Attn: Dr. Cary Nelson
Author, The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel

Dear Cary,
Good to meet you and good to see you at the conference. This is how you were quoted by journalist Judy Maltz HAARETZ

“Nelson, a well-known pro-Israel advocate in American academia, said the Israeli government could best help combat BDS efforts by showing some political goodwill and curtailing settlement activity”.

Some feedback:

1. Israel hasn’t built a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria since April 1989.

2. All Jewish building activity in Judea and Samaria, since 1989, has been confined to very limited growth of these communities within their boundaries
(Full disclosure: My 2 married daughters, whose husbands are salaried workers, no longer have the option to buy a home in Judea & Samaria, and are forced to live in expensive rental if they wish to live in Judea & Samaria)

3. There has been an effective freeze on housing starts beyond the 1967 lines, including Jerusalem, since 2009.

4. “Settlement activity” is a code word for Jerusalem, all of which is claimed by the PLO as its capital. See Fayad’s position paper on Jerusalem.

5. The consistent PLO/PA definition of “illegal settlements” refers to Jewish communities which replaced Arab villages which were abandoned in the wake of the 1948 war. When the PLO/PA refer to “illegal settlements”, that is what they mean, regardless of what the State Department means. That is what Arafat told me in an interview in 1989.
All Arab villages that were replaced by “illegal” Jewish settlements after 1948, not 1967, are featured in the new PA textbooks.

6. The PA education system, funded in part by the US and incorporated by UNRWA, in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza, focuses on the right of every Arab child to liberate any and all Arab villages lost to the“illegal settlements” after 1948, by force of arms.

7. The PLO never ratified the Oslo accords, never cancelled its charter, and has no commitment to peace with Israel.

8. The PLO/PA refuse all requests to change their curriculum or to renounce their education for the “right of return by force of arms”.

9. Please review the flow chart of what is transpiring:

10. A cottage industry of academics and policy makers produces the fabricated argument that the PLO and PA have moderated their tone. These fabricators are welcome at AIPAC & all major pro Israel organizations. Those who report the facts above are not allowed a platform in any mainstream pro Israel organization.

With warmest regards,

David Bedein,​, MSW​
Director
Israel Resource News Agency
Center for Near East Policy Research
Beit Agron

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/to-dr-cary-nelson-who-chaired-the-anti-bds-conference-in-jerusalem-on-monday/

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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