As soon as the cameramen left, so did the rioters

Video of the week - The Arabs Are Aliens In The Land Of Israel - https://tinyurl.com/y8j7snnb

From “Tablet” by Amit Deri

My name is Amit. I have two small children, and another one on the way. And even though balancing a young family and a full time job is difficult enough, once a year I leave everything behind and report for one month of reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces.

It’s hard to explain, to those who haven’t experienced it, just how powerful the experience of miluim, as we call it in Hebrew, really is. There are few things more moving than seeing a collection of guys put their careers on hold and happily do their part to keep their nation safe. My own company is made up of a successful engineer, the manager of one of Israel’s trendiest restaurants, a biologist, an educator, and others from all walks of life who, for one month a year, put aside political differences, financial worries, and anything else to spend 18-hour days patrolling the vicinity of Hebron and keeping the peace.

We’re not unique in any way, but, sadly, you’re not likely to read about us in the papers. The headlines, I learned the hard way this week, are reserved for violent provocateurs. Last Wednesday, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli citizen, wounding him lightly before being shot and killed by a nearby security guard. On Friday, Israel returned the terrorist’s body to his family, a basic humanitarian act that Hamas, for example, denies the families of the Israeli soldiers it had kidnapped and killed. We were told to expect trouble.

The next day, Saturday, my men and I, about 100 of us in total, arrived to find about 400 Palestinian rioters throwing Molotov cocktails, hurling large rocks, attacking us with slingshots, and burning tires. They were documented by something like 40 cameras representing every foreign press outlet you can think of. They were shouting slogans about Muhammad’s army coming to avenge itself on the Jews, and pranced bravely in front of the photographers, knowing full well that the IDF’s strict regulations prevent us from doing much more than trying to disperse the violent mob by shooting canisters of tear gas.

We did the best we could to keep anyone, Israeli and Palestinian, from getting seriously injured. And then, magic: A short while into the demonstration, the media, getting what it came for, decided to leave. As soon as the last cameraman was gone, the very same Palestinian rioters who were, just a moment earlier, so passionate and furious and violent tossed aside their gasoline-soaked rags and their boulders and cheerfully walked away. They weren’t interested in a real confrontation. They weren’t truly mad. They were putting on a show for the press. An hour later, a friend sent me a photograph of myself, just published by the Arab media, holding a tear gas gun and looking menacing.

To be honest, I’m amused by the incident, but also incensed by it. I know this is hardly a new story, but when your own well-being and that of your friends is on the line, it feels just a touch more urgent than usual. I’m very proud to do my duty and serve my country, but I wish members of the media were as serious about doing theirs, taking the time to accurately reflect what’s happening on the ground rather than buy into fake news narratives set up by cynical propagandists.

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Israelis Use Barn Owls Instead of Chemicals for Pest Control

Video Of The Week -  Israeli Barn Owls in pest control  https://tinyurl.com/ydal7sfp

by ISRAEL21c 12-2-2018

The path to peace in the Middle East might be navigated not via a dove carrying an olive branch but by a lowly barn owl.

Barn owls have been used in Israel since 1982 as an alternative to toxic chemicals for killing voles, which at the time plagued Israeli agricultural fields. The preferred chemical against rodents – known as compound 1080 – had been banned a decade earlier in the United States, although not in Israel.

Ornithologist Yossi Leshem thought that owls might be able to control the rodents more naturally.

Leshem set up an experiment at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in 1983. Three decades later, the barn owl approach has spread throughout the Palestinian territories and into Jordan as well.

“Birds have the power to bring people together, because they know no boundaries,” says Leshem, who teaches at Tel Aviv University.

That’s in part how 22 participants from 10 governments (including Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Cyprus, Greece, France and Switzerland in addition to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan) came together in January to share research from their barn owl vs. rodent experiences.

The group met at the Crowne Plaza resort hotel on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea where they discussed scientific findings and hatch plans. Field trips were organized to visit barn owl nesting boxes in the Jordan Valley, as well as to Amman and Petra. A follow-up in March will see some of the Middle Eastern researchers visit California State University in Sacramento, where they will be hosted by conservation biologist Sara Kross.

While the topic was formally owls, regional peace was never far from discussion.

“Scientists should continue their cooperation for the benefit and peace of people in the area,” emphasized Mansour Abu Rashid, who works with Leshem and directs the Amman Center for Peace and Development.

The program could have been limited to just Israel farms. But the owls didn’t stop at the border and the Palestinians and Jordanians hadn’t switched from rodenticides to owls. In 2002, Leshem and Abu Rashid began to collaborate.

There was some resistance at first – the barn owls, which are a striking white in color, are considered a bad omen in some parts of the Middle East. Violence in the past decade also set back the conservation efforts at times, but eventually US and European funds were secured to launch a cross-border project. And most farmers were convinced after seeing the results.

A pair of barn owls can consume between 2,000 and 6,000 small animals per year and fly up to 7 kilometers away from their nesting boxes each night in search of prey. Today, there are thousands of nesting boxes for barn owls in Israel and hundreds elsewhere in the region.

Compound 1080 is still used in some Israeli fields, although it’s down almost 60 percent since the program began.

But it’s the prospect of “owls for peace” that ignites the imagination of non-farmers.

“In a conflict area, a project like this or any project in common can help,” Leshem says. “I know I’m not going to solve the problems of the Middle East, but I can do my small part.”

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PA admits stabbing attacks

Video of the week - Israel sends a warning to Iran - https://tinyurl.com/yac4atj3

 PMW - by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik 8-2-2018

Official PA daily admits 161 Palestinians did carry out stabbing attacks during Palestinian terror wave 2015-2016.

At the time, the PA falsified its news, claiming terrorists were "innocent victims" of Israel's "fabricated stabbing attacks" and "executions in cold blood".

An article in the official PA daily acknowledged that 161 Palestinians were killed while carrying out stabbing attacks during the Palestinian wave of terror in 2015-2016 during which 40 people were murdered by Palestinians and over 500 wounded.

Palestinian Media Watch documented at the time that the PA falsely claimed that Israel "fabricated" the stabbing attacks, and "planted knives" next to the dead bodies of "innocent Palestinian victims" after having "executed" them in "cold blood."

One cartoon tweeted by Abbas' Fatah Movement in November 2015 visualized the PA libel showing an Israeli soldier dropping knives near the bodies of dead Palestinians:

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 28, 2018]

The recent article in the official PA daily recognizes the fact that 161 Palestinians were killed while attacking Israelis with knives:

"The Al-Aqsa uprising in 2015 (i.e., Palestinian terror wave, 40 murdered) that broke out spontaneously against the Israeli occupation's insistence on interfering in the affairs of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and continuing its Judaization. It continued for approximately one year, and during that year 250 [Palestinian] civilians died as Martyrs (Shahids), 161 of them while carrying out stabbing operations against the occupation's soldiers and its settlers."

Palestinian terror wave (2015-2016) - Palestinian violence and terror attacks against Israelis, including stabbings, shootings, throwing Molotov cocktails, and car rammings. It started in September 2015 and until and including July 2016, 40 people were murdered (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans, and 1 foreign worker from Eritrea) and over 500 wounded.

Source: "Wave of terror 2015/16" https://tinyurl.com/oztrnrl 

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Palestinian Human Rights Abuses

Video Of The Week -The Palestinian Authority Tortured its Citizens  https://tinyurl.com/y873ju7d  

Palestinians: Arbitrary Arrests, Administrative Detentions and World Silence

By  Khaled Abu Toameh - “Gatestone” 2-02-2018                                                                                                               

 While Israel uses "administrative detention" as a tool to thwart terrorism, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership holds people without trial as a means to silence them and prevent them from voicing any form of criticism against Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.

 While administrative detainees in Israel are entitled to see a lawyer, receive family visits and appeal against their incarceration, the Palestinians detained by the PA are denied basic rights. Yet, Israel-obsessed human rights organizations seem uninterested in this fact.

 Particularly disturbing, however, is not that the PA leadership is acting as a tyrannical regime, but the abiding silence and indifference of the international community and human rights organizations. Those who scream bloody murder about Israel's security measures against terrorism would do the Palestinians a better service by opening their mouths about how human rights are ravaged under the PA.

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For many years, Palestinians and their supporters around the world have been condemning Israel for arresting suspected terrorists without trial.

It turns out, however, that the Palestinian Authority (PA) also has a similar policy that permits one of its senior officials to order the arrest of any Palestinian, regardless of the nature of the offense he or she commits.

Israel holds suspected terrorists in "administrative detention" on the basis of laws such as: Israeli Military Order regarding no. 1651 Security Provisions, Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law and Defense (Emergency) Regulations, a law that replaces the emergency laws from the period of the British Mandate of Palestine (1920-1948).

It is worth noting that Israeli citizens, and not only Palestinians, have also been held in "administrative detention" over the past few decades. This means that Israel does not distinguish between a Palestinian and an Israeli when it comes to combatting terrorism.

While the campaign against Israel's "administrative detentions" has been going on, the Palestinian Authority has been, according to Palestinian human rights activists and lawyers, conducting unlawful and arbitrary arrests against its own constituents.

Once again, the double standards of the Palestinians and their international supporters have been exposed.

For more than a decade, the PA has been detaining Palestinians without trial for up to six months -- on the basis of an order signed by one of its senior officials, usually a governor appointed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

But while Israel uses "administrative detention" as a tool to thwart terrorism, the Palestinian Authority leadership holds people without trial as a means to silence them and prevent them from voicing any form of criticism against Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.

The PA argues that its "administrative detentions" are being conducted within the framework of the law and as a preemptive measure to safeguard public safety and prevent violence.

While administrative detainees in Israel are entitled to see a lawyer, receive family visits and appeal against their incarceration, the Palestinians detained by the Palestinian Authority are denied basic rights. Yet, Israel-obsessed human rights organizations seem totally uninterested in this fact.

How, then, do the Palestinian Authority's "administrative detentions" work?

According to Palestinian human rights advocates and lawyers, a Palestinian governor or senior official is authorized to issue arrest warrants against any Palestinian for any reason.

Although it remains unclear on what basis PA governors and top officials are entitled to order arrests, some legal experts say they believe the practice is based on a 1954 Jordanian law that is still in effect in the West Bank.

Experts say that although a Jordanian court abrogated the law many years ago, the Palestinian Authority continues to use it against its own people.

Palestinian lawyer and former judge Daoud Dirawi said that the practice of detaining Palestinians on orders of Abbas's governors and top officials was "illegal" and "unconstitutional." He pointed out that the Palestinian High Court of Justice has ruled against the practice.

"Unlawful incarceration is a crime punishable by law," Dirawi explained. "Anyone affected by this practice is entitled to sue for damages. This is one of the most dangerous assaults on public freedoms."

The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (Musawa), says it has received many complaints from Palestinians about the unlawful detentions by the Palestinian Authority.

Noting that the detentions were "unconstitutional" and constitute a grave violation of human rights, Musawa said that governors and senior officials do not have the power to order the arrest of anyone.

Last year, the Faculty of Law at An-Najah University, the largest Palestinian university in the West Bank, held a seminar dedicated to the Palestinian Authority's "administrative detentions."

Dr. Muayad Hattab, dean of the faculty, said that most Palestinian legal experts agreed that the detentions without trial were in violation of the Palestinian law and constitution. He too pointed out that Palestinian courts had repeatedly ruled against the practice of holding people without trial.

Palestinian lawyer Ala Al-Badarneh, who conducted a study about the Palestinian Authority's "administrative detentions," found that most of the detentions were carried out without the knowledge of the governor or the senior Palestinian official in whose name the detention was carried out.

"Detaining people on orders of the governor sometimes occur without the knowledge of the governor," Al-Badarneh said.

"Even when the governor is made aware of the detention, the detainee is not brought before the governor. The governor often denies knowledge of the detention when asked by the families. Jordanian law stipulates that when someone is detained on orders of the governor, he or she must be brought before the governor. But this is not what is happening with those who are being detained without trial by the Palestinian Authority."

Al-Badarneh also noted that the Palestinian "administrative detainees" were being taken into custody on the basis of assessments by the Palestinian security forces, without referring to the party that purportedly ordered the arrest: a governor or senior official.

In some cases, the Palestinian governors and senior officials, who have turned themselves into law-enforcers, resort to "administrative detentions" to circumvent implementing court orders.

A court, for example, can order the release of a detainee, but he or she can still remain behind bars if a governor or top official signs an arrest warrant.

Take, for instance, the case of Mahmoud Asideh of Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank. After 37 days in detention, a number of Palestinian courts ordered Asideh released. To avoid implementing the courts' orders, however, Palestinian Authority security forces served him with an arrest warrant signed by the governor of Nablus. Another detainee, Anas Judallah, also from Nablus, was held in detention on orders of the Nablus governor although a Palestinian court had decided to release him.

In 2016, Palestinian journalist Ragheed Tabasiyeh was detained for 17 days on order of the governor of the West Bank city of Kalkilya. Tabasiyeh said he was interrogated about the nature of his journalistic work and the party he was working for. He was finally released without bail or charges.

In December 2017, Palestinian human rights groups received complaints from seven Palestinians who said they had been detained without trial on the orders of a governor. Two of the detainees have since been released, while the remaining five are still being held without trial.

Palestinians say that the PA is using "administrative detentions" mostly as a tool against its political opponents and to silence critics, and not as a precautionary measure to prevent a crime, as the Palestinian Authority claims.

Khalil Assaf, head of the Independent Palestinians Association in the West Bank, denounced the practice as a crime, saying that it was primarily aimed at silencing the Palestinian Authority's critics. Referring to President Mahmoud Abbas, Assaf wondered:

"How can he who is at the helm of the Palestinian Authority and is breaking the law ask his people to abide by the law? The violation of the law by anyone is unacceptable. Detaining any person on orders of the governor or a senior official is a crime punishable by law."

Thus, we have yet another example of how the Western-funded Palestinian Authority makes a mockery of its judicial system and continues systematically to violate human rights and wage assaults on public freedoms. In a world where any of Abbas's senior officials can sign an arrest warrant against a Palestinian, the Palestinians can only continue to dream of having a country of law and order.

Particularly disturbing, however, is not that the PA leadership is acting as a tyrannical regime (this is absolutely expected by those familiar with the inner workings of Abbas and his loyalists), but the abiding silence and indifference of the international community and human rights organizations. Those who scream bloody murder about Israel's security measures against terrorism would do the Palestinians a better service by opening their mouths about how human rights are ravaged under the Palestinian Authority.

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