zaterdag 30 oktober 2010

Palestijnen willen in augustus 2011 staat uitroepen

 
 
RP
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Fayyad: PA will declare independent state in August 2011




Palestinian Authority PM tells Italian newspaper: "The youngest olive trees have deeper roots than the largest Israeli settlement."

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the PA will declare an independent Palestinian state in 2011, while picking olives with a reporter from Italian daily Corriere Della Sera, according to an interview published on Thursday.

"The deadline is next summer, when the Israeli occupation of the West Bank must end," Fayyad said. "In 2011, we will celebrate 66 years of the United Nations and the United Nations will celebrate the birth of our nation."

Fayyad added that the Palestinians "need to build national institutions in the West Bank and prepare for an independent Palestinian state."

"The people of Gaza must be involved in our national project," Fayyad explained. "There are gaps between us, it's true, but the real gap is the wall that closes off the Strip. Next week, I will try to enter Gaza," he added.

Fayyad took the Corriere Della Sera reporter to pick olives, something that he says he does every day. He also lamented the settlers' "poisoning" of the trees, saying olive trees are "the symbol of our right to be on this earth."

"In Palestine we have 15 million" olive trees, Fayyad said. "We can not accept that even one is destroyed. The youngest of these trees have deeper roots than the largest Israeli settlement."

Fayyad also expressed anger at the end of the settlement building moratorium.

"Look at those houses up there in Shiloh," he said, "they are illegal not because I say so, but in international law. Israel considers UN resolutions as mere recommendations."

The Palestinian prime minister said that he will give Israel "one more year of grace...but these colonies can no longer be there. They are illegal everywhere; here and Jerusalem."

"If it is true that Israel is interested in peace, it must block" the settlers, Fayyad said.

On Tuesday, Fayyad went olive-picking with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry. Serry expressed his support for an declaration of Palestinian statehood by August 2011.
 

Steunt de VN een eenzijdig uitgeroepen Palestijnse staat?

 
Goeie vraag. Ik vrees van wel, want men heeft zich hier wel eerder positief over uitgelaten, evenals EU diplomaten. De redenering is als volgt:
Er moet een einde komen aan het conflict in het Midden-Oosten.
Dat kan alleen door de stichting van een onafhankelijke Palestijnse staat.
Als die er niet kan komen door onderhandelingen, dan maar een eenzijdig uitgeroepen staat op gebied waarvan we allang hebben vastgesteld dat het de Palestijnen toekomt.
 
Wat er niet deugt aan die redenering:
Een onafhankelijke Palestijnse staat is geen garantie voor vrede, integendeel, zij kan de relatieve rust van nu ernstig in gevaar brengen en de hele regio verder destabiliseren.
De reden dat de onderhandelingen maar niet tot resultaten leiden en nu weer zijn afgebroken, is voor een flink deel vanwege de weigering in de Arabische wereld Joodse zelfbeschikking en de Joodse wortels in het Midden-Oosten te erkennen. Dat los je niet op met een Palestijnse staat, integendeel.
 
Een tweestatenoplossing is inderdaad de enige breed geaccepteerde oplossing van het conflict, maar zo'n oplossing werkt alleen als er goeie afspraken worden gemaakt en er aan beide kanten de wil is om zich eraan te houden, plus enig vertrouwen in de andere partij. Eerst zal er aan vertrouwen en goede afspraken moeten worden gewerkt, dan pas kan de onafhankelijkheid worden uitgeroepen. Het is evident dat juist dergelijke dreigementen het vertrouwen alleen maar verder ondermijnen.
 
RP
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So does the UN support a unilaterally declared Palestinian Arab state?

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/so-does-un-support-unilaterally.html

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post seems to have been the first to report:

UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Negotiations Robert H. Serry expressed the UN's support for the declaration of an independent Palestinian state to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad while the two picked olives together on Tuesday near the West Bank village of Turmus'ayyeh, close to the Israeli settlement of Shiloh.

"All international players are now in agreement that the Palestinians are ready for statehood at any point in the near future," said Perry [sic]. He continued, "We are in the homestretch of your [Fayyad's] agenda to reach that point by August next year and you have our full support."
A few hours later, a reporter asked the UN spokesperson about this in their daily briefing:
Question: Robert Serry said yesterday to Salam Fayyad that the UN would support a declaration of the Palestinian State this… next summer… actually, next August.

Spokesperson: Said to whom?

Question: Said to Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. The 1995 Oslo Accords, for which the UN is sponsored, from which participation in the Quartet says that any such declaration should be a result of negotiation. The question is, does Serry… does the Secretary-General believe that Serry's sentiment also supports a unilateral declaration of statehood or through the UN without consulting Israel, which is the current path on which the Palestinians are going?

Spokesperson: Well, Benny, let me check with Robert Serry's office on exactly what was said. Okay, thanks. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. [He later informed the correspondent that Robert Serry had been quoted inaccurately, and that the paper writing about him had revised its story.]
As far as I can tell, the Jerusalem Post has not revised anything from what I just quoted above.

So what really happened?
 
 

Nano technologie uit Israel gaat voor volgende revolutie zorgen

 
Goed nieuws uit Israel. Het is onvoorstelbaar wat de nano technologie ons zal brengen, maar het lijkt erop dat dit weleens tot revolutionaire veranderingen zou kunnen leiden.
 
RP
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MFA Newsletter

26 Oct 2010

Israel doing big things with nano-materials

Israeli scientists are making significant contributions to the advance of nano-technology, discovering and developing some of the most important breakthroughs.
Second annual International Nanotechnology Conference to be held in Tel Aviv in November.

(By David Halevi)

Israeli high-tech has done some big things in the past - creating some of the most important advances in computer security and networking, social media, and telecommunications. Today, Israeli companies are set to do some little things - which may have an even bigger impact than some of those high-tech achievements.

What Internet startups were to the past decade, nanotechnology will be to the next one, experts say - and Israel is already a world leader in development and deployment of applications based on this new science. Already, Israeli scientists have made significant contributions to the field, discovering and developing some of the most important breakthroughs.

Among the applications Israeli start-ups have developed using nanotech are water purification membranes, agents for oral drug delivery, inkjet digital printing systems, diagnostic tools, holographic storage systems - and an 'e-beam on a chip,' which is similar to a laser beam, to be used for semiconductor manufacturing.

Thanks to nanotech, for example, organ transplants may become a thing of the past, as special growth factors based on nanotechnology help grow healthy cells in an organ to replace unhealthy ones. Nanotechnology could also help to vastly reduce pollutants from internal combustion engines and could even develop elements that provide the taste of sugar in foods, without the calories and tooth decay that are part and parcel of the product today.

The nanotechnology revolution is here, and moving forward rapidly, with a host of Israeli companies already producing applications based on this new science, which allows researchers to control matter on an atomic and molecular scale.

Highlighting Israel's nano-accomplishments

Highlighting Israel's accomplishments and research in the emerging nanotech field, the second annual International Nanotechnology Conference will be held in Tel Aviv in November. It will focus on innovations and business opportunities in the energy, water, environment, nano-material, nano-electronics, nano-photonics, nano-bio and nano-medicine fields.

Investors seeking opportunities and companies from Israel and abroad will attend, showing off their nano-wares. Speakers will include the leading lights of the discipline from Israel and abroad. Among them will be the 2010 co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, Professor Andre Geim, for his discovery and work with the nano-material graphene.

The conference is being chaired by Nava Swersky-Sofer, who is one of the leaders of Israel's life-science industry and is the former CEO of the Hebrew University's tech transfer arm, Yissum; Mr. Dan Vilenski from the Israel National Nano-technology Initiative (INNI); and Prof. Arie Zaban from Bar-Ilan University.

"Israel is known worldwide as a center of knowledge and innovation in nano-technology and research in the nano field. Israel's achievements are at the forefront of a variety of the industrial fields, such as communications, electronics, computerization, security, medicine and life-sciences," says Swersky-Sofer.

Israel is already on the international nanotech map, according to the INNI, one of the conference sponsors. The group lists about 80 large and small companies working in Israel's nanotech sector, along with more than 40 academic and governmental labs, employing some 300 researchers and scholars. The INNI states that Israel has the third-largest concentration of startup companies in the world, surpassed only by California's Silicon Valley and the Boston technology corridor.

A survey conducted by INNI shows that the Technion employs 119 nano-researchers, followed by 55 at Tel Aviv University, 47 at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 43 at the Weizmann Institute of Science, 39 at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and 30 at Bar-Ilan University. Since 2002, the number of nano-researchers in Israel has doubled. The two main scientific disciplines are chemistry (25.6%) and physics (19.5%). Most of the researchers (33%) focus on materials, followed by electronics and photonics (22%) and biotechnology (17%).

Israel had a head-start

Israel is ahead of many other countries in this new field, because its researchers have been working in the nano sphere for years. Among the researchers is Prof. Reshef Tenne of the Weizmann Institute. Tenne, who will chair a session at the conference, is best known for leading the group that discovered and studied the inorganic fullerene-like nanospheres and nanotubes, generally termed IF nanoparticles, considered a new class of nanomaterials. Tenne says that nanotech development suits the Israeli development model: "This is a small country, and nano-material research, of course, is done on a small scale. But the research can yield big results, and we expect that today's research will pay off handsomely in the coming years."

Israeli researchers have done a great deal of work in helping to discover new nano-materials, and Israel is by far the most advanced country in its neighborhood in nano-research. "You can tell how advanced a country is by the number of high-resolution electron microscopes a country has. We certainly don't have the resources that rich European countries like Germany and Holland have, but we've got quite enough for a country of our size. We're in a good spot in the middle, and our researchers take full advantage of the resources available," Tenne says.

Tenne himself conducts ongoing nanotech research at the Weizmann Institute in both basic materials and applications, a combination that he says suits him well.

"Over the next five to 10 years we'll see nanotech applications take off. Most of the first round of applications will probably be in the medical field, and we here in Israel have been making great strides in the area of nano-medical technology," Tenne relates.

Manipulating small elements of matter as it does, the science of nanotechnology is also considered an art form. 'Nanoart' features nanolandscapes (molecular and atomic landscapes, which are natural structures of matter at molecular and atomic scales) and nanosculptures (structures created by manipulating matter at molecular and atomic scales using chemical and physical processes). These scientific images, captured and processed with various artistic techniques, will be on display at the November conference.

MFA Website

 

UNESCO laat zich voor Arabisch karretje spannen over heilige plaatsen Israel

 
Helaas ontkomt ook de UNESCO niet aan politieke manipulaties, zoals vrijwel alle VN organen. Is niets hun heilig?
 

Wouter
_________________________
 
 
 
      From the UNESCO site:


       The Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem: the Board voted 44 to one (12 abstentions) to reaffirm that the two sites are an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law, the UNESCO Conventions and the United Nations and Security Council resolutions.

      Back in March, UNESCO went a little further and referred to "the historic Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque," helpfully putting "Rachel's Tomb" in parentheses.

      The only problem is that it is completely false.

      As I documented in some detail last year, the name "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque" was never used before the mid-1990s - even by Arabs! Calling it "the historic Bilal Bin Rabah mosque" is, simply, a lie, and an easily proven one.

      For a good example of this, here is a UN document from 1994 where the Arab League is describing Israeli "violations of human rights in the territories:"


        [T]he settlers demanded the right to engage in acts of religious worship, like the Muslims, in a number of mosques, including the Ibrahimi Shrine, Joseph's Tomb at Nablus, Nabi Samwil at Jerusalem and Rachel's Tomb at Bethlehem.
 
 
      Even the Arab League called it Rachel's Tomb a mere sixteen years ago! The only Arabic name for the site has historically been Qubbat Rukhail, or "The Dome of Rachel."

      UNESCO is an institution whose entire purpose is meant to foster co-existence based on education, the sciences, and culture. By saying that an undisputed Jewish holy site is primarily a mosque, and only parenthetically a Jewish site, shows its utter disregard for those three fields represented in its name. It is pushing a lie that was created from whole cloth by Muslims to eliminate Jewish history and culture.

      It is a travesty of UNESCO's goals to rewrite history in the service of those who want to eradicate Jewish culture from the Middle East.

      See also JPost on Netanyahu's reaction.
 
_________________________


Israel slams 'absurd' UNESCO decision on Jerusalem, West Bank holy sites
UNESCO board adopted last week five proposals initiated by Arab member states regarding sites which are considered holy to both Jews and Muslims.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-slams-absurd-unesco-decision-on-jerusalem-west-bank-holy-sites-1.321868
By The Associated Press and DPA
 
 
A decision by the United Nations body in charge of preserving historical sites to define West Bank shrines sacred to both Jews and Muslims as Palestinian is "absurd," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.

One of the sites, in the city of Hebron, has been a flashpoint for decades. Jews call it the Cave of the Patriarchs, where the Bible says the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried along with three of their wives.

Muslims call it the al-Ibrahimi mosque, reflecting the fact that Abraham is considered the father of both Judaism and Islam.

Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the UNESCO decision which was made last week. "The attempt to detach the people of Israel from its heritage is absurd," the statement said. "If the places where the fathers and mothers of the Jewish nation are buried, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Leah and Rachel some 4,000 years ago are not part of the Jewish heritage then what is?"

Hebron is a West Bank flashpoint because it is the only place where Jews live among Palestinians. About 500 settlers live in enclaves near the disputed holy site, guarded by Israeli soldiers who control part of the city of about 170,000 Palestinians.

Earlier this year Israel registered the Hebron shrine as well as a tomb near Jerusalem, believed to be the burial site of the Matriarch Rachel, as national heritage sites. 

Both shrines are located in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want as part of their future state. Palestinians view the additions of the shrines to Israel's heritage list as a land grab.

"It is regrettable that the organization established to promote historical heritage sites worldwide is trying for political reasons to detach the ties between the Jewish people and their heritage," Netanyahu's statement said.

"The state of Israel in contrast to its neighbors will continue to preserve freedom of religion at these sites and preserve them for future generations," he said.

UNESCO, in its biannual session which ended last week, adopted five proposals initiated by Arab member states regarding Jewish and Muslim holy sites.

One of them, in what Israelis charged was a first, used an allegedly politically motivated title to describe Rachel's burial site in Bethlehem.

Referring to the structure as the "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb" in its statement, the UNESCO board voted 44 to one, with 12 abstentions, to reaffirm the site was "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law."

Israelis charged that Rachel's Tomb was traditionally referred to also by Muslims as such in Arabic, as "Qubat Rachel," although the structure also traditionally included a Muslim prayer house adjacent to a Muslim cemetery.

They charge that the name "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque" only came into use following Arab-Israeli riots in 1996 and was coined by Palestinians for political reasons.

Army Radio on Friday quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as charging the UNESCO decision used "crudely politically deceptive" language and that this distorted and sidestepped the body's cultural mission.

A spokesman also called the UNESCO decision "shameful" and charged it "reeked of political bias."

The UNESCO executive board also expressed "deep concern" over "ongoing Israeli excavations and archaeological works" at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's walled, historic Old City.

Israeli media quoted Western Wall and Holy Sites Rabbi, Shmuel Rabinovitz, as charging that the international body "responsible for heritage has turned heritage into politics" and was "distorting history."
 

Islamitische Jihad houdt betoging in Gaza

A Palestinian woman holds a gun as she attends the Islamic Jihad rally in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. AP
 
In het verleden heeft Abbas wel gesuggereerd dat de geweldoptie nog open is voor de Palestijnen, ik meen ook op het laatste PLO congres, en de Al Aqsa Martelarenbrigade schijnt nog steeds te bestaan, al zou die worden opgeheven volgens eerdere toezeggingen. Hieronder staat dat Abbas geweld niet meer als een optie zou zien, en terecht: de tweede intifada heeft het vredesproces helemaal naar de knoppen geholpen, en de Qassams uit Gaza hebben de Israelische terugtrekking daar tot een fiasco gemaakt.
 
Wouter
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Islamic Jihad leader: Israel must be wiped out of existence
Organizers say up to 100,000 people attend largest Islamic Jihad rally in Gaza in several years; Hamas leader calls for unity against Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/islamic-jihad-leader-israel-must-be-wiped-out-of-existence-1.321874
By Reuters - Haaretz
Published 16:53 29.10.10
 

Tens of thousands of supporters of the militant Islamic Jihad movement rallied in the streets of Gaza on Friday, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Young men and boys wearing white T-shirts with a slogan in the shape of a rifle carried portraits of militants killed in combat, under the black flags of Islamic Jihad.

Ramadan Shallah, the group's exiled chief, currently residing in Damascus, sent a recorded message marking the anniversary of the assassination of the group's leader Fathi Shiqaqi in Malta in 1995, by presumed Israeli secret agents.

"Israel will not bring peace to the region, it will only bring war and destruction and therefore, the slogan of all should be that Israel must be wiped out of existence," said
Shallah, who is on a United States wanted list.

Senior leaders of the ruling Islamist group, Hamas, joined the open-air gathering, the largest for years in honor of Islamic Jihad with up to 100,000 attending according to its organizers.

Hamas allowed the group to use city terrain it usually reserves exclusively for its own rallies, and Hamas forces provided security for the parade by its smaller rival. 

 
'Referendum against peace talks'

Islamic Jihad carried out a series of stabbing attacks in the 1980s against Israeli citizens who used to visit the Gaza Strip to purchase cheap goods and later turned to suicide bombings inside Israel.

Its militants continue to harass southern Israel with sporadic rocket and mortar fire from inside Gaza, frequently paying with their lives in swift retaliatory strikes by the Israeli air force.

Islamic Jihad officials said Friday's turnout was a "referendum by the Palestinian people rejecting peace-making with Israel."

Negotiations between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have faltered after Israel's 10-month freeze of settlemement construction expired on September 26.

"The choice of negotiation has reached deadlock, and we are wondering why is there such an insistence by the Palestinian Authority on negotiation with the enemy," said Shallah.

He urged an end to peace talks and fresh efforts to heal the rift between Abbas's Fatah movement and the Islamist militants.

Raising hopes that the three-year-old split may be coming to an end, Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya said it was time for unity in the face of Israel.

"There is only the choice of Jihad and nothing else ... There is no more room to make bets, on the Americans or anyone else," said Hayya.

President Abbas, however, rules out any return to violence against Israelis in pursuit of Palestinian statehood. He has said he will pursue diplomatic alternatives should the peace talks with Netanyahu collapse definitively. 

Grote optocht in Gaza om terroristenleider te eren

 
Zulke demonstraties vinden vaker plaats in Gaza; via google vond ik foto's van eenzelfde evenement precies een jaar geleden.
De vraag die volgens Geert Wilders met 'Ja' beantwoord moet worden, is: heeft Shiqaqi lang moeten zoeken in de Koran voor een rechtvaardiging van zelfmoordaanslagen?
En heeft de Mossad ook in de Thora gezocht voor een rechtvaardiging van het liquideren van terroristen?
 
Er was heel wat publiek op de been in Gaza, maar dat zal niet moeilijk zijn geweest: een hoog geboortecijfer maakt het tot een dichtbevolkt stukje aarde, en ze hebben verder weinig om handen daar, met de blokkade enzo. De islamitische indoctrinatie doet de rest. Straks kunnen zulke optochten misschien als Palestijnse folklore een mooie toeristische attractie worden, als de grenzen weer open zijn en het wat veiliger is geworden...
 
Abby
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Massive Gaza rally planned today to celebrate a terrorist leader

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/massive-gaza-rally-planned-today-to.html

All week, there have been a number of events in Gaza to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the death of Islamic Jihad co-founder Fathi Shiqaqi.

Shiqaqi was first Sunni terrorist leader to find Koranic justification for suicide terrorism.

He was assassinated in a Mossad operation in Malta on October 26, 1995.

The commemorations reach their peak today with a planned rally in Gaza, to be attended by all factions and not just Islamic Jihad members. It will be broadcast on satellite TV.

The rally will emphasizes that the Palestinian Arabs support the approach of jihad and resistance, and reject any "defeatist" options or compromises that would waive what they consider their basic rights to all of Palestine.

Because the rally goes against all of Western conventional wisdom about how moderate most Palestinian Arabs are, it - and its themes - will be all but ignored by the media.

Here are some pictures from Islamic Jihad parades through Rafah and Khan Younis yesterday. (The last two pictures are dated from six months ago, so either the camera time was not set or Palestine Today is not quite telling the truth about the rallies....)


 




UPDATE: Here are pictures from the rally.


Joden niet zo populair in Jordanië

 
Tefilin zijn joodse gebedsriemen (je weet wel, met van die rare doosjes eraan).
Een Yarmulke is een keppeltje.
Tegenwoordig mag je zelfs niet meer met een keppeltje Jordanië binnen; dat gaat lekker daar, maar wel achteruit.
 
Abby
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Jew-hatred alive and well in Jordan

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/jew-hatred-alive-and-well-in-jordan.html

In 2006, Pew Research asked people throughout the world their opinion of Jews.

The country that came in dead last, with 98% saying that they do not like Jews, was Jordan. (Egypt came in at 97%.)

That's all the background you need to understand this:

It has been a while since Israelis entering Jordan were first required to deposit items of a Jewish-religious nature in order to cross the border for "security reasons." Most recently, Israelis have been asked to remove their yarmulkes.

A., an Israeli businessman who visits Jordan often was amazed when he was asked to leave his yarmulkes in a safe on his most recent visit to the country. "We know tefillin are confiscated and we recently heard brimmed hats were being taken, so we came with regular hats," he told Ynet.

"The man in the counter asked us to take off our hats and we thought it was standard procedure for passport control. But when the man saw the yarmulkes, he took us to the tourism police. The officer there said that the ban to wear yarmulkes was 'for our own benefit,' put it in the safe and gave us a form with which to receive the yarmulkes when we return."
Perhaps that is just because they are anti-Zionist and not anti-semitic? Not quite:
A. said that in light of such limitations he makes a point of not staying in Jordan for more than a day in each visit. "I don't carry tefillin so I can't stay the night," he said. "What's really annoying about the whole thing is that together with us at the border crossing was a group of post-army youngsters with IDF training t-shirts who were so obviously Israeli citizens. They didn't give them any hard time, while with us they insisted."
Even if you agree that the border guards are simply protecting the Jews for their own good, it means that Jordan's government admits that its citizens are rabid Jew-haters - and it has no interest in doing anything about it.

Well, not quite true. They are willing to do something.

Because when Pew Research returned in 2008 to ask the same question about Jordanian attitudes towards Jews.

And Jordan refused to allow that question from even being asked!

(h/t Joel)
 
 
 
 

Ken je deze al? Iran en Saoedie-Arabie willen in VN vrouwenrechten gaan promoten!


Nadat de VN Mensenrechtenraad is gekaapt door landen als Libië, Saudi-Arabië, Pakistan en Cuba, dreigt nu hetzelfde te gebeuren met de nieuw op te richten VN Vrouwenraad. De landen die namens het Aziatische blok zijn voorgedragen zijn:
 
Iran, Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan.
 
De Verenigde Naties zit zo in elkaar dat uit ieder blok een aantal landen worden gekozen, en daarbij is niet de daadwerkelijke mensenrechtensituatie in dat land bepalend, maar het aantal landen dat op dit land stemmen. Israel zit daarom in bijna geen enkele commissie of raad. Het is lid van het "Europese en Andere Landen" blok omdat de Arabische staten het niet in hun blok accepteren, maar daaraan zijn wel restricties verbonden. Ondertussen zou Israel natuurlijk een goede kandidaat zijn vanwege de gelijke rechten van vrouwen, zij het dat de orthodoxe Joden daar wel aan proberen te knabbelen.
 
RP
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Iran to sit on UN women's rights board?

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3976083,00.html

State that sentences adulterous women to death by stoning may help govern new UN Women agency

Associated Press

Published: 10.28.10, 07:53

Iran, where a woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning, is likely to become a member of the board of the new UN agency to promote equality for women, prompting outrage from the US and human rights groups.

Some rights groups are also upset that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and are barred from many facilities used by men, is also vying to join the governing body of UN Women.

The General Assembly resolution adopted in July that merged four UN bodies dealing with women's issues into a single agency with greater clout to represent half the world's population calls for a 41-member executive board, with 35 members chosen by regional groups and six representing donor nations.

Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the US Mission, said Wednesday that Iran's membership "would send the wrong signal at the start of this exciting new initiative."

"UN Women is a vital new agency tasked with promoting gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide," he said. "We and many other countries are concerned by the negative implications of Iran's potential board memberships, given its poor record on human rights and the treatment of women.

"There are many qualified countries that would make positive and constructive contributions as board members," Kornblau said.

The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, has raised an international outcry, embarrassing Iran.

A resolution adopted by the General Assembly last year expressed "deep concern" at Iran's increasing use of executions, death by stoning, torture, flogging and amputations, and its increasing discrimination against religious, ethnic and other minorities.

'Saudi Arabia would add insult to injury'

Philippe Bolopion, UN advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said it was "puzzling that Iran would have the nerve to be a candidate for the board of UN Women".

"Having on top of it Saudi Arabia, a country with a track record on women's rights as horrendous as Iran's, would add insult to injury," he said.

Bolopion called their potential membership "an affront to women around the world who are placing their hopes in UN Women," but he expressed hope that the board's overall composition will ensure that neither country will be able to use their position to undermine the agency's work.
 
Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, said that if board membership "helps to influence Iran's attitude toward women then fine, but if Iran uses it to hold back our dreams and vision for equality then it's a disaster."

According to UN diplomats, the 10 countries selected by the Asian group for the board are Iran, Bangladesh, India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. Eastern Europe and Latin America have put forward contested slates, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the lists have not been made public.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chose former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to head UN Women, an appointment greeted with overwhelming approval by governments and women's groups who campaigned for four years to streamline the UN's activities promoting the status of women.

The resolution earmarks four seats from the 10 top donor nations and diplomats said the candidates are the United States, Britain, Spain and Norway. It allocated two seats to contributors from developing countries and diplomats said the candidates are Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Abbas en de kaart van Palestina

Voorbeelden van de PA tv uit 2009 en 2010.
 
 
'Vredesactivisten' klagen vaak dat Israel haar grenzen niet wil vastleggen en op kaarten de groene lijn, de 1949 wapenstilstandslijn, niet altijd als grens intekent. Vaak staat deze wel als dunne lijn op kaarten en vaak staan ook de gebieden onder PA controle apart ingekleurd, wat eigenlijk logischer is dan de groene lijn intekenen omdat dit gebied is dat onder Palestijns gezag staat en waar Israeli's niet mogen komen. Een kaart geeft doorgaans de huidige situatie weer, niet de (al dan niet) in de toekomst gewenste. Een heel bestand land weglaten omdat je het niet eens bent met het feit dat dat land is, is een ander verhaal. Niet alleen druist het in tegen de zogenaamde erkenning van Israel door de PA en de Oslo Akkoorden, maar het is ook een belediging voor de inwoners van dat land. Wat moet er met hen gebeuren? Waar moeten zij heen? Misschien dat de mensen die op hoge poten naar de Reclame Code Commissie stapten omdat het Israelische buro voor toerisme niet overal de groene lijn even duidelijk had ingetekend, ook even bij de PA kunnen gaan klagen? En bij de EU, de belangrijkste financier van de PA?
 
RP
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PA Chairman Abbas
holds up map of "Palestine"
that erases Israel
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=3467

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 
 
During a visit to Bethlehem this week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas held up a stone model of a map of "Palestine" that erases Israel.
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 26, 2010]

US President Obama has condemned the existence of maps like the one Abbas displayed as a "security" threat to Israel:

"I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security... Not when there are terrorist groups and political leaders committed to Israel's destruction. Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don't even acknowledge Israel's existence."
[Obama at AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008]

As Palestinian Media Watch reported, last year Abbas held up a similar political map that presented a world without Israel. It included the PA flag above the entire land of Israel, and was titled "Palestine." It named all the neighboring states in English -- "Lebanon, Syria, Jordan Egypt" -- but failed to mention Israel.

On Abbas's maps there is no Israel.

Abbas openly ignores US President Obama's criticism of the use of such maps, letting the political and educational structures under his control continue to use maps that present a world without Israel. It is the only map used by the PA to represent "Palestine," and at times even the "State of Palestine."

See PMW's website for more examples of how "Palestine" erases Israel in the PA.

The following are recent examples:

1. PA TV children's program:
Girl points to places on map:
"We went to the Sea of Galilee (in Israel) and to the Dead Sea."
Boy points on map: "Jaffa, Haifa." (Israeli cities)
...
Host: "So you've visited many different places in Palestine, and that's very good. It's very good that we're always visiting new places in our state, Palestine."
[PA TV (Fatah), May 16, 2010]

2. PA Minister of Prisoners Karake presents award of honor to prisoner's family in shape of "Palestine."
[PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 15, 2010]
 
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PMW | King George 59 | Jerusalem | Israel
 
 

vrijdag 29 oktober 2010

AP persbureau promoot stereotypes van fanatieke illegale kolonisten


Dit is een goed voorbeeld van hoe onbetrouwbaar de officiële persburo's zijn, en hoe diep de vooroordelen over de kolonisten zitten. Zoiets gebeurt vaker, en geeft daardoor een vertekend beeld van het conflict. Ook noemt AP Joden sneller extremistisch dan Arabieren. Dat doet denken aan de NRC en andere Nederlandse media, die rechtse Israelische politici als extremisten, haviken en zelfs racisten neerzetten, terwijl Hamas en de PA juist in milde termen worden beschreven. De bevooroordeeldheid van de media wat betreft Israel-Palestina blijkt telkens weer, maar kritiek daarop wordt stelselmatig genegeerd.
 
RP
 
Zie ook:
 
-----------------------

AP promotes stereotypes of fanatic settlers acting illegally

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/ap-promotes-stereotypes-of-fanatic.html

I had just noticed this - but the Balfour Street blog beat me to it.

From
AP via Al Arabiya:

In a spat last week, Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, which helps Palestinians harvest their olives in the West Bank, confronted [Erez] Ben-Saadon and accused him of using land owned by Palestinians.

Ben-Saadon said he was farming on land given to Jewish settlers by the Israeli military. He said he had no ownership papers -- but needed none.

"Our land deed is the Bible," Ben Saadon said.
This perfectly fits in with the meme of fanatic, religious settlers disregarding the law to grab land that belongs to Palestinian farmers - a meme that is so widespread as to be axiomatic among many.

Yet, Ha'aretz reported on this
same incident last week - a bit differently:

Near Har Bracha, a verbal confrontation erupted yesterday between Jewish farmer Erez Ben Sa'adon and Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the head of Rabbis for Human Rights. Ascherman claimed Ben Sa'adon was harvesting olives that belonged to Palestinians from nearby Karyut. Ben Sa'adon, whose nearby vineyard had been destroyed by unidentified parties the previous night, said he had leased that plot for the past 12 years and the olives were his.

Civil Administration officials were called to resolve the dispute, and they summoned the mayor of Karyut - who admitted that the trees belonged to Ben Sa'adon.
It certainly looks like the AP reporter read the Ha'aretz story and purposefully omitted the part where Ben Sa'adon was proven to be the rightful owner of the olives, and Arik Ascherman proven wrong.

This is not an innocent mistake. This is AP being mendacious to adjust the facts to pre-determined conclusions.

(I sent messages to the author of the AP piece and to Erez Ben Saadon, asking for comment. I have yet to hear back from them.)
 
 

Islamitische Jihad geeft uitleg over foto's Turkse vredesaktivisten in Gaza


Onderstaande bericht van Elder of Ziyon is welhaast hilarisch. De Islamitische Jihad reageert op kritiek op de foto's van Turkse extremisten die op de Mavi Marmara meevoeren om de Gaza blokkade te doorbreken.
 
RP
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Islamic Jihad explains the "peace activist with weapons" photos

 
 
Islamic Jihad has responded to the controversy over publishing pictures of Turkish "peace activists" from Viva Palestina who visited Islamic Jihad and posed for commemorative photos with machine guns and RPGs.

Completely clueless about why the concept of peace activists proudly brandishing weapons is an oxymoron, Islamic Jihad stated that the pictures were "commemorative photos of solidarity" and emphasized that the activists were in no real danger at any point during their photo shoot. They emphasized that they didn't bring them to any border areas, for example, where they would have been at risk.

In other words, trying to get into Western heads as to what the problem is, they assumed that it was a safety issue!

They additionally said that the Turks were "motivated by an innate natural human solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people exposed to murder, genocide and torture at the hands of the Israeli occupation that kills children and abuses prisoners and burns the holy sites and traps civilians. These visits of solidarity are primarily of sympathy with the besieged and with the Palestinian right with the resistance."

They added, "This is systematic Israeli propaganda against peace activists."
 
 

donderdag 28 oktober 2010

Knessetlid wil wet om soldaten ook na diensttijd te straffen voor wangedrag

 
Een goed plan. De foto's zijn meer dan smakeloos, en geven vriend en vijand het idee dat het leger het niet zo nauw neemt met de regels, en soldaten wreed en onmenselijk zijn. Dat het maar om kleine aantallen gaat, dat jongeren met teveel testosteron overal dingen doen die niet kunnen, zeker in moeilijke situaties als in een leger, en dat andere legers het er bepaald niet beter vanaf brengen, dat alles wordt maar al te graag vergeten. Er staat nou eenmaal continu een vergrootglas op Israel.
 
RP
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MK proposes punishing IDF soldiers photographed humiliating Palestinians
Proposal follows a string of pictures and videos that have surfaced on the Internet in recent months' Hanegbi defends bill as method of deterring soldiers from behavior that damages the army and the country.
By News Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mk-proposes-punishing-idf-soldiers-photographed-humiliating-palestinians-1.321470

 
MK Tzachi Hanegbi proposed Wednesday a bill to punish Israel Defense Forces soldiers photographed mistreating Palestinians - even if their crimes are discovered years later.

Hanegbi defended the proposal as a method of deterring soldiers from behavior that damages the army and the country.

His proposal follows a string of pictures and videos that have surfaced on the Internet in recent months, showing soldiers humiliating Palestinians. The latest photo, released this week, shows a soldier pointing a rifle at the face of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man.

Most of the offending soldiers have not been reprimanded because they had already been discharged when the photos were published.

According to the current law, soldiers discharged more than six months ago cannot be prosecuted. The new bill would allow prosecution for up to five years after discharge.

A former soldier raised a storm on the internet this summer after posting photographs of herself posing next to blindfold Palestinian prisoners on Facebook.

Photographs uploaded by Eden Abergil from Ashdod and labeled "IDF - the best time of my life" show her smiling next to Palestinian prisoners with their hands bound and their eyes covered. She defended her actions as having been "taken in good faith, there was no statement in them."

Breaking the Silence, a rights group comprising IDF veterans, said following that incident that the norms the photos allegedly expose were the "necessary result of a long-term military control of a civilian population."
 

De goede oude tijd voordat er vrede was in Israel/Palestina


Voordat er vrede was, dat wil zeggen, voordat de Oslo Akkoorden waren getekend en de Palestijnse Autoriteit gecreëerd en zij zelfbestuur kreeg over ca. 40% van de Westoever en alle Palestijnse steden, en voordat de PLO officieel Israel erkende en Israel de PLO erkende, voor die tijd, toen idereen zo optimistisch was en dacht dat echte vrede nu binnen handbereik zou zijn, voor die tijd dus, waren er geen checkpoints en er was geen muur/hek, en Palestijnen konden vrij naar Israel reizen en honderdduizenden werkten er in Israel. Hamas was niet aan de macht in Gaza, sterker nog, Hamas bestond nog niet eens, en Hezbollah was een schim van wat het nu is, en Iran was geen kernbom aan het maken en er waren geen duizend+ Israeli's opgeblazen in bussen en restaurants en geen duizenden Palestijnen doodgeschoten en een veelvoud vernederd bij de checkpoints. Palestijnen gingen naar het strand in Israel en Israeli's winkelden in Ramallah en andere steden, zonder het risico te worden gelyncht. Natuurlijk waren er toen ook gewelddadige confrontaties, er waren aanslagen en Israelische represailles, er waren vliegtuigkapingen en buskapingen, er waren de bombardementen in Beiroet en het rommelde ook toen al in Gaza.
 
Maar menig Israeli en Palestijn denkt met weemoed terug aan de tijd voordat er vrede was. Hoe heeft het zo mis kunnen gaan? En hoe komt het dat met alle besprekingen en het feit dat aan beide kanten het besef is gegroeid dat alleen een compromis en een tweestatenoplossing tot vrede kunnen leiden, er juist meer geweld en meer ellende is gekomen? Over die vraag zouden allerlei zogenaamde vredesgroepen en diplomaten weleens wat meer mogen nadenken, voordat ze zonder meer hetzelfde recept voorschrijven voor de toekomst. Als aderlaten niet helpt, helpt meer aderlaten waarschijnlijk ook niet. Waarmee niet gezegd is dat vrede onmogelijk is, we hebben alleen het juiste recept nog niet gevonden.
 
RP
--------------
 

De goede oude tijd voordat er vrede was

Yochanan Visser, 27-10-2010 15:13

 

Het vredesproces ligt stil. Deze week kreeg ik heimwee naar de tijd dat het nog géén vrede was.

De Britse journalist Peter Hitchens publiceerde onlangs een artikel over zijn bezoek aan Gaza en de West Bank. In dat artikel schreef hij het volgende: 'In feite is de werkelijke situatie in de Gazastrook en de West Bank zo vol met paradoxen en verrassingen dat de meeste berichtgeving zich gemakshalve concentreert op het vanzelfsprekende en de lastige delen weglaat'.

Het was een spaarzaam eerlijk artikel over het Midden Oosten conflict. De strekking van het artikel werd volledig bevestigd door drie persoonlijke ervaringen die ik deze week had.

Het eerste was een gesprek met de Palestijnse correspondent van The Jerusalem Post, Khaled Abu Toameh en bevestigde wat mij betreft Hitchens' woorden.  Wanneer het om nieuws gaat dat niet vanuit een anti-Israël hoek kan worden gerapporteerd zwijgen de media, aldus Toameh.

De bekende Palestijnse journalist gaf zijn visie op het Midden-Oosten conflict. Hij werkte een aanzienlijk deel van zijn leven voor de PLO, maar besloot later dat hij "een echte journalist" wilde zijn.
Hij schrijft nu voor de Jerusalem Post, maar werkt ook voor een aantal buitenlandse media.

Hij begon zijn betoog met de opmerking dat de huidige puinhoop te danken is aan de Oslo akkoorden. De ideeën waren leuk maar de wijze waarop ze uitgevoerd werden was een drama, zei hij.

Als voorbeeld noemde hij de wijze waarop de PA met geld en wapens werd ondersteund door de VS en de EU. Men had volgens hem kunnen weten dat Arafat dat geld niet aan de opbouw van een staat zou besteden en de wapens uiteindelijk zou gebruiken om een oorlog tegen Israël te beginnen.

Tweede Intifada
De Tweede Intifada was een doordachte poging om de aandacht af te leiden van de groeiende kritiek op de PA onder de Palestijnse bevolking, aldus Toameh.
Corruptie en de ophitsingcampagne die de PA tegen Israël voerde, zorgden er uiteindelijk voor dat de Palestijnen in 2006 kozen voor Hamas. Hamas ging met een programma van hervormingen de verkiezingen in want de organisatie wist heel goed wat er leeft onder de Palestijnse bevolking.

De PA heeft mu geen enkel mandaat om de onderhandelingen met Israel te voeren, zei hij.  Als er al een akkoord voortkomt uit die besprekingen, dan zal de PA dat akkoord niet kunnen en willen uitvoeren. Volgens Toameh is de enige reden dat de clan van Abu Mazen vanuit Ramallah kan regeren, de aanwezigheid van Israël op de West Bank.

Terugtrekking van de IDF uit de West Bank zal ontaarden in een tweede burgeroorlog onder de Palestijnen.
Wanneer het gaat over de strijd tussen Hamas en Fatah kun je slechts spreken over "bad guys and bad guys", aldus Taomeh.

Internationale media
Toameh zei verder dat hij uitermate teleurgesteld is in de wijze waarop de internationale media verslag doen over het conflict. Hij noemde de berichtgeving "niet fair". Angst voor intimidatie door de PA bij de buitenlandse correspondenten, was een van de redenen die hij aanvoerde voor dit gedrag. Een andere reden was hypocrisie. Hij wees op het feit dat de buitenlandse correspondenten bijna allemaal in Tel Aviv wonen, waar ze genieten van onbeperkte vrijheid. Dezelfde journalisten beschuldigen Israel bijna dagelijks van het schenden van vrijheden en doen hun ogen dicht voor wat het Palestijnse leiderschap doet met haar eigen onderdanen.

Tot slot gaf hij commentaar op de situatie in Gaza. Hij merkte op dat tijdens de coup door Hamas in 2007, Israël het enige land in de regio was dat Fatah leden hielp tijdens de moordpartijen. Egypte hield de grens toen dicht.

Het land speelt ook op ander gebied een kwalijke rol. Hij noemde de smokkel van wapens naar Gaza, die wordt mogelijk gemaakt door corruptie in de Egyptische overheid.

Hij wees op de gebeurtenissen in Gaza na de Israëlische terugtrekking in 2005 en waarschuwde dat een eventuele Israëlische terugtrekking uit de West Bank opnieuw tot chaos en bloedbaden onder de Palestijnen zal leiden.

Verder merkte hij op dat de humanitaire situatie in Gaza beter is dan in vele andere landen in het Midden Oosten en Afrika, en zei dat in Gaza meer hulporganisaties werkzaam zijn dan in tien Afrikaanse probleemlanden samen.

Pro feiten

Toameh omschreef zichzelf als Arabisch Israëlische Palestijnse moslim en zei dat hij niet pro Israel is maar pro feiten.  Vanwege deze opstelling moet hij vrezen voor zijn leven als hij in de West Bank werkt en kan om de zelfde reden niet naar de meeste Arabische landen. Hij had kritiek op de behandeling van Arabieren in Israel, maar voegde daaraan toe dat de meeste Arabieren in Israel niet onder Arabisch bestuur willen leven.
Het gevolg is een verwrongen beeldvorming over Israel.

Emigratie naar Nederland
Maar de eerste keer dat Hitchens artikel in herinnering kwam, was tijdens een gesprek met een bevriende Palestijnse ondernemer in de buurt van Bethlehem. De man informeerde naar de mogelijkheid om naar Nederland te emigreren. Mijn eerste gedachte was dat hij wilde vertrekken vanwege het stuklopen van de onlangs gestarte vredesbesprekingen.  Maar dit bleek niet het geval. En dus dat er geen uitzicht was op een eigen staat.

De werkelijke reden waren de maffiapraktijken die de Palestijnse elite in de West Bank er op na houdt, vertelde hij. Middenstanders en beginnende bedrijven worden door deze elite, waaronder Fatah bonzen, zodanig afgeknepen dat overleven het maximaal haalbare blijkt.

Een poos geleden vertelde hij een soortgelijk verhaal over de betaling van ziekenhuisbehandeling in Israel voor gewone Palestijnen. Die wordt bijna altijd door de Palestijnse Autoriteit geweigerd terwijl dat niet het geval is bij de families van deze elite.

Het emigratie idee liet hij overigens snel vallen nadat ik hem had geïnformeerd over de problemen met moslims in Nederland en het klimaat daar.

Precious Life

De film Precious Life die ik deze week zag in Jeruzalem, gaat over dezelfde paradoxen in het leven van Palestijnen en Israëli's. De film begint met een soortgelijk verhaal over de wijze waarop de PA zelf de humanitaire noden van haar onderdanen negeert.

Een Palestijns gezin in Gaza heeft een kind dat aan een dodelijke erfelijke ziekte lijdt. Het echtpaar vertelt dat twee oudere kinderen al stierven aan de ziekte en dat de PA weigerde de behandeling in Israel van een derde kind te betalen.

Uiteindelijk wordt de behandeling betaald door een anonieme Joods Israëlische donor die slechts meldde dat hij een kind had verloren in een recente oorlog.

De film laat vervolgens zien hoe vooral de moeder van het kind worstelt met haar beeld over Israel. De "kindermoordenaars" die zij zag op Hamas TV blijken opeens te vechten voor het leven van haar kind.

De meest dramatische scene in de film is echter de dialoog tussen Shlomi Eldar (maker van de film) en de Palestijnse moeder over het verschil tussen de cultuur van de dood in Gaza en die van het leven in Israel.

De moeder zegt dat de waarde die Israëli's hechten aan het leven een zwakheid is.

Zij verklaart uiteindelijk dat haar zieke kind martelaar (shahid) moet worden voor de strijd om Jeruzalem. Eldar vertelde later dat hij toen overwoog het werk aan de film te staken.

Het kind keert uiteindelijk gezond naar Gaza terug.

Deze drie ervaringen deden me opnieuw denken aan het artikel van Hitckens. Daarin citeert hij een Arabische Israëli die met heimwee terugkeek op" de goede oude tijd voordat er vrede was".


Yochanan Visser woont en werkt in Israël.

 
 

Opiniepeiling: slechts helft Palestijnen steunt democratie

 
Ook dit zal onze kwaliteitsmedia niet halen. Uit een recente Palestijnse opiniepeiling blijkt o.a. dat:
 
  • 62 percent of Palestinian youth believe bribery and corruption are prevalent in their society and see those practices as an effective way of getting what they want;
  • Less than half (47.2 percent) said they want the Palestinian Authority to remain a democracy;
  • 45.3 percent said they want the Palestinian Authority to become an Islamic regime of one form or another;
  • 73 percent said that whatever form the Palestinian government takes, it should be either wholly or partially ruled by Sharia Law. Only 22.9 percent voted for a purely civil law;
  • The nation chosen as the best ally to the Palestinians with 18.7 percent of the vote
  •  
    Als Israeli's dergelijke antwoorden in een enquete zouden geven zou het in alle kranten staan, maar van Palestijnen kun je niet verwachten dat ze de democratie omarmen en corruptie en religieuze wetgeving afkeuren, niet? Gezien alle felle kritiek op Israels eis als Joodse staat te worden erkend zijn deze uitkomsten, laten we zeggen, opvallend.
     
    RP
    ---------------

    Read the whole poll here.


    From: Israel today Magazine

    A newly published public opinion poll shows that young Palestinian Arabs think their corruption-ridden government is doing just fine, but would prefer to see it transformed into an Islamic dictatorship.

    Conducted by the Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue, the poll asked 1,000 Palestinian Arabs between the ages of 18 and 30 to rate the performance of the Palestinian democracy, such as it is. Seventy-one percent evaluated Palestinian democracy as either "good" or "average," and an equal number said they were satisfied with the human rights situation in Palestinian-controlled areas.

    Most of the liberal Israeli and international media stopped there with their coverage. What they left out is the following:

    • 62 percent of Palestinian youth believe bribery and corruption are prevalent in their society and see those practices as an effective way of getting what they want;
    • Less than half (47.2 percent) said they want the Palestinian Authority to remain a democracy;
    • 45.3 percent said they want the Palestinian Authority to become an Islamic regime of one form or another;
    • 73 percent said that whatever form the Palestinian government takes, it should be either wholly or partially ruled by Sharia Law. Only 22.9 percent voted for a purely civil law;
    • The nation chosen as the best ally to the Palestinians with 18.7 percent of the vote was Iran. Only 2.3 percent said the US is the Palestinians' best ally;
    • 59 percent said they are in favor of Iran possessing nuclear weapons;
    • A 34.7 percent plurality want to see all of Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza become an Islamic state.

    Considering the age range of the respondents, the survey's results are further evidence that the Palestinian Authority has utterly failed to honor its commitment to educate its population for peaceful coexistence with Israel and to become a free, civil and openly democratic society. Instead, the ill-advised "Oslo" peace process has actually created an increase in the number of young Palestinian Arabs who are becoming radicalized Muslims.

    The poll also gives the lie to Western efforts to paint the Palestinians as a progressive society not easily swayed by populist religious rhetoric.

    Most Israelis feel that a true and lasting peace is simply not achievable any time soon. They also have long viewed with suspicion the motives and integrity of the international community as a peace broker. The results of this poll again show why that is the case.


    Geschiedenis volgens Palestijnse TV: 'Joden in Europa vervolgd om hun geldliefde'

     
    Dit is antisemitisme pur sang:
     
    Jordanian academic Arafat Hijazi:
    "150 years ago, when there were no Jews in Palestine, the Jews were in Europe, in Eastern Europe, but the Jews suffered from persecution by the European nations.
    The reason was that they would harm the people of the lands in which they lived.
    They had a problem: Wherever they went, they were expelled, and were imprisoned."
     
    Jordanian academic Muhammad Dohal:
    "The Jews are hated in every society in which they have lived, because of their behavior relating to their great love of money.
    Their behavior led to [Shakespeare's] famous story, the story of Shylock about money lending, which clings to the Jews. This is how they harmed the societies that embraced them."
    [PA TV (Fatah), Oct. 10 and 17, 2010]
     
    Dit is wat Palestijnen leren over de geschiedenis van de Joden in Europa. Het is moeilijk daarbij te vergeten dat Machmoud Abbas, de o zo gematigde leider van de Palestijnen, ooit een dissertatie schreef over het 'werkelijke aantal' Joden dat in de gaskamers was omgekomen en de verantwoordelijkheid van de zionisten daarvoor. Nee, zoveel is er niet veranderd sindsdien, en uit onderzoek blijkt dat grote aantallen Palestijnen en andere Arabieren er sterk antisemitische ideeën op na houden. Dat is niet zo vreemd gezien de walgelijke troep die ze over zich heen krijgen in de Palestijnse media, en door radikale imams en op school. Het ergste is dat dit soms zelfs gebeurt met Europese subsidies en dat EU landen hier zelden tot nooit iets over zeggen.
     
    RP
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    Volgens kolonisten worden bouwplannen in grote nederzettingen door Israel opgehouden

     
    In de Nederlandse pers zijn uiteraard alleen de berichten in de krant verschenen dat er weer een hoop gebouwd wordt, en zelfs meer dan normaal gesproken in de nederzettingen. De situatie is echter ingewikkelder: de woningen waarvoor alle vergunningen al voor het begin van de bouwstoop waren verkregen, worden nu gebouwd en daar kan de regering niks (meer) aan doen. Men is echter zeer terughoudend voor het afgeven van nieuwe vergunningen. Sowieso moet een heel burocratisch proces worden doorlopen voordat er gebouwd kan worden, en dit kan (vele) jaren duren. Wanneer in de Nederlandse pers verontrustende berichten verschijnen dat er zoveel woningen hier of daar gebouwd gaan worden of het groene licht wordt gegeven voor dit of dat project, kan meestal de schop nog lang niet de grond in.
     
    Als ik onderstaand bericht goed begrijp wordt juist in de kleine nederzettingen verder van de groene lijn nu weer flink gebouwd, terwijl bouwprojecten in de grote blokken nabij de groene lijn worden opgehouden. Andersom lijkt mij logischer maar Israelische politiek en zeker Israelische burokratie en logica zijn twee nogal verschillende zaken....
     
    RP
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    Settlers accuse Israel of imposing 'silent' West Bank freeze

    Netanyahu has refused to extend the construction slowdown that expired in September, though officials say they are in talks with Washington on reaching a compromise.
    By The Associated Press
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/settlers-accuse-israel-of-imposing-silent-west-bank-freeze-1.321464
     

    Israeli settlers accused the government on Wednesday of holding up construction of more than 4,000 apartments in large West Bank enclaves, suggesting that Israel was quietly complying with U.S. demands to reinstate a building moratorium that expired in late September.

    The settlers, releasing their first concrete figures on what projects are being blocked, said Defense Minister Ehud Barak was imposing a "silent" freeze by withholding his final approval of building plans.

    Barak's office did not immediately comment and a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred questions to the Defense Ministry.

    The issue of Israeli settlement construction has become a key sticking point in U.S.-backed peace talks, just weeks after their launch at a White House ceremony. Israel has been under heavy pressure to renew its moratorium, which constrained new construction in West Bank settlements.

    Some 300,000 Israelis already live in West Bank settlements. Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating peace if Israel continues to build homes on land they claim for a future state.

    Netanyahu has refused to extend the slowdown, though officials say they are in talks with Washington on reaching a compromise. The Palestinians, backed by the Arab world, have given the U.S. until early November to work out a deal.

    Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council settler umbrella group, told The Associated Press that a silent moratorium was in fact under way in large, urban settlements.

    Some 4,300 apartments have all the necessary construction permits, but Barak has not authorized the state to put these projects out to bid, in effect freezing them, Bennett said. He provided a documented list of projects that he said were being held up.

    Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib said any drag on construction was irrelevant because construction continues elsewhere at a pace that outstrips that of recent years.

    "That's why it doesn't make any sense to consider that there is any kind of freeze or any kind of slowdown. We can say the opposite," Khatib said.

    As previously reported by The Associated Press, Israel has begun work on some 600 apartments across the West Bank since the 10-month moratorium expired - at least double the pace of the previous two years.

    That work has begun because all necessary approvals had already been obtained before the slowdown went into effect last November. Many of those apartments are being built in outlying settlements expected to be evacuated under any peace deal with the Palestinians.

    The overwhelming majority of the apartments that Bennett referred to lie in large settlement blocs that Israel expects to hold on to in any peace deal. These blocs are located close to Israel proper, and Israel would presumably swap an equivalent amount of territory with the Palestinians.

    The biggest projects are 978 apartments in the ultra-Orthodox Betar Illit settlement and 507 in Givat Zeev, both outside Jerusalem, and 800 in Alfe Menashe, a bedroom settlement outside Tel Aviv.

    "We're calling upon Netanyahu either to force Barak to approve these houses or to take away his authorization and approve it himself," Bennett said. "We won't accept a situation where the government is hiding behind Barak."

    Roughly 80 percent of the 300,000 West Bank settlers live in the urban settlements where settlers say the silent freeze is in effect.

    Bennett said an additional 4,000 apartments could receive all the necessary permits within six months if the government were inclined to do so.