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Raising the Palestinian cause at the DNC

July 28, 2016

Raising the Palestinian cause at the DNC, Vice News, Dalia Hatuqa, July 28, 2016

pal rightsA delegate holds a sign reading ‘I support Palestinian Human Rights’ at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia [Tannen Maury/EPA]

An issue that was once sidelined even in progressive circles, Palestine was pushed to the forefront of the electoral campaign this year, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders showing that policy change on a seemingly intractable conflict is possible.

For the first time, the platform reflected the right of Palestinians to “independence, sovereignty, and dignity” in addition to Israel’s security. In a recent poll (PDF) of American attitudes on the conflict, 49 percent of Democrats said they recommended economic sanctions or other more serious action to counter settlement construction.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Eva Putzova held a banner with a simple message just outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC) floor on Tuesday: “I support Palestinian rights.”

“I think it’s time that Democratic candidates – Hillary, Bernie or anybody else – start taking the issue seriously and start a real national conversation and get behind all human rights, including Palestinian rights,” said Putzova, a city council member from Flagstaff, Arizona.

She was among many pro-Palestine activists at the DNC this week who came out in a show of force unprecedented at other political conventions. They marched and rallied, held talks and town halls, carried signs and, at one point, raised a Palestinian flag on the convention floor.

“The issue is getting more media exposure, more people are aware,” Putzova said. “I think we are on the brink of changing the policy stands of the US, but it will take all of us to push the political elite. I think [Palestinians are] a community that has been marginalised for so long.”

An issue that was once sidelined even in progressive circles, Palestine was pushed to the forefront of the electoral campaign this year, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders showing that policy change on a seemingly intractable conflict is possible.

In a debate last April, he pushed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to call the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza “disproportionate”. He said the US and Israel need “to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity” and that the US “has to play an even-handed role”. Sanders, however, was also criticised for not denouncing Israel more forcefully, and for the ousting of his campaign’s Jewish outreach director, who slammed Israel’s prime minister in a Facebook post.

A month later, Sanders assigned James Zogby, an advocate for Palestinian rights, and four others, including one of two Muslim congressmen, to the platform-writing committee, signalling his attempt to revise the party’s long-standing policy that favoured Israel.

“It took the work of a mass movement and a courageous person like Bernie Sanders, because if Bernie hadn’t elevated it, it wouldn’t have happened,” said Zogby, also President of the Arab American Institute, in a talk attended by pro-Palestine supporters in Philadelphia. “He gave us a qualitative boost forward.”

What’s on the platform?

On the DNC sidelines, pro-Palestine supporters discussed how the conflict with the Israelis was playing out on the domestic policy platform.

But in stark contrast to public support and activism, the party’s platform, which now supports a $15 minimum wage and Wall Street reform, did not include references to the Israeli occupation and its settlements.

Zogby said Clinton supporters cut out these references, fearing retribution from billionaire mogul and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson.  On an official level, Clinton’s backers said the call for negotiations for a two-state solution in the party’s platform was sufficient.

Going into the platform-writing committee, Zogby said he and other Sanders delegates were expecting to discuss removing a reference to Jerusalem being the “undivided capital” of Israel, and opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“We wanted to strike the BDS line, we wanted to strike out a line on Jerusalem,” said Zogby, who is also on the DNC’s executive committee. “I thought that would be the fight. I had no idea the fight would end up being over occupation and settlements.”

They lost on all counts, and pro-Clinton supporters said they couldn’t change the language. “Here’s what they told me: ‘We can’t do it because Adelson will come out against us,'” Zogby said. “He will come after you no matter what you do. The people who like [Adelson] won’t vote for you.”

The platform committee discussions leading up to the DNC also spurred controversy, as civil rights activist and scholar Cornel West made an impassioned appeal to change the language to include “an end to occupation and illegal settlements”.

He called Palestine a “Vietnam War” issue for young Americans, and likened the party’s indifference to the conflict to the same apathy to “these Negroes” in the Jim Crow era.

Despite the fact that the resolution was voted down, some believe that the discourse on Palestine has shifted.

For the first time, the platform reflected the right of Palestinians to “independence, sovereignty, and dignity” in addition to Israel’s security. In a recent poll (PDF) of American attitudes on the conflict, 49 percent of Democrats said they recommended economic sanctions or other more serious action to counter settlement construction.

A changing conversation

“The conversation has improved a lot … it is broader and more inclusive,” said Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, another Sanders pick on the DNC platform committee. “Over the past few years, members of Congress have gone to the Holy Land, not only to Israel, but also to Palestine. The perspective is changing, and it’s a good time to continue the work that you’re doing.”

Palestine supporters are banking on the presence of many activists and progressives in the city, in part because of Sanders’ candidacy, to expand and change the debate on the conflict.

They are also aware that the share of younger Americans sympathising with the Palestinian cause has risen significantly in recent years – from 9 percent in 2006 to 20 percent in July 2014, and finally to 27 percent today.

“We have seen some fairly remarkable changes in the landscape of how the issue of Palestine and Israel is being addressed – both in the news media and particularly within progressive circles,” said Mike Merryman Lotze, the American Friends Service Committee’s (also known as the Quakers) Palestine-Israel programme director.

“If we look back where the conversation was 15 years ago today, even really five years ago, we have to recognise that we are now in a fundamentally different place,” he said.

“That marks a shift … and that conversation has been pushed by the grassroots progressive movement.”

READ MORE: US Democratic Party – Closer to justice on Palestine?

Categories: 2016 elections, Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders' supporters, Democrat National Convention, Democrat Party, Democrat party platform, Hillary Clinton, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinians
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The Palestinians: Refugee Camps or Terrorist Bases?

July 21, 2016

The Palestinians: Refugee Camps or Terrorist Bases? Gatestone Institute, Khaled Abu Toameh, July 21, 2016

♦ The 450,000 Palestinians in Lebanon are still banned from several professions, especially in the fields of medicine and law. They refer to these restrictions as apartheid measures. The Lebanese apartheid measures against Palestinians are rarely mentioned in the Western media and international human rights groups. The UN does not seem overly concerned about this discrimination.

♦ Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become in the past few decades bases for various innumerable militias and terrorist groups.

♦ The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, is formally in charge of the refugee camps in Lebanon, including those that are now providing shelter to Islamist terrorists.

♦ The Lebanese authorities are increasingly running out of patience with the growing Islamist threat.

ISIS is on the mind of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership. Top PA officials have expressed concern that jihadi groups, including ISIS, have managed to infiltrate Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities are also worried — so worried that they have issued a stiff warning to the Palestinians: Stop the terrorists or else we will take security into our own hands.

According to Lebanese security sources, more and more Palestinians in Lebanon have joined ISIS and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, a Sunni Islamist militia fighting against Syrian government forces. In response, the Lebanese security forces have taken a series of measures in a bid to contain the problem and prevent the two Islamist terror groups from establishing bases of power in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

According to some reports, dozens of Palestinians from Lebanon who joined ISIS and Al-Nusra Front have been killed or wounded in Syria in recent months. Most of those who were killed have been buried in Syria, the reports said.

Alarmed by the success of ISIS and Al-Nusra Front in recruiting dozens of Palestinians to their ranks, the Palestinian Authority leadership this week sent Azzam Al-Ahmed, a senior advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, to Beirut for urgent talks with Lebanese government officials on ways of containing the escalation. The PA leadership fears that the heightened activities of the two terrorist groups in the refugee camps will force the Lebanese army to launch a massive military operation to get rid of the terrorists, who pose an immediate threat to Lebanese national security.

Al-Ahmed, who is in charge of the Lebanon Portfolio in the Palestinian Authority, held a series of meetings with Lebanese government officials in a bid to avoid a security showdown between the Lebanese army and the Palestinians living in the country’s refugee camps. Following a meeting with Lebanese Interior Minister Nihad Al-Mashnouk, the Palestinian envoy said that the talks focused on the need to take “joint steps to ensure security stability in the Palestinian refugee camps.” According to Al-Ahmed, the talks also dealt with ways to prevent certain parties, especially ISIS and Al-Nusra Front, from exploiting the Palestinian refugee camps to threaten Lebanon’s security interests.

Lebanese security officials have reported direct contacts between ISIS leaders in Syria and some senior Islamist figures in the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp, the largest camp in Lebanon, with a population of more of than 120,000 — half of them refugees who fled Syria since 2011. The officials said that one of the commanders of ISIS in Syria, Abu Khaled Al-Iraqi, has stepped up his contacts with Palestinians in Ain Al-Hilweh in recent weeks, in preparation for launching terrorist attacks against Lebanese targets. The Lebanese have named a number of Palestinians from Ain Al-Hilweh evidently serving as ISIS representatives in Lebanon: Emad Yasmin, Helal Helal, Abed Fadda, Nayef Abdullah and Abu Hamzeh Mubarak.

Last week, Palestinian sources revealed that one of the jihadi leaders in Ain Al-Hilweh, Omar Abu Kharoub, nicknamed Abu Muhtaseb Al-Maqdisi, was killed while fighting alongside ISIS in Syria. The sources said that he is only one of hundreds of Palestinians from Lebanon who have joined ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front.

The Lebanese government has informed the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah that at least 300 jihadi terrorists are now barricaded inside Ain Al-Hilweh. “The situation has become intolerable and we can no longer turn a blind eye to this threat,” the Lebanese warned the PA.

The Islamist terrorists who have found shelter inside Ain Al-Hilweh have repeatedly warned the Lebanese authorities against launching a military attack against the refugee camp.

In a recent sermon for Friday prayers, Sheikh Abu Yusef Aqel condemned Lebanon’s mistreatment of its Palestinian population. He pointed out that under Lebanese law, Palestinians are banned from working in 72 professions. Referring to reports in the Lebanese media about the threats emerging from the Palestinian camps, Sheikh Aqel said:

“If these (Lebanese) media outlets were really affiliated with the resistance, as they claim, they would have focused on the suffering of a people that was displaced from its homeland more than 70 years ago. They would also have focused on the fact that Lebanon bans this people from working in 72 professions.”

Aqel is referring to the circumstance that until a decade ago, a total of seventy-two professions were restricted to Lebanese only. The Lebanese government issued a memorandum on June 7, 2005 permitting Palestinians refugees to work in fifty of these seventy-two professions. However, Palestinians in Lebanon are still banned from several types of jobs, especially in the fields of medicine and law. The 450,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon refer to these restrictions as apartheid measures.

The Lebanese apartheid measures against Palestinians are rarely mentioned in the Western media and international human rights groups. The United Nations does not seem overly concerned about this discrimination, apparently because it is practiced by an Arab country against Arabs.

Lebanon has never been comfortable with the presence of the Palestinians on its soil. That is precisely why the authorities have turned the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon into ghettos. These ghettos are off-limits to the Lebanese security forces. As a result, these camps have become in the past few decades bases for various innumerable militias and terrorist groups. Until a few years ago, the major Palestinian Fatah faction was the dominant group controlling the refugee camps in Lebanon. No longer. Today, it has become evident that many other groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, ISIS and Al-Qaeda have established bases of power inside the camps.

It is worth mentioning that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is formally in charge of the refugee camps in Lebanon, including those that are now providing shelter to Islamist terrorists.

1705The Wavel refugee camp for Palestinians, near Baalbek in Lebanon, which is administered by UNRWA. (Image credit: European Commission DG ECHO)

Back to PA anxiety. Undoubtedly, the Palestinian Authority leadership is concerned that many of its erstwhile loyalists in Fatah have defected to the various jihadi terror groups. These groups are now posing a major threat not only to Lebanon’s security and stability, but also to the PA and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, who feel helpless in the face of the Islamist tsunami sweeping the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Abbas and his PA have clearly lost control over the millions of Palestinians living in the neighboring Arab countries, including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. This is in addition to the fact that Abbas and the PA have nearly no control over Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where various jihadi groups and other secular militias and gangs are now in control.

The hands of the Palestinian Authority leadership are now tied: the PA cannot regain control over the refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Arab countries. There is also nothing that Abbas can do to stop the residents of these camps from joining ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

All what is left for Abbas to do is to try and prevent a catastrophe from falling on the heads of the Palestinians in these camps, especially Lebanon, where the Lebanese authorities are increasingly running out of patience with the growing Islamist threat.

“The Lebanese army will not allow terrorism to find a safe place in Ain Al-Hilweh or any other part of Lebanon,” cautioned a Lebanese security source. “We will not allow Ain Al-Hilweh to become a hotbed for terrorism and be used as a launching pad to explode the situation in Lebanon. We will face any such attempt with force and firmness.”

The Palestinians’ biggest fear now is that Ain Al-Hilweh will meet the same fate as the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon, which was almost entirely destroyed by the Lebanese army in 2007. Then, the presence of Islamist terrorists belonging to the Fatah Al-Islam group inside Nahr Al-Bared triggered heavy clashes during which the Lebanese army used artillery and helicopter gunships to attack the camp, home to some 40,000 Palestinians. At least 158 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the fighting, which also left many families homeless.

Busy with more pressing issues, Abbas was unable to make the trip to Lebanon himself. What is the urgent business that prevented him from showing up in person to try to prevent catastrophe for his people in Lebanon? His grand tour, an end-game bid to win support for an international Middle East peace conference that would choke Israel into submission.

Abbas is next slated for Paris, where on July 22 he is scheduled to meet with President François Hollande to discuss the latest French initiative to “solve” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hollande might do better to turn inward to consider how his own country will manage the latest wave of Islamist terrorism. Abbas, for his part, is unlikely to broach with Hollande the incendiary situation in the Palestinian refugee camps, where ISIS and Al-Qaeda are gaining the upper hand.

Categories: Islamic terror groups, Islamic training camps, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian terrorists, UNRWA
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Top Trump advisor to ‘Post’: Settlement annexation legitimate if Palestinian Authority continues to avoid real peace – US Elections – Jerusalem Post

July 20, 2016

Top Trump advisor to ‘Post’: Settlement annexation legitimate if PA continues to avoid real peace

By DANIELLE ZIRI \

07/19/2016 21:10

Source: Top Trump advisor to ‘Post’: Settlement annexation legitimate if Palestinian Authority continues to avoid real peace – US Elections – Jerusalem Post

Trump sees in Netanyahu “all the things that were lacking in Obama,” David Friedman says.

CLEVELAND – Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank could be viewed by a Trump administration as a legitimate way for Israel to move forward if the Palestinians continue to avoid a real and genuine peace deal, David Friedman, a senior advisor to Donald Trump, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Speaking as the Republican Party convention entered its second day in Cleveland, Friedman, who advises Trump on matters related to Israel, said that in his view, settlements in the West Bank were not illegal and were not the real impediment to peace with the Palestinians.

“The impediment to peace is very clear in both of our minds and that is the failure of the Palestinians to renounce hatred and renounce violence,” Friedman said. “Everything else is barely important.”

Friedman, a Manhattan-based attorney for Donald Trump and president of the American Friends of Bet El Institutions who serves as an Israel advisor to Trump alongside Jason Greenblatt, told the Post that in his view annexation of the settlements would be a legitimate way for Israel to move forward.

“If there is no agreement with the Palestinians, Israel has to move forward and maybe there is another path and a better path that is not a two-state solution and obviously under those circumstances that [annexation D.Z.] is certainly an option,” he said “I don’t know when or if that would be implemented but it’s certainly not a third rail in terms of options. It is certainly a legitimate possibility.”

Friedman went on to say that a one-state solution was also a viable option for ending the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

What I’m saying is a two-state solution is not the only solution. It’s failed in the past and I think it’s reasonable to consider any other alternatives people of good faith may propose,” he said. “A two-state solution might be a solution. It could work, but it’s not the only solution.”

The one-state idea was a viable solution, he said, since Israel was recognized as a protector of minority rights.

“So I think they have a wonderful track record to import into Judea and Samaria,” he said. “Second of all, the demographics with regard to the entire region are trending in a way that – according to the most credible demographic report – a one state solution would not deprive Israel of its Jewish character.”

According to Friedman, the best solution for the conflict is for the Palestinians to stop killing Israelis.

“The question is: Are people going to kill each other? And let me be clear – the Palestinians have to stop killing the Jews, because that’s where all this violence is initiating,” he said. “Do people have to keep trying? If you have a stomach ache, and you went to 10 different doctors and they all gave you the same medicine and after that you still have a sick stomach, you probably will start thinking about a different medicine or doctor, no?”

Under Trump, Friedman said, the Israeli-American alliance would look 180 degrees different than it has been for the past eight years under President Barack Obama.

“The first and most basic is the presumption on the part of president Trump that Israel actually knows what it is doing, and that Israel wants peace and the people of Israel desperately want peace,” he said. “I think we presume that they want peace and will know the best way to achieve peace and therefore there is no need to pressure them or impose any conditions on them or against their wishes, begin any summits, initiatives, conference that they are not ready for.  That is the first major philosophical difference – Israel knows what is best for Israel.”

He said he was also confident that Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would develop a strong relationship.

“The relationship will be far different and better at the core because there’s going to be a high level of mutual respect,” he said.

“On our side of things – Trump has great respect for Bibi. He sees in Bibi all the things that were lacking in Obama…I think Bibi and Trump have a similar view of the world: The United States and – to a similar extent Israel – have to deal with their enemies from a position of strength. Obama deals from a position of weakness and apology, from a position of conceding whenever necessary. I think Trump recoils from that approach and I think Bibi is the same way. I think they would get along great. They have a very similar world view,” he added.

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Netanyahu Message to Palestinians Laying Out Steps Toward Peace

July 19, 2016

Netanyahu Tapes Message to Palestinian Authority Laying Out Steps Toward Peace

BY:
July 18, 2016 8:38 pm

Source: Netanyahu Message to Palestinians Laying Out Steps Toward Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video message Friday laying out steps toward peace to Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority.

“Every Israeli and Palestinian child deserves a life of hope, of tranquility and opportunity. I will continue to work tirelessly for peace. It’s time that you join this effort,” Netanyahu said.

The Palestinian Authority pays roughly 10 percent of its budget annually to terrorists who attack Israelis and financially rewards the killers of Jews. Netanyahu called for Abbas to allocate funding toward co-existence education, rather than violence.

In addition, he laid out examples of Palestinian authorities such as advisor Sultan Abu al Einein advocating and praising the slaughter of Israelis. As Netanyahu noted, one Palestinian terrorist “turned these words into action” and stabbed to death 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept.

“Advocating genocide is not consistent with peace,” Netanyahu said.

The full statement was as follows:

“President Abbas, since over the past several years, you refused to meet with me and sit down and negotiate peace, I hope you’ll hear this message.

“First, your advisor, Sultan Abu al Einein recently called to slit the throat of every Israeli.

“Three days later, a Palestinian terrorist turned these words into action when he slit the throat of a 13-year-old beautiful girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, as she slept. She was a little, innocent girl. She didn’t deserve this. I ask that you fire this advisor because advocating genocide is not consistent with peace.

“Second, your party recently praised a terrorist on Facebook who murdered 24 civilians, innocent Israelis in cold blood. I ask that you to pick up the phone and instruct your party’s social media manager to stop praising mass murderers. Impressionable children read these posts. They should be taught harmony, not hate. Such words seriously harm the chances of peace.

“Third, next week the Palestinian Authority will dedicate a monument to Abu Sukar. Abu Sukar murdered 15 people by detonating a refrigerator filled with explosives on a busy Jerusalem street.

“Rather than dedicate a statue to a mass murderer, I ask that you consider honoring a champion of co-existence. This will help educate future generations to love peace over war, compassion over violence. It will also help convince Israelis that they have a true partner for peace.

“Fourth, the PLO currently pays a monthly salary to anyone who murders Jews. This money provides direct incentive to commit terror. I ask that you stop paying murderers and instead use this money to fund co-existence education. Teach tolerance, not terror.

“Every Israeli and Palestinian child deserves a life of hope, of tranquility and opportunity. I will continue to work tirelessly for peace. It’s time that you join this effort.”

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With Publication Of High School Finals Results, Palestinian Authority Press Notes Deaths Of Students Who Carried Out Stabbing Attacks, Stresses: ‘Dying As A Martyr Is The Path Of Excellence And Superiority’

July 13, 2016

With Publication Of High School Finals Results, Palestinian Authority Press Notes Deaths Of Students Who Carried Out Stabbing Attacks, Stresses: ‘Dying As A Martyr Is The Path Of Excellence And Superiority’, MEMRI, July 13, 2016

The July 11, 2016 release of high school seniors’ final exam results by the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education is being widely covered in the Palestinian media. As part of this coverage, on July 12, PA dailies published articles on high school seniors who had been killed during the school year carrying out, or attempting to carry out, stabbing attacks against Israelis, and who thus would never graduate. The articles praised the teenagers’ martyrdom, playing with the Arabic wordshahada, which means both “diploma” and “martyrdom.” The lead article in the PA official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida listed 16 Palestinian students whom, it stated, had not been able to take their final exams, but had “passed the difficult [test] of dying as martyrs for the sake of the homeland” with flying colors. It added, “Dying as a martyr is the path of excellence and superiority.”

The list included 16-year-old Ahmad Abu Al-Rab, who participated in the February 3 shooting and stabbing attack at Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem in which a female Israeli Border Guard was killed, and Labib ‘Aazem and Muhammad Zaghlawan, both 17, who carried out the March 2 stabbing attack at Har Bracha, wounding two Israeli soldiers.

PA Dailies: ’16 [Students] Successfully Passed The Difficult Test Of Dying As Martyrs For The Sake Of The Homeland’

Articles in the PA dailies praised the dead students, calling them a source of pride for their families and for the entire Palestinian people. They quoted their relatives’ and friends’ expressions of praise for them and yearning for them, and referred to the teen attackers as martyred by “the bullets of the occupation” while omitting mention of the attacks they had carried out.

Thus, for instance, a front-page article in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, which also appeared on page 12, stated: “The places of 16 students was not missing from yesterday’s announcement of the general high school [exam] results. This is despite the fact that the occupation’s bullets ended their lives and prevented them from taking their final exams, as they became martyrs in Paradise. Sixteen [students] passed the difficult [test] of dying as martyrs for the homeland, since dying as a martyr is the path of excellence and supremacy.

“Sixteen boys and girls, seniors in high-school, died as martyrs, leaving behind friends, ambitions, and sorrow in the hearts of their families and loved ones, who had waited for this day to congratulate them. But the bullets of the criminal occupation were swifter, and denied them the opportunity to be a source of joy for their families…”[1]

29059The full article in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida

The PA daily Al-Ayyam also quoted friends and relatives of some of the attackers, and, like Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, provided a selective narrative omitting mention of the attacks that they carried out or the victims of those attacks. The article opened by stating: “‘Ali Zaghlawan, the brother of the martyr Muhammad Zaghlawan [who carried out the March 2, 2016 Har Bracha attack], from the village of Qariout near Nablus, who was martyred by the bullets of the occupation near the settlement of Eli on the Nablus-Ramallah road, has been waiting since morning for the publication of the high school final [exam] results, in order to congratulate his brother’s friends [on their scores]. Muhammad’s name should have been among them [i.e. those who received results], especially as he was known for his [scholastic] excellence and diligence…”

The article also quoted the friend of dead student Ahmad Abu Al-Rab, who had participated in the Damascus Gate attack, describing him as having been “martyred by the bullets of the occupation soldiers on the steps of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.”[2]

Palestinian Honor Students Dedicate Their Success To Palestinian Martyrs

One notable article on the finals results, published by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, focused on honor students who said that they dedicated  their success to the martyrs of the Palestinian people. Muhammad Abu Nahla, an honors student majoring in industry, dedicated his success to the martyr ‘Adnan Al-Mashni, killed while attempting to carry out a stabbing attack. Abu Nahla said: “I dedicate my success to the Palestinian leadership and its head President Mahmoud ‘Abbas; to the educational and pedagogical family; to my family and our people; and especially to my friend, the 17-year-old martyr ‘Adnan ‘Aaid Hamed Al-Mashni Al-Halaiqa,  from the town of Al-Shayoukh, who was martyred at Beit ‘Einun Junction east of Hebron on January 12, 2016… How I wish that he could have celebrated his success today – but the bullets of the occupation stole him, denying us and his parents of this joy. But we are all proud of the martyr’s death he attained.”[3]

PLO Executive Committee member Ahmed Al-Majdalani also mentioned the martyred students, saying: “In these moments, we feel the absence of 16 students, the martyrs who should have taken the high school finals but who were prevented from taking them by the violent and aggressive occupation forces, who denied joy to their families…”[4]

 

Endnotes:

[1] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), July 12, 2016.

[2] Al-Ayyam (PA), July 12, 2016.

[3] Wafa.ps, July 11, 2016.

[4] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), July 12, 2016.

Categories: Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinian incitement, Palestinian media
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ISIS Comes to Gaza

July 11, 2016

ISIS Comes to Gaza

by Khaled Abu Toameh

July 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

Source: ISIS Comes to Gaza

  • Recent reports leave no doubt as to cooperation between Hamas and ISIS groups in Sinai. These reports, the Egyptians and Palestinian Authority argue, provide further evidence that the Gaza Strip remains a major base for various jihadi terror groups that pose a real threat.
  • The report said that terrorists wanted by the Egyptian authorities were admitted to the Gaza Strip hospital in return for weapons given to Hamas by the Islamic State in the Sinai.
  • Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) can continue to talk all they want about a Palestinian state that would be established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. But when ISIS-inspired groups are active in Gaza and there are no signs that the Hamas regime is weakening, it is rather difficult to imagine a Palestinian state.
  • The jihadi groups clearly seek to create an Islamic emirate combining the Gaza Strip and Sinai. Abbas might thank Israel for its presence in the West Bank — a presence that allows him and his government to be something other than infidel cannon fodder for the jihadis.

Hamas denies it up and down. Nonetheless, there are growing signs that the Islamist movement, which is based in the Gaza Strip, is continuing to cooperate with other jihadi terror groups that are affiliated with Islamic State (ISIS), especially those that have been operating in the Egyptian peninsula of Sinai in recent years.

This cooperation, according to Palestinian Authority security sources, is the main reason behind the ongoing tensions between the Egyptian authorities and Hamas. These tensions have prompted the Egyptians to keep the Rafah border crossing mostly closed since 2013, trapping tens of thousands of Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip.

In 2015, the Egyptians opened the Rafah terminal for a total of twenty-one days to allow humanitarian cases and those holding foreign nationalities to leave or enter the Gaza Strip.

This year so far, Rafah has been open for a total of twenty-eight days. Sources in the Gaza Strip say there are about 30,000 humanitarian cases that need to leave immediately. They include dozens of university students who haven’t been able to go back to their universities abroad and some 4,000 patients in need of urgent medical treatment.

Surprisingly, last week the Egyptians opened the Rafah terminal for five days in a row, allowing more than 4,500 Palestinians to leave and enter the Gaza Strip. The unusual gesture came on the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr. However, the terminal was closed again at the beginning of the feast on July 6.

The renewed closure of the Rafah terminal coincided with reports that efforts to end the tensions between Hamas and Egypt hit a snag. According to the reports, the Egyptian authorities decided to cancel a planned visit to Cairo by senior Hamas officials. The decision to cancel the visit, the reports said, came in the wake of the dissatisfaction of the Egyptians with the way Hamas has been handling security along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The closure of the border crossing came as a blow to Hamas’s efforts to patch up its differences with Egypt and pave the way for easing severe travel restrictions imposed by Cairo on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, Hamas announced that it had deployed hundreds of its border guards along the shared border with Egypt in order to prevent infiltration both ways, especially of jihadi terrorists who have been targeting Egyptian security personnel and civilians in Sinai. However, the Egyptian authorities remain extremely skeptical about Hamas’s measures.

Egyptian security officials are convinced that Hamas is not serious about preventing jihadi terrorists from crossing the border in either direction. Moreover, the Egyptians suspect that Hamas maintains close relations with some of the ISIS-affiliated groups in Sinai, and is providing them with weapons and medical treatment.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has refused to conduct high-level contacts with Hamas since he came to power in 2013. His regime views Hamas as a threat to Egypt’s national security. The few meetings that did take place between the two sides were restricted to security issues; that was why Sisi entrusted his General Intelligence officials to conduct the discussions with the leaders of the Islamist movement who visited Cairo in the past months.

Apparently, the Egyptian skepticism towards Hamas is not unjustified.

In recent weeks, reports have surfaced that leave no doubt as to cooperation between Hamas and ISIS groups in Sinai. These reports, the Egyptians and Palestinian Authority argue, provide further evidence that the Gaza Strip remains a major base for various jihadi terror groups that pose a real threat not only to Egypt’s national security, but also to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, as well as neighboring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon.

Reports have also emerged that some of the jihadi terrorists in Sinai have been receiving medical treatment in hospitals in the Gaza Strip, with the approval of Hamas. The terrorists, who are wanted by the Egyptian authorities, are believed to have entered the Gaza Strip through smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt.

According to one report, one of the terrorist leaders from Sinai, Abu Sweilem, was documented lying in bed at the Abu Yusef al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The report said that Abu Sweilem was hospitalized under the heavy guard of members of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezaddin al-Qassam. It said that he, and other terrorists wanted by the Egyptian authorities, were admitted to the Gaza Strip hospital in return for weapons given to Hamas by the Islamic State in Sinai, which is known as Wilayat Sina’.

Another report by the same source claimed that Mohamed Abu Shawish, a senior member of Ezaddin al-Qassam in the Gaza Strip, has been helping train and organize the jihadi terrorists in Sinai. Hamas claimed that the man had fled the Gaza Strip to join ISIS and was wanted by its armed wing for defection. The report, however, noted that Abu Shawish was moving freely between the Gaza Strip and Sinai and was even using Hamas vehicles to commute between the two areas. It added that Abu Shawish has even set up a vast network of relations along the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and terrorists in both directions.

The report goes on to reveal that the top Hamas operative is in touch with Eyad al-Khaldi, the owner of a clothing factory in the Gaza Strip, who has been supplying him with military uniforms and other equipment for the terrorists in Sinai. The report cites this as evidence of the growing activities of the Sinai-based jihadi terrorists inside the Gaza Strip, which is taking place with the blessing of top Hamas officials.

Hamas has in the past indeed cracked down on ISIS-affiliated groups and individuals in the Gaza Strip. But this happens only when they seem to pose some kind of a threat or challenge to Hamas’s rule over the Gaza Strip.

This crackdown, however, has clearly not stopped Hamas members, especially those belonging to Ezaddin al-Qassam, from collaborating with other groups that are linked to ISIS and that are engaged in terror attacks against the Egyptians in Sinai. Isolated and desperate for cash in the Gaza Strip, Hamas seems prepared to cooperate with anyone in order to retain its control and survive.

Some Palestinians in the Gaza Strip argue that the double standard Hamas employs in dealing with the jihadi terrorists is the result of a split between its political and military wing. While the top political leaders of Hamas appear to be keen to distance themselves from the jihadi terrorists, the commanders of Ezaddin al-Qassam are acting independently and working with anyone who hands them weapons.

These Palestinians also point out that an increasing number of Ezaddin al-Qassam members have in recent years fled the Gaza Strip to join ISIS in Sinai, Syria and Iraq — a development that continues to worry the political leadership of Hamas. Those who have not been able to flee the Gaza Strip are joining other jihadi groups that are operating inside the Gaza Strip.

Reports indicate that an increasing number of Hamas gunmen have in recent years fled the Gaza Strip to join ISIS in Sinai, Syria and Iraq. Pictured above: An August 2014 image of terrorists from the Islamic State in Sinai (then known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), preparing to behead four Egyptians they accused of spying for Israel.

Last month, further evidence of this trend was provided by the death of Khaled al-Tarabin, a former Hamas operative killed while fighting alongside ISIS in Syria. He is the seventh Hamas-affiliated Palestinian to be killed while fighting alongside ISIS in Iraq and Syria in recent months, according to sources in the Gaza Strip.

Regardless of the level of cooperation between Hamas and jihadi terrorists in Sinai, the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will pay the price. Reports about this cooperation simply entrench in the minds of the Egyptians the need to close the borders, humanitarian needs be damned.

As for the Palestinian Authority, all it can do for now is watch the Gaza Strip — which it is hoping will become part of a future Palestinian state — descend into hell.

Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority can continue to talk all they want about a Palestinian state that would be established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. But when ISIS-inspired groups are active in the Gaza Strip and there are no signs that the Hamas regime is weakening, it is rather difficult to imagine a Palestinian state. Abbas has not been able to set foot in the Gaza Strip since 2007. Even his private residence in Gaza City is off-limits to him. But Hamas is just the beginning of the story for Abbas. The jihadi groups clearly seek to create an Islamic emirate combining the Gaza Strip and Sinai. The Palestinian Authority president might thank Israel for its presence in the West Bank — a presence that allows him and his government to be something other than infidel cannon fodder for the jihadis.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

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Bennett: We must make sure terrorism doesn’t pay

July 3, 2016

Bennett: We must make sure terrorism no longer pays Education Minister lauds new measures adopted by Security Cabinet to counter spread of ‘viral terror’, emphasizes need for targeted action.

By Shai Landesman

First Publish: 7/3/2016, 1:06 PM

Source: Bennett: We must make sure terrorism doesn’t pay – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva

Speaking to Arutz Sheva today (Sunday), Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the Security Cabinet, commented on the series of resolutions aimed at countering the murderous spike in terror attacks over the past few days, which were adopted at last night’s Cabinet meeting.

Bennett opened the interview by speaking about the late Michael Mark, who was murdered on Friday. The Minister said that Mark was, “a very central figure in southern Har Hevron, in Otniel, and in Judea and Samaria society as a whole. He was a man who radiated great light. This is a serious blow, and the town of Otniel has absorbed several of those in the past few years.

“We will continue to support the town not only in terms of security, but in other spheres such as education, where progress has already been made.”

Terrorist’s families must stop getting pensions from the PA

As to the Cabinet meeting, the Minister said there was a very serious and thorough discussion, and he was happy that many of the proposals that he raised were adopted. “Now the test is in the implementation,” Bennett added, “and we’ll follow proceedings and make sure the resolutions are indeed implemented.”

In describing the resolutions themselves, Bennett first addressed the decision to prevent the transfer of funds from the Palestinian Authority to the terrorist’s family. “The family of Hallel Ariel’s murderer is supposed to receive a very large stipend from the PA in perpetuity. This is obscene. That’s the way it worked until now. We’ve decided this will simply not happen anymore.”

When asked if prevention is practicable, seeing as the transfer of the funds is simply done directly from one bank account to another, the Minister said that it is certainly possible. “We can and must stop it. The country that pulled off the Entebbe operation can stop money from arriving at a bank account. It’s key to make sure that happens.”

‘Viral Terror’

“We’re dealing with a ‘viral terror’ which is very different from the terror of the 2nd intifada”, said Bennett, referring to the period of terror characterized by suicide bombing from 2000-2005. “This is not terror that’s organized from the top by commanders who recruit someone, equip him, and send him to commit an attack. Rather, in this case, there is a systematic web of incitement from the top, through social and other media, resulting in individuals with various issues deciding that rather than just simply commit suicide by themselves, they should go and murder Jews, without anyone really controlling and commanding them.”

In the face of this kind of terror, Bennett thinks, the response needs to focus on two plains: destroying the glory to which the terrorist aspires, and making sure his family is harmed rather than benefits. “We need to employ new tools to change the equation for any potential terrorist. As things stand, it pays to commit a terrorist attack as a terrorist attains everlasting glory and his family is financially set for life. Through social media we can damage the glory element, by making sure to show publicly that the terrorist doesn’t get a burial among other things, and we can make sure that the family doesn’t benefit and in fact even suffers.”

Bennett also suggested that family members who specifically express knowledge of or praise for an attack should be punished more severely.

‘We need to build much more’

The Minister claims that these are all practical measures that have already been legally examined and shouldn’t encounter resistance from the Supreme Court or other judicial bodies.

Later in the interview, Bennett was asked about the announcement that 42 new housing units are to be built in Kiryat Arba, and claims that this represents the mere recycling of old building tenders, rather than anything new tailored to deal with the new reality.

“There is indeed a recycling, which is why we’re pushing for much more broad construction,” he acknowledged.

“The thing that will most deter terrorists from acting would be the knowledge that for every murder they commit another neighborhood or town will be built.

“The power of Jewish Home in the government is limited, but we’re exerting all the pressure we can. We need to build far more than 42 new housing units. More proposals are on the table and the matter is still open for discussion.”

‘If these decisions are implemented, things will change’

Finally, Bennett was asked if he sees a shift in attitude from the new Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as compared to his predecessor, Moshe Yaalon.

Policy has changed in the realm of returning the bodies of terrorists for burial, for example. Yaalon was in favor of returning the bodies as a way of trying to calm tensions with the Palestinians, whereas under Liberman, it appears that the bodies will not be returned.

“I don’t give grades to Defense Ministers,” Bennett answered, “what’s important is that what was decided upon actually happens. I think that if the new resolutions are carried out, we’ll see a change. Not everything that I proposed was adopted and that’s OK, that’s the nature of a Cabinet, but many things were decided upon and I want us to meet in a week to see that things were implemented, that the terrorist’s families did not receive any funds. It’s good that the terrorist’s family has already been arrested, we’ll follow matters and see.”

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Bennett presents plan to stop terror wave

July 1, 2016

Bennett presents plan to stop terror wave Bennett calls to demolish illegal Arab homes, disconnect Facebook in Hevron and stop Palestinian traffic on Highway 60 as terror continues.

By Ben Ariel,

Canada First Publish: 7/1/2016, 9:00 PM

Source: Bennett presents plan to stop terror wave – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva

Naftali Bennett     Miriam Alster/Flash 90

Jewish Home chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday presented a plan to stop the latest terror wave against Israelis.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that the Security Cabinet will convene on Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. following the shooting attack south of Hevron.

Bennett’s plan for stopping the terror is as follows:

1. Arrest and imprisonment for the families of the terrorists and perhaps even deportation. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has been working to promote the issue.

2. Immediately demolish the thousands of illegal Arab buildings which have been approved for demolition.

3. Impose a total curfew on the village from which the terrorists came and its surroundings.

4. Shut down Facebook, the internet and 3G in the entire Hevron area as preventive and not punitive action. Facebook is a central incitement tool in this viral wave of terrorism, noted Bennett.

5. Stop all Hamas activists in Judea and Samaria, as the IDF did during Operation Brother’s Keeper, after the kidnapping of the three yeshiva students two years ago.

6. Prevent the transfer of funds to the families of terrorist murderers, effective immediately.

7. Re-arrest terrorists freed in the Shalit deal who committed offenses in the past two years.

8. Resume the IDF’s military activities in Areas A and B.

9. Build two Jewish neighborhoods in Kiryat Arba.

10. A Mini “Operation Defensive Shield” in the Hevron area.

11. Stop Palestinian traffic on Highway 60.

“Viral terrorism cannot be stopped with a closure,” Bennett said Friday afternoon. “No barrier will stop terrorists who see that the family of the murderer is not paying the price. We cannot settle for the imposition of closures or stopping the funds to the Palestinian Authority as the family of the terrorist continues to receive payments. Without action, the family of the murderer of Hallel Ariel will receive its pension on the first of August.”

Bennett’s plan was presented hours after an Israeli was murdered in yet another shooting attack at the Adorayim Junction south of Hevron in Judea.

The attack came just hours after an attempted stabbing at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in nearby Hevron.

In that incident, a female Arab terrorist was shot dead when she drew a knife and attempted to stab Israeli soldiers guarding the holy site. There were no Israeli casualties in that incident.

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HORROR IN ISRAEL as 13-year-old Israeli-American girl was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a teenage Muslim savage

July 1, 2016

HORROR IN ISRAEL as 13-year-old Israeli-American girl was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a teenage Muslim savage

Source: HORROR IN ISRAEL as 13-year-old Israeli-American girl was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a teenage Muslim savage

A Palestinian MUSLIM terrorist fatally stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, (photo right) a 13-year-old girl in her home in Judea-Samaria today before being shot dead by security guards. The army said the Muslim savage killed  in her bed after breaking into her home in Kiryat Arba, outside the city of Hebron.

MUSLIM SAVAGE Mohammed Tarayra

CNN  Hallel Yaffa Ariel was sleeping when a Palestinian teenager entered the house in the settlement near Hebron and killed her, authorities said. The girl was a dual national of Israel and the United States.


The victim’s bedroom after the attack

 Security guards on the settlement entered the home and found the suspect still inside, the IDF said. During a fight, one security guard was stabbed, and the intruder was shot and killed.

“Just like any teenager on summer holiday, my daughter was asleep, calm, relaxed. A terrorist murderer came and murdered her in her bed,” her mother, Rena Ariel, told Israel’s Channel 2.

Hallel with her parents

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the attacker as Mohammed Tarayra, 17, from Bani Naim, a village east of Hebron.  In response to the attack, the IDF sealed off access to Bani Naim to everyone except humanitarian and medical workers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the world to condemn the attack.  “The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing. The entire nation deeply identifies with the family’s pain and declares to the murderers: You will not break us. We will continue to take strong and determined action against terrorism everywhere and at all times,” he said in a statement.

Israeli soldiers guard home of victim’s family

Netanyahu said he would revoke work permits for members of Tarayra’s family and has started the process of seeking approval to demolish Tarayra’s home, a not uncommon practice by Israeli authorities.

Sari Bashi, Israel-Palestine director of Human Rights Watch, said “the killing provides no legal justification for the Israeli government to punish the alleged attacker’s family members.”

 

In this New York Times photo caption, they mistranslate the quote by the mother of the Muslim savage killer saying “bold” when she actually called him a “hero.”

 

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Obama’s Favorite Islamic Terror Group Praises Murderer of 13-Year-Old Girl

June 30, 2016

Obama’s Favorite Islamic Terror Group Praises Murderer of 13-Year-Old Girl, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, June 30, 2016

(Please see also, Terrorist kills 13-year-old in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba. — DM)

hillel-yafa-ariel-300x225

Obama insisted that PA terror boss Abbas had “renounced violence”. This was news to Abbas who had said on television that he was just like Hamas.

“I have to commend President Abbas. He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security; a state that allows for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people and a state that allows for Israelis to feel secure and at peace with their neighbors,” Obama said.

Around the time that Obama visited him, Abbas gave an interview to Putin’s RT in which he claimed that he was just like Hamas.

“As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas. So why are they labeled as terrorists? In my opinion, [the EU] can remove Hamas [from the list], why not?”

The Palestinian Authority terrorist organization promotes and funds terrorism against Americans and Israelis. This includes the latest terror attack in which a Muslim terrorist stabbed a 13-year-old girl to death in her bedroom. The core Fatah organization quickly declared the Muslim man who was shot after murdering the young girl a martyr as Palestinian Media Watch reported.

Fatah’s official Facebook page immediately posted his picture, declaring him a Martyr – “Shahid,” the highest honor achievable in Islam according to the Palestinian Authority.

WAFA, the official PA news agency, likewise honored the terrorist, referring to him as a Martyr – “Shahid.”

According to Palestinian Authority law, the family of today’s murderer will immediately start receiving a monthly PA stipend that the PA pays to the families of all the “Martyrs.”

All of this is funded by the US and overseen by Abbas, the president who won’t run for election, who renounced violence.

Categories: Abbas - man of peace, Fatah, Foreign policy, Hamas, Israel, Obama and Israel, Obama and Palestinians, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes
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