[{"id":33137,"contentType":"Article","tagIds":["1","58","61","217","254","869","1024","1030","1032","1694"],"title":"It’s all a question of context – and the UN gives none!","authorId":[461],"indexId":"index114","author":[{"about":"","name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""},"citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""},"id":461}],"description":"It’s all a question of context – and the UN gives none!","published":true,"lang":"en","news":false,"imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2023/Gaza-and-West-Bank-Picture.png","tags":[],"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1685272020,"nanoseconds":0},"content":"

UN’s OCHA sends out “ALERTS” about house demolitions but leaves out crucial information, creating a false demonizing impression of Israel
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The United Nations “Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory” (OCHA oPt) is one of the 22 different UN organizations connected only to the Palestinians working in Israel.

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Even if staunch Zionists were to read the two or three weekly distorted and context-lacking updates of OCHA oPt they would begin to question Israel’s legitimacy.

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It is OCHA oPt, for example, that constantly harps on about the “Israeli blockade of Gaza” while simultaneously publishing statistics, exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, that show the substantial flow of people and goods from Gaza into Israel and Egypt and from Israel and Egypt into Gaza.

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One of OCHA’s activities is to track “Demolitions” of Palestinian structures, built without permits, by the Israeli authorities. On social media, OCHA’s posts are graphic, with a big red banner shouting “ALERT”.

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One of those “ALERT”s appeared on OCHA’s Twitter account on May 24, and provided initial information about two alleged demolitions, one of them “in Anab al Kabir #Hebron”:

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[Twitter account of OCHA oPt, May 24, 2023]

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OCHA systematically fails to provide any context regarding the demolitions, including not noting that the demolition of the structures is a simple function of elementary law enforcement after these structures were built without permits. Although rare, it is actually the Palestinian Authority that sometimes provides the necessary context.

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On Feb. 17, 2022, People Magazine reported on the demolition of a "Bel-Air Mega-Mansion" built by “Palestinian”-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, father of the self-appointed “Palestinian” model Bella Hadid. Since the mansion was built without the necessary building permits, there was no “ALERT” and no one really batted an eye. That is elementary law enforcement.

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[People online, February 17, 2022]

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But when OCHA reports on an Israeli demolition, one immediately conjures images of some hard-done-by Palestinian losing the only rickety shack that provided him and his family comfort and respite from the elements. One certainly does not expect to see a huge mansion, landscaped gardens, and a pool to boot.

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So imagine the surprise, when in parallel to the dramatic OCHA “ALERT” of a “demolition” in Anab Al-Kabir (see above), which is in the South Hebron hills, the PA official news agency, WAFA, published pictures of the structure it claims was destroyed on May 24:

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[Twitter account of WAFA, May 24, 2023]

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Unfortunately, the distorted, context-lacking OCHA reports carry considerable weight and are an integral part of demonizing Israel while simultaneously promoting the Palestinian narrative.

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But truth be told, similar to any other place in the world, if someone randomly decides to build a structure without the necessary building permits, that structure will most probably be demolished.

\n","thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2023/Gaza-and-West-Bank-Picture.png"},{"imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2023/Wages-and-Salaries.png","id":33107,"content":"

According to a recent European Union report, “Since 2008, the European Union, Norway, and Switzerland have provided over 14 billion dollars in official development assistance to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians.”
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As part of the continued aid, the EU recently finalized a new 296 million euro aid package for the PA and the Palestinians for 2023. In the press release following the ceremony announcing the newest EU aid package to the PA, the EU noted:

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“To that end 114.2 million EUR will support the Palestinian Authority in the payments of the salaries and pensions of civil servants, the social allowances to vulnerable families and the referrals to the East Jerusalem Hospitals.”
\n\n
[Website of the Office of the European Union Representative
\n(West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA), Feb. 2, 2023]
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Since a considerable amount of the EU aid to the PA is spent on paying the “salaries and pensions” of the PA civil servants and on the backdrop of the PA teachers strike that has continued on since February 5th, Palestinian Media Watch decided to zoom in on the subject of the PA salaries to its civil servants since 2016.

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The results of the examination shows a huge difference between the sum the PA reports to the world that it paid its civil servants and the sum PMW calculated to be the actual PA expenditure based on the PA’s own published labor reports.

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PMW’s findings indicate, that in most years, there is a substantial difference between the PA reports - some years over a billion shekels – a sum which is even greater than the aid the PA received from the EU in that year.

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For example, in 2022, according to the PA’s budget performance reports, the PA claimed to have paid its civil servants a cumulative sum of 8,114,105,436 shekels. However, according to the PA’s labor reports, the actual sum the PA paid to its civil servants was closer to 6,881,372,495 shekels, leaving a difference of 1,232,732,941 shekels or €302,374,788.

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Since the EU is providing substantial aid to the PA, and wants to know exactly where every euro is spent, the question that the EU accountants/economists should be asking themselves is where is that aid money really going?
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\nMethodology

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To conduct the examination, PMW looked at two central PA publications.

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On the one hand, PMW examined the monthly budget performance reports published by the PA Ministry of Finance.

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As part of an agreement to receive funding from the World Bank, since 2008 the PA has been required to publish a range of financial documents, including its annual budget and monthly budget performance reports.

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While the PA has not published an annual budget since 2018 and has occasionally tried to hide its budget performance reports, as PMW has repeatedly exposed, as a general rule, when available, the budget performance reports are meant to provide the international community with the ability to assess the PA’s monthly and annual income and expenditure.

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In these reports, the PA provides, inter alia, a total of the PA’s monthly and annual expenditure on “Wages and salaries” paid to all the PA civil servants in all the different PA ministries and branches. The following is an example of an expenditure table that appeared in the PA’s Dec. 2022 budget performance report:

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$\"\"$

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The end of the table shows, that the PA claims to have paid its civil servants, in 2022, a cumulative sum of 8,114,054,360 shekels (as the note at the top of the chart explains, the sums that appear in the charts are in thousands)

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On the other hand, PMW examined quarterly “Labour Force Survey”s published by the PA Central Bureau of Statistics.

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In these reports, the PA provides detailed statistical information regarding the participation of Palestinians in the Palestinian labor market. As opposed to the budget performance reports, which are meant, ostensibly, to be able to provide decision-makers with a general overview of the PA’s finances, the “Labour Force Surveys” provide detail-focused statistics on a wide range of different Palestinian employment-related subjects. These reports are designed to support more exact financial analysis.

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Among the many other employment indicators, the “Labour Force Surveys” provide statistics about the entire number of Palestinians who are employed, with a division in percentages, of those employed in the private and public (PA civil servants) sectors. Additionally, the “Labour Force Surveys” also provide information on the average daily/monthly salaries paid by the different employers, including details of the sums the PA pays to its civil servants.

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$\"\"$

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The October-December 2022 report, for example, included the following chart, showing that during that period, 1,158,800 were employed:

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Chart 1

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A different chart included in the report, showed the division of the employed Palestinians by employer, and said that 17.9% of the employed Palestinians worked for the PA:

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Chart 2

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An additional chart included in the report, showed the average daily wage earned by the employed Palestinians by region and sector, including the civil servants.

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Chart 3

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A final chart showed that on average, the employed Palestinians worked 22 days every month:

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Chart 4

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Based on these extensive statistics, PMW was able to make relatively accurate calculations as follows:

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First, using charts 1 and 2 above, PMW calculated the number (as opposed to the percentage) of Palestinians employed by the PA. If there are 1,158,800 employed Palestinians (chart 1), and 17.9% of them work for the PA (chart 2), that means there are, approximately, 207,425 Palestinians employed by the PA (of them approximately 121,345 are employed by the PA in the West Bank and 85,882 in the Gaza Strip.)
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Next, using the figure of the number of Palestinians employed by the PA, multiplied by the average daily wage the PA reported it paid the PA civil servants (chart 3), 120.2 shekels, and then multiplying the daily wage expense by the number of working days in the year PMW was able to calculate the annual PA expenditure on the wages of its civil servants:

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(207,425 (civil servants) x 120.2 (shekels average daily wage)) x 264 (working days per year) = 6,582,182,387 shekels/year

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As can be seen, this figure, based on detailed statistics provided by the PA itself, is significantly lower, than the figure the PA, in its budget performance report, claimed it had paid to its civil servants – i.e. 8,114,054,360 shekels.

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By repeating this calculation process for the years 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 (similarly using the PA’s end-year (December) budget performance reports, combined with the annual October-December “Labour Force Survey” report), PMW was able to calculate the difference between the sum the PA reported (in its budget performance reports) that it had paid its civil servants, and the sum the PA had actually paid its civil servants (based on the detailed Labour Force Surveys). The results of those calculations appear in this chart:

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$\"\"$

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The difference

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As the calculations clearly show, there appears to be a substantial difference between the PA’s reported expenditure on the salaries of its civil servants that it provides in the overview budget performance reports, as opposed to the calculated expenditure based on the PA’s own detailed labor force participation reports.

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Since 2016, the smallest difference appears to have been in 2018, when it was limited to circa 296 million shekels (€72.7 million). In 2020, the year of the COVID-19 crisis, the difference appears to have been 455 million shekels (circa €111.6 million). In the years 2016, 2019, 2021 & 2022, the difference was inexplicably between 900 million - 2 billion shekels (circa €220.8 million - €490.6 million).
\n
\nSome of the questions that need to be asked

\n\n

While the PA constantly begs the world for donations, it fails to provide even basic financial transparency. At the moment, as PMW recently exposed, the PA has removed from the internet even the limited financial information it had been providing. The PA allows itself to hide its financial situation, since the international community, particularly the EU, seems to accept blindly the claim that the PA is suffering financial hardship.

\n\n

The first question therefore, is why does the international community not demand full, openly available, financial transparency as a non-negotiable precondition to even considering aid requests?

\n\n

The differences identified above regarding the PA expenditure, show that the financial reports published by the PA do not correlate with one another. Since the Labour Survey reports ostensibly provide detail-based analysis, which in turn provide international agencies, such as the World Bank and other financial institutions, with the basis for their reports, it would seem that greater weight should be given to these reports than the PA budget performance reports. On the other hand, it would also seem that the PA has an interest to use its detail-based statistics to present a picture bleaker than the reality.

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The question therefore, is which of the PA’s financial reports are truly accurate? How does the PA explain the contradictory reports?

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While reports of “irregularities” regarding the number of PA employees are not new, the PA does not publish an accurate number of PA employees. The numbers that have been published, clearly demonstrate the questionable PA practices. For example, as PMW exposed, during the years 2013 – 2017 the number of high-ranking officers in the PA security forces grew at a completely disproportionate rate to the number of non-officers. The statistics also showed that there are more officers ranked Major-General in the PA security forces than in the entire Israeli security forces.

\n\n

Accordingly, the question is how many people are actually employed by the PA and in what positions? How many teachers, doctors, policemen etc. etc. etc. does the PA have? What are the PA pay scales?

\n\n

As regards the PA teachers, the situation would seem quite acute. While the EU consistently donates aid to participate in the payment of salaries to the teachers, as PMW exposed, for the last 3 months thousands of teachers have been on strike, complaining about the fact that they are not receiving their full remuneration.

\n\n

The question therefore, is who is monitoring what happens with the aid the EU provides to the PA? How often does the EU conduct in-depth audits to see exactly where the EU aid is going? Do those audits include an examination of the PA’s wider budgetary expenses to identify situations in which the fungibility of money allows the PA to use its own income for malfeasances, such as paying huge financial rewards to incentivize, promote and reward terror, while the EU shoulders the burden of paying the legitimate PA employees, or does the audit simply confirm that the EU money is ostensibly being paid?

\n","news":false,"tagIds":["58","61","217","869","1034","1586"],"contentType":"Article","lang":"en","indexId":"index114","title":"Do the Europeans know or care where their aid to the Palestinian Authority goes?","published":true,"author":[{"about":"","name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""},"id":461,"citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""}}],"description":"Do the Europeans know or care where their aid to the PA goes?","date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1684759140,"nanoseconds":0},"authorId":[461],"tags":[],"thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2023/Wages-and-Salaries.png"},{"lang":"en","author":[{"name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""},"id":461,"about":"","citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""}}],"news":false,"authorId":[461],"id":33121,"tagIds":["24","25","26","32","37","99","190","233","265","294","858","869","870","1034","1596"],"indexId":"index114","tags":[],"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1684414080,"nanoseconds":0},"published":true,"content":"

PA reports ignore 2 Palestinians killed by rockets fired by the terrorists
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The same reports include 2 other Palestinians killed by terrorist rockets, because they are children and the PA thinks it can gain propaganda points
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Two terror groups that are members in the PLO also participated in firing rockets indiscriminately targeting Israel’s civilian population
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Three terror groups officially claimed as their members 18 of the 31 Palestinians who were allegedly killed by Israel

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On May 2, 2023, terrorists from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip fired 104 rockets at Israel, indiscriminately targeting Israel’s civilian population. On May 9, Israel responded, launching “Operation Shield and Arrow,” which continued until a ceasefire was reached on May 14. During the course of the hostilities, according to statistics issued by the Israeli army, the Gazan terrorists fired 1,468 rockets at Israel. Of them, 1,139 of the rockets reached Israel while 290 of the rockets fell in Gaza.

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While the operation once again exposed the irrelevance of the Palestinian Authority regarding anything happening in Gaza, the PA did nonetheless report on the number of Palestinian fatalities and casualties during the operation:

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“The Israeli aggression killed 33 Palestinians, including six children and three women, and resulted in the injury of 150 others, the majority of them are children and women.”
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[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 9, 2023]
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As Palestinian Media Watch will show, this PA report was false! In reality, 35 Palestinians were killed during the hostilities, but the PA is hiding two of them. For its own propaganda purposes, the PA is also inflating the number of Palestinians killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

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Furthermore, as PMW will show, the majority of Palestinians killed in the operation were terrorists, who belonged, inter alia, to terror groups that are part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
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Fatalities 34 and 35

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The carefully worded, but nonetheless deceitful, PA report explains part of the PA’s deception.

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By claiming that “The Israeli aggression killed 33 Palestinians”, the PA was intentionally hiding two additional Palestinian victims. What distinguishes these two additional victims from the other 33 (also not accurate, as PMW will show) is the fact that they were killed by the rockets fired by the terrorists and not by Israel.

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Victim number 34 was Ahmed Abu Gabe, aged 35. Gabe was one of over 18,000 Gazans who regularly enter Israel to work in agriculture. He was badly injured, on May 13, by a terrorist rocket that fell in Shokeda, an Israeli village situated close to the Gaza Strip. Despite being rushed to an Israeli hospital to undergo surgery, Abu Gabe died of the wounds he sustained.

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[Twitter account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, May 13, 2023]

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Despite being Palestinian, Israel has recognized Abu Gabe as a “victim of terror” because he was killed while in Israel. This recognition will now entitle his family to receive substantial monthly social security payments from Israel.

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Victim number 35 was Ahmed Al-Shebaki, aged 50, killed on May 10. Al-Shebaki, from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, was also killed, and his wife injured, by one of the 290 terrorist rockets that landed in Gaza, according to a Palestinian source.

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The Palestinian children killed by rockets fired by the terrorists

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Al-Shebaki was not the only fatality caused by terrorist rockets falling inside Gaza. Two of the other 33 Palestinians killed were also killed by terrorist rockets that fell in Gaza. What differentiates between Al-Shebaki and the other two Gazans killed by terrorist rockets is their age.

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According to the reports from a Palestinian source, Yazan Ilayan (16) and Layan Medoukh (8) were also killed on May 10, when a rocket fired by the terrorists fell on a 5-storey house in Gaza City.

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Many years ago, the Palestinian leadership and terrorists learned an important reality: The world is very sensitive to Palestinian children being killed. Sickly, for the PA and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, dead Palestinian children are a “win-win”,” and as PMW has shown, the PA actively encourages children to seek death as Martyrs. (Watch PMW’s: “The Child-Martyrdom trap of the Palestinian Authority”).

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The first “win” for the PA and other terrorist organizations is using the dead Palestinian children, their funeral processions and any other opportunity to demonize Israel and inflame Palestinian hatred. Their claim that “Israel executes Palestinian children” is heard any time a Palestinian child is killed whether they were an innocent by-stander, or someone who actively took part in terror.

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The second “win” for the PA and other terrorist organizations is when international organizations such as UNICEF, the UN organization for the protection of children, then uses the death of the children to further demonize Israel in international arenas. Ignoring the Laws of War, and perpetuating the distorted Palestinian victim narrative, UNICEF, anti-Israel NGOs, and even members of foreign parliaments, use the deaths of the children to portray Israel as a serial abuser of children’s rights

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Following this warped PA doctrine, it is clear that the PA would never admit that two children among the 33 victims they claim were killed by “Israel aggression”, were actually killed by their own terrorist rockets that landed in Gaza.

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Identifying the Gazans killed

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While there appears to be a common misconception that only terrorists from PIJ participated in the firing of the rockets and the wholesale attempts to indiscriminately murder Israelis, in reality many of the different terror groups in Gaza played an active role in the attack against Israel. Alongside PIJ, other groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also published footage of their members participating in the hostilities.
\n
\nSpecial attention should be paid to the participation of the PFLP and DFLP in the hostilities, since both of these groups are part of the Abbas-headed PLO, and receive funding from the PLO. While these groups continue to actively participate in terror and remain part of the PLO, it is clear that the United States cannot cancel the designation of the PLO as a terror organization, as the PA constantly demands.

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Reflecting their participation in terror, of the 31 remaining fatalities, three different Palestinian terror groups announced that 18 of those killed were members of their organizations. PIJ claimed 11 of the fatalities, the PFLP claimed 5 and the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement claimed 2:

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PIJ published the following poster showing pictures of the members of the organization who were killed, alongside pictures of different armaments, ostensibly hinting that the organization used those weapons.

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PIJ terrorists from left to right (top row first):

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Tariq Izz Al-Din, Khalil Bahimi, Jihad Al-Ghanam, Iyad Al-Hosni, Ali Ghali

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Ilayan Abu Wadi, Abd El-Haleem Al-Najjar, Wael Al-Agha, Saed Ferwana, Mohammed Adb Al-Aal, Ahmed Abu Daqqa

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The PFLP published two posters, one with the names of 4 terrorists and one with the remaining name:

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PFLP terrorists from left to right:
\nMohammd Abu Ta’mia, Ayman Sedam, Alaa Abu Ta’mia, Alm Abd Al-Aziz, Uday Al-looh

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The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement also published pictures of their terrorists killed:

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Taking these admissions into account, a more accurate version of the picture of the fatalities that is circulating in the international media and social media would look like this:

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$\"\"$

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It is important to stress, that while PMW was able to identify 18 of the the dead as terrorists, and another 2 as children killed by the terrorists, PMW did not and cannot confirm that the remaining 13 - out of the 33 claimed by the PA - people were killed in Israeli attacks.

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While the PA and other terror organizations are trying their utmost to paint Israel as the sole unjustified aggressor, the truth is that “Operation Shield and Arrow” was a direct response to the rockets fired by Gaza-based internationally designated terror organizations. While the Gazan terrorists indiscriminately targeted Israel’s civilian population, Israel targeted terror infrastructure and specific terrorists, successfully eliminating at least 18 of them. Needless to say, while the non-terrorist fatalities and casualties are extremely regrettable, the reality is that it is the terror organizations who intentionally place and fire their rockets from urban surroundings and use the Palestinians as human shields, who bear the responsibility for these deaths.

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The question now is will the international community and organizations recognize the truth of “Operation Shield and Arrow” or will they fall for the Palestinian propaganda?

\n\n

2023 Operation Shield and Arrow

\n\n

\n","title":"Why are the Palestinians hiding 2 Palestinian victims of the recent war in Gaza?","description":"At least 18 of the Palestinians killed in the recent war in Gaza were terrorists. At least 4 Palestinians were killed by rockets fired by the terrorists. PLO member organization also took part in indiscriminately targeting Israel's civilian population.","contentType":"Article","imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2023/Picture-of-Terr.....png","thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2023/Picture-of-Terr.....png"},{"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1684317060,"nanoseconds":0},"tags":[],"author":[{"id":461,"about":"","citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""},"name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""}}],"authorId":[461],"published":true,"content":"

While Israel facilitated the visits of nearly 4 million Muslims on the Temple Mount during Ramadan, the PA constantly claimed that the site was – and still is - under attack
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Despite the record numbers of visitors, in his speech in the UN yesterday, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas lied claiming: “[Israel] denies the Palestinians their right to freedom of worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
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For the PA, rioters barricading themselves inside the mosque with rocks and fireworks, which they threw and fired at the security forces, were merely conducting “religious ceremonies in the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
In contrast, visits of Jews to Judaism’s holiest site are routinely referred to as an “invasion” and “desecration” of the site
The PA consistently rejects any right of Jews to practice freedom of religion on the Temple Mount

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Since June 7, 1967, when Israel liberated the Temple Mount from the illegal (1948-1967) Jordanian occupation, Israel’s governments have guaranteed that the site remain accessible to both Israel’s Muslim population and, subject to security precautions, to many Muslims who live in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. This guarantee was once again demonstrated during this year’s month of Ramadan (evening of March 22, 2023 - evening of April 20, 2023), during which nearly 4 million people visited the site.

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Jerusalem resident Fadi Mattour: “Praise Allah Master of the Universe, this month [of Ramadan] was very special. It was a wonderful month. The estimates of the [Jordanian] Waqf are that nearly 4 million visitors visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque this month, and this is a very large number.”
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[Official PA TV News, April 21, 2023]
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The record 4,000,000 visitors was made up of both Palestinians, who were given broad permission to enter Israel to visit the site, and Israeli Muslims. Despite the record numbers of visitors, in his speech yesterday in the United Nations to mark the “Nakba” – the term which means “catastrophe” used by the Palestinians to describe Israel’s creation – PA leader Mahmoud Abbas baselessly charged:

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“Israel, ladies and gentlemen, beyond all its crimes against our people since the Nakba... it desecrates the holy Islamic and Christian religious places in Palestine... just as it denies the Palestinians their right to freedom of worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque - the holy compound of Jerusalem which is the exclusive right of Muslims alone.”
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[Mahmoud Abbas, Speech in the UN, May 15, 2023]
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As Palestinian Media Watch has already noted, while the Al-Aqsa Mosque - built in 693 and marked in red in the picture below - is just one small part of the entire Temple Mount - marked in green in the picture below - in recent years, for political purposes, the Palestinians refer to the entire site, including the expansive courtyards and the golden topped Dome of the Rock (built in 691), as the “Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

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$\"\"$

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While the entire site is indeed holy to Judaism and Islam, a 1924 guide to the Temple Mount, published by the Supreme Muslim Council, clearly states that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is just one entity on the wider Temple Mount - referred to as "Al-Harm Al-Sharif" or "The August Sanctuary" - whose "identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”

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While permitting Muslim prayer on the site, as a rule, and despite the fact that no positive decision was taken by the authorized ministerial committee, Jewish prayer on the site has been mostly prohibited.

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Since 1967, Israel has made no substantial structural changes on the site. The Waqf - the Jordanian organization that controls and manages the current Islamic edifices on the site – on the other hand, illegally dug out a large area (some 600 square yards (500 square meters)) known as “Solomon’s Stables” and turned it, in 1996, into another covered prayer area which they named the El-Marwani Mosque.

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Despite the fact that Israel has done nothing to change the nature of the Temple Mount and while the visits of Jews on the Mount are considerably restricted, the PA constantly uses the battle call that “Al-Aqsa is in danger” to invoke religious tension and to spark violence. The calls often intensify during the month of Ramadan.

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This year was no different.

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Already a month before Ramadan started, Advisor to the PA Presidential Office on Jerusalem Affairs, Ahmed Al-Ruweidi, was busy denying Jews all their rights to freedom of religion on the Temple Mount, claiming that “coming days are dangerous for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque” due to Israel’s alleged intent to “reduce the Palestinian presence”:

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“Advisor to the [PA] Presidential Office on Jerusalem Affairs Ahmed Al-Ruweidi emphasized that the coming days are dangerous for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque… and that the goal of the initiatives that are being published [by Israel] one after the other is to establish the occupation’s sovereignty and determine new facts on the ground, in order to reduce the Palestinian presence.”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 28, 2023]
\n

\n\n

Al-Ruweidi continued his baseless conspiracy theory, falsely claiming that Israel’s goal is to “declare ‘the national Holy Basin,’ … as a purely Jewish area, and to establish in its heart the alleged Temple in place of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque…”:

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“In a statement yesterday [Feb. 27, 2023], he explained that the final goal of all these initiatives is to declare ‘the national Holy Basin,’ which includes the Old City [of Jerusalem] and its surroundings, as a purely Jewish area, and to establish in its heart the alleged Temple in place of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque…”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 28, 2023]
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Leaving no room for misunderstanding, Al-Ruweidi then reiterated the PA ideology denying Jews any rights to the Temple Mount, claiming that the entire area – all 144 dunams – are the “exclusive right of the Muslims”. This “exclusive right”, according to Al-Ruweidi, even extends outside of the Temple Mount wall, and includes the Western Wall, which Al-Ruweidi claims as “part of the Mosque” and which is “purely Islamic waqf” - i.e., an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law that Palestinian leaders have claimed Muslims are commanded to free from non-Muslims:

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\n
“The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque has no other name, and that its full territory is 144 dunams (i.e., 144,000 sq. meters). [He also said that the mosque] is the exclusive right of the Muslims, which no one shares with them – including the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount), which historical and legal documents confirm that it is part of the mosque and that it is a purely Islamic waqf.”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 28, 2023]
\n

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On the day Ramadan started, the PA Supreme Fatwa Council called on Palestinians to visit the site in light of the “fierce attack” it is under and its “desecration”. As PMW has repeatedly shown the PA uses the term “desecrate/desecration” as a euphemism for the visits of Jews to the site:

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\n
“The [Palestinian] Supreme Fatwa Council called on the citizens to go during the [Muslim fasting] month of Ramadan to Jerusalem and its blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is desperately in need of this in light of the fierce attack that is being waged against its existence, its sanctity, and its unity through desecration and aggression.”
\n\n
[WAFA, official PA news agency, March 23, 2023]
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In the eyes of the PA, any Jewish visit on the Temple Mount is an “invasion”:

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\n
Official PA TV host: “We will begin with the settlers’ latest invasion yesterday [March 30, 2023] – more than 70 settlers invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas and held Talmudic (i.e., Jewish) rituals near the gates, in the plazas, and next to the Gate of Mercy.”
\n\n
[Official PA TV, Good Morning Jerusalem, March 31, 2023]
\n

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When a group of Arab rioters who had barricaded themselves inside the actual mosque with rocks and fireworks, which they threw and fired at Israeli forces, who were then forced to intervene. This elementary act of law enforcement on the holy site sparked the anger of PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, prompting him to invoke the “desecration”, and claiming that Israel refuses to learn that the “Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the Palestinians and all the Arabs and Muslims”:

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\n
“[PA] Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that Israel, with its desecration of the sanctity of the holy sites and the places of worship, and in the attacks that we saw against the worshippers in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, is disregarding all the international norms and conventions and international and humanitarian law in Palestine…
\n\n
He emphasized that Israel does not want to learn from history that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the Palestinians and all the Arabs and Muslims and that invading it is a spark of revolution against the occupation.”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 6, 2023]
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PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash similarly distorted the acts of law enforcement calling them “aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque” and then exaggerated their effect claiming they would “spark of religious war… whose price will be paid by the entire world…”

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\n
“Supreme [PA] Shari’ah Judge of Palestine and [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas’] Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that the occupation forces’ ongoing aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and persecuting the worshippers and those carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic), arresting them, and attacking them, including women, children, and the elderly (refers to Israeli forces removing Arab rioters who had barricaded inside the mosque with rocks and fireworks, which they threw and fired at the forces -Ed.), is a spark of religious war that the occupation state is striving to ignite in a variety of ways and whose price will be paid by the entire world…”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 6, 2023]
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Al-Habbash continued with the false conspiracy theory also alleging that Israel is trying to “Judaize the holy city” and allow Jews to actually pray on the Temple Mount:

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\n
“He called on the members of our Palestinian people to increase the Ribat and presence in the Jerusalem Noble Sanctuary (i.e., the Temple Mount) in the coming days in light of the occupation’s plots to Judaize the holy city [of Jerusalem] and impose a division according to areas and times at the mosque (see note below -Ed.).”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 6, 2023]
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The Supreme PA Presidential Committee for Church Affairs distorted the events even more, curiously claiming that rioters barricading themselves inside the mosque with rocks and fireworks, which they threw and fired at the security forces, should be considered one of the “religious ceremonies in the Al-Aqsa Mosque”:

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\n
“The Supreme [PA] Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine condemned the barbaric attack that the Israeli occupation forces committed against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and against the worshippers inside it … and emphasized that only the Muslims have a right to hold all their religious ceremonies in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 6, 2023]
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Abbas’ Fatah Movement also used the law enforcement operation as an opportunity to call on all the Fatah frameworks and members to “defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque” and resist the “invasions,” stressing that the Temple Mount is “holy only to the Palestinians”:

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\n
“The Fatah Movement called for general preparedness from our people and the Fatah frameworks and members in order to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, carry out Ribat there (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic), and be there and resist the invasions and calls for the so-called ‘offering of sacrifices.’ …Fatah emphasized the great pride in our residents in our eternal capital, Jerusalem, and in all those carrying out Ribat and staying there who are adhering to their Jerusalem and their right, and they are standing against the ongoing invasions in spite of the intensity of the violence and the aggression and emphasizing that this place is holy only to the Palestinians (sic., the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, whereas the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest mosque in Islam).”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 7, 2023]
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Fatah’s Jerusalem branch added:

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\n

\n“The historical and legal status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque goes back hundreds of years, and that only the Muslims and no one else have a right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 7, 2023]
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The official Spokesman of the PA Presidential Office, Nabil Abu Rudeina, also rejected the Israeli law enforcement, saying that the “Israeli provocations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque are unacceptable and will turn its plazas into a battleground” but that these actions would not deter the Palestinians from defending their “land and its holy sites, regardless of the cost:”

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\n
“Official Spokesman of the [PA] Presidential Office Nabil Abu Rudeina said that the ongoing Israeli provocations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque are unacceptable and will turn its plazas into a battleground, which will lead to a severe deterioration in the situation…
\n\n
The presidential office spokesman held the Israeli occupation government responsible for the consequences of the situation in light of the ongoing crimes and the desecration of the holy sites. He emphasized that the occupation’s provocation of our people will not deter its determination and it will remain standing firm and defending its land and its holy sites, regardless of the cost.”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 10, 2023]
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The PA’s rejection of Jews’ rights to pray or even access the Temple Mount continues unabated also after Ramadan has ended. The PA’s Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein recently reiterated that Al-Aqsa “belongs to the Muslims” and that no one else can “participate with them there”:

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\n
“[PA] Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories Muhammad Hussein said that… ‘the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the Muslims, and it is forbidden [for others] to participate with them there.’”
\n\n
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 5, 2023]
\n

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As he proved in his speech yesterday in the UN, Abbas has no problem whatsoever not only denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, but also denying Jews their right to freedom of worship on the site.

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Try as they may, no part of Palestinian propaganda will ever be able to detach the connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount.

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Nabil Abu Rudeina also serves as PA Deputy Prime Minister, PA Minister of Information, Fatah Commissioner of Information, Culture, and Ideology, and Fatah Central Committee member.

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“Division according to areas and times” refers to a submission of a “private bill” by Israeli MP Uri Ariel in March 2003. The bill suggested ensuring freedom of religious worship by allowing both Jews and Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount - what the Palestinians call the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza. The bill sought to designate separate prayer times and areas of the site for Muslims and Jews. The bill never progressed past the initial legislatory stage. While there was additional discussion on the subject in 2012, no legislation was ever passed.

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In response to the incessant PA claims that the “division according to areas and times” of the Temple Mount is an operative Israeli plan, former Israeli PM Netanyahu stated on many occasions that the Israeli government has no intention of ‎changing the so-called status quo on the Temple Mount, which de facto is interpreted to mean Jews are only allowed to enter the Temple Mount, but not to conduct individual or communal prayers there.

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In July 2021, former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett said Muslims and Jews have freedom of worship at the Temple Mount, which was understood by many as a hint to changing the status quo at the site, but the following day his office backtracked and said he misspoke and did not mean Jews would have freedom of worship, but rather would have freedom to visit. “There is no change in the status quo,” a statement from PM Bennett’s office confirmed.

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Israeli diplomat and statesman Abba Eben once said of the United Nations, “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” While Algeria has not yet declared the earth flat, an equivalent resolution, promoted by the Palestinians, did pass in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2022.

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According to the resolution, the UN will mark the Palestinian “Nakba” on May 15, 2023 (today). The Arabic word “Nakba,” which means “catastrophe,” is the term used by the Palestinian Authority to describe the creation of the State of Israel. By adopting the Palestinian term, the UN is, in practice, denying Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.

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In its decision to adopt Palestinian propaganda, and equate the establishment of Israel with a “catastrophe”, the UNGA was actively participating in the Palestinian attempt to rewrite history.

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Since the resolution reflects a basic ignorance of history and facts, in this report Palestinian Media Watch will present the essential facts that show that Israel was established in the realization of international consensus, and pursuant to repeated decisions adopted by the international community.

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PMW will also show how many of the so-called “Palestinian refugees” fled Mandatory Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel, and that many of those who did flee, did so at the behest of the Arab armies.

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Finally, and pertinently for the days following the war instigated by the Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, PMW will show that while Israel offered to incorporate Gaza into Israel and give all the Arabs living there Israeli citizenship, the offer was rejected by the Arab countries.

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Israel’s exclusive legal title to the entire area from Lebanon in the north to the Red Sea in the south, from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west

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First and foremost, it is important to stress, that despite the propaganda efforts to invent history, no independent “State of Palestine” has ever existed.

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While the Palestinians and their supporters in the UN constantly try to negate the historical fact, the truth of the matter is that on four different occasions, the world powers and the international community confirmed, and reconfirmed, the allocation of the entire area from Lebanon in the north to the Red Sea in the south, from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Jewish people for the purpose of “reconstituting their national homeland.” No such parallel decisions were made about creating an Arab “Palestine” within that area.

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As history shows, from 1517 until 1917, the entire area of Israel, including Judea, Samaria and the Jordan valley was part of the Ottoman Empire. During this period, no independent sovereign state existed in the area. Rather, Palestine, home to Arabs and Jews, was merely part of the district of greater Syria.

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$\"\"$

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In 1916, anticipating the end of the WWI, representatives of the British and French empires made an agreement, with the concurrence of the Russian Empire, to divide control over the Middle East between them. The agreement, known as the "Sykes – Picot Agreement" divided the spheres of influence and control in much of the Middle East between the two empires according to the following map:

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In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration:

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\n
“His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” [emphasis added]
\n

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In 1919, following the end of the First World War, the international community met at the Paris Peace Conference to decide how to divide the territories of the vanquished Ottoman empire.

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One of the documents that reflect the sentiments of the time was the US “Outline of Tentative report and recommendations prepared by the Intelligence Section, in accordance with instructions, for the President and the plenipotentiaries” dated Jan. 21 1919, prepared for the conference. The document set out a vision to form both parts of Europe and the Middle East. Alongside the creation of many Arab countries, the document recommended creating, de novo, an independent state called “Palestine” which would be a “Jewish state”. No independent state called “Palestine” had ever existed previously:

\n\n

\n
“It is recommended:
\n\n
1) That there be established a separate state of Palestine.
\n\n
2) That this state be placed Under Great Britain as a mandatory of the League of Nations.
\n\n
3) That the Jews be invited to return to Palestine and settle there being assured by the Conference of all proper assistance in so doing that may be consistent with the protection of the personal (especially the religious) and the property rights of the non-Jewish population. and being further assured that it will- be the policy of the League of Nations to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state as soon as it is a Jewish state in fact.
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4) That the holy places and religious rights of all creeds in Palestine be placed under the protection of the League of Nations and its mandatory.
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$\"\"$
\n\n
.[My Diary at the Conference of Paris, With Documents,
\nBy David Hunter Miller, Volume IV, Documents 216-304]
\n

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The discussion of the recommendations added:

\n\n

\n
“The separation of the Palestinian area from Syria finds justification in the religious experience of mankind. The Jewish and Christian churches were born in Palestine, and Jerusalem was for long years, at different periods, the capital of each. And while the relation of the Mohammedans to Palestine is not so intimate, from the beginning they have regarded Jerusalem as a holy place. Only by establishing Palestine as a separate state can justice be done to these great facts.” …
\n\n
It is right that Palestine should become a Jewish state, if the Jews, being given the full opportunity, make it such. It was the cradle and home of their vital race, which has made large spiritual contributions to mankind, and is the only land in which they can hope to find a home of their own; they being in this last respect unique among significant peoples.
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At present, however, the Jews form barely a sixth of the total population of 700,000 in Palestine, and whether they are to form a majority, or even a plurality, of the population in the future state remains uncertain. Palestine, in short, is far from being a Jewish country now. England, as mandatory, can be relied on to give the Jews the privileged position they should have without sacrificing the rights of non-Jews.”
\n\n
[My Diary at the Conference of Paris, With Documents,
\nBy David Hunter Miller, Volume IV, Documents 216-304]
\n

\n\n

Meeting in again in April 1920, in San Remo, Italy, the principal allies who defeated the Germans and the Ottomans resolved that some areas would become states. As regards “Palestine”, the allies resolved:

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\n
“the Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on the [2nd] November, 1917, by the British Government and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
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At the time, “Palestine” was comprised of both Israel (including Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley) and the territory that is today Jordan.

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The San Remo resolution was entrenched in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

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The preamble to the Mandate reaffirmed the Balfour Declaration and once again confirmed the historical connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel by stating:

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\n
"Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country;
\n\n
Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." [emphasis added]
\n

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In 1923, pursuant to Article 25 of the Mandate, a decision was made to divide Mandatory Palestine into two entities – "Palestine" that lay to the west of the Jordan river and "Trans-Jordan" which would in time (1946) be recognized as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The provisions of the Mandate for establishing the Jewish National Home, including through the settlement of Jews on the land, continued to apply in the entire area to the west of the Jordan river, which was a mere one third of the full Palestine designated for the Jewish state. The following map illustrates this division:

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$\"\"$

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While Article 80 of the newly convened United Nations (which replaced the League of Nations) Charter preserved the rights of the Jewish people granted in the Mandate, in the aftermath of World War II, the UN again addressed the question of the Palestine. Having considered the different recommendations submitted, on November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the UN adopted resolution 181, known as the "Palestine Partition Plan". This resolution sought to further divide the remaining territory allocated for the Jewish state in Palestine into two new states – a Jewish state and an Arab state – setting the new boundaries of the nascent states, as can be seen in the following illustration:

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$\"\"$

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No reference to the term “The West Bank” appears in the UN Partition Plan. In fact, when delineating the boundaries of the “Arab State”, the resolution specifically refers to “The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and, Judea starts on the Jordan River”.

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While the representatives of the Jewish People accepted the Partition Plan, the Arab representatives and the surrounding Arab countries rejected the plan in its entirety and started active preparations to seize the entire area by military force. The response of the Arab representatives and countries made implementation of UNGA Resolution 181 impossible and it was never confirmed by the UN Security Council.

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On May 14 1948, Israel declared its Independence without specifying its borders. The new State was immediately attacked by a coalition of five Arab states as well as Arab forces in the former Mandate territory, who collectively strived to wipe it out. The Egyptian forces attacked from the south, the Lebanese and Syrian forces attacked from the north and the Jordanian forces, accompanied by Iraqi forces attacked from the east.

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The Jordanian forces attacked and occupied Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, calling them for the first time, "the West Bank". The Jordanian forces and local Arab militias who occupied the area, destroyed the Jewish communities that existed, killing or expelling their residents. The massacre after they had surrendered of many of the 127 men and women who were killed defending Kibbutz Kfar Ezion in the hills of Judea, is one such example.

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In 1949, Israel concluded “Armistice” agreements with the neighboring Arab countries. The armistice agreement with Jordan, provided that the demarcation lines drawn would under no circumstances be considered as "borders".

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Thus, Article II.2 of the armistice agreement stated:

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“It is also recognised that no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations”
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Article VI.9 of the same agreement provided:

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\n
“The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.”
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The armistice lines would then become known as the “Green Line”.

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$\"\"$

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A Jordanian attempt to annex Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley was rejected by the international community.

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Article 24 of the original 1965 Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) Charter provided that “This Organization [The PLO] does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area”.

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In June 1967, Jordan again attacked Israel. Defending itself against the attack, Israel expelled the Jordanian occupiers, and seized control of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

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Several months after the end of the Six day War, on November 22, 1967 the UN adopted resolution 242. This resolution, often erroneously cited as requiring Israel to retreat to the pre-1967 borders, in fact read as follows:

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\n
"The Security Council,
\nExpressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,
\nEmphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,
\nEmphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,
\nAffirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
\n1) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
\n2) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
\nAffirms further the necessity
\n1) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
\n2) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
\n3) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
\nRequests the Secretary General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;
\nRequests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.” [emphasis added]
\n

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Resolution 242 does not require Israel to withdraw from all "the territories occupied” but rather calls for a just and lasting peace which should include both withdrawal by Israel from "territories occupied" and “respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force".

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While earlier drafts of the resolution had proposed withdrawal by Israel from “the territories occupied” the word “the” was removed from the final resolution as adopted by the Security Council so as to signify that a full withdrawal by Israel to the armistice lines established in 1949 would not be required.

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As the above conclusively demonstrates, no “State of Palestine” ever existed, except for the express purpose of establishing the Jewish homeland. The “Nakba” that the UN will mark, is merely an attempt to retroactively invent the “State of Palestine” and to then claim that Israel was created in place of the non-existent state.

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The so-called “Palestine refugees”
\n

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The “Palestine refugees” are defined by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as people who fled Mandatory Palestine "during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948".

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While the PA and the UN attribute the exodus of the Arabs from Mandatory Palestine to Israel, it is clear that hundreds of thousands of Arabs left during the period of British Mandate, preceding the creation of the State of Israel.

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As this PMW video documents with eyewitness testimony, there was a massive migration from Israel initiated by Arabs themselves who fled during the war, in response to the call of the Arab armies and other Arab leaders who were trying to eliminate Israel. The Arab armies and leaders called on their fellow Arabs to leave the area, promising that they would return shortly.

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For example, testimonies of refugees, that can be seen in this PMW video compilation, include the following statements:

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\n
"Cars with megaphones roamed the streets, demanding that people leave" [Official PA TV, Oct. 2, 2014]
\n

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\n
"The one who made us leave was the Jordanian army" [Official PA TV, May 15, 2013]
\n

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\n
"The radio stations of the Arab regimes kept repeating to us: 'Get away'" [Official PA TV, July 7, 2009]
\n

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\n
"Our [Arab] district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine is a traitor" [Official PA TV, April 30, 1999]
\n

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\n
The Arab Salvation Army told the Palestinians: "We have come to you in order to exterminate the Zionists... Leave your houses and villages, you'll return to them safely in a few days." [Al-Ayyam, May 13, 2008]
\n

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\n
"The Arab Salvation Army said: 'Leave, but don't go far from the village because they [the Jews] will make a short visit...' The people left with nothing, even without bread." [Al-Quds daily YouTube channel, May 17, 2016]
\n

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Having lost the war, and since they and the Arab countries refused to accept Israel’s existence, the refugees were not allowed to return.

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In their belief that the refugees could be used as human pawns, the Arab countries, refuse to settle the refugees and their descendants, preferring to hold them in limbo for the last 75 years.

\n\n

\nWhile UN documents prove that the Israeli leadership was willing to compromise on the subject of the refugees, the same documents demonstrate the Arab intransigence.

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For example, the October 23, 1950 General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950 records how Israel proposed that the Armistice Lines be accepted as permanent borders and that in return for the incorporation of the Gaza Strip into Israel, “the Government of Israel would be prepared to accept as citizens of Israel the entire Arab population of the area, both inhabitants and refugees…”
\n

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In accordance with their unwillingness to accept Israel’s very existence, the Arab countries rejected the Israeli proposal.

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As PMW has shown, for the PA, the demand that every one of the “Palestine refugees” - a group that grew from an estimated 711,000 originally to almost 6,000,000 today - be allowed to return to Israel, is just another expression of their goal to destroy Israel.

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While the Palestinians bemoan the “Nakba” and place the blame on Israel, , in reality, it is the Arab countries who are responsible for the suffering of the Arab population. First by their rejection of Israel’s existence and trying to destroy Israel by war, second by telling the Arabs of Israel to flee which made them into refugees, and third by not giving the Arab refugees citizenship in their countries. This would have solved the so-called “refugee problem" and alleviated their suffering more than 70 years ago.

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When Israel killed the three senior terrorists from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIL) on the morning of May 9, unfortunately, a number of civilians, including children were also killed. The death of civilians, particularly children, is of course devastating, but in this case, it highlights, to a great extent, the difference between the actions of the terrorists and the actions taken by Israel.

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On May 2, terrorists from PIJ, an internationally designated terror organization, fired 104 rockets from Gaza intentionally targeting Israel’s civilian population, including women, children, the elderly and disabled.

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While the terrorists in Gaza use their money and international aid to produce and stockpile missiles and to dig dozens of attack tunnels, Israel spent hundreds of millions of dollars, before receiving generous aid from the US government, to develop the Iron Dome Defense System. While each interceptor missile costs circa $50,000, Israel spends its money to save the lives of Israeli civilians. Accordingly, most of the 104 rockets launched by the Palestinian terrorists were intercepted by the system.

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In international law, the firing of the missiles constitutes an “armed attack” and a Casus Belli - from Latin: 'occasion for war' - entitling Israel to defend itself.

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In the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), also known as International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or the Laws of War, there are 4 basic principles that are meant to guide the actions of the parties on the battlefield: Distinction; Military Necessity; Unnecessary Suffering; and Proportionality.

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The principle of “Distinction” is the foremost LOAC protection for non-combatants. The principle requires that the object/person being attacked is part of the military apparatus of the enemy and is accordingly a military objective. For our purposes, the term “military objective” includes all the Gazan terrorists - from the lowest of foot-terrorists to the heads of the organizations - and their entire terror infrastructure. Termed “distinction,” this principle requires that all attacks be focused on military targets as opposed to purely civilian targets that provide no contribution to the war effort.

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The principle of “Military Necessity” protects the warring combatants. The principle dictates that while LOAC permits attacking combatants, those attacks must be necessary to forward the goals of achieving the military objective. Accordingly, the warring sides are required to avoid wounding or permanently injuring combatants, except as part of the fight.

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The principle of "Unnecessary Suffering" also protects the combatants and prohibits the warring sides from using weaponry that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.

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The principle of "Proportionality" is also designed to protect non-combatants. Proportionality in LOAC refers to a situation in which a military target is attacked and that attack causes incidental or collateral damage. Attacks of this nature are legal so long as the loss of life and damage to property incidental to the attacks are not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be gained. As the value of the military target grows, so too does the potential extent of permitted incidental damage.

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In other words, LOAC accepts the fact that in war, non-combatants may be incidentally killed and civilian property might be incidentally damaged. Neither of these outcomes is necessarily prohibited, so long as the object being attacked is a military target of sufficient value.

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While the principle of proportionality has no mathematical equation, it is possible to imagine some more clear-cut examples:

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A combatant hides a number of bullets in a huge house. The weaponry and ammunition of the other side are clearly legitimate military targets. The house has a number of floors and serves as an orphanage. In the attack, the house would be destroyed and the orphans killed.

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In this scenario, the principle of proportionality would prohibit the described attack since the intended military objective - destroying the ammunition - would clearly be outweighed by the incidental damage.

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However when the bullets are replaced with a massive storage area for missiles and missile launchers or with a command center or with a strategic capability (such as technology to disrupt the effectiveness of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system) of the enemy, then the equation and result changes.

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Following the strikes, the Israeli army released profiles of the PIJ terrorists targeted:

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As Palestinian Media Watch exposed, when the PA condemned the Israeli strikes, it referred to the terrorists as “civilians.” The use of this terminology was not coincidental. Rather, it was used to then accuse Israel of intentionally attacking innocent people who are protected from targeting. The PA does never, and would never admit, that any Palestinian is a terrorist. Similarly, when referring to the terrorists as civilians, the PA hopes that most people would not be familiar with the term “direct participation in hostilities”. While it is prohibited to intentionally target non-combatants, that protection is lost when the subject directly participates in the hostilities.

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As their profiles clearly show, the terrorists targeted were no mere “civilians”. Rather, they were senior members of an internationally designated terror organization who were directly, and actively participating in armed attacks intentionally targeting Israel’s civilian population. Their seniority and intensive terror activities clearly made them high-value military targets.

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Unfortunately, the terrorists in Gaza do not suffice with breaching the LOAC by intentionally targeting Israeli civilians, rather, they compound their malice by using civilians, including their wives and children, as human shields. So while the death of every non-combatant is unfortunate and often heart-wrenching, the people who bear the responsibility for each and every one of those deaths, are the terrorists and not Israel.

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The death of terrorist Khader Adnan is providing the Palestinian Authority with yet another opportunity to show its support for terror and mindlessly attack Israel. As usual, however, an abyss divides between the PA narrative and rhetoric about the event on the one side, and truth and reality on the other.

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Khader Adnan Muhammad Musa (Khader Adnan) was a senior member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an internationally designated terror organization. Prior to his current arrest, he had previously been arrested a dozen times for his involvement in terror. While on most occasions he was held in administrative detention - a security measure recognized in international law (see Art. 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and state practice) - this time he was indicted for membership in a terror organization and incitement to terror.

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Following his indictment, a judge ordered that he be held on remand pending trial. In one of the appeals Adnan submitted against the decision to hold him on remand, the appeals court judge found that there was sufficient prima facie evidence to support the indictment and that considering the nature of the offences, Adnan posed a danger to society sufficient to warrant his remand pending trial:

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“After examining the evidence and considering the arguments of the sides, I found that there is a prima facie evidentiary basis that links the appellant [Khader Adnan] to the commission of the offences in the indictment. This evidentiary basis includes, inter alia, videos documenting the appellant committing some of the offences in the indictment; testimony from a large number of people that directly refers to the appellant; and also physical evidence…
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A central question that arose in the appeal is whether there is grounds of arrest due to danger. Considering the criminal past of the appellant and noting the nature of the acts detailed in the indictment, my conclusion is that the [court of] first instance was correct in its finding that there is grounds of arrest due to danger. I note that the evidence shows there is prima facie evidence linking the appellant to the commission of significant activity in the framework of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization, activity that included, inter alia, incitement and support for a hostile [terror] organization that was committed by him many times...”
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[Decision of the IDF Military Court of Appeal, A”A 2321/23, April 30, 2023]
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The court of first instance and the appeals court also considered whether the fact that Adnan had decided to go on hunger strike should affect the decision and found that accepting such an argument would cause others to follow the same course and would end in “security chaos”.

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Despite having exhausted his rights to appeal, and despite having been granted additional opportunities to make his claims in court, Adnan continued his hunger strike - from which he eventually died. During his hunger strike, Adnan also dogmatically refused any medical treatment, including refusing to allow the doctors to monitor his vital statistics.

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To understand Adnan’s true nature, it is sufficient to listen to one of his speeches exposed by Intellinews on its Twitter account after his death. In the video, Adnan, reportedly speaking at the funeral of an Islamic Jihad terrorist, in October 2007, passionately asks the crowd, who of you is the next suicide bomber – referred to by Adnan as the “next Martyrdom-seeker” – who has the “next explosive belt” and who has “the next shooting?”

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Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan: “O Al-Quds Brigades (i.e., Islamic Jihad’s military wing), strike
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O Al-Quds Brigades, shake the earth
\nWho among you is Hassan Abu Zaid (i.e., suicide bomber, murdered 7)?
\nWho among you is the next Martyrdom-seeker?
\nWho among you have the next explosive belt?
\nWho among you has the next shooting?
\nWho among you has exploding organs?”
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[Intellinews, Twitter account, May 2, 2023]
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It is worth noting that the European Court of Human Rights case Horoz v. Turkey, no. 1639/03 discussed a similar situation to that of Israel and Adnan. Horoz (the petitioner’s son) had been charged with terror-related offences and was held on remand where he died as a result of a hunger strike. Considering the event, the court held that there had been no violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to the death of Horoz, since it was clear that he had died of his hunger strike and not as a result of the authorities’ decision not to release him.

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Notwithstanding this clear reality, the PA narrative and rhetoric spun a different tale about terrorist Adnan.

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Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh led the charge to rewrite reality:

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“The Israeli occupation and its prison administration carried out a deliberate assassination against the prisoner Khader Adnan by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition.”
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[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 2, 2023]
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In other words, according to Shtayyeh, Adnan’s choice to embark on a hunger strike means that Israel is responsible for a “deliberate assassination.” According to Shtayyeh, Adnan’s choice to refuse all medical treatment is equivalent to Israel “neglecting him medically.” According to Shtayyeh, Israel should not be allowed to reject the “request” of indicted, dangerous terrorists to be released. According to Shtayyeh’s charges, apparently Israel should have forcibly transferred Adnan to some other place, rather than leave him, as he insisted, in his cell.

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The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates demanded no less than an international investigation into Adnan’s death and held the “Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the death of the prisoner Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for 86 days.” A statement from the Ministry added that:

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“It [the Ministry] called in a statement on the international investigation committee to also include the circumstances and details of the death of Adnan while in an Israeli prison in its investigation of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, stressing that it will submit the file of this crime to the International Criminal Court.”
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[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 2, 2023]
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The PA/PLO’s permanent representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, lied in letters he sent to the UN Secretary-General, this month’s president of the UN Security Council and the president of the UN General Assembly, falsely claiming that Adnan had died while fighting his “arrest without indictment.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 4, 2023]

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The Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Qadri Abu Bakr, continued the lie that Adnan had not been indicted and also claimed that the case of Adnan would be sent to the International Criminal Court:

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“[Khader Adnan] is the first prisoner to die as a Martyr as a result of a hunger strike. Those who died as Martyrs previously died as a result of execution [when they tried to force feed them]… This is the first prisoner to die as a result of a hunger strike since 1967 and to this day. We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for his death as a Martyr. His case is one of the cases that will be presented to the International Criminal Court (ICC), because this is an obvious and clear crime…
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Today [May 2, 2023] the lawyers will submit a petition to release his body, especially because he was not sentenced to life and not sentenced to many years – he was sentenced to administrative detention, he did not confess, and he was not accused of anything, he was in preventive detention (sic., Adnan was under arrest, not administrative detention, awaiting trial after being indicted on charges of membership in a terror organization and incitement to terror).”
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[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, May 2, 2023]
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The PA/PLO’s representative in the UK, Husam Zomlot, tweeted a picture of terrorist Adnan holding two children and falsely claimed that he had “never been charged” and that he suffered “prolonged medical neglect”:

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[Twitter account of Husam Zomlot, May 2, 2023]

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Shamefully, despite lacking any factual or legal basis, some international functionaries and organizations swallowed the PA lies and joined the baseless attack on Israel.

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The UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures - a group of so-called “human rights experts independent from any govt or organization, serving in their individual capacity” tweeted a caricature of terrorist Adnan refusing food from Israel (depicted by a Star of David) and demanded “accountability” for the death of the terrorist:

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[Twitter account of UN Special Procedures, May 3, 2023]

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The “Israel and Palestine Director” of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Omar Shakir, who Israel expelled for his support for the antisemitic BDS movement, went even further. Before launching into a diatribe of praise for the dead terrorist, Shakir ignored the real facts, tweeting: “Make no mistake: Israel killed Khader Adnan.”

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[Twitter account of Omar Shakir, May 2, 2023]

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Were the UN experts and Shakir ignorant of the facts? Most probably, since they often positively choose to ignore the real facts that don’t support their anti-Israel agenda.

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Were they not aware of the decision in the case of Horoz? Most likely not. But in this case, similar to many other situations, they rely on their perceived credibility, assuming that the wider public will not question their biased approach.

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Clearly, however, both the UN and HRW have no compunction about openly expressing their anti-Israel hostility by demanding that Israel be held to a standard separate and different from that of the rest of the world, a standard unique for the Jewish country.

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The following are longer excerpts of the statements cited above:

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Headline: “Prime Minister accuses Israel of deliberately assassinating the prisoner Khader Adnan”
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“RAMALLAH. Tuesday, May 2, 2023 (WAFA) - Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today accused Israel of deliberately assassinating the prisoner Khader Adnan.
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‘The Israeli occupation and its prison administration carried out a deliberate assassination against the prisoner Khader Adnan by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition,’ said the Prime Minister in a statement reacting to the death this morning of Adnan who has been on hunger strike for 86 days in protest against his detention without charge.
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The Prime Minister offered his deepest condolences to Adnan’s family, the prisoners, and all the Palestinian people for the death of Adnan in prison.
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Adnan, 44, from the town of Arraba, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin who was detained on February 5, has died after his long hunger strike during which he refused to take any additives or get any medical attention.
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Adnan, a father of nine, was arrested 12 times during his life and went on hunger strike several times in protest against this detention.
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The Israel prisons said Adnan was found unconscious in his cell this morning and was transferred to an Israel hospital where he was pronounced dead.
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A general strike has been called in the occupied territories in protest against Adnan’s death.”
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[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 2, 2023]
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Khader Adnan – 45-year-old Palestinian terrorist and senior member of the Islamic Jihad terror organization who was arrested on Feb. 5, 2023, and indicted for membership in a terrorist organization and incitement to terror. He died on May 2, 2023, in an Israeli prison, as a result of conducting a hunger strike that lasted 86 days, during which he refused both food and medical treatment. As a result of his terror activities, Adnan had previously been arrested 9 times and served 8 years in prison, during which he staged numerous hunger strikes.

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Headline: “Foreign Ministry calls for an international investigation into the death of the prisoner Adnan”
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“RAMALLAH. Tuesday, May 2, 2023 (WAFA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the death of the prisoner Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for 86 days, and called for an international investigation into his death.
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It called in a statement on the international investigation committee to also include the circumstances and details of the death of Adnan while in an Israeli prison in its investigation of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, stressing that it will submit the file of this crime to the International Criminal Court.
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Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also accused Israel of deliberately assassinating Adnan by rejecting his request for his release, neglecting him medically, and keeping him in his cell despite the seriousness of his health condition.
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Adnan, 44, died this morning in his prison cell after 86 days of hunger strike in protest against his detention without charge.”
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[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, May 2, 2023]
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Headline: “Identical letters to senior UN officials on the occupation’s ongoing crimes against our people”
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“Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine at the UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour sent three identical letters yesterday, Wednesday, [May 3, 2023,] regarding the fact that Palestinian civilians, including children, continue to be victims of acts of murder at the hands of the occupation forces and the settlers, who are undeterredly continuing their terror in the occupied Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem.
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Mansour sent the letters to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the [UN] Security Council president for the current month (Switzerland), and UN General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi…
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In his letters, Mansour spoke about the circumstances of the death as a Martyr of imprisoned Palestinian Khader Adnan (i.e., Islamic Jihad terrorist), 44, in an Israeli prison cell after 87 days of hunger strike out of resistance to his arrest without an indictment (sic., Adnan was indicted for membership in a terror organization and incitement to terror, and was awaiting trial when he died as a result of his hunger strike).
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He emphasized that Israel, the occupying power, bears full responsibility for his death as a Martyr due to its deliberate medical neglect and violation of human rights (sic., see note below regarding PA libel on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners)…
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Mansour noted that in just four months since the start of 2023, 20 Palestinian children have died as Martyrs at the hands of the occupation’s soldiers (refers nearly exclusively to terrorists killed while committing an attack -Ed.).
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Mansour emphasized that this obligates the UN secretary-general to place [the occupation] on the list of systematic violators of children’s rights, which will constitute an important means of deterrence.”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 4, 2023]
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The US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs has met with PA, PLO, and Fatah officials to “to improve the lives of the Palestinian people” but did he call on the PA to abolish its Pay-for-Slay policy of rewarding terrorists and murderers for attacking and murdering Israelis?

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The 2018 bi-partisan US Taylor Force Act (TFA) conditioned much of the US aid to the Palestinian Authority on the latter abolishing its Pay-for-Slay terror reward policy. TFA was not merely a financial law. Rather, it contained substantive Congressional findings and direction, inter alia, to the US Department of State regarding the activities required of their representatives to pressure the PA to abandon its policy.

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After finding that “The Palestinian Authority’s practice of paying salaries to terrorists serving in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists, is an incentive to commit acts of terror” TFA added the “Sense of Congress.” In this section of TFA, Congress called on the PA to abandon its terror reward policy and on other PA donor countries to cease aid to the PA until the PA abolished the policy.

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TFA then added directions to urge “the Department of State to use its bilateral and multilateral engagements with all governments and organizations committed to the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians to highlight the issue of Palestinian Authority payments for acts of terrorism and to urge such governments and organizations to join the United States in calling on the Palestinian Authority to immediately cease such payments.”

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In recent weeks, the PA approved its 2023 budget. While the PA hides its finances, the PA’s 2023 budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars that the PA will spend on its terror incentivizing and rewarding payments.

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Soon after the announcement of the PA cabinet approval of the budget, Mr. Hady Amr, who according to the US Department of State website currently serves as the Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs within the Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs met with different senior PA, PLO and Fatah officials.

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On April 11, Amr met, in the US, with governor of the PA Monetary Authority, Feras Milhem.

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[Twitter account of the U.S. State Dept. - Near Eastern Affairs, April 11, 2023]

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Two days later, in Ramallah, Amr met with Hussein Al-Sheikh, who is the Secretary General of theExecutive Committee of the PLO (which is still a US designated terror organization).

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[Twitter account of Hussein Al-Sheikh, April 13, 2023]

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On April 17, Amr met with Fatah Secretary Jibril Rajoub, who, as Palestinian Media Watch has exposed, openly called for the commission of terror attacks against Israel and uses his position as the Head of the Palestinian Football Association and Palestinian Olympic Committee to promote and glorify terror.

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[Twitter account of the U.S. State Dept. - Near Eastern Affairs, April 17, 2023]

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The US Department of State, Office of Palestinian Affairs, summed up Amr’s recent trip to the region by saying:

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“Special Rep. Hady Amr wraps up six days in Jerusalem & the West Bank where he engaged w/government, religious and civil society leaders to improve the lives of the Palestinian people. He also had moving visits to the Church of the Holy Seplechure and Al Aqsa mosque.” (errors in source –Ed.)
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[Twitter account of the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs, April 19, 2023]
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While Amr is meeting with all the right people “to improve the lives of the Palestinian people” glaringly missing from all of the reports about his meetings is a clear, unequivocal and repeated call, as required by TFA, from the US administration’s most senior official to the Palestinians, demanding that the PA/PLO abolish its terror incentivizing and rewarding payments.

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Having now completed six months in his position as the Biden administration’s Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs, Amr should be requested to provide a detailed summary of all his efforts to persuade the PA to abolish its terror reward policy. The summary should include details of every meeting held by Amr with PA/PLO officials in which he raised and relayed the Sense of Congress, included in TFA, calling on the PA/PLO “to stop payments for acts of terrorism by individuals who are imprisoned after being fairly tried and convicted for acts of terrorism and by individuals who died committing acts of terrorism and to repeal the laws authorizing such payments.”

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Despite missing financial transparency, the EU continues to support the PA financially

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While constantly complaining to the world about its alleged financial crisis and begging the international community to increase its aid, the Palestinian Authority is once again hiding its financial reports.

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Since 2008, as part of an agreement to receive funding from the World Bank, the Palestinian Authority has been required to publish a range of financial documents, including its annual budget and monthly budget performance reports.

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While the PA temporarily honored the commitment to publish its annual budget, it has not done so since 2019.

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In contrast, with the exception of a few minor incidents exposed by Palestinian Media Watch and then rectified, the PA had been relatively meticulous in publishing its monthly budget performance reports.

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While the PA decided, in March-April 2022, to stop publishing its budget performance reports, the PA backtracked on this soon after PMW exposed the decision, and by July had returned to publishing all the budget performance reports.

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The limited financial documents provided by the PA were all published on the website of the PA’s Ministry of Finance.

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For over a month, the entire PA Ministry of Finance website has disappeared from the internet.

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Despite the missing transparency, the “European Joint Strategy in support of Palestine, 2021-2024 Towards a democratic, accountable and sustainable Palestinian state” declares that since 2008 – the year the PA was required to demonstrate even the most basic financial transparency - “EU, EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland have disbursed around USD 1 billion annually in official development assistance to Palestine and the Palestinians.” The EU has also committed to providing more aid to the PA.

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While financial transparency should critical for donor countries when assessing the aid needs of the PA, it would appear that this is just another one of the malfeasances of the PA donor countries are willing to ignore. This should not be the case. So long as the PA continues to hide its finances, the international community should be respond by immediately halting all financial assistance to the PA.

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While the Palestinian Authority continues to hide its finances from the international community, a recent statement by PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh again demonstrates the clear effectiveness of Israel’s Anti-Pay-for-Slay law and the pressure being put on the PA by the international community.

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The PA government recently approved its 2023 budget. Presenting the budget to the cabinet, Shtayyeh explained that the budget included a deficit of US$610 million. While acknowledging that the PA’s terror reward payments are causing financial damage to the PA, Shtayyeh clarified that the PA has no intention to abolish the payments:

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Shtayyeh: “The Israeli monetary deductions and the decrease in the number of donors are meant to pressure us and subdue us, but everyone knows that we will not trade in policy for money, and what is important is that we rely on each other and understand the reality we live in.”
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[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 4, 2023]
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“The Israeli monetary deductions” Shtayyeh complained about, refer to deductions made pursuant to Israel’s Anti-Pay-for-Slay law. The law, passed in 2018 with the assistance of Palestinian Media Watch, provides that Israel must deduct from the taxes it collects and transfers to the PA, the sum the PA spent in the previous year paying salaries to imprisoned and released terrorists and allowances to the wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists – cumulatively known as the PA’s Pay-for-Slay policy.

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Since the law was first implemented in February 2019, Israel has made decisions to deduct 2,479,478,454 shekels – a sum equivalent to the PA’s Pay-for-Slay payments in 2018 through 2022. As of the end of March 2023, Israel had actually deducted 2,014,058,985 shekels, and the remainder will be deducted during the rest of 2023.

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According to the law, the sums deducted are frozen and held till such a time when the PA abolishes its policy.

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PMW also contributed to the decrease in the donor aid to the PA. According to PA financial reports, during the decade between 2011 – 2021 foreign aid to the PA plummeted by 90%.

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In the US, the 2018 Taylor Force Act conditioned the bulk of US aid to the PA on the abolition of the policy. In 2019, after presentations by PMW’s director Itamar Marcus, both the Dutch and Australian Governments announced that they will no longer provide aid to the PA.

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While Shtayyeh complains about the PA’s financial deficit, he refuses to accept reality. The reality is that the international community, on the whole, rejects the PA’s Pay-for-Slay policy, rightly categorized as terror incentivizing and rewarding.

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The reality is that the measures adopted by the international community, including Israel, are not designed to harm the Palestinian people, but rather to pressure the Palestinian leadership to abolish the financial payments the PA pays to terrorists. But none of this reality interests the PA. As Shtayyeh made crystal clear, following the lead of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, for the PA incentivizing, promoting and rewarding terror – sending Palestinians to murder Israelis – is more important than achieving peace and prosperity.

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The cumulative financial pressure being placed on the PA is critical. As the PA deficit grows, the international community must stand steadfast in its clear and unequivocal moral stance: Stop Pay-for-Slay!

\n","title":"Palestinian Authority defies the world to continue terror reward payments ","tagIds":["24","58","217","220","858","869","880","1034","1084"],"description":"PA defies the world to continue terror reward payments ","imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2019/7726450776_7edaed6724_k-1-300x225.jpg","authorId":[461],"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1682858580,"nanoseconds":0},"tags":[],"news":false,"id":33050,"lang":"en","indexId":"index114","published":true,"thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2019/7726450776_7edaed6724_k-1-300x225.jpg"},{"authorId":[461],"published":true,"lang":"en","news":false,"indexId":"index114","tags":[],"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1681921620,"nanoseconds":0},"content":"

We sincerely apologize that the headline of yesterday’s report was not sufficiently clear and exact. Many of our readers have pointed out that PMW’s headline yesterday - Even the Nazis didn’t pay a reward for murdering Jews - was imprecise and requires clarification.

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Certainly, during the Holocaust the Nazis did indeed pay rewards of various kinds for the murder or even tracking down of Jews. However, our intention was to highlight the singular methodical nature of the Palestinian Authority’s terror reward policy, which is also entrenched in PA law.

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The Nazis did not adopt a law or practice guaranteeing a lifetime payment to any person who murdered a Jew or to the families of those who murdered a Jew, if the murderer died while murdering/trying to murder Jews.

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In contrast, in 2004, the PA legislated the Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners. This law guarantees a monthly salary to every Palestinian terrorist, including murderers, arrested by Israel. The salary is paid to all terrorists, irrespective of the terrorist’s terror-group affiliation and rises with time spent in prison. Murderers sentenced to life in prison receive the PA salary for their entire life. Released terrorists - including the murderers - continue receiving a payment from the PA, commensurate to their time in prison.

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Alongside the payments to the terrorist prisoners and released terrorists, the PA also entirely funds the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Institute for the Martyrs, which guarantees a lifelong payment, inter alia, to the families of terrorists who died while murdering/trying to murder Jews, such as suicide bombers.

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The high lifetime financial rewards passed into law by the PA and called a “monthly salary”, is in a class by itself.

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\n","id":33027,"contentType":"Article","author":[{"id":461,"citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""},"name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""},"about":""}],"description":"Clarification of yesterday's headline","title":"Clarification re: Even the Nazis didn’t pay a reward for murdering Jews ","imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2023/Abbas-Holocaust-3-3.JPG","tagIds":["1","20","43","97","869"],"thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2023/Abbas-Holocaust-3-3.JPG"},{"authorId":[461],"published":true,"lang":"en","news":false,"indexId":"index114","tags":[],"date":{"type":"firestore/timestamp/1.0","seconds":1681825800,"nanoseconds":0},"content":"

On Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day: Still today, murder of Jews is rewarded – not by the Nazis but by the PA

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Today, on Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel, the Jewish people around the world, and others mark the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by the Nazis. And still today, in 2023, there is an organization that rewards the murder of Jews and literally pays hundreds of millions of dollars every year in cash rewards, to people who participated in terror and murdered Jews, simply for being Jews. It is not the Nazis this time, but the PA.

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Much has already been written about the Palestinian Authority’s terror-rewarding Pay-for-Slay policy, first exposed by Palestinian Media Watch in 2011, and it is doubtful whether there is an honest government in the world that could deny knowledge of its existence.

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Nonetheless, ignoring the unequivocal fact that the PA uses substantial parts of its budget to reward terrorists for murdering Jews, European governments, the European Union, and others have continued to provide funding to the PA. In fact, the recently published “European Joint Strategy in support of Palestine” noted, that “Since 2008 the EU, EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland have disbursed around USD 1 billion annually in official development assistance to Palestine and the Palestinians.”

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The PA is not oblivious to this reality. Rather, the PA rightly interprets the continued aid provided by the international community to the PA as nothing short of an endorsement of its heinous terror-rewarding policy. It is this feeling of empowerment that allows PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – whose most important, if not only, legacy for the Palestinian people is the Pay-for-Slay policy – to brazenly and repeatedly declare that even if the PA is left with just one penny in its coffers, he will pay it first to the terrorists:

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$\"\"$ $\"\"$ $\"\"$ $\"\"$

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Abbas: “A blessing is sent to our loyal Martyrs, our prisoners, and their families who are standing firm and bearing their suffering with patience. We say to them, to the families of the Martyrs, that we will defend their rights regardless of the price we’ll have to pay. I won’t submit to what Israel has requested. I won’t submit. Even if I’m left with one penny, I’ll pay it to the families of the Martyrs, to the prisoners, and to the wounded, and I won’t withhold this from them.”
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[Official PA TV, June 4 (twice), 5 (twice), 6 (four times), 9 (twice), 11 (twice), 12, 15, 16 (twice), 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 26, 28, 30, July 2, 3 (twice), 4, 6, 7, 8, 13 (twice), 17 (twice) 23, 26, Aug. 9 (three times), 13, 14, 20, 21, 29, 30 (twice), Sept. 26, Oct. 31, 2021, Jan. 30, 2022]
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To mark Holocaust Remembrance day, the EU issued a special statement in which it wrote, inter alia:

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“We pledge to speak out forcefully whenever and wherever antisemitism rises. It is unacceptable that today the hatred of Jews is once again on the march. We will not stand idly by when Jews are being attacked or harassed, when false conspiracy theories and stereotypes are spread, when the Holocaust is denied or distorted, when the State of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security is questioned.
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Words are not enough.”
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[Local EU Statement on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), webpage of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel, Apr. 17, 2023]
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If the EU is sincere in its commitment to “speak out forcefully whenever and wherever antisemitism rises”, they will not only speak out, but take action and condition any additional aid to the PA, on the later completely abolishing its policy to reward terrorists and murderers of Jews.

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If the EU is sincere in its commitment to “not stand idly by when Jews are being attacked or harassed, when false conspiracy theories and stereotypes are spread, when the Holocaust is denied or distorted,” then it must publicly and officially castigate the PA for its promotion of false conspiracy theories and stereotypes about Jews, and for its vile Holocaust denial, distortion and perversion, as exposed yesterday by PMW, and demand the removal of all materials that deny, distort or belittle the Holocaust from all of Palestinian society.

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As the EU correctly noted: “Words (which they never say anyway - PMW) are not enough”
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\nIf the international community is truly committed to “Never again!” all donors must hold the PA accountable for both its terror reward policy and its Holocaust denial, distortion and perversion.

\n","id":33019,"contentType":"Article","author":[{"citeName":{"en":"Hirsch, M.","he":""},"id":461,"name":{"en":"maurice hirsch, adv.","he":""},"about":""}],"description":"The call \"Never again!\" should have meaning. Why does the international community ignore the PA's policy to reward terrorists, including those who murdered Jews simply for being Jews, and its Holocaust denial, distortion and perversion? ","title":"Even the Nazis didn’t pay a reward for murdering Jews","imageUrl":"/Storage/Images/2023/Abbas-Holocaust-3-2.JPG","tagIds":["1","20","24","43","97","220","265","858","1034","1384"],"thumbnail":"/Storage/Images/2023/Abbas-Holocaust-3-2.JPG"}]

Maurice Hirsch