Hamas, the Road to 7th October 2023

In this chapter I will examine the changes in the ethos of conflict of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, following the generational revolution in the Hamas leadership that resulted from the exchange deal with Israel in 2011, in which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons in exchange for a single Israeli soldier. During the decades of their imprisonment, the released prisoners, all members of the Hamas military branch, had undergone a process of militant radicalization, increased religious-based patriotic national beliefs and preparation towards integration into the leadership of Hamas. They considered themselves the jihad generation .

Under the leadership of Yahya Synwar, the new leadership of those released from prison developed. In a short period of time, Synwar succeeded in gaining control of the Hamas leadership. In the midst of the religious Dawa and national indoctrination, whose core was the cultivation and assimilation of the right of return to pre-1948 Palestine, he recruited a new generation of jihadists and by applying a strategy of gradual escalation, paved the way for the attack on the 7th of October 2023, triggering the Middle East into warmongering chaos.

The Dead Sea Museum launches an unprecedented series of NFTs

 The Dead Sea Dead Sea Museum, an art museum to be built in Arad, has launched its first NFT collection of sea photos. The project was led by environmental and artistic activist Noam Bedein, founder of  the Dead Sea Dead Sea Revival Project.

The collection of 100 selected images, called Genesis NFT, highlights the beauty that “disappears from  the Dead Sea to raise environmental awareness about the world wonder,” according to a statement from the museum.

Via OpenSea

Bedein is the first to document the site of the Dead Sea World Heritage by boat only and has a database of more than 25.000 photos from the last six years. The images show a rarely seen side of the lowest point on earth.

The auction of these NFTs took place on March 22, in line with World Water Day. All proceeds from the sale will be used for museum planning and for legal and legislative efforts to restore  Dead Sea water.

Images from the collection can be seen here.

15 minute compilation of our movies which weshall present for the legislative bodies of UNRWA donor nations and the Knesset.

15 minute compilation of our movies which we shall present for the legislative bodies of UNRWA donor nations and the Knesset.

People do  not have the patience to wade through 20 movies to discern evidence of incitement and indoctrination in unrwa schools and summer camps.
 
 
So we have now commissioned a 15 minute compilation of our  movies which weshall present for the legislative bodies of UNRWA donor nations and the Knesset.

 

 בעברית: HEBREW

 
 באנגלית: ENGLISH

 

Israel, Jews and Peace in Schoolbooks and Teachers’ Guides Used in UNRWA Schools in Judea, Samaria,East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip

Introduction
  • The schoolbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA) are mandatorily used in all areas of Judea, Samaria, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem (In schools that follow the PA curriculum) – in government, private and UNRWA schools. The books surveyed here are of the latest edition and are used in the current school year. They were mostly published in 2020. Teachers’ guides, mostly published in 2018, were examined as well. They shed special light on the PA indoctrination process which is also applied in UNRWA schools.
  • There are three fundamentals in these books related to the conflict:
  • De-Legitimization of the State of Israel’s existence and of the mere presence of its Jewish citizens in the country, which also includes denial of their history and the very existence of their holy places there.
  • Demonization of Israel, as well as the Jews – not only in the context of the conflict, but also from a religious point of view, which carries grave implications as far as the Jews’ image is concerned in the eyes of Palestinian children who mostly grow up in a traditional society.
  • Absence of any advocacy for peace with Israel. Instead, the books call for a violent struggle for the liberation of the country in its entirety, including Israel’s territory within its pre-1967 boundaries. This struggle is given a religious character, and terror constitutes an integral part thereof – with the accompanying meaning that the killing of Jews is to be encouraged.
  • Following are selected examples of these three fundamentals taken from schoolbooks and teachers’ guides in use in UNRWA’s school system (grades 1-10).

Pariahs

When the morally degenerate international community brands the world’s only Jewish nation as a pariah you can guarantee that it won’t stop there.

The next step is to label the Jewish People as pariahs.

This word is commonly defined as “someone who is avoided or not accepted by a social group, especially because he or she is not liked, respected or trusted. Basically, they are an outcast.”

Looking back over the last two thousand years or so does this not perfectly fit the attitudes and actions of the rest of the world towards their local Jewish inhabitants? I did not use the word “citizens” because, for much of that period, Jews were denied full civil rights. Even when full citizenship was grudgingly given, it did not, in the long run, guarantee any equal opportunity for a safe and tranquil future.

The oppressed masses that fled from the pogroms of Russia, Poland and other hate-soaked European countries to the seemingly welcome shores of the Golden Medina (America) quickly discovered that university quotas existed to keep them out of the Ivy League universities and medical schools. Eventually, after much hardship and effort, these new immigrants clawed their way up the economic ladder, with some of them acquiring an acceptable status in society.

This acceptability was always going to be transient. With Jewish refugees from Nazism shut out and large vocal support for fascism and isolationism those who thought that pariah status was a thing of the past started to worry. The horrors of the Holocaust and post-war euphoria for re-establishing Jewish sovereignty seemed to herald a new golden era for American Jewry.

Recent realities should have shattered these myopic mirages not only in the USA but also on every continent where the ancient virus has reawakened with renewed deadly effects.

Pariah status has once again become the designated label by which the Jewish State and Jews worldwide are becoming known.

For those in the Diaspora who had been seduced by a few years of tolerance and tranquillity, this restored reality has come as a shattering shock. Once released from the bottle the genies of hate cannot be put back. No amount of wishful thinking and sweeping under the carpet will banish the brutal truth that dangerous times are here again.

Who could have imagined that universities would once again morph into bastions of Jew hate with mobs demanding that the likes of Hillel and Chabad be banned because they “support” Israel? Slogans daubed on Jewish school walls and gunfire directed at such places has become a daily feature. In some countries, the police stand helplessly by as demonstrators hurl vile invective and shout the most deranged chants against Jews.

One of the most bizarre phenomena is those purporting to be Jews who have joined these groups mouthing slanderous lies against Israel.

This shameful spectacle is only surpassed by the sight of self loathers participating in mass orgies of organized hate festivities. One can understand the actions of Jewish communities who are virtual hostages in their respective countries. The Jews of Iran have no alternative but to show solidarity with their Government. We could question why they are still residing there. However, the sight of Neturei Karta leaders from overseas marching in solidarity with mobs shouting death to Israel and mourning the demise of Iran’s President highlights an incurable malady.

Some worry that being labelled a pariah is akin to a death sentence.

That is exactly what our accusers want us to be afraid of because by succumbing to this bogey, we help the haters achieve their aims. If only Jews would surrender en masse, lie down and disappear the rest of the world could do what it does best. Eulogizing us and perhaps standing for a minute’s silence will follow, although given today’s reality, that is not guaranteed.

The fact that Israelis fight back is something the rest of the world finds intolerable, especially as the age-old Jewish default position was one of defenceless submission.

When the real pariah nations are themselves getting away with murder and escaping any sort of retribution you know that there is something seriously wrong.

When UN members stand in silent tribute to the deceased “butcher of Tehran” and democratic leaders issue nauseating obituaries, you should be able to detect more than a whiff of craven appeasement.

When reports suggest that the Biden Administration is urging allies not to rebuke and censure Iran over its nuclear duplicity, it is obvious that nothing serious will be done to thwart their genocidal ambitions.

When the head of the IAEA plaintively reveals that Iran is not cooperating and has almost reached nuclear breakout capability and the rest of the world reacts by yawning, it is time to prepare for action.

When the failed Government of South Africa hauls Israel in front of the ICJ and all the other real pariah nations line up to the lynching, you can surmise that the lunatics have already taken over the asylum.

When Israel’s Ministers are threatened with arrest warrants while countless leaders of countries engaging in real genocidal acts against their own citizens and others get away with murder, it is patently obvious that something rotten is festering.

The German Chancellor was asked to respond to the threat of international arrest warrants against Israel’s officials. He responded that Germany would, if such warrants were issued, comply with its demands. This response shocked some naïve people but in reality they should not have been surprised. Germans have a proven track record when it comes to following orders against Jews, no matter how illegal and outrageous they may be.

Take the recent decision of Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognize a fake Palestine based on equally fake 1967 “borders” with Jerusalem as its Capital.

The name Quisling will always be associated with Norway because he and the Norwegian Nazis made every effort to persecute and deport Norwegian Jews to concentration camps. Jews were made pariahs and ended up paying the ultimate sacrifice. The name Oslo will forever be associated with one of the greatest acts of folly to be perpetrated against Israel.

Ireland’s refusal to join the war against Germany and remain neutral was a symptom of the deep hate that the Irish nationalists had against the British. Irish hypocrisy reached a peak when following Hitler’s death, the Irish Government issued official condolences to the Nazi administration, which only had a short while to exist. Today, Irish support for the terror aspirations of the PLO/Hamas and their associated willing partners is expressed in joining every anti-Israel condemnation.

Spain has a long and sordid history of turning Jews into pariahs with its inquisitions, forced conversions and mass expulsion. For a very short while it seemed that a golden age for Jews had returned but current policies threaten to return the situation back to the bad old days.

Proof that recognizing “Palestine” plays into the hands of those whose agenda is the eradication of Jews “from the river to the sea” can be seen in the map published by the PA’s Fatah movement. In thanking countries for recognition the map shows the whole of Israel “from the river to the sea” as Palestine. This is the reality which Norway, Spain and Ireland and no doubt the rest of the UN have signed up to.

Those who lemming-like to yearn to reward terrorists with yet another terror State should take note of what Ernest Bevin stated in 1947. The British Foreign Secretary at the time and certainly no friend of Jews and their desire to regain sovereignty made this statement as the UK prepared to give up the mandate.

“HM Government has been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles. For the Jews the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in ANY part of mandated Palestine.”

 Take note that this statement was made after the Arabs rejected the very notion of an Arab State living in democratic peace and tranquility with a Jewish State.

If Ernest Bevin could understand the fundamental agenda of the rejectionist Arabs, what is it that today’s sponsors of a terror State do not want to internalize?

The simple answer is that they prefer to trip down the well-worn path of tarring Israel, the historic State of the Jewish People, with the age-old badge of being a pariah.

We have suffered and survived this appellation many times during our long historical journey.

I have no doubts that we will do so again well after our adversaries have been trashed and vanished.

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.

Letter By David Matas To Standing Committee On Justice And Human Rights, House Of Commons Re: U Of M Medical College Convocation

Letter of May 26 written by David Matas, and supported by Winnipeg Friends of 

Jean-François Lafleur,
Clerk of the committee
Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights
House of Commons
Parliament of Canada

May 26, 2024

Dear Jean-Francois Lafleur,

Re: The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights should recommend that post-secondary institutions should allow for rebuttal of antisemitic discourse emanating from their platforms   

The valedictory speech of Gem Newman on May 16th, 2024 at the convocation of the Medical College of the University of Manitoba provides an illustration, showing why the implementation of such a recommendation would be useful.  The typical valedictory speech reminds the students of their past years of study and welcomes them into the future for which their studies have prepared them.  This valedictory address instead engaged in a one-sided diatribe.

The speech itself was short.  Yet a text explaining everything that was wrong with it would be lengthy.

To take one example, in an excerpt from one sentence, the speaker asked the students in his audience “to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people everywhere  … in Palestine, where Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease.”  This excerpt is rife with inaccuracies.

For one, Jews are indigenous to Israel, living there since pre-historic times, centuries before the advent of Islam, with a continuous presence to the current day. To suggest that solidarity with the indigenous somehow favours Palestinians is a denial of reality.

For another, the existence of Palestine as a state is not recognized by the Government of Canada and 46 other states.  One could argue that Canada and other states should recognize Palestine.  However, to assume that this recognition already exists is inaccurate.

Third, Israel has not deliberately targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.  What Israel has deliberately targeted is Hamas, because of its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, its murder of 1,139, its mass rapes during that attack and the kidnapping of over 240 hostages. The valedictory speech mentions none of this.

The reason that hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have suffered when Israel responded to the Hamas October 7th attack is entirely the fault of Hamas. At or near civilian infrastructures, Hamas stores and uses arms and rockets, runs command operations, mingles without uniforms with the civilian population, builds tunnels and tunnel entrances, uses civilians as human shields and threatens, exhorts and prevents civilians from fleeing when Israel warns of an impending attack, as Israel systematically does.

Fourth, the figure of more than 35,000 casualties the speaker mentioned is a Hamas Health Ministry clumsily concocted statistical fabrication.  The casualty figures, whatever they are, includes thousands of Hamas operatives, a number of which Hamas gives no indication.

Fifth, food insecurity exists in Gaza because of Hamas. Hamas diverts food aid to stockpile in its tunnels for its claimed plan of a next attack against Israel and to sell at exorbitant prices at local markets in order to raise money to buy more arms. Hamas threatens and kills anyone who tries to distribute aid directly rather than through Hamas channels.

Well, that was just one part of one sentence in the valedictory address.  There are many more sentences like that, stuffed with errors.

Aside from the specifics, there are two contextual factors which the speaker ignored.  One is that Hamas is not just a local Israeli problem. It is emblematic of a global problem, terrorism euphemistically disguised as Islamic fundamentalism, although there is nothing Islamic about mass killing of innocents, sexual atrocities and kidnappings.

This problem is particularly acute in the Middle East. Israel, by combating terrorism in Gaza, is doing a global service and a service in particular to those of its neighbours who have not already succumbed to the terrorist plague.

The second, linked, contextual factor is anti-Zionism, the refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state.  With destruction of the Jewish state the end goal, terrorism and delegitimization through demonization work hand in hand.

Demonization is directed not just against the Jewish state but also against the Jewish people everywhere as actual or presumed supporters of this supposedly demon state. The result is that, with the Gaza war, attacks on Jews worldwide, including Canada, are at record levels, not just in comparison to past attacks on Jews, but in comparison to attacks on all other minority populations.

There is, regrettably, on social media an endless flow of ignorance, hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. The gullible repetition of terrorist antisemitic propaganda without fact checking has become commonplace. The valedictorian, by echoing the Hamas demonization of Israel, fuels their antisemitic narrative.

Yet a valedictorian is supposed to be a lead student in their graduating class, the best and the brightest.  The abuse of that position as a platform for prejudice by the current Medical Faculty valedictorian is not just a personal failing; it bespeaks and reflects a general degradation of university education and public discourse.

Winnipeg Friends of Israel wrote to the Dean of the College of Medicine on May 21st asking the College to send by e-mail to all those who attended the convocation and to post on the College website a rebuttal that the Winnipeg Friends of Israel would provide. To date there has been no reply.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
David Matas

Explosion that killed 3 soldiers occurred in a medical clinic next to UNRWA school

In response to antitank fire from a UNRWA school at Israeli forces in Rafah, the 12th Brigade entered the compound, which also houses a mosque and a medical clinic.

While searching the area, an explosive device in a booby-trapped shaft which was in a civilian infirmary detonated next to the forces. As a result of the explosion, three soldiers from the 50th Nahal Battalion, Staff Sergeant Amir Galilove, Staff Sergeant Uri Bar-Or, and Staff Sergeant Ido Appel, were killed.

In addition, during the operation, the forces located many weapons, grenades, and enemy uniforms. Inside the school’s classrooms, the forces located shafts leading to a complex tunnel system.

In the incident, a combat officer and two other combat soldiers from the 50th Battalion were seriously injured. The officer and the soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital and their families were informed of their injuries.

Following the deaths of the soldiers, without mentioning the explosion or the connection to UNRWA, the IDF spokesman announced the battalion went on a raid on a Hamas complex in eastern Rafah from where an anti-tank weapon had been fired at the forces. The complex where the raid occurred has a medical clinic near the school. The explosive detonated when the force entered one of the buildings which was booby-trapped.

To see pictures, click here.

*Israel Vows to Defend Itself

Israel vows no power on earth can stop it from defending itself. Decades of UNWRA education for hatred revealed in new film. Son of Holocaust survivor, now father of Hamas hostage, shares future hope. Are red heifers a key to rebuilding Third Temple?

*Interview with David Bedein commences at 8:11

Sandak case: Request for indictment cancellation on grounds of abuse of process

Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, was tragically killed in a police-car chase in December 2020. The police car collided with the car Sandak was in with four other boys, causing it to overturn. The boys have been indicted for various charges. Honenu Attorney David HaLevi, who is representing one of the boys, petitioned the Jerusalem Magistrates Court to cancel his indictment because of claims of abuse of process. The petition itemizes how the Yehuda and Shomron Police and the Police Investigation Unit corrupted the investigation of the incident and attempted to blame Sandak’s death on his friends.

Attorney HaLevi cited how the PIU and the police handled the investigation together, despite the inherent conflict of interest: The PIU is the authority responsible for investigating police officers. He further explained how the State Attorney and the Attorney General arrived at the scene of the incident to silence public rage over the cover-up of the failures in the investigation.

Attorney HaLevi: “This outrageous case should never have been opened, and now it should be closed. Therefore, we petitioned the court with a reasoned request to cancel the indictment because of abuse of process. I sincerely hope that the court will agree to our request and put an end to the very injustice of prosecuting my client.”

Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, was killed on 6 Tevet, 5781 (December 21, 2020). Honenu has been representing the family and defending the many who are detained while demonstrating for a change in police behavior. Please click here for a list of posts connected to the case.

DM signs five administrative orders on holiday eve

On April 28, Yehuda and Shomron Police officers detained five Yehuda and Shomron residents who took part in searches for Binyamin Ahimeir, Hy”d, who was murdered while grazing a flock of sheep near the Malachei HaShalom farm in the Binyamin region. Some of the detainees are married and have children. The youngest is a 16-year-old minor. Later in the day, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signed administrative detention orders against all five residents. The orders are for three, four, and six months. Honenu Attorneys Adi Keidar, Daniel Shimshilashvili, Shalom Ben-Shabbat, and Nati Rom are representing the detainees. The previous week, in a 4:00 AM raid, police forces detained eight residents on similar suspicions. All of them were released several hours later.

Honenu Director Shmuel (Zangi) Meidad strongly criticized the orders: “The current Israeli government broke a historical record for serving Jews with administrative orders. And this is during one of the toughest wars Israel has fought. The deafening silence of politicians in the nationalist camp in response to Defense Minister Gallant’s irrational actions only serves to intensify this crime and sends a message to our haters all over the world who, in turn, want to put Minister Gallant himself under administrative detention. Where can we hide our shame?”

On May 9, the Israel Police informed the attorneys representing the Beit El resident detained one week earlier on suspicion of killing a Hamas activist that they would not appeal the decision of the Jerusalem Magistrates Court to release him to his home. Honenu engaged the services of Attorney Ariel Atari and Attorney Asaf Gonen to represent the detainee.

The Israel Police had requested a seven-day remand extension, and they asked the court to delay his release to give them time to appeal the decision.

Attorney Atari reacted to the decision saying: “The [Jerusalem] Magistrates Court ordered the release of the detainee and thereby expressed what we had claimed from the beginning: The Beit El resident suspected of killing a Hamas terrorist is innocent. We expect the GSS to do some soul-searching and direct their energy to interrogating Hamas terrorists, not innocent citizens.”

Attorney Gonen added, “As we claimed from the first moment, there is absolutely no evidential basis for the charges, and certainly not for detention. We thank the court for accepting our claims and exercising judicial review.”

Legal campaign for Israeli citizens under sanctions continues
In February, the governments of several countries, among them the US, the UK, France, and New Zealand imposed sanctions on several Jewish farm owners in Yehuda and Shomron based on claims that they had attacked Arabs. Subsequently, the bank accounts and credit cards of the farmers were frozen. Additionally, France and New Zealand announced that they would bar the entry of several dozen Yehuda and Shomron residents to their countries. In an effort to have the sanctions lifted, Attorney Nick Kaufman has been working on behalf of Honenu with the governments that imposed them.

Attorney Kaufman also wrote a letter to the Israeli Foreign Ministry asking how the government of Israel plans to react to the sanctions, which, in his opinion, are an attack on all Yehuda and Shomron residents. He stated that France and New Zealand did not cite names, and therefore the move is detrimental to all Yehuda and Shomron residents as in the event that they plan a trip, they will not know ahead of time whether or not their entry to those countries will be refused. Attorney Nick Kaufman requested the assistance of Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz in clarifying the identity of the Israeli citizens who are under sanctions.

The ministry replied that newly-appointed Foreign Minister Katz is studying the matter and will issue an appropriate response. Attorney Kaufman expressed satisfaction that the matter is being handled by the highest echelons of the government and hopes that Foreign Minister Katz and the National Security Council will raise the subject with their counterparts in New Zealand and France as soon as possible.