Jews, Do you think that the Goyim will protect you?It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lawfare against Israel
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From the Passover Haggadah:According to the instructions of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the wine cup is now raised and the Matzot are covered. This is what has stood by our fathers and us! For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand! Each of the soldiers in the bottom pic is the grandson of a man in the top pic. @GameOnJD@ScotsFyre @PolitiBunny pic.twitter.com/hooJ57HZaT — יוסף חיים לוין (@Rabbi224) May 2, 2019
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You vowed ‘Never Again’
Mike LaChance
Yehuda Dov Galpert is a 96 year old Holocaust survivor who, after losing all his siblings in the war and witnessing his father’s death just weeks before liberation, resettled in New York and build a family with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. He has a message for the soldiers fighting for our nation in Eretz Yisroel that he would like to be publicized. Never again is now.
Incredibly powerful front page of the @australian! On the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht and in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas massacre, over 100 Holocaust survivors write joint letter. “Never did we think that we would witness a re-enactment of the senseless and virulent hatred of Jews that we faced in Europe. The actions of Hamas are so familiar, so barbaric, yet instead of condemning this, the response across the globe is a shameful spike in antisemitism. Our memories and our experiences in ghettos, concentration camps and in hiding – seeing our families and communities vanish – compel us to raise our voices and implore humanity to reject hatred, bigotry and violence. We cannot allow history to repeat itself. We ask you to stand with us.” Read full letter here: https://origin.go.theaustralian.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Holocaust-letter.pdf
Right: CCTV screenshot of Hamas Nazi executing a young Jewish woman cowering, pleading for her life, in Kibbutz Alumim, 2023. Video below. Never Again Means Destroy Hamas.
Behind free Palestine rallies is Iran
These were handed out in London today.
Jewish man: my family and I do not feel safe as Jews in San Francisco
Audience members behind him: making pig noises Are we in Germany 1939 all over again?
The Mossad Satirical, Yet Awesome-tweet-20October2023-Official Palestinian Authority document released today to all Palestinian mosques. In it contains a line calling on all Muslims to kill the Jews.
Nazis murdered Jewish women and children as one kills rats – something necessary to do but distasteful. They dehumanized them so people could exterminate them without guilt. It was an assembly line of murder and disposal of bodies. For Palestinians, murdering Jews and celebrating those murders is their highest aspiration. Slaughtering babies is a source of honor and joy. Raping Jewish women is a badge of honor They will write songs and poems and make films celebrating the massacres in coming years. The vast majority of Palestinians are proud, not disgusted, by the orgy of violence on Saturday. And if Palestinians had the means to kill 7 million Israeli Jews instead of 1000, they would eagerly do it. And they wouldn’t even try to hide it from the world as the Germans did.
“Never Again” is now!
“Never Again” is now!
Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US&CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH UK 0800 075 7200 Israel 02-659-5800 www. nbn.org.il It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAHWith emuna and prayer, Aliyah to Israel will be the best thing for you, your family and your children. Get the facts before saying no I can’t do it. Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH www. nbn.org.il. Just compare the costs of a Jewish Education for your children, US vs. Israel. Think about who they will marry in the US vs. Israel
• Celebration of the Hamas terrorist atrocity Where were the hundreds of @metpoliceuk If the authorities will not act to uphold the law, we will.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
תהילים פרק קמ Psalms 140 Protection from Hamas.פרק קמא לַמְנַצֵּ֗חַ מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד:
|
1For the conductor, a song of David. | אלַֽמְנַצֵּ֗חַ מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד: | |
2Rescue me, O Lord, from an evil man from a man of robbery You shall guard me. | בחַלְּצֵ֣נִי יְ֖הֹוָה מֵֽאָדָ֣ם רָ֑ע מֵאִ֖ישׁ חֲמָסִ֣ים תִּנְצְרֵֽנִי: | |
3Who plotted evil things in their heart; every day they gather to wage war. | גאֲשֶׁ֚ר חָֽשְׁב֣וּ רָע֣וֹת בְּלֵ֑ב כָּל־י֜֗וֹם יָג֥וּרוּ מִלְחָמֽוֹת: | |
4They whetted their tongue like a serpent; the venom of a spider is under their lips forever. | דשָֽׁנְנ֣וּ לְשׁוֹנָם֘ כְּמ֪וֹ נָ֫חָ֥שׁ חֲמַ֥ת עַכְשׁ֑וּב תַּ֖חַת שְׂפָתֵ֣ימוֹ סֶֽלָה: | |
5Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of a wicked man; from a man of robbery You shall watch me, who plotted to cause my steps to slip. | השָׁמְרֵ֚נִי יְהֹוָ֨ה | מִ֘ידֵ֚י רָשָׁ֗ע מֵאִ֣ישׁ חֲמָסִ֣ים תִּנְצְרֵ֑נִי אֲשֶׁ֥ר חָֽ֜שְׁב֗וּ לִדְח֥וֹת פְּעָמָֽי: | |
6Haughty men have concealed a snare for me, and [with] ropes they spread a net beside [my] path; they laid traps for me constantly. | וטָֽמְנוּ־גֵאִ֨ים | פַּ֡ח לִ֗י וַֽחֲבָ֫לִ֥ים פָּ֣רְשׂוּ רֶ֖שֶׁת לְיַ֣ד מַעְגָּ֑ל מֹֽקְשִׁ֖ים שָֽׁתוּ־לִ֣י סֶֽלָה: | |
7I said to the Lord, “You are my God.” Hearken, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications. | זאָמַ֣רְתִּי לַֽיהֹוָה אֵ֣לִי אָ֑תָּה הַֽאֲזִ֥ינָה יְ֜הֹוָ֗ה ק֣וֹל תַּֽחֲנוּנָֽי: | |
8God, O Lord, the might of my salvation; You shall protect my head on the day of battle. | חיֱהֹוִ֣ה אֲ֖דֹנָי עֹ֣ז יְשֽׁוּעָתִ֑י סַכּ֥וֹתָה לְ֜רֹאשִׁ֗י בְּי֣וֹם נָֽשֶׁק: | |
9O Lord, do not grant the desires of the wicked; do not let his thoughts succeed, for they are constantly haughty. | טאַל־תִּתֵּ֣ן יְ֖הֹוָה מַֽאֲוַיֵּ֣י רָשָׁ֑ע זְמָמ֥וֹ אַל־תָּ֜פֵ֗ק יָר֥וּמוּ סֶֽלָה: | |
10The numbers of those who surround me, may the lies of their lips cover them. | ירֹ֥אשׁ מְסִבָּ֑י עֲמַ֖ל שְׂפָתֵ֣ימוֹ יְכַסֵּֽימוֹ (כתיב יְכַסֵּֽומוֹ) : | |
11Let fiery coals descend on them; He will cast them into fire, in wars, so that they will not rise. | יאיִמּ֥וֹטוּ (כתיב יִמֹּ֥יטוּ) עֲלֵיהֶ֗ם גֶּֽחָ֫לִ֥ים בָּאֵ֥שׁ יַפִּלֵ֑ם בְּ֜מַֽהֲמֹר֗וֹת בַּל־יָקֽוּמוּ: | |
12A slanderer will not be established on earth; a man of violence, the evil will trap him with thrust upon thrust. | יבאִ֥ישׁ לָשׁוֹן֘ בַּל־יִכּ֪וֹן בָּ֫אָ֥רֶץ אִישׁ־חָמָ֥ס רָ֑ע יְ֜צוּדֶ֗נּוּ לְמַדְחֵפֹֽת: | |
13I know that the Lord will perform the judgment of a poor man, the cause of the needy. | יגיָדַ֗עְתִּי (כתיב יָדַ֗עְתִּ) כִּי־יַֽעֲשֶׂ֣ה יְ֖הֹוָה דִּ֣ין עָנִ֑י מִ֜שְׁפַּ֗ט אֶבְיֹנִֽים: | |
14But the righteous will thank Your name; the upright will sit before You. | ידאַ֣ךְ צַ֖דִּיקִים יוֹד֣וּ לִשְׁמֶ֑ךָ יֵֽשְׁב֥וּ יְ֜שָׁרִ֗ים אֶת־פָּנֶֽיךָ: |
Jews in chul – we need your prayers
5November2023 https://www.thinkforyourselfpublishing.com/jews-in-chul-we-need-your-prayers/
I literally just got sent this from two people at once, at exactly the same time.
The Deputy Commander of the Givati Brigade (main combat unit in the Gaza area), literally crying, begged to convey to us, the chareidi tzibbur, that we’re not awake enough to the war situation in Gaza and that the fighting is very difficult and dangerous.
The terrible situation is that soldiers are being killed each and every night.
He emphasized that the main fighting at night starts from 11PM and continues until the morning, but the hardest hours are 2-5AM.
He brings his soldiers further and further inward to fight, but he doesn’t feel like he has enough support from the יראים ושלמים staying up at night to daven and say Tehillim for the soldiers.
He requested that the chareidim take responsibility for organizing minyanim to say Tehillim, especially during those hours.
– *all the chevre to do is to co-ordinate prayer opportunities in Israel & around the world and in all our yeshivas.
====
NYC is 6 hours behind Eretz Yisrael.
The times of the hardest fighting in Israel are happening between 5-11 pm New York time.
Please, if you are reading this and you can do ANYTHING, however small, to get a bunch of people together in your network to start saying tehillim for the soldiers fighting in Gaza through the night, please do that right now.
As soon as you finish reading this – use the horrible tech for a good purpose, for once.
Just cut and paste the message from the Deputy Commander of the Givati Brigade, and get some tehillim organised for these times in your networks.
Get the shuls involved.
The schools involved.
And of course, say some yourself.
BH, we are seeing open miracles here that it’s not 1,000 dead soldiers a day, like our enemies are hoping for.
But even one more dead soldier is too much.
It’s a whole world.
And it’s a world that our tehillim – you and me, and our friends, neighbours and families – can protect.
So yalla!
And may we just hear good news.
State Department Issues Rare Worldwide Caution Travel Alert
“Pro-Palestine” rallies have infested the West.
Posted by Mary Chastain, 19October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/state-department-issues-rare-worldwide-caution-travel-alert/
[EDD: More information]
SEE: What the Department of State Can and Can’t Do in a Crisis
Pro-Palestine London Rally
The State Department has issued a worldwide caution travel alert.
The caution states: “Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution.”
The U.S. State Department was released an Extremely Rare “Worldwide Travel Alert” stating that American Citizens should Exercise Increased Caution around the World due to Increasing Tensions in various Countries. pic.twitter.com/jbCArjd6ru
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 19, 2023
Worldwide Caution
Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. U.S. citizens should:
- Stay alert in locations frequented by tourists.
- Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive information and alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency overseas.
- Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.
The timing comes as we witness massive anti-Jew protests in the West, with Israeli and U.S. embassies accosted in Lebanon and Jordan.
The State Department already issued a “Do Not Travel” alert to Lebanon:
Do Not travel to Lebanon due to the unpredictable security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hizballah or other armed militant factions. Reconsider travel to Lebanon due to terrorism, civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, kidnapping, and Embassy Beirut’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens.
Citizens should not travel to Gaza. The department asked citizens to reconsider travel to Israel and the West Bank.
I say anti-Jew because the hate we see on display goes beyond Israel’s borders. None of the rallies are pro-Palestine or anti-Israel as advertised. The protests always have people yelling about murdering Jews or phrases calling for the extermination of Jews, like “from the river to the sea.”
- Germany of all places: 65 cops hurt during pro-Palestine protest in Berlin
- Occupy EU office in Dublin: Pro-Palestinian activists ‘occupy’ EU office in Dublin
- Balkans: Balkans and Central Europe See Rival Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian Protests
- France, which has a history of Muslim terrorist attacks, banned “pro-Palestine” protests
- Canada: Pro-Palestinian rally followed by march in support of Israel on Parliament Hill
“Wait, wait, oh Jews. The army of Muhammed is coming back.”
Protesters at the London Palestine rally on Saturday chanted a slogan referencing an Islamic story about Muhammed & his army slaughtering Jewish communities in Medina, Arabia. pic.twitter.com/oYb9jnOau2
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 15, 2023
Melbourne Palestine rally anti-Semitic chants: ”Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud.”
Translation: ”Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.” It refers to a massacre of Jews in 628 CE. Seeks to make Israel-Palestine a religious conflict pic.twitter.com/xdWr9UQga3— Drew Pavlou 柏乐志 🇦🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) October 15, 2023
“A young child wearing a keffiyeh later led a chant widely taken up by rally attendees: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
It’s a call for genocide of the Jews. Shameful#bcpoli pic.twitter.com/qatZjgwibR— 🇨🇦Schtev🇨🇦 (@schtev69) October 15, 2023
Israel raises travel alert for Western Europe, other regions
Great Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and Russia are among the countries where the travel warning was raised to level 2.
https://www.jns.org/israel-raises-travel-alert-for-western-europe-other-regions/(December 4, 2023 / JNS) Israel’s National Security Council on Monday raised its travel alert levels for Western Europe, South America, Australia and Russia.
The update comes amid increased terror threats against Israelis traveling abroad nearly two months into Israel’s war with Hamas, dubbed “Operation Swords of Iron,” which was launched after the bloody massacre of Oct. 7. The last NSC security update was on Nov. 3.
“Since the beginning of the war, increased efforts have been detected on the part of Iran and its proxies, as well as on the part of Hamas and elements of global jihad, to attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” according to the NSC statement.
The statement also highlighted “a continuous and significant increase in incitement, attempted attacks and widespread manifestations of anti-Semitism in many countries.”
Great Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and Russia are among the countries where the travel warning was raised to level 2, recommending increased precautions. Several countries in Africa (including South Africa and Eritrea) and countries in Central Asia (including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan) have been elevated to level 3, recommending reconsidering non-essential travel.
The NSC generally recommends that Israelis reconsider the necessity of traveling at this time and if the public does go abroad to make informed decisions based on the recommended precautions.
Travelers are encouraged to postpone trips to countries with warnings, with an emphasis on Arab and Middle Eastern countries, the North Caucasus, countries surrounding Iran and a number of Muslim countries in Asia.
The NSC also recommends travelers check whether any anti-Israel protests are planned at their destinations, even in countries without travel warnings, and to stay away from these demonstrations.
Israelis should maintain vigilance while abroad and pay attention to their surroundings, the NSC emphasized. Citizens of Israel should also avoid the outward display of Jewish and Israeli symbols and large gatherings of Jewish and Israeli officials.
Finally, the NSC recommends that travelers make sure to learn the phone numbers of local emergency services and of the local Israeli diplomatic representation if there are any.
Please be aware: The period during which Israelis may exit and enter Israel with their valid foreign passport, has been extended by PIBA until 31.12.2024
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/passport_zr_new
Unit: אגף בכיר דוברות, תקשורת והסברה
Publish Date 22.03.2022 Updated date 21.12.2023
South Africa to Arrest Israeli Soldiers Holding Dual Citizenship
There is seemingly no end to #SouthAfrica’s downfall into irrelevance and Jew-hatred. pic.twitter.com/Gt2VsA8npu
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) March 13, 2024
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-13March-2024-South Africa to Arrest Israeli Soldiers Holding Dual Citizenship
There is seemingly no end to #SouthAfrica’s downfall into irrelevance and Jew-hatred.
‘When You Come Home, We’re Going to Arrest You’ |
South Africa to Arrest Israeli Soldiers Holding Dual Citizenship, Foreign Minister Says
IDF soldiers holding dual Israeli-South African citizenship will be subject to immediate arrest, the country’s foreign minister said. The Israeli army is preparing for other that may follow suit
Jonathan Lis and Yaniv Kubovich
13March2024 1:42 pm IST https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-13/ty-article/.premium/south-africa-to-arrest-israeli-soldiers-holding-dual-citizenship-foreign-minister-says/0000018e-36e3-d0ac-a1cf-3ef7f8650000
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor announced this week that IDF soldiers holding South African citizenship would be arrested upon entering the country.
Jews, Get a Gun
Jews, Get a Gun
The Jews of Germany never thought Germans would kill them.
The Jews of The Tree of Life Synagogue never thought an American would kill them
The Jews of the South never thought the Palestinians of Gaza would break through the fence and kill them.They were all… pic.twitter.com/l1hKQo7KGP
— Uri Pilichowski (@RationalSettler) October 30, 2023
Uri Pilichowski-tweet-30October2023-
Jews, Get a Gun
The Jews of Germany never thought Germans would kill them.
The Jews of The Tree of Life Synagogue never thought an American would kill them
The Jews of the South never thought the Palestinians of Gaza would break through the fence and kill them.
They were all wrong.
Antisemites, whether they are Arabs, white supremacist, or any other hater, they are coming to kill the Jews. They might not be able to kill all of us but they’re going to kill some of us. 1,400 of us were just killed because they were Jews.
Whether you live in Israel, America, Europe or some small city in Russia you’ve never heard of before, they’re coming to kill you, me, all of us. Those with the means to protect themselves will hopefully survive the next attack, those without the means to protect themselves have little chance of being spared.
Many people that had a gun in their homes in the South were able to protect themselves when Palestinian terrorists came to their town and house. Those without a gun had little chance.
Guns are muktzeh on Shabbat. I’ve carried a gun for the past five years on Shabbat, both within the Eruv and outside of it. In the back of my mind I doubted whether I was doing the right thing by carrying my gun on Shabbat. After the “Simchat Torah Massacre” I am no longer in doubt.
Ask yourself this question, if antisemites came into your home and you have a gun, you can save yourself and your family, if you don’t have a gun your last thoughts will be regretting not having bought a gun for whatever excuse you’re telling yourself now for not buying a gun.
Don’t be irresponsible. Buy a gun, take lessons and be ready for when the Jew haters come for you.
The latest trend for “Girls Night” among my #Jewish mom friends is heading to the gun range to learn how to fire a Glock for self defense.
I’ve spent my whole life believing my kids would be safer WITHOUT a gun in our home.
But ever since protesters spilled into my…
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) January 21, 2024
The Persian Jewess-tweet-21January2024-The latest trend for Girls Night-The Gun Range
The latest trend for “Girls Night” among my #Jewish mom friends is heading to the gun range to learn how to fire a Glock for self defense.
I’ve spent my whole life believing my kids would be safer WITHOUT a gun in our home.
But ever since protesters spilled into my neighborhood justifying RAPING TEENAGERS as a form of resistance and glorifying BURNING BABIES IN OVENS, my whole world view has shifted.
#NeverAgainIsNow
#BelieveIsraeliWomen
#BringThemHomeNow
Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/4yClmRLeQM
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) November 13, 2023
Mossad Commentary-tweet-13November2023-Israel
Not something you’d see very often 6 months ago, but a pretty normal thing you’d see now.
I know that it’s inconvenient that the Jews are able to fight back but you’re just gonna have to get used to it.
💪✡️🇮🇱🙏 pic.twitter.com/LJnkisXFJy
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) March 14, 2024
Hillel Fuld-tweet-14March2024-Jews are able to fight back
Not something you’d see very often 6 months ago, but a pretty normal thing you’d see now.
I know that it’s inconvenient that the Jews are able to fight back but you’re just gonna have to get used to it.
💪✡️🇮🇱🙏
Does the Z in Gen Z stand for ‘zombies’?
The cruelty of the 18-24 demographic against Jews, and Gazans too, is the ultimate failure of free thought and it will destroy society
Molly Livingstone 21December2023,
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/does-the-z-in-gen-z-stand-for-zombies/
Do you ever think that the Z in Gen Z stands for zombies? ‘Cause I kind of do. Or at least the ones who are pro-Hamas on college campuses, protesting Jewish-owned stores in malls or parading through the streets calling for genocide.
They come together in large groups. All of them are followers. They also don’t moan as much as they scream. However, like a zombie who has been dead and brought back to go after the living world, these Gen Zombies march to the same beat.
After a quick visit to the US and watching them do their thing, styled in their khaffiyas, masked with actual masks, it was clear that they were not only hiding their faces, but the truth. And boy, are these kids angry. I believe the therapy term is “projection.” And for those of us on the outside, it is quite clear that they are projecting the concept of oppression based on social media propaganda and assumptions.
If we think of the zombies like AI, without the I part, then we can see the basic algorithm to their angry madness. There is an oppressor and an oppressed. In America, that was clear for the Black Lives Matter campaign. The copy-paste takes a Western issue in American culture and inflicts it on a Middle Eastern conflict far away from home and definitely far away from reality.
In their version, the Palestinians are the oppressed and the Jews are the oppressor. And it is that simple. They literally see black and white. Which makes it all the more ironic, since that is somehow making this a race issue, and in fact being racists. Anyone who lives in Israel or understands Jewish culture is aware that Jews come in all colors and backgrounds, many kicked out of Arab countries over the last hundreds of years, and Arabs are not all dark-skinned.
The protesters claim a lot of crazy stuff. As I mentioned earlier, they are all followers, so they speak the same messages, one tweet at a time. In my brief encounter I heard the chant:
“Jews are doing genocide…from the river to the sea…,” you know the rest of that statement. Again we hear the zombies’ hypocritical anger. When I saw one of them holding a sign with “Free Palestine,” I made the silly mistake of engaging. In a calm voice, I said, “Yes, free Palestine…free them from Hamas.” My cute quip was quickly met with a barking-like noise from the zombie. Like one of those little lap dogs, which you always know to stay far away from….those dogs are nuts.
Before this war, I was convinced that climate change was humanity’s biggest mistake and would ultimately lead to our demise. Post-October 7th, it is the Gen Zombies who have taken over as #1 in that department. Their cruelty towards Jews and, frankly, to Gazans, is the destruction of society and the ultimate failure of free thought. They have gone from ridding the world of labels, to ridding the world of Jews. They prefer to decimate the world of the only democracy in the Middle East, so that a terrorist organization can run a dictatorship in Palestine.
We said never again.
The zombies say never, say never.
We celebrate life.
The zombies haven’t lived it.
We see the conflict as complicated and stale.
The zombies see it as a commercial between cat videos.
We mourn our dead.
The zombies are already dead.
My words are harsh. Controversial. But they expose the truth that we keep looking for. As Israelis, we are dumbfounded by this generation’s choice to justify raping women, murdering innocent children and kidnapping elderly. I want to go back to when zombies only existed in myths and movies. When the next generation focused on non-binary issues and saving the trees. Where their free thought provoked change, rather than repeating history.
While we bury another fallen soldier, we continue to fight for our freedom, for democracy, for our lives. It breaks us; we will need a ton of therapy, but we are not zombies. We are not the walking dead. While our fallen return to the earth, they become the seeds of change, growing a nation of compassionate strong leaders. The zombies will follow each other to the ends of the earth, before they can end us.
About the Author
Larry David once said, ‘I’m not an inventor. I’m an improver. I improve things that are broken.’ Whether it’s improvisation, comedy sketch, or stand up, Molly Livingstone is improving life in Israel one chuckle at a time, with an honest and hilarious view of the Holy Land.
Why is anyone surprised that a Jew hater is being promoted in the NYC Dept of Education?
Promoting antisemitic Public School Supervisors has been going on for years. Op-ed.
Cindy Grosz / 25December2023 / https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382544
Why is anyone surprised that a Jew hater employed by the New York City Department of Education was not only retained, but is heading to a new job with more responsibility and better benefits.
Last week, Hillcrest High School principal Scott Milczewski, leader in the school where a violent riot broke out attacking a Jewish teacher for attending a pro-Israel rally, announced that he is leaving the Jamaica school for a new job in the city Department of Education bureaucracy.
“It is with mixed emotions that I inform you that I have been offered, and accepted, the position of Director of Teacher Development and Evaluation within the Division of Teaching and Learning,” he wrote in a letter circulated among students, staff and parents.
Milczewski is just the latest in the line of “questionable” administrators that were able to overcome public calls for discipline and termination.
In 2016, I introduced the public to Rushell White, then principal of MS (middle school) 226. Not only did she attack a Jewish teacher, David Possner in a mural displayed on school property, she offended the Hindu community of students as well. Multiple staff members at that time reported to the New York City Department of Education complaints of her “Jew hate” that were well documented and reported by the Parent Advocates organization.
The former teacher’s union chapter leader Zev Angelou of MS 226 was subpoenaed to testify at the 3020-a ( a teacher termination hearing paid for by the Department of Education) of another teacher bullied by White, Clairesa Clay, and his description of the principal included words such as “bully” “pathological liar.”
Today, years later, Rushell White is a Deputy Superintendent overseeing 28,000 students, over 6,000 teachers and staff members, 47 principals and about 56,000 families.
I reported that Queens public school teacher, Lawrence Brenner, was told in 2009 by a controversial principal that “you white teachers are ruining little black children,” and was consistently harassed until Brenner, Jewish, was terminated in a hearing based on questionable evidence submitted by the principal, Antonio K’Tori.
After the firing of Brenner and multiple complaints about PS 15, the school supervised by K’Tori, another teacher sued the NYCDOE and K’Tori for alleged sex harassment in 2014 and that teacher was awarded $500,000. K’Tori was the principal in charge of Simon Watts, the elementary school teacher who was convicted of sexually abusing five of his students and was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013. Civil cases are ongoing by the students and one student, Neveah Thompson won $16 million dollars in 2021 in a civil suit judgment against the city.
But it was Brenner and not not K’Tori who was deemed incompetent to teach.
Why was K’Tori even employed in 2009? The Department of Education had removed K’tori from a Jamaica, Queens, NY school on September 10, 2004. He had been officially charged with a list of infractions including circumventing the school’s lottery system by accepting student applications, purchasing goods from unauthorized vendors and attempting to block special education classes. He was suspended without pay.
Brooklyn middle school principal, Principal Amanda Bueno told staffers in May, 2021, at MS 136 in Brooklyn, “If you have been watching the news in absolute horror, you are not alone.”
She urged teachers and administrators to demand government sanctions against Israel in an email on a school business address.Today, she is a head coach for the Department of Education, overseeing classroom instruction and model lessons.
I’m not surprised and you shouldn’t be either. You should be upset that your hard-earned tax dollars pay for this.
You should be angered by the failing test scores for years under the leadership of these people that the New York City Department of Education hires, maintains and supports with comfortable retirement packages and benefits. It should make you sick to realize this practice of education supervisors promoting antisemitism, racism and discrimination has been rewarded.
Don’t blame COVID. Don’t blame January 6th. Blame a system of biased evaluations for teacher and supervisor tenure, unions that are tied to politicians and a biased media.
For years, politicians representing the communities that these principals oversee schools in have had reading and math scores averaging 30 percent passing based on published reports.
The connection has to be exposed.
There are allegations of funds being stolen and indictments have been handed down.This is just the tip of the iceberg and not limited to New York.
Donald Trump was right in 2016 when he said the Department of Education needs to be diminished and/or eliminated.
And the result? Today we see young men and women protesting about a land they seemed to know few, if any, facts about after about 20 years of indoctrination in schools that are educationally useless.
Israeli Labor Party leader bemoans abandonment by global left
“I fail to see how shouting jihad and calling for a mass murder of Jews is pro-Palestinian,” said Merav Michaeli.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-labor-party-leader-bemoans-abandonment-by-global-left/
(November 14, 2023 / JNS) Merav Michaeli, the head of Israel’s opposition Labor Party, slammed the global political left in an article published on Tuesday for being “complicit” in Hamas’s crimes against humanity.
Speaking to Politico on the sidelines of the Party of European Socialists conference in Spain late last week, Michaeli said she thinks “something very bad is happening on the left.”
“It became very, very clear in this attack that people who consider themselves to be democratic, progressive, are supporting a totalitarian terror regime that oppresses women [and] the LGBTQ+ community,” she claimed.
“It’s important for me to emphasize to them that when you do not very strongly go against Hamas and what it does in Gaza, including to its own people, you are complicit,” continued the Labor leader.
“I fail to see how shouting jihad and calling for a mass murder of Jews is pro-Palestinian,” she said.
According to Michaeli, calling for a ceasefire now is “giving permission to Hamas to continue rearming itself, continue stealing food, water, medicine and fuel from its own people, and yes, rebasing itself.”
At last week’s meeting in Málaga, delegates from France, Ireland and Belgium called for a ceasefire in the fighting against the Gaza-based terror group.
Still, Michaeli reassured that the Jewish state still has some “very strong allies” on the center-left, adding that “the more you go to the left, the more there’s a big mix-up.”
Thunberg skews climate message
More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and thousands wounded in the Oct. 7 murderous attacks by Hamas operatives on southern Israel. In addition, terrorists took some 240 people hostage.
Earlier this week, a Dutchman confronted Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg at a left-wing protest in Amsterdam after she attempted to connect the climate movement with the Palestinians.
“I have come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view,” the man said before being escorted off the stage.
Thunberg, who was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh worn by Hamas terrorists, subsequently led the crowd in a chant of “No climate justice on occupied land.”
As Liberal Jews Feel abandoned by the Left
What’s next?
By ADAM MILSTEIN 10JANUARY2024 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-781583
All Jews agree on one thing…that all Jews never agree. At any Jewish gathering around the world, you’ll hear heated debates on food, religion, culture, and everything in between. Politics are no different, but the debate is louder.
James Baker once said “F*** the Jews, they don’t vote for us.” While perhaps untrue, Baker’s sentiment reflected a historical American Jewish political truism – the Jewish community votes Democrat. Since the early 1990’s, a growing number of Jews have shifted rightward, but the majority of the Jewish-American community reside in the “liberal” camp.
After the October 7th terrorist attack, prior to Israel’s ground operation in Gaza, the true sentiment of the left towards Jews was exposed. Protests on college campuses, airports, freeways, bridges, outside synagogues, and Holocaust museums forced Jewish Americans to face a stark reality. Leftist and their Muslim allies were exposed not only as anti-Israel but as plainly anti-Jewish groups. Mobilizing under a guise of liberation (“From the River to the Sea”), and civil rights (“justice” in Palestine), one thing became increasingly clear – for a large coalition of leftists and Muslims in America, Jews have no right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland and deserve no safety anywhere.
Liberal Jews’ residence among American leftists is now in peril.
The Shock
Historically and for good reason, Jews have been fixated on the antisemitism from the far right as our greatest threat. This focus on antisemitism’s political affiliation left us vulnerable. We have virtually ignored the growing warning signs of antisemitism from the Islamo-leftist camp. After all, Jews were an integral part of the left. In the name of Tzedek (Justice), we’ve marched with every marginalized community throughout American history. Yet, on October 7th, 2023, we marched alone. As our women had blood dripping down their legs, women’s rights groups didn’t express any outrage. They stood silent. As our children were identified by their ashes, children’s rights organizations were nowhere to be found. And as our civilians were brutalized, all human, civil, and LGBTQ+ rights didn’t march, didn’t organize, and didn’t protest. On the contrary – they stood with the attackers.
In the wake of October 7th, American Jews were left speechless. The wakeup call has been loud. The Jewish political home, the American left, turns a blind eye to war crimes and to the sexual mutilation of women, children and men when the victims are Jews. It has become evidently clear that in leftist spaces, the American Jew is dehumanized as a mere “oppressor”, an “Occupier”, a “Colonialist”, “White privileged”, and “Apartheid” supporter. Compassion for the deep trauma Jews sustained was nowhere to be found.
One must wonder, if killing Jews and raping women in Israel is ‘just’ and legitimate under the guise of a victim using ‘resistance by any means necessary’, what prevents our enemies from committing the same crimes in America? And where can liberal Jews find a political home?
The Evolution
Jewish-Americans, motivated by our people’s values, traditions and history, gravitated to the political left in America. With an emphasis on Tikkun Olam, American Jews embraced a critical role in social justice movements throughout history. Our commitment to ‘repair the world’ found common cause with social movements on the left, solidifying the Jewish liberal alignment.
We memorialize female ancestors like Deborah, who personified courage as the “woman of torches”. And we lionize Esther who taught of female strength and resilience and Ruth who embodied integrity and diligence. Guided by these matriarchs, Jews across the nation fought for women’s rights and Jewish women like Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug led the feminist movement.
Our scripture mandates us to advocate for the marginalized – “what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a). Embedded in Jewish tradition is the notion that all man is “created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). Just as Abraham didn’t turn anyone from his tent, Jews fought for the rights of Black Americans. Jews helped establish the NAACP in 1909. And in 1965, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel embodied the Jewish community’s collective support for civil rights as he marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma.
In 1967, Rabbis joined Cesar Chavez and urged Kosher communities to only support union grapes as the non-union grapes were forbidden as Oshek. The Jewish community continued its activism throughout the 2020 marches for Black lives and then again in 2021 to stop Asian hate.
Jewish Americans have served as indispensable allies, leaders, and activists on issues of human dignity, civil rights, and progress throughout American history. This allyship with the left was presumed to be reciprocal. October 7th changed everything.
The Reality Check
In recent years, Critical Race Theory (CRT), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement carved out large pieces within the left’s agenda. Many liberal Jews have supported these developments believing that they’re the next phase of a long tradition of liberal activism. They were mistaken, no allyship with CRT, DEI, and BLM will protect them. Jews who tirelessly fight for acceptance and admittance in the intersectionality coalition will remain disappointed. We are not welcome.
Enamored with the seemingly laudable goals of DEI: to promote the representation, participation, and fair treatment of historically marginalized groups, liberal Jews ignored DEI promoters, and CRT advocates, as they advanced a radical agenda to fundamentally undermine American values. For years they have been promoting equality of outcome over equality of opportunity, collective identity (race, gender, etc.) over individual character, censorship of opposing viewpoints over freedom of speech, and a “victimhood Olympics” culture that crudely bifurcates society into oppressors and oppressed.
Liberal Jews failed to recognize how CRT and DEI initiatives, and intersectional theory would be weaponized against them. And today, we see how Jewish students are maliciously portrayed as wanton oppressors and colonialist abettors. American universities who fully adopted these doctrines are now hotbeds of antisemitism due to embedded leftist orthodoxy.
The Next Steps
So, where do liberal Jews go from here?
The “October 8th Jew” as Bret Stephens coined it, recognizes their home as a centrist. The October 8th Jew knows that the extreme left, like the extreme right before it, is no political home. The October 8th Jew is united in the mission to fight enemies of America, who always come first for the Jews. “Never again” must be backed by action and Jewish unity.
First, no more blind voting for Democrats or Republican for the sake of historical precedent. All Jews, including liberal Jews, must adopt a litmus test for candidates and support only those determined to fight antisemitism and support the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Second, pull support from organizations and academic institutions that promote the erasure of Jewish suffering and tacitly endorse Jew-hatred.
And finally, unite and support American organizations that protect and promote equality and inclusion rather than division and an ideology that aims to destroy Jewish life and American values.
Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American “Venture Philanthropist.” He can be reached at adam@milsteinff.org, on Twitter @AdamMilstein, and on Facebook www.facebook.com/AdamMilsteinCP.
This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Dan Diker.
Make Never Again – Never Again
“Never again” happened again – a holocaust not in Europe but in Eretz Yisrael. How can that be?! What did we really mean by “never again”?
David Ben Horin Posted on 26November2023 https://breslev.com/4074472/
How can we make sure that the clarion call “Never again!” is permanent?
Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman said, “The Jews in Europe declared war on Hashem. Now, He has declared war on them. That’s why He’s sending His armies against them.” (Parshat Noach, 5783 by Rabbi Avigdor Miller) [Editor’s Note: Further examples of what prompted Hashem’s war can be found in Rabbi Miller’s book A Divine Madness.]
To guarantee that there won’t be another Kristallnacht, Auschwitz, or Gaza, we must swallow the hard truth:
Before each of these catastrophes, we were in open rebellion against God.
Holocaust #1
Throughout the 1930s, every European Jewish town had socialists, communists, and nationalists actively rebelling against the Rabbis. We asked to be Soviets. We asked to be Germans. We asked to be protected by the head of the Communist Party and the leader of Germany. They rebelled against the Torah. They told Hashem that they wanted nothing to do with Him.
So, on Kristallnacht, God gave us what we wanted.
Holocaust #2
For all of 5783, every motzei Shabbat, we gathered to tell our Father that He isn’t welcome on His Land. We did it with immorality, injustice, and violence. These are the three abominations that Hashem calls in the Torah “hamas” (המס). For an entire year we told God that we prefer Sodomite flags, locking up the religious, and beating up people for praying on Yom Kippur rather than loyalty to Him and His Torah.
We asked for “hamas”, and Hashem gave us Hamas.
All those demonstrations for “democracy” were nothing more than a cover for the real reason: They didn’t want the religious assuming power. The current government is the first one in the history of Israel to be 50% religious. So, for the first time in modern Israeli history, there were massive demonstrations against a democratically elected leadership.
In truth, the protests were against God and His Torah – our Torah. The preparations for these weekly rebellions were made during Shabbat. In essence, we told God that we preferred “hamas” to His holy day.
So, on Shabbat-Simchat Torah, He let us have it.
What’s the Message?
Our generation will have to live with the trauma of Oct 7. We will go about our lives fearing that it can happen again anywhere and anytime.
What our parent’s generation went through – the dread that another Holocaust might whisk them away to a horrible death – is what we are going through right now.
For 75 years, when we shouted, “Never Again!” the world said “Amen.”
Today, when we say, “Never Again!”, the world says something else.
Only Hashem can protect us. We have to embrace Him.
We didn’t in 1933.
We didn’t in 2023.
We must stop saying “Never Again!” to Hashem and His Torah! We must return to Hashem right now. We must actively petition our government to return Torah to Israel. We must tell God that we want Him in our country. We must tell Hashem that we want our country to be forever His country.
God will destroy our enemy nations:
But My people did not heed My voice and Israel did not desire Me.
So, I let them follow their heart’s fantasies, I let them follow their own counsels.
If only My nation would heed Me, if Israel would walk in My ways.
In an instant I would subdue their foes and against their tormentors turn My hand. (Psalm 81:12-15)
Hashem will never let anyone harm His people. He will never let a foreigner harass His nation – as long as we declare ourselves His nation by serving Him according to His law. This is how “never again” will truly be – never again.
***
David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
Rising Antisemitism
Unbridled hatred for the Jewish people is being unleashed around the world. We say in the Nishmat prayer on Shabbat, “In all times of trouble and distress, we have no king, helper, supporter but You“. Only Hashem can protect His children.
Kalever Rebbe | Posted on 22November2023 | https://breslev.com/4073465/?_atscid=2_92797_86200982_4969218_0_Tawxttjaeucshh8uw
“Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my way prosper.” (Bereishit 24:56)
Antisemitism Unleashed
An unbridled hatred for the Jewish people is being unleashed around the world. Each of these haters can simply grab a knife or other weapon and attack a Jew. There are also masses of well-armed terrorists who want to destroy the Jewish people.
With the rising hatred and thirst for violence, it would be natural for there to have been many more attacks, chas v’shalom, against the Jews. Truthfully, there are many individuals who are constantly planning to attack us. They even make all the preparations. Hashem, however, foils their sinister plots and protects the Jews.
We are completely unaware of the countless times the Jewish people were in grave danger and Hashem saved us.
Foiled Plots
During the days of the Chozeh from Lublin, zt”l, there was one minister who passionately hated the Jews in his town, and he wanted to kill the local Rabbi.
The minister knew that the Rabbi woke up very early in the morning and that he would walk to shul in the dark. So, he devised a plan. One night, he asked his servant to dig a deep pit on the path that the rabbi would walk in the following morning, figuring that, in the darkness, the rabbi would not see the pit and would fall in, plummeting to the bottom.
However, Hashem intervened. That same night, a prestigious and wise guest visited the rabbi. They were engrossed in a deep Torah conversation as the hours ticked by. Finally, they retired for the evening far later than the rabbi was accustomed to. The following morning, the rabbi woke up a little later than usual and walked to shul while it was light. Seeing the pit, he simply walked around the dangerous obstacle.
When the minister learned the details about what had happened, he said: “Now I must praise the greatness of the Jews’ God! He is the Omnipresence that controls the events of this world. His Divine Providence protects His beloved children, the Jewish people. He saves them from dangers that they don’t even know about!”
When the Chozeh, zt”l, heard this story, he said: “The pasuk in Tehillim (117:1-2) says, ‘Praise the Lord, all gentiles, laud Him, all nations. For His kindness has overwhelmed us!’ Why do the non-Jews praise Hashem for the kindness that has “overwhelmed” the Jews, and not the Jews themselves? After hearing this story, I know the answer. When the pasuk describes this chessed, this kindness, it is referring to the Jews being saved from being harmed by the non-Jews. Only the non-Jews know how many of their wicked plots were foiled by Hashem and how many times Hashem has saved us, while those for whom these miracles occurred do not know that they happened.”
Hidden Miracles
During Nishmat – which we pray on Shabbat morning – we say: “in all times of trouble and distress, we have no king, helper, supporter but You“.
R’ Nosson Dovid from Shidlovtza, zt”l, explained that you need to divide this phrase into two ideas. First, we say that we understand that “in all times [there is] trouble and distress”, we are constantly at risk of being harmed at the hands of those who want to annihilate us, even when it isn’t publicized that we were living in “a time of trouble.” And therefore – we continue to say – we understand and acknowledge that “we have no king, helper, support but You”, because no other king can protect his people from the hidden dangers that surround them.
In fact, there is another more subtle miracle. Even when the non-Jewish governments and law enforcement officers uncover and, therefore, foil a terrorist attack, that is also a miracle; it goes against the natural order of the world. Those nations of the world don’t like the Jewish people. However, when they intervene on our behalf, saving the Jewish people from an attack, it is solely because Hashem inspires their hearts to help the Jews. As the pasuk says (Mishlei 21:1), “A king’s heart is like rivulets of water in the Lord’s hand; wherever He wishes, He turns it”.
On a Short Leash
R’ Yitzchak from Volozhin related that when he went to Nicholas, the Russian Czar, to lobby for the Jews, he noticed that in the palace there were large dogs that were natural predators. Whenever someone entered the chambers to meet with the Czar, the dogs would approach the visitor and gently lick their feet.
He asked one of the dog’s trainers, “How did you teach these animals to forgo their natural predatory behaviors?”
The caretaker explained that when the dog was chained to a leash, he felt that he was not free to do as he pleases. Therefore, the animal can control its natural tendencies. If the dog were unleashed, it would attack and devour the person.
The Gaon from Volozhin then explained, that the same can be said regarding how the Kingdom of Heaven oversees the Jewish people. The natural tendency of the world’s non-Jewish kings is to devour the Jewish people. The Jews are described as being a lamb surrounded by seventy wolves. When we see one of these nations acting benevolently towards the Jewish people and serving their interests, it is because those kings have been shackled and leashed by Hashem. If Hashem were to unleash them, they would immediately begin issuing harsh and evil decrees against the Jews.
Don’t be Afraid
This helps us understand the episode in Parshat Chayei Sarah that described the shidduch between Yitzchak and Rivkah:
Betuel was a king that ruled over an evil nation that despised Avraham Avinu. They wanted to kill his servant, Eliezer. Therefore, he poisoned Eliezer’s food. However, an angel came and switched the bowls of food. And, as the Midrash elaborates, Betuel ate the poisoned food instead and died. Eliezer was saved.
Immediately afterwards, her brother Lavan and her mother tried to postpone Rivkah’s journey to Avraham’s house. They feared that she would be harmed by the Jew-haters. However, Eliezer reassured them saying, “Do not delay me… ” Don’t worry about the Jew-haters, because you just witnessed that “the Lord has made my way prosper” – Hashem is the one who has made my journey successful. I naturally should not have been saved from that danger. I didn’t even know that there was a plot to poison me. Therefore, you don’t need to be worried about the Jew-haters, because Hashem will always protect His people.
***
The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. Sign up at www.kaalov.org.
Why is There Antisemitism?
Why do they hate Jews? Why does “equality and justice for all” and women’s rights and more apply to everyone – except Jews?
Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 22December2023 | https://breslev.com/4079704/
As I touched on in my previous article The Shocking Truth, the antisemitism that has reared its ugly head around the world in response to the current war in Gaza has reached previously unheard-of levels.
If you haven’t figured it out already, you can’t convince these people. They don’t want the truth; they don’t care about the truth!
Of course, there are some clueless people out there, but the stark reality of the genocide of Oct. 7 pushes people to choose sides. In fact, Rabbi Arush said that is one of the purposes of this war! Those that were not sure before where truth and good lies, and which side is evil, saw it plain and clear before their eyes. If at this point, they still don’t get it – they aren’t going to get it.
I’ve said since the beginning of the war that as we prove without a shadow of a doubt that Hamas broke international law a hundred different ways, the antisemites won’t care and won’t change their minds – their rationalizations will just get more and more ludicrous.
And that’s what we’ve indeed seen so far. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I see a comment that Jews aren’t descendants from Abraham, or that Jews are an “invented race.” Or a recent post that Jesus was Palestinian which was made fun of by the official Israel feed… All those terror tunnels – 1,500 that the IDF has uncovered thus far – the IDF built those in 1982! Or the videos were faked! Oh, and the videos from Oct. 7 were faked too, just to justify the “Israeli colonizers” to go after another “Gaza genocide.”
For sure these outrageous claims by antisemites are classic psychopathic gaslighting. But this is still the sad reality – a good chunk of this world is living in total delusions against God, and His people.
The million-dollar question is: WHY?
Someone asked Rabbi Arush on a recent Q&A video why so many people aren’t changing their minds after seeing the videos of Oct. 7. He answered simply: “They are against God, who is Truth. They don’t want the truth. The problem is inside them, so no matter how much truth you show them, it won’t help, the lies will come right back to them.”
That’s exactly it: Jews represent God. God is holy, and each and every Jew is holy!
We represent truth, and goodness. We are God’s nation, God’s people. We learn and teach the Torah, which is God’s Eternal wisdom and truth. Jewish law is God’s law!
And they don’t want that. The same liberalism that promotes equality, also promotes the freedom to do anything you want, so long as it doesn’t hurt someone else. But the reality of God negates that, because if there is a God who created you – then not only do you have a purpose in life, but you must now also follow His rules.
The reality is that the rules and regulations and laws of the Torah actually serve to reign in the lusts of the body and confusions of the mind. Torah laws give a human a fighting chance to reach up to Godliness, which is our purpose in life – instead of wallowing in muck. Without keeping Torah, a person isn’t free – they are a slave to their bodies, instead of the body serving the soul.
Of course, they don’t understand that – they want the freedom to commit every abomination and immoral act in the book, without consequences, without morality, without conscience. The very existence of even one single Jew in the world negates that, even if that Jew never says a word to anyone.
(PS The Kalever Rebbe also discusses this topic in his article The “Progressive” Culture? – I highly recommend you check it out!)
The Hidden Message
I would like to posit that there is an even deeper message behind this irrational refusal to care about facts, truth, and reality.
Rabbi Arush’s teachings are based on spiritual laws. Just like there are physical laws like gravity, so too, there are spiritual laws.
One of the laws that Hashem uses to run the world is called midda k’neged midda – measure for measure, tit-for-tat. For instance, someone who has mercy on others – Hashem has mercy on him – and the opposite, G-d forbid.
One aspect of this is that we can understand His messages because He does to us what we are doing to others, in order for us to understand our mistakes and repent.
Hence, if antisemites are stubbornly refusing to recognize the truth – then it must be that in some way, the Jewish people are also stubbornly refusing to recognize the truth! Both on a communal, and individual, level.
Just take a minute to contemplate that, with all of its ramifications.
And I challenge you to decide to do one thing differently because of it.
That being said, thank G-d! One of the miracles of the last couple months is that Jews now are starting to get it, starting to realize that if they hate us for being Jews–maybe we should go find out what being Jewish really is?
Because they want to kill us no matter what we wear, with or without a kippah, regardless of our political or religious opinions.
Update: If you still aren’t convinced of just how clear and present the danger is to Jews in America, journalist Ami Horowitz spoke to 35 random students on a left-leaning campus. 80% of them supported killing Jews around the world, specifically hitting soft targets like schools and synagogues. 50% were willing to put money towards the cause. Not one pushed back. Watch for yourself.
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
Dear world: I don’t care
I don’t care if you’re out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans. We won’t die silently the way you want us to
Avi Lewis 30October2023, 12:43 PM https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-world-i-dont-care/
I don’t care that you sympathize with Hamas.
I know you wouldn’t tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would’ve done it to you.
I don’t care that you’re outraged by Israel’s response to the massacre more than the massacre itself.
I know you would do everything to eliminate such pure evil if you experienced it yourself.
I don’t care that this doesn’t fit neatly into your carefully constructed narrative of ‘Israel as aggressor’ and ‘Palestinian as victim.’
The truth hurts sometimes, but hey, don’t let facts get in the way of your feelings.
I don’t care if you think we are at fault, that we had it coming, that Hamas’ actions’ didn’t occur in a vacuum (or to deny they ever happened).
If you feel that the poster of a kidnapped child hurts your cause, maybe yours is a lost cause.
I don’t care about your calls for a premature ceasefire, about your demand that we provide them with electricity, that we stop fighting for ‘humanitarian reasons.’
What of a humanitarian gesture to release our 230+ hostages – elderly, children, babies – snatched from their cribs?
I don’t care that you’ve rallied for Palestine as part of your march for LGBTQ rights, trans rights, workers rights, socialism, climate change, intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, fighting Islamaphobia and ‘all forms of racism.’
Your gullibility would be laughable if it wasn’t so hypocritical. None of those things exist under Hamas.
I don’t care that you ‘love Jewish people – just hate Israel’, that you have some friends that are Jewish, that maybe you’re ethnically Jewish yourself – and therefore you’re entitled to levy every libel in the playbook against us.
Words matter. They lead to actions. When a lie is repeated often enough it’s accepted as truth. You are laying the groundwork for more attacks against us.
I don’t care that you wave the flag of ‘human rights’, that you’ve become overnight experts in international law, that you shout fancy slogans you don’t understand such as proportionality, occupation and apartheid.
Your humanity is selective. In your mind, human rights don’t apply to us because we are undeserving. You didn’t speak up when our women and children were horribly assaulted.
I don’t care if you think we are colonialists, imperialists and settlers and that we should just go back to where we came from.
We are back to where we came from.
I don’t care if you believe in a one-state solution, a two-state solution, a federation, an internationalized Jerusalem or any other theory drawn up in your ivory tower.
We won’t readily hold out our necks and endanger our lives in order to satisfy your thought experiments and placate your conscience from afar.
I don’t care if you consider yourself anti-Zionist but not antisemitic.
We’ve seen enough Jews around the world attacked over the last 3 weeks under the guise of ‘anti-Zionism’.
I don’t care that you think we are too powerful, too technologically advanced, too sophisticated.
If we didn’t build ourselves up to this point we’d get eaten alive by Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Iran and Palestinian terrorism.
I don’t care that you blame us for 1948 refugees, for the fact that they have no state, for the keys that they wave in their fantasy of ‘right of return.’
Three weeks ago we got a glimpse of what that ‘return’ looks like and what it means for our children.
I don’t care if you think we aren’t real Jews, that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, that Jews are a religion and not a nationality and so we deserve no state.
Your denials have zero impact on the strength of our ideals and the self-affirmation of our identity.
I don’t care that you accuse us of flaunting the myriad UN resolutions, inquiries and statements.
They reflect more on the institutional decay of the UN than on us.
I don’t care about your media coverage, the lies, the equivocation, the acceptance of Hamas talking points and statistics.
Your echo chamber is just another weapon in their strategic arsenal.
I don’t care that you accused us of bombing the Al Ahli hospital.
It was only a matter of time before you found a symbol for Israel’s wickedness. The subsequent retractions were a fig leaf once the truth emerged that Islamic Jihad was responsible and that the hospital is still standing.
I don’t care that you see us as a criminal state, a terror state, usurpers, baby killers, Christ-killers, Khaybar Jews or any other depravity that exists in your mind.
Your libels lay the groundwork for our dehumanization. Rings a bell. We will fight it.
I don’t care that you’ve inverted the truth by accusing us of genocide.
If positions were reversed and Hamas held the power we do now, you’d see what a genocide looks like.
I don’t care that you’re angry, boiling and outraged.
I don’t care that you’re glued to your TV screens and Telegram channels.
I don’t care that you’re mad.
I don’t care if you’re out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans.
We won’t die silently the way you want us to.
For the first time in 2,000 years we are organized, we are motivated and we will defend ourselves.
We fight for light over darkness,
Morality over evil.
Not that it matters to you – but we will stick to the rules and hold the high moral ground not because you expect it from us, but because they are a value for us.
We will do so ethically and thoughtfully, for we are the People of the Book.
Our power and strength are a necessity because the alternative for us is:
Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Pittsburgh, Toulouse, Farhud, Hebron, Birkenau, Belzec, Babi Yar, Kristalnacht, Kielce and Kishinev.
Do you think for a moment that we would return to that reality just to make you feel a little better?
You are deeply mistaken…
World,
For so, so long, I really, deeply cared.
I cared about fitting in;
I cared about what you think;
I cared about being a model citizen;
I cared about setting a personal example of how a tiny people in a tough neighborhood could still be a Light unto the Nations.
How the world’s oldest minority – now a majority here – could treat its own internal minorities par excellence amidst the complicated and messy reality of ethnic conflict;
How we could painfully dismember parts of our homeland and offer them on the platter of peace to Palestinians that want neither peace nor some parts (they want all of it);
How we could dazzle you with USB sticks, drip irrigation, operating system kernels, Nobel Prize winners, swallowable medical cameras, deep tech, quantum mechanics, generative AI and cures for disease.
But now I’m finally accepting that you don’t care.
You never did.
You don’t see and you don’t hear.
And because I cared about what you think so much, that so deeply hurts.
But you don’t have my best interests at heart.
You take issue with my base identity, with what I represent.
Don’t expect me to wait for your approval this time.
It doesn’t matter what I do, you’re not going to change.
It doesn’t matter how I act, because your issue is with who I am.
Now I’m going to block out your noise and do what it takes to win this war.
Today
Finally
I no longer care
About the Author
Avi was formerly a news writer at the Times of Israel. Originally from Australia, he served in the IDF and today works in Israel’s thriving Hi Tech sector in Tel Aviv. He lives near Modi’in with wife and 3 kids
JerusalemCats Comments: So You think your safe outside of the Land of Israel?
NYC On “High Alert” For “Lone Wolves” After Hamas Attack On Israel
by Tyler Durden, 11October2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyc-high-alert-lone-wolves-after-hamas-attacked-israel
New York City was placed on “high alert” Tuesday by New York Mayor Eric Adams, who told law-abiding residents not to “underestimate” the threat from lone-wolf terrorists who have been radicalized by Hamas.
“We cannot let our guards down,” said Adams.
The announcement comes as Israel prepares to turn parts of the Gaza Strip into “rubble” following the terrorist attack.
New Yorkers should not “underestimate” the threat from lone-wolf style terrorists who have been radicalized by Hamas online, warned New York Mayor Eric Adams, as the horror of the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to send shockwaves around the world.
Speaking at a press conference, the Democrat may have warned the city to be on guard, saying: “Don’t underestimate lone wolves…people being radicalized online.”
He added that messaging social media sites – where Hamas has shared horrific footage of Saturday’s attack on Israel – can motivate people to carry out similar attacks.
Authorities in New York are paying “special attention” to communities of Hasidic Jews in the Big Apple while monitoring social media sites, he said. –Daily Express
Adams’ comments come days after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel over the weekend, in which more than 1,800 people have been killed on both sides.
Making matters worse for NYC’s Jewish population, which, outside of Israel is the largest in the world, has been disastrous border policies pushed by Democrats which have allowed a steady stream of illegal migrants to enter the country – most of whom are unvetted.
Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.’s Democratic Socialists of America party led pro-Palestinian rallies in Times Square after the Hamas attack.
Perhaps the FBI will be forced to do its job instead of targeting enemies of the Democrat party?
Just few days ago, terrorists slaughtered, maimed, kidnapped, and raped thousands of Israeli civilians.
The VERY NEXT DAY, thousands are marching in New York streets IN SUPPORT OF the terrorists.
“FREE PALESTINE” carries a hidden message of “Kill the Jews.”
Perhaps you should…
— BitcoinAgile (@bitcoinagile) October 10, 2023
UPDATE:
NYPD Calls for Level Three Mobilization Amidst Numerous Large Riots Between Pro-Hamas Rioters and Police
Pro-Hamas, not Pro-Palestine
Rioters, not Protesters
Large Riot, not Large Protest https://t.co/nEq7GeRZzd
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) December 26, 2023
Richard Goldberg-tweet-26December2023-NYPD Calls for Level Three Mobilization Amidst Numerous Large Riots Between Pro-Hamas Rioters and Police
Pro-Hamas, not Pro-Palestine
Rioters, not Protesters
Large Riot, not Large Protest
R A W S A L E R T S -tweet-25December2023
🚨#BREAKING: NYPD Calls for Level Three Mobilization Amidst Numerous Fights Between Pro-Palestine Protesters and Police at a Large Protest
📌#Manhattan l #NewYork
Currently, the New York Police Department has requested a Level Three mobilization for a large protest that is taking place in Midtown Manhattan, where Pro-Palestine protesters are reportedly engaging in fights with the police. Numerous altercations have broken out between the two resulting in reported injuries to multiple officers. The extent of the injuries is currently unknown at this time. Police have also Reportedly made multiple arrests
New York City supports Hamas terror
A NYC club known as The End is holding an “Intifada Fundraver,” glorifying the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
In promoting the event, https://t.co/aGjk9sBw5M Instagram account features a video of Hamas terrorists bulldozing the Gaza Strip border wall before… pic.twitter.com/2mSNszfcHG
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 15, 2023
This is in New York City.
It’s an open call to murder Jewish babies.
We have seen this before.
Pro-Hamas = Pro-Holocaust pic.twitter.com/WmDxYVNz9t
— Rabbi S Litvin (@BluegrassRabbi) March 11, 2024
Rabbi S Litvin-tweet-11March2024-open call to murder Jewish babies
This is in New York City.
It’s an open call to murder Jewish babies.
We have seen this before.
Pro-Hamas = Pro-Holocaust
NYPD told Eli Wiesel’s Son to Hide Israeli flag at Protest
Told to Hide Israeli flag at Protest, Eli Wiesel’s Son Complies
19December2023 | Ticker, Virtual Jerusalem |
https://virtualjerusalem.com/told-to-hide-israeli-flag-at-protest-eli-wiesels-son-complies/
Elisha Wiesel’s Stand Against Antisemitism: A Voice in Turbulent Times, Upholding Father’s Legacy in Tense New York City Confrontation
Elisha Wiesel, son of the late Elie Wiesel, a renowned Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, recently found himself in a tense situation during a protest in New York City. At this event, organized by Within Our Lifetime, Wiesel was advised by NYPD to remove his Israeli flag amidst a crowd of about 500 Hamas supporters, citing safety concerns. This incident has brought Wiesel’s activism and his stance against antisemitism into the spotlight.
Wiesel, continuing his father’s legacy, has become a significant voice advocating against antisemitism and for the state of Israel. Reflecting on the incident, Wiesel expressed his experience via Twitter: “500 Hamas supporters shouting slogans surrounded us. I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me. The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as the situation was getting dangerous”.
Video of the Penn Station incident. 500 Hamas supporters shouting slogans surrounded us. I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me. The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as situation was getting dangerous. pic.twitter.com/mr9Hb0k87Z
— Elisha Wiesel (@ElishaWiesel) December 18, 2023
Elisha Wiesel-tweet-18December2023-Elisha Weisel and Hamas Terrorist
Video of the Penn Station incident. 500 Hamas supporters shouting slogans surrounded us. I put on an Israeli flag I carry with me. The cowards hid behind their masks. NYPD insisted I remove the flag as situation was getting dangerous.
In his advocacy, Wiesel has often emphasized the importance of Israel as a safeguard against potential future atrocities against the Jewish people. He has said, “My father saw Israel as the only guarantee against a second Holocaust” and stressed that “hate is a stain that is hard to wash out”. His views echo the sentiments of his father, who was not only a witness to the horrors of the Holocaust but also a passionate supporter of Israel.
Wiesel’s public addresses have highlighted the continual threats posed by antisemitism and the need for vigilance. He has remarked on the historical and current situation in Gaza, stating, “When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, the hope truly was that with the help of the U.S., the European Union, and the U.N. and Russia, Gaza would become a thriving demilitarized country, powered by tourism, economically tied, to Israel, a new chance”.
Elisha Wiesel’s involvement in these recent events and his subsequent remarks are a testament to his commitment to combating antisemitism and supporting Israel. His actions and words resonate with the enduring legacy of his father and highlight the ongoing relevance of these issues in today’s world.
Canadian Jews time to Pack your Bags and make Aliyah
“Settlers, settlers, go back home!” “We’re going to kill all your kids!” Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters blocked the entrance to an event by IDF reservists at Montreal’s Holocaust Museum. In Nazi Germany, the Jews were also told to “go back home” (ironically, to Israel).… pic.twitter.com/BR5twduw7r
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) March 5, 2024
Canary Mission-tweet-5March2024-Hamas supporters block Montreal’s Holocaust Museum
“Settlers, settlers, go back home!” “We’re going to kill all your kids!” Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters blocked the entrance to an event by IDF reservists at Montreal’s Holocaust Museum. In Nazi Germany, the Jews were also told to “go back home” (ironically, to Israel). https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-790305
Hamas in Toronto
A Jewish mum just dropped off her toddler at a public daycare in Ontario.
The daycare supervisor was wearing a keffiyeh.
Imagine dropping your Jewish 3-year-old off at public school, and the person responsible for their care was wearing a Swastika.
That’s what just… pic.twitter.com/MvOKaivBkr
— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) April 24, 2024
dahlia kurtz-tweet-24April2024-Hamas running public daycare in Ontario
A Jewish mum just dropped off her toddler at a public daycare in Ontario.
The daycare supervisor was wearing a keffiyeh.
Imagine dropping your Jewish 3-year-old off at public school, and the person responsible for their care was wearing a Swastika.
That’s what just happened.
@Sflecce @brianlilley
Good morning Toronto!
Just another day with an open call for violence against Jews.What is it that people think globalize the intifada means? pic.twitter.com/BZTXUMPC1d
— Ariella (tortured poet version) (@ariellakimmel) March 5, 2024
Israel will spare no expense in hunting down these Hamas supporters that are putting up these Posters calling to kill the Jews. There are consequences for your actions. You will get to visit Yasser Arafat and Osama Bin Laden. Remember the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre aftermath.
— Yakov Butterfield (@JerusalemCats) March 7, 2024
Ariella-tweet-5March2024-open call for violence against Jews in Toronto
Good morning Toronto!
Just another day with an open call for violence against Jews.
What is it that people think globalize the intifada means?
Ahuvah Berger-Burcat-tweet-6March2024-If you support this poster
If you post this, or support this poster – then don’t come crying when you fuck around and find out.
Xin Yang-tweet-Hamas Poster in Toronto
Outside the courthouse on University Ave
JerusalemCats-tweet-7March2024-Israel will hunt down these Hamas supporters
Israel will spare no expense in hunting down these Hamas supporters that are putting up these Posters calling to kill the Jews. There are consequences for your actions. You will get to visit Yasser Arafat and Osama Bin Laden. Remember the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre aftermath.
A GENERAL WARNING TO THE JEWISH PUBLIC and A Purim Lesson for Simchat Torah
1 Marcheshvan 5784 15October2023 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-general-warning-to-jewish-public.html
Rosh Chodesh Bet
A GENERAL WARNING TO THE JEWISH PUBLIC
Every Christian and missionary organization is hoping to capitalize on the crisis situation in Israel in order to push their man-god idolatry onto Jews. I wish I had the room here to name all the names and show you how much money they have already collected in “donations” to “help Israel.” [One prominent group actually living in Shomron is trying to raise 29 million dollars]. But anyway we don’t want to give them the publicity.
They are talking amongst themselves about the great opportunity this presents to give gifts to Jews in the name of their man-god while they are feeling most vulnerable and hope they will think kindly toward that false religion as a result.
It is forbidden to accept these gifts, even in the name of pikuach nefesh. The supplies on offer are also being provided by Jewish sources, so if you feel the need of them, you must go to a fellow Jew for those items and take nothing from the Christians. It would be a chillul Hashem because they report back to their followers how the Jews do not take care of each other and how it is left to them to do it as an act of Christian kindness.
Their “love and kindness” is a poison. It’s a sham and a spiritual crime deserving of the death penalty al pi halachah. HKB”H can provide all your needs through acceptable avenues. If He doesn’t provide it, you don’t need it.
A Purim Lesson for Simchat Torah
Since the murderous bloody massacre of our people on Shabbat-Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, I’ve seen a particular phrase used over and over in shocked awe: “They [Hamas] killed men and women as well as babies and old people.”
That echoed in my mind.
“…to destroy, kill, and cause to perish all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, on one day….” (Megillat Esther)
“…in every province, wherever the king’s orders and his edict reached, there was great mourning for the Jews, and fasting and weeping and lamenting; sackcloth and ashes were put on the most prominent.” (Megillat Esther
“…the Jews be ready for that day, to avenge themselves upon their enemies.” (Megillat Esther)
This is the Jewish response to this kind of threat. Sadly, the warning has come too late for so many.
With hopes and prayers for better days and good news…
~ CHODESH TOV ~
We are letting them do it to us again
Dear European Jews in the 30s,
I owe you an apology. For the last 40 years, I’ve accused you of being blind, and quite frankly, stupid!
I’ve said it thousands of times.
“Why didn’t they get out? How did they not see the writing on the wall? Were they that comfortable and… pic.twitter.com/ld91X4WQ6x
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) April 25, 2024
Hillel Fuld-tweet-25April2024-We are letting them do it to us again
Dear European Jews in the 30s,
I owe you an apology. For the last 40 years, I’ve accused you of being blind, and quite frankly, stupid!
I’ve said it thousands of times.
“Why didn’t they get out? How did they not see the writing on the wall? Were they that comfortable and assimilated that they really believed it’d be ok? And even if they believed that, when Germany started legislating against Jews, how was THAT not enough of a sign to get out??”
For years, I thought you were weak. I thought you were led to the gas chambers like sheep to the slaughter.
For years, I thought that your mistakes could never be repeated again. I thought we, the Jewish nation, would surely see the writing on the wall.
I said Never Again and deep down, I thought it would never happen again, because WE, the Jewish people would never let it happen again.
“We are not as weak as they were”, I told myself.
And now I have to say, I’m sorry. I didn’t understand you until about a month or two ago when I realized that I was wrong about you.
More precisely, I was wrong about us.
It could happen again. The Jewish people WOULD let it happen again. We ARE letting it happen again.
Antisemites in the United States congress? Yep.
Pop stars declaring their love for Hitler? Uh huh
Banning Jews from entering educational institutions? Sadly that happened too.
Jews being assaulted and beaten in the streets? Yep, so that’s now a thing.
Mass antisemitic marches across America? We are there…
Jews women being raped and murdered just because they are a Jew? Can’t believe I’m saying this but yea, that too.
So, my European ancestors, and I’m talking to you, Grandma, I’m sorry. You weren’t weak and we aren’t strong.
We are letting them do it to us again and we are again not reading the writing on the wall.
I always believed that if I, we experienced what you experienced, we’d get the hell out immediately.
I was wrong. My brothers and sisters are continuing to be sitting ducks waiting for the next attack, the next vandalism of a synagogue, the next hate crime, the next blood thirsty antisemitic march, the next murder.
It’s 2024 and we haven’t learned the lesson that Germany was not our home. Poland was not our home. Austria was not our home.
Today, America is not our home. South Africa is not our home. The UK is not our home. Australia is not our home.
We only have one home and that is Israel. Is everything perfect in Israel? 100% not. But in Israel, your people protect you and if God forbid bad things happen, and they happen, (you don’t have to tell me, my brother was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist), your government, your army, your people will retaliate and ensure it never happens again.
No one is protecting you at Harvard. Or MIT. Or Columbia. You’re on your own there and this isn’t going to end well.
So, my European ancestors, I’m sorry I judged you. You weren’t weak. You weren’t blind. You weren’t dumb.
You were Jews who refused to internalize that other nations don’t behave like us and just because we’d never try to annihilate a nation doesn’t mean they won’t.
To my brothers and sisters in 2024, please, I beg of you, internalize the lesson of history. It’s happening right before your eyes. Don’t wait till it’s too late.
Leave. Get out. Come home.
We are waiting for you with open hours. You worry about us in Israel? I get it. That’s kind. But here, our fate is in our hands (And Hashem’s) and we know what we need to do.
No one there has your back. We have your back here.
So come home. Help us help you.
Allow us to welcome you at Ben Gurion Airport with chants of Am Yisrael Chai instead of staying there to hear chants of Globalize the Intifada and From the River to the Sea.
This is your home and we want you here with us. We need you here with us.
If you won’t come home for you, come home for us. We love you and want you here safe in our embrace.
Come home. It will be the best thing you ever did!
We are waiting. I am waiting! 🇮🇱🙏✡️
TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO BOARD THE ARK!!!
7 Marcheshvan 5784 22 October 2023 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2023/10/time-is-running-out-to-board-ark.html
It may already be too late!!!
This is a follow-up to The Flood of Hamas. It alludes to The Flood of Violence (חָמָס) that accompanies The Flood of Antisemitism at the End of Days. See, Heaven’s messages are everywhere! HKB”H is screaming to His Children, “Choose life!!”
How can the Jews of the Diaspora not see this!?? Don’t be fooled by fear of what is happening in Eretz Yisrael. It’s not what it seems. (See the next post which should be ready later today, iy”H.) If you are already here, this is NOT the time to leave!!!
- “Yehudit: ‘…in America, antisemitism will rise to unimaginable heights.'”
- “Rav Sheinberger: ‘The whole world will flood and Eretz Israel will be like Noah’s ark, floating on top.'”
- Ovadia HaNavi (1:17): “On Mount Zion there will be refuge….”
- The Lubavitcher Rebbe (During the Gulf War): “There is no safer place in the world today than Eretz Yisrael. Heaven forbid that anyone living in Eretz Yisrael should think of leaving at this time. On the contrary, whoever is planning to visit Eretz Yisrael should go without fear and should let others know of his trip as well, for this will raise the confidence of the Jewish people throughout the world.
- SEE: Rav Yehuda Zev Leibowitz’s Third Prediction
***
Today it is “thousands,” tomorrow it will be millions and nothing will stop them. Hashem yerachem!
Do you think what happened here cannot happen there???
Do you think you could possibly be safer outside the Land G-d gave us???
[EDD: Examples]
The Minneapolis City Council candidate Zach Metzger filmed this clip of himself and fellow anti-Israel protesters trying to chase down an elderly man trying to drive past their protest which was blocking a major street. pic.twitter.com/c6lVyiiXUF
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 23, 2023
“Reproductive justice means free Palestine”
Far-left protesters at the NYC Queers for Palestine direct action falsely link the long regional conflict to American social issues. Abortion is almost entirely banned in the Palestinian territories, even in cases of rape or incest.… pic.twitter.com/zwCHoJ1f5B
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 24, 2023
Andy Ngô-tweet-24October2023-
“Reproductive justice means free Palestine” Far-left protesters at the NYC Queers for Palestine direct action falsely link the long regional conflict to American social issues. Abortion is almost entirely banned in the Palestinian territories, even in cases of rape or incest. West Bank Palestinian women who seek the procedure will sometimes go to Israel. Photos courtesy of
9November2023-Tonight marks 85 years since Kristallnacht
Tonight marks 85 years since Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom of 1938, in which more than 100 synagogues and 7500 Jewish businesses were vandalized in Germany.
This horrific event was the culmination of years of incitement and antisemitic rhetoric against Jews.
In the past… pic.twitter.com/zKOfWhvYsZ
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) November 9, 2023
Israel-tweet-9November2023-Tonight marks 85 years since Kristallnacht
Tonight marks 85 years since Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom of 1938, in which more than 100 synagogues and 7500 Jewish businesses were vandalized in Germany.
This horrific event was the culmination of years of incitement and antisemitic rhetoric against Jews.
In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen Jewish communities around the world face horrific antisemitism.
Antisemitism starts with words but it doesn’t end there.
More often than not it kills.
NIE WIEDER ist JETZT! pic.twitter.com/nEjcMomtNY
— Arye (ARO) Sharuz Shalicar (@aryeshalicar) November 8, 2023
Arye (ARO) Sharuz Shalicar-tweet-8November2023-NIE WIEDER ist JETZT!
NIE WIEDER ist JETZT!
NEVER AGAIN is NOW!
The Night of the Broken Glass
Nov 9-10, 1938: “The Night of Broken Glass”, which in German was called Kristallnacht, was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on…
Yaakov Bar Nahman Posted on 10November2023 https://breslev.com/366273/
“The Night of the Broken Glass”, which in German was called Kristallnacht, was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 1938. Kristallnacht was triggered by the assassination in Paris of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew. In a coordinated attack on Jewish people and their property, 91 Jews were murdered and 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps. 267 synagogues were destroyed, and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked. This was done by the Brown Shirt Hitler Youth, the Gestapo, the SA, and the SS. Kristallnacht also served as a pretext and as a means for the wholesale confiscation of firearms from German Jews in order to assure their being left defenseless.
This woke up some Jews to the unfolding dangers, but not enough. So very many chose to remain blind and stayed, waiting for the storm to go away. History was to recount what an immense mistake that choice was.
While the fledgling Nazi party was growing in size and power, the concept of what Jewish life is really about became dried up, diluted, and all but lost. The Jewish community was crumbling. The Reform movement and the Enlightenment were taking their toll. Tens of thousands of Jews were losing all feeling of what being Jewish really is. Theirs was more like a drab, colorless, lifeless cardboard cutout rather than a living, vibrant spiritual life. It was devoid of anything that stimulates the heart and soul. When there is nothing to draw interest, nothing to love, nothing to respect; there is nothing to attract loyalty, there is no inner bond. Even the most basic level of a Jewish soul desires spirituality. If “at home” their lives were devoid of spirituality, they would seek some semblance of spirituality elsewhere.
Together, this resulted in myriads of German Jews leaving Judaism. By the onset of WW 2, there were 10,000 Catholic and Protestant priests and pastors in Germany from Jewish families!
They sought the spirituality that had been stolen from them and replaced by the dried up version of Judaism they were raised in.
Even among those who “remained Jewish”, many had adopted the attitude of, “Be a Jew at home and a human being outside”.
Is there any wonder that God let loose the Angel of Death with an ‘open license to kill wholesale’? This process and its horrific outcome was to become one of the most gruesome chapters in human history.
With the worsening socioeconomic situation in Germany, the increasing political radicalism, and the turning of Divine Providence against the Jews of Germany due to the vast number who abandoned Torah life and values, the stage was set for…
Holocaust.
Holocaust, the Greek word for sacrifice.
With antisemitism surging, Diaspora synagogues are ‘afraid’ to mark Kristallnacht
As Holocaust survivors reflect on Oct. 7 and the ‘global pogrom’ during Israel’s war with Hamas, some Jewish communities avoid commemorating 85 years to the Night of Broken Glass
By Matt Lebovic 8November2023 https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-antisemitism-surging-diaspora-synagogues-are-afraid-to-mark-kristallnacht/
NEW YORK — Jewish communities from South America to Europe are canceling plans to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht pogrom Thursday night due to surging antisemitism following the Hamas massacres of October 7, The Times of Israel has learned.
That day, Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel by land, air and sea in a shock assault and killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, amid acts of horrible cruelty. Over 240 people are now in captivity in Gaza, including dozens of children. In the wake of the invasion, Israel declared war and vowed to destroy Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, where mounting casualties from the Israeli offensive have shifted public attention away from the October 7 massacres.
Thousands of synagogues had planned to participate in an annual Israel-based Kristallnacht initiative called “Light from the Synagogue,” with congregations and Jewish organizations invited to keep their lights on all night to mark the German pogrom in which 99 Jews were murdered and 30,000 men sent to concentration camps.
“When we first started to plan how to adapt this beautiful project to Brazil, we were aiming for an interreligious effort,” said Hana Nusbaum, a Holocaust educator based in Sao Paulo.
“However, due to the rise of antisemitism worldwide, we don’t think the synagogues and other Jewish institutions would be comfortable with a physical demonstration of support that highlights their locations,” Nusbaum told The Times of Israel.
Kristallnacht commemoration organizers in Los Angeles and New York City told The Times of Israel about “bolstered” security for synagogue gatherings set for Thursday evening. However, unlike Brazil, there were no reports that Kristallnacht gatherings were canceled in the US so far.
Marking this year’s wartime commemoration, the iconic March of the Living program released testimonies of Holocaust survivors who reflected on antisemitism following the Hamas massacres of October 7.
“I never thought in my life that something as terrible as now would happen again,” said Tirza HaLivni, who survived Kristallnacht and later moved to Israel.
“On October 7, Hamas came and slaughtered children, young and old. I have to say honestly, all the lectures I give, and I give a lot, in Israel, in Germany and wherever I can, but I think back 85 years ago to how horrible it was, and here we are, experiencing it again,” said HaLivni.
Through March of the Living (MOTL), thousands of Israelis and Diaspora teens have toured Holocaust sites in Poland followed by visits to Israel. Many of the survivors solicited by MOTL this year were uncomfortable allowing the organization to use their full names, according to a MOTL press release.
“[They] feared for their own safety, were initially hesitant to speak out, [or] worried that revealing their identities could place them in immediate danger,” said the statement.
As for synagogues afraid to commemorate Kristallnacht this week, “Light from the Synagogue” organizer Dalia Yohanan said she was deeply upset by emails she received.
“I nearly cried when I read how many synagogues are afraid to share their locations,” Yohanan told The Times of Israel.
“We thought those days would never come back,” said Yohanan, who lives on Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi.
Although it appears there have not been Kristallnacht cancellations in the US, that is not the case in Europe. In Groningen, the Netherlands, for example, an annual “silent march” for Kristallnacht was canceled due to fears that Palestinian supporters would find it provocative.
“We don’t want the march to be viewed as a demonstration because it is not,” said Geert Volders, director of the city’s Stichting Folkingestraat Synagogue.
Historians regard “The Night of Broken Glass” on November 9-10, 1938, as a prelude to the Holocaust, as well as a “test run” for Hitler to gauge global reaction to his plans for Europe’s Jews.
‘Jews are not safe’
Outside the Jewish state, survivors are now reluctant to wear Jewish symbols, said Manya Wallenfels, a Polish-born survivor who lives in the US.
“I think twice before I wear my Star of David,” said Wallenfels. “It is a catastrophe what is happening today: not only Hamas but the antisemitism in the universities. Before, I went outside with a Magen David on my shirt, now I think twice about it,” said Wallenfels.
In Los Angeles, a Jewish man was attacked in public by a Palestinian activist and died several hours later. One California-based survivor interviewed by MOTL said “sleepless nights” became part of their lives again since October 7.
“The October 7 terror attack brought back so many memories of what I saw as a child,” said Maud Dahme, a survivor who lives in San Diego.
“When it all happened on October 7, I couldn’t believe it. I’ve had sleepless nights since and it just brought back so many memories. I don’t know how to cope,” said Dahme.
A Jewish man falls to the ground after allegedly being struck with a megaphone by an anti-Israel protester in Los Angeles on November 5, 2023. (Screen capture/X)
Some survivors said the Hamas massacres shattered a relative sense of inner balance they toiled to achieve for decades.
“I am devastated to see how Jews are being attacked today. Jews are not safe,” said Nate Leipciger, a survivor who lives in Canada.
“I am very troubled by this and am struggling to retain my equilibrium,” said Leipciger, who was attacked on the street for being a Jew while growing up.
“My optimism is shattered. We must collectively feel the pain felt by parents whose child is abducted and threatened with death. Hamas’s barbarism is equal and almost exceeds what I experienced during the Shoah,” said Leipciger, most of whose family were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“Hamas’s barbarism is equal and almost exceeds what I experienced during the Shoah
“It started with words and continued with actions. I am devastated to see how Jews are being attacked today. Jews are not safe. I saw where antisemitism can lead to and I am very concerned,” said Leipciger.
With hundreds of American synagogues set to go forward with Kristallnacht programs on Thursday, some have committed to keep their lights on all night, as per the Israel-based initiative.
For example, at Young Israel of Sharon, Massachusetts, a 90-minute “Light From the Synagogue” program will focus on “our light” having not been “extinguished” during the Holocaust or after the Hamas massacres.
According to Young Israel, many congregants in Sharon, located outside Boston, had not heard about the Kristallnacht event due to a strenuous news cycle. In gathering as many Jews as possible, the shul hopes to express “our continued presence and vibrancy,” said a flyer.
Antisemitic incidents surged globally since Oct. 7 but most aren’t reported. Here’s why
Up to 79% of antisemitic harassment is never divulged, according to experts who weigh in on ‘obstacles’ that deter Jewish victims – especially youth – from speaking out
By Matt Lebovic 21 November 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/antisemitic-incidents-surged-globally-since-oct-7-but-most-arent-reported-heres-why/
NEW YORK — John Michael Graves, 25, was walking out of his Moishe House residence in Seattle when he spotted half a dozen antisemitic flyers “plastered” onto poles near the unmarked building’s gate.
“I ripped them down. It’s not clear how they even knew it was a Moishe House,” said Graves, referring to a cooperative group home for Jewish young adults. The flyers read “F–k You Israel” with crossed-out Jewish stars and were affixed onto street poles during the afternoon of October 24.
“It really hit me in the gut,” Graves told The Times of Israel. But he and his fellow residents did not report the incident to the Moishe House movement, which says it reaches 70,000 Jews in 27 countries, including six locations in Israel.
“We were scared and — it sounds ironic now — because this is going in a newspaper and more attention is being drawn to ourselves — I didn’t want to make it a bigger deal than it was,” said Graves. He is one of four residents in his Moishe House, which are generally populated by a mix of young professionals and grad students.
“We are programmed to think it’s just some flyer, not an active death threat,” said Graves, who added that Moishe House has been an “incredible” resource for himself and other residents regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“When I saw the posters, I felt my hand grabbing at my Jewish star necklace,” said Madison Holt, 23, another resident of Moishe House in Seattle.
“I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hide my necklace or not. I have always felt safe living here, but this definitely was a wake-up call for how things have changed since October 7,” Holt told The Times of Israel.
Since the unprecedented Hamas massacres of 1,200 people in Israel last month and the taking of some 240 hostages, the Moishe House movement has provided new resources to its “community builders” around the world, including access to emotional support services, said Graves.
Now, six weeks after the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, world opinion has shifted away from recognizing and mourning these atrocities.
The reluctance of Graves and Holt to report this incident of antisemitism is part of a widespread phenomenon, experts told The Times of Israel. Nearly four in five Jews who experience antisemitic harassment do not report it to law enforcement or media, according to American Jewish Committee statistics.
“Varying degrees of trauma” are behind the lack of reporting, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spokesperson Jake Hyman told The Times of Israel.
“Some people may report right away, while others may want to pretend it never happened, which would be understandable,” said Hyman.
An important development for universities, said Hyman, is the new “Campus Antisemitism Legal Line” (CALL) for any student, family, faculty, or staff member to “report incidents of antisemitic discrimination, intimidation, harassment, vandalism, or violence that may necessitate legal action,” said Hyman.
Intake reports will be handled by lawyers working pro bono to represent victims “who choose to move forward with specific cases,” said Hyman.
“CALL will also provide referrals to social services, mental health counseling services, and other relevant support services in their area,” said the ADL spokesperson.
Not in my name
Experts told The Times of Israel that many high school pupils and college students are afraid to document harassment because it’s “nearly impossible to report anonymously if one wants an investigation with actual results and repercussions,” said Yael Lerman, executive director of the Saidoff Legal Department at StandWithUs, a pro-Israel educational organization. (This reporter works for StandWithUs as the director of its Holocaust Education Center.)
“Students who file discrimination or bias complaints under their name nearly inevitably become targets for ongoing harassment or social media by individuals, by anti-Israel student groups, and even in-person,” Lerman told The Times of Israel.
The non-reporting of antisemitism extends beyond student bodies, said Lerman.
“Many Jewish professionals on campus are not reporting antisemitic incidents because they are scared by what they see,” said Lerman, an attorney who leads a StandWithUs-cultivated network of lawyers willing to defend victims of antisemitism on campus, for free.
“They delete evidence and hope that by not dealing with it, it will go away. The idea of holding antisemites accountable through the criminal justice system instead of remaining scared hasn’t taken hold yet in a broad enough way,” said Lerman.
With social media and evolving technologies, students and staff alike are “afraid of being doxed and targeted for more harassment by being willing to come forward as witnessing antisemitic attacks,” Lerman said.
Feelings of shame
The Israeli American Council (IAC) pointed to “shame” as one reason why so many American Jews do not report on antisemitism.
“We know this because when we do receive reports [of antisemitic incidents], many times students and parents will indicate that they have experienced several other incidents before deciding to report,” said Karen Bar-On, the IAC’s vice president of activism.
“Also, when we discuss the topic with community members or provide antisemitism training to educators and students through our school or community events, they will bring up cases they have experienced while admitting they have not reported them,” Bar-On told The Times of Israel.
Founded in 2007, the IAC represents more than 800,000 Israelis and their families living in the US. Bar-On echoed attorney Lerman in asking Jews to reconsider the importance of reporting antisemitic harassment, as opposed to brushing it off.
“First and foremost, we need to let people know how to report and constantly remind them what resources are at their service,” said Bar-On. “More importantly, community members must understand the importance of reporting and standing up to each and every incident they experience, no matter how ‘minor’ they may feel it is,” she said.
According to data collected by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in 2021, 79% of American Jews “targeted by antisemitic remarks did not report these incidents,” said Aaron Bregman, AJC’s director of high school affairs.
“Many high school students who face antisemitism, discrimination, or bias choose not to report these incidents, fearing social retaliation and potential isolation,” said Bregman.
Another factor involved in underreporting is that students “may not be certain whether they have experienced discrimination and may underestimate the severity of the issue,” said Bregman, adding, “Some students may also struggle to recognize and define antisemitic actions, hindering their ability to report accurately.”
Bregman told The Times of Israel that “uncertainty” around discrimination “often stems from a perception that [Jewish students’] experiences do not compare to the discrimination faced by their peers,” he said.
Several experts pointed to “microaggressions” as key to understanding the underreporting phenomenon. One long-time student services director at Ivy League universities said that far too many professors “challenge observant Jewish students about missing class during Jewish holidays,” she told The Times of Israel.
Additionally, students may assume they have documented an incident when, procedurally, they haven’t.
“Students think they have reported something when they comment on it in an institutional survey, but that reporting doesn’t get shared with the systems that track or even do anything about antisemitism on campus,” said the former Hillel professional, who asked to remain anonymous due to her position in academia.
Disbelief that anything will be done
Across the Atlantic, in Britain, a “large proportion” of antisemitic incidents in public schools and university campuses are never reported, said Dave Rich of the Community Service Trust, which has recorded and responded to antisemitism since 1984.
“The most likely reasons for not reporting are that they don’t feel anything will be done, or they don’t know how to report,” Rich told The Times of Israel.
Within Europe, the European Union has conducted research into antisemitism in 2012 and 2018. Findings demonstrated that “most antisemitic harassment was not reported to anyone,” said Rich.
“We don’t have specific data for non-reporting of campus or school-related antisemitism, but this gives some indication of what we might be looking at,” said Rich.
With private Catholic universities in the US now opening their doors to enroll harassed Jewish students, the public is still only seeing the “tip of the iceberg” regarding antisemitism, experts believe. Without a significant increase in victims reporting on incidents of harassment, discrimination against Jews may continue to fly mostly under the radar.
JerusalemCats Comments: This sums it up!
All About the Facts
This biting musical parody, featuring the talented Latma team, will have you laughing out loud. Parody about the European Union, the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority and the lies they tell and the lies they believe during the Peace Negotiations and News Reports..
Michael Oren: A War Against the Jews
Hatred of Israel cannot be distinguished from hatred of the Jewish people. Incontestably now, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
By Michael Oren 26October2023 https://www.israpundit.org/michael-oren-a-war-against-the-jews/ Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/this-isnt-a-war-against-israel
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslims, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’?” —The Hamas Charter
“The conventional war of conquest was to be waged parallel to, and was also to camouflage, the ideological war against the Jews.” —Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933–1945
It wasn’t the rallies with “Keep the World Clean” posters and chants of “gas the Jews.” Nor was it the glorification of Hamas paragliders by the Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter or, in New York and London, the tearing down of posters with the faces of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas. Not even the off-the-charts uptick in antisemitic incidents in Germany (240 percent), the United States (nearly 400 percent), and London (1,353 percent) convinced me.
It was, rather, one of those realizations that so many generations of Jews before me have experienced. A realization that they, like me, surely tried to push out of their minds until the reality became unmistakeable.
This war is not simply between Hamas terrorists and Israelis. It is a war against the Jews.
The insight began with the international media’s coverage of the conflict. Again, it wasn’t the press’s insistence on calling mass murderers “militants” or citing Hamas and its “Health Ministry” as a reliable source. For close to fifty years—as a student activist, a diplomat, a soldier, a government and military spokesman, and above all, as a historian—I’ve grappled with the media’s bias against Israel. I’ve long known that the terrorists are “militants” solely because their victims are Jews, and only in a conflict with Israel are terrorists considered credible.
Instead, it was the media’s predictable switch from an Israel-empathetic to an Israel-demonizing narrative as the image of Palestinian suffering supplanted that of Israelis beheaded, dismembered, and burnt. It was the gnawing awareness that dead Jews buy us only so much sympathy.
In fact, there is probably a formula. Six million dead in the Holocaust procured us roughly 25 years of grace before the Europeans refused to refuel the U.S. planes bringing lifesaving munitions to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Fourteen hundred butchered Jews bought us a little less than two weeks’ worth of positive coverage.
Europeans, it’s long been said, never forgave the Jews for the Holocaust. Their guilt was collective and their antisemitism no longer socially acceptable. What a relief many of them felt when it became de rigueur to call Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians Nazi-like. Similarly, haters of Israelis can’t forgive them for being massacred by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and were relieved when, on October 17, they could go back to vilifying the “colonial apartheid state.”
October 17—that was the date of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital incident. Hamas claimed that an Israeli bomb hit the hospital and killed 500 civilians. Again, there was nothing new about Hamas blaming Israel for atrocities that never happened and counting as dead the many who didn’t die. What was unprecedented was the speed at which the world accepted this triple lie—not a hospital but its parking lot was struck by a Palestinian rocket, not an Israeli bomb, killing far fewer than 500. Nevertheless, reflexively, the world imputed evil to Israel.
Within hours of the al-Ahli bombing, both Israel and the United States revealed the truth behind it. Still, almost no one in the media apologized. A full week after the explosion, The New York Times was still bringing in “experts” to intimate Israel’s guilt. After all, the paper was subtly telling us, Israel is perfectly capable of bombing hospitals and, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, possibly bombed this one as well.
What was previously an inkling became, October 17, an epiphany. It marked the moment when I finally peered behind the headlines and recognized their ancient, vicious, core.
For many centuries, the term “innocent Jew” was an oxymoron. Jews were guilty by birth, by belief, and by ancestry. There is a religious tenet of Judaism, reenacted each year at Passover, that all Jews were present at the exodus from Egypt and when God gave the laws to Moses at Sinai. Twisting this is a Christian belief that all Jews were present at, and responsible for, the crucifixion. More than Pilate, more than Judas—a name not chosen randomly—the Jews were damned for deicide.
But killing God is only one of the sins for which Israelis—read: Jews—are being demonized in this war. Behind the reports of the deliberate Israeli bombing of Palestinian neighborhoods—reports that meticulously stress the number of children killed—lies the 144,000 children mythically massacred by the Judean King Herod.
Though understandably feeling vengeful toward Hamas and their allies in Gaza, the vast majority of Israelis do not want innocent Palestinians to die. Hamas, however, places its bunkers, rocket launchers, and headquarters in civilian areas. Though Israel warns these noncombatants to evacuate, Hamas tries to prevent their flight, sometimes at gunpoint. The goal is twofold: to kill as many Israelis as possible, and to kill Palestinians to win the sympathy of the world and so that Israel can be denounced internationally for war crimes.
Hamas’s strategy is clear. Yet much of the press prefers to ignore it. Instead, it repeatedly accuses Israel of seeking to inflict the maximum number of civilian deaths and especially of children. In the media’s rendering, Israel is the new Herod butchering Palestinian innocents.
Forgotten are the thousands of Gazans who followed Hamas terrorists through the ruptured fence into Israel where they joined in the mutilations and raping. Forgotten are the Gazans who beat and spat at a nineteen-year-old Israeli woman who was raped and paraded through their streets. Gone were Gazans who gave out candy and celebrated the slaughter of 1,400 civilians who were truly innocent.
‘There is No Antisemitism Here,’ South African Justice Minister Claims, Despite 631 Percent Increase in Attacks on Jews
by Ben Cohen 31January2024 https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/01/31/there-is-no-antisemitism-here-south-african-justice-minister-claims-despite-631-percent-increase-in-attacks-on-jews/
SEE: South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
The claim of South Africa’s Justice Minister that there is no antisemitism targeting the country’s Jewish community drew a forthright response from Jewish leaders on Wednesday, who also accused the South African government of “creating an environment that emboldens antisemites.”
In an interview with the BBC’s “Hard Talk” program on Monday, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola flatly denied that antisemitism — which has soared in South Africa in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel and the Israeli government’s military response — was a problem.
When presenter Stephen Sackur quoted South African Jewish leader Howard Sackstein saying that he was “staring at my suitcase contemplating whether it’s time to leave the only home I’ve ever known,” underlining as well his fear that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government had been “captured by radical Islamists,” Lamola dismissed these concerns outright, going on to attack the “Zionist state.”
“It’s a very unfortunate statement not backed by any facts, it’s a figment of his own imagination,” Lamola said.
Lamola added that the case charging Israel with “genocide” brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa was “not against the Jews as a people, it’s against the Zionist State of Israel,” which was “maiming and killing the Palestinians as a group in Gaza,” he said.
The ICJ’s ruling last week essentially rejected South Africa’s argument, with no immediate order issued to Israel to halt the war, only the demand that assistance must be provided to improve humanitarian conditions and measures taken to prevent acts or incitement against the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention.
When Sackur pointed out that there had been a precipitous rise in antisemitic attacks in South Africa since Oct. 7, Lamola fired back, “there’s no such…there is no antisemitism in South Africa against the Jewish people.”
A statement from the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) on Wednesday highlighted that between October and December of last year, in the weeks following the Hamas assault, 139 antisemitic incidents were recorded, compared with 19 in the same period of 2022 — an increase of 631 percent.
The statement pointed out that there had also been as “a sharp increase in physical attacks against Jewish persons or property, something which had occurred only rarely in previous years. There were six cases of physical assault, whereas the annual average had been only one in the preceding decade.”
Among the violent incidents recorded were two cases of assault outside a Johannesburg synagogue, an attack on a Johannesburg rabbi, and a Jewish community member being repeatedly struck over the head with a pole at a pro-Hamas rally in Cape Town. Vandalism included damage and desecration to Jewish cemeteries in Pretoria and Durban.
During the incident in Cape Town, the targeted individual was surrounded by dozens of violent protestors who bellowed “Viva Hamas” and “Murderers,” telling him “Hitler did not kill all of you guys, just so that we could all see exactly why he did it.”
South Africa’s Jewish community “has prided itself on the relatively low levels of antisemitism compared to other Jewish Diaspora communities,” the SAJBD remarked. “However our government has created an environment where antisemitism can flourish with Minister Lamola’s comments being an example. We call on Minister Lamola and the ANC Government to stop dismissing antisemitism and to stop creating an environment that emboldens antisemites.”
A report on South African antisemitism submitted by the SAJBD to the US State Department and shared with The Algemeiner described how South African Jews increasingly face opprobrium and hatred in their daily lives.
“A ‘naming and shaming’ process has been adopted, where people are encouraged to shun those characterized as ‘genocidal baby killers’ and the like,” the report noted.
In one of several hateful emails sent to members of the community, a Jewish doctor in Cape Town was virulently abused by a former patient who accused him of financial dishonesty.
“I don’t expect anything from a Jewish c*** like you; it’s true what they say about you Jews, it’s ******* huge noses ***** greedy,” the email ranted. It ended, “my sexy rat-eyed y*d, we are coming for you. Hail [sic] HITLER.”
Lamola’s denial of South Africa’s antisemitism problem followed his assertion last week that the ICJ case brought against Israel meant that Nelson Mandela, the late South African President who led the ANC in its struggle against apartheid, “will be smiling in his grave.”
ANC leaders have repeatedly invoked Mandela in a political campaign against Israel that has intensified over the last decade. However, Mandela was a supporter of the two-state solution, declaring in a 1993 address to the Jewish community, “As a movement we recognize the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism just as we recognize the legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalism. We insist on the right of the state of Israel to exist within secure borders but with equal vigor support the Palestinian right to national self-determination.”
Some of the People Defending Hamas Are Using the Same Argument the Nazis Tried After the Holocaust
“I am a historian (like Khalidi), interested in the origins of ideas and arguments. It turns out that Khalidi’s premier talking point has a very specific genesis.”
Posted by Mike LaChance 28October2023
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/some-of-the-people-defending-hamas-are-using-the-same-argument-the-nazis-tried-after-the-holocaust/
Martin Kramer notes that Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University is using the same justification that the Nazis used during the Nuremberg tribunals.
From his blog:
The Nazi case for Hamas
Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor at Columbia University, is no fool. He started out as a spokesperson for the PLO in Beirut in the 1970s, and he’s been at it ever since. A New Yorker by birth, he knows something about perceptions of the conflict in America. And he knows that terrorism has set back the Palestinian cause time and again. That’s why he’s spent much of his career trying to anesthetize America to terrorism, divert attention from it, or minimize it.
The horrific massacre of Israeli men, women, and children committed by Hamas on October 7 has made his mission much harder. “The current sentiment,” he told an Arab interviewer (in Arabic),
politically, popularly, and in the media, is overwhelmingly negative. This contrasts sharply with the past decade, which saw growing support for Palestinian political rights and strong opposition to Israeli policies…. They’re capitalizing on the deaths of Israeli civilians during the Al-Aqsa Storm operation…. Having lived in the U.S., particularly New York, for over half my life, I’ve never seen such an onslaught of lies and crude propaganda that are actually making an impact.
Khalidi recommends a number of talking points to his followers. He’s dropped some in reaction to new and awful evidence, but one remains constant. Here is how Khalidi has made it, on two separate occasions:
There are ways of making war, which advanced technological societies employ, which involve the killing of huge numbers of civilians, who are never somehow counted in the calculus. Oh, that’s collateral damage. Oh, we didn’t mean to do it. If a pilot does it from 1,000 feet, and kills fifty people, or some somebody with a gun comes in and murders fifty people, there is a difference, obviously, but in the last analysis, if this is a violation of the rules of war on the one hand, it’s a violation of the rules of war on the other hand… One kind of killing of civilians—only that kind—is called terrorism and another kind of systematic killing of civilians, with much higher death counts, is simply ignored.
Sound familiar? It should.
The ‘Dresden defense’
I am a historian (like Khalidi), interested in the origins of ideas and arguments. It turns out that Khalidi’s premier talking point has a very specific genesis.
It figured in the case for the defense in the Einsatzgruppen Trial, conducted by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal from late 1947 to the spring of 1948. The Einsatzgruppen were the paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany, which carried out mass murder by shooting in Nazi-occupied Europe. They destroyed well over a million Jews, and two million people all told. After the war, their surviving senior commanders were put on trial at Nuremberg, charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The chief defendant, SS-Gruppenführer Otto Ohlendorf, had been commander of Einsatzgruppe D, which carried out mass murders in Moldova, southern Ukraine, and the Caucasus. An economist and father of five, he had supervised the killing of 90,000 Jews. Ohlendorf imagined that he had a moral conscience. The killers under his command, he told a U.S. Army prosecutor, were prohibited from using infants for target practice, or smashing their heads against trees.
When Gaza has Money, Hamas has Rockets
By John F. Di Leo
October 18, 2023 https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/when_gaza_has_money_hamas_has_rockets.html
Whether you grew up watching reality law enforcement programs or fictional mafia movies, there’s one thing everyone knows: When a known hit man murders a stranger, the odds are at least ten to one that he was paid to do it. Find the person who paid him, and you’ve identified the real responsible party.
This doesn’t just go for individual crimes, either. The same principle applies on the grand scale.
On Oct. 7, 2023, a horde of Islamofascist terrorists known as Hamas launched simultaneous, carefully coordinated attacks on Israel.
Hundreds of rockets were fired into civilian communities in Israel. Crowds of terrorists charged across the border and attacked private residences, shooting up apartments and houses, raping and beating innocent individuals and families. Squads sought out the partygoers at a music festival, slaughtering the unarmed with abandon. Hamas killed or injured thousands that day – mostly unarmed, unsuspecting civilians.
Israel is responding, as Israel must. But on the world stage, Israel doesn’t have the ability to go much further back, to deal with the sources, as we can in regular domestic law enforcement.
Israel can attack the nearby perpetrators, the bloodthirsty demons of Hamas who gave the orders and managed the attacks. But Israel is limited in what it can do beyond the Holy Land.
They can study, publicize their findings, try to shame the guilty on the world stage, but their reach is limited.
In much the same way as that hit man we identified can be caught by local police, but we need the FBI to capture the mafiosi who hired him, Israel can root out the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, but Israel is limited in its ability to go after the global villains who fund and direct Hamas.
Someone is buying Hamas all these missiles. Someone provides them with training and gear, intelligence and equipment, rifles and grenades. And these people who ship them money and weaponry, fully intending that the recipients will use them against innocent Israeli civilians, are just as guilty as the homicidal maniacs pulling the trigger.
Who?
It’s not even a secret.
The group that has been chanting “Death to Israel” for decades, the group that has taught their children and their allies to shout “From the river to the sea,” confirming in no uncertain terms that their genocidal goal is to wipe the nation of Israel off the face of the earth, is a client state of Iran.
Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, and ever since local elections were held in 2006, the people of the Gaza Strip have chosen the terrorists of Hamas to rule them.
The Gaza Strip is located on a stretch of seashore on the Mediterranean. Has its government sought international investors to build a modern economy to support its people? Have they taken advantage of their 24 miles of potentially beautiful coastline to build resorts, or have they attempted to build manufacturing centers to provide careers and prosperity for their two million residents?
Time and time again, when Israel and others have tried to support the building of plants, factories, and logistics centers in the Gaza Strip, Hamas terrorism has necessitated Israel closing the borders and revoking import/export privileges. It’s impossible to have a manufacturing sector without public utilities, but Hamas sabotage has destroyed such facilities. It’s impossible to manufacture goods without raw materials, but Israel has had to close down maritime traffic to Gaza because Gaza’s suppliers keep filling “humanitarian aid” shipments full of armaments.
Whether from Egypt, Turkey, Iran or Lebanon, Israelis have learned the hard way that allowing goods into the Gaza Strip means endangering the innocent civilians of Israel. So Israel has had to crack down, again and again.
The events of October 7 prove the case. Hamas is not allowed to maintain a military; they get billions of dollars in aid from their foreign allies, money that could and should be targeted to improving the lot of their people, the so-called “palestinians,” of whom nearly half are children and teenagers. But despite this very real need for humanitarian support and economic development, Hamas puts its energy, its funding, and its rhetoric into its single-minded war cry: “Death to Israel.”
And where exactly does Gaza’s funding come from?
The governments of Iran and Qatar are major donors, plus a global network of expats who either identify with the Gazans (a mixture of arab ethnicities, but primarily Egyptian) or with Hamas’ very public goal of destroying Israel and emptying it of Jews.
The history books tell us that Hamas was originally an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian terrorist organization. Today, however, Hamas is usually considered more directly a client of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, itself the Lebanese branch of the Iranian council of mullahs – an oligarchy that has ruled Iran with a bloody iron fist for almost 45 years now.
So it is that when Hamas moves a muscle, one can safely assume that Iran is the one pulling the strings.
The issue of Hamas’ funding sources has attracted a bit more attention than usual, in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. Israel has announced that it’s blocking whatever sources it can find with proof of the money going to weaponry. They have blocked bank accounts at Barclays and huge cryptocurrency accounts that have long been a way for investors to move money in violation of sanctions, crypto being more easily hidden from view than real currency or investments.
But these are the obvious sources – terrorist supporting rogue states and fellow islamofascist extremists. The really big money in Gaza comes from sources that many would assume are peacemakers.
The United Nations, in fact, is arguably the biggest single funding source for Hamas, having directed well over five billion dollars in spending to the Gaza Strip in the past decade. Such money isn’t provided without strings, of course, but money is fungible. If one source covers food and water, that frees up the money from other charities to be spent on rockets and rifles.
Perhaps most shocking to Americans is the amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars that are sent to Hamas. Outside of an attempt by the Trump administration to block U.S. taxes from going to Hamas from 2017 through 2020, the Obama and Biden regimes have diverted tens of millions, again and again, whenever they could find an excuse. Never for arms, directly, of course; but money is fungible.
One of the first visual images confronted by an economics student is the idea of “expending resources on guns or butter.” The larger a percentage of your income you have to spend on butter, the less you can afford to spend on guns, and vice versa.
As long as the United States, the United Nations, and other allegedly peaceful countries provide funds to Gaza, and as long as Hamas continues to direct Gaza’s treasury, it’s as if we peaceful westerners ourselves were the ones buying Hamas the weapons.
People who’ve been paying attention will recall the midnight flights of billions of dollars in currency that the Obama regime illegally sent to Tehran, a vision refreshed by the Biden regime’s gift of releasing billions in foreign funds to Tehran a few short weeks ago.
When Iran has money, their client terror states have rockets.
The courageous and talented Israeli Defense Forces can work on ridding Gaza of its homicidal anti-semitic population, but what can we do, here, a world away?
Well, at the very least, we can stand up on election day, and fire the American politicians who keep paying these hit men with our money. The Democratic Party has been funding these vermin for far too long.
John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation professional and consultant. A onetime Milwaukee County Republican Party chairman, he has been writing a regular column for Illinois Review since 2009. His book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel) and his political satires on the current administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I and II).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Stop the Anti-Semitism on campuses
The world cannot stand idly by.
|
|
UC-Berkeley Law Prof: Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students“It’s time for the adults to take over, and that includes law firms looking for graduates to hire.”Posted by Mike LaChance October 16, 2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/uc-berkeley-law-prof-dont-hire-my-anti-semitic-law-students/
Steven Davidoff Solomon is trying to hold these students accountable. There is a lot of this going around right now and it’s encouraging.
He writes at the Wall Street Journal:
|
|
CEOs Vowing Not to Hire Harvard Students Who Signed Letter Blaming Israel for Hamas Attack“I would like to know so I know never to hire these people”Posted by Mike LaChance, 12October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/ceos-vowing-not-to-hire-harvard-students-who-signed-letter-blaming-israel-for-hamas-attack/
Some of the student groups at Harvard who signed on to this are already scrambling to distance themselves from it. This is why.
The New York Post reports:
Joel M. Petlin-tweet-2November2023-message for the deans of law schools If you want your graduates to get good jobs in our law firms, stop producing Antisemites. UPDATE:
There are now 2️⃣0️⃣6️⃣ firms that have signed the @sullcrom Each one sends an important message. I hope that they get it and remove Antisemitic students and faculty from their campuses.
Examples of Anti-Semitic Law Students
|
|
Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset Managers
“We call on our colleagues to join us in pledging to protect and support our Jewish and Israeli employees, family, and friends against violence and hate.” Signatories include @BillAckman, @CliffordAsness, David Einhorn, Michael Steinhardt, Sander Gerber, Jon Jacobson, Peter Feld, Seth Fisher, Jeff Talpins, Doug Silverman, Ross Stevens, @boazweinstein, @michaelfertik, Dan Sundheim, Ryan Tolkin, and many more. Over $1T total under management. Thank you gentlemen for taking a stand. Statement on Israel and Anti-Semitism From Leading Asset ManagersAlex Berger New York https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/asset-manager-community-supports-israel Asset Manager Community Statement of Support for Israel We stand united in our support for the State and people of Israel. We mourn the senseless and barbaric acts of mass terror. We condemn Hamas and their collaborators. The attack in Israel is an attack on all of us. Israel is the Start-Up Nation. Its innovations make the world a better place. We stand with Jewish communities around the world, which are experiencing antisemitic harassment and violence. We are profoundly disturbed by people who are indifferent when confronted with Jewish suffering or who organize to blame Jews and celebrate hate. Supporters of hate will have no place in our organizations or our community. We call on our colleagues to join us in pledging to protect and support our Jewish and Israeli employees, family, and friends against violence and hate. Since 1948, the State of Israel has been a source of hope, strength, and innovation. Israel has given our industry and the world an abundance of moral, intellectual, and material gifts. Now, in Israel’s hour of need, we, the undersigned, pledge to do everything we can to support the Jewish state and the Jewish people. We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, and against all people, states, and organizations who threaten the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Never again will we sit by while peace-loving people are slaughtered en masse. *** The following are among the signatories to the petition. Sander Gerber, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, Hudson Bay Capital Yoav Roth, Managing Partner, Hudson Bay Capital Bill Ackman, Chief Executive Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management Robert Agostinelli, Co-Founder, Rhone Clifford Asness, Managing and Founding Principal, AQR Brett Barth, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, BBR Partners Zachary Berger, Managing Director, ArchPoint Investors Andrew Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer, Aeolus Capital Management Marty Burger, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Artisan RE Ventures Douglas Cifu, CEO, Virtu Financial Brett Cohen, JGB Management Aaron Cowen, Chief Investment Officer, Suvretta Alexander Crisses, Managing Director, General Atlantic David Einhorn, President, Greenlight Capital Isser Elishis, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Waterton Global Resource Management Peter Feld, Managing Member, Starboard Value Seth Fischer, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Oasis Management Matan Friedman, Chief Investment Officer, Generate Capital Stephen Goldstein, Senior Managing Director, Evercore Adam Herz, Co-Founder, Coalition Investment Partners Jon Jacobson, Non-Executive Chairman, HighSage Ventures Todd Kantor, Founder and Managing Member, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC Adam Katz, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Irenic Capital Management Jeremy Katz, President and Chief Operating Officer, D1 Capital Ilya Koffman, Founder and Managing Partner, Turnspire Capital Partners Jonathan Kolatch, Partner, Jasper Lake LLC Greg Lippman, Chief Investment Officer, LibreMax Capital Marc Majzner, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Clearline Capital Candice Richards, MidOcean Partners Evan Roth, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, BBR Partners Steven Roorda, Partner, Stonebridge Capital George Rohr, President, NCH Capital Douglas Silverman, Managing Partner, Senator Investment Group Paul Singer, Chief Executive Officer, Elliott Management Michael Steinhardt, Steinhardt Management Ross Stevens, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Stone Ridge Asset Management Dan Sundheim, Founder, D1 Capital Jeffrey Talpins, Chief Executive Officer, Element Captial Udi Toledano, Managing Partner, Good Springs Capital Ryan Tolkin, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Schonfeld Boaz Weinstein, Founder, Saba Capital Rich Abbe, General Partner, Iroquois Capital Aimee Almeleh, BlueMountain Capital Alex Berger, Managing Director, Hudson Bay Capital Scott Black, Chief Legal Officer, Hudson Bay Capital Shlomo Cohen, Managing Director, Jones Trading Halit Coussin, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management Seth Damski, Chief Executive Officer, Old City Securities Victoria Drabkin, Senior Vice President, Macquarie David Feldman, Portfolio Manager, L1 Michael Fertik, Founder & Managing Director, Heroic Ventures Jay Freedman, Principal, KPMG Ian Jacobs, Managing Partner, 402 Capital Max Karpel, Partner, Akin Gump Nadav Klugman, Partner, Mayer Brown Sam Leffell, Hudson Bay Capital Alan Leifer, President, Leifer Capital Advisers, LLC Noam Lipshitz, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig Amy Margolis, Hudson Bay Capital Michael Masri, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis Abel S. Osorio, Partner, Turnspire Capital Partners Greg Racz, President and Co-Founder, MGG Investment Group Zoya Raynes, Managing Director, Bank of America Brian Rebhun, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers David Reichsfeld, JP Morgan Adam Rosenbluth, Managing Director, Bank of America Michael Roth, Ares David Salanic, Co-Managing Partner, Whitefort Capital Craig Sedaka, LibreMax Capital Mark B. Spiegel, Stanphyl Capital Matthew Weinstein, Portfolio Manager, Hudson Bay Capital Rami Zaitchik, Director, Bank of America
|
|
Harvard 2024
The last two nights at the Harvard Chabad Seder table, along with Jews around the world, we read the words of the Passover Haggadah We call on University leadership to remove these Jew haters and Hamas lovers who are continuously and brazenly violating university code of conduct, not to mention their own humanity. – Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, Jackie and Omri Dahan Harvard Chabad Jewish Chaplain
Ladies and gentleman, Harvard, 2024.
Let’s put aside discussions of codes of conduct and ousted presidents for a moment. I want to ask @Harvard: what is the value of my degree when fellow students think that it’s acceptable to use intimidation and violence as an argument? What are they learning if they repeat hateful lies to a point where the face of a kidnapped baby held by Hamas for over 4 months is too offensive to bear?
Do we really want to encourage student bodies behind this culture? Students of the classes of 2024 – 2028 should be held to a standard
|
|
When You Realize Nearly Everyone In Your University Wants You DeadHow, how, how did this come to pass? There is no evil like the academic who provides the ideological foundation for the extermination of a people, and insists that you call that program “virtue.”Posted by Andrew Pessin 22October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/when-you-realize-nearly-everyone-in-your-university-wants-you-dead/
Four days in, after explicit images of the slaughter had been blasting around the internet nonstop for days, my college administration, and my faculty colleagues, had remained silent. In contrast, when a single Black man died by a police officer far away a few years ago the place had exploded for days. When an administrator more recently scheduled an event at a venue that 40 years earlier had racist admissions policies there were weeks of outrage, the canceling of classes and then of the administrator. The misuse of pronouns here can get you disciplined on a bias charge, in this age of microaggressions and in the name of promoting inclusion.
But when (now) 1400+ Jews are slaughtered in cold blood, live on camera, there is—silence. And not just slaughtered: bloodthirsty murderers going house to house, murdering entire families, children, grandparents, medics and first responders, raping women and little girls, abusing corpses, burning down houses with their families inside like in medieval times, paragliding into a music festival with automatic weapons gunning down 260 young adults (same age as our students), not to mention taking 200+ hostages (women, children, elderly) whom they have threatened to execute publicly (assuming they are still alive) —no different from the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, except that the Nazis didn’t have the ability to also livestream their atrocities—
There was silence. Actually worse: business as usual. Chatter about upcoming events, department business, the usual weekly newsletters, announcements re upcoming meetings. Nothing to talk about, folks, it’s just Jews being slaughtered on the largest scale since the Holocaust.
“We must take care of our students”—a wonderful rallying cry that fills up our airwaves whenever any identity group is perceived to have received a harm, however abstract that harm is, however removed that harm might be from them directly and personally.
Except for Jews—whose family members, friends, and acquaintances were literally just gunned down, raped, burned alive, decapitated, all livestreamed. (They used one grandmother’s phone to film their execution of her, then posted the video to her own Facebook account so everyone she knew could witness it—which is how her family learned of her fate.)
How would they feel if that were their grandmother? If they watched her be executed with their own eyes? Did this community truly have no care or concern for its Jewish members? I didn’t want to believe it. But this isn’t just about my institution. Apart from a small handful of university presidents who responded appropriately (such as at the University of Florida), most were either silent like mine or (eventually) expressed tepid, neutral, general words of dismay without truly acknowledging what had just happened before our very eyes. Although admittedly these responses were at least marginally better than what happened and continues to happen on many other campuses: active, large, loud rallies where students and faculty and at least the occasional administrator openly endorsed and called for the deaths of Jews.
But only marginally: the silence, and the tepidness, convey the same message, if slightly less explicitly. The problem is nearly—everywhere.
Other people saw the problem earlier, but for me it was around 2014 that I began to understand that nearly everyone not merely at my institution but at these very many institutions, including the best institutions, really—hated—the Jews. But since I first saw it I’ve also seen it getting worse, and now it is shockingly unambiguous. I no longer have the occasional worry that my concerns are maybe a little paranoid, apocalyptic, overly emotional.
It is now clear. Many, many people in our universities don’t merely really hate the Jews, but actually—want them dead. In 2023 America, not to mention around the globe. Take a look at the rallies the first week after the massacre at Harvard, at Yale, at Princeton, at Columbia, at Georgetown, and at the University of North Carolina where one very excited young woman screamed exuberantly, “We are all of us Hamas!”
Hamas, which openly calls for, and acts to bring about, the death of every Jew on the planet. At the University of Washington rally “for Palestine” a young woman Jewish student was filmed sobbing in front of a seemingly indifferent administrator, “Why are you allowing this to happen here? They want us dead!”
How, how, how did this come to pass?Know this to start: Israel is home to half the world’s Jews, and the majority of the other half are closely connected to it, identify with it, support it, have family, friends, acquaintances there. It is safe to assume that most Jewish persons on your campus either know someone who was just murdered in their homes or taken hostage and perhaps soon to be executed publicly, or knows someone who does. That means not only that most Jews on your campus have just suffered an incalculable concrete personal loss, but that anyone who wants Israeli Jews dead must also want these Jews dead—because these Jews mostly support those Jews, and may even be related to them.
There is no comfort in imagining, well maybe they want to kill the Jews there, but here, in the US of A, in 2023, I am safe. Do not forget that point. This may be the US of A in 2023, but what we’re seeing is an old story, dressed up fresh for the 21st century Western world.
Years of lies, fertilizing the soil, all deliberately designed to delegitimize and dehumanize the Jew, to label the Jew as inhuman, demonic, pure evil. Once you are convinced that the Jew represents evil, then killing Jews becomes not only acceptable but even obligatory. If the Jew is evil, then you in turn must be a very good person in killing him. The Christians did this for centuries, portraying the Jew as literally the fleshly embodiment of evil in their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. The Germans and the Nazis did this for decades in racial terms, inspired by the antisemitic conspiracy-theory forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, even developing a whole academic discipline to document and thus demonstrate the evils of the Jews. After some decades of this program, killing Jews isn’t merely easier but becomes an act of virtue.
The newer lies, now also several decades old, are merely superficial variations on the older lies, aiming to better reflect the specific evils of today. The charges of “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “settler colonialism,” “apartheid,” and more recently “Jewish supremacy,” not to mention probably every single thing most people believe about Gaza—you may be sure that all of these are lies, in fact easily documentable and demonstrable lies for anyone who takes a few minutes to honestly evaluate them. (Maybe people don’t know that rather unlike most “open air prisons” or “concentration camps” Gaza has four-star hotels and restaurants, luxury cars, ritzy malls, affluent neighborhoods, fancy beach resorts, and an obesity problem, not to mention a massive military infrastructure.) These charges don’t have to be true, they just have to be widely circulated, widely repeated, and widely believed, so that the Jew becomes the embodiment of whatever is considered most evil today.
And this is what the “pro-Palestinian” movement, along with its numerous “progressive” allies, has successfully accomplished.
After twenty years of the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) movement against Israel, orchestrated on campus by the now more than 200 chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), their short-term goal, that of damaging Israel economically, was a bust; but the long-term goal, the real goal, has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Whether or not a particular BDS resolution passes or fails on a given campus, the campaign itself soaks the campus in all the lies above for weeks on end, year after year. Most students don’t really follow the details, but come away thinking, man, those Jews with their genocide, apartheid, and supremacy, must really be pretty evil.
And now in 2023 no one blinks an eye when SJP asserts boldly, baldly, as if factually, on their recent social media celebrating the slaughter of 1400 Jews, that every single Israeli Jew is a “settler.” In today’s campus vernacular the slur “settler” rivals in evilness the slur “Nazi,” which they also sling against Israelis. If every Israeli Jew is a settler, then every Israeli Jew is evil, and therefore legitimately murdered. That includes the babies, and the grandmothers, and the unarmed dancing teenagers, and by the way it also justifies torturing them and raping the women before you murder them, which also occurred on a significant scale. (The first report to the Red Cross on the hostages noted that many suffered from “severe injuries due to rape.”)
Every Israeli Jew is guilty. And if every Israeli Jew is guilty, is evil, then so is every other Jew who supports them and may even be related to them.
There are no innocent Jews. The actual Nazis couldn’t have orchestrated it better.
Those administrators, those faculty members, those students who say nothing while 1400 Jews are slaughtered—and livestreamed, with the most horrific recordings circulating the globe getting millions of views and shares and likes and celebratory comments—Do they remain silent because they too believe these Jews actually—deserve this?
One liberated kibbutz included the bodies of 40 babies. Babies. Some beheaded. Are there no innocent Jews, who don’t deserve this fate?
Babies, grandmothers, dancing peaceniks, living in their ancestral homeland, in an internationally recognized UN member state, in territory that is not disputed except by those who believe that no Jew is innocent?
If they can’t condemn this—if they remain silent—then they must believe these Jews deserve it. I can draw no other conclusion. Is it possible that these academic colleagues, sophisticated, educated, refined, “experts” in values—for do they not daily proclaim their expertise in values, in their anti-racism, their anti-hate, their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?—is it possible that the people we work with, share offices with, who teach our children, share the belief and value system of the ancient and medieval Christians, the modern Nazis?
And of the contemporary Islamic Resistance Movement, otherwise known as Hamas?
Hamas has made no secrets of its views. From its founding charter—which literally openly endorses the murder of every Jew on earth, and quotes repeatedly, and “factually,” from the antisemitic Nazi-worshipped forgery Protocols in order to support its view that every Jew deserves to be murdered—to literally every action, every behavior, and every statement in the 40 years since, it has been telling you exactly what it thinks.
They tell us this openly, and have been telling us this openly for decades. A week after the massacre their leaders called on every Muslim on earth to bring the jihad to everywhere on earth, which prompted attacks in several European countries and had the FBI on alert here.
This isn’t hard to figure out. This movement is not about peace, about negotiation, not about “two states,” not about “justice,” not about Palestinian self-determination, not even about bettering the lives of Palestinians, all the things that should rightly matter to genuine progressives.
It is about murdering every Jew on earth, starting with the ones in Israel. (They also are interested in removing Christians, for the record, but the Jews are the first priority.)
That the animus is not restricted to Israeli Jews is also clear by the global reaction. Mass rallies in major cities around the globe, celebrating the slaughter and attacking local Jews and Jewish institutions. And back to campuses: SJP immediately launched a social media campaign celebrating this mass slaughter of Jews (which they call “resistance”), and then launched a campaign to “bring the resistance” to every campus they could, in order to “dismantle” Zionism on every campus. Lovely words—except when “resistance” openly means “slaughter every Jew,” when “dismantling Zionism” means removing, “by any means necessary,” anyone on campus who believes that Jews have human rights too, and when they illustrate their campaign with a celebratory image of the paraglider armed with automatic weapons about to embark on gunning down every unarmed dancing teenager in his sight.
This is open endorsement of, and incitement to, mass homicidal violence—occurring on, and directed towards, not only Israel and Israelis but our very campuses.
They don’t even hide it. They’re proud about it. They were exulting in it. “We are all Hamas!” the young woman in North Carolina screamed. Can you imagine if she were your roommate, your classmate, your student?
Hamas, SJP, have never hid their intentions. “Resistance,” and “By any means necessary,” even “decolonization,” are the sanitized way they like to put it, but as you see them chuckle in glee, in ecstasy, over this mass slaughter, giving those snuff videos millions of views and likes and glowing reviews, it looks a lot less sanitary.
When an openly genocidal Jew-hating group declares, and then perpetrates, their intention to slaughter Jews, is it not advisable to #BelieveThem?
And when a campus group does the same? Silence? Really? Is there any other identity group about which it would be acceptable to celebrate their mass slaughter, and campaign to bring that slaughter to your campus? What exactly are all those diversity and inclusion administrators paid to do, if not to prevent this?
Or at least condemn it? But silence is what we got on my campus, and on many campuses.
Is that because people—our administrators, our colleagues, our students—agree? That every Jew is guilty, that every Jew is evil, that every Jew must be eliminated?
Is that what they are thinking, when they look at their Jewish colleagues, students—at you—even if they are good enough not to say it aloud?
That the answer is yes is supported by what, of course, predictably, happened next.
Jews began to defend themselves. And the world, including campuses, promptly erupted and continues to erupt in outrage at every single measure Jews take in so doing. There isn’t a single nation on earth that wouldn’t respond massively to such an attack, but when Jews do it, every measure is instantly labeled an aggression, an atrocity, a war crime, there will be international tribunals, etc. That is because in their eyes Jews do not have the right to defend themselves, the right that all other human beings have—because after a generation of the program academics and their students now apparently believe that Jews are so demonic they are not even endowed with the “human rights” championed by all the anti-Israel “human rights” NGOs, whose condemnations of Israeli self-defense are as loud as anyone else’s.
One other thing also happened next. The more decent among the academy did have some words of concern about the massacre but couldn’t resist even a nanosecond before appending to those words their “explanations,” their “context,” the “nuance,” the “what choice did they have” rhetoric—invoking, after all, the “blockade,” the “occupation,” the “apartheid,” etc. The lies, the damned lies, doing all the work, obscuring the fact that the Palestinians, even Hamas, did and do have many other choices available besides slaughtering Jews, including that of actually making peace with Israel.
One academic actually said the following to me. The reason she was silent to that point wasn’t that she hated Jews, she said, but that she was trying to understand the conflict from multiple sides, because it is after all extremely complicated. When this person was confronted with the mass sadistic slaughter of 1400 mostly civilian Jews including babies, in other words, her response was “I need to hear more perspectives.” Imagine saying on a campus today that you were suspending judgment on the George Floyd case, and on the general phenomenon of anti-Black racism, and while you’re at it on slavery too because the situation is “complicated” and there are other “sides,” including the side that held that all Blacks are evil and deserve to be enslaved or eliminated.
Is there any other identity group about which it would be acceptable to justify their mass slaughter by providing “context,” insisting on “nuance,” wanting to see the “other side”?
Academics are supposed to be in the subtlety and nuanced business, and indeed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex, and there is lots of room for reasonable debates about many aspects of it.
But that is not what’s going on here. The issue at hand really is extraordinarily simple: either those raped and murdered and abused and burned and decapitated babies and families and grandmothers deserved that fate, or they did not. Any “but,” any “explanation,” any “context,” any “complication,” any “both sides,” any “all lives matter” (as many of those tepid university statements exhibited) blames the victim for their slaughter and comes down as a vote that they deserved it—because, in the end, because no other explanation is possible, they must believe that every Jew is evil, and that the medieval Christians and modern Nazis and contemporary Hamasniks have it right.
Anything less than outright unqualified condemnation of this act is a signal to your Jewish colleagues, peers, and students, that their very existence on this planet is an aggressive provocation to you. The tepidity and the silence may be marginally better than the “Intifada!” and “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Death to the Jews!” chants heard on all too many campuses this past week, but they signify exactly the same thing.
Here is one other neat trick, pointing again to the same conclusion. Many instantly responded to the onset of the Israeli response by calling for de-escalation, by condemning genocide. Beautiful: who could be against de-escalation, and for genocide? But here’s the problem. Wasn’t Hamas’s mass sadistic slaughter of some 1400 mostly civilians just a little bit of a, you know, escalation? And part of an explicit campaign of, you know, genocide? How does one come out for de-escalation only after the Jew-slaughterers have finished their slaughter, and without even acknowledging that slaughter? How does one come out against genocide only after the openly genocidal group has finished its round of genocidal activity, and do so without even acknowledging that genocidal activity? Think about the message that sends to Jewish community members: we have no objection when you are attacked, but we condemn you when you respond. Or maybe: genocide is dreadful, except when it’s perpetrated against Jews.
Not to mention that there is a whole other mode of de-escalation, and genocide prevention, that these folks entirely overlook. They could demand that Hamas return all the hostages immediately and surrender, and then the war is over, instantly. You don’t get more de-escalating and anti-genocidal than that. Yet somehow that is not the mode they are calling for.
Make that condemnation of the Hamas slaughter, full stop, unconditional—and then perhaps we can have reasonable discussions about many things, including about the scope and nature of the Israeli response.
Anything else and the conclusion is inescapable: they just want Jews dead. For the record, it is possible to be “pro-Palestinian” yet also condemn this massacre, full stop. That really isn’t so hard to work out. And yet finding a person or two on a campus taking that position will keep you busy for a pretty long time.
Even as I write this I cannot fully believe it, but it really is past denying. As that young woman at the University of Washington sobbed, “They want us dead.”
It is Hamas, I obviously believe, that is profoundly evil. But one thing to their “credit,” I suppose: they at least tell you who they are, they are open about it, they may be violent religious extremist fanatics but at least you know who you are dealing with.
But the academics—the professors, the administrators, now a full generation of students and young alumni—the people who justify that violence, who create entire ideologies that fertilize the ground by painting the victim as the evil one, as the one who deserves this extermination, are at least equally evil. They may not pull the trigger but they create the conditions that make the trigger pulling justifiable and therefore feasible, and do so in a massively deceptive way. The entire “Anti-Zionism” campaign of the past two decades was just that, a wolf in sheep’s clothing: take the eternal hatred of the Jew and wrap it up as “political critique,” or “human rights,” so that it will be allowed to enter the academic arena, where it will seep into the brains of unsuspecting students. In the past decade the “wokeness” and “diversity” program added fuel to this fire, prettying up that sheep, turning Western Jews into privileged white supremacist oppressors of people of color while their Israeli Jewish siblings oppress the Palestinians of color, so that in the name of all the higher virtues it became acceptable and then obligatory to start hating the Jews, all of the Jews, who now represent the ultimate evil in their 21st-century eyes. That is precisely what the medieval Christians and the modern Nazis did, and what those academic “progressives” and “Anti-Zionists” who have been propagating these vicious lies for many years under their various jargony names have been doing.
There is no evil like the academic who provides the ideological foundation for the extermination of a people, and insists that you call that program “virtue.”
“Death to the Jews!” at least has the decency to be explicit. But the tepidity, and the silence from administration, from the diversity administrators, from the faculty, on so many other campuses—says the same thing.
They really want us dead. [Featured Image: Pro-Hamas protest at University of Wisconsin (“Glory to the martyrs, glory to the murders”), via Twitter] ——————- Andrew Pessin is Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at Connecticut College, and Campus Bureau Editor of the Algemeiner. Among other works he is co-editor of Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS. More information about him and his work may be found at www.andrewpessin.com. [See Next Post: Not So Safe Space ]
Stumbled upon a protest today at the @UWMadison They believe the only good Jew is a dead Jew #IStandWithIsrael
The folks screaming “Intifada, Revolution” on college campuses aren’t talking about Israel anymore
They’re talking about America. Wake Up and Smell the Jihad. #AmericaUnderAttack
|
Why Can’t They Just Leave The Jewish Hostage Posters Alone?Mentally healthy people just walk by a poster they don’t like. Psychopaths and sociopaths tear them down, and when you throw in DEI-infused dehumanization of Jews, you get the anti-Israel movement we now have.Posted by William A. Jacobson, 9November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/why-cant-they-just-leave-the-jewish-hostage-posters-alone/
There has been a wave of vandalism of posters placed in various locations of Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas, other terrorist groups, and “civilians” on October 7.
While I haven’t done a rigorous statistical survey, anecdotally I and others have noticed that the poster-rippers and other violent anti-Israel protesters disproportionately are young women.
Los Angeles. 2023.
Recognize them? DM us!
The lack of humanity by your students is not only heartbreaking but extremely concerning @nyuniversity
There are many more examples posted at StopAntiSemitism, Canary Mission, and elsewhere on Twitter.
They have smug grins and a glee on their faces just like the sadists who tortured and mutilated Israelis on October 7. The posters for them are a proxy for Jews in the flesh. If you wonder how “normal” people can turn into barbarians, you are witnessing it in real time.
The posters attract these deranged haters like flies. They just can’t help themselves. Why not just walk on by? Why not put up your own posters? Why the need to destroy? They are taking out some life frustration and letting loose the demons within them on Jews who are victims.
I read a really good description of what is at least part of the problem, by Antonio García Martínez writing at The Tablet:
A lot of people are waking up to the dehumanization of Jews through CRT/’anti-racism’/DEI. We’ve been screaming about it for years. We even started a website to document how deeply the racialized pathology has spread (CriticalRace.org).
But we’re just “right wing” so we never penetrated the broader and mostly liberal American Jewish community. Now that Bari Weiss is writing about it, though, its okay for liberal Jews to call out the DEI monster:
It’s no coincidence that so many of the poster-rippers are in college or work at colleges. That is where the DEI-indoctrination is the most intense.
This is not a working class phenomenon.
This is a DEI-addicted illness.
Of course, there are other factors. Some are motivated by traditional Islamist Jew-hatred, some by traditional leftist-Jew hatred, some are just deeply unhappy and disturbed people with deep emotional problems who have found someone else to make miserable.
Mentally healthy people just walk by a poster they don’t like. Psychopaths and sociopaths tear them down, and when you throw in DEI-infused dehumanization of Jews, you get the anti-Israel movement we now have.
|
Liberals more distant from Israel
New JPPI Poll: The survey examines whether the events make US Jews feel “closer” or “more distant” from Israel. In this question, there is a substantial decrease in the proportion of very liberal or fairly liberal Jews who consider that the events will make them feel closer to Israel, alongside a slight increase in those who estimate that the events will make them feel “more distant ” from Israel (notably, among very liberals, from 5% to 13%). Additionally, there is an increase in the proportion of those who believe that the events will “not change” their degree of closeness to Israel. The survey was conducted among 696 Jews in the United States.
If your entire worldview is that the world is divided between “oppressors” and the “oppressed,” then anything that shows that you are wrong and sometimes Jews can be oppressed enrages you. Which is why people tear down the “kidnapped” signs. The signs violate their religion.
|
|
Please walk away from the people in your life who are..
Let. Them. Go.
|
|
How are Jewish students coping with antisemitism on campus?
How are Jewish students coping with antisemitism on campus? A @UBCPsych study is recruiting Jewish students to take part in a study on stress and coping. If you self-identify as Jewish and attend a college or university, we would love to hear from you. https://delongis.psych.ubc.ca/participate/jewish-on-campus/
|
|
Jewish students, university campuses can be tough places these days
So I want to run through a few things that you will encounter on college campuses. Because you need to be prepared. When you get to college you’re going to run into groups which are a part of the boycott Israel movement. These groups will pretend to be all about justice, freedom and human rights, which is great, except that’s not what they are about. These groups intention is to destroy the only Jewish state in the world. They don’t hide it, they just hide it from you. They will tell you that they don’t hate Jews, they just hate Israel or even better “Zionists”. Never mind that Zionism only means that Jews are allowed to have a state, like every other people, and that most Jews believe in that. They will tell you that Jews have nothing to do with the Land of Israel. But the simple truth is: Israel is a massive part of Jewish identity. It’s where Jews and Judaism come from and where we have always had a presence. We’re called Jews because we come from Judea. Why am I telling you all this? Because they want to tell you that your identity is wrong and that there is something wrong with you. That being Jewish, being a Zionist is something to be ashamed of. They want you to hide your Jewish identity. But Jewish people are done hiding. We are not going to live in hiding. We live in a time when everyone is encouraged to celebrate who they are. Every identity is expected to be accepted. And should be. Gender identity. Sexual identity. Ethnic identity. We have to celebrate our Jewish identity as well! So now, at college and beyond: walk with your heads held high. Take pride in who you are and what you represent. Flaunt your star of David, invite all your friends for Shabbat. find a nice Jewish boy. We will not hide and we will not let the haters tell us who we are or who we can be. Now go have a great weekend, have fun get inspired and don’t forget – Am Yisrael Chai
|
21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University, “Return home as soon as possible and remain home antisemitism explodes on campus.”
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home…” Belaaz News-tweet-21April2024-Jewish students at Colombia University Return home as soon as possible and remain home-Rav Elie Buechler-21April2024 It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved. It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus. If you need assistance please reach out to me.
Shame on you @Columbia. @NYCMayor @GovKathyHochul it’s fucking time to do something. It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
|
|
Israeli student at Columbia “We currently fear for our personal safety”
Don’t listen to me. Listen to them: “Dear Shai, I am writing to you as a concerned Israeli student at Columbia University, along with 133 fellow Israeli students. On April 23rd at 8:00 AM, we addressed a letter to President Shafik, Co-Chair Shipman, and Co-Chair Greenwald, expressing our fears about our safety on campus and the critical need for immediate action. I have attached the letter for your reference. We are reaching out because we believe that our concerns are being neglected by the university administration, and we recognize the significant role that the media is playing in these recent events. We fear further escalation of violence on campus and want to ensure that our voices are heard and that preventive measures are taken to safeguard all students. We believe that increased media attention can help bring about the necessary changes and hold the university accountable for ensuring a safe environment for everyone. We request that when posting the letter it is done anonymously, as we currently fear for our personal safety.”
|
|
Columbia is currently preventing its Jewish professors from entering the campus
A dark day in the history of the US 🇺🇲
|
|
Not So Safe Space
Anti-Israel Berkeley students attacked a Jewish girl at the university
Crickets in national media. Antisemitic physical attacks at universities are becoming a norm
Courageous and authentic testimony by Israeli-American MIT PhD, Liyam Chitayat, about antisemitism at MIT. Commons in Boston, Nov 19, 2023. @BillAckman @MIT Antisemitism at MIT
StopAntisemitism-tweet-16October2023-
In response, the school’s president felt the need to condemn Islamophobia and have an advisory committee consider divesting from companies doing business with the IDF.
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023-
So they brought the protest inside and blocked all the exits. Then the banging started. The Reaction to the pogrom
Not So Safe SpaceEliana Rudee – Not So Safe Space 2017 contest video 1080p |
How Were the Universities Lost?The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud LightBy Victor Davis Hanson 7December2023 https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/07/how-were-the-universities-lost/
After October 7, the public was shocked at what they saw and heard on America’s campuses. Americans knew previously they were intolerant, leftwing, and increasingly non-meritocratic.
But immediately after October 7—and even before the response of the Israeli Defense Forces—the sheer student delight on news of the mass murdering of Israeli victims seemed akin more to 1930s Germany than contemporary America.
Indeed, not a day goes by when a university professor or student group has not spouted anti-Semitic hatred. Often, they threaten and attack Jewish students, or engage in mass demonstrations calling for the extinction of Israel.
Why and how did purportedly enlightened universities become incubators of such primordial hatred? After the George Floyd riots, reparatory admissions—the effort to admit diverse students beyond their numbers in the general population—increased.
Elite universities like Stanford and Yale boasted that their so-called “white” incoming student numbers had plunged to between 20 and 40 precent, despite whites making up 68-70 percent of the general population.
The abolition of the SAT requirement, and often the comparative ranking of high school grade point averages, have ended the ancient and time-proven idea of meritocracy. Brilliant high school transcripts and test scores no longer warrant admissions to so-called elite schools.
One result was that the number of Jews has nosedived from 20-30 percent of Ivy League student bodies during the 1970s and 1980s to 10-15 percent.
Jewish students are also currently stereotyped as “white” and “privileged”—and thus considered as fair game on campus. At the same time, the number of foreign students, especially from the oil-rich Middle East, has soared on campuses. Most are subsidized by their homeland governments. They pay the full, non-discounted tuition rates to cash-hungry universities.
Huge numbers of students have entered universities, who would not have been admitted by the very standards universities until recently claimed were vital to ensure their own competitiveness and prestige.
Consequently, they are no longer the guarantors of topflight undergraduates and professionals from their graduate programs.
Faculty are faced with new lose/lose/lose choices of either diminishing their course requirements, or inflating their grades, or facing charges by Diversity/Equity/Inclusion commissars of systematic bias in their grading— or all three combined.
The net result is that there are now thousands of students from abroad, especially from the Middle East, far fewer Jewish students, and student bodies who demand radical changes in faculty standards and course work to accommodate their unease with past standards of expected student achievement.
And, presto, an epidemic of anti-Semitism naturally followed. In such a vacuum, advocacy “-studies” classes proliferated, along with faculty to teach them. “Gender, black, Latino, feminist, Asian, Queer, trans, peace, environmental, and green”-studies courses demand far less from students, and arbitrarily select some as “oppressed” and others as “oppressors”. The former “victims” are then given a blank check to engage in racist and anti-Semitic behavior without consequences.
Proving to be politically correct in these deductive gut-courses rather than pressed to express oneself coherently, inductively, and analytically from a repertoire of fact-based-knowledge explains why the public witnesses faculty and students who are simultaneously both arrogant and ignorant.
At some universities “blacklists” circulate warning “marginalized” students which professors they should avoid who still cling to supposedly outdated standards regarding exam-taking, deadlines, and absences.
All these radical changes explain the current spectacle of angry students citing grievances, and poorly educated graduates who have had little course work in traditional history, literature, philosophy, logic, or the traditional sciences.
Universities and students have plenty of money to continue the weaponization of the university, given their enormous tax-free endowment income. Nearly $2-trillion in government-subsidized student loans are issued without accountability or reasonable demands that they be repaid in timely fashion.
Exceptions and exemptions are the bible of terrified and careerist administrators. Faced with an epidemic of anti-Semitism, university administrators now claim they can do little to curb the hatred. But privately they know should the targets of similar hatred be instead blacks, gays, Latinos, or women, then they would expel the haters in a nanosecond.
What is the ultimate result of once elite campuses giving 70-80 percent of their students As, becoming hotbeds of dangerous anti-Semitism, and watered-down curricula that cannot turn out educated students?
The Ivy league and their kindred so-called elite campuses may soon go the way of Disney and Bud Light. They think such a crash in their reputations is impossible given centuries of accustomed stature. But the erosion is already occurring—and accelerating. At the present rate, a Stanford law degree, a Harvard political science major, or a Yale social science BA will soon scare off employers and the general public at large.
These certificates will signify not proof of humility, knowledge, and decency, but rather undeserved self-importance, vacuousness, and fanaticism—and all to be avoided rather than courted. |
|
Israel-Hamas War Proves America’s Ivy League Colleges Are Festering With Violent Antisemitism – Part One“Astonishing,” “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible” were some of the adjectives used by Columbia University tenured professor Joseph Massad to describe the rape and murder rampage by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7. Massad, who…Rachel O’Donoghue 5November2023 https://honestreporting.com/israel-hamas-war-proves-americas-ivy-league-colleges-are-festering-with-violent-antisemitism-part-one/
“Astonishing,” “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible” were some of the adjectives used by Columbia University tenured professor Joseph Massad to describe the rape and murder rampage by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7.
Massad, who has taught Modern Arab Politics at the New York institution since 1999, lavished praise on the barbaric attack in a piece published in the Electronic Intifada, which is edited by Ali Abunimah and infamous for promoting hateful rhetoric.
“What can motorized paragliders do in the face of one of the most formidable militaries in the world?” Asks Massad in his opening line, referring to the armed paragliders who swooped on the Supernova musical festival and slaughtered hundreds of revelers. “Apparently much in the hands of an innovative Palestinian resistance,” he crows in response to his question.
It’s truly sickening stuff; a shameless celebration of wanton violence against primarily unarmed men, women and children by a professor at one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States. And yet, it is not surprising. Something is rotten in America’s elite educational establishments; Ivy League schools are becoming breeding grounds for extremism and intolerance.
This has been no better exemplified than in the weeks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, when students at nearly every Ivy League college have attended marches and protests where they have openly voiced their support for the Hamas attacks and called for the extermination of the world’s only Jewish state.
Eretz Nehederet or ‘A Wonderful Country’ takes pro-Hamas university students to task for ignoring what’s right in front of them. Columbia UniversityMassad’s support for Islamist terrorism and indiscriminate violence against Jews is disturbing. Even more disturbing, though, is the Columbia University leadership’s refusal to take any action against — even to condemn — the academic.
Shortly after Massad penned the article, Columbia student Maya Platek started a petition, which has now been signed by nearly 70,000 people, calling on Columbia University to hold him accountable.
“Massad’s decision to praise the abhorrent attack encourages violence and misinformation in and outside of campus, particularly putting many Jewish and Israeli students on campus at risk. Moreover, many students have expressed that they feel unsafe in the presence of a professor who supports the horrific murders of civilians,” states the petition.
While the university has completely ignored the petition and the concerns voiced by Jewish students, members of the faculty have come out in support of pro-terror students, including more than 100 academics who signed a letter demanding that such students not face consequences for praising the attacks.
“In our view, the student statement aims to recontextualize the events of Oct. 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years,” the academics wrote of the attack.
The academics’ letter was released after a leading law firm rescinded job offers to students at Columbia University and Harvard University who signed statements in support of the attacks.
While Columbia University President Minouche Shafik joined forces with other college heads to announce a vague plan to combat antisemitism on campus, it appears to be a superficial effort considering that Shafik also praised the “persistence” of Columbia students accused of antisemitism.
Jewish students at Columbia University in New York City release at statement saying they are being intimidated on campus and that the university is doing absolutely nothing about it
Harvard UniversityAmong the worst behavior witnessed on college campuses since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last month has been at Harvard University, where students belonging to the recently-formed group Graduate Students 4 Palestine (GS4P) spearheaded numerous campus protests.
The most shocking scenes of anti-Israel and antisemitic hatred occurred at a so-called “Stop the genocide in Gaza” die-in demonstration at the Harvard Business School on October 18, when a pro-Israeli student attempting to film the protest was assaulted by a mob that had surrounded and taunted him with screams of “Shame, shame, shame.”
The mob of aggressive pro-Palestinian students reportedly included one of the founders of GS4P, Elon Tettey-Temalko, a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, and Harvard Law Review editor Ibrahim Bharmal, whose name has since been scrubbed from the website page naming the board of the editors.
The pro-murder, pro-kidnapping mob is targeting and harassing Jewish students at @Harvard.
Antisemitism and hostility toward Israel and Israeli students are not new phenomena at Harvard — indeed it is a festering problem that has long been ignored by the university administration.
There have been numerous incidents at the elite college over the years, including the Cornel West tenure controversy, which HonestReporting has documented and is indicative of a culture of intolerance toward Israeli and Jewish students.
Just last month, Harvard refused to take action against Harvard Kennedy School Professor Marshall Ganz, who was found to have discriminated against Israeli students, subjecting them to “anti-Israel and antisemitic bias,” according to a third-party investigator.
Far from rebuking the academic, Ganz was praised for his civil rights work in the Harvard Gazette, which is the university’s official news website. Cornell UniversityClasses had to be canceled at Cornell University and 21-year-old computer science student Patrick Dai was arrested after he posted several violent threats directed at Jewish classmates on a Cornell student forum.
Dai appeared in federal court earlier this month after he logged onto the forum using the screen name “Hamas” and threatened to slit the throats of Jewish people and described them as rats and pigs. In one post he warned he was “gonna shoot up 104 west,” in reference to a dining hall that mostly caters to Jewish students and is next to the Cornell Jewish Center.
While Cornell University’s president made the decision to cancel classes and condemned antisemitism on campus in a statement, it is clear that the problem of anti-Jewish hate at Cornell is more entrenched and widespread than one individual student.
Russell Rickford, a history professor at the college, issued an apology after he was filmed at an October 15 pro-Palestinian rally on the Ithaca, New York, campus praising the attack that had occurred one week previously. “Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence” and “shifted the balance of power,” he told a crowd of young people. “It was exhilarating. It was energizing,” Rickford added of watching the attack unfold.
After initially standing by his statements, Rickford later rowed back on his remarks and apologized “for the horrible choice of words,” admitting they were “reprehensible.” He is currently on a leave of absence from the university and will not teach this semester.
Cornell president Martha Pollack and board of trustees chairman Kraig Kayser condemned Rickford and explained the college is “taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it, consistent with our procedures.” Whether that review will result in Rickford’s permanent dismissal remains to be seen. Yale UniversityThere have been accusations that Yale University ignores the problem of antisemitism on its campus — from inviting antisemitic speakers to visit campus and address students during Jewish holidays to anti-Jewish fliers being handed out on campus.
Yale also proved little had changed with regard to how it deals with antisemitism following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, including the university refusing to remove a professor who praised the Hamas attack.
Zareena Grewal, associate professor of American studies, ethnicity, race and migration, described the events of October 7 as “extraordinary,” adding in another post on X (formerly Twitter) that “Israel is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity #FreePalestine.”
Despite a petition calling for her to be fired being signed by tens of thousands of people, Yale released a statement in support of Grewal’s right to “freedom of expression.”
Meanwhile, the Yale Daily News, which is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States, published the most extraordinary apology after initial articles it published reporting on the Hamas attacks were later “corrected” to remove reference to terrorists raping and beheading people.
Explaining how the actions of murderous terrorists were sanitized in this way, the student newspaper’s editor Anika Seth explained they were “wrong to publish the corrections” and claimed they only did so because the “specific forms of violence” had not been independently confirmed by the source cited in the article.
“It was never the News’ intention to minimize the brutality of Hamas’ attack against Israel. We are sorry for any unintended consequences to our readership and will ensure that such erroneous and damaging material does not make it into our content, either as opinion or as news,” the apology added.
At the end of a column by @sahar_tartak, editors at @yaledailynews affixed a “correction”, saying claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men are “unsubstantiated”. @Yale’s student newspaper is running cover for Hamas.
Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more! Photo credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
Why Antisemitism, Anger and Intolerance Have Infected America’s Ivy League Colleges – Part TwoWe recently examined the alarming escalation in antisemitism seen on US college campuses — specifically at the Ivy League universities of Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Columbia — since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October…Rachel O’Donoghue November 8, 202 https://honestreporting.com/why-antisemitism-anger-and-intolerance-have-infected-americas-ivy-league-colleges-part-two/
We recently examined the alarming escalation in antisemitism seen on US college campuses — specifically at the Ivy League universities of Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Columbia — since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
In this second part, we will look at the remaining four Ivy Leagues, charting how America’s most elite educational establishments have become havens of intolerance and why so many of their students harbor such hatred toward both Jews and the State of Israel. University of PennsylvaniaTwo weeks before Hamas’s barbaric rampage through southern Israeli communities resulted in the biggest loss of Jewish life in a day since the Holocaust, the University of Pennsylvania was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal when notorious Jew-hating musician Roger Waters was invited to speak on campus.
Waters, who is best known as a founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd and for goose-stepping on-stage while dressed as a Nazi, was asked to address attendees at the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” before he was banned from campus following a backlash by critics who had noted that the event was scheduled to coincide with the Jewish High Holiday period, thus reducing the likelihood of Jewish students protesting antisemitic speakers.
In the lead-up to the festival, which went ahead as scheduled with Waters speaking remotely, numerous incidents of antisemitism were recorded on campus, including a swastika that was drawn inside the school’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the arrest of a man who entered the Penn Hillel and screamed statements such as, “F—k the Jews” and “They killed JC,” a reference to the myth that Jews are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
In light of the Waters controversy, UPenn President Liz Magill belatedly announced her personal commitment to addressing antisemitism at the college, adding: “The University of Pennsylvania has a long and proud history of being a place for people of all backgrounds and faiths, and acts of antisemitism have no place at Penn.” How utterly hollow those words were. In the days and weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered and kidnapped more than 1,400 Israeli civilians, UPenn has again allowed antisemitism to rear its head on campus.
The university administration’s first statement to condemn the Hamas atrocity was more than a week after it took place. On Sunday, October 15, Magill sent an email to the university community.
“I want to leave no doubt about where I stand,” it said. “I, and this university, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification — none — for these heinous attacks…” However, the email apparently only came after Jon Huntsman Jr, the former governor of Utah and former US ambassador to China, Russia, and Singapore, told Magill that his charitable organization, the Huntsman Foundation, would be pulling donations from the university over the issue of antisemitism.
For some UPenn students, though, the email’s failure to mention Palestinians was akin to not recognizing their “existence,” and they organized a mass walkout of classes in response. Videos and photos taken of the protest show students chanting slogans such as, “Intifada, Intifada,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” A handful of students reportedly harassed a rabbi who was manning a tefillin stand on the route marchers took.
Other wealthy UPenn donors have since followed Huntsman Jr’s lead and pulled funding from the college, including Marc Rowan, who contributed more than $50 million in 2018, and Steve Eisman, who demanded his name be removed from a university scholarship.
Princeton UniversityIn August this year, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli wrote a letter to Princeton University’s senior leadership about a book that was approved to go on the syllabus of the Near Eastern Studies Department’s “Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South” course.
The book, “The Healing Humanities: The Right to Maim,” written by Jasbir Puar, falsely claims that Israel harvests the organs of Palestinians and that the country has a policy of trying to maim Palestinians.
Despite the text promoting a modern-day blood libel, Princeton’s President Christopher L. Eisgruber refused to remove the text from the syllabus on the grounds that it would be “censoring” the curriculum.
“Those who disagree with a book, or a syllabus, are free to criticize it but not to censor it,” he wrote. “Such arguments are the lifeblood of a great university, where controversies must be addressed through deliberation and debate, not administrative fiat.”
However, one must question the sincerity of Eisgruber’s view about fighting censorship, considering the fact that under his tenure, Princeton scrubbed the name of America’s 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, from its public policy school on the basis that Wilson’s “racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms.”
Incidentally, as Michael Goldstein pointed out in the Jewish Journal, the inclusion of Puar’s antisemitic tome in the curriculum actually marked the second time the “Israelis harvest Palestinian organs” blood libel had been legitimized on campus. Just months before the Puar controversy, professional Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who has accused Israelis of eating Palestinian organs and lusting after their blood, was paid to give the Edward Said lecture at the university’s English Department.
Many in Princeton’s undergraduate student body have also been gunning to pass a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which seeks to isolate and eventually dismantle the Jewish state.
What followed a March 2022 vote on BDS was reminiscent of something out of a banana republic. In total, 44 percent of students voted in favor, 40 percent voted against and 16 percent abstained, which was supposed to mean the resolution immediately failed, because abstentions prevented a majority.
However, a dispute ensued about how abstentions would be counted, with Eric Periman, then-president of the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP), which sponsored the resolution, arguing the pro-BDS camp had won.
Around the same time that PCP was pushing for Princeton to support BDS, the group made crystal clear its real target when it held a protest outside the campus Center for Jewish Life (CJL) in which protestors held signs with phrases commonly used by Hamas such as, “from the river to the sea” and during which PCP President Periman suggested Princeton’s Jewish students were complicit in human rights violations. Dartmouth CollegeTwo pro-Palestinian students were arrested at Dartmouth last month after they allegedly trespassed on the grounds of the university’s Parkhurst Hall late at night and threatened to “escalate” and take “physical action” against college administrators in a document titled the “Dartmouth New Deal,” which demands the school divest from “Israeli apartheid.”
“You have until the first day of the winter term to publicly address our demands and outline a plan to meet them. If you fail to do so, we will escalate and take further action,” the document reportedly warned.
The arrests followed at least one pro-Palestinian rally in which attendees reportedly chanted, “Israel is a terror state.”
However, while Dartmouth has grappled with more isolated incidents of anti-Jewish hatred on campus, including a swastika being carved on the college green and a public menorah being shot at with pellets, it should be noted that the general response by the university leadership to the Israel-Hamas war last month has been commendable.
Spearheaded by a group of Middle Eastern academics at the college, two public forums were set up on October 9 that featured professors from Israel, Lebanon and Egypt discussing the conflict, which were attended by hundreds of students in-person and online.
Encouraging students to attend the forums, the university’s President Sian Leah said: “I watched with growing horror the Hamas attack on Israel this weekend, the escalating violence, and the devastating loss of life, especially among civilians… In every conflict, one of the most important roles a university can play is to help us understand it, and to make a space for dialogue and community.”
Leah’s dither-free response to the attacks, which was in stark contrast to the leaders of so many other colleges, was a welcome change from her predecessor Philip Hanlon, whose role in attempting to hire BDS-supporting Professor N. Bruce Duthu as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences had been criticized as another “chapter in the school’s history of anti-Semitism.” Brown UniversityBrown’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an organization that has a well-documented history of disseminating vicious anti-Israel propaganda and vilifying Jewish students, was already organizing pro-Palestinian campus protests as Hamas terrorists were still cutting their bloodsoaked path through southern Israel.
In addition to organizing several student walkouts, the group posted on October 12 a statement to its Instagram account in which it claimed Israel was responsible for the Hamas massacre and stated it stands in “solidarity with the Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.”
At one such campus rally, an SJP member was captured on film telling the crowd: “Palestinians will die for justice and will die to return to our land. Glory to our martyrs from the river to the sea … Palestine is the hope of the world.”
Apparently, explicitly supporting a proscribed terrorist organization that is sworn to the destruction of both Jews and Israel is not enough to get the group banned from Brown’s campus.
Although Brown University’s President Christina H. Paxson has opposed calls for the college to adopt a pro-BDS stance, the school’s response to antisemitism among the Brown community has been criticized, particularly after several high-profile incidents at the college over the past two years, including swastikas drawn around campus and antisemitic threats directed toward Brown Hillel.
It is not so difficult to explain why so many students — many of whom would proudly describe themselves as “anti-fascist” — are so intolerant toward Jews and Israel.
Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim described the scenes on American campuses as a product of the Marxist theories that have been taught for decades in higher education establishments:
And that is the crux of it: for American students, Israel and Jews are privileged, and privilege is the new original sin. Found this article informative? Follow the HonestReporting page on Facebook to read more articles debunking news bias and smears, as well as others explaining Israel’s history, politics, and international affairs. Click here to learn more! Photo credit: Simona Granati/Corbis via Getty Images |
|
StandWithUsThe StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department has never been busier as we respond to the explosion of antisemitic events since the massacre by Hamas on October 7. In a given year, we typically receive around 270 requests for legal help. In the last few weeks, since October 7, we have received nearly 400 requests through our legal hotline.
In response, we are utilizing all legal tools at our disposal, including sending demand letters and preparing Title VI complaints against universities, filing discrimination complaints, building cases for potential lawsuits, holding campus police accountable for misconduct, and so much more.
While many of the cases are coming from StandWithUs-affiliated students, we are also seeing an influx of new students, professors, and community members who have never before reached out to StandWithUs. We are also utilizing the hundreds of lawyers in our pro bono network like never before. We are so grateful for the outpouring of support We Have Reached Out to Thousands of Universities NationwideIn line with StandWithUs’ commitment to supporting students facing anti-Jewish bias, we’ve reached out to thousands of universities nationwide. We’ve reminded them of their legal responsibilities to Jewish and Israeli students and outlined specific actions they should take to align themselves with Title VI, civil rights laws, and criminal laws. Click to download PDF file StandWithUs Letter to General Counsel and VP Student AffairsRead an op-ed in Algemeiner about this initiative here or Below. Reminding Schools of Their Legal Obligations During Anti-Israel ProtestsIn light of ongoing anti-Israel rallies and protests, the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department has written legal letters to universities and high schools. Sample university letters are UCLA and Pomona. For a high school sample letter, click here. Click to download PDF file UCLA Letter re Nov 9 Event, Pomona Letter Re Nov 9 Event and StandWithUs Letter to High Schools Regarding WalkoutsSetting the Stage For Title VI Civil Rights FilingsCheck out an example of one of StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department’s recent demand letters to a university, setting the stage for a Title VI civil rights filing. This letter sheds light on the various challenges Jewish and Israeli students face on campus, including assault, disruptive protests, and illegal masking at George Mason University. Read the letter here, and explore other demand letters here. Click to download PDF file George Mason University Letter from StandWithUs
Taking Action Against Medical Professionals Espousing Bias Against Israel and JewsStandWithUs, in collaboration with Stop Antisemitism and the National Jewish Advocacy Center, is actively working to hold medical providers accountable for expressing antisemitism. Such expressions may interfere with their ability to provide proper care to Jewish and Israeli patients. Keep an eye on our newsletters for campaigns targeting medical providers in your area and learn how you can support these efforts. StandWithUs Legal HotlineTo report an antisemitic incident:
|
|
Jewish Students are standing up to the Antisemites
🥹💙🇮🇱💙🥹 #AmYisraelChai
These schools are infected by Islamist, Communist, Leftist feelings and emotions of rage based on no logic. 🤦
|
|
Jews on these campuses need to leave
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND ANTISEMITIC. They must all resign immediately today. |
|
Let’s Meet the Challenge of Rising Campus Antisemitism Through Legal Remedies by Carly Gammill and Yael Lerman 9November2023 https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/11/09/lets-meet-the-challenge-of-rising-campus-antisemitism-through-legal-remedies/ The surge in anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment in response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre, especially its blatant celebration by people around the world, is cause for serious alarm. This is particularly the case on college campuses, where Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students across the nation face incidents of ostracism, harassment, discrimination, threats, and violence in unprecedented numbers.
Of course, antisemitism and its glorification are not new phenomena. In 1939, for example, the freshman class at Princeton University voted Adolf Hitler the “greatest living person.” The following year’s freshman class repeated the vote with the same results, as, regrettably, did students at Georgetown University.
But we have two key advantages over our 1930s and 1940s counterparts. First, we know what happened the last time we hoped and waited for the antisemitic rhetoric rampaging universities to subside. Instead of being eradicated, it merely appeared to lay quiet for a few decades as it simmered and then exploded in the last few weeks, beyond any level we’ve previously experienced in the US.
We therefore have a duty to ensure that university administrators are on clear notice of their legal obligation to protect their Jewish and Israeli students from a pervasively hostile campus environment. And if they deliberately ignore our warnings, it is our duty to hold them accountable.
This is where our second advantage comes into play. We now have a powerful legal tool in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). A cornerstone of American anti-discrimination law, Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs receiving Federal financial assistance. Recipients who fail to comply with their responsibilities under Title VI risk the loss of their Federal funding. While there is no confusion that the “national origin” category of Title VI covers Israeli students, the US Department of Education has repeatedly affirmed that its protections also extend to groups based on real or perceived shared ethnicity or ancestry, including Jews. Click to Download UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS-antisemitism-dclIn accordance with the lessons of history and the longstanding commitment of StandWithUs to support students in the face of anti-Jewish bias and bigotry, on November 6, 2023, our Center for Combating Antisemitism and the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department wrote to university general counsels and vice presidents for student affairs across the nation to remind them of their legal duties to Jewish and Israeli students and identify specific actions they should take to align themselves with the requirements of Title VI and other civil rights laws. As explained in the letter:
(1) While students generally have the right to express their views on campus, academic departments, student government bodies, and registered student groups, do not have the right to misuse university resources — such as official school social media accounts and access to email listervs — to propagate hatred or incite violence. Such actions run afoul of professional standards, violate university policies, and create a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students.
(2) Universities have the responsibility to ensure that hateful speech does not escalate to harassment, discrimination, or criminal conduct on campus. If and when it does, it is not protected by academic freedom or freedom of speech, and the university administration is obligated to take the necessary steps — including punitive measures — to remedy the harm caused and deter such conduct from recurring.
(3) It should be self-evident that Hamas’ massacre, dismemberment, rape, beheadings, and kidnapping against anyone, let alone children, babies, the disabled, and the elderly, can never be justified. Yet moral clarity on these matters appears to be lacking within higher education institutions. University administrators should set the tone on their universities by using their voices to unequivocally condemn such acts of terror. This would clarify the university’s position as opposed to allowing the appearance by student groups who are pro-Hamas to represent the university.
(4) University administrators must ensure that faculty are unable to misuse their class time (including cancelling classes) for political indoctrination, especially when it may serve to marginalize Jewish students and support or promote terrorism.
(5) While the right to protest is generally protected under the First Amendment, allowing outside community members, who may harbor antisemitic intentions, to participate in student protests on university grounds is not necessarily protected. Administrators should do all in their power to limit non-student access to student events, check for valid student identification, and address unlawful behavior — including by making arrests where appropriate — to help protect the safety of all students.
(6) To the extent permissible under applicable law, universities should prohibit the wearing of masks during demonstrations. They should also ensure robust enforcement of laws prohibiting the wearing of a mask to conceal one’s identity during the commission of a crime. These actions can help prevent violence and harassment on campus and protect the safety of all students.
Universities today once again find themselves torn between asserting their inclusive values and acting on them. This time, we have the benefit of hindsight and the legal tools to protect students. It is the obligation of college and university administrators to apply both. And it is our organization’s mission to ensure that they do.
Carly Gammill is the director of the StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism. Yael Lerman is the director of the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department.
|
|
A guide to the chants at ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies:Please send this to anyone at a School, College or University. Parents, Students, Administrators and Teachers. These are Felony Death Threats. This violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/antisemitism-dcl.pdf
|
|
Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients & Impact
According to @USEdGov figures, colleges and universities in 1986-2021 “received nearly $8.5 billion from [official] Arab sources.” https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/Arab-Funding-1121.pdf
Click to download PDF file Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients and Impact |
|
‘Dark Money Nightmare’: How Qatar Bought the Ivy Leagueby Robert Williams
The hapless testimony by three Ivy League university presidents from Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce can be traced to Qatar and its insidious campaign to buy itself influence in US academia.
Qatar, oil-rich and with an estimated population of only 2.5 million, is the largest foreign donor — that we know about — to American universities, with at least $4.7 billion donated between 2001 and 2021. Many of those billions went unreported to the Department of Education, according to research done by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). Under federal law, colleges and universities that receive donations from foreign sources that total at least $250,000 must disclose such transactions to the Department of Education.
Qatar is far from the only authoritarian nation that donates to American universities. According to a Department of Education report from April 2023, American universities and colleges have received $19 billion from unreported sources, more than half of which has come from authoritarian and antidemocratic Middle East governments.
Flouting the law by failing to disclose foreign donations to universities has been declared a “dark money nightmare.” Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wrote in February 2023:
To assess properly the damage that Qatari influence in the US is causing, it is important to understand what Qatar stands for and promotes. Qatar has for decades cultivated a close relationship with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose motto is: “‘Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” Its aim appears to be ensuring that Islamic law, Sharia, governs all countries and all matters.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has enjoyed Qatar as its main sponsor, to the tune of up to $360 million a year, and was until recently the home of Hamas’ leadership. In 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzook, and Khaled Mashaal, among others, moved to Qatar for a life of luxury. This month, likely because of Israel’s announcement that it will hunt down and eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey, the Qatar-based Hamas officials reportedly fled to other countries.
Qatar was also home to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was exiled from Egypt, until his death in September 2022. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:
Qaradawi also founded many radical Islamist organizations, which are funded by Qatar. These include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which released a statement that called the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas against communities in southern Israel an “effective” and “mandatory development of legitimate resistance,” and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support their brothers and sisters “throughout all of Palestine, especially in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Gaza.””
Qatar also still is home to the lavishly-funded television network Al Jazeera, founded in 1996 by Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani. Called the “mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Al Jazeera began the violent “Arab Spring,” which “brought the return of autocratic rulers.”
In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, made 13 demands of Qatar: “to cut off relations with Iran, shutter Al Jazeera, and stop granting Qatari citizenship to other countries’ exiled oppositionists.” They subsequently cut ties with Qatar over its failure to agree to any of the demands, including ending its support for terrorism, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera.
The Saudi state-run news agency SPA said at the time:
This is the kind of influence that US universities and colleges are more than happy to see on their campuses in exchange for billions of dollars in Qatari donations. According to ISGAP:
In November 2023 ISGAP published a report, “The Corruption of the American Mind: How concealed foreign funding of higher education in the United States predicts the erosion of democratic values and antisemitic sentiment on campus.” It found that there is a direct correlation between antisemitism and censored speech on campus and undocumented contributions from foreign governments, notably Qatar. According to the report:
Qatar makes it possible for Ivy League universities to claim that they receive no funds from the Qatari state, because the donations are funneled through the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a not-for-profit organization established in 1995 by the Emir of Qatar. This ensures that the foundation can identify itself as a private organization, which enables Qatar to conceal its state funding as private donations.
In a report published this month, “Networks of Hate: Qatari Paymasters, Soft Power and the Manipulation of Democracy,” ISGAP wrote:
The issue of Qatar on US campuses, as serious as it is, is only part of a larger picture of Qatari influence in the US and the rest of the West.
Qatar funds US think-tanks, such as the Richardson Center for Global Engagement and the Brookings Institution, and infiltrates US media. In 2021, Qatar pledged that it would invest $10 billion in US ports. According to the US State department:
In February 2022, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim said in an interview, according to MEMRI, that Qatar had many journalists “in different countries” on its payroll.
Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States. |
|
Cornell Hillel Posts Warning After Threats To Jewish Students, Kosher Dining Hall“Cornell Police Department is on site and monitoring the situation…. We advise that students and staff avoid the building out of an abundance of caution.”
104 West is the home of Cornell’s Kosher Dining Hall, and is also next to the Center for Jewish Living. Cornell Hillel has posted a warning on Facebook that the dining hall is on lockdown after online threats: These apparently are some of the online threats:
Isaac de Castro-tweet-29October2023-There’s more.
[See referenced Tweet next.]
Annie Vail-tweet-29October2023- I have warned the Board of Trustees about the antisemitism problem on campus, but have been ignored, “Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jacobson’s call to evaluate antisemitism on campus”. MORE TO FOLLOW We don’t know yet the source or seriousness of these threats, or who is behind them. (I should also add that at Legal Insurrection we have covered here a long line of campus hate hoaxes, so we can’t rule that out until more is known.) But anti-Israel activists have been getting more and more aggressive, Anti-Israel Graffiti Appears on Campus at Cornell University.
The President of Cornell issued this all campus email at approxiately 7 p.m. tonight (emphasis in original):
|
|
Why Was It So Hard For Elite Universities To Condemn Hamas Terrorism?by Tyler Durden, 21October2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-was-it-so-hard-elite-universities-condemn-hamas-terrorism Authored by Marc Zvi Brettler & Michael B. Poliakoff via RealClear Wire,
America’s leading universities have an antisemitism problem—and it starts at the top. This past week, university presidents and deans across the country wrote to their students and faculties to express concern in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas. What they said, and what they did not say, provides a window into the culture of intellectual and moral rot and cowardice that reigns at these once-great institutions.
Those who attack Jews or Israel are all too often exempt from their excoriation. Hamas terrorists massacred some 1,300 Israelis, took approximately 200 hostages, most of them civilians, and left an additional 3,200 injured, but you would not know it from some university leaders’ missives this week.
At Harvard University, President Claudine Gay has issued three muddled statements, under pressure, on the horrific events. Her first statement was a tepid confession of “heartbreak” that implied an equivalence between the Hamas attacks and Israel neutralizing the terrorists. This embarrassment was signed by all the university’s senior deans. Only after a barrage of online criticism—and threats by donors—did she muster the strength to condemn the child killers. Not content to leave it alone, she has issued another statement, but still without criticizing the 30-odd student groups who professed to “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible” for the murder, rape, kidnapping, and torture of Jews, referring instead to the principle of freedom of speech. Let us be clear that these students have freedom of speech, but so does Claudine Gay. She has the right to condemn their words. In 2022, Harvard denounced in no uncertain terms “the capricious and senseless invasion of Ukraine.” Harvard knows how to speak clearly about Ukrainian victims but not, apparently, about Jewish victims.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik offered a masterfully slippery statement: “I was devastated by the horrific attack on Israel this weekend and the ensuing violence that is affecting so many people.” While all lives matter, the mention of “ensuing violence” is a reference to Israeli targeting of terrorists—putting it on a par with raping and pillaging by Hamas. She implied moral equivalence.
The moral lassitude and obscurantism of Shafik’s statement trickled down. Columbia College Dean Josef Sorett emitted the following: “The events in Israel and Gaza over the past several days have shocked the world and impacted many of our students.” Dean Sorett’s “events in Gaza” are, of course, Israeli military operations undertaken in self-defense and in an effort to kill murderers, which he places on par with the door-to-door murder of civilians in Israel.
The dean of Columbia Law School did not outclass her colleague. Gillian Lester wrote to her students and faculty, “The violence that erupted in Israel and Gaza this past weekend is nothing short of tragic,” again implying a moral equivalence between the enemies of the Jewish people and their victims.
At Middlebury College, the senior leadership wrote to “acknowledge the untold pain, suffering, and loss of life unfolding from the violence happening now in Israel and Palestine.” President Laurie Patton seems unclear about who is making the violence “happen.” She goes on to warn against “hate, racism, ethnic discrimination, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.” The equivalence is complete, and we can move on to meet the real threat: Islamophobia. Compare this muddle to the perfect clarity of Middlebury’s official response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: It “wreaked untold havoc in the lives of innocent civilians. Russia’s aggression against its democratic neighbor is a violation of international law, made only more egregious by its escalation in the face of international condemnation. I join that condemnation in solidarity with our Middlebury community.” How easy it would have been to revise that statement ever so slightly to say that Hamas “wreaked untold havoc in the lives of innocent civilians. Hamas’s aggression against its democratic neighbor is a violation of international law, made only more egregious by its escalation in the face of international condemnation. I join that condemnation in solidarity with our Middlebury community.”
The University of California–Berkeley, which spends $36 million annually on its Division of Equity & Inclusion, may be the most openly antisemitic campus in the country. Its law school is under federal investigation for discriminating against Jews. Student organizations there expressed their “unwavering support” for the Hamas pogrom. The president refused to condemn this statement. Instead, he expressed his heartbreak at “the violence and suffering in Israel and Gaza,” pointedly comparing Israel’s self-defense to the terrorist attacks themselves, gesturing, like too many others, to the “complex history” of the situation.
In reality though, no complexity is so great as to obscure the distinction between the intentional slaughter of innocents and targeted strikes against terrorists. Some schools eventually issued careful statements—but their initial reaction—or lack of reaction—is most telling, especially when contrasted with quick and decisive past declarations of outrage.
At Stanford University, the administration has covered itself in special disgrace by adding dishonesty to cowardice, despite finally acknowledging the horror. Criticized for its silence about the weekend’s slaughter, Stanford claimed in an unsigned statement that it “does not take positions on geopolitical issues and news events.” But when Russia invaded Ukraine, Stanford’s president released this statement: “The unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the attack it represents on democracy, is beyond shocking.” He continued, “It has been remarkable to witness the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people.” Stanford also commented when a child’s skipping rope was found in a tree in 2021, where it had been tangled for some years, officially denouncing it as a “a potent symbol of anti-Black racism and violence that is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.” Stanford discovered the principle of institutional neutrality, it seems, just in time for the Sabbath assault on Israeli civilians.
Under the principle of institutional neutrality, colleges and universities should indeed refrain from speaking corporately on contemporary social or political issues, unless they transcend the institution’s values as a whole (such as the wanton taking of innocent life by terrorists). Higher education’s mission is to encourage diversity of thought. But condemning brutality and savagery, whether the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a policeman, or the civilian carnage Hamas wrought, is not a political statement. No one has asked presidents to endorse Zionism or the two-state solution or anything vaguely geopolitical. They needed only to affirm human decency without which the university is a place of moral chaos.
However serpentine the ongoing contortions of these administrators, what is revealed in these official reactions by colleges is a cancerous moral rot and intellectual confusion. Bothsidesism is a symptom; the root cause is worse. They were perfectly able to rush to condemn the murder of George Floyd, the seedy depravities uncovered by the #MeToo movement, and the brutal invasion of Ukraine—as they should. They pronounce vocally and volubly on the events of January 6, 2021, and on horrible killings at houses of worship. They take flamboyant public positions on everything from affirmative action to climate policy to marriage equality. So why is it so hard to condemn the slaughter of Jewish babies? Why is it so hard to offer proper support and empathy to their grieving Jewish students?
The University of Pennsylvania’s president had no word of censure for Penn’s Palestine Writes festival, which ran between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and featured Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, notorious for exhibitionist antisemitism. Then came the anemic initial response of Penn’s president to the Hamas atrocities. Jon Huntsman, a Penn graduate and donor and a former governor of Utah, pinpointed the cause of his alma mater’s failure: “Moral relativism has fueled the university’s race to the bottom.” If only Penn’s administration possessed such moral (and pedagogical) clarity.
To be fair, some universities have offered proper statements that unambiguously condemn the pogrom of Hamas. But these are few and far between. The United States used to lead in higher education, but now we need to look for leadership abroad, for example in the exemplary statement of the German Rectors’ Conference that noted quickly, clearly, and unambiguously:
We are deeply shocked and appalled by the terrorist attack of Hamas on Israel, the terrible massacres, and the kidnappings.
On behalf of all German universities, I would like to express our sincerest condolences and heartfelt sympathy. We are deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. Our thoughts are with those killed and injured, those still in danger, and their families and friends.
As the German Rectors’ Conference, the voice of German universities, we stand in solidarity with the Israeli universities and academic colleges and all their members. We would be grateful if you could share this message of sympathy and solidarity with your member institutions.
Educational institutions have a responsibility to educate and lead—not only in subject matters but in basic issues of morality. Those who fail to condemn the slaughter of children and fail to show empathy to their students who identify with this slaughter, are failing their mission at the most basic level.
|
|
Antisemitic NGOs justify terror in three stages – opinionIt is incumbent that the audiences for NGO propaganda – diplomats, UN officials, journalists, academics and the government allies and funders of these NGOs – firmly reject lies and fictitious claims.By DANIEL SEGAL It must be difficult to be a pro-Palestinian propagandist these days. After all, how can you possibly defend the gruesome slaughter of over 1,400 innocents, torture, rape, defiling corpses?! Yet there is a network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are doing their best to justify the unjustifiable.
For the past week, my colleagues and I at NGO Monitor have carefully examined the output of NGOs that claim human rights agendas, many funded by European governments, and analyzed their claims and argumentation. We have identified a three-staged process by which NGOs work to erase the heinousness of Hamas crimes and fuel the international demonization of Israel. Justifying and celebrating attacksThe first stage is open justification and celebration of the attacks as “resistance” against a “settler-colonial state.” For example, the 150-member Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) “saluted this honorable image that our people are sketching,” having faced, “for more than 75 years, a racist, fascist occupation,” and stated that “the Palestinian people… are resisting this with all valor and sacrifice.” BADIL, a Palestinian “return” NGO, wrote, “resistance is the most human and legitimate act” because “the Palestinian people have been suffering for 75 years of colonial-apartheid regime, ethnic cleansing, forcible transfer/displacement.”
Similarly, an advocacy officer from Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) referred to “Palestinians resisting Israeli colonization & trying to take back their land.”
These and other examples demonstrate how the initial NGO responses celebrated the “accomplishments” of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist groups, i.e. the mass killing, abduction, and other heinous crimes against thousands of civilians. Whataboutism and shifting focusNext, NGOs moved on to stage two: trying to shift media and political focus by inventing Israeli atrocities that are similar to the actual brutality of Hamas. Palestinian NGOs have always delegitimized Israel’s right to self-defense and denied the existence of Palestinian terrorism, which they invariably decorate as “resistance.”
Israel’s military response targeting terror infrastructure in Gaza provided another opportunity to accuse Israel of committing the worst crimes. For example, a joint statement from the PFLP’s NGO network – Al-Mezan, Bisan, Al-Haq, DCI-P, Addameer, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committes (UPWC), and others – demanded that the EU “fully denounce Israel’s indiscriminate military reprisals…and intervene to protect the Palestinian people against Israel’s incitement to genocide.”
In another statement, Al-Haq accused Israel of “targeting male and female civilians and civilian objects in such a way that amounts to acts of genocide.” Zakaria Bakr, who heads the Union of Agricultural Work Committees’ Gaza Fisherman Committee, wrote, “We are living through an action of ethnic cleansing and genocide accompanied by starvation…what we are living through is more powerful and stronger than the holocaust which the Zionists talk about.” Palestinian Medical Relief Society Director Mustafa Barghouti published a statement referencing an Israeli “plot…to carry out the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.”
Of course, all these NGOs, primarily funded by their European government patrons under the facade of “human rights,” were entirely silent on Hamas’s genocidal violence. Stage three is reminiscent of a standard tactic employed by those caught red handed – deny, deny, deny. As they recognized the need to salvage international support for the Palestinian cause, some NGOs began denying that the atrocities and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Hamas actually happened. Good Shepherd Collective, which describes itself as “an anti-Zionist, anti-colonial organization,” alleged that “zionists” (sic) were sharing “AI generated images, trying to convince us that Palestinian resistance fighters simply must be the barbarians they believe them to be.”
An official of Al-Haq, described as a “highly respected Palestinian NGO,” claimed that the Israeli Air Force bombed Israeli cars – burning the occupants – and that an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs video of the aftermath was “deceptive and misleading.” Denying Israel’s claims as honestThis third stage is particularly pernicious, since it is often accompanied by the notion – sometimes explicitly, sometimes implied – that Israel orchestrated the deception to fool the world into a permissive attitude towards war crimes in Gaza.
These three stages might be familiar. They are the same tactics used by antisemites who deny the Holocaust and its magnitude, e.g., claiming that only “a few hundred thousand were killed.” Or by those who suggest that Jews were persecuted because of their economic status, because “they engaged is usury,” or for their “social behavior.” And then there are conspiracy theorists like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who declare that Zionists cooperated with the Nazis or that Jews were behind the Holocaust.
The NGO propaganda playbook is not unique to the political dimension in the war to eliminate Israel or even to centuries of antisemitism against the Jewish people. But now, it a central front in a deadly conflict involving a heinously brutal terrorist group. It is incumbent that the audiences for NGO propaganda – diplomats, UN officials, journalists, academics and the government allies and funders of these NGOs – firmly reject their lies and fictitious human rights claims.
The writer is a researcher at NGO Monitor (www. ngo-monitor.org), a Jerusalem-based research institute. |
|
VIDEO: Israel Complies With The Law Of Armed Conflict When Defending Against Terrorists Hiding Among CiviliansProportionality relates to loss of civilian life “which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated…. So there is some requirement of proportionality in international law, but it’s not proportionality between the casualties on your side and the casualties on the other side….’Posted by William A. Jacobson 14June2021 https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/06/video-israel-complies-with-the-law-of-armed-conflict-when-defending-against-terrorists-hiding-among-civilians/ On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, the Legal Insurrection Foundation held an online event on How Israel Implements The Law Of Armed Conflict To Defend Against Terrorists Hiding Among Civilians.
The event was a reaction to the outrageous lies, misinformation, and disinformation spread regarding Israel’s conduct in the May 2021 conflict initiated by Hamas firing thousands of rockets at Israeli cities. The original event post has full biographies of the speakers. You know me and Kemberlee, and we were honored to be joined by two experts in the fields of international law and the law of armed conflict:
The presentations by Prof. Kontorovich and Col. Bar-On contain many interesting and important visuals:
HIGHLIGHT REELIsrael Complies With Law Of Armed Conflict – Highlights
Read More HERE
Israel Complies With Law Of Armed Conflict – Full Program
|
|
Calls for Israel to restrain itself are ILLEGAL | The Caroline Glick ShowPosted 15October2023 JNS TV: Is Israel really violating international law in the war against Hamas? The Biden administration, the EU, the UN, Arab nations and others have begun to wage a campaign to restrain Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas in Gaza. The campaign is based on allegations that there is a contradiction between Israel’s military operations and the laws of war. To understand the nature of these claims, and what the laws of war require from Israel, as well as from the nations waging this campaign against Israel, Caroline spoke with Prof Avi Bell. Bell is a world expert on the laws of war and international humanitarian law. |
|
Better Question: What Does International Law Require The Rest of The World To Do About Hamas? (Daled Amos)18October2023 https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2023/10/better-question-what-does-international.html By Daled Amos These days, when people talk about what International Humanitarian Law requires in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of Israeli citizens, the discussion falls first on what limitations need to be placed on Israel. Almost as an afterthought do a few people ask what international law requires of Hamas. That in itself demonstrates an odd sense of priorities among the global community. But a third topic in international law is being ignored, namely: what are the obligations of the international community in the face of this terrorist attack. By merely sitting back and focusing on Israel’s obligations, the nations of the world run the risk of themselves violating international law.
First of all there is the Genocide Convention. It was approved for ratification by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and went into effect in 1951. According to Article I:
The convention addresses an act committed with the intent to destroy, even in part, a
Genocide includes — among other things — killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting conditions with the intent to cause the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part. In addition to being directly involved in the genocide, this law also applies to conspiracy, incitement, complicity and even the mere attempt to commit genocide. In addition, the convention not only rulers but also public officials and private individuals liable for punishment.
Then there is UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001), which was passed in response to the jihadist attack on 9/11, making this resolution especially relevant to the current situation, given the obvious similarities. It was passed under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, making it binding on all UN members, unlike other UN resolutions.
According to Article 2, All States shall:
According to Article 3, All States shall:
Furthermore the resolution
On Sunday, Caroline Glick spoke with Professor Avi Bell — an expert in International Law — about the legal obligations of the rest of the world in response to the Hamas terrorist attack, and how nations are violating those obligations. Some of his insights are summarized in a JNS article published yesterday.
Bell makes reference to UN Security Council Resolution 1373, and illustrates how some of its requirements are being violated. For instance:
This puts the claims of the obligation to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans in a different light, considering how Hamas terrorists are sure to take – and have taken – the aid for themselves.
Professor Bell also points out how Qatar’s involvement, supported by the Biden administration, is also in violation of Resolution 1373:
Like Resolution 1373, article VII of the Genocide Convention also addresses the issue of extradition:
This becomes relevant because CDR David Levy writes about Hamas Leadership and America’s Extradition Option for The Begin-Sadat Center For Strategic Studies:
Levy writes that the fact that the US does not have an extradition treaty with Qatar does not have to make it impossible to get that country to hand over the terrorist leaders:
The article details examples of the US “holding those responsible for the deaths of its citizens accountable” and Levy brags that this is part of a long-standing US tradition. The article would be more convincing if we had not seen the failure of multiple administrations to apply the necessary leverage to get Jordan to hand over the mastermind of the Sbarro massacre, responsible for 16 deaths, including 2 Americans.
If a country like the US will not apply international law for itself, what are the odds we will see any country apply international law for others?
|
UN, UNRWA and Terror
This is what the war is all about
The Building of the 3rd Holy Temple in Jerusalem
Judenstern_Yellow Star of David
Symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, so that they could be identified as Jews.
UN and Women’s rights groups Silent About Hamas Attacks on Women
Children Soldiers
The Truth Behind the Israel Hamas War: Israel’s War for the Holy Temple
Latma – Fake it Out (Israel-Hamas Satire)
UN Propaganda
United Nations |
Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet |
The United Nations came into being in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security.
UNICEF-United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. And we never give up.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
vs Reality
Click to Download Systemic Anti-Israel Bias in the United Nations Institutional Apparatus
====
Obama and the UN betray Israel (yet again)
Caroline B. Glick
“The Caroline Glick Show IN Focus”
(October 25, 2023 / JNS) On her show, Caroline Glick tackles the following: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres justifies the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on southern Israel; former President Barack Obama lectures and lies about Israel; and the moral depravity of the world continues to be exhibited in cities and on college campuses.
Caroline Glick: Obama and the UN betray Israel (yet again)
Obama and the UN Betray Israel…Again | The Caroline Glick Show IN Focus
Posted 25October2023 JNS TV:
The UN Secretary-General justifies Hamas attacks, Obama lectures and lies about Israel, and the moral depravity of the world continues to shine through. All this and more on the Caroline Glick Show IN Focus!
TOP
====
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-26October2023-Finally someone says it
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-26October2023-Finally someone says it
Finally someone says it! “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
And isn’t it great that the person who said it is UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres, who presides over the organization that has played a defining role in creating, sustaining, and nourishing the fertile soil from which Hamas has sprung?
Let us examine the evidence (Part 1, Part 2 in the first comment):
Exhibit A: UNRWA.
This still temporary agency, established more than 70 years ago to settle the Arab refugees from the war of 1948 (Israel settled the Jewish refugees), was unable to carry out its mission throughout the 1950’s due to the complete refusal of the Arab refugees (later to be known as Palestinians) to be settled, knowing that this would mean they have abandoned their ongoing war against there being a state of sovereign and free Jews anywhere in the land.
Having failed in its resettlement mission, UNRWA was then hijacked by the Palestinians themselves to become the organization that enables Palestinians, uniquely among all the world’s refugees, to persist in the view that they do not need to accept new realities, new borders, and can go on thinking of themselves as perpetual refugees, generation after generation, until such moment that they can turn back the clock, have a “redo” and win the war against there being a state for Jews anywhere in the land.
UNRWA, its compounds, its education system, its almost exclusively Palestinian staff, have been the womb in which not only a unique Palestinian identity was consolidated, but one that was singularly focused on “revenge” and “return”. As a result, from the planners and perpetrators of the massacre of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics, to the current planners and perpetrators of the Oct 7 mass massacre, every generation trained murderers rose up to realize the dream of “return”, “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea”.
(For more on this you may read this post of October 13 https://x.com/einatwilf/status/1712875687407726766?s=61&t=7v41xX2_j-eRVLBysOWtgA or the book “The War of Return” for the full and definitive review of UNRWA’s uniquely destructive goal in sustaining the Palestinian dream of “no Israel”)
Exhibit B: A whole administrative UN structure devoted uniquely to Palestinians
In 1975, the carefully developed Soviet replacement for the Tsarist “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” known as respectable “It’s only Anti-Zionism” was inserted into the UN through the “Zionism is Racism” UN General Assembly resolution. While the resolution was repealed in 1991 under US pressure, the entire infrastructure that it erected remained intact. These include three UN bodies with staffs and budgets that only exist to promote the Palestinian vision that the Jews deserve no state in any part of the land and it is worth noting that no other people have an entire division in the UN Secretariat dedicated to it:
(1) The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP)
(2) The Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR)
(3) The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Human Rights Practices (SCIIHRP)
(For more on this go to https://ajiri.us/about)
Exhibit C: The UN “Human” “Rights” “Council” obsession with condemning Israel
In 2006 the UN established Orwellian named “Human Rights Council” to replace the rabidly anti Israel UN Commission on Human Rights. And yet, surprise, surprise, nothing changed. For example, every (every!) session of the UN Human Rights Council features a standing agenda item targeting Israel. No other country in the world is singled out in this fashion. In addition, since 2006 UNHRC passed 104 resolutions against Israel alone, compared with 97 against all (all!) other countries combined. Mind you, it’s not just the number. Resolutions against other countries are always framed in the softest language as in “we commend Sudan/Syria/Iran for their efforts to do better and if they could just try a bit harder, that would be nice”. Resolutions against Israel are always phrased in the darkest of dark words with clear definitive blame. And of-course these resolutions often establish more bodies and commissions with more staff and budgets entirely devoted to criminalizing Israel.
(For more on UNHRC’s obsession with Israel: https://unwatch.org)
Exhibit D: The UN General Assembly and its obsession with Israel
The legendary Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Abba Eban, already in the 1960’s made the evergreen observation (remember, this was before the “occupation” which Mr. Gutteres thinks is the cause of Hamas atrocities) observed that: “If Algeria introduced a resolution that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” (Or my version that in the United Nations, the nations are only united against Israel).
The UNGA, with its automatic majority against Israel, has been the arena whereby repeated anti-Israel resolutions get passed, where days of “solidarity” with Palestinians are marked, and where ideas that exist in no other context, such as a “right of return” are repeatedly affirmed, leading people with little knowledge of how the UN works to assume that these form “international law” (they don’t).
I sometimes wryly conclude that it seems as if the UN General Assembly momentarily voted in November 1947 to uphold the international legitimacy to the establishment of a Jewish state in half of the land initially allocated by the League of Nations… and then has spent all subsequent decades trying to backtrack that.
And why does this matter so much? Because some of us might think that it should be obvious by now that the UN is useless and corrupt and hijacked, but it still retains the post WWII halo of an organization birthed on noble principles to create a more peaceful world. And this halo is why so much of the war against the Jews having a state is being waged in that arena. Those who seek the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state (“Keep the World Clean” in recent placards), need the authority of the UN to legitimize their annhilitionist cause. (For more on how high authority is needed to legitimize anti-Jewish ideologies in my speech here: https://youtu.be/1qGewRDWJGo?si=2IDhytGfl2uPbdbQ).
And that’s the UN. That’s the fertile soil from which generations of trained murderers of Jews emerged, whether they were called Fatah, DFLP, Hamas or Jihad. The names change. The soil doesn’t. Indeed, none of the carefully planned massacres by Palestinian terror organizations of sovereign Jews ever “happened in a vacuum”.
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-26October2023-Finally someone says it
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-26October2023-Exhibit C-The UN Human Rights Council
====
TOP
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-1November2023-Why are there even places called “refugee camps” in Gaza?
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-1November2023-Why are there even places called “refugee camps” in Gaza?
Why are there even places called “refugee camps” in Gaza? And why are two thirds of the people living in Gaza, who were born there and lived there their entire lives, called “refugees” from a war that ended more than seven decades ago? The answers to these question unlock the core of the conflict. Here they are (Part 1; Part 2 in the first comment):
1.The 20th century has been marked by a transition from empires to states. We begin the 20th century when much of the world is divided between empires. We end it when much of the world is divided between states. When lucky, those states were based on the self determination of a people who share a common history, language, ethnicity, background religion and connection to a territory. (Zionism emerged in this context based on the idea of self determination for the Jewish people in the only territory to which they were ever connected as a people). When unlucky those new states were artificially created by receding empires drawing boundaries, forcing different peoples to share one state, leading almost always to civil war, dictatorship, or both. This transition has been bloody. It involved two world wars and numerous regional and civil wars. In the bloody process of empires receding and new states emerging to replace them, tens of millions of people were displaced, fleeing across newly created borders, typically to new countries with an ethnic makeup similar to their own. This was true of Hindus and Muslim, Ukrainians, Poles and Germans, Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks and Arabs and Jews. This was not unique.
2.What was unique is that one group only of refugees from that time and those wars were allowed to maintain themselves as endless refugees in anticipation of one day winning a war they had lost. Those were the Arab refugees from the war of 1948, later to be known as Palestinians. All other refugee groups, except the Palestinians, were presented with a clear message: “it’s tough, it’s tragic, move on”. There was a clear understanding that in the most fundamental sense there is no going back – not in place and not in time (thus, there was no such thing as “a right of return”). To seek to go back would mean endless war. And so the message was forward looking and future facing. Tens of millions of refugees and displaced persons, among them millions of Jews, would build new lives in the new countries to which they fled.
3.Except Palestinians. The war that the Arabs of the land and the surrounding countries waged to prevent a Jewish state from emerging and gaining independence failed to achieve its goals. Despite the violent onslaught of 1947-49, Israel emerged as a sovereign state. But the Arabs of the land, sustained by broader Arab support, refused to accept this outcome. They proceeded to undo it through a variety of means, including repeated wars, economic boycotts, international condemnations and a complete refusal of the refugees themselves to be settled, as it would effectively mean accepting that the war was over.
http://4.To that end of keeping the war of 1948 alive until its goal of undoing the Jewish state could be achieved, a temporary agency established to resettle the refugees – UNRWA (initially called REWA, but the Arabs insisted on the letters UN so that it would appear to enjoy international legitimacy) – was hijacked by the Arab refugees. As a result of this hijacking UNRWA effectively became a Palestinian entity devoted singularly to sustaining and stoking the idea that uniquely among the world’s refugees, Palestinians don’t need to move on and can keep insisting on “return”, both in space and in time, to a time when there was no Israel. UNRWA thus became the mechanism by which the Jewish people alone were denied the right to to consider their hard won self-determination and sovereign statehood as a done deal.
(Part 2 continues in the first comment:)
5.One of the most important means by which UNRWA fulfilled its mission is inflating the number of Palestinians it registers as refugees. It does so by engaging in several unique practices, not applied to any other refugee population in the world: (1) Counting descendants of the original refugees displaced by the War of 1948 in perpetuity (by now into the fifth generation) automatically and with no qualifications; (2) Never removing any “refugees” from the count even if they acquired citizenship of another country, a status that for all other true refugees ends their refugee status; (3) Counting Palestinians who continue to live in the West Bank and Gaza, so in “Palestine” as refugees “from” Palestine. Once UNRWA’s inflationary practices are removed, almost none of the Palestinians who claim to be “refugees”, either as registered by UNRWA (around 5.7 Million) or self-claimed by Palestinians living in the West (a total of 8-9 Million) are actually refugees by any international standard. The vast majority of them are either (1) living in the West Bank and Gaza, and so clearly are not refugees “from” Palestine, still very much living there, and since almost all of them are by now second to fifth generation claimants they have also never been displaced by war – 2.2 Million; (2) Citizens of countries such as Jordan – 2.2 Million or various countries around the world – 2-3 Million. Citizens of countries are not refugees by any international standard. This leaves about 250,000 Palestinians who remain stateless in Syria and Lebanon, despite having been born there and never having been displaced by war. Those countries refuse to give them citizenship. They are certainly no longer refugees, but they are stateless. Of them, perhaps 30,000 are indeed refugees by international standards in that they were displaced by war, crossed the border and have not been given citizenship by any other country. Them, and only them, should be recognized as refugees. That is less than 1% of the total number of Palestinians who claim to be “refugees”.
http://6.In addition to its inflationary practices, the UNRWA compounds (“Refugee Camps”) and schools are the incubators in which the Palestinian national ethos of “revenge and return” was created and shaped. It is the ground zero Palestinian political organization in that it daily reinforces the Palestinian ethos that the Jews have no right to a state in any of the territory between the Jordan River and the Sea, and that Palestinians will one day undo Israel by means of “return”. Since the days of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, planned and perpetrated by UNRWA graduates, to the October 7th massacre by Hamas, also planned and perpetrated by UNRWA graduates (Muhammad Deif was raised in an UNRWA compound and studied in its school), UNRWA has sustained, nourished, educated and raised generation after generation of Palestinians dedicated to undoing Israel by “all means”, primarily violence and terror. Hamas, like Fatah before it, merely recruits UNRWA graduates ready to commit any atrocity in the name of “revenge and return”. It’s no coincidence that the two places where the perpetual refugee culture is strongest – Gaza and Lebanon – are also the most violent.
In short, why are there still millions of people claiming to be refugees from a war that ended more than seven decades ago? Because to the Palestinians, that war has never ended, and they continue to believe that one day, with enough patience and violence, they could still win it to achieve their original goal: no state for the Jewish people anywhere from “The River to the Sea”.
(The full history is of-course available in “The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream has Obstructed the Path to Peace”).
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-1November2023-Why are there even places called ‘refugee camps’ in Gaza-1
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-1November2023-Why are there even places called ‘refugee camps’ in Gaza-2
TOP
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-27February2024-We need to understand that UNRWA is Palestinian
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-27February2024-We need to understand that UNRWA is Palestinian
“We need to understand that UNRWA is, first and foremost, a Palestinian organization. UNRWA started with the best of intentions to settle Arab refugees from the war, was hijacked by the Arab refugees themselves to become a purely Arab Palestinian organization, for the singular cause of ensuring that the Jewish state knows not a day of peace until it is undone.
UNRWA is a classic case of you get what you pay for.
So we need to make sure that we pay for something else.
For 75 years, money, legitimacy, support, services, aid, were given – were funneled – to the perpetuation of the myth that Palestinians are still – uniquely, from all the tens of millions of refugees throughout the 20th century – refugees from a war that we think ended 75 years ago. But they don’t think it ends until they win it to their cause of no Jewish state.
So all the Western legitimacy, the global legitimacy, the funding, the aid, the services were funneled to the perpetuation of the myth of the refugee status and to the belief and the fictional idea of a right of return.
And lest we think that return is an innocent idea of just feelings of nostalgia to a home that belonged to a great-grandparent in today’s Israel, October 7th is return.
October 7th is the realization of the Palestinian vision of return. It was never an innocent idea. It always had the element of violent, brutal triumphalism over the Jewish state. All the money supported that for 75 years.
So what we need to ask right now is not who will replace UNRWA – that doesn’t matter – but what? What will replace UNRWA?
And what needs to replace UNRWA is any mechanism that only funnels legitimacy, support, money and aid to those who are taken off of UNRWA’s rosters; those who are no longer registered as refugees; those who sign and make it clear that they understand that they’re not refugees and that they posses no such right of return. Only then can something be built.
So this is what we need to say: It doesn’t matter who replaces UNRWA – but what replaces UNRWA? Reverse the equation. Legitimacy, money, aid, services will flow only to individuals who have been stricken off UNRWA’s rosters, if it still exists, and who themselves testify that they understand that they’re not refugees, that they do not possess the right of return, and they have no intention of liberating Palestine from the river to the sea.
And I want to end with one thought: October 7th should put an end to the notion of “the poor Palestinians” – the ones who constantly need aid, aid, money, support. The Palestinians are a highly capable people. October 7th required years of planning, massive investment in infrastructure, strategy, discipline, vision – a perverse vision – but vision. The Palestinians are not an incapable people. They are a people with terrible priorities.
For a century they decided to devote all their substantial capabilities not to building something for themselves, but in order to destroy the Jewish state. And as long as this is their ideology, anyone who gives them any kind of funding, aid and legitimacy is guaranteed that this will be funneled to the destruction of the Jewish state and to continued war. And if people really want peace, and really want to abide by the principles and the vision of the United Nations, reverse the equations: Support those who want to put the war behind us, not the ones who want to keep fighting that war.”
My words yesterday at the @UNWatch Summit on Replacing UNRWA. Link to video here:
https://unwatch.org/einat-wilf-at-the-international-summit-for-a-future-beyond-unrwa/
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-27February2024-We need to understand that UNRWA is Palestinian
UN Watch-tweet-27February2024-Palestinian vision of return
“October 7th is the realization of the Palestinian vision of return. It was never innocent. It always had the element of violent, brutal triumphalism over the Jewish state. Aid should go only to those who declare no intention of ‘freeing Palestine from the river to the sea.’”
UN Watch-tweet-27February2024-Palestinian vision of return
Einat Wilf at the International Summit for a Future Beyond UNRWA
TOP
Israeli refugees receive ZERO AID from the UN
The Persian Jewess-tweet-2March2024-Israeli refugees receive ZERO AID from the UN
500,000 Israelis are currently displaced due to the events of October 7 and nonstop rocket barrage from Gaza and Lebanon.
Many have nothing more then the clothes in their backs.
They receive ZERO AID from the UN.
#StandWithIsrael
#DefundTheUN
The Persian Jewess-tweet-2March2024-Israeli refugees receive ZERO AID from the UN
TOP
Israel gets a VASTLY disproportionate amount of criticism by the UN
Brianna Wu-tweet-12March2024-Israel gets a VASTLY disproportionate amount of criticism by the UN
I used to think America disproportionately protected Israel from the international community until I looked into it. Now I see it the other way around. Israel gets a VASTLY disproportionate amount of criticism by the UN and the wider international community.
Here is evidence for this belief:
✅ The number of UN resolutions condemning Israel is VASTLY more than countries with much more serious records of human rights abuses.
✅ The UNHRC has a permanent agenda item focused on Israel/Palestine, Item 7. No other country is singled out like this
✅ Objectively, the UN focuses much more time and attention on Israel than other extremely serious global issues
I know no one wants to hear the A word, but I think antisemitism is a primary factor. There are roughly 500 million Arabs in the MENA region and 9 million Jews.
America is often alone standing with Israel because we are a democracy, and American Jews and their allies work to elect leaders that understand the value of the alliance. This is unsurprising to me since we have the second highest population of Jewish people.
Alex Fleck-tweet-12March2024-
Hi Brianna. Yes, I understand the time constraints.
Do you agree with the substantive aspect of my argument though? That the US has acted unilaterally to defend Israel diplomatically in a way that is quite radical and different from what other Western countries have done?
Brianna Wu-tweet-12March2024-Israel gets a VASTLY disproportionate amount of criticism by the UN
TOP
Judenstern_Yellow Star of David
Symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, so that they could be identified as Jews.
Israel Ambassador to UN: We Will Wear the Yellow Star Until You ‘Condemn the Atrocities of Hamas’
“Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established.”
Posted by Mary Chastain 30October2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/israel-ambassador-to-un-we-will-wear-the-yellow-star-until-you-condemn-the-atrocities-of-hamas/
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilrad Erdan, has had enough of the farce that is the United Nations.
Erdan and his team will wear the yellow star the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear until the UN comes to its senses and condemn Hamas:
Yonatan Gonen-tweet-30October2023-
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wore the yellow badge at the Security Council:
“When Jewish babies were burned in Auschwitz the world was silent. Today Jewish babies were burned in Be’eri and the southern towns of Israel by the Nazi Hamas and the world is silent again. I will make you remember the shame of your silence every time you look at me.”
Yonatan Gonen-tweet-30October2023-Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wore the yellow Star of David at the Security Council
Translation from Google:
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-30October2023-
היום הודעתי במועצת הבטחון שאענוד טלאי צהוב כדי להזכיר את החרפה של שתיקתה אל מול מעשי הזוועות שהנאצים של חמאס עוללו. הבהרתי לחברות המועצה, שאנחנו נשבענו לאחר השואה, NEVER AGAIN ולכן לא תהיה הפסקת אש ונמשיך עד להשמדת חמאס, כדי שזוועות כאלו לא יקרו שוב לעולם. צפו ושתפו >>
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-30October2023
TOP
Israel halts UN staff visas as officials pan Guterres’s ‘truly insane’ Hamas remarks
After UN chief says terrorist massacres ‘didn’t happen in vacuum,’ Foreign Ministry says words ‘tarnish both him and organization he heads’; Edelstein says they fan antisemitism
By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff 25October2023 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-halts-un-staff-visas-as-officials-pan-guterress-truly-insane-hamas-remarks/
UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, left, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, center, and Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan browse the Yad Vashem Book of Names of Holocaust Victims Exhibit at United Nations headquarters, January 26, 2023. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Israel stopped issuing visas to UN officials Wednesday, a day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appeared to say Hamas’s murderous October 7 assault on southern Israel was brought on by Israeli occupation.
The development came as Israeli officials continued to rail against the UN chief and demand his apology or resignation, with a senior lawmaker branding his words “truly insane” and adding that they were fanning the flames of antisemitism. The chairman of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum accused Guterres of having “failed the test” of the refrain “Never again.”
An Israeli official confirmed the new visa policy to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, after Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan gave additional details in an interview with Army Radio.
“Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives,” Erdan said. “We have already refused a visa for Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
During a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday on the Israel-Hamas war, Guterres said, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” Guterres said.
He later added that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began after the terror group sent thousands of gunmen over the border to ravage Israeli border communities. Terrorists killed some 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, massacring them at their homes and at a music festival. They also kidnapped at least 224 people and took them into the Strip.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, October 24, 2023. (Seth Wenig/AP)
Israel evacuated all settlements and military forces from the Gaza Strip under the 2005 Disengagement. Since then it has faced years of rocket attacks from Hamas, which rules the Strip, and from other terror groups there, as well as multiple rounds of intense combat.
It has maintained a tight blockade of the territory since Hamas took control in 2007, as has Egypt, with Jerusalem saying it must do so to limit the terror group’s ability to arm itself for attacks. In the West Bank, settlements have expanded under consecutive governments with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly arguing the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority is not a partner for peace, having rejected several offers in the past.
Guterres’s comments drew outrage in Israel. On Tuesday evening, Erdan called them “shocking” and demanded that the secretary general resign, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen canceled a meeting with Guterres, and Minister Benny Gantz labeled the UN chief a “terror apologist.”
The strongly worded reactions continued on Wednesday morning.
The Foreign Ministry tweeted that Guterres’s remarks “provoke anger and astonishment and tarnish both him and the organization he heads,” reflecting “a biased and distorted attitude towards Israel on the part of the UN and especially on the part of the Secretary-General himself.”
“The UN Secretary-General must retract his words, engage in deep personal soul-searching and apologize for his statement, which distressed millions of Israelis who are still experiencing the consequences of the murderous terrorist attack of October 7,” the ministry added.
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-25October2023-
The severe assertions of the UN Secretary-General in his speech at the Security Council provoke anger and astonishment and tarnish both him and the organization he heads.
The Secretary-General’s assertions reflect a biased and distorted attitude towards Israel on the part of the UN and especially on the part of the Secretary-General himself.
The UN Secretary-General’s words support the monstrous violence of the Hamas terrorists and legitimize the heinous massacre of October 7.
The atrocities committed by the Hamas terrorists on October 7, the slaughter of women, children and the elderly, the abuse of bodies, the burning of bound children and the rape and abduction of hundreds of Israelis should be censured—there is no way to justify such monstrous atrocities.
The UN Secretary-General must retract his words, implement deep personal soul-searching and apologize for his statement, which distressed millions of Israelis who are still experiencing the consequences of the murderous terrorist attack of October 7.
@UN @antonioguterres
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-25October2023-UN Secretary-General in his speech at the Security Council
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affair and Defense Committee, sent an English-language public letter addressed to Guterres expressing “a profound sense of shock” and saying it would have been “best had you said nothing at all.”
“Mr. Secretary-General, you opened by saying that ‘nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians.’ However, you then [made] an about-face and added that the ‘attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.’ Statements of this kind legitimize murderers, rapists, and terrorists around the world — rendering your condemnations null and void,” Edelstein charged.
Edelstein tweeted a photo of the letter, adding in a Hebrew-language post that Guterres’s remarks had been “truly insane” and that “against the backdrop of surging antisemitism around the world, his grave remarks are fueling a giant fire [of hate].”
Yuli Edelstein letter 24October2023 to UN Secretary General
Yuli Edelstein-tweet-25October2023-UN Secretary General crazy words
Israeli leaders and US President Joe Biden have noted that the October 7 atrocities were the single worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan, who met with Guterres earlier this year at a Holocaust-related exhibit at the UN headquarters in New York, said the UN chief had “failed the test” regarding ensuring atrocities against Jews don’t repeat.
“The slaughter of Jews by Hamas on October 7th was genocidal in its intents and immeasurably brutal in its form. Part of why it differs from the Holocaust is because Jews have today a state and an army. We are not defenseless and at the mercy of others,” a statement from Dayan said.
“However, it puts to test the sincerity of world leaders, intellectuals and influencers that come to Yad Vashem and pledge ‘Never Again,’” he continued. “Those who seek to ‘understand,’ look for a justifying context, do not condemn the perpetrators, and do not call for the unconditional and immediate release of the abducted – fail the test.
“UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres failed the test.”
In a shock assault on October 7, Hamas bombarded Israel with thousands of rockets while over 2,500 gunmen breached the border with the Gaza Strip. The terrorists rampaged murderously through southern areas, slaughtering those they found, butchering entire families in some communities and also killing 260 at an outdoor music festival. Some victims were mutilated, raped and tortured. Dozens of babies were killed. Over 220 people of all ages were abducted and dragged to Gaza as captives. Four have since been released.
Israel has responded to the Hamas assault by vowing to destroy the terror group and launching intensive strikes in Gaza, saying it is hitting terror targets while trying to avoid civilian casualties. It has told over one million Gaza residents to evacuate the northern part of the Strip ahead of an expected ground incursion.
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry says the strikes have killed over 6,000 Palestinians so far. Those numbers cannot be independently verified and are believed to include Hamas’s own members, as well as civilians killed by hundreds of misfired Palestinian rockets.
Agencies contributed to this report.
TOP
UN special rapporteur BANNED, Refused visa to enter Israel
Israel Katz-tweet-12February2024-The time for Jewish silence is past
The time for Jewish silence is past. For the @UN to regain its credibility, its leadership @antonioguterres must unequivocally renounce the anti-Semitic statements made by their “Special Envoy” @FranceskAlbs and remove her from her position immediately. Barring her entry to Israel will serve as a stark reminder of the atrocities committed by Hamas, including the ruthless targeting of innocents.
Israel Katz-tweet-12February2024-The time for Jewish silence is past
Jewish News Syndicate-tweet-12February2024-UN special rapporteur BANNED
⛔BANNED
UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, has been refused a visa to enter Israel after comments that seemed to justify Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
https://www.jns.org/jerusalem-denies-entry-to-un-official-who-blamed-israel-for-oct-7-massacre/
Jewish News Syndicate-tweet-12February2024-UN special rapporteur BANNED.png
TOP
UNIFIL act or IDF will be Forced to
OSINTdefender-tweet-21November2023-UNIFIL act or IDF will be Forced to
The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen has Delievered a Warning to the U.N. National Security Council from the Government of Israel which states that if the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is not able to get the Situation in Southern Lebanon back under Control and Remove the Military Capabilities of Hezbollah away from the Border in following with Resolution 1701, which Ended the Lebanon War of 2006, the Israeli Defense Force will be Forced to take “Military Action” which could lead to a Regional War.
OSINTdefender-tweet-21November2023-UNIFIL act or IDF will be Forced to
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-10December2023-Hezbollah launched rockets from UN compound
Hezbollah launched several rockets toward Israel last night, including from a point 20 meters away from a @UN compound in southern Lebanon. Additional launches have been made from the area toward Israel in recent days.
By continuing to fire at Israel from near a U.N. compound, Hezbollah endangers the lives of @UNIFIL_ personnel and continues to systematically violate UNSC Resolution 1701. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander @aroldo_lazaro was notified of the incident.
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-10December2023-Hezbollah launched rockets from near UN compound
TOP
UN and Women’s rights groups Silent About Hamas Attacks on Women
Amb. Erdan: UN Women maliciously disregards Hamas rape and murder
Israeli Ambassador to the UN lambasts UN agencies at Security Council for deliberately ignoring Hamas crimes against women and humanity.
Israel National News
22November2023, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/380775
Erdan shows photo of Hamas leader with child
Erdan shows photo of Hamas leader with child UN Photo/Evan Schneider
In an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting held today on the situation of women and children in Gaza, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan harshly criticized UN Women for its malicious disregard of the rape and murder of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists and UNICEF for its disregard of Hamas’ indoctrination of children to terror and use of children as human shields.
The Ambassador presented a photo of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, “This is Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. And the child he is holding, is a victim of UNICEF’s indifference. A picture is worth a thousand words and this says all you need to know about Hamas’ treatment of children in Gaza.”
The Ambassador asked the Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell, “Executive Director Russell, have you never seen this picture? Are you unaware of the terror summer camps that Hamas runs every year in Gaza to indoctrinate children to murder? So many Gazan children were born into a culture of hate. A culture that glorifies violence and educates kids to murder. It is a death cult that puts martyrdom ahead of life, coexistence, and the pursuit of peace. How many UNICEF reports have been written on this? None. While we teach our children to love and accept others, the children of Gaza are taught that the murder of Jews and Israel’s annihilation is their life goal. They are educated on this in their schools – yes, including UNRWA schools. Why has this child abuse never bothered UNICEF? There is absolutely no chance that UNICEF is unaware of this. So, Executive Director Russell, where has your organization been all this time?”
“Rockets have been found in children’s bedrooms in Gaza. Rocket launchers were located inside a scout’s youth movement clubhouse. Missile manufacturing facilities were found under mosques. And caches of assault rifles were found in UNRWA schools. We have not heard UNICEF’s outcry over Hamas’ exploitation of Gazan children as human shields. Where is it?”
The Ambassador presented a photo of Hamas terrorists surrounded by children, “This is a photo taken a few days ago in Gaza. These savage Hamas terrorists are walking around in broad daylight armed and in uniform, after effectively strapping children to themselves as live body armor. This is the enemy that Israel is defending itself against. This is who you hardly have a single word of criticism against.”
The Ambassador asked members of the Council, “Where have the briefers been for all of these years? Where are their voices now? Why are Hamas’ crimes almost non-existent in this briefing, when Hamas – and only Hamas – is solely responsible for the situation in Gaza? There is no other explanation for this other than apathy towards Gazans, coupled with burning hatred for Israel. This is not a briefing – this is an inquisition.”
Ambassador Erdan presented a photo of Naama Levy, one of the women taken hostage by Hamas who was raped by her captors. “I sent this picture of Naama Levy who was dragged out of the trunk of a jeep by a Hamas terrorist, as part of a video, wearing sweatpants soaked in blood around her backside….You want to discuss women in conflict? Women’s rights? Women’s dignity? What about the dignity of Naama Levy…Sadly, to our briefers, the horrors endured by these young women are not worthy of mentioning. After all, they’re Israeli – and as today’s briefing has made abundantly clear, Israeli victims don’t matter.”
“Nearly fifty days have gone by since these atrocities were committed – since young girls were savagely violated – yet the world is still waiting to hear a clear, public condemnation from UN Women against Hamas sexual crimes. Shame on you UN Women, shame on you. Is UN Women not charged with ensuring that, I quote from their website, “All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence?” Doesn’t the banner of the UN Women website currently say “Hashtag ‘No Excuses'”? Hasn’t the world come to believe women? Hasn’t the UN? To the UN and its agencies, Israeli women are not women. Israeli children are not children.”
The Ambassador presented a picture of Shani Louk, a German tourist who became an international symbol of Hamas’ atrocities when a video was posted of terrorists parading her nearly dead body in Gaza. “I also sent this picture of Shani Louk. Shani was dancing at the peace festival before she was abducted and murdered by Hamas. This is what her body looked like, with a Hamas terrorist on top of her. Look at her. Look at Shani.”
TOP
MeToo_UNless_UR_a_Jew
StandWithUs-tweet-17November2023-MeToo_UNless_UR_a_Jew
To the UN and leading women’s rights groups: The mass rape and sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on and since October 7th towards Israeli women is being shamefully denied, minimized…and even justified.
Hamas terrorists have admitted to these atrocities. Why are you ignoring them?
Apparently, it’s: #BelieveAllWomen…unless they’re Israeli.
#MeToo_UNless_UR_a_Jew
StandWithUs-tweet-17November2023-MeToo_UNless_UR_a_Jew
Shurat HaDin-tweet-17November 172023-Enough with the double standard
Enough with the double standards!
Hamas’ rape and murder of Israeli women is met with global indifference of feminist movements.
Shurat HaDin-tweet-17November 172023-Enough with the double standard
TOP
Women’s Rights Organizations Still Stunningly Silent About Attacks on Women on October 7th
“The absurdity has reached peak levels since October 7”
Posted by Mike LaChance, 22November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/womens-rights-organizations-still-stunningly-silent-about-attacks-on-women-on-october-7th/
Hamas attacks on Women 7October2023
Remember when Michelle Obama and celebrities launched a #BringBackOurGirls campaign on Twitter when girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram? No such campaign this time.
Benjamin Folkinshteyn writes at the Times of Israel:
TOP
MeToo unless you’re a Jew
Feminist groups are whitewashing Hamas’s crimes
BY Nicole Lampert
17November2023 https://unherd.com/2023/11/metoo-unless-youre-a-jew/
Women Kidnapped by Hamas (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
After accompanying British troops as they liberated Bergen-Belsen in April 1945, Richard Dimbleby produced one of the most viscerally horrifying — and powerful — dispatches in the BBC’s history. “I find it hard to describe adequately the horrible things that I’ve seen and heard,” he began, “but here unadorned are the facts.”
His language was spare, his descriptions factual — and yet, his bosses didn’t want to broadcast the report. A compromise was only reached after he threatened to resign and his script was cut in half. The reason, his son Jonathan later revealed, was that “the BBC needed more sources to support what had happened to Jews and worried that if you mentioned one group of people and not others, it might seem biased or wrong”.
The events of October 7 do not compare to the Holocaust, but a similar reluctance to consider both its primary victims remains. We see it in the defaced posters of kidnapped Israelis by people who claim they are “propaganda”, in the antisemitic disinformation peddled online, and in the weekly pro-Palestine demonstrations that fail to call out Hamas’s terrorism. But perhaps most peculiarly, we also see it in the silence of organisations and activist groups dedicated to fighting for women’s safety.
After Hamas terrorists set about murdering, raping and abducting as many women as they could, one might have expected widespread condemnation from the West’s feminist groups. After all, Hamas had provided enough evidence of its crimes — within hours, they were posting footage of abducted young women in bloodied trousers being paraded around Gaza. Even beforehand, its feminist credentials were hardly glowing: it mandates the hijab, has made it illegal to travel without a male guardian, and refused to ban physical or sexual abuse within the family.
The response among the majority of groups committed to ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) was threefold: to keep quiet, to disbelieve the victims, or to insinuate they deserved their fate. In the words of 140 American “prominent feminist scholars”, to stand in solidarity with Israeli women is to give in to “colonial feminism”.
Here in the UK, this approach is perhaps best embodied in the work of Sisters Uncut, a charity that boasts its own “Feministo” committed to “taking direct action for domestic violence services”. Until this month, the activists’ work has generally taken the form of media-savvy stunts: dyeing the water of Trafalgar Square’s fountains red, setting off rape alarms outside police stations, occupying the roofs of council buildings. Yet all paled in comparison to the demonstration it organised earlier this month: a call for Israel to put down its weapons that ultimately shut down London’s Liverpool Street Station.
Afterwards, the charity issued a 600-word statement, filled with references to “apartheid”, “genocide” and disproved reports that the IDF had bombed Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital. There was no mention, however, of the 239 abducted Israelis, roughly 100 of whom are believed to be women, or the sexual assaults that took place on October 7. When journalist Hadley Freeman pointed out this wasn’t terribly feminist of them, the group responded by claiming reports of Hamas’s sex attacks amounted to “the Islamophobic and racist weaponisation of sexual violence”. Towards the end of their rambling statement, they concluded: “no people would ever accept being murdered, humiliated, dispossessed, racially targeted, oppressed, cleansed, exiled and colonised without resisting.”
Other feminist groups fell into a similar victim-blaming step. Southall Black Sisters, another charity committed to ending violence against women, did at least mourn the loss of life on both sides, but blamed it on “the Israeli government’s declaration of war on Gaza”. Elsewhere, Women for Women UK, which specialises in helping “women survivors of war” and calls itself a “non-partisan organisation”, has decided to raise money only for Palestinian women. Even Women’s Place UK, once viewed as an outlier for its brave campaigning for women-only spaces, decided to call for an “immediate ceasefire” without mentioning sexual violence.
In fact, the only VAWG charity in the UK to call out Hamas’s sexual violence was Jewish Women’s Aid. “Such acts have a permanent impact on survivors and damaging psychological effects on women, particularly women who are victim-survivors of sexual violence,” it said in a statement. “The public silence from many UK domestic/sexual abuse sector organisations further impacts the isolation and fear our clients are experiencing.”
For one British Jewish VAWG worker, who has been in the sector for 20 years, the silence of other organisations was to be expected: “I have seen this become a real thing in the last few years — where ideas are imported from America: that if you are white, you will always be the oppressor. If you are working for one of these charities, you are used to a victim/perpetrator narrative which is normally true in the domestic violence context, but not when it comes to geopolitics.”
She describes how, during mandatory training at the last charity she worked for, her team was told that Jews don’t experience racism. “Incredibly, they used the Second World War as an example of racism, but of anti-black racism because of how people from the West Indies were treated.”
For those whose daughters have been abducted by Hamas, the sense of betrayal is palpable. “It is unbelievable that groups like the Red Cross and UN Women are doing nothing to help our people,” Keren Sharf Shem, whose 21-year-old French-Israeli daughter Mia was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, tells me. “It is right that the people of Gaza are getting humanitarian aid, but we deserve the same… I know from a message Mia sent to a friend that she was shot in the leg. She also has a medical condition, and the hostage video showed her after surgery for an operation on her arm. That was weeks ago — I don’t know whether she is still alive. And there are other sick people there, as well as babies and a pregnant woman. Too many people seem to have forgotten them.”
To remedy this, Israeli feminists this week launched #MeToo_Unless_Ur_A_Jew, a campaign calling for the UN Women group to focus on the gender-based violence against Israeli women. “The UN Women is turning a blind eye to Hamas’s vicious war crimes by remaining silent,” they said.
In a similar vein, Claire Waxman, London’s first Victims’ Commissioner, wrote to Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, to ask why the organisation has stayed silent. In response, Waxman tells me, Alsalem claimed the evidence was “not solid” enough to warrant a statement. An incredulous Waxman points out that November 25 is the UN’s International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls: “How can we talk about eliminating violence against women and girls if we are tacitly saying it’s acceptable to rape Jewish ones?”
To counter this narrative, the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children was also founded this week, and is currently collecting testimony about Hamas’s atrocities, ranging from victim reports and eyewitness accounts to footage released by Hamas itself. Many of those raped are dead or abducted; others are too traumatised to speak. But the story that has begun to emerge is unbearable in its horror — one of gang rape of women and children, of the dead bodies of women being hacked during or after sexual assault, and of genital mutilation.
Nachman Dyksztejna, a Ukrainian-Israeli, is one of those whose testimony bears witness to these horrors. A volunteer first responder with an organisation called Zaka, he was sent to several scenes of the massacre, including the site of Nova festival and several kibbutzim. To avoid repeating his trauma, Zaka recorded his statement alongside psychological support and sent me a written translation. Zaka also provided photographs that corroborate his descriptions. (The editors of this publication have also seen them.)
Dyksztejna’s testimony — reproduced in the next two paragraphs — is among the most harrowing I have read, and can be skipped if necessary:
In 1945, Dimbleby broke down several times while making his report about Belsen. “I passed through the barrier and found myself in the world of a nightmare,” he explained. But he knew he had to bear witness to the horror — just as Israelis today feel they have no choice but to report what they have seen. But when videos created by the perpetrators aren’t deemed “solid” evidence, is that enough? For so long the mantra for feminist organisations has been to “believe her”. Yet as the past month has revealed, it only goes so far — and becomes meaningless if you live in Israel.
Nicole Lampert is a freelance journalist who writes about arts and politics. nicolelampert
TOP
The Silence From International Bodies Over Hamas’ Mass Rapes Is a Betrayal of All Women | Opinion
Nov 22November2023 https://www.newsweek.com/silence-international-bodies-over-hamas-mass-rapes-betrayal-all-women-opinion-1845783
By Michal Herzog
First Lady of the State of Israel
Two days after the horrific Hamas attack of October 7, I met Rotem, a young mother of two small children from a Kibbutz on the Gaza border. I held my breath as she recounted how she ran with her children to hide while terrorists rampaged through their home, how they made it to the safe room and desperately held the door, praying the terrorists wouldn’t enter.
Her terror echoed accounts I’ve heard from abused women, except now the threat was not from a violent husband. And Rotem was not alone; she is one of thousands of Israeli women who simultaneously faced murder and rape by Hamas terrorists on that fateful day.
At the President of Israel’s Residence in Jerusalem, we are preparing for the day the United Nations General Assembly has designated the International Day for the Prevention of Violence against Women, which is observed every November 25. Every year, I host victims, civil-society leaders, activists, and scholars committed to women’s rights and safety on this day.
But this year will be different. Many things changed on October 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists massacred Israeli families, burnt children and the elderly, and kidnapped hostages. This deeply impacted our visceral understanding of the cruelty of gender-based sexual violence—and our faith in the international organizations that claim to care about women.
It took me several days to grasp the monstrous nature and scale of violence suffered specifically by women on October 7. My first realization came when meeting volunteers of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers who discreetly told me of conversations with survivors. They heard testimonies that shocked them to the core.
Israel’s First Lady Michal Herzog on a visit to the Levinstein Rehabilitation Center, embraces Noam, who was injured in the the NOVA music festival attack on October 7. Bar Netzer
At the Nova music festival, where more than 350 young people were slaughtered and dozens kidnapped, witnesses hiding in the bushes saw terrorists gang-rape, then murder and mutilate women. A Hamas video from a kibbutz shows terrorists torturing a pregnant woman and removing her fetus. Our forensic scientists have found bodies of women and girls raped with such violence that their pelvic bones were broken. Those of us unlucky enough to have seen video evidence broadcast by the terrorists themselves witnessed the body of a naked woman paraded through Gaza, and another, still alive, in bloodied pants held captive at gunpoint being pulled into a jeep by her hair. This evidence, along with the explicit recorded confessions of captured terrorists, makes abundantly clear that mass rape was a premeditated part of Hamas’s plan.
And this crime is ongoing: The 240 hostages held in Gaza include many women and girls, and only when they are released will we know what they have endured.
In the 1990s, international agencies and legal experts finally began to see violence against women as a particular category of war crime. Organizations like UN Women exist to protect women from such crimes, while Israeli experts and activists have been involved in these international efforts. Thus, our second shock: The inconceivable and unforgiveable silence of these organizations when faced with the rape and murder of Israeli women.
The parents and relatives of children kidnapped on October 7, along with families of hostages and their supporters take part in a demonstration outside the UNICEF headquarters to protest their silence to 40 children held hostage in Gaza on World’s Children Day on November 20, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Hamas and Israel leaders have both indicated progress is being made to release hostages taken after October 7. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
It is not that condemnations of gender-based violence by Hamas have been weak or insufficient – there have been none at all. Statement after statement by organizations like UN Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have failed to condemn these crimes. They failed us, and all women, at this critical moment.
As a woman and a mother, my heart goes out to women and children in Gaza suffering the consequences of the war started by Hamas. I believe they deserve aid and support. But this does not mean the erasure of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists on October 7. The silence of international human rights organizations, and the unwillingness to believe Israeli women in the face of overwhelming evidence has been devastating.
For the Israelis who have always been on the forefront of the fight for women’s rights worldwide, this was a moment of crushing disappointment. A disappointment shared with me by one of our most prominent women’s rights advocates, Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a former CEDAW vice-chair.
Israel’s First Lady, Michal Herzog Igal Slavin
“I knew it would be difficult to get them to issue a reasonable statement,” she said of the UN committee in a Harvard Medical School video conference., “but never did I imagine that when faced with such undeniable atrocities – given the very purpose for which they have been established,– – that they would actually resort to not acknowledging it at all.”
Ignoring the “unprecedented, premeditated and extreme cruelty of the sexual violence committed by Hamas,” Prof. Halperin-Kaddari added, meant not only failing Israeli women but failing the entire international human rights system. “I still am a believer in this system. But this was a huge blow to this belief.”
I agree with every word.
To mark this year’s International Day for the Prevention of Violence against Women, Israeli women – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze – will gather at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. We will meet in the lingering shock of the violation of our rights, and with the profound sense that all of us who believe in those rights have been betrayed.
Yet we will persist in presenting the truth to the world and to every human rights organization. We owe it not only to our own victims, but to all women who will face these crimes in the future and must know that they are not alone.
Michal Herzog is First Lady of the State of Israel.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
TOP
UN Women took 1,176 hours to respond
StopAntisemitism-tweet-25November2023-UN Women took 7Weeks to respond
7 weeks.
49 days.
1,176 hours.
That’s how long it took @UNWomen to issue a statement condemning the raping and sodomy of Jewish women.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-25November2023-
7 weeks.
49 days.
1,176 hours to denounce these horrors.
Why?
Because they’re Jews.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-25November2023-UN Women took 7 Weeks to respond
JerusalemCats-tweet-26November2023-UN_Women-screenshot-2023-11-26
This is a “Form Letter” sent to both Gaza and Israel. @UN_Women DO NOT CARE about women.
JerusalemCats-tweet-26November2023-UN_Women-screenshot-2023-11-26
TOP
After backlash over silence, UN Women tweets, then deletes, statement condemning Hamas attack in Israel
BY JACKIE HAJDENBERG 27NOVEMBER2023 https://www.jta.org/2023/11/27/israel/after-backlash-over-silence-un-women-tweets-then-deletes-statement-condemning-hamas-attack-in-israel
Israeli women protest outside UN Headquarters in Jerusalem, Nov. 27, 2023. (Flash90)
(JTA) — Nearly 50 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel left 1,200 dead, and after weeks of criticism over its silence about allegations of sexual violence during the attack, the women’s rights group UN Women issued a statement condemning the terror group on Friday.
Then it deleted the post.
“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, posted on UN Women’s instagram page. It was soon replaced with a statement that dropped the condemnation of Hamas and only called for the release of the hostages.
Word spread quickly among Jewish women activists and Israelis, reigniting their contention that UN Women — an official arm of the United Nations focused on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment — holds a double standard when it comes to gender-based violence against Israeli women. Some of the critics — including Sheryl Sandberg, a former top Meta executive — have lobbied openly on the topic. Many have used the hashtag “#MeToo_UNless_UR_A_Jew.”
Reached for comment, UN Women told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Instagram post had been scheduled in advance and was deleted because the message in it no longer reflected where the organization wanted to put its main focus.
“In any social media team managing multiple campaigns and during a very busy time like the one we are now with 16 Days of Activism, mistakes can occur,” a representative for UN Women said in a statement sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
In particular, said the media specialist, the release of some hostages over the weekend as part of a temporary truce changed the organization’s priorities.
“UN Women social media team had pre-planned days in advance [of] this particular post, but then the news broke on the release of hostages and we really wanted to focus on that,” she said. “UN Women has condemned the attacks by Hamas and the deaths of Israeli civilians from the beginning as well as called for the release of hostages, and we will continue doing so until the conflict ends. We have also called for all allegations of gender-based violence to be rigorously investigated, prioritizing the rights, needs, and safety of those affected.”
In late October, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but voted down a provision condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. On Monday, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, held a session on crimes against humanity committed against women during the Oct. 7 massacre.
After an initial statement on Oct. 13 condemning the attacks on civilians in Israel, all of UN Women’s public comments about the war and its impact on women had centered only on Palestinians. Last week, Sima Bahous, the group’s executive director, called for an extension of the current temporary truce into a permanent ceasefire and for the release of all hostages.
The National Council for Jewish Women, which had previously criticized UN Women’s silence on sexual violence against Israeli women, said the group’s second statement last week was inadequate.
“The delayed issuance of a statement that fails to explicitly address the severity of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel — such as the brutal murder of over 1,200 people in Israel, torture, and rape of women, as well as the targeting of civilians and families — is equally reprehensible,” the statement said. “Immediate and unequivocal acknowledgment of these atrocities is imperative, given the blatant violation of international law.”
JerusalemCats-tweet-26November2023-UN_Women-screenshot-2023-11-26
This is a “Form Letter” sent to both Gaza and Israel. @UN_Women DO NOT CARE about women.
JerusalemCats-tweet-26November2023-UN_Women-screenshot-2023-11-26
TOP
Sarah Douglas, the Deputy Chief of Peace and Security at UN Women and Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi
Exposed: UN Women Deputy Chief Endorsed 153 Tweets Attacking Israel & Zionism
18December2023 United Nations https://unwatch.org/exposed-un-women-deputy-chief-endorsed-153-tweets-attacking-israel-zionism/
A top official of UN Women addressed the United Nations by webcam from her home with a large “Palestine” poster and flag showing in the background, and since the October 7th Hamas massacre she has publicly endorsed 153 anti-Israel and anti-Zionist tweets, revealed a Swiss watchdog group today.
Sarah Douglas, the Deputy Chief of Peace and Security at UN Women, should be fired for her blatant and systematic violations of the the UN’s minimal requirements of neutrality and impartiality, said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva that released the following report documenting her partisan political activity.
Hillel Neuer-tweet-18December2023-Meet Sarah Douglas-UN Women
Meet Sarah Douglas, the Deputy Chief of Peace and Security at neutral UN Women. Last week she spoke to the UN from home next to a giant “Palestine” poster. Turns out she’s also endorsed 153 tweets since Oct. 7 accusing Israel of “genocide” & other sins: https://unwatch.org/exposed-un-women-deputy-chief-endorsed-153-tweets-attacking-israel-zionism/ 🧵
Hillel Neuer-tweet-18December2023-Meet Sarah Douglas-UN Women
Sarah Douglas’ Political Activity Violates UN Impartiality
Sarah Douglas’ overt political activity, including her public endorsement of extreme statements by politicians and political organizations, as detailed below, amount to a material breach of her UN obligation to be neutral and impartial. Article 101(3) of the UN Charter states that the “paramount consideration” in employing staff is “securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity.” The concept of integrity under the core values of the UN Staff Rules and Staff Regulations includes “impartiality.” Specifically, under Rule 1.2(f), UN staff are expressly prohibited from making “any kind of public pronouncement” that may adversely reflect on their independence and impartiality. While UN staff members may exercise the right to vote, they are prohibited from engaging in any political activity that reflects adversely upon “the independence and impartiality required by their status as international civil servants.”
Repeatedly Accused Israel of “Genocide”
Sarah Douglas liked a tweet by the Palestinian Feminist Collective accusing “the forces of empire” of helping Israel to commit “genocide” and “annihilate the Palestinian people.”
Similarly, Douglas has repeatedly liked tweets accusing America of funding and arming “the genocide of Palestinians” and “the genocide in Gaza.”
Likewise, she liked many tweets accusing Israel of “war crimes against the people of Gaza” and indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
By contrast, the UN Women’s Deputy Chief of Peace and Security failed to like a single tweet condemning Hamas for its open calls for genocide, including its pledges to repeat the October 7th mass murder, torture and rape of Israelis.
Sarah Douglas liked 11December2023-Genocide-Gaza-JVP
Sarah Douglas liked 15December2023-JVP-US-funding-genocide
Sarah Douglas liked 16October2023-JPal-Fem-Collective-genocide
Falsely Accused Israel of Bombing Hospital
Douglas liked the tweet by UN Women chief Sima Bahous which falsely implied that Israel attacked the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17th and “strongly condemned” the strike that “killed and injured hundreds of civilians.” In fact, the rocket was from Islamic Jihad; it did not hit the hospital but the parking lot of the courtyard; and the actual casualties were a fraction of that amount. The tweet was never deleted and remains on Douglas’ feed of liked tweets.
Celebrated Shutdown of American Bridges and Highways, Takeover of Party Conventions
Sarah Douglas liked tweets that celebrate shutting down bridges and highways in eight American cities.
She liked a tweet by IfNotNow celebrating the takeover of the California Democratic Convention to protest “the mass murder of Palestinians.”
And she liked a tweet by “Jewish Voice for Peace Action” that celebrated their shutting down of the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Palestine Poster
Speaking via webcam from her home, Sarah Douglas addressed a UN meeting last week next to a large “Palestine” poster with the colors of the Palestinian flag. This is in breach of the UN rule that speakers show only a neutral background.
Sarah Douglas addressed a UN meeting
Openly Endorsed “Squad” Politicians Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, AOC
Sarah Douglas likes numerous tweets of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Bernie Sanders and other far-left politicians.
Douglas liked a tweet by Rashida Tlaib claiming that “Israel is starving Gaza.”
She liked a tweet by AOC calling to condition aid to Israel, and others about pressing the Biden administration for a ceasefire and preventing the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.
She liked a tweet by “IfNotNow” endorsing pressure on Senator Warren.
She liked a tweet by “Jewish Voice for Peace Action” which thanked 13 named Democratic members of Congress for opposing H. Res. 894, which condemnied the drastic rise of antisemitism in America. So a UN official is openly supporting and opposing specific votes in the US Congress and at the UN.
She also liked tweets by numerous other far-left and politicians who attack or criticize Israel, including Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush and Bernie Sanders.
Endorsed Code Pink and Other Radical Groups
Despite her obligation to be neutral in her public pronouncements, Sarah Douglas supports radical groups like Code Pink, liking their tweet that accused US Senators Graham and Rubio “and other AIPAC $$$ recipients” over the violence they’re backing against Palestinians, accusing them of “hate and lies.” She liked another Code Pink tweet that celebrated shutting down Chicago’s main highway to “free Palestine.”
Douglas repeatedly liked tweets by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), a Geneva-based group that was long accused of being a Soviet front organization, and whose officials went to Libya in 1992 to sing praises of the “Gaddafi Human Rights Prize.” Douglas liked a WILPF tweet accusing Israel of “apartheid policies” which is allegedly a “feminist demand.”
She also routinely liked tweets from additional NGOs and lobby groups that advocate what Hamas wants, including tweets by Democratic Socialists and Amnesty International.
Promoted Fringe Jewish Groups That Oppose Israel and Zionism
Douglas has a particular fondness for liking tweets by fringe Jewish individuals or groups that condemn Israel.
She liked numerous posts by “Jewish Voices for Peace,” including one tweet saying “We’re proud anti-Zionistsm,” with the image of a placard reading, “Zionism breaks every single Jewish value.”
She liked a tweet by IfNotNow promoting their “#JewsForCeasefire” campaign.
In violation of UN rules against overt partisan political activity, Sarah Douglas openly engaged in political campaigning by publicly liking numerous posts such as a tweet by “Jewish Voice for Peace Action” lobbying for the US government to change its policy and demand a ceasefire, which read: “Keep writing, keep calling, keep pushing. Check our tracker… to see who in Congress is working to save lives.”
Liked an article by radical academic who invoked his Jewish identity to accuse Israel of “genocide” and “Jewish supremacy.”
Intervened On UN Votes, Rebuked Countries For Not Backing Anti-Israel Resolutions
UN employees do not comment on country votes in UN bodies. For example, when the UN Secretary-General is asked about the UN election of dictatorships to the Human Rights Council and women’s rights bodies, he systematically declines to comment.
By contrast, Douglas has repeatedly endorsed tweets rebuking member states for their UN votes that she opposes. She liked a tweet by the group Karama which criticized “states who claim to support women’s rights looking the other way on violence against Palestinian women.” Similarly, she liked an AOC tweet slamming a US vote in the Security Council.
Notably, Sarah Douglas has never liked tweets criticizing country votes on any other matter.
Her “Hero” is Antisemitic Denier of Hamas Massacre
Sarah Douglas tweeted a photo of herself with former PLO official and spokeswoman, gushing that she was “So excited to meet one of my sheroes today: Dr Hanan Ashrawi!!”
In fact, Ashrawi is someone who has promoted antisemitic blood libels, falsely accusing Israel of throwing a Palestinian child into a well. Ashrawi founded an organization, Miftah, that claims Jews consume Christian blood, and which praises suicide bombers.
Speaking on Sky News, Ashrawi recently justified the Hamas massacre and mass rape of October 7th, saying, “This was a deliberate act of resisting an occupation army.”
TOP
UN International Women’s Day-Oct. 7 Rape Report-Israel_Hayom_EN
After 150 days of being thwarted, condemned, lied to and investigated by UN, UN gives Oct 7 Rape Report
Israel Katz-tweet-6March2024-critical to hear your voice as international women leaders
Distinguished women leaders, Following the publication of the @UN report on sexual violence committed by the Hamas terror organization, it is critical to hear your voice as international women leaders, in order to put an end to the atrocities that Israeli women are going through in the captivity of the Hamas.
#BringThemHome 🎗️
@VP @HillaryClinton @GiorgiaMeloni @Statsmin @katrinjak @nmusar @ZuzanaCaputova @SerbianPM @kajakallas @Zourabichvili_S @XiomaraCastroZ @EvikaSilina @IngridaSimonyte @sandumaiamd @KristoBorjana @DameSandraMason @Sheikh_Hasinaa @presidenciaperu @SigridKaag @MinColonna @KensingtonRoyal @MichelleObama @ABaerbock @melaniejoly @Kamikawa_Yoko @HankeBruinsSlot @hadjalahbib @Odobes1Luminita @GabrielMariya @gabisommerfeld @DianaMondino @SenatorWong @elinavaltonen
Israel Katz-tweet-6March2024-critical to hear your voice as international women leaders
United Nations-tweet-5March2024-7 Oct attack by Hamas
In context of 7 Oct attack by Hamas & others, UN special representative for @endrapeinwar finds reasonable grounds to believe sexual violence occurred in multiple locations.
She also finds sexual violence committed against hostages & may still be ongoing. https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/israel-west-bank-mission/
Malkah Fleisher-tweet-5March2024-After 150 days of being thwarted, condemned, lied to
After 150 days of being thwarted, condemned, lied to and investigated by you:
WE DON’T WANT YOUR STUPID SUPPORT, GET AWAY FROM US, YOU’RE DISGUSTING.
🇮🇱 Am Yisrael Chai
Malkah Fleisher-tweet-5March2024-After 150 days of being thwarted, condemned, lied to and investigated by you
Jessica S-tweet-5March2024-67 Different Men Raped her
You know it occurred in multiple locations the DAY IT HAPPENED they filmed themselves doing it and you have had the evidence all along ! Shame on you for taking months to recognize the atrocities that have had an are still happening.
#DefundTheUN
Jessica S-tweet-5March2024-67 Different Men Raped her
TOP
Israel forbids doctors from speaking to the antisemitic UN Human Rights Council
Israel forbids doctors from speaking to UN group investigating Oct. 7 atrocities
Officials say commission of inquiry formed by UN Human Rights Council in 2021 is led by three people with antisemitic and anti-Israel views
By Renee Ghert-Zand 16 January 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-forbids-doctors-from-speaking-to-un-group-investigating-oct-7-atrocities/
Click on the Title for the full article
Demonstrators gather outside the UN headquarters in New York City on December 4, 2023, to protest the international community’s perceived silence on sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women during the October 7 massacre. (Carli Fogel)
JerusalemCats Comments:
The UN Human Rights Council Commission of inquiry to investigating Oct. 7 atrocities of Hamas on Israel is led by three people with antisemitic and anti-Israel views. Israel forbids doctors from speaking to the commission.
The UNHRC has a very long history of antisemitism
he U.N. Human Rights Council is made up of human rights violating thugs who are against Israel. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020.
The U.N. Human Rights Council
Hillel Neuer-tweet-20September2021-The U.N. Human Rights Council
The U.N. Human Rights Council—whose members include China, Cuba, Libya, Eritrea, Mauritania, Pakistan, Russia and Somalia (soon to be joined by Qatar, Malaysia & Kazakhstan)—is a key supporter of this week’s Durban 4 racism conference which has a tainted history of antisemitism.
Hillel Neuer-tweet-20September2021-The U.N. Human Rights Council
TOP
UN Secretary-General activating Article 99 of the UN Charter to put pressure on Israel
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-December 6, 2023-UN Secretary-General activating Article 99 of the UN Charter
Today, the Secretary-General has reached a new moral low. He writes that he is activating, for the first time, Article 99 of the UN Charter in relation to the Israel-Hamas war, an article that can only be invoked in a situation where international peace and security are threatened.
The Secretary-General decided to activate this rare clause only when it allows him to put pressure on Israel, which is fighting the Nazi Hamas terrorists. This is more proof of the Secretary-General’s moral distortion and his bias against Israel.
The Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza. Instead of the Secretary-General explicitly pointing to Hamas’ responsibility for the situation and calling on the terrorist leaders to turn themselves in and return the hostages, thus ending the war, the Secretary-General chooses to continue playing into Hamas’ hands.
The distorted positions of the Secretary-General only prolong the fighting in Gaza, because they give hope to the Hamas terrorists that the war will be stopped and they will be able to survive. I again call on the Secretary-General to resign immediately – the UN needs a Secretary-General who supports the war on terror, not a Secretary-General who acts according to the script written by Hamas.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-December 6, 2023-UN Secretary-General activating Article 99 of the UN Charter
the Reaction
Eli Cohen-tweet-6December2023-Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace
Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace.
His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a cease fire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.
Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas
Eli Cohen-tweet-6December2023-Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace
TOP
UN General Assembly rejects motion to condemn Hamas, calls for ceasefire
29October2023 https://unwatch.org/un-general-assembly-rejects-motion-to-condemn-hamas-calls-for-ceasefire/
The UN General Assembly adopted an Arab-drafted resolution today calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza, after rejecting a Canadian amendment that would have condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demanded immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it “a day that will go down in infamy.”
The resolution was adopted by a vote of 120 to 14 with 45 abstentions.
Outrageously, the resolution failed to condemn Hamas for its October 7th massacre of 1400 Israelis, or for its abduction of more than 200 Israelis including children and babies, or even to mention the word Hamas.
The resolution also failed to recognize Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens against terrorism.
The resolution calls for “immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered humanitarian access…to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid” but, as noted by the Czech Republic, doesn’t provide assurances that this will not be abused by Hamas and other terrorists.
The text also calls on Israel, “the occupying power,” to rescind its order to evacuate northern Gaza.
Prior to taking action on the resolution, an amendment led by Canada did not pass, as it failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. That amendment would have “unequivocally reject[ed] and condemn[ed] the terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting on 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages.”
UN Watch-tweet-27October2023-LIST OF SHAME: These EU countries just joined Iran, Syria and Russia in voting for a resolution that fails to name Hamas or specifically call for release of hostages.
Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland,Norway
UN Watch-tweet-27October2023-LIST OF SHAME: These EU countries just joined Iran, Syria and Russia in voting for a resolution that fails to name Hamas or specifically call for release of hostages.
Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway
UN Watch-tweet-28October2023-Proving Abba Eban’s timeless observation: “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring the earth was flat and Israel had flattened it, it would pass by 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” This UN text fails to condemn the Hamas massacre or to support Israel’s right to self-defence.
United Nations-tweet–27October2023-
120 in favor
14 against
45 abstentions
Countries adopt resolution calling for immediate & sustained humanitarian truce in the Middle East during an Emergency Special Session of https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142847
UN Watch-tweet-28October2023-Proving Abba Eban’s timeless observation
[EDD: The Reaction]
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28October2023-
BREAKING: 🇨🇿 Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová has just called to leave the UN for cheering Hamas terrorists. “Exactly 3 weeks ago, Hamas murdered over 1400 Israelis, more victims for their population than the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda murdered in the US on 9/11. And only 14 countries, including ours, have spoken out clearly and understandably against this unprecedented terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists! I am ashamed of the UN. In my opinion, the Czech Republic has no place in an organization that cheers on terrorists and does not respect the fundamental right to self-defence. Let’s get out.”
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28October2023-Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová has just called to leave the UN
TOP
The 1975 “Zionism Is Racism” Resolution: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of a Libel
Dr. Yohanan Manor
May 2, 2010
No. 97
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (XXX) of 10 November 1975, defining Zionism as a form of racism, was revoked by the General Assembly sixteen years later on 16 December 1991.
The story of the rise and fall of this libel teaches a good deal about the role of anti-Semitism in international politics, its paralyzing effect on both the Jewish state and the Jewish people, and how such a libel was finally challenged successfully. Since the revocation of 3379, Israel’s international standing and legitimacy have steadily improved, increasing its ability to thwart ongoing attempts to negate its legitimacy.
How It Began
The idea of having Zionism condemned by the United Nations originated with the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, before the Six Day War. It stemmed from the Soviet refusal to have anti-Semitism condemned by the UN. Since the Soviet Union could not openly voice such a position, it conditioned its acceptance of condemning anti-Semitism on a demand to condemn Zionism and Nazism. This occurred in 1964 and 1965 during the negotiation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination within the framework of the UN Commission on Human Rights.[1]
The Six Day War inflicted a severe blow on the Soviet Union’s weaponry and prestige, and it subsequently developed a more militant policy to regain and enlarge its influence in the Middle East. This policy was based on a near-total backing of the PLO. It was expected that this backing would bring both the “Arab street” and the Arab states to the Soviet Union’s side. This scheme went well and enabled the Soviet Union to gain strongholds in the Middle East, notably in Syria and Egypt, which were on the verge of becoming Soviet colonies.
The expulsion of the Soviet advisers from Egypt, the Israeli-Egyptian disengagement negotiations of November 1973, and the Israeli-Syrian disengagement agreement of May 1974 with the active involvement of the United States, apparently led to a Soviet-PLO plan to bring about Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations, with the PLO taking its place.[2]
On 22 November 1974, the PLO obtained UN observer status as a national liberation movement. In August 1975, the Organization of African Unity explicitly referred to depriving Israel of “its status as member.” At the General Assembly on 1 October 1975, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin called upon
the people of the United States of America…to rid their society from the Zionists in order that the true citizens of this nation may control their own destiny and exploit the natural resources of their country to their own benefit. I call for the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations and the extinction of Israel as a state so that the territorial integrity of Palestine may be ensured and upheld.[3]
In parallel, the Soviet Union and the PLO advanced an initiative to bring about a condemnation of Zionism. In December 1973, for the first time, Zionism was associated with racism in a General Assembly resolution on South Africa’s apartheid policy, condemning in particular “the unholy alliance between Portuguese colonialism, South African racism, Zionism and Israeli imperialism.”[4]
In July 1975, the Soviet Union and the PLO succeeded to have Zionism explicitly condemned at the UN International Women’s Year conference in Mexico City, which stressed in its final declaration that “Peace requires the elimination of colonialism, neocolonialism, foreign occupation, Zionism, apartheid and racial discrimination in all its forms.”[5] In August 1975, the Organization of African Unity in Kampala stated that “the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regime in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin…organically linked in their policy aimed at repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being”; while the Non-Aligned conference in Lima “severely condemned Zionism as a threat to world peace.”
Stern Western, above all American, opposition to Israel’s expulsion or suspension, notably an American warning that such a move would force the United States to reassess its UN membership,[6] thwarted this initiative – but also much increased the eagerness to advance a substitute for it, namely, the condemnation of Zionism as racism. This was formally achieved first within the framework of the Third Committee of the General Assembly on 16 October 1975, and then on 10 November 1975 by the GA plenary with Resolution 3379 (XXX), which “Determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The Soviet-Arab coalition won by 72-35 with two abstentions.
Although this result was far from resounding and fell short of the one hundred and more votes this coalition was used to obtaining at the General Assembly, it was followed by an explosion of joy. As Judge Hadassa Ben Ito, then a member of the Israeli delegation to this session, strikingly described this:
It was not only an excitement. The hatred was crawling on the floor. People embraced as if they had won the biggest victory of their lives…. We felt like pariahs. It is not only a sentimental reflection…. We should know that it was not just another resolution of the United Nations. Somebody like myself, who has never really felt personally attacked by, or maligned by an act of anti-Semitism, really felt it physically while sitting there.[7]
Two procedural attempts to postpone the debate and the vote on the draft resolution were rejected. In the Third Committee, a motion put forth by Sierra Leone was defeated by 68-45. In the plenary, a Belgian motion was rejected by 67-55, with fifteen abstentions and five absences.
It is likely that a resolute and coordinated effort by the United States, Canada, Australia, Western Europe, and Latin American and African countries could have mustered the additional votes necessary to secure a postponement (see Table 1). But this did not occur, probably, on the one hand, out of relief that the most ominous threat, Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations, had been foiled, and on the other, out of the inner conviction that this farfetched, aberrant, and shameful resolution from “Um-shmum” – a play on words coined by David Ben-Gurion to express the UN’s impotency -would actually have no palpable weight and the UN would do its best to forget it.
Table 1: Voting Patterns on Resolution 3379 by Blocs
UN Body
Third Committee
Third Committee
Assembly Plenum
Assembly Plenum
Motions and resolutions
Sierra Leone
postponement
motion
A/C.3/L.2159
Belgium
postponement motion
UNGA
3379(XXX)
Blocs
Y
N
An
As
Y
N
An
As
Y
N
An
As
Y
N
An
As
Western 21
19
1
1
2
19
21
1
19
1
Latin America 26
10
5
7
4
5
8
6
7
17
3
6
5
10
11
Eastern Europe 10
10
9
1
9
1
9
1
Other Communist
countries 5
5
5
5
5
Arab
League 20
20
20
20
20
Muslim Countries 6
5
1
5
1
6
6
African 38
13
16
4
5
17
2
14
5
13
18
3
4
20
5
12
1
Middle Eastern 5
4
1
4
1
4
1
4
1
Asians 11
3
2
5
1
3
6
2
4
2
5
2
1
8
Total 142
45
68
16
13
70
29
27
16
55
67
15
5
72
35
3
Note: Y=Yes; N=No; An=Abstain; 4 As=Absent.
Source: Yohanan Manor, To Right a Wrong (New York: Shengold, 1996), 56.
The Jewish World’s Passive Posture
Except for the African American lawyer Eleanor Holmes-Norton’s statement[8] days after the resolution’s adoption that “an international committee of women had been set up to annul [it],” there was no other attempt, not even an Israeli or Jewish one, to act for its revocation. Instead, the Israeli and Jewish world viewed the resolution with disdain. For instance, soon after the adoption Rabbi Israel Miller, then chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was told by the Israeli embassy to “ignore the whole issue, since it was nonsense.”[9] Israel expected that this nonsense would go away by itself and that disregard would achieve this result. This position, which was maintained for almost a decade, was itself sheer nonsense.
During 1976-1984 the “Zionism is racism” resolution was reiterated time and again, sometimes by even larger majorities (see Table 2). In 1980, at the United Nations’ Second World Conference on Women in Copenhagen, the notion of eliminating Zionism was for the first time included in an operative document, “The Program of Action for the Second Half of the UN Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace.” This meant that the administrative units of the UN secretary-general, notably the Office of Public Information, would have to include the defamation of Zionism in their activities.
Table 2: Resolutions on 3379 Adopted by International Bodies, 1976-1984
Year
International body
Venue
Direct/
Indirect
Yes
No
An
1976
UN Conference on Human Settlement
Vancouver
Indirect
89
15
10
1978
UN World Conference to Combat Racism
Geneva
Indirect
67
18
18
1979
UNGA
“Inadmissibility of hegemonism”
New York
Direct
111
4
26
1979
Non-Aligned Movement
Havana
Direct
1980
UN World Conference on Women
Copenhagen
Direct
94
4
22
1980
International Youth and Student Movement for the UN
Geneva
Direct
34
3
1981
Non-Alignment Movement
New Delhi
Direct
1981
OAU, African Charter of Human Rights
Banjul
Direct
1982
UNGA on “Living conditions of the Palestinian people”
New York
Indirect
145
2
3
1982
UNESCO Conference on Cultural Policies
Mexico
Direct
45
29
75
1983
UN World Conference to Combat Racism
Geneva
Indirect
87
15
16
1983
UN-sponsored Conference on Palestine
Geneva
Indirect
1983
Non-Aligned Movement Summit
New Delhi
Direct
1984
International Parliamentary Union
Geneva
Direct
677
137
241
Source: Yohanan Manor, To Right a Wrong (New York: Shengold, 1996), 63.
After the resolution’s adoption, Zionism began to assume “mythical proportions in international discourse as a global cause of most world problems.” This trend was not confined to Arab-Muslim countries and the Third World; it also substantially penetrated Western circles, especially universities. For instance, in Britain in 1976 and 1977, eight student unions adopted “Zionism is racism” resolutions, openly flouting previously held policies not to deal with the Middle East.[10] Subsequently several student unions, such as those at the University of York and the University of Salford, decided to strike Jewish societies from their registers and to restrict their activities.
Some U.S. universities refused to invite lecturers recommended by Jewish organizations on the ground that most Jews were Zionists and, as Zionism was racism, Jews were racists. At the University of California at Riverside, Arab students prevented Jews from attending a program on racism on the ground that “Zionism is a form of racism.”[11]
The trend began to burgeon and win increasing academic sanction. In September 1983 at the Stony Brook campus of the State University of New York, Ernest Dube, a professor in the African Studies Department included Zionism in a course on “The Politics of Race” as one of the three forms of racism, the two other being apartheid and Nazism. One of the research subjects he proposed to his students was “Zionism is as much racism as Nazism,” and he defended this formulation by evoking Resolution 3379.
In Canada, a Jewish group asking to join Québec contre Racisme, an organization set up by Yvon Charbonneau, president of the teachers’ trade union of Quebec, was denied entry unless it renounced Zionism. In 1982, the general student organization of Ontario condemned Israel’s operation in Lebanonstressing that “The state of Israel is Zionism, Zionism is racism,” and decided not to admit Jewish student groups to its ranks. That same year the student federation at Ottawa University decided to prevent the Jewish students’ organization from meeting on the campus on the ground that Zionism was racism.[12]
During this period the vilification of Zionism turned into a permanent feature of international life. That Zionism was a metaphor for universal evil became part of “common knowledge,” accepted or at least not contradicted by almost the entire international body politic. This was not anticipated when Resolution 3379 was adopted, and it came not instead of but in addition to the consequences that were expected, placing Israel beyond the pale and giving anti-Semitism international sanction. During 1969-1972 there were four anti-Israeli resolutions per year at the United Nations. During 1973-1978 this number grew to sixteen per annum, and in 1982 it reached a peak of forty-four.[13]
The vilification of Zionism was not merely a second-best strategy to the one aiming to expel Israel from the United Nations altogether. In a sense it was even worse. Although Israel’s formal membership in the UN was indeed maintained, it was increasingly deprived of its basic rights as a member state. As explained by Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.S. ambassador to the UN from 1981 to 1985, this involved “denying membership by denying participation,”[14] thereby instilling Israel’s illegitimacy by placing it in a state of growing irrelevancy
As noted by the Israeli academic Ehud Sprinzak, this meant Israel lost “the right to speak or debate in certain forums.” For him, labeling Zionism as racism was much more than an attack on particular policies of the Israeli government; it signified that “every war Israel has ever fought, including the War of Independence and the Six Day War, has been a racist war. Every military response to Arab terror has been a racist response. And of course every domestic law …is a racist one.”[15]
Nevertheless, official Israel did not regard the huge and mounting damage inflicted by “Zionism is racism” as sufficient reason to openly fight the resolution and act to overturn it. The Israeli Foreign Ministry often used two arguments to justify this inertia: that initiating action would be counterproductive since the “automatic majority” at the disposal of the Soviet Union and the Arab-Muslim states would result in reiterations; and that it was formally impossible to overturn a General Assembly resolution as there was no such precedent.
An Urgent Need to Act
By now, however, it was clear that reiteration by other international bodies had been an inevitable consequence from the start, and that the resolution constituted the global legal and political foundation for turning the Jewish state into an illegitimate one. Thus it came to be acknowledged, even by official Israel, that the resolution needed to be fought in itself directly, and not as merely another expression of anti-Semitism.
The question, at this point, was how? A central body was needed to direct this struggle. It took the form of the Steering Committee against the Zionism Is Racism Resolution, set up jointly by the World Zionist Organization and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. It was crucial to seek to overcome the so-called automatic UN majority, namely, by at least preventing reiterations and, more essentially, by undermining the validity and legitimacy of the resolution.
A first success was scored in neutralizing a Kuwaiti initiative seeking to obtain a reiteration of the resolution by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at its annual session in September 1984 in Geneva. This was achieved by mobilizing both Israeli parties and Jewish communities worldwide to use their links with the political parties of delegates to the IPU to defeat the Kuwaiti initiative.[16]
The real challenge, however, was to find ways to undermine the validity and legitimacy of the resolution and divest it of any moral value. This was achieved mainly through a long series of international, national, and regional conferences in Israel, the United States, Europe, and Latin America, an international petition to the United Nations signed by over a thousand worldwide personalities calling on it to “disavow the abusive Resolution 3379 and rededicate itself to its founding charter,” and by parliamentary resolutions in the same spirit.
The first of these was a “Sense of the Congress resolution” adopted by the U.S. Senate in July 1985. Senate Joint Resolution 98 “formally repudiates UNGA Resolution 3379 and calls upon the Parliaments of all countries which value freedom and democracy to do the same.”
This draft resolution also needed to be adopted by the House of Representatives, and was, several weeks later. It proved decisive in preventing the reiteration of 3379 at the Nairobi Conference closing the UN Decade for Women. Ambassador Alan Keyes, chief adviser to the U.S. delegation, included references to the Senate resolution in his statements and received clear instructions from Washington that Zionism was not to be included in any paragraph of the final document to be adopted by the conference; if this occurred the U.S. delegation was to leave.
All this demonstrated that fighting Resolution 3379 directly could prevent its reiteration and that its abrogation was not a mission impossible but, rather, an attainable goal, albeit still very difficult. Although the Israeli Foreign Ministry began to count the prospective votes in the General Assembly, there was still a very long way to go.
At the initiative of the local Zionist Federation, the Australian government was convinced to table before the Australian parliament a remarkable resolution proclaiming that 3379 was inconsistent with the United Nations’ goals and recommending that “the Government of Australia lend support to efforts to overturn Resolution 3379 (XXX) in the UN.” Moreover, the Australian government further involved itself by checking what would be the position of each of the Asian countries. The results, however, were extremely disappointing.
Only a few other parliamentary resolutions were passed. These were in Peru (1987), the European Parliament (1987), and Uruguay (1988). Their wording was far less committing then the Australian and American ones. Most of the democratic countries remained uninvolved.
How the Repeal Was Achieved
It would take another five years to overturn “Zionism is racism.” The repeal was finally achieved not only thanks to the end of the Cold War, but first and foremost because the United States took the lead in this endeavor. This active involvement resulted from unabated pressure on the administration by Congress and American Jewish organizations. The U.S. administration put this issue even higher on its agenda than it was on Israel’s.
In his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on 14 May 1989, Secretary of State James Baker called on the Arab countries to take measures to advance the peace process, end the economic boycott of Israel, and “repudiate the odious line that ‘Zionism is racism.’”[17] He thereby put the onus on the Arab states to show that they were serious about the peace process, while linking the peace process to the repeal.
At Yeshiva University on International Human Rights Day on 11 December 1989, Vice-President Dan Quayle did not link the repeal to the peace process but rather to the renewal of the United Nations. Referring to a UN General Assembly resolution cosponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union and calling on all UN members to respect the principles set forth in the UN Charter, Quayle made a resounding statement:
The official Soviet reaction was extremely disappointing, as the regime still clung to its traditional anti-Zionist stance. What was more surprising was the lukewarm response from many Western democracies, which held that the repeal was impossible without a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process. For instance, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher reacted skeptically to Quayle’s appeal by arguing that the necessary majority would be secured only if the repeal offered some substantial quid pro quo to the Arab side.[19] Actually, the democracies did not even make such an attempt.
On 30 March 1990, a public hearing in the Senate chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan adopted a joint resolution calling on UN member states to repeal the “Zionism is racism” resolution and requesting the U.S. president to report periodically on progress toward repeal. John Bolton, representing the State Department, gave an optimistic assessment of the prospects for an overturn.[20] Moynihan, however, was infuriated by Bolton’s apparent self-satisfaction and criticized the State Department for its lack of energy in fighting the resolution, saying he wanted to see more action.
Moynihan went on to say: “The West imposed no consequences of any kind on those nations that associated themselves with this filthy proposition of the Soviet Union. I want to see the US cut assistance to countries which supported the resolution. How many of them received and are still receiving US aid?” Bolton replied that of the seventy-two that had voted in favor of the resolution, a clear majority were at that point receiving U.S. aid, and probably still did. Moynihan then asked him: “Did we ever tell one country, just one country, that you are getting American money, and you are not getting it any more until you change your mind?” On the defensive, Bolton answered: “I don’t know that any country’s ever been told that, Senator, but if I could leave one message with the committee here today, it is that the Bush Administration is most serious about having this resolution repealed.”[21]
Joint Resolution 246 was not only adopted by the Senate and House but also officially endorsed by President George H. W. Bush. However, Bush still found it appropriate to add a paragraph on the United States’ “determination to pursue efforts toward a comprehensive, just and lasting Middle East peace. In our view this peace must be achieved on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and the principle of territories for peace. It must provide for Israel’s security and recognition and for Palestinian political rights….”[22] Several weeks after Bush’s endorsement of 246, the troika then heading the European Union made a commitment to act for the repeal of “Zionism is racism.”
In mid-August 1990, the projected General Assembly vote for a repeal stood at 60-60 with forty abstentions. In mid-September, it was decided to postpone the repeal initiative. The U.S. press claimed this was an American decision aimed at preserving Arab support for sanctions against Iraq. Yohanan Bein, then deputy director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, was in charge of the issue of repealing the resolution. He claimed the postponement was an Israeli decision based on evaluation of how much support could be obtained.[23]
During the summer of 1991, there were once again indications that some were seeking postponement. A first indication came from J. S. Wall, private secretary of UK prime minister John Major, then another from Gareth Evans, Australian minister of trade and foreign affairs; they were concerned that there was not yet a majority in favor of a repeal. But the biggest blow came from the United States, which feared that a motion to defer concocted by Egypt, arguing that the repeal should be delayed until a peace conference opened or the peace process was firmly on track, would easily pass in the General Assembly in September.
Although this inclination to postpone probably reflected genuine concern for the repeal’s success, it also manifested tensions between Israel and the United States over the desirable framework for a Middle East peace conference. In June 1991, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir expressed Israel’s reservations over UN participation in such a conference given the world body’s treatment of Israel over the years. Among many other one-sided UN positions, he mentioned Resolution 3379. Shamir never, though, cited the repeal of 3379 as a condition for accepting UN involvement in such a peace conference.
At the opening of the UN General Assembly in September 1991, Bush took an unprecedented step and raised the issue of the repeal plainly and directly, without linking it to any other issue. Pointing to the renewed role of the United Nations, which had put in place more peacekeeping missions in the previous thirty-six months than during its first forty-three years, he asserted
Children Soldiers
Kosher Kockney-tweet-1December2023-Askar-UNRWA
A must watch, and a must share.
Mind-blowing.
Comment and let me know your thoughts.
Honestly, if there is one video you should watch today. This is the one.
UNRWA – Askar (2023) a short but extremely revealing video by David Bedein.
UNRWA have created a Palestinian terrorism education system. UNRWA school and “refugee camp” where they breed terror.
It’ll take 7 minutes 55 seconds of your time.
Grab a coffee (or a cigarette, you’ll probably need one)
This is proof that the UN must be completely dissolved and all it’s staff members fully investigated.
I am stunned.
Kosher Kockney-tweet-1December2023- Askar-UNRWA
Askar-UNRWA Cradle of Killers – Summer 2023
Kosher Kockney-tweet-4December2023-UNRWA’s Child Soldiers
UNRWA’s Child Soldiers .
A must watch and a must share.
Take 12 minutes to watch this.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Hamas & Islamic Jihad Military Summer camp for UNRWA students.
How on earth can UNRWA be getting away with all this?
UNRWA schools send their students to a Hamas terrorism training camp:
“This summer, armed operatives (Hamas) signed up tens of thousands of UNRWA students ages 10 to 17”
“UNRWA youngsters learned to view the United States and Israel as the Devil”
Quotes from the children:
“Purify it of the Jews” – UNRWA school child talking about “Palestine”
“We’ll die as Martyrs” – UNRWA school child
“The Jews will not remain on this land, I say to the Jews: go back to where you came from. Get out of here before we annihilate you” – UNRWA school child
We need to pressure our governments and leaders to stop funding UNRWA immediately.
Film produced by the Bedein Center
Kosher Kockney-tweet-4December2023-UNRWA’s Child Soldiers
UNRWA’s Child Soldiers
Aviva Klompas-tweet-23November2023-Children Soldiers
When you read that children were killed in Gaza fighting Israel – remember that some of these “children” were handed guns and sent to fight while Hamas hid in their tunnels.
Aviva Klompas-tweet-23November2023-Children Soldiers
Alon Lavi-tweet-12December2023-Gaza is a dangerous place for children from Hamas
Gaza is a dangerous place for children, any place controlled by a terror organization like Hamas=ISIS will be.
A call to @UNICEF and @unicefchief to stop Hamas and make Gaza a better place.
Alon Lavi-tweet-12December2023-Gaza is a dangerous place for children from Hamas
Kindergarten graduation ceremony in Gaza
Visegrád 24-tweet-27November2023-Kindergarten graduation ceremony in Gaza
Kindergarten graduation ceremony in Gaza.
To be allowed to start elementary school, it seems like Palestinian kids need to prove that they know how to fire off a couple of mortar rounds, take some hostages and storm a building.
Hamas must be vanquished for good
Visegrád 24-tweet-27November2023-Kindergarten graduation ceremony in Gaza
leekern-tweet-3December2023-THIS IS THE CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT
THIS IS THE CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT. Palestinian society conditions their children to become violent racist sociopaths. That’s how they created monsters who cut the heads off babies whilst yelling Allahu Akbar on October 7th. If you want peace: call this out
leekern-tweet-3December2023-THIS IS THE CAUSE OF THE CONFLICT
TOP
From the 2014 Gaza War Operation Protective Edge: מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, Israel Deserves an Apology
New map confirms: the Shuja’iya neighborhood is a terrorist stronghold where Hamas uses residents as human shields. pic.twitter.com/NVTPEbydq4
Elder of Ziyon logo http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
We were ordered to close all חלון תריסים (Window Shutters) at night. Arab Snipers?
UNRWA incitement
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) employees are constantly on Facebook inciting the Arabs to kill Jews. Here is just one example. http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2015/10/unrwa-teacher-wants-her-kids-to-die-for.html#.VihIr6fhlTA 20October2015
UNRWA teacher Hiba Yassin’s Facebook page:”The #intifada of Ramadan” (meaning July 2014. Yes, UNRWA teachers were calling for a new intifada last year too,)
This is an ongoing battle with UNRWA and the UN on what they claim to do and the reality.
UNRWA suspends employees after UN Watch exposed incitement to anti-Semitic violence
22october2015 http://www.unwatch.org/unrwa-suspends-employees-after-un-watch-exposed-incitement-to-anti-semitic-violence/
י״ד מרחשון תשע״ו – 2015/10/26 Another disgusting incitement cartoon on @UNRWA teacher page
י״ה מרחשון תשע״ו – 2015/10/27 .@UNRWA uses Hamas human shield victim for fundraising and demonizing Israel
ט״ו מרחשון תשע״ו- 2015/10/28 .@UNRWA teacher posts “Stab the Jews” video
UNRWA teacher Najlaa Nojom lives in Bethlehem.
She recently shared this video, glorifying stabbing Jews, on her Facebook timeline.
ל׳ מרחשון תשע״ו – 2015/11/12 Elder gets results – and @UNRWA teachers are angry that they cannot post incitement and Jew-hatred
…It should be noted that some of the most influential leaders of the Palestinian resistance were teachers in UNRWA schools who were able to perform their work without any restrictions on political freedom, and they are active politically.
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-12March2024-UNRWA is all about serving Palestinians until Return
Just listen to Palestinians:
This sign at the entrance to a “refugee camp” near Bethlehem says it all (why on earth are Palestinians “refugees” under the Palestinian Authority?!?):
UNRWA is all about serving Palestinians until “Return”
(reminder that Oct 7 is what “return” is).
Dr. Einat Wilf-tweet-12March2024-UNRWA is all about serving Palestinians until Return
This sign at the entrance to a “refugee camp” near Bethlehem says it all (why on earth are Palestinians “refugees” under the Palestinian Authority?!?):
UNRWA is all about serving Palestinians until “Return”
(reminder that Oct 7 is what “return” is).
TOP
UNRWA’S TERRORGRAM – HOW A TELEGRAM GROUP OF 3,000 UNRWA TEACHERS IN GAZA CELEBRATED THE OCTOBER 7TH HAMAS MASSACRE
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28January2024-UNRWA Telegram group
Just a few bad apples?
Here is our saved copy of the UNRWA Telegram group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers: https://groupchat.unwatch.org
There are 249,000 messages, replete with celebrations of Hamas terrorism: https://unwatch.org/unrwa-terrorgram/
There is not one case where an UNRWA teacher objected.
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28January2024-UNRWA Telegram group
Click to Download the file UN Watch-UNRWA Terrorgram
TOP
UN finds out that UNRWA staff ties to Hamas terrorism
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28January2024-UNRWA staff ties to Hamas terrorism
1/ UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” to learn of UNRWA staff ties to Hamas terrorism.
That’s odd.
September 3, 2015: UN Watch Report: UNRWA Officials Operating 12 Separate Facebook Accounts Inciting Terrorism
https://unwatch.org/images-of-unrwa-incitement-to-antisemitism-violence/
Hillel Neuer-tweet-28January2024-UNRWA staff ties to Hamas terrorism
Hillel Neuer-tweet-7February2024-Seven years ago we sent warnings to UNRWA
Seven years ago, we sent warnings to UNRWA estimating that thousands of their employees were implicated in terrorism.
They did nothing. Worse, UNRWA attacked us.
Last week it was revealed in the WSJ that in Gaza alone, 1,200 UNRWA staffers belong to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Hillel Neuer-tweet-7February2024-
Secretary-General Guterres was “horrified” to learn UNRWA staff participated in the Hamas massacre of October 7.
Yet in 2016, UNRWA’s top backer in Canada admitted: “Hamas dominates the UNRWA trade unions and its staff is replete with Hamas supporters.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/why-canada-should-restore-funding-for-palestinian-relief-agency/article28781261/
Hillel Neuer-tweet-7February2024-Seven years ago we sent warnings to UNRWA
12,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza, 2,500 are official Hamas operatives
Dr. Eli David-tweet-21February2024-12000 UNRWA employees in Gaza 2500 are official Hamas operatives
🚨 Breaking: New evidence revealed by @kann_news shows that out of 12,000 @UNRWA 🇺🇳 employees in Gaza, 2,500 are official Hamas operatives, out of which 500 in “combat units” (i.e., terrorists whose job is to carry out terror attacks).
@antonioguterres, you there? Resign!
Dr. Eli David-tweet-21February2024-12,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza, 2,500 are official Hamas operatives
Visegrád 24-tweet-5February2024-unwra terrorist
UNRWA is over
Visegrád 24-tweet-5February2024-unwra terrorist
Eretz Nehederet-tweet-30January2024-We are UNRWA
The @UNWRA trend
@UN @StandWithUs
Eretz Nehederet-tweet-30January2024-We are UNRWA
We are UNRWA [Eretz Nehederet satire]
Aizenberg-tweet-20February2024-Israel seized ~$280 million of cash from Hamas safes in Khan Younes
Israel seized ~$280 million of cash from Hamas safes in Khan Younes. This equals 80% of UNRWA’s total annual budget for all activities in Gaza. Yet the lie that Gaza was impoverished continued for decades while Hamas funded tunnels, rockets, RPGs etc. Time for the scam to end.
Aizenberg-tweet-20February2024-Israel seized ~$280 million of cash from Hamas safes in Khan Younes.png
TOP
Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it is no longer possible to determine where UNRWA ends and where Hamas begins.
Oren Marmorstein-tweet-22April2024-Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that
Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it is no longer possible to determine where UNRWA ends and where Hamas begins.
More than 2,135 UNRWA workers are members of either Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), while one-fifth of UNRWA school administrators are Hamas members.
The problem with UNRWA-Gaza isn’t that of a few bad apples; it is a rotten and poisonous tree whose roots are Hamas.
The Colonna report ignores the severity of the problem, and offers cosmetic solutions that do not deal with the enormous scope of Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA.
This is not what a genuine and thorough review looks like. This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like.
Israel calls on the donor countries to refrain from transferring their taxpayers’ money to UNRWA-Gaza, as these funds will go to the Hamas terrorist organization, and that violates legislation in the donor countries themselves.
Israel calls on the donor countries to transfer their funds to other humanitarian organizations in Gaza.
UNRWA-Gaza is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
There are other solutions.
UNRWA can not be part of the solution in Gaza not now, and not in the future.
Oren Marmorstein-tweet-22April2024-Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that
TOP<
The tunnel system beneath UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza used by Hamas as their main intelligence server hub
Yaari Cohen-tweet-10February2024-hamas data center under UNRWA HQ
Official IDF Statement on the massive terror tunnel located underneath @UNRWA HQ in Gaza:
Acting on ISA intelligence, the forces discovered a tunnel shaft near an UNRWA school, leading to an underground terrorist tunnel beneath UNRWA’s main headquarters. The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel connected to UNRWA’s main HQ, suggesting it was supplying the tunnel with electricity—generated by the fuel provided through humanitarian aid. This 700-meter-long tunnel, 18 meters deep, contained multiple blast doors and various intelligence assets seized by the forces. Intelligence and documents found confirmed the offices’ use by Hamas terrorists. Large quantities of weapons, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives, were uncovered hidden in the building’s offices.
📸: Footage showing the tunnel’s location, near a school.
Yaari Cohen-tweet-10February2024-Hamas data center under UNRWA HQ
These Findings Were Found Within UNRWA Facilities [Hamas data-center under UNRWA HQ]
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-11February2024-Amazingly, no one in Gaza noticed!
Construction workers
Tilers
Electricians
Metalworkers
Plumbers
General contractors
Heavy digging machinery
Transportation workers
Truckers to bring in supplies and remove debris
Carpenters
Network engineers
Systems administrators
HVAC
Years of digging in and under crowded neighborhoods
Amazingly, no one in Gaza noticed!
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-11February2024-Amazingly no one in Gaza noticed
Dr. Eli David-tweet-11February2024-all cables go down beneath the floor to some unknown destination
Imagine you find lots of cables in your server room, connected to the main power supply, and all go down beneath the floor to some unknown destination.
What do you do? Nothing, according to head of @UNRWA. You simply “didn’t know” anything about the tunnel underneath 🤡
Dr. Eli David-tweet-11February2024-all cables go down beneath the floor to some unknown destination
TOP
UNRWA staff linked to October 7th Massacre
Hillel Neuer-tweet-29January2024-1,200 UNRWA employees are Hamas or PIJ
BREAKING: The “few bad apples” line pushed by the UN has just been obliterated. The Wall Street Journal front page is reporting that an estimated 1,200 Unrwa employees in Gaza are actual “operatives” of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist terrorist organizations, according to Israeli intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. government.
The report said 23% of Unrwa’s male employees—the agency has a total staff of 12,000 in Gaza—took active part in the Hamas organization’s military or political framework, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza.
The information in the Israeli intelligence reports is based on sensitive signals intelligence as well as cellphone tracking data, interrogations of captured Hamas gunmen and documents recovered from dead terrorists.
Nearly half of all Unrwa employees—an estimated 49%—also had close relatives with official ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The Oct. 7 intelligence reports seen by the Wall Street Journal identified an Unrwa Arabic teacher who was also a Hamas terrorist commander and took part in a terrorist attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered, and about 26 people were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza.
Another Unrwa employee, described in the dossier as an Unrwa social worker, played a role in absconding with the body of a dead Israeli soldier, which was taken to Gaza, the reports said. He also coordinated trucks and munitions distributions for Hamas before being killed.
📍Full story by @cjkeller8 & @davidluhnow @WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36
Hillel Neuer-tweet-29January2024-1,200 UNRWA employees are Hamas or PIJ
TOP
How UNRWA Grooms Terrorists
by Bassam Tawil
26December2023 https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20258/unwra-grooms-terrorists
A still shot from the documentary film “Camp Jihad,” featuring a summer camp in Gaza sponsored and funded by UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was originally a small agency mandated to provide basic humanitarian relief for Palestinians, including a vote for renewal every three years. Seventy-three years and four generations later, and with more than 30,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion, it has astonishingly become one of the largest UN agencies.
In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, UNRWA has, in fact, long been operating as the de facto government. By providing the residents of the Gaza Strip with various services, UNRWA exempted Hamas from its responsibilities as the governing body, such as creating a working economy that would pay for education and healthcare, and allowed it, instead, to invest resources in building tunnels and manufacturing weapons. If UNRWA were not there, Hamas would have been forced to fill the vacuum and, for example, build hospitals and schools and find solutions to economic hardship, including unemployment and poverty.
As senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said, in explaining why no cement could be spared from terror tunnels to build bomb shelters for Gazan citizens:
Hamas was effectively saying: We are responsible for what happens underground, while UNRWA is responsible for what happens above ground.
In addition to evolving into a monster-sized agency, UNRWA has also morphed into a very costly incubator for terror. UNRWA-run schools emphasize and promote the “right of return,” a euphemism for flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians and turning it into a Muslim-majority Islamist state backed by Iran.
More than 50% of UNRWA’s annual budget of $1.6 billion is dedicated to funding Palestinian schools. These schools have been fostering war-mongering hatred against Israel, and against Jews in general, from the youngest, most impressionable ages and onward throughout the school years, while predictably churning out their final product: terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.
“They [UNRWA] teach us that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to us [Muslims], that Palestine belongs to us,” said Atif Sharha, a student at a UNRWA school in the Shuafat refugee camp, north of Jerusalem.
“I hate the Jews,” said Yousef, another student at a UNRWA school in Kalandia refugee camp, south of Ramallah.
“Yes, they teach us that the Zionists are our enemy,” said Nur Taha, a third student from Kalandia. “We should carry out an [terror] operation against them [Zionists].”
Marcus Sheff, Chief Executive Officer at The Institute for Cultural Peace and Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) studying these hate-policies, laments:
UNRWA then re-inserts many of these hate-infused people right back into its institutions, perpetuating what the UN is keen on blaming Israel for: “the cycle of violence.”
UNRWA schools have been the focus of media scrutiny on many occasions. UNRWA’s textbooks, compiled by the Palestinian Authority, have been blasted for showy, hate-provoking and terror-inciting material such as “a grammar exercise that encourages Palestinians to ‘sacrifice their blood to liberate Jerusalem.'”
Palestinian textbooks produced by UNRWA contain “antisemitic, hateful, and violent passages,” according to IMPACT-se. Some of these passages in an Islamic education drill include labeling Jews as inherently treacherous. A poem included in the educational content glorifies the killing of Israelis, and portrays dying as martyrs by killing Israelis as a “hobby.”
In a grammar exercise, Jews, it is implied, are impure and supposedly defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (They do not. The Jews peacefully tour the exterior grounds, called The Temple Mount, a plateau on which the Al Aqsa mosque now sits. The site is the third-holiest in Islam, but in Judaism the holiest. The plateau is where two Jewish Temples once stood, mentioned in the Bible, before they were destroyed — the first by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE; the second by the Roman Empire in 70 CE).
Despite years of considerable condemnation of the textbooks, newly produced editions, approved by UNRWA, are exponentially worse.
According to the textbooks used in UNRWA schools, Jews have no rights whatsoever or any legitimate status in Israel. A Jewish presence in the country is denied historically, geographically and religiously. No reference is made in the books to the history of the Jews throughout the region, either in Biblical or Roman times. Any connection is also denied of the Jews to their ancient capital, Jerusalem, which is presented as an Arab city since its establishment thousands of years ago. The Jews’ presence in Jerusalem today is bewilderingly presented in the books as an aggression against the city’s Arab character.
Beyond the textbooks, both UNRWA administrators and teachers have proudly displayed their approval of terrorism and hatred on countless occasions, including Hamas’s recent October 7 massacre, according to a report published by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization, as well as IMPACT-se.
UNRWA math teacher Adnan Shteiwi, for instance, glorified Diaa Hamarsheh, the perpetrator of the March 2022 Bnei Brak shooting attack — in which he murdered four Israeli civilians and one policeman — as a “martyr” whose name should “forever remain in letters of fire, might, and magnificence.”
UNRWA’s Asma Middle School for Girls B encouraged schoolgirls to ” liberate the homeland by sacrificing ‘their Blood’ and pursuing jihad.”
Roni Krivoi, one of the Israeli hostages recently freed from Hamas captivity, reported that he had been kept prisoner in an attic for more than a month and a half, mostly starved and medically untreated. His jailer was an UNRWA teacher.
In Gaza — as with Ahmad Kahalot, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who admitted that he was the equivalent of a brigadier general for Hamas and that 16 of the hospital’s staff were also “terror operatives for Hamas” — the mesh of Hamas and UNRWA is also illustrated in the high-profile case of Dr. Suhail al-Hindi.
Al-Hindi served as both the principal of an UNRWA elementary school and as the chairman of the UNRWA employee’s union in Gaza. In 2017, UNRWA suspended al-Hindi after it received information that he had just been elected to the Hamas political bureau. UNRWA announced that al-Hindi no longer worked for the agency, but did not say whether he had resigned or been fired. Al-Hindi first said he “resigned” from UNRWA, but later clarified that he was taking early retirement.
The case of al-Hindi and other UNRWA employees suspected of supporting terrorism makes the point that UNRWA is “the money,” while thug terror-groups such as Hamas are “the muscle.”
UNRWA tries to keep up public pretense that its hands are clean, and has taken a belligerently defensive stance against these and other accusations, as it publicly claims that it has a “zero-tolerance policy for hatred.”
The Israeli news site Ynet , however, wrote recently about a UN Watch report:
One UNRWA employee portrayed Adolf Hitler in a favorable light: “Wake up Hitler, there are people left to burn.”
In addition, as is well-documented, UNRWA has allowed its school buildings to be used by Hamas as storehouses for rocket and other weapons, terror tunnels, and to shelter jihadi terrorists. Hamas and other terror organizations have bet on the media frenzy that would ensue if Israeli forces strike a UN institution (or hospital, mosque, or even a church) that is being used for military purposes. Hamas has been launching rockets at Israel from alongside UNRWA schools, and, when possible, shooting from inside the schools, thereby taking advantage of the sanctuary that a UN institution, especially a “protected space” such as a school, ought to offer under legitimate circumstances.
Last week saw the media explode in condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces for blowing up an UNRWA school, despite the disclosure that the school had been used as a weapons depot and terror tunnels were found in its area.
UNRWA kindergartens have been discovered with weapons hidden inside toys or even in UNRWA bags, and UN officials are charged with being complicit in holding hostages, despite protestations to the contrary. It seems that “zero tolerance” had devolved into “zero oversight.”
When rockets were discovered in UNRWA schools in the past, UNRWA would reassure everyone that they had been turned over to “local authorities.” Those authorities, of course, were Hamas, who most likely relocated them to another equally inappropriate location.
Occasionally, UNRWA officials will make a minor fuss or put on a shocked and affronted façade for donors or the media, but reportedly do nothing in the way of changing the practice. In the upper echelons of UNRWA management, there have been accusations of serious breaches of ethics in the forms of nepotism, bullying, mismanagement of funds — as well as lack of accountability.
This is no small matter, considering that in 2022, annual worldwide contributions to UNRWA alone — not including direct donations to Palestinian governing agencies such as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, nor to the many NGOs and other Palestinian-specific aid agencies — from 68 donor nations, including the Holy See, was $1.1 billion.
Extensive reports released by UN Watch and IMPACT-se have highlighted the malignant influence of terror organizations such as Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on UNRWA institutions that either feign ignorance or offer enthusiastic complicity. The repercussions of these revelations are becoming an embarrassment.
Switzerland’s Parliament recently voted to stop funding UNRWA ($21 million annually), labelled Hamas a terrorist organization and unanimously banned it. “Hamas’ brutal terrorist attacks against Israel necessitate a clear position from Switzerland,” they said.
In 2018, the Trump administration, calling UNRWA an “irredeemably flawed operation,” completely cut America’s $300 million annual donation. The aid was reinstated by President Joe Biden almost immediately after he took office.
Many have called the very inception of UNRWA into question, as the UN already has an agency specifically designated for refugees: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
UNRWA remains a refugee organization distinctly apart from UNHCR based upon two premises: first, that the Palestinians will “return” to their homes in Israel by means of a the “right of return“; and second, that there will never be a resolution not to “return,” thereby making these refugees an eternal stick in the eye to Israel.
The first premise would effectively destroy Israel by imposing a demographic shift: flooding millions of Palestinians, demonstrably none too peace-oriented, into Israel.
The second premise would, and has been, effectively enslaving Palestinians as the crying faces that keep the international “pity-cash” flowing into the coffers of both Palestinian and UNRWA leadership.
Perhaps this may be at least one answer as to why, when UNRWA recently cried for more aid money for Palestinians, the organization was found to have an entire warehouse “filled to the brim” with food. When Gazans stormed the warehouse in October, they discovered copious amounts of rice, lentils, flour and oil.
Whatever hopes that anyone may have held for the trustworthiness of UNRWA have long expired, and were arguably misplaced at the outset. UNRWA, in its current state, has proven itself irremediably defective, unworkable and yet another massive stain on the already scandalously stained UN [such as here, here, here, here and here.] The agency has perpetuated the issue of the “refugees” by keeping them in camps while providing them with basic services, only.
Worse, UNRWA has deliberately created new generations of “refugees” by insisting that the descendants of refugees inherit the status of “refugee” – which on its face is nonsense. It is high time for the international community and those who actually want a better future for the Palestinians to liquidate UNRWA and take actions that truly help the Palestinians move forward to a golden life.
TOP
UNRWA: Your child abuse must stop
Lilia Gaufberg, 5February 2024, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/unrwa-your-child-abuse-must-stop/
As a former elementary school teacher and a human being, my heart breaks for the children of Gaza.
Picture a 5-year-old eagerly skipping to school, still navigating the intricacies of being in the world. In those formative years, curiosity knows no bounds, and imagination has no limits. Having witnessed this as an educator and experienced it as a child myself, I understand the permeable line between a young mind and the world it inhabits — a realm where everything appears possible. Drawings created, songs learned, and playtime activities all lay the groundwork for shaping one’s future self. A simple art class might spark dreams of becoming a sculptor, while an inspirational gym teacher fosters aspirations of winning the World Cup. Papier-mâché volcanoes explode with baking soda and vinegar, and a chemist is born.
Now, imagine you are a child in Gaza. You attend a school run by a UN agency, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), one of whose primary goals is to keep you, a child, in a perpetual state of victimhood by indoctrinating you into believing that you are, and will always be, a refugee, and that there is no way to escape from this identity. At school, you are taught that there’s an evil force — the Jews — out to destroy you and your people. Your textbooks in all subjects, from writing to math, are embedded with calls to maim and murder these nefarious Jews, and you are taught that if you don’t wage jihad against them, your life is rendered meaningless. You learn that heroes are people who blow themselves up on buses or massacre young adults at a music festival, rather than visionaries who cure diseases or write groundbreaking books. Dreams are maliciously stolen, and a singular path is laid out by teachers, leaving malleable minds with no choice but to succumb to the incitement. Oh, and there’s a good chance your teachers are Hamas members, too.
This is what the children of Gaza learn, day in and day out.
An excerpt from a textbook used in UNRWA schools (Our Beautiful Language, Vol. 2, Grade 1, 2023, p. 53). Source: IMPACT-se
source: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/PA-Reports_-Selected-Examples_Update_Sept-2020.pdf
Evidence continues to mount of UNRWA staff’s involvement in the October 7th Hamas massacre, their assistance to Hamas in hiding Israeli hostages in Gaza, and the ties of thousands of UNRWA employees to terror groups. Dozens of countries around the world are freezing their aid to UNRWA in response, sparking outrage from some prominent voices, such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. When I think about those children in Gaza, I say that any country who has not ceased financing UNRWA is complicit in child abuse. Anyone expressing horror at cuts to UNRWA funding by exclaiming something along the lines of, ‘b-b-but the children of Gaza!’ is actually perpetuating the abuse of the children of Gaza.
There is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. That is a fact, and it is heartbreaking. We should all be concerned about it, and it must be effectively addressed. Let us be clear, however: it is a Hamas-perpetrated, UNRWA-upheld humanitarian crisis. The UN has mechanisms in place to effectively deal with humanitarian disasters. It is perfectly capable of bringing trucks of supplies into areas that need them and providing support for at-risk communities around the globe. I saw one example of this myself when I worked with South Sudanese refugees in Uganda: the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, was there, day in and day out, to assist people in need. There are alternatives to UNRWA, even within the confines of the UN itself. Calling to keep UNRWA in place because there is ‘no other solution’ is naïve and lazy at best and malicious at worst.
I have yet to have children of my own, but when I imagine my younger sisters and me growing up in an UNRWA school system instead of the American public school system, I feel sick. As kids, my sisters and I were instilled with the value of living meaningful lives and repairing the world. Who would we have become if we had attended UNRWA schools? I shudder at this chilling possibility; we would not be ourselves. If the children of Gaza are to have a real chance to dream, to play, to create, to evolve, and to think for themselves, two things must happen: Hamas must be eliminated, and UNRWA must be disbanded.
I dream of a real future for the children of Gaza, a future in which they can dream, too.
About the Author
I am an artist, writer, and content creator employed by the international and non-partisan Israel education organization StandWithUs. I grew up in Boston, MA and lived in Israel from 2017 to 2023, during which time I served in the Israel Defense Forces’ COGAT unit as a lone soldier. I recently returned to the United States, and I currently reside in New York. All ideas expressed on this blog are reflective of my personal opinions, perspectives, and experiences.
TOP
UNRWA: Raising the next generation of Terrorists
Dr. Eli David-tweet-14November2023-UNRWA-Raising the next generation of Terrorists
Palestinian children talk about the education they get in @UNRWA 🇺🇳 schools.
It’s all about killing the Jews. “I want to stab them again and again”, “I want to become a suicide bomber”, etc.
Thanks @UN 🇺🇳 for raising the next generation of terrorists.
Dr. Eli David-tweet-14November2023-UNRWA-Raising the next generation of Terrorists
TOP
The truth about UNRWA
By Ted Belman 25February2019 https://www.israpundit.org/trumps-war-against-unrwa-will-benefit-the-palestinian-refugees/
Not all refugees are the same.
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), created in 1951, is dedicated to the resettlement of all refugees except the Palestinian refugees, who fall within the purview of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to UNCHR, a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her home because of persecution, war or violence and who crosses an international border.
UNRWA, on the other hand, defines a Palestinian refugee as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict, and their descendants.”
Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA does not seek to resettle its refugees, but rather is dedicated to preserving their status as “refugees”. In addition, it includes their descendants which UNCHR doesn’t. Finally, they need not have been “forced to flee”.
In August 2017, Pres Trump challenged UNRWA by rejecting UNRWA’s estimate of over 5 million refugees suggesting that the number was more like 500,000. In effect he was saying that a new definition should be operative. If he was to exclude descendants, there would be less that 20,000 people still living who fled in 1948
On Aug 31, 2018, The State Department announced that the US would make no further contribution to UNRWA. Therefore the pressure will build to find an alternate solution.
In 1920, the British Government’s Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine stated that there were hardly 700,000 people living in Palestine. By 1948, the population had risen to 1,900,000, of whom 68% were Arabs, and 32% were Jews (UNSCOP report, including Bedouin).
This population growth took place under the Palestine Mandate pursuant to which, Great Britain was responsible to “facilitate Jewish immigration” in line with the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.
Rather than doing so, she hindered it, while at the same time, she encouraged Arab immigration. She went so far as to prevent Jewish immigration, even during the Holocaust, when it was desperately needed.
The end result was that the Jews in Israel in 1948, were millions fewer in number than would otherwise have been the case and the Arabs were far greater in number than they should have been.
This great injustice to the Jews must be born in mind when crafting the Deal of the Century.
The vast majority of the Arab inhabitants of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 were economic migrants who entered Palestine illegally right up until the War of Independence in 1948.
The vast majority of Arabs who fled Israel or remained West of the Jordan River were illegal migrants and their children.
Joan Peters, after considerable research, made this case in her opus, From Time Immemorial.
Daniel Pipes, in his 1984 review of her book, wrote “In the course of research on this subject, she came across a “seemingly casual” discrepancy between the standard definition of a refugee and the definition used for the Palestinian Arabs. In other cases, a refugee is someone forced to leave a permanent or habitual home. In this case, however, it is someone who had lived in Palestine for just two years before the flight that began in 1948.”
Had the standard definition been used, there would have been few refugees to deal with. Furthermore, by rejecting the standard definition, the Arabs who didn’t flee, who are registered as refugees under UNRWA, now number 2 million west of the Jordan River and 1.3 million in Gaza.
In 1948, though living in Palestine, they considered their home of origin to be Syria, in the main, but including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.
Not only were their numbers greatly inflated due to this new definition, but the Arab League prevented their naturalization in the countries they fled to, including their true countries of origin. Furthermore, the Arabs living outside of Israel as defined by the 1949 ceasefire line, yet still within the Mandatory lands, were also prevented from being naturalized. This applies to Jordan also where there are currently 2 million registered Palestinian “refugees”.
Pipes concludes his review by stating “Thus, the “Palestinian problem” lacks firm grounding. Many of those who now consider themselves Palestinian refugees were either immigrants themselves before 1948 or the children of immigrants. This historical fact reduces their claim to the land of Israel; it also reinforces the point that the real problem in the Middle East has little to do with Palestinian-Arab rights.”
It is now 34 years after Pipes wrote his review. Like it or not, these Palestinian Arabs have put down roots making it more problematic to dispossess them. But one thing must be kept in mind. The reason that they consider themselves to be refugees is because they all claim the right of return to Israel as currently delineated. The corollary to this is that they do not claim the right to stay where they are. They can’t have it both ways.
Since Israel will not permit them to return, whether to Israel as it now stands or to Israel when its eastern boundary is extended to the Jordan River, the best option open to them is to relocate them in Jordan. Because Jordan was part of Mandatory Palestine, to which they originally migrated, these people should be considered as internally displaced persons (IDP) who fled their residences but never crossed an international border.
King Abdullah is dead set against this but his days as king are numbered. When Mudar Zahran, the Secretary General of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition, becomes the leader of Jordan in the not too distant future, he will invite all these Palestinians to relocate in Jordan where they will be naturalized along with the 2 million “refugees” already there. In addition, over 75% of Jordan’s population of 9.7 million are Palestinian.
According to Zahran, they will be provided with housing, jobs and social security.
In my article International Law and the State of Israel, I discuss the issue of population transfer and its legitimacy.
“After WWII and the crushing defeat of Germany and its allies, the victors changed borders and moved populations. It was their right.
Der Spiegel reported;
“But the people fleeing the Red Army were unaware that the Allies had already agreed with the Polish government-in-exile to hand over large parts of eastern Germany to Poland and resettle the Germans who were living there.
“All those who didn’t manage to escape in time fell victim to the frenzied expulsions that were carried out until July 1945. The organized resettlement of Germans and ethnic Germans from Germany’s former eastern areas and the Sudetenland began in January 1946. In all, some 14 million Germans lost their homes.”
“These expulsions were often done in a brutal manner and were carried out as part of a broader program of nation-building pursued by the new communist government between 1945 and 1949. “The centre-piece of this programme was an attempt to achieve the ethnic homogenization of the state, to ensure as close a match as possible between its ethnic and political borders.”
At no time did the allies object to this “ethnic homogenization”.
The flight of the Arabs from the Palestine Mandate and Israel, whether voluntary or forced, must be viewed in this context. It happened at the same time. The hypocrisy of the West is glaring. In post war Europe, they insisted on the ethnic cleansing as the path to stabilization and peace whereas in the case of the “Palestinian refugees”, the UNGA passed Res 194 in Dec 11/48 even before the war was over in which they recommended that the “Refugees” should be permitted to return. Fortunately for Israel, a recommendation has no binding affect and can be ignored.
President Trump, in configuring his Deal of the Century, should embrace the idea of ethnic homogenization as fundamental to establishing peace and assist in the relocation of as many Arabs as possible to Jordan which will be considered the Palestinian State. There can be no objection to him doing so because of Zahran’s intention to provide them with housing, jobs and social security. Besides, no one is suggesting that they should be forcibly expelled. Instead they should be induced to relocate or emigrate of their own free will. It will be for their benefit.
TOP
The UNRWA Constellation: Partnerships with UN Agencies and Terror-Linked NGOs
31January2024 https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/unrwa-constellation-partnerships-with-un-agencies-and-terror-linked-ngos/
Introduction
The mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), while highly controversial, is widely perceived as relating to humanitarian and educational objectives. UNRWA’s website lists “primary and vocational education, primary health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response.”
However, beyond its core role in fueling the conflict for the past 74 years, as well as severe problems with terror links, antisemitism (discussed briefly below) and corruption, UNRWA also engages in extensive politicized anti-Israel “advocacy work in response to the needs of Palestine refugees affected by the Israeli occupation,” such as “in-person protection briefings to external partners including the donor and diplomatic community.” This activity often involves partnerships with international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as other UN agencies.
In this regard, UNRWA is part of the UN-NGO network dedicated to campaigns to demonize and delegitimize Israel, in contrast to humanitarian principles and promoting peace. Post-October 7, this entire system must be reviewed and reconsidered.
Moreover, UNRWA’s failure to engage in due diligence and to safeguard its aid from diversion by Hamas, as well as its intense involvement in political advocacy, demand a comprehensive independent audit and reform process. If the UN is unable to take these steps, donors should pull their funding.
Background: Funding
The United States is the single largest donor to UNRWA, having pledged $344 million in 2022 (29% of all commitments). Major funders also include Germany ($202M), the EU ($114M), and Sweden ($61M).
Background: UNRWA’s Terror-links
UNWRA, as part of the UN system, does not consider Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to be terror groups. As such, it does not hesitate to partner with these groups, which are proscribed by UNRWA’s main donors. Nor does it screen employees for ties to Hamas et al, which is particularly concerning as, according to UNRWA’s 2022 Annual Report, 99.77% of staff in Gaza and the West Bank – 15,589 out of 15,624 – were local Palestinians.
Hamas’ and other terror groups’ exploitation of UNRWA and its facilities is well documented:
Since October 7, these phenomena have been confirmed:
Advocacy through UN-OCHA “Clusters”
A primary channel for UNRWA’s cooperation with NGOs and other UN agencies is through the UN’s OCHA-oPt branch. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the “humanitarian arm of the United Nations Secretariat,” is tasked with coordinating “the global emergency response…in humanitarian crises.” OCHA-oPt acknowledges that its involvement in intense political warfare against Israel – as documented by NGO Monitor – is “unique as compared to other OCHA country offices globally.” While other OCHA missions in conflict identify critical humanitarian interventions such as “saving lives” as the top priority, OCHA-oPt’s Strategic Objective 1 is “The rights of Palestinians living under occupation, including those living under the blockade and other restrictions, are protected, respected and promoted … while duty-bearers are increasingly held to account” (emphasis added).
OCHA-oPt activities are implemented through Clusters – “groups of humanitarian UN and non-UN organizations [i.e. NGOs] in each of the main sectors of humanitarian action.” These “clusters” focus on issues such as food security, health and nutrition, education, sanitation, and protection.
UNRWA is an implementing partner in all OCHA-oPt clusters (see UN document from 2021) and participates in their political advocacy. For instance, according to OCHA-oPt’s 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, “In 2023 UNRWA will seek to address the acute needs of the Palestine refugees [in the West Bank]… [by] monitoring and documentation of protection incidents to advocate…including persuasion, mobilization and denunciation – targeting duty bearers as well as international and national interlocutors.” In other words, UNRWA will level accusations of “war crimes” and “violations of human rights,” and seek condemnations of Israel from international bodies and various governments.
Lawfare and partnerships with terror-linked NGOs
UNRWA activities under the heading of “Monitoring and documentation” and “targeting external actors and duty bearers” are central to the NGO-led “lawfare” campaign against Israel.
UNRWA partners with the main NGOs behind anti-Israel lawfare, Al-Haq, Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), and Al Mezan. For instance, UNRWA was listed as an implementing partner on their joint project titled “Advocacy, monitoring and documentation of HR and IHL violations and related trends (with focus on grave violations against children across the oPt; IHL violations in Gaza; and settler violence and excessive use of force in the West Bank).”
The three NGOs have ties to the PFLP terror group:
Al-Haq
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
Al Mezan
Two of the other implementing partners, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) and Addameer, also have established links to the PFLP. See NGO Monitor reports, “Defense for Children International – Palestine’s Ties to the PFLP Terror Group” and “Addameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group,” for more details.1
Islamic Relief Worldwide
According to UNRWA, “Partnering with Islamic Relief’s chapter in the US has opened opportunities for UNRWA to engage with Islamic Relief chapters in the UK and France, and with the umbrella organization Islamic Relief Worldwide.”
Footnotes
Reflecting a lack of transparency, perhaps in response to NGO Monitor research, UNICEF no longer publishes a list of its NGO and UN partners. As of September 2017, members of the UNICEF “Working Group” were: UNRWA, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al Mezan, B’Tselem, Terre Des Homme – Suisse, Save the Children, War Child Holland, World Vision, OCHA, UNESCO, UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), and WHO.
TOP
Gaza resident tells IDF: Hamas has control of UNRWA in Gaza
Civilian in Gaza tells soldier Hamas has control over the humanitarian aid which is brought into the Gaza Strip.
Gary Willig / 26December2023 / http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382584
A resident of the Gaza Strip told the IDF that the Hamas terrorist organization directly controls the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the New York Post reported.<
In a recording obtained by the Post, the man stated that “the situation is terrible because the humanitarian people, those responsible for the humanitarian aid, are thieves.”
He further stated that “Hamas has their hands on UNRWA administration workers, and it manages UNRWA” and that Hamas ensures its own operatives receive any aid first before it is distributed to the civilians of Gaza as intended.
The IDF stated that the conversation was recorded when an IDF officer was delivering warnings to civilians in Gaza where they should evacuate in order to escape the fighting between Israel and Hamas and where to go to receive humanitarian aid.
UNRWA has long been criticized for its cooperation with Hamas, antisemitic incitement, and employment of Hamas terrorists.
It has been revealed that a teacher employed by UNRWA held one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 massacre in an attic for 50 days without proper food or medical care.
Yesterday (Monday), the IDF reported that dozens of explosive devices were found inside UNRWA bags during operational activity in the area of the “Al Rafaa” and “Zavaha” schools in Tuffah in the northern Gaza Strip. This is not the first time Hamas weapons and explosives have been found inside UNRWA bags.
Earlier this month, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “UNRWA is part of the problem – not part of the solution. The organization educates to incitement to terror, and ignores Hamas’ cynical use of Gaza residents as human shields.”
Last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog accused the United Nations of failing to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, saying that three times as much aid could have entered the enclave if the UN had done its job properly.
“Unfortunately, due to the utter failure of the UN in its work with other partners in the region, they have been unable to bring in more than 125 trucks a day,” Herzog told French Senate President Gérard Larcher.
“Today it is possible to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza if the UN — instead of complaining all day — would do its job,” he said.
TOP
UNRWA-Hamas isn’t stockpiling fuel
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Isn’t it amazing that @UNRWA’s commissioner-general seems to be under the impression that Hamas isn’t stockpiling fuel?
What are they firing rockets with? Willpower?
HonestReporting-tweet-28October2023-Isn’t-it-amazing-that-@UNRWA’s-commissioner-general
Wall Street Silver-tweet-3December2023-Heaven has strict immigration Laws Hell has open borders
This is how it also works for countries and quality of life.
Heaven has strict immigration Laws Hell has open borders
Wall Street Silver-tweet-3December2023-Heaven has strict immigration Laws Hell has open borders
Heaven has strict immigration Laws Hell has open borders
TOP
Gaza: As Defenses Collapse And Men Surrender, Hamas Reportedly Turning To Female Terrorists For Help
IDF uncovers sniper rifle and ammo stuffed inside teddy bear in Gaza school.
Posted by Vijeta Uniyal, 9December2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/12/gaza-as-defenses-collapse-and-men-surrender-hamas-reportedly-turning-to-female-terrorists-for-help/
Israeli ground forces encircle the terrorist bastion of Khan Younis
With Israeli military tightening the noose around terrorist strongholds across Gaza, the Hamas leadership is pressing female terrorists into service, the Israeli media reports citing IDF sources.
As Israeli ground forces encircle the terrorist bastion of Khan Younis, where Hamas’s Gaza chief and the planner of the October 7 massacre Yahya Sinwar is believed to be hiding, the Islamic terror group is sending women jihadists into harms way.
“In the past 24 hours, the elite IDF 98th Brigade has encountered multiple terrorists in Khan Younis, including the first time in which female terrorists were used in battle,” the Israeli news website Ynet reported Friday evening. “The females are reportedly taking on roles as observers, closely monitoring the movements of the brigade’s forces, and, according to suspicions, may also be carrying explosive devices.”
The news comes as Hamas terror fighters are surrendering to the IDF in large numbers, instead of dying in jihad in the hope of ‘heavenly’ rewards.
Yishai Fleisher-tweet-7December2023-Mass surrender and arrest of #Hamas terrorists in southern Gaza
Mass surrender and arrest of #Hamas terrorists in southern #Gaza
Yishai Fleisher-tweet-7December2023-Mass surrender and arrest of #Hamas terrorists in southern Gaza
Hamas terrorists continue to use Gaza civilians as human shields, firing at Israeli troops from well dug-in positions insides schools, hospitals and residential buildings. On Saturday, terrorists attacked IDF soldiers from a United Nations-run school.
“Israeli forces fought a string of battles with Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza on Saturday as they pressed ahead with the ground offensive, with troops being attacked in at least two instances from within schools, the military said,” the Times of Israel reported. “At least two of the clashes took place inside a mosque and schools, including one run by the United Nations.”
Yoseph Haddad-tweet-9December2023-Hamas terrorists beat Gazian and take humanitarian aid from them
This documentation proves how Hamas terrorists beat the residents of Gaza and forcibly take humanitarian aid from them!
This proves only who Hamas terrorists are and that the aid entering Gaza mostly ends up in the hands of Hamas!
Yoseph Haddad-tweet-9December2023-Hamas terrorists beat Gazian and take humanitarian aid from them
IDF uncovers sniper rifle and ammo stuffed inside teddy bear in Gaza school
During the subsequent search inside the school, the IDF uncovered a weapons cache hidden inside a large teddy bear. “A teddy bear stuffed with sniper rifles and ammunition, along with various weaponry, was found in schools in Gaza,” the military disclosed Saturday.
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-9December2023-Hamas hid sniper rifles and ammunition inside a teddy bear
Israelis placed teddy bears to remind the world of the 137 hostages still held by terrorists in Gaza.
Hamas hid sniper rifles and ammunition inside a teddy bear.
Can you see the difference between the two?
Israel Defense Forces-tweet-9December2023-Hamas hid sniper rifles and ammunition inside a teddy bear
The IDF reported the last bust inside a Gaza school:
Dr. Eli David-tweet-9December2023-Hamas terrorists firing from within an UNRWA School
🚨 Breaking: Footage of Hamas terrorists firing from within an @UNRWA
🇺🇳 school in Gaza 👇
Yesterday @antonioguterres said 130 UN staff have been killed in Gaza.
Now you know why and how…
Dr. Eli David-tweet-9December2023-Hamas terrorists firing from within an UNRWA School
Defense minister Gallant: Hamas-rule beginning to ‘crumble’ in Gaza
The Israeli military struck further terrorist targets, including Hamas commanders, terror tunnels and weapons depots, spread across Gaza. “IDF operational activity in the Gaza Strip continues. IAF fighter jets struck terror targets and terrorists as ground troops continued combat in different locations,” the military revealed Saturday morning.
Amid recent IDF successes on the ground, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant assured that Hamas-rule is beginning to ‘crumble’ in Gaza.
The i24NEWS reported:
Report: Biden WH gives Israel ‘until the end of the year’ to wrap up Gaza op
Meanwhile, the Biden White House is reportedly ramping up to pressure on Israel to ‘wrap up’ the military operation against Hamas. According to the latest news reports, the Biden administration has given Israel little over three weeks to end its counter-terrorism operation in Gaza.
“Biden admin has given Israel ‘until the end of the year’ to wrap up Gaza operation,” the newspaper Israel Hayom reported Saturday. “Israeli officials cited as saying the deadline was relayed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Israel last week.”
Hamas militants encounter Israeli troops in Gaza school
TOP
Palestinians deserve to starve according to Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk
Tamer Masudin-tweet-25December2023-Palestinians deserve to starve according to Hamas
Palestinians deserve to starve according to #Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk.
“The aid that comes to Gaza must be distributed to the resistance fighters, and what remains is done Distribute it to the people. The attempt of some citizens to seize aid, as happened today in Rafah, will be fought with all force, and the people must offer what is expensive and what is cheap for the sake of the resistance, not steal the food of the resistance.”
According to #Hamas if you are a hungry #Palestinian, you deserve to be shot.
Tamer Masudin-tweet-25December2023-Palestinians deserve to starve according to Hamas
TOP
Hamas stealing UNRWA humanitarian aid
Adam Albilya-tweet-13December2023-Hamas stealing UNRWA humanitarian aid
Well, nothing new to see here—just Hamas’ freedom rapists violently stealing the humanitarian aid from their civilian all over again.
Breaching the understanding they signed off to when they still acted like they’re just worried, caring, and need it for nothing but their people.
Adam Albilya-tweet-13December2023-Hamas stealing UNRWA humanitarian aid
Hamas Steals Humanitarian Aid
Oli London-tweet-17December2023-Hamas Steals Humanitarian Aid
Hamas terrorists have hijacked yet another humanitarian aid convoy after it crossed over the Rafah border from Egypt.
Oli London-tweet-17December2023-Hamas Steals Humanitarian Aid
TOP
Video of UNRWA Camps Showing Children Calling for Jihad Attracts Renewed Attention
by Deborah Danan 9August2014 https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/09/video-of-unrwa-camps-showing-children-calling-for-jihad-attracts-renewed-attention/
Camp Jihad from המרכז לחקר מדיניות המזה”ת CFNEPR on Vimeo.
A video of summer camps run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is making the rounds on pro-Israel social media networks again with footage that shows Palestinian children as young as 6 calling for “Jihad against the Jews.”
“The resistance in Gaza is not enough,” says one camper in UNRWA’s school in Balata. “We need to unite and fight together.”
The Lawfare Project, which promoted the video, that was produced by the Center for Near East Policy Research, headed by David Bedein, makes the claim that US and Europe-sponsored UNWRA is abusing children with brainwashing methods that include games aimed at teaching the values of war and the Arab “right of return” to Israeli cities. It portrays children writing names on kites of the Israeli cities that they will one day recapture as theirs.
Children are taught to chant mantras such as “Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea. We want Haifa, we want Natanya.” Camp counselors tell stories of how their grandparents lived in places like Jaffa and Jerusalem and the many cars, palaces, villas and ships they owned before the “wolf” came. “Isn’t it true that Jews are the wolf?” asks one counselor.
“I dream that I will return to Sheikh Munis [Tel Aviv],” says one child, roughly 10-years-old. “I hope Abu Mazen will achieve this goal and will not disappoint, he has built great hopes.”
Another adds, “The right of return is our holy right. If not me than my grandchildren [will return].”
The songs that are sung include inciteful lyrics which range from tamer verses like “I will not forget my promise to take back my land” and “collect stones, throw them at Israelis” to the more radical such as “we are the revolutionaries and we are filled with rage”, “when we die as martyrs we go to heaven” and “with God’s help we will wage war.”
Another child who appears to be about 7-years-old is asked who the Jews are. “They are a gang of infidels and Christians,” she says. “I will defeat them.”
An older teenager is filmed as saying, “Attacking stage by stage is not the answer. We need to attack all at once.” He continues by saying “There will never be peace between us and Israel.”
In one instance, an older child explains one of the differences between UNRWA schools and regular schools within the PA. “UNRWA schools teach us about the Naqba,” she says. “Government schools also but the course load is less than our schools. They teach us a lot about the right of return, how life was before 1948.”
The video explains how funding for UNRWA comes from 20 donor nations, with most of the money coming from the US, Canada, and Britain. UNRWA schools hold summer camps on their premises every year in Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus and Jenin.
UNRWA services 5 million descendants of Palestinian refugees from 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
TOP
Report: Teachers at UNRWA-run schools celebrated Hamas massacres
6November2023 https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-teachers-at-unrwa-run-schools-celebrated-hamas-massacres/
Teachers at schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have celebrated Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, according to a new report.
Click to download UNRWA-Education-Textbooks-and-Terror-Nov-2023
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), says it found at least 14 cases of teachers at UNRWA schools who lauded Hamas’s atrocities and other attacks by the terror group.
It also notes that an UNRWA-run school posted to its official Facebook page an event celebrating Hamas and its “jihad warriors” at the school.
It says textbooks used at UNRWA schools celebrate Hamas as “heroes” of jihad.
TOP
IDF reveals: Proof Gazan teachers worked for Hamas
In letters addressed to the head of the Gaza Education Directorate, the terror organization requests to make it easier for teachers to devote themselves to their work with the terror organization.
Israel National News 18January2024 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/383821
IDF Arabic Language Spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee on Thursday revealed documents that indicate that teachers in the Gaza Strip worked in the ranks of the Hamas military complex.
In letters, which were apparently addressed to the head of the Gaza Education Directorate, Dr. Mohammad Hamdan, Hamas asks the Education Directorate to make it easier for teachers to devote themselves to their work with the terror organization.
The official letters were located during IDF operational activity in the Gaza Strip.
In the first letter, Hamas asks the Gazan Education Directorate to relieve the teachers from their educational requirements so they can work full-time for the organization. In the second letter, Hamas demands that an easy schedule be made for the teachers due to their work in the military arm.
Other letters ask to exempt the teachers from adhering to the teaching schedule so they can train with the organization. The letter notes that the “schedule is not flexible.”
TOP
IDF: Troops in Gaza finding caches of Hamas weapons in schools, mosques and homes
By EMANUEL FABIAN 13November2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-troops-in-gaza-finding-caches-of-hamas-weapons-in-schools-mosques-and-homes/
This handout photo released by the Israel Defense Forces on November 13, 2023, shows Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip amid the war against Hamas. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Israel Defense Forces says ground troops continue to find Hamas weaponry and infrastructure during raids in the Gaza Strip, including inside schools, mosques, and the homes of terror operatives.
Troops of the 401st Brigade operating on the outskirts of the al-Shati camp located Hamas infrastructure in Al-Quds University, and a cache of explosives inside the Abu Bakr mosque, the IDF says.
It says that troops seized dozens of weapons, military equipment, and Hamas battle plans.
Troops of the 551st Reserve Brigade meanwhile raided the home of a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in the Beit Hanoun area, and found a weapons cache, including some in a child’s bedroom.
In another raid in Beit Hanoun, troops found a tunnel shaft, intelligence materials, and weapons, the IDF adds.
idfonline-tweet-13November2023-401st brigade’s combat team
לוחמי צוות הקרב של חטיבה 401, ממשיכים בביצוע פשיטות בפאתי מחנה ‘שאטי’ תוך מיקוד בתשתיות טרור הממוקמות במוסדות שלטוניים מרכזיים בלב אוכלוסייה אזרחית ובהם- בתי ספר, אוניברסיטאות, מסגדים ובתי פעילים >>
Translated from Hebrew by
The fighters of the 401st brigade’s combat team continue to carry out raids on the outskirts of the ‘Shatti’ camp while targeting terrorist infrastructures located in central government institutions in the heart of a civilian population, including schools, universities, mosques and activist homes >>
idfonline-tweet-13November2023-401st brigade’s combat team
TOP
Explosives found in UNRWA bags, terrorists hiding in schools
Nahal Brigade troops battle Hamas, Islamic Jihad terrorists hiding in schools in northern Gaza, dozens of explosives found in UNRWA bags.
Israel National News / 25December2023 /https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382526
After receiving information regarding Hamas terrorists hiding inside schools, IDF soldiers of the Nahal Brigade in the 162nd Division conducted operational activity in the area of the “Al Rafaa” and “Zavaha” schools in Tuffah in the northern Gaza Strip.
During the encounter with the terrorists and their elimination, the soldiers located dozens of explosive devices in UNRWA bags, Kalashnikovs and 15 explosive belts. In one of Hamas’ attempts to attack the soldiers, a terrorist fired an anti-tank missile at IDF soldiers. Immediately afterward, the terrorist was eliminated by a precise strike from a tank.
Many terrorists who hid inside the schools were identified as operatives of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad and were brought in for questioning. Some of the terrorists that were brought in for questioning took part in the October 7th massacre.
“This is further evidence of Hamas’ use of the civilian population and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip as human shields for its terrorist activity,” the IDF stated.
TOP
The UN has officially become Hamas’ accomplice
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-2December2023-UN has officially become Hamas’ accomplice
The UN has officially become Hamas’ accomplice‼️
Our soldiers have irrefutably exposed how UNRWA aid – aid that is meant to benefit Gazan civilians – is exploited by Hamas to conceal missiles and rockets used to murder Israeli civilians.
I showcased Hamas’ cynical use of the UN’s aid, at the UN and to UN officials. The UN’s indifference to terrorists exploiting UN resources makes the UN a direct accomplice in terror!
Watch and retweet to spread the truth>>
Ambassador Gilad Erdan-tweet-2December2023-UN has officially become Hamas’ accomplice
TOP
UNRWA-FAFO
Adam Albilya-tweet-1December2023-UNRWA-FAFO
Israel in Clear Statement: “Every resident of Gaza who held hostages — is a terrorist marked for elimination”
First publication: Following the exposure of News 13 last night regarding a teacher at UNRA and a doctor who held hostages in their home – today it was reported that the IDF is threatening those kidnapping terrorists: “Every person who held any of the hostages is a deadly terrorist.”
The meaning of this is that the IDF will not separate between “active” Hamas terrorists and ” mostly peaceful civilians” who held the hostages like Jew slaves. Whether they thought they were only “guarding” them or held them in exchange for making money:
Around they fucked — find out THEY WILL. [EDD: Proper Translation: THEY FUCKED AROUND – THEY WILL FIND OUT]
UNRWA-tweet-1December2023-UNRWA
🛑 Spreading unsubstantiated claims about @UNRWA
must stop immediately.
Making serious allegations in the public domain, unsupported by any evidence or verifiable facts in support thereof may amount to misinformation.
FULL Statement ⬇️
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/spreading-unsubstantiated-claims-about-unrwa-must-immediately-stop
Readers added context
Claims against UNRWA have been documented for a long time.
The headmaster of an UNRWA school was a terrorist.
https://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115/
Film by David Bedein in Jenin, UNRWA policies and practices
https://vimeo.com/856467890
UNRWA teachers celebrated Oct 7 massacre
https://unwatch.org/report-u-n-teachers-celebrated-hamas-massacre/
UNRWA teacher holds hostage in attic
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/united-nations-gaza-teacher-israeli-hostage-attic
Adam Albilya-tweet-1December2023-UNRWA-FAFO
Hillel Neuer-tweet-2December2023-UNRWA’s tweet complaining
UNRWA’s tweet complaining about “unsubstantiated claims about UNRWA” just got Community Noted with lots of substantiated claims.
Hillel Neuer-tweet-2December2023-UNRWA’s tweet complaining
UNRWA funding has fallen from $1.17 billion to just $254 million.
Visegrád 24-tweet-4February2024-UNRWA funding has fallen
UNRWA funding has fallen from $1.17 billion to just $254 million.
Visegrád 24-tweet-4February2024-UNRWA funding has fallen from $1.17 billion to just $254 million.
TOP
UN staff and UNRWA School director among the Hamas Terrorists who surrendered today
miha schwartzenberg-tweet-7December2023-UN-UNRWA staff are Hamas Terrorists surrendered
🚨❗️
A @UN staff and a @UNRWA School director, among the #HamasTerrorists who surrendered today.
Don’t take my word for it, the info is from Palestinian accounts, who thought…it’s a good idea to tell us all:).
These terrorists are from Shejaiya Battalion, responsible for heavy attacks on Israel.
miha schwartzenbergs-tweet-7December2023-UN-UNRWA staff are Hamas Terrorists surrendered
Palestinian source:
Ramy Abdu-tweet-7December2023-Among those taken today in Beit Lahia
Among those taken hostage today in Beit Lahia are:
-Khalil Hashem Al-Kahlot, 65,
– Rafiq Ahmad Al-Kahlot, 60,
– Muhammad Ismail Al-Kahlot, 57
– Darwish Gharbawy, @unrwa
School director, 48
– Ahmed Akram Lubad, 56, @UN
staff
In addition to the children
-Muhammad Hamza Al-Kahlot, 15 years old.
– Youssef Khaled Lubad, 15 years old
@EuroMedHR
Ramy Abdus-tweet-7December2023-Among those taken today in Beit Lahia
Adam Albilya-tweet-10December2023-Terrorists are a bunch of cowards
Terrorists are no longer what they used to be…
Oh, wait, they actually are what they’ve always been: a bunch of cowards who are only brave against kids and elderly.
Their ongoing investigation reveals that the most commonly used excuse for surrender is cited as “loss of communication with the leadership.”
Adam Albilya-tweet-10December2023-Terrorists are a bunch of cowards
TOP
From the 2014 Gaza War
The Price of Hamas’ Underground Terror Network
26July2014 https://www.idf.il/en/articles/hamas/the-price-of-hamas-underground-terror-network/
Hamas could be investing in the people of Gaza. Instead it invests in terrorism.
Construction materials meant for Palestinians routinely enter Gaza from Israel. To be exact, 4,680 trucks carrying 181 thousand tons of gravel, iron, cement, wood and other supplies have passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing since the beginning of 2014.
Imagine what Hamas could build with these resources instead of tunnels. Hundreds of homes and civilian structures for the residents of Gaza go unbuilt while the underground terror network continues to expand.
The price of Hamas underground terror network
TOP
UN and Hamas: Partners in Crime
by Robert Williams
4December2023 https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20192/united-nations-hamas
When a rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad exploded outside Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital, Hamas claimed within minutes that Israel had bombed the hospital and falsely asserted that hundreds of people had been killed there. The United Nations rushed to blame Israel, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres used his speech at the Belt and Road Summit in China to condemn Israel for the explosion. Pictured: The parking lot of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza on October 18, 2023 after a rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad landed there. (Photo by Shadi Al-Tabatibi/AFP via Getty Images)
Since October 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel and massacred at least 1,200 and kidnapped another 240 Israelis and people of other nationalities, the United Nations has been acting as the unofficial propaganda arm of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization.
The propaganda campaign’s main aim – besides smearing Israel – appears to be to build overwhelming international pressure on Israel to agree to an indefinite ceasefire , which will give Hamas the needed time to regroup and replenish to continue its terrorist activities and to avoid being eliminated by the Israeli Defense Forces.
To understand how the UN effectively runs the Hamas propaganda war, it is important to know that the UN, through its agency for Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), is effectively embedded with Hamas in the Gaza Strip: it can be difficult to make any meaningful distinction between the two organizations. On October 7, in fact, as the Hamas massacre of civilians in Israel unfolded, UNRWA employees in Gaza celebrated. UN Watch wrote in a report last month:
According to Associated Press:
The UN, through UNRWA in Gaza, likely knows everything that happens there, including the terrorist infrastructure of the underground Hamas tunnels and their use of hospitals and ambulances. Yet throughout this war, the UN has done nothing but feign “horror and shock” at Israel’s necessary measures against Hamas terrorists embedded within civilian society in Gaza. As the executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, pointed out:
On October 24, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stooped to a new low when pushing a typical Hamas narrative of grievances. He said that the October 7 attacks “did not happen in a vacuum,” thereby seemingly justifying the terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, the UN has not bothered in the least to address in concrete and horrifying detail what happened during the October 7 massacre – the mass rapes, the horrific torture, the ruthless murders and the kidnappings.
This silence on what happened on October 7 is, sadly, in keeping with the UN’s demonization of Israel around the clock. The UN invokes international humanitarian law – which Hamas, not Israel, is breaking by building military installations in protected civilian spaces (which, when used for military purposes become unprotected) and using civilians as human shields. Meanwhile, the UN never calls for Hamas to stop using its civilians as human shields to protect its weapons and show dead babies to the television cameras – to imply that their deaths were Israel’s fault.
Why are Gazan civilians not allowed to take shelter from aerial bombardments in Hamas’s 300 km of underground tunnels? Why did the Israel Defense Forces have to protect the Gazans fleeing south for their lives — as Israel had cautioned them to — while Hamas tried at gunpoint to prevent them from leaving?
Everything that the UN says and does regarding to Israel’s military operations in Gaza turns Hamas’s war crimes on their head — to try to blame them on Israel. Meanwhile, the UN parrots as fact whatever outlandish claims Hamas produces, including Gazan casualty numbers, which oddly never include any mention of Hamas terrorists, but mostly women and children.
When Hamas claimed on October 17 that Israel had bombed Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital, falsely asserting that hundreds of people had been killed, the UN rushed to blame Israel. Guterres used his speech at the Belt and Road Summit in China to condemn Israel for the explosion outside the hospital and to call for an immediate ceasefire, while Dennis Francis, president of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly announced that he was “shocked and horrified.”
On October 18, Israel published evidence showing that the strike on the hospital compound was a misfired rocket aimed at Israel and launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The UN said nothing. Instead, the UN has sustained an incessant campaign, especially on social media, that accuses Israel of deliberately targeting schools, children, civilians, hospitals and healthcare workers. While those are protected from attack during war by international law, that protection does not apply to schools, hospitals and other civilian sites that are used for military purposes.
Hamas’ unlawful military use of hospitals, schools and other civilian sites was first exposed years ago. Former US President Bill Clinton spoke about it in 2016. “When Hamas chooses to rocket Israel, it insinuates itself into hospitals and into schools,” he said.
NATO published a report in 2019, which bluntly stated:
When Israel carried out an airstrike on an ambulance in northern Gaza, which was being used by Hamas terrorists, Guterres expressed that he was “horrified” with Israel’s action, while ignoring Hamas’s war crimes. In practice, the UN and Hamas act as partners in crime.
A Hamas terrorist who participated in the October 7 mass-murder of Israelis and was captured, said during a recent interrogation intercepted by Israel:
Another captured Hamas terrorist said:
Yet another captured terrorist said that ambulances were useful to transport “important people” such as Hamas commanders because “the Jews don’t attack ambulances.”
When Israel published evidence of the Hamas military command center beneath Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who covered up the transmissibility of the COVID-19 pandemic for China and is accused of trying to cover up three cholera epidemics in Ethiopia, immediately castigated Israel.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, wrote:
While these high-ranking UN officials disingenuously feign ignorance and expect the public to believe that they knew nothing about the Hamas base in Al-Shifa Hospital, foreign doctors and journalists have apparently been aware of it for years.
An unnamed British doctor, who worked at Al-Shifa hospital three years ago, recently said in a television interview:
A journalist from Italy related that in 2009, upon arriving in Al-Shifa Hospital to interview wounded members of Fatah, he came almost face to face with the Hamas command and control center beneath the hospital:
It is also likely that the UN, with its 13,000 employees in Gaza, knew, as did the nurses and doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital, that Israeli hostages were being held at Al-Shifa. Israel recently revealed that Hamas terrorists brought hostages there in broad daylight on October 7, with healthcare staff even holding doors open for the terrorists.
The UN’s pretend show of “shock and horror” that Israel is eliminating its Hamas partner in Gaza is too transparent for anyone to take seriously, although the international mainstream media certainly does, parroting whatever Hamas and the UN allege as facts.
Above all, the UN’s transparent complicity with Hamas should convince the US, finally, that much of the UN is a destructive organization that prolongs wars, and needs immediately to have its funding decimated, and be reduced in importance to the corrupt relic that it is, deserving no place in this century.
TOP
THIRD Rocket Arsenal Found At UN School In Gaza
29July2014 http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/07/29/THIRD-Rocket-Arsenal-Found-At-UN-School-In-Gaza
The United Nations Relief & Works Agency For Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced Tuesday that another rocket stockpile has been found at one of its schools in Gaza. This instance marks the third time since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge that a weapons arsenal has been found at an UNRWA school in Gaza.
Dan Williams-tweet-29July2014-UNRWA says rockets found on Tuesday
UNRWA has yet to place blame on any individuals or organizations for placing the weapons stockpile within a children’s school. The UN body refused to do so on the past two previous occasions as well.
The UN body, after both previous findings, has handed the rockets it had found back into the possession of “the local police,” otherwise known as the terrorist group Hamas.
This week, UNRWA supplies and building materials had been found in Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure, which has been used to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks on the State of Israel.
The UN agency has a well-documented history of using their US taxpayer-funded facilities to promote anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda. It has in the past been accused of aiding and abetting radical Islamists in Gaza and elsewhere.
UNRWA was created in 1949 to provide relief and public works programs for displaced Arab refugees that had formerly inhabited the British mandate of Palestine. UNRWA is currently the largest agency-subdivision of the entire UN, employing over 30,000 staff. UNRWA has objectively failed in its primary goal of finding homes for those it has deemed “refugees”. From 1949 to present day, refugees recognized by UNRWA has grown from 750,000 to 5,000,000 people.
TOP
,h1>How Hamas assembles and fires rockets near Gaza homes
NDTV exclusive – how Hamas assembles and fires rockets
Published on 05August2014
Minutes before the 72-hour ceasefire began, this rocket was fired from deep within a civilian zone.
Watch more videos: http://www.ndtv.com/video?yt
They waited until they left Gaza to air the report.
Exclusive: Hamas rocket launch pad revealed near Gaza homes
Published on 05August2014
FRANCE 24 has exclusive footage of a Hamas rocket launching pad that appears to prove the militant group has been firing from areas heavily populated with civilians.
Comment:
TOP
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
How the UN and the international community (including the US) keep Hamas going
08August2014 http://israelmatzav.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/how-un-and-international-community.html
UNRWA – United Nations Rocket Warehousing Agency
The United States is UNRWA’s largest donor. And rather than reevaluate, some Americans have a vested interest in keeping it that way.
What could go wrong?
TOP
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-9November2023-Hamas doesn’t care about Gaza’s civilians
Hamas doesn’t care about Gaza’s civilians.
While Israel is doing everything possible to prevent civilian casualties, Hamas is INTENTIONALLY putting innocent Palestinians in harm’s way.
Watch:
#PleaseGoSouth
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-9November2023-Hamas doesn’t care about Gaza’s civilians
Israel Hayom 385_eng South Gaza UNRWA Camp 11-30-2023
TOP