6 aug 2019
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he is working toward “transparent normalization and signed agreements” with a number of Persian Gulf littoral states as the countries do not shy away from disclosing their clandestine relations with the Tel Aviv regime following years of secretive contacts.
Katz told a ministers' meeting in Jerusalem al-Quds on Tuesday that he recently met with a "high ranking persona" from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to improve ties between Israel and Arab states.
The top Israeli diplomat further noted that the two reached “substantial agreements.”
“We do not have a conflict with them (Arab states),” Katz commented.
Katz arrived in the Emirati capital city of Abu Dhabi on June 30 for a UN environmental conference, where he discussed cooperation against Iran, as well as economic and transport collaboration, Israeli i24NEWS television news network reported.
“I am excited to stand here in Abu Dhabi and to represent the interests of… Israel in front of the … [Persian] Gulf states,” Katz said upon the conclusion of his visit.
“I will continue to work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote the normalization policy with our leading prowess, based on Israel's capabilities, both in the fields of security and intelligence, and in the various civilian arenas. I see this as one of the major challenges in my position as foreign minister, and I intend to continue leading this policy in the future,” he added.
Earlier this year, the Israeli regime re-launched a “virtual embassy” in a bid to “promote dialogue” with the Persian Gulf Arab states.
Netanyahu in late November last year visited Oman, where he met Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said at the Bait al-Barakah Royal Palace in the coastal city of Seeb near the capital Muscat.
On October 26 last year, Israeli culture and sports minister Miri Regev traveled to the UAE to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018.
Her visit to the UAE marked the first of its kind by an Israeli minister to a Persian Gulf littoral state.
The president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said last December that the then chief of staff of the Israeli military, Gadi Eisenkot, had secretly traveled twice to the UAE a month earlier, and had met with senior officials there.
Mort Fridman further noted that an agreement on the sale of Israeli military hardware to the UAE was struck during the meeting.
Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi have no diplomatic ties and the UAE does not recognize Israel, but the two sides have increased backchannel cooperation in recent years. There have been numerous reports of growing contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials too.
Among Arab countries, Israel has diplomatic relations only with Egypt and Jordan.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he is working toward “transparent normalization and signed agreements” with a number of Persian Gulf littoral states as the countries do not shy away from disclosing their clandestine relations with the Tel Aviv regime following years of secretive contacts.
Katz told a ministers' meeting in Jerusalem al-Quds on Tuesday that he recently met with a "high ranking persona" from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to improve ties between Israel and Arab states.
The top Israeli diplomat further noted that the two reached “substantial agreements.”
“We do not have a conflict with them (Arab states),” Katz commented.
Katz arrived in the Emirati capital city of Abu Dhabi on June 30 for a UN environmental conference, where he discussed cooperation against Iran, as well as economic and transport collaboration, Israeli i24NEWS television news network reported.
“I am excited to stand here in Abu Dhabi and to represent the interests of… Israel in front of the … [Persian] Gulf states,” Katz said upon the conclusion of his visit.
“I will continue to work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to promote the normalization policy with our leading prowess, based on Israel's capabilities, both in the fields of security and intelligence, and in the various civilian arenas. I see this as one of the major challenges in my position as foreign minister, and I intend to continue leading this policy in the future,” he added.
Earlier this year, the Israeli regime re-launched a “virtual embassy” in a bid to “promote dialogue” with the Persian Gulf Arab states.
Netanyahu in late November last year visited Oman, where he met Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said at the Bait al-Barakah Royal Palace in the coastal city of Seeb near the capital Muscat.
On October 26 last year, Israeli culture and sports minister Miri Regev traveled to the UAE to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018.
Her visit to the UAE marked the first of its kind by an Israeli minister to a Persian Gulf littoral state.
The president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said last December that the then chief of staff of the Israeli military, Gadi Eisenkot, had secretly traveled twice to the UAE a month earlier, and had met with senior officials there.
Mort Fridman further noted that an agreement on the sale of Israeli military hardware to the UAE was struck during the meeting.
Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi have no diplomatic ties and the UAE does not recognize Israel, but the two sides have increased backchannel cooperation in recent years. There have been numerous reports of growing contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials too.
Among Arab countries, Israel has diplomatic relations only with Egypt and Jordan.
Another worker was left lightly hurt when a technical malfunction involving a fire extinguisher resulted in a blast at Tel Hashomer base; this is the second explosion to occur at the base within the past 3 months
An explosion occurred Monday at an Israeli military base in the center of the country, killing one civilian IDF employee and lightly wounding another.
The military said the blast at Tel Hashomer base was a result of a malfunction caused by a fire extinguisher.
The wounded workers have been taken to a hospital for treatment.
This is the second explosion to occur at the base within the past three months.
In May, a warehouse at the base was set alight as a result of a mysterious blast. The fire was quickly extinguished preventing the flames from spreading.
An explosion occurred Monday at an Israeli military base in the center of the country, killing one civilian IDF employee and lightly wounding another.
The military said the blast at Tel Hashomer base was a result of a malfunction caused by a fire extinguisher.
The wounded workers have been taken to a hospital for treatment.
This is the second explosion to occur at the base within the past three months.
In May, a warehouse at the base was set alight as a result of a mysterious blast. The fire was quickly extinguished preventing the flames from spreading.
A Sderot resident repeatedly punched the 19-year-old and threatened to kill 'the stinking Arab' after the lifeguard - from Bedouin town of Rahat - cautioned the 34-year-old man against approaching the pool area while smoking and drinking
A resident of the southern city of Sderot violently attacked a Bedouin lifeguard at a local pool and hurled racial slurs at the 19-year-old after being asked not to approach the area while smoking and drinking, said the indictment filed against the 34-year-old man Monday.
Aviad Dahan was charged by the Kiryat Gat Magistrate's Court with causing serious bodily injuries and threatening the lifeguard from the Bedouin town of Rahat at a public swimming pool in the city, after the man had been asked by the teen keep away from the pool while intoxicated.
The request prompted the 34-year-old to start punching the Rahat native with his fists and shouting that “he hates Arabs” while his wife slapped the teen’s face.
At some point during the altercation, Dahan allegedly threatened to kill “the stinking Arab.”
The indictment states that during his interrogation, Dahan reiterated his sentiments, saying what prompted him to lash out was seeing “Arabs and Jews side by side.”
The defendant claims he intends to stick to this line of defense during his trial hearing.
Dahan’s wife, Nofar, was not indicted in the case despite approaching the lifeguard during the incident and repeatedly slapping the teen’s face in front of dozens of onlookers, many of whom were children.
A resident of the southern city of Sderot violently attacked a Bedouin lifeguard at a local pool and hurled racial slurs at the 19-year-old after being asked not to approach the area while smoking and drinking, said the indictment filed against the 34-year-old man Monday.
Aviad Dahan was charged by the Kiryat Gat Magistrate's Court with causing serious bodily injuries and threatening the lifeguard from the Bedouin town of Rahat at a public swimming pool in the city, after the man had been asked by the teen keep away from the pool while intoxicated.
The request prompted the 34-year-old to start punching the Rahat native with his fists and shouting that “he hates Arabs” while his wife slapped the teen’s face.
At some point during the altercation, Dahan allegedly threatened to kill “the stinking Arab.”
The indictment states that during his interrogation, Dahan reiterated his sentiments, saying what prompted him to lash out was seeing “Arabs and Jews side by side.”
The defendant claims he intends to stick to this line of defense during his trial hearing.
Dahan’s wife, Nofar, was not indicted in the case despite approaching the lifeguard during the incident and repeatedly slapping the teen’s face in front of dozens of onlookers, many of whom were children.
5 aug 2019
Palestinians protest near the Gaza-Israel fence on 12 April
Proponents of settler-colonialism argue that Palestinian natives of Palestine are foreigners in their own land
Like all settler-colonial ideologies, Zionism has always been obsessed with race. Having emerged at the height of European colonialism and race science, it sought to learn from both.
Zionists understood that making racial claims was foundational and essential for their colonial project, a realisation that still informs Israeli colonial and racial policy today.
European racialism
In the late 18th century European philologists invented the category “Semitic” to describe the languages of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa - Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Amharic, among others - to distinguish them from Indo-European “Aryan” languages.
Since then European Christians began to consider European Jews, who did not speak Hebrew, as “Semites”, based on the religious Jewish and Christian claims that European Jews were the descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews.
What is remarkable, however, is that no one suggested then - or now - that European Christians were also the descendants of the ancient Palestinian Christians!
When antisemitism emerged as a political ideology, it latched onto the Semitic linguistic category that encompassed Jews, and antisemites converted this into a racial category. In 1879, German Wilhelm Marr, who popularised the term “antisemitism”, insisted that the hostility of antisemites to Jews was not based on their religion, but on their “race”.
Historical research has established for many decades that European Christians and Jews were native European converts to the two Palestinian religions of Christianity and Judaism, and not descendants of their ancient adherents, anymore than today’s Indonesian or Chinese or Bosnian Muslims are descendants of the ancient Arab Muslims of the Arabian peninsula.
But given the force of European racialism and its deeply racist culture then and now, the belief in the foreignness of Jews persisted. It is a belief that the Zionist movement espoused.
Racial purity
Zionism accepted the claim of a Jewish “race” separate from the race of gentiles, and proceeded to justify its colonial project based on this. Just as Europeans understood their “superior” race as the justification for their colonialism, Zionism, as a new member of the colonial club, used similar arguments to colonise the land of the Palestinians.
To further Zionism’s racial claims, Zionist Jewish scholars established in Berlin in 1902 the Association of Jewish Statistics to study, among other matters, the causes of the racial “degeneration” of European Jews. The very notion of racial “degeneration” had been invented a decade earlier by the second-most important Zionist leader at the time after Theodor Herzl: Max Nordau, whose 1892 book Degeneration popularised the term.
Zionist scholars focused on the concept of the Jewish race, the centrality of Jewish demography to the survival of the race, the physical health of European Jews, the rate of intermarriage with non-Jews, the Jewish birth rate, and rates of Jewish conversions to Christianity.
They diagnosed the situation of European Jews as one of “degeneration”, allegedly caused by their residence in the “diaspora.” The task for Zionism was to “regenerate” them by creating a settler-colonial state for European Jews in Palestine.
To Zionists, the decline in Jewish births signalled “degeneration”.
Some of their scholars were most concerned with the racial purity of Jews, arguing that the Enlightenment threatened this through mixed marriages, which introduced impure blood into the race - although they acknowledged that children of these marriages often remained outside Jewish communities, helping to preserve the racial purity of Jewish communities.
Newcomers to Palestine
In contrast, diasporic social conditions and antisemitism were viewed as the social causes of Jewish mental and physical “degeneration” - which, unlike racial degeneration, could be reversed through Jewish colonisation of Palestine, which Zionism was undertaking on their behalf.
Now that they had affirmed Jews were a race, Zionists needed to prove they were direct descendants of ancient Hebrews, as there seemed to be other contenders for this claim - namely, the Palestinians who had inhabited the land since time immemorial. Like neighbouring Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis, Palestinians are said to have mixed with peninsular Arabs after the peninsular Arab conquest of the region in the seventh century.
Zionists do not claim that today’s Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis are pure descendants of the invading Arabs, rather than indigenous peoples who mixed with them. Yet, Zionists, like Netanyahu, insist fantastically that all Palestinians are newcomers to Palestine from the Arabian peninsula.
While modern Egyptians non-controversially claim ancient Egyptians as their ancestors, and modern Iraqis claim the Babylonians and the Sumerians, the threat came from Palestinians, who would claim that ancient Hebrews alongside Canaanaites, Philistines and all other ancient inhabitants of Palestine as their ancestors.
The irony, however, was that even the founders of modern Israel, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, insisted in a 1918 book that Palestinian peasants - then the majority of the Palestinian population - were the descendants of ancient Hebrews.
The Palestinian peasants, the authors argued, had held on to their Hebrew ancestors’ traditions, most obviously through maintaining the same names for their villages, and that "in their veins, without a doubt, flows much Jewish blood – from the Jewish peasants who in the days of the persecutions and terrible oppression had renounced their tradition and their people in order to maintain their attachment and loyalty to the land of the Jews.”
Dangerous precedent
That the leaders of the Zionist movement would recognise Palestinians as the ancient inhabitants of the land, whose majority converted from Judaism and other local faiths to Christianity and later to Islam, was a dangerous precedent that had to be erased from the memory of official Zionism and Israel. And so it was.
This background terrifies Zionist ideologues and imperils their racialist claims. Here, the advances in genetic science in the last few decades and the baseless claims of many of its commercial practitioners have been a gift for Zionist racialism.
While the ongoing charlatan search for the “Jewish gene” has become the Holy Grail of race and racist scientists, especially Zionist ones, some in Israel have found immediate, practical uses to increase the number of Jews worldwide, and therefore increase the number of those that Zionism claims have a colonial claim to Palestinian land.
Two years ago, a group of Israeli Jewish experts on genetics and Jewish religious law claimed that the so-called “Jewish gene” could help to prove “Jewishness” in line with Jewish religious law”, eliminating the need for the arduous process of conversion to Judaism by those whose Jewishness could not be ascertained by rabbis.
In line with this bogus race science, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently jumped on the findings of geneticists and archaeologists who uncovered the skeletons of ancient Philistines, whose genetic markers they attributed to southern Europe.
This was taken as proof by Zionist racialists that modern Palestinians are not linked to the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, and therefore have no claim to their own homeland.
Right of return
Zionism’s arguments are two-pronged: that European converts to Judaism and their descendants who were away for 2,000 years have the “right” to return to their ancient homeland and drive out the inhabitants of the land; and that the Palestinian natives of Palestine are foreigners to their own lands.
Unlike Jews, who can maintain a “right of return” after two millennia of domicile in Europe to an Asian land from which they did not originate, Palestinians, whom Israel expelled in 1948 and after, are denied the right to return to their actual lands after a mere seven decades of expulsion.
What makes this Israeli racist argument acceptable to most white Americans and Europeans is the very racism that has anchored it since the 19th century. We are still steeped in race science and colonial justifications, as we were back in the late 19th century.
The irony is that liberal and conservative supporters of Zionism and Israel among Europeans and Americans, Jews and gentiles alike - who claim to oppose racism and colonialism - find nothing unpalatable in Zionism’s insistent and continuing commitment to both.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Joseph Massad
Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of many books and academic and journalistic articles. His books include Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan, Desiring Arabs, The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, and most recently Islam in Liberalism. His books and articles have been translated to a dozen languages.
Proponents of settler-colonialism argue that Palestinian natives of Palestine are foreigners in their own land
Like all settler-colonial ideologies, Zionism has always been obsessed with race. Having emerged at the height of European colonialism and race science, it sought to learn from both.
Zionists understood that making racial claims was foundational and essential for their colonial project, a realisation that still informs Israeli colonial and racial policy today.
European racialism
In the late 18th century European philologists invented the category “Semitic” to describe the languages of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa - Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Amharic, among others - to distinguish them from Indo-European “Aryan” languages.
Since then European Christians began to consider European Jews, who did not speak Hebrew, as “Semites”, based on the religious Jewish and Christian claims that European Jews were the descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews.
What is remarkable, however, is that no one suggested then - or now - that European Christians were also the descendants of the ancient Palestinian Christians!
When antisemitism emerged as a political ideology, it latched onto the Semitic linguistic category that encompassed Jews, and antisemites converted this into a racial category. In 1879, German Wilhelm Marr, who popularised the term “antisemitism”, insisted that the hostility of antisemites to Jews was not based on their religion, but on their “race”.
Historical research has established for many decades that European Christians and Jews were native European converts to the two Palestinian religions of Christianity and Judaism, and not descendants of their ancient adherents, anymore than today’s Indonesian or Chinese or Bosnian Muslims are descendants of the ancient Arab Muslims of the Arabian peninsula.
But given the force of European racialism and its deeply racist culture then and now, the belief in the foreignness of Jews persisted. It is a belief that the Zionist movement espoused.
Racial purity
Zionism accepted the claim of a Jewish “race” separate from the race of gentiles, and proceeded to justify its colonial project based on this. Just as Europeans understood their “superior” race as the justification for their colonialism, Zionism, as a new member of the colonial club, used similar arguments to colonise the land of the Palestinians.
To further Zionism’s racial claims, Zionist Jewish scholars established in Berlin in 1902 the Association of Jewish Statistics to study, among other matters, the causes of the racial “degeneration” of European Jews. The very notion of racial “degeneration” had been invented a decade earlier by the second-most important Zionist leader at the time after Theodor Herzl: Max Nordau, whose 1892 book Degeneration popularised the term.
Zionist scholars focused on the concept of the Jewish race, the centrality of Jewish demography to the survival of the race, the physical health of European Jews, the rate of intermarriage with non-Jews, the Jewish birth rate, and rates of Jewish conversions to Christianity.
They diagnosed the situation of European Jews as one of “degeneration”, allegedly caused by their residence in the “diaspora.” The task for Zionism was to “regenerate” them by creating a settler-colonial state for European Jews in Palestine.
To Zionists, the decline in Jewish births signalled “degeneration”.
Some of their scholars were most concerned with the racial purity of Jews, arguing that the Enlightenment threatened this through mixed marriages, which introduced impure blood into the race - although they acknowledged that children of these marriages often remained outside Jewish communities, helping to preserve the racial purity of Jewish communities.
Newcomers to Palestine
In contrast, diasporic social conditions and antisemitism were viewed as the social causes of Jewish mental and physical “degeneration” - which, unlike racial degeneration, could be reversed through Jewish colonisation of Palestine, which Zionism was undertaking on their behalf.
Now that they had affirmed Jews were a race, Zionists needed to prove they were direct descendants of ancient Hebrews, as there seemed to be other contenders for this claim - namely, the Palestinians who had inhabited the land since time immemorial. Like neighbouring Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis, Palestinians are said to have mixed with peninsular Arabs after the peninsular Arab conquest of the region in the seventh century.
Zionists do not claim that today’s Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis are pure descendants of the invading Arabs, rather than indigenous peoples who mixed with them. Yet, Zionists, like Netanyahu, insist fantastically that all Palestinians are newcomers to Palestine from the Arabian peninsula.
While modern Egyptians non-controversially claim ancient Egyptians as their ancestors, and modern Iraqis claim the Babylonians and the Sumerians, the threat came from Palestinians, who would claim that ancient Hebrews alongside Canaanaites, Philistines and all other ancient inhabitants of Palestine as their ancestors.
The irony, however, was that even the founders of modern Israel, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, insisted in a 1918 book that Palestinian peasants - then the majority of the Palestinian population - were the descendants of ancient Hebrews.
The Palestinian peasants, the authors argued, had held on to their Hebrew ancestors’ traditions, most obviously through maintaining the same names for their villages, and that "in their veins, without a doubt, flows much Jewish blood – from the Jewish peasants who in the days of the persecutions and terrible oppression had renounced their tradition and their people in order to maintain their attachment and loyalty to the land of the Jews.”
Dangerous precedent
That the leaders of the Zionist movement would recognise Palestinians as the ancient inhabitants of the land, whose majority converted from Judaism and other local faiths to Christianity and later to Islam, was a dangerous precedent that had to be erased from the memory of official Zionism and Israel. And so it was.
This background terrifies Zionist ideologues and imperils their racialist claims. Here, the advances in genetic science in the last few decades and the baseless claims of many of its commercial practitioners have been a gift for Zionist racialism.
While the ongoing charlatan search for the “Jewish gene” has become the Holy Grail of race and racist scientists, especially Zionist ones, some in Israel have found immediate, practical uses to increase the number of Jews worldwide, and therefore increase the number of those that Zionism claims have a colonial claim to Palestinian land.
Two years ago, a group of Israeli Jewish experts on genetics and Jewish religious law claimed that the so-called “Jewish gene” could help to prove “Jewishness” in line with Jewish religious law”, eliminating the need for the arduous process of conversion to Judaism by those whose Jewishness could not be ascertained by rabbis.
In line with this bogus race science, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently jumped on the findings of geneticists and archaeologists who uncovered the skeletons of ancient Philistines, whose genetic markers they attributed to southern Europe.
This was taken as proof by Zionist racialists that modern Palestinians are not linked to the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, and therefore have no claim to their own homeland.
Right of return
Zionism’s arguments are two-pronged: that European converts to Judaism and their descendants who were away for 2,000 years have the “right” to return to their ancient homeland and drive out the inhabitants of the land; and that the Palestinian natives of Palestine are foreigners to their own lands.
Unlike Jews, who can maintain a “right of return” after two millennia of domicile in Europe to an Asian land from which they did not originate, Palestinians, whom Israel expelled in 1948 and after, are denied the right to return to their actual lands after a mere seven decades of expulsion.
What makes this Israeli racist argument acceptable to most white Americans and Europeans is the very racism that has anchored it since the 19th century. We are still steeped in race science and colonial justifications, as we were back in the late 19th century.
The irony is that liberal and conservative supporters of Zionism and Israel among Europeans and Americans, Jews and gentiles alike - who claim to oppose racism and colonialism - find nothing unpalatable in Zionism’s insistent and continuing commitment to both.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Joseph Massad
Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of many books and academic and journalistic articles. His books include Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan, Desiring Arabs, The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, and most recently Islam in Liberalism. His books and articles have been translated to a dozen languages.
The Israeli government intends to honor an extremist rabbi who has applauded the killing of non-Jews, especially the Muslims and Palestinians.
According to Haaretz newspaper, education minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz and transportation minister Bezalel Smotrich will honor rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, who praised the 1994 massacre in al-Khalil city and was previously charged with inciting racism.
The ministers will speak at a Thursday event during which a prize will be awarded to Ginsburgh.
The US-born rabbi is known for publishing a pamphlet praising the actions of terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 carried out the massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque, in which he killed 29 Muslims and injured dozens as they were praying.
Ginsburgh is also among the rabbis who endorsed the book “The King’s Torah,” which discusses circumstances in which Jews may kill non-Jews according to Jewish law.
The prize will be awarded under the auspices of an institution called the “Cathedra for Torah and Wisdom,” which receive financial support from the education ministry’s department for Jewish culture.
According to Haaretz newspaper, education minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz and transportation minister Bezalel Smotrich will honor rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, who praised the 1994 massacre in al-Khalil city and was previously charged with inciting racism.
The ministers will speak at a Thursday event during which a prize will be awarded to Ginsburgh.
The US-born rabbi is known for publishing a pamphlet praising the actions of terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 carried out the massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque, in which he killed 29 Muslims and injured dozens as they were praying.
Ginsburgh is also among the rabbis who endorsed the book “The King’s Torah,” which discusses circumstances in which Jews may kill non-Jews according to Jewish law.
The prize will be awarded under the auspices of an institution called the “Cathedra for Torah and Wisdom,” which receive financial support from the education ministry’s department for Jewish culture.
4 aug 2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and former minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman, who was formerly minister of military affairs under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says the premier tells lies “every day, every hour” and is unfit for office.
Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday that Netanyahu was “in a desperate situation” ahead of repeat elections in September.
He “pitied” Netanyahu, who is head of the right-wing Likud party, for having to “resort to lying every day, every hour” by calling Lieberman a leftist.
He, however, said that his proposed sit-down with Netanyahu was unlikely to happen because the prime minister “is afraid, he knows his situation is dire.”
Back in May, Israel’s parliament dissolved and called new general elections because Netanyahu had failed to form a cabinet despite a win in elections in April. Coalition talks had reached a stalemate over disagreements between ultra-Orthodox parties and Yisrael Beiteinu on a military conscription bill.
The ex-Israeli minister of military affairs had at the time described Netanyahu’s inability to form a cabinet a “huge, unprecedented failure.”
In his Saturday remarks, Lieberman said Netanyahu’s behavior “calls into question his fitness to function as prime minister; maybe the years have taken their toll.”
Israel’s ruling party, he said, should present an alternative candidate if Netanyahu failed to form a cabinet again after the upcoming vote.
Avigdor Lieberman, who was formerly minister of military affairs under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says the premier tells lies “every day, every hour” and is unfit for office.
Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday that Netanyahu was “in a desperate situation” ahead of repeat elections in September.
He “pitied” Netanyahu, who is head of the right-wing Likud party, for having to “resort to lying every day, every hour” by calling Lieberman a leftist.
He, however, said that his proposed sit-down with Netanyahu was unlikely to happen because the prime minister “is afraid, he knows his situation is dire.”
Back in May, Israel’s parliament dissolved and called new general elections because Netanyahu had failed to form a cabinet despite a win in elections in April. Coalition talks had reached a stalemate over disagreements between ultra-Orthodox parties and Yisrael Beiteinu on a military conscription bill.
The ex-Israeli minister of military affairs had at the time described Netanyahu’s inability to form a cabinet a “huge, unprecedented failure.”
In his Saturday remarks, Lieberman said Netanyahu’s behavior “calls into question his fitness to function as prime minister; maybe the years have taken their toll.”
Israel’s ruling party, he said, should present an alternative candidate if Netanyahu failed to form a cabinet again after the upcoming vote.
3 aug 2019
US-based pro-Israel advocacy organization, the Israel Project (TIP), has reportedly been forced to close its Israel office in anticipation of a complete shutdown due to a sharp decline in support.
According to the TIP’s managers, the group "simply ran out of money” after losing a large proportion of its annual funds and donations due to the increased “polarized political climate in the United States”, Haaretz reported on Thursday.
The pro-Israel group was a proponent of “hasbara”, an Israeli concept seeking to legitimize Israel in the eyes of world public opinion through disseminating propaganda.
The TIP formed in 2002, at the height of the second Palestinian Intifada, and sought to influence journalists and their coverage of Israel.
TIP activities gradually grew to cover multiple languages and countries, as well as conducting influence operations on social media.
The group has been known for its hard-hitting stance against Iran and even Islam, going as far as promoting Islamophobia and conducting marketing research on how to “sell military action against Iran to the American public”.
‘We attacked the Iran deal’
The group prides itself in having lobbied extensively against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a key polarizing factor which also led to the group’s sharp decline.
TIP’s vice president and head of its Israel office Lior Weintraub, a former Israeli diplomat in Washington, described why the group gradually lost support among its donors.
“We attacked the Iran deal; because Israel became part of the internal American political debate;...because support for Israel became too complicated for some of them in these times,” he said.
Critics believe that the pro-Israel advocacy group became too closely aligned with the regime of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, specifically in its bid to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal, alienating many American supporters across the political spectrum.
Consequently starting from 2015, TIP lost a large number of its donations, and is currently on the verge of shutting down all together.
Last month, TIP CEO Josh Block, a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee resigned from the organization, issuing a statement citing “the polarized political climate in the US, both in the wider body politic and inside the Jewish community,” as the reason for TIP’s downfall.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s strongly pro-Israel foreign policy, the fall of the leading pro-Israel propaganda firm marks one of the latest signals of increasing negative public opinion regarding Israel in the US.
Trump’s strong stance regarding Israel has pushed t Tel Aviv into the center of American political discussion, resulting in increased debate about Washington’s support.
A recent Gallup poll found that American support for Israel has fallen to its lowest level in the past decade.
The decline was seen among both Democrats and Republicans. Followers of Trump’s own party posted the sharpest decrease, however.
According to the TIP’s managers, the group "simply ran out of money” after losing a large proportion of its annual funds and donations due to the increased “polarized political climate in the United States”, Haaretz reported on Thursday.
The pro-Israel group was a proponent of “hasbara”, an Israeli concept seeking to legitimize Israel in the eyes of world public opinion through disseminating propaganda.
The TIP formed in 2002, at the height of the second Palestinian Intifada, and sought to influence journalists and their coverage of Israel.
TIP activities gradually grew to cover multiple languages and countries, as well as conducting influence operations on social media.
The group has been known for its hard-hitting stance against Iran and even Islam, going as far as promoting Islamophobia and conducting marketing research on how to “sell military action against Iran to the American public”.
‘We attacked the Iran deal’
The group prides itself in having lobbied extensively against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a key polarizing factor which also led to the group’s sharp decline.
TIP’s vice president and head of its Israel office Lior Weintraub, a former Israeli diplomat in Washington, described why the group gradually lost support among its donors.
“We attacked the Iran deal; because Israel became part of the internal American political debate;...because support for Israel became too complicated for some of them in these times,” he said.
Critics believe that the pro-Israel advocacy group became too closely aligned with the regime of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, specifically in its bid to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal, alienating many American supporters across the political spectrum.
Consequently starting from 2015, TIP lost a large number of its donations, and is currently on the verge of shutting down all together.
Last month, TIP CEO Josh Block, a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee resigned from the organization, issuing a statement citing “the polarized political climate in the US, both in the wider body politic and inside the Jewish community,” as the reason for TIP’s downfall.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s strongly pro-Israel foreign policy, the fall of the leading pro-Israel propaganda firm marks one of the latest signals of increasing negative public opinion regarding Israel in the US.
Trump’s strong stance regarding Israel has pushed t Tel Aviv into the center of American political discussion, resulting in increased debate about Washington’s support.
A recent Gallup poll found that American support for Israel has fallen to its lowest level in the past decade.
The decline was seen among both Democrats and Republicans. Followers of Trump’s own party posted the sharpest decrease, however.
2 aug 2019
The Israeli authorities must urgently investigate death threats targeting three civil society organizations, including Amnesty International’s Israeli section in Tel Aviv, the organization’s International Secretariat said today.
Anonymous death threats were sprayed last night outside the offices of Amnesty International Israel and ASSAF, an organization working to assist refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel.
At the same time, a box containing death threats and a dead mouse was left at the entrance to the Elifelet Children’s Activity Center for refugees.
“These are deplorable and malicious acts targeting civil society organizations carrying out human rights work. The Israeli authorities should take a strong stand by publicly condemning these acts and making clear that attacks against NGOs will not be tolerated,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
These are deplorable and malicious acts targeting civil society organizations carrying out human rights work.
The Israeli authorities must also take steps to ensure that human rights defenders and civil society organizations more generally are effectively protected and can carry out their work free from threats, intimidation or harassment.
All attacks against human rights defenders must be promptly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”
In recent years, the climate for human rights defenders in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has rapidly deteriorated. Israeli authorities have taken steps to unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and association inside Israel, with officials intimidating human rights defenders critical of the government and introducing legislation to silence dissent.
Anonymous death threats were sprayed last night outside the offices of Amnesty International Israel and ASSAF, an organization working to assist refugees and asylum-seekers in Israel.
At the same time, a box containing death threats and a dead mouse was left at the entrance to the Elifelet Children’s Activity Center for refugees.
“These are deplorable and malicious acts targeting civil society organizations carrying out human rights work. The Israeli authorities should take a strong stand by publicly condemning these acts and making clear that attacks against NGOs will not be tolerated,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
These are deplorable and malicious acts targeting civil society organizations carrying out human rights work.
The Israeli authorities must also take steps to ensure that human rights defenders and civil society organizations more generally are effectively protected and can carry out their work free from threats, intimidation or harassment.
All attacks against human rights defenders must be promptly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.”
In recent years, the climate for human rights defenders in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has rapidly deteriorated. Israeli authorities have taken steps to unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and association inside Israel, with officials intimidating human rights defenders critical of the government and introducing legislation to silence dissent.
1 aug 2019
Likud activists with hidden cameras in polling stations April 9 2019
The Likud Party is asking the Central Election Committee to allow cameras in polling stations in the Israeli Arab sector, claiming voting law violations had occurred in the last elections; Human rights organizations: Preserving the integrity of the elections is the responsibility of the committee, not of the Likud Party
The Likud Party is requesting the chairman of the Central Election Committee, Judge Hanan Melcer to allow cameras in polling stations in the Israeli Arab sector after they claim voting law violations had occurred in the last elections.
On election day last April, Judge Melcer was alerted to the fact that Likud party activists placed 1,200 cameras in polling stations in Israeli Arab cities and towns.
Because of the shortage of time to respond and the fact that cameras were already in place and operational, Melcer pronounced there must be no filming was allowed behind the curtains in the voting booths and that only members of the police and the election committee would be allowed to view the material.
Now in advance of the September 17 elections, Likud is planning to expand its filming activity the chairman will have to determine whether filming should be allowed.
A special session of the Central Election Committee to discuss this question, is scheduled for next week.
Though the law is not clear, Melcer had already allowed audio recordings in poling locations but has not allowed any filming inside the voting booth, except under special circumstances.
It was entirely forbidden to film voter lists or protocols but registration of voters as they arrive at the stations, present their I.D cards and receive an envelope in which to place their ballots, was permissible.
Likud is pressing to be allowed to film these procedures again claiming it will prevent illegal acts.
The Likud representative in the election committee David Bitan, claimed after the April 9 vote that violations of the law occurred, alleging that husbands voted on behalf of their wives and that voters were threatened as they arrived to place their ballot.
Israeli media reported earlier this week that the Likud budget for cameras in Arab sector polling stations has been increased to NIS 2 million, and that there is a plan in place to employ hundreds of "observers" on election day and have even sent a request to the Israel Police asking for protection for them on the day.
Hanan Melcer lodged a complaint with the attorney general's office as well as the acting police commissioner, demanding an investigation be launched into this behavior.
The AG's recommendations, on behalf of the public interest to protect the integrity of the elections, are expected next week.
Human rights organizations have already appealed to Judge Melcer asking him to veto any attempt to place cameras for the purpose of
monitoring voters.
Member of Knesset Aida Touma-Suleiman from the Hadash party sent the chairman a letter stating that "Likud has no justification for placing cameras in any polling stations Arab or otherwise and that the responsibility for the integrity of the elections lies in the hands of the general election committee and not in the hands of the ruling Likud party.
Touma-Suleiman added she hoped the judge will not cooperate with Likud's scheme to impede citizens' voting rights.
Supporters of the Likud initiative suggest the presence of cameras will deter those trying to sway the elections, while opponents insist this move besmirches an entire sector of the population and even keeps voters who are suspicious of authorities from exercising their rights.
The Likud Party is asking the Central Election Committee to allow cameras in polling stations in the Israeli Arab sector, claiming voting law violations had occurred in the last elections; Human rights organizations: Preserving the integrity of the elections is the responsibility of the committee, not of the Likud Party
The Likud Party is requesting the chairman of the Central Election Committee, Judge Hanan Melcer to allow cameras in polling stations in the Israeli Arab sector after they claim voting law violations had occurred in the last elections.
On election day last April, Judge Melcer was alerted to the fact that Likud party activists placed 1,200 cameras in polling stations in Israeli Arab cities and towns.
Because of the shortage of time to respond and the fact that cameras were already in place and operational, Melcer pronounced there must be no filming was allowed behind the curtains in the voting booths and that only members of the police and the election committee would be allowed to view the material.
Now in advance of the September 17 elections, Likud is planning to expand its filming activity the chairman will have to determine whether filming should be allowed.
A special session of the Central Election Committee to discuss this question, is scheduled for next week.
Though the law is not clear, Melcer had already allowed audio recordings in poling locations but has not allowed any filming inside the voting booth, except under special circumstances.
It was entirely forbidden to film voter lists or protocols but registration of voters as they arrive at the stations, present their I.D cards and receive an envelope in which to place their ballots, was permissible.
Likud is pressing to be allowed to film these procedures again claiming it will prevent illegal acts.
The Likud representative in the election committee David Bitan, claimed after the April 9 vote that violations of the law occurred, alleging that husbands voted on behalf of their wives and that voters were threatened as they arrived to place their ballot.
Israeli media reported earlier this week that the Likud budget for cameras in Arab sector polling stations has been increased to NIS 2 million, and that there is a plan in place to employ hundreds of "observers" on election day and have even sent a request to the Israel Police asking for protection for them on the day.
Hanan Melcer lodged a complaint with the attorney general's office as well as the acting police commissioner, demanding an investigation be launched into this behavior.
The AG's recommendations, on behalf of the public interest to protect the integrity of the elections, are expected next week.
Human rights organizations have already appealed to Judge Melcer asking him to veto any attempt to place cameras for the purpose of
monitoring voters.
Member of Knesset Aida Touma-Suleiman from the Hadash party sent the chairman a letter stating that "Likud has no justification for placing cameras in any polling stations Arab or otherwise and that the responsibility for the integrity of the elections lies in the hands of the general election committee and not in the hands of the ruling Likud party.
Touma-Suleiman added she hoped the judge will not cooperate with Likud's scheme to impede citizens' voting rights.
Supporters of the Likud initiative suggest the presence of cameras will deter those trying to sway the elections, while opponents insist this move besmirches an entire sector of the population and even keeps voters who are suspicious of authorities from exercising their rights.
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