NGO Monitor: Amnesty Int'l Planning an Assault on Israel & Jews in 2019

This report by NGO Monitor is shocking but believable since we know Amnesty's anti-Israel record over the past thirty years or more. This is far from what Amnesty was originally supposed to be which was a defender of prisoners of conscience who were jailed in their repressive countries for their thoughts and statements but not for violence or terrorism. Over the last 30 odd years, Amnesty --following a decision of its board of directors or governing council-- has been defending terrorists, especially anti-Israel terrorists.
        The report below by NGO Monitor says that Amnesty will, among other things, attack and delegitimize Jewish history in Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem became important to the world, to both Christians and Muslims (not to mention Jews) because of the Jewish history of the city. The Christian faith relates in Book of Matthew, chaps. 1 & 2, that Jesus was descended from the Israelite King David of the tribe of Judah through Joseph (Chap. 1:16). Chapter 2 calls the country "Land of Israel" (verses 20-21). The place where Jesus was born is called Bethlehem of Judea (Chap. 2:5), a suburb of Jerusalem. Apparently, the parents of Jesus came to Jerusalem during one of the Jewish pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavu`ot [Pentecost], or Sukkot [Tabernacles]; and they could not find accomodations in Jerusalem so they went to look in nearby Bethlehem. According to the New Testament, Jesus --a Jew-- was later crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem.
     In Islam, the Umayyad dynasty decided to build a Muslim shrine  as well as the Farthest Mosque [Masjid al-Aqsa] mentioned in the Quran on the Temple Mount, site of successive Jewish temples, and left in ruins since the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Umayyads knowingly built their al-Aqsa Mosque on the ruins of the Jewish Temple, and likewise the Dome of the Rock shrine was built over a huge rock set in the ground which the ancient Jews believed was the Foundation Stone of the world [Even haShtiyyah]. This Foundation Stone may have underlain the Temple. Be that as it may, the Umayyads and other early Muslims knew that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was a holy place which is  part of the reason why they built their Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock there. One of the Muslim names for Jerusalem is Bayt al-Maqdis which is a slightly distorted pronunciation of the Jewish name for the Temple, Beyt haMiqdash, sometimes used for the city as a whole, it seems. The more usual Muslim name for the city is al-Quds, which is derived ultimately from the Hebrew name haQodesh which refers to the holiness deriving from the Temple in Jerusalem. Some experts believe that al-Quds derives from haQodesh through the Aramaic form of haQodesh which is Qudsha.
Now, in case Amnesty is not interested in ancient history, let's talk about the modern history of Jerusalem. The city has had a Jewish majority since the mid-nineteenth century when the city was firmly in Muslim hands [of the Ottoman Empire and local Muslims]. Since Amnesty claims to stand up for the underdog, Jews in Jerusalem as elsewhere in the Islamic domain, were second class or third class subjects. They were called dhimmis (or rayahs), as were Christians and other non-Muslims, and required to pay tribute, called jizya.
Amnesty is using its no longer deserved reputation of a defender of human rights in order to smear Israel.

Amnesty International Singling Out Jews in 2019

NGO Monitor

January 03, 2019

Leaked documents seen by NGO Monitor and an analysis of public statements from NGO officials indicate that Amnesty International will conduct a series of intense campaigns singling out Israel in early 2019.

In this process, Amnesty will delegitimize Jewish historical connections to Jerusalem and elsewhere, as well as promote discriminatory boycotts (BDS) against Israel.

The Campaigns

Amnesty’s 2019 attacks will include at least two components:

1. Amnesty’s Blacklist: A “new campaign targeting some of the businesses that are profiting from human rights abuses by operating in the illegal Israeli settlements.” This language mirrors that used by UN bureaucrats preparing the UNHRC blacklist. The list is aimed at economically damaging companies that are owned by Jews or do business with Israel, and is ultimately meant to harm the Jewish state. Amnesty’s campaign is timed to bolster this UN blacklist, for which Amnesty has been lobbying intensively, and to serve as an alternative should the UN not publish its list.

Amnesty documents, seen by NGO Monitor, also show the NGO specifically seeks to censure companies that educate the public about Jewish history and historical ties to Jerusalem.

2. “Ban Israeli settlement goods”: A continuation of a campaign to press governments, in particular the UK, to “to ban Israeli settlement goods from entering your markets, and to stop companies based in your country operating in settlements or trading in their goods.”  Amnesty has built dedicated website sections for this purpose. In addition, it has supported legislation in Ireland that, if enacted, will criminalize visiting Jewish historical and holy sites, including Jerusalem’s Old City, and purchasing goods and services from Jews located for whatever reason or duration in Jerusalem and over the 1949 Armistice Lines.

Amnesty’s Antisemitism Problem

Amnesty’s 2019 attacks on the Jewish state come at a time when NGO is facing increased criticism over its own deeply-rooted antisemitism.

In 2018, Amnesty antagonized the British Jewish community by cancelling a debate sponsored by the UK’s Jewish Leadership Council, scheduled to be held at Amnesty’s Human Rights Centre in London. And when Amnesty conducted “an unprecedented large scale analysis of abuse against women on Twitter,” it included sexism and racism against female journalists and politicians, but not antisemitism.

Similarly, Amnesty has done little to no campaigning on the rising number of violent antisemitic incidents in the United States and Europe. In April 2015, Amnesty-UK rejected an initiative to “Campaign against anti-Semitism in the UK,” as well as “Lobby the UK Government to tackle the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Britain” and “monitor anti-semitism closely”- the only proposed resolution at the Annual General Meeting that was not adopted.

Notably, Amnesty-UK continues to employ Kristyan Benedict, who has made multiple antisemitic comments (including against female Members of Parliament).

In other words, instead of recognizing the fight against antisemitism as a human rights issue worthy of attention, Amnesty has decided instead to ratchet up its targeting of the Jewish state.

France Foreign Ministry Falsifies International Law, Accusing the US of Violating It

In a fit of desperation at seeing their beloved "Palestinians" losing ground politically/diplomatically, the French Foreign Ministry, led by foreign minister Jean-Yves LeDrian accused the United States of violating international law by deciding to move its embassy to Jerusalem. It is very seldom that France or its NATO allies accuse the USA of violating international law. So this statement is remarkable for that reason, besides being a lie. See below the French statement:

France disapproves of the American decision to transfer the United States embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as President Macron has reaffirmed on several occasions. This decision contravenes international law and in particular the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. [here]
La France désapprouve la décision américaine de transférer l’ambassade des Etats-Unis en Israël de Tel Aviv à Jérusalem, comme l’a rappelé à plusieurs reprises le président de la République. Cette décision contrevient au droit international et en particulier aux résolutions du Conseil de sécurité et de l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies. [ici]

Why is the French statement a lie? 
The San Remo Conference and the League of Nations assigned the Land of Israel, what the Europeans --although not the Arabs-- called "Palestine." as the Jewish National Home in 1920 and 1922 respectively. The Preamble to the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1922) specifically referred to the historical connection of the Jews with the Land:

Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine  and to the grounds for the reconstituting their national home in that country . . . .

Even after the exile from Jerusalem forced by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who changed the city's name to Aelia Capitolina, Jews returned to Jerusalem in late Roman times and after other periods when they had been expelled from the city and forbidden to live there. Jews have lived in Jerusalem continuously after the Crusades since the Mongol withdrawal from the city in 1260. In more recent times, Jews became the absolute majority of inhabitants of the Holy City in the middle of the nineteenth century, by 1853, if not before. In 1853, the Old City was the whole city. Hence the Jews were the majority then in the Old City and up to at least 1900.

Now the Quai d'Orsay [French foreign ministry] makes a legal argument supposedly based on international law. But Article 80 of the UN Charter, 1945, confirmed Jewish rights to the Land under the Jewish National Home principle previously adopted by San Remo and the League. Hence, in November 1947 when the UN General Assembly recommended accepting the partition plan for the country of the UNSCOP [UN Special Committee on Palestine], the existing legal status of the Land of Israel ["Palestine"] was that of the Jewish National Home. Since the UNSCOP Partition Plan was a recommendation, it was not law. In fact, the General Assembly can only make recommendations on political matters, according to the UN Charter. Therefore, subsequent General Assembly resolutions on the Land of Israel are no more law and no more binding than the UNSCOP plan. Therefore, the General Assembly resolutions that the Quai d'Orsay statement mention are not law and not at all binding. They are only recommendations.

Security Council resolutions are considered binding. However, the SC cannot legally revoke rights of peoples and states that it does not like or no longer approves. Especially when the people or state in question is already exercizing that right. The anti-Israel resolutions of the GA and SC of the past and future can rightly be seen as Judeophobia, anti-Jewish expressions. The France of today is the heir of Vichy France and has no right to lecture Israel on its rights no more than the Palestinian Arabs whose top leaders collaborated with Nazi Germany and in the Holocaust.

Colosseum Built with Money from Loot from Rome's Jewish War

See additional info at bottom of page

UNESCO disgraces its assigned mission to protect the world's cultural heritage and enhance it and defend it. It did so by adopting a resolution proposed by Arab states, working with the PLO/Palestinian Authority/, that denied the Jewish historical connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and its sacredness in the Jewish religion.

However, Italian archeological authorities are more honest. They frankly state that the Colosseum in Rome was built with loot from the Jewish War finally concluded while the Colosseum was already under construction. This determination was made in the last 15 years on the grounds of the recent discovery, or shall we say reexamination of previously discovered monumental stones that had not yet been thoroughly and sufficiently examined in the past, a common problem in archeology. Furthermore, it is likely that much or most of the loot taken from Judea [IVDAEA CAPTA to the Roman Empire of the time] was taken from the very Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. We say this since we know that monetary contributions to the Temple from Jews throughout the Diaspora for ritual purposes were stored in the Temple. Further, the Arch of Titus, only about 150 or 200 meters north or northwest of the Colosseum, shows loot from the Temple, such as the golden menorah, being carried in a Roman victory parade, a triumph, through the streets of ancient Rome.

A standing sign inside the Colosseum states in two languages, Italian and English:

the colosseum, history

In AD 72 the emperor Vespasian used the spoils of his Jewish campaign to build Rome's first permanent amphitheater to host hunting spectacles and gladiatorial combats . . . .

il Colosseo, la sua storia

Nel 72 d C,  l'imperatore Vespasiano intraprese con il bottino della guerra giudaica, la costruizione del primo amfiteatro stabile di Roma . . .

It is a shame that the honesty of the Italian archeological authorities and their promptness in bringing the newly discovered information to the public's knowledge was not matched at the UNESCO vote by the Italian foreign ministry, which abstained on a matter of well known historical fact. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, to be sure, expressed his regret over the vote. Could someone please notify UNESCO, and its Arab members especially, about the extensive literature in ancient Latin, Greek, and Hebrew writings, as well as in other languages, about the Jewish War, not to mention the archeological discoveries, the continuously known Arch of Titus, the coins and other concrete reminders of that war and the battle against the Jews in Jerusalem?
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Other Related Info
The war, called by the Romans the Jewish War, started in 66 CE and ended in 73 CE (or in 74 CE, according to some scholars) with the fall of the fortress of Masada to Roman forces. Incidentally, Arab auxiliary troops fought for Rome in the war, including at Jerusalem. All considered, the bulk of the fighting was over in the summer of the year 70 CE when the Romans captured the Temple of Jerusalem and looted it, as said above. Thus they would have been able to start building the Colosseum before the actual end of the war.
--on the Menorah's importance for Jews here  and here.
--the Menorah goes from Jerusalem to the Roman "Peace" Temple   here.
-- better pix of the bas reliefs on the Arch of Titus plus inscriptions on it here. Click on the photos to enlarge.
-- Depiction of the Temple utensils in an ancient Jewish mosaic from the Byzantine period here. By the way, these photos of ancient Jewish mosaics are found in a book published by UNESCO. But that was long ago.
-- commentary on outrageous UNESCO vote here.
-- The Romans minted coins to commemorate their victory over the Jews with at least two types of insciptions on them. One was Judea Captured/Conquered [IVDAEA CAPTA]. Another was Judea Defeated [IVDAEA DEVICTA]. A third inscription used was Judea Recaptured [IVDAEA RECEPTA] on a gold coin (aureus). Few of these IVDAEA RECEPTA coins were minted although they may have been minted first. It seems that they were then replaced by IVDAEA CAPTA and others. I will report on the Judea Recaptured coin soon. One of this type is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
See pix of Jewish coins of the Revolt as well as other ancient Jewish coins here.

ADDED 5 December 2016
The scholar who determined that loot from the Jewish war, especially from the Temple in Jerusalem, financed the building of the Colosseum in Rome was Professor Geza Alfoldy, a Hungarian. See links here & here.

The Jewish Majority in Jerusalem in the 1850s, Another Source

William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), a painter, made five trips to the Levant, including the Land of Israel. His first trip trip took place in 1834-35 and his fifth and last trip took place in 1853-54. His paintings and illustrations of religious and historical sites and other notable views in Israel and neighboring countries were widely published in his own lifetime and afterwards.  His book on his last voyage, Jerusalem Revisited (London) came out in 1855, a year after his death in a ship that sank in the Mediterranean. He reports a Jewish majority at that time. Cesar Famin, a French historian and diplomat, reported a Jewish majority in Jerusalem as well, in a book published in 1853, around the time of Bartlett's last visit. Famin's book later became the source for Karl Marx's report of a Jewish majority in the Holy City (New York Daily Tribune, 15 April 1854). Other visitors to Jerusalem reported a Jewish majority starting in the mid-nineteenth century (also here).

Here are quotes from Bartlett's Jerusalem Revisited:

"The Jews are also the most numerous body in Jerusalem, and there is good reason to believe that their total number is about 11,000; divisible into Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The latter, or German and Polish Jews, are about 4,000. Their numbers are augmented by constant arrivals from Europe. . ."
[Jerusalem Revisited, p 42].
Hence, he estimates the numbers of Sefardi and Oriental Jews at the time as between 6,000 and 7,000 [p  43]. He also reports the Judeophobia of the Muslim and local Christian population [pp 42-43].

As to the Muslims and Christians, he writes: "The Moslem population is decreasing, as well as in fanaticism" [p 50]
He goes on: ". . . while the native Moslem population is diminishing in numbers and influence, the Christians, strengthened and supported from abroad, are gaining in both respects." [p 51]

I find Bartlett's paintings and other pictorial works to be very interesting. Several of them have been very widely published. A good number of them appear in:
Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, Painting the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi & New York: Hemed 1997).

Ben-Arieh's book also contains a reliable account of Bartlett's career and works (see Chapter 4, pp 78-95). Of particular interest is his depiction of religious Jews gathered at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount enclosure (p 86). This work was painted in 1842 and besides its intrinsic human interest, it belies recent claims by Arab propagandists and their Western partisans that Jews were not interested in the Western Wall before 1967. I have used Ben-Arieh's book as the main source about Bartlett, although I found the quotes in his own book, Jerusalem Revisited (1855).

Jewish Temple Menorah Found Illustrated on Ancient Bread Stamp

Another sensational archeological find!! The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the finding of a Byzantine era bread stamp showing the menorah [candelabrum] of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The seven-branched menorah was a common Jewish symbol in the centuries after destruction of the Temple by Roman and auxiliary forces in 70 CE. A Greek-language inscription was found on the knob used to hold the stamp. This inscription seems to be the baker's name. He was advertising kosher quality of his product and his own bakery. See photos at bottom of this post.
What do the Arabs and their friends who lately and fashionably have been denying the Jewish history of the Land of Israel [as per PLO charter, Article 20; see at bottom] have to say about that?
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A Stamp with the Temple Menorah was Uncovered in Excavations near Akko (January 2012)

The tiny stamp was used to identify baked products and it probably belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Akko in the Byzantine period

General view of the excavation A 1,500 year old seal bearing an image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah was discovered near the city of Akko. A ceramic stamp from the Byzantine period (6th century CE) was discovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at Horbat Uza east of Akko, prior to the construction of the Akko-Karmiel railroad track by the Israel National Roads Company. This find belongs to a group of stamps referred to as “bread stamps” because they were usually used to stamp baked goods. According to Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period”. According to Syon, “This is the first time such a stamp is discovered in a controlled archaeological excavation, thus making it possible to determine its provenance and date of manufacture. The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Akko – a region that was definitely Christian at this time – constitutes an innovation in archaeological research”. The excavators add, “Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Akko, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Akko in the Byzantine period”. The stamp is engraved with a seven-branched menorah atop a narrow base, and the top of the branches forms a horizontal line. A number of Greek letters are engraved around a circle and dot on the end of the handle. Dr. Leah Di Segni, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggested this is probably the name Launtius [see comment on name below]. This name was common among Jews of the period and also appears on another Jewish bread stamp of unknown provenance. According to Dr. Syon and Gilad Jaffe, “This is probably the name of the baker from Horbat Uza.” Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where clues were previously found that allude to it being a Jewish settlement: a clay coffin, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them were discovered there. Dr. David Amit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who has made a study of bread stamps, adds, “A potter engraved the menorah image in the surface of the stamp prior to firing it in a kiln, whereas the owner’s name was engraved in the stamp’s handle after firing. Hence we can assume that a series of stamps bearing the menorah symbol were produced for Jewish bakers, and each of these bakers carved his name on the handle, which also served as a stamp. In this way the dough could be stamped twice before baking: once with the menorah – the general symbol of the Jewish identity of Jewish bakeries, and the private name of the baker in each of these bakeries, which also guaranteed the bakery’s kashrut.

- - - - - - -Article by Israel Antiquities Authority- - - - - -

PLO charter, Article 20, denies the Jewish history of the Land of Israel, the country that the Romans called Judea [IVDAEA] in the heyday of the Roman Empire. The relevant sentence reads:
"Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood." [translation in: Walter Laqueur & Barry Rubin, eds., The Israel-Arab Reader (New York/London: Penguin 2008), p. 119]

Also see this recent post at Emet m'Tsiyon about another recent archeological finding.

Comment on the name on the knob. The announcement above published on the site of the Antiquities Authority may have been translated from Hebrew, which is usually written without vowels, as many readers know. Hence, the name spelled Launtius in the announcement may have been Leontios in Greek.

Once Respected French Monthly Descends to the Level of Propaganda Rag

Radio Paris ment, Radio Paris est allemand.
[Slogan of the Free French during WW2 -- Paris Radio lies,
Paris Radio is German--rhymes in French]

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools

Once upon a time when reason was more prevalent in the world than nowadays, Le Monde Diplomatique provided intelligent commentary and important facts about contemporary events, going into depth about various subjects. However, over the years Mondiplo --said to be linked to the French foreign ministry-- became more and more the captive and the vehicle of simplistic slogans about the "Third World", "palestine liberation" and such. Now it takes an outrageously simplistic anti-Israel stance, at the cost of making itself ridiculous. As the Free French and the French Resistance used to say during the German occupation of France, Paris Radio lies, Paris Radio is German [Radio Paris ment, Radio Paris est allemand -- rhyming in French] we may say today: Mondiplo Lies, Mondiplo resembles Nazi propaganda.

Is that unfair? Consider a headline in Le Monde Diplomatique [English ed. translated from the French--February 2007]: "Jerusalem's Apartheid Tramway." This headline is used although nothing in the article justifies it. Now, more than four years after the agitprop article appeared, the tram has begun service and Jews and Arabs are riding the tram in the same cars. And the tram stops in Arab neighborhoods, Beyt Hanina and Shu`afat [two stops] as well as near Damascus Gate where it can serve both Jews and Arabs. Indeed, Arabs ride the tram and wait at the stops in Arab neighborhoods. I rode the tram southbound yesterday and stood next to an Arab woman and her two daughters. They got on in Shu`afat neighborhood and were standing next to me. Interestingly, they were not wearing head coverings. The mother was relaxed but the older, teenaged daughter --dressed in tight pants and with painted fingernails-- was looking around in a very suspicious way, maybe to see if we had horns. Since the tram was air-conditioned, I didn't mind standing.

How do the mendacious journalists for LeMondeDiplomatique [English ed.] get to defining the tram as an "apartheid tramway"?? Their reasoning is strikingly flawed. They quote an Israeli official spokesman as saying that: "the tram must serve the Jewish quarters (Israel’s politically correct term for settlements) such as Pisgat Ze’ev, as well as Arab quarters like Shu’fat." They do not deny that Arabs would be allowed to ride the tram but speculate if Arabs will be able to afford to travel on it. Then they insinuate apartheid or what used to be called jimcrow in America: "How will the settlers react to seeing Arabs travelling on the tram? One person we spoke to wondered whether there should be separate carriages for Arabs and Israelis." This is all speculation at best, contradicting the pains taken by the Israeli spokesman to explain the intention to make the tram available to all. Yet the Mondiplo authors insinuate the possbility of apartheid. Nevertheless, despite having no real grounds to claim "apartheid" they still entitle the article: "Jerusalem's Apartheid Tramway." This brings LeMonde Diplo close to the level of pre-WW2 Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda. Maybe not quite there. But on the way.

So here was another lie about "apartheid" in Israel that turns out to be totally false. Further, some anti-Israel group in France sued French firms involved in the tram project. Supporters of the suit throw around slogans and pejoratives like: apartheid, illegal, "occupied" territory, international law, "judaizing" Jerusalem [which has had a Jewish majority since 1853 or earlier] and other usual epithets. Here is a video in French from France24 in which Arabs interviewed claim that it would be of no use to them, because --inter alia-- there would be no stops in Arab neighborhoods [ici&ici][I originally saw this story on France24 in English but cannot find the English], which is false, as we have seen.

Another lying slogan thrown around in the context of the tram claims that Jewish neighborhoods in "east Jerusalem" were built on "stolen land." The stolen land argument is also false since Jews began to purchase much real estate in and around Jerusalem in the late Ottoman period --from the 1860s to 1914-- when it became possible for Jews to purchase real estate. This "stolen land" claim is a big lie but a separate issue. Suffice it to say that Neveh Ya`aqov and much of Pisgat Ze'ev --served by the tram, among other areas -- were built on land belonging to the pre-1948 agricultural village of Neveh Ya`aqov [founded 1924].

Here's a pix of a flyer in Arabic distributed by the CitiPas [OR City Pass] company that operates the tram for the purpose of attracting Arab riders.

Note the diagram of the tram's route. The three tram stops encircled in blue ink on the diagram are in Arab neighborhoods [Beyt Hanina and Shu`afat (two stops in Shu`afat)].

Will Mondiplo admit its gross misuse of the apartheid label?

The "Peace Process" Is a War Process -- Daniel Pipes Realizes

UPDATING 4-19-2010 see at bottom

The "peace process" means peace of mind for antisemites.

Daniel Pipes made some quite correct observations about the "peace process" in a recent column.
They should be obvious to everyone but are not. Pipes makes these observations while writing about the "silver lining" of the present Israel-USA contretemps.

First, the "peace process" is in actuality a "war process." Diplomatic negotiations through the 1990s led to a parade of Israeli retreats that had the perverse effect of turning the middling-bad situation of 1993 into the awful one of 2000. Painful Israeli concessions, we now know, stimulate not reciprocal Palestinian goodwill but rather irredentism, ambition, fury, and violence.
. . . .
Fourth, U.S.-Israel tensions increase Palestinian intransigence and demands. Israel in bad standing empowers their leaders; and if the tensions arise from U.S. pressure for concessions to the Palestinians, the latter sit back and enjoy the show. This happened in mid-2009, when Mahmoud Abbas instructed Americans what to extract from Jerusalem. . . [here]

As a Jerusalemite, I can confirm Pipes' observation that the peace process is a war process. The more "peace processing" going on, the more Arab terrorism. More Israeli withdrawals or concessions of territory lead to rockets from Gaza and Lebanon. We live in an Orwellian world.

And of course, Washington hostility to Israel just encourages the intransigence of Arabs who have no desire to make peace with Israel and are inspired by Washington's hostility to Israel. Indeed, hostility to Jews is deeply embedded in the Muslim religion since Muhammad. Likewise the belief in perpetual war against the infidels is embedded in Islam --with truces, to be sure, when the infidels are stronger. The Quran does not make peace a supreme principle but rather war to subdue and humiliate the infidels and make them pay tribute. This is enunciated in Quran 9:29 in regard to Jews and Christians specifically.

Of course, some Arabs prefer peace to war. But an Arab leader/ruler has to justify peace --needs an excuse for peace-- by pointing to the greater strength of the infidel, in this case Israel. By weakening Israel strategically through territorial concessions of strategic areas needed for defense (such as the Jordan Valley and the north-south Judea-Samaria mountain ridge), Israel becomes obviously weaker. In this case, leaders/rulers who prefer peace would lose their excuse for peace because Israel would seem obviously weaker.

And all of the above does not deal with the issue of denying the human and civil rights of Jews by, for example, forbidding them to live in parts of Jerusalem. Yet Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority population since the mid-19th century, since 1853 at least, according to the French historian and diplomat of that time, Cesar Famin, whose figures were published by Karl Marx in an article in the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley's paper, on 15 April 1854. Furthermore, Arab forces began driving Jews out of parts of Jerusalem in December 1947. These parts became parts of what was the Judenrein "Arab East Jerusalem" for 19 years between 1948 and 1967, a sector of the city occupied by the Arab Legion of Jordan. This is in addition to the importance of Jerusalem to the world, especially to Christians and Muslims, being due to its ancient role in Jewish history and religion.

Obama's anti-Israel policy, his favoring of a racist anti-Jewish apartheid policy is dangerous, threatening and repugnant. However, as Pipes says, it may have its silver lining.
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UPDATING 4-19-2010 Lebanese blogger Tony Badran writes about how Syrian thug-in-chief, Bashar Assad, views peace and war:
"Assad’s mantra is that 'peace and resistance are two sides of the same coin.' As he sees things, it’s not either peace or resistance. For him the two are simultaneous tools of attrition, with peace talks providing Syria with impunity as Assad pursues “resistance.” In his conceptual framework, the peace process is just warfare by other means." [here]
Veteran "peace processor", Aaron David Miller, looks at the "process" and at Washington's ME policy more skeptically now. He compares it to a dogmatic religion [here]. Rick Richman comments on Miller's comments [here]
Youssef Ibrahim of the NYSun, formerly ME correspondent for the NY Times, quotes from and comments on A D Miller's article [here]. Ibrahim shows that the so-called "palestinian" issue is not the main concern of several important Arab govts. Yet the Obama gang keeps on hawking that issue's supposed centrality to Arab and Middle Eastern concerns like a huckster in the marketplace, although nobody's buying.

Joe Biden Blames Israel for future attacks on American troops -- Yet plays up to Syria, the major facilitator of terrorism in Iraq

UPDATING 3-15 & 24 & 4-1-2010 at bottom

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools

In a typical hypocritical or know-nothing outburst, US Vice President Joe Biden blamed Israel for future jihadist attacks on American troops because of Jerusalem housing plans. Yet the Obama administration plays up to Syria which has been actively facilitating the entry of jihadist terrorists from throughout the Arab world into Iraq for seven years. Here is Biden:

But in closed conversations, Joe Biden took an entirely different tone. . . .

People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors [Netanyahu & other Israelis]. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”
[quoted by Laura Rozen on Politico]

Syria actively trains and dispatches terrorists going into Iraq to kill American troops and fellow Arabs. But Syria is OK. Syria has been allowed by the United States to take over Lebanon using its terrorist proxies, the Hizbullah, but Syria is OK. No harsh words for Syria that actively endangers American troops in Iraq. But harsh words for Israel that is trying to provide housing for the Israeli population. Now if the Arabs are so bigoted about Jews exercising their human rights, then maybe Obama and Biden ought to take them to task for that.

Furthermore, blaming Jews for future war was a trick that Hitler used, blaming the Jews in advance for bringing about a future world war when he himself was planning what became the world's most lethal war, with more dead than any previous war.

Biden went on:

The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism. [quoted by Laura Rozen on Politico ]

So the human rights of Israeli Jews depend on whether prejudiced, bigoted Arabs are bothered by the Jews' exercise of those rights. In fact, neither the PLO/Palestinian Authority nor the Arab League made a halt of Jewish housing construction anywhere a condition for negotiations, until Obama's administration demanded that Israel stop building housing for Jews. But neither the PLO/PA nor the Arab League could afford to be "less Arab" than the president of the United States, so the Arabs followed suit after Obama & Co. So the Obama administration and State Dept are promoting the denial of Jewish human rights in practice. Actually several Arab governments are bothered more by Obama's inaction on the Iranian bomb project --and the concealment of --misrepresentation of-- Arab fear and opposition to the Iranian bomb, than they are by Jewish construction in Jerusalem. What Obama, Biden, H Clinton and the State Dept are doing is using the Arabs' presumed sentiments and prejudices as a tool or pretext for pressuring Israel to give up Jewish rights. Truly a sinister policy in line with that of the Euro Nazis [see our previous post].

Here's more Biden:

Beyond his desire to allay Israel’s fears about the Iranian nuclear threat, Biden asked the Israeli decision-makers to show the same degree of understanding and sensitivity to the United States’ interests in the Middle East and the military campaign that it is currently waging against radical Islamic agents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [here]

How about Biden showing "understanding and sensitivity" for Jewish human rights?

Washington is getting itself into a very ugly and repulsive mood that they justify by fake concern for American troops fighting Islamic terrorists. Where was and is Washington's concern over Syrian help for the terrorists operating in Iraq since 2003?? When did any US official ever vehemently denounce Syria, using strong words like "condemn," for facilitating the mass murderous terrorism in Iraq?? Of course, there may have been some powder puff words of mild indignation about Syria from time to time, which told the Assad gang that the United States government was really not very upset with them. But neither Obama and his crew nor George Bush II and his crew ever said anything to compare with the word "condemn" now used for Jews building homes in Jerusalem.

The Obama administration is an enemy of Jewish human and civil rights. Decent Jews will stand up against the Obama policy of anti-Jewish racism. David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel are kapos.

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Jennifer Rubin on Beiden & the White House's outburst [here] & [here] & on AIPAC's criticism of Obama [here]
3-15-2010 Barry Rubin on how the UN too indulges Syria and its friends [here].
Noah Pollak on Appalling Obamanoid hypocrisy [here]
US State Dept twists Ambassador Oren's arm [sounds like imperialism to me, indeed an ultimatum. Do you call that a friend?] [here]
Ambassador Dore Gold on Israeli military & intelligence aid to the USA [here]
4-1-2010 Michael Totten on Syria's motives for dispatching terrorists into Iraq [here]

Europe Promotes Apartheid in Jerusalem

"The negro . . . had no rights which the white man was bound to respect"
[Dred Scott v. Sandford, US Supreme
Court decision, 1857]

We are living in the era of total war, mass murder and the Big Lie. The last named facilitates the first two. The currently fashionable Big Lie is that Israel is an "apartheid state." It seems that apartheid has become a smear word for one's enemies that no longer has a specific, objective meaning. What it meant in South Africa is far from Israel's reality. But the Israelophobes don't care. At the same time, ironically, countries where this Big Lie is commonly propagated actually advocate, even demand, apartheid in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem, a city which has had a Jewish majority since the mid-19th century, although Arab irregular forces starting in December 1947, later joined by Transjordan's Arab Legion, ethnically cleansed Jewish neighborhoods in what became "East Jerusalem" under Arab rule. Jews were forbidden by Jordanian law [Transjordan changed its name to Jordan circa 1950] to live anywhere under Jordanian rule, including formerly Jewish neighborhoods of Hebron and "East Jerusalem" plus a number of farming settlements such as in the Gush Etsion area, `Atarot and Neveh Ya`aqov in northeastern Jerusalem, etc.

European Union member states with representations in Jerusalem actually work to promote apartheid between Jewish and Arab Jerusalemites. According to EU rules, the national day celebrations and festivities held by the consulates of these states in Jerusalem must comprise separate receptions for Jews and Arabs. Teddy Kollek protested against this policy repeatedly when he was mayor, to no avail. The Euros insisted on apartheid.

Moreover, in order to promote Arab nationalism and Islamic interests, the EU wants to divide Jerusalem, where, as said above, Jews have been the majority since the mid-19th century, since 1853 at least. The EU went so far as to sponsor a "concert" for youth with the Irish singer, Sinead O'Connor, circa 1997, that was to call for division of the city. Fortunately, this racist "concert" did not take place because not enough tickets were sold.

Kollek protested this European practice of apartheid in the way that he thought most practicable. He boycotted national day celebrations by the Euro govts that practiced this racist policy.
This use of the "apartheid" label by those, both Arabs and Westerners, that in fact want to impose apartheid on Israeli Jews, is another sign of the Orwellian character of our times. Here is one report on Kollek's policy:

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek's office announced today that Kollek is planning to boycott next week's Bastille Day celebration sponsored by the French Consulate here to protest the longstanding diplomatic practice of holding separate social receptions for Arabs and Jews.

The policy of separate receptions is one of several western diplomatic practices Israelis contend deny the reality that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and, since 1967, has been united under its rule. But many Palestinians argue that to hold only one reception in the Jewish part of the city, where most of the consulates have their main offices, would amount to tacit recognition of Israel's 1967 annexation of their sector. [Washington Post, July 7, 1987][see here]

Now the EU govts as well as the US State Department, demand that Jews not be allowed to live in what was "East Jerusalem" for 19 years, not even on Jewish-owned real estate. Those were 19 years of exclusion of Jews, of refusal to allow Jews access to Jewish holy places, of taking Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives and using them to pave a path to a Jordanian army latrine, etc. The govts now members of the EU never complained about Jordanian abuse of Jewish tombstones in that demeaning way. But now they echo all sorts of bizarre Arab complaints. This is most repugnant when coming from the British who facilitated the Arab expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem neighborhoods in the period of civil war in the country initiated by the Arabs shortly after the UN General Asssembly recommended partitioning the Land of Israel ["palestine"] into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an internationally governed enclave in and around Jerusalem [also meant to include Bethlehem, Beyt Sahur, and Beyt Jala]. Now Britain and the other Euro friends of Arab fascism deny the Jews the right to return to places whence Jews were expelled in the period from 30 November 1947 up to the first truce in June 1948. That is, according to the EU and the US State Dept, Jews don't have the right to come back to Jewish-owned real estate. Jews today are in the position of the American Blacks according to the notorious Dred Scott decision of the US Supreme Court:

"The negro . . . had no rights which the white man was bound to respect"

Just change "negro" to Jew and change "white man" to Arab or Westerner --or both together-- and you have the situation today.

Fiamma Nirenstein, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, formerly an Italian journalist stationed in Jerusalem, wrote on the "apartheid" Big Lie. I intend to translate the article in full or nearly so. Here are excerpts from it:

Apartheid Week against Israel . . . is one of the most intellectually repugnant events ever conceived. . .
In Israel everything is in contrast [with South African apartheid]: Each and every institution is multiethnic and multireligious. Racist theories and racial discrimination are forbidden by law; in the hospitals Arab and Jewish women give birth in beds side by side, cared for by Arab and Jewish staff, children and patients in general come from throughout the Arab world to be treated. They are welcomed with love. At the university, the Arab and Jewish students study together and also Arab professors, sometimes very aggressive towards Zionism, teach with Jews and to Jews, while Arab books of every kind are translated. Arab citizens sit in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and in the government [the cabinet]. They raise their dissent (always!) without fear that someone is lying in wait for them to punish them, the only Arabs in the Middle East [to have that freedom of expression]. [Il Giornale, 7 March 2010]

I should add that there is an Arab judge on the Supreme Court, and Arabs have highly responsible positions in other public and state institutions. Further, about our hospitals, my wife went to the eye clinic at the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus yesterday. She told me that half or more of the patients waiting there were Arabs. While waiting her turn, she had a pleasant conversation there with two other patients. One was an Arabic-speaking Christian young woman, from Nazareth, who was studying in a course in Jerusalem to become a radiology technician. The other was an Armenian young man living in the Old City.

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Also see:
Two earlier posts on Emet m'Tsiyon for photos of reality in Israel [here & here].

Seth Frantzman on EU funding of Arab and Palestinian Authority bodies that work to undermine Israeli society and besmirch Israel's image around the world.

Soft Euro colonialism, high handed Euro arrogance in Israel [here]. This EU statement against Jewish housing in formerly Jordanian-occupied parts of Jerusalem is a racist, pro-apartheid declaration. It speaks in the name of law, international law, using false representations, misrepresentations, of international law, in order to impose on Jews in the Land of Israel the same territorial segregation of Jews and disregard for Jewish property rights that prevailed for centuries both in Europe and the Arab lands [conquered by Arab invaders in the 7th and 8th centuries], both in Christendom and the Islamic domain. The Euro fakers use "human rights" rhetoric and slogans to promote apartheid against Jews, as NGOs funded by the EU slander Israel as an "apartheid state."
Catherine Ashton, an uppity British upper cruster, elected foreign affairs commissioner of the EU, had this to say about Jewish residential rights in Jerusalem, a city made important to the world by and through Jewish history where Jews have been the majority since the mid-19th century:

Ashton condemned Israel's plan to expand a Jewish neighborhood in disputed east Jerusalem, saying it should reverse the decision and "refrain from unilateral decisions and actions that may jeopardize the final status negotiations."

"The EU reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law," Ashton said in a statement. "They undermine current efforts for restarting peace negotiations ... and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible."
[Jerusalem Post, 10 March 2010]

Ashton and other EU Judeophobes & imperialists misrepresent international law with the claim that building homes for Jews in Jerusalem is "illegal under international law."
For Ashton's ilk, "law" and "international law" are only useful for bashing states that they don't like. When Iran violates the UN Charter [Article 2, clause 4] by threatening war against Israel and threatening to destroy Israel, that does not especially bother her if at all. The constant hate-Israel, hate-Jews agitprop coming out of Arab states, as well as from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas-ruled Gaza does not bother her. She may well agree with much of it. Indeed, one of Ashton's British upper crusty sisters, Baroness Jenny Tonge who sits in the House of Lords, claimed that Israel's medical mission to Haiti to aid earthquake victims was stealing organs from patients for resale [medically impossible, since organs for transplant cannot be shipped around like a commodity].
3-17-2010 Emmanuele Ottolenghi analyzes Catherine Ashton's Cairo speech. Ottolenghi informs his readers that Ashton is a "lady," specifically Lady Ashton [here]. I call her a Euro bitch. When it comes to Europe's new Nazis in "liberal" anti-imperialist garb, I am not a gentleman.

The Muslim Militants of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Initiated the "Goldstone Report"

UPDATING links added 11-17 & 11-27-2009 & 4-2010&10-4-2010 at bottom

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools

The secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference boasts that his body started off the whole process of the Judeophobic Goldstone Report:

"Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu: Let me first start by completing the story of the history of the Goldstone report. What I would like to put on record is that the OIC was the initiator of this process." [see here]

On January 3, during the attacks on Gaza, we convened the executive committee of the OIC on a ministerial level. It was decided that the OIC group in Geneva should ask the Human Rights Council to convene and consider the possibility of sending a fact-finding mission to Gaza. [here]

The OIC was instrumental in getting through this resolution and thanks to the good offices of Ms Pilay, the UN high commissioner [for "human rights"], that she formed this fact-finding mission headed by Judge Goldstone.

In other words, it was not a body of disinterested humanitarians and zealots for peace and international law who initiated the Goldstone Report. It was a Muslim body, a very interested, party, a partisan body on the side of Muslim interests that initiated the whole process of the Goldstone Report. Note that the UN "Human Rights" Council works hand in glove with the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC] that basically supports the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights which aims to vitiate the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Cairo Declaration has been analyzed by David Littman [here] and by Carlo Panella [in his book, Il "Complotto Ebraico", L'Antisemitismo Islamico da Maometto a Bin Laden (Torino: Lindau 2005)]

Let us quote from Article 1b of the Cairo Declaration in order to see how subtle and smooth these Islamists can be in affirming Muslim superiority and the Muslim right to supremacy.

All human beings are subject to God and the most beloved by Him are those who are most useful to the rest of His subjects, and no one has superiority over the others except on the basis of piety and good actions. [Article 1 b, Panella, p 247]

Now, just who are "the most beloved. . . who are most useful to the rest"? In any event, some are superior to others "on the basis of piety and good actions." Now, who are truly pious if not Muslims --and only Muslims-- in the view of the OIC? Whose actions are truly good and what are those "good actions"? Could establishing Islamic law, shari`ah, throughout the world and making Muslims superior to all others be a "good action"? Could fighting a jihad be a "good action" as Muslim law affirms?

So those who deny universal human rights and universal human equality guide the actions ["good actions"?] of the UN "human rights" council!

On the corruption of the UN human rights council's predecessor, the human rights commission, consider how Christian Rocca put it, in an article for Il Foglio April 27, 2005.

At the UN, the Torturers Watch over Human Rights

China, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya have three things in common: they are ferocious dictatorships, they reject the concept of human rights, and they are enthusiastic members of the UN Human Rights Commission. In 2003, Libya even presided over its work... The regimes that torture and repress and keep their own subjects in chains are never missing from the Commission. Indeed, they are the ones that seek most tenaciously to get a seat at Geneva.... Even Kofi Annan's wise men have recognized that some countries go into the Commission "not to reinforce human rights but to protect themselves against criticism or to criticize other countries."

Note that Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Libya are all members of the OIC which endorses the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights, meant to vitiate the original 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We plan to post on torture in Libya in the case of the Bulgarian nurses falsely charged with injecting AIDS virus into Libyan children as scapegoats for Libyan medical failure. A Palestinian Arab doctor was also charged along with the Bulgarian nurses and he too was jailed for eight years.

The OIC also overlooks any Jewish heritage, any Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, essentially it disregards any Jewish history in Jerusalem. It recognizes only Arab rights and Muslim and Christian holy places which, of course, would not have had any meaning in Jerusalem were it not for the prior Jewish history and Jewish holy places there.

About two weeks ago at Unesco's general assembly in Paris, I [Ihsanoglu] called on the UN and Unesco to declare East Jerusalem, the historical city of Jerusalem, as a world historical site - untouchable. That way it would preserve the Muslim and Christian monuments.

We hope that the political will of the 57 member states of the OIC will be able to levy international pressure - through various channels - on Israel to stop threatening the al-Aqsa Mosque. [here]

Of course, no mention is made of the Temple Mount as a Jewish holy site which was the original direction of prayer of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Nor are Jewish rights on and to the Temple Mount recognized.

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Our previous post on the Moral Incompetence of the UNHRC [here]
La Dichiarazione del Cairo sui diritti umani nel Islam [qui]. Commenti da Carlo Panella [qui]
Moshe Sharon [Hebrew U prof] on Islam as a conquering, imperialist religion [see excerpts here]
Hugh Fitzgerald on UN corruption in general, and pro-Arab Judeophobic corruption in particular [here]
For a more comprehensive view of the UNHRC'S "fact-finding commission report," see the Understanding the Goldstone Report blog [here]
4-2010 Anne Bayefsky reports on OIC domination of the UNHRC and the dangerous, destructive futility of America's joining that corrupt body [here] plus the Obama administration's submission to OIC values and purposes.
10-4-2010 Bat Yeor on the OIC and its purposes [here]

Arabs Refute the Big Lie of "Israeli Apartheid"

One of the big accusations against Israel in the last 15 or 20 years is that Israel practices apartheid against Arabs. It is commonly made with much fanfare by such international Judeophobic hate-inciters as jimmy carter, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, awarded the American presidential freedom medal by President Obama, etc. In the long run, such hate incitement as carter et al. indulge in is likely to lead to war.

Now, Apartheid was a system that existed in South Africa from the late 1940s up to the about 1990. It meant very strict segregation of the races, going farther than jimcrow in the southern United States. It comprised rigidly segregated housing with fences and gates, separate public transport vehicles enforced by law, a ban on interracial sex, separate schools enforced by law, Black exclusion from "white only" places of entertainment, shopping, restaurants, etc etc. None of this exists in Israel. In Jerusalem, several Arab families live on my street, one close by across the street, others around the bend. Arabs go to medical clinics [kupot holim clinics] with Jews, ride the buses and sit with the Jews, go to Jewish restaurants as Jews may go to Arab restaurants. About 15% of the student body at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem are Arabs and some were in classes with my sons. And of course, Arabs often enjoy patronizing the Jerusalem shopping malls with Jews.

Furthermore, skin color --the basis of apartheid-- is a red herring in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Indeed, Arabs are now stereotyped as "non-white" or "people of color," although they always considered themselves "white," especially compared with black Africans [read the stories involving Blacks in the One Thousand and One Nights (alf layl wa-layla), the famous collection of Arab tales from the Middle Ages]. Jews today are somehow stereotyped as "ultra-white" or "the whitest of white", whereas when their skin color was most discussed, in the 19th century and up to the Second World War, they were viewed as swarthy, Oriental, dark, un-European, etc. Now, presto changeo, abracadabra, Jews are depicted as ultra-European. Some Eurocentric Europeans psychologically displace onto the Jews all the negative traits and behavior attributed to Europeans. To sum up this paragraph, there is a broad spectrum of skin colors among both Jews and Arabs. Many Jews are in fact darker than many Arabs. Skin color is a red herring in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Here are some photos taken in a Jerusalem shopping mall in September 2009 that show Jews and Arabs mixing in daily life. It is obvious that apartheid is not a feature of life in Israel. Those who want to measure differences in skin color may take a photometer and bring it up close to the photos. Those who are not convinced can come and ride the buses with us, visit our shopping malls and restaurants, visit the university, tour residential neighborhoods where Jews and Arabs live together, etc.

There are those who openly practice and promote and even demand apartheid in Jerusalem. These are the EU and the consulates of all EU states represented here. They hold separate celebrations of their national holidays [Bastille Day, Queen's Birthday, etc] for Jews and Arabs. Hence, they try to prevent mingling of the two peoples. Mary Robinson ought to look at herself in the mirror for subscribing to this collective EU apartheid policy, although Ireland does not have a consulate here as far as I know. Former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek used to complain to the EU about this segregation policy. Of course they did not pay him any heed.

I do not know whether the United States holds separate, segregated national holiday celebrations here for Jews and Arabs. Readers might inquire with the State Dept. However, the State Dept of the USA, the EU Commission, and the present government of South Africa all deny the right of Jews to live in parts of Jerusalem occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 and ethnically cleansed of Jews in a process starting in December 1947 when Jews were driven by Arab militias out of a neighborhood in what later became "east Jerusalem." And this in a city, Jerusalem, where Jews have been the absolute majority of the population since 1853, if not earlier. So those who make accusations of apartheid are themselves practitioners of apartheid.

Here are views of life in a Jerusalem shopping mall.

An Arab Muslim woman walks through a Jerusalem mall. Jewish women are in the background.


A Muslim Arab woman walks toward the elevators carrying her purchases. The elevators go down to the parking garage. She didn't come to the mall riding a camel or donkey or walking barefoot on a pebble strewn dirt path. She came to the mall by car.



An Arab father with two sons shops for dairy products in a Jerusalem supermarket. Note the Hebrew word for milk, חלב , halav, on a green sign above his head [click on photo to enlarge]. He was identified as an Arab by speaking to his children in Arabic.

An Arab-Muslim woman with baby stands in front of a store selling socks, stockings, and underwear, mainly for women. Note two Jewish boys sitting on the bench at left.

An Arab-Muslim woman with baby sits on a bench in a Jerusalem shopping mall. The other woman on the bench identified herself as an Ashkenazi Jewess. Note that the Jewish woman is noticeably darker skinned than the Arab child, although the two women have about the same skin color. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see a Jewish symbol on the black briefcase.


Proud Arab parents with child in an upscale housewares shop in a Jerusalem shopping mall. Note that father is holding the baby stroller while the mother smiles on the left.


An Arab-Muslim woman, apparently the same one as in the first photo at top, strolls through a Jerusalem shopping mall. Note the Israeli soldier bent over at lower left, apparently looking at a display case of watches or rings.

Arabs refute the apartheid slander by coming to the shopping malls, riding the buses, eating in restaurants, living in neighborhoods, etc. Meanwhile, Western powers within and without the EU promote apartheid, as does the PLO/Palestinian Authority of course.
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Definition:
"Apartheid implies the total separation of races socially, economically and in the last resort territorially. . ." [Alan Bullock & Oliver Stallybrass, eds., Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (London: Fontana Books 1977].

Source on Arab racial attitudes:
Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East [New York-Oxford: Oxford Univ Press 1990]
Bernard Lewis, Race and Color in Islam [New York 1971].

The Old Synagogue in the Shim`on haTsadiq Quarter

The Shim`on haTsadiq and Nahalat Shimon quarters in Jerusalem have been much in the news in the past few weeks. They are quite close to the Shepherd's Hotel plot, formerly owned by the Nazi-collaborationist Haj Amin el-Husseini, the British-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem who spent most of the World War 2 years in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in the Nazi-fascist domain. The names of both these quarters refer to Simon the Just, an ancient Jewish high priest believed to have met Alexander of Macedon during his conquest of Israel from the Persian Empire.

Here is a photo of a memorial dedication inscribed above the door of the synagogue in the Shim`on haTsadiq Quarter in Jerusalem adjacent to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood inhabited by some of the leading Arab families. Poor Jews lived in the Shim`on haTsadiq Quarter [also spelled Shimon haTzadik, etc] near wealthy Arabs, including Husseinis and Nashashibis, up to 29 December 1947, when the Jews fled their homes after attacks by Arab irregular forces under the command of the Husseinis through the Arab Higher Committee. George Antonius, the Arab nationalist propagandist, rented his home on a nearby property called Karm al-Mufti [the Mufti's Vineyard], from the British-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, a collaborator with the Nazis and instigator of the mass murder of Jews.

[click on photo to enlarge]
Note in the photo the Hebrew inscription above the arch above the door. It is hard to read the inscription because of the angle of the shot. However, the last word of the inscription --in the lower left corner-- is clear. It is an acronym in Hebrew תנצבה . This stands for a standard Jewish memorial phrase, quite commonly found on gravestones, although here it is used in the dedication of a synagogue in someone's memory.
תהי נפשו צרורה בצרור החיים

It means: May his soul be bound up in the bundle of life.

For women, the word נפשו [= his soul] is replaced by נפשה [= her soul]. The acronym remains the same in either case.

Tentatively reading the first line of the inscription, from right to left, I think I see
קידש לה' נדבת
Consecrated to the Lord an offering of . . .

This would, I think, have to be followed by the name of the donor and the name of the remembered deceased person. I think I see the name ישעיהו [= Yesha`ayahu = Isaiah]. I think I also see the acronym ז''ל which stands for זכרונו לברכה, meaning "May his memory be for a blessing" [a suitable change is made for a woman]. This acronym ordinarily follows the name of a deceased person. The letters standing for the number of the year on the Hebrew calendar may also be present.

A magen david מגן דוד [= shield of David] is seen below the inscription as part of the arch over the doorway at its crest. Also note five black iron hooks or bent rods around the inscription. Originally there were six such bent rods. Two each on the right and left, and two below. They once held a smooth stone plaque with a secondary memorial inscription carved on it. That is, an inscription in memory of a second person had been placed over the first inscription. This seems to indicate the poverty of these Jews, which we know of in any case. It seems that the community needed money later on and allowed someone to memorialize his departed loved one in return for a contribution or financial support. I saw the secondary inscription on the plaque when I visited the site in 1995. However, by the time that Jews took the synagogue back in the fall of 1998, the overlying plaque had altogether disappeared except for the iron rods or hooks. What provoked the Jewish return was that an Arab living adjacent to the synagogue on the east [about two, three, or four meters away] had begun to destroy the eastern wall of the synagogue in order, apparently, to expand his own home into the small synagogue building, which Arabs had not formerly settled into.

Be that as it may, the photo was taken between the summer of 1995 and the fall of 1998. The change in appearance in that time was that the plaque/secondary inscription --already cracked and partly broken off in 1995, had entirely disappeared. The building was restored to use as a synagogue in the fall of 1998 and is still in use.

This area of Jerusalem came into the news lately because of strenuous objections by the US State Department, the UK Foreign Office, and the European Union to Jews living in or building homes in what they like to call "East Jerusalem," a part of the city whence Jewish inhabitants were driven out during the Israeli War of Independence [1947-1949] by Arab irregular forces and the Arab Legion of the Kingdom of Jordan [then Transjordan]. These foreign powers do not want a Jewish return to a part of a city that has a meaning in history deriving from its role in Jewish history and religion. Jerusalem has also had a Jewish majority population since 1853, if not earlier. In 1853, the whole population of the city lived in the Old City which is considered part of "East Jerusalem." That is, in 1853, Jews were the majority in East Jerusalem.