Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

The EU is such an honest broker

From Haaretz yesterday:

The European Union sent a very harsh message to Israel a few days ago regarding the demolition of Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank, including some that were built with EU funding. In a meeting with the coordinator of activities in the territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai last week, the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg Andersen, warned that a continuation of the massive demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank is liable to harm relations between the EU and Israel.

According to international law, Israel has full civil and security control of Area C. In legal terms, this is not under dispute. If you want to build there, there is only a single authority through which you must apply for permits: the IDF. Everything else that is built is illegal, by definition.

The EU is complaining that Israel is upholding the law.

Now, there is nothing wrong with the EU complaining that Israel is applying the law unevenly, or for them to use diplomacy to loosen up the permit program. But Israel is obligated to enforce its laws on building in Area C.

When the EU says that Israel must allow illegal building, they are saying that the Oslo accords and the accords that followed - the only documents in international law that determine who is responsible for the West Bank's day to day affairs - are nul and void. Moreover, they are saying that instead of the final border being determined by negotiations, which is the official position of the Western world, they are saying that much of Area C is already Palestinian territory before the fact.

Israel demolishing a Jewish home in Beit El, July 2015

This goes hand in hand with the French initiative this week. The EU is trying to force a solution on Israel and is more than willing to flout international law to do so.

Interestingly, when the IDF demolished Jewish-owned buildings in Bet El last year, the EU did not consider that action to be illegal. Apparently, the official EU policy is that if a home is built illegally by a Jew in Area C it must be demolished but if it is built by or for Arabs then it must be allowed, without any building permits.

It sounds an awful lot like antisemitism.

I'm sure that they EU has some good reasons why it isn't, though. And also why they can be considered an honest broker in any peace conference.

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The British continue their siege of Gaza

From the Derry Journal:

Local activists have expressed their anger after the UK immigration service denied visas to Palestinian athletes due to compete in Sunday’s Derry marathon.

Gaza-based Nader al Massri and Sami Nateel had been due to arrive in Derry on Friday but their plans have now been halted due to the visa refusal which the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (I.P.S.C.) has branded “inexplicable”.

“We are hugely disappointed and angered at this decision. There was a large group of Palestinians who came to the Derry marathon last year and it was a massive success so we find it inexplicable that the immigration service would deny them the right to travel this year,” said Derry I.P.S.C. spokesperson Catherine Hutton.

“Like everyone who lives on the Gaza strip, Nader and Sami face huge restrictions every day of their lives due to the Israeli blockade. But it is highly ironic that, on this occasion at least, the Israelis were willing to allow them to travel to Derry but it is the UK authorities who have denied them entry.”

Israel isn't blocking the Gaza marathoners from traveling - the UK is.

This local newspaper article is apparently the only place to find out about this ban.

In contrast, in April 2014 Israel didn't allow Nader al Masri from running in a marathon in Bethlehem and that refusal resulted in a prominent New York Times story (as well as a major Al Jazeera story) about how Israel is blocking freedom of movement.

Al Masri ran and won the Bethlehem marathon last year. This year, Gazans were not able to participate in that marathon, but it was because the paperwork to apply for their travel permits was not filled out in time according to Israeli officials.

No articles in the BBC about the British government decision to stop a Gazan from entering. Nothing in the Guardian or Independent.

I wonder why.

UNRWA used to hold an annual marathon in Gaza but quietly dropped it when Hamas insisted that no women run with the men. In that case, they were being respectful to local traditions at the expense of women's rights.

Only certain perceived violations of rights are newsworthy. And by sheer coincidence, a large percentage of those news stories blame Israel.

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68 years of Arabs blaming the Jews for their misfortune has hit paydirt in France

From Haaretz:

The French government wants the foreign ministers meeting in Paris on Friday about an international Israeli-Palestinian peace conference to agree that future negotiations between the two sides will take place within a limited timeframe, according to a document disseminated by the French Foreign Ministry to the countries taking part in the meeting.

According to the document, the French propose that a goal of the discussions starting Friday will be to formulate parameters for a solution to the core issues of a permanent peace agreement. All direct negotiations in the future would be based on these parameters.

Why the rush?

The document surveys the background of the French peace initiative and determines that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the key issue in the Middle East. The conflict “creates precariousness and insecurity. It fuels radical rhetoric and extremist violence. Moving towards its resolution is as urgent as ever,” according to the document.

You hear that? If it wasn't for the stubborn refusal by Israel to give up the Jewish ancestral homeland and turn itself into a country that you can cross three times in a single marathon run, then we wouldn't have any problems in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq or the Sinai. No human rights violations in Egypt or Jordan. Lebanon would be a single, happy, multicultural country.

Ever since 1948, Arab diplomats have told anyone willing to listen that Israel is the cause of al lof their problems. Every single meeting with their Western counterparts began and ended with their insistence that Israel is the cause of all the Middle East's problems. Every speech to their own people blamed their problems on the Jews.

Every article, every UN speech, every public event was another excuse to push the lie that a Jewish nation was an affront to morality, to international law, and mostly to their pride.

In the 1970s they changed the meme a little bit, to saying that the "occupation" was the issue and Palestinians were the ones who were being hurt. The Arab leaders had decades to integrate the Palestinians into their own nations but the stateless people were much more valuable as PR tools. "Refugee camps" were kept open for no reason other than the possibility that one day the swelling ranks of Palestinians would "return."

But the overarching message was relentlessly on point. Israel was to blame for every ill in the Middle East, and if Israel would just go away, things would be great. No terror, no Islamic fundamentalism, no sectarian violence. Just ignore the civil wars that erupted every few years.

Finally, the absurd message started gaining currency in the West. And the irony is that just when the West was starting to accept the ridiculous "linkage" argument, Arab governments started realizing that they have much bigger problems and blaming Israel was no longer the panacea that could push off the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the resurgence of sectarianism.

France, and much of the EU, is still holding on to the old fashioned thinking of linkage. Rocked by its own terror attacks and the realization that a significant proportion of their own residents are sympathetic to jihadism, France desperately wants to find a way out of a situation that is getting more dire every year. Pretending that Israel's existence (or "occupation") is radicalizing its Muslim citizens is an easy way to push off the hard decisions needed to fight the main battle of the 21st century - against radical Islam. France is acting like Arab nations did from the 1950s through the 1990s, at least.

What is the logic behind saying that the Israeli-Arab conflict is the main driver behind Middle East upheavals (and, by implication, terror attacks in Europe)? There is none. It is fantasy created to pretend that the solution to real problems in the Middle East and beyond can be solved by Jews just conceding more and more.

Those for whom wishful thinking has replaced actual facts and analysis want Israel to be the problem so they don't have to blame themselves.

The clinging to false hopes based on anti-Israel propaganda doesn't end there. The French document also says, "Time is not a neutral factor, given the steady erosion of the two-state solution. An open-ended approach would be oblivious to the reality on the ground and the constant risks of escalation. "

There are practically no more new approved settlements built since the 1990s. There may be many more Jews living in the existing communities of Judea and Samaria but the facts on the ground have not changed. The Clinton parameters and the Olmert proposals are exactly as viable today as they were when they were proposed. Less than 2% of the West Bank were being taken up by Jewish settlements in 1994 and the figure is less than 2% today. The argument that the two state solution is becoming more difficult by the day is simply another anti-Israel talking point that is being used to force Israel, and only Israel, to compromise on its security and its history.

These are the facts. They can be easily checked. "Linkage" and "the erosion of the two-state solution" are not facts, they are fallacies whose only reason for being believed is because they are repeated over and over again.

One would hope that national leaders and diplomats would be smart enough to tell the difference between fallacies and provable facts. Unfortunately, they prefer to stay in the dark, because the actual truth contradicts the most cherished bases for decades of international diplomacy.

Israeli concessions, or Israel's disappearance (which is the next stage after a "peace agreement,") cannot and would not solve the problems of Islamic extremism. Israel has proposed many peace plans that would result in a Palestinian state - somewhat less than what they are demanding but one that would give them 90-98% of what they say they want. It is Palestinian intransigence that is stopping peace, not Israeli actions. And any clear-headed diplomat should realize that the pressure should be put on Palestinians to accept a peace plan and move on with their lives. And the Gulf nations are already starting to realize this.

France, and Europe, choose to be willfully blind rather than looking at the facts.

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05/31 Links Pt2: Some Jew-baiting is more equal than others to the media; The Left vs. Israel

From Ian:

Some Jew-baiting is more equal than others to the media

Mostly anonymous Trump-bots called out, silence when it comes from the Left.
My point here is not to minimize what happened to Weisman at the hands of the alt-right. The truth is that for the most part we don’t know who the alt-right are who attacked Weisman. What we do know is that ugly anti-Semitic tropes have made their way to the mainstream. During last year’s legislative battle over the Iran nuclear deal there was plenty of anti-Semitic trolling going on, and it wasn’t coming from Trump supporters:
Here’s how Tablet Magazine put it:
What we increasingly can’t stomach—and feel obliged to speak out about right now—is the use of Jew-baiting and other blatant and retrograde forms of racial and ethnic prejudice as tools to sell a political deal, or to smear those who oppose it. Accusing Sen. Schumer of loyalty to a foreign government is bigotry, pure and simple. Accusing senators and congressmen whose misgivings about the Iran deal are shared by a majority of the U.S. electorate of being agents of a foreign power, or of selling their votes to shadowy lobbyists, or of acting contrary to the best interests of the United States is the kind of naked appeal to bigotry and prejudice that would be familiar in the politics of the pre-Civil Rights Era South.
This use of anti-Jewish incitement as a political tool is a sickening new development in American political discourse, and we have heard too much of it lately—some coming, ominously, from our own White House and its representatives. Let’s not mince words: Murmuring about “money” and “lobbying” and “foreign interests” who seek to drag America into war is a direct attempt to play the dual-loyalty card. It’s the kind of dark, nasty stuff we might expect to hear at a white power rally, not from the president of the United States—and it’s gotten so blatant that even many of us who are generally sympathetic to the administration, and even this deal, have been shaken by it.
There has been an increasing acceptability towards using anti-Semitic tropes in political discourse. We really saw an increase in it last year in the battle to get support for the deal to legitimize the illicit nuclear program of a regime founded on anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
Having read Weisman’s column there’s an air of unreality to his seeming discovery of online trolls who spout anti-Semitism at those they disagree with politically. Of course there were the reactions to the nuclear deal with Iran last year, which Weisman and the Times had a hand in perpetuating.

Daniel Pipes: The Left vs. Israel

Since the creation of Israel, Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have been the mainstay of anti-Zionism, with the Left, from the Soviet Union to professors of literature, their auxiliary. But this might be in process of change: as Muslims slowly, grudgingly, and unevenly come to accept the Jewish state as a reality, the Left is becoming increasingly vociferous and obsessive in its rejection of Israel.
Much evidence points in this direction: Polls in the Middle East find cracks in the opposition to Israel while a major American survey for the first time shows liberal Democrats to be more anti-Israel than pro-Israel. The Saudi and Egyptian governments have real security relations with Israel while a figure like (the Jewish) Bernie Sanders declares that “to the degree that [Israelis] want us to have a positive relationship, I think they’re going to have to improve their relationship with the Palestinians.”
But I should like to focus on a small illustrative example from a United Nations institution: The World Health Organization churned out report A69/B/CONF./1 on May 24 with the enticing title, “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan: Draft decision proposed by the delegation of Kuwait, on behalf of the Arab Group, and Palestine.”
The three-page document calls for “a field assessment conducted by the World Health Organization,” with special focus on such topics as “incidents of delay or denial of ambulance service” and “access to adequate health services on the part of Palestinian prisoners.” Of course, the entire document singles out Israel as a denier of unimpeded access to health care.
This ranks as a special absurdity given the WHO’s hiring a consultant in next-door Syria who is connected to the very pinnacle of the Assad regime, even as it perpetrates atrocities estimated at a half million dead and 12 million displaced (out of a total pre-war population of 22 million). Conversely, both the wife and brother-in-law of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, whose status and wealth assures them treatment anywhere in the world, chose to be treated in Israeli hospitals, as did the sister, daughter, and grand-daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Israel’s sworn enemy.

The Movenpick Ramallah hotel

From Wafa:

An estimated 80,228 guests stayed in West Bank hotels in the first quarter of 2016, marking a drop by 32% from the previous quarter and 20% lower than in the first quarter of 2015, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Monday.

It said 33% of the hotel patrons were from European Union countries and 13% were Palestinian.

The PCBS said room occupancy rate was 16.5% in the first quarter - 25% lower than in the previous quarter and 17% lower than in the first quarter of 2015.

Nobody really talks about the financial hit that comes with each new terror spree but it is pretty obvious that European tourists are going to be less likely to visit the West Bank when its residents are cheering civilians being stabbed and run over by cars.

The last people to ever mention this would be the cheerleaders for terror who pretend that they are "pro-Palestinian."

In Israel, the number of hotel rooms rented in the first quarter was slightly higher than the year before, but still significantly down from 2014 before the Gaza war.

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After my articles about the Guggenheim Museum's blog post that was filled with lies and half-truths about Israel, and its hypocrisy at claiming Israel is engaging in censorship of art while it is building a museum in Abu Dhabi which explicitly does censor art, the Algemeiner asked the museum for a statement.

In response to The Algemeiner’s request for clarification as to why the Guggenheim would promote on its website an article demonizing Israel, a spokesman for the museum said, “As an arts institution, the Guggenheim welcomes a multitude of voices and perspectives on topics of interest to the wider artistic and cultural community. The views expressed are those of the writer, a curator who lives and works in Israel, not necessarily those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.”

This is a cop-out. Editors in any medium, whether it is a newspaper or a blog or a museum's website, chooses what content it decides to publish and what to exclude. But in all cases, it is the responsibility of the editors to ensure that the pieces are accurate. In this case, the Guggenheim was completely wrong to publish an article that calls withholding of funds to artists who are free to show their art anywhere to be "censorship."

In the case of the Guggenheim website, there are a number of articles praising Arab art, but none about Arab censorship of art. In fact, very few articles even mention censorship worldwide, let alone use the word in their title. One tangentially mentioned self-censorship in Vietmanese art, for example. Only Israel has an article dedicated to its supposed censorship of art.

If the Guggenheim cared about free expression so much, it would write about censorship in the UAE and how it will inform what kinds of shows they will show there. That is a relevant topic that they wouldn't touch. So much for the "multitude of voices and perspectives" that the museum claims to give its readers.

Meanwhile, as the Algemeiner mentioned, former ADL director Abraham Foxman commented on the Guggenheim:

Foxman told The Algemeiner he was “surprised” that the Guggenheim “would permit itself to be used for such blatant anti-Israel propaganda. This article goes beyond the discussion of art, its political. It’s inappropriate and ill-advised. If the Guggenheim wants to make their website a place to discuss censorship, I can give them a list of 25 countries they should start with and not Israel.”

Foxman said that if the Guggenheim “wants to become a platform to discuss art and censorship, this is legitimate. However, to the best of my knowledge, Tamir’s article seems to be the only one about Israel, which is a blatant distortion on what is happening in Israel.”

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05/31 Links Pt1: Terror Show at a Gaza Kindergarten Graduation; The Other Middle East Lobby

From Ian:

PMW: France continues funding PA general budget which pays salaries to terrorists

Following Palestinian Media Watch's exposure that the Palestinian Authority general budget funds the PA hate and terror promotion and rewards terrorist prisoners with high salaries, the US, the EU, Norway, and other European donors all stopped giving money to the PA general budget so that their money would not go directly to pay salaries for Palestinian terrorists.
This is not true for France. The PA announced last week that France signed agreements to give the PA money for various projects and in addition: "financial aid directly to the public treasury in the amount of 8 million euro."
The PA general budget that France is contributing to pays monthly salaries to terrorists like Hamas bomb maker Abdallah Barghouti, whose bombs murdered 67 people, and Abbas Al-Sayid, who planned two suicide bombings in which 35 were killed, as well as all other Palestinians imprisoned for terror crimes.
The French government should note that the PA pays more than $12 million a month in salaries to terrorist prisoners. [Official PA TV, June 11, 2014] Accordingly, France's 8 million euro ($8.9 million) will cover approximately three weeks of terrorists' salaries.
The PA salary payments to terrorists have been documented extensively by PMW since 2011, most recently in the report The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud, which documents that despite having promised international donors that it had ceased rewarding terrorists with salaries, the PA still continues this practice.

MEMRI: Terror Show at a Gaza Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony; Islamic Jihad Leader to Israelis: We Are Not Terrorists, Don’t Force Us to Kill You

The Other Middle East Lobby

The influence of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington remains a subject of intense debate in the United States. However, as uncertainty grows throughout much of the Middle East -- and a geopolitical and economic cold war blossoms between two regional heavyweights -- rulers across the region are increasingly vying for the attention of America’s elected officials.
Few do a better job of covering the comings and goings of Mideast power brokers on Capitol Hill than Al-Monitor’s Congressional Correspondent Julian Pecquet. The Memo reached out to Pecquet this week for his thoughts and insights on Mideast lobbying efforts in the nation’s capital.
RCW: Among other things, Al-Monitor tracks Mideast lobbying on Capitol Hill. Which Mideast country -- or countries -- might surprise the casual American observer for its outsize influence in our nation’s capital?
Morocco has to be one of the most interesting cases. The kingdom spends upwards of $3 million a year on more than a half-dozen lobbying and PR firms -- not to mention a seven-figure donation to the Clinton Foundation -- to project a friendly image. Mind you, we’re talking about a relatively poor country that’s still eligible for Millennium Challenge Corporation grants. All of that lobbying is directed at one main goal: obtaining U.S. approval -- or at least tacit acquiescence -- for its exploitation of the disputed Western Sahara, where Sahrawi activists have long demanded a vote on independence. The campaign has been largely successful, with neither the State Department nor Congress in any great rush to upset the apple cart and undermine a longtime Western ally by ushering in a potentially ungovernable new state on its borders.
Another player with outsize influence is Jordan, whose King Abdullah II has parlayed the kingdom’s strategic position and his personal popularity with Congress and the executive branch into a $1.275 billion aid package this year, and all without any need for lobbyist middle-men.

EOZ coming to Israel!

Mrs. Elder and I are planning to visit Israel towards the end of June and beginning of July.

Last time some EoZ readers in Israel hooked us up with some very interesting interviews and exclusive tours. We made some videos on topics that one doesn't usually hear about. And one group invited me to speak.

So if you have any connections, whether it is with politicians like Bibi or Bennett or simply an interesting organization that does great work - let me know.

Save a Child's Heart - Gaza patient

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Of course PA schools teach antisemitism

From the Facebook page of the Salem-Dir Hatab Boys High School, near Nablus:

This was to commemorate the "20th anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre" in Hebron.

A caricature of a stereotypical haredi Jew with blood dripping from his hands and mouth? Nah, they are only talking about "Zionists."

This school is aligned with Fatah.

Girls' schools are no better. This Nablus girl's school shows a woman brandishing a shoe at a Jew who is in the middle of performing the unpardonable crime of Walking While Jewish.

The shorthand phrase "no Jews, no news" isn't quite accurate. It is closer to "no blaming Jews, no news." Because Palestinian antisemitism being taught to children is simply not considered newsworthy.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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From The Telegraph:

Hamas executed three people reportedly by firing squad and hanging this morning, in a move that defied protests from the UN and will likely deepen tensions with the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

The Islamist group, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, said it had executed three alleged murderers at dawn.

The executions were not carried out in public even though Hamas had threatened public killings when it announced the death sentences earlier this month.

Two of the men were shot dead by firing squad while a third, a policeman, was hanged, security sources told Reuters.

"To achieve public deterrence and block crime, the relevant authorities implemented at dawn on Tuesday execution rulings against three convicted of horrifying murders,” Hamas’s prosecutors office said.

The group said earlier this month that it has 13 people on death row and intended to carry out further executions.

While the executions weren't public, they did take place in front of the families of their victims. They had the right to pardon the murderers from execution but refused to do so.

Here is one of the rare cases where human rights groups actually denounced Hamas, mostly because they are against the death penalty altogether and they couldn't find any legal loopholes to let this slide, as both HRW and Amnesty try to do with other cases of Hamas (and Hezbollah) crimes.

The rule from Amnesty and HRW is that they only condemn Hamas when Hamas freely admits to violating international law, as they do with rockets and executions. Israeli officials are assumed to be liars but Hamas officials' lies are accepted as truth.

So don't be fooled by condemnations of Hamas by these human rights NGOs. They are happy to find isolated cases where they condemn Israel's enemies, so they can claim that they are equal in their criticisms as they issue about 6 anti-Israel reports for every one on Israel's enemies.

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05/30 Links Pt2: Applauding the nakba myth; UK Labour Party Inquiry: Deny, Divert, Cover Up

From Ian:

David Collier: Applauding the nakba myth

I wasn’t going to write about the ‘nakba’ incident at Wanstead High School. Let down by a society that doesn’t believe in truth, the schoolgirl Leanne Muhammed, aged only 15, has already been weaponised. With the publicity her speech received, I felt sorry for her.
The child will become further affected by the hurricane surrounding the speech. It is unlikely she will draw the correct conclusions. Those that have influenced her before today, will ensure that the reasons behind her ‘inability to speak freely’ are understood the way they want them to be. A reinforcement of another antisemitic myth, that secret Jewish control stops people from telling the truth. Nobody will tell Leanne that her speech turned history upside down.
The parents, the community, social media, the school, the teachers, these are the ones that remain responsible for the fact that a child of the UK has been brought up to propagate a myth that divides communities, a myth that spreads hate, a myth that seeks conflict. In our society that nakba myth is fostered and nurtured, as if truth and history are no longer relevant elements that need to be considered.
Others have already written on the content of the speech itself. Edgar Davidson wrote on the subject and ‘Brian of London’ also covered the issue. The general consensus seems to be that there is no future for Jews in the UK.
I agree with both of them.

Edgar Davidson: This explains Leanne Mohamad's perverse views about 'Palestine' and the 'Zionists'

This explains Leanne Mohamad's perverse views about 'Palestine' and the 'Zionists'

Based on her retweets, 'Peace loving' Leanne Mohamad gets all her information about 'Palestine' from Hamas supporter Abbas Sarsour, who glories in the murder of 'Zionists'. Above are some screenshots from his twitter feed
The story of schoolgirl Leanne Mohamad's award-winning anti-Israel speech, full of ignorant lies and blood libels, keeps getting more interesting. I don't normally 'do' twitter but I posted about the story there today and got back a torrent of abuse.

IsraellyCool: Brian Explains Who’s Indigenous

I put this together just before shabbat. It’s a spoken version of Ryan Bellerose’s original Israellycool post “Israel Palestine – Who’s Indigenous”. Let me know what you think.

Syria pauses from murdering thousands to complain about how Israel treats Golan residents

From Syria's submission to the World Health Organization:

HEALTH CONDITIONS OF SYRIAN CITIZENS IN THE OCCUPIED SYRIAN GOLAN

1. The health conditions of the Syrian population in the occupied Golan continue to deteriorate markedly as a result of the Israeli occupation and its repressive practices. Syrians refusing an Israeli identity card are unable to obtain medical treatment and primary and secondary health care services are non-existent, because there are no integrated health centres in the occupied Syrian Golan.

2. Syrians held in Israeli occupation prisons also suffer inhumane conditions and are subjected to the most brutal forms of torture and ill-treatment in attempts to extract from them confessions to acts that they did not commit. They are consequently prone to a host of serious illnesses and permanent disabilities, as well as to other life-threatening injuries and diseases.

3. The Israeli occupation authorities continue to experiment on Syrian and Arab prisoners with medicines and drugs and to inject them with pathogenic viruses, causing them to develop diseases and medical conditions that are potentially fatal, as in the case of prisoner Hayil Abu Zaid.

4. We also draw WHO’s attention, on the occasion of the Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly, to the fact that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to bury nuclear waste in over 20 sites and have dumped 1500 barrels of radioactive and toxic materials in secret landfills in the territory of the occupied Syrian Golan. They also persist in planting nuclear mines and radioactive materials on the ceasefire line. These actions are in themselves crimes contrary to all international humanitarian customary law and instruments, constituting in addition a flagrant aggression against the Syrian people living under occupation.

All of this is fiction, of course.

But perhaps the funniest part comes later, where Syria complains to the World Health Organization about Israel saving Syrian lives:

8. The Israeli occupation authorities continue to set up field hospitals providing medical treatment for armed terrorists from Jabhah al-Nusrah and groups associated with it who, pursued by the competent Syrian authorities, flee to the territory of the occupied Syrian Golan. The Israeli occupation authorities then return them to the Syrian Arab Republic so that they can resume their subversive terrorist activities directed against the country’s peaceful citizens and its infrastructure.

Here's one of those armed terrorists, playing with a remote controlled car at Israel's Ziv Hospital:

There is a long history of people making up stories to WHO about how awful Israel is. Here is what the Albanian representative had to say in 1973:

Mr HYSENAJ (Albania) said that it was well known that the health of the Arab population of the occupied territories had grown worse as a result of inadequate medical services and personnel. The very serious economic situation of the Arab population in the area, and its deprivation of all national, political and social rights, had increased the number of sick in the population and mortality among children, and had made the future uncertain for them. The Israeli Zionists, pursuing their aims to create a Greater Israel at the expense of the Arab countries, was carrying out a policy of mass extermination of the Arab population, by creating extremely difficult living and housing conditions, turning the people out of their homes, pillaging, and stepping up arrests, imprisonment, and torture. The deterioration in the health of the Arab population of the occupied areas was a direct consequence of the imperialist Israeli aggression of June 1967 against the three Arab States. As long as that aggression continued, the serious health problem of the Arab population of those areas would not improve.

The Israelis have got to be the worst practitioners of mass extermination ever. (For those interested, here is a WHO report from Israel on how much Arab health services improved from 1967 to 1980.)

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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