Palestinian Governments murder Prisoners

Phillippe Assouline has written another excellent blog post:   Palestinian Governments are murdering Palestinian prisoners.

You may recall the Palestinian riots (alas, it's always riots) that followed the death of Arafat Jaradat last February.  The Palestinians had kicked up a storm of violence in response to his death, alleging that Israel had tortured the man to death.  Palestinian propaganda outlets (e.g., "Students for Justice in Palestine", "American Muslims for Palestine", "Students Against [imaginary] Israeli Apartheid" and other professional whiners) put on their usual sanctimony-hysteria circus and the international press, too lazy to do their job, just parroted them. Many were hurt as a result.

Well, it turns out that Jaradat died of natural causes and that an autopsy of his body did not reveal any signs of violence. No one following the Middle East closely was surprised, or shocked at the lack of honesty of the anti-Israel set.

But today Khaled Abu Toameh is reporting on the recent deaths of 11Palestinians IN PALESTINIAN PRISONS IN 2012 ALONE!  In addition, there has been a 10% increase in complaints of torture and human rights abuses under both Hamas and Fatah governments. 
The "Pro-Palestinian" professional whiners and slanderers who call themselves activists are, of course, nowhere to be seen. That is, until they find a way to blame this on Israel too. Then, in the same breath, they will demand that these torturing governments who are never responsible for their actions be granted a state.

There's a word for that in English: Hypocrisy.  What is certain is that such an attitude isn't "Pro-Palestinian".

If the Palestinians are to rule their own lives, REAL Pro-Palestinians (who seem to only exist on the Pro-Israel side these days) MUST hold Palestinian governments to account. And the despicable game of slandering democratic Israel relentlessly while being willfully blind to Palestinian crimes must end

Exactly.  When Palestinians are murdered, dragged behind motorcycles and die in jail by acts of their government, the world seems to go silent.  Enough!

5mfi on Palestinian Right of Return

A good blog post from 5 minutes for Israel on the Right of Palestinians to return.

One of the ironies of Right of Return is that of the almost five million registered refugees, some almost two million of them (1,895,043 from a total 4,797,723†), a smiggen under forty percent (40%) live in Gaza and the West Bank. That’s right. They live in the area that Mahmud Abbas worked so hard to gain recognition as the Palestinian State. Abbas is a case in point. Despite being the President of the Palestinian Authority; a presidential palace in Ramallah (Hamas ‘cooperation’ has made his Gaza residence currently off-limits) and an estimated personal wealth of  $100 million he retains refugee status. 

A $100 refugee.  To be fair, he said he didn;t want to return to Sefad

If there is a real Apartheid in the Middle East it is in Lebanon. Despite sixty years of residence Palestinian refugees do not have Lebanese citizenship, are legally barred from owning property or legally barred from entering a list of desirable occupations. Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the New York Times, although “Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries… until now, only a handful have been given” to Palestinians. AND THE SITUATION HAS IMPROVED FROM WHAT IT WAS TWO YEARS AGO!

People forget very quickly how "Palestinians" have been treated by other Arabs.

Palestinian Statehood at the UN

The vote on upgrading Palestinian statehood at the UN to "Observer" status like The Holy See (Vatican city) has happened.  Full details here.

Ironically on the same day in 1947 there was a similar vote.  It would have given Palestinians full statehood.  They rejected it, because it would have meant living side by side with a Jewish state.

Here is the full transcript of Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the UN.  He appears to be proactively making peace with statements like this:

I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization: We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peace-making. I say to them: Let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring States - Palestine and Israel - instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other.

But there are also references to try and appease Hamas, such as referencing "Apartheid", without stating what he means by that.  Apartheid is a South African term, where Whites and Blacks were separated in Parks, Buses, Workplaces and rights by law.  There can be no comparison to what Abbas is complaining about here (settlements?).
 
The vote doesn't really change anything, as peace cannot be achieved until peace talks are completed.  Hopefully this means that the Palestinians will resume peace talks, elections and eventually responsibility for rehousing people they are keeping stuck in refugee camps.

More news from our region:

New Zealand voted for the motion.

"New Zealand is a long-standing supporter of the two state solution. We believe that Israel and a Palestinian state should exist side by side, each respecting the other's right to peace. And we believe that they should arrive at that conclusion through direct talks.

"As I stated in my address to the UN General Assembly earlier this year, we have never regarded a UN resolution as an adequate substitute for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That is the only way of achieving a durable solution to this question."

However McCully said the UN resolution was "a poor substitute for direct negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"We remain frustrated that two leaders who live half an hour up the road from each other cannot meet to resolve these matters directly."

Mr McCully said officials have discussed the proposed text of the resolution with Palestinian representatives, who have "delivered a resolution that is moderate, 
constructive, and reflects our commitment to a two-state solution".

"In our explanation of vote to the UN our Permanent Representative Hon Jim McLay will make clear our absolute commitment to Israel's right to safety and security, and condemn the actions of Hamas extremists in recent weeks," Mr McCully said.

"However, we will also assert our support for the moderate leadership of President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad and others who are working to make a two-state solution a viable goal.

"The New Zealand Government is under no illusions as to the utility of a UN resolution. It will solve nothing. But in the absence of the direct talks we have called for, we will deal with the UN resolution on its merits."

Australia abstained, although not without controversy.  Julia Gillard wanted to vote against, but was rolled by her own party.

This satirical article is worth a read also.  Palestinian Statehood is granted, but victimhood status is downgraded

A course in Map Reading

The team at 5 Minutes for Israel have issued some helpful advice for the Auckland nutters - a course in Map Reading.

This helps explain the map they showed on all their posters.