Ezra Nawi, an Israeli Jewish plumber, has a long history as a left-wing activist helping Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Now he is under arrest in Israel, after a right-wing activist surreptitiously filmed him bragging about exposing Arab brokers who tried to sell Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. Such sales are a capital crime under Palestinian law.
Considered
variously as a big-mouthed provocateur and a colorful human-rights
adventurer, Mr. Nawi has become the latest symbol in the battle between
advocacy groups on opposite sides of Israel’s political spectrum, and
the increasingly fierce debate here over the nature of Israeli society
and democracy.
The debate has heated up as Israel’s conservative government is pushing
forward contentious legislation that would require nongovernmental
organizations to disclose funding they receive from foreign governments
in their publications, advertising and meetings with public officials.
The proposed bill, which supporters say is meant to increase
transparency, would apply mainly to leftist groups critical of Israel’s
policy toward the Palestinians, since rightist groups mostly receive
private funding from abroad, and it has already drawn harsh criticism
from the Obama administration and European diplomats.
No, this story is not about the NGO law, which the Times so hates. It's about yet another Leftist fascist who thinks he has the right to endanger other people's lives.
It
is an odd case. Mr. Nawi, described in a 2009 New York Times profile as
“the Robin Hood of the South Hebron Hills,” helping Palestinians who
love him and “thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with
contempt,” is now accused of endangering the lives of Palestinians. That
is because selling land to Israeli Jews is punishable by death
according to the Palestinian Authority. Although the authority is not
known to have carried out any executions for any offense in more than a
decade, there have been reports of torture in its prisons.
The
Ad Kan video, from about a year ago, shows Mr. Nawi behind the wheel of
his jeep, bragging about what appeared to be a dubious sideline to his
activist work in the West Bank.
He told the man sitting next to him, whom he believed to be a fellow
sympathizer, that he sometimes posed as a land broker and engaged with
other land dealers mediating sales of Palestinian-owned land to Jewish
settlers, then handed over their details to the Palestinian Authority
security services.
Asked what the Authority did with such people, Mr. Nawi said it “catches them and kills them.”
Days later, he was arrested at the airport as he was about to leave the country.
Odd? Not to anyone who knows the history of Israel's prosecutorial regime burying charges against the Left. Only by gathering evidence so convincing that even the Left-leaning Uvda had to run with it or lose all credibility could Nawi's disgusting behavior be exposed.
There is a story here. Too bad it's not the one the Times chose to tell.
Jewish Voice for 'peace' seeks to free accessory to murder
Israel Radio reported this morning that a Jew and a 'Palestinian' - both 'peace activists' - are being held for meeting with an enemy foreign agent.
While the radio did not disclose who they are, the uber-Leftist Jew-haters at Jewish Voice for 'peace' are petitioning for his release (if you think my description of JVP is an overstatement, go here).
If you're wondering why this Jewish-born drek is being held, go here.
Video with English translation of Ezra Nawi saying he turns 'Palestinian' land sellers over for torture and death
Thursday night's video showing Leftist 'human rights' activists Ezra Nawi and Nasser Najawa ran 44 minutes long. Now, StandWithUs has translated two of the key minutes into English (subtitles).
Let's go to the videotape.
Palestinians deserve the freedom to make decisions about their own property. Those who consider themselves Palestinian...
Posted by StandWithUs on Sunday, January 10, 2016
By the way, I hope the gentleman referred to in the video as 'Arik' (the one who did the recording) is well-hidden. Nawi undoubtedly knows who he is and surely wants to have him killed.
Israel's Left is circling the wagons around two of its own. Ta'ayush's Ezra Nawi (pictured) and B'Tselem's Nasser Nawaja were shown on Israeli television on Thursday night telling a Right wing activist with a hidden camera that they turn over 'Palestinians' who wish to sell land to Jews to the 'Palestinian security forces' for torture and death.
Although the story has gotten little exposure outside of Israel, here it's all the rage. Over the weekend, Israel's hard left has been circling the wagons to defend Nawi and Nawaja.
Both Nawi and Nawaja are among the most internationally renowned
members of Israel’s radical left. Earlier this year, Nawaja published an
anti-Israeli op-ed in The New York Times,
accusing the Jewish state of “dispossession and oppression.” Nawi is
considerably more prominent: when he was arrested, in 2007, for
attacking Israeli policemen during a West Bank demonstration, more than
20,000 people—including a long list of prominent Israeli academics as
well as progressive American celebrities like Noam Chomsky and Naomi
Klein—signed a petition demanding his release.
Responding to the piece with a statement on its Facebook page,
B’Tselem said that while it opposed tortures and executions, reporting
Palestinians interested in selling land to Israelis to the PA was “the
only legitimate course of action.”
These revelations comes at an inopportune moment for the two NGOs, as
the Israeli government is considering measures to regulate non-profit
organizations receiving financial support from foreign governments. Ta’ayush,
according to the Jerusalem-based group NGO-Monitor, receives some
foreign donations but does not disclose its funding.
B’Tselem, on the
other hand, is considered one of Israel’s leading civil rights
organizations, and receives financial support from
the governments of Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as the European
Union and the New Israel Fund.
Amazingly, B'Tselem, a favored grantee of the American non-profit organization The New Israel Fund, defended the action portrayed on today’s show, claiming that “This is the only legitimate channel for a Palestinian.”
Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett accused the
New Israel Fund and the European Union of funding Israeli human rights
activists who turn in innocent Palestinians, and later urged foreign
ambassadors to Israel to stop transferring funds to these organizations.
(Both, B’Tselem and Ta’ayush receive funding from France and the United Kingdom, as well as from American Jews.)
Ta’ayush has in the past partnered with Rabbis for Human Rights
– of which Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple Israel of White Plains is a
donor - to bring “hundreds of volunteers to work side-by-side with
Palestinian farmers during Olive Harvest campaign.”
The pushback from the Left has been so fierce that even journalists like Maariv's Ben Caspit and Haaretz's Barak Ravid (both Leftists themselves) have criticized the Left wing organizations for not disavowing Nawi and Nawaja (links in Hebrew).
Of course, then there are the real Jew haters, like Gideon Levy, who still has a platform at Haaretz.
In a report on left-wing groups which operate in the West Bank, Uvda aired secretly recorded footage
of Israeli activist Ezra Nawi saying that he had exposed Palestinian
land brokers who sold West Bank land to Jews, and turned them over to
the Palestinian Authority.The right wing and the settlers celebrated the
event of course. Another outpost has fallen into their hands. They have
already compared the left-wing activist Nawi to the Duma murderers, no
less. The rightists and settlers, known for their deep concern about the
lives of Palestinians, were shocked by Nawi’s statements. But the right
is not the story. The story is how a lethal virus has penetrated what
is almost the last outpost of real journalism.
How has a McCarthyist right-wing organization, whose motives are
clear (and despicable) and whose sources are unknown, succeeded with
such ease in enticing such respected journalists as Ilana Dayan and Omri
Assenheim? How has this flagship joined the ranks of the false
propaganda which masquerades as journalism?
That is how to conduct delegitimization. That is how it is done to
liberal organizations in the darkest of regimes, and now here too, and
on Uvda – no less.
Presenting the human rights organizations as dangerous groups, and
penetrating them, is compared to penetrating ISIS. The McCarthyists are
glorified, depicted as heroes of Israel who excelled in battles in Gaza.
All these are well-known ploys. And against this background, all that
is left is to record Nawi boasting, to catch him uttering the taboo
words, to present him as a “senior” activist, to ignore the entire
context — the crimes of the occupation and the expulsion form the
Southern Hebron Hills, which you never heard about on Uvda. Just ignore
the holy work done by left-wing activists in this battered region, spice
it with a few lies such as “execution” by the Palestinian Authority,
add a few generalizations, suspicions and slander – and the dish is
ready.
To those of you with even the slightest suspicion that Levy is onto something, I suggest that you go watch the video of Thursday night's broadcast (it's in Hebrew only, but I summarized it here). It doesn't get much more clear cut. Nawi and Najawa turned 'Palestinians' who wanted to sell land to Jews ('Palestinians' whose existence the Israeli Left denies) over to the 'Palestinian security services' for torture and murder. And they did it with a sadistic smile.
'Human rights' organizations @taayush and @btselem turn 'Palestinian' land seller over to 'Palestinian security services' for torture
For those who can, I strongly recommend watching the original report (44 minutes in Hebrew). Unfortunately, Blogger only allows the uploading of videos up to 100 megabytes - this one is nearly 180 megabytes.
Here's a brief summary:
Ilana Dayan's Uvda (Fact) program on Israel's Channel 10 last night featured an expose on a group of Right wing activists from the center of the country who managed to place a mole in Taayush, a Jewish-Arab organization that advocates for 'Palestinian human rights.'
The mole, an alumnus of an elite IDF combat unit who won an award for bravery during the war in Gaza in the summer of 2014 (while this was going on!), managed to record Ezra Nawi, the Jewish leader of Taayush, in conversations with an Arab land owner who wished to sell land south of Hebron (near Jewish villages) to Jews.
Nawi met with the land seller (in the mole's presence), and then proceeded to conspire with a Btselem 'Palestinian' activist named Nasser Nawajeh to turn the land seller over for 'investigation' by the 'Palestinian security services.'
Yes, that's right, the European-financed 'human rights organizations' turned over (and apparently not for the first time) a 'Palestinian' who wished to sell land to Jews to the 'Palestinian security services' for torture (Nawi says it outright) and 'neutralization' (i.e. murder).
I'm hoping this video will be translated into English because it rips the mask off the 'human rights' activists and the self-hating Jews who are trying to destroy the Jewish state.
The laws on ownership of land under the Palestinian Authority (PA),
originally enacted during the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria
(1948–1967), prohibit Arabs from selling Arab-owned lands to “any man or
judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or
acting on its behalf.” According to several media sources, including the
NY Times, Ha’aretz and Jerusalem Post, selling land to Jews is
considered an act of treason by the Arabs because it threatens the
future Palestinian state and leads to “the spread of moral, political
and security corruption”. Arabs in the Palestinian Authority who sell
land to Israelis may be sentenced to death. The interrogation by PA
security forces of Arabs suspected of selling land to Jews involves
severe torture.
...
When asked what happens once Palestinian Authority police lays its
hands on the sellers, Nawi says, “It catches them, kills them.” He then
added with a vicious smile, “First Zubur, then Gazanga.” Zubur is an
Arabic word used in Hebrew to describe hazing—humiliation and physical
torment. The Gazanga part is not a known word, but implies, in the
context of the tape, the demise of the victim.
Ezra Nawi and his Arab associate, B’Tselem activist Nasser Nawaj’ah,
from the village of Yatta, are left-wing stars, who have been part of
the anti-settlement movement for decades. This is why the Israeli left,
before and immediately following the broadcast Thursday night, began a
campaign in their defense.
The left has praised Nawi and Nawaj’ah to high heaven over the years,
including accolades from linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist,
historian, logician, social critic, and political activist Noam Chomsky;
author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein; Ben-Gurion
University Prof. Niv Gordon; and Meretz Chairperson MK Zehava Galon.
They will not allow for these two folk hero activists to gain a new
renown as agents of death.
B’Tselem accused the show of legitimizing what was, essentially, a
right-wing operation. In that sense, the fact that journalist Dayan
described sending to their certain death Arabs whose only sin is wanting
to sell land to Jews, appears from B’Tselem’s point of view like her
embracing of the “occupation.” Gideon Levy told Dayan on air that “If
that’s all that those plants discovered, it’s a badge of honor for the
human rights organizations.”
...
Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Betzalel Smotrich said “what we’ve watched
tonight is the loss of a moral compass, a betrayal of the State of
Israel and an injury to life under the guise of defending human rights.
This phenomenon is not an invention of Ezra Nawi, unfortunately it is
typical of many of the extremist left wing organizations which are
concealing an extremist political agenda under the cover of human
rights.”
The report’s editor, Ami Assenheim, told Makor Rishon about the
process that preceded the screening: “Nawi is not alone,” he said. “You
see a mix of left-wing activists from other places. Nawi collaborates
with another Jewish activist in Ta’ayush. These are not the actions of a
single individual in a single organization. You see people conspiring
to turn in a land broker to the Preventive Security Force (PSF), knowing
what would be the fate of people like him. They were very embarrassed
when we called them up for a response. There were long silences and
phone hang-ups.”
Nawi himself accused the report of being an effort to sabotage his
heroic work on behalf of the Palestinian population in the southern
Hebron Mountain. “I wasn’t the one trapping the land broker, the
opposite is true,” he said. Nasser Nawaj’ah also denied his role as it
was described in the report, but not quite with the same level of
self-righteousness.
A couple of comments. The timing of this show's release is probably not accidental. As I have noted previously, the Knesset is currently considering a bill to expose foreign government funding of 'NGO's. This show could well advance that bill.
The comments by the Right wing infiltrators at the end were particularly notable. They said that they actually feel sorry for the ordinary 'Palestinians' who are being used not only by their own 'leadership,' but also by organizations that purport to protect their human rights. In other words, the Israeli Right is far more humane to 'Palestinians' than are the 'human rights' organizations.
Sadly, this story is unlikely to get a lot of publicity outside of Israel. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.
Hope: The words 'Palestinian human rights activist' are not an oxymoron
The Israeli reaction to the terror attack in Duma (for which, by the way, there still have been no arrests) has prompted 'Palestinian' human rights activist Bassam Tawil to put something in perspective for his fellow 'Palestinians.'
The strong response of the Israeli public and leaders to the arson
attack is, truthfully, somewhat comforting. The wall-to-wall Israeli
condemnation of this crime has left me and other Palestinians not only
ashamed, but also embarrassed -- because this is not how we Palestinians
have been reacting to terror attacks against Jews -- even the
despicable murder of Jewish children.
Our response has, in fact, brought feelings of disgrace and dishonor.
While the Israeli prime minister, president and other officials were
quick strongly to condemn the murder of Dawabsha, our leaders rarely
denounce terror attacks against Jews. And when a Palestinian leader such
as Mahmoud Abbas does issue a condemnation, it is often vague and
equivocal.
Take, for example, what happened after last year's kidnapping and
murder of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians in the West Bank. It
not only took President Abbas four days
to issue a statement condemning the terror attack, but even then, the
condemnation was at best a tentative: "The Palestinian presidency...
condemns the series of events that happened last week, beginning with
the kidnapping of three Israeli youths." Abbas then went on to denounce
Israel for arresting dozens of Hamas members after the abduction and
murder of the three youths.
Later in 2014, when Abbas did condemn a Palestinian terror attack
that killed five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue, Fatah official Najat
Abu Baker, a few days later, explained that Abbas's condemnation was made "within a diplomatic context... [he] is forced to speak this way to the world."
Abbas's condemnation of the attack at the synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood apparently came only under pressure
from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who telephoned the Palestinian
leader twice to demand that he speak out against the killings. Abbas's
statement said that the Palestinian leadership condemns the "killing of
worshippers in a synagogue and all acts of violence, regardless of their
source." His statement then also called for an end to "incursions and
provocations by settlers against the Aqsa Mosque."
Abbas's ambiguous, half-hearted condemnations of attacks by
Palestinians against Israelis are only intended for public consumption
and are primarily aimed at appeasing Western donors, so that they will
continue channeling funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA). In
addition, his condemnations almost always seek to blame Israel for the
Palestinian terror attacks -- presumably an attempt to justify the
killing of Jews at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.
In contrast, Israeli leaders who condemned the murder of the Palestinian toddler sound firm and unambiguous. Here is what Prime Minister Netanyahu said
after visiting the murdered baby's parents and brother, who were
wounded in the arson attack and are receiving medical treatment in
Israeli hospitals: "When you stand next to the bed of this small child,
and his infant brother has been so brutally murdered, we are shocked, we
are outraged. We condemn this. There is zero tolerance for terrorism
wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from."
Netanyahu's strong and clear condemnation left me and other
Palestinians wondering when was the last time we heard similar
statements from our leaders. I cannot remember ever hearing Abbas or any
other Palestinian leader express shock and outrage over the killing of a
Jew in a Palestinian terror attack. Nor can I remember the last time we
heard of a Palestinian official visiting the Israeli victims of a
Palestinian terror attack.
And they call themselves a 'human rights' organization
B'Tzelem is one of Israel's better known 'human rights' organizations. One of the things that they fight is 'administrative detention,' which is a remnant of the British Mandate that allows persons suspected of crimes to be held without trial for several months. In this video, you will see two interesting things about B'Tzelem.
First, you will see that B'tzelem managed to get the leader of the terror cell that carried out the Bat Yam bus bombing last month released from administrative detention just a few months ago.
And second, you will see that B'Tzelem only objects to administrative detention when 'Palestinians' are being detained. When Jews are detained - as has been happening regularly going back to the early protests against the 'peace process' in 1993-94 - B'Tzelem isn't interested.
I have a troll on Twitter whose bio describes him as an 'activist for human rights.' I don't bother to answer him because when a troll has 29 followers and you have 4,789, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to give him exposure by responding to him. So I let him vent in privacy knowing that 30 people or less are actually seeing what he says. Regardless, it will be interesting to see whether and how he responds to this story.
You see a story like this, and you have to wonder why the 'human rights' organizations seem to have no interest. Oh wait, I don't have to wonder. They can't find a way to blame Israel for the marriage partners chosen by the 'Palestinians,' for the birth defects that result from those choices, for the fact that Muslims are allowed to have more than one wife, or for the fact that 'Palestinian' society thinks it's Sparta. So the so-called defenders of 'human rights' just don't care about a kid like Mohammed. Besides, Israel is paying for his care anyway....
Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed’s hands and feet were
amputated because of complications from his condition, and the
3½-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned
him, and the Palestinian government won’t pay for his care, so he lives
at the hospital with his grandfather.
...
Mohammed’s plight is an extreme example of the
harsh treatment some families mete out to the disabled, particularly in
the more tribal-dominated corners of the Gaza Strip, even as
Palestinians make strides in combating such attitudes.
It also demonstrates a costly legacy of Gaza’s
strongly patriarchal culture that prods women into first-cousin
marriages and allows polygamy, while rendering mothers powerless over
their children’s fate.
Mohammed was rushed to Israel as a newborn for
emergency treatment. His genetic disorder left him with a weakened
immune system and crippled his bowels, doctors say, and an infection
destroyed his hands and feet, requiring them to be amputated.
In the midst of his treatment, his mother
abandoned Mohammed because her husband, ashamed of their son, threatened
to take a second wife if she didn’t leave the baby and return to their
home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, Farra said. In Gaza,
polygamy is permitted but isn’t common. But it’s a powerful threat to
women fearful of competing against newer wives.
Now Mohammed spends his days undergoing treatment and learning how to use prosthetic limbs.
His 55-year-old grandfather cares for him.
Mohammed’s Israeli doctors, who’ve grown attached to the boy, fund-raise
to cover his bills, allowing him and his grandfather to live in the
sunny pediatric ward.
But it’s not clear how long he’ll stay in the
hospital, or where he’ll go when his treatment is complete. As a
Palestinian, Mohammed is not eligible for permanent Israeli residency.
Yet his family will not take the child back, the grandfather said. His
parents, contacted by The Associated Press, refused to comment.
Tom Gross reports on a real human rights summit, which took place down the street from the farcical UN 'human rights council.'
I chaired the final session, which was on the Middle East. Impassioned speeches were given by Maikel Nabil, a young Egyptian veterinary student released seven weeks ago after enduring 302 days in a Cairo prison. For much of this time, he was held in solidarity confinement in a one-metre square space. In other periods, he was packed into a cell with 50 common criminals who were bribed by the guards to beat him. Maikel’s crime? After President Mubarak’s ousting last year, he dared to ask the Egyptian military to cede power too, and wrote blog posts calling for Egyptian society to treat women, gays and Jews with respect. In jail, Maikel went on a hunger strike for 80 days and almost died. But none of this broke him, and on his release on January 24 he waved a “V for victory” sign to waiting supporters.
Also on the panel was Ebrahim Mehtari who, for daring to oppose Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 presidential bid in his native Iran, was thrown into prison, raped, tortured and left for dead on the side of a road. Ebrahim’s life is still at risk, since he is one of the few who speak out about the widespread use of sexual torture in Iranian prisons.
Finally, there was 20-year-old Hadeel Kouki, who had been studying English literature in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Caught trying to bring medical supplies to children injured in one of her government’s barbaric and indiscriminate bombardments of civilians last year, she was imprisoned for eight weeks. During that time, she was subjected to electric shocks and repeatedly raped by prison guards. She asked me to tell the world the name of the guard she says was her chief rapist: Abdul Hakeem Abdullatif.
Upon her release, Hadeel managed to escape across the border to Turkey. She has now been offered political asylum by a Western country. I won’t name that country since Syrian thugs — who see her as a particular threat because she is a Christian standing up against the regime when Syria’s Christian leadership are still backing Assad — sent her messages only last week, warning that “we will catch up with you wherever you are and throw acid all over your beautiful face”.
That's Hadeel Kouki in the picture above.
But Gross asks the wrong question at the end:
American and Canadian embassy staff came to UN Watch’s alternative Geneva human rights summit. But where were the other ambassadors? Does the UN care about human rights? Or does it prefer to be in league with the criminals of the world?
Obviously, the UN doesn't care about human rights - they use human rights solely as a tool to bludgeon Israel and the United States. The real question is why the United States (Canada is not a member) continues to give the United Nations 'human rights council' an aura of respectability and purpose by maintaining its membership. That's a question that ought to be asked again and again until the Obama administration tires of being named and shamed for its human rights record.
Samaria resident David HaIvri talks with an Arab journalist about what will bring peace to our region.
After the interview, in a open conversation with the journalist, who has much experience with the Arab population in Middle Eastern countries, I pointed out that if we were to look at the situation with an objective eye, putting aside preconceptions about Israel and the Palestinians and political correctness, the fact is that in general, Arabs under Israeli rule don't have it as bad as Arab citizens of most of our neighboring countries. That is the truth that the Palestinian propagandists do not want the world to know. That explains why the majority of Arab residents of Jerusalem have answered polls saying that they would rather be a part of Israel and not an Arab state.
The journalist actually acknowledged my point and went on to tell me how difficult his work as journalist is in Arab countries, where freedom of press and freedom of expression are nearly non-existent. In recent months, international journalists have been beaten, molested and kidnapped in other Middle Eastern countries, but the norm of the media is to criticize Israel for much less and accept and overlook such offenses in Arab countries.
Those who pose as "peace" and "rights" activists, who make it their business to libel Israel and the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are not advancing peace as they would prefer to be viewed by the world, but actually, they are the biggest deterrent to peace between the Arabs and Jews in Israel.
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
