Friday, August 16, 2019

  • Friday, August 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Here are some hateful Palestinian political cartoons

From Al Resalah, which is linked to Hamas:





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08/16 Links Pt1: After Israel allows West Bank visit to grandmother, Tlaib says she’s not going; Two Israelis Injured in Car-Ramming Attack at West Bank Bus Stop; Is the PA Preparing for a New Intifada?

From Ian:
After Israel allows West Bank visit to grandmother, Tlaib says she’s not going
Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib changed her mind Friday on visiting the West Bank, hours after Israel said it would allow her to visit relatives in the Palestinian territory on humanitarian grounds.

The about-face was the latest in a series of maneuvers by both Tlaib and Israel and came a day after Jerusalem announced it would bar her and fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar from entering the country in their capacity as US lawmakers because of their backing for the boycotting of Israel.

Taking to Twitter, Tlaib posted a photo of her grandmother and said Israel’s agreement to allow her to visit only under certain terms was humiliating. She stated that she would not “bow down to their oppressive & racist policies.” Tlaib had been heavily criticized by Palestinian groups for initially agreeing to Israel’s terms for a family visit.

“Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what [my grandmother] wants for me. It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in — fighting against racism, oppression & injustice.”

Her comments came following Interior Minister Aryeh Deri’s decision to allow her to go to the West Bank, after she submitted a letter requesting to be allowed in despite the ban, citing her elderly grandmother, and promised not to promote boycotting Israel during her visit.

In response to Tlaib’s announcement that she would not coming after all, Deri tweeted: “Apparently [her request] was a provocation to make Israel look bad. Her hatred for Israel is greater than her love for her grandmother.” (h/t IsaacStorm)




Omar, Tlaib Planned To Meet With Terror-Promoting Groups, Including One That Promoted Neo-Nazi Screed, On ‘Palestine’ Trip
The Office of the Prime Minister of Israel revealed that Omar and Tlaib had also planned on meeting with organizations during their visit that have expressed support for terrorism against the nation.

"However, the itinerary of the two Congresswomen reveals that the sole purpose of their visit is to harm Israel and increase incitement against it," the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel tweeted. "In addition, the organization that is funding their trip is Miftah, which is an avid supporter of BDS, and among whose members are those who have expressed support for terrorism against Israel."

Omar and Tlaib had described their trip as a "Delegation to Palestine," even though Palestine does not exist legally, and they did not request to meet any Israeli officials.

A closer examination of Miftah, which Israel's PM noted was funding Omar and Tlaib's trip, reveals that the non-governmental organization (NGO) is extremely anti-Semitic, has ties to terrorist sympathizers, and has falsely accused Jews of using "the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover." Miftah has also reportedly praised suicide bombers and deems terrorists as being national heroes.

One of the most stunning findings on the group is that they have, on their website, promoted content from a neo-Nazi organization which promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that Jews control the media. The author of the article is "the Research Staff of National Vanguard Books," which the Southern Poverty Law Center notes is a neo-Nazi organization.


A closer look at the travel itinerary for Omar and Tlaib shows that they also planned on meeting with additional extremist organizations, including the Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCI-P), which has ties to terrorism.




IPT Exclusive: Tlaib Meets with Another Terror Supporter
In politics, once can be an oversight. But twice is a pattern.

When U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was photographed with an avowed Hizballah supporter in January – just after being sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives – she claimed she didn't know the guy or what he stood for.

But just two months later, Tlaib did it again. In a March photograph just discovered by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Tlaib poses with Nader Jalajel, a Palestinian activist who last year mourned the death of a terrorist who led a shooting attack that murdered a rabbi.

"Allah Yerhamo," or "May God have mercy on him," Jalajel wrote above an image of the terrorist, Ahmed Jarrar, brandishing a gun. He died "after a long battle resisting the brutal Israeli occupation and defending his people and his land," the image said. "We will never forget."

Jalajel offered similar condolences Sunday after Israel killed four Hamas terrorists who crossed the border from Gaza armed with assault rifles, grenades and anti-tank rockets. "LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE!!!" Jalajel added.

  • Friday, August 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Now @RashidaTlaib says insulting Israel is more important than seeing her 90-year old grandmother

If there is any more proof needed that the anti-Israel crowd will politicize everything - religion,  liberalism, family relationships - for an opportunity to demonize Israel, here is Rashida Tlaib:






Yet this refusal to visit Israel came only hours after Tlaib wrote a letter saying that she did want to visit her "sity" and won't politicize the trip:



Tlaib is now saying that she'd rather never see her beloved grandmother again rather than accept visiting her without the right to call Israel an evil apartheid state.

Clearly, she is telling the world that doing her part to make everyone hate Israel is more important than a quiet visit with her grandmother for the last time.

For Israel haters, their hate is all consuming and more important than anything else - even their own families.

Chances are she thought Israel would not agree to let her in, which is the only reason she wrote the letter to begin with - to say that Israel was so evil and anti-Muslim that they wouldn't even let her see her old grandma one last time. When her bluff was called she showed the world what she is.

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  • Friday, August 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Behind the scenes infighting in Fatah over Abbas' successor



Al Resalah  reports that two main competing groups have emerged in Fatah that are fighting to take over when Mahmoud Abbas is gone.

The first is led by Jibril Rajoub, currently the secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee and head of the Palestinian Olympic committee. Rajoub is supported by a number of prominent Central Committee members such as Jamal Muheisen and Rawhi Fattouh and a number of leaders of the Revolutionary Council.

The other group is led by Hussein Sheikh, head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs and previously minister for the coordination of civil affairs, the main contact with Israeli security. He is  strongly supported by the Director of General Intelligence Major General Majed Faraj.

According to the report, the Sheikh team has been trying to sabotage Rajoub's reputation, especially around Hebron where he is from.

Meanwhile, Sheikh seems to have weathered a sexual harassment and coverup accusation from 2012. He is also supposedly trying to sideline others who want to succeed Abbas, including Mahmoud Aloul, deputy-chairman of Fatah’s Central Committee and apparently Abbas' choice as his heir.





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  • Friday, August 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

How yesterday's stabbing at the Temple Mount is being misreported


Despite dramatic video footage, yesterday's attack by two Palestinian minors on police at a gate to the Temple Mount is barely being covered in international media.

AFP reported it this way:
Two Palestinian youths attacked Israeli police with knives in Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday before being shot by officers, leaving one of the assailants dead, officials said.

Israeli police said an officer was moderately wounded and that the two assailants were shot.

The Palestinian health ministry said one was killed, while Israel's Shaare Tzedek hospital said the second was left in critical condition.

Another person in the area was injured in the leg, police said, without providing further details.


What practically none of the reports mention is that the two youths attacked the police from the Al Aqsa Mosque compound itself, as the video clearly shows.

Even the Jerusalem Post says the attack happened "at one of the walled Old City's gates," as if it was at the entrance to the Old City, not to the Temple Mount.

As far as I can tell, only Arutz-7 got it right.

This is why the Israeli police closed the Temple Mount briefly. It was the source of the attack. But Arab media and Palestinian officials condemned the closure without noting this fact that it was where the knife-wielding youths came from.

Ironically, Electronic Intifada ended up showing better than anyone that Israeli forces only kill people who are direct threats:

Six Palestinians killed this weekEighty-one Palestinians have died by Israeli fire so far this year, and six since Saturday.

Israeli occupation forces killed four armed Palestinians as they allegedly attempted to breach the Gaza-Israel boundary on 10 August.

One of the men had crossed the boundary “and fired at troops and tossed a grenade,” the Israeli military said.

The following day, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian who shot at soldiers while he attempted to cross the Gaza boundary.
EI absurdly complains about yesterday's attack, "The officers immediately open fire on the boys, and do not appear to attempt to subdue them with nonlethal means." As if any police officer in the world would respond differently to himself or a colleague being stabbed repeatedly.




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Thursday, August 15, 2019

  • Thursday, August 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Why did Israel decide not to allow Tlaib and Omar to come?

The most popular theory to explain why Israel did an about-face and decide not to allow Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to visit is because President Trump tweeted that it would show "great weakness" on Israel's part:



I think that was definitely a factor. It may be disrespectful for Israel to not allow two members of Congress to visit, but it is even more disrespectful to go against the President. For better or for worse, Israel has to engage in realpolitik, and Trump has been using Israel as a wedge issue for Democrats quite successfully.

But things sometimes have multiple reasons. It was only reported a day or two ago that Tlaib and Omar would visit the Al Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount, and that could easily ignite riots where people could be hurt or killed. To turn away someone because of their extreme views is one thing; to keep security is a whole different ballgame.

Also leaked today was the itinerary, which was to be partially sponsored by Miftah, Hanan Ashrawi's  NGO that has spread antisemitism both old and new: the blood libel, explicit support of terror and neo-Nazi literature.

Bibi Netanyahu gave his reasons for barring their entry, about 2 hours after Trump's tweet and while Trump probably was part of the equation, the itinerary was a factor:
No country in the world respects America and the American Congress more than the State of Israel.

As a free and vibrant democracy, Israel is open to critics and criticism with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry into Israel of those who call for and work to impose boycotts on Israel, as do other democracies that prohibit the entry of people who seek to harm the country.

In fact, in the past the US did this to an Israeli member of Knesset, as well as to other public figures from around the world.

Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar are leading activists in promoting the legislation of boycotts against Israel in the American Congress.

Only a few days ago, we received their itinerary for their visit in Israel, which revealed that they planned a visit whose sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy.

For instance: they listed the destination of their trip as Palestine and not Israel, and unlike all Democratic and Republican members of Congress who have visited Israel, they did not request to meet any Israeli officials, either from the government or the opposition.

A week ago, Israel warmly welcomed some 70 Democratic and Republican members of Congress, who expressed broad bipartisan support for Israel, which was also demonstrated a month ago in a resounding bipartisan vote against BDS in Congress.

However, the itinerary of the two Congresswomen reveals that the sole purpose of their visit is to harm Israel and increase incitement against it.

In addition, the organization that is funding their trip is Miftah, which is an avid supporter of BDS, and among whose members are those who have expressed support for terrorism against Israel. 
Therefore, the minister of interior has decided not to allow their visit, and I, as prime minister, support his decision.

Nonetheless, if Congresswoman Tlaib submits a humanitarian request to visit her relatives, the minister of interior has announced that he will consider her request on the condition that she pledges not to act to promote boycotts against Israel during her visit.
The reasons I gave last month to allow the pair to visit was contingent on Israel setting up an itinerary and pushing it ahead of time, letting them reject it. This itinerary which doesn't even mention Israel shows that the opportunity was lost. Israel looks bad either way, but this way it only looks bad for a day instead of four days of incitement. And the Miftah angle is big: Miftah has been so bad over the years, and my tweets about it have been so popular,  that there will probably be some media attention given to the organization tomorrow (if something similar happened on the Right it would be wall to wall coverage, of course.)

The itinerary is interesting for another reason. The pair weren't even planning to visit the PA president or prime minister. Terrorist supporters and BDS advocates consider the PA to be collaborators with Israel - and these two members of Congress are so extreme, they not only don't recognize Israel but also the Palestinian Authority. Even the AIPAC congressional group visited PA government officials.

That, by itself, shows how extreme and hateful Tlaib and Omar are.

Meanwhile, I love the irony that BDSers are now advocating that these two should visit Israel.



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08/15 Links Pt2: No, the United Nations Didn’t Create Israel; Who’s funding illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C?; Academic Prize For Scholarly Form Of Blood Libel

From Ian:
No, the United Nations Didn’t Create Israel
Hanan Ashwari, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, recently restated one of her favorite falsehoods about the creation of Israel. This falsehood — ironically often advanced by both Israel’s supporters and its enemies — holds that Israel was created by the United Nations in its Palestine Partition Resolution 181, passed on November 29, 1947, and implemented by Great Britain’s withdrawal on May 14, 1948.

This is a pernicious lie that portrays Israel as existing simply as a result of “the kindness of strangers” and as a foreign body imposed on the region by outside forces.

In fact, Jews have yearned and struggled to return to their ancestral homeland for three millennia. Zionism began as a movement in 1897, when Jews began to resettle in what was then called Palestine, culminating in Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948 on the same day that Great Britain left.

Those dates in 1947 and 1948 were momentous events in the Zionist effort to create a Jewish nation in its indigenous land, and are celebrated annually in Israel and among most Diaspora Jews. But November 29 — the date of the UN General Assembly vote to recommend the partition of Palestine — is, appropriately, not an Israeli holiday. But May 14 — or its equivalent date on the Jewish calendar — is feted as Israel’s Independence Day.

In any event, the UN Palestine partition is of merely symbolic value in explaining Israel’s creation.
The Waters Were Already Muddy: A Rebuttal to Victor Kattan
On 3 July 2019, we submitted a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”) of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) (summarised here) which argued that Palestine’s objective legal status as a non-State entity, as well as Palestine’s indeterminate sovereign territorial claim, operate as barriers to the exercise of ICC jurisdiction in potential cases. On 9 August, Victor Kattan responded on these pages (here and here) by suggesting that our communication constitutes an attempt to “muddy the waters” and that Palestine’s objective legal status as a State is clear, as is its sovereign territory. Mr Kattan’s suggestion of bad faith is regrettable. Rather than demonstrate the clarity of Palestine’s status or territory, his posts further demonstrate their uncertainty.

Mr Kattan asserts that “only Palestine has sovereign legal title to the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967” and argues that to assert an Israeli claim in this territory makes “a complete mockery of the law of occupation”. Yet Mr Kattan’s argument relies on inconsistent and unsustainable legal and historical claims. Mr Kattan firstly claims that General Assembly Resolution 181(II) of 29 November 1947 is of dispositive effect. Secondly, he asserts that Israel waived its territorial claim to West Bank territory between 1949 and 1967. Thirdly, he appears to claim that following Jordan’s occupation of the West Bank between 1949 and 1967, a Palestinian State seceded from Jordan in the West Bank. This rebuttal considers these three dubious claims in more detail.

The effect of General Assembly Resolution 181(II)

Mr Kattan argues that the 1947 UN Partition Plan contained in Resolution 181(II)“represented a special agreement between the United Nations and the Mandatory Power” which was of dispositive effect. Yet it is trite that General Assembly resolutions are generally not binding and, in its own terms, Resolution 181(II) “recommended”its adoption and implementation to the UK (as Mandatory Power) and to UN Member States. It was not an agreement between them. Resolution 181(II) was, of course, vigorously rejected by Arab States who stated an objective to create a “United State of Palestine” throughout the former Mandate territory.

Mr Kattan nevertheless relies on Lausanne Protocol of 1949 to support his argument with respect to Resolution 181(II)’s supposedly dispositive effect, as well as to Israel’s supposed waiver of claims to West Bank territory in 1949. Yet the Lausanne Protocol, in its own terms, was a “working document… to be taken as a basis for discussions.” It was a “proposal” which would “bear upon the territorial adjustments necessary” for its “objectives” to be satisfied. At the Lausanne negotiations, Israel contemplated a land for peace formula and expressly excluded Jerusalem from the negotiations (see UN doc. A/927, 21 June 1949, paras. 28, 30). It is plainly wrong for Mr Kattan to suggest that the Protocol conferred a binding effect through agreement on the 1947 UN plan.
Myths and Facts: Palestine is a geographical area, not a nationality
Historically, before the Arabs fabricated the concept of Palestinian peoplehood as an exclusively Arab phenomenon, no such group existed. This is substantiated in countless official British Mandate-vintage documents that speak of the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine – not Jews and Palestinians.

In fact, before local Jews began calling themselves Israelis in 1948 (when the name “Israel” was chosen for the newly-established Jewish State), the term “Palestine” applied almost exclusively to Jews and the institutions founded by new Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, before the state’s independence.

Some examples include:
- The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called The Palestine Post until 1948.
- Bank Leumi L’Israel, incorporated in 1902, was called the Anglo-Palestine Company until 1948.
- The Jewish Agency, an arm of the Zionist movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929, was initially called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
- Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by German Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was originally called the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.
- The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was established in 1939 as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.

​Arabs are not satisfied with one Palestinian political entity (Jordan) where they are the uncontested majority and have the political machinery and the territory for self-determination. Instead, they want an additional state because twenty-one Arab states are not enough (and one Jewish state is one too many).

  • Thursday, August 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Arabs mark the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the 1929 pogroms

A pan-Arab news site has an article on what they say was the beginning of the events that led to the massacres of Jews throughout the Land of Israel in 1929.

The article says, "In the following days, clashes intensified and spread to other cities, where Arabs in the city of Hebron killed 67 Jews from the city. A number of Jews enjoyed the protection of some Arab residents who opposed violence but were forced to abandon Hebron for fear of continuing clashes. In Gaza, there was a small Jewish community who had abandoned the city with the help of British troops. Safed's Jews were also subjected to violence by the Arab population."

There doesn't seem to be any regret. The article says that the riots were a major stage in the Palestinian national movement.

It mentions previous deadly riots against Jews, including one in 1924 I had never heard of where they claim that Jews dressed up in "the clothing of Islamic clerics, and made a mockery of them." They said it was around Easter time but perhaps it was Purim, which was a month before.


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Suffering Michiganders Hope Tlaib Takes Time Out Of Palestine Trip To Visit Them (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 


Check out their Facebook page.


Suffering Michiganders Hope Tlaib Takes Time Out Of Palestine Trip To Visit Them
Rashida TlaibFlint, August 15 - Residents of this beleaguered neighbor of Detroit voiced expectation today that as part of her announced trip to witness the plight of faraway Palestinians firsthand, a congresswoman from their state might make a stop in their troubled city to get a better picture of what fellow Michigan inhabitants need.
As the people of Flint continue to recover from a drinking water and public health crisis stemming from mismanagement, aging infrastructure, lack of transparency, and, many charge, environmental racism, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan plans a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories later this year to gain an on-the-ground picture of the complex situation people there face, despite the Palestinian situation having little or no bearing on the lives of the people who populate her home state. Nevertheless, Flint residents hope that Ms. Tlaib might deign to set aside some of her time to meet with them and see their trouble in person, since she harbors such concern for people of color and their struggle against systemic prejudice.

Congresswoman Tlaib plans a visit to the Holy Land with fellow progressive "Squad" member Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a public relations move aimed at keeping the Palestinian issue at the forefront of progressive politics and positioning the two legislators as prominent fighters for the oppressed. Flint inhabitants told reporters that they find that mission noble, but also think that perhaps the two American lawmakers representing the constituencies that elected them should consider placing the emphasis of their public activities on serving those constituencies and the states in which they reside, if that is not too much trouble.

"As American taxpayers we pay the salaries of Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar," stated Flint resident Stacy Mbeke. "Now, I might be a little presumptuous here, but I think the people whose interests Rashida Tlaib is paid to represent should take precedence over those who live elsewhere and who have no democratic say in her decision-making. The senators and Congressional representatives from Michigan are busy people, and we understand that, but maybe Ms. Tlaib can make a minor change to her itinerary and swing my Flint on her way to Palestine. If it's not too much trouble."

"I get it, she has important things to do that aren't making sure the problems of her state are solved and don't recur," agreed fellow resident Shawnda Pike. "My kids and their elevated lead levels can wait, because Rashida knows it's more urgent to draw he world's attention to Palestinian minors jailed for using rocks and firebombs to try to kill Israeli motorists."

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08/15 Links Pt1: Interior minister confirms Israel will bar Omar, Tlaib; Mahmoud Abbas’s time-machine politics dooms peace (again); Terror attack in Old City of Jerusalem

From Ian:
Jonathan S. Tobin: Mahmoud Abbas’s time-machine politics dooms peace (again)
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas' latest speech revealed that the new starting point for the Palestinian quest for "justice" is sometime in the 13th century BCE. That's when the tribes of Israel began the conquest of the land of Canaan they had been promised when they left Egypt a generation beforehand.

Abbas declared that the Jewish interlopers in the country would eventually be expelled. "They will be in the dustbins of history, and they will remember that this land is for its people, its residents and the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago. We are the Canaanites."

The notion that the current population that calls itself Palestinian can link themselves to the vanished Canaanites is pure fiction. Some Arabs arrived in the early 20th century from surrounding Arab lands as the country began to experience rapid economic development as a result of the return of the Jews and Zionist settlement.

It really doesn't matter when Palestinian Arabs arrived. What matters is that their leader is still doubling down on an effort to deny history and the right of the Jews to a Jewish state, no matter where its borders might be drawn. In his conversations this week with a delegation of visiting Democratic members of Congress, Abbas wasn't willing to say he recognized Israel or to admit that the Jews were also entitled to a state.

Israelis and Palestinians don't live in a theoretical world in which dividing adjacent land into states coexisting peacefully is the obvious answer to their problems. They live in the real world, where the only Palestinian leaders are the Islamists of Hamas, who still seek the death of Jews, and the "moderates" of Fatah led by Abbas, who is selling his people a fairy tale about Canaanites who will somehow use a historical time machine to expel the descendants of Joshua.
Only an Israeli Victory Can Bring Peace. America Can Help by Telling the Truth
The Israel-Palestinian conflict, writes Max Singer, cannot be resolved through compromise, but only through a decisive victory by one side or the other. But Singer does not envision the Jewish state winning on the battlefield of war; rather, the necessary triumph must be moral and psychological:

Israel’s essential goal is to continue to exist in its homeland, and the Palestinians’ essential goal is the elimination of Israel. Thus, if one side wins, the other side loses. There is no way Israel can continue in peace and at the same time be eliminated. The two essential goals clash, making compromise impossible. “Victory” is not a matter of declarations and celebrations. It means achieving your essential goal. Nor is “defeat” groveling and humiliation: it is giving up your central goal because you realize it cannot be achieved.

The Palestinians will have been defeated when they become convinced that Israel cannot ever be destroyed. That defeat would be tantamount to an Israeli victory, and it is required for peace to be possible. [Currently], a Palestinian who wants to argue for the advantages of peace can’t get anywhere so long as his audience believes that continued Palestinian resistance just might eventually defeat Israel.

To help bring about such a change in mindset, the U.S. can do much without expending blood or treasure:

A key component of U.S. strategy . . . should be a campaign of assertive truth-telling. . . . A major part of Israel’s problem is that most of the diplomatic world accepts key falsehoods about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world. [For instance], there has never been any “Palestinian territory” anywhere. That being the case, there cannot now be “occupied Palestinian territory.” [Moreover], the Palestinian belief that the Jewish people are European colonialists invading the area with no historical claim or right is entirely false. . .

Amb. Alan Baker: A Ha’aretz Columnist Mangles History, Facts, and International Law
On August 9, 2019, the Ha’aretz newspaper featured an op-ed article entitled “The Ignorance of Trump Envoy Greenblatt Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg.”1

The author of the article, Shaul Arieli, described by Ha’aretz as a colonel in the IDF reserves, harshly criticized and attacked President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, who, in a speech to the UN Security Council on July 23, 2019, had expressed the Administration’s view on to how to achieve an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Greenblatt asserted in his speech that the accepted bases of the world order – international consensus, international law, and UN Security Council resolutions – have been proven to be unsuccessful in seeking an end to the conflict.

In his article, Arieli presents this U.S. Administration viewpoint as a “threat to the post World War II international order” by dictating “an order based on force rather than decisions by the international community.”

He compared this viewpoint to a “giant iceberg threatening an ice-age on the existing international order” but ultimately melting away, leaving “international order to the forces of aggression.”

Arieli’s anxiety and fears for the integrity and future of the old international order would appear to be misplaced. Not being an international lawyer, he seems to be unaware of some basic principles underlying the very international order that he seeks to safeguard.

  • Thursday, August 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Another example of how @UNRWA wastes the world's money

UNRWA reports:
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) started construction on a new health centre in Zohour area within the Jordanian capital Amman. ...

The actual construction activities started late in July 2019 and the health centre is expected to be functional by August 2020 and will improve access to health care for over 68,000 Palestine refugees in the area. The new health center will replace the existing, congested rented premises and will introduce the Family Health Team (FHT) -  the Agency’s new approach to health care delivery.
According to UNRWA itself:
In Jordan, the 2.2 million Palestine refugees who are registered with UNRWA enjoy broad inclusion in social and economic life. The vast majority have Jordanian nationality, with the exception of some 158,000 ‘ex-Gazan’ refugees.
Meaning, some 93% of "Palestine refugees" in Jordan are citizens.

And UNRWA admits elsewhere:
[M]ost of the over 2 million Palestine refugees in Jordan have been granted citizenship, and have the same access to health care as other Jordanian citizens. 
Jordan has a very good health care system, both private and public. It is a destination for medical tourism.

However, nearly a million Palestinians who can use Jordan's own health care system use the UNRWA system instead:
In Jordan, our clinics serve more than 1.1 million people, nearly 56 per cent of the registered Palestine refugees in the country
UNRWA is very proud of their facilities and their "new approach to health care delivery" - but, except for the 158,000 Palestinians that Jordan refuses to naturalize, why are they providing services for a million people who are already covered by the state that they are citizens of?

UNRWA could convert all of its clinics to be public clinics for all Jordanian citizens, reducing the impression in Jordan that Palestinians aren't "true Jordanians." Its budget could be given to Jordan for five years or so. But to keep a completely parallel health system in Jordan for only a portion of the citizens is inefficient, promotes bigotry and tells Palestinians that they are not quite full citizens.

The world shouldn't be paying for a separate health system. There is no justification for it. But no one at the UN is seriously questioning why Palestinians who are full citizens should get special treatment - with money that could go to people who are truly in need.

UNRWA is soon going to apply for another extension of its mandate. It is way past time that UN member nations start asking why Palestinians who are not refugees should get extra medical and educational and housing services paid for by the rest of the world.

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  • Thursday, August 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

The little-known case of Arab Israelis imprisoned, tortured by the PA as "spies"



From the Jerusalem Post:

Following a verdict given at the Jerusalem district court, a total sum of 12.7 million NIS was transferred to the offices of foreclosure in Jerusalem after several files were opened against the Palestinian Authority for incarcerating citizens accused of collaborating with Israel.

The ones who will benefit the most from these files are the Arab-Israeli citizens living in the West Bank, who were falsely imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority under the suspicion of helping Israel. 

According to the verdict given by judge Moshe Drori, the arrest and imprisonment were done without authority, as the PA was never given such power beyond the West Bank. The Imprisonment itself provided enough grounds to sue for damages.

Judge Drori described in his decision the various atrocities done at the basements of the PA's security facilities, which included torture, rape, amputations and even murder.

The Law Enforcement and Collection System Authority will work in the following days to distribute the money to the people involved in accordance with the court's decision.   
This story shows much of what is wrong in both Israeli and Arab media.

When were Israeli citizens arrested and imprisoned by the PA? Where was the coverage?

Was this downplayed because they were Arabs and not Jews? If so, this is unacceptable.

I found some details in this story from two years ago, in what appears to be the same case:
52 Palestinian collaborators, or those suspected of collaborating with Israel, have received recognition for the first time from an Israeli court that the Palestinian Authority had in fact arrested and tortured them for years. In the over 1,800-page judicial ruling, Jerusalem District Court Vice President Justice Moshe Drori wrote that beyond a reasonable doubt, systematic arrests took place between 1990-2003, during which dozens of Palestinians suffered severe abuse, that left them with physical and mental disabilities.

“Throughout the day you’re tied to the wall, at night, they take you to interrogations,” one of the collaborators claimed. “From the moment you enter the room, you don’t see the interrogator since they place a sac over your head that was probably in the sewer for ten years. You don’t see who is hitting you…They say, ‘You worked with the Israeli Shin Bet, you have to admit it, period.'”

Attorney Barak Kedem, who represents the plaintiffs stated, “It’s as if someone read Dante’s Inferno and asked to imitate it.” The three plaintiffs said that at no point were they presented with any evidence or witness testimony, rather, only with the demand for a confession.

Some of the torture also included sadistic harm to the detainees’ genitals. Many reported similar methods of horrific sexual abuse that left them infertile and unable to have sex. “There’s some contraption there called ‘the bottle fixer,'” said one of the plaintiffs. “It’s a 1.5-liter bottle of Coca-Cola with a broken top placed inside a block of concrete, and you sit on top. They take care that your life is over. They finish you, ensure you won’t have kids.”

After the court’s ruling this week, which also recognized cases of extrajudicial executions carried out by the Palestinian Authority, the plaintiffs and their next of kin intend to move on to the next stage in their lawsuit: compensation claims worth millions of NIS, each, in the hope that Israel will confiscate the funds from the Palestinian Authority.
This story doesn't mention that they were Arab Israelis.

Where did they live? Did they move into areas under Palestinian Authority control to be with relatives? Or were they "settlers" who were arrested when visiting PA-controlled areas? (Israeli Arabs are allowed to visit PA-controlled areas, Israeli Jews aren't.)

It is great that they are getting compensated, but the paucity of information about Israelis in Palestinian prison shows a deep bias in the media not to report on what should have been a major story.

UPDATE: In 2002, CNN reported that the Palestinians had killed some 1500 "collaborators" between 1987 and 2002. Did you know that?

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