Israel was not reported by UNESCO, but in 2011 a non-UNESCO report had our overall illiteracy rate at 2.2%.
Conclusion: 'Palestine's illiteracy rate is comparable with Israel and the Gulf countries, i.e. with the relatively wealthier countries of the region. Israel isn't holding them down and they are not exactly 'suffering.' Shocking conclusion. (NOT!).
Bonus - the classrooms pictured in those tweets are MUCH nicer classrooms than those that my two youngest children (now 7th and 9th grades) study in. Because the 'international community' is obsessed with the 'Palestinians.'
In Israel, which is an OECD country, my two youngest children studied in a school that doesn't have a building last year (one of them will still be there when school starts on Sunday). They study in corrugated tin boxes that are boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter.
Funny, I don't see the 'international community' lining up to give my kids a fancy school building like the one in the picture above.
(Forget the funny number in the tweet - it's almost irrelevant).
As of July 2014, the UN estimates a population of 2,731,052 in the 'West Bank' of which 83% are 'Palestinian Arab,' 33.7% are aged 0-14, and 21.7% are aged 15-24.
As of July 2014,the UN estimates a population of 1,816,379 in Judenrein Gaza, of which 44.7% are 0-14 years old.
UNRWA claimed in a tweet on Saturday that 'oppressed' Gaza has 252 schools (and 78 hospitals - a World Bank report puts that number at 30, still a lot for a small area).
Efforts by Palestine Gov., UN agencies, NGOs, Int'l donor community for 2 years resulted in rebuilding 78 hospitals & 252 schools in #Gaza
And by the way, it seems that UNRWA forgot to coordinate their numbers with the 'Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.' The PCBS claims approximately 1.73 million 'Palestinians' in Gaza in 2014. The CIA gives the Gaza 'Palestinian' population at the same time as 1,816,379 (as of July 2014).
But the CIA says 44.7% of the 'Palestinians' are aged 14 and under. I think that means there should be a lot more than 263,200 students.
Hmmm. You don't think someone's monkeying with the numbers, do you?
And by the way, how are they re-building with that alleged Israeli 'blockade' in place?
In 1961, they knew how to solve the 'Palestinian problem'
Here's an amazing 1961 Atlantic piece (would the Atlantic even publish something like this today @JeffreyGoldberg) written by a woman I am told is Ernest Hemmingway's ex-wife (thanks @soccerdhg) who took a tour of eight 'Palestinian refugee camps' in 1961.
Here's the money quote (in more ways than one) (Hat Tip: @zlando).
On this warlike note, we left. My guide had seemed a sober contented
fellow until our little meeting, whereupon he sounded like a politician
running recklessly for office. He then astonished me again.
"It
can all be solved with money," he said. "Now the people have nothing in
their mouths but words, so they talk. Money fills the mouth too. If
every man got a thousand dollars for each member of his family, for
compensation to have lost his country, and he could be a citizen in any
Arab country he likes, he would not think of Palestine any more. Then he
could start a new life and be rich and happy. And those who really do
own something in Palestine must be paid for what they had there. But
those are not many. Most had nothing, only work."
It could - and probably still can - all be solved with money (although probably more today than 55 years ago). But of course no one - especially UNRWA - has any interest in solving it with money. And so, unlike any other refugees in the world, the 'Palestinians' continue to fester in camps... except for the ones who have escaped to the West.
Read the whole thing (I'm still reading it myself). And keep in mind that it was written six years BEFORE Israel 'occupied' the 'West Bank' and Gaza, so obviously that's not the problem.
A watchdog group, UN Watch, reports that staffers at a major United
Nations agency with a long history of encouraging Palestinian terrorism,
the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is inciting the latest spate of attacks in Israel. From the UN Watch press release:
UN staffers are using the imprimatur of their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews, with one UN-identified employee calling on Facebook to “stab Zionist dogs,” according to a new report issued today by UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization that is accredited by the United Nations with the mandate to monitor the world body’s compliance with its charter.
UN Watch submitted the report today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl, and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, whose government’s $400 million annual grant makes it the largest funder of UNRWA.
“The UN and top funders of UNRWA such as the United States government must act immediately to terminate employees who are inciting murderous anti-Semitism and fueling the deadly pandemic of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews that have claimed innocent men, women and children, aged 13 to 78,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Despite UNRWA’s promise, in the wake of our previous report, to take action and dismiss UNRWA perpetrators of incitement, there has been no accountability whatsoever,” said Neuer. “On the contrary, UNRWA’s main response has been to try and intimidate UN Watch.”…
Although we are over $18 trillion in debt (officially, with the unofficial total many times higher), the U.S. government not only redistributes $400 million a year to support the UNRWA’s promotion of terrorism; our government also redistributes a staggering $5 billion per annum to Palestinians: the people carrying out the yet another intifada, the people who elected Hamas – a formally designated terrorist organization under American law – to govern Gaza, and the people whose U.S.-supported Palestinian Authority has voluntarily formed a unity government with Hamas.
I can think of one place where the next President of the United States can look to cut the budget. But will s/he?
MUST SEE: @APDiplowriter schools the State Department on hypocrisy
Shana Tova, a good year to all of you. While the holiday has not yet ended in much of the world, here in Israel it is over.
And now, for your entertainment pleasure, the AP's Matt Lee schools the State Department spokesperson on the hypocrisy of last summer's criticism of Israeli operations in Gaza v. the excuses for the US bombing a civilian hospital in Afghanistan last week.
UNRWA is reporting that for the first time in 50 years (dating back roughly to when Israel liberated Gaza in 1967), infant mortality in the Gaza Strip is increasing. It goes without saying that UNRWA blames the Israeli 'blockade' of Gaza.
"The number of babies dying before the age of one has consistently
gone down over the last decades in Gaza, from 127 per 1,000 live births
in 1960 to 20.2 in 2008," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
said in a statement over the weekend.
However, "at the last count, in 2013, it had risen to 22.4 per 1,000
live births," UNRWA said. The statement was reported by the Lebanon
Daily Star.
The agency added that neonatal mortality in Gaza – the number of
babies who die before the age of four weeks – rose from 12 per 1,000
live births in 2008 to 20.3 in 2013.
In light of the new data, UNRWA intends conducting a new
Gaza-specific survey this year. Normally, infant mortality across the
region is surveyed every five years.
Akihiro Seita, director of UNRWA's health program, said the sudden upswing was unprecedented in the Middle East.
"When the 2013 results from Gaza were first uncovered, UNRWA was
alarmed by the apparent increase. So we worked with external independent
research groups to examine the data, to ensure the increase could be
confirmed," he said.
"That is why it took us so long to release these latest figures."
While the exact causes of the increased rate of infant mortality are
"hard to know," Seiko did not discount Israel's blockade of the Gaza
Strip, where close to 45 percent of the population is under 14 years
old.
"We are very concerned about the impact of the long-term blockade; on
health facilities, supplies of medicines and bringing equipment in to
Gaza," he said in the statement.
There's one way for the infant mortality rate in Gaza to immediately drop back to where it was: If Israel were to reoccupy the Strip. That would help even more quickly if the Hamas, Jihad, al-Qaeda etc. leadership were expelled at the same time.
Israeli report on Gaza operation shows something UN report won't
The government of Israel has released a 277-page report on its investigation into last summer's Operation Protective Edge today, the same day that the United Nations is releasing its report. What does the Israeli report have that the United Nations report doesn't? Here's one example:
Here's something new: photos of the weapons Hamas hid in an UNRWA school. From page 85 of Israeli gov's Gaza report. pic.twitter.com/o88plSxg2y
Celebrate! United Nations celebrates 65 years of Hamas' arms supplier (with video)
As you might recall, last summer UNRWA - the agency that is supposed to resettle 'Palestinian refugees' and instead has perpetuated their 'refugee status' for the last 65 years - was caught hidingdiscoveredrocketshidden in its schools in Gaza, and explosives booby-trapped into those schools' walls. On Tuesday, a high-level United Nations meeting celebrated all that UNRWA has done for 'Palestinian refugees' (Hat Tip: Bad Blue).
On June 2, 2015, the UN held a full-day high-level conference honoring
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) on its 65th anniversary. UNRWA Commissioner General
Pierre Krähenbühl used the occasion to commend himself for UNRWA's
performance under his leadership. He made no mention of the findings of
the UN Secretary General's own Board of Inquiry that UNRWA failed to
secure weapons in their schools and even gave weapons back to Hamas -
thereby facilitating the commission of war crimes.
The meeting consisted of a day of hate speech and blood libels directed at the UN member state of Israel.
Indeed it did. Here are some of the highlights. Let's go to the videotape.
And if you're an American taxpayer, you paid for at least 22% of this celebration. So why isn't anyone speaking out against this?
Translation: You can breathe a sigh of relief. From today, smoking is prohibited in UNRWA facilities. Okay, fire near missiles is definitely dangerous to health.
Silly me, I thought that Bedouins were nomads. If that's the case, how could they ever have had homes from which they could be 'refugees'?
But UNRWA is threatening Israel over a plan to move Bedouin from the area of E1 - between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim - to the Jericho area, which is further east.
"If such a plan were implemented this would ... give rise to concerns
that it amounts to a 'forcible transfer' in contravention of the Fourth
Geneva Convention" banning involuntary population relocation in
occupied territory, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said.
"It might also make way for further Israeli illegal settlement
expansion, further compromising the viability of a two-state solution,"
he said in a statement. "I urge the Israeli authorities not to
proceed with the transfer...and I also urge the donor and state
community to take a firm stand against it."
...
UNRWA added that most of those slated for resettlement to Jericho, in
the east of the Palestinian Authority territory, were registered
Palestinian refugees.
The IDF Civil Administration said there were various plans to rehouse Bedouin and they were being conducted in consultation with community leaders. "As part of the effort to draft master plans for the benefit of the area's Bedouin population, whose purpose is to enable the Bedouin to live in places with suitable infrastructure, dozens of meetings were held with Bedouin leaders," the Administration said in a written response to AFP. "Several plans to prepare such places have been advanced, partly through such meetings."
Why don't I hear any Bedouin protesting this plan? Hmmm.
According to Wednesday's daily Haaretz, the Palestinian
Embassy in Greece reported that the ship that sank off the coast of
Malta was carrying more than 450 passengers, most of them Gaza
Palestinians. Other reports say the vessel was rammed intentionally by
another ship run by rival smugglers.
The Gaza-based human rights group Adamir collected the names of more
than 400 missing people. “No one knows where they are; the whole Gaza
Strip is talking about it. It’s such a painful story, as if it’s not
enough what happened in the last war and now another blow comes,” Adamir
director Halil Abu Shamala told Haaretz, noting that most of the passengers were young people but that there were also whole families aboard.
At least 15 Palestinians drowned when another ship sank off the Egyptian coast near Alexandria on Saturday.
Abu Ahmed, who lost his son on that ship, explained to Haaretz
that most of the Gazans leave through tunnels that originate in the
southern Gaza town of Rafah and come out on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
One Gazan involved in such operations told Haaretz: “This
trip costs between $3500 to $4000 dollars a person. It’s a relatively
small tunnel; most of the big ones have been blocked by the Egyptians.
People crawl dozens of meters and at the end of the tunnel on the
Egyptian side of Rafah a minibus or other vehicle waits for them and
takes them to Port Said.”
He added that Egyptian security officials are bribed to look the other way.
Haaretz heard testimony that the refugees board small boats,
sometimes dozens per boat. Once they leave Egyptian territorial waters
they switch to another boat that in most cases sails to Italy. The trip
usually takes about a week.
One refugee told Haaretz that when the boat approaches the
shore it issues a distress call and Italian navy and Red Cross ships
pick them up. In other cases, people jump into the water with life
jackets, and are rescued by the Coast Guard or the Red Cross.
Evelyn Gordon points out that 'Palestinian refugees' are the only refugees in the world who are denied the right of resettlement.
The news that hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza drowned
last week when the boats in which they were trying to reach Europe sank
once again highlights the hypocrisy of the world’s attitude toward the
Palestinians. After all, the “international community” has designated
two-thirds of all Gaza residents as bona fide refugees, even though the
vast majority of them were born in Gaza and have lived there all their
lives. And as bona fide refugees, they shouldn’t have had to board
rickety smugglers’ boats in a desperate attempt to reach Europe; they
should have been able to apply to the UN for orderly resettlement right
from their refugee camps, just as thousands of other refugees do every
year. But they can’t, because Palestinians are the only refugees in the
world who are denied the basic right of resettlement.
Granted, they are also the only
“refugees” in the world for whom refugeehood is an inheritable status
that can be passed down to one’s descendants in perpetuity, generation
after generation. Under the definition used by the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees, which deals with all the world’s refugees except
Palestinians, only a few thousand elderly Gazans who were personally
displaced in 1948 would be considered refugees today, rather than the
1.2 million actually on UN rolls.
So if the “international community” were to argue that Gazans don’t
deserve a right to resettlement because they aren’t really refugees,
that would be perfectly legitimate.
But it doesn’t. In fact, not only has the world adopted the unique
definition of refugeehood promulgated by the Palestinians’ personal
refugee agency, UNRWA, but it actively supports this definition by
funding UNRWA’s ever-expanding budget to keep pace with its
ever-expanding number of “refugees.” And once having accepted the claim
that these born-and-bred Gazans are actually refugees from an Israel
they’ve never seen, the international community is morally obligated to
ensure that they enjoy the same rights as all other refugees.
Instead, Palestinians are the only refugees in the world who are denied the right of resettlement. Whereas UNHCR resettles tens of thousands
of refugees every year, UNRWA hasn’t resettled a single refugee in its
65 years of existence. On the contrary, the schools it runs for
Palestinian refugees indoctrinate them
from kindergarten on that there is one, and only one, way for them to
end their refugee status: by “returning” to the towns or villages in
Israel that their ancestors fled–which most of them have never seen, and
some of which no longer even exist. In short, since Israel would never
voluntarily accept all five million “refugees” on UNRWA’s rolls, it’s
telling them that the only solution to their refugeehood is Israel’s
destruction.
But as long as there are no Jews killing the 'Palestinian refugees'... what difference does it make?
United Nations refused to evacuate civilians from Gaza war zone
Mark Langfan posts part of a fascinating interview with Penelope Ironside. Ms. Ironside heads up the UNICEF field office in Gaza. UNICEF is the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, and is meant to help children all over the world, including in both Gaza and Israel. Ms. Ironside reports that the UNICEF and the United Nations were asked by the IDF to evacuate civilians who were being used as human shields by Hamas in Gaza. The organizations refused to act.
At 29 minutes into the briefing, Ms. Ironside landed what could be an
absolute bombshell in any future war-crimes tribunal. In response to a
question of how she, and the entire UN Gaza staff, remained “neutral” in
the face of Gaza children’s and civilian hardships, Ms. Ironside stated
that, “There have been attempts to instrumentalize the UN in Gaza in
this conflict. Including, there have been attempts [by Israel] to try
to facilitate military operations against the [Palestinian] civilian
population by facilitating the clearance of certain neighborhoods. The
UN has refused to be a party to that.” (Emphasis added to convey Ms.
Ironside’s emphasis.) Ms. Ironside, on a follow-up question, clarified
that it was the Israelis that sought the UN’s help in clearing civilian
neighborhoods of civilians in advance of imminent Israeli military
operations directed at military targets imbedded in those civilian
neighborhoods. She explained that the Israelis had informed them
through “text messages, phone calls, and leaflets from Israel,” with
“notice of some hours.” From her briefing statements, Ms. Ironside
appeared to believe that “some hours” of Israeli notice to her meant
“short notice.”
In essence, she admitted that the UN, not just
UNICEF, has purposefully refused to assist, or to “be a party” to, the
orderly civilian evacuation of areas Israel had warned it would soon
attack in several hours. Thus, from Ms. Ironsides’ briefing testimony,
it would appear that the UN, itself, has had a significant and negative
role in the number of Gazan civilian deaths that have consequently
resulted.
Let's go to the videotape. The part we're looking for starts at 1:14.
I don't get this. How does evacuating citizens from a war zone to save them from harm 'instrumentalize' the UN? Why would the UN not try to save civilians whose lives are being placed at risk whether involuntarily due to force by Hamas, or voluntarily because they are willing to act as human shields?
.@ChrisGunness of @UNRWA:
Is it true you live not in Gaza but Tel Aviv? Isn’t it hypocrisy to demonize Israel while you enjoy its democracy?
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 24, 2014
The better question is why Israel allows @ChrisGunness to live in Tel Aviv.
IDF slide and video report on Hamas' use of civilians as human shields
This is a very well done presentation, although I am sure I will hear from people on Twitter who will claim that it's 'lies.' Well, whom are you going to believe? Hamas or your lying eyes? Look at the slides, see the videos (there are several) and decide.
John Bolton and The New Republic agree: Stop funding UNRWA
I doubt anyone will be surprised to hear that former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton thinks that it's time to stop funding UNRWA.
As the former United States Ambassador to the United
Nations, my eyes have long been open to the dangerous biases and
political agendas in play at the U.N.
It is at the core of my mission to
share these facts with the American people, and why I am writing today.
The United Nations has lost its way, and now we MUST take action.
In the midst of the current Hamas-Israel hostilities, and well
before, U.N. institutions and agencies have behaved so outrageously that
they've inflicted severe damage to the United Nation's reputation and
credibility.
The bottom line is that the United States can no longer excuse or
ignore the egregious anti-Israel bias we've seen out of U.N.
institutions, period. ...
Then there is the U.N. Relief and Works Administration (UNRWA). Three
times in late July, UNRWA was forced to admit publicly that it
"discovered" stockpiles of Hamas rockets stored in UNRWA's Gaza schools.
Why didn't UNRWA stop Hamas from stockpiling missiles in its schools,
or at least immediately report this ploy to the U.N. Security Council?
Unfortunately, we know Obama will not act to disassociate the United
States from this unacceptable international conduct regarding Gaza and
Israel. That's why we're urging Congress to investigate IMMEDIATELY and
take action.
Writing in the New Republic, Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe agree.
UNRWA, the U.N.’s 65-year-old, internationally funded welfare
organization for Palestinians, should be commended for providing much
needed shelter and aid to displaced Gazans during the crisis. But given
several revelations during the current conflict between Hamas and
Israel, UNRWA should have no role in any negotiated arrangement
regarding Gaza’s reconstruction.
On three occasions rockets were found in UNRWA schools, closed for the summer, and at least once they were returned
to Hamas. On another occasion, the UNRWA accused Israel of targeting
civilians sheltering in a school when in fact those deaths were caused by a Hamas rocket that fell short. And on another occasion it accused Israel of targeting a shelter and civilians when in reality terrorists outside the facility were hit and civilian bodies possibly planted at the scene.
UNRWA hascondemned the
rockets found in its schools, but it has not condemned Hamas’ firing
rockets from in and around its facilities, or any other locations such
as residential areas, hospital parking lots, and hotels. All these have
now been documented,
often reluctantly, by journalists who have left Gaza, who have also
made it clear that they were subject to Hamas surveillance, harassment
and intimidation. Instead, UNRWA and its spokesman Chris Gunness have
tweeted accusations, voiced hollow defenses, and cried on television.
UNRWA’s
many responsibilities should be transferred to the Palestinian
Authority, as a means of strengthening the PA practically, politically,
and in the eyes of Gaza’s residents. UNRWA employees should be made PA
employees and international funds redirected to support its programs.
This would be one of the timeliest means of rebuilding the PA in a
region where it has been weakest, Gaza, and a way to begin the long
overdue process of dismantling UNRWA.
This recommendation has its flaws. The PA is monumentally corrupt while UNRWA is not (although recent revelations
regarding diversions of building supplies provided by the U.N. and
overseen by UNRWA to Hamas have begun to change that image). There must
be the expectation that Western funds and supplies will go missing, only
to end up in the bank accounts and businesses of PA leaders and their
families. But if at long last international donors become serious about
cracking down on PA corruption, and Gazans demanded accountability from
their government, there is at least the chance for good governance to
emerge.
As it is, UNRWA is effectively a branch of Hamas. The overwhelming majority of its employees in Gaza belong
to the Hamas-linked trade union. An unknown number of employees are
actual Hamas fighters (or at least know UNRWA employees with keys to the
schools so that rockets can be stored in classrooms over the summer).
The curriculum taught in UNRWA schools is shaped by Hamas, which earlier
this year rejected textbooks
that failed to tout “armed resistance” as too “peaceful.” Gaza cannot
be rebuilt at western expense only to return to this perverse status
quo.
Dismantling UNRWA requires the approval of the United
Nations General Assembly, making it unlikely. But if donor countries
were to reprogram their funds, first by demanding that the PA take over
UNRWA’s employees and responsibilities, the effect would be the same. In
2010, Canada shifted its contributions away from UNRWA, sending a
strong message about the organization. And in Gaza allegiances are based
in the first place on who pays the bills. Better this be the PA with
Western help than Hamas with Qatari help. Adding UNRWA’s 13,000
employees in Gaza to the PA’s roster would be a boost.
What to do when the media isn't interested in the truth
Caroline Glick thinks out of the box and writes about how to deal with the reality that the international media is not interested in the truth about our conflict with the 'Palestinians.' She argues that we need to create stories on which they will be forced to report.
Given this situation, it is clear that Israel’s public diplomacy efforts are directed toward the wrong goal.
The goal of hasbara cannot be to educate the likes of The New York
Times’ bureau chief Jodi Rudoren about the truth because the problem
isn’t one of ignorance. The problem is that they consider the truth an
impediment to their goal of reporting the narrative of Israeli
criminality.
Rather than striving to educate, we must work to manipulate the Rudorens of the world into covering the truth.
For instance, there is no reason to provide reporters clearly dedicated
to hiding the truth with access to national leaders and military
commanders. Let them find their own sources. Israel is a free country.
There is no reason for The New York Times to be invited to a press
briefing by IDF commanders.
Another critical element of a strategy for forcing hostile media and
international agencies to contend with the truth is to create events
that they can’t ignore.
For instance, the chief military prosecutor together with the state
prosecution should indict Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah leaders on war
crimes charges and the relevant Israeli courts should begin adjudicating
the cases.
The Knesset should begin deliberations on a bill to strip UNRWA of its
legal immunity as a first step towards bringing its personnel up on
charges of providing material support for terrorism.
True, such actions will be met with howls of condemnation and hysterical reproaches from all the usual suspects.
But at least they will be talking about Palestinian war crimes. At least
they will be forced to acknowledge that UNRWA is a force of
destabilization and radicalization, not of stabilization and moderation
in the Arab conflict with Israel.
Our leaders and spokespeople cannot win the information war by devoting
themselves to pointing out the West’s hypocrisy and double standards, or
the rank mendaciousness and bigotry that stands at the core of their
approach to Israel. No one ever won a war by only playing defense. And
we won’t win this one by explaining why we aren’t war criminals.
We will only begin to make progress when we define the goal of our
hasbara as forcing an unwilling media and international community to
discuss the truth by taking deliberate actions that will make it
impossible for them to ignore it.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
I want one of these. Any of you want to 
