UK MONEY IS 'STILL GOING TO CONVICTED PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS'

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by Anil Dawar, May 22, 2015

TAXPAYERS' cash given to help rebuild Palestine is being used to "reward and incentivise" terrorists, it has been claimed.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has taken around £130million in foreign aid from the Department for International Development over the past five years.

The public cash is being used to help it fund its estimated £84million annual wage bill for convicted terrorists locked up in Israel, according to campaigners.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) claims that Britain may have been "intentionally misled" by the PA which last year claimed to have stopped the controversial payments but was later discovered to be 

channelling the cash through another political group.

MPs today called for the Government to suspend all aid to the PA until payments to convicted terrorists cease.

In a joint statement, Tory MPs Guto Bebb, James Morris and Andrew Percy said: "British taxpayers will be appalled to discover that the Palestinian Authority is handing their hard-earned money to convicted Palestinian terrorists.

"The PA should be strongly condemned for deceiving well-intentioned donor countries into thinking that it had ended this shocking practice.

"The British Government must seriously reconsider its provision of aid to the PA's general budget until it ceases this abhorrent practice of financially rewarding and incentivising terrorism."

The PA's practice of paying huge salaries to jailed terrorists was exposed by PMW in 2011.

The money is reserved for those "resisting the occupation" of lands Palestinians regard as theirs but which are part of the Israeli state.

Around 5,500 Palestinian terrorists could be drawing salaries and bonuses.

Among those now eligible are Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salameh and Jamal Abu Al-Hijja who are serving 122 life sentences between them for planning suicide bombings.

The number of those being paid could rise to 200,000 when the families of suicide bombers and the wounded are added.

Some of the longest serving prisoners will be getting up to £2,000 a month plus bonuses for their wives and children.

PMW said grants on release can be as much as £50,000, which dwarfs the £300 average monthly wage in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority has said the money is not salaries but welfare payments.

Itamar Marcus, director of PMW, this week presented a report on the issue to the British, Dutch and German parliaments.

He told MPs at Westminster that Palestinian political leaders last year ordered the payments be halted after an outcry from Western donors which give around £640million a year to help rebuild the state.

Although President Mahmoud Abbas publicly ordered the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs to halt the payments, he then passed on the duty to the specially created Commission of Prisoners' Affairs run by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, meaning the money is still being paid out.

Mr Marcus said: "The PA's creation of a PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs to fulfil the same services previously supplied by the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, was done solely to satisfy Western donors' demands that the PA cease paying salaries to terrorist prisoners.

"The existence of the PLO Commission has not changed the PA practice of paying salaries to terrorists.

"The PA continues to reward and pay salaries to terrorists in prison in spite of European and US demands that donor money to the PA not be used to reward terrorists."

Last night, a DFID spokesman said: "UK aid to the Palestinian Authority is used for the sole purpose of paying the salaries of civil servants, who are responsible for providing health, education and other essential services."

ISRAEL’S HUMANITY IN NEPAL

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By GIORA WEISER  16^th May 2015

‘Grant me the physical and mental strength to be forever prepared to help the poor and the rich, the good and the bad, my love and my enemy, and may I always see the human in the infirm,” instructs the Jewish Physician’s Prayer, attributed to the great sage Maimonides.

Instinctively, when I heard that there had been a series of massive earthquakes in Nepal just over two weeks ago, I knew that I would soon receive the call. Just as we did two years ago after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines and after the massive earthquakes in Haiti three years prior to that, Israel would not hesitate to outstretch its arm to those in need. Even when natural disasters ravage nations like Turkey and Iran, as Jews and Israelis we are morally commanded to offer our assistance.

I joined hundreds of other Israelis, who each left their worried families without a moment’s hesitation to board the plane to Nepal, where we would set up a field hospital in Kathmandu.

The scenes in Nepal were horrific.

Scores of badly injured people lay untreated in hospitals and medical facilities, the local doctors completely overwhelmed by their numbers. We worked around the clock to treat as many as we could. As well as treating people who made it to the Israeli field hospital, we were treating many Nepalese who were flown in by our search and rescue team.

One girl was brought to us by the Israeli rescue team from a small village five days after the earthquakes.

She was found unconscious alone in a wooded area and no one knew who she was or how she got there. At first she was in a life-threatening condition – she had suffered a major brain hemorrhage and had to undergo emergency surgery. However, on the last day of our mission, we witnessed her get out of bed and try to stand up.

Nevertheless, the devastation and trauma were such that there were very few silver linings during the mission.

A further example summed this up.

Another girl was brought to our hospital with relatively minor injuries and after a short while we wanted to release her. However, she had no relatives or family that we could find. She had no idea what happened to her father and mother and it was heart wrenching to see that even when we successfully treated our patients there would be mental, emotional and psychological scars and anguish for many years to come. Whole families and communities were ripped apart and devastated.

It is on occasions like these when one’s humanity is sorely tested. Every day at work in the pediatric emergency room at Shaare Tzedek Hospital I see trauma and injuries, but not on the scale that we witnessed in Nepal.

The experience affects all of us who were there and remains long after we return to our families and loved ones.

Nevertheless, I know I speak for every one of my colleagues when I say that we would willingly return without question if we are asked.

It is our job as physicians and healers to help the sick, the ill and the infirm.

However, as Jews, it our duty and moral imperative.

I saw and read the inflammatory reports and statements leveled against Israel for sending medical delegations to Nepal, especially the inhumane questioning of Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). There we were, covered in blood, drenched in sweat, and sometimes tears, and exhausted, both mentally and physically after ending another 12-hour shift during which we saved multiple lives and mended broken bodies as best we could.

It is ironic that Roth can pontificate from the safety of a nice warm home thousands of miles away from the grief and devastation on his computer or smartphone about a nation he constantly maligns as non-caring and heartless.

Here in the depths of despair, when the Nepalese cried out for assistance, Israel sent its sons and daughters to their aid. This is how someone who is serious about human rights acts.

Less than a year ago I joined my Nachal Brigade as they entered Gaza to end the rocket barrages on our population centers. There too my task was to heal the sick and treat the wounded.

It mattered little whether it was my fellow soldier or a Gazan youth that required attention.

Regardless of headline-grabbing reports and anonymous sources pounced on by the international media like those from Breaking the Silence, we who serve in war and in peace know the truth.

We don’t seek acclaim or thanks, our sense of collective solidarity even with strangers across the world impels us to assist, to treat and heal.

This is Israel, Mr. Roth.

Perhaps if you came out and saw us from behind your computer screens you would understand what motivates us and what binds us to one of our founding doctrines of Tikkun Olam, fixing the world.

I am deeply proud to be part of a nation which does not hesitate for a moment to assist those in need wherever they may be.

Being part of the Jewish state is not just about self-governance, freedom and liberation for our people, it is also an opportunity for us as Jews to connect collectively with our ethical and moral foundations as a people which, among other things, instruct us to “always see the human in the infirm,” as Maimonides wrote around a millennium ago.

The writer is a doctor in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem and was part of the Israeli medical delegation and field hospital in Nepal.

PUBLICATION OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS' ACCOUNTS CLOUDED BY POLITICAL AGENDA

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Gerald Steinberg, 9-5-2015

Breaking the Silence failed to to provide basic details necessary for corroborating its claims.

On May 4, 2015, Breaking the Silence, a small Israeli non-governmental organisation, published anonymous allegations from Israel Defence Forces soldiers who are said to have fought in Gaza during summer 2014, purporting to "close the yawning gaps between what the IDF and government spokespersons told the public about the combat scenarios, and the reality described by the soldiers …" While there are many problems with the claims, many journalists, including from Australia, repeated the accusation of a few disgruntled Israelis, without any verification. This, despite the failure of this organisation to provide basic details necessary for corroborating claims made in this publication.

Naming sources is a basic prerequisite for making legal claims, allowing accounts to be verified and witnesses to be questioned. Dates must be provided and locations cited to understand the broader context in which events were alleged to have taken place. Without this information, we are left with a radical political agenda that exploits the language of international law.

In the 200-plus pages of "testimony", mostly from low-ranking soldiers, the names and the units in which they served are left unidentified. Similarly absent are dates of the alleged events, making verification by competent authorities impossible. In the very difficult war between Israelis soldiers and Hamas-led terror cells in Gaza firing missiles from houses, mosques, schools (as recently documented in a rare UN report), and hospitals, context is indispensable.

The lack of details prevents any understanding of these alleged incidents. There is no way to verify the accuracy of the testimonies nor is it possible to view these events in the broader context of the extreme difficulty of defending Israeli citizens from thousands of Palestinian rocket and terror attacks – each one a war crime.

Breaking the Silence's "methodology" to obtain the "testimonies" is also highly problematic. Many of the statements include very leading questions asked by interviewers, often constructed so as to elicit answers that falsely magnify the appearance of wrongdoing. In contrast, the absence of questions that would provide greater context, clarification or justification for certain actions, is striking. 

Moreover, much of the framing of these "testimonies" enhances their politicised nature such as the use of misleading titling. In one instance, a soldier's statement carried the sensationalist header: "I really, really wanted to shoot her in the knees," but the text, for those who read it, describes the young Israeli's fear that an approaching woman was sent by Hamas and could potentially be carrying explosives that would kill him and his friends. IDF soldiers in Gaza have been targeted by suicide bombers, including women, making the fear of such an attack credible.

The deceiving headline also hides the essential fact that the soldiers fired near her feet, scaring her off and successfully resolving the situation in a non-lethal manner.

By not publishing key information, the organisation is expecting readers – in Israel, but primarily abroad, including Australia, to blindly trust it and to suspect no agenda other than the documentation of valid complaints by soldiers. However, as shown by NGO Monitor's systematic research, there are also important financial dimensions. Breaking the Silence receives substantial funding from radical Europeans, who link their donations to the number of statements that are collected. The Dutch church organisation ICCO demanded at least 90 incriminating interviews, while Oxfam (which claims to promote a humanitarian agenda) linked funding directly with the provision of "as many interviews as possible" regarding "immoral activities". These arrangements highlight the clear financial interest in presenting as many negative testimonies as possible.

Indeed, the failure to examine the motivations and history of the donors to this tiny group is of major importance. These funders are involved in anti-Israel activities from Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands and have actively supported, funded and partnered with organisations promoting boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) targeting the Jewish state. The funders are clearly interested in portraying the actions of IDF soldiers as criminal and callous, thereby hoping to pave the way for prosecutions targeting Israel at the International Criminal Court. This is an extension of the long Arab-Israeli wars by other means.

Of course no army is perfect, and some soldiers may have legitimate complaints. But as in any democratic society, this must be done through legal and administrative processes, and not by garnering headlines in the foreign media. Given the obsession with Israel, the deep hostility, and the large sums that are available, particularly to NGOs that join in this form of modern warfare, consumers of such publications, including journalists and government officials, should exercise caution and a healthy degree of skepticism.

UK TAXPAYERS FUND 'PRO-TERRORIST' PLAY

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by Nick Craven for The Mail on Sunday 3^rd  May 2015

For the full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/pso2kte

£15,000 of public money given to show based on the words of Hamas killers.

·       •Arts Council England is funding a UK tour of their play, called 'The Siege'

·       •Tells of 2002 stand-off when Israeli troops cornered gunmen in Church of the    Nativity, Bethlehem

·       •Play is based on accounts of Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade militants

·       •Jewish leaders fear taxpayers might be funding play promoting ‘terrorism as legitimate’

British taxpayers are to fund a play sympathising with Palestinian terrorist groups who have murdered civilians and carried out suicide bombings on crowded commuter buses.

Arts Council England is handing over £15,000 to producers of a unashamedly one-sided drama based on accounts from the gunmen and bombers of Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.

The money will fund a UK tour of their play The Siege, telling of a 2002 stand-off when Israeli troops cornered militants in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, worshipped as Christ’s birthplace.

Arts Council England is handing over £15,000 to producers of a unashamedly one-sided drama based on accounts from the gunmen and bombers of Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ BrigadeThe production has already received cash from the British Council and the EU for performances in the Palestinian territories, and the new handout will fund a ten-city UK tour starting in Manchester on May 13.

Jewish leaders last night raised ‘extreme concern’ that the British taxpayer might be funding a play promoting ‘terrorism as legitimate’

In publicity for the play, Hamas and Al Aqsa Brigade terrorists are merely referred to as ‘fighters’ with no acknowledgement of their cold-blooded murder of civilians.

The siege lasted 39 days and only ended when 13 of the ring-leaders were allowed safe passage and deported to various European countries. It is from these men’s accounts that the play’s script has been woven together.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry insists that all the men have blood on their hands, but two in particular have admitted as much.

Their leader, Ibrahim Abayat, exiled to Zaragoza in Spain, told the New York Times that he and his men shot and killed a female Israeli settler near Jerusalem in 2002. The Israelis say he was also involved in countless other atrocities.

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The money will fund a UK tour of their play The Siege, telling of a 2002 stand-off when Israeli troops cornered militants in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (pictured), worshipped as Christ’s birthplace.

Another of the exiles, Jihad Jaara – who went to Ireland – also told journalists that he kidnapped and murdered 71-year-old Avi Boaz, a Jewish US citizen living in Israel.

Among the other atrocities linked to some of the 13 is a suicide bombing in a Jerusalem suburb in March 2002 which killed 11 Israelis.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: ‘We would be extremely concerned if British taxpayers were funding a play that promoted terrorism as positive and legitimate.’

The play’s British co-director, Zoe Lafferty, left no doubt where her sympathies lay, saying Palestinians pick up arms ‘not because they’re crazy religious fanatics [but] to defend their families’.

We're extremely concerned she said last night: ‘This production is pro-human rights, pro-justice and pro-equality. Our work is trying to talk about the truth of what’s happening on the ground and counter the propaganda that’s constantly being directed at the Palestinians.’

Asked if the play was pro-terrorists, she said: ‘That’s just insulting and comes from a very biased misunderstanding of what we’re doing. To have to engage in whether Hamas and the Al Aqsa Brigade are terrorists is the wrong question to ask.’

Arts Council England confirmed the grant but said it was ‘not our role to censor the artists’ message.’

The British Council confirmed they had given £14,000 for the West Bank tour, adding: ‘We also support projects in Israel.’ The EU did not reply to a request for comment.