Doc's Talk: Educating the younger generation in the Gaza Strip: summer camps organized by UNRWA in “competition” with Hamas, are a target for threats and assault

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Educating the younger generation in the Gaza Strip: summer camps organized by UNRWA in “competition” with Hamas, are a target for threats and assault

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Arson at an UNRWA Summer Camp

1. At 2:30 on the morning of May 23 a group of 30 armed masked men broke into the construction site of an UNRWA summer camp. The site was located on the shore close to Sheikh Ajlin in the western part of Gaza City. They set fire to the camp and burned it to the ground. Water tanks, offices, equipment and games for the children and the fence were destroyed, according to an UNRWA spokesman. 2. The armed men gave a letter to the night watchman addressed to John Ging, UNRWA director in the Gaza Strip. It threatened his life and had four bullets attached to it. Ayman al-Batiniji, spokesman for the Gazan police, said a flysheet had also been found warning UNRWA from continuing its aberrant activities which “damage the morals of the children” (Russia Today TV, May 23, 2010)

3. According to UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna, the previous Friday, May 21, flysheets were distributed in the mosques throughout the Gaza Strip from a network calling itself “The Free Men of the Homeland.” The flysheets accused UNRWA and its directors of affiliation with “imperialism” and threatened the UNRWA activities’ administration and its employees (Russia Today TV, May 23, 2010)

UNRWA’s Response

4. John Ging condemned the event and called it “vandalism linked to extremism and an attack on the happiness of children.” He added that UNRWA would not be deterred by such actions and despite the destruction and threats, the camp would be set up and open, along with the other 35 currently under construction, on June 12, as planned1 (UNRWA website, May 24, 2010).

John Ging, director of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip
John Ging, director of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, comments on the event
(Russia Today TV, May 23, 2010).

5. UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna demanded an investigation, saying that he expected the de facto Hamas administration to put an end to such events. He added that the incident had serious international implications because UNRWA was a UN agency. He also said that UNRWA had agreed to every condition imposed by Palestinian society and that he therefore wondered what caused the attack (Radio Sawt al-Quds, May 23, 2010).

Hamas’ Response

6. Official Hamas sources condemned the burning of the summer camp but made an attempt through the media to marginalize it. Taher al-Nunu, spokesman for the de facto Hamas administration, said that the administration condemned the attack and opposed any infringement of security, and expressed indignation at the flysheets attacking UNRWA activities. He noted UNRWA’s support of the Palestinian people and John Ging’s efforts to “lift the siege,” as well as the commitment of the Hamas administration to ensure security for everyone, especially UNRWA employees. He appealed to UNRWA to conduct a dialogue with various elements to discuss controversial issues which “surprise the Palestinian street” (Radio Sawt al-Quds, May 23, 2010).

7. The interior ministry of the de facto Hamas administration said in a statement that it was taking care of “the partial burning of the summer camp’s roof” and that it had initiated an official investigation to discover who was behind the incident, despite the fact that “there were no eye-witnesses.” It also claimed that UNRWA had blown the incident out of all proportion and exaggerated what had really happened. The ministry advised UNRWA not to press for an investigation and to examine its educational curricula and adapt it to Palestinian society, a hint that perhaps that had been the cause of the incident (Radio Sawt al-Quds, May 23, 2010).

8. Police spokesman Ayman al-Batiniji said that an investigation was being conducted and that the incident had in fact been exceptional, in view of the fact that the arsonists had left bullets as a threat. He also said it was possible that parents who were not pleased with UNRWA’s curriculum were behind it. However, he did not reject the possibility that it was the work of so-called “extremist elements.” He said the police would deal strictly with the incident but also asked UNRWA to examine the program of the summer camps “to make them suitable to Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip” (Alresala.net website, May 23, 2010).

Conclusions

9. There is no conclusive evidence that Hamas was behind the burning of the summer camp. It might have been the work of Hamas elements operating without authorization, or other terrorist organizations or Islamists.

10. However, ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, and especially after Operation Cast Lead, tensions have increased between the Hamas administration and the foreign relief organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, particularly UNRWA.

11. Hamas, which makes a constant effort to tighten its control over the Palestinian populace in the Gaza Strip, regards UNRWA as a competitor (and sometimes even as a rival) because it comes into direct contact with the Palestinians and can have social, cultural and educational influence. The Hamas administration would like to minimize the influence of UNRWA (and the other foreign relief organizations) by making it an organization providing financial and material support to the Gazans through Hamas and not directly.

12. The nature of the education provided by UNRWA to the Gazan children, through its many educational institutions spread throughout the Strip and its summer camps, is a long-standing point of contention between it and Hamas, as well as the other radical and terrorist Islamic organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. This was not the first time that the disagreement was manifested by assaults on UNRWA educational institutions, which Hamas and other radical Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip represent as corrupting the morals of Palestinian youth. It was also not the first time John Ging received threats.

13. Hamas and radical Islamic groups also exerted pressure on UNRWA in the second half of 2009:
A. On Friday May 29, 2009, the preachers in the mosques in the Gaza Strip warned parents not to send their children to UNRWA’s summer camps. Ahmed al-Safadi, a preacher in a [radical Islamic] Salafi mosque, claimed that the camps were not suited to Islamic religiou law because they allowed for “the mingling of the sexes.” Another preacher urged parents to send their children only to “religious camps” where the Qur’an and Islam were studied (Al-Quds Al-Arabi, May 30, 2009). On July 12 Fatah’s Internet forum reported that Hamas had distributed flysheets in the mosques accusing UNRWA of “an attempt to corrupt the younger generation,” and that many preachers had urged parents not to allow their children to participate in UNRWA’s summer camps.

B. Yunis al-Astel, a member of the Hamas faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council, claimed to Palestinian media that at the UNRWA summer camps the sexes mingled, drugs were distributed, the youth learned how to dance, and that there were even activities to promote reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israel.2 Filastin al-‘Aan, a Hamas-affiliated website, even claimed that UNRWA’s summer camps spread disease (Filastin al-‘Aan website, July 16, 2009).3

C. At the final ceremony of the Hamas summer camp in Rafah on August 2, 2009, Yunis al-Astel again attacked the “barbaric attack on our children at the inferior summer camps” [i.e., those run by UNRWA], whose objective is to corrupt their morals by distributing drugs and other things…” (Hamas Legislative Council faction website, August 3, 2009).

14. Hamas’ pressure on UNRWA shifted to its school curriculum when the new school year began. In September 2009, before studies began, Hamas attacked UNRWA’s educational system for teaching the Holocaust of the Jewish people. In the background there was information that UNRWA intended to include basic lessons about the Holocaust in the eighth grade studies dealing with issues of human rights. In response to what was perceived as a dangerous precedent (the Holocaust is not taught in Palestinian Authority schools), Hamas spokesmen showered abuse on UNRWA, calling the Holocaust “a lie invented by the Zionists” and teaching it “a war crime,” “support and service for the Zionists,” and other choice epithets.

1 UNRWA’s camps are called “Summer Games” and have been held for the past four years with the support and involvement of local residents. It is a program for the summer months planned for 250,000 Gazan children. The camps provide facilities for sports, swimming, arts and crafts, theatre and drama (UNRWA website, May 24, 2010). Hamas conducts its own summer camps, which integrate social activities with Hamas movement indoctrination and sometimes semi-military activities. For further information see the August 16, 2010 bulletin, “Hamas summer camps in the Gaza Strip integrate social activities with political and Islamic indoctrination and semi-military training. The camps’ goal is to foster the next generation of Hamas terrorist operatives” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e078.pdf

2 For further information see the July 2009 bulletin, “The Islamization process promoted by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its social and political implications for the local, Middle Eastern and international scenes” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e076.pdf.

3 The Hamas campaign against UNRWA and its Gaza Strip director John Ging for the hearts and minds of Palestinian youth does not only concern its summer camps. Hamas has accused UNRWA of corrupting the morality of the Palestinian people (“polluting” conservative, pure Palestinian society) by its educational institutions.

4 For further information see the September 6, 2009 bulletin, “The battle for hearts and minds in the Gaza Strip: Hamas attacks UNRWA for planning to teach the Holocaust in its schools. The attack reflects Hamas’ ambition for absolute control over education in the Gaza Strip and to inculcate students with its radical Islamic ideology, including hatred and terrorism against Israel” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e082.pdf.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk