Walling off Palestinians in Lebanon. Human rights groups silent. - by Elder of Ziyon

...The lies are laughable, but they are enough to convince NGOs that there is nothing to see here - even as residents complain bitterly.

Elder of Ziyon..
23 November '16..






This article, from The New Arab, drips with irony:

The first blocks of an isolation wall were erected around the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon this week, as a plan to build 'security' cordons and watchtowers around Ain al-Hilweh came into effect.

The security wall forms part of an agreement between Palestinian factions and the authorities in Lebanon in attempt to contain recent confrontations between Palestinians inside the camp and the Lebanese army, Lebanese and Palestinian officials claim.

The isolation wall is set to be completed within the next 15 months, according to a report by Lebanon-based al-Modon news site.

"Four towers will be constructed," Ain al-Hilweh's Hamas official Abu Ahmad Faysal earlier this month told Lebanon's Daily Star.

Despite being approved by Palestinian leadership in Ain al-Hilweh, located southeast of the port city of Sidon, for thousands living in the overcrowded camp life will only worsen.

Angry Palestinians took to social media to voice their frustration, dubbing the watchtower "the wall of shame" and comparing it to similar Israeli measures.

Those residing in the southern edge of the camp voiced complaints as the wall expected to sit a mere 3 metres away from their homes, according to reports on the construction plans.

They are literally building an open-air prison. The residents will not be able to leave without specific permission. Already Lebanese Palestinians are suffering from state-sanctioned discrimination, and now things will get worse.

But no one can blame Israel, so this is simply not news.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. 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.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A security barrier, reconsidered - by Arnold Roth

...Most Israelis know to ignore the inevitable shrill criticism accusing us of apartheid and land-grabbing, particularly when it emanates from people who can't quite figure out how to condemn the people doing the stabbing, the shooting and the vehicle-ramming. But at the end of the day, if fewer innocent people are going to be hurt on both sides by the completion of a half-built physical fence, then let it be.

Standing outside the International Court of Justice
in The Hague in February 2004, Arnold Roth,
 holding a photo of his murdered child,
is interviewed by BBC News

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
09 March '16..

In the midst of violent drama being visited upon us by our neighbors, the government of Israel seems to be on the verge of acting on a matter that we have wanted to see happen for many years.

For background, see "11-Oct-07: Reacting to 7 more frustrated mass-murders". And "5-Oct-08: Learning the lessons of the checkpoints". And "28-Apr-12: Security barrier proves yet again to be a life-saver". And this interview from 2004 in which Arnold Roth explained to CNN how security fences can look to people who have personal experience of life without security:

She [our murdered daughter Malki] wasn't caught in any crossfire. She wasn't a bystander. She was the target. People outside of this country have to understand that, that whatever we do to protect our lives has got to be seen as being our prerogative and perfectly legitimate. We want out government to do whatever is necessary to keep our lives safe and our children safe... ["Crisis in the Middle East - The Israeli Barrier", CNN, February 22, 2004]

Now today's news:

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. 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.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

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The Bad Habit of Lying Repeatedly and Shamelessly About Israel and Bethlehem

...This lie, as easily exposed as it is, is unbelievably resilient. It has been repeatedly debunked. And yet people keep repeating it or refuse to retract it even after they’ve been given overwhelming evidence that what they’ve said is not true. And people have seen others called out on the lie, and yet they repeat it themselves. Why? Why not invoke Qalqilya – a place in the West Bank where numerous suicide attacks were launched from? For people indifferent to Qalqilya’s history as a source of terror attacks during the Second Intifada (like many of the folks at Christ at the Checkpoint), images of this city would be very compelling. Why lie about Bethlehem?

Dexter Van Zile..
The Algemeiner..
23 March '14..

Last week, approximately 600 Christians descended on Bethlehem to attend the 2014 Christ at the Checkpoint Conference organized by Bethlehem Bible College. The organizers and presenters of this conference say that they want to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but they just cannot stop themselves from engaging in an ugly propaganda war against the Jewish state.

In other words, they cannot refrain from lying about Israel, repeatedly and shamelessly.

Three times during the conference, attendees were told that Israel has constructed a security barrier that completely surrounds the city of Bethlehem. Two people called it a wall and a third described it as a wall and fences.

No matter how they describe it, the security barrier, which was constructed to stop terrorists from crossing from the West Bank into Israel, does not surround the city. Even the map of the West Bank provided in the program for Christ at the Checkpoint shows this. The eastern and southern sections of the city are not confined by a wall.

Nevertheless, on the first night of the conference, Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun said the city is “surrounded with a wall.” I was in the audience when she said this and there were Palestinian Christians sitting next to me who didn’t bat an eye after hearing this lie.

This was not an honest mistake. Baboun is the mayor of the city, for heaven’s sake. We all know politicians lie, but this is a bit much.

Mayor, will you please stop lying?

Then, in a short film shown to the audience on the first full day of the conference, March 11, Qustandi Shomali, a professor at Bethlehem University, said “Bethlehem is surrounded by a wall and the Bethlehem population cannot reach very easily other areas in the West Bank.”

Again, I was in the audience when this film was shown and no one in the audience voiced a word of objection. Not one word. And again, this was not an honest mistake, for Shomali lives in nearby Beit Sahour. He knows that Bethlehem is not surrounded by a wall.

Professor, will you please stop lying?

And then on Friday, March 14, the last day of the conference, Sami Awad, executive director of Holy Land Trust, a Palestinian non-profit, appeared in a short film in which he claimed that “Today, Bethlehem is a city that is completely surrounded by walls and fences. The wall completely engulfs the city.”

I was not in the room when the film was shown, but it is on Youtube, right here. It goes without saying, (but has to be said), this was not an honest mistake. Holy Land Trust is headquartered in Bethlehem. Awad works in the city. He knows the route of the barrier.

Sami, will you please stop lying?

Probably not. This is not the first time Awad has uttered this falsehood. He said it to an audience of Christians in Galveston, Texas, in 2009. He was called out on it in a piece published on CAMERA’s website in 2012. And yet he said it again two years later. Did he expect not to get caught?

The upshot is this: Three different people offered the same lie to an audience comprised mostly of Evangelical Protestants from the United States and Europe. They told people that the city in which they were currently staying was surrounded by a security barrier, when in fact it isn’t.

This lie has been repeated so many times it is astounding.

NGOs lack credibility on the death of Jawaher Abu-Rahmeh

NGO Monitor
04 January '11

A number of NGO and media sources alleged that Jawaher Abu-Rahmeh died on January 1, 2011, as a result of inhaling tear gas fired by the IDF during an anti-security barrier demonstration. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat labeled the death a “war crime,” and others claimed that Israeli soldiers were using “tear gas chemicals mixed with phosphorus.” Initial findings by the IDF, as well as other investigations, point to significant inconsistencies regarding the factual claims.

This incident recalls the September 2000 Al Dura case based on unverifiable claims that the IDF “targeted” and “murdered” a Palestinian child. The questions in these and other cases highlight the lack of credibility in many NGO reports alleging Palestinian deaths and injuries caused by the IDF.

(Read full "NGOs lack credibility on the death of Jawaher Abu-Rahmeh")

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The Abu Rahma Hoax (ElderToons)

Elder of Ziyon

03 January '11

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IDF Press Conference on Death of Abu Rahma

Jameel
The Muqata
03 January '11

10 PM - Exclusive Update:

Senior IDF military sources briefed an exclusive group of bloggers this evening on the events surrounding this past Friday's Bilin demonstration and the "alleged tear gassing to death" of a Palestinian woman, Jawaher Abu Rahma.

IDF: We have reason to believe that the death 2 days ago was because of another reason than what the Palestinians are claiming (tear gas inhalation).

Facts: Abu Rahma's documented lab work is dated on Friday at 2:45 PM.
Her admission time to the ER in the same Ramallah hospital was 3:20 PM.

Hospital Lab work is usually done after you arrive at the hospital, not before you arrive.

There is no hospital ER admission report, no ER summary report, and no hospital records of this woman.

The official PA Ramallah Hospital's death certificate for Abu Rahma states as the cause of death as follows (this is word for word):

Cause of death “Inhaling gas of an Israeli solider according to the family”

That is the entire medical basis for the family's allegations.

We know this woman visited the same hospital 10 days ago and many other times in the past month. When we looked at the medication she was taking – it was for cancer.

(Read full "IDF Press Conference on Death of Abu Rahma")

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Shhh…Mubarak is building a wall

Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York
22 December 09

For years, the Egyptians have been strongly condemning Israel for erecting the security fence in the West Bank. But now Egypt is quietly building its own wall along its border with the Gaza Strip and does not want to hear any complaints.

The Israeli barrier was built with the chief goal of halting suicide bombings and other terror activities against Israelis. The Egyptian fence, on the other hand, is being constructed to stop Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip from entering Egypt.

Many Palestinians can still understand why Israel does not want to open its border with the Gaza Strip. But the majority cannot understand why Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the rest of the Arab leaders are keeping them locked inside the tiny, overcrowded and poverty-stricken area known as the Gaza Strip.

Israel does not want to reopen its borders with the Gaza Strip and that is regrettable and painful, but also understandable. But what one cannot understand is the negative attitude of the Egyptians and the rest of the Arab regimes toward the misery of their Palestinian brothers. Mubarak and the rest of the Arab dictators should be helping the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and not choking them.

By keeping the border crossings shut and now building the metal wall along the border with the Gaza Strip, Mubarak is in fact sending the Palestinians to knock on Israel’s door for help. By now it should be clear that the Arab rulers want the Gaza Strip to remain Israel’s problem alone.

The millions of dollars that are being invested in the construction of the new wall could have built hospitals and schools and created job opportunities for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. Half a billion dollars could even have solved the severe housing crisis in that area.

(Full article)
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Want to Protest a Wall? Go to Egypt

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
09 December 09

In the past few years, Israel’s security fence has become a major tourist attraction for leftist protesters appalled at the Jewish state’s chutzpah in erecting an obstruction against the Palestinian suicide bombers. The fence has been a major success and an integral factor in the defeat of the Palestinian terror offensive dubbed the second intifada, which took the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis earlier in the decade.

But those who want to demonstrate against barriers to keep the Palestinians from wreaking havoc on the region need not go to Israel these days. According to Haaretz, “Egypt has begun the construction of a massive iron wall along its border with the Gaza Strip.” The wall will be 10 kilometers long and will be made of slates of steel reaching 20 to 30 meters deep.

(Continue article)
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