"Moderate " Fatah spokesperson urges death for selling land to Jews

Today, seven Jewish families moved into homes they lawfully purchased in East Jerusalem, in a move so called "progressives" will likely characterize as ‘ethnic cleansing". The homes are in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silvan. Approximately 90 Jewish families - nearly 500 people live in Silwan.

Expect "progressives" to condemn this action, because segregated neighborhood are such a liberal value.

Expect the same "progressives" to ignore that a spokesperson for "moderate" Fatah espoused "death" as a penalty on the broker who sold the homes to Jews.

From the Jerusalem Post

In the latest case, all of the homes were purchased legally by Elad via intermediaries, usually Palestinian brokers who buy the properties from local families at inflated prices.

At one house, Khaled Karaeen, 62 and a father of six, sat with his head in his hands in the courtyard of his home, edgily flicking worry beads, unable to believe what had happened.

Relatives said one of Karaeen's sons had sold a dwelling inside the grounds of the family home to a Palestinian broker about a year ago for 1.2 million shekels ($300,000), around twice as much as the property was probably worth.

Karaeen refused to speak to visitors on Tuesday, with family members saying he was too ashamed by what his son had done. Karaeen's brother said he had spoken by phone to the son, who had fled to the north of Israel.

In the past, Palestinians found to have sold their homes to settler organizations have been killed.

The broker had then sold the apartment to Elad, which then rented it out to the Jewish residents, who moved in during the early hours of Tuesday morning with the help of Israeli police.

The Jewish family, which declined to be interviewed, had barricaded themselves inside, blocking a yellow door that opens onto Karaeen's courtyard. Karaeen sat three meters (10 feet) away.

"They want to make a joke of us," said Fadi Maragha, a local representative of the Palestinian political party Fatah, who said he had come to offer support to the family.

"They think they can drive us out. But we are the landowners. We were here and we will be here until we have all of Palestine without any Jewish people in it," he said.

Asked what would happen to the son and the broker to whom he had sold the property, Maragha said he felt they should die, but he did not expect that to happen.

Read it all here

Threatening Dockworkers. This is not your grandfather's "Solidarity"

Physically threatening clerks and longshoremen. This is the true face of the BDS movement

ILWU statement on blockage of Zim vessel by protestors at Port of Oakland

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: At 6:00 PM Saturday, ILWU Local 10 and 34 represented longshoremen and clerks dispatched to work the vessel ZIM Shanghai at SSA’s Oakland California Terminal were met with hostile demonstrators, effectively blocking all access to the terminal. Longshoremen and Clerks trying to report to work were threatened physically at some points of ingress and their personal vehicles were physically blocked. As such, all personnel stood-by outside of the demonstration perimeters for health and safety purposes. At approximately 8 PM SSA released all personnel from work.

As far as the union can ascertain, the protests are organized by a coalition of individuals and organizations that plan events and create action alerts under the name of “Block the Boat for Gaza” online.

The ILWU is not among the groups organizing the protests, and the leadership and membership of the ILWU have taken no position on the Israel/Gaza conflict.

ILWU Coast Longshore Division news release: Saturday, September 27, 2014

Contacts:

Jennifer Sargent, 503-703-2933

Craig Merrilees, 510-774-5325

"We are a culture, not a costume"

Via Twitter, from the account of Sham Al- Ghazali @bitterarab  whose profile states "A rose in one arm and an AK in the other".

This originally appeared as part of a poster campaign from several years back, from the state of Ohio

Captioned "Now that Halloween is fast approaching please understand this. We are a culture, not a costume to mock and ridicule! ", the photo depicts a young man holding a photo of a suicide bomber.

While I understand the need to avoid cliches and stereotypes across cultures, may I mind you of this?

 And this?

And this?

 And this?

The institutionalized child abuse of Palestinians youth, and their cynical use as child soldiers has been well documented

The problem is social and cultural goes much deeper than a silly costume. That is the real issue that needs to be addressed. Another generation of children is growing up in a culture of hate and demonization. This will prove to be a real obstacle to a lasting and just peace. 

No Solidarity in Oakland, as protesters bully Longshoremen

From Emunah,  who made a guest appearance at the Oakland waterfront yesterday afternoon, to bear witness to the latest day of rage against the Zim lines

***********

It did not compute. There were only two-dozen protesters at the Oakland docks for the September 27th  morning protest, yet activists claimed  their picket line was honored "in solidarity" by the ILWU

 

I decided to see for myself, arriving at the Oakland docks in time for the evening shift. There were only 6 people lolling around at 4:30, so I drove around a bit. The  whole area is a red zone- with no parking. The nearest legitimate parking was nearly a mile a way.  But it was obvious  that the protesters were ignoring the red zones, and as more and more came and parked in the red, I finally did the same. 

Jack Heyman (a retired longshoreman from the ILWU, and an organizer /instigator of block the boat campaign) came up to me, oblivious to the fact that I was holding an Israeli flag and an "Israel wants peace sign" and asked me to use my car to block the ILWU parking lot entrance.  

Um, I don't think so, Jack.

I couldn't help but wonder, if the union stands in "solidarity" with your cause,  why is it necessary to block their egress?

Oakland Block the Boat featured a motley collection of career activists,  wacky conspiracy theorists and  Occupy Oakland leftovers. 

Come, on, really?  Who graffitis their own van?

Paul Larudee,  Marina and Andrew Gutierrez , Terry O'Brien, Russell Bates, Toby Blome  and Peter Tcherneff were there. Was that Kate Raphael, sporting a bouncy new hair style?  The days events featured aging hippies, not young  jihadis.  Its the jihadis turn Oct 25.

Oakland  anti-Israel activist  and psychedelic relic Madrone Mofeeta  (aka Madrone Jack), made a dramatic display of photographing my  license plates, while hissing "Zionist filth" at me.

Protesters used cars, lawn furniture, bicycles and small children to block the entrance to the ILWU union parking lot.

Their signage was the usual cliches of eternal victimhood, finger-pointing, and down-right anti-Semitism

Psst. Block the Boat- both the West bank and Gaza have called for a nation ruled under Sharia law. A secular state is your pipe dream, not theirs

By 6 , there were about 60 people present. Jack  Heyman  was receiving information directly from the union hall and was orchestrating the protest.  He claimed  the union told the port they would guarantee the ship would be unloaded if there was no police presence.  There was no police presence. The union had put in a work order for the evening, and the group could vote on whether or not they wanted to stay, or to attempt to block the  workers.  He told me I wasn't allowed to vote. : - (  There was no democracy on the streets on Oakland that evening.


The group voted to stay and prevent the union workers from coming in- Jack spread people out between the 5 gates. Describing their numbers as "thin",  Jack urged the protesters to call their friends and bring in reinforcements.

Cars were physically blocked and prevented from coming to work. The drivers were photographed, in a crude attempt to intimidate them.  ILWU workers  became increasingly angry.
 

I spoke to a few of the longshoremen who were clueless about the politics. Not pro, not con, just completed baffled  as to why they  were being dragged into this.
 
In spite of the intimidation and the  physical obstruction of workers,  anti-Israel activists  claimed  "solidarity". Their "picket" was "honored".

I recognize solidarity when I see it.  An engineer operating on the tracks behind me stopped his engine, and thanked me profusely for being there.

On his second pass for the evening, he brought me cold water.

He stopped by again when his shift was over, bringing more water, and again effusively thanking me.

The Zim ship left port without being unloaded. The Port of Oakland has proven its impotence, and its unreliability as a place to do business.

Who will pay the ultimate cost of this cheap symbolic "victory" ?  The port will suffer for this. And the thousands of people who rely on the port for their livelihood will suffer.  Ultimately, Oakland will suffer. 

Disabled Palestinian child exploited by anti-Israel activists

Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease and abandoned by his parents, Mohammed al-Farra has spent his life in children’s ward of Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital.  The Israeli staff fund-raise to cover his bills, allowing him and his 56 year old grandfather to live in the hospital.

 

Mohammad's heart rendering story was first told in the Times of Israel:

Mohammed’s plight is an extreme example of the harsh treatment some families mete out to the disabled, particularly in the more tribal-dominated corners of the Gaza Strip, even as Palestinians make strides in combating such attitudes.

It also demonstrates a costly legacy of Gaza’s strongly patriarchal culture that prods women into first-cousin marriages and allows polygamy, while rendering mothers powerless over their children’s fate.

Mohammed was rushed to Israel as a newborn for emergency treatment. His genetic disorder left him with a weakened immune system and crippled his bowels, doctors say, and an infection destroyed his hands and feet, requiring them to be amputated.

In the midst of his treatment, his mother abandoned Mohammed because her husband, ashamed of their son, threatened to take a second wife if she didn’t leave the baby and return to their home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, Farra said. In Gaza, polygamy is permitted but isn’t common. But it’s a powerful threat to women fearful of competing against newer wives.

Thanks to Pallywood and the anti-Israel delegitimization squad young Mohammed al-Farra is finally reserving of attention.  Unfortunately, he is being exploited because of his very visible disabilities.

An article by Arek Sarad in the Falastin News uses Mohammad as a poster child for Gaza children "disabled by Israeli attacks", begging the question: With such a glaring lie front and center, how much of the rest of this article could possibly be true?

Pity the poor exploited children of Gaza, exploited by the very adults who should be protecting them.

UPDATE:

I left a comment on the Falastin News, pointing out this error.   The comment was removed, and the misleading photo still remains.  That action has moved this story from plausible ignorance to willful lies. 

UPDATE May 10, 2015.

The exploitation of Mohammad al-Farra continues, this time by Mohammed Omer , of the Rafah Today blog.  He has written for  Al Jazeera, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,  New Statesman,  Aftonbladet and others . He  received the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2008. All, apparently, without bothering to fact-check.

He was immediately exposed by David Ha'ivri.

Read about Mohammed Omer's lie here. He has not yet issued a retraction.

International Day of Action Against Israel, UC Berkeley: A photo essay

Today was the "Day of Action" against Israel on the University of California at Berkeley campus. The Mulim Students Association and Students for Just Us in Palestine shrieked "from the River to the Sea", and "We support the Intifada"  They bolstered their numbers with career anti-Israel activists from the community, but they were largely ignored by the students hurrying off to Top Dog for lunch
 

 

 

Lunch beats abject insanity any day.

The students of SJP made it perfectly clear that ALL of Israel was occupied territory to them, and  no, this had nothing to do with the territory acquired during the 6 day war

 

The student group Tikvah: Students for Israel gathered in quiet dignity, holding signs urging tolerance,  freedom and  dialog.

 

Some students prayed

Others held a teach-in.

This girl gets it.

 And this one doesn't

(Thanks to  DS and FM for the photos)

Thanks to Tikvah, students for Israel at UC Berkeley for maintaining your dignity, composure and civility in the face of such ugliness and provocation.

Murderers of our three teens killed in shoot -out

Two Hamas terrorists, Marwan Kawasme (29) and Amar Abu Aisha (32) responsible for the kidnapping and murder of  three Israeli teenagers, Gilad Shaar (16), Naftali Frankel (16), and Eyal Yifrach (19).have been killed  in a shoot-out in Hebron.

From Aruz Sheva:

"We have been pursuing these two since the abduction,” said Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brig. Gen. Tamir Yadai. “Last night the investigation ripened as regards their location and we have been surrounding the place where they were hiding since 1:00 a.m. We killed them and there are arrests of several other collaborators.”

"We began arresting suspects and at the same time we applied [IDF] 'pressure cooker' protocol on the house. It is a big house and they hid out in a secret arms store on the basement floor. The floor is not visible from the outside. At one stage they went outside and opened fire. One was shot and the other fell inside, into a hole.”

"There was use of weapons, like hand grenades and the deployment of explosives that were prepared ahead of time,” he added. “We know that they have been staying in this location quite a lot in the last few days. We know for certain that they were not here the whole time. They had weapons like M-16s, a Kalachnikov and handguns, too.”

Kawasmeh's close relative Hussam was arrested in Jerusalem in August for planning the attack, which was carried out physically by Marwan, along with Amer Abu-Eisha.

The abduction and murder reportedly was planned by a third Kawasmeh, Mahmoud, along with Hussam, under the support of Hamas's military branch, the Al-Qassam Brigades, through their branches both in Gaza and abroad.

May the families of Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frankel, and Eyal Yifrach and all of Israel find comfort and peace in the coming year.

Anti-Israel activists attempt to hijack the People's Climate March

 First they hijacked airplanes. Now the Palestinians hijack agendas.

Palestinians and their supporters are the spoiled children of the activist world- demanding, immature and inconsiderate.

Today's People’s Climate March in New York City attracted over 300,000 participants.  Leave it to  Jewish Voice for Peace and their anti-Israel comrades to shamelessly attempt to hijack the agenda.

Whenever a group of progressive activists mobilize,  its a given that anti-Israel activists  will be tagging along, with  shrill foot-stomping demands of "Pay attention to me!"  

Noor Mir on Twitter on Twitter gushed  " I organized a  #Free Palestine bloc and it is huge", adding "The climate connection is here & its clear"

To no one but you, Noor.
 

Marching behind a JVP  banner some tried desperately to link the issues,  holding signs "Israel apartheid is not green", "Bombing Gaza is not green" , "First 2000 lives now 1000 acres"  and this baffling monstrosity  "Hey Bibi and Assad stop bombing the climate out of people's land"

 OK, then....

Others didn't even try,  and simply recycled signs from various ANSWER and Al Awda events  "End US Aid to Israel" and "Israel is racism and genocide" and the ever popular call for the elimination of Israel,  "From the river to sea". Palestinian flags were also abundant.

With climate charge emerging as one the most compelling issues of this generation, it would be a shame to see it lose credibility in this manner.  

Some anti-Israel activists apparently didn't get the memo. Rather than co-opting the climate change message, they chose to proudly disrupt it. The haters interrupted the progressive Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders during his address on climate change. 

Either co-opting or disrupting, the anti-Israel message is clear.  Only their cause matters, after all, and don't you ever forget it.

Are you an anti-Semite?

Are you an Anti-Semite, or simply an idiot? Play the game and find out.

Hate Jews? Hold Jews responsible for killing Christ? Think Hitler was right (in part or in whole?) Deny the Holocaust occurred?  Believe in the Elder of Zion? Believe in the Jewish global media conspiracy? Think Jews control the world? Think Jews deserve it?

You might be an anti-Semite.

Check it out

Dastardly Cultural Appropriation In Gaza

We bring you chapter 745 in the ongoing saga of  "Concentration Camp Gaza".

Presenting the Mazaj Restaurant and Cafe

For those of you who still claim that Gaza  is "starving", I present the menu of the Mazaj

Fresh fruit tarts and layer cake, just like the Warsaw ghetto

The Mazaj in Gaza offers its discerning clientele "American" food.  I call cultural appropriation!

United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act passes overwhelmingly

The bipartisan  United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act (S. 2673 and H.R. 938)  was adopted by unanimous consent in the Senate on September 18, 2014, with over three-quarters of the Senate co-sponsoring.  The House of Representatives passed the legislation earlier with a vote of  410-1 on  March 5, 2014 (Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the sole "nay" vote)

This bill lays the foundation for expanded U.S.-Israel cooperation in defense, energy, agriculture, cyber security and a number of other key sectors.

Drop your Senators a line and thank them for standing with Israel in this troubling time.

The key points of the bill, via AIPAC:

1. A Region in Turmoil
   With the Middle East in turmoil, it is critical for America that we strengthen our alliance with friendly and reliable states. Israel is such an ally.
   
2. A Major Strategic Partner
   The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act recognizes this fact by designating Israel as a “major strategic partner” of the United States.
   
3. Strengthening a Critical Alliance
   This important bill will help the United States maximize the benefits of an already thriving alliance with Israel by expanding cooperation in military, trade, energy and homeland security arenas.
   
   

Students for Justice in Palestine: promoting hate on campus

September 23, 2014 has been proclaimed by Hatem Bazian as an "International day of Action" against Israel. Bazian,  who once infamously called for an "intifada" in America, was a founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, the group that will be spring boarding  the "Day of Action"



Students for Justice in Palestine, also known as SJP, or more popularly as Students for Just us in Palestine has a long history of threatening pro-Israel activists, shouting down free speech, and intimidating those who disagree with them. This year, they sport free legal protection for their rights, while they run roughshod over everyone elses

The comically named Center for Constitutional Rights, the Palestinian Solidarity Legal Support Group, and the National Lawyers Guild  have joined together to cover for their bad behavior.

Roz Rothstein, founder of the educational organization StandWithUs has documented  the hateful intolerance of SJP in the Times of Israel.

• In February 2014 SJP violated the free speech rights of two Israelis at a pro-Israel event at Cal Poly Pomona. It brought professional anti-Israel activists and students from other schools to shout the speakers down, preventing them from making their presentations and robbing audience members of the opportunity to hear Israeli perspectives on the conflict.
• When SJP brought divestment campaigns to the University of Michigan and other campuses, numerous Jewish students and members of student governments were subjected to threats, hate speech, and other forms of intimidation.
• At UC Irvine and San Francisco State University (SFSU), SJP disrupted Israel Independence Day celebrations. Its members attempted to shout down pro-Israel student speakers at SFSU, physically pushed people away from informational booths, and assaulted three Jewish students at Irvine.
• UCLA’s SJP chapter employed an especially sophisticated intimidation tactic, filing judicial complaints against two student senators who had gone on sponsored educational trips to Israel.
• Temple SJP is currently being investigated because a student associated with the group hit a pro-Israel student in the face during Welcome Week.
• SJP at Loyola University of Chicago is currently being investigated for harassing Hillel students and blocking their Birthright Israel informational table.

In all of these instances, SJP demonstrated its total disregard for freedom of speech, its eagerness to silence pro-Israel voices, and its desire to prevent uninformed students from hearing or seeing Israel’s side of the story.

No one expects September 23 to be any different.

JVP calls for the destruction of Israel

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)  has no room for Israel as the state of the Jewish people in their ideology, as they call for Palestine, "From the River to the Sea"


Via Twitter

Its nothing new.  Extremist JVP routinely stands with those calling for intifada and endless war, and has long tolerated the daftest conspiracy theorists and haters.

3-year Study Charges UCLA Department With ‘Antisemitic Activity and Anti-Israel Bias’

A consortium of American Jewish and civil rights groups including the Amcha Initiative have expressed concern that federal funds are underwriting “one-sided, antisemitic programming that masquerades as scholarship,” at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), according to statements released Wednesday.

 

According to AMCHA:

CNES Israel-related events had an overwhelmingly anti-Israel bias: Of the 28 Israel-related events, 93% were anti-Israel;

• Most CNES Israel-related events contained antisemitic content: Of the 28 events, 75% contained antisemitic content;
• CNES had disproportionate focus on Israel: Of all the public events pertaining to significant Middle East political conflicts, 61% focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict, significantly more than any other conflict. In addition, events were held about 14 Middle East countries. Of those countries, 27% of the events were about Israel, four times more than any other country except Iran;
• CNES favors speakers who engaged in antisemitic activity prior to speaking at CNES: Of the 31 speakers at the CNES Israel-related events, 84% have engaged in antisemitic activity, including the demonization and deligitimization of Israel, denying Jews the right to self-determination, comparing Israelis to Nazis and condoning terrorism;
• Each CNES director had engaged in anti-Israel and antisemitic activity: All three CNES directors from 2010-2013 publicly opposed the UC Israel Abroad Program, despite touting the public abroad program as part of the center’s fulfillment of the Title VI funding requirement. In addition, each of the directors endorsed boycotts of Israel, and one is the founder of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel.
• CNES supported by Saudi government: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed CNES received a donation of $10,000 – $20,000 from the Saudi government-owned Arabian American Oil Company. The Saudi website also includes openly anti-Israel and antisemitic discourse.

From an article by David Bender in Algemeiner.
 

CNES, according to AMCHA, is a major federally-designated National Resource Center, and as such, gets most of its funding funding from the Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The group said the school received $1,383,680 during the period being investigated.

The groups issued a joint statement calling on the U.S. Congress to deny funds to Middle East Studies programs accused of having anti-American and anti-Israel bias, as well as to enact reforms on the funding process.

Congress is currently reconsidering the reauthorization of the HEA, which provides federal funds to 129 international studies and foreign language programs.

According to the 10 organizations that signed the statement- Accuracy in Academia, AMCHA Initiative, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Endowment for Middle East Truth, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Middle East Forum, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, Zionist Organization of America – the programs “have devolved into hotbeds of anti-American and anti-Israel activity, disseminating falsehoods both in universities and to K-12 teachers and to the general public.”

 

Oakland Block the Boat: Bad for Oakland

Agitprop site Indybay declared that the  Oakland Block the Boat action "won the support of ILWU Local 10 and ILWU Local 34 longshore workers who refused to cross the line." 

Yet lying comes as natural to the anti-Israel cru as breathing.  There was no "solidarity". The posts on Twitter from the Oakland Block the Boat showed the activists bullying  union members, and physically  blocking them as they tried to get to their jobs. 

 The dockworkers apparently fought back.

 

There was no "solidarity",  only selfish and thoughtless maneuvering by a self absorbed group of activists blinded by their seething hatred for the world's only Jewish state. But others could anticipate the consequences.


In a letter to Oakland mayor Jean Quan, the Pacific Merchants Shipping Association expressed their    concern, writing    

"...while demonstrators are entitled to their opinions regarding a geo-political struggle that goes back centuries, they are not entitled to harm businesses and workers in Oakland as the result of their opinions"

The letter, courtesy copied to Gov. Brown and others, continues:

"If port operations are easily shut-down by any group with a political agenda, the damage to its reputation will be immense, immediate and hard to repair. That this takes place at a time when port competitiveness is extremely intense, with cargo owners having many options through which to move their goods and our California ports only now recovering to pre-recession volumes, only makes the protection of the port more imperative."

Block the Boat. Bad for business. Bad for Oakland. And its happening again on October 25.