl, in tears and shouting with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, “I am Palestinian.” The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.”

When Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird learned of it about two weeks ago, he instructed his deputy minister, Morris Rosenberg, to call Ms. Sobeh Ali in to complain, and the Canadian representative in the West Bank, Chris Greenshields, to protest to the Palestinian Authority.

“Canada expects the Palestinian Authority to appropriately deal with this serious transgression,” Mr. Baird’s spokesman, Chris Day, said in an e-mail. “We have taken the decision to limit communication with this official until a replacement is selected.”

It’s not clear how quickly Ms. Sobeh Ali – essentially the Palestinian ambassador, although she does not hold that rank because she does not represent a sovereign state – will be replaced. Reached by telephone on Monday, Ms. Sobeh Ali said she is not in a position to comment right now. She denied a rumour she is leaving Ottawa this week, but when asked if the Palestinian Authority has recalled her, she said a polite goodbye, and hung up.

Complicating the matter – in the eyes of some, but not others – is the fact that the English subtitles in the video linked to Ms. Sobeh Ali are a mistranslation of the girl’s Arabic poem in several parts.

The phrase that the subtitles translate as, “to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews,” is correctly translated as, “to a war that is destroying oppression and kill the soul of Zionism,” according to Salah Basalamah, associate professor in the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation.

Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which first sent Ms. Sobeh Ali’s video tweet to Mr. Baird’s office, said both versions are unfit to be circulated by a Palestinian envoy.

“You’re speaking to someone who doesn’t see a difference,” Mr. Fogel said. Calling for a war for the destruction of Zionism – the movement to establish a Jewish land – is a denial of Israel’s right to exist, he said, and the passion of the girl, shaking as her eyes well up with tears, makes it an entirely wrong thing for a Palestinian envoy to Ottawa to circulate, he said.

“I was shocked at the video,” he said. “And I’m pretty thick-skinned.”

Ms. Sobeh Ali has closed her Twitter account.

There are dozens of versions of this video of a brainwashed girl on YouTube, in Turkish, French, Arabic and English. Most translate to a diatribe against Zionists, but some do translate her words as wanting to destroy the Jews.

This seems to be the version that Sobeh Ali tweeted:

Yesterday, I noted that one of the released terrorists was Yehye al-Sinwar, who had tried to orchestrate a Shalit-style kidnapping while in Israeli prison.

Today, at the Gaza border, he congratulated the terror groups that were involved in Shalit's kidnapping and he vowed that Hamas would do whatever it takes to get the remainder of Arab terrorists released from prison, "at all costs."

What do you think he means by that?

Somehow, I don't think it means recognizing Israel and accepting peace.

Microcosm of the conflict in Ramallah

Ha'aretz reports that Palestinian Arab protesters burned tires on the planned route that prisoner buses were going to take.

source

So Israel re-routed the buses to avoid the burning tires.

Which prompted Palestinian Arabs to clash with the IDF, angry that the original route wasn't being used.

source

Which is the entire conflict in a nutshell. Palestinian Arabs so something pointless, counterproductive and destructive; Israel responds in the only way possible while preserving life, and Palestinian Arabs then turn on Israel for reacting to their idiocy.

An infinite loop of futility, fueled by self-destructive stupidity, perpetually blamed on others.