Israel halts $6 million to UN to protest settlements vote

Associated Press

Jewish state cuts portion of its regular contributions, totaling more than $40 million, allocated ‘to anti-Israel bodies,’ such as UNRWA.

Israel announced Friday it is cutting approximately $6 million in its annual dues to the United Nations this year to protest last month’s Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as “a flagrant violation under international law.”

Israel’s UN Mission said the amount represents the portion of Israel’s contribution to the UN’s regular budget totaling more than $40 million allocated “to anti-Israel bodies.”

It named the UN agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, The Division for Palestinian Rights, the committee investigating Israeli practices affecting Palestinian human rights, and information programs on “the Question of Palestine.”

UN Security Council voting in favor of anti-settlement resolution (Photo: AP)

“It is unreasonable for Israel to fund bodies that operate against us at the UN,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said. “The UN must end the absurd reality in which it supports bodies whose sole intent is to spread incitement and anti-Israel propaganda.”

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, asked to comment, said: “We have not been informed.”

Israel’s UN Mission said the cut in funding is the first in a series of steps under consideration by the Foreign Ministry and the mission in reaction to the recent Security Council resolution.

The Obama administration’s decision to abstain and allow the UN Security Council to approve a long-sought resolution condemning Israeli settlements as an obstacle to a two-state solution was a sharp rebuke to a longstanding ally and a striking rupture with past US vetoes.

Israel’s UN Mission said it will move forward on additional initiatives “aimed at encouraging structural change within the UN with the ultimate goal of ending anti-Israel activities” after Donald Trump becomes president of the United States on Jan. 20.

The president-elect has criticized President Barack Obama’s green light for the Security Council condemnation.
On Thursday, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan resolution rebuking the United Nations for criticizing Israeli settlements and declaring unwavering support for Israel. The non-binding resolution insists that the United States reject any future UN actions that are similarly “one-sided and anti-Israel.”

Liberman: Ministers should keep quiet about Azaria pardon

STUART WINER AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Politicians calling to overturn soldier’s manslaughter conviction ‘are self-serving,’ defense minister charges, and are not helping the soldier’s defense

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, center, tours the Israel Military Industries factory, January 4, 2017. (Roy Alima/Flash90)

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Thursday called on fellow cabinet members to refrain from demanding a pardon for an IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter Wednesday for killing an incapacitated Palestinian attacker in March, singling out Education Minister Naftali Bennett for particular criticism.
Liberman said the security establishment should be allowed to deal with the matter without political interference.

Liberman’s comments came after the Jaffa Military Court on Wednesday convicted Sgt. Elor Azaria, 19, for shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif minutes after Sharif had carried out a stabbing attack against two other soldiers in Hebron.

Right-wing politicians, accompanied by former Labor leader MK Shelly Yachimovich from the left, responded to the verdict by calling for a presidential pardon for Azaria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said he backs a pardon for the soldier.

IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier, who shot a Palestinian attacker in Hebron surrounded by family and supports as he arrives to hear his verdict in a courtroom at the Kirya military base, Tel Aviv, January 4, 2017. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

“I expect all ministers to show restraint, to keep quiet, and to let the security establishment deal with the issue in a quiet, responsible manner and with discretion,” Liberman told Army Radio in an interview. “I think it’s appropriate for the education minister to know how to read the law — and the law is clear. All the slogans that we are hearing at the moment are self-serving, and not for the benefit of Elor Azaria.”

The trial deeply divided the country, with politicians and current and former army generals alternately supporting or condemning Azaria’s actions.

Writing on Facebook Wednesday night, Netanyahu gave his backing to the calls for clemency, saying that he supported granting Azaria a pardon.

“This is a hard and painful day for us all — first and foremost for Elor and his family, for IDF soldiers, for many citizens, and for the parents of our soldiers, myself included,” the prime minister wrote.

“I urge all citizens to act responsibly toward the IDF, the officers, and the IDF chief… IDF soldiers are our sons and daughters, and they must remain above partisanship. I support pardoning Elor Azaria,” he wrote.

Jewish Home party leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, right, leads a special party faction meeting in the West Bank settlement city of Maale Adumin, January 2, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Earlier, Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) called for a pardon for Azaria. Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party, reiterated the call he had made the previous day before the verdict, saying Azaria must be pardoned “immediately, right now.”

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) also publicly called for Azaria to be pardoned. In a surprise development, coalition ministers were joined in their call by Zionist Union’s Shelly Yachimovich, former head of the Labor Party.

Likud MK Yehudah Glick, meanwhile, called for clemency, but not a full pardon, for Azaria.

Responding to the calls, President Reuven Rivlin’s office said in statement that defendants, rather than politicians, must apply for clemency and that requests will only be dealt with after all legal proceedings have ended.

The statement suggested Rivlin will not make any decision until after sentencing, giving him the option to commute the sentence rather than overturn it entirely.

Azaria’s sentencing will take place in just over a week, on January 15, according to the IDF. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, though analysts expect him to receive less than that.

His defense team said immediately after the verdict that it would appeal.

PM Netanyahu’s statement in response to US Secretary of State Kerry’s speech

Prmie Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

28 Dec 2016

Palestinian rejection of Israel and support for terror are what the nations of the world should focus on if they truly want to advance peace, and I can only express my regret and say that it’s a shame that Secretary Kerry does not see this simple truth.

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Wednesday, 28 December 2016), issued the following statement in response to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech:

“Before why I explain why this speech was so disappointing to millions of Israelis, I want to say that Israel is deeply grateful to the United States of America, to successive American administrations, to the American Congress, to the American people. We’re grateful for the support Israel has received over many, many decades. Our alliance is based on shared values, shared interests, a sense of shared destiny and a partnership that has endured differences of opinions between our two governments over the best way to advance peace and stability in the Middle East. I have no doubt that our alliance will endure the profound disagreement we have had with the Obama Administration and will become even stronger in the future.

But now I must express my deep disappointment with the speech today of John Kerry – a speech that was almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution passed at the UN last week. In a speech ostensibly about peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Secretary Kerry paid lip service to the unremitting campaign of terrorism that has been waged by the Palestinians against the Jewish state for nearly a century.

What he did was to spend most of his speech blaming Israel for the lack of peace by passionately condemning a policy of enabling Jews to live in their historic homeland and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem.

Hundreds of suicide bombings, thousand, tens of thousands of rockets, millions of Israelis in bomb shelters are not throwaway lines in a speech; they’re the realities that the people of Israel had to endure because of mistaken policies, policies that at the time won the thunderous applause of the world. I don’t seek applause; I seek the security, and peace, and prosperity and the future of the Jewish state. The Jewish people have sought their place under the sun for 3,000 years, and we’re not about to be swayed by mistaken policies that have caused great, great damage.

Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders. Israel’s hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day one, from its very first day. We’ve prayed for peace, we’ve worked for it every day since then. And thousands of Israeli families have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country and advance peace.

My family has been one of them; there are many, many others.

No one wants peace more than the people of Israel. Israel remains committed to resolving the outstanding differences between us and the Palestinians through direct negotiations. This is how we made peace with Egypt; this is how we made peace with Jordan; it’s the only way we’ll make peace with the Palestinians. That has always been Israel’s policy; that has always been America’s policy.

Here’s what President Obama himself said at the UN in 2011. He said: ‘Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.’

That’s what President Obama said, and he was right. And until last week this was repeated over and over again as American policy. Secretary Kerry said that the United States cannot vote against its own policy. But that’s exactly what it did at the UN, and that’s why Israel opposed last week’s Security Council resolution, because it effectively calls the Western Wall ‘occupied Palestinian Territory,’ because it encourages boycotts and sanctions against Israel – that’s what it effectively does, and because it reflects a radical shift in US policy towards the Palestinians on final status issues – those issues that we always agreed, the US and Israel, have to be negotiated directly, face to face without preconditions.

That shift happened despite the Palestinians walking away from peace and from peace offers time and time again, despite their refusal to even negotiate peace for the past eight years, and despite the Palestinian Authority inculcating a culture of hatred towards Israel in an entire generation of young Palestinians.

Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with the American Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, to mitigate the damage that this resolution has done and ultimately, to repeal it.

Israel hopes that the outgoing Obama Administration will prevent any more damage being done to Israel at the UN in its waning days. I wish I could be comforted by the promise that the US says we will not bring any more resolutions to the UN. That’s what they said about the previous resolution. We have it on absolutely incontestable evidence that the United States organized, advanced and brought this resolution to the United Nations Security Council. We’ll share that information with the incoming administration. Some of it is sensitive, it’s all true. You saw some of it in the protocol released in an Egyptian paper. There’s plenty more; it’s the tip of the iceberg.

So they say, but we didn’t bring it. And they could take John Kerry’s speech with the six points. It could be raised in the French international conference a few days from now and then brought to the UN. So France will bring it, or Sweden – not a noted friend of Israel – could bring it. And the United States could say, well, we can’t vote against our own policy, we’ve just annunciated it.

I think the United States, if it’s true to its word, or at least if it’s now true to its word, should now come out and say we will not allow any resolutions, any more resolutions in the Security Council on Israel. Period. Not we will bring or not bring – we will not allow any, and stop this game, the charades.

I think that the decisions that are vital to Israel’s interests and the future of its children, they won’t be made through speeches in Washington or votes in the United Nations or conferences in Paris. They’ll be made by the Government of Israel around the negotiating table, making them on behalf of the one and only Jewish state – a sovereign nation that is the master of its own fate.

And one final thought – I personally know the pain, the loss and the suffering of war. That’s why I’m so committed to peace. Because for anyone who’s experienced it, as I have, war and terror are horrible. I want young Palestinian children to be educated like our children, for peace. But they’re not educated for peace. The Palestinian Authority educates them to lionize terrorists and to murder Israelis.

My vision is that Israelis and Palestinians both have a future of mutual recognition, of dignity, mutual respect, co-existence. But the Palestinian Authority tells them that they will never accept, should never accept the existence of a Jewish state.

So, I ask you, how can you make peace with someone who rejects your very existence?

See, this conflict is not about houses, or communities in the West Bank, Judea and Samaria, the Gaza district or anywhere else. This conflict is and has always been about Israel’s very right to exist. That’s why my hundreds of calls to sit with President Abbas for peace talks have gone unanswered. That’s why my invitation to him to come to the Knesset was never answered. That’s why the Palestinian government continues to pay anyone who murders Israelis a monthly salary.

The persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish state remains the core of the conflict and its removal is the key to peace.

Palestinian rejection of Israel and support for terror are what the nations of the world should focus on if they truly want to advance peace, and I can only express my regret and say that it’s a shame that Secretary Kerry does not see this simple truth.

Thank you.”

Czy Mahmoud Abbas będzie wypłacał pensje podpalaczom?

Itamar Marcus
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska

Pożar szaleje w centrum Hajfy, 24 listopada 2015. (Zrzut z ekranu: Haaretz)

Kiedy przywódca Autonomii Palestyńskiej (AP), Mahmoud Abbas, przyjmował pochwały za wysłanie palestyńskich strażaków, by pomogli ugasić pożary w Izraelu, ministerstwo finansów AP zajęte było przygotowywaniem papierów, by zacząć wypłacać pensje palestyńskim podpalaczom, aresztowanym za wszczęcie tych pożarów.

Jak dotąd Izrael aresztował 23 podejrzanych podpalaczy w związku z setkami pożarów, które szalały w całym Izraelu w ostatnim tygodniu listopada, niszcząc ponad 500 domów i około 15 tysięcy hektarów lasów i parków narodowych. Według prawa palestyńskiego udokumentowanego przez Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), każdy uwięziony za “opór wobec okupacji” otrzymuje wysoką pensję miesięczną. Dlatego wszyscy skazani i uwięzieni za podpalenia będą otrzymywać pensje od AP „od dnia aresztu do dnia uwolnienia”.

Oczywiście, nie tylko podpalacze otrzymują pensje od AP. Wszyscy Palestyńczycy, Arabowie izraelscy i arabscy terroryści z dowolnego innego kraju, którzy trafiają do więzienia, dostają od AP nagrody w postaci wysokich pensji. (Patrz PMW Special Report) Według prawa i praktyki AP “opór wobec okupacji” oznacza każdego Araba uwięzionego za atakowanie Izraelczyków jakimikolwiek sposobami, w tym rzucaniem kamieni w samochody, taranowaniem samochodem ludzi na przystanku autobusowym, budowaniem bomb dla zamachowców samobójców, by wysadzali w powietrze kawiarnie, lub strzelaniem i dźganiem nożami cywilów śpiących w swoich łóżkach. Ponieważ AP automatycznie włącza każdego, kto zaatakował Izraelczyków lub ich własność w szeregi „bojowników”, którzy stawiają „opór wobec okupacji”, nie ma uzasadnienia w prawie i praktyce palestyńskiej, by nie włączyć podpalaczy z listopada do „bohaterów” palestyńskich, którzy otrzymują miesięczne płace.

Ważne jest, że te płace dla terrorystów rosną, im dłużej terroryści są w więzieniu. Terroryści skazani za morderstwo na dożywocie osiągają wysoką pensję 12 tysięcy szkli miesięcznie – ponad czterokrotność przeciętnej płacy palestyńskiej.

AP już wypłaciła pięciu terrorystom z Hamasu, którzy zamordowali w październiku 2015 Eitama i Naamę Henkin na oczach ich czworga dzieci, 91 tysięcy szekli jako nagrodę za to morderstwo. Terrorysta Abdallah Barghouti już otrzymał 645 tysięcy szekli za zbudowanie bomb, które zabiły 67 Izraelczyków w pizzerii Sbarro, Sheffield Club, Moment Café, potrójnym zamachu bombowym w centrum handlowym Ben Yehuda, na uniwersytecie Hebrajskim i w autobusie nr 4 w Tel Awiwie.

Dzisiaj około 7 tysięcy więźniów palestyńskich znajduje się na liście płac AP. AP nagradza ich co miesiąc za terroryzm i ta hojność będzie kosztowała AP 488 milionów szekli tylko w 2016 roku (według opublikowanego budżetu AP).

Jeśli Abbas kiedykolwiek był poważny w sprawie zatrzymania trwającego wspierania terroryzmu, ma teraz doskonałą okazję, by coś w tej sprawie zrobić. Zamiast jedynie cieszyć się pochlebnymi nagłówkami i zdjęciami strażaków palestyńskich współpracujących z Izraelczykami, Abbas powinien zadekretować, że podpalacze nie będą otrzymywać pensji od AP.

Nawet mimo tego, że jest to sprzeczne z obecnym prawem i praktyką AP.

Jeśli Abbas doda uwięzionych podpalaczy do listy płac AP, jego hipokryzja wysłania kilku wozów strażackich do Izraela, będzie widoczna jak na dłoni.

Jeśli Abbas postanowi odmówić wypłat dla podpalaczy, może to wskazywać na początek fundamentalnej zmiany w postawie AP wobec terroryzmu. Nie starczy jednak, jeśli wstrzyma płace tylko dla podpalaczy. Jeśli powie światu, że AP nie będzie płacić pensji tym, którzy palą drzewa i domy, podczas gdy nadal będzie wypłacał pensje mordercom mężczyzn, kobiet i dzieci, jego wartości i zachowanie, które powodują, że wielu postrzega go jako przywódcę terrorystów, pozostaną niezmienione.

Jeśli gest Abbasa wysłania wozów strażackich na pomoc Izraelowi był szczery, wskazujący na to, że nie jest już przywódcą terrorystów, ma teraz wielką okazję, żeby to udowodnić.

Właśnie teraz, kiedy zdobył uwagę świata po zrobieniu tego małego gestu na rzecz pokoju, niechaj podejmie poważny krok. Abbas powinien oznajmić, że nie tylko podpalacze nie będą nagrodzeni, ale że zmienia prawo palestyńskie i likwiduje wypłaty dla uwięzionych terrorystów.

I nie ma lepszej okazji niż ogłoszenie tego na siódmym kongresie Fatahu.

Jeśli Abbas będzie nadal płacił pensje mordercom i podpalaczom, jego gest wysłania wozów strażackich do Izraela trzeba uznać wyłącznie za godną pogardy hipokryzję.

Itamar Marcus
Izraelski działacz, założyciel i dyrektor Palestinian Media Watch, instytutu, który zajmuje się badaniem stosunków w Autonomii Palestyńskiej poprzez analizę palestyńskich podręczników szkolnych, prasy i publikacji w mediach elektronicznych.

Warsaw’s Jewish Community Sues Jewish Museum for Copyright Violations

JTA

The lawsuit concerns translations of four fragments of historical Yiddish articles published on the community’s website, which were posted on the museum’s website.

In this Friday, Oct. 10, 2014 photo, a visitor walks through a gallery depicting a street scene typical of those found between 1919 and 1939 at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland.

The Jewish Community of Warsaw is alleging that the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews violated its copyright on translations of historical texts.

According to the museum, the suit demands that IT remove fragments of translations of historical texts from the museum’s website, pay the Warsaw Jewish community $7,500 and issue a written apology.

Anna Chipczynska, president of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, asserts that the museum, which opened in 2014 to great fanfare, is overshadowing the activities of communities in presenting historical events to visitors. In a December 2015 interview for Plotkies, a Polish language magazine for emigres forced out of the country in 1968, she said that “there is a great risk that in the future, focusing on this educational institution as a Polish visiting card to the world  will lead to the collapse of (Jewish) communities or to an international scandal.”

Jakub Wozniak, head of the communications department of the Polin Museum, believes that the activities of the museum do not hamper the activities of Jewish communities. He said the museum supports the communities, for example, with a Virtual Shtetl website that catalogues the country’s lost Jewish communities and joint initiatives such as the “joint ticket to Jewish history,” which offers discounts on visits to exhibitions, a historic synagogue and a Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. “We have very good relations and maintain regular contact with representatives of the Jewish community in Poland,” Wozniak told JTA.

The lawsuit concerns translations by Anna Cialowicz and Aleksandra Geller of four fragments of historical Yiddish articles published on the community’s website, which were then posted on the website of the museum.

Wozniak told JTA that the community demands the removal from the museum’s website of one article translated by Cialowicz and removal of three films published on the Museum’s YouTube channel that use translations of three articles from the Jewish community’s website.

This is not the only lawsuit related to alleged copyright violation by the Polin Museum. On Oct. 14 in District Court in Warsaw, a lawsuit by Cialowicz accuses the Polin Museum and Agora SA publisher of using her translations of Yiddish articles and omitting her name in a book they published, “Walking in Jewish Warsaw.” The next hearing in that case is scheduled for Jan. 24, 2017.

In recent years, various organizations have competed to represent the Polish Jewish community and be seen as its representative within the country and abroad. For Hanukkah this year, Polish Jewish organizations decided to organize separate events. Chabad Lubavitch, joined by the Jewish Social-Cultural Association in Poland, or TSKŻ, and the From the Depths organization is organizing a Hanukkah concert in the Polin Museum on Dec. 29. One day before, Chabad will hold, as it does every year, a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony in the Polish parliament.

The Jewish community is planning to hold a Hanukkah Ball for its members and their families, but has not provided details due to security reasons.