(With thanks to Nadav Shragai)
Palestinians often hear
from their leaders that a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem, al-Aksa mosque, is in
danger of collapse – and the Jews are to blame. Whether printed in cartoons,
preached in mosques or taught in schools, the lie is accepted as common
knowledge across the Arab world. Millions of Muslims accept it as truth. The message
is clear: Jews seek to expel the Arabs from Jerusalem.
This lie is nothing new.
For the past century, Palestinian leaders have told the “Al-Aksa is in danger”
lie in order to incite their people to attack Jews. It is important to expose
and counter this fabrication because it remains a spark that can lead to
bloodshed.
Nadav Shragai, a veteran
journalist and Jerusalem expert, has written the authoritative study on the
history of the lie. His work is presented on this site, chapter by chapter. It
is also available in PDF or ebook format.
Below are five facts that
you should know about al-Aksa:
1.
Political cartoons in major newspapers throughout the Arab world accuse Israel
of seeking to undermine and destroy the Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa Mosque.
3. For the past century, Palestinian leaders have denied the existence of a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and accused Israel of planning attacks on the mosques.
4. The
archaeological digs that Israel has conducted over the years near the Temple
Mount, far from the mosques, are a laudable scientific and cultural endeavor.
5. Since liberating Jerusalem in 1967 from Jordanian occupation, Israel has protected religious sites of all faiths and ensured freedom of worship for all peoples.
Poverty breeds terrorism, we are told in authoritative tones, and hence there is no choice but to ease up on restrictions to avoid fostering further Palestinian anger and resentment. As simple and concise as this neat little theory may sound, there is one pesky problem with it: it is categorically and demonstrably false.
And by persisting with the belief that it
is true, Israeli officials are operating under an entirely misguided
assumption, one with potentially dangerous consequences for us all.
One Israeli minister said “hungry people turn to terrorism. Without food
and water, they will disrupt our lives.”
But like many sound bites, this contention
simply does not stand up under further scrutiny.
To begin with, consider the fact that
according to the World Bank, there are approximately 700 million people on the
planet living in what is described as “extreme poverty,” which is defined as
earning less than $1.90 a day. That is nearly 10% of the world’s population.
If the simple equation that suggests that
poverty directly gives rise to terrorism were true, one would expect to find
millions of people, if not more, taking up arms worldwide and launching
terrorist attacks. But that is clearly not the case.
Numerous academic studies over the years
clearly demonstrate this to be the case. In American Economic Review, there is
“no significant association between terrorism and economic variables, such as
income, once the effect of other country characteristics is taken into
account.”
The same holds true vis-à-vis Palestinian
terrorism. Studies have repeatedly found that those who engage in it are
generally better off economically than most Palestinians.
A statistical analysis of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad terrorists published in
2003, showed “The resulting evidence on the individual level suggests that both
higher standards of living and higher levels of education are positively
associated” with the likelihood of a Palestinian joining Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Indeed, it was noted that Palestinian
suicide bombers “tend to be of higher economic status and higher educational
attainment than their counterparts in the population.”
Even if Israel were to buy every Palestinian family a plasma television set, provide them with free cable and throw in an Xbox video game console, these amenities would not deter acts of violence, which are driven not by indigence but by an ideology of hate which is constantly promoted through the education system.
The bottom line is that despair does not
create terrorists; doctrine does. And only a counterterrorism policy that takes
this into account has any chance of success.
If Francesca Albanese, (UN’s appointment of Italian legal expert to the post of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories) had the slightest interest in truth, she would read Muslim and Arab media and learn that the “Nakba” was self-inflicted.
Muslim and Arab journalists were not silent about the alleged Nakba. Even a cursory glance at Arab and Muslim newspapers and other Muslim media makes clear that it was Arab leaders who commanded the local Arab population to “flee” their homes in anticipation of the genocide of the Jews:
a) On April 3, 1949, the Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station reported: “It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’ flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem.”
b) On
October 12, 1963, the Egyptian daily Akhbar el-Yom reported that “the 15th May,
1948 arrived... On that day the Mufti of Jerusalem (the Grand Mufti Amin
al-Husseini) appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because
the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead.”
c) On
April 9, 1953, the Jordanian daily Al Urdun reported: “For the flight and fall
of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their
dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as
atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs. By spreading rumors of Jewish
atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror
in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes
and properties to the enemy.”
d) Even
the reporting of The Economist makes clear that the alleged Nakba was
self-inflicted. On October 3, 1948, The Economist reported: “Of the 62,000
Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained.
Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is
but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements
made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit... It
was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted
Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.”
e) On
August 19, 1951, the Beirut weekly Kul-Shay opined: “Who brought the
Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now the malign attitude of
newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who
brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their homes?
The Arab states, and Lebanon among them, did it.”
f) The
Arab National Committee in Jerusalem, following the Arab Higher Committee’s
March 8, 1948 orders, instructed women, children, and the elderly living in
Jerusalem to leave their homes: “Any opposition to this order... is an obstacle
to the holy war... and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these
districts.”
g) Furthermore,
the Jordanian newspaper Filastin on February 19, 1949 stated: “The Arab states
who encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to
be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies have failed to keep their promise
to help these refugees.”
h) The
Syrian prime minister in 1948-49, Haled al-Azm, also openly acknowledged the
Arabs’ role in persuading the refugees to leave: “Since 1948 we have been
demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the
ones who encouraged them to leave.”
Further, the word “nakba” originates with Syrian professor and intellectual Constantin Zureiq. In August 1948, he first used the term nakba as “a self-inflicted and humiliating wound caused by the Arabs themselves” (Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” Noa Tishby, 2021).
“When the battle broke out, our public diplomacy to speak of our imaginary victories, to put the Arab public to sleep and talk of the ability to overcome and win easily – until the Nakba happened... We must admit our mistakes... and recognize the extent of our responsibility for the disaster that is our lot.”
Israeli farmers are destroying thousands of tons of fresh vegetables as produce exports to Russia and Ukraine have ground to a halt due to the ongoing war.
The situation has resulted in a crisis for hundreds of Israeli farmers, with some having been forced to destroy entire crops after finding no alternative places to sell their produce.
“At the moment we have 3,000 tons of carrots
in the ground designated for Russia,” Nir told The Media Line, adding that they
will begin harvesting the vegetables next week and hope to find a new buyer by
then.
Despite the difficulties, Nir is hopeful that exports to Russia will proceed as originally planned.
In a bid to avert the large-scale destruction of fresh produce, food rescue organization Leket, Israel’s national food bank, has launched an urgent appeal to distribute surplus crops to Israelis in need.
“What we’ve heard so far is that 50,000 tons [of produce] are at risk,” Gitler said. “It doesn’t mean that people are actively destroying it yet. Everyone is trying to find alternative sources.”
Leket hopes to be able to save 5,000 to 10,000
tons of vegetables with the proceeds raised.
“Because the numbers are so large, we will actually be taking a portion of these vegetables and turning them into soups to give us extra time to distribute them,” he said. “These soups are high-quality and primarily going to the homebound elderly so it’s really an outstanding way to extend the shelf life of these crops, which are higher-quality than what Leket normally has.”
Full story at https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-702583
During Veronika Maidanova’s first two days attending school in Israel, the 8-year-old felt completely lost.
“Everyone spoke Hebrew and I didn’t understand anything,” she recalled, weeks after fleeing her native Ukraine for the safety — but unfamiliarity — of Israel.
“She’s really found her place, most of the students speak Russian, most of the teachers speak Russian and there are already friendships starting to happen,” Lena Maidanova said of her daughter. “It’s a huge relief.”
More than 600 Ukrainians have come to Nof Hagalil since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, setting off a massive migration of Ukrainians to whatever country can give them safety. About 4,000 Jewish refugees have already arrived in Israel, with potentially tens of thousands more expected.
The Ukrainian children who have landed in Nof Hagalil and at Shuvu Renanim were living safe, stable lives just over a month ago. Now they have wound up in a foreign land, usually without their fathers because of Ukraine’s ban on letting men younger than 60 leave the country, and often after experiencing trauma during the war’s early days and their flights from Ukraine.
“It’s horrifying to see a student shuddering in fear whenever a door is slammed too hard or an ambulance wails by,” said Sara Neder, who has been Shuvu Renanim’s principal for 12 years.
At school, the staff talk and devote extra attention to the new arrivals to “try to make them feel as welcome and safe as possible,” said Neder. The school has not offered dedicated trauma counseling, but the newcomers are “doing better than when they first arrived,” she added.
