New head of IAEA is 'solidly in U.S. court' - diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks
(1) YouTube: Israel Shahak Speaks on Zionism, Israel and Judaism
(2) Publishing houses, including university presses, taken over by Zionist zealots - Petras
(3) Haaretz: ADL under Foxman overplays anti-Semitism card, reinforcing the 'Elders of Zion'
(4) Israel recruits citizen advocates to improve Israel's standing in Europe
(5) Rabbi blesses Mossad's use of female spies in "honeytrap" stings
(6) Mossad recruiting Moslems in US, falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence”
(7) & (8) US urges Arabs to withdraw IAEA call for Israel to join Non-Proliferation treaty
(9) IAEA votes against Arab motion calling on Israel to join Non-Proliferation treaty
(10) Israel Has Right to Nuclear Capability for Deterrence Purposes, Obama Pledges
(11) New head of IAEA is 'solidly in U.S. court' - diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks
(12) International law used to prosecute Saddam & Milosevic but not "OUR" side - Richard Falk
(13) UNESCO: West Bank Shrines are Palestinian
(14) Survey of Palestine refutes "land without people" myth. Palestinians made the desert bloom
(15) Israel deems Russian migrants insufficiently Jewish - can't marry, divorce, or be buried
(16) Israel not a strategic asset once Arabs joined US camp - Sniegoski review of Alam's Israeli Exceptionalism
(17) US court orders Catholic woman to keep kosher & live as a Hasidic Jew - because of stepson
(18) "Ben-Gurion was a transferist ... Ben-Gurion was right" - Benny Morris
(19) Elie Wiesel defends Jewish incursion into Muslim East Jerusalem
(20) Israeli police uncover organ trafficking ring in northern Israel
(1) YouTube: Israel Shahak Speaks on Zionism, Israel and Judaism
From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 03.11.2010 10:29 AM
Israel Shahak Speaks on Zionism, Israel and Judaism
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQkgb86xytI
Interview with Israel Shahak, author of the book, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, published in 1994. Israel Shahak (1933-2001),was a Polish-born Israeli professor of chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was also a Holocaust survivor. During World War II he was in the Warsaw ghetto, and was later a prisoner at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He was a critic of the Israeli government, and his writings on Judaism and Zionism have been controversial. Runtime: 59 mins.
(2) Publishing houses, including university presses, taken over by Zionist zealots - Petras
From: James Petras <jpetras@binghamton.edu> Date: 01.09.2010 10:11 AM
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26283.htm
The State and Local Bases of Zionist Power in America
By James Petras Ph.D.
September 01, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- -Any serious effort to understand the extraordinary influence of the Zionist power configuration over US foreign policy must examine the presence of key operatives in strategic positions in the government and the activities of local Zionist organizations affiliated with mainstream Jewish organizations and religious orders.
There are at least 52 major American Jewish organizations actively engaged in promoting Israel's foreign policy, economic and technological agenda in the US (see the appendix). The grassroots membership ranges from several hundred thousand militants in the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) to one hundred thousand wealthy contributors, activists and power brokers in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In addition scores of propaganda mills, dubbed think tanks, have been established by million dollar grants from billionaire Zionists including the Brookings Institute (Haim Saban) and the Hudson Institute among others. Scores of Zionist funded political action committees (PAC) have intervened in all national and regional elections, controlling nominations and influencing election outcomes. Publishing houses, including university presses have been literally taken over by Zionist zealots, the most egregious example being Yale University, which publishes the most unbalanced tracts parroting Zionist parodies of Jewish history (Financial Times book review section August 28/29 2010). New heavily funded Zionist projects designed to capture young Jews and turn them into instruments of Israeli foreign policy includes "Taglit-Birthright" which has spent over $250 million dollars over the past decade sending over a quarter-million Jews (between 18-26) to Israel for 10 days of intense brainwashing (Boston Globe August 26, 2010). Jewish billionaires and the Israeli state foot the bill. The students are subject to a heavy dose of Israeli style militarism as they are accompanied by Israeli soldiers as part of their indoctrination; at no point do they visit the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem (Boston Globe August 26, 2010). They are urged to become dual citizens and even encouraged to serve in the Israeli armed forces. In summary the 52 member organizations of the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations which we discuss are only the tip of the iceberg of the Zionist Power Configuration: taken together with the PACs, the propaganda mills, the commercial and University presses and mass media we have a matrix of power for understanding the tremendous influence they have on US foreign and domestic policy as it affects Israel and US Zionism. ...
(3) Haaretz: ADL under Foxman overplays anti-Semitism card, reinforcing the 'Elders of Zion'
From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 29.08.2010 03:22 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/the-adl-has-lost-its-way-under-abe-foxman-1.310432
27.08.10
The ADL has lost its way under Abe Foxman
The Anti-Defamation League's methods of fighting anti-Semitism are not only outdated, but often counterproductive and have certainly devalued the currency of their accusations.
By Anshel Pfeffer
Abe Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, is probably very sorry by now that he waded in to the quagmire of controversy over the construction of the Cordoba House mosque near Ground Zero in New York. ...
When Foxman was forced to respond the angry critics of the ADL's opposition to the mosque, he said that he condemned those who were against it for the "wrong" reasons and tried to highlight all the ADL's projects designed to improve relations with Muslim communities in the U.S. But these were weasel words; the ADL had no business getting into this from the beginning if it didn't feel capable of supporting Cordoba's basic civil right to build a mosque wherever it liked.
Just at Foxman was mistaken in calling upon Richard Goldstone to repudiate his report on the Gaza operation. Just as he was mistaken dragging the ADL into the argument over Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's book, The Israel Lobby, two years ago, when he accused them of "using anti-Semitic tropes."
And just as he was mistaken when he almost tore the organization apart three years ago by opposing a Congressional resolution that would have officially labeled the murder of 1.5 million Armenians at the hand of the Turkish government during the First World War a "genocide."
The Goldstone report was so ridiculously one-sided that even left-wing Israeli human rights groups such as B'Tselem criticized it, but where exactly does biased criticism of Israeli military tactics fit into ADL's charter?
And while the Walt and Mearsheimer's book was certainly malicious, if Foxman thought it was anti-Semitic then he should have just said so outright. Instead he simply gave ammunition to those who accuse Jewish lobbyists for using the anti-Semitism card at every criticism of Israel.
In his Armenian intervention, he actively enlisted the ADL in a campaign that subscribed to the anti-Semitic notion that the Jewish money rules Washington.
The 'Elders of Zion' fantasy
As one Israeli diplomat told me at the time, "The Turkish government sees the ADL as an agency of Jewish power, so Foxman thought that if he would allow members of the League to support the resolution, it would harm Israel's strategic relationship with Turkey. He thought he was helping Israel but he simply reinforced the Turks' 'Elders of Zion' fantasy."
I wonder if Foxman still feels proud of himself for working as Ankara's lobbyist.
But the loss of direction at the ADL is not simply a result of Foxman's hubristic posturing and it goes even deeper than just a failure to reconcile its disparate roles as a civil rights movement, crusader against anti-Semitism and Israel advocacy group. ...
(4) Israel recruits citizen advocates to improve Israel's standing in Europe
From: Josef Schwanzer <donauschwob@optusnet.com.au> Date: 04.12.2010 04:31 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/israel-citizen-advocates-europe-pr
Israel recruits citizen advocates in Europe
'Allies and friends' will promote government policy to press and public meetings as part of fresh PR drive
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Sunday 28 November 2010
Israel has instructed its embassies in 10 European countries, including the UK, each to recruit 1,000 members of the public to act as advocates for its policies in a new public relations offensive.
A cable from the foreign affairs ministry was sent to embassies last week, with instructions from Avigdor Lieberman, the controversial and extreme right-wing foreign minister, to adopt a range of measures aimed at improving Israel's standing in Europe.
The most unusual was the order to identify up to 1,000 people by mid-January to act as "allies" to Israel. One source described them as "friends who are willing not just to receive messages but to actively promote these messages". These individuals – likely to be drawn from Jewish or Christian activists, academics, journalists and students – will be briefed regularly by Israeli officials and encouraged to speak up for Israel at public meetings or write letters or articles for the press.
Five European capitals have also been identified for a more conventional PR push. Israeli embassies in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Rome will receive funds to hire professional PR firms and lobbyists.
PR companies will be asked to focus on political messages, such as: Israel's position on talks with the Palestinians; subjects which can help "brand" Israel, such as tourism and technology; and regional issues to which Israel wishes to draw attention, such as human rights in Iran or Arab countries.
The foreign affairs ministry also suggested that embassies across Europe organise monthly high-profile public events to promote Israel and its government's policies, and visits to Israel for influential individuals. Lieberman is planning to meet ambassadors to European countries next month to push the new PR offensive.
An Israeli official refused to comment on the disclosure but said: "Obviously we are always looking for ways to improve our communications, there's nothing unusual in that," adding: "There is anxiety about the way Israel is perceived abroad, and there is particular worry about certain countries in western Europe."
Israel has previously launched drives to improve its image through hasbara – literally meaning explanation, although alternatively interpreted as public diplomacy, spin or propaganda. During its three-week war on Gaza, which began in December 2008, Israel launched a PR strategy through its national information directorate to co-ordinate key messages on a daily basis.
The Israeli government, military and various embassies are adept at using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to promote material. Organisations such as Bicom, the Britain Israel Communications Research Centre, in the UK and the Israel Project in the US, which describe themselves as independent, are dedicated to promoting Israeli policies. Both organisations offer regular briefings, contacts and tours to foreign correspondents based in Israel and Palestine, and all-expenses paid trips to Israel for journalists, including from the Guardian, based elsewhere. ...
(5) Rabbi blesses Mossad's use of female spies in "honeytrap" stings
Mossad Agents Can Trade Sex for National Security
From: Iskandar Masih <iskandar38@hotmail.com> Date: 19.10.2010 07:33 AM
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/israeli-rabbi-blesses-honeytrap-sex-female-spies/story?id=11834845
By RICHARD ESPOSITO
Oct. 11, 2010
An Israeli rabbi has blessed the use of female spies in "honeytrap" or "honeypot" stings against terrorists, according to a study called "Illicit Sex for the Sake of National Security."
The ruling by Rabbi Ari Schvat, contained in a study published by the Zomet Institute, was first reported by the news agency DPA and published by Haaretz.com.
Israeli officials confirmed the rabbinical ruling and the gist of the study for ABC News.
The Zomet Institute studies the intersection of religion and modernity. It examined whether it was acceptable for female agents of Israel's foreign secret service, Mossad, to have sex with the enemy in so-called "honeypot" or "honeytrap" sting missions.
Israeli intelligence has made repeated use of honeytraps. In 1966, a female Israeli spy convinced an Iraqi pilot to defect to Israel with his MIG. Twenty years later, a female Mossad agent lured Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician who had revealed details of Israel's nuclear program, from England to Italy, where he was abducted and brought back to Israel.
But according to Haaretz.com, Rabbi Schvat wrote that honeypot missions are "not just a thing of modern-day espionage."In fact, honeypot missions are rooted in Biblical lore, according to the report. "Queen Esther, who was Jewish, slept with the Persian king [Ahasuerus] around 500 BC to save her people," Schvat noted. And, the report noted, Yael, wife of Hever, slept with the enemy chief of staff Sisra to tire him and cut off his head.
However there is a catch for married honeypots. "If it is necessary to use a married woman, it would be best [for] her husband to divorce her. ... After the [sex] act, he would be entitled to bring her back," Schvat wrote.
"Naturally, a job of that sort could be given to a woman who in any event is licentious in her ways."
Rules for male Mossad agents were not mentioned in the writings.
(6) Mossad recruiting Moslems in US, falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20769
Mossad in America
Israeli intelligence steps up its activity in the U.S. — and gets away with it.
by Philip Giraldi
Global Research, August 26, 2010
American Conservative
Israeli government claims that it does not spy on the United States are intended for the media and popular consumption. The reality is that Israel’s intelligence agencies target the United States intensively, particularly in pursuit of military and dual-use civilian technology. Among nations considered to be friendly to Washington, Israel leads all others in its active espionage directed against American companies and the Defense Department. It also dominates two commercial sectors that enable it to extend its reach inside America’s domestic infrastructure: airline and telecommunications security. Israel is believed to have the ability to monitor nearly all phone records originating in the United States, while numerous Israeli air-travel security companies are known to act as the local Mossad stations.
As tensions with Iran increase, sources in the counterintelligence community report that Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics. There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence.” Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a “false flag” operation.
Mossad officers sought to recruit Arab-Americans as sources willing to inform on their associates and neighbors. The approaches, which took place in New York and New Jersey, were reportedly handled clumsily, making the targets of the operation suspicious. These Arab-Americans turned down the requests for cooperation, and some of the contacts were eventually reported to the FBI, which has determined that at least two of the Mossad officers are, ironically, Israeli Arabs operating out of Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York under cover as consular assistants.
In another bizarre case, U.S.S. Liberty survivor Phil Tourney was recently accosted in Southern California by a foreigner who eventually identified himself as an Israeli government representative. Tourney was taunted, and the Israeli threatened both him and journalist Mark Glenn, who has been reporting on the Liberty story. Tourney was approached in a hotel lounge, and it is not completely clear how the Israeli was able to identify him. But he knew exactly who Tourney was, as the official referred to the Liberty, saying that the people who had been killed on board had gotten what they deserved. There were a number of witnesses to the incident, including Tourney’s wife. The threat has been reported to the FBI, which is investigating, but Tourney and Glenn believe that the incident is not being taken seriously by the bureau.
FBI sources indicate that the increase in Mossad activity is a major problem, particularly when Israelis are posing as U.S. government officials, but they also note that there is little they can do to stop it as the Justice Department refuses to initiate any punitive action or prosecutions of the Mossad officers who have been identified as involved in the illegal activity.
In another ongoing Israeli spy case, Stewart Nozette appears to be headed towards eventual freedom as his case drags on through the District of Columbia courts. Nozette, an aerospace scientist with a top secret clearance and access to highly sensitive information, offered to sell classified material to a man he believed to be a Mossad officer, but who instead turned out to be with the FBI. Nozette has been in jail since October, but he has now been granted an additional 90-day delay so his lawyers can review the documents in the government’s case, many of which are classified. If Nozette demands that sensitive information be used in his defense, his case will likely follow the pattern set in the nine-times-postponed trial of AIPAC spies Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were ultimately acquitted in April 2009 when prosecutors determined that they could not make their case without doing significant damage to national security. A month after Rosen and Weissman were freed, Ben-Ami Kadish, who admitted to providing defense secrets to Israel while working as an engineer at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, walked out of a Manhattan court after paying a fine. He did no jail time and continues to receive his substantial Defense Department pension.
The mainstream media reported the Rosen and Weissman trial intermittently, but there was virtually no coverage of Ben-Ami Kadish, and there has been even less of Nozette. Compare that with the recent reporting on the Russian spies who, by all accounts, did almost nothing and never obtained any classified information. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that spying for Israel is consequence free.
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest. His “Deep Background” column appears every month exclusively in The American Conservative.
(7) US urges Arabs to withdraw IAEA call for Israel to join Non-Proliferation treaty
From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 14.09.2010 10:03 P
US to Arabs: Don't Make Israel a 'Pariah' at IAEA
by Fredrik Dahl
Published on Monday, September 13, 2010 by Reuters
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE68C1UD20100913
VIENNA - The U.S. envoy to the U.N. atomic watchdog urged Arab states on Monday to withdraw a resolution calling on Israel to sign an anti-nuclear arms treaty, warning it would send a negative signal to Middle East peace talks.
Arab countries, backed by Iran, are seeking to build on a victory at an assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year when they narrowly won support for a non-binding resolution calling on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation treaty.
They are expected to propose a similar text to this year's meeting of the 151-nation assembly starting on Sept. 20, diplomats say.
The United States says that zeroing in on Israel, widely believed to be the region's only nuclear power, could jeopardise an Egyptian-proposed conference in 2012 to discuss creating a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. ...
(8) U.S. urges Arab states to drop Israel nuclear treaty demand
From: Erooth Mohamed <ekunhan@gmail.com> Date: 17.09.2010 07:42 PM
September 13, 2010
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-urges-arab-states-to-drop-israel-nuclear-treaty-demand-1.313622
U.S. envoy to IAEA says resolution calling on Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty would send a negative signal to Middle East peace talks.
The U.S. envoy to the UN atomic watchdog urged Arab states on Monday to withdraw a resolution calling on Israel to sign an anti-nuclear arms treaty, warning it would send a negative signal to Middle East peace talks.
Arab countries, backed by Iran, are seeking to build on a victory at an assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year when they narrowly won support for a non-binding resolution calling on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation treaty.
(9) IAEA votes against Arab motion calling on Israel to join Non-Proliferation treaty
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/09/2010924132627742782.html
IAEA rejects Arab move over Israel
UN watchdog rejects resolution calling on Israel to join Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Last Modified: 24 Sep 2010 15:36 GMT
The US said the resolution risked souring newly restarted peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis [EPA]
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has rejected an Arab-proposed resolution calling on Israel to join a global anti-atomic arms treaty.
The general assembly of the 151-member IAEA blocked the resolution at its meeting in Vienna on Friday. Fifty-one member states voted against the resolution while 46 voted in favour and 23 abstained.
Israel had warned the UN nuclear watchdog that an Arab-led push to target the Jewish state in a resolution could deal a "fatal blow" to future co-operation on boosting Middle East security.
"Adopting this resolution will be a fatal blow to any hope for future co-operative efforts towards better regional security in the Middle East," Ehud Azoulay, Israel's IAEA envoy said, shortly before the vote.
The delegate made the statement during a tense debate on the draft resolution, which called on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). ...
The Jewish state is the region's only country outside the NPT.
The United States had urged Arab states to withdraw the non-binding resolution, saying it could derail broader efforts to ban such arms in the Middle East and also send a negative signal to the relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
"It is...unfortunate that this resolution is being pursued at a time when peace talks in the Middle East are being restarted after a long delay," Glyn Davies, the US ambassador, said.
"The divisiveness and confrontation caused by this resolution threatens these talks just as they are being rekindled," he told the assembly.
Israel says it will not consider joining the NPT until there is comprehensive Middle East peace. It would have been forced to renounce nuclear weaponry if it had agreed to sign the pact. ...
Israel and the United States regard Iran as the Middle East's main proliferation threat, accusing it of seeking to develop atomic weapons in secret, a charge rejected by Tehran.
(10) Israel Has Right to Nuclear Capability for Deterrence Purposes, Obama Pledges
From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date: 12.07.2010 03:00 PM
Haaretz (Israel)
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/obama-administration-israel-has-right-to-nuclear-capability-for-deterrence-purposes-1.300652
July 8, 2010
Obama administration: Israel has right to nuclear capability for deterrence purposes
By Barak Ravid
NEW YORK - The Obama administration has revealed to the public, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, a series of understandings between the two countries on Israel's policy of "nuclear ambiguity" - which to date had been kept under wraps.
At the center of these understandings lies an Israeli veto on the holding of an international conference for a nuclear-free Middle East, as well as an unprecedented American willingness to cooperate with Israel in the field of nuclear power for civil use. ...
Following their meeting at the White House Tuesday, a special announcement was made an hour later concerning assurances given to Netanyahu by U.S. President Barack Obama.
According to the announcement, "The president told the prime minister he recognizes that Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats, and that only Israel can determine its security needs. The president pledged to continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of the State of Israel."
"The president emphasized that the United States will continue its long standing practice to work closely with Israel to ensure that arms control initiatives and policies do not detract from Israel's security, and support our common efforts to strengthen international peace and stability," the statement continued. ...
(11) New head of IAEA is 'solidly in U.S. court' - diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks
From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 02.12.2010 10:06 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/wikileaks-new-iaea-head-solidly-in-u-s-court-1.328222
December 1, 2010
WikiLeaks: New IAEA head 'solidly in U.S. court'
Revelation may add to tension between Amano and Iran at a sensitive time in world diplomacy over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
By Reuters
The UN nuclear watchdog's head Yukiya Amano suggested before he took office last year he was "solidly in the U.S. court" on key issues including Iran, U.S. diplomatic cables cited by the Guardian newspaper said.
The revelation may add to tension between Amano, who is the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Director-General, and Iran at a sensitive time in world diplomacy over the Islamic state's disputed nuclear program. ...
(12) International law used to prosecute Saddam & Milosevic but not "OUR" side - Richard Falk
From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2005@yahoo.com> Date: 06.12.2010 05:08 PM
Professor Richard Falk on Universal Jurisdiction
Dr. Hanan Chehata
Friday, 03 December 2010
http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/europe/1808-professor-richard-falk-on-universal-jurisdiction
The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) hosted UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Richard Falk for a series of events this week including a parliamentary briefing on the issue of Universal Jurisdiction. The following is an extract from the talk he delivered in the House of Commons:
...
It seems to me that if a country such as Britain, which has a proud constitutional tradition, reserves the implementation of international criminal law just for those the government doesn't like at the time - in other words if international criminal law is used for prosecuting Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic but not the friends of the government - then you discredit, in a fundamental way, the rule of law which really does depend on equals being treated equally. If that is not done then double standards become very manifest; it also has the effect of saying that geopolitics and foreign policy always trump the law. ...
Thus, part of the wider stage of the conflict between Israel and Palestine is a shift in tactics on the Palestinian side much more in the direction of non-violent symbolic instruments of soft power. They include this much more robust global solidarity movement that has concentrated on building a boycott and divestment campaign which has been surprisingly effective, even in the United States. ...
(13) UNESCO: West Bank Shrines are Palestinian
From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2005@yahoo.com> Date: 30.10.2010 11:23 PM
http://www.zimbio.com/The+Palestinian+Times/articles/INBDUHJy0x1/UNESCO+West+Bank+Shrines+Palestinian
UNESCO: West Bank Shrines are Palestinian
Written by Dotconnector on Oct-30-10 7:46am
UNESCO has angered Israel by naming the historic sites in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem) -- sacred to both Muslims and Jews -- Palestinian.
The board of the UN's cultural organization, in its biannual session which ended last week, adopted five proposals initiated by Muslim member states regarding sites which are considered holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Israel, early this year, annexed two West Bank holy sites - the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) and the Bilal Mosque (Rachel's Tomb) to their heritage list.
Palestinians view the additions of the shrines to Israel's heritage list as a land grab. ...
(14) Survey of Palestine refutes "land without people" myth. Palestinians made the desert bloom
The Real Bloomers of Palestine
Antoine Raffoul
October 27, 2010
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=71231&s2=28
1948 Lest We Forget has obtained a copy of the full Survey of Palestine (Including the map survey) for its records. The following outline extracts shed more light on the Zionist lies about Palestine being "a land without people…." We recommend that Survey to all our Supporters.
Antoine Raffoul
Coordinator
1948: LEST WE FORGET
http://www.1948.org.uk
In December 1945 and January 1946, the British Mandate authorities carried out an extensive survey of Palestine , in support of the work of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The results were published in the Survey of Palestine, which has been scanned and made available online by Palestine Remembered; all 1300 pages can be read here.
One of the subjects investigated in the Survey of Palestine is land use; specifically, which crops were Palestine's leading agricultural products at the end of the British Mandate, and whose farms were producing them.
So, according to the Survey of Palestine, who really made the barley fields of Beersheba bloom?
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestinian farmers produced approximately 210,000 tons of grain.
About 193,400 tons of that grain were cultivated on Palestinian farms; about 16,600 tons were cultivated on Jewish farms. ...
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestinian farmers produced approximately 143,000 tons of melons.
About 136,000 tons of those melons were cultivated on Palestinian farms; a little over 7,000 tons were cultivated on Jewish farms. ...
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestinian farmers produced approximately 1,683 tons of tobacco, on 28,169 dunams of land. Virtually all the land under tobacco cultivation was Palestinian.
Who made the vineyards of Hebron bloom?
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestines farmers produced approximately 40-50,000 tons of grapes, and between 3-4 million litres of wine. About 86% of the land that produced these products was owned and cultivated by Palestinians. ...
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestinian farmers produced approximately 79,000 tons of olives.
About 78,000 tons of those olives were cultivated on Palestinian farms; a little over 1,000 tons were cultivated on Jewish farms. ...
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestinian farmers produced approximately 8,000 tons of bananas.
About 60% of the land that produced these bananas was owned and cultivated by Palestinians. ...
The British government survey found that in 1944-45 Palestines farmers produced approximately 245,000 tons of vegetables.
About 189,000 tons of those vegetables were cultivated by Palestinian farmers; about 56,000 tons were cultivated by Jewish farmers. ...
So, on the eve of the partition resolution, in which the United Nations proposed to allocate 55 percent of the land to Jewish Palestine (including those parts that produced most of Palestine's leading crops, with the sole exception of the olive crop), and 45% to Arab Palestine, Palestinian Arabs were producing:
92% of Palestine grain
86% of its grapes
99% of its olives
77 % of its vegetables
95% of its melons
more than 99% of its tobacco
and 60% of its bananas.
Palestine's agricultural produce at that time had an annual value of approximately 21.8 million pounds sterling; 17.1 million of which was produced by Arab cultivation, and 4.7 million by Jewish cultivation. (as seen in below table). ...
So, who made the desert bloom? The Palestinians made the desert bloom.
Photos: All the photographs of Palestinian farmers cultivating their crops in Palestine under the British Mandate are from Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History Of The Palestinians 1876 – 1948, by Walid Khalidi.
(15) Israel deems Russian migrants insufficiently Jewish - can't marry, divorce, or be buried
From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 22.11.2010 07:13 AM
US report: Religious coercion, violence in Israel rising
State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report points to strict conversion policy, segregated bus lines, violent haredi protests in Jewish state
Kobi Nahshoni
Published:
11.19.10, 07:58 / Israel Jewish Scene
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3986722,00.html
The past year has seen a significant rise in religious coercion and violence on a religious background in Israel, a US State Department report on religious freedom issued on Wednesday stated. The report surveys religious freedom parameters in some 200 countries around the world and devotes a 29-page chapter to Israel.
The report states that "approximately 360,000 citizens who immigrated from the former-Soviet Union under the Law of Return but are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate, cannot be buried in Jewish cemeteries, divorce, or marry within the country."
It also noted that most of the Jews in Israel are not religious-Orthodox and oppose the Orthodox establishment's control of crucial aspects of their lives.
The report also mentiones the High Rabbinical Court's 2009 ruling which cast a doubt on 40,000 conversions performed by the state.
According to the report, there has been a significant rise in hostility manifestations between secular Jews and religious Jews in the past year and pointed to violent haredi demonstrations involving vandalism and violence towards police officers.
Inter-religious conflicts are also mentioned: "There were reports on haredi Jews insulting and spitting at priests and nuns, and defacing with graffiti and throwing garbage and dead cats at monasteries in Jerusalem."
In the field of religious coercion, the report pointed to the separation between men and women in services in the Western Wall and the operation of the ultra-Orthodox chastity squads.
Segregated bus lines
The State Department also reported that the "public transportation company, Egged, continued to operate some sex-segregated buses along inter-and intra-city routes frequented by ultra-Orthodox Jews" and noted that "women who refused to sit at the back of such buses risked harassment and physical assault by male passengers."
The report states that "ultra-Orthodox groups that proselytize secular Jews, encouraging them to adopt ultra-Orthodox practices and beliefs, enjoyed government funding." On the other hand, it was also noted that the Supreme Court continued to issue rulings based on freedom of religion and equality. The report also addressed the growing tension between the Orthodox establishment and the secular courts, particularly in relation to the Emmanuel affair.
Chairman of the Hiddush foundation For Freedom of Religion and Equality, Rabbi Uri Regev said in response: "It appears that when it comes to religious freedom Israel is closer to radical Islam countries than the Western democratic world.
"The report discusses at length the Israeli government's capitulation to the haredi parties' extortion and the way in which it compromises marriage rights, freedom of worship, women's dignity, the immigrant population, the non-Jewish communities and many others as part of a policy which gains power by funding religious institutes and capitulting to religious coercion while disregarding the will of the majority of the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora."
(16) Israel not a strategic asset once Arabs joined US camp - Sniegoski review of Alam's Israeli Exceptionalism
From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2005@yahoo.com> Date: 27.06.2010 04:45 PM
by Stephen J. Sniegoski
June 26, 2010
M. Shahid Alam, Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/06/26/review-israeli-exceptionalism-the-destabilizing-logic-of-zionism/all/1
This is an excellent book that dares to transgress the regnant taboos and myths in the American mainstream on the issue of Israel. The author, M. Shahid Alam, a professor of economics at Northeastern University of Pakistani nationality, is a published writer on contemporary social and political topics that far transcend his academic field. Due to his proclivity to write on controversial and taboo topics, he has attained a place in ultra-Zionist David Horowitz's book, "The Professors: The One Hundred and One Most Dangerous Academics in America (2006)." ...
Most significantly, Alam notes that Israel stands alone as the only European settler colonial state that was created and continues to exist in an era of anti-colonialism. ...
It was also of crucial importance that Jews were very influential in the West because of their wealth and dominant positions in key sectors of society, such as the media. To influence the foreign powers and their populations, the Jewish Zionists would have to present a rationale for their takeover of already-inhabited Palestinian land. Alam observes that the Zionists essentially provided a number of fundamental arguments to justify their endeavor. First, they argued that the land did not really belong to the native inhabitants but was, instead, the Jewish homeland by historical right, and that it had been given to them by God and later usurped by invaders. This argument has especially appealed to Protestants with their special affinity for the Old Testament. Next, they claimed that they were more progressive, both socially and economically, than the native Arab inhabitants, and thus appealed to both the socialist Left and the capitalist Right. And what has especially become a key argument since the Holocaust has been the claim that Jews have suffered more than all other peoples and thus deserve recompense. This claim of being the ultimate victim not only served to morally justify the Zionists' take-over of Palestine but also has shielded them from criticism for their mistreatment of the Palestinians, since any suffering experienced by the Palestinians could not compare with the infinite suffering endured by Jews in the Holocaust. Finally, for individuals motivated less by moral empathy than by national self-interest, the Zionists have claimed that the Jewish state serves as a strategic asset to Western interests in the Middle East. ...
As the 1950s progressed, the United States would turn more toward Israel, but its support would often be covert so as not to antagonize the Arabs. ...
Israel's position was quite different, however. "Should the Arab nationalist states make peace with Israel and abandon the Soviets, this would greatly diminish Israel's value to the United States," Alam astutely observes. "Israel could not claim the privileges of a strategic asset if key Arab nationalist states—like Egypt and Syria—too joined the American camp." (p. 186)
In essence, Alam's view here is very different from that of Noam Chomsky and his epigones, who believe that Israel really is a true U.S. asset, serving to advance U.S. strategic and economic interests in the Middle East. ...
(17) US court orders Catholic woman to keep kosher & live as a Hasidic Jew - because of stepson
US court: Catholic woman must live as Orthodox Jew
Catholic couple ordered to live Hasidic lifestyle in order to be able to see husband's son, who was born to ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother
Rebecca Bitton
Ynet May 30, 2010
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3895939,00.html
It has been centuries since the divide between church and state has been in place but recently it seems that religion has been taking center stage in divorce courts across the United States. This time, the state has ruled that ultra-Orthodox Judaism must be followed by a pair of Catholics.
Laura Derbigney, a Hispanic Catholic woman, has been placed under court order to keep Shabbat, keep kosher and live as a Hasidic Jew. This court order was carried out in Chicago and the woman is now being told she must live an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle due to her new husband's ex-wife who is a Hasidic Jew.
Derbigney's husband Nelson, also a Catholic, has a son by his first wife, a seven-year old who must carry out ultra-Orthodox restrictions with his Catholic father as he has with his biological mother, and this is the reasoning behind the court's order to have the boy's father and new step-mother live in the ways of a Hasidic Jew.
"I truly feel it's an intrusion on my home life," Derbigney said from her attorney's office Monday, according to NBC reports. "That I have to now obey certain aspects of being kosher and following Shabbat in order for my husband and I to see his son, is wrong."
These restrictions include dietary restrictions. Despite Derbigney reportedly liking to cook Hispanic foods from her childhood, she will not be able to feed the child pork. Furthermore, the court has ordered that she is not allowed to shop at her regular supermarket and must shop from a kosher supermarket, henceforth – a supermarket, according to her interview with NBC, that is located in a different neighborhood far from her home.
Along with this, she will definitely not be able to take the boy from her new husband’s first marriage in a car on Saturdays, and for the same reason no sports will be played, no electronics will be used, as she has to follow all the laws of Shabbat.
The court order was enacted under the demands of the Hasidic Jewish ex-wife who complained to court that the last time her son visited his father he was fed non-kosher hot dogs.
(18) "Ben-Gurion was a transferist ... Ben-Gurion was right" - Benny Morris
From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 29.05.2010 04:55 PM
Benny Morris: Morality of transfer (archived)
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/016585.html
Here is Morris's January 9, 2004 interview from Ha'aretz in which the historian lays out his views with absolute clarity. The piece is no longer online at Ha'aretz, but can be found at a handful of pro-Palestinian sites.
Survival of the fittest: an interview with Benny Morris
By Ari Shavit
January 9, 2004
{visit the webpage to see the embedded links}
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story1117.html
Benny Morris says he was always a Zionist. People were mistaken when they labeled him a post-Zionist, when they thought that his historical study on the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem was intended to undercut the Zionist enterprise. Nonsense, Morris says, that's completely unfounded. Some readers simply misread the book. They didn't read it with the same detachment, the same moral neutrality, with which it was written. So they came to the mistaken conclusion that when Morris describes the cruelest deeds that the Zionist movement perpetrated in 1948 he is actually being condemnatory, that when he describes the large-scale expulsion operations he is being denunciatory. They did not conceive that the great documenter of the sins of Zionism in fact identifies with those sins. That he thinks some of them, at least, were unavoidable.
Two years ago, different voices began to be heard. The historian who was considered a radical leftist suddenly maintained that Israel had no one to talk to. The researcher who was accused of being an Israel hater (and was boycotted by the Israeli academic establishment) began to publish articles in favor of Israel in the British paper The Guardian.
Whereas citizen Morris turned out to be a not completely snow-white dove, historian Morris continued to work on the Hebrew translation of his massive work "Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001," which was written in the old, peace-pursuing style. And at the same time historian Morris completed the new version of his book on the refugee problem, which is going to strengthen the hands of those who abominate Israel. So that in the past two years citizen Morris and historian Morris worked as though there is no connection between them, as though one was trying to save what the other insists on eradicating.
Both books will appear in the coming month. The book on the history of the Zionist-Arab conflict will be published in Hebrew by Am Oved in Tel Aviv, while the Cambridge University Press will publish "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited" (it originally appeared, under the CUP imprint, in 1987). That book describes in chilling detail the atrocities of the Nakba. Isn't Morris ever frightened at the present-day political implications of his historical study? Isn't he fearful that he has contributed to Israel becoming almost a pariah state? After a few moments of evasion, Morris admits that he is. Sometimes he really is frightened. Sometimes he asks himself what he has wrought.
He is short, plump, and very intense. The son of immigrants from England, he was born in Kibbutz Ein Hahoresh and was a member of the left-wing Hashomer Hatza'ir youth movement. In the past, he was a reporter for the Jerusalem Post and refused to do military service in the territories. He is now a professor of history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva. But sitting in his armchair in his Jerusalem apartment, he does not don the mantle of the cautious academic. Far from it: Morris spews out his words, rapidly and energetically, sometimes spilling over into English. He doesn't think twice before firing off the sharpest, most shocking statements, which are anything but politically correct. He describes horrific war crimes offhandedly, paints apocalyptic visions with a smile on his lips. He gives the observer the feeling that this agitated individual, who with his own hands opened the Zionist Pandora's box, is still having difficulty coping with what he found in it, still finding it hard to deal with the internal contradictions that are his lot and the lot of us all.
Rape, massacre, transfer
Benny Morris, in the month ahead the new version of your book on the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem is due to be published. Who will be less pleased with the book--the Israelis or the Palestinians?
"The revised book is a double-edged sword. It is based on many documents that were not available to me when I wrote the original book, most of them from the Israel Defense Forces Archives. What the new material shows is that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there were also many cases of rape. In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah [the pre-state defense force that was the precursor of the IDF] were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves.
"At the same time, it turns out that there was a series of orders issued by the Arab Higher Committee and by the Palestinian intermediate levels to remove children, women and the elderly from the villages. So that on the one hand, the book reinforces the accusation against the Zionist side, but on the other hand it also proves that many of those who left the villages did so with the encouragement of the Palestinian leadership itself."
According to your new findings, how many cases of Israeli rape were there in 1948?
"About a dozen. In Acre four soldiers raped a girl and murdered her and her father. In Jaffa, soldiers of the Kiryati Brigade raped one girl and tried to rape several more. At Hunin, which is in the Galilee, two girls were raped and then murdered. There were one or two cases of rape at Tantura, south of Haifa. There was one case of rape at Qula, in the center of the country. At the village of Abu Shusha, near Kibbutz Gezer [in the Ramle area] there were four female prisoners, one of whom was raped a number of times. And there were other cases. Usually more than one soldier was involved. Usually there were one or two Palestinian girls. In a large proportion of the cases the event ended with murder. Because neither the victims nor the rapists liked to report these events, we have to assume that the dozen cases of rape that were reported, which I found, are not the whole story. They are just the tip of the iceberg."
According to your findings, how many acts of Israeli massacre were perpetrated in 1948?
"Twenty-four. In some cases four or five people were executed, in others the numbers were 70, 80, 100. There was also a great deal of arbitrary killing. Two old men are spotted walking in a field--they are shot. A woman is found in an abandoned village--she is shot. There are cases such as the village of Dawayima [in the Hebron region], in which a column entered the village with all guns blazing and killed anything that moved.
"The worst cases were Saliha (70-80 killed), Deir Yassin (100-110), Lod (250), Dawayima (hundreds) and perhaps Abu Shusha (70). There is no unequivocal proof of a large-scale massacre at Tantura, but war crimes were perpetrated there. At Jaffa there was a massacre about which nothing had been known until now. The same at Arab al Muwassi, in the north. About half of the acts of massacre were part of Operation Hiram [in the north, in October 1948]: at Safsaf, Saliha, Jish, Eilaboun, Arab al Muwasi, Deir al Asad, Majdal Krum, Sasa. In Operation Hiram there was a unusually high concentration of executions of people against a wall or next to a well in an orderly fashion.
"That can't be chance. It's a pattern. Apparently, various officers who took part in the operation understood that the expulsion order they received permitted them to do these deeds in order to encourage the population to take to the roads. The fact is that no one was punished for these acts of murder. Ben-Gurion silenced the matter. He covered up for the officers who did the massacres."
What you are telling me here, as though by the way, is that in Operation Hiram there was a comprehensive and explicit expulsion order. Is that right?
"Yes. One of the revelations in the book is that on October 31, 1948, the commander of the Northern Front, Moshe Carmel, issued an order in writing to his units to expedite the removal of the Arab population. Carmel took this action immediately after a visit by Ben-Gurion to the Northern Command in Nazareth. There is no doubt in my mind that this order originated with Ben-Gurion. Just as the expulsion order for the city of Lod, which was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, was issued immediately after Ben-Gurion visited the headquarters of Operation Dani [July 1948]."
Are you saying that Ben-Gurion was personally responsible for a deliberate and systematic policy of mass expulsion?
"From April 1948, Ben-Gurion is projecting a message of transfer. There is no explicit order of his in writing, there is no orderly comprehensive policy, but there is an atmosphere of [population] transfer. The transfer idea is in the air. The entire leadership understands that this is the idea. The officer corps understands what is required of them. Under Ben-Gurion, a consensus of transfer is created."
Ben-Gurion was a "transferist"?
"Of course. Ben-Gurion was a transferist. He understood that there could be no Jewish state with a large and hostile Arab minority in its midst. There would be no such state. It would not be able to exist."
I don't hear you condemning him.
"Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here."
When ethnic cleansing is justified
Benny Morris, for decades you have been researching the dark side of Zionism. You are an expert on the atrocities of 1948. In the end, do you in effect justify all this? Are you an advocate of the transfer of 1948?
"There is no justification for acts of rape. There is no justification for acts of massacre. Those are war crimes. But in certain conditions, expulsion is not a war crime. I don't think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands."
We are talking about the killing of thousands of people, the destruction of an entire society.
"A society that aims to kill you forces you to destroy it. When the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it's better to destroy."
There is something chilling about the quiet way in which you say that.
"If you expected me to burst into tears, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I will not do that." ...
Benny Morris, have you joined the right wing?
"No, no. I still think of myself as left-wing. I still support in principle two states for two peoples."
But you don't believe that this solution will last. You don't believe in peace.
"In my opinion, we will not have peace, no."
Then what is your solution?
"In this generation there is apparently no solution. To be vigilant, to defend the country as far as is possible."
The iron wall approach?
"Yes. An iron wall is a good image. An iron wall is the most reasonable policy for the coming generation. My colleague Avi Shlein described this well: What Jabotinsky proposed is what Ben-Gurion adopted. In the 1950s, there was a dispute between Ben-Gurion and Moshe Sharett. Ben-Gurion argued that the Arabs understand only force and that ultimate force is the one thing that will persuade them to accept our presence here. He was right. That's not to say that we don't need diplomacy. Both toward the West and for our own conscience, it's important that we strive for a political solution. But in the end, what will decide their readiness to accept us will be force alone. Only the recognition that they are not capable of defeating us." ...
The Muslims are barbarians, then?
"I think the values I mentioned earlier are values of barbarians--the attitude toward democracy, freedom, openness; the attitude toward human life. In that sense they are barbarians. The Arab world as it is today is barbarian."
And in your view these new barbarians are truly threatening the Rome of our time?
"Yes. The West is stronger but it's not clear whether it knows how to repulse this wave of hatred. The phenomenon of the mass Muslim penetration into the West and their settlement there is creating a dangerous internal threat. A similar process took place in Rome. They let the barbarians in and they toppled the empire from within."
Is it really all that dramatic? Is the West truly in danger?
"Yes. I think that the war between the civilizations is the main characteristic of the 21st century. I think President Bush is wrong when he denies the very existence of that war. It's not only a matter of bin Laden. This is a struggle against a whole world that espouses different values. And we are on the front line. Exactly like the Crusaders, we are the vulnerable branch of Europe in this place." ...
(19) Elie Wiesel defends Jewish incursion into Muslim East Jerusalem
From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 25.04.2010 09:06 PM
Jerusalem: Heart of Our Heart
by Elie Wiesel
25 April 2010
http://www.aish.com/jw/j/91796584.html
Jerusalem is above politics.
Nobel Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel today took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, in the form an open letter to President Obama, with whom Wiesel visited the Buchenwald death camp last year. Here is the text of the letter.
For Jerusalem
It was inevitable: Jerusalem once again is at the center of political debates and international storms. New and old tensions surface at a disturbing pace. Seventeen times destroyed and seventeen times rebuilt, it is still in the middle of diplomatic confrontations that could lead to armed conflict. Neither Athens nor Rome has aroused that many passions.
For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture-and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming.The first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and its joy are part of our collective memory.
When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is a homecoming.
Since King David took Jerusalem as his capital, Jews have dwelled inside its walls with only two interruptions; when Roman invaders forbade them access to the city and again, when under Jordanian occupation. Jews, regardless of nationality, were refused entry into the old Jewish quarter to meditate and pray at the Wall, the last vestige of Solomon's temple. It is important to remember: had Jordan not joined Egypt and Syria in the 1967 war against Israel, the old city of Jerusalem would still be Arab. Clearly, while Jews were ready to die for Jerusalem they would not kill for Jerusalem.
Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And, contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate but about memory.
What is the solution? Pressure will not produce a solution. Is there a solution? There must be, there will be. Why tackle the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely? Why not first take steps which will allow the Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live together in an atmosphere of security. Why not leave the most difficult, the most sensitive issue, for such a time?
Jerusalem must remain the world's Jewish spiritual capital, not a symbol of anguish and bitterness, but a symbol of trust and hope. As the Hasidic master Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav said, "Everything in this world has a heart; the heart itself has its own heart."
Jerusalem is the heart of our heart, the soul of our soul.
(20) Israeli police uncover organ trafficking ring in northern Israel
From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 08.04.2010 11:25 AM
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1161405.html
April 7, 2010
07/04/2010
Israel police uncovers organ trafficking ring in north
By Eli Ashkenazi and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents
Police on Tuesday arrested six men suspected of being involved in an organ trafficking ring in northern Israel. Among the suspects are an IDF reserves brigadier-general and two lawyers.
The department for fraud and misappropriation in northern Israel has been conducting an undercover investigation which began following a complaint by a 50-year-old woman from Nazareth, who replied to an advertisement in Arabic offering 100,000 dollars for a kidney.
The woman underwent medical examinations to ensure a match, and she was then flown a country in Eastern Europe where they extracted her kidney. The woman said that when she returned to Israel, she did not receive the money promised to her. Police say they have since received similar complaints.
Police also said that during the investigation they uncovered a large, very well-organized industry of organ trafficking. The ring includes organ traffickers, agents, and lawyers.
"The ring is operating throughout Israel and not only in the north, and appeals to the public through local media and internet," a police official said. "The organ traffickers somehow receive details about potential transplant candidates and they offer them their services," he said.
The investigators said that the traffickers usually demand around 120,000 dollars for a kidney transplant. While the donors, the majority of which are in serious financial troubles, are taken advantage of and receive around 10,000 dollars. Some of them get even smaller sums, and some do not receive any money at all.
The donors sign a contract and fill out fraudulent affidavits claiming a family connection between the donor and the recipient - a requirement in the countries where the surgeries take place.
Afterwards, the donors undergo medical examinations where they are categorized by blood types and other medical conditions, and are then flown to countries in Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and Ecuador.
There, the donors undergo surgery to extract their kidney, and shortly afterwards return to Israel without any medical documentation, many times suffering from medical complications.
During the investigation, police found out that a number of transplant candidates were on their way abroad to undergo surgery. Police located the donors and informed them that they were victims of fraud. Some of the donors were located at Israel's Ben-Gurion airport, right before their departure.
Investigators said that there are several more fraud victims located abroad who are due to return to Israel after they were notified that some of the traffickers were under arrest.
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