Write to the New Mexican; Some resources you might want to review

In this issue:

1. Santa Fe New Mexican reprints misleading article on pro-Palestinian NGOs that are front groups for the FPLP.

2. Of interest – Some resources you might want to review

3. SFMEW Leadership

It has been quite a while since we last posted.  This is both good and problematic.  It is good in that there haven’t been any substantive anti-Israel activities in Santa Fe.  It’s problematic in that we haven’t been engaged in preventive actions that might help to educate the Santa Fe community, or fight the ongoing antisemitism and anti-Zionism from known antagonists.  But those antagonistic groups are likely to resume their nefarious tasks as COVID restrictions are reduced.

1.  Santa Fe New Mexican reprints misleading article on NGOs deemed terrorist groups associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Santa Fe New Mexican needs continuous monitoring; for example, they continue to use Associated Press feeds from Israel, which are often more commentary than objective reporting.  [For more on the AP see Matti Friedman’s talk in Santa Fe in 2019, as well as his articles described in previous posts (see, for example, here).]

Just this past Sunday, October 24, 2021 the New Mexican included a wire feed from the Washington Post, “Anger after Israel moves to ban Palestinian groups.”  (The original in the Post can be found here from October 23.  Note that often wire feed articles used by the New Mexican do not show up on their website – we searched for this article and couldn’t find it.  We surmise that the New Mexican doesn’t have rights to re-publish the article on the website after the date of publication.)   The full article is readable below.  The PFLP is a known terrorist group.  Its NGO-affiliated network is highlighted in summary form by NGO Monitor here.

A few days before the Washington Post article NGO Monitor released a report on the organizations deemed to be terrorist based on numerous reports they had produced in the past.  They note in this analysis:

In August 2021, it was revealed that the EU’s anti-fraud mechanism, OLAF, launched a terror-financing investigation into EU support for Palestinian NGOs. This follows a July 2020 decision by the Dutch government to suspend funding to UAWC [Union of Agricultural Work Committees] and launch its own investigation into UAWC terror ties. Also Additionally, in May 2020, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi stated that he had instructed the heads of the EU delegations to Israel and the West Bank/ Gaza to “look deep[ly]” into allegations that some EU funds go to terror-linked or terror-supporting NGOs, declaring that such funding “will not be tolerated.”

Likewise, multiple financial institutions previously closed accounts and denied payment services to these NGOs. In 2018, Citibank and Arab Bank closed DCI-P accounts, and Visa, Mastercard, and American Express shut down online credit card donations to Al-Haq and UAWC.

The NGO Monitor notes that “[…] since 2007, NGO Monitor has published numerous reports, based on open sources, documenting the close connections between these and other Palestinian NGOs and the PFLP.”  Note that the terrorist-designated organizations didn’t deny a relationship with the PFLP, which itself has been designated a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, Australia, Israel, and the European Union.

Take Action

Write a letter to the New Mexican supporting Israel’s actions. Send your 150 word or shorter letter as follows from the New Mexican website):

We try to publish all letters.  Letters or My View columns that are unsigned, in poor taste, libelous or incomprehensible will be rejected.  We reserve the right to reject or edit any submission.

Email your letter to:  letters@sfnewmexican.com.  Or, go to www.santafenewmexican.com and use the online submission form.  Our mailing address is 202 E. Marcy St, Santa Fe, NM 87501.

Talking points:

• The US and its western allies have designated numerous NGOs as terrorist organizations when those organizations support financially, work closely with, or in other ways advance the terrorist causes.  Why should Palestinian NGOs, which often are simply propaganda mouthpieces for terrorist groups, be treated any differently?
• In an August 26, 2019 bombing, a PFLP cell murdered Israeli 17 year-old Rina Schnerb, and wounded her father and brother. On August 30, 2020, the PFLP referred to Samer Arbid as a “prisoner and commander,” and “one of the heroes of the Bubeen operation” — referring to the bombing.  Samer Arbid- who served as UAWC’s accountant at the time of his 2019 arrests and as Addameer’s accountant until at least 2015 was indicted on 21 counts, including for commanding the cell that carried out the attack.
• According to NGO Monitor:

Founded by George Habash in 1967, the PFLP is designated as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel. The PFLP has carried out suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations, among other terrorist activities targeting civilians, and was the first Palestinian organization to hijack airplanes in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2001, the PFLP assassinated Israeli Minister of Tourism Rechavam Ze’evi.  PFLP members took credit for the house invasion and murder of the Fogel family in 2011 and was responsible for the massacre at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood in 2014 where four worshipers and an Israeli police officer were murdered. The terror organization also praised its “comrades” for their role in the murder of Israeli Border Police office Hadas Malka– and wounding of four other Israelis- in a June 16, 2017 attack in Jerusalem.

• The terrorist-designated NGOs diverted humanitarian funds from European donors to the PFLP and recruited members into the terror group.  Relatedly, a security official told Israel’s N12 news site that these NGOs provided a funding “lifeline” for the PFLP, employed PFLP terrorists, and that PFLP terror operatives used NGO offices for meetings.
• The closeness of these terrorist-designated organizations and representatives is evident from Al-Haq, UAWC, Addameer, UPWC, and Bisan participating in a May 2019 PFLP gathering in Ramallah – including Arbid and other NGO officials detained in connection to the August 2019 attack.
• Until 2015, the PFLP’s English website promoted DCI-P, Addameer, and UPWC, and directed visitors to their own websites.

The original article in the Santa Fe New Mexican on page 12 (print publication), October 24, 2021:  “Anger after Israel moves to ban Palestinian Groups.”

The Israeli government alleged that the six groups acted as a “central source” for financing PFLP operations. It said that the organizations received “major sums” of money from European countries and international organizations and alleged that some of that funding supported PFLP activities. It did not provide evidence.

The terrorism designations were approved by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who was military chief of staff when the Israel Defense Forces fought wars in Gaza in 2012 and 2014.

Friday’s announcement was not the first time that Israel has pressured rights advocates. In 2019, the country’s Supreme Court allowed the government to expel Omar Shakir, director for Israel and the Palestinian territories at Human Rights Watch. Shakir had been accused of supporting the boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement, which its critics have called antisemitic. He says he did not advocate for the BDS campaign in his HRW capacity.

2.  Resources of Interest

There have been some excellent talks, publications, and conferences recently that might be of interest:

• The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University has a weekly series on various aspects of antisemitism.  One of the most articulate spokespersons for explicating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and providing international commentary on the state of Israel-Arab relations is Einat Wilf, who spoke a

  

  couple of weeks ago.  Her talk can be seen here.  Note that she also is coming to Santa Fe December 12 through the Distinguished Lectures Series.  We’ve heard her speak a number of times – she is outstanding.

• On Sunday, September 19, 2021 there was a six hour conference entitled “Fight Racism, Not Jews: The United Nations & The Durban Deceit” about the Durban conferences, UN hegemony against Israel (Zionism is Racism), and other antisemitic actions taken by the UN.  This remarkable conference, sponsored by Human Rights Voices, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and CAMERA can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.
• In 2015 CAMERA (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) put out an excellent “Maps and Timelines of Israel” which you can download from our website.
• We’ve noticed over the years of living in Santa Fe that many Santa Fe anti-Zionists critique Israel in a way that presupposes it ought to be just like America – its institutions, cultures, defenses, democracy, etc.  This is a foolish, naive, and somewhat ignorant position.  After all, Israel’s population, geography, neighbors, cultures, diversity, etc. didn’t come from a Boston Tea party, but from pogroms, forced expulsions from Arab lands, post-genocide camps, attempted wars of elimination, etc.  In May Matti Friedman (mentioned in #1 above) wrote an essay in The Atlantic, “Israel’s Problems are Not Like America’s.”  He counters the “Israel should be like America” position in relation to the Black Lives Movement antisemitic positions.  His arguments are relevant in considering the speakers that the Lannan Foundation invites – people like Noam Chomsky who blame all of the world’s ills on America and Israel, as if they are one and the same nation.
• The American Jewish Committee (AJC) reported on “The State of Antisemitism in America 2021:  AJC’s Survey of American Jews.”  There are also links to how American Jews compare with the general public on perceptions of antisemitism.
• The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in partnership with the Reform movement authored an excellent resource, “Responding to Antisemitic Incidents:  A Resource for URJ Communities.”  This can be obtained on the ADL website:  https://www.adl.org/urj-toolkit.  We asked an ADL contact if there was any content that might be considered differently for a different Jewish denomination.  The response was as follows:

The short answer is in terms of actual response to incidents, the answer is probably not.

In the details, though, there might be elements that a synagogue of a different denomination might approach or assess differently, e.g. an Orthodox shul with a mechitza might assess security to include the ramifications of a physical barrier bisecting the space. Communities that have more members of color might craft their safety plan in a different way if police presence would make those members feel unsafe. Different denominations might choose different sermon prompts …

3.  SFMEW Leadership

It’s important to rotate leadership in organizations so we re-consider our strategy and tactics, recruit new members, and have re-invigorated energy for our mission.

The current leaders of SFMEW have been in place for over six years, since our inception in 2015.  In anticipation of COVID restrictions easing globally in the next few months making international travel easier and more reliable, our Chairman, Halley Faust, has expressed a desire to ratchet back his SFMEW obligations and relinquish the reins to new leadership.

So, we now are asking if you as a dedicated SFMEW member, would be willing to step up and take a leadership position.  Please consider how you or someone you know might take on the challenge of SFMEW.  Feel free to send an email (admin@sfmew.org) to us and we can put you in touch with Halley by telephone to discuss.

Also, some SFMEW members have left Santa Fe, some have passed away.  We need to keep building our membership.  Encourage your friends to join by signing up for our emails on the right of our home page (www.sfmew.org).

---

SFMEW is a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.  We encourage you to support the Federation, as well as other organizations such as the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series, the Jewish Care Program, and the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival.