#palestinian authority summer camps

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

The news that Palestinian Authority summer camps are training children to use weapons and glorify terrorists is a troubling reminder that some regimes view children as little more than tools to be exploited.

Hundreds of thousands of children have been used as soldiers in various international conflicts in recent decades, according to human rights groups.

The Ugandan rebel group known as the “Lord’s Resistance Army” has made the abduction and enslavement of children “its main method of recruitment,” experts say.

In Bolivia, an estimated 40% of the army consists of teenagers who were forcibly conscripted.

The participation of Palestinian Arab children in terrorism against Israelis has become so commonplace that it has attracted the attention of Palestinian advocates in the United States. They’ve persuaded a handful of members of Congress to introduce legislation to restrict U.S. aid to Israel if the Israeli military detains minors who engage in violence.

A Nazi Version of Cinderella

Dictators in previous generations likewise prioritized training children to hate and kill. Adolf Hitler, for example, viewed Germany’s schools as a breeding ground for raising an entire generation of Nazis.

Following Hitler’s rise to power, German school curricula were radically revised to reflect Nazi ideas, and traditional text books were replaced with Nazi versions. Biology texts now advocated the theory of “Aryan” racial superiority. Atlases focused on the alleged danger to Germany posed by surrounding nations and the supposed theft from Germany of various territories. History books presented justifications for renewed German militarism. The Nazis even concocted their own version of Cinderella, with the prince choosing a racially pure young heroine and rebuffing her racially alien stepmother.

At a press conference in September 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed concern that the German government seemed to be preparing young people for war with Germany’s neighbors. He related a story he heard from an American tourist in Germany, about an eight year-old German boy who in his bedtime prayers each night would say, “Dear God, please permit it that I shall die with a French bullet in my heart.”

Unfortunately, that did not change FDR’s policy of maintaining friendly diplomatic and trade relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Disney Exposes the Nazis

During World War Two, Disney created a series of short cartoon films to support the American war effort and expose the nature of Nazism. They were shown in movie theaters, prior to the main feature. One especially striking nine-minute film was called “Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi.”

The storyline follows a German child, Hans, as the Nazi school system turns him into a worshipper of Hitler. When Hans’s teacher shows the pupils a fox capturing and eating a rabbit, Hans makes the innocent mistake of expressing sympathy for “the poor rabbit.” As punishment, he has to put on a dunce camp and sit in a corner, while another student gives the “correct” answer: “The world belongs to the strong…The rabbit is a coward and deserves to die.”

Finally surrendering to peer pressure, Hans agrees that the rabbit was “a weakling” who got what it deserved. The teacher then provides the moral of the story: the German people are “an unconquerable super race” who will “destroy all weak and cowardly nations.”

The Disney narrator describes how Hans’s upbringing then proceeds with endless “marching and ‘Heil’-ing, ‘Heil’-ing and marching.” The little boy becomes almost a robot, blindly heeding the Nazi Party’s orders to “trample on the rights of others.” The narrator concludes: “For now his education is complete–his education for death.”

Nazi-educated German children filled the ranks of the Hitler Youth movement. Its members took part in numerous atrocities, from forcing Vienna’s Jews to scrub the streets with toothbrushes in 1938, to the mass shooting of Jews swimming from sinking boats in the German harbor of Lubeck, just before Germany’s surrender in 1945.

In addition, many of those who graduated from Hitler Youth joined the Gestapo and participated in the mass murder of European Jewry. While other branches of the Nazi apparatus collapsed or surrendered in the waning days of World War II, Hitler Youth remained fanatically loyal to their Fuhrer to the very end, which is why they are often mentioned in accounts of atrocities that were perpetrated in the spring of 1945.

Menachem Weinryb, an Auschwitz survivor who was forced to take part in a death march from Poland to Germany, later recalled how when the prisoners reached the Belsen area on April 13, 1945, the German guards went to a nearby town “and returned with a lot of young people from the Hitler Youth [and local policemen]…They chased us all into a large barn…we were five to six thousand people…[They] poured out petrol and set the barn on fire. Several thousand people were burned alive.”

[fiercynn]

Like my father, I was born a refugee in the Jabalia camp of the Gaza Strip. When I was 10 months old my family moved to the United States. Since then, we have made frequent trips to Gaza. I remember once reaching the Tel Aviv Airport, thinking I was so close to my home in Gaza only to be sent back to Frankfurt the next morning after being detained for several hours by Israeli authorities. I was 11 years old. This was not the first or last time we were denied entry into our homeland. I remember asking my mother why we never visited Jerusalem. I always wanted to pray in the famous and sacred Masjid Al-Aqsa; I wanted to see up close the Dome of the Rock I was so used to seeing on TV and on postcards despite it being hours away from our home in Gaza. My mother explained this concisely by simply stating: “Because we are Palestinian.” [...] I am Palestinian; I am from Huj, yet I am not allowed to visit Palestine. I am not allowed to leave the 136 square mile open-air prison densely populated by 1.7 million people. On the other hand, my Jewish peers in my American high school would come back every summer boasting about their birthright trips. Most of them were born here, and their parents and grandparents were also born in the United States. Many times they were of European descent. However, none of them were actually born in Israel. Until this day I don’t understand how it is their right to visit a country which they have never been to or have never known to be home, but I, who — like so many generations before me — was born in Palestine, am not even allowed to visit my own home. How is it that other kids are getting free trips to travel across the world, yet when I was in the Jabalia refugee camp, I was not allowed to drive a few miles to visit the place where my father’s history yearns to be affirmed? Another “holy” site of sorts, off limits. Where was my birthright? [x]

- suha najjar for the michigan daily on march 12, 2014

[eretzyisrael]

By AMIR BOHBOT

Procedures of Hamas for those in the LGBTQ community 

The official documents of Hamas's "rulebook" reveal brutal behavior against anyone suspected of belonging to the LGBTQ community. 

Additionally, documentation of interrogations and testimonies about aggressive questioning focused solely on sexual preferences and orientations was found, indicating that those suspected of being part of the LGBTQ community faced a single fate – death.

Documents were also recovered that held detailed plans by Hamas on how to operate worldwide in regions such as Europe, Jordan, Egypt, the US that were far from the eyes of foreign intelligence organizations and under the radar of the media. 

The documents revealed that Hamas developed a plan tailored to the population in each country. 

Another document detailed a plan to ignite unrest in the West Bank and undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) by infiltrating its security mechanisms and encouraging internal rebellion to overthrow and take control of the PA gradually.

The IDF Intelligence Division gathered various equipment, such as weapons from Russia, North Korea, Iran, Egypt, Libya, and others, to trace not only their usage but also to learn about procurement and assistance routes.

Among the items found were over 150 pickup trucks and more than 350 Chinese motorcycles smuggled through tunnels under the Philadelphi Route, which were used by over 4,000 terrorists from 75 infiltration points to attack Western Negev settlements and military outposts on October 7.

Educating with antisemitism 

Literature from the Hamas education system was also found. Among the items discovered were approximately 1,500 antisemitic books, indicating a systematic process of instilling hatred and promoting terrorism against Israel from the first day of education in the Hamas system. 

Items included children's books teaching how to murder Jews by running them over or stabbing them, a book by senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar titled The End of the Jews, and other literature that places all responsibility for wars in the Middle East on Israel, advocating for the murder of all Jews. 

Additionally, booklet about senior terrorists were found, as well as special documentation from Hamas summer camps funded by foreign donations and photos of babies on home sofas alongside shrapnel grenades and mortar shells.

Another procedure the Military Intelligence carried out was linking Hamas's plans to the documents and weapons found in Israeli territory after October 7 and in Palestinian territory during the ground operation. 

The military equipment supported the operational idea of prolonged presence in Israeli territory, which included medical equipment, weapons for amputating limbs using Kalashnikov rifles with bayonets or machetes, special forces rifles (Russian Kalashnikovs), and other rifles for the rest of the forces.

Documents found on the bodies of the terrorists included Israeli work permits, as well as maps of settlements and IDF bases, marking important points such as the locations of senior officials' offices, armories, clinics, and more. 

The most prominent map was of the Tel Nof Airbase, detailing the locations of squadrons, commanders' offices, and kibbutzim such as Nahal Oz and Be'eri. 

It included the locations of dining halls where the terrorists initially planned to concentrate most of the hostages before transferring them to Gaza. 

One of the terrorists tore the map of Be'eri into small pieces, but an observant soldier noticed it and passed the pieces to intelligence personnel, who then reassembled it.

Some documents also revealed the corruption within Hamas, showing how they not only accumulated assets but also used them. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) apartments were registered in the name of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif's wife.

Apartments of Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas head Yahya Sinwar's brother, were found to be received from UNRWA and then rented to Palestinians, according to rental contracts in possession of Military Intelligence.  Documentation of Hamas operatives working for UNRWA was also found. 

"After consolidating all Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, based on what we saw in maps and documents and what was actually discovered, it is clear that Gaza was constructed as one large military base, including the use of kindergartens, schools, clinics, hospitals, and mosques," said a source who reviewed Hamas documents. The source added, "They intended to infiltrate a large number of IDF bases, including Air Force bases."

On the bodies of terrorists with name tags, photos, and numbers, a "phrasebook" was found that allowed them to communicate in Hebrew with civilians and soldiers during the raid. It included phrases like: "Take off your clothes," "Strip," "Take off your pants," "Children here and women there." 

Military sources indicated that Hamas systematically integrated religious justification for their brutal acts into all their books, pamphlets, speeches, and notebooks, using Quranic verses and fatwas (religious rulings), including decisions on mutilating bodies and amputations.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ali Winston at The Guardian:

As the University of California, Los Angeles is reeling from a late-night attack on a student protest encampment for Gaza last week, attention is turning to the disparate group of counter-protesters who had rallied against the encampment in the lead-up to the violence, including during chaotic dueling rallies two days before. Many witnesses to the 30 April melee observed that the small group of assailants – many of them masked – did not appear to be students. More than 30 people were injured, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair). Authorities are still working to identify the perpetrators, and have not made any arrests.

But researchers studying hate and anti-government groups have confirmed the presence at the counter-demonstrations of several far-right activists who have been involved in anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-vaccine protests across southern California over the past three years. Narek Palyan, an Armenian-American from Los Angeles’ Van Nuys neighborhood, was photographed on UCLA’s campus on 26 April amid a group of counter-protesters, and again on the evening of 30 April, hours before the assault on the protest camp. Palyan took part in several “Leave Our Kids Alone” demonstrations at school board meetings in southern California over the past year, where he was at times photographed making Nazi salutes. His social media history is rife with antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ posts. The Leave Our Kids Alone protests have cropped up at school board demonstrations, book readings and Pride celebrations throughout southern California, focusing anger from conservative parents on the recognition of LGBTQ+ identity and students in both curriculums and classrooms.

The demonstrations, part of a broader rightwing effort to sow unrest and undermine an alleged “liberal agenda” at US schools, have at times been marked by violence and drawn far-right participants from around the region, including people associated with local Proud Boy and Three Percenter militia chapters and fundamentalist Christian churches.

Manuk Grigorian, one of the organizers of some of the southern California “Leave Our Kids Alone” protests, was also present at the counter-protests at UCLA on 30 April. Grigorian frequently appeared on Fox News to discuss the school board demonstrations last summer, where he leveled false claims that certain public education districts were “grooming” children to develop LGBTQ+ identities. Michael Ancheta, a former mixed martial arts fighter who in the past associated with southern California Proud Boys and assaulted a journalist at a 2021 anti-vaccine protest in West Hollywood, was spotted among the pro-Israel crowd at UCLA on on 28 April, when pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters staged dueling rallies near the encampment, and again on 30 April. Ancheta, who until recently ran an Instagram account under the handle “Antifahunter”, has been a frequent participant in the Leave Our Kids Alone demonstrations.

[...] The reason these counter-demonstrators are drawn to protests over the war in the Middle East, he said, was that they see them through the prism of a broader rightwing view that “traditional” societies and families are under threat. “Their animosity towards the campus demonstrations are part of this Christian far-right perspective that LGBTQ folks are threats to Christianity, and so are Palestinians or Muslims,” Cravens said.

[...]

Beyond UCLA, a number of far-right actors, including a violent white supremacist charged in connection with January 6, the founder of the Proud Boys, and a former member of the streetfighting Neo-Fascist Rise Above Movement have stood alongside pro-Israel demonstrators confronting Gaza solidarity encampments at universities across the country.

Lindsay Schubiner, the program director at the Western States Center, has been tracking this trend. To her, the activist presence is part of a broader rightwing effort to sow chaos and undermine democratic institutions. “These white nationalists, religious extremists and anti-democracy actors are political actors who are opportunistic and strategic – they have a goal of ratcheting up the temperature and escalating tensions between groups, and when there’s so much attention on a situation like the current crisis in Gaza, they show up,” Schubiner said. “We’ve seen attempts to co-opt and reframe the debate about the current war by characterizing pro-Palestinian students and faculty as un-American, which is incredibly troubling.” Gene Block, UCLA’s chancellor, has condemned the attack by “instigators” on 30 April, and Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, has called the assault “abhorrent and inexcusable”. Bass likened the 30 April assault to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The assault came after days of tension between camped-out students and counter-protesters at the Westwood campus. For days, counter-protesters turned up to the campus to confront the student demonstrators, with shouting matches occasionally erupting into scuffles. Aside from the rightwing school protesters, other extremist elements were documented on UCLA’s campus. On the weekend before the raid, photos emerged of a flag featuring the symbol the Jewish Defense League, a virulent Jewish supremacist organization founded by Meir Kahane that has committed “countless terrorist attacks in the US and abroad”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The JDL was formally delisted as a terrorist organization by Joe Biden in 2022, over protests from Palestinian groups.

Why are far-right groups disrupting campus protests for Palestine? To cause trouble and stoke their war on “liberal colleges.”

[wahoo-stomp]

The Defeat-Harris, Get-Trump Politics of Protest

Make no mistake, that’s the ultimate logic of the pro-Palestinian activists at the DNC.

By David Frum

(Interesting article from The Atlantic below. The author makes some points that might seem a bit harsh, but I think they are worth making.)

One month ago, an NBC News headline reported:

Protesters made a tiny footprint at the RNC in Milwaukee.

Other than a modest daytime march on Monday afternoon, the first day of the Republican National Convention, there were virtually no protests over the event’s four days and nights.

Obviously, the story from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is already proving different.

This is part of a pattern. Gather any large number of Democrats together, in almost any city or state, whether at rallies, fundraisers, or presidential appearances, and pro-Palestinian protesters will try to wreck the event. These actions have been building to threats of outright violence. Pro-Trump and Republican events, meanwhile, are almost always left in peace.

Of the two big parties, the Democrats are more emotionally sympathetic to Palestinian suffering. The Biden administration is working to negotiate the cease-fire that the pro-Palestinian camp claims to want. The administration has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. President Joe Biden’s terms for ending the fighting in Gaza envision a rapid movement to full Palestinian statehood.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump uses Palestinian as an insult. His administration moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. In 2016, Trump campaigned on a complete shutdown of travel by Muslims into the United States; Trump now speaks of deporting campus anti-Israel protesters. He has pledged to block Gaza refugees from entering the United States.

Trump wants to tell the story that he and his party will enforce public order. He alleges that Democrats cannot or will not protect Americans against chaos spread by extremist elements. The pro-Palestinian movement works every day to create images that support Trump’s argument. As a visibly annoyed Vice President Kamala Harris asked protesters in Detroit earlier this month: Do they want to elect Donald Trump?

Not all pro-Palestinian demonstrators are thinking about the election. Many seem driven by moral outrage or ideological passion. But for those who are thinking strategically, the answer is obvious: Yes, they want to elect Trump. Of course they want to elect Trump. Electing Trump is their best—and maybe only—hope.

To understand why, cast your mind back a quarter century.

In the election of 2000, Vice President Al Gore faced Texas Governor George W. Bush. Gore probably would have won in a straight two-way contest. But that same year, the progressive advocate Ralph Nader entered the race as a third-party challenger—and he pulled just enough of the vote to tip the Electoral College and the presidency toward Bush.

Nader later professed regret for running as a third-party candidate. But at the time, Nader understood exactly what he was doing. Defeating Gore and electing Bush was the intended and declared purpose of Nader’s candidacy. Nader detailed his logic in many speeches, including this one to the summer-2000 convention of the NAACP:

If you ever wondered why the right wing and the corporate wing of the Democratic Party has so much more power over that party than the progressive wing, it’s because the right wing and the corporate wing have somewhere to go: It’s called the Republican Party. And so they’re catered to and they’re regaled—like the Democratic Leadership Council, they’re catered to and they’re regaled.

But if you look at the progressive wing … they have nowhere to go.

And you know when you’re told that you have nowhere to go, you get taken for granted. And when you get taken for granted, you get taken.

To paraphrase his argument even more bluntly: If progressives caused the Democrats to lose the presidency in the election of 2000, then Democrats would take progressives more seriously in all the elections that followed.

Nader’s logic was not altogether wrong. In many ways, the post-2000 Democratic Party has shifted well to the left of where the party was in the 1980s and ’90s. But catering to the party’s left has cost Democrats winnable races, and with them, key priorities: The Iraq War and 20 years of inaction on climate change head the list of progressive disappointments since the 2000 election, and the list extends from there. Whether or not the shift was worth the price, Nader was neither ignorant nor deceived. He identified his goal and willingly accepted the risks for himself and his movement.

So it is now with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators of 2024.

They start with a fundamental political problem: Their cause is not popular. Solid majorities of Americans accept Israel’s war in Gaza as valid and fiercely condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks as unacceptable. The exact margin varies from poll to poll depending on how the question is asked, but when presented with a binary choice between Israel and the Palestinians, Americans prefer Israel by a factor of at least two to one.

The brute fact of those numbers makes it very difficult for pro-Palestinian activists to win elections. In this cycle, despite all the emotion stirred by the Gaza war, two of Israel’s fiercest critics in Congress lost their primaries to pro-Israel challengers.

From the point of view of any practical politician: If a cause is so unpopular that it cannot help its friends, why listen to its advocates?

The only answer to that question, again from the practical point of view, is the message of the protesters in Chicago: Maybe we can’t help you if you do listen to us, but we can hurt you if you don’t!

Think of it another way. Since the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7 and the Israeli response, pro-Palestinian protesters have marched and agitated all over the United States. They have occupied college campuses. They have impeded access to Jewish schools, businesses, and places of worship. They have posted impassioned words and images on social media.

Yet all of their militant action has barely budged U.S. policy. Arms, intelligence, and economic assistance continue to flow from the United States to Israel. U.S. military forces cooperate with Israel against Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. Although the U.S. has imposed restraint on some Israeli operations, Israel has mostly been allowed to fight its own war in its own way.

These were President Biden’s decisions, not Vice President Harris’s. But she was the second-highest-ranking member of the administration. If Biden’s deputy inherits Biden’s office, the message is clear: His administration’s record of support for Israel carried no meaningful political price. All of those street demonstrations and campus occupations will have amounted to so much empty noise. All of those articles arguing that Gaza explained Biden’s troubles with young voters would be exposed as ideological wishcasting.

If Harris wins, the pro-Palestinian movement will have lost.

If Harris loses, however, pro-Palestinian protesters can claim that they were responsible for her defeat. That claim might not be true—in fact it probably would not be true—but try disproving it. The pro-Palestinian movement would have at least some basis to argue: You lost because you alienated us.

If Harris wins, she may want to do something about the pro-Palestinian cause—for humanitarian reasons, for reasons of diplomacy and geopolitics, for reasons of Democratic-constituency management in particular congressional districts. But she won’t have to do it. She’ll know that the protesters tried to beat her, and they failed.

If Harris loses, however, future Democratic candidates will tread more carefully on Israeli-Palestinian terrain. Even if they privately doubt that the party’s position on Gaza explains anything truly important, they will be worried by advisers and donors who will believe it or who will want to believe it.

But what about Trump? Why aren’t the pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Chicago more fearful of Trump’s possible return to the presidency?

Although the pro-Palestine cause attracts support from progressives, it is not exactly a progressive cause. Americans associate progressivism with secularism, feminism, and gay-rights advocacy, among other causes. The Palestinian national movement, especially now that Hamas has effectively replaced the Palestine Liberation Organization as leader of “the resistance,” has become markedly religious, patriarchal, and socially reactionary. But it is also a movement fiercely opposed to American global hegemony—and that is its “anti-imperialist” appeal to Western progressives.

If you oppose American global hegemony, Trump is your candidate (as a long list of anti-American dictators have already figured out). Trump fiercely opposes the alliances and trade agreements that magnify American power and make the U.S. the center of a huge network of democratic, market-oriented countries. Trump’s “America First” bluster is actually a pathway to American isolation and weakness that will further remove American power from the world.

If you wish America ill, of course you wish Trump well. The far left and far right of U.S. politics may disagree on much, but they agree on that.

The protesters in the streets of Chicago are not acting aimlessly or randomly. The people on the receiving end of their protests would benefit from equal clarity. The protesters want chaos and even violence in order to defeat Harris and elect Trump. They are not ill-informed or excessively idealistic or sadly misled. They are not overzealous allies. They are purposeful adversaries.

The Chicago-convention delegates should recognize that truth, and act accordingly.

[mariacallous]

RAMALLAH, West Bank—On March 19, representatives from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority (PA), United States, and Egypt met in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in an attempt to address rising violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The meeting came ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, which overlap this year. The month has traditionally seen an uptick in tensions in the region: during Ramadan in May 2021, Israeli restrictions on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound set off a chain reaction that led to an 11-day Israeli offensive on Gaza; 261 Palestinians were killed, per a United Nations count.

The inauguration of Israel’s most extreme right-wing government in history late last December has only made the situation in the West Bank grimmer. Last month, a Palestinian shooting in the West Bank town of Huwara left two Israeli settlers dead. It was apparent retribution for the Israeli military killing 11 Palestinians and injuring more than 100 in a daytime raid in the city of Nablus just a few days earlier. A mob of settlers responded to the shooting with a deadly rampage that some called a pogrom.

The Sharm el-Sheikh summit, like a similar summit in Jordan’s Red Sea town of Aqaba in February, quickly proved futile; another shooting in Huwara on the same day left an Israeli settler seriously injured.

Then, this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to delay a contentious judicial reform plan that had provoked mass protests among Israelis to the summer session of parliament. In exchange for buy-in from his coalition partner, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu agreed to form a new security force that will operate under the direct orders of Ben-Gvir, who has previously been convicted of inciting racism. Some Palestinians fear this step will add fuel to the fire already raging in the West Bank.

For the better part of the year, the PA has proved unable to stem escalating tensions in the occupied territory, and to stop attacks as dictated by its security coordination understanding with Israel. It has also proved unable to eliminate new armed resistance groups that have popped up across the occupied territory in response to liberalized Israeli settlement policies and near-daily killings of Palestinians by the Israeli military. These new armed groups have shed traditional Palestinian factionalism to collaborate in fighting Israel’s occupation—and a PA they view as complicit.

Last March, the Israeli military launched Operation Breakwater, raiding the West Bank on a near daily basis after a wave of Palestinian-perpetrated attacks in Israel. Twelve months later, the violence shows few signs of abating. 2022 ended as the deadliest year on record for West Bank Palestinians since the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2005—and 2023 is on track to be even more fatal. About 75 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces so far this year; Palestinian fighters have killed 14 Israelis over the same period, according to the U.N.

The high death toll has galvanized a new generation of Palestinian fighters organizing to resist Israeli military raids in their communities. They are hyper-localized—operating in the trenches of refugee camps and old cities—and act in defiance of the PA, which engages in security cooperation with Israel and frequently targets these same groups. The mostly young men hail from across the West Bank, from the sleepy desert city of Jericho to the sprawling northern city of Nablus and the decrepit refugee camp of Jenin. They are often seen toting M16 rifles and wearing balaclavas to avoid being identified.

Traditionally, Palestinian militant groups functioned as the armed wings of political parties, such as Hamas and the PA’s Fatah. A militia’s operations supported its party’s political objectives. But during the second intifada, lone-wolf attacks became more widespread. In the uprising’s aftermath—and under pressure from Israeli intelligence—many traditional groups saw their ranks dwindle and organizational structures collapse. This gave way to a decentralized model of resistance, with small cells and breakaway factions dominating the militant landscape.

Since 2022, fighters from different traditional factions have begun to cooperate under new umbrella groups. Many young men decided to take matters into their own hands after growing up seeing the entrenchment of Israel’s occupation, routine bombing of the Gaza Strip, and growth of Israeli settlements. They are also disillusioned with the PA, whose political strategy has not yielded tangible results during their lifetime.

Nablus’ Lions’ Den and the Jenin Brigade are the largest new groups. But smaller cohorts have also cropped up, like the Balata Brigade in the eponymous refugee camp and the Osh al-Dababir (Hornets’ Nest) Battalion, also in the Jenin camp. Israel—and the PA—are struggling to get a handle on them all.

“The Lions’ Den in Nablus and the Jenin Brigade represent a security threat to Israel[i] forces and settlers living in the West Bank and Jerusalem,” said Khaldoun Barghouti, a Palestinian analyst specializing in Israeli affairs. “Israel fears … the emergence of new copycat groups in other Palestinian cities or refugee camps. This situation could lead to escalation in the West Bank.”

The Lions’ Den has regularly engaged in armed clashes with and shootings of Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. Last October, the group shot and killed an Israeli soldier in the occupied territory. In February, the Nablus Battalion, Lions’ Den, and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (the armed wing of Fatah) in Nablus said that their members had shot at Israeli forces raiding the city.

The rise of these groups doesn’t come as a surprise to observers, given the iron fist with which Israel rules the West Bank and the inability of the PA to crack down on these collectives without stirring public ire.

“The Lions’ Den and other formations in West Bank cities are a natural byproduct of 30 years of willful international failure to end the occupation and contentment with a PA that does what it is told,” said Nour Odeh, a former PA government spokeswoman. “They are also a natural response to the rise of racist fascist parties in Israel whose agenda threatens the existence of the Palestinian people.”

Israel’s new government is the most conservative, right-wing, and nationalist in its history. Since it came to power in late December 2022, a member of Netanyahu’s governing coalition has done or said something that breaks with even Israeli policy norms on an almost weekly basis. Netanyahu’s temporarily suspended efforts to overhaul the state’s judiciary and consolidate power have also created a schism within Israeli society, prompting mass protests and even straining relations with longtime allies.

The PA is unable and unwilling to do anything to respond to the new Israeli government’s constant deluge of anti-Palestinian actions and rhetoric. It broke off security coordination with Israel after the deadly Nablus raid in February, only to reinstate it shortly thereafter. Palestine and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, now 88, is widely seen as unfit for office but has a coterie of Israel- and United States-approved aides who keep the status quo running.

Following the second intifada, the PA integrated senior al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade members into its formal security apparatus as part of a disarmament and demobilization program, allowing the group to maintain some control on the street level. However, the PA’s security forces seem unable to control violence on the ground any longer—and are finding themselves bystanders to a new conflict raging before their eyes.

There have been spikes in violence across the West Bank since the second intifada. The difference today is that the new armed groups have blurred the lines of Palestinian politics’ traditional factionalism by working across longtime divides. Newer militias such as the Lions’ Den, for example, comprise men who are affiliated with Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The militias linked to these factions used to act independently to claim credit for military operations and gain credibility with the Palestinian public.

The shooter who killed two Israeli settlers on Huwara’s main road in February was a Hamas member from Nablus. But he chose to hide out in the Jenin refugee camp, where he was sheltered by fighters from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

This fluidity has proved frustrating for Israel, as it makes it more difficult for its military to strike preemptively. “When armed groups are proliferating and when it comes to the fact that they … do not have a clear political platform, that’s a problem for Israel because [Israel] always want[s] to have an address,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel and Palestine with the International Crisis Group. “[Israel] want[s] to know who to blame, who is responsible.”

Many Palestinians now see traditional political factions as a burden, either because they view them as ineffective or because they are active participants in—and beneficiaries of—political divisions upheld by Israeli and U.S. political interests.

According to a recent opinion poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, a growing percentage of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza—58 percent—support a return to armed confrontations and intifada against Israel. With Israel’s lurch to the right, increasing deadly Israeli raids on Palestinian population centers, and the absence of a political solution to the occupation, Palestinians are looking for alternatives to the “wait and see” status quo upheld by the PA.

In the same survey, more than 70 percent of West Bank Palestinians said they supported the first Huwara shooting attack that left two Israeli settlers dead, while two-thirds supported forming new armed groups that do not take orders from the PA, such as the Jenin Battalion or the Lions’ Den. Support for these new, independent groups is seen as an outgrowth of the Palestinian public’s growing mistrust of the PA and hopelessness about the prospect of a political solution to the occupation.

“Public support for armed resistance is further confirmed by overwhelming opposition to the Palestinian participation in the Aqaba meeting,” the poll’s authors wrote. “A large majority, standing at 70 [percent], think Israeli counter measures, which are meant to punish those who commit armed attacks or their families, such as home demolitions, expulsion, or the imposition of the death penalty, will only lead to an increase in the intensity of such attacks.”

Israel’s attempts to clamp down on the new armed groups seem to have bolstered the groups’ popularity among Palestinians even further. Despite their relatively modest means, the militias have already secured the trust of the Palestinian street. In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have responded to militias’ calls for protests in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip—and even in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon. When the groups independently called for full-scale commercial closures in cities such as Jenin, Nablus, and Ramallah, people complied—undermining the PA by positioning it as corrupt and weak.

The violence in the West Bank seems unlikely to abate, as Israeli raids on Palestinian cities continue and Palestinian casualty numbers rise. Israeli settlers continue to commit violent rampages against Palestinians with impunity, emboldened by their new political leadership. The fact that the PA is unable to protect its own citizens but collaborates with Israel on security has effectively evaporated what little respect and trust it still enjoyed.

“Israel is aware of the crisis in the PA, and it would obviously prefer not to have to do all those raids, but it’s an endless cycle in which it does so and the PA loses even more legitimacy,” Zonszein said. “None of these armed groups are listening to the PA anyway.”

[spacelazarwolf]

additional antisemitic attacks or incidents since making this post:

in february 2024, an imam at the belgian parliament recited a verse from the quran explicitly calling for muslims to kill and take jews captive.

in april 2024, a swastica was spray-painted on the home of a holocaust survivor in fleron, alongside the words "gaza free."

in august 2024, the federation of jewish communities in the czech republic reported 4,328 antisemitic incidents in the country in 2023, an increase of 90% from the previous year. from october to december, 1800 incidents occurred, accounting for almost 42% of the incidents of the entire year.

on march 1st, 2024, a jewish man was assaulted by a muslin teenager and was called a "dirty jew" after leaving a synagogue. the victim was hospitalized.

between may 13th and 14th, vandals graffetied several sights around the marais, a historic district home to many jews, with red handprints, a symbol used by pro-hamas activists. sites vandalized included schools, nurseries, and the wall of the righteous, a memorial that honors individuals who saved jews during the nazi occupation of france.

on may 17th a synagogue in rouen was set on fire by an algerian arsonist.

on june 19th, two teenagers were charged with the gang rape of a 12 year old jewish girl in courbevoie while making antisemitic remarks. a third boy was also charged for making antisemitic insults and death threats to the girl. the girl was reportedly called a "dirty jew" and the motivation for the rape was allegedly palestine.

on july 27th 2024, the paris prosecutor's office launched an investigation into antisemitic crimes in a football match between paraguay and israel during the 2024 summer olympics, including the group that shouted "heil hitler" while doing the nazi salute at the israeli team.

on august 24th, a 33 year old algerian man set fires at the beth yacoov synagogue in la grande-motte in an attempt to burn it down. the suspect said he had attacked the synagogue in support of palestine and wanted to provoke a reaction from israeli officials.

on february 2nd, a pro-palestinian college student in berlin assaulted a jewish classmate until he was hospitalized after an argument about the israel-hamas conflict. according to the police, the jewish student was punched in the face until he fell to the ground, after which he was kicked in the face while lying on the ground before the attackers fled the scene.

on april 5th, an unknown individual threw an incendiary device at the door of a synagogue in the northern city of oldenburg.

on august 29th, it was discovered that vandals had graffitied a holocaust memorial dedicated to the non-jewish family of german jews who had tried to protect them from being deported to concentration camps. the vandals spray painted "jews are committing genocide" and "free palestine" with a palestinian flag on the monument.

on july 4th, greek authorities arrested a greek, afghan, and iranian for their involvement in an attempted arson attack against a synagogue in athens.

on july 17th, three indivuals attacked fahad qubati, an arab-israeli tourist, in malia, crete, suspecting that he was jewish, resulting in injuries to his head and jaw. the attackers fled after a tunisian national showed them a cross that qubati was wearing to prove that he was a christian.

on april 25th during the march in celebration of liberation day in milan, a group of north african youths wearing keffiyehs and palestinian flags attacked the participants of the jewish brigade in piazza del duomo with kicks, punches, and sticks. a 19 year old egyptian man was arrested for beating a security guard with a stick.

following the israel-hamaz war, several rega stradinš university students from israel were reported to have received hate texts from other foreign students, with one person contacting the state security service in connection with antisemitic expressions and threats.

on march 22nd, a memorial for 6000 jewish victims of the holocaust in soroca jewish cemetary near cosǎuti was vandalized with graffiti that read "free palestine."

on february 3rd, the historic synagogue of middleburg was found to be defaced with swastikas.

on march 10th, the national holocaust museum in amsterdam was inaugurated by king willem-alexander in a ceremony attended by a number of holocaust survivors and their descendants, jewish community leaders, and foreign dignitaries, which included president isaac herzog of israel. in response, about a thousand pro-palestinian demonstrators gathered at the event at the portuguese synagogue where they jeered at ceremony guests, threw projectiles, vandalized police vehicles, and skirmished with riot police.

a concert by lenny kuhr in waalwijk on march 24th was disrupted by four people who unfurled a palestinian flag and called her. aterrorist and accused the singers family in israel of genocide.

on july 2024, a statue of holocaust victim anne frank on the merwedeplein in amsterdam was discovered to be defaced. the statue's feet had been daubed in red paint and the word "gaza" was sprayed onto its pedestal.

on august 4th, the 80th anniversary of the frank family's arrest, the statue was again smeared with red paint. this time the text "free gaza" was sprayed onto the pedestal and the statue's hands were also daubed in paint. later in august an information board in gouda describing frank's persecution and the publication of her diary was left illegible after a palestinian flag was sprayed on it.

a periodic survey of 8000 jews in 13 eu member states published on july 11th 2024 showed that 97% of the dutch respondants had experienced antisemitism in their daily lives in the year leading up to the survey.

on yom hashoah, may 2024, a group of pro-palestinian protestors disrupted the march of the living, a remembrance march from auschwitz to berkenau to commemorate the jewish victims of the concentration camps.

on february 3rd, a housing protest in porto escalated into an antisemitic demonstration where participants held signs assigning blame to jews and zionists for economic challenges. some signs called for the 'cleansing the world of jews.'

in april 2024, a woman wearing a shirt with the date october 7 and an anti-fascist symbol was arrested by spanish police after insulting and assaulting another woman for being jewish during a pro-palestine march in madrid.

on march 2, an orthodox jew was stabbed by a 15 year old in zurich. the teen later said he was doing the attack on behalf of al-aqsa, alluding to jihadist concepts.

a teacher in the peel school district posted "jews are the problem" in a private facebook group

on may 29th, a jewish school in montreal was struck by a gunman.

on may 31st, a man set fire to the entrance of a synagogue in vancouver.

on august 21st, around 125 jewish institutions in canada, including synagogues, jewish community centers, and hospitals, were sent bomb threats through email.

on february 11th, a gunman opened fire. ina lakewood church. her gun had a sticker with the word "palestine" and police uncovered antisemitic writings.

on may 29th, a man was arrested after saying antisemitic statements and attempting. toram pedestrians with his car outside of an orthodox jewish school in nyc.

on june 10th, a demonstration by within our lifetime took place near a memorial exhibit in lower manhattan for the victims of the re'im music festival massacre, in which over 360 people were murdered. some participants chanted antisemitic slogans, waved hamas flags, and celebrated the deaths. two days later, five houses belonging to jewish leaders and board members, including brooklyn museum director anne pasternak, were vandalized with red paint and pro palestinian graffiti. red triangles were sprayed onto one of the houses.

breaking up the section.

on june 23rd, a pogrom occurred outside of adas torah synagogue when pro palestinian demonstrators attempted to block people from entering through the main entrance and congregants began to fight back. demonstrators shouted antisemitic insults and beat a jewish woman at the scene.

on august 9th, three columbia university deans resigned during an investigation into antisemitic texts they exchanged in may while students expressed concerns about antisemitism on campus during a speaking event.

on august 10th, a 22 year old stabbed a jewish man near the headquarters of the chabad in crown heights while yelling "free palestine."

a committee in santa ana deliberately excluded jews from ethnic studies courses, one of the members accused a jew of having a "colonized jewish mind", and members intentionally planned to schedule votes during jewish holidays to avoid having to acknowledge jewish feedback or pushback.

i'm sure there are plenty more instances but these are just a few.

"it's 2024 antisemitism isn't a problem anymore you just want to be oppressed."

here's a non-exhaustive list of antisemitic incidents, attacks, and pogroms during my lifetime. if you're not jewish, i am guilting you into reading this entire list. i really do not care if it takes forever or makes you feel bad. read it.

1993

state farm settles a $30mil lawsuit after it was revealed that state farm kept a list of prominent jewish lawyers referred to within state farm as "the jewish lawyers list" where any claims made by those attorneys were automatically forwarded to state farm's fraud unit, purely on the basis of the attorney's jewish identity. state farm employees testified confirming the list had been used to discriminate against ethnic minorities.

1994

four days after the cave of patriarchs massacre, a man shot at a van full of jewish students, killing one and injuring three others. he is reported to have shouted "kill the jews" as revenge for the cave of patriarchs massacre.

a white supremacist fired ten rounds at a synagogue in eugene, oregon.

a jewish community center in buenos aires, argentina was bombed, killing 85 people and injuring 300.

1995

a japanese magazine ran an article that stated "the 'holocaust' is a fabrication. there were no execution gas chambers in auschwitz or in any other concentration camp. today, what are displaced as 'gas chambers' at the remaints of the auschwitz camp in poland are a post-war fabrication by the polish communist regime or by the soviet union, which controlled the country. not once, neither at auschwitz nor in any territory controlled by the germans during the second world war, was there 'mass murder of jews' in 'gas chambers'."

1996

in turkey, an islamic preacher distributed thousands of copies of a book called "the holocaust lie."

1997

jean-marie le pen was convicted and fined for remarks minimizing the holocaust, and then accused the president of france of being "on the payroll of jewish organizations, and particularly of b'nai b'rith."

1998

osama bin laden stated that israel's ultimate goal was to annex the arabian peninsula and the middle east and enslave its peoples. he claimed that the us state department and department of defense were controlled by jews for the sole purpose of serving israel's goals. he also claimed that israeli jews controlled the governments of the us and uk, directing them to kill as many muslims as they could.

1999

iran arrested 13 iranian jews, accusing them of being spies for israel, including a 16 year old boy. ten of them were sentenced to 4-13 years in prison, and eventually when they were freed they left iran for israel.

a man was arrested in paris for attacking a bartender because he "believed she was jewish."

several synagogues in sacramento were set on fire by a group of eight or nine men.

a man shot and killed one person and injured five at a jewish community center in los angeles.

2000

a man broke into a jewish woman's house, shot and killed her, then set her house on fire. he then drove to the synagogue where she was a member and fired into the windows of the synagogue, then exited his car and spray-painted two red swastikas on the building. he drove to another synagogue where he shot and shattered the synagogue's glass windows.

on yom kippur, two molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue.

a synagogue in syracuse, new york was set on fire by a man who reportedly yelled "i did this for you, god!"

a sukkah was destroyed at a synagogue in st. paul, minnesota.

a synagogue in harrisburg, pennsylvania was set on fire before yom kippur.

during the 2000 presidential election, lee alcorn, president of the dallas naacp branch, criticized al gore's selection of senator joe lieberman for his vice-presidential candidate because lieberman was jewish. alcorn said "if we get a jew person, then what i'm wondering is, i mean, what is this movement for, you know? does it have anything to do with the failed peace talks?" ... "so i think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kinds of things."

2001

in belgium, the vice president of one of the country's largest parties gave an interview on dutch tv where he cast doubt over the number of jews murdered by the nazis during the holocaust. in the same interview he questioned the scale of the nazis' use of gas chambers and the authenticity of anne frank's diary.

2002

osama bin laden stated in a letter that jews controlled the civilian media outlets, politics, and economic institutions of the united states.

a synagogue was set on fire in toronto, ontario, canada.

men rammed two cars through the courtyard gates of a synagogue in lyon, france, then rammed one of the cars into the prayer hall before setting the vehicles on fire. eyewitnesses reported seeing between 12 and 15 attackers. this was the first of a series of attacks on jewish targets in france in a single week - which coincided with passover - including at least five other synagogues.

a synagogue in marseille, france was burned to the ground.

a synagogue in strasbourg was set on fire.

a synagogue in paris was firebombed.

"richard nixon tapes" were declassified, which confirmed that billy graham, a famous evangelist and civil rights advocate, had agreed with nixon that jews controll the american media, calling it a "stranglehold."

a synagogue in tunisia was bombed, killing 20 and injuring 30.

a gunman opened fire at the airline ticket counter of el al, israel's national airline, at the la international airport. two people were killed and four were injured. federal investigators concluded that the gunman had hoped to influence us government policy in favor of palestinians and that the incident was a terror attack.

in an interview for a french magazine, a french actor, comedian, and activist dieudonne m'bala m'bala described "the jews" as "a sect, a fraud, which is the worst of all because it was the first."

white supremacists planned to bomb a series of institutions and people associated with the black and jewish communities. targets included the united states holocaust museum, the new england holocaust memorial, and steven spielberg.

2003

terrorists attempted to bomb a jewish cemetery, and succeeded in bombing a jewish community center and jewish-owned italian restaurant in morocco. 45 people in total were killed.

a molotov cocktail was thrown through the windows of a synagogue in los angeles, california.

the prime minister of malaysia drew a standing ovation for his speech. an excerpt: "[muslims] are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. the nazis killed 6 million jews out of 12 million. but today the jews rule this world by proxy. they get others to fight and die for them. they invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong so they may enjoy equal rights with others. with these they have now gained control over the most powerful countries. and they, this tiny community, have become a world power."

two synagogues in turkey were bombed, killing 55 and injuring over 750.

2004

romania officially denied the holocaust occurred on its territory up until 2004.

the film 'the passion of the christ' was released, causing backlash against the jewish community for protesting the antisemitic tones of the movie.

a jewish school library was firebombed in montreal, quebec, canada.

jewish cemeteries were defaced with swastikas and a funeral home set on fire in wellington new zealand.

2005

m'bala claimed during a press conference that the central council of french jews was a "mafia" that had "total control over french policy exercise", called the commemoration of the holocaust "memorial pornography" and claimed that the "zionists of the centre national de la cinematographie" which "control french cinema" prevented him from making a film about the slave trade.

the muslim brotherhood leader denounced what he called "the myth of the holocaust" in defending iranian president's denial of the holocaust.

a polish radio station during the polish election promoted antisemitic views, including denial of the jedwabne pogrom. their support of right-wing conservative law and justice party is considered a major factor in their electoral victory.

a group of 15 members of the state duma of russia demanded that judaism and jewish orgqanizations be banned from the country. 500 prominent russians demanded that the state prosecutor investigate ancient jewish texts as "anti-russian" and ban judaism.

islamic extremists planned to bomb a number of synagogues and an israeli consulate in california.

iranian president denied the holocaust during a speech in zahedan. "they have invented a myth that jews were massacred and palce this above god, religions and the prophets." he suggested that if the holocaust had occurred, that it was the responsibility of europeans to offer up territory to the jews.

2006

a man stabbed nine people at a synagogue in russia.

the iranian state-sponsored "international conference to review the global vision of the holocaust" opened, with its focus being to question the facts of the holocaust. the iranian foreign ministry spokesperson stated "the holocaust is not a sacred issue that one can't touch. i have visited the nazi camps in eastern europe. i think it is exaggerated."

mel gibson was arrested for a dui, and reportedly yelled at the police officer, "fucking jews... the jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. are you a jew?"

m'bala was fined for defamation after calling a prominent jewish tv presenter a "secret donor of the child-murdering israeli army."

ilan halimi, a french moroccan jew, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. he was dumped on the side of the road, 80% of his body covered in burns, and died from his injuries on his way to the hospital. the kisnappers thought halimi was wealthy because he came from a jewish family, and the gang confessed that they believed all jews to be rich which motivated them to target several jews. the halimi family reports being told that if they could not raise the money for the ransom then they should get it from the jewish community.

a man targeted the jewish federation of seattle when the organization showed up in search results after he typed the phrase "something jewish" into a search engine. he forced his way through the building's security door with several guns, a knife, and ammunition, taking a 14 year old girl as a hostage. he is reported to have said "i'm only doing this for a statement" and "i'm a muslim american; i'm angry at israel" before the shooting spree began. he then took a pregnant woman hostage, saying "now since you don't know how to... listen, now you're the hostage, and i don't give a fuck if i kill you or your baby." the woman reported him stating "that he was a muslim, and this was his personal statement against jews and the bush administration for giving money to jews, and for us jews for giving money to israel, about hozbollah, the war in iraq, and he wanted to talk to cnn."

2007

holocaust survivor elie wiesel was attacked by a holocaust denier in san francisco.

jewish professor elizabeth midlarsky had a swastika spray painted on her office door.

2008 - gaza war

a leading member of hamas made a statement that israelis "have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of palestine... they have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."

a belgian jewish magazine received a dozen death threats on its website, including a threat to carry out a suicide attack to "avenge the suffering of the palestinians."

protestors in indonesia shut down the country's only synagogue, threatening to drive out the country's jews. they stated that "if israel refuses to stop its attacks and oppression of the palestinian people, we don't need to defend [the synagogue's' presence here." the synagogue has been shuttered since.

a man sent a letter threatening to bo b the ida crown jewish academy in chicago. the letter said that explosives would be set off around the school unless violence in gaza stopped by january 15 2009.

south african deputy foreign minister was quoted saying "[jews] in fact control [america], no matter which government comes into power, whether republican or democratic, whether barack obama or george bush... the control of america, just like the control of most western countries, is in the hands of jewish money and if jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else." she later claimed she "conflated zionist pressure with jewish influence."

antisemitic graffiti, including swastikas, appeared all over turkey. a sign was put up at the door of a civic group's office saying "jews cannot enter, dogs can." anti-jewish articles began appearing in turkish newspapers, and there were several hundred documented examples of antisemitic messages. as a result, turkish jewish immigration to israel increased.

in yemen, jews experienced verbal and physical harassment. jewish children were injured, one seriously, when muslim students threw stones at them. anti-israel protestors also attacked several jewish homes, smashing windows and pelting them with rocks, and injuring at least one jewish residence. a yemeni jewish family was extricated from yemen to israel after suffering continuous antisemitic attacks and death threats. a grenade was also thrown into the courtyard of the family's home in raydah.

a molotov cocktail was thrown. at a synagogue in brussels. rocks and other objects were thrown at a jewish school. a jewish home was the subject of arson. afterwards, hundreds of protestors tried to march toward the jewish neighborhood but were held off by police.

a man opened fire on three israeli cosmetics salesmen and two customers in a shopping mall. the shooting, which followed a period of harassment against the cosmetic stand, resulted in two israelis being hit by the shots. the perpatrator explained that he was motivated by the middle east situation.

sixty-six antisemitic incidents were reported in france, home to europe's largest muslim and jewish populations. numerous synagogues were attacked with petrol bombs and damaged in various towns. a car was rammed into the gates of a synagogue in toulouse and set on fire. a petrol bomb was thrown at a synagogue which set fire to an adjacent jewish restaurant. offensive graffiti was also sprayed on synagogues throughout the country. in paris, a rabbi's car was torched, a. jewish student was attacked and stabbed four times, and a 15-year old girl was assaulted by a gang.

a jewish community in germany was daubed and later stoned, and the central council of jews in german reported a significant increase in the number of hate mails and death threats during the conflict.

synagogues in multiple cities in greece were vandalized and suffered arson attacks. in athens, the walls of a jewish cemetery were sprayed with antisemitic graffiti "jews israelites murderers." neo-nazi slogans like "ax and fire to the jewish dogs" were used at anti-israel protests. a monument commemorating the murder of greek jews was vandalized with slogans like "greece - palestine no jew will remain." a seminar at the jewish museum of thessaloniki was cancelled after receiving threats, and the leftist parliamentary party of coalition of the radical left declined to attend the greek national day of remembrance of holocaust heroes and martyrs because of the attendance of the israeli ambassador. in ioannina the local jewish cemetery was vandalized with several tombs broken. the corfu synagogue was vandalized with graffiti such as "shit on israel" "jews nazis" and "murderers." the shoah memorial was also vandalized with graffiti regarding gaza. in larisa both grouns from the extreme right and extreme left targeted the local community. leftist and palestinian demonstrators attempted to vandalize the synagogue during a march, while later the same day groups linked to neo-nazi groups vandalized the shoah monyment and organized protests in front of the synagogue asking for the expulsion of jews from larisa. jews were attacked as "christ killers" and "smelling of blood" "they are the worst thing of the 20th century" and an eminent member of the greek orthodox church spoke of "zionist monsters with sharp claws" and "jews puhished for killing christ" and being "god killers."

italian trade union flaica-cub issued a call to boycott jewish-owned shops in rome in protest at the israeli offensive. it was condemned as antisemitic and reminiscent of the italian race laws under fascism in the 1930s.

a molotov cocktail was thrown at a jewish owned building in amsterdam following an attempted arson of a jewish institution in arnhem. a synagogue and jewish owned building were targeted by stoning. at an anti-israel demonstration in utrecht, some demonstrators shouted "hamass, hamas, jews to the gas."

during the 2009 oslo riots, the largest anti-jewish riots in norwegian history, muslim youth attacked the israeli embassy and yelled anti-jewish slogans in arabic, including "death to the jews" "kill the jews" and "slaughter the jews." in one incident, young men beat a 73 year old man who was carrying an israeli flag while shouting "bloody jew - get him!" they only stopped attacking him when they realized he was not jewish.

a jewish burial chapel in sweden was the target of an arson attack and a jewish centor was set on fire twice in three days.

there were approximately 225 recorded antisemitic incidents in the uk during the war. synagogues were firebombed, jews received verbal and digital abuse, and a gang tried to force their way into jewish restaurants and shops, specifically focusing on the london jewish family centre. a jewish motorist was also dragged from his car and assaulted. antisemitic graffiti with slogans including "kill jews" "jews are scumbags" and "jihad 4 israel" were sprayed in jewish areas across london and manchester.

a molotov cocktail was thrown at a tample in chicago, and in lincolnwood a synagogue's glass doors were shattered by a brick and "free palestine" and "death to israel" were spraypainted on the building. a jewish preschool in california was graffitied with swastikas and antisemitic messages.

argentinian jews wearing kippot were physically attacked on public buses and jewish cemetaries were defaced. a gang attacked argentinian jews near the israeli embassy in buenos aires.

in bolivia, vandals removed a star of david from a monument from the plaza israel and started spraypainting "plaza palestina" on jewish murals.

during shabbat, the caracas synagogue, venezuela's oldest synagogue, was defaced with "property of islam", and an armed gang of 15 unidentified people broke in and the security guards were bound and gagged while the gang destroyed the offices and the repository where the holy books were stored. they daubed the walls with antisemitic and anti-israel graffiti that called for jews to be expelled from the country, and also stole a database that listed jews who lived in venezuela.

2008 - cont

the harvard crimson school paper ran a paid holocaust denial ad.

a chabad house in mumbai was taken over by two attackers and several residents were held hostage. a rabbi and his wife, who was six months pregnant, were murdered with four other hostages in the house by the attackers. according to radio transmissions, the attackers "would be told by their handlers in pakistan that the lives of jews were worth 50 times those of non jews." injuries on some of the bodies indicated that they may have been tortured.

2009

hamas refused to allow palestinian children to learn about the holocaust, which it called "a lie invented by the zionists" and referred to holocaust education as a "war crime."

an irish journalist claimed "there was no holocaust... and six million jews were not murdered by the third reich. these two statements of mine are irrefutable truths."

tapes were released in which billy graham is heard in conversation with richard nixon referring to jews as "the synagogue of satan."

four men were arrested in new york in connection with a plot to blow up two synagogues in the bronx.

a neo nazi entered the united states holocaust memorial museum in washington dc and shot and fatally wounded a security officer.

2010

the last surviving romaniote synagogue in greece was targeted for an arson attack.

a synagogue in cairo, egypt was bombed.

a synagogue in sweden was attacked with explosives.

2011

six jewish institutions were attacked by vandals in montreal, including four synagogues and a school.

j.z. knight stated "fuck god's chosen people! i think they have earned enough cash to have paid their way out of the goddamned gas chambers by now."

the manhattan terrorism plot to bomb various targets in manhattan, including a synagogue.

2012

a man killed four jews, including three children, outside a school in toulouse, france.

a synagogue in sweden was attacked with an explosive decide, shattering a window.

2013

alice walker expressed appreciation for the works of antisemitic conspiracy theorist david icke. she said that icke's book "human race get off your knees" would be her choice if she could have only one book. the book promotes the theory that the earth is ruled by shapeshifting reptilian humanoids and "rothschild zionists."

louis farrakhan delivered an antisemitic speech, referring to jews as "satanic jews" and "the synagogue of satan", controlling america's government and other sectors, reportedly saying that president obama "surrounded himself with satan... members of the jewish community." farrakhan also said that the jewish people "have mastered the civilization now, but they've mastered it in evil... who's the owner of hollywood that creates images and makes the people think that what is created on screen is the way we should live? that's satan... satan has devoured so much of humanity. ... the people that own hollywood are the same people that control your press, the same people that control your media, the same people who are the publishers, the same people who are the distributors, the same synagogue of satan, and they put you before the world in this disgraceful manner. ... jesus was the last hope for the jewish people but they rejected him. they are now in control of the media and the airwaves, gaining access to the 'sacred territory' which is in the minds of the people."

the supreme leader of iran grand ayatollah ali khamenei questioned the validity of the holocaust, saying "the holocaust is an event whose reality is uncertain and if it has happened, it's uncertain how it has happened."

2014

kkk leader killed three non jewish people at a jewish community center and jewish retirement home in kansas, the day before passover.

residents of a village in spain called "castrillo matajudios" ("jew-killer camp") since 1627 voted to change the name of the village.

2015

four jews were killed when a gunman attacked a kosher supermarket in paris where the gunman held 15 other hostages and demanded that the kouachi brothers not be harmed.

iran organized the international holocaust cartoon competition, a competition in which artists were encouraged to submit cartoons on the theme of holocaust denial.

louis farrakhan accused jews of involvement in sept 11 attacks.

swastikas were spraypainted on a jewish fraternity at uc davis on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz.

a french settlement named "la mort aux juifs" or "death to jews" finally changed its name after a denied attempt in 1992.

a synagogue in copenhagen was taken by a gunman during a bat mitzvah celebration where one jewish man on security duty was killed.

stanford university student senate candidate molly horwitz was asked by a student group how being jewish would affect her decision-making.

two synagogues and a jewish neighborhood in san antonio, texas were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

2016

natasha waldorf of alameda was subjected to two boys sending her text messages that included antisemitic slurs, two other students joked about the holocaust and when she confronted them they told her that "hitler should have finished the job."

the campus chapter of students for justice in palestine at the university of california irvine was sanctioned because they disrupted a program hosted by a jewish campus group and intimidated jewish students.

2017

alice walker published a poem on her blog titled "it is our (frightful) duty to study the talmud", recommending that the reader should start with youtube to learn about the evils of the talmud.

a huge wave of threats, including bomb threats, were made against jewish community centers and other institutions in the united states around the high holy days.

sarah halimi was murdered in paris.

the chicago dyke march organizers singled out and approached a group of women carrying jewish pride flags and began to question them on their political stance in regards to zionism and israel, and then expelled them from the event. the organizers attributed the reasoning to the star of david on the flag as a "zionist expression." the organization's twitter account also used the phrase "zio tears" in a now deleted tweet. "zio" is a slur originated by david duke.

the new england holocaust memorial was smashed with a rock.

in ukraine, the space of synagogues holocaust memorial display was vandalized by neo nazis.

the chairpersons of the chicago slutwalk wrote, "we still stand behind dyke march chicago's decision to remove the zionist contingent from their event, and we won't allow zionist displays at ours." the organizers made the following declaration about the star of david: "its connections to the oppression enacted by israel is too strong for it to be neutral."

a jewish cemetery in missouri was vandalized.

the unite the right rally took place in charlottesville, virginia, where white nationalists chanted slogans like "blood and soil" "jews will not replace us" "the goyim know" "the jewish media is going down."

a synagogue in sweden was firebombed.

2018

trayon white, an american politician, posted a video to his official facebook page showing snow flurries following, and alluding to the rothschild family conspiring to manipulate the weather.

an israeli man wearing a yarmulke was attacked in berlin; the attacker reportedly beat him with a belt and shouted "yehudi" ("jew")

tamika mallory, an american activist and one of the organizers of the womens march, attended an antisemitic speech by louis farrakhan, a figure she had previously refused to denounce. during the three hour speech, farrakhan claimed that "the powerful jews are my enemy" "the jews have control over agencies of those angencies of government" like the fbi, thta jews are "the mother and father of apartheid" and that jews are responsible for "degenerate behavior in hollywood turning men into women and women into men."

a republican candidate for senate in california openly called for a united states "free from jews."

11 people were murdered at the tree of life synagogue. on social media, several people made the claim that they "should not be mourned if they were zionists."

2019

belgium outlawed kosher slaughter.

rep ilhan omar tweeted an allegation that american support for israel was rooted in money spent by pro israel lobbying organizations.

several mps quit the labor party under jeremy corbyn citing "culture of extreme antisemitism and intolerance."

a subway poster in brooklyn with a picture of ruth bader ginsburg was valdalized with the writing "die jew bitch" and a swastika.

multiple violent attacks occured in brooklyn.

a synagogue in turkey is attacked with a molotov cocktail.

one person was killed and three were injured during a shooting at a passover seder in california.

a synagogue was attacked by a lone shooter in germany.

a kosher grocery store in jersey city, new jersey was attacked and five people were killed.

jersey city mayor steve fullop said a trustee of the jersey city board of education should resign in the wake of her comment after the above shooting about "jew brutes" that according to her have "threatened, intimidated, and harassed" black residents. the trustee asked whether the public is "brave enough" to listen to the shooters' message, and said the local rabbis were selling body parts. she remained on the board until 2022.

a jewish elder was killed and four others were injured at the home of a hasidic rabbi during hanukkah in new york.

2020

the tomb of esther and mordechai in iran was subjected to an arson attack.

the jewish center at the unitersity of delaware was subjected to an arson attack.

six igbo synagogues in nigeria were razed by soldiers, and at least 50 people were killed.

a synagogue in portland was subjected to an arson attack.

2021

george washington university's chapter of tau kappa epsilon fraternity reported that their house was broken into and vandalized, and their sefer torah destroyed.

2022

four hostages were taken at a synagogue in colleyville, texas. the attacker believed that the rabbi could call another rabbi in new york and secure the release of aafia siddiqui, a pakistani operative imprisoned for attempted murder and other crimes. siddiqui tried to dismiss her lawyers on the grounds that they were jewish. she said the case against her was a jewish conspiracy theory, demanded that no jews be allowed on the jury, and that all prospective jurors be dna tested and excluded from the jury at her trial if they had "zionist or israeli" dna. she wrote a letter to president obama, asserting, "study the history of the jews. they have always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and make the fatal error of giving them shelter... and it is this cruel, ungrateful back-stabbing of the jews that has caused them to be mercilessly expelled from wherever they gain strength. this is why 'holocausts' keep happening to them repeatedly! if they would only learn to be grateful and change their behavior!"

kanye west states that he "likes hitler" and is a "nazi." he still occasionally goes on an antisemitic twitter bender.

2023-2024 - current war

in october, an egyptian police officer shot and killed two israeli tourists and an egyptial tour guide in alexandria.

a jewish man walking to synagogue in johannesburg was accosted by a male jogger screaming antisemitic insults at him. the jogger then assaulted the man, knocked him over, and kicked and punched him while he lay on the ground.

a jewish cricket player was stripped of the captaincy by cricket south africa, claimed to have been a measure to reduce protests at the world cup.

a synagogue in tunisia was severely damaged during anti-israel riots with hundreds of people filmed setting fire to the building.

in armenia, unknown assailants set fire to a synagogue in yerevan and disseminated the arson attack on social media.

the associated press noted a rise in antisemitism on chinese social media. an israeli employee of the israeli embasee in beijing was stabbed and injured on october 13.

a 16 year old in australia was arrested after planning to attack a synagogue in vienna.

gravestones in belgium were damaged and many stars of david were stolen from a cemetery. only the jewish section was vandalized.

danish police arrested at least four operatives who were planning attacks on jewish or israeli targets in denmark.

in paris, stars of david were painted on multipe spots on several building fronts in a southern district. similar tags appeared over the weekend in other suburbs. antisemitic chants were filmed on the paris metro, "fuck the jews and fuck your mother, long live palestine. we are nazis and proud of it." a woman in lyon was stabbed and a swastika was graffitied on her home.

overall, french jews have noted a huge increase in antisemitism, with a surge of 1200% since october 7.

in berlin, the houses of several jews were marked with a star of david. two molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue.

israeli students in riga, latvia reported receiving hate texts and threats from other students.

lectures on the holocaust at utrecht university of applied sciences in the netherlands were postponed indefinitely.

a norwegian medical student at a rally in warsaw was pictured holding a poster of the flag of israel in a trash can alongside the text "keep the world clean." far right polish lawmaker grzegorz braun used a fire extinguisher on a lit menorah and removed it from the wall during a hanukkah celebration, saying "there can be no pace for the acts of this racist, tribal, wild talmudic cult."

residents of dagestan gathered near the flamingo hotel after reports that refugees from israel were being accomodated there. the protesters demanded that all hotel residents come to the windows to look at them. when the guests did not do this, stones were thrown into the building. the residents demanded to check the basements and let them into the hotel. police arrived and allowed protestors to check the hotel to make sure it was "jew free", and after this a message was posted outside the hotel that jews were prohibited from entering.

an antisemitic ralley was held in cherkessk, demanding the "eviction of ethnic jews."

a local jewish religious national-cultural community center under construction was set on fire in nalchik with the attackers writing "death to the yahuds" on the wall.

a mob stormed the uytash airport in dagestan after the arrival of a red wings flight from tel aviv. messages spread on telegram that a direct flight from israel was arriving, with calls to come to the airport and prevent the plane from landing. dozens of protestors stormed the airport and reached the runway, some of whom managed to climb up onto the plane's wings. 20 people were injured, two of whom were seriously injured. there are reports from passengers of rioters checking cars going to and from the airport for jews.

a synagogue in melillah, a spanish enclave in north africa, was attacked by a mob chanting "murderous israel" while waving palestinian flags.

pro palestinian demonstrators burned an israeli flag and chanted "bomb israel" outside a synagogue in. sweden.

i have to break up the sections because tumblr apparently has a character limit.

multiple cases of antisemitism were reported by students at concordia university with jewish students facing verbal and physical threats from both other students and faculty members. footage of a professor yanise arab shouting at jewish concordia students to "go back to poland, sharmuta (whore)" went viral alongside another video of a student using the slur "kike."

two jewish schools in montreal were targeted with gunfire overnight, and one was struck with gunfire a second time a few days later.

a jewish community center in montreal was attacked with a molotov cocktail.

jewish students and teachers of the peel district school board reported antisemitism and violent threats, including a teacher posting "jews are the problem" in a private facebook group.

a sukkah at caltech was vandalized with anti-israel graffiti. a man threw rocks through the glass doors of a synagogue and cafe in fresno, the second with a note reading "all jewish businesses will be targeted."

at columbia university, a woman assaulted an israeli man with a stick after he confronted her for ripping down posters with pictures and information abuot kidnapped israelis.

a man was arrested for sending threatening emails to a. synagogue in charlotte, north carolina.

a man in new york's grand central terminal punched a woman in the face and told her it was because she was jewish.

seven members of "white lives matter" california held a demonstration, holding up signs reading "no more wars for i$rael."

professor russell rickford spoke at a rally, saying he had found hamas's attack "exhilarating."

the illinois comptroller's office fired one of its lawyers, sarah chowdhurt, over antisemitic remarks she made on the instagram of another lawyer who is jewish.

a building next to a jewish fraternity at upenn was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti reading "the jews r nazis."

a man broke into a jewish family's home in los angeles, yelling "free palestine" and "kill jews."

threats against the jewish community at cornell university were posted online, threatening to shoot rape, and murder jewish students and encouraging violence against them.

paul kessler, an elderly jewish man, was killed at a rally after being struck in the head by a megaphone by a pro palestine protester, causing him to fall.

a woman was arrested after ramming her car into a black hebrew israelite school in indiana, mistakenly believing it to be an "israel school."

a man fired two rounds from a shotgun into the air outside a synagogue in albany and made threatening statements. he is alleged to have said "free palestine" at some point during the attack.

a game between the girls' varsity teams from the leffell school and roosevelt high school early college studies in yonkers was stopped when roosevelt students began to hurl antisemitic slurs at leffell students, with one yelling "i support hamas, you fucking jew", and during the third quarter became aggressive and violent during the play resulting in injuries of leffell's players.

participants in a pro-palestine rally in sydney changed "gas the jews", and several individuals in melbourne made death threats against jews, one group harassing a rabbi and his son, and another asking where to find jews, saying they were "hunting for jews."

a man in new south wales threatened to kill four jewish teenagers in a car with an israeli flag draped on it.

neo nazis marched in melbourne, displaying a banner reading "expose jewish power" and distributing neo nazi literature.

a sydney jewish man was verbally abused for wearing a kippah.

pro palestine graffiti was spray painted on the fence of a synagogue in auckland, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to set the property on fire. google maps had mistakenly listed the property as the local israeli consulate.

new zealand jews report a surge in antisemitic threats.

in new zealand, one child was physically assaulted and another had a swastika and a star of david drawn side by side on their school shirt. children were greeted by their peers with nazi salutes, being called "dirty jews", being told "jews control the world", and jokes about jews being gassed, and the blood libel claim that jews "chop off babies heads."

the us and israeli embassies in buenos aires received bomb threats via email, including one which said "jews we are going. tokill you all."

three people were arrested under suspicion of planning an attack on the maccabiah games.

brazilian authorities arrested two suspects in a. hezbollah backed terror plot to attack synagogues and other jewish targets in the country.

a column on the israeli embassy on colombia was vandalized with a swastika, start of david, and the word "terror" in hebrew.

if you made it to the bottom of this list and actually read everything, reblog with the tag "heard." that's really it. i just want to know that people hear us begging for people to speak up.

[originalleftist]

Nothing to see here folks, just a student group at a major Canadian university publicly advertising for the terrorist training camp they're hosting.

"McGill University is sounding the alarm after a student group associated with the school's ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment posted a photo of armed individuals and called for participation in a "revolutionary youth summer program" on campus."

"The caption of the post reads, "We pledge to educate the youth of Montreal and redefine McGill's 'elite' instututional [sic] legacy by transforming [sic] its space into one of revolutionary education. The daily schedule will include physical activity, Arabic language instruction, cultural crafts, political discussions, historical and revolutionary lessons."'

I don't have a problem with people learning Arabic or cultural crafts, certainly, or with honest political discussion. But "historical and revolutionary lessons" in this context is pretty obviously referring to indoctrination (the photo they used is literally a group of armed militants reading Mao). And makes me wonder if the "physical activity" is a euphemism for combat/weapons training.

This group, the SPHR, as noted in the article, has also been accused of praising the October 7th attack as heroic, anti-semitic rhetoric, and harassment.

Credit to McGill, they reported this to the authorities as a national security risk (after a number of protest groups rejected their attempt at conciliation, in which they offered to "review investments in weapons manufacturers and grant amnesty to protesting students").

[instereospace]

They want to do something in Al-Makhrour; it seems that we’re concentrating on Al-Makhrour. It’s a beautiful agricultural area, a wonderful area to stroll. Suitable for everything, I mean. That’s why it’s important. It needs work. It needs care. It’s not enough now with a restaurant or two, or landowners visiting. There must be activities, like summer camps, cultural festivals, heritage. I mean, attract people to this area so that there’s always life in it. Maybe there should be support for landowners so that they preserve it. And of course, a permit from the Israeli side. The main obstacle is Israel. In the current situation, tourism is local. Now when tourists come from abroad, they tell them, for example: “If you go to Bethlehem, those Arabs will slaughter you! No, you come sleep in Jerusalem.” So they try to provoke against Palestinian tourism. [Um Fadi: Yes, “Don’t drink the water;” “Don’t go to restaurants.”  

The problem is that all lands, whether in Al-Walaja, in Al-Makhrour [or] in Battir… All of them are private properties. So if I have a piece of land and I’m thinking of making a project, I can’t afford to. I depend on my neighbour: maybe my neighbour has money [but] maybe my location is better, right? So a big institution is needed, that knows the most appropriate for the topic.] Movement on Al-Makhrour, it needs effort; it needs cooperation. I mean, if we wanted to talk about our people in the Palestinian Authority: [we need] support from outside that doesn’t enter the hands of people living here. Support them in work, without handing them money. Because whenever money comes, in the end, there is no work. If we had to give it to the Authority, it would get lost without anything being done. – Abu Fadi

[god-whispers]

jul 1

week in review  - headlines

"behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me." psa 40:7

Queering Jesus: How It's Going Mainstream at Progressive Churches and Top Divinity Schools At Duke University’s Methodist-affiliated divinity school, pastors-in-training and future religious leaders conduct a Pride worship service in which they glorify the Great Queer One, Fluid and Ever-Becoming One.

Report Decries ‘Merciless Targeting of Christians’ Around the World The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) noted in its annual report Thursday that Christian persecution has been “sharply on the rise” and “its terrible impacts have only begun to be felt."

NHS Whistleblower Claims “We Were Ordered To Euthanize” Patients A National Health Service whistleblower claims that healthcare workers in the United Kingdom were ordered to “euthanize” patients and call them “COVID deaths” to promote the narrative of a “deadly virus.” This was all happening as hospitals were empty and no one was sick or dying of anything out of the ordinary.

Palestinian youths take part in Islamic Jihad summer camp, video shows. Leader calls them 'revenge camps.' The AFP News Agency on Friday posted a video to Twitter showing what it said are Palestinian youths taking part in an Islamic Jihad summer camp while on break from school.

Drag Marchers At NYC Pride Event Shout ‘We’re Here, We’re Queer And We’re Coming For Your Children!’ LGBTQ activists participating in New York City’s annual Drag March on Friday sparked outrage for chanting “we’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children” in a Manhattan park. The marchers, many wearing flamboyant dresses and clothing, walked through Tompkins Square Park in the East Village Friday night as part of the city’s Pride Month celebrations. What was all that about? Oh nothing, just the Pride Movement announcing their plans to groom and recruit your kids.

Fully Naked Men Expose Their Genitalia to Children at Seattle Pride Parade Meanwhile in the Democrat hellhole of Seattle…Fully naked men exposed themselves to children at a pride parade in Seattle, Washington on Sunday. The naked men rode bikes and flashed children as they rode by.

‘Disgusted’ New Zealand Surgeons Now Required To Consider Ethnicity Of Patients Surgeons in Auckland, New Zealand are ‘disgusted’ over a new policy rolled out in February which requires them to address “historical disparities in healthcare access” for Māori and Pacific Island communities, which will be factored into a new ranking system that determines priority for surgical procedures.

International Monetary Fund ‘working hard’ on a global Central Bank Digital Currency platform The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is “working hard” on a “global CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) platform,” the IMF managing director announced Monday.

Dr. Denis Rancourt: Covid injections have killed 13 million people worldwide Dr. Denis Rancourt’s research has shown that the vaccination campaign in India caused the deaths of 3.7 million fragile residents.  And, “in Western countries, we quantified the average all-ages rate of death to be 1 death for every 2,000 injections, to increase exponentially with age … We estimated that the vaccines had killed 13 million worldwide,” he said.

What Keeps The Majority Of Christians From Acknowledging The Obvious? Time Is Running Out Author and commentator Jonathan Brentner wrote a provocative article titled, “How Can You Not See It?” He was asking the question, how can you not see the fulfilling of Bible prophecy wherever you look? Is it biblical illiteracy, indifference, or busyness, that keeps the majority from acknowledging the obvious? Time is running out. Predicted events are exploding. Things are in decline. Even nature is screaming that Jesus is coming soon! All of creation must be set free, not just humans.

Satanic Temple To Host ‘Let Us Burn’ Events At State Capitols To Mock God and Believers It is both predictable and prophetic. The Satanic Temple (TST) is planning a tour to bring a band called Satanic Planet to different states to mock the one true God and to specifically counteract the “Let Us Worship” tour, which performed at several state capitols. The Satanic Temple is looking to send its band to the same cities for the purpose of exalting darkness

Rubio: Recent UFO whistleblower isn’t the only one Whistleblower David Grusch is not the only high-level government official to come forward with claims about UFOs, according to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Rubio told NewsNation on Monday that he has heard from firsthand witnesses in “high positions in our government” to some of the claims made by Grusch. We’re trying to gather as much of that information as we can … And frankly, a lot of them are very fearful of their jobs … fearful of harm coming to them,” Rubio added.

3 Sure Signs of the Coming Antichrist 1. The destabilization of nations. As we observe the current state of the world, we can witness a growing destabilization of nations. The Bible clearly indicates that the Antichrist will rise during a time of global turmoil and panic. Governments and political systems promise solutions to the world’s problems, but often fall short

New ‘AI-Generated Ouija Board’ Aims to Converse with the Dead People around the world are starting to flock to “grief tech” for answers, much like Saul flocked to the medium of Endor when he wanted answers from the deceased prophet Samuel. But what is grief tech, and is it abominable as the Lord finds the practice of necromancy and sorcery? Séance AI, who chose that particular name on purpose, are trying to replicate an actual spiritual séance, like Saul did with the medium.

First Human Trials Begin for AI-Designed Drug Biotech firm Insilico Medicine said Monday that it entered an “AI-discovered-and-designed” drug into Phase 2 clinical trials involving human subjects, a first for the industry. The robots: they may not be so bad after all.

Aborted pregnancies in England, Wales soars to new record | World News The number of aborted pregnancies in the United Kingdom soared to a record high last year, according to government data.

Michigan House passes “Hate Speech” bill to FINE AND JAIL parents, teachers, pastors, and politicians who speak the truth This means that parents, teachers, pastors, activists, and politicians can be charged with “hate crimes” if their speech upsets someone who is weak-minded and vindictive. For example, the victims of these new “hate crimes” can claim that a pastor caused “severe mental anguish” because the pastor spoke a basic truth from the Bible.

Is The UN’s Proposed Seven-Year Plan Prophetically Significant? The UN recently announced that they need “7 Years of Accelerated, Transformative Action to Achieve SDGs.” The SDGs are the seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” that the UN put in place eight years ago through which they intend to establish a one-world government. Is the fact that the globalists of our day are thinking in terms of “seven years” prophetically significant?

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Jonah Fried

MONTREAL – B’nai Brith Canada is greatly disturbed by the prospect of a “Youth Summer Program” planned by participants in the illegal anti-Israel encampment on McGill University’s property.

Flyers promoting the “revolutionary summer program,” which organizers are framing as their answer to a “transnational student callout to #Revolt4Rafah,” feature images of keffiyeh-clad fighters brandishing submachine guns. Activities would be held from June 17 to July 12, 2024, on the lower field of McGill’s downtown campus, which has been unlawfully occupied by a coalition of radical anti-Israel groups since April 27.

“This is appalling,” said Henry Topas, Quebec Regional Director for B’nai Brith Canada. “Look at how they have moved the goalposts. First, they started holding demonstrations every week, despite their tendency to spout violent and antisemitic slogans. Then, they illegally occupied the campus, bullied Jewish students, harassed McGill administrators at their homes, and broke into university buildings.

“Now, we have a ‘summer camp’ openly being advertised with images of masked men holding weapons. Is McGill going to allow its campus to be used to brainwash youths into thinking that terrorism is acceptable?”

The announcement of the planned summer program comes only days after McGill offered amnesty to all students involved in the encampment and offered to accept some of the protesters’ “demands” – even as the university continues to seek a court order authorizing police to remove the illegal occupants.

In a social-media post, the McGill chapter of Students in Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) promised to “redefine McGill’s ‘elite’ instutional [sic] legacy by transformining [sic] its space into one of revolutionary education.”

SPHR says in its literature that “physical activity” as well as “revolutionary lessons” will be included in the so-called “program.”

The signup sheet:

The sheet lists options such as classes on “Islamic Resistance,” “pan-Arabism,” and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – an apparent reference to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s network of proxies dedicated to destroying Israel and the United States.

The launch of this alarming “youth program” follows a violent incident on June 6, when a group of radicals broke into and vandalized the James McGill administration building, occupying it for two hours. This marked the most extreme escalation on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. Police in riot gear used necessary force to disperse the crowd and access the building, which protesters had barricaded with construction fencing and other materials.

At least 15 people were ultimately arrested in connection with the clashes, some for throwing rocks at police officers.

“The situation at McGill is well out of control and has been for some time,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “We call on McGill and the local authorities to ensure that the university’s property is not used as a forum to incite violence against Israel and Jews.

“The plan for this so-called program further disproves the myth that these illegal encampments are about democracy and peaceful protest. They are, in fact, a hypocritical assault on Canadian values and Western norms as a whole.”

[newstfionline]

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Rash of mass shootings stirs US fears heading into summer (AP) Two people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in mass shootings overnight in three states, authorities said Saturday, stoking concerns that a spike in U.S. gun violence could continue into summer as coronavirus restrictions ease and more people are free to socialize. The attacks took place late Friday or early Saturday in the Texas capital of Austin, Chicago and Savannah, Georgia. In Austin, authorities said they arrested one of two male suspects and were searching for the other after a shooting early Saturday on a crowded pedestrian-only street packed with bars and restaurants. Fourteen people were wounded, including two critically, in the gunfire, which the city’s interim police chief said is believed to have started as a dispute between two parties. In Chicago, a woman was killed and nine other people were wounded when two men opened fire on a group standing on a sidewalk in the Chatham neighborhood on the city’s South Side. In the south Georgia city of Savannah, police said one man was killed and seven other people were wounded in a mass shooting Friday evening.

Summer camps return but with fewer campers and counselors (AP) Overnight summer camps will be allowed in all 50 states this season, but COVID-19 rules and a pandemic labor crunch mean that many fewer young campers will attend, and those who do will have to observe coronavirus precautions for the second consecutive year. “Camp might look a little different, but camp is going to look a lot better in 2021 than it did in 2020, when it didn’t happen,” said Matt Norman of Atlanta, who is getting ready to send his 12-year-old daughter to camp. Even though most camps will be open, reduced capacity necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions and the labor shortage will keep numbers well below a normal threshold of about 26 million summer campers, said Tom Rosenberg of the American Camp Association.

Mexico says COVID-19 has affected a fourth of its population (Reuters) About a quarter of Mexico’s 126 million people are estimated to have been infected with the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Friday, far more than the country’s confirmed infections. The 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey (Ensanut) showed that about 31.1 million people have had the virus, the ministry said in a statement, citing Tonatiuh Barrientos, an official at the National Institute of Public Health. According to Barrientos, not all of the people in the survey’s estimate necessarily showed symptoms. The survey was based on interviews with people at 13,910 households between Aug. 17 and Nov. 14 last year, and confirmed preliminary results released in December.

Peru on edge as electoral board reviews result of disputed presidential election (Guardian) Peru was on a knife-edge on Friday as its electoral board reviewed ballots cast in the presidential election, after a challenge to the tally by the losing candidate Keiko Fujimori. The final tally gave the leftist teacher Pedro Castillo a razor-thin 50.17% to 49.83% advantage over his rightwing rival Fujimori, which amounts to about 60,000 votes. However, the country’s electoral authority has yet to confirm the win, and Fujimori, the scion of a controversial political dynasty, has refused to concede. She alleges fraud, even though national and international observers said the vote was clean, and has called for up to 500,000 votes to be nullified or reexamined, forcing the electoral board to conduct a review of ballots.

For Cornwall, G7 summit brings disruption (AP) Towering steel fences, masses of police, protests on the beach: The Cornish seaside’s turquoise waters and white sandy beaches are looking decidedly less idyllic this week as leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies descend for a summit. U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are arriving for three days of talks starting Friday at the tiny village of Carbis Bay, near St. Ives in Cornwall. The region is a popular holiday destination in the southwestern tip of England. Locals may be used to crowds and traffic jams during the peak summer tourist season, but the disruptions caused by the summit are on another level. A naval frigate dominates the coastline, armed soldiers guard the main sites and some 5,000 extra police officers have been deployed to the area. Authorities have even hired a cruise ship with a capacity of 3,000, moored offshore, to accommodate some of the extra officers. A main road is closed for the whole week, and local train lines and bus services have been shut down. A 3-meter (10-foot) tall metal fence nicknamed the “ring of steel” has been erected around Treganna Castle in Carbis Bay, where world leaders will stay. Security is also tight in the nearby town of Falmouth, the main base for international media covering the summit.

World leaders are in England, but beautiful British beaches have stolen the show (Washington Post) When President Biden shared a photo to Twitter on Thursday of him standing alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and gazing out onto an unspoiled, sandy white beach from the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall, England, the post was supposed to be a tribute to the “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States. But to many, it was the image of the picturesque coast that stood out. It looked somewhat suspicious. Too good to be true. Others questioned the authenticity of the scene, wondering whether it was photoshopped. Although it is true that some of Britain’s beaches have a reputation for pebbles, angry seagulls that steal food from unsuspecting tourists and diapers that float in murky waters, the county of Cornwall boasts some of the country’s best seaside destinations—complete with calm, clear waters that are perfect for swimming in and long stretches of soft sand that attract families from around the world. Carbis Bay is one of several beaches that make up St. Ives Bay, which, according to the Cornwall tourist board, is considered by the “Most Beautiful Bays in the World” organization to be one of the world’s best. The bay is described as being “surrounded by sub-tropical plants and lapped by turquoise waters.”

Ransomware’s suspected Russian roots point to a long detente between the Kremlin and hackers (Washington Post) The ransomware hackers suspected of targeting Colonial Pipeline and other businesses around the world have a strict set of rules. First and foremost: Don’t target Russia or friendly states. It’s even hard-wired into the malware, including coding to prevent hacks on Moscow’s ally Syria, according to cybersecurity experts who have analyzed the malware’s digital fingerprints. They say the reasons appear clear. “In the West you say, ‘Don’t . . . where you eat,’ ” said Dmitry Smilyanets, a former Russia-based hacker who is now an intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, a cybersecurity company with offices in Washington and other cities around the world. “It’s a red line.” Targeting Russia could mean a knock on the door from state security agents, he said. But attacking Western enterprises is unlikely to trigger a crackdown. The relationship between the Russian government and ransomware criminals allegedly operating from within the country is expected to be a point of tension between President Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at their planned summit in Geneva on Wednesday. The United States has accused Russia of acting as a haven for hackers by tolerating their activities—as long as they are directed outside the country.

Pandemic relapse spells trouble for India’s middle class (AP) India’s economy was on the cusp of recovery from the first pandemic shock when a new wave of infections swept the country, infecting millions, killing hundreds of thousands and forcing many people to stay home. Cases are now tapering off, but prospects for many Indians are drastically worse as salaried jobs vanish, incomes shrink and inequality is rising. Decades of progress in alleviating poverty are imperiled, experts say, and getting growth back on track hinges on the fate of the country’s sprawling middle class. It’s a powerful and diverse group ranging from salaried employees to small business owners: many millions of people struggling to hold onto their hard-earned gains. The outbreak of the pandemic triggered the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s and as it gradually ebbs, many economies are bouncing back. India’s economy contracted 7.3% in the fiscal year that ended in March, worsening from a slump that slashed growth to 4% from 8% in the two years before the pandemic hit. Economists fear there will be no rebound similar to the ones seen in the U.S. and other major economies.

‘Xi Jinping is my spiritual leader’: China’s education drive in Tibet (Reuters) Under clear blue skies, rugged peaks and the spectacular Potala Palace, one image is ubiquitous in Tibet’s capital city Lhasa: portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and fellow leaders. China is broadening a political education campaign as it celebrates the 70th anniversary of its control over Tibet. Civilians and religious figures who the government arranged to be interviewed on the five-day trip pledged loyalty to the Communist Party and Xi. Asked who his spiritual leader was, a monk at Lhasa’s historic Jokhang temple named Xi. “I’m not drunk ... I speak freely to you,” said the monk named Lhakpa, speaking from a courtyard overlooked by security cameras and government observers. “The posters [of Xi] coincide with a massive political education programme which is called ‘feeling gratitude to the party’ education,” said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan studies veteran scholar at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Long overlooked, Israel’s Arab citizens are increasingly asserting their Palestinian identity (Washington Post) Growing up in an Arab village in northern Israel in the 1990s, Mahmoud Abo Arisheh was sure of at least two things: He was Israeli, and he was not allowed to talk politics. “Be careful, or the Shin Bet will get you,” his parents told him, referring to Israel’s domestic security service. Decades later, much has changed: Abo Arisheh is a lawyer, a poet and a theater director in Jaffa. He attends protests and talks politics freely—in Arabic, Hebrew and English. And while his citizenship may remain Israeli, the identity most dear to him is that of a Palestinian. “I didn’t know anything about being Palestinian,” said the 32-year-old, “but then I opened my eyes.” And now, it seems, so are many others. In just the past month, Palestinian citizens of Israel—also known as Israeli Arabs—have risen up in mass, nationwide demonstrations to protest Israeli evictions and police raids. They have been arrested by the hundreds following some of the worst communal violence between Arabs and Jews in Israel’s post-independence history. For a community that is often overlooked despite numbering nearly 2 million people—or about 20 percent of the Israeli population—these are momentous days indeed.

Nigerian police fire tear gas to break up protests over rising insecurity (Reuters) Police fired tear gas and detained several demonstrators in the Nigerian cities of Lagos and Abuja on Saturday during protests over the country’s worsening security situation, Reuters witnesses said. Anger over mass kidnappings-for-ransom, a decade-long Islamist insurgency and a crackdown on protesters in Lagos last October has fueled demands for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to tackle violence and insecurity. Reuters witnesses in Lagos and Abuja saw police shooting their guns into the air and firing tear gas into the crowds to disperse the demonstrators, who held placards and chanted “Buhari must go”. Officers were also seen smashing mobile phones confiscated from protesters, who also denounced the country’s 33.3% unemployment rate.

[eretzyisrael]

2 said killed in what may be the 1st fighter jet attack in West Bank in 20 years; military, Shin Bet say Hamas, Islamic Jihad gunmen used al-Ansari mosque as base of operations

By Emanuel Fabian Today, 8:50 am 0

An entrance to an underground storage site for alleged weapons and explosives in a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, July 3, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israeli forces carries out an airstrike, apparently from a fighter jet, on a tunnel used by terror group members at a mosque in the northern West Bank city of Jenin early on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said.

According to a joint statement, members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups were sheltering at what the IDF and Shin Bet called an “underground terror route” at the al-Ansari mosque in Jenin, ahead of carrying out an imminent terror attack.

The Shin Bet and military said the terror operatives were using the mosque as a base to plan and carry out attacks, including the recent detonation of an explosive near Israeli troops along the West Bank security barrier. No Israeli forces were hurt in the blast on October 14, and police said officers killed at least four gunmen.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry said two people were killed and several others were injured in the Israeli strike.

The military said the strike was carried out by “an aircraft” without specifying if it was a drone, combat helicopter, or fighter jet. The strike was believed to have been carried out by a fighter jet due to the type of munition that was used to target the underground tunnel. If true, it would be the first strike by a fighter jet in the West Bank in at least two decades.

The al-Ansari mosque had been raided by Israeli forces during a major operation in Jenin over the summer, uncovering what was called “terror infrastructure” and armaments.

At the time, the IDF said that troops found two interconnected tunnel openings. Explosives, weapons, and other military equipment were found inside the holes and scattered across the mosque.

While attention has largely been focused on Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, tensions have risen considerably in the West Bank since thousands of Hamas gunmen surged into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, slaughtering some 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians. Israel has launched a campaign to eliminate the terror group, with over 4,300 people killed in its airstrikes in Gaza so far, according to unverified numbers announced by health authorities in the Hamas-run Strip.

Hamas has repeatedly urged Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up against Israel in support of its cause.

The West Bank has seen clashes between IDF forces and Palestinians in recent days, and several attempted Palestinian terror attacks, according to the army. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, at least 90 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since October 7.

Smoke rises during a military raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in the West Bank on October 19, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

The IDF said Sunday that troops had arrested 727 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 480 affiliated with Hamas, since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.

On Saturday, the IDF said troops demolished the home of Hamas terrorist Maher Shalloun — in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp — who was charged with killing dual American-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles on the Route 90 highway in February.

Since Hamas’s mass incursion into southern Israel, during which the group also abducted at least 210 hostages of all ages, Israeli forces have held the West Bank under a tight grip, closing crossings into the territory and checkpoints between cities, measures they say are aimed at preventing attacks.

The renewed crackdown comes with Israel concerned about the conflict escalating into a multi-front war, particularly the possibility of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror organization joining the battle.

Agencies contributed to this report.

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 6/22/20

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

San Francisco police ordered officers to turn off body cameras before raiding a journalist’s home. [Link]

California police murdered an 18-year-old boy working as a security guard. [Link]

One of three officers who fired their weapon at Breonna Taylor will be fired. [Link]

The Navy announces it will not reinstateBrett Crozier as captain of the USS T Roosevelt. Cozier was fired after a letter he wrote warning of a Covid outbreak on his ship was leaked. [Link]

UK

A terrorist in the UK killed three people and injured 12. The Libyan man used a knife in the attack. [Link]

China

China likely lost 40 soldiers in clashes with India last week. [Link]

In a blow to the protest movement, students and unions failed to gain enough support from Hong Kongers to have a strike in response to China’s security law in Hong Kong. [Link]

Afghanistan

The UN reports that healthcare workers are being targeted in Afghanistan. The UN counted 12 attacked from mid-March to May. [Link]

Middle East

Israel destroyed 70 Palestinian homes in the first weeks of June. [Link]

The US carried out airstrikes against alleged IS targets in northern Iraq. [Link]

Southern separatists in Yemen seized the Yemeni Island Socotra from the Saudi backed-Yemeni government. [Link]

Two bombings in Somalia killed seven people. [Link]

Egyptian Dictator al-Sisi says his country has a right to intervene in Libya and ordered his army to prepare for war. [Link]

Read More

[girlactionfigure]

Hang Arafat Irfaiya!

Arafat Irfaiya is the monster that raped, murdered and mutilated a beautiful 19-year old girl last week because she was a Jew living in Eretz Yisrael. He is guilty of crimes against the Jewish people, and he should be executed for them.

There is a law in Israel that prescribes the death penalty for crimes against the Jewish people committed during WWII or “the period of the Nazi regime.” The limitation to the Nazi period is illogical and should be removed. Murdering Jews, qua Jews, in 2019 is not different than doing it in 1943. Murdering them in order to try to destroy the Jewish state is a crime against the Jewish people no less than deporting them to Auschwitz.

Military courts can impose a death penalty for crimes committed in the territories, but unfortunately the site of the murder was just inside the Green Line, so the trial will be in a civilian court.

The leniency shown by the Jewish state to murderers motivated by “nationalism” – Palestinian Arab Jew-hatred – is remarkable, including almost Scandinavian-style prison conditions, regular salaries paid by the Palestinian authority, and often early release as part of political deals or as blackmail for hostages.

This is stupid. The smiles often displayed by Palestinian Arab terrorists like Irfaiya as they are sentenced testify to the fact that they see themselves as victorious despite their conviction.

Keeping these creatures in prison is expensive, provides an incentive for hostage-taking – you may recall that in 2011 one Jewish soldier, Gilad Shalit, was exchanged for 1027 terrorists, many of whom were guilty of murder – and, thanks to the Palestinian Authority’s payment system and the adulation they receive in Palestinian society, probably encourages further terrorism rather than deterring it. When they are released, they often return to terrorism. In 2015 it was reported that six additional Israelis had been murdered by prisoners released in the Shalit deal.

Every time – and there have been many times – that a Palestinian Arab terrorist commits a particularly horrible murder, there are calls for the imposition of the death penalty. And every time, it doesn’t happen.

There are numerous objections to the death penalty in general. But in this case, and in most cases of Palestinian terrorism, they don’t apply. There is no doubt of Arafat Irfaiya’s guilt; there is physical evidence, including DNA, plus a confession and reenactment of the crime.

It is often said that the death penalty is not a deterrent, and this may be true in the West, especially in places like California, where the probability of a death sentence being carried out in a reasonable time is almost zero. In the Middle East, however, there are cultural factors that have the opposite effect. In our region, not executing a murderer is a sign of weakness, a signal that the victim’s family or tribe is too weak to preserve its honor. And a tribe without honor is a tribe whose members can be murdered with impunity. Failing to impose the death penalty actually has the opposite of a deterrent effect – it encouragesmurdering Jews.

Since 1967, Israel and the Jewish people have undergone a continuous loss of honor relative to their enemies, as they have made a series of unrequited concessions (starting with the surrender of sovereignty over the Temple Mount). With Oslo the pace of the concessions – and the concomitant terrorism against Israel – accelerated greatly, and there are beginning to be murmurs that still more is about to be expected of us.

If we wish to survive as a Jewish state, the pendulum must be forced to swing back the other way. I believe that a comprehensive policy to regain the initiative – and our honor – is needed. A small part of it would be to actually punish terrorists in proportion to their crimes. Executing Arafat Irfaiya would be a start.

But only a start. How did it come about that there are so many like Irfaiya? Why did two young Palestinian Arabs viciously slaughter five members of the Fogel family including a 3-month old baby girl?  Why did another Palestinian Arab teenager climb through a window and stab Hallel Yaffe Ariel to death in her bed? Why have there been hundreds of terror attacks against Jews by Palestinians in the past four years, many by perpetrators who are not known to be directly associated with traditional terrorist groups?

The answer is not complicated. When Israel invited Yasser Arafat back from exile and allowed the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo accords, one of Arafat’s first actions was to decree that every institution in the territories under his control – schools, mosques, summer camps, newspapers, radio and TV – would teach violent hatred of Jews and Israel. Every anti-Jewish trope was included, from traditional Muslim “apes and pigs” slanders to memes borrowed from European antisemitism. Terrorists who murder Jewish women and children are treated as military heroes who have carried out successful “operations.” The project was continued by Mahmoud Abbas after Arafat’s death, and in Gaza after the Hamas takeover. Its effect has been to paint Jews as vermin that it is not only permissible, but laudable, to kill.

At some point, Abbas introduced the policy of paying salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons (if they should be killed during their attacks, the stipend is given to the family). Despite threats from the US and Israel to cut payments to the PA (the US has already reduced aid to the PA in accordance with the Taylor Force Act and PM Netanyahu has promised to start deducting equivalent funds from import duties collected on behalf of the PA), the PA continues to pay terrorists, which Abbas has called his top priority. Salaries are proportional to the length of prison sentences, which means that they are proportional to the severity of the crime.

The combination of the coordinated program of indoctrination, plus financial incentives for terrorist acts, has bred several generations of monsters like Arafat Irfaiya.

What this means is that the leaders of the PLO and Hamas, who have programmed the murderers and who pay them, are also guilty of murder. Indeed Irfaiya and the other monsters are no more than hitmen. The root of the problem is planted higher up.

We have a long road to travel to recover from the errors we’ve made since 1967 and since Oslo. But we have to start small.

As a first step, let’s hang Arafat Irfaiya and go on from there.

Abu Yehuda

[jacobsvoice]

Lament From the South Hebron Hills

The New York Review of Books is not renowned for embracing Israel, unless it is with a literary choke-hold. Proudly identifying its focus on “the great political issues of power and its abuses,” Israel became an inviting target, especially for Jewish leftist contributors. Fifteen years ago historian Tony Judt who, as a besotted teenager had spent his high-school summers working on kibbutzim, labeled the Jewish state an “anachronism” that is “bad for the Jews.” Left-wing Israeli writers – Amos Oz, David Grossman and Avishai Margalit prominent among them – were welcomed by the Review to illuminate Israel’s moral deficiencies.

The mantle of Israel-bashing has been passed to other Jewish academics who, like Judt, believe that the Jewish state is worthy of their loathing. Its March 7 issue features a review of the newest book by historian David Shulman, who emigrated to Israel from Iowa following his graduation from high school after the Six-Day War. Serving in the IDF during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he subsequently became an expert on the languages of India and enjoyed a distinguished academic career at the Hebrew University.

Winner of the Israel Prize in 2016, Shulman donated his award funds to Ta’ayush, the organization of his passion that supports Palestinian farmers living the South Hebron hills (between Hebron and Beersheva). There, for many years, he has spent every Shabbat protecting besieged Palestinian shepherds and farmers from the Jewish settlers whom he despises. Describing them as “sociopathetic” Israelis who enjoy “unfettered freedom to terrorize the local Palestinian population,” Shulman feels “responsible for the atrocities committed in my name” by settlers and the soldiers who protect them.

In Freedom and Despair (2018) Shulman confesses to a “nagging sense of futility and despair.” Once imagining that the peace camp that engages his passion was the catalyst for “a mass movement for peace,” his dream was shattered by “the vast machinery of the Occupation,” a “systemic wickedness” that is an “insult to human dignity on a mass scale.” Realizing that he “can never be free in any meaningful way if [Palestinians] are not free,” he laments “the brutal harassment by soldiers and settlers” of innocent shepherds as the Israeli government pursues its “greater annexationist goal.”

Nowhere in his book, focused on the South Hebron hills, does Shulman mention the horrific Arab massacre in Hebron (1929) when sixty-seven Jewish residents and yeshiva students were murdered for the crime of being Jews. Hebron became Judenrein until, after the Six-Day War, Jews began to return to their ancient holy city, burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people and King David’s first capital city. But Shulman lacerates Hebron (where several hundred Jews are surrounded by 200,000 Palestinians) and other settlements as a “corrupt regime of theft and dispossession.”

Shulman relentlessly focuses on the besieged Palestinian mountain village of Susya. Had Shulman bothered to Google Susya he would have learned that it is “the site of an ancient Jewish village” with archeological remains from a 4th-5th century synagogue. Who, then, are the “occupiers”: Jews, or the Islamic warriors who converted the site into a mosque and their Muslim disciples?

Freedom and Despair overflows with Shulman’s laments about “the Occupation” by Israel of its Biblical homeland, millennia before the arrival of Muslim conquerors. It is “wicked at the root and cannot be justified by any rational means.” Jewish “sociopathic settlers,” for Shulman, possess “a fanatical and lethal vision” whose occupation “embodies wickedness of such intensity that it calls into question the legitimacy” of Israel.

A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Shulman has been rewarded with a glowing review by Raja Shehadeh, the prominent Palestinian lawyer (and another familiar contributor) who founded the human rights group Al-Haq. Shehadeh focuses on violence (“almost weekly”) by “sociopathetic” settlers (Shulman’s label) against West Bank Palestinians. Palestinian violence against Jews is ignored – as it is by Shulman. The recent shooting of a pregnant Israel woman whose premature baby died three days later, and the rape and murder of a 19-year-old Israeli woman by a Hebron Moslem yearning to be a martyr occurred too late for inclusion – or evasion.

Shehadeh, like Shulman, believes that settler claims (to Biblical Judea and Samaria) are “mythical” - even (for Shulman) “absurd.” Drawing upon Shulman’s narrative, Shehadeh concludes that “in this battle against [Israeli] fascism,” Palestinians and Israelis ”must fight together.” Shulman and Shehadeh are their self-appointed verbal warriors.

While I was reading Shulman’s book and Shehadeh’s review, JNS published a brief account of the destruction by Arabs of 200 cherry trees and grapevines in Kfar Etzion, at the edge of Shulman’s beloved Palestinian enclave. Perhaps Shulman (and Shehadeh) will condemn the rampage in The New York Review of Books. More likely, not.

Jewish News Service (JNS) (March 6, 2019)

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016 published by Academic Studies Press.