There are many flowery quotes about peace that are aspirational but difficult to achieve if your counterparty cannot recognize anything decent or moral about you. In the face of ongoing terrorism, an approach of “make peace with those who will make peace, and fight those who want to fight you” is appropriate while inelegant.
There are segments of Palestinians society that neither hate nor want to kill Jews and they should be actively engaged and promoted.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted a global poll about anti-Semitism and found that the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza were by far the most Jew-hating. Approximately 93% of those polled were found to harbor anti-Semitic prejudice.
The Palestinians polled themselves in June 2021 and asked the same question they ask every three months “Are you in favor of armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside of Israel?” Again, the majority of Palestinians, 52% either strongly support or support the idea; 44% opposed attacks.
These two polls are good examples about why the conflict continues: the majority of Palestinian Arabs despise and want to kill Jews.
But an optimist can look at the 7% of Palestinian Arabs who do not harbor anti-Semitic attitudes and the 44% who oppose attacking Jewish civilians and see a hopeful opening. Perhaps this segment of Palestinian society can rise above the systemic Jew-hatred and be partners for peace.
Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist who opposes BDS and actively engages with Jews to find common areas of trust.
While the Palestinian glass is far from half full, those wishing to see peace in the holy land should consider ways of promoting the sliver of Palestinians who recognize and support the dignity and basic human rights of Jews.
Jews, Judaism, the holy land, and the country of Israel have always been distinct but connected things. They were inseparable in the Bible but history has torn at those bonds. While the Bible states that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish patriarchs and their descendants, the modern reestablishment of the Jewish State as a secular one with many non-Jews as citizens has pulled Jews in various directions. One needn’t walk far to find a Jew who does not believe in God; who lives in the land of Israel but is not a Zionist; who is a devout believer in Judaism but doesn’t live in the holy land, and various other iterations.
The non-Jewish world has taken note and often enlists Jewish people who break from the historical collective to validate and promote their own biases. Just as anti-Semites like to showcase Jews who also don’t believe in the Old Testament, anti-Zionists parade Jews who despise Israel.
Organizations like the United Nations do much the same.
On November 10, 1975, the United Nations passed a series of anti-Israel initiatives. The most famous one, UN Resolution 3379, known as the “Zionism is Racism” resolution, was ultimately removed due to the efforts of the United States. Unfortunately, UN Resolution 3376 remains, which created the Committee for the Inalienable Rights of Palestinians. That committee granted Palestinian Arabs unique “inalienable rights” compared to every group in the world, granting them the right to “national independence and sovereignty.” The Kurds, Yazidis, Roma, Rohingya Muslims and hundreds of other actual peoples have no such rights according to the UN. Only a group of Arabs whose grandparents lived in the holy land precisely in the 1946-8 timeframe have special rights to independence and sovereignty. Imagine granting the right to national independence and sovereignty to Italian Catholics whose grandparents lived in New York between 1934 and 1936!
That fiction has festered and created alarming alliances.
On July 1, 2021, this committee founded on bogus rights met to discuss “Israel’s Systematic ‘Demographic Engineering’… in “East Jerusalem.” The historic place known as “East Jerusalem” existed for a mere 19 years as an artifice of war and ceased to exist over fifty years ago.
No matter. Lies beget lies and are most comfortable consorting with lies.
The international conference on the “Question of Jerusalem” ran on the theme “Forced demographic change in Jerusalem: Grave breaches and a threat to peace.” The conclusion to the question was announced at the outset and alarm bells were rung about Arabs supposedly being replaced in Jerusalem by Jews. The fact that the Arab population in Jerusalem skyrocketed by 3.4 times between 1980 and 2019 while the Jewish population in the city only grew by only 1.9 times was never mentioned because fiction acts as fact when operating in the Lie Zone.
In its ongoing attempt to rewrite history based on lies, the conference’s opening remarks were given by Rosemary DiCarlo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres. She said “that measures to change Jerusalem’s status and demographic composition are without legal validity and should be firmly rejected by the international community,” advocating for Jews to be purged from the eastern part of the city to recreate the Judenfrei “East Jerusalem” as enacted by the Jordanians in 1949. Not understanding her own biases and actual facts, her comments suggest that the UN position is that Arabs should be evicted from Jerusalem to bring the ratio of Jews back to 74% of the city as existed in 1967, instead of the 61.7% that exists today (today’s level is the lowest since 1946).
Cheikh Niang from Senegal who chaired the phony forum bemoaned Jews moving to Silwan as a major obstacle to peace. I guess no one ever told him that it was Jews from Yemen who founded Silwan 140 years ago, before the Jordanian Arabs routed them from their homes.
Samir Bakr, Assistant Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for Palestine and Al-Quds Affairs chimed in that “Jerusalem has been an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967,” failing to acknowledge that eastern Jerusalem was part of Jordanian territory and that all “Palestinians” in Jerusalem were Jordanians from 1954 to 1988 when Jordan pulled its citizenship. There was never “Palestinian territory” until Israel gave the Palestinian Authority territory in 1996.
To ensure a sense of validity at the cockamamie committee, a Jew was brought in to elaborate on the supposed injustice and “threat to peace” her people were committing.
Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FEMP), kicked off an extensive panel discussion about supposed Israeli crimes. FEMP, with “peace” in its name sounds like an unbiased organization devoted to harmony. It is actually an anti-Zionist organization specifically devoted to attacking Israeli policies which funds like-minded organizations.
Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, an anti-Israel organization marketed as a peace-seeking foundation.
Friedman echoed the sentiments of prior speakers that Israel engages in “a systematic policy of demographic engineering with total impunity,” similarly failing to discuss actual population statistics which undermines the entirety of the smear.
She then gave a warped rendition of the history of Jerusalem in 1948 and 1967, skipping the unhelpful points of the Jordanians expelling all of the Jews from eastern Jerusalem and granting Jordanian citizenship to residents “not being Jewish” in the anti-Semitic purge. Obviously she neglected to mention that Jews have been the continuous majority in Jerusalem for over 150 years, since the late 1860’s.
Friedman then added that “Palestinians inside Israel after 1948 were given Israeli citizenship, but Palestinians in East Jerusalem were not, leaving them in the legal limbo of permanent resident status.” This is malarkey as US President Joe Biden would say.
Citizenship for Arabs in eastern Jerusalem
After the 1948-9 Arab-Israel war, Israel took the western part of the city and Jordan took the remainder, including Greater Bethlehem which was also supposed to be an international city according to the 1947 UN Partition Plan. The Arabs in the eastern part of Jerusalem were given Jordanian citizenship by Jordan which illegally annexed the area. Of course Israel did not give “Palestinians in East Jerusalem” Israeli citizenship in 1948-9 as Jordan had seized it.
When Israel reunited Jerusalem in a defensive war after the Jordanians attacked Israel again in 1967, it amended its citizenship law in 1968 to account for the Jordanian Arabs which came under Israeli rule. It immediately gave all of these Jordanians permanent resident status and put in place clauses 4a and 5, to enable these non-Israelis to become Israeli citizens under certain conditions.
A key component was renouncing citizenship of any other country. It was only twenty years later in 1988 that Jordan stripped the Arabs of the West Bank of Jordanian citizenship after finally renouncing claim to the region. Since that time, these former Jordanians/ new stateless “Palestinians” could apply for Israeli citizenship provided they passed a number of other tests such as Hebrew fluency, no criminal record and swearing allegiance to Israel, according to Clause 5. Few applied due to these conditions but the numbers have grown. Clause 4a makes it even easier to become an Israeli and many have applied, hoping to be integrated into a first-world society. Thousands of Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem are now Israeli citizens.
The conference absurdities continued, such as Michael Lynk, United Nations Special Rapporteur, saying that Israeli Jewish settlers in eastern Jerusalem make it impossible for “Palestinians to return East Jerusalem as the capital of their own State,” adding yet a new twist that Palestine is an actual state and it’s not just Palestinian Arabs who want to “return” to Israel, but East Jerusalem itself wants to return as the capital of Palestine, as if that actually ever existed in history.
The false narratives around Israel-Palestine continue to gain mouthpieces at the anti-Israel United Nations, progressive campuses and media, and on social networks. The anti-Zionists are all too willing to accept Jewish anti-Zionists cloaked as lovers of peace as their allies, to buttress the fiction as the new version of history.
Napolean once said “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” Anti-Semites and anti-Zionists are actively and broadly rewriting history with outright lies burning the People of the Book figuratively, as a possible prelude to doing so literally in the shadow of the Holocaust.
How an organization markets itself says a lot about who they are targeting for customers. A business or organization which has a product for seniors will feature older people in their advertisements to attract them as buyers. One that wants to portray its products as flexible might cast athletic actors in various positions to showcase their wares.
The media industry is no different. A conservative media company might show an ad with a leading conservative politician, say Sen, Ted Cruz (R-TX) and a liberal one would showcase a liberal one, say Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The product for them are the opinions which the viewer likes to hear.
So what does it tell you about a program that opts to feature a controversial politician who has repeatedly used anti-Semitic tropes?
MSNBC’s Morning Joe plugs its own show during commercials. While it did feature leading liberal politicians like Rep. Nancy Peolsi (D-CA) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), it led the ad with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Omar is not simply a far-left extremist in the Democratic Party. She has repeatedly been rebuked by both Republicans and Democrats for attacking Jews and the Jewish State. Her appearances on the program were not forceful interviews of her positions but a series of softball questions for her to spout her extreme views to millions of people while putting her into the mainstream.
Liberal media has become an open mic for left-wing Jew-haters, and it is currently proud to advertise as much.
The people of Gaza have been scorching the earth for the past several years.
Over a five month period in 2018, the Israeli government counted 1,364 fires that were deliberately set by Palestinian Arabs putting flammable devices onto balloons and kites. The government report stated that “Over 7,400 acres have been damaged or destroyed, about 23% of the land in the region…. the entire eco-system of the western Negev has been affected. Trees that have stood for generations – preventing soil erosion, improving the carbon footprint and providing a habitat for birds and animals – have been destroyed. Wildlife – birds, turtles, snakes and lizards, jackals, foxes and wolves, wild boars, hedgehogs, bees and other insects – have been killed or lost their homes and their food sources. Experts estimate that it will take decades for the area to recover.“
Fires in Israel near Gaza fence, set deliberately by Palestinian Arabs
The United Nations has been vocal about the problems of the increase in temperature which leads to drier land which in turns leads to more fires which destroys animal habitats and plants which would otherwise cool temperatures. But the UN has said nothing about the deliberate scorched earth actions of Palestinian arsonists.
The Carmia Nature Reserve after Palestinian arson
The destructive fires set by Palestinian Arabs continue unabated until today. The Israeli government released a video of firefighters working to extinguish the fires in the Negev on June 15, 2021.
In addition to burning Israeli fields and nature, Palestinians have been poisoning the air, setting tires on fire. Environmental groups have long warned that “fumes that are being released from tire burning have been shown to be extremely toxic to human health and harmful to the environment.“
A Palestinian Arab setting tire on fire in “protest” against Israel (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)
But again, world governments and environmental groups remain silent on Palestinians’ malicious attacks on our planet.
The United Nations declared that “Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment.” Therefore, it is well past time to demand that the UN and concerned citizens of our planet, loudly condemn the ongoing Palestinian environmental terrorism.
Thousands of ordinary and extraordinary people were going about their day in London, England on July 7, 2005. People at work, tourists on vacation and kids at school had no idea that there were people who hated them so much that they wished them dead.
On that day, Islamic radicals would kill and maim many of them.
Four Muslim British men bombed London’s transportation system, three in the Underground and one bus. They killed 52 people, ranging in age from 20 to 64. All of the victims were UK residents who came from a variety of backgrounds.
The jihadists left behind statements that they did not view anyone from the UK as innocent as “Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters.” It continued that the bomber loved “the prophets, the messengers, the martyrs and today’s heroes like our beloved Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, Dr Ayman al-Zawahri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,” a collection of terrorists who killed and maimed thousands of people with western principles.
Another one of the suicide bombers said that non-Muslims deserved to die because they elected a government which “continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya.”
Islamic extremists would continue to attack the people of the United Kingdom.
On May 22, 2013, two Muslim men killed and hacked to death two British soldiers stating that they did so “because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one…. By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.“
On the anniversary of that attack, May 22, 2017, 23 people were killed and 800 wounded when a Muslim man bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. The youngest victim was only 8 years old. That attack was preceded by a March 22 attack by a Muslim extremist who drove his car on Westminster Bridge injuring 50 and killing four. It was followed by an attack on June 3 when three Muslim men ran a car over people on London Bridge and then began stabbing people, killing eight and wounding nearly 50 people.
The people of England felt the effects of Islamic extremism which had been considered a localized US and Israel problem. Over time, as the Islamic State burned even fellow Muslims alive in their quest to establish a new caliphate, it became clear that the Islamic world had begun a “global intifada” which sought to promote the global supremacy of Islam and instill fear in the hearts of infidels.
The global intifada began in 2001 in two parts: the Durban Conference which launched the propaganda war; and the September 11 attacks on the United States which killed thousands while attacking the western world’s financial and military centers. However, it was only on July 7, 2005 that the world began to comprehend that the Islamist war went beyond the “big Satan” and “little Satan” of the United States and Israel, and incorporated all non-Muslim “infidels” who were perceived to challenge Islam.
There was a time when people understood what genocide meant.
They saw the brutality of Nazi Germany’s largely successful effort to exterminate the Jews in Europe. They read about China, the USSR and Turkey killing millions of their own citizens during the 20th century, and recall Rwanda’s civil war with 800,000 people wiped out in just 100 days. Genocide was the brutal slaughter of an entire unwanted ethnic group.
There was a time when people recognized the evil of unjustly accusing people of “genocide.”
In December 2013, United Nations’ Special Rapporteur Richard Falk called Israel “genocidal,” whereupon Canada immediately called for Falk to be fired. In 2017, when Falk tried to push through a report at the UN calling Israel an “apartheid” regime, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley got the report withdrawn. Horrific lies and smears were met with outrage and action.
No longer. The steady drip of anti-Israel propaganda has taken root and decent people are now running for cover from the hate-filled tsunami.
Shrill voices on college campuses are claiming that Israel is committing a “genocide” against Palestinian Arabs, coming from the mouths of both professors and students at institutions like Rutgers and Yale. The charge is “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Arabs at UCLA and CUNY.
Students of Yale accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing”
The accusations are outrageous.
Lies. At the most basic level, the statements are outright lies, as the Arab population in Israel and Jerusalem have not only grown faster than Jews in the country and capital city, but have grown at a faster rate than Arabs in the neighboring countries as well.
Inversions of Perpetrator and Victim. Worse than the fabrication is the attempted inversion of the fanatic Muslim anti-Semitic attackers into victims. Palestinian leadership conspired with Nazi Germany to kill Jews and worked with the British to keep Jews fleeing for the lives from entering Palestine. After the brutal slaughter of 6 million Jews, the Muslim Arabs went to war to wipe out the paltry number of Jews who made it to safety in Palestine. Losing that 1948-9 Arab-Israeli war, the Muslim world expunged nearly a million local Jews in a massive ethnic cleansing. They attempted to annihilate the Jews gain in 1967, only to lose the war – and land – once again. Since 2000, localized terrorism has been the preferred vehicle to express their disgust with Jewish neighbors. When Jews defend themselves from attacks, anti-Semites attempt to portray them as offensive, such as labeling the security barrier Israel built in response to Palestinian Arab terrorism as an “apartheid wall.”
Anti-Semitic Propaganda. Even more dangerous than the lies and offensive inversion of victim and attacker is the motivation for the smears. Like the Nazis who put forth a propaganda machine to label the Jews as degenerates and conspirators to enlist the masses in the purge of the Jews, today’s calls against the Jewish State are designed to weaken and isolate it, while enemies in Muslim countries like Iran and Syria along with their terrorist clients including Hamas and Hezbillah prepare to attack again. The chants of “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea” are the stated goals of destroying Israel accompanying the foundational slurs of Jewish “colonialists” committing “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” They are attempting to educate the world that Jews never had rights to land or sovereignty in the holy land, and are evil invaders unworthy of a state and support.
In 2001, just before nineteen Muslim hijackers took civilian airplanes to kill thousands of people on American soil, anti-Semites cloaked as “anti-racists” hijacked the 2001 Durban Conference. The United States withdrew from the horrific spectacle at that time, and now, twenty years later, continues to distances itself from the anniversary commemoration. Alas, the insidious “Zionism is Racism” Redux propaganda has already infected the West.
The noxious “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” smears against Israel which used to only emanate from the mouths of jihadists are now being echoed on college campuses, the liberal mainstream media and the halls of Congress. This vilification of Israel is designed to set the stage for the eradication of the reestablished Jewish State, much as Nazi propaganda facilitated the genocide of European Jewry. While the slanderers self-identify as “pro-Palestinian protestors,” history will refer to them as Hamas’ Willing Executioners.
Progressive and conservative people around the world have different interpretations of justice.
For progressives, justice is achieved by enabling people who have been marginalized to succeed. It seeks to even the playing field by affording those at the edges some advantages to address systemic roadblocks which kept them down for so long. Justice demands reform in various areas beyond economy and law, to include healthcare and the environment.
Conservatives view justice through a narrower lens of tradition and law. They appreciate order and security, and upholding historic truths. Justice demands a system which rewards or punishes risk and investment. It requires uneven outcomes in order to spur overall growth.
Zionism speaks justice to both.
Liberals rallied to Zionism after the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe. They saw systemic anti-Semitism commit a genocide of millions of European Jews in the 1940’s and then watched the Muslim world expunge its Jewry from 1948 through the 1970’s. A home where Jews could be safe and self-governing was clearly needed in the creation and building up of the Jewish State.
Conservatives were some of the earliest Zionists – even pre-dating the first Zionist Congress in 1897 – and continue to be strong supporters. They appreciate Jews’ 3,300 year-history in the land of Israel, and understand that “the promised land” is a religious term uniquely meant for Jews about that Jewish holy land.
Progressives are amazed that a small new country was able to absorb immigrants fleeing persecution from dozens of diverse countries including: Morocco, Russia, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia, Ukraine and Yemen. There is no country in the world that has such a high percentage of immigrants coming into the country – virtually penniless – from so many lands. None.
Conservatives are amazed at the stability and application of the law in Israel. While other countries in the region have killed hundreds of thousands in wars, the strong Israeli army has kept its wars very short, minimizing death tolls. While the authoritarian leaders of neighboring countries stay in power for decades, Israel holds genuine elections and prosecutes its leaders, sometimes sending former prime ministers to prison.
People from across the political spectrum may not know some statistics about Israel but aren’t surprised to hear them. For example, Israel is the only religious country which has more tourists each year from a different religion (the Jewish State has more Christian tourists than any other religious group; other religious countries like Denmark have mostly Christian visitors; Iran, mostly Muslim visitors). Some facts may surprise them, such as the fact that the Arab population in Jerusalem has gone up by 3.4 times since 1980 when Israel declared the city as its eternal capital, compared to a rise of only 1.9 times for the Jewish population.
Both progressives and conservatives marvel at the religious freedoms in the only Jewish State. Muslims may wear hijabs (banned in France), build minarets near mosques (banned in Switzerland) and have halal meat (banned in the Scandinavian countries). Anyone of any faith can become prime minister in Israel (only Christians can lead Greece, only Muslims in Syria). Israel even helped the Mormons build a church in Jerusalem! and the Baha’i have a major temple in Haifa (the faith is banned in Qatar).
Liberals love that Israel is a green country, leading the world in recycling plastic. It was the first country in the Middle East to have wind farms and a bike sharing program. It also has a universal healthcare system for every citizen and permanent resident. Meanwhile, conservatives love that the Jewish State has a thriving free market built on capitalism. It has more companies listed on Nasdaq than any other country except for China (a country with a population 155 times as large).
Israel has strived to build a country that incorporates freedom, justice and fairness in an open, secure and vibrant multi-cultural society, in the heart of a turbulent and extremist neighborhood.
When Israel declared itself an independent state in 1948, it called for justice instinctively understood by both progressives and conservatives:
“THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
David Ben Gurion signing the Declaration of Independence with Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen in Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948 (photo: Hans Pinn/GPO)
Israel was designed as a particular Jewish State, focused on Jewish immigration and a vision of peace based on the Jewish bible, but also with “complete equality of social and political rights to all inhabitants irrespective of religion.” The country’s foundational principles stressed both the particular and universal in a unique and bold ambition for justice for all: a space for the most persecuted minority in the world, and a philosophy of justice based on history, tradition, truth and fairness.
Progressive and conservative people around the world have different interpretations of justice, yet both see their visions realized in Israel.
A young Jewish yeshiva student was shot and killed while waiting at a bus stop in the Israeli territory of Area C, along with several friends who were shot and wounded. BBC News wouldn’t mention his name until a Palestinian Arab teenager was killed in the vicinity weeks later, amid a confrontation with Israeli police.
On June 11, 2021, BBC News published an article called “Palestinian teenager shot dead in clash at protest.” The name of the teenager was featured – three times – as were pictures of a Palestinian ambulance and mourning women. There were no pictures of the Jewish student, Yehuda Geutta, whose name was mentioned only once in the article.
The BBC storyline was that the Palestinian teenager was protesting “against the building of an illegal Jewish settlement near the city of Nablus.” The article would repeat several times that the settlement is “illegal” and is “occupied” by “settlers.” It would never mention that the land is in Area C, Israeli administered land as agreed to by the Palestinian Authority in the Oslo Accords.
So a more complete picture of the story is warranted for people who want an accurate picture and not one told by jaundiced mainstream media.
In early May 2021, several students from a yeshiva in Itamar in Area C were shot at while waiting at an established hitchhiking post at the nearby Tapauch Junction. Yehuda Guetta, 19, was hit in the head and died from his injuries on May 5. A Palestinian man, Muntasser Shalaby, 44, was arrested and charged with the shootings and murder.
Israeli medics and police inspect the scene of shooting attack in Tapuah Junction, near the city of Ariel in Area C, on May 2, 2021. (Photo by Sraya Diamant/Flash90)
In response to the terrorist attack, several Jews moved to reestablish the outpost of Evyatar not far away. The outpost had been established in 2013 after a similar incident when a Palestinian Arab terrorist stabbed Evyatar Borovsky to death at the same intersection. The outpost was dismantled by Israel as it was built without approvals and permits.
The reestablished outpost quickly grew to around 50 people and Palestinian Arabs came frequently to protest their presence, often setting hundreds of tires on fire as a form of chemical arson to poison the new Jewish residents. One of the Palestinian Arabs participating in the assault said “we come at night, we light up the mountain, to send them a message that they can’t have even an inch of this land.” During one such protest which included pelting soldiers with stones, a 15 year old Palestinian Arab named Mohammed Hamayel, was killed.
Palestinian Arabs brandishing torches protesting against Israeli Jews moving to Evyatar in Area C, June 22, 2021 (photo credit: Mohamad Torokman/ Reuters)
The new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett just reached an agreement with the Nahala movement and the Samaria Regional Council that Evyatar would not be razed again, after it concluded that the land was not owned by anyone privately. The agreement stated that the civilians would evacuate the outpost which would be turned into an army post and yeshiva seminary.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian terrorist who killed Guetta, Muntasser Shalaby, is being put on trial. The Israeli courts have approved the demolition of Shalaby’s home, which set off a new round of Palestinian protests. Adding an interesting twist to the general arguments about the demolition of terrorists’ homes, is the fact that Shalaby is separated from his wife in the West Bank and normally resides with his three other wives in Tucson, Arizona. It is unclear whether Shalaby wanted to punish his estranged West Bank wife, knowing that her house would be razed after the Israeli police captured him for the terrorist attack.
None of those facts and background were found in the BBC article.
The BBC deliberately opted to craft a story to make the Israeli army out to be thugs who maliciously shoot young Palestinians for simply protesting illegal Israeli activities, an industrial-grade blood libel. It not only marks the BBC as not a credible source for information but one that incites hatred and violence against Jews and the Jewish State.
First One Through 