Tagged: Relief
D.R. 02-01: Israel-Hamas (III)
Volume 2, Issue 1
The Sense of the Congress:
A Special Report
UNRWA’s Palestinian curriculum a primary concern of the U.S. Congress
By Antarah Crawley | Last Modified 1/31/24 at 12:35 PM
WASHINGTON, DC — On 19 October 2023 and 8 November 2023 this outlet published articles on the United States House of Representatives’ (House) response to the Israel-Hamas War and particularly their deeply serious concern with the curriculum and textbooks used by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) to support their mission of educating students in the Palestinian Territory. UNRWA performs numerous civil society and traditionally-state-sponsored activities for the Palestinian population, and is responsible for the public education of civilian students.
On Tuesday, 30 January 2024, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability jointly convened a hearing entitled “UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures,” largely in response to news that 12 UNRWA employees had been fired for their participation in the October 7, 2023 “Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.” The gallery of the hearing room in House Visitors Center room 210 was filled to capacity.
The witnesses were:
- Richard Goldberg, Senior Advisor, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Marcus Sheff, Chief Executive Officer, IMPACT-se
- Hillel Neuer, Executive Director, UN Watch
- Mara Rudman, Schlesinger Professor, University of Virginia Miller Center
Mr. Mast (R) of Florida presided as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, etc.; Mr. Smith (R) of New Jersey presided as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Global Health, etc.; Mr. Crawley (AM) of United Scribes and Court Reporters United reported on the proceeding on behalf of the House Clerk’s Office of Official Reporters.
Present in the audience were at least 15 constituents of the Code Pink: Women for Peace (CODEPINK) organization. They wore pink shirts bearing the phrase “Let Gaza Live,” and during much of the hearing they displayed red paint on their palms while making what could be interpreted as the Master Mason’s Grand Hailing Sign of Distress (and certainly many a besieged Palestinian would be wont to cry out, ‘O Lord my God/Ya’Rabbi Ya’Illah, is there no help for the widow’s son?’). Also present in the audience was a constituency of pro-Israel women wearing black shirts that read “Stand with Israel”. One of them in particular (the one to the far left of the below photo [the one staring directly at me]) was particularly antagonistic against CODEPINK, repeatedly summoning Capitol Police officers to arrest those who spoke out.
The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Mr. Mast, remarked in his opening statement:
Wherever you see UNRWA facilities, including schools, in Gaza, you are almost guaranteed to find tunnels, rocket launchers and weapons storages. During Israel’s incursion into Gaza, Israel Defense Forces uncovered a variety of rifles and ammunition hidden under UNRWA institutions.
Brian Mast (R-FL)
Al Jazeera reported in a 20 November 2023 article entitled What Israel’s video of ‘Hamas tunnel’ under al-Shifa tells us; The structure of the tunnel raises questions about whether it is indeed a Hamas-built pathway:
Tunnels in Gaza were first built in 1980 at a time when the enclave was under Israeli occupation, and before the formation of Hamas in 1987. They were constructed under the Egyptian border for smuggling all sorts of goods, including weapons, fuel and black market goods.
Over time, Palestinians realised that tunnels could have a military use. The first sign of the military use of tunnels was in 2001 when an Israeli military post was blown up with an explosive from underground. The tunnels entered Israeli public consciousness when Palestinian fighters emerged from a tunnel shaft and kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
Israel placed a blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas gained control of it in 2007. Tunnels became the means to bypass the siege and to transport food, goods and weapons. Under Hamas, the tunnels expanded strategically.
Al Jazeera
The Chairman continued, “We have seen footage and evidence of UNRWA teachers and staff praising and celebrating the October 7 attack on social media, referring to the attack as an unforgettable glorious morning and a splendid site. We read reports that at least 12 UNRWA employees directly participated in the attack.”
During these remarks, an audience member representing CODEPINK proclaimed, “It’s 75 years of occupation that has caused all of this and now it’s the starving starving people, 2 million people starving right now.” The CODEPINK member was led away by the Capitol Police while advising the officers, “Okay, don’t hurt my arm … I am 77 years old. I am an Army colonel; I am a retired diplomat and what the U.S. is doing — the Biden Administration is doing is [tantamount] to genocide. It’s a genocide that the Biden Administration is complicit in. The Biden Administration … is killing people just as the Israelis are. It’s our weapons, it’s our money … that’s doing this. And the money for UNRWA is very important to keep people from starving to death after trying to kill them all.” Numerous members of CODEPINK were arrested by Capitol Police officers for acts of civil disobedience and free speech.
On 26 January 2023, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini reported from Amman, Jordan:
The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.
To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.
These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General
On 26 January 2024, Al Jazeera reported:
The US Department of State said it was troubled by the allegations, which it said pertained to 12 UNRWA employees. It said it would provide no additional funding to the agency until the allegations were addressed.
The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Al Jazeera
The Chairman continued his opening remarks, stating, “Make no mistake; the attacks on October 7 did not happen in a vacuum. The sickness on display from UNRWA is rooted in something deeper within its structure and mission. It’s rooted in the double standard the world applies for them, from their definition of refugee to the hatred they teach the Palestinian children –“
During these remarks, another audience member from CODEPINK rose to their feet to proclaim, “Please do not defund UNRWA. It was established in 1948 for the refugees of Palestine. If you unfund UNRWA, it’s a death sentence. They’re already starving. Please don’t defund UNRWA!…”
The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Global Health, etc., Mr. Smith, remarked in his opening statement:
Pubic pressure motivated by explosive new evidence that UNRWA employees were directly involved in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the Biden Administration last Friday as we know announced that it was ‘temporarily paused’ additional funding for UNRWA while it reviews the evidence. With all due respect to the President this was a long overdue response. Going far beyond the revelations of last week, however, there has been a long list of massive and irrefutable evidence of UNRWA’s extensive complicity and cooperation in Hamas’s antisemitic genocidal hate campaign. Like the Nazi’s before them, Hamas and their chief terrorism sponsor, Iran, they are committing genocide against the Jews.
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
The Chairman continued:
…[T]hese children from the earliest days of their lives are trained in hate for Jews and for Americans. Now we’ve heard how UNRWA’s textbooks, curricula, summer camps and official media are all infamous incubators of hate. And we’ve seen the evidence of its teacher’s administration’s involvement in — with Hamas.
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
During these remarks a male audience member dressed in a military-style black jacket rose and proclaimed, “You have blood on your hands! Shame on you! This is a genocide! You are starving children and people to death. This is a genocide and you are responsible for it. Shame on you! … Ceasefire now! You are killing people; you are killing innocent people … We will never forgive you for this … Shame on all of you…”
The Chairman responded to the outburst:
They don’t make their case. As you can see, the hatred coming out of that particular man is so sad. UNWRA, the UN Relief Works Agency was set up as we know in 1949 to provide aid and relief to refugees. 75 years later it’s still going, which is absurd, in a way, since nearby Arab nations will not permit the former to integrate into their societies. UNRWA provided education in hatred of Jews for the vastly expanded number of children, grandchildren, and great grand-children of the original refugees. UNRWA’s textbooks — and I’ve had meeting after meeting on this, including hearings — where we’ve actually read through the text books, full to overflowing with antisemitic hatred.
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Witness Mr. Goldberg remarked:
Now when you look at the incitement of violence that has gone on for decades, the internalization in generation after generation to rise up and believe that they are refugees waiting to come back to what is today Israel to drive the Jews into the sea, October 7th is the logical conclusion of UNRWA. It is of course what they have been training generations to do with the resources we have provided going to these terrorist organizations to help carry out that mission.
Richard Goldberg
Witness Mr. Sheff remarked, regarding the fired UNRWA employees:
These are not a few bad apples. Rather, the institutional barrel is rotten. How do we know? We know by researching UNRWA’s educational infrastructure. In it, textbooks teach that Jews are liars and fraudsters who spread corruption which will lead to their annihilation. Students are taught about cutting the necks of the enemy; that a fiery massacre of Jews on a bus is celebrated as a barbecue party; that Dalal Mughrabi, who murdered 38 people and 13 children, is a role model. UNRWA educated that dying is preferable to living; that becoming a martyr will be rewarded in heaven. First graders are taught the alphabet by learning the words for attack and martyr. And fourth graders are taught addition by counting martyrs. These are just a handful of examples of incitement which run like a thread, as strategy, throughout the Palestinian curriculum which is taught in UNRWA schools. And our research shows the same violent jihadi educational materials are created on a large institutional level by UNRWA staff. … IMPACT-se has warned for years about the consequences of this hate education, and I ask you, what can UNRWA possible offer the next generation of Palestinians? Poisonous textbooks taught too often by extremist teachers?
Marcus Sheff
Mr. Sheff later remarked:
Textbooks are uniquely authoritative, especially in the Manna region, in the Middle East, where you get one book, one grade, one subject; and they carry the values, the identities that leaders wish to pass down to the next generation, for good or for bad. This is how we create the societies of the future that we want to see, through these textbooks, through education. … We know that one of the first things that Hitler did when he came to power was change the textbooks.
Marcus Sheff
Mr. Goldman remarked, in response to a question my Mr. Moran (R) of Texas regarding any prior removals of UNRWA teachers, that he recalled “a case of a headmaster of an UNRWA school who was moonlighting as an Islamic jihad commander. He was removed by an Israeli air strike.” His remarks drew uproarious laughter from the pro-Israel audience members and representatives. Mr. Moran replied, “Well that’s one successful removal,” and went on to ask if there was “any part of the educational curriculum or programming that is overtly pro-American or pro-Israeli, that teaches the benefits for democracy?” (The present author has presented this question for rhetorical purposes.)
In one of his last remarks, Mr. Goldberg discussed the United Nations’ inherent systemic structural bias against Israel, which Mr. Hill (R) of Arkansas interpreted to mean that “the UN itself is the most antisemitic organization on the planet,” to which Mr. Goldberg replied “100% correct.”
It is notable that:
[I]n 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, stating Britain’s support for the creation of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine […and] that negotiations on the future of the country were to happen directly between Britain and the Jews, excluding Arab representation. His famous announcement at the Paris peace conference would reflect this interpretation, stating that the goal “[t]o make Palestine as Jewish as England is English.” The years that followed would see Jewish-Palestinian relations deteriorate dramatically.
In 1918, the Jewish Legion, a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British conquest of Palestine. In 1920, the territory was divided between Britain and France under the mandate system, and the British-administered area (including modern Israel) was named Mandatory Palestine. Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the 1920 Palestine riots and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the Haganah (“The Defense” in Hebrew) […] In 1922, the League of Nations granted Britain the Mandate for Palestine under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews, and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians.
[…]
Under the British Mandate placed by the League of Nations after World War I, Jewish immigration to the region [of Palestine] increased considerably leading to intercommunal conflict between Jews and the Arab majority. The UN-approved 1947 partition plan triggered a civil war between these groups which would see the expulsion or fleeing of most Palestinians from Mandatory Palestine. The British terminated the Mandate on 14 May 1948, and Israel declared independence on the same day.
Wikipedia: Israel (retrieved 30 January 2024)
On 15 May 1948, the armies of five neighboring Arab states invaded the area of the former Mandatory Palestine, starting the First Arab–Israeli War. An armistice in 1949 left Israel in control of more territory than the U.N. partition plan had called for; no new Arab state was created, as the rest of the former Mandate territory was divided between Egypt, which occupied the Gaza Strip, and Jordan, which annexed the West Bank. The 1967 Six-Day War ended with Israel occupying both the West Bank and Gaza alongside the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights. Israel has since effectively annexed both East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and has established settlements across the occupied territories, actions which are deemed illegal under international law.
Mr. Issa (R) of California closed out the questioning by stating “that the record of UN is poor and that we must change the teachers of the next generation of Palestinians,” a statement to which no witness disagreed (with the possible exception of Professor Rudman who was the only witness to present a balanced viewpoint during the entire hearing).
These developments in the Congress’s assessment and treatment of educational curricula abroad presents serious concerns about the future of public school curricula in the United States. It highlights the increasingly important role of NOVUS SYLLABUS L.L.C. (N∴S∴), Universitas Autodidactus (U∴A∴), and United Scribes (U∴S∴) in administering a worldwide Political Education Bureau (Politburo) and publishing curricula for the development of self-knowledge, self-mastery, and self-determination. In the words of the Moorish Science Temple of America and 5% Nation of Gods and Earths, ISLAM means “I Self Law Am Master“.
Resources
© MMXXIV BY NOVUS SYLLABUS L.L.C.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
D.R. 01-13: Israel-Hamas (II)
Volume 1, Issue 13
The Sense of the Congress:
A Special Report
Congress toes pro-Israel line, seeks resignation of UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories
By Antarah Crawley | Last modified 11/8/2023 9:28PM
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, November 8, 2023, the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States (U.S.) House of Representatives (House) convened a hearing on “United Nations’ Bigotry Towards Israel: UNRWA Anti-semitism Poisons Palestinian Youth” in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2200.
Subcommittee Chairman Smith (R-NJ) presided. Antarah Crawley, Special Rapporteur on Historical and Materialist Dialectics for the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), reported to the proceedings on orders from the House Clerk’s Office of Official Reporters.
The witnesses for this hearing included Hillel Neuer, Executive Director, UN Watch; Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Senior Vice President for Research, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Jonathan Lincoln, Interim Director, Center for Jewish Civilization. Of these gentlemen, Mr. Lincoln had the most firsthand experience with the United Nations (UN) in the Palestinian territory, presented the most balanced testimony, and was asked the majority of the questions by the subcommittee, the other gentlemen advancing the painfully biased position that the “state” of Israel is not and has never been at fault since its “inception” on 14 May 1948. Mr. Neuer repeatedly remarked that comes from Geneva, the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Council.
The hearing was convened largely in response to statements made by Francesca Albanese United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967. The Chairman submitted a Washington Free Beacon article by Charles Hilu to that effect into the Congressional record. Ms. Albanese, who serves as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’s Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, argued that “self-defense” has a narrow meaning under Article 51 of the U.N. charter. That definition, she said, does not give the Jewish state the right to self-defense against Hamas because the threat stems from an armed group within “occupied territory” and not “another state.” Thus, under international law, Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot qualify as self-defense, Albanese said.
Under Article 51, use of force in #SelfDefense is permissible solely to repel an armed attack by another State […] Threats from armed groups from within occ. territory give state the RIGHT TO PROTECT ITSELF, but not to wage war against the state from which the armed group emanates.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
“The attacks are clearly indiscriminate, disproportionate and violate the principle of precaution,” she said in an interview with the Guardian published Tuesday. “One cannot bomb hospitals hosting hundreds of patients and sheltering thousands of refugees. Sorry, we need to look for another solution, and not to bomb hospitals. Absolutely not. This is criminal.”
Mr. Hilu went on to report that Ms. Albanese condemned Israel’s “militarized settler colonial occupation” and violence against “defenseless Palestinians.” The UN also reports on the remarks of the Special Rapporteur:
[D]escribing the UN [Secretary General Antonio Guterres]’s words to the Security Council last Tuesday when he noted that the brutal attacks by Hamas fighters of 7 October “did not occur in a vacuum” as “brave”, [Albanese] stressed Gazans have “already suffered five deadly wars…during the period Israel has declared an unlawful blockade over the Gaza Strip, entrapping 2.2 million people.
The UN chief’s remarks that Palestinans have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation” drew criticism from members of the Israeli government late last month. Hamas is an acronym of Islamic Resistance Movement (حركة المقاومة الإسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah).
During the hearing, Mr. Bera (D-CA) remarked that “Israel has a right to prosecute a war against Hamas. They were attacked and they have a right to defend themselves, they have a right to make sure this never happens again, they have a right to dismember, dismantle, and to the best extent eliminate Hamas, but […] when you see tragic loss of innocent civilian life, you also feel that pain.”
The Chairman remarked that according to Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, “criticism of Israel is nothing less than Anti-Semitic when it passes over into demonization of Jews and Israel, delegitimizing the Jewish state, or applying a double standard, that is, one standard for Israel and one standard for every other country on the globe.”
The Chairman continued by discussing UN entities most involved in promoting Anti-Semitism, specifically the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which “was set up in 1949 to provide aid to refugees.”
74 years later it is still going, which is absurd in itself since nearly every Arab nation will not permit the former [Palestinians] to integrate into their societies. Why don’t they welcome the Palestinians? They simply won’t.
Chairman Smith (R-NJ)
Evidently, the Chairman and the pro-Israel caucus expect for the 1948-49 crisis that resulted in the citizens of Mandatory Palestine (and their patrilineal descendants) being expelled from their country, and the subsequent declaration of that country as the birthright of a colonizing state, to be resolved through the voluntary emigration of the Palestinian people into some other Arab nation (much like their father Abram). Talk about a double standard! Later, Mr. Schanzer even went to far as to testify,
[UNRWA] was originally created to assist Palestinians displaced by the 1948 war that the Arab states waged against Israel and subsequently lost. From early on, however, it was clear that UNRWA viewed the Palestinians as clients. They refused to permanently resettle them, and then they became the rationale for additional funding year after year. Over time, UNRWA’s clients grew old and passed on, but that was bad for business, so UNRWA expanded the definition of Palestinian refugees to include the descendants of refugees. So as a result, UNRWA’s registry has ballooned from 700,000 in 1948 to 5.9 million today; mathematically impossible. Despite the fact that only few of the original refugees are alive today, UNRWA’s roster continues to grow, and all of them claim the so-called right of return to lands inside Israel. In other words, UNRWA has extended the Palestinian-Israeli conflict deliberately and indefinitely.
Dr. Jonathan Schanzer (emphasis mine)
It sounds like Dr. Schanzer is a eugenicist who cannot fathom why the Palestinians don’t just up and die already so that the Israeli colony can expand unchallenged; and is further concerned that they appear to procreate at rates that seem impossible to the white race. Dr. Schanzer also emphasized the attack on Al-Ahli hospital, noting what he called “an errant rocket by the Islamic Jihad that created the explosion there,” and remarked that the next likely targets will be the Al-Shifa Hospital, which apparently sits on top of Hamas’s multi-story command center, and the underground tunnels which Hamas allegedly uses to divert aid from the south to the north. To the ears of the instant Rapporteur, both of these targets sound like ripe opportunities for mass collateral civilian casualties, which is to say, a rationalized genocide.
The ardently pro-Israel witnesses and the Subcommittee expressed significant concerns regarding the indoctrination of “Anti-Semitism” among Palestinian youth by UNRWA. The Chairman remarked, “UNRWA provides education in hatred of Jews for the vastly expanded number of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original refugees.” The Congress has previously voiced this concern. The Chairman claimed the UNRWA teachers and administrators “encourage children to martyrdom as suicide bombers” and cited an article reporting that “UNRWA staff celebrated Hamas’s massacre.” Mr. Neuer testified that UNWRA School administrator Hamada Ahmed posted “Welcome to the Great October” in response to the 7 October attack, that UNRWA officials posted “Allah is great […] Reality surpasses our wildest dreams” on Facebook, and that officials justified the massacre as “restoring rights and addressing grievances.”
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education reports that “14 UNRWA staffers […] publicly celebrated the actions of October 7. One UNRWA teacher in Gaza, Sara Alderawy, posted a video clip on the same day of the massacre, showing Hamas terrorists roaming Israeli streets with rifles while shooting at Israeli cars, and of rocket attacks in Israel. The video is accompanied by a Qur’anic verse stating: we will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them in humiliation, and they will be debased.”
Ms. Wild (D-PA) sought clarity from Mr. Lincoln on the question of why there are still refugee camps in the Palestinian territory. “The idea that refugees of 1949 are continuing to be served by UNRWA, I think, is preposterous, so what we’re talking about is successive generations of people who are born into refugee status.” She continued by confirming that “70% of the population of Gaza is provided services by UNRWA.” Mr. Lincoln replied that “1.5 million beneficiaries from Gaza” are being served. The existence of these registered refugees in “camps” that look like “neighborhoods and towns” is a part of the “final political process of creating peace in the Middle East which, who knows whether that will ever come…” The words of the Member of Congress sound strikingly close to a Final Solution for “peace” in Israel.
Ms. Manning (D-NC) remarked upon a Hamas leader’s statement that “it was the responsibility of Hamas to fight against Israel and to protect its fighters with their underground tunnels. […] And […] that they do not have a responsibility to allow the Palestinian people to get shelter from attacks in those tunnels; that the responsibility of the Palestinian people was solely held by the United Nations.” The Member asked Mr. Lincoln to expound upon how the perspective the Hamas leader is wrong; that it is the responsibility of the elected government (presumably Hamas since the 2006 legislative election) to take care of the Palestinian people who live in Gaza. Mr. Lincoln replied that that is correct, but also that in a context like Gaza, “the work of UN agencies is often conflated with the work of governments.”
Mr. Schneider (D-IL) delivered these remarks:
In synagogues around the world this week, two things are going to be universal. On the one hand there are going to be armed guards outside every one of those synagogues for fear of Anti-Semitism and violence. […] But inside those synagogues […] they’re going to be reading from the Torah, and the Torah portion that they’ll be reading from is called Chayei Sarah … [which] means “The Life of Sarah,” but it starts with the death of Sarah. […U]pon Sarah, the wife of Abraham dying, Abraham buys […] a place to bury his wife […in the Meʿarat ha-Makhpelah in Hebron]. There was a deed; my point I want to make is that the Jews have connection to this land. Hebron […] is a city in the West Bank. Jews lived in that city from the time of Abraham until 1929 […when] Arabs massacred the Jews of Hebron; those that weren’t killed left. […] Jews have lived in the land of Israel for 3,000 years, and I think that’s an important thing to note. These are not colonialists who came from Europe. In fact, today, many of the Jews […] can trace their roots, not to Europe, but to countries like Libya and Iraq, Yemen, other places, but they have a connection that goes back 3,000 years.”
Mr. Schneider (D-IL)
Mr. Schneider concluded by remarking upon the Abraham Accords, which “recognize that both Jews and Arabs belong to the same land […and] that by embracing each other, by recognizing the humanity and the connection that both have to the same place, both can elevate the place and their peoples.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, in reference to the Washington Free Beacon article on Francesca Albanese, the Chairman asked each witness whether the Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories ought to be fired for her remarks, and they all replied in the affirmative. Ms. Albanese is known to have said in 2014 that she believes that the United States is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”
After the hearing adjourned, the instant Rapporteur asked Mr. Lincoln whether the aftermath of World War III would see the UN establishment of a Palestinian reparations state in the legitimized state of Israel. Mr. Lincoln replied that my question is a misinterpretation of history, since the UN suggestion for a two-state state solution in Israel and Palestine (Resolution 181) was accepted by Israel and rejected by Palestine, therefore rendering it null and void. What subsequently occurred was the new Israeli population (which had been protected by the British until this time) declared a state of Israel which was only then recognized by the Soviet Union, the United States, and other UN member states. Ergo, the Palestinian people and its allies have never recognized the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
Wikipedia relates the Arab reaction to the adoption of Resolution 181 (II) by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947:
Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the resolution and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition. The Arab states’ delegations declared immediately after the vote for partition that they would not be bound by the decision, and walked out accompanied by the Indian and Pakistani delegates. They argued that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny. The Arab delegations to the UN issued a joint statement the day after that vote that stated: “the vote in regard to the Partition of Palestine has been given under great pressure and duress, and that this makes it doubly invalid.” On 16 February 1948, the UN Palestine Commission reported to the Security Council that: “Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.”
Wikipedia
As to the land currently called Israel and Palestinian territory, Wikipedia relates:
Israel is located in the Southern Levant, a region known historically as Canaan, the Land of Israel, Palestine and the Holy Land. In antiquity, it was home to several Israelite and Jewish kingdoms, including Israel and Judah and Hasmonean Judea. Over the ages, the region was ruled by imperial powers such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. During Roman rule, Jews became a minority in Palestine. The region later came under Byzantine and Arab rule. In the medieval period, it was part of the Islamic caliphates, the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Ottoman Empire. The late 19th century saw the rise of Zionism, a movement advocating for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, during which the Jewish people began purchasing land in Palestine. Under the British Mandate by the League of Nations after World War I, Jewish immigration to the region increased considerably, leading to tensions between Jews and the Arab majority population. The UN-approved 1947 partition plan triggered a civil war between these two peoples. The British terminated the Mandate on 14 May 1948, and Israel declared independence on the same day.
The majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs from the Merneptah Stele (Egypt, 13th century BCE) as “Israel”, the first instance of the name in the record, Wikipedia says.
Sources
Agassi, Arik (COO). White Paper, 2 pgs. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se). 8 November 2023.
Hilu, Charles. UN Official Says Israel Has No Right to Self-Defense. Washington Free Beacon. 7 November 2023.
TimesOfIndia.com. Hamas’s top 3 leaders are worth staggering $11 billion. The Times of India. 8 November 2023.
Additional References
Abraham Accords from State Department website.
DataHorse 