Israel Sends Dozens of Drones to Gaza, Lapid Cancels his Vacation

Friday, 5 August, 2022

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid canceled his vacation due to the security situation in the south of the country, according to the Hebrew Channel 14.

Lapid's office said in a statement that the prime minister canceled his leave and will assess the situation at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

Israel sent dozens of drones into Gaza Strip amid the state of alert among its forces in the vicinity of the Palestinian enclave.

Tel Aviv is expecting a possible response after its brutal arrest and assault of the leader of the Islamic Jihad movement in Jenin, Bassam al-Saadi.

Hebrew media said that the Israeli Air Force attacked the Gaza Strip's borders to "target armed cells" that might launch anti-tank missiles or rockets or carry out sniping operations toward Israeli targets.

Meanwhile, the Chief of the General Staff, Aviv Kohavi, visited the Gaza Division and held an operational-security situational assessment with the Commanding Officer, Nimrod Aloni.

Kohavi ordered the Israeli forces to increase readiness for escalation and expand defensive and intelligence efforts.

Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Makan) announced that the area near the Gaza Strip witnessed a state of alert. Roads were shut and train stations were closed.

Israel closed Kerem Shalom commercial crossing and the Beit Hanoun crossing.

Based on a new assessment of the security situation, the Israeli army sent a letter to Gaza residents announcing the extension of the state of alert for another day.

According to Israel's Channel 14, the army will not tolerate maintaining the state of alert in the Gaza Strip for a long time and may replace this with economic sanctions, such as banning fishing in the Gaza sea and keeping the crossings closed, in an attempt to put financial pressure.

The Israeli army confirmed it has a strong intelligence warning that Islamic Jihad plans to operate on the border between Israel and the Strip soon.

The Ynet website said these attacks might include anti-tank missiles, snipers, or missiles.

Islamic Jihad official Khaled al-Batsh said that the movement responded to the Egyptian efforts, given that attacks and arrests stopped in the West Bank.

Israel refused and arrested 20 Palestinians on Thursday.

Later, a Hamas delegation left for Egypt to contain the situation. The movement does not want an escalation from Gaza, but it will not prevent the Islamic Jihad if an agreement is not reached, according to Israeli estimates.

The Israeli Minister of Tourism, Yoel Razvozov, said that the relevant authorities are working at the military and political levels to end the current tension.

Razvozov stressed that the decision to restrict movement in the region was taken after carefully studying the situation and in consultation with intelligence agencies.

He made it clear that Israel wants to calm the situation and will not allow the Islamic Jihad to escalate the situation or impose its conditions, warning that Tel Aviv will continue to respond to any breach from the Strip.

The Israeli minister tried to calm the Jewish settlers in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, who expressed anger at the continued Israeli restrictions. The settlers demanded compensation from the Israeli government, and some had to leave their homes.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3799146/israel-sends-dozens-drones-gaza-lapid-cancels-his-vacation.

Netanyahu courts Arab voters in election-year turnabout

January 20, 2021

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent much of his long career casting Israel's Arab minority as a potential fifth column led by terrorist sympathizers, is now openly courting their support as he seeks reelection in the country's fourth vote in less than two years.

Few Arabs are likely to heed his call, underscoring the desperation of Netanyahu’s political somersault. But the the relative absence of incitement against the community in this campaign and the potential breakup of an Arab party alliance could dampen turnout — to Netanyahu's advantage. He might even pick up just enough votes to swing a tight election.

Either way, Netanyahu's overtures have shaken up the Arab community. The Joint List, an alliance of Arab parties that secured a record 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset last March, is riven by a dispute over whether it should work with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud at a time when less objectionable center-left parties are in disarray.

Its demise would leave the community with even less representation as it confronts a terrifying crime wave, coronavirus-fueled unemployment and persistent inequality. But given the complexities of Israel's coalition system, a breakaway Arab party could gain outsized influence if it is willing to work with Netanyahu or other traditionally hostile leaders.

The struggle was on vivid display last week when Netanyahu traveled to Nazareth, the largest Arab-majority city in Israel, his third visit to an Arab district in less than two weeks. Outside the venue, dozens of people, including a number of Arab members of parliament, protested his visit and scuffled with police, even as the city's mayor welcomed and praised him.

“Netanyahu came like a thief to try to scrape together votes from the Arab street,” said Aida Touma-Suleiman, a prominent lawmaker from the Joint List. "Your attempt to dismantle our community from within won’t succeed.”

Arabs make up around 20% of Israel's population. They have full citizenship, including the right to vote, and have a large and growing presence in universities, the health care sector and other professions. But they face widespread discrimination and blame lax Israeli law enforcement for a rising wave of violent crime in their communities.

They have close familial ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and largely identify with their cause. That has led many Jews to view them as sympathetic to Israel's enemies, sentiments fanned by Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians.

On the eve of elections in 2015, Netanyahu warned his supporters that Arabs were voting in "droves." During back-to-back elections in 2019, his campaign sent poll observers to Arab districts and pushed for cameras in voting booths, in what critics said was a ploy to intimidate Arab voters and whip up false allegations of election fraud.

Those moves backfired spectacularly. The Joint List, an unwieldy alliance of Islamists, communists and other leftists, boosted turnout and emerged as one of the largest blocs in parliament. At times, it looked like it might help deny Netanyahu a majority coalition or even emerge as the official opposition.

But last May, after three deadlocked elections in less than a year, Netanyahu formed a coalition with his main rival and the Joint List was left out in the cold. In the coming election, polls indicate a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties committed to ending Netanyahu's nearly 12-year rule would be able to oust him without the Arab bloc.

No Arab party has ever asked or been invited to join a ruling coalition. In Nazareth, Netanyahu claimed his remarks in 2015 were misinterpreted — that he was merely warning Arab voters not to support the Joint List.

“All Israel’s citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, must vote," he said. In other Arab towns, he has visited coronavirus vaccination centers, boasting about his success in securing millions of doses and encouraging residents to get inoculated.

Netanyahu's Arab outreach seems to have given a green light to centrist and left-leaning politicians to do the same, with less concern that their right-wing rivals will use it against them. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, Netanyahu's main center-left opponent, said over the weekend that he was open to forming a government with external support from the Joint List.

The Joint List is meanwhile showing signs of breaking up. Mansour Abbas, the head of an Islamist party, has expressed openness in recent months to working with Netanyahu to address issues like housing and law enforcement. An aide to Abbas declined requests for an interview.

A full-scale breakup of the Joint List could further reduce turnout and potentially leave one or more of its four parties with too little support to cross the electoral threshold. Thabet Abu Rass, the co-director of the Abraham Initiatives, which works to promote equality among Jews and Arabs, says Netanyahu may attract a small number of Arab voters, but that far more of them would simply boycott the election.

“They are waiting to see if there is going to be a Joint List or not, and if you ask me, it’s not going to happen,” he said. "There are a lot of deep differences this time.” A poll carried out in December forecast Arab turnout at around 55%, far lower than the 65% seen last March.

Although Arab parties have historically performed worse on their own, some feel the parties might be more effective individually. In Israel's political system — which requires would-be prime ministers to assemble majority coalitions — small parties often wield outsized influence.

“When we speak about the Palestinian community in Israel, we don’t speak about one bloc, we have different ideologies,” said Nijmeh Ali, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, an international Palestinian think tank. “Sometimes you need to break up in order to gain power."

Netanyahu appears to be focused on the margins ahead of a tight race that could determine not only whether he remains in office, but whether he secures immunity from prosecution on multiple corruption charges. With only a few seats, a pragmatic politician like Abbas could determine Netanyahu's fate.

“This is the new thing in Arab politics," said Arik Rudnitzky, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. “They are ready to hold direct negotiations with Likud.” He said it doesn't mean they will be part of a governing coalition, but they could offer outside support to secure benefits for the Arab public. “It might be a win-win situation," he said.

Associated Press reporters Areej Hazboun in Jerusalem and Ami Bentov in Nazareth, Israel, contributed to this report.

If Ukraine can have an international brigade, why can't Palestine and Syria?

February 27, 2022

Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said that she will support anyone who wants to go to Ukraine to join an international brigade of fighters against Russia. She described such a mission as taking part in a battle "for freedom and democracy".

I can't help but wonder, though, about those who've left British shores to fight overseas only to have their citizenships revoked by an unsympathetic British government. The only difference I can see between those who want to fight in Ukraine and those who want to fight in Palestine, Syria, Libya or Iraq is skin color and faith.

There are at least 100,000 Muslims living in Kyiv. Is Truss going to support their British and European brothers and sisters who want to go out to fight alongside them in the Ukrainian capital? She told the BBC on Sunday morning that it was up to people to make their own decisions in such situations; she also said that the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom, "not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe."

Why, I wonder, are democracy and freedom more precious in Europe than, say, in Syria, where dictator Bashar Al-Assad is trying to crush the last vestiges of a revolution in which Syrians dared to dream about their own democratic state? And why are Palestinians who resist Israel's brutal occupation demonized as "terrorists" and shunned by the "democratic" and apparently freedom-loving West? I know many people who would like to go out and join the Palestinians in defense of their legitimate rights as they fight for survival against apartheid Israel.

As Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges foreign nationals "to join the defense of security in Europe", his government is ready to arm an "international" legion of volunteer foreigners who wish to join the Ukrainian army in its fight against Russian forces. "This is not just Russia's invasion of Ukraine," he pointed out on his official website. "This is the beginning of a war against Europe. Against European unity."

Palestinian leaders have made similar statements about securing the future of Islam's third holiest site, the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, which is under attack by Israeli occupation forces, including illegal settlers. If an international call was made for millions of Muslims across the West to protect Al-Aqsa from the murderous designs of the Israelis, would Foreign Secretary Liz Truss approve? Somehow, I doubt it. As I wrote a couple of days ago, "The crisis in Ukraine exposes the hypocrisy of Israel and its Zionist allies." Among the latter stands Truss and the government in which she has a senior role.

"Everyone who wants to join the defense of security in Europe and the world may come and stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians against the invaders of the 21st Century," said Zelenskyy. Now imagine that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh — whose democratic election as Palestinian Prime Minister in 2006 was rejected by those same Zionist allies — issued such an invitation to Muslims around the world, and Britain in particular, to protect the people of occupied Palestine from Israel and its settler-colonialism. Apartheid, remember, is akin to a crime against humanity, and the annexation of territory through military action is illegal; Israel is guilty of both.

Moreover, some of the settlers and soldiers who bolster and enforce Israel's occupation of Palestine hold British and other European passports. But hey, that's OK it seems, because they are white and Jewish, while those who oppose them are "only" Arabs.

In 2019, I visited an amputee clinic where traumatized Syrian children were being taught to walk again. I met British doctors, teachers and aid workers who have had their citizenship revoked because they were working in rebel-held Idlib. Unable to make a legal challenge against the British government's decision from a war zone, they are now in a legal black hole.

They didn't pick up weapons or go out to fight; they simply wanted to help the ordinary Syrian people in their struggle for democracy and the best way they could do this was by using the skills that they have. They must all be wondering why the British government which stripped them of their passports is ready to back those looking to do the same in Ukraine, and even take up arms there. Can there be any more blatant example of hypocrisy, Islamophobia and racism than that being displayed by Liz Truss and, presumably, her boss Boris Johnson and their cabinet colleagues?

When people are in trouble it is human nature for people to want to help in any way they can. I would not dream of criticizing anyone who wants to join an international brigade to help Ukrainians in their struggle. But if that's OK, then it should also be OK for others to go to help the people of Palestine, Chechnya, Libya, Syria, Yemen, occupied Kashmir and other trouble spots.

In the 1930s, around 60,000 young people left North America and Europe to join the International Brigade, groups of foreign volunteers who fought on the Republican side against the fascist Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). What is rarely reported is that while many left Britain to fight for the republicans, there was also a few who fought alongside the fascists. Neither faced any problems when they returned to Britain.

While Truss and UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace insist that British soldiers will not be sent to Ukraine to fight, the position of British citizens who decide to join the international brigade needs to be clarified. The foreign secretary needs to explain why the defense of democracy in Ukraine is acceptable, but standing up against tyrants, dictators and authoritarian regimes elsewhere is not. We have a right to know. More to the point, so do the people of occupied Palestine and Syria. If the Ukrainians can be helped by an international brigade, why can't they?s and soldiers who bolster and enforce Israel's occupation of Palestine hold British and other European passports. But hey, that's OK it seems, because they are white and Jewish, while those who oppose them are "only" Arabs.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220227-if-ukraine-can-have-an-international-brigade-why-cant-palestine-and-syria/.

After 19 years in detention, Palestinian prisoner learns to live in changed world

By Aseel Jundi in Sur Baher, occupied East Jerusalem

17 January 2021

After almost two decades in Israeli jails, on the last day of 2020, Malek Bkairat was released from Naqab prison to a world different from the one he remembered back when he was locked up at 22 years of age.

The "blessing of patience from God to the prisoners," he said, was the only thing that enabled him to reintegrate into the outside world since his release, away from the chains of prison, to embrace his only daughter, Lina, and his father, whom Israeli authorities prevented from seeing him for the past five years.

He said his release has brought him joy but also shock and alienation at the passage of time, the changes that have taken place and the generations that sprouted while he was behind bars. 

"It is as if I was dead and buried in a grave, and 19 years later, they dug out my grave and told me to come back to life again, after death," Bkairat told Middle East Eye from his hometown of Sur Baher.

"There are new homes. The town's cemetery is now full. I am like a child who recently learned to walk; still practicing how to walk uphill and downhill, because in the prison we only walked in a small yard on flat land."

On the last day of 2001 during the Second Intifada, Bkairat was arrested and later charged with forming a cell to carry out operations against Israeli forces in Jerusalem. 

He said he believes that the verdicts against him and his friends were excessive, explaining that the judiciary justified the long sentences by citing the security situation, and said that the verdict should act as a deterrent for Palestinians in Jerusalem against planning or carrying out attacks. 

"There is no human being on earth who wishes to go to prison, but as long as there is an occupation, there is resistance, and the fate is therefore imprisonment," Bkairat said. 

During his time in detention, Israeli prison authorities punished Bkairat by repeatedly transferring him from one prison to another and placing him in solitary confinement, he said. 

But despite the hardships, he said he was nicknamed "the father of optimism," and he took part in five mass hunger strikes throughout the years.

Prior to his imprisonment, Bkairat was a paramedic at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound clinic, where he agreed to volunteer for a symbolic sum.

When he was arrested in 2001, he was unaware that his wife was pregnant with their first baby, who, on all but two occasions during the past 19 years, interacted with him during family visits from behind a thick glass barrier.

When his daughter was four years old, he and his wife separated, and she was taken to live with her paternal grandparents.

Sitting next to her father, Lina observed his features and listened intently as he spoke about his life and his experiences.

Describing the moment of his return home, Lina said it was among the "most beautiful moments of my life that I'll never forget as long as I live".

She added that she felt as though her life had been divided into two parts: before and after her father's release from prison.

"The missing part of my life is now complete."

A family's history of struggle

Bkairat and his family have a long history of being targeted by the Israeli occupation. His father, Najeh Bkairat, a well-known sheikh among Palestinians who holds the position of deputy director of the Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem, has been arrested on many occasions due to his activism surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Since his son's release, Najeh Bkairat has been taking successive phone calls from family members and friends to congratulate Bkairat and the family on his long-awaited freedom.

"When I saw Malek enter the yard of the house with his head held high and his mother running towards him to embrace him, I could not control myself and burst into tears," the elderly man told MEE.

When Bkairat was released from the Naqab prison, Israeli intelligence forces re-arrested him and transferred him to al-Mascoubiya interrogation center in Jerusalem, questioned him for three hours, and held him until the next day. His father was also arrested the next day and taken to the same interrogation center, where the two met.

An hour after they were released, Israeli occupation forces raided their home in Sur Baher and re-arrested Najeh Bkairat.

He told MEE that Israeli intelligence questioned him over the celebration he and his family had organized in the courtyard of their home to receive Bkairat.

"I preferred prison over freedom that night because they want the freed prisoner to be worthless and to close the doors of our homes in the face of well-wishers. I do not accept this," Najeh Bkairat said.

Hours later, he was released on the conditions of a one-week house arrest and a fine of 5,000 shekels ($1,600) for allegedly violating Covid-19 restrictions.

Najeh Bkairat said that Israel's persecution of the family has been continuing for some 40 years. He has been arrested 15 times and has spent a total of seven years in Israeli prisons. He has also received 24 orders temporarily banning him from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and his nearby office, for a total time adding up to nine years.

"The occupation authorities do not like how I expose their policies towards Al-Aqsa, so they target me and all my children because we love Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and defend them," he said. 

In 1997, Malek Bkairat was arrested and detained for five months under administrative detention, a controversial policy Israel uses to incarcerate Palestinians without trial or charge.  

Back at home, Bkairat's smile never left his face. 

He said his only wish is to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is now closed due to Covid-19 measures. 

"I am impatiently waiting to enter it and to perform the call to prayer there. I was [also] known by the title 'muezzin of the prisoners' as I used to conduct the call to prayer in all the prisons I was in," Bkairat said.

Source: Middle East Eye.

Link: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-israel-malek-bkairat-released-prison.

Jordan reiterates rejection of Israeli attempts to alter status quo at Al Aqsa

Nov 24, 2020

AMMAN — Jordan on Tuesday reiterated that Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, with its total area of 144 dunums, including its walls and gates, is a place of worship for Muslims only.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the Jordan-run Jerusalem Awqaf and Aqsa Affairs Department, under international law and legal and historical status quo, has the exclusive authority to supervise the holy site’s affairs and manage entries.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Daifallah Fayez voiced the Kingdom’s rejection of any attempts to alter Al Aqsa Mosque’s historical and legal status quo.

Fayez also reaffirmed that Mughrabi Gate (Bab Al Magharbeh) and the road leading to it, is an integral and inseparable part of Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, in accordance with UNESCO decisions.

The Mughrabi Gate is like the other gates of Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, but Israeli authorities have confiscated its keys since 1967,  denying the awqaf department’s right to manage the entries of non-Muslim tourists, which violates the status quo, the statement said, stressing that, the Jerusalem Awqaf and Aqsa Affairs Department, to this day, is still committed to restore it. 

Fayez said that the Kingdom as per the Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem's Islamic and Christian holy sites will continue its efforts towards protecting Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif and preserving the rights of all Muslims.

Source: The Jordan Times.

Link: http://jordantimes.com/news/local/jordan-reiterates-rejection-israeli-attempts-alter-status-quo-al-aqsa.

US Indiana elect first Muslim State Senator of Palestinian descent

November 7, 2020

Fady Qaddoura, an American citizen of Palestinian origins, won the membership of the Senate of Indiana, becoming the first Arab Muslim in the state legislature, and the third Palestinian to win the US elections 2020, after defeating his rival John Ruckelchaus.

Democrat Qaddoura beat John Ruklchaus by 52% to 48%. He won by over 3,800 votes after 98% of the votes were counted, according to Sputnik.

“We did it! Only in America can someone immigrate to this country, work hard, and earn the trust of tens of thousands of voters to become the first Muslim State Senator in Indiana’s history. I will work hard every day to represent all Hoosiers – including the ones who did not vote for me,” he posted on Facebook...

Fady Qaddoura, an American citizen of Arab descent, immigrated from Palestine 19 years ago to study computer science. He lost his home and lived a difficult period with his family after Hurricane Katrina that struck the United States.

Social and charitable societies helped him and his family to overcome this ordeal, and today he is the first Muslim member of Arab origin to support the Democratic Party.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20201107-us-indiana-elect-first-muslim-state-senator-of-palestinian-descent/.

US elects second Muslim, Palestinian congresswoman

November 5, 2020

Democratic party candidate Iman Jodeh has been selected as the congresswoman for the Colorado House of Representatives beating Republican candidate Robert Andrews in the polls yesterday.

Commenting on the news on Twitter, Jodeh wrote: “We did it! I ran to make the #AmericanDream a reality for Everyone. I am a proud #Muslim, #PalestinianAmerican, & #firstgeneration American. And I am proud to be able to represent my communities & the people of #hd41 in the #Colorado state legislature! Now, let’s get to work.”

One of her supporters wrote on Twitter: “Iman Jodeh, a Democrat in Colorado’s House District 41, will be the first Muslim state legislator in state history.”

Jodeh was born in Colorado to two Palestinian parents who immigrated to the US in 1974. She holds an MA in General Administration.

Fellow Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib was re-elected to her seat in Michigan, while progressive Muslims congresswoman Ilhan Omar also regained her position in Minnesota following the election.

Source: Middle East Monitor.

Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20201105-us-elects-second-muslim-palestinian-congresswoman/.

Hamas welcomes formation of 'United Leadership of Popular Resistance'

September 14, 2020

Hamas yesterday welcomed the formation of the “United Leadership of Popular Resistance”, considering it a practical step to turn the national consensus into measures on the ground.

“The formation of this body witnesses the beginning of the implementation of the national decisions taken during last week’s conference of Palestinian secretaries-general held in Beirut,” Hamas official Hussam Badran said in a press release.

“We are confident that all Palestinian national institutions will proceed with more steps to turn the rejection of all projects intended to liquidate the Palestinian cause into practical moves,” Badran added.

“All Palestinian factions have agreed to start implementing the outcomes of the secretaries-general’s conference, but some Arab states running towards the normalization of ties with the Israeli occupation brought the formation of this body to the top of the conference’s agenda.”

Badran stressed on the importance of maintaining internal unity and putting aside all differences to save the Palestinian cause.

“We laud the massive and immediate response by all Palestinian factions and institutions to handle all dangers posed to the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian national project,” he said.

“We are confident that the Palestinian public is able to take the initiative and make moves to undermine any proposal aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause by imposing solutions that will not achieve the Palestinians’ aspirations and national goals.”

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200914-hamas-welcomes-formation-of-united-leadership-of-popular-resistance/.

Amman condemns Kosovo, Serbia's decision to move embassies to Jerusalem

9/7/2020

AMMONNEWS - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Monday inveighed against the decision of both Kosovo and Serbia to move their embassies to Jerusalem, describing it as a "flagrant violation" of international law.

Daifallah Fayez, the Ministry's spokesperson, said that the decision flouts international resolutions, foremost of which are the UN's Security Council resolutions 476, 478 and 2334. He highlighted that the resolutions clearly state that East Jerusalem is an occupied territory where international law is applied.

He said that establishing a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, borders with East Jerusalem as its capital is the only means to establish a lasting peace to the conflict.

Fayez commended the EU for its position against moving embassies and diplomatic missions to Jerusalem.

Source: Ammon News.
Link: http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleno=43962.

'Palestine is still the issue': UN vote exposes, isolates Canada

August 14, 2020

The notion that ‘Canada is better’, especially when compared with US foreign policy, has persisted for many years. Recent events at the United Nations have, however, exposed the true nature of Canada’s global position, particularly in the matter of its blind and unconditional support for Israel.

On June 17, Canada lost its second bid for the coveted UN Security Council seat, which, had it won, would have allowed Ottawa the opportunity to become a world leader, pushing its own agenda – and those of its allies – on the global stage.

However, this, too, was a wasted opportunity. Only 108 countries voted for Canada while 130 and 128 voted for Norway and Ireland respectively. Both these countries will be admitted to the Security Council, starting January 1, 2021.

What is striking about Canada’s missed opportunity is that it was in retribution for Canada’s bias towards Israel, at the expense of Palestine, international and humanitarian laws.  Over the last twenty years alone, for example, Canada has voted against 166 resolutions supporting Palestinian rights, says Canadian author and human rights advocate, Yves Engler.

Moreover, Canada has lobbied – and continues to lobby – against the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation of war crimes in Palestine. Along with Germany, Austria and others, Canada has challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction on the matter, erroneously alleging that Palestine is not a State.

Shortly before the June vote on new Security Council members was held, a group of human rights activists circulated a letter to all UN members, detailing Canada’s poor record on Palestine.  “Despite its peaceful reputation, Canada is not acting as a benevolent player on the international stage,” the letter read.

It added, “Since coming to power, the Justin Trudeau government has voted against more than 50 UN resolutions upholding Palestinian rights, even though they have been backed by the overwhelming majority of member states.”

Among the signatories of the letter were renowned American intellectual, Noam Chomsky, famed rock star, Roger Waters and former Quebec National Assembly member, Amir Khadir.

The vote against Canada at the UN was understood to be a stance against Ottawa’s position on Israel and Palestine, despite Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, Marc-Andre Blanchard, going on the defensive in a desperate attempt to dissuade member states from voting against his country.

In a letter sent to all member states, Blanchard argued that an earlier document written by “a group of Canadians regarding Canada’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  … contains significant inaccuracies and characterizes Canada’s longstanding policy positions”.

This succession of actions is unprecedented in recent years, where a country like Canada loses the respect and support of other UN member states largely due to its failure to respect the rights of the Palestinian people. To better understand the significance of this event, we spoke to Yves Engler, who played a direct role in championing the Palestinian cause and pushing for Canadian accountability at the United Nations.

Engler has also authored several books, among them “Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid” and “Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada”.

“It is important for people to realize that this anti-Palestinian position that Canada pursues today is not new. It is grounded in at least a century of Zionist policy in this country,” Engler said.

The UN Vote

Explaining the context of the June UN vote, Engler said that “the current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who is a liberal politician, expended a lot of energy into winning that seat; he undertook a huge campaign, called dozens of leaders around the world, lobbied very hard for that seat but, on the first round of voting, Canada was defeated resoundingly by Ireland and Norway.”

Engler added, “In my mind, there was no issue that contributed more to Canada’s loss in its bid for a Security Council seat than its anti-Palestinian record. And, more specifically, its voting against UN General Assembly resolutions that almost the entire world supports, isolated Canada with the US, Israel, Micronesia, and maybe one or two other countries.”

The Canadian setback at the UN should be directly attributed to grassroots activists and intellectuals like Engler.

“Activists’ groups – that I was part of – exposed records spanning the past two decades of the Canadian government voting consistently against the UN General Assembly resolutions. It voted against 166 UN General Assembly resolutions over the past twenty years. In comparison, Ireland and Norway did not vote against a single one of those UN General Assembly resolutions.”

The Media Lobby

“But how did Canada become pro-Israel?” we asked Engler.

“There is a very well-organized, pro-Israel lobby in Canada that is able to exert its influence over the media,” Engler said. “For instance, the pro-Israel group, ‘Honest Reporting Canada’, concentrates on criticizing every media source that expresses even a hint of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”

However, compared with the dynamics of Israeli influence over Washington, Canada is quite different. Unlike the US, Engler continues, “Canada has much clearer restrictions on the funding of politicians, so there is nobody like Sheldon Adelson who gives a couple of hundred million dollars to Donald Trump which, then,  sway Trump to adopt even more extreme anti-Palestinian positions. This dynamic does not exist in Canada, but the dominant media has always been sympathetic to the Zionist movement.”

Encouragingly, pro-Palestinian sentiment in Canada has grown over the last twenty years or so, to become a large network, an organized movement in its own right, which has, according to Engler, to “some extent, countered the dominance of the Zionist narrative.”

Canadian media, however, is still unwilling to challenge Israel’s power in the country, leaving the stage open to “pro-Israel groups  … to attack pro-Palestinian activists.”  “There is an incredible amount of trepidation, even in the pro-Palestinian movement, of being labeled as anti-Jewish,” Engler said.

Grassroots Activism

Similar to the trend in other western countries, pro-Palestine groups in Canada are small, diverse and organized at grassroots levels. These groups “tend not to be particularly well-founded or institutionally strong, while the pro-Israel side is far better organized.”

Yet, despite the pro-Israeli influence in government and media, “polls show, repeatedly, that the public is increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than what appears in the dominant media or in the official protocol. A recent poll has revealed that Canadians are very sympathetic towards boycotting Israel for violating international law.”

A March 2017 poll indicated that 78% of all Canadians believe that “BDS is reasonable”. Engler sees much hope in these numbers, referring to them and to the vote at the UN as “small victories.”

The growing pro-Palestinian sentiment is now also seeping into politics. Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent decision to annex nearly a third of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, 57 members of parliament strongly protested this decision, demanding action from their government should Tel Aviv proceed with its illegal measures.

The change is far more rewarding within labor unions in the country than in politics. “Forty years, ago… unions were aggressive in their support of Zionism; today, this is no longer the case, as many unions have passed resolutions supporting BDS campaigns.”

While Canada’s support for Israel is, to a certain extent, consistent with Canada’s own colonial past and present interventionist foreign policy, the Canadian people and the international community remain major obstacles, challenging the toxic affinity between Ottawa and Tel Aviv.

The hope is that the growing pro-Palestinian tide, predicated on respect for international law and human rights, will eventually prevail in order to sever the Canada-Israel rapport permanently, and allow Canada to earn its place as a global leader.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200814-palestine-is-still-the-issue-un-vote-exposes-isolates-canada/.

Israel blocks Palestinian mothers travelling with newborn babies

July 27, 2020

The Israeli authorities have prevented two Palestinian women from leaving the occupied West Bank for Jordan because their newborn babies are not registered in the Zionist state, Wafa news agency has reported.

Although the babies are registered with the Palestinian Interior Ministry, they were not allowed to cross into Jordan via the Allenby Bridge.

A number of Palestinians have been denied travel recently at the Israeli-controlled border crossing with Jordan. The bridge connects the West Bank with the Hashemite Kingdom and is the sole designated exit and entry point for West Bank Palestinians travelling into and out of the Israeli occupied territories.

The women were attempting to travel to Jordan to be reunited with their husbands who work in the UAE, after giving birth in the occupied territories. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Ahmad Al-Dik condemned Israel’s actions and asserted the right of the babies to stay with their mothers.

“This stance by the occupation state is a violation of the Geneva Conventions,” he explained, “which guarantee freedom of movement for people under occupation, particularly since the two women carry valid documents for themselves and their babies issued by the State of Palestine, which is under occupation.”

Rights groups have pointed out that preventing Palestinians from travelling through this crossing is part of the political pressure put on them. It bears no relation to any valid security or other issues, they insisted.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200727-israel-blocks-palestinian-mothers-travelling-with-newborn-babies/.

Israel soldiers destroy Palestinian coronavirus testing center

July 20, 2020

Israeli soldiers demolished a Palestinian security checkpoint used to test for coronavirus in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency.

The checkpoint was set up by Palestinian security forces at the entrance to the occupied West Bank city of Jenin to prevent the spread of the virus.

A total of 468 new coronavirus cases and three deaths from the disease were recorded in the occupied Palestinian territories over the past 24 hours, confirmed the Ministry of Health today, leaving the active cases at 8,360 and total deaths at 65.

It added that 40 patients are currently in intensive care units, including three placed on respirators, with no reports of recoveries.

Israeli forces also injured a Palestinian man at the Jenin refugee camp, reported Wafa.

Local sources said soldiers stormed Jenin and its refugee camp early this morning to arrest activists. Occupation forces shot at Palestinians in the area, according to the reports, injuring one person in the leg.

Two people were arrested before the soldiers left the city and the checkpoint was destroyed.

Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Israeli authorities continue to abuse the most vulnerable Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, as part of decades-long attempts to drive them out of the area, and to similarly mistreat Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

According to B’Tselem, last month saw a spike in Israeli demolitions, which left 151 Palestinians, including 84 minors, homeless – despite the danger of remaining without shelter during a pandemic.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200720-israel-soldiers-destroy-palestinian-coronavirus-testing-centre/.

Belgium votes on recognizing State of Palestine, imposing sanctions on Israel

June 25, 2020

The Belgian Chamber of Representatives will today be voting on whether to “formally recognize the State of Palestine.”

The resolution, said Socialist MP Malik Ban Achour, urges the federal government “to formally recognize the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel and to consider this recognition as a contribution by Belgium to the solution based on the coexistence of two democratic and independent states having the right to live in peace and security with mutually recognized, accepted and respected borders. ”

The 150-member House of Representatives will also debate a second resolution calling for the government to prepare a list of ‘’counter-measures’’ to be implemented if the Israeli annexation plan goes ahead on 1 July.

MPs from left-wing parties, including the Socialist Party and members of the French and Green parties, proposed the resolutions.

Earlier this week, more than 1,000 members of parliament from across Europe signed a letter warning Israel against annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.

The legislators said they “share serious concerns about President Trump’s plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the imminent prospect of Israeli annexation of West Bank territory.”

According to private daily Al-Bawaba, the resolution supporting EU punitive measures against Israel passed in a committee earlier this month with an easy majority and is likely to pass in the plenary.

However, the measure to recognize a Palestinian state passed by one vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee and is considered less likely to be approved by the plenary.

Sweden became the first EU member to officially recognize Palestine in 2014, though other parliaments have since called on their governments to do so.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200625-belgium-votes-on-recognising-state-of-palestine-imposing-sanctions-on-israel/.

Israeli defense minister apologizes for Palestinian's death

June 01, 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister apologized on Sunday for the Israeli police's deadly shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man who was autistic. The shooting of Iyad Halak, 32, in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday, drew broad condemnations and revived complaints alleging excessive force by Israeli security forces.

Benny Gantz, who is also Israel's “alternate” prime minister under a power-sharing deal, made the remarks at the weekly meeting of the Israeli Cabinet. He sat near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made no mention of the incident in his opening remarks.

“We are really sorry about the incident in which Iyad Halak was shot to death and we share in the family's grief,” Gantz said. “I am sure this subject will be investigated swiftly and conclusions will be reached.”

Halak's relatives said he had autism and was heading to a school for students with special needs where he studied each day when he was shot. In a statement, Israeli police said they spotted a suspect “with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol.” When he failed to obey orders to stop, officers opened fire, the statement said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld later said no weapon was found.

Israeli media reported the officers involved were questioned after the incident as per protocol and a lawyer representing one of them sent his condolences to the family in an interview with Israeli Army Radio.

Lone Palestinian attackers with no clear links to armed groups have carried out a series of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in recent years. Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have long accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force in some cases, either by killing individuals who could have been arrested or using lethal force when their lives were not in danger.

Some pro-Palestinian activists compared Saturday's shooting to the recent cases of police violence in the U.S.

Israeli leader vows to push ahead with annexing West Bank

May 25, 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pledged to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in the coming months, vowing to move ahead with the explosive plan despite a growing chorus of condemnations by key allies.

The Palestinians, with wide international backing, seek the entire West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state. Annexing large chunks of this territory would all but destroy the faint remaining hopes of a two-state solution.

In an apparent reference to the friendly administration of President Donald Trump, Netanyahu said Israel had a “historic opportunity” to redraw the Mideast map that could not be missed. Israeli media quoted him as saying he would act in July.

“This is an opportunity that we will not let pass,” he told members of his conservative Likud party. He added that the “historic opportunity” to annex the West Bank had never before occurred since Israel's founding in 1948.

The comments threatened to push Israel closer to a confrontation with Arab and European partners, and could deepen what is becoming a growing partisan divide over Israel in Washington. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. It has settled nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory, but never formally claimed it as an Israeli territory due to stiff international opposition.

But the Trump administration has taken a much softer line toward Israeli settlements than its predecessors. Trump's Mideast team is dominated by advisers with close ties to the settlements, and his Mideast plan, unveiled in January, envisions leaving some 30% of the territory under permanent Israeli control while giving the Palestinians expanded autonomy in the rest of the area. The Palestinians have rejected the plan, saying it is unfairly biased toward Israel.

With Trump's re-election prospects uncertain this November, Israeli hard-liners have urged Netanyahu to move ahead with annexation quickly. The Israeli leader's new coalition deal includes an official clause allowing him to present his annexation plan to the government in July.

Netanyahu told party members in a closed-door meeting that “we have a target date for July and we don’t intend to change it," Likud officials said. The plan has already exposed a partisan divide in Washington. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the U.S. presidential elections, recently said that annexation would “choke off” hopes for a two-state solution. 18 Democratic senators warned in a letter this week that annexation could harm U.S.-Israeli ties.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said annexation would violate international law and vowed to use “all our diplomatic capacities” to stop it. Closer to home, the Palestinians last week cut off security ties — a valuable tool in a shared struggled against Islamic militants — with Israel to protest the annexation plan.

Saudi Arabia, an influential Arab country that maintains behind-the-scenes relations with Israel, announced its “rejection of the Israeli measures and plans to annex Palestinian lands.” The Arab League has condemned it as a “war crime,” and both Jordan and Egypt — the only two Arab countries at peace with Israel — have harshly criticized it.

Netanyahu spoke a day after beginning his trial on corruption charges. The prime minister launched a blistering tirade against the country's legal system when he arrived at court, accusing police, prosecutors and media of conspiring to oust him. As he spoke, hundreds of supporters cheered outside.

Speaking to Likud on Monday, Netanyahu said he was “very moved” by the support. Critics have said his attacks on the justice system risk undermining the country's democratic foundations.

Trump peace plan delights Israelis, enrages Palestinians

January 29, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited Mideast peace plan Tuesday alongside a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu, presenting a vision that matched the Israeli leader’s hard-line, nationalist views while falling far short of Palestinian ambitions.

Trump’s plan envisions a disjointed Palestinian state that turns over key parts of the West Bank to Israel. It sides with Israel on key contentious issues that have bedeviled past peace efforts, including borders and the status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements, and attaches nearly impossible conditions for granting the Palestinians their hoped-for state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the plan as “nonsense” and vowed to resist it. Netanyahu called it a “historic breakthrough” equal in significance to the country's declaration of independence in 1948.

“It's a great plan for Israel. It's a great plan for peace,” he said. He vowed to immediately press forward with his plans to annex the strategic Jordan Valley and all the Israeli settlements in occupied lands. Netanyahu said he'd ask his Cabinet to approve the annexation plans in their next meeting on Sunday, an explosive move that could trigger harsh international reaction and renewed violence with the Palestinians.

“This dictates once and for all the eastern border of Israel,” Netanyahu told Israeli reporters later. “Israel is getting an immediate American recognition of Israeli sovereignty on all the settlements, without exceptions.”

Given the Palestinian opposition, the plan seems unlikely to lead to any significant breakthrough. But it could give a powerful boost to both Trump and Netanyahu who are both facing legal problems ahead of tough elections.

Trump called his plan a “win-win” for both Israel and the Palestinians, and urged the Palestinians not to miss their opportunity for independence. But Abbas, who accuses the U.S. of unfair bias toward Israel, rejected it out of hand.

“We say 1,000 no's to the Deal of the Century," Abbas said, using a nickname for Trump's proposal. “We will not kneel and we will not surrender,” he said, adding that the Palestinians would resist the plan through “peaceful, popular means.”

The plan comes amid Trump's impeachment trial and on a U.S. election year, and after Netanyahu was indicted on counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in three separate cases. The longtime Israeli leader, who denies any wrongdoing, also faces a March 2 parliamentary election, Israel’s third in less than a year. He hopes to use the plan, and his close ties with Trump, to divert attention from his legal troubles.

The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for an independent state and the removal of many of the more than 700,000 Israeli settlers from these areas.

But as details emerged, it became clear that the plan sides heavily with Netanyahu's hard-line nationalist vision for the region and shunts aside many of the Palestinians' core demands. Under the terms of the “peace vision" that Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on for nearly three years, all settlers would remain in place, and Israel would retain sovereignty over all of its settlements as well as the strategic Jordan Valley.

“The Israeli military will continue to control the entire territory,” Netanyahu said. “No one will be uprooted from their home.” The proposed Palestinian state would also include more than a dozen Israeli “enclaves” with the entity's borders monitored by Israel. It would be demilitarized and give Israel overall security control. In addition, the areas of east Jerusalem offered to the Palestinians consist of poor, crowded neighborhoods located behind a hulking concrete separation barrier.

Trump acknowledged that he has done a lot for Israel, but he said he wanted the deal to be a “great deal for the Palestinians." The plan would give the Palestinians limited control over an estimated 70% of the West Bank, nearly double the amount where they currently have limited self-rule. Trump said it would give them time needed to meet the challenges of statehood.

The only concession the plan appears to demand of Israel is a four-year freeze on the establishment of new Israeli settlements in certain areas of the West Bank. But Netanyahu clarified later that this only applied to areas where there are no settlements and Israel has no immediate plans to annex, and that he considered the plan to impose no limitations on construction.

Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza City ahead of the announcement, burning pictures of Trump and Netanyahu and raising a banner reading “Palestine is not for sale.” Trump said he sent a letter to Abbas to tell him that the territory that the plan has set aside for a new Palestinian state will remain open and undeveloped for four years.

"It's going to work," Trump said, as he presented the plan at a White House ceremony filled with Israeli officials and allies, including evangelical Christian leaders and wealthy Republican donors. Representatives from the Arab countries of Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates were present, but there were no Palestinian representatives.

“President Abbas, I want you to know, that if you chose the path to peace, America and many other countries ... we will be there to help you in so many different ways," he said. "And we will be there every step of the way."

The 50-page plan builds on a 30-page economic plan for the West Bank and Gaza that was unveiled last June and which the Palestinians have also rejected. It envisions a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza, connected by a combination of roads and tunnels. It also would give small areas of southern Israel to the Palestinians as compensation for lost West Bank land.

But the many caveats, and ultimate overall Israeli control, made the deal a nonstarter for the Palestinians. Netanyahu and his main political challenger in March elections, Benny Gantz, had signed off on the plan.

“Mr. President, because of this historic recognition and because I believe your peace plan strikes the right balance where other plans have failed,” Netanyahu said. “I've agreed to negotiate peace with the Palestinians on the basis of your peace plan.

The Jordan Valley annexation is a big part of Netanyahu's strategy and a key promise meant to appeal to his hard-line nationalist base, which mostly applauded the Trump plan. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the plan's release, said they expected negative responses from the Palestinians, but were hopeful that Jordan and Egypt, the only two Arab nations to have peace treaties with Israel, would not reject it outright.

Jordan gave the plan a cool reaction, saying it remained committed to a two-state solution based on Israel's pre-1967 lines. It also said it rejected any unilateral move by Israel, referring to the annexation plan.

The reaction of Jordan, which would retain its responsibilities over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque under the plan, is particularly significant. Located next to the West Bank, Jordan also is home to a large Palestinian population.

Egypt, the first Arab country to reach a peace deal with Israel, urged Israelis and Palestinians to carefully study the plan. The European Union also said it needed to study it more closely. Saudi Arabia, another key Arab country, said it appreciated the Trump administration's efforts and encouraged the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians “under the auspices of the United States.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations supports two states living in peace and security within recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, according to his spokesman.

The Palestinians see the West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state and east Jerusalem as their capital. Most of the international community supports their position, but Trump has reversed decades of U.S. foreign policy by siding more blatantly with Israel. The centerpiece of his strategy was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American Embassy there. He's also closed Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington and cut funding to Palestinian aid programs.

Those policies have proven popular among Trump’s evangelical and pro-Israel supporters. But the Palestinians refuse to even speak to Trump and they called on support from Arab leaders.

Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed.

World leaders rally in Jerusalem against anti-Semitism

January 23, 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of world leaders descended upon Jerusalem on Thursday for the largest-ever gathering focused on commemorating the Holocaust and combating modern-day anti-Semitism. Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Prince Charles, Vice President Mike Pence and the presidents of Germany, Italy and Austria were among the more than 40 dignitaries attending the World Holocaust Forum, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Pence and Putin arrived Thursday morning within less than an hour of each other and both were scheduled to meet Israeli leaders before and after the main event. The three-hour-long event at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial — called “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism” — looks to project a united front in commemorating the genocide of European Jewry amid a global spike in anti-Jewish violence in the continent and around the world.

But the unresolved remnants of World War II’s politics have permeated the solemn assembly over the differing historical narratives of various players. Poland’s president, who’s been criticized for his own wartime revisionism, has boycotted the gathering since he wasn’t invited to speak while Putin was granted a central role even as he leads a campaign to play down the Soviet Union’s pre-war pact with the Nazis and shift responsibility for the war’s outbreak on Poland, which was invaded in 1939 to start the fighting.

On the eve of the gathering, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin implored world leaders assembled for a dinner at his official residence to “leave history for the historians." "The role of political leaders, of all of us, is to shape the future," he said.

The event marks one of the largest political gatherings in Israeli history, as a cascade of delegations including European presidents, prime ministers and royals, as well as American, Canadian and Australian representatives, arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport. More than 10,000 police officers were deployed in Jerusalem and major highways and large parts of the city were shut down ahead of the event.

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it offered another opportunity to solidify Israel’s diplomatic standing and boost his profile as he seeks re-election on March 2. He was hoping to use his meetings with world leaders to bolster his tough line toward Iran and rally opposition to a looming war crimes case against Israel in the International Criminal Court.

“Iran openly declares every day that it wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth,” he told Christian broadcaster TBN. “I think the lesson of Auschwitz is, one, stop bad things when they're small ... and, second, understand that the Jews will never ever again be defenseless in the face of those who want to destroy them.”

For historians, though, the main message is one of education amid growing signs of ignorance and indifference to the Holocaust. A comprehensive survey released this week by the Claims Conference, a Jewish organization responsible for negotiating compensation for victims of Nazi persecution, found that most people in France did not know that 6 million Jews were killed during World War II. Among millennials, 45% said they were unaware of French collaboration with the Nazi regime and 25% said they weren’t even sure they had heard of the Holocaust.

The World Holocaust Forum is the brainchild of Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe. The group recently reported that 80% of European Jews feel unsafe in the continent.

Kantor established the World Holocaust Forum Foundation in 2005 and it has held forums before in Auschwitz, the Ukrainian killing fields of Babi Yar and at the former concentration camp Terezin. Thursday’s event is the first time it is convening in Israel. The official commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation will be held next week at the site itself in southern Poland.

Organizers of the Jerusalem event have come under criticism for not sufficiently including Holocaust survivors and instead focusing on the panoply of visiting dignitaries. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted on Thursday that his delegation was giving up its seats to allow more survivors to attend.

Simmy Allen, a spokesman for Yad Vashem, said “some 100” survivors were expected among the 780 attendees. “Of course we would like as may Holocaust survivors as possible to attend, but we're also dealing with 48 delegations from all around the world,” he said.

The gathering comes amid an uptick in anti-Semitic violence. Tel Aviv University researchers reported last year that violent attacks against Jews grew significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades. They recorded 400 cases, with the spike most dramatic in western Europe. In Germany, for instance, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence. In addition to the shooting attacks, assaults and vandalism, the research also noted increased anti-Semitic vitriol online and in newspapers, as extremist political parties grew in power in several countries.

In advance of the forum, an anthology of statements from world leaders sending delegations to Jerusalem was published to project a newfound commitment to quelling a climate some said was reminiscent of that before World War II.

“I express my fervent hope that by continued vigilance and positive education, the iniquities perpetrated during one of the darkest periods in our history will be eliminated from the face of the earth,” Pope Francis wrote.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau specifically mentioned “the scourge of antisemitism and hatred that is becoming all too common once again.” “The murder of six million Jews by the brutal and antisemitic Nazi regime started with a slow erosion of rights, and the normalization of discrimination,” he wrote. “We cannot permit the passage of time to diminish our resolve never to allow such horrors to happen again."

Israeli PM evacuated from rally after rocket fired from Gaza

December 26, 2019

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into its southern territory Wednesday, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be hustled from a stage during an election rally in the city of Ashkelon.

The Israeli military said its air defense system, known as Iron Dome, intercepted the rocket. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz posted a video on its website showing Netanyahu being taken to a shelter as he was campaigning hours before the primaries of his Likud party. The video showed Netanyahu and his wife slowly walking off the stage with security guards after sirens went off.

Early Thursday, Israeli fighter jets and helicopters carried out multiple strikes at three military bases for Hamas, the Islamic movement that rules Gaza, according to witnesses in Gaza. No casualties were reported as the sites have been empty.

There was no immediate comment from Israel's military. Netanyahu says he knows how to protect Israel, but opponents accuse him of being soft on handling threats from Gaza. Gideon Saar, Netanyahu’s challenger in Thursday elections, called in a Twitter statement for a “broad national consensus for dismantling the military infrastructure" of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

A similar incident happened in September when Netanyahu was in the nearby city of Ashdod. He was campaigning then for the second general Israeli election of the year. That was believed to have triggered Israel's targeted killing of a senior commander in the Islamic Jihad in November. Israel and Gaza militants had their worst round of fighting in months as a result.

No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack. Such sporadic launches of rockets and ensuing Israeli airstrikes have happened frequently despite an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that ended two days of fighting in November.

Hamas seeks “understandings” with Israel to alleviate Gaza’s economic and humanitarian crises. The militant group stayed on the sidelines during the November flare-up.

Israel opens natural spring to visitors – except Palestinians

October 16, 2019

Israeli authorities have opened a natural spring in southern Jerusalem to visitors, “but on the explicit condition that Palestinians not be allowed to enter the site”, reported Haaretz.

The decision by police yesterday meant that the Ein Hanya spring “was kept under heavy guard by the police and Border Police, which even closed the road leading to Palestinian towns”.

Meanwhile, “hundreds of Israelis visited the site”, said Haaretz.

As described by the paper, Ein Hanya “is one of the largest and most important natural springs in the Jerusalem area”.

While it is located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, Palestinian residents of neighboring village Al-Walaja “regularly visit it”.

Much of Al-Walaja’s land has been confiscated by Israeli authorities over the decades, with village land straddling the 1967 ‘Green Line’

The official opening of the spring as a tourism site was subject to repeated delays, thanks to “a dispute over whether entry fees should be charged”, as well as the “police’s demand that Palestinians not be allowed to enter”.

Police have also insisted that a checkpoint be relocated further south, “so that it would separate Palestinian towns from the spring”, at an estimated cost of 12 million shekels ($3.4 million).

The spring has now opened for just three days, before closing again “until the checkpoint is moved”.

According to Haaretz, “over the past few days, police have stepped up enforcement against Palestinian farmers seeking to work land near the spring”, and have “even forced a farmer to leave”.

Shaul Goldstein, the nature authority’s director, “said his agency has no objection to Palestinians visiting the spring, nor does it have any interest in moving the checkpoint.”

However, he noted that “since Ein Hanya is located in Jerusalem, from the defense establishment’s perspective, any Palestinian who goes there is in the capital illegally.”

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191016-israel-opens-natural-spring-to-visitors-except-palestinians/.

Facebook takes down page of Palestine news site

October 11, 2019

Facebook on Wednesday deleted the page of the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) in a move, the news site says, which is part of its war on Palestinian content on social media networks.

The site’s management said Facebook provided them with no prior warning before deleting the page, which had nearly five million followers, without any justification.

They called on Facebook to reinstate the page and stop its battle against Palestinian content, saying they have contested the ban.

The Palestinian Information Center has previously been forced to suspend posting on Facebook after the social media giant banned the accounts of some of its directors. Member of management have also seen their accounts deleted and removed.

The blocking of the PIC’s page comes as part of an extensive campaign in recent weeks that included many Palestinian social media platforms.

The Palestinian Information Center was founded in December 1997 in Arabic, as the first Palestinian news site, dedicated to advocating the Palestinian cause and the Arab conflict with the Zionist occupier. It is biased in favor of the rights of the Palestinian people and their sanctities and the legitimate right to resist the occupier by all legitimate and internationally guaranteed means. It is the only Palestinian site that broadcasts its material in eight languages.

Earlier this week, journalists and activists in Palestine launched a social media campaign against Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian content.

Using the hashtag FBblocksPalestine, the drive hopes to bring to light “the threat posed by Facebook against Palestinian content, and to make it public, as well as reveal the double-standard policy of Facebook management in dealing with Israeli and Palestinian incitement on its site,” says Eyad Rifai, head of Sada Social Centre which is running the drive.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191011-facebook-takes-down-page-of-palestine-news-site/.