To: Organizers and those responsible for decision making regarding the June 3 Israel Day Parade in NYC. : JOHN RUSKAY - RuskayJ@UJAFedNY.org; UJA-Federation President Jerry W. Levin at: JWLevin@JWLevinPartners.com; Rabbi Michael Miller /JCRC at: MillerM@JCRCNY.org; Peter Kohlmann, Executive Producer at: KohlmannP@JCRCNY.org; Michael Mittelman, Director of Celebrate Israel Parade at: MittelmanM@JCRCNY.org; Gianna Bergman, Director at: Gianna@CelebrateIsraelNY.org; Noam Gilboord, Israel & International Program Director at: GilBoordN@JCRCNY.org; Karen Ostrove, Parade Creative Director at: OstrovK@JCRCNY.org; Akiva Roth, Israel Engagement Initiative at: RothA@JCRCNY.org
Please read the following letter from Jeff Daube in Jerusalem, Israel addressed to Richard Allen, leader of the Committee for a Pro-Israel Parade.
Daube's letter speaks for itself, but clearly indicates the damage done by organizations such as Machsom Watch against Jewish victims of terror in Israel.
It is incomprehensible that you who have the power to make decisions regarding the Israel Day Parade would actually accept the presence in the parade of such an enemy of Israel as the NIF and its umbrella organizations. They not only support BDS against Israel, but interfere with the implementation of true justice for Jews, in this case U.S. as well as Israeli citizens, murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists.
We plead with you to reconsider your decision to allow these anti-Israel groups to march in the parade. We would appreciate a positive response.
Thank you
Helen Freedman
Executive Director, AFSI
Committee for a Pro-Israel Parade
Letter from Jeff Daube
Israel Office Director
Zionist Organization of America [ZOA]
Dear Richard,
Although I have never had the privilege of meeting you personally, I have been following your efforts with great admiration from Jerusalem and would like to express my deepest gratitude to you and the committee.
I have a recent anecdote concerning Machsom Watch, one of the many beneficiaries of NIF largesse that are politically motivated and whose work undermines the Jewish State. You can add the following to your dossier of supported anti-Israel activities if you wish.
I have become very involved in the matter of bringing Palestinian terrorists who have US citizens' blood on their hands to justice as mandated by US statutes. Unfortunately, some of those terrorists, such as Ahlam Tamimi who was responsible for the murder of 8 children and boasted about it, had to be released as part of the Gilad Shalit deal. So I am doing what I can in Israel to support efforts to make these terrorists accountable. (I also am pursuing the Justice Department and the State Department on the US side.)
Last year, Palestinian Arab terrorists murdered American Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan outside Hebron by throwing a rock through Asher's car windshield, which struck him and caused him to lose control. I have been going to the trials of the alleged perpetrators - not only to provide comfort and support for father/grandfather Michael Palmer as he endures emotional trauma I can only barely imagine - but to demonstrate to court officers that concerned Israeli citizens feel it is in Israel's interest that the maximum allowable sentencing be applied in such cases.
At the last hearing I went to, I observed a Machsom Watch representative also in attendance. Machsom Watch is an extremist, highly partisan NGO dedicated to undermining Israeli security personnel's ability to provide for citizens' defense. The representative did not approach the victims' party to offer even a single word of sympathy. Instead, she sat down next to the alleged murderer's parents and engaged in animated conversation; I would guess, punctuated by criticism of the justice-seekers along with Machsom Watch's offers of further support.
Below is the Machsom Watch report from their website: http://www.machsomwatch.org/en/ofer_wed_9512_morning.
Notice the Machsom Watch monitor acknowledges she knew nothing about the case upon entering - so her only having queried the defendant's lawyer for his version of the "facts" already speaks volumes. She also inflates the number in our party - we were seven. And she presumes we all were "settlers," which I suppose is true if you accept, as Machsom Watch surely must like many of its Palestinian cohorts, that the western Jerusalem Katamon neighborhood in which I live also is a "settlement."
The Machsom Watch representative also commented on the photo of Asher and Yonatan (also below). We had been holding it quietly and discreetly in our laps, not "brandishing," as she wrote, which implies some kind of threat on our part. Worse, her analogue of holding up pictures of Palestinians is one of the more egregious examples of moral equivalency I have seen lately.
It should be evident that Machsom Watch's participation and biased reporting, in this instance as in so many of their activities, is meant to delegitimize Israel's justice and security processes and wear down Israel's supporters.
So on Sunday, June 3rd Machsom Watch-supporting NIF will march in the Israel parade while, on the same day, bereaved father/grandfather Michael Palmer, fellow Israelis and I once again will sit in the Ofer Prison courtroom for the next hearing. And Machsom Watch inevitably will return to support the defendant while undermining justice for his alleged victims and their family.
I hope Messrs. Ruskay, Levin and Miller will take a minute to put themselves in Michael Palmer's place on June 3rd as NIF passes their reviewing stand. I, for one, will be thinking about the truncated lives of Asher and Yonatan z"l, hoping that a stroke of last minute moral clarity will lead the parade leadership to do the right thing.
Feel free to forward my email to these gentlemen.
With brachot from my beloved Jerusalem,
Jeff Daube
Israel Office Director
Zionist Organization of America [ZOA]
Israel Tel: 052-538-0840
from the US: 011-972-52-538-0840
MACHSOM WATCH: NORAH'S REPORT
Courtroom 1 - a panel of three judges presided by Lieut.-Col. Ronen Atzmon
Ali Abed Alhadi Ismail Saada - Case 5347/11
A young man from Hebron, accused of throwing a rock at a car coming from the opposite direction on route 60. As a result the vehicle was hit and a man and his young son were killed. This happened on 22.3.9.11.
The trial is at the evidentiary stage.
I walked into the court without prior knowledge of the case.
The defendant is represented by Atty. Bargout, who supplied the background:
The defendant claims that he could not have thrown the rock at a car coming from the opposite direction because he was sitting in the passenger seat, i.e., the right hand front seat next to the driver, so there was no way he could have thrown a rock at a car driving on the opposite lane, the left side of the road. However, under interrogation by the GSS, he was forced to accept a version by which he was sitting on the left side in the back of the car, thus incriminating himself. He later retracted that version.
The defendant's parents were present in court, as well as 10 settlers (presumably from the settlement where the victims used to live).
Each settler held a big picture of the dead father and son, which they brandished throughout the hearing. I wonder if any judge would have allowed hoisting pictures of dead Palestinians during a legal proceeding.
