PA geleerde op de Palestijnse TV: Mozes was een moslim

 

Het lijkt steeds zotter te worden met de geschiedvervalsing van de Palestijnen.

 

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Moses was a Muslim who

led Muslims in Exodus from Egypt,

says PA university lecturer on PA TV

 

Israel's conquest of the Land of Israel defined as:

"The first Palestinian liberation

through armed struggle to liberate Palestine."

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6716

 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

A Palestinian university lecturer taught during a recent Palestinian Authority TV program on religion that Moses, a Muslim, brought "the Muslims of the Children of Israel out of Egypt." He refers to the subsequent Israeli conquest of the Land of Israel as the "first Palestinian liberation... of Palestine." This conquest, he taught, was led not by Joshua, as the Bible tells, but by Saul (Talut) who is also said to have slayed Goliath.

While some of this is retelling of Islamic tradition, some of it is a distortion of even the Quran for political purposes. The Quran refers to the "Children of Israel" in their land in many chapters (e.g., Sura 5), but it never refers to them or anyone else as "Palestinians." Likewise the Quran never refers to Israel's conquest as a "Palestinian" conquest. The lecturer on PA TV, however, deviates from Islamic tradition, and calls the nation of Israel's conquest of the Land of Israel "the first Palestinian liberation through armed struggle to liberate Palestine."

This is another example, among many documented by Palestinian Media Watch, of  PA historical revision for political purposes, in this case, rewriting even their own Islamic traditions.

The following is the interview with Dr. Omar Ja'ara, lecturer at Al-Najah University in Nablus and specialist in Israeli affairs, on PA TV religion program:

"We must make clear to the world that David in the Hebrew Bible is not connected to David in the Quran, Solomon in the Hebrew Bible is not connected to Solomon in the Quran, and neither is Saul or Joshua son of Nun [of the Bible].

We have a great leader, Saul, [in the Quran] who defeated the nation of giants and killed Goliath. This is a great Muslim victory. The Muslims of the Children of Israel went out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and unfortunately, many researchers deny the Exodus of those oppressed people who were liberated by a great leader, like Moses the Muslim, the believing leader, the great Muslim,

who was succeeded by Saul, the leader of these Muslims in liberating Palestine.

This was the first Palestinian liberation through armed struggle to liberate Palestine from the nation of giants led by Goliath. This is our logic and this is our culture."

[PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 15, 2012]

 

VISIT PMW VIDEO ARCHIVES

 

 

Hamas krant roemt aanslag 2002 op Arabisch restaurant Haifa

 

Dat Hamas de laatste jaren nauwelijks nog bomaanslagen pleegt, komt vooral door de Israelische veiligheidsmaatregelen, niet doordat Hamas gematigd of vreedzaam zou zijn geworden. Ze staan nog voor de volle 100% achter de heldhaftige terreuraanslagen van de tweede intifada.

 

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Hamas celebrates anniversary of Haifa restaurant bombing

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/hamas-celebrates-anniversary-of-haifa.html

 

Hamas newspaper Palestine Times has a featured article celebrating the ten year anniversary of the bombing of the Arab-owned Matza restaurant in Haifa, that killed 16 Israeli civilians. The article includes photos of the bomber as well as of the devastation to the restaurant, whose roof collapsed from the force of the explosion.

The article claims that the bomber intended to blow himself up in the nearby Grand Canyon shopping center but  the security there made him change his plans to the nearby restaurant filled with Israeli families enjoying their Passover vacation.

From the New York Times:

The Matza restaurant was one of those rare places in Israel where Jews felt they could find refuge in the company of Arabs.

But it turned out, none of them were safe. Although the restaurant's proprietors and many of its staff members are Arabs, a suicide bomber from the Islamic group Hamas walked through the door today and detonated his charge in the middle of the room, blasting screws and other shrapnel into people eating a late lunch.

He killed himself and 14 others, blowing the roof off the restaurant and spraying blood against the chrome table legs and glass out into the parking lot.

Witnesses described a wreckage of burning bodies and jumbled furniture, in which one woman bent over a wounded son, beside the bodies of her husband and another child. The dead included Israeli Arabs, the police said, but the authorities were still trying to identify some of the remains tonight.

The attack shocked both Arabs and Jews, who felt that the restaurant was a haven. ''Everyone knew this was an Arab restaurant, and we were not afraid,'' said Zeghain Amar, an Israeli Arab whose father, the Matza's cashier, was wounded. ''We had excellent relations between Arabs and Jews -- regular customers. I'm very, very upset.''

The victims:

Ron family
Aviel Ron, 54, of Haifa
Anat Ron, 21, of Haifa
Ofer Ron, 18, of Haifa

Koren family
Shimon Koren, 55, of Haifa
Ran Koren, 18, of Haifa
Gal Koren, 15, of Haifa

Shiran family
Adi Shiran, 17, of Haifa
Shimon Shiran, 57, of Haifa – died of his injuries on April 11, 2009 after remaining hospitalized for seven years.

Additional victims
Suheil Adawi, 32, of Turan
Dov Chernobroda, 67, of Haifa
Moshe Levin, 52, of Haifa
Danielle Menchel, 22, of Haifa
Orly Ofir, 16, of Haifa
Ya'akov Shani, 53, of Haifa
Daniel Carlos Wegman, 50, of Haifa
Carlos Yerushalmi, 52, of Karkur – died of his injuries on April 1, 2002

Interestingly, this happened right at the beginning of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield that was meant to stop such attacks. The New York Times quoted Israeli "experts" as to how it is impossible to stop suicide bombings:

Many Israeli commentators are wondering how it will stop suicide attackers, who are now striking almost anywhere, among religious Jews, secular Jews and now even Israeli Arabs. The attackers have been men and women, young and old, Palestinian and even, in one case, an Israeli Arab.

Nahum Barnea, the respected columnist for the newspaper Yediot Ahronot, wrote today that Palestinian terrorism was becoming ''a popular sport, the grand aspiration of thousands of young Palestinian girls and boys.

''You can kill, deport and deter professionals,'' he added. ''There is no military way to fight suicide bombers.''

 

We know now that Israel did stop the suicide bombings, with a combination of offensive thrusts into terrorist enclaves, a huge push to improve intelligence, and the building of the security fence.

The "experts" were wrong, which is a good thing to keep in mind when you read analyses today about how other things are supposedly impossible as well.

 

Gaat de Palestijnse Autoriteit benzine voor Hamas subsidiëren?

 

We hadden nog weinig berichten oder de energiecrisis in Gaza, die nu al maanden duurt en waar eindelijk een (tijdelijke) oplossing voor lijkt gevonden. Van de week kwamen drie kinderen in Gaza om als gevolg van deze crisis, maar ik geloof niet dat het tot vette koppen en uitgebreide reportages heeft geleid, want Israel was er niet bij betrokken en dus zijn het interne Palestijnse aangelegenheden en daarvoor is de belangstelling op zijn best matig. De deal die nu is gesloten komt er op neer dat de PA en daarmee haar donors waaronder de EU een deel van de benzine voor het door Hamas gecontroleerde Gaza betalen.

 

RP

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Will PA subsidize Gaza fuel going through Kerem Shalom?

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/will-pa-subsidize-gaza-fuel-going.html

 

Palestine Today reports that Hamas and the PA have reached a "partial agreement" to the fuel crisis in Gaza.

According to a senior political source in Gaza, power plant fuel and will enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

He said that the price of liter of industrial fuel to be supplied on a daily basis to Gaza would be 3.3 shekels (or 3.71 shekels), excluding tax.

If this is true, it means that the PA will heavily subsidize the cost of fuel to Gaza to a price similar to the price of smuggled Egyptian fuel, which is itself subsidized by Egypt for the use of Egyptians. 

Assuming that the heavy-duty diesel is priced roughly similar petrol used in cars, the PA is agreeing to subsidize 60% of the cost, as Israeli fuel is now about 8 shekels a liter. (That includes high Israeli taxes, though - h/t Shtrudel)

This means that Hamas' blackmail has worked, and it has managed to use the threat of suffering Gazans to avoid paying market rates on fuel - and allowing Hamas to tax the cheap fuel for its own profit. And Western powers will now be paying for Hamas to be enriched by this political blackmail through PA subsidies.

According to this poorly translated and unsourced article, unemployed Gazans are waiting for hours at gas pumps to buy fuel at 3.75 shekels a liter in order to resell it for 5.2 shekels on the black market, earning about 350 shekels a day.

 

 

 

Haniyeh lies, blames Israel for "withholding fuel" from Gaza (updated)

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/haniyeh-lies-blames-israel-for.html

 

Palestine Times reports that Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas prime minister, holds the "Zionist occupation" to be "fully responsible" for the deaths of 3 Gaza children who died in a tragic fire when fuel their parents were storing in their house exploded, probably from a candle. Haniyeh said that Israel was at fault for its "siege of Gaza and preventing fuel for electricity," which is of course a complete lie: Israel is willing to provide all the fuel necessary, but Hamas is refusing to accept fuel from Israel.

Gulf News adds:

Speaking to Gulf News, Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman, said that the failure to deliver fuel to Gaza and the power shortage has paralysed life there.

"The death of the three children is a crime and Israel is responsible for it."

"The victims' family and Gaza will not forgive Israel for this crime," he said.

Barhoum said that Israel and some groups in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) were also responsible for causing a delay in delivering fuel to Gaza Strip.

"Egypt is required to act and come to the rescue," he said.

He called on Arab countries to immediately intervene to save the Gaza Strip from an environmental and humanitarian disaster that Hamas has deliberately caused. 

Hamas is cynically promoting Gazan suffering in order to extort money and aid from Arab states. And still none of the leaders of those states are willing to publicly respond that they'll only help when Hamas acts like they care about their own people. The fear of Islamists taking Hamas' side seems to be enough to cause them to keep any of their reservations about Hamas' manipulations to themselves. 

Meanwhile, Gazans are waiting in lines from morning to night to get a gallon of petrol.

(h/t Jeff T)

 

 

VN resolutie prijst mensenrechten Libië onder Khaddafi

 

De strekking van het rapport was: voorzichtige, opbouwende kritiek. Libië maakte vorderingen, maar er was wel nog een lijstje met 36 verbeterpunten. Er stonden commentaren bij van allerlei landen, niet geheel duidelijk waar die commentaren geuit waren, want ook Israel stond erbij, terwijl die geen lid is van de Mensenrechtenraad. De meeste commentaren waren ronduit lovend over de vooruitgang op allerlei terreinen.

 

Wouter

___________

 

 

Waanzin bij de VN: resolutie prijst mensenrechten onder Khaddafi

http://likud.nl/2012/03/waanzin-bij-de-vn-resolutie-prijst-mensenrechten-van-khaddafi/

Donderdag, Maart 15, 2012 / Laatst bijgewerkt: Vrijdag, Maart 16, 2012

·        Categorieën: PERSBERICHTEN

 

Persbericht van Likoed Nederland, 15 maart 2012.

Een VN-rapport over het mensenrechtenbeleid van het Khaddafi-regime is gisteren met algemene stemmen goedgekeurd door de 47 lidstaten van de VN Mensenrechtenraad.

Zelfs fervente verdedigers van de Mensenrechtenraad hebben het rapport gehekeld. Het hoofd van Amnesty USA beschreef het rapport als “weerzinwekkend”.

Een bezwaar – met het verzoek om een nieuw onderzoek in het licht van de nieuwe feiten – werd echter weggewuifd door de Mensenrechtenraad.

Hoe dit mogelijk is, terwijl men de duizenden slachtoffers van het regime Khaddafi nog aan het opgraven is uit hun massagraven?

Omdat de volgende landen bepalen wat er gebeurt in de VN Mensenrechtenraad:

·        Pakistan prees hoe Libië zich inzet voor de mensenrechten.

·        Algerije nam nota van de inspanningen van de Libië om de mensenrechten te bevorderen.

·        De Islamitische Republiek Iran constateerde dat Libië een aantal internationale mensenrechten instrumenten had geïmplementeerd.

·        Katar prees het juridische kader in Libië voor de bescherming van de rechten en vrijheden.

·        Soedan memoreerde de positieve ervaringen in het middelbare school bezoek en verbeteringen in het onderwijs van vrouwen.

·        De Syrische Arabische Republiek (!) prees Libië voor haar serieuze inzet voor en interactie met de VN Raad voor de Mensenrechten. Tevens was er lof voor het zo democratische regime.

·        Noord-Korea prees ook Libië voor de prestaties op het gebied van de bescherming van de mensenrechten.

·        Palestina was vol lof voor het overleg met het maatschappelijk middenveld over het rapport, dat de inzet voor de verbetering van de mensenrechten aan had getoond. Palestina prees Libië ook  voor de goede vastlegging van mensenrechten.

Wordt het geen tijd dat de wereld inziet dat er helemaal geen heil van de Verenigde Naties is te verwachten op het gebied van de mensenrechten – hoe triest dat ook is?

Update: 3/16/2012 10:53:55 AM; VN Mensenrechtenraad resolutie bijgevoegd.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/16session/A-HRC-16-15.pdf (PDF document)
Human Rights Council Sixteenth session [A-HRC-16-15] (Lokale copy)

 

 

UN adopts resolution praising Qaddafi's human rights record

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/03/un-adopts-resolution-praising-qaddafis.html

From UN Watch:

A U.N. report ridiculed worldwide for lavishing praise on the Qaddafi regime’s human rights record was unanimously adopted today by the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, with president Laura Dupuy Lasserre overruling the objection made in the plenary by UN Watch. (Click here for video; see text below.)

After it was first exposed by UN Watch last year, the report card giving high marks to Qaddafi was mocked by the New York Times, The Economist and other major media worldwide, causing a red-faced UN to postpone the report’s adoption repeatedly — until today.

Said the Times:

“Until Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s violent suppression of unrest in recent weeks, the United Nations Human Rights Council was kind in its judgment of Libya. In January, it produced a draft report on the country that reads like an international roll call of fulsome praise, when not delicately suggesting improvements. Evidently, within the 47-nation council, some pots are loath to call kettles black, at least until events force their hand. Last week Libya was suspended from the body, and the report was shelved.”

Even ardent defenders of the council have recently slammed the report. After UN Watch’s recent protest, Suzanne Nossel, the head of Amnesty USA and former top human rights official in the Obama Administration, described the report as “abhorrent” and called for a complete “redo.”

Here is UN Watch's Hillel Neuer telling the UN what a joke the report is:



In fact, the report is even worse than Neuer implies in his short speech. Here are some parts:

Algeria noted the efforts of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to promote human rights, which reflected the country’s commitment to complying with Human Rights Council resolutions and cooperating with the international community.

Qatar praised the legal framework for the protection of human rights and freedoms, including, inter alia, its criminal code and criminal procedure law, which provided legal guarantees for the implementation of those rights.

The Syrian Arab Republic praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its serious commitment to and interaction with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms. It commended the country for its democratic regime based on promoting the people’s authority through the holding of public conferences, which enhanced development and respect for human rights, while respecting cultural and religions traditions.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its achievements in the protection of human rights.

Bahrain noted that the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya had adopted various policies aimed at improving human rights.

Palestine commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for the consultations held with civil society in the preparation of the national report, which demonstrated its commitment to the improved enjoyment of human rights. Palestine praised the country for the Great Green Document on Human Rights.

Saudi Arabia commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s achievements in its constitutional, legislative and institutional frameworks, which showed the importance that the country attached to human rights.

Tunisia noted progress made by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, such as the adoption of the Great Green Charter, which was very comprehensive and enshrined fundamental freedoms and rights as enshrined in international human rights instruments.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela acknowledged the efforts of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to promote economic, social and cultural rights, especially those of children. 

Jordan welcomed the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights, including the establishment of institutions, particularly in the
judiciary system.

Oman commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its diligent efforts in the field of human rights and for making them its priority.

Egypt commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for progress in building a comprehensive national human rights framework of institutions and in drafting legislation and supporting its human resources in that area.

The Islamic Republic of Iran noted that the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya had implemented a number of international human rights instruments and had cooperated with relevant treaty bodies. It noted with appreciation the establishment of the National Human Rights Committee as an independent national human rights institution, and the provision of an enabling environment for non-governmental organizations.

Pakistan praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for measures taken both in terms of legislation and in practice, noting with appreciation that it was a party to most of the core human rights treaties.

Viet Nam congratulated the delegation on the quality of the national report. It noted with satisfaction the commitment of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the protection and promotion of the human rights of its people.

Even Western nations would go out of their way to find something nice to say about Libya even as they voiced concerns.

The United States of America supported the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s increased engagement with the international community. It called on the country to comply with its human rights treaty obligations. It expressed concern about reports of the torture of prisoners and about the status of freedom of expression and association, including in its legislation, which often resulted in the arrest of people for political reasons.

Canada welcomed improvements made by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in its respect for human rights, specifically the recent legislation that granted women married to foreigners the right to pass on their Libyan nationality to their children, as well as the acknowledgement of the deaths of hundreds of Abu Salim prisoners in 1996 and the first incountry release of a report by an international non-governmental organization in 2009.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland welcomed visits by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. It encouraged the country to consider further visits and to issue a standing invitation to the United Nations special procedures. It remained concerned about the enjoyment of the freedoms of expression and association, and asked for further details in that regard, including on the development of a new press law. The United Kingdom encouraged improvements in Libyan prison standards.

Only two countries had nothing positive to say:

France referred to the situation of refugees; allegations concerning arbitrary detention, torture, ill treatment and enforced disappearance; the death penalty, which remained in force for a large number of crimes; the absence of non-governmental organizations with expertise in the field of human rights; and the severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association. 

Israel noted that The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya should live up to the membership standards set forth in General Assembly resolution 60/251 and serve as a model in the protection of human rights; while, in reality, its membership in the Council served to cover the ongoing systemic suppression, in law and in practice, of fundamental rights and freedoms.

If you want proof that the UN Human Rights Council is a complete and utter joke, the fact that this resolution was adopted - in 2012 - is all the proof you need.

(h/t Samson2)

 

 

Leugens, grote leugens en statistieken over Israel

 

Zo misleid je met getallen. Het is een bekende uitspraak dat je leugens hebt, erge leugens en statistieken. Dat komt onder andere door de schijn van exactheid en objectiviteit die ze uitstralen, terwijl je er de grootste onzin aannemelijk mee kunt maken.

 

Een, naar ik eruit opmaak, redelijk bekende journalist vindt dat je het aantal journalisten dat gevangen wordt gezet niet per land moet bekijken maar per aantal inwoners. En ja hoor, dan staan opeens niet meer landen als China, Iran en Burma bovenaan, maar Eritrea met op de tweede plaats, jawel, Israel. Proficiat! het is altijd even puzzelen, maar dan lukt het een beetje journalist om Israel als schurkenstaat of zelfs erger neer te zetten, in dit geval nog wel met de schijn van wetenschappelijkheid en exactheid die getallen uitstralen.

 

Alleen, het slaat nergens op. Je zou veel beter het aantal gevangen gezette journalisten kunnen afzetten tegen het aantal journalisten in een land, aldus Elder, en dan zou Israel zeker een stuk lager scoren. Er zijn maar weinig landen waar zoveel journalisten rondlopen. Eigenlijk moet je natuurlijk ook kijken naar de omstandigheden en reden waarom ze gevangen zijn gezet, en hoelang ze werden vastgehouden. Hebben ze zich niet aan bepaalde regels gehouden? Liepen ze mee in verboden demonstraties, en waren ze misschien bewust uit op provocaties? En wanneer is iemand eigenlijk precies een journalist?

 

RP

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How to misuse statistics: Israel accused of jailing too many journalists

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-misuse-statistics-israel-accused.html

 

From Justin Martin at Columbia Journalism Review:

 

At the end of each year, the Committee to Protect Journalists counts the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide and lists the countries in which they’re locked up.

These data are very helpful, but I think we can consider them under a new lamp by taking into account each country’s size. China and Eritrea, for example, have about the same number of journalists rotting in prison, 27 and 28 respectively. But the population of China is over 250 times that of the small dictatorship.

Any country that unjustly arrests or imprisons a single journalist is democratically suspect, of course, and that includes you, America. Ratings of press freedom in the United States tanked after 2011, as counts of arrested journalists in this country soared. Still, though police in the United States tend to arrest journalists filming or otherwise documenting unrest, their bosses usually get embarrassed at the media blowback and drop the charges. Imprisoning journalists for months or years at a time is another matter and, other than the outright murder of journalists in places like Russia and Syria, the long-term jailing of reporters is the offense with which the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is most concerned.

For a new take on this scourge, I quickly calculated the highest twelve ratios of jailed journalists to a country’s population size.

So we see that according to this criterion, Israel jails more journalists per capita than any other nation except for Eritea.

Sounds damning, right?

Except that it is a meaningless statistic. The size of the country's population has nothing to do with how many journalists are in the country. Israel has far more journalists than most countries that are much larger, because there is such intense interest in Israel. Moreover, Israel is liberal in allowing journalists to have access to the nation, as opposed to, say, practically every other nation in the Middle East.

If you want to see which nations jail the most reporters per-something, you must compare it to the total number of reporters - not the total population of the nation. To restate the question - if you are a reporter in Country X, what are the odds that you will be arrested? Comparing the number of jailed journalists to the total population of the nation doesn't tell you anything meaningful. 

This is not to blame Justin Martin at CJR - at first blush his metric sounds like it might be meaningful - but his initial assumption is completely wrong.

Unfortunately, I cannot find immediately how many journalists are in Israel. Here's a list of journalists per million in North America and here's one with newspaper journalists per million for many other countries, but not Israel. I would be willing to bet that if you find out those numbers, and look at number of jailed reporters per thousand reporters, you will see Israel going way, way down that list.

This is all besides the fact of the circumstances of the imprisonment, which is a whole other topic. Given that Arab media openly says that their journalists are part of the war against Israel, it is but a small step for some of them to step over that line. But even without going into that, this is a perfect example of a statistic that sounds like it is illuminating some truth - and in fact it is obscuring it. 

UPDATE: I was too charitable. Martin really dislikes Israel and chances are pretty good that he gleefully published this metric just to castigate the Jewish state.  (h/t Soccer Dad)

UPDATE 2: Comments from Avi Bell receoved via email about the underlying CPJ study:

The CPJ report says that Hamas has jailed three journalists. Divide 3 by 1.5 million (the population of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip according to the Palestinian Authority) and you have a jail-rate that dwarfs Israel. Does the CJR (Columbia Journalism Review) article’s failure to mention this indicate anything about the author’s (Justin Martin) agenda? Does Martin’s statement that “Israel, though, wants to be called a modern democracy and gets cranky when critics point out that it is not” tell us anything about his agenda?

The CPJ report tells us nothing about its methodology: how it conducted its “census,” how it decided who to classify as a “journalist,” etc. Even if it had a reliable methodology for figuring out what journalists were arrested where, the CRJ would still not pretend to be comprehensive; it claims only to be “a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2011” that does “not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year.”

The CPJ report tells us nothing about how it examined the charges; there is nothing to indicate that all the persons who were arrested were in fact arrested due to journalistic activity, rather than say, contempt of court or activities on behalf of a terrorist organization. For instance, the CJR report lists Raed al-Sharif as a jailed journalist, while also telling us that Israel has stated that he was detained due to “involvement in terrorist activity.” It is worth noting that international law sometimes requires the jailing of journalists. For instance, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted several Rwandans for genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by broadcasts on Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines. This is surely relevant to the detention of, for example, Walid Khalid Harb, director of the Hamas newspaper Falastin.

I noted last night in Twitter that the US arrested scores of journalists during the Occupy demonstrations. Also, I mentioned that just last month India arrested a journalist - an Iranian implicated in the terrorist bombing against Israeli embassy personnel. Being a journalist doesn't make one immune from being imprisoned when one does a crime. 

 

Groen licht voor nieuwe Israëlische birdwatchingcentra

 

Goed nieuws voor vogelaars en natuurliefhebbers: het netwerk van vogel-observatiecentra wordt verder uitgebreid. Israel ligt op de vliegroute van veel vogels die van noord naar zuid vliegen.

 

RP

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Groen licht voor nieuwe Israëlische birdwatchingcentra

http://joodsactueel.be/2012/04/02/groen-licht-voor-nieuwe-israelische-birdwatchingcentra/

Maandag 2 April 2012 8:21

De Israëlische regering heeft gisteren het licht op groen gezet om het bestaande nationale netwerk voor vogelobservatie (birdwatching) verder uit te breiden.

 

Daarvoor komen er eerst twee nieuwe  centra bij, een in de buurt van de Negevwoestijn en een in Gallilea (kostprijs 10 miljoen euro) gevolgd door nog eens vier soortgelijke centra in  Sde Boker, Ein Gedi, Lotan en Hatzeva. De drie bestaande centra in Rupin, Maagan Michael en Eilat worden gerenoveerd.

 

Het doel van de genomen beslissing is in de eerste plaats het milieuonderzoek naar de migratiestromen van vogels te bevorderen maar de geplande maatregel heeft ook belangrijke positieve educatie gevolgen. Maar de regering Netanyahu steekt niet onder stoelen of banken dat vooral het groeiende birdwatchingtoerisme  aan de basis van de genomen beslissingen lag.

 

Dat Israël  bijzonder geliefd is bij birdwatchers komt omdat  het land op het kruispunt van drie continenten ligt en zich dus op de route van trekvogels bevindt die in de herfst in Israël arriveren vanuit Europa, Afrika en Azië.

 

Dat verklaart waarom in het relatief kleine land 534  verschillende vogels kunnen worden gespot terwijl er maar 91 lokale soorten zijn.  De combinatie van een excellente toeristische infrastructuur en een buitengewoon zonnige klimaat zorgt ervoor dat Israël een paradijs is voor deze specifieke doelgroep natuurliefhebbers.

 

Meer  weten over vogels in Israël kan via Birding Israel

 

Wat Israël de Palestijnen aandoet, is onvergelijkbaar met wat Peking in Tibet doet

 

Ik moest wel lachen om die Chinese journalist, al is Tibet natuurlijk een dramatische en tragische kwestie, en wellicht hopelozer dan de Palestijnse, want wie kan China onder druk zetten? Angstvallig wordt de Dalai Lama al niet meer officieel de hand geschud omdat China met sancties dreigt. In de winkels hier is nauwelijks nog iets te vinden dat NIET uit China komt (althans niets goedkoops).

 

Bos vertelt er helaas niet bij wie de journalisten deze Israel-kritische propaganda-trip heeft aangeboden. En dat terwijl het afkraken van de pro-Israelische hasbarah een vast nummer is voor correspondenten en commentatoren.

 

De kleine professor heeft op zich natuurlijk gelijk, dat een democratisch land niet langdurig een ander volk en grondgebied kan bezetten. Helaas werken sterke krachten tegen het beëindigen van die bezetting. Daar zijn de krachten binnen Israel zelf en (vooral joods-conservatieve en christelijk-conservatieve) sympatisanten die geen afstand willen doen van Gods belofte of historisch Joodse grond. Maar minstens zo zeer het Arabische nationalisme en islamitische extremisme die weigeren om één Joodse staat te erkennen temidden van tientallen Arabische en islamitische staten. Dat straalt geen vertrouwen uit naar de Israeli's dat ze zich veilig kunnen terugtrekken uit de Westoever.

Als de Palestijnen een Dalai Lama als leider hadden gehad, dan weet ik zeker dat ze al lang een eigen staat hadden. Maar de Tibetanen hebben dan ook nooit gestreefd naar het opheffen van China. Dat maakt de Tibetanen en de Palestijnen onvergelijkbaar.

 

Wouter

__________

 

'Wat Israël de Palestijnen aandoet, is onvergelijkbaar met wat Peking in Tibet doet'

http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/9766/Buitenland/article/detail/3234788/2012/04/02/Wat-Israel-de-Palestijnen-aandoet-is-onvergelijkbaar-met-wat-Peking-in-Tibet-doet.dhtml   

Rolf Bos − 02/04/12, 14:08

 

VK WEBLOG Een kritische Israëlische geleerde kent geen ander democratisch land dat een ander volk in een ander land zo lang bezet houdt als de Israëliërs de Palestijnen. Maar dan weet de bus vol journalisten nog wel een paar voorbeelden, schrijft correspondent Rolf Bos.

Professor Ma'oz leidt een groepje buitenlandse journalisten in een bus over de Westbank en de Golanhoogte. De kleine Israëlische geleerde, kenner van de islam en het Midden-Oosten, is kritisch over de almaar voortdurende Israëlische bezetting van de gebieden. 

Je kunt, zegt hij, als democratisch land natuurlijk niet al te lang een ander volk onder de duim houden, en hun land bezet houden. Uiteindelijk gaat dat dan ten koste van de democratie in je eigen land. Ik ken geen ander land in de moderne geschiedenis, vervolgt de geleerde, dat een ander volk in een ander land zo lang bezet houdt.

De Britse journalist naast me mompelt 'Ierland', maar corrigeert zichzelf. 'Die geschiedenis hebben we godzijdank achter ons.' Een Spaanse journalist roept iets over de Spaanse enclaves in Noord-Afrika, een Fransman roept olijk: 'Guadeloupe'.  

Ik blijf nog even in die Caraïbische hoek hangen en denk: Aruba, Sint Maarten, Curaçao, maar zeg dat niet hardop, want elke vergelijking met de Palestijnen gaat hier natuurlijk volledig mank. 
De Duitse journalist achter me is meer alert, hij zegt: 'What about Tibet?'
 
Bezetting
Natuurlijk, Tibet! Hoe had ik het kunnen vergeten. Een paar dagen eerder had er immers een foto op de voorpagina's van vele kranten gestaan waarop een Tibetaan zichzelf in brand had gestoken, als protest tegen de Chinese bezetting van zijn land.

Jaja, zegt professor Ma'oz in de bus, Tibet, dat is natuurlijk ook een ergerlijke bezetting. Er zijn verschillen, maar de Palestijnen kun je natuurlijk goed met de Tibetanen vergelijken. In Lhasa ziet de autochtone bevolking al die Chinezen natuurlijk ook het liefst verdwijnen.

Voorin de bus gaat iemand staan. Het is de collega uit China. In hakkelend Engels zegt hij dat de vergelijking tussen Palestina en Tibet hoogst ongepast is. De Tibetanen hebben niets te klagen, zegt hij, in tegenstelling tot de Palestijnen. Wat Israël de Palestijnen aandoet, is onvergelijkbaar met wat Peking in Tibet doet. 'Ik eis dat u uw excuses aanbiedt', zegt hij tegen de professor.

Ongepast
Ma'oz, een kleine lieve man, aarzelt geen moment. 'Excuses, ik had de vergelijking niet mogen maken. Hij was ongepast. Palestina is geen Tibet.' De collega uit China gaat weer zitten, content zegt hij iets tegen zijn fotograaf die in de rij achter hem zit. 

Dan kijkt de Chinees naar de Duitser achter mij, en zegt: 'Ik wil dat jij ook je excuses aanbiedt over je opmerking over Tibet.' De Duitser zegt dat hij dat van z'n lang zal z'n leven niet gaat doen. Er zijn ongetwijfeld grote verschillen tussen het lot van de Palestijnen en dat van de Tibetanen, zegt hij, maar er is ook achter de Himalaja wel degelijk sprake van een bezetting. 

De collega uit China kijkt de Duitser vuil aan. Hij kijkt op de deelnemerslijst van deze persreis en schrijft iets in zijn opschrijfboekje. 

Ik vrees dat de handelsbetrekkingen tussen China en Duitsland binnenkort wat krasjes gaan oplopen.

_{Rolf Bos is correspondent in Jeruzalem voor de Volkskrant}

 

Mustafa Barghouti aangevallen op Palestijnse Landdag

 

I cannot count the number of times that I have reported where Palestinian Arabs claim to have witnessed an attack by Israelis where Arabs ended up injured or dead, the IDF denies it, and it turns out the IDF is right.
Yet when these incidents are reported the IDF denial - when mentioned at all - is always stuck around paragraph 12 after the reader already assumes that the Arab witnesses are telling the truth.
Every reporter should put IDF denials in the first paragraph of any report like this, and should note that the IDF's track record on admitting and denying its activities has been pretty good. There certainly has been spin, but the track record for lies belongs, hands down, to the Palestinian Arabs.

 

Verbluffend genoeg kan ik het voorval met Mustafa Barghouti niet vinden in de berichten op de websites van de diverse kranten. Blijkbaar vindt men dat niet belangrijk genoeg. Die hele landdag en Global March heeft weinig aandacht gekregen, en de miljoenen mensen die naar Israels grenzen zouden optrekken bleken er duizenden te zijn. Maar bovenstaande woorden van Elder zijn natuurlijk zeer toepasselijk. Het Israelische leger ontkent een incident niet zomaar, en zelfs wanneer men niet schuldig is aan de dood van een Palestijn wordt soms niet meteen ontkend, omdat men de zaak eerst wil onderzoeken voordat men met een verklaring komt. Wanneer dat onderzoek is afgerond is de zaak niet meer in het nieuws en is bij iedereen het beeld blijven hangen dat de Palestijnse bronnen gaven die het met de waarheid niet zo nauw nemen. Je zou verwachten dat de media zo’n patroon na een tijdje herkennen en Palestijnse bronnen met wat meer scepsis behandelen, maar dat is ijdele hoop. Wanneer Israel ontkent wordt dit echter wel met veel scepsis gebracht: “bij Israelische bombardementen zijn minstens drie Palestijnen omgekomen, zo melden Palestijnse bronnen.” In alinea 10 staat vervolgens: “volgens Israel zouden zij op weg zijn geweest raketten af te vuren op Israel”. 

 

RP

--------- 

 

Mustafa Barghouti was injured by Arabs, not the IDF

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/03/mustafa-barghouti-was-injured-by-arabs.html  

 

During Friday's Land Day protests in Qalandia, member of parliament Mustafa Barghouti was injured - and, of course, he blamed Israel for what he described as a tear-gas canister hitting him.

The IDF denied the report.

As reported in Ma'an:

On Saturday, the aide told Ma'an he was injured by a tear-gas canister fired by Israeli forces. She said the police were informed of the circumstances during their visit to the hospital.

An Israeli military spokeswoman disputed Barghouti's account and said he was attacked by other Palestinians. He was "trying to convince youth in (Qalandiya) to riot," she said on Twitter.

A report on the case released by the police media office said Barghouti was injured in an altercation and taken to hospital. Police opened an investigation to determine the circumstances, the report says.

Barghouti heads the Palestinian National Initiative and is a former presidential candidate.

 

So what happened? As usual, the IDF seems to be correct and the Palestinian Arab accusers were lying.

From (of all places) Mondoweiss, quoting an account by Jalal Abukhater:

 

As I arrived to Qalandia, first thing I saw was a large crowd of protesters with most carrying Red PFLP flags and orange PNI [Palestinian National Initiative] flags. As I walked down, I saw Mustafa Barghouti being evacuated into an ambulance at the Qalandia field hospital and Fateh guys were attacking PNI people. As Mustafa entered the ambulance, angry crowds continued to attack Mustafa and his group, a fight broke out between both sides. Mustafa was also beaten inside the ambulance. Weapon used in fighting was sticks which held flags. The ambulance which carried Mustafa had its rear glass broken and it rushed away. A while later I saw PNI organizers calling on all PNI people to leave the demo, clashes continued and hundreds remained present at the demo.

Reason behind all this, according to eye witnesses who were there before I was, is that PNI group acted separately and didn't follow the general plan agreed upon by all groups, and they marched towards the checkpoint rushing during the prayer to beat all other groups and be first there. Also, none of them carried Palestinian flags..all carried PNI flags.

 

JPost adds a telling detail:

 

The Palestine News Network reported that Barghouti’s office phoned its editors and requested that they refrain from publishing the news about the assault.

 

Ah, the truth hurts - so lets resort to censorship.

I cannot count the number of times that I have reported where Palestinian Arabs claim to have witnessed an attack by Israelis where Arabs ended up injured or dead, the IDF denies it, and it turns out the IDF is right.

Yet when these incidents are reported the IDF denial - when mentioned at all - is always stuck around paragraph 12 after the reader already assumes that the Arab witnesses are telling the truth.

Every reporter should put IDF denials in the first paragraph of any report like this, and should note that the IDF's track record on admitting and denying its activities has been pretty good. There certainly has been spin, but the track record for lies belongs, hands down, to the Palestinian Arabs.

 

Hoe zeg je "Holocaust" in het Arabisch?

 

Het antwoord van veel Palestijnen op die vraag zal zijn: 'nakba', zoals Segev ook beschrijft en lijkt te rechtvaardigen in het artikel over dit lovenswaardige project:

That is no accident, according to Anne-Marie Revcolevschi: They try to stay as far away as possible from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she says. Under no circumstances do she and her colleagues wish to get dragged into discussing the question of how much Israelis know about the Nakba.

(...)

Among the personalities who are affiliated with the NGO is Palestinian philosopher Sari Nusseibeh, but despite the attempt to separate the subject of the Holocaust from the conflict − enlisting Palestinians in the endeavor has so far proved otherwise unsuccessful; at best they simply do not come to events organized by the Aladdin Project, as happened in East Jerusalem. At worst they refuse to talk about the Holocaust without also mentioning the Nakba and the occupation.

This theory seems right: Israel cannot be understood without understanding the place of the Holocaust among the components of Israeli identity, and whoever does not understand his enemy will also not be able to make peace with him.

 

Het is niet alleen van belang dat Palestijnen (en Arabieren) begrijpen wat de impact van de holocaust is op de Joden en daarmee ook op hun staat, maar evenzeer dat zij hun eigen rol hierin en de Arabisch/Palestijnse steun voorde nazi's gaan erkennen, analyseren en bekritiseren, zoals Segev en andere zogenaamde 'nieuwe historici' dat hebben gedaan voor Israels geschiedenis. Segev erkent weliswaar dat die steun er was, maar lijkt die ook al direct te willen relativeren:

The latest research on Arab attitudes to Nazi Germany shows that there were Arab and Muslim circles that were opposed to Hitler for political and ideological reasons, including the concern that the persecution of Jews in Europe would galvanize them to migrate to Palestine. But Arab support for the Nazis was more widespread, and there were Arabs who favored the annihilation of the Jews. Furthermore, over time, the more the Holocaust was used as a justification for the establishment of the State of Israel − the more the tendency among Arabs to view it as a Zionist myth and to deny it entirely grew. This trend reached a peak with the international conference of Holocaust deniers that was held in 2006 in Tehran.

 

Oftewel, de Arabische ontkenning van de holocaust is veroorzaakt door het valse gebruik ervan door Israel. Segev draait de zaken daarmee om, want al tijdens (en zelfs voor) de holocaust steunden Palestijnse leiders de nazi's en stonden achter hun plannen en beleid de Joden uit te moorden. Het is niet meer dan logisch dat Joden na de holocaust concludeerden dat zij een eigen staat nodig hadden. Was die er tien jaar eerder geweest, dan hadden vele Joden daarheen kunnen emigreren, ongehinderd door restricties en quota zoals die in Europese landen, de VS en in Palestina werden ingevoerd om de stroom aan Joodse vluchtelingen te weren. En hadden de Joden bommenwerpers gehad, dan hadden zij zelf de spoorlijnen die naar de concentratiekampen voerden kunnen bombarderen, iets dat de Geallieerden weigerden omdat zij de bommen voor 'belangrijker zaken' nodig hadden. De gerechtvaardigde idee dat men het lot in eigen handen wilde nemen en niet langer afhankelijk zijn van de goodwill van andere landen, doet Segev (en met hem veel zogenaamde postzionisten) af als het misbruiken van de holocaust voor nationalistische doeleinden. 

 

RP

------------

 

How do you say 'Holocaust' in Arabic?

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/the-makings-of-history/how-do-you-say-holocaust-in-arabic-1.421673

The latest research on Arab attitudes to Nazi Germany shows that there were Arab and Muslim circles that opposed Hitler, but support for the Nazis was widespread and, over time, Arabs saw the Holocaust as a Zionist myth.

By Tom Segev

Aladdin was a poor tailor's son who got rich thanks to a magic lamp, according to one of the stories in "One Thousand and One Nights." Reality, however, is more complex and difficult. But perhaps there is still something symbolic about the name "The Aladdin Project," a non-government organization that is based in France and aims to make the Arab and Muslim world more familiar with the history of the Holocaust. A difficult mission indeed.

The latest research on Arab attitudes to Nazi Germany shows that there were Arab and Muslim circles that were opposed to Hitler for political and ideological reasons, including the concern that the persecution of Jews in Europe would galvanize them to migrate to Palestine. But Arab support for the Nazis was more widespread, and there were Arabs who favored the annihilation of the Jews. Furthermore, over time, the more the Holocaust was used as a justification for the establishment of the State of Israel − the more the tendency among Arabs to view it as a Zionist myth and to deny it entirely grew. This trend reached a peak with the international conference of Holocaust deniers that was held in 2006 in Tehran.

All of this worried Anne-Marie Revcolevschi of Paris: Denial of the Holocaust in general, and in the Arab and Muslim states in particular, seemed to her to be a major threat to democracy and human rights, as well as to relations between Jews and Muslims. Dr. Revcolevschi, a 69-year-old French literature scholar, is a well-connected woman in her country, and identifies herself as a socialist. She has served as a consultant to France's Ministry for Higher Education and Research, and was director of the French Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.

In March 2009 Revcolevschi launched the Aladdin Project along with other French figures, among them philosopher and politician Simone Veil, lawyer and Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, and Claude Lanzmann, the maker of the documentary "Shoah." Author Elie Weisel, who lives in the United States, also got involved in the organization.

The group's working assumption is quite simple: The more Arabs and Muslims know about the Holocaust, the less they will be inclined to deny it, and the greater the chance they will grow closer to Jews. The modus operandi was quite simple, at the outset: The Aladdin Project translated "The Diary of Anne Frank" into Arabic. Then they translated Primo Levi's "If This Is a Man" and a series of other well-known books about the Holocaust, including Raul Hilberg's pioneering work "The Destruction of the European Jews." All of the books can be downloaded from the Internet. "The Diary of Anne Frank" in Arabic has registered some 30,000 downloads to date.

They organized conferences and gatherings, visits to Auschwitz, and also subtitled Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" into several languages of Islam. The nine-hour film was broadcast in full on Turkish television and also on an American television channel that broadcasts in Iran.

The Aladdin Project operates under the auspices of UNESCO; it has received public support from a slew of statesmen, including former prime minister of France Jacques Chirac, and several Muslim and Arab leaders − among them the president of Senegal, the king of Morocco, Prince Hassan of Jordan, the grand mufti of Egypt and others. The organization has done projects in Iraq. A large share of the project's budget comes from Jewish foundations, such as Safra and Rothschild, but among the dozens of Western individuals active in it there are almost no Israelis.

That is no accident, according to Anne-Marie Revcolevschi: They try to stay as far away as possible from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she says. Under no circumstances do she and her colleagues wish to get dragged into discussing the question of how much Israelis know about the Nakba.

Among the personalities who are affiliated with the NGO is Palestinian philosopher Sari Nusseibeh, but despite the attempt to separate the subject of the Holocaust from the conflict − enlisting Palestinians in the endeavor has so far proved otherwise unsuccessful; at best they simply do not come to events organized by the Aladdin Project, as happened in East Jerusalem. At worst they refuse to talk about the Holocaust without also mentioning the Nakba and the occupation.

This theory seems right: Israel cannot be understood without understanding the place of the Holocaust among the components of Israeli identity, and whoever does not understand his enemy will also not be able to make peace with him.

In any case, reality does not make things easy for the good people who run the Aladdin Project: Last week Anne-Marie Revcolevschi was staying in Jerusalem, and thus had the opportunity to attend the funeral of the victims of Islamist terror in Toulouse.