Free Republic

The European Union’s top court ruled Tuesday that EU countries must identify products made in Israeli settlements on their labels, in a decision welcomed by rights groups but likely to spark anger in Israel. The European Court of Justice said that “foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin.” The Luxembourg-based court said when products come from an Israeli settlement, their labeling must provide an “indication of that provenance” so that consumers can make “informed choices” when they shop. The EU has consistently spoken out against Israeli settlement...

I can’t believe we had to wait almost 24 hours for her to reply to yesterday’s White House letter. We live in the Netflix era. We should be able to binge-watch every episode of this pitiful melodrama in a day. “After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” [Pelosi spokesman Drew] Hammill said.Overnight, he added, a new State Department threat assessment indicated “that the President announcing this sensitive travel had...

The weekly protest by Hamas-controlled Gaza Arabs along the border with Israel took a macabre twiest Friday as Donald Trump, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman were hanged in effigy. The current wave of disturbances on the Gaza border began in late March, following US President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. .....

MEMRI: Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews MEMRI No. 2260| November 16, 2009 Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews Following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar, a lecturer on Islamic history at the Islamic University of Gaza. The interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 31, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2260.htm Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: The...

GENEVA (7 September 2018) – UN human rights experts* have appealed to Iran to halt the imminent executions of Iranian Kurd prisoners Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, amid serious concerns that they did not receive a fair trial and were tortured during pre-trial detention. They also reiterated calls to halt the execution of Mr. Ramin Hossein Panahi. “We urge the Government of Iran to immediately halt their executions and to annul the death sentences against them in compliance with its international obligations,” the experts said in a joint statement, following reports that they will be executed on 8 September.“We are alarmed...

“This is not prison; this is a genocide,” stated an audience member following August 29 movie screenings concerning the Gaza Strip at the Washington, DC office of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Typifying the Israel-hating audience of about 25 that filled FCNL’s small Capitol Hill presentation room, this woman’s comments demonstrated how Quakers at FCNL and beyond have joined the global demonization of Israel. The woman, a self-professed member of the radical anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), “was totally sickened” by the evening’s viewings of Gaza in Context and Gaza: A Gaping Wound. These two...

It is a common misconception that around 650,000 Palestinian refugees were created because of fighting that took place in 1948. But a closer look at both the population data and statements made by UN officials at the time suggest that the true figure is much lower, possibly as low as 270,000. The conventional figure of 650,000 cannot be true for more than one reason. Firstly, there were fewer than 660,000 Arabs living in the part of Palestine that eventually became Israel; and secondly, UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), either through incompetence or deliberate manipulation, handed out multiple...

..... ....Yes, contrary to what one might expect, the Government of Israel wanted continued U.S. payments to UNRWA, fearing that their termination might cause a new intifada, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, or renewed warfare with Hamas. Also, Jerusalem sees UNRWA as a lesser evil than alternative recipients of the money, such as the PA. ..... And even if no one replaced U.S. donations, denying UNRWA money does not get to the heart of the problem, which lies not in its sponsored activities but in its perpetuating and expanding population of "Palestine refugees" in three unique, even bizarre ways:...

A Palestinian Authority refugee receives a budget four times larger than a Syrian, Iraqi or African refugee, according to a study conducted by the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, ahead of Sunday's visit to Israel by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Yediot Ahronot reported on Sunday. At the end of last week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which deals only with Palestinians, released its annual financial report, which in 2016 generated an average of $246 for each of the 5.3 million Palestinians it defines as a refugee, while the United Nations High Commissioner...

The new Arab city of Rawabi being built in Samaria (Shomron) with Israeli approval refuses to allow “Palestinian refugees” from UNRWA camps to relocate to the city. This, despite past statements to the contrary, and the general impression that the need for a new Arab city was partly because of the suffering of said “refugees”, especially those still living in refugee camps. So reports investigative journalist David Bedein of Israel Resource News Agency. “The new Palestinian Arab city of Rawabi,” writes Bedein, “has publicized in all stages of its development that it would build schools that would promote peace and...

MainAll NewsMiddle EastUN chief 'very concerned' over American cut to UNRWA UN chief 'very concerned' over American cut to UNRWA Antonio Guterres says UNRWA is "an important factor of stability" in the Middle East. Contact Editor Elad Benari, 17/01/18 00:06 Share Antonio GuterresAntonio GuterresReuters UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was "very concerned" by reports that the U.S. had cut its funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”, by half. According to AFP, Guterres said he had not been informed of Washington's decision. "I strongly hope that in the end, it will be possible for the...

When President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter earlier this month that he might cut off aid to the terror-affiliated Palestinians, whom former President Barack Obama had coddled like children, he meant every word of it — and more. This week the State Department announced it intends to not only withhold $45 million in aid to the Palestinians, but also an additional “$65 million it had planned to pay the U.N. agency that serves the Palestinians,” according to Reuters. That agency is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Below is Trump’s...

The UN special envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov on Tuesday urged U.S. President Donald Trump to resume funding he had cut to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency which assists “Palestinian refugees”. Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East and quoted by Haaretz, Mladenov said that "UNRWA’s financial crisis remains a very serious concern. At present, UNRWA needs some $217 million to sustain its work in 2018. I urge the swift mobilization of support to enable the continuity of assistance and a maintenance of stability on the ground in the region."...

President Trump hasn’t been pleased with the Palestinians’ refusal to consider compromises to achieve Middle East peace. So he’s decided to withhold tens of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding from the Palestinian Authority. And what answer does he get? The threat of terrorism. Bloomberg reported the recent threat to the United Nations Security Council from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also demanded that Trump designate Jerusalem, which the president recognized in December as Israel’s capital, as a capital for “Palestine.” Abbas, who renewed a demand for a conference this year to seek a Mideast accord, has warned...

Saeb Erekat, secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, on Tuesday announced that the "State of Palestine" plans to appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan and his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In an interview with a Turkish news agency, Erekat said that U.S. policy is contrary to the decisions of international institutions, which regard East Jerusalem as territory that is "occupied" by Israel. Erekat further stated that the Palestinian Authority (PA) intends to turn once again to the UN Security Council with a request that it...

When delusions and fantasies are substitutes for reporting. How did the Washington Post cover the end of America's UNRWA Funding?Here’s how: The United States will no longer contribute to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the State Department announced Friday [August 31], amid widespread Palestinian outrage charging that the decision violates international law and will aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation, particularly in Gaza. The Washington Post should explain to readers, if it can, what “international law” the “Palestinians” claim has been violated. I do not think there is any. Contributions to UNRWA are voluntary. In any case,...

Workers have seized partial control of the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants in Hamas-run Gaza, its head said Wednesday, accusing their union of "mutiny" over job cuts. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced last month more than 250 staff in Gaza and Judea and Samaria would lose their jobs, after a $300 million cut in annual funding from the United States. The redundancies have prompted daily protests by the agency's labour union in the enclave, which UNRWA's Gaza head said have led to security concerns. "They have taken over the...

The U.S. is the largest donor (pdf.) to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), contributing $380 million in 2015.We previously have reported how UNRWA indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate Jews and incites violence, VIDEO – How UN Refugee agency teaches children to hate and attack Jews: We recently showed a video about how Palestinian incitement to violence is generated both top-down from the Palestinian Authority, and bottom-up through social media, VIDEO: No truly “Lone Wolves” in the Palestinian Knife IntifadaA newly released video expands on the problem of incitement.The United...

The British government last year gave £20 million to Palestinian schools teaching a curriculum that a watchdog group says embraces jihad, omits references to peace agreements with Israel, and encourages martyrdom, the Sunday Times reported. A review by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that study material from the Palestinian Authority textbooks “exerts pressure over young Palestinians to acts of violence.” Among the ideas taught to pupils are the physics behind slingshots used to hurl rocks at Israel soldiers, the glorification of martyrs, and images that infuse ideas of war. “The curriculum exerts...

The European Union (EU) on Friday issued a sharply worded statement in which it criticized the law that was approved this week in the Knesset, which allows the permanent residency of terrorists to be revoked. “This week, the Israeli Knesset adopted legislation which empowers the Israeli Minister of Interior to revoke the permanent residency status of persons involved in terrorism, treason or espionage,” the statement said. While the EU stressed it “rejects terrorism in all its forms”, it warned that “the new law could make the residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a protected population under International Humanitarian Law,...