On May 15, 2023, the United Nations held its first “Nakba Day” event. In discussing the various activities to be held, the UN stated it wanted to “highlight that the noble goals of justice and peace, require recognizing the reality and history of the Palestinian people’s plight and ensuring the fulfillment of their inalienable rights.”
The difference in understanding those “inalienable rights” is the crux of why no solution to the conflict has been realized.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas speaks during a high-level event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the United Nations headquarters in New York on May 15, 2023. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)
At the event, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded “the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland, to their cities and villages, of which they were displaced by aggression and terror.” Abbas added “the issue of the refugees must be resolved. There are refugees and they should return. I am a refugee. I am a Palestinian refugee. I want to return to my town. I cannot live even in Paris or New York. I won’t have it. I want Safed. It is such a small town. I want it.”
Several countries sent solidarity messages to the Nakba event including: Algeria; Venezuela; Indonesia; Senegal; Tunisia; Türkiye; Qatar; Egypt; Jordan; Iran; Suba; Kuwait; Guyana; Malaysia; Bangladesh; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; Namibia; Nicaragua; China; Syria; UAE; Lebanon; Maldives; South Africa and Mozambique.
Most of the Western countries officially stayed away but the Palestinian diaspora made itself felt.
At the evening of the launch of the event, Abbas “praised the role of the Palestinian community in the United States in supporting the Palestinian people, stressing the importance of their work in forming an American public opinion in support of the Palestinian national cause.” He was referring to groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, CAIR, American Muslims for Palestine and Palestine Youth Movement, all of which have been fomenting unrest and antisemitism on American streets.
When addressing the UN at the event, Abbas furthered the point “that the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba has begun to make its way to the awareness of the peoples, who have come to uncover the fraudulence of the Israeli narrative and listening to the Palestinian narrative and their tragedy.” The anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish talk-track is now found in California public schools and on college campuses.
The United Nations led Palestinian Arabs to believe that they will all get to return to towns where ancestors once lived inside of Israel, and the world has begun to accept that narrative as told by local Muslims living in the West. It is a bastard of the fabled “two-state solution” in which a new country of Palestine is purely Arab and Jew-free, and Israel is transformed into a bi-national state. One and one-half states for Arabs and half a state for Jews.
United Nations “refugee” camp with a key on top informing Palestinians that the key to their homes inside of Israel is via the United Nations
A few weeks after the UN’s 2023 Nakba event, Palestinians polled themselves. A majority stated that they believe that the Jewish State will cease to exist within twenty-five years. Specifically, “two-thirds say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment, and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes.“
The logical outcome of such thinking soon became manifest. Why should Palestinians negotiate a compromise with Israel when they believe that they will achieve all of their aims with global support?
The United Nations handed the microphone and held a celebration for jihadists who seek to end the Jewish State, while colleges were educating their student bodies in a radical, antisemitic Palestinian narrative that Israel is a colonialist, imperialist, illegal project. The toxic belief became mainstreamed and realized in the heinous October 7th massacre, celebrated by an unholy socialist-jihadi alliance on Western campuses and streets.
Three more hostages were found in Gaza, dead. All three were killed in the October 7 Hamas massacre, and the Gazan army took the lifeless bodies to the terrorist enclave. They were retrieved in a special operation by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on May 24 and brought back to Israel for burial.
The Gazan forces of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others took around 250 people from Israel to Gaza as hostages. In addition to many corpses, were living babies, young women, men and elderly people. Many had illnesses and require medicine and particular care.
The Red Cross has not visited a single one since their abduction.
The international aid agency has a webpage dedicated to the hostages called “What the Red Cross is doing to help hostages taken from Israel?” It states that “For more than seven months, families of hostages held in Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering as they wait for news of their loved ones. Colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been working round the clock to access the hostages and provide desperate families with information about their loved ones.”
But the international organization makes clear that it can only do so much if the powers of Gaza refuse to work with them. “The plight of the hostages held in Gaza remains one of ICRC’s utmost priorities. They are standing by to facilitate and bring the remaining hostages back to their loved ones. But the situation is extremely difficult. The ICRC does not have information about where the hostages are. Even if the location was known, the ICRC cannot force its way into where hostages are held. And they can only visit hostages and support relief operations if there is an agreement by the parties to the conflict.”
The Israeli government has demanded that the UN and ICRC get aid to the hostages, with its Foreign Minister Eli Cohen saying “We expect the Red Cross to put the issue at the top of the organization’s priority list, to use all levers of pressure, and not rest until it visits all the hostages, assesses their condition, and makes sure they are receiving the medical care they need.” The Anti-Defamation League made similar calls and worked to rally support to pressure the UN and Red Cross.
Otherwise, there’s been very little.
The Biden Administration has focused on making demands of Israel, not the UN or Red Cross. New York Senator Chuck Schumer called for the Israeli government to fall but made no challenge to the Red Cross. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) made a call for a ceasefire after October 7 but did not ask for the hostages to be released and then said that the entire idea that Gazans raped Israelis was “a lie.”
Only two American politicians – Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Congresswoman Becca Balint (VT-AL) – sent a letter to the Red Cross on December 18, 2023, asking why the agency designed to help people in war has done nothing to help the hostages. At a minimum, it should get a “proof of life,” a basic standard in international law.
Letter from Reps. Goldman and Balint to the Red Cross is one of the only instances of any politician outside of Israel demanding that the international agency do something about the hostages
The failure of the world to even ASK the Red Cross to gain simple information about the hostages is proof that the world fully understands that Gazans stand outside of international law. Engaging with the Gazan government and army would be like asking a spider to translate Homer’s Iliad.
Despite being fully aware that Palestinian Arabs operate completely outside of acceptable norms and international laws, Spain, Ireland and Norway took steps to recognize a Palestinian state on May 28. Some of those countries have a history of combatting jihadi networks. I imagine that they would have been alarmed had United Nations member states openly celebrated and formally recognized the terrorist groups as legitimate.
The entire world has completely internalized that Gazans operate outside of international and humanitarian law, yet many countries propose to legitimize them. Doing so is not simply an act of aggression against Israel but an invitation for terrorism to target those very states.
ACTION ITEM
Demand that President Biden, your senators and members of congress contact the Red Cross to get information about the hostages taken from Israel.
For thousands of years, Jews have been hunted, caged, expelled and exterminated.
In 1791, Catherine II confined Jews into the “Pale of Settlement” which consisted of only 25% of Russian lands and forbade them from living anywhere else. Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s restricted Jews to ghettos before shipping them to extermination camps. The Germans and their allies killed 6 million Jews, one-third of the global population.
Today, radical jihadi organizations in the United States and elsewhere want to liquidate the land of Israel of its Jews, where roughly 45% of world Jewry lives. Groups like Within Our Lifetime and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) were gleeful as Gazans went door-to-door on October 7, 2023 to rape women, shoot children before their parents and burn families alive.
WESPAC and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) stand before Jewish schools and organizations and chant “by any means necessary” to intimate and harrass American Jews that the global intifada is here to claim more victims.
Members of WESPAC gather before a Jewish Day School in Westchester, NY calling for “Liberation by any means necessary” after the October 7 slaughter of 1,200 Jews in Israel
What is the defense against such people? Have they passed the point of rehabilitation? Should the focus be on limiting their power and influence? If so, by what means? Should they be prosecuted? Shut down or denied tax-exempt status?
Or is it to fight back similarly “by any means necessary,” that if they advocate for an immoral war, then the proportionate response is also by any means necessary, including advocating carpet-bombing Gaza? If they will protest in front of Jewish organizations, should Zionists map out every Muslim organization using the same tactic and confront children in school for complicity with heinous crimes against humanity?
Masked people outside of Columbia University calling for destroying the Jewish State “by any means necessary”
Jews and Zionists have tried to find a way to coexist with Arabs since they started returning to the Jewish holy land in greater numbers in the 1840s. The Arab response since 1920 has been a complete rejection of Jewish presence and rights.
Perhaps now is the time to not reply “in-kind” and refuse to allow evil actors to dictate the relationship between the groups.
Perhaps it is the moment for Jews to liberate themselves from antisemitism that has plagued them for centuries by being more assertive in claiming their basic human rights, which are being denied both by Arabs and the United Nations:
Declare United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 which made it illegal for Jews – and only Jews – to live in Judaism’s holiest city of the Old City of Jerusalem, a flagrant antisemitic edict, inherently illegal, and null and void as it denies Jews basic human rights
Declare that the Jordanian Waqf no longer can demand that Jews – and only Jews – cannot pray at Judaism’s holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, as it is a flagrant violation of Jews basic human rights
Antisemitic anti-Zionist groups are calling for violence to ethnically cleanse Jews from their holy land – as Palestinian Arabs have done for a century – and to come after Jews and Zionists globally. In reply, Jews and Zionists should stand tall and demand “by human rights means only”, demand basic civility to live freely anywhere and everywhere, and to pray openly at their holiest location.
Jews have enemies, and they are public and proud about gunning for Jews. Some are deranged individuals but others are members of organized groups like American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) with thousands of supporters and growing power.
HAMAS
Hamas is the ruling authority of Gaza and a political party which controls 58% of the seats of the Palestinian parliament. They are considered a terrorist group by much of the West, and just a political party by the United Nations.
Hamas’s stated goal is the eradication of the Jewish State of Israel. It has a religious calling, infused with a radical jihadi philosophy.
Hamas’s 1988 Foundation Charter is the most antisemitic political document in history, a sick combination of Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the Russian forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It’s goal of killing Jews with global support is found throughout the charter:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” (Opening)
“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” (Preamble)
“raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils.” (Article 3)
“raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” (Article 6)
“Moslems fight the Jews(killing the Jews)… there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Article 7)
“Nothing in nationalism is more significant or deeper than in the case when an enemy should tread Moslem land” (Article 12)
“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time” (Article 13)
“In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.” (Article 15)
Zionist “organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated.” (Article 17)
“In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children… [Jews] attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money” (Article 20)
“With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein…. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.” (Article 22)
“The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… using all evil and contemptible ways… infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations… aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion…. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people.” (Article 28)
“the ferocity of the Zionist offensive and the Zionist influence in many countries exercised through financial and media control.” (Article 30)
“Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam… It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region… The Zionist Nazi activities against our people will not last for long.” (Article 31)
“The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.… here is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion. The alternative is loss of one’s country, the dispersion ofcitizens, the spread of vice on earth and the destruction of religious values… fight with the warmongering Jews.” (Article 32)
“everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty while loudly proclaiming: Hail to Jihad. Their cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished” (Article 33)
“Moslems were able to retrieve the land only when they stood under the wing of their religious banner… This is the only way to liberate Palestine… Nothing can overcome iron except iron.… confront the Zionist invasion and defeat it… rid themselves of the effects of ideological invasion.” (Article 34)
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
CAIR should in theory, be a non-violent or toxic organization that advocates for Muslims in the United States. Alas, it is headed by antisemites who wish to attack Jewish institutions and run them out of the public square, as well as to destroy the only Jewish State.
The head of CAIR, Nihad Awad, defended the October 7 savage butchering of Israeli civilians. He has long said that “Zionist organizations” are “enemies of the Muslim community” and that “Zionist organizations make up the core of the Islamophobia network in the United States.”
CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Zahra Billoo, addressing an American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) conference, made clear that all Zionists are enemies. “Know your enemies, and I’m not going to sugar-coat that. They are your enemies. There are organizations and infrastructure out there who are working to harm you. Make no mistake of it. They would sell you down the line if they could, and they very often do behind your back. I mean the Zionist organizations, I mean the foreign policy organizations that say they’re not Zionists but want a two-state solution. I’m not a Palestinian myself but it’s my understanding that that is laughable. So know your enemies.” Billoo listed some of them: “We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League. We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation. We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses. Because just because they’re your friend today, doesn’t mean that they have your back when it comes to human rights. So oppose the vehement fascists but oppose the polite Zionists too. They are not your friends.“
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
The far-left DSA has long been against Israel and its “platform proudly states continued support for and involvement with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and efforts to eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel, while resisting the “normalization” of relationships between the Israeli government and other governments.”
The DSA chapter in New York City asked candidates to pledge to not even visit Israel and see firsthand what is happening, and blindly follow Palestinian propaganda. The questionnaire asked “Do you pledge not to travel to Israel if elected to City Council in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation?”
The organization went further and stated that EVERY Israeli Jew is fair game for violence in a June 2023 tweet that said “in a settler colonial context there are no such things as “civilians”, but disregarding that even, it’s total folly to honestly compare settlers perpetuating pogroms to resistance groups deploying violence to liberate themselves.” Note that the Palestinian narrative considers all of Israel to be a settlement, and thereby calls the presence of any Jew to be a member of the military and fair target for violence. Rep. Ritchie Torres was apoplectic and rebuked the DSA for “declaring them [Jews] fair game for violence and terror.“
Within Our Lifetime (WOL)
Within Our Lifetime is a group that creates loud rallies calling for the destruction of Israel and calling to confront every group that supports Israel everywhere, including the United States. They insist that every Jew must be routed from “Palestine,” “We don’t want no two states. We want all of it!”
In their call to “Globalize the Intifada” they have a map of “Zionist organizations” in New York City (4:30) with a call for people to visit each of the locations.
In the immediate aftermath of October 7, the group chanted support for the killing of Jewish civilians in New York City’s Times Square in what they hoped was a war to destroy the “Zionist entity.”
SJP, within Our Lifetime and Palestine Youth Movement celebrate the killing of 1,200 Israelis in the immediate aftermath of the massacre
SJP is a hate group with about 300 groups on college campuses around the United States. It believes that every Israeli Jew and Zionist is an enemy to be confronted “by any means necessary,” which means burning families alive, as Gazans did on October 7.
In the aftermath of the Gazan barabrity, SJP said this is a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance,” and “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.
Israeli Jews have other enemies, such as the Palestinian Authority. The PA is headed by a Holocaust denier who has demanded a country devoid of any Jews. Palestinian Arabs are the most antisemitic group by far, with 93% holding antisemitic beliefs according to the ADL.
But these days, one has to put the garden-variety Jew-haters on the back-burner and focus on the antisemites who want to do Jews harm and have the means to do so. Those with weapons like Hamas must be fought with weaponry. Those with political clout like CAIR and the DSA must be fought politically. And those inciting violence like WOL and SJP must be fought legally.
Jihadis and the alt-left declared Zionists as sworn enemies and to be confronted “by any means necessary.” On October 7, the world learned what that means. How will Jews, Zionists, their supporters and governments protect them?
Pundits throw around a phrase that one cannot use a military or force to destroy an ideology.
That’s true. But irrelevant.
Hate and evil movements will never disappear from mankind as long as there are more than three people in the world.
There are still Nazis alive today but they don’t control a government, an army or a territory. As such, the grotesque ideology directly impacts few people.
The evil of ISIL was sharply curtailed when their developing “caliphate” was defeated. It was accomplished by several countries coming together to lay waste to their military, not by sitting down and trying to placate their “grievances.”
That’s the goal with Hamas, the evil government that rules the Gaza Strip. Together with various other jihadi militant groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas spends their efforts instilling antisemitism into their schools and building a military infrastructure to destroy Israel. That control must be ended.
There is one way to stop genocide in the near-term: destroy Hamas’s ability to do battle and hold territory.
To reduce the probability of another war in the region in the longer-term, the United Nations and Saudi Arabia must clearly state that there is no right of return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants into Israel. None.
Shortly thereafter, UNRWA should be deconstructed whereby the facilities administered by UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza are transferred to the Palestinian Authority, those in Jordan are handed to the government of Jordan, and those in Lebanon and Syria are transferred to the global refugee agency, UNHCR.
To stop genocide, the world should work with Israel to move civilians out of harm’s way, and empower the Israeli military to dismantle Hamas’s ability to fight and govern again.
On May 1, 2024, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia by a group of victims of the October 7 Palestinian Arab heinous terrorist attack, against American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). The suit asserts that AMP and NSJP work in the United States as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas, a US foreign terrorist organization.
Far-left extremist Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York’s 16th District thought that the date was an ideal time to leave his district, and go to Virginia to solicit support and money from those same terrorist supporters.
Through NSJP, AMP uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond. – Lawsuit filed May 1, 2024 against NSJP and AMP
So why would Bowman have supporters of Hamas terrorism headline a fundraiser? Why did Bowman leave his constituents in New York and fundraise in Virginia? Is this connected to Bowman’s refusal to attend a single event in a synagogue in Westchester since the October 7 massacre? Is it part of the rationale for his absence from attending the scene of an antisemitic hate crime in Scarsdale where his challenger Westchester County Executive George Latimer came and loudly rebuked antisemitism?
Through threats, violence, and vocal support for “globalizing” attacks against Jews and anyone who dares to support them, AMP and NSJP have intentionally instigated a mass culture of fear, threats, violence, and overt hatred to intimidate politicians and institutions for Hamas’s substantial benefit. – Lawsuit filed May 1, 2024 against NSJP and AMP
Bowman has decided to wear his Hamas shield proudly and fundraise from terrorist supporters outside of his district, while Americans and Israelis fight and sue for justice against the genocidal group.
On April 30, 2024, while many pro-Hamas students at Columbia University chanted for an “intifada revolution” to destroy the Jewish State and kill diaspora Jews, and as other students broke into and took over one of the school buildings, the university issued a statement about the takeover being disruptive and “a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching.” In taking action, the university said “this is about responding to the actions of the protestors, not their cause.” The full statement is here:
Early this morning, a group of protestors occupied Hamilton Hall on the Morningside Campus. We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions. Our top priority is restoring safety and order on our campus.
We made it very clear yesterday the work of the University cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules. Continuing to do so will be met with clear consequences. Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation–vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances–and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday.
Students occupying the building face expulsion.
Protesters were informed that their participation in the encampment violated numerous university policies. We gave everyone at the encampment the opportunity to leave peacefully. By committing to abide by University policies, they would be allowed to complete the semester.
Students who did not commit to the terms we offered are now being suspended. Those students will be restricted from all academic and recreational spaces and may only access their individual residence. Seniors will be ineligible to graduate.
This is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause.
As we said yesterday, disruptions on campus have created a threatening environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams, and contributes to a hostile environment in violation of Title VI.
The safety of our community remains our top priority.
As we prepare for a commencement to honor our students’ achievements, we continue to urge the protesters to remove the encampment and voluntarily disperse so as to not deprive their fellow students of this momentous occasion.
We have followed through on our very clear warnings of consequences and are initiating disciplinary action against those who continue to violate our rules.
An “Intifada” banner waves over Columbia University after students seize Hamilton Hall on 116th Street in New York City, April 30, 2024. (photo: JESSICA SCHWALB)
Imagine the university downplaying racism if students chanted that gay people should be kicked off campus or Hispanics should be sent to wherever they came from. What if people chanted that Muslims are pathological killers and the United States should bomb Iran and neighboring Muslim countries out of existence. Imagine thousands of students denying that Black people were ever slaves in America and inventing an entire new origin story for African-Americans in the center of campus.
Would protestors’ free speech rights be prioritized? Would the university’s statements be packed with excuses that the school does not have any issue with the protestors chants? Or would the university clearly denounce the slogans and give priority to the mental health of the targets of the venom?
Columbia University well understands mental health and has a page on its website devoted to it called CopeColumbia. One section is devoted towards “Racism, Stress and Coping.” It discusses systemic racism faced by African-Americans, and impacts on health outcomes. It is copied here – except edited to address rampant Jew-hatred taking place at Columbia today – to show the disparity in how little the universe has extended itself for its Jewish faculty and student body.
The stress and trauma of racismantisemitism in our society for communities of colorJews is informed by a long history of violence and social injustice. Provided here are resources centered around racialreligious disparities and promoting healing, growth, and avenues for change.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated significant health disparities for Black and LatinxJewish communities in the U.S. Populations of colorhave been vilified as having caused and profited fromcontracted COVID-19 at higher rates than White individuals; with greater morbidity and mortality.1,2 We are learning that systemic racismantisemitism is a major factor in these disparate outcomes: a disproportionate number of African-American and LatinoJewish individuals work in settings in the medical professionthat are high risk for exposure, and they are more likely to be accused of profiting from the pandemic and medical treatment rather than thanked for efforts to turn back the global scourge oflack medical insurance, the means to be tested for coronavirus, to be adequately treated for underlying conditions, or to receive early treatment for COVID-19.2
The stress and trauma of racismantisemitism in our society for communities of colorfaith is informed by a long history of violence and social injustice. The effects of systemic racismantisemitism, especially on African-AmericansJews in our country, permeates our society with consequences including negative outcomes for physical and mental well-being. Images, media portrayals and public discourse have triggered post-traumatic stress symptoms across in many of us, with the heaviest toll being that on racialthe very small Jewish minorities. Protests have sparked a discussion most feel is long overdue to address the effects of oppression on African-AmericansJews after the senseless murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylorin the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue, Poway Synagogue and kosher store in Jersey City. We are aware that these conversations, although emotionally charged, are necessary for change; take courage and bravery to achieve a more raciallyreligiously just society.
The mentalemotional health effects of racismantisemitism are vast. The inability for communities of colorfaith to access mental healthprotective resources creates a barrier to basic safetythe path of treatment and recovery. Lack of resourcesa sizable population coupled with diminished political cloutdistrust of the medical field due to past transgressions towards African-Americans, in particular, and the stigma associated with mental health treatment in communities of color create a perfect storm for untreated intergenerational mental healthphysical and emotional illness.”
Columbia University understands that Jewish students on campus are deeply traumatized not only by the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 in Israel, but that the barbarity is celebrated by Columbia faculty and students who gleefully taunt them as they try to attend class. While the school makes efforts to systematically change the school’s culture and curricula to address the mental and emotional impacts of racism, it dismisses vulgar antisemitic slogans as “a noisy distraction that interferes with teaching, learning, and preparing for final exams.“
Antisemitism is so deeply entrenched in America’s universities, they cannot even pause to recognize Jewish trauma even as they haul away protestors looking to destroy the Jewish State.
Some pro-Palestinian protestors have attempted to market their chants for “Free Palestine” as a call for everyone to live in peace, security and dignity. They claim that they harbor no antisemitic feelings and just want a civil society for everyone.
So here are three questions to test their assertion:
Are they in favor of Jews living throughout the land, including eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If Arabs can live everywhere “from the river to the the sea”, a call for mutual humanity would demand that Jews have those same rights. Are they in favor of abolishing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 in a one-state scenario?
Are they in favor of open Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount? Millions of Muslims get to visit the al Aqsa Compound every year but Jewish visitation is limited. Worse, Jews are not allowed to pray at their holiest site, a glaring denial of their basic human rights. Are they in favor of allowing millions of Jews onto the Temple Mount and to openly pray at their holiest site?
Are they in favor of turning the Dome of the Rock into a Jewish Temple? Muslims have a holy shrine on the al Aqsa Compound – the al Aqsa Mosque. In an effort to achieve common dignity and humanity, Jews should build their Third Holy Temple nearly, at the site of the Dome of The Rock which sits on the location of the prior Jewish temples. Are they in favor of a new Jewish Temple on the Jewish Temple Mount?
If people calling to “Free Palestine” support the rights of Jews to live everywhere, to ascend en masse to the Temple Mount and pray openly at a newly built third Jewish Temple, I concede that they are not antisemitic and can join them in their chant. However, if they deny Jews common rights and dignities in the Jewish holy land, they are revealed as Muslim supremacists out to destroy the only Jewish State.
The Israeli government once again allowed tens of thousand of Muslim Arabs onto the Jewish Temple Mount / al Aqsa Compound during Friday prayers of Ramadan on April 5, 2024. The reported 65,000 Muslims who came to pray dwarfed the 50,000 Jews who visited the site OVER THE ENTIRE YEAR OF 2023, none of whom were allowed to pray at Judaism’s holiest site.
Despite Israel allowing access for tens of thousands of Muslims to pray at the site, eight people were arrested on charges of inciting terrorism to the crowd. According to sources, Arabs were shouting “In spirit and blood we will redeem you al-Aqsa.”
The Israeli police were out in force as many Muslims declared the last Friday of Ramadan to be “International Al Quds Day.”
The police noted that the Arab Muslims were all residents of Israel in a statement which said “these vile instigators and supporters of terrorism are residents of the State of Israel who take advantage of a religious occasion and use a holy place of prayer for incitement and support for terrorism and terrorists.”
Despite the problem arising from ISRAELI Arabs, the Palestinian Authority and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) weighed in.
According to the official PA news site Wafa, the OIC condemned Israel for the situation. OIC claimed that thousands of Muslims were prevented from visiting the site and decried the arrest of worshippers. Wafa added that the OIC “slammed such restrictions and assault as a flagrant violation of international laws and norms and called upon the international community to oblige Israel, the occupying power, to halt all recurrent violations of the freedom of worship and desecration of the holy sites while stressing the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status at the mosque.”
The statement is a farce on so many levels.
Firstly, “the need to preserve the longstanding historical and legal status quo” of banning Jewish prayer at Judaism’s holiest site while also demanding “freedom of worship” are in direct conflict. At least, as it relates to Jews.
Secondly, Israel allowed more Muslims to the site on a single morning than all Jews have been able to visit their holiest site during the entire year. Still, the OIC lambasted Israel preventing some Muslim radicals from visiting the site and inciting violence. Freedom to visit and pray must be limited to those who don’t advocate violence, and that includes banning agitators and facilitating the entry of tens of thousands of peaceful Jews onto the holy platform.
Third, the arrests were of Israeli Arabs, not Palestinians. Why did the PA issue statements about an internal matter? Is it because it not only believes that Israel has no rights in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount despite it agreeing to such in the Oslo Accords, but also believes that there are no such things as Israeli Arabs because Israel is illegitimate?
As Jews celebrate Passover, one of the three central holidays in Judaism in which Jews are called to visit the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, one cannot find a single article about Jews visiting their holiest site. The media lockdown is meant to keep tensions down as Israel continues to prosecute its defensive war against the political-terrorist group Hamas.
During Ramadan, Israel allows hundreds of thousands of Muslims onto the Temple Mount for prayers, some who shouted about killing Jews in an attempt to start a global jihad. On Passover, an unknown (but certainly very small) contingent of Jews visit the site and no one hears a single thing lest Muslims become angered.
Such is Islamic privilege: the ability for massive Muslim pilgrimage to the Temple Mount complete with antisemitic chants, while a paltry number of Jews silently visit the site, lest Muslims become upset. There is no equality or dignity for Jews, as made abundantly clear over Ramadan and Passover 2024.
The Palestinian Arabs sought and failed to be recognized as a new state by the United Nations Security Council on April 18, 2024, as the United States vetoed the resolution, insisting that Israel and the Palestinian Authority need to hammer out the contours of a deal before they would recognize a state. As the U.S. is a permanent member of the UNSC, its veto is an effective block.
In responding to the event, Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian representative to the UN made an opening statement that contains a twisted narrative which is arguably the best place to understand the core of the conflict.
According to the Palestinian representative to the UN, the “plight” of the “Palestinian people” started “over a century ago” and, what’s more, it “is still ongoing.”
“Over a century ago”: meaning the conflict is not rooted in the 1967 War in which Israel took over Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war. Instead, he claims it started with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the accelerated move of Jews to their historic homeland. Palestinians are not fighting about getting a state in the West Bank and Gaza, they are fighting about the presence of Jews and the existence of a Jewish State.
“Palestinian people”: A century ago, Palestinians included both Jews and Arabs. Both were residents of the Ottoman-controlled region. By suggesting that “Palestinian people” of a century ago are only Arabs is an ahistorical lie. Jews were Palestinians, and the “plight” that they have endured is the persistent attacks by local Arabs.
“Is still ongoing.”: Yes, Jews still live and continue to move to the land of Israel, and the Jewish State still exists. That Palestinian Arabs view the presence as a source of their “plight” shows their xenophobia, antisemitism and refusal to coexist.
The Palestinian representative, unashamed by his admission of xenophobia and antisemitism, continued to air more lies that “We” (meaning local Arabs) “have made every possible genuine effort… to achieve a peace that is based on the two state solution.”
Rejecting two-states in 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, 2008, 2014 and launching wars slaughtering thousands of Israeli civilians is hardly an effort towards peace. The heinous attacks of October 7 and broad support by Palestinians for the attack show the desire of local Arabs to seek the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews.
Palestinian Arabs voted the antisemitic jihadi terrorist group Hamas to 58% of parliament and continue to support the group which controls Gaza and over 2 million people. In what alternative reality does anyone think that Palestinian Arabs support a two-state solution when the Hamas charter specifically states it will never accept a Jewish State? Why would any United Nations’ country vote to admit a State of Palestine that is still devoted to the mass slaughter of Jews and destruction of the Jewish State?
The Palestinian Authority lied to the United Nations that Jews have no rights nor history in the holy land and that the Jewish presence causes Arab suffering. That’s how little they’ve advanced in coexistence over the past century.
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