Tuesday, December 25, 2012

UN: Return Golan Residents to Syrian Slaughterhouse “Forthwith”


Evelyn Gordon @evelyng1234

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/12/21/un-return-golan-residents-to-syrian-slaughterhouse-forthwith/

The UN General Assembly, as Elliott Abrams noted yesterday, just passed nine resolutions in a single day condemning Israel, mainly for its treatment of the Palestinians, while completely ignoring the real disaster that befell the Palestinians this week: the Assad regime’s bombing of the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, which reportedly killed dozens of Palestinians and caused about 100,000 to flee. But the situation becomes even more surreal when one examines the actual content of the resolutions–because it turns out that while the UN is voting to condemn Israel, its alleged victims are voting the opposite with their feet.

One resolution, for instance, slams Israel’s 1981 annexation of the “occupied Syrian Golan” and demands that Israel “rescind forthwith its decision.” Given what’s happening across the border in Syria, where the ongoing civil war has killed over 44,000 people and created over 500,000 refugees, I suspect most of the 20,000 Syrian Druze on the Golan are thanking their lucky stars to be living safely under Israel’s “occupation.” But you needn’t take my word for it: According to the Hebrew daily Maariv, whose report was subsequently picked up the Winnipeg Jewish Review, Israeli government statistics show that the number of Golan Druze applying for Israeli citizenship (for which the annexation made them eligible) has risen by hundreds of percent since the Syrian civil war erupted, after 30 years in which very few did so.

“More and more people comprehend that this [Israel] is a well-managed country and it’s possible to live and raise children here,” one Druze who acquired Israeli citizenship explained. “In Syria there is mass murder, and if [the Druze are] under Syrian control they would likely be turned into the victims of these atrocities. People see murdered children and refugees fleeing to Jordan and Turkey, lacking everything, and ask themselves: Where do I want to raise my children. The answer is clear–in Israel and not Syria.”

But what the Golan’s own residents want, of course, is of no interest to the UN: It would rather Israel return the area, and its Druze, to the Syrian hellhole “forthwith.”

Then there was the resolution condemning Israel for violating “the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.” But in East Jerusalem, too, the number of Palestinians requesting Israeli citizenship has risen sharply in recent years (West Bank and Gazan Palestinians aren’t eligible for citizenship, since Israel hasn’t annexed those areas). And while the number of Palestinians actually receiving citizenship remains small, Haaretz reports, “everyone involved agrees” it would be higher if Israel’s notoriously slow Interior Ministry would just process the applications faster.

The number of East Jerusalem Palestinians registering for the Israeli matriculation exam rather than the Palestinian one has also recently risen by dozens of percent, meaning these young Palestinians aspire to study at an Israeli university and work in Israel rather than studying and working in the Arab world. This, too, is a sea change: For years, Palestinians refused to allow their children to study the Israeli curriculum; now, private preparatory schools are springing up to enable these children to pass the Israeli exams.

Moreover, repeated polls have shown that if Jerusalem were redivided, many Palestinians–at least a sizable minority, and possibly a majority–would want to remain in Israel. But again, what East Jerusalem residents want is of no interest to the UN.

All of which just goes to show, if anyone had any doubts, that the UN and its member states have no interest whatsoever in the actual wellbeing of those under Israeli “occupation.” All they’re interested in is bashing Israel.

3 comments:

  1. It's rather encouraging on the one hand that some Palestinians might be seeing the light - unfortunately, with all of our dealings with Arabs over so many years, a majority of Jewish Israeli's would, with justification, be concerned as to the loyalty these new citizens would have for a country they've been educated to hate. The next issue is, the enormous silence from Israel's wonderful Public Relations Department in using this new situation by informing the "world" that perhaps some Arabs would rather be Governed by the terrible Israeli's as opposed to the wonderful Palestinians.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Union Of Nations Under The Rule Of Law, UNUTROL, is what the peace-loving, law-respecting countries of the world now need. Desperately. Its membership would be restricted to nations that comply with, and respect basic human rights and have an independent judiciary. Its functions and purpose would be the same as the current UN but without conferring on criminal regimes the power to subvert world order to their own perceived benefit. This is urgent. Rafi.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This news - that Arabs fearing Arab rule, are applying for Israeli citizenship. This has not appeared in the high profile media like the Times of London or the Telegraph or the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe etc. This is a clear example of gaps in Israel's PR. This hasbarah is renouned for its low profile - an absurd contradiction since the purposeof PR is to raise Israel's profile in a positive light. Arabs signing up to become citizens in Israel presents a clear opportunity to change the perception of Israel as an "apartheid" state. Jump on this, hasbarah people. Rafi.

    ReplyDelete