| 2018 Al Haq report details how women are mistreated in Palestinian territoriesnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 14 Jul 04:45 AM Palestinian human right | | Palestinian human rights group Al Haq issued a report in 2018 about how poorly the Palestinian governments were following the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW.)
The first few pages blames Israel as the primary reason Palestinian women are discriminated against, which is what one expects from any and every human rights report that comes out from Palestinian organizations. But finally, in paragraph 10, we see that Al Haq accuses Mahmoud Abbas of prety much being a dictator, without saying it directly: The on-going internal Palestinian political divide has had adverse consequences on the human rights situation. With the PLC ceasing to function, the executive branch of government has monopolised both legislative and executive functions. Transparency and public dialogue are largely absent in the law and policy-making processes. The justice system is also compromised by executive interference, leading to an absence of accountability and redress for victims. The executive has further placed increasing restrictions on civil society organisations, (CSO) such as restrictions on financial transactions, including where the salaries of CSO employees are only transferred following the approval of the Ministry of Interior. These restrictions are imposed without any legal basis...Read More |
From Ian: Jonathan S. Tobin: Are Jews really united against anti-Semitism? Unlike in past generations when Israel's peril was a source of Jewish unity, today it is a deeply divisive issue, with the politically and religiously liberal majority of the community adopting critical views of the Jewish state and the minority that are Orthodox, politically conservative or staunchly pro-Zionist more likely to support it enthusiastically against its detractors. More to the point, many on the Jewish left are adamant about trying to detach concern about anti-Semitism from the rising tide of anti-Zionist invective coming from the base of the Democratic Party. They are opposed to the widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance precisely because it includes rhetoric and actions that seek to delegitimize Israel, to judge it by double standards applied to no other government and to compare the Jewish state to the Nazis among its examples of anti-Semitism. That appears to be why Americans for Peace Now and J Street stayed away from the rally. The same applies to openly anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow—themselves a source of anti-Semitic incitement. Unfortunately, the only instances of anti-Semitism that motivate many Jews to protest are those incidents that can be linked, however incorrectly, to their domestic political opponents...Read More |
This is, in some ways, a distillation of years of media and NGO critiques from this blog. I came up with it after reporting on the ignorance of American Jews, realizing that one reason is that they simply are not exposed to the truth - and this is quite deliberate. The media and NGOs aren't the same as far as their motivations go but they are close enough, and they use each other. * * * * * *
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From Ian: The erasure from historical memory of Israeli statehood offers and Palestinian rejections is badly distorting today's debate about Middle East peace The erasure from our historical memory of Israeli attempts to achieve peace by agreeing to Palestinian statehood, and of the serial Palestinian rejections, is now standard practice. This erasure sustains the libel that Israel is an 'apartheid state' seeking 'permanent occupation' and underpins a ludicrously uncritical attitude to the Palestinian national movement, its leadership, and aspects of its political culture. From Human Rights Watch to Nathan Thrall, Peter Beinart to the Carnegie Endowment, the debate now proceeds as if those offers were never made and never rejected. Bringing those offers back in, and those rejections, we get a more realistic picture of the obstacles standing in the way of achieving two states for two peoples. 'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past' is the slogan of the fictional English Socialist Party led by Big Brother in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Orwell understood that the erasure of history is a useful tool to control the present narrative and to influence the future. While perhaps an exaggerated analogy, there are Orwellian parallels in how anti...Read More |
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A new survey commissioned by the (heavily Democratic) Jewish Electorate Institute of self-described Jewish voters in the US.
The results are shocking.
If the details are accurate and the questions weren't preceded with leading definitions, as we've seen in other polls, it shows that fully 25% of American Jews agree that "Israel is an apartheid state" while only 52% disagree.
22% agree with the statement that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians while only 62% disagree.
The numbers are even worse for the young.
Ignorance about Israel seems to correspond with ignorance about Judaism. While the survey didn't ask about Jewish practices, only 9% identified as Orthodox and 17% as Conservative Jews, with 31% saying that had no denomination at all.
While 62% claim they have an emotional attachment to Israel, it is obvious that for most of them, it is a shallow attachment indeed - not one that prompts them to even investigate whether the slanders about Israel are accurate or not.
The trend of people making up lies about Israel correlates with the increase of antisemitic attacks in America.
American Jews are thoroughly ignorant about their own history, their religion, and the Jewish state. That ignorance translates into apathy and then into a willingness to believe the enthusiastic modern antisemites who pretend that they are merely...Read More |
The Seattle Times wrote an editorial on June 25 opposing those who tried to stop the Zim San Diego container ship from unloading its cargo at the Seattle port: More than 100 years ago, with the creation of the Port of Seattle by King County voters, our community decided it would look out as much as look in when making our fortune in the world, establishing our reputation as an international port city. Over a tense six days this month, that reputation — and our region's standing as an open trade hub — was challenged after protesters temporarily blocked a cargo ship from unloading. Activists with the "Block the Boat" campaign targeted the ZIM San Diego, which is owned by the publicly traded ZIM, an Israeli-based shipping company. The effort was part of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that seeks to put economic pressure on Israel to withdraw from occupied territories. Thanks to outstanding Seattle leadership, however, the effort failed in Seattle, with its reputation as a reliable international seaport intact. Port of Seattle officials, working with Mayor Jenny Durkan, the Northwest Seaport Alliance, terminal operator SSA Marine and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, were able to accommodate protesters while ensuring the safety of workers. The ship's cargo was unloaded Friday without incident. Surrendering to protesters would have set...Read More |
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