A new report by UN Watch recorded dozens of overtly anti-Semitic statements made by staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The watchdog NGO’s 49-page report published on Thursday added 10 names to a list of 113 UNRWA teachers and staffers that have been found inciting anti-Semitism or supporting terrorism.
Of these 10, Lebanon-based teacher Elham Mansour, has called on social media for the slaughter of Jews and Israelis multiple times. This past month, she wrote, “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy… All Israel deserves is death.”
Other UNRWA teachers in the West Bank and Gaza, who are identified in the UN Watch report, expressed support for Hamas terrorism, including the firing of missiles at Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021.
An UNRWA computer teacher in the West Bank, Nihaya Awad, endorsed Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians after last year’s war and encouraged Palestinian terrorists’ exploitation of child soldiers.
She posted on social media a photo of a Hamas terrorist instructing a child in Hamas military uniform, with text praising the terror organization: “We testify by Allah that you have demonstrated your faithfulness… and conveyed the message… and have won for your al-Aqsa… and have broken your enemy’s nose… and have rekindled hope in your faith… may Allah accept your obedience… and raise your matter.”
Jordan-based UNRWA teacher Hana’a Daoud shared a photo of masked Hamas terrorists holding submachine guns and called on Muslims to “fight against the Jews, until a Jew will hide himself behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree will say: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'”
According to the report, “these teachers of hate were funded last year by state donations to UNRWA, including $338 million from the United States, $177 million from Germany, $118 million from the European Commission, $54 million from Sweden, $40 million from the United Kingdom, $32 million from Switzerland, $30 million from Norway, $28 million from France, $28 million from Canada, and $27 million from [the] Netherlands.”
After publishing the latest evidence of incitement in the halls of UNRWA, UN Watch called on UNRWA’s major funders to ensure that their hundreds of millions of dollars no longer go to funding teachers of hate.
The NGO noted that although its efforts to expose UNRWA staff incitement are well known by the agency, UNRWA has fundamentally failed to address the issue.
UNRWA and the United Nations as a whole have compounded the problem, according to Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan.
“Not only does UNRWA not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it causes enormous damage, incites hatred and terrorism and perpetuates the conflict, all under the auspices of the U.N., which buries its head in the sand and refuses to see reality,” Erdan stated this past Thursday at a U.N. Pledging Conference.
The conference entreats countries to donate to the U.N. agency, which has been facing an ongoing budget crisis in recent years, according to its leaders.
“The discussion should have focused on the despicable conduct of UNRWA,” Erdan told an audience that included U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and representatives of participating countries.
“I call on all countries to stop donating money to UNRWA until it ceases its anti-Semitic acts, fires the workers inciting these acts, and stops allowing Hamas and terrorists to use its infrastructure. UNRWA is a U.N. body whose actions only perpetuate the conflict in our region.”
Last year, the Israeli ambassador sent a letter to UNRWA following an earlier report, demanding the dismissal of the teachers involved in anti-Semitic acts and calling for an investigation into each case. Despite promises by Lazzarini that an investigation had been opened, it is not known if any staff were fired.
“Not only has UNRWA not properly addressed the manifestations of anti-Semitism among its employees, but now we see that the phenomenon is only expanding and that more workers are openly calling for the murder of Jews, while the U.N. and the organization [UNRWA] are doing nothing. The U.N. must be held accountable for the U.N.-funded incitement and hatred,” Erdan said.
“UNRWA unfortunately does not help advance a resolution of the conflict at all, but on the contrary: It disseminates false Palestinian narratives and turns a blind eye to incitement to murder Israelis and blatant anti-Semitism. Can this agency fall any lower?” he stated.
A shocking report by a watchdog organization on Thursday revealed that a UN agency tasked with, among other things, educating Palestinian students in places such as Lebanon, the West Bank and Jordan, employs teachers who promote terrorism and the murder of Jews.
UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, uncovered in its 49-page report that United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) computer teacher Nihaya Awad, who works in the West Bank, supported Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians after last year’s war. The U.S. and the European Union classified Hamas—the Sunni jihadi organization that controls the Gaza Strip—as a terrorist entity.
A new report accuses UNRWA – a UN agency that educates Palestinian students – of employing some teachers who promote terrorism against Jews. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
In one internet post, Awad wrote: “Greetings to the people of Gaza, Blessed victory.” A second post Awad wrote said “In the name of Allah, one victory after the other, Palestine will be fully liberated.”
Awad “encouraged Palestinian terrorists’ exploitation of child soldiers, in a May 21, 2021 post on Facebook,” UN Watch reported.
Awad posted the entries two months after a UNRWA director, Gwyn Lewis, praised Awad in a certificate of appreciation for her “fantastic efforts” as a “best performer” in UNRWA education, according to the report.
“We are proud that you are part of the UNRWA team,” Lewis wrote on March 23, 2021.
Actor of UN Watch, said, “UNRWA should therefore be considered complicit in its staff members’ misconduct. Around the world, educators who incite hate and violence are removed. Yet UNRWA, despite proclaiming ‘zero tolerance’ for incitement, systematically employs preachers of anti-Jewish hate and terrorism.”
UN Watch documented 20 new examples in the report of UNRWA teachers and staffers advocating terrorism and antisemitism in its school programs.
An example from Lebanon, where the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah has great control over the state, showed UNRWA Lebanon teacher Elham Mansour posting on Facebook on May 11, 2022: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy….All Israel deserves is death.”
Neuer said, “We call on the governments that fund UNRWA, as they gather at the United Nations to announce new pledges, to declare that they will stop enabling a system that teaches new generations of Palestinians to hate and murder Jews.”
“The U.S., EU, Germany, UK, Canada and other donor states cannot morally send more money to UNRWA until it shows a genuine commitment to basic norms of education in its schools,” he continued. “This means the agency must publicly condemn UNRWA employees who incite terrorism and antisemitism, remove them from their positions, and create an independent and impartial investigation of all of its staff.”
The U.S. and other predominantly Western states that fund UNRWA met Thursday at the United Nations with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. They are expected to promise additional monies to fund UNRWA.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on March 14. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo)
In response to a Fox News Digital request for comment, William Deere, the acting director of UNRWA’s office in Washington D.C., noted the report came out on the same day of the U.N. meeting on the agency.
Deere noted in his email statement that, “a well-known politically motivated organization is once again attempting to undermine the vital humanitarian and human development work of the Agency. UNRWA is an agency fully committed to upholding UN principles and values and has a zero tolerance to hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence.”
He continued, “As we have stated many times before, UNRWA takes all such allegations seriously, and is looking at the newly made allegations, noting that they had not been shared with UNRWA prior to being made public.”
Deere promised action if wrongdoing was found to have occurred: “The Agency’s legal framework provides a process to investigate and act on potential cases of hate speech, incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, in line with the UN values and principles. Should misconduct be found, UNRWA will take disciplinary action and the Agency’s Advisory Commission of hosts and donors will be notified as to the results.”
David Bedein, director of the Center for Near East Policy Research and an expert on UNRWA’s curriculum, told Fox News Digital the Biden administration has made one positive move.
“The U.S. government issued an order to place all UNRWA funds in escrow because UNRWA won’t change its curriculum. The U.S. has not buckled under,” he said.
Bedein said the “UN Watch release on UNRWA teachers’ incitement to murder Jews is factual, accurate and informative. The current UNRWA curriculum prepares its students for total war against the Jews,” he claimed.
FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, right, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid attend a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, June 19, 2022. Bennett’s office announced Monday, June 20, 2022, that his weakened coalition will be disbanded, and the country will head to new elections. Bennett and his main coalition partner, Yair Lapid, decided to present a vote to dissolve parliament in the coming days, Bennett’s office said. Lapid is then to serve as caretaker prime minister. The election, expected in the fall, would be Israel’s fifth in three years. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File) (AP)
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that, “Violent, antisemitic, and other hate-filled sentiments have no place in UNRWA classrooms. Both the United States and UNRWA have been unequivocal in condemning all forms of racism, incitement to violence, and antisemitism.”
The spokesperson continued, “The United States takes these allegations very seriously. We have no tolerance for intolerance and will continue to promote adherence to humanitarian principles, to include neutrality.”
Pointedly, the spokesperson called on UNRWA to act on the allegations. “We expect UNRWA to review the allegations, investigate them, and if warranted, take disciplinary or other corrective action in line with UN policies, up to and including termination of employment or contracts, and hold anyone found to have engaged in such conduct accountable.”
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Middle East affairs. You can follow Benjamin Weinthal on Twitter @BenWeinthal.
We have just read the portion of the Torah which describes the episode of the twelve spies and the repercussions which ensued following their devastating reports about the Promised Land.
I researched some synonyms for “bad mouthing” and the following examples presented themselves: “disparage; malign; slur; smear”.
These perfectly exemplify the reports of the spies as the Israelites stood poised to enter Canaan and the myriad of today’s bad mouthers who follow the same old script.
I am not necessarily referring to the non-Jewish knee-jerk haters of anything Jewish but to our own assorted individuals and groups whose mission seems to be to denigrate and delegitimize the very idea and concept of sovereignty in the one and only place which should be central to Jews and Judaism.
Consider the similarities between then and now.
According to many commentators of the Biblical episode, the opposition to settling the Land was not because of a rejection of the original divine promise but rather a reluctance to abandon the “luxury” of an exile where food was delivered to their doorstep on a daily basis (except Shabbat) and most other daily decisions were made for them. All of a sudden the masses faced the daunting prospect of defending their sovereignty against implacable enemies, creating a structure to settle and develop the territory, provide food and other services and struggle to sustain a governable society.
The bounty of the land was so evident (flowing with milk and honey) and overwhelming that the spies had no alternative but to bring back samples of the produce. However, what the majority could and did do was to create doubt and panic by reporting in graphic detail the perceived strength of the occupiers already ensconced there and the formidable struggle to exist and make a living. In order to clinch negative perceptions in the minds of the people, the ten spies described in graphic detail the weakness and (in their minds) the hopeless situation of even trying to enter the land. Describing themselves as “grasshoppers” as opposed to the resident “giants” had the immediate effect of panicking the multitudes and created the required reluctance to make aliyah.
We all know the resultant consequences.
It took another 40 years of wandering in the desert and the demise of a whole generation of ex-slaves (except for Joshua and Caleb) and the death of Moses before our ancestors were deemed ready, willing and able to take possession of Eretz Israel and establish sovereignty. Despite subsequent strife and exiles the centrality of Israel and Jerusalem was firmly established so much so that against seemingly overwhelming odds the land never was entirely bereft of Jews again.
One would have thought given all these historical precedents and experiences that anyone who self-identifies as a Jew these days might acknowledge the lunacy of divorcing from any connection to the place promised to our Patriarchs and Matriarchs.
Disagreement with the political policies of any particular Government is perfectly normal and is indulged in by Israeli citizens as is their democratic right. I am not even referring to the same excuses as used by the spies such as the “impossibility of making a decent living, learning a different language and having to defend the country” all possibly valid reasons for postponing aliyah at a particular moment.
Preferring to live in places where one is always a vulnerable minority and where the noxious winds of hate are swirling is unfortunately a genetic fault that far too many keep repeating at their continual peril. Perhaps that explains the recent survey conducted by the European Jewish Association which asked “which is the best European country for Jews to live in?” One would think that given past and current events no country in Europe should be classified as a safe haven for Jews.
The real and present scandal is the total distancing, delegitimizing and refusal to support the very concept of Jews being sovereign in their own country. It is the twisted logic of supporting each and every struggle for national independence for everyone except Jews.
This warped way of thinking spans the spectrum from those who are still waiting for a free airline ticket from the Messiah all the way to those who have no active connection to anything remotely resembling a Jewish affiliation and have the urge to deny national sovereignty to Jews. All of a sudden from out of the assimilationist woodwork we have individuals and groups popping up and working hard to shmutz the very concept of Jewish independence in a place that resonates with so many historical connections.
Adopting the slogans and narratives of discredited radical non-Jewish copycats those who accuse Israel of being illegitimate, born in sin and practitioners of apartheid and racist colonialism are all liberally funded by an assortment of well-known sources. Funds provided by various European and Scandinavian foundations plus the money received from UN entities and known extreme progressive circles all help to keep the torrent of Israel hate flowing. Hand in hand with a complicit media, the campaign to create a horror image of the Jewish State releases its poison into the mainstream.
The phenomenon of those who willingly or unwittingly work side by side with known Jew-haters to denigrate and disparage is not something new. It has been around for millennia.
Although the views expressed are repugnant it is important to know exactly what is being peddled.
The New York Jewish Week reported that Jewish board members of NYU LSJP – NY University law students for justice in Palestine – issued a statement “in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation”. “Zionist violence is done in our name.” They go on to declare that “Zionism is not Judaism. It is a racist, imperialist, white supremacist ideology, not a religious movement.”
This presses all the extreme progressive buttons. It would be interesting to know, given the over 70% assimilation rate among non-Orthodox American Jews, how many of the students involved are actually Jewish, how many are religious and how many have actually visited Israel. They speak in the name of Judaism and the oppressed Palestinians but I wonder how many of them have any meaningful involvement with their religion or have researched the real factual history of the Jewish connection to Israel instead of being brainwashed by prevailing revisionist dogmas.
The Jewish NGO Jewish Voices for Peace wrote a series of posts on its social media accounts which sum up the self-flagellating and outright lies now being promoted as infallible articles of faith.
“Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and victims of Terrorism and Independence Day were created to promote harmful Zionist narratives that Jews can only be protected through militarism, colonialism and apartheid and to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Israeli leaders intentionally designed the sequence of these fabricated, secular holidays timing them to fall just after Passover on the Jewish calendar. Unlike other holocaust days, Israel’s Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day celebrates Jews’ justified armed resistance to Nazism and disturbingly and wrongly connects it to the inexcusable mass murder and expulsion of Palestinians by Zionist militias i.e. the Nakba.
The Zionist state-building narrative reaches a climax the next day on Yom Ha’Atzmaut or Independence Day which commemorates the creation of Israel in 1948. By pairing its memorial to fallen soldiers with its statehood celebration Israel reinforces the myth of Jews as perennial victims who need a militarized state to protect us.”
If you managed to read all this you will get some idea of the screwy logic that is being promoted by some “Jews.”
The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation hosted a Nakba event in Tel Aviv on the eve of Yom Ha’Atzmaut calling for “dezionization.” In case you don’t understand this word it basically means the dismantlement of Israel as the nation State of the Jewish People.
There you have it in a nutshell. Those extreme left Jewish supporters who took part, advocate the self-destruction of Israel and presumably all its Jewish citizens.
You may be interested to know that this Foundation is linked to the German Left Party (Die Linke) and also receives funding from the budget of the German Government. Draw your own conclusions from that.
It is abundantly apparent that the bad-mouthing of Israel which started with the 10 spies has survived and mutated to this very day.
The Israelites of Joshua and Caleb’s day panicked into believing the worst about Israel with subsequent dire results.
Hopefully, todays and future generations have learned the lessons of their ancestors’ actions and will consign these modern purveyors of lies and slanders to where they belong.
‘UNRWA teachers… saying things like ‘slaughter them all’ and teaching this to students’
The United States and other Western states are poised to pledge more funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – UNRWA – against the backdrop of a recent report that found educators from the agency were promoting violence and antisemitism online.
Human rights organization UN Watch submitted its findings on Thursday ahead of a funding conference for UNRWA, where countries are expected to pledge hundreds of millions of dollars.
In its latest report, the NGO cited over 20 new examples of UNRWA teachers and staff in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan supporting terrorist groups, violence against Jews and Israelis, and antisemitism on social media.
“We are exposing Facebook posts that show how UNRWA teachers call for the murder of ‘filthy Zionists,’ saying things like ‘slaughter them all’ and ‘not one should be left over,’ and teaching this to students,” Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director, told i24NEWS.
Neuer’s agency further urged funders – including Germany, Britain, and the European Union – to stop paying for UNRWA teachers “who teach to murder Jews.”
One case in the report named Lebanese teacher Elham Mansour, who posted on Facebook: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy… All Israel deserves is death.”
The staff members are added to a list of more than 100 UNRWA educators who were exposed by UN Watch last year.
“We know when donor states demand change, they can accomplish something. We want to see teachers of antisemitism fired. The UNRWA needs to make it public,” Neuer said.
Israel’s envoy to the United Nations launched a fresh attack on Thursday upon UNRWA, the refugee agency solely dedicated to the Palestinians that was charged in a recent independent report with inciting antisemitism.
“Not only does UNRWA not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it causes enormous damage, incites hatred and terrorism and perpetuates the conflict, all under the auspices of the UN, which buries its head in the sand and refuses to see reality,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement on Thursday.
Arab terror against Israelis has been a constant presence for an extended period, with different “waves” of violence characterized, among other features, by various means of attack.
A combination of motivational “fuel” and environmental “triggers” determines when and how a particular attacker may choose to act.
Terrorist behavior can be understood as having different layers or levels, which produce “waves” of violence when triggered and acted upon.
Jewish and Arab Israelis differ in their perceptions of the threat represented by the general Israeli Arab population, resulting in lower perceptions of personal security among Jewish Israelis.
While some Arab sources condemn terror activity, others are more ambivalent, and others consciously incite and promote violence.
Clearly, social media and social networks have significantly increased the perception and presence of Arab anti-Israel incitement. They also cultivate a culture of Palestinian victimhood which adds psychological fuel to justify terror activity.
Social networks have also expanded the environments of individuals previously considered “lone wolves” to where they now enjoy widespread support in both the real world and in a “virtual” world.
Ultimately, the source of Palestinian terror activity lies in an ideology of rejectionism, with the intransigent refusal to come to terms with the existence of a Jewish state resulting in a culture of non-acceptance of the reviled Jewish “other.”
The extended virtual social environment of would-be Palestinian terrorists now means that, in reality, they are members of a more extensive “pack” rather than solo operators. This reality presents a significant challenge that calls for a proactive cyber campaign to counter terror.
In an address to the nation on March 30, 2022, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated that Israel is “experiencing a wave of murderous Arab terrorism.”1 And, as was common during previous waves, media reports contribute to the impression that the current wave may somehow be different from previous waves. In reality, while environmental factors relating to political, economic, or social factors may indeed be different, the common psychological denominator motivating and driving terrorist attackers, described by Yossi Kuperwasser as the “pillars of Palestinian national identity,”2 remains the same. As such, the “fuel-trigger” mix discussed in previous studies3 may include different “triggers,” but the psychological or ideological “fuel,” namely the intolerance of Israelis as the “other” and a willingness to act on that intolerance, remain the same.
So, while the picture may appear to be different, with different actors and different scenes, the storyline is essentially consistent. And while the factors related to the challenges presented by unorganized terrorists (often referred to as “lone wolves”) may be similar, the proliferation of social media coverage and social network incitement contribute to explaining why these actors choose a particular time to go into action.
What exactly is a “wave” of terror?
Media reports have accurately noted that the current series of attacks are among the deadliest since the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.4 But while the difference may be in the result, i.e., more deaths, the actual behavior in the field is not different from what many Israelis, especially those who live in Judea and Samaria, have been experiencing for years.
According to data compiled by “Rescuers Without Borders,” attacks against Israelis have been ongoing and steady for many months. The perceptual difference is that while most of the recent deadly attacks took place in Israel “proper [the pre-1967 boundaries],” most of the other attacks occurred either in Jerusalem or over the Green Line in Judea and Samaria. Take, for example, actions taken in December 2021. Data show 22 victims of stoning attacks, five more from shooting attacks, two from car-ramming, and five others from stabbings, with another seven attacks in Jerusalem.5 In January 2022, Rescuers Without Borders recorded over 400 attacks with 24 injured.6 A look at the daily register of events7 shows attacks routinely taking place that result in damage to both property and person. As noted by Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan, these incidents occur daily but are met with widespread silence.8 Moreover, these data do not even begin to take into consideration the sporadic terror activity, including incendiary balloons that were released in Gaza and sent into Israeli fields.
Screen shot of data compiled by “Rescuers Without Borders” from attacks against Israelis in December 2021.
A model for understanding terror “waves”
Imagine a house with a solid basement or foundation and several floors and levels above it. Terror activity among Palestinian Arabs has a basic “basement” or foundational baseline of constant threat, and different levels are exhibited at other times. At the base is a solid and steady presence among at least part of the population that not only supports terror activity, but actually engages in “baseline” behavior that includes confrontation from a distance and use of generally primitive yet potentially lethal weapons. This activity includes stone-throwing or the use of Molotov cocktails thrown at Jewish Israeli vehicles and buses in Judea and Samaria or the use of incendiary balloons flown into Israeli territory from Gaza.
The next level involves opportunistic use of “cold” but lethal weapons in direct, frontal attacks. This would include knifings and car-ramming targeting Jewish Israelis, especially in Judea and Samaria and in east Jerusalem. The transition to “hot” weapons and attacks inside the pre-1967 Israel is next, with shooting attacks being the most common method. While the transition to “hot” weapons includes the suicide/homicide bomber or the use of rockets or IEDs, these operations, while certainly an example of a different level of terror, are most often not a classical “lone wolf” situation because of logistic and planning issues and accomplices needed to transport them to the attacks.
Are more Arabs leaning toward terror?
Prime Minister Bennett specifically described the current wave as “Arab” terrorism. In the sense that Arabs are indeed the ones committing the attacks, that impression is accurate. But impressions can be misleading. The problem of ideology and mindset of an unorganized terrorist remains a challenge not because of the large number of Arabs who are potential terrorists but precisely because of the relatively low number of those who climb from the basement of basic violence to the second or the third floor of the terror house, making it challenging to identify the actual attackers. Despite the resultant horrific deaths, the recent hot weapons attacks referred to by Bennett involve only a handful of incidents committed by only a handful of attackers, while the “cold” weapons attacks noted earlier by Erdan involve many attacks by many attackers. A recent survey by N12 News9 brings to light the challenges to public confidence when reality and perception do not coincide.
The N12 survey asked Jewish and Arab Israelis their feelings regarding whether the perpetrators of the recent attacks are generally representative of Israeli Arabs. The results here point out the divide between Jewish and Arab Israelis concerning their views of each other and their views regarding terror.
Forty-four percent of Jewish Israelis felt that the Arabs who murdered Jews were representative of the general Arab population. However, with the Israeli Arab population, the results were markedly different, with only 13% feeling the attackers were representative of the general Arab population (and only 5% feeling they “greatly” represent the general Arab population).
Illustrations (Hebrew) from the N12 survey of attitudes among Jewish and Arab Israelis toward Arab terrorism.
This finding likely contributes to the other significant data in this survey, the finding that one-third of the Jewish population has doubts regarding personal safety/security. Even if one considers the more optimistic estimates of the Israeli Arab population, there are likely tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs who could be regarded as potential terrorists by a considerable part of the Jewish population. Add to this the numbers of Palestinian Arabs living inside the Green Line illegally or with work permits, and the actual numbers, even if relatively low, represent a significant threat.
Predicting terror activity
With so many potential terrorists, what determines if any particular individual will move from “believer” to “actor”? Here is where the unorganized would-be terrorist is nurtured by the perceived group support to which they are exposed. The organized hate indoctrination and incitement join with social media and social networks that provide the fuel and incitement to attack. These dangerous elements represent the community support system that extends far beyond one’s real social environment.
Our past studies10 have demonstrated that ideology is affected by one’s social environment. To the degree that one lives in an environment where terror activity is valued, sanctioned, and admired, any such activity by an individual is reinforced, making the behavior more likely to be modeled by others and repeat itself in the future. However, at least theoretically, should such activity be discouraged, devalued, and ostracized, that activity is less likely to be imitated by others.
Witness the reactions by various communities to the recent attacks. In the Israeli Bedouin town of Hura, home of the perpetrator of the Beersheba stabbing attack of March 22, 2022, that killed four, there was substantial “wall to wall” condemnation, with even special sessions in local schools to reinforce the unacceptability of such behavior.11 Contrast this to the widespread positive reaction to the event by terror groups on social media and social networks,12 demonstrating the possible break between the terrorist’s real world and his virtual world. For those living in the “real” world in Hura, turning to terror is a low probability, but for those whose life is centered in the virtual world of destructive social networks, terror activity is much more likely.
Negative reactions to the Hadera attack of March 27, 2002, were less forceful and demonstrated a different response. Although publicly condemning the shooting attack that killed two and wounded 12 perpetrated by two Umm al-Fahm residents, the Umm al-Fahm municipality also offered condolences to the attackers’ families.13 This is the same town where thousands participated in the funeral of three terrorists involved in a July 2017 incident in Jerusalem.14 Here, the reinforcing social environment extended into the real-life of the attackers, making the social support system for terror action much more concrete and actual.
As far as Palestinian Arabs (contrary to Israeli Arabs) are concerned, the social support of their virtual world is extensive. A recent report by the Meir Amit Center notes how Palestinian social media is “rife” with anti-Israel incitement. Referring to WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram, the report states: “They are probably one of the reasons young Palestinians have carried out terrorist attacks, copying what they have seen on the social media.”15 But there is also a “real world” support of terror activity that Palestinian Arabs are exposed to in their immediate social environments like schools, mosques, and public statements made by Palestinian Arab officials that serve to incite, promote, and ultimately reinforce terror activity.
One of many such examples is the following Palestinian report, translated by Palestinian Media Watch:
“Yesterday [April 10, 2022,] PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh participated in the [Ramadan] fast-breaking meal with female fighter (sic) Um Nasser Abu Hmeid (i.e., mother of terrorists responsible for at least 10 murders; see note below) at her home in Ramallah, in the presence of Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam.”16
Advancing terror activity from one level to another (from believer to perpetrator) is something that can (and is) being done by such activities, the timing of which is decided by Palestinian officials and organizations. Such activities may occur in “real-time” but are subsequently reflected in social media, providing a virtual audience for potential individual terrorists to act on the messages being promoted. The increase in terror activity seen subsequent to such Palestinian activities and pronouncements is not a coincidence.
For example, read the statement made by Hamas leader Yihya Sinwar17 specifically calling Palestinians to “carry out lone-wolf attacks; Israeli-Arabs should prepare their guns, cleavers, axes, knives.” Less than a week later, on Israel Independence Day, two such “lone wolves” mentioned by Sinwar did, in fact, carry out a fatal attack in Elad using axes and knives.18
The following illustration from the Meir Amit Center19 shows the various “ups and downs” or “waves” of significant terror activity (a significant attack is defined as involving shooting, stabbing, a vehicular attack, the use of IEDs, or a combination of the above; stones and Molotov cocktails thrown by Palestinians are not included) coinciding with specific events (e.g., May 2021, Operation Guardian of the Walls; March 2022, pre-Ramadan).
Significant Terrorist Attacks since January 2020
In fact, these “waves” are consistent and repetitive, as documented by additional data compiled by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.20
The virtual “pack”
The extensive presence of social media in the lives of potential terrorists creates a virtual support system that buttresses or, in the case of those where support in their real lives is minimal, supersedes their actual social environments. As a result, while they may be “lone wolves” when they carry out their actions, their behavior is actually more like a pack wolf, acting in concert with other members of the pack occupying a common virtual world. From a psychological perspective, while the fuel (i.e., motivation) to attack the “other” is constant, the “trigger” that determines when such an attack will take place is only a matter of what and how any potential terrorist interprets what they see on their personal cyber feeds and how the pack signals an attack.
While social media support for terror attacks is common in attacks against Israelis and Jews, it is not limited to them. The recent “lone wolf” attack in the New York City subway system is suspected of having been perpetrated by an individual with a broad and long social media presence.21 This, in essence, was his “real world,” and his activity and presence in this virtual social environment may have served to reinforce his behavior. A racially motivated terror attack in Buffalo, New York,22 was also perpetrated by a supposed “lone wolf” with an active social media presence who reportedly permitted a small group to join his private chatroom about 30 minutes before his fatal attack.23 In both cases, the perpetrators thus virtually socialized with their larger “pack.”
The fuel or motivation for terror activity has been part of Islamist and Palestinian ideology for some time. For example, the canard of “Al-Aqsa is in danger” has been used for decades and revived whenever a reliable and proven method to incite the Arab public is needed.24 Notwithstanding the understandable perception that recent attacks represent a new “wave,” the reality is that the number of attacks and the hateful anti-Israel ideology behind these attacks have been a constant in Palestinian Arab life for years. While real-life conditions and efforts by Arab leadership and society can undoubtedly influence and modify the frequency of terror activity, the addition of the amorphous cloud of social media allows lone wolves, even as a small minority of their society, to receive virtual support to act out and conduct attacks that can have effects far beyond the influence of any real-life situation they may be living in. This support can even take place after an attack as well. The ease with which perceived “lone wolves” can be “adopted” post-attack by others is exemplified by a fatal shooting attack on a security guard in the town of Ariel, thought by Israeli security forces to be a “lone wolf” type attack, only later to have responsibility claimed by Hamas, retrospectively creating a support system for the perpetrators and proactively creating a future support system for potential attackers.25 Added to the praise provided for specific attacks, even while not directly claiming responsibility,26 these actions create a system of post-event reinforcement that further raises the probability that others will carry out similar attacks.
Image from Arab-language social networks showing a banner saying “Happy (Israel) Independence Day” with an ax tearing through it.
The widespread employment of social media to incite and support terror has been recognized of late and expressed in related posts on various social media27 and noted specifically by those following Palestinian Arab media28 to include widespread use of WhatsApp groups.
What creates the “pack”?
The late terrorism expert and psychiatrist Jerold Post referred to the concept of “when hatred is bred into the bone” as explaining much of the social psychology of individual terrorists that creates a collective identity that is primary in determining socially accepted behavior.29 This conceptualization would also apply to today’s unorganized individual Palestinian “lone wolf” and help understand the mentality behind the brutal nature of some of the attacks (such as taking an ax to a random victim). According to Post, individual terror activity is not a result of some personal psychological defect or illness. In fact, Post argues that terror organizations screen out emotionally unstable individuals and that their members “are neither depressed, severely emotionally disturbed, nor are they crazed fanatics.”30 When Jerold Post refers to a “virtual community of hatred” created in cable news and the Internet, it would include any motivated individual that has access to these sources as being a potential terrorist. When a society, such as much of Palestinian society, sanctions and supports behavior associated with violence toward Israelis, a culture of hatred is created.
In Palestinian society, group psychology can determine individual behavior. What is sanctioned by the group becomes the standard for the individual. A prime example is the longstanding policy of the Palestinian Authority of financially supporting (and thus rewarding) terror behavior, including the behavior of unorganized individual terrorists.31 Therefore, any such individual action, even if not planned or officially sanctioned in advance, is effectively reinforced and incentivized by the group and becomes accepted as the norm. When added to the background messages of incitement common in Palestinian society and Arab-language social networks, the triggers for individual terror activity are set.
Eliminating unorganized individual terror in a society where such behavior is culturally acceptable would require a change in the relationship between the cost of such behavior and the benefit of abstaining from it. Currently, as pointed out by Kan 11 News correspondent Gal Berger,32 there is a well-oiled mechanism of Palestinian incitement, denial of the “other,” and cultivation of hatred that fits in squarely with the collective identity Post alludes to that can account for why individuals carry out organized terror attacks.
The role of “victimhood”
In many politically progressive circles, “victim blaming” is considered taboo. Originally applied to incidents involving sexual abuse,33 avoiding victim blaming has extended well beyond that to politically perceived “victims” as well. Defining the “victim” often takes place in a vacuum, where the perceived weaker party is automatically granted privileged status, leading them to be considered less responsible for any behavior they engage in that is ostensibly a reaction to their victimhood. The Palestinian narrative has taken advantage of this internally and externally and has cultivated a victimhood scenario where Israel is accused of mistreating prisoners34 and children,35 desecrating Al-Aqsa,36 engaging in apartheid,37 and carrying out massacres against Palestinians.38 These repetitive messages, where the truth is often clouded or distorted, result in a “big lie” mechanism impacting the Palestinian and Israeli Arab populations and potentially any sympathetic outside observer as well.
The quick rush to judgment after the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,39 when the respected Washington Post carried a headline that promoted the Al-Jazeera claim that she was intentionally targeted by the IDF (“American reporter killed by IDF, network says; IDF calls for inquiry”)40 is a prime example of a questionable victimhood paradigm adopted by a major news source. The Washington Post all but definitively blamed Israel by stating, ”based on video the Post filmed in Jenin, Abu Akleh and other journalists identified as press would likely have been visible from the IDF convoy’s position.”41 This was followed by media investigations by both CNN42 and the New York Times.43 CNN also assigned blame to Israel, writing that this was a “targeted attack” on the journalists. The Times report seemingly left the question of intentionality open, stating, “The Times found no evidence that the person who fired recognized Ms. Abu Akleh and targeted her personally. The Times was unable to determine whether the shooter saw that she and her colleagues were wearing protective vests emblazoned with the word Press.”44 Notwithstanding the still open question of which side is responsible for the death of Abu Akleh, the definitive assignment of intentionality to Israel (either by direct blame or strong suggestion) became a narrative that followed the Palestinian script. For the Palestinians, the actual facts surrounding the death of Abu Akleh became irrelevant as the opening narrative of Abu Akleh being a victim “assassinated in cold blood”45 became a truth that, true to a longstanding pattern, resulted in public disorder and confrontation with Israeli forces in Jerusalem46 that were broadcast prominently in the virtual world of social media.
Poster on the Fatah-Jenin Facebook page praising the “hero” of the Bnei Brak terror attack of March 29, 2022.
Maintaining this narrative is essential to Palestinian leadership, to the point of photoshopping any images of captured Palestinian terrorists to make them appear smiling and beaming with pride instead of forlorn and dejected.47 The terror activity is not only justified by the sense of victimhood, but it is also the way to overcome the impotence that comes with it and transform it into a feeling of omnipotence. This can be seen in other features that characterize Palestinian and Israeli Arabs these days, such as harassing Jews in public48 and challenging the security forces in sensitive friction locations (in Jerusalem,49 in Israeli universities,50 and in the mixed Jewish-Muslim cities,51 among other places).
As the virtual world of social networks expands, individuals not only are fed the fuel for action, but also can, in many cases, anonymously feed others and stir them into action. One recent example of the proliferation of “fashion statements” consistent with the “virtual pack” are t-shirts emblazoned with images of M16 rifles, like the one used in the Bnei Brak attack.52 A clothing store manager in Ramallah reported that he sold 12,000 of the shirts in a week. “The demand is terrifying,” he said.53
The popular M16 t-shirt for Palestinian youth. (PMW)54
With no borders, no controls, and no policing, the individual living in the virtual world of social networks operates within a limitless arena of whatever culture they choose. For many Palestinian Arabs, this virtual world of hate mirrors the society and environment they were raised in and still live in that, as explained by Kuperwasser and Lipner,55 does not accept the presence of a Jewish state anywhere within the area of Mandatory Palestine. As long as these worlds continue to exist as is, the motivation for unorganized terror activity will be present. Consequently, as also noted by counterterrorism expert Ely Carmon, a proactive and direct cyber campaign targeting the virtual world of terror is required to deal with the problem.56
The lone wolf is now, more than ever, a member of a dangerous and virtually invisible pack of wolves.
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
However, it lacks context:
1. US has frozen US funds for UNRWA education because UNRWA will not change its texts, as US-UNRWA accord of July 2021 has mandated
Today in New York, top donor states to
gather for UNRWA pledging conference
GENEVA, June 23, 2022 — As the U.S. and other Western states gather today at the United Nations in the presence of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to pledge funding for the UN agency that runs schools and social services for Palestinians, a watchdog group urged them to stop funding hundreds of UNRWA teachers and other employees who call to murder Jews.
Over 120 UNRWA educators and staff have been found to promote violence and antisemitism on social media, according to the latest report in a series published by the non-governmental organization UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva.
Entitled “UNRWA’s Teachers of Hate,” today’s report uncovers 20 new cases of virulent UNRWA staff incitement which violate the agency’s rules and stated values of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism.
UN Watch submitted the report today to EU foreign affairs commissioner Joseph Borell, and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, whose governments are among the top funders of UNRWA, and to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
UN Watch is calling on the agency’s major funders—including the U.S., Germany, the UK and the European Union—to ensure that none of their combined $1.2 billion of donations to UNRWA will fund teachers of hate, and to hold the agency accountable to its own standards and commitments.
As revealed in today’s report, UNRWA staff stationed in the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan are publicly inciting antisemitism and terrorism.
Among the educators who have used their personal social media channels to propagate hate:
UNRWA West Bank computer teacher Nihaya Awad endorsed Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians after last year’s war and encouraged Palestinian terrorists’ exploitation of child soldiers, in a May 21, 2021 post on Facebook. This was only two months after one of UNRWA’s directors, Gwyn Lewis, sent Ms. Awad a certificate of appreciation for her “fantastic efforts” as a “best performer” in UNRWA education. “We are proud that you are part of the UNRWA team,” wrote Lewis on March 23, 2021.
UNRWA Lebanon teacher Elham Mansour last month, on May 11, 2022, posted on Facebook that “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy….All Israel deserves is death.”
Two months ago, on April 15, 2022, this UNRWA teacher posted a message on Facebook addressed to “you filthy Zionists” in which she called on “the men of resistance” at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to “slaughter each and every one of you and toss you into the garbage heaps, because you are filthy, you contaminate any land you are in.”
Last year, on May 14, 2021, Ms. Mansour wrote: “Israel is evil. . . fight them and kill them, chase them everywhere, every corner, every street, our greatest enemy is Israel, death and destruction to you…”
Notably, Ms. Mansour’s posts are liked by several other UNRWA teachers, as was the case with many of the antisemitic UNRWA posts exposed in our prior reports. This underscores how the problem of UNRWA employing staff who propagate antisemitic hate and incitement is not merely due to “a few bad apples,” as UNRWA has claimed. The antisemitic poison is systemic.
UNRWA Jordan teacher Hana’a Daoud posted a photo of masked Hamas terrorists holding submachine guns and called on Muslims to “fight against the Jews, until a Jew will hide himself behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree will say: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”
These teachers of hate were funded last year by state donations to UNRWA including $338 million from the United States, $177 million from Germany, $118 million from the European Commission, $54 million from Sweden, $40 million from the UK, $32 million from Switzerland, $30 million from Norway, $28 million from France, $28 million from Canada, and $27 million from Netherlands.
UN Watch’s report documents 20 new cases of antisemitic incitement that it captured from UNRWA employees’ public pages alone, all celebrating and promoting violence, even among young children.
The report only examined a sample of Facebook users who publicly identified themselves as UNRWA employees, and therefore UN Watch estimates that the number of UNRWA staff who incite violence and hatred includes hundreds if not thousands among the agency’s 30,000 staff.
Comment by UN Watch
UN Watch further reveals that despite its numerous prior requests and submission of detailed evidence, UNRWA has failed to fire teachers who incite to racism and terrorism.
“UNRWA should therefore be considered complicit in its staff members’ misconduct, says UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
“Around the world, educators who incite hate and violence are removed. Yet UNRWA, despite proclaiming ‘zero tolerance’ for incitement, systematically employs preachers of anti-Jewish hate and terrorism.
“We call on the governments that fund UNRWA, as they gather at the United Nations to announce new pledges, to declare that they will stop enabling a system that teaches new generations of Palestinians to hate and murder Jews.”
“Let us be clear: the problem is not the social media posts, but rather the unconscionable employment of teachers who preach antisemitism and terrorism.”
“The U.S., EU, Germany, UK, Canada and other donor states cannot morally send more money to UNRWA until it shows a genuine commitment to basic norms of education in its schools. This means the agency must publicly condemn UNRWA employees who incite terrorism and antisemitism, remove them from their positions, and create an independent and impartial investigation of all of its staff.”
UNRWA’s response to previous cases exposed in the past was to deny or downplay the problem, and to attack the messenger. Only when pressed by donors did UNRWA carry out a small number of investigations which led to a handful of temporary staff suspensions.
“A mere slap on the wrist to teachers of hate only sends the message that it’s business as usual. Instead, those who incite to racism or murder should be fired, under a zero tolerance policy, just as the UK government banned a teacher from the classroom for life over an antisemitic Facebook post,” said Neuer.
UN WATCH APPEAL TO MEMBER STATES FOR OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
On the occasion of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to UNRWA, United Nations, 23 June 2022
On the occasion of today’s international pledging conference for UNRWA, we appeal to the U.S., EU, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and other donor states to exercise their duty of oversight by demanding basic accountability from the agency.
They should ask UNRWA why it continues to employ teachers of hate as documented in today’s new report.
In addition, they should request information from UNRWA as to what if any UNRWA actions were taken in wake of last year’s UN Watch report, which called for UNRWA to fulfill its promise of “zero tolerance” by dismissing any UNRWA teacher who glorifies antisemitic hatred or terrorism. To date, however, we have not received any direct response from UNRWA.
A. Reported UNRWA Suspension of 6 Employees for Inciting Antisemitism
According to reports in Al Jazeera and The New Arab, UNRWA last year suspended a handful of employees, placing them on paid leave, pending an investigation into the findings of UN Watch’s report that documented incitement of antisemitism and terrorism.
UNRWA media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna said that employees against whom allegations were proven would be subject to “graduated penalties according to the case, such as warning, dismissal or other administrative procedures,” reported Al Jazeera.
Confusingly, however, no statement was ever published on the UNRWA website. For UNRWA donors to properly follow-up on this report, they need to request clarifications by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the following:
1. Of the 113 UNRWA teachers and other staff identified in Annex A of our report for glorifying antisemitism or terrorism, which, if any, have been suspended?
2. If indeed only six of the 113 perpetrators have been suspended, Mr. Lazzarini should be asked to identify which of the 107 UNRWA teachers and staff listed in Annex A are still employed by UNRWA. For example, we need to know about:
· Ghanem Naim Ghoneim, UNRWA teacher who venerates Hitler
· Ahmad Fareed Sultan, UNRWA teacher who glorifies terrorists
· Ibrahim Sabbagh, UNRWA teacher who incites terrorist violence
· Mudalalah Louz, UNRWA school principal who calls to destroy Israel · Mohammad Alsayyed, UNRWA head teacher who celebrates abduction and murder of Israelis
· Omar Asaad, UNRWA employee who glorifies Hitler
· Hatem Asaad, UNRWA employee who praises terrorists
· Mohamad Fahed, UNRWA employee who endorses murder of Jewish boys · Mohamed Alhallaq, UNRWA teacher who glorifies terrorist groups
· Tarek Abu Ghazaleh, UNRWA employee who celebrates murder of rabbis · Hussam Khattib, UNRWA teacher who endorses murder of Israeli civilians · Mohamed Soliman, UNRWA teacher who glorifies Hitler and stabbings
3. Why were the suspended employees placed on paid leave?
4. What criteria determine whether an UNRWA employee who incites antisemitic hatred or terrorism receives a warning, dismissal or other disciplinary measure
5. Given that UNRWA proclaims “zero tolerance” for “hatred, incitement to violence or discrimination” and a “zero-tolerance policy” for “any deviation from UN principles,” why are teachers found to have publicly incited antisemitic hatred and terrorism not being permanently removed from the classroom?
6. Does UNRWA have a vetting procedure in place to prevent the hiring of teachers who promote antisemitic hatred, violence or discrimination, and if so what is it?
7. When the UN Human Rights Council president made the unprecedented move of cutting off UN Watch’s testimony on UNRWA incitement, was this censorship preceded by a request or other communication from UNRWA?
B. Defaming Those Who Uncover UNRWA Misconduct
Member States should firmly reject UNRWA’s contradictory approach toward independent efforts of oversight and accountability, including reports that document racist teachers employed by the agency.
On the one hand, in wake of UN Watch’s latest report, UNRWA stated that it “takes each allegation seriously”; “has immediately launched a thorough investigation”; is “concerned” that “some of the posts violate our rules and policies”; and pledged “immediate administrative or disciplinary action” should misconduct be found. Moreover, UNRWA stated that “oversight and accountability of any organization is vital” and that the agency “welcomes future opportunities of assessment.” (UNRWA statement on United Nations Watch allegations, 8/5/2021).
On the other hand, on several occasions—in his own capacity as Commissioner-General—Mr. Lazzarini has resorted to ad hominem attacks on the human rights work of United Nations Watch. On June 30th, for example, he told UNRWA’s donor states that reports documenting UNRWA staff incitement to violence or antisemitism constitute “irrational allegations,” and he characterized this form of oversight and accountability as “political attacks that seek to undermine [UNRWA’s] legitimacy as a way to erode the rights of Palestine refugees”—from which UNRWA needed to be “shielded” by donor states. (Commissioner-General’s opening statement to UNRWA Advisory Commission, 6/30/2021)
Likewise, following UN Watch’s latest report documenting incitement to antisemitism and terrorism by 113 UNRWA teachers and other staff, UNRWA’s initial response was to lash out and falsely defame this human rights group as “an organization with a deep history of unfounded and politically-driven assertions against the Agency.” (UNRWA statement on United Nations Watch allegations, 8/5/2021) Not one example of such “unfounded” or “politically-driven” assertions has ever been provided.
Less than two weeks later, Mr. Lazzarini reported to the UN General Assembly that UNRWA faced “intense politically motivated attacks” which he said “sought to question its mandate, its relevance and the integrity of its staff” primarily through “attacks on the quality of the education that Palestine refugee children receive.” (Commissioner-General’s report to the General Assembly, 8/18/2021)
In practice, it would seem that UNRWA is refusing to engage with the extensive research and documentation of UN Watch which demonstrates UNRWA’s failure to apply its purported “zero tolerance” policy toward teachers who incite racism and violence, while at the same time seeking to kill the messenger by maliciously defaming UN Watch for providing a minimal form of oversight that UNRWA itself has failed to exercise.
This report documents systematic incitement to antisemitism and terrorism by teachers, school principals and other staff at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and calls on its major funders, including the U.S., Germany, the UK and the European Union, to finally hold UNRWA accountable to its own rules and commitments.
1. (a) In this Law, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious (hereinafter referred to as “group”), as such:
(1) killing members of the group;
(2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(3) inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part;
(4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
(b) In subsection (a), “child” means a person under eighteen years of age.
2. A person guilty of genocide shall be punishable with death; provided that if he committed the act constituting the offence under circumstances which, but for section 6, would exempt him from criminal responsibility or would be a reason for the offence, and he tried to the best of his ability to mitigate the consequences of the act, be shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years.
3. (a) A person guilty of any of the following acts shall be treated like a person guilty of genocide:
(1) conspiracy to commit genocide;
(2) incitement to commit genocide;
(3) attempt to commit genocide;
(4) complicity in genocide.
(b) The terms “conspiracy”, “incitement” and “attempt” in subsection (b) shall be construed with reference to the provisions of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 19361).
(0) For the purpose of subsection, (a)(4), a person shall be deemed to have taken part in genocide if he is so deemed under section 23(l)(b), (e) or (d) of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936.
4. A person guilty of an offence under this Law shall be punished whether he is a legally responsible ruler, a member of a legislative body, a public official or a private individual.
5. A person who has committed outside Israel an act which is an offence under this Law may be prosecuted and punished in Israel as if he had committed the act in Israel.
6. The provisions of sections 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936, shall not apply to offences under this Law.
7. The provisions of Part I of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936, shall apply to offences under this Law insofar as this Law does not otherwise provide.
8. Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Law, in considering the extradition of a person charged with, or convicted of, genocide or any of the acts enumerated in section 3(a), the plea that the offence with which such person is charged, or of which he has been convicted, is an offence of a political character shall not be entertained.
9. The Minister of Justice is charged with the implementation of this Law.
10. This Law, which is consequent upon the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (2) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 7th Kislev, 5709 (9th December, 1948), signed on behalf of and, in accordance with a decision of the Knesset, ratified by the State of Israel – shall come into force on the date of its publication in Reshumot and shall remain in force whether or not the Convention comes into or remains in force.
DAVID BEN-GURION Prime Minister
PINCHAS ROSEN Minister of Justice
CHAIM WEIZMANN President of the State
_______________
* Passed, by the Knesset on the 11th Nisan, 5709 (29th March 1950), and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 42 of the 20th of Nisan 5710 (7th April 1950), p. 137; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza’ot Chok no. 27 of the 23rd Kislev, 5710 (14th December 1949), p. 37.
1) P.G. No. 652 of the 14th December, 1936, Suppl.. I, p. 285 (English Edition).
2) Kitvei Amana No. 5 of the 15th Kislev, 5710 (6th December 1949), p. 66.
Jurisdiction: This law gives Israeli courts jurisdiction for genocide committed outside Israel in the same way as if the crime were committed within Israel.
I am currently reading a most interesting book which reveals in graphic detail the shameful behaviour of the US Administration in particular and other nations in general prior and subsequent to the election of the Nazis in Germany.
The book is entitled “All the frequent troubles of our days” and as the front cover blurb explains it is “the true story of the American woman at the heart of the German resistance to Hitler.” The author, Rebecca Donner, is a relative of the woman concerned and her brilliant revelations are backed up by letters and documents hitherto unseen.
Why am I recommending that everyone should read this book?
If you are paying any attention to what is happening at present you will become eerily aware that the same sordid events that accompanied the rise of Jew-hate in Germany, Europe, the UK and the USA in the 1930s are once again rampaging and increasing.
However, it is not just the worrying phenomenon of Jew/Israel hate which has resurfaced but the same ineffectual, deliberate denial and too little too late countermeasures which are being recycled from the dregs of past failures.
There is also something else that carries with it the stench of the same political hypocrisy so clearly articulated in this “must read” book and which characterized the failed (non) efforts to support and save the doomed Jews of Europe.
These factors include:
A refusal by far too many potential victims to recognize imminent threats.
An apathetic and generally disinterested attitude by the general population.
A barrage of non-stop delegitimization facilitated by the media.
The double standards of democratic countries which spouted meaningless slogans and then stood idly by.
The deliberate hostility and hardly suppressed animosity of Foreign Ministries and their representatives to help Jews in distress and danger.
The complete failure by international bodies to combat and thwart Jew-hate.
The refusal of democracies to stand up to bullies and human rights abusers.
As events in the 1930s make clear the few brave and honest souls who stood up to tyranny and helped Jews were eventually themselves sacrificed on the altar of indifference.
One of the glaring similarities highlighted in the book and so apparent today was the refusal of the Roosevelt Administration and State Department to believe and act on the alarming reports being transmitted from their own ambassador in Berlin. In fact the more that the US Ambassador sounded the alarm about what was happening to not only Jews but also opponents of the regime and the more he warned Washington of the German preparations being made for war, the greater the sense of denial enveloped officials.
No amount of first-hand evidence of the gathering storm was sufficient to dispel the pervasive mood of appeasement and total disinterest in doing anything about it. Unfortunately, a submissive American Jewish leadership that viewed FDR as a latter-day messiah contributed to the total failure to prevent subsequent catastrophe.
If we fast forward to today and bearing in mind the stark evidence revealed in this book, we should start to get a sense that we have been down this dead-end path previously.
The third-largest political party in the current South African Parliament has declared that “Israel is an evil State which must be destroyed as a matter of urgency.”
The main Jewish newspaper in South Africa has been expelled from the country’s main press body for failing to apologise and withdraw its criticism of a recently published cartoon in the South African printed media about BDS which it described as antisemitic.
One would think that these two examples in addition to other manifestations of knee-jerk anti-Israel rhetoric might be enough to galvanize the country’s Jews to question their mid to long-term future in the country. The signs are loud and clear just as they were back in Germany and the rest of Europe prior to the Shoah. Ignoring the obvious and hoping that the “good times” will continue is a doomed strategy.
Just ask the Jews who stay in Russia and Ukraine today. The Moscow Chief Rabbi has fled to Israel because of his opposition to the Russian invasion of its neighbour. Quite correctly, he felt unsafe living in a country which treats dissenting citizens as a threat and deals with them accordingly.
What are the remaining Jews in Russia and Ukraine waiting for?
Today, unlike in the recent past, there are several options for Jews fleeing for their lives. Some have opted to seek a haven in Germany which is analogous to leaping from the frying pan into the fire. A German Jewish leader stated last week that “right-wing extremism is endangering the Community.” Given recent history this revelation should not come as any surprise yet for far too many Jews the Fatherland still offers an illusory haven.
As Iran and North Korea with the tacit support of China and Russia, thumb their collective noses at the rest of the world and march resolutely forward towards nuclear blackmail, the democracies dither and desperately seek to accommodate those whose agenda is plain and simple.
What are Biden and others waiting for?
Don’t recent similar scenarios clearly point how this is going to end if current appeasement continues?
Following the latest UNHRC display of obsessive anti-Israel syndrome, twenty-two countries have issued a statement condemning the one-sided targeting of the Jewish State. Take note that of 193 UN member nations only 22 could be gathered together to point out the obvious, namely that Israel, the nation-State of the Jewish People is being selected for permanent sanction.
Notably missing from this list was Australia although its Ambassador did express diplomatic reservations about the obsessive one-sided condemnation. One wonders why given these verbal comments Australia did not formally sign on to the statement. Are they hoping to have “a bob each way?”
New Zealand of course was once again missing in action but by now this comes as no surprise.
We no longer have the luxury of hoping that inaction and myopia will make dangers vanish. Read the book I mentioned at the beginning of my op-ed and see how misplaced naivety can be lethal.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
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