Jerusalem News (31 December, 2014, 9 Tevet, 5775)
Contents:
1. Occupation Magazine.
Amusing and Informative extracts from Left-Wing European-Subsidized Jewish and non-Jewish Enemies of Israel
2. Hamas Operating and Recruiting in Turkey
3. Europeans Fund Anti-Israel Libels by Gerald M. Steinberg
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1. Occupation Magazine.
Amusing and Informative extracts from Left-Wing European-Subsidized Jewish and non-Jewish Enemies of Israel
Unacceptable countries
Occupation Magazine. Dec 30, 2014,
http://www.kibush.co.il/
Ya`alon to declare the El-Matan outpost `a legal settlement`
Ido Ben Porat, Cynthia Blank - Arutz 7 (settler radio) - West bank settlers noted with satisfaction today`s statement by Defense Minister Ya`alon that the settlement outpost El-Matan, in the northern West Bank, is to be given a legal status. The outpost was established in 2001 without any authorization and was considered illegal even under the Israeli military government`s rules - though no move was made to remove it. Following last week`s Molotov cocktail attack in which a girl from El-Matan was severely burned, settlers started a (quickly successful) campaign to have the outpost legalized as a "consolation to the settlers and deterrance to the Palestinians". [ak]
Netanyahu mobilizing US Republicans against United Nations
Reuters/Y-net - While intensive diplomatic activity goes on at the UN Headquarters ahead of the vote on the Palestinian draft resolution, PM Netanyahu is mobilizing his best allies, the US Republican Party. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is the latest Republican Presidential hopeful to visit Netanyahu and lend support to the PM`s outrage against "The Palestinian dictat". Earlier this week, Senator Lindsey Graham issued, from Netanyahu`s bureau, a threat to cut off US funding to the UN should the Palestinian draft gain acceptance. [ak]
The Davidization of Jerusalem: On the politics of symbols
Dana Hercbergs - +972 - It's no coincidence that images of the Tower of David are popping up everywhere in the holy city: right-wing settlers and real estate moguls alike have been using the symbol to gain power [ry]
US finds Israel fourth most `unacceptable` country
Yitzhak Benhorin - Y-Net/Foreign Policy - The US State Department described Israeli actions as "unacceptable" 87 times in 2014, with only three countries being more "unacceptable". In the "unacceptable" list Israel ranked between North Korea and Pakistan. However, when Israel went ahead with the act which the US deemed "unacceptable" (mostly settlement construction) the US did not do very much about it. [ak]
Selection of earlier days:
Is Europe Running Out of Patience With Israel?
Cnaan Liphshiz - The Jewish Daily Forward - Israel has long suffered in public opinion across Europe, where it has struggled to stave off mounting calls for divestment and the labeling of goods produced in its settlements. But since October, there have been signs that governments are beginning to embody those sentiments in legislation. The French vote follows similar measures undertaken by the parliaments of Britain, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Sweden, and comparable steps are pending in Denmark and Slovenia.-rh
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2. Hamas Operating and Recruiting in Turkey
Hamas Operating and Recruiting in Turkey Senior Hamas operatives based in Turkey continue directing terrorist networks in Judea and Samaria
A report by the Intelligennce and Terrorism Information Center regarding Hamas' operation in Turkey IsraelDefense 30/12/2014
http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=483&ArticleID=3282
Extracts:
In August and September 2014 the Israeli security forces exposed two Hamas military-terrorist networks operating in Judea and Samaria. They recruited squads to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, including showcase attacks in Jerusalem (attacks on the Teddy [Soccer] Stadium and the light railway). Most of the operatives were recruited while studying in Jordan and received training outside Judea and Samaria. During the investigation more than 30 terrorist operatives were detained and large quantities of weapons were seized. The networks were directed by Saleh Muhammad Suleiman al-Arouri, a senior Hamas operative based in Turkey. Some of the operatives underwent training in Turkey, and were instructed in methods of carrying out attacks against targets in Israel, Judea and Samaria and abroad. It was not the first time Hamas operatives in Turkey had a central role in directing anti-Israeli terrorism in Judea and Samaria.
For the past several years Turkey has provided Hamas with political, media and financial support. As part of its support, it allows a group of Hamas terrorists to operate freely within its territory, using Turkey as a base from which to direct Hamas military-terrorist networks in Judea and Samar
ia. Hamas activity in Turkey is headed by Saleh al-Arouri,[1] who cofounded Hamas' military-terrorist wing in Judea and Samaria and today is head of the Judea and Samaria region in Hamas headquarters abroad.
Turkey: A Base for Directing Anti-Israeli Terrorism
The exposure of the Hamas terrorist network in Judea and Samaria was another illustration of the fact that Hamas terrorist operatives in Turkey direct anti-Israeli terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Eleven of the terrorist operatives released in the Gilad Shalit exchange deal in October 2011 were deported to Turkey, ten of them Hamas operatives. According to the Turkish media, once they arrived in Turkey they were supposed to be subject to the supervision of Turkish intelligence and not permitted to circulate unaccompanied. However, Turkey did not require them to remain in the country or forbid them to go to another country if they so desired. In effect, the exposure of terrorist networks in Judea and Samaria has proved that Hamas operatives based in Turkey conduct their terrorist activities freely.
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3. Europeans Fund Anti-Israel Libels
by Gerald M. Steinberg
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2015 (view PDF)
http://www.meforum.org/4912/europeans-fund-anti-israel-libels
In May 2014, Zochrot, a radical Israeli nongovernmental organization (NGO) wwas the focus of widespread mainstream media coverage featuring its iNakba mobile application (app). Articles on the app and Zochrot were published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Haaretz, The Christian Science Monitor, Time Magazine, and several prominent blogs. Most, including The New York Times, promoted Zochrot's agenda while others, such as The Washington Post, included some criticism.
Designed and promoted as a vehicle for drawing attention particularly among journalists to the Pa Palestinian narrative of the 1948 war, iNakba features an interactive map and photos of pre-1948 Arab villages and encourages the "right of return" narrative through crowd sourcing. As stated by The New York Times, "Perhaps the app's greatest promise is its social component users can upload photos and videos, or 'follow' villaages to virtually recreate lost communities."[1] Small wonder that the release of the app was timed to coincide with Israel's sixty-sixth Independence Day (May 15) and the Nakba (catastrophe) as Palestinians and Arabs call this event.
While Zochrot has promoted this inverted narrative of "historic injustice" for many years, its sudden transformation from a fringe political NGO into a major media attraction was made possible by a steep increase in funding from European governments, often channeled through Christian international development and humanitarian aid organizations without any public scrutiny or parliamentary control. This funding grew from some 950,000 NIS (Israeli new shekels) in 2005 to 1,868,485 NIS (more than $500,000) in 2013.[2] Such funding is far from unique and can be viewed as a showcase for a wider phenomenon: the central role of European governments and Christian aid organizations in promoting a radical, anti-Israel agenda.
In 2012, Zochrot and Badil (a radical anti-Israel organization, whose Swiss government funding was frozen following the publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon),[10] organized a joint study visit to Cape Town, South Africa, "to learn from cases of expulsion and return."[11] In 2010, Zochrot endorsed the militant "Free Gaza Flotilla," which used the pretense of humanitarian aid to attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade of Hamas.[12] In a December 2008 joint submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council for Israel's periodic review, Zochrot falsely accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and "forcible displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people."[13] These campaigns, along with unsubstantiated allegations cited by journalists, academics, diplomats, political leaders, and legal officials condemning Israeli policies, reflect the power of NGOs such as Zochrot in reinforcing the distorted Palestinian narrative.
Discussion of the 1948 Events
The 1948 war and the Nakba claims have been widely debated in Israeli academic, political, and public frameworks, including in publications of historians such as Benny Morris, Yoav Gelber, and Efraim Karsh.[33] This important dimension is mostly missing in the media reports, which largely repeat Zochrot's version.
Time Magazine chose to present Zochrot's narrative exclusively, eliminating important context and facts, including countless Arab attacks on Jewish communities and the gruesome mutilation of victims. The article quoted Zochrot employee Raneen Jeries:
The right of return for Palestinian refugees has long been a key sticking point in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Israael fears that any flexibility on the issue would open the floodgates to millions of refugees, which would pose a demographic threat to the "Jewish and democratic character" of the state.[36]
If Israel were to absorb the millions who claim to be Palestinian refugees, this would pose an existential threat to the nature of the Jewish state. But, none of the articles raised questions of Palestinian resettlement in current host nations or suggested that the status of refugees is a highly sensitive topic for both sides and that the "right of return" implied the threat of destruction of Israel.
Zochrot, like other NGOs, is funded by European and church-based groups. Another such group is Breaking the Silence, an organization of former Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Its members tour university campuses and parliaments in Europe and North America, fueling campaigns against Israel based on false war crime allegations.
By funding organizations such as Zochrot and the iNakba app, as well as related conferences and publications, European governments have become enablers of the NGOs' radical agenda. These activities and overall agendas do not advance the stated objectives of democracy and human rights and are often incompatible with declared European foreign policy objectives.
Most of this European public (taxpayer-based) funding is channeled through humanitarian aid agencies, which in turn redistribute the money to individual NGOs, including Zochrot. Many of these state-funded agencies are Christian groups, including Misereor (Germany), Christian Aid (U.K.), Le Comite catholique contre la faim et pour le developpement-Terre Solidaire (CCFD, France), Finn Church Aid (Finland), HEKS-EPER (Switzerland), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Trocaire (Ireland), St. Het Solidariteitsfonds (Netherlands), BISCHOEFLICHES (Germany), and Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO, Netherlands). In addition, Zochrot receives money from the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in the United States. Non-church related government-funded frameworks that have donated to Zochrot include Oxfam GB and Oxfam Solidarity (Belgium).
This pattern of funding also reflects the central role of both Catholic and Protestant aid frameworks in promoting radical political agendas, in many cases mixed with classic anti-Semitic themes. For example, Rev. Steven Sizer, who was affiliated with Christian Aid for a number of years, espouses the doctrine of supersecessionism, also known as replacement theology.[41] Officials in many of these funding organizations are also involved in "teaching of contempt," a doctrine which claims that the "corrupt Jews" were "punished" for "deicide."[42] In this case, they mask their theological contempt for Jews as anti-Zionism. These ancient theological themes at the root of anti-Semitism are based on the belief that Christianity has superseded Judaism and that the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the ensuing exile were divine punishments for the rejection of Jesus.[43]
Humanitarian relief foundations participate in the delegitimization of Israel, referring to it as an apartheid system or occupier.
Zochrot is hardly the only such NGO: European and church-based funding is distributed to hundreds of other politicized NGOs. These include The Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), a leader of BDS campaigns through its website "Who Profits";[44] al-Haq, a Palestinian group that leads lawfare attempts;[45] and Breaking the Silence, an organization of former Israel Defense Forces soldiers, who tour university campuses and parliaments in Europe and North America, publicizing unsubstantiated testimonies, which fuel campaigns against Israel based on false war crime allegations.[46]
Like Zochrot, these other NGOs are funded directly by governments and indirectly through many of the same humanitarian relief foundations (again, many of them Christian) such as Diakonia (Sweden), Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO, the Netherlands), Christian Aid (U.K.), Church Development Service (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, EED, Germany), Trocaire (Ireland), Comite catholique contre la faim et pour le developpement, CCFD, France), and various churches. All participate in the delegitimization of Israel through tactics such as BDS, supporting the one state solution, lawfare (such as the Goldstone fact-finding report or filing politically motivated reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council), and referring to Israel as an apartheid system or occupier. These NGOs, similarly to Zochrot, have risen to prominence through an abundance of foreign government funding.
In the 2012-13 period, during which the iNakba app was developed and the public relations strategy prepared, Christian Aid UK, Broederlijk Delen, Misereor, Trocaire, and ICCO provided the most substantial funding.
Implications
There is a direct and causal connection between increased funding for political advocacy NGOs, mainstream media visibility, and support for the distorted Palestinian narrative. As a result of an increase in funds, Zochrot was able to go from a fringe group with virtually no impact to a major player, influencing others with its ideological and political perspective.
NGOs are important players in international politics and within the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular. In this case, Zochrot's ability to promote its agenda through the media and other venues is dependent on the funding it receives from foreign governments. This, coupled with unprofessional media reporting, promotes the group's propaganda and fuels the conflict.