Sunday, May 01, 2016

Fwd: UNESCO Lies About Mount of Olives “Jewish Fake Graves” While Thousands Gather for All-Day Inaugural Jerusalem Passover Event

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From: "Zionist Organization of America" <info@zoa.org>
Date: Apr 28, 2016 4:49 PM
Subject: UNESCO Lies About Mount of Olives "Jewish Fake Graves" While Thousands Gather for All-Day Inaugural Jerusalem Passover Event
To: "Subscribers" <faigerayzel@gmail.com>
Cc:

ZOA.org


Zionist Organization of America 

Press Release

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UNESCO Lies About Mount of Olives "Jewish Fake Graves" While Thousands Gather for All-Day Inaugural Jerusalem Passover Event

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For more information contact Morton A. Klein 212-481-1500

NEW YORK, April 28, 2016

Author: ZOA Staff

Six months of ICPHH planning with Culture Minister Miri Regev (shown left) and others, thanks to major allocations from Regev's ministry and the Jerusalem Development Authority, came together during the Passover holiday break for a first ever full day of performances and tours on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.

Regev, with whom ICPHH's Israel co-chair Jeff Daube has been working closely for years to facilitate Jewish presence and activity on the geostrategic Mount of Olives, said she was so delighted with the outcome that she expects to schedule this combination festive celebration and education opportunity annually.

The resolution, which also erases the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall, was approved by 33 states, including France, Russia, Spain and Sweden.

ZOA Israel with ICPHH, the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim, have been steadily bringing about changes—not just so visitors can frequent the mountain's historical sites and holy Jewish cemetery in safety, but to put the lie to Arab fictionalizing of its Jewish connection as they go about trying to wrest control from Israel, for starters, in eastern Jerusalem.

Proof of such a need is in the latest UNESCO draft resolution, reviving a years old libelous claim about "Jewish fake graves" Israel has planted on the Mount of Olives and in other "Muslim [sic] cemeteries."

The resolution, which also erases the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall, was approved by 33 states, including France, Russia, Spain and Sweden.

As if to answer the UNESCO challenge, at least three thousand visitors, according to police estimates, swarmed the all-day Mount of Olives event, responding enthusiastically to the entertainers and tours (one shown above at the undeniably Jewish cemetery). Regev's calls for Israeli and world Jewry to proclaim the mountain's central importance, both as a repository of our shared national past and integral to shaping a shared national future, received special applause.

Coverage in Hebrew with video is viewable here. Besides Regev, concert presenters and attendees included ICPHH U.S. representative Rabbi Pesach Lerner and Israel co-chair Harvey Schwartz (in center photo with Regev and Schwartz's co-chair, ZOA Israel Director Daube), Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Moshe Leon (ICPHH ally Mayor Nir Barkat was overseas), Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and ZOA friend and eastern Jerusalem resident Simon Falic (bottom right, seated next to Regev).

As with the two previous concerts on the Mount of Olives, Daube likened the event to former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Central Park rescue strategy, which in the mid-1990s had included offering regular attractions there to draw public interest. In Israel, Daube refers to his committee's Mount of Olives revival strategy as Jew-lianizing.

 

Full story can be found here: 

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About the ZOA

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is the oldest and one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the United States. With offices around the country and in Israel, the ZOA educates the public, elected officials, the media, and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing Arab war against Israel. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.- Israel relations through educational activities, public affairs programs and our work on Capitol Hill, and to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media, in textbooks, in schools and on college campuses. Under the leadership of such presidents as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and current President Morton A. Klein, the ZOA has been - and continues to be - on the front lines of Jewish activism. www.zoa.org. For more information contact Morton A. Klein 212-481-1500.





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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

This Sunday May 1st Noon: PSFC (Park Slope Food Coop) BDS Meeting about the "Displacement of Bedouin Palestinians in Israel" and Soda Streams Role. COME AND PROTEST!!!!!

bs"d

Background:

In April 2015, in a Park Slope Food Coop General Meeting, the BDS movement within the Brooklyn Park Slope Food Coop succeeded in placing a BDS Agenda Item to Boycott Soda Stream because they, an Israeli, Jewish Company was situated in Judea and Samaria aka  by Israel's enemies as the "Occupied West Bank". Soda Stream employed Jew and Noahides alike among them 50 Palestinians offering them great work conditions, pay and benefits.  

The pro BDS presenters at this PSFC General Meeting started presenting their agenda by hanging untruthful,  misleading offensive pictures of the IDF "terrorizing" Palestinians terrorists or terrorist wannabees.  The membership present at this Park Slope Meeting passionately protested this provocative BDS Agenda Item.   Because of the "disruption" by the anti BDS group,  the BDS presenters were unable to present their BDS Agenda item. In retaliation, the Disciplinary committee of the Brooklyn Park Slope Food Coop brought charges against 4 of the protesters.  Those that protested this BDS agenda item was far greater than these 4 individuals. (Recently the trial was held and these long time members of the Park Slope Food Coop were suspended for a year.) 

Due to BDS pressures, Soda Stream was forced to move from Judea and Samaria, leaving 50 Palestinians jobless. 

Not satisfied with succeeding in disciplining the Anti BDS protesters, and sufficiently stopping Soda Stream,  this BDS group within the Coop are at it again, now protesting Soda Stream moving to the Negev Industrial Park. This is their flier:

The Displacement of Bedouin Palestinians in Israel. What is Soda Stream's role



ANTI BDS PROTESTERS WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
Notice to all Pro Israel individuals and  groups to come and picket this BDS Meeting which is unlawful according to the Park Slope Food Coop regulations: 

Protest the Park Slope Food Coop BDS Meeting at 782 Union Street, West of 7 avenue. Q to Seventh Ave., 2 3 to Grand Army Plaza.

B67, B69 to Union Street, B41 to 7 Ave,

The BDS meeting is to take place at 12 noon. It would be a good idea if people arrived at about 11.30 so we could hand out fliers as people enter the coop. Please tell everyone. 

We Demand that the PSFC stop their terror funded BDS agenda items and present the truth. We expect them to hold meetings to present the following Agenda Items in answer to the Hamas terror funded BDS AGENDA. HATEFULE BDS Agenda must be banned from the PSFC (Park Slope Food Coop) because not only does it wish to destroy Palestinian and Beduins job opportunities, it promotes Terror and out to destroy Israel!


For  more on this topic:

Please protest another BDS promotion workshop at the Food Coop http://shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com/2016/04/re-please-protest-another-bds-promotion.html

Sincerely,

Robin Ticker

Israel Advocacy Calendar (www.IsraelAdvocacyCalendar.com).
Activist emails sent to my list  are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch.  May their memories serve as a blessing. 

Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com 

Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog. 

Fwd: The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "PMW Report" <pmw@palwatch.org>
Date: Apr 27, 2016 6:44 AM
Subject: The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud
To: <faigerayzel@gmail.com>
Cc:

PMW
          

Report     

April 27, 2016

 
PMW Special Report

The PA's billion dollar fraud
d
The Palestinian Authority is deceiving Western donor countries,
falsely claiming to have stopped paying salaries to terrorist prisoners,
and reaping more than a billion dollars/year in return


by Itamar Marcus

This special report by Palestinian Media Watch reveals a major fraud by the Palestinian Authority, through which it is reaping more than a billion dollars in foreign aid yearly.

In 2014, the PA announced that in order to continue receiving more than a billion dollars in financial support annually, it was acceding to US and European donor countries' demands that the PA stop paying salaries to terrorist prisoners. The PA claimed the money for prisoners salaries would no longer be paid by the PA but instead by the PLO.

Even though PMW warned at the time that this was a "ploy," the US and EU countries accepted the PA's assurance, and continue to give the PA over a billion dollars in financial aid every year.

This PMW special report cites numerous official PA sources and statements by officials, showing that the PA is violating the trust of the US and EU donor countries. According to all these sources, the PA Ministry of Finance continues to make the decisions and remains the source of the money for paying salaries to terrorist prisoners.

In addition, PMW has studied records of the PA Ministry of Finance that show money transfers the PA made to the PLO in the years 2012 - 2015. These transfers show a noteworthy money trail used to transfer money that is needed for terrorist salaries from the PA to the PLO. In 2015, after the PA had assured Western donors it was no longer paying the salaries, and after it had closed the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, it suddenly transferred more than double what it had transferred to the PLO in previous years. The additional amount transferred by the PA to the PLO in 2015 was almost identical to the budget the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs used to have. This extra money the PLO received from the PA in 2015 matches the amount the PLO now needed to pay the salaries of terrorist prisoners.
 
The payments may be made by the PLO, but the money is still PA money.

Since it continues to fund salaries to terrorists, thereby clearly violating its promise to donors, the PA should be ineligible to receive Western donor money. However, through this deception the PA is still reaping over a billion dollars in foreign aid.


Continue reading the executive summary here: 
 

The PA's billion dollar fraud
 
The PA's claim that it no longer pays
salaries to terrorist prisoners is false
  
  •  Claiming to have complied with demands of international donors, the PA announced in August 2014 that it had stopped funding salaries to terrorist prisoners, and that the PLO would fund those salaries instead
  •  This PMW report documents that the PA's claim to have stopped funding terrorist prisoners' salaries is false. The PA Ministry of Finance continues to make the decisions and allocate the money for salaries.
  • The PA's pledge that it fulfilled donor countries' demands is false. Therefore, the PA today is fraudulently receiving the $1 billion/year it receives in foreign donor money
 
by Itamar Marcus and PMW staff
 
Overview:
 
2011: PMW exposes that the PA pays high salaries to terrorist prisoners jailed in Israel, among them murderers serving many life sentences.
 
2012-2014: Western donor countries condemn these payments and threaten to cut off funding unless the PA meets their demand and stop paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists.
 
August 2014: PA claims to acquiesce to international pressure, announces that it has closed the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, and that salaries to prisoners will no longer be paid by the PA but by a newly formed PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs.
 
The new PLO Commission is identical to the old PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs in everything but name. The Commission and the salary payments to prisoners remain under the "supervision" of the "Palestinian presidency," i.e., Mahmoud Abbas. The PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs became the director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs.
 
2014-2016: Western donors accept PA assurances that the PA has stopped paying salaries to terrorist prisoners and the PA continues to receive foreign aid.
 
April 2016: This PMW report shows that the PA has misled donor countries and in fact continues to fund salaries to terrorists. The PA today is fraudulently receiving aid from Western donor countries of approximately $1 billion/year.
 
- The PA Ministry of Finance is identified by official PA sources as the body responsible for paying salaries to terrorist prisoners.
- The PA Ministry of Finance continues to be responsible for policies regarding salaries to terrorists.
- PA officials openly talk about the PA's continued payment of salaries to prisoners based on current PA law that mandates that the PA pay them salaries.
- When the PA was short on cash, it announced that it cut salaries to terrorist prisoners (and civil servants) by 60%.
- In 2014, the last year the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs operated, its budget was 442 million shekels. The year after the "closure" of the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, the PA raised the amount it transfers to the PLO by 481 million shekels: from 294 million (2014), to 775 million (2015). The additional 481 million shekels ($128 million) the PA gave to the PLO in 2015 is the amount the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs needed to take on the responsibilities of the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, which is primarily paying terrorists salaries. The previous year's amount, 442 million shekels, plus approximately 10% yearly rise matches the additional 481 million shekels the PA gave the PLO in 2015.
- The source of the money for salaries to terrorist prisoners thus continues to be the PA.
 
Conclusion
- Western donors are being intentionally misled by the PA, which continues to fund the salaries to imprisoned terrorists.
- By creating the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs in order to hide that it continues to fund salaries to terrorists, the PA has succeeded to fraudulently receive $1 billion/year in foreign aid from the donor countries.
 
 
Executive Summary
 
The Palestinian Authority receives over a billion dollars in international aid yearly. Several EU countries and the US threatened to stop funding the PA after Palestinian Media Watch exposed in 2011 that the PA pays high salaries to terrorist prisoners and released terrorists. Among the terrorist prisoners on the PA payroll are murderers who are serving many life sentences for killing Israeli civilians and orchestrating suicide bombing attacks, such as Abdallah Barghouti who is serving 54 life sentences for building bombs that murdered civilians in cafes, buses, and at the Hebrew University.
To counter the international condemnation and to continue receiving donor funding, the PA announced in August 2014 that it had closed the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs and established a new institution, the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, which the PA claimed would instead fund the salaries from non-PA sources.
 
However, the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs was new only in name. The PLO Commission has the same responsibilities and pays the exact same amount of salaries to prisoners. The payments are based on PA decisions and PA law. The former PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, became the director of the new PLO Commission and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas retained overall supervision of the PLO Commission. (All sources appear below.)
 
In spite of these mere cosmetic changes, the international community accepted the PA's assurances that the PA was no longer paying the salaries to terrorist prisoners. One example is this statement issued by the Dutch Government:
 
"The responsibility for payments to prisoners was transferred to the PLO and will no longer be charged to the budget of the PA, and these [payments to prisoners] are not funded by PA tax revenues or donor funds. The PLO pays such costs from their own income, where the [Dutch] Cabinet has no access."
[Question and Answer session, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 22, 2015]
 
The United States apparently also accepted that this change was enough. When challenged by a member of Congress to cut funding to the PA because of the salaries the PA paid to terrorists, Assistant US Secretary of State Patterson, three months before the announced closing of the PA ministry, explained that the US was aware the PA would "phase that out" and therefore it was not necessary to cut US funding to the PA:
 
"I frankly know that they're going to try and phase that out and we should give them an opportunity to do so."
[House Committee on Foreign Affairs' website, April 29, 2014]
 
Palestinian Media Watch has uncovered extensive and definitive evidence from official PA sources, proving that the PA assurances to the Netherlands, the US and other donors are false (all sources in full below):
 
- In August 2014, the PA announced that salaries to prisoners would no longer be paid by the PA but by the PLO. Yet, in October 2014, two months later, the PA announced that there were more than 200,000 recipients of PA salaries, which "includes the families of the Martyrs (Shahids) and wounded, as well as the prisoners' and released [prisoners]."
 
- In January 2015, five months later, the PA Ministry of Finance announced that the PA budget for the Gaza Strip includes salaries to prisoners from there who are in Israeli jails.
 
- When Israel withheld PA tax money in early 2015, the PA announced that prisoners receiving more than 2,000 shekels/month would only receive 60% of their salary- the same reduction that was imposed the previous day on all PA civil servants. Were the PLO paying prisoners' salaries from non-PA sources, Israel's holding up tax money from the PA would have no impact prisoners' salaries. Clearly, PA money is still the source paying terrorist prisoners' salaries.
 
- In December 2015, an internal dispute started within the PA. The PA, not the PLO, had decided to stop salary payments to a small number of prisoners and released prisoners for various reasons. This is significant because the PLO Commissioner of Prisoners' Affairs and PA officials all criticized the PA Ministry of Finance for stopping the salaries. No one complained to the PLO, as they should have, were it the PLO that paid the salaries. Nearly a year and half after the PA claimed not be involved in salaries, the PA was still deciding and allocating the money for the terrorist prisoners' salaries. Significantly, the head of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, personally complained to the PA Ministry of Finance over the new PA policy regarding salaries to prisoners. Why would he complain to the PA if he himself and the PLO were in charge of the salaries?
 
- When released prisoners were protesting against new conditions to receive salary payments that had recently been imposed, they protested in the offices of the PA Ministry of Finance and not in the offices of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs.
 
- Finally, PMW has uncovered PA Ministry of Finance documents that indicate a money trail, showing the transfer of money from the PA to the Palestinian National Fund (PNF), the body that funds the PLO, in the amount needed to pay the salaries to terrorist prisoners:  

A. In 2014, the budget of the PA Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs, which then paid the salaries to terrorist prisoners, was 442 million shekels.   

B. In 2015, after the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs was closed, the PA raised its annual transfer to the PLO via the Palestinian National Fund by 481 million shekels ($128 million):
2014 transfer - 294 million shekels
 2015 transfer - 775 million shekels    
 
C. The additional 481 million shekels the PLO received from the PA in 2015 was the amount it needed to fund the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, undertaking the responsibilities of the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs. The transfer of 481 million is virtually identical to the budget of the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs in 2014 (442 million), plus 10% yearly growth due to rising prisoners salaries. According to PA law, the salaries of terrorist prisoners rise the longer they are in prison.)

D. This route - money transfers from the PA to the PNF and then to the PLO - is the way the PA is transferring money to the PLO in order to continue funding salaries to terrorist prisoners, and to keep their payments hidden from donor countries.
 
All the above documentation shows that while the PA fraudulently claims to donor countries that the PLO is paying salaries to terrorist prisoners from non-PA sources, in fact the PA continues to be the source of the rewards to the terrorists.
Unaware that the PA continues to fund salaries to terrorists, the donor countries continue to contribute nearly one billion dollars a year to the PA.
 



 
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