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Sunday 30 March 2014

GALLOWAY: ZIONISTS SENT GUNMEN TO UKRAINE TO FORCE UKRAINIAN JEWS TO MOVE TO PALESTINE

British Member of Parliament George Galloway has claimed on his Iranian state-funded television programme that "Zionists sent gunmen to the Maidan [Ukraine]" to force Ukrainian Jews to move to the Middle East. He also claimed that Israel is a "very ugly society".

Galloway – who was recently slammed by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups for what they called his anti-Israeli "racism" – agreed when a caller of his Press TV programme claimed, "Once you're in Israel, it's like a prison, you get stuck in there".

"That's true," laughed Galloway, before going on to say: 

"It's a very ugly society in Israel you know?... Let me ask you this, brother, because it relates to what you've just said and most powerfully, coming from you. Is this one of the reasons why the Zionists sent gunmen to the Maidan [Independence Square] in Kiev, to help a revolution... the cutting edge of which, and the heavy-lifting of which, was being done by actually outright Nazi anti-Semites? The bizarre alliance in the Maidan is part of the thinking of this. 

"Well if these Nazi come to power in Kiev, and they hate Jews so much, the remaining Ukranian Jews will feel that they have to go and settle is Palestine".

The accusation that Israel is somehow supporting the Svoboda and Right Sektor parties in Ukraine will remind readers of when Galloway claimed that Al-Qaeda was being supplied with chemical weapons in Syria by Israel. He then lied to the British Parliament, claiming he had said "no such thing".

Last week, Breitbart London reported another blatant Galloway lie, wherein he claimed that he had never refused to debate an Israeli – an incident caught on camera that resulted in him being accused of being a racist. 

Galloway said at the London School of Economics, "I didn't refuse to share a stage with an Israeli. I share stages with Israelis all the time." But a video from last year shows him stating, "I don’t debate with Israelis. I have been misled."

WATCH: 


Entre assimilation et alya, quel est l’avenir des juifs de France ?


alya et assimilation1

L’avenir de la communauté juive de France est au centre des préoccupations des Juifs mais pas seulement.

A l’heure où chaque membre de notre communauté se pose la question qui divise toujours autant de faire ou de ne pas faire l’alya, les gouvernements eux même se posent aussi la question sur ce que va faire la communauté juive de France. Le gouvernement israélien multiplie les mesures d’encouragement pour les juifs de France à grand renfort de subventions et d’aides en tout genre, même si elles ne sont pas toujours à la hauteur des attentes des olim potentiels. Il est un autre gouvernement qui se pose aussi cette question mais pour d’autres raisons. En effet, une alya massive des juifs de France serait vécue comme une humiliation pour cette République Française qui se veut la terre des droits de l’homme, de l’amitié entre les peuples, soucieuse de l’avenir et de la sécurité de « sa » communauté juive, la plus importante d’Europe.

Un pays occidental qui verrait les juifs déserter cette terre d’accueil dans laquelle une présence juive remonte à la nuit des temps serait la risée de l’occident, le souvenir de la Shoah n’étant pas si ancien que ça. Même si chacun fait son possible pour enfermer cette tragédie perpétrée en Europe dans les profondeurs des livres d’histoire, faire le constat que les leçons n’ont pas été retenues serait la plus grande honte pour une démocratie. C’est pourtant ce que craignent les ministères français concernés par cette envie massive de départ des juifs de France vers d’autres horizons.

Je suis convaincu que la question de l’antisémitisme n’est pas la raison principale des juifs français pour envisager le grand saut au dessus de la Méditerranée. Plus profondément, je pense que la question se pose plus pour répondre à des considérations d’ordre économique et social. L’avenir des enfants étant le plus souvent avancé pour justifier ce désir de partir vers un pays offrant des perspectives meilleures comme Israël qui affiche des statistiques économiques très attractives.


mariage mixte
S’il est vrai que l’alya est une question récurrente dans les foyers juifs en France, il en est une autre qui devrait être plus souvent abordée, c’est celle de l’assimilation.

Il y a une trentaine d’années, on estimait que 750000 âmes composaient la population juive. Ce chiffre n’a jamais pu être vérifié et ne relève que de l’estimation. Il n’empêche que si on considère qu’environ 3000 juifs partent vers Israël chaque année (ce qui est sans doute beaucoup) cela représenterait à peu près 90000 personnes qui seraient montées en Israël depuis les années 80.

Aujourd’hui, nous estimons, sans plus de précision, que la communauté juive de France se composerait de 450000 personnes environ. Inutile d’être très fort en math pour savoir que 750000 moins 90000 ne font pas 450000 ni même 500000.

Alors, où sont les quelques 200000 juifs qui ne rentrent pas dans ce décompte ?

Si on suppose qu’un certain nombre ait pu partir vers d’autres contrées qu’Israël, il faut se rendre à l’évidence que notre communauté a perdu une grande partie de sa population. Cela ne peut s’expliquer que par l’assimilation, par le nombre de mariages mixtes qui ont entraîné notre communauté vers un déclin inexorable.

Plus aucune famille juive traditionnelle en France ne peut prétendre être à l’abri de ce type d’union. Il est devenu très fréquent d’être invité à la célébration d’un mariage mixte, parfois accompagné d’une conversion par un rabbinat libéral complaisant. Chacun trouvant cela normal, tous ne comprenant pas que nous puissions hésiter à assister à ces unions qui bafouent nos convictions les plus profondes. Notre opposition entraînant souvent des débats houleux au sein même des familles allant jusqu’à la rupture et autre accusation de racisme sanctionnant notre volonté de ne pas « cachériser » ce qui représente le plus grand risque de disparition de nos communautés.


peuple juif

Si l’avenir de la communauté juive de France passe de façon normale par une alya motivée par le souci de vivre un judaïsme meilleur, il passe surtout par une prise de conscience globale sur la nécessité de maintenir et de perpétuer nos traditions au sein d’une communauté intègre qui ne subirait pas les affres de l’assimilation.

Nous sommes responsables et solidaires de ceux qui ont écrit l’histoire du peuple juif depuis la sortie d’Egypte. Nous formons une chaîne de vie que nous ne devons pas interrompre. Si Israël est une lumière au milieu des nations, nos coreligionnaires doivent être un phare au milieu des peuples avec qui ils cohabitent.

Le judaïsme ne pourra briller que s’il conserve son intégrité.

Nul ne peut décider de son bonheur et aucun ne pourra prétendre que l’amour est plus fort que tout.

Il est dit dans nos livres que pour se marier, il vaut mieux choisir un conjoint qui vit dans sa rue. Si cela n’est pas possible, il faut le choisir dans son quartier. Si cela n’est pas possible, regarder dans sa ville serait bien. Si cela n’est pas possible, un conjoint originaire du même pays ne serait pas si mal … etc. Pourquoi nos sages pensent ils de cette manière ? Il existe tellement de différences entre un homme et une femme que si l’un et l’autre ont la même origine, cela éliminerait un grand nombre de difficultés qui ne manquent pas de venir compliquer la vie en commun entre deux être qui disent s’aimer.

Le divorce est devenu une solution simple, rapide et naturelle pour rompre l’engagement solennel du mariage entraînant dans cet échec toutes les racines de l’arbre de la vie que nos ancêtres ont arrosé de leur sang pour conserver ce judaïsme si cher à leur âme et à leur cœur.

Les couples peuvent se séparer s’ils le souhaitent mais le judaïsme sera préservé si cette union est conforme à la tradition.

L’avenir des juifs de diaspora passe par l’engagement sous la Houppa qui fait de nos enfants les héritiers de cette histoire qui nous conduira « l’an prochain à Jérusalem ».

Denis Benkemoun pour Ashdodcafe.com


Netanyahu: UNHRC continues its 'march of hypocrisy' against Israel

PM slams UN Human Rights Council for condemning Israel in 5 resolutions; Israeli official: European countries failed to show moral leadership.


THE MEETING hall of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
THE MEETING hall of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Photo: Reuters

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council for “absurdly” condemning Israel in five resolutions last week while censuring Syria and Iran only once.

“This march of hypocrisy is continuing and we will continue to condemn it and expose it,” he told his cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting in Jerusalem.

“The UN Human Rights Councilcondemned Israel five times, this at a time when the slaughter in Syria is continuing, innocent people are being hung in the Middle East and human rights are being eroded.

“In many countries free media are being shut down and the UN Human Rights Council decides to condemn Israel for closing off a balcony. This is absurd,” said Netanyahu.

On Friday the UNHRC ended its 25th session by almost unanimously, voting 46-1, on four resolutions condemning Israeli treatment of Palestinians. It also condemned Israeli human rights abuses against Syrian citizens of Israel who live on the Golan Heights, voting 33 to 1, with 13 abstentions.

Out of the 42 resolutions adopted by the council on a wide range of human issues only 10 censured the actions of a specific country, out of which five of the condemnations were leveled against Israel.

A resolution on the situation of human rights in Myanmar was approved by consensus.

But none of the condemnations of other countries, including those of Iran and Syria, on the issue of human rights received the same level of support from member states as the charges against Israel.

The 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted 21-to-9, with 16 abstentions on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It voted 23-to-12, with 12 abstentions on “reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.”

It voted 30-to-6 ,with 11 abstentions on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It voted 32-to-4, with 11 abstentions on the grave deterioration of human rights and the humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic. This resolution strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons. It also condemned the “bombardment of civilian areas, in particular the indiscriminate use of barrel bombs, ballistic missiles and cluster bombs and other actions which may amount to war crimes against humanity.”

An Israeli official said the fact that Israeli actions on the Golan Heights garnered slightly more support, with 33 countries approving it, was “almost a bad joke.”

It was particularly upsetting, the Israeli official said, that the UNHRC approved such a resolution at a time when hospitals in the north of Israel are treating scores of Syrian victims from the civil war in their country.

The Israeli official also took issue with the strong united stance against Israel by nine member states of the European Union including: Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Ireland.

All nine EU countries supported the four resolutions which condemned Israeli treatment of Palestinians, supporting the Goldstone Report on Israeli actions in Gaza and encouraged a boycott of West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. They abstained but did not reject the resolution condemning Israeli violations of of human rights against Syrian citizens of Israel on the Golan Heights.

“It’s a pity that some western democracies choose to jump on the automatic anti-Israel band wagon at the UNHRC,” an Israeli official said.

“It is a pity they did not use that moment to demonstrate moral leadership, instead of that they became part of the travesty. They became partners in a cynical one sided farce,” the official said.

But the official lauded the United States, which was the sole country to stand with Israel and reject all five resolutions.

“They showed moral leadership,” the official said.

The Palestinians, however, welcomed the almost unanimous support at the UNHRC and said such resolutions showed Israel that it could not “flout” international law.

“This vote confirms the world’s clear condemnation of the systematic human rights violations committed by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian people and their fundamental rights,” said Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki.

The Foreign Ministry was not present at the UNHRC's meetings this week, due to its ongoing strike against the government over equitable wages.


Saturday 29 March 2014

More Syrians Flee War-Torn Country to Lebanon amid State's Failure to Deal with Crisis

W460

Around 200 families fled the villages of Ras al-Maarra and Flita in the strategic Qalamun region into the border town of Arsal after the Syrian regime controlled the area amid the governments absence.

Arsal deputy municipal chief Ahmed Fleiti said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday that the 200 families crossed the border.

“Most of the families that arrived in Arsal have resorted to relatives residing in homes or tents,” he pointed out.

Fleiti said that “one tent is now containing two or three families.”

The Bekaa town of Arsal witnessed on Saturday a surge in Syrian refugees fleeing the region of al-Qalamoun.

Around 700 refugees arrived in the town up until noon on Saturday amid the heavy deployment of the Lebanese army in the area, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Arsal residents support the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the town already hosts tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Smuggling routes used by opposition forces to move fighters and weapons between Lebanon and Syria pass through the Arsal area.

Fleiti told the newspaper that the Lebanese state has so far failed to establish any plan to organize and contain the Syrian refugees fleeing to Lebanon.

“Mosques and tents can no longer accommodate the refugees,” the official said.

He urged the state to swiftly take the necessary measures to relieve the residents of Arsal and the Syrian refugees “who are fleeing death.”

The Syrian refugees now make up 32 percent of Lebanon's population.

The country has in the past three years become home to nearly one million people who have fled Syria's brutal war. Many now live in desperate poverty and rely on overstretched agencies and NGOs for assistance.


Les ex-déportés de la décennie noire interpellent les candidats à la présidentielle

Déportés et internés dans les camps du Sud durant la décennie, les “Irradiés de la République” adressent ce vendredi une lettre ouverte au six candidats à l’élection présidentielle.

Ils s’estiment lésés, oubliés, marginalisés. Mais dans la course à la présidentielle, les anciens déportés des camps du Sud durant la décennie noire veulent faire entendre leur voix. Ce vendredi, le Comité de défense des internés des camps du Sud a ainsi publié un courrier dans lequel il interpelle directement les six candidats, qui briguent le poste de Président de la République.

“Abandon inhumain”

Dans ce courrier, le Comité reproche aux six candidats de n’évoquer nulle part dans leur programmes et leur discours le cas des ex-déportés Algériens, enfermés après le coup d’Etat militaire du 11 janvier 1992 dans des camps établis au Sud, dans des zones irradiées par les essais nucléaires français. “Les victime de cette injustice survivent aujourd’hui sans droit, surtout sans couverture médicale conséquente, malgré les pathologies radio induites cancéreuses, résultat du placement calculé en zones dangereuses pour la santé”, s’indigne le Président du Comité de défense des internés des camps du Sud, Nourredine Belmouhoub, dans cette lettre ouverte. Il écrit encore : “Les veuves et les enfants de nos co-déportés, qu’un cancer a arraché à ses proches, sont eux livrés à un état d’abandon inhumain, sans précédent”.

Rien dans les programmes électoraux

Que proposent les candidats en course pour el Mouradia ? Comment Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Louisa Hanoune, Ali Benflis, Abdelaziz Belaïd, Moussa Touati et Ali Fawzi Rebaïne comptent réparer cette “injustice” et indemniser les familles des quelques 80.000 Algériens, qui ont été envoyés dans ces camps radioactifs, s’ils sont élus le 17 avril prochain ? Le comité de défense des internés des camps du Sud attend des engagements clairs de la part de ces six candidats à la présidentielle. Les proches et les amis des ex-déportés “aimeraient connaître ce que votre programme politique prévoit au sujet de la question des déportés car jusqu’à présent aucun candidat à la Présidence n’a évoqué le drame des “Irradiés de la République”", interpelle Nourredine Belmouhoub.


Revue de presse. Tizi-Ouzou : sit-in d’artistes contre le 4eme mandat d’Abdelaziz Bouteflika

De toutes les manifestations qui secouent le pays pour exprimer l’opposition au 4e mandat de Bouteflika, voire carrément le rejet de l’élection présidentielle, ce n’était, sans aucun doute, pas la plus bruyante, mais ce n’était pas, également, celle qui a eu le moins d’impact si l’on en juge par l’élan de sympathie qu’elle a suscité. 
Certes, ils n’étaient pas très nombreux, les acteurs, les peintres et autres artistes de tout bord à répondre, dans la matinée de jeudi, au sit-in de protestation initié par leurs pairs, mais la petite esplanade mitoyenne à l’entrée du principal campus de l’Université de Tizi-Ouzou a valu le détour de dizaines de citoyens venus rejoindre des artistes de la wilaya de Tizi-Ouzou désormais engagés dans la protestation pour «dénoncer le détournement de tout un pays et d’un Etat depuis 15 ans, véritable prolongement de la confiscation de la révolution de nos pères et la voix du peuple depuis 1962», a écrit le collectif dénommé «La Voix des Artistes» dans un tract diffusé sur les lieux de la manifestation.
Des toiles réalisées sur place attiraient particulièrement le regard des badauds et surtout avaient le don d’économiser tout discours de la part de ces jeunes artistes qui ont décidé de laisser s’exprimer leur talent pour dire tout leur mal-être ou, pour reprendre l’un des peintres, leur douleur de voir le pays s’engager dans une dérive sans fin. 
A leur manière, ils sont donc sortis, jeudi, pour dire «non au 4e mandat de Bouteflika, au mandat de trop, au mandat de la honte, mais aussi non à ce système qui a fait de l’Algérie une orpheline et de ses enfants et de ses exclus». 
Le très original sit-in, après près de deux heures, a pris fin comme il avait commencé, dans la quiétude, sous l’œil bienveillant de policiers ameutés et discrètement postés aux alentours. 
M. Azedine


Friday 28 March 2014

Russian Jews fear anti-Semitism amid Crimea fervour

 By Stephen Ennis
Russian Jews at prayer - file picRussian Jews used to face blatant discrimination

Members of Russia's Jewish community are voicing concern about tolerance of anti-Semitism in the media and other areas of public life, amid patriotic fervour generated by the Sochi Olympics and annexation of Crimea.

One state TV presenter even accused Jews of helping to bring about the Holocaust.

In his speech on 18 March proclaiming incorporation of Crimea into Russia, President Vladimir Putin said the "coup" that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had been engineered by "neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites".

"They are the ones who to a large extent continue to dictate what goes on in Ukraine today," he declared.

Pseudonyms

All through the crisis in Ukraine, Russian TV channels have been hammering home the same message.

At the same time, say leading members of the Jewish community, some pro-Kremlin journalists have themselves been feeding anti-Semitism in Russia, in the language used to attack Mr Putin's opponents, who are being branded as "traitors" and "fifth columnists".

Outing Jewish writers who had adopted Russian-sounding pseudonyms was one of the tactics used in the anti-Semitic campaign unleashed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the late 1940s.

According to the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), state TV presenter Dmitry Kiselev was guilty of a similar ploy in an attack on 16 February on writers Viktor Shenderovich and Igor Irtenyev, who had both likened the Sochi Winter Olympics to Hitler's Summer Games in 1936.

Kiselev rejected Irtenyev's contention that the only significant difference between the two events was that Nazi Germany had a higher standard of living, and he told Rossiya 1 viewers that the poet's real name was Igor Moiseyevich Rabinovich - leaving little doubt as to his ethnicity.

He went on to say that under Hitler both Shenderovich and Irtenyev would have perished.

The RJC condemned Kiselev's remarks, saying it was "unacceptable when the ethnicity of an opponent is used as an argument in debate, or as additional grounds for criticising him".

Dubbed by The Economist "Russia's chief propagandist", Kiselev is one of the targets of EU sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea.

'People without a homeland'

The suggestive use of Jewish-sounding names also seems to have featured in an article by Aleksandr Grishin in pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda about the opposition March for Peace on 15 March.

Headlined "Russia's 'true shame'" the article listed a number of people at the Russian march who, it said, applauded Ukrainian nationalists with alleged Nazi sympathies: "Makarevich, Bykov, Kats, Shats and Nemtsov" - all of them known to be Jewish or having Jewish-sounding names.

But, said RJC president Yuri Kanner, one of those listed - TV presenter Mikhail Shats - was not even there. "Why was he included? Because he is a Jew," said Kanner.

Kanner also took issue with the article's description of the marchers as "traitors" and "people without a motherland". The latter, he said, was a coded phrase for Jews.

This is not the first time that Komsomolskaya Pravda has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Last May, another of its columnists, Ulyana Skoybeda, wrote on its website: "Sometimes you are sorry that the Nazis did not make lampshades out of today's liberals - there would be fewer problems."

The sentence was quickly removed and Skoybeda reprimanded. But editor Vladimir Sungorkin refused to sack her.

Evelina ZakamskayaRossiya 24 presenter Evelina Zakamskaya caused controversy with comments about the Holocaust
'Brown plague'

Evelina Zakamskaya, a presenter on state-owned news channel Rossiya 24, also got into a Holocaust controversy over a remark she made in an interview with Aleksandr Prokhanov, editor of the nationalist newspaper Zavtra.

Speaking about Jews who supported the "fascist" opponents of Mr Yanukovych in Ukraine, Prokhanov said: "Don't they realise that with their own hands they are hastening a second Holocaust?"

To which Zakamskaya replied: "They also hastened the first one."

This little exchange went largely unnoticed when it was first broadcast on 23 February. It was only when Zavtra quoted Zakamskaya on Twitter a month later that it got wider attention.

One of those who spotted the Zavtra tweet was a top Russian blogger and Israeli citizen, Anton Nosik, who delivered the following damning verdict: "The descent of state propaganda into total, undisguised Nazism is a logical and predictable process. But the pace at which the brown plague is currently creeping around the byways of state TV and radio is impressive."

Arrival and processing of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944It is estimated that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust

Two deputies from the St Petersburg municipal assembly urged Rossiya 24 to take Zakamskaya off the air. So far, though, the station has refused to comment on the incident, says the Jewish.ru website.

Stereotypes

According to Kanner, Zakamskaya's Holocaust comment was a direct result of the state broadcaster's failure to take action over Kiselev's attack on Irtenyev. "Acquiescence was taken as a hint and became a signal," he wrote on a blog on Ekho Moskvy's website.

It is not yet clear how this "signal" was received by society at large, he added. But, according to Jewish.ru, there is now a sense of a "shift in Russian public national politics towards openly anti-Semitic rhetoric".

A further example of this trend, it said, was a speech by controversial St Petersburg deputy Vitaly Milonov on 19 March calling for the feast of a Russian Orthodox saint to be made a public holiday. Milonov took pre-emptive aim at "neo-liberals", accusing them of having a "2,000-year-old tradition" of dishonouring saints going back to their "calls for the Saviour to be crucified".

Milonov is best known for his strong support for laws banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors.

The Federation of Russia's Jewish Communities condemned him for deploying "anti-Semitic stereotypes".

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here

The Board of Deputies condemns the shameful scenes last night when the Student Union of King’s College London voted to support BDS of Israel.


 The Board of Deputies condemns the shameful scenes last night when the Student Union of King’s College London voted to support BDS.  Commenting on the vote, Board Vice President Jonathan Arkush said: 

 “When BDS supporters chanted “from the river to the sea” they sent a message of hate to Israel and once again demonstrated that the true agenda of BDS is not to influence Israel but to destroy it.  They succeeded in shaming their fine university and bringing it into disrepute.  

"The motion was opposed by the Student Union President and was immediately disavowed by the academic leadership of King’s College London, who will now have to live with the consequences of such a hateful and divisive vote.  

 "The Board strongly supports the courageous students from KCL Jewish Society and UJS who ran a strong campaign against the vote and stood up to the atmosphere of intimidation that has become the hallmark of the BDS bullies.”

UN Human Rights Council passes resolution warning companies to ‘terminate business interests in the settlements’ or face possible criminal liability

Mishor Adumim Industrial Zone, home to Israel's SodaStream factory in the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. (Photo: Emil Salman/Haaretz)

Mishor Adumim Industrial Zone, home to Israel’s SodaStream factory in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. (Photo: Emil Salman/Haaretz)

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva passed an unprecedented resolution today at the closure of the Human Rights Council’s 25th session. The resolution, titled “Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan”  calls for States and private enterprises to terminate business transaction beyond the 1949 armistice lines and warns of the probability of criminal liability for corporate complicity in breach of international law.

Essentially it’s a call to boycott and divest from all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights or else be prepared to be held criminally accountable.

From the resolution:

 PP25 Recognizing that the direct or indirect assistance of States and private entities to the settlement enterprise constitute obstacles that have frustrated international efforts for the end of the occupation and fulfilment of the right of self determination of the Palestinian people by helping to sustain and promote the settlement enterprise, and entail legal, reputational and economic risks stemming from the fact that the Israeli settlements are illegal under international law (NEW LANGUAGE)

PP26 Noting the probability of liability, including international criminal liability, for corporate complicity in breaches of international law related to illegal settlements, and encouraged that some businesses have withdrawn from settlements
due to awareness of these risks, (NEW LANGUAGE; first part adapted from A/HRC/25/39 para. 15; second part adapted from A/HRC/22/63 para. 98)

The council held a general debate on human rights violations in Palestine earlier this week which included the follow-up to, and implementation of, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. The Council then adopted the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Israel (full report here).

The background of the vote is that the PA and Arab League requested a special fact finding mission on the impact of the Israeli settlements. In July 2012 the president of the Human rights council appointed three high-level experts to that mission, Christine Chanet as Chair, Asma Jahangir and Unity Dow.  The findings of the mission resulted in an UNHRC report, titled “Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem“.

The missions’ report, which addresses the implications of corporate involvement in international crimes, develops arguments presented in two previous September 2013 reports by Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. Among other things, the first report describes the involvement of 13 businesses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory with reference to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The second report includes case studies on two companies, the American international real estate company  Re/Max  and their international Israeli subsidiary, and the second company is the Dexia Group, a European financial institution.

These companies were chosen for the specific ways in which their activities, including profiting from Israeli settlements, potentially implicate them in international crimes.

IV. Case studies

33. As noted in the previous report of the Special Rapporteur on this issue, there is a wide range of businesses operating in the settlements. The Special Rapporteur surveyed 13 businesses, including several that were Israeli and others that were international. Some businesses were connected with the occupation generally and others with the settlements in particular. In the present report the Special Rapporteur focuses on two discrete areas that relate to settlements. The first area is banking institutions involved in financial transactions, such as loans to construct or purchase Israeli settlements. The company that the Special Rapporteur discusses is the Dexia Group, a European banking group. This builds upon the analysis by the Special Rapporteur of the Dexia Group in the previous report. The second area that the Special Rapporteur draws attention to is real estate companies that advertise and sell properties in settlements. The activities of Re/Max International, a company based in the United States of America, are the focus of analysis in the present report. The case studies aim to determine whether the Dexia Group and Re/Max International, through providing loans and mortgages and through advertising and selling properties in settlements, provide knowing assistance that amounts to aiding in the commission of international crimes associated with transferring the citizens of the Occupying Power to the occupied territory. The Special Rapporteur reiterates that the businesses highlighted are illustrative examples. There are other companies that profit from Israeli settlement activities, both in the economic service areas in which the Dexia Group and Re/Max International are working and in other areas involving
goods and services.

(Full case studies here)

Mondoweiss commenter Hostage:

Those two reports and the threat of liability (posed by Palestine’s joining the ICC and the Prosecutor subsequently acting on the 2009 declaration) triggered divestment by companies located in EU/ICC member states. The Prosecutor will be able to investigate acts committed in the EU or Palestine since July 2002, without any Security Council referral or veto. EU members of the ICC would also be required to investigate and prosecute their citizens and corporations. 

This is Richard Falk’s last stand and a testament to the man he is. It’s his legacy and we thank and honor him. Falk’s 6 year term as  United Nations Special Rapporteur  expires on May 1st. Goldstone Report co-author Christine Chinkin was picked to take over Falk’s position. 

The ADL  issued a press release earlier this week referencing the resolution:

“This resolution attempts to advance a very similar position to elements of the vehemently anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and at the same time, it puts a serious damper on the current peace talks taking place.”

In a letter sent to members of the UNHRC, ADL expressed concern that the resolution was an attack on Israel that was taken “further than any previous sessions.”

“Its language goes beyond the current policies of most countries with respect to the issue of Israeli settlements,” Mr. Foxman wrote.


http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/resolution-companies-settlements.html