zaterdag 26 juni 2010

De vier stappen van het Israelische beleid: crisis, druk, toegeven en overeenstemming

De regering-Netanjahoe heeft al een aantal flinke concessies gedaan, onder sterke druk van de Amerikanen en met het nodige tegengesputter. Daardoor en vanwege de anti-Israel stemming worden zij echter niet als zodanig beschouwd en ontvangt Israel er ook niet de erkenning voor die gepast zou zijn. Ondertussen houden de Palestijnen op alle gebieden hun poot stijf maar ook daarvoor hebben de media (en de politiek) geen aandacht. Aluf Benn schrijft wat betreft een voorstel van minister van defensie Barak dat Israel met een eigen vredesplan komt:

Netanyahu is right in believing that the international community will reject any political initiative by his current government, just as the Bar-Ilan speech and the settlement construction freeze were disdainfully ignored.

Dat is waar, maar zo'n initiatief is evengoed nodig om te laten zien dat Israel bereid is tot concessies en oprecht vrede wil. Israel kan en mag de strijd om de internationale publieke opinie niet als verloren beschouwen. Zonder begrip voor haar positie en problemen, en dus de acties die soms nodig zijn, en zonder het idee dat Israel wel degelijk vrede wil, zij het onder duidelijke voorwaarden, zal de steun voor Israel verder eroderen. De meeste Israeli's willen vrede en zijn bereid daarvoor gebied op te geven. Het is niet meer dan logisch dat de regering die positie duidelijk naar voren brengt.

Het probleem is natuurlijk dat dit Netanjahoe in problemen zal brengen met zijn rechtse coalitiepartners, maar dat is geen reden zich achter het argument te verschuilen dat zo'n plan toch zal worden afgewezen. Anderzijds is het natuurlijk niet erg motiverend dat iedere stap die je zet, uit welke motieven dan ook, wordt genegeerd of als te min afgedaan.

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The four stages of Israeli policy: crisis, pressure, cave-in and agreement
The process of easing of the Gaza blockade followed the premier's usual behavioral pattern: protest and waffling - followed by bowing to American pressure.
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/the-four-stages-of-israeli-policy-crisis-pressure-cave-in-and-agreement-1.298264

By Aluf Benn

When the security cabinet decided to ease the civilian blockade on the Gaza Strip this week, the process followed the precise modus operandi Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken with regard to leading Israel's foreign and defense policy this term. Each such incident has had four stages: crisis, pressure, cave-in and agreement.

In the first stage, Israel gets entangled in an international crisis over use of force that some consider excessive, or due to new construction in the settlements or in East Jerusalem. "The world" demands that Israel be punished and Netanyahu begs the U.S. administration to rescue him. In the second stage, U.S. President Barack Obama takes advantage of the opportunity, and demands that Netanyahu make concessions to the Palestinians and rein in the settlements in exchange for American help. In the third, and critical, stage, Netanyahu caves in after putting up symbolic resistance to Obama's demands or buying a little time.

The result is always the same and apparently unavoidable: Netanyahu changes his policy in a way that goes against the ideology he was raised on at home and his right-wing coalition platform. The premier listens to his father, Benzion, to his wife, Sara, to his colleagues in Likud and to his "natural partners" from Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas. He undoubtedly agrees with them in his heart, but understands intellectually that Israel is totally dependent on U.S. support.

Then comes the fourth and most surprising stage: The prime minister's zigzag makes no waves, not even a ripple, in the coalition. No one attacks Netanyahu on the morning radio talk shows. Benny Begin, Moshe Ya'alon, Eli Yishai and Avigdor Lieberman, who certainly oppose the government's frequent policy shifts, cling to their seats in the ministerial septet. Netanyahu treats them with respect, convenes them for worthless discussions that go on for hours and in the end gets what he wants: Everyone is committed to a decision that Obama dictated.

This scenario has occured four times already. It started with Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University, where he accepted the concept of a Palestinian state - which he had preached against throughout his entire diplomatic and political career. It continued with the 10-month settlement construction freeze, which is in total opposition to what the political right in Israel represents. The next step - in the wake of the "Biden crisis" - was to limit construction for Jews and to refrain from demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, even if this was not officially declared. Finally, this week, we got the easing of the Gaza blockade, which until now had been presented to the public as an essential defense against Hamas and a crucial instrument for bringing back abducted soldier Gilad Shalit.

Unlike the previous events, the easing of the blockade was accompanied by a small shift in the plot: Netanyahu claims that three months after he formed his government, he actually proposed a loosening of the civilian blockade and that this was in fact done in bits and pieces, until the flotilla affair forced Israel to open the transit points to all civilian goods. At this point, the premier's listeners are meant to fill in the gaps and guess who the bad guys are: in this case, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his aides, who prevented the blockade from being eased earlier and then entangled Israel in a diplomatic mess with the Turkish flotilla debacle, in which lives were lost.

From the moment the naval commandos rappelled into the club-and-knife ambush on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, it was clear the military blunder would undermine the political and personal alliance between Netanyahu and Barak, which until then looked rock-solid. Netanyahu is blaming Barak for what happened and the latter responds by demanding that Israel put forward a political initiative and that Netanyahu bring Kadima into the government, while threatening that Labor will not remain indefinitely in such a paralyzed, rejectionist coalition. This is meant to frighten Netanyahu, who is afraid of being locked into an extreme-right coalition and becoming totally dependent on the caprices of his foreign minister, Lieberman. Netanyahu knows his "natural partner" wants to be his heir and make Yisrael Beiteinu the leader of the right wing on the ruins of Likud.

In the first round of the political battle, the prime minister came out swinging. Addressing the Knesset on Wednesday, he rejected the calls for an political initiative. That sort of process, he explained, would not help Israel in the face of the delegitimization attempt being waged by "radical Islam and the radical left," in an effort to eliminate "Jewish sovereignty within any borders" while calling on Jews to go back to Poland and Morocco. And how does Netanyahu intend to fight the international campaign to dismantle Israel? He has two solutions: first, to recognize the seriousness of the problem, and then to unify against it.

In his speech, Netanyahu denounced Israeli left-wingers who support an anti-Israeli boycott. "It's a national scandal," he declared, calling for the condemnation of "the radical core among us." In so doing, he also offered state patronage to the campaign being led by the right-wing Im Tirtzu organization against the left's influence in the universities and against the funding sources for Israeli human rights groups. That's classic Netanyahu: Back in his first term as prime minister, he was decrying the left's power over the academic discourse. At the time, this was taken to be political persecution of "the elites."

Now, Netanyahu is presenting his struggle against the left as an essential vehicle in the fight to save Israel from the so-called delegitimization threat. The political message to Barak is also transparent: Anyone who abandons the coalition at this difficult hour, when internal unity is called for, is indirectly abetting those seeking to liquidate Zionism.

Furthermore, the premier is presenting the partnership with Barak as a "unity government," but that message is not being accepted abroad. According to European diplomats, only if Netanyahu brings Tzipi Livni into the government and accepts the Olmert government's peace proposals will they believe he is truly serious. But Netanyahu has not reached that point and neither has Livni.

But Netanyahu's conduct in the flotilla and blockade episode, as in earlier crises, suggest he will have trouble rejecting an American policy initiative, if and when one is put forward. He will protest, but if Obama holds firm, the premier will once again cave in and the coalition will fall into line behind him. This will particularly be the case if Israel needs a U.S. life preserver in a confrontation with Iran and its supporters, as happened after the Yom Kippur War, the first Gulf War and the second intifada - events that derailed Israel's self-confidence and led to territorial withdrawals. Netanyahu is a hero against the left-wing scarecrow in Israeli academe. In the face of Obama his roar turns into a whimper. He makes speeches about our historical rights and then does what the Americans dictate.

Amnesty International spreekt zichzelf tegen over definitie van "bezetting"

Ik heb er al vaker op gewezen dat het nergens op slaat om de Gazastrook bezet te noemen, aangezien de enige Israelische soldaat die er zit, gevangen wordt gehouden door Hamas. Amnesty International is hierin echter bepaald niet alleen. Het probleem is dat de status van Gaza sinds Israels terugtrekking in 2005 nogal vaag is: als Israel inderdaad niet de bezetter is, maar het is ook geen soevereine staat, wat is het dan wel? Hamas heeft er de controle op de grond en vaardigt de wetten uit, maar voor een aantal zaken is men afhankelijk van Israel, Egypte of de Palestijnse regering op de Westoever. Hamas heeft zich echter zelf in deze situatie gebracht, door met de eenheidsregering te breken en Fatah met grof geweld te verdrijven, en vervolgens de facto de oorlog aan een machtig buurland te verklaren.

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Amnesty contradicts itself on definition of "occupation"

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/06/amnesty-contradicts-itself-on.html

Amnesty International consistently refers to the Gaza Strip as "occupied" and Israel as the "occupying power." For example, in a recent press release, it says

After Hamas took control in Gaza in June 2007, the existing Israeli policy of closure was tightened to a blockade restricting the entry of food, fuel, and other basic goods....

As the occupying power, Israel bears the foremost responsibility for ensuring the welfare of the inhabitants of Gaza.

So in the case of Israel, Amnesty (and others, including the ICJ) consider a closure of a territory over most of its borders to be "occupation."

Yet after the US and UK invaded Iraq, Amnesty in 2003 published a guide about the definition and legalities of a belligerent occupation. See how that definition, based on the Hague conventions, apply to Gaza:

The definition of belligerent occupation is given in Article 42 of the Hague Regulations:

"Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised."

The sole criterion for deciding the applicability of the law on belligerent occupation is drawn from facts: the de facto effective control of territory by foreign armed forces coupled with the possibility to enforce their decisions, and the de facto absence of a national governmental authority in effective control. If these conditions are met for a given area, the law on belligerent occupation applies. Even though the objective of the military campaign may not be to control territory, the sole presence of such forces in a controlling position renders applicable the law protecting the inhabitants. The occupying power cannot avoid its responsibilities as long as a national government is not in a position to carry out its normal tasks.

The international legal regime on belligerent occupation takes effect as soon as the armed forces of a foreign power have secured effective control over a territory that is not its own. It ends when the occupying forces have relinquished their control over that territory.

The question may arise whether the law on occupation still applies if new civilian authorities set up by the occupying power from among nationals of the occupied territories are running the occupied territory's daily affairs. The answer is affirmative, as long as the occupying forces are still present in that territory and exercise final control over the acts of the local authorities.

In the first quote from Amnesty above, it is clear that they recognize that Hamas has taken over Gaza. By their own definitions, which are very clear in the case of Iraq, "occupation" occurs only is when the outside army has physical control of the territory on the ground, and when it can override the decisions taken by the local authorities.

Any way you look at it, Gaza is not under the "authority" of the IDF and such authority over Gaza cannot be exercised by the IDF without a return of a physical presence. If Gaza is considered occupied because Israel has the ability to control its own border with a hostile territory, then Israel must have been "occupied" by its neighbors before 1977 because they also controlled their own borders and stopped any trade with Israel. The idea is absurd, and has no basis in international law.

In fact, Amnesty goes on in its 2003 guide to demand specific responsibilities of the US and UK in Iraq, responsibilities that it would be loathe to request Israel perform in Gaza. These include maintaining law and order, protecting civilians from being tortured or coerced, and other provisions that necessitate an actual physical presence in the territory. (Goldstone's legal arguments were even more bizarre.)

Amnesty's definition of occupation given in 2003 is quite accurate and fully in agreement with the Hague definitions. When it changes that definition concerning Israel in Gaza, it is engaging in blatant hypocrisy.

Advies voor vrouwen op nieuwe Free Gaza boot

Het onrecht dat de Arabische staten de Palestijnen aandoen, is een van de zaken die twijfel zaaien over de werkelijke intenties van al die anti-Israel activisten. Je hoort ze immers nooit over de miserabele behandeling van de vluchtelingen in Libanon, Syrië, Irak of Koeweit, de vele Palestijnen die door het Libanese leger of indertijd door Jordanië zijn gedood en het gebrek aan daadwerkelijke hulp voor de vluchtelingen en de Palestijnse Autoriteit (de hulp komt voornamelijk van Westerse landen). Maar ook de media besteden hier weinig aandacht aan, en concentreren zich op vermeende en werkelijke Israelische misstanden.

Hieronder een advies voor de vrouwen die vanuit Libanon naar Gaza willen varen.

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On Breaking Israel's Naval Blockade

by Khaled Abu Toameh
June 22, 2010 at 5:00 am

http://www.hudson-ny.org/1380/breaking-israel-naval-blockade

Here is some last-minute advice to the group of women who are planning to organize another aid ship to break the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip: Do not forget to wear the hijab and cover other parts of your body before you arrive at the Hamas-controlled area. And make sure that none of you is seen laughing in public.

Otherwise, you are likely to meet the same fate as other Palestinian women who have been physically and verbally abused by fundamentalist Muslims in the Gaza Strip.

Some women in the Gaza Strip have had acid splashed in their faces for allegedly being dressed "immodestly" or for being seen in public with a male who is not a husband, father, brother or son.

Just recently, Hamas's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stopped female journalist Asthma al-Ghul under the pretext that she came to the beach dressed "immodestly" and was seen laughing in public.

"They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend, and for failing to wear a hijab," she told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. "They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were swimming with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine."

This incident came only days after a Hamas judge ordered all female lawyers appearing in court to wear headscarves and a long, dark colored clock under their black robes.

By seeking to help Hamas, the women who are planning to sail to the Gaza Strip are in fact encouraging the fundamentalist movement to continue oppressing Palestinian women living there.

Wouldn't it have been better and more helpful had the same group of female activists launched a campaign to promote women's rights under Hamas? Or to protest against the severe restrictions imposed by Hamas on all women, including the right to stroll along the beach alone or to wear a swim suit?

Moreover, it is ironic (and sad) that some of the women who are behind the new flotilla adventure come from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait - countries that not only have killed Palestinians, but also continue to oppress them and impose severe restrictions on them.

As for the Egyptian women activists, it would be helpful if they would advise their colleagues to sail toward Egypt, whose authorities are also imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip and continuing to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the area. The Egyptians are also continuing to prevent tens of thousands of Palestinians from using the Rafah border crossing to travel abroad.

Have the Kuwaiti women on the planned trip ever thought about protesting against the mistreatment of Palestinians in their emirate?

Following the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait expelled some 400,000 Palestinians who were part of a thriving immigrant community in the emirate. The Palestinians were being punished because of the PLO's support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait a year earlier.

Most recently, Palestinians complained that Kuwait denied entry permits for members of a Palestinian team of disabled athletes who were supposed to take part in an international tournament in the emirate. "The decision came from the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry under the pretext that the team members hold Palestinian passports," CNN quoted Palestinian sources as saying.

And why don't the Lebanese women who are planning the journey to the Gaza Strip organize a tour to Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon that was totally destroyed by the Lebanese army in 2007?

According to a recent report in the Electronic Intifada Web site, "reconstruction of the camp is delayed, the area is a military soon with restricted access, and the camp's economy is stalled and residents are largely employed."

The same report states that before the war, "around two-thirds of Nahr al-Bared's labor force worked within the camp's boundaries. As Palestinian refugees face heavy legal and social discrimination in the Lebanese labor market, working outside the camp is difficult."

Lebanon, Syria and Jordan have more Palestinian blood on their hands than any other country.

vrijdag 25 juni 2010

Israel en het menselijk fatsoen volgens Israel bashers

Vul voor Fintan O'Toole en Iain Banks Anja Meulenbelt en Dries van Agt in of Thomas von der Dunk of een van de vele andere Nederlandse Israel bashers die beweren dat Israel een schurkenstaat is die de meest elementaire vorm van beschaving mist.

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Israel and common humanity

Israel, human decency, common humanity (by Eve Garrard)

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2010/06/israel-human-decency-common-humanity-by-eve-garrard.html

Fintan O'Toole thinks that Israel regards itself as 'exempt from the demands of common humanity' (via Z Word Blog). Iain Banks thinks that 'simple human decency' means nothing to Israel (see this normblog post).

Two well-known writers, very anxious to tell the world that Israel lacks humanity. Israel's not like the rest of us, the rest of the human family. Compared to other nations, it's inhuman. It doesn't recognize what everyone else knows about, the simple requirements of being decently human. It ought to recognize these things, it isn't hard to do so, since they're so simple; and most other people do, since they're part of common humanity.

Leave aside the sinister provenance of that claim, and let's just consider it on its own.

Turkey has killed between 30,000 and 40,000 Kurds in the last 30 years; it occupies North Cyprus; it blockades Armenia and denies its own historical genocide. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

Sri Lanka, at the same time that Israel was fighting in Gaza (around 1300 dead) killed about 25,000 of its own civilians in the course of repressing an insurgency. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

Sudan has killed something in the order of 200,000 people in Darfur, with countless rapes and tortures alongside. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

Iran rapes and tortures and murders its own dissidents who ask for democracy; it hangs young gays, it oppresses women. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

Yemen is blockading South Yemen, it lets no food, medicine or water through; unlike Israel, which lets around 15,000 tons of supplies into Gaza every week. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

Egypt is considering a law to strip their citizenship from any Egyptian who marries an Israeli; it persecutes Copts; it blockades Gaza. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

Russia kills 25,000 to 50,000 Chechens, and almost completely razes the capital city of Grozny; its soldiers inflict hideous tortures on their prisoners before killing them; investigative journalists are murdered. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

China kills somewhere between half a million and one and a quarter million Tibetans in the course of quashing Tibet's independence. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

In Pakistan, Christian churches are burned, hundreds of Ahmadiyyas are killed, violence towards women is endemic. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

In Saudi Arabia, no churches are allowed, no Israeli Jews may enter, women are subject to gender apartheid. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

Congo: what can one say about Congo? More than that 5 million - 5 million - people have been killed in its wars, alongside innumerable rapes and hideous tortures? But Israel lacks simple human decency.

Now, here's one especially for Iain Banks: the USA and the UK initiate a war in Iraq in which more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians are killed. But Israel thinks it's exempt from the demands of common humanity.

France trained and armed the Hutu genocidaires who killed around 800,000 civilians in the Rwanda genocide, and continued to protect them even as they lost power to the incoming Tutsis. But Israel lacks simple human decency.

Three things to note. First, most of the other cases I've mentioned have involved far worse horrors than anything Israel has done. But Israel is the one which Banks and O'Toole charge, not with acting wrongly, or having bad judgement, but with being deliberately impervious to morality, with not even rising to the most basic level of decency. Banks and O'Toole (and indeed many others) level this charge at Israel alone. We won't be hearing them say that the Chinese are deliberately impervious to morality, or that the Turks lack simple human decency. Only Israel. Why is this?

Second, we can't in fact leave aside the sinister provenance of these charges. O'Toole at least claims to know about the Holocaust, and what led to that horror; it's possible that Banks knows something about it too. It's a commonplace of historical explanation that one of the enabling factors was the dehumanization of the Jews, the constant Nazi propaganda about how they weren't fully human, how they didn't have the normal moral sentiments and beliefs, about how they saw themselves as the chosen people, above ordinary morality. Here we see these dehumanizing lies being reproduced, 60 years later, about Israel, and only about Israel. Why is this?

Third, and most importantly, every point I've made in this post has been made before, by many others, many many times: forcefully, cogently, analytically; both passionately and dispassionately; with humour and with despair. It hasn't made the slightest difference to the likes of Banks and O'Toole. Nor to the many others shouting or whispering at us, in the teeth of the evidence, that Gaza is the new Warsaw Ghetto, and that Israel is really Nazi Germany come again - and so it's fine to hate Israel, it's to your credit to hate it, it shows the world that you have simple human decency.

Why is this? And where will it lead?

(Eve Garrard)

donderdag 24 juni 2010

Vlaams 'Broederlijk Delen' kan Israël bashen niet laten, al hebben Palestijnen het gedaan

Het Belgische 'Broederlijk Delen' is volgens mij zoiets als de Novib, maar dan nog veel extremer anti-Israel. De creativiteit die men aan de dag legt om Israel te bashen wanneer de Palestijnen iets hebben gedaan is verbijsterend, en men is bereid daarin heel ver te gaan.

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Broederlijk Delen kan het Israëlbashen niet laten

Woensdag 23 Juni 2010 17:27

http://joodsactueel.be/2010/06/23/broederlijk-delen-kan-het-israelbashen-niet-laten/

De wereld op zijn kop: Joodse staat krijgt nu zelf de schuld voor Palestijnse wanpraktijken

Reeds meermaals kaartten wij de eenzijdigheid van NGO's als Broederlijk Delen (BD) aan als het om het Midden-Oostenconflict gaat. Deze maand ging de organisatie voort op haar elan en kregen we nogmaals een opmerkelijk staaltje desinformatie over ons heen – betaald met uw en mijn belastingsgeld.

Het verhaal begint twee weken geleden in Gaza. Palestijnse radicalen slaan er een zomerkamp van de VN kort en klein. Dertig gemaskerde mannen, waarvan een deel gewapend, vallen het kamp binnen. Ze scheuren er de tenten kapot en verbranden de installaties. De bewaker van het kamp moet machteloos toekijken. De VN zou tijdens de zomermaanden het kamp gebruiken om 4.500 Arabische kinderen op te vangen, maar volgens de radicalen zou het er niet preuts genoeg aan toegaan omdat de kinderen er o.a. fitness- en danslessen krijgen.

Een alerte lezer van Joods Actueel vraagt zich af hoe Broederlijk Delen, Amnesty en company zouden reageren indien het zomerkamp omwille van een Israëlische actie zou worden gesloten. De consternatie zou alomtegenwoordig zijn, maar wanneer Israël niet de schuldige is, blijft het muisstil. De lezer neemt contact op met Broederlijk Delen en vraagt waarom er geen persbericht op de website staat om het geweld af te keuren. Indien de organisatie bezorgd is om het pleit van de weerloze Palestijnen en het onrecht dat hen wordt aangedaan, waarom dan een onderscheid maken waar dat 'onrecht' vandaan komt, vroeg hij zich af?

BD reageerde instemmend en zou een communiqué schrijven om het voorval te veroordelen.

Met tegenzin blijkt nu. Want het bericht dat BD de wereld instuurt, is in de eerste plaats een aanval op Israël en vertikt het om Hamas en andere radicalen te veroordelen. Wat lezen we? BD is 'verontrust over de situatie' en 'Hamas gaat niet vrijuit'. Scherpe afkeuring, verontwaardiging, boosheid, geschokt zijn, vragen om maatregelen, allemaal termen die we wél te horen krijgen als de organisatie Israël de les spelt worden hier netjes geweerd.

Meer nog in hetzelfde bericht laat BD hun directeur Pol De Greve aan het woord. Zijn kijk op de zaak? "De invoer van schoolboeken, papier en kleurpotloden zijn omwille van zogenaamde veiligheidsoverwegingen verboden. Daarenboven zijn er nauwelijks recreatieve activiteiten voor kinderen en jongeren. Door de psychologische tol van de jarenlange opsluiting en zeker na de bombardementen van operatie 'Gegoten lood' in de winter van 2009 hebben zij er des te meer behoefte aan".

Vooraleer ik tot de kern van de zaak kom eerst even dit: Ik ben benieuwd wat het woord 'zogenaamde' bij 'veiligheidsoverwegingen van Israël' moet voorstellen? Ik ben ook verbaasd over het statement dat er 'nauwelijks recreatieve activiteiten voor kinderen zijn' als we weten dat de VN elk jaar meer dan 250.000 ervan entertainen in zomerkampen. En wat te denken van kleurpotloden en schoolboeken die Gaza niet zouden in mogen als we weten dat Israël via de VN wél schoolmateriaal heeft binnengelaten de voorbije maanden en thans bezig is met de coördinatie voor het importeren van 74 containerklassen en maar liefst 200.000 laptops voor schoolgaande kinderen in Gaza?

Maar dit alles terzijde. De vraag die ik me stel is wat dit allemaal te maken heeft met het zware incident in Gaza? De enige die hier met de vinger wordt gewezen – en dan nog op basis van foute informatie – is Israël. Directeur De Greve wenst aan de Palestijnse extremisten geen enkele kritiek te geven, zoveel is duidelijker.

Maar het wordt nog beter. Broederlijk Delen citeert in zijn communiqué VN directeur John Ging. Die verklaarde aan de pers en op zijn website dat dit 'een aanval was op het geluk van kinderen'. Maar kijk, BD vervolgt: "Ging waarschuwde al meermaals voor de gevolgen van Israëls afsluitingsbeleid dat het wetteloze klimaat creëert waarin kinderen opgroeien. Hoe kan je nu verwachten dat jongeren mensenrechten respecteren als ze in hun leven aan niets anders werden blootgesteld dan schendingen ervan?"

Met andere woorden, ocharme die brave Palestijnen. Hoe kan je het hen nu kwalijk nemen dat ze een zomerkamp voor kinderen kort en klein slaan als ze niet anders kennen omdat ze heel hun leven werden blootgesteld aan mensenrechtenschendingen door Israël. Wat een statement! Hier moet ik geen commentaar aan toevoegen.

Maar dat is toch een uitspraak van VN directeur Ging en niet van Broederlijk Delen hoor ik u zeggen. Toch niet helemaal. Wij gingen op zoek in tientallen nieuwsbronnen (ook van de voorbije jaren) en konden géén dergelijke uitspraak van Ging terugvinden! We belden zelf met de woordvoerders van UNWRA in Gaza en Jeruzalem, de heren Mshasha en Guness maar ook die konden het statement niet plaatsen.

Hallo Broederlijk Delen? Woordvoerder Karel Ceule: "Dit is een citaat uit eerdere gesprekken van John Ging met medewerkers van NGO's, onder andere met Broederlijk Delen." Ja ja, zo is het wel gemakkelijk. Tweede vraag: "U geeft dus toe dat het citaat niet actueel is en uit zijn context is gerukt des te meer omdat het spreekt over jongeren terwijl het geen jongeren waren die het zomerkamp hebben aangevallen. We kunnen ons niet anders dan de bedenking maken dat het communiqué kost wat kost de schuld hiervoor in de schoenen van Israël wil schuiven. Uw reactie?"

U raadt het al, we kregen geen respons meer op onze e-mails.

Een wijze raad aan Broederlijk Delen: het is best als je géén persbericht meer verstuurt over Palestijnse wandaden, zeker als je dit met tegenzin doet en dan alles uit de kast haalt om vooral Israël te beschuldigen. Dan liever het ander hypocriete spelletje waarbij je enkel het slechte van Israël aan bod laat komen en de Palestijnse misdaden met de mantel der liefde bedekt. Wees tenminste eerlijk in je deceptie? Of is zelfs dat teveel gevraagd?

Michael Freilich

Nederland oorverdovend stil over antisemitisme

Onderstaande aanklacht tegen Nederland is geheel terecht, maar ik heb wel de indruk dat politiek en media een klein beetje aan het wakker worden zijn. Laat, erg laat, rijkelijk laat en schandalig laat, maar beter laat dan nooit.

Een land dat het belagen en demoniseren van de eigen burgers goedpraat door dit een 'begrijpelijke reactie' te noemen op wat een ander land doet, verliest elk recht om andere landen op de vingers te tikken.

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Den Haag is oorverdovend stil over antisemitisme

http://www.israned.com/2010/06/den-haag-is-oorverdovend-stil-over.html

Eerder gepubliceerd in de opiniesectie van de Volkskrant

Een samenleving die toelaat dat een hele groep burgers wordt gedwongen zich te verbergen, op straffe van uitschelden of erger, ondergraaft zichzelf

Prima idee van kamerlid Ahmed Marcouch om antisemitische scheldpartijen op straat flink te gaan aanpakken, desnoods met 'lokjoden'. Naast lessen over de holocaust is dit één van de maatregelen die het aantal scheldpartijen kan verminderen: daders lopen dan het risico onmiddellijk te worden ingerekend.

Over tijd
Het is hoog tijd dat er maatregelen worden getroffen, eigenlijk over tijd. Het Simon Wiesenthal Centrum drong onlangs bij de EU aan op 'ingrijpen in de oplaaiende epidemie van antisemitische uitingen in Nederland'. Dit is tekenend voor de situatie, al heeft het Centrum het in zoverre mis, dat het geen oplaaiende epidemie in Nederland is. Het is een slopend proces waartegen CIDI al tien jaar waarschuwt.

In 1999 signaleerde CIDI voor het eerst in de jaarlijkse monitor antisemitisme dat 'zichtbare' Joden vaak lastig werden gevallen op straat: 'Een Joodse inwoner van Amsterdam-Zuid meldt dat hij regelmatig door kinderen uit de buurt wordt uitgescholden voor Jood. De politie is op de hoogte.' En: 'Een Joodse jongen wordt lastig gevallen in een discotheek in Oude Wetering. Als hij naar buiten gaat, wordt hij in elkaar geslagen. De daders roepen daarbij 'Jood, Jood'.' In de aangifte wordt niet opgenomen dat er sprake is van antisemitisme.

In 2000, na een opmerkelijk aantal van zulke incidenten, waarschuwt CIDI: 'Er lijkt sprake te zijn van een gewenningsproces, dat verband zou kunnen houden met de mate waarin de politie optreedt en grenzen stelt aan wat maatschappelijk aanvaardbaar wordt gevonden. (..) de politie is soms niet genegen om aangifte op te nemen. Dat kan zelfs zo ver gaan, dat een politiebeambte een slachtoffer van een antisemitische scheldpartij meedeelt dat pas aangifte gedaan kan worden indien de dader bekend is.'

Zichtbare Joden
In 2001 – het aantal meldingen van lastig vallen van 'zichtbare Joden' was weer gestegen - begint de Monitor zo: 'Uit de geringe maatschappelijke reactie op de uitingen van antisemitisme moet geconcludeerd worden, dat er binnen de samenleving een gewenningsproces is opgetreden.'

De monitor memoreert 'het gemak waarmee antisemitisme geuit wordt, de bedreigingen tegen Joden, en de onvoldoende reactie van regering, justitie en politie' en zegt: 'In de meeste CIDI-rapportages over antisemitisme hebben wij aanbevelingen gedaan dat politie en justitie strenger dienen op te treden tegen antisemitisme.

Deze zijn vrijwel nooit op een consistente wijze opgevolgd. Het is nu hoog tijd.'

Intussen werden 'bij de synagogen in de Lekstraat en Amsterdam-West de synagoge-bezoekers bijna wekelijks lastig gevallen door Marokkanen tussen de 15 en 40 jaar. Zij schelden hen uit voor 'vuile rot-Joden'.' Soms werden de bezoekers bedreigd met messen en bekogeld met stenen en andere voorwerpen. Monitor: 'Soms worden slachtoffers van antisemitische incidenten zo murw dat ze deze niet meer melden.'

Scheldpartijen
Zo ging het door, jaar na jaar. Ook in perioden waarin het aantal meldingen in het algemeen daalde, bleven de scheldpartijen. Ze bleven bijna zonder uitzondering onbestraft. Er is nooit consistent naar een antwoord gezocht. Er is lafhartig weggekeken. Zelfs zodanig dat de politie in Amsterdam plotseling geen cijfers meer gaf over het aantal aangiften van antisemitisme. Mogelijk zou het beeld te negatief worden. Hoe kan er nog iemand verbaasd zijn dat nog maar weinig Joden zich met keppel op straat wagen?

Een samenleving die toelaat dat een hele groep burgers wordt gedwongen zich te verbergen, op straffe van uitschelden of erger, ondergraaft zichzelf. Dat schaadt niet alleen die ene belaagde groep. Een 'beschaving' die niet in staat of bereid is belaagde groepen tegen hun medeburgers te beschermen, verspeelt elk recht zich zo te noemen. Een land dat het belagen en demoniseren van de eigen burgers goedpraat door dit een 'begrijpelijke reactie' te noemen op wat een ander land doet, verliest elk recht om andere landen op de vingers te tikken.

Stilte
De stilte die volgde op de hartstochtelijke oproep van Ahmed Marcouch en de documentaire van de Joodse Omroep, die bevestigde wat we al zo lang wisten, is oorverdovend. De kabinetsformatie alleen kan hiervoor geen reden zijn. Veel politici lijken het te hebben opgegeven de problemen echt aan te pakken.

Zo polderen we maar door, tot het te laat is en het opgeheven vingertje waarop we stilletjes altijd trots waren, internationaal wordt weggehoond. Weggehoond omdat we in Nederland niet in staat zijn gebleken alle inwoners, van welke afkomst ook, te beschermen. En omdat onze samenleving steeds meer verscheurd raakt door etnische tegenstellingen.

Elise Friedmann is researcher antisemitisme bij CIDI

Gaza: Hamas blijft bezoek Rode Kruis aan Gilad Shalit weigeren

"One of our main achievements is that we have been able to visit nearly everyone detained in connection to this conflict, with the exception of Gilad Shalit," Pierre Dorbes, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories, told Haaretz on Tuesday, adding that he felt talks to free Shalit are deadlocked.

Nu Israel de Gaza blokkade heeft versoepeld zou een tegengebaar van de EU, de VS en de VN wel op zijn plaats zijn: maak van de vrijlating van Shalit een breekpunt, dreig met sancties tegen Hamas als het geen bezoek van het Rode Kruis toelaat, vraag bemiddelaars als Egypte er bij Hamas op aan te dringen dat het zijn standpunt herziet, etc.

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Hamas: We won't let Red Cross visit Shalit

Latest update 11:06 23.06.10

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-we-won-t-let-red-cross-visit-shalit-1.297859

Hamas official says visitation denied for fear it might lead Israel to try to free abducted IDF soldier in military operation.

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Hamas has rejected the latest request from the International Red Cross to visit abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday.

Hamas denied the request for fear that the visit might lead Israel to try to free Shalit in a military operation, according to Hamas lawmaker Yehia Moussa, who told a Hamas newspaper that the Red Cross did not take the military reality in the Middle East into account when it made the request.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has approached Hamas a number of times to allow its representatives to visit the kidnapped soldier in Gaza, only to be denied time after time.

Meanwhile, Shalit's grandfather, Zvi Shalit, met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem Tuesday. Following the meeting, which was also attended by top Shalit negotiator Haggai Hadas as well as Netanyahu's military secretary, Brig. Gen. Yohanan Locker, the 85-year-old told Haaretz that the meeting was strained and fraught with disagreements.

The elder Shalit had to wait for three hours before Netanyahu was able to see him, as the prime minister's schedule shifted around the budget votes.

"I spoke [to Netanyahu] as a human being and as a grandfather who wants to see his grandson return home after four years [in captivity]. I told Netanyahu the conduct over this matter was not satisfactory and he said that yes, it was," he added.

Although Netanyahu did not issue a statement about the content of the meeting, nor did he allow photographers to be present, his office did comment Tuesday on the three-hour delay in the meeting.

Next week, the Shalits are hoping to join thousands of supporters, including supermodel Bar Refaeli and dozens of other local celebrities, on a cross-country march for Gilad's release.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is holding a special concert near the Gaza border — conducted by renowned conductor Zubin Mehta — to call for Shalit's release.

Shalit's parents have pledged to camp outside the prime minister's residence until their son is freed from captivity.

Liat Collins: Wie komt op voor de vrijheid van de Gazanen?

When I mentioned to friends and colleagues my "think roses not guns" idea regarding the ships, it raised a smile, but, with more vessels on the way, I still think it's worth considering. I suggested Israel physically block the boats so that it would be the so-called peace seekers who'd have to ram Israeli ships rather than the Israelis "attacking" them. And then, instead of sending soldiers rappelling down onto the decks – where it was clear that they would not be met with hugs – I proposed that Israel bombard them with pamphlets informing them about Hamas-dominated life in Gaza, the missile attacks on Sderot and the South and the fate of Gilad Schalit. And I suggested we should drop quantities of roses on the participants. Bloodshed would be limited to the occasional prick (you can interpret that any way you like) while the cameras would have a decent image to spread around the world – not more warlike Israeli soldiers. Roses – the sweet smell of non-defeat.

Een geweldig idee, al zou het door de media als bewijs van de sluwe Israelische propagandamachine worden neergezet, en zou het niet doorlaten van de hulp als crimineel worden bestempeld door de diverse Israel veroordelende lichamen.

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My Word: Free thinking
By LIAT COLLINS
06/06/2010
It's not Israel that is curtailing freedom in Gaza.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=177583

I have decided to join the Free Gaza movement. My first goal is to make sure that every last Israeli soldier leaves Gaza. Well, admittedly there is only one IDF soldier there, but it has been proving very hard to get Gilad Schalit out. If we can persuade Hamas to release Schalit four years after it abducted him, Gaza will be free of an Israeli military presence. This won't be easy, especially because even the human rights activists willing to risk their lives to reach Gaza weren't prepared to ask that Schalit be allowed to meet with Red Cross officials or receive a care package from his family.

Next, I want the women of Gaza to feel free. I'm not known for either my feminism or my dress sense but I can see that a state in which Hamas heavies are forcing schoolgirls to cover up cannot be healthy.

Again, I might be fighting a losing battle: Almost lost among the media coverage of the May 31 flotilla affair – with its nine fatalities – was an item on the five brave women journalists who quit Al Jazeera rather than give in to the Qatar-based network's demands that they wear head scarves and forgo makeup.

Also, it is clear to me (although not apparently to the flotilla's participants) that parents should be free to choose which summer camp their kids attend. Last month, masked gunmen torched the premises of a UN-run summer camp in Gaza and left behind three bullets and a note threatening to kill top UN aid officials unless they cancel activities for some 250,000 Gaza children. Hamas runs its own summer camps, which seem to stress militancy for boys and modesty for girls but are a little lacking in the arts and crafts department.

I used to have contacts in Gaza, but they were associated with Fatah rather than Hamas and they've disappeared: At least one escaped to the West Bank when Hamas took over; those who remain are wary of being openly in touch with Israeli journalists (modestly dressed female or otherwise). That could be because Hamas has a history of executing people it suspects of links with the Zionists. OK, on a good day, they might settle for "kneecapping."

IN FACT it strikes me that while the nearly 700 participants of the now-famous flotilla were struggling to get into Gaza – unwilling to accept Israel's offer to pass on their humanitarian aid instead of them delivering it personally – thousands of Gazans would do almost anything to get out. And it's not because of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade: It's because Hamastan does not give a damn about human rights and is not a nice place to live.

Although it might be all right if you're not a woman and belong to the right family. Ahead of the flotilla's departure, the Israel Government Press Office released details of the other side of life in the Strip. Like many journalists, I found the tone patronizing but couldn't help but be intrigued by the information that Gaza recently opened an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Since I'm involved in the struggle to keep open Jerusalem's only Olympic-size pool (under threat by real-estate developers), I'm wondering if I can pick up some tips on nonviolent ways to handle the campaign. When I say "nonviolent," that means I rule out the use of guns, knives, baseball bats and Molotov cocktails – which I admit is a little limiting in view of the methods used by the "peace lovers" aboard the Mavi Marmara.

I actually feel sorry for some of the flotilla's participants. The pure-hearted, naive pro-peace camp was taken for a ride by the Islamic anti-Israel organizers and ended up in the same boat, as it were, or at least the same flotilla. But the growing red-green alliance (in which the far Left has joined with the Islamists) is a strange one, and I'm not surprised the result is a dirty brown.

Incidentally, Hamas is now keeping the "humanitarian aid" from entering Gaza from Israel – so much for the desperate Gazans.

I DON'T BLAME the navy for what Post editor-in-chief David Horovitz summed up as the "flotilla fiasco." There is something extraordinarily pathetic in the way the naval commandos – trained for war but told they'd be facing peaceniks – boarded the ships armed with paint guns. The government – led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak – ordered an operation which Israel could not win. Undoubtedly they were influenced by the famous (and successful) operations of their younger days: liberating the hijacked Sabena plane, for example. But not all real war is fought on the ground, at sea or in the skies any more. It's waged in cyberspace and the world media.

I doubt it would have persuaded many on the ships to change their opinions of Israelis, but it would have prevented the sickening waves of international condemnation screened on Israeli TV alongside the footage of soldiers being beaten, stabbed and in at least one case thrown from the deck of the Mavi Marmara by the ostensibly nonviolent protesters.

On a visit to Dublin a few years ago, I participated in a literary pub crawl. Irish peace supporters on the next boats might be warned that they can't drink alcohol in public in Gaza.

During a visit to Istanbul in 2004, a year after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power, life seemed easygoing: Turkey had just won the Eurovision Song Contest, the nightclubs were pulsating, the cultural life was thriving.

Turks – and the rest of the world – might wonder about the implications of Erdogan choosing to ally himself firmly with the likes of Hamas, Syria and Iran. When the country goes to the polls again next year, voters should consider whether they want the sort of freedom they were enjoying when Erdogan first came to power or the type of Islamist restrictions and repression the prime minister's allies prefer.

Meanwhile in Israel, a free people is making the most of life – albeit under a high security alert. Tel Aviv is holding a beer festival; Jerusalem is celebrating the 49th Israel Festival; Sderot (missiles notwithstanding) is the venue of its annual international film festival; and Hebrew Book Week events are taking place across the country. So it's not all bad news.

And at least Israel has united the global village like nothing else, with perhaps the exception of the World Cup. Too bad we know what it's like to be the ball.

The writer is the editor of The International Jerusalem Post. liat@jpost.com

Palestijnse kinderen bezingen het martelaarschap

We berichtten er al eerder over, maar het heeft nu ook de Haaretz gehaald. Of het ook in de Nederlandse media zal doordringen is natuurlijk nogal twijfelachtig.

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New hit song for Palestinian children: When we die as martyrs
'Birds of Paradise' produces song in which children welcome death to regain Palestine.
By Haaretz Service

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/new-hit-song-for-palestinian-children-when-we-die-as-martyrs-1.297731

Latest update 11:34 23.06.10

An Arabic children's choir has been racking up views all over the world with the new YouTube hit "when we die as martyrs, we will go to heaven."

The song was apparently recorded by the Jordanian-owned production company and television channel "birds of Paradise."

According to The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), one of the world's most comprehensive data centers on radical Islamic terrorist groups, the song is a hit on Arabic and worldwide websites and the children's choir performing it fast is becoming one of the most popular children's groups in the Arab world.

In the video clip, which can be viewed on the popular video sharing site YouTube, a young brown-eyed girl sings in front of what seems to be a group of children in pre-school the lyrics "Without Palestine, what does childhood mean?"

YouTube has already received dozens of spin-offs and remakes of the video, some of which depict Arabic children mimicking the lyrics while others show Jihadists using it as background music.

Journalist Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem wrote in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Jazirah that "[Birds of Paradise] is one of the most widely distributed children's song groups in the Arab world, and it seems to have crossed the ocean to Canada and Britain."

She added that the group represents a new wave in Jihadist youth indoctrination, as it is child-friendly, as opposed to previous Jihadist programs.

woensdag 23 juni 2010

Boottocht voor bevrijding Gilad Shalit

Het is tijd voor een grote vloot om de ontvoerde Israelische soldaat Gilad Shalit te bevrijden. Verwacht niet dat de Hamas pas met scherp gaat schieten nadat zes van hun mensen gewond op de grond liggen en verwacht ook niet dat ze de gewonden van jouw kant in hun ziekenhuizen zullen behandelen. Verwacht verder geen internationale steun, geen media hype, geen veroordelingen van Hamas door de VN, de EU, en talloze andere landen en instanties. Het is, kortom, wat ondankbaarder dan 'vredesactivist' zijn voor de 'Free Gaza Movement'.

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Conference of Presidents

of Major American Jewish Organizations

URGENT URGENT

We are setting sail to Free Gilad Shalit. Arrangements have been finalized for the departures, Thursday, June 24^th, 2010 at noon from Pier 40, located at Houston Street and the West Side Highway. Please arrive promptly at 11:30am. Advance registrations are essential.

Drinks will be available for purchase on the boats. The boats are large and can accommodate significant numbers of people so you are welcome to bring members and family including children. Signs will be provided but you are invited to bring your own with your organizational logo.

Again, if you know of people with any size craft including sail boats who can join us as we sail on the East River to the United Nations please contact the Conference of Presidents office immediately at 212-318-6111.

Please confirm your participation by completing this electronic form

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGdpSzRvNnVLbVlUbjhTWHVYeVYwRGc6MQ

Please join us for this very special demonstration on behalf of Gilad Shalit.

Kritiek Turkije op Israel meer dan hypocriet

Dat Turkije tonnen boter op zijn hoofd heeft, wisten we natuurlijk al, maar onderstaand bericht maakt dat nog eens goed duidelijk. Turkije had met haar grote rol in de Gaza vloot bewust op de confrontatie aangestuurd, en het op die manier provoceren van een bevriende natie is hoogst ongepast. Je zou het zelfs als inmenging van Turkije in het conflict van Israel met Hamas kunnen zien.

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While criticizing Israel, Turkey kills Kurds

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=21363

Many in the international community, including mainstream media outlets, have labeled Turkey's reaction to Israel's interception of a so-called "aid" flotilla to the Gaza Strip a few weeks ago as exaggerated. The latest news out of Turkey reveals that the criticism against Israel is also highly hypocritical.

Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted Israel over the deaths of nine activists aboard one of the flotilla ships after they attacked the Israeli boarding party. He accused Israel of crimes against humanity, and has led the international charge for an investigation and sanctions against the Jewish state. Erdogan's government has decided to downgrade relations with Israel over the incident.

Since the flotilla raid, Turkey has engaged in its own "war on terror" with little or no attention from the international community, and certainly no calls for independent commissions of inquiry.

On the same day as the flotilla raid, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish naval base, killing 12 soldiers. Last week, Erdogan's government responded with air strikes on Kurdish positions in northern Iraq that killed 120 people, including a 7-year-old girl.

There were no condemnations of Turkey for using "disproportionate" force, and no UN Security Council meetings regarding the latest flare-up of a 26-year conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

Some 30 million Kurds live in adjoining portions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Together, these areas make up Kurdistan, the ancient homeland of the Kurdish people, a distinct ethnic group without a country of their own.

For decades, Turkey has oppressed its Kurdish minority of 14 million people by forbidding the use of the Kurdish language and other symbols of national identity in state schools and government institutions. A Kurdish parliamentarian, Layla Zana, was expelled from parliament in 1994 and imprisoned a year later for daring to utter a single sentence in Kurdish from the podium.

Haaretz: Nederlandse politie undercover als Haredi joden om antisemieten te vangen?

We hebben de Haaretz weer eens gehaald, en dat is meestal geen goed teken. Het positieve nieuws is dat er om een of andere reden eindelijk aandacht lijkt te zijn voor het groeiende antisemitisme, en het feit dat Joden niet meer met een keppel over straat kunnen en synagoges onherkenbaar (en streng beveiligd) moeten zijn. Gisteren besteedde Netwerk er aandacht aan, en vorige week had de NRC er een artikel over. Het probleem lijkt dus eindelijk serieus te worden genomen. De volgende vraag is wat eraan te doen. Hopelijk wordt het niet geheel losgezongen van de doorgedraaide kritiek op Israel en de delegitimatiecampagne tegen haar, en laat men het niet bij een paar projecten die Marokkanen moeten leren dat niet alle Joden wrede zionisten zijn en niet alle Joden achter Israel staan. Het gaat er immers juist om dat ze leren dat een Jood het volste recht heeft achter Israel te staan en daar openlijk voor uit te komen.

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http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/are-dutch-police-going-undercover-as-haredi-jews-1.297244

Are Dutch police going undercover as Haredi Jews?
Initiative for undercover cops to dress as ultra-Orthodox comes in wake of frequent attacks against Jews by Moroccan immigrants.

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Dutch police may employ undercover agents disguised as religious Jews to expose and arrest violent anti-Semites, a police spokesperson said last week.

The initiative was first proposed by a Dutch Muslim legislator in response to reports of frequent attacks against Jews by Moroccan immigrants. Prominent figures from the country's Jewish community said they supported the plan.

Over the past few years, Dutch politicians have been debating the use of undercover police officers posing as gay couples as a means to draw out serial perpetrators of attacks against gays, from the Muslim community and from the general population.

In a radio interview on Wednesday for Radio BNR, Ahmed Marcouch – a Moroccan-born member of Labor who immigrated to Holland when he was 10 – said: "I say send fake Jews to arrest the attackers. Everything must be done to keep this phenomenon from growing. It seems like small incidents, but this is serious."

The Center for Information and Documentation Israel, an influential nongovernmental watchdog on anti-Semitism, announced on Thursday that it supported the initiative. "It has become common for Jews to hide their skull-caps on the street," said Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the center, known in Holland by its initials, CIDI. He added that Marchouch's "liberal views have cost him in the past the support of voters from the Moroccan community."

During the first month of 2009, the center documented 98 anti-Semitic incidents, which almost equaled the total of such attacks in 2008. Holland's chief rabbi, Binyamin Jacobs, told Haaretz he recently witnessed unidentified persons who tried to disrupt a memorial service for Jews murdered in the Holocaust by shouting Nazi slogans.

"The new initiative is the expression of desperation about the failure of Dutch police to make progress with regard to the widespread and aggressive anti-Semitism among Muslims in Amsterdam – a heritage left behind by Amsterdam's former mayor, Job Cohen," said Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a Dutch-Israeli researcher of anti-Semitism and chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Marcouch entered parliament as candidate 15 on Labor's list under the party's chairman, Job Cohen. Marcouch told Haaretz that he believed the best way to fight anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants was by putting greater emphasis on Holocaust studies in schools with many immigrant pupils.

"Hate and anti-Semitism is sometimes can be addressed together through education," explained Marcouch, a leading member in the Jewish-Moroccan Network of Amsterdam – a forum which CIDI and Cohen helped create in 2006 to promote dialog between the two communities.

"It is in the family that one needs to be alert, and to eliminate anti-Semitism," Marcouch added. "And the way to do this is through education about what hatred of the other can lead to. Strong police intervention is important because no one must suffer violence, but in parallel we need to inform children so they don't harbor anti-Semitic feelings."

Antisemitische Libanese zakenman sponsort nieuwe 'Free Gaza' boot met vrouwen aan boord

Meanwhile, Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian businessman of Palestinian descent who heads the "Free Palestine Organization" and is funding this boat, as well as another that is to carry journalists and parliamentarians, said over the weekend on Hizbullah's al-Manar television station that he was more and more optimistic that one day these same boats would take "Europe's refuse [the Jews] that came to my homeland back to their homelands.

"Gilad Schalit should go back to Paris and those murderers go back to Poland, and after that we will chase them until the ends of the earth to bring them to justice for their acts of slaughter from Deir Yassin until today." Kashlak, a fervent Hizbullah supporter, called Israel a "rabid dog sent to the region to frighten the Arabs. He said he had a message for Israelis: 'Get on the ships we are sending you and go back to your lands. Don't let the moderate Arab leaders delude you, [you] cannot make peace with us. Our children will return to Palestine, you have no reason for coexistence. Even if our leaders will sign a peace agreement, we will not sign.'" He said the boat carrying journalists and parliamentarians will carry 12 former American diplomats as well..

Dit behoeft verder geen commentaar. Wie nu nog gelooft dat de "Free Gaza Organization" vrede wil gelooft waarschijnlijk ook nog steeds in Sinterklaas, kaboutertjes en marsmannetjes.

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The Jerusalem Post
Women are the 'secret weapon'
By HERB KEINON AND TOVAH LAZAROFF
06/20/2010 02:34
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=178935

Organizer of flotilla: "thieving enemy" won't use arms against women.

Women are "the new secret weapon" in use against the "thieving enemy," said Samar Alhaj, the woman leading the Lebanese boat that is scheduled to try to break the naval blockade on Gaza in an interview with a regional Israeli Arabic-language radio station in Nazareth. The Israeli government has linked the boat to Hizbullah "

Asked on Radio A-Shams by Zohair Bahloul why the ship, Mariam, would only be carrying women, she said, "We are women in order not to give the thieving enemy an excuse to use arms against the ship." She said the ship would be carrying cancer medication for children, and women suffering from breast cancer and cancer of the uterus due to "chemical bombs" dropped on Gaza by Israel.

Alhaj is the wife of an officer in the Lebanese security service who was jailed for four years for alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Alhaj and her husband met with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on May 22.

Speaking of Israel, she said, "the entity that was not defeated will be defeated by women that will come on the boat. Our weapon is cancer medication.

We don't have scud missiles or any other missiles, and you will see what they will do to us."

Alhaj said that the boat will have some 50 women, "more Christians than Muslims," and will be coming from Lebanon, the US, France, Britain, Japan, Kuwait and Egypt.

Bahloul, who said it was a great honor to talk to such an "impressive woman," ended the interview by saying "Allah should watch over you and grant you success."

Meanwhile, Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian businessman of Palestinian descent who heads the "Free Palestine Organization" and is funding this boat, as well as another that is to carry journalists and parliamentarians, said over the weekend on Hizbullah's al-Manar television station that he was more and more optimistic that one day these same boats would take "Europe's refuse [the Jews] that came to my homeland back to their homelands.

"Gilad Schalit should go back to Paris and those murderers go back to Poland, and after that we will chase them until the ends of the earth to bring them to justice for their acts of slaughter from Deir Yassin until today." Kashlak, a fervent Hizbullah supporter, called Israel a "rabid dog sent to the region to frighten the Arabs. He said he had a message for Israelis: 'Get on the ships we are sending you and go back to your lands. Don't let the moderate Arab leaders delude you, [you] cannot make peace with us. Our children will return to Palestine, you have no reason for coexistence. Even if our leaders will sign a peace agreement, we will not sign.'" He said the boat carrying journalists and parliamentarians will carry 12 former American diplomats as well..

Israel will use all means necessary to stop the boats

Israel, meanwhile, has threatened to use all means necessary to stop the boats from Lebanon from breaking Gaza's naval blockade as its diplomats appealed to the international community to prevent the ships from setting sail.

On Friday Israel's ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in which she said Israel has a right to use "all necessary means" to stop these vessels.

"Israel calls upon the international community to exercise its influence in order to prevent these boats from departing and to discourage their nations from taking part in such action," she wrote.

These vessels could escalate tensions and affect peace and security in the region, she said.

Given the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, the declared intentions of the ships to break the blockade, and their departure from Lebanon which "remains in a state of hostility with Israel," she said, "Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the existing naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip."

Shalev said the true intentions of the organizers of the flotilla from Lebanon remain "dubious," noting that they have been quoted in the media saying they wish to be shahids or martyrs. She also cited "a possible link" between the organizers and "the terrorist group Hizbullah" based in Lebanon and said "Israel cannot exclude the possibility that terrorists or arms will be smuggled on board the ships in question.

"In view of these circumstances, Israel calls upon the government of Lebanon to demonstrate responsibility and to prevent these boats from departing to the Gaza Strip," she said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that ambassadors had been asked to send a very clear message to the Foreign Ministries in their host countries that since the Lebanese flotilla was coming from an enemy country, they would be treated as if they were hostile.

On Wednesday Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal convened a meeting with international ambassadors stationed here and gave them that same message.

Ayalon: Next flotilla will unveil the true nature of such initiatives

On Thursday Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the French Foreign Affairs Committee that the flotilla emanating from Lebanon or Iran will unveil the true nature of such initiatives.

"If there was a mask of humanitarianism on previous flotillas, the mask has been removed completely from these boats, which are carrying representatives of Hizbullah and Iran," Ayalon said.

Israel closed Gaza's land crossings to all but humanitarian goods and imposed a naval blockade on the area in 2007 after Hamas violently overran Gaza. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had rejected calls to lift the naval blockade, insisting it prevents missile attacks on Israel. But under intense international pressure following the flotilla raid, which resulted in the deaths of eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American, the security cabinet on Thursday announced it would take a number of measures to increase the flow of goods by land into Gaza.

It has said it will allow all foods and some desperately needed construction materials into Gaza. The security cabinet is expected to meet again this week to discuss ways to execute Thursday's decision.

The UN chief said he is "encouraged" that Israel is reviewing its Gaza policy and recently decided to allow more goods into the Palestinian territory.

"Nevertheless, much more is required to really meet the needs of the people," Ban said. "I continue to call for a fundamental change in the policies that apply to Gaza."

The announcement, however, did little to quell the global outcry over the deadly raid. Israel maintains its soldiers acted in self-defense.

Ban told reporters that he has been trying to arrange the "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards" that the UN Security Council called on June 1.

He said Israel's own investigation into the flotilla raid – a public commission with two international observers – "is important" but won't have "international credibility," which is why he is continuing to urge the Israeli government to agree to an international panel under a third party "in which both Turkey and Israel would actively participate." Pressed on why he didn't just go ahead and appoint an international commission, the secretary- general explained that without Israel's "full cooperation it would be extremely difficult to have a full and credible investigation, and that is why even if it may take time, I'm discussing this matter with the Israeli government."

AP contributed to this report.

dinsdag 22 juni 2010

Kinderhit in de Arabische wereld: 'sterf voor Palestina'

Nieuwe hit in de Arabische wereld...

De tekst van het liedje, bijna geheel door kinderen gezongen:

Als we als martelaren sterven gaan we naar de hemel

Nee, zeg niet dat we jong zijn

Dit leven heeft ons in volwassenen veranderd

Wat betekent onze jeugd zonder Palestina?

Zelfs als ze ons de hele wereld zouden geven, zullen we haar niet vergeten, nee nee

Mijn land en bloed zijn voor haar

Volwassenen: kinderen, jullie hebben je religieuze plicht vervuld

Er is geen god dan Allah

En de martlaar is Allah's favoriet

Je hebt ons de betekenis van mannelijkheid geleerd

Allen: Zelfs als ze ons de hele wereld zouden geven etc.

Wat betekent onze jeugd zonder Palestina?

Meisje alleen: Oh Allah, jouw genade zal me steunen

oh vitale en standvastige god

genadige der genadigen

oh nobele der nobelen

oh Allah bescherm de islam en de moslims

Ander kind:

red de kinderen van Palestina

oh Allah neem wraak voor ons

oh Allah hoor onze gebeden

Allen: Zelfs als ze ons de hele wereld zouden geven etc.

Mijn land en bloed zijn voor haar

Wat betekent onze jeugd zonder Palestina?

(Voor de video klik op de link van onderstaand artikel)

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

Birds of Paradise" – Martyrdom Recruitment as Children's Entertainment

IPT News
June 19, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/1072/birds-of-paradise-martyrdom-recruitment-as

The little girl's dark brown eyes look heavenward as she sings,

When we seek martyrdom, we go to heaven.

You tell us we're small, but from this way of life we have become big.

Without Palestine, what does childhood mean?

This is not a song from Hamas television in Gaza, nor is it a Hizballah anthem. "When We Seek Martyrdom" is the latest hit from a production house called Birds of Paradise. It is racking up millions of hits on Arabic and worldwide websites. Birds of Paradise, which appears to be based in Jordan, is quickly becoming one of the most popular children's groups in the Arab world.

My country and my blood are like its sands

Without Palestine, what does childhood mean?

Youtube, has dozens of editions and edits of the video, ranging from Arab parents having their children parrot the lyrics to Jihadists using it as background music in terrorist videos. "[Birds of Paradise] is one of the most widely distributed children's songs group in the Arab world, and it seems to have crossed the ocean to Canada and Britain," wrote journalist Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem in the Saudi Arabian newspaper, Al-Jazirah.

"Birds of Paradise" represents a new wave in Jihadist youth indoctrination. It is far more professional, better edited, and presented in a much more kid-friendly style than previous Jihadist children's programming. The themes are easily digestible even for toddlers. Child actors portray Israeli soldiers, all wearing yarmulkes, who ruthlessly gun down other children shown playing and dancing. Minutes later, the kids exact revenge and kill the soldiers.

"When We Seek Martyrdom" encourages children not simply to throw rocks, but to carry out militant attacks and to ambush Jews. It even broadcasts clips of the children carrying out practice attacks. Violence is not only the answer for children, but it is framed in a cute, kid-friendly way.

This material has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world, where despite its popularity it is beginning to sound alarms. Saudi writer Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem expressed her concerns about the video:

"It encourages the use of arms, killing, explosives, shedding blood and terrorism with all its synonyms. Our children parrot what they hear, and it enters their minds. This data is filed away, and over time it ripens into beliefs and principles which they believe in whenever the intensity is strong, so that when the dream is achieved, an explosive belt is put on, and he begins to proclaim the Jihad, which Allah revealed as his mandate…So, mother, open your half closed eyes to the bitter reality. Look at those who share with you in educating your children, and divert them from the right path. Lose the "Birds of Paradise" and other birds you and your sons are the 'firewood of hell.'"

The Effect of Training Preschoolers in Hate

The message of the video is directed at toddlers up to elementary school ages, the precise period of a child's life where they tend to copy educational materials as mental facts. Kids of these ages cannot process issues which contain subtleties and nuances. Thus, the material imprints itself into their memory as a part of 'what is normal,' said child psychologist Joan Lachkar. "Smaller children cannot organize the data of experience into concrete and abstract categories, as opposed to older children who possess abstract thought and wider varieties of mental decision making. This video is particularly dangerous in the shame/honor system of the martyrdom ideology, because it represses the child's ability for freedom of thought, individuality, and creative thinking," Lackhar said. "This society is teaching its youngest children that peace is linked to the destruction of non-believers and that violence is an acceptable and even preferred method of self-expression."

The psychological effects of such encouragement are profound, even in at an age where the complexities of the message are not fully grasped, Lachkar said.

"Children in the 'martyrdom culture' become robotic and clone-like, so much so that they are compelled not to express genuine emotions or any sense of vulnerability," she said. If they do so, they are shamed and punished. On the other hand, if they conform to the cultural standards set for them, they believe that they are good and that they will be loved." This system of violence becomes self-reinforcing and it is more difficult to break the hate which is connected to the children's earliest childhood memories.

A New Wave of Martyrdom Education

This is not an isolated video from the Birds of Paradise group, but rather part of a consistent pattern of encouraging violence. In another video, Muhammad Bashaar, the adult encouraging children in the "When We Seek Martyrdom" video, gives his own tribute to "resistance" in Gaza. His video features adults carrying out terror attacks on Israelis and a teenager throwing a Molotov Cocktail into an Israeli military position, setting it on fire. He prays for success from Allah and chants, "Victorious, as promised by Allah, we will have, we will have victory!"

These videos also link children and teenagers to more sophisticated discussions of Jihad, religious hatred, and related themes. Several of the "Birds of Paradise" videos on Youtube have links to children's pages, which contain more radical material. One of the links includes pictures of dead babies with the title of the song "When We Seek Martyrdom." Another contains a poster of the author's son, wearing a Hamas headband. In these chat rooms, young Jihadists can link up with like-minded children, creating networks of radicalized youth.

The popularity of "Birds of Paradise" children's media company suggests a disturbing trend in the Muslim world. Beyond the borders of the Palestinian territories, which already exhibit the symptoms of a "martyrdom society," there is an increasing export of children's radicalism. Caution flags are being raised in Saudi Arabia, where journalist Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem wrote, "By Allah I have heard the children's songs which they have chanted on the Birds of Paradise screen, and our children have repeated them until my head felt numb."

http://www.investigativeproject.org:80/1072/birds-of-paradise-martyrdom-recruitment-as