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Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld tracks which companies have spoken out to condemn Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel, denounce antisemitism, and express support and solidarity with Israel.
List of Companies That Have Condemned Hamas’ Terrorist Attack on Israel
Side view of a hand writing on a checklist with magenta marker on the wooden surface
The other front: How the Palestinian Authority is preparing for battle – right under our noses
The details of the overall situation in Judea & Samaria – Israel’s current “third front” – ostensibly appear to be rather mundane and routine. Another late-night arrest, another targeting operation, more shooting attacks on the roads, but only after you put all the small pieces of this large puzzle together do you get to see the terrible danger, the initial signs of which are just now coming to light.
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This is not “merely” a case of more mass demonstrations in support of the October 7 massacre on the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus, or Tulkarm. This is not “merely” another case of declarations praising the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, made by senior Fatah officials, and let’s not forget that this is a movement headed by Mahmoud Abbas the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and an attempt to stir up feelings towards a potentially similar horrendous act of violence against the Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria or in those communities along its borders.
What is currently evolving before our very eyes should be a clear signal to all and sundry that the “Oslo approach”‘ of perpetuating the PA, which both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense establishment still adhere to, is on the verge of collapsing. The scenario of the PASF (Palestinian Authority Security Forces) “turning their guns” and aiming them at the IDF forces, and/or the settlements in Judea & Samaria and those that border the Green Line, is rapidly developing into actuality. The warning signs are too numerous for us to ignore.
Dozens of terrorist attacks, attempted attacks, and shooting incidents at IDF forces, or the civilian population in Judea & Samaria, have been carried out since the beginning of 2023 by Palestinian policemen, members of the Preventive Security Forces, and members of other PASF units. A similar picture arises in relation to counter-terrorist activity too. Alongside the large number of successful targeting operations carried out by the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency against Hamas and PIJ members, over the course of the last year, dozens of Fatah men have also been killed. This has mainly involved Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which since 2021 have taken up arms once again, and prior to the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, made an express appeal to their men, “What are you waiting for? Now is the time to kill the Jews…”
Since IDF Operation Guardian of the Walls, more than 100 PASF members have been killed, during attempts by them to carry out terrorist attacks, mainly led by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. These figures are often in contact with the Fatah faction secretaries in their specific areas; those same people whose declarations in support of the October 7 massacre and their express desire for a similar slaughter to be conducted in their own sector, Judea and Samaria, have been scorching Palestinian social media over the last two months.
The set of facts that shall be presented here is something that the PA is quite happy to highlight but is actually (relatively) kept hidden by Israel, which still regards the PA and its security forces as a partner. The intentional obscurity on the part of Israel emerges from the announcements issued by the defense establishment regarding arrests (or targeting operations). These announcements generally report only the overall number of arrests and state how many of them are affiliated with Hamas. About a week ago, for example, it was reported that since the outbreak of the current war, some 2,200 people had been arrested in Judea & Samaria, with 1,100 of them being Hamas-affiliated men. No information was made available to the public regarding the organizational affiliation of the other 50 percent, and you really need to dive deep into the reports, mainly on the Palestinian side, to understand that alongside members of the PIJ and “unidentified individuals”, many of them belong to organizations affiliated with Fatah, the beating heart of the PA, or its security forces; those very people whom the US aspires to integrate, once the war is over, in the overall solution to the situation both in Gaza and in the West Bank.
“Not even one dime”
The blurring of this information in the official announcements of the defense establishment is no accident. It is designed to preserve what remains (and yes it does remain!) of the security cooperation with the PASF in order to counter terrorist attacks. It is designed to prevent, as far as possible, copycat attacks being carried out by additional members of the PASF. However, at the same time, the information on the part played by members of the PASF and Fatah in acts of terrorism against Israel is covered up to a large extent.
In the PA announcements, in contrast, not only is there no attempt to conceal what is currently unfolding in front of our very eyes, on the contrary, the opposite is the case. Only a few months prior to the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, Fatah published a collage of photos of 24 terrorists, or ‘shahids’ (martyrs) as it prefers to call them, many of whom are members of the PASF, who were killed in clashes with Israel. The publication, which was exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, was last published on November 14, and the slogan “We are proud of you” boldly topped these photos. It was disseminated throughout the “West Bank” as part of the open competition with Hamas as to who leads the struggle against Israel.
The families of those 24 PASF members are now entitled, along with the thousands of terrorists from Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, some of which are affiliated with Fatah, to considerable terrorist stipends, amounting to thousands of shekels a month. Mahmoud Abbas himself has already made it quite clear that “Even if the PA is left with only one dime, it will give it, first and foremost, to the relatives of the shahids and the prisoners,” and that it will never cease to pay them their wages.
Over the last two months, just like Hamas terrorists, Fatah and PA members killed in terrorist attacks or Israeli counter-terrorism activity, have also been awarded mourning notices and official military funerals on behalf of the PA, and on a number of occasions, these events have been attended by senior PA officials, who have even delivered addresses and eulogies there. Muhammad Abad, for example, an officer in the PASF who was killed in Jenin alongside additional terrorists who were planning to perpetrate an attack on one of the settlements in Samaria, was given an official ceremony and a mourning notice.
The actual connection between the PASF and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades has been clearly illustrated on a number of occasions over the past few weeks. The head of the Brigades in Tulkarm, Jihad Shuhada, who was recently killed, is documented in photos alongside his colleagues in the local PASF, holding an M-16 assault rifle. Some of the terrorists who have been acting against the IDF have relatives in the PASF, and neither has it been unusual to see the sons of senior PASF officials turning out to be terrorists. Thus, for example Na’if Rajub, a senior Hamas figure in the town of Dura, is the brother of Jibril Rajub, the former head of the PA Preventive Security Forces in the West Bank, who expressed support for the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities and promised “an even more violent explosion in the West Bank.”
Though we do not have access to the data concerning the internal Palestinian organizational breakdown of the 1,600 ‘hot’ terrorist incidents (shooting and explosive devices) and the 4,000 incidents involving stone-throwing or Molotov cocktails that have occurred across Judea and Samaria in 2023, there is a fairly long list of terrorist incidents throughout the last year, in which terrorists from Fatah and its numerous splinter groups have taken part, alongside both Hamas and the PIJ.
The joint battalions
Meir Tamari from Hermesh was murdered last May by Fatah terrorists, as was the preschool teacher, Sheva Nagari, on Route 60 near Hebron, last August. A Palestinian policeman named Ala’a Qawato from the Tulkarm refugee camp was the person who planned to assassinate the Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, while Abdul Fatah Harusha, the murderer of the Yaniv brothers, Hallel and Yagel, in Huwara, served in the PA Internal Security Forces, while simultaneously acting as a Hamas terrorist. These are just a few select examples.
The list is much, much longer. Many of the terrorists who have murdered and wounded IDF soldiers and civilians over the past two years have been Fatah men and members of the PASF. This also applies to many on the list of those terrorists targeted by the IDF. It was published only recently, thought it did not make the main headlines, that the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Hebron area, a Hamas city par excellence, threatened Mahmoud Abbas that if he did not enter the war against Israel, they would initiate a military uprising against him.
If we go back in time to the period prior to Operation Guardian of the Walls, we can find more examples of the involvement of PASF men in terrorist attacks, but following Operation Guardian of the Walls this has become a much more common occurrence, and all the more so during 2023.
Only two weeks ago, senior Fatah figure, Tawfik Tirawi, shrugged off claims that Fatah is not involved in the fighting, and even stated (in an interview to the Palestinian channel Al-Sharq) that Fatah is involved in the fighting alongside Gaza, it has adopted terrorist groups in the refugee camps and the cities, such as Nablus and Jenin, in which joint battalions of all the factions are operating together. Tirawi, the former head of the Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Service, claimed that various organizations are coordinated with each other, and that “Fatah has never ceded the use of the gun and the armed struggle, and shall always be at the forefront of the struggle.”
The dying embers
The possibility that this collection of sporadic terrorist incidents will develop into an organized tsunami and that the PA will turn its guns on Israel (as happened in the events of the Western Wall Tunnels back in 1996, and during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s), is currently an issue preoccupying many different officials and organizations in Israel.
Just a few days ago, for example, staff from the State Comptroller’s Office conducted a tour of Samaria. The Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, reminds us that the PA does not bother to conceal its support for the murder of Jews; or that the PA’s most senior officials have yet to condemn the October 7 massacre, and some of them have even praised it and encouraged similar acts of violence. “You simply need to listen to them and not to ignore what is happening on the ground,” says Dagan, “We know that in some cases Palestinian Authority officials use their licensed weapons during the day in their official roles, while at night, they swap these for illicit guns, to be used in terrorist attacks. “The IDF,” he states, “is engaged in an all-out effort to carry out raids on terrorist nests and against terrorists, but it must also be prepared for the scenario of the PASF turning its guns against us. Continuing to relate to the PA today as a partner is a terrible mistake.”
Major General (res.) Uzi Dayan, a former Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of the National Security Council recommends that the defense establishment should take immediate steps to prepare for a scenario of the PA turning its guns against us, “Whether this takes the form of only a partial, localized effort or on a full scale. Our problematic relationship with the PA,” he estimates, “will be put to the test the moment that the PA’s elderly leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently living on his dying embers, disappears from the scene.”
Dayan believes that Israel must already begin to prepare for a military effort to take control of Area A, where the PA exercises full civilian and security control. “Though this might sound rather extreme, there really is no other correct solution for the dangers that we face and those that are already beginning to take form on the ground. Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, where the time has come for us to exercise our sovereignty, will all eventually become extensive Areas B and C. This is the situation we should strive to reach in the Gaza Strip too. The Palestinians will have only municipal and civilian powers there. No security powers.”
In Judea & Samaria, Dayan believes, “we have sufficient control of the territory, but the rest of the statistics are worse than the situation that existed in the Gaza belt communities. There are tens of thousands of Palestinians who carry arms, and the potential of them carrying out a raid on some or other settlement exists at any given moment…”
Q: Is there intelligence to indicate that the scenario of the PA turning its guns on us is about to happen?
“I don’t know, but the gauge with which we need to be working right now – and this is what I have always believed – is not necessarily that which measures the intentions of the other side or one that attempts to enter the enemy’s mind, but one that measures the other side’s capabilities. In the Gulf War,” Dayan recalls, “there was a General Staff meeting in which the question was posed, will the Iraqis fire at us? Everybody thought that the answer was no, and they even explained quite logically why not. I said that they would fire at us. They asked me why. I said: ‘Because they can, and when they do fire, you too will reach the same conclusion: they fired because they were able to.’ And this is precisely what happened.”
Q: And what is the analogy?
“That we must base our preparations not in accordance with our enemies’ intentions, but their capabilities, and since the scenario of the PA turning its guns against us is by no means far-fetched, and the Palestinians in Judea & Samaria have the capability coupled with an orderly ideology of hostility and hatred towards us, then we really need to prepare in accordance with their capabilities, according to the potential danger, and to derive the scenarios from this, which are also supported by their intentions.”
Q: The IDF will tell you that there is intelligence cooperation with the PA. That they help us to thwart terrorist attacks…
“That’s right, but it is not perceived there as an all-out war on terrorism. They don’t carry out the counter-terrorist operations with any special talent or quality, nor do they do this with any real desire, see for example the situation in Jenin and other locations too. Even now, we can no longer rely on them alone, and in the future, I’m not sure we will be able to rely on them at all.”
Dayan is concerned both about the fact that many of the terrorists and those targeted are from Fatah and also about the statements made by senior Fatah officials concerning the October 7 attack, and about similar events that might occur in the future. “In the events surrounding the opening of the Western Wall Tunnels in 1996, it was the masses who led the way, but then Palestinian policemen got involved and they shot at the IDF. This time there is an additional danger – that of attacks on Israeli settlements.”
Q: How should we prepare for this?
“First and foremost, we really need to understand and define the fact that we are currently in the middle of a war. The rapid response squads in the settlements are not sufficient. The army must work in parallel to create an offensive capability to take control of Area A territories, from where terrorist attacks might be launched. We also need to develop an active defensive capability to protect the settlements themselves.”
Q: What do you mean by an active defensive capability?
“A number of things: the rapid response squads must be turned into rapid response platoons and they need to be equipped accordingly, mainly in the larger settlements, in accordance with the IDF standard, and we must put an end to all the squabbling and disputes with them. We need to provide them with grenades, belt-fed machine guns, simple shoulder-launched missiles, and to grant recognition for their training routine. They need to take part in a serious training schedule. The next step would be to create the ability for IDF forces to join up with them, in each settlement, and where this is not possible – to create a capability for neighboring settlements to join forces and help each other our during times of difficulty. It is also important to drill such rendezvous capabilities, and the army must be ready to act not only inside the settlements but also against the source of any attack against the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria.”
Q: Why in your assessment do the IDF and the security forces currently obscure or even conceal the fact that Fatah and PASF personnel have been involved in terrorist attacks and shootings?
“We have two clear future clashes to contend with. One is with our best ally, the US, due to its perception of a two-state solution, and what it refers to as a ‘revitalized’ Palestinian Authority headed by someone who will be ready to openly speak about peace and reconciliation, and the other one with the Palestinian Authority itself, or what remains of it. The current ambiguity and obscurity result from an obvious desire and interest to push off those clashes rather than bring them forward.”
The Dayton battalions
In recent weeks, clips have been posted on social media showing the exercises conducted by the PASF battalions. Watching them is no walk in the park. In these clips, the battalions appear to act as an army training for an armed conflict or war. The exercises are extremely similar to those of the IDF, on occasions even aspiring to resemble training carried out by some of the IDF’s crack units.
The battalion exercises include a ‘war week’, a company-level exercise, and a ruck march of tens of kilometers in northern Samaria, as well as MOUT (military operations in urbanized terrain), exercises to conquer installations, etc. It is not wholly clear what the connection is between the definition of a “strong police force” tasked with guaranteeing “public order and internal security” (according to the original wording in the Oslo accords relating to the establishment of the PA), and these forces that form part of the 45-thousand strong PASF run by the Palestinian Authority.
These battalions were set up years ago, following the Second Intifada, by US General Keith Dayton. The central training facility of these battalions is located at the military academy in Jericho but they have also trained in Jordan under US supervision, and in the past, both British and Italian instructors took part in their training.
All this is occurring against the backdrop of the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, and at the same time, in the last two months, based on AI, clips have been made and posted on social media, to simulate raids on settlements in Judea & Samaria. These clips are designed to encourage the local Palestinian population in Judea & Samaria to destroy the fences of the Jewish settlements and the to infiltrate them. If we add to this the renewed involvement of certain parts of Fatah and its affiliate organizations in terrorism, along with its support for Gaza and Hamas’ actions, as clearly emerges from the numerous street processions and demonstrations, then we are faced with an extremely worrying situation.
The multiple declarations of senior Fatah figures regarding the October 7 massacre are also far from being reassuring, on the contrary. Moayad Sha’aban, PA minister and head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, attended the funeral of the terrorists who were killed during the battle in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, in which a Border Police soldier, Maxim Reznikov, was killed. Twelve terrorists were killed during that incident, including an officer in the PASF who took part in the shooting at the Israeli soldiers. Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, thanked Hamas for carrying out the October 7 attack and threatened to smash the skulls of all the Jews and the Americans in the region. Abdul Rahman Abu al-Rab, a Fatah member from Jenin, defined the October 7 massacre as a morning of joy, victory, and pride, praising the “heroic shahids in Gaza.” Jamal Hawil, a member of the Fatah Committee on the PA, promised a great surprise in Judea & Samaria too, expressing his hope that the images emerging from Gaza would also be seen in the West Bank too. Tirawi and Jibril Rajub, whom we have already mentioned, also added their own fuel to the fire, while the infamous Marwan Barghouti, one of the key leaders of the Second Intifada, now serving five consecutive life sentences for murder, this week called on his movement, Fatah, from his prison cell, to organize general resistance “across all the Palestinian lands.”
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet has for the time being refrained from taking an in-depth look into the danger of the PA turning its guns against us. Even the general overview presented above, which is relatively detailed, has not been presented to the cabinet ministers. This became apparent last week in the answer to the question of the Minister of Settlements and National Missions, Orit Struck, at a meeting of the Socio-economic Cabinet, discussing the issue of allowing workers from Judea and Samaria to enter Israel. During the meeting, Struck warned of a scenario in which in a matter of only a few minutes a lethal incident develops, and even mentioned the names of settlements that are more susceptible to such a scenario. She even proposed stationing tanks in some of these locations. In the discussion held this week at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to calm things down and said that in a situation in which the PASF openly turn against Israel, “within a few minutes IAF helicopters will be in the air in order to provide an appropriate response.”
“HaTzofot” Forum issues a stern warning
And in the meantime, there is considerable growing concern among the Jewish settlements. About a month ago, the wives of currently serving reservists from Teqo’a, Binyamin and Samaria established the “HaTzofot” (Female Scouts) forum, whose name, apparently not by chance, is reminiscent of the story of the female IDF lookouts on the Gaza border on the eve of the current war. The women from HaTzofot are also asking that people should listen to them and take their warnings seriously. The catalyst for founding the organization were the recent olive harvest incidents, during which Palestinians approached the settlement fences, on a number of occasions in an extremely threatening manner, including many individuals who had not even come to take part in the olive harvest.
Hadas Madmon from Migdalim, one of the founders of HaTzofot, says that following the olive harvest incidents the penny dropped: “The approach to security here has not changed following October 7. Initially, there was a sense of the “boss has gone mad”, but it soon elapsed and once again the Palestinians went back to blinding us on the roads with lasers, playing games with us, and testing the limits. Last Thursday, they already shot from a passing car on the road beneath the settlement.
“We are definitely concerned that here too, we might have to face a similar event to the horrendous attack that took place in the Gaza belt communities,” she says, “For 30 years we nurtured the monster from Oslo and provided them with arms. Some of the recently released terrorists have gone back to their villages next door to us. This is a danger that haunts Kfar Saba, Rosh Ha’Ayin, and similar towns and cities along the Green Line.”
Two weeks ago, the women from HaTzofot met with the Head of the IDF Central Command, Major General Yehuda Fuchs. “He was very attentive and respectful,” Madmon recounts, “but, he also made it clear to us that he implements government policy, and the current policy is that the PA is our partner. The governance is critical everywhere, but especially among those who are more exposed to threats, as we are.”
Is the scenario of the PA turning its guns against us indeed a not-too-distant reality? In part? In full? Against settlements? Against the IDF? The multitude of indications and warnings, or I&W, to use the professional military jargon, that we have brought here should be sufficient to set a huge red light flashing in front of the policymakers at both the military and political level, which are currently preoccupied with the two main fronts in the north and the south, and do not have the time to engage in a profound debate regarding this third, and no-less menacing, front.
The Dark Reality Of PLO And UNRWA Policies
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building during a strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** אונר"א
עזה
בניין
שביתה
For decades, I advocated for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, believing that it could bring about a lasting peace in the region. I was convinced that Israel had a genuine partner in the peace process, one that could help resolve the conflict with the Palestinian Arabs and address the millions living in UNRWA refugee camps. However, a fateful week in December 1987 changed my perspective forever.
On December 8, 1987, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) took control of the Palestinian Arab leadership, marking the beginning of a violent “intifada.” This shift extinguished my optimism for a peaceful resolution. From that moment on, I embarked on a 36-year journey of examining the PLO and UNRWA with the help of dedicated journalists, both Jewish and Arab, who spoke Arabic fluently.
Our collective research yielded a conclusion that was often met with skepticism: the PLO’s aim was not merely to foster hatred of Jews but to indoctrinate a systematic ideology of murder against them. For years, our perspective remained in the minority, but the horrific events of October 7th this year served as a chilling confirmation of our long-standing concerns.
Fast forward to October 18th, when US President Joe Biden visited Jerusalem. The State Department assured me that President Biden was convinced the Palestinian Authority (PA) had condemned the ongoing Arab murder campaign. Based on this report, President Biden endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state with Mahmoud Abbas at the helm.
To closely monitor Abbas’s statements, our news agency engaged Dr. Pinhas Inbari, a senior journalist fluent in Arabic and now a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He kept a close eye on the tightly controlled Palestinian Authority media, especially after the horrifying discovery of murdered babies at the hands of Palestinian Arabs.
Inbari’s findings were disheartening. President Abbas did not express a shred of remorse, offer an apology, or demonstrate any second thoughts about the actions of the Arab murder campaign since October 7. Instead, he repeatedly promised grants to the families of those Arabs who died as “Shahids,” or holy martyrs, since that tragic day.
While the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency initially published comments by Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions, they later removed references to the terrorist group without an explanation. What Abbas has consistently reiterated on PA media channels is his intent to support the families of those who died in this abhorrent campaign.
This is the legacy that President Joe Biden left in Jerusalem: allowing Mahmoud Abbas to evade responsibility for these murders, leaving the troubling policies of the PLO and UNRWA unaddressed and unchecked. We must not turn a blind eye to this dark reality, and it’s high time for a reevaluation of our approach to peace in the region.
Three wise men
According to Christian tradition, it was about this time of the year that three “wise” men appeared in Bethlehem to visit a newborn Jewish baby.
Bethlehem, at that time, was a Jewish town in Judea, which, apart from being a place where bread was baked, also hosted Jewish pilgrims who were visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. Neither Christians nor Muslims existed in what was essentially an illegally occupied Jewish land. Judea was nominally independent but under the thumb of the Roman occupiers.
Palestine and Palestinians did not exist.
Fast forward to 2023, and history has been distorted to create an entirely fictitious scenario. Thanks to gross ignorance and willful prejudices politicians and others alike have been seduced by the big lies.
There has never been an Arab Islamic Palestinian nation with Jerusalem as its capital. This simple fact is somehow heretical in today’s doublespeak and politically correct environment.
It is precisely at this time of the year when the historical revisionists get into high gear and the assault on Jewish sovereignty and legitimacy becomes a frenzy of fictitious fantasies.
It was, therefore, somewhat ironic that today’s version of the three wise men should recently gather together.
Meeting in a solemn conclave, none other than Chris Luxon, Anthony Albanese and Justin Trudeau, Prime Ministers respectively of New Zealand, Australia and Canada, offered up their collective wisdom about the situation in Israel and Gaza.
The original three wise men, according to the Christian tradition, brought gifts and then left Bethlehem without apparently pontificating at any length to the locals.
Today’s imposters have certainly not offered any gifts. They haven’t even bothered to visit Israel to see first-hand the realities of the situation. Instead of being confused by the actual truth, they preferred to offer unsolicited advice, admonitions and warnings.
Listening to their collective narratives, one would imagine that those who today call themselves Palestinians are somehow indigenous to the land and are therefore entitled to inherit places that, since Biblical times, have seen a sovereign Jewish presence.
To be completely fair, these three stooges are merely recycling the same tired and discredited old slogans so beloved by Biden, Blinken and assorted “experts” lurking in the State Department and the media.
Piously pouting that Israel must under no circumstances reoccupy and clean out Gaza, not reduce its territory and not maintain a siege or blockade, highlights that Israel is not allowed to defeat Hamas.
How on earth can the terrorists be defeated if Israeli troops are not permitted to occupy Gaza until the job is finished? In a post-war situation, there must be a buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border to ensure that terrorists can never again repeat their ground invasion of Israeli territory. Ideally, this should consist of a minefield and other anti-infiltration devices. If there is no blockade and no inspection of goods entering Gaza, how can the acquisition of weapons be prevented and thwarted? There should be no electricity provided by Israel, which enables Hamas and its allies to dig and ventilate tunnels.
Note that the three leaders seemed unconcerned about the terror tunnels and the thousands of rockets being fired at civilian Israeli targets. Where is their outrage at the theft of international aid and the deliberate deprivation of the Gazan population by Hamas?
Included in the declaration was the recognition that Israel has a right to exist.
Whoopee – what a magnanimous gesture designed, no doubt, to make Israelis and Jews feel that much better. This demeaning declaration is immediately followed by a warning that, of course, in the act of defending its citizens, it must ensure that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected. Completely ignored is the fact that civilians in Gaza are used as human shields and cannon fodder. Also conveniently omitted is the stark reality that civilian structures such as hospitals, schools, mosques and houses are storage places for rockets and lethal ammunition. Apparently, the fact that tunnels and weapons have been discovered under babies’ cribs is of little or no concern.
The overwhelming support shown by the Arabs of Gaza and elsewhere for the Hamas crusade of genocidal terror is self-evident yet those bleating about suffering ignore the obvious. Much is made of the humanitarian crisis, yet when trucks bringing in aid are attacked and looted by Hamas mobs, our three “wise” men remain silent along with the rest of the immoral UN.
The three PMs trotted out the ludicrous demand to establish yet another corrupt and terror-supporting entity in the midst of Israel. This would be a surefire recipe for the future eradication of the Jewish State. If they had bothered to visit the area and seen for themselves the daily outpouring of hate and incitement from the Ramallah-based “peace doves”, they would have rapidly realized that their plan was fatally flawed. Democracy and respect for human rights are an alien concept as far as the PA/PLO/Fatah is concerned.
The post-1967 newly minted “Palestinians” have only one aim in mind. That is the replacement of the Jewish State with their Islamic state. This has been the agenda well before 1948. The fact that the rest of the world and an assortment of self-loathers and progressive lemmings still do not recognize this fact accounts for the continuing conflict. In a perfect world, we could all live in peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, that is not the reality we confront and will not face in the foreseeable future.
The US Administration hallucinates about a “younger and revitalized” Palestinian Authority arising and being able to unite Gaza in what it calls the West Bank. In reality, of course, whoever comes after Abbas will, of necessity, need to be even more extreme in order to be able to survive. Giving them a prize of Judea and Samaria is a folly of monumental proportions. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where they already constitute a majority, is the natural home of those who call themselves “Palestinians”. However, the Hashemites do not want them, and neither do the Saudis or anyone else. Why, therefore, should Israel hand over to them its Biblical heartland and territory legally allocated by San Remo for Jewish settlement?
Luxon, Albanese and Trudeau sing the same old out-of-tune song of Israeli “settlements” being against international law. The Jewish villages, towns and cities existing in places which were sovereign Jewish territory three thousand years ago have more legitimacy than the territories seized by the colonial British in New Zealand, Australia and Canada a mere few hundred years ago.
A senior Hamas official has thanked Canada, Australia and New Zealand. What further proof of idiocy is required?
As the Christmas festival is about to be celebrated, an interesting development has taken place which, of course, is being ignored.
In Bethlehem, where it all started, Christmas has been cancelled by the Church authorities. Ostensibly, it is because of the war and the absence of pilgrims and tourists. As surely as day follows night, the real villains will be revealed, and unsurprisingly, it will be the dastardly Israelis who are responsible for this state of affairs. Watch for the media to faithfully fulfil their anointed task of this blasphemous state of affairs by blaming the perfidious Jews. Everyone from religious functionaries to lay leaders will highlight this.
What nobody will mention, however, is the fact that in PA-controlled Bethlehem, Christians now constitute a mere 10% of the city’s population. The once 90% of Christians have been driven out by the intolerant and terror-supporting Islamists. This is, of course, a foretaste of the sort of religious “tolerance” practised by those striving to replace Israel. The fact that most of the international community facilitates this is indicative of the moral decline taking place.
Chanukah was not cancelled in Israel despite the fact that pilgrims and tourists were absent. Instead, the festival was celebrated with renewed fervour and devotion. Ironically, the only places where Chanukah was cancelled were in the Diaspora. Threats against Jews, vandalism and violence combined to drive many Jewish communities underground or to render them invisible and muted.
What we do not need in today’s climate of political insanity and historical revisionism is the continual barrage of ill-advised demands.
I would not be surprised if those Christian denominations which have already excised the psalms from their liturgy as being too Zionistic will take the next step and rewrite the carol, Noel, which has the chorus “born is the king of Israel.” No doubt political correctness will mandate that Israel be replaced by Palestine.
Presumably, that would receive approval from the three wise men of New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
UNRWA’s Education Fuels Hatred: A Lethal Threat To Israel’s Existence
On September 27, 2023, less than two weeks before all hell broke loose in Israel, three officials from the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs met with four researchers who have spent their careers studying different aspects of the strategic threat posed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).
UNRWA oversees 59 refugee camps that comprise more than five million descendants of Arab refugees relocated by the 1948 war.
What each of the researchers reported to the government was that UNRWA has educated the next generation to blindly believe in a sacred “right of return” by force of arms to the very homes which they left back in ’48, homes that no longer exist, in villages that have since grown into Israeli cities, collective farms and woodlands.
After the experts had their say, they listened to passionate words of Rabbi Leo Dee, a British-born veteran of Israel peace advocacy, who in his work has nurtured years of dialogue with Arabs.
The perspective of Rabbi Dee was unique.
On April 7 of this year, three “graduates” of the UNRWA school educational system living in the UNRWA Askar refugee camp near Nablus murdered his wife Lucy and two daughters, Rina and Maia, in a drive by shooting on Road 90 in northern Israel.
At the funeral, Rabbi Dee asked aloud what would motivate three young people to conduct such a vile act of murder.
In the month that followed, Rabbi Dee heard from generals and policy-makers that it was the fault of Iran which had dispatched killers to murder Jews at random.
Yet Rabbi Dee wondered aloud as he buried his beloved family members as to what was going on in the minds of these killers when they opened fire on his loved ones.
So we dispatched an Arab TV crew to find out.
What Rabbi Dee was shocked to discover was the candor with which the families of the killers spoke as the parents who spoke with pride in their sons’ willingness to kill Jews in order to achieve the right of return to villages that no longer exist.
This summer, our news and research agency dispatched TV crews to film UNRWA summer camps that were devoted to perpetuating a hero’s worship of the youthful Arabs who murdered the Dee family.
Our researchers, who have reviewed more than 1,000 Palestinian Authority texts used in UNRWA schools and produced more than twenty films shot on location in their schools, report that the “right of return by force of arms” has evolved into theme of UNRWA “education”, instead of the PEACE BEGINS HERE, the theme of UN Education since the birth of the UN in 1945.
So far, no media outlet in Israel will publicize the message that UNRWA and the PA praise the cold-blooded murder of the family of Rabbi Dee, at a time when PA law allocates a salary or life for anyone who kills a Jew, or a salary for the family of the killer is the perpetrator becomes a “Shahid ” martyr.
In order to see peace in the next generation, Israel will have to insist on a policy of “Denazification” to cope with the lethal consequences of this bloodthirsty PLO curriculum that was introduced to a whole new generation on August 1, 2000.
That PLO curriculum is taught in tandem with the 1964 PLO charter, never canceled, and the Jihad declaration of total war by the Arab League against the nascent state of Israel. still in effect today, despite peace treaties with Jordan and with Egypt, and talk of normalization with Saudi Arabia, king pin of the Arab League.
While new Saudi texts respect for Jews and Judaism, yet allow Jihad against the state of Israel to continue in the schools.
Pay attention to scholar Dr. Arnon Groiss, who has examined more than 1,000 texts of the PA used by UNRWA over the last 24 years, who warned officials of the Israel ministry of strategic affairs of the threat posed by UNRWA education and by extent of Saudi education.
Palestinian Authority schoolbooks used by UNRWA feature three fundamentals, each of which stands in sharp contrast to the values of the United Nations:
- Delegitimization of Israel’s existence and the Jews’ very presence in the country, which includes denial of their history and the existence of any Jewish holy places there.
- Demonization of both Israel and Jews, with implications regarding the Jews’ image in the eyes of children who hail from a traditional society.
- Incitement and the absence of a call for peace with Israel. Instead, there is a call for a violent struggle for the liberation of the whole count
Saudi Arabia, which passionately endorses some kind of peace with Israel is the seventh leading funder of the 1.6 billion dollar UNRWA budget, 58% of which is allocated to a curriculum dedicated to total war on the Jews.
Whenever the cannons will rest, that will provide the respite necessary to overhaul UNRWA education. If there is no overhaul in what Arabs teach, no semblance of peace will ever exist.
Our 24 years of filming UNRWA schools consistently shows Arabs of all ages getting ready to cross the Gaza fence and murder any Jew who stood in their way. That is the simulation that we witnessed in every UNRWA school and UNRWA summer camp.
Yet the denial of Hamas terror takeover of UNRWA is rampant.
In a press briefing on December 10, 2023, the US State Department spokesman categorically rejected any notion of any connection between UNRWA and Hamas, even though Hamas controls every aspect of UNRWA “education”.
The ‘Palestine and genocide’ teach in and roundtable by u of w profs- was the academic freedom and dignity of those who disagreed violated?
I take what happened at the “Palestine and Genocide: Reflections on Imperialism, Settler Colonialism, and Decolonization” Teach In and Roundtable on Nov 24, 2023 very seriously.
The advertisement of the event I saw referred to it as being put on by the Faculty of Arts, University of Wpg. I understood from the plain meaning of the words that this was a U of W event. On Nov 17, the U of W President and Vice Chancellor Todd Mondor and Dr. Pavlina Radia, Provost and Vice President, Academic issued a statement about this event which can be read in full at https://news.uwinnipeg.ca/statement-from-the-university-of-winnipeg/.
That statement said there is “an obligation on faculty to ensure that their conduct accords with University policy and other lawful limits on free expression” and “all academic events in any way associated with the University of Winnipeg are required to align with these principles.”
If further said, “In an increasingly polarized world, universities have a responsibility to be places where debate on difficult issues can be conducted…. It is our duty to ensure that all perspectives, so long as they are lawful and inclusive, can be heard, and that those who disagree can safely engage in respectful debate [emphasis added].
“This is an important time for all members of our University community to foster ethical, respectful engagement that aligns with our values based in diversity and inclusion, human rights, and respectful workplace and learning environments [emphasis added] . ..We must ensure that every member of our community is treated with empathy and respect.
I want to look at the way two questions were answered by Dr. Kerry Sinanon, who is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at U of W who moderated the event and answered questions people posted in the chat.
Question:In discussing traumatic experience, don’t you think it is relevant and critical to mention the terror and trauma brought onto innocent civilians on 10/7 by Hamas. How does perpetrating more trauma and terror in the region help the Palestinian movement or put end to the ‘Zionist Project’. If anything, wouldn’t this further divide the region and take us further away from a viable end to this
Dr. Kerry Sinanan: Questions that seek to align the speakers with Hamas are racist and will not be entertained. Thank you.[emphasis added].
I ask the President of U of W Todd Mondor, what kind of answer is that? The person who asked a legitimate question was entitled to an answer about Hamas’s role in this current war. Instead, were they not in fact dismissed, shut down, demeaned and belittled by being told in essence that their question was racist ? Is this not a violation of U of W’s policy on academic freedom, in that the academic freedom of the person asking the question was violated?
Question: “What role does hamas play in the occupation and in the sufferage of the palestinian people, if any? As well, I heard that Hamas fired rockets at Israel 15 minutes after the temporary ceasefire began today. Is this true? If so, how should Israel react to protect civilians, regardless of their geographic location?”
Dr. Kerry Sinanan answered: None of our panelists has knowledge of Hamas operations. We are scholars and academics.
I ask the U of W President Mondor, what kind of answer is that? There was no answer to the question of what role does Hamas play in the suffering of the Palestinian people. And, by the way, if Dr. Sinanan has no knowledge of Hamas operations, how does she have knowledge of Israeli operations? If she can’t say anything about Hamas’s role in the conflict, how can she say anything about Israel’s role in the conflict. Rather than enabling the Jewish student to engage in respectful debate, was the student not shut down ?
Also President Mondor, have you asked the organizers why they spliced out one speaker from the event, a Palestinian woman named Sarah, who said on Oct 7 she felt a sense of shock, “but also because of my Muslim faith, a huge sense of relief because I know that Palestinians will resist…” ? [emphasis added]. Sarah went on to say “The resistance is justified.” Could it be she was spliced out because her views align with those of Hamas? [Sarah spoke after Dr. Alyson Brickey, Assistant Professor in the Department of English but she is not on the you tube released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3uriO9DSpY]
Now let me tell readers what else I heard at Teach-In and Roundtable.
I did not hear one panelist who said that he or she recognized Israel’s right to exist as a state in the region. Palestinian academic Ghada Sasa said her grandfather was from Ramle and that her family has the right to return to Ramle (which is near Lod, where Ben-Gurion Airport is). She said a two state scenario was gone “a long time ago,” and in any event “My home is not part of the West Bank or Gaza” as her grandfather came from Ramle. She advocated for a “one state solution,” whereby Israel is destroyed as a state in the region. Sarah, the Palestinian woman said that “most Palestinians” want the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, the lifting of the siege on Gaza, and “the end of the occupation in its entirety” and that “these three things cannot be met under a Zionist project.”
I did not hear one panelist condemn or make any negative remarks about Hamas’s actions on Oct 7, or indicate it was recognized as a terror group by the Canada and many others in the Western world. Nor did any panelist say that Israeli hostages taken by Hamas ought to be freed.
There were panelists who referred to Israel as an apartheid state.
I did not hear any panelist say that there has been a continuous presence of Jews in the land of Israel for 3000 years such that they are indigenous to the land of Israel. Academics referred to Israel as a colonialist and imperialist state, such that Zionists were not indigenous to the land of Israel.
There was no panelist who said that Israel was NOT committing genocide against Palestinians
I did not hear one speaker who advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I did not hear any speaker cast any responsibility for the current conflict on the failure of Palestinian leadership.
I did not hear any reference to the 1947 UN partition plan calling for a Jewish and Arab state, which was accepted by Israel but rejected by the Mufti of Jerusalem and surrounding Arab states who attacked the nascent State of Israel). There was scant mention of the 1993 Oslo Accords, nor was there any mention of peace plans put forth by Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, which would have seen the creation of a Palestinian state.
At no time did I hear any of the panelists disagree with each other in any major way or on any major point, such that it is easy to conclude that all the perspectives presented were “anti-Zionist” and “anti-Israel.”
Near the end of the Teach-In, Dr. Kerry Sinanon, said “we’ve seen some comments in the question and answer that these are not multiple perspectives.” She said “I want to say very clearly that this is a very racist perspective.”(emphasis added). She said this was an “inclusive” teach in with the participation of people from “different backgrounds, ethnicities, countries and academic disciplines.” The comments of those who disagreed were not read out.
I ask the U of W President Mondor whether those who disagreed with the portrait of Israel as a colonialist/imperialist/apartheid/genocide committing State were treated with respect and could “safely engage in respectful debate,” as per your Nov 17 statement?
Calling those who disagree with you as coming from “a very racist perspective” is, insulting, demeaning, disrespectful and a form of bullying, is it not?
Has the U of W considered whether the Human Rights Code applies in this situation? As a matter of principle is the U of W committed to ensuring in practice that the guarantees of non-discrimination and non-harassment in the Human Rights Code are applied in practice with equal vigour to protect Jewish students and those who support the right of Israel to exist?
Will the U of W put on an officially sponsored forum with at least equal publicity to provide those with different views to respond?
BUT there is more. There were Jewish attendees of the event who believe in Israel’s right to exist who were removed from the event after asking questions which indicated they had differing views than those being presented by the panelists.
Will you President Mondor be investigating whether there were Jewish attendees of the event who believe in Israel’s right to exist, who were kicked out of the event, after asking questions, and if so, how many Jews were kicked out? Did they receive messages saying “You were removed from this webinar by the host and cannot rejoin?”
I have also spoken to a Jewish person who tried to register part way into the program, but was disallowed. Why was this?
Will the U of W be producing for the public a complete list of all the questions in the chat and the way they were answered by Dr. Sinanon ? Were there any questions deleted from the chat?
Will there be any consequences for the violation of the academic freedom of Jewish students and/or community members who tried to engage in respectful debate on the issues, or does academic freedom just apply to some, and not others?
By the way, President Mondor, given there was controversy about this event prior to its taking place, what steps were taken to ensure that the discussion at the Teach in and Roundtable would live up to your Nov 17 statement ?
What corrective measures will be taken to ensure that this happens never again?
On the subject of genocide, Ghada Sasa, who spoke at the roundtable part of the program said that Zionist voices could not be speakers at this event as “Zionist voices they are supporting the genocidal project.” [meaning Israel]. In other words, if you support Zionism, which to me means you believe in Israel’s right to exist as a state in the region, you are by this twisted logic a supporter of genocide.
I, for one, certainly do not agree with every Israeli government policy, or every statement made by every Israeli politician, but since I firmly believe in Israel’s right to exist, and I believe in Israel’s right to self defense after Oct 7, I automatically become a supporter of genocide using Sasa’s twisted logic. And since most Jews are Zionists, we therefore according to this twisted logic become supporters of genocide, and it’s easy to see how we become the objects of hatred. It’s no wonder Jew hatred is increasing in Winnipeg, even though Jews in Winnipeg do not control Israeli policy in any way. President Mondor have you so far effectively tolerated a climate of antisemitism by allowing the program to proceed in the fashion it did ?
Finally on twitter, on Oct 21, Emily Leedham posted footage of Winnipeg’s “ All Out for Palestine rally”, with a large Palestinian flag. Fadi Ennab, a Palestinian academic, who participated in the Roundtable November 24th zoom event, tweeted, ‘I hope the ripples of that flag echos to bring down every Zionist infrastructure from Winnipeg to Palestine. Free Free Palestine! Thank you @Emily_Leedham_ for capturing the heart of the movement!”
I ask President Mondor, what did Ennab mean by referring to bringing “down every Zionist infrastructure” in Winnipeg? Is he talking about bringing down the Asper Campus, where an Israeli flag flies?
Wall Street Journal Editorial , Dec. 14 2023: BIDEN ENDANGERS ISRAEL
President Biden made headlines by declaring on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has to change.” As is typical with the President, his subsequent remarks were hard to follow, but many heard them as a call for a new Israeli government coalition willing to jump-start a two-state solution.
It isn’t Mr. Biden’s place to pick Israel’s leaders. Instead, he could try listening to Israelis about the risks of empowering a Palestinian Authority (PA) that has refused to condemn the Hamas massacre. Or he could listen to Palestinians, 72% of whom believe Hamas was right to launch its Oct. 7 attack, according to a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. That figure rises to 82% among West Bank Palestinians, who are ruled by the PA, not Hamas.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, the prime minister of the PA, said Sunday that “Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian mosaic.” The problem is that this is true. That’s why no one in his right mind in Israel thinks of creating a Palestinian state today. Hamas doesn’t want a two-state solution; it wants the final solution.
Israelis are focused on defeating Hamas, a goal the U.S. shares. Mr. Biden was right to say Tuesday that “nobody on God’s green Earth can justify what Hamas did. They’re a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated.” He was also right to stand up for Israel at the United Nations, where the international herd demands a cease-fire.
Israel fights on because it has no other choice if it wants to survive as a state. But many nations see these U.N. votes as consequence-free gestures for peace or solidarity. That a cease-fire now would mean a Hamas victory and the death of Israeli deterrence, bringing on the next massacre and the next war, doesn’t concern them.
Israelis know Mr. Biden is under pressure from the Democratic Party left to stop Israel’s Gaza operation, and they are making sacrifices to satisfy him. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the Israeli campaign “we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” and Israel has complied. It is now telegraphing its attacks to the enemy so civilians can flee, and it is using a smaller force with less reliance on air power and artillery.
As a result, Israel is taking more casualties. Ten soldiers were killed Tuesday. That follows five Monday and seven Sunday for a total of 445, including Oct. 7.
The rising fatality rate is noticed in Israel, if nowhere else. In a video making the rounds, an infantry officer protests in Hebrew: “How can it be that an area isn’t cleared from the air before allowing our soldiers to enter?” Israel did that earlier in the war, he says, but now “our fire power is being restrained because our leaders may have started prioritizing the enemy’s lives over the lives of our soldiers.” A petition by soldiers’ mothers makes a similar point.
Israel gets little credit for its sacrifices. Mr. Biden even criticized it Tuesday for “indiscriminate bombing,” a slander so belied by the evidence that the White House tried to walk it back. Civilian casualties in Gaza are tragic, but they are mainly a result of Hamas’s way of embedding in what should be safe civilian spaces. The U.S. military also couldn’t avoid civilian casualties against ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, or other post-9/11 engagements. The U.S. doesn’t bomb indiscriminately either.
Facilitating the transfer of fuel and aid to Gaza also hasn’t stopped U.S. criticism. On Oct. 18 Mr. Biden said, “If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people, and it will end.” Really? Hamas theft, some of it caught on video, is so blatant and pervasive that Gazans denounce it publicly. Still, Israel keeps aid flowing, and the U.S. has pressured it to open another crossing to let in even more.
Israel has no good choices here, but America does. The President can focus on supporting a U.S. ally in vanquishing a genocidal enemy.
Understand your adversary: Two videos that will explain why the conflict is for your soul.
Masked Hamas militants hold weapons during a protest against Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Monday, March 3, 2008. In the early hours of Monday, Palestinians counted nine separate Israeli airstrikes on weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a Hamas headquarters and groups of gunmen, all over Gaza. Five Palestinians were killed in the strikes, all of them Hamas militants, Hamas said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) *** Local Caption *** ??? ??????
All the details about the war and what is daily happening is interesting and somewhat important. However, if you do not appreciate the fundamentals of why this is a never ending conflict, that is quickly going to overwhelm Europe and the Western Hemisphere, you have missed perhaps this last opportunity to control the evil forces at work – in Europe, South America and advancing in the USA.
Most Jews and Christians, much less the unaffiliated, have never spent the time learning about the Koran and the political history of Islam. Without this essential background, one cannot appreciate what is happening.
In many ways, this War could be analogous to the Spanish Civil War, which was the preparation for the outbreak of WWII.
See the results of Fundamentalist Islam, further below.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6tPSNo8J1k
James Kaddis is a pastor in North Carolina, but is Egyptian. His family were among the persecuted Egyptian Christian minority, and his mother spent time in Gaza as a Christian missionary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCKAXKq3DZA
Caroline Glick talks to Mordechai Kedar, who educates her about how Moslem Fundamentalism works (historically there is nothing Radical about it); and how that is driving the realities in the Middle East and the traditional (illiterate and misguided) politicians of the West. He provides a solution for Gaza.
Since Glick needed to be educated about these fundamentals, most of what is discussed will be new for the listeners.
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Subject: 1) Why there is no peace and cannot be 2) why the UN is less than useless on so many levels 3 ) what happens when “barbarous low intelligent religious zealots” are sexually repressed 4)the hypocrisy of the leftist women’s right, BML, etc., groups
Hamas terrorists mutilated female soldiers’ faces, breasts and genitals
‘It is impossible to overemphasize the number of bodies we were dealing with; the sense of shock and despair.
At a sidebar event at the United Nations to raise awareness of sexual crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7th massacre, army reservist Shari Mendes spoke about what her unit saw at the Shura base as they prepared female bodies for burial.The event, entitled “Hear Our Voices: Sexual and gender-based violence in the October 7 Hamas terror attack,” had as its keynote speaker, Sheryl Sandberg formerly an executive at Facebook, as well as other speakers, including those who, like Mendes, dealt directly with the dead bodies of women.
The purpose of the event was to demand that the United Nations regard the sexual violence committed by Hamas as war crimes and to address the silence in the UN and among many global women’s group.
After nearly two months, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced an investigation into the crimes.
Shari Mendes reported that many of the corpses had tense facial expressions and clenched fists that expressed the agony and torment of their final moments. She described one female soldier’s arm was broken in so many places it was difficult to fit inside a body bag.
The entire side of one corpse was entirely shredded by a grenade and hard to identify.
Mendes reported that her team commander saw bodies of female soldiers that had been shot in the crotch, the breasts and inside the vagina.
The faces of many were shot many times in what appeared to be an intent to mutilate them beyond recognition.
Mendes said, “Heads and faces were covered in blood. They were shot in the eyes, face, and skull,”
One female soldier’s face had been shot so many times that the head had nearly fallen off.
Others’ brains were falling out of their skulls.
“Our unit has seen bodies that were beheaded or had limbs cut off, mutilated,” Mendes said. “One young woman came in with no legs: they had been cut off. We saw several severed heads, one with a large kitchen knife still embedded in the neck.”
Mendes said that, in some cases, the disfigurement of the faces was done after death, because it was clear they were made when there was no more blood left in the body and the corpses had already bled out.
“Charred remains arrived and had to be identified and prepared for burial. These bodies were burned beyond recognition, often without arms or legs; they did not resemble anything human,” Mendes said.
“Sometimes we sifted through piles of ash that disintegrated as we touched them. These soldiers were burnt alive at very high temperatures.”
Mendes described the sheer scale of the task, “Body bags just kept coming in all shapes and sizes. Many were oozing liquids and the floors were wet. The smell of death was already unbearable.”
She continued, “It is impossible to overemphasize the number of bodies we were dealing with; the sense of shock and despair.”
Although surrounded by images of death, brutality and horror, Mendes emphasized that the task of their unit was to see the corpses as individuals, to attempt to restore the dignity that had been taken from them during the attack.
“Hamas did not show these women any honor in life, but it was important to us and our teams, groups of women, that we showed them deep love and gentleness as we prepared them for burial.”
We held them in our hearts even just for a moment, as if they were our daughters; we really loved them,” she said.
As the child of a Holocaust survivor, she added, “I understand the importance of bearing witness. I am here to be the voice of those who cannot testify.”
