Algemeiner (http://www.algemeiner.com)
(1) Sound and Fury on the Israeli Left , 14 October 2014
by Jerold S. Auerbach
Anyone who is unfamiliar with the rhetoric of the Israeli left might want to check out responses from Peace Now and Haaretz to the recent purchase of homes in Jerusalem – by Jews. With predictable frenzy they anticipated the imminent collapse of morality in the Jewish state after Jews moved into their new homes in Silwan, a few meters south of the Old City, duly purchased from a willing Arab seller. Arab property owners in Silwan denied any sale and initiated “legal procedures” to nullify it. (More about that below.)
“The implication of this offensive act,” declared Peace Now, “has far reaching consequences.” With a mastery of arithmetic that would make any third-grader proud, it reported that 6 buildings, comprising 20 housing units, could increase “the settler presence” by 35%, enlarging the number of Jews by one hundred. For Peace Now, that is a shanda of monumental proportions, posing a severe threat to the population of Silwan, which already includes 500 Jews – and 50,000 Arabs. This “unjust and dangerous reality” climaxes more than twenty years during which “the Israeli government and police are allowing and supporting” settlements.
An editorial in Haaretz (October 10) condemned the occupancy by “dozens of Jewish settlers” in an “East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood” as proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu is “an enthusiastic supporter of annexing the territories and of handing the State of Israel . . . to the settlers.” The “seizure” of homes in Silwan was “another nail in the coffin of the peace process” – which, Haaretz concluded, was its intended purpose. But Israel’s “illegitimate colonialist policies” would surely “infuriate not only the Arab world but also Israel’s closest friends.” House buying in Jerusalem (but only by Jews) was “a destructive move,” which “could exacerbate the tense situation and spark another round of violence.”
The next day the Arab “legal procedures” touted by Peace Now were displayed when a 50-year-old Arab resident of Silwan was stabbed to death by a fellow Arab. According to local residents, “he was killed in a dispute over selling property to Israeli Jews.” The murdered man and his killer were members of a family in whose building seven of the Jewish newcomers had recently arrived.
Politics become dirty when Jewish settlers can be blamed by the Israeli left for obstructing the “peace process.” Hardly coincidentally, Peace Now released its report of the Silwan move-in to embarrass Prime Minister Netanyahu while he was in New York to address the United Nations. Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat, with the bygone Oslo Accords to his credit, castigated the Jewish arrivals as “illegal Israeli settlers protected by occupation forces” and by a government that launches “land grabs and attempts at changing the identity and demography of Palestine and particularly occupied East Jerusalem.” Fadi Maragha, a local Fatah representative, warned: “They think they can drive us out. But we are the landowners. We were here, and we will be here until we have all of Palestine without any Jewish people in it.” The Mufti of Jerusalem labeled the arrival of Jewish residents in Silwan a “criminal act” that furthered the “Judaization” of Jerusalem.
Silwan, to be sure, repeats a familiar story in the Land of Israel. In 2005, in the ancient biblical city of Hebron where Jews had lived since Abraham negotiated with Ephron (the Hittite, not Palestinian) over the Machpelah cave as a burial place for Sarah, the Jewish community purchased a four-story building. It overlooked a street where twelve Israelis had been murdered in a deadly terrorist attack three years earlier. The purchaser, New York businessman Morris Abraham, had relatives who lived in Hebron until the Arab riots of 1929 slaughtered sixty-seven Jews, decimated the community and emptied it of Jews until after the Six-Day War.
Although no evidence emerged to invalidate the Hebron purchase, leftist Jews were furious. Meretz Party chairman Yossi Beilin planned to submit a bill in the Knesset calling for the evacuation of all Jews from Hebron – until a political opponent indicated that he would introduce an identical bill calling for the removal of all Arabs. The human rights group B’Tselem, declaring the house to be a “new settlement” that Jews had “invaded,” demanded their immediate eviction “without regard to the question of ownership.” Not even signed purchase and sale agreements, and a video of the Palestinian seller receiving and counting his money, satisfied Jewish critics. Despairing of “Israeli democracy,” Morris Abraham noted that anywhere else “when a person purchases private property his purchase is honored.” The new residents of Beit HaShalom were forcibly evicted by Israeli security forces. It took seven years before the High Court of Justice validated his purchase.
Like Hebron, Silwan has biblical roots. For Zionism to have meaning, the return of Jews to their ancient homeland – purchasing land to build homes and rebuild communities – should remain a source of Jewish pride. Those who only feel shame missed a good opportunity recently to atone for their groundless hatred against fellow Jews.
・Jerold S. Auerbach is a frequent contributor to The Algemeiner>
(2)Anti-Semitic Text on UNRWA Website Claims ‘Jews Promoted Social Corruption’, 14 October 2014
by Dave Bender
Investigative pro-Israel blogger, Elder of Ziyon, on Monday uncovered a report, in Arabic, posted on the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) website, that accuses Jews of supporting “social corruption.”
Entitled, “The Historical Development of Human Rights Throughout History,” the document purports to be a summary of human rights policies held by a number of civilizations over the ages, including Jewish thought on various aspects of Mosaic prohibitions against “murder, adultery and theft.”
While the article begins by praising Judaism as “a heavenly religion revealed to the Prophet of Allah Musa [Moses], peace be upon him, included human rights through its focus on the goal of liberating the individual and the community. The right to freedom from oppression is a supreme value highlighted in Jewish holy books (Rashidi: 2005: 60). The commandments of Moses, peace be upon him, include prohibiting murder, adultery and theft.”
But soon enough, the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel stereotypes kick in.
“But if we look around us at communities supposedly protecting human rights and at well-known oases of democracy we do not see [human rights] but instead charges that the victim was a terrorist or supporter of terrorism, and also pornography justified freely as rights. We see monopoly and fraud justified by the right of ownership and earnings in any form (Mokbel: 2005: 5) All of this happened as a result of distortion and misinformation by the Jewish clergy. The Jews in the sixth and seventh centuries promoted social corruption (1981: 39), and the claim that they are God’s chosen people demonstrates that the Jews did not know anything about human rights,” the author claimed.
In a related development, both the Bnai-Brith and the Anti Defamation League on Tuesday criticized recent remarks by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon holding Israel almost exclusively responsible for the summer’s clashes with Hamas in Gaza.
Ban, speaking at a Gaza reconstruction conference in Cairo on Sunday, and in Ramallah a day later, said Israel was at fault for “a restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations.”
In response, Bnai-Brith demanded that Ban “refrain from making biased, inflammatory remarks perpetuating a false image of Israel as an occupying aggressor. Ban, in his comments, did make mention of Hamas rocket attacks that were ‘fired indiscriminately causing fear, panic and suffering.’ However, he does not account for anti-Israel terrorists’ role in igniting and sustaining conflict—a stunning and inexplicable omission.”
The group said that “the open fanaticism, terrorism and armament of Arab extremists is the patent ‘root cause’ of recurring conflict with Israel.”
Donor nations pledged some 5.4 billion dollars – 1.4 billion more than the Palestinians themselves had requested – at the session.
The ADL, for its part, expressed “deep dismay” at what they termed Ban’s “stunning lack of objectivity” in remarks made alongside Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah, and in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Mr. Ban’s failure to publicly call on Palestinians to reject violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist and avoid actions which might undermine the hope for reconciliation sends precisely the wrong message,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman charged.
“It encourages Palestinian unilateral steps and conveys to Hamas there are no consequences for its murderous terrorism,” he said.
Ban “consistently places the onus on Israel,” according to Foxman, who contended in a statement that “such a one-sided characterization of the ‘root causes’ undermines the Secretary General’s credibility as an unbiased observer.”
Watch a video of Ban’s meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the Presidential Residence:
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