| A unusual story from Gaza - because it is normalnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 12 Aug 04:45 AM I read Palestinian news sites every day and see the c | | I read Palestinian news sites every day and see the crazy, funhouse mirror world that they live and think in.
Today I saw something normal - which makes it extraordinary. The Association for Culture and Free Thought, in Khan Yunis, is organizing a summer camp for children in cooperation with the Research and Astronomy Center of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza called "Adventures in Astronomy". The kids learn astronomy and have access to a large telescope to use in the evenings. The camp coordinator, Youssef Daher, says the camp "aims to develop the scientific, cognitive and astronomical skills of a segment of Gaza children, and to alleviate the scientific gap that exists between them and scientific development outside Palestine." I looked up the Association for Culture and Free Thought. It was set up by a group of women in Gaza who were sick of how everything Palestinian kids are exposed to is politicized. They want Palestinian kids to have normal lives, protected from danger - not exposed to it as Hamas and Islamic Jihad camps do. They want kids to learn and thrive. They aren't Zionists - they partially blame the "occupation" for kids' problems in Gaza. But they are clearly not fans of Hamas...Read More |
From Ian: Bret Stephens: The Cheap & Easy Sanctimony of Ben & Jerry The decision also called attention to the fact, unmentioned by Cohen and Greenfield, that the supposedly independent Ben & Jerry's board that exists to handle its social mission was in no hurry to bless Unilever's pledge to keep doing business in Israel. On the contrary: the Ben & Jerry's board chair, Anuradha Mittal, is publicly furious with Unilever. NBC News reported that her board tried to put out a different statement "that made no reference to continued sales in Israel," but that "Unilever released the statement against the wishes of the board." As for Unilever, it will be hard-pressed to honor its promise to stay in Israel while keeping out of the West Bank, since Israeli law forbids companies from operating that way. It will also have to seek approval from the ticked-off Ben & Jerry's board for a new Israeli licensee once the current contract expires next year. So much for Cohen and Greenfield bravely honoring the principle to distinguish between the West Bank and Israel. What we really have is a feckless political gesture, a corporate fiasco, a de facto boycott of the Jewish state, an enraged Israeli government, and a handful of customers who won't get their Chunky Monkey cravings satisfied. Just how any of this translates into peace or justice, much less ending "the occupation," is anyone's guess. In his book, Ramaswamy...Read More |
(Judean Rose is taking off for several weeks.) Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal Jews have always been a minority in their temporary diasporic homes, and so they have usually been at the mercy of antisemites. If at a given time and place they are not actively persecuted, the possibility of persecution always remains, as European and even American Jews are rediscovering today. The commandment to keep one's suitcase packed is no less apt today than in previous centuries. Despite the heartwarming (but illusory) feeling of a worldwide solidarity of good people engendered by Yair Lapid's recent remarks that antisemitism is just a particular form of a much more general collection of religious, ethnic, racial (etc.) hatreds that all those of good will should decry, the pervasiveness of antisemitism over the millennia and its shape-shifting nature show that it is indeed sui generis, a thing by itself. And we learned from the Holocaust that the Jewish people ultimately must stand alone against it. Early Zionists like Moses Hess, Leo Pinsker, A. D. Gordon, and of course Theodor Herzl thought that the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty would remove much of the basis for antisemitism, by ending the parasitic economic life of diaspora Jews and restoring to them their self-respect as productive beings. The world had forgotten that the Jews had a homeland and saw...Read More |
In June, UNRWA issued a press release: With no advanced warning, between 13 and 15 May 2021, the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes that caused damage to UNRWA installations, most notably to the UNRWA Zaitoun Preparatory Boys' School "A" and Elementary Boys' School "A"...The strike calls into question respect for the fundamental principle of inviolability. Thankfully, no displaced persons were inside the school at the time of the strike and no physical injuries were caused. While investigating how to secure the building from the missiles, a detailed assessment on 31 May 2021 revealed what appears to be a cavity and a possible tunnel, at the location of the missile strike. The depth of the cavity is approximately 7.5 meters below the surface of the school. UNRWA discovered the existence of a possible tunnel in the context of the investigation of the fired missiles. There is no indication of the existence of any entry or exit points for the tunnel within the premises. Clearly, Israel struck a valid military target, after ensuring that there were no civilians. This is completely legal under international law.
UNRWA wanted to check to see if the school was in further danger from Hamas. The answer is clearly yes: Hamas has prevented UN bomb disposal experts from...Read More |
From Ian: 'UNRWA is missing the point entirely' UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer responded to UNRWA's statement in which it announced a probe into alleged anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias by its staffers which was exposed in a UN Watch report. "UNRWA's reply misses the point entirely. If the agency employs dozens of teachers and school principals who quote Hitler and praise Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks, the issue isn't their social media posts and their so-called 'neutrality breaches,' but rather the fact that UNRWA's education system is repeatedly hiring and putting in the classroom teachers that admire Hitler and propagate hatred and terrorism," explained Neuer. "Deleting a post on Facebook does not remove the hate in those teachers' hearts and minds. It does not solve the problem. And claiming, as UNRWA does in its response, that certain teachers were not employed with UNRWA at the time that they advocated racism or terrorism is equally beside the point. Palestinian children deserve to be fully protected from teachers of hatred and racism. Zero tolerance in schools means you remove racists from the classroom, period," he added. "We regret that UNRWA is trying to kill the messenger by maliciously attacking UN Watch for vetting their teachers regarding racism and terrorism, a minimal form of oversight that the agency itself has failed to exercise. UNRWA slanderously...Read More |
The Greek city of Kalamata hosted it s tenth annual Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Festival on July 24 and 25. Photos of the event show lots of socialist graphics and literature and perhaps 200 people in attendance.
The first day of the festival had sessions on LGBTQ+, wind energy and Greek history. The second day featured the Palestinian envoy to Greece to give an anti-Israel speech.
The speech by Marwan Toubassi was filled with clear lies and incitement against Israel as well as pure antisemitism.
He said: I come from a land where 100,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948 and 1 million Palestinians have been imprisoned in Israel since 1967 and 1.5 million have been displaced from their homes and land. I come from a country where more than 60 organized massacres have taken place since the founding of the colonial state of Israel. I come from a country that suffers from an ongoing holocaust. Literally every word is a lie, and the use of the word "holocaust" is by any definition antisemitic. But the Jew-hatred doesn't end there. On...Read More |
The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement condemning Israel for doing...something..at the Cave of the Patriarchs, what they call the Ibrahimi Mosque. Nowhere in the entire press release does the ministry actually say what Israel is planning to do. The mentality of the racist colonialism dominates the government in the occupying state and its various arms, and is embodied in its worst forms, with the operations of control, familyization and Judaization of the Ibrahimi Mosque, changing its historical, cultural, cultural and religious landmarks, and depriving the original owners of the land and Muslims from accessing it and praying in it. The occupation is one, its mentality is one, and its narrative is one, whether as it constantly appears in the oppression of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in prisons, or in the theft of Palestinian land and targeting the Palestinian presence through mass demolitions and forced displacement, or in the attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty and control over all the holy, archaeological and historical sites that are located in the heart of cities and Palestinian towns. As a result of this racist mentality, Palestinians are constantly paying high prices for the occupation's complex crimes and violations. ....It is the mentality of Judaization and creeping annexation that denies the right of the Palestinian to his homeland and tries to change the parameters of the historical and...Read More |
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