US gives $123 million to UNRWA
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.nl/2013/06/us-gives-123-million-to-unrwa.html
From UNRWA's website:
The United States announced a new contribution of US$123 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which will enable the Agency to continue its work serving a population of some five million registered Palestine refugees in the region. This latest donation brings the total U.S. contribution to UNRWA in 2013 to US$ 244.5 million.
US$ 75 million will go towards the General Fund, which supports core activities in education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement and microfinance.
"On behalf of UNRWA, I would like to thank the United States for this generous contribution today. The U.S. has assisted the Agency for several decades as a major bilateral donor. Its commitment to Palestine refugees is crucial to maintaining regional stability and supporting health, education and other programmes that UNRWA offers to this disadvantaged community. Despite the difficult economic situation worldwide, the U.S. has proven once again that it is dedicated to the development of Palestine refugee potential," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi.
The donation from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration includes an additional US$ 37 million earmarked for the Agency's Emergency Appeal in Gaza and the West Bank, US$ 10 million for the construction and equipment of three schools and two health centres in Gaza and US$ 1 million for relief work in Nahr el-Bared camp in Lebanon.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Clements reaffirmed the United States support for UNRWA services, saying: "The United States has been proud to work with UNRWA for many years. We remain committed to supporting their efforts to help Palestinian refugees receive the services that they need."
Yes, the US has donated money to the only refugee agency on Earth that guarantees that next year there will be more "refugees" than there were this year.
And until the US pressures UNRWA to adopt a cessation clause in line with the UNHCR's, where citizens of a country (Jordan) are not eligible for UNRWA services and where descendants do not automatically receive refugee status, and where people who live in the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine would no longer be considered "refugees," American taxpayers will continue to pay for this useless, bloated organization whose sole purpose nowadays is to expand the "refugee" problem, not to eliminate it.
(By way of contrast , in 2012, the total cash donated to UNRWA by all Arab states was less than $16M, of which Saudi Arabia gave $12M.)
NGO Monitor Report: Secret EU Funding for BDS Leader
Jerusalem
In a new report presented to members of the European Parliament, NGO Monitor details the damaging impact of highly secretive EU funding for radical political advocacy NGOs. According to NGO Monitor, EU funds are going to organizations involved in anti-Israel boycotts and violent demonstrations, which undermine the EU's efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.
The report, Lack of Due Diligence and Transparency in European Union Funding for Radical NGOs, shows how EU-funded NGOs lead the campaigns to demonize Israel through the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) - actions that totally contradict the EU's proclaimed objectives of supporting peace and democratic development.
"The EU's grantees are centrally involved in the 2001 Durban NGO Forum's strategy of political warfare and demonization of Israel. The Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) and its allies are driving Europe's double standards that single-out Israel through product labeling," stated Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. "The EU refusal to release any significant documents that shed light on funding decisions reflects a clear violation of transparency principles, and allows for highly irresponsible EC actions."
Examples of misdirected and unsupervised funding are examined in the NGO Monitor report:
Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) received funding from the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) ("Empowering Women, Building Peace" €247,668) and from the PfP -- Partnership for Peace ("Addressing Fear: Strengthening the Nonviolent Alternative" €355,130). CWP is a leader in BDS and demonization campaigns, and in sponsoring "Nakba Day" activities that amplify the Palestinian narrative. CWP's partners in the PfP grant include the Palestinian Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC), which organized protests that have often turned violent, and Nova, a radical Spanish political NGO.
As the report details, CWP's agenda is also reflected in the participation of its activists in demonstrations carrying flags of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), categorized by the EU as a terrorist organization. See pictures here.
"The study emphasizes the fundamental damage caused by extreme secrecy and the lack of due diligence in the European Commission's decision-making for funding radical NGOs," continued Steinberg. "The facts clearly demonstrate that either the officials involved were unaware of the groups chosen to receive taxpayer funds, or that they chose to promote NGOs that fuel the conflict and promote confrontation, under the façade of 'non-violence.'"
The EU report follows an NGO Monitor report presented in Washington in May on U.S. Government funding for several Middle East political NGOs. On the basis of this publication, members of Congress and U.S. Government officials took action to insure transparency prevent the misallocation of such grants for counterproductive NGOs. This is an important precedent that the EU can follow.
NGO Monitor (www.ngo-monitor.org), based in Jerusalem, provides information and analysis, promotes accountability, and supports discussion on the activities of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) involved in Middle East politics and human rights affairs.
Miftah's double standards for Jews and everyone else
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.nl/2013/05/miftahs-double-standards-for-jews-and.html
Miftah, the Western-funded NGO that refuses to condemn the medieval Jewish blood libel in Arabic, has another article filled with lies - this one about Jerusalem:
Looking at the state of Jerusalem's eastern sector today, it is understandable why Israel would not want UNESCO or anyone else walking around the Old City, especially the Palestinian-populated parts of it. Because anyone who does, will see the devastation that Israel and its settlers have wreaked on one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.
Devastation? United Jerusalem today is more beautiful than at any time since 70 CE. So what is the devastation?
Excavation works are being conducted in and around the Aqsa Mosque to make way for more Jewish construction at the place where Waqf authorities say Ottoman and Abbasid artifacts have long been tucked away.
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the subject knows that the Israel Antiquities Authority bends over backwards to save ancient artifacts - belonging to any religion. The Waqf, on the other hand, lies whenever it is convenient to do so, and has purposefully destroyed thousands of priceless ancient Jewish objects.
Condemning Jews acting responsibly to save antiquities while condoning Muslims destroying them is a bit of a double standard. There might be a term for that.
A Muslim graveyard is being dug up just outside the Old City's Jaffa Gate, to build – ironically – a museum of tolerance.
Besides the small fact that there haven't been any graves in the area being dug for quite a while, Miftah's writer seems unaware that, in 1946, the Supreme Muslim Council approved the building of an office park directly on top of the cemetery - and their own offices would have been housed there! They justified it by citing Islamic precedent.
To Miftah, only Jewish actions are to be condemned.
There might be a term for that.
Today, two stores were forcefully taken over by Jewish settlers in Al Hakari, one of the neighborhoods in the Muslim quarter and every day, it seems that more and more homes are either being demolished by Israeli municipality authorities or being taken over by Jewish settlers.
Miftah seems to believe that Jews should be forbidden to buy buildings in Jerusalem. Yet Arabs move to Jewish neighborhoods, and that is not a problem.
There might be a term for that.
The "Judiazation" of Jerusalem is a term many Palestinians and Arabs use for what Israel is doing in the city. In a nutshell, it is the long-term plan Israel is gradually carrying out to change the Arab Palestinian character of Jerusalem. This means demolishing old and historical structures, displacing Palestinians, handing over their homes to settlers and trying to erase the Palestinian or Arab history of the city.
I am not familiar with any demolition of historic Islamic structures since 1967.
Miftah's lies go beyond that, by pretending that Jerusalem has a primarily "Arab Palestinian character." They might want to explain exactly why there were no synagogues in the Old City between 1948 and 1967. I'm sure they can figure it out, even if they approve of the actions that burnt them down.
Sheikh Jarrah, one of the more affluent Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now pierced with Jewish flags waving from homes that have been wrestled from their Palestinian owners, and Israel's light rail train cuts right down through Palestinian neighborhoods outside of the city center.
Legally buying buildings at hugely inflated prices is, in Miftah-speak, "wrestling." Even when the Shimon HaTzaddik portion of that neighborhood was built by Jews who were violently attacked and ethnically cleansed in 1948.
And somehow Jerusalem's light rail, which serves Arabs and Jews equally, has only taken land from Arabs in its construction. Amazing!
On Shavuot, Israeli settlers and extremists poured into the Old City, singing loudly, banging on the shop doors and waving huge Israeli flags. The sight was disconcerting to say the least. However, the afternoon of that same day, at Damascus Gate, passersby were met with a completely different scene. Palestinian flags waved in determined Palestinian hands under the threatening eye of heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers. The youths were fearless, demanding freedom, with strong, unrelenting voices.
Jews walking around with Israeli flags are "settlers" and "extremists." Arabs waving Palestinian flags - not being interfered with by the Israeli police - are "fearless" and "determined." Why is one group described as heroic and the other in a derogatory manner, when they were doing the same thing?
There might be a term for that.
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