Where human rights violations must have a "made in Israel" sticker on them. - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...If the putative champions of the Palestinians in the West continue to disregard the trampling of Palestinian human rights by the PA and Hamas, there may not be any Palestinians left to champion.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
25 March '16..

These are the days when everything is backwards. The "pro-Palestinian" activists on university campuses throughout the Western world have gotten into the spirit: Palestinian students and academics in the West Bank and Gaza Strip endure daily harassment by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, because all that gets the activists going are "Israeli abuses."

Apparently, today, to be "pro-Palestinian" one has to be "anti-Israel."

For the self-appointed advocates of the Palestinians at Western university campuses, the Palestinian issue is nothing but a vehicle for spewing hatred toward Israel. In good, backwards form, Israel is castigated, and the PA and Hamas are free to abuse their own people.

It seems that in the view of the anti-Israel folks, the Palestinians should not even hope for human rights under the Palestinian regimes.

So while the anti-Israel activists are busy protesting against Israel on Western campuses, Palestinian students and professors are left to be persecuted by their own governments.

Instead of campaigning for reform and democracy in the West Bank and Gaza, these activists spend precious energy trying to take down Israel. The Palestinian students and academics are left to their own devices.

Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas suffer an abysmal level of freedom of expression -- and always have. This is the grim reality that the international community and protesting students prefer to ignore. For them, human rights violations must have a "made in Israel" sticker on them.

Here is a suggestion: Let us redefine "pro-Palestinian." Instead of bashing Israel, the real pro-Palestinians will reveal themselves by demanding democracy for those they champion. True pro-Palestinian activists will scream for public freedoms for the Palestinians under the PA and Hamas regimes, which have always smashed dissent with an iron fist.

In the past few days, Palestinians on campuses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have once again been reminded that they remain as far as ever from achieving a state that would look any different from the other Arab dictatorships in the region. The campus incidents, which have hardly caught the attention of the international media and anti-Israel activists in the West, also expose the media double standard about human rights violations in the territories.

The lie of pro-Palestinian activism - by Caroline Glick

...Until 1994, Eid’s human rights activism made him the darling of the far Left. He was a co-director of B’tselem. He was invited to prestigious anti-Israel forums worldwide and given platforms where he presented his accusations against Israel to international acclaim. But since the PA was formed, those who once upheld him as a hero have turned their backs on him. In so doing, they have shown their true colors. During his talk at the University of Chicago, those colors came shining through. Eid talked about the human rights abuses and repression of Palestinians not at the hands of Israel, but at the hands of the PA and Hamas. In other words, Eid held the Palestinian leadership accountable for its failure to respect the rights of the Palestinians it claims to speak for. This, it turns out, is a big no-no.

Caroline Glick..
Our World/JPost..
23 February '16..

Last Thursday, yet again, we learned that pro-Palestinian activists couldn’t care less about Palestinians.

For them, the Palestinians whose rights they claim to champion are nothing more than means to another end.

Our latest lesson came from the University of Chicago.

Last week, Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid was abused and threatened by supposedly pro-Palestinian and pro-peace activists as he tried to inform his audience about the state of Palestinian human rights today.

Bassam Eid has dedicated his life to defending the human rights of the Palestinians. From 1967 through 1994, Israel administered the population centers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. From 1994, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority until today, the Palestinians have been ruled by the PLO and Hamas.

As a human rights activist, until 1994, Eid directed most of his criticisms against Israel. Since then, Eid has defended Palestinian human rights from abuse at the hands of the PLO and Hamas.

Until 1994, Eid’s human rights activism made him the darling of the far Left. He was a co-director of B’tselem. He was invited to prestigious anti-Israel forums worldwide and given platforms where he presented his accusations against Israel to international acclaim.

But since the PA was formed, those who once upheld him as a hero have turned their backs on him. In so doing, they have shown their true colors.

During his talk at the University of Chicago, those colors came shining through.

Eid talked about the human rights abuses and repression of Palestinians not at the hands of Israel, but at the hands of the PA and Hamas. In other words, Eid held the Palestinian leadership accountable for its failure to respect the rights of the Palestinians it claims to speak for.

This, it turns out, is a big no-no.

Surprise! Pro-Palestinian Activists Only Respect the U.N. When It Suits Them

...To be clear, I would have no problem with ignoring the U.N. altogether; it’s an organization dominated by dictators that no self-respecting democracy should legitimize, so a principled refusal to honor any of its decisions would be eminently understandable. I’d also have no problem with a position rooted in genuine international law, which is that U.N. decisions are binding and enforceable only when adopted by the U.N. Security Council under Chapter VII. That’s what’s actually written in the U.N. Charter, and what U.N. member states agreed to when they signed the charter, and therefore, no state ever made a legal commitment to obey any other U.N. decision. But pro-Palestinian activists selectively treat U.N. decisions that favor their cause as “binding international law” while simply ignoring decisions that don’t favor their cause. And that position makes a travesty of the most fundamental principle of any kind of law: that it must apply equally to all parties in all cases, regardless of whether it helps or hurts a particular cause.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
05 July '15..

The hypocrisy of the claim that flotillas to Gaza are a “humanitarian” endeavor has now been fully exposed: As Jonathan Tobin noted last week, the latest proved to be carrying a mere two cardboard boxes worth of aid. But pro-Palestinian activists are also guilty of an even more egregious form of hypocrisy: They proclaim all anti-Israel U.N. decisions to be binding international law, but openly flout U.N. decisions that happen to be in Israel’s favor. The Gaza flotillas are a perfect example.

According to the flotilla activists, their goal was “to break the illegal blockade on Gaza.” But a blue-ribbon international commission appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2010 concluded that the blockade is in fact a “legitimate security measure” that fully complies with international law. So the same activists who lambaste Israel for noncompliance with anti-Israel U.N. resolutions – like those against the settlements, or the one ostensibly granting Palestinian refugees a “right of return” to Israel – feel it’s perfectly fine for them to ignore U.N. decisions that don’t serve their cause.

Nor is the Gaza blockade the worst example. Far more egregious is the way pro-Palestinian activists – and indeed, every country in the world except Israel – simply ignores U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, despite it being hands-down the most frequently cited resolution relating to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The spurious sincerity of pro-Palestinian commentators

...Politicians, professors and journalists alike carry on mindlessly suggesting untenable immoral prescriptions that ostensibly help the Palestinians but which in fact brings about their demise.

Chloe Valdary..
Opinion/JPost..
18 April '15..

Cognitive dissonance can be a funny, curious thing. Like a high school jock who wears shorts while lobbying the principal to ban all summer wear, those who play the “I’m-apathetic-but-I-like-to-call- myself-an-activist” game are the best at what they (don’t) do. Their exercises in self-imposed make-believe produce comical scenes in which these individuals are at variance with their own objectives and undermine the very positions they claim to represent.

Yet, such intellectual inconsistencies often provoke more than light chuckles. In the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict, they lead to the wholesale disenfranchisement and destruction of Palestinians – all in the name of Palestinian welfare.

This process usually occurs when the acolytes of armchair social justice mistake colloquy in echo chambers for sincere concern for the wellbeing of others. Politicians, professors and journalists alike carry on mindlessly suggesting untenable and, worse, immoral prescriptions that ostensibly help Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank but which in fact bring about their demise. The logic of these academics, when put to practical use, reads more like a satirical pamphlet than advice intended to be taken seriously:

As Palestinians Are Being Slaughtered, Displaced Where are the "Pro-Palestinians"?

...These professors and columnists rarely utter a word about the apartheid laws enforced by Lebanon against the 450,000 Palestinians living there. Instead, the "pro-Palestinian" professors and columnists focus their attacks on Israel and ignore the real suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Lebanese authorities and other Arab countries....As far as the Palestinian Authority leadership is concerned, plans to build new housing units are much more serious than the killing or displacing of thousands of Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
14 August '13..

As Israeli authorities issued permits last week to hundreds of thousands of West Bank Palestinians to visit Israel, the Lebanese government decided to ban Palestinian refugees fleeing the war in Syria from entering Lebanon. So while Palestinians are being slaughtered and forced out of their homes in Syria, the Lebanese government is preventing them from entering Lebanon.

The Israeli permits, which were issued on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to visit shopping malls, restaurants and beaches in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Jerusalem and Acre.

But as the West Bank Palestinians were celebrating the feast in Israel, thousands of their brethren found themselves stranded along the border between Syria and Lebanon.

And as the Palestinians were enjoying their time at the beaches, malls and restaurants in Israel, word came that the number of Palestinians killed in Syria over the past two years has now risen to 1,472.

According to the Palestinian human rights foundation Rasd, the Lebanese decision to ban Palestinian refugees from entering Lebanon is a "violation of the Lebanese international commitments." The group also expressed its surprise over the Palestinian Authority's "silence" towards the suffering of the Palestinian refugees fleeing from Syria.

New "War Crimes" Lawfare

Soeren Kern
Hudson New York
04 August '10

Three Spanish activists who were on board the Gaza aid ships that were raided by Israeli commandos on May 31 have filed a lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, six members of his cabinet and a senior military officer for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The lawsuit is the second attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to prosecute Israeli political and military leaders in Spanish courts by using the legal concept of universal jurisdiction.

Laura Arau, David Segarra and Manuel Espinar Tapial, three Spaniards who were on board the aid ships, lodged the complaint at Spain's National Court (Audiencia Nacional) on July 22. They claim they were illegally arrested in international waters, tortured and forcibly removed to Turkey. The 86-page lawsuit was filed on behalf of the three plaintiffs by a non-governmental organization called the Arab Cause Solidarity Committee, which is based in Madrid.

In addition to Netanyahu, the lawsuit names as defendants Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, minister-without-portfolio Benny Begin, and Navy Vice Admiral Eliezer 'Chiney' Marom.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were "illegally detained, forcibly moved into Israel and deported to Turkish territory outside the provisions of international law." However, most of the rest of the complaint is framed within the broader context of the overall Palestinian cause, which reveals the politically motivated nature of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the eight defendants came together "from the moment they learned of the departure of the fleet" in order to "plan the operation … in the context of a systematic and widespread attack against the Palestinian civilian population" with the aim of "aborting any and all attempts of common action to help the Palestinian people."

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Anti-Israel "Lawfare" in Europe

Soeren Kern
Hudson New York
30 June '10

Pro-Palestinian activists are launching a new round of anti-Israel lawsuits in European courts. The lawsuits, which exploit the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, are being used to harass current and former Israeli political and military leaders, with the twin aims of tying Israel's hands against Palestinian terror and delegitimizing the Jewish state.

Although so far none of the lawsuits filed against Israel in European courts has reached the stage of a trial in which Israeli leaders have appeared before a foreign judge, even short of actual prosecutions, pro-Palestinian activists have scored huge propaganda victories by charging Israeli officials with war crimes. This alone makes the pursuit of frivolous universal jurisdiction lawsuits a winning proposition for many activist groups.

On June 23, two Belgian lawyers, representing Palestinians, filed suit in Belgium against 14 Israeli officials on charges of war crimes allegedly committed during the Gaza War, a three-week armed conflict that took place in the Gaza Strip during the winter of 2008–2009. Those charged include Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni for her role as foreign minister during the war, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, and other Israeli military and intelligence officials.

The 70-page lawsuit is based on a report by Judge Richard Goldstone, which claims that an Israeli attack on a mosque near the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip killed 16 civilians, including women and children. The plaintiffs, who include one Palestinian-Belgian national and 13 Gaza Strip residents, were either wounded or lost relatives in the attack.

The Goldstone Report claims that Israel committed war crimes during the offensive, code-named Operation Cast Lead. The 575-page report calls for prosecuting Israeli officials in international courts should Israel refuse to conduct a credible investigation into its army's conduct during the war.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.