Sociologists Lead the Anti-Israel Camp in British Academia

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December 28, 2023

Last month, Professor Gurminder K Bhambra from the University of Sussex Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies published a letter on behalf of the British Sociological Association (BSA), where she is the President. Two hundred ninety members of the BSA signed the letter. The letter condemned Israel alone for the current war between Israel and Gaza and twisted the Israeli-Palestinian history favoring the Palestinians.

The letter says,

“Israel’s devastation of Gaza is a disproportionate response to the terror attack undertaken by Hamas on October 7th which killed over a thousand Israelis, migrant workers, and foreign citizens and took over 200 people hostage. The Israeli response has killed over 15,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, with an unknown number still buried under the rubble and uncounted, and the displacement of over a million people from their homes in the north of Gaza to the south. We understand these events as part of the ongoing Nakba, beginning in 1948, but with a longer history. The Balfour Declaration in 1917, for example, saw the British pledge to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine and there was an exponential increase in the movement of Jewish people to those lands in the aftermath of the Shoah. The Nazi regime’s systematic slaughter of Jewish populations across Europe in the 1940s followed centuries of pogroms by Europe’s Christians against Jewish minority communities. Prohibitions on the free movement of Jewish people to the UK in the aftermath of the Second World War left few options for Jewish people who no longer felt able to live in Europe. The creation of a catastrophe from ongoing European catastrophes must be acknowledged. As sociologists, we deplore the systematic destruction of human communities. The current ceasefire provides a vital respite from the death and destruction unleashed by Israel and must become permanent with a negotiated political solution that is just to all parties. We do not believe that there is any military solution. International support will be needed to rebuild Gaza including the reconstruction of its hospitals, schools, and universities which have been destroyed. We commit to work with colleagues from the region to rebuild educational infrastructures in Gaza.”

The letter only cares for the Gazans and not for Israelis. It also ignores the numerous rejections of the Palestinians to accept the Jewish state. It doesn’t acknowledge Hamas’s charter’s aim to destroy Israel. The letter is so biased that it only calls for rebuilding Gaza but not the Israeli communities that were damaged in the Hamas attack on October 7, not to mention the missile attacks that Hamas has been launching from Gaza to Israel since the outbreak of the war on October 7 to this day.

British sociologists have been leading the anti-Israel sentiments in British academia.

Recently, the British Arabic media Middle East Eye (MEE), a media outlet based in London spreading anti-Israel information, published an article discussing how a group of 24 academics from the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK, have called on their University to end the programs with Israeli universities and to divest from companies involved in Israel’s defense industry. MEE did not provide any link to the letter, neither a copy of the letter, nor who is behind it.

According to MEE, the academics wrote, “We are all witness to Israel’s ongoing mass killing of Palestinians, assisted and armed by the UK government… The bombardment of Gaza is the latest, horrific phase of 75 years of Israel’s expulsion, occupation, dispossession, brutalization, humiliation, incarceration without trial including of children, torture, maiming, and killing of Palestinians.”

MEE reported that the academics called on the University of Manchester to end the joint research fund with Tel Aviv University because of its research and development in weapons, surveillance technologies, military strategy, and operational theory. They also called for the end of the exchange agreement with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem because it hosts Israel’s army intelligence training program, Havatzalot, which conducts surveillance of Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem. In addition, the academics called for the University of Manchester to dissolve its partnerships with the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre, GKN Aerospace and Haydale, which all have ties to Israel’s defense sector. The University of Manchester’s relationship with donors also came under scrutiny. The authors called for the University of Manchester to divest from HSBC, Siemens, and “all other companies who invest in Israeli weapons, military technologies, and the means of Israeli apartheid.”

This is not the first time MEE has published anti-Israel propaganda. In 2021, IAM reported that the MEE published a petition signed by 236 staff and postgraduate students, many sociologists, of the University of Manchester. This petition asked the University of Manchester to end its research partnership with Tel Aviv University.

When it comes to Israel, the anti-Israel cohorts raise their voices while they do not criticize Hamas’s atrocities against Israeli civilians. Britain designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, acknowledging It also harms its own population. Britain should invest in educating its pro-terrorist sociologists in its midst.

REFERENCES:

https://es.britsoc.co.uk/sociologists-letter-on-gaza/

Sociologists’ Letter on Gaza

Gurminder K Bhambra, BSA President

27th November 2023

Damage in Gaza Strip during October 2023. Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages

Israel’s devastation of Gaza is a disproportionate response to the terror attack undertaken by Hamas on October 7th which killed over a thousand Israelis, migrant workers, and foreign citizens and took over 200 people hostage. The Israeli response has killed over 15,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, with an unknown number still buried under the rubble and uncounted, and the displacement of over a million people from their homes in the north of Gaza to the south.

We understand these events as part of the ongoing Nakba, beginning in 1948, but with a longer history. The Balfour Declaration in 1917, for example, saw the British pledge to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine and there was an exponential increase in the movement of Jewish people to those lands in the aftermath of the Shoah. The Nazi regime’s systematic slaughter of Jewish populations across Europe in the 1940s followed centuries of pogroms by Europe’s Christians against Jewish minority communities. Prohibitions on the free movement of Jewish people to the UK in the aftermath of the Second World War left few options for Jewish people who no longer felt able to live in Europe. The creation of a catastrophe from ongoing European catastrophes must be acknowledged.

As sociologists, we deplore the systematic destruction of human communities. The current ceasefire provides a vital respite from the death and destruction unleashed by Israel and must become permanent with a negotiated political solution that is just to all parties. We do not believe that there is any military solution. International support will be needed to rebuild Gaza including the reconstruction of its hospitals, schools, and universities which have been destroyed. We commit to work with colleagues from the region to rebuild educational infrastructures in Gaza.

The signatories hold various positions in UK universities and in professional societies and associations but sign this letter in an individual capacity.

Gurminder K Bhambra, President of the British Sociological Association (2022-2024) and Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, University of Sussex
Martin Albrow, Past President of the British Sociological Association (1985-1987) and Emeritus Professor, University of Wales
Sara Arber, Past President of the British Sociological Association (1999-2001) and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey
John Brewer, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2009-2012) and Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University Belfast
Rachel Brooks, Incoming President of the British Sociological Association (2024-) and Professor of Sociology, University of Surrey
Susan Halford, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2018-2022) and Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol
John Holmwood, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2012-2014) and Emeritus Professor, University of Nottingham
Lynn Jamieson, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2014-2018) and Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh
Sue Scott, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2007-2009) and Visiting Professor, Newcastle University and University of Helsinki
John Scott, Past President of the British Sociological Association (2001-2003) and Emeritus Professor, University of Plymouth

Additional signatories

Dr Finn MacKay, University of West of England
Briony Hannell, University Teacher in Sociology at the University of Sheffield
Ece Kocabıçak, Lecturer in Sociology, The Open University
Eda Yazici, Research Associate, University of Bristol
Eliran Bar-El, Lecturer in Sociology, University of York
Alejandro Miranda Nieto and I work as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Dr Alan Roe, Lecturer, University of Leeds
Marcus Morgan, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Bristol
Balihar Sanghera, University of Kent
Dr Mike Sheaff, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Plymouth
Professor Hannah Jones, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
Bridget Byrne, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester
Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Reader, University of Manchester
Professor Nick Couldry, London School of Economics
Dr Tara Mahfoud, University of Essex
Dr Rima Saini, Trustee of the British Sociological Association (2021-present) and Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Middlesex University London
Dr Saleema F Burney, Research Fellow, University of Birmingham
Rachel Cohen, Professor of Sociology, Work and Employment, City, University of London
Stefania Vicari, The University of Sheffield
Anna Strhan, University of York
Jennifer Remnant, Chancellor’s Fellow in Work, Employment and Organisation, University of Strathclyde
Lorenzo Cini, University College Cork
Professor Brendan Burchell, Professor of the social sciences, University of Cambridge
Patricia Irizar, University of Manchester
Konrad Rekas, HPL, Nottingham Trent University
Miriam Tenquist, University of Manchester
Maryam Alhajri, Sociology PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, and a Researcher and Teaching Assistant at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
Simon Bailey, University of Kent
Po-Han Lee, Assistant Professor of Global Health Studies, National Taiwan University
Dawn Lyon, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent
Giorgos Bithymitris, National Centre for Social Research
Rampaul Chamba, Member of the British Sociological Association
Dr. Lisa Howard, postdoctoral researcher, University of Edinburgh
Dr Sadia Habib, Lecturer in Education, University of Manchester
Bridget Anderson, Director Migration Mobilities Bristol, University of Bristol
Caroline Casey, Assistant Professor of Work, Management and Organisation, University of York
Chris Phillipson, Emeritus Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
Sugandha Agarwal, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester
Ann Phoenix, UCL
Dr Dyuti Chakravarty, Postdoctoral Researcher, University College Cork
Aina Tarabini, principal convenor of the BSA Bourdieu Study Group (2022-) and associate professor of sociology of education at Autonomous University of Barcelona
Francesca Romana Ammaturo, London Metropolitan University
Alex Law, Professor of Sociology, Abertay University
Aerin Lai, PhD researcher, Sociology, University of Edinburgh
Isabel Fletcher, Researcher in Social Science and Food Systems, University of Edinburgh
Ayesha Siddiqa, Member of the British Sociological Association (2023-24) and Lecturer of Sociology, University of Sargodha Pakistan
Syra Shakir, Associate Professor Learning and Teaching, Leeds Trinity University
dipak (dipbuk) Panchal, PhD Candidate at University of Warwick
Priscilla Alderson, Professor Emerita, University College London
Mano Candappa, University College London
Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood & Youth Studies, University of Sussex
Michael Harloe FACSS, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Salford
Professor Gladys Ganiel, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr. Carolina Matos, FHEA,Senior Lecturer in Media and Sociology, City University of London
Tariq Modood, Fellow of the British Academy and Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy, University of Bristol
Professor Nicola Ingram, University College Cork
Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics
Jingyu Mao, the University of Edinburgh
Esca van Blarikom, Queen Mary University London
Barbara Crossouard, Professor of Theory in Education, University of Sussex
Karl Spracklen, Professor of Sociology of Leisure and Culture, Leeds Beckett University
Professor Barry Gibson, Professor in Medical Sociology, University of Sheffield
Taz Goddard-Fuller, Professor of Medical Education, University of Liverpool, School of Medicine
Cailean Gallagher, Associate Lecturer, St Andrews University
Noortje Marres, Professor of Science, Technology and Society, University of Warwick
Piyush Pushkar, Clinical Lecturer, University of Manchester
Dr Karina Pavlisa, University of Bristol
Juliet Hall, Post Graduate Researcher University of Plymouth
Alif Rafid Alfaridzi, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
Patricia Gilbert, University of Portsmouth
Rev Mr Philip J Fernandez, Ontario, Canada
Tracy Shildrick, Professor of Inequalities, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University
Val Gillies, Professor of Social Policy, Centre for Socai Justice Research, University of Westminster
Graham Crow, University of Edinburgh
Salman Yaqoob, Postgrad student in Aberystwyth Business School, Wales
Richard Twine, Reader in Sociology, Edge Hill University
Bridget Fowler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Glasgow
Dr Tom Mills, Aston University
Professor Pamela Abbott F AcSS, Director of the Centre for Global Development , University of Aberdeen
Yingzi Shen, University of Sheffield
Zoe Walshe, Goldsmiths, University of London
Anna Gillions, Post-graduate researcher, Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University
Kobe De Keere, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam
Raquel Boso Perez, University of Glasgow
Shannon Martin, PhD Student, The Open University
Emily Jays, PhD Student in Education, University of Strathclyde
Howard Davis, Emeritus Professor, Bangor University
Asiya Islam, Lecturer, University of Leeds
Olatunji Adigun Adebola, staff coordinator at ALAD, Liberia and a member of British Sociological Association
Huw Beynon, Emeritus professor social science, Cardiff University
Dr Paul-Francois Tremlett, The Open University
Dr Caroline Oliver (SFHEA), University College London
William Outhwaite, FAcSS, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University
Asma Khan, Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK
Chrissie Rogers, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent
Florence Villesèche, Editorial board member of Work, Employment and Society (2023-), and Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School
Jeffrey Hyman, Prof Emeritus, University of Aberdeen
Dr Chloe Maclean, University of the West of Scotland
Rin Ushiyama, Lecturer in Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast
Eamonn Carrabine, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK
Hoshang Noraiee, Retired, taught in the University of Westminster and London Metropolitan
Ian Watt UWS – retired
Kirsten Forkert, Birmingham City University
Aimee Middlemiss, University of Plymouth
Marlo De Lara, University of Edinburgh
Amanda Latimer, Department of Criminology, Politics & Sociology, Kingston University
Simina Dragos, PhD Candidate – University of Cambridge
Professor Emeritus Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin
Raphaël Nowak, University of York
Dr Bethany Simmonds, Aberystwyth University
Nicholas Abercrombie, Emeritus Professor, University of Lancaster
Tony Elger, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick
Gerard Delanty, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Sussex University
Andrew Stevens, Associate Professor, University of Regina (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Yvette Taylor, University of Strathclyde
Dr Chinwe Egbunike-Umegbolu, University of Brighton
Sara Chaudhry, Birkbeck, University of London
Dr Lila Skountridaki, University of Edinburgh
Professor Nigel Gilbert, University of Surrey
Kath Maguire, Member of the British Sociological Association, Public Involvement and Engagement Lead, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter
Stevi Jackson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology/Centre for Women’s Studies
Doğuş Şimşek, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, Kingston University London
Prof Daniela Sime, Professor of Youth, Migration and Social Justice, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin, Reader, University or Kent
Angela Loum, PhD candidate, Goldsmiths University Sociology department
Annalisa Murgia, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Milan
Alison Wilde – Senior Lecturer, Leeds Trinity University
Suki Ali, LSE
Julia Brannen, emerita professor UCL Institute of Education
Professor David Weir, Professor of Intercultural Management, York St John University
Dr Elizabeth Cotton, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Dr Siân Russell, Newcastle University
Andrew Baron – UCLAN
Sharon Gewirtz, King’s College London
Jonathan Gabe, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Royal Holloway, University of London
Pam Law, past trustee of the BSA
Jennie Popay, Distinguished Professor Sociology and Public Health, Lancaster University
John Holford, Robert Peers Professor of Adult Education Emeritus, University of Nottingham
Harriet Bradley, Professor Emerita, University of Bristol and the University of the West of England
Syd Jeffers, University of East London
Nasar Meer, Former BSA Trustee, Professor of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow
Janice McLaughlin, Newcastle University
Dr Fouzia Azzouz, Honorary Research Associate, University of Bristol
Prof. Dr. IRENA NIKAJ, University Fan S. Noli, Albania
Professor Mark Featherstone, Head of School of Social, Political, and Global Studies, Keele University
Les Back, University of Glasgow
Richard Sennett, Chair, The London Centre for the Humanities
Paraskevi-Viviane Galata, Member of the British Sociological Association and Lecturer in Sociology of work and adult education, Hellenic Open University
Derek Williams, Retired, Former senior lecturer in Sociology, Solent University, Southampton
Fatma Müge Göçek, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Marianne O’Kane Boal, PhD, Atlantic Technological University, Sligo, Ireland
Kaori Muto, Professor, The Institute of Medical Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Dr Sazana Jayadeva, Surrey Future Fellow, University of Surrey
Kath Woodward, FAcSS, FLSW, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Open University
Nigel de Noronha, University of Manchester
Dr Niamh Moore, University of Edinburgh
Yao-Tai Li, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
Matthew Waites, University of Glasgow
Wendy Olsen, Professor of Socioeconomics, University of Manchester
Sari Hanafi, former President of the International Sociological Association (2018-2023)
Graham Scambler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, UCL
Professor David James, Cardiff University
Moslem Boushehrian, Post Graduate Researcher, University of Surrey
Diana Khor, Hosei University
Ikuko Tomomatsu, Visiting researcher of Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Japan
Suvi Salmenniemi, University of Turku, Finland
Petra Nordqvist, University of Manchester
John Horne, Past Chair of the British Sociological Association Board of Trustees (2017-2018)
Erin Shannon, Associate Researcher in Sociology at Newcastle University
Richenda Power, The Open University
Sarah Irwin, Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds
Sonya Sharma, Lecturer in Sociology, University College London
Professor Andrew Smith. Sociology, University of Glasgow
Dr Evelyn Mahon, Trinity College, Dublin, Fellow Emerita
Corinne Squire, Chair in Global inequalities, Bristol University
Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor, Bournemouth University, UK and Book Review Editor Sociological Research Online
Stephanie King, Nottingham Trent University
Anne Arber, University of Surrey
Leah de Quattro – University of Manchester (PhD Student)
Zhuofei Lu, The University of Manchester
Fiona McQueen, Edinburgh Napier University
Dr María Villares-Varela FHEA, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Southampton
Dr Luisa Gandolfo, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Aberdeen
Robert Meadows, Editor in Chief Sociology and Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey
Dr Helene Snee, Manchester Metropolitan University
Christina Weis, Senior Lecturer in Global Health, De Montfort University
Louise Ryan, past chair of the BSA board of Trustees, Senior Professor of Sociology, London Metropolitan University
Professor Paul Stewart, Senior Professor of Sociology of Work and Employment at Grenoble Ecole de Management, former editor of Work, Employment and Society and member of the BSA
Professor Ali Rattansi, Honorary Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, City, University of London
Professor Emmanuelle Tulle, Professor of Sociology, Glasgow Caledonian University
Sadiya Akram, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Maureen McBride, University of Glasgow
Hannah Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Sheffield
Dr Victoria Redclift, Associate Professor of Political Sociology, Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Social Research Institute
Prof Sam Whimster, Global Policy Institute London
James Cummings, Lecturer in Sociology, University of York
Caitlin Nunn, Manchester Metropolitan University
Alexandrina Vanke, Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Dr Nadia Haq, Research Fellow, Cardiff University
Professor Umut Erel, The Open University
Ellen Annandale, Professor of Sociology, University of York
Dr James Pattison, Research Fellow, University of Lincoln
R.Sánchez-Rivera, Research Fellow, Gonville & Caius College-University of Cambridge
Katie Higgins, University of Oxford
Gethin Rees, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University
David Scott, Abertay University
Dr Meghan Tinsley, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester
Leah Gilman, University of Sheffield
Barbora Cernusakova, Hallsworth Fellow, Sociology, University of Manchester
Dr Eleanor Kirk, University of Glasgow
Professor Ann Oakley, Social Research Institute, University College London
Geraldine Healy, Professor Emeritus of Employment Relations, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Martin Crook, University of West of England
Dr Joyce Mamode, Birkbeck, University of London
Lena Theodoropoulou, University of Liverpool
Sayo Mitsui, Hosei University, Japan
Professor Kay Peggs, Kingston University London
Carole Murphy, Director, Bakhita Centre for Research on Slavery and Abuse, and Asssociate Professor, Criminology and Sociology, St Mary’s University, London
Steven Roberts, Professor of Education and Social Justice, Monash University
Massilia Ourabah, UGent (Belgium)
Fiona Christie, Senior lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University
Carrie Friese, LSE
Jenny van Hooff, Manchester Metropolitan University
Baptiste Brossard, University of York
Professor Eileen Green, Emeritus Professor Teesside University
Isirabahenda Gonzague, PhD candidate at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Founder and Vice-President of the International Citizens Council from Cluj-Napoca/Romania (2023-up to date) and Vice President of the Center for Peace and Violence Prevention (CPVP).
Andrew Sayer, Emeritus Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy, Lancaster University
Professor Stephen Vertigans, Dean of School of Applied Social Studies, Robert Gordon University, Scotland
Stefanie Doebler, Lancaster University
Stephen Ackroyd, Professor Emeritus, Lancaster University
Franca Roeschert, PhD candidate, University of Greenwich
Bill Harley, The University of Melbourne
Maryam Aldossari, Senior Lecturer in HRM & Organisation Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London
Louiza Odysseos, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex
Dr. Laura Harris, University of Southampton
Professor Janette Webb MBE FRSE FEI, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Sophie Buijsen, PhD student in Science Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh
Jeff Hearn, Professor of Sociology, University of Huddersfield, and Professor Emeritus, Hanken School of Economics, Finland, and Senior Professor, Örebro University, Sweden
Diane Richardson, Emerita Professor, Newcastle University
Angela Dale, Retired, University of Manchester
Narzanin Massoumi, University of Exeter
Professor Brian Heaphy, The University of Manchester
Edmund Coleman-Fountain, University of York
Malcolm MacLean, Academic Director (Interim), Doctoral College, University of Wales Trinity St David; Associate Professor (Extraordinary), Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Prof Scott Fleming Bishop Grosseteste University
Madoka Nagado, The University of the Ryukyus
Dr Benjamin Bowman, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Centre for Youth Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University
Martin Greenwood, University of Manchester
Noirin Mac Namara, Postdoctoral Researcher, Maynooth University
Dr. Maria Berghs, Associate Professor Global Health, De Montfort University
Paul Watt, Visiting Professor, London School of Economics
Dr Milena Kremakova, member of the British Sociological Association and Editor at the Sociological Review Magazine
Sarah Neal, University of Sheffield
Lucy Mablin, Senior Lecturer Sociology, Sheffield University
Dr Isabel Crowhurst, University of Essex
Wendy Stacey-Alidina, University of Wales
Tim Butcher, Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Research Online (2023-2025) and Associate Professor of Organisation Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia
Ashley Collar, PhD Student, Sociology at University of Manchester
JulieWalsh, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sheffield
Carys Hughes, University of East London
Eileen Barker, Professor Em. Sociology, London School of Economics
Dr Jane McCarthy, The Open University
Dr Sarah Kunz, University of Essex
Prof Gayle Letherby, Visiting Professor at the Universities of Plymouth, Greenwich and Bath
Alan Petersen, Professor of Sociology, Monash University
John MacArtney, Associate Professor, University of Warwick
Dr Nayia Kamenou, University of Cyprus
John MacArtney, Associate Professor, University of Warwick
Jana Kriechbaum, PhD Researcher, City, University of London
Sarah Hoare, University of Cambridge
Alan Warde, University of Manchester
Anna Smolentseva, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
Hugo Gorringe, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Edinburgh
Kuba Jablonowski, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Bristol
Rosa Targett, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Bristol
Rebecca Coleman, Professor, University of Bristol
Junko Yamashita, Senior lecturer, University of Bristol
Kate Weiner, University of Sheffield
Julia O’Connell Davidson, Professor of Social Research, University of Bristol
Alessia Dalceggio, PhD student, School of Social Sciences and Professions, London Metropolitan University

Gurminder K Bhambra FBA FAcSS is President of the British Sociological Association and Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, University of Sussex.

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https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/academics-call-university-manchester-divest-israel

Academics call on UK university to divest from Israel

13 December 2023 18:20 GMT

A group of 24 academic staff in the department of sociology at the University of Manchester have called on the University to end its joint programmes with Israeli universities and divest from companies involved in Israel’s defence sector.

“We are all witness to Israel’s ongoing mass killing of Palestinians, assisted and armed by the UK government,” the staff wrote.

“The bombardment of Gaza is the latest, horrific phase of 75 years of Israel’s expulsion, occupation, dispossession, brutalisation, humiliation, incarceration without trial including of children, torture, maiming, and killing of Palestinians.”

The authors called on the University of Manchester to end its joint research fund with Tel Aviv University, citing the work it does on research and development in weapons and surveillance technologies, and in military strategy and operational theory.

They also called for the end of an exchange agreement with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem because it hosts Israel’s army intelligence training programme, Havatzalo, and conducts surveillance of Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem.

In addition, the staff called for the school to dissolve its partnerships with the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre, GKN Aerospace and Haydale, which have ties to Israel’s defence sector.

The University of Manchester’s relationship with donors also came under scrutiny. The authors called for the school to divest from HSBC, Siemens and “all other companies who invest in Israeli weapons, military technologies, and the means of Israeli apartheid”.

=====================================

https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-alarm-over-israels-detention-70-medics-hospital

University of Manchester academics urge end to Israel ties

7:01 PM

The New Arab Staff

Twenty-four faculty members from the University of Manchester’s sociology department have urged the university to cut its ties with Israeli academic institutions and divest from firms linked to Israel’s defense industry.

In their statement, the staff highlighted, “We are all witness to Israel’s ongoing mass killing of Palestinians, assisted and armed by the UK government. The bombardment of Gaza is the latest, horrific phase of 75 years of Israel’s expulsion, occupation, dispossession, brutalisation, humiliation, incarceration without trial including of children, torture, maiming, and killing of Palestinians.”

They specifically requested the termination of the University of Manchester’s joint research fund with Tel Aviv University, pointing to its involvement in weapons, surveillance technology, military strategy, and operational theory research.

The group also advocated ending an exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, citing its hosting of Israel’s army intelligence training program, Havatzalo, and its surveillance activities in occupied East Jerusalem.

The academics also called for the university to cut ties with the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre, GKN Aerospace, and Haydale, all of which are connected to Israel’s defense sector.

They also scrutinised the University of Manchester’s relationships with various donors, urging the institution to divest from HSBC, Siemens, and “all other companies who invest in Israeli weapons, military technologies, and the means of Israeli apartheid”.

========================================

https://us.firenews.video/politics/alarm-over-israel’s-detention-of-70-medics-at-hospital/

Pennsylvania State University

Alarm over Israel’s detention of 70 medics at hospital

AUTHOR администратор (administrator)

PUBLISHED BY 14.12.2023

Twenty-four faculty members from the University of Manchester’s sociology department have urged the university to cut its ties with Israeli academic institutions and divest from firms linked to Israel’s defense industry.

In their statement, the staff highlighted, “We are all witness to Israel’s ongoing mass killing of Palestinians, assisted and armed by the UK government. The bombardment of Gaza is the latest, horrific phase of 75 years of Israel’s expulsion, occupation, dispossession, brutalisation, humiliation, incarceration without trial including of children, torture, maiming, and killing of Palestinians.”

They specifically requested the termination of the University of Manchester’s joint research fund with Tel Aviv University, pointing to its involvement in weapons, surveillance technology, military strategy, and operational theory research.

The group also advocated ending an exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, citing its hosting of Israel’s army intelligence training program, Havatzalo, and its surveillance activities in occupied East Jerusalem.

The academics also called for the university to cut ties with the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre, GKN Aerospace, and Haydale, all of which are connected to Israel’s defense sector.

They also scrutinised the University of Manchester’s relationships with various donors, urging the institution to divest from HSBC, Siemens, and “all other companies who invest in Israeli weapons, military technologies, and the means of Israeli apartheid”.

How UNRWA Grooms Terrorists

By

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December 28, 2023

By providing the residents of the Gaza Strip with various services, UNRWA exempted Hamas from its responsibilities as the governing body, such as creating a working economy that would pay for education and healthcare, and allowed it, instead, to invest resources in building tunnels and manufacturing weapons.
“They [UNRWA] teach us that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to us [Muslims], that Palestine belongs to us,” said Atif Sharha, a student at an UNRWA school.
“Yes, they teach us that the Zionists are our enemy,” said Nur Taha, a third-year student from Kalandia. “We should carry out an [terror] operation against them [Zionists].”
“The Palestinian matriculation exams [at UNRWA] have become a finishing school in extremism. It is as if the Palestinian Authority is cramming as much hate into the tests as possible, to ensure the twelve previous years of indoctrination stay with them into adulthood.” — Marcus Sheff, CEO at the Institute for Cultural Peace and Tolerance in School Education, i24news.tv, July 23, 2023.
Despite years of considerable condemnation of the textbooks, newly produced editions, approved by UNRWA, are exponentially worse….
Whatever hopes that anyone may have held for the trustworthiness of UNRWA have long expired, and were arguably misplaced at the outset. UNRWA, in its current state, has proven itself irremediably defective, unworkable and yet another massive stain on the already scandalously stained UN.
It is high time for the international community and those who actually want a better future for the Palestinians to liquidate UNRWA and take actions that truly help the Palestinians move forward to a golden life.

More than 50% of UNRWA’s annual budget of $1.6 billion is dedicated to funding Palestinian schools. These schools have been fostering war-mongering hatred against Israel, and against Jews in general, while predictably churning out their final product: terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. Pictured: A still shot from the documentary film “Camp Jihad,” featuring a summer camp in Gaza sponsored and funded by UNRWA. (Image source: Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was originally a small agency mandated to provide basic humanitarian relief for Palestinians, including a vote for renewal every three years. Seventy-three years and four generations later, and with more than 30,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion, it has astonishingly become one of the largest UN agencies.

In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, UNRWA has, in fact, long been operating as the de facto government. By providing the residents of the Gaza Strip with various services, UNRWA exempted Hamas from its responsibilities as the governing body, such as creating a working economy that would pay for education and healthcare, and allowed it, instead, to invest resources in building tunnels and manufacturing weapons. If UNRWA were not there, Hamas would have been forced to fill the vacuum and, for example, build hospitals and schools and find solutions to economic hardship, including unemployment and poverty.

As senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said, in explaining why no cement could be spared from terror tunnels to build bomb shelters for Gazan citizens:

“The tunnels were built to protect the fighters of Hamas from [Israeli] airstrikes. As you know, 75% of the residents of the Gaza Strip are refugees. It is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect the refugees.”

Hamas was effectively saying: We are responsible for what happens underground, while UNRWA is responsible for what happens above ground.

In addition to evolving into a monster-sized agency, UNRWA has also morphed into a very costly incubator for terror. UNRWA-run schools emphasize and promote the “right of return,” a euphemism for flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians and turning it into a Muslim-majority Islamist state backed by Iran.

More than 50% of UNRWA’s annual budget of $1.6 billion is dedicated to funding Palestinian schools. These schools have been fostering war-mongering hatred against Israel, and against Jews in general, from the youngest, most impressionable ages and onward throughout the school years, while predictably churning out their final product: terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.

“They [UNRWA] teach us that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to us [Muslims], that Palestine belongs to us,” said Atif Sharha, a student at a UNRWA school in the Shuafat refugee camp, north of Jerusalem.

“I hate the Jews,” said Yousef, another student at a UNRWA school in Kalandia refugee camp, south of Ramallah.

“Yes, they teach us that the Zionists are our enemy,” said Nur Taha, a third student from Kalandia. “We should carry out an [terror] operation against them [Zionists].”

Marcus Sheff, Chief Executive Officer at The Institute for Cultural Peace and Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) studying these hate-policies, laments:

“The Palestinian matriculation exams have become a finishing school in extremism. It is as if the Palestinian Authority is cramming as much hate into the tests as possible, to ensure the twelve previous years of indoctrination stay with them into adulthood.”

UNRWA then re-inserts many of these hate-infused people right back into its institutions, perpetuating what the UN is keen on blaming Israel for: “the cycle of violence.”

UNRWA schools have been the focus of media scrutiny on many occasions. UNRWA’s textbooks, compiled by the Palestinian Authority, have been blasted for showy, hate-provoking and terror-inciting material such as “a grammar exercise that encourages Palestinians to ‘sacrifice their blood to liberate Jerusalem.'”

Palestinian textbooks produced by UNRWA contain “antisemitic, hateful, and violent passages,” according to IMPACT-se. Some of these passages in an Islamic education drill include labeling Jews as inherently treacherous. A poem included in the educational content glorifies the killing of Israelis, and portrays dying as martyrs by killing Israelis as a “hobby.”

In a grammar exercise, Jews, it is implied, are impure and supposedly defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (They do not. The Jews peacefully tour the exterior grounds, called The Temple Mount, a plateau on which the Al Aqsa mosque now sits. The site is the third-holiest in Islam, but in Judaism the holiest. The plateau is where two Jewish Temples once stood, mentioned in the Bible, before they were destroyed — the first by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE; the second by the Roman Empire in 70 CE).

Despite years of considerable condemnation of the textbooks, newly produced editions, approved by UNRWA, are exponentially worse.

“Terrorist activities against Israeli civilians are also part of the struggle against the Zionist occupation of Palestine. Thus, the new books exalt Palestinian terrorists who participated in such actions. Dalal al-Mughrabi, for example, who was killed in a terrorist attack she had led against a civilian bus… in which more than 30 men, women and children were murdered, is mentioned in four books, all studied in UNRWA schools at present. In all of them she is described as a heroine and martyr of Palestine.”

According to the textbooks used in UNRWA schools, Jews have no rights whatsoever or any legitimate status in Israel. A Jewish presence in the country is denied historically, geographically and religiously. No reference is made in the books to the history of the Jews throughout the region, either in Biblical or Roman times. Any connection is also denied of the Jews to their ancient capital, Jerusalem, which is presented as an Arab city since its establishment thousands of years ago. The Jews’ presence in Jerusalem today is bewilderingly presented in the books as an aggression against the city’s Arab character.

Beyond the textbooks, both UNRWA administrators and teachers have proudly displayed their approval of terrorism and hatred on countless occasions, including Hamas’s recent October 7 massacre, according to a report published by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization, as well as IMPACT-se.

UNRWA math teacher Adnan Shteiwi, for instance, glorified Diaa Hamarsheh, the perpetrator of the March 2022 Bnei Brak shooting attack — in which he murdered four Israeli civilians and one policeman — as a “martyr” whose name should “forever remain in letters of fire, might, and magnificence.”

UNRWA’s Asma Middle School for Girls B encouraged schoolgirls to ” liberate the homeland by sacrificing ‘their Blood’ and pursuing jihad.”

Roni Krivoi, one of the Israeli hostages recently freed from Hamas captivity, reported that he had been kept prisoner in an attic for more than a month and a half, mostly starved and medically untreated. His jailer was an UNRWA teacher.

In Gaza — as with Ahmad Kahalot, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who admitted that he was the equivalent of a brigadier general for Hamas and that 16 of the hospital’s staff were also “terror operatives for Hamas” — the mesh of Hamas and UNRWA is also illustrated in the high-profile case of Dr. Suhail al-Hindi.

Al-Hindi served as both the principal of an UNRWA elementary school and as the chairman of the UNRWA employee’s union in Gaza. In 2017, UNRWA suspended al-Hindi after it received information that he had just been elected to the Hamas political bureau. UNRWA announced that al-Hindi no longer worked for the agency, but did not say whether he had resigned or been fired. Al-Hindi first said he “resigned” from UNRWA, but later clarified that he was taking early retirement.

The case of al-Hindi and other UNRWA employees suspected of supporting terrorism makes the point that UNRWA is “the money,” while thug terror-groups such as Hamas are “the muscle.”

UNRWA tries to keep up public pretense that its hands are clean, and has taken a belligerently defensive stance against these and other accusations, as it publicly claims that it has a “zero-tolerance policy for hatred.”

The Israeli news site Ynet , however, wrote recently about a UN Watch report:

“In it, some 47 documented cases of school staff promoting antisemitic material are recorded, as school staff openly violates the official UNRWA policy…

“It was only two years ago that UNRWA apologized for similar instances, claiming they were done erroneously and will not occur in the future, but with this latest report, that promise rings hollow.”

One UNRWA employee portrayed Adolf Hitler in a favorable light: “Wake up Hitler, there are people left to burn.”

In addition, as is well-documented, UNRWA has allowed its school buildings to be used by Hamas as storehouses for rocket and other weapons, terror tunnels, and to shelter jihadi terrorists. Hamas and other terror organizations have bet on the media frenzy that would ensue if Israeli forces strike a UN institution (or hospital, mosque, or even a church) that is being used for military purposes. Hamas has been launching rockets at Israel from alongside UNRWA schools, and, when possible, shooting from inside the schools, thereby taking advantage of the sanctuary that a UN institution, especially a “protected space” such as a school, ought to offer under legitimate circumstances.

Last week saw the media explode in condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces for blowing up an UNRWA school, despite the disclosure that the school had been used as a weapons depot and terror tunnels were found in its area.

UNRWA kindergartens have been discovered with weapons hidden inside toys or even in UNRWA bags, and UN officials are charged with being complicit in holding hostages, despite protestations to the contrary. It seems that “zero tolerance” had devolved into “zero oversight.”

When rockets were discovered in UNRWA schools in the past, UNRWA would reassure everyone that they had been turned over to “local authorities.” Those authorities, of course, were Hamas, who most likely relocated them to another equally inappropriate location.

Occasionally, UNRWA officials will make a minor fuss or put on a shocked and affronted façade for donors or the media, but reportedly do nothing in the way of changing the practice. In the upper echelons of UNRWA management, there have been accusations of serious breaches of ethics in the forms of nepotism, bullying, mismanagement of funds — as well as lack of accountability.

This is no small matter, considering that in 2022, annual worldwide contributions to UNRWA alone — not including direct donations to Palestinian governing agencies such as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, nor to the many NGOs and other Palestinian-specific aid agencies — from 68 donor nations, including the Holy See, was $1.1 billion.

Extensive reports released by UN Watch and IMPACT-se have highlighted the malignant influence of terror organizations such as Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on UNRWA institutions that either feign ignorance or offer enthusiastic complicity. The repercussions of these revelations are becoming an embarrassment.

Switzerland’s Parliament recently voted to stop funding UNRWA ($21 million annually), labelled Hamas a terrorist organization and unanimously banned it. “Hamas’ brutal terrorist attacks against Israel necessitate a clear position from Switzerland,” they said.

In 2018, the Trump administration, calling UNRWA an “irredeemably flawed operation,” completely cut America’s $300 million annual donation. The aid was reinstated by President Joe Biden almost immediately after he took office.

Many have called the very inception of UNRWA into question, as the UN already has an agency specifically designated for refugees: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UNRWA remains a refugee organization distinctly apart from UNHCR based upon two premises: first, that the Palestinians will “return” to their homes in Israel by means of a the “right of return“; and second, that there will never be a resolution not to “return,” thereby making these refugees an eternal stick in the eye to Israel.

The first premise would effectively destroy Israel by imposing a demographic shift: flooding millions of Palestinians, demonstrably none too peace-oriented, into Israel.

The second premise would, and has been, effectively enslaving Palestinians as the crying faces that keep the international “pity-cash” flowing into the coffers of both Palestinian and UNRWA leadership.

Perhaps this may be at least one answer as to why, when UNRWA recently cried for more aid money for Palestinians, the organization was found to have an entire warehouse “filled to the brim” with food. When Gazans stormed the warehouse in October, they discovered copious amounts of rice, lentils, flour and oil.

Whatever hopes that anyone may have held for the trustworthiness of UNRWA have long expired, and were arguably misplaced at the outset. UNRWA, in its current state, has proven itself irremediably defective, unworkable and yet another massive stain on the already scandalously stained UN [such as here, here, here, here and here.] The agency has perpetuated the issue of the “refugees” by keeping them in camps while providing them with basic services, only.

Worse, UNRWA has deliberately created new generations of “refugees” by insisting that the descendants of refugees inherit the status of “refugee” – which on its face is nonsense. It is high time for the international community and those who actually want a better future for the Palestinians to liquidate UNRWA and take actions that truly help the Palestinians move forward to a golden life.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

2023- Ten worst global antisemitic incidents

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December 28, 2023

They brutally murdered 1,200 Israelis – men, women, and children – including infants. They mass raped women and kidnapped and took over 240 hostages, holding them in underground tunnels, some for over 2 months. The level of brutality, included
beheadings and mutilations, making October 7, 2023, the worst atrocity perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust.

tt_2023

Overhaul of UNRWA: Addressing a Legacy of Violence and Repression

By

David Bedein

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December 25, 2023

In the midst of the ongoing conflict, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has emerged not only as a provider of humanitarian aid but also as a contentious element fueling violence. Investigative reporter David Bedein has been shedding light on UNRWA’s role as a host for Arab terrorism since 1987, offering a crucial perspective on its implications for regional stability.

Dr. Eli Lasch, former head of medical services in Gaza, warned of an imminent eruption of violence within UNRWA refugee camps back in 1987. Lasch, having observed the aftermath of the PLO’s influence within UNRWA camps in Jordan and Lebanon, underscored the organization’s reluctance to invest in improvements, leaving the refugees in a state of stagnation.

The historical context reveals a pattern of hindrance to development within UNRWA. Israeli troops entering Gaza in 1967 discovered appalling living conditions – no electricity or running water, and residents forbidden to work outside the camps during the Egyptian rule. Only when Israel assumed administrative control did these conditions begin to change.

Despite attempts to improve the refugees’ living conditions, UNRWA consistently opposed such efforts. In 1985, Israel’s initiative to resettle refugees faced resistance from UNRWA, which argued against moving them from temporary shelters, citing the questionable “inalienable right of return.”

Fast forward to today, and UNRWA’s refugees have become unwitting pawns in a geopolitical struggle, operating under the slogan of an armed struggle for the right of return. This situation not only perpetuates a cycle of violence but also jeopardizes the well-being of over five million residents living as “refugees for perpetuity” in 59 UNRWA “temporary” camps.

Recognizing the urgency for change, Member of the Israel Knesset Parliament, Sharren Haskel, a native of Canada, has initiated a Task Force for UNRWA Policy Change. Scheduled to launch on January 2, 2024, this task force aims to unite parliamentarians and conscientious individuals globally to address the root causes of violence stemming from 75 years of what Dr. Lasch termed the “UNRWA denial of dignity” to an entire refugee population.

The call for an overhaul of UNRWA is not just a response to the current conflict but an acknowledgment of the need for a fundamental shift in policy. MK Haskel’s task force represents a step towards a more just and dignified future for those living within UNRWA’s sphere of influence. The world now watches as efforts to reform this institution unfold, with the hope of quelling the flames of violence and fostering a genuine path to peace and prosperity for the affected population.

War on Gaza: Saudis overwhelmingly say Arab nations should cut ties with Israel

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 25, 2023

A new poll has found that 96 percent of Saudi nationals believe that Arab countries should cut ties with Israel in response to the war in Gaza, and that the popularity of Hamas has grown significantly amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on the embattled territory.

The result of the poll, conducted by the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Affairs, a pro-Israel think tank based in Washington, shows the difficulties the United States faces as it pushes for Saudi Arabia to normalise ties with Israel.

Prior to the war in Gaza, the US was actively working towards achieving an agreement that would see Israel and Saudi Arabia normalise relations.

Such a deal would build upon existing normalisation agreements such as those between Israel and Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates which were brokered under the Trump administration.

During an interview with Fox News that aired in September, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that the two countries were getting closer to such an agreement “every day”.

List of Companies That Have Condemned Hamas’ Terrorist Attack on Israel

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 25, 2023

image-from-rawpixel-id-5927218-jpeg-scaled — Side view of a hand writing on a checklist with magenta marker on the wooden surface

Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld tracks which companies have spoken out to condemn Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel, denounce antisemitism, and express support and solidarity with Israel.

List of Companies
Company Name	Link to Public Statement
Accenture	https://www.linkedin…
AccuWeather	https://www.linkedin…
ActionIQ	https://www.linkedin…
Adidas	https://www.timesofi…
Airbnb	https://news.airbnb….
Akamai	https://twitter.com/…
Alaska Air	https://yale.box.com…
AllianceBernstein	https://www.linkedin…
Allianz	https://www.horizont…
Amazon	https://twitter.com/…
Amdocs	https://www.amdocs.c…
American Airlines	https://www.marketsc…
American Eagle	https://fashionunite…
American Express	https://www.american…
American Wire Group	https://www.linkedin…
Amwell	https://www.linkedin…
Apollo	https://nypost.com/2…
Apple	https://www.jpost.co…
ArentFox Schiff	https://www.linkedin…
Ares Management	https://finance.yaho…
Atlassian	https://www.linkedin…
Audi	https://www.timesofi…
Authentic Brands	https://wwd.com/busi…
Avery Dennison	www.windowfilmmag.co…
Axel Springer	https://www.horizont…
Bain & Company	https://yale.box.com…
Bank of America	https://www.reuters….
Bank of New York Mellon	https://yale.box.com…
Bath & Body Works	https://www.cnn.com/…
Baupost Group	https://www.nytimes….
Bayer	https://www.linkedin…
BCG	https://www.linkedin…
Bioventus	https://bio.news/int…
Blackrock	https://www.livemint…
Blackstone	https://ejewishphila…
Bloomberg	https://www.forbes.c…
BMW	https://www.timesofi…
Boeing	https://boeing.media…
Booz Allen Hamilton	https://finance.yaho…
Bosch	https://www.horizont…
Bristol Myers Squibb	https://www.linkedin…
Capri Holdings	https://wwd.com/busi…
CareTrust REIT	https://www.linkedin…
Caterpillar	https://www.prnewswi…
Chanel	https://wwd.com/busi…
Chapman and Cutler	https://www.linkedin…
Chubb	https://news.chubb.c…
Cisco	https://www.linkedin…
Citadel	https://www.nytimes….
Citi	https://www.livemint…
Cloudflare	https://www.fool.com…
Comcast	https://variety.com/…
Compass	https://www.linkedin…
Conde Nast	https://nypost.com/2…
Cooley LLP	https://www.linkedin…
CV Starr	https://www.business…
CyberArk Software	https://finance.yaho…
Cytokinetics	https://www.linkedin…
Daimler	https://www.timesofi…
Datonics	https://www.linkedin…
Davis Polk	https://www.law.com/…
Dell	https://www.linkedin…
Deloitte	https://www.linkedin…
Delta Air Lines	https://www.foxbusin…
Deutsche Bank	https://www.horizont…
Deutsche Telekom	https://www.linkedin…
DHL Group	https://www.aircargo…
Digital Realty	https://yale.box.com…
Disney	https://thewaltdisne…
DLA Piper	https://yale.box.com…
Douglas Elliman	https://www.instagra…
Edelman	https://yale.box.com…
Egon Zehnder	https://yale.box.com…
Eli Lilly	https://www.linkedin…
Empyrean	https://www.linkedin…
Endeavor	https://www.linkedin…
EPAM Systems	https://www.linkedin…
Estee Lauder	https://www.cnn.com/…
Evercore	https://finance.yaho…
EY	https://yale.box.com…
Firstrust	https://www.firstrus…
Forbes	https://www.linkedin…
Fox Corp	https://www.foxnews….
Gamida Cell	https://investors.ga…
GE	https://www.ge.com/…
General Catalyst	https://www.timesofi…
General Motors	https://www.gm.com/…
Genesys	https://www.linkedin…
Goldman Sachs	https://www.cnn.com/…
Google	https://9to5google.c…
Greenberg Traurig	https://bnanews.bna….
Hearst	https://www.hearst.c…
Henkel	https://www.handelsb…
Herbert Smith Freehills	https://www.linkedin…
Hewlett Packard	https://www.linkedin…
Hewlett Packard Enterprise	https://twitter.com/…
HubSpot	https://www.linkedin…
Huntsman Corp	https://www.politico…
IBM	https://newsroom.ibm…

The other front: How the Palestinian Authority is preparing for battle – right under our noses

By

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December 23, 2023

The details of the overall situation in Judea & Samaria – Israel’s current “third front” – ostensibly appear to be rather mundane and routine. Another late-night arrest, another targeting operation, more shooting attacks on the roads, but only after you put all the small pieces of this large puzzle together do you get to see the terrible danger, the initial signs of which are just now coming to light.

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This is not “merely” a case of more mass demonstrations in support of the October 7 massacre on the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus, or Tulkarm. This is not “merely” another case of declarations praising the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, made by senior Fatah officials, and let’s not forget that this is a movement headed by Mahmoud Abbas the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and an attempt to stir up feelings towards a potentially similar horrendous act of violence against the Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria or in those communities along its borders.

What is currently evolving before our very eyes should be a clear signal to all and sundry that the “Oslo approach”‘ of perpetuating the PA, which both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense establishment still adhere to, is on the verge of collapsing. The scenario of the PASF (Palestinian Authority Security Forces) “turning their guns” and aiming them at the IDF forces, and/or the settlements in Judea & Samaria and those that border the Green Line, is rapidly developing into actuality. The warning signs are too numerous for us to ignore.

Dozens of terrorist attacks, attempted attacks, and shooting incidents at IDF forces, or the civilian population in Judea & Samaria, have been carried out since the beginning of 2023 by Palestinian policemen, members of the Preventive Security Forces, and members of other PASF units. A similar picture arises in relation to counter-terrorist activity too. Alongside the large number of successful targeting operations carried out by the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency against Hamas and PIJ members, over the course of the last year, dozens of Fatah men have also been killed. This has mainly involved Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which since 2021 have taken up arms once again, and prior to the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, made an express appeal to their men, “What are you waiting for? Now is the time to kill the Jews…”

Since IDF Operation Guardian of the Walls, more than 100 PASF members have been killed, during attempts by them to carry out terrorist attacks, mainly led by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. These figures are often in contact with the Fatah faction secretaries in their specific areas; those same people whose declarations in support of the October 7 massacre and their express desire for a similar slaughter to be conducted in their own sector, Judea and Samaria, have been scorching Palestinian social media over the last two months.

The set of facts that shall be presented here is something that the PA is quite happy to highlight but is actually (relatively) kept hidden by Israel, which still regards the PA and its security forces as a partner. The intentional obscurity on the part of Israel emerges from the announcements issued by the defense establishment regarding arrests (or targeting operations). These announcements generally report only the overall number of arrests and state how many of them are affiliated with Hamas. About a week ago, for example, it was reported that since the outbreak of the current war, some 2,200 people had been arrested in Judea & Samaria, with 1,100 of them being Hamas-affiliated men. No information was made available to the public regarding the organizational affiliation of the other 50 percent, and you really need to dive deep into the reports, mainly on the Palestinian side, to understand that alongside members of the PIJ and “unidentified individuals”, many of them belong to organizations affiliated with Fatah, the beating heart of the PA, or its security forces; those very people whom the US aspires to integrate, once the war is over, in the overall solution to the situation both in Gaza and in the West Bank.

“Not even one dime”

The blurring of this information in the official announcements of the defense establishment is no accident. It is designed to preserve what remains (and yes it does remain!) of the security cooperation with the PASF in order to counter terrorist attacks. It is designed to prevent, as far as possible, copycat attacks being carried out by additional members of the PASF. However, at the same time, the information on the part played by members of the PASF and Fatah in acts of terrorism against Israel is covered up to a large extent.

In the PA announcements, in contrast, not only is there no attempt to conceal what is currently unfolding in front of our very eyes, on the contrary, the opposite is the case. Only a few months prior to the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, Fatah published a collage of photos of 24 terrorists, or ‘shahids’ (martyrs) as it prefers to call them, many of whom are members of the PASF, who were killed in clashes with Israel. The publication, which was exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, was last published on November 14, and the slogan “We are proud of you” boldly topped these photos. It was disseminated throughout the “West Bank” as part of the open competition with Hamas as to who leads the struggle against Israel.

The families of those 24 PASF members are now entitled, along with the thousands of terrorists from Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, some of which are affiliated with Fatah, to considerable terrorist stipends, amounting to thousands of shekels a month. Mahmoud Abbas himself has already made it quite clear that “Even if the PA is left with only one dime, it will give it, first and foremost, to the relatives of the shahids and the prisoners,” and that it will never cease to pay them their wages.

Over the last two months, just like Hamas terrorists, Fatah and PA members killed in terrorist attacks or Israeli counter-terrorism activity, have also been awarded mourning notices and official military funerals on behalf of the PA, and on a number of occasions, these events have been attended by senior PA officials, who have even delivered addresses and eulogies there. Muhammad Abad, for example, an officer in the PASF who was killed in Jenin alongside additional terrorists who were planning to perpetrate an attack on one of the settlements in Samaria, was given an official ceremony and a mourning notice.

The actual connection between the PASF and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades has been clearly illustrated on a number of occasions over the past few weeks. The head of the Brigades in Tulkarm, Jihad Shuhada, who was recently killed, is documented in photos alongside his colleagues in the local PASF, holding an M-16 assault rifle. Some of the terrorists who have been acting against the IDF have relatives in the PASF, and neither has it been unusual to see the sons of senior PASF officials turning out to be terrorists. Thus, for example Na’if Rajub, a senior Hamas figure in the town of Dura, is the brother of Jibril Rajub, the former head of the PA Preventive Security Forces in the West Bank, who expressed support for the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities and promised “an even more violent explosion in the West Bank.”

Though we do not have access to the data concerning the internal Palestinian organizational breakdown of the 1,600 ‘hot’ terrorist incidents (shooting and explosive devices) and the 4,000 incidents involving stone-throwing or Molotov cocktails that have occurred across Judea and Samaria in 2023, there is a fairly long list of terrorist incidents throughout the last year, in which terrorists from Fatah and its numerous splinter groups have taken part, alongside both Hamas and the PIJ.

The joint battalions

Meir Tamari from Hermesh was murdered last May by Fatah terrorists, as was the preschool teacher, Sheva Nagari, on Route 60 near Hebron, last August. A Palestinian policeman named Ala’a Qawato from the Tulkarm refugee camp was the person who planned to assassinate the Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, while Abdul Fatah Harusha, the murderer of the Yaniv brothers, Hallel and Yagel, in Huwara, served in the PA Internal Security Forces, while simultaneously acting as a Hamas terrorist. These are just a few select examples.

The list is much, much longer. Many of the terrorists who have murdered and wounded IDF soldiers and civilians over the past two years have been Fatah men and members of the PASF. This also applies to many on the list of those terrorists targeted by the IDF. It was published only recently, thought it did not make the main headlines, that the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Hebron area, a Hamas city par excellence, threatened Mahmoud Abbas that if he did not enter the war against Israel, they would initiate a military uprising against him.

If we go back in time to the period prior to Operation Guardian of the Walls, we can find more examples of the involvement of PASF men in terrorist attacks, but following Operation Guardian of the Walls this has become a much more common occurrence, and all the more so during 2023.

Only two weeks ago, senior Fatah figure, Tawfik Tirawi, shrugged off claims that Fatah is not involved in the fighting, and even stated (in an interview to the Palestinian channel Al-Sharq) that Fatah is involved in the fighting alongside Gaza, it has adopted terrorist groups in the refugee camps and the cities, such as Nablus and Jenin, in which joint battalions of all the factions are operating together. Tirawi, the former head of the Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Service, claimed that various organizations are coordinated with each other, and that “Fatah has never ceded the use of the gun and the armed struggle, and shall always be at the forefront of the struggle.”

The dying embers

The possibility that this collection of sporadic terrorist incidents will develop into an organized tsunami and that the PA will turn its guns on Israel (as happened in the events of the Western Wall Tunnels back in 1996, and during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s), is currently an issue preoccupying many different officials and organizations in Israel.

Just a few days ago, for example, staff from the State Comptroller’s Office conducted a tour of Samaria. The Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, reminds us that the PA does not bother to conceal its support for the murder of Jews; or that the PA’s most senior officials have yet to condemn the October 7 massacre, and some of them have even praised it and encouraged similar acts of violence. “You simply need to listen to them and not to ignore what is happening on the ground,” says Dagan, “We know that in some cases Palestinian Authority officials use their licensed weapons during the day in their official roles, while at night, they swap these for illicit guns, to be used in terrorist attacks. “The IDF,” he states, “is engaged in an all-out effort to carry out raids on terrorist nests and against terrorists, but it must also be prepared for the scenario of the PASF turning its guns against us. Continuing to relate to the PA today as a partner is a terrible mistake.”

Major General (res.) Uzi Dayan, a former Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of the National Security Council recommends that the defense establishment should take immediate steps to prepare for a scenario of the PA turning its guns against us, “Whether this takes the form of only a partial, localized effort or on a full scale. Our problematic relationship with the PA,” he estimates, “will be put to the test the moment that the PA’s elderly leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently living on his dying embers, disappears from the scene.”

Dayan believes that Israel must already begin to prepare for a military effort to take control of Area A, where the PA exercises full civilian and security control. “Though this might sound rather extreme, there really is no other correct solution for the dangers that we face and those that are already beginning to take form on the ground. Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, where the time has come for us to exercise our sovereignty, will all eventually become extensive Areas B and C. This is the situation we should strive to reach in the Gaza Strip too. The Palestinians will have only municipal and civilian powers there. No security powers.”

In Judea & Samaria, Dayan believes, “we have sufficient control of the territory, but the rest of the statistics are worse than the situation that existed in the Gaza belt communities. There are tens of thousands of Palestinians who carry arms, and the potential of them carrying out a raid on some or other settlement exists at any given moment…”

Q: Is there intelligence to indicate that the scenario of the PA turning its guns on us is about to happen?

“I don’t know, but the gauge with which we need to be working right now – and this is what I have always believed – is not necessarily that which measures the intentions of the other side or one that attempts to enter the enemy’s mind, but one that measures the other side’s capabilities. In the Gulf War,” Dayan recalls, “there was a General Staff meeting in which the question was posed, will the Iraqis fire at us? Everybody thought that the answer was no, and they even explained quite logically why not. I said that they would fire at us. They asked me why. I said: ‘Because they can, and when they do fire, you too will reach the same conclusion: they fired because they were able to.’ And this is precisely what happened.”

Q: And what is the analogy?

“That we must base our preparations not in accordance with our enemies’ intentions, but their capabilities, and since the scenario of the PA turning its guns against us is by no means far-fetched, and the Palestinians in Judea & Samaria have the capability coupled with an orderly ideology of hostility and hatred towards us, then we really need to prepare in accordance with their capabilities, according to the potential danger, and to derive the scenarios from this, which are also supported by their intentions.”

Q: The IDF will tell you that there is intelligence cooperation with the PA. That they help us to thwart terrorist attacks…

“That’s right, but it is not perceived there as an all-out war on terrorism. They don’t carry out the counter-terrorist operations with any special talent or quality, nor do they do this with any real desire, see for example the situation in Jenin and other locations too. Even now, we can no longer rely on them alone, and in the future, I’m not sure we will be able to rely on them at all.”

Dayan is concerned both about the fact that many of the terrorists and those targeted are from Fatah and also about the statements made by senior Fatah officials concerning the October 7 attack, and about similar events that might occur in the future. “In the events surrounding the opening of the Western Wall Tunnels in 1996, it was the masses who led the way, but then Palestinian policemen got involved and they shot at the IDF. This time there is an additional danger – that of attacks on Israeli settlements.”

Q: How should we prepare for this?

“First and foremost, we really need to understand and define the fact that we are currently in the middle of a war. The rapid response squads in the settlements are not sufficient. The army must work in parallel to create an offensive capability to take control of Area A territories, from where terrorist attacks might be launched. We also need to develop an active defensive capability to protect the settlements themselves.”

Q: What do you mean by an active defensive capability?

“A number of things: the rapid response squads must be turned into rapid response platoons and they need to be equipped accordingly, mainly in the larger settlements, in accordance with the IDF standard, and we must put an end to all the squabbling and disputes with them. We need to provide them with grenades, belt-fed machine guns, simple shoulder-launched missiles, and to grant recognition for their training routine. They need to take part in a serious training schedule. The next step would be to create the ability for IDF forces to join up with them, in each settlement, and where this is not possible – to create a capability for neighboring settlements to join forces and help each other our during times of difficulty. It is also important to drill such rendezvous capabilities, and the army must be ready to act not only inside the settlements but also against the source of any attack against the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria.”

Q: Why in your assessment do the IDF and the security forces currently obscure or even conceal the fact that Fatah and PASF personnel have been involved in terrorist attacks and shootings?

“We have two clear future clashes to contend with. One is with our best ally, the US, due to its perception of a two-state solution, and what it refers to as a ‘revitalized’ Palestinian Authority headed by someone who will be ready to openly speak about peace and reconciliation, and the other one with the Palestinian Authority itself, or what remains of it. The current ambiguity and obscurity result from an obvious desire and interest to push off those clashes rather than bring them forward.”

The Dayton battalions

In recent weeks, clips have been posted on social media showing the exercises conducted by the PASF battalions. Watching them is no walk in the park. In these clips, the battalions appear to act as an army training for an armed conflict or war. The exercises are extremely similar to those of the IDF, on occasions even aspiring to resemble training carried out by some of the IDF’s crack units.

The battalion exercises include a ‘war week’, a company-level exercise, and a ruck march of tens of kilometers in northern Samaria, as well as MOUT (military operations in urbanized terrain), exercises to conquer installations, etc. It is not wholly clear what the connection is between the definition of a “strong police force” tasked with guaranteeing “public order and internal security” (according to the original wording in the Oslo accords relating to the establishment of the PA), and these forces that form part of the 45-thousand strong PASF run by the Palestinian Authority.

These battalions were set up years ago, following the Second Intifada, by US General Keith Dayton. The central training facility of these battalions is located at the military academy in Jericho but they have also trained in Jordan under US supervision, and in the past, both British and Italian instructors took part in their training.

All this is occurring against the backdrop of the October 7 massacre in the Gaza belt communities, and at the same time, in the last two months, based on AI, clips have been made and posted on social media, to simulate raids on settlements in Judea & Samaria. These clips are designed to encourage the local Palestinian population in Judea & Samaria to destroy the fences of the Jewish settlements and the to infiltrate them. If we add to this the renewed involvement of certain parts of Fatah and its affiliate organizations in terrorism, along with its support for Gaza and Hamas’ actions, as clearly emerges from the numerous street processions and demonstrations, then we are faced with an extremely worrying situation.

The multiple declarations of senior Fatah figures regarding the October 7 massacre are also far from being reassuring, on the contrary. Moayad Sha’aban, PA minister and head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, attended the funeral of the terrorists who were killed during the battle in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, in which a Border Police soldier, Maxim Reznikov, was killed. Twelve terrorists were killed during that incident, including an officer in the PASF who took part in the shooting at the Israeli soldiers. Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, thanked Hamas for carrying out the October 7 attack and threatened to smash the skulls of all the Jews and the Americans in the region. Abdul Rahman Abu al-Rab, a Fatah member from Jenin, defined the October 7 massacre as a morning of joy, victory, and pride, praising the “heroic shahids in Gaza.” Jamal Hawil, a member of the Fatah Committee on the PA, promised a great surprise in Judea & Samaria too, expressing his hope that the images emerging from Gaza would also be seen in the West Bank too. Tirawi and Jibril Rajub, whom we have already mentioned, also added their own fuel to the fire, while the infamous Marwan Barghouti, one of the key leaders of the Second Intifada, now serving five consecutive life sentences for murder, this week called on his movement, Fatah, from his prison cell, to organize general resistance “across all the Palestinian lands.”

The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet has for the time being refrained from taking an in-depth look into the danger of the PA turning its guns against us. Even the general overview presented above, which is relatively detailed, has not been presented to the cabinet ministers. This became apparent last week in the answer to the question of the Minister of Settlements and National Missions, Orit Struck, at a meeting of the Socio-economic Cabinet, discussing the issue of allowing workers from Judea and Samaria to enter Israel. During the meeting, Struck warned of a scenario in which in a matter of only a few minutes a lethal incident develops, and even mentioned the names of settlements that are more susceptible to such a scenario. She even proposed stationing tanks in some of these locations. In the discussion held this week at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to calm things down and said that in a situation in which the PASF openly turn against Israel, “within a few minutes IAF helicopters will be in the air in order to provide an appropriate response.”

“HaTzofot” Forum issues a stern warning

And in the meantime, there is considerable growing concern among the Jewish settlements. About a month ago, the wives of currently serving reservists from Teqo’a, Binyamin and Samaria established the “HaTzofot” (Female Scouts) forum, whose name, apparently not by chance, is reminiscent of the story of the female IDF lookouts on the Gaza border on the eve of the current war. The women from HaTzofot are also asking that people should listen to them and take their warnings seriously. The catalyst for founding the organization were the recent olive harvest incidents, during which Palestinians approached the settlement fences, on a number of occasions in an extremely threatening manner, including many individuals who had not even come to take part in the olive harvest.

Hadas Madmon from Migdalim, one of the founders of HaTzofot, says that following the olive harvest incidents the penny dropped: “The approach to security here has not changed following October 7. Initially, there was a sense of the “boss has gone mad”, but it soon elapsed and once again the Palestinians went back to blinding us on the roads with lasers, playing games with us, and testing the limits. Last Thursday, they already shot from a passing car on the road beneath the settlement.

“We are definitely concerned that here too, we might have to face a similar event to the horrendous attack that took place in the Gaza belt communities,” she says, “For 30 years we nurtured the monster from Oslo and provided them with arms. Some of the recently released terrorists have gone back to their villages next door to us. This is a danger that haunts Kfar Saba, Rosh Ha’Ayin, and similar towns and cities along the Green Line.”

Two weeks ago, the women from HaTzofot met with the Head of the IDF Central Command, Major General Yehuda Fuchs. “He was very attentive and respectful,” Madmon recounts, “but, he also made it clear to us that he implements government policy, and the current policy is that the PA is our partner. The governance is critical everywhere, but especially among those who are more exposed to threats, as we are.”

Is the scenario of the PA turning its guns against us indeed a not-too-distant reality? In part? In full? Against settlements? Against the IDF? The multitude of indications and warnings, or I&W, to use the professional military jargon, that we have brought here should be sufficient to set a huge red light flashing in front of the policymakers at both the military and political level, which are currently preoccupied with the two main fronts in the north and the south, and do not have the time to engage in a profound debate regarding this third, and no-less menacing, front.

The Dark Reality Of PLO And UNRWA Policies

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December 22, 2023

View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building during a strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** אונר"א
עזה
בניין
שביתה

For decades, I advocated for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state, believing that it could bring about a lasting peace in the region. I was convinced that Israel had a genuine partner in the peace process, one that could help resolve the conflict with the Palestinian Arabs and address the millions living in UNRWA refugee camps. However, a fateful week in December 1987 changed my perspective forever.

On December 8, 1987, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) took control of the Palestinian Arab leadership, marking the beginning of a violent “intifada.” This shift extinguished my optimism for a peaceful resolution. From that moment on, I embarked on a 36-year journey of examining the PLO and UNRWA with the help of dedicated journalists, both Jewish and Arab, who spoke Arabic fluently.

Our collective research yielded a conclusion that was often met with skepticism: the PLO’s aim was not merely to foster hatred of Jews but to indoctrinate a systematic ideology of murder against them. For years, our perspective remained in the minority, but the horrific events of October 7th this year served as a chilling confirmation of our long-standing concerns.

The October 7th massacre, where Jewish men, women, and even infants were brutally murdered, represented the culmination of 24 years of continuous incitement of Palestinian Arabs to cross the border, abduct or murder any Jew who stood in their way, all in the pursuit of their so-called “right of return” by force.

Fast forward to October 18th, when US President Joe Biden visited Jerusalem. The State Department assured me that President Biden was convinced the Palestinian Authority (PA) had condemned the ongoing Arab murder campaign. Based on this report, President Biden endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state with Mahmoud Abbas at the helm.

To closely monitor Abbas’s statements, our news agency engaged Dr. Pinhas Inbari, a senior journalist fluent in Arabic and now a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He kept a close eye on the tightly controlled Palestinian Authority media, especially after the horrifying discovery of murdered babies at the hands of Palestinian Arabs.

Inbari’s findings were disheartening. President Abbas did not express a shred of remorse, offer an apology, or demonstrate any second thoughts about the actions of the Arab murder campaign since October 7. Instead, he repeatedly promised grants to the families of those Arabs who died as “Shahids,” or holy martyrs, since that tragic day.

While the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency initially published comments by Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions, they later removed references to the terrorist group without an explanation. What Abbas has consistently reiterated on PA media channels is his intent to support the families of those who died in this abhorrent campaign.

This is the legacy that President Joe Biden left in Jerusalem: allowing Mahmoud Abbas to evade responsibility for these murders, leaving the troubling policies of the PLO and UNRWA unaddressed and unchecked. We must not turn a blind eye to this dark reality, and it’s high time for a reevaluation of our approach to peace in the region.

Three wise men

By

Michael Kuttner

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December 22, 2023

According to Christian tradition, it was about this time of the year that three “wise” men appeared in Bethlehem to visit a newborn Jewish baby.

Bethlehem, at that time, was a Jewish town in Judea, which, apart from being a place where bread was baked, also hosted Jewish pilgrims who were visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. Neither Christians nor Muslims existed in what was essentially an illegally occupied Jewish land. Judea was nominally independent but under the thumb of the Roman occupiers.

Palestine and Palestinians did not exist.

Fast forward to 2023, and history has been distorted to create an entirely fictitious scenario. Thanks to gross ignorance and willful prejudices politicians and others alike have been seduced by the big lies.

There has never been an Arab Islamic Palestinian nation with Jerusalem as its capital. This simple fact is somehow heretical in today’s doublespeak and politically correct environment.

It is precisely at this time of the year when the historical revisionists get into high gear and the assault on Jewish sovereignty and legitimacy becomes a frenzy of fictitious fantasies.

It was, therefore, somewhat ironic that today’s version of the three wise men should recently gather together.

Meeting in a solemn conclave, none other than Chris Luxon, Anthony Albanese and Justin Trudeau, Prime Ministers respectively of New Zealand, Australia and Canada, offered up their collective wisdom about the situation in Israel and Gaza.

The original three wise men, according to the Christian tradition, brought gifts and then left Bethlehem without apparently pontificating at any length to the locals.

Today’s imposters have certainly not offered any gifts. They haven’t even bothered to visit Israel to see first-hand the realities of the situation. Instead of being confused by the actual truth, they preferred to offer unsolicited advice, admonitions and warnings.

Listening to their collective narratives, one would imagine that those who today call themselves Palestinians are somehow indigenous to the land and are therefore entitled to inherit places that, since Biblical times, have seen a sovereign Jewish presence.

To be completely fair, these three stooges are merely recycling the same tired and discredited old slogans so beloved by Biden, Blinken and assorted “experts” lurking in the State Department and the media.

Piously pouting that Israel must under no circumstances reoccupy and clean out Gaza, not reduce its territory and not maintain a siege or blockade, highlights that Israel is not allowed to defeat Hamas.

How on earth can the terrorists be defeated if Israeli troops are not permitted to occupy Gaza until the job is finished? In a post-war situation, there must be a buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border to ensure that terrorists can never again repeat their ground invasion of Israeli territory. Ideally, this should consist of a minefield and other anti-infiltration devices. If there is no blockade and no inspection of goods entering Gaza, how can the acquisition of weapons be prevented and thwarted? There should be no electricity provided by Israel, which enables Hamas and its allies to dig and ventilate tunnels.

Note that the three leaders seemed unconcerned about the terror tunnels and the thousands of rockets being fired at civilian Israeli targets. Where is their outrage at the theft of international aid and the deliberate deprivation of the Gazan population by Hamas?

Included in the declaration was the recognition that Israel has a right to exist.

Whoopee – what a magnanimous gesture designed, no doubt, to make Israelis and Jews feel that much better. This demeaning declaration is immediately followed by a warning that, of course, in the act of defending its citizens, it must ensure that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected. Completely ignored is the fact that civilians in Gaza are used as human shields and cannon fodder. Also conveniently omitted is the stark reality that civilian structures such as hospitals, schools, mosques and houses are storage places for rockets and lethal ammunition. Apparently, the fact that tunnels and weapons have been discovered under babies’ cribs is of little or no concern.

The overwhelming support shown by the Arabs of Gaza and elsewhere for the Hamas crusade of genocidal terror is self-evident yet those bleating about suffering ignore the obvious. Much is made of the humanitarian crisis, yet when trucks bringing in aid are attacked and looted by Hamas mobs, our three “wise” men remain silent along with the rest of the immoral UN.

The three PMs trotted out the ludicrous demand to establish yet another corrupt and terror-supporting entity in the midst of Israel. This would be a surefire recipe for the future eradication of the Jewish State. If they had bothered to visit the area and seen for themselves the daily outpouring of hate and incitement from the Ramallah-based “peace doves”, they would have rapidly realized that their plan was fatally flawed. Democracy and respect for human rights are an alien concept as far as the PA/PLO/Fatah is concerned.

The post-1967 newly minted “Palestinians” have only one aim in mind. That is the replacement of the Jewish State with their Islamic state. This has been the agenda well before 1948. The fact that the rest of the world and an assortment of self-loathers and progressive lemmings still do not recognize this fact accounts for the continuing conflict. In a perfect world, we could all live in peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, that is not the reality we confront and will not face in the foreseeable future.

The US Administration hallucinates about a “younger and revitalized” Palestinian Authority arising and being able to unite Gaza in what it calls the West Bank. In reality, of course, whoever comes after Abbas will, of necessity, need to be even more extreme in order to be able to survive. Giving them a prize of Judea and Samaria is a folly of monumental proportions. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, where they already constitute a majority, is the natural home of those who call themselves “Palestinians”. However, the Hashemites do not want them, and neither do the Saudis or anyone else. Why, therefore, should Israel hand over to them its Biblical heartland and territory legally allocated by San Remo for Jewish settlement?

Luxon, Albanese and Trudeau sing the same old out-of-tune song of Israeli “settlements” being against international law. The Jewish villages, towns and cities existing in places which were sovereign Jewish territory three thousand years ago have more legitimacy than the territories seized by the colonial British in New Zealand, Australia and Canada a mere few hundred years ago.

A senior Hamas official has thanked Canada, Australia and New Zealand. What further proof of idiocy is required?

As the Christmas festival is about to be celebrated, an interesting development has taken place which, of course, is being ignored.

In Bethlehem, where it all started, Christmas has been cancelled by the Church authorities. Ostensibly, it is because of the war and the absence of pilgrims and tourists. As surely as day follows night, the real villains will be revealed, and unsurprisingly, it will be the dastardly Israelis who are responsible for this state of affairs. Watch for the media to faithfully fulfil their anointed task of this blasphemous state of affairs by blaming the perfidious Jews. Everyone from religious functionaries to lay leaders will highlight this.

What nobody will mention, however, is the fact that in PA-controlled Bethlehem, Christians now constitute a mere 10% of the city’s population. The once 90% of Christians have been driven out by the intolerant and terror-supporting Islamists. This is, of course, a foretaste of the sort of religious “tolerance” practised by those striving to replace Israel. The fact that most of the international community facilitates this is indicative of the moral decline taking place.

Chanukah was not cancelled in Israel despite the fact that pilgrims and tourists were absent. Instead, the festival was celebrated with renewed fervour and devotion. Ironically, the only places where Chanukah was cancelled were in the Diaspora. Threats against Jews, vandalism and violence combined to drive many Jewish communities underground or to render them invisible and muted.

What we do not need in today’s climate of political insanity and historical revisionism is the continual barrage of ill-advised demands.

I would not be surprised if those Christian denominations which have already excised the psalms from their liturgy as being too Zionistic will take the next step and rewrite the carol, Noel, which has the chorus “born is the king of Israel.” No doubt political correctness will mandate that Israel be replaced by Palestine.

Presumably, that would receive approval from the three wise men of New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

UNRWA’s Education Fuels Hatred: A Lethal Threat To Israel’s Existence

By

David Bedein

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December 22, 2023

On September 27, 2023, less than two weeks before all hell broke loose in Israel, three officials from the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs met with four researchers who have spent their careers studying different aspects of the strategic threat posed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).

UNRWA oversees 59 refugee camps that comprise more than five million descendants of Arab refugees relocated by the 1948 war.

What each of the researchers reported to the government was that UNRWA has educated the next generation to blindly believe in a sacred “right of return” by force of arms to the very homes which they left back in ’48, homes that no longer exist, in villages that have since grown into Israeli cities, collective farms and woodlands.

After the experts had their say, they listened to passionate words of Rabbi Leo Dee, a British-born veteran of Israel peace advocacy, who in his work has nurtured years of dialogue with Arabs.

The perspective of Rabbi Dee was unique.

On April 7 of this year, three “graduates” of the UNRWA school educational system living in the UNRWA Askar refugee camp near Nablus murdered his wife Lucy and two daughters, Rina and Maia, in a drive by shooting on Road 90 in northern Israel.

At the funeral, Rabbi Dee asked aloud what would motivate three young people to conduct such a vile act of murder.

In the month that followed, Rabbi Dee heard from generals and policy-makers that it was the fault of Iran which had dispatched killers to murder Jews at random.

Yet Rabbi Dee wondered aloud as he buried his beloved family members as to what was going on in the minds of these killers when they opened fire on his loved ones.

So we dispatched an Arab TV crew to find out.

What Rabbi Dee was shocked to discover was the candor with which the families of the killers spoke as the parents who spoke with pride in their sons’ willingness to kill Jews in order to achieve the right of return to villages that no longer exist.

This summer, our news and research agency dispatched TV crews to film UNRWA summer camps that were devoted to perpetuating a hero’s worship of the youthful Arabs who murdered the Dee family.

Our researchers, who have reviewed more than 1,000 Palestinian Authority texts used in UNRWA schools and produced more than twenty films shot on location in their schools, report that the “right of return by force of arms” has evolved into theme of UNRWA “education”, instead of the PEACE BEGINS HERE, the theme of UN Education since the birth of the UN in 1945.

So far, no media outlet in Israel will publicize the message that UNRWA and the PA praise the cold-blooded murder of the family of Rabbi Dee, at a time when PA law allocates a salary or life for anyone who kills a Jew, or a salary for the family of the killer is the perpetrator becomes a “Shahid ” martyr.

In order to see peace in the next generation, Israel will have to insist on a policy of “Denazification” to cope with the lethal consequences of this bloodthirsty PLO curriculum that was introduced to a whole new generation on August 1, 2000.

That PLO curriculum is taught in tandem with the 1964 PLO charter, never canceled, and the Jihad declaration of total war by the Arab League against the nascent state of Israel. still in effect today, despite peace treaties with Jordan and with Egypt, and talk of normalization with Saudi Arabia, king pin of the Arab League.

While new Saudi texts respect for Jews and Judaism, yet allow Jihad against the state of Israel to continue in the schools.

Pay attention to scholar Dr. Arnon Groiss, who has examined more than 1,000 texts of the PA used by UNRWA over the last 24 years, who warned officials of the Israel ministry of strategic affairs of the threat posed by UNRWA education and by extent of Saudi education.

Palestinian Authority schoolbooks used by UNRWA feature three fundamentals, each of which stands in sharp contrast to the values of the United Nations:

Delegitimization of Israel’s existence and the Jews’ very presence in the country, which includes denial of their history and the existence of any Jewish holy places there.
Demonization of both Israel and Jews, with implications regarding the Jews’ image in the eyes of children who hail from a traditional society.
Incitement and the absence of a call for peace with Israel. Instead, there is a call for a violent struggle for the liberation of the whole count

Saudi Arabia, which passionately endorses some kind of peace with Israel is the seventh leading funder of the 1.6 billion dollar UNRWA budget, 58% of which is allocated to a curriculum dedicated to total war on the Jews.

Whenever the cannons will rest, that will provide the respite necessary to overhaul UNRWA education. If there is no overhaul in what Arabs teach, no semblance of peace will ever exist.

Our 24 years of filming UNRWA schools consistently shows Arabs of all ages getting ready to cross the Gaza fence and murder any Jew who stood in their way. That is the simulation that we witnessed in every UNRWA school and UNRWA summer camp.

Yet the denial of Hamas terror takeover of UNRWA is rampant.

In a press briefing on December 10, 2023, the US State Department spokesman categorically rejected any notion of any connection between UNRWA and Hamas, even though Hamas controls every aspect of UNRWA “education”.

Israel Behind the News

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The other front: How the Palestinian Authority is preparing for battle – right under our noses

The Dark Reality Of PLO And UNRWA Policies

Three wise men

UNRWA’s Education Fuels Hatred: A Lethal Threat To Israel’s Existence

Column from the Director