Take Action: write a letter to the editor or an op-ed refuting these articles or decrying the cartoon. For a letter to the editor take one point and elaborate on it in your own words. Letters should be 150 words or less. Op-eds can be up to 600 words. If you state refuting facts that may be controversial, be sure to cite sources in your cover email. Additional tips on writing effective letters/op-eds and information on how to submit your article can be found on our website here.
Your voice matters. Take action now.
Article #1: Why is Gaza in such a bad state?
The first article does not show up on the New Mexican website, but it was in the print edition on January 3rd. It is a reprint of an article from the Washington Post, originally entitled “The U.N. once predicted Gaza would be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020. Two million people still live there” and was entitled in the New Mexican, “‘Uninhabitable’ Gaza still has 2 million living there.“ The article cites a 2012 UN report that claims Gaza would become unlivable by 2020. The reasons include inadequate electricity, poor sewage systems, insufficient clean drinking water, poor healthcare, and lack of jobs. It documents how schools, hospitals, and homes are decaying.
A lot of this is correct – these are the conditions for thousands of Gazans. The question is, “Why?” The article fails to lay blame where it belongs: Hamas’ single-minded desire to eliminate Israel and support of terrorism against Israel and Egypt including the support of ISIS in the Sinai peninsula, refusal to legitimize the existence of Israel, and severe corruption of Hamas leadership.
Hamas desire to destroy Israel – Hamas is an Islamist terrorist group. As Sean Durns from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), writes in the Algemeiner January 9, 2020, Hamas’ sole purpose is the destruction of Israel, to the exclusion of the betterment of the life of its citizens. The Hamas Charter, citing Adolf Hitler, makes this purpose clear. “Hamas uses its people as human shields, heralds suicide bombers, and encourages the Gazans living under its rule to be ‘martyrs’ and carry out terrorist attacks.” writes Durns. This means they divert resources from what could be used to better their schools, hospitals, electrical infrastructure, etc.
A simple example: Hamas uses Israel-permitted and provided cement and other dual purpose materials into the Gaza Strip to build tunnels to try to infiltrate Israel. Each tunnel costs somewhere between $3 million and $10 million. Sometimes it uses funds from other countries (international aid) to pay for these materials. These are funds and materials it could use to build ambulance services, hospitals, schools, and sewage treatment plants.
Refusal of Hamas to recognize the legitimacy of Israel – Hamas refuses to permit Israeli desalination, and water purification technology, medical supplies, and other resources from Israel into the Gaza strip because it won’t recognize Israel’s legitimacy. Though Israel provides lots of unreimbursed care to Palestinians year-after-year, Hamas often refuses to let its citizens obtain medical care at Israel’s hospitals and health centers. The Palestinian Authority often delays payments for patients who have received that care.
Severe Hamas corruption – Hamas was elected by the Gazan people in 2006 after Israel made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Sean Durns notes:
While many Gazans do suffer, Hamas leaders live in luxury. Top leaders like Moussa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashaal are billionaires. Many maintain houses abroad in Turkey, Qatar, and elsewhere. As Suheib Yousef, the son of the group’s co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, recently told an interviewer: “Hamas leaders live in fancy hotels and luxury towers, their kids learn at private schools and they are very well paid by Hamas. They get between four and five thousand dollars a month, they have guards, swimming pools, country clubs.”
Finally, often de-emphasized by the press, Egypt also has a border with Gaza. The world doesn’t condemn Egypt for its border closures the way it condemns Israel. Why not? Hmm…
Article #2: Are West Bank Palestinians having trouble protesting?
The second article by the Associated Press (AP), “Palestinians face mounting barriers to peaceful protest,” claims that “nonviolent” West Bank Palestinian protesters are not being allowed to express their dissent – their civil rights increasingly are being denied. This article is based on a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, “Born Without Civil Rights,” released in December, 2019 and carefully critiqued by NGO Monitor as follows:
-
The main thrust of the publication — that “Israeli authorities also rely on broad provisions of military law to ban associations as ‘hostile organizations’” — is bewildering: HRW’s primary examples are individuals who are members of internationally recognized terrorist organizations and/or groups closely linked to these organizations and who have been convicted of incitement, terror financing, and membership in terrorist organizations. These include Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
-
In order to whitewash these individuals’ involvement in terrorism, HRW misleadingly truncates quotes and withholds vital information. [See NGO Monitor examples in its critique.]
-
Bizarrely, HRW appears to be calling for the de facto annexation of the West Bank by Israel. HRW points to “occupied East Jerusalem” to show that “less restrictive measures are available.” In 1980, Israel annexed areas of Jerusalem that were located beyond the 1949 armistice lines and thus, these areas are now part of Israel and governed by Israeli law. Were Israel to extend its domestic law to the West Bank, as HRW apparently recommends, it would constitute annexation of the territory and the supplanting of Palestinian Authority law, which governs more than 98% of the Palestinian population. [underline added]
-
The “lead researcher and author of this report” is Omar Shakir, the BDS activist, who left Israel on November 25, 2019, following a nearly two-year legal challenge to force the government to extend his work visa.[…] he was spearheading BDS campaigns against Israel; […] engaging in unprofessional research, minimizing terrorism and whitewashing terrorists, and recycling false and discriminatory arguments made by other NGOs (such as Amnesty International).
-
[…] Some of the measures criticized by HRW are required under international law (i.e. UN Security Council Resolution 1701) to combat terrorism. Moreover, and contrary to HRW’s intention, many of the examples discussed in the publication demonstrate the urgent necessity of certain restrictions to prevent violence against civilians and material support for terrorist organizations.
Other problems with this story:
- “Peace talks broke down after Netanyahu was elected in 2009…” is very misleading – Israel froze settlement building for 10 months to allow peace talks to begin. Mahmoud Abbas never came to the table to begin talks in 2009 or in 2013-2014, when John Kerry was trying to re-establish talks.
- Though Israel handled the Tlaib/Omar visit debacle clumsily, the article fails to mention that member of Congress Rashida Tlaib was ultimately offered the right to enter on humanitarian grounds, but she then refused.
- Issa Amro is profiled as a champion of Martin Luther King-style non-violent activities for Palestinian rights. This whitewashes his true feelings and public statements. For example, in a Tablet August, 2014 article, “Voices from Gaza” Amro states about Hamas:
I disagree with some points for them, I agree with some. Hamas is trying to end the occupation in their method. If the occupation ends, I won’t accept Hamas at all. But as long as the occupation lasts, I can’t tell them not to use weapons. Settlers have guns. Settlers are shooting. Soldiers are shooting. Occupation is the main feeder for violence. I need to end the occupation to have something for my people to convince them how to be non violent.
- The website Legal Insurrection documents how Amro hobnobs with groups such as Code Pink and “the Orwellian-named Jewish Voice for Peace” [an anti-Semitic organization which lionizes terrorists – see here, and here – and overlaps with terror groups through its BDS support – see here] in supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which are dedicated to the elimination of Israel and associate with other anti-Semitic groups. As well, he consistently tweets anti-Semitic tropes and cartoons, such as
Perhaps proclaiming him the Palestinian “Gandhi” goes a bit too far?
After viewing these two articles we think it is reasonable to conclude that the New Mexican editors do not independently vet these wire service articles before reproducing them. Are they aware that they are perpetuating false narratives (is that then “fake news”) provided by decidedly biased organizations like Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, let alone the Associated Press, about whom Matti Friedman spoke during his visit here in September, 2019, co-sponsored by SFMEW?
Unbalanced cartoon to a plea for balanced dialogue
Yashar koach to Manny Marczak for his My View “Roots for peace: A glimmer of hope” published in the New Mexican January 5, 2020. But his call for “build[ing] understanding, nonviolence and transformation” clearly wasn’t heeded by the editorial page editor, who included an unbalanced cartoon:
Send a letter to the editor with your observation of why this is anti-Semitic. (Hint: the Jewish star implies that all Jews are involved in the battle, not just Israelis – is this over-reach?)
Be an informed voter and help to educate our congressional candidates
You still have time to RSVP to participate in the coffees for the top four (by fundraising) democratic candidates for Congress in congressional district 3. Here are the dates (all Thursdays at 5:00 pm):
- January 16 – Valerie Plame
- January 23 – John Blair
- February 6 – Teresa Leger-Fernandez
- February 13 – Marco Serna
RSVP by telling us which (or all) of these you’d like to attend. We want a good turnout, so please make an effort to get there. RSVP by email to info@sfmew.org. Once you RSVP you will receive an email informing you of the location(s). Candidates’ Middle East position papers will be available in advance. These meetings will be open to individuals already registered on the SFMEW membership roles.
SFMEW is non-partisan and does not rate, endorse, or donate to candidates.
Sign and murals on Old Pecos Trail
SFMEW is aware of the Guthrie Miller/Remy odious murals and sign on Old Pecos Trail and is working with other NM Jewish organizations to mitigate them. A blog in the next few days will outline what you can do to help.
SFMEW is a beneficiary organization of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.